I’ve just this read this post and wanted to share it with you. It really touched my heart. Hope it does yours too.

The Magic Eraser

I started our worship this week with this clip from You Tube and thought perhaps I’d share it with you all.

Image via WikipediaA couple of weeks ago I wrote of the news that our current minister (pastor/priest) is leaving our church at the end of September.

Earlier this week I went to a meeting to begin the process of looking for a replacement. It was really good to listen to our minister explain briefly what had gone on in the process of him being called by another church and to be honest, I felt much better about the whole situation having sat through that.

He also walked us through the process in our denomination as it stands today. In the 5 or so years since we’ve had to go through this process, a few things have changed. And as tends to happen in organisations, some of the material available to explain such processes is long and complicated. So the way he summarised it was helpful.

As a result of that meeting I feel that some really strong positives have come out of our need to search for a new minister.

There was a real heart and hunger for prayer amongst those present and suggestions were made as to a group of people getting together regularly to pray for our current situation. Isn’t it funny how a “crisis” is often what prompts us to pray. Maybe not funny….

Each of the congregations involved in our parish now needs to go through a process of examining what is currently happening in our churches and what visions we have for the future.

Then out of that we need to look at our *needs* from a minister (which is quite complicated when we have 5 very different congregations).

I can see this process being quite healthy and having not really gone through the process for almost 8 years (we’ve had our current minister for 5 and were 3 years without a minister before that).

Talk also centred around the availability of supply ministry. We have some ministers who move from church to church, providing support, encouragement and teaching for short bursts of time as an interim while you are without a minister. My experience with such supply ministers in the past has been quite positive. One in particular encouraged a significant amount of spiritual growth in my life. There are other positives such as having a variety of different people come through you get a variety of teaching and pastoring styles which suit different people. They’re also often able to focus on the job of actually teaching and pastoring as a full-time minister seems to have quite an administrative role to play in addition to their leadership within the church.

I have also taken on the role of getting a website set up for our parish. This is something currently being encouraged by our state body (and hosted by them as well). I was most excited when I discovered that they actually use WordPress software on these sites. My hope is that this might be a great way of communicating to potential ministers as well as within our own parish and as a way to get some of our young people involved.

So, as you can see, what was feeling like a negative just a few short weeks ago, is now looking more and more positive. It’s not that we won’t desperately miss our current minister. But God is showing his hand in the situation and like always, bringing forth many blessings.

Image by Lawrence OP via FlickrMy apologies for yet another absence on here. I’ve been in somewhat of a “blogging slump” of late. No absence of ideas on what to blog on but an absence of clarity of thought in order to put them together. Of course, one of the things I do LOVE about this blog is it’s smaller, more intimate community that allows me more freedom to just blog and see what comes out.

There are times when having multiple blogs can be like a millstone around my neck. BUT, they all have a separate purpose and I use them all differently. It just means I can’t always blog to all of them all of the time.

Yesterday was my first time worship leading this year. I’ve been a worship leader for quite a number of years in our church. Over that time, things have changed a little in what is expected of the worship leader. And I guess I’ve grown and changed in how I worship lead.

To be completely honest, it’s not something I can really say I look forward to. I do enjoy it when I’m actually “in the moment”. And I know that God uses me when I worship lead (most of the time at least). But a lot of the time I find it a hard slog.

I still get nervous before I worship lead. But I think it’s a different kind of nerves to the “I have to stand up in front of a group of people” kind of nerves and more of a “this is a big responsibility and I’m pretty sure I’m not up to the task” kind of nerves. Or a “I hope I’m not doing this in my own strength because if I am I know I’m going to fall flat on my face” type nerves.

The good thing about those nerves is that they send me straight to the arms of the Father. I know without a doubt that without Him, I am nothing.

Sometimes I try too hard to have the exact right words to say. Sometimes I try to say too much.

This week was particularly hard. I haven’t been feeling all that great and we’d been out all day Saturday. We’re getting toward the end of the term and our four year old is extremely overtired right now. It makes him much less amicable to doing what we ask him to do.

Others around me were stressed with the rush of getting to church Sunday morning and expressing their stress to any and all who would listen. Stressing over things like getting the urn filled and turned on.

There really are so many things that distract us from focusing on God aren’t they?

It’s not that those things don’t matter to Him. Of course they do. But not when they get in the way of focusing on Him and the real reason we come to worship.

Interesting that the first song I had chose was this one:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace

So simple and yet so powerful and so true.

Where are your eyes right now?

Are they on the things of earth or are they on Jesus?

Dear Lord, Forgive me when I take my eyes from you and focus too much on the day to day things of life here on earth. Help me to simply turn me eyes upon you and drink in your wonder and your grace. Amen

I’m feeling a little blue right now. It was announced this morning in church that our current minister is leaving us. In September!!! Which is a strange time of year to be leaving and has left me feeling like we’re being up and abandoned.

While I love living in the country (now that I’m acclimatised more to the isolation and lack of shops!!!), there are some things that feel like disadvantages.

One of those is finding a minister who is prepared to live this far away from the capital city (around 500km) AND work with several smaller congregations. It’s amazing the kinds of responses we’ve had from prospective ministers - the manse is too small (or not nice enough), the school isn’t good enough for their kids and so on.

We were 3 years without a minister after the one prior to our current one was here.

So, aside from being disappointed that our current minister has decided to leave and that it seems all rather sudden and unusual, there is the added concern of how long it might take.

On top of all this, there are rumors circulating that we might lose our local hospital. Our current government in all it’s wisdom, feels money would be better spent on fewer hospitals with more facilities. Which might look good on paper but aint so good if you’ve got a child that can’t breathe and the nearest hospital is a couple of towns away (with 50-100km’s between towns).

It’s been hard enough the past 9 months not having a regular doctor. We’ve finally got a full-time doctor starting soon and now news of hospital closures has hit.

So right now I’m feeling a little abandoned and blue about what is happening around us. The lack of services to country areas is a difficulty faced by many living in rural and remote areas. We don’t need to lose any more.

I’d appreciate your prayers for a new minister and that our hospital will remain open.

Singstar Princess, my 7-year old daughter has taken to using the front verandah as her stage. It used to be the trampoline in the back yard but given our eldest son has discovered the pine trees out the front make good football goal posts, the kids have all gravitated to playing in front of the house. As there is no fence out there, they’re only allowed to play out there at certain times (like NOT when we have visitors OR if we’re expecting a truck delivery etc).

This morning she has been out there singing her little heart out with some made up song about always loving Jesus.

I wonder if she’ll turn to writing songs when she gets older? It’ll be interesting to see.

Dear Lord, Thank you for the gift of my beautiful daughter. Thank you that her heart is drawn to you in such a special way. May she always love and long to serve you more. I pray that she’ll use the gifts you have given her for Your Glory. She is such a treasure to my heart. Amen.

Before I had my license and a car, I did a LOT of walking. I used to find it such a great time for reflection, prayer, listening to God and so on.

Once I got my first car, I didn’t walk so many places. Instead, I found that driving was a great time for reflection, prayer, listening to God AND praise & worship. Particularly when I drive in the country.

One of the things I lost when I fried my brain (ie pushed myself until my brain decided to partially shut down) was the ability to drive anywhere. I’ve been gradually getting that skill back but I still don’t choose to drive places just for the sake of it.

Until today.

Today I took my 4 year old and we went for a drive to a town about half an hour from here.

I wasn’t busy thinking about where I was going or where I had been.

It was such a freeing feeling.

It’s funny how you don’t always miss something until it returns to you and you realise how much it means.

I can be like that with bible reading and regular prayer times. Habits slowly leak away until my mind isn’t as focused on God but I’m not really recognising the fact. Then something steers me back on track and I realise how much I MISSED that regular time with Him.

I’ve always loved this Bette Midler song. I do believe God is Watching Us. Although I don’t believe it’s from a distance.

However, as I was watching this youtube clip, it occured to me that while God is close, he is also watching from a distance. A distance in the sense that he sees a much LARGER picture than what we see. How easy it is to get caught up in life’s day to day problems and forget that there is a MUCH larger picture going on that what we see on a daily basis?

Thanks to Trish for showing this clip on her blog.

Dear Lord, Thank you that you do see the larger picture of life. Help us to also see things the way you see them and to not only be focused on our own problems. Amen.

A friend of mine sent me a link to this song. It was just what I needed at the time. Thanks Wendy. I hope you can draw some strength and hope from it also.

I love the internet world.  The way it puts us in touch with people far and wide who may have similar interests to us.  Friendships that might never have sprung up any other way are formed.  Websites and blogs where we can receive encouragement in our walk with God are a blessing.

But like all things in this world that are wonderful, they can also have a downside.  The temptation to use the internet as our haven from the world when in reality we need to be running straight to God himself is one I’m sure we all have faced.

I’m not perfect and in this life I never will be.  I have times when I use the internet as a tool like I would any other valuable things in life.  And I have times where I use it as an idol.  A place to run to INSTEAD of running straight to God.

I mentioned yesterday that I’m feeling quite hurt at the moment by a few things that have happened online of late.  People are just as capable of hurting us via the internet as they are through any other means.

I am thankful for this because it has reminded me that NOTHING and NO-ONE can provide for us the safe haven that the loving arms of God provide.  I am thankful that God is a gracious, loving and forgiving God who is always there for us no matter how often we may turn away from Him or neglect Him in any way.

“But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.”  Nehemiah 9:17

Thank you Lord that you ARE a gracious God.  Slow to anger and quick to forgive.  Please forgive me when I abandon you for earthly pursuits.  Thank you for reminding me that I can ALWAYS run to you and find a safe and comforting haven in your arms.  Amen