Melbourne Praise Centre

One more post about the Melbourne Praise Centre. I've been away from that wonderful group of people including Pst Yudah Soetopo and his family now for a few weeks and I keep thinking about them. God is moving in their midst in a truly amazing and gracious way! They are awesome people... Awesome in the Lord! If ever you get a chance to go to Melbourne, or better yet if you are living in Melbourne and don't have a Church home, get in touch with them. You will be blessed! Their Church web site is www.melbournepraisecentre.org.au

Melbourne Praise Center!

I'm in Melbourne, Australia with the Melbourne Praise Center for two Sundays, the primary reason was for a camp this last week-end but also for a variety of other engagements ranging from a leaders meeting to home meetings and then finally a Sunday service for their City Congregation this coming Sunday. Tonight we had a combined cell ministry service and on Saturday we will have an evangelistic service. Exciting and awesome!!!

Tonight I met a young lady at the service who is now living in Melbourne who was previously at a Church I ministered at in Indonesia, I'm thinking about 4 years ago. She reminded me of how I had spent 15 minutes ministering to her specifically to help her to forgive her brother. I remembered it and how she had been a particularly difficult case but had finally received a breakthrough. She then introduced me to him tonight and hugged him, saying that she love's him so much! She encouraged me to keep ministering because I don't know what the results are going to be. I needed to hear that tonight.

With that, I want us all to be encouraged that even when we spend a few minutes with someone, we never know how life changing it can be. The greatest investment that we can make in someone's life is to take the time to pray with them and stand in the gap for them in their time of need. God always wins, and we need to enforce His victory in prayer.

Follow to Lead

Sometimes, We must Follow to Lead

I was walking with my 9 year old son Ethan on a very busy street with no sidewalk and huge trucks zipping along. It was actually pretty scary. We had to go single file but I did not want him to follow me because of the danger. I put him in front of me and walked him along with my hands on his shoulders while keeping a watchful eye on the situation. I led him by following him. The Lord spoke to my heart at that time, “This is how you must lead people so that they will learn how to become leaders themselves.”

With all three of my sons, I have coached them in sports. As I have taught them how to swing a bat or a club, often, I have stood behind them, showing them the best placement of arms, hips, best stance, etc. Again, standing behind them to lead.

At Church on Sunday, a dear woman came up to me and said, “Pastor Steve, the Lord told me to tell you, that if you want to lead these people, that you must follow them to lead them.” She had no idea what she was telling me. She could not have possibly known about my experience on the road with Ethan just days before.

Athletic teams often have coaches and team captains. The team captain is a player who is in leadership, but he is submitted to the coach and cannot actually do the job of the coach. Sometimes in ministry, people who are supposed to be coaches end up being more like team captains, spending so much time doing the work, that never coach anyone, never train leaders. The Apostle Paul explained in the Bible that the more senior leaders of the Church are called to train the people for works of service.

I admit that one of the hardest things for me to do is to delegate. To allow less experienced people to do too much. Partially because I am somewhat a perfectionist and also because it is usually less bothersome to simply do things myself.

And so I humbly receive this correction from the Lord. I am determined to do more leading by following. How about you?

A Season of Cleansing and Growth

Yesterday evening was amazing! We baptized two precious people at a Life Group in a community swimming pool! Awesome! The Life Group is a new one held every Thursday night in the Valley Verde area of Pasig, Metro Manila. Please let me know if you are interested in joining. The group runs just over 10 people, mostly consisting of people who know nothing about the Bible. They come from a tradition where they attended a service but were not trained to read or think for themselves. It is very basic and powerful. Most of our other Life Groups held throughout the week get deeper because the attendees are seasoned Christians. Whatever your need, we can place you in just the right environment. Contact me directly at pastorstevemckinney@gmail.com or on Facebook using the same Email address to look me up.

We have also been cleaning out closets as a Church, burning relics and idols and all kinds of related activities. The past month has consisted of messages and prayer times focused on making our lives as pure and pleasing to God as possible, which includes getting rid of all the physical things and the attitudes that hinder us.

It is amazing what God is doing and I would encourage all of my readers to do the same thing. There is a song entitled "Pleasing to You" by Jared Anderson which has been instrumental in this process for us as a Church which I would like to share with you. Click on the link below to view it on YouTube with the words.

Paul's Encourager

2 Corinthians is loaded with scriptures which point to Titus as one who greatly encouraged Paul. Of course we know that Paul appointed him as a Pastor, sent him on journey's, considered him a Brother as well as a Spiritual Son and wrote a letter to him which is now an important Pastoral Epistle. One of these scriptures recently hit me square between the eyes.

2 Corinthians 2:12-13 (NIV)
"12 Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, 13 I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia."

It is obvious that Paul was in need of encouragement and he intended to receive it from Titus. It seems he was expecting to find Titus in Troas. I don't know what was going in in Paul's life that he would be this desperate for encouragement from a specific guy, but I do know that I can relate. There have been times that I needed to seek out a particular individual that I knew was "the one" to encourage me. I have even taken a flight to get to a specific person in my time of need. Paul needed, as the scripture reveals, "peace of mind."

He then gives us an incredible insight. Even though God had opened a door for powerful and effective, needed ministry for him in Troas, he said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. Amazing! Paul left a place where God had opened a door. Now we could split hairs about the difference between an "open door" and being "called" to a place, but let us remember that there are no accidents in God. Paul showed up in Troas because God led him there. Maybe he was able to accomplish his task quickly and was released to move on, but the bottom line is that he moved on for the purpose of finding Titus so that he could gain "peace of mind" through Titus's ministry of encouragement to him.

What an amazing example that Paul set's for us that when we need to be refreshed, that we had better do whatever it takes to get to a refresher. And what an awesome example of an encourager that Titus is to us. I wish I could get with him now! He must have been an amazing man of God!

I could teach a 12 part series here but I won't. If this topic grabs your attention, get your concordance out and go for it. Look for the name Titus. You will be amazed at the wealth of insight about what it means to be an great encourager you will find as Paul describes his relationship with Titus in the scriptures.

But I do want to say one thing which will be my main and ending point. Believers all have the same Spirit inside of us and we are all anointed of the Lord. The potential is there for us to be amazing encourager's one to another. But very few really are.

You could be so empowered by God, so filled with His word to the brim that your face literally glows and miracles flow from your hands. But if you enter a room with a frown on your face or with your spirit in a bad place (you could say with a wrong attitude), you WILL drag everyone in that room down into your pit with you. You must choose to overcome your emotions, circumstances and difficulties. You must choose to rise up and encourage someone else in spite of the way you feel. You must choose to smile, touch, be excited and faith filled. But it has to be genuine. You must lay your burdens at the feet of Jesus before you can encourage someone else. But if you will get your attitude right and will work with the Holy Spirit who the Bible declares works mightily within you, maybe you will become the kind of encourager Titus was to Paul. Just maybe, we don't have many like Paul today because we don't have many like Titus today.?.? Let's change that starting with ourselves!

Not a beggar but a Barber

I saw on the streets of Manila, something that is an unusual site, even for the Philippines. A man was cutting hair on the sidewalk. He only had a stool, comb, scissors and towel but he had a line of 3 people waiting. The cardboard sign attached to the stool advertised 20 pesos. That's under 50 cents in US currency. A haircut in a mall runs about 4 dollars and in a street side shop, maybe a dollar plus. But I love the attitude of this man. No job, no shop, no capital, but he found a way to work and not to beg. Maybe some of his customers are beggars? Could be! But I love it! May more people develop a "can do" attitude like his!

I'm reminded that God does not respond to prayerful begging either. God responds to faith. I was given a prophetic word many years ago in which God told me that "...because you haven't begged, because you have stood firm in faith, I will release blessing in your life and ministry." It started to happen the very next day.

I'll break one of my own rules here and use this Cliche: If you want to be on the "cutting edge" of what God is doing, then don't beg. Instead, do something with what God has placed in your hands.

don't be Half Cooked

Psalm 66:10-12 explains that God allows us to be tested as silver and that among other things, we are brought through fire and water. This is a similar thought to the instructions that God gave the Israelites in Numbers 31. After they had returned from battle, they were to pass everything that could be passed through fire, literally through fire in order to purify it. Everything else which could not withstand fire had to be passed through water in order to be purified. Even the returning soldiers clothes had to be washed before they could re-join the camp. Passing something either through fire or water in ceremonial terms is a purification process which in life terms as the Psalmist explained is akin to passing through challenges and tribulations.

We want our hearts purified and we want to become like pure gold with the dross (impurities) drawn to the surface and removed, but there is a process and the process must be completed. The key word is "through" and the implication is all the way through.

The first time I saw an oven with a conveyor belt, I believe was at a Burger King. They put the raw burger on the belt at the front of the oven and it came off the back perfectly cooked every time. Nobody sticks a spatula in there to remove one before it's done, er, unless something breaks. I have seen similar ovens for pizza and many other kinds of food. In essence, the item being cooked is being passed through the fire.

Back before conveyor belt ovens or ovens with heat on both top and bottom, the only way to fully cook an item was to flip it, to turn it. In our homes, we use pans. In more primitive times, hot rocks were often used.

Hosea 7:8 (NIV) remarks of a rebellious Ephraim (tribe of Israel), “Ephraim mixes with the nations; Ephraim is a flat loaf not turned over."

Verse 11 of the same chapter says that Ephraim is like a senseless dove that is easily deceived. How many could it be said of in the Church today that because they mix with outside influences, because they have not been adequately purified, because they are like Ephraim, half cooked, are so easily deceived? I don't know the stats but I know it is many. I know it has been me on many an occasion.

How often I have run away from the process, the purifying, avoided the storm rather than going through it? Too many times to count! There is comes again! The same test that I didn't take the last time. And I want to advance? There is no advancement until this levels exams have been passed. Verse 9 states that Ephraim's hair is turning gray but he doesn't even realize it. Nobody enjoys being the oldest in the class!

Jesus wants us to become like him. He is Bread for the hungry and Water for the thirsty. When non believers come into contact with us, we should be as refreshing for them as a meal of pancakes and milk would be in the morning for a weary traveler who has arrived at their destination in the morning. But if we are not turned, only half cooked, then that non believer will be put off at best. They will leave our table muttering something about hypocrites because we claim to be something wonderful, a Christian, but in reality we are as inedible as a pancake not turned.

I was anticipating a dinner of b-b-q ribs several years back. When it was almost time for dinner, a large platter of ribs lathered in rich sauce was brought in from the patio and the house was filled with the wonderful aroma! "I want my baby back baby back baby back..." (if you don't get that part, don't worry about it) My mouth was exploding... I hadn't eaten and I was HUNGRY. I grabbed a rib and took a bite but I stopped mid bite. My mouth filled with blood and the temperature nearer to the bone was cold. Um... It wasn't sushi and it was pork... Not good!

I was severely disappointed because even though the cook tried to rectify the situation, it just didn't turn out the way it should have. I ate a hot dog instead and even went through a McDonalds drive through later.

I had been deceived by the reputation, the look and the smell. I had been offered a half cooked helping of ribs. Upon investigation, I found that the ribs had been put on the grill almost straight from the freezer. The cook had been running late..

As Christians, we need to make sure we have gone through God's purifying processes, eliminated the foreign elements in our lives by allowing them to be burned out. No longer avoiding conflicts, trials and challenges, but rather, willingly going through them with God's help. In America, we often hear it said, "don't jump from the frying pan into the fire." In other words, no matter how hot it gets, trust that the Lord your Great Cook will not allow you to over cook but that you will always come out just right. Tried in the fire and purified like Gold.

This is where I ask myself and hopefully you also ask yourself what areas in your life may be half cooked. In what ways are we no different than non believers? What are the flaws that we have failed to submit to the Lord to transform from weaknesses into strengths?

Pray with me? Father, may your Holy Spirit search us now and may we be open to see and hear about and improve in every area that we fall short. Cook me to perfection in the fires of this life so that I may enter into eternal glory with you and bring many with me who taste and see that You are good through my life devoted to You. Amen!