Bark and Leaves is Art

I love the various patterns and shapes and colours of Australian Eucalypts.
The Bark and the Leaves.
A few samples.

Soldiers and Boiled Eggs

A sure fire hit with our grandchildren is always soldiers dipped in the runny yoke of a hard boiled egg.
For those unfamiliar with this standard Australian(it may be done in other countries too) meal for kids here's how.
Make some toast and butter the toast.
Cut it into halves and cut strips in the halves to create a piece of toast of a size that can be dipped in the egg yolk.
These are the "soldiers".
Boil an egg for about 3 minutes.
Place the egg in an eggcup and with a sharp knife cut the top off.
Leave the top of the egg on the plate to be scooped out after.
Let the child dip the "soldiers" in the runny egg yolk and slurp up into their mouths.
For younger kids you may have to help.
After the runny yellow bit is all soaked up the child can then scoop out the rest of the egg white from the egg shell including the top bit with a tea spoon..
A little bit of butter placed on the spoonful can make it more nourishing.
If they are still hungry you can repeat with another egg.
The highlight at the end is turning the eggshell upside down in the eggcup and smashing it with a spoon.
A messy but interactive meal for the kids who never say no to it.
Suitable from about 2 to any adult age.

Getting real messy just using a finger instead of a soldier

A New Benchmark in Child Photography

Came across this set of images on fickr through DP review website.
Simply stunning work by Elena Shumilova .
Very inspiring.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/75571860@N06/with/11874722676

How smart were our ancestors?

As a convinced Christian and Creationist I have long held the view that so called ancient man was just as capable and intelligent as modern humans.
I mean going back to original humans.
Those who have been labelled with a homo prefix.
Not accepting evolution I am not considering what are considered to be our development? from so called ape like creatures.
In recent history the Statues of Easter Island, The Pyramids of Egypt and the huge Cathederals of Europe and The Temples of Angkor Wat surely hint at this.
And  what about the huge body of work of Leonardo Da Vinci?
This video broadcast below helps to support what I believe.
http://creation.com/creation-tv?fileID=uKSobV1UA1A
I saw a documentary some time back on ancient tribes in the Amazon Jungle, that had had no real contact with modern man, and it showed one "savage?" actually using a modern video camera and asking questions about it's operation.
Follow the link to stimulate your thinking.

Good Books- Timeless Classics-R M Ballantyne

There was a time before blogs and facebook and ebooks and kindles and the like that people read good books.
And people wrote good books that had wholesome messages and were written especially for Children.
I was an avid reader of such titles when I was a young and not so young schoolboy.
Some of my favourite authors in later years I discovered, had written lots of titles.
Today I would like to highlight the work of R M Ballantyne.
Below is a wikipedia link about him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._M._Ballantyne

He was apparently influenced by Sir Walter Scott and he in turn influenced Robert Louis Stevenson.

Here are some of his titles I own and am putting up for sale on gumtree soon.
Some are well known.
Some not so well known.
The Coral Island was my favourite.

The Red Necked Wallaby

Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve near Canberra , Australia is a favourite place.
I spent a magical moment for about 10 minutes observing and photographing some red necked wallabies there a few years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-necked_wallaby

A Wonderful song by one of God's Chosen

As a young Christian in the 1970's I was greatly influenced by Joni Eareckson's book Joni about her tragic accident as a teenager that left her a quadriplegic.
It so impressed me that I gave copies to other people including a young girl I did not know who was in a hospital bed having just suffered a similar accident.
The book wonderfully tells the story of her battle to come to terms with her injury and her Christian Faith.
She later married Ken Tada and became Joni Eareckson Tada.
They have continued all these long years since in Ministry and Joni has also recorded as a singer.
I read today that her song from the  film called "Alone but not alone", it is the title song by the same name, has been nominated for an Academy Award.
Read how Christianity Today has reported on this and watch the beautiful film clip of Joni singing the song.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2014/january/oscar-best-song-alone-yet-not-alone-joni-eareckson-tada.html

Below is a link to her ministry web site.
She writes about the monination on her ministry blog.
The clip is also available there.

http://www.joniandfriends.org/

NB. As at 2/2/14 the song has now been disqualified from nomination.

See further on Christianity today.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/channel/comments/allreviews.html?id=115504&type=article

From the Wayside Chapel by Graham Long

 Graham Long is a Family Friend and brother of one of our in law relatives.

Dear Inner Circle,

Here’s a first! A note came to my desk yesterday with $30 in it. The note said, “I stole a bag from the front of your building yesterday and I didn’t realise that there would be money in it. Could you please find whoever lost their bag yesterday and give them back this $30. I’m keeping the bag because I need it.” How quaint is that? We have a thief with a conscience. I’m not sure if the thief reads this note but if so, I’d like to express my thanks for being able to recognise how important $30 is to someone who has “fallen by the wayside”.

A man recently asked me to take photos of all his jewellery and to make notes about who will inherit it after his death. I took photos of each piece even though it looked like there was nothing of any real worth among it and I made notes about where it should go after the man’s death. Eventually I asked the obvious question, “Are you expecting to die soon?”. “Tonight,” he said. This was not my most comfortable moment of the week. As he told me of a life of physical and emotional pain, I felt something of a longing for death that actually made sense. It was sad to think a journey could be so unrelentingly bleak that there seemed to be no beauty and nothing funny left. I’m not sure what he expected of me but I reminded him that I have no magic powers. As much as I’d love to wave a wand and help the man fall in love with life, my only gift really was to be a tower of weakness by his side. I told him that I’d be off to Canberra and then South Australia for a couple of weeks and joked that if he wanted a truly classy funeral, he might like to hang on for two more weeks. As I said this, the man smiled and I saw enough of a glimmer of hope to make me think he’ll still be here when I get back.

Robyn and I are off to Canberra this weekend because I am nominated by New South Wales as a Local Hero finalist in the Australian of the Year Awards. Because I know well that there is no such thing as a single human person, I also know that there is no such thing as a singular hero. Every achievement is shared as is every failure. Provided everyone understands that this Wayside achievement is shared by my family, our board, our staff members, our volunteers, the many officials of the church who could have tried to turn us into a sausage machine but instead have encouraged us and celebrated our victories and the many people who I’ve met from the street who taught me about life and love, then, I’ll accept any award and I'll readily admit we are part of something heroic and that there is nothing more we’d love than for this to be seen as a gift to Sydney, NSW and the whole of the country. There are other worthy contenders for the same award so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. The ceremony will be televised from the lawns of Parliament House Canberra on ABC TV at 6pm on Saturday. It’s an honour to be nominated and it will be no disgrace to miss out.

Given Australia Day is this weekend, it seems like a good time to tell you about an initiative of a truly great Australian. Dick Smith has supported The Wayside Chapel since the 1970s and continues to provide significant donations on a regular basis. We love Dick Smith and we love what he stands for. This year, Dick Smith Foods will give away $1 million to charities. Where this money goes will be decided by people who submit a photo of themselves with Dick Smith Foods products that they have purchased. If you want to help Wayside receive a donation, send or text* a photo of yourself with a Dick Smith Foods product to charity@dicksmithfoods.com.au, making sure you nominate The Wayside Chapel with your submission. Click here for more information. If enough votes come in, we could receive up to $50,000.

On Tuesday Robyn and I are off to Adelaide to catch up with my lovely old Mum for a few days and then we’ll fly to Port Lincoln and  drive for quite a way to a place called Coffin Bay. I’m not sure that even God knows where this place is but it’s a special place to a young couple whose wedding I will perform there. The groom is the son of my little sister. I'll be back the week after next.

With love from all here by the Wayside to you, our amazing inner circle,
Graham

*If you put our email address in the phone number field for texting, your message and photo will be received.

Rev Graham Long
Pastor and CEO
The Wayside Chapel
Kings Cross
http://www.thewaysidechapel.com/

 Protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information is important to us, as it is fundamental to the way we operate. All information is kept in the strictest confidence and is stored in a password secure database. Levels of access to information are determined by an authorised employee's specific need to do their job. Personal information collected by The Wayside Chapel is never sold or passed on in any way, shape or form to any other organisation or non-authorised person for any purpose. If you would like to seek access to, or revise your personal information or feel that the information we currently have on record is incorrect or incomplete, or you believe that the privacy of your personal information has been interfered with, please contact us. Our appointed Privacy Officer is Laura Watts laura.watts@thewaysidechapel.com

Severe Bushfires in South East Australia

Much of South Eastern Australia is threatened by bush fires today,Friday 17/1/14.
Our relatives in Renmark in South Australia have had to evacuate their homes.
This follows on from a week of severe temperatures.
In Adelaide we have had about 5 days in a row with the temperature over 42c.
Even hotter in regional country centres.
There are towns under threat as I type.
There is an all night watch on the local ABC radio keeping listeners and residents up to date.
In Adelaide itself a cool change has come in with very spectacular thunderstorms and some rain.
If you are a prayer please pray that there will be minimum serious outcomes from these fires.
There have been 3 properties destroyed in SA so far and 1 death in Victoria.
Many houses across the state are without power.
We have power to our house but the street lights are out after a very close lightning strike.
Here is a link to the ABC.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-17/victoris-sa-nsw-bushfires-continue-to-rage/5206194

Update on Saturday morning.
Thankfully our relatives are safely back in their homes this saturday morning.
There are still many fires burning out of control in our state.

The Baptism of Jesus and Ours. by Geoff Thompson

 Below is the message I was going to share with the Renmark West and Renmark Town Uniting Church on 12/1/14.
I cancelled due to a health scare on Saturday morning.
I have posted for those who may be interested. 
Many thanks to Cyril Gulliksen who presented this in both services on the day and thanks to those who sent me a get well  card of thanks and prayers from Renmark.

Pastor Harold Long being baptised as a young man.

 

SERMON- THE BAPTISM OF JESUS and OURS

There are several Baptisms and types of Baptisms  mentioned in the Bible.

I want to touch on three of them today.

I want to look first at

John’s Baptism.

By that I mean the baptising that John the Baptist was doing.

We need to distinguish between the Baptism of John the Baptist

(the forerunner sent by God to prepare the people of Israel for the coming ministry of Jesus)

 and Christian Baptism.

Christian Baptism was the Baptism practised by the Apostles of Jesus and the early Christian Church.

This was after the Christian Church had been established as in Acts 2.

Just before Jesus began His ministry here on earth John the Baptist began to preach along the banks of the Jordan River.

His fiery preaching began to stir the people and ended with multitudes of people from all walks of life going out to where he was to hear him.

His preaching caused a national stir up.

He was so outspoken and fiery it was to later cost him his life.

Multitudes went to hear him and great numbers did repent and as a seal of their repentance they were baptised in the Jordan.

His baptism was a baptism of repentance calling on God’s people to change their lives in order to prepare for the coming ministry of Jesus.

The Baptism of Jesus

John was preaching a message of repentance , a repentance from sin that included Baptism as a demonstration that the people were serious about their intentions.

Jesus appeared and John was incredulous that He was asking John to Baptise Him.

He suggested that Jesus should baptise him not the other way around.

This Baptism was signifying repentance from Sin and John knew that Jesus was without sin.

None the less Jesus said he needed to be baptised to full fill all righteousness.

Jesus was not in any way expressing repentance as were all others being baptised by John.

Jesus came to John to fullfill  something his Father,God, required of him.

He couldn’t repent as he had not committed sin but he could indentify with those who are sinners by being baptised as they were..

In this way he was indentifying with our great tragedy, sin,and in doing so he was fulfilling all righteousnous.

Jesus’ baptism was an act in which he identified himself fully with the fallen Human race.

Jesus was Human, as human as any other human except for one thing—he had no sin!

Jesus’ sinlessness put a great gulf between himself and us.

In being baptised by John, sharing in a baptism that signified repentance of sin, Jesus came as near as it was possible for Him to identify with our fallen human condition.

Without sinning Himself He took our sins and sorrows upon himself in His baptism.

This was also foreshadowing His real Baptism which was His crucifixion.

If Jesus is in any way setting an example for us by being Baptised by John it lies in His inflexible determination to do His Father’s will.

We do well to do likewise.

I would like to now touch on our own Baptism.

Christian Baptism

This was the Baptism that was instituted as an instruction to the Jewish people listening to Peter’s very spirit filled sermon in Acts Chapter 2.

Peter was speaking after the amazing events of the  day of Pentecost when the apostles were engulfed by a mighty rushing wind and tongues of fire and began speaking in the tongues of those present.

Acts 2

 ^"36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

³⁷ When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

³⁸ Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

⁴⁰ With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” ⁴¹ Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day."

This then was the institution of Christian Baptism as we know it today.

This was the call that we are all given, since the day of Pentecost, concerning becoming a Christian, and receiving the Holy Spirit and Forgiveness for our sins.

Our Baptism, as instituted by Peter,

the Baptism for the church age,

results in forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Note our Baptism is insignificant without real,

genuine repentance,

and belief.

In Romans 6  it tells us in our Baptism we are crucified with Christ, we are baptised into His death and as a result, into the power and wonder of His resurrection.

Romans 6

New International Version (NIV)

"Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,^[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been set free from sin."

Friends  when we read the words of the new Testament about the subject of Baptism, we must come to a conclusion that there is something profoundly spirtitually significant in our own Baptism .

It is more than, as some people say, just an outward sign of something that God has already done inwardly.

Jesus gave us, in the great commission, the expectation that Baptism was something essential for the Christian.

Matthew 28:

^"19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Is Jesus leading you today, 

through His example and obedience to His heavenly Father, 

 to find out more about what your Baptism really means to you?

We have only  scratched the surface a bit today.

What will open up to you as you discover what being crucified with Christ really means?

(In our Baptism we are sharing in Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.)

 and how your experience of Christian living can be so much more that what it is?

Perhaps you have already discovered that!

If you have never been Baptised you might like to study the subject more with a view to stepping out in Faith.

Shall we join together now in singing our closing Hymn.

Ps. as at 13/1/14. There was also a 4th Baptism that had taken place on the day of Pentecost
That was the once only not to be repeated Baptism of the Holy Spirit that ushered in the Church age.
This was the experience of the Apostles who full of the Holy Spirit were able to instruct new converts in Christian Baptism and how to become Christians and live the Christian life. 
They were using the keys of the Kingdom given to them.
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is not some secondary blessing to be experienced by Christians.
It was the making available of The Holy Spirit, The Comforter, to all who would seek to follow Jesus.
The beginning of the Church as we know it.
The transition from the Law to Grace.

READINGS

Mt 3:3-17

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

3 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea ² and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” ³ This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.’”^[a]

⁴ John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. ⁶ Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸ Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. ⁹ And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ¹⁰ The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

¹¹ “I baptize you with^[b] water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with^[c] the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

The Baptism of Jesus

¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. ¹⁴ But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

¹⁵ Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

¹⁶ As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Acts 2

 ³⁶ “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

³⁷ When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

³⁸ Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

⁴⁰ With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” ⁴¹ Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Romans 6:

6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,^[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.