Been meditating on this thought.
Forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation.
When Jesus confronts Peter after the resurrection, He asks him those famous questions, ‘Peter do you love me”. He points out to Peter that when he proudly boasted he would never deny Christ, and then did it three times, his heartfelt devotion was in question.

Jesus points our his sin clearly and confronts him with his own attitude and action.
Now while Jesus could and would forgive him for his sin, true reconciliation would not take place without confrontation. An honest conversation.

Sometimes conflicts are not able to be resolved, reconciliation cannot take place. That does not mean forgiveness cannot take place. We can let go of the pain and the hurt, and release the person from any hold they have on us, or we on them. We can let the bitterness go. We can do that even if they don’t say sorry, and wont deal with the issue. But we cant be reconciled.

I scored some free tickets to this from a friend of mine so I took along my youth pastor. While I could not attend every session, it was great to have some time to listen and take in.

Its an annual conference borne out of Paradise AOG Church with Pastor Evans.

Pastor Creflo Dollar, who no doubt we have all heard about, was the first speaker I heard. He gave a surprisingly restrained message all about reading our bibles. He emphasized the need for revelation to come from scripture, not from extra biblical sources.

I also heard a great message from Dr Samuel R Chand. His was the highlight of the conference for me, so much I bought his book!

Here are my notes from that session.

Transitions ‘in the meantime’
What do you do in the meantime?
You need to keep changing!
Shifted
What do you do when you have outgrown your place?
Your friends are getting ahead of you?
‘ambiguity’
Highest level of leadership, leading someplace where you don’t know
Moses led the stupid idiots to a place where they did not know
Still keep going even though you don’t know where! Walk as if you know where you are going
Dangers complacency, distractions, frustrations, competition, doubt, wrong counsel… Three of four people close to you will determine your destiny, you are known by the company you keep

Opportunities
1. Preparation sharp knife in your kitchen draw, ready fir action
The only time you start at the top is when you are digging a hole
Your part is preparation, Gods part is to bring opportunities
2. Growth learning to trust Him, ministry is not a corporate ladder, some leaders made themselves, some are God made. Character will keep you in room
3. Reinvention
4. New relationships, don’t miss
If you leave with great word, that’s good but good relationships can change your life
5. Jesus knew His time had not yet come but He handled transitions well
2 mental images: landscape, seascape
Seascape constantly changes, landscape does not. Walk in faith, towards the sea

Unlearning
take someone down a mental pathway, stuck in that path, how do we get unstuck? Trying to go to new lands with old maps
You have to get worse to get any better… Golf illustration. Hacker
Because it came easy to me, I never got  good at it.

I also attended the Tuesday night session with Pastor Chris Hill. He was good, you can learn from anyone I reckon. If you want to know how to preach passionately, with humour and emotion, Pastor Chris Hill is your man.

What was most interesting to me and my mate who came along though was the pre worship rap. As we were listening, and enjoying I have to say, this….we discussed amongst ourselves, is this how our kids will enjoy worship services in the future? It was God honouring, if not my style. If that is the case, we have to make sure we make time and room for them to sing a new song, in a new way, to Jesus.

My latest post is up, this one deals with some happier times as we started to become the Church God wanted us to be.

Confront Quickly Next Time

Unfortunately one leader of a Church is getting media time as he declares that the floods in Queensland are the result of God’s judgment on Kevin Rudd.

A read of Jesus life makes it clear what his response to such a line of thinking would have been. We don’t have to guess, its there in the Bible.

“Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? ³ Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. ⁴ And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? ⁵ No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.”

Jesus makes a call here for personal reflection, and as a Christian I believe we are all responsible to our Creator for how we live our lives. But this is not what I want to emphasise today. His words and meaning are clear, the poor souls who died in a accident were not being judged for what they had done, it was just an accident. Bad things happen…like floods in Queensland. We can blame climate change, we can blame dams, we can say it is an act of nature….but don’t try to blame God. God is not willing that any would perish…but wants everyone to live abundant lives. Sometimes bad things happen, and we don’t know why.

There are so many churches being Gods hand and feet…and not trying to be His mouthpiece, working hard for others in Queensland. My namesakes Church in Ipswich, Ipswich Region Community Church, is an official evacuation centre. People are donating time, money, food and effort to care for those affected by the floods. That is what Jesus would want. Love of God demonstrated in acts of kindness. And that is only one of hundreds of Churches and other community groups banding together to help. My family donated some money this week, as are millions of other ordinary Australians. I encourage us all, share Gods love. Let people know you are a Christian by your love and actions.

If you want to help: After careful consideration Australian Baptist Ministries (BUA) has decided to open its National Disaster and Relief Fund to channel specific giving through local Queensland Baptist Churches, Queensland Baptist Care initiatives, and other likeminded agencies. If people in your church would like to donate through this fund (Donations of $2 and over are tax deductible) the details are as follows:

If donating by cheque: Cheques payable to BUA National Disaster & Relief Fund, and posted to PO Box 273, Hawthorn, VIC 3122
If donating by direct credit: The Baptist Union of Australia, ANZ Camberwell, BSB: 013-247, Ac No. 4955 55525. (To receive a receipt the donors name and address will also be required.)
If donating via Credit Card (Visa and Mastercard only): Send an email to bua@baptist.org.au supplying the card number, expiry date, the cardholders name and their signature.

Here is an account of one the day trips I took when on holidays at Bremer Bay, Fitzgerald National Park, and when we visited Point Anne.
We headed off from Bremer Bay, across the sand spit at the town beach. Up the gravel bush track and into Fitzgerald National Park.
As we started our our day trip we experienced some of the biggest corrugations I have ever had the mispleasure of jolting on my behind. In between making jokes on our little UHF radios about high beam and Forestor headlights, we argued about the best method of smoothing the ride out. Ultimately the ‘go as quick as you safely can’ argument won.

In the group was a Forrestor, a new Landcruiser, a Pajero, a Wrangler and my 2006 Suzuki Grand Vitara V6 Manual.

After about 10 ks of gravel track, some of it washed out with slow going required, we hit the sandy track which would take us to the beach. Even in the middle of the pack, I could hear the new Cruiser being scraped by the overhanging vegetation. It buffed out fine but can be a little disconcerting at first.  I asked my wife to ‘pull in’ her side mirror, and I pulled in mine, and the Suzuki’s narrower body was fine.

Having radios was really helpful as we snaked our way down various tracks to eventually hit some soft stuff on our way out of the bush and onto a reasonable sized salt lake which led down to the beach. The momentary freedom caused me to give the V6 motor a bit of a squirt as we all darted down to the waterfront.
None of us had our tyres down at this stage yet we all managed to get down to the ocean without a hitch.

A helpful ranger with what is arguabley the best job in the world popped past on his 4 wheel motorbike and told us about the beach trip to Point Anne. ‘Drive about 10 kilometers along the beach until you get to this little cliff where there is some rubber matting to help you up. There is a bit of a dip but you should be fine”.

Against the plaintive pleas of protest from our collective group of wives we let our tyres down and begin the journey along the beach. I suggested the Cruiser go first and plow a trail for us. The Pajero followed him, I came up third and the Wrangler and the Forester brought up the rear.

It was pretty easy going for about the first five kilometres until we hit a soft patch near the sea and needed to go up the bank a bit. Even the Cruiser started to struggle so all of us stopped, and let the tyres down to various limits. I let mine down to about 18psi.

It was interesting following the bigger vehicles. I needed to go a little faster than them to be comfortable, and if I could have, I think it would have been better. While I went along alternating between first and second in my manual V6, they mostly plodded along in their automatic vehicles. A couple of times when I managed to stay in second for a while, the GV was moving beautifully. I needed to keep momentum up and it glided over the sand, rather than ploughing through it as the Cruiser did.

We made it to the ‘cliff’ and all of us gulped a little. The most experienced of our crew was the Forestor driver so I suggested he go first, mostly because he had the vehicle with the least clearance. If anyone would get stuck, it might have been him. It looked a lot worse than it was. Although it appeared he bottomed out a little in the first 3 metres of sand and dip, he made it to the rubber matting with no problem. I went next, and despite having a sore arm from where my wife pinched me, the Grand Vitara went up the slope easily. Compared to my old 1.6 Litre Auto Vitara, this one has oodles of power.

Once we all made it to Point Anne along the corrugated gravel track, the views were simply breathtaking. What a beautiful part of the world with stunning scenery and magnificent cliff and rocky structures jutting out into a wide expanse of creation.

I am on holidays for a while and this blog is in recess, but I must tell you about this coffee I had yesterday. Melinda and I were blessed to be able to leave the kids with their grandparents and do a ‘foodie’ tour of the Margaret River region.
We visited lots of great places, one of them being Yahava Coffee just out of Margaret River.
The guy there knew his stuff, but his manner was reminiscent of the ‘Soup Nazi’ character from Seinfeld. He asked briskly what I wanted and I replied deadpan, ‘coffee’. Grunt….

But then I noticed they had some Kona coffee on special, $6 for a double shot. I supplied my own travel mug, and the aforementioned Barista went about his business efficiently filling it for me. Some background on these beans. Hawaiian Kona is described as “the worlds most sought after coffee; Kona is grown on a narrow band of mountainous volcanic soils that make up the western coastline of the big island of Hawaii”. Yahava sells it for $79.00 for 500g.

Despite his manner, the coffee makers skills needed no apology. The Kona was simply superb. Creamy, smooth, and towards the end of the cup..hints of mocha. I enjoyed the coffee even better towards the end, which says something good to me.

I am not in the position to buy some Kona beans, so settled for some Nepalese Terai Supreme The Barista assured me the beans were fresh, but needed a day or three to be at their optimum. They have a floral style, with cinnamon hints. Looking forward to seeing what I can do with it when I get home.

Yahava