0 wins from 2 games.
Umpiring was the worst I have seen for some time, numerous crowd frees to Essendon, how Pavlich did not get at least two more with Fletcher all over him like a cheap suit.

And having these players out from our 9 game winning stretch last year did not help.
Wizz, Michael Johnson, Steven Dodd, Heath Black, Justin Longmuir, Cookie, Schammer and Brett Peake.

Derby next week, might be our worst start to the year under Chris Connolly.

This past weekend has been without doubt the best Easter our church has had while I have been there.
After the great crowd on Friday, I was half expecting a less full crowd, but it was great today. Now don’t get me wrong all you emerging guys, I don’t think its about getting a big crowd in anymore than you do.
But what I do want to say is this. The majority of the visitors we had, and there were stacks, came because of relationships formed over many years, through ministries our church had done.
It has been hard work, but like Christmas time, Easter has been a time of fruit for our church. Some folk who never come to church came on Friday with no intention of coming on Sunday, but came none the less. You might think, so what, they came to church. But in fact we believe that they are putting themself into the position of hearing the gospel being clearly presented and also seeing that Christians love each other and others.
Another great story was the lady who came after one of our members sms’ered this morning. She rocked up and loved the service.
Why wouldn’t she?
The choir was beautiful and moving, the music was great and well led, the multi media, the kids item, and everything was really purposeful, emotive and relevant.
We are just so grateful as to how God has changed our church and is growing it.

After church on Friday, people hanged around for ages, chatting, making friends and eating hot cross buns. Sunday was the same, only we ate chocolate cakes!.

This is what it is all about.

I did something really different for the message, I got a friend to ‘interview’ me as though he was an athiest, and he asked some pretty confronting questions. I used some of the material from the Rick Warren and Sam Harris interview. Harris is an athiest and author. I also used a J Johns interview which you can watch on U Tube. I think it was really good, and answered some questions. One of the key points I tried to get across is that all religions are not the same, you can’t pick and choose because they are fundamentally different.
I also made the point that Jesus’ assertion that He is the Way the Truth and the Life forces us to make a decision about Him. Either He is a liar, lunatic or Lord. If we dont make a decison about Jesus, one might be made for us!!

Soon you will be able to listen to the interview on line.

WARREN: We both stand in a relationship of faith. You have faith that there is no God. In 1974, I spent the better part of a year living in Japan, and I studied all the world religions. All of the religions basically point toward truth. Buddha made this famous statement at the end of his life: “I’m still searching for the truth.” Muhammad said, “I am a prophet of the truth.” The Veda says, “Truth is elusive, it’s like a butterfly, you’ve got to search for it.” Then Jesus Christ comes along and says, “I am the truth.” All of a sudden, that forces a decision.

HARRIS: Many, many other prophets and gurus have said that.

WARREN: Here’s the difference. Jesus says, “I am the only way to God. I am the way to the Father.” He is either lying or he’s not.

Woh, just finished it, here is the first paragraph…. Based it around the old Negro Spiritual, “Where you there?”

For the last 7 or 8 weeks or so our worship team and community choir have been led by a choir master, a young and very talented man Matthew.
One of the things Matthew said to us as we started to learn that song, “Were you there”,
he said something very interesting. He said to us, as a choir what I want you to do is think about what the original writer of the song was thinking about when he wrote that song. The reason he wanted us to do that was because he wanted us to have emotion in our voices, to really sing the song from the heart if you like.
And I thought that was really profound. What was the writer of that song thinking about when he wrote it?
Well as far as I can tell, the original writer is unknown, it comes from a deep vein of folk writing known as negro spirituals. These were written by the negro slaves in the deep south of America during the time when Slavery in that part of the world was rife. Though the slaves were not allowed to read the Scriptures, they learned Bible stories at the church on the plantation along with the white folks. The Sunday morning routine included Sunday school, singing hymns, Bible reading, and the sermon — where the preacher told them to obey the Misses and the Master.
On Monday of course they were forced back out onto the fields to pick cotton, fruit, to perform manual labour. All this to keep their lazy and rich masters in comfort. The slaves developed coping mechanisms, and many of them wrote songs, haunting melodies, rich with emotion, and deeply moving. They were songs of hope and anticipation. Some people called them the sorrow songs – eventually, they would come to be known as spirituals. They were the soul-cry of the black slave, longing for freedom. They were born in the fields, among the hoed rows of cotton and tobacco.
Most of the time they had their start in the fervent heat of a backwoods religious meeting. Slaves gathered secretly to encourage one another and to cry out to God for freedom. This activity was against the law, and they knew that a severe beating or even death could face them if they were caught. But the joy and peace that they received from heaven in these meetings made it worth the risk they faced here on earth. The atmosphere in midst of the woods was always charged with emotion. As they mourned their wretched existence, songs would develop spontaneously — psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. In time, these melodies were memorized and passed along from plantation to plantation. The slaves were told by many of the white preachers that they were less than human, but…….