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Luke 12:22-34

Not what they expected

Homework... Whaaa?

the Rev was very excited to accept an invitation to speak at the Chapel service at Northside Christian College. 1,000 students in a Pentecostal school combined with the Rev makes for a fun, confounding, annoying and challenging time. Being told that God is boring and that the evidence of the Holy Spirit in their lives is them doing their home work is not quite what they were hoping for. 

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Romans 5:12-21

Freed Captives

It is widely known that people who have been imprisoned for long periods of time become institutionalised. When released they are overwhelmed by the freedom of choice. They have to make a lot of decisions which were once made for them, when to wake up, what to eat, where to work, what to do with their free time. Many who are released re-offend so that they can go back to prison. The familiarity of prison is more comfortable than the freedom of freedom.

Escape the Reaper

You and I are exactly the same. We live our lives as though we are still bound by the chains of our sin. It seems impossible to us that we could walk away from our addiction; whether that is to alcohol, sexual immorality, adultery, pornography, gluttony, the fantasy of romance or marriage, the paralysis that prevents us from showing our love to our family and friends.

It seems horrifying that what we thought was normal is in fact our prison. When we want to change the way we look, when we worry about our children’s future, when we long that our spouse was different, when we wish our job paid more… all these normal things can in fact be our normal desires gone mad. They can control us more than any prison cell

We are like birds who have grown up having our wings clipped, never realising that Christ has restored our wings and that if we only looked up we would soar high up into the sky.

Christ has killed us, he has buried us and when he rose from the dead he raised us as well. Sin no longer has its total control over you. Christ has transferred you out of death’s reign and into his kingdom of life.

This means that you have the power and freedom to rebuild your life a new. Or as Paul puts it you “should walk in newness of life.” (Rom 6:4b). This will involve bearing the fruit of the spirit and cutting out the works of the flesh. The more you live your freedom the freer you will be.

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.  Romans 6:14          

the Rev

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Romans 6:1-14

Men and Women are like turbines

A turbine is a rotary engine that spins by the force of water, air or steam. Women seem to spin by the force of their anxiety. There are so many challenges, problems and calamities that need to be averted. This is why a woman cannot have a restful holiday at home. Why? Because there is always something that needs doing, the voice is strongest where she lives because that is the place of her work. That is why, my fellow men, if you want to rest then you must take her away from home. It’s hard for a woman to slow the turbine of her life down.

Where is your life heading?

Men on the other hand ignore the turbine. It can spin like mad; responsibilities may loom but a man will not even glance in its direction. Escape and ignore is the man’s favourite strategy. As long as he is good at one or two things a man can ignore the world falling down around him. Work hard at work, rest hard at home is a man’s motto. Home is a place away from work. That is why a man gets up to go into his ‘cave’ when a woman asks him to do something (work).

Would you be interested in learning something that would mean that you didn’t have anxiety to manage or cope with? I am coming to realise that 90% of my anxiety is my desires gone mad (lust of the flesh). What I need is what’s wrong with me. I need a friend, a loving wife, behaved kids, easy to write sermons, a healthy church. All of this has taken a hold of me and spins my turbine so fast I never rest, I’m never at peace.

Jesus says “he who seeks to save his life will lose it.” Mark 8:35. There are many voices that have deceived me into thinking that if I’m buffed, funny, popular I will have saved my life from being alone and rejected. I’ve worked so hard and I’m never saved.

Romans is about helping me understand I’ve been trying to save myself from the wrong things/people. God isn’t here to fulfill my desires gone mad, he is here to free me from my desires/needs/wants.

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.  Romans 6:14          

the Rev

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Psalm 131 and Mark 4:35-41

Beyond distraction

Being a father of four kids I’ve learnt to work and study with all manner of household noise. But I do have my limits, particularly when the kids have gone mad with silliness and I’m on the phone. That’s when I politely tell the person to hang on and then ROAR for QUIET!!!!.

A guide to a calm soul

How many voices yell for your attention throughout the day. I’m talking about the voices of your desire. Things like wishing you could get married, wishing you weren’t married, wishing your kids would turn out right, wishing you had just a bit more money, wishing you could have a restful holiday, wishing work or school wasn’t so hard.

We live in a noisy world because our hearts are noisy. The Bible calls this noise and these wishes “the lust of the flesh.” A lust is a normal desire gone mad. For example you may want your kids to grow up right to be a good person who loves God. That is a normal desire given by God. However it can easily go mad and be transformed into a lust, something that you must have, something that you can’t do without

When your child is naughty do you go way over the top, are you like a KGB agent always on their case, exposing their every flaw, correcting their every wrong. Do you yell and rage at your child because they continue to disobey you? That is not God given, it is Lust.

Lust is deceptively common and we often expect God to fulfill it for us. We want health, a good job, to be popular, to be happy and not sad, to be able to retire, to have good friends. But all of these are voices which can yell at you for their attention, that poor anxiety into your life, that fill your heart with noise.

Today’s Psalm is about calming our hearts so that we are quiet on the inside. Not so much by ignoring the noise but by learning to hear one clear and true voice that comes from Christ’s lips. When we tune in to him then we will have peace.  the Rev