4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

6 So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

God really spoke to me through this passage this morning in my devotional time.
Imagine being the disciples. You have spent 3 years following Jesus, you have seen Him be laughed at, suffer and then die.
Finally…you now see He is alive, victorious! All He said would happen…has.
And therefore you legitimately ask, now Jesus? now? Will you restore things now?
But the answer is…no. Not right now, it is not for you to know that. For now, you will receive the Holy Spirit, be empowered…and you need to spread the gospel, the good news.

Its like Jesus is saying, your time of comfort, restoration, everything being right…is not yet! For now, even though you have been through three years of this, your time has not yet come. Why? Because there were so many that needed to hear about Jesus. So many that Jesus wanted to bring into His family.
Their comfort was not important, what was important was the Kingdom!
Challenging.

I really find these ads offensive as it appears many others do if Twitter is anything to go by.
They play on deep seated emotions in a cynical and somewhat offensive attempt to sign us up to their health care.
Now while health care is important, I think that how they have done these advertisements is almost using something which for many people may be personally very distressing as a way to sell their product.
Quite disgusting in my opinion.
If you live in Western Australia, and while I hesitate to post the link to their ad, you could find it easily enough, so here it is.
Link

This is a truly beautiful moment and song.

This Anzac Day at Inglewood Church we are going reasonably low key.
We have done some bigger services in the past, which has been great.

I have prepared a little media, and we are going to pray for those brave folk who are serving our Country at the moment overseas in conflict situations.

Record numbers of delegates attending the 2010 Alltogether Baptist Pastors Conference.
For the past few years we have joined up with Church of Christ Pastors, this year its just Bapos.
Looking like we are going to have as many as we did last year in total numbers…with only Bapos attending, so it has gone really well.

One thing we have done this year is try to give each Pastor a call and personally invite them. People matter. People appreciate the personal call….that someone cares about them.
Its not about making a great conference, although that is important. Its that we believe in community of Pastors, we have a unique calling/vocation.

Really looking forward to catching up with all my mates, praying, sharing…eating!

Even his colleagues are turning on him…as they should…. 🙂

My beautiful little princess turned six today.
Six years ago I was sitting in Joondalup hospital giving her a bath for the first time.

Nowadays she generally speaking dresses herself. In fact, unlike her brother, has very definete ideas about what she wants to wear. ‘Dad…that does not match”….dad…those shoes dont go with those pants!

Generally speaking she is right, and dear old dad is wrooong.
Soon she will be telling me what to wear, and being embarassed by me.
So for now…I am holding onto the love and affection she has for me.
At times it seems like a hassle to ‘come and say goodnight daddy, and give me a kiss”. Especially when I have got settled into the couch.
But I can’t not do it…its too precious.
I know, I realise, that times and daughters change. At the moment she could not be more precious, and I am going to enjoy every moment of her life I can.

And save up for the wedding. If todays ‘art and craft’ party with 15 giggling six year olds is anything to go by, this little precious girl is going to cost me a fortune…but she’s worth it.