The PASSION Blog

The West Coast Eagles (my AFL team) have beaten the Sydney Swans tonight by 1 point….again. I don’t know how much more of this my heart can take. I am sure I started following the Eagles for relaxation, it doesn’t seem like it at the moment!

It reminds me of back in the 1990s when I used to be a supporter of the Perth Wildcats basketball team and go to all the home games. Whenever the Adelaide 36′ers came to town the game always were decided by a point. Quite often it went into overtime too.

At least church should be nice and relaxing tomorrow by comparison…hopefully!

Our local radio station Sonshine FM just played Mark Shultz’s song “Walking her home”.

This song traces the journey of a man who meets and falls in love with his wife as a young man. When he takes the young woman out the first time her father says to stay by her side and really look after her. It then mentions some major events through their lives together and finishes with him by her side on her death bed after 60 years of marriage.

Each time I hear this song it gets me. Something deep inside me wants to share this with my wife Larissa. I long to share the events of daily life, build great memories and be together right until the end of our lives in old age. God willing it will be 60 years or more together.

In these days of throw away marriages I am so glad God brought us together. Each day I am thankful for my wife and family. I am truly a blessed man

After working in my current job for more than ten years I will be leaving in a few months and returning to full time study. The decision is made and the application is in, now I am just doing my best to be patient until it all happens.

One thing I am conscious of in this process is making sure that I finish well. I think at times it is easy to drop the ball in the last few months of a job and not put in the same effort you normally would.

One passage that I am conscious of is Colossians 3:23-24. It says, “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ”.

These verses make it pretty clear that no matter what we do for a job, we are really serving the Lord. Right up to the last minute of my last day I need to keep that in mind. I need to keep serving Him, working hard in all I do and serving those around me as best I can.

Being an early riser I have to admit I am not a big fan of daylight saving. I just love getting up early and waking up with the day. I also really enjoy exercising in the early mornings. Nothing beats going for a walk or a bike ride in the cool early hours before the bustling day begins…not to mention the heat!

My wife and I have decided that if daylight saving goes ahead next year, we are not going to adjust our clocks. We are going to continue on as usual and enjoy the early mornings. I think we might call it Quinn’s Standard Time or QST.

So please be warned if you have an appointment with us next summer during daylight saving time, you might be an hour early or we might be an hour late

Lately I have been dwelling on James 4:10. It says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up”. It has really been rolling around in my spirit.

When I think of humbling yourself before God I am reminded of those old lunchtime movies we used to watch as kids. You know those ones about King Arthur and the knights of the round table. The knights were great and mighty warriors and would go off to a far land and battle in the kings name.

As soon as they returned from battle the first thing they did was to go and see the king. They could be found before the king down on one knee with their face to the ground. They might have been great warriors, but they knew their place before the king. They always humbled themselves.

I really think that is the key to humbling yourself before God. We need to know our place. He is ALMIGHTY God, ALL powerful, All knowing and ALL sufficient. We are just His humble servants waiting for the call to go in to battle for Him.

If you are someone who struggles with pride issues at times, I would encourage you to remember the knights of the old movies. Go into the King of Kings presence, get down on your knees and place your face to the ground. While you are there remember just how awesome your King really is and ALL He has done for you.

God Bless,

Dave

Have you ever experienced doing something wrong to someone and then carrying the weight of knowing you have wronged them? Sometimes we can carry the burden around until we actually talk to them and apologise. Once the apology has been made and you are forgiven, you feel a sense of forgiveness and your relationship is restored. It is like a huge burden is lifted.

This is how I felt when I became a Christian. I apologised to God for all the wrong things I had done in my life. Things I had done to others and things that I had done wrong in God’s eyes. The moment I apologised and asked God’s forgiveness I felt a gigantic load had been lifted off my shoulders. For the first time in my life I felt free - really, really free.

Confession for me is an ongoing thing. I don’t go and sit in a room with a Priest. I just go to a quiet place and talk with God. I tell Him the things I have done and I apologise…just like I was apologising to anyone else. Each time I feel His forgiveness and I am ready to go again.

The Bible says in 1 John 1:9 that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”. God promises that no matter we have done, that He WILL forgive us.

How about you? Have you got things you have done that you want to confess to God? Confessing your sins to God brings restoration of relationship, just like it does with anyone else you have wronged.

If you would like to confess your sins to God, you can do so by praying this short prayer now…

Dear God,
I am sorry for the wrong things I have done in my life. Please forgive me and cleanse me from my sin. Thank You that the Bible says Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for my sin. I now ask You Jesus to come into my heart and life. Please help me to live for you.
Amen

Each lunch time I go for a walk in Kings Park. It is to have a break, to grab some exercise and spend some time alone in prayer.

More often than not I found myself walking down a path that is a reminder of fallen soldiers from World War One (WW1). Each tree that lines the pathway has a plaque that remebers a young soldier and includes their age and where they died.

One thing that jumped out at me today was just how young they were and how much potential life they missed out on! It made me think of the line from the movie Dead Poet’s Society that said, “Carpe Diem” which means seize the day.

I wonder what each of the young men who died in WW1 would do if they were alive today? What would they spend their time doing? Who would they want to catch up with? What would be important to them?

It is a timely reminder for me too. What am I doing today? What difference am I making to the the lives of those around me? Am I seizing the day that God has given me…or am I just getting through it?

Many people are under the impression that because someone plays sport for their country or they play sport at an elite level, they are automatically role models for our kids to follow. I do not agree with this line of thinking.

I think we need to realise that sports people are no different to anyone else in society. They are very good in some areas of their lives and in other areas they might struggle. No-one is perfect and not everyone is up to being a role model. We are currently seeing this being played out in a local AFL club where a number of players have had personal problems recently.

For example, if you work with 50 accountants, not all of them are role models. There might actually be about five or six who you might like to model yourself. This is because they display good skills, knowledge of their field, they have good interpersonal skills and they work in a professional way. I believe the same goes for our elite sports people. Out of a team of 42 players there might only be a handful that fit the role model category.

Here are some of my thoughts on what makes a good role model for our kids:

• Are they very good at their chosen sport?
• Do they perform in a professional manner both on and off the field?
• Have they overcome some sort of adversity? ie major injury or personal problems
• Are they interested in community service?
• Do they train and mentor younger people coming through?
• Are they preparing for life after their chosen sporting career finishes?

For the last couple of years I have been feeling quite comfortable and settled in what I do. In my family life, my job and the ministry I do has all been rolling along smoothly. While this has been great and very stable, I have to admit that I miss that nervous excited feeling you get when you step out in faith and have to really trust God for the outcome.

I was sharing this with my wife on the weekend and the best way I could describe it was tightrope ministry. You know how you feel when you preach your first sermon, you have a Bible study at your house for the first time or you start some ministry that is way out of your comfort zone. You feel like a circus performer standing on the edge of the platform about to step out on a thin rope to hold you up!

You get nervous and you pray like crazy and hope that it will all work out well. Nine times out of ten it all works out, but you have to really press in to God in the lead up. Well I have to admit I don’t like the extra stress, but the nervous tension and really relying on God is something I miss lately.

Hmmm perhaps it is time to prayerfully set some more God sized goals and step out again.

Here is a great quote that really fits in with the tightrope ministry theme…

“Set God sized goals. Pursue God ordained passions. God after a dream that is destined to fail unless God intervenes” (Mark Batterson)

My wife Larissa came across this resource the other day on RBC.org. It is a small booklet that talks about how to find and know God’s will for your life. It touches on a number of areas like prayer, looking at your options, discussing your plans with others and the “gentle nudges” that God gives us. We enjoyed reading and found it was quite useful for us as a family.

Here is a link to it if you are seeking God’s will for your life - click here