Why it's great to be me

Just another 'normal' day really . . .


Our kids are pretty typical really . . .


The playdoh family in another one of their reincarnations. I like the little red guy on the right.



Summers over, but the goggles continue

The Day After . . .

The day after camp is the perfect time to do something that makes you feel human again . . . so this time round it was a trip to Groot Constantia (where we had our wedding reception for those of you with a 9 year memory). The food was yummy, it was totally serene and the kids loved walking through the vineyards.

Dress Up

We stumbled across some dress up clothes for the kids.
Better than TV!

You gotta know when to give in.

The amount of posts since 2009 . . . 0

So you gotta know when to give in on the rambling reflections, and return to family fun. In honor of that moment of clarity, here are some snapshots of the last few weeks!


Home made pizza, Scott and Hayley style!


Jem down at St James tidal pool


Ben with a fish who had seen better days


Super tube awesomeness!


'Making' chocolate muffins


Fun in the pool


Yum


Yum #2


Ben on Junior Youth Camp

How To Be Good: Part 4 of 4

I'm trying to figure out where 'being eager to do what is good' fits into our Christian lives, especially in the life of our local churches.

If you just joined in, take a moment to read the last few posts.
It's ok, I'll wait for you.

Right. Now we are ready to see how 'doing good' might work out in practice.

I've decided to pick up a specific example of Christians doing good which comes from my own backyard. It goes like this:

About 100m up the road from St James there is a park. (click on the pic to enlarge) It's pretty run down. The grass is dead in the middle, it rarely gets cut and the play equipment is old. Hayley and I take the kids there all the time, cause it's just around the corner. So do lots of other mums and dads too. But as I said, it's only a shadow of a park.

So, I am going to speak to our local member and ask if St James can adopt the park. We'll rehabilitate the grass, cut it and see if we can't raise some money from the community to get a decent jungle gym put in.

The mission is to make the park a place where families can come and play and meet and be safe. Because families matter, and St James cares about the families in our neighbourhood. We might even try a Sunday afternoon picnic a few times a year so people who live so close can get to know each other better. That will go a ways to strengthening the community too.

This could be one way which St James will be seen as a church that cares about those who live around us (rather than just parking them in every Sunday).

Thoughts (especially from you St Jimmians?) Do we have any wingmen or wingwomen out there?

S

How to be Good: Part 3 of 4

In case you just joined us . . .

I'm trying to figure out where 'being eager to do what is good' fits into our Christian lives, especially in the life of our local churches

Paul’s letter to Titus has a lot to say about doing good. In three short chapters, Paul pushes ‘doing good’ no less than eight times! (Ch 1:8, 1:16, 2:3, 2:7, 2:14, 3:1, 3:8, 3:14)

Paul ‘s focus here is not just on sound teaching (good doctrine) but on good living. He tells Titus to set an example to the younger men by ‘doing what is good’, that he must remind people to do what is good (here in 3:1 he is talking about being good citizens in our relationships outside the Christian community), and in 3:14 that we must learn to be good so that we can be productive and not a burden.

But a watershed moment is when you realise the difference between being good and doing good. Being good is a status that none of us can achieve without the death of Jesus to redeem us from sin. Nowhere does Paul ever tell us (in Titus or anywhere else) to ‘be good’. That would be a stab in the back to the gospel of grace. Two of the key verses in Titus (2:14 and 3:8) make that crystal clear.

However, Paul can’t bear to offer his gospel nugget without wrapping it up by saying we must therefore be ‘eager to do what is good’ and ‘to devote ourselves to doing good, for this is excellent and profitable.’

You don’t become a Christian because you are good, but once you’ve become a Christian, we are free to do good born out of grace, and we gobble up opportunities to make that happen.

Next time: How we (at St James) might be able to ‘do good’ in Kenilworth.

PS: I have no idea why Titus appears to missing half a finger btw . . .

How to Be Good: Part 2 of 4

In case you just joined us . . .

I'm trying to figure out where 'being eager to do what is good' fits into our Christian lives, especially in the life of our local churches.

Here are my answers to the questions from the previous post . . .

As a local church, where does doing good for your community fit on your list of priorities?

It's always been there, but perhaps recently it climbed a few steps. Not sure if we have all caught up yet however.

If you try to pursue what is good for your neighbourhood, do you feel a little guilty that you’re not using that time and energy to evangelise them instead?

Yes.

If you were to decide to devote yourself to doing good for your community, where would you start?

Thanks to the vision of that wonderful women I'm married too, we actually have a plan for that now! But more in a post or two . . .

Do you think doing good just needs the church to be a bit ‘nicer’, or would it take a paradigm shift?

Both. Speaking for myself, I certainly need to relax a little and be willing to look outside of my normal sphere of concern. However, I haven't stumbled into this, it hit me like a truck, so I'm also going to put a hand up for 'paradigm shift' as well.

Next post is something which will clarify lots and put some head scratching to rest . . . "What's the difference between being good and doing good?"