ANZAC day

Here in Australia (and also New Zealand) we've just celebrated the anniversary of the landing in Gallipoli all those years ago during WW1.

My band had the privilege, yet again to participate in all the local ANZAC ceremonies in our community - the local RSL's last Sunday, and today our local retirement village. We heard stories of sacrifice and brothership directly from some of the old diggers, and we also heard a great message from our own Major Geoff Ledger.

Major Geoff's message went something like this;

We hear of great sacrifices of many different soldier's to save the life of other soldiers. All the soldiers were willing to sacrifice their lives for another fellow soldier and now they are all upheld as heroes and are celebrated annually on ANZAC day - yet there was one who sacrificed Himself for the benefit of ALL humankind, not just for the one or two 'brothers'; but for everyone. He should be held up in higher esteem than these diggers for He sacrificed Himself and took all of our shame and suffering upon Himself so we could be free and live our lives in this freedom. Today let us remember Jesus, the Christ, the one who saved us from ourselves, who gave the ultimate sacrifice and died in our place!

Great message Geoff!!

Don't' hold back the truth today, tell the world all Jesus has done for you, and for them. No compromise, for all Heaven cries when we do.

"I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done."

Psalm 118:17

Leadership qualities

I've been doing a lot of reading on leadership the past few weeks.

We had an interesting conversation with a 'leader' of the Salvation Army on Sunday after one of our Anzac day ceremonies, where this person was very discouraging and was pulling down all the hard work that we have been putting in to building up the organisation.

In my reading, (s)he was the perfect example of what not to be like! It's quite humorous how perfect examples come along at the right time. These examples really show you what you don't want to become.

So, some of the good points I picked up in my reading were;

• you need to maintain a good relationship with God (number 1)!
• you need to maximise your human relationships
• spend time with people you love
• understand that everyone has value!
• be a servant of Jesus
• inspire, encourage, pray for and enable others to become high achievers themselves
• build up others, and build up new leaders, ie empower others!
• unify the people you are leading
• be committed - something that is really lacking in the world currently
• persevere - never give up, no matter what

That's enough for now, there are plenty of principles that good leaders must develop.

Are you a leader, what areas can you improve upon? If you're not developing your leadership qualities, then you're not being a very good leader, we all can improve something. If we want to be good leaders, we need to always be expanding ourselves for the benefit of the people we're leading! How can you lead someone who has passed you in knowledge, wisdom, ability or even their own leadership!

"if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully."

Romans 12:8

Prayer

Wow, it's been getting a bit quiet on the blogosphere from what I've noticed the past few days!

My church participated in the 24/7 prayer on Friday/Saturday which the Salvation Army is doing in Australia since the 24/7 2007, where someone is always praying.

We only did it for 24 hours where mostly it is being done for a week at a time by different Corps/churches. I ended up co-ordinating it and in doing so, ended up being there for around 16 hours of the 24, but I can't complain, it was an amazing time in God's presence.

My highlight was definitely the night shift, we only had the lights on from the cross on the wall and small candles around the worship hall, with some quiet background music - amazing!! I was there with one other member of the youth for most of the night, but we didn't even talk, we just 'were' with God!

We had a similar prayer day last year, but a lot less 'pressured' where we didn't have to have someone on every hour, even though 2 of us stayed and fasted for the whole 24 hours - these are the highlights of my year - nothing else even comes close in our church - spending time with God - no distractions!

If you haven't participated in a prayer day or if you are in the Salvation Army and haven't yet participated - I highly recommend participating!

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

James 5:16b

False gods

1 Corinthians 8:7-13

Dear Father, the one real and only God,

Many do not understand that all reality is rooted in you, so they chase the "gods" of this world, the "idols" which they worship -money, fame, glamor, power, security - and in some cases real idols and the real demons who are behind those idols.

Many brothers and sisters in Christ have recently been freed from bondage to a culture that worships these false gods, and due to their weak consciences they can easily be drawn back. Keep me from pursuing the things they were in the habit of pursuing, lest they think I am serving their old "gods" and that it is okay for them to violate their consciences and return to former practices. Don't let my "knowledge" destroy someone who is weak. May I be willing to fore go any right or privilege rather than cause a brother or sister to fall.

In the name of Jesus and by his authority I ask these things according to his will. Amen.

Has God been taken off His throne?

For those of you who might have read yesterdays blog, I think I got my confirmation in some shape.

I received an article by someone that hadn't even read my blog, which stated that Roman Catholics are no longer the largest religion, they have been overtaken!

How times are changing - what does/will this now mean?

This is what the article stated;

"For the first time in history Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion.

According to the Vatican statistical bureau the number of the world's population that are Muslims is 19.2%, with the number of Catholics trailing behind at 17.4%.

When considering all Christians and not just Roman Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population. The most recent figures from the Vatican have been published by the Vatican newspaper 'Osservatore Romano on March 30.

'For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top; Muslims have overtaken us,' Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican daily.

The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations. The Vatican could only guarantee its own data, Formenti said.

The new statistics also shows that nearly half of the Roman Catholics Christians live in America"

9th April 2008

So, we who call ourselves Christians - what are we doing about this, obviously we're not doing as much as the Muslims, or are we?

I once read a quote in Phil Walls book 'Holiness at war' which said something like "Jehovah's witnesses are totally committed to a half truth, where as we are half committed to the whole truth" - so what's going on there. I think it's time we wake ourselves up and to get serious about the truth!! Are you with me??

Let's go sick at telling the world about the amazing grace and truth, and freedom, and love, and purpose, and ... (ok, you get the picture), about Jesus!!

Time's running too short to be sitting back and leaving it all to someone else!

"We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty."

2 Peter 1:16

Is the end closer than we think?

Calling all discerners of different spirits!

This may seem like a strange blog, but I need confirmation.

The past week I've come across several people with a certain spirit that has alarmed me. I'm not sure if it is new or I've only just become aware of it. I have found people influenced by 'the spirit that is in agreeance with the anti-christ'!! (Just as I typed that, something strange just happened!!)

I was thinking, if I discerned this right, that means that within these people's life times, the 'anti-christ' will be on Earth. That is quite alarming, but I didn't want to jump to this conclusion without other disciples with discernment to confirm this (or not)!

The three occasions I found these people in the last four days was really strange, the Spirit only revealed this after I met the third person a couple of days ago, and let me know that these people will just for no reason of their own, almost like they're brain washed, will just follow and agree with everything this certain 'anti-christ' will do and say. [Just an interesting note also, 2 of these 3 are professed atheists! The 3rd, not sure about..]

One good thing that would come out of discerning these people is seeing who they all seem to be drawn to and who they support....

Please, if you through the Holy Spirit can discern spirits, please let me know if you come across this spirit yourself or have already come across it, we could be heading into some interesting times.

Make sure you're letting people know about Jesus NOW!

"Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist."

2 John 1:7

Purpose in life

What gets you out of bed in the morning? What do you live for?

I thank God that I'm a Christian, I would have no purpose otherwise! God has given me a hope for a purpose driven life, and a life that I know will last for an eternity in a great place with God.

Is your purpose from God or are you just making it up as you go along? If you're not sure why you were born, who better to ask than the One who made you - I don't mean your parents - I'm talking about God.

Pray, He won't leave you hanging. Remember, prayer is a two way conversation, don't just talk, but listen for God's voice too!!

"But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

Exodus 9:16

Prayer

The youth of Melbourne Central Division had 24 hours of prayer that finished 7pm tonight. I only did 2 hours of the 24 but it was still a blessed time with God. I found myself bouncing off the walls, but I think it had something to do with the fair trade coffee I had with strawberry milk (we were almost out of normal milk...)

How can you have a relationship with someone without communication. I just thought of the movie 'Sixth Sense', how Bruce Willis' character didn't really talk much with his wife, but he kept going on with his 'life' but realised in the end there was no relationship, as such, at all.

To be a Christian, is to have a great relationship with the creator of the universe; that is something very special, but do you really have a close relationship with Him, or is it a relationship like Bruce Willis' in his movie where you just acknowledge God but keep going on with your busy life.

Remember, anything that takes priority over God is an idol.

Prayer, is the most important thing that a Christian can partake in. If you don't have a good prayer life, will God say to you that He doesn't really know you when that day comes? How sad will that be for your soul?

Romans 12:12 says "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."

If we give God the bare minimum 10% of our day, that's still almost 3 hours in a day - so how bout spending at least 3 hours a day in prayer and study of the Word, challenging huh.

Prayer is not just great for your relationship with God, but it also encourages you and builds you up, so therefore you are able to go out boldly and change the world - all the power is in prayer!!

Remember the teaching from Pastor M.C. Hammer today, "We gotta pray just to make it today"!

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."

Acts 2:42

Power in the Holy Spirit

Smith Wigglesworth's daughter asked some African boy's one day to tell her the difference between being saved and being filled with the Holy Spirit.

"Ah," they said, "when we were saved, it was very good; but when we received the Holy Spirit, it was more so." Many of you have never received the "more so".

After the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will have power. God will mightily move within your life' the power of the Holy Spirit will over shadow you, inwardly move in you until you know there is a divine plan different from anything that you have had in your life before.

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them,
"Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?"

They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."
So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?"

"John's baptism," they replied.
Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus."
On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.
When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

Acts 19:1-6

Very Salvo

Check out Very Salvo for some really deep reading and thoughts!!

http://www.verysalvo.blogspot.com

Having a hard time finding God???

Just a thought - it wasn't Him that moved.