Malcolm Potts September 20th 2015 ~ Reflection, elation or despair

Cheryl and I are somewhere out in the bush today.  We need to be. We are with you in spirit as you worship God together.It has been a busy month with many and varied highlights. The youth team are doing a wonderful job sharing life with our teens.  Liz has a terrific team of Kidz Church friends.  Our church camp was extraordinarily ordinary with so much good-will and good sense from Liz and Andy Goodacre.  James and I have both been used to encourage other communities in their faith and journey. The Elvira Oikos is establishing itself around key servants who are really becoming friends.  People are finding their small groups life-giving and supportive.  Both here in Cottesloe and over there in Palmyra our reach-in to the community is growing and strengthening.  The staff team at St Philips are close, prayerful, unified and interdependent; we love and trust one another; we fight fair and resolve our differences and welcome being held to account by one another.  These things inspire me.Then there is all that you folk are up to that inspires me.  We love you and pray for you as you engage where you are in Jesus' name.  When you enter the room, He is in the midst.  Dean reminded us of this and proved it from the bible for us a couple of weeks ago.I have been invited to help name some new streets in Cottesloe.  While this isn't core business it did give me the opportunity to advocate for some of the history attached to St Philips.  It was a real joy to hear and then take a trip to Mandurah to share with Fay Drayton that the lane parallel to and north of Napier Street is now called Drayton Lane.  It is the feeder road into the new Quarry housing development.I could go on and on about the things that encourage and inspire me.  But right now, today, I feel utterly despairing.  I live in heaven on earth, there is much to celebrate but I feel despairing.  Why?I think it is mainly because I long more than anything to see a society that bears the mark of having recognised Jesus and averted the eyes from and bowed the knee to him.  But I don't see that.  I see the opposite of that.  I see human foolishness from leaders, pride and arrogance, misplaced priorities, unforgiving attitudes, poverty of spirit, the lust of the flesh, worldly value systems, establishment of false gods and on and on. . .  AND that is just in ME!Perhaps I think too much?  Come on!  It's footy finals and the West looks good for a flag, summer is coming, soon I will be a grandpa again, time to fire up the BBQ.  Buck up and look on the bright side.But that's just wallpaper.In our Tuesday night Bible Overview Course we have been learning that since Jesus’ first coming, we live in a time of arm-wrestle.  We wrestle with what is in the sure hope of what will be.  Jesus will come again to put things to rights.  He won't come as a baby and a lamb but as a king.  He won't come to make me feel better; he will come to restore all things to Eden.  He will come to judge sin and restore righteousness. When we see him we will either love him or hate him, we will either be living for him or living for ourselves, we will be doing his thing or our own thing.On reflection, elation or despair isn't the issue.  It is where and on whom my eyes are set that makes all the difference.  It's beautiful out here and just for a few days it is all about Him.Love and PrayersMalcolm