There’s More to Circus Than Clowning Around

Posted: June 15, 2014 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

circus1

Fun Factory is one of the highlights of the church year at Maida Vale Baptist Church. A lot of preparation is going into this event, and I’ve even been getting together my clown costume in preparation. Yep, that’s right, the green wig that I used during Baptistcare’s 40th anniversary celebrations is coming out of the box again.

The reason for the clown costume is that our theme is circus and we’ve got a heap of great activities during the first week of the school holidays.  You can check out all the information at the church website.

Circus is a fun theme, but there are some principles behind circus that are important to life. Reg Bolton was a pioneer of circus in education in Western Australia and did his PhD thesis on the theme of “Why Circus Works – How the values and structure of circus make it a significant developmental experience for young people”.

In his thesis he said that behavioural abnormalities or psychoses are often linked to developmental stages that have been missed, uncompleted, repressed or associated with trauma, and contended that “caring adults, who may not necessarily be trained counsellors or psychologists, by offering the circus experience to children and teenagers can provide them an opportunity to make good those deficits, by giving them more chance to advance to adulthood without gaping holes in their psycho-social personae”.

Bolton drew on a 19th century jingle as an aide to develop his theory on child development:

Monday’s child is fair of face (self)
Tuesday’s child is full of grace (fun)
Wednesday’s child is full of woe (risk)
Thursday’s child has far to go (dreams)
Friday’s child is loving and giving (trust)
Saturday’s child works hard for a living (work)
But the child that is born on the Sabbath Day
Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

From this he used the five fingers to expand his thesis on the personal qualities of childhood.

Screen Shot 2014-06-15 at 4.26.38 pmWe’re making use of some of Reg Bolton’s theory as we work our way through the week of Fun Factory, and we’re drawing on some stories in the Bible that say the same things about human development and growth – all wrapped up in fun.

Counting the sleeps till Fun Factory!!

Puzzles With Persistence

Posted: June 8, 2014 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

rubikI have to admit, I’ve never been successful in solving Rubik’s Cube. I tried for a while, but 40 years on, I have to admit failure.

The clever little invention, just celebrated its 40th anniversary. For those who may have missed it, Rubik’s Cube is a three-dimensional combination puzzle with six different colours. The idea is to twist the cube until you have just one colour on each of the six sides.

As simple as it may seem, the cube became the world’s top selling puzzle game.

In 2009 Britain’s Daily Mail reported that 45 year old Graham Parker had solved the puzzle after 26 years of trying, that involved more than 27,400 hours of work.

He thought it was worth it.

There are lots of puzzles that we come across in life – philosophical questions, like where does life come from? Why do good people suffer? How can we achieve peace in the world? Sometimes, like my approach to Rubik’s Cube , we’ll put those questions to one side and agree that they’re puzzles we don’t need to pursue.

Sometimes like Graham Parker who worked at Rubik’s Cube for 26 years until he solved the puzzle, there are people who will doggedly pursue these deep philosophical questions, until they feel satisfied that they have come up with some kind of solution.

One day Jesus disciples asked him how they should pray, and after suggesting some of the principles of prayer, he told a story. He said, suppose you had a friend, and you went to him at midnight and said, an old friend has turned up after a long journey, and I haven’t got any food for him. Now your friend says, go away, it’s midnight; we’re all in bed. But you’re really desperate, and you don’t want to let down your other friend who has come to visit, so you keep on knocking on the door and asking for help. Finally, out of desperation your friend gives you some bread, just to keep you quiet.

Jesus used that story to explain one of the aspects of prayer. He said, ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

How desperate are you to get to the bottom of some of the problems in your life? Not just philosophical questions, but issues that really disturb you: How can I find peace? What happens to me after I die? What’s the purpose of life?

We look in all sorts of places for answers to these puzzling questions? Sometimes we find ourselves caught up in addictive behaviours simply because we want solutions and we can’t find them. I want to say that the answers to many of the deep puzzles of life can be found in Jesus.

And like the man who knocked at his friend’s door at midnight and kept on knocking and calling out until his friend heard him, we need to be persistent in asking Jesus for help.

When you pray for solutions, don’t stop at a simple request. Jesus effectively said, keep on asking and it will be given to you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you.

Jesus knows about your puzzles and he’s waiting to hear from you.

WA Week and the Act of Celebration

Posted: June 1, 2014 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

fireworks

The first week in June is Western Australia Week. We used to use this week to focus on our past, to remember the time the first European settlers arrived to found the Swan River Colony in 1829. These days, we spend less time reflecting on our past and focus more on Western Australia as a great place to live, to celebrate our achievements, to acknowledge the people who make up our state, and to recognise those who have contributed to the state in the past.

It’s kind of a big birthday party.

Have you noticed that a child will tell you for months that they’re “nearly five” but we’re not so keen to mention our age as we start to approach 50. So a five year old’s birthday is very different from a 50 year old’s birthday party.

Indigenous West Australians may celebrate WA Week differently from a person who has migrated to the state from Europe or the United Kingdom. We celebrate for different reasons and in different ways, depending on the event, our age, where we live, and our family or national traditions.

But celebration is important because it is an acknowledgement that something special has occurred.

In the Bible, King David noticed how people would celebrate the goodness of God.

This is what he had to say in Psalm 145:

I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name forever and ever.Every day I will praise you and extol your name forever and ever.Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendour of your majesty— and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They tell of the power of your awesome works— and I will proclaim your great deeds. They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

The fact that God is good isn’t just something that we brush over or even ignore. David thought it was worth celebrating.

From the days when Aztecs would throw people into volcanoes in an effort to appease an angry god, people’s view of God hasn’t always been of a god who is good. Yet, we are told in the Bible of a God who loved us so much that he sent his son Jesus to die for us.

That sort of love is amazing. Such goodness is beyond our comprehension. And in fact, we don’t even deserve it. But that’s the beauty of a God who knew that we couldn’t live up to his standards ourselves, so he reached out to us, and offered us eternal life, peace with God and hope for the future.

If your view of God is of an abusive god, an angry God, someone who is disappointed in you, or someone who wants to punish you, I’d encourage you to think again about the concept of God being good.

Because in Jesus we discover that God does recognise our shortfalls, but is prepared to give up everything so that we can live at peace with him. Jesus confirms to us that he is a good God. A God who is trustworthy, is patient, and, as David said, is rich in love.

That’s worth celebrating.

Imagine

Posted: May 25, 2014 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , ,
0

car2 I’ve got some model cars on my bookshelf. The paint’s scratched and they look a little worse for wear but they’re part of my history. As a child I spent many hours playing in the dirt, building roads, creating towns, and developing stories based around these models.

I had flash town cars to impress my imaginary friends; four wheel drives to hunt after adventure, trucks to carry loads, and sports cars just for fun.

Now they just sit on the bookshelf in my study as conversation pieces and perhaps as a reminder of a childhood where imagination played such an important part.

Imagination is a gift of God. It’s a gift that enables us to go beyond the humdrum of everyday life and explore the depths of our mind. Imagination can take us to another place where the world seems brighter, the grass is greener and colours are more colourful.

John Lennon invited us to imagine: Imagine there’s no countries, he said. It isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for and no religion too. Imagine all the people. Living life in peace … INXS said use your imagination and start a fire.

I guess the imagination can be used for both good and evil.

In the Bible, the apostle Paul, writing from prison of all places said: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us; to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!

As incredible as our imagination can be, according to Paul, God can achieve in us even more than we can imagine.

So when we have negative thoughts about ourselves, when we doubt our abilities, when we imagine that we’re no good, we may be well off the mark. Those negative thoughts can lead us towards depression and anxiety, and sometimes towards doing things that we regret later on.

carSitting in his prison cell, I am sure Paul made good use of his imagination. A tiny spot of blue sky through a tiny window high up in his cell would have sparked many thoughts of freedom. But his real hope came from within.

He recognised that God’s power was at work in him and that God’s thoughts were bigger than his.

His imaginations disappeared out of that tiny window high up in his cell and were swallowed up in God’s imaginations for him.

He recognised that God’s grace and love and mercy. That God’s protection of him, that even God’s estimation of him as a person was immeasurably more than he could even imagine.

Next time you have negative thoughts and you struggle to imagine yourself as a person who is worthwhile, I invite you to allow God’s heart to connect with your heart. No matter how you imagine yourself, God’s estimation of you is immeasurably greater.

It’s hard to imagine that God’s love was so great that he sent his son Jesus, so that “whoever believes in him, shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

He loves you deeply. Deeper than you can imagine.

This Sunday, June 1, I am commencing a series based on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, entitled “Life With Purpose … When Times are Tough”. You’re welcome to join us at Maida Vale Baptist Church, 24 Edney Road, High Wycombe each Sunday during June, starting at 9.30am

 

 

 

 

Building and Removing Walls

Posted: May 18, 2014 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

logoI’ve been watching with interest a wall being built alongside Roe Highway near my office.   It’s a noise wall, and it’s being built to provide a barrier that will protect people from the noise of traffic on the highway.

Highways are noisy, and if you live near them, you either get used to the noise, or it drives you insane. Cars, trucks and motorbikes are going back and forth 24 hours a day. The sirens of police, ambulances and fire engines come and go, then someone decides to test the quality of their muffler, by accelerating rather quickly. Building a wall to provide a barrier between the highway and the residential area is not a bad idea.

But walls aren’t always a good thing. In this instance, the wall, when it’s built, will mark a clear separation between the highway and the houses, and provide some protection from the noise of the highway.

Throughout history we are familiar with walls being built and walls being removed. In 221 BC sections of the Great Wall of China were removed, and other sections rebuilt to manage the reunification of China.

In 70AD the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman empire saw many of the walls around that city destroyed.

In Britain, in the year 367 the Picts, Gaels, Irish and Saxons attacked Hadrian’s Wall in northern England. They called it the ‘barbarian conspiracy’.

In 1989 there were euphoric scenes in Germany as the Berlin wall was breached – the wall that had separated east and West Berlin.

Walls can separate and divide. But walls can also be used as a way to mark boundaries and provide protection.

Setting boundaries is a really important part of bringing up children. They need to know what is acceptable according to the standards set by society, and what is acceptable and not acceptable in the light of your own family’s standards.

And children also need to know the consequences of going beyond those boundaries.

Understanding the boundaries of life is important. The Bible gives us some boundaries and tells us how disappointed God is when we cross the lines he has set for us. Our conscience helps us to be aware that there’s a line in the sand that we really shouldn’t step over.

But there’s another part of us, that is constantly tempted to step over that line, to go beyond what our conscience says is OK: To go beyond what we believe is acceptable to God.

When Jesus came, he reinforced the boundaries that had been set in the past, but he also showed that living by rules was not as beneficial as living according to the law of love.

If following God’s way is simply about rules, then the temptation to break those rules becomes stronger, and the battle becomes more and more difficult.

But if following God’s way is an act of love, and a desire to live according to the principles established by Jesus, then we see things from a different perspective. The walls that were once seen as a barrier, we’ll recognise as walls that are there for our protection.

 

Rain on the Grass … Reflections on Leadership

Posted: May 11, 2014 in Uncategorized
Tags: , ,
0

GrassThe rain’s been a long time coming so the rain this week has been very welcome.

There’s something about rain that changes everything. Rain that comes at the end of a long hot summer brings with it new life and refreshment. The dust that has accumulated on the leaves of the trees and plants is washed off and everything is glistening.

After it’s been raining you get this sense that it’s OK. That there’s hope … there’s life.

One of the great Kings of Israel was David and the Bible records his last words before he died. This is part of what he said: ‘When one rules over people in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings grass from the earth.’

How many times have you heard a politician, or any kind of leader being described like that? But I reckon if you’re a leader it’s worth pursuing.

If you’re a parent, for instance, you’re a leader. Those children watch you every moment of the day and follow your example. I wonder if they say, mum’s like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings grass from the earth?

Well… maybe not first thing in the morning as you’re clearing up from breakfast, making sure bags are packed and shoes are on … and you discover that note to parents that you should have got last night.

David certainly wasn’t the perfect leader, but somehow in his dying moments he thought back to some of the better experiences in his life and he realised that the times he saw raindrops glistening on the work that he had done, was when he had allowed God to influence his life and leadership.

I suspect that most leaders, most people generally, want to be successful. We may measure our success by numbers or dollars, or graphs on a wall. But there would be few leaders who measure their success by the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning…. Like the brightness after rain that brings grass from the earth.

But if that was how we were judged as leaders, I think the world would be a better place. If someone records my last words before I die, I think I would like them to be words like David’s. I’d like to think that my leadership resulted in people being more hopeful, being able to love more, to be more generous, more gracious, more respectful of others.

As I look out my window at the sunlight glistening on the wet grass it makes me think how important it is for those who call themselves leaders to be like that. People who reflect light rather than casting a shadow. People who bring joy rather than sadness. People who offer hope rather than fear.

David, the king, was able to talk about his leadership in such a way at the end of his life. Even though he had made some terrible mistakes he knew that leadership that was God-breathed made a difference in the lives of the people he was leading.

As leaders that’s a goal worth pursing.

 

 

 

May The Fourth Be With You

Posted: May 4, 2014 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , ,
0

starMay the Fourth Be With You.  Yep, it’s International Star Wars Day and all over the world people are walking around saying “may the force be with you” – with a lisp. It’s an appropriate day to ask why themes of religion and philosophy and the battle between good and evil, prove to be such a winner in movies. From Star Wars to Matrix, the Lion King and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, we seem to have an interest in exploring deeper issues vicariously on the silver screen.

The “Force” in Star Wars is an energy that can be harnessed by those who have the ability to do so. It is an energy field that surrounds us, penetrates us and binds the galaxy together. While the Jedi use the Force for good, the Sith use the dark side for evil in an attempt to take over the galaxy.

I suspect that our fascination with the battle between good and evil is because there is a reality about it that we bump into at various levels. Every day in the newspaper and on the TV news we hear about hoons, bashings, robberies and unsociable behaviour. We don’t like it and argue loudly that the government should do something about it. But deep down we know that we are only a step away from behaving badly ourselves.

There’s a sign of that struggle in the words of Jesus, when he said: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” The struggle between good and evil is evident at the deepest level of our beings and very often we find the drag towards the dark side stronger than the desire to do good. Even the Apostle Paul felt this struggle when he said, “what a wretched man I am” after making the comment: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

Fortunately, he finished off his rant by saying: Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is an answer to the ultimate battle between good and evil and it’s not in some nebulous “force”, but in the reality of Jesus who took the battle to the place of death on the cross where he became the ultimate overcomer, not through force but through love.

John put it this way: This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

 

 

 

 

 

We Remember

Posted: April 27, 2014 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , ,
0

anzacThis last week has been a time of remembering.

On Friday, Anzac Day, we remembered those who went to war and sacrificed their lives for their country. There were moving services all over the country as crowds gathered for dawn services, street marches and memorial services to remember the fallen and those who have served for their country at various places and various times in the last 100 years.

A week before that we celebrated Easter. This was a special week recognised by the church as Holy Week, a special time of remembering Jesus and the great sacrifice he made in offering his life for all of humanity. We spent time reflecting on the unjust trial he went through, the cruelty of his crucifixion, then the joy and hope of his resurrection.

Two weekends of sombre memories. Yet both were tinged with hope. Anzac Day services shared thoughts of renewed hope that we would learn from wars in the past and seek peace rather than conflict in the future. Yet somehow that hope still seems hard to achieve. As I write there are 10 armed conflicts occurring which are leading to at least 1000 violent deaths each year including Afghanistan, Somali, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Mexican drug war that saw more than 11,000 fatalities last year, the Syrian crisis, the Iraqi insurgency and conflicts in the Central African Republic and south Sudan.

It seems that no matter how much we march or remember, we still fall into our old ways. Despite all our best intentions to do better in future, we find ourselves in conflict with nations, our neighbours and even our friends and loved ones.

The hope that lingers with Easter is more than one that says, “I hope I can do better in future”. It is a hope that rests in Jesus whose sacrifice was beyond all others. I know that I’ll mess up again, but by trusting him in Him, I know that the debt of the past has been paid, and I have Someone who will help me through each day to discover a better way for the future.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

What’s So Good About Good Friday

0

On Palm Sunday at church I invited people to write on a graffiti wall that was set up with the words, “What’s So Good About Good Friday?”

It’s an interesting question because on the surface there’s not much good about the idea of an innocent man dying a violent death on a Roman cross. In fact, you could argue that there’s nothing good about Good Friday at all.

But Good Friday isn’t just about a bad event that occurred a couple of thousand years ago. In fact it was an event that changed history completely. In his death, Jesus paid the debt that was owed by all of humanity for our rebellion against God. It was an extraordinary event that made it possible for individuals to receive forgiveness for sin and to live at peace with God.

Of course, the outcome of what Jesus did only makes a difference if we are willing to accept what he has done for us.

Check out the video which shows our graffiti wall and if you live in the High Wycombe area (in Western Australia) why not drop into Maida Vale Baptist Church, 24 Edney Road, High Wycombe at 9.30am on either Good Friday or Easter Sunday. We’d love to see you.

Video  —  Posted: April 14, 2014 in Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

Who is Jesus #3

0

Here’s the third in the series, Who is Jesus? Some important questions here.

Video  —  Posted: April 8, 2014 in Uncategorized
Tags:

Older Entries
Newer Entries