Friday, December 30, 2011

Top 10 New Years Resolution Ideas


1 BE POSITIVE ABOUT OTHERS...Richard Steele said, "Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip. It’s so important to be positive at all times, about all people and encourage others to do the same by speaking up against Gossip, you'll have a much more positive year if you do!

2 FORGIVE QUICKLY...Develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. So forgive people quickly even if they haven't asked you 2

3 WATCH THE WAY YOU SPEAK...It's been said that harsh words don't break bones but they often break hearts. So be nice! Strong words stir up strife but a kind word turns away anger.

4 LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY... Mother Teresa Said. Intense love does not measure it just gives...Love people without expectation, It’s the power of sowing and reaping. Only what you give out can come back to you!

5 LEARN TO TRUST...Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great. Ralph Waldo Emerson. One of the great failures of modern society is our unwillingness to trust believing that trust must be earned, this is contrary to God’s value who first loved us. Trust is an investment not a dividend.

6 DEVELOP WISDOM...A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination. Nelson Mandela People often value their own opinion over an ability to grow and learn from others. We’ll take encouragement but recoil from taking advice. This is never wise and will rob us of developing wisdom. To have a good heart you actually need a good head.

7 REACH PEOPLE "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." -John Wesley God’s intention is that his heart for people is delivered by your hands. Reach People with a benevolent heart and the message of life we have been given in Christ.

8 BELIEVE FOR FAVOUR...Jabez cried - bless me, and enlarge my territory, let your hand be with me, keep me from evil' And God granted that request." Favor is asked for. God tells us we have not because we ask not. Jabez was not satisfied with his position in life and asked for more. Ask God for his favor to rest on you.

9 DEVELOP UN-NEGOTIABLE FAITH..."If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all." Isaiah 7:9 When it comes to life and the great needs our world faces everyday, people need us to believe with a faith that will not quit. Good intentions don't help anyone out of their need but faith does. Without faith its impossible to please God. Why His intentions for humanity are great and are only unlocked by great faith.

10 STAY FAITHFUL...Edwin Louis Cole said Your faithfulness makes you trustworthy to God. Faithfulness is the final standard by which we will be judged. You’ve been faithful with what you have, now I will make you lord over much. It's those who endure till the end that will be saved.

God Bless, have a great 2012

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The size of greatness


When it comes to achieving greater things in our lives ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL! Many people stirred on by the motivational industry or some warped spirituality look for quick pathways to complex destinies. The universe will cause my destiny to just come to me if I think positive thoughts, that’s “the secret” they say.
The scripture says, Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with the little things; Now I will put you in charge of many things.
The size of greatness is firstly size Small.
We all can sing that song "From little things big things grow".
The final reward is produced by attention to detail the process of meticulously applying ourselves to the little things.
Saving regularly - consistently thinking of others rather than ourselves.
Ruth in a desperate situation, simply followed after the reapers in a field, picking up the food they dropped…this attention to detail caught the attention of the field owner who arranged for them to leave more behind for her to pick up… he ultimately married her and she was given ownership of these same fields.
A university degree is achieved, one assignment at a time.
A share portfolio grows one investment at a time.
A loving relationship is built one act of giving, one statement of love at a time.
To write a book you have to arrange the letters to form a particular word, the words are then placed together logically to form sentences. The sentences are arranged to ensure that a thought is expressed and the paragraphs contain about one or two ideas. When the paragraphs are then read together they will form the sum total of the subject you desire to communicate.
To translate ideas into understanding you have to engage in a tedious and often painfully slow process without excluding even the simplest attention to detail.
The big accomplishments therefore are the fruit of diligence and a laborious process of faith, hope and a commitment to a final product.
It’s this daily belief that keeps us progressing toward a greater goal but it’s the regularity of the doing that maintains the pathway to that higher goal.
They say you must say 7 positive things to counteract just one negative, so before anything encouraging even finds its way to the starting line, you must make sure you have lived a life in the positive so that it outweighs this life in the negative we all seem to be a little addicted to.
A sportsperson is a perfect example of how little things add up to reflect major accomplishments.
Kenya and Ethiopia produce the most of world class, middle and long distance runners.
They attribute this success to the fact that most of them come out of poverty and had to run the long distances as children to get to school.
Wilma Rudolph the First American woman Runner to win three gold medals at a single Olympics said “My mother taught me very early to believe I could achieve any accomplishment I wanted to". The problem was first she had to conquer the painful challenge of learning to walk, a step at at a time without using braces. You see Wilma was born prematurely at 4.5 lbs, the 20th of 21 other brothers and sisters, she caught infantile paralysis (caused by the polio virus) so her left leg and foot had become deformed as a result. She would travel long distances with her family to seek painful medical intervention to straighten her twisted leg.
Never underestimate the power of the diligence we dedicate to the little things. What small things can you be doing consistently - that will bring greater blessing into your world.
What "well dones" can God attribute to your world, that will cause greatness to grow as a result?
The second size of greatness is Large.
Abraham had to have the big picture before he could ever navigate this subjective challenge asked of him. Abraham was only able to offer Isaac on the altar because he knew the big picture. That this boy was part of the greater plan of God. This stabilised his heart as he navigated what seemed so inconceivable to him.
Only by having a clear understanding of “the big picture” can we run with the daily challenges asked of us. Hab 2 instructs us to make the vision clear so we will be able to run with it.
Over the years our resolve is slowly diminished by the relentless challenge of the little things - that’s why you need the big things in your life in clear focus to keep you accountable to the little things.
For the Joy set before him, Jesus was able to endure the shame and agony of the cross.
Jesus suffered in a garden - this way is far too hard, is there another way - yet quickly focused on the bigger call, saying nevertheless not my will but yours be done.

What are the big ticket items for you? What is God seriously asking of you? ”
Earl Nightingale said “The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along the path to its fulfilment.”
You’ll never navigate the challenging road to greatness without a vision of something greater that you actually believe you’re meant to achieve.
That’s why so many never actually achieve anything with their lives they start out ready to take on the world and end up readily taking on the worries of their world.

Greatness is not only measured by size small or size large,there’s also a third size Medium.
The things in the middle that define you.
Prov says, "Search me oh God see if there’s any variation inside of me".
You must define the values at the core of your life in the middle before they actually define you.
You see in between the small things that we must do consistently and the big things we are pressing toward, there are these things in the middle.
On the way to family or domestic success or personal fulfillment in life, there’s a thing called the middle life.
For example the commander of an Army battalion can walk across a base and have hundreds of men snap to attention, while his marriage is falling apart at home, while his children may have no respect for him. This is because he has paid less attention to certain values his life should have been based on.
Yet at the same time the perfect nuclear family, may command the admiration of everyone in the family but be missing a true cause to live by.
Opportunity, the big things, longevity, the little things are sometimes defined by these middle things, a set of values you live by.
What are these middle values, can you describe these things you will not negotiate?
For me it's to build God’s house and a general desire to build my life relationally.
The bible says, "and Samson took hold of the 2 middle pillars on which the entire house was borne up and he took out the entire house, he took hold of one with his right hand, and the other with his left. So the damage he brought on his enemy that day was more than he has inflicted in his entire life".
The middle pillars can be things like, our health, it stands in the middle of all I do and I won't achieve everything I want to, if I don’t stand in the middle of my life and manage this well.
A friend in ministry made a DVD series on Family Values. The series was costly to produce and really needed to be sold to help pay for its production. Soon after making it he was asked by a church he knew, in a community experiencing serious family and youth problems, if he had any resource on the subject. The community had asked this church to assist and this represented a significant opportunity to affect this city positively. When this friend understood what it was being used for, he offered to make it available free of charge and for it to be used in any way they saw fit, even to rebrand it or change it in any way. He did this because it was one of these middle values, something at the centre of his life that was a driving motivation.
In the building of anything great you will discover these 3 aspects.
1/ the small things 2/ the big things, but holding these 2 together will always be the middle pillars, these things we hold dear.

I recently read this on Wikipedia something I believe reflects this so well….I feel like I’m living the first line of my obituary. I don’t think there will be anything else that I do in my life as important as what I do now for Wikipedia. We’re not just building an encyclopaedia; we’re working to make people free. When we have access to free knowledge, we are better people. We understand the world is bigger than us, and we become infected with tolerance and understanding. Wikipedia is the 5th most visited website in the world. I work at the small non-profit that keeps it on the web. We don’t run ads because doing so would sacrifice our independence. The site is not and should never be a propaganda tool. I work at the Wikimedia Foundation because everything in my soul tells me it’s the right thing to do. I’ve worked at huge tech companies, doing some job to build some useless thing that’s designed to steal money from a kid who doesn’t know any better. I would come home from work crushed.
You might not know this, but the Wikimedia Foundation operates with a very small staff. Most other top-ten sites have tens of thousands of people and massive budgets. But they produce a fraction of what we pull off with sticks and wire.
When you give to Wikipedia, you’re supporting free knowledge around the world. You’re not only leaving a legacy for your children and for their children, you’re elevating people around the world who have access to this treasure. You’re assuring that one day everyone else will too. Thank you, Brandon Harris
Programmer, Wikimedia Foundation.

America has actually written out these values in the declaration of independence…. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

What is your declaration of independence? What are the values that motivate the little moments and drive your big vision? Try these 3 on for size and you’ll find your future will fit well.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

The 10-second rule


Growing up my mother would always say, never put off till tomorrow what you can do today - I think it had something to do with schoolwork I was falling behind on or something like that.

I believe we are addicted to procrastination in a lot of areas of our lives. This also affects our Christian lives and the claims of Christ and the wonderful privilege we have of the leading of His spirit. I believe this procrastination leads to ineffectiveness. When we disobey God's will and intention for our lives it can produce real consequences in the big decisions we make. It can also create just as many undesirable results when it comes to the little things that could be happening in our every day lives. I read this Blog post and loved it. It's called the 10-second rule and it challenged me and I hope it challenges you as well.

(It’s a simple rule for a revolutionary life!)
What does it actually mean to follow Jesus? Simply put, it means to believe Jesus’ message and obey it. So, why is it we don’t obey more often than we do?

Years ago I noticed that during the course of my day I’d have an impression from the Holy Spirit to do something I was reasonably certain Jesus wanted me to do. It would be an impression to either do something good for someone or refrain from doing something wrong. It might be to stop for a car broken down on the highway, speak to a co-worker about Jesus, or simply turn off my computer before I ended up at a site where no Christian should go.

Almost simultaneously I would sense another voice whispering to discourage me. “You don’t have time to do that – helping that person could get messy – you can’t afford to help them right now – stand up for your rights – you deserve it – it’s okay, once more won’t kill you.” If I listened to this other voice and thought about it long enough, the moment for obedience would pass, often to my relief. It finally dawned on me that by procrastinating on being obedient to Jesus, I was unintentionally teaching myself the habit of disobedience. Why is that?

Why did I hesitate? Because I knew that most decisions to obey would cost me something – time, money, embarrassment, inconvenience, or a momentary pleasure denied. By choosing not to obey Jesus, I avoided all of that! So the reason I wasn’t more obedient to God? Without hardly thinking about it, I automatically counted the cost and the price seemed too high for me.

Then a decade ago a lay pastor from China taught me a simple rule that could break that cycle:

The 10 Second Rule:
“Just do the next thing you’re reasonably certain Jesus wants you to do.”
(and do it immediately before you change your mind!)

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.”
-John 14:15

So, I intentionally committed myself to become more sensitive to the leading of God, and to practising simple, spontaneous obedience. As I did, I began developing the habit of obedience. I actually began looking for ways to follow Jesus daily, even hourly. As a result, obedience became an adventure rather than a duty.

Christian experience over the centuries has proven that godly character is most powerfully shaped by the cumulative effect of thousands of small obedient decisions. And these small decisions prepare us to be even more faithful when major, crisis-of-faith challenges come our way.

Here is the true power behind The 10 Second Rule: Even though every Christian knows we can never obey Jesus perfectly all of the time, that’s no longer an excuse. We do know this: we can do the next thing we’re reasonably certain Jesus wants us to do.

This is obedience you can do – obedience you’ll want to do!

The point of doing The Rule is to help you develop the habit of simple obedience so you are prepared to be more faithful to Jesus than you ever imagined you could!

My prayer is that try living by The Rule for the next 30 days. See for yourself how deeply satisfying it is to be led by Jesus, moment by moment and day by day.
(or even in the next 10 seconds!)

Clare De Graaf
Author of, The 10 Second Rule™

Monday, November 28, 2011

One Thing


A great message from one of my favorite Churches, Edge Church in Adelaide.

The man said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? I have kept the commandments since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” - Mark 10:17, 20-21.

There is a drive in our humanity for wholeness and completeness. It’s the feeling of dissatisfaction and desire that keeps us looking for a new solution, a new answer to our problems. Some people will buy the latest fun gadget and be entertained by it for a while, but it's just a temporary remedy. Some people will hear a song and emotionally respond to it, and for a while the feelings of the song will satisfy that urge for completeness. But temporary solutions don’t stop the gnawing in their soul.

The man in this story felt that drive and desperately sought Jesus to ask him about it. Jesus' response went straight to the heart of the issue and shocked the man. After all, this man was perfect. He kept Israel's holy commandments. He was an upstanding member of the community, a role model for society. Even in the wild times of his youth he had obeyed the commandments. But Jesus identified the ‘one thing’ that was missing in this man’s life. And without mincing His words Jesus told the man to give his wealth to poor people and then follow Him.

The man had been living a perfect, holy life according to all standards, but his entire focus was on himself. The one thing he lacked was not something that he could buy or own. Instead, he had to put his attention on other people. Instead of being righteous for himself and expecting God to be generous and merciful to him, he had to be righteous towards others and be generous and merciful to them. And then, instead of following his own desires and whims, he had to follow Jesus. Jesus' message is the same for us. Our pursuit of God must be expressed in our outward focus, being generous and merciful to those in need.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Aim for the Stars


I once heard a statement I’ve never forgotten and always attempted to live by, Aim for the stars hit the treetops aim for the treetops hit the ground. In Philippians 3:14 The apostle Paul said something similar, also something I’ve attempted to live by. He said “reaching forward to those things which are before me, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
When the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when all the reward is taken away, no one will try or want to succeed. I recently came across this story that illustrates it so well.
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that the best world to live in was a world where no one would be poor and no one would be rich, this would be a great equaliser they thought.

The professor said, "OK then, lets have an experiment in this class on that plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that their well meaning idea would also ultimately fail them because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when all the reward is taken away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that. Aim for the stars.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The leadership factor


Ive been thinking about leadership lately, here are some of my thoughts, some of the factors that go into making great leaders.

1 The self factor – Self leadership, how you manage your personal world

2 The team factor - leadership must maintain and manage a team culture.

3 The effect factor - leadership has an effect. It must produce something, change something for the better. Leadership produces outcomes.

4 The Talent factor – Leadership harnesses and understands the strength and weaknesses of its potential or gift set and helps others do the same.

5 The Communication factor - your speech affects everything you're trying to achieve, you must say it and display it clearly.

6 The Conflict factor – how conflict is resolved, kills or gives longevity to all potential

7 The Influence factor – Leadership IS influence, we persuade others by our preaching conversation, actions and integrity.

8 The People factor – if influence doesn’t affect people it's not leadership at all, people must always be the reason we do what we do.

9 The diversity factor – Embracing diversity, everyone will differ in gifting and gifting develops constantly, manage this change and growth.

10 The Creativity & Innovation factor – the gifts you do have are from heaven, designed by God to enrich the Kingdom not yours to use simply for personal gain.

11 The R factor – Resilience, leadership is for life, Relationships are the fuel & Respect releases its strength

12 The fire factor - Releasing the fire, maintaining PASSION, stir up the gift

13 The Revelation factor - Rhema in Ephesians 6 is the weapon we use, the revealed word of God, alive in you.

14 The Risk factor – Gideon had to go from hiding, to doing something that would have national significance. Leadership is always about risk.

15 The opinion factor – crafting or shaping your point of view. Paul said that we all think the same thing

16 The rapport factor - Building rapport is affecting people deeply.

17 The emotion factor - Maintain composure at all times, present yourself in a way that builds confidence in others.

18 The Openness factor – always look for feedback , love it and seek it out

19 The surrender factor - Let go, surrender to God daily

20 The Calling factor – You will never last in any form of leadership until you know it’s what you're supposed to do, not just what you want to do.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Grace is free, never cheap.


Jesus loved people, He didn’t patronise them. One of the greatest acts of love is to lead people to truth not just tranquility, to assist them to change not stay the way they are. Change in people is not just an act of the Holy Spirit, it's the highest calling of the Gospel. Jesus said "make disciples" (Learners) The first thing Peter said after Pentecost was repent (change your moral stance) and then you will receive the Holy Spirit. Always remember it's only truth that sets people free! It's my belief that grace is not a license to live in our old nature "anyway we want" but a doorway out of the prison of sin, and a pathway into the freedom of abundant life. Our love must always have as an outcome to see people live in the potential of their salvation not bound by the limits of their life. Jesus not only said to the woman caught in the act of adultery, "I don't condem you" he also said "Go and sin no more!" The first is only beautiful in light of the latter.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Birthday Story


Cool birthday story ... I was at the Coffee Club with Ali on my birthday when a very vocal group at the top of their voices began 2 sing Happy Birthday 2 U...I said to Alison oh thank you very much, pretending they where singing to it 2 me. Imagine my surprise when they finished the song by singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR ASHLEY HAPPY BIRTHDAY 2 U...What's the chances of that!

Thursday, November 3, 2011


Generosity
I think we all understand and would love to live out the principles of Generosity, yet struggle to live within the challenge of the demands it makes on our lives at times. Luke 9 tells the story of feeding 5000 people. This story demonstrates the principle of generosity and graphically displays its power. These people had come a long way to hear Jesus speak. He had been ministering all day so the disciples insist that Jesus send the people away to give them an opportunity to get something to eat. But in response Jesus simply suggests that they come up with the food to feed so many people. Now I’m sure their response would have been, "how in the world…... " and right about then a little boy offers 2 fish and 5 small buns. So they take it to Jesus and say this is all we have. Without hesitation Jesus blessed it, broke it, and put it into the disciple’s hands. Jesus gave back to them, what they gave to Him. Now the pressure would have been on for them to only give a small amount. The limited resource they had in their hand had to go so far, so imagine the disciples' amazement when the bread grew in their hands as they gave it out. The miracle did not happen in Jesus' hands, it happens in the disciples' hands. It’s all about what you do with what He gives you. That’s what we miss all the time, we want Jesus to do it. We want Jesus to multiply our seed but He says plant it first, because it only grows when we give it. What if the disciples had just given it out without giving it to JESUS first? It wouldn’t have multiplied!

If you don’t give what’s in your hand to God your finance will never be blessed. This is the principle demonstrated throughout God's word. There is more spoken of concerning money and its use than of most principles in the Bible. Why is that? Because where your treasure is there will your heart be also. A Christian is made to be generous; it’s the way we work best. We are born selfish but born again generous. When we are not generous we are not being who we are born again to be and missing the blessing we should be living in. Right throughout scripture, that’s the pattern. God is always looking for people He can trust with blessing. Someone He can trust with what He gives them. People who become a channel of blessing who’ll live their life as a conduit for favor. Many of us never live in this zone, we don’t take this powerful principle seriously so we are not living in that place to be blessed by God. Giving is the only thing God said to test Him in. But so many have never put God to this test. Ever had those moments when God says give, we struggle to surrender? Most people rationalise those moments away and sear their conscience when it comes to giving. This causes us to spiral down into a place of lack. You know, God's thinking more about your future than you are. Listen, God knows your address, He knows where to find you, and He wants to bless you more than you want to be blessed. The point is, we are God's children and there is a principle in God’s Word called Generosity - and when we are generous, the Bible says, the generous soul will be made rich. God said to Solomon, ask anything you want. What an amazing promise. This promise was made the day he became King. On this day tradition dictated that the incoming king would sacrifice one Bull as a token offering. Solomon gave 1000 bulls instead of one. In response God promised him, that whatever he asked, God would give him. God responds to extravagant givers. But God’s not going to say that, unless you learn the power of generosity, if God can’t trust you with what you do have, he wont trust you with what you don’t have. The scriptures encourages us with this… "well done you’ve been faithful with little now I will make you lord over much".

Friday, October 14, 2011

RECALL NOTICE


The Maker of all human beings (GOD) is recalling all units manufactured,
regardless of make or year, due to a serious defect in the primary and
central component of the heart.
... ...
This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype units code named Adam
and Eve, resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent
units.

This defect has been identified as "Sub sequential Internal Non-morality,"
more commonly known as S.I.N., as it is primarily expressed.

Some of the symptoms include:

1. Loss of direction
2. Foul vocal emissions
3. Amnesia of origin
4. Lack of peace and joy
5. Selfish or violent behavior
6. Confusion and lying
7. Fearfulness
8. Idolatry
9. Rebellion

The Manufacturer, who is neither liable nor at fault for this defect, is
providing factory-authorized repair and service free of charge to correct
this defect.

The Repair Technician, JESUS, has most generously offered to bear the entire
burden of the staggering cost of these repairs. There is no additional fee
required.

The number to call for repair in all areas is: P-R-A-Y-E-R.

Once connected, please upload your burden of SIN through the
REPENTANCE procedure.

Next, download ATONEMENT from the Repair Technician, Jesus, into the heart
component.

No matter how big or small the SIN defect is, Jesus will replace it with:
1. Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Patience
5. Kindness
6. Goodness
7. Faithfulness
8. Gentleness
9. Self control

Please see the operating manual, the B.I.B.L.E. (BEST Instructions Before
Leaving Earth) for further details on the use of these fixes.

WARNING: Continuing to operate the human being unit without correction voids
any manufacturer warranties, exposing the unit to dangers and problems too
numerous to list, and will result in the human unit being permanently
impounded. For free emergency service, call on Jesus.

DANGER: The human being units not responding to this recall action will have
to be scrapped in the furnace. The SIN defect will not be permitted to enter
Heaven so as to pr event contamination of that facility. Thank you for your
attention!

- GOD

P.S. Please notify others of this important recall notice, and you may
contact the Father any time by 'Knee mail'!

Because HE Lives!

Aurthur Unknown

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Funny Girl


I took Alison my wife for her first ride on my bike today... Interesting - we get 200 metres down the road and she is tapping me on the back. So I pull over and say "what's up!" She says "you're going too fast", I say "babe we are doing 56 in a 60 zone!!" She says "It feels too fast!"...funny girl, my wife!

Can You Handle the Truth?


Truth is truth only if you believe it; or, better put, receive it. The question has been asked, "If a tree were to fall in a forest and no one was there to hear it fall, would there be any sound?" Many people believe the answer to that question to be No, because it's only when the sound waves it creates collide with an ear drum that it produces the sound we hear.

The magazine Scientific American gave the technical answer to this question, when they said "Sound is vibration, transmitted to our senses through the mechanism of the ear, and recognised as sound only at our nerve centres. So the falling of the tree or any other disturbance will produce vibrations in the air. If there is no system to perceive or receive them, translate and interpret these vibrations and relate or communicate them to our brain, there will be no sound."

Is there anything true for your life that you have not had the belief system in place to receive, so that it actually has not become truth for you? The Bible says Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If you refuse to hear truth then it will never translate into reality for you.

In Joshua 1:3 God says to Joshua, Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given to you, as I said to Moses.

The Hebrew word for the “soul” of the foot is kaph which means the hollow of your hand, a bowl or a dish, the handle of a door, or a spoon.

So this is really talking about your portion, that which you take hold of with your hand. The land they where about to stand upon belonged to other nations; they had to take hold of it with their hand. To do that they had to believe it was theirs and have the strength of mind and will to take it.

Notice “as I said unto Moses” 40 years previously Moses had received the exact same word, yet it had never actualised into truth for him and tragically 3 million people missed living in the truth for their lives. It was the same truth for both Moses and Joshua...but Moses' generation had no mechanism of belief that would cause them to receive that truth as the portion of their lives.

The truth is, there is no end to the personal promise God has made to us but unfortunately some are dull of hearing. Others hear these words but have lost the spiritual nerve centres that trigger the needed faith. This paralyses our ability to act with deliberate resolve to take hold of and realise them. We are often unable to communicate or translate promise into actions or real outcomes that become the truth of our lives.

What truth has God already said to you that you have failed to hear, or heard yet failed to trigger the needed faith to receive?

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Red Shirts written by Col Stringer


If the red shirt thing is new to you, read below how it went for one man...

"Last week, while travelling to Brisbane on business, I noticed an army sergeant travelling with a folded flag, but did not put two and two together. After we boarded our flight, I turned to the sergeant, who'd been invited to sit in Business Class (across from me), and inquired if he
was heading home.'No. I'm escorting a soldier home.' 'Going to pick him up?'

'No. He is with me right now. He was killed in Afghanistan . I'm taking him home to his family.' The realisation of what he had been asked to do hit me like a rock to the head. It was an honour for him. He told me that, although he didn't know the soldier, he had delivered the news of his passing to the soldier's family and felt as if he knew them after many conversations in so few days. I turned back to him, extended my hand, and said, 'Thank you. Thank you for doing what you do so my family and I can do what we do.' He took my hand and said "Thank You "

Upon landing in Brisbane , the pilot stopped short of the gate and made the following announcement over the intercom. 'Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to note that we have had the honour of having Sergeant Jamison of the Royal Australian Army join us on this flight. He is escorting a fallen comrade back home to his family. I ask that you please remain in your seats when we open the forward door to allow Sergeant Jamison to deplane and receive his fellow soldier. We will then turn off the seat belt sign.' Without a sound, all went as requested.. I noticed the sergeant saluting the casket as it was brought off the plane, and his action made me realise that I am proud to be an Australian."

So here's a public Thank You to our military Men and Women for what you do so we can live the way we do. Red Fridays Very soon, you will see people wearing Red every Friday. The reason; Australians who support our troops used to be called the
'silent majority.' We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers. We are not
organised, boisterous or overbearing.

Many Australians, like you, me and all our friends have sons'daughters, friends or family serving in our armed forces and so we simply want to recognise that the vast majority of Australians supports our troops. Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday and continues
each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that every red-blooded Australian who supports our men and women afar, will wear
something red. By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make Australia every Friday a sea of red much like an AFL Grand final game in the MCG Stands. If
every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family, it will not be long before Australia is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once 'silent' majority is on their side more than ever, certainly more than the media lets on.

Don't let this be like it was for our poor Vietnam Vets The first thing a soldier says when asked 'What can we do to make things better for you?' is 'We need your support and your prayers.' Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example, and wear something red every Friday.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

I'm no Superman


People like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther king and Mother Teresa were not necessarily extraordinary people just people committed to extraordinary purpose.

All people are created with extraordinary potential (FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY Made as God puts it) Our responsibility is never to define ourselves within the context of that extraordinary purpose, only shallow celebs do that. The best way to explain it is to imagine any of those people getting up in one of their speeches and saying "I am extraordinary". None of them would have ever considered making such a conceited claim. No, they would have described themselves as ordinary people with an extraordinary purpose or even an ordinary person committed to an ordinary purpose, like in the case of Mother Teresa, just cleaning the wounds of the poor and underprivileged. All these people would never have described themselves as extraordinary, just ordinary people doing something they felt to be extremely important and that is I believe the lesson to be learned in our egocentric world, Don't strive to be great, just do great things.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Building with Excellence


Sakichi Toyoda the founder of Toyota had a unique problem-solving technique. When something goes wrong, he would ask “why?” five times. By asking why, over and over, you eventually get to the root cause. This can also apply to our lives. By taking full responsibility for your life and asking yourself why something went wrong for example, you can even make failure feel like success. You can ask, did I give this my all? Because great effort can be as admirable as great success.
“1 Cor. 3 :9-10 - "We are fellow labourers together with God. So according to the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder, I laid the foundation, But let every one pay careful attention to how they build on in.”
What are we building with our lives? Are we building with excellence? The Bible says we are a peculiar people, in other words we are designed to stand out. The way we do life, our speech, the ethics by which we live our lives should clearly identify us as Christians not just because we go to church or even offer benevolence, but because we are actually Christ like.
Daniel 5:12 says that Daniel had an excellent spirit,and that knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and shewing of hard sentences and dissolving of doubts were all found in Daniel. In other words he was able to shift the blame or to shelter the blame of hard sentences.
All that stuff was in Daniel. A great question to ask ourselves is, what can be found in us? Ahh a bit of hurt - I well I know how to shift the blame real good to others not away from hard sentences like Daniel. Are we building our lives with the values of excellence, or just building our lives carelessly? Rom 2:18 says we should approve or allow things that are more excellent into our livees.

So here’s 5 questions to ask about building with excellence
1 - ON what are you building?
Math 7:24 says a wise man builds his house on rock. The stuff you're building is not the problem; what you're building it on is. There must be a solid foundation on which to build your life. But the question is are you building on principles or procrastination, what tools have you actively placed in the tool box of your life to finish the job well? Has your building site been cleared to make way for what God wants to build? Have you let go of your agendas or are you like the little monkey stuck holding on with his hand in the cookie jar? God's idea is this .. I make all things new. God doesn’t remodel or renovate, he only renews.
2 - WHAT are you building?
It’s vital to consult the builder and ask "what do you think would be right to build in my situation?" Sometimes this question may come out sounding a little like this. "What are you doing God??" Not a bad question as long as it’s a real question and not just an accusation. We must come across to God sometimes a little like Barbara from Bank World in the ANZ BANK television ads. (Us) :- when I said I “know” your plans, - ahh that’s wasn’t know with a silent k that was NO “without” a silent K - I NO - your plans (God) :- So what are we going to do with these plans then – (Us) :- not my problem, go away…look God you’re very valuable to me so I’m going to sign you up for something you haven’t even asked for – (God) :- but (Us) :- a a a a 2 late already in the system God. God’s ideals need to be the supervising values in our life. Begin to read the Master’s plan, look over the blue prints, His notes in the margins once in awhile, reconsult the drawing room
3 - For WHOM are you building?
Who is this thing for? What’s this all about? Who is the chief benefactor in all this? When you lose you...you find something altogether new, you discover the power of synergy. A team whose players play predominantly for themselves, can be a good team, but never a great team. This is because they never truly access the power of the game plan or get the power synergy to work for them. Too many buildings reflect the owners' agendas at the expense of the expertise of the designer. One of the greatest mistakes the Sunshine Coast makes continually is to relinquish the initiative to the fear of what we don’t want. I for one am tired of hearing we don’t want to become the Gold Coast. We need to forget what we don’t want to become and decide what we do want to become, because if we don’t, then we actually become something by default, and not by design. Fear, not vision and forward thinking, is shaping what we are becoming. The truth is we “are” becoming something all the time anyway and if we don’t take responsibility for what we are becoming we could become anything. God's Kingdom is never about us - what we are or what we don’t want to become, it’s about design, about what He’s building for the future. We need to influence the future or the future will influence us. If you want the influence and resource of Heaven, get with the design program, let go and let God start building something better and best in you. If it were only about Daniel, he would have just stopped praying in public. If it was just about Abraham he would have been offended when God asked for his only son. If it was just about Moses, he’d have stayed a prince of Egypt and let his people serve him. If it was only about Jesus he would never have left Heaven and would certainly never have left the garden and surrendered to His Father's will. It's never about what we are building, it's never about us, it's about God and His good, better or best plans for our lives.
4 - HOW are you building?
In what manner, is it with grace, favour, love> Or alternatively, intimidation, hurt, baggage, weighted down, unbalanced? Are you just going though the motions attempting to get thought the day while God's got this a huge agenda for your life. Seriously don’t balk at the size of His agenda. You need to get a better view of the size of God. God is extravagant, His love toward us is immeasurable. So don’t fear the unknown, take steps to toward it. Stop attempting to relieve your guilt and excuse yourself of the responsibility to excel in life. Our human potential is close to limitless, our God potential, infinite. It’s overtime for many of us to write ourselves some God sized checks, dream some God sized dreams and believe God for them. The key to touching the infinite is to embrace it. Make a start be a Jabez not a Jonah. Embrace excellence and the opportunity of God, don’t run from it. Get beyond the limits of the ordinary. God doesn’t live there. Paul prayed that we would have the ability to prove those things that are excellence. I Cor. 10:31 .. Do all things to the glory of God". Jesus' standard for us was this, the things I’ve done, you’ll do greater things than this in my Name. God is constantly calling us to live higher, to lift the standard, to believe in miracles
5 – Are you building excellence PROGRESSIVELY
2 Cor. 6:3 .. In all things we are approving ourselves, through much patience.
Don’t become faint doing what is good, what is best what is worthy what is benevolent. Excellence is a measure, you can measure it in your life. Paul said I strive toward a mark, a line, a goal, toward a prize. There is less than what is best. Paul says I strive to win. Well done good and faithful servant, enter into your reward. We at times don’t decide to press toward anything so we can maintain our own personal self-respect. We sometimes throw ourselves a party with nothing to celebrate. Excellence has priorities if there’s best then there’s less than best. If we are going to excel we must prioritise some things over others. A University student must prioritise study over social activity. Someone who is married must prioritise one person over others. A parent must prioritise family over a promotion sometimes. It’s so sad that some people go though their entire journey without any clear sense of heavenly or purposeful intention about their lives driving them forward. Excellence must have a progression to achieve a goal. I think one of the greatest reasons some struggle is because everyone starts out with dreams hopes and aspirations, but setbacks and obstacles make us give up on the journey. 2 Cor. 6:4 says in much endurance we prove those things that are of God. History often only remembers excellence or infamy, what is wonderful or decidedly less than perfect. If you want to leave a mark with your life you must do it in excellence. Animate the good things and make every effort to disable and minimize the worst. Excellence, as Paul says, presses toward a particular mark, it strives toward the goal; it never loses sight of the best. He said I haven’t arrived yet I’m still striving toward the prise. Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther king, Mother Teresa. Were not necessarily extraordinary people just people totally committed to extraordinary goals. Don’t give up or settle for the status quo. Don’t fall for the age-old trick, well I guess this is my lot in life, this is the hand I’ve been dealt. That is just copping out on life, cashing in the chips, hitting the default button on your dreams. We make the mistake of anaesthetising ourselves from the responsibility to excel because it dulls the pain of the long journey. If it’s great then its worthy of greater effort, if it’s God then it’s worth your all, your best, your priority and your sustained pursuit. Goals reached easily bring little satisfaction. Goals laboured over bring incredible fulfillment.
Think about tomorrow today, imagine what you want for your life and start building it today with excellence.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

The 10 Top Things to do the day after you thought the world would end....


10 - Rebuy all the things you sold on ebay because you wouldn't need them again

9 - Email your boss and beg for your job back

8 - Pay the monthly bills you've been refusing to pay so you can get the water and electricity reconnected

7 - Renegotiate the Life Insurance Policy you canceled because you thought you wouldn't need it

6 - Buy some spray paint to overspray the signs that read World ends Dec 21 to World Ending Real Soon - get back to you on the date.

5 - Go apologise to all those friends you thought the time was right to tell what you really thought

4 - Write a Cook Book on 101 different ways to cook with baked beans because now the pantry is full of them you'll be eating baked beans in 101 different ways

3 - Try and work out were you left your car days earlier as you raced through the street from door to door telling people the world would end

2 - Start showering again

1 - Turn the huge boatlike structure you where working on in the back yard into an interesting pergola .

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The power of a moment


A spiritual leader makes an impassioned speech to ignite a nation, a disaster occurs, a nation declares war, a loved one dies, a person makes the momentous decision to forgive, you see someone across a crowed room and the world changes as you know it. The power of a moment to define everything so quickly, who we are, what we achieve and what our life becomes. Job 7:17 What is man, that you should magnify him? and that you should set your heart on him? 18 And that you should visit him every morning, and try him every moment? Gods so interested in you that he visits you every morning. Puts a different perspective on our mornings, makes you want to get into the habit of greeting the morning differently. Gods a morning person and his mornings are filled with renewal and unrealized potential. His Day is filled with thoughts and plans of you and those around you. God moments are carefully designed plans the seeds of the limitless potential of God for our lives. Imagine the Wright brothers, just two bicycle engineers who experienced a moment of genius, lets make a plane. This is the awe and creativity, the imagination of God that still visits people daily – (these are Gods mornings) Imagine the moment Alexander Fleming looked down a microscope and saw what mold could do to infection. This incredible moment lead to the development of a drug called penicillin that would save countless millions of lives. The world changed in that very moment. God is such a loving merciful God, we know this all to well but do we also know he is also a just God. The world including your world… is his intention (HIS preoccupation) and he loves the world too much to leave it the way it is. Our lives are the canvas on which God paints his masterpiece, everyday is a new moment to add another intentional brush stroke to change the stark canvas of our lives to the ever developing picture of life God see’s. One of the greatest acts of Gods loving kindness towards us, is not only his mercy toward us but also his judgments. He stands back and looks across the landscape of life and begins to paint our life with his colours. He colours his brush with opportunity, dips his brush with humility and with charity. He places his brush into the pigment of kindness and smears it across the canvas of out lives. He is the one making the judgments, positioning the right perspectives. Everyday God enters the studio of life and paints your life with purpose and prosperity. He is there each day looking to copy the perspective of eternity and super impose them onto the one dimensional realities of our mortality. He then meticulously judges the work of his hands upon our lives. One of the things we all often say is, don’t judge me. Such a sad statement when the judgments of God are beautiful moments of design that reflect his vision. So I say, judge me God, try me, test me out, paint my life with your moments of intention. What’s the power of a moment? If we submit to these God moments we can become all than God intends. Alternatively if we neglect to respond to the power of the God moments, we are maybe only one moment away from becoming less than God intended. I saw a documentary of a young man who tossed a rock from a hill over a freeway, he thought it might be funny. It smashed though a windscreen and disabled a beautiful young woman. The power of that moment that changed two peoples lives for ever. That young mans pain was defined in just one moment of time, just one thoughtless act changed his and the young woman's life forever. The interviewing journalist asked him, what had changed about his life. He said he takes more seriously the moments in his life now, he thinks through every impulse and action, every thought and heart attitude, ever hoping to make amends for his tragic decision. Every moment has the possibility to be a God moment of creative action and positive intention or a destructive moment of decay and decline. If you’ll allow good motives, God Moments to out shine the difficulty or the mundane, the misconceptions of your limitations, the boarders of what is, then in a heart beat everything can change for the better. You can be transformed to a better place a more meaningful purpose. God is there every moment of everyday to take you to that place of creation not of deconstruction, of hope not of despair, of action, never of inaction. 10 spies stood on the verge of history, but in just a moment of bad decision, a choice is made to see the situation in a particular way and that moment defined the future and sentenced 3 million people to death in a harsh wilderness. What’s the power of a moment, to define a life time? The person you marry, an indiscretion that costs a life time of suffering…or a life of someone else’s suffering. Each day we get up is a series of moments that can define or set the boundaries of our lives positively or negatively. There’s not only the sin of commotion - equally as devastating is the sin of omission….we can neglect to do what should be done. Be careful what comes out of your mouth it can define the very life force of a human destiny…in an ungraded moment. I heard a story of a young boy carrying a heavy bag home from school loaded with books. He tripped and fell under the weight of the books. Another boy from school recognised him and rushed to his aid. From then on they became friends right through their school years. It was only as the boy who stumbled was graduating as valedictorian and giving his speech in front of the entire school, that his friend who’d rushed to help him so many years earlier realized the power of that moment. For the first time he told how he’d cleared his locker that night of all his books, intending never to return to school, as he was going to take his own life. He’d been bullied mercilessly his entire school life and didn't have a single friend. That day he was threatened to be beaten the next morning, This was one to many times and he could no longer take the persecution, but his new found friendship finally gave him the courage to get though the challenge of one more day. The power of that moment. We all too often let these moments pass us by and we fail to see the opportunities for new life to emerge within the context of our life experience. Martin Luther King outlived himself because he refused to allow the time he was living in define the moments of his life. Sometimes unnoticed moments of our lives are defining us weather we realize it or not. The moment a woman with the issue of blood presses though the crowd. The moment blind Bartimaeus yells out to Jesus, in a chance encounter. The moment a woman with a demon possessed daughter argues with Jesus for healing. The moment of intention Zacchaeus climbs a tree to place himself above the crowd. There lives where defined by those moments. Paul’s in a storm aboard a ship and tells everyone to eat, if he hadn’t they’d never have made the long swim to shore when the ship hit a reef. A moment of wisdom defined the lives of everyone on that boat. Joseph in a dungeon shares the interpretation of a dream. 3 young men refuse to bow and a nations spirituality is defined in a single moment. The power of moments, you say something you didn’t really mean. You do something you didn’t really intend to do and in a heart beat your life is defined by the moment, you wish you could have back. An indiscretion with that person and your life now will be ever defined by it. You have a fight with your partner, your child observes and an impressionable life is defined by it. You say what your really thinking and crush somebody in the heat of an argument. Your offended by something that was a misconception and now your hurt is defining the majority of your life - the power of moments. The healing power of the moment you finally say, I was wrong. The season you pledge your love for better or worse. Don’t say those words at that moment unless you intend to live in that moment for ever. I wish I'd never married you and in that moment of frustration the rest of your life is defined in an instant. Forgiveness is sort and given but something may never be the same again. God is judging you on every ONE of these moments, he visits you every morning and judges you on every thought action and behavior. Why there’s so much at stake. 6000 years ago a young couple named Adam and Eve sold there birth rite in just a moment to a swindler named Lucifer for a few dollars, nothing more than a piece of fruit, they sold eternity for knowledge. Christ never confused the cheap resources of mortality for the great wealth of eternity. Don’t sell what is eternal for what is temporal (it’s a lousy trade) Ish 54: 7 it was only for a small moment I have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you. Don’t sell your eternal on the altar of opportunity. Abraham take your son and offer him as a sacrifice and God waited for a moment when his hand moved downward and that moment defined the future, the dream was secured God was satisfied with his faithfulness. How many times has God wanted to bless you, yet you have refused the moments or not know the moments. Your eternal sometimes waits on the Altar of the moment. The moment you say I love you, I forgive you, I feel called by you God, God if your there – help me. Jesus on a hill called Calvary willing submitted to a cross knowing there was a higher judgment than just the pain. He saw the Joy beyond the cross, the life giving force of reconciliation lay just beyond that moment and He was not about to miss the moment. Life is defined by eternity but it is packaged in little God moments that build the eternal or are left to rot in the inaction of personal desire and the temporal. Nelson Mandela describes the moment he decided to love and understand rather than hate and retaliate. What a moment that defined the future of a nation. He said I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. Master the moments and captain your eternity.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

10 Things we can learn from Japan


Circulating around the Email and Blog world at the moment is the following Post. I have been unable to confirm its origins but it is worth a read so I've joined the chorus and included this for your consideration. Its my belief we should always be aware of the reactions and actions of those around us especial during difficult circumstances as they can throw light on our own behavior and give an example of how we should live also.

So here's 10 things we can learn form Japan's reaction to catastrophic disaster (Author Unknown)

1. THE CALM
Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.
2. THE DIGNITY
Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.
3. THE ABILITY
The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.
4. THE GRACE
People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.
5. THE ORDER
No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.
6. THE SACRIFICE
Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?
7. THE TENDERNESS
Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.
8. THE TRAINING
The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.
9. THE MEDIA
They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.
10. THE CONSCIENCE
When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

How to Avoid Confusion


The Bible says God is not the author of confusion, He never sends conflicting messages - we are the ones with the contradictions. Here is an acrostic of 9 things people often do that authors confusion in their own lives.
1. Conceal…. “He who isolates” rages against all good judgment. Get your stuff out in the open don’t conceal a matter; get the matter out into the light for life to flow. Nothing grows well in darkness. Sometimes it’s hard to understand some things till you get them out of your packaging for closer inspection. Prov 2 says It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of a king is to search out the matter. Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel that is finer, worthy of greater honour. What you bring out into the open has the potential to be purged and well defined. Conceal a thing and it will grow more unrefined. Truth sets people free, untruth ensnares you. Be real about what’s going on, concealment creates contradiction because you become subjective not objective in your thinking. Jesus in the garden battles for the real human intention to be observed and looked at in plain sight… His will was in conflict with God’s will. Only by facing it could it be conquered.

2. Object- Psalms 102:5 says Because of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin. God doesn’t shift but we often do and what makes it worse we become confused about who’s at fault, blaming God for it. When we object this creates confusion, but by maintaining faith this creates confidence. Job says our fear is our confidence .. in the middle of the storm your integrity is forged. So don’t object when life seems a contradiction. When the overly religious complained telling Jesus his miracles where in fact the work of the devil Jesus said they needed to be careful because their objections where hard to forgive, why? Simple, when you assign the work of Christ to something very wrong this causes total confusion. How can you find forgiveness from what you now call the devil? Faith not doubt is the key to confidence.

3. No objection… we are called to give account of the hope that is in us, never the objection or the confusion we are experiencing. At some point in the argument the prosecution must rest. We allow all our objections to be put to rest. Bring them to a place of resolution in our soul. We must cast down our imagination and give up the argument. Our view of life must ensure that God knows what he is doing with our lives and holds our life and times in his hands. No matter what the situation may say.

4. Fuss – fussing all the time about your life. Jesus said don’t worry about everyday life… Why do you have so little faith? This is probably one of the most important things Jesus ever said. Paul said a similar thing, I’ve learned to be content with what I have. What does it profit you if you gain the whole world yet lose your soul. Before you fuss about life think about this, let your words be few… because God lives in heaven and you live on earth, so you don't have the heavenly perspective. Too many of our words conflict with words like faith or trust, hope and love.

5. Understanding. Don’t live your life clueless, filled with misgivings or misunderstandings about life. For example, forgiveness is not only about others its also about the benefits and release you receive form forgiving others. People sometimes say I’ll forgive but won’t forget, but you need to understand to forget is actually to forgive, they are one and the same thing. I’m confused, I thought I’d forgiven them, why then do I still feel animosity toward them? That’s because you failed to understand the impact forgetting has on forgiving. This is just one example of the power of understanding. God doesn’t author confusion we JUST don’t understand stuff, we could and should.

6. Sadness or suffering-if not handled correctly will lead to confusion, thinking like this…I just don’t understand God, why did this have to happen TO ME? Pain will break you or make you, because God is always looking for simple trust. All he says about pain is simply give thanks at all times for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Blessing flows from believing, never from doubt. So suffering will always bring confusion unless we shift our suffering to sweetness, our hurt to healing, the slander to celebration. Matthew 6:16 when you fast, don’t be like a hypocrite, all sad in your countenance: don’t disfigure your face, so that you will appear to be fasting. Listen to me you will have your reward. My mother would have said it this way .. Boy, the wind will change and you’ll be stuck like that! Jesus is saying a very similar thing when he says sadness becomes “the” reward. Ever seen those pictures where people look like their dogs? One of the explanations for this is you end up looking like what you're looking at. The Bible says it like this, "Where your treasure is there your heart will be also".
So when your heart is living in sadness, then sadness is all you’ll ever enjoy. Don’t let sadness regulate your life, as sadness will find the seat of your soul, it will never sit in the background for later reference. The Bible says it will roar for your attention night and day. Ps 32:3 says it will groan all day long. Sadness can’t coexist without an area of sin as a host. For example, where there is Unforgiveness or fear it’s impossible to please God because faith cannot be present there. Fear or pride can never reside next to faith. I may feel hurt but I must reach a place of courage or live in courage to avoid confusion.

7. Interests. Your interests will consume you. The devil used our interests as a means to convince mankind to compromise the stated God intention of our lives. The Garden of Eden is a classic example of this. It’s here the devil defeated humanity on the level of its desires or personal interests. Food and knowledge was the Bait. The desire to know as much as God knows, Its the old struggle for simple faith and trust again. The great God Question is… will I find any faith left on the earth when I come, or just a bunch of knowledge? Our interests in "other things” take us away from our interests in a Holy God who says – in Exodus 20:3 I’ll have no others gods before me. Note, the word gods here is small (g) little gods, things. The attention you give to things other than God determines the level of interest you’ll show in God. One of the tragic stories of the bible is Esau who gave up his birthright for a bowl of stew. Amazing when you look at the consequences of allowing our interests to get in the way of God’s higher purpose for our lives. There’s a wide road and that road leads to destruction and many choose to walk that way, but a narrow road that leads to life everlasting. Narrow your interests to God pursuits for what profit is it to gain the whole world and lose your soul. List your interests and beside each one write the amount of time and attention you dedicate to them. Beside mark them C for Christ. If Christ rates only marginally in comparison, its time to readjust your interests.

8 Offense - Isaiah 8:13 Let him be your dread. 14 And he will be a sanctuary; and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.
Dracula was not a vampire, he was a 14th century king who ruled Romania. He saved his nation from being conquered by the Turkish Empire when many other neighboring nations where overwhelmed. One of his strategies was to demonstrate the serious consequences of taking the bait. Every day he would place large quantities of money at different places around the city and would have it watched from a distance by his authorities. If anyone took the bait, money they knew was not theirs, he would have them arrested and they faced serious consequences for their offense. Not only was his nation impenetrable from opposing forces, but during his reign crime was almost nonexistent. Because of this protection, his people to this day have a great respect for King Dracula. Matthew 16:23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get behind me Satan: you are an offense to me: for you savor not the things that are of God, but those things that are of men. That’s how offense is spurned in our lives by our interests, our desires, things we savor more than God things. Stuff you allow to linger in your appetite. Offense is intoxicating, as it tastes so good to our flesh. Acts 24:16 In this I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offense toward God, and toward men. The word for our conscience here is co–perception this means - to have two perceptions about the one thing. To look at something two ways: - 1: to have the perception of heaven, God's view and 2: - to savor our own view. For example to have God's perception of people, the way God sees people running parallel to our perceptions of people. To hold on to hurt, becomes a duality of perception; you can’t try to carry both viewpoints. You can’t serve two masters; you’ll love one and hate the other. Offense cannot live in an atmosphere of God’s love toward people. Like the servant who begs forgiveness of his master for his debt, gets forgiveness then goes right out and throws his own servant who owes him money into prison. The master is furious when he finds out, and he should be. Both views can't live together. You can't love God and take the bait of fleshly desires.

9. Narcissism- which is simply your flesh crying out for what it wants. This creates such a confused state in the light of the Spirit's will for your life. We can choose life and Godliness, death or resurrection, blessing or cursing, peace or pain… SO hey, simple choice! Choose life. 2 Timothy 3:1-7 Understand this, that in the last days people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Then this… Avoid such people. Confusion is in the church today, because we so easily become narcissistic, lovers of self, of what suits us, not God. Its all about me, what DO I get out of this, what’s in it for me? Narcissism often drives our doctrines. In the last days people will no longer endure sound doctrine but follow after ideals that tickle their ears, grace with out sanctification, forgiveness without repentance etc. We are not interested in striving toward Godliness we are not sure what that even means any more. Welcome to Me Church, where you can have it all now. You can be blessed, famous, fabulous and fantastic all at the same time. Its all good! Rather than, its all God! This has become our catch-cry. The temptation is to be driven by our own desires, which silence the greater desires of God for our lives. Christ in the garden of Gethsemane is struggling in a confused state, why? To put to death, His will, so that the confusion between His own will and the Will of God could be clarified forever. Only then would He free all mankind of the contraction of their failed flesh so that life could emerge.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Getting God's View


I love the journey we are on as Christians, we strive toward a holy yet at the same time an unconditionally loving God... Its truly a wonderful thing to embrace the future, all God has in store for humanity with all its uncertainties and What If's, without ever letting go of the certainties of our past and this wonderful thing called God's truth or God's perspective. The Bible says if we know Truth it actually sets us free. The power of our Christianity is that we can view the future not only though the lens of the past or the stark realities of the present but also with a prophetic insight that has its focal point positioned on a very high vantage point, a place we call Eternity. This is that perfect view that God sees. Scripture tells us to climb a watchtower to be in position to see what God sees and hear what He would say to us about that. In this way we are empowered with the needed momentum because no matter what we are looking at, we still have the best possible point of view. We see the mystery of what is finite, or difficult to understand completely, through a lens that adds an infinite perspective. It's only in this way we are able to live in each new season with faith in the future. I may never see it in its fullness because we live out this life in contradiction, uncertainties, failure, tragedy, victory, hope, despair. You see, at some point of the full spectrum of our lives we all experience these contradictions. None of us can ever be sure of the future or have a perfect security from our own point of view, as life will always bring uncertainty. Yet our view of the future can be secured by a perspective that is dispatched from eternity. This always creates an Anchor for our soul. A view that ensures us that God knows what He is doing with our lives and that He holds our times in His hands. Life is often a contradiction, yet from Eternity's vantage point it is never a contradiction only a confirmation of what God always knew was true from before our life began and that He has it all planed for our benefit and blessing. How do you view the future - with what lens do you see tomorrow? The only sensible looking glass is to look at it though Heaven's windows, not through our human shutters or the enemy's locked doors. Look at it God's way and learn to see life from a better perspective.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

How Come?

How come I do the things I don’t want to do and don’t do the
things I do want to do? A question asked a few thousand years ago by someone I deeply respect and admire, the Apostle Paul. This same question is still being asked often today. So what’s the answer to this puzzling question and how can we stop doing the things we don’t want to do? We could talk a lot about self will, sanctification and discipleship, or asking others to help, and all these would be valid. Yet the answer is a lot simpler than that. The problem is something that is always at work in all of us. The bible tells us that all of us have sinned and this causes us to fall short of God's standards for our lives. Paul also calls it rebellion always carrying on deep below the surface of our humanity. It’s an age old dilemma that goes all the way back to the first man Adam, who couldn’t balance a simple choice to eat from a tree that would bring death or from another tree that would bring life. The real problem is in our gene code unfortunately and this problem has followed mankind mercilessly throughout human history. Paul put it like this… “in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different”. Life can be a struggle of contradictions and the greatest of those contradictions are within us. So what’s the answer to this dilemma? Unfortunately maybe none that is within us, but thanks to God there’s one that comes from outside of us. Paul said the Answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does help us. He acted to set the things that are wrong, right in this life of contradictions. These thoughts are for all of us who have ever felt we have struggled to do the things we wanted to do while doing what we didn't. Jesus sets right what we do wrong. You see we may never get this contradiction under complete control and God’s grace is our greatest answer and comfort when we feel we've failed. His great act of love has broken the power of our sin and rebellion and covered it with his unconditional mercy. This is such good news for anyone struggling with this same question.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Pray for Japan

The devastation experienced in Japan right now is unprecedented, certainly the earthquake and tsunami it triggered could be one of the largest in recorded history. The nuclear threat to that beautiful nation and the fallout this will have across our world could represent a significant challenge to humanity. However you view the situation in Japan, one thing is clear - that it is in the grip of a catastrophic disaster of unimaginable proportions. It is so easy to become overwhelmed by the amount of natural disasters we have seen in our world over the last few years and the challenge is not to become desensitised by it and simply get caught up with our lives and forget. It is essential that people pray for them at this difficult time in their history. So what I am asking is for people to pray... to remember Japan in prayer daily. Maybe you could pass this link on and get as many people linked in prayer as possible. Comment below to let us know you're praying for that great nation right now. Also let me know where you're from and maybe a short prayer or a statement. God Bless.

If my people who are called by my Name will humble themselves, seek after me and turn from their ways, I'll hear their prayers and heal their land 2 Chronicles 7:14

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Right Judgments


So many People today unwisely assume that Judgment is something a Christian shouldn't do.
They Misquote Matthew 7:1 which is in fact talking about making right Judgments. It is not asking us to make no Judgments at all. We are in fact called to make righteous judgments to bring truth to a persons life based on the principles of Gods word. This is something if we love someone we will be able and willing to bring. Matthew 7 is actually talking about not judging someone when the same sin is in you. It uses the example of not taking a splinter out of someone's eye when there's a log protruding out of your eye. This is not talking about NEVER making a judgment but about making judgments with the right measure. The scripture actually says an unbalanced judgment is an abomination to the lord, therefore a balanced judgment is a delight to the lord. 1 Corth 14:28 Says that prophesy is subject to Judgment. 1 Corth 10:15 Paul says I speak to you as wise men and he asks them to Judge what he says. 1 Corth 6:1 - Says we will judge the world and one day and in fact judge Angels. He then asks the question, could not one wise person be found among you who can make Judgments between each other. This is in fact a rebuke to them for not making good and Godly judgments. He actually uses the words I speak this to your shame that no one will make these Judgments. In 1 Corth 5 he also talks about being able to make very strong Judgments. In Romans 6:15 Paul says should we, because of God's Grace allow sin to abound, his answer is God forbid. Which is in fact a judgment in and of itself. It also maybe wise to remember that the words Judgment and Justice are close relatives you often can not have one with out the other. Lets love people wisely.