At amazes me that everyone who touched Jesus was healed! Healed from what? Well the list is endless. It doesn’t really matter what they were healed from, the important thing is that they were healed; meaning Jesus restored what was broken.

Just think about this for a moment. We live in a broken world. We have broken governments, broken schools, broken homes, broken marriages, broken systems, broken finances, broken churches and broken lives.  So if this is the case, and just touching Jesus will bring healing, then shouldn’t this be our aim as Christians and leaders. Shouldn’t we be leading people to the point they can touch Jesus?

Seems obvious, and most churches in the world would agree that is their aim. However, I believe the church is also the very hands and feet of the resurrected Christ. If this is the case then when people are touched by the church, shouldn’t they be healed? Shouldn’t they find restoration for their brokenness?

I honestly believe that as a church we need to position ourselves to be able to touch people, but the problem is that many have stopped touching Christ themselves, and if the church stops touching Christ then how can anyone find restoration when the church touches them. It’s one big link almost like a string of Christmas lights!

This world needs healing; it is the mandate of the church to touch the world so they can receive healing. Don’t be the broken link that stops the flow, reach out and touch him who we call Jesus and be healed!

It’s one of those old books which aren’t always easy to understand, put there was just something about it that I could put it down.

In a world where people are constantly on the pursuit for something I honestly believe we forget to pursue God. I think of church leaders for example; we pursue the next big thing, we pursue multi site, church growth, leadership, creativity, church planting, the best show in town, small groups, social justice, youth ministry, kids ministry, direct mail, big events and so many others things. In fact whatever you want to pursue there’s a conference or a network you can attend to help you in your pursuit.

However, how many of us are really pursuing God? How many of us lie in bed at night wondering how we can get closer to God or increase our intimacy of God? How many of us wake up in the morning realizing that before we can achieve we must search? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself.

The church seems to be getting bigger, our effects seem to be successful and our models seem to be working, but at what cost?

If our number one pursuit isn’t a personal yearning and longing for the one we call Yahweh then all our effcets may bring ‘success’ here on earth, but we may find they just rang as loud noisy empty cymbols in heaven.

Lord, help me to be a man who before I do anything else learns how to pursue you. Let you word, your character, your statutes and your truth be my number one aim. Not fame, not recognition, not success or anything else this world pushes us to pursue, but let my life’s pursuit be you! As the deer yearns after the water when it’s thirsty, let my soul sing a song of never ending pursuit of you. Amen.

For one the effect of boredom, another the effect of remembering a story they heard as a child in Sunday School. Others may feel the effect of affirming their theology or the guilt of their lifestyle.

However, the longer I am on this journey of faith the more the Bible has become important. That’s an obvious statement for most Christians because they see the Bible as almost a Playbook or a map to helping them with their lives. Yet the Bible has become more than a map or guide to life for me. It’s become the place that I have started to listen!

When I was a baby believer I would read the Bible then put it down and get on with my life, and to be honest I struggled to find it relevant for my life. Now things are different, now I listen. As I read I have become aware that the bible is the truth of God and it always points to the voice of God. In fact Jesus has a name that the Apostle John called The Word and the truth of God tells us that The Word is alive and active. This must mean that for a word to be alive it is still speaking.

So now when I open my Bible I read a little and listen a lot. I realize The Word wants to be alive and active in my life.

So next time you open the good ole book don’t just read it, listen to it, you’ll hear something and that something will change your life forever!

Yesterday we celebrated during our Sunday Service. Below are three of the videos we showed highlighting this past year, some of the funny moments and just some of our leaders fooling around! Enjoy!

Words can be very shallow at times. We see people going through problems and difficulties and often have words of advice. Remember the patriarch Job, his friends had some very shallow unhealthy advice for him. Think back to the last time someone was going through something and you tried to give words of advice. Were they words that fell on deaf ears? Were they words that were not true? Were they words that would edify?

So often we give words that we think are right to say. Don’t fear, don’t panic, trust in God, just pray, have faith, give more, have patience. However, unless we are going through what the other person is going through it is very hard to know just what to say. It is difficult to feel what they are feeling and our words can very often sound shallow. However, there is a promise in the bible from God. It is a promise to not fear, to not be anxious. These words are not shallow, they are not distant words from a God who just tells people to pull it together. They are in fact words from a God who has positioned himself to go through that pain or trial with you. He said that He is with us. That means he is walking beside us, feeling our pain, understanding our heartbreak. It means that God unlike most others understands exactly what you are feeling.

So when God tells us to not fear, not to be anxious, to be patience, to give more, not to panic, have faith and trust in God, it is not from someone who doesn’t understand, but it is from someone who has been there, done that and is living through it with you. He knows how hard that situation may be, but He also knows that there is no situation that is too big for him. Why? Because He is near, experiencing it, He has first hand knowledge of your entire situation and knows this is something to not fear about!

When it comes to spending and budgeting the vast majority of people in the western world go beyond their means. They use their credit card, store card or buy that car or house which they know that they can not really afford. However, when it comes to ones spiritual life this mentality is soon forgotten.

For the believers at the church at Macedonia they realized that a life devoted onto Jesus Christ was a life where they would have to give more than they would be ever able to afford. It didn’t mean a life where they were writing checks which they knew were going to bounce, it didn’t mean racking up an out of control balance on their credit card, but it did mean giving of their life to the point that they couldn’t give anymore. In fact it meant just as Jesus said that anyone who wants to follow Him, they must first take up their cross, these Macedonian believers got it. They realized that they would have to give and keep giving unto God because their life was not their own. They realized that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ they had been bought with a price, this meant they would give what was expected, and then give more in gratitude and thanksgiving unto God.

This world has it so wrong! We overspend on ourselves what we can’t afford and under give to God what we can afford. Instead, God is looking for people who will over give even though it will cost them what they can’t afford and under spend on themselves out of what they can afford. Copy the Macedonians and don’t withhold from giving unto the Lord.

Tragedy is an inevitable part of life. It is impossible to go through a lifetime without experiencing or seeing some type of tragedy. Ten years ago the world watched in horror as the tragedy that we now know as 9/11 happened before our very eyes. The events of that day left an enormous amount of ashes, an overwhelming amount of grief and an uncontrollable feeling of despair.

Tragedy whether on the scale of the size of 9/11 or in the size of hearing the words that you have been laid off, or that your child is in the hospital all cause the same emotions, helplessness!

The difference between a problem and a tragedy is that you can fix a problem, but a tragedy is not fixable. A tragedy often ends in death, either physical death or spiritual and emotional death. It may mean death to your hopes and dreams or death to your confidence. Yes, tragedy brings death and if there is one thing about death, it is that death is final. The remains are ashes, mourning and despair.

However, while that may be a fact of life, there is a God who is higher than facts, he controls physics and is the possible of the impossible. He is the one who breaths life into that what once was dead, He is the one who replaces dirty useless ashes with beauty and substance. He is the one who gives immense joy instead of grief and mourning and he is the one who showers hope to overcome despair.

For the believer of Jesus Christ there is one promise. Not a promise that tragedy will not happen, not a promise to shelter you from harm or pain, but a promise that in the place of the natural there will be the supernatural. The divine nature of God will take control and where everyone else sees the ashes of death, you will see the beauty of new life and the joy of a new day.

Happiness is an emotion so many strive for each day. People do things that make them happy. They try to surround themselves with people who make them happy, eat things that make them happy, listen to music that makes them happy and read books that make them happy. Yet life isn’t always happy. In fact there are times in life that are downright unhappy!

For the writer of the book of Habakkuk he looked out of his window and saw conditions that were far from happy. Recession had hit, wealth had gone and the harvest had failed. For the person who filled their life trying to find happiness, this sight who have thrown their world upside down. However, for the writer of Habakkuk this was not the case. You see this man had something called joy!

Joy is not happiness! Don’t ever confuse the two. Happiness is an emotion, a condition, a feeling! Happiness comes and goes. Happiness goes out the back door when sadness knocks on the front door. So for the one who fills their life striving for happiness, the arrival of sadness brings death to their pursuit. However, joy is not an emotion, nor is it a condition, it is a permanent fixture in one’s life. It is the very fruit of a life that seeks God not self. This fruit does not fall when storms arrive, it does not rot when conditions change and it does not flee when your world comes crashing down!

The reason for this is that joy comes from the Lord, the eternal, sovereign, awesome Lord. What the Lord gives no-one can snatch away and when God gives joy the conditions of the world around you can have no impact on the fruit that is produced through a life that seeks God.

Are you a happiness seeker or a joy producer? One leads to real contentment, the other to many days of emotional heartbreak! Seek God and allow the fruit of joy to be produced!

We the church love to lift people who can preach, sing, lead and administrate on a pedestal. We see the teachers, the leaders, the prophets, the evangelists and the pastors as those with the ultimate gifts for the church. However, there was a gift that was given to the world many years before there was ever a teacher, a preacher or an evangelist. It was the creative gift.

God the creator showed His creative genius when he created the world. He showed His creative genius when He designed man. He showed His creative genius when he formed Eve! I believe that creative gifts are directly from the throne room of God.

We see in the book of Exodus that God is giving Moses the law. There comes a point before anyone makes any sacrifice to the Lord. Before any worship occurs and before the law is put into effect that God tells Moses that those with creative gifts are to work their creative genius on the tabernacle of God. God singles out two men who are what we would call creative. In fact the bible tells us that these men were filled with the spirit of God and it was that same spirit that gave these men these gifts.

As a church it is up to the leaders to make sure there is a creative element to that church. God is a creative God and He has given people within that church creative gifts. These gifts aren’t to be just used for the once a year event, or for the week of VBS, but these creative gifts are to be front and center of any church. God gave special instructions to make sure that those with creative genius were allowed to create. I believe God desires the creative people He has sent to your church to be allowed room to create.

Pastor, identify those creative people in your church and empower them to excel in the gifts God has given to them and to your church!

Jesus said you must be born again! For the ones listening to this instruction it was almost comical! How can anyone be born again? Are we expected to go back into our mothers womb they joked. Yet for the one who has put their trust and hope in a life devoted to Jesus Christ, you know exactly what Jesus meant.

For to be born again is to have your spiritual life regenerated! If you have ever lost power in your house you know what it means to have power generated back to your house. You know how much your life depends on having power wired into your home. Without power light switches do not work, power outlets do not work or air conditioning units do not work. Yet when power is restored it generates life back into those switches, outlets and units.

Just like a house needs powers, so too your soul need a new birth to be generated so you can come back to life. When you allow Jesus Christ into your life what happens is that your spiritual life is born again, or power is restored so you can function as you were designed to function.

This physical life is one that will come and go. In fact the bible tells us we are like grass, we will wither away quickly. However, the life that is born again, our spiritual life is one that will not wither. The writer of 1st Peter tells us that this spiritual life will live forever, because it is powered by one who is eternal.

So today, are you spending your time, energy and resources on your physical life, or devoting them to your spiritual life? Don’t spend the majority of your time cultivating something that will wither away like grass, but use your days helping shape something that will last for eternity.