In life we face good times and hard times.

 

The good times seem to go so quick and the hard times seem to drag on for eternity.

 

Why is life like this?

Guess the thing I've learnt through the hard times is that there's always going to be hard times

but you've got to get through them.

 

What would life be like without the hard times?

I know it might seem strange to some people but i thank God for the hard times.

Through them I come to know how incredibly awesum His love and grace is for us

 

Read this song

 

It was a real birth in a real stable

In a real dusty Judean town

And a real mother nursed her

precious baby

And a bunch of wide eyed

Sheperds gathered round

And real angels sang "Glory"

For real hope was born that day

 

 

It was a real like

He had real friends

He walked shoulder to shoulder

with the lost

He wept real tears

For the fallen ones

And He angiushed over sin

dreadful cost

And on a real cross He cried

"Forgive them"

As His real life drained away

 

 

I have real fears

I do real sin

And I hurt the ones

I cherish and adore

But the real mercy

Of the true God

sees the filthy fallen purchased

and restored

And I cry "My God- O fill me

with a heart completly yours"

 

Havn't dun an entry for ages, mainly because i havn't been bothered and have been pretty busy, but i have holidays now so i have a little extra time to catch up on things i used to do.

 

The reason why i've been busy is to do with my car, got the twin carbies on and ran into problems such as an air leak in the head that needed to be blocked off because the inlet manifold didn't match up completly, so it was sounding like a lawn mower and a jet wasn't working, the carbies are now fine but the inlet vlave on the first cylinder is gone so i have very little compression, so now the head is getting reconditioned, very costly but its worth it as the car will run alot mre smoothly and God willing i won't have any problems with the head again.

 

For all of you who don't know much about cars and don't really care, that whole paragraph probably went right over your head, thats ok but i hope this next one doesn't

 

Easter was just last week, how many people went to church just because it was easter? We shouldn't celebrate Jesus' sacrifice once a year, but all the time, this is a great and awesum gift, FROM GOD. There was no other way that we could join him in heaven when we die, that we could have a proper relationship with Him than to have a sacrifice, and not just a sacrifice of an animal, but of a man. An animal can never remove our sins, Jesus could. He was God's son, He could do it, God sent Him seeing no other way that we could be saved, He sent Him for US, and although God sent Jesus, Jesus didn't have to die for us, But He did his fathers will and went through it, paying the price for OUR sins, How amazing

 

"If you love me, you will obey what I comand. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another counselor to be with you forever, the spirit of truth. John 14:15-17

 

Let us not forget what Jesus has done for us

life seems alot busier than it was last year, not much free time anymore :(, but thats not all bad, its good to be doing something all the time :).

 

Went to see a band called "faker" last night, they were really good. the three bands before them were ok. Lots of uni students as it was at the uni bar. Anyway the story begin after the concert.

I went up with my mate Benje and walked back to the car after the show, turned the ignition and nothing happened, bummer!, was the it the battery? was it the starter motor? was it an ignition lead or could it be the distributor. All of these things were were running through my mind. Convinietly enough i'd left the jumper leads at home because my dad car has a flat battery.

Firt option was to clutch start, that is to roll it down a hill wth the ignition on and then let it out of gear., NO LUCK!. we popped the bonnet and there was a noise comming from the positve battery terminal, strange! two guys from the show were walking back and noticed our trouble, they had had a bit to drink, but were very friendly and obligied to help us for the rest of the night, they suggested hitting the starter motor to get it going, they'd done it before, that didn't work. Benje had left his phone at my bros house, i had no credit and neither did they. across the road were supposbly where some of their mates live, so we went over looking for a Steve or Penny. the guys that were helping us were "steve and Camo", lol. We asked many randoms walking along if they knew where they lived, no one did. We knocked on doors, knocked on windows where the light were on inside, no one knew, probably because they were mostly American students that had just moved in.

We got to a place where some Uni guy that works for the uni opened the door andhe told us to stopknocking on peoples doors, fair enough it was 12 at night, but Camo and Steve wouldn't take no for an answer, everntually that uni guy caught up with us and called security because Steve had a go at him, he was quite rude actually. anyway we went back to my car wheere we waited for Camo's girlfriend to pick him up, we got a lift with him to my bros place, Steve walked off because she accidently ran over his foot.

At my bros place i woke Matt up and told him the situation, he had jumper lead, so we drove back to my car. After turning the ignition to find that the car still was doing anything with jumper leads, i was thinking something bad had happened. we drove back and Matt said that i'd have to get up early or i get a couple of tickets. eventually at 1:30 i called the NRMA and drove back to my car, He had a look and took the positive off the battery and cleaned it, put it back on and WHALA! it started, yay. The NRMA guy was cool, talked to him for a while bout mechanics, quite interesting, anyway that was my night and early morning. yeah 

heaps has been happenin lately. Between tafe, work, scripture teachin and youth group, taekwondo and the gym i don't have heaps of free time. But thats ok, its good to be doing something instead of wasting time that could be used doing something.

 

Guess lately i've just been realising how amazing Jesus and what He did on earth, alot!

Karin talked to me about Mark 5:1-20, which is about the healing of the demon possesed man. I never realised how amazing it was. First there was this guy possesed by all of these demons and lived in these tombs by himself. No one could bind the man, because of this super-human strength he had because of the demons

 

3This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. 4For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

How many of us can accuse God and get mad at Him when things get us realy down? I know I can. 

 

In my meeting with the other youth leaders from church this morning I learnt some pretty amazing stuff. I felt some pretty amazing stuff. As Christians we go through very hard times. When I wasn't a Christian I went through some pretty rough stuff aswell, but never called on God. Never acknowlegded Him and if it was it would be "Why are you doing this?" "What have i possibly done to deserve this?",  Now I realise that I deserve everything that comes at me, I don't deserve to live. I've rejected God and His word so many times, yet He still called me back. He saved me...

 

As a Christian, rough and bad times can bring about mixed feelings, still, "Why are you doing this?", then you realise. Jesus not only died for me. He suffered for me. Jesus not only was put on the cross. He was beaten. Jesus was laughed at, wrongly accused. How many of us get anoyed when we're accused of something we didn't do? We get mad, we defend ourselves. Jesus didn't get mad. He knew He had done nothing wrong when He said that He was the son of God. He really was.

 

In the meeting/study, we looked at Mark 4:35-41, Jesus calms the storm. We broke it down alot.  It has a clear message that I never saw before. At the time Jesus was sleeping in a boat with His diciples who were sailing across this Lake. A big storm came while Jesus was sleeping under the deck and was swamping the boat. These diciples were once fishermen, they knew what a storm was like, it wasn't new to them. They tried everything they could to stop the ship from sinking and finally they went below and said to Jesus. "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?". He got up, rebuked the wind and the waves, "quiet! Be still! Then the wind died down and it was completly calm v39.

 

Jesus is always there. If we ask him then He will help us, but if we don't and keep trying with our own strength then He won't. He is always there when we are down, He is always there 

alot happened since i last wrote an entry so i'm just going to chop into it.

 

First of all, started TAFE last week doing automotive which is really good. Learnin heaps from it, at the moment only basic stuff like putting cars on hoists, taking wheels, putting wheels together, indetifying parts under the car and changing oils. Yeah its quite good. making some good friends aswell, i like it.

 

What else, ah yes, did youth group on Sunday. That went really really well aswell, although in the small groups two of the guys weren't really focused at all, always getting trailed off, looking at eachother and being silly, but its like, just have to deal with it as best i can i guess, its really fun though, i feel kinda like a teacher, confiscating stuff, tellin people to be quiet (all of this is in a God loving way) and yeah its good. Also prepared for scripture teaching with Micheal and Pauly, that should be fun, but very hard aswell, but God is with me, "I can do everything in Him who gives me strengh" Phillipians 4:13, what a great verse!

 

I think its so so amzing how Jesus died for us. He was tempted in everyway. God could of and should of just destroyed us. We reject Him, We forget Him and we use His name in vain

 

 

35The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One."

 36The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."

 38There was a written notice above him, which read:|sc THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

 39One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"

 40But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? 41We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."

 42Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.^[a]"

 43Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

 

we mocked Him, divided up His clothes, put the nails in his arms, and stood Him before us and laughed at Him. Laughed at His death and accused Him of something He didn't do. He went through all of that for us! after we did that to Him He still died for us and He still loves us so so much. If we have faith in Him then we can be saved and forgiven for all of this. Just like one of the criminals next to Him.

"We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong"

"Remember me Jesus when you enter your kingdom". This criminal had faith in Jesus, he knew of who Jesus was thus saying, YOUR kinkgdom. To which Jesus answered to him

"I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise".

 

If we believe in Jesus then we can be forgiven and have enternal life with Him! That is the amazing and awsum gift He has given us!

yeah i thought i'd bother u with another entry now because i'm going to be pretty busy soon. I'm seeing some old friends tomorow, Steve, Matt W, Scott and Simon. Be great to catch up with them again. Although none of them are Christians, they are still great firneds and its good to talk cars with them. Then after that its Bec's going away party, that should be a blast aswell lol.

 

Can't wait for Sunday, i'm giong to the cricket, Strayer, thats how the commentators pronounce Australia, take of South Africa, should be good! and then TAFE next week and scripture teachin on Thursday, anyway, thats what i'm going to be doing, not what i have been doing.

 

This week has consisted of not very muc. Not really any work, but some time off which is alright. Hung out with Karin on Wednesday, was really good to catch up with her again and apart from that have just been at home. I did put this really cool air filter on my car, a chrome one! it loks much beta now, but anyway. One good thing i've learnt this week was about judging people, which i picked up from Karin.

Theres been this really bad murder in Nowra lately where a couple were found in 44 gallon drums, burning in Tomorong, south of Nowra. The media has been publisiing it alot and now it seems its hit everyone in Nowra, its definitly hit me. Two people have been charged with the murders and i just feel really mad at them, its probably natural though, but how could someone do that? It really shows us what we are capable of, how bad we can get. I guess some of the worst stuff i've heard or learnt about humanity is in Russia, i did that for modern history.

Some of the stuff i do'nt want to metion, because its so graphic. Modern Histroy was probably the best class i've ever done, and even though our teacher didn't really teach much of the sylabus, he did teach us about life and reality itself and just how bad the world is. How corrupted it is, its scary and shocking.

 

Romans 5:6-8

6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

 

Jesus died for US, for humanity, for every human born, everyone, even the worst, we are ALL sinners, we have ALL done wrong in God's eyes and NO ONE is perfect, only if we can accpet Jesus's death and resurrection make Him our God can we be saved and washed clean from everything we have done, because we surely have done so so much.