Archive for the 'Real Life Stories' Category

The Lion And The Man

Published
by
LayGuy
on August 2, 2008
in Christianity and Real Life Stories
. 0 Comments

Lion3 Sit in front of a nature documentary for five minutes and you get blown away by how violent nature is.  Seems like almost everyone has a predator further up the food chain.

Some may think this is the way nature ought to be - after all, all the beast of the fields and the air need to eat to survive right?

I see things from a different perspective.  Setting aside the awesome wonder and awe of creation as it now stands, I can’t help but think that all of creation is slowly decaying and declining.

Since the fall of man, the earth and everything on it, has been cursed:

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Rom 8:19-21

So think about it for a second.  Next time you check out a documentary on nature, realise that despite the beauty that you see, it’s been slowly dying and decaying.  Then sit back and wonder how awesome things were before the fall.

But our God will restore all things to the way they were before.  And we will see just how beautiful things aught to be in God’s perfect order.

One passage of scripture that captures me in regards to this topic is:

“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Isa 11:6-9

Imagine predators and prey hanging out with each other?  A pack of animals - wolves, lambs, goats, calves, lions and cows - all led by a child as he plays blissfully over a cobra snake hole!

What makes this possible?  “The full knowledge of the Lord” will blanket all our minds - both human and animal alike.  Does all this sound too weird to believe?  I’d agree if it wasn’t for the awesome reality of Jesus.

A friend posted a video on Facebook which gave me a glimpse into what this might look like.  It’s a story of a lion and a man.  Hope you enjoy it…

Blind Faith Gone Wrong

Published
by
LayGuy
on July 12, 2008
in Real Life Stories
. 0 Comments

Meet Lakshmi.  Her story broke in November 2007 when she was a two year old born with 4 arms and four legs.  To make things worse, she also had four kidneys, entangled nerves, two stomach cavities and two chest cavities and shoe couldn’t stand up or walk.

You’d think her family would be shattered with these circumstances surrounding their child.  But instead they, and the village where she was born, considered her to be the reincarnated Hindu goddess of wealth and fortune, Lakshmi.

But the truth is, Lakshmi is a joined to a “parasitic twin” - a headless sibling which failed to develop in her mothers womb and attached itself to Lakshmi’s pelvis.  Click on the picture on the right to see what her skeleton looks like.

This is a life threatening situation for Lakshmi.  But instead of her parents listening to medical advice, they submit Lakshmi to public display and worship as the reincarnated goddess.  Check out the video below for more details:

Removing Parasitic Twin

What a sad reality for this poor little little girl.  Her reality as a child in dire need of medical intervention is hindered by a faith steeped in superstition and idol worship.  I wonder if the goddess she represents would have been something other then “wealth and fortune,” if her parents would listen to medical advice.  After all, they seem to come from a very poor village and the caste system in India would probably have something to do with their hesitation to intervene medically.

This is an example of blind faith gone horribly wrong.  This is religion and superstition at it’s ugly worst and it’s not only prevalent in Hinduism, but rampant in all the world’s religions - including Christianity.  And that’s really sad.

But there is a litmus test exemplified in scripture for us that should guard us from error and it’s found in Acts 17:11:

Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

The Bereans listened to Paul’s teaching and instruction - but they also wanted to prove if what he was saying was true. So what did they do?  They listened with open ears and then they searched the scriptures with open eyes and minds.  This kind of attitude and discipline can guard us from believing all kinds of things and guard our minds and hearts.

We’re not Hindu’s - therefore goddess worship should not really show up on our faith radar.  But when you think of it honestly, how many things do we blindly follow out of ignorance also?

As for Lakshmi, the beautiful little girl ended up having her surgery and it was reported in June 16 2008, that she took her first steps after having her conjoined twin removed.  Check out the video here. I hope she gets the chance to live a normal life as any little girl has the right to do.

Get Windows Vista Ulimate For Free!

Published
by
LayGuy
on July 7, 2008
in Internet and Real Life Stories
. 6 Comments

A fellow Melbournian Blogger brought to my attention of a way to get a free and legit version of Windows Vista Ultimate.  As a bit of a geek, this story jumped and hit me in the face like a tonne of bricks so I investigated further.

Even better is that you have a choice of 3 titles: I wonder which one I will go for!

  1. Windows Vista Ultimate
  2. Adobe Photoshop CS3
  3. VMware Workstation 6

www.bastillwork.net is the company offering this amazing offer.  And all you need to do to get your license key for one of these products is this:

Note:  These instructions are taken directly from the article outlining this offer.

For website owners, blogger’s:

  1. Write an article about this offer ( or our services ) on your site, be sure to link to us from this article.
  2. Subscribe to my website for updates via email.
  3. Stumble this article with your comment.

For other:

  1. Write at least five quality reviews ( or comments ) for five distinct software listed in our website ( be sure to write quality reviews, we will check it after you submit )
  2. Subscribe to my website for updates via email.
  3. Stumble this article with your comment.

After you have finished please send an email to admin@bastillwork.net from the same email you used to subscribe to our RSS feed. In this email please include:

  1. State where your post about us on your site is.
  2. Your StumbleUpon nick name.
  3. One of 3 famous software above.

We will send the license to your email after 48h.

Well there you have it.  I must admit, I don’t know these guys at all.  But my fellow Melbournian blogger I can trust and have been in contact with a number of times as I built my church’s website.  He says he got his copy of Windows Vista Ultimate using this website and I trust him.

So I’m going to finish this post right now and do as the instructions above tell me to do.  What have I got to lose?  I’ll let you know when I receive my license key!

Burn Your Plastic Jesus

Published
by
LayGuy
on June 19, 2008
in Real Life Stories
. 2 Comments

Well being an Aussie, and not a rich one, I never thought I’d see the day when I can get to hear Mark Driscoll preach live.  Well not until today anyway when I got an email from my Pastor asking if I’d be interested seeing Driscoll in Sydney on August 27.

Is the Pope Catholic? Don’t fundamentalists vote Republican?  Sorry I just finished watching “Jesus Camp” - another story for another post.  I jumped onto the website and booked tickets right away as Driscoll’s main meeting in the mountains just out of Sydney was sold out way before i even knew he was coming over.

Driscoll is speaking at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and the details are here. “Burn Your Plastic Jesus” is an attempt to shake off the stranglehold weird and whacked out so called Christians have on forming the perception of Jesus to the masses.  Again after just watching Jesus Camp, I think we have a lot of work to do to convince people our Lord is not a complete lunatic.

And so in the middle of Michael Buble, Chris Rock and The Wiggles, at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, Driscoll will talk about Jesus.  Got to love it!

Anyway, below is the promo clip for the event and below that is a cool little video where Driscoll rants against religion.  Enjoy and if you’re an Aussie, I’d love to see you there and meet up!

Burn Your Plastic Jesus

Jesus Vs religion

Steven Curtis Chapman

Published
by
LayGuy
on May 22, 2008
in Real Life Stories
. 2 Comments

“After our first trip to China, my wife and I knew our lives were changing — our eyes and hearts were opening to how big God really is, and we have wanted to experience more of that. We’ve really wondered whether or not we should just go to China and stay there. But I don’t think so. I believe God is saying, ‘I want you to go, get your heart broken, your eyes opened, and then take this story back to the church in America and around the world.” Steven Curtis Chapman via his website.

On Wednesday, 21 May, the Chapman’s lost their adopted child in a tragic family accident. One of their teenage sons struck little Maria - aged 5 - in the family driveway. She was rushed to hospital but passed away from her injuries.

Maria was one of three girls the Chapman’s adopted from China. Steven and his wife, Mary Beth, founded The Shaohannah’s Hope Ministry after bringing their first adopted daughter, Shaohannah, home from China. The ministry’s goal is to help families reduce the financial barrier of adoption, and has provided grants to over 1700 families wishing to adopt orphans from around the world.

As a father of a four and a half year old girl, my heart goes out to Steven and his family - especially the brother who struck Maria. The grief he, along with the rest of the family, are dealing with must seem overwhelming.

This may be amplified by the song Chapman wrote titled, “Cinderella”. As any father, and mother, can relate, sometimes the pressures and demands of life get in our way when it comes to our children. And they are the ones to suffer when all they want is to play with their daddies and mummies.

Steven Curtis Chapman felt this the night he wrote the song Cinderella. Have a listen to the story behind the song:

And here is the music video:

“Cause all too soon, the clock will strike midnight, and she’ll be gone”

In light of what’s happened, that line strikes me to the core of my being and brings a tear to my eye for the Chapman’s and for every parent that’s lost a child.

Despite the obvious heartache the Chapman’s are facing right now, I hope this story is a wake up call to all the daddies and mummies out there who have little Cinderella’s and little Romeo’s - to stop, look down and gaze upon the faces of their kids who simply want to be kids and play with their parents. And then realise that most of what happens in life can simply wait for a while.

My second hope is that this accident raises the awareness of The Shaohannah’s Hope Ministry the Chapman’s have founded. There are many Maria’s out there who need our help and this ministry can be used by God to bring hope to this kids while easing the financial strain on parents.

Meanwhile little Maria, I hope you are enjoying the presence of the Prince of Peace and the greatest lover of children. You are finally home.

Meet Maria Chapman via this video blog posted by Steven at the start of April. Rest in peace sweetheart.

A Dilemma Of Epic Proportions

Published
by
LayGuy
on April 24, 2008
in Real Life Stories
. 1 Comment

Tomorrow night is a movie night for my wife and I and I can’t decide which movie we are going to snuggle up in bed and watch. I have a choice between two - “AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem” and “No Country For Old Men” - both of which are new release videos here in Australia today and tomorrow.

I know both films are questionable in their content - especially in their violence but I’ve been watching violent movies all my life and the last time I had a fight with someone was in fifth grade as I defended my title of “toughest boy in primary school”.

I checked out both trailers on YouTube:

Alien vs Predator - Reqiuem

No Country For Old Men

My wife and I are huge fans of the Alien series. On Mothers Day a few years back, I bought my wife one of those magnified mirrors with lighting around it so that girls can do their thing.  She took one look at it and asked if I had kept the receipt. When I asked her what she wanted, she replied, “The Alien Series on DVD” - all four of them!  Since then the Alien vs Predator movies have come out and “Requiem” is the 2nd movie.

But looking at the trailer above and checking the IMBD rating (5.1/10) I can tell this once masterful series has been reducing to a teenage flick where teens are popped off one at a time until some heroic good looking babe blasts the crap out of the bad guys.

But it’s the legacy of Aliens and Predator which lures us towards this film.  My wife cherishes (and I mean literally cherishes the Alien race) - bizarre I know but she is Spanish born in France :)   And I reckon that Predator is a dude with cool weapons - until he takes off his mask and looks like play-doh with sharp bones.

No Country For Old Men, on the other hand has a huge 8.5/10 rating at IMBD and I have heard great things about this movie.  The trailer looks a bit slow and the whole concept of a serial killer is a little grim to say the least.  But I like good cinema and being drawn into a story.

So there’s my dilemma.  Anyone watched any of these and give me a review?  Without giving the story away!  I bet you’re glad you’ve read this post now huh?  Like, a massive exaggeration of a title to discuss something so minuscule :)