Monthly Archives: February 2012

Ian Blayney – World’s Greatest Shave

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Over the last couple of years I’ve watched a friend of one of my sons fight the battle with leukaemia. Following on from a request last year to take part in ‘The World’s Greatest Shave’, I’ve decided to take the plunge.  I’ll lose my locks at the Geraldton Police Station – along with local police ‘Team Alex’ members – on the 16th of March at 10am. It’s well worth doing.  To help fight this disease or help those who have it. All funds raised will help research into leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma and other blood disorders. Please consider a contribution to what is a very worthy cause by donating at http://my.leukaemiafoundation.org.au/ianblayney and helping me reach my target.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Blayney MLA, Member for Geraldton

Sunday 26th Feb News Sheet

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Download the whole news sheet here: 26th Feb News Sheet

Dear Friends,

I am reading Randolph Stow’s story, The Merry-go-round in the Sea because a friend sent it to me when he heard we were headed for Geraldton.  I have been struck by the author’s word-pictures which I can see around me in town and country.  I’m loving it!

The story is told through the eyes of a young boy and his life growing up in this area during the war years.

 ‘The boy’s life had no progression, his days led nowhere.  He woke in the morning in his room, and at night he slept: the wheel turning full circle, the merry-go-round of his life revolving.  There had been a jolt, with Rick’s going, but the grief faded,…. and the merry-go-round had bumped, jolting a little on its iron stays, and then grown steady again and gone on turning.’

 The boy would not have been the first one to feel life can be like a merry-go-round.  It need not be so, and it is not inevitable.  How happy are those who are caught up in God’s loving purposes for us and who can step forward in hope.

‘For me to live is Christ’, writes St Paul in his letter to the Philippians and even though he writes from the frustration of a prison cell, rejoices that even his own adverse circumstances can be used for good in the over-arching purposes of God.

We step off the spinning merry-go-round when we embrace the loving purposes of God through faith in his Son.

 

Peter

 

Sunday 19th Feb Newssheet

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Full Newssheet: February 19

Dear Friends,

This week Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent.  Lent is regarded as 40 days long from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday.  Count the days and you will find its more than forty because Sundays are left out.

It is a time when many Christians will prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline.  There is nothing in the bible, as such, about Lent.  The idea of forty days comes from Jesus’ time in the wilderness before he begins his public ministry (Mark 1.13).

It is difficult to exactly date when the period of Lent first started to be observed.  Irenaeus (d 203ad) mentions it in some of his writings when he comments on the celebration of Easter.  The writings from the Council of Nicea in 325AD (a gathering of church leaders to work through a whole range of issues) clearly see the 40 day period of Lent as a regular event on the church calendar, and that prayer and fasting constituted its primary spiritual exercises.

Lent is a great tradition of the church as it focuses on Christ and his death and resurrection.

As with any tradition we must be careful.  Jesus and his disciples were hounded by the Pharisees for not carrying out a ceremonial washing of hands (Matt 15.1-10).  Jesus critically replies to them (Matt 15.8-9)  quoting from Isaiah:

8“‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  9They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’”

 At the heart of Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees is that in following the “traditions taught by men”  they lost sight of God and following him.

With any of our traditions, as good as they might be, we too must heed this warning!

Your brother in Christ

Paul