Prayer 4th Jan

Psalm 50.

Our great heavenly father

The Mighty One, God, the Lord,
    speaks and summons the earth
    from the rising of the sun to where it sets.

From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.

Our God comes and will not be silent;
a fire devours before you,
    and around you a tempest rages.

You summon the heavens above, and the earth, 

       that you may judge your people…

And the heavens proclaim your righteousness,
    for you are a God of justice.

Lord, who can stand before you in your perfect holiness and justice? You made us in your image, and yet we have corrupted ourselves. You made us to to be in relationship with you, but we have each rejected you. You are patiently waiting until the day you summon the earth to judgement and restore all things in a new creation, and we don’t deserve to be spared, we don’t deserve your mercy. Our hearts carry so much evil, so many regrets, so much damage to ourselves and others, and only you can wash us clean.

Colossians 1

Thankyou that you have not left us in this helpless state. You have given us Jesus, your Son—the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For all the fullness of God dwells in the Son, to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through Jesus’ blood, shed on the cross.

Once we were alienated from you and were enemies in our minds because of our evil behaviour. But now you have reconciled us by Christ’s physical body through death, to present us holy in your sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if we continue in the faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.

Thankyou that you have drawn us to yourself, and into the family of believers. We thankyou for the blessing of belonging to a church family. We thankyou for the times we can pray for each other and provide practical support. We thankyou for the relationships which develop our character, as we learn to serve each other. We ask that you preserve us from selfish behaviour which hurts others and damages the body of Christ, and may our love for each other flow out into the community of Maitland so that others will want to know you. We pray that we would be observant of needs around us, and particularly that we would be welcoming to newcomers and visitors.

We pray for those of us in youth ministry, as they plan for the term ahead. Give them wisdom as they lead and love our young people, and endurance as they make the sacrifice of time each week among the other commitments in their lives.

Thankyou for those of us who are going to teach SRE this year, teaching about the bible in schools in our area. We thankyou that we have this opportunity to make the gospel known in schools. We pray that planning and training goes well and we ask for boldness to those who are nervous about doing this. Thankyou that they ARE willing to trust you as they go outside their comfort zone. Please bless the seeds of the gospel that are planted in classrooms this year, that in years to come they bear fruit.

We thankyou for the rain we’ve had this weekend, and we pray that farmers get the rain they need to support their livestock and crops. Thankyou for the food we have in abundance due to the labour of our farmers and the agriculturally rich land you have given us.

We give thanks for the news that our gospel partner Gert completed his studies at the Namibia Evangelical Theological Seminary in December and will graduate in March.

We pray for him as he leaves the college and moves into the next stage of his life and ministry, as he returns to serve in Opuwo Christian Community Church. We ask that as long as he is single he can serve you with all his heart, and that if it is your will you provide a godly wife to help him serve you. Please keep him strong in the faith, living a holy life, and holding out the gospel to those who are perishing.

We also pray for the new CMS missionaries who are joining the staff team at NETS this month. Please be with them as they meet many new people and get used to a new city and dozens of new cultures. We pray that NETS would be able to move on from its financial issues and mismanagement, and rebuild its staff team of local academics. We pray that you keep using NETS to reach Namibia and beyond for Jesus.

We pray for our brothers and sisters in Qatar. We pray that they find comforting fellowship with other believers. We pray that missionaries in Qatar can avoid being deported and can continue to share the gospel. We pray for the government and the royal family to allow more religious freedom. We pray for anyone facing direct persecution from family or the legal system, that you would strengthen them and that it would witness to Jesus.

Eph. Now 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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

January 2018, new year same me.

I've found it curious the number of memes on "new year new you". I don't have that vibe at all! My ambitions, as mentioned last month, are very moderate. More of a "keep up the good work".

The Summer holiday was not as great as usual. I must have been feeling the effects of low iron (the blood bank rejected me just before the holidays) because I was very tired and had lots of naps during the holidays. So less swimming, more audiobooks while resting. And I read a couple of non fiction books too. I quickly skimmed Under Pressure, which George gave Elsie, and a verse jumped out at me, "do not conform to the pattern of this world" as relating to reasons why we try and blend in as Christians instead of speaking up, feeling awkward, avoid standing out, taking no risks in our faith, and it stuck in my head as I went to Summer School and heard of people suffering joyfully for Jesus. I hope it will be a challenge verse for the year.

Summer school was a good week as always, challenging and encouraging. Tiredness inhibited my concentration at times, so it was very hard to even stand up and sing sometimes, but there were plenty of good sessions. It was lovely to catch up for lunches with old friends, and I'm thankful that I now have a few traditional catchups to fill out the week, time with special people from my Sydney life.

I bought this lovely backpack.

I bought 4 books at Summer School. CS Lewis's poetry, The Life of I, one about Friendship, and One by one. I started The Life of I first because it's the biggest and I want to lend it ASAP. It looks at narcissism, which I had never thought about. It has examples of extreme narcissists, who are all nasty people with no empathy who use others to boost themselves, so mass murderers and rapists through to drug cheats and CEOs. I am particularly interested in the shift in society to be generally more narcissistic, more focused on the individual than what benefits society, and how our culture is changing our very personalities, enhancing all our tendencies to selfishness. Again, "do not conform to the pattern of this world" is a good challenge. Gratifying yourself = spending money on whatever you want = working long hours for the money = children neglected/indulged/pressured to succeed by busy parents = a society of insecure, anxious, consumers = caring for others is seen as a failure. Has big chunks of research and social observation, and it's interesting to note how many little ways we have, as a society, moved along the narcissism spectrum. I was surprised to realise that I am the embodiment of the ideal citizen in this age: working full time with no children or dependents to care for, unencumbered to work as much as my employer demands and spend money on myself.

There were a few hot days, but then we got the correct Katoomba weather.

I checked out the shops on Katoomba street one afternoon and really like this art. Local artist I think, David Robert Hill.

I stayed in the house alone for the last night, had dinner at JK and Maddie's house, which was a housemate combination to use up random leftovers from the week, and checked out on Saturday morning. I left my pillow there :..( It was a really good pillow. I went to the 3 sisters and did that short bushwalk, then had a hot chocolate, then drove home.

After summer school it was straight back to work, along with Maitland Alive week at church. It was lovely getting to know another bunch of Sydney team members when they came over for showers and dinner. One has an instagram account where he reviews the showers of Maitland. Some late nights but delightful hours. I also realised I'm actually not bad at hospitality. I always rated myself low/unconfident because I'm not a great cook and I'm not an extrovert, but actually it always goes OK. The important thing is making people feel welcome and comfortable. I'll probably keep stressing over cooking though. I've got a list of people to do hospitality to this year.

I've been invited to a same sex wedding, and I wish I could go and celebrate with my friend, but I feel really sad about it, let alone the complications of what going to a same sex wedding signals, just going along and celebrating something I think is not good for society, and conforming to the pattern of this world. I'm not sure how this friendship and associated social dynamics will play out this year. I hope that if I don't go to the wedding but clearly want to uphold the friendship, it could be a good witness.  It's hard to know how to be in the world and not cut off in a Christian bubble without conforming to the world. I'm sure there is a case for Christians to go to same sex weddings, although I think if we do it has to be after taking the risk of the honest conversation.

I did not enjoy going back to work. The end of the holidays loomed with dread, and I straight away felt stressed and behind with things. Along with personal anxieties over the wedding invitation and the cost/hassle of building a pergola (the pergola is the dream for 2018 to compensate for the loss of the trees next door, but I have to pay for a builder and also pay for a lawyer to write a bylaw in the strata to permit building it), and going back on the music team this year, it was an anxious week.

My cherry tomato plant is huge, and started cropping. I often see a blue banded native bee pollinating it!

I took Thursday off to do creche for Maitland Alive, and in the afternoon I kayaked with mum at Morpeth. I left the kayaks on the roof afterwards and then kayaked with Liz on Friday after work, up near Tocal. This makes 4 voyages! if I can get to 10 by the end of summer, then the Cost Per Voyage will be $40 (money spent on kayak and life jacket ~ $400). Which is about what it costs to hire for kayaking, so I call that breaking even. Once I've explored the rivers and taken all my friends out who want to try it, I don't mind if I give it up and go on to the next adventure. I don't feel like its a life commitment, as long as it's not something I spent a lot of money on and did it twice and got bored. I could go on to dragon boating. Or landscape painting. Or martial arts.

This is mum.

This is the creek under Tocal Road.

So, one week back at work, then I got a cold on Friday night after the kayaking. Is it worse to have a cold in summer? At least it wasn't while I was on holidays. D at work recommended zinc acetate or zinc chelate supplements to keep colds away, and I was taking the zinc immune tablets all through the holidays (a few a week), so maybe that is why I had the cold for 2 days only, and went back to work on Monday.

Week 2 at work was better. Workload felt doable, anxiety was decreased. Australia Day long weekend was disappointing bc JB couldn't come due to illness, so instead I went swimming with mum and dad (have not swum as much as usual this summer, the heat doesn't make me want to swim, it just takes all my energy away), watched a lot of netflix, and went to a birthday lunch. It was nice overall, but disappointing compared to having a friend to feed and amuse and talk to.

C bought me a mulberry seedling. I'm not sure if its a good plant or not! I've planted it in a medium sized pot now, but it will take years before it will fruit, and I'm not sure if its a good fruiting plant, because she got it off a neighbourhood plant stall, so its just a self sown tree.

If you want a good Korean Drama, watch Hello my Twenties. I think it's a pretty accurate representation of housemate dynamics.

Finishing the month with cello lesson resuming on Mondays instead of Thursdays, which I am happy about. And managing to get my social exercise calendar back on a roll again! It will be Monday with Ros, Wednesday with Fi, Friday a park walk with whoever, and Saturday on my own.