a plea for rebuking

after a thought provoking bible study last night, and letting my train of thought run wherever it wanted to while trying to sleep; 100% unproductive if you were interested, i came to the realisation of the number of christian people i know and love, who to be honest, need a slap. dont get me wrong, i dont mean to sound holier-than-thou, there is an underlying measure of ulterior motives in that i would like to think i have people who would give me a kick when need be, but due to our context and our society, to question someone's righteousness and effectively challenge their reliance on God and living His way, is extremely taboo. to point someone in the right direction, by pointing out their faults, has become a no no, a social faux pas, that which is unspoken. and i think its stupid. are we so pig headed, are we so worldly, are we so deceieved by our sin, to think that we are unchallengable, unquestionable, perfect, Christlike beings? i should hope not. this is a plea for rebuking. get to it team. its for our own good. to point out the sin of a brother or sister out of love, should not be a source of resentment and hatred, but a source of encouragement, to see that a. God is working in the person admonishing you, b. they care enough about you to notice that youre not going so well and c. youre not perfect. nor am i.
so without sounding tacky, i will leave you with the catch phrase from a song from the soundtrack of a favourite movie of mine.. gotta be cruel to be kind....even thought its not really cruel, its kind of loving.... JUST DO IT!

hmmmm.....

ahhh.... golly. pondering, deep in thought... ruminating even. had a relatively full on weekend, full of much mind using things. friday night was an evening full of delicious thai at thaitanic with adam, and much deep conversation. saturday, jacko's sleepover excellent fun, many good chats with kids, many prayers answered in kids mingling having fun meeting urockers and vice versa, praise Him, was excellent. sunday, first cell group for a long while, consisting of one, but a keen one, good chats, he learnt, or from what i could tell, and i was encouraged with him there. then at cell dinner got to have many quality chats with many quality people. God has been very nice to me recently. i feel so privileged to lead people to J.C, and to be a part of them getting to know Him better. its so humbling to know God uses even the newbies and unwise, if i didnt have the H.S, gee whiz..... i couldnt do it i know that one for shizzle my grizzle.

My Lady's 21st... and a plethora of other events

a busy busy weekend was had by master rhys on the weekend just gone. returning home from work on friday afternoon at the usual time of one pm, driving home to 237 attunga road, to a house with a stressed and rushing mother, trying to pack everything in existence, an abrupt father, frustrated with my inability to move anything heavy, and a room begging to be carried up a thousand sets of stairs, awaited by a new shiny room at 47 Turriell Pt Rd Lilli Pilli. the afternoon consisted of me packing boxes, packing the car, unpacking the car, unpacking boxes, and carrying things. riveting stuff i must say. my body has never ached so much. but totally worth it, well i didnt think so at the time. but im getting there. the new house is great. God blesses me so richly, and im trying to be grateful for stuff, its hard to remember nothing is my own, but i try to remind myself and the Spirit is doing its thang up in here and im changing slowly but surely and becoming more and more full of thanksgiving and gratitude toward our awesome and most gracious Lord.
friday evening was filled with a delicious dinner with the loverly carly waudby, and the sibling duo of dan and kristen read, an unexpected but enjoyed addition to our evening. then we moved on to caringbah bizzo's to witness a gig by the tremendous Paradyme. a band id never seen before, but was very much impressed by. and we were joined by pascoe and corinna. tremendous times were had singing in the car as usual. we returned to pascoe's pad for toasted cheese sandwiches and tea..... woptcha.....
awoken at the rude hour of 7am on saturday morning by the removalists to continue the move, saturday morning consisted of moving, watching morgans netball, man she's good, and some quick shopping, nothing was brought, the kyckstart challenge is going well, and more moving. the arvy consisted of watching dougy's soccer game, being amazed by shazbah's soccer skills, eating many lollies and then moving on in the hideous weather to watch rins netball game. they toally won and she didnt kill any babies this week. hehe.... good story. if anyone's interested i can retell the story. hehe....
saturday arvy post netball was more moving, and getting ready for the tremendous evening that was rin's 21st. muchos fun was had by myself, and im assuming everybody else too. a most excellent night, coming to a climax in the ridiculously embarressing speech i had to make. it being one of the few 21sts ive been to, wasnt quite sure of the content of the speech, so i did my best with woeful results. everyone got a laugh, wasnt my aim, but i suppose thats a good thing.... and rin knew what i meant less the unintentional sexual innuendo, so all in all, was a great night. a whole world of photos were taken by the amazingly talented adam scott, but since my homeward computer is out of action till we have the internet set up, you shant be able to witness their majesty until then.
sunday begun again, at the terrible time at 830, after a superb first nights sleep in my new shiny room, to attend sunday school. which as always, was encouraging, thanks to the year 4 boys. theyre amazing. praise and prayer point, thanks theyre solid and keen, pray it can continue and that JC can speak through me to teach them about Himself.
then, adam and i trekked over to the far reaches of the western suburbs, more specificly, west epping bowlo, for a farewell of barefoot lawnbowls for the tall and tremendous chris tate as he leaves for scotland, qutie soon, saturday i think even. shall be saddened upon his departure, he is a great friend. tear....
returning back for church sunday arvy, and an evening of sups at pascoe's, and many interesting and entertaining discussions with newly discovered friend bec from st pauls at seaforth. she's tops.
peace out team. photies to come.
ybiC, through all that He gives, Rhys.

The Measure of Faith

after a tremendous b.s, slash b.s equals bible study, with my most excellent of groups, slash there was only five of us there, including jess and luke, but nonetheless, been thinking a lot about faith. the study was actually on the power of prayer and praying and stuff, but yeah, got challenged and been wrestling with how much faith do i place in God when i pray. like i ask for bundles of stuff, but do i think that God will actually answer them? like i pray for a friend of mine who shall remain nameless and no this friend isnt me, and he is... well there is something unusual about this guy. he is a great guy. caring, loving, funny, like he is a champ. but just not a christian. and he like, is one of those people you go, oh no, he wont ever be a christian, its just not him. and like, id given up on him. and was like, i can be a good witness when i see him and whatnot, but he shant become a christian, well he might, but yeah, thats not my prerogative. anyway. yeah, being asked do i ACTUALLY think God will say yes rhys, i will bring this guy into my family, good job praying for him. like. yeah. changed my perspective. like God answers so many of our, please Lord, help me get this assignment done, kind of selfish worldly prayers, and we dont even notice, and yet, when we ask for big things, eternally significant things that can bring someone to their salvation, we dont even have faith that God, He who created and sustains all things, will actually answer them. how RIDICULOUS is that. i dont mean this as a DO BETTER YOU... cause i am guilty of this too. so, i am trying to start praying, and knowing God can do all things.
""Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Matthew 11:22-24
so team, be encouraged, and have FAITH that God can and will answer your prayers, even if it is with a no, or a wait. sometimes its a yes though, thats a good time.

My lady....

so, this is CORINNA.... my loverly lady. she is 21. it was her birthday, not long ago... like last tuesday... im dating someone totally old, in her twenties.... JUST KIDDING, youre great.... were having a party this saturday for her, and its not a surpise, but that would be nice maybe one time maybe yeah.... MAYBE.... not this time though. should be fun. hope there is dancing, i love dancing. we even went to the city for dancing on the weekend. that was fun. and mel is a funny dancer, she is great. and also from canada, which is cool. so in conclusion, this is my loverly lady. i love her. she is gorgeous. and funny. and loves J.C as much as i do and thats awesome. we even love Him together sometimes. its fun too. i got her sky diving for her birthday, which should be fun i hope... maybe even scary a little bit. i been bungee jumping, but i had a rope. sky diving = no rope, just jumping out of an airplace at 14000 feet. we might even die. but whatevs. itll probably be like flying i spose. except ill be strapped to a man... ewww...

ps- if you were wondering, this photo was taken at kyckstart, or as its more afectionately known, KYCK 06. it was awesome. we had the maddest of times with Godly mum kylie, and organiser daddy Rhys, and then also bill and loretta and big t and stroud box and aimee. it was great fun. heres a photo of our group. bill has a funne face on... oh billy... can i cut in... GOLD.... never laughed so hard.

The nature of the Emo....

Why is it, that i can sit and listen to a song and get all goosebumperriffic and choked up, or watch a movie and the waterworks go off at the drop of a hat, where others are cold-hearted eyes sockets of steel. I mean, it doesnt bother me, i very much enjoy coming out of a movie that i've cried in, i mean, its the mark of a good drama for me, and the songs that move me are definitely my favourites, but what is it that renders me an emotional wreck and leaves others with barely a scratch on their memory? being one of the rare emotional men that i know i just found it interesting to think about it. and if you know me at all, you know that i AM very much one of those emo guys who cry, but im ok with that. so next time you see a sad movie or hear a song that has some nice words, think.... Rhys would probably be all misty right now.... and laugh, cause it makes me laugh too.