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.