The final..alone me... Conclusion.

In just a couple of days I will be re-united with the beautiful Jules.

However, I am struggling tonight with the feelings I have, and the thoughts. I feel like the enemy has pulled out all stops again, against me...

It's been a good day, good crowds in church in both services, holidays approach, and yet Satan is still trying to sow seeds of doubt and fear and abandonment into me.

It's been 2 months alone, and I am unsure it's a totally good concept.

Perhaps In a few months time, it will all be forgotten, however it is all a bit real tonight and all a bit weird. I don't like it. I don't like what I am feeling.

God has been at work in my heart. And my mind. I am changed. Big things have happened in me.

I have coped ok, but the truth is I have just missed her too much... And yeah I know it's just a few more short days, and yes it is... But it doesn't change what is being thrown at me right now...

She is not like me. She doesn't make the same mistakes I make. Yet ....here I am, fearful.

I need to relax on this holiday and I feel like these last few days are the slowest of them all so far.

That's what Satan does isn't it ? Tell you lies. Deceive you. Scare you. Wound you where it hurts most ?

Make you think your not good enough, remind you of your past... Point out your failures...

I hate what Satan does.
Tempts, teases, lies, deceives, tricks, confuses, scares, tries to kill your dream.

Well it hurts at the moment, but I will rise above this....I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I AM a new creation, the old me has gone.

All the lies and fears will not change the truth that I am saved, set free and being used by the Lord God almighty.

.......

We are in a battle.
The stakes are extremely high.
Satan has snipers out to kill us off, one by one.
But those who hope in the Lord will rise above it.

For my friends who feel like I do tonight....

Do not fear, let us remind ourselves and each other...

That greater is He who is inside our heart..Than he that is in the world.
We have been redeemed.
Satan is already defeated.

Stand firm...armoured up.

And in the morning, His faithfulness and mercies will be new again.

And yes, Val, my new blogs in March will be "the back together us" ....pics included as we go through Europe.

The Alone...Me (part 7)

Well finally its just about over...and I won't be alone anymore... next week I fly to London and will join up with my beautiful wife and we will holiday together in Europe.

in the meantime I want to tell you....that I have survived and I have changed while she has been away.

I know that God has been changing Jules also, what a re-union we are going to have together , just getting to know each other (the new us) when we rejoin next week.   woohoo

yesterday at our church, was kind of like a sign of what has happened inside me...

you can check out the preaching at this following  link, if you are interested and have a spare half an hour.

www.salvos3064.podbean.com

Right now, in me, God is refining me, renewing me,shaping me, rebuking me and correcting me, and its all good.

it needed to be done....  sigh.

I am determined..
I am decided..
I am deliberate..
I am dangerous...            to the enemy (at least)

for I know the pain of defeat and the distraction that the devil brings and it has defeated me in the past, but I am now over it and back on track, and am  so defiant in the face of my adversity.

I know full well I am going to cop it after preaching the message I just preached, but was totally gob smacked by the support and unity amongst the church , called Salvos 3064.

I was so blessed yesterday as my leadership team gathered around me, after the service, laid hands on me and prayed for me and my family, to be protected and blessed,     and we are.

and then there was last night when God just moved so powerfully amongst us,  I almost audibly heard Him say  "just watch what I can do",.... it actually made me giggle, when I saw Him move...   He is awesome.

so what lays before me, only He really knows... but what lays ahead of our church will be outrageous as He moves even greater still over the next month or so....

I will blog again, maybe even while I am away,...but maybe not too....I will be resting it up and enjoying the break, I promise to share my pics on facebook and share my journey as well so you can join with us in some small way...wish I could take you all with us..  ( truly I do....hahahah)

stay focused on Jesus.
keep praying and believing
keep reading your bible
keep worshiping and

make sure you get to church on Sundays and gather with like minded people...

God is Good.

Psychics

Went onto a Facebook thread this week that involved people seeking a psychic for whatever reason.

I understand that the world is seeking answers,  and I have the answer but the answer I have people don't want to seek.

VERY  FRUSTRATING.

now as bad as it all is, what makes it worse, WAY WORSE...is that some of the people in our church were on there making appointments.  

Now, before you throw your hands up in the air and ask what kind of church this actually is... we run a new church here at Craigieburn and it has loads of new baby Christians, and many also, who are just here checking things out...not committed to Christ yet, that's part of the journey of planting a Church..... so it is expected that there will always be people who are on various stages of growth.

If you are reading this..and you have been doing this psychic thing...

you don't need to do it, you need to seek Jesus and His Holy Spirit, it will be better than anything and everything else you could ever imagine.

In fact I will be speaking  on this matter on Sunday and will not be holding back.  My responsibility under God is to speak for Him... I will not shrink back from that task.

God has something to say about this... have a read of this, it will help...

^{Deuteronomy 18}

⁹ When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. ¹⁰ Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, ¹¹ or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or psychic or who consults the dead. ¹² Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. ¹³ You must be blameless before the LORD your God.

one of my big concerns is that some people seem to settle for way less than Gods best...and Gods ways.

all I can do is speak out the truth, be obedient to what He has asked me to do, 

Pray.... and believe that God will win in the end. 

in the interim.... here's what I believe...

there is a battle going on...it is  for the hearts and minds of real people like you and me.

the battle is fierce and the stakes are huge.

satan desires us to lose focus and put our attention on anything other than God.

satan will make something(anything) appear to be harmless so that we will turn away from God and Gods ways.

God is polite and does not force himself upon us, waiting for us to choose Him. 

but allowing us total freedom if we choose against Him.

but choose carefully I say, for we all suffer the ramifications and consequences of our choices.

every choice has a consequence at some level or the other.

the old saying is true, "you make your bed you  have to lay in it...."

all I can hope is that God, who loves all people and desires for all people to enter heaven, will win in the end.

that people will choose heaven over hell.

take the words of the Bible as truth....understand clearly what they say, share in the inheritance that awaits you as you live for Jesus Christ, and know...true peace and life and hope.... the stuff that God brings to His kids.

 

The Alone me...(part 7)

It has been a huge day.

I love our church when it's like this.

Someone made a comment to me tonight, questioning the validity of " carpet time " which some people call it when God puts people on the floor.

Here's what I think....

God can do whatever He wants , whichever way He wants, whenever He wants in my ministry and in our church.

I will never stand in the way of what God should choose to do in His church...

I have been around long enough to know the difference between those that fake this and those who do not.... And I just know deep down in my spirit, that God was working in our church today.

People were changed, blessed, encouraged, uplifted and touched.

It's sad to me when we question what almighty sovereign omnipotent God can or cannot do, based on our limited human understanding of Him and His ways.

We will all get some surprises I think, when we get to heaven...perhaps some of the methods we employ in our churches will be seen as carnal at best, but we will be in heaven and thats what matters most.

Arguments on earth about church traditions and rituals and concepts do little to advance the gospel....

Freedom in church and an openness to the mysteries of the Spirit will change the earth.

I agree the term " carpet time " really doesn't adequately describe Gods work in our church.

But I can tell you, when A person is laying flat on the floor, and you didn't put them there and they didn't put themselves there either....well something has happened, and everyone I have ever spoken to about this, is just blessed beyond words can explain.

So...here I am, 2 more Sundays before back with Julie. A lot is going on in me and today was just simply awesome, even if it's criticized by some.

I love it when God does what He did today for me and for us.

Today, we had fun, We did our best and we had some wins.

What more could you ask for in a church ?

May this week be better still.

I have seen things in my journey so far, that I guess some cynics and skeptics could question and disbelieve.

The time I saw angels. The time my daughter was supernaturally healed. The time when God spoke to me in my dreams through scripture. The demons cast out. The awareness that God was with me in my room as I prayed.

People always criticse what they are sometimes ignorant of. But that doesn't change the reality and truth of what God does and who He is.

No one can take my testimony from me.

My God is more real to me than the air I breathe. He has done things and around me that prove His power. And I want even more still.

Bring it on God in Salvos 3064 church and in my life.

May it be always so forever, in me.

Be blessed today.

The Alone...Me (Part 6)

It's been a pretty interesting week, not all good...but not all bad either.

a few things that have happened this week, messed with my head and heart.... but God still rules my heart and I am trusting Him to get me through.

whilst Jules freezes in the UK... snow everywhere, and we prepare ourselves to join her... now in just a few weeks, I guess I am hoping that the snow and big freeze in Europe doesn't affect our plans too much.

The blogs of the last couple of weeks have been great stories, the brothel ministry, the stories of Freedom and Jeff and then , well there are the eagles that I have been seeing nearly everyday for the past week or so.

so where am I at ?                  I am ok...thanks for asking...lol,
but God is deeply at work in me , He has been for a few weeks now.

I am starting to settle for what lays before me,( or maybe what I think lays before me) and a part of me is ready to embrace that... as scary as it is to even say it, I am ......( I think)

I want to be where God wants me to be.

I don't want to be, where He doesn't want me to be.

I will be useless  in any area outside of His will, and its pointless anyway.

When you surrender to God it means surrender...His ways over yours, His plans not your own,  

His purposes not your preferences.

Someone ( actually good friends, Phil and Cath)  reminded me the other day about embracing God as Sovereign ruler of my life, and I have taken that to my heart and am willing to let that be true of me.

If He is sovereign then it matters not, what man does.... because if God is sovereign then He over rules all things, and then we can live in trust of that divine plan. and that's actually where I am at, in some ways.

Now don't misunderstand this or take it the wrong way... it has no agenda or  innuendo.... its just me expressing my heart...  its part of what I grapple with these days.


I know a lot of people talk about us at Craigieburn, and how long we have been here and all that Army politics stuff... 

so hear it from me here first....

I have no visions of grandeur... in fact in many ways I don't think I am good enough for too much more than what I have and currently am......
 
I don't aspire to greatness in man's eyes,

neither do I want any particular role or other....

I don't want change for changes sake,

neither do I want to stay put for staying put's sake....lol

I haven't been asked to move ( just yet)  all I have been asked to do is work hard here....

what I want, and all I want...is to serve my King, wherever He wants  for me, whenever He wants for me, and whatever it is. 

I don't really want anything else.


I have much to do still at 3064 and pray that I will get it done.

I desire to serve Him here well...and good and well until He positions me some place else.

I am unique ( we all are )  I have tried my best at planting this church, and in some ways its been successful, but in many other ways it just hasn't measured up to all I had dreamt it would be..... that tells me that I have a lot more work still left to do right here.. 

some will read between the lines here....and you needn't do that....   there is nothing to say other than God is at work inside my heart and mind and soul and ...probably just like you, there is much improvement and work still needed  before He can use me anywhere or everywhere else.

many have criticized Craigieburn in one way or another, but we have tried to just do, what God asked us to do.  it is not finished, in some ways it hasn't even yet begun.

so all this stuff goes on inside this "alone me".....

what is God doing in you ?

what are you asking Him to do in you ? anything ?

I will take God's surgery on my heart any day....over a lay down in Satan's lounge room.

I pray my life blesses many and leads many to Jesus Christ.

Salvos 3064 Brothel Ministry - Can a prostitute be saved ? (part 2)

Hi all.. sorry to butt in on my own (alone)series..but this just has to be shared...in our church we run an outreach ministry into a local brothel, the following report(below) is posted by our women ministry workers who do this ministry. It is posted , because we are so pumped about the results today and the fact that this ministry went up a notch today.

its also in line with last Sundays message( see salvos3064.podbean.com) and the launching of the Hope for all posters in our church, depicting William Booths original vision of reaching out to those who are lost and perishing...this includes prostitutes.

Ministry is difficult and sometimes its hard to get breakthroughs.... and when you do, you should shout it from the rooftops and the mountain tops..... and thats why we are sharing this here...

it is now 2 madams we have prayed out...and today's unconditional love shared with the girls will count for something in the economy of the Kingdom..well done Noeleen and Lisa for your faithfulness, well done Brooke for your cakes, and well done prayer team who cover this ministry in prayer each week ...
 
please read and be encouraged...


"Today we commenced our Brothel Support Ministry (Cupcake Ministry) for 2012.
As always before our visit, we prayed, and asked our Prayer Support team to pray as we undertook our visit, praying that God would open doors of opportunity to share His love, open up pathways to conversations, and connections with the ladies, and to have God‟s will done, as we bring Jesus light into the darkness.

Nothing could ever prepare our hearts for what would happen at this visit. We've been faithfully serving God in this ministry for about two and half years, and we were completely blown away as we spent time with the ladies today.

Due to staff circumstances we have had to change our visitation day from a Wednesday to a Thursday, which initially we were upset that we wouldn't see The Madam of the house, as she doesn't work Thursday's, and we've built up a wonderful relationship with her. But, as God has different plans for her, she informed us today that she is leaving the area of work and today would be her final day…… we've been praying her out, and well, what can I say other than…‟Faithful God.‟

When we entered the ladies waiting room‟, with the cupcakes, we were warmly welcomed, and had the most amazing freedom of conversation, with many loud laughs and smiles, and felt like were having a girly party, like a celebration of friendship, even though we previously had not met several of the girls. Even the Asian girls, whom never seem to chat with us, joined in freely today.

We shared a box of chocolates, kindly offered around from one of the ladies.
We looked through Avon brochures, and were shown photos of their pets, and mobile phone photos.
One of the lady's, said she would pop in on Thursday just to see us, as she would miss our chats, our company, and of course our cupcakes.

One lady asked about the Salvation Army and its ranks, and was blown away that we were a church. Her reply was “oh, a church, well, I'm just an animal”. To this, she was told how much God loves her, and she certainly is not an animal, but someone who is loved and precious.

As we were leaving she called us back to ask us, why we do not judge her for what she does. God's love for her was once again shared, and we told her that God doesn't judge her, so nor do we. God loves her, and so do we.
As we went to hug her as we were leaving, she was a little hesitant, saying “I don't want to make you unclean, I don't want to ruin you”.

With this, she was told, “you won't ruin us”, and gave us a big hug.

We will continue to keep in contact with The Madam, who is leaving, she even gave us her address so that we could contact her.

Wow God, we thank you for this breakthrough, and the privilege that is ours to have such precious lives entrusted to us."

Oh Lord, let our rescue mission called Salvos 3064 church, function with huge effect for your Kingdom .

I cant wait to see these girls come to faith in Jesus Christ and be rescued from this lifestyle, and if our ministry counts for anything, i pray that God will smile upon us as we at least try.

well done Salvos3064 church.