Changes in the church and The Book of Acts

The Acts of the Apostles is an exciting part of the Bible. For the last month or so it has been a focus of my teaching with a small group of cadets. It has been great to share with them in this journey.

Many people have trouble seeing past the amazing things that happened at Pentecost or to Paul on the road to Damascus. They (or is that we?) struggle to read the theology in the many speeches, and skip over the social dynamics behind many of the events we read about.

The Book of Acts is all about change. It is about God working in the lives of ordinary people to usher in the Kingdom of God. Read the book and you will find that change did not come easily, even for those who were trying their hardest to follow Jesus and respond to God's leading. Sometimes it took persecution to get them moving. Sometimes they fought and argued to hold on to old ways.

But Luke writes about ordinary people and their struggle to do what God asked of them. It was (and still is) easier for things that stay the same than to embrace change. Just as they struggled to embrace God-inspired change, so do we. But if they hadn't eventually responded we would not have known about the life-changing power of Jesus.

Perhaps we need to be a little less resistance to change, and a little more open to what God wants from us.

Thanks Canon

A few weeks ago our digital camera packed it in. One minute the LCD screen worked, the next time I used the camera the LCD was a grey flickering rectangle. The camera was about four years old, and not all that expensive, but was still good for our purposes. Now it was useless.

My acquisitive technology self thought 'Great, now we can upgrade!'. The tightwad part of me thought 'That's more money that needs to be spent on something I don't want to spend money on!'. Somehow we still want a camera for next year. How else do you share your memories (and bore your friends)?

A quick internet search and a phone call revealed there was a known fault on the Canon Powershot A75 - that was our camera!

With a letter of explanation, and in hope more than expectancy, the camera was packed and sent to the Canon repair centre. Yesterday its receipt was acknowledged by a standard letter via Australia Post. What did this standard letter mean? I was not sure.

Next step, a phone call: "Yes, it is a known fault", "Yes, it has been repaired" " Yes, it will be sent back to you when quality control checks have been completed." "No, there will be no charge."

Yeah Canon! Made my day... now it's up to Australia Post to deliver.