Daily Journal for Thursday 12th of August 2010

Growing Wiser and Stronger

S - Jesus became wise, and he grew strong. God was pleased with him and so were the people. Luke 2:52 CEV

O - Each day that unfolded in Jesus, the twelve year old's life, became a another day to either choose to do the right thing or to not. He chose to do the wise thing. As he acted wisely, he grew strong. And as he grew strong God was pleased with him. And the people were also pleased with him. They were delighted in his knowledge, they were amazed at the answers he gave. Soon they would realise that he was the light of the world.

A - Jesus lived in such a way that he became wise. Jesus lived in such a way that he grew strong. How can I grow in wisdom today? How can I grow in strength today? Feeding my mind and taking care of my body is so important to pleasing God and people. If I am unwise I will not be able to help people and lead them well. If I am unhealthy I will not have the energy needed to serve well, the endure in the race, and to finish well.

Growing wise involves reading, understanding and living out God's Word in my own life first. It involves listening to and learning from others. It requires that I read widely and reflect often. Being wise requires the self-discipline to change what I know is wrong and start doing what is wise instead. It means praying for wisdom from the one true God who knows everything.

Growing in strength involves resting as well as working. It means getting enough sleep so that I am not tired throughout the day. It means exercising regularly (everyday for 30 minutes!) so that my heart is strong and my energy levels are high. It means eating well, fruit and vegetables. Less bad fats and more of the good type. It means finding life-giving hobbies and activities other than work so that I laugh often and am full of joy!

P - God, I want to please you, I really do! I want to feel your smile, your delight. Help me to grow in wisdom and strength so that you and all those who know me are pleased with my progress! Thanks for Jesus' incredible example of growth and strength. His continually trust and dependence on you is what I long to emulate. Amen.

Daily Reading - Luke 2

Daily Journal for Wednesday 4th of August 2010

Love the One You're With

S - "That's why a man leaves his father and mother and gets married. He becomes like one person with his wife. They are no longer two people, but one. And no one should separate a couple that God has joined together. Mark 10:7-9

O - A child grows and becomes an adult. They leave their father and mother who have nurtured, loved and cared for them as best as they could. They become like one person with their wife or husband. Instead of being on their own they are now 'one.' They are united physically through sexual union and they are united emotionally to mutually love, care and support each other and they are united by God who has put them together. They are like one person, a union, a single identity. This is a joyful thing! It's very good when I am loving and serving and bringing out the best in my wife. To do this continually and genuinely I need more than my own resources. I need to look to the one who joined us together, to God, for the strength and commitment to keep loving even when it's hard.

To then look lustfully at another woman, to be comforted emotionally and physically by another woman, to be loved intimately by another than my wife would cause a break in the oneness, the unity, the togetherness with the one God has joined me together with. It would cause incredible pain, great loss and much sadness.

A - I am married! God has given me one wife to love, to be one with, to enjoy and journey with through life. She is one with me, I am one with her. Today I want to give, say, and show my deep love to her. I her to know my love and commitment to her by the way I express it and value her. This is good and is God's will for me in marriage.

P - Father, as you have demonstrated your love for me in sending your Son, I want to demonstrate my love for you by loving the woman you have joined me together with. May you be glorified by the way I love my wife. Amen.

Daily Reading Mark 10

Daily Journal for Tuesday 3rd of August 2010

How To Be Truly Great

S -  "After Jesus sat down and told the twelve disciples to gather around him, he said, "If you want the place of honour, you must become a slave and serve others!" Mark 9:35

O - To people who want to be first Jesus says become a slave and serve others. To be honoured, honour people. The disciples were arguing about who was the greatest. Jesus says the greatest one is the one who serves others. Today is no different to then. Society is so so self-focused, self-obsessed, self-absorbed and ego driven. Even in Christian community people can seek positions of authority or power for any reason but to serve.

A - I want to be great in God's eyes. I really do want to have a place of honour in God's kingdom. The passage clearly say that I must serve others, become a slave, value, love, connect, care and seek to really honour others. Why? Because people matter to God. Jesus is my clearest example here. He said that he came not to be serve but to serve and indeed he did.

This week I am going to serve someone and tell no-one what I have done. I'm going to also thank three people who have really helped me by serving and helping me. I'll send them a note or an email.

P - Father, I want to be truly great in your eyes. Help me to value greatly those who you love. Help me serve others not myself. Help me do today what you have shown me through Jesus' example. Amen

Daily Reading Mark 9

Daily Journal for Tuesday 20th of July 2010

I Can Only Imagine!

S - "When God raises people to life, they won't marry. They will be like angels in heaven."  Matthew 22:30

O - There is a new reality awaiting us, a time that we who are alive have not yet experienced. It's a different place. A new amazingly different reality. Jesus is giving us information about this new reality.

We won't be married or getting married in heaven. These verses don't tell us why this is the case but Jesus was rebuking the Sadducees for getting hung up on it and neither should I. I'll no doubt be lost in wonder and praise of God and I will love my wife as much as I love everyone. It won't be that I'll love her less, I'll love everyone more.

Jesus also says we'll be like the angels in heaven. The Bible speaks of angels as being so striking that when people come face to face with them they are terrified. But it doesn't seem to be a horrible fear, rather a fear of awe, a fear that this being is so incredible, so overwhelming that I am afraid. People tried to worship angels, thinking that they were God, but the angels refused to let them and encouraged people to worship God.

C. S. Lewis wrote...

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, culture, arts, civilization – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.


What a mystery awaits me! 1 Corinthians 2:9 says, "What God has planned for people who love him is more than eyes have seen or ears have heard. It has never even entered our minds." I can only imagine!


A - Today I will seek to view people as those who are not ordinary. The way I treat people should not be on how I see them today but on what God might do in them as a result of faith in Christ, or who they might become through rejecting God (a horror of nightmare proportions). How I treat people today will either help them to grow towards either destination. 


I too must live with the end in mind. I must remember that I am but a stranger passing through. This world is not my home! There is an incredible reality waiting ahead that I can only imagine. An incredible eternity awaits me. This is encouraging to remember especially when times get tough. 


P - Father help me to live with the end in mind and live and treat people with honour as I live as stranger awaiting this future you have for me. Thanks for this hope I have in you. Amen.


Daily Reading - Matthew 22

Daily Journal for Tuesday 13th of July 2010

Get Out of the Boat!

S - "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came towards Jesus. Matthew 14:29 TNIV

O - Yes! The Bible says Peter actually got out of the boat and walked on water! People don't normally do this type of thing. A miracle is occurring here. Water which is liquid holds up the weight of a person. For Peter to have actually got down out of the boat, would have taken great courage and, even more significantly, faith. There were many more who stayed in boat, yet Peter didn't. He experienced what was previously impossible. He walked on water. Interestingly Jesus in the next verses says to Peter, "You of little faith!" Peter had faith to get out of the boat but he took his eyes off Jesus. Faith comes from trusting and obeying Jesus even in the storm.

A - What steps is Jesus calling me to take right now? They may seem impossible. They may seem completely out of the ordinary. Today, I want to say, "Yes" to steps of faith, no matter how stormy it might be around me.

P - Father, there are many challenges I face at the moment. I need to keep looking to you with faith in the midst of this time of transition with new appointments, new programs, and new opportunities help me keep my eyes on you. Amen

Daily Reading - Matthew 14

Daily Journal for Friday 9th of July 2010

Give My Life To You?


S - Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 10:39

O - To give your life away is dangerous! To give my turst to a stranger is very foolish. To put my life in the hands of a control freak or an abuser would be crazy. In fact to put my total unreserved trust in anyone is unwise. Except for one. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." He claimed that he is all that we need to be nourished and satified. He said, "I am the living water."He claimed to quench our spiritual thirst. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life." He claimed that by trusting in him we would live forever. Jesus said, "I and the Father are one." Jesus is God.

I am right not to unreservedly trust my life to anyone - but Jesus is the exception. In fact the very opposite is true. I must lose my life - give mine completely to him to live. If I don't I will lose my life.

A - I know that Jesus is trustworthy. I need to urge others to entrust to Jesus what we would never trust completely to anyone else. My longing is that people would give him their lives completely. That they would acknowledge him as Lord, Master and Saviour. He alone is worthy. He is creator. He can be trusted. In him and him alone is fulness of life.

P - Father, thank-you for sending Jesus. I have unreservedly put my trust in you Lord. Help me to continue to do that everyday in all I do. Amen.

Daily Reading - Matthew 10

Farewell to Gayle and Warren Hill

On Monday 21st of June we invited the church to come together and express our thanks to God for Galye's ministry at Wodonga Baptist Church for the last 10 years.

After a welcome and opening prayer Pastor Jonathan Stark invited anyone who would like to share any thoughts or reflections to do so. Over the next hour many people shared about the way in which Galye had been used by God to touch many lives in our church. One shared of his marriage being strengthened through Gayle's preaching, a letter was read sent from Marg and John Docking in Uganda, and a number shared how Gayle's encouragement had helped them take a step up in their own ministry. Those who were on staff shared of the encouragement she was to serve on team with.

The Rev Dr Graeme and Maria Smith attended and Graeme reflected on the times from when Galye first came on to the staff and the way she has flourished since that time.

Senior Pastor Jonathan Stark shared about the great blessing Gayle and been to the church and the staff. He spoke about Gayle's many gifts and strengths and shared how he was sure that God will continue to use her greatly in the future.

Through all of this sharing Warren too was thanked and acknowledged as a strong support for Gayle in her ministry. Many acknowledged Warren's great work as a deacon, on the building committee and as a leader prayer ministry. His quiet strength was emphasised throughout the night.

Gayle and Warren responded with a speech thanking everyone. Warren expressed how much he loves to see Gayle doing what she loves and really felt that his ministry was to support her. Gayle said that they weren't sure what the future will hold but felt sure that God was leading them to Melbourne.

The church then presented Gayle and Warren with a gift which they had played a part in choosing. It was an antique unit that they will place in their home in Melbourne.

 People came forward and laid hands on Gayle and Warren and together we thanked God for their ministry among us, prayed for God's blessing on all that they do in the future and we committed them into God care.

After this time of sharing and praying we enjoyed a big supper together which everyone who was able bringing a plate. It was a wonderful night.

Thanks to all who came and made this a special night for our church family. Gayle and Warren have been dearly loved and will be greatly missed!