“If your heart takes more pleasure in reading novels, or watching TV, or going to the movies, or talking to friends, rather than just sitting alone with God and embracing Him, sharing His cares and His burdens, weeping and rejoicing with Him, then how are you going to handle forever and ever in His presence…? You’d be bored to tears in heaven, if you’re not ecstatic about God now!” – Keith Green
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Relationships just happen…if you’re lucky you get a good one…some people just have it made…they’re soul mates, it’s almost fate…
OK, I don’t believe any of the stuff I just wrote! And anyone who has had any real experience in relationships (either close friendship or romantic…of which the later should be a extension of the former – but that’s digressing…I’m not going to chase that rabbit just now!!) knows that true and strong relationships take effort. You make an effort at communication – firstly you listen (the most important part of communication – but that’s another rabbit!), you find things that connect with the other person and you seek to have deep discussions, and very importantly you don’t assume that you’re always right (because none of us are – sorry to burst your bubble :p)…I could go on and on on the topic of communication – it’s fundamental…but what are some other things that build strong relationships? How about spending QUALITY time together? No distractions period. How about seeking to do memorable things together – imaginative instead of run-of-the-mill? Things that will bring you closer to the person you’re seeking to build a relationship with and that you’ll both remember forever…and when you do you’ll always remember that person. I could go on with points to build strong relationships…but what I’m putting down and hoping you’ll pick up isn’t about people…
As Christians we have a relationship that transcends any human relationship we could ever have. Revelation 3:20 describes it this way, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Jesus is here describing what He desires…a personal relationship with each one of us. And just like human relationships we need to invest in our relationship with Christ. Paul writing to the Philippians says in chapter 3:8 (from the Amplified Bible), “Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly]…” Does that sound like a haphazard or aimless attempt on Paul’s part to become closer to Christ? I don’t think so! He has his priorities right – he counts everything as loss that stops him from, “progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him!”
What do you think that looks like in our lives? Well, I’m not going to totally answer that as it may look different for each one of us. However, I’m going to share an experience I had today that prompted this post.
It was a long day at work today, I got home and was rather exhausted – I felt like vegetating in the hammock and taking it easy. Waiting for me were some emails that needed replies plus some GYC design work that is due in the next few days…I came in and started addressing the to do list, when I had the impression I needed to get out and spend some time with God – one-on-one. Sure I’d had my devotions at the beginning of the day, but this was something different. God and I needed to spend QUALITY time together – something imaginative instead of run-of-the-mill. Mount Cooroora was the destination. And the date was with God. And you know we had a total blast! I got up the top of the 458 meter mountain and watched the sun set as I read my Bible and talked to God – the birds sang their songs of praise, the wind whispered in the gum trees – everything was peaceful. The moon came out and I watched the clouds drift by as I reflected on my walk with Christ and talked to my Father in Heaven about life – my dreams, wishes and plans. And there in the stillness I recommitted my life afresh to the best friend I’ve ever had. I felt like I was walking on air (except for the near vertical decent over rocks lol) as I came down off that mountain in the dark…those few hours I’d spent had become the highlight of the week! And now every time I think of Mount Cooroora I’ll remember an evening on October 9 in the year 2008.
Friends having Jesus as our Saviour (Savior for you folks in the USA!) is about a relationship with the God of the universe. And like any relationship we need to invest in it. Why don’t you think about creative ways you can spend QUALITY time with Christ in your life…not that God doesn’t already love you more than you can imagine, it’s us that benefit from these experiences – they draw us closer to Him and help cement our relationship. Words can’t begin to express what an awesome time I had this evening…and like with a human relationship I want to have these special times as often as I can – don’t you?! 
We’re less than three months away from GYC – and even though at the moment it looks like I won’t be able to make it (long story…which will be revealed here soon), I thought I’d share the GYC love with y’all in the form of some wallpapers and a web banner.
Click here for the widescreen wallpaper.
Click here for the standard ratio wallpaper.
And here for the web banner.
And ya, if for some reason you’ve been unlucky enough to not see the super cool 4 fold brochure in the flesh – well, you miss out! :p Just kidding, you can download it here (just be aware if you’re on dial-up it’s 5.7MB)…
This is just a little bit of what I’ve been up to this last few months…fair bit of design work on atm, I’m trying to catch up on the backlog (I really am Keith!! Your website is coming soon!) and at the same time there’s a whole lot of really exciting new ministry stuff happening – some really, really exciting stuff on the near horizon! – but you’ll just have to wait to find out about that!
Last year I did this survey over at The Rebelution – a whole ton of questions about how the way girls dress and act, and how it affects us guys. Well I was just reminded that the results are in. Some interesting reading I must say. If you’re a girl and want to get a perspective on what over 1600 guys think on this topic then head over to: http://www.therebelution.com/modestysurvey/
One of my goals at the moment is to post at least a few times a month on here…hopefully more. But I don’t just want to post about anything and everything – sure this is a personal blog (atm), however it’s more – it’s a blog about my life as a Christian with a bit of random stuff thrown in for good measure. With that in mind I thought I’d regularly post quotes that have made me stop and think – hopefully they’ll do the same for you. So here goes:
“O pray not for easy lives, pray to be strong! Pray not for tasks equal to your powers, pray for powers equal to your tasks; then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle to the praise of Him who has made you who you are.” – author unknown
Really, really, really sweet news today! Canon announced the successor to the 5D – the 5DmkII.
Key Features are:
35mm full-frame CMOS sensor with 21.1 megapixels
Live View movies in Full High Definition (industry first)
Live View shooting (AF mode: Quick, Live, Live Face Detection)
DiG!C 4 Image Processor
ISO speed range 100-6400 (expandable to 50-25600) (Canon first)
3.9 frames per second (fps) with continuous shooting up to 78 shots in a single burst
Newly designed, high-performance viewfinder (viewfinder coverage 98%)
3-inch, fine detail LCD monitor (920,000 dots, VGA)
This last year Nikon have been coming out with some really sweet SLR cameras…and even though I’m a loyal Canon shooter (have too much invested in gear to make it worthwhile switching), to be honest I’ve been checking out Nikons offerings in the pro arena with interest. Now Canon have hotted things up – the 5DmkII is cheaper than the Nikon D700, with more megapixels and from the sample videos I’ve seen is going to be impressive with it’s HD video capture (there’s a external mic jack!!!).
It looks like my main SLR is going to be retired to backup and the backup sold to make way for a 5DmkII – I’m digging this! :p
Last Sabbath I preached (more on that later) up at Hervey Bay – we stayed with our friends the Tempests and had a great time up there.
Saturday night my mother and I are driving back to the Sunshine Coast in my Defender. 21:45 and making good time with only twenty minutes to go I get a flat tyre on a back road. No problem, just a simple tyre change and we’ll be on the road again…if only! I take the spare off, and loosen the nuts on the flat, hand brake on and in gear…get the jack out and almost about to take the tyre off when the jack fails, slamming into the back of the 110 putting a dent in the back.
OK, slight problem! This jack is not going to be changing another tyre in it’s life again! No reception with the mobile…so the only thing to do is drive on the flat. Get about 3km down the road and a 4wd is coming along the road…wave them over and explain the problem – ah, no worries mate we’ve got a jack. They get their jack out, and I unload the spare…only to find that their jack doesn’t work either! They head on their way, and I try and figure out what to do (still no reception) – only option is keep driving as I have to be at work the next day. Drive 5km more at 10km/h and the tyre is smoking, pull over and wait for it to cool, both the tyre and the wheel are had it. This is not good. 
I had taken my sermon on how we should respond to trials, disappointments and heartache in a way that glorifies God and draws us closer to Him. How ironic! All my idealistic sermon propositions of the morning were now staring me right in the face. I was tired, it was getting close to midnight and I just didn’t feel like thanking God for allowing me to experience this – I was getting closer to kicking the wheel in anger and letting God know that I didn’t like the joke. Then my mind went to the core of the sermon – David’s response to God when he was fleeing for his life from his son Absalom recorded in Psalm 63. “O God, thou art my God…Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name…Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.” Do you think that David’s natural response to the situation he found himself in was to praise God? I doubt it. However, he knew the fact that as one of my favourite Bible commentators Ellen White puts it, “Through trial and persecution the glory–the character–of God is revealed in His chosen ones.” she writes in another place, “If more praising of God were engaged in now, hope and courage and faith would steadily increase.” This is just what David was doing…and I had the choice too. I could choose to praise God and not become frustrated by what was happening or I could have a pity party and feel even worse.
There is really only one option! I started praising God and thanking Him for the blessings He’d given me that day – you know it could’ve been worse! Sure it didn’t fix the problem, I was still stuck with a now wrecked tyre, wheel and jack…but it didn’t matter, I was rejoicing in God! This was not something worth loosing my experience with Christ over.
I checked my mobile and we now had reception. My mum suggested we call friends who live close by…give them a call explain to them where we are and he says he’ll be out soon. Over an hour later he calls saying where are you?! He’d turned around before getting to us as I’d underestimated how far I was (should’ve looked at the map Samuel!)…so half an hour later he gets there, and drops us home. We take the Freelander and I finally get the tyre changed! Get home at 02:30, into bed at 02:45 and I’m at work by 09:00!
And you know now looking back on it, I’d class it as an adventure rather than a trial. An experience that drew me closer to Jesus and concreted in my mind again the reality that all things do work together for good to them that love God, everything that happens to us can be turned into a blessing if we let it.
…or something along those lines. Seven months since I wrote a blog post? I can’t believe it! Maybe I should’ve titled this post, “catchup on the last seven months” but that would’ve been too much like my last post – which was also trying to makeup for not writing anything for a few months…is there a trend emerging? Who knows!
How do I condense seven months without writing 10,000+ words? I’ll try, cause I doubt that any of you want to read that much about what I’ve been up to, and I don’t have the time to write that much anyway. 
So, in brief synopsis form: I’m no longer in the US of A. After GYC 07 my health kinda took a nose dive, not getting enough sleep and studying/working full time took it’s toll and to cut a long story short, God has led me back to Australia with a burden to work here in ministry – God willing combining Christian media and ministry – my plan is to finish my theology degree with Griggs while I’m working. Currently I’m working at Living Valley Springs Health Retreat – while I really enjoy working there, it’s only until God opens the door for active ministry, as that’s where I feel called. I’m also the designer for GYC this year and a few other ministry related design jobs. OK, so that’s a really quick catchup on my life the last seven months…there’s a lot more that has happened, and it’s been a very hard time with some things that have happened in my family that I can’t go into detail about.
To be honest I’m trying to understand exactly why God has me where I am just now, but that’s what faith is for! And going by past experience I know that God has everything in control, in fact where I am now is part of His plan for my life! And not only that, it in some way is preparing me for where He wants me next!! So based on that I can’t wait to see where He is going to lead in the next step!
Where did the last few months go?! I’m trying to figure that out! Talk about busy, I thought I understood what being busy was like, but this last few months would have to go down as the most jam packed of my life – maybe a little too jam packed. At the same time they have been great fun! From having my mother over from Australia for three months, to the projects I’ve been working on for Weimar, WYC and Army of Youth, work has been heaps of fun (more on that in a little while). And then college has been fun too – though it’s been challenging to keep up with my study load because of everything else that’s going on at the moment! Challenging classes, fun teachers, and fellow students that have made this quarter heaps of fun in the classroom (English class has been so much fun – we’ve gotten off onto all sorts of discussions, and almost solved the worlds problems…or is it that we’ve caused more ) Anyway, I’m going to go over some of the highlights of the last few months…
With my mother in Yosemite National Park
The biggest blessing was having my mother over from Australia for three months! She’s one of my best (if not the best at the moment) friends – we are really close which is great, but it’s made it harder being in two different countries. So it was such a blessing to have her come over here to Weimar and volunteer for almost three months. She worked with Paula, Heather and myself in educational marketing here at Weimar which was great – her desk was right beside mine! She stayed in the girls dorm and by the time she left most of the girls had adopted her – in fact, I’d often feel a little left out because of all the time she’d spend with the girls lol, but that’s OK as I was busy often too. We had some great experiences together, from a weekend backpacking trip up into the Sierra Nevada mountains (with it snowing on us – great fun!), to a trip to Yosemite National Park with the whole college, to always having someone to talk to about the day at meal time. I am so thankful for God bringing here over here as it was such a blessing to me and others!
Then out of the blue a week or so before my mother was scheduled to fly home my dad decided to come over and see the two of us together – which was a total surprise, and a shock in many ways. So my dad few in at midnight on Sunday and flew out again on Friday morning at 6am – that’s what I call a rushed visit! All up it was positive, and prayers are being answered…my parents have been going through some difficult times in their marriage, but by God’s power things seem to be getting a little better. I’m only able to keep on praying and hoping for the best.
WYC08 poster
Work has been very busy. There are a few things going on that I can’t go into detail about yet, but I’m really, really excited about!! Really! I believe that Weimar College’s best days are yet ahead, and it’s exciting being a part of it! There’s also been work for Western Youth Conference (WYC) and a new project that GYC are starting called Army of Youth.
Army of Youth ad for GYC07 booklet
College has been good this quarter, I took 17 credits (took 12 last quarter) and all the classes have been good – I’ve taken Christian Spirituality, Christian Beliefs, Christian Marriage and Family, College English, Outreach, and Personal Physical Fitness this quarter. Challenging in many areas (one of my midterm tests I spent two days memorizing for!), it’s fun pushing my mind and seeing it grow. And now I’m in the middle of finials and am looking forward to the end of it and getting some sleep! This last week I’ve been lucky if I’ve gotten more than 4 hours sleep a night on average…there’s just so much going on! When I reflect on what life was like back home it’s quite a contrast – and in many ways I’m too busy, I’m noticing my health running down a little which I’m not happy about, but anyway, with some rest, nutrition and exercise I’ll bounce back.
I’m realizing just how good God is…and how patient He is with me! He has been showing me that I had been looking for contentment and happiness in other things above Him. He has been gently directing me back to looking to Him for my truest happiness. And man, it’s so wonderful to have my happiness, contentment and worth coming from Him! It wasn’t that I was wandering away from Him, it was just that my supposed happiness was based on my interpretation of God’s will for my life – not me being submitted to God’s sovereign master plan for my life in everything.
A few weeks ago it really came to a head, I was questioning why God was allowing certain things to happen in my life…from what I thought were really close friends not wanting to have anything to do with me, to my Dad leaving my Mother after 25 years of marriage – I mean this doesn’t happen to people that have been missionaries and from a man I thought was a Christian does it? (I’m still praying that God will work a miracle and restore things). Life hasn’t been going according to how I wanted it to go…
However after lots of prayer, lots of tears, heartache and a fair bit of questioning God’s wisdom, He has been patiently showing me that despite everything, He is leading in my life. The trials that I’m going through at the moment are part of His master plan for my life, and He wants me to trust Him with it. God writing through His prophet Jeremiah says, “I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD. They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11). There are some things that God hasn’t given me answers on yet, but looking back at my life I can clearly see His direction – and that gives me courage to trust Him and commit my future direction to Him, because He so far has never made a mistake!
I’m excited to say that I’m content with God’s plan for my life – and even though I can’t see all of it, I know that it will be good…because He is good! I feel that I’m starting to understand what Paul meant writing to Timothy when he said that, “godliness with contentment is great gain” because the joy that comes in total surrender to God’s leading in everything is wonderful – and that is great gain! It really struck home yesterday (Sabbath), when a group of us were singing some older songs – from hymn books like Christ in Song. We sang a song called “Beautiful Flowers” – it’s a great song…though like a lot of older songs goes quite high, and while singing the second last verse I hit a high note and cracked up laughing – I was laughing so hard the tears came and I felt such joy in my heart! Then I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me and say, “you’re content aren’t you?”. And I realized that I’ve let go, all the plans I had made back in Australia before I left I’ve given to God, I’m trusting Him with all of my life, not just the parts I want to give to Him…and man alive, it feels good!