Vertical and Horizontal Communion

Sunday night saw an awesome time at church. We did some worship, then I spoke about thanksgiving and how important it is that we give thanks to God. We then had a time of communion. I had been thinking lately that we 'miss out' on one part of communion. We so often take communion and in a quiet solemn time, reflect on what Jesus has done for me and thank him for dying for me. We are encouraged to have some time, just God and I. That is the 'vertical' relationship - the relationship between God and an individual.

But I believe there is suppose to be more. The idea that we are one body (Paul talks in Corinthians about the significance of breaking one loaf to signify one body) seems to often be missed.

So on Sunday night after sharing how I imagined the last supper to be (a bunch of blokes having a good time, telling jokes, retelling stories etc) I asked people to come and get a cup of juice and some bread and to find two other people that they had not spoken to in the last month. I encouraged them to 'catch up', have a yak, talk, tell a joke, tell a story and finish up by sharing some stuff that they are thankful for. That is the horizontal part of communion - the relationship between two or more people in a community in the name of Jesus.

What a great time it proved to be and the feedback from people was positive.

STOP..caption time!

"Although Henry hated the dentist, he just excelled at the 'open wide' part."

OK people, you know the drill. Captions, headlines, explanations etc etc....

Camping!!!!

Over the long weekend, I had the opportunity to go camping...so a camping did I go. Friday night saw representatives of the Baldwin, Stewart and Toohey families travel to the Cathedral Ranges, about 1.5 hours from Eltham, near Eildon.

The highlights were many (including wildlife, fire, coffee, fire, unsuccessfully warding off kleptomaniac Kookaburras from Ness's breakfast, fire and coffee). I also learnt that Kathryn just LOVES tuna. The girl can't get enough of the stuff!!!

On the down side, Matty got sick and fair to say, the weather was a little 'fresh'!

The thing I love about camping is that it is so slow!!! For example, If you want a cup of coffee (which I often did), you can't just press a button and have boiling water 1 minute later. You first have to go to the river and get some water, boil it on camp burner etc etc. The whole process takes a lot of time. As a result of everything taking longer, you basically only have time to sleep, eat, drink coffee and build and maintain fires. I LOVE THE SLOW LIFE!!!

I think the thing that makes or breaks a camping trip is the people that you camp with. In this case, excellent people made an excellent trip!

So Close......

Today I hand in my last assignment. It is an Exegetical Notebook' That is basically the whole semesters work. Exegesis is just a fancy-shmancy word for extracting the meaning from a text. In this case, the bible. It is a technical subject, but is absolutely fascinating how often we (I) actually insert meaning into the bible (its called eisegesis).

After I finish off this assignment, perhaps I will give some examples as to what I am talking about....yes, yes I will. That is a good idea Billy, you should do that. Ok I will, thank you...me.....for the encouragement. I really appreciate it.......

OK So I can't be bothered studying..Can you tell?

Stuck in my head....

I am in need of serious help. You know when you have a song stuck in your head and it is really annoying? Well I have something else stuck in my head. The "special" SMS alert on a Nokia Mobile. Do you have any idea how enraging it is? The worst thing is, that I can't just sing another song to get it out of my head!

I know someone that had the sound of the pedestrian crossing stuck in their head.

Any solutions? (that don't involve surgical intervention...WIRE!)

Back by popular demand

"yes Mum I know you told me not to pick up hitchhikers, but since I upgraded my wheels, I couldn't very well claim not to have room for a passenger!"


Captions/headlines/thoughts/explanations?

"The end is nigh"

Well the pointy end of the semester is upon us students. For me it means jumping through the hoops of essays etc. For others it means exams and cramming. I am a pressure person. I work best when the pressure is on. It is amazing how easy 3000 words come on any given topic when the essay is due in 2 days.

In addition I am a 'night-worker', meaning I do my best work in the night time. So my questions are two-fold.
1. Do you work better or worse under pressure?
2. Do you work better during the middle of the night or during the day?

OK Fine I'm over it!

After the compassion shown by my oldest sibling, it is time to get on with it. A special 'shout-out' to Rev, who filled in for me speaking on Sunday night at church (I think your main point was "Jesus is coming again on November 15...Gary told me so)

So after 4 days on the couch, more daytime TV than the legal limit and an acquired allergy to fresh air, it is time that someone took me out for a 'glass of SHUT UP'. Any takers?

Sickness is Sucks

Hey Dan, I'm sick, not coming into work today....hang on you are not my boss anymore! Actually, I am going horse riding........I wish

I have been STRUCK DOWN!!!!! Got a head full of gunk and it's making its way down into my chest for a party in my bronchioles. Anyone wanna party?

This IS sucks

Comments?

"In their haste to make the Ukrainian New Inventors and Science Show, Gavin, Todd and Brian failed to realise that their 'hover car' was facing the wrong way"

Backseat driving at its best

Lets pretend for a second that you are a witty newspaper editor and have to come up with a caption for this pic.

At the very least, an explanation as to what is happening here. For example, I don't actually think that he realises she is there and is saying to himself "this scooter is not performing like it usually does, will have to get a tune up"

Sometimes I feel like a fish...

This is not really about 'ambition' but what are you going to do, sack me?

I wonder how my journey is going to end....a little morbid yes, but am I the only one who wonders 'how will I go?'

Did you know that...

...the average person will spend two weeks over their lifetime waiting for the traffic light to change.

I have taken it upon myself to bring that average down. If everyone would just run a red light every now and then, or halve the time they wait for the green...this world would be a better place

Publicity?

I was thinking today, how funny would it be if the whole trapped miners thing in Tassie was just a stunt. I really don't think it was, and I'm glad they are out and all that, but how do we really know that they were in fact stuck underground?

SOUP IS NOT A MEAL

Here it is Ludi -

SOUP IS NOT A MEAL

Soup is a 'pre-meal', a warm up, an appetiser, an entrée. It is NOT a meal in itself. I do not care how 'chunky' it is. I don't care how much bread you consume with it....SOUP IS NOT A MEAL



I actually like soup

The Death of One

Is it just me, or should Cockatoos refrain from dying in your front garden. We made the unfortunate discovery yesterday. I will admit that I am kind of hoping a little fox will come and take it away as a delightful meal for him and his little foxettes. Is it wrong to wish native animals to die? I think it is OK because there are lots of them. I think if there are lots of something, it is OK for them to die.....like ants and flies and English people

What more could you need?

In a moment of deep reflection, I have decided that all we need to survive this world is coffee and iced donuts (chocolate and pink). There are 13.5 things that we need more than coffee and donuts. One of which is a bakery that makes coffee, but another is eBay.

Classes - who needs them?

I didn't go to class today. I'm going to say it was out of respect for the ANZACS. No one should be forced to learn on such an important patriotic day.
Actually, I just have too much college stuff to do.
I think I hate the fact that a bachelor level of study, they still take a role and make 'chapel' type components compulsory. Isn't that right Revhead?

I think I will just get my mum to write me a note....

Instant Family

This past weekend saw Rach and I become instant parents. We had the ....pleasure (yeah that's it) of taking care of 2 nephews and 1 Niece from Friday to today. Mitch, Hayden and Becky. It was awesome, strange and tiring all at the same time. I reckon we should get rid of all the sex education in schools and churches, and just give everyone the responsibility to look after 3 kids at once. NOW THAT is contraception at its most effective...

Influenced or influencer?

The passage for this weeks sermon at EBC is Mark 4:1-34. What a great passage, the general crux is this: The first part is the parable of the Sower. The four different types of soil etc. The point being, we need to be influenced by the Gospel. The second part, which is perfectly 'ripe for the picken' is about sharing the gospel, or being an influencer.
So the answer to the title question is BOTH!