Its Time To Get Your Praise On!

I'm so pleased to have seen the sun out the last couple of days. Its so good to see spring before us. We've had some fantastic things happening around Hamilton this winter:

We've had a great O' Week outreach with our Uni ministry called Reverb. We've just bridged our first seeker life group from the outreach to a normal life group with a goal of starting 5 more before the end of the year.

We had a phenomenal Inspire conference... which just leaves you wondering how is it possible for us to top it next year?
With that we had exciting news about Ps Nick & Karen stepping into their apostolic calling and new senior pastors Sheridyn & Jan Rodgers joining us at the end of this year.

Then we had our first city wide youth event called ONE. About 500 youth from 20 odd churches ranging from the presberterian to baptist to us pentecostals. We had over 60 people responding to recommit their lives to Jesus with 13 first time decisions!
We also launched from this event an initiative to see a prayer meeting for the city / schools in every school / Uni / Polytech by July 09.

Then Fuel had there big outreach called MXC (Most Extreme Elimination Challenge) and Reverb had their Boost night.

The church held Thriving On A Shoe String which is a really neat community project and Vision College is holding their New Testament Survey on week nights.

What a great season! But for some it can leave us a little tired. So I thought I'd serve you up this beauty of a quote. Its easy when you're tired to notice whats wrong. But this can be an unhealthy downward spiral if all we can see are the negatives. So friends lets apply this quote, lets come out of winter praising God and ready to run into spring.

"The circumstances that you complain about become the chains that imprison you. And worship is the way out." Mark Batterson

1 Thes 5: 17 - 18
7pray continually; 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Until next time...

Godspeed & Kaizan
Clive

I just picked up an article by Jim Mellado (the president of Willow Creek Asso.). he talks about his & his sons near drowning while on holiday with his family. His son wasn't swimming & was dragging them both down. He told his son, "Don't panic, I need you to swim not to cling to me". He did just that. Then Jim makes this statement. "I didn't have enough strength for a victim, but I did have enough strength for a contributor".

What a great thought! What are we contributing to those around us?

Until next time...
Nick.

My wife, Karen & I watched the movie “Pursuit of happiness”. Will Smith stared in it with his son Jayden. It’s a true story of a man who thru incredibly tough circumstances followed his dream! He ends up a very wealthy man & able to give millions away to serve those less fortunate than himself. There is a moving part in the movie where he is playing basket ball with his son. His son says, “Dad I’m going to be a fulltime basket ball player”. The father says, “Son, I wasn’t a good basket ball player, nor was my father, so probably you won’t be either”. The boy stops, looks at his dad & sadly takes the ball & puts it in a plastic bag. The Father suddenly catches himself! “Son don’t let anyone ever stop you dreaming & going after your dream…not even me”. Very powerful. Let’s keep dreaming & lets dare to live the dream!

How Big Is Your God?

I've been reading a fantastic book of late called 'In a pit with a lion on a snowy day' written by Ps Mark Batterson of NCC Church. Here is a taster from the book that really fits in with our Inspire conference theme of Imagine. So here goes:

"Isa 55:9 ESV (9) For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Astronomers have spied galaxies 12.3 billion light years from earth. To put that distance into perspective, consider the fact that light traveling 186 000 miles per second only takes 8 minutes to travel the 93 million miles between the sun and planet earth. Sunlight is only 8 minutes old. But light from the fartherest galaxy takes 12.3 billion years to get here. That distance is virtually incomprehensible! And God says that is about the distance between His thoughts and our thoughts. Your best thought about God on your best day falls 12.3 billion light-years short of how great and how good God really is. ... Maybe its time to stop putting God in a box the size of your cerebral cortex. Maybe its time to stop creating God in your image and let Him create you in His."

So its been nearly a month after the Inspire conference. Have you gone back and reviewed some of the challenges you felt that God laid on your heart. What were those limited thoughts that God wanted to bust open? What dreams did God want you to begin dreaming and to begin taking action steps on?

I trust this has been a great encouragment to you.
Godspeed & Kaizan
Clive

Do Your Thoughts Lift You Up Or Confine You?

I'm busy reading a great book by Ps Mark Batterson of NCC church. I am a fan of his blog... but his book... Oh boy its good! Its called In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day. If you can get it, I really do highly recommend it!

Anyway, I thought I'd share a thought from the book:

How you think about God will determine who you become. You aren't a by-product of 'nature' and 'nurture'. You are a byproduct of your God-picture. And that internal picture of God determines how you see everything else.                                                                                          Most of our problems are not circumstantial. Most of our problems are perceptual.

So what books are you reading right now? Comment and share with us.

Godspeed & Kaizan
Clive

Insert Good News Here

What a fantastic INSPIRE conference we had! Just when you think it can't get any better, our amazing volunteers and staff take conference to a whole new level!!! And what a great participation from Eastsiders... wow, you really got into it!
(PS: We won't be podcasting the conference for at least the next 2 months, so if you want to get the messages just e-mail: media@apo.org.nz to order your CD's or DVD's.)

I'm quite excited about the next 6pm series called: Live To Serve. I'm kicking it off this week... so to prepare you for whats in store check out this great piece of art:

I got this great piece of art from THE PLOW. The boys have a great short read with a challenge:
"My question to you today is, how is your church preaching the gospel without using words?"


Click HERE to check the full post out.

I look forward to hearing from you : )

Godspeed & Kaizan
Clive

Say Yes To Something Greater...

Many of you will now know about my serious relationship with PHILLIP who's 29!!! We've know each other for years and have spent A LOT of quality time together! For those who don't know - let me calm your nerves and your shock at my secrecy -

Let me introduce you to him....."Phillip" is my 29 inch Phillips Television! =)

I've been addicted to T.V ever since I can remember - I'd break the law and speed to home in time to see a programme, I'd leave things early OR not go out because of T.V I'd spend multiple hours watching it EVERYDAY! This would take up my time, energy and ability to focus. You see T.V itself is not bad, but in MY life it had begun to consume my world - becoming the driving force behind my decision making.

So three weeks ago i was spending time with God and He really challenged me to fast T.V, to stop watching it from then until inspire conference....which was over 7 weeks away!!! You don't understand this is HUGE for me. God told me that the call of God in my life will NOT be fulfilled while I am pinned to the T.V day in and day out.....He wanted me to live my life - instead of watching others live theirs.

I want God to be #1 in my life - not just in speech but also in the way i live - so it was one of the easiest decision I've had to make in a long time!!! By saying No to T.V I was saying Yes to God's purposes for my life, time with friends and family and the things that really matter. So Hello my name is Naomi Moore and i'm a t.v addict, I have been clean now for 63 days!!! ROCK ON!

So often our lives get full, and we're "busy" but doing what?
So what are you saying yes to in your life? What's the most important thing in your world? Does your time, finances and engery reflect that?