Communion

I've been going to blog about this for a week or so now, but with other exciting things happening, I've not gotton around to it.

On the last night of camp at Halls Gap, we had a church-type service which included communion. The communion talk given on this night, painted communion in a whole new way for me.

The humanity of Jesus is often lost within Christianity & religion. Communion is a very good example of this. What do you do when you're about to leave your home base on any sort-of long journey? Alot of people hold going-away parties, so that they can say good-bye to those closest to them. At the very least people will catch-up with all thier closest relatives and friends. Jesus was no different. It is Jesus last night before being arrested and eventually crucified, and he knows this. So what is he doing with his last night of ministry? How did Jesus spend his last free hours on earth? He wasn't out healing the terminally ill, forgiving & talking to prostitutes or condemming the actions of religious leaders, as he'd become famous for. Nor was he delivering that one last 'this is how I want you to live' message. No, he spent it having a meal with his closest friends. He even states in Luke 22

"I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God."

Or to put it in the way I understand it "I've been looking foward to eating this meal tonight guys, it's the last one I'm getting untill I've been raised from the dead." (Which was still 3 days away) So Jesus is about to have his last meal with his disciples, a meal which has extra significance, because it is the Passover, an important celebratory meal in the Jewish tradition. He then takes bread, a staple food of his time, and still a staple food now & breaks it. He similarly takes wine, a common drink then, and a common drink now & gives it to his closest friends as is recorded in 1st Corinthians 11:

The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

So Jesus is telling his closest friends that whenever you eat bread & drink wine, remember him! Not once a week, or once a month. But every time you eat bread or drink wine, which in those days, would've been almost every meal. Jesus intended communion to be a normal thing for his followers to do. Eating a meal, remembering Christ. A normal daily occourance. When Jesus instituted what we now call communion, I think he meant more that a semi-formalised ritual undertaken weekly or monthly.

Anyone understand what I'm trying to get out of my head into words?

Strange Celebrations

The people of Iraq finally have somthing (small as it may be ) to cheer about. With Iraq causing an upset to advance to the Asian (Soccer) Cup Final. They beat our boys along the way 3 - 1. Good on them I say, they need a source of pride at the moment.

But after all they've been through, I must question one of their methods of celebration. I can fully understand why shooting an AK-47 into the air would be a fun way to celebrate anything, but is it a smart thing to do in crowed places like towns and cities?
This newspaper is reporting the deaths of 8 people from celebratory gunfure & this news agency is saying at least 50 have been injured for the same reason. Why? Surely they need no education about the dangers of playing with high-powered rifles.
Imagine being the person that survived all through the reign of Saddam Hussein and then 4 years of sectarian violence, only to be killed by a celebratory bullet. I know I shouldn't laugh at others deaths, but the whole thing does seem quite ironic.

Must Have Done Somthing Right

The song "Must Have Done Somthing Right"by Relient K pretty much sums up how I'm feeling at the moment. But rather than post the slab of lyrics that are contained with this song, I'm going to link to the lyrics & music video of this great song. Oh & in an attempt to gain some credability, I'll state that I did like the song months ago, I think this is the second time I've linked to it.

Final Stretch

I've had the most amazing couple of weeks. I think I'm the most blessed guy going around. I can't help but wonder what the future holds, as I contemplate just how great life is at the moment. The old saying is true. No amount of money in the world could buy what God has given me.

So I've had to pull my head out of the clouds a bit, now that I'm back at Uni for my final semester. After some messing around, I've managed to get my timetable sorted out. While I can't wait to start my new job next year, there are some things about Uni that I'm going to miss. My timetable as it stands, has Fridays off & only 2 hours on Mondays & Wednesdays. I somehow don't think my 'full-time' work will only consists of 15-16 hours a week.

Saying goodbye to Tiarnee still sucked majorly. But I think it's easier to cope with knowing that the long-distance thing is going to be removed from our relationship forever in about 16 weeks.

Life Changing Love

And I'm racking my brain for a new improved way
To let you know you're more to me than what I know how to say
You're ok with the way this is going to be
Cause this is going to be the best thing we've ever seen
- Relient K

Surreal. Joyous. Anxious. Apprehensive. Happy. Tired. Blessed. Are but some of the emotions I'm feeling at the moment. Allow me to explain why:

Surreal - Because as we walked out under the Jetty at Lake Charlegrak, I felt unlike I ever had before as I spoke to her, held her hands & then dropped down onto one knee. It was incredible and amazing, I almost remember it as though I was standing there watching someone else. But it was me.
Joyous - Because of the silent moment where we realised that all the pains of a Long Distance Relationship were worth it before she smiled, and looked lovingly, and said "Yes".
Anxious - Because people may think we're "too young."
Happy - Because she liked the ring and I think it looks beautiful on her. Because all our (extended) families where together for a meal for the first time tonight. Because I've been able to see most of my close friends this afternoon. Those that I havn't seen I'll be able to catch up with over the next few days.
Tired - The emotion of telling people close to you about your life changing decision is encouraging & almost overwhelming, not to mention somewhat tiring.
Blessed - Because I'm the most blessed guy going around. God is amazing. He's given me everything. I'm engaged. To a pretty girl with a beautiful heart. She's so different from anyone that I've ever met. It is just the most amazing and wonderfull feeling in the world.

Wow.

Refueling

Wow. What a week. I returned this afternoon from the 'Fuel Youth' camp at Halls Gap. Was a great week with approx 70ppl attending, from locations as diverse as Kaniva, Serviceton, Bordertown, Keith, Murray Bridge & Adelaide. Personally, it was an incredibly encouraging week, and taking that time out to worship & learn about God with my closest friends in the picturesque Grampians was just what I needed.

The theme for the camp was 'Kingdom of God' (The wiki explanation is a really good one!). Knowing that Gods Kingdom isn't some abstract concept, but rather alive and with us now is just so uplifting. As well as Gods Kingdom, I was reminded of how refreshing & important both prayer and worship are. It's also been an important reminder that these activities draw us closer to God. God, who is always with us, waiting and wanting us to return to him.

Tiarnee is also getting confirmed this Sunday at her home church of Minimay. So that should also be a great time of praising God!

Counter Terrorism Warming

A few random observations about various things, that most people probably aren't interested in:

1. My visitor counter seems to have returned after a mysterious leave of absence. I did nothing to remove or bring back the counter. (Unfortunatly it's now showing that Aaron is more popular than me)
   
2. Terror threat: If people delay/cancel any planned travel to Indonesia, does this hand victory to the terrorists regardless of if there is an attack or not?
3. There's been a bit in the media about climate change recently for people from both sides of the fence. On the 'For' side we have the 'Live Earth' concerts which true to their name & cause are attempting to be the first major music event to be 'carbon-neutral'. On the 'Against' side: the ABC is screening a controversial documentary on Thursday which some scientists are claiming shouldn't be aired because it goes against the beliefs of the majority of the scientific community.
   

Are these the same scientists that say the teaching of creationism should be banned? Are these people that narrow minded that they belong to the Flat Earth Society? The people who originally flagged the idea of a round earth where ridiculed by the scientific community of the day. The debate on this issue, and any other like it should be encouraged and not suppressed. The media should give people the chance to hear alternate points of view, look into them and decide for themselves. Why are scientists sometimes so un-scientific?

Troubleshoot this....

I've got one for all you IT nerd troubleshooters out there:

My brothers PC just randomly started up. True story. The two of us had previously been trying to get a Radeon 9800 Pro to run in it, with limited success. The card runs, but is horribly unstable and we have no idea why. His PC is running Vista with the latest Radeon drivers installed. So it should be running well. But anyway, after messing around with that for a while, he'd given up on it and gone to bed. Ten minutes later he calls out to me, I walk into his room, and it is pitch black apart from the Windows loading screen on his monitor. For you skeptics, there's no remote control rig setup on this PC, & the box isn't within arms reach of the bed.

His PC just booted itself up of it's own accord. True story. I wouldn't have believed it myself, unless I saw it with my own eyes. I've heard of & experienced PC's shutting themselves down before on their own, but never booting up.

Any ideas as to the solution of either of these two problems?

Admitting the Obvious

So the Australian government is finally admitting the obvious. That one of the real reasons we went to war in Iraq is oil. Not weapons of mass destruction, or ousting Saddam, or Iraqi liberation or even "The War on Terror."

Side Fact: Al Qaeda had no presence in Iraq until after the 2003 invasion. Iraq was officially a secular nation, and Saddam had no time for extremist Islam.

Serious Satire

The Chasers War on Everything & [Scrubs] are my favorite TV shows. I particularly like the Chaser because of it's hilarious satire and bagging out of popular Ads & TV Shows. Satire in general amuses me, because it points out the stupidities in what we often accept as normal.

However, the best piece of satire I've seen recently is the following video produced by the Stir team of World Vision. Really points out how lucky we are in Australia, and how most of us 'Aussie Battlers' really aren't battling that hard at all.

Teenage Affluenza