Odd One Out

For the last 10 years, each Friday morning at 6am except in the school holidays, I meet with 4 friends. We share our interesting experiences from the week and what we've been thinking and studying about from the Bible. Sometimes we have breakfast that's my favourite, we should do that more often! Having 4 others to balance my thinking helps me stay on the main road. It's a journey we have been on together and we never stop learning from each other. It's not always easy especially on the coldest days of Winter. And we don't always agree but we all find it too important to stop. 

Of course if it wasn't also fun we would have driven each other crazy by now. All the other guys want to see the new movie Noah, except for me. I'm the Odd One Out. I read a little bit about the movie and I got put off, if it's just fantasy compared to the Genesis story I'm not interested. I know what you are thinking. I need to wait until I've seen it. Probably you are right, I will wait for my friends review because I trust them : ) To me this story is one of the most important in the Bible. It is as prophetic as it is historical.

Jesus referred to the World being "as it was in the days of Noah" when he would return so it is very important for us to pay attention to the warning since there is a future catastrophe coming that we can escape from.

God has provided the Way Out, he wants us to take it. In the story God gives Mankind 120 years to fix their ways. God is very patient but Judgement comes because the people refuse to listen. Like any good Hollywood End of the World movie, everyone perishes in the Flood except for Noah and his family. Noah built an Ark to escape. Jesus is our Ark.

It's a safe bet to assume the people laughed at Noah and thought he was crazy right up to the terrifying moment the waters burst from the deep and the heavy rain came down. Have a look around you. Does the World look anything like "the days of Noah" to you? 

You will be called crazy for believing Jesus' message. Will you have the courage to be the Odd One Out?

Oh My God!

From the newspapers 17th March 2014

"In a ground-breaking experiment, astrophysicists have captured the first indirect images of so-called gravitational waves using a telescope at the South Pole designed to measure the cosmic background radiation left over from the Big Bang.

The findings are powerful confirmation of the events that took place at the very beginning of time when the Universe expanded rapidly during a period known as inflation, which was the moment when gravitational waves were formed.

British scientist Dr Jo Dunkley, who has been searching through data from the European Planck space telescope for a B-mode signal, commented: "I can't tell you how exciting this is. Inflation sounds like a crazy idea, but everything that is important, everything we see today - the galaxies, the stars, the planets - was imprinted at that moment, in less than a trillionth of a second. If this is confirmed, it's huge."

EVERYTHING in less than a second...

Who Is The Black Sheep?

Below are my two boys on recent soccer trips overseas from which they both came back winners for club and country. Sean on the left, scoring for the New Zealand Cross Whites against New South Wales in Australia, and Joshua on the right running with the ball for WYNRS against Chigasaki in Japan.

I chose these photos from amongst many because they demonstrate very well their different strengths as players. Sean is extremely accurate with his passing and shooting - he was the penalty and corner taker for the Cross Whites. Joshua is very fast and skillful on the ball - see the Japanese players in hot pursuit!

In fact they are very different in virtually every way. For example, when it comes to food, you can be sure that if one doesn't like something, the other does. I don't know if that will change when they get older but I suspect it won't and I'll tell you why.

When Joshua was born in 2001, I had a dream I was walking through a house. One side of the house was filled with light and the other was dark and shaded. When I woke up, I remember a first word which said that the two parts of the house represented Sean and Joshua. It didn't say who was dark and who was light I should add : ) That made me worry as dark is often associated with trouble! But a second word came saying not to worry, that they were both parts of the same house! I took the overall meaning to be one of reassurance concerning them. When I see them so different in many ways I do not worry about it at all.

We call the family member who is different to the rest the Black Sheep. They stand out from the rest but quite often they are the one in trouble. Is there a Black Sheep in your family? Perhaps you are the one! It is certainly genetically true the Black Sheep is part of the same house even though they don't look like it is so. But maybe like me you never realised that all your family members belong and are part of a bigger house that God is building. To the Black Sheep, remember your home, to the rest, vive la différence!