howie’s halfpipe

thanks to wife for sending me this

The following was found in a church bulletin, christians really need to find better ways of doing PR

WHY JESUS IS BETTER THAN SANTA

Santa lives in the North Pole - JESUS is everywhere

Santa rides in a sleigh - JESUS rides on the wind and walks on the water

Santa comes once a year - JESUS is an ever-present help

Santa fills your stocking with goodies - JESUS supplies all your needs

Santa come down your chimney uninvited - JESUS stands at your door and knocks, and then he enters your heart when invited

You have to wait in line to see Santa - JESUS is as close as the mention of his name

Santa lets you sit on his lap - JESUS lets you rest in his arms

Santa doesn’t know your name, all he can say is “Hii little boy (or girl) what’s your name?” - JESUS knew our name before we did. Not only does he know our name, He knows our address too. He knows our history and future and he even knows how many hairs are on our heads

Santa has a belly like a bowl of jelly - JESUS has a heart full of love

All Santa can offer is HO HO HO - JESUS offers help, hope and heaven

Santa says “you better not cry” - JESUS says “cast all your cares on me for i care for you”

Santa’s little helpers make toys - JESUS makes new life, mends wounded hearts, repairs broken homes and builds mansions

Santa is a ‘jolly old elf’ - JESUS is the king of kings

Santa may make you chuckle but - JESUS gives you joy that is your strength

While Santa puts gifts under your tree - JESUS became our gift and died on a tree

At dinner a few nights ago with a bunch of people someone put forth the question “Do you need to go to Church to be spiritually connected to God?”
 

We took it in turns answering this question, each person having a slightly different view and response.
 

It got me thinking about it, and I shared a bit of this on Tuesday night at the dinner table. Do I think you need to go to church to be spiritually connected to God?
Well I personally don’t think we need to go to church for spiritual connection, in fact if God is everywhere and always with us then we should be able to have that spiritual connection wherever we are and go. But this doesn’t really work does it? In theory it sounds nice but I know for me that I’m not always engaged with God, in fact often I’m far from it.
Some people say they feel most connected with god when they are alone with Him having a quite time or reading his word. Well I’m not really good at that either, infact if you come to my house and look on the book shelf you will see about 8 different journals and note books that I have started over the years in my attempts to have a quiet time each day. So that doesn’t work
How do I get my spiritual connection with god, that’s a good question sometimes its at church I feel really close to God, and I have to say that its not often during the sermon, often I get distracted and turn off or start thinking about other stuff. But then worship I love worship, but not what you think, I’m not into the new music.
Amazing Grace is such  a powerful song, I love it so much and when I’m in a room full of people singing that song it sends shivers down my spine, there is something about old hymms, they are sung differently there is more gusto and passion sometimes and I love it.
That is a song that makes me feel spiritually connected to god.
But why don’t I feel connected during the sermon or in quiet times?
 

I can tell you that its not because the sermons are lame or that the bible isn’t for me, its not because church isn’t for everyone. Its because I get in the way of myself. That sounds a bit confusing but God is everywhere and he is always ready for me to engage with him but its up to me to make the connection, if I sit in church and get bored in a sermon its no reflection on the preacher it’s a reflection on me. I need to make an effoert to get close to god to be challenged by his word. I’m sure many people turn off in sermons, well I’m going to try not to, God has done so much for me, how about I show him some respect and put in the effort to listen and engage with his love.
 

Going back to the original question “Do you need to go to Church to be spiritually connected to God?”
Well you don’t need it but boy oh boy it’s a good start, in the world we have so many distractions, things that mean we forget about God and are not engaged with his spirit. So church is a time and place where we can drop the world for a few hours and spend time in fellowship with God, I think church is an awesome tool to help us be spiritually connected, when 2 or 3 are gathered in his name there He is in the midst.
Imagine if we could be spiritually connected all the time….what would it take for you to be?

It would seem as if i am heading off to Greece in three weeks. Like last year.

All a bit sudden, my work is like that.

It seems to me that God seems to have a humerous sense of timing, he never seems to d things with plenty of time to spare, i think thats why we get on so well! Anyway a few prayers will be sent up in the next three weeks. as around $3500 neede be rased for me, but there i s three of us so really its $10,500 that needs to be raised in the next three weeks. Ah i love it!

So yay for my loyal readers, feel free to go balistic on the ads, send up prayer and give me dosh.

I was sitting her thinking I have nothing to blog, its all going downhill, all my readers are leaving, I haven’t said anything interesting in months. The only thing that keeps people interested is if I talk about poo, and I haven’t had any poo stories in the last few weeks. what am I going to say. I don’t have any pictures to put up nothing. I don’t really have anything to whinge about. Although post could be classified as a whinge.
Anyway the point of this post is to try and prove to myself that I do have stuff the share with the world.
Lets see what been happening with my life over the last few months. Worl=k has bbeen crazy and a bit overwhelming at times with no sign of it slowing down anytime soon. Sickness oh yes I got sick. Its funny because I have been sick with this gut thing for about 12 months which is quite a ling time, but its just sort of become normal that I don’t see myself as sick. I really am fine. you know how after a while you just adapt to stuff and it becomes normal. Like when you get a new pair of jeans, at first they are all new and weird and uncomfortable but then after a while you don’t notice they are just jeans they are comfy and normal. Anyway but I got more sick didn’t I had the infections and stuff. But they are gone. Oh and I started going out with jenny that was a good move I really love jenny. We have been going out for just over 3 months now. I can really see myself marrying that girl. I think we have a come a long way together over the last few months. It’s a bit strange because we spend all day with each other at work sitting at desks right next to each other and so much of our work is together. But then after work what do we do. we hang out more. and on weekends we hang out too. There doesn’t seem to be a possible overload of each other. And frankly I don’t want there to be, I like spending so much time with jenny. I do need to watch It a bit so I don’t neglect other people. I think that’s what I did badly last year. With work and stuff I sort of neglected the other people around me, everyone really, I was never home and never hung out with my friends cause I didn’t have a healthy balance. Its not like that with jenny but I don’t want it to become like that. cause it sicked I never saw anyone and never hung out with them, I was just howie, they guy that appeared sometimes and that we used to hang out with. So this year I’ve tried to change that. I’m still not excelling at it there has been heaps to do at work and been spending any spare time I get sleeping or with jenny. But I have spent more time with other people. Still looking for a healthy balance.
Emotionally how am I going, well pretty good I think. A bit tense and overwhelmed at times with work stuff, but then have to try and remind myself that I work for God and he wont give me more than I can handle. The only way it will become more than I can handle is if I don’t hand my work over to God in the first place and I try and do it alone.
Not that god wont make it challenging cause he will but he wont make it impossible.
So I think that’s another growth area for me just trusting in god and his plans for me, and not trying to do work without him.
How am I going spiritually. well that’s a bit of a grey area. I think to be really truthful I have been really close to god since about 2000. That may shock some people. But I think its true, my relationship with god is really up and down I don’t really get angry at God or upset with him, I think its more that I just haven’t had a good church home and I have bad habits which have helped push me further from gods presence. Like quiet times, I would love to have a quiet time everyday and the amount of times I have started and done it for a few days and then just stopped is ridiculous. I guess I’m telling you all this because in telling you I have sort of become accountable to you all. I would like to change I would like to get close to god again I would like to be a place where I thank god for everything, where I send up prayers as I’m crossing a road where I spend time in the bush in his creation just pondering and thanking him. I want to be in a place where I feel his hand on mine where ever I go. I want to be connected into a church, in fellowship with others, sharing our walks with each other.
I’ve started going to Thornleigh Baps a bit and I really like it. Good teaching good worship a real strong focus on mentoring and stuff. I like it I think as my braveness grows I’ll find it a really awesome church. So yes you heard it here first I think it will be my new church home.
In saying all that it sounds like I have been depressed for the last 5 years. that’s not true I have had some really awesome and profound times with God and have grown in my faith in some ways. Its just easier to pinpoint the stuff that’s not going as well as it could be.
It scares me how much people do look up to me sometimes and follow me not in a big headed I’m so good kind of way. Just like young people looking up to me and I have a job to be as much like Jesus as I can. And I fail, a lot so I really need to re-ignite my walk which God so that I can be in touch with him and look after all the young people I work with and everyone I interact with.
Ty and I where talking about our sort of work once and talking about me not having a church and stuff. He had a good analogy. Its like a sponge full of water, you can wring it out for a long time and get water out of it but eventually it will run dry unless there is a tap above it replenishing its water. Like the work I’m doing is good, and people are growing and changing and its all awesome but if I’m not getting replenishment from god then I’ll just run dry and the life will be squeezed out of me.
So there you go, may have shocked some of you, its not often I talk about god stuff on here.

that might do for now.

there will be a comprehension exam on the above later on.

I dont understand why.

But thanks mate, I love you

People with mental disabilities don’t have a disability, they are the most able people on this planet. How many people with a mental disability do you see judging people, holding grudges, blackmailing, twisting, hating.
Never, thats when.

People with mental disabilities are who we should be getting our mentoring and guidance from especially illness like down syndrome. People with down syndrome just keep on loving and smiling, sure they can get grumpy but the grumpiness never turns into a grudge or a prolonged hatred. It lasts for a very short amount of time. There is always love. You could do something to upset someone and 20 seconds later they hug you and embrace you. The past is forgotten.

Why is it that the people in this world who are the best examples of loving other people are the people we class as being “sick” and “disabled” and suffering from an “illness”.
Being able to always love is not an illness, its us who are ill. Not them.

Jesus tells us to love our neighbor, thats everyone!! Jesus loved everyone, why cant we?

You don’t need words to love,

1 Corinthians 13: 4-7
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

‘m not sure why i had this sudden outburst but i was thinking about it the other day.

Last night myself, David, Tom, Jo, Helen, Ryan, Carmen and Margaret went and saw “the Passion of the Christ”

I didn’t really know what to expect, I was quite un-enthused at going and seeing a subtitled film as I can never keep up with the subtitles and the thought that the whole film may not be subtitled defiantly made me consider not going, but I went maybe partly because if I didn’t go I would have nothing to contribute to conversations in the next few weeks as the whole world goes out and sees this film, especially fellow Christians. So I went!

During the film I managed to keep up with all the subtitles, and I didn’t loose the impact of the film because I was spending my whole time reading.

There was something about the violence in this film, that really got to me, like watching kill bill or something like that, seeing heads get chopped off and stuff doesn’t really impact or affect me much, a bit de sensitised to it all I guess. Damn modern culture!
Anyway Sitting there watching Jesus get whipped and whipped really disturbed me, Just the fact that I knew this was Jesus. If it was some guy in a war movie or something I would not have been nearly affected as much, I don’t know anyone from war, I have no connection with those people. But Jesus, he knows me, He was there being whipped for me and I was sitting there watching,
There was this strange feeling, Having these very graphic images right in front of me, sure I could have turned away and sure I could have walked out. I mean I know how the movie ends, I know what happens next. But that’s the thing, I know what happens next and I know that one of the things that happens next is that I have eternal life because of what Jesus was going through on that screen, so I could at least show him the courtesy of watching it. This was for me, This man was having his body torn apart by the soldier’s, he was being spat on and shouted at, wounds weeping all over his body, gash’s and lash’s and cuts and bruises, whip after whip after whip, his body so so weak. All for me. All for you.
Big nails driven through his palms, bones breaking and shattering, for me and you,
Death, for me and you.
Isn’t that crazy to think about, and there is something about physically watching it that drives it home more and more, reading the words in the Bible tell the story, Having pictures to go with the words makes the whole thing much more realistic, much more full on.
I think this film is good, it scares you, it disturbs you, it shakes you, we need to be shaken we need to see how much Jesus really has done for us,
I say Mel, make a film about the whole Bible, sure it might be 6 weeks long, but how powerful would it be, how much would it re enforce beliefs and create new ones,
I’m not saying that this film should replace the Bible or anything, like if you wanna know the Story of Jesus dying read the Bible, This film is just a tool to assist in telling the story.
Like that Francis of acyesis said “go out into the world and preach the gospel, and if you need to, use words”

Pictures can paint a thousand words.