Gary Levens

Withdrawal from Oxycontin

2009-12-05T19:29:00.001+10:00

In September 2009, I had major surgery to replace both knees. During surgery and for three days after, I had an epidural to limit pain and when the tube came out accidently, I had morphine for a day. The side effects were so bad that eventually I was put on slow release oxycodone tablets called Oxcontin, supplemented by a "breakthrough" oxycodone called Endone.

After release from hospital, I continued with both types and the slow release tablet was increased from 10mg at night to 20mg, as I kept waking with pain. I continued with the slow release variety morning and evening for 4-5 weeks before deciding that I wanted to quit.

I had no understanding of this drug and so I simply went "cold turkey" (against the advice of my wife). In hindsight I should have asked the doctor for advice and done the withdrawal in reducing doses under his care. What followed was a nightmare.

I had never "done drugs" and so I did not realise that I had become addicted to this medication and the effects of withdrawal were going to be like that of a heroine addict.

The first day was not so bad, as the drug was still working quite strongly in my body. However, by the evening of the second day, I started to experience some terrible sensations in my body and in my emotions. The first noticeable thing was that I couldn't keep my legs still. They were incredibly restless. This was followed immediately by a sensation on my skin (especially the chest) as though it were crawling or alive with movement. It was as though millions of crawling creatures were moving over me. This was accompanied by sweating and clamminess.

What really rocked me was the terrible sense of anxiety and distress. I wanted to call out to someone for help but I felt locked away in some cell of despair. I have never been a depressed person, neither have I ever suffered anxiety for no apparent reason. Yet both of these things came to visit me during my withdrawal period which lasted for 25 days.

The first two weeks were the worst. I didn't feel these symptons all of the time, but mainly at night, although not exclusively so. Unfortunately, I would usually have an episode soon after lying down to sleep for the night. I was extremely tired and so I would often try to go to bed early, around 9:30pm or so. However, after one or two episodes, it was usually around 1:30am or 2am before I fell asleep. I would often sit on the side of the bed or sit on the couch trying to distract myself by watching TV. I usually would hold my arms around myself in an attempt to alleviate the effects. I would be incredibly restless and want to move, claw my skin, shudder and shake myself. Emotionally I was often a mess during this time, crying out in despair and distress.

Everyday i would pray that it would be the day it all stopped and I would be free. At night while awake, I would search the internet for information on what was happening. I was surprised to discover that very little is written and posted about Oxycontin withdrawal. My information was garnered from blogs, bulletin boards - personal testimonies such as this. Each tells of the same horrors of the effects of this drug. Oxycontin is considered the most abused drug in the world today. It is an opiate based drug and it is akin to using heroine or opium. I was very surprised that in a country like Australia I was not educated about the drug before it was administered to me. I know that I should not have gone cold turkey, but I simply didn't know how powerful it was and how captive I was to it.

After about two weeks the episodes became less severe, but they still persisted on a daily basis. I looked forward to the 21st day, as all the information I could find indicated that withdrawal takes between 5 and 21 days. However, for me, 21 days came and went and it was day 26 before I had my first day without any episode. I slept for 7 hours straight. As I write this blog I am on day 28 and I experience only very mild tingling in my legs and feet.

The hangover for me is in my mind and emotions. It has left me feeling flat emotionally and wrung out physically. I hope that I never have to take this medication again, or anything similar.

My purpose in writing this blog is to to offer some help and comfort to some poor soul who may be sitting up in the night, searching the internet for some information to help them. If so, I hope that this helps in some way.

GL

Tangalooma Holiday

2009-06-07T21:18:00.010+10:00

In Gaza, the real enemy is Iran

2009-01-04T19:55:00.000+10:00

Israeli attacks must not stop until Iran's proxy, Hamas, is defeated.
By Yossi Klein Halevi and Michael B. Oren
January 4, 2009
Reporting from Jerusalem -- The images from the fighting in Gaza are harrowing but ultimately deceptive. They portray a mighty invading army, one equipped with F-16 jets that have bombed a civilian population defended by a few thousand fighters armed with primitive rockets. But widen the lens and the true nature of this conflict emerges. Hamas, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, is a proxy for the real enemy Israel is confronting: Iran. And Israel's current operation against Hamas represents a unique chance to deal a strategic blow to Iranian expansionism.

Until now, the Iranian revolution has appeared unstoppable. The Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s ended with Iranian troops occupying Iraqi territory. Iranian influence then spread to Saudi Arabia's heavily Shiite and oil-rich Eastern province, and to Lebanon through Hezbollah. Since the fall of their long-standing enemy, Saddam Hussein, Iranians have deeply infiltrated Iraq. Syria has been drawn into Iran's sphere, and even the Sunni sheikdoms of the gulf now defer to Iran, dispatching foreign ministers to Tehran and defying international sanctions against it. Iran has co-opted Hamas, a Sunni organization closely linked to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, transforming the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a jihad against the Jewish state. But Iran's boldest achievement has been to thwart world pressure and approach the nuclear threshold. Once fortified with nuclear weapons, Iranian hegemony in the Middle East would be complete.

All of which helps explain the public statements from moderate Arab leaders, such as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas, who have blamed the end of the tenuous Israel-Hamas cease-fire on Hamas. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit has even called on the Arab world to stop using the U.N. as a forum for blaming Israel alone for the fighting, surely a first. Those leaders understand what many in the West have yet to grasp: The Middle East conflict is no longer just about creating a Palestinian state but about preventing the region's takeover by radical Islam. Indeed, Palestinian statehood is impossible without neutralizing the extremists who oppose any negotiated solution.

If Israel successfully overthrows Hamas in Gaza, it would strengthen anti-Iranian forces throughout the Mideast and signal the region that Iranian momentum can be reversed. The Israeli military operation could begin the process that topples a terrorist regime that seized power in the Gaza Stripin 2007 and has fired thousands of rockets and mortar shells into Israeli neighborhoods.

And whether or not Hamas is ultimately overthrown, Israel can achieve substantial goals. The first is an absolute cease-fire. Previous cease-fires allowed Hamas to launch two or three rockets a week into Israel and to smuggle weapons into Gaza through tunnels. To obtain a cease-fire now, the international community should recognize Israel's right to respond to any aggression over its international border and monitor the closure of Hamas' weapons-smuggling tunnels.

Above all, the goal is to ensure that Hamas is unable to proclaim victory and thereby enhance Iranian prestige in the Arab world.

Yet even those limited goals are far from guaranteed. An earlier opportunity to check Iran -- during Israel's war against Hezbollah in 2006 -- was squandered through a combination of Israeli incompetence and international pressure. Hezbollah manipulated the Western media by grossly inflating the number of civilian casualties and even "recycling" corpses from one bombed site to another.

The international community responded by imposing a cease-fire before Israel could achieve its goals and installing a peacekeeping force that has since allowed Hezbollah to more than double its prewar arsenal. Though the Israeli army killed a quarter of Hezbollah's troops and destroyed its headquarters, Israel was widely perceived as the loser. The winner was Iran.

Israel learned the bitter lesson of Lebanon. For the last two years, the Israeli army has gone back to basics, rigorously training and restoring its fighting spirit. Israeli leaders drew on that spirit to attack Hamas bases in one of the most impressive airstrikes since the 1967 Six-Day War.

Yet the question remains whether the international community has learned its Lebanon lesson, or will once again allow the jihadists to win.

Hamas is attempting to portray the Israeli invasion as a war against the Palestinian people. Television viewers are being presented with heartbreaking images of dead and injured children and supposedly indiscriminate devastation. Palestinian doctors claim that Israel has blocked the supply of vital medicines, and humanitarian organizations warn of imminent starvation. In fact, many of those claims are exaggerated.

Though civilians have, tragically, been hurt, about three-quarters of the 400 Palestinians killed so far have been gunmen -- an impressive achievement given that Hamas fires rockets from apartments, mosques and schools and uses hospitals as hide-outs.

Israel has recently allowed nearly 200 truckloads of food and medicine to enter Gaza, even under shellfire. It is in Israel's urgent interest to minimize civilian suffering and forestall international criticism. For that same reason, Hamas welcomes the suffering of Palestinian civilians. According to a BBC report on Dec. 30, dozens of ambulances were dispatched by Egypt to its border with Gaza, only to remain empty because, according to Egyptian authorities, Hamas wasn't allowing wounded Palestinians to leave.

The international community must not be duped again. If Hamas is successful in manipulating world opinion into the imposition of a premature cease-fire, it will proclaim victory and continue to stockpile long-range missiles for the next round of fighting. That would mean another triumph for Iran.

No less crucially, the international community must not allow the Gaza crisis to divert its attention from the imminent -- and ultimate -- threat of a nuclear Iran. Intelligence sources now measure that threat in months rather than years.

President-elect Barack Obama has declared his intention to confront Iran through diplomacy. Ideally, that process should begin in the aftermath of an Iranian defeat. If Israel is allowed to achieve its goals in Gaza, the Obama administration will be better poised to achieve its goals in Iran.

Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. Michael B. Oren is a distinguished fellow at the Shalem Center and a professor at the foreign service school of Georgetown University.

My Journal

2008-07-15T02:56:00.002+10:00

Date: 11/07/08
Title: In Whom Have Confidence?
Scripture: Ps 146:3 Don't put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there. 4 When their breathing stops, they return to the earth, and in a moment all their plans come to an end. 5 But happy are those who have the God of Israel as their helper,...
Ps 147:10 The strength of a horse does not impress him; how puny in his sight is the strength of a man. 11 Rather, the LORD's delight is in those who honor him, those who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Observation: For some reason we so easily default to putting our trust, hope, confidence in man/people rather than in God. We don't say that we do, but our actions say otherwise. It seems that our faith extends only to a level of worship and belief. We're often happy to leave it there and put our confidence in man for most of our needs.

When we're sick it is simpler and easier to trust doctors and medicines. When we need finance or possessions we trust in sweat and toil.

I read also in the NT scripture today:
Mt 21:21 Then Jesus told them, "I assure you, if you have faith and don't doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, `May God lift you up and throw you into the sea,' and it will happen. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

Faith at times seems so foreign to us. Yet God has called us to live by it and to put ALL of our confidence in Him.

Application: God will require that His people live by faith. I must live by faith. Not just when it is convenient, but every day. In the small things and in the large. I must teach people to do likewise before God removes the things we love to trust in.

Prayer: Lord, help me change defaults and walk in such a manner as to default to faith, confidence and soaring in the Spirit ... every day. Amen

Today's Journal

2008-07-03T05:33:00.001+10:00

Date: 02/07/08
Title: "Prayer for a God Invasion"

Scripture: Isa 64:1 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!

Observation:
Hear the cry of the prophet's heart here. I hear a groaning cry. A cry that is tired of religion and form. Here is a prayer that invokes an invasion of God upon the earth.

Whoever heard of mountains trembling? Perhaps during a volcanic eruption - but mountains usually represent grandeur, strength, even pride and arrogance. The scripture speaks of mountains being made low before the coming of the Lord.

Only God can make the mountains tremble! That is why the cry of this prayer is not for anything except the mighty power of God's own presence.

Application: This is the cry that I feel welling within me. In fact I feel and believe that this is the kind of prayer that God is causing to well up within His church worldwide.

We must give ourselves to this prayer. A prayer that firstly groans then cries out... Oh that heaven would invade us!

This prayer came from looking upon the desolation of the temple...
Isa 64:10 Your sacred cities have become a desert; even Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a desolation. 11 Our holy and glorious temple, where our fathers praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins.

Surely this depicts the state of the church in our day.

Prayer: Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!

Tribute to NZ's most famous person...

2008-01-12T09:49:00.000+10:00

Sir Edmund Hillary was never able to say exactly how he came to be the first man to conquer Mt Everest.

Because it was there, was the best he could offer by way of explanation.

"I can't give you any fresh answers to why a man climbs mountains. The majority still go just to climb them," he once said.

Indeed, Sir Edmund never set out to be the first man to set foot on the top of the world.

As he explained one day, it just sort of happened.

"I never had a vision to climb Mt Everest. As with everything else it just more or less grew," he told the US Academy of Achievement in 1991 in an expansive interview about his life.

Imbued with an irrepressible sense of adventure – and an unshakable restlessness – he was drawn to mountaineering from a young age, regularly escaping into New Zealand's rugged terrain from the time he was 16.

"I was extremely restless, and being restless can be an unhappy sort of existence, even though it often stimulated me into getting involved in energetic activities," he said.

"I certainly never was a happy teenager. I was not lonely, but I didn't really have many friends, and I used to go on long walks.

"I was a very keen walker and, as I walked along the roads and tracks around this countryside area, I'd be dreaming. My mind would be miles away and I would be slashing villains with swords and capturing beautiful maidens and doing all sorts of heroic things, just purely in my dreams.

"I really have no idea why I wanted to keep dashing on in these ways. I realised that it wasn't the normal attitude of the majority of young people. They were more interested in going to the movies or the beach or something or other. I really wasn't all that great on that sort of stuff. I just wanted to get out in the hills."

As Hillary matured, his climbing pursuits became more serious.

"I got more competent and I climbed harder mountains (in New Zealand), and I made a number of first ascents and I had a year in the European Alps and I climbed there," he said.

"Then we decided we'd like to go off to the Himalayas. Not Everest – we went off to the Indian Gahwal Himalayas and we were pretty successful.

"We climbed a half-a-dozen new peaks of well over 20,000 feet, and it really wasn't until then that we read in the paper that the British had got permission to do a reconnaissance to the south side of Mt Everest through Nepal which, up until those days, had been completely closed to foreigners.

"The idea that 'Gee it would be fun to go along on that reconnaissance,' certainly entered my mind, and we contacted the organisers in London and two of us were invited from the expedition to join up with the party and go into the south side of Mt Everest.

"You know, it's almost like a football team. If you're pretty competent and if you don't make any grave errors, once you're in, you're in. You're sort of appointed next time."

The Everest reconnaissance was a success and the group went back the next year for more successful climbs.

"Then in '53 we were invited to join the summit attempt. It was a growing process and a learning process.

"Never, in my early days, did I ever think of attempting to reach the summit of Mt Everest."

But that was to be his fate on May 29, 1953 when Hillary and his mountain guide Tenzing Norgay stunned the world with their feat.

He wrote of the pair's final ascent to the top of the world: "Another few weary steps and there was nothing above us but the sky. There was no false cornice, no final pinnacle. We were standing together on the summit. There was enough space for about six people. We had conquered Everest.

"Awe, wonder, humility, pride, exaltation – these surely ought to be the confused emotions of the first men to stand on the highest peak on Earth, after so many others had failed," Hillary noted.

"But my dominant reactions were relief and surprise. Relief because the long grind was over and the unattainable had been attained. And surprise, because it had happened to me, old Ed Hillary, the beekeeper, once the star pupil of the Tuakau District School, but no great shakes at Auckland Grammar (high school) and a no-hoper at university, first to the top of Everest. I just didn't believe it."

The pair spent just 15 minutes on the summit, as they were running short of oxygen but took the time to take a series of photos as proof that they had, indeed, stood at the top of the world.

Sir Edmund later recalled his surprise at the huge international interest in their feat of "just climbing a mountain".

And he never placed himself among top mountaineers.

"I don't regard myself as a cracking good climber. I'm just strong in the back. I have a lot of enthusiasm and I'm good on ice," he once said.

While those 15 minutes defined his life and made him a hero and inspired climbers all over the world, humility was Sir Edmund's constant companion.

"I still regard adventure pretty much as a hobby to tell you the honest truth, and I think this approach to it keeps one refreshed almost," he said in 1991.

". . . I've always regarded myself in a sense as a competent amateur."

Humble as he was, there were hints too at the pride he kept so well hidden.

"I really like to enjoy my adventures. I get frightened to death on many, many occasions but, of course, fear can be, also, a stimulating factor.

"When (it) is a stimulating factor, then I think you can often extend yourself far more than you ever believed possible. And instead of being just a mediocre person, for a moment anyway, you become someone of considerable competence."

2008 - The Year Ahead

2008-01-01T21:35:00.000+10:00

Christians everywhere need to consecrate the year ahead to the Lord. A re-consecration of lives is important.

I believe that this year will see some big progressions in the Church of Jesus Christ. It is a time to be vigilant and dedicated. It is time for the church to move into a new level of walking in the Spirit and living in the Spirit.

The time for " doing church" is over - it's time to seek the Lord in earnest and when we do, he will come and reign righteousness on us.

Isaiah 52:11 Go now, leave your bonds and slavery. Put Babylon behind you, with everything it represents, for it is unclean to you. You are the LORD’S holy people. Purify yourselves, you who carry home the vessels of the LORD. 12You will not leave in a hurry, running for your lives. For the LORD will go ahead of you, and the God of Israel will protect you from behind.

Security from Yesterday. “… God requires an account of what is past” Ecclesiastes 3:14And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose in this is that people should fear him. 15Whatever exists today and whatever will exist in the future has already existed in the past. For God calls each event back in its turn.
At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.

“Leave your bonds of slavery. Put Babylon behind you, with everything it represents, for it is unclean to you.” This then, is the determination to turn from sin, bondage – as you turn God’s grace becomes “amazing.”

Security for Today. “You will not leave in a hurry … .” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.

Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.

Security for Tomorrow. “… the LORD will go ahead of you … .” This is a gracious revelation—that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.

So, let us come to the altar of consecration. For two reasons:-

1) to Consecrate ourselves here – consecrate = to dedicate, to set apart.
2) To receive His blessing, His Holy Spirit anointing for service.

Like a volunteer soldier – first he steps forward and signs up. Next he is equipped.

Tribute to John Howard

2007-11-27T17:03:00.000+10:00

Geoffrey Blainey

November 27, 2007 12:00am

JOHN Howard convinced the people he called his battlers to sweep him to power in 1996, but in 2007 these same battlers deserted him.

The defeat of John Howard at the polls will long be remembered. He could not have been defeated without valid fears, widely felt, and silently expressed in the ballot box.

At the same time his reign, second only to that of Sir Robert Menzies in number of years, will eventually be honoured.

While his enemies lick their lips, and while Kevin Rudd deservedly rejoices in his win, John Howard has much to feel proud of.

In more than 11 years in office he never failed to promote the virtues of democracy. Knowing that it takes at least two major parties to run a democracy, he was more willing to give praise to his opponents, at the right time, than were nearly all other major politicians.

Even when he was a very young federal treasurer, serving under Malcolm Fraser, he gave the most generous praise to his Labor predecessor, Frank Crean.

A believer in debate he appeared endlessly on radio, television and wherever there was a listener.

It is slightly ironic that he was defeated by an able and highly articulate candidate who went to some lengths to avoid awkward interviews.

Mr Howard's government had a success in creating jobs, useful jobs, which every prime minister before them would have applauded or envied.

Mr Keating, in his stirring speech on election night of 1993 to his true believers at the Bankstown Sports Club, promised to care especially for the unemployed: we want to get them back to work.

Instead, it was Mr Howard who got them back to work.

While rising inflation and rising interest rates helped to alienate many voters on Saturday, Howard's earlier success in combating inflation, year by year, was impressive.

His predecessors, Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, made several notable economic reforms. but their failure to check inflation, by world standards, was even more notable.

It was the Howard government, which, through Peter Costello as treasurer, implemented in July 2000 the first strong reform of the tax system seen since World War II.

The goods and services tax, understandably, was opposed by the Labor Party and a wide section of the public.

And yet, by a strange turn of the wheel, it was the resultant stream of GST revenue, flowing straight to the states, that enabled Labor governments from the year 2000 to avoid financial crises and so win many elections.

Mr Howard did not sell his economic policies as effectively as in the beginning of his reign. Thus it became the received wisdom that it was China, and its booming economy, that was handing us on a plate our present high level of prosperity.

This is a one-sided myth. China is booming not only because of its own vigour but because Australia had one of the most efficient mining industries in the history of the world, ready to supply China with cheap coal, iron ore and other minerals even before Beijing was wealthy enough to afford them.

The strength of the mineral industry here owed infinitely more to federal and state Liberal ministers, especially to Sir Charles Court in Western Australia, than to Labor governments, some of which obstructed the opening of new mines and ports.

This is one of the reasons why the big swing to Mr Rudd did not eventuate in WA.

It was Mr Howard's triumph at his first election victory in 1996 to sell to these blue-collar and white-collar battlers his economic and cultural message. He knew they were not naturally Liberal voters. This new constituency does not represent a permanent realignment in Australian politics, he wrote in 1996.

And on Saturday they largely deserted him.

His ability to persuade was a secret of his long success. He was one of the outstanding debaters in the nation's history. On any topic, almost without notice, he could speak energetically and persuasively. On the republican issue he was the skilled persuader, after giving the whole nation the chance to make up its mind.

In answering questions he usually was forthright. Not that he was forthright on every occasion.

Who is?

Democratic politics, at times, is the art of camouflage coupled with the art of skywriting.

He was not one of the great formal orators like Menzies or Whitlam, or like Paul Keating when Don Watson wrote speeches for him.

He shunned the set speech handed to him by a writer. But day after day he held his audiences, who listened to every word.

You really have to marvel that John Howard stayed in power for so long.

Except in the two world wars, no other prime minister in our history has had to face such a procession of jolts and setbacks arriving from the outside world.

He faced the dangerous Asian meltdown, which was expected to give our economy a black eye.

He faced the upheavals in Indonesia when President Suharto fell, the chaos in East Timor.

The effects of the terrorist attack on New York in 2001 and the rise of terrorist threats within Australia, the assassinations in Bali, and the crises in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He did not dither.

His government acted.

More and more critics now argue that Australia should not have joined the American alliance in the invasion of Iraq.

But it is too early to judge whether Saddam Hussein should have been allowed to continue to preside, unfettered, over his own torture house.

The American alliance, under Labor and Liberal, has been the backbone of Australia's defences. No previous pair of leaders in Canberra and Washington have enjoyed the kind of personal rapport that united Howard and George W. Bush.

Mr Rudd in his first year in office will probably have a running start, because of that unusual empathy, which Howard established.

Wide criticisms are directed at the Howard government. They extend from its policies on global warming to its policies on Aborigines, both of which are moral mountains on which many of his critics like to stand and do nothing.

Despite the fervent talk, there is no sign that even 5 per cent of Australian voters are seriously prepared to sacrifice part of their standard of living, and even cut down on overseas travel, in order to reduce pollution.

There is now an attempt to dethrone Mr Howard as a major political figure.

Critics say that in losing his own seat of Bennelong, he has suffered a unique humiliation.

Only one other prime minister, Stanley Melbourne Bruce, suffered the same punishment.

That was on the eve of the world depression when, like Mr Howard, he vexed swinging voters by trying to reform the workplace.

Bruce's Liberal seat was Flinders, which in 1929 was a farming as much as a bayside suburban electorate.

What is now forgotten is that Bruce won it back two years later, with ease.

Other political leaders, federal and state, have avoided humiliation by finding a safer seat. Billy Hughes was prime minister in 1917, during World War I, and seemed likely to lose his Sydney seat.

He took the drastic step of moving to the Victorian electorate of Bendigo where he was an easy winner.

In recent years Mr Howard could easily have transferred to a safer Liberal seat in Sydney as the demographics moved against him. Liberal supporters would probably argue it is to his credit that he did not move.

Most likely he concluded it would damage the prospects of his own party if he abandoned his own marginal seat and stood for a safer Sydney seat held by a colleague who had made no mark in Parliament.

The emphatic lesson of Saturday's election is that a successful political regime is bound to be in grave trouble once it approaches its 12th birthday.

Having carried out its main tasks, it loses its sense of purpose and mission.

The crushing defeat of the Hughes and Bruce period of government in 1929, the near-defeat of Menzies in 1961, the resounding end of the Hawke-Keating reign in 1996, and the emphatic defeat of Mr Howard on Saturday are part of the same decisive federal pattern.

In the week after such defeats, the deposed national leader looks for all the world like a headless chook.

But in the end, John Howard will be seen by vast numbers of Australians as one of the great prime ministers.

Professor GEOFFREY BLAINEY is Australia's pre-eminent historian and has served on federal government committees since 1967, when Harold Holt was prime minister

Don't intellectualise God ... demonstrate His power

2007-10-16T14:30:00.000+10:00

1Cor 2:1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

We are living in a critical time in terms of the integrity of the Gospel and the restorative plan of God for the church, as He prepares His bride for the return of Christ. In this passage, Paul plainly spells out the manner in which the Gospel is to be presented and also the manner in which we are to enter into revelation living as Spirit-filled and Spirit-led Christians.

Do you know what God wants of you? He wants your availability to His Holy Spirit and your radical obedience in faith. He doesn’t want your good looks, your wise learning, your cunning abilities or even your beautiful singing voice. He certainly doesn’t want your intelligent and cute ways of presenting Christ to the unsaved.

The gospel needs to be presented in a demonstration of God’s power. That’s why we need to be filled deeper and deeper in the Holy Spirit and be operating more and more in the power of God. Stepping out of our comfort. Moving in the gifts of the Spirit – word of knowledge, prophecy, word of wisdom, healing, miracles.

v5so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power – people who get converted to Christ through a light-weight gospel presentation, get a light-weight conversion. An intellectual acceptance of Jesus will produce an intellectual believer. When a person is presented with the gospel, there needs to be a conviction of sin and deep sorrow leading to repentance. The fear of the Lord needs to be present.

The fear of the Lord is clean – endures forever. I love it when people come to Christ with weeping, deep conviction. Why? Because it’s evidence of a heart being opened, touched, cleansed and healed.

Parents – do all you can to get your child a great education, but teach them to walk in the Spirit. When the scripture says, “get wisdom, get knowledge… it’s talking about revelation. Be the prophetic generation not the pathetic one.

Inheriting the Nations

2007-10-08T20:01:00.000+10:00

My dad didn’t do the right thing by his children and allowed his considerable wealth to be inherited by somebody else.

What about an inheritance from my heavenly Father? Now there’s a thought that interests me. What’s more, I don’t have to wait until I die to inherit from Father God.
Ps 2:7I will proclaim the LORD’s decree:
He said to me, “You are my son;
today I have become your father.
8Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.

I want to focus upon two words in this scripture… 8Ask me

On Thursday night I went to the first anniversary of our International service. I looked at the team ministering and performing… Jessica from Korea twirling in her Korean traditional dress; Sonny in his Tongan flax; others in their national costumes – I thought, “Lord, we have the nations as an inheritance.”

At last count, we have 46 nationalities represented in our congregation. Probably more now.

What a richness this brings to us. What a rehearsal for heaven.

Do you know that when I go to heaven – there will be people there who will be my inheritance and my reward – Indian, Chileno, Ugandan, Sri Lankan, Tongan…. And they will be one with me and together we will sing and worship before the throne of our Father. I want to tell you… what I missed from my earthly dad fades and pales into insignificance.

Asking… You have not because you ask not – ask that you might receive. Begin to build up your own portfolio of nations. I began to ask God for Sudanese in our community, when I saw them.

Start with the realization that God wants you have nations and to ask Him for them.

I’ve passed on my inheritance to my kids. They now ask for the nations. They are already building a portfolio.

Have you asked for Australia? Now is the time to ask.
Ask for Australia to be a nation under God.
Ask for Australia to be saved
Ask for Australia to have a government that honours God’s laws and fears God
Ask for Australia to have a leader who is God-fearing and bible-believing
Ask for a Senate that has men and women who fear God.

Starts Today at Taigum....

2007-09-26T11:49:00.000+10:00

There’s a Sense of Change in the Air…

2007-09-21T18:14:00.000+10:00

Here in the southern hemisphere, we’ve entered spring and the Lord reminded me that Saturday (1 Sept) that it’s “the time when kings go out to war.” 2Sam 11:1 It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, … but David remained at Jerusalem.

A few days before I had stood outside my house and watched the lunar eclipse and marveled as the moon turned red. A little bit of research later and I discovered that historically a red moon has signaled a time of change and a time of war. Of course, we know that red moons feature in the book of Revelation towards the end of time as we know it.

I have a profound sense that the world and of course the church, is entering a new season under God. It is a season when the church is being called to be bold and to go on the offensive. This is not a season to rest easy or to pull back. David did that (when he should have been at war) and Israel never recovered from the consequences.

On the one hand, in this season many in the church are wanting to ratchet back on the things of the Holy Spirit in order to make church a less offensive place. On the other hand, God is calling His people to a radical Christianity that does outrageous things in His name. I’m reminded of how Peter, when upon seeing Jesus walking on the water, came up with one of the most outrageous suggestions ever made or heard… “Lord, if that’s You, call me to walk on the water.” Jesus simply said, “Come.” The result was that one man got up and stepped out of the place of security and comfort and walked on water! Eleven others remained in the boat. 1:12 - That proportion sounds generous in comparison to today’s church.

Outrageous – that’s what Peter’s suggestion was. Yet Jesus went along with it. Now, Peter has it on his resume for all of eternity. What outrageous thing will I have on my eternal resume? What will you have on yours?

Peter’s CV…(Short working life)
Achievements…
• Followed Jesus
• Walked on water
• Powerful healing shadow
• Preached first sermon of the church – effective.

This is a season for stepping out of the boat of comfort and safety and to think outrageous thoughts and to do outrageous things for the King. Sure, for certain there’ll be at least 11 others who will try to discourage you.

Spring, a time when Kings go out to war…

Sign of the Times

2007-09-15T17:34:00.000+10:00

The Lord describes His people as Children of the Day – children of light and not of darkness. He calls us to be people of understanding. He tells all that have ears let them hear. He differentiates between those who dwell in darkness and those who live in light.

A couple of weeks ago when I looked at the lunar eclipse and watched the moon turn red, I was reminded that a red moon always speaks of a time of change and that it is a sign from God to the whole world.

These past few years we have seen a great many signs, especially within the Circle of Fire, that are increasing. The greatest was the tsunami of boxing day 2005 affecting so many. Earthquakes and volcanic activity are signs. Just this last week (a week to be noted) powerful earthquake off Indonesia – tsunami warnings to both Indonesia and WA.

Also a time of great release of demonic spirits – radical Islam being the most obvious result. Indonesia is a centre of this and we have been badly affected by it.

Satan is raising up his extremists, radicals in Islam and the bible says:-

Isaiah 59:18 When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.

God raising up a body of people (His church) who will be extremists ...

.... the Elijah people. Elijah was a man who never died. God said that he would return in the last days. Elijah was a man of a powerful, confrontational spirit who did great exploits.

Hangin' in

2007-09-14T15:04:00.000+10:00

Andy Griffith

“And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance.” Romans 5:3

Allow me to pause and speak directly to your heart, if you will. At this point we’re facing a crossroad, and anytime you approach a crossroad, it’s good to have a word of encouragement.

When Andy Griffith, star of the classic television program that bore his name, entered his fifties, he found it increasingly difficult to find work in Hollywood, and his personal finances became tighter and tighter. He wrote in Guideposts that finally he and his wife, Cindy, decided things would be easier if they moved from Los Angeles back to Andy’s home state of North Carolina; so they put their home up for sale and waited for a buyer. Unfortunately, the real estate market was down, and no one gave them a decent offer. Months passed, and Andy grew depressed.Then one day the Lord gave Cindy an insight. “Maybe it’s a good thing we couldn’t sell the house,” she said. “Maybe it was God showing us grace. If we moved to North Carolina now, you might indeed never work again. What we need to do is stay here and stoke the fire.”And stoke the fire they did. Day after day they went together to the office of the talent agency that represented Andy. They sat in the lobby,chatted with agents, and went with them to lunch. Eventually the work started to come in: four TV movies that year, including the pilot for Matlock, a show that ended up running for nine years.

Griffith stuck with it, thanks to his wife’s perceptiveness. And the results speak for themselves, as he went on to further cement his status as a legendary actor and all-round good guy. It took commitment to perseverance, however, before he reached the other side.

Is it any different when dealing with our efforts to overcome the soulish nature? Getting to the point where our entire being is completely spirit-dominated—going from being a psuchikos to a pneumatikos—takes commitment. It takes perseverance. And it certainly takes the patience and grace to continue through the times when we fall back to our soul’s tendencies. But God is determined to see you completely controlled by Him—with your spirit guiding and your soul serving.

He will not fail in His mission. He will see you through to completion. Do you have a part in it? You bet. Can you sabotage the job? Unfortunately, yes, since God will not force His transformation in you. But as long as you purpose in your heart that our Maker will have His way, you are in the cocoon. As long as you allow His Spirit to have its way and grow in influence through your life, you will fly. It’s time to become a butterfly.

It’s time to see the blueprints become reality.

It’s time to become you!

Excerpt from Roll Away Your Stone

It's all a Question of Rights

2007-09-13T08:39:00.000+10:00

THE SQUIRREL`S RIGHTS

THE REST OF THE WORLD VERSION

The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he is a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter the squirrel is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

THE END

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

THE BRITISH VERSION

A social worker finds the shivering grasshopper, calls a press conference and demands to know why the squirrel should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate, like the grasshopper, are cold and starving. The BBC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper, with cuts to a video of the squirrel in his comfortable warm home with a table laden with food.

The British press inform people that they should be ashamed that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty. The Labour Party, Greenpeace, Animal Rights and The Grasshopper Council of GB demonstrate in front of the squirrel’s house. The BBC, interrupting a cultural special from Notting Hill with breaking news, broadcasts a multi cultural choir singing `We shall overcome`. Ken Livingstone rants in an interview with Trevor McDonald that the squirrel has got rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the squirrel to make him pay `his fair share` and increases the charge for the squirrel to enter inner London.

In response to pressure from the media, the Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The squirrel’s taxes are reassessed. He is taken to court and fined for failing to hire grasshoppers as builders for the work he was doing on his home plus an additional fine for contempt when he told the court that the grasshopper did not want to work.

The grasshopper is provided with a council house, two mobile phones to keep in contact with family & friends (why two? a spare just in case he should lose the first one) financial aid to furnish it and an account with the local taxi firm to ensure he can be socially mobile.

The squirrel’s food is siezed and re distributed to the more needy members of society, in this case , the grasshopper.

Without enough money to buy more food, to pay the fine and his newly imposed retro taxes, the squirrel has to downsize and start building a new home. The local authority takes over his old home and utilises it as a temporary home for asylum seeking cats who hijacked a plane to get to Britain as they had to share their country of origin with mice. On arrival they had tried to blow up the airport because of Britain’s apparent love of dogs.

The cats had been arrested for the international offence of hijacking and attempted bombing, but had immediately been released because the police fed them pilchards instead of salmon whilst in custody. Initial moves to then return them to their own country were abandoned because it was feared they would face death by the mice. The cats devise and start a scam to obtain money from peoples` credit cards.

A Panorama special shows the grasshopper finishing up the last of the squirrel’s food, though the Spring is still months away, while the council house he is in, is crumbling around him because he hasn’t bothered to maintain it. He is shown to be taking drugs. Inadequate government funding is blamed for the grasshopper’s drug `illness`.

The cats seek compensation in the British courts for their treatment since arrival in the UK.

The grasshopper gets arrested for stabbing an old dog during a burglary to fund his drug habit. He is imprisoned, but released immediately because he has been in custody for a few weeks. He is place in the care of the probation service to monitor and supervise him. Within a few weeks he has killed a guinea pig in a botched robbery.

A commission of enquiry, that will eventually cost £10,000,000 and state the bleeding obvious, is set up.

Additional money is put into funding a drug rehabilitation scheme for grasshoppers, and legal aid for lawyers representing asylum seekers is increased. The asylum seeking cats are praised by the government for enriching Britain’s multi cultural society and dogs are criticised by the government for failing to befriend cats.

The grasshopper dies of an overdose. The usual sections of the press blame it on the obvious failure of the government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity and his traumatic experience of prison. They call for the resignation of a minister. The cats are paid a million pounds each because their rights were infringed when the government failed to inform them there were mice in the United Kingdom.

The squirrel`, the dogs and the victims of the hijacking, the bombing , the burglaries and the robberies have to pay an additional percentage on their credit cards to cover losses, their taxes are increases to pay for law and order and they are told that they will have to work beyond 65 because of a shortfall in government funds.

THE END

In addition, the squirrel decides enough is enough and sells up everything he owns and moves off to Spain!

Changing Values

2007-09-12T16:36:00.001+10:00

Each day when I watch the news they post the values of various currencies against the $AUS. It goes up and down, depending upon what has just been announced somewhere, but basically stays around the same mark. They use phrases like, "the dollar firmed today."

My values are like that (not that they go up and down) in that they have "firmed"over the years. We can state the things we value, but sometimes those statements are more about what we think we should value rather than about what we really do value. What we really value can be seen by what we consign time and passion to.

When I was younger I poured my energies and passion more into the things I did - career, house, sport. As I have matured I find my values are "firming" and I find myself giving more time to being still and absorbing those things around me that I previously grew impatient with or simply didn't stop to appreciate. I find myself getting great pleasure from simply hanging with those who are important to me. I'm becoming more of a listener than a talker. Being still helps you to do that.

I've served God for 35 years but for most of those years I didn't value the simplicity of just "being"with Him. I find myself devoting hours to just finding a quiet place to hang with God.
The same is true of my family. I'm sorry now that I didn't spend more time just "enjoying" my kids when they were young. Hanging with them now is such a delight. I'm making up for it with the grandkids!!

My values now are much simpler than they were back then. The simpler the better for me. Food, celebrations, decorations, conversations - simpler's better.