The PASSION Blog

After ten and a half years it is my last day at work. Talk about mixed emotions!

I am very excited to be moving on to the next thing that God has called to do, but in many ways I am sad to be leaving all my friends I work with. Still, the great thing about moving on though, is that you get to make a lot of new friends where you go to and you get to keep your current friends. So it is a win win situation!

As you can imagine I have been reflecting on my time here over the last ten years. A lot has changed for my family and I and a lot has changed at my work. A lot has changed in the world too!

One thing that springs to mind is the impact I have had here at work during my time. I am hoping that in some small way I have been able to encourage, support and care for the people I have worked with. I hope I have made a real difference in their daily work lives and their lives outside of work.

I also hope I have lived the Christian life out in a way where people would see it was real and that they would consider it for themselves. I really hope that my friends have seen the difference Jesus makes in my everyday life.

If I have done those things above, then my work here is definately done!

God Bless,

Dave

Just heard a great interview about mentoring on 98.5 Sonshine FM with Rodney Olsen and Ross Clifford.

For me this is one of the key components of anyone who is in leadership. I believe if you are a leader, it is your responsibility to mentor and bring the next generation of leaders on. I also think it is vital to place yourself under bigger leaders who can mentor you too!

Several years ago I did a message on mentoring/life coaching titled “What makes great coaches great”. It is one of the most downloaded messages on my PASSION website.

If you would like to have a look you can check it out here

God Bless,

Dave

PS. If you want to have a listen to Rodney’s interview with Ross, you can find it on Rodney’s blog here

One of the prayers from the Bible I really love is Paul’s prayer for the Esphesians. It is found at the end of Ephesians chapter three. It says…

14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

 20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

When I read his prayer it makes me wish I could spend some time with him and be sharpened by him. Each and every verse in the passage has its own treasure and something to draw from. He is definately someone who I would have liked to be around.

I especially like verse 20 where it says that God is able to do more than we can ask or imagine. I don’t know about you, but I can imagine some pretty big things. This verse tells me God is able to do way more than that!

Passages like this just re-affirm to me how great Paul was as a Christian and how big and awesome God really is! Somehow I suspect He is even bigger and better than my finite mind can fully grasp

One of the things I really love about serving God is doing what He asks you to do and then being able to see the results. It doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does it is brilliant.

Sometimes He asks you to do something and you do it not really understanding the full picture or knowing why. It might seem like a small thing to you at the time, but when you see the impact it makes on a person or a group of people you get a great sense of being part of God’s eternal plan. It is awesome!

Praise God that He uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. He is an awesome God!

Walking through the house just now, I said to my wife Larissa that I forgot to read Proverbs 24 today. She asked if I was trying to get wise [by following her program of reading a chapter of Proverbs a day]. I said yes proudly and asked if she had noticed anything. I waited expectantly for her response. She said, “Nup”.

Oh well perhaps it takes a few more than six days to gain wisdom from reading Proverbs. Or perhaps I was really wise already…something tells me that I am more of a wise guy than a man of wisdom!!!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the verse 2 Corinthians 5:17. It says, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” It plainly says that we are changed and begin a new life when we come to Christ.

As I thought about it, I realised that my life before and after Christ is a lot like a ball used in the game of lawn bowls. For anyone who has played lawn bowls they know that the ball is weighted or biased in one direction. When you roll the ball down the green it moves towards that direction as it slows down.

Prior to coming to Christ my “lawn bowl” naturally moved towards sin. When I came to Christ and became a new creation my biase was corrected and turned completed around. Now when God “bowls” me down the green of my life I naturally head more in the direction away from sin and towards Him. It is almost like a bowler going from forehand to backhand grip on his bowling ball!

Now does this mean I don’t sin any more or have the desire at times to do my own thing? Of course not, but I find that as time goes on my natural inclination is towards Him and away from the sinful life I used to live and desire. There has been a fundamental change in my heart and mind.

So how about you? Which direction is your “lawn bowl” facing? Is it biased towards sin and pleasing the old nature, or has the biase been corrected and are you aiming towards Him and His will for your life?

Recently I posed the question, “What do Pastor’s do during the week?” on Ra’ah (Aussie Pastor’s Blog).

Anyway, I found some of the responses very helpful…

• Mark Edwards from Beddford Baptist included his weekly schedule on his blog at Markedly. You can view it here
• Wayne Field from Australind Baptist wrote about it on Ra’ah at this link
• Mark also posted a great cartoon about what people think Pastor’s do here

If you want to see what a Pastor of a large church that has multiple venues does, you can visit Mark Batterson’s blog called evotional.com. You can view it here

Like most people we probably have a fair idea what our Pastor’s do, but we don’t really understand just how much time and effort they do put in to the job. It is definately not just a Sunday thing!

If you get a chance this week, why not email or call your Pastor to tell him how much you appreciate the work he does in your church and community. I am sure he will be happy to for the feedback!

God Bless,

Dave

Hello all,
I thought I would give you a bit of an update of how the move to Merredin is going. We now have a date for settlement of our homes (old and new). It is the 9th of July. So all things going well, we should be loading a truck on the 9th and heading up Great Eastern Highway to sunny Merredin - the greatest country town on earth!

For me personally I have six working days left at my part time job in the State Government. It is a strange feeling about leaving work. I have been here for over ten years and I work with a great group of people. I probably wouldn’t leave if God hadn’t called me to Merredin. It has been my best job ever, but I am going on to an even better one at Merredin. Praise God!!!

If you are someone who prays, please pray for us as a family. I would appreciate if you could pray for a smooth transition and that it all falls into place.

God Bless,

Dave

Over the last 12 months or so I have noticed my wife Larissa has been getting wiser and wiser and wiser. Every now and then she comes out with great pearls of wisdom which have been very impressive! She is definately becoming wiser by the day.

Recently I found out Larissa’s secret. She has been reading one chapter of the Book of Proverbs every day as a part of her daily devotion. Each day she turns to the next chapter depending on the date. If it is the 19th she opens Proverbs chapter 19 and reads it all and reflects on it.

I thought this was a great idea so I began it this morning this morning. I’ll let you know how I get on. I suppose you will notice in a few weeks if I suddenly start to become a wise guy!

God Bless,

Dave

PS. Just in case you were wondering. Yes Larissa does read my blog!!!

One of the key questions with the Stemcell debate is, “When do we think life begins?” More than any other question I think this will ultimately help us to make up our mind.

If we think about it a bit, if our position is that life begins when a child is born, we will think the stemcell debate is a non issue. If we think life begins when when we can see a developing child by ultrasound in a womb with hands and feet moving, then that will shape our decision. If we think life begins at the moment of the egg being fertilised then that would make us think a whole lot differently on the whole issue.

One of the things I have tried to do is look at some verses from the Bible and see what God says about conception and when He thinks life actually begins. Here a re a few I have cut and paste from BibleGateway.com…

Job 10:8-12 - You formed me with your hands; you made me,…You guided my conception and formed me in the womb. You clothed me with skin and flesh, and you knit my bones and sinews together. You gave me life and showed me your unfailing love. My life was preserved by your care.

Psalms 139:13-16 - You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous–and how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

Isaiah 49:5 - And now the LORD speaks–he who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant, who commissioned me to bring his people of Israel back to him. The LORD has honored me, and my God has given me strength.

Jeremiah 1:4-5 - The LORD gave me a message. He said, “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my spokesman to the world.