Time magazine has released a list of the top 100 people who shape the world.

How does one get on the list? You have to be a man or woman “whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world.”

The usual suspects appear – Hollywood is well represented with people like Martin Scorsese, Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt. Other people to make the list include Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Richard Branson and even the Queen.

But what I want to know is – who has had a profound influence on your life? It doesn’t have to be THE world, just your world.

It may not have been dramatic at the time, but looking back you can definitely see this person has impacted the direction of your life.

It could be:
• Someone you’ve never met
• A family member
• A public figure
• A neighbour, a stranger, a teacher

Interesting that two of our guests this evening could identify one person who’s had an impact on their lives. Miles Hilton-Barber says he decided to become an adventurer because he admired his older brother who was also a blind adventurer.

And as we just heard from Nancy Heische, it was a close friend who took an interest in her life, and encouraged her back to church where she was able to get her life back on track.

Let me know who’s transformed your world.

This week's dilemma is from Robert.
 
He's currently renting a place, but owns a two storey property that he wants to move into. It makes financial sense for him to move in upstairs, because it will mean he won't have to pay tax on the rent he earns from having someone else live there.
 
BUT he's concerned the tenants downstairs might feel uncomfortable if their landlord is living above them.

He's worried it might be seen as intrusive. He knows the tenants, not well, but they have met.

Robert says they don't know each other well enough to know whether they get on or not. There are separate entrances to each unit, but Robert knows they would bump into each other in the carpark or on the street. Because the tenants are paying off his mortgage, he doesn't want them to feel uncomfortable, at the same time he does want to move in.
 
What should Robert do?

DISCUSSION POINTS:

• Will Robert moving in affect the landlord/tenant relationship? Maybe you’ve been in a similar situation either as the landlord, or the tenant…did it work?

• Would it be an invasion of the tenant’s privacy…or is it irrelevant whether the landlord happens to live upstairs?

The Australian Cricket team is in a bit of a dilemma – should it go on tour to Zimbabwe in September to play three one day games?

The Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, who’s a respected human rights campaigner -says that if Australia does participate, the Zimbabwean government will use the visit as propaganda.

He says that when the Australian cricket team visited three years ago, the state controlled media used the visit to suggest the international community supported the Zimbabwean government.

On that occasion in 2004, spin bowler Stuart MacGill boycotted the tour.

Archbishop Na-coo-bay says inflation is up to 2200 per cent, and Zimbabwe now has the world’s lowest life expectancy.

Many blame the country’s leader, Robert Mugabe for the country’s woes.

Prime Minister John Howard says the situation in Zimbabwe is unacceptable.

Captain Ricky Ponting says every player will be able to make up their own mind on whether they should go or not.

What do you think? Should the Australian cricket team tour Zimbabwe in September?

It was a typical Friday in a downtown street. A non-descript man in jeans, long-sleeved T-shirt and baseball cap emerged from a Washington DC train station. He found himself a spot against a wall, just beside a rubbish bin. He opened a small case, removed a violin, shrewdly placed a few dollars into the case, spun it round to face pedestrians, stood up and began to play.

It was 7:51 a.m.—peak hour. The man played his instrument for 43 minutes, and was passed by a total of 1,097 pedestrians rushing off to work. Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to many who walk through the city: Do you stop and listen, look straight ahead and hurry past, or throw in a coin just to be polite?

What makes this story really interesting is that no one knew the fiddler in question was in fact Joshua Bell—one of the finest classical musicians in the world. And he was playing some of the finest music in history, on an 18th century violin worth millions of dollars. It was all part of an experiment set up by the Washington Post newspaper.

Bell began with a piece from Johann Sebastian Bach, a piece he described as “spiritually powerful”. It’s also considered one of the most difficult violin pieces to master.

Bell played the 14 minute piece with acrobatic enthusiasm, but for the first few minutes nobody noticed. One man slowed to look for a second, then kept walking; a woman threw a dollar into the open violin case. It was not until six minutes into that world-class performance that someone actually stopped to listen.

Things didn’t get much better. In the three-quarters of an hour that Bell played, seven people stopped to take in the performance, at least for a minute. Twenty-seven gave money, most of them on the run, leaving 1,070 people who hurried by—most not even giving Bell a glance. Bell can command $1000 a minute in the theatre. On this morning he earned a total of $32 and a bit of change. He later said the most awkward part of the experience was the moment he finished a piece and received, not his customary applause and standing ovation, but silence. He wasn’t used to being ignored.

One woman who ignored Bell was stopped by the Washington Post and asked about her actions. “Yes, I saw the violinist,” she said, "but nothing about him struck me as much of anything.” That’s when this story reminded me of another famous figure. “There was nothing attractive about him…” it was said of Jesus Christ. “One look at him and people turned away.”

In fact, the similarities between these two figures are many. Joshua Bell left the applause of the theatre to play in a dusty street. Jesus Christ left his throne in heaven to visit war-torn earth. Bell was the world-class musician whom everyone ignored. Jesus came into the world, “yet the world did not accept him” (John 1:10). One magazine said that Bell’s rapturous playing did “nothing less than tell human beings why they bother to live." The Bible says Jesus Christ came to give us “life to the full” (Acts 3:15). Even their names are the same—‘Joshua’ is the Hebrew name for Jesus. Without knowing it, the Washington Post experiment gave us a glimpse of the God Story.

Interestingly enough, the first person to actually stop and listen to Joshua Bell’s performance that day was a man in his thirties, who arrived during a musical moment Bell described as having “a religious, exalted feeling to it.” When the man was asked why he stopped to listen he said he was a fan of classic rock, not classical music, and so normally wouldn’t have. But in this case the music made him feel “at peace”.

And maybe the tip for us today is that those who take the time to listen to that first-century Jew called Christ may find something unexpected—life, peace, from the once ignored voice who turned out to be the Maestro in disguise.

Join me for another dose of life, faith and culture this weekend on Open House. Ruth Graham will again be our special guest… author, speaker and daughter of the most well-known Christian leader in modern times, Ruth will talk about growing up with Billy Graham, and her mother’s profound influence on her life.

Plus, film and TV reviews, our everyday dilemma, and the Filipino girl who once begged for rotten apples but became one of the Philippine’s top graduates.

What do you think is more important for the future of education in Australia?

Should Australia be investing in Tradies…or scholars?

Kevin Rudd says he’ll spend 2 and a half billion dollars on trade training centres in schools, while the coalition’s big focus will be to sink $5 billion dollars into universities.

Where do you want to see the money go? 

Maybe you’re a university student and you can see areas where the money is desperately needed…OR maybe you’re a trade worker and can’t find the workers who are appropriately skilled in a trade?

If your school had offered you the opportunity to learn a trade, would you have been interested? Mr Rudd says “Not every Australian kid wants to go to university and this plan responds to their need."

Or is the money better spent on infrastructure and research in Australian universities?

After the budget was announced, Sydney university Vice Chancellor Gavin Brown said: "I seriously believe this budget is the best news for Australian universities for decades."

Labor has a university placements and the coalition have a trade education policy, but it seems that they’re both emphasising one over the other.

Funding for universities or funding for trade education - which proposal excites you more and why?

Will lives at home with his parents. He's 19. He works full time and pays rent. However, he has "imposing" parents who have opinions and "rules" on everything - from what time he should be home, to how clean he keeps his room, to an "open door" policy when he has his girlfriend in his room. His parents have even attempted to discipline him lately for staying out late one night by imposing a curfew.

Despite many disputes, Will and his parents have not seen eye to eye and frequently argue over his freedoms.

What should Will do?

On one hand, he still lives at home, in his parent’s house and on the other, he pays rent which is more indicative of a tenant relationship. Will is unsure where to draw the line between "respecting his parent’s wishes" and pursuing his own freedom since he is now an adult.

Maybe you’ve had to deal with this very dilemma at one stage in your life – what did you decide to do?

DISCUSSION POINTS:

• The amount of rent Will pays is quite cheap considering the area he’s living in…it might be a lifestyle sacrifice, but he could possibly afford to live in a different area if he wanted to

• How do you draw the line between respecting your parent’s wishes, and pursuing your own freedom?

• It’s really a question of how do you live as an adult, while living in your parent’s home? Is it even possible?

It was a Sunday night in 2004. I was the scheduled speaker at my church and had just launched into a prayerfully-prepared, carefully-researched sermon which deep down I hoped would be blindingly insightful and occasionally humorous. I had PowerPoint slides. I had audio clips. I had disco balls and pyrotechnics (well, not really). I had prayed that God would use me to declare his holy message to the people.

Just three minutes into my talk “Collin” walked through the front door, down the right-hand aisle, and in front of the entire congregation loudly announced that he’d walked for miles to come and see if truth was being declared in this House of God. ‘I used to come here years ago,’ Collin added. ‘Back when it was controlled by the Reich.’

Oh dear.

Some of the audience thought it was a stunt. I thought the staff were playing a joke on me. We soon discovered it was neither. I walked down off the stage, welcomed Collin, walked back to the lectern and tried to regain everyone’s attention. A few minutes later as we laughed together at a humorous aside, Collin interjected:

‘What was that? Did you say something about the King of Prussia?’

And so began Collin’s verbal dressing down of me; a barrage of breathless religious talk eloquent in wording, incoherent in meaning and escalating in volume. I stepped down again and moved towards Collin, trying to communicate that I was friend and not foe by closing the distance between us, and began madly considering the alternatives for a peaceful resolution. Every attempt to speak turned his volume up another notch. He moved closer, his face just inches away from mine, yelling his accusations of idolatry and heresy at me.

Then he slapped my cheek and jumped up onto the stage. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my sermon notes fly into the air. I turned around in time to see Collin throw the lectern down to the ground, smashing it in two. This was definitely not a joke.

We had a predominantly younger audience that night and some of the congregation left their seats, perhaps to help, perhaps to call the police. Collin got startled by that, ran down off the stage, dodged back and then started up the aisle he had entered just a quarter-hour before. He darted back for one last pronouncement, and then ran out the door.

And the church sat in silence.

The congregation gathered and began to pray—for Collin, for peace to return, and for God’s plans to be achieved that evening. People prayed for me, and small groups gathered around individuals who were tearful and traumatised by the event.

I’m proud of that church. No one screamed obscenities or launched football tackles. Instead, love was shown to victim and perpetrator alike. Collin obviously had a mental illness, and people prayed for Collin. They also comforted the tearful, and I received calls the next day asking how I was doing.

Wrapping up the evening, I had asked the church what lessons could be learnt from the experience. One reply was most telling: ‘We’ve learnt how to love the seemingly unlovable.’

I never did finish my sermon. But then again, I didn’t really need to. God had spoken, replacing my clever sermon with an experiential learning activity on love.

This week on the show, Roger Corbett—former Woolworths CEO and now board member for US giant Walmart. We’ll talk about where big profit and social responsibility meet for the big-name retailers.

And Martin Luther King—we’ll talk to the civil right’s leader’s niece about his life and legacy, and the mission she continues in his name.

How much money have you earned over the last year?

What do you make of a group of Macquarie executives earning $200 million between them - over the last twelve months?

Managing Director and Chief executive of the company, Allan Moss, has received a remuneration package worth $33.5 million for his efforts. Even the Prime Minister said it’s a lot of money.

Do you think it’s too much money for one individual? Is it amoral? As some in the Shareholders Association believe…?

Or is it justified as a measure of the bank’s performance? Macquarie Bank did post a profit of $1.46 BILLION.

I want to hear whether you think executive salaries on this kind of scale are justified.

Jenny's grandmother comes from Poland - she survived World War II.
 
But Jenny's dilemma is this. She doesn't know how to respond to her grandmother's racist comments.
 
For example she feels uncomfortable when her grandmother uses derogatory words like nigger, or has an anti-semitic rant.
 
Jenny's not sure whether the comments are made out of ignorance, or whether they're intentional.
 
She doesn't know what her position as a grand-daughter is - she feels she should respect her grandmother, but also feels she should reprimand her, or say something.
 
Should Jenny take issue with her comments - or let them go?

DISCUSSION POINTS:

• It is Jenny’s grandmother – there’s the issue of respecting your elders.

• She’s obviously making some pretty offensive comments that could hurt people.

What kind of conflicts have you had to deal with in the workplace?

How did you resolve it? Was it something that lasted a day…or maybe it was a workplace conflict that you had to deal with over a longer period of time…

What did you learn from it in the end?

How did it affect your work performance and relationship with your colleagues?

Maybe it was a petty argument...or a more serious conflict…either way I want to know how you got through it.

In May 1846, a guest speaker named James Caughey visited a little church in Nottingham, England. The Bible verse he chose to speak on that night was a promise found in the eleventh chapter of Mark, where Jesus says: I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours (Mark 11:24). Caughey explained that the key to understanding this promise was to learn to desire what God desires. He then added that God's greatest desire was that we develop the character of a servant, that we help the poor, and that we tell others about Jesus.

One particular man was sitting in the audience that evening. He'd become a Christian two years before but had been drifting in his faith since. On that May evening, however, God spoke to him. Caughey’s words burned in his heart. He left the church that night with a passion, and devoted himself to starting an organization committed to serving the needy and telling others about Christ.

And I just wonder: as James Caughey had prepared his sermon that week, as he’d prayed and studied, written and edited his message; as he pulled out his notes the night before he was to speak to refine his message… I wonder if he had any idea what tomorrow would bring? Would James Caughey have ever foreseen that in the church that Sunday night would sit William Booth, and that his sermon would catalyse the beginning of the Salvation Army?

I told this story to the Compassion Australia folks on Wednesday—the eve of Compassion Day. Like James Caughey, we didn’t know what the next day would bring. What would the children released from poverty on Compassion Day rise to become? Could one of those sponsored children become a leader in the church, a leader in education, a leader in health care, a social transformer? Would we even see the next President of the Philippines or Indonesia sponsored on Compassion Day?

That’s the exciting thing about journeying with God—you never know what lives may be changed, what dreams may be birthed, what movements could be set in motion, when tomorrow comes.

Because God is an active God. The same God who imagined the world and spoke it into existence (Gen. 1-2), who came searching for Adam and Eve when they disobeyed and ran away (Gen. 3:8, 9), who told Abraham He’d build a nation out of his family (Gen. 12), and who called Moses to lead the Israelites out of captivity (Ex. 3), is the same God—the Bible says—whose eyes at this very moment are scanning the earth looking for a committed heart to strengthen (2 Chron. 16:9). The same God who inspired David to write his Psalms, Solomon to build his temple and Nehemiah to rebuild his city, the same God who in Christ came seeking and saving the lost (Lk. 19:10), and who leaves the ninety-nine to find the one lost sheep (Lk. 15:3-7), is the same God who works in us, ‘to will and to act according to his good purpose’ (Phil. 2:13).

That’s why the Christian life is so exciting—you never what may happen, you never know what God will do, you never know how He might use you, when tomorrow comes.

God is a God of surprises. Who’d have thought a nation could come from an old man like Abraham and his infertile wife Sarah? Who’d have thought a little boy’s catch of fish and loaves of bread would feed a crowd of 5000? Who’d have thought a church-hating murderer would become the apostle called Saint Paul? In fact, who ever thought God himself would make His grand entrance into world history as a baby boy?

No, I’m sure James Caughey never knew the impact his words would have as he prepared to speak in that little church in Nottingham. That’s the exciting thing about journeying with God—walking with Him you never know what lives He may change, what dreams He may birth and what movements He might set in motion… when tomorrow comes.

On Friday the Prime Minister said “Indigenous people have no hope of being part of the mainstream of this country unless they can speak the language of this country.”

It came after the indigenous affairs minister, Mal Brough, suggested the best way for Aboriginal children in remote communities to have more options in life is to learn English.

Mr Brough is drawing up a plan that would see parents of indigenous children lose their welfare payments if they don’t send their children to school.

Mr Howard also says that non English speaking migrants who come to Australia have to learn English, and even though indigenous Australians are not migrants, he said the same should apply to Aboriginal children.

The Australian Education Union says the government needs to provide more money if the plan is to work. Others say that whether or not a child learns English should not be tied to welfare payments – and that parents should ultimately decide whether or not their child learns English.

What do you think? Is the government’s plan for indigenous children in remote communities to learn English, a good idea?

FOR:

Mal Brough says that if we want Aboriginal children to have the same life expectancy, and the same capacity to enjoy ‘the bounty’ of Australia, then they need to be able to speak English.

He says speaking English is essential if indigenous children are to become ‘mobile citizens’

AGAINST:

Will we see indigenous languages disappear if Aboriginal people are in this way forced to learn English?

Do you think it’s fair that parents lose their welfare payments if they don’t send their children to school? Is this a good incentive? Should learning English be tied to welfare payments?

Louise recently caught up with her friend, Stephi, who she went backpacking around Europe with when they were both younger. They drifted apart after the trip and lost contact.

Since then, Louise and her husband have become Christians. They've spent the last 25 years working in Christian ministry in the Northern Territory.
 
Louise recently caught up with Stephi and found that she's really into spiritualism – that is, spiritual healing such as raiki and chanelling.
 
Louise is concerned that Stephi thinks they believe the same thing, because her friend sometimes says they believe in the same 'source'.
 
But Louise doesn't want Stephi to think that the source of her raiki healing is the same source that Louise trusts in.
 
Louise really values Stephi's friendship and doesn't want to lose it. But she does want to say something without being over reactive and coming out and telling her what she believes is wrong.

It's also difficult to know what to say because she hasn't seen her for so long.

Who are Australia’s most trusted people in 2007? That’s the subject of a new survey which has found we trust The Wiggles more than John Howard, and farmers more than business executives. It also found that politicians, journalists, lawyers, real estate agents, telemarketers and used car salesmen are the least trusted professions.

But is this valid? Do we really have any grounds for not trusting people in these professions? Could we be caught in an outdated cliché of these professions as untrustworthy?

I’d especially like to hear from you if you do work in one of these professions. Do you even care that this is the way your profession is being perceived by the public?

Over the years, a number of studies have been conducted on prayer and whether it can be proven to improve physical health. The results have been mixed and often contradictory.

Now two Australian researchers have come to the conclusion that, when talking about prayer’s effectiveness, a supernatural element should not be dismissed.

A paper published in the Medical Journal of Australia by Marek Jantos, Director of the Behavioural Medicine Institute in Adelaide, and Professor Hosen Kiat, from the University of NSW, reviews the common scientific explanations of prayer.

For example, some say any health benefit from prayer is due to the relaxing, meditative effect it can have. Prayer can slow down breathing and brain-wave activity, lower the heart rate and blood pressure, and so enhance physiological wellbeing.

But Jantos and Kiat note that prayer, at least in the Christian form, is not always the same as meditation—brain activity during prayer doesn’t always decrease. So its effectiveness may not simply be due to some relaxation effect.

Similarly, it’s been found that prayer can improve the mood of the pray-er; the benefit of prayer here is understood as more emotional. Jantos and Kiat agree, but add that current research is unclear on whether the immediate beneficiaries of prayer are those who do the praying, those for whom prayers are offered, or both.

Some critics have suggested that any therapeutic affect of prayer can be attributed to the ‘placebo’ effect—if patients know they’re being prayed for they might recover quicker, just like patients whose doctor prescribes a sugar pill for their problem.

Some research backs this position, but Jantos and Kiat point out studies which don’t. One study investigated the impact of intercessory prayer offered by Christian prayer groups in the US, Canada and Australia for in-vitro fertilisation patients in Seoul, Korea. The pregnancy rate in the prayed-for group was significantly higher than that in the control group (50% verses 26% success rate), even though neither group knew they were being prayed for.

"Irrespective of whether scientists seek to attribute the benefits of prayer to the relaxation response, placebo or positive emotions,” Jantos and Kiat write, “the most common reason people turn to prayer is their belief in a divine being that transcends the natural universe and hears and responds to prayer.” They go on to say that more study is needed, but add that researchers must accept “that some aspects of prayer may not be transparent to scientific investigation and may go beyond the reach of science.”

Personally, I’m still doubtful as to how much God takes part in clinical tests. One study I heard about required pray-ers to pray the exact same prayer sentence for a list of unknown people (it was for a ‘complete and speedy recovery with little pain’ or something like that). Anyone acquainted with Christian prayer knows how alien a concept this is. God can’t be manipulated by saying the same thing over and over, like pressing the right button on a machine. And while He might do a miracle for one person, through prayer He might bring something beautiful out of the pain of another. (Remember, John Donne, the 17th century poet wrote his greatest work while he suffered Typhus.)

But it’s encouraging to see at least two members of the scientific community admit that prayer may still be effective—even if it’s beyond the grasp of science.

Further: www.mja.com.au/public/issues/186_10_210507/jan11101_fm.html#0_i1091962

This week we welcome Sherron Watkins to the couch. She blew the whistle on the fraudulent accounts of Enron, and wound up centre-stage in one of history’s biggest corporate collapses. This Sunday night she’ll explain the price of telling the truth.

And as the new movie Amazing Grace hits theatres next week, we’ll talk to co-producer Ken Wales about getting William Wilberforce’s fight against slavery on the big screen.