I imagine there are as many views of what God is like, as there are people. How much of what I think about God is a product of my environment, my upbringing, my own personality, my dad’s personality and how much is the evidence as presented in the scriptures?

My small group is looking through the book of Judges at the moment, and there are times God gets really angry. In chapter two it states that, “the Lord burned with anger”. And this is at His own people.

Sure I hear you say, thats the Old Testament. But Jesus got really mad as well. We know the common examples, where he berated and insulted the Pharisees, when he fashioned a whip out of cord and drove the money traders out of the temple.

In the book of Hebrews 12 we read, “For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes those he accepts as his children.”

He punishes us, for things we have done wrong. Now this punishment may be so we learn, but He punishes none the less.

I know I have been guilty of fashioning God into a more politically correct version, but the truth is that God is to be feared, He is Awesome, awe inspiring, HOLY HOLY HOLY.

We are not righteous, He is righteous, and I know He gets mad at some of the things I do wrong.
Thank God for Hebrews 2, which brings the balance, ” 14That is why we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him. 15This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. 16So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.”

Continuing my devotions in the Psalms.
These words from Psalm 32,

“When I refused to confess my sin, I was weak and miserable, and I groaned all day long.”

Isn’t that so true. Run from the God who is everywhere?
Hide from the God who see’s and knows everything?

Yet I know I do it.

Short accounts, with God, and with others. Thats my desire.

This from Don Wilson of Christ’s Church of the Valley

“The problem with facilities is convincing people that they are the church on Monday through Saturday and not just on Sunday. IOW, ministry can and must happen anywhere, not just on church property.

Most new churches build their building too soon and too small.

Two essentials: “critical mass” and “momentum.” Lead by example.

Big vision attracts people with big vision.

Every time we go through building programs, we suffer big Satanic attacks. Don’t plan too far out. No 5-year (or longer) plans. Need to work on core values. Difference between successful churches and successful corporations — successful churches tend to be personality driven and successful corporations tends to be core values driven. We need to determine our core values! Do more with less. CCV plans to cut out 1/3 of their ministries in the next year! You are your greatest leadership challenge. Your leadership style has to change at every level. Old Proverb: “An army of sheep led by a lion will always defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.” That’s a great statement about the importance of good leadership! Sacrifice was a real focus today, and Don Wilson asked, how do you get people who don’t tithe to understand the concept of sacrifice? 90% of the things we pray about in our churches are things that Jesus never prayed about. Jesus prayed about kingdom issues. CCV’s vision is to WIN, TRAIN, and SEND, and their priority is on the winning part. Instead of the old “here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open the doors and here are the people,” it should be “here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open the doors and release all the people.”

FREMANTLE: 0.6.5, 0.11.5, 0.15.8, 1.18.10 (127)
WEST COAST: 0.2.0, 0.4.10, 0.6.13, 1.7.14 (65)

Apparently there was a football game on tonight, and apparently the Dockers thrashed, hammered, defeated, carved up the under seige Weagles. So sad, too bad!!

I told you I would gloat if we won, I’m gloating. Sandilands thrashed “the best ruckman in the competition”. He didn’t just beat him, Sandy pantsed him fair and square. And dont give me that old chestnut about the weagles fielding a sub standard side. The Dockers had Pavlich, Haddril, Black and Polak out. The West Toast had their best midfield on the park, and they lost convincingly. Cant wait to see the replay. Interestingly enough it appeared the WC got most of their goals from free kicks awarded by the Green M & M men.

This from Fremantlefc.com.au

“A six-goal haul from Luke McPharlin has inspired Fremantle to a comfortable 62-point victory over the West Coast Eagles in a fiery NAB Cup clash at Subiaco Oval on Sunday.The Dockers secured the 1.18.10 (127) to 1.7.14 (65) victory early in the third quarter, four straight goals to begin the term leaving the Eagles defence in tatters.Fremantle’s forward line of McPharlin, Jeff Farmer, Justin Longmuir and Paul Medhurst was superb, combining for 13 goals and receiving great delivery from a hard-running midfield.At the other end, the Eagles attack cohesion, Brent Staker and Ashley Hansen struggling to find space with Andrew McDougall not touching the ball in the first half.”

My beautiful wife taped me the interview with the bespectled one and I have just watched it.
As with many American interviews, it was a bit of a fluff piece, no real indepth stuff.

Would be fantastic if Denton could get him on.

Would love to have some indepth questions about his faith asked.

None the less, I enjoyed it.

Love their music. Funny, I never used to. But researching the spiritual angle has really changed my perception of it. Its great rock and roll too. If ever they come to Perth, I’m there.

After working for about three hours yesterday afternoon on my presentation for this Sunday mornings service, the brand new computer at church decided that it did not want to work properly.

We got through the service, but I could not show the video for the message, nor the slides for “It’s a beautiful day” and even the songs during the worship time got messed up.

Somehow I know God spoke, and it is a good reminder that He is not dependent on slickness or well presented and interesting images.

But it sure is frustrating.

The up down keys were both making the slides advance, mmmm, lovely. And powerpoint kept freezing up.
Funny, it worked perfectly before church.
For those who were there and would have liked to have seen some of the images accompanying the service, sorry, they are on my thumb drive.
But here is the opening slide from our men’s service that we will be doing in a few months. Just for anyone who barracks for St Kilda.

Okay, did anyone who recieved my E-News guess correctly that Eliot and Jason were going to sing “It’s a Beautiful Day”? A fairly big clue is the fact I have posted the words on this website.