One of my absolute favorite verses in the Bible... [ Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? - James 2:15 ] Don't stress if you have to work hard to make ends meet for your loved ones, to do good to others, and when helping others comes at a high cost to you. God's mercy, grace and love is poured out on those who serve others like Jesus did. Pure, simple, humble sacrificial love. The more you give to others - the more God gives back to you and what He gives to us is worth so much more than any of the riches that this world has to offer. Peace beyond comparison that cannot be bought, identity settled forever that can only be given by our Father in Heaven, and life everlasting that explodes with passion and light because of our King and His Kingdom. God loves you.

I went for a run in the mountains behind where I live and found a stack of abandoned mines, old rusty mining equipment and these really run down concrete bunker type shelters there. Inside we're hundreds of empty coke cans and bottles, chip packets and the walls lined with the most amazing art I'd seen in ages. See, most people see graffiti and automatically think "rebellion" "delinquent" "criminal" "misfit" "antisocial" and all the usual stereotypes that go with youth culture. I came from pretty much that side of the tracks growing up so I probably have some sort of affinity to it by association but what I see is this... Some kid has taken the time to get hold of enough paint colours, imagined, planned, started, endured and completed their work of art that has no rules - no boundaries - no critiques and exists only for the purpose of expression. Now here's the good bit... Think about a rainbow for a second. What purpose does it serve apart from reminding us of Gods promise never to flood the world and to just look awesome?

They're always an amazing arc, they're always colorful and they always show up right after dreary downpour. To me - a rainbow is God's graffiti. It's His expression of mind blowing art simply because He can. So the next time you see graffiti, stop and think about the kid that did it. Yeah, they've probably got issues - probably a lot of them - but the truth is they are an amazing, intricate and immensely valued person loved by God. I got written off by many in my life as a waste of time, a rebel, a 2nd class bottom feeder but I know today they we're nothing short of dead wrong. God in His amazing mercy opened my eyes to the value I never knew existed and in doing that He helped me to see the hidden value in so many others I come across in life. God loves you. You're an amazing person and I can make that statement with absolute certainty because I don't even have to meet you to know its true. It's true of every single creation of God. It's true simply because God says so. Have an awesome day because God made you awesome! 

I used to be a hater playin for the other side...
Till the True King came along and showed me how to kill my pride...
He taught the secret to my peace was the willing end of me...
So I took His hand and followed and it's His Truth that made me free...
Who knew all along that my freedom was so near...
The end of hatred, self and death and the final end of fear...
See this King holds the power to set any captive loose...
He offers all the keys to life and leaves it up to us to choose... †

There's gonna come times when God will ask you to leave the safety and comfort of the place you are in and come and follow Him. Just like He asked the disciples in the Bible, He still asks new disciplestoday to leave what they are doing and follow Him. God never forces anyone to do anything but He does promise that if you trust in Him, He will provide and never ever leave you. Several times in my life God has presented me with this type of crossroad. Either stay with the comfort, possessions and lifestyle that I have - or let go of what He asks me to and follow Him to where He's leading. Did I know where He was leading me? No. I just had to trust Him that He is a good God and that He is faithful regardless of how things looked and keep asking for and listening to the still small voice of God telling me to go, wait or stop. Has the roads that I've walked with God been paved with gold, lined with sweet smelling roses and surrounded by magical butterflies? No... Very often it's been just me and God one step at a time climbing a dusty, dry mountain path. But I will say this, Sometimes it's been really hard but I wouldn't change a single thing.

You see - the roads I've walked with Jesus has taught me more about myself, more about God, more about this world and whats really going on and more about how to care for others and build God's Kingdom than I ever would have learnt just staying where I was. Faith is just that - walking forward by God's voice and following Him to where He leads you even when you don't know the landscape or have a plan B. He promises that if you seek Him with all your heart and don't hold back anything from Him that He will also do the same for you and not hold back any good thing that you need for the journey. And best of all He promises to walk every single step with you! So when that day comes that you're at the crossroads and it's either stay in comfort or let go and follow Him - can I encourage you to take His hand and follow Jesus. There's no adventure found in comfort but each time you choose to follow Jesus your life will be radically changed forever. So don't be afraid, instead consider it a privilege. You are being called to follow by the King of all Kings!

[ Proverbs 3:5,6 - Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. ]

God gave me this bible verse yesterday and it made me really think... Romans 15:7 "Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory". It made me think about how Jesus has accepted me and showed me love when I didn't deserve it at all. It made me think about how He sacrificially died for me when I was a sinner and an enemy of God. It made me think about the fact that He is faithful and always forgives me every single time I confess my sins to Him because of His great love. It also made me think about how Jesus was the friend of sinners and how He accepted and welcomed the outcasts, the lonely, the hungry, the addicted, the lost and the broken - and that He very much still accepts and welcomes them today. So what this verse means to me is that God is wanting me to be just like Jesus. Not high and mighty and full of self righteous pride and religious pedigree but instead a humble servant that shows His love, truth, forgiveness and mercy to all - even when it's not deserved or earned. Yeah, I wanna be like Jesus because I can see clearly that the world doesn't need more false religion, another best seller self-help novel, or another big name to go to the nations - it needs more simple, humble selfless love. Because after all... God is love.  

I wanna share something God put on my heart about the love of God and how much Jesus is to me. First though I need to give you a bit of a back story. You may have read in my other posts that I came from a broken home. My parents divorced when I was just four years old and my Dad left home leaving my Mum to raise me and my siblings. I'd see my Dad every second Saturday but sadly all I remember is bitter fighting and arguing between my parents. I grew up very lonely, very lost and with my identity extremely damaged as a result of my home life. But that's not the whole picture... My Dad came from Holland and moved to Australia when he was about 30. He also came from a badly abusive and violent home and as a result didn't speak to his own mother for over 20 years. I know very little more than that because his past is shrouded in secrecy and pain. My Mum also came from a very toxic and abusive home with an alcoholic father that used to beat her and her 10 brothers and sisters. She grew up interstate and had to move states because she just couldn't bare to think of her boys being exposed to what her family was.

I never understood why she did that until very recently. She shared with me some of the horrible atrocities that happened in her family and between her brothers, sisters and father that aren't even able to be spoken of. Sadly as a result of both my parents backgrounds I not only grew up in a broken home but I have a broken family line on both sides. To this day I've never known what its like to have a grandparent, I don't have any relationships with aunties, uncles, and I don't know what it's like to have cousins. Because of the pain in my own immediate family my siblings went down their own paths during their teenage years - one took the path of drugs and crime and ended up in jail - the other complete disconnection from our family and the endless pursuit of money and success. So that's where I come from... brokenness, pain and loneliness. Now, sorry to start off like that but I'll get to why in a second. As a very little boy a man shared a verse with me from Psalm 68:5 that always stayed with me. He wasn't a very nice man and he didn't even like me at all but what he said was the truth. Interestingly I've learnt that God can use the truth to reach us from very strange places. He said "God is the Father to the fatherless..." It always stuck with me. It took a long, long time for that truth to really unravel and become real but I can say to you that this truth forms one of the biggest parts of my identity today. I've missed out on a lot in this life as far as family connections that probably most others don't even think twice about - but I found something that changed me forever.

The love of my Father in Heaven. The reason I shared all I just did is for this reason. You are not a product of your family line. You are not a product of your pain. You are not a product of others mistakes and choices. You are not a product of hate, pain and abuse. You are not even a product of your mistakes. You are simply and unconditionally loved by God and I pray as you read this that He starts to reach into your heart with His love and show you that it's true. What God put on my heart is this... Romans 5:8 says "But God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." This simple truth is what really changed me. You see, take one look at my background above and it's pretty easy to see that I was a lost sheep. A poor little lamb stuck in the thorns and nettles just waiting there to be easy prey for a predator. I knew I was as lost as could be, my own heart told it to me every single day. I knew I was a sinner. I couldn't help but sin, it was the only nature I knew. But here's the good news... God saw me - a poor little boy, helplessly lost in a cycle of pain, abuse and loneliness and had great pity on me. It was His astounding mercy that motivated Him to send His Son Jesus to die for me and my crimes - and it was Jesus radical and undeserved love for me that motivated Him to obey and do what needed to be done. To become my sin. To become my pain. To become my emptiness and loneliness.

He was never responsible for all the things that happened in my life and in the lives of my family yet He knew that there was no way I could fix, help or save myself. So as an 8 year old boy in an old classroom after school when I was told that Jesus took my sin on the cross and died in my place and that all I had to do was accept His amazing gift by nothing more than childlike faith - I took it with both hands like a starving child being offered his first real meal. And the truth was not that far from that really... Because of my past I was starved for love and when shown this true selfless kind of love by God - I wanted it more than anything in my life. Somehow even as a very small boy I knew that it was love that was missing in my life and I somehow knew that nothing else was going to truly fill that hole. In the Bible Jesus is called the Good Shepherd and theres a very good reason for this. We are simply just lambs who can't really help ourselves or defend ourselves. Now imagine that a predator comes to attack the flock. By simple instinct any predator out there is going to pick the easy meal... They look for the stragglers, the foolish, the ones that strayed from the safety of the herd, the ones lost in the shadows, the ones trapped and held down in the thorns.

The shepherd knows and sees His little lamb is stuck and going to be ripped to shreds by this wild animal so instead of the lamb being devoured and torn asunder the shepherd yells and draws attention to himself and away from the trapped lamb. The little lamb watches on as the shepherd fights the vicious beast with His bare hands and the ensuing result is both the beast and the shepherd lay bleeding and dying in the dust. The predator is dead and the lambs freedom has been bought in blood and at the price of the shepherds precious life. This is the love Jesus has for us. He is that good shepherd, the predator is sin and we are those helpless lambs. The good news I want to share is this... Jesus has the power to transform. He has the power to make all things new. He has the power to transform little helpless lambs into lions that roar for His Kingdom and His glory. This is my Jesus. This is my King. This is what He did for me. He not only died for me and saved me... He also showed me the true meaning of love. And that's what I really needed all along. Your Father in Heaven loves you so much more than words can describe. I pray today that God uses these words to penetrate the areas of your heart that have been hardened by pain, sadness and loneliness and that His love starts to transform you like it did for me. God loves you.  

Lord, I can't walk the broad lifeless well-worn path of false religion that so many others blindly stumble along. I can't pretend like them to have arrived, to be cleaned up - and to now have it all together. I know I'm just that thief on the cross that never deserved your mercy - yet it was exactly what I needed to be made whole. You opened my eyes and now I know that all that self-righteous process and struggle was just a waste of my time and yours. Just another Tower of Babel in the desert of my emptiness. It was my heart all along that you wanted so desperately. Enough that you would even die for it. I can't pretend anymore... It must be real or nothing at all... And now that my eyes are opened I also can't stray and follow the crowds in rebellion to your ways calling it "my freedom" and abusing your good and faithful grace for me. I cannot betray the One who paid so much for me in blood, sweat and tears with my foolishness and pride. And so I must walk the narrow path... the uncharted road... and that's cool, I never fitted in their boxes and always preferred an adventure over repeated bland scenery. And so I gladly tread this unknown road before me. The way that others cannot see for it can only be walked by following your voice. So speak Lord, be my light in the darkness, lead me in the way I should go. Because I will not bow before another... and I will not follow another... Only you are the Truth. It was you that set me free. You alone had the power make make my brokenness whole. You alone could find me in the darkness and rescue me from all my tormentors. It's only you that I want. You are so much more than just an epitaph... you are my lifeblood, my parity... my plenitude. Lead me Lord...  

I'm sure over Easter you'll probably read a lot of messages about Jesus and the fact that He rose from the dead on the third day. I'm not going to talk about that which may surprise you a little. I want to share something else that God put on my heart. Before Jesus came to this earth as a man - He lived and reigned forever and ever as the King of Glory in Heaven. Heaven was perfect in every way and the angels that Jesus created to serve loved him deeply and with utmost loyalty. Peace, love, truth and holiness reigned in Heaven. However, there was one angel though that chose in his heart to discard loyalty and coveted the throne of Jesus. Because of pride he exalted himself and led a violent coup to overthrow the rightful King of Heaven and claim the throne for himself. Many of us as humans assume that angels don't have emotions or cannot chose to sin but this is clearly incorrect by what the Bible tells us. One third of these angels also rebelled and followed Lucifer who became Satan the devil. A huge war broke out in heaven of which had never been witnessed before and the perfection of beauty - Heaven's worship leader Lucifer - was transformed into a hideous diseased dragon of darkness and evil.

The war ended with Michael the archangel capturing the dragon and under the command of God hurling him out of heaven with the speed and veracity of a lightning bolt as said in Luke chapter 10. All of the devils angels that chose evil over good we're given the same treatment - exile from the sanctuary. Heaven was once again peaceful and Jesus reign continued in power and glory. Furious and hell bent on revenge the devil knew he'd lost his chance to overthrow heaven and in a rage of resent and bitterness he turned his attention towards something he knew to be of extreme value and precious to the Creator... us. The devil's purpose was simple - to corrupt mankind. He'd failed at corrupting Heaven so he thought he'd go for the next best thing and bring sin and death to us all. Sadly, mankind fell for the trap and sin entered the world. Corruption spread like a cancer and we were doomed to destruction just like the devil himself. People no longer lived in perfect harmony but instead hatred, lust, fear, greed and death now reigned as a plague throughout our existence.

We needed help - badly. We needed salvation from ourselves and the corruption sin had brought on our kind. The Father looked on in Heaven and spoke to His Son Jesus and said "Someone must go and save them...". Jesus replied without any hesitation at all as He knew this was His fore ordained destiny and purpose... "I will go. I will save them. I will be their payment. I will become the doorway back to relationship with you Father." And so it was, the King of all Kings was sent by the Holy Spirit to be born as boy. He lived and walked among us as His earth name Jesus. He fed us, healed us, taught us and ultimately died for us to be the payment for our sins. We call Him Jesus but the angels that knew Him long before He came to this earth know Him for who He truly is... The True King. Here's the part I want to share. In 1 Peter 1:12it tells us of the angels that stayed loyal to Jesus that they "look into the things of salvation and marvel...". You see, these angels only know Jesus in His full glory, power and authority as the King of all Kings and the Supreme Creator of all things. For them, to see Him walk this earth as a vulnerable, humble human being that could be hurt, bleed and die is just preposterous. To them the concept of the King of Majesty that they know and love to reduce Himself to a mere man to serve and help us on our level is absolutely ludicrous. It's complete madness and insanity and makes no absolutely sense at all.

There's no logic in it and no reasoning that can be applied to why someone of so much power, glory and majesty would come and make Himself the container for all the worlds pain, suffering and sin for a fallen race of humans that only hurt and betray Him over and over. But that's just it. You see love isn't about logic, reason or understanding. True and pure selfless love is about choice. We never deserved Jesus to die for us and to be the payment for the sins we committed and the truth is He knows that. What Jesus did for us had nothing to do with deserving anything. It had everything to do with a choice of love. A choice that came with such high a price. Jesus told us in Matthew 26:53 that He had the ability to call 12 legions of His angels to protect Him at any time. The word legion comes from a roman military term which means a collection of soldiers ranging somewhere between 3000 to 6000. So that means at minimum Jesus had on call 36,000 angels ready and waiting to spring into action. Just to give you some perspective... these angels are of such extreme and fearsome power that only two were needed to destroy an entire evil city in the old testament. One of these visited Daniel in the Old Testament and as a result of being in contact with him he was bed ridden for a week. In Matthew 28:4 the entire garrison of hardened roman soldiers stationed to protect the tomb where Jesus lay in came in contact with a single angel and at just the mere sight of him put them in violent convulsions and rendered them as dead men.

These are not the fat little cherubs with golden harps shooting love inducing arrows as many of us had been led to believe by modern day myths and contemporary art. These are beings of amazing power given to them by their King that fail to be described by our narrow language and intellect. Their job is to serve their King and they are loyal to Him with a love and duty we simply cannot understand. So imagine that day as Jesus - the King of the Angels - hung on that cross bleeding, suffering and dying painfully and slowly for a race of humans that never deserved such a sacrifice. Imagine those angels watching from Heaven... waiting and itching to jump into action for their King full of fiery love, devotion and passion for Him. Waiting for Him to just mouth those words...to request their assistance. They would have been there in a heartbeat to serve and help Him and it all would have been all over in such a tremendous way. The world we know to be would most likely ceased to exist at the presence of so many of these beings. That is their very purpose - to serve and protect their King. But He never called for them... All they could do was watch the absurdity that was the King they loved dying in immense pain when He held such power and authority to change everything by just a word.

These angels must have asked the question and most likely still do to this day... "Why?... Why would He go so far for them...? Why would the King do this...?" The answer is simple. It cannot be explained by logic, reason or intellect. The answer is love. That is why He did what He did. He chose love for us. I pray for youtoday that God opens your eyes to His amazing, relentless, irrational and astounding love for you. What to the angels seems like madness - to us is called redemption. He chose you because He loves you. This is our King! 

Well today is officially Easter here in Australia. You know what I love the most about Easter? The fact that its origins are directly and undeniably pagan yet my King came and reclaimed it for Himself and for our redemption to the Father in Heaven. Talk about a hostile takeover hey :) By dying and coming back to life over Easter - Jesus completely and totally railroaded it's origins and rewrote the history books to make it all about the salvation of mankind and His power and authority as the King. He is the Ultimate Reclaimer. In His act of death He made the captivity that held us as slaves since the beginning His own captive. The most ferocious, blood thirsty, man-eating hounds of hell are now led on a lead and told to sit and stay by my King like little puppy dogs. That's the power He holds - the power of restoration. The keys to death and hell now belong to my King! That day the tables turned and not only was it the greatest victory won for mankind - it was simultaneously the most immense loss suffered by our enemy the devil. My King died for me and showed me the true meaning of love. Sacrifice. He won the war that day... and not just by a small margin - it was a complete and total annihilation! A victory so vast, so extravagant, so dominant and so all-encompassing that it was embarrassing to our enemy and all his ranks. My Jesus still holds all that same power to reclaim blind, broken salves to be shining, bold sons and daughters of His Kingdom. He hasn't lost a drop of that power since that day and as a matter of fact He's coming back to finish the war one day in even more power and authority... but this time He reclaims everything that belongs to Him. Have an awesome Easter because we have an awesome King who lives and reigns forever and ever. This is Jesus... the Saviour of the World!  

Hey, I wanna share something today that really changed my faith and my walk with God and I believe it will help you too. Jesus said many times "the last will be first and the first will be last...". He also said He wants us to pray and believe just like how little children trust and follow their parents. Little children don't try to do it on their own because they know they are just tiny little people who in reality aren't strong enough or wise enough so instead they run to and cling to their parents to help them. Jesus wants us to do exactly the same. This is what I wanna share... I've been in church pretty much most of my life. I wouldn't say I was ever the squeaky clean altar boy but I did know how it all worked. I learned the system well. I knew all the "church speak", all the Amens and Hallelujahs, I could recite lengthy passages of scripture at any time, I knew all my dogma, doctrine and theology inside and out. I could explain almost any book of the bible in its respective context. I knew all the prophets, the Pentateuch and could recite the entire book of Proverbs at verbatim.

I knew how to sound spiritually mature when I prayed and knew what sort of behaviour to show in front of people to get their empty approval. God describes a type of people in Isaiah 29:13 as "Drawing near to God with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me..." The cold hard truth though was this... that was me. I did all the lip service but my heart didn't belong to God at all. I gave Him part of my time, some of my intellect and even some of my money but the thing He wanted the most - I withheld. He wanted my love - which only came from my heart - and I made sure He never got near that. That part was mine. Here's the thing that God showed me that really changed me. I visited a girl once who was living with her boyfriend in a pretty run down part of town. We knocked on the door and when she let us in her boyfriend frantically cleaned up the coffee table because He'd been cutting up drugs on it with a credit card. The boyfriend made himself scarce and then the girl started talking to us about how she wanted to leave her boyfriend and get a job and her own place. She felt hopeless, trapped and with no future.

All she knew was she didn't want to be in that place any more. You see, this girl had horrible things happen to her as a little child by people she should have been able to trust. Things that should never had happened let alone even be talked about. Even sadder was that the same things happened to her again as a teenager. Because of what had happened to her and the pain and suffering that had caused she now believed the lie that she was worth less than what God said of her. This girl like me also spent all of her childhood years in churches so she knew the deal and how it all worked. The thing was she'd been treated by the church as dirty, tainted and a hopeless case. Because of that treatment she no longer felt welcome at church and tried to find her place with some of the worst offenders of society. Now here's the amazing part... What she said next to us really stuck with me. She looked at us in the eye and said "Can you please pray to God for me that I get this job?" I knew when she said this that what she was really saying was this "I don't feel I'm good enough to talk to God - so can you please talk to Him for me and ask Him to have pity on me because I really need it..."

We prayed for that girl but I know for a fact that it wasn't my prayer that did anything at all. God heard that girls heart the moment she opened her lips and voiced those words "Can you please pray for me...?" That day I saw the same faith the Centurion in Jesus day had when He said to Jesus "I know who you are and the authority and power you hold. I'm not worthy for you to come into my home but please... just say the word and my servant will be healed..." What I wanna say is this. That girls heart taught me far more about prayer to our Father in Heaven than 20 years of church ever did. Needless to say that girl got the job she needed and today is and awesome mother of an amazing little boy and lives in peace in a great place by the ocean away from all the darkness she used to be a part of. Can I encourage you - cry out to God for what you need just like this girl did. He cares deeply for you and loves you and always hears. He never ever turns away from a broken and humble spirit. The sacrifice He seeks from you isn't more service to Him. The thing He wants the most is your broken heart and the shattered pieces of your life. Why? Because He loves to restore His children. If you'd also like me to pray for you I'd be honored to do so as your brother in Christ. If you'd rather remain private you can contact me using the links in my bio. God values you so highly, so much more than you could ever imagine. I pray today that He unlocks more and more of that value in you. You are worth more.