speaking in tongues

A friend of mine was recently told that “THE ONLY REAL WAY TO DRAW NEAR TO GOD WAS THROUGH PRAYING IN TONGUES DAILY AND THEN HAVING FAITH THAT GOD WILL INTERPRET WHAT YOU ARE PRAYING ABOUT” as stated by a particular Christian self help book. He did not necessarily agree with this and wanted my opinion. This was my response. Please read it and leave a response. I’d like to see what people think.

I don't necessarily agree with that either. Praying in tongues can be a great way to build up your spirit, because it's a direct interaction with the spiritual realm, so in a sense it's a little miracle every time you do it (ref. to verse bellow). So if you do it every day will grow spiritually speaking, and in faith, and that of course means you will in turn come closer to God.

1 Corinthians 14:2-28 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

2For anyone who speaks in a tongue[a] does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit.[b] 3But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. 4He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.

However, to say that you have to do it every day and that's the only way is like saying the only way to get fit is going for a 20 minute Jog everyday. They didn't even have tongs till the new testament, so does that mean that Mosses wasn't close to God, or Daniel, or David, or Elijah, or Elisha, or Abraham?

God is just as interested in the problems you know you are dealing with as he is the problems you don't know you have, which makes our word prayers just as important as tongues. The two major ways to get to know God are Prayer and the Bible. The bible is the Word of God. Jesus is also referred to as the Word.

God is looking to have his kids grow into spiritual adults, not just have a bunch of spiritual babies running around screaming at him for all eternity. He Calls himself our farther and friend, and we should approach him as such.

Sorry about getting long winded. You know I get emotional about this stuff.

New Home Groop Starting

As of next week, I will be starting a new Home groop/Home cell/ bible study/ whatever your church likes to call them.

It will be at my house on Tuesdays and will start at 8:00pm

All are welcome, as we are trying to create an environment where non-Christians can come and learn about God, as much as Christians can.

Do nopt expect singing and overly long drawn out prayers.

Do expect honest heart felt prayers, lots of talking and hopefully as much truth as possible. Expect to be challenged.

If your keen to come and don't know me or where I live, or someone who does, give me a hello and I'll send you the details personaly.

2/3 surprised by joy

I'm now about 2/3 of the way through surprised by joy and I certainly am surprised. I am enjoying it immensely and there is a lot in there I was not expecting to read so that's keeping me on my toes, or eyes, depending on how you think.
All in all I think it's bound to be one of my favorites.

Smoking will extend your life and make you money!

At my work, smokers are allowed to have a 15min break every 2 hours for a cigarette. The break has to be 15 minutes because they have to walk out the front gate to the smoking area, have the cigarette and walk back.
If I work an 8-hour day, that means I will have 60 minutes, or one hour a day more breaks and thus personal time than a non-smoker.
If I earn say $25 an hour, this means I will make $25 a day on payed breaks I would otherwise have to have worked for.
If we say that a pack of 24 smokes cost $7.50, and I smoke 4 a day (one for every break), it means it will cost me $1.25 a day to earn $25 for doing nothing. That to me is a clean $23.75 profit.

If I work 5 days a week I will have an extra 5 hours a week off and earn $125 in that time.

If I work a 48-week year, I will have an extra 240 hours or 10 days off work, and earn $6,000 in that year doing it.

If I work for 40 years, I will have an extra 400 days or 1.1 years of life my non-smoking friends did not, and I will have earned $240,000 for doing nothing, that they had to work for.

If I smoke 4 cigarettes a day every working day over a 40-year career, I will have spent $12,000 on cigarettes. This means I’ll come away with a net profit of $228,000, or a 1900% return on my initial investment. These figures do not allow for inflation.

This clearly shows that smoking will both increase you life span, and make you money, However, these returns would not be possible if smoking had not been banned from the workplace, resulting in my 4, 15 minutes payed smoke breaks a day.

Finally smokers have something to thank their non-smoking friends for.

Suprised by Joy

This is special message for Tab,

I just won Supprised by Joy on Ebay for $6.80 including postage.

Very exiting.

Life

I have been a bit slow on the blogging front recently, for no reason past my own laziness, or as those putting forward an excuse would say, fatigue.
Soccer is over for the year and the mighty greens have to come to terms with being third best in their division. That is by no means a small feat and a size 13 boot should be passed their way.
My bocce team is doing quite well this season; we are currently three games from three. Our last game was a forfeit and I choose to believe that when they heard they would be playing us, they just didn’t even bother rocking up.
I went to the show last weekend and won a small fluffy toy on the air riffle sideshow. There was a small argument as to wether it was a bear or a dog. No one was hurt. I also found out that I shoot left handed, although I am generally right handed. This activity joins kicking a football and playing snooker, as the third left handed preference in my life. I am quite exited to find out what else I do Left handed now, only time will tell how many activities may come out from the left handed wood work. How ironic life would be If writing was something I did with my left hand.

Song I have writen, for you to listen

I like to write songs, you can find recording of some of the tracks I have written at the following Triple J unearthed links. Please listen or even down load them. Even If you hate them it would be good If you could give them a rating on the unearth web page. Any feed back is good feed back.

http://www.triplejunearthed.com/Artists/View.aspx?artistid=12531

http://www.triplejunearthed.com/Artists/View.aspx?artistid=12508

http://www.triplejunearthed.com/Artists/View.aspx?artistid=14997

Coburg get up by 1

Well it was no holes bared, play-by-play, keep your eyes on the field and what every you do don’t blink action on Saturday, as the greens took on Coburg, in a great battle for the silver rung of the ladder. The greens emptied the cards from their sleeves as they tenaciously attached, their star forward quarantined to the sidelines. Did the match make him want to elbow someone in the face? My guess would be yes. Unfortunately, the greens efforts were in vain, and Coburg scraped through with a one to nil victory.
Two games remain in the fixture season, and neither of them can be considered in any type of bag. Both our opponents sit below us on the ladder, but they are both still finals contenders, and will be looking for late season points to get them over the line. Next week we play St-Albans. At our last contest we crushed them 4-1. Our new look forward line however, may make for a slightly closer result this time round. Judging by our honourable performance against Coburg, I am still confident of a repeat victory. We will finish the season with another grudge match against ‘The Southern Star’. At our last face off, they came away with a lucky 1-0 victory.

Romans 12:1

This is a verse I often hear abbreviated and miss represented, so I thought I’d put my opinion on the subject out there.

Romans 12:1

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

God considers our complete surrender as a living sacrifice as "Reasonable service". That is to say a general requirement for anyone who wishes to follow Christ.

We often here people make statements that say full surrender to God allows him to do powerful things in our lives.

Although I do not disagree with the above statement, I propose this, that anything less than our daily attempt at full submission to God is not Christianity at all. Anything more is impossible.

Some versions translate this verse to say, "This is your spiritual act of worship" and not "reasonable service". If you follow through a pretty basic thought progression about worship, you will soon see that in this instance, these statements mean basically the same thing.

With this in mind, it is important to note that this verse also starts by saying this can only be done "by the mercies of God". This point is also commonly missed, however, when you interpret the rest of the verse as I do, it becomes vital information, as we could never achieve these requirements on our own.

Thus, Christianity becomes the strive for perfect submission to God, but only through his own mercy and power.

Wow! Now that's a crazy powerful verse.

This is the truth that I feel is lost when this verse in not fully quoted.

A by-product of this interpretation is that it creates a clearly defined, black and white idea of what Christianity is, without invoking a whole range of rules and regulations. This creates a situation where God can easily divide the sheep from the goats as it were, without creating the legal mess Christ died to save us from in the first place.

How often do you see the whole Christian experience summed up in three lines? Answer me that! Interesting that it's a statement which compels actions and not ideas no?

Retirment

It has been my life long plan to retire with a leather recliner and a massive collection of jazz vinyls, and then live out my days kicking back, drinking scotch in a slow thought-provoking manner. Then my grandchildren will come and visit me, sit on my lap and I will dispense grandfatherly wisdom from my chair.

It is the dream of retirement that stops me ever feeling old. Every year brings me one step closer to the goal.

You to should dream of retirement. It brings extra meaning and purpose to every day.

Comets are destroyed of they burn through the greens outer atmosphere

I think everyone present at the Bentleigh V Comets variety hour this week would have to agree that it was a testament to sports and athletics everywhere. After an afternoon filled with Greens dominated play, Bentleigh came away with a pleasing 3 to 1 result, a score highly indicative of the game that had unfolded before us. Playing back on home soil, the greens looked comfortable, with a well-grounded defensive line, and many of their goals scored of strong assists. The sole moment of Cometary victory came late in the game, when a greens victory was inevitable, and player minds were most likely side tracked by the celebratory rotating meat that was to come.
So here we are at last. Standing at the door of destiny. Ready and willing to knock. Confident, but respectful of what lies inside. Next week the greens will once more meet Coburg. They are the number three to our number two. They are the shadow that goes before us as we walk from the sun, and tails us only when we walk toward its majestic solar glory.
This game will decide who follow the pines into the finals first class sleeper carriage for two, and who will slog it out in coach all the way to the checked flag. The comets have the home ground advantage, but the greens excel on grass, and have a stong history agaist them, beating them 2-1 at our last encounter, even when we couldn't seam to beat anyone else. It should be a good match.

Warriors hang on for a luck draw

In a weekend that saw lavish scoring across the division, Bentleigh have once more missed victory by a rabbits short hair, finishing their game against North Geelong with a two all draw. The warriors have not as whole performed well this season, so going into the match the greens were confident on a solid victory and the point to boot. Unfortunately, conditions were not favourable, and, when I say conditions, I actually mean linesmen, and when I say favourable, I actually mean able to make able to tell the difference between white line and green grass. Some dubious yellow cards after an even more dubious goal put the greens at an instant disadvantage. A second goal even luckier than the first put Geelong up two nil within the first twenty minutes. Playing one man down, the green were still able to dominate the rest of the match and quickly brought the scores back to Stevens. Although many opportunities were created, the greens were unable to convert a third play, and were forced to split the points.
Next weeks match is against the Casey Comets, a team not exactly known for lighting up the nights sky with a blaze of heavenly glory. This means it should be another safe opportunity for the greens to pick up some valuable late in the season points.

Urban Pirates

Piracy in the outer suburbs of town this winter season, has reached the highest levels on record, making racketeering the now largest percent of crime in town. This title has traditionally been held by J walking, however a decrease in literacy has meant that many would be J walkers, have been unable to develop the required skills for this sordid profession. Many city officials have allegedly announced the piracy epidemic to be of plague proportion, to the degree such that the power of current legislation will be unable to knock the wind from the pirate’s sales. This in turn has prompted many calls from community groups, demanding policy reform powerful enough to keep up with the current swordplay. Some have even suggested legislation as strong as the legendary swash and buckle act of 1785 may be in order, if we are to adequately deal with the current body of scurvy naves, walking the streets. Police have warned that if anyone sees either a pirate, or what they believe to be a significantly un-kept sailor, they should by no means try to either approach or feed the individual in question, as they may bite. Urban pirates can be easily spotted, as they will generally have one wooden leg, one moccasin, a shirt of frilly and feminine nature, as well as an eye patch, most likely not of a medically prescripted nature. Be especially careful when heading to the horizon, as Pirates arrrr particularly common in this direction.

The Southern Cross's favourite son's

It is very important that you go straight to the Triple J unearthed web site and down load all songs by a band called
'The Southern Cross's favourite son's',
and then rate all the songs with full scores, 100% good. Then get everyone you know to do the same. This is kind of like a chain letter only for Rock!

You can download at:
http://www.triplejunearthed.com/Artists/View.aspx?artistid=12508

People, It's time to use and abuse democracy and it's something we have to do together.

It's Rock, It's good for you.

Transformers

I saw Transformers for the first time last night.
It was awesome.
Just enough plot and story to give the whole thing a setting, and then straight to the action and robots. Cool.

Quote of the night:

"Star Scream, You Fail me again!"
Megatron

This was one for the real Transformer fans and it certainly wasn't lost on me.

I say again, cool.

Greens throw a match at the pines, no sparks.

Due to issues with the Soccer Victoria Web page, validated data on this weeks game results is still hazy. Early reports have however sited a one all draw between the ladders one and two, Frankston and Bentleigh. Frankston came out with all the freshness we have come to expect from the pines. Bentleigh’s new Coach of three weeks hit the match lacking experience with the club, but seamed by all accounts as green as anyone, and has certainly inspired some new growth from the greens side.
Scores were locked by the half time whistle, and no number of orange quarters had the rejuvenating power to influence another goal for either end of the park.
I believe a Bentleigh under 11s player did manage to
place a powerful drive to the top corner of on old ladies head during a non-league accredited friendly in the car park, however those rumours are also yet to be confirmed.
Unfortunate wins to both Coburg and Langwarin this week have left the Greens in Fourth place on the Ladder. As these two teams will be playing each other next round, an easy victory over the G town once we were Worriors this week will return The greens to third. so not too much damage done.

Bad new about bank day

It turns out that only people who work in banks get bank day off, not the people who get screwed by them. Trust banks to set up a hioliday which they and they alone can reep the benifits from. Very disapointing banks of Australia, Very poor form.

Bank Day

Next Monday, we will be celebrating Bank day, A public holiday in the honour of Banks.
Out of all the things to celebrate or support in this world, we have bank day, a celebration of modern finance. I think we have to pay a minute of silent respect to all the bank fees payed nationally for no apparent reason, and then a further minute in respect of pyramid ventures.
Maybe the holiday is actually to morn the loss of all those regional branches. Heartlessly massacred in battle against Internet based accounts and transactions.

I believe I will spend my Bank day putting cash under my mattress and I encourage everyone else to do the same.

Pub Marketing

I was talking to someone at work today, about the lack of pubs marketing towards the 18-25 market. They told me Of a pub that was, however, I was not convinced that the actions taken by the said establishedment were infact aimed at the age bracket in question.

It is my opinion, that painting the wall, increase the prices of meals, dereasing the sizes of meals, and holding kareoke competions, are not markets ploys to pull in the younger drinker.
If you were setting up an over 28s, maybe.

I would be interested to hear others oppinions on the subject.

Greens Vs Dandenong

I am an avid supporter of the great Bentleigh Greens Soccer Club, and as such have decided to begin, a play-by-play, blow-by-blow, triumph-by-triumph, running commentary of their season to date. So, hold onto your pants, as the action unfolds on the hallowed Victorian men’s first division pitch.

This week the Greens took it to an away match against there old nemesis The Dandenong Thunder. After a demoralising, sickness induced 1-5 loss to Langwarrin two rounds ago; the Greens took the only action any club can after such a defeat, and sacked the coach.
This led to a comeback victory against Westgate, which put them in a primed position to take the thunder back to the storm from which it came.

Dandenong came from two back-to-back wins, had a home ground advantage. Rumours have recently circulated suggesting that Dandenong have been flying in out of state players; due to the fact there starting line up has as many stars as an overcast midday sky.

On this occasion however, the extra muscle was in vain, and as the Dandenong players hurled nuts at the pitch in contempt, the greens took the win, 2 goals zip.
Goals were scored by Ben Cogger and Fikret Husanovic.

Next week The greens will take on the ladder leaders Frankston Pines, in a top two, battle of the tightens, ‘marno-E-marno’, West side story meets run baby run street gang fight/riot onslaught, to decided top place.

A win to the treated pines puts the comfortably ahead. A win to the greens (the colour of treated pine) will make them the first team this season to topple this old growth team from the top of the ladder.

Say tuned for all the highlights.