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lifegroups – are you in one?7 May 09

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Upcoming Events

• Northcross vs. Windsor Football Match →Feb 12, 2012 12:30pm–3:00pm @ North Harbour Stadium
  IT'S THE CLASH OF THE TITANS.
  
  WHO: Northcross and Windsor Park
  WHAT: Football match
  WHEN: Sunday 12th of Feb, 1:00pm kick off
  WHERE: Inside North Harbour Stadium grounds, on the synthetic turf
  
  Wear your church/team colors!
  
  Follow the link to see the teams!
• Eastercamp 2012 →Apr 5, 2012 4:00pm–Apr 9, 2012 4:00pm @ Mystery Creek, Hamilton
  Eastercamp is THE camp of the year for all highschoolers and leaders.
  
  It's time to grab a rego form for yourself and a few extra for your friends and get pumped!
  
  Hanging with your mates + getting stuck in on some unbelievable crazy style activities x finding out about how God fits in around this place through discovering the real meaning of Easter = One absolutely amazing Eastercamp 2012!

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Latest blog posts

• 27/01 10 Things I learnt from Cancer #2 – #2 I'm going to live! After the rather long morose pause (over Christmas) on the first point, I probably waited too long to make the second - life! Yes, Once I came to terms with the first point (dying), I have no other conclusion than to continue living until further notice. If you truly understand the fragility of life, or at least the fragility of OUR plans, you can appreciate the value of God's plan. In fact through all this, knowing that my days were numbered, made it possible to realise that my unfinished plans are okay; not knowing all the answers is okay, even not being right all the time is okay. She'll be right. (Or He will be right) I guess this is my new Christian world-view. I used to be anxious if people didn't come to my party, then I became anxious wondering if people would come to my funeral. Mark Twain said "There is no greater burden than an unfilled potential". Well I got to a stage where not one thing I had planned to do was working and the chance of achieving them was drifting off into someone else's life. Then I met Jesus, and he said "I am the way and the truth and the life." This sort of lifted the pressure on my unfulfilled potential. So I am a lot more content with living these days. The trial of "losing it all" took me well and truly through the 'Oh no!" to the "Ah well". This is not some internal peace based on inner calm or positive thoughts, its completely constructed on the promise that Jesus will get me home and get me there in his perfect plan. Try changing THOSE plans you bullys! (I don't know who I'm talking to, but lets just say the bad guys) The dying issue is not over if Christ gives you new life, but it certainly removes the anxiety about how it ends. I'm still working out the HOW today will be, but I don't live every day as if its my last, I'm going to live every day as if its my first. "Even the hairs of your head are numbered.." Mt 10:30
• 02/11 10 things I learned from cancer. #1 – When I got diagnosed with cancer, I wondered if  I would be able to hear from God. That I would be so busy with the physical that I wouldn't be sensitive to the spiritual. I'm still learning believe me, but here at least are 10 things I did learn: #1 I'm dying. Yep, the doctors can say all they want, but after all I've been through, after all the treatment, I'm still dying. I never fully realised, even if I felt heathy, that I was actually dying. I'm not trying to be depressing, but for the first time, even though I'd read it a hundred times in Genesis, I felt the effects of the original sin - death. I spent a good amount of time fighting this disease with other people who didn't make it. Many were older men in their 60-80s. One of the hardest things to deal with when I was in hospital was the absolute certainty, that if not today, one day I would be back in this situation again, and it would be my turn to lose. Maybe not in a hospital, maybe not to cancer, but something would eventually overcome me. The world is dying because of sin. There is no medical hope, no miracle supplement. There is no disease we can place more blame on than another. We can kick away at death all we want, for as long as we can, but you will lose this battle. Fortunately, there is only one antidote to sin! And I was lucky enough to have taken it 8 years ago. I went to the pharmacy of GOD and begged for a prescription JESUS.* For all that I had done to warrant death, for all my sinful actions and thoughts I had done, am doing and will do, he died on the cross for me. Living water. Eternal life. Life without God's wrath. I remember having a shower oneday and being almost overcome with the weight of what was happening. But I remembered a verse and it wasn't a 'positive statement' made in the face of hardship, it wasn't an optimism I had to make myself, it was truth, pure and simple. And it brought me joy in the face of everything. Because of what Jesus has done, things are only getting better. Here's that verse: 2 Cor 4:16 "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting way, our inner self is being renewed day by day." What can I say, Hallelujah! And I'm not even a hallelujah sort of guy. More of a Brad Thorn punching the air sort of "Heyah"! * I dramatised this event for hospital imagery. In reality, my salvation came more like a sinful child reluctantly admitting that Dad was right, but I got the idea eventually! Heyah!
• 19/09 Reasons to read the Bible daily #3 – Reason #3 HERESY! Actually, when I started this series I was thinking of other reasons to read the bible. Ones you may not have thought of. I sort of assumed you would already read it for SALVATION and working our your SALVATION. There are talented people who preach on Sundays for this great stuff! However, even my cornflake packet, meal in a minute, look in the index, knowledge of scripture can expose Christian heresy. Heresy is when someone claiming to be a Christian twists or denies the truth of the bible. For example in Rob Bell's new book Love wins, he tries to introduce a new version of hell, by either denying its severity (or length) and transposing a new angle on salvation that doesn't include avoiding eternal punishment. In a short reading of the bible you can know that, Yup hell is real, Yup Rob Bell is creating a God that he is more comfortable with. Go to Matt 13:24 where Jesus tells the parable of the weeds. Yes, in this parable he draws a picture of the church with false believers mixed with genuine believers. Then he mentions the fate of the faithless; "Bind them in bundles to be burned". Okay, you may rightly see this as a 'picture of hell' not literal. But luckily for us, his disciples asked Jesus to break it down for them, which he does in Matt 13:36. Jesus unpacks the meaning and gives you real people, real times and real places. This is no longer a 'picture' but a literal interpretation of the parable. You don't need to turn it back into a picture, because Jesus has explained it in truth. Hell is real, end of story, heresy exposed. This took all of 5 minutes on the iphone to see through this one, and Rob Bell is like a big mega-star, big budget pastor with considerably more bible training than me. But he is not my authority. Jesus is, and his word! You can read the truth yourself! Read the bible daily so you know the word better and better, so you can spot the heresy. And if you need help, email or phone Pastor Andrew - he'll point you to the authority of scripture too! Ahh, the iphone - 34 different translations at the tough of a button, ahh, pastors on speed dial. <<sent from iphone>>
• 05/09 One man’s plight: A play in 4 parts. – Once when I was recovering from surgery, I had the vantage point to observe a man in the bed across from me. I don’t confess to know his condition, but I surely saw a man with the life slowly drifting away. Act 1: The wife From my horizontal position, I saw a man who moved rarely, slept much and would not listen to the nurses, pleading with him to get up to clean himself or look out the window. His wife came to visit and cursed him. Why did he sleep all day and night? He had agreed to get up and go to the lounge, why didn’t he get up? Like a grey mist rising out of quicksand, this man pulled himself up and dragged on a dressing gown. Again she cursed him to put on some real clothes. What I witnessed for the next 20 minutes was the tired fumbling and pulling of a jersey and trousers over a hospital gown, while the wife muttered anger; Her hurt was raw, but she would have nothing to do with his deliberate weakness. They left briefly, the wife walking purposefully ahead. Act 2: The daughter I heard his daughter visit, and in respectful terms tell him he would have to go into a home, because mum could not look after him any more. She told him how important it was for Mum, for the family that he just try. Her heartbreak was obvious. She told him she would come tomorrow to pick him up and they would go for a walk, see his grand children. Would he like that? He grunted a reply and for the first time I heard him speak, that he would be ready. The nurses used this opportunity to encourage him, and said they would wake him early to help him get ready, that if he got up at a certain time he could be shaved and showered and it will be a wonderful change for him. The next day even I observed the time for his visit. Despite the numerous efforts of the nurse, he would not respond. The ...
• 25/08 The REAL Top 7… – Hi, for those who don’t know me, my name is Nicolas super fly, skuxx and joga Morla, I am twenty six years old although I look like a eighteen year old who was born on the 17-10-1992 in a hospital in Quito to a Jeanette and Julio Morla. I have two sisters who were not annoying enough to make it on to this blog. And I have a sixteen foot pet crocodile with rabies. While Willie may be vary astute in the areas of annoying his is not the expert, I don’t know what diploma mill he got his doctorate from but where I studied you didn’t get a doctorate until you could make a Zen Buddhist Monk who was just five minutes away from finishing a twenty year fast eat his own shoes out of frustration of committing to a vow of peace. I have also finished a degree in overt stupidity which is a considered a closely related field. And I am sure you have read my article in the noted prank magazine called Tom Fool my article is labelled ‘arrrgggg splat’ and describes a ingenious prank involving trip wire, elephant dung and a very cute hamster. Anyway the list that follows is THE list of THE 7 TOP most annoying things of all time…. Hand sneezers. When you go to shake someone’s hand then they lean over and sneeze on your hand. It is disgusting the first time but when it happens a second, and a third time you get very annoyed. Mothers dropping their kids at school. They are sooo annoying when you are driving behind them, they never properly pull off the road they just sort of veer one meter to the left then park up while their kid hops out. That would not be so bad but of course the kid has to sing the national anthem at assembly. The mother does not want to have the only kid who does not know the words so she gets him to recite it while the rest of us wait. The nerd children are they worst because of course they know all five verses, bunch of show offs. Faulty radios. When your are riding shotgun in your mates car and the radio is only picking up two stations but it is picking them up at the same time. One is some sort of death metal and the other is Mozart. And the radio only has one volume ….loud. And he starts signing along to the guitar solo just as motzy is in the middle of the fifth movement. Your best option is to jump out window but of course if the radio is not working why would the windows work. And the door only unlocks from the outside. And you are going from Cape Reinga to Wellington and your friend has downed five red bulls and has five more so he can make the whole journey without falling asleep. It is for situations such as these that carrying firearms should be legal. Do ...

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