The PASSION Blog

It’s been great to hear the rain on the roof over the last month. It has rained more in Perth than it has in a long time. I think that we have even passed our monthly average rainfall. Something I haven’t heard of for a long while.

One thing I am conscious of as I hear the rain, is praying that it will reach the wheatbelt region east of Perth. God has really placed this region on my heart over the last 12 months and more so since we went up to Merredin a couple of weeks ago. Every shower we get in Perth I am praying that it continues east to get the wheatbelt towns. The towns need it, not to mention the farmers.

Over the next few days will you please join me in thanking God for the much needed rain in Perth. Please also pray that God brings it to those regions of Australia that are in severe drought.

The Bible tells us that when we pray and really seek God rain often follows. It is one of His many blessings. So let’s all join together and pray.

God Bless,

Dave

Reflecting on this statement today…

Pray like it all depends on God and work like it all depends on you.

I really like that one. I am gonna try and put that into practice today!

This simple statement has been rolling around in my brain the last few days…

The great heroes of faith are ordinary people, who are connected to an extraordinary God

That statement rings true with me. We may have certain gifts and abilities that the Lord has given us, but ultimately it is only when we are connected to Him and allow Him to work through us, that we see great things happen in the world around us.

Over the past year or so I have been following several Senior Pastors blogs that have really encouraged me.

It has been great to read about what has been going on in their churches and how they are making a difference in their communities and beyond. These guys have really inspired me and spoken in to my life, albeit from a distance.

It is funny how you can get to know people by reading their blogs. I think it is because their heart for God and their people really shines through. Each of them are making a huge difference in the lives of the people around them and even further via the net.

Anyway, here’s the guys I am talking about…

• Bruce Chant (Hismethod Blog) from Northshore Church in Mindarie
• Wayne Field (Ra’ah Blog) from Australiand Baptist Church
• Mark Edwards (Ra’ah Blog) from Bedford Baptist Church
• Mark Batterson (evotional.com) from National Community Church

Thanks guys, you have made a huge difference to my life!

God Bless,

Dave

I’ve been quite busy the last week or so, so there hasn’t been too much blogging on my part. I have been pressing in to God, rather than pressing on my keyboard!

I have a couple of things in the pipeline which I am keeping before the Lord. Both of which have me excited and expectant that God is going to do great things. It is a great place to be

Recently I started doing a short course on ChristianCourses.com called “SoulCare”. It is based on Dr Larry Crabb’s book “Inside Out”. It is a “ten lesson course is designed to help you enter people’s interior lives at a meaningful level and make a lasting difference as they deal with life’s struggles and crises”.

For me this is something that I am interested in doing. I want to help people in a real and lasting way. In saying this though, I think I do at times fall into the trap of doing what it talks about below…keeping things shallow and pleasant!

Here’s a cut and paste from the first chapter/lesson…

“SoulCare focuses on the inner life. It focuses on the interior world of where true spiritual formation takes place, where we become who we are intended to be, where we become who we long to be, who we want to be.

SoulCare resists the distractions of making life work on the surface, and it resists the temptations to keep relationships shallow—and folks, that’s a huge temptation.

You feel it; I feel it in my small group, over lunch with friends. I feel such a temptation to not get involved in somebody else’s soul, but to keep things pleasant, to keep things shallow. SoulCare resists that temptation.”

Money is not evil. However, it often takes on the character of person. Imagine what Osama bin Laden would do with $10,000,000… compare this to what Mother Theresa would have done!

Just a thought…

One of the reasons I really love Easter is that it is one of those times when you can step back from the business of life and really, really stop for a while!

While I celebrate the Easter message of Jesus’ death and resurrection for me every day of the year, there is something special about the Easter season. It is a time when you can really take the time out to reflect on your own personal faith and what it means to you.

Each year I tend to reflect on one of the apects of the Easter message. Sometimes it is the death of Christ on the cross, sometimes it is the resurrection, sometimes it the difference Jesus has made in my life.

This year it is the fact that if I was the only person in the world, Jesus would have still gone to the cross for me, to save me from my sin. That is how much He loved and cared for me. He gave up everything for me….even His life.

Over the next few days perhaps you could take some time to reflect on that fact too. Jesus died for the whole world, but He also died just for you personally. If you were the only person on earth, He would have gone to the cross for you.

God Bless,

Dave

Several years ago I was in my study preparing a message for communion. As I was praying God gave me a vision of the cross of Christ. Being Good Friday I thought I would share it today…

I was suddenly transported away to another place and another time. When I opened my eyes I was looking at the ground in front of me with my hands were clenched tightly in prayer. Then all of a sudden I realised where I was. I was standing at the foot of the cross and Jesus was there hanging on it - being crucified.

I looked up and saw His body was bruised and beaten. His hands and feet were nailed to the cross. He had blood pouring out of his side where he had been speared and blood dribbling down his cheeks from the crown of thorns. He was very close to death.

Then as I looked at him with tears in my eyes, he opened his eyes and looked straight at me. He was trying to say something but as he was close to death and couldn’t get enough air in his lungs to speak. He tensed all his muscles and pushed himself up by his nailed feet and took a breath and then spoke, “I did this for you…….(then he breathed again)……….because I love you…..I did this because I love you”

I wept, like I had never wept before.

God Bless,

Dave

When I have attended job interviews in the past I have always been asked about what my strengths and weaknesses are. It is a simple question, but one I find it hard to answer. I find it easier to speak about my strengths and positive things about myself and harder to touch on my weak or negative points.

I think when we are thinking about this whole issue of strengths and weaknesses we tend to pick completely different things. For example we might say that we have great communication skills and we are not so good with organisation skills.

I have found though, that my strengths can also be my weaknesses at times. Here are some examples of what I mean…

• Communication skills - if we highlight that we have excellent communications skills that would hold us in good steed for most jobs. However, if our focus is just communicating and thinking about what we are going to say, we might miss out on actually hearing what someone else is trying to say to us. Hmmm guilty of this at times!
• Good decision making - I would consider myself a good decision maker. I pray through the issue and seek God’s wisdom, I look at it from all angels, seek wise counsel from friends and take my time coming to a conclusion. Conversely, sometimes I tend to mull things over a bit too long when the answer is right there in front of me.
• Boldness - we can be bold in sharing our faith, bold at taking risks and bold in decision making. But again, we can become a bit too bold at times and fall into the trap of being overly confident and not considering all the risks. We often see this with “high flying” business people losing large amounts of money in ventures that were not fully considered.

Can you see what I am saying? Our strengths are our best points, but at times they can also be our weaknesses if we not exercising them in a proper way.

I think the key to exercising your strengths properly is to keep them before God in prayer. We need to ask God to help us in all we do and to give us wisdom in exercising our gifts and abilities that He has given us. We need to ask for a balanced approach so we don’t go too far in one direction so our strength actually becomes our weakness.

Here’s some homework for you to consider

• What are your strengths?
• What are your weaknesses?
• Are they the same things or are they entirely different?