Tim Goldsmith

You know that youth group has been had when there is both blood & vomit on the floor by the end of the evening (unfortunately, carpet!). Friday night was an exciting time. We had just had dinner and were playing a silly game whilst some of the kids finished their ice creams, when J tripped over & bumped his head on either a door hinge or a chair leg. I asked him if he was OK & he said yes. Then, as he ran his head through his hair, it came out with a fair bit of blood. There ended up being an impressive amount of claret on the the floor, in a lovely pattern heading toward the bathroom. The drain in the bathroom was handy, to wash away the small pool of blood that collected there. In the end, only three stitches were needed. head wounds are always a killer because they bleed like nobodies business! Fortunately Mr & Mrs J have a bunch of kids, so they were very cool about the whole thing. It just happens… Encounter two happened when we played my new favourite game “Pass of Play.” Basically it involves giving someone a giant dice & asking them to “Pass or Play.” If they pass, then they don’t have to roll the dice & they can just sit & watch. If they play, they have to roll the dice & then eat the food that corresponds with the number they rolled. Some foods are good. Chocolate, Starbursts, etc. Some, not so good. On friday it was the Artichoke heart that got the vomit response, though the pickled ginger also seemed to come close.

You know that it has been a good service when, afterwards, the preacher has to clean his own blood up from the floor… It sounds so much more melodramatic than it actually was. I would love to concoct some great story about how I got into an argument about Supralapsarianism v. Amyraldism, which lead to a fist fight, but I’d be lying. The real story is so much less dramatic or cool. At “The New Angle”, the congregation that I now pastor, we have the first half of our service (usually made up of singing, prayer, a special spot of some kind, and sharing time… but not always all of them), then we have some supper & chat for a while. During this time I ended up going outside in the drizzle with a couple of the kids, because they wanted to see how I can spit a grape & then catch it again in my mouth (a must-have trick, in my humble estimation 1 ). Anyway, this then moved on to “how far can we throw a grape that Tim can catch?” and while I was picking up a grape from the ground, a little leech must have grabbed onto me. It turns out that Shona noticed it just as I was about to start my Sermon2. She didn’t want to interrupt me, just in case I was feeling the flow, so she let the little sucker keep on drinking over the next 20 or so minutes. the first I found out about it was when Greg, sitting next to me, told me after the sermon, by which time I had bumped it off with my other foot & there was blood all over the hall-floor. Anyway, it did make me worry that any interested look that I received during the sermon could have been because of the extraction that was happening on my person at the time. In other news… I am not sure what the other news is. Just plugging along. Dan & Harriet (two good friends from college, who will be working down the road at Kincumber) get back from the Middle East on Friday morning, so I’ll be going down to Sydney to pick them up at 7 something on Friday. Praise God for family. P&K have let me stay at their place, which will make the travel that much easier in the morning. Oh, yeah, for those who pray… Praise points I really enjoyed having a meal with parishioners last night & the Ash Wednesday service this morning. Some aspects of church are quite foreign to me up here, but much of it is very encouraging. Shona had a conference on Mon/Tuesday, which means I have her home for the rest of the week! Prayer Points Continue to pray for Shona as she looks for some part-time work. Pray for me as I get ready for my first Youth Group on friday night.

Pray that I might be bold in calling people up to meet & stuff. I am a bit shy when it comes to calling people I don’t know well (embarrassing for a 32 year old guy, I know)

*1 The only trick that outdoes that (not true, there are a thousand, but this is my favourite) is Sam Chan’s ability to play two recorders at the same time, using his nose as the wind-source! *2 Romans 10:9-15. I really focussed on 10:9, looking at the Simplicity of the Christian message. The beautiful simplicity should be a great comfort to the Christian, but all too often it leads us to consternation. I think we all want things to be more complicated. Surely we have something to bring to the table? Surely I am actually earning some of my salvation? No, even the faith that I exercise is a gift from God! (Eph 2:8-9) Still, as I prepared, I was struck by my/our need to constantly ask myself how I am transferring my belief from being a noun to a verb? How am I acting out my faith. I think Paul certainly had public confession of our faith as a way of living our beliefs, hence the placement of v.14-15 after the 9-13 section. Anyway, that’s just a couple of my thoughts. I was challenged by Justin & Tubeo posting stuff before. Partly I have felt embarrassed to do so. Surely I’ll just get picked apart.

I’m sitting in the SMBC library now. Of course, I needed to do work anyway, so it wasn’t a hard decision to come into college, but I have to say that the air conditioning was a big draw card. While you Northern Hemisphere people are copping a bit of a chill from what I head (particularly the Americans) it has been hovering up to 39 (100 farenheit) here in Sydney… I love the house I am looking after in Lakemba, but it doesn’t have Air Conditioning. Again, the AC was a draw card to visiting the Library… Yesterday’s sermons went well (one sermon, two venues). I spoke a little too fast in the evening service, but felt I did a better job with the sermon as a whole though. John 10:1-18 was a really fun passage to do. Particularly, because you can go down two distinct tracks. Rather than focussing on Jesus as the Good Shepherd, an idea I suspect that most of us grasp easily, I was really taken by Jesus as the gate. The fact that He is very clear in making exclusive claims of himself. It is only through Christ that we can come into a proper relationship with God. I was particularly struck by how the pharisees (and we ourselves) have a small picture of who Jesus us. The question that was floating in the air, which I too have been asked many times, is “how can you be so arrogant as to claim that Jesus is the ONLY way?”. While studying I was struck by the thought that if it is arrogant to claim that just one man could be the only way to God, then it is equally ignorant to believe that if God has come down in the flesh, that we would be able to approach God through any other medium! God-become-man to rescue his people. Providing a gateway between us and God by laying his life down for us (being the Good Shepherd). Anyway, enough of a potted summary. Now to answer a couple of quick questions and then deliver a couple of pictures for you visual types before getting back into some work. Justin: Sermon went OK. I have another two shots at it next week, so hopefully I will improve further. Dave: Wine & sermon prep at the same time. You just have to drink slowly, lest on impinges on the ability to perform the other… Lara: Yep, it certainly is a moleskine. In fact, I have two!! One is a diary, the other is a little notes book. I write down little things that I like & want to use again in them… Now for some pictures. I wont explain them, I’ll let you just enjoy (or critique if you want) them.

A pleasant evening to be had. A sermon to write, a glass of white to drink & a nice book to read.

As the days start to cool down, it becomes an attractive prospect to lie down on a couch indoors & enjoy a little sunlight through the window. Wouldn’t you agree B2?

Master, they say that when I seem To be in speech with you, Since you make no replies, it’s all a dream –One talker aping two. They are half right, but not as they Imagine; rather I Seek in myself the things I meant to say, and lo! the wells are dry. Then, seeing me empty, you forsake The listener’s role, and through My dead lips breathe and into utterance wake The thoughts I never knew. And thus you neither need reply nor can; thus, while we seem Two talking, thou art One forever, and I No dreamer, but thy dream. C.S. Lewis

Saturday was a pig of a day. Don’t get me wrong now, it was great to be involved in Steph & Andre’s wedding, and I was almost happy with my photos, but I only got maybe 5 hours of sleep & I was doing wedding stuff for about 12 hours! I limped back to my car after the bride, groom, and wedding party departed to the reception, then crawled along to Phil & Kristin’s place, cause Amy was up from Wagga! Despite my being wrecked, it is always rejuvinating to see my big sis (or Phil & Kristin, or Mum or Dad for that matter), and to have a free Indian meal thrown in was just icing on the cake! The family get together was energising enough to see me drive home safely & then hit the bed for a good 8 hours! Sunday was another great day. I was off to Church to have a staff lunch, which was awesome fun. I am truly blessed to work with so many fine people. We also had a meal together at evening church & that went great. If the staff are a blessing at church, then the parishioners are doubly so & the kids treble! That night I was in bed by 10:45 & didn’t get up till just after 8am!!! A fine night sleeping to a big storm! So here I am, another good day of college. Fun lectures, an afternoon jog with my next-door-neighbour cum personal trainer, a steak dinner, then “Prayer and Biff” with the boys at 9:30. I’ve worked my way through the tiredness & now it’s back to good times!!! Steph (on the left) certainly has style! Anna too, is very cool… Showing the ‘bling’, it’s the new wedding rings!

Baby, I am BACK!!!! I finally got the problems solved with connecting to the internet here at Dave’s so I am back in business at timgoldsmith.com!!! OK, now the only problem might be that I have very little to write about, cause I am on holidays & that means achieving very little. This, of course, has been aided by my good mate Craig Geeve, who was so kind as to arrange to get me a second hand Playstation 2. Of course, couple this with a free copy of John Madden (American Football) 2004, and a VERY cheap EA Sports Rugby 2005 & my abundant spare time is very much less….. abundant! Otherwise, things really are fairly slow. Doing a little reading, and some prep for first term youth group, watching a lot of cricket and too much tennis, and eating too many chocolate bullets! I guess I will give you a picture or two to look at (more at Flickr) and go to bed so I can dream up something more interesting to fill in your precious internet minutes! “Touching the Void” Mum & Rog, powering through the afternoon on Christmas day… “Always with the ladies!” You always have to make sure there is at least one good looking person in the photo!

It’s just on 7:30 in the am, and it is already 25 degrees (that’s about 80f for your crazy North Americans), maybe a little warmer out here in Dural, and it will only go up. Somewhere around 42 they say (107f) which is getting up there. Were I still home, I think I may have dragged myself out of bed already to turn on the air conditioning, but I am not home. I get to kick off my new years preaching at our St. Columbs church in Arcadia. Initially, I was a little bummed that I would miss out on some of the New Years festivities because I know that I need to get some kind of sleep if I am going to preach effectively, but on consideration, I was quite happy for the opportunity. Firstly, it has been my experience that New Years Eve parties are never quite what you hope they will be. The great view of the fireworks also means being cheek to jowl with a million other people crowding any half decent spot of land on the harbour. The chance to meet up with your mates in the city is frustrated by the fact that EVERYONE in Australia is on their mobiles at the same time, so you can never get through and Transport in and out of the city is a debacle! Secondly, it is good to have a sense of focus as we come into the new year. To remember what it is all about & where we want to go. It’s a time of the year when people start making resolutions. They want to be wiser in the way that they live. They want to be more effective in what they do. With this in mind, it was appropriate (though not intentional when I picked it) that I preach on Psalm 1. It’s a psalm which is all about wisdom. Finding the right council. Here it is.

1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit int he seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. 4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. If you want to hear the sermon, you could come back to St. Jude’s on the 22nd when I will be giving it again, or if that is a Geographic Impossibility, I could send you through the full text, otherwise, I will let you ponder over the Psalm yourself, but for this one thought. As you get ready for the new year, and you resolve to make it better, or smarter, a “growth year”, where are you going to look for wisdom? What is going to be your focus? The focus on now, or the focus on Eternity?

I’m working on a longer post, after having spent an awesome morning with Craig & Chelsea in Bondi. In the mean time, I’ll leave you with a pic & a teeny-tiny question inspired by some emails with a good friend of mine in the US. Read it how you will. Do you know who you are? Have you got your own masks? Do you feel like you are really “known”? It’s good to think about these things….