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

Orges are like . ..

OrGo to www.onion.com It's an online paper that generally tries to put one up the establishment. Specifically the current American administration. It's almost like shooting fish in a barrel. I got to be honest, I'm not that political (maybe I should be?) but this is a hoot. With headlines like, "Bloodless Coup A Real Let down" and "Report: Worlds Nuclear Arsenal 'Pretty Much' Accounted For" it's a good way to start your day. Scott

Consumer Karma

As they swiped my credit card I have never felt so excited and ashamed at the same time. But I got to admit, as I was unpacking the 6 speaker surround sound DVD player I was mainly excited. I never thought I would embrace such naked consumerism. I'm not going to try and justify it by saying I'll use it for ministry or, it's an investment (whatever that means) but I can make most of the guilt go away with 2 words. Birthday money. To ease my conscience I threw in the 2003 Coldplay concert DVD. (It's amazing what my conscience responds to.) It's brought me so much happiness. So imagine my joy when I saw written on the Coldplay piano www.maketradefair.com I could magically undo my consumerism with the click of a button! Can I encourage you to click that button and take a visit to www.maketradefair.com If your looking for a cause, this would be a good place to start. Sign the petition, I know I did. Scott

Five into Seven goes "Ouch"

It's been a whole week since I woke up to the sound of the surf at Onrus. Seems a lot longer than a week. So in the spirit of South African entrepreneurship, I've coined a new phrase. "Time flys when you have to give 5 talks in a week." Might not be a saying you'll be able to use often, and I pray it's not. This week (actually in the next four days) I'm giving 5 talks. Which means I've been working on Luke 23, 1 Timothy 1, Luke 9, 2 Timothy 2 and the last one I haven't even got to yet. That includes bible study last night on Mark 13 (one of the nastiest chapters in the book). what this boils down to is that I need to get of my blog and back to work. But just thought I'd let you know what I'm up to. (I realise that this isn't so much a badge of honour as reflects poor planning, but I don't care cause I'm having fun. So there). Scott PS: When I get a chance, I'll tell you all about my new purchase.

Flight

While I was reading 1 and 2 Chronicles, I was also away on the first Tubman family holiday that included more than 2 people. A short but good trip to Hermanus. Saw some whales and dolphins . . and some seagulls.

How's your heart?

There are lots of things I've never done, one of them is to read 1 and 2 Chronicles. I probably made a half arsed attempt at college so I could tick a reading report but never gave it a fair go. Well, I've read through these 2 books over the last few days. It's intersting what jumps out at you when you tackle books of the bible in one go. There was a word that kept on popping up. Wholehearted. More than a word, it's a concept. The plea from prophets and kings - when it comes to God, worship Him wholeheartedly. It's also a thermometer to test Israel. Is she wholehearted towards the Lord, or is her heart divided? How's your heart? 2 Chronicles Ch 7 tells of King Hezekiah (a good king) who started to celebrate the passover again. His daddy had neglected the people and not led them in the ways of the Lord, and so celebrating the passover again was a big deal. But when everyone got together to make the sacrifices, most of them had not purified themselves as they should have because the law of the Lord had been forgotten for a generation. Now I was expecting that God would freak out and fry their unpurified butts. But check out what happens: "But Hezekiah prayed for them, 'May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God even if he is not clean acording to the rules of the sanctuary.' And the Lord heard Hezekaih and healed the people." Even if the letter of the law wasn't satisfied the law was still fulfilled. Perhaps a better way to put it would be that the law was fulfilled because the hearts of the people (and not just their rituals) were committed to God. As a moral checklist the law is impossible to keep. That's the whole point. Hezekiah saw that the law was to drive people wholeheartedly back to God asking for pardon by His great mercy. One of the few teachers of the law in Jesus day to hit the nail on the head summed it up well. "To love Him with all your heart and all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." (Mark 12) Jesus commended this man as being petty darn close to the kingdom. Where's your heart at? Caught up in the fuss of loving religion? Or do you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and all your strength . . . Scott

Ugly is not your enemy

Last night I got dressed up all fancy, rang Hayley’s mum to baby sit Ben, and took Hayley off to the city. Last night, we went to the ballet. It was an early birthday present for Hayley and we had a hoot. For me it was the first time. And I was impressed. You can’t help but be. The ballet we saw was Cinderella – a classic that also helped me to follow the story line without too much trouble. But it got me thinking.

In the fairy tale the baddies are the 2 evil stepsisters. They are evil and they are ugly. In fact the two go together like Australian summers and melanomas. Think through all the stories you were told as a kid – the evil one is always the ugly one – the big bad wolf, the witch in Hansel and Gretel, Peter Pan’s nemesis, Captain Hook. But the problem is that evil is not defined by being ugly.

In Genesis, God is the one who decides what is right and what is wrong. Adam and Eve’s great sin is not being ugly, but challenging God’s right to make that call. And that is the essence of evil and sin, telling God that he has no idea what he is doing and that we will decide for ourselves what is right and wrong, thank you very much.

We haven’t been helped by being told that evil is always ugly. In fact those who challenge God’s right to be God in this world are not disfigured grotesque story book freaks, but often well spoken folk with good teeth. Proverbs describes folly as a women with “crafty intent“ who lures men to their destruction. She says, “I have covered me bed with coloured lines from Egypt, I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come let us drink deep of love until morning.” Sounds pretty appealing to me. What about you? No wart on the nose or devious cackle to warn of folly’s price.

“Stolen water is sweet, and fruit eaten is secret is delicious!”
But little do they know that the dead are there,
That her guests are in the depths of the grave.
Proverbs 9:17-18

Cinderella got me thinking that we can’t wait to see ugly before we take a stand against evil. We need to guard what is good (as defined by God) even if it is threatened by the beautiful people. Ugly is not your enemy.

Scott

The Simpsons

Before Bible Study last night I manged to see 3/4 of a Simpsons episode. It's a new series for me and the last 3 episodes all have been focused around, at least in part, Christian stuff. for example;

Last night Springfield lost their tourism rating and so need to lure people back to their town. The solution (suggested by the little activist Lisa) is to legalise same sex marriages. They do, and soon the town is filled with gay couples looking to wed. But Rev. Lovejoy nails shut the church becuase marrying 2 gay people is like, "putting a hamburger paddy on a hot dog bun." So Homer gets himself ordained over the internet and marries them all . . . for a price. Before long Homer (in dog collar) and Rev. Lovejoy and facing off on Kent Brockman's night time news show. The conversation goes something like this:

Kent: But Homer, if we legalise same sex marriages aren't we on a slippery slop? What is there to stop us marrying anything?

Homer: Don't be silly Kent, they have to exist . . . (thinking and hatching a plan) Or do they?

Rev LJ: Call me old fashioned Homer, but the Bible says . . .

Homer: The Bible! You love the bible so much maybe you should marry it! (Waves his arms in the air) I now pronounce you husband and wife . . . and your the wife! (giggles to himself)

Now maybe some of it is lost in the translation but I thought it was fascinating. The Christians certianly get made the butt of many of the jokes but at the same time Kent voices a real concern that when you redefine marriage you open the door for people to marry their cats, cars and siblings. And once this begins to happen, we won't have a leg to stand on because we've already shot marriage dead long ago. Homer's obvious inability to engage with this very serious issue shoots another round at the same sex marriage lobby. As a Christian I'm OK with taking a few hits as long as it goes both ways. As it did last night.

And all from just 30 seconds of a cartoon, I'm very impressed. But we all know, it's more than just a cartoon isn't it?

Scott

Work and Play

Time away is always good, even if it's work. We got lots done - We told each other the way it is and looked for a way forward. But you don't want to hear about that.

There were other highlights more appealing I'm sure. Like consuming large quantities of meat and chocolate and watching Survivor with a crowd bigger than 2. But one of the highlights was after Survivor when we saw '3rd Degree' and enjoyed some investigative journalism. Mandy's driving school was under the spotlight for selling fake drivers licences. But during the promo for the show they kept on showing the confrontation with Mandy. . . . "But Mandy, we've got you selling the fake documents on tape!" Mandy's reply was an eloquent, "You're full of shit!" Ahhhhh . . . investigative journalism, combining entertainment, sensationalism and the truth. Quite a irresistable cocktail.

Other good times; getting up for a run at 7am and by 8 finishing it with a swim at the beach. Finding mangoes are back in the shops and Ben sleeping through the night. Oh yeah, you heard right.

Scott

Jesse 'The Drool Machine' and Ben