Combat training

Well, combat training is now over. We spent a week sleeping in the basement of ACH, in fact we pretty much lived in the basement, the only time we came out was when we went and did stuffin the community, or for toilet, showers and cooking.
It was an interesting week, we learnt a lot over the week.
It was a great week and worth while, worth all the hard work that went in to it.
There were attacks from the enemy before and during the week, but Praise the Lord, He is good. Everyone that went learnt stuff from God through the teachers, and grew.

We were challenged to live lives full of Holiness, and also learnt that our holiness effects all of our minstry. It affects our effectiveness in how we do Warfare, our leadership, and our ability to hear from God.

We learnt that leadership in the "church" is not just being the cell group leader, worship leader, or preacher, but also apostles, teachers, prophets, pastors, and evangelist, and not every one is created to lead. To be a good leader we need to learn about God and about us, to know our strengths and how God has created us to work, cause we all reflect different aspects of God. Therefore in getting to know ourselves more, we will get to know God more and vice versa.

One of the that was annoying was that the alarm normally turned on by the security at 11pm and it was suppose to be organised with the security company that the alarm, would not be set each night, cause we were staying at the Hall. However each night the alarm was set by the security company, so the first couple of nights the alarm went off, and i had to run up the stairs and turn it off. After a couple of nights of the security company saying that they would not set the alarm, and then it still went off, i sat right next to the alarm for about 5mins before it set, so i could turn it off straight away, so that it wouldn't go off.

However it was go great week, and we will do another one sometime, (still have to work out the dates for the next one).

I may share more at a later date, don't guarantee though

Any way i must go,

God bless you all.

Lux

favour from God

Some people have been blessed by God with favour.
Ok let me explain, with combat training we gave them a sheet of paper with different things that they can do to challenge them to step out in faith, to step out of their comfort zones. One of the things on their list was to take a paper clip and swap it with someone for something of more value and to keep doing this with the items that they get. Then with the last item, we will auction it off and give the money to something like Operation 58, which raising money to build a children's home overseas (in short anyway).
So this morning i went with one of the people doing combat training to do this, and we walked into one of the shopping centres in the city and went into this book shop to ask if they would swap anything for this paper clip (well the person with me asked, SB). The lady at the counter said that we could choose a book from a certain table, well, we ended up swapping the paper clip for a book worth $9. We than went to JR surf, and SB asked them what they would swap for a paper clip, and the guy gave us 2 sets of bracelets that were marked down to $10 from $20. So from swapping 2 paper clips, we have a book worth $9 (which was marked down), and 2 Bracelets which together are worth $20 (marked down, $40 otherwise). How ever that was not the end of it. We went into another shop and asked them what they would swap us for the book, and we came out with 2 cushions that had been marked down, but the original price would of been $10 to $20 dollars each. So in the space of 30mins we ended up with 2 cushions worth $10 - $20 each, and 2 bangle sets worth $20 each. Praise the Lord for this blessing on SB, and she was saying on the way back "you don't know how easy that is for me". I praise God for people like SB, who God's favour rest upon, and things are acquired from the world for the Lord.
I'll let you know what we end up with from everyone doing the combat training challenge at combat training.
Praise the Lord,

Lux

Combat training end of day 2

G'day, well we have finished the second day of combat training, the schedule has already been changed a little so that the ppl that come can get the most out of it as possible. All participants are taking up the challenges like doing a 2 to 5 am prayer room shift, a combat training challenge, which they were given the low down of it today, and they were all keen to do it. And if fact started some of the challenges.
Last night, well techniqually this morning i had a shift in the prayer room, and it was awesome, i had been tired all week, how ever i got a bit tired, but i didn't fall asleep, Praise God. That is not why it was an awesome shift tho. I started my shift praying about combat training and changes to the program that i had to make, and that didn't take me very long, PTL, I was a bit tired after that so i spent sometime relaxing in the Lord, and it seemed like ages, however it was only like 5 - 10 mins, it was really cool. I also worshipped, prayed and listen. The whole shift the word Freedom kept coming up, and i had a sense that Christ wants to see us fully free (which isn't new), but it was a sense that He wants to see us free in worship, and free from lots of different things. however we have opposition, the enemy doesn't want to see us free, cause he knows how dangerous we can be in Christ (we'll more Christ through us), and he doesn't want that to happen, cause he knows that he'll lose more ground. That was the simplified version.
Then tonight at the church service at ACH (adelaide congress hall), i had heaps of fun worshipping, it was great.
Anyway i should go, and get back to doing stuff, then going to bed, (i get to sleep all of tonight, Yay. I can't wait, i am a bit tired). :)
God bless,
Lux

just so that you know

Just so that you know, the next week or so, i may not blog. This is because Combat Training starts in like an hour, and i am in charge, and i won't have much of a chance to get on the net.
I thought i would let you know, so that you didn't think i was just being slack.

Any way i should go,
God bless

Lux

Praise The Lord

Late last night, i was thinking about my day, and i realised that i had a lot to thank God for yesterday.
I rode to and from work and on the way home a car came close to hitting me, Praise the Lord that He was protecting me.
Praise the Lord that my arm has healed quickly, it is nearly back to normal, nearly all the scab has gone, and i have full movement again.
I was driving to work last night (to my second job), and someone was speeding and cutting through the traffic, and went very close to hitting me, but he didn't. Praise the Lord for His protection again.
Praise the Lord, that one of my work mates confides in me, i am like half her age.
Praise the Lord, that He provides, i have had work mates buying me some food the last couple of days, and i didn't ask them to.
Praise the Lord, that my other work mate yesterday, didn't seriously injury himself when he hit his head on the van's back door when he was closing the back door.

That's all i have time to write, cause now i have to go to work.

God bless you
Lux

do something

firstly, for those that are interested in knowing how my injuries from stacking my bike are going, they are healing nicely. My shoulder is still not 100% but i can lift my arm up to shoulder hieght, which is an improvement since Saturday. My house mates think that i should post the photos of my injuries on this blog, so that you can see them. So if you want to see what damage i did to my self when i stacked it let me know and i will post the photos, that one of my house mates took of it.

Any way, today i went to a senior first aid refresher course and a few things have changed since the last time that i did one (3 years ago). On thing that has changed is how we are to do CPR, you know the whole some one is unconcious and not breathing and has no pulse, then you have to do compressions and give them breath. Well in Australia the process for this used to be a bit confusing, cause there was different rates for different people, and it also depended on if there was one or two people giving CPR. So they have made it simpler, basically all we have to do is remember is if they are not breathing, we give them 2 breaths, and then 30 compressions. which is a lot easier to remember in emergencies, which is the whole point. The reason they changed it, was that people were getting stressed out if they had to perform CPR so much that they would do nothing, so they made it simipler so that people wouldn't stress about it, and then they would actually do it. You see they realised, that it is better for some one to do something, then do nothing.
How often do we think that we should do something about the injustices in the world, but we don't know what to do, or how to do it, so we do nothing. It is better doing something then nothing applies to this as well. Even if it is just signing the different declarations online, or telling your friends about the injustices that are going on around in your own community and around the world.
Also sometimes we as christians just start cruising along, and not doing much to develope their relationship with God, or get to a stage of not knowing what the next step is to have a deeper relationship with Christ If we are not disiplined in seeking after God, we get to a stage where we do nothing, our relationship then suffers. We can apply the same principle here, doing something is better than doing nothing. I have heard it said, it is easier to find which direction to go so that your following Christ, if you are infact moving. Cause Christ can turn you one way or another, and if you are moving you will see the results of that, you will see the direction. However if you are not doing any thing, standing still, it is hard to see where Christ turns you. Cause He can turn you, but you are still in the same place, and you don't noticed that Christ has pointed you in a direction. So i would encourage you to do something to develope your relationship with Christ, whether it be just Reading the Bible more, spending more time just to focus on Christ, whatever it is, if we do something Christ can direct us.

Hope that all made sense, it is a little late here, so i am going to bed now so that i will actually get up in the morning and get to work on time.

God bless

Lux

More lessons learnt from being injured

ok, a couple of days ago, i blogged that i stacked my bike. Well, my shoulder is still sore, however i have learnt some more lessons because of my injury (it is only a graze/burn on my shoulder)

1. The bible says that when on part of the body suffers the whole body suffers along with it (1 Corth 12:26). Though my shoulder is the only part of me that is injured, (well only part that is still hurting). I have been learning this in a very physical way. Cause in order to do some stuff, i have to do them in a different way, (i can't reach my right arm highier than my shoulder) some of my other muscles have been hurting, like my stomache and chest muscles. Also when i try to do somethings normally it hurts my shoulder, even though i am not using my shoulder. Like if i go for a run, it hurts my shoulder, therefore i haven't ran, mind you i dont run that often anyway, only when playing some sort of sport, or when i am mucking around. So having this graze on my shoulder has affected the way i do many things, or even if i do some stuff, which therefore affects other muscles and parts of my body. It is a great illistration of when one part of the body of Christ suffers, we all feel it. Another illustration of this is still with my shoulder, however it involves my fellow Gen1 members. They see the wound and they cringe, cause they can either feel the pain or imagine how much it hurts. So me being injured affects the others around me.
2. Our pain affects how and sometimes our capability to worship God. You see i went to Revolution last night, and i was limited in what i could do to worship God, i wanted to lift my hands, but it hurt, i wanted to jump and dance around, but it hurt. It made me realise that our hurts from the past, the pain that it leaves in us, limits our relationship with God. God wants to bring us healing from these hurts of our life, so that we are free, and unrestricted in our relationship with Him, and free to worship and be unrestricted in our worship of God.

So they are a few lessons, i pray they are thought provoking to you, and that you can learn from my physical pain.

Lux

Fearless (the movie)

Today at work i watched the movie fearless. It was the second time that i have seen the movie, but i still enjoyed it.
The main things that stood out to me through out the movie, were

1. The way a person can once they realise that revenge doesn't fix anything,
2. Integrity, the scene that fully impacted this was one of the last scenes when, the guy Jet Li plays is fighting the guy from Japan (i am not good at remembering the names). Jet Li's character has just been poisoned by someone, however he still fought on, and then makes a punch that would of seriously injured the guy from Japan, if connected. However he stops short of the impact. At that moment the guy from Japan realised, he would of lost, and been really hurt if Jet Li made contact, and acknowledged the hit. At that point Jet Li collapses cause of the poisoning. The judge was about to acknowledged the guy from Japan as the winner, and he says wait. He then helped Jet Li up and announced Jet as the winner. You see no one else besides the two fighters knew who the real winner was, the guy from Japan could of remained silent and received the win, cause Jet Li was about to die, who would know. He would of. In his heart the guy from Japan knew he lost. That is integrity, it was only himself that stopped the guy from japan, claiming the victory that wasn't his, cause no one else knew.

what is your integrity like, what would of you done?

Lux

Lessons from bike stack

Yesterday, i stacked my bike, on asphalt. (Yeah it did hurt).
From reflecting on how i stacked it i had a reminder of a few life lessons.

1. Don't become over confident, thinking you are better than what you are. Or you will crash.

2. It is so easy to fall into self pity, all the way home i just wanted someone to ask me if i was ok, but it didn't happen, i continue to ride for another 40mins, and no one asked if i was ok. I realised part way home, that i was so focused on my self and being sorry for my self. I also realised, that other people are worse off than me.

3. That i don't like being hurt, and showing that i hurt. Cause if someone actually stopped to see if i was ok, while on my way home, i would of said that i was ok. I have grown up, not letting people know when i was hurting, and also denying it at times, it is a bad habit that has continued, sometimes.

4. I like bragging about and showing off my injures. Paul talks about bragging about our weakness, i don't think injures count. (Me and one of my house mates, even took photos of the injures).

So basically i learnt a lot about myself when i stacked my bike.
It was liturallly a painful lesson

Lux

On Friday i watched a part of Narina (the movie). It was the part where the white witch came to Aslan's camp to claim her right to Edmund, as Edmund was a traitor and all traitors belong to her. Aslan and the white witch met together and an agreement was made, that Aslan will die instead of Edmund, (This scene was used to illistrate what Christ has done for us).
However i picked up on something else in that scene. I was when the white witch was announcing her claim on Edmund and Peter stepped forward and said "try to take him". Peter had his sword raised to fight, the whole of Narina was behind him. The white witch however, just said something like do you think you can beat the deep magic, "little king". With those words, 'little king", Peter lowered his sword, looked down, and stepped back.
See this stood out cause it showed me, that this is what the enemy tries to do to us. The enemy feeds us lies, that belittle us, so that we feel like we are nothing and that we are not capable of doing anything. Therefore we lower our swords. We do this even though like Peter we have "Authority and Power", ours comes through Christ, and We are the Children of the King of Kings. We have an army behind us, there are angels just waiting for commands, commands that we can give them.
You see we are a threat to the enemy, however if the enemy makes us think of ourselves as nothing and not capable of anything, he doesn't have to worry about us, we are no longer a threat to him. The enemy wants us to stay in that feeling of being nothing and uncapable, because he is scared of us, when we realise our potiential in Christ.
Have you given in to the enemy's lies about you lately?
Dwell in Christ, in who He says that you are. If you are in a relationship with Christ, You are a co heir with Christ, you're a citizen of Heaven, you are more than a conqueror through Christ, You are a chosen generation, royal priesthood.
These are just a few of the truths about who you are in Christ, and they are all from God's Word,

May God fully reveal to you the truth of who you are in Christ

Lux

Easter Camp

I just got home from a Easter Camp today.
The camp was really good.
Youth repented of stuff the first night, then the following sessions were teaching on Holiness, and giving a challenge to be holy. To live in the World but not a part of it.
The camp was not about hype, it was straight to the point. We need to be holy, not just have said the "sinners prayer", we need full salvation. the work that Christ doesn't finish when we repent, when we have tears of repentance, that is only the beginning. God was to fill us with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and selfcontrol. Also we need to be accountable to each other, and when we are asked to keep someone accountable, that we are not to be "gentleman" about it, we are not to worry whether they are not going to like us any more. We should be encouraging each other to be holy. We were given permission to be nagging about it.
The whole camp was focused not having "elevator love" (or roller coaster) relationship with God any more, instead have a relationship with Christ that is continually going up/growing, and with out sin. This sort of relationship with Christ is only possible through His power.

There are youth that have left camp, changed, not wanting to have "elevator love" relationship with God, and these youth have called on their friends to keep them accountable.

Praise God, cause this was His Camp and His work.

One more thing to praise the Lord about camp. We had sumo wrestling, a bungi run, and laser skirmish, which are all activites where it is possible for injures. I was the first aid person, and i only had to give out 4 pain killers, and 2 bandaids. Praise the Lord.

Lux

cool quote

I saw this cool quote from Mother Teresa

"If we were humble, nothing would change us - neither praise nor discouragement
If someone were to criticize us, we would not feel discouraged.
If someone would praise us, we also would not feel proud".

catch ya
Lux

people need the Lord

This song was the band message at ACH this morning, I read the words and they brought me to tears, cause the words of this song is so true.

People need the Lord

Everyday they pass me by,
I can see it in their eye.
Empty people filled with care,
Headed who knows where?
On they go through private pain,
Living fear to fear.
Laughter hides their silent cries,
Only Jesus hears.

People need the Lord, people need the Lord.
At the end of broken dreams, He's the open door.
People need the Lord, people need the Lord.
When will we realize -- people need the Lord?

We are called to take His light
To a world where wrong seems right.
What would be too great a cost
For sharing Life with one who's lost?
Through His love our hearts can feel
All the grief they bear.
They must hear the Words of Life
Only we can share.

People need the Lord, people need the Lord
At the end of broken dreams, He's the open door.
People need the Lord, people need the Lord.
When will we realize that we must give our lives,
For people need the Lord.
People need the Lord.


We have the words of hope, we know the Good news, it is our job to tell people, to let the Spirit speak through us. We do not have to worry about what to say, cause the Holy Spirit will give us the words that we need. And we do not have to fear, for we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and sound mind.
Since we have been given this spirit of power, love and sound mind, shouldn't that spirit drive us to love people, the people around us whoever they are. To share the Good news with them, isn't that love, to share the good news that we have already recieved.

Lux

a powerful message at ACH

I went to ACH (Adelaid Congress Hall) this morning for their Sunday church service and it was good, (admittly i was late and missed some of the songs, but what i was there for was good). Anyway the Preach was on when Jesus went into the temple and tipped the trade tables, and drove the merchants out of the temple, saying that the temple was meant to be a place of prayer, and that they had made it into a den of thiefs, this story is found in Matthew 21:12-17. Before the scripture they had a reading, where it says something like - the temple ... (different persons) has comfortable chairs, people don't like to turn around and talk, it is for tradition, not for the loud music. (original person) The temple is a place for(different people) ... the well off, not for the homeless, the poor, it is good for the kids.
Majority of people in this meeting found this funny, as if they didn't reckonise that that sort of thing goes on in the church, like it was just unbelievable. However it brought me to tears, cause i have seen so much of that sort of stuff going on in the Church, where they are more focused on tradition then on the people in the community. I felt grief, and repented for any part that i had in any of that in the past.
In the sermon, the officer was saying that often we just see Jesus as the mild and meek Jesus. How ever this story shows a different side of Jesus, a side that is full of righteous anger. She proposed the question, which upset Jesus the most, the injustice of the markets where people were being ripped off, or the fact that these markets were in the part of the temple which was the only place that women and foriegners could come and worship, therefore there was no room for them to worship. She suggested it was both of these reasons that Jesus displayed this righteous anger.
Then the next question Which is good for us to ask, is what would Jesus do/say in our church buildings. Would He ask and test out the chairs to see if they are comfortable, or would He ask why have we got these chairs, where are the mattresses for the homeless of the city to come and sleep on in the night. Would He ask why we come in and sing all these happy joyful songs, when last night there was children that went to sleep hungry, abused, frightened.
Then she went further, what would Jesus say about our own lives, would we encounter the mild and meek Jesus or Jesus full of righteous anger if we allowed Him full access to our temples (our lives).
These are all good questions, may be we should stop and reflect and pray about them.

Lux