Dale and his blog

Who is your God?

2009-12-29T17:50:00.007+11:00

So I am in a new band. We are called Dan Ford and the Goods. I really enjoy playing in it and having fun. On Sunday we had a gig at Lizottes. This raised 2 issues fo me; 1) we had to miss church to play and 2) I was rubbing shoulders with a bunch of other musos.

I was a bit anxious about playing at the same time as church, and I might talk about that issue sometime, but I am going to focus on the 2nd issue for the purposes of this post. I think music is one of many things that people make their god, and it is something that Christian musos need to be careful with.

As I come across more musos and see the love they have for music (and when they don't give God the glory for his creativity) I really struggle. Especially when those musos also happen to be Christians. So often I have seen Christians commit adultery with music, sport, work, family, friends or whatever else.

How do you not though? There are so many good things to enjoy. What are we to do? Remember who your God is. Have a read of Romans chapter 1. Give God the glory as you enjoy his creation and remmber that it comes fro him. But then ensure you are not spending more time loving his creation than you are loving him. If you are, get rid of you music. It is better to enter heaven with no melody than to go to hell singing the greatest tune in history. Or it is better to go to heaven with 0 on the scoreboard, than go to hell as a supposed "winner".

Who is your God? It matters!

Church Planting

2009-03-31T09:26:00.002+11:00

I have always been keen to be inolved with church planting. Whether it is overseas or in Australia. But lately there has been this crazy church planting movement where a lot of people have been getting super excited about. Andrew Heard made a few good comments to remind us of the reality of things. He is 13 years into a church plant on the central coast and helpfully has expressed how hard it is. One thing he conveyed, that I found profound, was that even if the church planting movement falls on its head, we need to hold firm to Christ and continue rejoicing in him. But also, I think whatever the cost of church planting, it is worth it. Christ died for me. I can never even come close to paying that back, so what stopping me from giving everything I am to Him??

Godliness

2009-03-12T10:23:00.006+11:00

So a while ago I had a short series on Holiness. Here is the first post on that. But over this last week, I have decided its time to get pumpin with some Godliness. As a result I have decided to say no to TV. Kinda easy considering I don't have very good reception. I am saying I can watch the news, sport and kids shows (yeah widget) but other than that I want to stop watching it. There are too many things on there that can comprimise my godliness.

That is stop one on the Godliness Train. So I need some accountablility with that, and if you want to join me on the train, feel more than free to. Ephesians 4:17-5:21 is helpful. But just a snippet: 5:3-4

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.

Times they are a changin

2008-12-31T15:34:00.004+11:00

Yeah so I have had a haircut, moved house, changed jobs and feel like a new man. Actually no, I don't feel like a new man, in fact I still feel lke a teenager. I'm 21 now. What the heck? Anywho, I now live in Terrigal, and I will start working for my church this year. Good times.

And here is a photo of me, possibly at my best.

At the Cross

2008-10-30T11:48:00.003+11:00

When Jesus died on the cross He paid for our sin. He took the punishment we deserve, and had God's wrath thrown upon him. Even though He was sinless, and we were sinful, He died for us. What a sacrifice.

But there was more going on at the cross than this transaction. God is passionate for his glory, and so is Jesus. God's righteousness and justice meant that Jesus needed to die if we were to be saved, and for God to display the gloy of his grace. The ammount Jesus suffered on the cross when He was forsaken by his Father, shows how important God's glory was to Him. He was willing to suffer so much for God's glory, which is why God was pleased to bruise Him, because it was out of love Jesus died, and to honour his Father's name.

As John Piper puts it, "every footfall on he way to Calvary echoed through the universe with this message: The glory of God is of infinate value! (John Piper ~ The Pleasures of God)

We need that same passion for God's glory!!

What got Dale angry?

2008-10-19T23:44:00.005+11:00

So yesterday I had my first encounter with some Jehovah's Witness people. They rocked up at my house lookin for Todd, and got me instead. Lucky them hey? Anywho, we got chattin and at the start I thought they seemed ok. They seemed to place high emphasis on the Bible and that seemed sweet. There were a couple of things I didn't agree with, until they made one big mistake. They mentioned (just in the middle of something else) that Jesus isn't God. This got me going, and I asked some questions and gave a couple of Bible passages, and they gave me their responses. I personally thought they were poor, and had we been on a debate on TV, I think I would have won, however it got me thinking.

When they started talking about Jesus as being less than God, I got really angry inside. I felt like they had just insulted my King. Well I guess that is because they had. Something essential to the Christian faith, and to salvation is the fact that Jesus is God. The Scriptures are very clear on this point, and no matter how much you twist the words of the Bible, they still say that He is God the Son, not simply God's Son. This is something we need to fight for, because it is very insulting to Him and very belittling of Him. We need to protect our Lord's name. Not cos he can't, but because it honours Him when we do. What an awesome God, how dare we not fight for his glory. I pray that I and anyone reading this blog might come t a greater understanding about the preciousness of God's glory, and so fight fr it with our lives!!

John Calvin

2008-09-08T22:53:00.004+10:00

Tonight at Reformation history, Heardy was talking on John Calvin, or more correctly, on his theology. There was a lot of information tonight that was very helpful (including the contrast between Armenianism and Calvinism from the Council of Dort's perspective) but there was one thing that particularly stuck out for me. This was Calvin's view of scripture. It was explained in a similar way to this:

John Calvin viewed scripture to be true, regardless of whether he understood it, or could comprehend it, or how hard it was. It is scripture. He did not bring his logic, or understanding or reasoning into his view of scripture, but took the scripture and let it shape his theology and his life.

While I have heard this view a number of times, seeing it outplayed in the life of Calvin hit me, and inspired me to vigourously take this same view of scripture and apply it to my reading and understanding of the Word. Scripture truly is God's voice.

Good and Good News

2008-09-08T22:46:00.002+10:00

Good news is: I have now found my wallet, I am feeling excited about upcoming prospects at church, I'm excited by God, the Cats are still dominating the Afl, and I don't feel so terrible.

Good news is: God is still in control. He is no more in control than He was when I wasn't feeling so good. No matter my situation, it is still God-ordained and I need to remember that.

I think the second pros are better than the first!!

Good and Bad News

2008-09-06T21:04:00.003+10:00

Bad news is: I am super tired, don't have a day off forever, weekends have heaps of stuff on like church (which rocks but can often be rather energy consuming), my wallet has gone missing, and I just feel terrible.

Good news is: God is in control. My life is hidden with Christ in God. God is way more important than my little worries. God rocks!!

I think the pros in this situation outweigh the cons.

What is important in this world?

2008-07-28T18:09:00.004+10:00

This is a big world, full of heaps of stuff to see, and things to do. But the truth of the matter is that life is more about what we can see and touch. There is a Creator God who is alive, and wants to be in relationship with us. That is the best place we could be, in friendship with Him. The crazy thing is that so many people choose to live apart from Him, and those of us who do confess to be in relationship with Him don't act as if we are. This really breaks His heart, as that is one of the reasons He made us.

So what is really important? Well in the midst of the crazy world, a humble man, the powerful Creator God, stepped into the world. He cruised around telling people what to do, but then did the incomprehensible. He set his own life as ransom for all our indiscretions, and then paid it Himself. It wasn't just dying either, it was the rejection He faced from humans, and the wrath of God.

He put everything on the line for us, gave everything up. And we go around worrying abut fashion, TV, sport etc. We should be worrying about the people that Jesus died for, showing them the same love He showed them. To do his we may need to be in touch with fashion, TV, sport to connect, but we should be using these things as an aid and means to the gospelof Jesus Christ, Saviour of the World, to this unbelieving generation. Lets honour His name. Lets start acting like it is important to us, cos it is the most important thing in the world!!

Kidsgames

2008-07-16T22:23:00.003+10:00

This week I am MCing and leading Kidsgames Berowra. Now while I have been working with kids fulltime for the last 2 and a half years, this is a slightly different context. And how refreshing it is. I am being reminded this week of the reason I am involved in kids ministry. I am being reminded of how important it is, and how amazing it is. I have been doing it with a bunch of people I don't know from Berowra, and it is sweet as to see thewir hearts for kids, for God, and for kids to have hearts for God. I am happily being reminded how much it is not about me when I am in ministry, but how its all about Jesus, and His place when it comes to the kids. God is truly great.

Logically Science

2008-07-05T16:50:00.002+10:00

Alright, so I have decided to do a mini series on logic. The first one was the logic of evolution. This is the logic of science, and again I will be focusing on creation.

One thing that tends to get under my skin is when Christians question the Bible's validity in certain sections because it doesn't fit in with science. The first thing we need to remember is that the Bible is first and foremost a theological book. It is not a scientific book. This means that some things, including creation, won't be completely detailed. I think we get well and truly sufficient detail from the accounts, but it doesn't tell us everything.

Now the issue I am going to touch upon here is how old the world is, or at least different peoples responses to this topic. Before I begin, just note that I haven't devoted hours of study to this subject, so forgive me if I make a few mistakes, but I will try nonetheless. Firstly, I am not going to say how old the world is, I am unconvinced.

As far as I can tell, Christians vary in thinking on this topic from it is 10000ish yeas old, to it is billions of years old. Thats a fairly large gap if you ask me. I don't necessarily have a problem with either view. Why? Because it is God who created it. "It can't only be 10000yrs old, because science has proved it is older". God created the world. Does that mean he created it all young? Not necessarily. He could have made the earth 2 billion years old. Maybe He did. "It can't be billions of years old, because the Bible only accounts for 10000 years". Does it? We're not told how long Genesis 1 took. It could have been a very long time.

What's my point? My point is as Christians we shouldn't get caught up in debates over details like these. The things we need to focus on are the facts that I outlined in my previous post. God created it and thats the way it went down. I will continue this with another issue in my next blog.

Logically Evolution

2008-07-05T16:28:00.007+10:00

We have been doing Genesis at Nitechurch this term, and its been mad. As well as this, I've heard a bunch of convo's or sermons regarding the evolution debate. Now growing up, I have very much been a God-created-the-world-in-a-literal-6-days kinda guy, sure that evolution wasn't the case. I am now not so sure on the literal 6 days part. However there are some things I am sure of.

First of all, God supernaturally created the world. He made it from nothing. Genesis 1 tells us this. But so does Colossians 1:16 "For by Him[Jesus] all things were created; things in heaven and on earth..." This tells us that there is nothing God didn't create.

The second thing I am sure of is that God created things in an ordered way. The account in Genesis 1 is very clear about this. Day 1 - Light, Day 2 - Sky/Sea etc. God isn't random!!

The other thing I am sure of is the climax of creation is the making of mankind. God made man in His own image. Because of this humans are not just animals, they have souls, and can have a relationship with God. This has so many implications that I don't have time to go into right now.

Anyway, all these I think are important t be sure of. But back to the matter of evolution. Did God create the world whole, or was His voice the big bang?? I am still unsure, however I do lean away from the latter. One thing is for sure, God made mankind personally, and differently from all other things. Man didn't evolve. While the rest of the world may have (again I'm not sure), mankind didn't!! If mankind ha just evolved from something else, then I struggle to see how we are different from animals, and how we were created in God's image.

Stay tuned on Dales thoughts of evolution.

Fear of man??

2008-06-28T09:21:00.002+10:00

This morning at Bible study we talked a bit about evangelism. Some different tecniques came up, that I think could be quite difficult. The overall response was negatve. It got me thinking. Thinking about evangelism is easy. Thinking about doing evangelism is hard. Doing evangelism is easy. Getting from step two to three is hard. Why? Because instead of concentrating on the fear of God, we concentrate on the fear of man. We are maybe worried what they will think. Sometimes it can be a right sounding excuse such as "I don't want to put them off Christianity". I think that excuse is pathetic.

Yes I think it worth being wise in the way we do evangelism, the Bible tells us we should be (here), but at the same time God is sovreign. He is the one who will work in their hearts. We just need to tell people the gospel, and let God do the work in their lives. I think the fear of failure can be quite weighty on this topic, but the good news is that it is God who saves, not us. So we haven't failed if someone doesn't get saved. However, as we are comanded to spread the gospel, we have failed that calling if we fail to tell people that Jesus died on the cross because they are sinful, took their sins with Him, rose from the dead and is sitting in heaven waiting to return. They will respond in different ways, but we need to preach the word!!

I wouldn't forgive

2008-06-19T19:53:00.003+10:00

If I was God, which I'm not, I wouldn't forgive myself (that is I wouldn't forgive Dale). I am a terrible person. All you have to do is coe and have a look at my thoughts, as God can, and you will know that I am an evil person. However, God is love. He judges the world justly, and yet He chooses to show grace to different people. Some people think its because you are good that God would forgive you. Good luck. I am certain of God's forgiveness in my life, and I can assure you its not because of what I have done, or a lack of bad things. My heart is just as sinful a the next guys, but by God's grace he keeps me from being handed over to my sinful desires. Why the heck would he choose me? Most definately not because of anything good that I bring. I think he chose me to show that He can use someone as big of an idiot as me for His purposes. I thank Him for saving me though, because I would hate to see where I would be without His mercy. Praise God for saving any of us!!!!

Teaching the Kids

2008-06-10T10:13:00.004+10:00

I think it is super important to be teaching kids Bible stories. I was thinking about this the other day, and I was wondering whether it was worth teaching them all the Old Testament stories. I grew up learning them, and while I loved them, were they just stories?

Well my question was answered on Sunday. I was running my Bible study with 3 of my year 8 boys, and we werelooking at Psalm 96. The discussion took off, and we ventured on a little history lesson of God saving His people. We looked at pretty much all of Genesis quickly, and then the Exodus. The boys knew these stories well enough, and that made it so much easier for them to understand the concepts.

I used to go to a church where the senior minister said they weren't into teaching the kids story after story, they just wanted to teach them about the great God who loves them. Now while I think it is important to teach a loving God, you can't see how muc God loves us without the whole story. The Old Testament stories I think are essential in teaching kids about God, because it gives them a grasp of the nature of God, and as they mature they will see it all points to Jesus and it will make it even more powerful. Thats what happened for me anyway. God rocks. So do the stories!!

Break it down

2008-06-07T12:23:00.003+10:00

So we had our year 8 boys night at my place last night, and it was pretty sweet. We hung around for an hour, playing table tennis, foozball, nintendo 64 and the drums. Then we watched The Lost World. Some of them had seen it before, others hadn't. It went down pretty well.

However, we chose not to do a talk or Bible study or anything. We chose just to chill. We made an effort to tell everyone to come to Church on Sunday, but that was about it. Every other break it down we've had a study of some sort, but we opted against it this time. I think it worked that we did. The danger being, we don't want our boys to forget the importance of gettig into the Word of God, but at the same time, we want them to know it shouldn't be forced etc. What do you think??

Whats on the big screen?

2008-06-04T14:31:00.002+10:00

Well as I mentioned the other day, for our year 8 boys at youth this week we are having a movie night. Now the boys are 13-14 years old generally and so we are going with a PG flick. Now I've watched a bunch of movies rated PG to see if they would work and I can't belive how inappropriate they are. Not just for boys that are in yr 8, but even for me. There are things that I watch as a 20yr old guy and I don't even think about it. But watching it to see if it is appropriate for my youth boys, I see that there is stuff that I really shouldn't be entertaining my mind with. Now there are some sweet sweet things out there as well, but I think we need to be conscious as we are watching things, that it might not be healthy for us. Be prepared to look away, or whatever we need to do. And I think this is just as valid for TV shows. I don't watch that much TV anymore and its awesome. I do miss the news though...

Dale is at home

2008-06-02T13:32:00.003+10:00

This is me at home today. I am off work because of my knee. This sucks, but is also awesome at the same time. It opens me up to do a number of important things today:

Be still and spend time with God
Watch some different PG movies and consider what we will be watching for Break it down - our yr 8 boys night in.
Start reading my new PTC course
Blog some more

I think each of these are important, and I might write about some of them in a little more depth later on.

My stupid knee

2008-06-02T13:28:00.003+10:00

Ok so I'm pretty sure this is what happened to me on the weekend at footy. I am quite confident it wasn't this bad, but it did hurt and swelled up nice and quick. My fullback took me out. I did manage to kick a goal earlier in the match, but it happened in the 2nd quarter, so I was out for over half the match. Sucks. We did win by approx. 152 points though so that was good.

Leeloo

2008-05-22T09:22:00.004+10:00

Alright, so this is Leeloo. The divine being. She is the fifth element in the movie. Anyway, as she is looking through earth's history she is devastated at the sight of war and hate etc. She actually begins to cry at how bad human nature is.

I was reflecting on this and thought that its not our human nature that it bad, for humans were created perfect. Rather it is our sinful nature that makes us terrible. And her weeping response was right. I don't think we have a view of sin that makes us weep. We should be horrified by our and others' sin. It is against the Almighty creater of the universe. The Holy God. How dare we disobey Him. Let us be horrified when we defy Him. Let us get the fear of God back!!! And let us be reminded of how much He must love us when He saves us.

The 5th Elemet

2008-05-20T13:59:00.003+10:00

Ok so last night I watched the 5th element, and man it is such a good movie. It is full of mad one liners and the script is awesome. But as I was watching it I managed to pull a bunch of things out of it, things that have a sweet relation to my Christian faith. I don't think the movie is Christian persay, but there some things in it that were mad. I might write about them soon.

Christians vs The Weatherman

2008-05-19T00:08:00.005+10:00

I reckon Christians are like the weatherman in a way. Think about this: if a cyclone is hanging around off the coast, it is the weatherman's job to tell us that we need to prepare for it. They tell us, we get ready and its all sweet. Now Christians are still here on earth to bring glory to Christ. One very key way to do this is by telling people that they need Jesus. Its kinda like the weatherman and the cyclone. The only thing is God's wrath is slightly more psycho than a storm. It is eternally condemning. Yet at the same time the hope Jesus has provided is about a million times better than anything a weatherman can offer as well.

Why the heck am I writing this??

Well, I think quite often we get cranky at the weatherman for being sucky at his job. I mean seriously, they are pretty bad (what are you doing Nuala??). But imagine if they got info that a tsunami was gonna strike, and they didn't tell anyone. How annoyed would we be? They wouldn't be doing their job. I think quite often we do a sucky job as Christians. We either get the forecast wrong - perhaps we water down the gospel, or forget the urgency of the important spiritual matters. Or sometimes we don't even tell people whats coming. We're not even doing our job then. Why not? Well we're scared. We've lost the fear of God, and replaced it with the fear of man. Get over it. God is glorious, and scary in His anger - worthy of our respect. Lets warn people, so they can get into God's refuge and escape His destruction.

At times we do well and its awesome. Lets be encouraged by those times, and go do it more. I mean how good is it when the weatherman gets it right? We have the Bible telling us whats gonna happen - just read Revelation - and it is pretty clear. Then lets broadcast it with our lives, through our relationhips, and work to bring as many into an understanding of Christ's saving grace, through His power!!

Footy

2008-05-15T10:47:00.003+10:00

Ok so I have been playing Aussie Rules for the Terrigal Avoca Panthers this season. It has been awesome. I have been plying first grade, and having so much fun. The best bit about the whole thing though, is as far as I can tell I am one of potentially 2 Christians in the whole senior squad of about 50 odd. It is a mad mission field, and is awesome for increasing my non-christian contacts. I've already had one teammate come to church, and others ask questions. God is awesome, they need t know about it, so He's doing some sweet stuff there. Stay tuned...

Jesus is King!!

2008-05-11T16:10:00.002+10:00

Ok so I was speaking at youth on Friday night on Psalm 2. So I would blog the outline of the talk. Let me know what you think.

Point 1 - We need to treat Jesus as King.
Pretty much here I just pointed out the fact that we need to treat Jesus as King, and how the whole Bible backs this up, and yes it is in Psalm 2.

Point 2 - Why should we?
Here I said we need to treat Jesus as King because He is the King. I spoke about His power and authority, and His amazing grace.

Point 3 - What happens if we don't?
Looking at Psalm 2 it is failry clear what happens if we don't. I said it like this; What happens if you don't treat Jesus as King? Nothing and Everything. The way I explained it was that when we rebel against God, we can't actually do anything to Him. We can't harm Him, and thus He laughs at feeble attempts. At the same time however, He is a jealous God and won't have anyone else as King, and so will destroy anyone who doesn't treat Him as King BUT gives grace to those who have Him as their King.

Point 4 - How do I treat Jesus as King
Basically I said here that you need to make it obvious where your allegiance is. So we need to make it obvious to others how important Jesus is, and how important He is to us. But then even further, we need to show others that they can and should have Jesus as their saving King too. I through in a couple of challenges about actually taking to their non-Christian friends about this.

So thats the talk outline. I had some fun with it, and I hope the kids wereable to get something out of it. Do you agree?

Abortion

2008-05-02T16:33:00.000+10:00

So as I have been saying lately, God has a heart for the vulnerable. So should we. The vulnerable in todays society are unborn children. They are people as soon as they are conceived, and while I undertand it would be hard for some people to have kids, abortion is murder!! It is a terrible thing. I love kids so much, and to think that so many don't even get a chance at life is disgraceful. I think its time Christians in Australia started to stand up for these helpless and voiceless kids, and give them help, give them a voice. I think this video is awesome!!!

Happy Birthday

The Corporate Child

2008-04-30T18:09:00.003+10:00

Ok so today after camp I was sitting at Thornleigh maccas I got super annoyed. I looked around at everyone, and there was an even 50-50 split. Half kids, half buisinesspeople (politically correct, thats right!!). It reminded me of a tragic fact in Australian 21st Century society. Being on camp with kids from private schools, it is strikingly obvious that so many of them are not loved. Not by their parents anyway. So many parents today think that love is in the form of material things, and so they try to buy their kids things, including good educations. The problem is, to do this they neglect to spend time with their kids, which is what the kids really need. As I spend more time with kids on camp, and see how attached they get, and as they open up with different issues my heart gets broken at how crap some parents are at their job. I just pray that these kids find God's love before they look for love in the wrong places. Why spend more time at work than with your kids? Fools!! Get your priorities straight please. Your kids need you!!

Be the Change

2008-04-30T18:01:00.002+10:00

Ok so I have come across a dude called Zach Hunter. I think he is now 16, but when he was in yr7 he started a campaign at school called Loose change to loosen chains. He raised around $10000 that he gave help stop child slavery. These days he travels the world raising money and raising awareness to the plight of many slaves around the world. I am vewry impressed by him. He is smart, he thinks, and more importantly he cares. He hopes to see the abolishen of slavery in his lifetime. I think we can be inspired by him, and we can learn from him. A true champion of Christ.

Practical Christianity

2008-04-23T12:39:00.002+10:00

So often we wonder how it is that we live out our faith. What we can be doing to actually practically display Christ's goodness. Well I think Dan's talks on PHAT were rather helpful in addressing this issue. He was saying that to truely be living as a Christian, our hearts need to reflect God's heart, and our actions will reflect our heart. There were a number of things that he said God has a heart for: Justice, Worship, His People etc. And it was these things that Israel was neglecting, including His Word. This is why they got snapped.

I think he was spot on with what he was saying. He focused the first talk on justice. I personally think that in evangelicalism we could do better in this. I mean look at James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Orphans and widows I believe are the representation of people who are vulnerable. In our world today, there are over a billion people living on less than a dollar a day. And thats not an American, or Australian dollar in their country, but its as if I had to live on an Australian dollar in Australia. Check this!!

Not just this, but these people are being exploited. There are hundreds, thousands of stories of people, and even worse children, being exploited. I will be focusing on this, and bringig some of these stories into my blog, because I think this is an outrage. And if we rich Christians, being in a position to do something about it as we are, don't do something about it, then we are just as bad as Israel was.

Read Amos, then James!!

Smashed

2008-04-22T12:22:00.005+10:00

Alrighty, so lately I have been getting absolutely smashed by God's Word. Kinda like the pic here, but slightly different ie. no cars involved. Anyway, I head up to Katoomba for Easter Convention and the talks were on money, and giving to the poor. I thought they were good, and I needed to re-look at my spending and stuff like that. I saw some things in a different light, but that was about it.

Then this term at Nitechurch we have been lookin at 1 Timothy, and so a few weeks ago Heardy is preaching on the proection of widows, and throws out the challenge that application for us is we need to be protecting the vulnerable.

Next comes Phat camp. In the mornings Dan gave the talks to the juniors from Amos. His first talk hit me, and my year 8 boys fairly hard. He was talking how God has a heart for justice, and how He hates injustice. He mentioned the fact that there are kids in Cote d'Ivoire who are slaves and who work ridiculous hours in the cocoa fields just so we can have our chocolate. This was followed by some sweet discussion with the boys in my room.

Then camp ends at at church on Sunday night, Paul Beeston finishes the series of 1 Timothy (and what a series it was) speaking on slavery. Talking about how it is still in the world today, and he pulled out some sweet as application. It was a great sermon and it really got me thinking some more.

After church a bunch of us all headed back to the PJ's to watch Amazing Grace - the movie about William Wilberforce. It was awesome. And ever since I have really been convicted of helping out the poor and oppressed in the world. I'm thinking of getting my yr.8 boys cranking on this as well, so all yesterday and today I have been doing a whole lot of research on this stuff, and I have been absolutely horrified with what I have found.

So don't be surprised if I happen to come out with a lot of blogs on this stuff now. Maybe you need to think a bit more about this stuff anyway. So I have been smashed by this stuff lately. Hopefully I can now act in a now that reflects how I am feeling. Pray for me!!

Dale is back and Blogging!!

2008-04-21T13:36:00.004+10:00

Alright, so it is official. Term 1 of cru camps is over. So is PHAT camp. Both were amzing. I love camps, I love the feeling of complete exhaustion at the end, knowing that I have just given everything. I love the growth that I get from helping out others and sitting under God's word as well. What I love even more though is seeing kids being changed by the amazing work of Christ and His Word.

This term I am not sure how many kids became Christians, but I do know that I have had the privilage of talking in groups to over 180 kids personally. Let alone having other sweet as convo's out of groups. I have seen so many kids understanding of Christ cange or deepen. I owe everything to God, and I amazed He would allow a sinner like me to experience His saving work in others.

This week on PHAT was awesome to just see some of my boys step up. Max, Justin and I had 22 year 8 boys between us and that was pretty nuts. It was awesome though to see a numbe of them stand up for what was right and not fall into punkish behaviour, but to even call their mates up on some stuff. It was a rockin time.

Anyway, so I think there will be a few more installments here on things from PHAT, so look out for them. Also, the meaning of term 1 and PHAT being over is that I now have a bit more time. My scheldule eases up a bit, leaving more tie for things like blogging, reading, and thinking through important issues. WOOT!!

Helping the strugglers

2008-03-30T22:36:00.002+11:00

Yeah so I have been hearing quite a bit of this lately, and it has really been hitting me hard. I am Rich. In comparison to so many others I am super rich. I need to be hleping those struggling. Both financially, physially and spiritually. We need to be kind and generou to those around us, and they will see Christ's love flowing from us. Faith without deeds is dead. We need to be living our faith out in love to others and to Christ.

The Bible

2008-03-09T22:01:00.002+11:00

Ok so I'm just gonna throw this out there. The Bible alone is the source of God's authority on earth. Yes I believe that God can speak in other ways also, however we need to turn back to scripture to ensure it agrees, for the Bible is the living Word of God, and we need nothing more to sustain us, as we have the Spirt in us to reveal God's word to our hearts. Pastors, and other ministers of the gospel are there to teach us the Bible, so while they are important, if they are doing their job correctly, they are teaching us what the Bible says. Up the Bible, Up God.

Glorify

2008-02-29T17:20:00.002+11:00

So a couple of weeks ag I was preaching at Youth on glorifying God. I took the liberty of coming up with a definition, and so I thought I would throw it out here. First of all I hit the word glory.

GLORY - Somethings glory is what it has going for it, or what is good about it.

Then...

GLORIFY - Is to first of all acknowledge and then show others what the said thing (or person) has going for it.

Thus...

To glorify God, we need to acknowledge and show others what He has going for Him, namely the cross, creation, and many other things!!! What do you reckon??

Devastation!!

2008-02-24T22:57:00.002+11:00

I don't love soccer. I do love the Central Coast. I go for the Mariners. I used to live in Newcastle. Thus it was devastation for me when the jets beat the mariners 1-0 today, despite them handballing in the box in the last minute. The ref thought it was a bad idea to penalise them for it. I think he was tired. I am over the refs doing my team over. First of all the socceroos against Italy, now this?? No wonder soccer sucks!!

P.s. We watched the game after church. Church rocked!! God rocks!! Jesus is King!!!

The Meaning of Life

2008-02-17T22:16:00.003+11:00

I had a question on camp this week, not an uncommon one, "what is the meaning of life?" I answered in terms of God's glory, being that we are here for His glory. So I started thinking about it and God gave me a sweet as revelation that everyone has probably already thought of, but I thought I'd write it down anyway.

Colossians 1:16 says "For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him." John 1 and Hebrews 1 also tell us that Jesus created everything. This is big news, but its not the fact that he made it that I am focusing on. Its why. The part that struck me is the "...all things were created by him and for him."

This got me thinking. Why was everything created for Jesus?? I mean I know He's worthy, but why would it be created this way for Him? Well the answer I came across was His character. The very reason Jesus came to save us was to show His love and mercy. Now I believe these are the very essence of His character. Jesus chose to make our world, to make us so that he would have the opportunity to show these aspects of His character. We are here so that God's mercy can be displayed. Because it is who God is, He couldn't help doing it. It's not about us, its about Him.

I just thank God that He has done it in such a loving way that He gives us the opportunity to be a part of it. Praise God for His awesome mercy!!

Kidsreach

2008-02-16T22:04:00.001+11:00

So I was at a childrens ministry conference today. I was a bit bummed cos I had to leave at 6:15 in the morning, and the trains weren't going, so I had to catch the bus. However, my day soon improved when I arrived, and I ended up having an absolutely awesome day. I will write more about what I learnt later hopefully.

Jesus

2008-02-09T10:21:00.000+11:00

Ok so for starters, this is almost certainly not what Jesus looked like. He didn't get killed for being a hippie, jumping and clapping around, playing with flowers. I just thought it was a funny picture.

I was reading John 1 again today in Bible study. It is such a mad chunk of scripture. Something struck me again though, that I thought I might chuck on here. John 1:14 says "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth".

So often we picture God's glory as blinding sunlight and thats all it is. But it is so much more. I thinking the magnificience of the light is a great display of God's glory, but I think people far too much miss the glory of God that we can see so much more easily. Jesus had the full glory of God, and we only see the light part at the transfiguration. I think we really see God's glory, like John 1:14 says, in his "grace and truth." We don't need to look past Jesus to see God's glory here on earth. Yes we can find it in other places, such as creation, but we read that it was through Jesus that all things were created anyway.

I think we might see God's glory a little different, or in more fullness in heaven when we further understand what He has done for us, but man lets not underestimate Jesus, or what He did for us on the cross!!

Back in the day

2008-02-08T09:47:00.000+11:00

I love the reading stories of the early Christians. It was so obvious that they were Christians. Whether they could do it freely or not, they continued to spread the news of Christ. What I really love is that their identity was in Christ. I mean if people were to look at me today, they would see an outdoor educator who goes to church and is a Christian. Whereas, looking in places like Rome, they were Christians who did different things. They were horrible to Christians back then, the way so many of them got executed. We don't face nearly as hostile opposition. It is there, but a wholelot softer than it was. So why don't we take advantage of that and stand up as Christians and preach the name of Christ. Lets make people aware that we're here and what we have is real!!

A change of thought

2008-02-03T22:47:00.000+11:00

As a Christian I recognise Christ as the most important thing in my life. Unforunately I don't always live in light of that recognition, but its still there. Despite this, I still find myself getting conformed to the world's likeness with my time. You see, as Christians we cannot afford to be conformed. We have to deal with problems that others don't have to, namely the problem of sin in our lives. Yes it most definately is in others lives as well, but they don't find themselves battling the way we do. We are fighting to follow Christ everyday. Thus I think we need a change in our thinking. Now while I view Christ as the most important person in my life, and heaven being my true home, I don't always (and not nearly as much as I would wish), live in light of my heavenly citizenship. I think as Christians we need to work hard to change this. I see a number of different reasons.

Firstly, I think it can grow our own faith. As much as I wish I didn't, I still fit God into my life. I find I fit Him in more and more, but I wish my life was fitting into His plans more (in my own mindset this is). I wish I wasn't going to church because it was Sunday, but rather because that was another time to meet with my spiritual family. I wish I wouldn't see another opportunity to share the gospel, but rather have it so ingrained in me that I need to share the gospel that I am always just doing it anyway. I wish I was not happy with myself whenever I did something good for God, but always ecstatic for what He's already done for me and seek to serve Him further. Reading about Paul, and his letters, I get this view of him. I wish I was more like him, more like Christ.

Secondly, I think it is important for others in Christ. Looking at the early church, in both acts and other sweet books, I see a community that exists to glorify God and is united so strongly by the gospel. I wish we were more like that, ad I think it is most definately worth working hard to get to that place.

Finally, I think it is important for others who are not in Christ. Yes I know that we are to be all things to all men, but we need to do it in a way that shows that we are different. We are in the world not of it, meaning we need to show people that we are different, that we have a different home. But we need to do it in a way that says they can have it to, not in a way that says I am better than you. Because while our future is better than theirs if they're not in Christ, what were we before we were called? Horrible sinners, worthy of death. Yet Christ's grace stretches out to these people. But why would they want it if we are no different to them?

So lets work out changing our mindset to be focused on whats important, and then act accordingly in love, with passion, with focus, and lets be different in the society in which we live.

P.S. It is getting late and I am tired, so I don't know how this is going to sound. I can't be bothered to do a read over, so any comments would be helpful!!

Camp

2008-02-02T11:22:00.000+11:00

So I just got off a yr 10 camp that was sooo awesome!! We all had a really fun time, but more importantly God was clearly working on the camp. It was great to hear from somany kids who said they were affirmed in their faith, and others who were challenged. It is so encouraging to see that stuff from time to time. Praise God!!

The Best Job in Australia

2008-01-27T14:55:00.001+11:00

Ok so I have decided that I officially have the greatest job available in Australia. Working for the Summit division of Crusaders I get to tell thousands of kids about Jesus each year, while taking them Abseiling, rock climbing, canoeing, archery, bushwalking, sailing, high ropes and heaps more stuff. Its awesome. Camps are perfect for breaking down barriers and allowing you talk to people (not just kids) about Jesus and the Truth. I love getting question after question about God whilst on camp. I also have a great team to work with and I praise God for that.

Now I do say it is only the best job in Australia, because personally I think going overseas and doing mission there would be a better job for me, because it would be easier to fully sacrifice everything, which I think would lead to a much greater dependance on God, thus life would be much fuller. Thats what I think anyway!!

Tiredness

2008-01-22T21:53:00.000+11:00

Mmm, so I find with blogging, it is hard to do when I am tired. Then I realised that I find it hard to do anything for God when I am tired. I think tiredness is a really good chance for Satan to attack. I do my quiet times in the morning, but sometime I wake up and just don't want to get up so badly, that I stay in bed too long and miss it. This sucks. But we are called to "Rejoice in the Lord always" (Philippians 4:4a emphasis added). This includes when we are tired, or possibly especially when we are tired, for I think it is fiarly easy to do when we're not tired.

Game plan: Every time you feel tired, think how much it would glorify God to do something for him right now. Beat the tiredness down and pick up a Bible, maybe pray (eyes open otherwise you'll fall asleep ... heh) or talk to a freind about Jesus. Go Team!!

Blog Explosion

2008-01-20T00:18:00.000+11:00

Mmmmm so thats that. I have blogged a bunch of blogs in my little blog session of bloggy blogness. Kudos to Dave for commenting on all of them, although seeing as though you are the only one who reads this nowadays that probably doesn't do too much. Cheers for the Hot tip on weekend blogging too!!

Sport #5 - AFL

2008-01-20T00:04:00.000+11:00

AFL is officially the greatest sport in the world. The cats are officially the greatest team in the world. Gary Ablett snr was the greatest player ever, followed by Cam Mooney, Jimmy Bartell, and Gary Hocking.

I have decided to play footy again this year, and I am playing for the Terrigal Avoca Panthers. I will probably start Reserve Grade, but will be pushing for a run in the seniors squad. I generally play in the center or on the ball, so my fitness needs to increase. Don't be surprised if you see my running everywhere!!

Sport #4 - Gridiron

2008-01-19T23:58:00.000+11:00

Most Australians I know that follow the NFL go for the Greenbay Packers. I don't. I go for the New England Patriots. I have been going for tem for a number of years and lovin it. They ar going to win the superbowl this year, and beat the Packers for it. They are 1 game away from it, as are the Packers, and I am most definately looking forward to it. They had a perfect 16-0 season and Tom Brady (Quarterback) is having a dream season. Go Patriots!! Check out the awesome NFL site.

Sport #3 - Soccer

2008-01-19T23:54:00.000+11:00

So soccer is officially my least favourite code of football. I prefer AFL, rugby, rugby league, and NFL to it. However, it is no secret that it is a a very popular sport. Frankly, I find it a bit boring. 0-0 is such a boring score. I find that I have to kind of force myself to get into. Yet I am getting into the Mariners a bit. I think it might be more the Central Coast that I get into rather than the soccer match itself, but ahh well. Up the Mariners!!

Sport #2 - Cricket

2008-01-19T23:52:00.000+11:00

Now I understand the fact that a lot of people find cricket boring. I don't. I love my cricket. I could sit down for five days straight and watch Australia play. Unfortunately, Australia has not been in its greatest form. Reason for this: Tait is a terrible player and should not be in the team. Had Hogg been playing I think Australia would have won the Perth test match they just lost, and they would have broken the 16 in a row record. How sad.

Sport #1 - Tennis

2008-01-19T23:48:00.000+11:00

Firstly, tennis is not the #1 sport. It is a very good sport, but the reason is that it is #1 on my list is that I am watching it right now, but even more importantly, I watched a very very high quality match this evening. Roger Federer beat Janko Tipsarevic 10-8 in the 5th. I was going for Tipsarevic, but alas he fell at the end. Oh what a shame!! Check out the Match Report!!

Sport

2008-01-19T23:46:00.001+11:00

I love my sport, and so, being summer, it is time for a tribute to sport. I am going to allocate my next 5 blogs to sport!!

Sin

2008-01-16T19:02:00.000+11:00

Man so I was pondering the idea of sin today, and it hit me just how big and bad sin actually is. Like I mean I have grown up with the knowledge that sin is bad and I shouldn't disobey God etc, but just thinking about it this arvo it hit me again how nuts it is. I mean, there is only one thing that could stop us cming to God, and that is sin. Sin is there every day,and it is our hardest battle. It is cunning to make us forget about it, and then makes us feel guilty when we buckle under its pressure. What the heck man?? This is a massive enemy. Its like facing up against a whole army, unarmed.

Luckily for us, we do have some armour and a weapon. Check out Ephesians 6:10-18. We have a powerful sword, being the Bible, and it is our greatest weapon against sin, as long as we use it, and continually ask God how to use it, and good fighting techniques. How good is God seriously?? He tells us not to sin, but when we do, against Him mind you, He gives us weapons and help. Talk about a merciful God. Yet people think He is mean. Lets show people that SIN IS BAD, BUT GOD IS BIGGER AND BETTER!!!

Am I gettin ripped off?

2008-01-14T13:45:00.001+11:00

Yeah so I can't help but get the feeling that I am being ripped off. I am about to purchase the full version of Office on my laptop, of which I have only had the trial. Its gonna cost me $500. Is that too much?? I fel like the guy up there!!

New Books

2008-01-04T19:35:00.000+11:00

So I got 2 new books today. And the bonus was they were on a gift card, so it cost me $5 for the 2 of them. I'm heaps excited about reading them because they are "Overcoming Sin & Temptation" by 17th century champion John Owen, and "Sermons of Jonathan Edwards". Jonathan Edwards was around in the 1700's and from everything I have read, I can't wait to soak my soul in some of his teachings of Christ. Good books are good for the soul, but nothing replaces the Bible. Remember that!!

Humility

2008-01-02T21:44:00.000+11:00

Ok so I have been reading a couple of different books lately (Humility - True Greatness by CJ Mahaney, The Coss and Christian Ministry by Don Carson, and The Pleasures Of God by John Piper) and it has been a super humbling experience where I have grown so much. My understanding of God and myself has deepened oh so much. I have realised more and more that God is the best ever, and I am not. Everything good about me has nothing to do with me, it is a gift from God. The only reason God loves me is not because I am good, but because He is a loving God, and that love isn't one that makes much of me, but allows me to make much of Him.

And despite the fact that lots of people think that this is depressing, I actually find it gives me more joy, more excitement as I realise the extent of God's grace more and more. Praise God for who He is and what He has done.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-27T00:16:00.000+11:00

Well Merry Christmas to young and old. I haven't blogged in a while, due to camp and then headin South to my parents for Christmas. I just want to encourage everyone to remember the fact that Christmas is here to celebrate the day that Jesus was born to die, so that one I could pray for him to save my life. Lest we forget!!! God is glorious, all praise to Him!!

How long wIll it last?

2007-12-12T21:46:00.000+11:00

Hebrews 11:24-25 "By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharoah's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin for a short time."

How much does this work today? We can choos to fit in, to be popular, or cool. We can choose to enjoy the pleasures of sin. And yes it does feel good. OR we can choose to be like Moses and be mistreated for Christ. On the surfce, I know which one looks better. But the key word is fleeting. Sin's pleasure doesn't last. However, if we are found to be in Christ, we will have the eternal pleasure of being with him. Which when we understand what that is like, you can't compare the two.

If you are looking forward to heaven, then throw yourself into mistreatment for the sake of Christ. Don't necessarily go looking for trouble, but boldness for Christ will bring it quick enough.

I'm Excited

2007-12-10T22:58:00.000+11:00

Ok so I think Big Kev really had something going with his catch phrase. I used it the other night when I was speaking at youth, and I'm gonna use it again now. I think its time that Christians got excited about Christ. And not just to ourselves. Yes I think it is important that we personally get excited about what God has done for us, but we need other people to see that excitement as well. I know when I am really excited about something I can't help but let people know, and generally that means everyone knows what I am excited about. But I am excited about Christ too, so why is it that when I am talking about Him to others, I don't get as excited?? I need to let people know how passionate I am about just by the way I act when I talk about Him as well as other things. I think it can be contagious. People can tell when something really means a lot to you by the way you talk or body language etc. So lets show people that Christianity isn't some boring thing that we kinda do cos we can, or have to, but we do it because we genuinly love God, and are soo grateful for what Christ did on the cross.

Its not me

2007-12-09T00:09:00.000+11:00

Man, I realised today that the devil really is quite sneaky. I was thinking today about all the things that I do, and I thought I was going pretty well. I was thinking that I might have a bit of a break, cos I was going well with how much I was doing. Then it hit me that the devil was feeding me lies. Theres nothing wrong with having a break, but I was focusing on the fact that I was doing so much. I do NOTHING. It is the power of Christ in me that does the work. And Jesus has already done more for me than I could ever do for Him, so if I ever think I am doin so much then I am getting proud and ought to be put back in my place. We need to watch out for these lies the devil hit us with, but we need to be even more thankful for what Jesus has done for us, and the fact that we have the privilage to serve Him!!

Waking the Dead

2007-11-20T14:37:00.000+11:00

Ok so I have just started reading this new book, Waking the Dead, by John Eldridge. I have only gotten through the first chapter, and I thought I might blog my thoughts as I go through this book and see how we go. I have a few issues, but I will try to be far and open to it. Lets see how we go.

As far as I can tell, chapter 1 goes like this: Life has problems. We can't see clearly. Why? Has God abandoned me? No, we just need eyes to see. Jesus offers life. The glory of God is man fully alive (Saint Irenaeus). Life is more than forgiveness, and it starts now, not when we die. So where is that life? Well we are at war. At war against Satan. The Bible is full of war, in fact War is the backdrop of the whole Bible. We were made glorious, and that glory is what we fight for. We were born into war.

He then finishes by saying, in hard times don't ask where is God? Has He abandoned me? Because He will rescue us at the end, but for now there is a battle.

Now, this is what I think. I have a few major problems with his thinking so far. First of all, I think it is too selfish. There is this strong idea that God is there for us, not the other way. Yes I think we were created with glory, but it is simply a reflection of God's glory, and so it should be turned back to him. Secondly, I think he has a very skewed image of mankind. It seems to me that he sees mankind as good, and Satan attacks us, thats why bad stuff happens. No thats not the case. We each choose to sin, personally, conciously, and that is why there are problems in the world. I think if you lose this view, then you lose all the work Jesus did on the cross, and so grace becomes less than what it really is. There are more problems, but I don't have time right now. So Finally, I don't think we have life to the full now. Yes we did pass from deah to life when we became Christians. Yes we did become slaves of Christ, not of sin. But the problem is, we arestill in a world full of sin, and we do still sin. I don't think until we reach heaven, and we see God's face, can we really have life to the full. Adam and Eve saw God's face in Eden, until they sinned. They then had to wait until they died to see it again.

Anyway, as I said I have I only read chapter 1. I will continue reading it and posting my thoughts on here. If you have read it, feel free to comment, or if you think my theology or criticism is mistaken please comment as well.

How Refreshing

2007-11-20T12:54:00.000+11:00

So I don't usually read too many other blogs, but I went searching over the last couple of days and I think I managed to hit a gold mine. I found THIS which I was really impressed by. It is so refeshing to have someone, like Mark Driscoll, preaching the word faithfully and powerfully, and focusing on the right things. I think he nailed it. And a call out to Adrian, who did a mad job of getting it all down. WOOT!!

Lets get Holy #3

2007-11-19T13:22:00.000+11:00

Well if there are 2 things I can't stand, they are coffee and Christians getting drunk. Well for the moment I might leave cofee where it is and just focus on Christians getting drunk. It annoys me so much, for a whole lot of reasons. So lets have a look at it.

As far as I can tell, people get drunk for a number of reasons. These include; it gives them more self-confidence, it allows them to have more fun and be happier, because they can, peer pressure, because a situation feels too much that they want to get out of it for a while. Now I know there are more reasons, but this will do for now. I'm gonna give a few reasons why Christians shouldn't get drunk.

Lets chop down the above reasons first. Being drunk gives you more selfconfidence. We shouldn't need to rely on alcohol to do that for us. The Bible says that as a Christian you should be bold (2 Corinthians 3:12).I think the word of God should be enough for us that we don't need alcohol. Number 2, being happier. Well the Bible constantly mentions that we get joy from Jesus, and Him alone. Because we can and peer pressure are just feeble excuses for sin. The Bible tells us not to get drunk (Ephesians 5:18), and I think this is the best reason why we shouldn't. And finally, being in a bd situation. I don't think a Christian should ever be in a situation where they feel like the only place to turn is the drink. The church should be a place we can turn, and if it is not, the best place we can go anyway is to Jesus. He loves us so much more than any bad situation, and with reflection on the cross, all bad situations lose their weight.

Also, one of the reasons I hate it so much is that it is an obvious hypocrisy, and an easy one to control. There are things like lying, that while we shouldn't do it, the tongue can be hard to control. Where as getting drunk, you have to actively buy the alcohol and drink it etc. People see Christians getting drunk and think that Christianity can't be that good, or important to us if we need to get drunk as well.

Well thats my piece before this gets too long. Let's get Holy, not drunk!!

Lets get Holy #2

2007-11-13T14:44:00.000+11:00

Alright, so last time I blogged on TV, and how we watch it too much and the standards we have. So its time to talk practically about what is happening.

For example, if you are watching TV or a movie with a group of Christian friends and there is something like nudity on the screen, or other "naughty" things, what do you do? Do you just sit there and watch it? Do you enjoy it? Do you joke about it? Or do you stop yourself from looking at it? I get pretty solid moral convictions, and so when something comes on, I look away. But I notice that lots of my friends don't, they just sit there and soak it in. What on earth am I doing? Yes I am stopping myself, but that doesn't help them.

There are a couple of things I could do:
I could leave the room
I could speak up about it

Now the first one. Leaving the room. There are a couple of things that this might mean. Firstly, it could be that I am leaving to get away from it personally. Secondly, it is a statement to the others that I don't approve of what we are watching. Now I think this can be a very powerful response, but only if people know the reason for your leaving. They might think you are just going to the toilet, or getting a drink, or might not even notice you go. Why not throw in a little comment like "I can't watch this", or "this is disgusting".

Speaking up about it. I have a friend who after watching the movie Jackass 2 asked the group the question of whether w as a bunch of Christians should be watching that kind of stuff. It challenged us all, some people got super defensive and retaliated, but others responded positively to the comment. I am thankful she spoke up, because I hadn't been thinking about that too much. While there was a little backlash, I am super thankful for her boldness, and she is still standing firm in her beliefs on that issue.

I think we need to get some guts and stand up for our and our Christan friends' holiness. Don't be afraid to speak up abou this kinda stuff. Attack it head on, and get holy!!

Wow its been a while!!

2007-11-13T14:34:00.000+11:00

It really has been some time since I have blogged. I mean I look all different now. Check the piccy out!! So its time for some blogging today, and hopefully more coming. My last blog was on "Lets get holy" and I have decided to do a nice little series on this topic. Feel free to read it.

Lets get Holy

2007-10-24T22:20:00.000+10:00

Alright, so I'm realy starting to get annoyed, and possibly a little worried at the standards that Christians have in relation to TV. Firstly I think that we watch way too much TV, but then the stuff that we aren't afraid to watch is appalling. We need to really look at what we are watching and think about how it might be affecting us. There is so much sex, fashion, and just Godless living that we watch, I believe it is very unhealthy. Then we are also scared to speak up about it to other Christians. Lets start biting the bullet,and warning each other of the traps that we fall into!!

God Tube

2007-10-23T12:39:00.000+10:00

Alright so Dan introduced me to Godtube, with the best church drama ever!!

I then went there and found this. I don't know what it is, but it gets quite funny right towards the end. I am from a baptist church, and so I apprecaite it quite a bit. Very baptisty!!

Get Busy

2007-10-09T17:57:00.000+10:00

So often in church today, there is a lot of emphasis placed on the leadership. It is what i criticised, it is what needs to be strong for the church to be strong. However, I have come to the understanding, and am coming to it more and more, in the importance of laypeople, or people who are not pastors or missionaries or people like that. Now I think we need more people becoming missionaries and such, but we need the laypeople to start doing stuff. If you go to church but don't give money, start giving money!! Its time people in God's kingdom start acting like it. Looking at acts, we see they all gave everything they owned to the church. Now I'm not saying we need to do that, but its the attitude we need. Give money, or give time and effort. So often people in ministry get burnt out. This is because there are so many other people who could be helping them out, bu don't. Its time for us to get busy, get involved, get busy. My church has the temporary goal of reaching 30 000 people on the Cenral Coast for Christ. This will never happen unless people in the church are willing to give themselves to God's work!!

Truth

2007-10-08T11:18:00.001+10:00

Yesterday at church, Craig gave 2 great talks. I managed to hear the 1st one twice (hows that? 3 numbery words in a row!!!) It was great. He was preaching on why we should believe in hell, and the conviction that should give us to talk to our friends. He mentioned a bunch of people who had fallen away from the belief of eternal hell, and it got me thinking. So often in today's Christian circles, we don't take the Bible for what it says. We water it down, twist the words, make things up. Unfortunately this is blasphemy.

Now you might not find yourself in that catergory, but I have a got a challenge for you anyway. When yo come across someone in that catergory, we need to not just nod and says "thats nice", we need to gently rebuke them, and steer them toward the truth. This doesn't mean to argue, but it does mean we need to be prepared to pull out the Bible and SHOW the truth. Its in there, and so often people get it wrong. Let's learn and know our Bible better, and then teach where it is being misinterpreted. We also need to stand firm in its truth and not sway at all. I couldn't think of anything sadder, than turning from the truth!!

Frantik

2007-10-08T11:10:00.000+10:00

Yeah ok, so on Saturday I got back from directing a camp called Frantik. Now some of you know that I dislocated my knee only a week before it, and so I was cruisin around camp on crutches. Despite the fact that I am now the king of off-road with 2 wooden poles, it was deadset th most annoying thing ever. But camp was awesome. This was for a few reasons:

We had a really good team of leaders who trusted God
Kids were great
Most importantly I know lots of people were praying for camp

I just thank God so much for everyone who was praying, and I thank God for answering all those faithful prayer warriors, because I know I couldn't have run camp without all the help He gave us. Praise God. And I guess this is a call to prayer. If you, your friends, or you family have anything coming up, keep them in prayer, and encourage others to pray, cos God is so much stronger than all of us put together, so lets get Him in on this stuff.

Take it easy - Sometimes

2007-09-26T23:59:00.000+10:00

Ok so I realised tonight, just how easy it can be to get caught up in doing things and forgetting to just spend time with God. We can be in ministry, having good times of learning in quiet times, and even good prayer times. But tonight I remembered another important fraction of our relationship with God. And that is just spending time with Him, in awe, in adoration and absolute reverence. Just a chill out session tonight made all my business and worries disappear, because I remembered who really had it in control.

I guess its like the Mary and Martha thing. While its important to be doing other things too (and I don't think we're busy enough for the gospel in the western world), we need to have times where we are just still, quiet and with God. It is oh so refreshing. And when things get busier, instead of thinking it will take too much time to spend some of it just relishing God, it will instead show you that God is in control of time, and the things you have o do become a whole lot easier, because God is what life is all about.

What are we doing??

2007-09-26T18:00:00.000+10:00

Alright, so think about this; if you were to become a missionary, go overseas and live in poverty and preach the gospel, then every part of your life would be lived in light of the gospel and the fact that you're a Christian. It would be obvious to those around you that you are a Christian and have a hope in Jesus.

Why is it that we don't have that same mindset in our own culture?? The thing is, whethe we act like it or not, if we are Christians we are missionaries now. If we realise this, then we have the potential to be good missionaries, doing God's work here and now. However, so often we don't realise this. That doesn't mean we're not missionaries, it just means we are being poor ones. Let's look at the opening paragraph slightly different, but essentially the same...

Alright, so think about this; YOU ARE a missionary, you go into your neighbourhoodand and preach the gospel, every part of your life is lived in light of the gospel and the fact that you're a Christian. It is be obvious to those around you that you are a Christian and have a hope in Jesus.

This is how we should be living now!!

How do we view Jesus?

2007-09-24T15:12:00.000+10:00

So often today in Christian circles I see people viewing Jesus in a wrong way, or with a wrong focus. So I thought I'd write about who Jesus is, and who He isn't. Firstly, who He is.

Jesus is the God of the universe, come into human form. He came to Seek and Save the lost. He humbled himself and became obedient to death, so that we would not have to. Be most of all, He did it for the glory of God, and thus God glorified Him, and raised Him to the highest place. (Read Philippians 2:5-11) Jesus is in heaven now, looking down on earth with mercy and grace, but will also do it with judgement in times to come.

However, there are also lots of false views of who Jesus is. One very popular view of Jesus is that He is simply a ticket into heaven, or a "get out of hell free" card. While yes Jesus is the only way to get into heaven, and we do need to remember that through Him we have our heavenly hope,if we see this as all Jesus is, we miss the fact that He is the author of life, the Creator God. If we have this view, we will fail to live to glorify Christ in our bodies, which is what we are called to. And if we live with this view, we also miss the relationship that He wants to have with us now, because (according to this mindset) we have been saved and so thats all we need. We lose the fact that we only exist thanks to Gods will and He is the only thing that sustains us, and in forgetting this, we are saying that God is not all He really is. Unfortunately this is wrong.

There is another view that I have encountered quite a bit in recent days, and this is the kind of buddy Jesus. The idea tha Jesus is simply there to make us happy here and now, and make our lives better. This is ridiculously unbiblical. Jesus himself said that following Him faithfully will be very hard, and we will suffer if this is the case. He also said we will receive ultimate joy out of it, but He didn't say it would be easy. If we try to live, and expect, easy Christian lives, without hardship, and having Jesus making our life all peachy then we are deceiving ourselves and are not living the way that Jesus Himself wants us to.

We need to be constantly reminding oursleves who Jesus is, and why He really came. I understand there are other views of Jesus out there, but if I thre them in there, this blog would be way too long.

Bowing down

2007-09-04T11:51:00.000+10:00

Alright, so often we talk about bowing down to God. We sing about it, we occasionally talk about it, and who knows from time to time we might physically do it. But does it mean anything to us today? I mean when do we ever physically bow to anyone. We just don't do it. So in our world today, how do we bow down to God? Do we do it phsically? I would say n, although give it a go, is pretty cool. But I think the way that we can bow to God in our society is to humble ourselves in other ways. Bowing to someone was doing one of two things; showing respect, or admitting you are under their authority.

How do we do that today? Well I think in western culture there are 2 main things that drive people. Time and Money. So for us to show respect to God, and to submit to His authority, amongst other things I think we need to give Him our time and money. This can coe in a number of ways, but I think it is important to do it both in and out of church. In church, because that is God's family and body here on earth, and out of church, because there is still plenty of work being done out of church, ie sponsor child, meeting up with people etc. So I think if you are serious about you're Christianity, you need to start by giving you're time and money to God and His work, until you are eventually giving all of it, and every other part of your life too!!

Self-discipline

2007-09-01T20:51:00.000+10:00

"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline" - 2 Timothy 1:7

So often I find myself today so afrad of what people might think of me, or see God in a bad way, or not want a piece of Christianity at all if I talk to them about Jesus. This is wrong!! The Bible tells us that God didn't give us a spirit of timidity. Therefore, any timidity we might have, comes from sin, and is evil. Instead, if you are a Christian you have a spirit of power, given to you by God, which you can use. You need to boldly display God's power, and not be afraid, or timid, or worried. God is on your side. He lives in you, inthe form of the Holy spirit if you are a Christian.

We can't just use this spirit of poer though. Every time we do use it, we need to use it out of love. 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that whatever we do, if we don't have love thrown into the mix, it is useless. We need to do everthing out of love. But we also need to live holy lives. God has given us the spirit of self-discipline, so lets use it. Lets be disciplined with our quiet times, with church, with telling people about Jesus, with doing the right thing all the time. A spirit of laziness is from the devil. A spirit of complacency is from the devil. A spirit of self-discpiline is from God. I'm with God on this one!!

Freedom in God

2007-08-29T19:07:00.000+10:00

Alright, so a message that is being thrown around so much these days is that you can have freedom in life through Jesus. Now I agree with this statement, however it is the interpretation that can be very wrong, and so I thought I'd blog about it.

I have been hearing a lot that once you accept Jesus, you have freedom becaus you are no longer under the law. While this is true, this idea has been taken advantage of way too much. So many Christians believe that this means we can then forget some of the things in the Bible, because while they are good, we are nolonger under them so they don't matter!!! Wrong. The Bible tells us (in the NEW TESTAMENT) to "Be Holy, for I am Holy". We need to live holy lives. There is a verse from Hebrews 12:14 that says noone will see the Lord without holiness. So this is saying that other than personal benefits or requirements, we need to live holy lives, because it is through our holy lives that people see Christ. It is not through "connecting with people" or "bridging the gaps" that they see God. Yes those things can be very important, but if we comprimise our holiness, then they can easily percieve (and possibly rightly so) that God is not important enough to us if we don't even follow the things He wants us to do.

We are called to be perfect, and yes while we will fail, we cannot stop trying, for that is what God calls us to do. That is His Will for our lives. And it is ok if we fail, because Christ didn't. Its only wrong if we give up because of our failures, or don't really try in the beginning. God deserves perfection, and even if we can't give it to Him, we can at least give Him our best efforts. If we don't, how much worse is that?

Go and read a book by Jerry Bridges called The Pursuit of Holiness. It is very good for showing us the importance of Holiness, and how we are empowered by the Spirit to pursue it.

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Muhammad

2007-08-20T14:47:00.000+10:00

Alright so I was at a missions conference on the weekend and well there was this guy called Muhammad, and He was from Morocco. Anywho, he became a Christian by listening to a radio programme. He then proceeded to pray that he might meet another Christian. Unfortunately in Morocco there are so few Christians that he had to wait for 2 whole years until he met someone. And that person was on a mission trip!! There are so few Christians over in different countries like Morocco. And here we are taking things like our churches way for granted.We need to not only make better use of our time together by really trying hard to grow, but we need to go out and give people the message of Jesus, and we need to pray way more. Not just for ourselves or our friends, but also for people overseas like Muhammad. Give people hope in Jesus through first of all our prayer and then our actions!!

MMM

2007-08-16T19:11:00.000+10:00

So I have the flu!! Good times.

Right Now!!

2007-08-13T22:18:00.001+10:00

Yeah so it is 10:18pm right now. I finished my day on camp an hour ago. We have thse 23 little Hongkonese kids in at the mo, and they are the best. Good times. So I thought I'd write a pointless blog so that people know that I am still writing them consistently, and so that when I do have a cracker of one they will hopefully read it. WOOT.

P.S. Check out http://www.iagreewithdale.com/ - its Uber Bamboo!!!

Changing times!!

2007-08-12T17:52:00.001+10:00

I have decided to change font to make it easier to read!!! Go team!!

Wherever you are!!

2007-08-12T17:42:00.000+10:00

Ok so I went to a new church launch last night Saturday EV, and I really enjoyed it. I really wanted to be apart of what they are doing, because I can really see the need for what they are aiming for. Then I remembered or should I say, was reminded by someone, that I don't need to go join some other mission, but I just need to re-look at the mission I am already involved in and make sure it is going the right way, and that I am acting faithfully and with plenty of effort. So often we get inspired by other people or missions, that instead of following their lead (ultimately Christs) and going about our mission with more passion and intensity and urgency, we find ourselves trying to do something else. We need to go back to the truth, to the gospel and preach it in our context. Yes we need to go out as well, but how can we do things like cross-cultural mission, or other cool ideas we might have if we can't spread he good news in our own environment. So this is a call to all Christians on the Central Coast, Newcastle, Sydney or wherever you are to go on and get out there with th message of Christ. And do it with urgency, because life is short and hell is hot, and God deserves glory NOW!!!

The best!!

2007-08-09T12:15:00.000+10:00

I honestly reckon I could take him down, if I chose a song that I wanted, stood on stage, had a weirdo costume on, I'd beat him!!

This dude would be a bit tougher!!

Revolution!!

2007-08-08T18:03:00.001+10:00

Man how exciting is the word revolution. I hear it and get excited because it means that something really cool and possibly big is going to happen. Now when we hear this in Christian terms I get even more excited because it means God is going to do something sick for us, and there is going to be this ad change and people are going to be set on fire for God. But I have recently discovered a problem with Christian revolutions, and I will get to it in a second. I think there are two different kinds of a Christian revolution.

The First

In a postmodern age, we so often seek ways in which to preach the gospel in a relevant and easy to hear way. I think this is has some merit, as people need to be spoken to in a way in which they understand, however if it comprimises any truths of the gospel, then it is in fact not the gospel at all. So often in our changing culture we hear that a church has discovered a new way to hear from God, or how to best preach the gospel, or just how to live as a Christian in todays society (revolutions). It would be very unfair for me to say that they are all wrong and bad. However, I believe that in a lot of cases, if not most, that the gospel has been changed, forgotten, or rejected. We can follow Jesus, but it might not be the true biblical Jesus, and this is very dangerous. It is often said that the best lie is the one closest to the truth. So we need to be careful that the things we hear - in and out of church - are the truth, or we reject them.

The Second

I believe the second kind of a revolution is the kind which someone undergoes when they realise the truth about the gospel of Christ, and change their lives as a result. The saving grace of Jesus floods them with mercy and love, and they can do nothing but to respond. I would say that instead of looking for a revolutionary way to preach Jesus, or understand the gospel, we should see that the message of the cross is in itself revolutionary and needs to be clung to no matter what.

So often these other "revolutions" or whatever terms they may be given last for a little while. Although from my experience, it is the same message from other "revolutions" just repeated in a different context, or changed slightly, but is nonetheless not the gospel. We need to remember that the Bible, being God's word is the truth and has been for thousands of years. Lets not look for new ways to do things, but lets look at the truth and see how it transforms us and others into becoming more Christlike for the glory of God!!

God's glory in our lives!!

2007-08-06T12:47:00.000+10:00

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands - Psalm 19:1

Its all about the glory of God, or to put it another way; its all about seeing how good and awesome God is. This glory is portrayed in so many of His qualities; love, mercy, power, majesty and the list goes on and on. The thing that we need to remember is that we were created for the glory of God. This has a two-fold application. First of all, it means that God made us so we could see and revel in His glory. But thesecond one, I think is even more profound. It is the fact that God made us to show off His glory. Genesis 1 says, 'Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."' God made us in His likeness so we could show His qualities.

The only problem is that because we are sinful, we don't do this image justice. We distort our likeness of Him every time we sin, and we can't restore it ourselves. He does that for us. Now you would think, why would God give us the opportunity to sin if we are meant to be showing His glory in our lives? Well I think I may have stumbled across the answer.

When I do the right thing, I honour God. When I follow Jesus I honour God. When I honour God, He gets the glory because I am living in the image o God, as He would have me. God is glorified because He is honoured in our lives. We do need to remember that it is Him that enables us to honour Him. He gives us the ability

What happens when I do the wrong thing though? When I don't do the things I know I should? When I sin? Well it is in essence the same. When we stuff up, God is honoured. Not by the things we do, no way. But He is honoured because of His grace and mercy. God is honoured through my stuff ups because people see His glory through His forgiveness. It is His amazing love that gets the glory for Him. God's glory is best portrayed on the cross, with fulfillment upon the return of Christ. So no matter what happens in our lives, God gets the glory, because of His work on the cross. Now we need to be careful when we understand this. Because it can be easy to think it doesn't matter what we do. Romans 6:1,2 says, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?"

Yes God is going to get the glory whether we lives holy lives, or sinful lives. But man I pray that God would get the glory by me living a holy life, becaus it is much more pleasing to God, and a much better way to live. Not necessarily easier, and in fact quite harder, but oh so much better.

Dang!!

2007-08-05T16:54:00.001+10:00

Now I'd be tempted to say sucked in, but man would that hurt!!

Who is the center?

2007-08-02T14:23:00.000+10:00

So often we are told that the world doesn't revolve around us. Especially by our parents. Its the most annoying saying ever, because we know that the world doesn't revolve around us. Thats obvious. Its just a major exaggeration!! Why is it though, that so often we think God revolves around us. We often think that the whole reason God is there is for us. The whole reason God made us, is for us. The reason anything happens is for us. That if we click our fingers (or crouch on our knees with our eyes closed (prayer kiddies, prayer)) then God will come running for us. For us?

WRONG!! God doesn't exist for us. God doesn't exist to make our lives better. We exist to show God's glory. We exist to show His love, mercy, compassion and all His other awesome qualities. Why is it that we think that God is just there for us? Well I think there are two answers. Firstly, because we are selfish fools who are ignorant to the glory of God - and this is the reason people often ask how could God let this happen, where is God?? etc etc. The second reason I think is because it is much more convenient for us to be following God when He is there just for us. The problem with this is the fact that it wrong, and not biblical at all. Yes God is there, He does love us, and He does look after us, but his glory is more important than our needs. We need to be focused on Him, rather than what He does for us. That is why if we follow Jesus because He will bless us here on earth, we have missed the point. We should follow Jesus because He is king, and yes He does save us in His mercy.

Its like the sun. The earth revolves around it, not the other way around. The sun doesn't need the earth, but the earth needs the sun. Yet the sun still provides the earth with heat, light and everything else it needs to survive. The sun is much more powerful and cool than the earth (talking planets/sun here, not so much people and inhabitableness). We are like the earth, and God is like the sun. God doesn't need us, yet we need Him. He doesn't revolve around us, but we revolve around Him. He gives us love, salvation, godliness, and all satisfaction. He does this to both show His glory and because He loves us.

God is the center of everything, and we should treat Him as such. Peace out!!

On Fire

2007-08-02T14:03:00.000+10:00

I never thought Id be able to write this many blogs. I mean I'm only like 4 or 5, but thats some kind of record for me. I guess I'm just on fire. Not quite like this guy though...

Where is God??

2007-08-02T11:22:00.000+10:00

So often we look at the world nd see all the bad stuff, see all the suffering and we can't help but question Where is God? If He really is all-powerful then how can He let bad things happen? If He really loves me, why does He let me suffer? Why can't He stop bad things happening?

Now before I even begin answering these questions, we need to remember a couple of things. First of all God is God. He made the world. He made us. He made everything. He is in control of everything. And yes He loves us. This almighty creater and king of the universe deserves glory. He deserves to look as good as He is. He is so powerful and yet so full of mercy and love. If He really does love us, but doesn't show us how good He is, then does He really love us? Its like you have $100 to give to a friend who really needs $100. If you love them you won't say "Hey I have $20, or $50, or $90 you can have." No way. You'll give them the full hundred. Its the same with God. He has so much glory, and power and awesomeness (good word hey?) that if He didn't show it to us, He wouldn't love us.

What does this have to do with suffering I hear you ask?? Well, I believe that God made this world in a way that there is pain, trouble, suffering and such so that when Jesus came, He could feel pain, he could be troubled, he could suffer. Because unless He did these things, we wouldn't see how much He loves us. We wouldn't see the sacrifice He was willing to make. He was prepared to come down out of the perfec place (being heaven), down to our planet that was full of sin. He was prepared to get insulted, spat on, beaten up. He was prepared to die a horrible death. And why? Becaus He loves us. If He didn't suffer, we wouldn't see how much He was willing to do for us. We wouldn't see how much He loves us.

The bad things in this world are a result of sin. If no-one ever sinned I am convinced that we would be living in an Eden world. The only problem is that we do all sin. So apart from the fact that Jesus had to suffer to show us how much we mean to Him, suffering is also in this world to show us that we are sinful. If we all had perfect lives then we wouldn't need God (or so we would think). You see we can only really see our need for God in the midst of suffering. Therefore in the midst of suffering, our response should not be, "God where are you? How could you let this happen to me? How you could you let me lose all my money? How could you let me crash my car? How could you let those other kids beat me up? How could you let my friend die?". No, instead our response should be, "Thankyou Lord for how good you are. Thankyou for once again showing me that the things in this world will fail, but you will continue forever. Thankyou for showing me that I am nothing comared to you and your power and mercy. Thankyou for sending Jesus to suffer, so that there is more than just this world for me to look forward to".

We don't suffer because God can't stop it, or because He doesn't love us enough to. We suffer because thats the way that we see how much better God is. Because with God, in heaven, there will be no suffering.

There is the risk of people now saying, "I wouldn't have done it that way. I would have done it a different way." But how dare you? How dare you think that you have more wisdom than the Almighty God?? We need to remember that God is the most wise, and He chose the best possible plan of action, and if we are to question that, then we question it out of pure arrogance. God has no place for arrogance. He gives grace to the humble, but opposes the proud. So we need to humble ourselves before the creater, and acknowledge His will, His plan as perfect, and thus thank and praise and worship Him no matter what the situation.

And thats that!!
(Lots of credit needs to go to John Piper for these ideas)

God as Number 1

2007-08-01T16:49:00.000+10:00

Far out man!! This is crazy. We need to make sure that nothing comes first in our lives ahead of God. But more than that, we need to make sure that things number 2 and number 3 etc show the fact that God is number 1. We need to use every single thing in our life to point to the fact that God is number 1. We need to use our money, the way we talk to our friends, the way we play with toys, drive our cars, play our music, eat our food, go to the toilet, play our sport, all in a way that shows everyone else that our number 1 thing in life is God. We need to keep our eyes, hands, ears, voices, and hearts away from anything that might not show God to be number 1. We need to live our complete lives as to show God as number 1.

Firstly this means we need to make sure God is number 1. We need to see Him as the ultimate Creater and King of the universe, and we need to recognise that compared to Him, we are nothing. We need to realise that Jesus Christ came to Earth to not only save us out of His amazing love, but to also show His glory and His power. This is why we need to live with Him as number 1. Not just so that we can be saved, although that is the result, but we need to live with Him as number 1 simply because He is number 1. We need to use everything at our disposal to show that.

Does this mean that we aren't suppose to live normal lives? YES IT DOES!! As a Christian and a child of God, we are called to something far greater than a normal life. Once we see the true awesome nature of God, living with Him as anything but number 1 (or living a "normal life") is a dodgey as way to live. Paul considered everything as a loss compared to knowing Jesus. Thats not to say the things of this world are necessarily bad in themselves. Most of them are ok. Its just that when they take the number 1 place, or push the importance of God down the ladder, then they become terrible. So we need to be living with God as number 1 and we need every single other portion of our lives pointing at that fact.

The other bonus of having everything else pointing at God being number 1, is that it creates a safeguard against them usurping Gods rule as number 1 in our lives. Having everything pointing at God means that we will be focusing on God and His glory, which will lead us to His will, which means we will keep Him at number 1 in a glorious cycle of Godliness.

Well I think thats it for me right now!!

Doing Australia Proud

2007-08-01T16:10:00.000+10:00

Is this not one of the greatest moments in Australian sporting history?? This is the way Australia won our first ever winter olympic gold medal, and in such a tantalising way. Bradbury for PM!! Bradbury for PM!!

First Blog Ever

2007-07-31T21:44:00.000+10:00

Welcome to Dales first blog here on blogspot. This blog isn't really saying much at all, its just more of a filler to you know, fill in the time. It also plugs the website http://www.iagreewithdale.com/ which features me, and some of my extraordinary caims. Do you agree?? Go and find out!!