The PASSION Blog

Hello all,

I was awake in the night and I was prompted by God to get up and read a book. It was a Bible study book by Jack Hayford called, “Gifts, Fruit and Fullness of the Holy Spirit”.

As I flicked through the book I was not sure what I was looking for, but I knew there was something in there for me. Eventually I came to a section that jumped out at me. It was headed, “Stop…before proceding”. I thought I better stop and have a look! It said…

“A passion for the Spirit’s fullness can cause us to forget He is a person - not a force. We must not let that happen. As the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit must always retain His position as an intelligent, emotive deity”.

As I dwelt on these words I realised that I do fall into that sometimes. At times I can get caught up in seeking the Spirit’s gifts and moving in His annointing, while actually forgetting that He is a person too. It was a timely reminder to say the least!

How about you? Do you sometimes do the same? Do you get caught up in seeking what the Spirit can do, rather than who He is?

One of my favourite tracts I use is the one called “Journey into life” by Norman Warren. I have to admit though that I am a bit biased as it is the one I read many years ago which brought me to Christ!

One of the things I like about it is it touches on a number of areas. It asks lots of questions and then answers them. Here are a few…

• What really is a Christian?
• What it was like in the beginning?
• What sin is?
• What sin does?
• Why Jesus came?

It then talks about what someone has to do to become a Christian and it has the following suggested prayer to guide you.

Lord Jesus Christ, I know I have sinned in my words, thoughts and actions. There are so many good things I have not done. There are so many sinful things I have done. I am sorry for my sins and I turn from everything I know to be wrong. You gave Your life for me on the cross. Gratefully I give my life back to You.Now I ask You to come into my life. Come in as my Saviour to cleanse me. Come in as my Lord to control me. And I will serve You all the remaining years of my life in complete obedience. Amen

It then goes on to gives the reader some encouragement about the things they should do next and that they are a member of God’s family for now and eternity.

I was first given this tract back on Saturday July 21st 1989. At 7.10pm I read it and prayed the above prayer. It was by far the most life changing day of my life!

God Bless,

Dave

Hello all,
It’s been on my heart today to point you to a simple message that I did several years ago. It is titled, “Keeping the vision alive”. It is aimed at those who are in ministry.

I just have the sense that there might be some people out there who are feeling a bit jaded and are considering walking away all together. If that is the case I would encourage you to have a look at the things God placed on my heart to help me when I am not traveling as well I would have liked.

You can access it http://www.passionaustralia.org/visionalive.html

God Bless,

Dave

Yesterday on my lunchtime stroll I walked past Kings Park tennis courts and saw the groundsman mowing the grass courts. There is nothing unusual about that, but this time he had his dog with him as he sat on his ride on mower.

It was great to see the joy and excitement this Kelpie had running along side the man as he drove up and down the courts. The dog would follow behind and watch the mower to see where it was going next. Once the dog worked out the direction, he ran full speed down to the other end of the court to wait for it to arrive. He would then watch and repeat the process.

As I watched this happen a few times a couple of things struck me. The first was the joy the dog had in following his masters direction and being with him. The second was that once he knew where he was going he ran with all of his energy to be where he was going.

In seeing this I couldn’t help but reflect on my own relationship with my Master. Was I like the obedient puppy? Was I that excited to be where the Master was? Was I only concerned in going where He was going? Do I run off with excitement to be where He is going to be?

How about you?  Is being with the Master your number one concern or priority? Are there other things competing with running to where to Master is? Is there a real joy and excitement in following the Masters direction like the obedient puppy?

Perhaps like me you could spend some time reflecting on this today…

One of our associate Pastors at church spoke on God working in our lives. Part of his message touched on Jeremiah chapter 18 which looks at the Potter’s wheel. This passage talks about God shaping a clay pot into something else that suited Him.

During his message he asked some questions…

• How long has it been since you have been on God’s shaping wheel?
• How long has it been since God has molded and worked on you?

I think these are really good questions. I think at times as Christians we can get caught up in our routines and do the things we normally do. We can live a good life, serve God, go to church and do all the things we should do as Christians. However, God might be wanting to work more in our lives to “shape” us into the next thing for Him.

This message was really timely for me. I feel like that during the last two years God has been shaping me into the new “pot” that He needs me to be. It has mostly been a smooth process, but like all renovations it has had it moments! I am just glad it is the Master Craftsman who is doing the work, because I know for sure that it will be a good work when He is done.

How about you? Have you been pretty much in the same place or has God been shaping you into the next clay pot He needs for His service?

I’ve been thinking about worship lately. I think it was first sparked by a post on Ra’ah.

A number of people I have spoken to feel that the words of our Aussie songs from the last five years or so, have changed focus from God and magnifying Him, to what we can get from God. Many of our songs have talked more about what He can do for us or how He can bless us, rather than what He has already done in saving us and who He is.

As I reflected on this I realised that this is probably where we have been at in Australia the five years or so. The Aussie culture has been very “me” focussed. We have had many lifestyle shows on TV telling us how to do our house up, about making more money for retirement and the whole materialistic lifestyle in general.

It makes me wonder if the songs we have been singing in church were actually “anointed” by God for this particular time of Australian history? Perhaps the people who wrote them were in tune with God and the current “flavour” of Aussie culture? Perhaps they were written to reach people where they are at at this time?

Just a thought and there is more pondering to do on this one I think. I am off to my comfy chair to think about it some more

Just been over at BibleGateway.com and I noticed they have a Bible reading plan. It has broken the text down into small sections so if you can spare 15 minutes per day you can make your way through the Bible in a year.

You don’t even need to have your own Bible as all the references are linked to the actual text online in a number of versions!

Here’s the link if you are interested in having a look.

God Bless,

Dave

PS. There are also a number of other reading plans including chronologial, biographical, or survey plan that range from 61-121 days. They are available here

Just read a great post over at Chuch Warnock’s Confessions of a small-church pastor.

He talked about being true to your church and its history, personality, and memory. One of the big mistakes he made as a new fresh faced young Pastor was to come in and change everything in the church and he tried to go against the “grain” of the church.

Looking back he said he would do a few things differently…

“What would I do differently now? I would listen to their stories. I would hear them talk about how God was at work in their lives. I would value the experience and vision God had placed there long before I arrived. I would try to understand who they were as a community of faith, and let them shape me in their walk with God. I would be true to the church God had nurtured and preserved”.

I found it an interesting read and very timely for me. It was one of those posts that really hit the spot. I thought I would pass it on. Here’s the link to the full article

God Bless,

Dave

Perhaps I overreacted yesterday, but I was watching TV with my kids and an advert came on for a DVD collection. There is nothing unusual in that, but this one was about the serial killer Ivan Millat and how he went about stalking his “targets” and what he did to them. I was irate to say the least!

I don’t know about you, but I can’t understand why we need to have this stuff available? Why do we need to have a DVD collection explaining it all in great detail and giving us a time line of when it all took place? Who would buy this stuff and why would they need to have it?

Perhaps I could make a case for Police and Criminal Psychologists having something like this to understand the minds of people who do this sort of thing. But why would a member of the public need or want it? If I knew someone who had it in their DVD collection I would seriously have to wonder why.

It also made me wonder why a company would think this was something that should be available to the public and why they would think to advertise it on a Sunday afternoon?

I know when we watch TV we open ourselves up to all sorts of things, but please don’t show a two minute advertorial glorifying what a serial killer has done. I was lucky enough to grab the remote in time to turn it down so my kids didn’t hear it all.

I can only imagine what would happen if a member of a family who lost a loved one to this person would feel if they saw it. Irate would be putting it mildly I suspect!

Recently in a post I touched on feeling like I was in the middle of God’s will at the moment.

Yesterday at church I was talking to one of my great mates about it. I shared that it feels like I am in a boat on a lake and that when God takes me to the waters edge, I will step out and do whatever He wants me to do.

I was sharing how peaceful it is to be in this place and when you are here, nothing else seems to matter as much. Not income, not assets, not superannuation, not retirement…just God’s will.

Anyway, in my friends usual style he came up with a curly one. He said, “What if God doesn’t take you to dry land? What if He asks you to step out on the water and walk with Him?” Hmmm… thanks for the curly one AJ!

In thinking about it though, I will probably be ok if I kept my eyes on Jesus. When Peter walked on the water with Jesus, he only began to sink when the he looked around at the prevailing conditions and took his eyes off Jesus!