This is about name suppression in New Zealand.  In case you haven’t heard a District Court Judge has ordered permanent name suppression for a prominent Manawatu man who had 300,000 pornographic images (including child pornography) on his computer.

The judge said:

“The punitive consequences are more extensive for you than for others, particularly in light of your position, your achievements and the consequential outcome.”

and that:

“…publication of the man’s identity was not required because none of the thousands of children pictured were New Zealanders.”

The Manawatu Standard and even David Farrar (Kiwiblog) have slammed the decision.

And, unsurprisingly, Cam Slater (aka Whale Oil Beef Hooked) has come out swinging.  He is, after all on a personal crusade against name suppression and has been willing to risk his freedom by using the methods he’s used.

But Can oversteps the mark when he takes personal pot shots at the judge.

“… this is NOT the first time that Judge Grant Fraser has meddled with the intent of the law. A quick Google reveals a crim hugging, liberal menace to the people of the Manawatu.”

Come on Cam.  You must know that nobody is that stupid… not even a judge!  Clearly Judge Fraser is on your side.  He knows that giving name suppression in this case must force the Government’s hand and new law on name suppression will be rushed through parliament – possibly even before you can get yourself in yet more trouble!  (OK – That’s unlikely, but soon nonetheless.)

With due acknowledgment to David Letterman and “The Late Show” here’s Pastor Paul’s top ten ways to lie (or things to watch for when you think someone might not be telling the truth).

10.  Choose a really simple lie, one that you can remember because otherwise you’ll contradict it yourself at some stage.

9.  Blame someone else, and if that fails, blame the dog.

8.  Change the subject.  (Hat tip – all politicians)

7.  Repeat this phrase, “I don’t remember.”

6.  Look the person directly in the eye when lying.

5.  Say nothing – ever.

4.  Flatly deny everything no matter what proof is forthcoming.

3.  Deny everything and claim it is all a media beat up. (Hat tip – Winston Peters)

2.  Admit to just a fraction of the lie; something you can take the heat on.

And the number 1 way to lie is…

1.  Tell the whole truth but in such a way that nobody will believe you! 

Photo credit: wwworks

I’m lucky enough to work only about 20 minutes walk from where I live.  Friday morning dawned beautifully fine so I decided to walk my 4 1/2 month old puppy Georgie to work with me.

My plan was for a brisk 20 to 25 minute walk (I knew we might have a stop on the way) followed by my normal morning quiet time.  Then I would have enough time to read my RSS feeds, and do my GTD weekly review using eProductivity for Lotus Notes to set the day up.  I figured I could achieve this easily before I joined the GTD webinar which started at 9 AM New Zealand time.

Not unexpectedly, Georgie didn’t have the same focus in mind.  To who walk has nothing to do was getting to the place you want to go to and everything to do with investigating every leaf she could find on the way.  It’s not that Georgie’s approach to walks is wrong, it’s just that her purpose is very different to mine.

It occurs to me that in everything we do we need to make sure we know our purpose for doing it.  Sometimes we need to focus very carefully making sure we are not side tracked by the many leaves on the path.

But other times we need to intentionally be unfocused. A couple of times I can think of like this are:

1. Wandering through a nature reserve with the family and darting off to follow something that catches the eye;
2. During creative discussions;  Most of my best ideas flow from way out thoughts that wouldn’t have happened if I’d been blinkered (read “focused”) by the goal;

No doubt you could add many more to this list!

I must thank both David Allen (of GTD fame) and Eric Mack (eProductivity) for giving me the tools that give me the freedom to be intentionally unfocused at the right times.

This is my bride of almost 29 years Raewyn at Parachute 2010.  (More photos on the photo page!)

Yesterday I stated that I thought the biggest sin in church today was pride.

But today I want to point you to an amazing article that highlights what I think is the most dangerous issue for the church today.  In the article about prosperity gospel Sam Storms is quoted as saying:

That is, believers have no concept of a love and a joy that does not eliminate hardship and heartache…  For most professing believers if God is love He must promise to minimize my struggles and maximize my pleasure," he lamented. Many believe it’s their spiritual birthright to experience comfort and prosperity and that it’s God divine obligation to provide it.

Personally I absolutely abhor every aspect of the prosperity gospel but I also struggle working out the best way to preach and teach about the necessity of going through the valleys.

Question:  Do you think  prosperity gospel is a problem in the church today?

Photo credit: thomashawk

If you look closely you may be surprised at the answer!

In an interview Ed Stetzer of The LifeWay Research Blog commented that:

My observation is that we often preach against sins that are not a problem in our church (sins more prevalent in the world) while not preaching against sins that are a common problem in the church

Ed states that the biggest sin in his church relates to a lack of ministry involvement by the majority of those who attend.  He goes on to make the illuminating comment:

If I preach about gay marriage, everybody cheers. If I preach about sin you can hear the amens ring. But those aren’t the real problems. I tell people that the biggest sin in our church is you sitting there doing nothing and still calling yourself a follower of Jesus.

I’ve often said something similar because it’s always annoyed me when churches and Christians rail against homosexuality while I think God looks down at them and weeps at the pride he sees in those churches and amongst those people who profess to follow him.

In the church I’m honoured to lead we don’t have that many people who are sitting doing nothing.  One of the reasons may well be that we make sure there are lots of opportunities for people to serve in ways that do not take up too much time.

That said, we would actually prefer to see less of our people serving in church and the more of them making a difference in the lives of their neighbours and work colleagues.  We still think of this as ministry involvement but it’s a ministry involvement that’s very hard to quantify.

Question:  What do you think the biggest sin in your church, or in the church generally, is?

Photo credit: seeminglee

It must be the start of a new year.  How do I know?  All those interminable posts from people about their New Year resolutions.  That’s how!

Lets get this clear right from the start shall we.  I don’t do New Year’s resolutions.  Nuff said.

As well as the annoying posts about resolutions there’s also been quite a number about people setting goals for the whole year.  That idea doesn’t bug me nearly as much.  But to be honest, I set goals on a regular basis.  My goals more often than not don’t have a time span of one year.  Often less, sometimes much longer.

But recently I came across something by Chris Brogan that piqued my interest.  Chris doesn’t set goals each New Year but he does come up with three or four words that he will use for the year.  In his words…

Setting goals is what January 1st is all about. Over the last few years, I’ve practiced something I call “my 3 words,” where I come up with three words that I use as guidance for how I should conduct my efforts in the year to come. I set goals around these three words. I build deadlines and projects around these words.

I don’t want to 3 words that I can set goals around or build deadlines and projects around.  But what I did think I could do would be to come up with three words for 2010 to help me become better at what I do.  I need to keep these in front of mind so the first thing I did was rename this blog “Loop, Listen, Focus”.

Loop

The word loop will remind me to make sure I don’t leave any loose ends.  I’m great at starting things but because I’m very much a big picture person I need to put a special emphasis on finishing things or handing them off to make sure they’re finished.

Loop also reminds me that I need to keep everyone in the loop with communications.  Sometimes I have a tendency to think that people know what I am doing or have done.  The word loop will remind me that every time I do something I need to think about who needs to know about this.

Listen

I’m an overly strong leader sometimes and this word is to remind me to listen before I put my point of view across.

I also catch on quickly to ideas and end up cutting people off before they’re finished telling me the whole story.

Focus

This is a really personal one to remind me to focus on the piece of work I am doing at the time.

But, and it’s a big but, if I’m interrupted in my work by someone who needs to talk to me I need to move my focus 100% to that person.  This is something I struggle with so having this word foremost in my mind will be very helpful.

Questions:  What do you think of this idea?  Could you use to benefit you for 2010?  If so, what words would you choose?

There’s a lot of weirdos around isn’t there?  A lot of strange looking people who reckon they’ve heard from God.  A lot of unlikely folk who claim to have God’s Twitter address and that God DM’s them direct with information.

When Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple as was required they ran into two unusual people.

The first was Simeon, an old guy who had been promised by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah.  He praises God effusively when he sees the baby Jesus.

The second was Anna who was a prophetess, a widow, and also very old.  She stayed in the temple and worshipped day and night.

Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

Remember this was in a culture and at a time when women were not even allowed in the same parts of the temple as the men for worshipping.  This was the same culture that prompted Paul to tell the Corinthian church that women shouldn’t speak in church.  This was a culture where the law courts wouldn’t accept testimony from a woman.

Yet people were obviously willing to listen to Anna about the Messiah and the redemption of Jerusalem.

And of course to make matters even more interesting, when John the Baptist started spreading the word of Jesus Christ he wandered around in strange clothes eating nothing but locusts and honey.

Two very important points

1. Don’t presume that a word doesn’t come from God because the messenger isn’t who you would choose to deliver it.
2. Check their message doesn’t contradict Scripture.  Simeon’s, Anna’s and John the Baptist’s messages were in complete agreement with Scripture.

Photo credit: brymo

How good are we at accepting people who are not what we expected?

Good News/Bad News

How gracious are we when people rain on our good news parade with their better news?

If you and your spouse had been told you couldn’t have a baby and then at last you found out you had managed to get pregnant, how would you feel?  Then, in the middle of the celebrations, your niece shows up at the door to announce she’s pregnant, unmarried, and the baby isn’t her fiance’s.

Would your ego get in the way because it spoils your day?

Would you start by telling her what a stupid, irresponsible child she has been?

How Should We React

Or would you react the way Elizabeth did in Luke 1 when Mary showed up at her door unmarried, pregnant and claiming the child was God’s?

“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁴²In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!”
Luke 1:41-42

Son

When your son comes into the room and announces he’s going to be an artist when you had him pegged as a doctor – remember Elizabeth.

Daughter

When your daughter shows up with a dullard who she obviously loves immensely – remember Elizabeth.

At Work

When an employee comes into office to proudly show you how she has achieved a task (obviously not how you would have done it) – remember Elizabeth.

And at Church?

And possibly most importantly.  When someone who doesn’t fit, someone with troubles, someone who looks different from you, walks into your church and sits in your seat – remember Elizabeth, sit down next to them and welcome them with open arms.

Photo credit: alancleaver

Of Georgie

Posted via email from paulgardner’s posterous