George Whitefield - God's Divine Dramatist

During the 18^th Century the most famous person throughout America and the United Kingdom was not a politician or musician, it wasn’t a war hero or sportsman it was one of God’s generals who went by the name of George Whitefield. George was mainly known for his ability and gifting to deliver powerful sermons to large crowds, this gifting was recognised by all types of people from the working class men to the President of USA, from slaves to other generals in God’s army. George’s sermons were always dramatic and passionate and it was not uncommon to hear people weeping aloud while George shared the truth of God. This man preached an estimated 18,000 times in a formal setting and 78 of his preaches were published, he travelled to America 7 times and all around the United Kingdom. George preached where ever he was even while he was travelling, on one occasion George preached over three boats while they were sailing to America. The crowds that would gather to hear this divine dramatist would be in the tens of thousands, this man had great influence, great gifting and a great love for Jesus Christ.

George’s ability to deliver a powerful and passionate sermon is the first thing that draws me to him; even the President of the United States was blown away by his gifting. George didn’t have to have a lifetime of experience to acquire this gifting, in fact he was preaching to large crowds in his early 20’s. During George’s first sermon it is reported that fifteen people went mad under the conviction of their own sin. This man had power right from the word go, he didn’t wait around for an opportunity he grab any opportunity he could. He knew Jesus and he knew his identity because of Jesus.

Having an overview of George’s life helps us see the massive influence this man had. He was one of the most famous people of the 18^th century and he wasn’t just known he was loved. He had influence with the working class because he showed them freedom and forgiveness, he had influence in the government because he was an expert in his field and had excelled in his gifting and he had influence with other generals because he was a pioneer and had such great fruit. George was taught and mentored by the Wesley brothers but he had such gifting and grew so fast that soon he was teaching the Wesley brothers how to preach in the open air and he also super seeded them by gathering crowds 10x the size of what they were gathering.

I pray that my life has influence. Influence through my love for Jesus, through immense gifting and through pioneering movements of the Holy Spirit. I pray that this influence wouldn’t just be with Christians but would actually be primarily with the unbeliever and would span all classes and generations reaching from the homeless man on the streets of Bracknell to the President of the United States.

Communication

Apparently around 5,000 text messages are sent in the UK every second!

We love to communicate, it is a natural instinct in humans to want to connect with other people. God actual gave us this desire so that we would be motivated to seek him out and find a relationship/ connection with him.

Being a Christian means that a big part of your life is communicating the truth of Jesus in your culture and setting. We need to learn how to do this properly and effectively To do that we need to look at the example of Jesus and how he communicates. I have listed below the main ways that Jesus communicated to people, read it and start trying to apply one of his methods into your life and see if makes you more effective at spreading the truth of Jesus:

Telling Stories - Luke 10:25-37
Repetition - Luke 15
Humour - Matt 7:3 (Apparently this is Jesus being funny, lol)
Being Visual - Matt 18:1-4
Shock Tactics - John 6:53 and Matt 23:33
Extended metaphors - John 15
Asking questions - Mark 10:19

Interestingly Jesus was asked 183 questions according to the bible and only directly answered 3 of them! with the rest he would answer back with a question which lead to Jesus asking 283 questions. Looks like he wanted to start a debate not end one.

Lastly and most importantly he lived it. Jesus lived out what he believed and that is the real key to communication. If we say we believe something we have to live it out. If you say you believe in Jesus you must show how it affects your life otherwise people will see no reason why it would/should affect theirs.

John 13 :1

Oh how he loves us

Last week was Rocknations. I went to Rocknations praying for two things: money and a prophecy randomly given to me by someone.

During the first meeting I prayed and prayed for these two things believing that God could get them sorted in the first night but nothing happened, I was a little disappointed but I still had faith because we still had another four days. On the second day I went to check my bank account hoping that God had given me some money, I even promised to buy someone lunch knowing full well that i had no money but I thought who needs money when you have faith! Checked bank account it said £3.19.... Oh, looks like I would have to disappoint someone. I began to think to myself during the evening meeting and came to the logical conclusion that because i hadn't tithed this month maybe God was withholding his blessings from me and also maybe I wasn't getting a prophecy because I wasn't spending enough time with him one on one.

Third day. I knew what I had to do. I got alone before God and repeated the line "Speak to me" about 50 times, then went to the meetings that day full of faith that I had done the right thing. Nothing! Over the whole day not one prophecy and I had to ask people to borrow some money because I was completely broke, I was really getting discouraged now. I never blamed God because God is good but i started to blame myself, saying things like "you should of tithed" "you cant expect God to just give you what you ask" all these types of negative things.

On the last day I had given up. I had come to the logical conclusion that I don't deserve his blessings. I was doing my duty as leader and making sure everyone was ready to go home and I was in the last few seconds of my Rocknations experience when a girl in the youth group told me she had a prophecy but didn't know who for, she had written it down on a piece of paper I opened it up and it was so accurate for me! I would explain but that would take up another blog! Just know that what was writted down only God could have told her. I was buzzing, God had spoken to me in the last seconds before Rocknations ended howver still no money.

We get back to church and at the end of the evening meeting a dad from a fantastic church family comes to me and says that during the past week God had told him to give me some money! So he did! I was buzzing. I went home so happy and realised on the drive home that Gods love for me has nothing to do with me. If I don't tithe he still loves me, if I do tithe he still loves me, if I choose to spend my time reading the bible or getting drunk it doesn't affect the love that he has for me and not only that but because I am his child he wants to bless me and he will do so regardless of my behaviour. I got home after having an amazing prayer sess in my car and walk in and found an envelope on the table by the door with my name on it...... more money! Then my dad walks in and says I have transferred you even more money without me even asking!

Oh how he loves us!

Lifegroup

Every other Tuesday I have the honor and the privilege to lead a lifegroup for young people. This group is made up of 8 fascinating people! Every other week we meet up and read the Bible, Pray, talk about life, eat food, laugh and grow as individuals.

One of the perks of my job is that i spend my time with people, a lot of time and I realised that my jobs success doesn't rely on how much money i can make. It relies on whether i am helping, supporting, loving and leading people well. What i have learnt by leading this lifegroup is that unlike normal business's i can never tick off my goals, as people we will always need support, love and help throughout the whole of lives.

I have seen this group of young people grow so much over the last year or so and I have to say I am so impressed by the people they are growing up to be. They have such a passion to learn more about Jesus and grow as Christian that it makes me want to learn and grow myself. They are so supportive of each other and when we meet together they are quick to share encouraging words and build each other up. Finally I love the fact that this group are so much fun! fun is so important in life and tonight for the last hour we told funny and humiliating stories of our lives and we didn't stop laughing.... I don't know about you but i want people in my life that make me laugh!

If i could say one thing to this lifegroup it would be...Love!
Simple i know but it is the answer.
Love God - Build a relationship with him, follow his teachings and take hold of his promises
Love Yourself - You are a creation of the God, you are unique and you have a purpose of this earth
Love Everyone else - You pass the love on because that is the only way to change the world and when you pass it on it grows even more inside of you.

Mind-Blowing

The distance between the Earth and the Sun is 93,000,000 miles. This is mind-blowing stuff, I use the term mind-blowing because are minds/imagination/brain can't truly comprehend this level of greatness or magnitude so to help this information blow your mind let me put it like this. If you travel at 70mph it would take you 1,328,571 hours to reach the sun which equates to 55,357 days or 152 years! Kaboooom! (That's the noise of your mind blowing)

The sun is the closest star to Earth the next star in line is a star called "Proxima Centauri" the distance to PC is about 4.3 light years, did your mind just blow?... Nah mine neither, 4.3 light years means nothing to me, let me put it like this. If you grab a piece of paper and the thickness of that paper represents the 93,000,000 miles between earth and sun then you would need to stack up enough paper to reach 22 meters high to represent the distance between the Earth and PC! Kaboom!

The furthest star we know about is called GJ 682, this star is about 16.3 light years away from the earth. Your stack of paper would need to reach 88 meters high to represent that distance! I will let you do the math to figure out how many miles that will be.

In the Bible it says that God can measure the universe with the size of his hand! How big must God be?! Kaboooooooom!

10 weeks - 1000 youth

On the 16th of April we started are second term of LIFE, that was 10 weeks ago, since then we have seen 1000 different young people walk through the Kerith doors on a Friday night. Numbers aren't everything but it is the best way to measure your fruit and when we really think about it, it is more then a number it represents people, 1000 people in fact. 1000 people who have now had an experience of Church, 1000 people who have heard the gospel, 1000 people who have seen miracles and 1000 people who have had a chance to get right with God.

This is simply incredible and I have never seen anything like it before in my life, I am so excited to be part of this move of God, to be part of such an incredible team that just wants to help this generation reach it's full potential and I am so excited because God is making my dream, and the dream of others, a reality.

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen"

This verse is a promise! this verse is from God and God always fulfills his promises.

One Liners

Here some one liners that have inspired me at some point in my life. Some of them are from preaches i have heard, some are from close friends, some are from my own mind and some are from Jesus. If there is any that you like and would like me to write a separate blog post on then please just comment and I will do my best to write one. Here we go! Hope you enjoy!

Live for an audience of one.
Private victory leads to public victory.
If your Bible is in tatters your life wont be.
Power without purity is frustrating but purity without power is inexcusable.
The devil is out of date its time for the gospel.
If you don't know what your calling from God is, serve someone who knows theirs.
If you kneel before God you can stand up before anyone.
Lets stop reading the bible and start experiencing it.
Live your life and God will give you a wife!
Love is spelt TIME
Faith is spelt RISK
You know your mind has been renewed when the impossible seems logical.