Sunday, October 6, 2013

100% Will Paralyse You

To live 95% life, instead of striving for perfection; disables and paralyses us because we always fail.

I have often been told I am too hard on myself and also have too high expectations of others.

I was reminded of a couple of very important things last weekend from a very wise friend.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind and Cast every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and speak positive words every day, not only to others, but also to myself!

I believe I speak positively and am a relatively positive person, but I need a daily affirmation statement to speak to myself each day and that includes reminding myself that I do an excellent job at what I do and whilst striving for the best, I am not letting God down when I do not achieve 100%.  Paul says he strives for the finishing line of the race, but I do recall reading that he says he must be first!

I worked with a lady who gave me some good advice which perhaps I need to revisit even in my current job as things appear to get busier and busier with less people.  It went something like "do my best, but do not become pedantic about making a mistake and double-checking everything."

I also had a bit of an overwhelming day one day this week and had a mini-meltdown in front of someone and they immediately did not know how to respond to my emotions; do not let work upset you or take things personally, etc.  Alas, we are all unique individuals and we handle stress and stuff in different ways and then I was reminded of another valuable statement I learned a month or so ago at a Grow Together In Marriage weekend my husband and I attended, "Feelings are neither right or wrong."  Brilliant!  So, depending on which side of the above conversation you find yourself in, remember all of the above.


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

In The Wake Of Australia's Upcoming Election - Sat 7 Sept 2013

Wow.  Political campaigns can bring out the worst and ugly in some candidates and Australia's current Prime Minister, a boy raised in a Christian home in Nambour, Queensland has certainly changed his views about marriage.

There was a question and answer show where a local pastor from Brisbane Matt Prater asked a very valid question of the Prime Minister and the following is my commentary from the YouTube clip which has me gobsmacked and sad.  I have made time references in the left margin when the comments were made in the video clip and my comments are in blue.



Matt Prater asks his question of Prime Minister Rudd:

“I’m a pastor of a local church and work for a national christian radio network. Most of the listeners and callers we have had on our radio station have been saying they won't be voting for you because they're disillusioned because you seem to keep chopping and changing your beliefs just to get a popular vote with regard to things like marriage. Why should we vote for you?"

Rudd's response is that he made his decision to support gay marriage.

40 Secs – Rudd made his decision to support gay marriage in good Christian conscience. I feel very sad for him.

48 Secs – Rudd does not believe that when people are born, they chose their sexuality.  My creator knew me in my mother’s womb – He created my sexuality.

56 Secs – Rudd stated you are gay if you are born gay; you do not decide to become one or the other.  Hhhhmmm…..check out science statistics in this article http://www.fava.org.au/news/2013/kevin-rudd-should-do-his-science-homework/

1:00 – Rudd states it is how people are built.  No, people are not built, we are created.

1:06 – Rudd believes that the idea that it “gay” is an abnormal condition, is just wrong; He doesn’t get that.  I do not get Rudd.

1:14 – Rudd – If you accept that it is natural and normal for someone to be gay because that’s the way they are, then it follows from that, that I don’t think it is right to say that if these two folk here who are in love with each other and of the same gender should be denied the opportunity for legal recognition of the duration of their relationship.

1:40 – Rudd - If your starting point is that homosexuality is abnormal and he asks Matt Prater what his view is because he needs to know and Matt defends his position very well – got to love a politician for flicking the attention somewhere else instead of just answering the question himself.

2:07 – Matt – marriage is between husbands and wives. Jesus said that a man shall leave his father and mother and be married and that's the biblical definition.  I just believe in what the bible says and I'm just curious if for you Kevin, if you call yourself a Christian, why don't you believe the words of Jesus in the bible.  Yep, totally agree and well done Matt - http://matthiasmedia.com/briefing/2013/09/pm-verbals-the-bible/.

2:25 – Rudd “Well, mate if I was going to have that view, the bible also says that slavery is a natural condition.  (Applause from the audience – shocking!) 

2:48 – Rudd “St Paul says in the New Test slaves be obedient to your masters and therefore, we should have all fought for the confederacy in the US Civil War.  Oh for goodness sake! The human condition and social conditions change. Ah, but Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever. What is the fundamental principal of the New Testament? It is one of universal life. Loving your fellow man and if we get obsessed with a particular definition sexuality, then we are missing the centrality of what the gospel, whether you call it a social gospel, a personal gospel or a spiritual gospel is all about.

I believe that one of the fundamental principal’s of the New Testament is found in Luke 4:18 - The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

3:18 – Rudd “And therefore, I go back to my question, if you (Matt) think homosexuality is an unnatural condition, then frankly I cannot agree with you based on any element of the science, and therefore, as a persons sexuality is as they are made, then you better ask the second question, should therefore, their loving relationships be legally recognized and the conclusion I have reached is that they should and on the question of chopping and changing, I wrote a 2 to 3,000 word essay stuck in online months and months ago before returning to the Prime Ministership so everyone would know why I had changed my position, the reasons for it and it was the product of some many, many months and years of reflection in good Christian conscience.

Wow – Prime Minister Rudd – we prayed for you tonight.  Read Psalm 2:10-12 - Now then, you kings, act wisely! Be warned, you rulers of the earth! Serve the Lord with reverent fear, and rejoice with trembling. Submit to God’s royal son, or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities— for his anger flares up in an instant. But what joy for all who take refuge in him!

We live in a fallen world and it is the slight edge that changes society's definitions and what is tolerated today as opposed to generations ago and I do not think it has improved our quality of life, but rather for the most post, it has complicated life to an extreme.  We need to get back to the basics of life, in my opinion.  Do I agree with same sex marriage - no.  Will I be voting - no and that is because I am not yet an Australian citizen.  Do I love gays and homosexuals - absolutely but it does not mean that I endorse their behaviour nor do I want to see it legalised.

I remember writing a letter to a Canadian Member of Parliament many years ago when my niece Allison was pre-school aged expressing my views on the subject then and I have the same opinion now; it is not the way God intended for us to live and it is not up for negotiation. Political leaders who believe they are God and chose to take that power into their own hands will have to give an account; I pray that Kevin Rudd has an encounter to remind him of God's definition of "The Family."


Thursday, April 18, 2013

Mumbo Jumbo


There are so many different types of great music out there and this past Sunday Peter and I had the opportunity of listening to an all girls band called Mumbo Jumbo and I have included a couple of videos I created from their performances.

The first video is photos I took with my 'newish' camera that I am still experimenting with - must get to a course soon.  But yeah, I love the continuous shoot, so I used this feature a bit and it is displayed well, I think, in the video along the music background which is from the live video footage I took, too.

Mumbo Jumbo is also on facebook and they are based in Maleny and Peter and I are related to one of the performers - our niece Mathilda, who is obviously featured in some of the photos and video.




The second video is the simply the video footage I took and again, I am experimenting a bit with the video that is included in my SLR camera.  The video format is .mov, so I had to convert to .avi files as I am using windows movie maker at the moment; and a bit frustrating, too; because the program crashed several times while trying to make both videos, but I persevered nd voila, I finally got the end result I was hoping for.



Hope everyone enjoys watching the videos and I look forward to being able to watch and listen to the girls perform again soon.

As a matter of interest, Mumbo Jumbo were featured at the Australian Day festivities at South Bank in Brisbane in January earlier this year and make appearances at lots of other functions and music festivals.

Enjoy, Be Blessed and Shalom (Peace!).

Brenda


Wednesday, April 10, 2013

A Beautiful Sunset


This is a shot of the sunset from our front driveway the night we arrived home from our Easter weekend in Gladstone.  It was stunning.

As the sun moved a bit farther down into the horizon, the shades of orangey red grew and became more intense.  A pity that I was not by the water - that would have been a spectacular view.

Our God is an amazing creator, don't you agree?



Enjoy, Be Blessed and Shalom (Peace!).