A great Aussie Christmas carol

On Thursday night, i was at a local Christmas carols in the park... and one of the songs they sang was an aussie Christmas carol, it is a bit of a challenge when you listen to the words.... The words are below...

Good old wally king looked out
upon his crop of barley
Bless my soul, blow me down
that looks to me like Charlie
Haven't seen him 'round these parts
many a long year
reckon i might offer him a
Glass of Christmas Cheer.

Agnes put the kettle on
as quick as you are able
Let us make another place
For him at the table
He looks a little worse for wear
His clothes are old and baggy
It's along and weary road
For an honest swaggy*

Mates they've been in years before
Now the two were older
And so we welcomed Charlie in
A hand upon his shoulder
Gladly those three feasted there
And in the warmth of sharing
Christmas season brought again
A time of peace and caring

This Song shows what Christ was all about.... He was about loving and accepting people as a part of His family... Sharing/giving of Himself to see us come to Him and live with Him...

I pray all of you had a ripper Christmas, full boar ripper Christmas, dead set ripper Christmas and a Snappy New Year... (line from the Aussie we wish you a ripper Christmas),

*(for those who don't know, a swaggy is a person who would go from town to town looking for work, and often sleeping rough...)

Adelaide

God is working in Adelaide. Praise the Lord...
Today i met a guy who lives in Adelaide, and he runs a house church, his place is open for people to come in between something like 8am and 10pm. He regularly has people sleeping on his floor, shares his food with people that are around when it is a meal time. And 2 or 3 times a day he will read his bible with who ever is around and then talk with them about what was read....
I also met some other people today that have a heart for people, to see them saved... and a focus on people who are poor, homeless, or have addictions...
And none of these people are Salvos.... God has raised them up to be doing what they are doing...
They are one part of the Church in Adelaide, and we at Gen1 are another part... These people were excited to hear about Gen1 and what we are doing, just as i was excited to hear what they are doing....
I truely believe that God is bringing us together.... all with common goals.
So i pray that God will continue to unite us with the different people/groups that are doing things around Adelaide already, and may we work along side them, encouraging and helping them, and reaching out ourselves....
Cause the calling of God is to preach the Good News to everyone, William Booth said for us to Save the world for Christ.... Neither of these things says to grow the Salvation Army, like we are the only place people can meet God.... How ever it would be cool for the Salvation Army to grow like that.... However if people are getting saved and are growing in their relationship with Christ, in Sanctification, who cares whether they come to Gen1, to West Care, St Lukes, Sturt St, or some another house church.... It is all for the Glory of God.... and God is in all these places... We should Praise God, when other groups see people saved, and not be jealous, or think it is unfair, cause we did a lot of work with that person... Cause we are told that one person will sow and another will reap.... So when we hear reports of people coming to know God, lets join in Praise and when we hear of people growing in their relationship with Christ, lets join in praising the Lord... Cause He alone is worthy of praise.
So bring on the unity, that we would all work together to obey Christ in His command of the Great Commission.

John 6:26

Today i was reading John 6 and vs 26 jumped out... now the context of this verse is that Jesus had just fed the 5000, and gone across to the other side of the lake... and people from the crowd went looking for Jesus... and this is Jesus' response when they found Him... vs 26 "truely I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves"
How often do we look for/to Christ for what He has/can do for us.... Instead of looking for Him for who He is....
I know there are times that i look for Christ because of what He has done, or can do for me... And i have to repent of this.... Cause it is being selfish, just looking at myself, looking out for "my best interest".
This was a reminded that we are to look for Christ because of who He is... The Son of God, The Messaiah.... Christ is the one to be praised, the one that is worthy of praise... Our relationship with Him should be focused on Him not on ourselves and what we can get out of it...
Jesus came to show us a better way, He knows what is best for us... He wants that deep fullon relationship with us...

The Bee movie

I went and saw the bee movie with work lately... It was a fun movie i enjoyed it...
However the movie was also a great reminder that we need each other, and need to work together and do the things that we were created to do...
You see in the movie the bees stopped making honey cause they had enough... and after a while everything started to die, flowers, fruit trees, veggies, which then effected everyone else...
And it is true, we have all been created for a purpose... God has given us all different gifts, and when we all work together, things run, God is glorified not us, cause we only do a small part for God. However when we don't work where God wants us, using the gifts He has given us, we find ourselves bumping into people more, and more friction, cause we are focusing on ourselves and our work being taken advantage of and others getting glory and not us... God gets pushed out, the big picture of everyone working together, like God created us to do, has been pushed out and replaced with a narrow view and only seeing a tiny part of the big picture.
One of my mates suggested in a blog to go out side at night and stare gaze, and realise how small you are in God's creation.... (her suggestion was to do with over coming excessmas during this christmas), but it is a great idea inlight of this blog as well... The universe is huge, and the way God created it is awesome, the way everything is interlocked, relying on something else to survive.
As the Church we are interlocked as well, the things that we do effect other parts of the Church...
How is your life effecting the Church...

Lux

Loving people.

One of my mates in the War College, wrote a blog about how she is learning to love and how love hurts at times... which as i read, my mind was going to a friend of mine that i saw tonight...
i was at a Christmas Carols in the Square, down the road from my place, and i saw one of my friends... i haven't seen him since the beginning of the year... Now each time i see this friend he is drunk (sometimes more than others), he asks me for money... or/and gets a little sleezy, trying to crack on to me, get me to go with him... So each time i see him, i have to remind him that we are nothing more than friends and will never be anything more than that.... Even though i have to do that, I love him... I love the fact that i saw him... that he remembered me (a bit anyway). I love him because he is created in the image of God, and i see this little boy just searching for love... his eyes sparkle with the hope of love... My heart breaks for him cause the only way he knows what love is, is by sex...
However my heart also rejoices, cause there has been growth in him... cause he used to be worse than he is now.

Lux

G'day

a couple of weeks back, i was watching Freedom Writers again.... I love this movie.... It is a good reminder for us not to judge people by their reputation.... And how loving and accepting people, they have an opportunity and a reason to change, and do change when they know that someone loves and cares for them unconditionally.
You see God see each person, He sees their hurts, He knows what they have been through, and why they act as they do... And He loves them... His heart breaks when He sees them acting in a way that hurts themselves and others.... He wants them to know that He loves them... He wants them to experience His love.... We are called to love all with the love of Christ.... and to express this love to them not just love them from a distance, but to go and get along side and love them, getting our "hands dirty".
Christ didn't just love us from a distance, He came and lived amoung us... we are to do the same...

desire and fear.

Just a quick thought...

Why is it that the thing we often desire..... we also fear???

I have been finding that some of the things that i desire to do, to recieve, i also fear.... i long for some things however fear can hold me back from it at times.... Whether it is the fear of the unknown, or fear of failure, or the fear of man.... Or whether it is from past hurts or experiences that effect how i react... People around me may or may not notice it.... however it is there... And it fully annoys me....
Now i know that God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love and sound mind... And the bible also says, why should we fear man, what can man do to us... And God promises that He'll be with us, and guide us, and that His plans are perfect....
So why do i give into fear.... or be really tempted to give in to it....
I don't really know... I just pray that i will be more focused on Christ.... cause when our eyes are on Christ all else fades away.... Just like Peter didn't sink til he took his eyes of Jesus....
I also know that a reason why this is so ... is cause the enemy wants us to be paralised, so that we are not as effective as what we can be for Christ. Which Sux... I hate him and his underhanded schemes..... Cause there are so many that fall to his traps...
I pray that our eyes will be open that we will see the traps the enemy sets for what they really are.....