Faith Walking, And The Victory Christmas Celebration In Tokyo
Sunday was fantastic. We celebrated Christmas at Victory with some 50 or 60 very enthusiastic people. Rocky opened the worship with a good word. Gigi led the worship with a fantastic band of keyboards, guitars, and drums, singing and shouting praises to the King of Kings, and the Lord Of Lords. The Victory family all entered into to a fantastic time of worship that didn’t finish until one hour and 15 minutes from the time we started.
Following the worship, there was a call for people who felt God was calling them into the ministry. It was particularly targeted at men. Three guys came forward that felt they had the call of God on their lives to go into the ministry.
Pastor preached on “Faith Walking” or in Japanese it was “信仰でやる”. He shared Mark 11:22-25 and how Jesus spoke to the fig tree when he found there were no figs on that tree. It was out of season, but Jesus cursed the fig tree. The next morning, the disciples saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.
Following the service, one of our ladies gave a demonstration of her Karate test, pastor called it “Christmas Karate” jokingly. Kids and adults enjoyed watching the kicking and punching techniques, as she demonstrated the black belt test moves. Then the party began!
Yoko led the whole group in some very creative games. One was recalling the descriptions of God in Japanese or English. Another welcomed in the “Candy Man” for the kids. Emily, Sara, and Gycela, ran the ever popular Musical Chairs game… Victory folks are pretty strong on this one! The kids enjoyed a game of Freeze Dancing.
Many people came at 930 or 10am, and were still at Church at nearly 5PM. People didn’t want to go home. We’d say that was a successful Christmas!
Good Strong Faith Church In Hillsboro Oregon
Enjoyed watching Pastor Rod at New Creation Church in Hillsboro Oregon. Praise God! It’s nice to see people of STRONG FAITH!
TD Jakes Shares Why Men In And Out Of The Church Are Rising Up
Powerful sharing of a pastor’s heart. How men come to church.
Pastor Robert Jeffress Gives Excellent Response To Homosexual Marriage Idea From Biblical Perspective
Robert Jeffress says sex is a choice. In his discussion with this homosexual ‘pastor’, you can see that when you know the Word of God, you know what God’s opinion is on the subject of “gay marriage”.
We love all people. We all have sinned, but we have to free ourselves from sin or we will be eternally separated from God.
Great Devotionals For Your Smartphone Or Tablet
Being Connected To Jesus, You Can Do Amazing Things
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.