Once Saved Always Saved ?

So how do you get your salvation ? Once you are saved can you loose your salvation ? Who is saved and who is not? Can everyone be saved ? What about the thought that different religions are just different ways for people to get close to God?

What are your thoughts and beliefs ? Please leave a comment.

Who Are You ?

I will leave this post up for a while. Please send a comment and tell us who you are, how you found this page, what you have read, what you like, don’t like, your testimony, whatever It would be nice to know who it is that pops in and a bit about you.

God Bless You

An Update – Part One

I am going to change the ’style’ of this blog a bit. There will be a number of factual updates about what I am doing at the moment. I will still write devotions and share them but due to the amount of things that are going on in my life I might keep it fairly straight forward for a while (then again I might not, only God knows, amen ) This post is feedback to the ‘Busy Month’ post

1) I made a wonderful Shepard’s pie ( if I do say so myself ) and took it to my cell group. Unfortunately, as it was being removed from the car, it got dropped, didn’t look as good but still tasted ok. God put something on my heart during one of our Friday night sessions…….

There were 10-15 people gathered in the room, waiting for things to start. Someone was playing guitar and people were chatting. Then someone said “ Ok, let’s make a start” Someone else nominated a song, the person on guitar started playing and the person who chose the song led. Everyone joined in, in their own way, some tapping their feet, some clapping their hands. My 3 year old daughter even walked to the other side of the room and grabbed a shaker, she came back beside me and started to shake a beat (better than I ever could as I am musically retarded )
After a few songs, someone prayed and then the person who had been nominated gave us a meditation on the meaning of the cross. Next, people were nominated to pray for certain others, we sang and prayed for the evening meal and then ate and chatted.

The thing that God showed me was that that is how the body of Christ should function. Each person just does what God puts on their heart. He puts it all together. All we need to d is be empty vessels so we can clearly understand what it is He wants us to do and then do whatever it is He wants us to do diligently and faithfully.

2) We went to both of the orphanages and it was a very productive day. We shared and prayed with Pak Dodo and Bu Ester from Rumah Sejati. From what we have discussed, we are planning to have the family day with the families of some of the ex-street kids from their orphanage. We also handed over the school fee money.

Andrew had to go home after Rumah Sejati so my wife, 2 kids and I met a friend and went to Karunia together. It was a long, hard, uncomfortable drive to get their and it was a real relief when we finally did. We gave bags of ‘krupuk’ and the money for the school fees. Bu Tin and Bu Silvie are really strong women of faith. They live and support 30 children, who are victims of the East Timor conflict, and when you ask them how they do it they simply say “ Jesus is never late in helping us” I photographed most of the kids there and we were just about to leave when I dropt Andrew’s camera  I just found out it is going to cost me a fortune to fix but that little low light doesn’t show up the wonderful things that were done on that day. Bu Silvie and Bu Tin also told us that they have 1 year to raise Rp300JT (US $ 32,000 ) to buy the house they are living in or the owner will have to sell it to someone else.

3) The visit to Rumah Kehidupan is next Sunday (13th) My wife and I went through all our eldest daughter’s toys and have a great big box of toys to hand over. I hope we can share some love and put some smiles on some dials. I will put up a report as I am not sure what to expect.

4) Andrew, Jos and I had our meeting and are getting steam up for Y4G.

I have to go and get some exercise before work now. I have lots more to share and will hopefully get time tomorrow.

God Bless You

A Busy Month

This is going to be a busy month for me and to top it all off, the Yearn4god website is being rearranged. This will mean that we will have sites that are easier to update and access. Is will also mean that Andrew, Jos and myself can all easily alter the site and post, as at the moment Andrew is the only one with the know how. You can look forward to much more frequent information if you are following the progress of Y4G.

Here’s what I have on my plate this month (apart from my full time job and family life)

1) Tomorrow night (Friday) is a postponed Easter celebration with my church cell group. I’m making shepherd’s pie (never one to miss the opportunity for some irony or a pun or whatever you would call that)

2) On Saturday my family and Andrew will be going to 2 orphanages, Rumah Sejati and Karunia. We aim to begin photographing the kids for the website profile and also to hand over the money Andrew’s church raised from selling Christmas cards. We have worked with the heads of the orphanage and it turns out that the money from the sale of the Christmas cards will send 6 kids to school for a year. I am also looing forward to seeing Bu Silvie and Bu Tin at Karunia as their orphanage is very difficult to get to and I haven’t been there in about a year.

3) Sunday we go to visit an orphanage that is specifically for babies born after failed abortions. In Indonesia, there are common practices of trying to abort using ‘strong massages’, drinking toxic herbal potions etc. These methods often fail but leave the child deformed. Rumah Kehidupan is a place for these children. We will be donating second hand toys and trying to spread a little love there.

4) Next Wednesday, Andrew, Jos and I should finally have our weekly meeting. It has been canceled several times due to people being busy and sick. It is very important as we need to get onto our next CHARGED fellowship and really start putting together the family day.

5) The 12th will be annual work meeting followed by a family gathering. Its my wife’s family tradition to have the whole family gather every month or 2 and eat together and have fun, all 40-50 people !!

6) The 19th is a special little boys birthday party, already got his present.

7) 26th is the joy of job training.

It is going to be a busy month and I sometimes wonder how I end up with such a busy schedule. I will put up photos and reports about the orphanage visits when the Y4G website has been rearranged.
God Bless You

An Earnest Question

I have question and I would greatly appreciate some feedback. Why is it that when I do a post about sex I get 4-5 times more hits at my blog than when I do posts on other topics ?

Is it :

1) People are searching for porn and so the key words get more hits
2) People honestly seek information and help about sex related issues
3) Other

If it is merely because people are searching for porn, maybe I’ll just include the raunchy words in my tags when I write on other topics LOL. If people really want information, ideas, counseling or are just interested in the topic of sex, I will create a page for it.

Again I would greatly appreciate some feedback. Thanks and God Bless You, Gef

My Love, Hate Relationship With Money – Part One

I fell I have a serious hurdle to overcome, I have a love / hate relationship with money. I think this relationship is seeded in my childhood experiences of watching my family suffer because of money problems. Another thing that has led to this problem coming to my attention is that I want to live for God so much that I don’t want to want or need money.

I understand that hating money and not wanting money is me taking the easy way out. What I really need to do is be more disciplined with money and actually learn to receive and use money graciously. When people want to give me money to help with ministry work I actually feel guilty. I don’t want people to think I have ulterior motives for talking to them and that I am always trying to get money out of them.

The key to me overcoming my problem is to take control of my money through being disciplined and learning to trust God more on financial matters. If I was single, I assume this would be easy. I love to give money away and use money to bless others but now that I have 2 children, house and car payments, a roof that needs replacing, an air conditioner that broke down, a hot water heater that hasn’t worked in 2 years (we heat water on the stove for showers) and other responsibilities, I can’t run from the fact that I have to make money work for me.

I diligently budget leading up to every salary and the story my budget tells me is that after we pay our bills, we can barely afford to get one of the list of things that need fixing fixed and then will be living on a shoestring budget for the month hoping that the nappies and milk last.

Everyone says that this is normal for ‘1st time home owners’ BUT I DON’T BELIEVE IT !! My God is an awesome God, I know I do things which displease him with money and the main one is not trusting him enough. I fear money, I fear it will lead me astray and my God does not give me a spirit of fear so I know this is not right.

I BELIEVE those who serve God should be paid better than rock stars and those who sell sex, drugs and rock and roll should be paupers. That is not the world we live in, the world’s finances are fickle BUT I am not. I love God and I want to serve him in every way. My finances are in His hands and I WILL DO the things I know he wants me to do but have always been too lazy / scared to do.

See Part Two

An Important Post

About a week ago I was invited to a meeting to discuss the problems in education in Surabaya. If you are not familiar with Indonesia you can’t understand the magnitude of social problems this country has. I’ll try and give you a quick synopsis.

Indonesia was controlled by the Dutch for 350 years. During that time, the ‘Indonesian people’ were suppressed and given very few rights. What education was available to them was created to ensure that they would fill their role as servants and farmers.

Indonesia became Independent from the Dutch a bit over 60 years ago. One of the things the first President of Indonesia did was to create a ‘business climate’. There were already quite a few Chinese people in Indonesia but Pak Soeharto encouraged more to come and fill the gap at the top of the business sector that the Dutch had left. The business climate was very much run through mutual back scratching and kick backs.

Until today, business and finances in Indonesia are monopolized by a small percent of the population ( 3-5%) and the vast majority of the population live in poverty and ignorance. He reason my meeting about education was so significant is that God has given me a passion for the country of Indonesia and I fully believe this country can be transformed through education. Amen

The statistics and stories about education I Indonesia are hard to comprehend for someone who hasn’t experienced a 3rd world country. Around 50% of children go no higher than a 6th grade education. Immense numbers of children get no education at all. Teachers are extremely poorly paid ( at the meeting we heard of teachers earning $5,$10,$20 a month) Schools are extremely poorly funded and maintained to the point where they often literally fall to bits.

During yesterday’s meeting, I was blessed to sit with people from organizations like Pondok Kasih, Full Gospel Businessmen, Sejaterah Kota and others who have been working very hard for a long time to bring about change in all areas of life for the Glory of God.

What I see is that the body of Christ MUST function as God intended it. We must work together and support each other better than any other organization on the planet to monopolize life as it is known by the human race. Once we control every aspect of government, education, health etc. we can implement systems that lead to peace and joy among all mankind.

For the short term, churches, schools and Christian organizations need to band together. In Surabaya I see many wonderful works BUT together we are stronger. We need to be streamlined, united and efficient with a view to solving the problems of today and offsetting the problems of the future through sound planning and the wisdom that can only come from God.

I live in a country where Christian churches spend thousands of dollars on ‘birthday and Christmas celebrations’ while other Christian churches struggle to survive because their congregation is poor. All the while children are dying of malnutrition because their parents lack the knowledge that eating a varied diet is more important than trying to get the most filling meal you can for your meager money.

We will win the world for Jesus one act of random kindness at a time BUT if we unite and organize better than those who wish to come against us I pray we can win the world faster, before too many have to suffer because of greed and corruption. Please take a moment to pray for countries like Indonesia, the people here know little more than this reality but they haven’t been given a chance to open their eyes for 400 years. I pray that the Holy Spirit will sweep through this country and set the people free through the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of all knowledge. Stand with me in this prayer. Amen

GBU

Back From the Villa

I haven’t put anything up for a few days as I was at the villa and then my computer decided to kick the bucket. Luckily I have managed to resurrect it. So, update to ‘My Dilemma’. I got to the villa and within 5 minutes I had a cigarette. It was a conscious choice and I suppose if I could somehow buy more will power, I would have and would have had no need for a cigarette.

For me life is not black and white. To love God and love life but smoke a cigarette may seem very hypocritical and I have no real excuse except to say that I had a thoroughly enjoyable time at the villa with my extended in-law family.

After being inspired by my friend Andrew’s website http://disciplineorregret.com I have been regularly getting up at 4-5 am and going for a power walk before swimming for 15 – 20 minutes. I also recently added a bike ride in between and have been eating much better.

If you have read my testimony you will see that I was once a very unhealthy person. Since being saved I have quit smoking ( a task I definitely needed Jesus for ) rarely drink and lead a fairly healthy, productive life. As for my body being my temple…last night I got home at after 11pm because I was taking a bunch of orphans bowling for the first time in their lives, its now 4:45 am and here I am writing this, at 5am I will start my exercise routine and then ride my motorcycle 45 minutes though polluted smoggy Surabaya to teach children to live for God before returning home, through all the traffic to look after my family…..my body must hate me….but it is a temporary vessel and although I have faults, I just pray that God will help me to lead a life that brings Him glory and honor.

God Bless You

My Dilema

In a couple of hours I am going to go and stay in a villa, in the mountains, near Surabaya. The villa costs about US $40 a night and there will be about 35 of us staying there (cheap yeah !!) I’ll put up some photos when I get back.

But here’s my dilemma. When the extended family gets together on an occasion like this we usually crank up the karaoke machine, have a few too many drinks and have a ball. That side of things I am not too worried about, I can have a few beers and be happy. My dilemma is smoking. Being an ex smoker, I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY don’t won’t to smoke again but 2 nights at the villa with everyone smoking and me having a few beers, I just pray Jesus will give me strength. The other side of it is I have a new baby and my daughter Chloe to consider. I am planning to designate smoking zones so that the kids are not exposed to second hand smoke. But this is Indonesia where people smoke EBVERYWHERE. Its like Australia in the 50’s before smoking was seen as harmful. Please pray for me 

GBU, Gef