Renewal Youth Prophecy

This was a prophecy strongly impressed upon the heart of one of our youth at a recent Flame service which they felt led to share with all of us. Please read it, pray about it and act upon it in the way you feel most led to by the Holy Spirit and with His wisdom foremost in your mind.

/jon

I was just praying and asking God what He wants us, as a youth group, to do now that we have been commissioned with a mission [on the last day of Overwhelmed Camp].

I felt Him tell me that He wants to break our hearts for the lost and unsaved.

If we don't have a heart for people who do not know God, how are we going to do this mission that God has given us to do (telling the lost about Him)? We need to have that broken and aching heart for them, otherwise we have nothing compelling us to tell them about God; nothing that gives us that passion to step out and tell them about God.

God has broken my heart for the lost before, and it was a really painful thing—my chest hurt a lot and I was weeping. God obviously only shared with me a small amount of the pain He feels for His children that turn their backs on Him, and I cant imagine how intense that pain must be that God Himself feels for His children.

Let God break your heart for the lost; let God show you how He feels for His sons and daughters; how much His heart aches for them to come to Him, to turn to Him.

But remember, it’s a big thing to ask God for, so be sure you want God to use you in this way.

Halloween Revisited

Yep, it's that time of the year again, when young Jimmy pleads with his mum to buy him that blood-splattered-glow-in-the-dark meat cleaver on display in the toy store's window.

Halloween is 2 weeks away, and once again I'm concerned at the amount of parents encouraging their kids to participate in a celebration which has its roots in pagan devil worship.

I wonder, as Mary delights in how cute her 5-year-old daughter looks in her which's hat and broomstick, does she have any idea what that broomstick was originally used for?

Probably not.

I've spent the morning revising the Halloween origins study. It is now up to date, and relevant.

Click here to view the PDF.

Please read it through, and even if you don't agree, you will understand it's origins.

God bless,

/Syms

Congratulations, Jason and Rachel!

What a day! A miraculous circle of blue, aggressively defying the grey-fingered clouds, encircled the outdoor wedding of Rachel and Jason this Saturday; and, despite the despairing premonitions of metservice.com, not a drop of rain fell throughout the entire ceremony (afterward, the rain pelted down like a tide of apprehensive children just released by the starting-gun on cross-country day).

Glory to God for a couple bent on living out his purposes and plans!

 

Jason let-off-lightly van der Hulst

He was tackled and beaten into the sand. He was shackled by trailer strops, shoved in a bathtub, doused in flour and water. He was finally taken about 100 metres down the beach and left by some rocks... Hmmm, nice, but he came out of it with his pride 100% intact and his body 100% unscathed. You be the judge.

/j

 

A Hulst-to-be Hens' Party

Some would arguably say that, Rachel, soon-to-be-Hulst, got a far more severe punishment at her Hens' Party than Jase did at his Stag. Personally, I would say they are right.

Some of her tasks, whilst dressed as a vivacious chicken, included:

• Asking for free chocolate at the Fudge Farm
• Asking for a Rockshop worker's cell phone number
• Busking outside Farmers
• Walking down Bank Street in her stately getup 

(Please chasten me if I forgot anything!)

I'm not sure if this was followed or preceded by the frenzic soap-sud wrestling, but regardless, the fierce hens probably won't need to wash their hair for a few, uh, months.

Check out the pics and stay tuned for the ones from Jason's stag. Chaos!

/j

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Jon!

Yessiree... Jon (who's world-famous in RY) is the birthday boy today.

Hope you've had a great day mate. You are a huge blessing to us all at church - keep being who God made you to be, and try not to injure yourself next time you fall off the stage ;-)

/symon

Thanks Endless Praise!

If you couldn't make it to one of the services this weekend or the worship workshop on Saturday morning then you unfortunately missed out on a rather remarkable time. Both the Friday night Flame youth service and the Sunday morning Praise Celebration with all the CRF churches united (no, not Hillsong United) were led by Endless Praise and were a huge blessing for all who could make it.

From everyone at CRF we want to say a massive thank you Endless Praise! And we'll hopefully see all you guys again next year.

/j

Some photos from the weekend

Endless Praise this Friday!

If you are in Whangarei this Friday night then come to Flame (CRF, 2 Tarewa Road) at 7pm with a mate tagging along beside you. Awesome Australian worship team Endless Praise will be playing, and best of all it's FREE!

If you are a part of any of the CRF churches, on Saturday morning from 10am-12pm we have three workshops with Endless Praise focussing on vocal technique, worship band dynamics and vocal harmonies. All are free but please bring a shared lunch.

Endless Praise will also be leading the Praise Celebration this Sunday (26th) at CRF central.

The Endless Praise website can be found here

/j