Outrageous Giving

I was stoked to read Servant Blog this morning over at the to all Nations site which by the way I looked into a bit more in depth today for the first time and its awesome stuff and I really resonate with their heart, but anyway what I was saying it was great to hear them being given a sweeeet G4 iBook as a gift. I completly understand the feelings they are having right now because of a similar awesome story which I think Ill tell now....

Click here to Continue Reading "Outrageous Giving" As I grew up I spent a lot of time at my pastors house because there son who was my age too was the soundest person I knew and over the year I spent ALOT of time there, John (the pastors son and I) became best of buds even til this day, and I spent so much time with the family I loved them like family, this fortunately for me is still the situation

...about 3 years ago when I was with my church in Jamaica, someone gave me a word about musical stuff happening in me, which for me was slightly amusing because by that time 17/18 I had exhausted all ends of being musical possibly trying out every musical instrument at school and failing miserably at all of them. Id always loved listening to music and I was discovering how powerful music was in connecting with God in Worship, and though not a musician I was determined to be a worshipper.

...Anyway Im the kind of guy who has a word and then 2 days later forgets it (a definite character flaw...im working on it) so when I asked Paul one of the adult leaders on the trip to teach me a song on his little £100 Beginners Yamaha guitar (still very nice btw) which he'd brought because God had told him to take it and give it to someone over in Jamaica (I think he thought it would be a Jamaican though!) anyway needless to say I learnt one chord D, and moved a finger to change the chord into "Light of the World" a good, but now quite overplayed song!...I just kept playing and playing, and (im sure you saw this coming) at the end of the trip Paul offered me the guitar, needless to say I was stoked I remember carefully packing it away in our minibus in its cloth case, taking much pride in my new guitar, Im not meaning to play a small violin or anything but I really didnt ever own anything like that which was completely new.

...Anyway this guitar was great, God gave me a supernatural ability to stick at something for once, and I loved it, I would play it everyday, and I started to get much better. As ever when I returned from Jamaica, almost every weekend, and some weeks I would be at the Gillespies (The pastors family) This family is Guitar crazy, they have got the bug as some guitarists would say, John(the Pastor...not the son) had a beautiful completely custom made guitar worth well into the 4 figures and all the other guys had some very sweet offerings without boring you about guitars for the next 10 minutes.

...Anyway there would often be people coming over for dinner, as with a pastors house, but the Gillespies are like pastors on steroids (in a good way) they love and are hospitable like no one Ive ever met, and in passing I think those 2 characteristics are the reasons why Im still running this race, but anyway I was playing my guitar as normal upstairs with Josiah another guitar playing Gillespie and with everyone playing extremely nice guitars, and the fact that I didnt know how or could afford to change the strings I was getting a bit of GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome) you see being at the gillespies I learnt about woods, and fine guitars and I just thought one day, one day, so I walked down into the kitchen into a not unusual sight, the guests and the gillespies (and other tag alongs like me) were in a kind of semi circle around the kitchen counter with people behind swinging round, well I was late so I was on one side of the counter and got ready for some pre-meal praying...

...to be honest I remember roughly what happened but I cant remember what people said but basically John said "Liam, I want you to give away your guitar.....because we got you a new one!" from behind the counter he pulled a guitar bag, and after a bit of a kafuffle to get it open there it was.....A Yamaha DW 15....Beautiful woods, a sturdy dreadnought guitar, gold tuning pegs, What a guitar....I was blown away...

...I'd never received such an outrageous gift, needless to say on a pastors salary I knew this gift was a sacrifice, but more than the monetary value of this guitar I was blown away that people (Paul and John who bought me the guitar) would give me something completely out of my reach, its hard to describe what that does, but in a small way I knew that Jesus had done a similar thing for me, we aspire to the kingdom, we wait for it..Romans 8:22 says the whole of creation is groaning, I think that includes us, were waiting for his return and he gave us something we could only dream of eternity with him, he paid for it in the knowledge that we never could, just because he loved us, he have it selflessly.

...I am always an advocate of steps that make the modern church and modern worshippers more reverent and filled with the holy fear of God, to be honest I think its one of things that have been neglected, but the overwhelming truth is, come on I know you know this one

John 3:16-18 (New International Version) 16“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

...I wonder when it all falls down the wayside, all the talking, all the sermons, the worship times, all the Christian books, that we really get it...how much of our actions motivated by the lack of self confidence could be changed by the simple and deep knowledge, not head knowledge but the understanding in the heart that God knows everything there is to know about us, and he loves us more than anyone ever has.

Just Now Im Dave Crowder Band