He Is Lord

new worship is so great – it freshens up our personal times with God and draws us in anew to worship him!  when we worship we see God as he is and our faith grows and our vision is widened and expanded…. its like we get more of a glimpse of who he really is….

so yesterday i got two new cds…

This is our God by Hillsong

Hold Nothing Back by Tim Hughes

i love hillsong, their later material has been really wonderful – great musicality and great lyrics.   this would have to be one of my fav albumns of theirs with several really really great songs!

esp love This is Our God, He is Lord, Stronger, Healer (despite the drama), Sing to the Lord, the Desert Song…

Tim Huges album is great too, it was on sale and our church sings a few of his songs so was more an impulse buy….  is very good though…  this is everything – from the album

The Word of God

these are the beginnings of my notes for preaching this week at our young adults church – the topic is the word of God….

In the beginning God said….

Let there be light

And light

Speed of light = 299,792,458 m per second

GOD SAID!

Genesis 1

³Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

6Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”

⁹Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.

¹¹Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so.

¹⁴Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years;

²⁰Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.”

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

The Word is the truth and is divinely powerful to change situations. Experience should not shape our doctrine, rather our doctrine should shape our experience. All Scripture is God-breathed, and is the only solid foundation on which to build our lives and our theology. The Word is divinely powerful to change situations – as we speak it and believe it, our lives, situations and world are changed.

Exodus 3:14-15 God said to Moses:   I am the eternal God. So tell them that the LORD, whose name is ” I Am,” has sent you. This is my name forever, and it is the name that people must use from now on.

We can expect God to act exactly as he says he will. The bible is God saying stuff! The Bible reveals who God is. So we know what he is saying. So we know what to believe and have faith in.

Isaiah 55:10-11 The LORD says, ¹⁰“Rain and snow fall from the sky.  But they don’t return without watering the earth that produces seeds to plant and grain to eat. ¹¹That’s how it is with my words. They don’t return to me without doing everything I send them to do.”

Gods word is powerful. God spoke and light and zebras and butterflies and glaciers and kauri trees and cats were formed… and now we have the Word of God, creative, power, life changing, spiritual, supernatural in a book – NOT “just a book” but a book that contains great power and revelation!

The word of God renews our minds – which changes our lives. One of the two methods of transformation is to have our minds renewed by the Word of God. The way to become changed into the person God is calling you to be is to challenge the lies in your mind with the truth of God’s Word. Studying and meditating on God’s word writes it on our minds and hearts. When we chew on the Word of God, we enter a process by which that Word is written on our minds and hearts. This acts like a guard on our heart and mind and keeps us from sinning against God.

Hebrews 4:12 For the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing apart of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ,

“How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.
With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” Psalm 119:9-11

“…Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:25-27