Wholly Holy

2009-09-09T21:54:00.000+10:00

NEW BLOG ADDRESS

Im now blogging at www.goforsouls.com/blog

2009-07-13T19:14:00.002+10:00

Long time no blog... Ive been trying to get anther site up and going but it hasnt worked just yet. It is coming and its gonna be great and hopefully will be even more useful in helping to get the world saved. Stay tuned.

Pentecost

2009-06-01T16:59:00.003+10:00

I love Pentecost Sunday! I love reading about the day the Holy Spirit filled the people waiting for the Holy Spirit in the upper room! I love reading how the place shook, and tongues of fire rested on each persons head! I love reading about Peter preaching boldly and I love reading about how 3000 people got saved!

Yesterday was Pentecost Sunday and I had the privledge to preach, 5 people came forward for Salvation and around 30 responded to the message to come and be filled with the Holy Spirit! A handful of people fell over under the power of the Holy Spirit, and in between meetings a man testified that whilst he was praying his body was coming up and off the floor! People were given prophetic words, words of knowledge and wisdom, and encouragement!

But the thing I am always reminded when I read and experience Pentecost is that it is just the beginning. The Holy Spirit enables us to do what God has called us to do, to be holy and to win the world for Jesus! Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you today so you can fulfill your God given purpose in life!

Salvationist Miracles

2009-05-28T12:59:00.002+10:00

I thought this might be interesting. These are a couple of quotes taken from General William Booths memorandum to his officers in 1901 on the subject of healing. I will ask the question and he will answer it.

Has The Salvation Army always been interested in miracles?
From the foregoing, it will be seen that we have never discouraged Officers, or Soldiers, or any other persons, from seeking the intervention of God by Believing prayer on behalf either of the healing of their bodies or the removal of any other afflictions which they may have been called upon to suffer. The very opposite has been the case. With all our hearts we hold that God is the answerer of Believing Prayer.

What do you think about all these different so called manifestations of the Holy Spirit?
I question very much whether there has been a people since the Israelites of old who have been more favoured with marvellous manifestations of God’s power in the rescue of Comrades from difficulty of one kind and another in temporal affairs than we have been privileged to witness.

Arent signs and wonders just for 'out there' people?
I do not believe that there can be a Corps of The Salvation Army, at home or abroad, in which some such signs and wonders have not been wrought.

Prophetic -> Healing -> Salvation

2009-05-26T12:04:00.004+10:00

I recieved this exciting email from Catch the Fire ministries Pastor Danny Nahlia. They have a newsletter which they send out to praise God for what He is doing in their movement. Read and be encouraged, click here if you want to find out where their meetings are.

"The weekend gone by saw an increased level of the anointing of the Holy Sprit as the mighty presence of God swept through the hungry crowd of Jesus-seeking worshippers! A young Buddhist man, who came for the meeting for the first time, received a prophetic word from the Lord and came forward to the altar for prayer and the laying on of hands. He told me that he couldn’t lift his left arm as it was paralysed. I asked him whether I could hold and lift it up. He said, “Yes, but do not let go as it drops and hurts me a lot." Well, I lifted his hand and started praying for life to return to his withered hand, with the crowd united in prayer. As I was holding his hand I felt the weight lift off, and I knew that his muscles were getting stronger. I then at once took my hands off and all glory to God as the man continued to keep his hand up. Then I told him to bring it down and lift it up and promptly he responded with no problem at all. The place erupted into shouts of joy and clapping as the Lord touched his arm! This Buddhist man then gave his life to Jesus."

How cool is that? A prophetic word lead to a healing which lead a mans salvation! Hallelujah! The greatest miracle of all is Salvation! Be challenged to listen to God, obey and believe for miracles today! All glory to God!

Miracles

2009-05-25T19:13:00.004+10:00

I found another couple of great sites which have a stack of testimonies on them, they range from simple things from hearing God speak to them through to amazing healings!

This one is fantastic with just under 1,000 testimonies of all sorts of illnesses being cured! Check it out here.

The second one os from Bethel Church where Bill Johnson is from. They have a bunch written down and a few video testimonies. check it out here.

If you want proof of a miracle with verifiable evidence check out my blog from Wednesday 25th June last year. Also, check out the comments on that post and you will find a phone number to check out the story further.

Also, if you need a miracle email me @ (james.thompson@aus.salvationarmy.org) with your name and I will pray for you and perhaps you will be able to testify in the coming days!

Luke 7:36-50

2009-05-23T10:32:00.002+10:00

Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

39When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner."

40Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."
"Tell me, teacher," he said.

41"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"

43Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."
"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.

44Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."

48Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
49The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"
50Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

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I love it how "whilst we were still sinners Christ died for us." I love it how God knows exactly what we are like and forgives us even when the world is still brining up our sin. Thank you Jesus!
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Perhaps you have never recieved the forgiveness of your sins. The woman in the story came to Jesus humbled herself, gave of herself and had faith. It doesn't matter how sinful you are, infact the more sinful you realise you are the more you will end up loving God! If you would like to recieve this forgiveness, humble yourself - acknowledge your sinfulness, give yourself to living for God - turn from your sin and follow Jesus teaching, and have faith - believe that He has forgiven you!

Peace.

Holiness and Revival

2009-05-21T22:13:00.002+10:00

One of the things I love about The Salvation Army is our holiness doctrine. I believe that this holiness doctrine is essential for having and maintaining revival. If revival is brought by the Holy Spirit then we need to allow the Holy Spirit to move and sin grieves the Holy Spirit. This is why it is a big deal when people especially leaders, sin during revival, its a problem becasue it hinders the Holy Spirit.

I thought it was interesting how many of the big revivalists around the world have holiness doctrines:

Reinhard Bonnke
"We believe in the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling the Christian is able to live a HOLY LIFE."

Rodney Howard Browne
"The Bible teaches that without holiness no man can see the Lord. We believe in the Doctrine of Sanctification as a definite, yet progressive work of grace, commencing at the time of regeneration and continuing until the consummation of salvation at Christ's return."

Benny Hinn
"The Scriptures teach a life of holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. By the power of the Holy Ghost we are able to obey the command, "Be ye holy, for I am holy." Entire sanctification is the will of God for all believers, and should be earnestly pursued by walking in obedience to God's Word (Hebrews 12:14; 1 Peter 1:15-16; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; 1 John 2:6). "

Fresh Fire (Todd Bentley)
"We believe all Christians are called into a life of separation from sinful practices and they should take every opportunity to promote righteousness and godliness (James 4:4; Romans 12:1-2, 13:1-10; 2Cor 6:14 -18; 1 John 2:15 -17). Holiness is the release of Christ within each and every believer, changing us into His image, from glory to glory. (2Cor 3:18 ) "

Bethel Church (Bill Johnson)
"In the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live holy and minister super-naturally. The baptism of the Holy Spirit according to Acts 1:4-8 and 2:4 is poured out on believers that they might have power to be witnesses."

Planetshakers (Similar to Hillsongs shorter version...)
"We believe that in order to live the holy and fruitful lives that God intends for us, we need to be baptised in water and be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables us to walk in the fruits of the spirit and use spiritual gifts, including speaking in tongues, which is the initial evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit. We believe the gifts are for every believer."

So regardless of whether people live it out all the time, we can see that the majority of revivalists and evangelists have a doctrince of holiness.

Jesus Culture

2009-05-17T22:51:00.002+10:00

Jesus Culture is an awessome movement which is trying to light revival fires all over the world by empowering everyday people to step into supernatural ministry! They come out of Bethel which is the church Bill Johnson is the pastor of. (Speaking of Bill Johnson, I went to see him speak at a meeting here in Melbourne and over 50 people got uo to testify that God had healed them during the prayer time! God is good!) Theyre a great bunch of people. I also had the privilige of going to one of their conferences and it was great, empowering, inspiring and challenging!

Anyways, they have a fantastic website with a cool media player with testimonies, sermon chunks and chats and will motivate you to keep fighting in the salvation war and to remind you to always rely on God! I came across this page on their website which has a bunch of testimonies on it. Well worth the read!

Enjoy!

Christian Demonology

2009-05-16T19:32:00.003+10:00

Been doing a little bit of study on demonology today. Thought this was good. Its taken from "Power Healing" by Wimber.

Demonology in the New Testament
· The New Testament clearly shows the existence of the devil and demons. (Luke 10:17-20, Revelation 12:7-10)
· Jesus life and ministry were marked by confrontations with demons. (Luke 4, 6:18, 7:21, 8, 9, 11)
· Jesus gave authority to his followers to drive out demons. (Luke 9, 10, Mark 16)
· The New Testament teaches on Christians authority over demons. (1 Corinthians 2:6-8, 10:20-21, Ephesians 6:10-18, Colossians 1:13-16, 2:20)
· The New Testament also tells of numerous exorcisms. (Acts 5:16, 8:6-8, 16:16-18, 19:11-12)

What about them?
· They have intelligence (Acts 16:16-18, 19:15-16)
· They are spirits (Matthew 8:16, 12:43-45, Luke 10, 24:39, Revelation 16:13-14)
· They manifest themselves in different forms (Revelation 9:1-11, 16:13-14)
· They are malevolent (Matthew 12:43-45, Mark 1:27, 3:11, Luke 4:36, Acts 8:7, Revelation 16:13)
· They know their own end (Matthew 8:29, 25:41, James 2:19)
· They have supernatural strength (Matthew 12:29, Mark 5:4, Luke 8:29, Acts 19:13-16)
· They must bow to Jesus’ name (Matthew 8:28, Mark 5:7, Luke 8:26-33)

How do they affect us?
· Temptation
· Opposition
· Posession

How could you support _____?

2009-05-13T17:14:00.003+10:00

What do we do with so called dodgey people who seem to get results in the Spiritual? Do we simply write them off and say everything they do ss demonic, do we make youtube clips demonstrating how trhey are wolves in sheeps clothing? or do we have a closer look at what they see as important and see what they believe and stand for?

William Booth, founder of The Salvation Army, was accused of all sorts of things especially when he brought out his book, "In Darkest England and the Way Out." Its been well documented how the press handled him. At that time as a reader you could have though a number of things about him but those who he had ministered to would have no doubt he was a man of God. There would also be those in his meetings who didnt percieve God at work in themselves and would say his ministry was a sham and emotionalism!

Why do I consistantly bring up people who the world sees as dodgey? Because I can see what God is doing in their lives and ministries. I like what Bill Johnson has to say about Todd Bentley and see it as a perfect example of what I am talking about...

BJ Quote

2009-05-12T19:37:00.003+10:00

I like this quote by Bill Johnson that I read the other day in his book, "The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind." It talks about some of the traps we can fall into as Christians... Ive had a think about where I am, are you game to do the same?

"On one hand the mind has been cast off by some creating a mindless gospel that is emotionalism at best, and cultic at worst. They delight themselves in doing things without reason, thinking that only then is God pleased by their great faith. On the other hand there are those who have elevated the mind above its rightful place, creating a gospel that has reduced God to the powerless image of man. This group lives in the illusion that they are spiritually safe becasue they only accept the things they understand, raising carnal Christianity to an elite status. They unknowingly embrace the very deception they hoped to avoid. The challenge before us is to give ourselves completely to the full purpose of God for the mind of man through the model that Jesus gave us, thereby giving us access to His supernatural life style."

Bodies hit the floor

2009-05-12T19:31:00.002+10:00

I love these two videos! I know these guys have some dodginess to them, but therre is still no doubt God has used these guys in different ways. These vids are just a bit of fun rather than a theological something! However, Ive fallen over when people have prayed for me on several occasions, sometimes they have touched me other times they have not. For me, my time on the ground was relaxing and I heard God speak to me in a powerful way. It felt as though there was no one else around, just me and God. Enjoy!

Purpose of the Law

2009-05-06T13:33:00.002+10:00

We have had some good discussion on the use of law in evangelism in todays world. Some believe it has no place, however I agree with Wesley, Spurgeon, Finney, Billy Graham, John Stott, C.S.Lewis, Luther and a host of other scholars and evangelists who say it does have a part to play. Please understand I AM NOT SAYING THE LAW HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE GOSPEL, rather the law leads us to Christ, it shows us our sinfulness and need for a saviour.

Here are some points from Galatians 3.

1) Firstly, I agree, Paul is not saying “we should use the law in evangelism.” BUT from what he has said, and I’ll go into this, it means we can use it in evangelism because of what the purpose of the law is. Before I go any further I want to state that I do not believe the law is the gospel, far far from it!

2) The law that God gave in the 10 Commandments were already laws before God said what we should and should not do. (Sabbath is the only law that we could argue about but we’ll save that for another day…) We see clear evidence of this with Cane and Able, Noah and the flood and many more stories. Sin was sin before and after the law. This is why the 10 Commandments are also known as the moral law. The law then is more of a “Rules for living with a Holy God so that you don’t get destroyed.”

3) Galatians 3:19 is important. “What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.” So people were sinning and God added the law, verse 22 then takes this further by saying, “But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.” It’s saying that everyone is a sinner, with or without the law. Verses 23-25 then talk about how horrible it is to be under the law.

4) So what is the law for? While the Jews had the law they were under it and its consequences. It is in light of how horrible it is to be under law because it is so hard to keep that we understand that a) we cannot be justified by keeping the law and b) we are sinners in need of a saviour. Hence the law is there to lead us to Christ. The law shows us why we need Jesus.

5) Now, in light of Romans chapters 1-3 (I’ll write more on this later) we see that the whole world has sinned, we all have the law written on our hearts, we all have known that there is a God and many have rejected Him. With this in mind that people’s consciences accuse them we can preach the law so that, a) like the Jews they can understand that they cannot be justified by keeping the law or in today’s language, “By being good,” and b) so that they understand their need of a Saviour.

Persecuted Church

2009-05-05T22:05:00.002+10:00

Very busy week this week with a bunch of assignments so cant write much now... Instead check out www.prsecution.com. Its a website devoted to keeping us informed and to advocate for persecuted Christians around the world. Click here and sign up for their prayer newsletter.

Peace Out

H.S Evangelism

2009-05-04T21:55:00.003+10:00

Just a quick note,

I had to write an article on evangelism and I again realised possibly the most important part of evangelism...

For me, my life as an evangelist happened after the Holy Spirit set me on fire. Once the Spirit did this I had a natural burden for the lost which has only intesified the more I have grown in my relationship with God.

Salvation belongs to God. The Holy Spirit is essential for true evangelism. The Holy Spirit motivates and empowers the evangelist and convicts the sinner.

If you want to be a great evangelist then ask the Holy Spirit to make you one then in obedience preach the good news of Jesus Christ and give people an opportunity to respond.

Graham Evangelism

2009-05-01T19:16:00.003+10:00

Here are two great evangelists, father and son, they both understand that we need to repent of our sin to be saved, and both understand that we need to know what sin is before we can repent of it!

Billy Graham is one of the worlds best evangelists, he has preached to literally billions of people and millions have stepped forward to recieve salvation! Billy Graham holds the record for most people at the MCG, (around 130,000), and influenced a whole generation.

Billy Graham “The Holy Spirit convicts us...He shows us the ten Commandments; the law is the schoolmaster that leads us to Christ. We look at the mirror of the Ten Commandments, and we see ourselves in that mirror."

Franklin Graham “Each person we meet on a daily basis who does not know Christ is hell-bound. That may make some folks bristle-but it's a fact. When we refuse to warn people that their actions and lifestyles have eternal consequences, we're not doing them any favors. If everybody feels good about his or her sin, why would anyone repent?”

On a side note, does anyone find it interesting that some of the most influencial evangelists ever have all used the law in evangelism? I find it interesting!

Theologian Thursday

2009-04-30T17:10:00.003+10:00

Some people still don’t agree that we should use the law in evangelism and that it is a theologically unreasonable argument to suggest that it is. Well, here is a short list of a few selected theologians who beg the differ… Also, click on their names and it will send you to their wiki pages so you can see if they are credible or not. These guys werent bums, check it out. We start with the earliest theologians and go through to current theologians... Enjoy!

John Wycliffe “The highest service to which a man may obtain on earth is to preach the law of God.”

Martin Luther
“The proper effect of the Law is to lead us out of our tents and tabernacles, that is to say, from the quietness and security wherein we dwell, and from trusting in ourselves, and to bring us before the presence of God, to reveal His wrath to us, and to set us before our sins.”

“The first duty of the gospel preacher is to declare God's moral law and to show the nature of sin.”

“I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived' (Romans 7:9). So it is with the work-righteous and the proud unbelievers. Because they do not know the Law of God, which is directed against them, it is impossible for them to know their sin. Therefore also they are not amenable to instruction. If they would know the Law, they would also know their sin; and sin to which they are now dead would become alive in them.”

Matthew Henry
“Of this excellent use is the law: it converts the soul, opens the eyes, prepares the way of the Lord in the desert, rends the rocks, levels the mountains, makes a people prepared for the Lord.”

John MacArthur
“Grace means nothing to a person who does not know he is sinful and that such sinfulness means he is separated from God and damned. It is therefore pointless to preach grace until the impossible demands of the Law and the reality of guilt before God are preached.”

John R. W. Stott
“We cannot come to Christ to be justified until we have first been to Moses to be condemned. But once we have gone to Moses and acknowledged our sin, guilt and condemnation, we must not stay there.”

Tomorrow, more law preaching evangelists! Heres a clue who they might be... They are a father son evangelistic team. Stay tuned for more...

Spurgeon Evangelism

2009-04-29T08:34:00.002+10:00

Yesterday I promised another law preaching evangelist, so today I decided to choose Spurgeon. I know, I know, Hes a bit Calvinist but isnt it interesting we've had a strict wesleyan (Wesley) and now a Calvinist saying use the law. I wonder if there is a link somewhere that despite some seemingly massive theological differences we can agree on this topic...

Ok, so Spurgeon was around 1834-1892 and is known as the "Prince of Preachers!" It is estimated that he preached to 10,000,000 people! Not bad considering time and his ministry dities... Heres a tiny bit of what he had to say...

“I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the Law.”

“Lower the law and you dim the light by which man perceives his guilt. This is a very serious loss to the sinner rather than a gain, for it lessens the likelihood of his conviction and conversion...I say you have deprived the gospel of its ablest auxiliary (most powerful weapon) when you have taken away the schoolmaster that is to bring men to Christ. They will never accept grace until they tremble before a just and holy law. Therefore the law serves most necessary and blessed purpose and must not be moved from its place."

“Preach earnestly the love of God in Christ Jesus, and magnify the abounding mercy of the Lord; but always preach it in connection with His justice.”

We are going to change track a little bit tomorrow before we head back to law preaching evangelists, so Stay tuned tomorrow for Theologian Thursday the topic: the law and evangelism...

Charles Finney Evangelism

2009-04-28T22:28:00.002+10:00

Ok, so some people dont agree with me or John Wesley that law has a place in evangelism... Im not sure what we're suppose to call people to repent of then if we cant even tell them what sin is... Anyways, heres what Charles Finney had to say about the law...

“I remark the law is the rule and the only just rule by which the guilt of sin can be measured.”

“The essence of the Law should be unsparingly applied to the conscience until the sinners self righteousness is annihilated and he stands speechless and self condemned before a hold God.”

"Evermore the law must prepare the way for the gospel. To overlook this in instructing souls is almost certain to result in false hope; the instruction of a false standard of Christian experience and to fill the church with false converts."

Stay tuned tomorrow for our next famous law preaching evangelist!

Wesley Evangelism

2009-04-03T14:38:00.002+11:00

John Wesley, preached holiness and was a great evangelist. Stacks of people got saved through his ministry. The Salvos come under his tradition... Wesley is a model for us to follow, he loved the poor, lived a holy life and rpeached the gospel! Just what we salvos are to do... I want to focus on his evangelism today, take a look at these quotes and see if you stack up to his style of evangelism...

“If the gospel is preached well sinners should be angry or convicted of sin righteousness and judgement to come. If they are not then I don't think they are to be an evangelist." Wow, do your converts even hear you speak about sin?

“It is the ordinary method of the Spirit of God to convict sinners by the Law. It is this which, being set home in the conscience, generally breaketh the rocks in pieces. It is more especially this part of the word of God which is quick and powerful, full of life and energy and sharper than any two-edged sword." What? You mean he preached law?

“Before I can preach love, mercy and grace, I must preach sin, Law and judgment." Wow! He really did!

“Preach 90 percent Law and 10 percent grace.” Ok, this has got to be a joke right? Wesley, known for his holiness doctrine, full of love, preached law more than grace?!? Why would he do that?

Romans 7:7b says, "I would not have known what sin was except through the law." We need to know how we have sinned before we can repent of it and be saved!

Check out www.wayofthemaster.com to learn how to use the law in a fun, non judgmental way and lead people to repentance!

Going, Going, Gone

2009-04-02T22:10:00.003+11:00

"Jesus said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." Mark 16:15

"And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Romans 10:14a-15

Are you going anywhere with the gospel?

Sats or people?

2009-03-30T16:24:00.002+11:00

One day my family (Mum, Dad, and my two brothers) and I were in England and I got lost. I was terribl.y worried and I think my parents might have been too! My family decided they didnt want to go home until they found me. My parents wanted 3/3 of their boys to go home with them. Numbers were important because numbers represented people.

In the book of Acts we see the explosive growth of the early church. Luke, the author of the book, constantly reminds us how many people were saved at different times. Numbers were important because numbers represented people.

In Luke 15:1-7 the Good Shepherd counts His flock and realises one is missing. So He starts searching for this one sheep. Numbers were important because numbers represent people.

So often people complain about people talking about numbers, but we need to remember that numbers do represent people, they represent people that Jesus wants to save and He wants 100% of the earths population. Praise God I was one of the numbers that were added to the Kingdom!

Street Preaching Stats

2009-03-28T09:23:00.003+11:00

Some say that street evangelism does not work in our culture today. However we have statistics that prove this wrong. We have been doing some street evangelism since February...

Since February we have seen 11 people decide to start following Jesus and ask Him for forgiveness. Hallelujah! This is roughly 1 out of every three times we go out someone gets saved! So far two have fallen away.

To add to this the gospel we preach is that God is holy, we are sinful, sin separates us from God both now and forever, Jesus died and rose again to save us and bring us into right relationship with God. We always give an opportunity to accept this message. The way we tell people they need to accept the message is to "Repent and Believe."

2 have fallen away from faith. These 2 made a committment then that was it. This is dreadful and shows the importance of true repentance. Statistically speaking though this all means that lots of people get saved and 2/11 fall away at this stage. We have preached about once a week on average with an average of more than one a week deciding to follow Jesus, 1/3 times someone gets saved. (so on the time someone does get saved more than one have followed)

We accept this research is only 2 months old and it could all change quickly but the real question is, does our way work better than yours? If we are serious about winning the world we need the most effective and quickest ways (notice plural, we need to use all the ways we can!) of getting people to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Heres a way you can test which is better... How many people have you lead to repentance and belief since February?

RAMMING IT DOWN

2009-03-26T16:21:00.001+11:00

Oh! people say, you must be very careful, very judicious. You must not thrust religion down
people's throats. Then, I say, you will never get it down. What! Am I to wait till an unconverted,
godless man wants to be saved before I try to save him? He will never want to be saved till the death rattle is in his throat. What! Am I to let my unconverted friends and acquaintances drift down quietly to damnation, and never tell them about their souls, until they say, 'If you please, I want you to preach to me'? Is this anything like the spirit of early Christianity? No. Verily we must make them look--tear the bandages off, open their eyes, make them bear it, and if they run away from you in one place, meet them in another, and let them have no peace until they submit to God and get their souls saved. This is what Christianity ought to be doing in this land, and there are plenty of Christians to do it. Why, we might give the world such a time of it that they would get saved in very self-defence, if we were only up and doing, and determined that they should have no peace in their sins. Where is our zeal for the Lord? We talk of Old Testament saints, but I would we were all like David. Rivers of water ran down his eyes because men kept not the Law of his God. But you say, 'We cannot all hold services.' Perhaps not. Go as you like. Go as quietly and softly as the morning dew. Have meetings like the Friends if you like. ONLY DO IT. Don't let your relatives, and friends, and acquaintances die, and their blood be found on your skirts!!!
Catherine Booth - Founder of The Salvation Army
(Some would say that at this time The Salvation Army was the fastest growing Christian movement ever in world history!)

The Call to Preach

2009-03-25T15:50:00.002+11:00

I look to the Bible to see what it says about a passion for souls. Where do people get their drive from? How do people get so filled with passion to see the lost saved? Paul said, "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" What an amazing testimony!

Heres a list that came to me through prayer...

We are called, commanded and compelled to preach the gospel.

Called - "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men!"
Commanded - "Go into all the world and preach the gospel!"
Compelled - "For I am compelled by Christs's love!"

Today I heard another list, from a guy in the house church movement in Asia, on where our calling to preach the gospel comes from...

Above - from God - Mark 16:15
Below - from hell - Luke 16:27-28
Inside - from our heart - 1 Corinthians 9:16-17
Outside - from others - Acts 16:9

Someone asked him, "Has the western church lost its passion for the lost?" He replied, "How many people have you lead to Christ lately?"

I'm challenged, how about you?

2009-03-20T19:21:00.002+11:00

We did pubs again tonight which I love but I keep hearing something that disturbs me a bit. The phrase I keep hearing is, "I like the salvos, you dont ram religion down our throats." Now, I know alot of Christians would take that as a compliment, but I don't think it should be!

If anything it highlights how we don't preach anymore! It shows that people who are not saved yet know we are Christians and are saying I like you because you dont preach! And Paul says in Romans 10 that if no one preaches no one will hear, and if they dont hear they wont believe, if they dont believe they wont be saved.

It is sad that we dont preach the gospel anymore, and we can say "Ah, but we do preach, we preach with our words!" That is fine but again, look at Romans 10! We need to preach otherwise they cant hear and then believe and be saved!

What are we more interested in, souls or human gratification?

2009-03-18T19:31:00.002+11:00

"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power." 1 Corinthians 2:4

I always wonder what exactly Paul was referring to. Some say that he was referring to the power of Jesus on the cross, others say it is the power of Jesus in someones life for Salvation, and still others say that it was through signs and wonders etc.

Its interesting to note that Paul was in Athens just before he came to Corinth and he tried to argue persuasively and logically, he used reason and all those types of things but his results sucked. Not many were saved, no church was established and he was driven out of town... He then goes to Corinth and changes his tactic from wise and persuasuiveness to Holy Spirirt power and his results are stacks better.

I also find it interesting that in times of revival there is always an emphasis on the Spirits power in prayer, holiness and signs and wonders. I don't think its a coincidence...

Revival

2009-03-11T18:14:00.003+11:00

But none of these world-embracing, epoch-making revivals began in a large way. Paul usually made an address and gave his testimony in a synagogue -- a small meeting-place of the Jews -- until he was excluded, and then he went up some home or room that was opened to him. This was followed by house-to-house visitation, often after a day's work at tentmaking. The Wesleys began in the same humble way, and so did the Founder. (W.Booth)

Great revivals among God's people and awakenings among the ungodly never begin in a great way. They begin as oak trees begin. There is nothing startling and spectacular about the beginning of an oak tree. In darkness, in loneliness, an acorn gives up its life, and the oak, at first only a tiny root and a tiny stem of green, is born out of the dissolution and death of the acorn. So
revivals are born, so souls are won, so the Kingdom of God comes. Some one, no longer trying to save himself or to advance his own interests, dies -- dies to self, to the world, to the praise of men, to the ambition for promotion, for place, for power, and lives unto Christ, lives to save men, and the awakening of sinners comes; souls are born into the kingdom of God, they rally round their leader and in turn become soul-winners. 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit,' said Jesus. And so He 'endured the cross, despising the shame,' and died that He might win souls, save men, and 'bring many sons unto glory.'

(Brengle, Ancient Prophets)

I don't know about you but I have a burden for the lost. Often the task "The World for God' seems way too big, and makes me feel like I am insignificant and need to find a greater way to lead more sinners to Jesus. This passage above is a great reminder to start small, stay humble, deny yourself, and to evangelise as many people as you can and that revival will come! Amen.

Testimonies

2009-03-09T18:27:00.002+11:00

I have the video testimonies here but I havent been able to get them off the camera yet so stay tuned... In the mean time heres two from this weekend...

Friday Night: We had a two hour prayer meeting in an alley way followed by some evangelism. While a few of the boys were evangelising a man I sat back and prayed. A man walked past and I sais hi. He is a Christian man but he has had a bad back for 5 years. I prayed for him and in Jesus name he was healed! He was so impressed he started asking how he could join the Salvation Army! We encouraged him to stay close to Jesus and get back into reading the word of God!

Sunday Morning: We had a great day of worship and a great altar call for those to come to the front to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I saw a lady with hearing aids walk past me, I thought nothing of it until God said pray for her healing. I wasnt sure if it was God and if I should but then it came back and I obeyed. I layed hands on her ears and prayed. After all this she testified that she has never heard so clearly before in her life! She went home without her hearing aids in as she could hear!

We praise God for these. God still loves people, still heals, and loves to trandform lives. The man can now work, and the woman can now hear. Jesus has come to give life in its fulness! Praise Jesus!

ZEAL

2009-03-05T18:36:00.002+11:00

True zeal makes one faithful to Jesus and the souls for whom He died. It led Paul during his three years' appointment at Ephesus "to warn everyone night and day with tears to serve the Lord with all humility," to keep back no truth that was profitable for the people, but to show them and teach them "publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 20.) He was not content simply to get sinners to accept Jesus as their Saviour, but taught them that "Christ in you is the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, whereunto I labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." (Col. 27:29.) Paul was jealous for the perfection in love and loyalty of all his converts, and his zeal led him to seek with all his might to lead them all into this
blessed experience. And as was Paul, so also was Baxter, who labored indefatigably in spite of lifelong sickness, and at times almost in intolerable pain, for the perfection of his people. And so also was Wesley and Fox and General and Mrs. Booth, and so will be every soul-winner who is full of the zeal of God.
(Brengle, The Soul Winners Secret)

How cool would it be if we were all consumed by that zeal?

The Holy Guest

2009-03-04T19:58:00.000+11:00

A friend of mine said recently, "I like the term, 'Holy Ghost,' for the word Ghost in the old Saxon was the same as the word for Guest." Whether that be so or not, it may certainly be said that the Holy Ghost is the Holy Guest. He has come into the world and visits every heart, seeking admittance as a guest. He may come to the soul unbidden, but He will not come in unbidden. He may be unwelcome. He may be refused admission and turned away. But He comes. He is in the world like Noah's dove, looking for an abiding-place. He comes as a Guest, but as an abiding one,
if received. He forces Himself upon no one. He waits for the open door and the invitation. (Samuel Logan Brengle – The Guest of the Soul)

SOME TIPS FOR INVITING THE HOLY GUEST INTO YOUR HEART:
Make sure the place is clean and tidy. To do this repent and renounce all your sin, then the Lord will apply the blood of Jesus to your heart and He will forgive you and cleanse you of all sin and unrighteousness!

Invite Him over to stay for ever. The Holy Guest is not interested in a stay for the sake for a holiday. The Holy Guest is looking for a permanent residence, a home so to speak. The Holy Guest does not come to entertain, but to convict, lead, and empower you to live life for God everyday!

Believe He will come! The Holy Guest will not respond to you unless you have faith. As we need faith to be saved from sin, as we need faith to be healed, we need faith for the Holy Guest to enter into our hearts. Faith is an invitation that He will not refuse! He wants us to be sure that we want Him to stay! As you believe He will enter.

I trust that you if you have not already, that you would seek the Holy Guest into your heart today.

HOLINESS AND ZEAL FOR SOULS

2009-03-03T21:57:00.003+11:00

'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men,' said Jesus to Peter and Andrew; and now
as then when Jesus saves a soul, that soul wants to catch men, wants to see others saved.

Holiness increases this desire, and makes it burn with a quenchless flame. The zeal of other people blazes up, burns low, and often dies out, but the zeal of a man with a clean heart, full of the Holy Ghost, increases year by year. Others run away from the prayer-meeting, but he holds on. Others do not grieve if souls are not saved, but he feels that he must see souls saved, or die. Others are zealous for 'big goes,' tea parties, ice-cream suppers, and musical festivals, but nothing pleases him so much as a prayer-meeting where souls are crying to God for pardon and cleansing, and others are shouting for joy.
Brengle (The Way of Holiness)

I can honestly testify that I was once drifting away from God. I knew He was there, and I prayed, I believed but He didnt have all of me. I guess a better way of saying it is that I was numb, I wasnt in the know, I didnt really have a passion. But then one night I prayed and prayed and prayed for the Holy Spirit to fall upon me and to fill me and overfill me! And He did! That night my arms which I had raised up in worship would not stop shaking for four hours! BUT that was only a sign of what was happening in my heart. The Holy Spirit flooded my heart with love, and a zeal for the lost. Whenever I went to work I wanted to preach the gospel! Whenever I was on a tram I looked for opportunities to preach the gospel! And my life which lacked in passion and purpose completely changed. My life was and still is committed to leading people to Christ. And Hallelujah I have that awesome privilige so often!

When people ask me how to evangelise from now on, Im going to tell them that story. Because true evangelism has its roots in the love of God filling our hearts and flowing out. Have you been baptised in love by the Holy Spirit? If you havent why not pray now that God would fill you with His love and that that would overflow in all your human relationships! Remember He said, "I am the Lord your God who makes you holy!"

BURDEN FOR THE LOST

2009-03-02T16:49:00.003+11:00

Its been ages since Ive last blogged! I will try to blog 3 times a week but things just keep popping up!

Heres a cool quote from the Australian War Cry April 12 1913 which I have copied from Journal of Aggressive Christianity...

Men are dying - Women are perishing - Children are damned in their tender years!

Can you contemplate the ruin of immortal souls without horror?

If your heart is not stirred by the world sin and sorrow pray God to give you a vision!

I've heard people say that the reason why William Booth was such a great evangelist was becasue of two things, his love for people and his belief in hell... Ask God to give you a vision...

Worship?

2009-02-16T20:10:00.003+11:00

What do you think of when I say "Worship?"

I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand your assemblies.
Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings
I will have no regard for them.
Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Amos 5:21-24

The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?" says the LORD. "I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. Isaiah 1:11-17

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. Romans 12:1

So often we get caught up in bringing God meaningless offerings like the baove passages talk about. What God really wants is holiness. He wants us to lay down our lives for Him. And as we lay down our life on the altar instead of a meaningless offering, He will consume us with fire and make us burn with the Holy Spirit. (Makes us holy! How cool is that, in our true worship He transforms us!)

When I think of worship I dont think of a meeting anymore, I think of Soldiership. Soldiership is the Salvationists worship. It is our response to God. It is our laying down of our lives for service for Him and to Him. It is a promise that we will live for justice, righteousness, holiness and salvation in all of our life forever. That sounds better than a few songs once a week doesnt it?

MTMOEO

2009-02-13T18:36:00.001+11:00

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Colossians 4:2-6

Holy Spirit World Winning

2009-02-09T15:57:00.003+11:00

I read today that Muslims in the UK are reproducing (babies...) 10 times faster than any other race. Obviously this has impacts on a country. Muslims will get a more powerful voice in parliament, in schools and in the rest of society. From the research I have seen about how Islam spreads throughout Africa, Asia it is mainly by force. It spreads by violence, "Convert or die." or "Renounce this or die." However in Western cultures (like the UK) that are democracised (is that a word?) this approach will not work...

As we are seeing in the UK, Islam is spreading by a rapid birth rate not by violence. It is a genius idea, it has long term goals, but it will work if they keep to it. Eventually if they continue, the Islamic voice will be be one of the most influential in the UK. This reminds me of the China-Tibet issue. China wants Tibet. They came by force, but what they have been doing since is sending other Chineese to to live in Tibet. This way when Tibet gets given the chance to vote for independance they will not win becasue there will be more Chineese Tibetans than ancestrol Tibetans...

So what do we do about all this? How do we convert the Muslim? How do we prevent these faiths from overtaking the ground we as Christians won long ago? Not only that but how do we win? How do we take the message of Jesus to the world in a way they will respond?

Christianitytoday.com printed an article about why muslims convert to Christianity. It was based on survey of 750 muslims from 30 countries. The number 1 reason why muslims converted was by seeing the lifestyle of Christians. They noted the love the Christians had, the holiness that they lived out every day! "The next most important influence was the power of God in answered prayers and healing... Closely related was the finding that some noted deliverance from demonic power as another reason they were attracted to Jesus." And there has been many, many muslims recently converted to Jesus becasue of dreams and visions.

What does this mean for us as Christians? It means that if we want to be effective witnesses for Jesus that will see nations and religions turn to Jesus then we need to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. This means holiness. We need to be holy. We can only live a realy holy life by the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to exercise the power and authotiy Jesus has given us to heal the sick and cast out demons. And we can only do that by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And it means we need to be ready to pray. We cannot work this so to speak. These things are all given by Gods grace. We need to rely on ourselves less, and rely on God more.

We need to live a Spirit filled life.

Walk through the door!

2009-02-07T14:30:00.003+11:00

A man was sent to prison for breaking the law. The judge loved him though and opened the door after paying the penalty for him. All that was left for the convicted criminal to do was walk through the door. Sadly, stacks of people these days are stuck in their prison cell of sin, death and despair, meanwhile the door is wide open for them to escape.

The door of salvation is open! Hallelujah? Jesus has paid the price for us so that we can be saved. We can not earn, buy or inherit this salvation. It has been done for us. All we need to do is walk through the door. How do you walk through the door? You repent and believe.

It would be silly, stupid, unimaginable for someone to stay in a prison of torture, hellish conditions, pain, shame and suffering when the penalty has been paid and the door is open waiting for you to enter through. It does not make sense to stay in the cell when freedom is just a walk through the door.

So walk through the door. Repent, that is turn from your sinful acts and lifestyle and start following Jesus, and believe that Jesus died and rose again to open up the door to your freedom.

As for those of us who struggle to evangelise, lets remind ourselves that Salvation is not a dirty word, it is life, it is good! So good that we would be silly not to accept. So as you go evangelise in the coming days, weeks and years, remember that Salvation is a bargain! Its free! It is a great deal! It is freedom to those who believe!

And a verse, slightly out of context... "But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out." Acts 5:19 and one in context, "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" Mark 1:15

Outcome of a clean heart

2009-02-05T21:25:00.002+11:00

The below are some quotes from Brengles chapter on the outcome of a clean heart from his book, "Heart Talks on Holiness." It tells of some of the changes that take place once you have been sanctified! It makes holiness so appealing, have a read and see what you think!

I. A clean heart filled with the Spirit makes a soul-winner out of the man who receives the
blessing... It makes apostles, prophets, martyrs, missionaries, and fiery-hearted soul-winners. It opens wide and clear the channel of communion between God and the soul, so that His power, the power of the Holy Ghost, works through him who has a clean heart, surely convicting and graciously converting and sanctifying souls.

II. The blessing results in a constancy of spirit. The soul finds its perfect balance in God.
Fickleness of feeling, uncertainty of temper, and waywardness of desire are gone, and the soul is
buoyed up by steadiness and certainty.

III. There is perfect peace. The warring element within is cast out, the fear of backsliding
is gone, self no longer struggles for supremacy, for Jesus has become all and in all, and that word
in Isaiah is fulfilled, 'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because
he trusteth in Thee' (Isa. xxvi. 3), and the soul is made possessor of 'the peace of God, which
passeth all understanding' (Phil. iv. 7)

IV. Joy is perfected. There may be sorrow and heaviness on account of manifold
temptations, there may be great trials and perplexities, but the joy of the Lord, which is his
strength, flows and throbs through the heart of him who is sanctified like a great Gulf Stream in an unbroken current.

V. Love is made perfect. To be born of God is to have Divine love planted in the heart.
'Like begets like,' and when we are born of God we are made partakers of His nature. And 'God is
love.' But this love is comparatively feeble in the new convert, and there is much remaining
corruption in the heart to check and hinder, if not to destroy it; but when the heart is cleansed, all conflicting elements are destroyed and cast out, and the heart is filled with patient, humble, holy, flaming love. Love is made perfect. It flames upwards towards God, and spreads abroad toward all men.

VI. The Bible becomes a new book. It becomes self-interpreting. God is in it speaking to
the soul. I do not mean by this that all the types and prophecies are made plain to the unlearned
man, but all that is necessary to salvation he finds and feeds upon in the Bible. He now understands the word of Jesus, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God' (Matt. iv. 4).

VIII. Temptation is quickly recognized as such, and is easily overcome through steadfast
faith in Jesus. The holy man takes the shield of faith, and with it quenches all the fiery darts of the enemy.

IX. Divine courage possesses the heart. The sanctified man sings with David, 'I will not
fear: what can man do unto me?', (Ps. cxviii. 6). 'Though an host should encamp against me, my
heart shall not fear' (Ps. xxvii. 3). And with Paul, 'I can do all things through Christ which
strengtheneth me' (Phil. iv. '3)' for 'we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us' (Rom. viii. 37).

X. There is a keener sense than ever before of the weakness of the flesh, the absolute
inability of man to help us, and of our own utter dependence on God for all things. The pure heart sings evermore, 'The Blood, the Blood -- is all my plea.'

XI. The cleansed man makes a covenant with his eyes, and is careful which way and how
he looks. He also remembers the words of Jesus, 'Take heed therefore how ye hear' (Luke viii. 18), and again, 'Take heed what ye hear' (Mark iv. 24). Likewise he bridles his tongue and seasons his words with salt, not with sugar; salt is better than sugar for seasoning, but it is only for seasoning.

Want to know more? Read it in full at this link here.

Chasing Holiness?

2009-02-02T22:01:00.002+11:00

Holiness has been a gift sought after by many for a long time, some have recieved it, others have not. Some believe we can get it while here on Earth, others dont. Some say we can get it just before we die, others say you can get it now. Some say its the never ending quest. Whatever the case may be holiness can often seem an uncatchable gift.

My thinking of holiness changed recently and I am glad it has. One of my friends reminded me that Jesus is the gift. When I think about it I see that we access salvation by Gods grace by repenting and believing, but the reason we get salvation is becasue of the cross. The same is with holiness. We access Gods grace by repenting and believing, but the reason we get sanctified is becasue of the cross. Our salvation and sancitification only come about because of Jesus' death and resurrection.

The cross is central for holiness. Jesus is central for holiness. Not only does He teach holiness and live holy, but He also died and rose again and sent the Holy Spirit so that we can receive holiness too! Perhaps we need to rethink chasing the gift of holiness and start realising the significance of the cross, resurrection and life in the Spirit...

Holiness and discipleship

2009-01-30T19:07:00.002+11:00

"To get a man soundly saved it is not enough to put on him a pair of new breeches, to give him regular work, or even to give him a University education. These things are all outside a man, and if the inside remains unchanged you have wasted your labor. You must in some way or other graft upon the man's nature a new nature, which has in it the element of the Divine.”
William Booth

I am always challenged when I lead someone to Christ because although I praise God for their awessome decision I also know that it has to go deeper. Some will say that this happens by the process of discipleship, being lead by other men and women of God over a long period of time.

However we should never forget stories such as the Gadarene demoniac wjere the man just saved is told not to follow Jesus on His journey but to turn around and tell the town what God had done for Him. What about Paul being discipled by the Holy Spirit?

Holiness is the answer and is an awesome gift that God gives to us. And all it requires is for us to totally renounce all sin, totally consecrate our lives to God and totally believe He will sanctify us. In our evangelism lets not forget that God can change a heart in a beat! And that change can far out last any program we give them. The thing people need is a solid relationship with God.

KILL THE OLD MAN

2009-01-29T21:04:00.002+11:00

Ephesians 4:22 and Colossians 3:9 call it the old man...

Romans 8:7 calls it the carnal mind
Romans 7:24 calls it a body of death

Galatians :17 calls it the flesh

James 1:21 calls it moral filth and the remainder of iniquity

John calls it "sin" as distinct from 'sins"

Ezekiel 38:26 calls it a stoney heart

Theologians call it imbred sin, original sin and depravity.

It is the sinful nature and we are told to put it off, lay apart and kill it.

We are rminded that the blood of Jesus cleanses us and purifies
We are reminded that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil
We are reminded that God will remove the stoney heart.

(Most of the references were taken from Brengles Heart talks on holiness! A must read if you wanna get holy! Very helpful!)

Ambassadors of Holiness

2009-01-29T20:57:00.003+11:00

Its been a long time since I've blogged but Im back and am hoping to get into it now on a much more rgular basis!

I am now a cadet at the Training College in the Ambassadors of Holiness session! Im very excited and at the same time a little daunted by our session name.

This is what an ambassador means:
A diplomatic official of the highest rank appointed and accredited as representative in residence by one government or sovereign to another, usually for a specific length of time.

So in my case I am chosen, accredited and appointed by God to be a representative of holiness to the unholy until i die.

Wow.

I know that I can not be holy on my own. But I do know that God provides us with all we need to be holy. In The Salvation Army we know it as "BLOOD AND FIRE!"

The Blood of Jesus washes away our sin and the fire of the Holy Spirit empowers us to live holy! We are justified (declared holy) at Salvation but at Sanctification we are made holy, that is our sinful nature is killed and instead we are controlled, compelled by the love of God!

God, make me holy and I will show others how to be holy!

2008

2008-12-31T10:54:00.002+11:00

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

2008-12-15T15:51:00.002+11:00

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

2008-12-13T10:23:00.003+11:00

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

2008-12-12T10:39:00.003+11:00

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."

2008-12-09T14:38:00.002+11:00

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

2008-11-28T14:42:00.002+11:00

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

2008-11-28T14:31:00.002+11:00

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!?!?

2008-11-26T09:32:00.002+11:00

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

2008-11-25T14:21:00.002+11:00

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!

2008-11-21T12:00:00.001+11:00

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

2008-11-19T09:17:00.002+11:00

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

2008-11-18T15:23:00.002+11:00

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

2008-11-17T09:05:00.002+11:00

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

2008-11-13T12:01:00.005+11:00

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!

2008-11-12T09:03:00.003+11:00

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!!!

2008-11-11T13:15:00.002+11:00

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

2008-11-10T11:35:00.003+11:00

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

2008-11-07T11:31:00.003+11:00

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)

2008-11-05T14:39:00.003+11:00

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

2008-11-03T10:37:00.002+11:00

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!

2008-10-31T14:38:00.002+11:00

"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

2008-10-29T09:03:00.003+11:00

"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

2008-10-28T09:47:00.001+11:00

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

2008-10-27T13:59:00.002+11:00

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

2008-10-24T10:03:00.004+11:00

"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!

2008-10-23T14:52:00.002+11:00

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

2008-10-22T10:47:00.004+11:00

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!

2008-10-21T13:43:00.002+11:00

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

2008-10-20T13:57:00.002+11:00

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!

2008-10-17T11:43:00.003+11:00

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

2008-10-16T13:54:00.002+11:00

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

2008-07-05T10:55:00.003+10:00

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

2008-07-03T18:54:00.004+10:00

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

ACTS 4 Lesson...

2008-07-02T09:18:00.003+10:00

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!

2008-06-30T15:03:00.001+10:00

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

2008-06-30T09:50:00.002+10:00

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."
----------------
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

2008-06-29T22:24:00.003+10:00

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

2008-06-26T19:03:00.003+10:00

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

2008-06-25T21:23:00.002+10:00

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!

2008-06-25T10:27:00.004+10:00

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...

2008-06-23T15:47:00.003+10:00

"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

2008-06-21T11:54:00.003+10:00

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

2008-06-20T10:03:00.003+10:00

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...

2008-06-19T14:58:00.003+10:00

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!
------

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

2008-06-18T09:55:00.002+10:00

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

2008-06-16T09:43:00.002+10:00

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

2008-06-14T10:29:00.006+10:00

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?

2008-06-11T13:56:00.002+10:00

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?

2008-06-10T11:15:00.003+10:00

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

2008-06-07T16:29:00.001+10:00

THIS IS A MUST WATCH VIDEO. ITS SOOOO FUNNY!

Letter from an atheist

2008-06-07T13:23:00.000+10:00

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

2008-06-07T11:16:00.003+10:00

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?

2008-06-06T11:21:00.003+10:00

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)

2008-06-05T18:17:00.001+10:00

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

Giving

2008-06-05T09:55:00.002+10:00

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?

signs and wonders

2008-06-04T17:35:00.003+10:00

We watched this video last night at Strike. We're learning about Signs and wonders. But before you watch it, take a look at this table which talks about the term 'signs and wonders'...

WHERE	TIMES USED	BY WHO?	WHY?
Old Testament	27 times	God and prophet	Declare and save
Acts	13 times	God and apostle	Declare and save
Revelation	7 times (signs)	False prophets	Lead astray
Other	3 times	Both	Both

[1] (2 Corinthians 12:12, 2 Thessalonians 2:9, Hebrews 2:4) (Gospel research still being done...)

The table clearly shows the reasons for a Sign and wonder. We do not want people chasing signs and wonders, rather we want people to chase after God. We want people saved and so it is with those intentions that we believe and pray for signs and wonders. Whether we get a sign or wonder or not is not the main point, the main point is that people turn to follow Jesus.

Now, watch this video and be challenged by a command of God...

God at work

2008-06-04T09:36:00.004+10:00

Hows everyone going?

I've been copping some criticism for believeing that God raises the dead. Why? Because its too 'out there'. Becasue its crazy. Becasue 'it doesn't happen.' Well, I believe in a God who has done miracles right throughout time from creation through Moses days, through Elijahs days, Isaiahs days, Jesus' days, the disciples days... all the way up until and including now. I follow a God who does not change His mission. The kingdom of God is here.

Why do I want people to believe this stuff? Becasue God is the God that saves. Heals. Sets free! Makes whole! Makes holy! He loves everyone! And knowing Him and being with Him is better than anything in the world and I want others to know Him like I do. Because He is so good!

I have seen God do amazing things. Set people free from demonic possesion and oppression, heal people of cancer, tummy problems, head problems including depression! I have seen God turn lives around, lives heading towards hell turned to lives that bring glory to God, lives that bring the Kingdom of God to this world! I have seen people been made whole. I have seen people filled with joy. I have seen people filled with love. I have seen peoples condemnation, guilt and stress fall off. I have seen God at work in my life and the lives of others.

I dont need to make anything up. If you doubt come and see. And you will see that God is alive, that He impacts the world we live in becasue He loves us. He loves you. If you have doubts about how real God is then come and see. God can do a miracle in your life.