Secret places are the most holy places too.

First, let me lay some scripture down for this:

“Across the inside of the Tabernacle, hang a special curtain made of fine linen, with cherubim skilfully embroidered into the cloth using blue, purple and scarlet yarn. Hang this inner curtain on gold hooks set into four posts made from acacia wood and overlaid with gold. the posts will fit into silver bases. When the inner curtain is in place, put the Ark of the Covenant behind it. This curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.” Exodus 27:31-33

“At that moment, the curtain of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart...” Matthew 27:51

“The curtain in the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.” Mark 15:38

“The light from the sun was gone. And suddenly, the thick veil hanging in the Temple was torn apart.” Luke 23:46

Plus here is a few facts about this curtain: It was 10 metres tall by 20 metres wide, and was a thickness of approx 8 centimetres. It weighed about 4 to 6 tonnes and needed about 300 priests to carry it into place. It is said that two teams of oxen pulling in the opposite direction could not tear this curtain. This curtain was a whole lot different to the one found in your bedroom, it was more like the curtain found at a theatre to separate the stage from the audience, and a whole lot thicker than those!

And what’s my point of all this you ask? When Jesus was crucified and took all the sin of human kind upon him, atoning it once-and-for-all, and crushing his last breath out of his body - this amazing event took place over in the Temple at the same time; a curtain tore from top-to-bottom.

What is so important about this, that three of the four gospels recorded it?

Here is a simple answer. Intimacy.

Jesus was the final atonement, the final sacrifice, the final lamb to spill it’s blood - He was grace put into human form, to end the division between God and his people - and God was showing us the most incredible thing. “I want to dwell in intimacy with you, anyplace, anytime.”

This curtain you see, was a division from The Holy Place, and The Most Holy Place. It was a division which created a room where the Ark of the Covenant and God’s presence dwelt, and only once a year the high priest would go to atone the sins of Israel. His presence was so strong that the priest would have to go in their with a rope tied around his leg so that the other priests could pull him out.

By the act of God tearing the curtain (and I say God, because the curtain tore from top to bottom, so if you read those facts about this curtain again, you will realise how impossible it would be for a group of humans to have done it this way) God was showing human kind that He no longer would just dwell behind the curtain, separated from the defiled, sinful people. He would instead be intimate and involved with every person, because the sacrifice to make everyone holy had just happened.

And here is my point. Even the most secret places, are God’s most holiest places.

We defile our secret places by what we do in them, yet here’s the scary bit: the intimate, all-seeing, all-knowing, omnipresent God... was there also.

It turns out our secret places aren’t really that secret huh?

Our God is not just a God of intimacy when we gather for a church meeting, He is also a God of intimacy when we are chatting online, watching DVDs, reading Asterix comics, masturbating, listening to music, studying, writing blogs, day-dreaming, playing sport, gossiping, drawing, looking at things we should be looking at - and looking at things we shouldn’t... I think you get the drift...

God is a God of intimacy, I pray you have a revelation of what God’s intimacy really looks like, and what this miracle of the Temple curtain tearing means to you right now as you sit here reading this and pondering on it.

Persecution moment.

“Persecution comes when you live outside the box of conformity Dan.” - The Holy Spirit.

I was just praying for the persecuted church (we had a representative of Open Doors come to church last night and share with us about it, so it’s conviction is still hot on my heart) and the Holy Spirit gave me those words once I finished. Talk about a bit of an un-comfortable moment.

Do I live outside the box of conformity enough? Does my light shine from outside of the conformed culture in this country, or is it stuffed away under some bucket. Is my salt flavourless and dull, or is it still preserving what Jesus did for each and every person in this world.

When I was praying for the persecuted church just before, I grasped a sense of how genuine and sold-out these people are in their faith, it truly was a convicting moment, we don’t even know the meaning of the word “radical” compared to what their faith looks like.

One election down. One to go.

Obama is in. Will Clark be out? I am starting to hit panic mode as our election draws closer, and my frantic research is getting harder as the water seems to become more and more murkier. 

Does anyone even know what morals are anymore? It seems to me to all be about owning or selling things, and it is making it hard to get to a decision, cause each has it's pro's and con's.

I don't want to waste my vote, but it is so hard to make it count! Back to reading about all this shenanigan we call our election...

Tattoo blog comment

Here's something I wrote on a friends blog, he was asking about Christians take on tattoos, and here is what my answer was:

“Paul writes in Romans (I particular Romans 7, but in a lot of this book he is covering this topic) about how we are not bound to the Law anymore, however, that the Law still points out sin. I wish I had studied into this before I got my tattoos. Paul talks about how Jesus broke the power that sin has on our lives in that we now have life, not death as the punishment for breaking the Law (Praise Jesus!) but he also then says how the Law itself has not been abolished, just the penalty of breaking it has been.

Leviticus, is a book that points out one thing. God wants his people to be set apart from the rest of culture. He wants a group of people who are holy. (Leviticus 19:2) So, when he said not to cut hair, or get tattoos, or eat a pork Subway, he is asking the tribes to do one thing. Be set apart - be different and be holy.

In getting your tattoos, will you be setting yourself apart for holiness, or joining the ranks of sin. That's a good question to ask Josh before you go ahead and do it.

Hope that gets your Bible pages flicking and your brain turning...”

Obey

To listen click here

My conviction - I should obey God’s commandments not just because I am the youth leader, but because I love God.

1. Obedience is part of a cycle - Deuteronomy 5 and 6
The ten commandments are more than just a nice, moral teaching for Sunday School, or a good idea for a bookmark to buy at a Christian book store.

Breakdown: God who knows all lays down a Commandment for our benefit > We choose whether to obey it > We verb the obey (do or do not) > Consequence.

• God who knows all - Outside of time, outside of hindsight, above situations, always seeing the bigger picture


• We choose - Obedience is an act of submission - an act of saying “OK, you know better.”


• Verb it - Obedience mobilises the bigger strategy


• Consequence - Award or the disaster, the award ceremony or the shipwreck.

2. The Commandments can’t be made smaller, but they unpack larger - Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28

Jesus bought the “moral” commandments back to being “heart attitudes”

Out of anger comes violence, wars, murders...
Out of adultery comes unwanted children, comes broken homes, separated families...

Jesus is saying here, “You are so careful to not murder, to be seen breaking this law with your flesh, but I say what is your heart doing? What is the secret place up to? Cause this is where it all starts.”

3. Today’s offer on the table with grace for dessert - Romans 6, 7 and 8
In these chapters, Paul beautifully collides the Law of Moses with the Grace of God and shows us what’s on the table for today.

It’s important to realise that the 10 Commandments are not irrelevant today. Jesus stating he did not come to abolish the law - Matthew 5:17-20

Growth.

Yesterday during my daily Bible reading I do with Gab, I discovered (discover - to become aware of a fact or situation) a wonderful chapter on growth that Paul wrote about. However, it isn't really headed up as a chapter on growth, so it was a revelation of something I wasn't even looking for. I love it when the Holy Spirit does that :)

1 Corinthians 3 has an overlying theme of growth and I will show you why. 

1. Paul stresses to us that we are meant to grow. He refers to how the diet of the Corinthians was still one of milk, rather than the solid food that they should be on by now. Just like a diet for a child changes as they grow, our diet as Christians is meant to grow. He refers to them as being infants, and I kind of get the sense that he is saying, "Come one guys... I thought you would have been bigger than this by now!" Paul is stressing that growth is meant to happen. If it is not, there is something wrong. We are stinted somewhere.
2. That we have a choice to how strong we grow. In verses 10-12, Paul wonderfully explains how the foundation of our faith is Jesus Christ. Think about this for a second, it's not the Church, it's not another leader in the church... it's completely, rock-solidly, never changing, forever will be, Jesus Christ. He is the foundation. It's then up to us as to what we build on that. In verse 12, he says that we have the building materials of gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay or straw. I had one massive thought at this point... "How many times do we build with straw, when we should actually be building with gold? Do we build with the effort and care required to build a golden temple with our faith, or do we just throw some sticks together and some straw over the top and call that our temple of our faith." In verse 16 and 17, Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit lives in us. Well, what kind of temple have you built for the Holy Spirit to dwell in? Is it a straw hut? Or is it a golden palace... 
3. Paul clearly states that our growth is our responsibility. Not our pastor, not our favourite authors, not the podcasts we listen to, the blogs we read... it is not their responsibility for me to grow. It is mine. Throughout chapter 3, Paul is saying this to the people of Corinth, and I love how the chapter closes. "So don't take pride in following a particular leader. Everything belongs to you: Paul and Apollos and Peter; the whole world and life and death; the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God." It's like he is saying... "You have everything you need to change this world. Do it. Full charge ahead. Why? Because everyone is equal, we are all part of this incredible Creation of God, all on the same playing field. Jesus is our foundation, and God is our Father. No one is above or below in Christ, some of us just take the job at hand a bit more seriously than others..."

Those where my thoughts anyway :) Hope that blesses you in some way.

Oh! One last thought, the foundation which is Jesus is always there. You don't need to build it, because it already happened when He got on the cross and rose from the grave. That was his foundation for you, it's called grace. As Paul wrote in Romans, even before we deserved it, Christ died for us. 

All of our foundations need to be expanded however, and I don't mean that they need to grow, I mean through revelation of Christ, we need to uncover the overgrowth of sin and the Fall that is on that foundation, revealing to us more and more about Christ and thus increasing the area of useable foundation we can start to build on.

Man, what a write. I'm poofed. What do you guys think?

Listening.

There is something to be said about Jesus' attitude towards his day-to-day business. Always listening to the Father and what He is doing must have been tricky at times, but time and time again he responds after hearing the Father's prompting. 

Last night, we had one of those moments. 

We had an "On the Couch" testimony night, where people would come and sit on the couch and tell us what God has been up to. One girl got up, said a sentence, and it was along the line of  "I don't want to live anymore." After which, she put her head in her hands and sat there. The room went dead quiet, but it was one of those moments, where the Father whispered, "I want this pain to end. Let's do something about it."

So we prayed for her, people in the room giving her wonderful words from God and prayers of healing where poured over her, we spoke freedom over her in the name of Jesus and an end to the pain that was torturing her body. She left last night a different person to who came in and I am looking forward to seeing her progress onwards.

Listening to the Father's voice sometimes doesn't happen until everything goes quiet, but I am striving for an ear to hear even when noise is raging. 

Book overload

I am currently trying to work my way through so many books, here is my current list of on-the-goers:

1. 1 Corinthians - Paul the Apostle
2. Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller
3. Jesus came to save Christians - Rob Bell
4. Leadership Gold - John C. Maxwell
5. Death by Love - Mark Driscoll
6. Purity - A new moral revolution - Kris Vallotton

Its a great mix of inspiring, challenging and equipping.

High.

I sit at my computer today, still on cloud nine as to what has happened over the last few days at out national conference, Influence.

The presence of God was so thick, that it was harder to not hear Him speaking to me about the worship than it was to hear him. Crazy awesome.

I have a couple of points I have been thinking about in regard to the worship that I led over the last few days and the workshop I took on it.

1. It is not a bad thing to prepare and aim for excellence. We put a lot of effort into the worship - spiritually, musically and graphically. It was all to minimise distraction and increase effectiveness with what we were trying to achieve. 
2. Looking back helps us look forward. We pulled out plenty of golden oldies for the conference, but we also balanced it with brand new songs. Conference is a time to almost "showcase" the new songs that are working in our churches, we pulled out a lot of celebration and outward-looking songs because when we looked back, we realised we don't do those well. By looking back, we saw our previous weaknesses. We looked back even further into Church history and pulled out hymns too to really get the place going. All I can say about the night we did Holy, Holy, Holy is "...                 ."
3. Cultural diversity brings a smorgasbord of creativity. We had an American middle-aged woman on keyboard, a middle-aged Pacific-Islander on bass and BVs, a young, white, jazz-student drummer, an even younger and whiter bass player for the mornings, a young adult, white male on electric guitar, a middle-aged mum on flute and BVs and myself on gat and lead vocal... and when we all put our bit in there, angels came. I'm not kidding. Froly Horn came up to me afterwards and told me she saw angels worshipping with us in one of the sessions. The sounds, the sensitivity, the rock'n'roll...it was all as broad as the ocean. All thanks to a cultural and age diversity of people bringing their creativity to the fore.

I am so excited about what happened, and what God is doing in me through the experiance. Wow!

Printing...

406 pages out of 8000. And they are double sided, so it's actually 16000. But atleast that means I have printed 812. 

814 now.

It's going to be a long night.

Jesus is my friend

I'm not sure what to say...

Apostolic people

Kris Vallotton has blown my mind yet again.

It turns out that in Luke 6 when Jesus chose his 12 disciples to become apostles, he was calling them something that was actually a Roman term, and this is where it came from. This just blew my mind when I heard this on the latest podcast from Bethel, by Mr Vallotton.

When the Romans would take a city on one of their campaigns and come back to it later they would find that the culture of the city hadn't change. It belonged to the Romans, but I guess it wasn't functioning as Rome did, and a plan was then put in place to change that. 

So when an army would take over a city, a convoy would come in behind it and stay in the city and would change the culture of the city to become like Rome. The name of the leader of this convoy army? An apostle... Their job was to transform the place they were in to what Rome was. They were culture changers.

Here's my thought:

An ambassador represents a country or place, and that's about it. They just represent.

An apostle would change the culture around them, to the one they know it must become. They are visionary people, who know the future as it must be and take as many into it as possible.

I'm going to try and find some more reading material on this now, I might dig out Gab's big book on Roman History and start digging through it and see what I can find :)

Accordion-ables.

Gab and I have been reading our way through Luke this month. We read the chapter first thing in the morning and then text each other about we thought about it. Today, this great little thought came to me that I thought I might share here...isn't that what it's for after all?

Jesus was doing a bit of the old "Look at what God is capable of" kind of thing, and then "But look at what God does with you" on the other hand. As Gab put it, "It's like Jesus was explaining God's polar opposites." I then couldn't help but think of a piano accordion.

Why? Because it is just like what Jesus was doing in the chapter for today, it goes way out wide, and then comes right in close, and all of it makes the "music". Jesus would show how big God is, how powerful and full of bone-crushing, earth-shattering power He is, and then in the next verse talk about how intimate He actually is.

It's like David in the Psalms, how one Psalm he is in awe, absolutely gob-smacked by the universe, and the stars and the moon... then the next chapter he is mind-blown all over again by just looking at his own hand. 

Out...and in. Big... and small. Just like an accordion. Out, and in. But it's still the accordion either way. Just a thought.

Prayer room overview

Well, we just finished our 24/7 prayer week last night, and I managed to get in and pray half a dozen times, and each time was significantly and completely different. Here's an overview of the smorgasbord that was Dan Sheed's 24/7 prayer week:

1. Sunday night 12:00am-1:00am: Wept, sung, sorted out some junk, wept more, worshipped...
2. Tuesday night 8:00pm-10:00pm: Prayed for the youth of our nation, schools, universities, got prayed for by some youth and was on the floor in a flash. Some very powerful prophetic words that I was waiting on God for answers where brought forward...
3. Wednesday night 12:00am-1:00am: Was joined by Paul, we prayed together for the church, really outward focused and lots of asking God about the things we long to see
4. Thursday night 10:00pm-11:00pm: Prayed with Gab and our relationship 
5. Thursday night 12:00am-2:00am: Had an alone time for the first time since Sunday, was really good and personal, but ending up doing a lot of "soaking" prayer... ;)
6. Friday night 12:00am-1:00am: Had an incredible time of journalling and sorting out some hard "lacking" issues with God, which tied in a lot with some stuff I had been reading all week through out Luke. I then got to take it all to the cross and get real about it. It was incredible :)

A very, very cool week. Lots of action and everything was completely different to the last which was really exciting. It's very sad to be here in my office with the prayer room half abandoned behind me, but I know that it was not what happened in the room that was important, but what happened in my heart that will last.

Jesus? Amazed?

I was reading this morning the story of the Roman officer in Luke 7, and was blown away at the Roman officer's faith once again, but for the first time noticed another detail I have previously missed.

"When Jesus heard this, he was amazed." (9)

I then re-read the story, and noted that the Roman officer had almost switched roles on Jesus, and was using his surroundings as an officer in the army to explain his faith to Jesus, just like Jesus would use the things around him to explain his teachings - (the Bread of Life after feeding the 5000, the Living Water at the well, etc...) 

It's almost like Jesus is saying with a big grin on his face, "Touche! Now here's someone who gets it!"

So, today I prayed that I would to be able to become a person who can put a grin on Jesus' face with my faith too...

YouVersion

I just found an online Bible community called YouVersion, and after having a look around, it looks pretty darn cool! You can view a heap of different translations and then you can journal about them and write little articles on the verse, almost in the style of a commentary, or a Bible study note.

Then, the other people in the community can view it, and can interact about it. Pretty cool really...

My new baby...

Until I get to have a real one anyway...

24/7 prayer - Part I

We started our churches 24/7 prayer week yesterday and I did my first slot early this morning at midnight.

I found it really hard at first, and I ended up having a very powerful time of sorting out some junk with God. I had my first experience of bawling my eyes out while wearing glasses... Interesting experiance...

So I am looking forward to a great week of prayer and having God show me lots of stuff. There is something so special about 24/7 and drawing close to God and being able to spend an entire week in that. Let's see what happens...

My Bible ripped today...

Yeap, it happened. That time when your favourite Bible's cover falls off. I grabbed some tape and hacked a repair job to it, but it's probably not going to hold it for long...

Hardcore? More like nothing-core

Hardcore kids think they are so tough, but not all the hardcore bands in the world put together can send a shiver down my spine like the look on the Boss's face in this one... great song, great performance.

A brief theology of worship leadership

Worship is the debt being paid back to God for the atonement of our sin (His sacrifice of sending his Son to redeem us once and for all on the cross). This is not just a song sung in a worship service, instead, Romans 12 paints a picture far bigger than that and states that we are to “give [y]our entire bodies to God, letting them be a living and holy sacrifice“ (1) It is our response both personal and corporate to God for who He is, and for what He has done, expressed in and by the things we say, and the way we live. (2)

We worship a God who is Creator. In Genesis He creates man in the imago Dei (image of God) and makes mankind the chosen creation to mirror himself. (3) God is the creator, and He made us sub-creators. We take what He has created first, and we manipulate it to create our own expressions of creativity. We create from a palette placed into our hands by God first. (4) Music is an expression and outworking of this creativity. A worship song is a story-telling document which is put expressively to music in an effort to gather people together in a shared way of creatively learning and expressing that story.

The Kingdom is established by having the king ruling there (Kingdom literally means, ”King’s“ ”Domain“). (5) Worship draws our attention to God, and to who He is as the Creator, King, Saviour and Trinity. It also draws us to his agenda of justice, spirituality, relationship and beauty. (6) Worship teaches us and creates in us a lifestyle that is continually permeating with these echoes of God, making us Kingdom extenders as we go about our lives as living sacrifices to God and mirroring who He is to this broken world.

The first hurdle to overcome as a worship leader is tapping into the bigger picture. One can easily get trapped into thinking that our worship set of five songs on a Sunday is the ”worship time“, dividing the rest of the week into a time that isn’t. Worship is a lifestyle, so we should be encouraging those we lead into that lifestyle - one that is rich in understanding of who God is, what He has done, what He is doing and what He will do. We can not lead this if we have not gone there ourselves. (7)

We worship a God who has created us as his image bearers, as creative people. Artistic creativity should be used to show people glimpses of what this lifestyle of sacrifice should look like, but the music itself should not take over our focus and become the main thing we aim at. Our worship (lifestyle) should richly and continually be centred (aligned) on God, and our leading should be mirroring that weither - weither it is with artistic creativity or through normal day-to-day tasks.

(1) Romans 12:1 NLT

(2) Louie Giglio, Worship - That thing we do DVD, Session 4

(3) Genesis 1:26-27

(4) Dan Wilt, The nature of the human being, p4

(5) Bill Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth

(6) N.T. Wright,  Simply Christian

(7) Dr. Peter Davids, The importance of scripture study for modern worship leaders

Sermon points from last night..

So here's my quick-blog-overview-with-bullet-point-notes from what I spoke on last night...

Luke 13 - The Parables of the mustard seed and yeast

1. Who am I in this parable? - It's interesting to note that when reading parables, we often forget to do this, and sometimes we aren't what we expect to be. In this parable, Jesus explained that the Kingdom was like a mustard seed, or the yeast. so we are not those things. So what are we? The soil, and the dough. This is important to realise.
2. The tiniest seed, the smallest amount of yeast - The smallest of seeds still have the potential to grow into the biggest of crop, and the smallest amount of yeast permeates deeply into the dough. God doesn't plant something with the intention of it staying small, He sees the potential outcome it can become and calls forward growth. 
3. Growing and baking - This is what these parables are all about. It is about the growth that the two different things go through.
4. Soil, light and water - These three things are what a seed needs for growth. In Luke 8, Jesus already taught on what kinds of soils we can be (as remember, we are the soil in this parable) so what about the other two needs? Psalm 119: 105 and 130 beautifully paints us a picture of the word of God being our lamp, our light to our path. So one of the things we need for growth? Light. Which is what? The word. Isaiah 44:3-4 then talks about God pouring his Spirit out upon his people, like water to a withered plant. Our other need for growth? Water, which is God's Spirit.
5. Balancing act - Too much water and the plant drowns, too much light and the plant withers. We have to have a balance of both the word and the Spirit. We can't just get by on having fun with the Spirit all the time, because we too will drown. We can't just stick our noses into our Bibles and debate and argue over minor details, cause we then become dry.

That's a rough and very shortened version for you, I hope it blesses you in some way :)

Glory

I'm really busy at the moment because I have just finished a week of catch-up from having the flu, and I have been at a church growth seminar... but also, I am busy because I am putting together a mini-worship conference for my worship community at church, but for anyone else who wants to come too.

If you want to come, check out the mini-site I made here... It's open to anyone who wants to come, it's not just my church exclusive :)

Dark Night

I'm off to see The Dark Knight... it better be as good as everyone has said it is, cause my hopes are higher than amount this movie has raked in at the boxoffice over the last few days.

Review to follow.

A document worth responding to.

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen's University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.

A document is interesting because once it is created, it is then up to the reader to valuate it's importance and weither to pay attention to it or not. The document doesn't have a say in it.

The Treaty of Waitangi, the Bible, a note on the kitchen bench, an article in the paper, a book by C.S. Lewis or a blog by me...they are all documents that are powerless unless engaged with. They all have importance, but only if used. In some weird fashion, the document itself won't change the world, but the response of the reader may.

This week I had to write an overview "document"of all the things I have been learning over the last few weeks of my course, and in doing so have now produced something that I haven't been able to stop thinking about since finishing it. But, it is my response to this that will make the change. I can map out what the job is at hand, what the nature of a human being is and what lies ahead - but will I respond to it? Will I commit to the process of letting it change the way I go about doing my day-to-day tasks?

A contemporary worship song - in essence, a creative theological document to music - can pull at my heart strings, tugg at my emotions, and can lead me to sing all sorts of words. I can say the grandest promises to God during the moment, but have I engaged with what I am singing? Have I actually realised what I just said? What the consequences of my words are? (It's also interesting to note how many songs are just plagarised out of the ultimate document, the living word, the Bible.)

It is my response to this document put to an easy to sing, catchy and quite likeable tune that could change wether a poor person eats tomorrow.

It is my response in the car listening to Ryan Delmore's "Break me heart with your love" as to weither I am going to forgive that person I have had the falling out with - and do something about it.

It is my response to telling the Lord that I will go where-ever He sends me, and then actually listening to Him about where that is.

(This one is going to be left un finished as I ponder more on responses to documents.)

A joke?

Yes!

God is sitting in Heaven when a scientist says to Him, 'Lord, we don't need you anymore. Science has finally figured out a way to create life out of nothing. In other words, we can now do what you did in the 'beginning'.'
'Oh, is that so? Tell me...' replies God.
'Well', says the scientist, 'we can take dirt and form it into the likeness of you and breathe life into it, thus creating man.'
'Well, that's interesting. Show Me. '
So the scientist bends down to the earth and starts to mold the soil. 
'Oh no, no, no...' interrupts God,
(I love this...)
'Get your own dirt.'

Brennan my-main-man Manning

This is a very powerful communication I thought...

Christian worldview overview underview sideview...

God is a person (1) who has been in relationship and conversation with us since the beginning of His creation spree. In one of these discussions which has been jotted down, God reveals His name to Moses, calling himself "The I AM”. (2) Short words, huge meaning. God is Trinity; Father, Spirit and Son, and through these three “personalities” has engaged with the creation He created after himself. He has engaged as the Creator of all, the King of all and the Saviour of all. (3)

Human beings are God’s image bearers, made in the image of God, for doing the works of God. Paul calls us “citizens of heaven”. (4) We are the extenders of His Kingdom, even though we are fully human here on earth, we live a parallel life as citizens of Heaven, extending and increasing the dominion of God’s rule on this earth. We are invited to take our story and live it within God’s greater story, with Him as the director and us as the actors.

Human beings screwed things up though. The cute Sunday-school-learned Bible story of Adam and Eve is actually one of the hardest lessons to learn as a human being. This is where we took our image-bearing life and trampled it into the ground in an effort to become the one who is greater than bearing image to. Sin entered the world, but God puts a rescue plan into action.

“So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us.” (5) The Son came on a rescue mission, (6) and while He was here, he modelled what a normal Christian lifestyle was to be; one of miracles, signs and wonders, one that was counter-culutural and radical. He restored to us what we had ruined, by dying a criminals death on the cross and over-coming the grave after three days. Jesus became the lamb to end all sacrifices, and became the keys for us to access the Kingdom.

The Kingdom is exactly what the word means; the “King’s” “domain”. It is the places where God’s ruler-ship as King is restored. (7) God has acted as Saviour by sending Jesus as the keys to the kingdom, where sin can be forgotten and a life which is eternal can be begun. But the point of that life is not to just get to heaven when we die, but to live this life taking on the model set by Christ and living as a citizen of heaven now, living as a new creation in Christ (8) and carrying on the extension of the Kingdom revolution.

In regards to how this will all finish up? I will leave this to Mr N.T. Wright... “The God in whom we believe is the creator of the world, and he will one day put this world to rights. That solid belief is the bedrock of al Christian faith. god is not going to abloish the universe of space, time and matter; he is going to renew it, to restore it and to fill it with new joy and purpose and delight, to take from it all that has corrupted it.” (9)

Until then, I’m just going to do my part by living as a new creation, loving Jesus and extending the Kingdom.

(1) Williams and Brown, Who is this God we worship?
(2) Exodus 3:14
(3) Wilt, The nature of a human being
(4) Philippians 2:27 and 3:20
(5) John 1:14
(6) Wright, Simply Christian 
(7) Johnson, When Heaven invades earth
(8) and (9) Wright, The road to new creation

What does it mean to be a human being?

In my Bible, Genesis 1:26-28 has been highlighted for quite sometime, I think about 2 years for verse 26, where it says, “Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves.” It’s highlighted pink. It was probably the only one I had at the time.

Verse 27 has been highlighted in two parts; “So God created people in his own image;” is highlighted orange, and “God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them” is highlighted yellow. A faded yellow. It’s probably been there 3 years, the orange is far more fresh, perhaps one year.

Then, in verse 28, fresh highlighting from only 6 months ago at a conference has scrawled over “Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters over the fish and birds and all the animals.” Next to it, I have written “The original commission.”

What does it mean to be human? You only have to look at my Bible, on the first page to realise. We were given a huge privilege...and we ruined it all.

Being fully human means that there is a long, hard fought process to figuring any of this thing out. Wright writes “Wise Christian worship takes into account the fact that creation has gone horribly wrong, has been corrupted and spoiled, so that a great fault line runs down the middle of it - and down the middle of all of us, who, as image-bearing human beings, were meant to be taking care of it.”

My highlighting in my Bible is a perfect example of this. A few years ago, I highlighted the first verse, something in me stirring at the fact that God patterned us after himself. The process began.

Years later, I have had fresh revelation after watching Dan’s video “The nature of the human being” and reading the various media for this week, and the process that has been going in my life through these different moments of reading these verses, has finally been pulled together into a more tidy pile of theological thinking. It is not complete, but it has been pulled together tighter, with a bit more structure, and with a bigger picture painted. But this is just another part of the struggle that rages on, a struggle for my attention between the Creator, and the Fall. I am torn between.

What does it mean to be human? It means a struggle. It means fronting up to the fact that all is not actually “cosy and nice”. It means realising that we took the most amazing gift of all time - being made the imago Dei - and crushed it into the ground in an effort to become higher than it and the One who created it.

And now, things take time to figure out, and things take years to realise. Because of our ego’s, our pride, and our own echo inside us which says “I can be the creator...I can be the one...” we are blinded, side-tracked and quite often have our gaze set shamefully on our own feet, rather than lifted to heaven in adoration of the One who started this whole thing off with a different plan in mind.

The nature of the human being, is being the imago Dei, who ruined things. As John Newton calls the human being in his famous song, Amazing Grace - “a wretch like me.”

It’s weird though, how an understanding of this then opens a can of worms to how amazing God’s grace actually is.

Muxtape

Click here to go "wow" when you get there. 

This is very cool.

2 New Albums...

This one was $6. It's just for some good times really, and a bit of a groove to this almost "pop-hip-hop".  You can't help but laugh at some of the tracks,  but some of them are gems. Memories of cruising with my friend Andy to New Plymouth in his Ford Laser come flooding back upon listening to this one. 

Fun, cheap, can't complain. Not one for the "Rolling Stone top 200" but it's definitely cooler than singing "Wake me up before you go-go" at a Singstar competition in your local mall - 2 out of 5.

This is one I have wanted to grab since I first saw them on YouTube and upon putting the CD in my computer and hitting play, shivers have gone down my spine. This is an incredible sound - there are more strings than a James Bond soundtrack and you would swear Ringo is behind the drum kit at times.

I don't know what the deal is with why, how or when this was all put together by Alex Turner and Miles Kane, but one thing I can note (by just listening and not researching anything) is this: They have taken that beautiful 60's sound of early rock'n'roll/pop and bought it into now so well, you could put this on one of those "Sounds of the 60's" compilation CDs and no-one would notice the difference between this and an early Paul McCartney and John Lennon piece.

It's like an audio version of it's visual counterpart "Back to the Future" and I am liking it very much - 4 out of 5. 

Working with what we already have

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen's University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.

Last Thursday, the under-25 year old “men” of the church, took on the over-25 men in a game of indoor soccer. I am a bit of an active-challenged person at the moment, and the game took my body by surprise. In protest, my body responded with a huge blister/callus thing on the sole of my right foot.

During our camp this weekend, I was playing some more soccer and noticed something flapping around in my sock. I removed my shoes and socks to find a large piece of skin, which was about the size of a matchbox. (Sorry about how gross this all kind of is...)

The weird thing is this; upon holding that piece of skin and looking at it, the Holy Spirit used it as an opportunity and I found myself looking at it in awe, saying “No human hand has ever been able to make this stuff.”

I looked down at my other foot which still had my shoe on it. My shoe was made of materials that man had manipulated to create various kinds of leathers and rubbers.

My clothes were made of different kinds of cottons, again, just a material that man has made by taking a cotton plant and spinning it into yarn or thread. Again, just manipulating something that already exists.

In my hand, I held a piece of skin. Something that mankind has never and I even boldly write - will never - be able to make out of thin air.

Skin, cows, tree sap and cotton plants all have something in common... We didn’t make them. He, the Creator, did.

Dan Wilt puts it pretty good in this quote “Our wildest creations as human beings, with all due respect to the great scientists of this world, have always begun with something that God already created. We have yet to make our own dust out of which to make a human being. We have yet to create a new colour, a new air to breathe or a new building block of life. We work with what is, and we manipulate what is in order to discover, explore and rejoice in the world for which we are made.”

I feel privileged and humbled to be where I sit in the order of things. I'm not the creator, but I have the privilege to be able to manipulate to create from what He has created first.

Bruce.

After an exhausting weekend at camp, I got home last night, put on one of the Springsteen Live vinyls, lay on my couch and listened to the "Thunder Road" track. 

After a big weekend, listening to Bruce singing with just a piano is like a sheep shearer drinking a cold beer after a long day in the shearing shed.

JR, Dave Kane, Anthony Bartlett and Dave Darcy, you are the lucky ones. You know darn well why too...

The new Generation

Just a post-camp thought this morning during my devotion time...

There’s a new generation on the loose;
One who’s hearts leap in response to the Message.
One who’s hearts jump to the sound of a well-hit drum kit.
One who’s hearts break for the things on our Father’s heart.

Winterstock 08

It's our national Vineyard winter camp this weekend! It starts tonight, and runs through till Sunday. I am so excited about what's going to go down. I have been part of the organisation team and everytime we have got together to pray, God has been putting amazing words on our hearts - things like "a new song for this generation" and "a breaking down of the walls of the past to build a new platform for the future"...

Expecting big things! 

Songs for the present reality (ICEWS, e*b 08)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen's University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

This week's pondering has been right at home for me. I love the Kingdom and I love the lifestyle it calls out of us, and incredible change when we respond. And to put my two favourite things together- the Kingdom and worship, is like putting Cadbury's chocolate sauce all over a bowl of Cadbury's Top-Deck ice-cream, and then covering it with chunks of Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate... 

One major pondering I have had was this: Is our worship lining up with the "heaven when we die" thinking, or more towards the "the Kingdom is here and now, the rescue mission has been complete!" kind of thing. I can see now, I need diagrams to make my point:

"I'll fly away, oh Glory, I'll fly away. When I die, hallelujah by and by, I'll fly away." To me, this song is expressing and declaring a thinking which leaves the church stagnant, which leaves it just buying time and which leaves it not functioning in power, but rather complacency and apathy. The thinking is that "the Kingdom" is the heaven we go to when we die. It leaves us just waiting, just biding our time till we pass from this world into the "golden palace in the sky". We live our lives the best we can, we die and we go to heaven if we have done a good enough job. 

Not something I would sign-up for, that's for sure. But this on the other hand... 

Paul writes that we are "citizens of heaven" and that we live as "ambassadors". When the rescue mission took place, when Jesus came and was sacrificed on the cross and was resurrected from the grave he did not just grant us eternal life. He gave us the keys to the Kingdom, he handed over authority to do what He did as the Word who became flesh. 

He called us to walk as citizens of the Kingdom, walking our story at the same time as the Kingdom around us, drawing from it with the authority we have been given to do so. 

In a nutshell, this is why my blog is titled "not just a ticket to heaven", we are not on a quest to live as nicely as we can before heading off to the clouds, we are called to live, to sing, to create and to worship as citizens of heaven NOW. 

We walk double lives, we are beings of earth, but we are carrying a Kingdom passport. 

The Kingdom and the King

This is my answer to this week's question for my Essentials*Blue worship theology and worldview course. Thought I would post it here for you to have a glance at. The question is based out of reading section two of N.T. Wright's book, Simply Christian and watching a great bit of media by Dan Wilt entitled The Nature of God...

Upon reading this section of the book, I found myself leaning back, putting my hands through my hair, widening my eyes and sighing out heavily. “This thing is just so BIG” I thought to myself. And it is because of that intense “bigness”, I am feeling passionate, excited and thriving on every time the “Kingdom” pops up in our discussions.

Let me ground something here. I love the “Kingdom theology”. I have studied it, I have poured myself into trying to live a Kingdom lifestyle for years now and if you get me into a cafe for a coffee, we won’t leave without me at least once talking to you passionately about something to do with “the Kingdom”.

And I think that is what has challenged me, yet again. (When will you learn Dan?!) The Kingdom is a huge topic. It is not something we just read in a few pages of a book, or listen to a Wimber teaching, or pray a few prayers and we have then mastered. The history, the characters, the positioning, the timing, the attitudes, the blessings, the war, the outcomes, the struggles, the faith... and so-on and so-on... It is a life pursuit that lies before us. 

“Seek first the Kingdom” Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, and I see why. When we let other things become first, the Kingdom isn’t anymore. And when the Kingdom story isn’t in the front of our thinking and manifesting in our actions, we start thinking about other things which aren’t so important and send us down a side-track of time-wasting, people-pleasing or ego-feeding instead.

As for the four theological ideas on the Nature of God, I immediately struggle and debate which I would isolate as the one to use. But after biting the clicker-bit off my pen and procrastinating and changing over my vinyl I was listening to, I am reminded of how when the word “Kingdom” is broken down, it means the “King’s domain”. 

It would be impossible to raise up a strong Kingdom-influenced church without worshipping the King, learning about the King, and declaring who the King is in our worship. 

Joel Auge

I just checked out Joel Auge from a recommendation by Dan Wilt.

Verdict? I like it very much. I have only checked out his tracks on his MySpace page and I haven't stopped listening to his track "On the blue". What a song. With vocals that remind me of Ryan Adams a little, and lyrics that are so relaxed - yet challenging, it is one very tidy song.

Here are the lyrics...

Take me to, take me to 
Where you took Peter and the boys 
Calmed the stormy noise 
Made it so they knew 
They had to trust in you 
Walk with me 
Talk with me 
I want to know what you would say 
If you had me face to face 
What would I do 
With my feet out on the blue 
What would I do 
With my feet out on the blue 
Would I know that I was safe 
By your side out on the waves 
Would you tell don’t look down 
Keep your eyes fixed on me now 
When the waves wrap at your feet 
Don’t you worry, look to me 
Make me move 
Make me move 
I want to be what you’re about 
And not have any doubt in you 
Be what you want me to 
Even as my brain tells me that I should drown 
I still so believe that you would never let me down 

The Worship Artisan title reflection (ICEWS, e*b08)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St Stephen's University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology course with Dan Wilt.

A person making coffee in Italy takes about four years before they earn the title of a "coffee barrista." Four years of falling in love with the coffee, of learning how it works, growing more and more passionate about their coffee.

Here in New Zealand, a place far less passionate about coffee than Italy, a kid can walk into a cafe and get a job for the weekends, and call themselves a coffee barrista after being just shown how to use the machine. The result unfortunately, is really bad coffees. But they are carrying and representing a title that is meant to be earned and honoured.

It's a similar situation in worship circles; we call ourselves "worship leaders" when we have actually only been shown how to sing some songs and perhaps pray some prayers and read some scripture out, but unfortunately, this is not doing the title any justice.

A title which is new to my ears, "The worship artisan", is an incredible title to sit and ponder upon. It paints a far greater picture of what a worship leader is and what responsibilities they carry. It paints a picture of a passionate person, who is in love with their God-given craft, who grows and extends their craft, putting in the hard work. It paints a picture of someone who is excited about worship's past, present and future. It paints a picture of someone who is excited about the bigger story, and the role that they play in it.

It's time we call a "coffee barrista" a coffee barrista when they are one.

Buildings of theology. (ICEWS, e*b 08)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St Stephen's University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology course with Dan Wilt.

A thought I have not been able to shake has come from a testimony story that Dan Wilt shares in his video "The Rise of the Worship Artisan". Dan is sharing about his memories of going to church as a boy and talks about the beauty of the stained glass windows, and the story they tell.

I recently attended a worship conference called Noise, which was held in The Holy Trinity Cathedral here in Auckland, New Zealand. I had never been there before, nor had I ever attended this conference. This conference has only just moved to this amazing venue this year, and in past years had been held in a stadium type venue.

I was having a meal with one of the members of my worship team during the conference and asked them what was the main difference between the conference of earlier years and this year's one, and her reply was "The venue is amazing."

I immediately saw what she was saying. It is the peaceful serenity, the beauty of the architecture and art, and the presence of something that can not be found in just an any old stadium. It is only found in a place that has been built, grown, journeyed and moved through time with a goal in mind that I had completely missed until that meal. I knew that building was there to glorify God,  but I had missed what that entailed: to lift people's gazes to the heavens, to teach people theology, to show them the story, to paint a bigger picture for them. 

"Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord!" is how the Psalms sign out. Let me, a human who has had life breathed into me by the Creator, with every breath, with every thing I do while I still have a heartbeat, praise the One who first breathed into me. Whether it be the common default, and sometimes melancholic of singing, or whether it be in the lesser recognised, the more subtle praise, by creating with my hands, or by looking with my eyes, or listening with my ears.

Breathing in...

In relation to an earlier blog this week... I am taking a moment to breathe in before breathing back out.

Juggling between my end-of-term youth event for Friday (it's our Short Film competition's, Academy Awards, which is pretty much our biggest social event of the year for our youth and their families) and my worship theology course, it has gotten very easy to neglect that simple thing of stopping and breathing Him in.

Did I mention that I am loving my new devotion book "A life of Miracles" by Bill Johnson? Cause I am, very much! Great "breathing in" material...

Well, I am in Wednesday of my chaos week and I have finally made a dent into it. I have got the church magazine finished, I have completed a huge chunk of reading and watching of video for my worship course, and now I am processing for the next day or two before posting a blog of thoughts. But gosh, my brain is mush right now cause I thought I new a thing or two, but it turns out I have been leading off the sniff of an oily rag from a worship conference I went to when I was 14. I am reminded of this classic Johnny Cash moment, at Folsom Prison... This course is a huge breath of fresh air into what has been a sweatshop operating out of a closet.

"Ya know, standing back there in your shop catching my breath, I've come to admire you even more. You see, I've never had to do hard time like you. Although, I have on occasion, got myself busted... ...well anyways, I felt tough ya' know? Like I'd seen a thing or two ya' know? But that was till a moment ago, cause I've got to tell you. My hat's off to you now. Cause I ain't ever had to drink this here yella' water you got here at Folsom!" 

Ok, so let the processing begin.

New Planetshakers album is ok...

I picked this up the other week after seeing Henry Seeley (one of the leaders) at a worship conference the other week and really liking the things he had to say in the clinics. 

The album is quite awesome to have pumping in the car, and there are some useable congregation songs on here, but like so many of these albums (Planetshakers, Hillsong United etc...) I find myself asking the same question... "Where is the grit?" There are glimpses, but it feels spread thin at times. They are great albums to listen to, and they have some powerful moments, but I sort of shrug my shoulders at the songwriting's depth and breadth. But boy, are they catchy songs, some of them really do get stuck in your head!

I give it a 3 out of 5. My 1 being "Marilyn Manson could write better songs than this one" and 5 being "Your love reaches me" which is an older Vineyard album which for me is one very powerful album.

Gab's communion message

Gab brought the house down with this one last night, I'm so proud of her cause it's her first time doing anything like this at church. I'm usually the one up the front, it was wonderful to see the tides turn!

"When I was processing what I should do for communion tonight, I was talking with Dan and he asked me what communion means to me. What came to mind almost instantly was that communion for me is a way of remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice, it”s a way to pay tribute and honour HIs sacrifice. So what I thought would be a good way illustrate my thoughts was through using the movie Saving Private Ryan. 

In the movie, it opens with an old man, formerly known as Pt. Ryan, heading to visit one of the thousands of graves at a World War II memorial grave site. Upon seeing a certain grave he stops and begins to think back on an event that obviously changed his life. The movie then heads into the landing at D-day, when Tom Hanks who plays Ct. John Miller is given a special mission to go behind enemy lines and rescue one man. Questions are raised, why are the lives of 8 men worth endangering for one man? As the story continues and a few men have died in the squad, a further question is raised, what is so special about this one man? The squad find him, and defend a town against German attack. During this Ct. Miller is shot just as the battle is won and Pt. Ryan comes up to him and Ct. Miller says “Earn this”.

The lives of 6 men were lost so that Pt. Ryan could be found. The movie ends with this scene...

We all have our own version of Saving Pt. Ryan in our life, in our story. We all have our own Ct. Miller who is Jesus Christ, the word who took on flesh, and came on a mission to save all of mankind. The outcome? We too are saved, we have come home. Communion is our chance to stop and remember that sacrifice.

 What I felt was most significant from this was that for Pt. Ryan, the reality of the sacrifice made for him didn’t fully become real until he saw the grave of the Ct. It seems like he was convicted by this reality, he panics and asks himself, did I deserve that sacrifice? Have I lived up to it and earned it?

In Romans 12:1 it says this: And so dear brothers and sisters I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice-the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? 

As we come to communion tonight we are like Pt. Ryan visiting that grave site, are we living in a way where we are paying back the debt that Christ paid for us. Have we as this verse says given back to God? As we come to communion tonight I encourage you to think about this. Am I a living sacrifice to God?

Finally as the movie closes he salutes the Ct.’s cross, realising that he must continue with living his life the best he can in honour of that sacrifice. He lifts his chin, straightens his shoulders, and snaps a salute almost as if to say I’m back onto it sir, and I won’t let you down.

As we take communion tonight, as we reflect on the sacrifice that was laid down for our freedom will we too commit to living our lives in a way that is pleasing to Him? In a way that makes him proud, and in a way that returns the debt?

So I invite you to the table. "

Apostle Mel...

I watched Braveheart with some of my mates last night, and one line just won't let me go. It's a line that sums up Simon Peter, it's a line that sums up Paul, it's a line that sums up every martyr in history and every person who has committed their life to extending the Kingdom in a sold-out, who-cares, no-turning-back kind of way...

"Everyman dies, only some live."

Wow. Thank you Mel. Thank you.

Last weekend of freedom

Next week, I am about to start about a month of chaos, so, I think I am going to have to get up earlier each day to get that much needed...

breathing in time with the Lord before I... 

breathe out all day long...

Worship course starts on Monday though, that's very, very exciting! I am looking forward to what it's going to bring to the surface!

xSunday schoolx parachute application

I just put in the application to play at Parachute 2009, hopefully we get a cool stage or something awesome. That would be the coolest thing ever if we did, it would be extremely funny too, I will probably fall off my chair laughing. 

Let's wait and see.

Take it back!

I pre-ordered. It arrived. I am very, very satisfied as I listen. Take it back, you are the man. Right up there with Dogwood, right up there.

"You're just like your Father"

Ain’t such a bad comment for me I don’t think. There are a lot of things that you did Dad as I was growing up that I never got hold of until now.

“I do this because I love you, it says so in the Bible, but I do this in love, not in anger or hate...” That was a common one after a good smack, and at the time I used to be like “Yeah right...that totally makes sense...” But now I am grateful, I am grateful that I can look back on my smacks almost fondly. Sure, the pain is gone and the reason for them is mostly forgotten (there are a few I can still remember why...) but the lesson of them is imprinted in my heart. It wasn’t the smack, it wasn’t weither it was the hand or the belt, it wasn’t weither it 1 or 10, it was the “I love you” and the hug after that made me the man I am becoming today. I will never forget that, no one can forget your hugs Dad.

“If I could leave a tape recorder in there recording the dribble coming out of your mouth and show you...” Well, this one hasn’t changed yet. But I am working on James 3 and applying it to my life Dad. But remember this one Dad? - “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” I have never forgotten that one, and it is carried with me day and night now. I think I knew that scripture before John 3:16 hahaha. But seriously, I would like to think I could teach at least half as well as you do one day, then I will feel I have gotten somewhere. And the whole thing of your introductions taking the first 40 minutes of your sermons, well, you will pleased to know that last Tuesday I did my first “Introduction-only” sermon... I think I have that in my DNA that one, I was just in denial that it would come out of me too...

“You just try it again, and if you do, I can go out to your precious Honda and in 30 seconds have it so you can never drive it again...” Enough said with that one. That one makes you sound like a total bad-ass of a criminal, kind of Nicholas Cage in Gone in 60 seconds. I learned to never call you a “w****r” again after that one.

The way Gab looks at me when I start getting into a discussion about a certain brand of car, or electronic appliance, or guitar or World War II moment with someone WHO IS WRONG, and her look is saying only one thing “You’re just like your Father Dan Sheed.” Well, so I am, and damn proud to be too.

Dogwood are the best band in the world, and here is why.

Dear Dogwood. 

You are a band who kept me looking to heaven and to Jesus during my teenage years. It's because of songs like these ones below that I had a heart that was being filled with life rather than death. It is because of that I am forever grateful.

Faith

I have faith no one believes
I love a God no one can see.
You put your trust into thin air.
That’s what they all told me.
But I believed because of fear,
And I can see you crystal clear.
I know that you will, meet me here.

I walk the narrow path.
Perplexed and befuddled.
I’m persecuted, plagued and I’m troubled.

My past my history,
My future’s a mystery.
There’s only one certain thing
That’s for sure.

It’s my God who is so real.
He makes my life easier to deal.
With the aid of his goodness.
I experience true bliss.
Do you understand your life is in his hands? 

Confusion is my hat;
Centrifuge of hurt is where I’m at.
I request some help with that.

My past my history,
My future’s a mystery.
There’s only one certain thing that’s for sure.

It’s my God who is so real.
He makes my life easier to deal.
With the aid of his goodness.
I experience true bliss.
Do you understand your life is in his hands? 

I have faith no one believes
I love a God no one can see.
You put your trust into thin air.
That’s what they all told me. 

Never Die

Faith like a rock,
The size of a seed,
Eternal life,
It's all you need.

Work your will,
My life is yours,
Rejoice in You Lord.
My faith in you will never die.

Live fast,
Die slow.
Stand back,
Let go.
Choose life.

You'll see,
How awesome it is when God sets you free,
Live eternally.

Do or die

I killed the Son of God today.
I built the cross where He was slain.
My sins,
The hands that held the hammer that drove the nails through His skin.
Someday I win.
I want to make it up.
I want to die to myself for You.
It makes me fall apart,
When I think of all that You went through.
I owe my all to You. (I owe my all to You)

[Chorus:]
Because when it came to do or die.
You died for me,
Though I would be nothing perfect,
For human eyes to see.

My hands are Yours for works.
My eyes will seek until I've found You.
My legs will walk the earth,
Until You tell me my work is through.
I want to make it up,
I want to die to myself for You,
you are the one that i love,
i owe my all to you (i owe my all to you)

I met the Son of God today,
He said "I forgive you for My pain"
He took my sin that held the hammer 
that drove the nails through His skin,
He said I win.

I'm a new creation through You,
Created for You by You.
So make me worth Your while,
Put me to use.
you are the one that i love,
I owe my all to you (i owe my all to you)

I met the Son of God today,
He said "I forgive you for My pain"
He took my sin that held the hammer 
that drove the nails through His skin,
He said I win.

I'm a new creation through You,
Created for You by You.
So make me worth Your while,
Put me to use.

Just picked up my new devotional book for the year, "A life of miracles" by Bill Johnson. I have only had it a day, and am already 4 days into it. Must be good :)

Time to actually use this thing!

Or else, it would suck when people actually start reading it to find I only have a handful of things on here. 

Today, I commit to using this thing with a bit more effort than lately. Or ever for that matter.

Online Lotto?

Great. Another wonderful example of our government trying to help gambling victims by just making it even easier to buy a Lotto ticket.

Some dude today from the gambling helpline said that they have been "wise" and capped the weekly spending of online Lotto to $250. The average New Zealander spends $170 a year.

Yeap, they sure are wise. 

The revolution starts...now.

Ok, so that's the title of a Steve Earle album, but that's kind of how I feel.

A revolution of what? Well, if a broad and simple thought of a revolution is just doing something different to everything else, then this is a revolution because I don't usually do this. This is not my norm, so then, this is my own personal revolution.

Get ready Dan Sheed, for a revolution of your own thoughts and way of processing and doing. Woohoo!

Oh, and you, as the person reading this, welcome to the revolution, feel free to join in.