The Rodeo

This last weekend I attended the Katoomba Men’s Convention with a couple of friends. The theme was “Telling it like it is”, and was a collection of talks on Jesus’ sermon on the mount.

I learnt a good few things, and took a bunch of notes. I think I took as many notes in five talks as I did in five weeks at university - amazing how your attitude changes towards things like that, isn’t it?

I’m going to type up my notes in the next few entries so that I can look back over them easily, as well as allowing anyone who didn’t take any notes, or didn’t attend, to have them available to reflect upon. If you want to add any further comments or your own notes to them, please feel free to do so.

So, the first four things I learnt:

1. It’s a men’s convention. This means lots of testosterone. You can’t be heard singing too high or people might think you are not a man. This resulted in the songs getting lower and lower until the bass rumble threatened to bring down the shed.
2. Two and a half thousand voices singing in unison can (and will) send shivers down your spine.
3. If you forgot (read: didn’t bother bringing) your bible, reading over the shoulder of the people in front is a viable option. Good Christians that everyone was, there was a large amount of study bibles, with copious notes at the bottom of the page, making it very easy to read along without shoulders getting in the way. If you are lucky enough to have two people with the same study bible in front of you, you can read the right-hand page on the person in front and to the left, and the person to the right will reveal the left-hand page.
4. It’s easier to bring your own bible.

RodeoClown: is a man.

Mike Raiter (a missionary in Pakistan for eleven years) gave this talk on Matthew 5:1-16.

• Teaching and Healing were Jesus’ ministry
• Matthew chapters 5-7 show his teaching and 8-9 show healing and miracles.
• You can’t have Jesus as a teacher without the miracles, and you can’t have the miracles without Jesus as teacher - you have to take both.

• The sermon on the mount is not how to become a Christian or how to get right with God. It is what we should be doing once we are.

• The beatitudes describe the disciples (i.e. us) and their (our) future.

• Poverty is powlessness and helplessness and hopelessness. People in abject poverty cannot help themselves - they have to beg of those who are rich.

• You cannot save yourself, no matter how hard you try.

• We are helpless (poor in spirit).
• We have to go to the one who is rich.
• We have to ask for help (meekness).

• Of the eight blessings described six are yet to come, two are already here. Read the passage, it should be pretty easy to see which is which.

At this point Mike talked about a swimmer who swam some huge distance to the Californian shore (from an island or something, I can’t remember which). She swam for fifteen hours and she was exhausted. It was foggy and she couldn’t see anything and she asked the people in the boat with her to pull her out of the water. Once she got back in the boat the fog cleared and she could see the shore just ahead - she had given up with only a short distance left to swim. She said that she’d have kept going if she could see the shore.

• We need to keep our eyes fixed on the shore (i.e. the rewards described in the beatitudes), if we only see the fog we will give up too early.
• The one thing that sustained Israel in Babylon was the hope of Jerusalem.
• We need to keep our eyes on the shore (repeated for truthiness).

RodeoClown: hopes the fog lifts soon.

David Cook (principal of Sydney Missionary and Bible College in Sydney) gave this talk on Matthew 5:21-48.

• 5:21 - Murder: It is not just the act of murder, but the attitude that is wrong.
• 5:27 - Adultery: Again, not just the act, but the thoughts that are the problem. Do what is necessary to cut it out (gouge out your eyes if you have to - get rid of the cause).
• 5:31 - Divorce: We are called to love our wives. If you don’t love her anymore, too bad, you have to. It’s a command, not a feeling.

• Love your wife
• Love your neighbour
• Love your enemy
• No matter what you think of her as, you have to love her. It’s the man’s responsibility.

5:33 - Word: Make your word stand on it’s own. Don’t break your oaths and promises, even if it is to your detriment. Be a man of your word.

5:38 - Retribution:

• 5:43 - Contrast:
• 5:44 - Love and Pray: Don’t let your attitude of love and goodwill be affected by their antagonism.
• 5:45 - Reason: God is kind to all; good and evil.

• Loving your enemy shows how you relate to Christ.
• You don’t have to be creative in showing your love:

• Talk to them
• Pray for them
• Ask to pray for them

5:46-47 - True Radicalism: Forget politics - show love to everyone

• Impossible: It’s not natural to love your enemies, it’s only the Holy Spirit that lets us respond with love to those who are antagonistic towards us.

RodeoClown: heeding.

Mike Raiter gave this talk on Matthew 6:1-18. I think it should be we men, not us men. But anyway…

• Jesus’ worst words were for hypocrites.
• Matthew 5:20 is the key verse.
• Righteousness: Godly conduct (righteousness is not from Jesus’ grace in this context - this is our righteousness). We have to be better than the pharisees.

• Intention and action is what he wants.
• The truly righteous are men of integrity - what we do and what we say are the same.

• This is not an optional extra! These aren’t unreachable ideals - we have to do them.

• We won’t be perfect, but we must be consistently men of integrity - it’s demanded of us by Christ.

• The reading is just three examples, we should be like this in everything.
• What you intend is as important as what you do.

• The examples given are exaggerations - they are like cartoons:

• One hand not knowing what the other is doing.
• Praying in the cupboard.
• Fasting - spruce up! (Don’t let everyone know about it).

• True integrity is a life lived before an audience of one:

• These verses don’t mean that no-one should see what you do, rather do them so God receives the praise.
• Do it for Him.

• Consequenses: Just because God graces us to believe and obey doesn’t mean we don’t have a responsibility to believe and obey or a culpability if we don’t.

• If we do things for people’s recognition, we’ll get what we want and that will be all.
• Seeking men’s acclaim, not God’s.
• Do things for God and we will get paid by him.
• Do it with God as your audience.

• We will be commended and rewarded if we do these things for God.

• The reward isn’t specified, it could just be God’s praise.
• Look for God’s praise, not men’s.

This teaching provokes two responses:

1. It is liberating: We don’t have to be perfect in our prayers/sermons etc, as we only need to be judged by God, not men.
2. Fear: of the one who will assess us.

• If we do our righteousness in secret, people can’t judge us.
• Learn from Vitalis

RodeoClown: wants to be like Vitalis (but won’t be hiring any prostitutes).

Figure out why the bullet points in the men’s convention notes only work some of the time.

RodeoClown: apologises for the inconvenience.

Women’s Health and Human Life Protection Act
Good news for unborn babies! You are now considered valuable by the government of South Dakota.

RodeoClown: is cheering.

It sucks when you are convinced that what you are doing is wrong. Espescially when you are at the penultimate episode of a series.

For later reference, the next episodes in each series that I have yet to watch are:

• Smallville - Season 5 ep 16
• 24 - Season 5 ep 10
• Battlestar Galactica - Season 2 ep 19 (page 81 Penny Arcade forums)
• Lost - Season 2 ep 16 (page 55 Penny Arcade forums)

I guess I’ll have more free time now…

RodeoClown: repentant.

David Cook gave this talk on Matthew 7:1-6.

• 7:1-6 - Resist Pride:

• Do not be judgemental
• Pride in our mortality forgets the grace of God
• Don’t think you can’t judge anything - but be discrning as to what is important and should be judged.
• Pride is an aggressive cancer of the soul.

7:7-12 - The Alternatives:

• Realise you are poor in spirit
• The early church realised they couldn’t bring anything to God. Now we bring what we think we know.
• Human pride is repulsive to God (think along the lines of magnets with the same polarity - they can’t join together. Spin one ’round and… snap!)

• 7:13-23 - The Two Ways:

• Two gates, two roads, two men… two of everything

7:24-27:

• Pride of the pharisee is the worst kind.
• It’s hard to listen when we’ve heard it all before.

7:24-25 - The Rock:

• 7:26 - The Sand:

• 7:24, 26 - The Difference:

• To be a Christian is to have lost control to Jesus.

Do?

• The Lord’s Prayer is the core of the sermon

• Be passionate about God’s honour
• Be dependant on God for physical and spiritual sustenance
• Be careful

One other thing I noted, but can’t remember exactly what it referred to is the following:

Love is spelt:

• T-A-L-K for your wife
• T-I-M-E for your kids

RodeoClown: is fighting pride.

Jim Ramsey gave this talk which is labelled in the book we were given: A practical guide for husbands. Why this talk is called ‘Tin Shed Time’, and not just billed as another seminar is beyond me - at any rate, I think this talk had the most post-talk conversation and action. Probably because it was far less theoretical in nature than the other talks.

Let’s Run a Rescue Operation

1. Family first…
   • Before Jesus
   • God made maleness and femaleness
   • Family was there - be it people/tribe/clan/house
   • The father’s line was used to follow the geneaology
2. Genesis
• Women became part of the man’s family  and not vice-versa
3. Patricentrism
• Father is at the centre
4. We won’t understand marriage apart from Jesus - Mark 10:6-9
• Jesus teaches we are male and female
• There is a difference (and it’s not just the plumbing)
5. We won’t understand Jesus apart from the cross - Mark 10:45
• Jesus didn’t come to be a martyr for a cause, rather he came to pay our ransom
• His death becomes the standard men have to have our marriage role meet
6. We won’t understand marriage apart from the cross -

Ephesians… then Eph 5:25-33

• verses 5:25-33 need to be placed in the context set by the rest of Ephesians

1. Men are to accept Jesus died for me to be forgiven, he is committed to us with no qualification - Faithful
2. We have to love our wives sacrificially
• Men protect wives
• Wives protect kids
3. To be unfaithful to our wives while relying on Jesus’ faithfulness is sheer, rank hypocrisy!

Colossians… then Colossians 3:19

• Submitting should be initiated by the woman
• It is not commanded by the husband
• It’s a command from God to wives
• It’s hard for wives to submit when their husbands are:

• indecisive
• moody
• childish
• demeaning
• not willing to pray
• etc…

It is easier (and a joy) to be submissive when the man is for his wife like Jesus is for the church.

1 Peter… then 1 Peter 3:19

• God won’t hear our prayers unless we are considerate
• (hmmm… this sounded right in context, but on it’s own sounds wrong - read the verse I guess)

Truthfulness and Honesty

• …at this point, the speaker pretty much stopped following the notes and talked about the problem that pornography presents to women.

Pornography

• This is a huge problem for men, and the temptation is huge. It’s everywhere in our current society.
• If you decide you are going to stop looking at porn: do something about it RIGHT NOW! - ring someone or talk to someone, and get them to keep you accountable. Otherwise you won’t stop, and will put it off and it will come back to haunt you.
• Pornography hurts your wife because she will think that when you make love to her you will be thinking about what you have been watching.
• Don’t!

At around this time, Jim started talking about adultery and how it is basically courtship - you don’t just jump in bed with another woman (usually), but rather it builds up from a friendship. He asked:

‘If you were to commit adultery, who would it be with?’

He then said that if you have a name come into your head in the next second or two, you are very probably in big trouble! Talk to someone about it right now, and do something to stop it - change jobs if you have to.

One final note, a quote at some point came out: “Foreplay starts at breakfast”, to which someone replied “It’ll be the longest day of your life”.

But worth it.

RodeoClown: wants to be a great leader.

Why can’t I buy stuff from the USA iTunes music store?

I want to buy the last two episodes of Battlestar Galactica.
I want to give you my money.

This is reason number 2 why people pirate.

Reason number 1.

I have been asked by Kim and Jason to take part in their Adultitis Escape Plan, a 40-day plan to become more childlike (not childish)
and to reduce stress and prevent dullness, depression and [insert
another word beginning with ‘d’ here]. Of course I’m gonna do it.

Dreary-ness, that begins with ‘D’.

---

The thirty-seventh task: Eat or drink something today that brings back childhood memories.

I used to eat tuna noodles two or three times a week when I was still living with my parents, it was all my youngest sister and I cooked. It’s very yummy, and now Mat loves it too. Dinner tonight (and fairly frequently still) was this fantastic dish. Here is the recipe.

Tuna Noodles:

1. Start boiling some water (for the noodle part).

2. Turn on the heat under another saucepan, you want it to be about half-heat.
3. Whack a tablespoon or so of butter in the saucepan and let it melt a little.
4. While the butter is starting to melt, go find some flour and throw about a heaped tablespoon into the butter.
5. Mix these up.
6. Open a can of tuna in brine (NOT oil, springwater would probably work too, but it would taste terrible) - I normally use a 500g can. Toss the entire contents of this can into the mix (yes, with the brine).

7. If the water is boiling, chuck some noodles in there, if not, wait till it is and then do it. I like macaroni best, but this is good with most types of noodle.

8. Mix the sauce, adding milk till it’s runny, but not super wet (I normally just drop a half-cup or so of milk in at a time). If you have any cream or sour-cream in the fridge, throw it in now.
9. Grate some cheese - I normally grate about half a block of cheese, so about half a kilo worth. Chuck the cheese in too, leaving a small amount out to stick on top when it’s finished.
10. Keep adding milk so the sauce is a little runny (but still pretty thick), while the noodles cook.

11. When the noodles are ready, drain them.

12. Get a packet of french-onion soup mix, add some of that in (I find the no-name brands taste much better than the expensive ones for this, they make worse soup, but better condiments :)).
13. Add some more cheese.
14. Serve the noodles with sauce, adding some grated cheese on top, along with a bit more soup mix.

14a. If you want to make this a bit more fancy, chuck it in a casserole dish and cover the top with cheese. Stick it under the grill until it goes golden-brown. Then eat it.

RodeoClown: eats this a lot.

I have been asked by Kim and Jason to take part in their Adultitis Escape Plan, a 40-day plan to become more childlike (not childish)
and to reduce stress and prevent dullness, depression and [insert
another word beginning with ‘d’ here]. Of course I’m gonna do it.

Dreary-ness, that begins with ‘D’.

---

The thirty-eighth task: Make someone a homemade gift to show how much you care about him/her or to thank him/her for a job well done.

I won a competition on Kim and Jason’s podcast, but I didn’t tell Jen about it. Instead, when the prize (a K&J print) arrived, I bought a frame and framed it.

Doesn’t sound very hand-made, does it?

Jen and I have a ‘tradition’ of sticking things (photos, notes and the like) in the backs of frames. When we open the frame up, for whatever reason, a surprise is there waiting.

RodeoClown: will let you draw your own conclusion.

I have been asked by Kim and Jason to take part in their Adultitis Escape Plan, a 40-day plan to become more childlike (not childish)
and to reduce stress and prevent dullness, depression and [insert
another word beginning with ‘d’ here]. Of course I’m gonna do it.

Dreary-ness, that begins with ‘D’.

---

The thirty-ninth task: Play a practical joke on someone.

I discovered a little trick about a while ago - if you click your fingers on both sides of someone’s head, the sound seems to come from inside their skull.

This isn’t a very amazing practical joke, but you can give people near-heart attacks with it if they don’t notice you coming. It’s even funnier if there is a bunch of people watching you creep up behind someone in mid-conversation.

I did this at work and nearly killed a guy (sorry Mark).

It has now become kind of my work trademark, and people see if they can catch me out with it too, they even mangage it occasionally.

In other kinda-related news: I once convinced my Nana I was a carpet steam-cleaning salesman and had her on the phone for fifteen minutes trying to convince me that she didn’t need her carpet cleaned. Sorry Nana.

RodeoClown: ha.

Baby #2: Jesse Edward Tyrrell was born last Sunday.

Mat woke us up at 11pm after having a nightmare about yoghurt and Jen started feeling a bit off. Her off-ness turned into pain quite shortly and so I spent most of the night massaging her lower back as contractions came and went.

Grandma came over at about 5am to collect Mat (who is having a great time holidaying with her and Grandpa), and Jen and I headed down to the hospital (I didn’t drive nearly as fast this time as I did with Mat).

After a few more hours of labouring, our obstetrician (Dr Parry - really good at obstretric-ing) told us that the baby hadn’t moved down at all and so Jen was labouring for very little gain. A caesarean-section was going to have to be arranged.

It all came about quite quickly, and Jen was prepped and ready within the hour, and I was dressed in surgical blues and brought it to sit with her while they finished cleaning the incision area and then while they removed the kid.

It was very quick, and within about five minutes we were shown a small, purple child and told that we had had a boy!

Hooray for a testosterone-filled house!

From then, Jen has healed remarkably quickly, getting up and walking around the day after the operation, and two days afterwards, having a shower by herself and feeling well enough to walk to a coffee shop in the next building for milkshakes with Mat and Grandma.

Thank God that we have another healthy boy to add to our collection - we already love him heaps, and are looking forward to raising two boys together.

Thanks to everyone who prayed for us and the boys.

I have created another page on this site filled with photos if you are interested.

RodeoClown: tired, but happy.

note: During the operation dropped my sister’s digital camera, killing the XD card inside (if anyone knows how to fix this so I can get some photos out of it pleeeeeease let me know asap, thanks).