Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Hark the herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled"
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
"Christ is born in Bethlehem"
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin's womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Worlds biggest worship service

Tonight the world comes together for the largest worship service of the year!

Calling all Christians; the night of the 24 of December gather with your family and friends to worship the baby that changed the world - the Son of God - the Saviour of the World, Jesus.

I love watching Carols by Candlelight every year seeing millions of people singing praise to Jesus at the Melbourne Myer Music bowl, but also knowing millions more are sitting in their living rooms at home singing praise to Jesus also!

Let's take this opportunity to worship Jesus for all the world to see, and make it obvious that the worlds we're singing actually are meaningful and not just for the sake of singing -

"Joy to the world the Lord is come

let Earth receive her King

Let every heart prepare Him room"

Money

PASTORAL LETTER ELEVEN

MONEY

Dear Fellow Salvationists,

This Pastoral Letter comes to you close to the time when Christians everywhere are rejoicing in the birth of the Saviour.

With my wife, Commissioner Helen Clifton, I send you warmest good wishes and Christmas greetings. May the miracle of the coming of Jesus into the world fill us all with new wonder and new love as we go on witnessing to, and serving, others in his sacred name.

It may seem strange to use the title 'Money' for a Christmas Pastoral Letter. Let me explain. Our news bulletins and newspapers are filled these days with reports of a global financial crisis.

We hear about the worldwide 'credit crunch', caused by lenders failing to be self-restrained when lending to over-keen borrowers who could not afford the repayments. We hear about governments, who often refuse to spend a few millions on good causes or human need, suddenly being able to spend billions to prop up failing financial institutions and large businesses.

For most of us it is all baffling, but also deeply disturbing. Ordinary people are losing their jobs, and some are in danger of losing their homes. Despite this, we do not hear of many financial or political leaders accepting personal blame or apologising or offering to withdraw from public life because their economic policies have led to global recession and hardship for countless millions of people. Of course, it would take very great personal honour to shoulder the responsibility in this gracious way.

When Jesus entered the world he had nothing. His parents were not rich. His father, Joseph, worked with his hands, with wood and nails. When Jesus died he still had nothing. He was not at all interested in materialism, and yet he was immensely wealthy for he knew the meaning of true wealth. He told us that it is incredibly hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and he held up, as a shining example for us, the widow who gave all she had, a tiny coin, for the work of God.

During the recent presidential elections in the United States of America, both candidates were interviewed by Pastor Rick Warren and were asked to 'Define rich'. Despite offering sincere responses, neither really got it right, completely missing the point that true and lasting riches have nothing whatsoever to do with cash. Neither mentioned that the Lord Jesus Christ has told us to store up riches in Heaven where moth and rust do not corrupt and where thieves do not break in and steal. There is no 'credit crisis' there!

This Christmas, let us not go deeper into personal debt. Let us be restrained in our spending. Let us remember that in the 117 countries where the Army has been called to serve most people are poor and that there is absolutely nothing glamorous or sentimental about poverty.

This Christmas, let us remember that we follow in the steps of a matchless Saviour who came into and who left the world penniless.

This Christmas, as we anticipate an upsurge in the number of those seeking and needing the Army's help, let us remember that even a cup of cold water given in his name is given as unto him, and that we are going to have many, many more opportunities to share Christ with others as they turn to faith, abandoning the false god of material security.

This Christmas, let us rediscover true riches: forgiveness in Christ, a sanctified life in the power of the Holy Spirit, obedience to the will of God, and our days spent in living for others.

You remain always in my prayers.

May 2009 be filled with blessings from God for you and all whom you love. May you be fruitful for the Kingdom of God.

I commit you to the perfect love of Christ.

God bless you.

Shaw Clifton

General

Sceptic's guide to God

The other day I got mail as I usually do from Koorong book stores. In the package was a small pamphlet with few quotes from a book called "Sceptic's guide to God" and so I thought I'd share those couple of quotes with you;

"If you believe the information content in living systems to be the result of chance, then you believe that a tornado can go though a junk yard and assemble a Jumbo Jet!" Prof Hoyle

&

"The goal of Heaven is worthy of greater advanced planning than we would give to any other journey - yet some people spend more time preparing for a trip to Disney World" Randy Alcorn

I thought I'd just share those thoughts with you today.

How is your preparation going for eternity - leave me a comment firstly if you love Jesus, but secondly if you want to know more bout God if you don't already. Will be the best decision you will ever make to follow Jesus!

Bless ya!

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Matthew 6:20

On Fire!

This is a new thing 4 me, blogging from my mobile phone!

Today marks the start of Commissioning 2008 which is being called On Fire. I have a few great mates preparing 2 b sent out 2 their 1st appointments tomorrow & I know have been waiting 4 this day a long time!! Bless u guys.

From 3pm today there will actually b a segment on blogging which I'll a part of the panel so come along 4 a time of discussion, not like what we have here on the actual blogs! Lol

Its going 2 b a great time this weekend, so come along 2 the John Batman theatre 4 some great fellowship, discussions & worship.

Cost of following Jesus

18When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake.

19Then a teacher of the law came to him and said,

"Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."

20Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

21Another disciple said to him, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."

22But Jesus told him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead."

Mathew 8:18-22

Go for souls, and Generation final - my weekend

We'll haven't blogged for a few days and so much to blog about!!

Starting with the weekend - 'Go for Souls' went off as I knew it would, there was so much spiritual stuff around it trying to get us sick or unable to attend. James and I lost our voices - strange - our weapons, and a few others got sick in the lead up also.

Anyway, we pushed through had some amazing worship times, even being a part of the band I really found myself in the Throne room of God! Was awesome!

Outreach on the Saturday was fun, my group of kicked out of the shopping center, the group on the trains were threatened with bottles and rocks and the other guys, I don't' know, they probably just went well! lol

All up I heard 13 souls were saved and became a part of the Kingdom of Heaven - I pray God will reveal Himself to many more that were engaged with also that came so close.

Sunday night, I had my final Generation meeting at Glenroy so I had my 'Famous Last Words' sorta approach to the night. Was a sad event but I'll survive ;)

After the meeting, we had some prayer for healing in a friend, but God had other plans for the first steps to holiness and had some deliverance from a demonic stronghold instead - the rest to come later still, but God is awesome and always wins the battle.

Commissioning this weekend - also looking forward to that, and also my friend and session mate, Kathleen is flying in tomorrow for the weekend, so should be awesome to have quite a few of our future session mates at the same place at the same time before college.

Blessings to you all

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

1 Corinthians 9:23