Fighting to TRUST Him

I'll walk with You

Wherever You go

Through tears and joys

I'll trust in You

And I will live in all of you ways

Your promises forever

- All I am Reuben Morgan

Lately there have seemed to be alot of things in my life that have been uncertain for me and I have to tell you that it's a scary place to be when so much uncertainty is over your head. I've felt a mixture of confusion, heartache, pain, fear, etc as I've seemed to fumble my way through each day wondering if I would get the answers to the many questions I had to do with where my life is at right now. Tonight one word struck me...TRUST!!

I've had a lot of people break my trust in my life...I've been in relationships that have ended with me getting my heart broken...abused physically and emotionally...left feeling completely lost and alone...I've had uncertainties about career choices...I've had struggles in my family...I've had friends hurt me and stab me in the back...but then I found God and this one thing I know...my God is FAITHFUL!! I will walk with Him wherever He goes. Through tears, confusion, pain, heartache, joy, blessings, rewards...through everything I face...I will walk with Him and TRUST in Him because He is the most trustworthy of any being. I will live in His ways because His way is the ONLY way! I will live holding on to His promises because they are many and He never breaks even the smallest of them. He has too much to lose by breaking a promise so I have every confidence that He will never fail me!

He is my maker. He is my Lord. He is my salvation. He is my light. He is my strength. He is my confidence. He is my straight path. He is my provider. He is my assurance. He is my clarity. He is my all in all and for Him my all I will offer!

Fighting to FLY!!

Well it's been a while since I've written a blog...so here's a new one...I know you were all on the edge of your seats waiting...so without further ado...here's what God's been sharing with me lately...

Get out your Bible and turn to Psalm 62:1-2; 5-8 or if you're lazy like me, or if you don't have a Bible click on the link (BTW...if you don't have a Bible please message me and I'll get you one!!) ...

A few nights ago a friend of mine gave me this passage...there's lots of things lately that I've been stressing about...things I've been unsure about...things I've felt disillusioned with...but through it all the only thing I could think was 'I love Jesus...and I just want to serve Him!!' And I've gotta tell you, with that feeling comes alot of frustration when you feel that there are things or means that stop you doing that the way you desire to do it!

In the last 2 weeks I've preached in 2 different youth churches...my own here at my church, and another one I was asked to preach at over at Bonnells Bay...both places I spoke about being free and unobstructed...(see previous blog). Funny thing is, there's still so much in my life that I've been looking at and thinking "GOD...I JUST WANNA BE FREE!!!! I just wanna serve YOU God...no matter what the cost"...all I TRULY want is to serve God with all my heart!! But there are things that I feel are obstructing me along the way.

Sunday night we didn't have night church so I went to a church not far from here called Coastlife. It's almost like a mini Hillsong. I wanted to go somewhere where I didn't know anyone...where I could just sink into the back row and hear from God...completely unobstructed. I prayed before I went in. I'd borrowed a friends car so I drove around for a bit with REMA FM blaring worship songs (remembering not to close my eyes as I worshipped while I drove hahaha)...I just drove and prayed "God, tonight I want to experience FREEDOM and I wanna be UNOBSTRUCTED!" I drove into the carpark and called my dad...(I love my dad SO much!!) and he prayed with me...we asked God to speak to me and answer my prayers!

Well, you'll NEVER guess what the preacher, Margie, spoke about!! She spoke about freedom and being UNCONTAINED!! Phwar!! How awesome is our God!! I wrote down LOADS of notes and then met her afterwards to share where I was at, cause I just completely believe that God had me there to hear her message...and I wanted to pray with her. So I told her a bit about where I was at and she prayed with me. It was so great! God really ministered to my heart!

This week I've been feeling SO much closer to God and honestly, I've felt so much more freedom in the time I've been spending with Him. Anyway, back to this Psalm. I read this Psalm and the word 'ALONE' kept jumping out at me...humour me here...go back and read it and when you read it emphasise the word ALONE...my soul finds rest in You ALONE...He ALONE is my rock and my salvation...how often do we put things, people, programs, careers, ideas before God. One of the things that Margie said on Sunday night was "Your freedom can NEVER EVER be gained by a substitute. GOD ALONE is your ticket to freedom!"

When things are hard, God ALONE is your comfort! When you feel weak and heavy laden, God ALONE is your rock! When you feel lost, God ALONE is your salvation! When you're afraid, God ALONE is your safe place! When you're in danger, God ALONE is your refuge! God ALONE!! No substitutes! GOD ALONE is your ALL in ALL!

I can't tell you how much freedom I felt in reading that and emphasising that one simple word 'alone'. It's easy to sit down and think about all the great things that we can do in God's Name...and alot of the time those things will seem noble and God-honouring. But when you say to God "You ALONE are my all in all!" And you really mean it...and you give everything over to Him...EVERYTHING...not holding ANYTHING back from Him...you'll start to find where God REALLY wants you. You'll start to discover what His purpose really is. You'll begin to understand why at times He says 'not just yet my child' or maybe 'no'.

Something else Margie said on Sunday night..."To become a butterfly you must want to fly so bad that you're willing to give up being a caterpillar." If you want freedom...if you want to live an uncontained life...if you want to serve God with ALL your heart...then you need to let go of the things that are weighing you down...they may not all be bad things...they may involve not taking on so many responsibilities, even the God-honouring ones, so that you can focus on the key areas and allow yourself to soar in those areas. Don't think that God can't and won't find someone else to replace you in the things you let go of, be it a church program, a job, a leadership role etc...He's got it all planned out and if He's saying "Let go of that and focus on this" then He's got the rest mapped out and you just need to let go and let God take control so that you can fly and so that others can fly too!

So, I say this to you...my readers...tehehe...LET GO AND LET GOD! Experience freedom in God ALONE! Experience a life uncontained in God ALONE! Look for all that you need in Him and watch as He gives strength to your wings and you begin to soar like a mighty eagle or fly like a delicate and inctricately designed butterfly...FLY! BE FREE IN HIM!

Fighting to be UNOBSTRUCTED

Just wanted to share some stuff...the challenges in my life right now...

God's been challenging me heaps of late...yesterday I had all these thoughts going round in my head and I started to just write it all out in an email to a friend...after I pressed send I felt God say "Turn off the computer and just sit with Me!" I was sitting there reading over my sermon for youth church next weekend and it didn't feel right and so I'd been trying to figure out how to change it and I just felt God say "STOP! Just turn the computer off and SIT WITH ME!!" So I did...I grabbed a blanket and my Bible, journal and a pen and went and sat under a tree outside and waited on God. My friend wrote me an awesome email the other day and had said that he hoped that I would live a free and unobstructed life for God...that word UNOBSTRUCTED just sat in my mind and God began to chip away at me listing things that were obstructing me from having the relationship with Him that I know He wants me to have...I won't share them all...but 2 things that I felt strong about was my internet and TV...I'm cutting off my internet at home and I'm packing my TV up...I am so desperate to be like Jesus and I so much want to pursue all that He has for me but I'm blocking Him from doing it completely because I spend too much time on the Internet or watching TV...so God said 'If you want Me bad enough those things have gotta go!!' So that's it...they're going! There are other things to work on too...and I'm working at that...I'm expecting a hard road to get there...but if I want it bad enough I've gotta persevere through all that will hit me while I'm trying to get there (that's a little thing called LIFE...cause I'll be on this journey forever of course)

So, since yesterday God's taken me to 3 different passages that speak about obstructions of some kind...so I wanna share them with you and hopefully challenge you as well...

1. POSSESSIONS: Acts 2:42-47...verse 45 says "Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as as he had need"

You wanna live a life free and unobstructed? Get rid of the possessions that are blocking you. The fellowship of believers in the Acts 2 church sold everything...they got rid of everything material and lived a life that was completely about their relationship with God and the fellowship they had with the people, and as a result verse 47 tells us that the Lord added to their number DAILY those who were being saved...!! I'm not saying God's telling you to sell everything and live in a cardboard box...although, maybe He is...who knows...lol...but what I'm saying is that offering everything to God is about saying "God, thank you for these things that I've been blessed with...I want to use them for Your purpose!" That means being wise about the way you use them and the time that you invest in using them...use them, don't abuse them! Give it up for His glory!

2. RELATIONSHIPS: Genesis 22:1-19

God tells Abraham to go sacrifice his only son who he'd waited FOREVER for!! Without a second thought, Abraham takes his son and gets ready to make the sacrifice...but at the last minute God stops him! He could see that Abraham was willing and that's all He wanted to see. In Abrahams situation all God wanted to see was that He had it in him to take that step....and he did. But, sometimes God asks us to give up a friendship and he doesn't stop us. Maybe you're holding onto a relationship or a friendship that you know is not helpful for you...it's obstructing you from God. Maybe your excuse is 'But, I can bring them to God'...but what if God can see that that's just not going to happen...maybe He doesn't want you to show them...maybe that's for someone else...maybe that relationship/friendship is only going to do you harm in the end. Trust me...don't hold onto it long enough to see it eat away at your relationship with God! It's hard to walk away...it'll hurt...you'll be sad...you might cry...it'll be such a difficult time for some of you...but that'll be temporary...better now than later...and it's better to let go of that earthly relationship than it will be to lose the relationship with your Creator!

3. CHURCH: Matthew 21:12-17

Jesus walks into the temple and he turns tables and benches and says:

"It is written," 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'"

Jesus is totally crushed and absolutely furious that the people made the church what they did! Corruption, money making, ripping people off..."MADNESS" you're probably thinking...but what do you think He'd say if He walked into our churches today? As the church...the body of believers...we've put so many obstructions in the church...religion, rituals, music, icons...it's all become very political...we haven't made it much better than these people did. So the challenge is, how do we break down those barriers and obstructions so that we can work on our relationship with God and allow others who come to our 'church' to do the same?!

It doesn't have to be as complicated as we make it sound...if we're desperate enough, and want to dig deep enough to live a free and unobstructed life then the answer is '...let us throw off everything that hinders..." (Hebrews 12:1)

So...the challenge God's given me through this friend of mine sharing his hopes for me...and through my time of sitting still with God...and what I want to share with you is this...get rid of EVERYTHING that's obstructing you from living a life that's totally free in Him and a life that's totally unobstructed...just sit and BE WITH HIM! No distractions...nothing in your way...it's about YOU and HIM...and it's about the others that He'll have you meet...do that and watch Him add to our numbers DAILY those who are being saved! And don't just make a special time on a specific day in your week or month...every day continue to take time to be still with Him!...Dig deeper!! Keep pushing for more of Him!

Bless you all loads...and thanks for allowing me to share with you in this way! Sorry if I don't see some of you much on line anymore cause I won't have internet at home anymore...

Fighting for what's really important!

I've been getting a litte frustrated of late at petty arguments and excuses within the church. Now, let me just clear up that I enjoy being a part of my 'church', if that's the right word...although my view is changing and I dont really like to use that word for the Sunday meeting...I think that church can be anywhere...it's not about what we do on a Sunday morning...it's about what we, as the body of believers (which, by the way, IS the church), do every day of the week...anywhere you are you can make church happen...but for the purpose of this blog I will still use the word 'church' because it's what we've always used to talk about that place we go on a Sunday and maybe on occassion during the week...so anyway...lets not get too side-tracked...

My biggest frustration of late is that we've lost sight of what we're doing here...what our purpose and mission is...what's really important! We're no longer focussing on the important stuff, we're talking instead about 'How do I make 'church' work so that I can enjoy it?'...instead of asking 'What can I give God today and who can I reach out to today?' There are so many things that we've turned into our idols. For the older generation and even many of the young people in my particular denomination, the brass band is their idol. I read a comment just yesterday where someone was bold enough to say 'We've always had the brass band in the Salvos...take them away and what have we got?' What a question!! I read that and was SO shocked! I gotta tell ya, we're NOT the brass band! If that's all there is to the Salvos then lets throw the towel in now and stop while we still can! If that's the only reason we come to church then we're better off not going at all!!

Then there are those who complain tirelessly about the fact that they want to come to church and hear more modern music. PEOPLE!! WAKE UP!! I'm tired of these petty arguments going round in circles...let me say one more time..WORSHIP IS NOT A MUSIC STYLE!! IT'S A LIFE STYLE!! If all you think about on a Sunday or during the week is how much you dislike the brass or contemporary band then you're not really doing church...you're here for a music show...in which case I believe that channel 10 has video hits on a Sunday morning and you may as well stay home and watch that...or sit on your front porch and listen to the radio or your fave CD.

I'm not going to apologise for being too harsh or straight to the point...it needs to be said...I tell you what, if Jesus walked into our church today (by the way, He IS in our church today) then I think instead of turning tables He'd be unplugging our mics, kicking the drum kit and trashing the brass band chairs and music stands and saying 'WHY ARE YOU WORSHIPPING MUSIC?!?!?!?!' I'm over it...come on...you all know the song 'Heart of worship'...you've sung it a million times...it's been done by the contemporary bands and in our church the brass band even has an arrangement...but STILL no one gets the message...

'I'm coming back to the HEART OF WORSHIP and it's ALL ABOUT YOU...its all about YOU JESUS!!'

Is it? Is it really about Him? Are you arguing about music and bands and styles and traditions and what should be in and out because you're worried that it's not bringing glory to God...?? Or are you arguing about it to try to satisfy your own wants and desires and what you want to hear on a Sunday?

I hear people say that new people won't come if we have boring music...I'm sorry but I think thats ABSOLUTE RUBBISH!! Do you know why I think people dont come, or if they do come, why they don't come back? Because we suck at relationships! We're so busy arguing and trying to have things our own way that we forget to follow someone up...we don't bother to invite them to a small group where the most impact and growth happens...we close the door on our cell groups and say 'Sorry we're full'...we get so involved in our clicky groups that we don't have time to welcome a stranger...we go out and play in the community and we have 'supporters' come from the church, but do they talk to people or do they set up their chair and just watch the 'show'? People don't walk out of our churches thinking 'Gee, that music sucked' ...they walk out thinking 'That was awkward cause I didn't know anyone and no one came and talked to me!'

I dont want you to write back to this blog...I dont want any of your comments...what I want you to do is to get down on your knees, turn off your so called 'worship' music and repent...ask God to change your attitude...as I so often have to ask Him to change mine...I'm most certainly NOT expempt from this...start doing church the way that Jesus did it...meet people...don't wait for the church pews to fill up...stop warming your pew, it's warm enough...get up and really do church...meet people and give them the message that's going to change their life forever! Stop getting into petty arguments about what music or style is appropriate...and also about what church is better...that's stupid and we're not here to rip our brothers and sisters in Christ down because they have different ideas and styles or because it scares you that their church has 3000 instead of 300...start focussing on the reason we're here...and if you're not here for that reason then you need to re-evaluate what you're doing in the brass band, the ensemble, or even your Salvo uniform...or whatever the equivelant is in whatever church you're from...Are you more committed to the Salvos or your denomination than you are to God? Remember that the your 'church' was inspired by God but put together by man...don't make it your idol...the only one you should be worshipping is GOD and Him ALONE! Don't get caught up in religion and all the stupid rituals that God would rather throw out the window if it meant you'd focus on Him more...that's the reason people are scared to come...hypocricy, strict rules, clicky groups, uniforms, styles...they're all barriers that we're putting up between God and the unsaved!! We, the church, the body of believers, are creating barriers for people who don't know Jesus!! It's time to pull our socks up and get real...break down the barriers and ask God 'What can I give you today...and who can I reach for you!'

Music Camp Pranksta!

So I just got back from a week long Music Camp for Salvos from NSW, QLD and ACT...split into Snr (17-30) and Jnr (12-17) camps...held at the beautiful Collaroy, right near the beach...I haven't been to a Music Camp in 9 yrs so it was interesting going back as staff...was a little worried but it turned out to be the most AWESOME week!

Ok...so let me tell you about my favourite boys at camp. Travis and Jamie...my boys!! They're the bomb!! My official role at camp was Pastoral Care...running Bible Studies in Snr and Jnr Camps and helping run activities and camp devotions etc...but I also had the awesome privilege of helping Trav and Jamie run Drama...and MAN, I had the BEST week EVER!!



So, to continue with my story, I need to tell you about Kirsty...Kirsty is also incredible...an awesome woman of God with a FANTASTIC sense of humour...and who could forget Jade and Stuart...our awesome partners in crime!!

This is the story...I got back to camp on Thursday afternoon from shopping in free time and Travis and Jamie were painting boxes for drama...I had offered to help if I was back in time but was running late...so, with my shopping bags in tow and walking down a steepish hill, I called to Travis and asked if they'd finished...he ran over to me with a paint roller full of black paint...it all happened very quickly...he tried to paint me so I was pushing him away and my hands were full of paint (I had to drop my bags)...then he got his brother to help pin me down on the road and he painted my WHOLE face black! To top it off, he took a pic of me then when I went to wash it off there were hoards of campers near my room...so they all saw me and laughed...

It was PAY BACK time...yes, Travis, thats right...pay back sux!!

So, Kirsty and I enlisted the help of Jamie (cause he was sleeping in the same room as Travis) and we got into his room and short-sheeted his bed, stole one shoe, his toothbrush, toothpaste and his blue toothpaste/brush holder...oh and his PJ pants...little did we know how particular Travis is...this just added to the hilarity of it all...so that night Travis was most distressed when he realised his missing items because he never looses anything...over the next few days he was starting to cotton on to Kirsty and I thinking that we were in on it...(which of course we were)...

BUT...the best opportunity came up to continue the prank when Jamie told me that during a pray time with himself, Travis and Jade, Travis had said that they should pray for his toothbrush and shoe to be returned...so thats what we did...we put the shoe and toothbrush back on his bed under the covers and left this note:

My dearest Travis...

Your prayers have been answered...the safe return of your shoe and toothbrush. To be honest, one shoe was getting a little hard to walk on and I have a strictly 'no sharing' toothbrush policy.

I am, however, glad that you didn't ask for the rest back...your pants are very comfy, my breath smells minty fresh and my favourite colour is blue.

Enjoy your shoe and toothbrush.

God

PS...Sheets are getting shorter these days don't you agree?!

hahahahaha...go on, laugh...you know its HILARIOUS!!

So, he started asking questions, of course...he was on our case...but there was still about 3% of doubt in his mind that it wasn't me and Kirsty, so we decided we would go with that 3% and the prank must go on!!

This morning, the last morning of camp, was the grand finale with only the PJ pants and toothpaste and holder to return...so, last night we enlisted the help of another staff member, the awesome and funny Stuart (Stu)...Stu pulled the Salvo flag down for us so that we could hoist Travis' Pj pants up the flag ready for this morning's events...we got up in time for breakfast and when we got to the dining hall Kirsty and I took the toothpaste and holder to the breakfast staff and asked them to serve it on Travis' breakfast plate when he arrived...

It was all set...but unbenownst to us, Travis went to the beach for a swim that morning, so our plans were a little warped, but still equally as effective...he got to breakfast and, as planned, was served bacon, eggs, toast and his toothpaste and blue holder...he stood there in the most shocked and confused state...it was hilarious! As the lady serving stated: 'He looked at me as if I had two heads or something...he had no idea what was going on' hahahahahaha...then one of the campers ran in and in a loud voice shouted 'HEY...WHAT'S THAT UP THE FLAG POLE!?!?!' (this was planned of course...) so we all assembled outside where Stu was ready with his cornet playing 'The Banner Song' while we saluted the flag and waited for Travis to discover his pants...

Like the good sport that he is, Trav had a good giggle, took his pants down, put them on, rehoisted the flag, saluted, and continued on...

A prank well done!! And he still drove me home...Trav, if you're reading this, you're a champion...a true good sport...but I must warn you...be prepared for bigger and better things next year!! hahahaha...miss you brother!! lol

THE END!!