I have been meditating on some of the later Psalms in my daily devotions.

This verse from Psalm 116 struck me.

“¹⁵ The Lord cares deeply  when his loved ones die”

Notice that this does not say that the Lord will prevent an untimely death, or cure all our ills. We know from experience that even when we pray in faith, God does not always heal, or answer prayers as we would always ask.

Sometimes awful and truly tragic events unfold in our lives, and the lives of people we care about and love. Despite our heartfelt pleas, God does not answer with a miraculous intervention. Sometimes He will, and He still does, I believe in that.

So what to do, how to react, when He doesn’t. I can’t give cliched or succinct answers. I can only quote the above verse, which I believe to be true. The Lord cares….deeply….when His loved ones die. He does not always stop it, but He does care.

Recently someone said to me that even though their boyfriend is treating them badly, they go back to them time and time again. I don’t know the person well, but I do wonder what makes women allow men to treat them badly.

I wonder this particularly in the light of having a daughter to raise. The last thing she should ever be doing is begging a boy to treat her well, go out with her….put up with her. What is going to give her the self esteem that she will realise she is of great worth, and should be treated well by any boy?

Well I believe in many ways that is my responsibility, as her father. Her sense that she is beautiful, worthy, lovely….will in a large part come from how I treat her. So I resolve to speak words of life, encouragement and exhortation to her. It means she will receive appropriate touch, hugs, cuddles and kisses from me. It means I will take her out sometimes and speak to her well, treat her like a lady.

It does not mean I will be unrealistic with her, or spoil her, or make her think she is the centre of the universe. She will also see that I treat her mother entirely different to how I treat anyone else. She will learn how a woman should be treated by how her mother is treated.

Thats a lot. God give me grace, wisdom and strength.

It has been a while since I have posted anything Docker related. Following the extraordinary Derby on the weekend, it seems a good time.

As regular readers of this blog will know, my view (for what it is) on Ross Lyon has been one of indifference, antagonism, begrudging acceptance.

Obviously the way he was appointed was wrong, but that is not his fault. I continue to maintain the rage at the administration of the Fremantle Football Club. But that is another story.

Ross Lyon has begun to see his game plan be successfully implemented after a season of oscillating form. The last five weeks have been 5 wins for the Dockers. Four of those wins were lesser teams, but we still won. This weeks game against a West Coast Team needing to move into the top four was the real test. It was a test we passed with flying colours. I sat there and chatted with my wife after the game in stunned surprise. How did we so comprehensively beat that team I asked her. It was not enough to suggest Pavlich stellar form, and 8 goal haul was the answer. Nor could the absence of a truly great Fullback (Darren Glass), be enough for the 60 point margin.

No. It was the gamestyle. I thought all Ross cared about was defense.  You don’t win games unless you kick more goals than the opposition. But what was clear on the weekend as I watched the game up close, was that Ross divides the field into 3 parts. Our defense, led by the magnificent Luke McPharlin, have stymied the opposition, frustrated them so much, that by the time it comes out of there, the midfield find space, and get it into Pav, or Ballyntyne or Son Son, so quickly, their defense is already scrambling.

I am now a believer in Ross Lyon. I reckon he is an intelligent, contemporary and focused. Scarily so. Almost psychotic.

The other day me and a good mate went to Jarrahdale to get some wood for our pot belly fires. He had his Navarra and I had the Zook. You don’t need a 4WD but it helps a lot if you don’t want to be lugging wood over the forest.

Apart from being a great day out, it was also a cheap way to get a tonne of wood. You pay $15 at the Jarrahdale General Store and are on your way. There is loads of wood lying around out there, but you need a chainsaw.Next time I am going to get a lot more kindling!

I recently downloaded this excellent app/program for my MacBook.

It allows you to listen to virtually any music you want, as long as you have a net connection, for free. They put ads in every 4-5 songs, but that is a small price to pay. Another nice feature is the ‘new’ music. It allows you to see what is current, what people are listening to. Another good feature that I like is that based on your listening habits, it suggests artists you may like.

There is a paid version which allows you to store offline the music you want, and has no ads.

In my rigid church upbringing, to raise your hands meant one thing…..you had ‘gone charismatic’. One church I attended briefly had a strictly no hands raised policy. In fact repeat offenders could expect an elder to sit next to them during worship. I am not joking, even though its funny to think about it now.

I remember the first time I felt compelled to raise my hands in worship. It was at the altar call song at a Franklin Graham crusade here in Perth. As I watched someone I had prayed for go forward to accept Jesus for the first time I was overcome with joy and had to express it. Wow.

The Gnostics amongst us would have us believe the body is somehow evil, while the spirit is good. That is patently untrue. Our body is given to us as a good thing by God…to use for good things. Let us not fall for that lie.

The picture below shows a Victorian farmer raising his hands in celebration after a dry spell.

It is a natural thing to do when we are joyful, excited or celebrating, a very human thing. Those emotions are all very human, and part of our worship to God.

Here is some scriptures to mess with the minds of those who are still struggling.

“So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands” (Psalm 63:4).

“To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary” (Psalm 28:1).

“Every day I call upon you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you” (Psalm 88:9).

“I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes” (Psalm 119:48).

“Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the LORD!” (Psalm 134:2).

“O LORD, I call upon you; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to you! Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” (Psalm 141:1-2).

“I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land” (Psalm 143:6).

“Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the court, and he stood on it. Then he knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven” (2 Chronicles 6:12-13).

“And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God” (Ezra 9:5).

“And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen,’ lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground” (Nehemiah 8:6).

“Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven” (Lamentations 3:41).

“I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling” (1 Timothy 2:8).

Here is the message I gave on Sunday.

A very interesting couple!

I used some material from Lifechurch.tv, but as you can hear, its my own message.

Listen