That's super cool dave =D Thanx for the awesome testimony *high 5 for answered prayer! praise God

hehe it seriously took me 10minutes to figure out how to post a blog here--and everytime I check, the blog looks different... hmm where's the link to facebook gone? =P ah wells, it's for the best, and it looks good-- hehe yeh chicken.. mmm

anyways- testimonies are powerful stuff-- so encouraging, pls share more guys! ... I can testify too- I've told you guys before-- but God's provision for my trip to singapore still amazes me =) He provided finances, friends and somewhere to stay... initially I was a bit intimidated at the thought of going off on my own, actually i still am..somewhat..but now I'm so excited coz I know God's hand is in this and He goes with me-- yayy

I’ll just take this moment to TESTIFY!

(speak it, BROTHER!)

Well, I’ve been praying about / for a job now for quite a while now,

(CHEERS)

Cos me being me, I tend to get worried when everyone around me is furiously job searching or already has a job

(ohhh thats RIGHT)

So, I this time around I decided to

“…not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” - Phillipians 4:6

(ooooo AMEN!)

And waddya know, I emailed Linfox last night, and got a reply to day! Perfect timing too! YaY!

Oh and Linfox = good pay, and really good hours!

(ooooo HALLELUJAH!)

_________________________________________________________________

OK, that was me trying emulate a black american church service. *fails* But you get the point =]. Speaking of which, congratulations to OBAMA! President Elect of the United States of America. He’s got his work cut out for him, I’ll say that much. What do u guys think?

*this was C+P from my blog, thought it wouldn't hurt to post here =]*

i figured this blog was a bit lifeless cos it was a big dark and well, you know. black.

or it could just be that exams are sometime like. now.

but hopefully this brighter shade will liven things up xP

haha anywhoo! wishing y'all the best in your studies and exams!

here's a bit of fuel...

Col. 3:23 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.”

hey all!

Here's a mini re-cap of this week's LG about compassion... which resulted from the previous Encounter meeting looking at justice and loving people

Thinking about Compassion triggers some thoughts like
- 3rd world countries
- sympathy/empathy
- pity
- mercy

In Greek it means splagchnizomai! ---- bowels yearning! ^^ ..sounds messy =P

Dictionary.com says it means:
a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

I read into some resources about compassion and here's what it said about how it was modeled by Jesus:
Luke 10:33-34, Matt 15:32 : compassion involves action… its practical…desires to meet people’s needs
Mark 1:41 : touching the untouchable, like Jesus did, and having a servant heart

Some interesting points were raised
- can compassion be insincere? ---- its really a state of the heart, and God will see true compassion.. although works done in the name of compassion may still be motivated by other things eg. selfish ambition...
- is the compassion that a Christian may feel differ to a non christian? ---- what do you guys think? Compassion arising from injustice would be common to both... but a Christian may also feel compassion on those that other people may not, out of an overflow of love for their God and God's people..and in seeing others the way Jesus would see them
remember the diagram by Nathan Robinson:
know God -> know his love, grace and mercy -> Love God -> Love People

I rkn Josh said something cool -- compassion is Selfless

So this week --- let's be mindful of opportunities where we can show compassion to others! Think of one particular person whom you know may be in need--- it might involve going out of your way to do something for them
Like how the bible says, forgive as you have been forgiven.... be compassionate people, because God has shown compassion on you =)
OHH and i forgot to bring it up last meeting... but this mid-sem break- how would you all feel about volunteering with an organisation where we can help those in need? Janice has some idea about where we could go--- our goodwill ambassador!

and announcements that i always forget:
Sept 19 - THE BALL---- $65!! we need to organise transport.. Michael and Robbie-can still change your minds ^^
Oct 1 - YA baptisms--- anyone thinking about getting baptised?
Oct 5 - Will Graham--- Billy Graham's grandson is speaking on sunday at church

anyways, splagchnizomai! =)

hey,josh yea it's always unfortunate when a misunderstanding arises and something comes between friends- the resulting friction and tension can be so awkward- and i agree dave, sometimes it can be avoided..sometimes not, friends don't see eye-eye all the time (Lisa McInnes Smith at church last weekend said when this couple said that they never argue- it meant they never talk..hmmm)
regardless, how one responds after that is most important...who makes the first move to resolution? who will be the peacemaker? friction can help friends understand each other better- when both are willing to hear the other out...

hehe- josh, i rmbr.. you were busy finishing scrabble that night! ^^

what do u the rest of you think? i would'v posted this as a comment.. i tried, but i'v totally forgotten my login =S

~ant

btw, here are the sweeet toys we got from kmart!
(from left: elephant, monkeee, lennod and tigeee)

I was talking to a few friends earlier today, and one thing I found particularly strange, if not strange, then unfortunate. One of my friends had apparently made a biased and hurtful blog entry recently. This isn't all that out of the ordinary as people do this all the time. One or two of my friends however took high offense from the single post. The original friend seemed to have to post another time to apologise.
It's rather unfortunate when people allow such things to come between them. I wrote something similar a couple of years ago, and my best friend took offense. I seem to keep trying to apologise, but I think the meaning has been lost now.
'Intentions' is a word which seems to come up a whole lot. When I was a little kid, I don't recall it being used anywhere near as much. I'm not sure if it's the world that's changed, or whether it's a part of growing up, but people have a nature to justify all actions, and the world's taken the overall view that intentions are far more important than results in interpersonal affairs. Interestingly enough, the behaviour of the overall population has not reflected this, as is apparent even in the daily life. The media and the culture of the day, the behaviour and lives of many people I know are driven by consumerism and 'what they can get out of things' and getting kicks. Maybe this post belongs in the lifegroup blog.

Josh~

ps. What do people think about friction between peers? Is it inevitable or avoidable/able to be used for good?

pps. It would appear I've been incriminated in the first post here. I was not paying any attention whatsoever when they made this blog. Sorry.

good one Dave.. I was rofl-ing!

heres an un-thought:
Billy Connolly once said "before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes...After that, who cares? He's a mile away and you've got his shoes"

hmmm

the beauty of this blog is that you can post any "big questions" right here... anonymously =)

so what are youse waiting for??

OXYGEN ENCOUNTER IS ON WEDNESDAY 20th AUG.. 7.30pm

Q: Why do chemists call helium, curium and barium the medical elements?



A: Because if you can't helium or curium, you barium!



( Come on, laugh with me now... )

guys: Volunteer for Dare women's conference next weekend

next time for lifegroup....We're going to go to Kmart to shop for soft toys for the Southern Cross Kids camp!!!!!!!!!!!!

we'll see how much we can get if everyone contributes $5-$10 each....your choice!

ahhh I finally managed to get into this thing.. took me a while, i forgot the login =p

As Dave brought up before, Big Questions shall be the running theme for lifegroup this semester.

So- please start thinking about questions that you have been faced with, or that have challenged you in any way... and we'll bundle them together and post it to Mark Conner. Kidding.. we'll tackle them as a lifegroup...no question is too small!

A few weeks ago, another question was raised: what is the fear of the Lord? so let's have a look at this for lifegroup this week.

Have a general think, what does it mean to fear God? Are we to be scare of God? How does fear of God impact the way you are living your life?

Luke 12:4-5 And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!

keep on blogging guys! ... blog whatever you feel like- hope that your bio essay has worked out, Tim =D

Here's a question that was let out of the bag last lifegroup (or something close to it, this is my take on the question xP ). All questions are good questions! Sorry if this post ain't too coherent, i typed this up without the premise of posting it =3

Q: Lady drives in to car park praying for a carpark, and the Lord grants her a carpark. The next day the lady drives in to car park, again praying for a carpark, but this time God does not grant her a carpark.

The first day, she is blessed with a car park, but the next day, she takes it as God is using this situation to improve her character. Why does it seem like Christianity tries to accommodate for God's actions?

A: The focus in the lady's life is the person of God (How good He is, His character and majesty etc) rather than the actions of God and what He can do for us. This is a contrast to a focus on God's actions, in which case, God would seem like an ever changing being (or us attempting to accommodate for God's actions)

An example of this would be Daniel's 3 friends. When they were to be thrown into the flames, they trusted in God no matter what the outcome and in this case, God did bring them through it. Their focus however, was on God.

On the other hand, in reality, we find that often God does not seem to answer our prayers. But an example which exemplifies an attitude focused on God is in the person of Paul in 2 Corinthians. Paul prayed that the thorn from his side would be removed three times, yet this did not happen. God answered Paul through saying My grace is sufficient. Paul's focus too, was on God.

Hopefully this'll add some clarity; keep asking questions!

Dave~

Hi guys and girls, it's Tim here.

Hm following from robbies blog because i said i would blog after he blogged his. I think it's a good idea to have a lifegroup blog it's just another way to all keep connected right? Yeah i think so heh, so lets hope this blog will never die i mean theres a few of us around to keep this blog growing yeh? Anyways it'll be also good to post stuff that we're going through ahha for example everyone pray for tim! aka me! for my silly biology esssay assignment as well as all this other pile of work i have to get though somehow =(. haha.. kidding, (but no really pray for the essay pleaseeeeee, haha).

Yeah i really don't have much to say right now haha but Ohh i got to share this cool picture thingie with you go try it =)
Have a good week guys, see you all at oxygen

timmy.

Hey Ya'll

The idea of this blog is to tack up any thoughts and musings, random ideas and photos for the whole lifegroup to see... Actually in the theory, we wanted to make it easy for Anthea to make announcements and stuff... But come to think of it, email's just as good. Either ways, someone had to get the ball rolling and I'll be the poor soul that nominates himself.

Here's the thing.. I was given The Notebook to watch this weekend with the promise it would make me cry. With the full knowledge that usually chick flicks don't have that effect on me, I decided to take the ultimate test of manhood...

Michael, you will be proud of me because I didn't even understand which scenes you could possibly cry in... There was a lot of pashing tho, I'll give it that. So HA, take that Notebook, I won't shed a single tear for you. HA.

I even reckon sweet Home Alabama's better. Partly because it's actually funny and partly because of the theme song. What the Notebook DID have tho was OLD people who were still in love. Which is rare in movies I guess. And nice to see.

I also watched...

Which was a good movie. I was probably closer to crying in Kung Fu Panda than the Notebook. And snow leopards are still my favourite animal, even tho this snow leopard tries to kill everyone.

So seriously, if you have anything worth posting at all POST IT HERE!! That's so this blog grows and expands and eventually leads our life group to its goal of world domination, rather than this blog just being one of those bad ideas you get at 11:20 on a Thursday night.

And if you feel the urge to listen to a large-eyebrowed man screaming a nice song, have a click:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wcuPL_0Fgk

Peace

Rob

This is the official life group blog entry written by Tim, Anthea, Joshua, Robbie and Andrew. We have decided to make this blog out of boredom? or not. Robbie doesn't think so.. hmm it's really late now... to be continued

bye - tim, robbie, anthea, andrew and josh.