Barak or Herod or Jed or Jarwin or Homer or Dogmatix or Asterix or ?

Well I really do love Cathie deeply. I can tell because I agreed to
her request that we get a puppy (pictured here) for Christmas.

There were two conditions 1. That it is an outside not inside dog. 2.
That the parents choose his name not the kids.

Some of the names on the list in the subect heading above have made it
to the second round.

That Barak is in the list should nor be read as a pro right or pro
left comment. I just like the idea of calling out 'Barak fetch' in the
park.

Image for Old Testament plotline

Here is an image I used in my Christmas Day talk and that I have used many times before. I am pretty sure I originally spotted it in a John Richardson book but it's so long ago that I have gone hazy. I think it is brilliant.

The Slaughter of the Innocent

On Christmas Day I tackled the horrific story of the slaughter of the innocents, giving us a picture of the real Christmas of history and the real Christmas today. audio | handout.

Christmas 2008

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Christmas Carols last Sunday night. We meet tonight (11pm Christmas Eve) at Annandale Neighbourhood Center (79 Johnston St, Annandale) and 9:30am Christmas Day at Annandale Neighbourhood Center.

The Incarnation

In this talk on the incarnation I attempt to show why it is vital that
Jesus is both fully human and fully God. I also outline my
difficulties with the popular new book 'The Shack' and my
disappointment in Sydney's main Christian bookshop and radio station
for their promotion of it. audio | handout

Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men

This is the height chart from the doorpost on our kitchen door.  Hannah and Solomon compete to be taller at the particular age.  I imagine that a sign of Jesus' humanity is that he would have had similar competitions with his siblings.

Luke 2:52And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

 

Gavin Wilcox

For several years on Christmas Day we visited All Saints Church at Nowra. Gavin Wilcox was the minister. He was a contemporary of mine at Moore College.

On Thursday Bishop Robert Forsyth told me that Gavin had died that morning. Gavin's first posting was alongside Robert at St Barnabas Broadway, before he later moved to Nowra.

Among my memories of Gavin are the many people he introduced me to at church who he had led to Christ using the Introducing God course.

I thank God for Gavin's life today and will be praying for his wife Wendy and kids.

Hovel's latest update

Hannah has finished Summer Hill Year Six

Tonight she's off on a sleepover caravan with Cathie and the four
friends pictured here with their teacher Miss Arentz.

Miss Arentz is not on the sleepover - I presume after two years of OC
kids she's enjoying relaxing.

UTS and Mac Uni Media students end of year shindig

We had a great time tonight at the UTS and Mac Uni media students get
together.

Because the tomb is empty - Part B

In this talk I unpack the implications of the empty tomb from the book of Romans. The handout is here. The talk in audio is here. We plan to be back putting videos up each week in the new year.

The truss is in

One of the big issues in our church building project is how will the
south wall be held up? The engineers and architects and builders have
designed and constructed a huge truss.

It was put in yesterday morning. I was stopped at the traffic lights
just after midday and took this photo from out of the car window.

The guys are making great progress :)

Christmas Buddhas

Cathie went shopping at K-Mart Broadway. They are selling Christmas
Buddhas to hang on your tree.

I asked her if she complained. She said no, but that they weren't
selling very well and that the marked would probably decide.

And don't the waiters look good!

A Christmas afternoon tea

Good times today for the women of our church and friends with a
special Christmas afternoon tea at Annandale

Jericho and Galilee

Others have done profiles on Jericho and Galilee in the Holy Land. This is a profile on Jericho on the Jordon River, near Lake Galilee in Central Queensland. I couldn't find all the statues. But then I didn't have a researcher as part of the film crew :)

The buskers are back

Hannah on Clarinet, Solomon on Sax. They went busking today with
their roadie Abraham.

In one hour in Johnston Street they made $6:35.

They paid the roadie a third. Which meant that each received $2.10.

Apparently Christmas Carols and Duets were most popular.

So they are going to practice and do it again soon.

Blackwater and Emerald

On each of my days off over the next few months I'll edit up little snippets of video from our holiday. And sharing it with you will motivate me to do it bit by bit.

I thought this was cool ...

The angst of Christmas

On Wednesday I was back at City Bible Forum for the first time in more than three months and had my first chance to address publically the issues of the financial crisis that have hit our world in 2008.

I called this address from Luke 1:46-56: The angst of Christmas.

St Lukes Miranda Christmas Lunch

Today Cathie and I headed down to St Luke's Miranda where Cathie's mum
Janet is a member and where Cathie grew up.

The people at St Lukes adopted us as link missionaries ten years ago
and have me back to speak there around every 18 months.

I am so thankful to God for them - for their prayerful and financial
support for our missionary work to the media.

I am convinced that their support is key in the way God has blessed
the ministry we have been doing.

Today was Christmas lunch for the St Luke's crew. There were about 100 at the lunch at Taren Point and we had a great time. I spoke about the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the ministry we are engaged in and a little about our holidays.

This blog

Between September 1 and December 1 we went on a three month long service leave trip around Australia. Over the next couple of weeks I'll put up some of the videos we took on the trip as part of sharing the adventure with friends and family. I hope you enjoy. Cheers,Dominic

Because the tomb is empty - Part A

It was terrific to be back at church last Sunday. I had a lovely time and after 13 weeks visiting other places it was lovely to be back with friends and to meet new people who have joined while I was away.

I gave the first of two addresses under the heading 'Because the tomb is empty.'

In these talks we are thinking about the overall direction of our ministry given two factors : 1. The tomb is empty and 2. We now have a timeline of when things can happen and can make concrete time based plans about the next ten years.

If you missed last Sunday and would like to listen to it. The talk is here.

City Bible Forum

I am looking forward to being back at City Bible Forum today at
lunchtime after a 14 week absence!

Billy Joel - great fun but a bit sad

Last night Cathie and I went to see Billy Joel.  It was a birthday present for Cathie from me.

We had a terrific night. Joel is a great showman, commands respect on the stage, was at ease in the 20-thousand arena and had all sorts of fun along the way. We fell smack bang in the middle of the demographic who were attending.  And Billy Joel sang lots of songs from our youth.

There were some lovely moments, for example as he played Waltzing Matilda alone on the piano and the whole auditorum sang to him, and then in the last verse of the last song 20-thousand of us we sang together with no backing music: 

"Sing us a song you're the piano man, sing us a song tonight.

We're all in the mood for a melody and you've got us feeling alright'

However, I was shocked and distressed to the core when Joel's roady 'Chainsaw' led the whole auditorium in singing 'I'm on the Highway to Hell.'  I read later on a blog that this is a signature event of a Billy Joel concert.    But there was something terribly tragic about 20-thousand people singing in loud voices - defiantly - unthinkingly - 'I am on the highway to hell.'  Of course it wasn't the first time I had heard the song.  But there was something about seeing all those people singing it together - an opposite parallel to a congregation singing the praise of Jesus and the glories of heaven.

Also distressing was Joel's anthem to lust 'Only the good die young' (A song of course I knew but it was distressing to see him and many others celebrating this world view)

Come out Virginia, don't let me wait

You Catholic girls start much too late

aw But sooner or later it comes down to fate

I might as well be the one

I felt for Joel the person.  Of course there's lots to admire.  He has been at the top of the music business for 30 years and has escaped much of the ravages of that industry.  But I couldn't help feeling sad that many of his love song ballards written for previous wives were left out because (I guess) he couldn't sing them with sincerity now, the one that he did sing he had to qualify with his expression, his hand movements and his preamble explaining that he didn't really believe it anymore.  He also came across as less than the person that I had expected him to be.  At points spectacularly the elder statesman of rock, at points cynical, bitter and bruised.

I prayed for him when I was listening to his albums in the 80's and am going to start praying for him again.

Annandale Christmas Scripture Assembly

Jane Vaughan, Sophie Gyles, Nathan Ford

Building work inside the chapel area

Note the floor is 30cms lower !

I am so looking forward to teaching the Bible tomorrow

I haven't taught the Bible (except in the caravan with our family and
amongst our staff this week) for 13 weeks and I am so looking forward
to opening the scriptures again tomorrow.

I am going to be speaking on 'Because the tomb is empty - Part 1'
where we will be looking at the implications of the Resurrection for
where we will be going as a ministry in 2009 and over the next five
years.

Back to business

I just put on a tie for the first time since August.

The wall is coming down

Hey this was exciting. This morning I went along to check out the
building committee meeting - and they were knocking down a wall of the
church.