Tag Archive for 'CityWest Church'

Piper On Perseverance

Perseverance seems to be a bit of a buzzword in my life right now.  Deep down in my soul is an “echo” of the word as I struggle to meet the daily demands of life.

Even at church, the topic mysteriously landed on my lap.  I occasionally get asked to share a message and we’ve been going through the Sermon On The Mount found in Mathew 5,6 & 7. Lo and behold, I got asked to share on Mat 7:7-11 - which again talks about perseverance.  The audio of my message can be found below.

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And then again tonight as I was checking out some video’s on YouTube, I come across this little beauty by John Piper.  Too often, we choose the path of least resistance in our lives - and this also creeps into our faith.  As a result, faith gets shipwrecked and the hope in God fades away.

When the going gets tough, the tough should get going to God - He is the One that can sustain and deliver us from any obstacle life throws at us.  And if He doesn’t want us to survive that obstacle, He will be there side by side - accompanying us all the way.

I can almost imagine Him looking at the tears streaming down our faces as we face our obstacles and saying to Himself, “in My Kingdom, these tears I will personally wipe away,” - just learn to trust Me.

So in my soul, I’m beginning to thank God for the current hard times because He is teaching me an attribute worth it’s weight in gold - perseverance.  Check out Piper’s video below and I hope you are encouraged by it.

Nick Vujicic. Hugging Machine!

pic17 On Saturday, 8 December, our church had the pleasure of hosting Nick Vujicic at a community outreach event in Melton, Australia. To those of you who don’t know Nick, he is a 25 year old guy born without arms and legs.

You can read up on Nick’s life story here and marvel at this amazing young man and how he views life through possibility and not disability. You see, Nick has a strong faith in Jesus and it’s this relationship that has allowed Nick the mindset to achieve incredible things despite being born without limbs.

Now at 25, Nick is an international motivational speaker to students and the corporate sector all round the world. He has spoken to over two million people and everywhere he speaks, people are amazed at this incredible young man.

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Be sure to check out his website for more info on this guy. And for all you Youth Leaders, (Stuart!) you NEED to get Nick to speak at your event. He has a unique way of connecting with people and he is not shy to share the Gospel in a powerful way. You may have to wait in line though as he gets over 1400 requests to speak a year!

Nick has a soft spot for the community where our church is planted - one of the lowest socioeconomic areas of Melbourne, Australia. Like myself, many people in our little church plant have known Nick since he was born and marvel in what we see in him.

One aspect of Nick that makes him so likeable is the fact that he loves hugs. Although it might seem ironic for a guy with no arms to love hugs, trust me, you get hugged by Nick and you feel it.

After our event on 8 December, the hugs flowed for over 2 hours and went well into the night. I captured most of this on video and put together this little video. Hope you enjoy.

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