You’re that guy… Who is too busy twittering, Facebooking, & texting on your mobile device to engage with people face to face.
You’re that guy.. who drag races people and drives like a tool just so you can be the first to the next red light.
I’m looking forward to the weekend. At this stage we’re going to the SCG to see the Swans, we’ve got a hotel in town booked, and it’s ANZAC day, so I should be able to wander down to the dawn service nice and early to get a decent spot.
Psalm 3: Complaint.
Theme: Battling against the odds, outnumbered, being picked on… a zipper in a world of velcro.
v5. stands out for me… the quiet calm amongst the turmoil. Assailants on every side, many are against you, many have written you off… but “I lie down to sleep and wake up again because YHWH sustains me”. Where there should be sleepless anxiety, there is a restful calm and trust in YHWH’s protection (v.3).
v7. Anger. Vindication. “Fight for me!” “punch them in the face YHWH!”. When your backed into a corner with the odds against you, this would be my prayer.
Feelings: anxious urgency and yet quiet comfort.
So in January 2008 I decided to read a psalm a day in order to teach myself to pray, and to pray more regularly… [This Post]
Well… you will notice that the “psalms” category on the right has only 4 posts… in fact I only did Psalm 1 and 2 before I fell off the wagon…
Where was the accountability eh people?!
Well, I’m starting again. I always love the Psalms, and given that I’ve been doing the Psalms course at college with Andy Stirrup I’m enthused once again to regularly reflect on a psalm daily in order to pray more godly prayers and be more prayerful.
Maybe you could take up the challenge with me? And you fellow bloggers out there might like to blog your reflections too.
This is the structure that I’m going for as i reflect on the psalms:
Here is a psalm chart I made some time ago to help me think about the different types of psalms. I’ve been updating it as I go, so it’s a work in progress. If you find it useful and want to start from scratch with a blank chart, use this one.
I was privy to know that the Bible Society had applied for a “Jesus. All about life” stall at this year’s Easter show but heard on Friday that the application was rejected! No Jesus at the Easter show! (Read about it here)
It’s quite a wonder to behold… No Muhammad at the Ramadan festival?
So, i think we can finally say what we had suspected to be the case for quite some time… it really is a show AT Easter rather than an Easter show.
However, It has prompted me to recognise that most Aussies probably view Easter and Christmas the way I view the the Queen’s Birthday in June. The similarities with Christmas especially are really very profound… QB: celebrates the birth of a sovereign with a public holiday on the date that isn’t actually the real birthday… Christmas, the same… But if somebody wanted to tell me the real reason for my June long weekend was because the queen was born and she is the head of the country I live in and that I should pay her homage on her birthday, I wouldost likely tell them I didn’t care. As far as I’m concerned this is my public holiday regardless of what it stands for…
Sound familar?
I’ve joined one of those fantasy football leagues for NRL, AFL is my game of choice, but I wasn’t invited to join one of those… Anyway…
So I went in this comp last year and came last as I chose a team at the beginning of the year and basically forgot about it. Then after 2 rounds, and halfway through the 3rd, I thought I’d try to see why I was doing so badly.
It turns out that you need to choose a captain, who then scores double points, and 4 reserves or none of your reserves points count!
So I’ve done that and I’m doing ok-ish now, I’m playing the Valiant Chargers, and the score is 450 to 533 their way, 10 of my players have played this round and 9 of theirs, neither captains have played.
So i’m confident that even if I go down it’ll be my highest scores in probably over 12 months!
Man, it pays to read the rules sometimes…
My team is called The Punchbowl Guns, cheer them on!
I’ve just completed an assignment for the Psalms and Daniel subject I’m doing at Youthworks College this semester and I’m interested to see if the assignment is useful in practice…
This is the assignment:
A friend is haunted by an event that took place in the past. You don’t actually know what happened but you know that memory of that event triggers a cycle of anger, resentment and guilt. Choose three psalms that would help your friend who feels trapped in this cycle. Explain why you have chosen these particular psalms and explain how they might be used as part of a process of helping your friend move from victim to survivor.
I chose psalms 55, 32, and 124 in response (in that order). Here’s a short explanation of the psalms I chose:
If you are someone who is still revisited by a painful memory of a hurtful event in the past that you haven’t dealt with, I’d be interested if these psalms help aid your process from victim to survivor. Please let me know.
Here’s something for all you theologisers out there! What are your thoughts on this?
A healthy church is a gathering where everyone gets what they don’t want.
What I mean by that is, church should not be be tailored to everyone’s liking. There should be hymns for people who don’t like hymns, kid’s talks for people who don’t like kid’s talks, long prayer times for people who don’t like long prayers and vis versa… There should be people and personalities there that don’t naturally connect – this is a healthy church.
Discuss.