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Stewarding Peace

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Dear friends, let's just be honest for a moment. Quarantine has taken its toll. For the women - the moms, let's just be real: we haven't worn jeans in months, our nails are all grown out and we can't remember the last time we were alone. Some private time would feel pretty good right about now wouldn't it? Thank the Lord we are entering some normality now.

During this time however, a lot of added pressure and tension can fill our souls and thus our homes. What does the atmosphere of your home feel like? What words are you speaking into your world? The Word of God says something very important: "...for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45)

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Excellence and Creativity

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What is excellence? You’ll find that most people have a different opinion of what excellence is. Some say that it’s a set point on a bar graph. You either meet the goal or you don’t, and whether you do or not is determined by the excellence of your product or service. Others will say it’s a set standard that has to be met in order for people to accept your product or service. These perceptions of what excellence means are not only misguided, but they are also unbiblical. Author Harold Best determines in his book, Music Through the Eyes of Faith, that excellence is simply “(…) the process of becoming better than I once was”. In other words, excellence is about learning and growing to better oneself. One’s talents or skills may not be perfect or even meet the guidelines of what is considered to be the industry standard, but excellence in what you do is determined by what you put into it. It says in Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

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Pentecostal Fire

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Pentecost weekend is upon us. It is on the day of Pentecost that we remember and celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus. It was the fulfilment of a hundreds year old prophecy by Joel. The promise that the Sprit of the living God would be poured out on all flesh. Those of us within the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement have a deep sense that celebrating great works of God in the past, carries a key to experiencing those same wonderful acts in the here and now.

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The Lordship of Jesus Christ

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King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This is declared in many worship songs and read in church almost every week, but is JESUS really LORD? I have spent much of my adult life so burdened by Matthew 7 where Jesus says, “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord! Will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter...many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name.” We sang songs in your name, we “worshiped” you and we love you. The way this question is answered has eternal ramifications. John 15:14 - “You are my friends if you do what I command!” When we allow Jesus to be Lord over our lives, HIS Spirit leads us for HIS glory, not ours. Our job is to say “YES” to God in total, complete obedience.

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The Beauty of God - A Violent Splendour

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God is beautiful! That is an odd statement to make - especially for men. It presents a hurdle for many of us to consider God in that sense. It is however, a simple fact of reality. The Father is beautiful. The Son is beautiful. The Spirit is beautiful. First, God is the absolute of every concept of reality we have. In other words, the only reason we can even perceive of a thing like beauty, is because God himself is absolutely beautiful. If not, beauty would cease to have meaning. Second, God’s beauty is by far more deep and dangerous than the beauty of human kind. Our beauty is fair, his is furious.

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The Expectation We as a Community Bring to the Worship Meeting

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We all want to be part of church communities where miracles happen. The minute you meet Jesus you realise, anything can happen in his presence. Lives can be changed in an instant, bodies healed, the oppressed set free. The greatest of all, are those awesome moments when a greater measure of the glory of God is revealed to us. We were made to live for his glory and to celebrate his presence. So how does this become the norm instead of the exception? I think the secret lies in what each individual brings to the table. What each of us brings to the house of God.

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The Davidic Model of Holistic Worship

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Have you ever heard worship lyrics that encourage us to “lift our hands”, “dance” or “shout unto God with a voice of triumph”? Whether you like it or not, you probably have. There seems to be a very extroverted quality to modern worship songs, our bodies are supposed to be engaged. So why aren’t they? Is it even biblical to implore people to be active in worship? Let’s explore this in the handbook of worship, the Psalms; and in the life of its greatest champion, king David.