just some questions...

Why is it that now it is automatically referred to as racism if someone criticizes President Obama? http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/16/gibbs-rejects-carters-claim-obama-critics-racist/

Why are some old people still allowed to drive when they obviously aren't capable? (foot slipped on to accelerator???) http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2872349/Car-smashes-into-Christchurch-bank

What is this world coming to when a 13 year old is caught drink driving? http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2872423/13-year-old-girl-caught-drink-driving

Why is my friend Elijah still in hospital?

Why is Niggy still not home from Afghanistan? (I miss you bro!)

What is with our fascination for finding another 'earth'? http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/2872010/Earth-like-planet-gives-hope-of-life

Why did I not get up in time to make lunch today?

What is with the lethal injection saga in Ohio? http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/2871953/Lethal-jab-halted-by-vein-trouble

What is with all the sexual abuse and incest? http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/2873457/Australian-Fritzl-raped-daughter-daily

Why have their been so many murders, assaults, stabbings, and the like in Christchurch recently?

Why am I still hungry?

Why haven't I finished my assignments?

Why am I writing this instead of writing my assignments?

Why did I think that guy at the skatepark was Tom and start hassling him when it turned out to be some random dude? And why didn't he punch me for being a dick? (Toby, you are my new friend - haha, hopefully see you again at the park soon)

I don't have answers for all these questions. What I do know is God is good, even when we are not. Even when the world looks to be in so much trouble, even when it looks grim, there is hope. I know that we may turn our backs on God and reap the consequences of that, but He is always there waiting for us to turn to Him. He is a good God, and just because an ungodly world is spiralling out of control, that will not shake my faith and hope in God, and it will only make me work harder to let my life shine His light and be an arrow pointing people to Him.

I believe with all my heart that God is good. I know that this world is not perfect. I know that there is pain, suffering, grief, poverty. I know that this stuff is not fun, or cool, or of God. But I would much rather take the hard road and have faith that God is good and claim the promises written in His word - the bible. And believe that He is the hope of the world, that He is the answer, that He is and will always be an awesome God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.

I would much rather do that then take the easy road and lose hope, become a person just going through the motions, letting how I feel determine the extent of my faith in God, become negative, cynical and un-joyful.
Questions, I have.
Answers, often I do not have.
But this I know - God is good, and I choose to put my faith and trust in Him. Praise God!

Thoughts on Friday 11/09/2009

once again I am realizing how easy it is to forget my blog, or put it on hold. I know its been ages since I wrote and I know that I initially wanted to write my blog every day or two. But in all honesty, I still intend to update this from time to time at the very least - I don't want to forget about it.

It's been a sad week in some respects. You may have heard about the 16 year old guy who died in a caravan fire in Edendale last weekend. His name was Matthew Kingsbury, and his family have been friends of my family since I was about 6 years old. It was so sad to hear the news, and weird to think what his family must be going through at the moment. It was weird to think about my sister, who was born around the same time as he was, and to think that he was her age. And its still crazy to think that he's not around anymore...

I hate it when people die so young and so tragically. But I know this - God is good. And I know that life does go on. And I know that we all have to die. And I know that we live in an imperfect world where there is pain and suffering in our midst. But I also know that God is a comforter, a redeemer, a healer, a provider, and a good, loving God. Even if we don't understand things that happen in life sometimes, God is sovereign, and He is God. So I pray for the Kingsbury's and friends of Matthew, and I thank God that He is Good, that even when I don't 'get it', He will never leave me or foresake me. Praise God!

On a lighter note - I have been following the Air New Zealand Cup quite closely this year (as I do every year) and for once, my boys, the Southland Stags, are doing flippin well! They are second on the table and have the chance to go top of the table tonight when they take on current top of table team, Bay of Plenty. Go the mighty Stags!!!

Sydney

Tomorrow I have an early start. I am flying out to Sydney at 6.30am which is not a good time for me considering I'll need to leave home at 4am to get to the airport on time. But needless to say I'm not too concerned about that, I'm more stoked to be going to Sydney for the first time!

God has blessed me so much. I have been given an awesome opportunity to go over to Sydney to check out C3 Oxford Falls, Change (on Wednesday night), hang out with Josh Kelsey (who runs Change) and hopefully there will be a chance in there for me to get together with some of the worship musicians to bang heads and gain some wisdom from some of the experts. It's really exciting and I am so thankful and blessed to be able to do it! I'm looking forward to whatever happens, and it is going to be awesome!

I am so thankful to be able to play a part at such an amazing church here in Christchurch, and to be part of the C3 movement. God is alive, God is good, and God is moving!

Monday!

So it's been a little while since I last posted anything. And with that I realize that my initial dream of writing a new blog every day or two has possibly died. However, I am blogging much more regularly than I used to be so I think that is a good thing. I also think if I was blogging every day most of them would be pretty lame so it could be better quality wise if I blog less frequently. Anyway, moving on...

Today is Monday. We just had an awesome Sunday at C3 Church, Christchurch. I love my church so much, its a great family to be a part of. It is awesome to see it growing in both quantity and quality. Every week it seems we have a bunch of new people and the presence of God descends in a more powerful way than before. I love it!

I was lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to preach at our evening service last night, and it was just great. Our pastor had asked me about a month ago if I would do it and I said count me in! It is such an honor to get asked to preach, and this was a big deal for me. I have preached a number times in the past at Primal and at a couple of high school christian groups, but never at Sunday church. So this was the real deal, a big deal, definitely my biggest gig. I was pretty nervous.

I preached a message that has pretty much been on my heart for a while now. The theme for our Church this month is "Supernatural" and I based my message on the concept of worship and how it ties to the Supernatural presence and power of God. I believe with all my heart that worshiping God invokes the presence of God, and the presence of God invokes the power of God. I believe it is this presence and power of God that are vital for living out our lives as Christians and helping us become more and more like Christ. I also believe that the power and presence of God active in our lives is going to draw people into the presence of God, and we're going to see miracles as we are released into a life of worship.

I think that when we worship God with EVERYTHING, not just a few songs at church, but how we live our lives, the attitude behind our actions, aligning our lives with the Bible, that we have the power of breakthrough in every area of our lives.

When we worship God in our relationships, He blesses them.
When we worship God in our finances, ie tithing, being generous, He blesses our finances.
When we worship God with our work ethic, He blesses the work we do
When we worship God with our WHOLE LIFE, He blesses our whole life.

I believe that when Christians break through into a life of worship, we are opening up the door for God to come in and do the miraculous. I'm talking healings, deliverance, salvations, breakthrough, miraculous provision and more! And I believe that this extends beyond us, that when we open up that door for God, it will impact not only our lives, but the lives of our families, friends, workmates, classmates, communities, and our world for God.

Socialism?

I wouldn't normally post something that got forwarded to me on my email, but I think this illustrates a good point. Don't start hating on me or trying to debate me because of it, just read it and think about it. I admit that it obviously was started by a staunch opponent of Obama trying to make a point, but its worth thinking about. We have seen what socialism has lead to in the past, and even if this is a made up story it is exactly how socialism (spreading the wealth) works


As the late Adrian Rogers said, "you cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
This man is truly a genius!

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before,
but had once failed an entire class.
That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".
All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D!
No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that. (Please pass this on)

30th post WAHOO!

So I'm here writing my 30th blog post thinking about my life and stuff. It's been a wild ride over the last year since I started bogging. I try to voice my thoughts in a way that if people want to know what I'm thinking they can read it and if not they don't have to. So now my question is, what to blog about for #30?

I've decided to just talk about my life. I have been so blessed, God is good! He has always been with me, even when I maybe didn't realize it, and I have just been blown away at what He's been doing the last little while.

I'm still buzzing about "Empower Summit." The worship was amazing, and I was so honored to be able to serve in that. It has been awesome to see, this year especially, that all the struggle and hard work has paid off. Our worship sound at C3 Chch is developing into its own, we are seeing the presence of God more and more each service, and I am constantly blown away that God would use us to lead people into His presence.

I'm working hard at Polytech in my final semester of my Diploma in Civil Engineering, and I have been applying for jobs. Things are exciting, as there is a lot of interest in graduate Civil Engineering Technicians (which is what I'll be in November), and lots of careers nights and meetings in the coming weeks with Engineering firms. I'm hoping to land a job pretty soon! I'm praying and believeing God is going to open and shut the right doors and I'll end up in the position He wants me in, so thats exciting!

At the moment I'm working on a sermon about Worship. I'm going to be preaching at our Sunday night service in the next few weeks, and our theme for the month is "Supernatural." I believe there is great power in worship and I have a heart to see people released into a life of worship that goes far beyond attending Church. So I'm basing my message around worship and the supernatural power of God and how they go hand in hand. Should be a goody. I'm also going to be preaching at Primal in a few weeks time, so there's a couple of opportunities coming up for me to step out and preach the gospel which is exciting. I love it!

Thought for the day (blog):
"God is good - ALL THE TIME"
He really is. It takes faith to claim this over your life, but trust me, when you put God in His place as Lord, He proves to you how awesome He really is!

Praise God!

What an amazing weekend

Wow. That's really all I can say. I just had probably the best weekend of my life. It was amazing. GOD IS GOOD!!!

My church, C3 Church Christchurch, was hosting an event called 'Empower' featuring Ps Tim Hall from Adelaide (in Australia) and Ps Wayne Peat from Howick (in Auckland). It was a powerful weekend, I was blown away by the power of God more than once. We saw people healed, delivered from demonic spirits, receiving words of prophesy, the gift of tongues, and so much more. But the thing that blew me away most of all was the presence of God in the midst of all our meetings and services.

I was leading worship for the whole weekend. We only had a 4-piece band for the weekend - Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Bass and Drums. We were lacking things like Keys, lots of singers, an extra guitar or two, but it didn't matter. In fact, I think keeping it simple made it that much more special - it was possibly the most powerful worship I have ever been in, I really felt the presence of God at another level.

I saw so many Supernatural things this weekend. I saw people healed, delivered, receive gifts of the spirit, and so much more, and I am still buzzing with the excitement of having an encounter with God! What really set the tone for me was the worship - there's nothing better than a large group of people worshiping God, united and passionate.

I think Ps Wayne Peat said it best - worship brings the presence of God, and the presence of God brings the power of God.

We saw that in a huge, awe-inspiring way over the weekend. My heart is more on fire for seeing people released into worship than ever before. It's vital that we break through into the zone where we're worshiping with ALL of our heart to His glory, because that is where we will see God's presence fall among us, and that's where the power is, that's where lives change, that's where the miraculous happens. Without that, we're just a having a good old sing-a-long at best.

And it starts outside of Church meetings. I have really been challenged by this lately. Do I set aside a good amount of time DAILY to seek God through Prayer and reading His Word? Am I really praying "fervent, effective prayers" (James 5:16) for my Church, my City, my family, my classmates, my friends to have an encounter with God? Or am I just cruising through life, taking the easy way out? Do I really have the heart for the lost and broken people that God cares so much about? Or am I way too concerned with me?

God is an awesome God. What will it take to get passionate about Him? I have been so guilty of having an apathetic attitude, and it's totally not cool, that's not honoring Him. We need to stand up, seek God above all else and let Him reveal His glory to the world through us.

We have the hope of the world, we have the answer, let's live every moment of every day FOR HIS GLORY.

Busy

Life is really busy for me at the moment. Mainly because I'm in my final semester of a Diploma in Civil Engineering and hence inundated with school work, but also because I run the music team at my church, and we have a great event coming up this weekend, the Empower Summit.

I really love having stuff to do, and I do enjoy being pretty busy. But I don't really love getting slammed with everything at once. For instance - I have been working on stuff for the Empower Summit for about a month now. I get a couple assignments a week or two ago. Then about 5 more. Then they're all due by Friday afternoon which is when the Summit begins. On top of that there is an Engineering Expo at tech on Friday that I'm hoping to get to so I can meet some engineering firms and hopefully score a job before I graduate. So I'm madly rushing to get assignments in early, finish my cv, go to meetings and band practices, be a good husband and still have time for God and time to chill out.

Hahahaha.... oh man. So busy right now. But it's all good. I'm healthy, alive and pumped for the Empower Summit this weekend. It's going to be an awesome weekend in Church!

laugh at me

I've been thinking about jokes lately. Well, maybe more about humor than jokes. Its funny (pun) how someone's sense of humor will be completely misunderstood by someone else. I quite often come across as a dick because of my dry sense of humor. I'll start being a bit sarcastic (I use sarcasm sparingly mind you), or I'll make some dry remark and if someone doesn't know me I tend to put across a terrible first impression. *sigh*

Some jokes are actually lame. Some are funny. But generally jokes aren't that funny. Joking is funny, like pointing out something hilarious (such as the fact that someone in the group has braces), or spinning a good yarn or quoting something (in or out of context) which will make people laugh.

I'm no humor expert, but I sure can tell you a crap joke or two

Smile :)

I was starting to write this entry as a bit of a whinge. I was starting to say how 'I think this and that and when people disagree with me and blah blah blah' and I was like - Hang on. Thats actually lame. I was about to post a blog telling people not to be haters when in fact thats what I was doing.

So new idea - I'm going to be Joyful!
If you're not already aware, I am a Christian. This doesn't mean I hate gay people or anything like that, but it means I love Jesus and I strive to live my life daily according to the example he set. I also love the bible, the inspired word of God.

I am generally quite a cynical guy, can be quite negative and given my personality (ISFJ on meyers-briggs) its quite easy for me to border on depression. But I have been noticing more and more, especially in the last couple years, how important it is to be positive, to speak life, and to be happy, full of joy, and SMILE!

God created the universe by speaking! "Let there be Light" and there was! I believe the same power God used to create the universe has been passed down to us through Jesus when we received Him as our Lord and Saviour and received His Holy Spirit. Therefore, speaking life into our situations carries great power - 'I am prosperous', 'I am bold', 'I am the man for the job', or how about this - "Be Healed in Jesus Name!"

I spent too much of my early Christian life being the negative, cynical guy. It not only brought me down, but it killed the mood around me. I reckon if I'd spoken a bit of life into my life I would have had a much more positive impact on those around me.

1 Thessalonians 5:16 says "Always be joyful" i.e "BE HAPPY!"
SMILE, it will make you feel better and honestly, it will make you way more attractive. When I was living in Auckland, I boarded with a lady named Maggie. She said to me one day, "You always look like the world is on your shoulders. Do you think it will make people want what you've got?" That really got me thinking; maybe I should actually do what the bible says and be happy, people should want what I've got but when I'm the lame, negative, cynical guy all the time why would they? Maggie also said to me in that conversation, "You've got a smile that lights up the room. You should show it off more, it's bound to win you the heart of a lucky young lady."

And you know what? She was right. Ask my wife what she noticed first that attracted her to me and she'll say my smile and the twinkle in my eyes. Thank you Maggie for that great advice! And thank you God for being so awesome and blessing me so much!

music

Tonight Me and Holly have a band practice with my brother and two other guys. We're playing at a music thing in October called Samstock. Its pretty sweet, we're stoked to be playing. Its funny because my brother just mentioned to us one day about joining his band and then all of a sudden we're in it and we've got a gig lined up.

We mainly play covers, but with one or two originals. Its good fun so far. I play the electric guitar and Holly plays bass, and generally we have a good time jamming with the guys.

If you're down Mosgiel ways on October 2nd, be sure to come down and support us. I'll even give you a high five

PEACE

Saturday

Its Saturday morning. 10.30am July 25, 2009 - NZ time. Today is the day my cousin Jenny Yoshida and her fiance, Eric Lorant, get married. They are in Orange County, CA, USA so that will be tomorrow our time. But none-the-less, its pretty cool to think that this is the date that they tie the knot and become husband and wife. I wish them all the best.

Holly and I had our friends, Donald and Elise Lucassen stay with us last night. They are friends of mine from when I was at high school, they got together a few years ago and were married at the end of 2007. It's weird to be married and have married friends come stay with you. Hard to explain, but its awesome to think that some of your friends have also made the comittment and their 2 lives have become 1. Pretty cool.

When I think of my marriage with Holly, I hope and pray that we 'do' our marriage how God always intended it to be. I hope and pray that our relationship honors God and show's others how awesome it is when you put God first in your relationship and seek to honor Him every step of the way. Marriage is awesome. Marriage is a beautiful thing. It's something I cherish and hope I always will. Don't take it for granted. Cherish it. Love it. Enjoy it. Have fun. Live Life. Be there. Always look to honor your husband or wife and more importantly God, I have no doubt in my mind that as you do that God will bless you and honor you.

So yeah, pretty boring post but just what I'm thinking at the moment.

Back to School

So I’m back at school for my final semester. It’s quite hard adjusting to being back in class again after 2 great weeks off. I have already had my share of adventures with regards to enrolling, timetable changes, etc. Shaping up to be an eventful semester.

I was originally enrolled in Structural Theory which goes hand in hand with Structural design. However I was not enrolled in that and it makes no sense to do one paper and not the other. So I went about enrolling in Structural Design. I didn’t want to have 6 classes again this semester, as it made last semester flippin’ insane, so I pulled out of Traffic Engineering. This is a double goodness, as it means I didn’t pick up any extra work, and in changing my class I don’t have any night courses this semester, YAHOO!!!!

It’s a good feeling knowing that I’m almost qualified. It’s taken way too long, but it’s going to be awesome sitting that final exam and walking into that sweet first job!

EARTHQUAKE!!!

There was an earthquake last night, centered down south about 100km out of Tuatapere. It was apparently felt as far away as the Taranaki region, which isn't surprising considering it measured 7.8 on the Richter scale. We definitely felt it here in Christchurch, it was similar to most earthquakes I've felt in recent times, a rolling one like a wave rather than a violent shaking. The main difference was how long it lasted - it went on for ages! Apparently it was shaking for around 2 minutes.

Lucky for you I did a geology paper last semester so I know a little bit about earthquakes. I'll share some details I know.

Plate tectonics
New Zealand is situated on the boundary where the australian plate and the pacific plate meet. They are constantly moving (to the tune of a few mm every year). What makes it more interesting is the fact that above the north island the pacific plate is subducting under the australian plate, where as below the south island the australian is subducting under the pacific. Add to this the Strike Slip characteristics of the Alpine fault (plates moving past each other, one moving north, other moving south) and you have a country prone to earthquakes.

Magnitude vs Intensity
Last night's earthquake measured 7.8 on the Richter scale. But what does that mean? The main thing to consider is the difference between magnitude and intensity.
The Richter scale measures the magnitude, that is how much energy is released. However, this doesn't necessarily correlate to what is felt.

The modified Mercalli scale measures intensity, that is how damaging a quake is (such as the shaking, or destructiveness of it... pretty much what you feel). It has a scale from 1-12, where 1 is barely felt and 12 is large scale damage and destruction. So what people in the deep south felt may have been about 8 on the modified Mercalli scale, where as here in Chch it might have been like 5 or 6 and up north maybe it was barely felt at a 2 or 3... It will depend on the depth of the quake, geology of the area, distance from the epicenter, to some extent the magnitude, etc, etc.

Final facts?
An earthquake like last night occurs when the plates which have been grinding and pushing against each other, building up energy, then all of a sudden something gives way, releasing the built up energy in an earthquake. This happens all the time with energy generally being released in small earthquakes that we often don't notice. However, with energy building up on the plate boundaries, if the movement is stopped (ie the plates get caught or wedged or something and they can't move and release energy a bit at a time), the energy keeps building and building until something gives and the built up energy is released in a bigger earthquake.

I hope you have learned a lot from this 3 minutes of earthquake facts. I also hope I got an A for Geology. Still waiting to hear my results...

Haircut part 2

I probably shouldn't blog about the same thing 2 days in a row, but what the hey, why not?
I got my haircut yesterday and its a hummer! I look hot again. Haha. But during the course of this haircut I noticed something that I notice everytime I get a haircut. My facial hair is whack.

It's not that I grow it and it looks strange, but more the fact that it grows in patches and one of the patches it doesn't grow is about a half inch beside my ears where the sideburns should be transitioning from being head hair to facial hair. Every time I get my hair cut again, I notice the gap in my sideburns between where the hair from my head meets the stubble on my face. When my hair is long enough, I don't notice it, I let my sideburns grow further down my cheeks. But as soon as its cut it's like, whoa I'm a freak, what's that bald patch doing there!

The hairdresser yesterday got to the point where you can notice this dramatic 'gap' in sideburn growth and he (yes I got the dude again) kinda just stared at it for a while before saying, 'You want me to take your sideburns up bro?' When I replied 'Nah, it should be ok for now' he stared at the gap again then after a bit of an awkward silence he goes, 'Oh yep, fix it up yourself at home kinda thing' and he goes on finishing cutting my mop.

It's kind of funny when I think of how I seem to be finding grey hairs all over my head yet I still haven't hit puberty enough to grow sideburns without a bald patch. I remember thinking like 4 years ago (when I first noticed some growth of facial hair) that it wouldn't be long before the patchiness went away and my sideburns would be respectable... still waiting. I'm 22 years old and I'm still trying to grow sideburns better than my 14 year old brother.

haircut

I'm getting my hair cut today. I'm looking forward to it, last time I got it cut was like a week before I got married, so it has gotten quite long and annoying. Holly trimmed it for me a couple weeks ago but its time I went to the hairdresser and got them to fix my style.

I like going to get a haircut, partly for the novelty of never quite knowing if you'll be happy with what you end up with, and partly because it's a good feeling losing those annoying locks. I don't really like it when I get the gay guy and he decides to give me an intense head massage (as in cranium) but last time he gave me a really good style so I don't doubt his hair cutting skills.

I find haircut conversation quite awkward generally. The usual question "so what do you do" is quickly answered and I always seem to follow up my answer "I study engineering" with "what about you" at which point I realize (just a bit too late) that I know what they do, they cut hair.

Yup, conversation dies pretty quickly at the barber...

Church a la Roy

I love church!
I love my church, C3 Church Christchurch, and I also love The Church.
I am convinced that the local church (and in turn The Church globally) is the hope of the world. That we have the solution, not the problem(s), and we should be the solution as we bring Christ into the picture.

I know so many people that would say that they love the Church (global) but that they are not into church. I have had conversations with people (Christians even) who refuse to be planted in a specific church. They refuse to be a committed member because of 'church politics' or 'they only want my money' or 'I like to sleep in on Sunday' or 'that church is too big' or 'they're just a bunch of hypocrites' and so on and so on.

I can't even begin to address all complaints or points of view, that is not what I'm here to do. These complaints are all valid to a certain extent. But I will say this - with all the faults in the church, it is still the one thing that Jesus Christ ordained as the vessel through which to show His glory to the world and bring salvation to the 'lost'.

The book of Ephesians is full of teaching like this - in fact, read all of St Paul's letters, they all have an underlying theme of building the church. Jesus Christ Himself said in Matthew 16:18 "I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it."

Jesus gave His life for the church. He believes in it. He knows there are faults with it - let's face it, there's humans involved, and we all have flaws and faults. But He still chooses to use the church to reveal His glory.

I believe in church, I am passionate about it. I am not passionate about Religion, but I am passionate about God. I believe that saying I love God with all my heart should by default mean I also love the church and would do all I can to build it. When I think of it like that, it makes sense to give time and money to my church, it makes sense to be there every week and serving in any way I can, it makes sense to defend it and fight for it, it makes sense to invite people every week, it makes sense that my church should grow and become a large family, carrying influence and having a positive impact on my community.

Church in itself sometimes does not make sense. Decisions that are made, the layout of the service, something the Pastor said, the words of a song, things like this sometimes (or quite often) don't make sense. But in light of the Gospel, in light of Jesus, in light of His plan to bring redemption to the world, Church makes an awful lot of sense. Don't be a hater. Be someone God can use. Get into a good church, be planted in the house of God, let Him grow you and shape you and refine you, and let Him use you for His Glory.

Mildly Political

I know a lot of people who hate Fox because it is 'biased towards the right', which is such a rediculous reason to hate it. EVERY news outlet is slanted one way or another. Pretty much all of them these days are slanted heavily to the left, worshipping the ground Obama walks on without sharing the full picture of what's really happening in America and around the world since his election. These same media outlets spent 8 years slamming George W Bush, again without showing the full picture. And with Michael Jackson, Fox's Bill O'Reilly dared to question the hero status of Jackson in light of his questionable morals and ethics when the rest of the media was hyping him up.

It's ironic that a lot of people ignorantly take these news reports as gospel when they are being shown a story from a certain point of view with a certain agenda. And its ironic that Fox, which leans slightly right, is the one that people hate on for being 'biased'. I mean, Come on! At the very least, its providing another side to the story which is vital for obtaining a full picture of what is going on. I don't claim Fox is any better than any other news network, but I do think that it provides some balance in an extremely biased media world. And I think it is necessary for us to open our eyes and search out the truth instead of taking a news report as the be-all-and-end-all.

I know a lot of people will disagree with me. I'm not trying to provoke an argument or anything, I'm just sharing my thoughts (like I said I would in an earlier blog). So don't start an internet war, just maybe have a think about this.

monops

I played "monops" (monopoly in other words) for I think the 4th or 5th time in my life last night. Every game I have ever played has involved Steve Burgess and his rules, which make the game more exciting I'm told. I can't imagine what monops would be like without those rules and without Steve. I managed to get suckered into making a deal last night which involved a straight swap for some property plus $1000 for me. I was like, 'yeah ok I'll do that cos I have heaps of stuff and you have none.' Unfortunately for me, Chris Boon was shafting me from the get go, and it was all part of his grand scheme to take me out of the game.

Being fairly new to monops, I am still getting to grips with how it all works and what decisions are wise and unwise. Normally I find that monopoly has a bit of a social stigma in certain parts of society, but I think that is due to people being lame and taking it too seriously when they start losing. I think that when I get more familiar with monops and scheming and dealing, I'll be a monops force to be reckoned with. So watch this space...

Dane Cook has a good skit about monopoly, you should check it out on youtube.

Good Burger

I have the plague. Its not fun. So I'm tucked up in bed living the good life... hot drinks and youtube make for a good day. I'm also applying for engineering jobs for the end of my diploma, hoping to walk into a good job in November.

I ate a really good burger yesterday. It wasn't amazing, but it was very good. It was from a place called "Prime" (i think) on high street. It's an American themed burger joint, even our waiter was an American, and boy oh boy was I stoked. Sure beats most American food we have here eg Mcdonalds, BK, KFC, Pizza Hut, Dominoes, Denny's... you get the picture. You should check out "Prime" and get a good burger. It's not even much more expensive than a Combo at Mcdonalds or whatever.

It's no Burger Fuel, but it is good

Life

I'm sitting on the couch in my lounge, looking at the drum kit in the corner, holding the heater between my knees, looking at the sun streaming in through my window and wondering why it doesn't heat this place up. I like winter, don't get me wrong, but I don't enjoy being freezing cold. Honestly though, apart from being able to see my breath at 10:30am inside my house, I am enjoying life. I'm blessed to be alive, blessed to live in NZ, blessed to live in Christchurch, blessed to have an amazing wife, family and friends, blessed to be on holiday and blessed with, for the most part, good health.

You may have heard about the car crash in Invercargill on Friday that claimed the lives of 3 teenagers. The driver of the car, Jesse Langeveld, used to work at Mcdonalds when I worked there about 3 years ago. It sucks when someone you know dies like that. Though we weren't close friends or anything, it's still a shock as you could imagine.

Life is so short. You never know when you might be taken from this earth. I want to make sure that whatever happens, I never forget how to smile and laugh, and I never want to forget how blessed I really am to be alive. Even when life sucks, every breath is a blessing. Lets be positive people, and not waste our time getting negative and cynical. Life is too short

A Thought From 1 Corinthians 12

This morning I was reading my bible and I found some cool stuff. In 1 Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul is talking to the Church about spiritual gifts. He says in verse 7, "A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other," and goes on to say that the Holy Spirit decides what gift each person should get. He carries on to say that we are all part of one body (the Church) and each of us fit somewhere. We are given gifts to help each other and uplift and strengthen the Church. We do not all have the same giftings, but we are all called to be faithful with what God has given us to help and strengthen the Church.

It got me thinking. I recognize a few different giftings that the Holy Spirit has placed in my life. And its weird to think where I am now compared to where I would have thought I would be. I am the Music Director at my church and I lead worship regularly. But I'm pretty sure music is not my primary gifting. It is something God has given me to use however, and when there was a need I put my hand up and filled that role. I may have thought I was called to preach or something else like that, but God gave me an opportunity to serve Him and I want to be faithful with this. I want to be able to say that I gave it all I had, and I served God and the Church to the best of my ability with what was given to me.

We've all have a gift, no matter how small or large it seems to us. Maybe you're good at something or you have a passion for some area in your Church that you could serve in. Chances are, God has given you that to use for His benefit and for the benefit of His Church. It doesn't have to be something on stage. Maybe you could serve on the setup or packdown team. Or at the cafe. Or be the friendly face that greets everyone as they arrive at church. Whatever it is, find something you can do and give it your all!

The way I see it, Jesus gave His life for the Church. The least we can do is do all we can to strengthen the Church. If we really love God, let's serve Him to the best of our abilities with what He has given us.

What You Need to Know

Here is what I promised in my last post. What You Need to Know before you decide you hate me or love me based on this blog.

ME
My name is Roy Bruce. I am a Christian - I love God and live for Him. I am 22 years old and I recently got married to the most amazing woman in the world - Holly May. I am in love. I love my wife. I also like my wife. Besides Jesus, she is my best friend in the world. I am so blessed to have her in my life. She is an incredible, beautiful, amazing woman.

I am a dual citizen - New Zealand & the United States of America. I live in Christchurch, NZ and feel at home here, but I also see the USA as home and Holly and I will most likely live their for at least a little while in the future. I am not very political... but in saying that I definitely have strong opinions on political stuff. I used to think of my self as a Liberal... I now would describe myself as a Conservative.

Some things in this world really grind my gears - however I do not want to make this blog all about that. I'd rather focus on the awesome things in this world, the blessings poured out on us and keep my attitude positive and thankful.

BLOG
The purpose of making this a daily(ish) blog is to just put something into words each day or so. Whether or not people read it and like it is kinda beside the point. I just want to let this be an outlet for some things floating around in my brain.

I hope whoever is reading this will find something they can smile, laugh, think or ponder whenever they check it. I don't want to be lame and argumentative, I just want to write some thoughts out daily.

As I said before, I want this to be positive and encouraging. I can't garantee however that I will pull this off. We all have times when we feel strongly about something that we need a to have a quick rant about it. But this does not change my underlying theme of putting my thoughts into writing daily(ish) and hopefully providing some encouragement, humour and thinking from time to time.

I hope you decide to join me on this adventure! Who knows where it will end up.

Update for you all

Hi
I'm thinking that it's about time I either took this blogging thing serious or threw in the towel. So what I'm keen to do is make this my daily diary type thing online. I'm hoping people will keep checking up on this blog and see whats going on in my life. I'm not trying to be all emo or anything... I just think it would be cool to every day or two post something on here. Pretty soon I will start off with post number one. I has the potential to be a long one so I'm going to work hard to try and keep it short.

The first post in this new era will be called "what you need to know" and I basically just want to say a few things and be pretty clear on what this blog is and isn't.

Sweet?
Good!

I'm engaged to the most beautiful girl in the world!

Holly and I are getting married. We got engaged on Saturday January 10th, 2009 and instead of telling the story again and again, I thought I’d post it on my blog for people to read. My American family, our friends who aren’t in earshot and people who want to check it out for themselves – this is for you…

It’s been our plan for about 6 months that we would tie the knot this year, but we didn’t really tell anyone even after we’d set the date because it wasn’t official. Now that Holly is wearing the ring it’s all good, so go tell everyone. Haha.

Holly and I have been doing this thing called ‘alphabet dating’ for a while now. Each week one of us takes the other on a date beginning with a letter of the alphabet, we go through from A to Z. This week it was Holly’s turn, so really she planned the proposal without even realizing it.

We had gone ring shopping just after Christmas and picked out the one we liked. I didn’t want to blow it and pick something lame and since we’d already established we were going to get married, it worked out sweet to go in together, pick it out together and have it sent away to be resized. Then the ball was in my court to pick it up and pop the question.

I picked the ring up on the Friday knowing that I was going to ask her on Saturday. I had a back up plan, but I was really relying on Holly taking us on a long walk on the beach or something and stopping somewhere romantic. I was quizzing her about our ‘L’ date on Friday night just to get a feel for whether or not I could rely on her to organize the perfect proposal scenario. She told me we were going to drive to Taylors Mistake and take a walk around Godley Head to Boulder Bay where we were going to have a picnic lunch. Perfect.

The night before she thought something was up by how funny I was acting… but I just did the whole, “Stop it. I’m not hiding anything. I haven’t even been to the jeweler I haven’t had any time! If they haven’t called tomorrow we’ll go get it after our date ok.” She didn’t buy it but she thought I was getting really pissed off so she dropped it. Later she said she stopped thinking about it because she thought I was getting really mad and it probably wasn’t going to happen as soon as that anyway. Plus she was worrying they were having problems resizing the ring as the jeweler hadn’t called.

Saturday came along and I went to Holly’s house via a florist so I could pick up a single red rose and hide it, with the ring, in my bag. I was wondering how I could bring my bag without it being obvious I was hiding something. Fortunately Holly asked me if I had my bag so we could put our picnic lunch in it. I was stoked. I packed our sammies and drinks in it and kept it close by at all times. We drove to Taylors Mistake and went for our walk. We had lunch down by the ocean which was so beautiful, it was meant to be raining but the weather was so sweet, thank you Jesus!

We ate our lunch and just as we finished I gave Holly something beginning with L for our ‘L’ date – a “Love Letter” containing a “Love List”, which was a list of things I love about her. At the end of it I had the scripture we both love and have talked about heaps since we’ve been together. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

“ 9 Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. 10 If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. 11 Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? 12 A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”

Then under this it said, ‘Now look at me’ and at that point I was down on one knee, I had a red rose in my hand which I gave her and then I proceeded to tell her how much I love her and that I want to spend the rest of my life with her and then I said the line, “Will you marry me?” and she said “Yes!”

So, being very careful not to drop the ring in the ocean, I put it on her finger. We had a kiss and a hug and just enjoyed the moment before heading off. We wandered back to the car and then drove to a café where some of our good friends were waiting for us. All in all it was an awesome day! Many thanks to our friends and family who have been so supportive and shared in our joy. Now we’re in planning mode and we’re looking forward to the big day, April 11th.

Yeya!