Following Jesus Passionately

As I was praying this morning and thinking about God's power and awesomeness (I was reading from Mark 4 about Jesus calming the massive storm on the lake), I was challenged to think about the way I describe how I go about following Jesus.
So anyway, I was thinking about how I would like to describe my life and relationship with God, and how I would like others to see me, and I came up with this:

I want to be a guy who follows Jesus passionately.

For me, this is something short that takes in Jesus' command to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbour as yourself. If I look at following Jesus passionately, to follow I must obey, be close to Jesus, do the things that he did, reach out to those he reached out to, display his priorities and characteristics and be like him. And if I am to do that passionately, it takes in all of my heart, soul, mind and strength, my emotions, my excitement, my inspiration... and what I am passionate about something, it invades every part of my life and people see it.

So that's what I want to be like, a guy who follows Jesus passionately. That's tough, and personally, in my own strength, I can't do it. But Jesus has given me His Spirit, which puts that passion in my heart and can help me to follow passionately. So, I'm on the road, following, stumbling a lot, but keeping my eyes on the guy I'm following so that I don't lose the way.

I would love you to come follow with me... how about it?

A great welcome at Glenroy

This morning I had the privilege of sharing about Mexico and preaching at Glenroy Gospel Chapel. I arrived at about 9:30am and met two Harold's and Nancy and had a lovely morning sharing with the people there and getting to know them a little better.

A few of the senoras took a liking to my sombrero hehehe

It was amazing to meet some ladies who have been praying for me since I was a little kid, meeting with my mum in the city at St Paul's Catherdral to pray for their kids. What a wonderful legacy and encouragement they are passing on.

God bless you guys!

Phil

Johnston St fiesta

On Sunday night I went down with my friends to the Johnston St fiesta which is a Latin American and Spanish cultural festival. We had a fantastic night exploring the street stalls and sampling some great Latin American food... I grabbed an empanada (Chilean) and some Portugese donuts - YUM!

After food we went across to our favourite Mexican restaurant - Los Amates and had a bit of a dance to some Mexican tunes. I got to practice a little bit of Spanish, but most of all it was just great to be amongst the mix of Latin cultures. It really reminded me of Mexico with all the street stalls and people packed into a small street. I can't wait to go!!!

Upcoming dates...

I was hanging out with some of my friends on Wednesday night as we were having our weekly small group bible study. We were praying for each other and I was asked how people could pray for me. Sometimes you just phrase things badly. I said "I'd really appreciate your prayers, I've got a couple of upcoming dates..." Before I thought to finish the sentence, everyone was in fits of laughter and asking me who I was taking out on a date?!

"...to share about what God is doing in Mexico..."

So yes, I have a couple of upcoming dates to share about what God is doing in Mexico and what I will be doing there.

25 November at 10am I'll be preaching and sharing at Glenroy Gospel Chapel (101 Paget Ave, Glenroy).

29 November at 7:30pm I'll be sharing with New Community Ringwood (www.ncr.org.au)

Please pray that God will enable me to share HIS message and encourage these friends as I spend time at each of these churches. Also pray that God would raise up those who would be challenged to partner with me in my ministry in Mexico.

Clase de español!

Hey all. I had a really fun night on Thursday - my friend and I went down to Tres Culturas Spanish class and did a Spanish lesson! It was super-cool to practice my Spanish again in a class and get some more help and tuition. I was able to understand pretty much everything that was going on and also knew some extra bits which was cool. We talked about lots of things in our area like public services (police, townhall, swimming pool, library etc. etc.) which was handy.

I'm really looking forward to getting into even more Spanish when I get to Mexico. I was thinking of doing this class for the last five weeks up to Christmas, but I have realised that things are just a little too busy and I already have things booked up on Thursday nights. Anyway, it was exciting to get back into learning Spanish and I came away very pumped up to speak and learn more.

Vamos!