I saw a video clip from Willow Creek church recently (Look up Greg Hawkins) on http://www.revealnow.com/ I was impressed with their humility and honesty that they realized that they needed to examine why they were not getting the spiritual growth that they expected in such a successful church. I believe the Holy Spirit is speaking to the WHOLE CHURCH about this. There are ways to check our progress on just about anything we do, just by working out what it is we want to achieve and having some check points or benchmarks along the way. This might be simple for our physical fitness, or our financial planning, but how do you do this for your spiritual progress? The answer is you have to know what you are measuring . We have to measure the basic building blocks of spiritual truth contained in the Gospel and see if these are being lived out in our lives and in our church.

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Very recently I experienced an overwhelming sense of disappointment and grief at all the things that had gone wrong just a few short years ago in my ministry. I allowed myself to get into regret and remorse and I felt an acute sense of failure about it all. There was the failure concerning the purchase of the land on the main road and the shame and loss associated with that, and how it affected people in the church and the school. I then remembered a word that God had spoken to Tineke and myself at the end of that difficult time that put it into a new light.

Jer. 45:3‘You said, “Woe is me now! For the Lord has added grief to my sorrow. I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.”’ ⁴“Thus you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, what I have built I will break down, and what I have planted I will pluck up, that is, this whole land. ⁵And if you seek great things for yourself, do not seek them, for behold, I will bring adversity on all flesh,” says the Lord. “But I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go.”

This is what it meant to me.

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‘Amen’ is the word that has the most common usage among all the languages in the world. It started in the Hebrew language as ‘amen’– ‘to trust and believe in’, trustworthiness and truth, marking something to be totally believed in and to live for. It went into the Greek language as ‘amen’, then into Latin as ‘amen’ then through every Indo European language and into English as ‘amen’ and beyond and on and on and on. So when someone says ‘amen’ after proclaiming something, they are really saying ‘I believe it’, ‘too right’, ‘you bet’. The thought behind this is that there are things we can think and know and say that we are so sure of that we will stake our lives on them.

The wonderful thing is that Jesus is called the ‘Amen’ in the Bible. This is how it says it in the book of Revelation:-

Rev3:14 ‘…This is what the Amen says, the most absolute and reliable witness of all that is right and true, the source and completion of created beings…’

We are joined to this ‘Amen’ of all ‘amens’. We can stake our lives on what he says and live confidently in the truthful fact of his love and goodness and towards us. When you think of ‘amen’ today, think of how you can trust Jesus to take you into the life of love and oneness that he shares with his Father. He wants to be your ‘Amen’. He gave his life so that you could become part of his ‘Amen’. You can trust The Holy Sprit totally today to take you into his world, to lift your mind and heart out of the cares and worries of this world into the peace and joy and love of the supernatural world he lives in - with Jesus and his Father. Give Jesus time today to become your ‘Amen’. Amen.

There are some more audio sermons under ‘sermons’ in the menu bar and the translation of 1 Corinthians is still progressing. It’s all there in www.spiritcode.com . Amen from Paul.

As you enter the New Year make each day really count. God’s eternal moments are the ‘now’ moments. We tend to think of eternity as being in the future. But even in the future, the eternal moments will still be ‘now’ moments. Too often we live in the past, which can mean living with regrets – OR - we can have our heads too much into the future, which often means living with apprehension. But if we live in the ‘now’, that’s where God is. He is finished with the past and he is in total command of the future. He wants to live the ‘now’ with us. He gave you eternal life and he wants YOU to enjoy it – now – with him. 

There are more sermon mp3 podcasts on the site (which you can download) and another chapter of 1^st Corinthians (Chapter 9). You might also like to hear a rather unique song – ‘Whose Wings’ – Lyrics and melody and voice by Lucy OS and music by Jason. You’ll find it on the navigation bar on the left hand side under ‘Song clips’…

There are a few more sermon podcasts on the site and another chapter of 1st Corinthians (Ch.8). There is a matchless statement in 1 Corinthians 8: 3 which says; ‘But if a person loves God they become well known of God’. Is Paul saying that God only knows those people who love him? No. he is saying that God can only get to intimately know someone who loves him, because they are the only ones who will let him into their minds and hearts. This explains the verse in Matt 7:23 where people say to Jesus on the last day that they prophesied in his name and did great works in his name etc. and he says ‘depart from me for I never knew you’

Loving God is such a good thing to do. It is so much a good thing for us that God commands us to do it. The best way to learn how to love God is to awaken yourself often to his intense 'loving on you' at all times.

 

Before I say anything that sounds too serious let me suggest that If you want a laugh, go to ‘Now and Then’ ( in the ‘About us’ Category). There you will see a video of Matt and Dad doing a rap song for daughter Lucy’s 21st.

And now for something serious (about important things)

There is ONE major commandment – ‘Love God with all your hearts and souls and minds’. The next major one is ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’. A lot of Christians try awfully hard to obey God. They applaud their own efforts in doing so and watch to see how others are doing. Obedience should come second to loving God. His love for us demands that love comes first. His love is a demanding love – ALL true love is fulfilled when it is returned.

When someone loves another they will want to please them. Submission (not forceful subjection) is a more noble virtue than obedience. True submission is expressed in the sentiment of loving someone else to the point of trusting them with your life. If we can respond to God’s love by loving him back and trusting him totally the obedience just follows.

This kind of devotion is behind the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians Chapter Seven, which is the latest in the Spiritcode Bible translations. This is a fascinating letter which is employed as a proof text for marriage and divorce and remarriage but it is really not that at all. Have a look at Paul’s passion and energy in this letter and let it challenge you.

This week’s sermon is called 'The Big Risk' and it deals with the issues in 1 Corinthians Chapter seven of being attached to the emotional and material things of life. It opens up the whole challenge of living a life in our ordinary day to day circumstances as partners of Jesus.

 

Seven hours and a 700 kilometre round trip from Newport Beach to Canberra took up most of Saturday as Tineke and I drove to be with old friends John and Wendy Macknamara for the opening of their new Parkway Church auditorium at Kambah on the Tuggeranong Parkway. Margaret Court was the guest of honor as she officially opened the complex, which was named after her as the ‘Margaret Court Auditorium’. Margaret is the most crowned grand slam tennis player of all time, winning 62 grand slams during her illustrious career. Margaret now pastors a large church in Perth W.A. and is the leader of s network of churches that come under the banner of ‘Victory Life International’. Have a look at the short video below.

I was in Inverell in the far north of New South Wales last weekend at Pastor David Seagrott’s Inverell Christian Centre where I met with some pastors and church leaders for a regional conference of ACM. During a time of prayer and discussion there was a real sense of the Holy Spirit urging us to intercede for the ‘restoration of what had been lost’. This could mean lots of things but it's real, so ask God what it means for you and hang in there.

Click on Special Guests to read about Derek Brown, the founding editor and CEO of ‘The Alternative’ which is an online magazine full of all kinds of articles that deal with significant issues of life in today’s culture. Click on Derek Brown to get the inside story of this significant online magazine and click on The Alternative to view the latest edition. I am also adding sermons and translations each week. If you want to download a sermon just right click on the mp3 location under the mp3 player image and then click ‘save to target’ and it throws the file on to your desktop in a flash.

I spent last weekend at John and Wendy Macknamara's Parkway church in Canberra, sharing with John's leadership team and the regional network leaders on Saturday, and speaking to the congregation on Sunday morning and evening. This is one of the largest churches in Canberra and has a great influence for God in the community. While I was there I met up with Ray and Helen McMartin who run Family life Ministries. This is a great site - look it up. I sold out of my stock of 'The Plan' while I was there but I am awaiting another shipment in about ten days. Meanwhile you can order the book from this site. Just go to The Plan. The book actually retails for $24.95 AU plus postage but I am making it available postage free throughout Australia. There will be more sermons and journal entries coming next week. Don't forget to look up those two sites. www.parkway.net.au and www.familylife.org.au

I have just had ‘The Plan’ published as a final edition and ready for distribution. Click on The Plan to see the details, including a free download of chapters I to 3.

Also if you want to read the final chapters of the Spiritcode translation of Romans click on Romans and follow the prompts (as they say). I have also started the new Spiritcode translation of 1 Corinthians.

There are also new sermons – the latest is ‘Two kinds of Wisdom’ (click on Sermons). I will be keeping you up to date with new developments and I invite you again to take the time to make comments, whatever they may be. Christianity is a lot about an ongoing conversation about a shared life with Jesus.