Hello to Passion City Church!

Today's marks the day where for the first time I left a comment on someone's blog! It was Louie Giglio's blog from Passion City Church... Who heads the Passion Conferences which spread world wide... My comment reads as follows

Good day Louie. My name is Phillips, yes that's right, with an S, I last saw you in 2008 on the final leg of your Passion Conference in the Sydney Entertainment Centre.... My friend recently sent me a link to a youtube video which shows your presentation on laminin. Wow, it really took my breath away, that amongst the smallest building blocks which form our bodies, lies the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord... I then remembered your presentation 'Indescribable' at Hillsong conference in 2006 I believe it was, and remembered that more than 20 million light years away, lies the Whirlpool Galaxy M51a, again breathtaking, to think that beyond the farthest reach of human will, lies the the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord, radiant, brilliant. Jesus really is everywhere! Beyond what we can naturally see, larger than we can imagine! But He is also everything we're made of, everything we need.

I also had a question! It's quite silly but my friend Sarah now writes on her emails, LOTI (laughing on the inside) instead of LOL (laughing out loud), after explaining that she learned that from you at Passion Conference Sydney (You're name is coming up alot here in my world!) I asked if the line "kick butt" (apologies if it's vulgar) can be considered a lie? My argument was as follows

"Hahaha I just realised Kick butt is a lie too... When we say something
kicks butt 99.98% of the time, it doesn't actually kick anyone's butt
(that statistic may be a lie, but I think it's quite accurate)"

It was out of light hearted humour of course but she dared me to ask you, I couldn't find your email so here I am on your blog!

Oh did you know that people nowadays actually verbally say LOL? I think in an American accent, it'd be pronounced 'lawl'.

But I think that's enough from me... Thank you so much for the impact you're leaving around the world! Thank you for preaching the Gospel without withholding! Thank you Passion City Church! I look forward to seeing you again!

Love Phillips and the Hillsong Burwood Extension Service Gang

I guess that does most of the explanation! Thus why I posted it... Don't you think Louie looks a bit like Richard Gere? That's what I've always thought anyways hahaha...



This here is the video to Laminin. It got passed to me by Danny "Sarge" Chau... I only watched it today before I blogged to Louie, coincidence or not that the molecule holding every living animals body together is shaped liek the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, I think it's still a really interesting video.











And these 5 videos are from Louie's presentation "Indescribable"... It's like a full sermon, well worth watching... I remember the atmosphere at the Acer Arena that night... It was so majestic... Eveyone was holding their breath... You could hear a needle drop amongst the thousands of people...

no such thing as my money

Eeek... I haven't posted in so many days! I was actually at the urinal today thinking 'gosh I haven't posted in a while, is this gonna be one of those forever type things? Well alas obviously not! Hmmm so what's been happening lately... Well I guess I've been trying to manage my finances! Oh! and I took a day of leave next Monday so i can go visit Vincent, my old teacher from TAFE. I've also killed the battery to my car, all these things amongst other things, well I guess LOTS has happened, hahaha.

I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere with the stewarding of finances, I've been living off $200 since the 20 somethingeth of last month, considering it costs $36 for a weekly train fare and $70 a fortnight to fill up my car, I think I'm doing pretty well (that was for a bit of my background, it's not THAT related to good stewardship - thought I'd clear that up hahaha). I've been making bits here and there by selling some car parts I've got lying around. Today we put a big crack in the big rock of 'bad spending - borderline addiction' that has weighed me down for my whole life. This is something that I've prayed for in the past and have been ramping up as of late. I've got another 2 grand from my CC to go, and a trip to Nippon scheduled for October... I've been in debt now for more than the last 2 years of my life... It's a ravaging cycle, and has never ceased to exist since it showed it's ugly head. It behaves kinda like that monster in the Goosebumps volume 'It came from beneath the sink'. It started off small, petty, then, not noticeable, passable... It got balanced with not much more than a whisper of a thought and disappeared... It came back bit later, slightly larger, but not frightening, but alas, at a command it disappeared again... The next time it came back, it was quite cumbersome, noticeable... But still, got dealt with after a bit of shooeing away... Eventually, this thing grows into a monstrosity that hovers over me and follows me everywhere I go, sometimes I notice it, sometimes I don't, but I'm ALWAYS in it's shadow... ALAS I stand here today with a new hope... Not the kind of hope I had everytime the monster seemed to be ready to dissappear, but a new kind of hope... Fresh, alive and eternal.

My tangible goal is to get out of this CC debt, and save enough to go to Nippon without relying on the CC or a loan. My foundation is Jesus.

So... It's not about saving up money for a holiday, it's far greater than that, it's about changing an unchangeable mindset and unhindering lifestyle to one that lines up with God's original plans and purposes for me. This holiday, the holidays to come, my future cars, houses, my future wife's engagement ring, and all that jazz will be fruit of what this is about.

Psalm 24:1 The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

² for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

So God created it all so it's all His, everything that I've ever owned, known, or seen all belongs to Him. All the pennies I've ever spent or thrown away, or the purchases I've made, they're all His. So if it's all His, then why do I have it? If it's all His, and I have some, why can't I have ALOT of it?

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, ^b]">[b] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

²⁷ So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

Ahhh! Thank you Mr. Jesse Duplantis! It seems that everything we've ever owned, and will ever own has been given to us by God to watch take stewardship over. Hey check the web definition I found for the word steward! Someone who manages property or other affairs for someone else. That sounds pretty good! If God owns EVERYTHING and he's called me to manage His things, that means I have access to HEAPS of things! Alas, why does it seem that I don't have all these things? Check out the parable of Talents.

^{Mark 25:14}"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them.

¹⁵To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.

¹⁶The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more.

¹⁷So also, the one with the two talents gained two more.

¹⁸But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.

¹⁹"After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.

²⁰The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.'

²¹"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

²²"The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.'

²³"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

²⁴"Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.

²⁵So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'

²⁶"His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed?

²⁷Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

²⁸" 'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.

²⁹For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

³⁰And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

Argh! Did you know that a talent is more than a thousand dollars? SO... It looks like this is what is required from me! I long to be fruitful! I long to be abundant! I long to be living according to the design, plan and purpose that God created for me! So anyways, how does that look?

Well I think alot of it has to do with my mind and my thinking, the money I earn isn't mine, but it's God entrusting it to me, so I have to be wise, diligent and purposeful in what I do with it. Sure this may seem logical enough, and one can argue that the principles (of wisdom, diligence and purpose) can be samely applied in my past circumstances before this revelation and would have resulted in the same outcome. I think the difference lies in the understanding that finance belongs to God and is ENTRUSTED to us to steward. So instead of wanting to be wise, diligent and purposeful with our finance for a secure future (or whatever else), we are wanting to be wise, diligent and purposeful with our finance to please God who created all things and who is generous and able to do superabundantly, far over and above all that we dare ask or think infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams (shivers up the spine). Also, disrespecting another person's property is not very nice, so I must respect what I have been entrusted with.

Oh I still haven't mentioned how this all looks yet... Well I'm now committed to a set offering for every connect group and youth night which goes above my tithes and offerings... I'm in the mindset that these finances are not mine, so will be generous when the time call's for it, yet not reckless with it. I will also continue to honour my parents with my monthly offering to them.

So! I am believeing that these are the steps I have to take in order to see myself released from this monster!
BTW, do you wanna know how that monster from goosebumps was defeated? Hahaha how coincidental... The monster was deafeated by love... The more love you showed it, the more it shrunk and became weak and insignificant... Eventually, with a sigh, it disappeared. Hahaha God is love...

Bland thoughts? Or am I afraid of not being understood?

Hello, perhaps my thoughts have been bland as of late, or perhaps maybe I just have been keeping them to myself! I guess it may be like the principle of one person's trash is another's treasure, but just reciprocated so more like one person's treasure may be another's trash hahaha. Well this is a public blog after all and writing down all the thoughts that are dear to me will just end up confusing everyone but me. I guess it's the same for everyone, every person. We have thoughts and we have communication, communication really doesn't encapsulate much of our thoughts at all, be it speech, song, art... It sometimes saddens me that we will never experience the thought that an author or artist experienced that drove them to complete a piece of art. Maybe that's what makes me such an oddity when it comes to communicating ideas, thoughts, emotions. Hahaha it can be really confusing for the poor receiver, but it's only because I really love them and want them to share in a treasure that I came across. It sometimes get's quite lonely because I know no one else get's it... But you know what's really awesome? That there is a God that created us and knows everything about us, all our thoughts, all our dreams, all our desires, all our experiences, all our evils... So even when it feels like there's no one I can communicate effectively to, there is a God that understands 120% of where I'm coming from... hahaha even moreso than me! After all, He created me and put all these things inside me... So this goes out to Jesus... My God...

Sometimes all we ever want is to be understood... To be validated... To be recognised... It's easy to feel selfish for want of such things as there are so many other things commanding our attention and focus... But like Mary and Martha:

Luke 10:38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.
³⁹She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.
⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"

⁴¹"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴²but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Jesus validates me... Jesus knows me... Jesus loves me in that way which I need... You know those moments when you're with a best friend and have this innocent moment of 100% pure understanding of each other? Isn't that just a most validating moment! Those life-validating moments flow out of just being friends, it's not a trying in chasing those things that make 'special' moments that is gonna make us best friends... Jesus wants us to be His friends, all these things that we crave for so much just follow...

Jesus just wants us to sit by His side and to be in a communion with Him... Not worry about all these things that that command us to a task no matter how righteous they may seem... He wants to validate us, show us that He understands us. Make us feel filfilled, accepted, understood, loved, appreciated... Like we are the Kings and Queens of this world... This world is our Oyster and we have command of it as far as Jesus is concernced!! Oh what a passionate guy He must be! Everything else is peripheral and we are no longer a slave to these worldy-task-oriented things, but instead, we become stewards of it...



This is Elizabeth, by Michael Hannah... I came across this song by a happy accident during my dreary time at Team Bondi on internet radio, I haven't heard it since and was elated when I came across it again by eventuality thanks to youtube! First comment on the vid is mine!

Significant thoughts are SHY!!!!

I've been holding back from blogging because I don't wanna keep talking about mundane stuff all the time! I've been trying to get significant thoughts out onto the screen but it's not happening! I think my thoughts are shy! I think just the thought of jumping out from the inner workings of my tickerbrain onto the hectic, fast paced, exposed anti-void of the world wide web is enough to render my mind thoughtless! After all, the viscera of my mind-mush is a much more comfy, warm, familiar and secure place than out on there in electronic, public exposure.

If you think of it, it's kinda like how us people behave. We people like the comfy, warm mush of familiarity. It seems that it's always been in our nature, we were shaped by God inside the warmth of our mothers wombs...

Isaiah 44:2 Thus says the Lord, Who made you and formed you from the womb, Who will help you: Fear not, O Jacob, My servant, and you Jeshurun [the upright one--applied to Israel as a type of the Messiah], whom I have chosen.

Isaiah 44:24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and He Who formed you from the womb: I am the Lord, Who made all things, Who alone stretched out the heavens, Who spread out the earth by Myself [who was with Me]?

Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you [as My chosen instrument], and before you were born I separated and set you apart, consecrating you; [and] I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

So then we are born and spend the first lot of years of our lives surrounded by the security and protection of our family. God created family, and community, after all the trinity depicts family and community. So anyways, as we move on in age, the primal bond to family and community remains as an unmovable foundation in our lives. Family becomes the familiar environment in our lives hahaha I just noticed how those two words have the same roots. It's safe, warm, and protects us from the injustices of the outside world....

Now that's all well and dandy, but how does this have anything to do with my significant blogging?!

Well we as people are called to be the light of the world and not to remain hidden, check these verses out:

Matthew 5:14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

¹⁵Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a peck measure, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.

¹⁶Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.

Ooh! so it sounds to me that although family is good, and community is good, we shouldn't be hiding, shying away and being kept protected away from the world, we should be shining our light and spreading the news on who we are!

And who does Jesus say we are we?

John 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ²He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
³You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
⁴Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
⁵"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing

John 15:15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

How encouraging! Being a child of the one who created the Universe! Being Connected to him, and being Jesus' friend.

I guess if you knew that you knew that you knew you were this person and you lived it a breathed it, you'd be a pretty bright person hahaha everyone would wanna know who you are and what you think. If you don't believe in Jesus then imagine being friends with Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Superman and Martin Luther King rolled up in one AND THEN SOME! Note that none of these guys created the world or saved man kind from Hell... but hey everyone would still wanna know who you are, what you think and what makes you so special to be rubbing shoulders with with this superduper unit of a person!

SO! Let's bring this back to blogging. So it all starts because my thoughts are shy and are afraid to come out probably coz they're scared they won't make sense to anyone... But lo and behold, we're all fearfully and wonderfully made

Psalm 139:14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

So no need to be shy my I say to my timid thoughts:

2 Timothy 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.

SO! My dear intimate and significant thoughts, compose yourself and know that you are called for a greater purpose than loafing around in my headspace! There's a much bigger world out there!