Gary Grant

The weeks are zipping past, fast......you would think it would feel slower in the lockdown, but no..it feels to be rushing past even more quickly. As I Prayed this morning  a few thoughts came rushing to me about some circumstances I am aware of. I think I can count around 4 or 5 different situations where this lockdown has given the perfect opportunity for wise leaders to take the bull by the horns and change some seriously stuck circumstances and turn things around in radical ways. Churches where things have become very messy in shared leases... and use of the facility. Some people who have been in dumb relationships that are hurting and damaging them. People with habits causing great harm to themselves. (Lockdown causing a forced stop to the habit) Blinkered vision, unable to see new ways ahead. In these circumstances and heaps more, people like you and me have an opportunity like never before to break some stuck stuff and fix it. Mayb

This morning as I ponder life... we have been in a situation of lockdown in our Nation and state of Victoria for over 3 months now. I remember back when it all began how nervous I actually was, one Saturday morning a few months back I remember having high anxiety over what was unfolding. Since then so many people have died. And that is horrible for the families and friends of real people around the world. The World Health Organization says it is still spreading at a higher rate around the world still, even though not as bad as it was in Australia. But it isn't finished this covid 19 thing. So I am going to stick my neck out and speak what’s on my mind this morning... But what makes me really sad is the fact that we seem to have become complacent and  in the church especially, all we want to do is go back to how things were.   And things were not that good really back then. We have been in decline for a very long time and its slowly getting worse. To me tha

I awoke very early this morning to some devastating news... some very good friends of ours lost their son yesterday and it shocked me so hard.... My prayers are with that special family who have influenced us so much over the years... I am truly grateful for them and out of respect for them wont mention their names here... In fact it was these wonderful people who ministered to us in some really tough times in our lives... praying for us, praying for healing for our girls... seeing miracles happen, and standing with us through some pretty amazing times in our process of being called into ministry..and now they face grief of unimaginable size....  life is hard sometimes, and as I pondered that this morning, trying to get my heart and mind into worship, I was led to this wonderful song...  Michael W Smith has blessed me for so many years I can’t  even count them,... we used to use his worship on our Monday night prayer nights at Craigieburn  and they were always times of power and pr

I have been doing a lot of reading over these past few months... on my 12th book in close on 3 months, thats a bit of a record for me. But its this latest book which is creating some serious thought in me. I have always been one to have my doubts about Catholic traditions .... and if we were all honest all of us would be in similar situations over various Christian traditions and practices. The book I am currently reading, is the book written by Journalist Mike Willesee and his journey to faith.  Now as a young guy growing up I used to watch Mike on TV, so I recognized him and knew about him but didn’t know his story until I started to  read this book. The book goes into graphic detail around stigmata and bleeding statues and the like, much of what I have had doubts about for a long time. This book sits alongside another devotional book in my reading stand by Brian Houston from Hillsong. You couldn’t get any more extremes than these 2 books. Fr