Deeper - Worship

Everyone is a worshiper. Human beings actually need something to worship, it is human nature! The question we should ask ourselves is not “Am I going to worship” but “What/who am I worshiping?” What is our number one affection? 
There is a difference between knowing about God and knowing God. Worship is way more than music. It’s a lifestyle! Worship demands sacrifice in which Jesus must increase and we must decrease. Worship is the way we zoom out a little bit and focus on things vertically instead of horizontally. 
Never let what is wrong with you stop from worshiping what is right with God. We don’t come before God with what we have done right. Worship is a response to what he has done for us. 
What is our motivation? 
1. Our God deserves it. Not only when things go well but always!
2. It's our response to what he has done for us. He is our redeemer.
3. We love to celebrate what God is doing in our lives. We’ve been rescued by Jesus!
Worship is our response to what we value most. How do you know who or what you worship? You simply follow the trail of your time, your affection, your finances, your loyalty. Worship is a whole-life response to God’s greatness and glory. Worship is a verb, it’s something you do, it isn’t something you watch, it isn’t something you attend. Worship is something you enter into with all your might. Worship happens when we put words and action together. When we choose to do what is right God is worshiped! We move beyond the fruit of our lips to consider the fruit of our lives. 
Church is so much better when our services are filled with people who have been pursuing God for six days before they get there. Church as a “re-fill” is a recipe for disaster, the concept might work at Pizza Hut but it will never work on Sundays when we come to church. 
D7 Church let's turn our daily lives into a song of worship to him!

Breaking The "I" Barrier - A Lesson in Humility

I once shared with our team about our responsibility in cultivating a humble heart. Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. Humility is essential and it is the key if we want to stay usable and if we want to reflect God. Here it is a little bit of what we discussed.

We are not individuals on a team trying to succeed in our area of expertise. Rather we are a part of a team trying to see how we can serve our team with our area of expertise so that the team can succeed. The world does things a certain way but we are Christians and we do things differently.We live in the world but we are not of the world (John 17:15-16)

Self Promotion vs. Humility

God favours humility and will take you much higher than your self promotion ever can. Don’t be scared that if you are humble you will lose out! God sees and He will lift you up - when the time is right! (James 4:10)

Remember God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5)

Tips to stay on track:

1. Watch your attitude
Does it need attention and self promotion? Is it seeking the kingdom first? - Think Matthew 6:33. Check your attitude towards your team and your church, is it focused on the big picture and serving the vision? Do you even know what the vision is?

2. Know why you do what you do
Why do you serve on team?, Why do you come to church?
Do you even know God? Do you have a relationship with Him?

3. Stay humble
Stay humble by watching what comes out of our mouth.
Stay humble by watching what you ponder on in your heart.

4. Follow the Son's example - Serve!
"...Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:26-28)

Learning from Luke

A few things we can learn from Jesus about prayer from the book of Luke:

- Pray for those who mistreat you. Luke 6:28
- Pray for workers. Luke 10:2
- Persist in prayer. Luke 11:9-10,
- Don't lose heart.Ever! Luke 18:1-8
- Have a humble attitude. Luke 18:9-14
- Pray that you will not fall into temptation. Luke 22:40,46

SMART Goal Setting

What, why, how...great post on setting goals.

Why Should We Trust The Bible?

1 book written by 40 different authors from different backgrounds, made up of 66 books written over a period of 1500 years, in an era of no mobile phones, no texting facilities, no facebook and blogs. The authors could not facebook each other to see if everything matched up. Yet it has a definite thread of continuity that constantly runs through it from beginning to end: The Old Testament was God's promise that he would destroy death. The New Testament tell us how he did it.

Oxford Scholar Alfred Edersheim cites 400 Old Testament prophecies that point to the coming Messiah and to his life and death. Jesus perfectly fulfilled every single one of them.

For 8 of these prophecies to have been fulfilled by accident would be 1 chance in 1000 x 100 billion. In other words it would be the same as covering the whole of Britain 2 feet deep in 1p coins, putting a cross in one of them, mixing it all up again, blind folding someone giving them 30 minutes to find the marked penny. Mind blowing!

Deeper Series - The Word

Church was awesome this Sunday! I think we have the best team a church could ever have. Everyone decided to forget the cold and face the snow... that's AMAZING!!! Well done everyone! NO excuses were made, the corner shops were open and so were we. We just won't close church down!!!

God is still God... even in a foyer with loud music and children running around so never underestimate the power of your presence! Had the chance today to pray for someone who is seeking restoration in their family. Such a great privilege, words of encouragement and prayer can go a long way. God can use you, keep that in mind all you need is the willingness to turn up and be an instrument in his hand. People are giving their lives to Jesus with a cup of coffee in one hand and a muffin in the other. Remember this: Christianity is not about what you can get but what you can give!

When comes to the word of God we should never forget Luke 21:33 and 2 Timothy 3:16-17.We all know that this world's standards is all messed, however most Christians seem to follow these standards. Church, we need to live according to God's standards.

He is the One who should have the last word. How do we know what he wants from us - by reading the Bible! The best way to deal with daily decisions is to default to what God says, but how can we make wise decisions if we don't know what they are? Read the Bible!

Most "Christians" will say that they do "believe" that the Bible is the word of God. If that is true then why don't most "Christians" read it? The creator of the universe has written a love letter to us, his word is alive and powerful and yet we take it for granted and when things get all messed up who do we blame? ... God!

Do yourself a favour and read your Bible - it's worth it.

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