Pastor Ed Young has a lot of good stuff to say,
check out his blog.

http://www.edyoungblog.com/

It is great when the Holy Spirit brings a service together.
This morning another packed house (4th week in a row) enjoyed together a time of reflecting on marriage. We broke mid stream for coffee….

We heard some stories, watched a clip from “Everyone loves Raymond” and reflected as Eliot gave one of his best messages. He spoke on ‘freshness’ in marriage. He used the verse from Ecclesiastes 4 (a three cord is not easily broken) and shared some humorous and interesting stories and illustrations. It was a challenging talk. One thing which struck me was his point on never putting your wife down in front of others. That should be a ‘no brainer’ and especially with the attack Christian marriages undergo. In Australian culture it is all too easy to fall for going too far with teasing your wife in front of others. There should be no doubt in anyones mind of your love and even adoration of her. That is not always easy!! And takes passion….

All the married men also had their wives dig into their ribs when a guest musician shared his story of how he proposed to his fiance. He is 48 and they are both widows. He also sung a story about second chances…..wonderful. The story he told of the prophetic vision God gave him blew me away.

You will be able to listen to this message and the testimony in a day or two on our Bedford Baptist web site.

God is good and I feel like I am riding a wave of growth at the moment…and I don’t want to do anything to stuff it up!!!

Todays opinion piece in the Western Australia Zoltan Kovaks take the prize as the biggest load of crap written in our daily paper…and that is saying something.

Fair enough, criticise the Fremantle Football club for their inconsistent form. Criticise them for some of their draft picks….but Zovaks has no idea about the soul of the club…no idea at all.

Soul does not come from success….some might say it comes from how the club responds to defeats….

Was Zovak around in 2001 when Fremantle crowds still turned up in number to cheer the club when it won only two games and brought the wooden spoon home? No….he was off sipping lattes somewhere.
I was there, during rain drenched nights…I heard the crowd cheering, groaning…but all the time still supporting. I saw the crowd numbers tick over which would give a club like North Melbourne heart.

I was there when we marched from Fremantle to Subiaco to declare our heart is in Fremantle, and unlike the manufactured corporate Eagles, we wanted to be based in the Football heartland of Perth, Fremantle.

Be a Christian and not go to church…….
I am not talking about being a paid up member of some institution, I am not talking about some religious Sunday Christian who makes sure their name gets ticked off the role.
I am talking about being a part of Christ’s body.

Being a Christian means belonging to Christ, and being ‘belonged’.
I wonder if the last couple of decades of Christiandom with its emphasis on ‘personal salvation’ has swung too far.

The idea of being a Christian means being part of a community of believers, a corporate body.
Belonging to Christ, being responsible to your local expression of Christ.

What does this mean?
Can we be part of the body of Christ over the internet? Or while watching our favourite preacher on TV……Maybe. But I don’t think its ideal. Its to easy to be insular.

Part of being the body of Christ means being outward focused, playing our part.

Have you ever thought of putting $20.01 worth of petrol in your tank, and then cheerfully handing the attendant a crisp $20 note?

Can’t live without it.
Everyday grace.
Every moment grace.
Age of grace.
Grace that occurs despite my repeated efforts to wear out its patience.

Grace that leads to joy and relief.
Thankful for Gods grace to me….I need it.

Grace that one day will run out.
God wont be mocked…nor taken advantage of.
Jesus is a warrior, and will one day come with a sword.

Get on board the grace train now…now is the time.

Being a pastor means sometimes telling people what they don’t want to hear, but need to.
Straddling the very blurred line between coming off as a self righteous twat…and the other line of being a wobbling jelly fish desperatly seeking to osmosis itself into everyones good books.

Today I took a little step in the direction of the srt..hopefully it was not a step that was over balanced.

I questioned someone who was focused on the way something was being done, rather than focusing on the depth of meaning behind the ritual. Seriously….worship in its its many forms calls us to remember, worship and commune with Christ.

As someone who seeks to facilitate an environment where people can come and commune together, you dont always get it right.
Examples? Mispelt words, music thats either innapropriate or distracting rather than enhancing, a message which has an ‘off’ illustration, a neighbours lawnmower…things you can and should control, and things you cannot. If someone can be distracted, then they might be.

But as some point, mature Christians need to be told….focus on Christ.