Unashamedly Christian

I’m turning 20 and leaving me teens as of tomorrow. It’s not something I’m really looking forward to, not so much because I’ll be old (cause I’m not), but because it’s the start of another season of life. The next few years are going to be ones filled with big decisions. And I want God to guide me in everything – my lifework for Him, the friends I choose, the girl I marry – I want it all to be under His direction! I’m listening to a song now that sums up how I want my life to be:

O Great God

O great God of highest heaven
Occupy my lowly heart
Own it all and reign supreme
Conquer every rebel power
Let no vice or sin remain
That resists Your holy war
You have loved and purchased me
Make me Yours forevermore

I was blinded by my sin
Had no ears to hear Your voice
Did not know Your love within
Had no taste for heaven?s joys
Then Your Spirit gave me life
Opened up Your Word to me
Through the gospel of Your Son
Gave me endless hope and peace

Help me now to live a life
That?s dependent on Your grace
Keep my heart and guard my soul
From the evils that I face
You are worthy to be praised
With my every thought and deed
O great God of highest heaven
Glorify Your name through me

(O Great God is copyright � 2006 Sovereign Grace Praise)

So I’m 20 tomorrow, and I know that I’ve just scratched the surface of God’s plans for my life – I’m looking forward to where He’s going to lead me!

On Sunday we had some friends over for an afternoon/evening of fun! As you may have guessed by the title of this post, I’m turning twenty soon – but I’m not twenty until I have to be, cause I’m not looking forward to leaving my teens – and we’re going to be flying to Vanuatu on the 28th of August (if that’s news to you, check back soon to hear about it) and so we had a get together before we left. About 30 people came over, and I think everyone had a good time.

We had some games out in the paddock – and few old ones like freeze tag, and bull-rush; and a new on called “Great wall of China” which was really fun!

I make up (with my parents helping with chopping up veggies) enough Singapore noodles for half an army (well, it looked like it), and people brought sweets – it was a nice meal. We had a bonfire and sat around it eating and having a chat. Then afterward we sang some songs of praise to God for He is worthy of praise!

Also I took a shot of our church family on Sabbath:

This Sunday (well the one past) my dad suggested that we go to the pines for a bike ride and invite Joshua to come – sounds cool! And that’s just what we did.

Here we are before heading out on the ride. Left to right: me, Joshua and my dad

The pines are about 35-40km from where we live, and are a pine forest plantation of – I’m guessing – 50,000+ hectares. There’s a river with a large waterfall and swimming hole going through it too, so in summer it’s great fun swimming there (though I have swum there in winter, but that’s another story). We go riding on the logging tracks – which are great as they have water bars (or rollovers) that we get a bit of air on going over on the bikes. This time we did a 7km ride that started with a really steep climb for 1km then dropped down through a tunnel of dense pine trees, followed by a few km’s of easy riding (well almost easy ) then another down hill run with lots of ruts. We then came out to the main road where we left my dad (he had a walk with my mother who also came along), after riding down the road for a few hundred meters, we went down track 300, a great track that’s mostly downhill, and has lots of water bars! At the end of that track is the waterfall where we were meeting my parents (they were driving in from another track). While waiting for them to turn up we were riding around on the large expanse of rocks that are in the river – lots of rock slabs to drop off of! I had a bit of a crash here too – was going over a ledge, and miss-judged my peddle stroke, next thing I found my self going over the handlebars! Wasn’t really hurt (praise God!), just a bit sore – though it gave Joshua a laugh, as normally he’s the one who crashes…

By this time it was starting to get dark and cold, and my parents hadn’t turned up yet. So Joshua and I had the bright idea of lighting a fire. I had a flint/magnesium stick in my camelbak, so we tried to build a fire – if you’ve ever used a flint stick to light a fire in the cold you’ll know what I mean by “try,” and if you haven’t, you should try it! On the 4th attempt – on the third attempt my parents turned up – we had a fire going! Now we could relax around a warm fire while we ate – nice!

Long exposure of us sitting around the fire singing.

After eating we sang a few songs and praised God for the amazing beauty that was all around us – Psalm 148 sums it up really well: “Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created. He hath also established them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass. Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word: Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl: Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth: Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven. He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the LORD.”

All up it was lots of fun! Joshua and I had a really good time – he’s a great friend! And it was good to have my parents company too!

I had funny experience on Friday night. I was working on my sermon on Friday night as I was preaching at church on Sabbath, by the time I had finished my parents had already gone to bed (now, it wasn’t that late – about 10 p.m.). So I came downstairs from the study and find that I’d forgotten to put wood on the fire and it was almost out – well that wasn’t a problem as I had kindling in the woodbox, so I put the kindling on the few coals left and am down on my knees blowing on them to get the fire going again, when Silvester (his name’s spelt differently from Sylvester) our long-time cat of 13+ years comes in and decides that my back would be a nice place to sit on. So I’m down on my knees trying to get the fire going, and I’ve got a cat on my back – and something about it makes me start laughing, I mean really, it is funny! Or is it? Anyway, I’ll let you decide. But really, at 10 p.m. after working on my sermon, with my parents in bed and I’m trying to get the fire going with a cat on my back – it could only happen to me!

Oh by the way, I did get the fire going!