Can't Sleep......it's 12:44 AM

Hey all,
Naomi here for a change...........for some reason God always seems to knock on my door at the most inconvenient times.........like right now, it's nearly 1:00 am and I desperately need sleep, but God has just hit me with something and all I can do is think on it and the more I think, the more urgent it becomes!!!!!! I think he wants me to blog it, then he will let me get to sleep!!!!!!

So here goes,
Many of you know, and some of you don't that ten years ago Pete and I lost a baby, I was around 23 weeks pregnant and my waters broke early, I was rushed to hospital and after many painful hours of the doctors trying to stop the bleeding and all that stuff, they decided the only thing to save my live was an emergency cesarian which resulted in our little boy Caleb only surviving for 36 hours.

About 1 & 1/2 years ago when I thought I was totally over the pain of it all and had well and truly moved on with my life, God gave me an amazing vision of my three healthy boys in one hand, and my tiny fragile baby in the other......at this point I burst into tears and said why God Why?? God then put his hand on my shoulder and said "Naomi, you don't need to know why, you just need to trust me" this was one of those life changing moments where Gods presence in all of my life was so clear and undeniable that I could do nothing but worship his awesomeness!!!!!

Anyway, I guess I thought that was book closed, healing done, move on with life...........until today...............today my husband shared with me that an older gentleman in our community has shared with him the story of his first baby being still- born, in the same hospital we had Caleb (of course many, many years earlier) this man has shared with Pete the pain he still has, and when I heard that I burst into tears, I just feel so sad that this man still has pain after so long, when we have experienced healing. So when I tried to get to sleep about an hour ago, I couldn't get this man out of my head, I tried praying for him............and I am sure that's great, but I realised that God wants this broken, hurting man to experience the same healing that Pete and I have experienced.........This healing that God offers is for everyone, not just a select few. I don't know how, but Pete is becoming quite involved in this guys life and I am sure God knows where it is all going.

Anyway, last thought to do with this stuff...........I am so excited by the idea that God is the master of the slow reveal!!!! imagine if ten years ago I lost my baby, then God healed my hurt and it all happened fast................ instead, when I thought the book was totally closed on it, God showed me even more, and has given me even more compassion for those that are hurting and pained...............wow, he is a mighty God!!!!!!!

Anyway..........Peter wants to sleep (the computer is in the bedroom, and I woke him up)

Hopefully I can sleep now,

Thanks for reading

Naomi

Don't Judge a book by It's cover? - Yeah Right!!

I know that the saying Goes "Don't Judge a book by Its cover, but sometimes there really is no choice but to...

Take Australia's own Col Stringer, well actually he is a yank by birth he just loves trying to prove his Aussie-ness by writing books about Australia's Christian Heritage and stuff ...

His Yankee-ness really does come out in his newest book as he leans against his Humvee - in his classic king-gee pose - sunnies and all, suggesting that that is what it is to be a man!!??!!

Well as I said I will never read this book so I cannot judge it by its content - only by its cover - but I think I will never measure up to this sort of manhood - maybe I should change my name...

From Peter (Peta?)

Date Change

Hi, Just a quick one here...

The date of our interview has changed from friday morning to Saturday morning (2nd Dec) from 8.30ish to 12ish...

Please don't forget to pray!

Peter

Legalism, Freedom & Sobriety

Most of our regular readers will know when I do my prattle that I don't always make sense, and this post may be the same. I use this space as a place to get out thoughts that I have running around in my head & as such they are not always completely formed, or linear, so bear with me, humour me, and most important give me feedback to let me know how I am going...

Anyway, onto my post...

I want to preface my post with this scripture...

1 Corinthians 10:23-33
"Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it."If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if anyone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience' sake— the other man's conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

When I mention to people that our joining UNOH will mean amongst other things a vow to sobriety, I get lots of strange looks. I find myself quickly adding the explanation "it is not a theological belief that Christians should not drink, it is just that we are working alongside many alcoholics & so it would not be appropriate..."

Even after saying that, many Christians say that they could not give up alcohol like that, (in fact from what I hear this issue is a real problem for many would be UNOH members, and causes them not to join!).
This whole issue really makes you think though doesn't it? I don't believe that the bible says it is wrong to drink. Obviously the proof texts of the water into wine miracle and the last supper proves that Jesus was not against it. Having said that, I do believe that the bible teaches that alcohol is dangerous (especially getting drunk) and that it probably is better that we steer clear of it. (the bible has a number of these issues - it could even easily be argued that bigamy falls into this category!!)

We in the church (probably particularly in Australia though I think the Poms are probably there with us too) have decided that that we don't want to be seen as sticks in the mud, so we have a drink or 2 with our mates to show that Christianity is not all about rules and regulations, but that we too can be cool... this sort of fits into the "If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience." part of the verse above. It's all about cultural relevance, not ostracising ourselves from community for the sake of the gospel.

The UNOH vow of sobriety probably fits into the next section of this passage, where it is all about not being a stumbling block & stuff like that. So both expressions really are valid and have their Justification in scripture.

It is all about what Christ has called you to; Right?

But the next question is do we only drink so that we don't look like prudes, or do we drink because we enjoy it? Do we drink when we are at a Christian part where there are no "heathens?" (I use that word to have a stab - I would never use that word in a serious context myself) - and lets face it most of our "Christian" parties are like that... do we over indulge at these parties? Do we have a quiet drink at home alone? How much do we drink? How often?...

Have we just used "cultural relevance" and freedom in Christ as an excuse to indulge? - if we are not willing to give up the Christian "Right" to drink for the sake of reaching out and helping those who are drowning in their alcoholism, have we just negated the whole argument that it is ok to drink??? It could almost be argued that our freedom to drink has become a legalism in it's own right.

We are so caught up in showing the world that we are like them (in the name of being IN the world but not OF it), we are so caught up in being relevant and Cool, that our attempts at cultural relevance have gotten in the way of our obedience to Christ. I even feel like I need to justify the “Uncoolness” of a vow of sobriety to my Christian friends!!! This is where the first part of the above scripture comes in...

"Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

When it comes down to it we may have FREEDOM in Christ, but we don't really have any RIGHTS in Christ. We are called to obedience. We should not be looking for the loopholes that allow us to enjoy life, we should be looking for the opportunity to surrender our life:

...Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:38-39)

There probably are many other examples of this sort of behaviour in the church today - certainly the poverty V's riches argument is one of them, and the degradation of true worship for the sake of the seeker sensitive mega church could also be argued as another one... What do you think? - can you think of others - it probably is a very fine line, we can easily fall into either a legalism mindset or a rights mindset - but let me know what you think...

Christmas gift idea!!!

OMG ('G' stands for Goodness - I am a good Christian boy I am!)...

check out this link: http://www.armorofgodpjs.com/

dont forget to look at the product information page to see all the merchandise they have to offer.

And visit the salvation page to give your heart to the Lord (its as easy as A.B.C!!).

Peter

The Date is set...

Hi everyone,

The date is set for our interview with UNOH - it's December 1st.

This is the date when we find out if our six months here in Noble Park have paid off or not, we find out if we have proven that we have what it takes to be UNOH apprentices.

Pray for us - PLEEEAAASE!!!!

(P.S. You may have noticed that I have updated the look of the blog - I hope you enjoy!....)

Faith - Why all the confusion????

Maybe it is just the result of growing up in a Charis-pente church, but I have always struggled with the issue of faith. It seems, if I believe everything that I have been taught over the years, to be a very complex issue... what is faith??? If we believe the "Word of Faith" teachers (I use that term lightly) such as Hinn or Copeland then faith is a substance that you acquire, it can only be activated by your words, and if you don't have it, you are not a real Christian. The WofF guys even suggest that God has faith, and put that faith into action when He created the world.

I am not suggesting that the Charis-pente outlook on faith is quite so extreme, though I am sure in some churches it is, but there is still this real mysterious, ethereal quality to faith that no one can really quite explain. I can remember sitting through sermons and even courses on the subject, looking through the usual verses to try and get a handle on it all. On many occasion, I even went through my exhaustive concordance pulling out all the verses on faith, just to get a handle on it.

We are taught that we can heal & be healed by faith, that we can tell trees to uproot themselves, and move mountains and walk on water, and be bitten by poisonous snakes (well, you don't need faith for that, but you do need it to survive) and all sorts of stuff... yet Jesus says that you only need faith the size of a mustard seed to do it all!!!!

So what exactly is this stuff called faith & where do you get it? It must be pretty valuable, even more valuable than gold, or white truffles !!

well, when it comes down to it, the answer is quite simple...

lets turn to a dictionary for a definition - not a highfalutin theological dictionary, just a normal everyday English dictionary...

The Online Cambridge Dictionary says:
Faith (TRUST) noun [U]
great trust or confidence in something or someone:

Pretty complex huh?? Therefore, it could be said that in our context, faith is nothing more than trusting in the Lord.

Faith is trusting in the Lord!!!!
...... - Easy!!!
......... - I can do that!!!
.............- Mountain get up and move!!!
............... - Dang, didn't work!!!

Great trust or confidence... Hmmm, I guess that is what it comes down to; do I really have Great trust or confidence in the Lord??? Peter had great trust in the Lord when he stepped out of the boat onto the water - for a second or two - then the reality of what he was doing sunk in, and so did he...

The Apostles saw healings and miracles happen through their work, why? because they knew what Jesus required, he modeled it to them, they dropped everything they had to follow him, they put their security, future, and life on the line. They learnt to rely on the Lord to meet all their needs, they became like the lilies of the field. They trusted in the Lord for everything.

Maybe this is what we are missing, maybe we are controlling too much of our own lives, not trusting the Lord, watering down what Jesus taught to fit into how we want to live our lives, how every rational person would want to live their lives. Maybe we are more like the rich young ruler than we realise - living a good Christian life, following all the rules, doing the right things. But when Jesus challenges us, calls us out of our comfort zone into complete trust in him, we walk away. It is easy for us to do, we are not faced with the Son of God in the flesh asking us to give up our security, so we can rationalise it, spiritualize the 'sell everything & give it to the poor', and go on living our good Christian life.

Maybe if we could truly surrender ourselves to God, truly trust in him then we would see our faith grow from the infinitesimal little atom that it is now, slowly grow into a small little mustard seed, maybe by that time we would not be telling mountains to move to prove our power in the Lord, maybe by that time we would be praying and acting against spiritual and institutional mountains that are oppressing people to prove that we work for a God who cares for the downtrodden, the insignificant & the poor... makes you think doesn't it?

yay, a new monitor!!!!

Yay- Finally we have a new monitor - the other one was slowly giving out - the header to this blog (the on that says Dekker's Journey) looked the same colour as the background of the blog on our own monitor - hopefully now I can fix this us - if ever I get a few minutes spare... yeah like that will happen!!!!

Burmese Outing 2 - Electric Boogaloo

Well, there really were no flash dance related activities on our second Burmese outing, it just sounds like such a great title for a sequel I had to resurrect it...

Our outing this time around was to have a bit of a tour of the wonderful city of Me!bourne (the advertising is obviously getting to me!) . We had about 50 Burmese coming along on our trip with us again this time round - so obviously these guys enjoy our company, and we just toured around the city walking down southbank; seeing the buskers (with mixed reactions from our Burmese friends) hanging out by the crystal clear waters of the Yarra River, having a delicious lunch of Burmese curry, jam packed full of tripe and liver and other stuff I could not identify! (yum yum! - my missions training is really paying off!). We also took a tour around the city on the Melbourne circle tram to see all the sights.

It was a great day of building relationships with these people, Jacob made a bit of a friendship with a 12 year old boy named Cubby, and Sam as usual was adopted straight away and was being looked after and fed all day long (which did pose a bit of a problem when it came to the offal curry!).

People were quite eager to pose for photos with members of the team as well as getting group photos with the Melbourne skyline behind them. It was great when we arrived back at springvale station to have everyone thank us for a fun day out and shake our hands - I think we are really making inroads into this community.

Peter

Just an Observation

I was in a group of men the other day at a course I am attending through UNOH, when the facilitator of the group asked an interesting ice breaker question. It went something along the lines of this - what do you think of old people, and at what age is a person considered old ?

The responses to both these questions were pretty much the same. Fortunately there was no comments on geriatric driving skills, or whining about young people today. Everyone generally said they had respect for old people, that they had lessons they could teach us if only we listened etc.

The interesting part came when people answered how old old was - everyone answered "You are only as old as you feel" or something along those lines. I don't know if its just me, or do those 2 answers seem to contradict each other. Obviously if we have respect for old people then getting old must be an ok thing to do - but we don't want to admit we are getting old & that's where comments like "your only as old as you feel" come from. So we still have a fear of getting old or want to avoid it.

Is this fear due to our mortality, or do we truly see old people as a nuisance or having no value?

If its due to our mortality then, that is a fear that as Christians we need to get over - because our mortality is not really a problem in the greater scheme of things.

If it is because we see old people as having no value then no amount of trite P.C. answers is going to cover up how we really feel and we will never learn from our elders, the mistakes and successes of the past!!!

It makes you wonder about P.C attitudes... Are they just a way of covering up our true feelings, to make sure we fit in with the rest of society and don't offend anyone? Are we lying when we sprout all the various trite answers people expect of us? Does this sort of issue stop us, as Christians, being a voice in the wilderness? (obviously at this point I am thinking beyond the old age issue...)

There are some really great views on life that would be regarded as P.C. but there are some really damaging P.C. outlooks as well - in fact sometimes the same P.C issue can have a positive or negative aspect to it depending on what definition you give it (like religious tolerance)..

But if we are running around covering up our true feelings in the name of political correctness, have we not become hypocrites or possibly impotent -

as Christians as we called to be sunshine & lollypops?

• never offending,
• never resisting,
• never standing up for what is right?

Is this a misguided view of God's love?

But having said that...

• When do we stand up?
• When do we turn over the tables?
• When can we be a voice?

The prophets of the Old Testament were regarded as nutters by the people of Israel - often hated and persecuted sometimes ever killed - have we missed the point in being able to fit into society, in being loved by society, in having a live and let live mentality???