This group of friends bought me an Ipod before I left for Summer Placement, I think because they weren't sure how I'd cope in the town I was placed in, Palmy has a bit of a stigma, all false of course.
Anyway I have so appreciated this special gift (all the more because it's purple) and to get the most use out of it, I bought a pack with an Ipod/Tape Converter for my car (no CD player, old school, I know) as well as one of those things that you put into your cigarette lighter and it can play the Ipod through that power source... someone will know what they are called.
Anywho so far I've been using the Tape Converter but because I used it a lot over summer (and ok, because it was cheap) recently the quality has been a bit warped. Now I think I'm ready to try the other thing. So I got and read the instructions, and find that if I don't select the right voltage for the tuner on this wee thing, it could 'blow my device'. And by device, they mean my special purple Ipod. Problem. I would quite like to NOT blow my device, and hence, I'm scared to try it and have resorted to listening to bad radio stations.
I have written this blog for three reasons.
1. I think I would like to blog some more, maybe. I started one last year but got slack. This year my mind has been going overtime and it helps me to get stuff out of my head and onto paper... screen etc. People seemed to really enjoy my emails over summer and I would promise to make these blogs shorter, and with more paragraph breaks for certain people.
2. If anybody thinks they can solve my wee technical issue, then this is a good forum for telling people about it and giving me some advice.. currently my advice has been leaning towards the 'pay more money and get a proper one' and that is what I'm thinking of doing. And probably not for 20 bucks from the big red shed.
3. I was thinking about my wee dilemma and how often in life we get scared. We get scared to take a risk because we fear it will blow up in our face. We don't take a chance on someone or something or some experience because we don't know the outcome and this uncertainty means we freeze up and we decide the best option is to do nothing. I'm sure in the case of my Ipod, the chances of the device blowing up is slim to none but still that little bit freaks me out and has left me to settle for less than I deserve IE bad music and annoying ads and radio presenters rather than my sweet playlist of musical awesomeness. Sigh. I'm not sure if that's good enough, or if I want to live my life that way. I'm not just talking about my Ipod of course, hopefully that's clear by now. Taking it to a Jesus level for a mo, I think faith is more than just saying you believe in something. I have to let my faith dictate your life.. as much as it freaks me out I think I need to trust God to be with me in the scary, vulnerable, risk taking, freaky, heart-on-your-sleeve, adventurous, unknown times because if He is in either outcome, why worry?
Just a thought.
But seriously I need Ipod help.
Laura
Monday, April 27, 2009
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Communion Stories...
On Monday during my 1 Corinthians lecture we had an interesting discussion around 1 Corinthians 11 and Communion and the different ways we celebrate it depending on context, church culture, environment etc. I really appreciated my lecturer's handout 'Thinking About Communion' as it challenged me to define communion for what it was, not what it has been only in my experience. I decided to be practical about this and lead a celebration of communion in my small group this week as an extension of what we talked about in class. I have a small accountability group of myself and 3 others and so I sent out a text asking if they would like to celebrate communion and asking one to bring some liquid (of any description!), another to bring some bread and another to bring chocolate.. just because every small group meeting needs chocolate. I did some research and found so much information on the web from different churches on how they celebrate communion. Here is what I pooled together from various sources and roughly how the night went...
-We started with a time of sharing on the last time we had communion. What was it like? How was it served? What did you remember feeling towards communion on that day and what does it normally mean to you?
(The last time I had taken communion I had been organising it and so I spent the morning rushing around finding 12 people to distribute it. I took mine up the back of church after I made sure everyone else had received it. Sounds selfless but I didn't think too much about taking it myself! One of my group is a tech guy at church and so remembered quickly taking the communion elements before the service moved on to the next thing; another is a musician and so shared feelings of having to also take it quickly so she could be up on stage to 'play the communion song.' Interesting...)
-Next I read from the 'Thinking about Communion' handout on the different terms people use to describe communion and, finishing with 'Re-enact what Jesus did' we read from Luke 22:14-20.
-Then I had found on the Saddleback Church website a succinct summary on how to prepare yourself for communion using 'self examination, re-commitment, restoring relationships.'
http://www.saddlebackfamily.com/membership/group_finder/faqs_smallgroup.asp?id=7509#q_02
We talked about each of these three things and shared which one we struggled with the most. I shared a thought that my lecturer had about how 'remember me' is not just a reminder to remember what Jesus did in breaking the bread and in his death but also a reminder to make room for Him in our present lives, 'remember me now.' We agreed it was easy to do the first part but harder to consistently keep up the second part!
-Next we took the bread and the drink and I shared a prayer for each element that I found on this website..
http://www.freedomsring.org/fta/chap15.html
After each one we had a moment of silence.
-After taking the elements we moved on to the rest of our night where we share with each other what we are struggling with, and we pray for each other.
I also found this website quite helpful..
http://www.christianitytoday.com/smallgroups/articles/buildcommunity.html
All in all we had a really good discussion on Communion and how we approach it and what it means. I wanted to share this with you all so that you could share with me how you participate in communion. Let's share stories! I want to encourage you to challenge yourself through the chapter in 1 Corinthians on the celebration of communion.
-We started with a time of sharing on the last time we had communion. What was it like? How was it served? What did you remember feeling towards communion on that day and what does it normally mean to you?
(The last time I had taken communion I had been organising it and so I spent the morning rushing around finding 12 people to distribute it. I took mine up the back of church after I made sure everyone else had received it. Sounds selfless but I didn't think too much about taking it myself! One of my group is a tech guy at church and so remembered quickly taking the communion elements before the service moved on to the next thing; another is a musician and so shared feelings of having to also take it quickly so she could be up on stage to 'play the communion song.' Interesting...)
-Next I read from the 'Thinking about Communion' handout on the different terms people use to describe communion and, finishing with 'Re-enact what Jesus did' we read from Luke 22:14-20.
-Then I had found on the Saddleback Church website a succinct summary on how to prepare yourself for communion using 'self examination, re-commitment, restoring relationships.'
http://www.saddlebackfamily.com/membership/group_finder/faqs_smallgroup.asp?id=7509#q_02
We talked about each of these three things and shared which one we struggled with the most. I shared a thought that my lecturer had about how 'remember me' is not just a reminder to remember what Jesus did in breaking the bread and in his death but also a reminder to make room for Him in our present lives, 'remember me now.' We agreed it was easy to do the first part but harder to consistently keep up the second part!
-Next we took the bread and the drink and I shared a prayer for each element that I found on this website..
http://www.freedomsring.org/fta/chap15.html
After each one we had a moment of silence.
-After taking the elements we moved on to the rest of our night where we share with each other what we are struggling with, and we pray for each other.
I also found this website quite helpful..
http://www.christianitytoday.com/smallgroups/articles/buildcommunity.html
All in all we had a really good discussion on Communion and how we approach it and what it means. I wanted to share this with you all so that you could share with me how you participate in communion. Let's share stories! I want to encourage you to challenge yourself through the chapter in 1 Corinthians on the celebration of communion.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Pastor Mike Guglielmucci drops the baton..but what can we learn?
Pastor Mike Guglielmucci drops the baton..but what can we learn?
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24216087-5006787,00.html
This morning at BAM (breakfast/bible at McDonalds) we discussed the recent (very recent in fact!) controversy over Pastor Mike Guglielmucci across the Tasman. Read the above article if you're confused at this point. Bear in mind the article is told from one perspective. I've been thinking about this all day.. here are some thoughts, for what they are worth.
1. This again reminds us that leaders are just like the rest of us in that they stuff up, just often in more public ways. (as my mum said, it's not just the Catholic priests who do silly public things! she can say this as she's Catholic, lol) This does not excuse their behaviour especially since it appears in this case to be a habitual stuffing-up that has gone on for a while. But it does remind us of that faithful middle verse in the Bible, Psalm 118v8:"It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man." We cannot expect such leaders to be faultless just because they lead and encourage us in our faith. They too are covered by grace.
2. Whatever reasons prompted Pastor Mike Guglielmucci to act in this way, we will never fully know. Many non Christians and even Christians may be put off church/faith/believers because of his actions, thinking how can we ever trust these crazy Christians? I think our relationships with non Christians will be put to the test again in this case (good, I need more stretching!) as they grapple with the issues and we come to them humbly saying that we don't have the answers to this one either. This need not put them off church, but rather it could reinforce how flawed we are, and how no one is perfect. (insert appropriate bible verse here, take your pick!)
http://www.lyricstime.com/planet-shakers-healer-lyrics.html
3. Does this claim take away from the power of the song written by Pastor Mike Guglielmucci, Healer, where he claims God as his 'Healer'? No it doesn't. The bible is full of examples where God uses messed up people to communicate his love and redemption. Noah=naked drunk, Leah=ugly, Gideon=coward, Rahab=prostitute, David=murderer, Peter=denied Christ etc. Add my name to that list cause flip I get it wrong all the time, and can only cling onto God with all I have, as my healer, as all I need, as my portion, as more than enough! His motives may be skew but I believe that God will continue to speak to people through the song that Mike wrote.
I really hope and pray that Mike gets through this. I hope he gets some help, spends time with close family and friends who will support him even though they may feel betrayed. I hope people realise that even in such hurtful times we must forgive as we are forgiven. I hope that he can make it out the other side of this very public issue and be able to openly yet humbly say, 'Ok I stuffed up, but God is good.'
Because in spite of this God is good and God is still the ultimate Healer.
Thoughts?
This morning at BAM (breakfast/bible at McDonalds) we discussed the recent (very recent in fact!) controversy over Pastor Mike Guglielmucci across the Tasman. Read the above article if you're confused at this point. Bear in mind the article is told from one perspective. I've been thinking about this all day.. here are some thoughts, for what they are worth.
1. This again reminds us that leaders are just like the rest of us in that they stuff up, just often in more public ways. (as my mum said, it's not just the Catholic priests who do silly public things! she can say this as she's Catholic, lol) This does not excuse their behaviour especially since it appears in this case to be a habitual stuffing-up that has gone on for a while. But it does remind us of that faithful middle verse in the Bible, Psalm 118v8:"It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man." We cannot expect such leaders to be faultless just because they lead and encourage us in our faith. They too are covered by grace.
2. Whatever reasons prompted Pastor Mike Guglielmucci to act in this way, we will never fully know. Many non Christians and even Christians may be put off church/faith/believers because of his actions, thinking how can we ever trust these crazy Christians? I think our relationships with non Christians will be put to the test again in this case (good, I need more stretching!) as they grapple with the issues and we come to them humbly saying that we don't have the answers to this one either. This need not put them off church, but rather it could reinforce how flawed we are, and how no one is perfect. (insert appropriate bible verse here, take your pick!)
http://www.lyricstime.com/
3. Does this claim take away from the power of the song written by Pastor Mike Guglielmucci, Healer, where he claims God as his 'Healer'? No it doesn't. The bible is full of examples where God uses messed up people to communicate his love and redemption. Noah=naked drunk, Leah=ugly, Gideon=coward, Rahab=prostitute, David=murderer, Peter=denied Christ etc. Add my name to that list cause flip I get it wrong all the time, and can only cling onto God with all I have, as my healer, as all I need, as my portion, as more than enough! His motives may be skew but I believe that God will continue to speak to people through the song that Mike wrote.
I really hope and pray that Mike gets through this. I hope he gets some help, spends time with close family and friends who will support him even though they may feel betrayed. I hope people realise that even in such hurtful times we must forgive as we are forgiven. I hope that he can make it out the other side of this very public issue and be able to openly yet humbly say, 'Ok I stuffed up, but God is good.'
Because in spite of this God is good and God is still the ultimate Healer.
Thoughts?
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