Pray for Liana and Adleigh

This past weekend we had the privilage of Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation church preach for us at MKCC.

Elevation's worship leader Wade Joyce and his wife gave birth to twins 3 months prematurely on June 18th.

The girls are seriously ill please pray or them now. You can find out more about how to pray here.

Simply Jesus - Kingdom Life

Matthew 3

John the Baptist message was plain and simple - Change. It is summed up in v11 - Turn your old life in for a kingdom Life.

Today the race is on to be the next American President and so far Barack Obama has campaigned on one word - Change. Suggesting that the old way of politics is tired outdated and needs change. Call me cynical but some how I suspect that it will be politics as usual with very little changed apart from rhetoric.

John encountered people like that they were the religious leaders of the day. They did things because it was the vogue thing to do and would give them popularity with people. John had a word for them - snakes!

He called for real radical life change. On our own almost impossible but John was announcing the arrival of a person who would give us the power to change - God's son Jesus.

v11 - The main character in this drama—compared to him I’m a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out.

Remember you do not have to change in your own limited strength but with Jesus help.

Integrity Integrity Integrity

10 qualities of a good leader:

• Vision
• Decisive decision making
• Taking risks
• Motivating others
• Team builder
• Self Knowledge
• Learner
• Good communicator
• Empowers
• Integrity

I have listed integrity last as in my opinion it is the most important. You can be a good leader lacking any of the others but without integrity the others will be useless. People do not follow those they can not trust.

“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.”- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Simply Jesus Day 1

Matthew 1

We are told that how you start something is important. I remember my old English school teacher telling us if you don't catch a readers attention in the opening paragraph, it very unlikely that they will read your story.

On the face of it God opens up the story of Jesus in a very boring way - a list of names, wow. I can imagine Matthew talking to God as he wrote under His inspiration. God you have got to be kidding, there has to be a better way to announce the arrival of your Son to this world than a list of relatives somehow I don't think this is going to hit the best seller list!

Clearly God knows best. Matthew was written primarily at the time to a Jewish audience. Jesus was the Messiah the fulfillment of many Jewish Old Testament prophesies. To show his readers that Jesus came from the line of Abraham and the Royal line of David was critical for them.

But Jesus ancestry was not just a long line of royalty, it is interesting to note in v5 that Rahab a notorious prostitute is listed.

Ultimately God loves people and people are important to Him so very often through scripture you will find lists of names. Its great to know that God knows your name.