Claire and Katya are home

Claire and Katya arrived home this afternoon. It is good to finally be a family under our own roof.

Today and yesterday my father and I bought a lot of stuff to make the house more functional. Today we fitted things like a dryer and more cupboards etc.

I also arranged the babies room and cut out stuff we didn't need. You go into this with so much stuff and then you realise that you only need a few simple things.

Anyway... we will spend our second night at home but this time in a much more happy state.

Katya is a week old

Well Katya is a week old!

Last night was good. I feed Katya during the night and she settle wonderfully. Claire had a good night sleep and is feeling a lot better.

I actually got some sleep last night and feel a lot better.

This morning mum is staying in the hospital with Claire while I come home to sort a few things out and rest. I also get to see my sister who leaves tomorrow back to Aussie.

We expect that Claire will be home tomorrow.

I'm stuffed...

Claire, Katya and I spent last night in hospital. Claire had a good sleep (thanks to a couple of pills) and I looked after Katya.

This morning Claire is a lot better and even had the desire to breast feed (and did a good job of it too).

My mother arrived last night and will help carry a bit of what has landed on us. I seriously recommend any (I many any) couple planning on having a child to have someone there 24/7 for at least a week. This was a mistake on our behalf.

As for Claire, she continues to produce masses of milk. Physically she is well. Even the disjointed sentences have improved. And her memory has started to work.

Later today she will be assessed. I think they will find she is not depressed but rather extremely anxious. Her anxiety has been born out of us having too higher expectations. As these expectations start to lower and become a bit more real, I suspect Claire will return to who Claire really is.

However the assessment will help make sure there is nothing else floating in the background.

As for me, I am about to enjoy lunch, have a nap and wander back up later today.

A step backwards

Today the midwife came around. She has admitted Claire back to hospital with depression. Physically everyone is fine. Mentally Claire is not able to cope. This is not surprising given all she has gone through. She has done amazingly well to get this far.

Tomorrow she will be assessed and we will find a way forward.

If you are from the praying section of our friends, we would appreciate your prayers. At the moment we are not in a good place. Of particular concern is the return of the shakes and other blood pressure related issues.

Needless to say... all visits are off until we have worked through this issue.

First night home

We have survived our first night home. It was very difficult. It consisted of breast feeding, a nappy change, then a top up with previously expressed milk, then Claire expressing, then Katya falling asleep in my arms, a two hour nap... and then repeat procedure.

Claire got some good sleep and we are getting both her and Katya into a routine (because it will all turn to custard otherwise).

I reckon I have two nights of being functional in this role and then I will crash. I'm praying that is enough time for Claire to rejoin the world and settle in. At the moment she is struggling with shock (much like culture shock) and is a bit incoherent. I believe this is normal but it is quite a struggle seeing ones wife in this state.

Today our proper midwife will come around. I think this will help.

In hindsight we probably left one day too early from hospital but then that environment was a struggle in its own right.

It is funny... people gloss over these struggles. I think it would be helpful if I had of known what was coming. I no understand why in traditional culture, having kids involves the grandmothers a lot.

We're home!

We have made it home.

This first photo is Katya in her capsule at hospital.


This second photo is Katya in her capsule at home in her room.


This final photo is of my two girls in Katya's room.


We decided to come home bacause the Maternity ward was getting a bit frustrating (and Claire's blood pressure had come right and Katya was tested healthy). The "science" of being a midwife seems to be quite variable in the ward. We were getting different advice every change in shift. There is room for a lot of improvement. I might write more about this later.

Anyway... we are home and we are rapidly finding out that we have to take things slowly. It seems you can only change one thing at a time without the world falling on once head.

All in all... today has been a good day. The milk tanker arrived for Claire and we are home. That is pretty good.

The name...

So people have been asking about the name.

Yes... Katya Annesa Savill Gardiner is quite a mouth full. As you can gather, having a bit of difference in a name does not phase me. I have had 33 years of explaining that Sym is not short for anything... :)

Anyway... we wanted a name that has a Russian feel to it. We have a strong connection and love for Russia so that was a must.

The name Katya comes from meeting a girl in Russia in 2005 with this name. The name is pronounced in English...

Kar-tch-ya

The t has a "ch" sound in it.

The name Annesa comes from another girl we met in Russia (in 2006). Her name was Ennesa (or Innesa). We liked the Russian name Anna (said the Russian way). So we changed the E to an A and we got Annesa. The name is pronounced in English...

Arn-essa (like Arnie or Terminator fame)

The name Savill is Claire's maiden name. We wanted some connection their so this goes in as a middle name. No Russian pronounciation here.

And Gardiner is our surname!!!!

In Russian Katya will be called Katya Symova... has a nice ring to it.

Evermore

I have been listening to a band called Evermore. They are NZers and are pretty good.

If you go to http://www.evermoreband.com/news/ you can get a stream so you can listen to theri music. There are full high quality versions that can be played.

They have a really nice sound. The are a little like Cold Play but with more musical variety.

Churches see big increase in turnout

It was standing room only at many Christmas services this year as churches reported higher-than-expected attendances.

The 11.30pm service at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell on Christmas Eve was jam-packed, said Anglican Church spokesman Lloyd Ashton.

Catholic Church spokeswoman Lyndsay Freer said St Michael's Church in Remuera, where she worshipped, welcomed more people than ever before to its Midnight Mass.

An earlier service at 7pm for families and small children at St Michael's was "packed to the gunnels".

"We've seen for some reason that there are far more people this year than we have ever seen," she said.

This backed up census information that showed an increase in those worshipping at Catholic churches.

Many people attend church only at Christmas and Easter.

"While Easter is the main festival of the Christian churches, Christmas has a particular appeal, said Mrs Freer, a papal dame.

"I'm also wondering if there hasn't been some sort of backlash against the political correct thing against religious symbols," she said.

Mr Ashton said there were no national attendance figures for Anglican churches but he had never seen so many at the Holy Trinity service.

He also believed Christmas struck a deep chord with a lot of people.

Christmas, like Easter, is a time when those who do not attend church regularly swell congregations.

Mr Ashton said he observed that when the Maori Queen died in August it moved people at a deep level and maybe Christmas and Easter did that as well.

- NZPA

Today was a good day...

Some pics from today. Today was a good day. Lots more things came right. Katya is now out of the incubator. She took a bit to settle into the non-Fiji environment (she loved sunbathing in the incubator). But she is now very happy in her cot.

Claire is a lot happier and much more mobile. She is still struggling with blood pressure. This is causing the doctors some worry.

Tomorrow it may be ok for visitors. Only a few. So if you want to pop in, please txt/sms me. We will see how things are going and let you know. We have to balance making sure Katya gets feed enough, Claire gets to rest but also that you our friends get to meet our daughter.

We have turned a corner

I am just back from the hospital for lunch. We seem to have turned a corner. Katya is feeding properly. Claire is soooooooooooooooooooo much better (both physically and mentally). And most things that were an issue have been resolved.

Here are a couple more pics. Not the new fashion accessory... an apple protector for Katya's head.


Oh... other good things include Katya is putting on weight. She was 3.2kg at birth. Now she is 3.8kg!!! And we are getting soaking nappies (which is good apparently for all except the person changing them).

Katya - The Movie

This video has an unexpected end

Day Two

Day two of being a father has improved but things are still in the custard.

Claire's blood pressure seems ok now. However there are a lot of struggles after the C section. She has now been moved into the Maternity Ward and has her own room... which is a real blessing. I won't detail the struggles. I can say we all have a lot to learn and C sections can have impacts that are not medical.

Katya has jaundice and is now suntaning (see pics and video). This has helped sort one issue which was to get her to settle. When she gets put in the incubator she just checks out and goes to sleep. If she wakes, you just rock the incubator at the same pace as her breathing and all is well.




In the process of today I wiped my first bottom, cleaned up my first kid power chuck and came the closest I ever have to losing my rag. Not bad for one day.

Couple more pics

Emma... our cool hospital midwife who was so good. We had her on two shifts.

More baby pics

Sarah all gowned up. I'm not good with blood so it was great Sarah was there to go into the C section.

Claire attached to many many machines.

Katya and Claire feeding for the first time. This was in recovery.

First Day as a father

Today has been great and difficult.

Claire is doing wonderfully feeding Katya and she is mending from the c-section very well. Her blood presure etc are now fine.

Katya is very well... knocking out the most disgusting black tar (poos) I have ever seen. She is feeding like a sumo wrestler.

Claire is struggling with the after effects of the birth. This has really hit her emotionally. I think it is a combination of drugs, no sleep, no food and one of the craziest events that can hit you (having a kid).

Fortunately there have not been any beds available in the maternity ward so we have been able to stay in the delivery ward.

We have had the best hospital midwives in Emma and Rachel. In fact all the midwives have been great but these two ladies are cool.

We have had wonderful support from our church family, including some very encouraging e-mails and sms/txt from our church family in Irkutsk, Russia.

Introducing Katya Annesa Savill Gardiner

Claire, Katya, Sarah (our wonderful support person from church) and me

Katya!!!

We had a scary time. The induction started on Thursday evening. Claire stayed in hospital overnight. On Friday morning we went down to delivery and it all turned to custard. Claire's blood pressure was very (dangerously) high and we spend all day trying to get that down. Finally it was down by 7pm when the heavy duty induction medicines were appled. However these medicines simply they did not work.

By 3am in the morning it was decided to do a C-section.

And a 5:27am Katya was born.

The big up side was the epidural was amazingly effective and Claire had no (none) pain.

We are now recovering from sleep deprevation. Claire will be in hospital for monitoring for her blood pressure and recovery. For the next couple of days we will not be doing visitors. Maybe on Monday we will see where we are at and let people know. Thanks in advance for respecting this need to recover and spend time with our first child.

Oh... and the specs...

Katya Annesa Savill Gardiner
Female
3.2Kg
Born 5:27am 23 December 2006
Perfect!!!

The baby begins

Lastest update: Claire is now seven days overdue and we have decided to have an induction.

Tonight she began the induction procedure and is spending the night in Wellington hospital.

So long as everything goes ok, tomorrow I will bring news (and photos) of our daughter.

Random Photos and an Update

Here are a couple of unconnected photos.

One is our church van with a random set of emergency lights.

The other is my mother and sister inspecting the baby's room.

Speaking of babies... we are now over due (she was due last Thursday). If she doesn't pop out by this Thursday evening we will have an induction.

A New Kind of Christian - Brian McLaren

I have just finished Brian McLaren's A New Kind of Christian book. Brian McLaren is one of the key people in the Emergent Church movement. He is like the philosopher or sage of the movement. As such he cops a lot of criticism from those opposed to the Emergent movement.

This book is the first of a series where he explores some ideas through a story about a pastor in an evangalical church working through the issues that face many churches and many Christians. The story is essentially a conversation between Neo (Dan's new friend) and Dan (the pastor).

It is a very interesting and effective technique for looking at these issues.

There are a few key points that come out of the book for me. Whether they are in the book or whether I was just prompted to think about them... ah... I'm not sure. Anyway... here is a list...

1. Brian makes a very good argument for our society and culture being in a time of transition from one paradigm to another. He says we are moving from a modern paradigm to the post-modern paradigm. Regardless of labels, I tend to agree with him.
2. Brian is woolly about hell. While there is some ambiguity in the Bible, there are some key understandings about hell. Primary amongst these is you don't want to be going there.
3. Brian is fully correct that we, as Christians, should stop focusing on obsure theology issues like hell, and focus on living the core of Jesus' teaching. I am personally fully convicted on this account.
4. Likewise, we should shift our focus from getting people into heaven and focus on being a blessing to the nations and let Jesus deal with the admissions policy into heaven. This applies particularly in our relationships with other religions and other denominations, which evangelical Christians have been not so flash in relating to.
5. One of the key aspects of the Christian message is connected to being in community and all that this entails. The more I think about it, groups like the Armish have got it right with thei focus on family and neighbours. That said we still need to connect into our wider communities.
6. There is a degree of wooliness in what Brian says about the Bible and what it states. I agree that there is a lot of the Bible that is best undertood in the form of stories and then into principles. I think that it is easy to swing too far though. Some stuff is just straight out statements.
7. Related to 4, we are far better to get on living as Jesus did/would than sitting around arguing about it. The difficult side of this is for people who teach at church. We don't just need to live it, we need to communicate it in an official "representative of Jesus" like manner and that is hard.
8. I fully agree that we should be finding ways of being one church, without dividing lines between denominations.

This is an interesting book. Brian is a gifted writer. And he is on to something about the shape of being Jesus in a new paradigm being quite different to what has gone on for the last 50 years.

Police officer commended over shooting

It is not often that I praise the NZ Police, but this article in today's paper deserves mention. It is a good example of the shoot as a last resort approach.


>>>>
Police officer commended over shooting

A police officer has not only been cleared of wrongdoing for fatally shooting a man, but his actions have been commended by the Police Complaints Authority (PCA).

Haidar Ebbadi Mahdi was shot in the head by police after pepper spray and three gunshot wounds to the leg failed to stop him from repeatedly stabbing his wife in their Pakuranga home, in Auckland.

An investigation by the PCA found that two days prior to the August 2004 incident Mahdi was found to be suffering from a paranoid schizophrenia for which, against doctors' recommendations he had refused to taken medication.

On the day of the shooting Mahdi's wife, Maryam Abed, found her husband sharpening a knife.

She told the PCA Mahdi grabbed her and held her hands behind her back and said to her "I'm going to kill you today, I want to kill you today".

Mahdi accused Mrs Abed of killing his brother, who was actually killed in Iraq during Saddam Hussein's regime.

Mrs Abed was cut several times as she tried to wrench the knife from her husband.

Upon seeing the blood Mahdi called 111 and told the ambulance service he had cut his wife "1001 times".

Police were then contacted by the dispatcher who sent a dog handler, known as Officer 1, and two constables, referred to as Officers 2 and 3, to the scene.

The officers found Mahdi and Mrs Abed in their lounge, whereupon Mahdi moved quickly towards his wife holding the knife. Officer 1 sprayed Mahdi with pepper spray, with no effect.

Mahdi then attacked Officer 1 and cut his arm so deeply the wounds required surgery.

All officers then retreated to the kitchen and had to stop Mahdi from following by leaning against the door between the lounge and kitchen.

Officer 1, who was holding a pistol, said they heard screams from Mrs Abed so re-entered the lounge. Mahdi was holding his wife in a headlock and had the knife near her throat.

Officer 1 three times told Mahdi to "drop the knife", and when that failed, he shot Mahdi three times in the leg.

Officer 1 said he hoped the shots "would distract him sufficiently to drop the knife, let the lady go and give us an opening to perhaps physically overpower him".

The gunshots appeared to have no effect on Mahdi who used Mrs Abed as a shield as he walked towards the officers, slashing his wife on the top of her head.

"At that point I really feared for her life," Officer 1 said.

"I thought she was about to die and at that point is when I decided I had to do something which was going to stop the situation immediately and I raised the gun, took an aimed shot at his head and fired one round and he immediately dropped to the ground."

In their recently released report, the PCA found that in shooting Mahdi, Officer 1 acted lawfully and properly.

"The authority regards Officer 1's handling of this violent and stressful situation as commendable.

"There can be no dispute that, but for the intervention of the police, at demonstrated risk to themselves, this incident would almost certainly have resulted in the death or grievous bodily harm, at Mr Mahdi's hands, of his wife."

Flushed Away

Claire and I went to see Flushed Away today. Watch this preview and you will see some hampster butlers. They aren't in the movie.

However the movie is very very funny. I LOVE the slugs.

Very much ready

Claire is all ready. Now we are just waiting and waiting...

New Look

I have updated the template for my blog. About time I had a new looks. Hope you enjoy.

Rick Warren On Tucker

Interesting interview. This Obama dude is really slick.

Courage the Cowardly Dog - Wrath of the Librarian

Quite funny!

Barack Obama on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1)

Check out this guy. I think you are either seeing someone who will crash big time or be something like Bill Clinton and JFK.

Web Cams

In the right hand resource section of my blog I have added two webcam sites. One is of Irkutsk, Siberia and one is of Wellington, NZ. The Irkutsk one is technically better in that you can stream at one second intervals. The Wellington one has a large number of cameras.

Anyway... if you want to check out the weather in either place, here is your chance.

Next year when we go back to Irkutsk we will arrange a time when we will stand in front of the web cam and hold up a flag or something and txt/sms back to confirm we are seen.

Foxe's Christian Martyrs of the World

I recently finished John Foxe's book on Martyrs. This is a very old book more recently updated in its language. John Foxe was a Protestant who died in 1587. He compiled this book from accounts of people who had witnessed the persecution of Protestants, particularly under Queen Mary. The book was very popular with English Puritans.

Unfortunately, after I read this book, I can understand the ill feeling that many Protestants now have towards Catholics. The book records martyr after martyr who simply disagreed that the bread and the wine of communion physically became Jesus' body and blood.

After a religious group slaughters another religious group because of their differing beliefs, it is somewhat understandable that there would be some ill feeling.

The obvious modern day equivalent of this is the current American (viewed as Christian by the Iraqis) campaign in Iraqi. You could also count the Israeli/Palastinian conflict in the same bucket.

There are two lessons to learn. One... slaughtering people based on a theological or philosophical disagreement does not result in people changing. Two... it only ever has negative consequences for the 'offending party' down the track.

So... an interesting book. Worth a read. Please be wary of it shaping your views on the current Catholic church because that would be wrong. A few hundred years of water has gone under the bridge.

A Generous Orthodoxy - Brian McLaren

I have just finished reading this book. It is definitely a recommended read.

Brian McLaren is either seen as one of the most forward thinking Christian writers or a heretic... depending on your orthodoxy (to coin his phrase).

The jist of the book is two fold. Firstly, being a Christian is about being a blessing to ALL people. Secondly, how that plays out changes and therefore our orthodoxy is something that is constantly changing and growing.

If I wanted to be ungenerous, I would critique McLaren's take on things on three fronts.

Firstly, he does not consistently recognise that Jesus is actually God manifest in human form. He seems to have a rather fluid view of the Trinity (that said so do many). I think this causes him some confusion and takes him down some unhelpful paths.

Secondly, McLaren elevates experience, litergy, tradition and particularly creeds to at least the same level as scripture. While I recognise that scripture is subject to interpretation (and hence has pitfalls), it is a lot "safer" (maybe I mean more useful or more right or more trustworthy) than experience, litergy, tradition and creeds.

Thirdly, McLaren focuses a lot on Christians doing stuff. This is all very good stuff like blessing others, helping the poor, redeeming the environment, reaching out to the marginalised... etc... BUT I believe he misses an aspect of just "being'. By this I mean that part of being a follower of Jesus is enjoying creation and 'being' a Jesus follower. McLaren actually talks about this but does not connect it with who we are as believers. SO I think Jesus calls us to "be" Christians and to "do" Christian stuff. (I'm not sure I have explained this clearly... I hope you understand).

These three issues are things that I suspect McLaren is still working through (like the rest of us, he hasn't got everything worked out).


If I wanted to be generous, I would recommend this book for the way it challenges. It is a call to get back to basics of LOVE GOD, LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR. It is a call to accept Jesus as our saviour AND our Lord. It is a call not to dismiss our heritage. It is a call to look forward. It is a call to focus on the unity in Jesus rather than hammer other denominations. It is a call to reach out to people who don't think the same as us. And a lot lot more.

I can quite understand why many churches and many Christians have got upset by this book. McLaren is not generous (I don't think this is intentional which makes it all the more damaging) in his critique of Christians who say they have the "right" way of being a Christian (these people where known as Pharisees in the Gospels... but they still exist today in all parts of the Christian community). He systematically (which is funny because McLaren is almost anti-systematic in his approach) destroys any argument that we, as mere humans, can claim to have worked out how to walk the 'right line'. For a Pharisee, who devotes all their time to working out the 'right line', this is deeply offensive (just as it was when Jesus called them on it). This has resulted in McLaren being critiqued either inaccurately (this is generally done by taking a statement out of context or in part) or personally. Both of these approaches are unfair based on what I have read in this book.

So have a read. Come to it with a closed mind, an open mind or a thoughtful mind. It doesn't matter. It will challenge you.

Todd Friel's

See below

Todd Friel's

Some interesting videos. A very constructive critique of Rob Bell

Terry Tate sensitive training

PC madness

Terry Tate - Vacation

Very funny

Terry Tate Office Linebacker

The original

1 Timothy 4:6-16 - Sermon from OCC

Well Good Morning and welcome to Onslow Community Church.

This morning we are going to look at 1 Timothy. So if you have your bibles, now is a good time to flick to this letter.

1 Timothy is easy to find. It is in the New Testament and it is part of the section of “T’s”. I just flick through the NT, from the back, until I hit a “T” and I’m sweet ‘cause I know it is somewhere there.

Anyway… let’s get a bit of perspective on this letter of 1 Timothy.

Basically this is a letter from Paul to Timothy. Paul… after his possum-in-the-headlights-of-heaven experience on the road to Damascus… had been wandering around the eastern Mediterranean Sea area preaching to the people there, starting churches with all the people who had believed in Jesus and moving on.

It seems that Paul visited a city on his first missions trip called Lystra, which is in modern day Turkey. There a young man Timothy became a Christian.

On Paul’s second trip, he stopped in on Lystra again. This is written about in Acts 16:1-5. He found that Timothy had grown in his faith. Timothy’s fellow believers thought very highly of him so Paul invited Timothy to join his mission.

We also see in these verses that Timothy must have been VERY keen to join Paul’s mission because he had a significant… how do we put it… barrier to overcome. Notice all the guys moving slightly in your seats. ☺

Now I should point out that circumcision is not a requirement to be a missionary or Christian. What was going on here was that not being circumcised would have limited Timothy’s ability to work with Jewish believers so he seems to have decided that if this will help introduce Jesus to more people… bring on the scissors!!!

So Timothy joined up with Paul and onwards they went on his second missions trip.

Timothy must have been a very gifted and impressive young man because almost straight away Paul is prepared to entrust churches to Timothy when Paul gets booted out of a city.

By Paul’s third missionary trip he is sending Timothy off left right and centre. He is sent to the Corinthians (1 Cor 4:17), Philippians (Phil 2:19), Thessalonians (1 Thes 3:2), to name a few.

We find Timothy in Ephesus when 1 Timothy is penned.

This letter is unlike a lot of Paul’s letter. In many ways we are eavesdropping on a personal letter. Other letters are to churches or to everyone. This is a personal letter to Paul’s young charge. So it is dealing with issues that are specific to Timothy and the ministry he was doing in Ephesus.

The letter deals with a good number of subjects including:

1. False teachers
2. Faith and perseverance
3. Worship services
4. Selecting church leaders
5. Relationships between church people

Many of these subjects are very useful for us as a family of believers, hence why this letter is in the Bible.

This morning I want to focus on what I see as the pivotal section of the letter…

1 Timothy 4:6-16

[Read out loud]


6 If you explain these things to the brothers and sisters, Timothy, you will be a worthy servant of Christ Jesus, one who is nourished by the message of faith and the good teaching you have followed. 7 Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly. 8 “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” 9 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it. 10 This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.
11 Teach these things and insist that everyone learn them. 12 Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. 13 Until I get there, focus on reading the Scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers, and teaching them.
14 Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you. 15 Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.


These verses are the key to the letter. They are fatherly advice to Timothy and they connect all the other sections within the letter.

This section gives us ten short lessons to take onboard so we will work our way through these verses.


1. We need to explain things to our church family

6 If you explain these things to the brothers and sisters, Timothy, you will be a worthy servant of Christ Jesus, one who is nourished by the message of faith and the good teaching you have followed.

Verse 6 essentially says that everything that I, Paul, have written above should be explained by Timothy to the church he was pastoring in Ephesus. Things like:

• Beware of false teachers
• This is how you should worship
• This is how leaders should behave and be selected
• And so on.

The modern day implication for us is that we should teach what the Bible says. We should explain it so that everyone understands what was written and what it means. When we do this we are following good teaching and we are being a worthy servant.

So as a church we have a responsibility to explain what the Bible says. At OCC we do this primarily as part of these Sunday morning services and through homegroups. However if there are questions you have… big deep theological issues… there are people in our church family who will help you understand what the bible says about these things. Just ask!


2. Don’t waste time with old wives tales

7 Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales…

Oh how we love to do this. This is almost a cultural pastime for our generation. We love to discuss new theories and old theories and bits of trivia and just a whole pile of stuff. Information, ideas… knowing more has almost become a god for our generation.

Yet the more we know the more we realise we don’t know. The more we argue through philosophies, the more we realise that all this other stuff is pointing out the hopelessness of life without Jesus.

I was watching a very interesting series of videos on evolution. This genetic scientist was explaining how as he understood more about cells and how they work and reproduce, the more questions he had about the theory of evolution. When he asked his colleagues how to answer these questions there were no answers.

Eventually all his studies on evolution, a godless idea, pointed him to a creator/designer… Jesus.

Now what I am about to say is pretty politically incorrect in today’s world… but I will step forward and take one on the chin…

You don’t need to know a lot to have a successful life. You need to know Jesus is God and He created all things and He loves you. Its good to know a little bible. And that is about it.

Now I am not saying education is bad… hey I knocked out 6 years of uni, a bachelors and a masters in economics… but really a lot of what we study is only useful so we can participate in this world. It is important to participate in the world but nowhere near as important as participating in the Kingdom of God.

For instance… if you can get your mind around the wholeness of the cross and explain it simply and clearly – then you are a lot more valuable than say an economist to the people around you

As I said, not a PC view… but think about it!


3. Training

…Instead, train yourself to be godly. 8 “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”…

So if arguing about and discussing godless ideas isn’t that valuable, then what is?

Well Paul answers this. He says “…Instead, train yourself to be godly.”

And he gives an example of physical training being good… but says that “…training for godliness is much better…”

What does this mean?

I don’t think he is talking about “training” ourselves to believe in Jesus because that is a gracious gift from God. It is not dependent on us so we can’t “train” ourselves in this.

Perhaps what he is meaning are things like what we find in Galatians 5:22…

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Perhaps it is to be disciplined… another not very PC word… in prayer and reading the Bible and surrendering decisions to Jesus BEFORE they are made.

Perhaps it is being disciplined in spending a few hours preparing for homegroup rather than doing a 12 hour day at work.

Perhaps it is to see what Jesus did and try it.

Many of these things grow or develop through practice, trial, training… whatever you want to term it.

And these things are a million times more valuable than a couple of degrees.


4. Trustworthy sayings

8 “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” 9 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it.

In verse 9 Paul says this is a trustworthy saying and we should accept it. Now there is a bit of argument about whether verse 8 is the trustworthy saying or verse 10. The NLT translation, which we are using, suggests that it is verse 8.

The question is… why does Paul say that something is a “trustworthy saying”?

Well first of all we should note that Paul uses this phrase three times in 1 Timothy.

a. …“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” – and I am the worst of them all. (1 Tim 1:15)
b. …”If someone aspires to be an elder, he desires an honorable position.” (1 Tim 3:1)
c. “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” (1 Tim 4:8)

When we look at these trustworthy sayings they seem to me to be a little like the sayings in Proverbs. They are not rhyming or structured like a proverb but they are a little snippet of wisdom that is worth remembering.

So I think we have a little bit of wisdom captured here and Paul is highlighting it.


5. Our hope is in Jesus

10 This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.

We have hope in Jesus and this is what drives us to struggle. Pure and simple.


This verse however does introduce an idea that is troubling.

Jesus is “…the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.”

All people??? How does that work, you might ask? Doesn’t Jesus only save those who believe in Him?

There is a doctrine… I would suggest a false doctrine… called universalism. Basically it says that Jesus saves (in an eternal sense) everyone… those who follow Him… and those who don’t. It doesn’t matter if you believe… He saves you.

I don’t believe this! This interpretation doesn’t fit with a large number of other verses and teachings in the Bible.

This can degenerate into quite a complex issue but basically what we believe is that many people will reject Jesus and they will spend eternity separated from Him – in hell. (John 3:36) We then go on to debate a little over whether we are chosen or whether we chose… but generally we agree that it is through the grace of God.

Anyway…

There is another doctrine called common grace. This basically says that Jesus’ sacrifice has benefits for all people but special extra benefits only for Jesus followers. These extra benefits revolve around eternity but are also in the present.

For instance, people in general are restrained by their conscience. This is a benefit for all of society. But only believers receive eternal life and have the Holy Spirit working in them, guiding them through our earthly life.

This is a very simple skim over this issue. It is a big doctrinal debate. Just type “1 Tim 4:10” into Google and you get 82 pages of links. There is a serious amount of discussion about it.


The key point to take on board here is that Jesus is our hope… AND regardless of whether you believe in Him or not… He is the only real hope for all.


6. It is ok to be young

11 Teach these things and insist that everyone learn them. 12 Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young.

Timothy was a young man. But he was also a gifted, key leader.

Some of you will have found at times that when you are young and you are responsible for people who are older than you, your youth can be a tension. In many cases authority comes with age and experience. But this is not always the case. Sometimes older people struggle to deal with this situation. Sometimes younger people struggle with the situation as well.

Paul tells Timothy not to “…let anyone think less of…” him because he is young.

Age has nothing to do with God given authority. If God has given you a gift of leadership… if He has called you to be a teacher… off you go. This is what Paul is telling Timothy.

However this is not an invitation for all you young guys to rock up and say to mum and dad… “Paul says you are not to think less of me because I am young… so I am off to my mates to make pipe-bombs… I’ll be back late… don’t wait up”. Because that would not be respecting your parents. Also, experience and maturity are a benefit and when we are young we do some pretty silly, thoughtless things because we sometimes don’t see the whole picture.

Paul connects this thought of “it is ok to be young” with the next lesson which is to live a life of example to all.

Before we jump onto that however… for us somewhat older folks (commonly called ‘old fogies’)… there is an application here. Sometimes we are guilty of undervaluing the contributions or potential contributions of younger people. Yes… young people don’t necessarily have the experience we do. Sometimes that can be a good thing. Sometimes we get a bit set in our ways. And our ways may not be the right ways.

I feel Paul giving us a prod to be a bit more cognisant of what young people are thinking.


7. Be an example

Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.

Great wisdom here. And this is wisdom applicable to young, old, average, male, female…

Be an example to everyone else in our:

a. Speech
b. Life
c. Love
d. Faith
e. Purity

Great, wise advice. It doesn’t matter who you are, if you reflect well in these five areas… if you are an example to others in these five areas… people will overlook your age, gender, race, class, wealth, poverty… whatever. People will think well of you.


8. Church

13 Until I get there, focus on reading the Scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers, and teaching them.

Paul tells Timothy to focus on reading the Bible to the church he is pastoring, to encouraging them and to teaching them. This is the definition of what a pastor should do.

If you go to a church that does not have the Bible read, that does not have people encouraging one another and are not being taught what the Bible says… then maybe you should look elsewhere. Because this is a lot of what church is about.

When we think about our church family here at OCC, we need to be reading the Bible together. On Sunday morning and in our homegroups. It is important that we ground ourselves in what God has said.

We need to be encouraging each other to step out in faith… trying new things… new ministries. We need to be hearing stories of what has happened and how Jesus showed up.

For example… the other day at Friday prayer meeting we prayed for a whole pile of things and God answered them. Not all but heaps.

• Rachel was about to have her end of year recital and said she was having issues with it. It went well.
• Heather was having blood pressure issues. This got sorted.
• Claire was having a pregnancy scan. The two previous low grade scans showed stuff. After we prayed… the high grade scan showed it was gone.

Awesome observable ‘God-moments’. We need to hear these stories because they encourage one another.

We need to be being taught what the Bible says and how that affects us here and now.

• How does Jesus feeding 5,000 people impact me?
• How does Stephen being stoned to death affect me?
• How does Jesus challenging people to cast the first stone if they are innocent affect me?
• How does Jesus’ commandment to go to the ends of the earth to spread His message affect me?
• And so on…

So we need to see these things happening in our church. When they are not, we need to ask why. And when we have a part to play in these activities, we should. It is so valuable because it is building up our church family.


9. Make use of your gift

14 Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you.

Gifts… TNT are doing a 7 week study on these at the moment. It is really interesting.

Spiritual gifts are given to all believers by the Holy Spirit (Rom 12:6), not by people. In this case Timothy was made aware of his gift through the elders of his church prophesising about it.

This is important to know, as sometimes you will see people on TV “giving out” spiritual gifts to people. These ‘gift-giving’ people tend to wear white suits, cry a lot and turn up in private jets. A southern American or slightly ethnic accent also helps. I’m not sure why. And something about money always seems to come up…

Anyway… the Bible gives us three lists of gifts. They are…

Romans 12
• Prophesy
• Serving
• Teacher
• Encouragement
• Giving
• Leadership
• Showing kindness

1 Corinthians 12-14
• Wisdom
• Special Knowledge
• Faith
• Healing
• Miracles
• Prophecy
• Discernment
• Speak in tongues
• Interpret tongues
• Leadership

Ephesians 4
• Apostles
• Prophets
• Evangelists
• Pastors
• Teachers


I suspect these are not exhaustive lists but they give a pretty good start.

Now… we believe Timothy had the gifts of being a pastor and teaching. This is why Paul found him so useful for sending to various churches.

In this verse Paul is reminding Timothy… actually he is encouraging Timothy… to keep using his gift. The Ephesians appear to have been a pretty trying lot. So Paul is basically saying…

Dude… you are really good at pastoring this church… God chose you to do this work so it will turn out amazingly cool… so keep on at it!!!

Now isn’t that something we should be saying a lot more to one another?


10. Do all this with vigour

15 Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.


Finally, Paul says that Timothy should do all these things with vigour… not half heartedly… but for the sake of Jesus… Really give it 100%!

And why…

Because people are watching and their salvation depends on it.

And this is what it… life… everything we do… is really all about… isn’t it?

I mean, our goal is to see others come to salvation… come to know Jesus… and then grow!!!


This morning I don’t really have a single silver bullet… a single concluding, thought provoking, life changing point. We have looked at ten very valuable lessons out of these verses. I imagine that only one… two at the most… would have connected with each of you.

For me… I am challenged to avoid godless arguments and discussions. This is something that is a constant fight for me personally.

Over the last couple of years I have also been more and more challenged by verse 10… the importance of reading the Bible, encouraging people and discipling people. This has come out of our times in Siberia.

The question this morning, as we go through these passages, is… what is Jesus saying to me?

Maybe this is something you can ask Jesus as we come into a time of communion.

Communion is a time where we are advised to examine ourselves. We can ask Jesus to show us what we should change and a time for us to surrender our sin to Him for forgiveness.

AND… It is also a time to remember and to celebrate the life giving, sin cleansing action of Jesus on the cross… represented by the bread and the grape juice.

AND… It is also an excellent time to call out to Jesus if you don’t know Him. ‘Cause ultimately, all this… our worship, what we teach, our church family, our own families and ourselves… it is all to His glory!

Grace Like Rain - Todd Agnew

This is the first Todd Agnew song I was introduced to at Jo and Cam's wedding. He is a awesome musician.

Which Jesus Do You Follow? - More Todd Agnew

Todd Agnew

This is a dude people should check out...

One of my most favourite songs

Newsboys - In The Belly of a Whale

Very very cool!

Little Lies - Awesome

Awesome video about Helen

It seems some people in NZ are clicking onto just how corrupt the Helen Clark led government it...

Brickbat for Telstraclear

We use Telstraclear for our telecommunication services. They provide a very good service normally to us. Our house location means we can not get TV or even satellite TV so their cable service is great. Their internet service is much much better than any other provider in our area.

HOWEVER even organisations like this have their moments.

Here is an e-mail sent to us...

>>>>>>>

From: The team at TelstraClear
Reply-To:
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 21:46:58 +0000 (GMT)
To: xxxxxx
Subject: Important: Cable Modem Outage Notification

Dear Customer

We are making changes to our cable network in the Christchurch region.

To carry out the required work, we must impose a brief outage of your cable modem service.

The outage will occur at the following time:

The morning of Tuesday the 21th of November 2006 between 00.01am and 6am.

The actual impact on your individual service will be for approximately 15mins within this time. Normal service will resume by 6am.

We apologise for this disruption to service and any inconvenience this may cause you.

If you have any questions regarding this notice, please contact us on 0800 467 272.



NOTE: You may need to turn your modem off and on again at the wall to re-establish connection after the outage.


The TelstraClear Team
>>>>>


There are two things to note.

1. The e-mail was sent at 21:47 on the 21st Nov.
2. The outage was between 01:00 and 06:00 on the 21st Nov.

They sent the e-mail after the outage.

Also... they note you may need to restart your modem after this outage. Nice but if your modem was down because of this outage you wouldn't get the e-mail because your modem was stuffed!!!

So well done! Congratulations! An example of complete and utter brilliance.

A corrution free parliament???

NZ has consistently been rated one of the least corrupt countries in the world. I fear this will not be the case in the next round of ratings.

Here is an article from stuff.co...


Peters says staff destroyed emails
21 November 2006

By MARTIN KAY

NZ First leader Winston Peters says his staff destroyed leaked emails from National Party leader Don Brash after Dr Brash asked police to investigate how his personal correspondence was distributed.

Mr Peters said yesterday that emails to and from Dr Brash - which Mr Peters had boasted were "the most damaging information" in the Western World - were destroyed in September, when police were asked to investigate leaks from Dr Brash's office.

He said the destruction was decided by staff in his absence, and he had no problem with the move.

But Dr Brash said last night the revelation was staggering and he found it "hard to believe" Mr Peters played no part in the decision.

"Remember, this is material that Mr Peters said would `blow their heads off'. He repeatedly made extravagant claims about the contents of the emails. Yet today, he appears to be saying that his staff didn't bother to consult him before destroying material that their leader had bragged about over a number of months. That is just incredible, and Mr Peters needs to come clean."

He said Mr Peters' staff had destroyed evidence that was subject to a police inquiry, but Mr Peters said the claim was "nonsense".

"The police have all the information about the emails - what they want to know is who leaked it. That's the offence which was brought to their attention.

"Don Brash knows that person. He should just tell you."

Mr Peters revealed the emails' destruction after he was asked to comment on the High Court injunction won by Dr Brash on Friday to prevent the distribution and publication of his personal correspondence.

In a rare move, the order was issued against "John and Jane Doe" - meaning anyone later found to have the emails - and was sought after rumours they were being made into a book.

Mr Peters has made no secret of having some emails from Dr Brash, and in December he mimicked American actor Clint Eastwood's gun-toting Dirty Harry character as he taunted National about the damage they would do.

"Oh, I know what those members are thinking: they are wondering whether I have one telephone book full of those emails, or 10. Well, I have to tell those members that, in all this excitement, I myself clean forgot to count them. But given that this is the most damaging information seen in the Western World, and could blow their political heads clean off, they have to ask themselves this question: Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punks?"

Mr Peters said last night he did not know who sent him the emails, which arrived in hard copy form.

Police said Dr Brash's complaint was still being investigated.


... What is fascinating about this situation is that we have a senior Minister in government saying that when the Police took an interest in some documents, his staff destroyed them... BUT I didn't know about it because they were only "...the most damaging information seen in the Western World...".

There are two phrases that come to mind...

Perverting the course of justice and unbelievable!

If anyone else admitted to destroying evidence because the Police started sniffing around, they would be charged. However the Police HQ have shown a complete lack of spine to do their job in the face of political pressure from this current corrupt government. Paintagate. Speedgate. Tenisball-gate. Give-me-a-visa-and-I'll-tile-your-house-gate.

It is now time for the National Party to make it clear to top civil servants... who should be neutral and do their jobs... that they will be fired for these past inactions once the Labour Party is turfed. I realise this is a slippery slope but we are already on it. It is too late.

The first to go needs to be the Police HQ. The second the Labour Dept. The third Health.

Africa needed

If you have a look at the bottom of this page you will find a SITEMETER icon. This provides monitoring of who looks at my blog.

So far I have had people look at it from all continents but Africa. So... SOMEONE FROM AFRICA... please visit my blog!!!

:-)

Nooma 14: Breathe

The latest Nooma DVD is very good. I find it a personal challenge about God being in every single breath... every single aspect of what we do and who we are.

It is highly recommended.

Who is Jesus? - Sermon from OCC 19th Nov

This morning I would like to explore one of the most important questions we face… Who is Jesus? Our answer to this question has big and eternal consequences.

Many people see Jesus with only one eye.

You’ve probably heard people say “Jesus was a good man”. This is true. But He is so much more.

You’ve probably heard people describe Him as a “wise teacher” or as Moslems describe Him… “a prophet”. Again, this is true. But He is so much more.

You may have even heard people go as far as describing Him as “their saviour”. This is very true. But He is so much more.

There are a million and one different views of Jesus. In many cases they are true. But in many cases they only paint part of the picture.

This morning I would like to outline the bare minimum of who Jesus is. I intentionally say “bare minimum” because I want to recognise that Jesus grabs hold of our lives in different ways.


I have two reasons for doing this.


1. For those of you who do not know Jesus… I want you to meet Jesus. So this morning is going to be like when a friend of yours introduces you to a friend of theirs. Your friend will tell you about this person you are about to meet so you already have a bit of a foundation to start a friendship on. So this is what we are going to do.

2. For those of you who do know Jesus… I want us to gain a fresh and invigorated passion for just how amazing Jesus is. As the video highlighted, sometimes we lose the sense of just how amazing Jesus’ ministry and example was. And sometimes we forget that Jesus is both our saviour AND our God. Other times we forget that Jesus walked the same road we are walking.


So… Who is Jesus?

There are five core descriptors of who Jesus is…


1. Firstly, He was Mary’s son and He grew up to be a man.

2. Secondly, He is the greatest, wisest teacher ever.

3. Thirdly, He is the perfect example of how we should live in harmony with the will of God.

4. Fourthly, He is our saviour – through His redemptive work, saving us from the penalty for our sin and giving us a new hope.

5. And finally, He is God – sovereign and reigning over all creation.


We will have a look at what the Bible says about each of these. Before we do, I should point out that not many people argue about one to three. There is solid historical evidence that Jesus lived. There is also very strong collaborative and logical evidence that the biblical story of Jesus is true.

What people do argue a lot about is four and five which are in affect the implications of the biblical story being true.

So with that context… let’s have a look at…


Jesus the man

Jesus was a man. In John 1:14 the Bible says that “…the Word…”, meaning God, “…became human and made His home among us…”.

One of the really important theological concepts to grasp is that God came into human history as a man for a period of time. Jesus was NOT a man who became God because He was good. It is very clear that because of our sinful nature, humans are not able to be ‘good enough’ to become God.

This is actually a big differentiating issue between what we as Christians say and what all other religions say. And I think, when you really get honest with yourself, that it makes sense.

We get a reasonable sense from the Gospels, particularly Luke 2, of Jesus as a man.

Growing up, Jesus was very much like other young Jewish boys of that time. He was circumcised. He was named. He was presented to the Lord at the Temple. He grew up strong and healthy.

Later we see Jesus taking part in a wedding feast (John 2:1-12), sharing a meal with people (Luke 19:1-8), sleeping (Luke 8:23), being tempted (Matthew 4:1-11)… and eventually dying (Luke 23:46).

Jesus, being fully human, took part in all of the human experience… except sin.

In John 1:14 Jesus is described as “…full…” - not half full or full most of the time – but “… full of unfailing love and faithfulness.”. In other words, though He was tempted, He DID NOT SIN. We see in Matthew 4 Jesus being tempted with power and hunger – representing for all you Maslow-philes both His base needs and His affirmation needs. Yet He DID NOT SIN.

In fact when the Roman centurion oversaw Jesus being crucified, he said “…Surely this man was innocent…” (Luke 23:47).

No one could honestly point to anything with which to accuse Jesus – accept that He claimed to be God – which as it happened, is true!

So… it is really important to understand that Jesus was a man… human like us. We can identify with Him. We can be confident that He knows what it is like to be human.


Jesus our teacher

Jesus was the great teacher. This fact is pretty universally recognised.

Actually just this week Elton John… of all people… said that “…he admired the teachings of Jesus…”. And then with the next breath announced that he wanted to ban all religion because it bred hatred of his homosexual lifestyle.

In His day, even Jesus’ opponents recognised Him as a great teacher. In Matt 22:15-22 the Pharisees try to trap Jesus but instead they came away amazed by what they hear.

The general public recognised Jesus as a great teacher. “The people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority – quite unlike the teachers of religious law” (Mark 1:22).

Jesus taught about a large array of issues. You can divide these into four areas:

1. Repent! Basically this means recognise your sinfulness, turn away from it and place your faith in Him.
2. He explained what the law really meant in the context of the Kingdom of God.
3. He showed people what the Kingdom of God is like and how to start establishing it.
4. He prophesised about what would happen to Him.

If you want to personally discover how much Jesus still teaches us, read a chapter of Matthew each day for a month.

The last point is interesting. Jesus prophesised about His death and resurrection. He was bang on the money.

Jesus was a great teacher and He still teaches us today.


Jesus our example

Jesus is our example. Jesus’ life, as recorded by those around Him, was and still is, a walking, living, breathing example for us to follow.

Let’s quickly run through just some of the characteristics Jesus demonstrated to us…

• (Matt 14:14) Compassion –
• (Luke 19:1-8) Reaching out to the social ‘underbelly’ of society –
• (Luke 20:1-8) Humility –
• (Luke 19:45-48) Social Justice –
• (Luke 20:20-26) Respect for Authorities –
• (Mark 10:13-16) Blessing others –
• (Luke 11:1-13) How to pray –
• (Luke 10:30-37) Caring –
• (Luke 11:37-54) Criticising hypocrisy –
• (Luke 13:31-35) Grief over this world –
• (John 13:1-17) Being a servant –

Probably the characteristic that stands out the most – by virtual of it is the hardest for us to follow – is that of being totally surrendered to the will of God.

In Luke 22:42 Jesus prayed… “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine”.

This prayer was a reflection of Jesus’ life. He was totally surrendered to doing what God wanted Him to be doing.

As we try to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, this I think is the hardest thing to do. Too often our own will overrides what God would have us do.

One of the things to note about these many characteristics that Jesus demonstrated was that they were quite opposite to the way that many of the religious leaders of the day thought. For instance most of the nation thought that the Kingdom of God would be ushered in with a powerful ruler who would blow away anyone, like the Romans, who got in His way.

Yet Jesus was the antithesis of the religious leaders view... which explains why they found it so hard to see who Jesus was.

So Jesus provided us the example of how to live our lives in harmony with God’s will.


Jesus our saviour

Jesus is our saviour. In some ways this is part of His example to us. By being resurrected from the dead, He shows us that we will be too.


But what does it really mean to be “our saviour”? There are a number of aspects to this. Paul sets this out clearly in Ephesians 2:4-7:

4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

So what can we pull out from these verses:

1. Our salvation is because of God’s rich mercy… His grace.
2. Our salvation is because God loves us
3. We were dead because of our sin
4. We are raised from the dead… the spiritually dead… into life through Jesus
5. Because we are united by faith with Jesus we will join Him in heaven
6. Why… so God can point to us as examples of His grace and kindness

This is what it means to be saved. Death has no hold on us… just as it had no hold on Jesus. We are freed to live life now. And we will be with Him in heaven.

Now this descriptor of Jesus – Jesus is our saviour - is probably the most argued about. This is because as Christians we believe the role of saviour is exclusive to Jesus. We believe there is NO other way to be saved except through being united with Jesus. This causes great offence to those who believe other things because we are basically saying they are either blind or a fool.

If you don’t have a belief about your eternity, then you are blind. If you believe some other religion, we say you are being fooled.

Now there are a couple of arguments against Jesus being the saviour that I want to look at.

Firstly… “surely there are other ways for ‘good’ people to enter eternity”. There are two countering arguments against this…

1. No one is good enough to enter heaven off their own efforts.
2. Jesus said. In John 14:6 Jesus says “…I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” He doesn’t say “I am a way”… He claims to be exclusive. And just to clarify the point, He then says “…No one can come to the Father except through me”.

The second argument goes… “prove Jesus rose from the grave”. Well you can’t conclusively. What you can say is that:

1. The biblical account points to many people seeing Jesus after He was crucified. In one case over 500 at one time. It is pretty difficult to get 500 people to fake something and not spill the beans.
2. The New Testament authors challenged people who did not believe this claim to go and talk to those who saw Jesus after He was crucified. At the time these texts were written there were plenty of people alive who had seen Jesus – both before and after His crucifixion. There seem to be no fear of people investigating.
3. Roughly a third of the world’s population identifies themselves as followers of Jesus. Why on earth would a third of the world follow a dead man – a liar – a lie? If this is a con then it is a con of biblical scale – excuse the pun.
4. And finally, there are a truckload of people in this very room who will testify to how Jesus came into their life, turned it upside down and now they live for Him. How can Jesus do this if He is still dead?

Despite the arguments that people have about Jesus, it is important to know that what Jesus claimed, he delivered on. If you have faith in Him then you are united with Him and hence you will pass through death… you will spend eternity with Him. You can be sure of that.


Jesus our God

Jesus is our God. John Chapter One makes this very explicit.

1 In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He existed in the beginning with God.
3 God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
4 The Word gave life to everything that was created,[a]
and his life brought light to everyone.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.[b]
6 God sent a man, John the Baptist,[c] 7 to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8 John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. 9 The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
14 So the Word became human[d] and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.[e] And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
15 John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’”
16 From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.[f] 17 For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God,[g] is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

“The Word” is Jesus.

In Mark 15:39, as Jesus died, his Roman executioner exclaims “…This man truly was the Son of God”. This is a non-believing Roman with so much blood on his hands. Yet he recognises who Jesus is.

The demons recognised Jesus as God… having the power to cast them into hell.

Jesus repeatedly demonstrated His sovereignty… His control… His authority… over all things. Jesus brought people back to life… multiple times. He healed so many people they lost count. He feed thousands of people with food that was really only enough for one person. He vanished. He calmed a storm. He walked on water.

These are amazing demonstrations. I mean, if you ever have delusions of grandeur… if you ever think you are a really powerful dude… just try crossing the Cook Strait by foot. Let me know how you get on.

Doing all these things didn’t make Him God… but they showed He has power and authority that is only really explainable by Him being God.




Conclusion

So let’s bring this all together.

Who is Jesus?

1. He was a man
2. He is our teacher
3. He is our example
4. He is our saviour
5. He is God

This is what Jesus claimed. This is what the Old Testament prophets predicted. This is what the writers of the New Testament testified to. This is what other historical accounts corroborate.

For many people Jesus is more. However I am not sure the biblical account clearly includes more. Some people suggest that Jesus was a friend to His disciples. Many people describe their relationship with Jesus as “friends”. I guess I wonder whether Peter felt Jesus was his friend when Jesus called him Satan? (Mark 8:31-33)

That said, it seems to me that Jesus does reach into voids in His followers lives and fills them. To the fatherless He becomes their father… and so on. I think this is very much on a relationship basis however.

So why have we been talking about these five descriptors? I want to suggest this morning that we frequently focus on one or two and then proceed to lose perspective on just who Jesus is… just how amazing He is.

I just mentioned an example of where this happened. Mark 8:31-33

Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man[a] must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. 32 As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. 33 Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Peter forgot that Jesus is his God. Peter forgot that Jesus was his teacher. Peter just saw Jesus as a man. You might get the impression from this text that Jesus was not terribly happy about Peter reprimanding Him.

Many Christians see Jesus just as their saviour… their ticket into heaven. The term “fire insurance” is often used. We sometimes rest on the surety of our salvation and do not surrender our lives to Jesus. Or we “hide” bits of our lives – as if we could really hide from Jesus?

When we do this I think we are denying who Jesus is.

This is a really really important point… so I am going to repeat it…

When we lose perspective on just who Jesus is, we end up denying who Jesus is.


So…

If you don’t know Jesus, I hope this morning you have caught a glimpse of who He is. My prayer is that you might be interested in getting to know Him.

If you already know Jesus, then I have a challenge for you. This week think about who Jesus is to you. Maybe you could ask these questions:

• Do I know that Jesus has walked an even tougher path than me and made it?
• Do I recognise that what Jesus taught is applicable to me?
• Do I long to follow in Jesus’ footsteps?
• Do I know that Jesus died and was raised… and what does this mean to me?
• Is Jesus my God - Lord over all aspects of my life?


My prayer this morning is that each of us individually would know Jesus… the man, the teacher, the example, the saviour… our God.

Bad Wellington Weather

We are now well into November and the rotten weather has continued.

Here is a photo of what the view from our house is normally.



And here is what it has been like most of the last 6 months!!!



I now understand why my parents moved to Hawkes Bay after living in Wellington.

Andrea at work

The numa numa video - funnier version

This is my favourite Numa Numa video

The Numa Numa Video

Apple Mac Switch 666

The truth about Apple comes out... lol!!! :-)

Oh... and in case you don't know... I have an Apple MAC PowerBook G4. :-)

Questions for Christians

Quite a cool little video

Taser Trials

This is a recent article from the NZ Herald...

Constable zaps himself and innocent teen with Taser

Saturday November 18, 2006
By Patrick Gower

A constable who took a Taser to a central Auckland domestic dispute wound up shocking himself and a 16-year-old and later pepper-spraying an innocent 21-year-old woman.

The constable accidentally blasted himself with the Taser's 50,000 volts as he reloaded the weapon while trying to stun a man at the centre of the domestic incident on October 1. One shot accidentally struck the man's teenage son.

After five attempts to hit the man, the officer eventually used pepper spray. This hit the man's 21-year-old daughter, also an unintended target.

The man eventually gave himself up. The constable, who had had Taser training, was not injured.

The weapon is the police's much-vaunted alternative to firearms and is being tested by 170 frontline police in Auckland and Wellington.

Police revealed details of the incident after Weekend Herald inquiries.

Detective Inspector Bernie Hollewand of Auckland City police confirmed that the constable fired the Taser five times - three times loaded with cartridges and twice in "contact" mode, where it is used like a cattle prod. The first shot hit the son.

Mr Hollewand said the officer claimed that just as the red laser sight was on the man's chest, he pulled his son across him.

It is believed that at one point the officer received a jolt after putting his hand in the Taser.

"The constable did remove one of the cartridges before a five-second discharge cycle was complete and he did feel in his hand that the device was arcing 50,000 volts."

But an official police update of the Taser trial, published on October 17, makes no mention of the constable firing five times, or missing his target, zapping himself or hitting the boy. It simply says a man was contained after the Taser was fired.

Police Commissioner Howard Broad also did not mention the incident when he appeared before a parliamentary committee, saying frontline officers supported the introduction of the weapon, and yesterday National Party police spokesman Simon Power wanted to know why.

Police media officer Jon Neilson said the fact a Taser had been fired more than once in a single incident was not "relevant".


... Normally I would find this very funny. A cop who has fire shots and nails everyone BUT the person he was aiming at. Questions like... what does DIT stand for (Drunk Incharge of a Taser) come to mind.

However instead it makes me some what concerned. What is concerning is that people are going to rely on the ongoing reporting of the Taser trial to decide whether these guns are going to be introduced. And what we find out is that the reporting is just lies (called spin in the business).

Let's be honest. This does not sound like a wholly successful operation of the gun. The cop shot himself and an innocent person, pepper sprayed another innocent... and this was marked down as a successful use of the weapon. Hmmm. I feel the concept of accurate reporting has been missed.

In case you think I am an anti-Taser nutter... I actually support their introduction. I would much rather pepper spray and Tasers than pistols. I would like to see Tasers replace pistols and fire arms being restricted to special units. I would also like to see a 20% penalty on sentence for Police Officers who abuse their position. If a cop assaults a person, say with a Taser, and the normal sentence would be 2 years... they should have an additional 146 days added to their sentence.

We give the Police the ability to use force... we should expect this power to be used carefully and any misuse of it to be penalised heavily.