Psalm 51:10 (Msg) God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
What a great thought. Asking God to shape and mould from the ruin of our lives something special. This is a powerful prayer to pray!
Kathy is off in 2 days to Cambodia where she is teaming up with some other girls, they are working with the rescue homes that we are involved with. Basically these homes rescue girls from prostitution and then hide them away in secure homes. Im so proud of my wife and even though she is nervous I know that God will do some "Genesis shaping" in her life.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
WHOSE YOUR DADDY?
This past Sunday we started our series called Identity Theft and we kicked it off talking about where we draw our identity from.
Your self concept – the way you see yourself – is determined by what you base your identity on, and you have lots of choices.
· Looks
· Intelligence
· Wher you live
· What you do
· What you wear
· Who you hang with
Thomas Harvey completed the autopsy on Albert Einstein then stole his brain and kept it in a Tupperware container for the next 43 yrs. Then he began to shape his whole identity around it.
· Looks
· Intelligence
· Wher you live
· What you do
· What you wear
· Who you hang with
Thomas Harvey completed the autopsy on Albert Einstein then stole his brain and kept it in a Tupperware container for the next 43 yrs. Then he began to shape his whole identity around it.
Identity problems are simply the by product of basing your identity on the wrong thing.
In the book of Corinthians Paul writes:
1 Cor. 4:15 (Msg)
There are a lot of people around who can't wait to tell you what you've done wrong, but there aren't many fathers willing to take the time and effort to help you grow up. It was as Jesus helped me proclaim God's Message to you that I became your father.
· 90% of homeless and run away teens come from fatherless homes.
· And 85% of all youth in prisons grew up in a fatherless home
· 75% of people in drug abuse centres come from fatherless homes.
· 1/3 of live births are to unmarried women.
· 90% of prisoners say they never had a loving relationship with their fathers.
Maybe Paul's generation suffered from a similar disease as our generation has called, The absent father syndrome, which means: The ongoing social, spiritual and emotional deficit that people will be filled by other means.
When we say the word father it can either be a bad word or a great word. Your dad may have always physically been there but never emotionally there, or maybe you have never known him or maybe your parents just couldnt seem to get it togther so they went their own way.
Have you ever wondered why sporting stars, movie stars will look into a T.V camera and say the words, “Hi mum?”
Is it because they have had no father figure of worth in their life. They have over achieved in their lives hoping that one day dad is going to say, “Well done son”.
When God looks at you He see’s you from the eyes of a Father. He is the Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end. So when he looks at us he is at the end seeing what we are to become.
And He is calling us into that picture.
Matthew 3:17 (Msg)
And along with the Spirit, a voice: "This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life."
Whoever names you determines your destiny
This wasn’t for John to get the revelation, it wasn’t for the crowd to hear who Jesus was but it was for Christ Himself to know the affirmation of His father.
As a child there are 3 things that must be heard from your father:
· I love you
· I’m proud of you - affirmed
· You’re good at ???
There are a lot of people around who can't wait to tell you what you've done wrong, but there aren't many fathers willing to take the time and effort to help you grow up. It was as Jesus helped me proclaim God's Message to you that I became your father.
· 90% of homeless and run away teens come from fatherless homes.
· And 85% of all youth in prisons grew up in a fatherless home
· 75% of people in drug abuse centres come from fatherless homes.
· 1/3 of live births are to unmarried women.
· 90% of prisoners say they never had a loving relationship with their fathers.
Maybe Paul's generation suffered from a similar disease as our generation has called, The absent father syndrome, which means: The ongoing social, spiritual and emotional deficit that people will be filled by other means.
When we say the word father it can either be a bad word or a great word. Your dad may have always physically been there but never emotionally there, or maybe you have never known him or maybe your parents just couldnt seem to get it togther so they went their own way.
Have you ever wondered why sporting stars, movie stars will look into a T.V camera and say the words, “Hi mum?”
Is it because they have had no father figure of worth in their life. They have over achieved in their lives hoping that one day dad is going to say, “Well done son”.
When God looks at you He see’s you from the eyes of a Father. He is the Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end. So when he looks at us he is at the end seeing what we are to become.
And He is calling us into that picture.
Matthew 3:17 (Msg)
And along with the Spirit, a voice: "This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life."
Whoever names you determines your destiny
This wasn’t for John to get the revelation, it wasn’t for the crowd to hear who Jesus was but it was for Christ Himself to know the affirmation of His father.
As a child there are 3 things that must be heard from your father:
· I love you
· I’m proud of you - affirmed
· You’re good at ???
Maybe you have never heard your earthly father tell you this or maybe you have, but until you know that this is what God thinks about you, that this is how He see's you then we can be tempted to base our identity on something else. God thinks that you are amazing! He loves you, He is proud of you and He thinks you are great when you are doing what He designed you to do.
Friday, February 1, 2008
MAKING RIPPLES
You don't have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by a few great things. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on for centuries and into eternity, you don't have to have a high IQ or EQ; you don't have to have to have good looks or riches; you don't have to come from a fine family or a fine school. You have to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things, and be set on fire by them.
A layman by the name of Edward Kimball taught his church’s Sunday School class weekly, he really wanted to make a difference. He wanted to see many people come to Christ. He was burdened with a young man who attended this class. Although a shy person he entered a shoe store where this young man worked as a sales person. It was here that Edward Kimball said to this man, “I want to tell you how much Christ loves you”, and it was at that moment that he led Dwight L. Moody to Christ.
Dwight went on to be one of the greatest preachers of modern history seeing millons attend his meetings and hundreds of thousands come to Christ.
When Moody was out preaching one day, a man named Frederick Meyer was listening. Meyer was already a Christian, but Moody's preaching motivated him to enter full-time ministry. We know him as F.B. Meyer. Kimball reached Moody, and Moody reached Meyer, but the story doesn't end there.When Meyer was preaching, a young man named Wilbur Chapman responded and gave his life to Christ. Chapman felt called to be an evangelist. One of the young men he took under his wing was a former professional baseball player who, also wanted to preach the gospel and did so with great success.
His name was Billy Sunday.Sunday held a crusade in Charlotte, North Carolina, where many people came to faith. The people there were so thrilled that they wanted to have another crusade. Sunday wasn't available, so a young evangelist named Mordecai Hamm was invited to speak. While the campaign wasn't considered as successful as the first one, a young, lanky farm boy walked down the aisle on one of the final night. We know him as Billy Graham.
In 1959 Billy Graham came to Brisbane Australia to preach at a crusade and a young farmer with little formal education came forward and accepted Christ. His name was Clark Taylor and in 1974 Clark Taylor founded Christian Outreach Centre.
Today there approximately 1000 COC’s worldwide of which our church, Elevation, is one of.
Dwight went on to be one of the greatest preachers of modern history seeing millons attend his meetings and hundreds of thousands come to Christ.
When Moody was out preaching one day, a man named Frederick Meyer was listening. Meyer was already a Christian, but Moody's preaching motivated him to enter full-time ministry. We know him as F.B. Meyer. Kimball reached Moody, and Moody reached Meyer, but the story doesn't end there.When Meyer was preaching, a young man named Wilbur Chapman responded and gave his life to Christ. Chapman felt called to be an evangelist. One of the young men he took under his wing was a former professional baseball player who, also wanted to preach the gospel and did so with great success.
His name was Billy Sunday.Sunday held a crusade in Charlotte, North Carolina, where many people came to faith. The people there were so thrilled that they wanted to have another crusade. Sunday wasn't available, so a young evangelist named Mordecai Hamm was invited to speak. While the campaign wasn't considered as successful as the first one, a young, lanky farm boy walked down the aisle on one of the final night. We know him as Billy Graham.
In 1959 Billy Graham came to Brisbane Australia to preach at a crusade and a young farmer with little formal education came forward and accepted Christ. His name was Clark Taylor and in 1974 Clark Taylor founded Christian Outreach Centre.
Today there approximately 1000 COC’s worldwide of which our church, Elevation, is one of.
Life is all about making ripples. To many people are only looking for the big splash. Make constant ripples in your pond, and eventually the algae will move elsewhere!
Saturday, January 26, 2008
INTELLIGENT PEOPLE ASK QUESTIONS
I have just spent a week down in Sydney at our networks Church Planting School. It is a huge thrill for me personally to have input into future church plants or transitioning churches. Sitting down over coffee talking church gets my heart pounding, being around other church builders gets my heart pounding. But every now and then you come across the one or two that just don't get it. They don't ask the right questions and they don't listen to the right answers. There are many reasons why some people grow healthy churches and some never get them beyond a home group size but there is one reason that again was revealed to me this past week. Its found in the following verse from Proverbs:
Proverbs 15:22 (NLT)
Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many counselors bring success.
Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many counselors bring success.
Some people just don't ask for counsel. They are afraid of being challenged or hearing something negative about what they are doing, so they avoid it, thus staying internally small.
The counsel we never got could have made the difference on whether or not we were a success or failure.There are some people that I feel I could go up to and give advice on certain things anytime and anywhere. There is a feel about them that they are open to discuss their situation and open for input in any way. Some people ooze teach ability and humility that invites counsel.
But there are others that I would never dream of giving advice or counsel to.
They never ask you what you think about their circumstance. They always have a reason to justify why they are the way they are.
They have a leave me alone, I don’t need your help feel. Back off I am in control.
But there are others that I would never dream of giving advice or counsel to.
They never ask you what you think about their circumstance. They always have a reason to justify why they are the way they are.
They have a leave me alone, I don’t need your help feel. Back off I am in control.
Sometimes people around you have had placed in them through experience the very thing that your plan is dying from the lack of.
There are some who say that they are seeking counsel when all hey are doing is looking for approval for what they have already decided to do, there is a big difference.
So how about you?
Are you openly seeking counsel so that your plan, your life, your relationships can be the best or do you shrink back whenever someone questions your plans?
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
THE RIP
We are on our staff retreat down at the Salt Mantra resort at the moment and having a great time. Its good to get the team together away from the pressures of church life and have some outsiders come and speak into us. I think all of us start off full of passion and zeal about serving God but sometimes along the way it’s easy to slide into professionalism without His presence. At the moment I am watching my son and his friend Mitchell surfing in some really ugly waves. The ugliest part is the rip that is pulling them down beach at an alarming rate. Like these kids trying to paddle against the rip we as leaders never wake up one day and decide to give up, not trust God, stumble morally, hate church, lose touch with who we are, but we “drift” into it. Drifting is probably the main reason why most leaders fall out of love with what they do, they don’t want to, but it happens gradually, like a slow current it pulls us away from where we first entered the water (or our calling).
DRIFTING IS BEING CARRIED OR DRIVEN SLOWLY BY A CURRENT, TO WANDER AWAY FROM A FIXED COURSE, TO MOVE AIMLESSLY FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER.
Hebrews 2:1 (NIV)
We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
It was obviously a problem for New Testament leaders as well as us today. The writer tells us to “pay more careful attention”, careful attention to what though?
ACHIEVEMENT IS THE RESULT OF YOU PROTECTING YOUR FOCUS
I think the best way to protect yourself against drifting is by establishing reference points. A reference point is like when we go to the beach and there are 2 red and yellow flags that mark the area that life savers would like you to swim. Get in trouble between those flags and help is on the way, get in trouble outside them and they may struggle finding you.
A reference point is simply our personal boundary markers that indicate when we are starting to drift.
Some could be:
*Regular church attendance
*Tithing
*Telling your family daily that you love them
*Hanging out with friends
*Waist measurement ( Maybe you are a 34 but if you reach a 38 then a little alarm goes off and motivates you back to the gym)
All of us are prone t drifting! So let me encourage you to discover your “driftability” and set a few reference points around it so that we won’t drift away.
Speaking of drifting I cant see these kids at all now!!
DRIFTING IS BEING CARRIED OR DRIVEN SLOWLY BY A CURRENT, TO WANDER AWAY FROM A FIXED COURSE, TO MOVE AIMLESSLY FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER.
Hebrews 2:1 (NIV)
We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
It was obviously a problem for New Testament leaders as well as us today. The writer tells us to “pay more careful attention”, careful attention to what though?
ACHIEVEMENT IS THE RESULT OF YOU PROTECTING YOUR FOCUS
I think the best way to protect yourself against drifting is by establishing reference points. A reference point is like when we go to the beach and there are 2 red and yellow flags that mark the area that life savers would like you to swim. Get in trouble between those flags and help is on the way, get in trouble outside them and they may struggle finding you.
A reference point is simply our personal boundary markers that indicate when we are starting to drift.
Some could be:
*Regular church attendance
*Tithing
*Telling your family daily that you love them
*Hanging out with friends
*Waist measurement ( Maybe you are a 34 but if you reach a 38 then a little alarm goes off and motivates you back to the gym)
All of us are prone t drifting! So let me encourage you to discover your “driftability” and set a few reference points around it so that we won’t drift away.
Speaking of drifting I cant see these kids at all now!!
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
STOMACH GROWLS
Yesterday marked the first day of our 21 days of momentum, which is Elevation Church's 21 days of prayer and fasting. Life is filled with love hate relationships. I hate going to the gym but I love the results that come when you are finished. I sometimes don't feel like working but love to spend money. I don't like to fast but love what fasting does for me. People always have said, "After 3 days you wont be hungry". Now I have done some long fasts before and not once have I had a relief from hunger, in fact it stalks me day and night. I notice every ad on T.V for fast food, I can smell food from several kilometres away, there was even one time that I almost ate my dogs plate of Pal...I could see those chunky meaty pieces. Anyway what it accomplishes in me is way better than a hot chicken with steak fries and gravy with some hot bread...there I go again.
I was reading this morning in Genesis 21 about Abraham. 100 years of age when his promised child came to pass, now that's a long time to wait for a promise. I get impatient having to wait days sometimes yet Abraham kept hope in his heart that God hadn't put him on the shelf and forgotten him. God give me that kind of faith!
I think that's what I like about fasting it places my soul in the "High Alert" stage and stirs me to pursue Him and demand His attention. I think God loves it when we chase him with a relentless passion that refuses to give up.
"Pursuit is the proof of passion", we will chase what we are passionate about. Think about it, what do you need to do today to kick start your 2008?
I was reading this morning in Genesis 21 about Abraham. 100 years of age when his promised child came to pass, now that's a long time to wait for a promise. I get impatient having to wait days sometimes yet Abraham kept hope in his heart that God hadn't put him on the shelf and forgotten him. God give me that kind of faith!
I think that's what I like about fasting it places my soul in the "High Alert" stage and stirs me to pursue Him and demand His attention. I think God loves it when we chase him with a relentless passion that refuses to give up.
"Pursuit is the proof of passion", we will chase what we are passionate about. Think about it, what do you need to do today to kick start your 2008?
Saturday, January 5, 2008
I went to the movies yesterday to see the long awaited I am legend and I wasn't disappointed but be warned it is a guys movie, definitely don't take your girl there for a first (or it will be your last) date. The rest of my family hated it as they don't see Zombies as realistic...please pray for them.
Tomorrow is church where we are kicking off a series called "Discovering the will of God" in the morning and "Supernatural" (hmmm zombies) in the evening.
I love preaching. The best book that I have ever read on the subject is by Andy Stanley called "Communicating for a change". He say that all communicators have to know what the “A-HA” moment is. Its the part of their message that gets you most excited.
For tomorrow morning its "Do I believe that Gods guidance is the cause of my movement or an effect my movement causes?"
Do I believe that God gives me a map and its my job to find where and what it is? Or do I believe that God doesn’t do maps but gives us a compass, and that compass is the inbuilt guidance system of passions, gifts and leanings.
Remember back to when the latest fad was the WWJD jewelry and clothing? I have to make a decision “What would Jesus do?” In some ways this thinking has hindered the church because it has sat back to afraid to move unless it’s what Jesus exactly wants.
Psalm 37:23 (NLT)
The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives.
Notice its the steps..I believe that God gives us an inbuilt guidance system that directs us as we move. So go on step out you never know where it may lead you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
