THIS MEANS WAR!!!

I was feeling pretty average the other day, so sat myself down to relax with some mid-morning TV (on ABC), I found myself enthralled by a documentary on war strategy (Dad would be proud)!

Here is some of what I learned about Defensive Battle Strategy (as used in World Wars I & II):

• OBJECTIVE - Have a clear mission and battle plan. Defend your lines and counter-attack in order to advance into enemy territory.
• INTELLIGENCE - Gain reliable information on the enemy's tactics, their capabilities, weapons, mission etc. to inform your own battle plans.
• TIME - Don't allow your enemy time to prepare their battle plan or gather their troops - it will work against you.
• CONCEALMENT - Effectively hide the troops you have, so your enemy is unaware of your true numbers; OR don't conceal your impressive numbers - in order to give them a scare!
• ABSORB ATTACK - Withstand and absorb enemy attack, even in the most intense part of battle. Slow down the enemy's advance, then counter-attack!
• REALISM - Be realistic about your objectives, don't over-stretch yourself in counter-attack or try to achieve too much too quickly. Be detailed and ambitious, but allow that your troops will need to regroup and resupply.

A couple of other points were made about this kind of strategy. The PSYCHOLOGY of your troops is important, they need to believe in the cause they are fighting for, in order for them to be willing to risk their very lives defending it! Making HIGH RISK decisions is also necessary and important, this is where you are able to turn the tide on your attackers...

We are in a battle for the souls of men & women, it is imperative that we don't allow our enemy, the devil, to gain ground because of our inability to be strategic about this war that we're in. Every aspect of this Defensive Battle Strategy can be used as a guide to launch our defense and prepare counter-attacks in this Salvation War (it can be used especially in organising a stretegic direction for your Corps or ministry!). Let's rediscover the strategic, fighting heart of this Salvation Army and launch another attack... let's take some ground in the name of Jesus!!!!

Images - painting by Hank Henke (top), illustration pinched from David Collinson's blog (bottom)

Easter - Jesus died for YOU! Get to know him!

Whew! What a whirlwind that Easter was! Pete & I had opportunity to share a Good Friday "preview" at Sunrise last Thursday (Chapel). Pete laid the "Jesus died for you" message right out there on the line, answered a bunch of questions the guys had and challenged them to take Jesus as their life-saver... The classic line used to preach the gospel was "God is like KFC, we can't just walk up and take the chicken, there is a person we need to go through to get to the chicken (Jesus as a check-out chick with a difference!). The guys really connected with that one!

That night (Thursday) we went to a Passover meal at Darwin Corps, more than a hundred people rocked up! It was awesome to explore that last meal Jesus had, which he celebrated as a Jew and we can now recognise as a way to celebrate Jesus himself as the promised Messiah! (Messiah=a saving leader the Jews have been expecting for thousands of years, many recognised it was Jesus, others are still waiting to this day!).

Friday saw the kick-off of the NT Youth Easter Camp, we went to church (the Drama was awesome! that couple who were acting... second to none! hehe), then stayed out at Howard Springs at "Camp Beazley" (really a big property where the Beazleys live, they were great hosts). Camping out in tents during the wet season was a huge experience - we had two ridiculous rain storms, one which blew a big marquee tumbling across the yard! Only one person's bed got wet in the storms (guess who! grrr).
I spun-out at the go-karts (going too fast), Pete looked hilarious in his full-face helmet and one of the girls crashed while she was too busy waving! The Beazley's pool was well-used by all, especially the Melbournians! (it was HOT!). During the camp we learnt about prayer, justice and were challenged in our understanding of Jesus death and ressurrection - what did that mean personally?
The Camp Leaders had a rocking prayer meeting where the power of the Holy Spirit fell - everyone was amazed by God as leaders knelt, faces to the floor in prayer for the campers. The last night we sat round a campfire and shared about what camp meant to each of us, talked about Jesus' impact on our lives and how life from now on could be different, we could feel the Holy Spirit was there and active!

Where to from camp? We've invited the kids to our Sunday night Revolution Group, an opportunity to go deeper in learning and experiencing what it means to be a Revolutionary for God.

Monday Pete and I hung out at home, caught up on some sleep and reading, then Tuesday slept in some more and after lunch spent some time praying with one of the Sunrise guys that God is really working on (*please pray for him*). Afterwards we did the afternoon shift at Sunrise Homeless Mens accommodation.

Only a week to go here at Sunrise, then on to Darwin Corps... time is really flying by!

A final thought (as shared at Sunrise devotions today):

We can know OF people, we can know ABOUT people and we can KNOW people.
Do you know OF Jesus? Know ABOUT Jesus? or KNOW Jesus?

Because Jesus KNOWS YOU!!! - see Psalm 139!

TSAASTTCGFC - Grand Final Challenge, an update

Well things are progressing well, then bam!... its the final day of the challenge!
I won't provide a comprehensive list, but here are a couple more things we got up to:

• Pete blogged recently about evangelising a prank caller, next time one calls, try it! (Or maybe you could get a telemarketer saved!)
• We've had the privilege of collecting heaps over this past week, 4 attempts with 614 (Melb Central and Southern Cross Stations), we didn't get confirmed amounts, but each day my tin was packed to the limit with notes and lotsa gold, I pray that money will see people saved through 614!
• In a recent outreach night, Steve put Pete and I on the line when a gangsta-kinda guy came to 'preach' at us about the Salvos, we had 2 minutes each to share the gospel (which he agreed to listen to... yeah!), we didn't see any radical salvation that night, but on my parting handshake, I slipped the guy a little gospel of Mark - he thought that was hilarious and kept it - heres praying the gospel will stay with him till Jesus gets his heart!
• Collected $696 for Carlton Corps at Lygon Court shopping centre (nice), as I was collecting a uni student set up a henna tattooing table (henna - temporary painted tattoo). After my shift I asked her to paint me a cross and the words "Jesus Saves", to my disappointment, she said she'd especially love to write those words on my arm... turns out she's a believer! praise the Lord! Now I have a ready-made evangelistic opener, lets see some people saved this week!
• Prayer-walked the Collingwood area with Xander and Pete, along the way we met a guy from a past outreach in the park. Made a meaningful contact there, also prayed for rain.... since then we've received a healthy drenching!!! ;o)
• Freedom Friday last week we saw 4 College-mates meeting in the 707 prayer room. A time of focussed prayer and great mutual encouragement to continue the fight for freedom!
• Last night had an awesome night out with some mates of ours, I'm believing for the next Gowans and Lllarson!!! Candidates papers are getting sent their way today! whoo!

Well thats some of the cool stuff we've been up to for the kingdom! By the way, I'm loving the challenge and the way it has given me an opportunity to push forward in the fight! Maybe this should be a year-round focus to get us active in prayer, proclamation, evangelism and building character! I don't really care about whatever prize the challenge-winner gets, I care more that I've been challenged to reach my world for Jesus and in doing that, the prizes are fully eternal for myself and the people I've had the awesome opportunity to reach out to!

If you're interested in doing the challenge with your young people over the summer break - which I highly encourage! (its heaps better than sleeping in and playing the PS3/Xbox!), you can find the official list at the armybarmy blog in the 16th Dec post (thanks Steve!).

TSAASTTCGFC (Grand Final Challenge)

I think a few people already know about the Grand Final Challenge presented for this final 3 weeks of college. Basically we're challenged to form teams of 3 and choose tasks to complete out of a range of different options, there's evangelism, personal growth and other variations of Christian mission, ministry & formation (even the kooky stuff! hehe). I'm proud to say my team is made up of Pete, Xander Coleman and myself. We're pumped for the challenge to reach more people for Jesus and dive deeper in our personal commitment to the Lord!

Thus far our challenge tasks have included:

• Ridiculously early prayer (2-5am) - God used that time for empowering, edification and some serious intercession!
• Fasting (we chose to go a 'Freedom Friday' this week)

Since this is only the beginning, we're just getting warmed up, but we're praying to see some serious spiritual fruit out of this exercise. Praise the Lord for the challenge, it's certainly stirred things up!

So you think you can PREACH?

Macleod last night, 5 preachers "pitted against" a congregation of young people in a battle for Salvation & Holiness....

Preachers drew a preaching topic out at random and had five minutes to prepare before letting loose on the young people. Topics and Preachers were:

Alana - Trinity
Amazing for a first-time preacher! She had a go at a tough topic and ripped through it in record time! Keep an eye out for this young woman, she's got it!

Pete - Salvation
Shared his extreme passion for souls from a passage in Luke 4 - the bit with Jesus reading from Isaiah. Challenged the youth to lay down their sin before God and step into new life with Christ!

Jo - Worship
I brought a notebook with me to scribble notes on, as I opened it, found I'd scratched out some notes & bible verses on worship ages ago! (praise the Lord!). Preached also from Isaiah 58, using an out of tune guitar as an illustration for our worship being out of tune with God's desire for worship!

James - Holiness
Typical of Jamsie to get his favourite topic! This crafty guy organised a 'backing track' with the band, rocking it out with some holiness passion and laying down truth so thick we didn't know what hit us!

Tish - Choices
Man this girl has a seriously quick brain! She chucked in about 15 verses on choices and gave us the low-down on our choice between wisdom and foolishness.

The "all-in challenge" saw all 5 preachers up the front backed by the band, and being led by the Spirit in challenging some radical response. Tell you what, we saw some serious sanctification happening at the foot of the cross! A massive night for youth, by youth (yay Sarah McIver! love you!), this definitely has to be done again and reproduced across the world!!!!

CONNECTIONS 07!!!

Off to the first of many Connections 07 meetings today... (my first Officers Councils! yeah!).
I hope you've signed up to be a delegate, but if not, there's plenty of events you can rock up to at no charge. Check out the Connections page here. Make plans to be at the march, its gonna be awesome!

Well thats it for now, things are looking good here at college, the Heralds are mega-pumped for their commissioning and the Witnesses are just loving the ride....

See ya there!!!!

Dreams and Visions

The night before last night I had a dream, one of those dreams that wake you up because they're so different to reality that you just know it can't be real (which is sad in this case!).

Anyway, I was dreaming about normal stuff, I was the leader of a youth event and the kids wanted to grab some food from the supermarket. They were all lined up with their goodies at the register when I ran in to tell everyone to get moving, because Jesus was coming and we had to get to a specific place (not sure where). I ran back outside and the entire sky was glowing, mostly bright reddy-pink like a sunset, but also half-covered with rainbow upon rainbow, upon rainbow.... It seems kinda weird, but I had this new 'gift' where I could run super-fast and I ran all over the place letting people know they had to come to the place where Jesus was going to be. Then I woke up... it was one of those dreams you want to 'get back into'...

Now this is completely unscriptural as far as dreams go... perhaps I had had one too many conversations about "the end of the world" or seen one too many movies about superpowers, BUT...

Last night at Waverley Salvos Youth service ('Fusion' @ 8pm).... I was blown away...

It was a great service, with a great message - "is Jesus the MOST important?"

Heaps of kids were responding with prayer while "None but Jesus" was playing on CD, when BOOM! the dream smacked me in the head. I suddenly understood part of what it meant...

I still have a huge heart to see young people saved.... to see them run after Jesus.... and to see God do the miraculous in our world. My job? run around everywhere as fast as I can to tell everyone to get ready, to get "in the right place" for when Jesus returns.

Whoa, what a challenge.

Are you ready? he won't be long...

"When the last days come, I will give my Spirit to everyone. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will have dreams. In those days I will give my Spirit to my servants, both men and women, and they will prophesy. I will work miracles in the sky above and wonders on the earth below. There will be blood and fire and clouds of smoke. The sun will turn dark, and the moon will be as red as blood before the great and wonderful day of the Lord appears. Then the Lord will save everyone who asks for his help."

ACTS 1:17-21

SALVATION... SPIRIT... GOT IT??

Do you ever wonder if people really know what it means to be saved? As a Christian who is still young, but has learnt a few things along the way, I am starting to wonder if we're getting a little bit mushy around the edges with our definitions. Lately I've been Blog-hopping in Salvo circles, going to a lot of classes at Salvo college, some at Whitley too and generally having chats with different people.... and you know the more I hear, the more confused I get. I'm the kind of person who likes to keep things simple (I didn't say anything about clean or neat!!!), to have truths in my life that are unchanging.... God loves me, my husband loves me, the sun will rise, I'm living life for Jesus, that kinda stuff.

From all different sources I'm starting to hear some warped things

• people mixing religions the same way they mix drinks (being a Salvo, I don't know how to do either!)
• people watering down what God requires of his kids (evangelism, passion, growth, commitment)
• people forgetting what being a Christian (or a Salvo), is really about (saving souls... anyone??)
• people thinking that you have to 'make it' as a Christian before you can do ministry (just live it and do what the Holy Spirit says!)

I want to hear some more Catherine & William Booth's around, some more Samuel Logan Brengle's stirring the place up, some Isaiah's and Paul's getting in your face with the real deal!!!! Catherine Booth was one smart and spirit-filled lady, she didn't beat around the bush, she let everyone know what the truth was and then challenged people to think about it... what a woman of God! In her "Aggressive Christianity" sermons/book, she provides some pretty hard-hitting definitions of what Salvation really is... and never tries to water it down, in fact she expands on it so much that your head almost explodes with the force of truth in it!!! (Read it! I dare you..)

The thing that is frustrating me to the point of screaming - is the stuff I'm reading in these books (add "Revolution" and surprise, "The Bible"), holds answers for the kind of Christian I KNOW I want to be, this is the mission I want to live!!!! the conviction I want to have!!! In these books I see a passion so far beyond just 'really liking' something... there's a passion in there that threatens to be an all-consuming desire of your life! (Oh, Lord make it so!)

I want to see a passion with legs, walking around the place and stirring things up!!! I want the Holy Spirit live and active in more people's lives, to the point where they're so passionate they seem nuts!!! Anyone else want to see another Pentecost??? Please if you have influence over the spiritual lives of others, I implore you....

DON'T REST UNTIL YOU HAVE THIS PASSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR YOURSELF!!!
THEN LET IT SO INVADE YOUR LIFE - THAT YOU WILL ALLOW IT TO SPILL IT OVER ALL THOSE AROUND YOU!!!

How can we be happy with second-best, when we could have life in abundance through the Holy Spirit! Don't allow your Christianity to be watered down, get the Holy Spirit now... just ask and see what he will do with you!!!

"In the last days, God said, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.

In those days I will pour out my Spirit upon all my servants, men and women alike, and they will prophesy." ACTS 2:17-18