Prayer Without Ceasing

Have been thinking of and practising "prayerise, picturise & actualise" almost all day today, it was a weired thing that I understood it, but found it hard to verbalise. I sensed that God was telling me the following:

"You are learning your lesson. You are being led out into a large place. Talk to Me day and night. Look up into My face - I reveal Myself to you in the most ordinary ways, even as you are talking with friends, doing your daily chore or just looking at birds flying. A look of love and care, a feeling of security, a thrill of joy at the sense of the nearness of My Presence - these are your best prayers. You don't have to use big words, just chat with me as you go about your day and business (busy-ness). Let these smooth the day's work. Prayer is of many kinds, but of whatever kind, prayer is the linking up of the soul and mind and heart to God."

Because the soul, being linked to God, united to Him, receives in and through Him all things. This is how prayers are answered.

Father God, goodnight! Thank you for showing yourself to me through the people and friends that I meet, through the little things that happen daily, and through sensing the nearness of Your awesome and wonderful Presence! I just want to tell you that I love you Lord!

Church Planting Resources

Have a look at newchurches.com . It's an amazing site which includes some great church planting resources. Really worth keeping an eye on it. I know I will!

Prayerise, Picturise & Actualise

Today I heard about a creative businessman's simple formula for solving his problems and overcoming his difficulties through prayer power. It is a curious formula: (1) PRAYERISE, (2) PICTURISE, (3) ACTUALISE.

• "Prayerise": a daily system of creative prayer. Talk it over with God very simply and directly in prayer.

This guy "prayerised" his daily life by conceiving of God as being with him in his office, in his home, on the street, in his car, always nearby as a partner, and as a close friend. He interprets it as meaning that he should go about every day discussing with God in a natural, normal manner the questions that had to be decided and dealt with. He fills his daily life full of prayer - "pray without ceasing".

• "Picturise": have a vision of what will happen. The basic factor in psychology is the relisable wish.

The man who assumes success tends already to have success. People who assume failure tend to have failure.

• "Actualise": When either failure or success is picturised or visualised in one's mind, it strongly tends to actulise in terms equivalent to the mental image pictured.

He claims that to assure something worth while happening, first pray about it and test it according to God's will: then print a picture of it on the mind as happening, holding the picture firmly in consciousness. Continue to surrender the picture to God and follow His guidance. That which you have prayerised and picturised will actualise in God's power.

What do you think of this three-point prayer method? I think I will try it. How about you?

Friendship

Coincidence? Divine Guidance?
In our lives we 'collide' with many people,
Some move towards us, others away from us.
Some we choose to remember, others to forget.
Some we connect for a while, others for life.
These special few we are entrusted with,
for each has made an impact on the other,
and their memory will live on forever.

Not coincidence, but divine guidance!

Music & Worship

This past few days saw me thinking about music & worship. I've been a worship leader for many years now. To me, music can truly transport me from the everday to the sublime, and draw close to God in worship. It 'stirs' emotions and affirms our humanness, provides joy, pleasure and solace, even releases memories.

Throughout history, there are different concepts of worship. The Hebrew concepts of worship consider themes like priesthood and God’s covenant with Israel. The Greek concepts describe our relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Contemporary concepts of worship indicate that our everyday-life is worship and service to God; all members of the church have access to God (Romans 5:2) and a share in the Holy Spirit. Despite the differences in the concepts during various eras, God desires us to continually have an attitude of worship in all that we do and say. Worship is our reason for being. Therefore, I believe that although music / singing can be used as a great expression of worship, it is really not the only form like many people think. There are many other wonderful expressions of worship other than music. I have been really enjoying alternative experiential worship, and basically contemplating and intentionally living a worshipful life.

What do you reckon?

The Ten Commandments for Reducing Stress

1. Thou shalt NOT be perfect, nor try to be.
2. Thou shalt NOT try to be all things to all people.
3. Thou shalt leave things undone that ought to be done.
4. Thous shalt NOT spread thyself too thin.
5. Thou shalt learn to say NO.
6. Thou shalt schedule time for thyself, and thy supportive network.
7. Thou shalt switch off, do nothing, regularly.
8. Thou shalt be boring, untidy, inelegant and unattractive at times.
9. Thou shalt NOT even feel guilty!
10. Especially, thou shalt NOT be thine own worst enemy, but be thy best friend.

Wise words hey? I particularly like number 8, which one do you like best?

World Team France Conference

Exactly two weeks from today, I'll be in Paris to attend the World Team Paris Prayer Conference. I'm really excited about that! Praise the Lord! World Team has given me a sponsorship for the Conference. More importantly, I believe that prayer does make a difference in missions, and a mission trip that centers on prayer and education of the work is really worth the time.

LivingRoom Outer Journey

Tonight we had a great Peruvian feast and enjoyed the photojournals of one of our members. It was also our last vibes together before we move into our new groups, starting from next week. What was decided was to have a couple of leaders for each of the primary communities. Every month those leaders come together for a meal, prayer and discussion about how the groups are going, how they can work together etc. Then every month or so there is the bigger gathering. So the following few weeks in the new groups will include:

Week 1 - logistics & expectations for the group
Week 2 - revisiting the core values of LivingRoom
Week 3-5 - three themes / topics to explore
eg: spirituality tour, reflective night, bible focus, real life spirituality, topical night, mission & the outer journey

Thinking back the last few months since I joined LR, it's been a refreshing experience to say the least. To me personally, out of the three points that we discussed as a group in terms of how to split the group (missional, relational and logistics), I think missional focus is most important to me personally. I will be in a creative/arts type group and pray that we will walk the outer journey together as a 'tribe' (God willing).

I'm really interested in knowing how other churches have been through similar types of processes with their faith communities.

Puppetry

Two of my good friends Tomika and Candice came to my place for dinner tonight. We had so much fun chatting away. Tomika is a puppet expert. She also gave us a lesson on how to do puppetry. I had a great time learning the art. This media is very popular with children, educators and communicators.

Puppetry is one of the most ancient forms of entertainment in the world. Besides providing entertainment, this visual art form is also used for conveying meaningful messages. Over the years, Puppetry has developed into a powerful media of communication. Puppetry offers a real challenge to the imagination and creative ability of the individual and of all art mediums, it is probably the least restricted in its form, design, colour and movement and the least expensive of all animated visual art forms.

Singleness and Mission

Tomika and I went to Bible College of Victoria last Monday to represent World Team, and she gave a fantastic talk about singleness and mission, which really got me thinking!

I just found a photocopy article called "For Single Men & Women" from a book called "Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood", which is very interesting. It talks about 8 important theses on singleness when we tune in to Jesus and His contemporary single followers:

(1) Marriage, as we know it in this age, is not the final destiny of any human.
(2) Jesus Christ, the most fully human person who ever lived, was not married.
(3) The Bible celebrates celibacy because it gives extraordinary opportunity for single-minded investment in ministry for Christ.
(4) The Apostle Paul and a lot of great missionaries after him have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of God.
(5) The Apostle Paul calls singleness a gift from God.
(6) Jesus promises that forsaking family for the sake of the kingdom will be repaid with a new family, the church.
(7) God is sovereign over who gets married and who doesn't. And He can be trusted to do what is good for those who hope in Him.
(8) Mature manhood and womanhood are not dependent on being married.

Is there life after death?

Do human beings have souls? “When someone dies, will he/she continue to live?” People have been asking the same questions throughout the ages. If there is no soul, then that’s it when the protein particles become decayed, or cremated to become ashes. However almost all religions believe that human beings have souls, and that they will continue to live after death. Since there had been religions since human history, the belief that ‘there is life after death’ had been around for ages.

This morning we watched a vcd, and I was translating the sermon called "Is there life after death?" The preacher talked about a story of a person who has had a near-death experience which is recorded here .
It's really interesting how he experienced heaven and hell, and got a glimpse of eternity. To me though, I have had many glimpses of eternity because Jesus lives in me.

A Beautiful Soul

Bernadette Conlon is one of Australia's leading accordionists. I have been enjoying her music, observing her and even wanting to be her friend for a long time as I walk past her when she plays publically on the corner of Southgate and Southbank, which is only a few minutes from where I live.

I read that her dazzling technique and heart-felt renditions have earned her over 100 first-place awards in competitions. She is a four-time South Pacific Champion, 7-time Australian National Champion, and she maintains an illustrious concert schedule. Bernadette has an amazing repertoire, which ranges from classical, to jazz, pop and various folk and ethnic music; and she is never afraid to try something new. Astounding her professors in Russia with her amazing technique, she built on her already mature and sensitive musical style, resulting in a unique mastery of the instrument with a western approach, upon which she added her unique Russian teachings. Bernadette is famed for her own intricate orchestral arrangements, some of which appear on the six CD's she has released. Some of these arrangements have never been considered on accordion before.

Two weeks ago, while she was playing, on my way home, I gathered courage to approach her and spoke to her. She gave me her details, and tonight I went to see her again hoping to set up a time for coffee. I just feel that I really want to get to know her. Praise God that we are going to meet up soon.

Jesus Died For You!

Jesus died for you and me!

Sustainability of Spirituality

My mate Stephen posted some good questions regarding how people sustain themselves spiritually in his blog, especially in the emergent contexts. That really got me thinking especially now that LivingRoom is going to be splitting up into three groups.

To me personally, I feel that my spirituality is sustained through maintaining a daily walk with God (and time alone with God), prayer and reflections (especially through journalling and writing blogs), getting into the Bible, spending time with mature Christians that I respect (spiritual mentors), keeping my life in perspective and to have a balanced lifestyle, having prayer partners, taking rest breaks, doing things that are relaxing, going out with friends, building in retreat time every year. I also think that a more holistic form of spirituality needs to be encouraged - with a love of nature, love and respect for art and poetry etc, the Incarnation of Christ, no boundaries between the sacred and the secular etc.

So how do you sustain your spirituality?

God and Creativity

Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them."

REFLECTIONS:

• The creative talent that God has created in us as human beings is amazing!
• Bringing together the various elements, how do we perceive ourselves as creative beings in God’s space?
• In the beginning God created: God creates and calls us to discover the space he makes.
• The first artist is God. The first masterpiece God creates is “space”. Then God fills it out.
• How do we see our creativity….is it a gift from God?….what should we do with it?
• Is there a space to concentrate on creative process? Are there adequate strengths in relationship to creative collaboration?

Can you imagine?

This is definitely worth 5 minutes of your time.........so PLEASE take the time to imagine, reflect and enjoy........ (and TURN on your speakers!!!)

Painting & Worship

A friend who is a painter and visual arts teacher in a college shared the following which inspired me:

"Painting is a way of expression as well as an act of worship ... I discovered about five years ago that I enjoyed BIG painting particularly painting to music, not necessarily painting anything other than the rhythm and feel of the music, mind you I also liked to paint and draw from still life thru to abstract, but depicting movement has always captured my imagination. I found as I was using worship songs while I was painting I would start to worship along with painting and I started to hear the Lord speaking to me as I worked. It's a big leap from painting the words and rhythm of a song to painting God's heartbeat and His kisses I found that trust waas the bridge. I love hearing the Lord speak and some times when I paint in worship I have absolutely no idea what the picture will be I just listen to the Lord and obey. I tell you what I get such a kick out of seeing the picture especially when I start painting it and THEN the worship team sing it without being able to see what I am drawing. I also love to capture the impressions of worship and offer it back to the Lord. There's also prophetic art which is often very considered and prayed over before it is delivered."

Do you agree?

gO2Xtremes

The gO! eXplo was enjoyable. What a great time it was! I really enjoyed meeting people from different backgrounds, states, churches, faith communities on the weekend. It was fantastic to catch up with other mission leaders and young adults who are all so committed to messio dei (God's mission) and interested in what God's doing around the world. The main speaker Woody Roland's sharings were both spot on and inspirational. The warm community, great music and the blogs of young people who have gone to extrems for His cause were so encouraging!

It's my prayer that gO! can truly become a catalyst to connect people to God's global purpose.

This Weekend

I'll be away to gO! eXplo 2005 this weekend. I am really looking forward to meeting with other like-hearted and like-minded people in Philip Island Adventure Resort.

Incarnational Mission

From the Bible we learn that:

• Jesus was the Word made flesh.
• Jesus was God's self revelation in the form of the perfect human.
• Christ's life, death and resurrection is how God provided salvation and forgiveness for us.

Since my time at Tabor, I had been pondering about the concept of Incarnation / Incarnationl Mission, which is a controversial theology / theology of mission. I believe that if I am to follow Jesus' incarational mission, I am actually a missionary and that Christian life is a 24-7 matter, not just something that happens in our 'church meetings'. Our engagement with the world ought to be all encompassing.

Jesus said to His disciples, who seemed indifferent to the needs of their neighbours, "open your eyes and take a good look at what is right in front of you" (John 4 The Message). This really presents a challenge for me personally to be involved in incanational mission.

Real Life Spirituality

Good night again at LivingRoom tonight. We had a real life spirituality night where we had cards from St Luke. They were incredible selection of lovely cards with pictures and words on them. Through choosing particular cards, we got to share about our understanding of our community members, our own goals and dreams, and our obstacles in acheiving these dreams. Then we finished off with a time of prayer. I was amazed at how these little cards enabled us to share in such intimate levels. I really enjoyed the night.

Proximity Space

I've been thinking quite a lot about the concept of "proximity space" described by Mike Frost lately. His argument was that we need to live in close proximity to people and create proximity space with people rather than inviting them to programs, which at times can remove us from the community. There is value of going to where people already are, because practical and earthy spirituality is best found on a shared journey.

What do you reckon?

The Micah Call

"To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. " - Micah 6:8 (NIV)

The Micah Call:
This is a moment in history of unique potential,when the stated intentions of world leaders echo something of the mind of the Biblical prophets and the teachings of Jesus concerning the poor, and when we have the means to dramatically reduce poverty.We commit ourselves, as followers of Jesus,to work together for the holistic transformation of our communities, to pursue justice, be passionate about kindness and to walk humbly with God.We call on international and national decision-makersof both rich and poor nations, to fulfil their public promiseto achieve the Millennium Development Goalsand so halve absolute global poverty by 2015.We call on Christians everywhere to be agents of hope for and with the poor, and to work with others to hold our national and global leaders accountablein securing a more just and merciful world."

I signed up the Micah call for a while now, but it wasn't until I read Tear Australia's magazine today (thanks to my mate Stephen Said ) that I got a more comprehensive understanding of what the Micah challenge and the millennium development goals are. I'd like to encourage you to take up the challenge and sign up to the Micah call at www.micahchallenge.org

Mother's Day

It is Mother's Day today. I am sooooooo thankful that God has blessed me with the best mum on earth :) My mum has been my prayer warrior, supporter in all sort of ways, my best friend, my gossip buddy (lol), counsellor and encourager. Seriously my mum is more special to me than she could ever know, and I love her very much. I am glad we had a great time together on this special day.

"Proverbs 31:25 She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
Pr 31:26 She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
Pr 31:27 She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Pr 31:28 Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
Pr 31:29 "Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all."
Pr 31:30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Pr 31:31 Give her the reward she has earned,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate."

Re-connecting

All human beings were created for relationships. When it comes to things like footy, politics, tv programs, food, or religions, Aussies have many various opinions. But when it comes to relationships, suddenly almost all Australians are on common ground. I read somewhere that as important as work, money, leisure and sport might appear, most Aussies put loving, healthy relationships as the top priority in their lives.

I got thinking about this today, and really our yearning for relationship shouldn't surprise us! The Bible tells us that God created us all for relationship; with Him and with eacn other. Me made us to relate! The Bible says that our deepest human longing for love, acceptance and meaning can only be met as a person re-connects with their Creator God (our loving Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ our Saviour and Holy Spirit our comforter).

Daily Routine

I've become more aware of my own daily routine lately, and find that where it intersects with others is really powerful especially when thinking about mission. I believe that becoming a part of the community and culture (sub-culture) around us is very important. I am convinced that the people that we meet regularly is a divine appointment. Interacting and engaging with those around me is something I'd love to do more often.

Focus MissioNight

We had a great time tonight at World Team Focus MissioNight in Hawthorn. Three girls who had gone on short term mission awareness trips to Peru, Chile and Indonesia shared with us their stories, experiences and beautiful photos. We also had a great time of fun, food and fellowship. I was very pleased to see some young people very interested in mission and the opportunities for short term mission trips and seeking God for long term missionary service. It was such a joy to meet with people with a smiliar passion to myself - to participate with God in the Great Commission of Jesus Christ our Lord (Matthew 28:18-20).

Some photos of the Focus MissioNight are here.

LivingRoom Multiplication

Tonight at LivingRoom we had an administrative night to share the idea of 'multiplication' and how the group should grow. I really enjoyed the open discussion and the concensus was that it was a good idea and time to multiply (start new small groups).

Having considered the relationship of the community members, missional focus and logistics of location, we decided to start a second and third group. Towards the end of the discussion, three groups were proposed and we decided that we will each pray about it for two weeks before we make the final decision. There was also a suggestion that all three groups come together every now and then regularly for a larger gathering.

Attitude

Chuck Swindoll has said, " I believe that attitude is more important than facts, than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do, than appearance, giftedness or skill."

Do you agree that how we react to what happens to us (attitude) is more important than what actually happens to us, and that we are in charge of our attitudes?

Friendly Reminder: World Team Focus MissioNight

For those of you who are in the vicinity of Melbourne, you are invited to World Team Australia's Mission Awareness night in Hawthorn 6:45 for 7:00 pm start - this Thursday 05/05/2005.
Hope to see you there!
More details here!

Logies

I really enjoyed watching the 47th Logie Award tonight. All the artists / celebrities remind me of how human beings can be so creative. I believe that God is the Creator, and humans are made in His image.