A Servant's New Year Prayer

Lord, as this year concludes and a new year begins, I come to You and ask for Your continued blessings in and through my life.

By your grace, I pray that You would give me
JOY to fill my days,
PEACE to fill my heart,
And LOVE to fill my every action.

Thank You for the plans You have in store for me in this coming year.

I look forward with anticipation to see what will do for me as I live faithfully to serve You!

Jeremiah 29:10a,11 (MSG) ~ "This is God's Word on the subject: '...I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.'"

Confession Is Good For The Soul

Sadly, The Salvation Army don't practice confession. At least not in public worship anyway!
However, I often find it helpful to introduce an occasional liturgy of confession into our corporate worship schedule.

The following prayer was incorporated into our worship setting today as a moment of 'reflection' after the reading of Galatians 4:4-7.

Forgive us, O God, if we are glad that Christmas Day is over for another year.

Forgive us for shaping Christmas into a commercially driven spending spree - in contrast to what happened at Bethlehem in such simple and humble surroundings.

Forgive us when we forget that simplicity as we strive for bigger and better.

Forgive us, O God and grasp us anew with the wonder and the joy of the birth of Christ and help us to understand that the most precious gifts of all are not those which are credit card-costly but those which arise from Christ-centred lives.

(Pause for Personal Silent Reflection)

Lord God, thank you for sending Jesus into the world not to judge us, but to save us. Your Son, our Saviour, is truly the ‘Reason for the Christmas season’.

The great good news is this: In Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven. Thanks be to God!
AMEN

(Sourced from http://www.liturgiesonline.com.au - Year B, Christmas 1B)

For This He Came...

Celebrate CHRIST!

Revelation 21:3 (MSG) ~ ‘I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighbourhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God.’

Love divine, all loves excelling,

Joy of heaven to earth come down;

Fix in us thy humble dwelling;

All thy faithful mercies crown!

Jesus, Thou art all compassion,

Pure unbounded love Thou art;

Visit us with Thy salvation;

Enter every longing heart.

Choral Worship Service

This morning's worship service took the form of a Christmas Chorale, with our angelic Inala Choir presenting "The Morning Son", based on the proclamation of the Christmas story by the angels and the shepherds.

It was truly a God-glorifying and Spirit-inspiring occasion. The presence of God was unmistakable as musicians and narrator sensitively shared the gospel story, so old but so "new".

The message of the angel was "Fear not, for I bring you...LOVE, JOY, PEACE and HOPE through God's gift to the world, Jesus the Christ-child."

When the angels were gone the shepherds said, “We must go and see that which the Lord has made known to us!” (Luke 2:15)

What will your response to God's gift be this Christmas?

Cappuccino Captain!

While sharing a coffee at Bunnings cafe with my wife and a couple of our chapel leaders after church this morning, I was deep in conversation when suddenly, out of the blue, a kid's shoe came flying over the playground gate and smacked me directly in the middle of the forehead. BANG! A little taken aback, I quickly returned the shoe to the other side via a concerned onlooker.

As I took my seat ~ BANG! ~ a second shoe landed directly in the middle of my cappuccino almost fully immersing me in coffee as I sat, shocked, in my wet navy uniform, complete with stained white shirt and tie. I was angered into silence!

About five minutes later, as I was finishing off a free replacement from the compassionate coffee-maker and awaiting the cleanup to be finalized, from the distance I could see a 5yo boy coming toward my table, accompanied by his purposeful father.

On their arrival the father stated, "My son has something to say to you. Go on!" Then followed a confident yet sincere apology: "Excuse me, man! I'm sorry for spilling your coffee." Despite my annoyance, I was gracious enough to accept his genuine apology and give him an assurance of my forgiveness.

Kind of like a live object lesson on forgiveness...and the practice of patience.
Be assured - tomorrow I'm off to the dry cleaners!

Matthew 6:15 (NIV) ~ "But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."

The Sounds Of Christmas

Today is the 3rd Sunday in Advent and was an opportunity for us to focus on the JOY that Jesus brings to our lives.

As we considered John chapter 1, we reflected on the "Sounds of Christmas" that God wanted the world to hear that first Christmas Day when Jesus, our Immanuel Saviour, dwelt among us as a result of His Incarnation birth.

Through this Divine Intervention into our humanity, God was indeed sounding two important messages to mankind.

1. "I love you!"
2. "I am with you!"

These are the "Sounds of Christmas"! Can you hear them?

It is my sincere prayer that God may richly and abundantly bless you as you allow the sounds of our Saviour’s birth to ring within your heart and mind at this joyful celebration season.

John 1:14 (NLT) ~ "So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness."

Here We Come A-Carolling!

On this second Sunday of Advent, 100 worshippers gathered at the Inala Chapel to enjoy the music ministry of the Melbourne Staff Band. The band's executive officer, Major Len Turner, gave quality spiritual leadership and challenged all present with the question: "Are you ready?"

It's important that, during this Christian season of preparation, we each consciously welcome Christ the King into our lives, expecting the grace of God to fall afresh on us.

As the MSB carolled in the nursing homes, hostels and ILU facilities appreciative residents responded well to the music and the message of Christmas. Hallelujah!

Amazing Christmas Celebration

There's something special about celebrating Christmas with great music. Tonight's AMAZING CELEBRATION certainly lived up to its name with vocalist extraordinaire, Silvie Paladino (pictured left), the vibrant Australian Girls Choir and the Salvos premiere brass musicians, Melbourne Staff Band.

Each participants' God-given musical talents were skillfully used to bless the audience with a God-glorifying, inspirational worship experience.

JESUS is the 'reason for the season' and this was most evident. Praise God!

Song of Solomon 1:4 (MSG) ~ "We'll celebrate, we'll sing, we'll make great music. Yes!"

'Witnesses For Christ' Commissioning

Sunday's worship meetings were full of God-expectant worshippers, Spirit-responsive hearts and Christ-inspired encounters. It was truly a time of sacred celebration. The Word of God was both audible and visible, impacting the lives of worshippers in a way that only God's Holy Spirit can - with confident affirmation and crucial challenge.

Covenanted cadets of the Witnesses For Christ session took a courageous stand as they publicly declared their personal committments to serve God faithfully as Spirit-ordained ministers of the Gospel within their newly-appointed communities.

Our challenge was to 'go deeper' with God and 'venture boldly' for Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. I echo the words of the English Reformer, John Bradford, "There but by the grace of God go I."

Launch out into the deep

O let the shoreline go

Launch out, launch out in the ocean divine

Out where the full tides flow

(Salvation Army chorus section)

On Fire Exhibition & Festival

In His wisdom God has His people a myriad of creative gifts, so that we might glorify Him individually and seek to appreciate and value each other corporately.

This was very evident over the whole weekend, but especially at Saturday's On Fire exhibition and musical festival. The wide range of creative abilities and different mediums of faith expression were a delight to experience and, without a doubt, brought much spiritual blessing and faith inspiration to those who took the opportunity to be there.

I'm glad I was there! The hand of God moved in so many ways and His presence was keenly felt. Praise Him!

2 Timothy 1:6 (NLT) - "I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you."