The Lord Has been Blessing me with more regular work lately, as a result my time has been more limited but I have started on a new post, which I believe will be worth reading, as I really feel it is greatly misunderstood by the world. The title will be “Freedom” keep an eye out for it, or better yet, subscribe to my RSS feed and you will be notified automatically.
Until then, Take care.
Luke.
Well… I finally got around to it, I Bought a new home….
For my Guitar that is, it’s first house was the gig bag it was in when I purchased it… However, with looming events like AYC when it will have to fly, I would certainly prefer it to ride in something a little more substantial than a soft case, lest I find nothing but splinters resembling a guitar on the baggage carousel.
I was going to spend time contemplating what to get, and procrastinate for a month or two, but i ended up walking into my local music store asking for a case that will survive flight, dropping the cash and walking out with a new Hardcase… see pics below…
Well, we are at the end of my social experiment. i have learned much.
1: I have been sleeping better as screen time immediately before going to bed ruins your best sleep. (i have replaced this with reading)
2: Work life has been more productive, i am acquiring more clients and completing their jobs in more streamlined and focused ways.
3: I Have been having more time with my family which is reward in and of itself.
4: I have had more time to develop my guitar playing abilities (this has been a real blessing)
5: Last but not least i have had a more real awareness and quality time with God.
I have now decided to institute Phase:2, removing my previous rule of 1 browse per week on Saturday nights. I will now leave it up to my own discretion for 1 week, and see if the old habits return, if they do, I will again apply some rules to my browsing habits.
Assuming all go’s well, I won’t be on here often, but rest assured I will be around 
I strongly encourage you all to look at your life, find the time wasters… and deal with them.
Blessings to you all.
Luke,
Well it has been one full year since I was Baptized (see initial post) and what a year it has been… there have been many firsts and many steep learning curves, the road to maturity seems linear until baptism, at which point it becomes exponential, since being Baptized, I have been thrown in the proverbial “Deep end” leading the the youth Sabbath school, doing Bible studies, taking prelims, and as of August 8 I can add preaching a sermon to that list. If I did not have Christ Abiding in me I do not believe I would have been capable of the things I have have accomplished, that is not to say I am perfect or “good” at any of those things I mentioned, but the Lord is teaching me as I go along, Praise God he does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called.
As an example, when I was first asked to teach the youth sabbath school, the lessons started out being a long way below par, but the heavenly teacher worked with me through experience and some very understanding and patient participants to be able to take the class effectively, I have gone from being terrified of teaching, complete with sweaty palms and that sick feeling in ones stomach, to someone who is quite comfortable teaching the Sabbath School lesson.
I still occupy a place on the Media team at church, and have the pleasure of serving as the assistant youth leader, but now, a year on… what next?
The simple answer is “I don’t know” that is in the Lord’s hands, but I have faith that he will reveal it to me as I go along, I plan to continue to serve where I am, and would like the opportunity to preach and grow that talent, but ultimately I would like to organize my working life to allow me to work and Bible work, that will likely mean some training but when the Lord leads me to do so, I will know the time is right.
In short it has been the best year of my life. If anyone out there is struggling with committing to the Lord through baptism, I would love to have a chat to you and encourage you.
Maranatha.
This is the final revision and distillation of my sermon thoughts, hopefully this will integrate the ideas of my last post with my core passage (Luke 24:13-35) and join it all into logical order.
Objective: To Give Glory to God Bringing as many as possible into his marvelous light.
To do this, Life should include;
I believe these principles are beautifully and plainly revealed in the story of Cleopas and his companion traveling to Emmaus on resurrection morning, you can find that in the Gospel of Luke, that is the 3rd book of the new testament firmly seated between the shorter yet eventful book of Mark, and the gospel written by the beloved disciple, John, this story is briefly mentioned by a meager 2 verses in the book of Mark (16:12,13) but Praise God, Luke the “Beloved Physician” sought to tell us the whole story that we may learn and be encouraged.
To set the scene, we join these soul weary sojourners three days after Jesus, their teacher, Savior and master, the one they knew would raise Israel up and overthrow their oppressors has just been nailed to a cross, and experienced the death of a common criminal, their spirits and indeed the movement they were a part of had received an unexpected and devastating blow. Let us start unpacking this story from Luke 24:13
13 Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles[a] from Jerusalem. 14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
Having heard the testimony of the women who came from the tomb , saying that their savior lives (Luke 24:22-24) they still still decided to make the seven mile journey to the village of Emmaus, at the beginning of our walk with Christ we also find ourselves walking away from Him in ignorance of the free gift he has made available to us.
15 So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.
This is not the only time this happens in scripture we see it occur also in John 20:14-16 when Mary saw the risen Jesus but did not know it was him. she did not realize to whom she was speaking until he called her by name “Mary!”(v.15) the other occurrence is found in John 21:4-7 where Jesus calls to his disciples from the shore and tells them to cast off the right side of the boat for a catch, upon doing so, they catch a miraculous amount of fish, John realizes who it is, and announces “it is the Lord!” Peter promptly put’s on his outer garment, dives into the water and swims to Jesus. but it had to be revealed to him by a miracle and the testimony of a fellow disciple. Some of us are like Mary who find the Lord while we are searching for him, others are like Peter who not only needed a miracle but the testimony of a trusted friend to see the Lord, and finally, yet still others are like Cleopas and his traveling companion where Jesus must come after you, as you depart from him in disbelief. How amazing is the Savior we have? he provides each of us with the experience we need to find him.
17 And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?”[b]
18 Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?”
19 And He said to them, “What things?”
So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. 21 But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. 22 Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. 23 When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. 24 And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.”
This whole discourse is one of disbelief, and as usual, we find Jesus, probing to the core of the situation, with simple and effective questions… not only that, but they were walking along talking about him… how human and typical of our times… how often do we discuss Jesus at an academic level, without a true heart-knowledge of who he is, though it is often (just like our friends in the passage) in spite of the compelling first hand testimony offered to them.
25 Then He [Jesus] said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
Even after this positively explosive Bible study they did not realize who He was, even after all this teaching, this wonderful revelation that Christ had to suffer, and die, they still knew him not. However, this is when their Hearts began to burn within them, as they realized Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Messiah, this is also so often the case with us, we experience the maker’s hand in our lives but do not realize it is his mighty hand at work, attributing it to chance or our own toil.
28 Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. 29 But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them.
This is a passage we may gloss over quickly but I urge you to dwell upon it… at this point, our two travelers are moved by the Saviors words but that is all… If they had not constrained him to stay with them… the Lord would have walked on, leaving them where they were… we have a loving Redeemer who reveals himself to those who seek, but never forces his way into an unwilling heart, it is true that he is knocking at your heart but you have a part to play, and that is acceptance, you will catch glimpses but you will never know the true joy he offers without taking the plunge and putting your life in his hands.
30 Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.
32 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” 33 So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.
At the cresciendo of this story, as Jesus breaks the bread and blesses it, just as he had done at supper with the disciples less than a week prior, it was at this time they finally recognized him for who He was, Jesus Christ the righteous. He then vanished from their sight as if to confirm their realization.
They rose immediately and returned through the night to Jerusalem, carrying the Good News of the Gospel, HE IS RISEN! praise God that although our hearts do at times weary as we make life’s journey, when we return to our first love and find the Gospel afresh, we realize just how good the news is! and we cannot help but share it with others… that is when Christianity becomes contagious.
At this point did Cleopas or his friend need to be told how to share their faith?, did they need to be coerced into action? no, they had been ignited we should seek to be ignited in the same way, witnessing is not a conscious activity, it is a lifestyle full of temporal and eternal rewards, when we find Christ, “our hearts burn within us” and we are automatically compelled into mission, and contrary to popular belief, the mission field is not “Over there” it is “Right here” every person you come into contact with is potentially a soul for you to encourage and inspire.
I also praise God for Mark’s Record of the story, although it is but two versus, it warns us of an obstacle we will come up against… it says that when they arrived back at Jerusalem and spoke with the remaining eleven disciples, they did not believe them, with all the testimony that had been presented, they still did not believe. Unfortunately we must be prepared for this, it is inevitable that people will ignore the light that we are called to bear, but it is not our our job to change their heart… that is the endeavor of the Holy Spirit, we should never take it personally as it is not us but the Gospel that is being rejected, instead we should feel sorrow for them and pray the Lord would send another worker into the field.
In Conclusion, wherever you are on your personal “Emmaus Road” do not be willingly ignorant of where you are, I challenge you to find some time and a quiet place, evaluate where you are and what is next, maybe Jesus’ words are burning in your heart and it is time for you to invite him to stay with you, or maybe you, now having cultivated your relationship with the master are ready to run and proclaim the message, wherever you are, know that Jesus, the Author and finisher of our faith is in control and just waiting for you to reach out to him.
Well the time is fast approaching when I will be hiding behind the cross and delivering my first sermon, as we are now just two days away, I thought I would make a short post about it. It seems to have arrived all of a sudden and it is a little daunting but the overarching feeling is excitement, I cant wait to proclaim the gospel. as I am a person who likes to be prepared… make that over prepared, I feel as if I should have prepared more/better/sooner, however, I think if I had, I would be relying in my skills rather than the moving of the Holy Spirit.
Preaching is a spiritual transaction, not an intellectual one, so my greatest task this week is to fully surrender so the message will have not even the slightest hint of self in it. There is such amazing treasure to be found in the Gospel, studying it myself for this sermon has been a true growing experience as when you study it for yourself and you dig through the Word, you grasp and internalize that which you find much more readily than if you were to hear it second hand, so while preaching is a blessing to those who hear, I believe it is an even greater blessing to the one who is preparing and presenting it.
If you have every thought about preparing a sermon I strongly suggest you do so, even if you never plan on presenting it… you will grow spiritually…
As I write this it is not so much for the sake of it being a new post, it is to help me organize my thoughts on a sermon I am preparing.
I am collaborating with a Brother of mine on this sermon, where he will be opening and I will be concluding, the sermon title is “Walking the Talk” the objective of this sermon is practical Christianity dealing first with “What is the Talk” and secondly, “How to walk it” (apply it to your life) Kevin will be dealing with point one, so this post will predominantly be dealing with the “How to walk it” question.
Objective: To Give Glory to God Bringing as many as possible into his marvelous light.
To do this, Life should include;
These three elements, all emanate from point 1, a relationship with Jesus, unfortunately, Satan places many road-blocks in our path to this relationship, he spreads lies, he tries to condition our minds and attack our bodies, all so our connection to the Lord is impaired. He does this because he is terrified of the results when a Child of God is sent onto the battlefield.
So, how is it done?
Step 1: We must examine ourselves in light of scripture, to understand our own helpless state.
Step 2: Pray, never underestimate prayer, Paul said to pray without ceasing, pray that the Lord would finish the work he started in you, just as he said he would (phil 1:6)
Step 3: Ask Him to reveal all of your personal road blocks, and indeed pray for his help to remove them from your way, these road blocks can take the form of nearly anything, anything you put before God, that could be your job, a sport, some form of media, (TV/Internet) whatever it is that you are prioritizing over your maker, re evaluate it’s place in your life.
Step 4: Keep coming back to Jesus, you can do this at any time but when you have reduced the “Noise” satan tends to keep us busy with, it makes it so much easier to connect wholly with Jesus.
Step 5: Get to know Him, he left the 2 great channels of communication open to us… read the letter he spent all of history writing to you, and you can reply to him in prayer.
Step 6: Get the experience. as you get to know him your faith will naturally grow, it is truly beautiful, the way he designed this to happen, as you start having faith in him for the little things (like helping you find your keys) your faith will grow to a point where you are entrusting him with the care of yourself and your family, living your life from one leap of faith to the next, this is the experience your faith is rooted in, just like a child will jump into a parents arms totally confident in the parents ability to catch them so must we build our faith in an omnipotent God who forsook his own son so we would never need to be forsaken.
Step 7: If you spend enough time watching God come through for the Saints, over and over the love and blessings he lavishes upon you will soon be too voluminous to be contained and you will love and be a blessing to those around you with all spontaneity.
That is it. I can guarantee you will have difficulties, and fall, but falling down is not the problem, praise the Lord the Bible says it is the righteous man who keeps getting to his feet, not the one who does not Fall, that was Jesus…
(already almost got the next revision done, that is where Emmaus comes in … stay tuned…)
The one truly universal language is Music, it communicates to the very soul of a receptive hearer, I have always had a great love for music from my earliest recollection of being a huge John Farnham fan, then Elvis, through the pop and techno music of my early teen years (which I now shudder at the thought of) unfortunately, this soon gave way to hip-hop/rap which is where my taste did abide for some time.
When I was about 12, I started to learn Bass Guitar which was a struggle to say the least, I just couldn’t “feel” the music but I persisted until i was about 15 when I moved away from the home of my youth in NSW to sunny Queensland, at this point my skill stagnated, the bass became a dust encrusted talking point in the corner of the room, it was coaxed into life by the occasional visitor but that was all, for over 4 years.
More recently my ears found the inexplicably unpredictable style of Jazz, which I got into, so much so that I went and got a fedora as I reached again for my Bass guitar, suddenly, I could “feel” music, this was an odd sensation as I had labored so hard with such meager results earlier in that decade of life, I started jamming with people when the option was presented, but as the Lord moved in my life so did my musical taste…
I lost my taste for jazz and R’n'B, and for a while didn’t listen to anything, it was like I was unintentionally cleansing my musical pallet, after this time, my love for acoustic sounds and harmonies grew and then it happened, whilst walking through my home, I noted the unplayed acoustic guitar in a cobweb ridden corner, looking almost bored with its own lot in life. I sat and tried to play the only chord I knew, D, and guess what… it sounded horrible, not unlike the sound that is made when you forget your favorite house-pet in the clothes dryer, but it was a start…
Soon thereafter I saw a friend of mine, an accomplished player and an inspired singer, who gave me a few pointers, this is what truly started my walk, that was about 6 months ago now, and since then I have acquired a guitar of my own, which was by divine appointment a great sounding guitar with a low price-tag, and I now play at every opportunity, not to perform, or impress people, but for praise.
I can tell you now, I am not naturally talented musically, if I was, I surely would have discovered it before now. My renewed desire to play was rooted in my longing to be able to worship my Savior in music, and indirectly to help others do the same, it was when I prayed this prayer that my hands seemed to find their skill, most assuredly I say unto you, this skill that I am in the process of obtaining was not hewn from natural ability, or even hard work and will power, indeed one hundred percent of the skill is a direct and free gift from my maker.
Goodmorning all!
Yes it is true, Inspiration has visited upon me, stay tuned for 2 upcoming posts… one spiritual one musical.
