God is enough...

ok this post might be added to at later dates...
basically i bought a book at Equip called 'God is enough' by Ray Galea.
http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/god-is-enough

each chapter focuses on a Psalm and kinda goes through it in little chunks and in devotional style...

so i've been reading this book and really enjoy it. might be because i do really like the psalms. they are very poetic at times and angry psalms are great to read when ur feeling not so good...

so i thought i'd do my own devotional 'chapter' on some psalms that werent in the book but i really like.

Psalm 24
v 1-2 "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.
For he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.."

We're studying Job in bible study and in the last few chapters God speaks to Job "where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?..." (Job 38)
In the context of Job we see God's character - He is the amazing God who created all things and who sustains all things. Who knows all things. And who are we to question His wisdom...

This earth is amazing... look at creation. The other night i looked up at the stars at a friend's place and just marveled at creation. That God spoke and night became night and day was day and the stars in the heavens shine beautifully and constantly. And God is in charge of all of that...
He's also in charge of everything below the heavens cos He created it all...

These verses are a good opening reminding us of God's sovereignty and might in creation. But that we need to be humble in approaching God because we and everything on this earth belong to him.

black friday 11/6/2010

i dont know what to call this post...
i was out on friday night with friends when i got the worst call i've ever received in my life...

my best friend's mum had passed away very suddenly. she was like my 2nd mum and i just didnt know how to handle it all...
being out was torture... i just wanted to cry but i didnt want to ruin my friends' night. and then i just didnt want to be alone with my head. it was nice to be out.
for the first time in my life i thought about drinking away my sorrows... but i didnt get very far... only managed 3 drinks before just feeling terrible.

anyway, the friends i was with cheered me up... funny incident where clive was getting picked up by a guy at the bar... i caught it on video as well as having photographic evidence... sooo funny...
think the rest of the night was just getting lost in soccer...

i didnt manage to sleep at all that night cos i was just too upset... rugby the next day was a bit tough cos of no sleep.

sat night i was having ppl from church over to watch a movie and hang out... and i just wasnt sure whether i should cancel.
did go over to d's on sat arvo to see how the family are doing. i dont really know what to say or do... i want to be helpful but dont want to be in the way...
it was nice not to be alone sat night... just to feed of the energy of the people who came over. was a good night. we didnt end up watching a movie but just played a couple of light games and chatted.

the week is now a bit of a blur... every day has been busy with something. just feel like i'm going through the motions.
might just be that i feel so 'blah' today...

another rugby story

ah my interns are cheeky...
i dunno if this is funny or just me finding it funny...

i was signing off paperwork on the intern's patient sheet. they basically list the patients they saw and then what they did briefly. i sign it off for a patient number.

so i was going through names when i saw "johnny wilkinson"... and thought this cant be right. hey i know next to nothing about rugby but i do know who johnny wilkinson is... so i pulled the intern up on it... i was like 'hey what dodgy r u trying to pull'
the guy's name was actually something similar but he'd written the wrong thing down. it was funny...

Equip #3 - Ugly Envy

Ok... picking at this so i should just post it...

the 2nd main talk at Equip was on envy... ewww ugly envy...

main points:

1. envy is personal
it's the pain felt over another's good fortune. different to jealousy or greed as these focus on the object or possessions of others... envy is ill will towards the person
the actions of the envious are intent on destroying somebody else's happiness... so destructive... so ugly!!

2. Gk envy interchangable with jealousy... hard to read. but contextual differences. looked at some bible passages about envy...

3. what causes envy?
- human sinfulness - our selfishness and self-centredness
- when we question God's goodness and are ungrateful.
i think this is hard... envy exposes the fact that we dont trust God
- we enjoy being envied - it kinda follows pride... we want to be looked at and envied. so envy kinda feeds envy and again it's selfishness and the focus on self and our gratification or self esteem issues.

4. envy is destructive
- it poisons our relationship with God. we undermine our own relationship with God by resenting the fact that He has given something good to somebody else.
- it poisons our relationships with others.
enough said really...
- it poisons us. envy doesnt make anybody happy. we arent happy cos envy tends to eat away at you... it only creates pain.

5. how to get rid of envy
- own up - recognise it in yourself
- the Gospel - be reminded of the good gift that has been given to us in Jesus.
- progressing
--> thankfulness
--> understanding what pushes your buttons
--> God's word, the Spirit, other Xn support.

ok that's the summary...
my challenges/encouragement:

i think it has a lot to do with thankfulness and contentment. sometimes it's easier to be discontent and to grumble.
sometimes when we are envious of somebody (or maybe i'm speaking in the context of jealousy cos it's hard to separate the two sometimes...) we only see the thing we are envious/jealous of... like if we envy something about another person's life we dont see that sometimes their situations have a different set of problems. not sure if i'm making sense writing this out but it's clear in my head...

i'm quite a happy go lucky person. i try not to let things get me down too much... but u cant be happy all the time... i guess there isnt anything that i need that i dont have. even though there may be wants. so i'm kinda thankful for that.

i'm grieved at how destructive and yuk and ugly envy looks... just in terms of relationships. how on earth are such yucky thoughts in us... how easy is it for us to be envious... how easily the devil can get inside and make us think such awful things about other people... i just think it's awesome that the solution to that is to focus on what Jesus has done. the fact that our sin is paid for... but also that we can recognise the things that hurt our relationship with God and others... and that the Spirit allows us to change.

awww what a challenging talk... i repent... help me God to be rid of yucky envy cos i wanna be like Jesus...