Waves

I'm sitting in subway just thinking about how my enthusiasm comes in waves.

Like how some weeks I'll have 10 journal entries and 6 blog entries, I'll have read my bible every day (maybe even more) and then just like a wave all that inspiration and committment is gone.
Well maybe not gone, but definitely lacking.

It reminds me of the beach, kind of like swimming to the shore and catching the waves in. When they come you ride them and when there not there you still keep paddling towards land, even if the current is slightly pulling you back out.

There's nothing wrong with the currents and certainly nothing wrong with the beach.
We simply accept that's how the waves come and go.
Like wise we should enjoy the currents in our spiritual lives, riding the heights of waves as they draw us closer to God and when they dissappear do I bit of hard paddleing ourselves, knowing that the next wave is coming!

(This is the first of my subway sessions!)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Round up

I'm blogging from my iPhone now! Love technology and how easy it is to navigate these days.

This Sunday is going to be a great one (as was last Sunday! With out church picnic and amazing AM service)
We've got our special family carols service in the evening and I encourage you all to bring along a friend, we did this last year and had a great response.

When I get the chance I'll post some photos from 'Carols in the park' which was also a fantastic night.
Have a great week.
Lk

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Twit

I learnt a valuable lesson today from twitter.
This is a lesson I think we all should take time to learn and apply.

So Twitter only allows for you to type 140 characters in a status. right.
And for me this has been hard to stick to, as a person who has a lot to say at times :)
BUT in adhering to the limit set I actually found that I can say something which may normally take me 500-2000 characters and say it in less than 140.
And it makes more sense.
And Its clearer and more concise.

Genius.

I wish I was made to think about all the words I ever speak as much as I do with twitter, maybe I'd stop myself from getting into some pretty stupid situations.
And it would help you in understanding what I'm saying.

So I don't know how well I'll go...
But I'm going to try start consciously thinking before I speak.

Do a bit of a twit on myself.

Communion

Its true... when we are under pressure we present our true colours.

Give us a small or big squeeze and we will produce something that had previously been hidden inside us, like for instance the cherry that I stood on in my kitchen the other morning. After it received the pressure of my body weight, it flattened and produced juice... or should I say projectiled juice all over the floor.

Every once and awhile when the 'pressure' arrives (and maybe it's more often than 'awhile') we have the opportunity to respond. And I'm sure that as you look back over your responses, like me, you will see moments when something ugly popped its little head up.
You see it is easy to claim, act or behave like a Christian when things are easy.
BUT what about when its tough?

Imagine the worst thing happening to you right now... imagine your response...
Is your faith and love for God affected? Do you projectile hate and anger onto God, and do you forsake your christian life?
What if you were asked to do something that you definitely did not want to do. But knew it was necessary?
Would you kick and scream, hoping to argue your way out?

Let's look at the cross.

Christ in His most painful moment. Under the 'pressure' to save humankind.

...and what does He do???

We see Him; healing a man who just had his ear cut off, taking care of his mother and family, witnessing to the criminal dying next to him and of course...
Providing our salvation.

So I ask,
Under pressure what kind of selfless actions do you display?
Under pressure what kind of salvation do you bring?
and Under Pressure what kind of witness are you?

We have this example set for us by Jesus and every time we join together in Communion we are taking part in His life.
It's easy for us sometimes to accept and receive forgiveness from His Blood, represented by the grape juice. But in eating the body, the bread, we can forget that we are accepting His life.
Saying that we too will live like Christ and under pressure choose to ooze out Love.

Think about that next time you take Communion and any time you're put under any kind of pressure.

Lk

Christmas....

So much is coming up over the December/Christmas season. Make sure you get along to one, if not more of these events.
Lk

what joy...

Songs for Sunday are...
How Great Thou Art
More than Me
Yahweh
Here I Am
and a tag... What Joy (well learn this week)
God Bless.
Lk

Yes/No

Mt 5:37 "simply let your yes be yes, and your no, no."
Yep like you I've heard this verse just a few times... and it gets me every time.
I found an interesting commentary on this verse that I would like to share with you... it kind of cut me to the core.

'When we lightly commit ourselves to meet people at particular times and then unnecessarily delay them, as if their time were a commodity less precious then ours, we treat them unjustly and deceitfully.'

ouch.

When I put myself in the place of someone delaying or putting me off, it absolutely gets to me 'how dare they!' But yet I have a completely different set of standards for myself, 'I truly was really busy, nothing I can do about that.'

Sorry. I'm going to try better next time.
Simply let your no be a no and, only say yes if your willing to actually commit to the task.

On a new note...

This coming Sunday's set list will look like this:
AM
Run
Happy Day
Hosanna
The Wonder of Your Love
It's Your Love (Chorus only)

Love to all.

and remember yes and no.

PRAY FOR

This is the message I preached at youth this week... hope you like.

Jeremiah 29:7 (That's right not vs11!!!)
"Seek the Peace and Prosperity of the City... Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."

It is also repeated in the New Testament, 1 Thes 5:17, "Pray LOTS" (my paraphrase)... God calls us to Prayer.
Truthfully, I think were good at praying. Be it; 'God I want that puppy, God protected me, God please make me rich, God make this person in front of me drive faster, God get my parents off my back or God I want, I want, I want...'

Now contextually this verse is set right after the Israelites have been carried off into exile in Babylon and God responds to their situation not by asking them to pray redemption, not to pray about the cities demise or even against the Babylonian King. He simply asks them to PRAY FOR.
To Pray for the City.

In true God style, He asks for the thing that is most opposite to our natural reaction.

In our present day situation we probably aren't 'in exile' exactly but we may be at a place in our lives where we are not really happy with our situation or our superiors whether it's our teachers, bosses, parents or any kind of authority.
And I truely believe God would speak to you about that situation and say 'instead of praying against your situation, PRAY FOR.'

I mentioned on friday night, that the sure way to see your prayers answered is to pray the exact prayer God wants you to pray. Then He'll answer.
So maybe the reason why your not seeing this situation go away in your life, is because your praying the wrong prayer.

Try stop praying 'about' or even 'against' and start praying FOR your situation...
I truely believe that as you do you will see answers to your prayers.

And as we know by finishing off the verse...
'if it (your Situation) prospers, you to will prosper.'

Peace.
Lk

Catch up...

It's been quite some time since my last blog, boy life has been full!
Coming soon I'll post a blog with some photos from our youth event 'Blend' held on the 28th of August, but for now I just wanted to give updates on the new songs being sung at church.
Last Sunday we brought forward the song 'Yahweh' from the new Hillsong Album 'Faith:Hope:Love' as well as the song 'The Wonder of Your Love' the week before.
They are both still relatively new and you can hear the church still learning them but already 'Yahweh' is proving to be a powerful song that is stirring the faith of our church.
Still to come we have 'It's Your Love' which I know is going to pierce the hearts of our church, with its powerful declaration on Gods love for us!

We had the Privilege of being invited to House of Praise a few weeks ago to take the worship for one of their mid-week seminars, our worship team played fantastic but more importantly God's presence was felt and we had the chance to show off one of our originals! (Look out, we've been invited back for their next seminar!)

'You (God) inhabit the praises of your People,
and you delight in the Glory of Your Son...' The Wonder of Your Love.
Lk

Keep on

Good Day!

Just wanted to post my song list for this Sunday, but before I do I really, really wanted to just encourage everyone to keep on!

To Keep on, Keeping On! ha
It might seem simple, but the things you do for the church and the particular ministries you're involved in are so valuable. They do not go unnoticed.
I'm loving the videos Hillsong have just released on their Youtube Channel.
It Basically tells the story of peoples first Sundays in church and the challenge is put out that there are plenty more people waiting to have their first Sunday in church.
It's only by the work that You, as the body of Christ, do that these people will be able to experience the awesome presence of God.
So keep on!
Love you all.

OK so Song list:

Sing, Sing, Sing- Chris Tomlin
Your Name High- Hillsong
This is Our God/ I Exalt Thee Tags- Hillsong
Stronger- Hillsong

See you in Church!
Lk

Expectant

This week we have an awesome service being prepared.
But most importantly God will be there and waiting to encounter you.
Why dont you make sure you put in a little more effort to make it to church this week, you just might have a great time! ha

So this week we've got Nikki Shaw Worship Leading and the songs are as follows:

Not Ashamed
Evermore
The Stand
Thank You (Hallelujah)
with the tag 'blessing and honour' from the good old song 'In awe of You'

Look forward to a Great service.

Lk

Youth Alive

Just thought I'd post some pictures taken from Youth Alive Groundswell on the Central Coast. It was an amazing night that surpassed all expectations... we ran out of tickets and ran out of commitment cards for new Christians who got saved on the night. How awesome!

Shaylee Zerna Worship Lead the night and the awesome Presence of God was evident. The worship team was a combination of Guys and Girls from churches all around the coast and the sound was fantastic. Ps Sanga the Youth Alive State director spoke and over 100 decisions were made for Christ.

The set list for the night was:
You Deserve
No Reason to Hide
Break Free
You Reign
Altar Call:
Hallelujah and To Know your Name
Final:
Your Name High
All Day

The best part is... the best is yet to come!

For the Sake of His House

I pondered for awhile as to whether to post this blog now or wait... I went with now.

Psalm 122:9
"For the sake of the House of the Lord Our God, I will seek Your Prosperity"

Not for our own gain, not for our own pleasure or comfort and not for our own desires...
BUT
To see God's Church, His House, Established.

Instead of Praying prayers like this: God please give me a new car, I'd really like one or give me lots of money so I can be rich.
Which, if I'm honest I've definitely prayed before.
Let's pray prayers more like this: God give me a new car that will be perfect for picking up and dropping off people to and from church, please let it be good with fuel so I won't be constantly worrying about petrol.
(If you can't tell a new car is on my mind at the moment, but this relates to anything; a new house, a new job, a girlfriend or boyfriend etc.)

See, God blessing Us with a car or money isn't the issue, remember he owns the world. The issue is our motivation.
Are we motivated to grow and firmly establish the Kingdom of God in our Local Community?
Is it for the sake of His House?
I'm pretty sure we'd be receiving a whole lot more blessings if our desires not only matched Gods but our motivations were for God also.

I'm trying to set this habit in my life at the moment and I'll be sure to keep you posted with any blessings I receive that advance the Kingdom of God.

Lk

For the Love of life.

Greetings.
A New Weekend approaching calls for a new list of songs AKA Song list.
This week Nikki Shaw and I will be co-leading and these are the songs...

Run- Hillsong (KEY E)
Not Ashamed- Hillsong (KEY G)
Heart of Worship- Mat Redman (KEY D)
One Thing- Hillsong (KEY E)

It's going to be a great weekend, so come prepared to Lift High the name of Jesus and Glorify all that He is.
“…For Great is the Lord, and most Worthy of Praise…”­ Ps48:1

On a new note just wanted to comment more about the great weekend I had in the Riverina District a few weeks ago.

As you can see it was pumping.
The District Youth Alive Band were phenomenal (that's an understatement).
It was so good to see first hand the great things God is doing out there, and it was blatantly obvious it only came because of their Unity. This event was not the hard work of one, but the tiresome efforts of multiple Youth Ministries all around working together for a common cause.
How powerful. God works in Unity. Duh!!!
Joel, the Youth Alive District coordinator, shared a powerful testimony of how more young people from his church’s youth ministry were saved this year than any past years, even though his youth ministry had less to do with the running of the event than they have in years past.
Hope this challenges you to put your own feelings and agendas out of mind and to focus on God and His Saving grace.

For the Love of Life... Unite.

Lk

Iron

I just need to write a blog purely devoted to how good God is.
Simple Hey.
His handy work is written over everything that effects us and all we need to do is open our eyes to it and take a really good, honest look.

I pity the person who is so blind to the reality of God that they would conclude His non-existence, in my opinion He's pretty darn obvious when He wants to be. Just look at the night sky.

I'm just seeing His power at work in my life through relationships at the moment and I love it.
So to all my Friends who thought we were friends for no reason think again, God has big plans and is using our lives to shape and mold each other...
The bible says '... as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another...' Prov 27:17
Basically, I'm excited to have a chance to look back one day and truly see the enormity and development of some of my friendships that I currently have.
You're all shaping the kind of person I will one day become,
the kind of leader I will become,
the kind of father I will become,
the kind of Husband I will become
and so many other things I can't even imaging I will become... all because of our friendship.

I just hope that I can have as much positive influence on your life as I know you will and have had on mine.

Lk

Mom's Day

Hi.

Well I missed out on Blogging last week because I was up in the Sunny Gold Coast for the National Australian Christian Churches Conference, which was great by the way.
But here I am to give another Song list for another week.

RECAP
Last Sunday night was our last 'official' night service for the next 8weeks as we embark on a cell group structure for Sunday nights. We will be running simultaneously the Alpha and Bible Explained courses which I'm sure will prove to be fantastic.
So back to Last Sunday night... we held a prayer and worship service which was great.
Every one brought some Passion and enthusiasm as we upheld our local Suburbs in prayer and asked God to put us in positions were we can share the gospel and see Him made famous.
Were believing that from this night we will see great fruit in the life of church so keep up the prayers.

Coming up...
So this week is Mothers Day!
What a great day it will be as we honour our mums who have sacrificed so much for us children.
We've got one of our artists at church preparing an amazing art work for the stage and our theme for the day will be 'FOUND'
Rightly so we will be opening the service with the song 'Found' by Hillsong and then the set list is as follows:
Not Ashamed- Hillsong
You are My God- GoodNews
Emmanuel- Hillsong
Sing to the Lord-Hillsong

That's it for another week.
I'll be aiming to post up a devotional in the next few days... so Stay Tuned.

Lk

26th.

So the last few days have been big...
24th-Mum's birthday.
25th- the parents Anniversary/ ANZAC day.
and church tomorrow.
I'd be lying if I said i didn't think it was going to be good.

The song list is as follows:
Happy Day- Tim Hughes
Alive In You- Hillsong
None But Jesus- Hillsong
Sing to the Lord- Hillsong

I'm considering opening the service with the tag 'fire fall down'
too adventurous? we'll find out.

Love

Follow the Leader

So I just can't tell you enough that the old testament is an amazing part of the Bible.

Last week I shared out of Joshua 6 with the Worship Team.
It's the story of the 'Fall of Jericho'.
I'll let you read it in your own time (start in verse 15 of chapter 5)
Basically said I love the sequence of this story and how appropriate it is when applying it to Worship Leading.
1. God Speaks to Joshua (the Leader). He tells him the how, what and when. All the details for the ultimate success of Israel.
2. Joshua Passes on the message to the Israelites and directs them in the appropriate manner they should go.
3. The Israelites follow closely to the pre-arranged plan, not deviating according to there own desires or feelings.
4. The Israelites Win, Walls Crumble, God is proven once again to be the true and only way and the devil loses.

Joshua6:20-1
"When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys."

I love it.
So my challenge to the team was and is.
Follow the leader.
Trust that God has spoken and given guidance to whoever may be your leader, whether it's in Worship, Pastoral situations or work places.
I Believe that, yes, there are times when the leader gets it wrong or misses the mark and I've certainly been there myself! Ha.
But if you remain faithful and committed, God will reward your Faithfulness and who knows He'll probably turn an awkward situation around to bring Himself Glory anyway.

So.

Follow the Leader.

Lk.

HIS Interest

Yes, well I'm running a bit late with this weeks song list.
But as the purpose for this 'songlisting' section is mainly so the worship team can get the songs before the Sunday Service and this week I gave them the lists on Thursday so I didn't feel an urgency to post them online.
But here they now are.

Before I do, I'd like to share this verse from the message bible:

"the chosen ones of God were those who let God pursue HIS interest in them..." Rom 11

WOW! I pray so urgently that this week you let God pursue His interests in you. I'm certain that amazing things will come of your life if you surrender your interests and desires over to him and allow him to work.
no more self centered thoughts, God Thoughts.
no more self focused dreams, God Dreams.
no more self promoting plans, God Plans.
God has great plans, dreams and thoughts towards your life. (Jer 29:11)
Give it ago and see what comes of it.

So about the song list:
I will Stand(Pour it Out)- GoodNews
Kingdom- Edge Church
This is Our God- Hillsong
Because He Lives- Gaithers (an oldy but so good, we did this as a tag to This is Our God)
Stronger- Hillsong

Well we had great services over the Easter Weekend last week.
God was there as expected!
And on Thursday I shared out of Joshua 6 at our Worship team Rehearsal night so I hope to write up my notes and thoughts in a blog this week, stay tuned.
Seriously.

Lk

EASTER

Yes people it's Easter time already.
I'm going away for the weekend tooo... camping... hmmm this will be interesting.

Last Sunday in church as I've mentioned was Lucas' dedication (Ps Sam's Son) and it was also Palm Sunday which I only realised that morning.
As I was reading the chapters on Palm Sunday in the bible (I read it from every book of the gospel) I really got this sense that even though from one week to the next our love and passion for God changes, like in the story of Palm Sunday when they worship Jesus one week and crucify Him the next, Gods love and Passion for our lives will never, never, never end or fade.
So I shared that with our church (which was full of unsaved friends and family there for the dedication.) and then in a very God ordained moment our Communion message basically flowed right into that as well as the well known scripture from Hebrews 5:13 was shared... 'he will never leave you nor forsake you'
God is Real, that's all I can say.

So this week our Easter theme is 'HE LOVES'
of course this in reference to you. ha

Our songs are a mix of old school right up to brand new school here they are:
Good Friday- Luke Taylor (WL)
Your Name High- Hillsong
At the Cross- Hillsong
Easter Sunday AM- Vivian Muraahi (WL)
Alive in You- Hillsong
Happy Day- Tim Hughes
Stones been Rolled Away- old school Hillsong
Stronger- Hillsong (NEW)
Same Power- Hillsong
Hallelujah- Planet Shakers
Easter Sunday PM- Nikki Shaw (WL)
still waiting for her list! haha

So my expectation is rising and I know this will be a great Easter weekend.
Don't forget that He Loves You!.

Lk

5 Boys

I'm trying to find more time to blog more often, but man life gets hectic sometimes.

Last Sunday was great! I brought forward an old favourite 'More than Me' (one that i wrote) and it was great to once again hear the church singing above the sound system! There was a great atmosphere of faith and expectation which carried on into our baptism service. 5 boys got baptized, that's right FIVE, no girls just boys! haha. awesome hey.
On Sunday night I went to the Recording of the new Hillsong album, and boy are they getting better each year. Some of the lyrics in the worship songs are amazing, brought me to tears!
So looking forward for that to be released in July.

This week in church were having Ps Sam's son Lucas dedicated. So I kept that in mind for the song selection, hope it proves to be helpful.
so the songs this week are:
You'll Come (Hillsong)
I will Stand /Pour is out (GoodNews)
Run (Hillsong)
Here I Am (the song that i was talking about in my very first blog)

We also have a guest speaker, Ps Vince Harris this Sunday morning, so I look forward to hearing a word in season from him.
Hope everyone is having a great week.
God Bless
Lk

New Addition

I've decided to give my blog a bit more purpose and so think it worth while to include the set lists of every Worship Service at my Church in this blog.
Also I'll add some background thoughts on why I've selected these songs and then possibly a reflection the past weeks "going on's."

Last week we had two great services, the Presence of the Holy Spirit was evident and the band were tight!
We sang "The Stand"{Hillsong United} in both services which served to stir up the church. Almost by accident (I say almost because as if God didn't plan it) the theme verse for Sunday was Hebrews 4:14-16 which declares "Therefore... let us approach the throne of grace with CONFIDENCE..."
What an amazing verse about Jesus' perfect life allowing our imperfect one to enter into the Divine Presence of God unashamed of our past sins.

This coming week we have baptisms so the songs will attempt to reflect the theme of a life changed and living for God. (which would also be our theme for the year 'Heart for God' ha)
Not Ashamed- Hillsong
More than Me- GoodNews
A Cry from our Hearts- GoodNews
Heart of Worship- Matt Redman

Hope this blesses and inspires you to seek after God even more so in your daily life and worship times.
Lk

Birthday Day

Listening to this song, TODAY by Christian City Church Oxford Falls
Can't explain enough how this song is speaking to me.
These are the words.

Chorus:
No more running wild
I'm yours for life
You got me here,
You got me.
I hear your call tonight
Your heart is mine
You got me here
You got me.

and the bridge:
You drew me out of the deepest sea, whoa
You gave my soul a song to sing, whoa
You took me up on the mountains high, whoa
I see my life in a different light, whoa

if you get the chance listen to it.
check out http://www.myspace.com/cccoxfordfalls

So i haven't Blogged for a bit, just been so busy plus I'm not sure if this is even being read by anyone, ha.
But if you are and you wanna know more bout me then check out my friends blog who just posted a lovely blog about me! ha, it's my birthday so I'm allowed to be a bit self focused, if just for the day.
thanks heaps Katie for your nice words.
http://alittlebirdtoldmeso.blogspot.com/

I've got so much more to say but it will have to wait for another day.
Reading Hebrews at the moment, got the whole youth leadership team to read it also and i think God is speaking loud and clear to all of us.

Love

Day 2

I'm Sorry, i lied in my last blog, i actually have blogged before but only on my myspace page, which compared to this blogging world isn't much. That reminds me I might relocate those blogs over to here one day.
This morning a got up, 9:15am precisely, and stated reading the Word. This is what I got.

CITY OF REFUGE

Numbers 35:9-10
Then the Lord said to moses: "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ...'select some towns to be your cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone accidentally may flee.'"

How great is God, not only does he set up Rules and laws he also provides a pardon when special circumstances arise. A place for sinners to flee and hide, find peace and restoration. A Refuge.
Much like the Church should be to the Nations and Jesus to all sinners.
A safe hiding place.
Rom 8:1
'there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ... (he) has set you free.'

In the Scripture God places this duty on the Levites, much like us today, he trusts them to be compassionate, kind and encouraging those seeking refuge, to those who would want to rest from the crazy sinfulness of this world.
'the assembly must protect the one accused... and send them to the city of refuge...' vs25

Lets be a people who take care of those who are struggling.
When people come to me to confide will they find rejection and disapproval OR are they going to receive the love and acceptance of Christ?
Let's show them the Love of Christ Personified in us and God's Church.

Lk

First things...

So I've decided to join the Blogging Community seeing it seems to be all the craze.
I kinda figure that I always have a lot to say about anything, so why not write it all down.
My Blog will involve lots on things like music, singing, devotions, Jesus, my thoughts and anything else I can cram into my blogs.
Maybe I should start by saying that I'm a singer and love music. I'm Christian so gospel, praise and worship music and anything else in the christian classification is a definite favourite to listen to.
At this very moment whilst writing this Blog I'm listening to a song 'Here I am' from CCC White Horse in Melbourne. My friend Alyssa is singing and her boyfriend (now fiance) Joel, Alyssa and I wrote it. I don't mind it at all to be honest, in future blogs I'll show you youtube video's and other stuff to do with it.
More about me will be unveiled in future blogs, haha.
So I'm going to wrap up here. This has been a great experience writing my first ever blog.
Lk