Christ, Culture & Creativity

Judging...

2009-04-19T08:51:00.002+01:00

You have to watch this video, unfortunately I can't embed it, so here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk

What a reaction!! Lisa Schwarzbaum, writer for US celebrity magazine Entertainment Weekly, said the performance was a powerful reality check.

She wrote: "In our pop-minded culture so slavishly obsessed with packaging - the right face, the right clothes, the right attitudes, the right Facebook posts - the unpackaged artistic power of the unstyled, un-hip, un-kissed Ms Boyle let me feel, for the duration of one blazing showstopping ballad, the meaning of human grace.

"She pierced my defences. She reordered the measure of beauty. And I had no idea until tears sprang how desperately I need that corrective."

I know that one of my character flaws is appearance. I don't pride myself on my appearance, but, for example, Susan Boyle would not be my first, or indeed 50th choice (by looking at her) for say an evangelistic outreach. I tend to go with the Hillsong philosophy of keep the good looking people at the front.

However, that video, and those words from Lisa Schwarzbaum have reminded me of God's grace, he made us all, he loves us all and he chose us all. We shouldn't dismiss people because of anything, and I more than most need to remember that.

Lost in Wonder...

2009-04-12T06:35:00.003+01:00

Most Christians at some point will have seen or at least heard of Louis Giglio, and his amazing way of showing God's glory through images from the Hubble Space Telescope.

However I just saw this and it blew me away:

Please ignore the crap music. The crew was made up of 3 men; Frank F. Borman, James A. Lovell and William A. Anders. Now, back in 1968, it was commonplace for Americans to be in regular attendance to a church, indeed it was almost socially unacceptable to be successful and not be in church on a Sunday.

However, I like to think that on that Christmas eve, they were so blown away by it, that the only words they could use were those words of God's creation. NASA gave the crew just one instruction for their Christmas Eve broadcast that they knew would be broadcast across the world: "Say something appropriate".

In his autobiography, Countdown, Frank Borman later wrote, "There was one more impression we wanted to transmit: our feeling of closeness to the Creator of all things. This was Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968, and I handed Jim and Bill their lines from the Holy Scriptures."

I can't find much about the other 2 guys, other than William (Bill) gave up organised religion after his missions, but as I understand it, his perspective was changed so vastly that he felt organised religion was wrong and maintained a faith with God.

Atheists mounted a legal battle about the Apollo 8 reading, and as such, Buzz Aldrin was banned from reading from the bible on the Apollo 11 mission. Madalyn Murray-O'Hair was the person behind the lawsuit and a self-proclaimed atheist leader. Although she had much Christian hate-mail, it was ironically an Atheist follower who chopped her up and spread her body parts over a Texan Ranch.

So anyway, if you can't find the words to worship, get lost in the wonder of the world. If you can't, then jump on a space shuttle and see the glory in orbit.

Update!

2009-02-16T13:06:00.005Z

Gosh, it has been a LONG time! Here's a breif update on the life of Jason...

Preaching:
It's all good, got an invite to preach in London in Jan, it went well! If you'd like to watch it, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejPPktl-ysk&feature=PlayList&p=A848BE04CE5E2177&index=0&playnext=1

Music:
Doesn't look like I'm in a band at the moment, bit frustrated by this. Got some new gear, which I will do a proper post on at some time, but a breif list:

Bass: Ernie Ball Music Man HH, Boss Tuner, Boss Blue Coompressor, Mesa Boogie Walkabout Scout 15"

Guitar: 1962 Reissue Telecaster with Bare Knuckle 'The Boss' pickups, Boss Tuner, Blue Compressor, GigFX Mega Wah, Boss RE-20 Space Echo and Mesa Boogie 5:25 Express amp.

Nice.

Church:
Finally made the descision to stay in a church, Kingsland is the place (www.kingsland.org.uk). All sorts of fun goes on there, and I, well we (me and Dan) are fitting in well.

Love Life:
Yes, I do love life.

Job:
Just finishing a job with BT, looking for something new now. Praying for a Project Manager role within the NHS. We'll see...

Home:
Could be better, could be worse. I do have a home which is better than some.

Car:
The love machine (Golf GTi) has died. I'm very sad about this. The love will live on. I have a new car, a 2001 Vectra 2.2DTi. Having some teathing problems getting it on the road, but it's a great car.

Smoking:
After my miracle of being healed from smoking last year...I decided to refuse the miracle and smoke anyway. Stubborn old me. Last week, I decided to stop messing about and give up. I chose not to ask God for help, as I thought it was a bit of an insult. So I went it alone. It's tough. I've been focusing on the cross and it's got me through. 5 Days. Going well.

Think that's about it. More detailed post soon.

What's up Doc(trine)?

2008-10-07T13:23:00.002+01:00

My recent blog about smoking has caused me to think some more, and (as ever) I'm thinking about church. Recently I was having a conversation that got rather heated about the Doctrine of the Church of England, and how I believed that the C of E (on the whole) were about doing good things, and not about seeing manifestations of God; or Miracles, you might say.

Their point (as this was a room of C of E people) was that everything is a miracle, and Jesus was about Love, so we should Love God, Love each other and Love ourselves. That is the Christian way.

I then had a further discussion where I raised the question; what is more important (in the realm of being a Christian); acting in the supernatural realm of God, seeking his manifest presence and taking authority over sickness, demons etc; or living a humble life, sharing all you have, doing good deeds, and really loving all those around us.

You may be asking yourself why I've segregated those two, because I think we all realise that both are equally important to the Christian life. We only need to look at the headlines of Jesus ministry to see that Love and Power were his gifts to the world.

However I find in mondern church, that the two ARE segregated! The churches that really press in for the presence are not really involved in the good deeds stuff (soup run, school evangelism, homeless help, prison visits), but they do see people healed, set free, and at times an open heaven over what they are doing. Conversely, many churches that don't seek that manifestation are more significantly involved in the good deeds stuff, but often don't even ask for the healings!

I don't know why there is this segregation, and I don't want to name names and give examples here, but I hope you can see what I mean.

Personally I LOVE the spiritual realm, I love experiancing God, I want to experiance more, I want to touch him, I want to feel him, I want to worship him!!

But I've just been struck with another thought. Let's say you have a really good friend, she has a Daughter. One day, there's a problem, I don't know what the problem is, but you are there, and able to help her out. This may even be financially. You know that if you speak to your friend, you'll get your money back, or they'll do something nice to repay your efforts.

Shouldn't that be how we treat other people, our best friends child?

Woah, deep, back to Tuesday afternoon banter with spreadsheets.

'be careful what you wish for...'

2008-10-06T16:10:00.004+01:00

In c.600BC, a man called Aesop first coined the phrase 'Be careful what you wish for, it may just come true'. Well, he probably wrote it in Greek, but you get my point. Well, that hasn't really played much of a part in my life until recently.

Last Tuesday, Dan and I went to a Roy Fields meeting in Chorley Wood (at Latimer Park) just north of London. Roy was one of the worship leaders at the Lakeland Outpouring. At the end of his talk, he offered a response for people who were in ministry but had problems with stuff - like smoking.

Well, I had said to someone earlier that day that if there was the option, I'd go forward for prayer about my smoking, but I didn't really feel convicted about it yet so I wasn't expecting much.

To cut a long story short, he gave the call, I went forward for prayer. On Wednesday, I managed to smoke 3 and a half cigarettes, and each made me feel sick. on Thursday I managed to smoke one half of a cigarette. It made me feel REALLY ill.

So, today is Monday, I havent had any cigarettes since last Thursday, so I guess I'm just coming up to 100 hours of no smoking now. What's more, I haven't had any cravings, I haven't had any grumpy moods, I haven't been stressed. Nothing. I've had the psychological kinda 'Oh wait, I don't smoke now' stuff, like when having a cup of tea, after eating, driving spending time with certain friends and stuff like that, but that's been it.

Before last week, I was happy smoking 15 a day, now it's 0.

But this has made me think a bit, you see, I didn't feel convicted, so why was God's response so swift? It actually made me realise that I hadn't LET myself get convicted. And there's more areas that I have handed over to God in my head, but not handed over in my heart.

It's a tough pill to swallow when you realise that actually you're a mess because you're making yourself a mess, and the stuff that you thought that you'd prayed REALLY, you didn't mean and it was all just a waste of time. It's when our hearts desire something and the prayer comes from there that I believe God really listens to it.

I had opened myself up just a bit, and I really believe God was there in heaven, saw me pray a bit and said "That's good enough, Mike, Gabe, get in there and sort it, I've been waiting way too long for this", followed by some kinda sci-fi noises and a heavenly light show.

So now I'm not a smoker, but I'm not saying I've given up, because I haven't - in all honesty I'd probably like to smoke again, I'm just unable to! How funny is that!

So, if I've learned anything from this, it's look to yourself for your questions about God first, before going to him, because he does hear your prayers, and he does do stuff today.

On another note, stuff is going really well, been having lots of fun ministering in different places and playing in different bands, been to Dudley a few mroe times, me and Dan will be playing at a conference there in November that should be amazing, speakers such as the Bakers, Bill Johnson and Ken Gott - I'm looking forward to it. Oh, and I brought a new amp...Gonna be buying some more stuff soon, so I'll do a big post when I get it all.
(Me, Ryan Baker-Barnes and Dan)

God is good...

Porsche anyone?

2008-09-21T15:22:00.003+01:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about our individual circumstances vs our state of mind.

Let me clarify, I believe that we can all achieve pretty much anything. If you want to own a Ferrari, it's not impossible. Let me give you an example. A friend of mine has been globetrotting for the last 18 months or so. Every now and then his facebook status will say 'Steve is in ...' and some of the countries he has been to are staggering! But this isn't because his family have lots of money, indeed he comes from a working class family who I imagine don't have £1000's to throw away travelling. I firmly believe that Steve travels the world because his state of mind enables him to do so.

I have no time for people who moan and groan that life is so hard, and I don't understand because I come from a fairly well off family. Well let me tell you that's a load of crap. As a family we have lost a house due to bankruptcy, we've suffered extreme poverty where fortunately our church were able to provide food. My mum has worked hard, and even after a marriage breakup we find ourselves doing well. I did have my own place but moved back home mainly to be with her over a difficult time.

But here's my point, I come from very poor surroundings, I have little more than GCSE's under my belt. Yet I'm not stuck in a dead end minimum wage job, indeed my job with BT is quite well paid.

If I wanted, right now I could go to a garage and pick up pretty much any car I wanted. On finance obviously. I choose however to spend my cash on guitar stuff, so I can sound as good as possible when I'm playing. So, in the last year, the amount I have spent on getting my studio together, and buying music stuff, I could easily have brought a Porsche.

As it happens I'm happy with my '96 Golf GTi, it gets me about!

But I want to encourage the world, because your state of mind will determine your destiny.

Belonging

2008-09-09T16:08:00.002+01:00

This weekend saw an epic adventure for myself and THRE3 to Germany. Read my blog on the trip here:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=34795126807

We got to chat with loads of people who were literally on edge of accecpting Christ. We've made the descision as a team that we should encourage this by allowing certain people to 'belong', or be a part of what we do.

This isn't a massive step, it's letting three people have roles in our wider team. These people haven't accecpted Christ as their friend YET, but they'll be working alongside our crew of people who are dedicated Christians as well as us.

This I'm sure will be open to criticism, in the past I've seen people get involved through serving and find a relationship with God through that. I've also seen people try to gain praise through it. Prayer is needed to guide us and give us wisdom in dealing with this, but Jesus came for the Sinners, not the Saints!

It's funny, for an event this weekend, there will be the THRE3 of us, Dan, Lee and myself, but in the wider crew we'll have Tim, Matt, Mark, Kevin, Jemma and Jordan. So, THRE3 become nine?

Seeing a large scale event this weekend has reminded me of the Body of Christ, how we ALL have a role in the body. Some roles are more obvious than others, but all are essential. Let us not forget that.

If you feel that your role is insignificant, you should watch this video, even the smallest cells in the body are essential...

Living it...

2008-08-22T16:30:00.002+01:00

There's a whole lot of religion in the press recently. My previous post about Todd Bentley has caused quite an uproar, and Today I found out about about pastor Michael Guglielmucci (click the link to see the news report), the guy connected with Hillsong Australia, and is part of one of the largest youth churches, PlanetShakers, has deceived the world in the most extraordinary way. In short, he wrote the song "Healer", written from his place of struggling with terminal cancer. He performed it (I believe) on the Hillsong 2008 DVD, wearing an oxygen mask, with his oxygen tank on stage, appearing quite weak, but able. As it turns out, he was never ill, no need for oxygen, he just wanted to be famous.

I guess I should point out that he's now getting psychiatric help, but even so, how was this able to go on? How was Todd Bentley's marriage able to fall apart? How were these things able to happen in the realm of the world media?!!!

Lets look at a bible passage from the beginning of 2 Peter (The Message)...
But there were also lying prophets among the people then, just as there will be lying religious teachers among you. They'll smuggle in destructive divisions, pitting you against each other—biting the hand of the One who gave them a chance to have their lives back! They've put themselves on a fast downhill slide to destruction, but not before they recruit a crowd of mixed-up followers who can't tell right from wrong.

They give the way of truth a bad name. They're only out for themselves. They'll say anything, anything, that sounds good to exploit you. They won't, of course, get by with it. They'll come to a bad end, for God has never just stood by and let that kind of thing go on.

There's a couple of things I'd like to point out from that.

> Lying Prophets / teachers, this could even refer to someone who gives a 'Good' message rather than a 'God' message.
> Those who can't tell right from wrong, doesn't refer to people who are stupid, it simply refers to people who believe something they haven't fully tested.
> The way of Truth, basically 'Christianity'

So, am I judging these people, no, that's for God to do in his divine way. I don't have a clue what he thinks about it, and it's not my sin to carry. It's theirs.

For me, this reminds me of a sermon I once heard, about carrying Jesus with us. I want to have a look at it this way:
Would Jesus be upset by your: Conversations / phone calls / text messages / emails / facebook account / IM Conversations? Imagine that Jesus is watching over your shoulder as you sit at your PC, would he be uplifted by your actions? Or would he cry at your deception?

I used the word deception. If you go to church and you're most definitely one thing, an all out 'Christian', doing all the 'Christian' things, but you go home and write a smutty email to someone you're flirting with...Why? If you go any pray with someone but then text a friend with some gossip...Why? If you lead worship and then go and have sex, or even foreplay, with someone who isn't your wife...Why?!!

It's hard hitting, and a tough pill to swallow.

God Loves us, and when we repent, we are clean in his sight. But don't deceive yourself, if you're not living (or trying to live) the life, then jog on mate, because God ain't having it.

I am far from perfect. I do many things I shouldn't. But seeing this deception in the church has inspired me to try even harder to get closer to God, in word thought and deed.

Spiritual Attack

2008-08-13T16:44:00.003+01:00

I got an email today from God TV. It really saddened me to learn that Todd Bentley and his wife are experiancing marital problems, and at the moment have seperated.

A quick trip to google and the cynics are already posting with headlines such as 'Todd Bentleys Marriage Goes Bam' (I have to admit, I admire the humor in that). Fortunately there are many people who are joining the crusade to pray for them as a couple and see good things happen for them.

Lets remember James 1:2 - 4(NIV);
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

I remember someone once saying to me that the devil can't be everywhere at once, so he looks for the people who are doing good God stuff and attacks them. I see a man, Todd, who is on fire for God. And now, the attack is hitting him hard. Well, to be honest I saw it coming.

It's how WE deal with it that is the issue here. You see, so many people are quick to judge and mock, questioning how people's 'so-called' faith can allow such a thing to happen. In reality, bad stuff just happens. If you don't believe me, pick up your bible and read Job.

So, how do we avoid such spiritual attack? Well, maybe this verse from Revelation (3v15-19) will shed some light:
I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.

The truth? We can't avoid the devil wanting to attack us. BUT if we're being half-hearted about the stuff we do for God, then, well, it's kinda pointless! I want to pick up on a couple of words in that passage; Luke-warm & Indifference. How many people do we see populating a seat in a church on a sunday who can so easily be described using those words?

Let me put it another way. In the past 5 years, who have you personally known to be absolutely on fire for God. Have they constantly remained in the Glory for that amount of time? Or have they had their share of trials too?

As my Dad always says, you gotta take the rough with the smooth. You also have to accecpt that we don't know everything, and we won't ever know everything, so just ride the wave, see what happens.

Oh yeah, and have grace for those who are having trouble.

Grace, Love and Compassion.

Here's a challenge...

2008-07-31T15:38:00.003+01:00

Do you know God heals the sick TODAY?

Do you know that God COULD and WOULD heal you if you were sick?

Do you know that God CAN and WILL provide for you, financially?

Do you know that God will reveal his plan for you if you ask?

I'm sick of 2 words that we use all the time. They are Faith and Belief. I don't know, it just seems that Faith and Belief are a bit wimpy, because I KNOW God exists. And if I KNOW it, why would I JUST have faith in it?!

Do you see where I'm coming from? Ok, you may say well this is symentics and just using a different word. NO, WRONG! I want everyone to say they KNOW God exists...
Does a Bee Sting hurt? YES! Is grass green? YES! Is water wet? YES! Is God REAL? YES! Does he talk the talk and walk the walk? YES!

I guess I kinda feel that if you don't get it, if you don't know it, if you don't live it, then what's the point? Stay in bed on a Sunday. Sorry, harsh I know, but God doesn't mess about.

And to the evangelicals about to hit the email button and say 'ARGH! you heretic! Telling people they shouldn't go to church! How dare you!' I say to them, maybe if you worked a bit harder at loving and discipling people, and a bit less on condemming the world then MAYBE, just MAYBE the world would be a better place.

Peace out.

Can you contemplate it?

2008-07-30T23:50:00.003+01:00

My last post I talked about my friend Joe who tragically passed away recently. I was fortunate enough (with the help of Big Matt) to make the journey to beautiful Scotland, and see where he worked and lived, meet some of his friends and most importantly, say goodbye to him. The service was emotional, there were highs and lows, tears and laughter, lament and celebration.

I was inspired by my good friend Charlie, Joe's dad. This is a guy I respect, a lot. To be honest I haven't been able to say any thing to him. Anything I could or would say just seems insignificant, meaningless - useless.

But the whole day, I learned things from him. God the Father was in him. As he carried his son to his grave, I saw strength and brokenness. I think it was the saddest and most encouraging thing I have ever seen in my somewhat inexperianced 24 years here on earth.

It made me realise that God's son (and this isn't a direct comparison) was also taken so tragically. I guess the pain that I saw in Charlie suddenly made the words on the pages of the bible come alive, particularly these words:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

When Jesus was dying, he was covered in the worlds sin, God couldn't look. But he knew it had to happen. But with a new perspective, the pain that God felt then must have been ... immense, and I guess it seems a little more real to me now.

But then I started to think about us ALL being God's children, and how God must see such awful things every day. Even now, writing this, I can't begin to contemplate that.

The more things I see in life, the less I try to contemplate it. Why? I think it lets me live more.

And after all, is living in wonder and awe such a bad thing?

A Rollercoaster Week

2008-07-18T02:05:00.005+01:00

Sunday afternoon, I'm preparing to get ready to go to Clacton where THRE3 (my band) were leading worship. I had a phone call, to say that one of my dear friends, Joe Pancaldi suffered a terrible accident and had died. He was just 21.

I was broken, leading worhip with the guys that night, broke me. During the song 'Blessed be your name' I just cried, during the breakdown of the song I just about managed to say why I was upset, and why I was worshiping so hard, the song says "When the darkness closes in, Lord, Still I will say; Blessed be the name of the Lord". In these times of trial, we have to press in to worship, we can't let the devil rob us of God.

So Joey, Brother, I will see you in heaven. You have been an inspiration.
It's been a hard week. I've been trying to press in, and some times have been easier than others. I can't understand God, I've given up trying, my week continues...

A few months ago I was very blessed to meet a girl who I think is awesome. She is so on fire for God, she's just fantastic. I'm going to keep her identity secret, it isn't fair to tell you who it is, so we'll refer to her as Friend. She does live about 500 miles away, but that won't give you much of a clue! Well anyway, we were chatting on Facebook. She starts tellling me about how she's backslidden a bit lately, back smoking a lot of weed and stuff, not been to church for a few weeks etc.

She said she's having trouble giving it to God... I've been a bit dry lately, but in faith I know that God CAN work miracles through me, so I thought to myself, I'm gonna pray for her, I'm going to claim her healing.

So, rebuked everything (still on Facebook chat) completely went to town gettin all the bad stuff away from her, God's glory fell on us both (like im in my living rooom and it feels like its 100 degrees here!) She starts feeling fire! So I tell her to keep liftin her hands to him, pray, worship, open up... It's all gone a bit crazy - she feels that God is setting her free, she's feeling pain and can feel her body changing ... So I thought WOW, Pretty cool!!!

But are you ready? Because this is where God really steps in, this is a copy from facebook chat IT BLOWS MY MIND!!!...

1:39amFriend
God has taken my weed
it was siting right here in my tobacos pouch and iv js opend it for acigaret n its gone!

1:40amJason
HA HA HA HA! NO WAY! SERIOUS??

1:40amFriend
for real i had a few buds of weed lft and a bit of pollen and its all gone

1:40amJason
wow!!!!!!

1:40amFriend
thts a powerful msg

1:40amJason
You see! That's how much he wants the best for you!!!!!!!

1:40amFriend
i cnt belive my eyes!!!!!!

So God set her free! And took the temptation of more weed away, by LITERALLY TAKING THE WEED AWAY!!!!!!!!! I'm pretty blown away by that!!!!

God is Good. All the Time.

662 miles of fun!

2008-05-30T16:03:00.002+01:00

It's been such a week!

Sunday: THRE3 played at an event called 'Believe' in Eltham, London. Brought back with us a friend called James. Legend.

Monday: Woodbridge with Collective, a day of doing sound for this Christian girl band.

Tuesday: Dudley Outpouring.

Wednesday: Bury St Edmunds to see our friend Chesh.

Thursday: Kensington Temple for day 88 of their revival.

All in all, a good week, 662 miles travelled, all for Jesus.

Getting my hands dirty...

2008-05-25T02:57:00.003+01:00

Well, above you see Dan identifing a problem with Big Matt's car. The problem with the car was that the rear suspension was shot.

Well, Big Matt having northern heritage is quite tight with his cash, so rather than pay £25 to get the new suspension fitted, he decided that he'd fit it himslef. He also decided that I'd join him.

Well, 5 hours after we started and we had a complete car again. We worked hard, I mean, these bolts have been on the car 15 years, they weren't keen on coming off! We didn't have all the tools a garage would have, we didnt have a hydraulic ramp, but we had just enough.

Well, even though it was a day of hard work, and it could have been avoided by a measely £25, we had a riot. It reminded me 1 Tim 4v5:

But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

Ok, so this is one verse picked out of a whole situation, and if you want to know more, I'd encourage you to read the whole book, but I want to pick out one small segment of that verse: ...do the work of an evangelist... We know that the role of an evangelist, is not only important, but is defined as a role that certain people made by God fufil.

But here's my link, I'm not a mechanic, Matt isn't a machanic (although he does like tinkering with cars!); but we got our hands dirty, not really knowing what we were doing. We just did it.

In light of the current revival taking the world by storm we all need to be doing the work of evangelists! We all need to be getting our hands dirty! Mark 2v31 Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Get your hands dirty...get out there, live it, preach it, do it.

BAM!!! FIRE!!!

2008-05-19T01:26:00.004+01:00

What an adventure! Let me tell you, this weekend has been AWESOME!

Firstly, have you heard about the Florida Outpouring? If you haven't, what rock have you been under!!! Check out this website www.freshfire.ca, Todd Bentley and his friends have found themselves at the centre of a massive revival! God TV have been broadcasting it every day, so check them out at www.god.tv

Anyway, I can't afford to fly to Florida, but fortunately, the outpouring is really kicking off in Dudley, so Dan, Big Matt and me headed down. Awesome! All in all, about 1200 people were packed into this conference centre because the church it came from was just too small. People were being well and truly being healed, people started walking, healed of arthritis, diabetes, bi-polar ... the list goes on and on!

Matt had a revelation of his own, a confirmation of direction in his life. I remember looking over and he was surrounded by people that he'd prayed for who were just chillin with God. I love Matt, he's awesome.

Trevor, the pastor at the Dudley Revival (www.revivalfires.org.uk) had just got back from Florida, and yes, the healings that followed were miraculous. More importantly than that, he brought the anointing oil back with him from Florida, and anointed EVERYONE (Yes, 1,200 people) with it. POWER.

Ok, so we got back around 5am Sunday morning, a good time had by all.

Sunday morning, a guy called Grant Smith was preaching at Kingsland Lexden, Grant is part of a charity called Hand in Hand (www.hihand.org). He was one of the best communicators I've heard this year. Top notch sermon about respecting each other whether the person in off the streets or a company director. Challenging concept, well delivered.

Sunday afternoon Dan and I went to Canterbury. An international speaker called Rob Rufus was preaching at Canterbury City Church (part of the new frontiers movement). An evening of good worship, then he spoke. Well. My goodness, a fantastic communicator, up there with the greats. A short sermon on shaking off religion, he didn't say through away your bibles, he encouraged you to experience God, and he turned up!

Rob is also part of the Florida Outpouring, as he travels around the globe he's bringing the healings, miracles, signs and wonders of Jesus with him.

After a brilliant meeting, and I'd prayed for a couple of people around me, I approached him and asked him if he would impart some of his anointing to me. In my mind, I thought that I'd stand there, feet shoulder-width apart, a good stance, he's not knocking me down, that doesn't happen to me. WRONG. After about 30 seconds, I was shaking all over, then I just collapsed like a heap lol! Jolts of electric surged through me, this, this was an awesome experience. God.

Well, after a while, I managed to pull myself up, and just felt God surging through me. There was a guy being prayed for, he was about 10 feet away, and I looked over and said to Dan, I want to pray for him, but there were about 6 people around him, and there was no way I could get in there. Dan said "push in", which is what I did.

Ok, this is where it gets good... My hand is lightly on his head, I just asked God to fill him with Fire - BAM, He's down! Away with the spirit! I'm thinking, hmmm, there really is something to this impartation stuff! So I go back to our little group, behind me a girl is being prayed for. One of our group said, "I think you should go pray for her" - 6 seconds, BAM - shes away!

This isn't about knocking people down, the impartation is about releasing the holy spirit into someones body. All glory to God, the reason I'm happy, is that God chose to use ME. And I'm SO HUNGRY FOR MORE!

In short, I am nothing, God is everything, God is Good.

AMEN!

The good, the bad ...

2008-05-11T23:37:00.002+01:00

Times are changing in the life of Jason Mageehan. Tonight, I'm awestruck by God, and yet focussing on what I don't have. These things I am focussing on are:
> A Job
> A Church
> Any Money
> A Woman
Still, neither did Jesus. What have we learned?!

Image is nothing, Thirst is everything, Obey your thirst.

2008-05-05T13:52:00.007+01:00

Rather unusually for me, I'd like to start with a passage from the bible. It's probab;y quite familiar to you, but please read it, and let it sink in...

When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!"

David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD's people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor."

Ok, so David was having a bit of a worship, he was a bit scared of God at the time, as God's wrath had killed a man not long ago. He wanted to show God how much he loved him. He danced, he sang, he humbled himself, and, well, yeh, he stripped. This was his act of worship - him saying, I am nothing, you are everything!

Don't worry, I'm not planning on stripping any time soon.

I was having a chat with a good friend of mine, and he quoted the sprite advert:
Image is nothing. Thirst is everything. Obey your thirst.

Wow! That's exactly what David did, he didn't care what people thought of him, he obeyed his thirst. His thirst for God.

So how often do we as Christians get so caught up in our image that we forget God? Let's remember this image can apply not only to us individually, but corporately too! Ask yourself, how much time did you spend getting ready to leave the house today, compare that to how much you have prayed today. How much have you spent on stuff you don't need, it just helps to make you look good, and how much have you given to God?

We NEED to look at this. Look at your church... What's their focus? Would they rather have shiny new windows or build an orphanage in Africa? Would they rather spend a day helping themselves, or helping others?

We need to shift our perception. We live in a 'what about me' culture. Yet Jesus started a 'what about God' culture. Let's look at 5 characteristics of God to get an idea of what a thirst for him should entail...

1. For HIS Glory...We don't need to know that the word Glory is mentioned 282 times in the bible to know that God likes to show off a bit! He's AMAZING! Look at the sky, day or night, it's awesome. Give him the glory for the things you do!

2. He's your FATHER...Father is a good word, we know he loves us, each of our names are written on his hand, and he knows EVERYTHING about us. Yet, he wants the best for us, and sometimes, that is discipline.

3. It's all about JESUS...Jesus teaches us that rules and regulations don't get us into heaven, a RELATIONSHIP with God DOES. If we focus on God like we would a boyfriend / girlfriend - how much different would our lives be?

4. It's FORGIVEN...We all do stuff wrong, repent, move on, DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PAST, move on closer and closer to God!

5. He'll sort you out...You need a miracle, ask for it! You want to see dead people raise? PRAY. You want to see money in your bank account? PRAY. You want to see people get out of wheel chairs? PRAY. You want to be in a good relationship? PRAY. You get the idea?!

It's important that we know these things. It's also important to know that God wants us to come before him like a child. Ask simply. God will not give you an award for the most elaborate prayer.

Only we can make Christianity complecated.

Don't.

Enjoy your relationshp with God, speak to him daily, make him proud, walk closer to him. Forget what anyone else says.

awesome... Pronunciation[aw-suhm] –adjective ... useage: inspiring awe: an awesome sight.

2008-04-14T00:51:00.003+01:00

Wow, what a day!

Firstly, I need to point out that I'm on crutches at the moment, I was standing on a chair and fell off while rigging a camera and I've chipped a bone in my foot, and it really hurts!

This morning Dan and I went to Lee's church, Kingsland Tiptree, where Lee was leading worship and preaching. A really good morning, Lee encouraged us to look beyond a person / ministry and look at the fruit being produced. In the example of Benny Hinn, although his style may not be to everyone's taste, there's little doubt that people are being saved, healed and set free. That is a good thing.

Then, home for a quick nap, followed by Dan, Lee, Tim and Adam coming round in Mrs Goggins (the CYO minibus) to pick up all the band equipment for an evening to be spent with Elim Clacton. Off we trundled, excited to say the least.

However, God likes to exceed expectations, and tonight he certainly did mine. For so long I've wanted to be free and engaging in worship, this evening, God's presence was so heavey, it moved me to tears. That's the first time I've been so moved, it was a truely awesome evening. Seeing my friends there too, Adam, Jane, Jules, Baby David, Cat, Jenny, Dan, Steve and even my Mum ... worshipping God most high. I'm on a high, I'm buzzing, I'm flying high!

My prayer tonight...
God, you are awesome, above all things
Your universe reflects a fraction of who you are
Tonight I want to re-affirm my love for you
I want to say sorry,
I was angry,
not because you weren't showing yourself to me
but because I wasn't seeing you
I thank you that you are who you are
you are the real deal
"no means of measure can define your limitless love"
Just wow.
God, please, please, PLEASE...
I want more.

God

2008-03-28T04:48:00.002Z

Everything is so inadequate! God is, in the true sense of the word, AWESOME!

I wonder what heaven will be like ... I wonder if we'll see all of God's story played out on a big screen, and I wonder how big my part would be, if such a screening were to take place!

I've prayed for people and seen them healed and set free, I've seen miraculous provision ... I KNOW God STILL does miracles today.

And yet, it seems so long since I have REALLY prayed into something. I guess I'm in a bit of a dry patch at the moment, but I want that to change.

Several things that are important to me in life at the moment seem wrong, and they need an infusion of God into them. Without God, isn't it all just 'smoke blowing in the wind' as Paul would say?

If you have a minute, would you echo my prayers for my life, my walk and my direction.

The Comfort Zone...

2008-02-18T02:02:00.005Z

Today has been a day.

Since the departure of Kristian from the Elim worship team (he's now married and living far far away), the team has been challenged to raise up leaders from within, and today was my morning.

To say I was bricking it would be putting it mildly, my nerves were all over the place I'd been sick the night before - being the guy at the front just isn't me. However, I took the challenge, got there having prayed loads, and I put my trust in God to do something good.

We got through practise after several technical hurdles, we'd had a great prayer time, and approaching the start of the meeting, I'm feeling charged up!

First song; How great thou art. Good song! Get to just near the end and guess what! STRING BREAKS! I could not believe it! Never happened to me before and there we are, first morning of me leading and I now have a useless guitar. However I felt God say 'relax' - I just had to go with it.

So, calmly I put the guitar down, and I worshipped. Fortunately I had a great team around me; Dan on Drums, Adam on Acoustic Guitar, Baby David on Bass, Jane on Piano / pads and Jules on Percussion, and on backing vocals Hanna, Claire and Jane. I was playing my trusty telecaster to lead from.

I have to say though, I really did worship, I was so free. Even without an instrument I was able to lead the band, we went up and down in dynamic and I really felt God move.

Managed to get a string on before the second set, which also went well; and no other breakages!

Afterwards, I was blessed with so many lovely comments. At lunch, I felt drunk, the spirit really rested on me. Awesome.

So here's my encouragement to you...step out of your zone. If you know me well enough, you'll know that I'd never do this off my own back. And yet, God blessed me for stepping out.

We should all step out of our comfort zone from time to time. JUST DO IT.

Valentines Day...

2008-02-08T09:41:00.000Z

Friends, it's once again been a while since my last post. I've been very busy! I'll update soon. However, I got an email today, and for the first time, i have found the value in Valentines day...i thought it was a clinton cards festival, but read on...

Valentine, the priest who Valentine’s Day is named after, was martyred for the godly institution of marriage.

The emperor of Rome , Claudius, passed a law banning marriages. His reason was simple: men would not volunteer to join his Roman army with wives and fiancées to leave behind. Valentine knew that God instituted the family and His will included marriages. So, he kept on performing marriage ceremonies - but in secret. He would whisper the words of the ceremony, while listening for soldiers on the steps outside.

One night, he did hear footsteps. The couple he was marrying escaped, but he was caught. He was thrown into prison and sentenced to death.

Valentine remained cheerful while he was in prison and many people came to the prison to visit him. He even continued to perform marriage ceremonies while he was in prison! The jailer’s daughter would often visit Valentine in his cell and they sat and talked for hours. She believed he did the right thing ignoring the Emperor and performing marriage ceremonies.

On the day Valentine was to die he left this girl a note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. He signed it, “Love from your Valentine”. That note, written on the day Valentine died – February 14th, 269 AD – started the custom of exchanging love notes on St Valentine’s Day.

General Update...

2007-12-08T02:25:00.000Z

Been a bit ill this week, bit of man-flu. Ok, loads of things to say, where do I start?

The return of 'Dinge-pit studios'! When I was in the flat, my 'studio' was dubbed dinge pit studios by my good friend scott, now I'm back home I needed a replacement! Fortunately the oppertunity has arisen! In our garden we have a pre-fab garage, roughly 6mtrs x 4mtrs which was my dads workshop. But with a little help from my friends we have been turning it into a studio!! Had a major problem with the roof though, as it was replaced by a cow-boy and it now leaks...that is being resolved this week by a nice guy called Jim who is going to repair it and sort it out! yay!

Got LOADS of equipment to put in there (been a bit of a spending spree), it's all sitting here in boxes and I can't touch any of it as...well, whats the point, I can't use it till it's all set up! another 2 weeks and it should be done!

Umm, THRE3 is going very well, next Wednesday we are working with Rev Thomas Yap, from the Essex Uni Anglican Chaplincy for an event they are hosting on site. We will be playing 2 quite long sets, music made up from U2, Delirious a couple of our own tunes(!) as well as some fun stuff thrown in for good measure! It's going to be a great event as Thomas has also got many other people and groups involved. Really hoping this is going to be a good evangelistic oppertunity.

Last week we were also invited to lead worship at Clacton Elim, a truely awesome evening! It was certainly louder than they were used to, thanks to Tim and the infamous CYO PA, it sounded immense! There was a real sense of presence there, it was so tangable, everyone was eager to get into 'that place'...some lovely comments afterwards too. It's not about that, its about more than that, its about doing God's work. Also very excited to hear that one person who came has completely changed their perspective on church, and is now actively seeking God, immense! THAT is what makes it all worth while.

Excited about things to come, Excited to get into dinge-pit studios and record an EP with Dan and Lee, Excited that God is SO awesome.

Worship Training Weekend

2007-11-20T23:13:00.000Z

Well, a rather interesting weekend has just gone by. THRE3, the new band I'm in with Dan and Lee, were asked to go and lead a worship training weekend for the team at Mill End Baptist Church in London.

We had such an AWESOME weekend! It was great to take not only our musical experiance and knowledge, but also the manifest presence of God...The whole weekend was just a huge blessing to us and to them.

I'm still exhausted though, I should have taken more Red Bull!

The weekend kinda went like this:
Friday evening, pack the van up and head to London, Lee and I arrived about 9pm, set up our stuff and went to our Host home. Dan had plans that evening, and joined us at about midnight. Sleep!

Saturday, up and off, first things first, COFFEE! Then a time of worship and then some teaching by Lee. Then Dan and I lead a workshop on band dynamics, orchestrating a song with them - they really enjoyed that, especially the singers! In 10 minutes they had a song with rising and falling dynamics. Then we handed it over to them to arrange a song. They started to get the hang of it.

Lunch! Then followed some teaching by Lee on communication within the team and stuff, all good, then we aksed them to pick a song, they picked a song me and Dan hadn't even heard of before! The challenge was us vs them! Was very funny. We won. (joke). Then we had quite a long Q&A section, followed by DINNER!

In the evening we had a praise and worship time that the whole church was invited to, not a huge amount of people came along, but we led, and God really turned up, the place was filled with his presence, and we got the chance to minister and pray with a few people, everyone else was just chilling out in Gods AWESOME presence.

Sunday morning, we led alongside their band, and Lee preached, it was great, although a bit weird not being in our home churches. Then Sunday afternoon, our hosts prepared the most MASSIVE sunday roast ever, and we filled our bellies before driving home.

Then we led with Lee and some of the Presence crew at Kingsland that evening. And, then we had chinese.

All in all, a FANTASTIC weekend!!!

Life...

2007-11-20T22:59:00.000Z

There I was, having a nice, relaxing evening...I thought to myself, I'll watch a comedy film and then catch up with some much needed sleep. So I flicked through the movies on www.alluc.org (great site) and watched 'Click' featuring Adam Sandler. I thought this was going to be a bit of mindless comedy...just the ticket!

Turns out, it's a fairly rubbish movie, but very thought provoking.

In Short, Adam Sandler gets a remote control that can control life. However, the remote control learns to fast forward automatically through all the crap in his life, and he very quickly gets old, lonely and dies. Fortunately, in true Hollywood style, it was all a dream and he returns home a changed man.

However, it still made me think - a lot, I have these questions:
> Am I just drifting through life, from week to week, making a small difference in the world?
> Do I just turn off, go into auto-pilot and miss the little things in life?
> Is life just passing me by?!
> What are my achievements to date / what are they going to be?
> Are my priorites right?

A lot to think about...and I'm going at it, not from a self indulgent point of view, but a WWJD point of view...Jesus made a difference in the world...as did his disciples.

If a bunch of fishermen can change the world, I'm sure I can!

Oh what a job.....

2007-11-15T12:52:00.000Z

Ok, this suprised me, especially as I thought the swiss were so conservative! Read on...
Sex for the disabled
A Swiss welfare group is recruiting volunteers to have sex with disabled people. The Basel-based Welfare Group for Disability and Sexuality already arranges erotic massages for people with disabilities.

But it is now providing full sexual intercourse and is also signing up gay volunteers to have sex with homosexual disabled people. The group's leader Aiha Zemp said it was a subject that "needed to be tackled." She said: "It's a big taboo that needs to be broken. Having sex is a basic human need like eating and drinking and we have to fight for this right for the disabled."

At present three men and one woman offer an erotic 'touching service,' and nine new volunteers have come forward to offer sex at £65 per hour. Among the new recruits are four men, two of them homosexuals. Zemp rejected criticism that the group were simply training up prostitutes.

"The big difference between the assistants and prostitutes is that the assistants show tenderness and are conscious of the needs of the disabled, rather than rushing and just taking the money," she said.
---------------------------------------------

Words can't explain it!

However, at £65 per hour (equivillant to £135,000 per year) I'm sure it's an attractive offer for some.