Otherwise – hope you’ll join me over at at http://www.jubileeman.com!

We’ve had great answers to prayer from God about schooling, with Kangaroo Valley happy to have Campbell three days a week at Kindy between recess and lunch for 2009 – please pray for him! We took him to the the school there with us and bought him his school uniform. He put it on and thought he could start straight away – and tried to go into the playground to join his class!

We’ve been packing. Two weeks to go until our big move to Kangaroo Valley. Realized how much we have collected even in the last two years – too much clutter! It’s been great to get rid of stuff. Gave some furniture to Vinnies, sold some at garage sale, now we’re a bit lighter. Who uses TV cabinets any more? No-one, we discovered as we were trying to sell our one. People buy flat screens now and either hang them on their wall or the TVs have their own mini-stand. Oh well…

Have continued on the reading burst of the last two weeks. Nearly finished ‘Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor’ by Don Carson, about his father who was also a pastor. We often hear of the megastar Christian leaders who are gifted in incredible ways – but not so much the average pastor who runs the small church down the road. Tom Carson was one of those pastors. In fact he was a missionary to the French-speaking area of Canada and planted a church to outreach to the largely Catholic communities there.

He suffered from perfectionism and being not quite the right person in the right job for a lot of his life (too detail-focussed). Still, in the midst of his working life he read his bible faithfully, prayed for his people and family, visited his congregation, and served the Lord as best he could. I was touched, inspired to strive ahead with my own pastoring, pleased to see how a brother filled his day, and grateful for D A Carson being willing to share his own father’s successes and failures.

A New Testament understanding of worship, as we have stressed, is the gift of participating through the Spirit in the Son’s communion with the Father. Here the Spirit lifts us out of any narcissistic preoccupation with ourselves to find our true humanity and dignity in Jesus Christ, in a life centred in others, in communion with Jesus Christ and one another, in a loving concern for the humanity of all.

James B Torrance: Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace (p107).

Am preparing some sermons on Song of Songs today (aka Song of Solomon).

Song of Solomon 4:1-10

How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead.

Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn, coming up from the washing. Each has its twin; not one of them is alone. Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon; your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate. Your neck is like the tower of David, built with elegance; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors. Your two breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies. Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense. All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the crest of Amana, from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon, from the lions’ dens and the mountain haunts of the leopards.

You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace. How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than any spice!

Being in between school terms, it’s been a good time to read some books! Just finished one called ‘The Genesee Diary’ by Henri Nouwen. Nouwen is a Catholic priest (but converted!) and famous for his spiritual writings. In the middle of this popularity he decides to retreat from busyness. He takes a seven-month sabbatical at a monastery. The book records what he discovered about God, his relationship with God, and about himself. I found it a fantastic book. His insights into biblical love (pps82-84) as well as himself are very profound, as are his exploration of  his own need for love which he discovers is frequently misdirected selfishly towards others in place of God. Thoroughly recommended.

I’ve just picked up another book called Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace (J B Torrance) which I’ve read before but want to read again.

A scene from our backyard.

Hmmm…skimming now through this book Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership. It reminds me that it is so vital to know how to actually read the bible (biblical theology). A good PTC course on introduction to the bible or biblical theology is such a good idea!

Although many points in this book on leadership are good, and I will take up some of these ideas, it feels almost an afterthought that she projects her ideas into bible figures like Moses. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh but I struggled through her explanations of Moses’ psychological dilemmas. Oh well!

In lighter news, we had a garage sale on Saturday. It was great because our neighbours joined us in having a mega sale in our backyard. We got to know some neighbours we didn’t know very well. I helped move what I think was the heaviest door I have ever lifted! It was made from MDF (a kind of heavy duty chipboard type stuff) – thankfully someone bought it!

We were able to get rid of most of our big clunky stuff we didn’t want to take to Kangaroo Valley. Still a computer cupboard (containing space for desktop/notebook, a built in filing cabinet, and shelving) and TV cabinet (pictured a few posts ago) to sell.

 Felt other people’s pain today – bad family situations, money problems, other things.