MattGlover.com

Welcome to any readers that are visiting after hearing my interview on ABC Western Queensland this morning. Feel free to browse around and ask any questions you like!

If you’re interested in finding out more about cartooning and becoming a cartoonist, visit my other blog at www.chewingpencils.com

One for next months K! magazine…

My back surgery recovery is going well. So well in fact that I was able to complete the 65km ride on the new Eastlink tollway on Sunday morning (yeah - wagged church to do it).

The above pic appeared in Mondays Age newspaper. If you look carefuilly, you can see me in the top right hand corner. I’m the one with the helmet and bike…;)

It was a great morning with a great atmosphere surrounding the place. Over 40 000 riders made even this huge road seem a bit squeezy at times.

The next riding goal is to get under that elusive 20 minute mark for the 1:20 climb up to Sassafrass in the Dandenongs, before heading around the Bay again in October.

I’m home!

I went in to theatre at 2pm on Monday for a microdiscectomy and was back in the ward by about 5:30pm. The anaesthetic they gave me was fantastic - I asked three nurses and the neurosurgeon to marry me in the time that I was waking up!

Seriously, the procedure went as well as it could, and when I did come around, I was totally pain free and could feel my left foot again. Quite amazing how instantaneous it was. Of course, when the pain killers wore off, the actual wound where the surgeon ‘went in’ started to sting like crazy, but that’s to be expected.

Anyway, an hour or so after I woke up, I was walking the corridor with my wife. After a great night sleep (it must be the quietest hospital ever!) I was sent home. I slept most of the rest of Tuesday and today have alternated between taking short walks, lying down and sending emails from the lap top perched on top of the ironing board. I’ve got to take it easy for a while yet, but everything is looking great so far.

Thanks again for all your encouraging messages.

Sorry I haven’t got around to posting summaries of my messages from the last few months, but if you’re interested, one of the guys from church has been converting them to podcasts and posting them on the web.

Check out the last few in the Lord’s Prayer series by clicking here.

Enjoy!

Just managed to successfully (I think) upgrade to Wordpress 2.5

I hate doing these things as I’m almost certain that the blog will disappear off the face of the blogosphere as soon as I press enter. Anyway, so far so good.

Computer time has been limited of late because of the back situation. I’m now scheduled for surgery on April 28th and I’m starting to get nervous!

Still, it will be good to have it fixed once and for all.

From October, every time I walk into a room, you will have to bow down in front of me and call me Reverend.

Well, not really, but I will be ordained by the Baptist Union of Victoria as a recognised and accredited minister of the gospel.

It’s staggering who they let in these days!

Seriously, it’s nice to be at the end of that part of my journey - who knows what comes next!

But before then, I have to head off to surgery and get this back of mine fixed once and for all. Everything that can be tried, has been tried, so it’s time for the last resort. Fortunately it’s a short procedure and the recovery, while limiting, is not anywhere near as bad as I was expecting.

2008 is not turning out anything like I had planned - it’s funny how life does that to you.

The Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven, was the core of Jesus teaching. When he was walking around 2000 years ago, many of the stories and parables he told started with the words, “The Kingdom of God is like…”.

So it’s probably no surprise that when Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray, he included the words, “Your Kingdom come.”

On Sunday night we looked at a few elements of the Kingdom of God and what they might mean for us to pray them.

Nowhere does Jesus actually define what he Kingdom of God is. It is clear it is not a geographic place, but instead something more like the rule or reign of God. We could even use words like the ‘impact’ or ‘influence’ of God. But we do get little glimpses of some of the characteristics of what this impact is like. We looked at just four of those on Sunday

The Kingdom of God is forcefully advancing and there’s nothing we can do to stop it (Matt 11:12)

The Kingdom of God is all inclusive, embracing the unclean and the outcast, where everyone is equal (Matt 9:20-22)

The Kingdom of God is counter culture, valuing many things the world does not (Matt 18:1-5)

The Kingdom of God is worth everything we have (Matt 13:44-46)

And most surprisingly, the Kingdom of God is within us (Luke 17:20-21)

So for all of these things to become a reality in our world, for God’s Kingdom to have a lasting impact on lives and communities, then it happens through us.

These three words, “Your Kingdom come”, become the most powerful part of the Lord’s prayer because not only do they change us in dramatic ways, but they change the world around us too.

It takes a bold person to pray this prayer. Feeding the hungry is a sign of God’s Kingdom breaking into the world, so if we pray “your Kingdom come” we should expect to be eating with the hungry, giving up our own food if necessary. We should expect to be rubbing shoulders with the homeless, the outcast, the addicted and the different because this is all part of the impact God has through his people.

The worst thing we can possibly do, is pray the prayer and not expect to be part of the answer.

Two weeks ago (yes, it’s taken me a while to get these notes up) we looked at the next phrase in the Lord’s Prayer - Hallowed be Your Name.

Hallowed, or holy, is not really a word we use much now apart from describing an extra special place. For instance, the ground of the MCG if sometimes described as ‘hallowed turf’.

The dictionary defines hallowed/holy as something that is extra special, something that is devoted to or used by God. So when we pray this part of the prayer, we are asking that God’s name be set apart and regarded as more special than any other names.

But what is God’s name?

The story of Moses in Exodus chapter three helps understand a little bit about God’s name, as well as how we can understand what holy means.

Moses, at this point in the story, is a shepherd, looking after his sheep on Mount Horeb. There he sees a bush that is on fire, but not being consumed. Out of the fire, god speaks, telling Moses to take off his sandles for where he is standing is holy ground. This place, and this point in time, is special becasue it is the beginning of the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and the birth of the Jewish nation. Moses is unsure if the people will respond to what God is asking him to do, so he asks God to reveal his name to convince the jews that his story is legitimate. God responds with I AM WHO I AM.

It might seem a strange name, but it speaks of god presence with us at every point in the past, presence and future. In everything that happens, I AM.

So the Lord’s Prayer is asking that at every point in time, the name of the eternal, ever present God be regarded as special.

There is a danger to think that because we are praying this prayer, somehow God’s name mustn’t be holy already. Of course, the Bible tells us that it is, and there is nothing that will ever change that. However, we’ve also heard that we are the ones that are changed the most when we pray.

In Galatians, Paul describes us as God’s children and heirs. As such, we, as a community, bare God’s name. When people look at us, they form opinions of God.

For God’s name to be kept holy thus means that our words, thoughts, actions and attitudes as individuals and as a community must never take away from the holiness of God’s name. We must never cause people to curse God nor should we simply stand by and let God be ridiculed. It’s a fine line, but one that we need to be conscious of all the time.

We finished the night with a challenge to write I AM WHO I AM on a piece of paper and write it in a prominent place where it would be seen at least once everyday. Every time we saw it, we were to pray the words “Hallowed be your name” and then be open to whatever it is the Spirit might be saying to us through the circumstances of the week.

If you’re reading this for the first time, give the exercise a try and let me know how it goes!

Well, it seems that that the epidural injection, as fun as it was, hasn’t worked and I’m back to square one with my back.

The pain is progressively becoming worse and a few times today I endured spasms that more or less paralysed me.

Needless to say, I’ve returned to spending most of my time flat out on the floor. It’s frustrating, but I don’t have much choice!

I’m off to see the surgeon again in two weeks time (the earliest appointment I could get) and until then will live on a diet of pain killers and chocolate!

Thanks for all your emails wishing me well!