You Owe It To Tyndale - Mark Batterson

I really enjoyed this recent post from Mark Batterson.

We take the Bible for granted. We have so many Bibles and we read them so little. I hope this challenges that.

William Tyndale gave his life to translating the Bible into English. Literally. Tyndale was criticized by the religious establishment. In fact, his Bible translations were burned by the Bishop of London at St. Paul's Cathedral. His response? Greater resolve to translate the Bible into a common language for the common man.

His life mission is epitomized by this rebuke to the religious establishment: "If God spare my life, a boy that driveth the plow shall know more of Scripture than thou dost." Tyndale was charged with heresy and spent more than a year in a tiny underground prison cell. Eventually he was strangled to death while tied to a stake. Then his body was burned. His dying prayer? He cried out, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes."

That prayer was answered in the next few years when King Henry VIII ordered that a Bible be placed in every Parish Church in Britain. And it was answered again a century later when King James authorized a group of thirty-nine scholars to produce an English translation of the Bible. Tyndale paved the way with his life and death.

My point? You owe it to Tyndale to read your Bible.

And for the record, you are part of the company of translators. Your life is a unique translation of the Bible ready by everyone who knows you. They may never read the Bible, but they will read your life!

10 Principles of Spirit-Filled Discipleship - Jack Hayford

I have been using these 10 Principles of Spirit-Filled Discipleship from Ps Jack Hayford recently in a range of ways.

Here is the complete list from his book, Living the Spirit-Formed Life.

THE FIRST DISCIPLINE: COMMITTING TO HEAR GOD’S VOICE
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27)

THE SECOND DISCIPLINE: LIVING IN THE POWER OF BAPTISM
“But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness’.” (Matt. 3:15)

THE THIRD DISCIPLINE: THE RESOURCES OF THE LORD’S TABLE
“Take, eat; this is my body … Drink from it, all of you.” (Matt. 26:26,27)
........... living in the shadow of the Cross.

THE FOURTH DISCIPLINE: THE SPIRIT OF FORGIVENESS
“I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?” (Matt. 18:32,33)

THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE: FEEDING ON THE WORD OF GOD
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
(Matt. 4:4)

THE SIXTH DISCIPLINE: MAINTAINING INTEGRITY OF HEART
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matt.5:8)

THE SEVENTH DISCIPLINE: ABIDING IN THE FULLNESS OF THE SPIRIT
“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38)

THE EIGHTH DISCIPLINE: LIVING A LIFE OF SUBMISSION
“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”(Matt. 16:24)

THE NINTH DISCIPLINE: THE PRACTICE OF SOLITUDE
“Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.” (Mark 1:35)

THE TENTH DISCIPLINE: THE LIFE OF A WORSHIPER
“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” (John 4:23)

Connecting With God - The Photos

We had a really great afternoon yesterday learning about how to improve our connection with God.

Here are a few happy-snaps of some very focussed people!

Here are a few final nuggets from the teaching:

Stephen Olford, a great Christian and minister in New York for many years, said, “I want to hear the voice of God before I hear anyone else’s in the morning, and His is the last voice I want to hear at night.”

Don't get legalistic because missing one day does not make it a flop. BUT don't give up. If you miss a meal, it does not mean that you should give up eating because you're inconsistent. You simply eat a little more at the next meal and go on from there. This same principle is true with your quiet time.

Psychologists tell us that it usually takes three weeks to get familiar with some new task or habit; it takes another three weeks before it becomes a habit. The reason why many people are not successful in their quiet times is because they have never made it past that six-week barrier. For your quiet time to become a habit, you must have had one daily for at least six weeks.

I believe the greatest mystery of prayer is that it joins the hearts of the people on earth with the heart of God in heaven. Prayer is spiritual and it goes into the unseen realm; it brings things out of that unseen realm into the realm we can see and into the world around us, right where we live. It ushers spiritual blessings into our natural everyday lives and it brings spiritual power to bear on our earthly circumstances. We human beings are the only creatures in our known universe who can stand in the natural realm and touch the spiritual realm. When we pray, we connect with that spiritual realm, which is where God is, and which affects our daily lives more than we often realize…prayer opens up the door for God to work.
Joyce Meyer

The Importance of Men Connecting With God

I love the men of our church.

Here is what I sent to them recently by email . I made a call about how to best serve them this month.

It’s about this time in a quarter that we have a Blokes in the Shed session. And don’t we love the food!

Our church calendar fills up very quickly and we try and keep the ministry “menu” balanced in a month so that families are not under too much pressure.
So we only like putting 1 major church-wide opportunity per weekend
(and have 1 weekend per month where there is nothing extra church-wide on)

So I thought, “what is the most important thing that I can do for the men this month?”

And it became a “no-brainer.”

Men need encouragement and support to meet that deep desire to become all they want to be - +they want to be good providers, good fathers, good leaders and good workmates.

And one of the best ways to do that is to be connected with God’s life-giving love and resource and wisdom.
Men need to be constantly connected in a quality relationship with God.

And the people around you who love you, relate to you and depend on you will know if you are connected to God or not.
If you are feeling risky, ask them some time. Ask them to be honest.

So if you need
1. some tips about running your “engine” well
2. a God-tune up,
3. an oil change in your God-relationship
4. a heart re-bore
5. some new rubber to get some traction
6. a God-assessment under your hood to see if things are running OK in the engine-department

please respond to this email with “count me in” for this Saturday 2pm to 5pm.

When you RSVP we will tell you more details etc... and we will need to print you a very helpful manual for the workshop.

You can click here to see our video clip promo.