Rwanda video

Here is a short clip of my time in Rwanda.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do, still everytime I watch it.

The music is supplied by Planetshakers. The song is called 'Free' - love this song too.

Virus warning

For all readers of blogs, please be aware Satan is also partaking in the blogging world leaving comments with little notes from 'named' visitors which leave links to viruses.

They are appearing as bloggers with names leading to blogger profiles which are actually viruses and also with a little note with things like "look here" or "read here" with links to other such viruses.

If you please see these comments don't click on them or if you find them on your blog, delete them immediately.

We bind you in Jesus Name, Satan and all other blogging demons!!

He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven

Luke 10:18

Jesus is still mighty to save!

Last night we had our first 'Generation' youth meeting for 2008. It was a powerful night where God put many messages into the night through everyone who participated and it all came together amazingly.

After the meeting, we had supper and I felt I had to catch up with one of the younger guys who wants to become a Junior Soldier. I started asking him what it meant to him to be a Junior Solder and it all went from there...

It came to my attention during our conversation that he had 'bashed' his Mum last Friday and from there he broke down and said that he couldn't do this by himself anymore, he needs God to take his anger from him and help him with his problems at school and his family situation, and his list of problems went on.

It was a beautiful moment when this 13 year old confessed all his sins and also confessed his need for Jesus.

I helped him through the salvation prayer and he became a new creation in Christ. Can I ask for you to please pray for this youngster, he has a very hard life, in his family situation but also at school and a few other big issues in his life.

Jesus is might to save - Hallelujah!! It was an privilege to be there and lead this youngster to Jesus.

"And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved"

Acts 2:21

Mr Rudd, claim this land....

God put on my heart the other day, that Australia is stagnant water, but we should be a living, flowing river full of life - but we're not! Why?

God told me that our new Prime Minister claims that he is 'Christian' and that he needs to get bold and not be afraid of proclaiming that on the country of Australia's behalf. What I mean is that Kevin Rudd needs to proclaim Australia as Christian country and as God's land.

If 'Kevin '07' does this, you won't believe what happens next!! Australia will become that living flowing river of abundant life and the country will become something we only dream that it could have been!

Our neighbouring countries will also be impacted - for their benefit - and God will finally fulfill the great prophecy - The great Southland of the Holy Spirit. We will go from strength to strength and Satan's dominion with all his false religions will be crushed by God's own hand in this country and also particularly in Indonesia!

Kevin Rudd when you read this next - get radical in your faith in Jesus and claim this land in the Name of Jesus and consecrate it for the glory of God!! For all our sakes and the salvation of the world, do it!

So on that day Moses swore to me, 'The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.'

Joshua 14:9

To the ends of the earth we will go, because we love Him so

Mid Week Commissioning

Last night we had a mid week commissioning! How awesome is that! Another 4 Captains were added to the 29 from last year's session and I believe there are another 2 possibly this Sunday.

The hall at Thornbury was packed with easily over 100 people in attendance for this historical occassion. It was an encouraging night with many passionate Officers and Solders in attendance.

I was honoured to meet Captain Stephen Courts parents who were also attending, and I was also blown away when Mrs Court said that she is a regular reader of this blog, so I send out a big hello!! I didn't get a chance to say goodbye, so I'll take this opportunity to say 'goodbye' also and that it was an honour to meet you both!

The night finished with a great celebration over supper with great company, with an amazing network of great Salvationists. I wish we could have more mid week meetings like this, with a mirrored attendance also - why not make it a monthly thing and we can move it around from Corps to Corps to host it?! Something for the Territory/Division to think about.

God bless the newest 4 Captains and may he send you out to change the world in Jesus' Name.

"Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.""

Matthew 28:18-20

Christ is all - yes, all in all!

Song 489 - Salvation Army Song Book:

I bring to thee my heart to fill

I bring to thee my heart to fill;
I feel how weak I am, but still
To thee for help I call.
In joy or grief, to live or die,
For earth or Heaven, this is my cry,
Be thou my all in all.

Chorus
Christ is all, yes, all in all.
My Christ is all in all.

2.Around me in the world I see
No joy that turns my soul from thee;
Its honors fade and fall;But with thee,
though I mount the cross,
I count it gain to suffer loss,
For thou art all in all.

3.I've little strength to call my own,
And what I've done, before thy throne
I here confess, is small;
But on thy strength. O God, I lean,
And through the blood that makes me clean,
Thou art my all in all.

4.No tempest can my courage shake,
My love from thee no pain can take,
No fear my heart appall;
And where I cannot see I'll trust,
For then I know thou surely must
Be still my all in all.

Herbert Howard Booth (1862-1926) (verses),
W.H. Williams (chorus)

"What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ"

Philippians 3:8

The Word of God

Something I read the other night about the living Word of God, the Bible;

"Never compare this Book with other books. Comparisions are dangerous. Never think or say that this Book contains the Word of God. It IS the Word of God. It is supernatural in origin, eternal in duration, inexpressible in value, infinite in scope, regenerative in power, infallible in authority, universal in interest, personal in application, inspired in totality. Read it through. Write it down Pray it in. Work it out. Then pass it on."

"Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it"

Luke 11:28

How guilty are you???

Watch and see what you think.



Do you feel responsible?

Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow.
Deuteronomy 27:19a

Hell

An excerpt from '23 minutes in Hell' by Bill Wiese;

"I was horrified as I heard the screams of an untold multitude of people crying out in torment. It was absolutely deafeninig.. The terror-filled screams seemed to go right through me, penetrating my very being...

...Through the panic and the deafening noise, I struggled to gather my thoughts. I'm in hell! This is a real place, and I'm actually here! I frantically tried to understand, but it was just so inconceivable.

Not me, I'm a good person, I thought. The fear was so intense I couldn't bear it, but again, I couldn't die. I knew that most people up on the surface of the earth did not believe or even know that there was a whole world going on down here. They wouldn't beleive it. But here it existed, and it was all too real. This place was so terrifying, so intense, and so hostile that it would be impossible for me to exaggerate the horror.

...The darkness was not simple absence of light - it had a distincive evil prescence, a feeling of death, a penetrating evil.

I looked off to my right and could faintly see flames from afar off that dimly lit the skyline... The flames were intense, but the darkness seemed to swallow up the light...

One of the most painful thoughts I had was the realization that I could never get to my wife. She had no idea of my existence in this place. I would never, ever see her again." (pg 9-10)

Finally Jesus came and saved Bill Wiese from Hell and a part of their conversation went like this;

"I asked Him, 'Why didn't I know You when I was there?(in Hell)'

He said, 'I kept it from you'. In order for me to experinece the hopelessness of those souls in hell, the fact that I knew Jesus had to be hidden from my mind. If I knew Him there... I would have had the hope that He would rescue me.

To experience the feeling of being lost forever was by far the worst part of Hell. On Earth, we always have some form of hope. Even amidst the most direful situations, we have hope that we'll escape, even if it's only through death. But there you know positively there is no hope whatsoever; you will never get out. Your soul cannot die, and you are lost and in torment forever."

I know it might seem strange for some people to be reading of such a terrible place, but for me to know the people I know and love might go there, is too much!! I want them to go to the place of eternal love, hope and happiness.

Do you know Jesus, are you saved from this place? If not, call upon Jesus now! (Don't know how - leave a comment or email me NOW!!)

What a great thought that I'm saved from that place of torment. I'm saved!! Thank You Jesus.

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

Acts 4:12

Are you giving your best?

I hear over and over about how people have left the church because they were hurt by someone or something that happened to them - what a load of garbage!

I think mostly people just get bored of the boring things we do at church.

Quite often we put the wrong people in positions, due to a lack of prayer and listening to God, but then the people who are in these positions of leadership (whether right or wrong) just don't put in the effort that they should. It makes 'church' (not just Sunday services, but everything associated to the 'church') boring!!

Children leave church because the children's stories may just be a monotonal story read from a book that they can't even see the pictures, or that an adults Bible study is un-organised or irregular so they never know if it is on if they could be bothered wasting another night of their busy schedule.

Are you responsible for showing Jesus to someone? Are you a sectional leader of your Church?

Are you giving your best - the best that Jesus deserves?? I pray you are inspired enough - if not, you clearly aren't spending time DAILY in with Jesus and reading the word - am I right?

Get close to Jesus, get excited, tell the world...

"So the man started off to visit the Ten Towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed at what he told them."

Mark 5:20

Buffet religion?!

I dont believe we can pick and choose which parts of God and/or His Word we 'choose'! If we do, we're about to walk into disaster. It's all or nothing, same with our lives.

We need to be careful. Same with our covenants - if we commit to something such as 'Christianity' or Soldiership/Officership, it's the whole thing or not at all!

A challenge for today, look at the covenants you have entered into with God, and keep them!! God has kept His part of them, I guarantee that!

Holiness, God has commanded us to enter a covenant of Holiness with Him, there are plenty of references to that, try this one one "I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy." Leviticus 11:44a

"To be like Jesus, this hope posesses me" Let's aim high!

The walk of Holiness

How's your walk of Holiness going?

I ask because of a few things that have been brought into the light lately.

As Christians, we hope to become more like Jesus every day - don't we? We, as Salvationists enter into a covenant with God - God keeps His part, so ultimately it is us who needs to keep the commitment that we sign. How much integrity do we have with ourselves, but most importantly, with God!

I had a dream last night that I was moving into college to start my training for Officership, and I was sharing a room with someone else and I happened to see in his case a stash of cigarettes! Even the covenant for Soldiers forbids the use of these death sticks, but it made me so angry that someone training to become a leader and person of influence of this 'organisation' would have them and assumed to be using them.

There has been reports of other 'Soldiers' also breaking thier covenants by consuming alcohol also - but this wasn't a dream. What does this tell you about their integrity?

We're fighting more than the flesh in this battle, we need to overcome the flesh and sin and move to the real battle here which is in the spirtual! Get real!

As it says in one of my favourite battle songs "Raise the glorious standards higher" [SASB 696 v3] so let's take the worlds standards and live much higher - set the standard as it is in Heaven.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Ephesians 6:12

A stolen generation?!

"Honor your father and your mother,

so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
"You shall not murder.
"You shall not commit adultery.

Exodus 20:12-14

Is it coincidence that these 3 laws occur in this order?

I was just trying to have some prayer time in the shower - instead God led me onto abortion, figure that!

I was just wondering if there was some direct correlation between the rise of abortion with the rise of infertility?

I wonder if God allows a certain number of souls to come to earth at once.

Then I wonder if those who are missusing God's gift of intercourse for selfish purposes outside it's intended use, and then happen to fall pregnant, then having an abortion are robbing those women who truly want to have children of them? I wonder?

Let's fight for this unborn generation, there are many ladies, and their husbands, who would give anything to have a family, but unfortunatally can't, pray for them today.

We are quick to blame God for things but when we look at things, maybe they're our fault! We live outside God's guidelines, and turn our back on Him, but then we quickly jump back to blame Him, don't we!?

Imagine we all obeyed, how things would go correctly that way! Imagine playing a game of football outside the rules - it wouldn't work! It would quickly fall apart, and is no where near as enjoyable - it's exactly the same with the world, 'play' within the 'rules' - it's all for our enjoyment!

Try living our intended way today....

"He...established the law in Israel,

which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children,

so the next generation would know them,

even the children yet to be born,

and they in turn would tell their children.

Then they would put their trust in God

and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands"

Psalm 78:5-7

Feet First

Wow, isn't life busy here in Australia! I think I'm still wanting to be in African time, and loving it!! It's a nice slow paced walk over there in that great continent.

The first week we were in Kigali, Rwanda, we held the Feet First program to equip 21 (possibly 22) of their main youth leaders throughout Rwanda and Burundi.

We had morning devotion time, then we had a morning teaching and question/contemplation time which was powerful. In the afternoons, we broke up into 3 electives, Childrens ministry, Youth ministry or Worship and Creative Arts ministry.

We taught these youth leaders a couple of our 'English' songs which really took off and they were able to connect with God in a language they were still only learning. These songs were songs like, Here I am to worship, Saviour King and Hossana.

On the Wednesday night we watched the movie 'The Passion' by Mel Gibson on a borrowed projector. These African's, when they cry, they do it loudly!! Wow!! Afterwards, we sung Saviour King (perfect song for this movie!!) and had a powerful prayer time where there were many breakthough's in peoples lives. Prase God.

The Thursday night we had an Acts 1:8 prayer night where we gave the option of the baptism of the Holy Spirit! The night went way too fast! It was awesome, God showed up, had a few salvations and we kicked one demons butt out of there!!

The final morining, we had a 'commissioning' to send them out and empower them and washed their feet as Jesus washed His disciples feet. They really didn't know how to react, they see 'white people' as being superior, and we really made sure we humbled ourselves and did this act of service to them to break this in Jesus Name!

We have already seen some fruits of this week, a new worship team has been formed to praise God in the Kigali Central Corps from scratch - I pray that this will be a blessing to the people there in the capital.

The Regonal Commanders wife, concluded with her interpretation of 'Feet First' by saying she liked it's name, because your eyes can go first, but you don't necesserily go and do anything, but if your feet go first, you actually progress and go! If your feet go, so will your body. I thought that was a really good interpretation for the delegates, and ourselves!

Please keep Rwanda in your prayers as I am, there was an earthquake in Rwanda and the Congo Monday morning, their Sunday during Church where 20-25 people were killed.

"Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.""

Mark 9:35

Raining down blessings!

As I said in my last blog, God is with us, right beside us!!

When we arrived in Rwanda, they were in their drought season, I think it was due to end in a months time or so.

The first week we had our Feet First traning and on the day we started, we had all our sessions then a kids program in the arvo with over 100 kids, it was awesome. We finished and as soon as the last one of us stepped into meals room for tea (supper) the rain stared bucketing down!! We were called the 'miracle' people starting here, it was apparently due to us, and this was God pouring out His blessing on His people in this country. [photo attatched - it was heavy rain!]

After the first week, we then headed out to two different Corps for 4 days each, one Corps and one outpost. The day we arrived at the first one, at Kyenzi, Major Sharon gave the message. As soon as she started giving the message, it started raining!! Pouring!! Again - of course - it was us!! God was pouring out His blessings because of our visit.

The second Corps we went to, it was the fourth day, the day I was to preach. Just after the meeting started, it started to rain there, by the time of the message it was now raining heavily there.

God did show He was with us, and that He was to pour out His blessings during our time in Rwanda.

During the first week, on Wednesday night, we watched the Passion. Africans really wail when they cry!! After the movie, we sung Saviour King and had a huge prayer time, where some lives were changed - it was awesome.

The next night, Thursday, we had a night of prayer and infilling of the Holy Spirit - powerful night, God showed His glory!! Hallelujah!

Our theme, which I want to take throughout this year was/is - do you have your arms folded or are they stretched out ready to recieve from God? Think about your posture towards God for 2008

"I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."

1 Corinthians 9:23