Last Words

“Either that wallpaper goes or I do” Oscar Wilde “All is lost. Monks! Monks! Monks!” Henry VIII 1547 “Friends appladue – the comedy is over” Beethoven “I’m so bored with it all.” Winston Churchill “All my possessions for a moment of time.” Elizabeth I “Why are you weeping? Did you think I was immortal?” Louis XIV “I have not told half of what I saw” Marco polo “Young man, attend to he voice of one who has possessed a certian degree of fame in the world, and who is about to appear before his maker. Read the Bible every day of your life.” Samuel Johnson

Easy and Hard

Here's a thought. Doing Christian ministry is not that hard. On a human level, it's a skill like anything else. Writing a talk, doing a bible study - assuming your not a complete moron you can learn how to do these things and, once learnt, the skills stay with you. But living the Christian life is very different. It's not a skill, it's a matter of obedience. And I don't care who you are, that's tough. I find it particularly hard at times. Although these 2 things should go together (ministry and the Christian life) I have discovered its very possible to be good at the first while neglecting the later. Paul reminds us in 1 Timothy that it shouldn't be like that, 'godliness before giftedness' is the often quoted phrase. And that's spot on. But how to balance a learned skill with faithful obedience is something I have certiabnly not mastered as yet. Scott

My Boy

I know this is my blog, not Ben's, but I love this picture.

And besides, if I can fill my blog with stuff about bizzare twists of life, the Simpsons and other photos, then Ben definately deserves a post.

After just being the 2 of us for 4 years, its weird that there is a thrid who is a completely seperate person - an individual who is part me, part Hayley but also fully someone else.

I'm lovin' it.

Scott

PS: Can someone tell me how to get rid of all this empty space at the bottom of each post?

I love boobies!

I know sharing a Simpson’s moment over the blog probably rates me as an A-1 nerdlinger but hey, it’s my blog!

In Wednesday’s episode, Bart and Lisa get a glimpse 8 years into the future of when they are teenagers. One scene has Smithers arrive back at the Monty Burns mansion with his date . . a women! (For those unsimpson-a-fied, Smithers is gay). Bart looks in disbelief and says, "But Smithers, I thought you were . . .well, you know . .. ?“ To which he replies. “Oh no Bart – I’m as straight as they come – as long as I take this injection every 10 minutes!” He produces a mini needle and jabs himself in the arm. His eyes dilate and then in a crazed voice he punches the air and yells, “I love boobies!”

Now this is funny just cause it is. But again a great example of how the Simpson’s seeks to usurp. The comment between the lines? That people are who they are – if your ‘born’ gay, you can’t help it, it’s who God made you and no matter how we try and ‘fix’ the problem (thru drugs, religion etc) we can’t – because there is no problem in the first place.

Now of course, I don’t buy that for a second but you got to take your hat off to the Simpson’s for cramming all that into a 7 second bit of cartoon.

Scott

Light

Every morning as I walk to the kitchen to get the coffee, I see this on the wall.

And every morning I just have to reach out and touch it.

And every morning, I'm glad I did.

Scott

What the hell was he thinking?!

Ever had a conversation that caught you completely by surprise? Well, that was me yesterday at Mug and Bean (for the Aussie crowd - a coffee shop chain). Waiting for my mate Craig to arrive I was shown to my seat by one of the regular waiters. I had my bible with me and as soon as it hit the table . . . . "Is that the Holy Bible?" he asked. Actually it was more of an accusation that a question. "It sure is" I replied. "Let me show you something", and with that he helped himself and flipped straight to Mark Ch 16. I thought I was about to be harassed for the fact that the end of Mark gets all weird, but instead he started pointing out something about the Sabbath. "When was the Sabbath held in Jesus day?" Then it started to fall into place. Ahhh, this was to be a test. "Probably Saturday" said I. He felt he was close to the kill and flipped his way to Exodus and the 10 commandments. Smelling blood in the water he proudly pointed out that God had said to keep the Sabbath holy. Straightening up he asked smugly "So, what day do you go to church?" When I told him Sunday he just smirked and wagged his finger at me! I didn't know if I wanted to break his finger off or laugh. Instead I said, "But you've forgotten a verse. Let's have a look at Heb Ch 4." And I tried to show him that the Sabbath rest God is really concerned with is eternal rest with him in heaven and that it probably didn't really matter what day he went to church. Unfortunately it probably didn't quite come out that clearly at the time. He looked wounded and scurried back to the kitchen. I think I had won the fight but I didn't really feel good about it. I responded like an scholar when I really should have responded like an evangelist. Still, I always wondered where good ideas for blogs came from. Now I know. Scott

A quiet night in

Mood Music

I've had a crap day. There's reasons for it, good arguements to back me up, but that doesn't really matter does it? At the end of the day, you can't polish a turd. But I have found the perfect companion for this sort of Tuesday. Cake - not the food, the band, specifically their album 'Fashion Nugget'. The loud, hard sounds help exercise the demons. It's almost angry music. My advice - if your having a day like mine, don't listen to the new age sounds of streams in the forest - do yourself a favour and turn up Fashion Nugget. Scott PS: I don't want this post to take away from the one I put up a mintue ago. So scroll down and meet Jacques, he is a lot more deserving of your attention than my whinging.

Jacques

This picture has been a long time coming.

Meet Jacques and Daniel.
(Daniel is the tiny one.)

Jacques and I are anti natal class buddies but fortunately have a friendship that is self sufficent enough to dump the tiresome "anti-natal" bit.

Daniel was born just a month or so before Ben. (As you can tell from his collared shirt Jacques has a real job while I manage to slouch around in ill fitting t-shirts)

Anyway, here is a big "Howzit" to Jacques and Daniel!

Scott

1968, Protesters and the Gospel

On Saturday, Hayley was at the baby shower of a good friend (who is shooting for number four! I always get worried when the kids outnumber the parents) and that left a bunch of us men with a bunch of kids. Four of us blokes and seven kids all under the age of five to be precise. Potential chaos. The only thing that saved us was our “she’ll be right mate” attitude to looking after kids. It was actually kind of funny to watch. But what makes this blog worthy is that it produced the best gospel chat I’ve heard all year.

We were talking about the riots in Paris and it reminded Doug of a book he had about all the revolutions and uprisings in 1968 – as it turns out there were heaps. As he was paging thru the book giving us a run down Thomas, his four year old son asked,

“What’s a protester?”

“Well, a protester is someone who doesn’t like the way things are and wants to change them. The world isn’t the way it should be is it? What made it so bad?”

“Sin” Thomas replied.

“Spot on! But throwing rocks at police can’t solve that problem can it? How does God deal with sin?”

Thomas and his older brother James had a few shots at this one – Jesus coming back, God killing Satan, but eventually decided that it was when Jesus died on the cross.

Doug concluded with something like, “So you see protesting can’t solve the real problem of sin in this world, only Jesus could do that when he died on the cross for us.”

I sat back amazed. It wasn’t planned; Doug was just shooting from the hip. But what I witnessed in those few minutes was a brilliant gospel explanation. Not in a fake vacuum but in relation to social action, political ambition and the real state of mankind. Wow. It was the best gospel chat I’ve had all year.

Scott

Hate

You need to know I HATE working on Saturdays. I just really needed to get that of my chest. Scott