No regrets

29th November--Thought 4 the Week :

I was watching a DVD the other day called ‘The Interpreter’ and it had a story in it about an African legend. The story went a little like this…
If a member of your family was murdered by someone, on the year anniversary of the murder, the person who committed this crime would be taken to the river, a weight tied to his foot, and taken out to the middle of the river where he was let go. The family members on the bank had two options. They could watch him drown, and live with the grief all their lives, or they could swim out and safe him and be able to live the rest of their lives without bitterness and grief. It illustrated quite profoundly the power of forgiveness to me, or the opposite of hanging onto to our grievances and bitterness.
As we look back over this year, and reflect on what has happened, may I encourage you to forgive and let go of those things that are hurtful or bring grief and bitterness. Let’s head into 2006 with no regrets!

We need others

22nd November--Thought 4 the Week :

Wow, we had an awesome time on Sunday at Youth Church. It would be cool to hear how you were spoken to etc, why not comment on the website??
I was reading yesterday in Proverbs 28:13, it talks about confessing your sins, which is exactly what we did on Sunday at Youth Church. We confessed them, and asked for forgiveness. But the interesting part of the verse is that it goes onto say that we also need to give them up, leave and forsake them. It is one thing to confess them & ask God for forgiveness, but another to then stop doing what we have been that is wrong, we need each other to help us with this. On Sunday Mark Smith spoke about making a covenant with each other to help keep the fire burning, may I also encourage you to do so. Let’s not get sucked into the Kiwi way of thinking we can make it on our own, we need each other to help us walk in God’s way everyday. Let’s be REAL AUTHENTIC this week, including the way we are honest with each other and not afraid to ask for help!

Powerful Stories

15th November--Thought 4 the Week :
I watched a DVD last week of Michael Frost (pastor of Small Boat Big Sea check it out at --www.smallboatbigsea.org ) and he was talking about how powerful stories are. He made the comment that it isn't nice feelings, or lovely emotions that kept the Israelites going when times were tough, but instead it was the story of the Passover & what God had done for them, and therefore what He was going to do. And it’s the same with us. We have an awesome story of what God has done for us at the cross – the amazing sacrifice & severe pain that He went through. This is what gives us the strength to go on, and the endurance to push through. We need to be constantly telling this story and reminding ourselves and others that this is what is so important about our faith. This is the one & only central and all-important story that makes our life story worth living.
This week at Youth Church we have a chance to reflect on and celebrate this. Come ready to the hear this story again, re-told in a different way.

Our God is a great big God

8th November--Thought 4 the Week :

Last week I put the challenge out to share stories of God at work in our world. WOW! During the week, we had an awesome example of how big God is. As most of you will know, we took a proposal to the church leadership team in regards to staring a youth church. The feedback in that meeting was unanimously positive, and our YOUTH CHURCH STARTS ON NOV 20th!
I am reading through Isaiah 40-45 at the moment and its all about how big & great God is, and how small we are in comparison. I encourage you to read it, as it puts things into perspective, and all it makes you want to do is jump up & down, dance, and yell – “HOW GREAT YOU ARE GOD – YOU ROCK.”
I'm looking forward to Nov 20th, when we can turn the music up & shout that at the top of our lungs together!

A hurricane of love!

1st November--Thought 4 the Week :
Following on from last week’s challenge to spread God’s love around, both BURN & also Sunday morning’s message gave us the same realization. At BURN we were challenged to ask God for a compassionate heart for those who are hurting or lost. It is only when we feel compassion (not pity) for others that we will be compelled to do something about it. Then on Sunday morning we were challenged (if you missed it – ask me so you can borrow the DVD) to show we love God by loving others by being Jesus with flesh on. Not creating more programs & events but to be a hurricane or tsunami of God’s love to others with no thought of our own sacrifice. This is what an unbelieving world will marvel out, and for what we should be recognized for. Ask God this week to extend your borders, ask Him to give you an opportunity where you need to give of your time, money or stuff to someone less fortunate than you. I am looking forward to hearing your stories, of how you have been able to spread God’s love this week. (There’s a spot on the website where you can paste them!)
The people who had nothing because of the house fire were very thankful for what were able to take to them last week – I believe they saw God’s love in action as the community gave what they could to them. Let’s have some more stories like this to tell next week!