He Loves Me

He gave me His coat to wear

That I may approach the throne

Oh I felt so welcome there

Praising God alone

 

Then He told me He loves me

ME !

All I could do was kneel and cry

As He told me He loves me

All my memories flooded  by

 

Oh I tried to tell Him of my sin

But with an angel’s kiss

He sealed my lips

My Son took care of all there’s been

Now all I see is your righteousness

 

And He told me He loves me

I began to cry knowing

how unworthy I am

Yet He said He loves me

Says He had no other plan

 

So if like me your wondering how

a better Christian you could start to be.

Remember the love God

showed to you and me

 

Then tell Him you love Him

and mean it from the bottom of your heart

Yes tell Him you love Him

That’s a wonderful place to start

 

  

©  Brian Lee 2/ May /2009   P G

When I Get on My Knees and Pray

The strength that I have it’s from Jesus

The strength that I have every day

It carries me through

All troubles that brew

When I get on my knees and I pray

 

Yes I pray every day to my Jesus

his strength for to fill up my life

and the strength that I know

Comes from him and so

I get through all troubles and strife

 

The peace that I have it’s from Jesus

The peace that I have every day

I’m able to sleep

My dreams are all sweet

When I get on my knees and I pray

 

Yes I pray every day to my Jesus

His peace for to fill up my life

and the peace that I know

Comes from him and so

I’m at peace through trouble and strife

 

The love that I feel it’s from Jesus

The love that I feel every day

it always shines through

In his work that I do

When I get on my knees and I pray

 

Yes I pray every day to my Jesus

His love for to fill up my life

And the love that I know

Comes from him and so

I love through my troubles and strife

© 2004 Brian Lee P G

In My Father’s Arms

 

Well Dad it’s your day

 and there’s something

I would like to say

 

When the child I was

Felt fear at night

You would always come

And hold me tight

 

And I always felt safe

In my Father’s arms

 

When the youth I was

Needed a place to hide

Where could I run to

But to your side?

 

Because I always felt safe

In my Father’s arms

 

Now that I am grown

And I look back to see

Among the blessings  sown

What stands tall to me

 

It’s the safety there would be

In my Father’s arms

 

Now Dad it’s your day

And what I want to say

I’m sure you know

Please hold me dad

I love you so

 

© Brian Lee 11/July/2009 PG

Leadership is…

Go to any book store in the land and look at the business titles.  You will find an abundance of books about leadership, from the early greats like How to Win Friends and Influence People to the more recent classics, like John Maxwell’s The Winning Attitude.  Most of these titles promote the message that outstanding leadership requires a potent cocktail of charisma, business savvy, interpersonal razzle-dazzle, and daring vision.

Jesus’ formula for great leadership is radically different to ancient ideas–and modern.  It is telling that few leadership books today espouse His principles.  Jesus’ path to greatness calls for something far from the strategies proffered in bookstores.  “If anyone desires to be great, he must be a servant of all.”  Jesus, as usual, turned the tables on the ways of man.  Greatness, He suggests, doesn’t come from overpowering others; it comes from undergirding others.  While charisma is helpful, character is essential.

 The Bible holds the promise that if we humble ourselves, in due time God will exalt us.  We are exhorted to take the low road purposely and put others before ourselves.  How different is this approach to the “winner takes all” mentality of the Twenty-first century?  We are to humble ourselves, lay down our agendas for our friends and let God do the promoting.

Recently, the Lord spoke to my heart: “Leadership is prayer.”  What a challenging thought it has been.  I’d always thought of leadership as influence, as formulating and communicating vision and mobilizing people.  “No, leadership is prayer.”

John Maxwell wrote a wonderful book, Becoming a Person of Influence.  It is yet another of his important contributions to the pool of knowledge about leadership.  He expounds the importance of putting others first, but perhaps because it is not strictly a spiritual title, he doesn’t touch on the influential power of prayer.  So, spiritually speaking, how do we become people of influence?  Prayer, first and foremost.

The essence of the calling upon all Christians is to influence the world with the love of God.  It is a call that requires action, most certainly. “Go and make disciples!”  –That is a command to take action.  However, we earth-bound souls, ever eager to act, tend to underestimate –if not overlook– an important aspect of the call: the tremendous, eternal influence of prayer.  Getting a hold of this truth is part of what the Bible means when it implores us to become spiritually minded, rather than carnally minded.

Though prayer is an act of humility, it unlocks great power; its posture simultaneously  acknowledges the limitations of man and the limitlessness of God.  We can act, but unless God is with us, we can achieve nothing lasting: our labour is in vain.

Amazingly, through prayer we influence not only people and our times; we influence the heavens and eternity.  What a privilege!  What an underutilised tool!  Prayer taps into unseen resources and makes great power available.  Here’s the kicker: a person of prayer doesn’t have to be stationed in front of a crowd to influence and lead.  In fact, the prayerful person knows that it is not where they stand but rather in front of Whom they kneel that makes the difference. 

Many aspire to greatness; many desire leadership; some crave power and yearn for might.  Strength, charisma, knowledge, and “guts” may bring a person fame and fortune.  But only prayer can make a man or woman truly influential.  Leadership is prayer.

The God Kind of Love

“I have loved you the way the Father has loved me.”  (John 15:9)

 Think about that for a minute.

 Don’t keep reading this until you’ve really pondered the scripture above.  What an amazing statement.  Imagine the disciples, a motley crew of ordinary, everyday blokes.  A few fishermen, a tax collector…  They were men with ordinary parents, who probably did an average job of raising their sons, making do, loving them the to the best of their ability.  Maybe the disciples had wives, ordinary everyday women with parents who did the best they could.  All of those disciples had experienced human love with all its limitations, conditions, and flaws. On again-off again, “read the fine print,” fickle, temperamental, human love.

Then they met Jesus and He loved them in a totally different way: limitless, unconditional, and perfect–the way the Father has loved Jesus.  What kind of stark difference there must have been between the imperfect love they had known up to that point and the divine love that swept over them in their relationship with Jesus.  No wonder they were willing to leave their fishing businesses and their tax offices and even their families to follow Jesus.  His love was amazing.

We sing about it.  “Amazing love, how can it be, that you my King would die for me.”  Or “Oh, how He loves us…”  or “Love so amazing, love so divine…”   How about: “Jesus, lover of my soul…”   We sing about it, but do we know it?  Do we really believe it?

 Our perceptions of his love do not do Him justice.  Naturally, we perceive His love through the filter of our experiences and the framework of our personality.  Past hurts, rejection, unfulfilled promises, unmet expectations mar our experience of love.  It’s as if our standards have been set and the bar is pretty low.  Sadly there are people, women mostly, who tolerate use and abuse just to be close to someone–anyone, and who deem it love.  It is so, so far from the love Jesus has for us.

 Jesus has loved you the way the Father has loved Him.  Get a hold of that.  Put it in your pipe and smoke it!  Breathe it in deeply, so that it seeps into your cells and penetrates your very DNA.   The truth of it can set you free.  It can revolutionize your life, then it can ooze out of you onto a lonely, unlovely world…

 He loves you everyday, in everyway.  He loves you when you get it right, and He loves regardless of whether you got it wrong.  He loves the bits of you you dislike: your nose (yes, even your nose).  He loves your skin.  He loves your bald spot, “muffin top,” and/or stretch marks (I’m serious.)  He loves you completely, inside-out, upside down, backwards and forwards.  His love doesn’t count on you;  it counts on Him.  Rest, relax–BASK–in his love.  You don’t have to win it or earn it or buy it.  You don’t have to steal it, sneak it, or save it for a rainy day.  Ooh, here’s a good one: He’s not just putting up with you–he loves you.  You don’t have to worry that it won’t be there in the morning; He won’t love you and leave you.  In fact, He will never, ever forsake you. 

 Here it is again.  This is 100% reliable, eternally relevant, unchangeable, Gospel Truth (not my dribble):

 ”I have loved you the way the Father has loved me.“  (John 15:9)

 Get a hold of it.

Ps Alison

The Importance of Intimacy

By Julie Shapland

Has anyone been enjoying the presence of the Lord here at WHM over the last few months?
Hasn’t it been great to worship Him together? We’ve only been fellowshipping with you for a season. It is our conviction that revival is not far away.  We don’t want to miss out on what God has in store, because when this visitation arrives it will be ’suddenly and in great measure”.
But as Pastor Shaun shared today (29th March), visitation comes through intimacy, and “In to Him we’ll see”.  Getting in to God is our part…the ‘better part,’ like Mary who chose to sit at Jesus feet and incur the diapproval of her big sister.  That gal was always in trouble when she got with Jesus and exalted Him and His purpose above all other things. Like the incident where she anointed Jesus for His burial. This time even the disciples got mad about her excessive and wasteful ‘worship’.  Somehow I think the leaders here would be clapping and cheering if we all dropped the unecessary stuff and sold out to loving on Jesus.
 
A few Sundays ago a prophetic word was quickened to me during the worship time from Isaiah 58:  “If this people will stop thinking their own thoughts and doing their own thing, I will visit this place with my salvation.”  Pastor Shaun then shared this concept powerfully from the pulpit. He told us we think over a thousand thoughts a minute…and most of them negative.  It’s easier to filter thoughts if we’re edified.  By that I mean built up…spiritually charged…prayed up…full of the word, fed…anointed, and not physically exhausted.  There’s got to be some deposit of the word in there to counteract the rubbish satan and the world throws at us.  

Also during that meeting Pastor Alison shared her passion re children and the unborn. I heard her heart cry: to do what we can to save little lives. Within a day the Courier Mail carried an article by Susan Hocking, justifying her choice to donate money to pay for abortions.  So I wrote my opinion to the Editor, and the next day it was published (minus a few of my strongest points…there’s freedom of the press in Australia?)  But at least something was said on the behalf of those who have no strength to fight for themselves.

Having a Heart After God=Having a Heart For Children

We often pray, “Give me a heart after God’s heart, like David’s.”  Having a heart after God’s heart means being quick to repent and sincere in repentance. This was David’s example. Another way to have a heart after God’s heart is to align your heart with God’s priorities, which can be discovered through a study of scripture. We may end up being surprised by what is important to God. It’s not necessarily powerful ministry or superabundant wealth. It’s not anything the world prizes.

Jesus gave regular clues about what the Father’s priorities were. Once, when his disciples were squabbling over who was the greatest, Jesus pulled a little child close to him to answer their question. Jesus stressed the importance of childlike faith:

• Matthew 18:4 — “Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
• He also stressed how much God values little children: Matthew 18:5-6 — “”And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
• Jesus told his disciples to value children in the same way: Matthew 18:10 — “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.”
• The lives of little children are precious to the Father: Matthew 18:14 — “In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.”

Jesus gave us important insights here. If we are serious about having a heart after God’s heart, we must esteem and protect little children. Having a heart for children is a litmus test of sorts; being able to slow down and “lower” oneself to give love and attention, care and concern to the little members, the most vulnerable of God’s people, shows genuine humility–the kind of humility that gets God’s attention.

It is sad but some people are just too busy for kids. Jesus was a busy man, but he made time for children. Some mums brought their children to Jesus for his blessing, but his disciples scolded them for bothering the Master. That didn’t sit well with Jesus and he rebuked his team. Mark 10:13 — “And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.”

All of the scriptures presented here show that children are close to the Father’s heart. It is not surprising then to notice in the world how the devil targets children. In Uganda, children are kidnapped and forced into a training as murderous militants. In innumerable countries around the world, small children are sold into slavery to pay off debts. Often they are forced to work as sex slaves to satisfy the most depraved perversions. And in our own country, pro-abortion lobby groups are seeking to change abortion laws to permit late term terminations–as late as nine months. It is no coincidence that children are the victims in all of these things: by going after kids, the devil is trying to hurt and insult the Father. Trying to destroy someone by going after what is dearest is no new strategy of the devil. This is the same devil who thought he’d won the ultimate victory when Jesus, God’s nearest and dearest and only begotten son, was nailed to the cross.

Here’s a challenge if you want to develop a heart after God’s own heart. Find some way to show love and concern for children. Maybe crawling around on the ground is not your thing–no problem! Find an orphaned child to support. Make play dough for the children’s church. Teach Religious Education at a primary school. Roster on to support our church’s children’s church activities a couple of times a year. Make noise in politicians’ ears that you are horrified by the prospect of late term abortion.

We all know that who we hang around with rubs off on us. By associating with little children some of their precious childlike faith might rub off on us. Yes, thank you Jesus!

Why Not Now?

“Why not? Why not here? Why not now?” 

These were the words of a Canadian revivalist who recently ministered at World Harvest Ministries church in Brisbane.  She said those words several times during her three days of preaching and they have hung in the atmosphere ever since.  Far from the complaint kind of “why not,” her “why not” was a suggestion, a challenge–even a dare.

She told a story of a little girl who was raised from the dead in Florida last year.  Some school children and their teachers had been praying for the little girl to recover from a terminal illness, but sadly she died.  When the children told their teachers of her death, the teachers thought: “Why not pray for her to be raised?  Why not here, in this town?  Why not now?”  And pray they did.  Three days later, the dead little girl coughed and came back to life just as she was being wheeled to an operating theatre to remove her organs for donation.

“Why not?”  Those are words that challenge our thinking, that muster faith in a living, powerful God.  “Why not” indeed!  If Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead in the days of His flesh, why not now?  He is, according to our Bible, the same yesterday, today and forever.

Most of us do not have a “Why not now” mindset.  We have a “What if…not” mindset.  In other words, “What if I pray and it does not happen?”  This is a common but sad way to live the Christian life.  This mindset limits possibility and reduces our responses to those based solely on natural, everyday experiences.  “What if not” denies that Jesus is alive and active, that God hears our prayers and responds to our faith.  “What if not” assumes a stodgy, miserly God who is hard of hearing and stingy with His blessings.  “What if not” exalts our pride over God’s glory.  Ouch.

Romans 12:2 urges believers to renew their minds: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” 

Most of us don’t even realise we have a “what if not” mindset because we are conformed to the world.  We expect what comes naturally, not what comes supernaturally.  Years of living in this fallen world have conditioned us to know how things work–cause and effect.  We might think we are not conformed to this world, but unless we put in a huge effort at renewing our minds, we are.  A conformed mind is, if you will, our mind’s default setting.

A renewed mind comes from meditating on scriptures, especially those about the character and power of God.  Hearing anointed preaching, being open to testimonies, and reading accounts of ancient and current day moves of God also renew the mind.  A renewed mind requires constant monitoring, which is why it is called “re-newed” not just “newed.”  It takes effort and vigilance to have a renewed mind, without which the mind drifts straight back to the default mode.  Probably the most inticing reason to put in the effort towards a renewed mind is the promise at the end of the the above verse in Romans: so we can prove what the will of God is.  Without a renewed mind, we simply cannot know it.

Next time you pray for the sick or share your faith, dispell that lurking “What if not”  thinking.  Challenge yourself to step out in faith!  Why not?  Why not now?  Why not here?

The No-Chewing Fast

by Pastor Alison

I can think of a dozen great reasons to fast.  Unfortunately, I cannot recall one of them when I’m trying to fast.  Not one!  Yesterday’s liquid-only fast started off really well.  (By “really well,” I mean I remembered the fast before I tucked into my breakfast, which I usually don’t.  Doh!)  I was very pleased with myself for rising above my fleshly requirements first thing in the morning.

I made it through morning tea, just sipping water and thanking God for tasty water from our rainwater tank. By lunch though, I was developing a serious headache.  I decided that my fast, rather than being a liquid-only fast, would be a no-chewing fast.  I caved in and had a yogurt.  (Hey–It was plain–no bits, no sugar!) 

By the time I got home in the evening, I was feeling the burn.  As they tell you in the gym, no pain, no gain!  So I took the hunger pains with me into the prayer closet.  It was a wonderful, focused time of prayer.  The fuzzy head and the grumbly tummy subsided while I focused my heart on God and lifted up the petitions.

Now that the fast is over, I am able to remember some of the great reasons to fast.  Fasting prayerfully aids us in assuming a humble stance.  Feeling a little weaker than usual reminds us of our dependence upon God.  Laying aside basic physical needs in order to pray demonstrates not only humility but also urgency; spiritual pursuits such as intercession and prayer are exalted in importance above mundane, natural activities like eating.  Fasting is spiritual exercise that develops your spirit man.  So much of our lives is dominated by the  appetites of the natural man; however, when fasting, the needs of the the flesh are subjugated for a while.  This is probably what the Apostle Paul was referring to in 1 Corinthians 9:25-27, when he said he “buffets” his body to subdue it and make it his slave.

A few cautionary notes on fasting are in order.  First, people with health concerns such as diabetes or pregnancy should consult their doctor before fasting. Second, fasting is a skill that requires practice.  Start off slowly and gradually lengthen your fasts.  Be sure to break your fast gently–no triple cheeseburgers or spicy burritos for a day or so.  Third, liquid-only fasts (i.e., drinking water, juice, and/or  broth) are advised, as dehydration can be serious, even life-threatening. (We want to get closer to God, but dying would be going too far!)  Fourth, if, when you become a skilled faster, you decide to undertake a lengthy fast, be sure to let your pastor know, so he or she can pray for you and monitor you.  Your mind can be bombarded with unusual thoughts and urges in a lengthy fast, so it is important to be covered in prayer.  Finally, don’t forget to pray!  If you fast without praying, it’s called dieting, and you’ll reap no spiritual rewards or effects.