Pastor Rob's thoughts

The Unliveable

2011-11-13T15:26:00.004+11:00

"Predestination means that you were eternally found in Jesus before you were ever lost in Adam." This statement was made by Ken Blue. How profound how inspiring how challenging. Now for some thoughts I read.

What have you been told is the secret to the Christian life? Pray and read your Bible? Go to church? Witness? Speak in tongues? Tithe?

Let me go on record. I do not believe anything on that list even comes close to the issue of how to live the Christian life. All have one inherent flaw. The fatal flaw? Every item on the aforementioned list assumes that it is possible to live the Christian life. Can you live the Christian life? The answer is no, a resounding NO! You cannot live the Christian life.

That list takes for granted you can live the Christian life. Also note that you are the center of every item on that list. Call it "you-centeredness." You out there living the Christian life. You cannot live the Christian life. Jesus Christ could not live the Christian life. None of us can live the Christian life! If Jesus Christ cannot live the Christian life, what makes you think that you can? You can give up trying to live the Christian life! We can all testify what a colossal failure we have been at trying to live the Christian life.

God the Father lives the Christian life. "How does God the Father live the Christian life?" He doesn't. He is the Christian life. He is the highest life. God the Father is the wellspring, the source, the first motion, and the fountainhead of the Christian life.

The Father indwelt His Son here on this earth for thirty-three years. The Father lived the Christian life inside Jesus Christ. It was the Father's life, and the Father's life alone, which lived the Christian life inside your Lord. It is the Father's life, and the Father's life alone, that ever lives the Christian life. It is the Father's life, and Father's life alone, which will live the Christian life in you. Embrace a formula or a list in order to "live the Christian life," and you are doomed to frustration.

But on the day you quit trying to live the Christian life ...then you will finally give Him the freeway to live out in you what is so easy and so simple and so organic for Him to do. Hopefully, you just got set free from a long list of do's and don'ts (the "do's" you can't do, and the "don'ts" you always do). Why so shocked; stop and think about it. You never were any good at living the Christian life. Admit it.

The gospel is not the news that we can receive an absent Jesus into our lives. The gospel is the shocking news that Jesus has received us into his.

These are not my thoughts but certainly worth thinking on.

Mind Meld

2011-08-17T20:13:00.006+10:00

"The Glory of God is a man fully alive” Irenaeus 202AD. What a thought what a picture what a hope. Being fully alive creates in me all sorts of pictures! No fear of man, vibrant in faith, passionately loving and living with expectant faith and hope. What a life that would be and I feel it’s one God wants His children to have. But unfortunately we have been tuned to respond differently in our world. Advertising and marketing has opened the door for its self and the people they work for to make people reliant rather than alive. This made me think of a movie I watched recently. It starred Clint Eastwood and was called "Grand Torino", it was such a brilliant movie (albeit some poor acting) the themes in it were brilliant. But a line resonated in my head with such clarity about people, life and in general the world, and particularly this thought that I am now penning. The main character Walt Kowalsky was asked by one of his neighbours what he does; his reply was "I fix a thing; that’s what I do." Our modern world, and indeed the church wants us all to adopt the stance of Eastwood's character. I fix things. The expectation in the church is for people to be fixed and that is all well and good. But our biggest problem is that we alone cannot fix anyone. Jesus is the wounded healer and handing our life over to him is the only answer. But for many this act of surrender is seemingly impossible. Most require the Pastor or the counselor to FIX them. But we cannot! We sure can and should help but nappy changing is not our primary goal. It’s letting people realise who they already are filled with.

You see I happen to believe that if Christ came that we might have life and have it to the fullest, so then discovering the life of being fully alive is far better than wanting to be fixed. Rolling over like a passive dog hoping to be patted is a far cry from the dream God has for you and I. So expecting others to change us through any means is not the Gospel. Yes given we may need help along the way and a little bit of fine tuning, but if it’s all about fixing then there is never the finding of the truly alive person that needs to be released. But rather you end up with a propped up person who continually requires propping at every turn of life. Life is indeed a brilliant gift that is full of Gold but we have to find the Gold, within ourselves and within others around us. One of the true problems of the Church is that there has been an image formed in most peoples’ minds and hearts about what a Christian should look like and we have conformity. But the problem with this is that the intrinsic beauty that lies within us as individuals is never found. It is squashed under a mask of conformity. This then hinders any chance of us becoming truly alive.

The other issue that arises from conformity is that the people outside of the Church view us as image bearers of God. What we look like to them is representative of how people will see God. Jesus showed the world that God was overwhelmingly in love with us and desired to give us good things, and that in many respects we should be falling over ourselves to get to him. But on the contrary we are busy cutting out masks to conform to what we think we should be. We never come truly alive, primarily because we are far too busy filling a package that seems to be the stereotypical Christian rather than living the dream of true freedom.

I love this quote from Lou Engle "God had a dream and He wrapped your body around it"

Rom 8:19 In fact, all creation is eagerly waiting for God to show who his children are.

The word here for eagerly waiting is translated as being "intense anticipation: - earnest expectation" Waiting for the reality of those who will allow themselves to dream that the God of the Universe may have a greater dream for them than what they have allowed themselves to believe, with the confines of our finite minds. There has to be a time in every believers life where they begin to think "There has to be more to life than what I am experiencing now, there has to be more to God than I know, now" It is at this critical point in our lives where we can go one of two ways and I encourage you to take the first way. And that way is one of dreaming and allowing your head to be free in possibility thinking that there is more and God wants to give more. But at this moment we can choose to go back to old coping mechanisms, the second way, rather than pulling them down and allowing freedom to come.

Let me encourage you to seek greater depth and a closer walk with the oft forgotten third member of the Trinity the Holy Spirit and watch the door way of Glory open. But it will not happen while we ask to be fixed; rather it occurs when we allow dreaming to happen. And to take by faith the words of Christ, "I have come to give life and life abundantly.

I'm Pastor Rob and they are some of my thoughts

A quick thought for you...

2011-08-03T11:02:00.010+10:00

What consumes your thoughts? What is the thing that lies at the fore front of your mind on most days? We are told as a man thinks in his heart so is he. What is your main thought that dominates your soul? My mind used to be so filled with fear and doubt about most things in life, but thankfully I have allowed and worked with God to be rescued from that debilitating process to a large degree. (We all have our moments!) In essence the Christian life is one of going from Glory to Glory BUT! While we vacillate between what God says of us and what we allow our minds to dictate to us we fail to make a choice and life over runs us. We were saved to be the head and not the tail, but many of us refuse to take on that role, we find it easier (read safer) to stay in the roles that life has dictated to us.

Can you imagine the call of God on the Apostle Paul’s life and he refuses due to the fact of his previous way of living. “Oh no that cannot be me sorry Lord I am a miserable man that has killed Christians and made life hell. All the mistakes I have made Oh my goodness I cannot, I will not, I should not, etc etc etc..” No instead Paul makes the decision to accept and live the word that God had for him. He too like you and me had a choice to accept and live in the call or to move in his own understanding again and again. Where would that have left us? My thoughts are we would have been reading the Georgine doctrines rather than the Pauline as God would have had to find another.

Having so many choices in our lives is a blessing but at the same time it’s a curse. Because we have so many choices we have options and if there is a hint of pain with an option that would lead to change, we refuse to make that choice. And yet making that choice is the one thing that will lead to life and a fulfilled lifestyle. The Kingdom is about God and His ambassadors, and ambassadors are meant to be representatives of the King. An ambassador in many ways is the King in that place he lives. Can you imagine the picture people in the society get of the supposed King! He is afraid, schizophrenic, sad, co dependant, controlling and you fill in the other adjectives.

As Christians who are indwelled by the King whom we represent, and His image is stamped into our DNA, and He has even promised not to leave us but to fill us if only we will embrace who He is in us. We don’t even have to make a new image up the blue print is already over laid and the file downloaded, but we have to open it via belief. In preference we (and all too often) move away from the image and prefer the false image that we have been so used to living in. We wear a mask, and are scared to take it off because how will I cope if I make the choice to live differently? Can I really trust the blue print? What if it fails me? This then stops us walking through the doorway that leads to faith that leads to growth that leads to rest and that is the goal of the kingdom to cease from our works (read standards) and embrace His, which is provided free of charge and clear of debt.

Let me encourage you today to take the mask off, if even for a moment each day and practice living in who you really are, and not in the false belief of what you have been told you are. To walk through that door of faith and trust the one who called and saved you in the first place, in the total belief that He has made you able to be His ambassador and His friend.

Those are my thoughts, Pastor Rob

Rob Cunningham | Senior Minister |

The Promise Centre | Post: PO Box 435 | Wagga Wagga NSW 2650 |

Street: 48 Vestey Street | Wagga Wagga NSW 2650 |
Ph: +61 2 6921 5021 | Fax: +61 2 6921 5121 |

Email: robc@thepromisecentre.com.au |
Web: www.thepromisecentre.com.au |

“To be all we already are in Christ and to help others see this truth….”

Its Been a While

2011-07-07T14:31:00.004+10:00

Sorry but I have been away for a while and just lately life has been a little hectic, I was thinking about writing my next thought and I got this in the mail. I hope you like it. It spoke clearly and loudly to me...

When we first meet Jesus, we never carry cynicism, contempt or indifference in our spirits. Simply gratitude, passion, and joy over this new relationship we have with an amazing God!

So, why then are millions of Christians bitter, mocking, skeptical, bewildered, derisive, uncaring, disheartened, hopeless?

As absurd as it sounds, many never even give themselves a chance to choose a second road, the road of Trusting God, after having first selected the path of Pleasing God. You see, not all make it back to the fork in the road after leaving the Room of Good Intentions.

Scattered along nearly the entire Pleasing God path back towards the fork, you’ll find them. Some sit alone, tucked away, almost out of sight. Some collect in twos and threes. Some spend the rest of their journey here. The Room of Intentions broke and jaded their hearts; disillusioned them, robbed them of hope. It made them so sick they’re nearly anesthetized to believing it can or will ever be different. Man-made religion has beaten them down. Horribly, many of them are the most passionate, gifted and dedicated servants of God.

This wounding expresses itself in many forms. Some are cynical and smug. It’s a cover. They’re self-protecting from vulnerability. They’re still articulate and insightful—they just usually now speak from the edges of the arena. They’re still bleeding from having risked love and vulnerability in a Room of Good Intentions community that didn’t know what to do with it. Some are bitter—lashing out at anything with more structure than an agreed upon meeting time. Some create straw men, globalizing their enemies into generalized categories, where they can ridicule them more easily.

When they do get together they spend much of the time rehearsing their wounds. They talk about what they don’t like. Their banner here is mistrust of any authority. They brag about being free from the bondage of religion. They say this often in the same breath they rehearse their wounded identity. They can no longer remember the innocence of trust. They’ve seen too much.

For a season what they are doing can be right and deeply corrective. They see from the vantage point of having little left to lose. But after awhile it makes them sick in bitter unforgiveness. And there are now very few surrounding them who can help guide them to forgiveness.

No one matures in bitterness.
No one gets free in isolation.
No one heals in rehearsing the testimonies of bad religion.
No one gets to love or be loved well in self-protection.

Self-protection is one of the great oxymorons. We’re the only person in the world we don’t have the potential to protect. And once we hide from trusting God and others with us, we just get more inflamed, more self-justified, more calloused, more rehearsed in repeating our blame.

They are accurate about their pain. Their wounds are real. So real, they can’t make it back by themselves to the fork in the road. Few destinies are more beautiful than the ones given to those who set out from the Room of Grace to go find them.

If you have experienced the Room of Grace and all its stunning, panoramic, life-giving surroundings, perhaps you are one of those to rescue and stand with those still outside. But be careful the idea is not to join them but redirect them.

Enter the dream

2011-06-01T09:26:00.001+10:00

We have just had our conference and many many thoughts and ponderings have come forth from it. But the haunting song "God's Favorite One" has made a lasting impact on many. Those words " Jesus here I am your favourite one, what are you thinking what are you feeling I have to know" resound through your very being if you will let them. If we could live our life from that perspective my goodness our lives could not help but be changed. To get the thoughts of God is in so many ways to enter the dream that God has for you and me. That dream is a good one filled with life and hope and nothing but good news for those who will awaken to the dream that God has for them. His dream or purpose if you will is to place us in a position that is almost medical where we inoculate others with the real sense of Gods love and freedom and where we are immune to the longings of Egypt (or wanting to go back to where we have come from) The dream will place us in a position of faith because we know it’s God's dream not our wish or want and it becomes so real that we cannot be shifted. Vulnerability becomes a lifestyle and this infects others because its genuine. Oh how I want that so bad.

To understand that God is so in love with us is a freeing thing. It sets your heart a flame to see hear and know that we are ok in his sight. One of the things said during conference was; "I've been sad and I have been happy, happy is better" Wow simplistic truths are so powerful. Make the choice and God will back that up. Happy is so much better than sad and yet that is only a choice away for us all.

One of the things we tend not to be good at is running with the convictions of our hearts, we tend rather to second guess everything. But knowing God is for us and not against us can liberate the soul to follow the wind of the Spirit. I love this verse it has a quality about it that is quite deep and spiritual yet it can be overlooked so easily...

1Co 6:12 Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is helpful. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not allow anything to control me.

We can do whatever we want and we are free to choose and God will love us in spite of our failings faults and mistakes, that is indeed a liberating thought that is the Spiritual point of this scripture that God has invested himself so deeply in us that we cannot lose our connection with Him (however we can do damage to ourselves and others and we need to walk with that in mind). This is also the incredible value that God has given to us, that we are joint heirs with Jesus and truly SONS OF GOD. .

With that in mind and to quote the movie clip from the conference.

"Your heart is free have the courage to follow it"

those are my thoughts,

Pastor Rob

Faith... what a subject

2011-05-05T14:17:00.001+10:00

The walk of faith is all about choices. Time and time again I have heard of God awakening people to His reality and their call and time and time again I see those same people 12 months later oblivious to the call and the touch of God on their lives. They made a decision initially that... "this was going to be the change they were going to make, sacrifice, and all that God has called me to I will respond. " They tell people about it and promote what they will do. Then time passes and the realisation that the voice and call they heard is not as strong, its actually fading and they look at the cost and the changes they think they will have to make and then the mind kicks in. Soon it does not even rate as a thought, "Why in the world would I do that?"

Faith is a funny thing that comes (Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God) and it must be then applied to our lives. What do I mean by that? Well God opens our hearts to a thought of a possibility, like you will become a prophet Pastor or what ever, or it may be you should go to this place or give this amount of money or love on that person. Then what usually occurs is a period of time elapses to give us time to think and allow our hearts to kick in. It reveals where we really are at. A walk of faith will take what it knows was Gods prompting and run with it no matter the circumstances. That is why its called faith it takes an action applied to a thought to make it a reality. It comes and we must keep it coming.

The word faith is used a lot in the new testament, it is the word PISTIS and basically means to have faith in Jesus. But in one place there is a different word used it is ;

oligopistos

ol-ig-op'-is-tos

From G3641 and G4102; incredulous, that is, lacking confidence (in Christ): - of little faith.

It is used here

Mat 6:30 But if God gives such clothing to the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is put into the oven, will he not much more give you clothing, O you of little faith?

Jesus here in this verse is talking about having faith in Gods provision for our lives, and He rebukes them in no uncertain terms about them lacking faith in God himself. And this is what I mentioned above. People hearing a word and it will take faith to walk it out and then the cares of the world and the fear of lack crowds it out. One thing that separated Jesus from everyone else was His total trust in God. This only came about as He stepped out of the boat took risks and decided that faith was the dividing factor between what seemed reality (facts) and what was Gods truth.

EG We cannot walk on water FACT. But Faith proved that it could be overcome. FACT you cannot raise the Dead FAITH says yes you can. In your life you will never know the over coming Faith that moves mountains while you stay in the facts or the safe Zone of what you know and see. Sooner or later many of us will be confronted with words or things or even a diagnosis that speaks loudly of facts, the reality is that Faith can overcome those facts if we allow it. The excitement of seeing Gods hand extended into your life changes everything.

May I encourage you to leap beyond what you know into the realm of the Living God and see an answer that many will not see because they are tied to the FACTS. To see the hand of God change someones life through faith is one of the most satisfying times in anyone's life. Its in Him we live and move and have our being.

Those are a few of my random thoughts

Pastor Rob

Servolution

2011-04-22T18:48:00.002+10:00

At a recent meeting one of our leaders pointed out that people always refer to "The Church", you know, 'the church' should do this, 'the church' should do that. People talk about it like it is an entity of its own. When in reality it is the church only because of the people who are there in THE CHURCH. I was going to write my Pastors thoughts this week on the servant attitude of Jesus as He lay down His life for us and relate to The Church from that perspective, but then I found this article in my in box so I thought I would pass it on instead.

Servolution. It’s a different kind of word. It’s a different kind of revolution. Usually we think of revolutions as involving angry mobs or military coups, but this is an entirely different angle. It is a revolution that starts by serving those around you. And it isn’t a revolution that unseats governments and political forces. It changes hearts and lives. It makes people realize that there’s a loving God who wants to forgive their sins and give them hope.

So how do you start a servolution? Jesus demonstrated it very clearly in John 13 when he washed the disciples’ feet. The Bible says, “He showed them the full extent of his love” by stooping down to serve them

Joh 13:1 Now before the Passover Festival, Jesus realized that his hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

What a huge portrayal of the heart of God!

Jesus not only left Heaven to become one of us, to lay down His life for our sin and break the power of sin and death. He also showed us His love by serving those around Him. What’s more, Jesus served them even though in just a few hours, these very men whose feet He washed would deny they ever knew him. He still served them.

This is why I believe it is important that we don’t choose whom we serve based on the best “return on our investment.” We need to serve others even if they may never repay us. We need to because it is that kind of demonstration of love that truly communicates the heart of God.

At Healing Place Church, when we decided to start a Dream Center in downtown Baton Rouge, and when we launched our two campuses in Africa, I assure you it wasn’t based on the potential of increased revenue from those areas. We just knew these were ways we could serve others—others who had been forgotten, who were hurting and who needed the love of Jesus.

We need to be willing to serve others regardless of their potential capacity to return the favor. What we are looking for is the opportunity to share the love of Jesus. That’s it. That’s the “return on investment” that counts most.

I want to challenge you to do something. Think of the people in your community who are being overlooked, people whom no one else wants to serve. Are there neighborhoods shunned by churches because the people look different than they do? Are there groups of people who get ignored because there’s little or no chance that they’ll ever participate in a local church?

It takes a lot of effort to help those caught in the sex trade. It’s not likely that many residents of nursing homes will regularly attend your church. It’s tough on people to serve in the foster care system and to reach children with special needs. It can be hard to understand the true needs of the homeless. And it’s costly to send missionaries to the lost halfway around the world. But these are all people for whom Jesus died. They are as precious to His heart as our own children and families are to ours.

Ask God to show you the people in your community who are being overlooked. Pick up a newspaper to see what’s going on, and let God point you to the people He wants you to serve. Ask Him to give you the unlovable, the unwanted, the unlikely, the hurting and oppressed. He knows where they are. And wherever they are, you’ll find Jesus there too.

Then go serve them. Get to know them. Love them unconditionally. Give to them. Show them “the full extent of Jesus’ love” by serving them Jesus-style. And watch what happens. Your world will be turned upside-down as you find yourself in a zone—in the flow of blessing poured out by God so you can lavish it on others.

I hope we all take this to heart and not read it then move on but at least pray about it and allow the Lord to move on your heart to perhaps join or make your own servolution....

Paralyising thoughts

2011-04-20T20:34:00.000+10:00

If there is one thing that I have learned over the years it is this. "I know a lot less about God than I thought I did" We all try to pigeon hole God into a frame that "Suits" our franchise and moulds Him into a tidy form that we can understand (Hear; Manipulate (or so we think) into a form that we like. It is in many ways making God in our image. Which really is kinda like "God in the hand of angry sinners". What do I mean by that. Well take for example how we think God sees sin, everyone of us whether we believe it or not grade our idea of Sin. For some homosexuality is horrible and how can anyone be a Christian and live that lifestyle and yet we "The Elect" choose to gossip about the very subject and gladly condemn that person to hell. While we in our self righteous cocoon judge while fully being aware that we are told not to do that very thing, and while still judging the sexual orientation of a brother we may have a multitude of irrational behaviour at home ranging from addictions to badly treating a spouse or an anger issue that no one but the family know about. But these things in our lives although not liked by us are allowable while the things we find abhorrent are used to discriminate against anyone else. Our perspectives are all skewed by our upbringing and as we are told categorically in scripture;

2Co 10:12 We would not dare put ourselves in the same class with or compare ourselves to those who recommend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves to themselves, they show how foolish they are.

It’s this point of comparison that Jesus railed against, he never referred to anyone in the bible as a sinner, he made ways for people to enter the kingdom while the church is seen today as a body that finds ways to lock people out of heaven, by telling what we must change. Categorically Jesus was only ever against anyone when they took on an attitude that told or inferred to anyone that they were not attaining to a standard that they had made.

Mat 15:7 You hypocrites! How well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, Mat 15:8 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Mat 15:9 Their worship of me is empty, because they teach human rules as doctrines.'"

and again

Mat 23:13 "How terrible it will be for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door to the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You don't go in yourselves, and you don't allow those who are trying to enter to go in.

Mat 23:27 "How terrible it will be for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead people's bones and every kind of impurity.

Mat 23:28 In the same way, on the outside you look righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Over and over Jesus confronts the issue at hand which was implied or plainly said by the Pharisees in particular and that was that "We have made it and you have to work to get here" This kind of Pharisaical attitude was the one thing that Jesus was against. He despised the implications that this placed in people’s hearts, and the reality is that He HAS qualified us and yet our concepts and mind game keep us out of the kingdom. Allow yourself to be honest with yourself right now what in your mind have you raised up as a standard for people to keep them out of the Kingdom by your reckoning. Was it their sexual orientation, their lifestyle language behaviour? Or do you hold yourself at a distance from the kingdom because of the shame of your past? Its time to let go and live in the true freedom of the sons of God. judging no-one by the flesh and living by the rule of the Spirit of life that has set us free from the law of death. There alone is a reason to celebrate and love him.

Well they are some of my thoughts Pastor Rob.

Lifes Ups and Downs

2011-03-05T10:05:00.002+11:00

Life teaches us many things and none of us get out of it alive, it has an incredible knack of removing rough edges and filing down our sharp points. But if we handle those things correctly it has an incredible ability to make us mature shine and LEARN to enjoy what we have been given in life. I think it was Rudyard Kipling who said "if you can keep your head while all those about you are losing theirs, then you'll be a man my son" I always used to say "If you can keep your head while all around you are losing theirs, then you'll be the tallest man in the room!" I know what Kipling meant though. It was a sense of peace and calm when all about you was falling apart. It was this sense of serenity and peace for him that was the distinguishing mark of maturity. From my point of view it is no different for the Christian.

One of the weirdest things I find about God is that He gave us all free will and a choice to believe. I know if it was me as God and I went to the great lengths that our God did to redeem us I would give my subjects no choice but to follow. But our God in His infinite wisdom has intentionally given us a choice to follow, reject or push aside His gentle wooing of our hearts. This leaves us open to make our own minds up as to whether we will follow the direction and leading of the spirit or to go our own way. But as you walk the road of life you find the incredible Grace that God gives us, and empowers us with, also lets us stumble and scuff our knees and learn so much about life. It is an empowering Grace, the very thing that most of us would think a huge risk actually creates in us an ability to self govern and walk uprightly when we choose to. It’s when we refuse to allow the working of the Spirit in Gods way within us that the freedom we have causes us to falter and walk in the dark as it is.

Isa 50:10 Who among you fears Jehovah, who obeys the voice of His servant, who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of Jehovah and rest on his God.

Isa 50:11 Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who are surrounded with sparks; walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks which you have kindled. This you shall have of My hand; you shall lie down in sorrow.

The part idea I want to emphasize here is the fact that when we try to walk independent of God or as Isaiah puts it "Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who are surrounded with sparks; walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks which you have kindled. This you shall have of My hand; you shall lie down in sorrow" When we try to do it all on our own we cannot expect to find peace in our lives.

Jesus said "All of you who have done the hard yards tried to work it out yourself, you've fought and tried, why not stop, give it a break and COME TO ME" "Where you WILL find rest for your tired minds and your weary bodies." But our life which is built around Hollywood type values teaches us to do it yourself, you deserve you need etc etc. And we never discover the rest we so desperately need. The rest that we need is only found in Jesus. That’s why God said

Col 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

So if we are ever going to find our life and that rest that God wants us to have we must go to Christ who has our life in God. Our life is not our own its been bought at a great price by God and our life is intrinsically linked to God via the person of Jesus. What a place of safety and rest. Why not take time even now just to open your heart to God make that time where you can just be with Him. Why not commit to a daily time with our Lord so you can find your life. A time not where you are doing or pursuing but just being with HIM who loves you most.

Well those are my random thoughts for today

Pastor Rob

A short thought

2011-02-17T10:59:00.006+11:00

The word of God (the Bible) has no intrinsic value on its own, it is just words on paper, but the word applied to our lives can change everything from dark to light. Applied and lived out the word of God is active and able to transform the willing heart. In the letter to the Ephesians Paul tells us that not only are we

Eph 1:5 ....... predestined us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, but also

Rom 8:29 .......... predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, for Him to be the First-born among many brothers.

So we are adopted by Father God and Sonship is part of our DNA its within us. All we have to do is look to creation to see we were made in His image from the beginning, its His design for us. To see this clearly brings a sense of purpose and to many relief to their lives. As I brought out in a sermon recently God loves us with the same love that He loves Jesus His son. We have become SONS. (not gender specific) This is shown so clearly in Joh 17:23 I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.

We find it hard to realise that God loves us with the same measure of love that He loves Jesus. No difference. He does not love Jesus with one measure of love and you and I with another. In His eyes you are as loved as Jesus as cherished as Jesus, and as passionately as Jesus is loved so are you. In other words you and I have the same status the same connection the same freedom to come to the throne as Jesus. When we grasp this we can truly find a sense of empowerment and grace that we have never seen before. Because for many all they have been taught is to behave better so that God can look upon them with at least some love. But when we find and know that God loves us we see life differently. We have changed church from its original intention to teach the believer who they are in Christ into behaviour centre's where we train people to put on masks of belief when under it all is the festering reality that "How can God love me as I cannot change my behaviour to what it should be?" We teach people to manage their sin, by creating Sin management centres.

But lead a person to Christ under the premise that God loves us and you will see a person embrace who God says they are quicker than any other. Because when we know we are accepted barriers and walls come down, we let ourselves become vulnerable and when we become vulnerable and real people tend to defend us and love us rather than when we are hypocrites and pretend all is wonderful. The fact that Jesus makes all things new should lead us to the determination that we bring nothing and can do nothing but rest in Him and realise that even when the ugliest part of me is exposed I am still a new creation that God loves. This can lead to an incredible revelation that we are one with not only Jesus but each other,. Which in my eyes can only lead to acceptance and love, which is Gods nature and our purpose.

Once again my random thoughts for this day.

Pastor Rob

Visions of greater realities

2011-02-16T10:19:00.001+11:00

"If only we could find a place that the worst of me could be known and I would discover in the revelation of that, that I would be loved more and not less. My unresolved issues would start to go away because of this place of great love." That is my picture of the Church I want to build a place of acceptance and not judgment a place of love and hope. But this can only happen as both the members and myself change to become who we really are. The real me inside accepts all things trusts all things, it does not keep a record of wrong and delights in the good. Sound familiar? Its because the real me is intrinsically fused to God who is LOVE. It cannot be broken and yet time and time again we allow our minds to take us down varying paths of despair.

We who are followers of Jesus can all declare that we love the Lord and yet there is only one reason we do love Him and that is. We love him, because he first loved us 1Jn 4:19 . Even our Love of God comes from God.

I was the victim of my own desperation to please when it came to walking with God. I would try to please try to worship and do my best only to fall into despair over and over. Then along would come some well meaning preacher or theologian and rev us/me up and I would be motivated by his call to pray harder love deeper work better etc etc. So off I would go and set myself up to fail. Never realising that God JUST LOVES me, without even considering the fact that perfect love not only loved me but that Perfect love now lives in me and has become me.

The sad thing is that many people have set themselves up to fail like I did, as they picture and are told what they should look like instead of being who they really are. Paul's great words in the book of Phillipians tend to be the goal for us all Phillipians 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content. Being content and vulnerable in who we are is really the Key to our lives. When we find this secret we tend to live free and loose. Truely alive in our faith and no longer walking in a "Should " mentality but we become as Paul says content and trusting.

God called us warts and all knowing full well we have a bucket load of unresolved issues, He called us in spite of them telling us over and over in scripture that He is crazy about us not mad at us. It took me a while to come to terms with the fact that God is not angry with me and I will not face judgment because Jesus did that for me. If I have to go through it again then Jesus was a failure. But He did not fail His word (Jesus) was sent forth and it accomplished what it was meant to do, it did not return void but triumphant with captivity death and the Grave being dragged along for the ride. Jesus won a victory far greater than a lot of us realise.

Heb 10:12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right of God,

Heb 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified.

One only has to read the book of Hebrews with a fresh mind to see that Jesus finished work made a way by which God Almighty can now look upon us with a deep sense of pride because what we were no longer exists. He has made a way by which we have become , not going to but have become the righteousness of Christ. So we no longer need to plead the Blood as we are indwelt by it.

Well those are some of my thoughts for this week.

Pastor Rob

Freedom and other fanciful notions

2010-04-21T20:10:00.000+10:00

I wonder what it would be like to be free. I mean truly and passionately free from the fear of man. Many think they are yet I have never met one who really is. Sure I have met the odd (and I do mean odd) person who spruces of a distaste for all things human, and declares loud and prolifically that he worries about no man, yet fear and worry pervades them. But is scripture is true...?

(Rom 8:19-21) "For the creation is eagerly waiting for God to reveal his children, because the creation was subjected to frustration, though not by its own choice. The one who subjected it did so in the hope that the creation itself would also be set free from slavery to decay in order to share the glorious freedom of God's children."

Imagine for a moment that you never have to give account to anyone; you never worry what he or she may be thinking of you, and your heart just over flows with love because all your strength, hope and life flow from that well spring of GOD Himself. WOW!!! NOW THAT would be freedom. When we finally wake up to who we are in Him, that's when it will occur.

In thinking this way, my thoughts have gone to a movie that has always fascinated me and made me really who I am today. The movie is "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest" For those of you who don't know the movie plot, a psychiatric ward becomes a representation of the oppressive nature of American society. This symbolic movie relays the story of an inmate standing up against the powerful forces that operate a mental institution, but it represents much more than just a classic case of “man versus the establishment”. The Author compels us to think about just how thin the line is that separates insanity from sanity, and treatment from control. Representing a heroic struggle of personality against an institution of mindless conformity, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is one powerful movie.

In many ways this can and sometimes does resemble the church of today - full of control, and it’s hard to tell the difference between true faith and 'Parroted dogma'. We can also see when one looks hard enough the mindless conformity to a pattern that has somehow been promulgated by the preachers to cause a community of faith with individuals as varied as snowflakes, into the similarly dressed "amen" screeching parrots that make up the church of today. Anyone who is seen as 'different' is forced into conformity or must move on. The sad reality is that the church of the west today, in my eyes, looks nothing like what God intended it to look because we see our shape rather than the shape of those God destined for our ranks.

Now, back to the movie... Nurse Ratched represents the establishment. She is the ward superintendent; the ultimate authority demanding obedience and perfect order from everyone. This is the author’s way of conveying that she is powerful like the establishment; she makes and enforces the rules. She in many ways, is the sublime picture of the controlling ministers that at times, with all good intentions, rule from the pulpit, awash with passion and power yet failing to find the heart of Christ that enables the freedom that we all grope for. They preach passionately about our individuality and yet through ‘relationship’ (call it "redirection to my way"), the demand for obedience is re-titled 'Discipleship'. A little like

(2 Ti 3:5) "They will hold to an outward form of godliness but deny its power. Stay away from such people."

A heart retching part of the movie is when McMurphy, the star and rebellious icon, rises up with all sorts of skulduggery and almost gives back the passion and freedom to the inmates. Nurse Ratched teaches him the ultimate lesson on authority, which could be seen as a warning against rebellion. His lobotomy is “the establishment’s” way of quieting the unruly protests of those brave enough to speak their minds. The character of Billy is also meant to show us that disobedience can have disastrous consequences, when the evil Nurse Ratched drives him to suicide. I liken this to the hard liners in our churches when out of them we hear those all too familiar words..."Where is it in Scripture?" or "Is it scriptural?" Life and presence have been squashed and there is now such a fear of uniqueness and life.

(2 Co 11:3-4) "However, I am afraid that just as the serpent deceived Eve by its tricks, so your minds may somehow be lured away from sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes along and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or should you receive a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you are all too willing to listen."

The Chief, who acts as the narrator, is a tall and strong American Indian who pretends to be mute and deaf in order to protect himself from pain. McMurphy rescues the Chief from his silence, and he returns the favor by rescuing McMurphy from life as a vegetable. I wonder are we willing to make sure we stand up and proclaim loud and clearly the 'Gospel of freedom and Grace' - one that rescues us from life as a vegetable.

A rather pensive thought, yet it’s how I see it and what I want to see the world rescued from.

Pastor Rob

True faith

2010-04-15T14:50:00.000+10:00

We all often hear the phrase "Time is flying...where has the year gone?" Another week has flown by and we all sit and wonder, particularly as we get older, where the time has gone. I often ponder how fast life has gone and then sadly equate that to what I have actually done to make a difference to the world in which I live. The result...? I come up very short.

But we as humans cannot allow the seeming insignificance of our lives stop us reaching beyond our grasps. To me, God has placed us on this earth to discover that in and of ourselves we are somewhat competent in changing life, but through Him we can and are challenged to make an impact on our world. We must realise that we are all different yet all called to go beyond where we stand now, and enter the realm of faith which is the only way that we can impact life in a tangible, positive way. Paul, the writer of a good deal of the New Testament, was living what he thought was life when "LIFE" confronted him.

(Acts 9:3-7) "And while he was journeying, he came near Damascus; and suddenly he saw a light from heaven shining round him; And he went down on the earth, and a voice said to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you attacking me so cruelly?" And he said, Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are attacking: But get up, and go into the town, and it will be made clear to you what you have to do." And the men who were with him were not able to say anything; hearing the voice, but seeing no one."

Paul, in his own human ways thought that he was making a difference in his world by doing what he was doing. He had his "Mentality" of what needed to be done and forcefully set out to accomplish those goals. His impact was tangible, yet when he was confronted by God and he saw as he should, he started a whole new way of living. The result of this is seen all around the world by the tens of millions in Church today that have been impacted by his entry into the world of true faith.

This in many ways brings me to the thought of the week."What is true faith?" We would all have our definitions and thoughts, but in reality it is much deeper than that. The Western Church of today faces an issue that is greater than it has faced for many years, and to me it is critical. It is the issue of 'easy believism' that seems to have infiltrated the Church of the West. There is a huge lack of depth to the Church of today. Many in Church have the attitude of "I can do what I want and still go to church to appease my conscience." Christ has become a spoke in the wheel of many Christians, rather than the hub from which life itself revolves. Our central hub is "ME"; God, work, sport, hobbies, and other things we see as important revolve around "ME". Christ is simply an appendage to life rather than what He himself said...

(John 14:6) "I am the way, the truth, and the life!" Jesus answered. "Without me, no one can go to the Father".

The word 'life' here is dzo-ay 'From G2198; life (literally or figuratively): - life (-time). It comes from another Greek word meaning 'Spirit' or 'the life of the Spirit in us'. Now if He is our Spirit life, and the next verse is true, it has huge implications on how I affect the world I live in.

(Col 3:3) "For you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God."

or another translation says it this way...

(Col 3:3) "For your life on earth is done, and you have a secret life with Christ in God."

So the more we try to find life here, and impact from the position of Christ, we find frustration and little change. If we can get a hold of the fact that our life is hidden in a Spiritual realm, and that that realm is accessible then we can, like Paul, begin to have a huge impact as Father God will always back up His will. We find our calling and His will, in Christ. "True Faith" I feel is faith that believes there is so much more than what I see, and that that realm is accessible to those who will take the steps in the door. Can you imagine if the High Priest under the Old Covenant failed to enter the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the people? DISASTER! Similarly today, if we fail to access the door that has been opened by faith then it can only result in the same.

I encourage you to spend more time in prayer; not because you have to but because it is where you will find the kind of life that can and will impact the world in which you live.

Another thoughtful thought

Pastor Rob.

Footy and faith

2010-04-07T13:31:00.000+10:00

One of my favourite past times is to watch the Swans on TV. Once a week I gather a few friends, sit back, yell and scream at the telly and generally have a good time. We are all very quick (especially me at times when the swans are losing) to criticise the players for poor decisions and poor disposal as if they are almost doing it deliberately. What I, and sometimes we, fail to see is the hours and hours and months and months of training they put in. I was flabbergasted to hear that one of the modern greats gets to the game early so that he can do an 8 kilometre warm-up before the game starts and during that game he will run 16 kilometers. EVERY WEEK. That is also not mentioning the years and years of preparation leading to selection for the main game that, on average for a players career, might only last 5 to 10 years!

Thinking on the above I stood back and looked at the church and realised that we are not far away. Most of the time we are quick to criticise and slow to respond. What do I mean by that? Well we are quick to point out what everyone else is not doing and to tell the rest how it should be done but none of us are prepared to put in the hard yards before the game. We make it look like Church is the only place it happens. Can you imagine the result if the football players never trained and never warmed up? The result would be a disaster on the field. The players are smart enough to realise that more work during the week makes it much easier during the game; things just flow better.

In a similar way one of my favourite quotes sums it up rather well.

"We must stop using the church as a petrol station or Spiritual cafe. It is not a place where, when I have run down my spiritual energies during the week, that I come to fill up on a Sunday. I am responsible for my own Spiritual growth"

(MKJV) 2 Tim 1:6 Therefore I remind you to inflame anew the gift of God, which is in you by the putting on of my hands. One translation says FAN INTO FLAME

The original word used here denotes the kindling of a fire, as by bellows. The idea is that Timothy was to use all proper means to keep the flame of his calling in the soul burning, and more particularly his zeal in the great cause to which he had been set apart. The agency of man himself is needful to keep the religion of the heart warm and glowing. However rich the gifts which God has bestowed upon us, they do not grow of their own accord, but need to be cultivated by our own personal care. This is where true discipleship happens. When we realise 'the more time I put in before the game on Sunday the easier and more impact I will have on the game'. Also if we are told to keep it burning by means of our own effort, it also means like football if we put in no effort we will be going backwards.

I often hear the lament of 'Where are the miracles? Where are the signs and wonders that we read of in the Good Book?' I believe that if we would commit ourselves during the week to a life of intimacy with God rather than sporadic touch base, we would again begin to see the miracles.
So perhaps, just perhaps, the real cry should be 'where have all the disciples gone?', for he has called us to make disciples...not converts.

Well another random thought

Pastor Rob

As He is...

2008-09-18T13:26:00.002+10:00

The Church of England will make an official apology to naturalist Charles Darwin for criticising his famous theory of evolution.
Coming 126 years after his death, the church's apology will focus on how wrong it was for senior bishops in the past to misunderstand and attack Darwin's theory about man being descended from apes.
Senior church officials will post the apology in the form of an article written by the Reverend Dr Malcolm Brown on the church's website.
"Charles Darwin, 200 years from your birth (in 1809), the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still," the article says, according to extracts printed by The Mail on Sunday newspaper.
"But the struggle for your reputation is not over yet, and the problem is not just your religious opponents but those who falsely claim you in support of their own interests."
But the apology by Dr Brown, who is the director of mission and public affairs of the Archbishops' Council, has been dismissed as "pointless" by Darwin's great great grandson Andrew Darwin.
"Why bother? he said.
"When an apology is made after 200 years, it's not so much to right a wrong, but to make the person or organisation making the apology feel better."
But Dr Brown says everyone makes mistakes, the church included.
"When a big new idea emerges that changes the way people look at the world, it's easy to feel that every old idea, every certainty, is under attack and then to do battle against the new insights," he writes.
"The church made that mistake with Galileo's astronomy and has since realized its error.
"Some Church people did it again in the 1860s with Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection.
"So it is important to think again about Darwin's impact on religious thinking, then and now."
Dr Brown said there was nothing incompatible between Darwin's scientific theories and Christian teaching.

What you have just read is indicative of what I see in mainline churches. It matters not if you are a creationist as I am, or one who believes that God made it all occur in a slow evolutionistic way. The point that matters is that over and over again we see the watering down of the God of the universe. By apologising they are saying God has done nothing, we have all come from the “goo via the zoo to you”, and that being the fact it leaves out the hand of the loving creator. But not only that, it leaves out or at least nudges aside the thought that is made so clearly in Romans:

“For whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, for Him to be the First-born among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29)

Because by aligning the church with this doctrine it is declaring that it is all by chance, so therefore we have no hope of becoming like Him.. Some may argue that Evolution has its way of bringing out the best. But without getting into the arguments for and against the theory let me stick to the heart of what I see as the crux of this matter. That God cannot be contained to a thought or theory. The whole of creation pulsates with the hand of God, from the most simple to the mind blowingly complex; from the minutest to the indescribable. It cannot be just by random selection, everything has a purpose including you and I. I cannot ascribe to the thought of God hoping it will all work out. It’s time the Church boldly began to claim who it rightly is and walk in the heritage that we have been given. I love this verse in 1 John

“In this is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that as He is, so also we are in this world.” (1 John 4:17)

We are meant to be like Him in this world, not as he was as he walked the pavements of Jerusalem but scripture is very clear "as He now is". What a mind blowing thought that the goal for me and you in this world is to be like Jesus IS, not was. But if it’s all a matter of chance and good luck, what hope is there for any of us, we may as well eat drink and be merry for tomorrow, we may be an aardvark.

Well, I have had time to think

2008-08-01T11:21:00.002+10:00

An incredible thought that can become a reality;

“To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame and have sat down with My Father in His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Rev 3:21-22)

What are we to overcome? I believe we are to overcome the false belief systems of our carnal minds and indeed the world. Many of us are caught in this trap of an internal battle that many of us push onto the Devil, when in fact it’s our inner me that is our enemy. Flesh and blood do not define your true reality! Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus Christ came and shed His blood and had his flesh so disfigured that no man could recognize him. So that is why we are not identified this way; unless of course our minds hold us captive. That’s why I believe we must over come our minds. He came to do away with an identity attached to flesh and blood, or what I like to call an “identity crisis”. After his resurrection they no longer recognized him by his fleshly identity. They recognized him by His voice! His sheep will know His voice and follow!

"Faithful is he that calls you, who also will do it." (I Thes 5:24).

The One who calls you to a life of righteousness is the One who by our consent lives that life of righteousness through you! The One who calls you to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, is the One who by your consent, goes into all the world and preaches the Gospel to every creature through you!

This is the God that saves a man from the futility of self-effort. It relieves the Christian of the burden of trying to pull himself up by his own bootstraps! If it were not for this divine provision, the call to Christ would be a source of utter frustration, presenting the sorry picture of a sincere human, constantly stopped by his own failings. Unfortunately this is how many Christians live today, caught up in the "one day when " syndrome. You know, one day when I stop this or one day when I start this or one day when my life is better"…you get the idea!

If you will trust Christ, not only for the death He died in order to redeem you, but also for the life that He lives and waits to live through you, the very next step you take will be met by God himself, as the One who rewards those who diligently seek Him. You will have begun to live a life which is essentially supernatural yet overflowing with our own personality.

You will have become totally dependent upon the life of Christ within you, and never before will you have been so free, so released from the pressure of your circumstances, so released at last from that ever present mind game of good/bad, always in bondage to the fear of other men's opinions. What a terrible thing that many Christians are so motivated by the fear of man.

“I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

In other words, you can do no more without Him than He could do without the Father. But how much could the Father do through the Son? Everything! He was available to all that the Father made available to Him. We can at times kid ourselves with our "sense of duty and availability". But my heart tells me that God wants willing sacrificial service that in spite of our mind battling against everything spiritual we rise up and offer ourselves wholeheartedly by faith trusting in Him.

“…because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be” (Romans 8:7)

“For it pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell.” (Col 1:19)

How much then can Jesus Christ do through you and through me? Everything! He is limited only by the measure of our availability.

Let me encourage you with the fact that God saved you with a purpose in mind, and if He had a purpose, then He had a plan and a procedure to make it happen! All that we can do is trust and obey for there is no other way.

Those are some of my thoughts. Pastor Rob

2008-06-12T16:18:00.003+10:00

I am about to rush out to Bible study and was quickly checking my emails and I found what you will see below. I thought it was a great read and really challenges us all to go deeper. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you as you read it without taking your own opinions to it. Currently we are I believe on the verge of a great revival, and history shows with all revivals of the past man shuts them down. I wonder can we this time as the body of Christ work with God in submitted hearts and surrendered wills to see many touched by Him?

Dear Beautiful Body of Christ,

It is with GREAT pleasure that I write this email. I have been waiting for some time to write this email. We are being bombarded with the question "is this a genuine move of God?"

I know that there are those who are genuinely interested and want to be walked through this. I'm here for you to help you to understand and get to the other side of your questions. On the contrary, there are those who wish to take shots at what is presently happening in Florida and all over the world, forwarding emails around from people claiming to know that Todd is a false prophet and claiming that this is not a genuine move.

I will try to be as diplomatic as I possibly can. I submit this in Love.

Church, it's really time for us to wake up. There are emails going around from the critics/pharisee's (sometimes it's hard to tell the difference) that are trying to shut down what God is doing all over the earth. These naysayers are the exact same people that have criticized past moves and will criticize even the day of the Lord's return. It's amazing that we give more thought and time to the critics than we do to the Holy Spirit. We go to our prayer meetings during the week, cry out for revival and an outpouring (on our terms of course). We go to church on Sunday's and ask Him to come and be present in our meetings, but then we take sides with the critics and entertain the thought of this not being God and result in judging this current move of the Spirit. Then we wonder why the Holy Spirit is grieved and not wanting to hang out in the church. The real battle here is the battle against the spirit of religion that says it's gotta look this way or that way. Right now on the earth, there really aren't many options as to where God is really moving. God is still moving in Toronto, He's moving at Morningstar, He's moving through Joshua Mills, Patricia King, and our friends Trevor & Sharon Baker in Dudley, U.K., but apart from these and other pockets, there really isn't much. Maybe we should be looking at that and encouraging the church to get set on fire rather than trying to critcize that which we don't understand.

I don't want to be amongst those that one day stand before the Lord and He asks me the question, "Why did you criticize and judge a move of my precious Holy Spirit?" My greatest fear in life is to grieve the Holy Spirit. Rememebr when Jesus said in Matt 7,

1."Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2.For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3."Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4.How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5.You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
6."Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
Ask, Seek, Knock
7."Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8.For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
9."Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10.Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11.If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12.So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
The Narrow and Wide Gates
13."Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14.But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
A Tree and Its Fruit
15."Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16.By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17.Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19.Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20.Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Just because someone has tattoes and earrings does not disqualify them from being revivalist's and leaders of genuine moves of God. Maybe you prefer the polished look. Take Todd Bentley out of the picture and put your favorite preacher there. Are you happy now? Is it now a move of God? We need deal with our religious spirit that is holding us back from entering into the fullness of what God has. I suggest giving more time to listening to the voice of the Spirit rather than the opinions of man. Let's forward the emails around that are edifying to the Holy Spirit and let's stop trying to rescue mankind from falling into some sort of cult where we may all end up laying on the floor with same color running shoes. Todd is not a cultist. I have spent much time with him while he was here with us and he is the real deal. Not perfect, but the real deal. This email may offend you but what offends me is people having a go at my friend Todd Bentley who is an amazing man of God, full of the Holy Spirit, and a carrier of the anointing. He is the man that God has raised up in this hour to lead a worldwide revival. He is the real deal. He is not the Anti-Christ as some would portray him to be. Let's stand behind him in this hour. What he really needs right now is our prayers and support. He is doing an amazing job at hosting these nightly revival meetings.

Let me ask this question. Where in the Bible did satan EVER heal, deliver, save, raise 18 people from the dead, cause people to fall in love with Jesus, bring glory to the Father, and worship Jesus? I can't find it anywhere. But what I did find was that he loves to bring division and use God's people to do it. He did bring sickness upon people and cause people to turn away from God. Come on church, let's wake up and get in touch with the reality of what God is presently doing all over the earth.

A majority of the critics have never been to Lakeland, Florida and experienced for themselves what is presently taking place. Amanda and I were there for 2 nights and we can honestly say, the presence of the Lord was really strong in those meetings. It wasn't the presence of satan. I can promise you that!!!!!!!!

In closing, we at Revolution Church want to make a statement. Our church and ministry fully support and stand behind Todd Bentley and Fresh Fire Ministries and what God is doing through him. If you're not into the present move of God on this planet then Revolution Church is certainly, most definately not for you. The greatest move of God since the day of Pentecost is sitting right at our door. God is looking for a place to birth this baby here in our nation. Is your Inn full?

In Daddy's great & awesome love,

Woo hoo, God is on the throne!

2008-05-07T21:03:00.003+10:00

Wow what an Awesome testimony to the Glory of God. One of the young ladies in our church posted this on the internet on her Blog http://followthewhiteelephant.blogspot.com/2008/04/vision-or-proof-of-my-impending.html
(so its public stuff not private and I also asked her if I could share it). What God has begun in our church is truely AMAZING. More and more spontaneous miracles and touches from heaven each week. People giving there hearts to the Lord without being asked and then declaring it, baptisms in the Spirit, man its the book of ACTS all over again.

The Kingdom in a random thought...

2008-04-28T22:02:00.003+10:00

Hi all!! I am just home from a youth meeting where our key young men were in the room. One of the things that came out was our potential in God. All of our futures are just potential until we choose to pay a price and trust God. What we have been seeing in Church is people being saved without a message even being driven into them and healings in the midst of worship. This is just a part of what we have been seeing happening at church. Part of what I said to the youth was "We are not into religious things but reality and for that reality there is a price to be paid"

We need to drop our preconceived ideas and thoughts on God and realise that for most (not all) it has been a concept we have followed rather than a relationship. Like a philosophy of behaviour rather than a true living being. Many wonder about what has been happening at church lately and the very straight avoid it, but the fruit has been amazing, as I said; salvations, healings, deliverance and a presence that cannot be described. In summary, leagues beyond what normal church has ever gotten us. As a Pastor I always search my heart as I never wish to lead people astray. "God show me" has basically been my cry. I hear the old adages like "I have seen this before", "this has been around", "What's the fruit". It challenges me to seek the truth, and yes it has been before but the degree to which we surrender is up to us. One of the phenomena that seems to rattle most religious cages is the laughter.....

Then I read an article that basically said this "Most of us associate laughter with humour. We’ve all experienced the side-splitting guffaw in response to a good joke, a funny story, or to an embarrassing moment. But gelotologists, (scientists who study laughter), suggest another trigger point altogether. This trigger is formally called the incongruity theory for laughter. The theory suggests that laughter arises when logic and familiarity are replaced by things that don't normally go together; when we expect one outcome and another happens. Generally speaking, our minds and bodies anticipate what's going to happen and how it's going to end based on logical thought, emotion, and our past experience. But when circumstances go in unexpected directions, our thoughts and emotions suddenly have to switch gears and laughter emerges out of the tension between what we expect and what actually happens.

In thinking about this I thought isn't that why we see so much laughter at our soaking services?? We have an expectation (Religious thought) of what Church/God/Life should be like and then WHAM!! Two different directions at once. Its like people who have a thought about what it should be like then they surrender and God shows up.

In the minds of many Christians, a chasm exists between the kingdom of heaven and the world in which we now live. The kingdom of heaven is seen as the place we are journeying toward, the better country the writer of Hebrews describes it. In contrast, our place on earth is seen as temporary; like Abraham, we are merely passing through. As a result, chasms stand between kingdom and earth, today and tomorrow, the physical and the spiritual. So we struggle to add things up in our heads and take the easy option. But if we will just step outside of ourselves for a moment and consider this thought. ....

What does it mean that we pray God's kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven? What does it mean that Christ repeatedly declared the kingdom of God is here and now among us? What does it mean that for lack of human praise the very rocks will cry out at the glory of their creator while the trees will clap their hands? What in your logical head does that look like?? Now in your spiritual mind what does it look like?? I am sure not seated in chairs nodding and thinking if we agree with a speaker or not based on our moral preferences. But it looks like Jesus, the one who contravened the laws of gravity and food production. The one who saw in the hearts of many and did incredibly offensive things like turning water into perfect wine for already drunk people or spitting in a guys eyes and letting him see. Or the richest and deepest thing to me was to say "He and the father were one",then "Lord make them one as we are". If that is not spiritual I don't know what is.

Well they are a few of my thoughts, but for those of you out there who may have dropped the baton and perhaps are avoiding the reality of a Spiritual Kingdom, I challenge you with this thought. How does the Kingdom you serve and are developing compare with the one the disciples were commissioned to build......
Mat 10:7 And as you go, proclaim, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
Mat 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. You have received freely, freely give.
Mat 10:9 Do not provide gold nor silver, nor copper in your purses,

Or perhaps you are one of the dead that need to hear the voice of God and Live??? God has got to be bigger than our concepts.....Its all up to you... Jesus has done His bit...

Those are my thoughts. Pastor Rob

My Brain Hurts

2008-03-19T20:28:00.003+11:00

Recently I have observed many people including myself battle with the mind. It is such a strong place that can be of great help or incredible distraction.

The bible is clear, (Rom 8:7) "because the carnal mind is enmity (at war opposed to; against) God, for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can it be." (So why do we try to line it up in our mind?) We can all be good at controlling our finances, our career, maybe even other people, but chances are we struggle with controlling our own thought life. We might have expected our thoughts to be the easiest of all things to control, but there are times when taming the national debt seems easier than steering one's own mind to where it needs to be. I have experienced this over and over in my own life and seen it time and time again in well meaning Christian lives, who are searching to be free from debilitating mind sets. The Bible sets a very high standard by stating that we "take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Every thought!!! Man this seems to many and to all of us at times impossible. Yet the injunction is clear.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Philippians 4:8)

This verse is commonly applied to us in a negative way. It convicts us because our thoughts do not live up to this standard. We recognize that many of our thoughts are impure or unlovely or far from praiseworthy. Yet while conviction may be one purpose of this verse, we should not overlook the fact that it gives a positive command. It does not focus on what we shouldn't be thinking about; it tells us what we should think about. This is what can make a difference in our lives. The difference in applying this command positively instead of negatively hit home a few weeks ago when I was thinking about life. I decided to think differently. This was indeed a challenge to go beyond what had become my day to day thought life. To be honest, I found it difficult. I was not used to focusing on what is good; far more often, my critical spirit seizes upon what is not quite right. (Can't most of us be this way at times? So put that rock down!) While it took me a while to think of things that fit the characteristics described in Philippians, once I thought of them, my heart was full of life and gratitude.

I found that I started looking out for these things, striving to recognize good and make note of it in my mind. When I am pursuing thoughts that are pure, I simply have less time to spend thinking negative thoughts. It's a simple retraining process. Well OK, a long retraining process, but its more than worth it. The struggle to break an addiction is more effective when the addiction is replaced rather than simply resisted. If we only battle sinful thoughts by trying to shut them off, we will find that our minds abhor a vacuum even more than nature does. It is only when we replace the thoughts that do not honour God with thoughts that bring Him glory that we will have truly taken our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. It's more than not thinking bad, its replacing it with the power of life, JESUS.

If you struggle to find the motivation to discipline your thought life, consider that those whose thoughts are being changed and are living the fuller life. Lust, anxiety, fear, and judgmentalness may satisfy our cravings, and indeed make us feel better about us, but the end result is that they, like junk food, leave us feeling sluggish and spiritually dead. If instead, we think on the things that God recommends, we will find welling up in us a spring that is flowing with life. Its much easier to eat Maccas or KFC but let me recommend RMLTL - Renewed Minds Lead to Life!

Well those are my thoughts Pastor Rob

Hopping mad!

2008-01-03T21:00:00.000+11:00

Hi all, sorry for the long delay between letters but CHRISTmas just ran into New Years. Speaking of which, may we all have a great and truly God Eye opening New Year in 2008.

I was just contemplating what to me is almost an epidemic in the Christian world, where we see more and more people Church hopping and never dedicating themselves to where God has them planted. You read hear and see all the reasons under the sun as to why people have shifted churches, but not many add up in a biblical way. Are we just too consumer-driven when it comes to “finding a good church”?

All sorts of reasons are heard; "they have nothing for youth", "it's to hot", "the preacher is boring", "it's not this or not that", "I should be in ministry now". Rarely do you hear "I am here to give my best and help facilitate God's dream no matter the cost. I am not my own I am bought at a price, so I am planted till God moves me".

Seriously, even seasoned people who have walked the road a long time are pulling out of ministry and sitting back pointing out the things that are wrong, rather than facilitating the change that the body may be indeed in need of. It seems like it's easier not to make the effort and find the reasons why not, rather than "I will become the change I see that is needed." Now please hear this correctly, we are still having the same numbers in our church so it's not a reaction to numbers. But rather what I see spiritually and hear from around the state.

I wonder in my heart is there a spiritual connection to this mallaise?

CS Lewis brilliantly describes this in The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape, a senior devil instructing a subordinate on how to snare a human soul, writes: "If a man can't be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that 'suits' him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches. The search for a "suitable" church makes the man a critic where the Enemy wants him to be a pupil." Is this you?

In my mind don't you want a church where worship is about God and not entertainment? Do you want a place where wounded people come for divine healing, or where healthy people come for exercise? I believe that breaking the cycle of church-hopping is similar to breaking out of a pattern of unhealthy, addictive relationships. Essentially, it involves becoming much more realistic about what it is that a church is supposed to provide. Just as a spouse is not there to make you happy, solve your problems, and give meaning to your life, so too a church is not merely some spiritual socket that will endlessly recharge you every time you stick your plug in! I've come to realize that a good relationship with either a church or a friend requires tremendous patience, a willingness to sacrifice, and a hell of a sense of humor. Both relationships and churches work better when we ask not what they can do for us but what we can do for them.

Well those are some of my thoughts. Pastor Rob

Waiting and not hurrying...

2007-11-23T12:02:00.000+11:00

The first thing about the nature of God's relationship with us is that He gives to us a love that we do not deserve. We do not merit it. But not only is the love of God unmerited; it is also a love that grows and is sustained by relationship. The longer we walk with Him, the more we understand how glorious this love is. Through the prophet Hosea, God spoke graphically to a nation running from his presence. As individuals, He chases after us, woos us into his arms, pays the price to buy us back, cleans us up, and brings us home. Through his Son, God has reached out his arms to pay the price for our sin, to offer us new life, and to give us fresh hope and meaning. Let us come to the Cross as we are: sinners needing mercy, children desiring love, souls weary of running through our nights and days, and ready to follow the one who calls them.

But even more so lets be like Esther and catch His eye. You know after all the preparations of months of perfumes and oils, all the women come near to the King and yet only Esther catches his eye. Her devotion to His person made all the difference. And in reality that is what we need to see. that God is our King we are in His Kingdom and our devotion must be to HIM.

Many of us just look at Church/religion and see it as the same old same old thing. We seem to have lost the desire for MORE. I talk to people about "His presence" and a lot reply like, "yes it's great", and yet I know in my heart that many have lost the ability to tarry. (Or wait for His presence.) We have forgotten or never experienced the manifest presence of God. Can we, Will we, return to our first love?

Its all our choice, our decision, our life in Him.

Oh God draw us back again...

Those are my thoughts, Pastor Rob

Long time no chat sorry, found this quote...

2007-11-23T11:59:00.000+11:00

"The Kingdom of God is Emerging--God's Word will be Displayed in Power and Action"
"The Kingdom of God is more than a good method or a great message. It consists not of eloquent words--but is a demonstration of the power of God."

Jesus Christ is the most single-minded person who has ever lived. His entire earthly life, including the whole of His public ministry, was focused on one thing: announcing and establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. He announced it with His preaching, teaching and healing; He established it through His death and resurrection. The first recorded words of Jesus deals with the Kingdom: "From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, 'Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand'" (Matthew 4:17).

When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, the first thing He told them to ask of the Father was for His Kingdom to come to earth: "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in Heaven" (Matthew 6:9-10).

Because the Kingdom of God was so central to the purposes and plans of Christ, He wanted His followers to constantly seek after its unveiling. If the Kingdom of Heaven was Jesus' central priority, it must be ours as well. We must keep the main thing the main thing."

Wow!

2007-09-08T09:02:00.000+10:00

I just get home and this was in my inbox...

I want to share with you my heart. This is my passion Im about to express...
Today, I was on a call to my close friend, Carl. While I was talking I began to weep. I said to Carl, "If revival is not gonna happen or a move of the Spirit, I just wanna die. There's nothing else to live for." Im at the place of desperation. I need, not just want, to see a mighty move of God. Are you satisfied with the "Church"? Certainly there's got to be more. I have great news...THERE IS MORE!!!!!!!!!!!! So much MORE.

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, neither has entered into the heart of man all the things that God has prepared for those that love Him. What kind of a garden and soil are you planted in? Is it "corporate program" soil that will yield "corporate program"crop? or are you like me and wanna be planted in supernatural kingdom, love soil to reap the same. Im not meaning to have a go at any particular movement or people but I must say, Im really tired & frustrated of the way the Body of Christ is looking. We are supposed to look like the beautiful bride & body of Christ not some corporate, performance driven, it's all about serving me & what can you do for me, high flying executive machine. I love the house of God & the body of Christ too much to let it go down that track. Let's get back to the reality of the 1st century church. The simplicity of making our decisions in the upper room rather than the board room. The real love for the kingdom of God that Jesus taught us to have. The attitude of Let YOUR kingdom come, let YOUR will be done here on earth as it is in Heaven. Loving our neighbor as our self. Will you please join with me in crying out to heaven for the greatest move of God that this world has ever seen. It has been prophesied that the last major move would come out of our nation...AUSTRALIA, THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR US. Let's wake up & smell the season of heaven's dew. It's upon us. I dont want this to pass me by!

His life, not ours.

2007-09-08T08:57:00.000+10:00

"And you are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power" ( Col 2:10)
"The just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17).
Faith in all its sheer simplicity! Faith that takes God precisely at His Word! Faith that simply says, "Thank You." Faith that goes beyond self.
Can any situation possibly arise, any circumstance, of which He is not aware or capable of dealing with? Any pressure, promise, problem, responsibility or temptation for which the Lord Jesus Himself is not adequate? If He is truly God, there cannot be a single one!
This being so, applying His life (presence in ours) by faith to every situation as it arises, will leave you with no alternative but to obey the words of I Thessalonians 5:18 "In everything give thanks!" In how many things? In everything without exception, "this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."
It is not difficult for man to live the Christian life, somebody once said, it is a "sheer impossibility!" A sheer impossibility, that is, without CHRIST! But for all that He says, you have all that He is, and that is all that it takes!
The Christian life can only be explained in terms of Jesus Christ, and if your life as a Christian can still be explained in terms of you your personality, your willpower, your gift, your talent, your money, your courage, your learning, your dedication, your sacrifice, or your anything then although you may have the Christian life, you are not yet living it!
By way of a silly example, If the way you live your life as a Christian can be explained in terms of you, what have you got to give to the man who lives next door? You! The way he lives his life can be explained in terms of him and his ideals habits hobbies etc, and so far as he is concerned, you happen to be "religious" but he is not! "Christianity" may be your practice, but it is not his, and there is nothing about the way you practice it which strikes him as at all remarkable! There is nothing about you which leaves him guessing, and nothing great which he does not feel he is equally capable of reproducing if needed without the inconvenience of becoming a Christian! To him/her you are nothing more than a moralistic nice person, if all you can give is you.
It is only when your quality of life baffles the neighbors that you are likely to impress them! It has got to become plainly obvious to others that the kind of life you are living is not only good, but that it is beyond all human explanation! It is Supernatural. Then when that disease/debt/struggle/upset......(add your own worry here) ......comes then it is beyond the ability of me or you to cope with, and however little they may understand this, clearly it has to be seen by them to be God Himself in you! (The hope of Glory)
In a nutshell, this means that your friends and neighbours must become convinced that the Lord Jesus Christ of whom you speak, is essentially the ingredient of the Life you live! Not just a tossed in item.

Well they are a few of my thoughts, sorry for the long break between items.
Pastor Rob

Believing

2007-07-10T11:18:00.000+10:00

Well for those of you here in Wagga and who have managed to make it to the John Mellor nights, IT HAS BEEN AMAZING! John is a man who certainly believes that Jesus is alive and resident in all those who believe. His favourite saying that I have picked up so far has been "It will be a miracle tonight if a miracle does not happen". Being a thinking man I pondered his incredible attitude and marvelled at the varied attitudes within the meeting on Friday night. Everything from "He could be doing this by the power of Satan" right through to the beautiful new born Christians who were healed; "It was like a fuzz ball inside my belly and tingling all over."

But as most of you who read this are Christians I wonder what our varied takes are on all of this? Do we really believe? Can we dare to say "Lord help me in my unbelief" or do we just ignore it all and hope that we can keep all our ducks in a row and have a neat and tidy God? One who dares not invade our life but one who better turn up when life gets tough or we need a bill paid! Do we have to wait till life turns an uneasy corner before we will push into faith?

When you allow yourself to have some freedom and life and decide to walk in faith and not in preconceived notions, suddenly life opens up and the spiritual realm becomes real. You see "all creation is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed" and Jesus was the "first of many brethren" and He also declared that we would "do greater works" than He. So to really believe that and do the signs and wonders we first have to apprehend and walk in the truth, that we are vessels of the God of the universe. We have resident in us the same God that raised Lazarus from the dead. There is every reason to believe for the lost to see the reality of a living God.

But also being the person I am my heart goes out to those well meaning and fully expecting people who were not healed. As John Mellor also said " There are many and varied reasons why people are not healed, but I will not let what I do not understand effect what I do understand and that is that God is good and that he still heals and does miracles today". I tell you, that I would much rather walk in faith and in a church that sees the odd miracle that builds on that, than in a church full of unbelief that won't even try what the Bible calls the "children's bread", and is content having their ducks in a religious sanctimonious order.

(Mat 15:22-28) "And behold, a woman of Canaan coming out of these borders cried to Him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is grievously vexed with a demon. But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and begged Him, saying, Send her away, for she cries after us. But He answered and said, I am not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, Lord, help me!
But He answered and said, It is not good to take the children's bread and to throw it to dogs.
And she said, True, O Lord; but even the little dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' tables. Then Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, great is your faith! So be it to you even as you wish. And her daughter was healed from that very hour."

I really challenged myself on this issue of "What do I actually believe?" Do I believe in a God who has my "bets hinged" and gives me the nod to say all is OK and you will make it to heaven; or on a God who declares the end from the beginning and therefore wants to establish His Kingdom on the earth today of which you and I have a role to play. It has to be more than tradition.

As the people of God in this very hour, let's open our hearts to what God wants and see what happens; let's take a chance as life only offers us one shot at it. Let's be like the women in the bible verse above and persist in faith as God opens new doors of opportunity each day. After all HE IS THE GOD OF THE BREAKTHROUGH !

Well those are my thoughts
Pastor Rob.

What is your Jordan?

2007-06-12T20:48:00.001+10:00

The Israelites faced many things in their lives and one of the major ones was the Jordan river. It stood between them and the promised land. In many ways it was an incredible lesson in faith for them and trusting God. The priests had to take the first step into the water before the river would stop flowing. Imagine what was going through the minds of the Priests as they approached the Jordan at flood stage. But if they were ever going to enter their destiny and the promises of God they had to trust God at his word.

In many ways our lives are the same. God will not stop life from happening around us, but instead he will give us a way to stand up under life. (1Co 10:13) "No temptation has taken you but what is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but with the temptation also will make a way to escape, so that you may be able to bear it."

Life assaults us in many ways but in many other ways our choices are what take us down the wrong path. But even in the midst of this God's grace still shines through and he gives us a way out. Not only does He strengthen us but He points to the way out that we may take it. Our choices don't necessarily need to be bad for this to have an effect on our lives, but we can also refuse to make the positive choices to effect our destiny for Good!

Though you and I may prefer that God hand out long-range plans, he doesn't promise that. Instead, He asks us to respond to his calling by taking a step of faith today, trusting that He has the future under control too.

Today, there are many Jordan Rivers that hold Christians back from their calling. For some, it may be a job or a relationship that doesn't glorify God. For others, it may be an addiction or a fear of the unknown.

But no matter what barriers we face, each of us must make a decision: Will we trust that God controls everything—including the obstacles and fears before us—and step out in faith? Or will we stay on the other side of the Jordan and miss the opportunity to feel God's power in our lives?

Reply...

2007-06-04T12:08:00.000+10:00

I was quite legitimately asked if the last story I sent was factual, which is more than understandable considering the many bogus things on the NET. So I wrote to the author who is a Pastor in Perth. Here below is his response to me.

"Hi Rob,
I received an update from Jeff just this morning. Here is just a little of what he had to say. I trust Jeff absolutely. He is a totally reliable witness. We gave him our building fund offering of $270,000 in August 2000 to help with these people so we are very interested in these developments.
God Bless
Allan Meyer."

A True Story

2007-06-04T12:03:00.000+10:00

At Christmas 1998 waves of persecution broke out against the Christians. Many of our friends and even some of our staff were killed. Our former church and home were burned to the ground. Over 14,000 homes, shops and houses of worship were destroyed. Christian leaders were assassinated, Christian school girls were brutally beheaded and the community has had to live under a reign of terror until some strange events began to take place in a a tiny and remote village called Meko (pronounced Mecco) on the shores of Lake Poso, in the district of Poso, Central Sulawesi.
On the 6th January 2007 an 8 year old girl received a visitation of the Lord and began to pray for the sick, beginning with her own mother. By mid February, crowds began to flock to Meko from all corners of Sulawesi. Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians…thousands seeking healing and bringing their sick. Standing there among the sick, the weak, the lame, the blind, the aged, the dying, one can only feel like Jesus who looked upon the multitudes and was moved with compassion. The crowds who gather to Meko are desperate. They desperately need love and compassion.
Every day they sing and praise the Lord for hours. They sing songs like, Jesus never changes, Into my heart, All over the world God's Spirit is moving, Oh Jerusalem how beautiful thou art… They sing them over and over…for hours. While they are singing, people are suddenly healed. The blind see, the lame walk…
Every day people are being healed but the biggest gathering is on Thursday night when the people pray and sing all night long, and at midnight they have special prayer for the sick. Up to 20,000 people have been coming, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Christians. The message proclaimed by this 8 y.o girl and her mother is always the same. Live a holy, righteous life (Ephesians 5:1-21), pray the Lord's prayer (Matthew 6-10), receive healing through Jesus (John 5).
Teams of our workers from the National Prayer Network, the Christian Mens' Network and our Foundation Bless Indonesia Today have been ministering from tent to tent, praying for the sick, sharing Christ and seeing miracles take place. Annette went with a team and was excited to see what is happening. When Annette arrived she was told of miracles that had taken place that afternoon. At 3pm a lame Buddhist man from Makassar, South Sulawesi, was healed. About 4.30pm in one of the tents a lame Muslim man, a haji (one who had made the pilgramage to Mecca ) suddenly left his wheel chair, stood up and began to leap. He jumped up on to a table. He asked to lead the singing in the tent meeting singing a very common song used in Charismatic healing services: "God is all powerful to do all things. He is omnipotent. He created the worlds. My God is all powerful".
We also heard that a lady from South Sulawesi, lame from birth with deformed legs after 32 years stood up and began to walk and leap; a 28 year old man blind from birth was healed; a 17 year old retarded boy is now now back helping his father in a chemist shop in Palu. There are piles of abandoned wheelchairs to give witness to the many healed. One dying man, a relative of one of Jeff's friends, was brought in an ambulance for 18 hours from Manado and was immediately healed.
The message of holiness is strongly preached and people are fearful to smoke, drink alcohol or steal. Some ministers have been told to go home and repent and others are reportedly fearful of going there in case their sins are exposed. One pastor was told by this 8 y.o girl, "you wear the clothes of a pastor but you don't have the heart of a pastor!"
All those who come to Meko will return knowing four things: They will know that Jesus heals and has power; they will know they must repent and live righteously; they will know the words of some basic Christian songs; and they will know the basic prayer that Jesus taught.
There are odd things happening. There are criticisms and oppositions from various quarters. Was it not the same in the ministry of Jesus? It is not happening in a church building; there are no committees, finances, advertising, big name preachers, hotels or any modern convenience. The roads are rough, muddy, winding; the people stay in tents on muddy ground; the toilets stink, but something amazing is happening. Reconciliations, healings, people getting saved, lives transformed and the gospel is being preached.
Thank you to all those who have been praying for Poso! God is beginning to turn things around. People are gathering once again to Poso, no longer to kill and burn and destroy, but to receive the healing, saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ

Evel

2007-04-26T20:24:00.000+10:00

At times we wonder where we or the world is going to end up in a generation or so. Who among us has never thought this? In many ways we are just being human with our frailties and hunger for control. But in another way we are replacing God and wondering if he is in control after all. I stumbled on this article on 'Evel Knievel' the other day and it really in a small way declares the sovereignty of God. I hope you enjoy, as I did.

On Palm Sunday, hundreds responded to Robert "Evel" Knievel's testimony by asking to be baptized on the spot at Crystal Cathedral. Speaking alongside the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, Knievel told the congregation in Orange County, California, how he had refused for 68 years to accept Jesus Christ as Lord. He believed in God, but he couldn't walk away from the gold and the gambling and the booze and the women. "I don't know why I fought it so hard," he said. "I just did." But Knievel knew people were praying for him, including his daughter's church, his ex-wife's church, and the hundreds of people who wrote letters urging him to believe. And then something indescribable happened during Daytona Bike Week this March.

"I don't know what in the world happened. I don't know if it was the power of the prayer or God himself, but it just reached out, either while I was driving or walking down the sidewalk or sleeping, and it just—the power of God in Jesus just grabbed me. … All of a sudden, I just believed in Jesus Christ. I did, I believed in him! … I rose up in bed and, I was by myself, and I said, 'Devil, Devil, you bastard you, get away from me. I cast you out of my life.' … I just got on my knees and prayed that God would put his arms around me and never, ever, ever let me go."
Pastor Robert A. Schuller, who took over for his father last year, looked out on the church and noticed most people were sobbing. He couldn't simply continue with the service's script and proceed to the offering. "I went up front, and I said, 'I believe there is somebody who needs to be baptized here. Maybe up on that balcony or by that door or by that wall. So come forward,'" Schuller told CT. "We started singing 'Amazing Grace,' and I started baptizing people, baptizing them as fast as I could. I had a little candy dish of water. 'What's your name? Okay, I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit'—crying the whole time and going to the next one."

Schuller continued this for 30 minutes, not realizing that four other pastors were baptizing the convicted just as quickly. During the second service, the response repeated itself. Together, Schuller estimates, between 500 and 800 people committed or rededicated their lives to God.
"I don't want to make grandiose claims; I'm not a prophet," said Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, who spoke with Schuller the next morning. "But I think it is a sign that in God's own sovereign goodness, he sends these moments to remind us that we are all sinners and reaches out to us in surprising ways. This is something the Christian community in general, and particularly the evangelical community, needs to take very seriously."

Revival trade

Mouw also met with couples from Crystal Cathedral who described the spontaneous response as one of the most spiritually significant events they had ever experienced. Historically, religious awakenings have played a significant role in Christianity, particularly evangelicalism. Charles Finney, a leader of the Second Great Awakening, revolutionized revivalism by arguing that churches could incite revivals through faithfulness and diligence.
"Since that point forward at least, it has become a trade; it has become a profession; it has become a series of techniques," said Joel Carpenter, director of the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity at Calvin College. "It is fair for any discerning Christian, when he hears a revival is happening, to be a little skeptical, not to be cynical, but to ask questions that are meant to help discern what is going on there spiritually."
At historic moments when God seems to be moving mountains, the emotional and physical strain of a revival can be exhausting, said Edith Blumhofer, director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals, noting the reaction of missionaries in Korea at the start of the 20th century.
"After it was over, the people said they never wanted to go through a revival again," she said. "It was so agonizing, there was such depth, such conviction for sin, and the things people felt they needed to confess publicly was so difficult."
Blumhofer said that though revivals sometimes are considered evangelistic tools, their real role—whether planned or spontaneous—is to reinvigorate church regulars. "It is a deepening conviction of one's sinfulness, one's need of grace, one's need of God that transforms—and then evangelism flows from that."

Powerful Hour

A Reformed Church in America congregation with no walls and 10,000 windows, Crystal Cathedral was founded in 1955 by Robert H. Schuller. Shaped like a star with its points aimed north, south, east, and west, the church reaches people in more than 100 countries via the Hour of Power, the largest component of Crystal Cathedral Ministries. The video from the Palm Sunday service will be broadcast on April 22.
The ministry, though, has been struggling recently. A week before Christmas 2004, the congregation's longtime orchestra conductor killed himself in a church bathroom. And last year, revenues for Hour of Power, which has a $40 million operating budget, were $3 million short, Schuller said. But he said he and his leaders hadn't been praying for a revival. They simply had been praying—for the congregation and the community, for tragedies and triumphs. Now Schuller is trying to discern God's response.
"It may be too early to call it a revival," Schuller said. "But it was clearly a moving of the Holy Spirit, and everybody has been talking about it. Our congregation and church keeps saying, 'Okay, where do we go from here?' I'm not exactly sure. But I think the Holy Spirit will assist me in the doing the right thing."

Integrity

2007-04-21T21:22:00.000+10:00

I was recently witness to someone doing an incredibly hard thing, it was not something light but really life altering. The situation faced was indeed not simple. It was a case of the right thing or the easy thing! It's in these moments we find out where our trust really lies. Recently a survey was done in the US and this is what they came up with.

What are you willing to do for $10,000,000?
Two-thirds of Americans polled would agree to at least one, some to several of the following:

Would abandon their entire family (25%)
Would abandon their church (25%)
Would become prostitutes for a week or more (23%)
Would give up their American citizenships (16%)
Would leave their spouses (16%)
Would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free (10%)
Would kill a stranger (7%)
Would put their children up for adoption (3%)

You may think that this sounds absurd, but faced with this temptation where would you find yourself standing? Would any of you start to think, "Oh well I can find a new Church!' or "It's only a trial, He will get caught soon enough"? Perhaps not. But take things down to the more base area of life and consider the chance of claiming an extra few dollars on your tax return that is not really true, or even closer to home some of us live a life at home and another within the church or around fellow Christians. We abandon who we are and never face the truth of change. Or should I say the challenge of change?

(Proverbs 11:3) "The integrity of the upright shall guide them; but the crookedness of traitors shall destroy them."

It's so much easier to walk the way of the world and take the easy out, but as the verse above declares our integrity shall guide us. In other words if our ways are fixed on the principles of God our ways are plain, our direction clear and our life sure. If we live this way it's not hard but indeed easy, because our ways are set and fixed. I truely believe that those decisions made in life will cause us to grow or stagnate in our walk with God. It is after all about faith, and whether we really trust God or not.

Well those are my thoughts

Pastor Rob.

God, where are you?

2007-04-09T10:23:00.000+10:00

This is from a book (Darlene Deibler Rose, Evidence of Things Not Seen )

Darlene Deibler Rose. Rose was a young American missionary to the jungles of New Guinea who survived four years of captivity in Japanese prison camps during World War II. When Rose tells her story, she describes how a powerful sense of God's loving presence sustained her through beatings, horrible illnesses, the cruelties of her captors, and the death of her husband.
Rose relates an experience that brings the answer to this question into focus. At the time, she was in solitary confinement and severely malnourished. In spite of her outward difficulties, she had continued to feel inner peace. Then, she writes,
"Quite suddenly and unexpectedly, I felt enveloped in a spiritual vacuum. 'Lord, where have You gone? Why have You withdrawn Your presence from me? O Father--' in panic I jumped to my feet, my heart frantically searching for a hidden sin, for a careless thought, for any reason why my Lord should have withdrawn his presence from me. My prayers, my expressions of worship, seemed to go no higher than the ceiling; there seemed to be no sounding board. I prayed for forgiveness, for the Holy Spirit to search my heart. To none of my petitions was there any apparent response."Rose spent the night crying out to God, searching for a reason for why He had withdrawn her ability to feel his presence. When no answer came, she prayed:
"Lord, I believe all that the Bible says. I do walk by faith and not by sight. I do not need to feel You near, because your Word says You will never leave me nor forsake me. Lord, I confirm my faith; I believe.

The words of Hebrews 11:1 welled up, unbeckoned, to fill my mind: 'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' ...Evidence not seen--that was what I put my trust in--not in feelings or moments of ecstasy, but in the unchanging Person of Jesus Christ.... In a measure I felt that I understood what Job meant when he declared, 'Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him' (13:15). Job knew that he could trust God, because Job knew the character of the One in Whom he had put his trust. It was faith stripped of feelings, faith without trappings."I believe that we can feel God's presence, and that we should eagerly seek it. But we cannot base our faith on a foundation of emotional experience. If we base our faith on feelings, when the feelings go, the faith will flee. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Faith is also being sure of what we do not feel. If a commitment to Christ assured us that we would always feel his presence, faith would not be required of us. The story of Darlene Deibler Rose testifies to the reality of the Holy Spirit--the Comforter, who will never leave us nor forsake us. Yet there are those times through her life and through mine where there has been and will be the incredible tangible presence of God.

Its in the hard empty times that our faith grows, and in the times when we cry out the most is when we realise God has called us to grow up into the likeness of the Son. We cannot do that nursing from His side, but walking out in faith and KNOWING in the hard/cold/empty times that He is still there.

Well those are some of my thoughts Pastor Rob

2007-03-16T12:49:00.000+11:00

"Behold the turtle; he makes progress only when he stick"s his neck out."

Eternity

2007-03-10T20:09:00.000+11:00

As I sit here in Melbourne airport waiting for a connecting flight I wonder of the people I see and how many of them know even the meaning of the word Eternity. I mean in its truest sense. At the moment the waiting for them must seem an Eternity. The young footballers must think life will last an Eternity. But how many know what it is really all about?

Sadly enough, all of us know people who are walking that precarious road, not knowing how close they are to an Eternity, not on this earth.

How many of us even take the time to ponder the gift that we have been given? The wonderous bounty that we have in Christ! That was freely given to us, sometimes I wonder about that too! The fact that it has been freely given sometimes makes us so ungrateful. It can if we let it become a given rather than a blessing. But when we peruse it from the Father's point of view it was never free but cost everything. There was a high price that was paid that was purely for our benefit, the gracious gift of God is GRACE. Gods Riches At Christs Expense.

At the moment my prayers are like that of Paul in Ephesians "God that you would open my eyes to see the riches and the magnificence of what you have done for me, that I too could help others see this." To understand the depths of the life that is ours now, to behold the beauty and presence of God by faith now, to see with eyes of faith the realm that we actually live in rather than the media driven facade that we now see.

The privilege that I have been given has only recently been brought home to me. It is something that I took for granted for so long. Yes, I appreciated it, but not to the degree that I have most recently seen. The tiny crack that I now see through gives me a tiny idea of what Paul saw when he said:
"I became a minister, according to the administration of God given to me for you, to fulfill the Word of God." (Col 1:25);
"the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints." (Col 1:26)
"For to them God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory", (Col 1:27)
" whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." (Col 1:28)
"For which I also labour, striving according to the working of Him who works in me in power." (Col 1:29)

Well those are a few of my airport thoughts. Pastor Rob

The Christ

2007-02-23T18:19:00.000+11:00

"Where can we find the Christ of history?" Certainly not in a lot of what we see in Christianity today. The Christ that we hear of so often these days is one of a strange Deity that meets my needs, rather than an all powerful God who has saved us, by his choice. In reading the scriptures we have to be honest with ourselves, "How often did we see the disciples imprisoned, persecuted, harangued and isolated. Yet no where do we see any cry for self." This has got to be a challenge at the very least to all of us. The challenge to me personally is to walk in the love of God and the hope of God in spite of my circumstances and the cards that I am dealt. It is not easy and I will falter along the way, but clearly if we are to walk as HE did we have to see a change in the western church. A change that aligns us with the first church rather than the culture in which we live and are driven by.

"I wonder of the power of the Church if we lived in the shadow of the Almighty rather than the radio control booth of God?"

We are living in a time when we want our own canon for everything from sexuality to birthright--why not our own canon of the Scriptures as well? Every generation will try to do the same, and attempt to bury the Scriptures, but we will keep finding its resurrection. For it has as its cornerstone one who knows the way out of the grave.

To all of you who are reading this I consider it an honour that you would even take the time to read this. You are special to me, but even more special to God, who does have your best interests at heart.

Focus

2007-02-21T09:30:00.000+11:00

In "The Screwtape Letters" C. S. Lewis creates a scene that reveals a startling truth. The senior devil is training a junior devil to intercept a man who is on the verge of becoming a Christian. The young devil is to deter the man from God, who they call "the Enemy." The junior devil tries his best to distract his subject, but after a few weeks returns unsuccessful. The frustrated young devil cannot explain what went wrong, but notes that the man did two simple things each day. Every morning he would get up and go for a long walk, thoroughly enjoying the air, the scenery, and all in all, the walk itself. Then every evening, at then end of his day, the man would curl up with a good book, thoroughly delighting in that book, the reading, the time itself. To this, the senior devil notes sharply: "This is where you went horribly wrong! You should have put it into his mind that he had to get up in the morning and take that walk for the sake of exercise. It would have become drudgery to him. And you should have gotten him to read the book so that he could quote it to somebody else. It would have become equally uninspiring. You allowed him to enjoy such pure pleasure that the Enemy's voice became more audible within those experiences. That is where you went wrong."

In talking to a friend of mine today the thought of choices was brought up and how it governs our lives. It made me think on my own life. Decisions that we make every day determine our destiny. I have a picture on my office wall that declares. "its the choices we make not the chances we take that determine our destiny". The more you meditate on this the more it makes sense. How we see the people around us! the life we live! the hope in our heart! They are all determined by the choice of how we see each and everything in our lives.

I think it was Corrie Ten Boom and her sister that were in a prison of war camp that became infested with lice. Corrie's sister declared "Where can we be thankful for this? Seeing you so often tell us to be thankful for everything". The truth was that the enemy guards who used to harass them daily would not go near them so they gained much needed rest from their tormentors. Our choice is how we see the cards that we are dealt. To look for the hope in it or the hurt.

The concluding words of the apostle Paul to the Philippian Church speak of a similar thing.
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things... And the God of peace will be with you" (Philippians 4:8-9). There is a promise in this scripture if we follow it. Can you see it?

We are the composition of our choices. We decide our destiny. To be told by God to forgive may seem to the hurting person impossible or too painful. But God asks us to make this choice for our future. To choose not to, often means a life of torment and at times depression. While following God and choosing to, leads to freedom and life. That's why Paul implores the Phillipians to think on the good things in life (and they are always there we must just choose to look for them). What ever we meditate on will become us, it will consume us.

I wonder like the start of this article how many of us count the blessings of life as a burden or a joy. Things like exercise, our work, our life in general. Or do we consider them a drudgery. At times I know I do and I dislike it when I realise what God has done for me. To look at my life from the positive, it becomes an exciting dream that I am privileged to live rather than mundane and boring.

Identity

2007-01-24T21:51:00.000+11:00

From all places I get an email from England from a girl I used to go to school with. She informs me of a book that has been written by one of our ex-school mates, so I pursued it and here is an exert from it.

To summarise the opening chapters of his book; Peiper was raised in country Victoria and grew up in a dysfunctional family, with an alcoholic and at times violent father. At sixteen, Allan's parents separated, but when his mother decided to go back his wife-beating father, young Peiper had enough and left home for good. Within a year, after working a factory job and saving every dollar, the Australian junior champion would find himself in Belgium, chasing the dream of becoming a professional road cyclist.

"You know, I was just spurred on by the fact that I couldn't go back," Peiper recalls of his bold decision to travel halfway across the world to live in Belgium. "I lived in rat-infested houses with twenty other people, where there was no front door and I had one blanket and very little food, but there was a brotherhood there between us because we were all the same."

The book goes on to chart a course through Peiper's four years racing as a junior in Belgium before he turned pro at the age of 21. Central to the story is his relationship with the family of Belgian champion Eddy Planckaert, who took the young Australian in and helped shape his career. He learnt early on how to wheel and deal in order to survive, even stealing produce from the fields, but when I suggest that it all sounds like a romantic existence for a young Australian cyclist in Europe, there are some reservations. "Looking back you might say romantic but it was a life struggle in those days you know and I sold races to win races. I made deals with two or three riders in the same race that they'd pay me if they won, but I still sprinted for first prize; if I won I took the money for first prize and if they beat me I took the money they paid me and my second prize."

Just co-incidentally I went out with his sister for a season and I got a glimpse into their family life. In town their father was the Bank manager and the wife well attired and strong. But what we didn't see as teenagers and what Allan reveals in his book is the inward pain of a broken yet together family. A place where saving face is more important than facing ourselves. I recall that drive in me (we both have a little in common in our backgrounds). A need to be approved, and a need "To show people that you are significant". It creates inside us insecurities that will drive us to any lengths to prove ourselves.

In the end it drove both of us on a Spiritual quest as well, an insatiable need that could only be filled by the Father. For Allan, a journey of spirituality where he explored meditation, yoga, visited India twice, and sought solace in the dreaming country of Australia's Western Desert in the search for meaning. I am not sure if he is still in pursuit or not. Or whether this book is part of his healing, but the thing that I ponder now is how easy it is to slip back into those coping mechanisms when you drift in your relationship with our Lord. How quickly old thoughts take flight back into our minds and how we re-act rather than respond to people.

Many times we find the church can let us down, but it is the vessel that God has chosen for us to grow up in and learn to get over our own misgivings and forgive those of others. It is a place where we need to see things as Peiper did. We are all the same, just beggars in search of a little bread, saved by Grace. It is this attitude that will make a difference in the world in which we live.

Life is JUST TO short not to.

Well those are my thoughts
Pastor Rob.

Wonderment

2007-01-15T18:55:00.000+11:00

I have been pondering many things of late, not the least of all is the seemingly tangible presence of God. Don't get me wrong I know He is there all the time by faith, but I mean His strong over whelming reality that I have felt before. People still come in to New Life Church and say "Wow, his is different you can really feel God here", but I hunger for more. I know it is coming but I still pray "Come Lord Jesus Come quickly to fill us a fresh"

Then thanks to friends and fellow workers Jeff and Kate (and Mick) I came across this web site - www.irismin.org - Jeff and Kate have just returned from seeing these guys in Adelaide. I read an article that stirred my heart and set some things spinning in my heart. Here is a portion of it.

"Much of eastern Congo is in ruins. Roads and railways are washed away. Hospitals are destroyed. Electricity is rare. Government troops and rebels are both the cause of torture, beheadings, rapes, massacres and burned villages. There has been a peace deal and an election, but the dying continues, greatly aggravated by hunger and medical neglect. We were just back in Joseph's village where we bought property and built a church and school. Many of our church ladies have been raped by soldiers. Their husbands won't come back to them, and they are full of STDs. Children die every day in our school. Many eat only a handful every three days. There are no jobs. Soldiers are hungry, desperate, often unpaid and dangerous. The village children in rags have seen so much violence that they make AK-47 toys out of banana trees.

Yet in the last few days at our church in Kalonge we have seen the presence of God overwhelm the prevailing mood of despair. Never in all the world have I seen greater intensity of prayer and worship. They sob, they agonize, tears pouring down their faces. Their powerful voices soar with electrifying worship. They laugh in the Holy Spirit with joy unspeakable. Their joy to suffering ratio sets a world record in my experience. Their memories are healed. They look forward with huge anticipation to what lies ahead -- revival across Congo! We began with 28 churches under Joseph last year, and now we have 85. The word has gotten out: God does miracles and makes people happy! Key leaders are joining us from the government. Joseph has a fiery vision from God for touching all of Congo. And yet again we are starting at the bottom with the least of these, right here in Kalonge. They deserve our support, our hard-earned money, our time and our lives.

Oh and how this sets my heart ablaze, while we bemoan the music, the seats, the lighting, they in their incredible despair rejoice and God sends His Spirit. Nothing is more needed in this self obsessed western World than a visitation of God. Revive our hearts, oh Lord.

There's no place like home...

2006-12-26T12:32:00.000+11:00

No doubt that most of you would have seen the movie the wizard of Oz. There seems to be a flaw in the story. Dorothy has been leading a rather bleak existence in Kansas when she is transported to a lovely paradise in Oz. Once there, her only wish is to return to Kansas, and this wish motivates her journey to see the Wizard. Other than her attachment to her aunt and uncle, why should she wish to leave this ideal fairyland and go back to her humdrum life on the grey (flat as a pancake) Kansas prairie? The moral seems indeed to be that "there's no place like home." A deprived existence in a miserable shack is preferable to the Garden of Eden because it's home. The truth concealed behind this saying is that the ultimate spiritual reality lies within each individual person-in their "own backyard"-and not off somewhere over the rainbow. "The kingdom of Oz is within you."

How true is that of many of us, we have the very Spirit of God living in us. And we seem unsatisfied, as if there is a constant yearning within to want more, an insatiable appetite for the things of God.

Yet scripture tells us that "....... godliness with contentment is great gain". (1 Timothy 6:6)

mmm...worth considering, a favourite author

2006-11-09T14:04:00.000+11:00

This from N. T. Wright's commentary on Colossians 3:6...

'Part of the horror of hell, it appears, is that those who consciously and continuously choose sin instead of God become less and less human, until all that ennobles them as creatures made in God's image has, by their own choice, been altogether obliterated, beyond hope or pity. It is perhaps along these lines that the difficult doctrine of hell may be comprehensibly stated today, in opposition to the current notion that hell does not exist, or that if it does it will at the last be untenanted, or that even if some will remain there it is in bad taste to mention the fact. Unless we are to rob human beings of all meaningful responsibility for their actions, and to underplay the utter holiness of God, hell must always be at least a possibility. Those who make evil a way of life begin to lose their humanity, begin (in other words) to die, even while they are alive: witness the dead eyes of the miser, the torturer, the prostitute. ... Those who choose to live without God will one day find that they have forfeited their likeness to Him.'

2006-11-02T22:11:00.000+11:00

The Scriptures report that there is the "power of life and death" in the tongue. As God's Word became flesh and transformed the lives of many, so our words have the power to bring life to others or simply change the very atmosphere we walk in. We create or tear down with the things we say. We shape attitudes, expectations, and situations. We foster life or we further death. Think about it for a minute; we have influence in our lives all around us. Complaining can be seen in many ways as resentment over unmet expectations. But it is an expression that serves only to affirm our "own expectations" whether they are based on a faulty reality or not. It is an expression that says, "I refuse to re-evaluate my perspective, to reposition my gaze to a higher altitude. I am right and this is all that I will see." Many can portray this in life and influence others, but the reverse is also true that people can be strongly influenced by the positive and be much happier there (I know full well that positive people are much more fun to be around). When Jesus proclaimed "I am the bread of life," the crowds had a hard time accepting his words. The Gospel of John says, "When many of his disciples heard it, they said, 'This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?' But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, 'Do you take offence at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?'" (John 6:60-62). He seems to say, "Do you realize what you are saying? Will you only see what you expect to see? If the truth itself were in front of you, would you even then refuse to believe?" As finding sunshine may be a matter of lifting our gaze, so joy is a matter of vision, and expectation. Peter writes of our certain hope in Christ, "You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place" (2 Peter 1:19). Are we gazing only at the looming darkness? Do we grumble among ourselves in the dark of failed expectation? Might there be more to see? Is there a hope beyond the veil? Is it easier to always look on the dark side of life? When all the time Christ in you is the LIGHT OF THE WORLD. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! Hallelujah. Well they are some of my thoughts, Pastor Rob

A matter of altitude

2006-11-02T22:10:00.000+11:00

I have had the privilege of travelling many times to other nations and valued the many people that have travelled with me. I remember one time the incredible hand of God in getting an associate not only out of Australia but into another country without a passport. It was simply amazing. But you know at the time things were pretty gloomy on the ground before we left and indeed when we arrived in the other nation reality hit again, "How do we get past customs and immigration?" But all was OK. Another time it was horribly wet and rainy on the ground but once up in the air the sun was shining and life was great. So I suppose you could say sunshine is a matter of altitude. Many times I have been challenged in my own heart to make my own sunshine, in other words to climb in altitude and attitude. This has been a life changing thought at many times.

Intimacy

2006-11-02T22:06:00.000+11:00

(Thanks also to Jill Castilla)
I was doing some reading tonight and found out some interesting facts. The earth at the equator is spinning at 1,609 kilometres per hour. As if that is not enough we are travelling through space to make our yearly orbit around the sun at the phenomenal speed of 108,000 kilometres per hour (give or take a K). Yet here I sit at the keyboard as still as can be. I pondered this and thought about how unaware we are of our movement and the incredible speed of it. Then it dawned on me that our Spiritual life is very similar, we are travelling towards our destiny at a great rate of knots but in total unawareness (if there is such a word?) We to can be so unaware of how far we have slipped from our original launch place. That time when we were alive in God, totally aware of His grace and mercy that we had received. We then start our slow drift and in total ignorance are unaware of how far and how fast we have drifted from our first love. Our first love where nothing was too much to give or too hard to do for God. Where another opportunity to attend a meeting or go to a service was greeted with fanciful enthusiasm and not begrudging disdain. Where we had led our children to believe Church was actually great and fun and not a hard place that drains us (their reponses are reflections of our hearts). Passive faith leads to loss in the end. The close walk that you and I had with God in School or Uni or in our younger years is no guarantee of intimacy today.

If you desire to walk intimately with your God, consider what you are doing on a daily basis to foster this intimacy. The prophet Hosea, himself was painfully aware of the waywardness of human hearts, he exhorted Israel,
Hos 6:6 - " I want your constant love, not your animal sacrifices. I would rather have my people know me than burn offerings to me." (GNB)

Lifting Weights

2006-11-02T22:03:00.000+11:00

Lifting weights once seemed to me so unnecessary--an activity for people who wanted to feel like gigantors, while the real exercisers were off somewhere running. But as it turns out, I was wrong. Incorporating weight training into your exercise routine is beneficial on many levels: raising metabolism, increasing strength, reducing the risk of injury, heart disease, and other illness. I even read recently that lifting weights can help lift depression. I have no doubt that using weights properly can build both muscle and benefit our health. With a weight in my hand recently, I found myself worrying about upcoming events, things I needed to do, things I wasn't doing well enough, and so forth. To be honest I can't remember exactly what I was worrying about that day. But I remember thinking about the weight I was physically lifting and the weight I was mentally carrying--and marvelling at the illustration. I believe it is possible to use life's resistances/problems to build character and faith. Even so, as it is in weight lifting, a weight is only beneficial to the body when it is lifted and released. Muscles grow during times of rest; to never release a weight would negate any benefits of weight lifting (not to mention look very silly). When it comes to worrying, I think I might resemble a person hauling around a barbell, stubbornly refusing to put it down.

Its only when we release the weight does any growth occur. Similarly its only when we let what has been a burden go to God, that we find a growth in our own lives. Jesus tells us, "Who by worrying can add anything to their lives?" (Paraphrase). By letting the struggle and worry go, what we are saying is that WE TRUST GOD. This is a sure sign of growth. Sure life will have its ups and downs and the downs at times will seem so low that we will never get up again. But the reality is that when I first started to exercise I thought I would never move my arms again. But slowly and surely I gained confidence and strength, and now I look forward to it (well most days).

One Body

2006-11-02T22:00:00.000+11:00

Today as I talk with other ministers both on-line and in person the one common thing in the western church is transfer. People are transferring from one church to another, or transferring right out of the church. People all have their reasons rightly or wrongly and that is between them and God but the one factor that we can all miss from time to time is GOD. He is the one who called us in the first place, He placed us in the church and He should be the only one we move for. He died for the Church. I hear many saying "I am the Church" which is true to a degree, but its the corporate gathering of the many members that He is joining together that makes the Church.

(Rom 12:5) "So we the many are one body in Christ, and each one members of one another.
We cannot love the Head (Jesus) and not the body (people of the Church). We are , like it or not members of each other."

It's time for the new generation to arise those who are full of faith and Grace, who look beyond and build for the Kingdom. I once spoke in a church in Sydney and I said these words. "Those who bail out of Church now and do not fight to belong, will miss out on what the faithful will become". The Pastor of that Church rang me and reminded me of my exact words, and thanked me for them. It's time for me and the general body of Christ to fight for what is ours, our heritage in Christ that will come to those who are faithful. And to those who CHOOSE to walk in unity with a clean heart.

Well those are my thoughts, Pastor Rob.

Kingdom Love

2006-11-02T21:56:00.000+11:00

A quote from Kluane Spake which I really loved;
We must move from legalism to Kingdom love. It isn't easy to love without expectation of reward. For surely, beloved, you will be disappointed again and again. Luke 21:16-19 reminds us: "You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me. By standing firm you will gain life" (NIV). Jesus is coming back for a church that stands together firmly in victory and that walks together in the spirit. Let us migrate to the next level and breakthrough with new revelation and expectation. Remember: Faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit -- defined as committed, trustworthy, loyal, reliable, constant, steadfastness, & sincere. Faithfulness & commitment are demonstrated through a performance of duty, or keeping ones word or promises to one to whom you are loyal. That means you keep your promises regardless of any change or disappointment that might occur.

The Spirit of Life

2006-07-19T18:44:00.000+10:00

Genuine concern can accidentally lead to destructive worry. We CONTINUALLY need to take a close look at our heart and motives. My friend, this is the hour to purge every bit of leaven out of our lives and our weakened emotions (Mk. 8:15). The major problem with emotional SIN (Rom 7:20) is that we tend to SEE things as they seem on earth and not as they are in heaven. Anxiety is first overcome in the spirit realm and then manifested in our heart (soul). Out of the abundance of the HEART, the mouth speaks. Paul admitted that in his flesh, was no good thing. He wanted to do right but was not always able to do right (Rom. 7:18 KJV). Not only does anxiety choke our faith, but it binds joy, shuts down our confession, and causes increased and disabling pressure. Many times, we want to quit worrying, but can't. Later on Paul discovered the answer! Why do so many preachers stop with Romans 7? To them, it's all about repeatedly dying to this "all-powerful carnal self" that never quite does right -- and never quite wins the battles. Hasn't the church lived long enough under the law of the flesh and the law of sin and death -- wanting to do good and finding evil present (Rom 7:21)? Truth is -- worry is one of the greatest enemies to believers today.
BUT, Paul found the answer and so can we! Just keep reading. Paul tells us that the remedy isn't giving into our weaknesses because we live under the spirit of death. There's another law of God after the inward man (Rom. 7:22). It is here (in this law) that we can delight. It is the LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE (8:2). Why do we stop before we get here? We can be totally healed of our long-standing emotional weaknesses. Resurrection power in us means we don't have to be afraid. My God! We don't have to be angry anymore. Jesus died to bring forth His Kingdom on earth. His plan is that we exercise the authority that He has given us and restore that Kingdom back to Him! The Kingdom is IN US. It's all about living in the fullness of the intention of the LIFE He gives. Let's become healed and effective! The Message Bible says, "Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud (spirit of death)". A new power is in operation. The Spirit of LIFE in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death" (Rom. 8:1-2 MSG). "Lift up your heads oh ye Gates" (Ps. 24:7). The Spirit of LIFE brings forth COURAGE into the heart of believers so that we can RULE in the Gate at this optimum moment (Ps 24:7).

Thoughts that I borrowed...Ps Rob.

2006-07-03T23:50:00.000+10:00

"BLESSED ARE THE CRACKED; FOR IT IS THEY WHO LET IN THE LIGHT".

I think this is my personal mission statement from now on.

Unity

2006-06-28T12:28:00.000+10:00

Martin Luther spoke of Godly treasure, “I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.” For if a kingdom is divided against itself, then that kingdom can’t stand (Mk. 3:24-25). The same is true of the church. To succeed we must be working together and single in cause. Some of the biggest criticism of the Church comes from within the church. This should not be so! A single eye towards the direction God has set is the answer. It is only in Unity can we expect the blessing of God and only in Unity can we really see God's hand move. Let's set our heart to be as ONE. No matter what life or others dish out to us let's react in a Godly manner and show the love of Christ. Life is too short to live any other way.

Where is God in this?

2006-04-29T12:19:00.000+10:00

I know that many of you have seen or heard this before, but for those of you who have not I pass it on for your thoughts. Stan DeKoven sent it to me and again it got me thinking.

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary, Sunday, 12/18/05.
Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife. Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. If this is what it means to be no longer young, it's not so bad. Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away. I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to. In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke, it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking. Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show, and Jane Clayson asked her, "How could God let something like this Happen?" (regarding Hurricane Katrina). Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?" In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK. Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped, and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK. Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW." Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to Hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace. Are you laughing? Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us. If you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

Free Will

2006-04-29T12:16:00.000+10:00

What an incredible thing God has given us in free will and choice. We can choose to walk how ever we like, God will never force our hand. Imagine if you will for a minute the incredible thing that is. The God of Heaven and earth creator of man's first breath, allows us free choice. I find that amazing, if I was inventing/creating man he would do what he was jolly well told. (Aren't you lucky I'm not). But there is a reason in my mind why God does this, and that is that he believes in us. He loves us and really does trust us. Yes we will mess up and He knows that, and yet He still loves and trusts us to make our own decisions and plans.

Life leads us on a merry ride at times and the choices we make have consequences on this life that we are living, hence the reason that choices are so important. And part of the reason God allows us to make our own choices, He knows that life will draw us around to where we should be, and that the choices we make wether good or bad, will teach us.

Our choice is to learn! Or go around the mountain again.

I don't know about you but I can see a few of my footprints in front of me from time to time. Our job is to support one another in the decision making process and help those who want to grow and learn. I am still learning in a big way, how about you?

Things you don't learn in school

2006-04-29T12:14:00.000+10:00

This advice was offered by BILL GATES in a speech to a group of high school students. His topic was: Things You Don’t Learn in School.
RULE 1: Life is not fair… get used to it.
RULE 2: The world won’t care about your self esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
RULE 3: You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year, right out of high school. You won’t be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both.
RULE 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss.
RULE 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for flipping burgers: they called it opportunity.
RULE 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault. So don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
RULE 7: Before you were born, your parents were not as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents’ generation, try cleaning up your own bedroom.
RULE 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as many chances as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
RULE 9: Life is not divided into terms. You don’t get summers off, and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.
RULE 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs

Enjoying the journey

2006-04-29T12:04:00.000+10:00

The great architect Frank Lloyd Wright was fond of an incident that may have seemed insignificant at the time, but had a profound influence on the restof his life. When he was 9, he went walking across a snow-covered field with his reserved, no- nonsense uncle. As the two of them reached the far end of the field, his uncle stopped him. He pointed out his own tracks in the snow, straight and true as an arrow's flight, and then young Frank's tracks meandering all over the field. "Notice how your tracks wander aimlessly from the fence to the cattle to the woods and back again," his uncle said. "And see how my tracks aim directly to my goal. There is an important lesson in that." Years later the world-famous architect liked to tell how the experience had contributed to his philosophy in life. "I determined right then," he'd say with a twinkle in his eye, "not to miss the things in life, that my uncle had missed." Frank Wright saw in those tracks what his uncle could not: It is easy to let the demands of life keep us from the joys of living. We all recognize that any goal in life worth achieving demands a great deal of our energy. If you are a doctor you must spend vast hours alone and in Uni studying the human body. The life of your patient demands it. If you are a teacher you must live in the library researching and preparing for your lecture. The mind of your student demands it. If you are a carpenter you must patiently measure the building before you drive the first nail. The strength of the structure depends on it. If you are a mother you must sacrifice your life for another. Your children require it. We could not live if we did not set goals and work to fulfill them. No sane person would argue otherwise. But here's what young Wright discovered at the tender age of 9, and what some don't learn until 59: The objective in life is not the goal but the journey on the way to the goal. One time the whole city had gathered around where Jesus was, pressing in to see Him. The demands on him were piling up. He cured many, cast out demons, and taught constantly. When he left in the morning early to pray, they went searching for him. And when they found him they said, "What are you doing, everyone is searching for you?" Our lives can be that way with the demands of work, family, life, illness etc. How do we enjoy the journey when everyone and everything is searching for you, wanting a piece of you, and demanding your time? We can do it by remembering....
1. Hard Work Is Required.
2. Not To Let Others Define Our Goal.
3. Enjoy the ride
4. Remembering to Pray!

Well those are my thoughts, Pastor Rob.

2006-04-29T11:49:00.000+10:00

"At the heart of the Christian message is God Himself waiting for his redeemed
children to push in to conscious awareness of his presence."
A.W.Tozer.

Manifesting the Life of Christ

2006-04-29T11:38:00.000+10:00

Well this is our first meeting , so to speak.

Not sure what you are expecting from all this but it is my intention to just throw the thoughts that I have into cyber space and try as best as I can to encourage "You the Body of Christ". Now not everything may fit your theology, or mine but I hope the things I say will promote you to think outside the box and see God from a newer light and a fresher point of view. Occasionally I may post a funny thought or even a web page or picture.

For me, and I have no doubt for you also, life can seem to have its ups and downs. Our challenge is to find consistency in our reactions to these challenges. If we looked at the fruit of the Spirit we would see a constancy in their outworking. If we are going to manifest the life of Christ, consistency is a key to our life and victory. Making a decision is one of the best things we can do in times of trouble, let me encourage you with this verse;
"Trust God, my friends, and always tell him each one of your concerns. God is our place of safety". (Psalm 62:8)