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Every now and again you see or hear something which totally blows your mind in every way. A few days ago (thanks to John Piper) I came across the story of Zac Smith, a 33 year old full time church worker from America. I sat (with almost tears in my eyes) listening to Zac’s story and was truly touched and inspired by his faith in our God.
What would the world look like if every Christian lived with this mindset…
If God chooses to heal me, then God is God, and God is good
If God chooses not to heal me and allows me to die, then God is still God, and God is still good
To God be the Glory
The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.
This weekend at Hillsong we launched our vision for 2010. There’s some cool plans for the year ahead…. A new church in Moscow, Reaching out to the needy at the World Cup in South Africa and probably the most exciting news, a new church in New York City!
For more info check out this video. If you aren’t interested in our vision watch the video anyways, the videography is amazing!
Vision Sunday 2010 from Hillsong Church on Vimeo.
29 days ago I started out on an adventure to read the complete Bible in one year. Sounds quite simple really, start in Genesis finish in Revelation, right? Well…. yes I could do that but one of my key objectives is to gain a better feel of how the 66 separate books slot together in terms of time.
The best way to fully understand events, people, places, prophecies and how they link together in a timescale is to take a chronological approach at reading the Bible.
The website YouVersion.com recently launched a ‘Reading Plans’ feature. Their superb range of studies differ in length and cover a wide range of Biblical subjects. You can image my excitement then when I discovered a chronological study which lasted 365 days.
29 days into my reading plan I have read almost all of Genesis and all of Job. Interestingly Job slotted in between Genesis 11 & 12 (who would have thought it?).
I’m really enjoying this plan so far and I look forward to learning more and more in the coming months. I’d also like blog my way through this journey if for no other reason than personal reference.
Sometimes its so hard to see God from a different point of view. We so often think of Him as being single sided, but the truth is God is filled with mystery and none of us can truly understand it. Here’s a litte paragraph from a Matt Redman book which helps us understand the many sides of God and His personality.
“The God we worship is clothed in mystery. He reveals and He conceals. He invites and He hides. He confounds and He confides. The God who rests but never sleeps, who thunders and whispers, terrifies and befriends; whose anger lasts only a moment, but whose favour lasts a lifetime. All-consuming, yet kind. All-knowing, yet capable of forgetting the sins He forgives. The God who wounds and binds up, who injures and heals. The King whose footstool is the earth, yet who humbly washed the earth from the feet of those He discipled. Who reigns in righteousness, yet carried our shamefulness. Who walked in the garden of Eden in the cool of the day, yet sweated drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane one agonising night. The God of the smallest detail and the grandest design, who issued ornate designs for an extravagant temple, yet found pleasure in the humblest offering of a widow‘s two tiny coins there. The suffering servant who commands the universe. The sinless friend of sinners. The Saviour who hung in agony on beams of wood He Himself had called into being. Fearsome yet welcoming. Unfathomable, yet knowable. The God of kings and beggars, presidents and paupers. Who fathers the fatherless and works through our weakness. Burning with holiness, yet refreshingly graceful. This is the God we worship – the God of all mystery.”
Came across this song on GodTV tonight, thought it might be worth sharing with some music/worship folks!
People says there’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world and that may be true but there is such a thing as a free CD. Phil Wickham a young and upcoming worship leader from Cali is giving away his latest live worship album ‘Singalong’ for free!
Just saunter over to philwickham.com fill in your contact details and bingo the album in full is yours! This will be the best spent 2 minutes of your day, trust me!
Leonard Ravenhill once said “If weak in prayer, we are weak everywhere”. I’m starting to learn he is so so right. I was talking to a friend this week about ministry and how it succeeds or fails and his answer was simple… PRAY.
Its so easy for us to make programmes and schedules to encourage people or get a crowd but only Pray and the power of the Holy Spirit can actually make a difference. Maybe you needed this word in season just like me. Let’s commit ourselves to prayer again to see our city, nation and even world changed by God.
Yahweh doesn’t need your guitar reefs, your media presentations, your version of the Bible, all He wants is described in Psalm 51…
The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.
Check this out folks! One of the best worship songs I’ve heard in a long long time… be blessed!
‘Invisible Children’ is an amazing Christian organisation working with child soldiers and night commuters in Uganda. Take 5 minutes out to see how you can help! If nothing else its a kick ass site!
This morning John McBride was speaking at our men’s breakfast on the theme ‘One Generation’. His message was simple and to the point… ‘I will pour my spirit out on ALL flesh’!
When God promised to pour out His Spirit in the last days, he didn’t say it would fall on youth. He didn’t send it for the old, no it was sent for everyone. So often church ministry gets split into sections (youth, men’s, women’s, oap’s…). Yes there’s a time and place for all of those ministries but that doesn’t mean we can’t work together and use each others strengths.
I want to commit to learning more off the older folks in my life, their wisdom and experience isn’t always going to be there so the time to draw it out is now. In God’s family there is one generation… ‘we are the generation’!