Month: October 2024

Everyone should know…

October 30, 2024

What’s something you believe everyone should know.

Everyone should know the four things on the image above.

  1. It was prophesied for centuries that a Saviour would come. History tells us that Jesus came and was born in a manger and grew to be a man.
  2. The Bible tells us that Jesus died on the cross. He died to pay the price for our sin. He died so we can have a relationship with God for all eternity.
  3. The Bible also tells us that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day and He appeared to over 500 witnesses.
  4. A great promise of the Bible is that one day Jesus is coming back for His people. He is coming back to take us to the place He has prepared for us.

These are four things I have spent more than half my life telling people about Jesus.

Jesus left the glories of heaven to come and save us. He could not stand the thought of us missing out of eternity, so He came for you and me.

If you would like to find peace with God and come in to a personal relationship with Him, you can visit the page below to find out more.

https://passionaustralia.org/salvation.html

I enjoy being alone

October 28, 2024

What’s something most people don’t know about you?

Most people are surprised to hear that I enjoy being alone so much. Especially where they hear I have worked as a Pastor and a Chaplain.

They automatically think that by having these roles that I have lots of friends and I enjoy being around people all the time. But to be honest before I was a Christian I was a bit of a loner. These days people would call it introverted.

I have always picked sports or activities that I can do alone like weights in my home gym, cycling, bush walking, golf or swimming. Doing these things with other people generally drains my energy. Doing them alone restores me.

Do not get me wrong, I love being with my wife and kids and wider family, but when it comes to the end of the week I am looking forward to being home relaxing. I am not ringing people to arrange activities over the weekend.

Over the years I have tried to be more of an extrovert and spend more time with people. I can do it for a short time, but it does not last long. I just find I need more alone time than most.

Whenever I have worked as a Pastor or a Chaplain I always do it part time. This is so I can do my best in my roles and then have my alone time to rest, recover and reflect.

So what do most people not know about me? I enjoy being alone.

My favourite prayer

October 27, 2024

My favourite prayer is the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus gave to His followers. It was in response to them asking Jesus to team them how to pray (Luke 11:1).

There are several version of the same text. One is in more modern language and one is in the older King James style. I find I pray the older version as that is what I learned first. It tends to just flow out.

Here is the older version taken from Matthew 6…

Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil,
For the kingdom,
the power and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen

The thing I love about this prayer is it covers all areas of life. It honours God and seeks His will, asks for provision, forgiveness and protection, and finishes with giving God His glory.

I also love that depending on how I am feeling I might focus in the one line. Sometimes I might be about worship and honouring God. At other times it might be about provision, protection or forgiveness.

I am so happy the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. It has given us a great template to follow. One that allows us to connect with in God in a way that honours Him and also asks for our needs.

God wants us to rest plan

October 24, 2024

I am doing a Bible reading plan on the Bible app at the moment. It is titled, “God wants you to rest”. I found today’s reading really good. I have copied it below…

Rest Is Celebration and Community

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. -Exodus 20:9–10 

Anyone who works hard labor throughout the week needs a day of physical rest. Most of my work life is spent sitting in a chair. So, my best Sabbath rests include some physical exercise. That refreshes me. A Sabbath rest is a break from what we have been doing all week long. Therefore, some things about the day of rest may look differently for different people. 

The commandment calls us to stop doing what we have been doing all week. God wants us to dedicate this day to enjoying His community. He wants us to bring our family with us. This is resting in God. 

There are two different Hebrew words for work. One of the words is‘abad used in Genesis 2:15: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it.” The Bible never prohibits this kind of work. In fact, this word also means “worship.” 

The other Hebrew word is mela’khah, which is creative work (see Exodus 20:10). The commandment prohibits this kind of work on the Sabbath. One day of the week, God wants His people to stop forging forward or building new enterprises and rest. 

Sabbath rest is a day to spend time with our family and with the family of God. I think God would prefer that we spend this day gathering with family around the pool rather than building a new pool. God wants us to include Him in this time. Sabbath rest is a time to find rest by enjoying God and His people. 

Greg Stone 

What hinders you from setting aside a day to rest each week? How can you make a plan to set aside one day every week to worship and rest?

Holy God, thank You for the gift of rest. Please help me to rest in You and enjoy all You’ve given me.

If you are interested, you can find it here.

Most proud of in my life?

October 20, 2024

What are you most proud of in your life?

What am most proud of? It would have to be the way I bounced back from being bedridden with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) at 18.

I was diagnosed at 12 years of age. It was life changing. Over the next six years it got to the point of being bed ridden. It mainly effected my feet, ankles and knees, but also effected my elbows, neck and jaw.

I can remember after a very bad period I went to see my Rheumatologist. I asked, “If I am like this at 18, what will I be like when I am older?” He told me it was better to accept this is how is it going to be forever.

Looking back I am both surprised and thankful to my 18 year old self. I looked at the specialist and said to myself you are no help to me going forward. I never went back to see him again.

From there I started researching diet and exercise for RA. I found a lot of people had success in European health clinics with fruit and vegetable juicing diets. People went in to clinics in wheelchairs and walked out off all medication two months later.

This gave me more hope than my Rheumatologist. So I dived in wholeheartedly and before long I noticed a big change. The pain reduced. The stiffness reduced. The swelling reduced.

From there I decided to strengthen my legs with cycling. I built up to 50 kilometres per day. Then I added weight training. Something I continue to this day.

Looking back I am so proud of that 18 year old young man. He could have accepted what the Rheumatologist said and stayed on a pension, but he chose to fight for a better life.

What am I most proud of? That I chose to attack Rheumatoid Arthritis and not let it win.