We often talk about ‘building of faith’… but what does this look like?

Reflecting on my only life I discover the question really goes straight to the core… simply because it revolves around that which is at the core – my purpose.

Now if I was to ask who had a clearly defined purpose in life who could confidently put there hand up and say yes….

I suppose a more general question would be who thinks it is important?

Well hopefully in what I briefly share I am able to stir some thought and challenge you as God as been challenging me... Because our purpose (the why) transpires to vision (the where) shaping the mission (the how to) which ultimately determines values (how I live out everyday).

Hidden within the gospels is one of the greatest pictures of what it means to worship.

…Let me paint the scene…

Jesus has been invited out for a feed. He has His posse there and they have just kicked back at the table.

Now their host for the evening was one of those religious guys… a real political heavy weight at the time. An election around the corner… a sudden change in the leadership of the party… what better time to wine and dine a guy such as Jesus!

Radical in dress, behavior and philosophy… going from town to town with a rough group of guys… yet an amazing ability to draw crowds in the 1000’s… In the eyes of any political leader this guy was a wild card you probably wanted on your side.

How Do We Handle the Big Issues Facing the Church?

Found this article from a great blogsite - TheResurgence... Worth a read!

Share your thoughts with others by commenting below. Hope you guys and girls are all encouraged and challenged.

Nate B

It is an amazing concept isn’t it – time. Arguable the building bricks of life… It starts so innocently baby steps… school… it appears to speed up for a period of about 40 years until finally… wife by your side… caravan on the back… line in the water we drift of to sleep dreaming about the 300 yard drive we hit straight down the fair way this morning.

 You can just hear the words of “Maximus” echo in the forest; mounted on a horse, stirring the hearts of his troops… “WHAT YOU DO IN THIS LIFE ECHOS IN ETERNITY!”

 Yet considering it’s importance – despite being the fabric which makes up a human life isn’t it amazing how seldom it takes centre stage…. But still the time ticks on: seconds… minutes… hours.

 It is going too fast! We need to slow it down… if only I had done this differently… I wonder what would have become of that choice… I wish I never made that mistake….

 Yet on it ticks…

When was the last time you learnt something new?

I admit that I am a bad learner - I dislike not being fluent with whatever I do.

Written by Kong Hee on May 2, 2009

At its 36th Bi-Annual National Conference held on April 23-24, 2007, the Assemblies of God in Australia introduced a new code allowing AG pastors to consume alcohol. However it also urged extreme caution when drinking, and highlighted that drunkenness is prohibited.

According to the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, throughout the first 1,800 years of church history, Christians consumed alcoholic beverages as a common part of everyday life and nearly always used wine (fermented grape juice) in the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper. Many of the early church fathers allowed wine drinking in moderation. The Catholic Church requires properly fermented wine in their Eucharist. The Reformers from Luther and Calvin to Zwingli and Knox strongly supported the enjoyment of wine as a biblical blessing. It was said that Calvin’s annual salary in Geneva included seven barrels of wine. Even the conservative and strict English Puritans were temperate partakers of wine and ale, which they considered as “God’s good gifts.” It was in the mid-1800s when some Protestant Christians moved from this historic position of allowing moderate use of alcohol to the total prohibiting of all drinking.

Are Christians allowed to drink wine and beverages that contain alcohol? Let us look at some standard objections against drinking of alcoholic beverages:

May 2009 has been our Holy Spirit month at C3 Crawley. We are very aware that the Spirit is our everyday connection with the Almighty God – the Spirit IS God!

One of the goals for our church is that we would see 50+ people filled with this Spirit in such a way that they speak in tongues for the first time. Speaking in tongues is not like a Scouts badge – some form of achievement – instead it is simply an intimate method of prayer. As we have made space in our services this month for the Holy Spirit to minister to us and through us, many people have been abundantly blessed.

Here is a testimony from one of those meetings:

The two questions I get asked the most are:

1. How do I walk with Christ in a more powerful way?

2. I don’t know what to do with my life – where do I go for direction?

These are questions not easily answered. Short clichés rarely suffice. I can say that the best way to address them is to speak with the One who knows.

I am aware that prayer is a discipline. But the practice of prayer is one that reaps unlimited rewards. We discover that our inadequacies are more than compensated for by Christ’s abundance. As God spoke through the writer of Chronicles, “If my people would humble themselves…and pray…I will…” (2 Chron 7:14). God promises action when we act. God responds to faith-filled action.

'One of the giant redwood cedars of California, is 270 feet high, and weighs 6,300 tons. It came from a seed weighing three thousandths of an ounce'.

Hanging out in the playground as I minded this great kid, the question hammered my heart more than ever of why does bad things happen to good people? This kid I was minding had a drug-addict for a Mother and child petefile for a Father. Both parents had been arrested several times and this poor little guy had been chucked in the backseat during armed robberies, faced the full brunt of his Mother’s addiction and his Fathers immorality. With all this rushing through my mind this little boy starts telling me that he’s a superhero like all these Bible characters and how God is the one that gives him all the strength. At almost 10 years old, he’d seen so much hurt yet had so much faith.