John 15:5-8 (GWT)
“I am the vine. You are the branches. Those who live in me while I live in them will produce a lot of fruit. But you can’t produce anything without me. Whoever doesn’t live in me is thrown away like a branch and dries up. Branches like this are gathered, thrown into a fire, and burned. If you live in me and what I say lives in you, then ask for anything you want, and it will be yours. You give glory to my Father when you produce a lot of fruit and therefore show that you are my disciples.
The Arrogant Will Fall
Proverbs 16:5-6 (GWT)
Everyone with a conceited heart is disgusting to the Lord.
Certainly, ⌜such a person⌟ will not go unpunished.
By mercy and faithfulness, peace is made with the Lord.
By the fear of the Lord, evil is avoided.
Making Plans and following Gods Lead
Proverbs 16:1-3 (GWT)
The plans of the heart belong to humans,
but an answer on the tongue comes from the Lord.
A person thinks all his ways are pure,
but the Lord weighs motives.
Entrust your efforts to the Lord,
and your plans will succeed.
What Has Happened To Hillsong?
We are huge fans of Hillsong. That church has done so much to promote a beautiful worship around the world. Who can forget “Mighty To Save”, “Shout to the Lord”, and all the hundreds of great worship songs that have come out of that church. We love Hillsong, but as of November 2015, it seems they have lost their way. Their music has begun to sound the same. Maybe they have been working so hard to be relevant to the world, that they’ve become too much like the world?What happened to Hillsong and what was the change? It seems PlanetShakers in Melbourne Australia has really picked up that anointing for worship. The Generation Unleashed worship in Oregon has been excellent, but we don’t know where they are now. The New Life Worship in Colorado has also been very good. So much good worship out there but as Hillsong seems to have lost it’s ministerial direction, you wonder what is going on. It’s been SO good for so long.
A couple of us from Victory visited the Hillsong Conference back in 2007. It was life changing. The worship was amazing. The area that could have been confusing was likely the teaching. They have Joel Osteen, Ed Young, TD Jakes, Lou Gigaglio, Joseph Prince. From a teaching perspective, things are confused. They have Word of Faith people mixed with Baptists, Independents, and varying flavors of faith or just plain religious folk. We have found when going to a conference, its best to focus on those that have speakers of strong faith. However if you go to conference and didn’t know any better, or were a young follower of Jesus (Christian), you really could get confused. What happened to Hillsong? Likely, the confused messages and teaching have hit it.
In 2010, Darlene and Mark Zschech, the leadership behind the Hillsong worship left the church to go start another church. With any big church, you’re going to see a flow of people coming and going, but Darlene probably set the tone for why Hillsong was such a worshiping church. Other great contributors like Marty Sampson (famous for writing many of their songs), had already left before that.
We don’t know what happened at Hillsong, but all of our churches come down to leadership. People are probably not interested in the tattoos and nose rings. In fact, these things may become a distraction.
If you think of our brothers and sisters at Hillsong, let’s focus on praying for them.
- Wisdom and direction for the leadership
- A sense of holiness towards honoring the Father
- Surrounding the leadership team with godly support
- Whatever else the Holy Spirit shows you that they need
Obviously, by reading this note, you noticed that there was something amiss as well. Let’s pray for Hillsong for God to exhort, convict, direct… do whatever it takes to make sure everything runs in His direction.
Faith Is Believing
Genesis 15:6 (GWT)
Then Abram believed the Lord, and that faith was regarded as the basis of Abram’s approval by the Lord.
The father of our faith is Abraham.
The Beginning Of The Arab People
Genesis 16:7-12 (GWTransl)
The Messenger of the Lord found her by a spring in the desert, the spring on the way to Shur. He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s slave, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
She answered, “I’m running away from my owner Sarai.” The Messenger of the Lord said to her, “Go back to your owner, and place yourself under her authority.” The Messenger of the Lord also said to her, “I will give you many descendants. No one will be able to count them because there will be so many.” Then the Messenger of the Lord said to her,
“You are pregnant,
and you will give birth to a son.
You will name him Ishmael [God Hears],
because the Lord has heard your cry of distress.
He will be as free and wild as an untamed donkey.
He will fight with everyone, and everyone will fight with him.
He will have conflicts with all his relatives.”
What should the borders of Israel be?
Genesis 15:18 (GWTransl)
At that time the Lord made a promise to Abram. He said, “I will give this land to your descendants. This is the land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates.
Jesus is the payment for all our sins
1 John 2:2 (GWTransl)
He is the payment for our sins, and not only for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world.
An Evil Leader
Proverbs 25:5 (GWTransl)
Take a wicked person away from the presence of a king,
and justice will make his throne secure.
Every follower of Jesus realizes that the current President is evil. Of course, we need to pray for him to be removed from office if he is to continues to try to work against God and God’s Kingdom. Proverbs is clear about evil leaders, they are surrounded by evil councilors.
Let’s pray for the leaders of our nations to be surrounded by Godly, just, loving, and strong followers of Jesus.
Don’t love the world, love the Creator of this world
1 John 2:15-17 (GWTransl)
Don’t love the world and what it offers. Those who love the world don’t have the Father’s love in them. Not everything that the world offers—physical gratification, greed, and extravagant lifestyles—comes from the Father. It comes from the world, and the world and its evil desires are passing away. But the person who does what God wants lives forever.