The Big With

God with us. That’s what Jesus is. The baby in the horse trough. 

Beyond the absolute revelation (in so many ways) that God became like one us is the promise that He would with WITH us.

It never really hit me as much as it did last week when I was preaching the good news once again. God is with us. He promised He would be and our confidence in the future should be based on that promise. But I hadn’t quite seen the promise quite like the way that the Holy Spirit revealed it to me last Sunday. I didn’t see it this way before. I know Satan doesn’t want me see it this way. Who else would teach me such a lesson, but the Holy Spirit. Not a new message. Just helping me to understand the message He had already given to all us in His word.

Yes, God came to be with us in a shared humanity. He came to set up residence, not next door, but in our very homes. He came to take up residence in our very bodies through that precious gift He gives to each of His people, His precious Holy Spirit.

But He didn’t just promise to BE with us, He promised to GO with us. “… go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, … And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”” Matthew 28:19, 20.

He would send us into this broken, decaying and unredeemed world and He promised to go WITH us. Then He did just that. To a broken apostle, caught up in fear at the prospect of once again proclaiming Christ in that cesspool of a city, Corinth, God would say this. “… “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no-one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”” Acts 18:9, 10. God didn’t just send Paul. Jesus didn’t just commission and stay back behind the front lines. No He goes WITH us.

And when we are working though a terrible day … when the pain of life is just too much. … you have those days, don’t you? When the only thing you can do is cry and pray and then cry some more. When the question starts to rise up from your grief stricken soul. What is God doing?

Then, it dawned on me. Maybe, everyone else knew this and I had just not put it together. When I am grieving, when I am hurting so bad, when it feels like I’m at the bottom of bottomless pit of despair, what is God doing? He is WITH me. He is with me in my pain but what is He doing. He is crying. He is hurting for me. The almighty, holy and perfect God is bent over crying WITH me.

That’s why He told me to “… mourn with those who mourn.” Romans 12:15. Because that is what He does. “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. … Jesus wept.” John 11:33-35.

Real parents do that, don’t they? When your child is so upset, does it upset you? Real marrieds do the same. When your wife cries does it rip you apart? It is the same with God. When He sees His children in pain it tears Him up. He feels it because He is WITH us.

One thing I love about preaching Jesus is that right in the middle of a message that I am preaching, God can be teaching me a lesson. He did that last Sunday. And what did I do? I did what every preacher does. I preached it.

Do not be afraid. Keep on speaking. Do not be silent. God has many people in this city. " I am with you"

 http:// georgelittlejourney.blogspot.com/

Here We Come Sydney

God's plans. Our plans. So often the two do not match up. Our return to Sydney has been a constant series of adjustments to God's will. As I read the New Testament this process has always been a significant part of the kingdom of God.

We anticipate being back in Sydney February 2nd, Lord willing. The Glendale Church has committed to partially support us for 18 moths. As yet we have only secured 50% of our funding but we are pressing on in the sure hope that God will provide in HIS way and in HIS time.

We are busily making preparations, packing up the stuff to ship, selling of the rest of our stuff. It is a challenging to leave a country but we feel that we are getting on top of it. Leaving the Glendale Church family is such a difficult thing emotionally. This past two years with them has been such a rich and fulfilling journey. I truly love them and they constantly remind me of their love for me. I am so glad that Bryan Schackmann is taking over from me in the pulpit. God has prepared this young man in a very special way. I have a lot of confidence in Him and his willing to let God work in his ministry and life.

Despite all the adjustments etc. associated with this move, I have this deep seated confidence that God is going to work through us to bring about a great result for the kingdom in Sydney.

We are so looking forward to being back close to our family once again. We are very excited at what we think the Lord will do with us at the Northside Church. We will be happy to be back in our home land. No more worries about visas and work permits. I do leave my beloved Lakers behind but somehow I feel that they will make it back to back championships in 2010. Will still get to watch their exploits on TV.

If you are willing please say a little pray for us. For more information on what the Lord is calling us to please go to http://www.northsidejesus.org or go to the project:northside Facebook page.

My friend, James, had us listen to the Gaither Vocal Band's version of the old favorite, O, Love That Will Not Let Me Go. The words of that song really reflect the way I feel. I know God loves me because of what Jesus did for me. Now, I know and love Jesus and that love that God has for me will not let me go. Praise God that it won't.

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas. You don’t hear it as much as you used to but, Merry Christmas.

Our culture’s increasing aversion to anything Christian is something I don’t like but it is there and we need to deal with it.

Some Christians have responded with outrage, petitions and protests at the increasing removal of Christ from Christmas but can I suggest that I think that they are missing a couple of key points.

This is a symptom of people moving away from Jesus and that is the real problem. Christmas as a celebration is a total cultural choice. It is not a biblical imperative. The reason the season is becoming secular is that so many of our friends, co-workers, neighbors, family are moving away from God and becoming secular. That’s the key issue. You can get to heaven without Christmas but you can’t without Jesus (John 14:6). So let’s get upset about the real issue. Not your sense of loss of the Christmas of old that you grew up with but the real loss of some many to the godless and powerless philosophies of the age.

Every one us have been sick. We know we are sick because of symptoms (fever, runny nose and various other gross things our bodies do). We also know that, if we just treat the symptom like a fever and don’t treat the cause of the fever, we are never going to heal. Trying to restore Christmas is a bit like that. Where should our energies be focused? On restoring Christmas or restoring Christ? That brings me to the second key point.

As Christians, we have been charged with the proclamation of the good news of Jesus. We can read all the verses (1 Cor. 2:2, 15:1-5, Romans 1:16 etc.) but we also have to apply them to our lives. We have an obligation before God to call everyone back to Jesus as their savior. We have the charge from God to call his wayward children but to Him. This is the labor of love we are called to. This is the only real thing that will truly remedy the ills of people caught up in this world. You see, even if we can get everyone back to saying, “Merry Christmas”, if they aren’t giving their lives to Jesus then their place before God is still just as bad as before.

God puts it this ways, “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” Romans 10:9, 10, NIV. What we say is important but only if it comes from the heart.

This world will probably keep taking away reverence and honor of Jesus but we shouldn’t be surprised. We can be upset and feel slighted but let’s not be surprised when the ungodly do ungodly things. That’s only natural (terrible but natural). But once we have taken our egos out of the mix, we have got to face up to the fact that our friends, family, neighbors and fellow countrymen are not going to be saved by Christmas. Only Jesus can save them.

This Christmas proclaim Christ. Proclaim Him in your conversations. Proclaim Him with your life as you love the helpless, hopeless and unlovely. Proclaim Him as you give. There is so much power in generosity. Give Jesus the glory and keep on being His redeemed child. Keep on loving God and loving people.

Every time the people of God do this amazing things happen. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20, 21, NIV.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZw4fEFuTVA

5 Minutes with George - Episode 3

Are you crazy?




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbftTKGzprU

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5 Minutes with George - Episode 2

or click on this link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yau62_D3sGE

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Video Ministry

I must admit I am not a fan of TV as an effective medium for the story of Jesus. That's just my opinion because it doesn't really speak to me. I know it does speak to many. Not that it has really been issue with my ministry because no one has ever wanted me to do TV work. As the old wise crack goes, I have a good face for radio. HD and closeups are just too honest. Check out this week's 30 Rock episode for some fun about HD

Anyhow I say all that to say that I am going to have a go at video ministry via the internet. My reasons.

1. I can. For an investment of one hour a week i can share Jesus with a lot of people. Almost no dollar cost. 
2. Many people watch internet video. I want to minister to them if I can. 
3. It may actually help someone on their journey which for a lot of people today is a digital journey. Do you know that Facebook now has 350 million users. That's bigger than most countries, even the big ones. 
4. I think I have a message from Jesus that actually helps people in finding God. 

My parameters

1. Get out of "preaching" mode. That's tough for an old preacher. 
2. Keep message to around five minutes. You talk about tough!
3. Speak to real people in real situations with the real Jesus
4. Don't get overly caught in production values. This obviously isn't a professional production, so why try to make it look like it. 
5. Do it for 2 months and see how it goes. 

Well, here's the first attempt. Don't worry. It will get better.

http://georgelittlejourney.blogspot.com/

Church = What?

Church is not what most people think it is. Given that church is one of the key representative words for faith in Christ, this is a disaster. No wonder so many outside the family of God misunderstand what being in the family is about.

In modern English the word church refers to a building devoted to Christian worship. That is the primary meaning in dictionaries and in common usage. As such it is a terrible translation of the word that Jesus and Paul used. Just over 110 times in most New Testaments you will find the word church. Not one of those times is it referring to a building.

The original language of the New Testament was Koine Greek. The word translated church is ekklesia. It was a common word in the first century and had no religious significance. There were Greek words that did describe religious groups (agora, panegyris, synagoge etc.) Warning: Word studies can be a little dry (euphemism for boring) but hang in there, there is an incredible truth here that you and I need to be aware of.

So, the Holy Spirit took a secular word, ekklesia, and used it to refer to groups of Christians. It’s meaning had its origins in the combination of ek which means out of and kaleo  which means to call. It referred to any group of people called out for a special purpose. It was also commonly used of a group of people (usual mature) who served as a caring influence on a community.

This is the word the Holy Spirit chose to use when He spoke of God’s people.

And what have we done with it? We translated it into a word that mainly refers to “holy” buildings or to massive Christian bureaucracies (OK I know “we” didn’t do it, but you know what I mean). No wonder there is so much confusion about God’s people.

Because of this I have decided to stop using the word, church, when referring to God’s people. Instead I will use body, family, ekklesia. Anything but church.

The Christians we read about in Acts were not an institution, nor a location. They were the people of God. They were disciples of Jesus. They were the ones who God had called out of the world. Called out for a purpose. A special purpose. God’s purpose.

“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you should proclaim the praises of Him, who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God”.  I Peter 2:9.

As you can see there is a lot more to being Christ’s ekklesia than being a called out people. However the ekklesia is a group of people. A group Jesus promised to build. A group that He bought with His own blood. A group who are described as HIS body and HIS bride.

This not just a semantic point, a mere detail concerning word meaning. Next time you read all those verses which have the word church in them, substitute it with family of God, or body of Christ, or ekklesia or called out by God people. You will be shocked at how it changes what you hear from those verses.

Think about it for a bit. When has an army been mistaken for a barracks? When has the congress been mistaken for the building it meets in? Hardly ever. When has God's people been mistaken for a building? All the time. No wonder so many are confused before we even begin talking to them about Jesus. 

But, what can we do? Actually it is something we should stop doing. Stop assuming people know what you mean when you use the word church. Tell them about the wonder that is God's family with the risen Jesus at its center. 

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