This past Sunday was Mother’s Day and Pastor Karen shared a message about being made into “The pattern of God”.

As always, the message is available for download from http://www.beachway.com.au/news-feeds/audio-podcast

Pastor Karen raised an very interesting and meaningful point about how things that are planned for evil are often turned, by God, into things that work for the good and she illustrated the point by referring to the David and Goliath story and how David used Goliath’s own sword to cut off Goliaths head. The weapon that was intended to crush Israel became the thing that ended the life of the Philistine warrior who challenged Israel….

It is estimated that Goliath was somewhere between 2 m and 2.9 m tall, and the Bible states that his armour weighed about 57 kg and the iron blade of his spear weighed about 7 kg…so we can extrapolate that his sword was probably pretty impressive. Have you ever held or tried to lift a large sword? In our untrained hands they are heavy and cumbersome…and impressive and a little intimidating.

There are times in our lives when we face trials, problems, difficulties in life that are heavy and cumbersome…and impressive and somewhat intimidating. In those times, do we look at the giant of a problem, with its impressive armour and weaponry and get intimidated, fearful….or do we take heart from what David did and use the weapon that we have…the weapon that sometimes looks like a puny slingshot…the weapon that brings down giants and strongholds?

Prayer, in faith, is that weapon!!

To the eyes of the world, prayer might look like a puny slingshot, but let’s remember what prayer is. It is a heart to heart conversation with the Almighty, the Creator of all things…our Saviour and our Father, who hears us. What a mighty weapon indeed…

On Sunday morning Pastor Rob shared the second part of a message on Worship. His focus was on “being a worshipper in all seasons”.

As always, the guys have done their magic and the message is available for download from www.beachway.com.au

Being a worshipper in all seasons…in thinking about this, I was struck by how this speaks to our identity.

How, does this message speak to our identity?

When we meet someone for the very first time, one of the first questions is “What do you do?”. Now typically this refers to what someone does to earn a salary…but what happens when that job is lost? What happens when the car is lost, the house, the social standing….who am I? What will I say when someone asks?

Our identity should be first and foremost in and from God…He created us, He knows us more intimately than anyone else. Anything else is temporary and can be lost or taken from us, but our identity from God can never be taken away…and He made us to be worshippers and men / fathers / husbands / sons / brothers / employers / employees, etc

So, this week…let’s think about what it means to be a worshipper, to be identified by and in God before all else. Let’s grab onto that identity and in confidence raise our hearts and hands and voices to our awesome Creator.

Have a great week

On Sunday morning Pastor Rob shared a valuable message on Worship.

During this message Pastor Rob said that “Worship is a life offered to God. A searching question we must ask ourselves is how costly was my worship to God today? Did I offer God something costly or did I come to Him empty-handed? Tommy Tenney said, “Fire doesn’t fall on empty altars… if you want the fire of God, you must become the fuel of God.” (God Chasers p 65)”

How costly was my worship to God today? Did I just flick through a verse on my iPhone when I had a moment or did I take some time to actually sit down, in stillness to READ the Word and pray and worship? Did I offer God a part of my day or just scrape together a few minutes, as an afterthought?

For us blokes, that is often where the cost lies…in our time. Am I willing to give God a chunk of my time…am I willing to get up early or take time out during the day to make the time that I NEED to connect to God, daily? Many of us will recall the sermon in March about laying things down and this would be one of those times….when we might need to lay some things down, to take up something better.

So, this week let’s meditate the quote “Fire doesn’t fall on empty altars… if you want the fire of God, you must become the fuel of God.” and what that might mean in our daily lives.

The message this past Sunday dealt with “Unity”. Unity within the global church and within the local church. http://www.beachway.com.au/news-feeds/audio-podcast will take you to all the audio downloads for recent messages.

I was thinking about how this message could apply to blokes…especially those of us that are husbands and fathers.

Unity…let me begin by emphasising a statement from the sermon “Unity does not imply uniformity. It does not mean that all Christians will think alike, dress alike, pray alike, worship alike, attend identical churches or perform identical ministries. It does however imply a common purpose and interdependence within the body….”

So…how do we as husbands, as fathers, as the spiritual leaders within our homes create and encourage unity?

Maybe for some of us, it will mean that we pray WITH our wife on a regular basis…maybe it will mean that we agree on the family budget and then stick to that agreement…maybe it will mean that we model unity to our children (and that could be unity with our wife, with other like minded blokes in a Connect group, with the leadership of the church we attend).

This week, let’s give Holy Spirit the opportunity to show us where we might be in disunity, or might be sowing or showing disunity and then let’s make an effort to make it right. After all, Christ did not call us to disunity….

Bless you

Of late, I have been thinking a lot about blessing…more specifically about how a father can / should bless his wife and children. And so, it was kinda interesting when I came across the scripture (Luke 24: 50 – 53), about Jesus blessing His disciples as He was taken up into heaven…in the same week as our Men’s Connect watched the movie “Courageous”.

The New Testament Greek word (Strong’s # 2127 eulogeo) for blessing, is a verb used 44 times in the New Testament. It means:

“to praise [your loved one], to celebrate [them] with praises [that] invoke [God’s] blessings and consecrate [your loved one] with solemn prayers [that] ask God’s blessing on [your loved one] to cause [them] to prosper, to make [them] happy, to bestow blessings [that they be] favoured by God.”

Do you ever remember your father telling you out loud, in a clear and loving voice that he loved you and admired some qualities that he had seen in your life?

Those types of words stay in our hearts for a lifetime. What a powerful motivation to use our words, our voices, to bless others in Christ’s Name!

One of the most moving Jewish traditions is the blessing over the children given on Friday night. The most common custom is for the father to put his hands on the child’s head and recite the blessing. In some homes the blessing is followed by a kiss, and in other homes it is followed by personal words of praise as the father walks around the table and blesses each seated child.

If we look at the life of Christ, we find the Heavenly Father speaking words of approval and blessing (Matt 3: 16 & 17). Jesus was blessed by His Father before He performed a miracle or delivered a sermon…blessed as a Son.

What an example for us to follow….let us, as fathers, lay our hands on our children, imparting to them and blessing them with words of approval.

Have a great week.

This week my family and I went for the citizenship test…to become Australian citizens. During this process, I started thinking about what Pastor Rob preached on this Sunday, in the second part of the message about “The Cross”.

We live in a world where earning things by our actions, behaviour, knowledge, abilities, etc is the norm. From young we are taught to strive towards things, to DO the right thing, to fit in…

But God calls us to be counter-cultural, as Pastor Rob shared in the message on Sunday, we cannot DO anything to earn salvation, to earn a place in heaven, to earn eternal life and least of all to earn forgiveness. By faith alone, in Christ alone, can we receive grace.

That amazing grace which paid the debt that we could never pay….

What a blessing, what a release…we don’t have to strive, or pass a test, or prove ourselves, we simply have to accept AND BELIEVE that Jesus, the pure and blameless Son of God, bled to wash away the stains of sin on us and that He died to rise and open the way into eternal life for us.

Let’s ponder on that this week, as we head into the Easter weekend.

See ya on Friday, at Perry Lakes

On Sunday we heard a topical and challenging message from a visiting missionary / preacher Kelly Kosky.  As always, the Beachway sound desk gurus have done their magic and the message is available on the Beachway website.

Kelly’s message was titled “Through the looking glass” and the idea that Kelly wanted to share with us is that there is a price to be paid for going from looking at the Christian life to actually living the Christian life…living like Jesus.  The price that we have to pay is to give up the illusion of ownership….to be willing to follow the example of Abraham and sacrifice that which we hold most dear, if / when God asks us to.

Now, it is not being suggested that you should build an altar in your backyard, then lay your child on it and wave a knife around…your neighbours will probably call the police and children’s services.  No,  what we are talking about here is the willingness to accept (and live) like God is LORD..of everything….since he actually is.

Kelly illustrated this with the story of the rich young ruler (Matthew 19: 15 – 29 & Luke 18: 18 – 23) expressed as if we could see it like a movie…and as the young ruler walks away disappointed, so the camera pans to Jesus who also walks away disappointed….frustrated that the wealth of this young man had become such a trap that he could not let it go, to embrace and follow Jesus.

What are you willing to let go?  If God said to you that tonight he was going to take your wife, would you be willing to submit to Him, God… the creator of the universe and accept that He knows best and “give her” to God?  What about your children, your job, your car, your phone….what is more important than God?

After all…The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it (Psalm 24:1)

This week, let’s spend some time in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to show us where things are out of balance, where we have taken ownership of things that we have no right to….and then let’s go to God and repent.  Give Him back, that which belongs to him…and then watch what He does.

On Sunday morning Pastor Rob shared the second message in the series “Blind Spots”.

This message was quiet challenging in that the subject of the message was a group of people.

Pastor Rob referred to the lost, the marginalised, the hurt, the poor…all of these are groups of people that we, as the Church, should be aware of and yet often these groups of people find themselves squarely in our “blind spot”.

In pondering on this message, I was reminded of the following scripture.

Matt 2:13 - 16  After the wise men had gone, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Hurry and take the child and his mother toEgypt! Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is looking for the child and wants to kill him.”

That night, Joseph got up and took his wife and the child toEgypt, where they stayed until Herod died. So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “I called my son out ofEgypt.”

When Herod found out that the wise men from the east had tricked him, he was very angry. He gave orders for his men to kill all the boys who lived in or nearBethlehemand were two years old and younger.

King Herod is believed to have died in 4 BC, which then means that Jesus, our Saviour…the one that we should try to live like, was in fact a refugee for 3 to 4 years.  Some versions of the Bible tells us that, that night Joseph took his family and fled…no organised packing, no planned trip, just grab what you can and leave…run to a foreign land.   The distance they had to travel was about 120 km, which would have taken four days on foot, walking all day to get to safety, to get to a place where your child will not be slaughtered….and carrying only what will fit on your back or your donkey.

This is something worth thinking about…

On Sunday, Pastor Rob shared a message on the “Blind spot”. This message, which is the first of a series, was focussed on the blind spot of pride.

Pastor Rob spent some time unpacking the sometimes cunning and sneaky ways that pride could manifest. As usual, a transcript of the message is available on the Beachway Facebook page or the website as an audio podcast.

There is a story told about a man who planted a rock garden. He took great pride in the rock garden and planted it with all sorts of beautiful, wonderful, rare, and exotic plants. It was the pride and joy of the whole family.

When the man died, he left everything to his two unmarried daughters. The two women lived in the house and cared for the rock garden; it was all they had in life. Whenever friends or neighbours came over, the two women would always say, “Have you seen the rock garden our father made? Isn’t it just perfect? That’s our pride and joy, our life. The rock garden is our life.”

Over the years the two daughters turned into two little old ladies and as their vitality waned, they found it more and more difficult to tend the rock garden. The weeds went unpulled, the plants went without water and nutrients, and the garden began to deteriorate. But the sisters, whose eyesight was beginning to fail, would look out the window at their father’s rock garden and say sincerely to one another, “See the rock garden our father made? Isn’t it just perfect? That’s our pride and joy, our life. The rock garden is our life.”

If a friend would dare to suggest that their rock garden looked a little shabby, the two sisters would take offense: “It is not shabby. Nothing our father ever did was shabby. It was perfect. And anyone who knew anything about plants would know that it was the best rock garden in the world.”

Do you see how pride blinded them to the truth?

So this week, let’s ask Holy Spirit to show us where pride has given us a “blind spot”. Let’s do what Casting Crowns suggest “the only way we’ll ever stand is on our knees with lifted hands”. Listen to the audio on their website.

This past Sunday, Pastor Rob shared a message on “Recovering Simplicity”. The message is available as an audio podcast on http://www.beachway.com.au/news-feeds/audio-podcast along with a really moving testimony, from Paul Davies, about a miraculous healing in India.

Most of us are familiar with the “KISS” principle…(Keep it simple …), this acronym is ascribed to Kelly Johnson who was the lead engineer at Lockheed (creators of the Lockheed U-2 “Spy-plane” aircraft). The way the story goes, is that Johnson handed the team of design engineers a handful of regular aircraft tools, with the challenge that the aircraft they were designing should be repairable by an average mechanic, in the field, under combat conditions…with only those tools.

Can we sometimes be like a really smart design engineer, when asked to explain our faith…the hope that we have? Does our explanation end up being so long or legalistic or technical that the regular person, living a normal life (an average mechanic, in the field, under combat conditions) cannot grasp it?

Pastor Rob encouraged us all to devote a little time to thinking about our personal testimonies. The Bible tells us to “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3: 15 NIV) and, really, we should each be able to answer, from our own experience….and in a few minutes (2 minutes being the ideal).

Have a great week

On Sunday we heard a testimony from Paul Craven.  It was so good to hear about how God had knocked and KNOCKED until Paul heard Him and responded.  Following that Pastor Karen shared a very valuable reminder that “It’s all about Jesus”… and as always the message is available on www.beachway.com.au

It is all about Jesus

Let’s just reflect on those words for a moment…

There is a story told about a farmer that attracted a wild goose into the pen of his domesticated geese by setting out attractive looking feed.  One day the wild goose landed and ate some of the feed, soon he was eating the feed regularly and within one season, the wild goose had become quite plump and had “forgotten” how to fly.  By the end of the next season, the formerly wild goose would stand in the pen and stare longingly at the wild geese flying overhead.

Are we not sometimes like that??

When we take our eyes…our focus, off Jesus, then we too can become trapped, we too can “forget” that we were not designed to be weighed down by the cares of life, but we ARE set free…free of the hold and stain of sin, free of condemnation, free to live in relationship with our Creator, free to look to eternity.

Let’s put our focus back where it belongs, back on Jesus, the son of God, our Saviour….the pure sacrifice that laid down His life to pay my debt (and yours…in full), the victorious Son that rose from the grave.

Have a great week,

This past Sunday, I had the privilege of sharing the message.  And, as per usual, the sound desk team did their magic, so that the message is available on www.beachway.com.au under Media (along with all the recent and past messages).

The theme of the message was ”Audacity augments courage; hesitation, fear” (quoted from Publilius Syrus – a 1^st Century Roman author) .  In simpler terms…hesitation allows room in which fear can grow.  I wanted to focus on how we can overcome that hesitation and fear.

1 John 4:18 – ”Perfect love casts out fear” is commonly quoted scripture when people express their fears.

It has often struck me how God shows us something of Himself in normal family relationships.  The example that He showed me when I was preparing this message was that of a young child, 3 or 4 years old, waking from a nightmare…in the middle of night, drenched in sweat, eyes wide open, perhaps uttering a scream as he sits bolt upright in his little bed.

Does that child want to hear about how perfect love casts out fear?  No, they do not…they want to be held by someone they trust, someone that they know is safe, someone who is bigger and stronger than anything….

That scripture says that perfect love casts out fear and it is true, but the power lies not in the words of the scripture, but in the relationship. God is perfect love and the way that He casts out fear in our lives is if we let him…if we spend time with Him, daily, time in the Word, getting to know Him…training ourselves to recognise His voice, His prompting and filling ourselves with the knowledge of the Word.

When you know God like this, then you will have no hesitation in doing what He asks you to do and when we do that, we can often see things happen that FAR exceed the simple action that we were asked to perform.

Have a great week

PS: As a footnote to the message, let me add that the hook did actually get removed from the Pelican’s leg, later that same morning

This will be the last Beachway Blokes blog for 2011, it has been a great year and I count it a priviledge and an honour to have been given the opportunity to write these blogs.

This Sunday Daniel Harvey preached a very insightful and thought provoking sermon on “Honour”.  As always, the faithful sounddesk and website team have done their magic and the sermon can be downloaded from the Podcast Feed.

There are many messages shared at this time of the year…wonderful messages on the birth of our Saviour, Jesus of Nazareth, brilliant messages on preparing ourselves and inspiring messages on social justice.  All I will add to these messages is an encouragement to all of us.

Let’s go out of our way to honour the name of Jesus during this Christmas season, to honour the reason for His birth, to honour the brilliance and majesty and gentleness and sheer love…that He would become human to give us the greatest gift ever…forgiveness and eternal life with Him.

What better gift could there be?

Have a great week

BEACH HOUSE  FIX n CLEAN     

JANUARY 18     6-9pm

To keep our Beach House the best centre in Perth and a great facility for our Beachway Kidz, we need your help.  

Wednesday 18^th January   6pm – 9pm is the next evening you can be part of this.

See all the details here.

Dinner will be served during the night.   

We need lots of guys this time to do many repairs. 

Bring along the whole family.  There will still be plenty for everyone to do and it’s loads of fun. 

Please put in your diaries now as a not to be missed event

On Sunday, we heard a fantastic message from Lynette Tobin, titled “Looking at barrenness through the eyes of faith”.

In this message, she described a shrub that had the appearance of being dead…and as she reached the point of wanting to rip it up and throw it away, it suddenly burst into bloom. It was pointed out that an attitude of acceptance towards barrenness, accepting the negative…the evidence of our eyes (which is the opposite of faith) can lead us to miss seeing the promise, the tiny buds…the life and the stirrings behind the scenes.

This reminds me of an egg, any bird egg (but for the purposes of illustration, let’s look at a chicken egg)….an egg holds the promise of life, but to all outward appearances is inanimate. We cannot tell by looking at it whether it is fertilised or not (barren). A hen will sit on those eggs for 21 days, waiting for the chicks to hatch, 21 days is a really long time for a creature that only lives for about 5 years…the equivalent for us would be almost a year.

Can we sit patiently, not taking matters into our own hands, just waiting…for a year, for a promise to be fulfilled?

Job 12:7 – 10 Even birds and animals have much they could teach you; ask the creatures of earth and sea for their wisdom.

All of them know that the LORD’s hand made them. It is God who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone’s life is in his power.

So, let me encourage you to hold on to the promises that God has made….hold on, stay the course and look through whatever barrenness is confronting you, with the eyes of faith.

Have a great week

Respect and Dignity

These two words were a common thread throughout Dr Keith Farmer’s message on Sunday morning. Great words encompassing a wonderful ideal….and touching on some of our most important human needs.

In striving to live like Jesus, treating others with respect and dignity is vital, just like He did, in dealing with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4).

Dignity because there is no scale to sin, no major or minor sins. The Bible tells us that all have sinned and fallen short…

Respect because that person is God’s creation, just like I am…

When Jesus treated the Samaritan woman with respect and dignity, He reached into the place of her deepest needs and was readily accepted. He did not condemn and He did not compromise….and He shared the truth and many were saved.

Have a great week, living like Jesus

On Sunday Pastor Rob continued the Holy Spirit series, focussing on the “Gifts of the Spirit”.

The sermon is available online and you can either select Audio for the Podcast or Sermons for the Audio, plus the sermon notes and Scriptural references.

There are a number of these gifts described in the New Testament, primarily in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4 and each of us should seek to identify the gifts that we have and the gifts others have. When we know what our gifting is (and the gifting of the people around us), we are able to be quite effective for the Kingdom.

BUT…the thing that should always be remembered about this gifts, is that they are meant to be used…to be a vehicle and not a badge. For example, if I tell people how hospitable I am, but actually never invite anyone into my home, then my actions will show my words to be untrue….but if I am inviting people into my home because that is one of my gifts, then I don’t need to tell people about it…my actions will show my gifting.

Pastor Rob described this view on gifts of Holy Spirit so well, by referring to them as tools in a toolbox, that are right there and ready to be used. Tools get all rusty and horrible when they are left, unused, in a toolbox…but when the tools are used, they gleam and work and the person using them gets familiar with them and eventually quite skilled. Each of us has “a set of tools” and with those tools (and some knowledge of how to use them), we can play our part in the marvellous things that God, our Creator is doing.

So, this week, let’s ask Holy Spirit to reveal to us (if we don’t already know) what our giftings are and then let’s embrace those giftings and start to use them.

Have a great week

On Sunday, Pastor Rob continued the series on Holy Spirit, focussing on connection leading to direction. As usual, the audio message and notes are available for download.

I would like to begin this week’s blog with a quote from Tim Downs “Watches, cars and Christians can all look chromed and shiny. But watches don’t tick, cars don’t go and Christians don’t make a difference without insides. For a Christian, that’s the Holy Spirit.”

For us to make a difference…for us to truly be effective in the kingdom, we HAVE TO have that connection with Holy Spirit. The connection that Pastor Rob spoke on, on Sunday morning….the connection that only comes through relationship. The connection that allows us to discern the difference the voice of the deceiver, our own thoughts and the gentle promptings from Holy Spirit.

From that connection, comes the direction…the quiet, gentle whisper, the word of knowledge, the vision, the prayer or the action. Sometimes these directions may seem odd or “out there”, but they are ALWAYS worth following.

As an illustration – Many years ago, a guy had (as an extremely frequent flyer) amassed enough airline points to get 2 return flights to Europe and he and his wife had begun idly dabbling with the idea of an overseas holiday. Holy Spirit prompted him, quite clearly, that a certain young couple needed those flights. His reaction “Aw, man…”, but he followed through and gave the tickets to this young couple.

The young couple believed that they had been called to a seaborne missionary life, aimed at using boats to reach people groups that were otherwise unreachable…and to get involved they had to get to Europe. They had been praying and trusting God and were beginning to doubt their call, when the guy and his wife arrived and handed them two plane tickets. The young couple now have their own vessel and are about to launch into a missionary life. Many lives have already been touched, affected and changed in this process and many more will be in future…

In case you were wondering, the frequent flyer guy and his wife (and their kids) did get a overseas holiday, a few years later.

Let’s end with a prayer written by John Baillie:

“O Holy Spirit of God, abide with us; inspire all our thoughts; pervade our imaginations; suggest all our decisions; order all our doings. Be with us in our silence and in our speech, in our haste and in our leisure, in company and in solitude, in the freshness of the morning and in the weariness of the evening; and give us grace at all times humbly to rejoice in your mysterious companionship.”

On Sunday Pastor Rob preached on “Grieving the Holy Spirit”. If you were not able to make it or would like to have a second listen, then simply go to the Sermon page.

I believe that there is a unique way that we as men, more specifically as fathers, can grieve Holy Spirit.

Deuteronomy 6: 1 – 7 tells us that we should love the Lord our God with everything, keeping His commands AND that we should teach them to our children. Proverbs 22: 6 tells us to train our children and Ephesians 6: 4 gives us some directions on how to do so.

Many studies have shown that children learn far more by observation than they do from being told. We, as earthly fathers should be modelling not only our faith to our children (and others) but we should also be modelling our Heavenly Father to them.

If our children see that reading the Bible, prayer, worship, attending church are important to us, then it becomes important to them, but if we SAY that church is important and then find any excuse to avoid it….they realise pretty quickly, that our actions are proving our words to be untrue and then church becomes unimportant to them too and this applies to prayer, reading our Bibles, etc.

Similarly, if we model harsh discipline or negativity, then that is often how our kids will perceive God. I love the way Ephesians 6: 4 is stated in the King James Version Bible “ And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” The verse tells us to model a life that they would want to follow and speaks both of nurturing and discipline (admonition).

As fathers, we have the incredible privilege of imitating the Father aspect of God to our children, but this is also a great responsibility. So, this week let’s seek the guidance of Holy Spirit, embrace this great responsibility and privilege and be the men that our children…our families, need us to be.

Have a great week.

On Sunday, it was Pastor Rob’s 50th birthday.

A number of people honoured him for his character, behaviour and impact in their lives. Paster Karen delivered a short message on life lessons that she has learned from Rob. The outstanding message was a message of modelling the Christian life to others in a daily walk with God, in generosity, fun, courage, grace, forgiveness and in trying always to see the best in others.

What is it that each of us would like someone to say about us, at a milestone birthday?? More importantly, what is that each of us would like to hear God say to or about us at that ultimate of milestones….Judgement day??

Let me encourage you this week, to think and pray about the answer to that question and then to rise to challenge and live the life that achieves that desire.

On Sunday Pastor Rob preached a message that was challenging and at the same time exciting and thought provoking.

The message is available as an audio file (or Podcast).

The title of the message was “Unstoppable” and one of the key points was the statement made by Jesus “I will build My Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matt. 16: 18).  Christianity has grown from about 120 followers just after the death of Jesus, to over 2 billion, representing about a third of the world population (Wikipedia reference)…so, unstoppable is a very good word to use.

But, if we take that word “unstoppable” and we look at ourselves….does it still apply??  Can we honestly call the expression of our faith in our daily lives unstoppable??  In myself, I know that I would like to, but if I am honest then I’m not always so sure….

It is frighteningly easy to get sucked into things that slowly rob us…things that if left undetected and unopposed will “stop” us and lead us into times and places where our faith and the expression of it could become a real struggle.  We can choose to cultivate things like love, joy, patience, kindness, faithfulness, self-control and become “unstoppable” or we can to allow the opposite to take over our lives and get “stopped”, nullified, made ineffective.

So, this week, let me encourage you to cling to the spiritual disciplines…put on the armour of God, be consumed by the Holy Spirit and Live Like JESUS

On Sunday morning Nicky Sculthorpe preached a very practical and insightful message. The message that she shared was about Spiritual Warfare and focussed on “The armour of God” as described in Eph 6: 10 -17.

There is one word that is repeated four times in this passage….STAND

In June of 1989 a single (and still anonymous) man stood in front of a column of Chinese tanks. This was the day after the famous Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing.

This man, walked out into the street, alone…and placed himself in front of the column of four tanks. The tanks tried to drive around him, but he simply stepped in front of them again….. It did not take long before the tank commander in the lead tank, shut down the engines (and the other tanks followed suit).

Silence descended onto a street that only moments before had been shuddering under the clanking roar of four mighty war machines….silence brought about by the actions of one man…puny in comparison to his opposition and yet determined.

The photograph of this incident is world famous and won a World Press Award as well as being featured in Life magazines “100 Photographs That Changed The World”.

Most of us will never be exposed to a situation like this…in the physical world. But in the spiritual world, we will sometimes have to face battles, trials or temptations that feel huge, mighty and powerful…like a big tank rolling towards us, times that cause us to feel helpless, lost or inadequate. We know that these moments will come and we know that we should be prepared for these times…and when they do come, it is that moment, that the Bible not only tells us to STAND, but also how to stand against the “devils evil tricks”….because if we submit ourselves to God and resist the devil, he WILL flee (James 4: 7).

Finally, if you are in the battle, if you are struggling to stand….please know that you are NOT alone.

If you make your need known, then there are people that are willing come alongside you and stand with you in prayer.

Have a great week

This Sunday, Pastor Rob completed the Marketplace Ministry message that he began last weekend.

Pastor Rob concluded the sermon with a quote “the church has left the building”….and that leads to a question that each of us needs to answer honestly to ourselves before any effective Marketplace Ministry can really take place.  That question is “has the church left the building?”…

In our minds, in our perceptions, in the way we actually live our lives, in the ways that we make decisions, deal with irritations and disappointments….has the church left the building?  Is our faith something that exists and is used and fed into on Sundays only….or does it get carried through into Monday, Tuesday, etc.  Do we still believe in and live for the same things on Thursday afternoon, as we do on Sunday morning?

An authentic faith lived out in a life in the marketplace, is irresistible….like the lamp mentioned in Matthew 5:15 “a lamp placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house”.   People will almost always look at what you do…how you live, rather than what you say.  “Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions.  You may have a heart of gold – but so does a hard-boiled egg.”  ~Author Unknown.

So, let’s get the church OUT of the building…and live like Jesus

On Sunday morning Pastor Rob preached on the concept of Marketplace ministry, using the life of Daniel to illustrate a number of points.

Each of us has a sphere of influence, a place where we interact with other people, a place where we chat to other people…and THIS is where we should be ministers, this is where we should be seen to be “in the world, but not of the world”.   Very few of us are called to be Pastors or preachers, but all of us are called to share the Gospel.   1 Peter 3: 15 in the NIV Bible says “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect”.

I once read a fantastic piece of advice in regards to this, written by Bill Hybels.  Each Christian should have a 2 minute testimony, ready to go…ready to answer this question when it is asked.  He suggestion was to take some time (like one evening) and write it out, you probably don’t need to memorise it ‘cos you already know the story, but it makes sense to have an effective answer ready.  A brief concise answer from personal experience (a testimony) as to why you are a follower of Jesus….

So….here is a challenge for this week – not to go and “Bible-bash” someone, but to be prepared to recognise the moment and then to respond when the moment is right…when Holy Spirit has made a way for you to tell someone your testimony, to tell someone about the hope that you have in Jesus.

Blessings

On Sunday morning, Janine Kubala preached a thought provoking sermon on “Words that build your world”.

The main focus was that words can bring life or words can bring death….words can shape how people view themselves and the effect of words can help to expand or limit a person’s potential.

How is this relevant to us, the men??

Driving home yesterday, I was listening to a sermon by Graham Cooke and in this sermon he was describing the moment when an infant takes their first step.  The father sees the baby pulling itself upright on a piece of furniture and standing on chubby, somewhat wobbly legs.  The infant is about to take their first step….

What does the father do??

Almost universally, the father will bend down to the child’s level, throw his arms open wide and say “C’mon, come to Daddy.  You can do it.  C’mon” with a huge smile on his face.

What is the reaction of the infant??

He sees his father ENCOURAGING him, calling out to him, BELIEVING in him and….he takes his first tentative step, followed by another…staggering and wobbling towards his father, who he trusts completely.

Now, imagine (if you will) the same scenario, but after one or two wobbly steps and the typical fall, the father stands up and in disgust says “Agh, this child is useless…he will never be able to walk on those legs.”  Can you feel, as you read this, the devastation sown by those words??  “My father does not believe in me….I can’t do, I’ll never be able to do it”.

Many of us would be horrified if we heard or saw a father do something like this…and yet, there are times when we might do exactly that…to a teenager (in a moment of frustration), to a colleague, to a spouse, to ourselves….

The Bible speaks of a powerful horse being controlled by a tiny bit (in its mouth) and a mighty ship being controlled by a tiny rudder (hidden underneath the water) as examples of how much power our tongues can have.

So, this week, let me encourage you to strive towards words that build your world, words that build into those around you….and see the good, the growth that can come from this aspect of living like Jesus.

Blessings