2008

What a year!

I got engaged. I was privilged to be involved in some way with over 20 people being miraculosly healed. I was involved in around 10 deliverance sessions which saw people freed from all sorts of stuff. I got married! I moved house. I got accepted as a cadet for Training College next year. Go For Souls was awessome, 12 people getting saved and a stack of people getting fired up for aggressive evangelism. I finished up at Plenty Valley. I had my first married Christmas. And I had the awesome privilige of leading over 20 people to Christ (3/4 of them are still in Christian community!)

Ive had a big year and am looking forward to seeing what God has instore for next year!

Worldliness

I have been wondering of late what i am and am not allowed to watch on TV. How I am and am not allowed to spend my time. I have been wondering about worldliness. We are told to be "in the world but not of it," we are told "not to love the world or anything in it, and "whoever is a friend of the world is the enemny of God!" These passages which seem pretty clear say that we can not be worldly.

Catherine Booth gives us 4 points on what worldliness is:
1) That which tells us it is worldly
2) That which in sentiment and spirit the people of the world love, esteem and enjoy
3) That which has no reference to God
4) Everything that is adverse to the Spirit of God

I had a pray and the verse that came to mind was "Do not have anything to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness." It began to make sense to me. Worldliness is when we begin to engage that with that which has no good fruit and that which engages in the fruits of darkness.

That means when I watch the cricket this weekend that I need to examine whether it will be fruitful and whether it is dark. It will be fruitful if I mentor or build relationships over this time, or use the time to relax (as long as the resting ends...) But if it is just me at home on my own then it probably could be considered fruitless and darkness.

I considered my life today and have made a few changes. Perhaps you will join me and examine your life to see what needs adjusting so we are not involved in fruitless deeds and the deeds of darkness.

Word and Faith and Creation

God has placed His own value on His word. He calls it a "Fire," a "Hammer," and a "Sword." Now fire burns; a blow from a hammer hurts; while a cut from a sword causes real pain. And when His word is proclaimed in the power of the Anointing it will have exactly the same results. It will burn like fire, break like a hammer and pierce like a sword, and the spiritual or mental pain will be just as severe and real as the physical. And if not, then there is something wrong either with the messenger or the message. - Oswald Smith on Conviction

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

Have you experienced the word of God? Its not just letters on a piece of paper in a book. Its supernatural, its alive, it speaks into your heart. God spoke and BANG it happend. Creation. The Holy Spirit reacted to the word and brought about the creation of the world. The same is true today, the Holy Spirit will bring conviction when the word is spoken!

Many scholars fall into a trap when it comes to the word of God. The trap is not intellectualism or criticism of the texts, rather the trap is looking at the word with no faith. When faith is missing the Holy Spirit doesn't work. The Holy Spirit needs faith to create. So when we look at the the Bible without faith and souly our minds then stuff doesnt make sense, and doubt creeps in and out goes our beliefs that were formed by the word of God with faith.

The Bible is full of supernatural stories and teachings. Christianity is based on the belief that Jesus rose from the dead. The apostles described themselves as witnesses of the risen Christ. You cant be any more supernatural than that! And so is much of the rest of the Bible. But to believe the supernatural you either need to experieince it or have faith! And many scholars go into the Bible without faith and leave with doubt never experiencing the living word.

I offer this suggestion to those who are searching the Bible for something, those who are searching for the true Jesus, those looking for life. Read the Bible with faith. Allow the Holy Spirit space to create in your heart. He will and God will change your life!

The Bible

There is always a bit of debate about the Bible and how inerrant it is, where it was inspired and how accurate it is. I'll try to write a little bit more in the days to come! But heres the first bit, what was introduced to the Bible and why? While I was at uni these criteria came up as to what made it into the Bible or not:

Apostolic Origin — attributed to and based on the preaching/teaching of the first-generation apostles (or their close companions).
Universal Acceptance — acknowledged by all major Christian communities in the ancient world (by the end of the fourth century).
Liturgical Use — read publicly when early Christian communities gathered for the Lord's Supper (their weekly worship services).
Consistent Message — containing a theological outlook similar or complementary to other accepted Christian writings.

There are different views on the inspiration of the Bible too. Some believe that the Holy Spirit wrote through their arm the author not having a say. Others say that the events were the inspiration, they wrote what they saw Jesus do. Other say they are inspired what God said to them and they wrote that down. Other say that it was a mix of all of the above. Im sure there are other theories of inspiration as well.

As Salvationists "We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice."

To declare positively that people are sinners, condemned already and on their way to hell, is accounted as 'uncharitable judging', 'really dreadful', and no one we are told, can possibly be justified in coming to such a conclusion. All this we could understand perfectly, coming from the camps of infidelity or from the haunts of vice; but to find it passed off in connection with the same name and teachings of Jesus Christ is monstorous! - Catherine Booth

In todays world we evangelists and 'fundamentalists' are told not to talk about hell, sin or judgment. It scares people. It puts people off, it gives Christians a bad name. People then go on to say how it was ok for Christians to do it in another year, but its not relevant anymore. Well, it was exactly the same in Catherine Booths day as we can see from the above quote. There has always been part of the church that can not make the link between justice and love.

Its sad becasue these people are generally genuine and wanting to love all people. Where is that people have gotten all muddled up and replaced justice for hate? Where have they lost the fact that God is holy? Where have they lost the fact that sin is an abomination to God? Or that sin separates us from God? Where did they lose the fact that God wants everyone to be saved so He sent Jesus to die for us, to take our place? Where did they lose the part that says God loves us even though we sin? How can they not see that sin leads to death but Jesus leads to life?

Revival Work

My outflowing energy, songs and music, visitation and service for the needy - all of which were given for not less than fifteen hours a day... Happily I was an ealry riser. Two hours on the Bible before breakfast, and full of spirit and prayer, I kept in humility and expectation with literally "Every hour for souls and duty." - Commissioner James Hay

Read the story of James Hay in Aggressive Salvationism and you will find that he was often living in revival. From hundreds of people getting saved every week, increasing people attending meetings, to the commencement of Salvationist social work Hay is an example of a revivalist/evangelist who loves the poor. (Sounds like Jesus hey?)

What was his secret to his success? Ive been reading a bunch of texts on revival and three things keep popping up, 1) Prayer - lots of it, 2) Outreach - lots of it and 3) Lots of work. In the abiove statement Hay talks about 15 hour days. Railton was the same often not sleeping at all. I heard a story of Joe Noland starting a corps and putting in 15 hour days too.

The result of prayer, outreach and hard work is revival. Ive been challenged. How about you?

Stigmata

Some people seem to be sceptical about the whole stigmata thing so heres just a couple of quick comments:

• He woke up, had a prayer time and something appeared on his foot. No matter what it is it is cool timing dont you think?
• He has a new found passion for evangelism!
• Stigmata apprently means 'mark" in latin (going from wikipedia so i know it might not be 100% right...)
• There have been hundreds and possibly thousands of reported stigmatas like this. Some have been faked others havent
• Every sign points towards something, there is never a sign just for signs sake, what does this sign point towards? Some have said something along the lines of him being dead to sin, maybe the marks of Jesus represent how far his passion for souls went... Im sure there could be more...
• Dont you think the timing is cool? I do. But the fruit is what impresses me the most, hes been on fire preaching wherever he goes. The sign didnt cause this passion to happen rather it accompanied it...

STIGMATA!?!?

The following is a video testimony of someone who was at Go For Souls 08. He was in a prayer time and God spoke to Him and gave him courage to preach the gospel. Then something happend to his foot... Stigmata? Hmmm You be the judge...

Go For Souls

This weekend was fantastic! We had about 50 people dutring the nights and 30 during the day. The worship times were intense as most people forgot about the people on either side of them and solely focussed on God. The Holy Ghost was moving in a powerful way convicting, challenging and comforting people.

The outreach was great! It was so fun and challenged people to step up and speak out. We had open airs on a train which followed this pattern, Worship, Witness and Word followed by the team fishing the whole carriage before moving onto the next carriage. A few people yelled at us, most just tried to ignore us, one threatend to smash a bottle over our heads... The other teams did some street preaching outside shopping centres! Ive heard some grumblings leading into this and since this along the lines of "I wouldnt do it that way" or "As if that would work." So brace yourself to eat humble pie.

During the Saturday outreach 12 people decided to start following Jesus. 5 of them from the outreach we did on the train where we did open air meetings in the carriages, 6 of them from the street preaching at the shopping centre that we didnt get kicked out of, and one from the final night meeting! So next time you want to have a go at someone street preaching or acting weird for Jesus maybe start by being abit nicer and see what fruit they have first... And for the record most of the people preaching on the streets etc had never done it before. (Wow, 12 conversions of people we had never met before, lead to Christ by people who had never done this before... hmmm)

We praise God for each of the people that has decided to start following Jesus. For those playing at home and getting their comebacks ready this, here are the 4 C's of follow up we have implemented. Call. Catch up. Cell Group. Church.

Thank God Hes so full of grace!

GO FOR SOULS TONIGHT!

Gonna be great! Try to get there if you can. If you can't pray for us! We'll keep you posted with the inevitable fruit!

Tonight, Major Jack Strickland from Canada is going to serve it up!

Hope you can be there!

Busy

I live at the training college which is a 10 storey building, and I looked out my window the other night. It was dark, rainy and windy. I saw a light on in the building just down the road. And even though it was after midnight there was a lady there typing on her computer.

It made me think, there are so many people out there committed to their jobs, or even more specific, committed to making money. Some are so committed they lose their families, some so committed they spend all their waking hours working for their pay cheque. The quest for what they can get is so important to them that they sacrifice everything so they can get their goals. Most world leaders sleep for only around 4-6 hours every night.

As I read baout revival two points become very clear. The first is that they prayed and prayed and prayed. The second thing was they preached and preached and preached. Their work ethic was super high. There are stacks of people who lived in revival who would sleep verry little becasue they were so busy working. Its left me with a couple of questions... 1) What am I working for? 2) How committed am I? 3) Am I busy with the right stuff?

Wesley on soul winning

You have nothing to do but save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work. And go always not only to those who want you, but to those that want you most. Observe: It is not your business to preach so many times, and to take care of this or that society: but to save as many souls as you can: to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance, and with all your power to build them up in that holiness without which they cannot see the Lord.”
John Wesley

I'm reading a book called "The Passion for Souls" by Oswald Smith and although only a couple of chapters in I am loving it! He quoted the above quote and went on to show how so many preachers preach with no fruit. Wesley reminds us that we are to win souls, not just preach.

Greatcomm

There was a company called Greatcomm who specialised in selling their product. Their product was the best and could change the world if everyone bought it. Sales were slipping and had been for a while so the CEO decided to try a couple of different things.

The first thing he did was change the product. This ended badly because the older product was far superior.

Then he tried to employ people to do all the work that the other employees should have been doing.

Then he decided to get motivational speakers to come and speak. Which sounds like a good idea, but after a while they fell away from the good product and started trying to sell the additional steak knives instead.

He would put on confrences and get togethers in a hope for people to find their purpose of selling this product and being part of this great company. But the confences liked the steak knives more than the real product. Even though the steak knives go perfectly with the real product, and there is nothing wrong with the steak knives in fact they are great, the main product stopped being sold.

Eventually the company went broke and moved into selling steak knives instead of the whole package...

Man Burnt to Death : Firefighter Refused to Act

Terrible news! A man was burnt to death the other day. Apparently he was asleep when the fire broke out. He had absoloutely no idea that his life was in danger so he kept on sleeping. But the really sad thing is that his next door neighbour saw the fire but didn't do anything about it even though he was a firefighter!

When they asked the firefighter why he didnt put out the fire or go and rescue him he said 'My friend doesn't like it when I wake him up, and he certainly doesnt like getting wet, so I neither woke him nor turned on the hose."

The Firefighting chief is having serious words with the firefighter and his future is uncertain. The firefighter chief said that it is his duty to put out fires whether people want him to or not. He said that silly excuses like that are dangerous and irresponsible...

If you knew someone was about to burn for eternity would you do something about it or are you too scared to wake them up and put out the fire? Whats more important to you?

Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
(Jude 22-23)

REPENT!

The below are some quotes by Catherine Booth from the book "The Highway of Our God" from a chapter on repentance. Her definitions and explanations have helped my personal repentance but also my efforts in urging others to repent... Enjoy!

Repentance is not merely conviction of sin
Neither is repentance mere sorrow for sin
Neither is repentance a promise that you will forsake the sin in the future

What then is repentance? Repentance is simply renouncing sin – turning round from darkness to light, from power of Satan to God. This is giving up sin in your heart, in purpose, in desire, resolving that you will do it now. Of course this involves sorrow; for how will any sane man turn himself around a given course into another if he does not repent having taken that forbidden course? It implies also, hatred of the course he formerly took, and from which he turns.

Submission is the test of penitence.

Now, do not say “I don’t feel enough.” Do you feel enough to be willing to forsake your sin? That is the point. Any man who does not repent enough to forsake his sin is not a penitent at all. When you repent enough to forsake your sin, that moment your repentance is sincere and you may take hold of Jesus with a firm grasp. Then believe in Jesus and you will be saved.

Flight TSA HIJACKED!!!

Flight TSA has been hijacked. Millions and millions of lives are at stake in a move that is destroying not only the Flight TSA but also the world.

The flight took off 2000 years ago on a life saving mission to the world. Hi-jackers disguised themselves as passengers, they dressed similarly, chanted the same slogans that the rest of the passengers said and went by un noticed. It is believed the hi-jackers failed to realise the mission of the flight.

None of the airline staff realised that deep down something was wrong with these people yet when someone noticed they did nothing about it. Once the plane had taken off these passengers with a warped mission started making demands. The air crew relaxed the tight shift that was suppose to be in action and gradually the hi-jackers took control of the plane.

One passenger has secretly been intouch with the police and has said that the hi-jackers seem like nice people, they just have alterior motives.

The plane that was on-route to saving million and millions of people, an operation to save the world from sin, darkness and despair has now changed course and is on its way to blessme island. However the hi-jackers who have broken off radio contact are little aware that Wrath Volcano has erupted and when they land they will be all surely die.

Brand New Christian Basics

Last night was great. I was at the Macleod Youth meeting where Capt Danielle preached and taught the boys how to play bascketball. Even better then Danielles trash talk and jump shot was her sermon about apathy paralysing us. And even better than that the guy I was sitting next to got saved! Halleljah!

We all know its one thing to get someone saved but its another to disciple them into a mature Christian. So heres a list of stuff I try to do for brand new believers...

• I get them to testify as soon as they can to as many different people as possible. This consolidates their belief as they say what has happend. It keeps them accountable to a heap of people, and like baptism it identifies them with Jesus and that theyre old self is gone, the new has come!
• Get them to start reading the Bible. Starting in the gospels to see who Jesus was. If theyre going to follow Him they need to know what He did and said.
• Teach them to pray, (tell them to pretend Jesus is on chair and talk to the chair, if stuck for what to say, Thank You, Sorry, Please) Again, if following Jesus they need to be able to communicate with Him.
• Come to church. I dont just mean a meeting, rather get them hanging out with the body of Christ on Sundays, bible studies, mcdonalds etc... They get built up, encouraged, learn, discipled etc
• Encourage them to get all their friends and family saved. We're aiming for multiplication of people getting saved not just addition. If they get their families and friends saved that multiplies the conversions, its not just one all on its own. Its like domioes. Knock one over and the rest follow...

So priase God for my friends Salvation, and please keep him in your prayers as he starts his life of following Jesus.

Real-ational Evangelism

Firstly, Teasing Dog Evangelism is not the only form of relational evangelism. It can be good and it can work. Heres a quick list of things that you need to do though:

• Talk to them about what God has done and is doing in your life and tell them He can do it for them too!
• Talk to them about who Jesus said He was, what He did and what He asks of us
• Tell them the gospel - Why we need a saviour, what God did about it
• Tell them how to be saved and then Give them opportunities (More than one) to get saved
• Talk to them about what its like to be saved (Tell them the promises of God)
• Dont give up! Keep going!
• Be polite, fun, caring, compassionate, loving etc Show them holiness.
• Pray. Pray. Pray.

You can do these steps very simply. It can be easy you just need to be intentional. That means before you see your friends decide that you are going to tell them one thing about the gospel, or ask them one question.

That is real relational evangelism, telling them about Jesus and salvation and showing them what it looks like all in the context of relationship. But it is not waiting for them to sniff around before you start talking...

Teasing Dog Evangelism (TDE)

Theres a great new way of feeding dogs. Instead of throwing them a bone, or instead of putting some stuff in their bowl to eat you put the dog food in your pocket. Then you starve the dog in a hope that the dog will come to you and start eating out of your pocket! Infact you could even show the dog that you have food, but whatever you do, do not give it to the dog before he starts sniffing your pockets...

Hmmm Isn't that what most people are teaching about evangelism? Keep your salvation in your pocket until someone starts sniffing around? Wait til people really need the gospel before you start preaching it. You can show them a little bit of whats in your pocket but try not to... You only allow them to eat once they have come to you. Its how Jesus did it... er right?

NO. Jesus told us to go into the world. You see there are a stack of problems with relational evangelism which Im calling "Teasing Dog Evangelism" or TDE. There are so many principles that are so un-Jesus that it makes me cringe so listen up!

TDE has an emphasis on people coming to us rather than on us going to them. Big, big problem. Jesus never sat at home and waited for prople to come to Him. (They did come to him while he was moving though) He was on the move. And not only that He told us to go into the world and preach. So for a start we're sinning by not obeying.

That emphasis manifests itself in a couple of in-human ways aswell... If a dog isn't getting fed it starts snooping around the garbage trying to find anything that will do. I see these people every day experimenting with drugs, alcohol, suicide, gangs, violence, homosexuality and the list goes on. By waiting for them to come to us before we feed them they are sniffing around rubbish and getting sick and dieing.

TDE has an emphasis on not sharing too much too soon. Its like we are ashamed of the gospel. Is it that we think that the gospel will only feed the dog once so wait til that dog really wants it. Or is it that we dont believe our dog food is good enough to break through now that we wait til the dog will eat anything? What a defeatist attitude! Certainly not the gospel as the power of God to save!

TDE takes time to work, like years to work, stats say 2 years and thats if you stay friends and in contact with them during that whole time. In the age of change, (look at Rudd and Obamas messages, or Marney Turners campaign...) everyone is changing, people are flakey, and we are trying to build long lasting relationships in the HOPE that they will get saved ONE DAY... What a joke. The gospel can take off right now. TODAY IS THE DAY OF SALVATION.

TDE says that people will get offended if we give dogs food too soon. I have never seen a dog get offended at someone offering them food. With the gospel what are you preaching as the gospel to have that sort of idea? The gospel I preach is Christ crucified, God loves us so much he took away our sin so repent and believe! Its actually good news, although sadly its become weird news to many Christians who try to hide their scooby snacks.

TDE breeds bad behaviour. When you treat a dog like that he will start doing the same thing wherever he goes to whoever has the food. Gospel wise the same. TDE teaches that God is for the bad times, come to Jesus in the bad times. This has resulted in a hugely apathetic base of Christians who forget Jesus in the good times, and only come in the bad times.

TDE emphasises our work over the work of the cross. Its like a hungry dog only coming to you becasue you treat him well, but in reality it doesn't matter how good you treat him when he's hungry he will eat anything! We underestimate the dog food! When we use TDE we're saying to people look at how good I am, or how different I am. Its got its positives, but on the negative side we under emphasise the cross, the sacrifice of Jesus which is actualy the thing that will save them, our good works wont save them even if they do point to something better.

TDE teaches a God will bless you gospel so much so that when hard times come they run off to find another master with some schmakos. It doesn't emphasise turn from you sin. It doesn't teach sin is disgusting, detestable an abomination to God.

There is more but this is getting long. I'm interested in your thoughts so comment away. Just to let you know we are not teaching Teasing Dog Evangelism at Go For Souls. Rather we are feeding hungry people the real gospel. We will see people saved on the day. Their lives will be different from that moment on. It will be the day of Salvation.

The duty of the church

I maintain that the only indispensible qualification for wintessing for Christ is the Holy Ghost... Therefore, give me man, woman or child with the Holy Ghost, full of love and zeal for God, and I say it would be a great strength and joy to that convert to testify to that church and the world and it would be the bounden duty of the church to give him or her the opportunity to do so. The Lord is not going to evangelize this land by finished sermons and disquisitions, but by the simple testimony of people saved from sin and the devil, by His power and His grace. Catherine Booth

Imagine your whole life you have been taunted, bullied, abused, picked on, unappreciated, told you are worthless, never been good at anything, failed at everything. Imagine if you had no social skills, couldn't read or write, didn't have any qualifications. Imagine if you had spent your whole life drunk and abusing others.

Then imagine hearing Catherine say this. Catherine had this amazing passion to get everyone testifying about Jesus. It didnt matter who you had been, what you had done, or how much you knew. If Jesus had saved you you can testify. How liberating, how empowering! Not only is Catherine a fan of it, but she believes that it is the churches DUTY to make sure people have the opportunity to testify.

We have seen this in action at Plenty Valley and seen a stack of people saved. It works. Its sad how so many people make evangelism hard and something it isnt. Its sad how people shy away from preaching and declaring how good God is. But its is amazing when brand new converts go to the street, school and home and share their faith!

Go For Souls is set up to do just that. The conference 21-22 November is going to teach, equip and empower you to evangelise! Its practical. Its biblical. Its for you.

Preachers Preach!

"The Lord has told us to go into the world and preach the gospel, we cant do it without preachers, and the first thing to do is to make them." G.S.Railton

A bit more Railton today!

Railton was known all throughout the Army as a holy man, as man to be honoured. When people heard his name they would say "He was the man with the General." Or words to that effect stating how he is a giant of the faith and was working with Booth to found The Salvation Army. He was a great preacher and everyone would love to hear him preach.

Having said that though he would often upset people or atleast surprise them. People would have him come to speak and instead he would get all the people in the corps, on the street to start preaching and tetsifying. He empowered people to be the preacher instead of himself doing it all the time.

Railtons life was guided by the Great Commission to preach the gospel, and he knew that he could he could preach well but the way to see the world saved is to teach other people to preach, to multiply efforts! He empowered people, gave people self worth, appreciated and recognised that we all have something to offer. He left behind him a legacy that we see today, The Salvation Army.

How sad is it when people take the good stuff all for themself and leave younger less Spitiually mature people behind in a cloud of dust thinking 'I could never do what you do.' It is heretical. We can all testify that Jesus died and rose again, we can all share how God is good, alive and changing my life. We need more people who recognise what God has done and is doing in peoples lives and empower them to preach the gospel. No more 'Your not ready!' But much more 'Preach! Preach!'

So, If you are struggling to be a preacher, or want encouragement to preach, or want to be challenged to preach, then come to Go For Souls 08! And learn how to preach the gospel!

Praise Evangelism

"Suppose" he would say again, "That I had thirty minutes in which to speak in my meeting, I should break it up into three short talks of ten minutes each, with plenty of sining and testimony in between." G.S.Railton

Railton was an amazing evangelist. He loved leading people to Christ from all walks of life from just about every continent. And as I read about him I find a few things that typify his evangelistic efforts. I call it "Praise Evangelism."

He would be so full of joy all the time. He would always be singing and talking to people. He would do this to one person, three, or to a big rowdy crowd. He would tell of how great God was, he would testify what God had done in his life and others life. He would get other people to testify what God was doing in their lives. He would praise God with words and song and let others hear.

But his joy was so evident that when he told people to repent and believe they did. They wanted what he had. And the message he had although may seem rough: 'repent or go to hell' the people knew he was doing it out of love and joy and not fear and hate.

In our evangelism lets not forget that Jesus didn't come to condemn but to save. In our evangelism lets praise God, lets tell people how good God is, how much He loves them, how He can chage their life if only they repent and believe!

Go For Souls Ad

Hey everyone! Check out www.goforsouls.blogspot.com! The list of speakers is up! We got Capt Steve Court, Jason Golden, Andy Harrisson (One of the Planetshakers drummers) and Pete Brookshaw!

Joe the Turk

The following is taken and reworded from here.

Joe the Turk was a mountain of man being compared in size and shape to a prize fighter. He was described as rude and obnoxious, but at the same time he is one of the Salvation Army's great evangelists. Although he didn't always follow the rules he opend heaps of corps that lead for the way for new followers to have their corps in a more conventional way.

He was a shoemaker by occupation but one day he saw some Salvationists being attacked on the streets of London, and though knowing no English, he stepped in as their bodyguard. He travelled the country and would often see these salvos being persecuted so he would join in to protect them. Gradually he learnt what they were actually doing and was converted.

Joe's shoe shop became a colorful religious center, and he constantly thought of new ways to attract attention. He would attract attention in all sorts of ways, including umbrellas with hard core Turn or burn type slogans which lighted up, (lights werent common at this time) he wore funny clothes and He would stamp "Jesus Saves" all over the place.

When the town of Macomb, Illinois, was in the grip of a crooked mayor, Joe ran him out of town and took over until the people could hold an election. In another town, he saw a mob about to lynch the corps officer and braved the crowd to put the officer safely on the train. City after city Joe would be arrested for disturbing the peace with his open air meetings but he would boast being 'jailed 57 times for Jesus!'

After 38 years of adventurous service in the ranks of the Army, he retired in 1925. He was promoted to glory in his New York hotel room in 1937. Thousands called "Joe the Turk" their spiritual father.

Thats the sort of guy I want to be like. Someone crazy about seeing the world won for Jesus and doing whatever they can to get it done! How are you stepping out to win the world for Jesus?

Free Shooters

"We only desire to form and to keep up outside every denominational circle a body as large as we can of free shooters for the express purpose of assaulting with spiritual weapons those who, like ourselves, are without the church, but who, unlike us, are still in rebellion against God,"
G.S.Railton, Heathen England

Imagine if that quote were true for today? Imagine a force of believers who didn't belong to a 'church' but were completely sold out to preaching the gospel to the lost. Imagine an Army where getting people saved was its most important goal, its mission, its purpose. Thats the sort of Army that I want to be a part of! It excites me and I could easily lay down all my days to that cause.

There is a conflict between growing churches and winning the world for Jesus. The conflict is ideological, its philosophical. The conflict has to do with priorities. It has to do with purpose. It has to do with vision.

Im not in it to grow churches, to put bums on seats, for stats, or to keep my superiors happy. Although no doubt those things will happen. But I am in it to win the world for Jesus. I literally want to see every single person on the face of this planet saved and sanctified. And to do that we can no longer stay in the church walls and pray that people will be saved, we will need to be as Railton says, "free shooters for the express purpose of assaulting with spiritual weapons those who, like ourselves, are without the church, but who, unlike us, are still in rebellion against God."

He will do it!

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. (1 Thes 5:23-24)

Hallelujah!

EVANGE LAW ISM

John Wesley said to a friend, in writing to a young evangelist, "Preach 90 percent law and 10 percent grace."

Why would we preach the law to people? Isn't God all about grace? Heres a few thoughts...

• Jesus always gave law to the proud, grace to the humble
• Jesus never had grace on sin, only the sinner
• We know we love God if we obey Him, so if we dont obey Him our sinfulness is revealed
• The Holy Spirit has come to lead us into truth and to convict us of our sin... Are these the same thing? Conviction is when the Holy Spirit reveals truth about our sinfulness?
• If people dont know they are sinners and destined for hell then they 'convert' what are they converting to or for? This will strongly influence what sort of disciple they are!
• If we need to repent to be saved dont we need to know what we're being saved from? Or repenting of?
• Wasn't the law just for the Old Testament? Nope, Paul says, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin." (romans 3:20)
• The psalmist says in Psalm 19:7, "The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul."

So the law shows us our sin so we can repent of our sin so we can be saved!

Yesterday I blogged how we've been sexing up the gospel and selling the end result instead of the product so to speak. Selling the abs and not the ab roller... Selling the blessings and things and not the Salvation, sacrifice and repentance... So how does this all fit in with a gospel of signs and wonders, healing and deliverance?

At first this seems to not really fit. How can the gospel be a call to sacrifice and death to self at the same time as promising God heals and sets free? Is it submit and then everything will be better?

I believe healing and deliverance are signs that point towards Christ and the cross. They show us that Christ is authorative over all. That sickness, pain, death and the demonic all submit to Christ. Christ is above all. At His word sickness, pain, death and the demonic submit. There is no choice.

Once seeing and coming into contact with this authority we are faced with a question, will we submit to Christ now or on judgment day?

The sexy gospel

Ads are changing. They use to be all about the product but now they see their product by making it sexy! That’s right, that car will get you hot chicks, that Mars bar will make you a stud, that deodorant will make you irresistible. Your life will be better by these products! The gospel message has changed too. Come to Jesus for a better life. Come to Jesus for this and that. Hmmm

The call Jesus had was for Salvation. Come to Jesus to be saved from your sin. That’s why He died on the cross. He didn’t die on the cross just for a better life, rather it was for your sin. That doesn’t mean you wont have a better life, it just means that the reason you come to Jesus is for Salvation from sin.

We’re trying to sell a sexy gospel instead of the real deal. Sin, hell, judgment, repent, sacrifice, die to self is not good promotional material but wholeness, love, peace, grace are.

This is the point: The gospel is freedom from sin, we get forgiven, we get a pardon from the crimes we committed. All the other great stuff comes out of that amazing point. But to get that salvation you need to repent, you need to obey God, you need to submit to Him. But we start pitching the sex stuff and forget where that stuff comes from. We start selling the wrong thing.

People will get ‘saved’ thinking life will get better. But when the promised persecution comes, when the inevitable bad times come they will be left wondering where is God? They will think this better life stuff is crap. And they will leave.

The thing that needs to keep them is their reliance on God for their salvation. And out of that assurance of salvation they will be filled with joy and peace. Nothing else will matter. And their life will be better…

Don’t use sex to sell the gospel.

Preach it!

Do you remember what the last thing Jesus said before He zoomed up into heaven right beofre a bunch of peoples eyes? He said, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." I guess it wasn't a surprise after the countless times He had already told them. Right from the word go He was calling people to preach and lead people into a saving faith. "Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men." He has commanded it to every single Jesus follower.

So what about you my fellow Jesus follower? Are you preaching the gospel with your words and actions? Your actions will back up and give your words credibilty. They show people your heart. Words are needed too becasue if we dont preach they wont hear, if they dont hear they wont believe, if they dont believe they wont be saved...

"Whatever will we do" you ask? Go to Go For Souls. Go For Souls is coming up fast! Lock it in your callendar. Its for all of us who want to take the Great Commission ("The preach it to everyone command!") seriously. Its practical, fun and easy. We're focussing on taking the opportunities God has already given us (like friends and family) and also creating opportunities to share! (like on the streets!) Come and see that sharing Jesus with people is actually a privilige and is fun! After all God commanded it...

I'm Back

I'm back. I have spent time away from the world of blogging and I am back with a vengance. Not really, but I am back. I may not have chisled abs like the Terminator (yet) but I am back.

Someone else once said they were going to come back. He said that over 2000 years ago and we're still waiting... He will be back and we will have absolutely no idea when it will be. It will come like a thief in the night.

One night while we were asleep a thief came and stole my dads wallet. We had no idea. That's what its going to look like. No idea.

So, althought this post is borderline cheesey with the whole Termonator thing, I am back and I will try to post something up 3 or 4 times a week. But we will see how the blog bug gets me!

GETTING MARRIED

I'm getting married today!
Wont be blogging for 2 weeks but you can keep us in your prayers!

1pm Moreland Salvos
Everyone is invited!

Thank you God for blessing me with a great soon to be wife!

Mike Gug Testimony

Wow. I just watched this video and it is an awessome testimony. Have a look!

ACTS 4 Lesson...

Peter and John healed a beggar in Acts chapter 3. Then they were brought before the sandhedrin. They started questioning Peter. To which he said,

ACTS 4:8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! 9If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, 10then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11He is
" 'the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the capstone.
12Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

Heres a few points from this short account.

1) Peter and John acted in kindness. (v9) Do you find that amazing that they filled with the Holy Spirit were living in love! When they saw the poor beggar they had compassion and healed him because it was the kind thing to do. Note, it was not to show people their message was this or that, it was not to make a show, it was for compassion! Healing ministry is a ministry of kindness!

2) Peter and John were harassed by the religious people. This is the age old story. Whenever there is a work of God religios people get all uptight and go all legalistic! From Old Testament times, New Testament times, Wesley times, to now! Don't get caught up in the wicked religios spirit!

3) Healing is in the name of Jesus! Healing in the name of Jesus is an amazing thought. The name of Jesus is so powerful, so full of love and compassion that when commanded in the name of Jesus something starts changing in the Earth! In this case it was the mans health! Hallelujah! Remember how powerful the name of Jesus is!

4) The healing led to the gospel being preached. Peter and John healed a man which led to the gospel being preached. There is no correct order for healing and preaching because they are both preaching! They are preaching with words and actions. Lets never be so ignorant to think that the gospel must be spoken first, it doesn't matter as it is all preaching, word and deed!

5) Salvation only comes through Jesus Christ. There is no other way to heaven, eternal life. It is only through faith in Jesus Christ. Those who do not believe Him will perish. That means Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, as lovely as some may be will not inherit eternal life unless they put their faith in Jesus Christ. Think of your family and friends, you neighborhood, see the millions drifting into hell. GO and fetch them! They need saving, and only the MIGHTY name of Jesus will do!

Catch the fire!

I recieved this email today from Catch the fire...

Dear Family and Friends in Christ,

What a mighty God we serve! The revival meetings are into the 3rd week and people are beginning to travel from distant places to soak in His presence. We constantly give all glory to the Lord as those coming are receiving most powerfully from the Lord. Night after night the presence of God has been increasing as people stay and soak in His presence for hours at the altar.

Some said, “We’ve been use to only 15 minutes for worship, but now we worship God for hours and it seems not enough.” What an amazing statement, but then through worship (being in the presence of God) people have encountered healing and lives have been radically changed in the past 18 days.

Hungry souls continue to be healed, delivered and set free with many lives being surrendered to Jesus for the very first time. In the last 3 days, 2 ladies suffering with MS (Multiple Sclerosis) have been healed by the power of God. Both could hardly walk, but as God touched them they began to run – so exciting to witness as God reveals His power to heal.

Many more deaf people received their hearing! Every one clapped and rejoiced when one man in particular who was deaf for many years (in both ears) received his healing. The neighbour who brought this man (who also needed a healing touch) got so excited and started shouting because her friend received healing, that she forgot why she came to the altar! Her friend leaned over and whispered to Pastor Danny, “She needs healing from Asthma.” It was her turn to shout with joy and thanksgiving for her healing when she received mightily from the Lord.

Two other ladies suffering with 'Chronic Fatigue Disorder' for years were both brought to the altar, helped by family members. God healed both instantly and they started running all over the place.

Another woman was brought to the altar and placed on a chair as she could not stand for long due to a condition where her legs were so weak, with accompanying ongoing pain all over her body. When Pastor Danny prayed over her she arose from the chair and the rest is history. It wasn’t long before she started running and then literally leapt off the stage, as God’s goodness touched and healed her completely.

Many others were delivered from demonic activity. The demons leave resisting, but must go. One lady who got set free was set apart as a priestess in a coven, or possibly better known as a 'blood line Satanist'.

We are so encouraged to see so many young people and children coming night after night to drink from the refreshing river from the Lord. It is amazing how many young people who have been suicidal or have attempted suicide several times, have been set free in the name of Jesus from every demonic affliction. Almost every night there are similar testimonies of how they come out of darkness, depression and death to life, freedom and liberty. Free to live at last!

Pastor Danny said, “Our desire is to serve and assist the local church to arise into its God-given destiny and have the Body of Christ empowered by the power of God, so that they can release His love and fire in their community and reach the lost into the Kingdom of God’.

It does seem however, rather than being part of what God is doing in Australia (and rejoicing that it is happening at last) some pastors seem troubled that Pastor Danny may be inclined to start a church and they will be affected, so have decided not to promote the meetings. This is unfortunate and unfounded. Let me reiterate this very clearly, Pastor Danny has not been called by the Lord and has no plans to start at church.

We welcome local pastors to the revival meetings to come genuinely to drink from this wonderful refreshing river of the Lord, and to be empowered as their people are, to go back to their churches revived, encouraged and full of fire to see the Kingdom work escalate and gather many from the harvest God has prepared.

Here at Catch The Fire we love this nation of Australia and it is my belief that each of us (no matter what position we may hold in accountability to the Lord and His people) need to go deep into the river and swim in the provision and goodness of the Lord so that as the Body of Christ we can see this nation bow her knee before her only Lord – Jesus Christ.

In holding the meetings for four nights a week (Tues, Wed, Fri & Sat), we have sufficient rest, but can sustain weekly as long as the Lord leads us to do so. Please do come and soak in His presence and anointing to see lives changed.

We are prayerful that the body of Christ will not miss this opportunity given by the Holy Spirit at this now time, as we are aware of the hearts of many pastors and flock have been genuinely crying out for revival consistently for years now. What if this is the beginning of what we were waiting for??? Will you delay or embrace what God is doing? How we would love to see you come and join with us! We release great blessing over you as you fight the good fight in prayer and action, for the gospel to do its work as you grow in His grace and love.

Literally thousands of people have attended the revival meetings over the past 18 days with up to 50% new people each night. This is extremely encouraging and shows us God’s hungry people want to be satisfied and healed and restored, as they spend time with King Jesus, their soon-coming Bridegroom. See you there…

The Holy Spirit Revival meetings are continuing week nights on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7.30pm with Saturday at 6.30pm. Check website www.catchthefire.com.au for new updates and recent photos, including the leaflet for printing & distribution. Revival, healing meetings in Melbourne are held at Christian Community Church, 30 Star Crescent, in Hallam.

Blessings,
Dianne Johnson
Catch The Fire Ministries Inc

The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost

Acts Chapter 2

1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

5Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" 12Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

13Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."
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I always find it interresting how peoples reactions never change from Bible time to now. When the Holy Spirit starts moving He does weird and wacky things. He does things to people that makes other people feel uncomfortable, and often the people looking on don't understand what is going on and so they start bagging it. But we all know that the Holy Spirit has come to give us power to testify. To testify to Jesus the Messiah, His death and resurrection, and how we can inherit eternal life. Peter got up filled with the Spirit amongst the scoffing and preached and 3000 were saved that day.

Are you a scoffer?
Are you filled with the Holy Spirit and if you are have you gotten up to preach or are you just sitting still?

Father please forgive us for scoffing at different moves of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, please send the Holy Spirit to empower us to live our life for you dedicated to witnessing to the world about Jesus death and resurrection!

Spiritual Gifts

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. 1 Corinthians 12

Which of these gifts are you operating in? Not operating in any of them then I have two suggestions.

1) Get baptised in the Holy Spirit by repenting of all sin, dedicating your whole life to God, asking the God to baptise you with the Holy Spirit, then believe He is doing/has done it, then walk in and by faith.

Or

2) Step out in faith in a way that will force God to give you one of these gifts so that His will may be done, for example pray for the sick, or ask God for a word of knowledge to help in leading the lost to Christ, building up the church etc...

God determines which ones He gives, and from my experience I can see that God gives as we step out in faith and meet the challenges ahead. He chooses to give gifts to help accomplish the mission He has given us. (The Great Commission)

Step out in faith and see what happens!

Todd Bentley

I have been watching and reading some stuff Todd Bentley preaches and I am not convinced that he is a false prophet. Yeah I cringe when I hear him speak about angels and encounters. But he always says that who or what it is that is appearing to him in visions is not the big deal. What the big deal is is the message. And from the messages I have read and heard him speak about they seem fine and they seem to always bear fruit.

And as I was looking around I came across this from Bill Johnson found on his website...

What do you think about Todd Bentley and the Lakeland Revival?

"Todd is a good friend, but more importantly, he is a friend of God. I've met very few people in my life who are hungrier for God and will take extended periods of time just to seek Him. God has entrusted him with an extraordinary outpouring for a reason—He can trust him to do whatever He says, regardless of the opinions of others. He is bold—amazingly bold. The miracles are legitimate and increasing. The church of America has asked for a great revival. God wonderfully placed this move in a package that few would have expected, just to see if we're as hungry as we say we are."

And

Recent response to the above answer:"How in God's name can you endorse Todd Bentley?" This is my response:

Have you spent time with Todd? Do you know him? Have you watched him with his wife? Or have you seen how he treats his kids? Have you spent any time with his staff? Have you been to his ministry? Has he been to yours? Have you laid hands on him and prayed? Has he laid hands on you and prayed? Have you grieved over tragedy together? Have you celebrated victory together? Has he sought your counsel? Has he traveled a great distance just to meet with you privately for advice? Have you ever received his counsel? Have you been in the room when God has showed up on him, and used him in stunning miracles? Have you seen him operate in the word of knowledge or the prophetic? Have you met with his counsel of elders? Have you personally benefited from his gift? Has he benefited from your gift and ministry? Has he ever honored you for who you are in God? Has he partnered with you as a friend? Have you sacrificed for his welfare, or that of his family? Have you sought God with him? Have you ever worshipped the Lord with him?

I didn't think so. I have. And I'll continue to support those who I have walked with in life and ministry. He's my friend. More importantly, God calls him friend. And if you and I were ever friends in that level, and people hated you and turned against you, and started web pages to tear down your ministry, and criticized you to your friends, and wrote against you in Christian magazines, and criticized you on the radio and wrote emails to other conference speakers and authors, I'd still be your friend.

By the way - criticism in the form of a question is not a question. But to respond to your statement, "How in God's name can you endorse Todd Bentley?" It's easy. I do it in God's name.

Bill

I'm not going to criticse him because some things seem weird and I don't get them all. Todd waits on the LORD far more than anyone reading this blog guaranteed. After all, " But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." and " For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight." And "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."

MIRACLE WITH EVIDENCE

A letter from a friend of mine...

Dear James,

As I shared with you and at Macleod the other night, Len's healing was dramatic, instantaneous, and supernatural. He had suffered a major stroke and I was being told by the whole medical team at Maroondah Public hospital , to book my husband into a Nursing Home as he would never regain speak see, or have use of his right arm. leg and cognitive thinking again. There were scans to medically prove this , these scans are in our keeping and that there would be quote:''ABSOLUTELY NO IMPROVEMENT , ONLY DEGENERATION FROM NOW ON ", Len was aged 44 at this time. I knew & believed & prayed the fire of God into what seemed to be a "hopeless'' situation.

Myself & Major David Philp layed hands on Len & immediately power flowed into his right side & he began to speak his first intelligible words since the stroke .......the actual stroke had occured some 10 or so hours earlier.. The Doctors & nursing staff stared in disbelief as they watched Len beginning to recover, they could not offer any medical , logical reason for what appeared to be and was proved to be a powerful healing from JESUS ........as days went on , after a short period of rest , Len resumed his normal extremely demanding schedule as a Corps Officer with myself (Marney) at Ringwood Corps.EVD

I can only say ''PRAISE JESUS" for the miracle of healing on that night and Len continues to serve the Lord unhindered as an effective servant of Jesus in a very responsible position of leadership in The Salvation Army (Aus. South. Territory).2008! Please feel free to share this story ! By the way we have many others ......HALLELUJAH!

MARNEY

To check out her blog click here.

5 SALVATIONS!

Last night we had the discipleship group for Plenty and Macleod and it was great! It was the last one for the term and last one as me and Sarah as not married so we gave them the choice of what they wanted to do. Option 1 was to muck around, play card games and talk, Option 2 was to pray and talk and Option 3 was to pray then do outreach. It was 50/50 between outreach and prayer so it worked well.

In the prayer time one of the youth who we have been travelling along with decided they wanted to committ their life to Christ. Hallelujah! God started speaking to her and told her to do the outreach too. So we had over half wanting to preach the gospel and heal the sick/pray for whoever they could.

We split into teams and my team started talking to a bunch of boys 15-17 years old, we preached the gospel, they were convicted and told us they wanted to be saved. We all prayed and spoke about repentance and following God, we got their phone numbers and have invited them to hang out with us. They now know they are sinners deserving hell, that God doesnt want that which is why Jesus died, and if we turn from sin and follow God we will be raised as Jesus was to eternal life! We also prayed for the infilling of the Holy Spirit and 2 of the 4 said they felt something going on in their hearts. (remember wesleys heart was strangely warmed...)

So pray for those boys and the girl! Remember that Jesus saves! Remember the gospel is the power of God to save! Lets preach it as much as we can! The more we preach it and give people the opportunity to be saved the more people will get saved! Go do likewise today!

Thers a dieing world to save!

A question...

"You seem very certain in your beliefs. What convinces you that Christianity is the one true religion?" Clint

Thanks for your comment Clint! There are lots of ways to answer this question so I hope the following question suffices, if it does not please let me know and I will try again!

God is holy and God is just. We know that there can be no darkness in light. For example, when you turn on the light you never stand there wondering if the dark will overcome the light, the light always prevails. Thats what God is like. He is light and there is no darkness in Him at all...

On the other hand we humans do have darkness in us. We all sin (fall short, miss the mark etc see the side of the blog for some definitions...) and this for one makes us guilty of breaking Gods law, and leaves a stain of sin on us.

This makes it impossible for us to be with God, because there is no darkness in light. This means we are separated from God and destined for the place where we are dealt the punishment for our sin. Hell.

But God loves us. He is desperate for us to be with Him. To have relationship with Him. He wants to give us life in its fullness and definitely not hell. So God sent Jesus to die on the cross, to take our sin, our punishment for us. So that we can be purified and be with God. When Jesus, who is blameless and without sin, died on the cross He took our sin, and as He rises we too can rise with Him.

That is why Jesus is the only way. He is the only one that has, or can take away our sin leading us to a relationship with God. God is holy. God is just. And only by His grace can we be saved.

Once again, there are many reasons... Let me know what you think.

REVIVAL

Revival is happening.

I watched a bit of the Lakeland Revival this morning. Click here to watch more. I saw Todd Bentley preach and teach a bit and I have to say that I was impressed. I have never doubted what is happening in Lakeland. I have had doubts about Bentley in terms of exaggerating when it is not necessary. I've also had some concerns about some reports of the angelic experiences he has had. (In particular about the book of hebrews...) I have also wondered how much glory Jesus is getting, and the call to repentance or lack thereof.

This morning he preached Jesus. Jesus crucified. He preached that we preach with a demonstration of the Spirits power. Heres a bit I tried to write down, not quite word for word...

"I'm not getting anointed to heal. Jesus was about changing the atmosphere, demonstrating the Kingdom He is bringing. Thats why He said, "Your Kingdom come." When you pray, pray that it would be heaven on Earth, Get heaven to show up. When you pray pray that the Kingdom of heaven would show up." He continued to say that we need to show people the Kingdom!

I still have questions, but he definitely preached the gospel, definitely called for repentance, and definitely gave all the glory to God!

Also, he says has heaps of documented healings and they're asking everyone who has been healed to go to the doctor and get a written report. He then told everyone that he will give the documents to any major media station that ask for them.

click here for news articles on the Florida outpouring (theres quite alot!)

click here for some questions and answers about the outpouring (i have only peeked at this so far but it does cover a few issues...)

Also, Catch the Fire revival in Hallam is still going. I'm taking people, if you want to come let me know! Lets position ourself where God is showing up in really cool powerful ways which are demonstrating the Kingdom of God!

CATCH THE FIRE REPORT

Last night I went to the Catch The Fire meeting in Hallam and it was fantastic. I have to admit, I was a little cautious going in as I have never heard Danny Nahlia speak and knew some of the controversy which surrounds him. But I was very impressed...

Jesus was glorified. Danny and Jason Golden were great at reminding everyone that Jesus is to get the glory. They repeated that there was nothing great about them rather the God who used them was great. I saw them pastorally rebuke a couple of people for idolizing them and told them to glorify Jesus instead.

When we walked in they were in the middle of an altar call with people sprawled out on the ground after falling after receiving prayer. As they prayed for me I fell over and was paralysed for some minutes. I was in the presence of God and felt so at peace. God telling me just to relax and focus on Him, to soak in His presence. They were not praying/asking for this to happen, it was just a simple prayer for each person and if something happened it did, if it didn't it didn't and they moved on. No loud shouts of 'bang' or 'boom' no showmanship, just prayer.

There was lots of healings. But before they started praying Danny told everyone that the miracles accompany the message they actually want people to hear, the message that Jesus died and rose for our salvation and that is the greatest miracle of all. A little frail lady came in in a wheel chair and after some prayer she got up and was walking everywhere. The smile on her face was priceless! More deaf people could hear, a 13 year old girl deaf in one ear since birth was brought by her parents and she was healed! It was very emotional for that family.

There was alot of deliverance taking place too. There was an altar call for those who were addicted to come down the front and receive prayer. Danny explained it that God can touch you now, but to keep it going you need to follow Jesus and obey Him. Danny precisely prophesied and named demons and curses and prayed for these people. There was a great team of staff who counseled these people as Danny prayed for others. No one was left alone after the deliverance and the staff were more than capable.

The story of these meetings has been in the local newspaper and when someone was healed or set free they are asked to fill out a form saying their name and phone number and what happened so that when the news papers call they can say talk to these people about what happened. Danny wants it this way so that the papers dont talk about him but rather God and what He is doing!

The worship was good but nothing special, in fact some would say boring. There was no glitz or glamor, absolutely no hype, no going crazy, just a whole bunch of people seeking God.

The team kept repeating that this isn't to be something thats locked up in the church, rather if you get healed here then go home and heal someone there, you get saved here, go get your family saved type thing. The emphasis is not the meetings rather people being activated for the salvation of the world.

In my opinion, you need to get there and check it out. I'm going to go back, this time with more people, and I encourage you, that if you are skeptical, and not sure about these types of things, have a pray then go check it out for yourself.

30 Star Crescent Hallam
Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri start 7:30
Sat, Sun start 6:30

blessed...

Check out http://catchthefire.com.au/blog/
They report a huge host of miracles going on in their meetings they have been having this week. Alot of healing and deliverance is happening, and alot of people are getting saved! Hallelujah! I'm hoping to go, and if you doubt whether God still heals and does these things pop down and check it all out!
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Do you believe God loves you?
Do you believe God wants to bless you?
How does God bless you?

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I want to thank God for blessing me. Dieing on the cross, rising, sitting at the right hand of the Father. Sending the Holy Spirit. Family. Friends. There is heaps of stuff.

Some may know that my tooth got hit and it broke in half a while ago. I was praying that God would heal it. I know quite a few people thought that was stupid, and some of those people have told me. But thats ok. So, with the wedding approaching I was getting more and more worried...

I said to God, "You're the one thats telling us to get married at this time, and you know I have no money, so please provide me extra money or make a new tooth grow by Friday." When that Friday came nothing had happened to the tooth. But I received a phone call out of the blue asking me to do some laboring for a floor grinding company. I then worked all the shifts they gave me and the amount of money I earned minus the tithe was just over the price that got my tooth fixed!

So, while some may laugh, God healed my tooth. He gave me the money to get it done and I praise Him for that. Sorry Lord for ever doubting you.

I believe God answers prayer, just not always how we expect/want Him to.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17

freedom

Sorry I havent been blogging much! Ive been flat out!

On the good side we are seeing God doing some amazing things at the moment, real life changing stuff. The girls that decided to follow Jesus the other week came back for Bible study yesterday where we spoke about Sin and Salvation and deliverance... Today at brekie club they were almost completely different looking kids. I dont know how to explain, they were happy, but something in their spirit is changing. Praise God!

I had a great opportunity to show Gods love today. I was able to give coffee to some people lining up outside in the cold which led to great conversations, and I was able to pray for a guys back. He injured his back years and years ago at work and hasnt been able to work since. He came intoday and it was really bugging him so I prayed for it and he became alot more peaceful, and as he left he said it felt great and that he wanted to come to church with me! Thank you God for loving people!

Heres some holiness stuff from the Holy Spirit via Paul in Galatians 5...

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery...

"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature[a]; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."[b] 15If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. "

Lord, forgive us for sinning. Help us live by the Spirit! Thank you for freedom!

What to do

I remember when there were discussions around about if we should just evangelise, or evangelise and serve or just serve. There were two very distinctive groups, and I remember being stuck in the middle.

One group was that we shouldn’t waste our time on serving people. It’s better just to get them saved, that’s more important. The other was don’t preach it, rather just love them and they will find God. And I was in the middle saying can’t we do both? Why do they need to be separated?

The answer is they don’t need to be separated. Serving people is showing people Gods love. It’s a response from our heart to love God and love others. It’s about sharing the grace of God, whether that’s through a meal and a shelter, or an evangelistic sermon, or a talk over the coffee table.

These days there are people who try to write off the ministry of signs and wonders. They say we should just preach it, or preach it and act out of love. Then there are the people on the other side who say we should only preach with signs and wonders. (I haven’t met anyone from this side yet though…)

Again I am in the middle. I believe we are to preach the gospel, and serve humanity through our own strength and by allowing God to work His saving power in their lives. There is no reason why there needs to be division again. Lets do all three and we will see that they all interact with each other.

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This was in a table but I couldn't get it to fit...

Signs no preaching

Signs and preaching

Signs and preaching and serving

Only preaching

Serving and preaching and signs

Serving and preaching

Serving no preaching

DELIVERANCE - SALVATION - BAPTISM

Last night was amazing! We had our usual group at the hall after school yesterday and we had a few new people come. One guy came early because he wanted to get right with God. I was able to speak to him about the foolish man building his house upon the sand and the wise man building upon the rocks. This worked beautifully and he immediately wanted to pray and repent.
We spent some time in prayer then as I was leaving the room he kept saying how hes going to try to be good but he still has demons in him. I wasn't 100% if they were demons but I wanted to at least pray for him. So I simply accepted the authority Jesus has given us over the demonic (luke10:19) and started quietly praying if there was anything not of God in him that it would leave. I started getting names of unclean spirits so I simply told them to leave. He started shaking and falling backwards even though I had rested my hand on his shoulder. Wanting him to know that I wasn't pushing I decided not to touch him and I kept praying. Again, as I quietly commanded the demonic to leave he kept falling backwards. Then all of a sudden he was at peace and had a great smile!

Then a couple of girls came in as we finished up. They were swearing so I simply said no swearing in church. Then we started talking about church, to which I asked, "Do you believe in God?" They said yes, but when I asked if they were heading for heaven they didn't know. So I did the good test so they could find out of they were 'good enough' to go to heaven. Of course we found out that they both were headed for hell and they didn't like that thought. So I was able to tell them about the grace of God dieing and rising again to forgive us and to wipe away it all from us. To recieive this you had to say sorry to God and choose to follow Him from now on. They agreed so we wrote down on paper all the sins we could think of. Then we lit fire as we thanked God for Jesus and for forgiveness. They then committed to following Jesus.

We then mucked around with all the other guys but then we decided everyone needed to know how to listen to God speak. So we spent time listening to God and had some very prophetic stuff coming out for each other. I was particularly impressed with one prophetic word from one girl to the other saying she could see the girl walking away from a fight and walking towards Jesus. It was a great moment!

After this we spoke of the need to follow Jesus in more detail and how it can be hard but God has sent the Holy Spirit to help us to follow Him. I then asked if they wanted to receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands. They all indicated they wanted to so we started praying for each other. The Holy Spirit showed up and touched our hearts, and as a sign of Him touching the inside He also touched the outside causing us all to fall to the ground. We explained that the falling to the ground was an outward sign of them letting go and letting God take over, giving God full control so that He can touch our hearts. A great peace filled the room!

We had a great time. We all had fun and encountered the living God. We gave them our new Christian show bags that have devotionals, bibles, stress balls that say Jesus loves you, and a bunch of other stuff, and we also organised a new small group to be held every week so we can learn to follow Jesus better!

Praise God because He saves!

Apathetic and Mediocre?

Following yesterdays post WJE asked me when I was going to come back to mainstream Christianity. (Because I'm so out there!) I then went on to say how I thought mainstream Christianity is mediocre, apathetic and boring. So, of course people want to know why I think these things. This is what I think, feel free to disagree!

Mediocre

1.	of only ordinary or moderate quality; neither good nor bad; barely adequate.

2.	rather poor or inferior.

I use to fit right in with mediocre Christianity. It was nothing that different from how other people lived their lives. I had a belief and i was a good person. I prayed, I read my Bible, I did all the things I was suppose to do. I had a mainstream Christian life. Nothing 'extreme.'

But then I got filled with the Holy Spirit. How did it happen? I asked God to fill me with the Holy Spirit. And He did. Physically my hand shook for 4 hours and we couldn't stop it. But that wasn't the big thing, my heart changed. My attitudes changed. Not only that but my faith increased. And from this moment on I stepped out of mediocrity. I still had mediocre times in my life, but I had tasted something sweeter than what I had ever had before.

That has just grown and grown since then. These days I see people healed regularly. I see people get saved regularly. Visions, prophecy and words of knowledge are common place now. So, when I look back to how life used to be and compare it with now, everything else seems mediocre, its ordinary.

Apathetic

1.	having or showing little or no emotion: apathetic behavior.

2.	not interested or concerned; indifferent or unresponsive:

Now heres a word that I use to describe the mainstream Christian church. Little to no emotion! Not really interested or concerned. Why do I think that? I think that because much of mainstream Christianity doesn't care. Mainstream Christianity is about alot of good things, good morals, good attitudes, doing good things etc. But I see no emotion from mainstream Christians for the millions of people going to hell. They just don't seem to be all that concerned.

I read the Bible and see a God who has compassion on people, who heals the sick, casts out demons, provides, protects and speaks. I see a God who changes lives in a blink of an eye, not just to show people His party tricks, but because He loves them. Yet mainstream Christianity looks at these things and say they are nice, but then, doesn't expect the same today.

What am I advocating for? I'm advocating for a faith that is not just a head thing, something I learned from being at uni, or a belief system I grew up with. Its not just a warm feeling that I am saved. Its not just something that is good, and good to other people.

Im advocating for a fiery hot faith of which I'll blog on that later...

what to believe?

Check out Simon Maplebacks blog, hes got a couple of good vids on Oprah. I've had problems with her for ages so its good to see these videos... Ive only watched 2 of them but they reveal some interesting things...

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Someone asked me about how I can follow so many different types of people with different beliefs and practices and asked how I work out what to take and what to drop.

I barrack for Port Adelaide. I like most of our players, I think they are good. But some of them really need something a bit extra, they need to do things differently. When I look at other clubs I see players I think would work really well at my club. I would love to have Buddy Love in our forward line, Garry Abblet in the middle, and Scarlett down back. I don't want them to bring their own club, just themselves. I want a Port Power Buddy Love, a Port Power Abblett... That would do nicely...

William Booth did similar sorts of things. He took things that worked from one place, disregarded what wasn't that great and blended a whole bunch of things together. (One example Army with Church...)

So, for myslef, I take Way of the Masters 'Good Test' and some of their teaching, but I reject some of their Calvinist roots of election and pre-destination, I like some Extreme Prophetic stuff like giving people words from God, but some of their theology can bother me too. I love Charles Finney, Wesley, Booths, Bonnke, etc but it doesn't mean that everything they say I will agree with. But I am more than happy to take the bits do agree with!

I like to test things against Scripture, reason, history, tradition and experience. The main thing though is Scripture. If people disagree with me from Scripture I am so much more willing to debate and listen to them. Scripture is the authorative text that I will work with...

So, heres to having a Port Power dream team...

MUST WATCH

THIS IS A MUST WATCH VIDEO. ITS SOOOO FUNNY!

Letter from an atheist

Ray,

You are really convinced that you've got all the answers. You've really got yourself tricked into believing that you're 100% right. Well, let me tell you just one thing. Do you consider yourself to be compassionate of other humans? If you're right, as you say you are, and believe that, then how can you sleep at night? When you speak with me you are speaking with someone who you believe is walking directly into eternal damnation into an endless onslaught of horrendous pain which your 'loving' god created, yet you stand by and do nothing.

If you believe one bit that thousands every day were falling into an eternal and unreacheable fate, you should be running the streets mad with rage at their blindness. That's equivalent to standing on a street corner and watching every person that passes you walk blindly directly into the path of a bus and die, yet you stand idly by and do nothing. You're just twiddling your thumbs, happy in the knowledge that one day that 'walk' signal will shine your way across the road.

Think about it. Imagine the horrors Hell must have in store if the bible is true. You're just going to allow that to happen and not care about saving anyone but yourself? If you're right then you're an uncaring, unemotional and purely selfish (expletive) that has no right to talk about subjects such as love and caring.

James Franz

The entire discourse between Ray and this atheist is now in a fascinating book called, Intelligent Design versus Evolution—letters to an atheist

Taken from www.wayofthemaster.com

THE LAW AND EVANGELISM

I've had some people question me with one of the ways I do evangelism. The matter in question is the 'Good Test.' The test is used to get people to admit their guilt before we step into the grace of God. This is done by asking questions relating to the 10 commandments. But some have not liked this approach thinking that if we ask these questions then we need to live underneath all the law otherwise we are hypocrites. So, I'm going to try to show what I think scripture teaches on the subject...

In Galatians and Romans Paul speaks about how Abraham was declared righteous before the law, before circumcision. Paul continues to speak how we cannot be justified by the law, we are only justified by the grace of God in Jesus Christ accessed through faith.

Galatians 2:15"We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' 16know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified."

The law, or obeying the law does not save us. This leaves us with the question, what is the law for? Paul tells us, "But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin" and "The law was added so that the trespass might increase." The law is there to show us our sinfulness. The law was never going to save people, even Abraham who was credited with righteousness was done so before the law was given but he was credited as righteous because of his faith. So the law is there to show us our sinfulness and to point towards Christ who saves.

But not everyone is under this law that was given to the Jews. "All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law." So how can we use the law if people are not under this law?

"Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them." So the law can be used if it tugs at their conscience. In our world everyone knows that murder is not acceptable, we know that dishonesty is wrong. We all have a conscience and we have all gone against this conscience at some stage.

So when we use the 'Good Test' we are using it to get people to admit that they are a sinner, they admit because their heart, their conscience tells them they have done the wrong thing."For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." When we use the 'Good Test' we use it to point towards their need for Jesus.

When we evangelise we want to proclaim the grace of God, we want people to know they can be saved. But before they know that, they need to know they need saving. We use the "Good Test" to show them that yes they need saving. The test does not accuse, rather we ask questions and their own thought accuse them! They see that they are a sinner! "But where sin increased, grace increased all the more!" Hallelujah!

The 'Good Test' is not needed all the time, nor is it 'the way' to evangelise. But it does bring people to aplace where they see the need for a Saviour and gives us a solid platform to preach the love of God.

Why signs and wonders?

It seems I have confused some people with what to emphasize in ministry. Some are saying that I am emphasizing Signs and wonders and miracles too much when the focus should be on the death and resurrection of Jesus.

I completely agree that the most important emphasis should be on Jesus and His death and resurrection. Without a doubt. If I had a chance to preach one thing to a person on the street and I had to choose between Signs and wonders or Jesus and His death and resurrection I would choose Jesus and the resurrection. This is plainly seen in my ministry, if you come and witness with me you will see that I am all about getting people to realise their sinfulness followed by the grace of God found in Jesus death and resurrection.

So what do I see as the role of signs and wonders? I see the role of signs and wonders as confirming the message, as demonstrating the message, as an act of Gods compassion. I see it as one of the ways God uses to take the veil of the sinners eyes (1 Cor) to point them towards Jesus. I also believe that if God has given us Spiritual gifts we need to use them!

In TSA we often speak about what the point of the social services are and sometimes people who just want us to 'preach the gospel' get upset that we are helping and not preaching. But the fact is that God has told us to love the poor, to help people, and that by us doing that it preaches the gospel to them. If we only help and dont use words to preach though then it is in part defective because we want people to know Jesus and they can only know if we tell them. The same is for signs and wonders and miracles. God has commanded us to do participate with Him in doing them, they are part of the gospel but they must always point towards Jesus and our response of faith, obedience and repentance.

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Heres a list of why signs and wonders from a Wimber book...

Authenticating the message
Establishing the church
Demonstrating Christs mercy and compassion
Bearing witness to the truth of Christs claims about Himself
Demonstrating that Gods Kingdom has arrived
Showing Jesus was the one promised by the Father
Illustrating in the physical what God wants to do in the Spiritual
Bringing people to repentance
Showing that the gospel is for Jews and Gentiles

GHOSTING (P.S.I)

I love my sports and heres one I think is going to catch on...

Giving

Plenty Valley Westfield has just opened up down the road from our corps. This means that some of our youth no have jobs and are making money. So the need has arose to speak to them about giving, in particular money.

I was talking to someone yesterday about how to talk about it and without thinking my first comment was something along the lines of "giving back to God." Its a term I've heard from lots of people and its just in grained into me. However the person I was speaking to quickly rebuked me and got me thinking about it better.

Giving back to God terminology is no good. It implies that we get to keep this part and we give God this other part. This can lead to people thinking, 'Well, I've given this part, thats it... The rest is for me.' When really what God is looking for is all of us. All of our money is Gods. So it shouldn't be about what percentage we give, rather it should be about how we look after all of our money. Now it turns into stewardship.

Once its stewardship (looking after something for someone else) everything changes. Its not about percentages but the way we manage all of our money. This fits in really well with holiness theology of giving ourselves, every area of our life.

So, are you giving a part of your self, of your money? Or are you using it ALL for Gods glory?