Every week. Sometimes twice a week. Sometimes more if there are funerals or weddings or special events.

Last week I had to prepare two messages and a short thought for a wedding. The week before it was for a funeral.

I am not the sort of Pastor who can reuse material. It just does not seem to work for me. It needs to be fresh. There is a relentlessness about that. But you know, I am not complaining. One of my friends, a pastor, said that God knows we Pastors need Him to prepare messages. Maybe if I didn’t need God in that way, I might neglect Him. As it is, I have to be devotionally and purposefully reading through the scriptures. I also have to meditate and read what others have said.

Either way, the burden can be burdensome, or it can be a joy.

Here are some helpful thoughts from Francis Chan

1. Am I worried about what people will think of my message or what God thinks?

2. Do I genuinely love these people?

3. Am I accurately presenting this passage?

4. Am I depending on the Holy Spirit’s power or on my own cleverness?

5. Have I applied this message to my own life?

6. Will this message draw attention to me or to God?

7. Do the people really need this message?

Antoni Grover was drafted through the rookie draft to the Fremantle Dockers when Damian Drum was coach. That sort of sums him up. But after 202 games, he deserves his place in Freo folklore.

He has defended valiantly when the team was having wave after wave of attackers coming against the defense. Luke McPharlin said today that, “I always played taller when Antoni was standing next to me”. He was that sort of player. Always smiling, courageously backing into packs, attacking the ball, taking marks, streaming forward and kicking a goal when needed.

I remember watching him kick a goal after his grandmother had passed away that week. He kissed the black armband on his arm as tribute. He calls himself ‘Balgas black caviar”, and that about sums him up. No-nonsense, fun, realistic and authentic.

Today he announced his retirement. The game, injuries and time have got the better of him. But he will be missed.

This weekend I spent Friday and Saturday with the blokes who organise the Mighty Mens Conferences around Australia. It was a praying, sharing and visionary time. We met at the small rural town in South Australia called Balaklava.

We talked about how many men are taking their lives, living with shame, making really unhealthy choices in their lives, forgetting God’s place and generally living empty lives. So many blokes in Australia are doing it tough and being less than what they could be. Particularly when it comes to suicide, we really feel we need to do something. Men living with shame may be a contributor.

We have to do something. The Mighty Mens Conferences are about gathering men together to work through in a meaningful way the issues that confront their lives. This is our vision. Not to grow a movement, but the see Australian men find hope.

We are praying about and organising regional meetings, particularly in rural environments all over Australia. Pray for us. It is only one piece of the puzzle, and many others are doing just as valuable ministries. But we have to do something.

Mighty Mens Australia

In the news recently is the couple from the UK who have won 222 million dollars. That is a lot of money! This post is not a commentary on them, but it did provoke me to wonder, how would I spend 222 million dollars if I won it.

Each person will have their own bias, and that is good because God has made us all different, with all types of desires, wishes and passions. So your list might be equally valid as mine. You might also think that my list is not as good as it could be, for some reason. So this is not about justifying what we spend money on, that is each persons own choice. God has given us that choice. But feel free to comment and post your own thoughts.

What would you do with 222 Million dollars if you won it? Honestly. In no particular order..
1. Buy a new church (Church is the answer to the worlds issues, it is Jesus’ body on earth)

2. Buy some houses for people in need

3. Pay off our home and buy one for each of our kids (We are called to care for our family first)

4. Invest wisely and start a major fund to help children in need (You could change so many lives with a significant amount of money, why wouldn’t you)

5. Help some indigenous churches (Something on my heart, a deep passion which might be expressed one day)

6. Buy a Engel fridge, snorkel and bullbar for the Zook (Why not….I’ve just won 222 million dollars for goodness sake)

For where your treasure is, there is your heart also….

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.