Prayer

Prayer is an amazing thing to have as humanity, when you actually get your head around the concept, you realise you can have a conversation with the One who created Earth, the stars, and even you and I. It's quite mind blowing really.

This One who created the Heavens and the Earth is also the one who created the 'natural' laws that the universe was to operate within, the laws that science tell us are in place and that all the formulas that we've come up with define.

Have you ever realised, that at the same time as having laws surrounding us that we have to abide by, we can still persuade God, this Creator of the universe, to change His mind and break natural laws. This is when miracles can occur, such as a person who has developed a tumor is somehow cured and the doctors cannot explain, or someone with a broken leg gets prayed for and it somehow is completely restored without evidence of a break ever occurring to that bone, or how about someone being raised from the dead, even days after the their heart had taken it's last beat.

The God who placed these 'natural' laws in place can also break them as He chooses or is persuaded to do. Pray with perseverance and believe that God loves you and will give you the desires of your heart, not things you may want, but the things you need and especially for things that will glorify Himself. Just as a child brings a petition before their parent, we approach our Heavenly Father in the same way, and He responds as a loving parent does, the perfect parent.

⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Philippians 4:6

Spirituality - we're incomplete without it!

If you look at every culture since the beginning of creation, we (humanity) have known there was something bigger than ourselves, a 'higher being' that we have the desire within our spirits to search for. The ancient Egyptians had their gods, the Australian Aboriginals have their spirit gods, the Aztec's, Babylonians, Celtic, Greek, Hindu, Japanese, Roman, etc, etc, etc we all have the in built need for something more, something spiritual to fill the emptiness inside.

I've just spent a month in India, and learning about the Hindu gods and how they seem to have, just like many other religions, a god for nearly every aspect of life from welcoming you into a home, your money, harvests, travelling etc.

While I was in India, there was quite a few times I depended on help from God, protection from danger firstly; there was at least 5 times we were very close to death that we know of, and secondly health, so I didn't get sick or 'complications' from the food and water. If I didn't have faith that God would get me through I would have felt helpless. While I was there, there was deaths on train crashes, I went on these trains, there was deaths due to the cold, I was staying in this area, there were deaths on the roads, one night was so foggy there was around 80 people dead or missing on the exact road we were travelling on and many more examples of similar events; yet in all of this, I felt unbelievably safe like I was wrapped in cotton wool - I felt the presence of God surrounding us and hearing our prayers and others who were praying for us also.

I depended on the help of God during my trip and people all throughout history have searched for the help and guidance from the spiritual world, it's in our DNA to find God, yet I return to a country that really has no spirituality. Australia has so many people that are their own 'gods', they believe they don't need anything else apart from themselves, or so they say.

For a nation to have no spirituality is a nation that is lost. When I try to imagine having no spirituality, I think of zombies with no souls, just a shell going through motions without purpose; wake, eat, work, sleep day in day out.

The more I talk to people that claim they don't need God, the more they realise how pointless their life is. When all the business of their life is gone, when all the distractions, paryting, alcohol and all the other things the world does to try to keep their mind off their internal pain and emptiness and they just sit at the end of the day in the dark by themselves, there is still a gaping emptiness inside that can only be filled by God Himself.

If this describes how you feel, read the Bible, I suggest starting with the New Testament, the books like Mark, Matthew and John and if this doesn't work for you, I'll seriously be surprised. When God created us, He made us so that we were only complete with Him, without Him we are incomplete.

A Godless nation is only fooling itself, a Godless man is lost

Accept Jesus today

"When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.""

John 8:12

India

So I'm heading of to India tomorrow afternoon and will be meeting up with a few friends who left a few days ahead of me.

I love travelling, as many of you would know, and I can't help but think of people who have gone into lands like India before me. India has so much history and diversity in religions and other aspects of life in general. Being a part of The Salvation Army, knowing some of the work that happened in India with the likes of the Booth-Tuckers and just to be able to put everything in context will be exciting. So much to see and experience!

Going to towns and villages where Jesus is either unknown or un-acknowledged will be a challenge, being surrounded by idols, cow's of great worth and ultimately opposition in the spiritual should be a great experience especially in the northern regions.

God created the heavens and the earth and everything in it, so to be blessed to be able to see more of that creation is amazing and won't be taken for granted. Prayer support will be appreciated so that God's work will be done and the Kingdom will be experienced and expanded.

Thanks for everyone who is and already prayed for the three of us who are taking this trip. I'll place some pictures up when I return, especially on Facebook if you want to check them out in around 4 weeks.

Please keep praying for us and for God's will to be done in this season.

"I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars."

Isaiah 45:2

Love, how I believe God intended

Love, how I believe God intended

Taken from – Sex (Part 3): Wilderness – Matt Chandler

Raya is the Hebrew word for companionship, and it’s not just like buddies, but it’s this: that I know you and you know me. It’s not that I just know your pretty stuff, but it’s that I know your junk, ok? That I have seen the wicked parts of you, you have seen the wicked parts of me, and yet still we’ve decided to try to work on this relationship. So, the foundational element of love and sex for the Hebrew mind and their idea of love, was this word, raya, which means that I know you and you know me and I really know you and you really know me. So, raya never occurs on a first date. It never occurs on a second date. Raya can never take place until that first time you watch the person you’re dating or the person you’re married to do something that makes you go, “Oh, no.” ok? And then, in that moment, raya occurs if you say, “I’m going to keep going.” Now, if you go, “I’m done”, then you’re done. But raya is this getting to know each other in such a way that I know you, all of you, and you know me, all of me. And we continue to walk together. And raya leads into ahava.

Ahava is a love of the will. The best way to say ahava is this, “I am not going anywhere.” And that word, that love of the will, it does not carry romantic connotations with it. It carries a very aggressive tone, and it basically is this: Your spouse, your girlfriend, your boyfriend – they want to kill you, and then in that moment when there is such conflict and there is such difficulty, there’s still within you this: “I am not going anywhere.” And so what happens is raya (or me getting to know you and you getting to know me – my good stuff, my bad stuff, your good stuff, your bad stuff) it leads to this moment, or this period of time where, I guess there’s this moment of epiphany? That’s how it was for me where I’m just going, “This is the woman I want to fight with for the rest of my life.” Now, you say that and you go, “I’ve got that. There’s still no sex.” Ok? There’s still no sex yet. There’s all this work (the only people that think that deep relationships aren’t hard work are the people that don’t have them, ok? haha). There’s all this hard work, there’s all this stuff that has to be weighted through, there’s all this baggage. And you’re like, “Why is she so heavy? Oh, baggage.” You’re like, “Why is he so hard to train? Oh, baggage.” Ok? And so you’ve got to walk through all that. You’ve got to sort the dirty laundry. You’ve got to figure out how to wash it. Now, you move from there into ahava and then comes sweet dod, baby!

Dod is not the Hebrew word for sex. It is the Hebrew word for sex when ahava and raya are present. If we have raya and we have ahava, then sex isn’t just two bodies together, it’s two persons. And it’s in there, in that moment that all the intimacy and love that we crave is found. It’s why we are so over-sexed and still so lonely. Cuz, we’ve divorced it, we’ve divorced it from raya and ahava, ok? We’ve exalted sex to be the end all of everything, and sex requires very little work. And so when you’ve divorced it from the real foundational weight and beauty of it, then all you’re left with is technique and trying to work on your technique. So we’ve really become a very lonely, miserable, oversexed people.

I would totally encourage you and urge you to go to iTunes and get The Village’s free podcast. Listen to Sex (Part 1, 2, & 3). I’m telling you, man, this is really weighty, good, varsity stuff that is often never preached from some pulpits. And it’s really too bad, cuz it’s one of the main things that our culture and friends and own selves deal with and struggle with understanding on a large level. Thanks for reading this. Go listen!

[Borrowed from: http://kelseyschneider.blogspot.com/2008/10/raya-ahava-and-dod.html]

Straight off the press - pro-life

Dear Friends,

Just moments ago, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a over $1 Trillion Dollar Health Care Reform package. The pro-life amendment to the bill was passed earlier in the night after months of House leaders refusing to allow it to be voted on.

The good news: Leaders realized today that in order to pass this highly controversial bill they had to make sure the bill didn't use government money to fund abortions.

This is a HUGE victory for the pro-life movement. Planned Parenthood is fuming right now!

Thank you for your calls, e-mails, and visits to the Congress.

The bad news: The package still contains troubling pro-rationing provisions in it and is especially concerning to parents of special-needs children, like myself.

Now, on to the Senate where we must make sure any health care reform that passes DOES NOT include abortion and pro-rationing provisions.

Look forward to many more updates from me on this issue.

For Life,
Kristan Hawkins

Well represented

How is holiness like the crusades?

I suppose in a few ways, but the way I had been thinking of is that the people involved can often mis-represent God.

Doing things in the Name of God can often be bad promotion for the Body of Christ. Zeal is great, but missinformed zeal can be harmful. I know so many that are 'young' in their faith who are so alive in Christ and that is so inspirational, I love being around these people, but they quite often put their foot in it since there is so much to learn about the All Powerful.

There are even a few more mature 'Christians' that I have heard to claim to be 'holy' and therefore claiming to represent accurately the character of God - these people I have often found lacking in the Fruit of the Spirit and often causing hurt in other people's lives.

Does our lives represent God's character?

I know many people who represent the characture of God well, but I've never heard these people claim to be holy or sanctified, but they live out a life that Jesus was and just do it rather than tell everyone how holy they are.

I'd rather be integral in the way I live to accurately represent Christ rather than spray meaningless words of my achievements and my self-righteous perfection - What it all comes down to is how we are seen in God's eyes, I'd rather please Him than impress man.

God is good and wants us to be perfected in His eyes - He want's you to be holy - come to Him and He will perfect you if you allow Him to do a good work in your life

"³I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ⁵because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

Philippians 1:3-6

Function

When something doesn't fulfil it's function, then it's not whole or complete, but broken.

God has told us to be holy, if we are not holy then we are not fulfilling our function as humanity. We need to remember that this is not just an individual thing either, we are to be holy as a community.

Start living a holy life today if you haven't already. It's your destiny :)

"But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life."

Romans 6:22