‘seek Mentors not Money’...are the first lines of a book I heard someone talking about on the radio recently…
It has immediate impact for me, but also reminds me of so much.As I explain, my hope is that it encourages you...

Many of you will know that I was saved in my late teens.
Saved while in a mildly successful Heavy Metal Band called Animal Instinct.
As with most stories about peoples lives, you only ever know small parts as they are revealed. We are all way more interesting and complex than what you see on the surface.

When I first went to church most people were freaked out by me, or fascinated that some strange looking guy would step inside their special doors. But I am very grateful that not everyone treated me as a side show, or a christian novelty.

The first person to take note of me and see something in my life was a youth pastor called John Houston.
He spent time helping me to understand our faith.
When I had questions or things that concerned me, he always seemed to be around to help one more time.
He was the first person to tell me that he thought God had a plan for my life.
He didn’t know what it was...but it encouraged me all the same.

Next came a senior pastor called Don Newitt.
He seemed to want to help as well, and did all sorts of amazing things to help grow me and encourage me.
While others thought I couldn’t do this or that, Don always said that I could.
It was Don who encouraged me to study at Bible College.
He took me on the road to get ministry experience.
He made me the worship pastor of his church when I was only 20.

I owe these guys so much.
Without their help, without the mentoring they provided I wouldn’t be doing anything I am doing today.
I am convinced of that!

So back to the quote…
Money is able to be earned or received. Money can come and go like wind.
But what a mentor can offer or what a mentor can give lasts forever.

So now to you…
My encouragement to you is find someone you can look up to. Not in some silly way.
But someone you can model good things from.
Get with someone who will help you and encourage you in your walk.
Someone who can help you be all that God has for you.
It is not all about accountability...even though that is part of it.
It is about having someone who will help grow you, stretch you, and take you beyond where you are right now.

Warren Buffett (one of the worlds richest ever men) said this...“It's better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you'll drift in that direction.”

Something to think about...

I have decided that I like holidays!
That may seem strange for me to start like that, but I mean it…
For most of my life I haven’t liked having a holiday or taking a break.
Either I was disappointed with how it went. Or I felt guilty. Or any number of either weird or lame reasons.

For many years I even prided myself in not having holidays because I didn’t think that I needed them.
I love working hard, and not having holidays reinforced my desire to work hard and prove to everyone how hard working I really was…
At one stage I had a boast of not having a holiday in 2 years!

What a plonker!

I have come to this point in life because I have realised I have been robbing myself, my family and my friends, and even God. Pride has been a big enemy. Trying to impress people as well…How much I have tried to work hard and then work even harder?
I have hurt myself at times, hurt others around me trying to be the hard working hero!

So here I am, fresh back from a long weekend off...and I loved it!

In the Bible it says that God took a holiday.
OK it was one day, but if God needs a break...we certainly do.
Read about it Genesis after God creates Adam.
God even says that after all his creating he looked at it, said it was ‘good’...and then he had a rest!

You are allowed to enjoy life. You shouldn’t feel guilty about it!
It is a gift that God has given you to enjoy and make the most of.

This year, don’t flog yourself silly. Work hard yes!
But make sure you take some time out to rest.
To look back at what you have created.
To appreciated what is good...

Something to think about...

I hope one day you don’t come up to me and tell me you are sick of me saying the same things :)No matter how much things change around me.
No matter how much older I get….eeekkkk!
I haven’t changed in one key area...
I am still as passionate, if not more about our generation being something, doing something, experiencing something in God...maybe something no other generation has ever experienced.

We are doing it in two stages:
- Getting stuff back that we have missed out on.
- Going after the new stuff that God has for us.

Everything we are doing in edge and sphere is all about this goal!
That is the reason why we have Sunday Church, Connect Groups and our Events.
That is the reason why we had our Prayer & Worship Nite last Saturday...which was awesome by the way!
We need to do what God expects is normal.
We need to pray, we need to worship, we need to look after our world, we need to love each other.
We are hungry to grow the Kingdom of God in our Generation!
We want to reach, to serve, and to influence this generation.
We want to be the wineskin God can pour the new wine into.

I want you to know that I would like to make sure you are on this journey with us.
If you are not coming to Church at the moment, or coming to a Connect Group or Events...you are missing out!
I don’t want you to miss out. Jump on board.
Can’t wait to live out the rest of 2008 with you!

Apart from all that is happening we would really like to pray some more.
So here is the deal…Every 3rd Thursday of the month we are hosting an edge/sphere prayer breakfast.
The first one is on the 19th June, starting 6:30am @ Elim House. We will worship, and pray for stuff including each other. It will finish with breakfast at 7:30am. And the breakfast will be awesome. All that for a Gold Coin!
Book it in your diary.

I don’t know if you are like me, but I have lots of questions!
Sometimes I know who to ask, other times I don’t.
Sometimes I find the answers, and other times I don’t.

The reality is that my world, your world, if you look at it long enough with some desire to comprehend it…it will ultimately cause you to come to a place of questioning it.
Things like “if the world was designed by someone all knowing and all powerful, why did they let it be so bad now?”
The whole “why do bad things happen to good people?” type stuff.

I was thinking about this recently and realized I can choose a lot of what happens in my life.
I can most times choose my life course, things like my career, my partner, where I live…that sort of stuff.
If I don’t like something or I think it will hurt me I can generally choose to get away.
I have even been known to escape, at least in my mind, by burying myself in some xbox gaming world.

There is a dynamic at play that seems so random.
I realized there is one choice I will never be able to make.
The choice of where I will be born!
I look at my life in the country I live and I can’t help but compare it to other countries around the world. And I wonder why I was born here, why I was born me?
Why was so-and-so born in Myanmar?
Why couldn’t we have swapped places?
Was this all by chance?

After I thought about this for a while I decided that these things are too hard for me to totally comprehend.
I decided that I had to look at this differently or I would spin into some depression over it. Inevitability you have to decide what your next move is going to be.
This is where you get to once again to choose.
While someone from Myanmar may not have many choices in their life right now…I have heaps.
I can choose to pretend there isn’t a problem…or I can choose to try and do something to help.

Who cares if the world looks random or out of control?
Maybe I am the person who got the better deal in life just so I can pass on some of the blessing I have received to someone else?

simple steps
Take some time to think about the randomness of life, and why you were born where you were born. Think about one thing you can do right now to make a difference in a life where they don’t have much choice.

simple words
“Whatever you do for the least of these…you did for me” Jesus – Matthew 25:34-40
Do good – Psalm 37:3 & 27

Something to think about….

I have found that a lot of people wonder how God might use them.
Like what ‘ministry’ should they do?...
What is my gift?...
...are all typical questions that people ask when facing how they can serve.

But I will tell you what I think…
I think we make it either too complicated and we put up big mountains to climb, on the path to finding our so called ‘calling’.
God, I believe has made it so much more simple.

The simple reality of our christian faith is that God saved you firstly because he wanted too. And secondly because you have at least one gift living inside of you that could change lives!
And I mean everyone has this!!!

Next, the Bible says that “he orders the steps of a righteous person”.
Simply put, he will gently guide you and help you find the right way to go, the right path to take, the right place to serve...just by loving him and loving others.

I have found that by simply living life the best I can, God seems to bring opportunities to serve him in amazing ways. They come from places that I lest expect (which makes it even more cool).
The thing is, is that you have to make a choice when something like this happens.
Either to run with it and see where it goes.
Or you can walk away and never find out what could come from that opportunity…

Here is a funny story to help illustrate this.
And it is all TRUE!

A number of weeks a go, Amos and I were about to go filming an advert for church.
As we walked out the front door I was approached by a little old asian lady, clutching a letter in her hand.
She then proceeded in really bad english ask for my help. She was trying to find a place mentioned in her letter. As I looked quickly at it, I noticed it was from Breast Screen Aoetearoa...which I have to admit made me a little embarrassed and my embarrassment caused me to read the wrong address...and then proceed to give her the wrong directions!

So Amos and I head away, film, drink coffee and then travel back.

It was on the drive back to church that we noticed the little old lady had only gone up the road 500 meters, and we had been gone half an hour!
So we decided we better stop and make sure she is ok.
Now Amos did the talking and found they could speak Cantonese together. And they realised I had given her the wrong directions!
So to make amends we gave her a lift to the clinic she was supposed to be at.
Amos walked her up the stairs and talked to the receptionist on her behalf. And all was now well with the world!

We had an opportunity to do good (ok, I nearly screwed it up!).
We decided to do something.
It felt good to help. You knew you had done something right!
It was just so random!

I think that is how God does it sometimes...

Something to think about...