Perpetuating lies

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you???

Paul opens Galatians 3 with this and its quite a harsh reality for the church at Galatia, i mean, noone likes to be told off but to be told you are 'foolish' well thats just mean.

As i reflect on this, i remember a conversation i had with Rebecca last night, we were talking about the lie of tolerance or even encouragement that Satan has spread in that as a culture we now accept for example homosexuality as a normality of life.

Jesus and every biblical writer seems to be sickened by the fact that this was around then and we have the gall to espouse that same-sex people may be married and have the legitimate rights of a heterosexual couple.
Where did we start to go wrong in our acceptance of all the lies that Satan spreads? Its ok to steal things (music and dvd piracy), its ok to murder ( video games) and a half-truth or white lie means nothing.

I wonder if we've lost the power of being objective or did we just go to sleep and wake up and say "hey, look, the world has changed we need to keep in step." and lost our way.

Is it too late to go back? or can we change what we must?

Satan's greatest triumph was to convince the world that he doesn't exist

Enjoying God

i was listening to my daughter (Alyssa) singing a song yesterday, it goes like this: (you may know it )

My God is so big,
so strong and so mighty,
there's nothing my God can not do,
(repeat)

The mountains are his,
The rivers are his,
The whole world is under his smile.

My God is so big,
so strong and so mighty,
There's nothing my God can not do.

I remember the song from when i was a kid and there are still things and words about it that leave me absolutely breathless.
Things like 'MY God is so big'. my God, i love this its fantastic, he is my God, mine...he belongs to me and i to him.

He's so strong and so mighty and everything belongs to him and he smiles.
This is the kind of God i really enjoy serving and worshipping, to know that all these things are characteristics a marvelous supreme being that i give everything too, and look at all i get back.

I think the only thing that bothers me is that we don't sing this as adults, is it because we stopped thinking that at some point? is it because we stop knowing how powerful he is at the same time as so graceful.
I think as adults we forget to sing and really enjoy songs like this, i find myself coming back to this God and I'm really enjoying him

Messiness Part 2

Well, what a very odd week. one of the students that attends one of my programmes had asked if she could spend her work experience week following me around and seeing what a youth pastor does.

So, we spent the first day in the office writing programmes etc, that was fun too, then in the other weekdays we went into the school where i am a chaplain, went to several meetings (really hate meetings. my philosophy is "lets stop talking about it and get off our collective asses and actually DO it") , did some funraising helping clear a farm and i even got her to write a programme of her own and then we talked about how to make it better (yeah, like i have all the answers. lol)

Had an bsolute ball, didnt get a lot done but She learned a lot.

The weird thing is, because i didnt get as much planning time as i usually like, the programme for friday night was a bit, what i'd call 'light' and it was apparently one of the best nights this year.

For those who do not know my philosophy on messiness, here it is; I believe that God shows us the most about himself when we are the least prepared (and generally at our worst) when i did Myers-Briggs i found that i am and ESFP (Google Myers-Briggs and you'll find out what i mean) anyway, this ultimately means that the best things that i do are at the last possible moment. Is that me??? umm yes definitly.

Fridays programme that i honestly thought was rubbish and we had to ad-lib a lot was one of the best because in the messy, unpreparedness of life the Holy Spirit came to the fore and made it one of the best nights ever.

God does the coolest things and i am humbled that he would choose to use me, one of his more average people to do his amazing work.

Praise God that he is great and worthy of praise.

And thanks Cara for putting up with my bad jokes and terrible sense of humour.

Messiness

The last few weeks, i've been fairly miserable i must say, much maligned, beaten and bruised but i'm still here.
Spiritual attacks have that effect on one. Its really interesting that God can use non-Christians to effect change in the Christian (i.e. Babylon and Assyria) but the opposite is true as well, Christians can be made to feel amazingly inadequate from other Christians.

We spend all our time talking so much about being 'intentional' and 'deliberate' but at some point the person needs to know that what others see as weaknesses are (quite on the contrary) strengths because we now know what to work on. I know what my strengths are and constantly work to them would degrade how good they are and be less holistic with those who i minister to.

The other thing that concerns me is words like 'messy'. Mess is not always bad, its what people see when we aren't running mind-numbing programmes, the real stuff.

I'm constantly getting complaints that one specific programme isn't well planned and then quickly followed by "but don't take it personally!"
Don't take it personally??!! what the hell!!! how do you not take a statement like that personally????
Its like someone saying that your kids are really good but they're a bit slow. of course i take it personally and then, as if thats not enough of an insult, i get "You need to develop a thick skin!"

How the hell do i do that and remain ulnerable (another catch-word)??? i think ministry people need to listen to themseles a bit. But before you get concerned, i'm not throwing all my toys out of the cot (even though its crossed my mind a lot lately).
Our kids are far too special for that, i need to be bigger than that (and i'm already quite big lol).

Wow i get quite whingy dont i? i'm gonna go do something else before the bitter pill disoles in my ever increasing gut. lol

What It Means To Be A Youth Leader

Today has been great. We just loaded the whole family in the car and went for a drive to Gore, which by itself is a nice place, but this was made even better by the fact that i could spend quality time with my family.

The bible says that "if a man cannot control his own home, he has no right leading God's people"
My family are the most important to me, they are what makes me carry on functioning, they are my inspiration my strong rock.
God has blessed us with kids and made us a tight family.

What i learn from my family, a lot of can be transposed into the way i run Youth East Taieri.
What i mean is... it isnt about numbers, you see we have 3 wonderful kids and by the time they are of an age to enter society and make a positive mark on it then our job is done.

I think my job is to help shape people to make a mark on the world, and i believe its the same with my ministry.

How can you tell, i love what i do?
Our role as youth leaders is to make sure than when our youth go on that they are appropriatly taught what the true meaning it is to be a Christian. they need to know that when things get hard God is always there, we need them to know that when their faith is shaken, there are still solid foundations.

Its time we grew our people spiritually, not numerically and its time we were transparent enough for everyone to know what we are doing and the motives behind it.
We have that responsibility for this season to make sure that the trees (our youth) in our orchard grow them selves but also grow fruit that lasts and enrich the orchard they exist in.

And that is our job, our responsibility, our privilege

Glass half-full

Next weekend i host my first leaders retreat, its a strange thing to be in charge of 16 volunteer leaders and reaching 140 students in a normal week (what is normal???), but to be responsible for the feeding (spiritually) of those who are feeding others is quite intimidating.

I was talking with one of the youth the other day and he said "you have a very hands on way of doing ministry", and i wasnt quite sure what he meant and where the comment came from.
He is used to the detatched leader who merely says "this is how it will be".
Yes, i am very different, i guess that goes into why its so intimidating to be responsible for the spiritual nuturing of people twice my age.
Am so looking forward to it though, am forced to be grown up and organised. lol.

On another note, for the last wee while i hae been whinging about perspective and how hard things are.
God is amazing, he has shown me through my family, my leaders and my youth what my priorities are and how much i am thankful about what i do.

Among everything, all the noise, the bad news the annoying people is the stuff that makes it all totally worthwhile, see the glass is half-full again.

The Banks of the River Jordan

God has this way of bringing things into perspective.
The last couple or three weeks have been tough but with every wilderness experience comes an 'out'. its that place where you see the end of the hard place and know that something hard and painful is coming to an end (for now).

I guess its kinda like the Israelites and the land of Canaan. They must have stood in wonder of the place and reflected on the difficulty of getting there and then seen how much they had grown and how God had fulfilled the promise of the covenant.

I know this now. The bible says that "iron sharpens iron." and its a painful experience when you have to lose stuff to find the new purpose.

So, here i stand on the banks of the Jordan River (metaphorically speaking) ready to cross into the promised land.

Our God is an awesome God and i am surrounded by awesome people, not the least of which is my fantastic wife who allows God to use her to spread his wisdom to me. Thanks honey