Oh dear

I've had a bit of Trudy moment- after ages of looking at our church roadside Pulpit (message board) I finally got it. This is the sign here.
Now I just took it on face value- yes "God is watching over me" (as bombarded on TV with the Phill Joel song) but only just recognized the Avatar reference- This taken from our church website.
In the movie Avatar, the Na’vi greet each other with ‘I see you’. They dont merely mean I see you with my eyes, but the concept is borrowed from Sanskrit meaning ‘The god in me sees the god in you’ or ‘I see myself in you’. While we don’t subscribe to buddhist or hindu philosophy of divinity in all or all being part of the divine, the greeting is an apt picture of Jesus’ approach to us. He says to us: ‘I know who you are and everything about you. You are made in the image of God, and I want restore your relationship with me’. His expected response from us is also ‘I see you’, but this time ‘I know you are God, I wish to restore my relationship with you, so I place my trust in you’.

It also talks about Jesus being the Real avatar.
Pretty cool- but subtle? Too subtle? What do you think

Paul Washer's Shocking Message

There seems to be a return to the shocking sort of preachers. This guy Paul Washer seems to give a welcome rebuke to the churches of today. In the little I've heard and seen of him he is attacking the False prophets of today, and challenging us to repent and believe. Now I don't know much about him but from what I understand he became known through a message he preached at a youth conference. This is a shortened version of it- set to music to make us connect more emotionally (not done by him but by some one else)

Bible thought

What do you do when a organizer of a good christian event continually quotes the bible out of context?

Sunday Trade

I grew up in an interesting culture in PNG. It wasn't a Christian culture as such. However the Lord's Day was always Sacred. No work was to be done on that day. I'm not meaning like the jews of old where you couldn't carry stuff or go somewhere. But if it was the normal work you did in the week you kept Sunday free. If you were travelling somewhere you could have a line out the back trawling for fish but you didn't go out for the specific purpose of fishing (Fishing wasn't a fun sport to these people it was a means of getting enough food to live hence work). This time was spent at church and then socialising with other people deepening their relationships with each other. My View of the Sabbath is different but now caught up in the hectic life we live in I'm starting to wonder if the people of Tubetube had it right. You see with my Sundays being busy and working Saturdays, I don't have a day off and I think I'm starting to suffer for it. I read this story on the Sun about one of the top BBC sports commentators who refuses to work on Sundays because of his Christianity. I also think of the movie Chariots of Fire- another guy who refused to run on sundays in the olympics. These guys have caused discssion about beliefs and Christianity which I think is good... I'm really starting to think about setting aside a day off in my week.
What do you think? Do you take a day off or I just need to Harden up and go to bed earlier.

The Lord Builds

Psalm 127
A song of ascents. Of Solomon.
1 Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
2 In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to those he loves.
3 Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one's youth.
5 Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

Often we look at various ministries and think God must be blessing this or often we ask God to bless our ministries. I think what Psalm 127 is saying is the exact opposite. God Builds the ministry and that is where true fruit lie and what we should seek to be involved in. This isn't governed by numbers but rather a faithful adhering and instruction to God's word.
This Psalm was one written to commemorate the temple being built but yet the focus is not placed on the magnificent temple but rather on the continuation of God's chosen people and even then God is given the credit (verse 3). So despite the attractiveness of anything we are tempted to focus on- the great singing, our powerful prayer time, the great cricket games our focus should be the building up and multiplying of God's kingdom and our ministry's should reflect that.
On a side note Dave told me that some people interpret vs 5 the quiver being full- apparently as an Warrior Your arrow quiver was always marked as empty until you had 8 arrows in it- then it was full. Less than that was useless. wow 8 Kids :) a challenge there to all young marrieds :P