Neil Young/Student Focus

Today I was going to write an entry about Neil Young, I recently read a piece on him in a magazine from March 2005. It was a very good article, and it lead me to listen to his last album he released. So keep an eye out for that entry where I’ll be talking about Neil Young.

Instead today, I helped out my friend Rachel with the one of the high school programs that our church has. This one is called Student Focus, where we go into a school at lunchtime and have some games with the kids and then a short devotional about God. Most of the games are fun and involve chocolate as reward, which gets the kids in. It’s one of our outreach programs where we get most of the kids from our youth group to come. I think it’s been great this year, as we have had an awesome year in growth for the youth group [www.elevate-youth.com.au].

Tonight we will be venturing into the City tonight for a bit of a scavenger hunt in the city [Melbourne]. So should be a good night, although I think it’s going to be quite cold.

I don’t know about the title for this entry, couldn’t think of anything. So deal with it, hahahaha.

Financial Freedom

Last weekend, I attended a Financial Freedom seminar at my church, the speaker was Pastor Kevin Furlong. I really don’t know much about Pastor Kevin, but he had some great things to say. The morning was split into 3 sessions, I didn’t get to take much notes on the first session so I will keep this one brief. What I did manage to take down was good. These 3 points were based on this scripture form Malachi 3: 8-12

Malachi 3:8-12
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. 9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it. 11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” Says the Lord of hosts; 12 And all nations will call you blessed, For you will be a delightful land,” Says the Lord of hosts.

Things we rob God of:

1. His Fatherly right of blessings.
2. His gift to His ministry.
3. Ministry and worship

The next session was all about having a “Spirit of Poverty”. As we see things in a spirit of control, we gain a spirit of poverty mentality. These 3 points are how we gain that mentality.

1. Unfulfilled expectations and disappointment
2. Inherited perspectives – We can inherit our perspectives onto our children and also gain them from our own parents, who might have a bad perspective of something that can then rub onto our kids, or you could of gained that perspective from your own parents.
3. Bad Christian morals

Genesis 3:16-19
16 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’ “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”

Isaiah 32:8
8 But a generous man devises generous things,
And by generosity he shall stand.

How to break that Spirit of Poverty mentality

1. Give your finances and possessions to God.
2. Meditate on the promises of success.
3. Reject the limitation mindset.
4. Tithe – Bring in the whole tithe.
5. Sow – Seed generously.
6. Create a faith atmosphere – heart/tongue.
7. Exercise your faith – Believe God.
8. Step out of your comfort zone and obey the Holy Spirit.
9. Practice good stewardship – Generous with people and God.
10. Give in a biblical manner.

God’s Order For Financial Increase

Genesis 8:22
22 “While the earth remains, Seed-time and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”

2 Corinthians 9:6-10
6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. 9 As it is written: “He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.” 10 Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness.

5 Laws of the Harvest

1. We reap what we sow.
2. We reap after we sow.
3. We reap in proportion to how we sow.
4. We reap more than we sow.
5. We reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.

So it was a great morning, hearing Pastor Kevin speak, and I did learn a lot. And I have a long way to go in being financially free with God, if that’s the right way to put it. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, hahaha…

Season Premieres

Hey it’s blogging time! I’m sitting on my bed this afternoon and thought to myself, maybe i should write something down. Now something totally sweet just happened, i FINALLY got my iTunes library on my PC to share out to my MBP, which is totally sweet, so i can sit on this thing (MBP) anywhere in the house and play my music. Ok, enough of my feats of the day.

Well some things that have been going on recently in my life is really not that much really, I’ve just been working, sleeping and watching my TV shows. All the shows just started in America, so I’ve been downloading them as they screen over in the US. One show that I’m glad is back on is Lost, Season 3 premiered on the 4th of October over in the US, and who knows when it will start over here. I actually never watched it on TV over here. What is in-store for the Losties this season? Who knows, but I was happy with the premiere of the first episode, the creators finally shed some light on who the “others” are, well sort of.

Other shows that have started back up again that I watch is One Tree Hill, Desperate Housewives, Everybody Hates Chris, My Name is Earl and The Extras. Ricky Gervais is a genius, The Extras is a very funny show, maybe even better than his previous creation The Office, it’s close. What I love about The Extras is how well Ricky and Stephen Merchant write the characters for actual celebrity actors that come onto the show. My favourite guest appearances so far would have to be Patrick Stewart, Orlando Bloom and Daniel Radcliffe (that kid from Harry Potter).

New shows that I’ve started to watch is Jericho, The Nine and Prison Break (well it’s new to me, since I only just started watching it). I’m sure you all know about Jericho and Prison Break, since they have already been shown on TV over here. But The Nine is a show that has just started in America. It is based around 9 people who were all hostages in a bank robbery that turned into a 52 hour stand off with police. They were all strangers when they were all in the bank, well not all of them. And what they went through in that 52 hours has put them closer to each other, but what happened in that 52 hours? We’ll just have to watch the show to find out.

Ok, so enough about my addiction to TV shows.