So long, farewell, Auf Wierderseh'n, good-bye

Those who follow this blog will realise it has become a very rare occurance fo me to post - as I hinted a year ago, I tend to give a short update on Facebook most days (and these days to both Facebook and Twitter at once via Tweetdeck) - it takes a few seconds and then I'm doing other things.

If you want to follow me, register with Facebook and look for Martin Scharnke,

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The Porpoise Driven Life

This was on cyberbrethren ... oh, how good it is!  I wish that all Rick Warren devotees would watch it!

The porpoise-driven life

The idolatry of a nation

I know that I will ruffle feathers with this post, but here it goes ...

ANZAC day is something that I grew up with.  When I was in cubs and then scouts, I participated on more than one occasion in the march in Brooklyn up to Suragloaf Hill, to the War memorial there.  We prayed the Lord's Prayer and sang "Abide with me" and thanked God.

In Australia we have gone from thanking God to worshipping the dead as those who have saved us.  We have discplaced Christ as the one who died to save us.  We don't name God, and certainly not CHrist - it's not politically correct - it's not multi-cultural, multi-faith, relgiously inclusive.

I applaud the appropriate remembrance of sacrfice in war ... but I deplore the idolatry of the war dead.  ANZAC Cove and other "sacred" sites - e.g. the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne - have become places of worship of the Australian cult, along with the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Chocolate and the time of year

What is it about chocolate that brings out the worst in some people.
Why is it that some people can be so nice until they start to consume chocolate?
Why is driving under the influence of chocolate so deadly?
Why can some people not stop with one serving of chocolate, but have to have 10, or 20?

Hi. My name is Martin, and I am a chocoholic.

Photo: Mars Bar cake at Cafe Jas, Horsham (taken some weeks ago, during - shock, horror! - Lent)

Hot air despite "cooling"

The cooling keeps freezing up and the room keeps heating up!

Grrr!

Chickening out

Yesterday I declined the call to Crow's Nest, Queensland. Was I chickening out? I don't think so.

It was helpful to be a place where I considered the ministry that I have been privileged to lead in my current call, and to ask myself the vocational question: "which calling body needs me to love and serve them MORE at THIS moment?"  Of course, family needs come into the equation, too.

Thanks to all those who have offered their prayerful support and wise counsel, and - especially - listening ears.

More call news

On Saturday 27 December I was informed by Qld District President that I now had the call to Orana Aged Care in Kingaroy, Qld.  So that's two calls to the same neck of the woods that I'm holding. Hmmm - that quiet post-first-day-of-Christmas time was such wishful thinking!