Paul Long's Ramblings

* It has been a very long time since I posted in this blog. Hope I can be more consistent this year but it is not a New Year's resolution :-) For Pastor’s notes 1 Feb 2015 (i.e. my church's Sunday bulletin) WHAM and the M’Cheyne Bible Reading Programme This Sunday we start on a journey / challenge as a church that hopefully all of us will undertake together: to read through the Bible in a year. To be more accurate, we will be attempting to read through the whole OT once, and the NT and Psalms twice. To assist us, we will be using a Bible reading programme created by a Pastor named Robert Murray M’Cheyne.  A little about M’Cheyne might help inspire you. M’Cheyne passed away in 1843 before he even turned 30. Yet as young as he was, he was known throughout Scotland as  “the saintly M’Cheyne”. We know of him because a friend and colleague Andrew Bonar collected his sermons, messages and papers and published them in a book about his life. Here is an excerpt from t...

For the 14 July 2013 bulletin A Lesson from back packing? I came across this interesting illustration recently which pulled together a lot of my stray thoughts over the last few days. First the illustration...    Backpacking has taught me the value of traveling light. One seasoned hiker explained it this way. Prepare for a hike by making three piles. The first pile should contain only those things you absolutely cannot live without. In the second pile put the things you would like to have but don't have to have. Then in the third pile, put all those things that would make life on the trail a lot more comfortable but which you could get along without. This is where you put the light weight hammock, the camp chair, and your extra clean clothes. Now, discard everything that is in piles two and three, pick up the first pile and head for the woods. That is what Jesus is advising his disciples to do in today's lesson (i.e. Luke 10). Travel light. Don't get bogged d...

For the 19 March 2013 bulletin Excerpted from:  Parables and Passion: Jesus' Stories for the Days of Lent John Indermark  PROVE IT! Rich Man and Lazarus     Luke 16:19-31 Have you ever played a game called "Prove It"? It's not a board game or video game. You can't order it from Milton Bradley or Nintendo. It's one of those games we play in relationships, adapt-able to all ages. Children often play it. "If you think you can climb the tree as high as I can prove it!" Sometimes it has a darker side, used to exclude someone who is on the outs at the moment. "If you're really my friend, you won't play with Robin—'cause I don't like her." As children mature, the game gets more sophisticated. The love of parents becomes the target of the testing. "If you really loved me, you'd trust me and let me stay out later..." ..."Prove it" has two major problems in human relationships. It is a g...

From Mike's Funnies ... I'M STILL CARRYING THE PIZZA By Saralee Perel Last week at the supermarket, a young gal named Tara who was bagging my groceries said, "Can I help take these to your car?" As always, for the eight years since my spinal cord injury I said, "No thanks." But that particular day, I was in trouble. I had overdone exercise the day before. Hence, I couldn't lift my feet to walk and had to shuffle instead. Tara could tell I was hurting. "Let me just help," she said sweetly. When I finally said, "I'd love your help," I should have felt a great sense of liberation because it was the very first time I had agreed to someone helping me in all of these years. Instead, I felt like a failure. On our way to my truck, Tara and I became friends. But at my truck, 19-year-old Tara became my teacher. When I eventually agreed to her suggestion to sit in the front seat while she loaded the groceries, I put my head in my hands and...

Pastor's notes for the 23 Oct 2011 bulletin. To view click HERE

"It is curious that people who are filled with horrified indignation whenever a cat kills a sparrow can hear that story of the killing of God told Sunday after Sunday and not experience any shock at all." -  Dorothy Sayers

Just one Life (Part 2) - Geoffrey Woo Lyrics of this song by my old friend Geo came to my mind this morning Show me Lord   The way to please You Lord   How can I show You Lord my love for You?   Touch me now   And consecrate me now   And let me feel the warmth of Your embrace   Take away my sins   The Spirit to replace   Fill my heart with overflowing praise   Just one life   I have but just one life   I dedicate this life to only You   Take my life and make it worthy of your love   All that's past is worthless   Like the grass that withers   Laid my head in sin's death-bed   Jesus came and raised me with His flame   Created within me a brand new heart   His love surrounds me now   And makes my fears depart   In His plan I have a special part   Just one life   I have but just one life   I dedicate this life to only You   Take my life an...

For the 5th December 2010 bulletin A reflection on hope and promise The recent Pike River Mine tragedy is indeed a national tragedy and I will be joining the nationwide observation of two minutes of silence at 2 PM today (Thursday 2 December). When news of the first blast reached the nation’s ears, there was hope of rescuing the trapped miners alive. That in time faded away to slim hope, replaced by reluctant resignation of no hope. The focus then shifted to promises and hope of recovering the bodies. But soon due to more explosions and fire, it became “hope of recovering the bodies are fast fading”. Now today, we have to have the memorial service without the bodies of the miners. But at the same time we are told to be hopeful that the bodies will be recovered, and that the mines reopened one day. The commitment level of commitment of the authorities, rescuers and the Greymouth community has not wavered and is to be commended. But there has been an obvious backlash of deep emoti...

Just posted up this Sunday's Pastor's Notes. To read, click HERE .

Grace Pays the Bill I was having breakfast with my dad and my younger son. As we were finishing our meal, I noticed that the waitress brought our check, then took it away, and then brought it back again. She placed it on the table, smiled, and said: "Somebody in the restaurant paid for your meal. You're all set." And then she walked away. I had the strangest feeling sitting there. The feeling was helplessness. There was nothing I could do. It had been taken care of. To insist on paying would have been pointless. All I could do was trust that what she said was actually true and then live in that—which meant getting up and leaving the restaurant. My acceptance of what she said gave me a choice: to live like it was true or to create my own reality in which the bill was not paid. That is our invitation—to trust that we don't owe anything. To trust that something is already true about us, something has already been done. To trust that grace pays the bill. from Velvet E...

Just posted up this week's Pastor's Notes. To read, click HERE

A nice extract I found insightful from a devotion by Rabbi Kalman Packouz ... Tragedies, particularly of this magnitude, often lead people to ask - at least for a fleeting moment - "Where's God in all of this?" "How could God let such a tragedy occur?" What is fascinating, is that we only ask these questions because we intuitively believe three axioms about the nature of God. God must be: (1) all good, (2) all knowing, and (3) all powerful. If you remove any one of these attributes, the question disappears. If God isn't all good, He can do evil and even enjoy inflicting pain. Is there any wonder why bad things happen to good people? If God isn't omniscient, bad things occur because He doesn't know everything that's going on in the world. If He knew about it; He would certainly put a stop to it. If God isn't omnipotent, bad things happen because there are forces beyond God's control. Diseases and natural disasters are too mighty for G...

It has been a busy week and weekend. Fruitful but tiring. Yesterday's day off was great but I guess to many things have been happening that has thrown me a little off centre. So instead of working on my growing "to do list" I thought a few hours of reflecting and "re-centering" and with it blogging (which is kind of my " journaling " ) would do me good. On Sunday I preached on "Can you hear the voice of the Lord?" using Psalm 29 as a launch pad. In response to the sermon received a good word of encouragement and thanks from someone I greatly respect for both his strong grasp of theology and ministry etc which was great. But nothing from anyone else. Not that I feel the need to have people praise my sermons :-) and it could be that it was a "crazy" busy Sunday with new people to talk to, and some quick pastoral encounters etc so there wasn't that much time for people to speak with me. But it did make me wonder about whether my a...

Another great piece by Soo Inn. This is my first re-posting of any of his e-commentaries in my new blog (now that I have closed down my Multiply blog) so a quick promo ... 1. He is a great guy - genuine and down to earth (though some may think too "down to earth" ! :-) ) 2. I consider him a mentor and I miss our sessions as part of a mentoring triad. 3. I am a financial supporter of grace@work and I do commend it 4. He makes a lot of sense Ok , some additional comments. While I am seeking to see how I can "formally" work at developing leaders as well as be developed as a leader, I think the reality is that most of leadership development (also called disciple-making for the more spiritually / biblically inclined :-)) happens informally ... as a natural part of trying to living our lives honestly by the grace of God. I am so glad for this as a wise man commented (and then prayed) on Sunday something along the line of "God has raised up leaders" and that...

Just posted up this week's Pastor's Notes .

Just posted up my weekly Pastor's Notes. It's some reflections on another chapter from Alex Tang's book "Spiritual Formation on the Run" - Omission and commission reflections .

Ok .. something a bit more sober ... been cross posting this. Something I wrote for this week's church bulletin. Matthew 27:11-26 : 11 Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. 12 When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate asked him, "Don't you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?" 14 But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge-- to the great amazement of the governor. 15 Now it was the governor's custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. 16 At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. 17 So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, "Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?" 18 For he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him. 19 While Pilate was sitting on the...