No letters after my name. Free to be me.

Death By Ministry | Part 4

In continuation of Mark Driscoll’s series, “Death By Ministry,” this week the focus is the cause of stress. Driscoll lists 43 causes of stress for pastors and leaders. This list is extrapolated from the book, “Time Bomb and The Church.” This book was written by a guy who’s dad was a pastor and burnt out by the role.

I am not a pastor or a leader, but I take note of these things cause if I was in such a position one day, the last thing I want to do is burn out. Having said that, I am responsible for a number of ministries at church and at times, burnout is within my radar. I encourage any pastor, leader or ministry volunteer to plug into this series. Below then is the list of stress causers..

1. Marriage
2. Troubles with boss
3. Detention in jail or other institution
4. Death of spouse
5. Major change in sleeping habits
6. Death of a close family member
7. Major change in eating habits (amount of food or change in meal hours)
8. Foreclosure on a loan
9. Revision of personal habits (dress, manners, associations, etc.)
10. Death of a close friend
11. Minor violation of the law
12. Outstanding personal achievement
13. Pregnancy
14. Major change in the health of a family member
15. Sexual difficulties
16. In-law troubles
17. Major change in number of family get-togethers
18. Major change in financial status
19. Gaining a new family member
20. Change in residence
21. Child leaving home
22. Marital separation
23. Major change in church activities
24. Marital reconciliation
25. Being fired from work
26. Divorce
27. Changing to a different line of work
28. Major change in the number of arguments with spouse
29. Major change in responsibilities at work
30. Wife beginning or ceasing work outside the home
31. Major change in working hours or conditions
32. Major change in usual type or amount of recreation
33. Taking on a mortgage
34. Taking on other major loans
35. Major personal injury or illness
36. Major business readjustment
37. Major change in social activities
38. Major change in living conditions
39. Retirement from work
40. Vacation
41. Christmas
42. Changing to a new school
43. Beginning or ceasing formal schooling

My antidote against stress and burnout is the following scripture…

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5

I have not perfected this at all and many times, I go ahead on my own strength - only rushing towards burnout. As I mature (lol - there’s a thought provoking idea) I aim to abide more in Jesus - I just want to figure what that really means without all the cliché and feelings of self righteousness. Abiding in Christ is more than reading a tacky devotional or praying a mantra. I’ll be sure to blog about it when I figure it out.

In the mean time, you can view Driscoll’s latest message below.

Tags: Mark Driscoll, Death By Ministry, The Resurgence, Ministry

Murdering Our Unborn

WARNING: This post contains video’s of murdered unborn children. I post this for the sake of awareness - not entertainment. Viewer discretion extremely advised.

With an opening like that, you know I’m talking about abortion. As a father of two, I love my children with all I am. As a volunteer in my church’s children’s ministry, I have the privilege of caring for the children of others. I love kids. I love their innocence and their sense of wonder at the smallest detail us adults find mundane.

Myself being over six feet tall, I love the littleness of kids, the size of their hands and the ability to pick them up and turn them upside down with great ease and the effortless achievement of sticking multiple pairs of their shoes into one of mine.

You can begin to imagine the horror I felt when I came across the following video from Symphony Of Scripture - a fellow Aussie blogger. Please note, this is an extremely graphic video showing the discarded remains of aborted children. This is extremely distressing viewing and has affected me ever since I have watched it - so please be warned.

Some abortion facts:

• There were 1.29 million abortions in the US in 2002.
• Between 1973 - 2000, 42 million abortions took place in the US alone.
• It is estimated that 46 million abortions occur every year on this planet.
• At the lower end of the scale are countries like Belgium (11.2/100 pregnancies end in abortion) and the Netherlands (10.6/100).
• The planets average is 26/100 pregnancies end in abortion
• At the higher end of the scale are countries like Vietnam (43.7/100) and Russia (a staggering 62.6/100)

Sometimes these figures mean nothing until they are extrapolated into a “daily” reality. If the world aborts 46 million children a year, that means that just over 126,000 babies are murdered every day.

Abortion also makes a mockery of God’s intent for mankind..

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalms 139:14-16

This verse cuts to shreds the stupid debate as to when does a fetus become a human being. While in the womb, God is aware of the life being created and His eyes are upon the being. Before the child is born, God knows how many days that child will live - that is if mankind had not intervened.

The video above shows the discarded remains of the “frames” God was looking at in the “secret places”. He would known what that child would have achieved in life. He would have known the struggles and the victories that child would have encountered. He would’ve known how difficult it would’ve been for many of those children.

But does hardship or illness mean we have to freakin murder these kids before they ever had a chance to exit the womb and enter life?

A website I came across in my research for this post is called abort73.com. It’s an activism website against abortion. I’m not into the whole pro-life v’s pro-choice thing. I’m sick of it - for many reasons. I’m just heart broken for these murdered children. I’m heart broken for the heart of God as He deals with 46 million children, of which He had a plan and purpose for, are snuffed out by mankind. I’m heart broken for the mothers as they deal with the consequences of their actions. And I’m heart broken for those that don’t care as they have missed the sacredness of human life.

Check out the abort73.com video here.

If you are reading this post and are contemplating abortion, please stop right. And think. And feel. What seems like an inconvenience right now, will end up in murder. And guilt. For the rest of your life. I encourage you to check out abort73.com and understand the reality of abortion.The good news is that abortion rates peaked in 1980 and have generally declined since. This is because of awareness. I choose to spread the awareness by having a banner on my blog. I hope you do as well.

Tags: Abortion, Pro Life, Pro Choice, Murder, Children, abort73.com

Benny Hinn | Freak

My rant against Benny Hinn.

I want to go on record as a person pointing my finger at a nut case called Benny Hinn. I have previously posted on his wife here. But this post is dedicated to a dirty little Israelite.

Tofik Benedictus Hinn was born in Jaffa on December 2, 1952 to a Greek father and an Armenian mother. In 1968, his family migrated to Canada where he was raised in a Greek Orthodox Church in Toronto. He was said to have a stammer and I so wish the freak still stammered cause he then wouldn’t have deceived millions around the world into putting their faith in a fruit loop and pouring their money into a bogus ministry.

As an Aussie, I sometimes sit back and wonder how the rest of the world, and in particular the Americans, are so conned into giving their money to a lunatic. Let’s call a spade a spade. Hinn is filthy rich. The man drips money and is a massive advocate of the “prosperity gospel.” I feel like grabbing this idiot and screaming in his ear that the Jesus he talks about was a broke and homeless middle aged street kid who didn’t have a regular place to lay His weary head - a far cry to Hinn’s $8.5 Million house in Dana Point, California.

If the language in this post is a little strong, it’s because I cant stand people who rip off others in need and wanting to know God. It’s like when Jesus went nuts in the Temple when He witnessed the “den of thieves” ripping off the people in their attempt to be right with God. He went nuts and wrecked havoc in the Temple court yards. I sit here at a keyboard in Melbourne, Australia. I wish I could over throw tables and scream at people like Hinn right now.

To rub salt into the wounds, in December 2006, Hinn sent his mailing list a request to fund the purchase of a $36 Million Gulfstream G4SP aircraft. His so called “Crusades” meant Hinn and his cronies NEEDED to travel around in a personal $36 Million air craft. And his faithful, and totally gullible, followers were asked to foot the bill. Give me a break.

Time and time again, many people have tried to expose the false teachings and false healing of Hinn’s “Crusades.” YouTube had a number of video’s exposing Hinn’s heretical teaching and bogus claims to healing. But, being rich, Hinn got his lawyers involved and banned such video’s from screening - therefore negating the curious from seeking the truth.

But power to the people! There are still heaps of sites out there condemning this pathetic person. The CBC ran a damaging report on Hinn’s ministry below. Being CBC material, Hinn’s lawyers can’t do anything to take it off the net.

Hinn stresses the importance of a “revelation from God” to pump up his so called “crusades.” He likes to use a revelation to con people into believing that what he is doing is ordained by God. A litmus test for situations such as is the following scipture…

But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. Deut 18:20-21

LOL - Hinn is stacking up for himself, bogus revelation after bogus revelation of so called prophecies. Below are just a few of them I have located in a simple Google search…

• March 3rd, 2003 will be a day of massive transformation around the world.
• That resurrected people would watch Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) - TBN is run by another looney tune called Mr Crouch.
• Jesus appearing physically to Muslims.
• Jesus will physically appear at a crusade in Nairobi, Kenya. (What a great promo for his crusade in Nairobi 19 days later)
• Castro will die in the 1990’s.
• America’s homosexuals will be destroyed by fire in 1995.
• Syria’s President, Hafez Al-Assad, will pioneer a peace plan with Israel. When Assad dies 3 months later without implementing a peace plan, Hinn claimed that it was, “God’s plan for it not to happen.”

I’m sure there are countless other “prophecies” made by Hinn which haven’t seen the light of day. How should we respond to such a man? The video below outlines this for us…

You know what really makes me laugh? What really gets under my skin? It’s that this vermin then has the audicity to “curse” people opposed to what he is doing.

Well Benny, I oppose you. I expose you for being a fraud and a false teacher and freakin idiot masquerading as a ‘pastor’ while ripping off millions. Why don’t you join your pathetic wife in your special place in hell. Maybe your personal jet can whisk you there and leave the rest of the hurting world free to seek what God has for them instead of what you claim.

I salute you Benny. Unlike Jesus, you are Israel’s most pathetic export.

Tags: Benny Hinn, Heretic, False Teaching]]>

On The Lighter Side

A friend of mine emailed me the following….

A pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won. The pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again, and it won again. The local paper read…

PASTOR’S ASS OUT FRONT!

The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the pastor not to enter the donkey in another race. The next day, the local paper headline read…

BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR’S ASS!

This was too much for the Bishop, so he ordered the pastor to get rid of the donkey. The pastor decided to give it to a nun in a nearby convent. The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day…

NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN!

The Bishop literally fainted when he read this headline. He informed the nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey, so she sold it to a farmer for $10. The next day the paper read…

NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10!

This was too much for the Bishop, so he ordered the nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild. The next day the headlines read…

NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE!

Alas, the Bishop was buried the next day. The moral of the story? Being concerned about public opinion can bring you much grief and misery and even shorten your life. So be yourself, enjoy life - and stop worrying about everyone else’s ass and you’ll live longer and be much happier.

LayGuy edit. Hope you didn’t get offended reading this type of post. I find the play on words hilarious and what nails it for me is imagining the bishops face as he sits down to read the newspaper.

Hillsong Conference 2007

In 9 days, I am driving 900kms to Sydney to attend the 2007 Hillsong Conference. I am SO excited to attend this conference as it is the largest conference in my part of the world. In 2006, this conference attracted 30,000 delegates. I don’t know how large conferences are in other parts of the world, but this is a big one. Below is the video promo for the conference.

My wife attended this conference last year and loved it. Below is a highlight clip from last year.

Hillsong is part of the Assemblies Of God (AOG) denomination but invites and caters for all denom’s. My church is part of the Hillsong Network - although not AOG. This year, the special guests include;

• Ed Young Jr.
• T.D. Jakes
• Steven Curtis Chapman
• Jentezen Franklin
• Chris Tomlin
• John Bevere
• Watoto Children’s Choir

Each day is packed with session after session of teaching in various streams. And then each night has two massive worships sessions which include the above speakers. Below is a video of the sessions..

You may have noticed that the Hillsong Worship team features heavily in the program. There is good reason for this as these guys are really talented musicians and have touched and inspired millions around the world. I have collected a bunch of Hillsong video’s on YouTube for you to check them out. I hope you are inspired and blessed by these guys and I can’t wait to see them live!

Tags: Hillsong, Hillsong Conference, United, YouTube