Abortion Survivor - Confronting Address

The 16 minute talk by abortion survivor Gianna Jessen at the Victorian Parliament on 8 September is now on YouTube. She survive a late-term abortion.  Her address is passionate.  It is confronting.  It is thought provoking.  I recommend you watch it.

The video of her address can be seen here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPF1FhCMPuQ " and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb9dFRw_w3o

The greatest heart transplant

Some time ago, I watched a documentary on heart transplants. The documentary was on the human organs having a memory much like the brain.

Pearsall, Schwartz and Russek, conducted a study, published in the Spring 2002 issue of the Journal of Near-Death Studies, entitled, "Changes in Heart Transplant Recipients That Parallel the Personalities of Their Donors." The study consisted of open-ended interviews with 10 heart or heart-lung transplant recipients, their families or friends and the donor's families or friends. The researchers reported striking parallels in each of the cases. The following is a sampling of some these. (http://www.med.unc.edu/wellness/main/links/cellular%20memory.htm)

A 47-year-old Caucasian male received a heart from a 17-year-old African-American male. The recipient was surprised by his new-found love of classical music. What he discovered later was that the donor loved classical music and played the violin.

Another possible incidence of memory transfer occurred when a young man came out of his transplant surgery and said to his mother, "everything is copasetic." His mother said that he had never used that word before, but now used it all the time. It was later discovered that the word had been a signal, used by the donor and his wife, particularly after an argument, so that when they made up they knew everything was okay.

There are stories of meat lovers becoming vegetarians, healthy eaters starting to crave beer and snickers bars.. what they like and what they dislike changes when they get the new heart.

There is some scientific debate on this - there are some sceptics. However the concept of a heart transplant leading to a personality change made me sit up and take notice. This was of particular interest to me because of the following verse:

In Ezekial 36:26, God says to his people, "I will give you a new heart and a put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws"

When God gives us His heart, albeit not a physical transplantation, there has to be a change in personality. This new heart means we love what God loves, we hate what God hates. It's not instant, but as the 'memory' in this new Heart infiltrates our life, our personalities must change.

David Grabbe adds this commentary, "The Old Covenant that God made with Israel was a good agreement as far as it went, because all of God's works are good. The problem was not with its terms, but with the people who made it (Hebrews 8:7-8, 10). They lacked the right heart that would have allowed them to follow God truly and obey His laws. God, though, will give a new heart—a new spirit—to repentant Israelites, along with any others who desire to covenant with Him." (my emphasis added) (http://bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/2993/New-Heart.htm)

In ourselves, we lack the ability to diligently and obediently follow God, to hate sin, and to love others as ourselves. But when give ourselves over to God, He gives us a new heart, and the Holy Spirit lives in us and we have a supernatural ability to do all that God asks of us.

A final point to note. With all heart transplants, the donor has to lose his life to give life to another. This gift of life is impossible without a death. Jesus was the one to die to enable us to have this new life.

The greatest heart transplant.

Saving Grace

I have been listening to this song on the way to a workshop today - by Planetshakers. I love it:

I'm holding on to You
I'm never letting go'
Cause You have saved my soul
And You have made me whole

You took my brokenness
And filled me with Your joy

All I long to do is worship
All I long to do is bring You praise
For nothing compares to you
My Saving Grace

Jesus Saviour
My life belongs to you forever'
Cause you have set my heart on fire
And You have set me free

I especially love the last 2 lines - you have set my heart on fire and have set me free.

My heart is on fire.. and I want it that way. It is the fire that propels, it is the fire that pushes past opposition. It is the fire that fans persistence. It is the fire that won't let go.

I've been set free. Freedom from condemnation. Freedom from prisons that kept me trapped. The most awesome feeling is to be able to say "no" to something I previously felt powerless against. Eg food, temptations in relationships. I am free to say NO because Christ is my power where I am weak. He took my brokenness and replaced it with His joy, His love, His power and a sound mind!

The Holy Spirit is my fire and my freedom!

Quote on Faith

"Faith is a footbridge that you don't know will hold you over the chasm until you're forced to walk out unto it." unknown

Vertical - Devotion from Purpose Driven Life

With Westlife running the Vertical series, I thought this devotion a timely blog:

Never Say Amen by Jon Walker

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. Matthew 26:40 (NIV)

Today’s guest devotional is provided by Jon Walker –

Read this devotional as a prayer:

Help me, Lord, to develop a strong prayer life. I know you desire intimacy with me, and you want me to watch with you and pray (Matthew 26:40).

Yet, I never seem to find the time to pray in a deep, fervent, consistent, persistent way. What draws me to my knees the most is when I have a problem, when I want something from you, when I need your help.

I’m flipping through my calendar, stressing with commitments, and you just want to hang out – with me. Help me turn my prayers into conversations with you that keep flowing throughout the day, an on-going communication where I never say “Amen.”

Keep me close to you, no matter what it takes. I’m not sure I really want to pray that; I have bruises and scars from “whatever it takes” discipleship, but, then again, I confess the crush of these moments have taught me to throw myself on the stone before the stone falls on me.

And that has moved me closer to the love that compels my obedience, closer to becoming one with your heart. So, I’m asking that you change me until my deepest want is to be with you.

With this I pray that you will create me worthy of my calling and that your power will fulfill every good purpose you plan for me and energize everything I do in faith.

My prayer is that your life will emerge in my face and in my hands, in my thoughts and in my words. I know your grace will make it so (paraphrase of 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, NIV).

What a prayer!

Ways to improve your E-mail Body Language

From Priority Learning Link

The e-mail messages you send may be saying a lot more about you than you realize. They provide a window into your workplace status, work habits, stress levels and even your personality. Here are some pointers to consider:

1. Never use e-mail to 'let off steam'. Save your immediate wrath or criticism for face-to-face meetings or to the phone. Better to take a deep breath, go and get a coffee and wait a day. Delays will help you preserve relationships and demonstrate emotional maturity.
   
   
2. Set a ' 5 or 10 minute don't send rule' for most e-mail. Instead, save them in your 'drafts' folder-you'll be surprised how given a five minute lapse you will be able to retract a poorly written message or reconsider your response to something important.
   
   
3. It's OK to inject some humor into your messages, but frequent ‘emoticons’, 'chain' jokes/pictures and smiley faces say that you are underemployed and not to be taken seriously.
   
   
4. Language matters! Use spell-check and your thesaurus. Mangled sentences and typos make you appear careless or even just plain ignorant.
   
   
5. Be considerate, polite and brief in all messaging: trim dangling threads; eschew unnecessary attachments, signature graphics, run-on disclaimers, device identifiers, html coding, cute quotes and icons - especially dancing icons.
   
   
6. Dnt ovr abbrvt.
   
   
7. Don't cry wolf with alert levels.
   
   
8. Use cc with restraint.
   
   
9. When sending an E-mail to a long recipient list, code as group address for brevity and privacy.
   
   
10. ALL CAPS IS FOR SHOUTING!

In everything give thanks

In a devotional email by Greg Laurie:

“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:18

In her wonderful book, The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom relates an amazing story about the importance of being thankful. Corrie and her sister Betsy were held in a concentration camp known as Ravensbruk, where they lived in barracks that were plagued with lice. Lice were everywhere—in their hair and on their bodies.

One day, Betsy said to her, "Corrie, we need to give thanks to God for the lice."

Corrie said, "Betsy, you have gone too far this time. I am not going to thank God for lice."

Betsy said, "Oh, but Corrie, the Bible tells us, 'In everything give thanks.' "

Still, Corrie did not want to thank God for the lice. As it turns out, Corrie and Betsy were trying to reach the other women in their barracks with the message of the gospel, and they had been holding Bible studies. Corrie found out later that because of the lice, the guards would not go into those barracks, and therefore, they were able to have their Bible studies. As a result, they led many of the women to the Lord. So it turns out that God can even use lice.

Galations - a study in contrasts

Having a bit of time last Thursday, I read the 5 chapters in Galatians. It occurred to me that it is a study of contrasts in:

w Life under the Law v Life under grace

w Sinful nature v sprit filled nature

w Acts under the law v acts under love.

Here’s what I saw:

The law or Faith

Life before Christ	Life after Christ
Live the by law	Live by faith
Available only to Jews	Available to all nations
A slave to men	A son and an heir and known by God
Cursed	Redeemed
Prisoner	Justified and free
Use acts to try to be justified	Use acts to show love
Sinful nature controlled life	Spirit led life

Evidence of your Nature

Galations 5:16 “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

Fruits of a sinful nature	Fruits of a Spirit filled nature
Sexual immorality	Love
Impurity	Joy
Idolatry	Peace
Hatred	Patience
Discord	Kindness
Jealousy	Goodness
Fits of rage	Faithfulness
Selfishness ambition	Gentleness
Dissensions	Self control
Envy
Drunkenness

To move from one column to the other, see Galations 6:7 “A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life”

How to we sow into the Spirit, and not into our sinful nature? Rick Warren puts it like this:

w Run from anything that gives you the evil thoughts . . . but stay close to anything that makes you want to do right. 2 Timothy 2:22 (LB)

w Have you ever watched a food advertisement on television and suddenly felt you were hungry? Have you ever heard someone cough and immediately felt the need to clear your throat? Ever watched someone release a big yawn and felt the urge to yawn yourself? That is the power of suggestion. We naturally move toward whatever we focus our attention on. The more you think about something, the stronger it takes hold of you.

w That is why repeating “I must stop eating too much . . . or stop smoking . . . or stop lusting” is a self-defeating strategy. It keeps you focused on what you don’t want. It’s like announcing, “I’m never going to do what my mom did.” You are setting yourself up to repeat it.

w Temptation begins by capturing your attention. What gets your attention arouses your emotions. Then your emotions activate your behavior, and you act on what you felt. The more you focus on “I don’t want to do this,” the stronger it draws you into its web.

w Ignoring a temptation is far more effective than fighting it. Once your mind is on something else, the temptation loses its power. So when temptation calls you on the phone, don’t argue with it, just hang up!

w Spiritually, your mind is your most vulnerable organ. To reduce temptation, keep your mind occupied with God’s Word and other good thoughts. You defeat bad thoughts by thinking of something better. This is the principle of replacement. You overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).

w Satan can’t get your attention when your mind is preoccupied with something else. That’s why the Bible repeatedly tells us to keep our minds focused: “Fix your thoughts on Jesus” (Hebrews 3:1 NIV).

w “Fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable” (Philippians 4:8 TEV).

w If you’re serious about defeating temptation you must manage your mind and monitor your media intake. The wisest man who ever lived warned, “Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts” (Proverbs 4:23 TEV).

Called to be Free

Galations 5:13 “You my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.”

Galatians 5:6b “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love”

Acts under the law	Acts under Love
You do it because you have to	You do it because you want to
You do it for personal gain	You do it to bless others
You focus on yourself	You focus on the receiver
You do for others what you want to do	You do for others what you would want them to do for you.