The Holy Spirit.

Cannot be manufactured
Cannot be conjured up
Cannot be produced
Cannot be faked
Cannot be created
Cannot be taken
Will not be taken away
It can be grieved

Is Gods awesome presence which is given Once and for always

2 Cor 1:21-22
²¹ Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, ²² set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

John 14: 15 -17
¹⁵ “If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth.

Ephesians 1:11 – 14
¹¹ In him we were also chosen,having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, ¹² in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. ¹³ And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

Whats Church

Joh 13:14 -
Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.

Joh 13:34 -
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Joh 13:35 -
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Ro 12:10 -
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves.

Ro 12:16 -
Live in harmony with one another.

Ro 13:8 -
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

Ro 14:13 -
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. .

Ro 15:7 -
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

Ro 16:16 – 1Co 16:20 – 2Co 13:12 -
Greet one another with a holy kiss.

1Co 1:10 -
I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.

Ga 5:13 -
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.

Eph 4:2 -
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Eph 4:32 -
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Eph 5:19 -
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,

Eph 5:21 -
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Col 3:13 -
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Col 3:16 -
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

1Th 5:11 -
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up

Heb 3:13 -
But encourage one another daily,

Heb 10:24 -
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Heb 10:25 -
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Jas 4:11 -
Brothers, do not slander one another.

1Pe 1:22 -
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

1Pe 3:8 -
Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.

1Pe 4:9 -
Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.

1Pe 5:5 -
All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another

1Pe 5:14 -
Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

1Jo 1:7 -
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

1Jo 3:11 -
This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

1Jo 3:23 -
And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

1Jo 4:7 -
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

1Jo 4:11 -
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1Jo 4:12 -
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

2Jo 1:5 -
I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.

That’s CHURCH!

Get your Worship Mojo Back!

I have now been worship leader at my church for about 2 months having led at various intervals prior to this.

I was and still am excited to be in the position and to be able to use my Gifts for God. But over the Christmas period a couple of things have occurred which have sapped me of my mojo, and left me feeling a little deflated.

The usual excitement I felt about preparing set lists and practice has all but vanished and I know I need to get it back.

I need to get back to the point where God is in control and no matter what anyone says or does about my worship style or my song choice or even about the songs themselves.  What others think is nowhere near as important as what God thinks. I should not look for Mans approval which also means that I should not be worried when there is a little negativity.  I need to learn to Concentrate on God and remember that worship is all about him and not me or about someone’s view-point. It’s about giving back to God acknowledging his awesomeness!

I need to spend time with him, one of the issues has been exhaustion. I lead at at least 3 services during the week sometimes 4, I prep songs the day before each service, and try to practice and somewhere I have to find time to learn new stuff , and over the last few months I have spent less and less time with God in prayer about it all, about what he wants. Spending Time with him is vital to keeping weariness at bay.

I need to make sure that I am spending ample time with my family. Cause I work 5 days as well as lead it has had a negative impact on my family life. I know that I need to spend more time with them, my wife and I now have a fortnightly date night which has been amazing and is doing wonders for our relationship but I also need to make sure that my children are happy and spend time with them they need quality time with me and I need quality time with them. I don’t believe for one moment that God would want me to do this thing it was detrimental to my relationships.

If if keep to these simple ideals then I am pretty sure I’ll get my mojo back.

If you lead worship

A- How do you get your mojo back

B- what measures do you take to make sure that you don’t loose you mojo?

Glorious but without glory.

I was challenged recently about the Birth Of Jesus in particular about the lines in a song picked for Christmas this year – Joy Has Dawned.

Joy has dawned upon the world
Promised from creation
God’s salvation now unfurled
Hope for every nation
Not with fanfares from above
Not with scenes of glory
But a humble gift of love
Jesus born of Mary

I was informed that the Lines: “Not with fanfares from above” & “Not with scenes of glory” were in fact incorrect and that the song indeed contradicted its self in the second verse. This is something that I strongly disagreed with.

When I selected this song as one of the possibilities for new Christmas songs I read and re-read the story of Jesus’ Birth Several times over and various other scriptures relating to the birth.

When Jesus was born he was born in a stable after searching for somewhere else to stay. his birth was far from that of the King of Kings we know him to be, which for me is one of the points.
Jesus HAD to be born as humbly as possible without fanfares or any scenes of glory, they were to come later.If Jesus Had been born with bells ringing, Angels singing and fanfares then his birth would have been far from humble.
God could have chosen that moment to part the heavens and send legions of angels and doves and say

“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

but he didn’t, He chose to not reveal himself in those first moments of Jesus birth. He chose to reveal all later in Jesus’ baptism by John.

The Story of Jesus birth goes on to tell us that AFTER Jesus’ Birth the Angels appeared to the shepherds the angels tell the Shepherds
“Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”   Luke 2:11

Notice the wording ” A saviour HAS been born to you.” Again for me the context is important. God chose to send the angels to the shepherds After Jesus had been birthed. It is also at this moment that Angels filled the sky and gave Glory to God.
This was still not in Bethlehem but was on the hillside nearby with the shepherds.  (Luke 2:10-15)

For me the lyrics are 100% correct. At the Moment Jesus was Birthed there was no singing there was no fanfare and no glory. IT was the moment when Gods Plan became a reality, the moment that humanity was saved, the moment when God and the Angels probably realised that this IS going to Happen. Gods Only Son was going to be Born a man, was going to live on earth as a Man, was going to be tempted as a man and was ultimately going to die as a man. That moment of Jesus Birthing probably felt like an Age in Heaven.

(you can read Stuart Townend’s explanation here)

Lyrics: Joy Has Dawned.

Joy has dawned upon the world
Promised from creation
God’s salvation now unfurled
Hope for every nation
Not with fanfares from above
Not with scenes of glory
But a humble gift of love
Jesus born of Mary

Sounds of wonder fill the sky
With the songs of angels
As the mighty Prince of Life
Shelters in a stable
Hands that set each star in place
Shaped the earth in darkness
Cling now to a mother’s breast
Vulnerable and helpless

Shepherds bow before the Lamb
Gazing at the glory
Gifts of men from distant lands
Prophesy the story
Gold a King is born today
Incense God is with us
Myrrh His death will make a way
And by His blood He’ll win us

Son of Adam Son of heaven
Given as a ransom
Reconciling God and man
Christ our mighty Champion!
What a Saviour what a Friend
What a glorious mystery
Once a babe in Bethlehem
Now the Lord of history

Stuart Townend & Keith Getty
Copyright © Thankyou Music 2004

Hello!!

Hi All

Jusst though i drop a quick note.

I am still around and am still visiting other Blogs. I still intend to blog but currently am very busy with Church stuff and Work, but should be back to normal soon.

In the mean time I hope you enjoy this video!

check it out

Check out t’wife’s intellectual post about how you don’t need to be intelligent….

 God isn’t interested in the letters after your name

Good job!

If only i could Give like this!

This is an amazing video.

What this world Needs..

On a recent trip to Blackpool Illuminations I was left more than a little disappointed. One of the main reasons that I loved the illuminations was because of the Jesus Light of the world illumination. (possibly the only reason I loved the illuminations….other than the endless sitting in traffic of course!)

But this year This particular light was missing and had been replaced with a happy Diwali light ( no problem with this!)

Again this weekend I watched Songs of Praise ( i must be getting old) and was left very disappointed when on one particular hymn  – How great thou Art – the verse referring to Christ was edited out!! and through the whole episode Jesus was not mentioned once , there were plenty of references to God and to Love but they felt mostly generic.

The Clue here folks is in what we call ourselves ….CHRISTians, Christ is the foundation of our belief, this country used to declare itself a Christian country and here we are finding ourselves afraid of proclaiming the name of Jesus on even the most religious of TV program’s, where the name of Jesus is banned from Schools and where any declaration of our faith in the work place can result in the sack!!

Is it any wonder that our country is in the mess its in, I’m not blaming the whole financial crisis and associated mess, the social decline  on the nations godlessness… but it certainly wont have helped!!!

We have become a nation were the desire for stuff and money has overtaken any other desires, where the desire to have the next big thing is what is exciting our hearts. God is so much better than the next I-phone or the next televisual revelation , he is so much bigger than Apple or Sony.

God has so much stored up for us that we cant even begin to imagine what he is going to do…He is just waiting for us to ask!! waiting for us to turn to him and away from the god of stuff.

halloween…….not for me!

If you read this blog the then chances are your a Christian and you will have heard many arguments for and against Halloween. so I am not going to go into details of the rights and wrongs.

As christians we have a duty to God to protect the spiritual and to me celebrating evil spirits witches and what have you, just feels wrong. Lets be honest… yes its a bit of fun and at the end of the day its your personal choice but i don’t celebrate any other “pagan” festivals, as such, I mean i dont go out dancing for the summer or winter solstice or any of the equinox’s

To be even more honest, I am not even sure of the roots of the Halloween festival, indeed in my tiny bit of research for this post it’s not exactly 100% clear

 

All i really have to say is that it’s not something i partake in or want to be involved with or even want my children involved with…its just not for me!!

 

 

God bless!!

 

Christian Books….

PLEASE PLEASE! don’t get me wrong I don’t think there is anything wrong with Christians writing or reading  Books!!!!

But I feel that there is an inherant danger in them and this is from experiance.

There are a lot of very very good christian books out there and i could recommend a few!! but why I feel there is a danger is that we can become obssessed about books.

From Experiance!

I fairly recently read The Cross and the Switchblade closely followed by Run Baby Run both of with are great books but I did have to cathc my self when i started thinking things like ….We should be doing this or Why arent we out doing this type of work!!

My wife even more recently read the to book and is something of a book worm so had read a couple of other books in a very short space of time, shee also found herself getting ahead of God.

Another person who I know very well and love very much reads a lot of books from one particular Christian author and many a time I hear her saying things like “well so and so says this ” or so and so says that”

And there in lies the danger..

We can become focused on what the books say and are about or what is going on in other places and lose focus of what God is telling YOU!,what GOD is teaching your church and lose sight of the good works your church is doing.

Trust God, trust Jesus and  trust his Holy spirit to guide you.

 

God Bless!

 

By the way I really would recommend The Cross and the Switch blade and Run Baby Run but read them in that order!!