Just gotta say, a week goes really REALLY quickly…

I’m having trouble putting the week’s events into stages…but suffice to say it’s all moving along quickly, with emotions riding the gamut of possibilities.

God is the great stabiliser in all of this, and we thank Him ALL the time.

I do want to let you all know that I’m not ignoring you, and haven’t suddenly stopped reading your blogs, but I am not likely to be commenting as much as I was as the qty of leisure time decreases over the next few weeks.

I am still reading though via my reader, just not clicking on through to express my appreciation for all the amazingness your blogs hold. From big huge revelation to simple thanks, from frivolous to serious…I love being part of this bloggy twittering community.

And regarding Twitter…yeah, I’m not on there quite as much either…miss you guys :/

This post is part of the weekly Sunday Setlists blog carnival over at FredMckinnon.com. Make sure you check out the other setlists too!

Yesterday we continued our Training for Reigning series, which has been broken up by Easter and a special message last week. It’s clear it’s preparation for the busy months and changes that are coming. And they are. Not just lip service, changes are happening in the church, in the congregation – a big shift is underway. It’s tangible. We’re ready – at least, as ready as we can be.

I was in the congregation this week for my monthly break. These seem to come around faster and faster! I was really blessed by the worship led by Dante in the morning service.
Music

Sunday AM
1. Let God Arise (Tomlin, etc/Passion)
2. Run (Houston/Hillsong)
3. At The Foot Of The Cross (Scott/Vineyard)
4. With All I Am (Morgan/Hillsong)

Sunday PM
1. Break Free (Houston, Crocker, LigertwoodHillsong)
2. Lead Me To The Cross (Fraser/Hillsong)
3. One Way (Houston, Douglass/Hillsong)
…and…
4. Let It Rain (Farren)
5. Awesome God / Perfect One (Mullins / Reddy)

Julie led last night with the help of Troy and Merv.  Julie is 14.  It was exciting to see her take this first (tentative) step into leading, and the guys did a great job of supporting her.

And that last song in the evening list…Perfect Son is a rap written by Troy (our resident rapper) which fits seamlessly with Awesome God. It’s a congregation favourite for some powerful praise!

A powerful continuation of the morning service and understanding and using the Power that lives within us.  And I really experienced it during the ministry/worship following the service.

We also had a baptism of a guy totally on fire after he’d flown out to Australia from Italy for his sister’s wedding, so his new brother in law (it gets complicated, I won’t explain – haha) had to interpret for him.  For a new believer (a few days), he had a great understanding of the Word and what baptism means.  It was beautiful to be part of this.  I love people being added to the Kingdom.

Did you meet up with God and His people this weekend?

Firstly : Transition Phase Update
Stage one : completed at 7.34pm Thursday EST (Aust) ;
Emotions : primarily excitement…at the moment…

So, continuing my posts on stuff that has influenced and helped me, here’s a recent “stuff”…

When I was unemployed last year, I came across Worship The Rock (WTR).  I posted about that back here.

I met a bunch of great worshippers, and eventually found my way onto (into?) Twitter, where I’ve subsequently met the vast majority of you guys, o wonderous blog readers.

One of the first WTR friends I met is a multi-talented guy, and just about the time I joined WTR, he posted a new song there as well as on his blog.  It’s a rough, 4AM kind of demo, but the lyrics really resonated with me and what I was going through during that period.

For a few days, I listened to it over and over. I’d be lying if I said it was my style musically, but the imagery of the lyric and especially the chorus, the passages of Bible that it led me to, made me want to take this further than passive listening. So I asked Nate if he had the chords written down.  He didn’t, but I sat down and worked them out which is not something I would usually consider doing.

Then I recorded it myself – my first cover. Ha!  And the second thing I ever did in GarageBand.

So now, here it is for you…both the original demo, and my – uh – somewhat “altered” rearrangement. I’m also including this as my April song for Our Creative Community – with other things going, I’ve not finished anything new, though I might have something relatively early in May for you. Yes, I know I didn’t write this song, but … oh … whatever …

Lyrics and some Biblical inspiration are here too…and thanks to Nate for allowing me to post his demo. You’ve been a huge blessing to me Nate, and to many others as well

Ephesians 4:22-24:
Put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires (the ‘mud’), to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self (His ‘clothes’), created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Your Clothes

I’ve walked away from those awful things
I’ve closed the door on all that before
I’ve poured the shame and poison down the drain
I have repented – how many times will I hurt You?

Father I just want to make you proud
Every time I stand I fall down
These are Your clothes, no one would know
I have covered them in mud
Holy Father wrap me in your arms
Tell me how to be more like you are
These are Your clothes, no one would know
Lord please wash away the mud

Lord I have turned to you
I have learned what is right
Guided by Your light
I’ve found my way, so Lord if I stray
I will repent – how many times will i hurt You?

CHORUS

You’ve called me to be more like You
Lord help me be what you want from me ‘cos
I just want to please You
I just want to please You
I just want to please You Lord

CHORUS

Your Clothes – David Goodwin

…or my version of it anyway

I will be posting some updates as I hinted yesterday. But I’ll also be doing some posts on ‘things’ which have helped and influenced me at various points in my life, and not always overtly Christian things.

So, here we go :
1. Our Connect Group last night was beautiful. It was exactly what Diane and I needed, but importantly, it was what we all needed – God’s tangible, abiding presence.
2. Depeche Mode are indubitably one of my favourite groups ever. This might be a little bit obvious if you’re also familiar with my music.
3. Martin Gore has a Catholic upbringing, and while I’m not sure of where he stands now, it’s clear he’s fascinated with God and often writes about his perceived relationship with Him and vice-versa. (Feel free to fill me in if you know more…I can’t be bothered researching it
4. My favourite song of theirs is hard for me to pin down, but it’s #prorably Enjoy The Silence…a classic from 1990 and one of their biggest hits. It’s one of the many songs that I often have going ’round in my head for no apparent reason.

And here it is for you. Enjoy The Silence.

“…all I ever wanted, all I ever needed is here in my arms. Words are very unnecessary…”

I’m not going to say much, but just to let you know that this space might be a teeny bit quieter than it has been since it burst forth like a supernova in January.

Maybe.  I’m undecided.

It might get noisier as I suddenly start sharing even more.  But it’s way more likely to get quieter.

Or stay the same.

Anyway…

Diane and I have been in a weird part of life for the past year or so, and we’re about to enter a transitional phase with considerable change afoot in the Goodwin household.

There’ll be :

tears
laughter
excited nervousness
nervous excitement
sadness
happiness
grief
joy

and a whole host of other emotions and stuff surrounding the changes that are coming.

Tonight our Connect Group will be praying with us. Accountability partners are great.

We’re sure this is right (and I say we like this is a joint blog I know, but…it kinda is…at least until Diane’s actually starts), but are equally sure that some of what we have to do isn’t the way we want it to be. The end result will be the same, but the path is not our preference. God has made this clear, even though I (we) didn’t (don’t) want to listen. But it’s not about me.

Could I be any more cryptic? #Prorably – I’m known for my crypticosity (ha! take that!)

So while we’re dealing with “stuff”, I want to hear from you something that is the exact opposite – light, fluffy, celebratory, joyous. Preferably something that will help with the laughter bit I noted above.

Fire away, make me laugh

Hint: I’m an easy laugher.  Even if I end up rolling my eyes, I’ll still laugh.

This post is part of the weekly Sunday Setlists blog carnival over at FredMckinnon.com. Make sure you check out the other setlists too!

A quick report, because it’s been yet another great day of music, teaching, prayer and celebration as we came together and worshipped God at Harbourside.

I don’t wanna bore you with repeating the same thing every week. As I’ve said before (oops..too late…), it’s hard to convey just what happened if you weren’t there…

Do any of you feel like that when God is consistently doing big things in your church?

Am I just not trying hard enough?

Music

Sunday AM
1. Forever Praise (Goodwin/Harbourside)
2. Home (Sampson/Hillsong)
3. Rain Down (Seeley/Planetshakers)
4. You’ll Come (Fraser/Hillsong)
5. Now Is The Time (Delirious?)

Sunday PM
1. You Name High (Houston/Hillsong)
2. Stronger (Morgan, Fielding/Hillsong)
3. What The World Will Never Take (Houston/Hillsong)
…and…
4. All Day (Sampson/Hillsong)
5. Shout You Praise (Harbourside)
6. Run (kinda) (Houston/Hillsong)

The youth ran the whole meeting tonight…so it was pumping v.loudly and v.high adrenalin. I mean, even higher than normal.

Great fun, but still reverent too.

How about your Sunday?

Some of you might be aware that most of my social media profile thingys include the phrase “owner of freaky thumbs”

A few of you might even know why.

But as I’ve been getting more and more random enquiries about this, it’s clear a lot of you don’t.  In fact, up until very recently (like last week), it was possibly the single biggest topic of Twitter direct messages sent to me. Yeah, bizarro.

So, for all of you who have no idea what I’m on about, this amazing piece of cinematography should clear it up.

So tell me…what’s freaky about you?

Yes, I know this isn’t quite there yet…but I’ll keep working on it.

What are you doing reading blogs on the weekend anyway??

…I’ve finally made the big time in the blogging world.

Yep…after nearly 4 months of hard slog, brilliant penmanship, superlative creativity and relentless pimping convincing people (ok, mainly tweeple) this blog might be worth a look every now and then, I’m thrilled to announce that today the number of spam comments I’ve received has finally exceeded the number of real comments.

I can hardly contain my excitement.

Uh-huh, I know…it’s incomprehensibly amazing hey.

But I need some help with something that has baffled me.

Why does THIS POST receive 92.3% of my spam?  Anyone?

If I let them go there’d be almost 700 comments on that post now.

I’ve been writing this post for a week.

But I’ve scrapped all of it and decided I’d let you guys do it for me.

What does it mean to you to be the church as portrayed in the book of Acts?

And, as you probably know, I’ll get involved in the comments anyway.