Saturday, November 27, 2004
Eden's Song Medely
Eden has been singing lots for us these days, I've recorded her singing at breakfast this morning.
The quality is not the best, (nor is her singing), but see if you can guess what the songs are....
Clip 1
Clip 2
Clip 3
We've been busy today cleaning up the house in preparation for Sally and Anja's visit in the next couple of weeks, and its really hot, about 34 degrees outside, fortunately our new house is much cooler that our old one, and I'm sitting inside in relative comfort.
Enjoy the sound clips, I'll be back with more photos soon.
The quality is not the best, (nor is her singing), but see if you can guess what the songs are....
Clip 1
Clip 2
Clip 3
We've been busy today cleaning up the house in preparation for Sally and Anja's visit in the next couple of weeks, and its really hot, about 34 degrees outside, fortunately our new house is much cooler that our old one, and I'm sitting inside in relative comfort.
Enjoy the sound clips, I'll be back with more photos soon.
Friday, November 26, 2004
What I'm Reading Today - The Pleasures of God
I thought I'd use this space to start compiling some reviews of books that I've read or are reading, particularly Christian Books.
So today I'll start with a book I'm about 3/4 of the way through.....
John Piper is best known for his work Desiring God, and this book has a similar popular, yet detailed approach to attributes of God.
This book kind of follows on from Desiring God, focusing on the truth....
I won't deny that there are page and a half long footnotes, and sometimes you have to read this twice or thrice to nut out the flow of the concept, but this is an enriching book, filled with truths of God that we can learn from and aspire to living out.
This work is a scripturally true representation of the Sovereign God we love, asking difficult questions of difficult passages.
So today I'll start with a book I'm about 3/4 of the way through.....
John Piper is best known for his work Desiring God, and this book has a similar popular, yet detailed approach to attributes of God.
This book kind of follows on from Desiring God, focusing on the truth....
"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him...... We will be most satisfied in God when we know why God himself is most satisfied in God."Therefore, to most satisfy God, we should emulate the things about God that most satisfy God.
I won't deny that there are page and a half long footnotes, and sometimes you have to read this twice or thrice to nut out the flow of the concept, but this is an enriching book, filled with truths of God that we can learn from and aspire to living out.
This work is a scripturally true representation of the Sovereign God we love, asking difficult questions of difficult passages.
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Following the trend....
Just to show that I too have a file extension personality, I completed the online quiz and found out that I am a.....
Which File Extension are You?
Which File Extension are You?
Not quite sure what it all means though......
What's Your God like?
Roadknight posted this great excerpt.....
http://mobile-ministry.blogspot.com/2004/11/do-you-know-him.html
Who is your God? I know who mine is.
http://mobile-ministry.blogspot.com/2004/11/do-you-know-him.html
Who is your God? I know who mine is.
Monday, November 22, 2004
Stockton Sleepout
Phil taking the quick way down... Everyone else said this was too steep! 
Stockton Sleepout 2
Stockton Sleepout 3
Like a TV Commercial - our 10 4WD's in action
The Sygna - on Stockton Beach - North of Newcastle
Monday, November 15, 2004
@ Harbour Square - Newcastle Foreshore
Eden out for a walk Saturday Morning - It was a beautiful Day!
@ The Newcastle Baths
Eden and Dad's first swim for the Summer - at the Newcastle Baths
They Cut Down My Tree
Somewhere deep down inside the average moral being lies a sense of right and wrong. I've discovered this week that Newcastle City Council choses to listen to the unreasonable wishes of one business group, (the owner of the building), over the wishes of many in the community.
The big sunny spot on the side of this building was, up until last week, shaded by a beautiful large tree. My desk is under the corner window, and I relied on the benificial passive solar properties afforded by this tree to protect myself from glare and sunburn.
The reason given for the removal wasn't because the tree was dying and posed a safety risk, it was because the owners were having roof and awning gutter drainage problems. I can vouch for the inadequacy of the existing gutters surrounding the whole building, but isn't that a maintanence issue?
I'm working on my complaint to council.... Stay tuned.
The big sunny spot on the side of this building was, up until last week, shaded by a beautiful large tree. My desk is under the corner window, and I relied on the benificial passive solar properties afforded by this tree to protect myself from glare and sunburn.
The reason given for the removal wasn't because the tree was dying and posed a safety risk, it was because the owners were having roof and awning gutter drainage problems. I can vouch for the inadequacy of the existing gutters surrounding the whole building, but isn't that a maintanence issue?
I'm working on my complaint to council.... Stay tuned.
Friday, November 12, 2004
12D Software
Welcome to my world..... This is a screenshot from one of the jobs I'm working on. Its a small bridge up at Tallwoods on the mid-north coast of NSW, about 4 hours from Sydney.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
A Thought on Salvation
Salvation is an awe-inspiring thought, Chritianity Today presents several reflective comments on what Salvation means, my favourite from this list is:
WE ARE SAVED to know God, to enter his wonder-filled Presence through the new and living way and remain in that Presence forever. We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God.Tozer has such a wonderful way of describing the "undescribeable". Ponder his words, "an everlasting preoccupation with God", it makes my 5 minutes of prayer seem weak. I know God loves any time I spend with Him, but really He is overjoyed when we as His children come to him willingly in preoccupation! This true preoccupation can only happen when our hearts are renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit when we are changed into the New Men and Women we were made to be.
A. W. Tozer, That Incredible Christian
Still the world tugs at our hearts and demands our attention, the difficult balance comes when we must engage the world to preach the gospel, yet build our relationship with our perfect heavenly Father.
I need to think about this more..... any thoughts?
Sunday, November 07, 2004
Eden sorting out her cut/fill balances. Hard at work in the dirt.
Two Birthday Parties in one Weekend
Well it's Sunday night and I survived, just in time to go back to work tomorrow!
The pictures just posted are from Jonah's 3rd Birthday, that's his Dad in the Clown suit, he did a great job organizing games, making balloon animals, and handing out lolly bags.
Eden had a great time with all the kids, but ended up just playing in the dirt! You wouldn't guess that her Mum and Dad were Civil Engineers, would you?
The pictures just posted are from Jonah's 3rd Birthday, that's his Dad in the Clown suit, he did a great job organizing games, making balloon animals, and handing out lolly bags.
Eden had a great time with all the kids, but ended up just playing in the dirt! You wouldn't guess that her Mum and Dad were Civil Engineers, would you?
Saturday, November 06, 2004
An Inspiration... and another coffee lover
Tonight I've been inspired.
Blogging is serious stuff.... for those who don't believe me, please click here for a great site.
Coffeeswirls, is one of those sites that took me by suprise, its a pretty site, theres lots of honesty in the words, and a deep yearning to share his journey with the world.
So for me, I've been challenged to step up to the plate and take this journal seriously, don't worry, it'll still be a great medium for our photos, but I intend to share some of what I learn in my daily readings.
Colossians 4:2-6
Blogging is serious stuff.... for those who don't believe me, please click here for a great site.
Coffeeswirls, is one of those sites that took me by suprise, its a pretty site, theres lots of honesty in the words, and a deep yearning to share his journey with the world.
So for me, I've been challenged to step up to the plate and take this journal seriously, don't worry, it'll still be a great medium for our photos, but I intend to share some of what I learn in my daily readings.
Colossians 4:2-6
4:2 Be devoted to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. 4:3 At the same time pray for us too, that God may open a door for the message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4:4 Pray that I may make it known as I should. 4:5 Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunities. 4:6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer everyone.Paul exhorts the Colossians to live and breathe the Chirstian Life. If he had access to a blog, he would have asked us to blog it.
Mike and Eden in the Pool - Port Macquarie
Heaven on earth?
Just finished preliminray reading for bible study next week, I'm leading a night titled, "Why don't we long for Heaven more than anything else?". My primary source for this study has been several articles and books written by Rany Alcorn. The required reading prior to the night is an article out of this quarter's EPM newsletter. I'm hoping it will stimulate some great discussion, and as I develop the questions, I'll post them here for comment!.
Friday, November 05, 2004
My Trip to the local waste transfer station for work.
Thursday, November 04, 2004
My morning visit
Eden and I got to spend some quality time together this morning, usually she's up by the time I leave, but she was a sleepy head this morning. Robyn needed to come in and get a bit of work done, so Eden and I went for coffee, (she had a baby-chino with shaved chocolate on top!). Then went and checked out some Christmas books for toddlers at the Church Army Bookshop down the road. Eden was quite taken with a story book with felt characters that you stick onto felt sections of the pages, but then she got sidetracked with the fire hose reel and nozzle.
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
GFA News Update
Robyn and I sponsor a native missionary in India, through the
organization Gospel for Asia. We have been really challenged
to become more mission minded by what we read and pray for
through his ministry, and hope you will take time to look into
supporting native missions. As Randy Alcorn states in one of
his books (my paraphrase!), if you want to get a heart for
missions, GIVE to missions, your heart will follow what you
invest the most time, effort and money in."
Click here to see the latest news updates....
*Post prayer or praise: http://www.gfa.org/viewaprayer
*Sponsor a missionary: http://www.gfa.org/sponsor
Port Macquarie Coastline - On the walk from Shelly Beach to Miners Beach, (which we found out is not a dedicated Nudist beach, but is not policed as such!). Consequently we averted our eyes from the few scattered bodies up near the trees, it was all very discrete really.
Posted by Hello
Posted by Hello
Is Church the Church that Christ wants us to be?
A bit of heated discussion on this one on Christianity Today, they had guest writer Chad Hall spill his mind on the matter recently, and here's one of the responses. Looking at the churches I've seen, I think Doug is a bit touchy about his own position as a shepherd of a flock, organized religion is just that, organized (by man), God is at the centre when the agenda is off Man. Doug may be getting a bit fired up over hair-splitting, but methinks there's a bit of self preservation going on....
Brand New blog
Hi everyone,
In response to the neat article in Christianity Today I thought it fitting to start up my own "spiritual blog", hopefully I'll be able to shed a spiritual spin on the goings on in the world around me, that inspires others to seek God first, through His Son Jesus!
In response to the neat article in Christianity Today I thought it fitting to start up my own "spiritual blog", hopefully I'll be able to shed a spiritual spin on the goings on in the world around me, that inspires others to seek God first, through His Son Jesus!
