Both Phil Baker and Andrew Hamilton are discussing where to find the best coffee in Perth, with varied results. It appears though that Leederville is the hub for Perth’s best coffee. Not suprising when you consider the ethnic origins of many of the good folk in that area. Perth has a lot to be thankful for when it comes to the Greek and Italian communities. When I visited the US it struck me how awful their coffee is. And yet they claim to love the stuff. Everywhere I went it was too hot, burnt and bitter.

One of my favourite places for coffee is a little lunch bar called the “Sunshine Cafe” on Beaufort St in Mnt Lawley. Most Tuesday mornings you will find me there discussing Church stuff with my associate. You wouldn’t necesarily think it, but they brew a good latte.

I am getting suprisingly beautiful coffee with my little espresso machine that my wife bought me for Christmas. Even my sister, a real ‘short black’ lady, thought the coffee was excellent.
What is more, it does not cost me $4 for a long strong latte!

The Church report, online magazine, has a lit of the 50 Most Influential Christians in US . Some very interesting names there, along with Bush, Osteen, Warren and Graham is relative newcomer, Rob Bell.
Those of you who visit my Blog will know how much I love Rob Bell’s Book, “The Velvet Elvis”.
It has helped me in my Christian life and ministry. I also love his DVD Nooma Series.
However has he really influenced me a lot? Well not as much as some flesh and bone Christians. A Pastor I had in Albany was one of the biggest influences on me. He taught me that preaching could be fun, interesting and inspiring all in one. He also inspired me to be a pastor. However he did also do some very silly things, and is no longer a Pastor. Like us all, he has feet of clay. Other major influences include my parents and some Christian friends.
I think these lists oversimplify things and make us think these people are more powerful than they are.
Even the most influential books I have ever read in my Christian walk, besides the Bible, books such as “The Velvet Elvis” and “Suprised by the Spirit” and “The purpose Driven life/Church” all have come along at a God apointed time, a time God wanted to say something deep and life changing to me.

I need to remind myself, that as a flesh and blood person, and as someone with feet of clay, that one at a time, I influence people. If your reading this, so do you.

Have been feeling a little bit flat the last couple of weeks, spiritually speaking. Its suprising how that was reflected in some of the things going on at Church.

However just before the service last Sunday, on the Saturday, I started to delve into the Psalms again. If you are feeling disconnected from God, these are a wonderful, passionate set of writings which really draw you into the presence of the Holy Spirit.

I had left my bible at Church (what sort of a pastor does that?!?!) and so I was reading from the amplified version. These lines from Psalm one really spoke to my soul, and I am feeling a sense of the Holy Spirit in me again, prodding, encouraging, stirring me on.
3And he shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity]

Church on Sunday was really good. The music and worship was inspiring and flowed really well (thanks Dale, Bruce, Mark, Theo and Helen!)
Luke spoke really well, told some good stories and had us all thinking about how to deal with suffering.

In my mispent youth I owned a Mazda Rx4. It was purchased for the princely sum of $2000. Believe it or not, now such a vehicle would probably command double that. That means a 1975 vehicle has doubled in price over 15 years. However I am pretty sure my Rx4 is wrapped around some telephone pole in rural WA. It was a sad day when I sold it to a friend to finance my bible college days in Adelaide. Unfortunately it was way to heavy on the juice for my career of choice while studying, that of delivering pizza’s. But I digress.
My Rx4 was shiny red with a black vinyl roof. It looked very similar to the one pictured here. It had a killer stereo in it. Two 150w amps, 4 x 3 way Pioneer speakers. Of course there were no such things as Cd or DVD in car players in those days, but the cassette player belted out Cold Chisel, Australian Crawl, Ric Cua or Bryan Duncan, depending on my mood.

The motor was a 13b street ported job with a 4 barrell Holley Carbie. One problem I had was fuel starvation at high revs (around 8000 rpm). I managed to pick up a rally fuel pump from a Rx7 for $50. The pump was worth a few hundred bucks, but the guy needed the cash. It solved the problem and the motor revved long and hard from that point on.

It went through numerous exhausts, once totally ripping apart a set of extractors. I ended up putting in some new extractors and a straight through exhaust, and it was pretty loud.

In the wet it was almost uncontrollable, spinning the rear wheels all the way up to fourth gear. Many times at the lights it took on and comprehensively beat much more fancied sets of wheels.

Anyways, back to the present and a promise I have made myself. I will one day purchase a Series 1 or 2 Mazda Rx7. (1979 – 1982/3) This will be returned to almost stock condition. No flares or mags for me. Just a clean, preferably white, Rx7 to take out when not driving the family around. I have already got in mind the exhaust system to put on it, because this is probably the second most crucial part of owning a rotary motor. The most important part is ensuring that the little pump which puts oil into the carby to oil the rotors is in top operational condition. If it is, a rotary motor will give you smooth, powerful performance for many happy years of motoring, despite the ill concieved fallacies which some will give.

The West reports this morning that well know West Coast Eagles player Chris Judd’s company is being investigated by a liquidator over some possible breaching of proper company governance. Oh Dear.

This coupled with his mum’s singing about her son in pre grand final days leads me to award the “Markedly Award for Shrimp most needing to be BBQ” to Chris Judd.

May he have his worst year ever this year and get traded to Collingwood in 2007

My mum bought me this book by Jim Cymbala for Christmas. Its a devotional book, based around the pastoral life of Jim, who with his wife, has been the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Of course this is the church with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. I have seen a message Jim gives about his daughter and the ‘tough love’ he and his wife showed when she was a drug addict. Fantastic, as Rod Denton called it, ‘Anointed’ message. Interestingly it is one of the most popular books, among their top five, of many younger pastors.

I believe in balance. Jim calls for more prayer, more devotion, less marketing, less polish. I have no probem with him calling for that, its a message I need to hear. However I do also believe God has gifted us all differently for a reason. Some people are great marketers, and like excellence in presentations etc. They should use their gifts for the Kingdom, as should those who love to pray for hours. God connects with us all in different ways. The satisfaction we feel over something done for God, and done well, comes from all different ‘activities’, and I think God celebrates them all.

A quote from Jim,
“what does it say about our churches today that God birthed the church in prayer meetings and prayer meetings today are almost extinct?”

This week I have been reformatting the hard drive on a computer given to me by a great friend Viren. Unfortunately Viren has gone back to India, at least it is unfortunate for me, I miss him!

The computer is a great one, but Viren is a real computer buff and it was partioned, had all these weird and wonderful computer programs on it. Far too confusing for a simple man such as myself. So I have eventually figured out how to wipe the hard drive and reinstall XP and Office 2003.
Unfortunately the driver for the internal PCI BUS modem has gone missing! I suspect it is not a real modem but one of those little wire, attatchment jobs in which the downloaded software does all the work. If anyone knows how to determine what modem it is without ripping the thing apart, please let me know. Windows XP cant find it, nor can the system management on XP. And I know its there! I used it before I reformatted it!!