The PASSION Blog

Regular readers of this blog will know I am a person who deliberately takes time out of my days to be a lone with my thoughts and alone with God. I do this to have alone time with God to talk and so I can order my thoughts. To record these reflections I keep a daily journal.

Charles Swindoll has written about this in a short article on Christianity.com. He says this is solitude is vital if we are wanting to grow closer to God. It is worth a read if you have time!

Here’s the link - http://bible.christianity.com/11565368/. Enjoy!

I just had another round of golf. I noticed something interesting in about the guy who was playing on the hole in front of me. He loaded up his ball and tried to smash it all the way to the green every time. Most of the time it went about 150 metres and into the bush. It would then take him 7 or 8 shots to get it in the hole.

Compare this to my game. I hit within my limits and most times my drive landed in the middle of the fairway 170-180 metres down. My second shot was a long iron that either landed in chipping distance or I played another short iron. Most of time I got a par or bogey.

What I found interesting is that while I tried to play within my limits and as a result I scored well. The other guy tried to smash it to score well, but did poorly. I thought about this as I walked around and found that many people have this same approach to life. Some go like a bull at a gate and take life full on, only to stumble most of the time. While others take a measured approach and seem to do well.

Now I am not saying that either approach is better than the other as we are all wired differently, but for me I found both my golf and life seem to go smoother when I take a measured approach. If I rush in and go hammer and tongs things usually go awry, but if hold back and prayerfully consider things they usually turn out ok.

For me, a prayerful, measured, consistent approach to life seems to work best. How about you?

I had a great day yesterday. A couple of my great mates Steve and Big Kev came up from Perth to spend some time with us in Merredin. We played golf, had lunch, talked and prayed. It is the usual thing we do when they come up, but this time the prayer was really focussed.

We took the time to draw aside into God’s presence to pray for each others needs and really speak into each others lives. It was a real encouraging day and a day that left us all buzzing. We had real fellowship with each other and real fellowship with God.

I am so thankful to God that I have these guys in my life. It is a real blessing to know that you have people in your life that stand along side you in the good times and the bad. When things are going great you celebrate together. When things are not so good or a struggle, you pull along side and uphold each other in prayer.

As I type the words from Ecclesiastes 4:10 come to mind. “If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!”

It is amazing how rain can bring hope. Overnight we had 10mm of rain. That is more rain than we have had in one day all year. My wife went out to the local shops this morning and people were buzzing. One of my neighbours even called out across the road and said wasn’t the rain lovely.

It is amazing how much of a difference to people rain can make, especially in farming regions. When we lived in Perth rain was about the dams and keeping the garden green. In country areas it is about livelihoods, families and local businesses surviving. It certainly has changed my perspective on rain and the difference it makes.

Rain brings hope. Hope that crops will come, which means the banks can be paid, families stay on the land and local businesses survive. It really is a domino effect. One that I am only just starting to understand.

If you are a praying person, can you please pray for more rain in the Central Wheatbelt region of WA. Just like hope, many people need it.

God Bless,

Dave

Being content in hard times is easier said than done. The Apostle Paul from the Bible understood true contentment. Many times he had been beaten, whipped, shipwrecked, starved and imprisoned, but he still said he was content.

In Philippians 4:11-13 Paul says this, “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength”.

Paul learned that while the situations of life may be up and down, if he was connected to Christ and trusting in Him, then he would be able to continue on in Christ’s strength. He knew that true contentment is not found in things, but in Christ.

As a Christian involved in ministry there are times when you wonder if you are making any difference in the lives of the people around you. A lot of the times you don’t see any real measurable difference you are making and sometimes in your quieter moments you can tend to get a bit discouraged.

One of the things I have learned to do in ministry, especially in the area of evangelism, is to look for small encouragements along the way. One simple example is the other night someone I know opened their new Bible and brought out a tract I gave them four months ago. They read part of it out to the group and then said I believe this is true.

Now you might think this is a small thing. But it was good to know that they still had it, that they had read it cover to cover and they understood it. On the grand scheme of events it is quite small, but to me it was little encouragement that encourages me to listen to God’s prompting and hand out more tracts.

If you are in ministry I would encourage you to look for small signs of what you are doing has made a difference. Listen to people’s word and see if they repeat something from one of your sermons or if they are helping someone in the way you helped them. You might just find that you are making more of a difference than you think.

God Bless,

Dave

I have been reading about some of the old time preachers lately. One person that I have a few books from in my bookshelf is Charles Spurgeon. This morning I thought I would find out a bit more about him.

Something I didn’t know was that he was saved in 1850 at the age of 15 when a snow storm forced him to take shelter in his local church. He said on that day “God opened his heart to the salvation message.”

One year later he preached his first sermon and with no formal education he was called to Pastor a small Baptist church at Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire. Just two years after that he was asked to take on the pastorate of London’s famed New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.

I don’t know about you, but the thought of being saved at the age of 15 and then being in charge of one of the biggest churches in town at the age of 20 is amazing!

One quote from Spurgeon shows me he understood the task of evangelism…

“If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies, and if they perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let no one go there unwarned or unprayed for.”

Spurgeon really was an amazing man who brought many people to Christ. I pray that God will raise up modern day Spurgeon’s to continue His work.

Recently I was asked the question, “What did Jesus save us from?” I thought that was a great question because as Christians we put all our faith and hope in what Jesus has done in saving us.

In his book “Great words of the Gospel” Gerald Stanton says that, ‘Salvation sets before us two major ideas, that of being rescued from a lost estate of sin with its penalty of spiritual death, and that of being brought into a saved estate of harmony with God and in union with Christ’.

As we can see from this salvation or being saved is about two things.

1. Being rescued from the penalty of sin - which means death and eternal separation from God.
2. Being in right relationship with God - both now and for all eternity.

When Jesus came and died on the cross, He came to pay the price or our sin. He took the punishment that was rightfully ours. His death opened the way for us to be forgiven of our sin and to be brought back into a right relationship with God.

If you would like to know that your sin is forgiven and that you are in right relationship with God, you can visit my “Peace with God” page to find out more.

One of the things we talked about last night was the effectiveness of various outreach philosophies. We talked about what we have seen work and what has not. After some discussion we came to the conclusion that evangelism works best in the context of relationships. No surprise there I guess?

This got me thinking about how I go about relational evangelism and what has worked for me in the past. Here’s a few random thoughts on what I have done that seems to have worked when I have entered a new workplace or club etc.

1. Natural relationships - I just try to be a friend and get to know people. I don’t try to make friends to evangelise them, but as I get to know people this seems to naturally happen.

2. I am a Christian - I let people know I am a Christian. Again this is done in a natural way. If they ask about my weekend, I might say what we did or mention church. This just opens them up to the idea I am a Christian.

3. Prayer needs - I let people know I pray and that if they ever have any thing that they need prayer for I am willing to pray for them on the spot or during my prayer times. If they are going through a major life crisis I ask if it is ok for our church to pray for them.

4. Questions - During conversations I might let them know that if they ever have any questions about God and stuff they can ask me. This is to open the lines of communication to spiritual things.

5. Bible - I ask if they have a Bible and if they would like one. If they do I give them and Bible and a tract. Again I let them know if they have any questions they can speak to me.

6. Living right - I have found that when you let people know your a Christian, they watch you carefully to see if you really are living out your faith. I try to do my best to follow Jesus in everything I do.

7. Follow up - I ask if they read the Bible or the tract and what they thought. If they accepted Christ I give them some sort of discipleship program for new Christians. This is to help them set a solid foundation for their new faith.

For me these are the things I naturally do in the course of building relationships. All the way through I pray for the people God prompts me to pray for and ask that I will recognise the opportunities God places before me.

I have found that more often than not, people come to Christ. This is as a result of being open to God, being open about your faith, by really living the Christian life and by being the best friend you can be.

I was sitting in my lounge room this morning and my youngest started reading the titles of books in our bookshelf. She came to Philip Yancey’s book “What’s so amazing about grace?” and asked what grace was. My first thought was I have just woken up, can I have an easier question!

After some thought I spoke to her about the times when we are naughty and we don’t listen to God and do what He wants. The times when we want to do our own thing. She nodded. I said even though we are like that, God still loves us and reaches out to us and wants to be our friend and give us another chance. I said that is grace.

Her answer melted me. She said, “I love God, it is cool that He loves us and gives us another chance…even when we don’t deserve it”.

It is awesome being a parent and passing on your faith to your kids