Queensland - the state of islands

Around Dalby and around the state there are currently many islands. Houses and properties are isolated by water, making them into inland islands after unprecedented amounts of water flooding large parts of the state.

Our hearts go out to those affected by devastating and life-taking waters washing through places like Toowoomba. To imagine a city on top of a range have flash flooding of such magnitude to be likened to an inland tsunami is shocking and breathtaking.

What happens out here is nothing by comparison, no matter how frustrated and sick of flooding we're becoming. Here we're experiencing our 2nd major flood (and 3 minor floods) in two weeks. The Myall Creek peaked just under 3.8m last night, higher than the 3.5m 2 weeks ago. Levels are staying steady, but with more rains last night and upstream Creeks rising, I wouldn't be surprised if we reach higher levels later today. Talking to members (whose houses are raised off the ground), once we reach about 4m, many more houses will be inundated with water. To the left are some more photos taken yesterday.

I keep thinking how water can harm, soil, flood, damage, and kill, but God also uses water at baptism to clean, purify, and bring the hope of salvation. No matter how hard this continues to affect people, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Lord, have mercy!

Water, water everywhere...!

I've been meaning to post for a while now but Blogger hasn't fixed it's bugs. Thankfully I've finally found a way around it!

For those who have been following the news lately, Dalby has experienced major flooding. Thankfully our family are safe and well, but it has been an eventful few days! We had a pool of water in the backyard about 20cm deep at one stage, but we were never under threat.

The Myall Creek rose to over 3.5m, cutting the town in half and isolating us from other townships (the above photo shows our main bridge - they were allowing high 4WD's through). While some houses have been inundated with water, most homes are off the ground and 'only' experienced water beneath or around them. While inconvenient and annoying, the clean up will take quite a while.

To make matters worse, the town's water treatment plant was flooded and we only have water left for a few days. The plant may not get back on line for about a week. We're using water sparingly, and thankfully have a full tank (5,000l) of rainwater.

While many people have been affected to varying extents, I'm thankful it wasn't any worse. I've been contacting members who may have been affected and most are ok. I believe everyone now has a story to tell!

As I talk to people I find the questions aren't 'what did you get for Christmas?', but 'what happened to you? Are you ok? Can we help? How is so-and-so? Are they ok?' The care and concern people have for each other is heart warming and encouraging.

We continue to pray for those isolated or evacuated from their homes and who are facing a massive clean up.

The past is always present

I recently watched 'Beautiful Kate', a well made Australian Film. I enjoyed some great acting by formidable actors, and an intriguing storyline.

Among the opening credits was a line 'The past is always present', and the film then showed how this is true as a fractured family try to deal with the past. No matter how they've tried to deal with the past previously, the past is still very much present for them. Despite their previous attempts to run away from or deny the past, it's only properly dealt with through confession and forgiveness.

As I work with and among people, this tag line keeps echoing around in my head. I see how for so many, the past is still very much present. As I'm listening to them and their pains and heartaches, their bitterness and their anger, I'm learning to seek what might have happened to them in their past. The reason is pastoral. I often find that some event in a person's past produced a reaction for safety or survival emotionally. This same reaction will be used over and over again every time they feel the same emotions of fear, loss, anger, or helplessness. Once a past event is identified, I've find one of the most powerful and helpful tools to break the chains of the past is confession and forgiveness.

As we soon celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ at Easter, I'm reminded of the most powerful event in human history, where Christ prayed for his heavenly Father to forgive us our sins, and then died to free us from the chains of our past crimes to give us a future filled with hope and peace. Yet this one-off event still has power for today. The past event of Jesus' life, death and resurrection is still very much present in the church today.

No matter how powerful the events in a person's life can be (which are still present for them), we need to keep going back to an even more powerful event (which is still present in the church). We run to the Cross of Christ, confess our sins (even out loud - it's amazing how much verbalising our sins can free us from our crippling bondage), and see the blood of Jesus wash our sins away. Through the power of forgiveness, we can make a new start and no longer have to have the past affect us so much.

Yes, the past is always present. The past events of our lives can still be present and affect us in so many ways, but the past victory of Jesus over sin, death and the devil is more powerful, and very much present.

God's blessings to you this Easter.

'Making out' at Christmas

I wrote this for the local newspaper (pity they edited out the last half!):

How much of your Christmas is about ‘making out’, you know, sustaining a level of ‘make-believe’?

I remember growing up, wondering if Father Christmas was real, and trying to catch my parents out. I always had my doubts. Is it all ‘make-believe’? One year they went to extraordinary levels to maintain the ‘make-believe’ by even staging an argument as we got into the car to go to a Christmas Eve worship service. One of them stormed back off into the house, while we sat quietly in the back seat (we sat quietly because we didn’t want to get into trouble with our parents already in a bad mood!). When we got back from church, the presents were ‘magically’ under the Christmas tree (put there when they had run into the house after the ‘argument’)!

In a similar way I remember gathering with extended family such as grandparents, uncles, aunties and cousins, ‘making out’ we were all peaceful, happy, content and actually getting on well. Normally we got on well with each other (I have many fond memories of these times), but there were times we’d smile and laugh at each other, privately wishing we could be somewhere else.

The ‘making out’ of Christmas, and the façades of peace and joy and contentment don’t last long. There’s work to be done again soon. We can only be on our best behaviour for so long before our true self lets loose again. If we’re suffering in our health, we can only make out for so long everything’s ok. For many people there’s an empty seat at their Christmas celebration, which can’t be wished away by ‘make-believe’ – the reality of grief is too strong. The reality of families in conflict burst the bubbles of fantasy and well-wishes. Even the shiny Christmas wrappers and decorations will be packed away again. The ‘make-believe’ of Christmas doesn’t last.

When God came to earth as a child, he had no intention of ‘making out’. He came because of the reality – the reality that our relationship with him wasn’t right, the reality that we don’t always get along with each other, and the reality that death or the dying process scares us.

Jesus came into a real world – our world. He came to live among and save poor people, hurting people, sick people, wicked people, injured people, grieving people, and dying people. He could have come and said “Let’s pretend everything’s ok”, but he didn’t. The reality of our corrupted lives and broken relationships is too strong to ignore. He came to heal, restore, reconcile, forgive, and to give life and hope. The hope is real, not make-believe.

When the angels announced ‘peace on earth’, this wasn’t a ‘make-believe’ peace, but a real peace – a peace that leads to true contentment and joy; a peace that drives out fear. He reinforced the point when he announced many times during his life “Don’t be afraid” or “Peace be with you”. This is real peace, but you can’t talk about peace without talking about war. You can’t talk about forgiveness without talking about sin and wrong. You can’t talk about eternal life without talking about death. You can’t talk about the reality of faith without talking about the reality of no faith. We could make out death and sin and pain and suffering and war doesn’t exist, but it does. Make-believe doesn’t last forever.

You see, God came as a human in order to put things right. He came to forgive. Since all forgiveness comes at a cost, he paid the cost by his sacrifice for us. We did the crime, but he did the time. Despite the high cost, his forgiveness is a gift, better than any wrapped present we might receive this Christmas.

He fought the war against death so we might live. He rose again from death so that we know death is defeated. This is the hope we have through faith in Jesus – real eternal life where death doesn’t exist. The story of his life and suffering and death and resurrection isn’t made up. It’s real. We receive the benefits of his life and death and resurrection through trusting him – a real trust, not a make-believe one. Through trusting him, we receive peace and hope and forgiveness and life.

God came among a broken world in the real person of Jesus, born in Bethlehem; born to face our reality, born to give us real forgiveness, real hope, real peace, and real life. Really.

"I know I'm a sinner, but I haven't done anything wrong!"

I've been a little quiet on the blog lately - I've been a little busy. This doesn't mean things haven't Crossed my life, it just means I haven't had much time to process the things around me and find time to actually write about them.

In one of the books I've been reading lately ('Confession and Forgiveness: Professing Faith as Ambassadors of Reconciliation' by Ted Kober), I came across the above quote: "I know I'm a sinner, but I haven't done anything wrong!". I almost laughed out loud when I read this! (By the way, it was spoken by a pastor!) Yet in another sense, it's deadly serious. How many Christians think they've done nothing wrong?

Many times I've heard one of two reactions to sermons where I sought to expose people's sin. One is "I wish so-and-so were hear to hear that!" To this I often wonder (and sometimes say), "But you were here. What did it say to you?" Don't we often want to point the finger at others but hate it when the finger points at us! This is more comfortable - just brush it aside and deflect the accusation to someone else.

This leads me to the second reaction: people think I'm picking on them when I expose their sin. Well, I admit I have felt moved to mention something in the sermon at times targeting a specific person, but most of the times I did this, they weren't at worship that day (or weren't listening at the time!). Instead someone else who I didn't even consider to be affected by this particular sin felt as if I picked on them. If anyone was picking on them, it was the Holy Spirit!

At times people have said to me I talk about sin too much. They argue it's off-putting to newcomers. They also argue "We all know we're sinners - you don't have to go on and on about it!" Hmmm, don't you think this is so much like the above quote?

Exposing our sin is uncomfortable. The Spirit probes through our conscience and jabs at our guilt, our shame and our brokenness. Yet like a doctor's scalpel, we need to get rid of the infection before we can experience true healing.

Sin breaks our relationships - our relationships with our families and friends, our work mates, and our sporting mates. Sin breaks the view of ourselves, leading to struggling self-worth. Sin breaks our relationship with God.

The reason sin needs to be exposed is so that the gospel will do it's saving effect. If we don't think we need a Saviour from our sin, what on earth do we need Jesus for? Jesus didn't come to be a miracle vending machine, but in order to save us from our sin.

Perhaps we mouth the words "I am a sinner" all too easily without realising the implications. Quite simply I have done wrong in God's sight. Full stop. No excuses. No attempts at self-justification. It is my own fault.

I go to worship, not always because I enjoy it (or even because I'm paid to), but because I need it. I am a sinner and I need a Saviour to save me from myself and my sin. Since I can't fix myself, I need God to come down and serve me. I need him to expose the sickness of my sin, my spiritual thirst, and my hunger for peace. I need him to announce his forgiveness so my joy and peace is restored.

Yes, I know I'm a sinner. I also know I've done plenty wrong. It takes effort for me to see that in myself and specify my sin, yet I can also lay those specific sins at the foot of the cross and receive the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

I am a sinner. Jesus is my Saviour.

Idolatry - the root of all conflict?

I'm attending a conference on conflict and reconciliation in Sydney later in the year and I've been given some homework before I arrive. My first task is to read the book 'The Peacemaker' by Ken Sande.

I flicked through it last night and noticed one chapter that talks about idolatry and how it can be the cause of much conflict. It seems to progress in the following order:

I desire
I demand
I judge
I punish

Without reading further, I started thinking about some forms of conflict and how this develops. For example, in family life (say between husband and wife or children), someone desires something - usually for oneself, starts to demand it (with all the subsequent nagging), judges everyone else wrong and cruel if he or she doesn't get their own way, and then punishes through verbal or physical abuse (or even by 'sulking'). Even the 'worship wars' or financial conflicts in many congregations follow a similar pattern.

With this in mind, I can easily see how conflict is often caused by putting oneself or ones' desires first, which is idolatry. In conflict therefore, what is my idol that is causing such offence that I need to repent of? How can I show grace instead of selfishness, mercy instead of punishment, and peace instead of war?

I'm looking forward to reading how the author suggests to deal with conflict in a biblical and Christ-centred manner.

Food for thought...

Some Luther quotes

I came across these this morning and thought them worth sharing:

Every man must do two things alone: he must do his own believing and his own dying.

Peace if possible, truth at all costs.

The fewer the words, the better the prayer.

How soon 'not now' becomes 'never'.