Crazy Kids

Kids sometimes don't know what is good for them, and will sometimes do things that are risky or downright dangerous. The other day I saw this young teenager climb the train bridge in Rockhampton and begin to walk over the top of the beams about 50 meters above the river. It was a very dangerous thing to do, especially if a train decided to come along at that very moment. He actually did it because there was a young girl his own age with him and he was trying to impress her, but she didn't seem impressed and was only worried for his safety. He refused to come down when he was asked. Sometimes we are a bit like that with God. He asks us to do things which are good for us, but we refuse and instead go off to do things which we think are fun, but are actually spiritually dangerous for us. Let us learn to trust what God says because it is always the best.

Just Ask God

Yesterday I got to go geo-caching with some friends and that was heaps of fun. I've never done that before and really enjoyed that. You should try it some time.

Sometimes I have looked back over my prayer life and noticed that it's a bit like a roller-coaster. Sometimes its up and I'm prayerful and things are really happening. Other times I struggle to pray as consistently and often as I want. Then there comes the time when you just sit down in your lounge chair with no one else around and you simply say to God 'Lord I really need you to move in my life in this area,' and you know what....He does.

Ask yourself the question, 'How often would you get an answer to prayer if only you actually asked?' The Bible says in Matthew 7:7 to 'Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will open.' It's a pretty straight forward scripture. It basically says that if we want answers to prayer we only need to tell God about it. Further on in that same passage in Matt 7 it says that our Father in Heaven loves to give us good gifts. I like the sound of that myself.

Sometimes people don't ask because they don't have much faith. Some don't ask because they never get around to praying. Some don't ask because they think that God will only answer spiritual prayers. Some don't ask because they don't think God will listen to them. Whatever reason people don't ask, the Bible is clear that 'We don't receive because we don't ask.'

So if you have needs in your life and there are areas where things have to change....then you need to ask God about it. One thing is certain, He loves us deeply and will listen to us when we ask.

First Time Geocaching

On Monday I went geocaching with Daniel and Cory. It was the first time we have ever tried this sport. Daniel just bought himself a GPS and we loged onto the geocaching website and found 16 caches in our area. So we set off for the day and managed to find 5 of the locations but only found 3 caches. The first cache was easy, it was hidden in a public park in middle of Rockhampton. It was hidden inside a sprinkler head so it looked exactly like it belonged there. We wrote our name in the log book and moved onto a more challenging cache.

The second cache was near the Fitzroy River somewhere and we trampled through grass (watching out for cr ocs of course) and got scratched an bitten by mossies. We never did find that second cache. I have the feeling that the council or someone moved it becuase it wasn't there.

The third cache for the day was a trip to Keppel Sands and a climb up a rocky cliff adjacent to the beach. On top of the cliff we found the cache, (picture at right) it was a lunchbox filled with a variety of odds and ends and a logbook where we recorded our visit. I left 50 cents for the next visitor to claim.

After this we headed off to try and locate a cache in the Mulambin beach area and had to climb a large volcanic plug to do so. Up on top we found the cache. It was a similar cache to the previous one, but this one came with gorgeous views of Keppel Island and the Capricorn Coast. By the time we had retrieved this cache and climbed back down the mountain we had walked several kilometres and were ready for lunch in Yeppoon.

After lunch we headed north up Farborough Beach to try and find a geocache location there but after a lot of searching in the sand dunes we came up fruitless. I suspect someone has moved it or hidden it in the wrong location. Either way we had a great day exploring the surround countryside. We'll do it again on another day. Oh...and by the way, it was such a windy day that Daniel will have to buy himself a new umbrella.

Jesus Was An Ant

A few years ago I was outside looking at the stars and my as I thought about it I realised how big and amazing God must be to have created all of that. Then my thoughts turned to myself, and I began to feel small and insignificant compared to all that exists. I felt like one tiny ant.

In my home in Mount Morgan I have an occaisonal problem with ants, and usually I try to poison them or put food outside in locations to try to attract them other places than my kitchen. Its been a fairly futile problem. Needless to say that in all of that, I don't exactly have any fond feelings toward ants.

I wondered, if God made everything there is, and it is so big, why would He be interested in something as small and insignificant as me.....or any human being for that matter. Yet the Bible is very clear that God not only does take an interest, but that He loves us deeply and cares for us more than we could imagine.

Imagine that you actually owned an ant farm and you had a heap of pet ants. You deeply loved the pet ants and wanted to somehow tell them that you liked them, but being ants, they are way to thick to be able to realise. I guess that must be God's frustration becuase we never seem to be able to figure out that He actually really does love us. Our concept of His love is pretty vague.

And that is the reason why He decided to become a human being in the form of Jesus Christ and come to earth to actually convey his love to us through his words and actions.

So next time you are wondering about how important you are to God, or if He really does love you, remember this: God actually became a human being the same as us, so He could live the same way we did and bring us the message that we are loved. In a nutshell.....God also became a tiny little ant so that we could know how loved we are.

I'm a Scuba Diver Now...Woohoo

On the weekend I finally did my open water dives 3 and 4 and passed all the skills requirements, so I got my certification. Send me an email if you're a diver too.

How To Really Be Changed

A few years ago in church I remember a preacher asked the question...'Who here has never made a mistake?' One person put up his hand. I am almost certain that he only did it because he was joking. In reality there is no one who is perfect and the Bible does say that if we think we are perfect we are only 'fooling ourselves.' Thats in 1 John 1:8-9.

Sometimes we think about our faults and wish we could change them, and perhaps we try. We plan out what we are going to do and have a shot at it, and more often than not we even fail at that. Most of the time, most people are just stuck doing the same thing over and over.

What can really liberate us and help us to change however is to begin to see how much love God has for us. That may not make sense at first, but when we begin to see that God actually likes us as we are, and loves us perfectly, it has the amazing effect of actually helping us to change.

God's love is like water on a plant. When the plant is being watered, it grows and thrives, but when there is no love the plant shrivels and dies. Well, God's love is always there, but sometimes because we think He doesnt' love us, we don't recieve it, and we struggle to change. However when we begin to see His love and feel it........then we find it easy to get out of the rut and begin to thrive and live how God wants.

In John 14 Jesus said......"if you love me, you will obey me." People often think we have to proove our love to Him by obeying.......but no, He actually meant that when we do find this love from Him.....it will be easy to obey. The key is growing in our understanding of how much we are loved and accepted. The truth is, you could not be more loved than you already are.

All my love and blessings on a warm evening in Australia.
Take care
David

The Drought In Australia

Back in 2002 I started a website called Breaking The Drought which was about the drought in Australia. Back then we thought the drought was really bad, but in the last few years things have really started to bite here in Australia. I still have the website and haven't made much of it lately...in fact it actually redirects back to this website to some pages where I keep articles on drought. Things have gotten so bad here that our town dam is nearly empty again and yesterday I was reading in a Scottish media website about how every 4 days a farmer in Austalia commits suicide. Is there anything we can do other than go back to God with our lives and refresh things with Him. If only we would all do that I am convinced we would no longer be in this drought.

Is There a Problem??

When we are madly in love with someone we don't tend to notice their mistakes. It doesn't mean they are perfect but we are so much in love that we simply don't notice. Its usually when couples marry that they start to notice the issues..........and that's when there is a problem. True love is really not conditional and it does overlook faults. At least that is what the Bible says in Proverbs 10:12. You can listen to more about this.

Lobsters and Stuff

Last Saturday I finally got to go for my first two open water dives. Underwater is really like visiting a different planet because it is nothing like anything we know on land. In fact when a diver is able to nail his or her buoyancy they become weightless and its like being in space. I got to see a lobster, some remora suckerfish, lots of bright blue parrotfish and stacks of other fish which I cannot name. Also, I got to swim near a stingray and lived to tell the tale. I get to go diving again this saturday too, and will be certified as a diver after that.

Don't Give Up On God

Sometimes its easy to follow God because things are going well and we are being blessed. Life is great on cloud nine, and everyone loves it when things are going well. God has great promises for those who follow Him and we all love the blessings.

What happens however when things don't go so well?

Because we live in a world of sin and problems, some of those are bound to come our way too. In fact Jesus said "In this world you will have trouble, but don't lose heart, because I have overcome the world." God is very aware that we will face troubles, and that is one of the reasons why He gave us His promises.

If everything only went well all the time, we wouldn't need the promises to cling to, but when things fall apart, God's word is there to help us stand firm and hang on. It reminds me of that squirrel in the movie "Ice Age." The squirrel in that movie was very determined he was going to get his hands on the nut, and nothing was going to stop him. And along they way he encountered a lot of tough positions.

Its easy to laugh at the squirrel, but we need to remember that if we stick to what we know is right, that the promises of God will come to pass. Don't forget that God's love is eternal and if we are faithful to Him, He will never let us down.

Ways of Loving

We know that as Christians we are to love God, to love our fellow believers and to love those that don't know Jesus yet. We are to love them the same way that Jesus loves us, which as you know is with unconditional love. So in other words we are to be people who think of others and not only of ourselves.

At times this is not an easy thing to do. We are prone to being self consumed with our own lives, problems and needs. However God is calling us to take upon ourselves some of the problems and needs of other people. Actually if the truth be known, when we do this it really is the key to a better and happier way of life.

The Bible gives to us 21 different ways that I have found that we can love one another:

1. John 13:35 Love one another as Jesus loved you.
   
2. Romans 12:10 Honour one another above yourselves.
   
3. Romans 12:10 Be devoted to one another.
   
4. Romans 12:16 Live in harmony with one another.
   
5. Romans 14:19 Edify one another.
   
6. Romans 15:5 Be likeminded one to another.
   
7. Romans 15:7 Accept one another as Christ accepted you.
   
8. Romans 15:14 Instruct one another.
   
9. Romans 16:16 Greet one another.
   
10. 1 Cor 12:25 Care for one another.
    
11. Eph 4:2 Be patient with one another.
    
12. Eph 4:32 Be kind to each other.
    
13. Eph 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
    
14. Col 3:13 Forgive each other.
    
15. Hebrews 3:13 Encourage one another.
    
16. James 5:16 Pray for one another.
    
17. 1 Peter 3:8 Be compassionate to each other.
    
18. 1 Peter 4:9 Offer hospitality to each other.
    
19. 1 Peter 5:5 Be humble towards one another.
    

As you can see from this list, there is plenty of room for us to think highly of each other in the Body of Christ. We need to make plenty of a llowance for each others weaknesses and faults, and overlook each others sins. When we do see a problem, let us not criticise or complain but instead pray and kindly point it out privately with humility. This gives God plenty of room to change people in time through the power of the Holy Spirit.

More About Love...

The Ultimate Way of Living

There is a lot of pressure in Christianity at times to share the gospel and to make disciples....you know, to try and bring your friends to church. On top of that there are myriads of meetings we can attend. If we attend the meetings we are a good christian, and it proves that we really love God. That's how it often seems anyway.

Of course when you are attending so many meetings you often get tired, and that's when your relationship with God really goes down the drain. You got so worn out that you don't spend proper time with your family, or friends and neither do you get to spend that special time with God. Perhaps attending too many meetings might be hindering your faith and not helping it.

Some people might read this little piece and be tempted to throw in the towel alltogether and not attend any meetings at all. That would be a huge mistake and you would do yourself no good at all. Like mo st things in life there must be a good balance. Honey is good for your health, but if you only ever eat honey it will be bad for your health.

Our Faith and love in Jesus is something we live day to day. Its not something that we do in church only. In fact if we only fill our lives up with doing church we will never have anytime to actually do the things that God asked us to do. We are to learn to love others, we are to develop good relationships with our family, husband or wife. We are to do a good job at our work and serve God by serving our boss. We are also to be prayerful people and we need time to do that too.

Jesus actually said that 'If we love each other, then all men will know that we are his disciples.' You can find that in John 13. In other words, the key to filling the church with the lost, and reaching out to our unsaved friends, and the key to being quality believers is found in that four letter word....LOVE.

How often in churches the people don't really love each other. There is always a lot of talk about love, but not often the real thing. Jesus said (again in John 13) that 'A new commandment I give to you, to love each other as I have loved you.' There you have it! We are not to love each other any old way, but the way that Jesus himself loved us. I think if we really did that, that a lot of the little arguments and disputes that go on would never get started in the first place.

Jesus gave his life for us. He also forgives us for our many sins and struggles some of which are huge and monumentous. He is always ready to give us another chance.

Are we ready to give our fellow christians another chance? If one of them has hurt us, are we kind and loving enough to overlook that? That is the kind of love that Jesus had for us? After all, in comparison to what Jesus has overlooked in our lives, the sins of others to us are miniscule.

There are basically two kinds of love. First is actually doing good deeds for other people and showing them that you care. This might be helping them move house or washing a car or just phoning them up when they are lonely. The second kind of love is the opposite.....it is overlooking the faults of other people when they don't treat you how you should be treated. What if you are lonely and no one phones you up? What if you are moving house and no one helps you? What if someone slanders you behind your back? Love is also forgiving and forgetting these things and putting them behind you. We need both kinds of love in our churches for there to be real life.

Jesus said that when we have this love, 'then the world will know.' So the best place to begin with is us. We need to ask God to make us people who love, and we need to take some of our time (instead of attending so many meetings) to actually be people who love each other.

With Love..its the Ultimate Way of Living.

Listing of Churches in Mount Morgan

I have just added a listing of all the churches in the town where I live.....its amazing really. Mount Morgan only has 3000 people but it does have 7 churches. That's one church for every 428 people. Does anyone know if this is higher or lower than the Australian average? If you are a local in Mount Morgan and looking for a church to attend, or a tourist on a holiday, try one of these churches.

Scuba Cancelled.....Very Sad

Its been very windy here the last few days and certainly the weather is not suitable for taking out the dive boat. I'm very sad, but my Scuba training dives will have to wait for another fortnight or so. Isn't it always the way that when you have something you really are looking forward to, that it always seems to take so long to happen, but when you are dreading something it seems to hurry along quickly.

Swimming Test

At the moment I'm trying to acheive a certain level in my swimming skills. When I started my scuba open water course I had to swim 200 meters and tread water for 15 minutes. The treading water was easy but I got fairly exhausted doing the swimming. It was much harder than I originally thought. Now I've decided I need to be a bit more fit and I'm trying to work on my swimming so I can swim 500 meters in 12 minutes. Here's a test for you......how long does it take you to swim 500 metres........email and let me know?

Latest Email

Today I finally got back around to sending out emails to my list, and its been a long time since the last one. Today I wrote about why its only in Christ that we have hope and rest from our strivings. Its a good email...read more.

JB and the Boys

On September 29 we had a great concert here in Mount Morgan. Here is JB and the Boys playing, they were fabulous. After they played then our church bank "the funky squirrels" played. We weren't quite as good, but still sounded great. I got to play drums for one song which was exciting. The best part was about 90 people showed up with is about 3 percent of our whole entire town. During the performance we got to share with our lyrics and words about Jesus Christ and the blessing he brings to all who accept Him as Lord and Saviour.

Testing HTML Blogs

Lately I've been revamping a few things on the site because I'm trying to get it back to where I was a year ago. There's a fair bit of code to tweak and I'm trying to work html into the blog. I'm going to link out to somewhere strange and see if that part works. Then I'm going to try to italisize this and bolden this. Here goes...

Scuba Course

Recently I started doing a SCUBA course to be certified as an open water diver. On Saturday I get to do my first two open water dives to a depth on only 9 metres. I'm really looking forward to that.

testing blogging by email

This is just a quick plaintext email to see if I can post via email.  I’m hoping that I have it set up right because it will be far quicker than having to login every time I want to post something.  Here goes…

Friends Blog

Danielle is a great youngster at the local high school here and she has just set up her first blog. She hasn't had an easy life so I ask you to pray for her that God will help things to start going better for her. You can see her blog at http://daniellejhawes.blogspot.com

First Entry

Hi Everyone, this is my first public blog. Of course I do have my own website and have a half baked blog there too, but this is the first time I've tried this "normal" way of blogging. If you want to check out my website you can visit http://www.davidsplace.info ...its not bad either. I hope to have fun on this blog in the days to come.