‘…in marriage you are …

‘…in marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations, which God causes to come and to pass away to his glory, and calls into his kingdom.’

The married are the link in the generations. Generations live and die. Death is glory. HIS glory.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The following was written from Prison before he was executed. Bonhoeffer said some profound things – with marriage coming up I find this so spot on! Enjoy…

On Marriage, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:

‘Marriage is more than your love for each other. It has a higher dignity and power, for it is God’s holy ordinance, through which he wills to perpetuate the human race till the end of time. In your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations, which God causes to come and to pass away to his glory, and calls into his kingdom.

In your love, you see only the heaven of your own happiness, but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind. Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more than something personal—it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man.

As high as God is above man, so high are the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of marriage above the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of love. It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.’

It’s been a year!

It has been a year since I last wrote a blog entry for this page. The last week or ten days the Lord has been laying it on my heart that I need to get back on here and getting typing and sharing. I’m signing this one off for now whilst I get writing. Jesus is Lord of all. Get PUMPED. ITNOC.

The Great Commission – Declaration (of War)

‘There is a calling on this generation to step into destiny and fulfill it. To Bring light into dark places. To spread truth in a culture of lies.

The Most High has chosen the underground. A generation of lost and broken youth. To rise Up from death and from sleep. To fulfill the Great Commission. And to make a Declaration of war on this world.

We will be the culture that is not imprisoned by the four walls of a church or any religious doctrine. But we will stand with the authority of the Kingdom. We will walk in the authority of the Spirit.

The Blind will see. The deaf will hear. The sick will be healed. The Gospel will be Preached. The dead will be raised. And the broken will become whole again.’

This is taken from the album ‘And Every Knee Shall Bow’

An awesome way to open an album and definitely a prayer for us to all say today! Powerful stuff!

Psalm 68:4-5

‘Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds; rejoice before him—his name is the LORD. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.’

Psalm 68:4-5 NIV

I think this a good verse to explain, if any explanation is needed, why we should worship God. He is amazing and can do all things and we should praise him for this.

I’m currently reading a book about Worship by Tozer and be says that through deep worship we can really see the heart of God and do his work! Amazing!!

So sing to the Lord and Extol his name today so that we might please him and do his work as we were designed to!

Luke 24:52-53

Amazing verse we shared at band practice last night. It charged me up and got me ready for rehearsal and focussed my mind and prayers on why we come to worship God.

The passage is below and has been taken from the ESV bible.

‘And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.’

Let that encourage you and make you want to worship.

ITNOC

Luke 11:34

‘Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy,^[a] your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy,^[b] your body also is full of darkness.’

Luke 11:34 NIV

Whilst gardening with the boys this afternoon we had an interesting discussion about films, God and a Christian lifestyle – can all those things work together?!

The bible is full of violence and sex – lots of films are full of the same thing. Where does this leave us. I’ve been a big film fan for a long time and still enjoy the old classics like the Godfather and Goodfellas etc – violent and dark films. But should I now watch these. They aren’t something I want to give up. I think if it is in our sinful nature anything we watch will bring that sin out – so if we know watching violent films takes us to a difficult place in our walk with God we should avoid it. Honestly it is such a tough thing to find the right answer to. Is what we are doing God honouring – should we read the bible all day everyday, listen to worship music and when we want to watch a film we should make it the Passion of the Christ?

I think by reading too much we can become a bit bogged down and almost immerse ourselves so far we aren’t hearing what God is saying to us. In order for that to not happen I would say it is important to have some down time. Let your mind clear itself out and relax – but it is difficult to see what is right or wrong to do. How can a Christian have downtime?! Is playing Angry Birds honouring to God.

At this point I’d like to say that I don’t know how many people look at this blog but I would love for people to read this and respond to this and have a debate about it! We’ll see…

I love Jesus and I want to live the best life I can for him. Sometimes it is nice to just chill out though. Maybe resting in the presence of God is all the chilling out we need and maybe this whole blog is pointless? What do you guys reading this do when you aren’t reading the bible and aren’t at work?

For me I guess I am lucky in that something I enjoy to do to chill out is listen to some good heavy metal (yes – I can chill out with it!!) I am lucky because it is God honouring music.

I guess at the end of this what I would like to know are peoples opinions on whether a Christian should watch only Christian films or only listen to Christian music or only read Christian books? What do you think?!

Sometimes Worship and Praise is a little easier than we think…!

So I got a text message from the drummer in my band today. I was feeling a little burnt out after such an awesome weekend with God – I guess being so overwhelmed had left me feeling distant?! ..If that’s possible?!

With that said I thought it would be good to share the following passage with people who sometimes feel like they’ve hit a wall and need a little break…

‘Hallelujah! You who serve God, praise God!
Just to speak his name is praise!
Just to remember God is a blessing—
now and tomorrow and always.
From east to west, from dawn to dusk,
keep lifting all your praises to God!’

Psalm 113:1-3 The Message

I felt so good after reading that. I feel like it is really applicable to a 21st century way of living. We sometimes don’t have time for ourselves outside of work, let alone sitting down to think about reading the bible everyday and trying to fit in some time worship God. I personally feel we can take a lot from these three verses. I wouldn’t say its an excuse to stop reading the bible and worshipping God though – just something worth remembering when the world and his wife are piling up on top of you!

HELL FEAR ME

So as we’ve seen down below – I haven’t blogged in a while and I also like For Today. This Sunday will be the third consecutive Sunday I have been involved in leading my church in Worshipping our amazing God.

As a band we have been able to see how God is setting on fire the hearts of the congregation – people have stayed to worship after the service has finished and people have rested in the Spirit whilst they have worshipped.

This has resulted in us being under some attack – as a result this song came to mind:

For Today – Devastator

‘Hell, fear me. I am the one that will bring you down.
And when you fall, feel me. You’ll see my face on the battleground.
Hell, fear me. I am the one that will bring you down.
And when you fall, feel me. You’ll see my face on the battleground.

Let my name be feared at the gates of hell, as I exalt the Savior.
The One that died to buy my victory, and gave me a new name.
Let my name be feared at the gates of hell, as I exalt the Savior.
In the name of the Holy One of God,
I will cast you down at the foot of the cross He hung from.
I will stand behind my Savior, as He burns your kingdom down.
And I will see you on your knees before the King of Kings.
You will lose your throne to the chosen ones. The chosen ones will rise.’

This is a powerful song and even as someone who isn’t a fan of extreme music it is evident that this is something we should all have on our hearts as followers of Christ. Hell should fear us because of the ground work we are doing for the kingdom of God. I think it seems some people expect us as Christians to ‘fight’ the war, but not to FIGHT the war. The devil is a prowling lion waiting for someone to devour – he wouldn’t take it easy on us so we shouldn’t take it easy on him – and WE have God on OUR side!! Why not be angry and fight for what we believe in!

Isaiah 42:8-13

‘”I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols. See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.”

Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them. Let the wilderness and its towns raise their voices; let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice. Let the people of Sela sing for joy; let them shout from the mountaintops. Let them give glory to the LORD and proclaim his praise in the islands. The LORD will march out like a champion, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal; with a shout he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies.’

So with that said – let’s get up and fight for the Lord!! We have no reason not to 🙂

I haven’t blogged for a while…!

I don’t know if I will be going anywhere this blog, but I feel like writing one anyway! The past week or ten days has been pretty amazing for me. I have seen God at work in my life and in the lives of others.

I’m part of the youth worship team at my church ‘Passion.’  The week running up to it so many of us felt that God was going to do something. On the night there was an amazing time of Worship and an amazing time of prayer for the countries around the world where Christians are being persecuted.

Amy, who led the service, gave a really moving sermon on some of the scary things that are happening today all across the globe… A couple of the stories were really shocking! So many people responded so well to her message and I know God will answer our prayers and start changing what is going on in these countries.

I also had my first Sunday morning music team experience. We’d had a practice on the Wednesday before and it had gone well and I played well enough to put myself in a position where I was almost needed to play on the Sunday (I had a couple of lead parts).

As an anxiety sufferer I was apprehensive to say the least but when the time came on Sunday morning I didn’t even get a chance to get nervous – I still can’t quite believe it now!! I am beside myself and so thankful to God that He had my back so obviously on Sunday. I’m still feeling good today 🙂

I guess what I wanted my blog to be about was a question that got raised out my house group last night – ‘Where would you be if Jesus didn’t exist?’. I think it is quite scary to think that I would have been still out on the town, drinking away my money and my body and living a life with no purpose – so, where would you be?

Thats my story over for now 🙂 More again soon…