In my mispent youth I owned a Mazda Rx4. It was purchased for the princely sum of $2000. Believe it or not, now such a vehicle would probably command double that. That means a 1975 vehicle has doubled in price over 15 years. However I am pretty sure my Rx4 is wrapped around some telephone pole in rural WA. It was a sad day when I sold it to a friend to finance my bible college days in Adelaide. Unfortunately it was way to heavy on the juice for my career of choice while studying, that of delivering pizza’s. But I digress.
My Rx4 was shiny red with a black vinyl roof. It looked very similar to the one pictured here. It had a killer stereo in it. Two 150w amps, 4 x 3 way Pioneer speakers. Of course there were no such things as Cd or DVD in car players in those days, but the cassette player belted out Cold Chisel, Australian Crawl, Ric Cua or Bryan Duncan, depending on my mood.

The motor was a 13b street ported job with a 4 barrell Holley Carbie. One problem I had was fuel starvation at high revs (around 8000 rpm). I managed to pick up a rally fuel pump from a Rx7 for $50. The pump was worth a few hundred bucks, but the guy needed the cash. It solved the problem and the motor revved long and hard from that point on.

It went through numerous exhausts, once totally ripping apart a set of extractors. I ended up putting in some new extractors and a straight through exhaust, and it was pretty loud.

In the wet it was almost uncontrollable, spinning the rear wheels all the way up to fourth gear. Many times at the lights it took on and comprehensively beat much more fancied sets of wheels.

Anyways, back to the present and a promise I have made myself. I will one day purchase a Series 1 or 2 Mazda Rx7. (1979 – 1982/3) This will be returned to almost stock condition. No flares or mags for me. Just a clean, preferably white, Rx7 to take out when not driving the family around. I have already got in mind the exhaust system to put on it, because this is probably the second most crucial part of owning a rotary motor. The most important part is ensuring that the little pump which puts oil into the carby to oil the rotors is in top operational condition. If it is, a rotary motor will give you smooth, powerful performance for many happy years of motoring, despite the ill concieved fallacies which some will give.

The West reports this morning that well know West Coast Eagles player Chris Judd’s company is being investigated by a liquidator over some possible breaching of proper company governance. Oh Dear.

This coupled with his mum’s singing about her son in pre grand final days leads me to award the “Markedly Award for Shrimp most needing to be BBQ” to Chris Judd.

May he have his worst year ever this year and get traded to Collingwood in 2007

My mum bought me this book by Jim Cymbala for Christmas. Its a devotional book, based around the pastoral life of Jim, who with his wife, has been the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Of course this is the church with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. I have seen a message Jim gives about his daughter and the ‘tough love’ he and his wife showed when she was a drug addict. Fantastic, as Rod Denton called it, ‘Anointed’ message. Interestingly it is one of the most popular books, among their top five, of many younger pastors.

I believe in balance. Jim calls for more prayer, more devotion, less marketing, less polish. I have no probem with him calling for that, its a message I need to hear. However I do also believe God has gifted us all differently for a reason. Some people are great marketers, and like excellence in presentations etc. They should use their gifts for the Kingdom, as should those who love to pray for hours. God connects with us all in different ways. The satisfaction we feel over something done for God, and done well, comes from all different ‘activities’, and I think God celebrates them all.

A quote from Jim,
“what does it say about our churches today that God birthed the church in prayer meetings and prayer meetings today are almost extinct?”

This week I have been reformatting the hard drive on a computer given to me by a great friend Viren. Unfortunately Viren has gone back to India, at least it is unfortunate for me, I miss him!

The computer is a great one, but Viren is a real computer buff and it was partioned, had all these weird and wonderful computer programs on it. Far too confusing for a simple man such as myself. So I have eventually figured out how to wipe the hard drive and reinstall XP and Office 2003.
Unfortunately the driver for the internal PCI BUS modem has gone missing! I suspect it is not a real modem but one of those little wire, attatchment jobs in which the downloaded software does all the work. If anyone knows how to determine what modem it is without ripping the thing apart, please let me know. Windows XP cant find it, nor can the system management on XP. And I know its there! I used it before I reformatted it!!

A story in the West caught my eye this morning. It briefly told how a church in Parkes, rural NSW, is holding an Elvis style gospel service at the same time as the local community is holding their annual Elvis Festival. The Sydney Morning Herald has some more details such as,
“The Elvis gospel-style Uniting Church service that will be held on the Sunday began four years ago with 80 people. Tomorrow it is expected to draw more than 700.
The Reverend Tom Stuart, who is leading the service, said Elvis was no saint but he saw nothing wrong with the church borrowing him.
Elvis was deeply spiritual and loved gospel singing, having been brought up in a Memphis Pentecostal church.
He recorded three gospel albums and it was for his religious music, not his rock’n’roll tunes, that he won three Grammys.
“I see Elvis as this performer with incredible talent who is like us because of the phenomenal personal failings that exposed his clay feet,” Mr Stuart said.”
NCLS also mention it briefly on their site.
This is awesome. A local church listening and seeing what the local community is doing, and tapping into it in a relevant way. Something accesible and liked by the community. Apparently the church service is now the biggest event on the Elvis Festival’s calender!
I think this is fantastic, mmmm, now how can I get the Bayswater Council to organise a Elvis Festival in my area…. and where have I left my blue suede shoes?

I bought my son, off Ebay, a Jimmy Neutron Rocket Car for Christmas.
Goodness knows how he got so obsessed with this genius wonder boy, but he has. About half the presents he got for Christmas were JM related, including DVD’s, models, and other things.

Unfortunately Hasbro, the manufacturer of Jimmy toys, stopped
manufacturing them and distributing them in Australia about
2 years ago. I know because I rang them.
Thank goodness for Ebay!
I have just purchased him a Jimmy walker robot, and it should arrive in time for his birthday. Only thing is that the postage from the US costs about double what the radio controlled walker is going to cost us.

Do I get a father of the year nomination or what!

This from the The news
“The senior pastor of a Tulsa Baptist church was arrested outside a northwest Oklahoma City hotel after allegedly propositioning an undercover officer, police said. http://newsok.com/video/1724872/Show Video
Lonnie Wayne Latham, 59, senior pastor at South Tulsa Baptist Church, was arrested Tuesday on a complaint of offering to engage in an act of lewdness, police Capt. Jeffrey Becker said. He was released on $500 bail Wednesday.

I checked out his church website and as one of their statements of faith,
“We are all made in the spiritual image of God, to be like Him in character. We are the supreme object of God’s creation. Although mankind has tremendous potential for good, we are marred by an attitude of disobedience toward God called “sin”. This attitude separates us from God”

Its too easy to read these stories and condemn, forgetting this is a real person, probably who started off in ministry just like me, with pure hopes and dreams. Latham is now in a prominent and important role both in his church, and within the Baptist Denomination.
I feel sorrow for his family, and his church, and for him. Lets hope and pray there is a good recovery program going on.
This is a reminder to me, as a pastor, that with responsibility comes accountability.