Oops - this blog is now closed!

But if you click on the link, it will take you to my new blog over at www.shapingthespace.net

Enjoy :)

I did it ! ...but not what you might think...

...yes, the "Great Blog Transfer Project of February 2009" continues, but tonight I needed something not involving CSS/HTML/whatever.

So why, dear readers, did I choose to succumb the the Facebook 25 Random Things meme?

Well partly because I was kinda-sorta-indirectly challenged by Jenni to turn it into a song after her highly entertaining video version.

And partly, as a fun way to start Valentine's Day, Diane and I decided we'd better respond to the tagging together (though Diane did hers in the more conventional manner).

The MP3 is a bit long, a bit "midnight-recording-whispery", a bit crap really, but I think fitting it all into a 4 minute "song" (I use the word loosely) is somewhat impressive. Though not near as impressive as the one take vocals the whole way through...there's clearly no mistakes in there...oh no...

I'm also fairly sure I don't want to use this as my February entry for Our Creative Community...but let's see how the month pans out :)



And since the likelihood you can hear what I'm singing is small, here's the things :

1. I’ve only ever broken bones doing wimpy things, like playing handball.
2. One of my front teeth is fake.
3. It’s fake because it got smashed out by a flying metal ruler.
4. Toilet paper must be over, not under. I will fix it if it’s not.
5. The consequences of my nut allergy are a refreshing change to choking to death.
6. Depending what theatre production I’m in, I’m either God, Satan or Fagin.
7. The first time I used a non-electric razor and shaving cream to shave was when I was 24.
8. The first word I knew how to read was ‘Niacin’. Thank you Cornflakes.
9. I’m only 72% of the man I used to be.
10. I never bothered crawling.
11. The first song I ever wrote was called ‘Rock-a-Bye-Bra’ when I was 4.
12. It was full of nonsense words.
13. It shall never be spoken of again.
14. I usually change my hairstyle at least every two years.
15. The fact my dad says ‘prorably’ for ‘probably’ only stopped annoying me when I was 27.
16. I dance in the car.
17. I wrote an album of songs about being jilted. And called it ‘Catharsis’.
18. None of my real life friends Twitter.
19. None of my real life friends blog.
20. I once played Dead Or Alive’s ‘Brand New Lover’ fifty times in one day. I still love that song.
21. The sourer the sweet/candy/lolly, the better.
22. The most fun thing we ever did in Barbershop Quartet was sing Motley Crue’s ‘Kickstart My Heart’ or 'Dr Feelgood'
23. The second most fun thing we ever did in Barbershop Quartet was hide from our bass, usually in cupboards. Sometimes for up to an hour. In one cupboard.
24. I was upgraded to business class on my first international flight, but I was 15 and too young to appreciate it.
25. I think ‘inconsiderate interlocutor’ is the best phrase I’ve heard all day.

A New (Personal) Record

Earlier today, I tweeted about the number of meetings I was having with staff.

Most were brief and of the "hey, howyadoin'?" variety, some a bit longer, all vital for me keeping my finger on the pulse of this company and its' most precious resource - the people.

After nearly 10 hours, I'm a little spaced, but I've managed to fit in 15 meetings - that's nearly half the permanents, and I saw a couple of the casuals too.

In retrospect, this might be a bit much in one day (especially since I'll likely be doing the other half tomorrow), but most of my staff don't work onsite for the vast majority of the time and I'm taking the opportunity while it's there.

In more exciting news (probably), my "long-awaited" blog transfer to the competition is getting closer...

Warbbler

Some days just need a little bit of light relief.

With all that's been happening with freaky weather down here this week, today is one of those days.

Thanks to @kmesiab who Twittered this and made me laugh.
Lots.
I still am.

Fire and Flood and Thankfulness

This past week, it has been really bizarre to be complaining about the heat in Sydney, because:

- Up north, 60% of Queensland was underwater with floods (that's like France and Spain, btw...Qld is Australia's second largest state, and 60% being underwater means a really big area)

- Down south, the worst bushfires in Australian history are blazing. As I write this, 108 people are confirmed dead, 750 homes have been lost, and it's far from over.

What on earth do I have to complain about here in my cushy life? Nothing at all. Sure my situation isn't perfect - whose is? - but what I don't have pales in comparison to the tragedy unfolding around me everyday, and I mean everyday, not just in the midst of these epic tragedies.

So I weep with those who are weeping, rejoice at how the nation is pulling together in support of those who have lost, and express my thankfulness - for life & Life.

Shake the Disease

This week I've had the privilege of helping one of my staff make some positive steps to get out of a rut he's been in. There's been a few tears along the way for both of us, and that's OK.

He doesn't know Jesus as his Lord, but he knows of Him. So in my search for a third-party counsellor who could help out and be completely unbiased, I was amazed and thrilled at how easy it was to find people who were both business-focussed and Christian.

So I'm praying for the seeds sown to be watered and tended over these next few months as we rearrange a few areas to enable this young man, who has never worked anywhere else in his life, to "shake the disease" of disinterest, regain the professional respect of this colleagues, and shine.

Acknowledging its existence is half the battle; there's still a long way to go until victory can be claimed. But he (we) will.

Meanwhile, some vintage Depeche Mode. I have no idea whether he knew this song would come flooding to my mind as soon as he used the title phrase - he knows I'm a Depche fan - but it did nonetheless.

Your love is like a heatwave (heatwave!)

I'm not really sure how to start this. The title doesn't give a good idea of the content really. Great song though

Maybe it should just be a fluff post, we all need those from time to time (I took all of 3 days to get to my first one I think) and it's been a while since a pure fluff post here, hasn't it?

Well...cute as these pics are, it's also a sad reminder that our wildlife is fragile, and with all the bad weather events happening at the moment around the world (we've got floods and heatwaves while the upper hemisphere freezes), these pics are a bit poignant as well, for me anyway.

So here we have an adorable young koala who has clearly become so heatstressed in the extreme conditions (days and days of +40C or +105F temps) that it was forced...
(a) out of its eucalypt tree, which is bizarre enough behaviour,
(b) into the shade of a house,
(c) to allow the inhabitants of said house to look after it, and
(d) to actually drink some water!
All totally irregular behaviour for a wild koala - or any koala when it comes to drinking; they usually get all their requirements from eucalypt leaves.

So, everyone together now...awwwwwwww.

Now, I'm sure I need to credit someone with giving me these photos, but as I've received the email from nearly everyone in Australia (perhaps a slight exaggeration), consider this my thanks :)

A Little Taste

(After a few aborted attempts earlier today, I've gone with another 'brand' of embedded playlist which seems to obey and not autoplay when it's told not to...I don't like the adverts it chooses to put at the bottom of itself, but such is life)

Along with some questions being asked on other blogs, for me this week is becoming a bit of a journey through history, so in further response to my Monday post, here's some of the music that has spewed forth along the way.

The playlist is basically in reverse chronological order, and includes...
(a) "Unchangeable Truth v2.0" (yes, I know that's somewhat ironic titling) - added some hall reverb while keeping the initimacy of the vocal, also boosted the bass slightly (maybe too much?) and dropped the lead vocal to sit better in the mix. I need some studio monitors for the study!
(b) "I Am There" - the first thing I recorded in Garageband, all of 6 weeks ago. The lyric was written by a netfriend in NYC for another friend of hers who'd been through some major challenges; everything else is my contribution.
(c) "A Lover's Song" - our wedding song, which was a surprise for my wife when we danced to it; we were both a bit overcome I think.
(d) "Your Smile" - a 70s/80s MOR love ballad pop song, which got played on local radio a few times when it was done, yonks ago.

There's a reasonable amount of diversity in there, which might go part of the way to explaining my 'probably not expecting this' statement on Monday. The diversity covers everything from style to the quality of the songwriting/singing/recording; quite apart from whether it was done in a real studio and mastered, or by me in the study. Regardless, all fun.

'Course, this doesn't cover anything I recorded before I started writing my own music...maybe later...maybe...

Comments always welcome, including criticism (maybe especially the criticism, cos I can't get better if all I get is praise or silence ;)

Some explanation

In response to my last post, which for a few of you is the first time you've heard some of the loony creative stuff that comes out of my mind and mouth, some background. This may be reminiscent of the 25 Things tagging on Facebook; I really must do that, I was tagged a while back...

1. I don't play any instruments, so it's me and my voice. There are loads of reasons for this, at least one being the amount of time I spent in choirs at school and university.
2. Most of the music I've written in the past 5 years has been congregational praise and worship music, often to suit a specific season in my church, but a few that have lasted the distance too.
3. We're going to do some studio recording this year which will hopefully result in an album.
4. I'm getting off topic.
5. Despite not playing instruments, I know lots of theory, so instead of playing a guitar or keyboard, I sit and move dots & lines around the screen, adjusting intensity, length, pitch, etc. However, it means that what I create in this way is very different to what I create with my church worship team. This is a good thing.
6. I love electronic music, especially the crossover of electronica (or armchair techno & intelligent techno, my fave names from the early 90s) with choral music.
7. Writing for me, rather than congregationally, only restarted in December 08. However, I was a little distracted by how much fun Garageband is and have only completed this one song...and then only because of joining @ourcc. Nearly everything else I've done on there has been (somewhat dodgy) recordings of some of the more congregational songs I've written, usually in a very different manner.
8. I might post some of those here for your curiosity too :) This may also include some older recordings, and maybe even some that I've done which don't have explicitly Christian lyrics.
9. My wife and I often discuss the difference between relative and absolute truth, and the general shift in society to the whole "this is my truth, tell me yours" type of thing, rather than an acceptance that some things just are, no matter what you do or do not believe. This was a major seed point for what became "Unchangeable Truth".
10. With the idea floating in my head for ages, the process of physically 'getting it down' only began on Saturday after the huge week of prayer at my church meant zilch self-creativity time...it was worth it though.

That's 10 lines of somewhat interconnected thought. I'm looking forward to where all this goes!

Our Creative Community : Song for January

Yes, I know it's February already...I missed it by just over a day, so you're gonna have to extend me a little grace.

Here's my first "submission" for the Our Creative Community accountability club (or whatever we are :) Thankfully, the showcase post where this will be linked to isn't there yet, so I'm in the clear for the moment - haha! EDIT: it's definitely there now, so head on over and share in the creativity!

For the few of you who actually know me, you'll know that this song doesn't really fit with much that I've done before...but it is probably more the kind of thing you should & would expect from me. That includes anyone who's found my music lurking on Worship The Rock or MySpace, or (years ago), on radio in Australia and a few web stations from time to time. What's been posted there doesn't really prepare you for this I don't think...though there were pointers along the way

For everyone else, including those who read my worship blog, who knows what you expected?!? Probably not this in any case...

Musically, it's much less complicated that I usually go for...perhaps lacking in variation. The mix is also lacking a bit in bass it seems. It had way too much in an earlier version. At least it's less muddy vocally now...

Lyrics are below, and most of you will probably recognise that they are drawn from Genesis 1 and John 1, specifically the Amplified Bible (which I read quite a lot as it's the translation I chose for my phone). It was originally inspired by Ecclesiastes 7:8, which paraphrases to "the end is better than the beginning". But that didn't end up in the song anywhere, and neither did the title, which was the starting point for the song. I thought about calling it "Unchangeable Truth", but I like "In The Beginning", and it's even more appropriate considering it's the beginning of this creative accountability lark.

So, let me know what you think...the good, the bad, the ugly - even if you don't like the genre, etc, I want to know because it's this critiquing business that helps us (me) grow and become greater at what God's put in our (my) hearts to impact His kingdom!

Before all time, before the earth and sea were formed, in Him was Life
Before the sun, before the moon and all the stars, Life was Light
This has been and will always be unchangeable truth

When earth was formless, when all was darkness
Life hovered, brooded o'er the waters
The Word was spoken, and all creation, was made through Light
This has been and will always be unchangeable truth

The Light shines on in the darkness
The Light shines on in the darkness
For the darkness has never absorbed it
The darkness cannot absorb it
This has been and will always be unchangeable truth

The Light shines on...

EDIT: after having some sleep, and then getting the comment from my wonderful sister Cee (nearly typed your name...lol), I'm convinced of good reasons to rename it "Unchangeable Truth". Do let me know if you think this was a silly idea ;)

Look to the right

In Australia, when you're crossing the road you need to look to the right first because (clearly) we designed it based on being seated at the right hand of the Father to ensure you always look right first...or not, but it sounds good, hey!.

When I tried this on my first visit to New York about 15 years ago, I was nearly bowled over by a big yellow taxi. Never mind the fact looking left had the same result :)

Back on topic though

...if you look to the right of this post, you will see a funky new badge for Our Creative Community. It truly deserves being described as 'fabulous'.

Click on it and you will be taken to far-away and mysterious land where people who were somehow lacking in stuff to do decided to commit to doing more in areas that really matter to them, and remain accountable to others for that commitment.

And yes, I'm one of them.

AGH!

Since this is what I was referring to in my last post, I thought I'd post to let you know that this is actually serious - we have a badge now!

Nothing to see here

This week, I'll probably not be posting here very much.

There is one thing I need to post which will probably happen on Saturday, and that's because I signed up to the accountability/goal thingy over at inProgress.

For the rest of the week though, I'm posting daily at my Worship+ blog, which you can get to by clicking on the logo below. You should read it every week in normal circumstances anyway - it's dead good.

Australia Day

While not being the same, it's a bit like our version of Independence Day in the US.

But I'm not sure that you'd see this on national TV to endorse the celebrations.

A warning, this has some slightly blue language. Well, I think it's blue overseas...here, it's probably not...I'm not really sure, to be honest.




This campaign has been going in Australia for about 5 years now, and it never fails to crack me up. Lamb sales have increased by around a bazillion percent since it was introduced. That might be a slight exaggeration, but not much.

Interesting to note the capitalisation of the "L" in Lamb...it's because it has been trademarked down here. Though the potential for doing a Christian version of this advert is huge. Probably.

Anyway, you should check here for a much better idea of what Australia Day means to me :)

Manhood

I know, I'm a sop - my wife would wholeheartedly agree. Just see my last post for evidence.

What a great way to start a post titled 'Manhood' !

I've thought about doing a post on something more masculine, but truth be told, I'm not stereotypically masculine.

And I say that in full confidence of my masculinity, because it's much more about characteristics we find in the Bible than what the world would have us believe. Like duh...

For example, I want to be a Psalm 1 Man. Nowhere in there do I see a requirement for me to get excited about power tools/cars/sports/fishing/wrestling/guns, etc. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm just saying that for me it would be totally unnatural. And the last thing I want to be is someone I'm not - I've tried that, it's neither big nor clever.

So if I write about leadership, worship, wisdom - it's me being me, and not trying to be someone I'm not. In Christ, I have the strength to stop fighting that battle and did so a while back.

All of which means when I get a high score in this (thanks to Fred for getting me there), I'm in no way ashamed - that's who I am, no pressure. Srsly. It's all part of a pressure-free life and ministry, as Jesus Culture say.

For humans

I'm not American, but I'm human. If you are too, I don't know how this could fail to move you on some level.

And am I the only one whose mind starts racing about my heavenly Father while watching this too?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Inspired

Over the excruciatingly long history of this blog (cough, cough), the number of blogs I now visit has grown exponentially.

And my equally long history of twittering has only made it worse...or better, depending on how you look at it.

All of which has made me realise this blog is more than just a little crap looking. I always thought I'd have time to make it better as I went along, but one tweet (I think it was @joshuawhite, but I could be very wrong...so if it was you, dear reader, please let me know) made me think I don't really have that luxury ("you only have one chance to make a good first impression", or something like that).

Well, I think I've ruined that for the 20 or so people who stop by here - my most humble apologies - but as you guys have some great looking blogs and have inspired me to step it up, I'd appreciate your views on how to make this thing do a better job of shaping the (aesthetic) space. ;-)

Periphery

On Sunday night we visited ShireLive, which was great. Their opening video sequence reminded me (again) of something which has really helped shape some of my thought process recently.

For the last few years at Hillsong Conference, there has been a very effective video shown before each major session which has made a lasting impression on me. The visuals have changed each year, but the soundtrack has remained the same - and I often think about how successfully I and my church are living up to this statement:


"The church is not peripheral to the world, the world is peripheral to the church"


A statement of fact, but how well does my life line up with that? Or my church? Or my denomination? Can I say that my life reflects the reality that I am "the head and not the tail".

To be honest, while I know it's fact - sometimes I don't think I'm anywhere near close enough given the amount of influence I have in my church, work and social life. And that's more than a little bit scary. I'm not consumed by it - I think it's a healthy fear :-)


How about you? What does this statement mean for you ?

Oh. My. Goodness.

I really have no idea how it's happened. Well, OK, I do...

There was never any intention to leave it so long between posts. I guess 4 days isn't really that long, and it helps make up for the times I posted more than once per day earlier in the month, but still...

What's been "preventing" me has been has been the project that I blogged about back here. It's very contagious for me, and very boring for my long-suffering wife. But I never intended for it to stop me spending a few minutes sharing my space shaping adventures.

Today is day 2 of my new job without the predecessor being here. I've spent a considerable portion of those two days moving offices - always fun - and am now surrounded my piles of paper. I don't usually work that way - I'm generally very "filed" - so I'm a bit on edge about it.

There's been a couple of opportunities to be an influencer in the way things are done, but I'm mainly taking a 'get-along-side-and-find-out-what-makes-you-tick' approach so that when the real changes are made (and there are going to be changes, there needs to be) it comes from someone who has established relationship.

And someone prepared to say "no". That bit will be really hard. I've been reading a lot lately about leadership v management, and being able to say "no" is one of the differentiation points apparently. As long as I do this by adding God's addendum of "in love", that wisdom I and others have been praying for will be evidentiary and not just theory.

Evidentiary - I don't think I've ever had the opportunity to use that word before. I like :-) Much better than fiduciary. If more people in fiduciary roles sought to ensure there was adequate evidentiary material, the world economy may not have imploded. Oh wait, that was greed wasn't it...

How did that happen?

Where did this week go? One minute I'm posting on Tuesday and next thing I know it's Friday!

My fortnight of letting the former General Manager (old COO) download his head into mine ends today, and next week the Managing Director (CEO) and I (new COO) get into implementing some change to make the management function better suit our respective skillsets (I'm even sounding like a manager).

So I'm about to get to work shaping my (work)space. Your prayers for wisdom are greatly appreciated. The opportunity to be a living example of the Gospel in the way I manage and influence staff, customers, suppliers, and other interested parties is both invigorating and scary.




And one day, I'll learn Photoshop or something like it and make pics as cool as the ones you find on this blog ;-)

Such a little thing

Being a senior manager can be tough.  Even when you're just 7 days into the role - or should that be especially when you're just 7 days into the role.

Today, in one of my five meetings which took up around 80% of the day, while my staff downloaded one-on-one about the past and dreams for the future, eight words meant a lot to me :

"I think you will be good at this".

That made my day.

Thanks!

As I begin this week in my still-new job, I wanted to thank everyone around the world who was praying for me during the weeks leading up to this point. It's incredibly cool to know that I've got friends across the globe who are holding my future up in prayer to our Lord!

Very, very cool.

But this blog is also to apologise.

See, I actually drafted this post to put up at the beginning of last week, and I was just reviewing my posts lists during lunch and noticed I had a draft still sitting there. Of course, it wasn't one of frivolous posts like my one on cheese toast, but probably my most important ramble so far because it thanks you, my God-following readers :-)

So - thanks! I appreciate you more than these words can ever express.

I've said it before...

...and I'll probably say it again and again : I love Sundays.

Waking up and spending personal time with God, and then often turning on the computer to print out some papers for the worship team (or in this morning's case, blogging about what a great night we had last night), then fellowshipping with my church family, enjoying lunch (Italian today, and pretty good it was too) and then - during summer - spending the rest of the day soaking up the wonderful weather.

So why am I in here blogging?  Well, truth be told, I'm actually nearly outside on our balcony having almost been out there dozing on the deck.  But since I'm now about to get started on some more songwriting/arranging/recording, I thought I'd just pop in here quickly to share how blessed a day I've been having.

If you've had some less-than-perfect days lately (and we all do - I was there myself not too long ago at all), just remember that God has plans for you - plans for good and not disaster, plans to give you a future and a hope!  Jeremiah 29:11

In a hopeless world, in Christ I have hope - yet another reason to never stop praising Him.

Summer

I love all seasons, but obviously for very different reasons.  One thing I love about summer is the proliferation of outdoor cinemas that open across the parks and other outdoor spaces in Sydney.

Some show new releases, serve champagne, and are set up with their own low-chairs...and basically cost as much as going to a regular cinema in Gold Class.

Others, like the one at Sydney Olympic Park, are free family events, attracting many thousands of people to see movies from the past year or so.  For us, it has the added attraction of being very very close to home and we can take our picnic blanket and wander over to enjoy a good film on a huge screen with a big crowd.  It's totally cool, and I particularly enjoyed the walk home last night with my wonderful wife.

And since the film last night was WALL-E, that was even more brilliant.

This photo is more modern art than photography, but it's a picture of WALL-E as he was collecting rubbish near the start of the film.  No really, it is.

Now, how to get as many people / families to come to an outdoor church service?...hmmmmm

A Good Day

You know how some days begin well, progress well, peak early, maintain the high (like walking on a ridge), then stay there right through to the end?

No? Just me then?

Well, today was one of those days. Nothing mind-blowing, but "A Good Day".

Selected highlights:

1. The flexibility in my new job came to the fore today when I took 3 hours off in the middle of the day to meet with my pastor and get my sadly neglected hair cut...my fringe was half way down my cheek, and considering I'm a short(ish) hair person, that's pretty bad methinks.

2. Talking of the job, I'm loving that I have the space to take in all the minutae from the outgoing person, create goals and plans for change that is both needed and wanted, and generally being able to ease into the role - rather than being dropped in the deep end.

3. An opportunity for further creativity has come up that I'm excited about, but I have to share with some others before I blog more.

Meanwhile, my wife and I are believing for a house where we can "increase the scope" of our hospitality to our church and beyond. We are taught to speak out the dreams God has placed in our hearts, so we are, even when it feels a little selfish. I'm going one step further and blogging about it here too! At the moment, it feels like a dream, but in many ways it feels closer than we can fathom as well. We'd have some serious praying to do as we removed the Buddha statues if this was the one though ;-)

That's it then. A Good Day = A God Day.

"It won't be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ—eternal and glorious plans they are!—will have you put together and on your feet for good. He gets the last word; yes, he does." 1 Peter 5:10, 11 - The Message

Wow

So work is going well...it's still only day 3, so it should be really, shouldn't it. Lots of new stuff, even though I'm very familiar with so much of the place.

But the real highlight you can read about here.

That's all :-)

Creativity

These past few months have been a bit of a selah for me. Learning to listen more closely to God, to place all my trust in Him and none in me, to deal with life's removables.

It has hurt.

Yet it has also been one of the most fulfilling periods of life. The pain has drawn my wife and I closer together. The stripping has made me love God even more.

As I posted yesterday, He's the Master of surprises!

So this year, I'm going to complete something I've had on my heart for a very long time, but lacked the confidence, will, time, insertexcusehere to do.

But I have decided (I have resolved) that it doesn't matter if no-one else cares about it. It's for God first and foremost. Sure I believe it can and will be a blessing to others as well, and will just be the very start of an exciting journey. But isn't it enough that it glorifies God and is my personal gift for Him?

That last bit I'm not totally sure about. More later...and do let me know your thoughts in the meantime.

In the Beginning

Today, the first Monday of 2009, began like most other days in Australia. The sun rose into a clear blue sky, the birds began singing, the cat blinkingly looked at me as I got out of bed, and my wonderful wife slept on beautifully.

Nothing out of the ordinary. And nothing like Escher's interpretation of day two of creation over there. But what a great picture!

What was out of the ordinary was that for the first time in 4 months, I got ready to go to work. Sure, I'd done a bit of that in the intervening period, but generally the appointments I had were scattered throughout the day and evening, rarely early.

Today was different.

Except it wasn't. You see, the place I was going to work I already knew very very well. Probably very very very well. In fact, I'd worked there before.

Up until 4 months ago actually.

What the???

The sequence of events is too long and complicated to go into here. In fact, this post is already longer than I'd intended, but you've possibly worked out I suffer from typarrhoea by this stage anyway. Suffice to say that God worked some amazing miracles to bring it all about. With a significant pay rise, and totally new role - I'm now the General Manager (which would be the Chief Operating Officer if I was in corporate USA rather than Australia ;-)

I did say it was weird, huh! Our God certainly is the Master of surprises ;-)

A Great Day...

...in God's House.  I love worship services.  I love my personal time with God too, but I love coming together with my church family and corporately worshipping.  Unfortunately, my wonderful wife was ill and couldn't make it, which always feels weird, but praise God she's on the mend !

Refreshing, powerful, humbling, beautiful, awesome, mighty, real.  All these words come to mind when I reflect on worship today.  His people reached out, He came.

I have decided, I have resolved to wait upon You Lord.

My Rock and Redeemer, Shield and reward

I'll wait upon You Lord.

As surely as the sun will rise You'll come to us,

Certain as the dawn appears.

You'll come, let Your glory fall as You respond to us.

Spirit rain, flood into our thirsty hearts again.

You'll come, You'll come.

Brooke Fraser/Hillsong, 2008

Fun with Cheese

I know I've already blogged today, and I told myself when I started this that I'd only post once per day.  I'm glad I didn't publicize that though (oops...too late...), since after 3 days I've already "broken the rules" twice.

Anyway, there's a really good reason.  After the D&M nature of the posts so far, this one is much more fun, but still within my blog's BHAG ** ;-)

Today, my wonderful wife casually stated she needed some of my cheese on toast.  I wasn't eating anything at the time, and it took me a while to work out that what she meant was the way I make cheese on toast.

By this stage, you're likely asking yourself what on earth could be so great about the way I make cheese on toast.  Well, I'm here to tell you it is pretty special.  Really.  And yes, I realise this isn't a food blog, but my wife and I are fairly food oriented, so it was always going to make its way in here at some point.

We also often have heaps of fun together when we are either cooking, eating or attempting to clean the kitchen.  I say attempting, because it often turns into a ballroom dancing 'spectacular' (I use the word loosely) rather than getting the kitchen cleaned...

David's Cheese on Toast

1. Toast one or two slices of thick cut wholemeal or wholegrain bread.

2. Spread with cream cheese.  Preferably, use a low-fat version.  Firstly, it's better for you.  Secondly, it actually tastes better for cheese on toast.  No, really...

3. After you've spread the cream cheese, in much the same way as you would spread butter (like, duh), spread another layer of cream cheese.  It should now be all the way to edge of the toast, and fairly thickly spread too.

4. Choose your favourite "evil" cheese.  Usually something really mature and crumbly.  I particularly like using a vintage pickled onion cheese.  But it can also be fun to try things like double cream brie, or chili camembert, or gruyere, or emmental, or even a good fresh parmesan.  So many options, so little time...

5. Slice a thin layer of the evil cheese onto the cream cheese covered toast.

6. Using a good low-fat cheddar, top with thick slices that cover whole of the bread.  No crust should be showing, or it will get burnt.  Again, the low fat cheese melts better for cheese on toast - if you're doing it properly that is, which is slowly.  Of course, this is all my opinion...but it's my blog after all.

7. Put it under your grill.  Make sure it's on a fairly low rack so it doesn't get too brown before all that lovely cheese has had a chance to really melt together.  It should take between 4 and 7 minutes depending on your grill, I'd think.

8. When golden brown and bubbling, remove from the grill and allow to sit for around a minute or two.  This will allow the cheese on top to just start to 'set' a little bit again.  Again, this is vital in my opinion.  If you think otherwise, "it's your funeral"... as 'they' say.  I'm not sure who they are, but they do. Apparently.

9.  Eat.  Be careful not to burn your tongue.  I'd also advise not giving in to temptation by having more than 2 slices.  Even with all that low fat cheese, your body will not be happy.

10. Leave any left over cheese out until it turns blue.  OK, so it's a weak link back to "moulding my world", but it's close to midnight and I should be getting to bed.  Tomorrow is Sunday, and Sunday's are great!

**  ask me if you (a) have no idea what that is and (b) don't want to search my previous posts to find out.  ie: you're lazy...

Weird

Today feels weird.  A bit like this house.

Yes, I realise I've only been up for a short amount of time and it's probably too early to make that assessment...and it might have something to do with the fact that I live in the middle of a city of over 4 million people, and yet at 9.00am it is still unusually quiet.

I think I know the real reason why today feels weird though.

For the past 4 months, I've been self-employed. What this really means is that I've been unemployed, but with God still providing me with a level of income which exceeded (far exceeded) unemployment benefits, but which hasn't been enough to actually meet all our commitments (mortgageandallthatotherstuff).

Ouch.

The thing that impacted me more than not having enough, was that my tithe reduced. Even though we didn't have enough to pay what we needed to pay, we still had to give God His portion first...and I didn't like the fact that His portion was now so small.

But today is the last day of the last week of that season. Tomorrow is a new week, new worship, new fellowship, new opportunity, and then Monday is the start of my new job - which is a whole other story.   Hopefully life will all feel a bit less like this house then : I mean, it looks well built, with solid foundations, but something's just not quite right about it.

Something that changed my life...

With a title like that, you'll be expecting something much grander than what follows...but this truly has changed my world.

Admittedly, not in the same way as what Jesus has done and is doing for me, and not in the same way as being husband to the world's most wonderful woman either, but still...

This line links to a website has Java-platform Bibles to download...most of them free...

Yes...you read that right...a website allowing Java downloads of lots of Bibles has changed my life.

I guess it's not quite as ridiculous as it sounds - it is the Word of God after all. What makes this one special is just how usable it is. I've got a Nokia E71 (which is a whole other life-changing thing, and I recommend to anyone who likes the concept of Blackberrys without actually liking the reality, and thinks the iPhone just isn't up to scratch for typing) which isn't noted as a supported phone on the site. But if your phone allows Java applications (and many do), this Bible is brilliant.

Now, there's lots of KJV & NKJV Bibles available for various phone platforms, and plenty of audio versions for MP3 players too, but since this isn't a techie blog I'm not going into all of that (and I don't pretend to understand most of it anyway)...but this site includes translations and transliterations like The Message and the Amplified. As I said before, Brilliant!

So - change your life and put the Bible on your phone. Just remember to read it too of course, so no matter where you are or what you're doing (except maybe swimming) you can have God's Word right at your fingertips - searchable, bookmarkable, unchanging, true.

Effective

It's only a few hours old, but I know this year is going to bring something new in a way I've never experienced, and I know that extends way beyond me.

2008 also brought plenty of new things : some of which I was prepared for, some not.  Some were "nice", some were not.  Some were scary, some were not.  All have helped to shape where I am today - the very beginning of a brand new year.

This year, no matter what it brings, I want to be more effective:

- effective as husband

- effective as minister

- effective as servant

- effective as manager

- effective as friend

- effective as child

...there's undoubtedly more to add to that list.

The best way to be effective is for me to be making the BHAG** of this blog happen - to mould the world I live in, to shape this space - by God being reflected in everything coming out of me by thought, word, deed; by the Holy Spirit's power being my every breath; by Jesus' testimony being my testimony as I become more like Him.

Lofty goals maybe.  But what good is a mediocre life?  And in reality, these are not goals in and of themselves; they are the boundaries within which all my goals need to fit...and I don't mean sitting somewhere near the bottom left corner of the huge space these boundaries keep...I mean pushing right up to the edges, overflowing.  I have some work to do !

"For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power (making it active, operative, energizing and effective); it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (the soul) and (the immortal) spirit, and of joints and marrow (of the deepest parts of our nature), exposing (and) sifting (and) analyzing (and) judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart."       Hebrews 4:12    Amplified Bible

**BHAG = big, hairy, audacious goal ;-)

The time is now...

"A time will come when true worshippers will worship God in spirit and in truth...

...the time is now."    paraphrased from John 4:23, The Message

This blog has been a long time in the making.

I've thought about blogging for years, but I never thought I had anything to say that was really worthwhile - not that needed to be broadcast into the blogosphere anyway.

Just recently though, some of the seed that God has planted in my mind has been getting more water and fertiliser, and I can now see just a little more clearly what the crop looks like - but there is still a lot to be revealed.

Hopefully, what I write here will do it (and Him) justice.

So to get started - one of my favourite ever lyrics from one of my favourite ever singers.  It's one of my favourite ever songs really:  Kevin Max "Shaping Space", which obviously has inspired the name of this blog.  I was really saddened when Kevin's solo career just didn't happen (well, not in the way it deserved to), and to read about all the personal turmoil he endured 'back in the day'.  But I love that God uses the most fallible of humans for his greatest works, as so often they (we) are the most malleable.  Just look at all the stuff-ups that Abraham, David and Solomon did, just for starters!  Yet it's their steadfast faith we remember - not the failings of their human frailty.  God's grace is absolutely amazing!  And it gives me great great comfort.

And they said we wouldn't last
And they said the years would break our backs
So here we are again my friend
To mystify their narrow plans

You and I were meant to be
Much more than they could see
You and I are made to stay
As they waste away

We are shaping the space
And harvesting places
We're the princes of the universe
We are living together
In the here-everafter
In the temple of the evening Son
We're the princes of the universe

It's a prophecy of long ago
It's a blueprint for the journey home
And we're writing as we stumble on
Making history to build upon

You and I were meant to be
Much more than they could see
You and I are made to stay
As they waste away

We are shaping the space
And harvesting places
We're the princes of the universe
We are living together
In the here-everafter
In the temple of the evening Son
We're the princes of the universe

And the raven in the towerclock
Spins poetry and devil talk,

And the woman by the endless well

She's drawing water from the mouth of hell

"And these are the days", she says...