Luke 1:76-80

76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, where by the sunrise shall visit us from on high 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

This sunrise was over our back verandah–each time I see these sunrises like this, it’s like this ball of fire coming from the heavens to visit us. That also makes me think of these truly remarkable verses from Luke 1, that are oozing with the kindness and goodness of our Father–the God of the universe. Read them again,slowly.

It has always been God’s intention to love and care for His family and His desire is for no one to miss out. Nowhere in those verses does he discriminate amongst the people, leaving some people out.

John the Baptist achieved some incredible things–from his human perspective he probably felt called of God and went about his preaching and baptising as best as he could. He had the story of his dad being silenced until his naming as one of the foundations in his life dedicated to ministry. But, he still suffered from all of the human issues of doubt, stress, wondering if he was wasting his time, getting it wrong.

Look at Luke 7:20 - “When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another”?

Our human mind is always going to be overwhelmed when confronted with the truly wonderfulness of Jesus,the Holy Spirit and the Father. That’s why information and revelation about the Lord has to be spiritually discerned as well as mentally considered. At some point our brain goes...“Yeah, nah”–surely this is too good to be true, where, our spirit cries out for connection and flourishes on the Word of the Lord.

You and I, like John the Baptist (and his dad Zacharias in Luke 1:18) all suffer at some point from doubt–doubt regarding a whole bunch of things most likely. The interesting thing was that irrespective of how much of this negativity was going on,it didn’t stop Jesus from doing His part. He hung on a cross in (seemingly) shocking defeat, killed off in His prime of life – crying out with a loud voice - Luke 23:46 – at the very end.

After a day of being battered, beaten and butchered He still had a loud voice in Him...that kind of power comes from our spirits not our mind. Yes, we think things through mentally, but we digest it all in our spirits.

What do you do to nourish your spirit every day?Do you get “sunrise time”? That time where you are just real quiet and you sit closely with the Lord, reading His Word, listening on the inside – just you and He together. Our “sunrise time” helps keep the most important aspects of our lives very real–it’s in that time we get to refresh ourselves in:

Psalm 46:10 - Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Make sure you get quality “sunrise time” every day. I think the “be still and know” covers both our spirit and our mind–and forces our body to stop for a while as well. It’s healthy for us and helps to combat doubt that comes from the world, our busyness and stuff around us.

Launceston Christian Library

The All Saints Network is building a Christian Library. They have been collecting books for years and recently were recipients of another (approx.) 100 boxes of Christian theological and study books along with a huge amount of very expensive steel library shelving,all from Ridley Bible College in Melbourne.

We had the privilege of me driving my ute to Melbourne, taking a ute full of boxes of books across to Hayley's Branch where we palletised them, wrapped them and shipped them to Tassie.

I then went back to Ridley’s and proceeded to load the last of the books onto my ute, then fill it up with library shelving. I then navigated an extremely full ute load back to Tassie. My trusty ole ute shone again under the duress of it all but I must add the springs were very relieved after it was all unloaded.

It was fantastic to see Hayley again–been way too long–and to have caught up with her even if it was for just a few hours was so, so good. She’s doing well, praise the Lord.

The boat trip was paid for us,but we volunteered me, my ute and the fuel, meals etc as a gift to the Christians in Launceston. I think it’s important to get seed in to a quality project like this.

There’s Been Some Cold Days

The Tassie winter is living up to its reputation. There have been some remarkable frosts. A few times the frost has been on the inside of my windscreen as well. This below is our back lawn one morning. This was pretty spectacular, and the photo doesn’t do it justice. It was like snow,the frost was that thick and heavy. That of course then makes working up at the block that much more difficult–much shorter days with less daylight and also just so darn cold.

Not to worry–there’s only a few weeks of this degree of cold and then it's back to the great Tassie climate again. These less than favourable conditions do allow for other things to get done however.

Radio

We’ve just recently invested in some improved recording gear. It seems to be a quality investment now I don’t have a “sound proofed” more prepared kind of a studio /room as in Newcastle days. You can see the set up here:

The deadening sound surround,which really does work quite well, a much better-quality microphone to record with, all mounted above my pulpit. Yes that is still our trusty23” iMac from the West Wallsend days that I record to. Testimony to buying quality gear.... 12 years old or more now that Mac. This better quality setup was pretty cheap too–roughly $1100.

I’ve just recently finished the series on Navigating Through the Obstacles of Life and have started on a series about Beating Frustration Before it Beats You. These first few programs of the Frustration series are in the LSCC Church Family dropbox. There will be more messages to come in this series. I found it an encouraging series.

Getting Closer - 1000 Radio Programs – A Special Time of Thanksgiving to the Lord.

We have produced 958 programs to date. That is 958 weeks of Radio. 18.4 years.Thank you to everyone that has stuck by us as we traveled down this particular path of obedience and honour to the Lord. I think time has shown that it probably was a God idea not a “good idea”. After 18+years we are still here,and He is still funding us.

As such,Lynda and I and our LSCC Board would like to hold a special service of Thanksgiving to the Lord when we get to celebrate this1000 program milestone in June next year. We are thinking of taking maybe a ministry week, travel up to Sydney and Newcastle in the June/July school holidays and catch up with as many of our LSCC Church Family as we are able to. This would include a Thanksgiving Service as well, that of course you are invited to, perhaps at Ps Al and Annette’s Church in Sydney. The four of us have had some very broad initial discussions about the possibility of this and they are keen as well.

It’s just a thought that we are working through at the moment but please be aware that we will be having some kind of celebration to honour the Lord in this milestone that, God-willing, we reach next June.We will keep you posted as to when details are confirmed and available.

Some Timber Slabbed

The weather hasn’t been idea for work on the block with such short days and very cold temperatures.However last weekend I had a three-day weekend, got a little bit of fencing done and then a full day and a morning slabbing up a beautiful mountain ash–“TassieOak”.

I got roughly 1.5 tonnes of 2m and 1m slabs. Indoor/outdoor tables and coffee tables for the smaller ones. Eight of each,so it certainly was a worthwhile venture even though it was very hard work by myself.

These slabs aren’t light either as the 2m run at round 130+kgs each – that’s a lot for me to lift and stack on the ute!!

Two-wide will give a large dining room table indeed. Beautiful timber as you can certainly tell from these photos, even though the pics don’t really show the rich colours of the timber too well

Pastor Al’s Channel

Please make sure you regularly check in on Ps. Al Persohn’s YouTube channel. He always has something thereof great interest, as well as something to be learned that will shape us, from his great teaching gift at work. This special man has been changing people’s lives for the better for decades.

This study on Zettelkasten is fascinating and a brilliant message. Be blessed and accelerate your learning skills!

Also remember www.mascott.church for more great teachings!