On Wednesday The Courier Mail front page headline read “CHILD THUGS” and the picture accompanying it shows a student with a knife in his hand behind his back. The article delivers the alarming statistics that 10-14 year olds have offenses numbering 16,414 with the following breakdown;

Assault 1106
Weapons Offences 164
Sexual Offences 297
Robbery 149
Property Offences 11,630
Drugs 556

Is anybody concerned about the condition of our young generation? Does anyone care about the fact that this generation of young children is growing up not knowing how to live together with their fellow human beings? Our young people are growing up without a clear understanding of the basics of life, such as what is morally right and wrong, the acceptable standards for living life well with others in this world and just basic manners of knowing how to be polite and courteous. Friends, if kids continue on their present path all that awaits them and their families is a lifetime of frustration, anger, pain and suffering interspersed with prolonged periods of incarceration in jail.  Is this what we want for our kids?

Why do we find ourselves in this situation? Well, I have a theory! 

There was a time when as a culture we had a more of a consciousness of God. Even if the sum total of it was just attending church a few times a year, or maybe saying a quick prayer of thanksgiving for the food we were about to receive, or even just a small prayer at night while tucking the kids into bed. The family unit had a God consciousness about it. Add to this the fact that at School we would have Religious Education every week. It was during this time we learned from the bible- the ‘God Manual for Human Life’. We learned about God and how much he loves and cares for us, and at the same time we learned how God expects us to treat, respect and love each other. It doesn’t sound like all that much when it comes to making a difference but I think the social spin off was huge.

We now live in a world where the consciousness of God is all but removed from our homes, families and schools and I believe this to be a major contributor to the instability in our young people. I think if we committed as families and educators to reintroduce a God consciousness back into the fabric of society it would not be long before we would start is see a change of behavior in our young people.

Now you might be thinking why would this make such a big difference? When a God consciousness is part of a human being’s infrastructure it has some remarkable effects:

1. It brings comfort knowing that life is not all up to me. I know that I am not stumbling through life alone feeling like an accident. It actually brings hope, comfort and purpose to the human soul to know that God has a plan for your life. God consciousness actually takes away a certain amount of the stress and anxiety about life. A lot of human reaction and behavior stems from feelings of being out of control with no purpose, plan and hope.

2. It brings a subconscious accountability with it. If I have a God consciousness then I am aware that I am not top dog, there is someone I am accountable to for this life. Friends this changes everything about how I think and how I speak and treat other people, because deep down I know God expects me to behave in a way that pleases him. 

Even though I am a Pastor, I am not talking about making everybody attend church on Sundays. Although that may be a positive next step as most churches can support parents in bringing up children. I am just talking about having a God consciousness within the fabric of our lives and maybe consider God’s advice on how we should live our lives. We need to get to the core problem that causes wrong behavior to develop. I believe it to be a lack of God consciousness starting with families and the education system.

As a kid growing up it was this consciousness of God that taught me right from wrong things like;
- Don’t swear and use foul language.
- Respect and honour Mum and Dad.
- Be faithful to your husband or wife.
- Don’t lie cheat, steal and embezzle from others, treat them the way you would like to be treated.
- Be kind and considerate to all people and especially the elderly- stand on the bus for a lady or elderly person to have your seat.
- Never hit a lady.

When I was young, due to my Mum and Dad’s family upbringing we practiced a lot of God consciousness at home even though we only went to church once a year. That, along with the Religious Education I received at school, is how I learned how much God loves me and how He expects me to love others.

I wonder what would happen if we got this spiritual underpinning of the fabric of society back in place? What difference would it make if a God consciousness was alive and well in the family home and school system? Parents why not give it a shot? Just maybe we can save our kids from the path of self destruction that they are currently on. 

Keep searching out the truth, for it’s the truth that brings freedom and life to yourself and to others.

Pastor Kev

Matthew 7:7-8 ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.’

This is a very interesting piece of scripture because it shows us the process involved in receiving from God and it cannot be shortcut. It literally means this: 
·        Ask - and keep on Asking - until your Receive
·        Seek - and keep on Seeking - until you Find.
·        Knock - and keep on Knocking - until the door is Opened. 

What do we learn from this? It tells us there is a blessing that is available to us if we will make the effort to find it. The fact that it tells us that this blessing has to be found, can only mean one of two things. Either it is lost (I am going to assume is fairly hard for a God, who knows and sees all, to lose something) or it is hidden! It also lets us know something else; tt tells me I have to knock to get the door opened, which means at present the door is closed. 

Something we all must learn about God is this; He is no schmuk or cosmic candy machine, He does not just leave all of His wonderful blessings out there on a silver platter for you and I to use and abuse as we see fit. All the promises and blessings of God are available but they come at personal cost, effort and commitment. In fact, just to back up what I am saying, where is the scripture in which God tells us not to cast our pearls before the pigs. I’ll give you a hint; try looking at the verse immediately before this one it’s very interesting.

There is also another place where God says; it is the glory of God to conceal a thing and it is the glory of kings to search a matter out. So I think the process is as follows; 
·        Ask - and keep on Asking - until you Receive (Blessing)
·        Seek - and keep on Seeking - until you Find. (Hidden)
·        Knock - and keep on Knocking - until the door is Opened. (Door Closed) 
This process is not left to right as we are accustomed to reading but it travels down and back in a horseshoe. God says to us all everything you need for life is available to you in the heavenlies. All you have to do is make the effort to take your inheritance. 

Ask and keep on Asking, Seek and keep on Seeking, Knock and keep on Knocking - until you get the door opened and move into the hidden things of God, whereby you will receive every blessing you will ever need pertaining to this life. How cool is that! 

My Prayer:  Father protect me from myself. Don’t ever allow me to become so complacent and lazy that I settle for an average natural life. I want to receive all you have for me, I want to live from a different place, I want to live a supernatural life so I am willing to pay the personal cost of putting in the effort and commitment. 

2 Cor 3:5-6   ‘Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent ministers of a new covenant - not of the letter but of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.’

Words are incredibly powerful. They can slice through the atmosphere even over great distance by a phone and wound the listener sometimes beyond repair. They somehow have the ability to penetrate the exterior structure of our body and attach themselves deep down in our soul. Sometimes words spoken over us when we are very young still haunt us in the twilight years of our lives. I wonder if it is the words that wound us or are the words catapulted into the heart of our being by the spirit behind the words? Is it more the emotional and spiritual intensity that comes from one close to us that gives the words their incredibly devastating power? I have had a lot of bad stuff said to me at different times by people but those words never stuck, however words spoken over me by people close to me, they have had a huge impact both for good and evil.

Maybe that’s why God is warning us here that’s its not just about the words, even good words out of the bible, it about ministry of the spirit. It’s about the heart and emotional intensity behind the words. We need to ask ourselves; what is my motive for what I am about to say? As Pastor Wayne Corderio says, always scrub your motives first. If all I do is deliver the letter -”words” people will respond out of  fear and condemnation but if I minister the spirit of the words then they will have life abundantly. No bible college anywhere in the world can teach me how to do that, that only comes  from intimate relationship based on total reliance on God and his spirit for any given situation.

I guess there really is less to learn than I think. It is really just as simple as making sure my total competency is firmly grounded in my relationship with my God.

My Prayer:  Father help me to be led by your spirit always. Let my competency come only from you. Teach me to a minister of the spirit.

2 Cor 1: 8-11    “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. ⁹ Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. ¹⁰ He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, ¹¹ as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our ^a behalf for the gracious favour granted us in answer to the prayers of many.”

Often I treat hardships as my enemy, to me it is the rain storm that arrives suddenly to ruin what should have been my perfect parade. Do you even feel like it is just impossible to get things under control? Your job, your dream, the vision for life always seems to out of control. You just can’t seem to get all the wheels to stay on at the same time. No sooner do you get one part working and someone walks into your office and rains on your parade again and everything falls in a heap. This lack of ability to get things under control then causes us to despair to point of feeling sick and stressed all the time. We can’t sleep, our health begins to deteriorate and often times out of sheer desperation we just want to through our with hands in the air, let the whole thing die and walk away. News Flash Kev!!! - hardships, difficulties and adjustments are actually part of the process that God uses to make sure our dream, our vision, our project, even our job reaches its ultimate potential. Let’s break it down from the scripture above..

 1.       Paul felt under pressure far beyond his ability to endure, so that he despaired for life. (Paul knew his dream, vision,’ mission, job was way out of control )

2.       In his heart he felt the sentence of death. ( Paul had hit the wall he thought this is it, were done, were sunk, this is fast approaching  a situation beyond redemption. )

3.       But this happened so that we might not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. ( This was in fact Gods way of keeping the dream alive) It was God making adjustments to turn something natural into something supernatural)

 Has the thought ever occurred to you that maybe hardships and difficulties and are actually God’s way of making adjustments to fairly ordinary human plans to turn them into something supernatural and spectacular? Perhaps hardships are a blessing in disguise, maybe it is God with his gift of knowing the future making little adjustments to set us up and position us for greatness. Maybe we should change our attitude and response to hardships when they come. Instead of throwing our hands in the air in anger and frustration screaming at the world and God “Why Me”, maybe we should be throwing our hands in the air in surrender to God and saying, ‘OK I know you know all the things, you see the big picture of what is up ahead, help me to not react to the situation but simple smile and ask myself the question “God What Are You Up To”’. Then just take some quiet time to listen to see if God wants to show you what He is up to! Even though things looked bad for Paul his hope was still in his God to deliver him from every situation. Changing our view towards hardships, difficulties and challenges could really eliminate a lot of stress in our lives and set us up for great future potential if we are open to seeing the activity of God in our lives.

My Prayer: Help me to remember in all my endeavours of life to at least ask the question when hardship comes my way. ” God What Are You Up To?”  what adjustments are you making to move my job, marriage, dreams and vision beyond something human and natural to be something powerful and supernatural. 

1 Cor 15:37-38  “When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.”

In this scripture Paul is trying to help people understand the kind of bodies we will have once we depart this life. So he explains it to them by saying that things start out as natural and end up as spiritual and he tells them about  the journey of the seed.

When you look at a seed it is virtually impossible to tell what kind of plant is wrapped up in the seed. However, in the seed it may be ‘Young Skywalker!’. Once the seed is planted and surrendered to God something magical happens.  That which was quite a natural and unassuming process after only a short period of time becomes a spiritual and supernatural process as the  tree within the seed begins to be revealed. At this time the seed is nowhere to be seen, it has played its part in the cycle of life by surrendering itself to the dying process.

Paul is trying to help them catch a glimpse of the fact that we think this body is pretty special and unique so we look after it and treat it right. He says that this natural body is only a seed, a seed that is slowly surrendering itself to the dying process so we can receive our true spiritual bodies. They will be bodies that will fit us out for eternity in heaven.  Now, we don’t know what our bodies will be like, but I can tell you this; our spiritual bodies will make these old natural bodies seem like rubbish. Our new bodies will not be affected by sin, sickness and disease, they will not be encumbered by the paradigm of time and space. It will be a serious upgrade to a new model. Our new bodies will be the vehicles we need to traverse the brave new world that awaits us!!

Let me finish with this - have you ever had a brand new car? When you get a new car you are a whole lot more careful about where you park it. Do you size up the neighbourhood, look around the streets to see who is hanging around? “Why?” because you don’t want your new car to get trashed by parking it in the wrong place. 

Here is a thought for you… If God has granted every human being a brand new body to begin their journey into eternity wouldn’t it be smart to not park it in the wrong place? The scriptures tell us that Heaven and Hell are very real places awaiting all human beings at the end of this life, and God leaves the choice up to us as to which destination we may prefer. Friends, the sad part about death is no-one prepares for it. The reality is most people don’t go to hell because they choose hell, they go to hell because they fail to choose heaven. What we don’t understand is that we are born onto a train that is already speeding towards hell, Jesus has done all he can do to grant us the power to get off. Unfortunately some of us simply keep putting off choosing heaven and suddenly death comes calling and we are caught off guard and lose our eternity. I suggest you put things right with God at the earliest possible convenience and secure you parking spot in advance!

Discovering Truth brings Freedom and Life!  

1 Cor 4:17 “For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church”.

The apostle Paul is sharing in this verse what I believe to be the evidence of the true power of The Gospel in action. It is a place where a human soul lives in absolute consistency. Consistency of values coming from my mouth matching up with the actions of my lifestyle day after day. I think we underestimate just how powerful and important this is.

Take a moment Kev, how many people do you come across who have a deep resistance and resentment towards God because of the inconsistent and often appalling ungodly behaviour of so called followers of His? Honestly, there is not a week that goes by that I do not see the evidence of this everywhere. I find it in the newspapers, on current affair programs, in blogs on the internet, even in brief conversations that come up on a regular basis. The sound seems to echo everywhere “I cannot believe in a God that would allow this or that to happen through a so called follower”. 

I think we must face the truth about something. It is beginning to look like the greatest obstacle for people coming into a relationship with God is US (Christians). It appears the inconsistency in our lives is sending the greatest signal that God cannot be real. How does that make you feel Kev, and what are you going to do about it? It makes me feel angry because I feel like we spend much of the time shifting blame to the devil when we are the real problem. The devil can’t make me do anything, the problem is my free will and choosing to sin. Like Paul, I am going to press in deeper and surrender even more to God than ever before. I am going to turn the heat up on prayer and intimacy in my walk with Him so that I can be confident that what comes out of my mouth is consistent with what is outworked in my lifestyle. Then maybe one day I could  shout like Paul confidently to a dying world IMITATE ME! I suspect if every follower of Christ took this mission seriously we would enter a what seems like a fantasy word called revival.

My Prayer:  Lord help me to be consistent all the days of my life so that I never bring dishonour and shame to you. Give me a strategy to reach the ones who are so badly burnt by the inconsistent behaviour of your kids.

1 Cor 7:17  “Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him…Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him…Brothers, each man, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation God called him to.”

I firmly believe that every human being is created by God for a specific plan and purpose. Every human being has a destiny that until they walk into it they will never really feel fulfilled. Trying to work this out can often be a little frustrating and often we don’t pay attention to one very important thing in our life- the position we were in when God called us to him. We need to cast our minds back to what we were doing when God called out of this world into relationship with Him.

For me I was touring in rock bands in the 80’s when God called me into relationship with Him, and honestly if He hadn’t I probably wouldn’t be here today. However, when I first gave my life to Christ I was so grateful to God for saving me that all I wanted to do was get as far away as possible from my previous immoral way of life. So, for many years I did nothing with music and for a season that was not wrong, but after awhile music began to stir again but in a different form. It was not a call to leave the church and go back on the road in rock bands. It was a stirring of the Lord, a reminder from God about where he had called me from and that the seed of my future destiny and purpose was to be found in this time. As I began to think about music I then remember early times in my life when music was a real passion for me but that passion was unfulfilled.

So what am I saying? Pay attention to what is going on in your life at the time when God called you back into relationship with Him. Write it down somewhere in as much detail as possible and then hide it away. After a season of just hanging with God and allowing Him to love you, he will begin to stir you about your future destiny. At that point in time you can go back and review as it is entirely possible the seed for the future in hidden among the rubble of the past.

My Prayer: Lord continue to help me understand the entire sum of my life, and walk into the fullness of all you have planned for me.

Gal 5:1-4  “ It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. ³ Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. ⁴ You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.”

In the film Brave Heart, William Wallace screams out a final declaration before he leads his people into battle. He says something like “They may take our lives but they’ll never take our FREEDOM.”  A little while later on his death bed at his execution his enemies thought they had defeated him when Wallace wanted to speak. So they quieted the crowd to hear this rebel’s final words. They thought they had  won, they had finally broken the great William Wallace before his followers. The scene goes quiet and he begins to whisper something so they all listen intently thinking at this time he will repent of his ways. An eerie silence settles over the area turning the execution site into holy ground, then with one final gasp of air from his lungs he screams to the world  “FREEDOM”. At that moment his accusers realise that even though they had taken his life. Wallace had indeed still won the victory!

I have discovered that as human beings we love laws, rules and regulations because it is via this medium that we can test and measure just how we are doing in life and where I sit in the pecking order. They tell me if I’m acceptable to you, or if I’m better than you, or heaven forbid, you are better than me. Everywhere we go people are trying to project these laws on us. We get them placed on us at work, we get them placed on us at home. Every relational encounter is constrained by these invisible chains. In fact, we even project them onto ourselves in order to evaluate whether we are succeeding or failing in life.

The scriptures tell us that God gave the Law to put boundaries on sin because the fabric of society was in jeopardy of falling into complete anarchy. Rules and regulations were given to put a lid on sin. God had decided this far and no further. The trouble is most of us have spent so long under the law’s control and we have developed the habit of living from the position of rules and regulations. It’s what we are use to however, now in Christ we are called to FREEDOM. The trouble is that we don’t know how to live that way because suddenly the boundaries are taken away and we have no way to test and measure just how we are doing. This makes us uncomfortable because the only measuring stick we have is Jesus Christ and his instruction for us to live and walk in the spirit. This unprecedented level of freedom is foreign to our paradigm of thinking. It cuts across everything we have ever known so often we default back to what we know and are comfortable with. When we do this we actually fall from the grace that God has so freely given us.

Just as Paul was exhorting the Galatians 2000 years ago to fight for their freedom. Today you and I need to fight the same fight. We need to make sure we don’t allow anyone to steal the freedom we have in Christ. Not even US and our previous life! We are new creatures in Christ and our freedom is rich, full and complete. In fact it is so rich, full and complete that if not careful we can actually use that freedom to sin! But hey that’s another story.

My Prayer:  Father protect me from the tendency to want to hide under the rules, regulations and laws that I myself and others often want to project on me. Teach me to walk and live in the spirit and be comfortable with not having any other reference point to know how I’m doing in this life except Jesus Christ. Give me the courage of William Wallace to fight for my freedom in Christ until the very end. Save me from the fatal fall of thinking I can somehow outwork my salvation by the rules, regulations and laws when the truth is it began as a work of your spirit and it can only continue as a work of your spirit. It truly is a mystery of grace!

Mark 11: 3 “If anyone asks you, ‘ Why are you doing this?’ tell him, ‘ The Lord needs it and will send it back to you shortly.”

I find this account fascinating. Jesus just has an expectation that what he needs to fulfil his ministry will be provided by the Father from people around him. God obviously reveals to him where to go to get the colt so Jesus sends off a few of the boys to grab it, and he tells them if someone asks you just tell them the Lord needs it and it will be returned to you shortly. People of this culture and time must have had a better handle on how God and human beings work and interact together! Think about it, the disciples just rock up and begin to take the colt- do you know what that is called in our day & age?- stealing! Then when they get challenged they just say the Lord has need of it and the people let them go with the colt. Imagine’ if you will, me going next door to my neighbours house and starting to push his new car out of the garage. He asks me what I am doing? So I tell him the Lord is in need of the car for a season and he will return it to you shortly. What kind of a reply do you think I would be likely to get? How about something like this. I don’t think so - You go and tell the Lord if he wants a car, he can go out and buy a car like everybody else! At that point in time either I could persist in my endeavours to take the car, get in a brawl and after a short period of time take myself to jail!

It must have been a very different day.

Either this was a believer who was sympathetic to the cause so he was honoured to have his colt used and borrowed for such a noble task. Or it was unbeliever who still understood about how God and humans work together. In the book of Acts it tells us that in a genuine bible community people never regarded anything as their own so everything was available for the Lord’s plans and purposes. We really still are a long way off understanding how the relationship between us, our possession and our availability to God is outworked.

Prayer: Lord help me to always remember you own everything, and at any time you can make the request for it to be released for kingdom purposes.