1. Know Your Days Are Numbered

“Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life” - Psalm 39:4

Know you are going to die. Know your days are numbered and you have only so many times that you can speak, you can lead, you can have the opportunities that you are having. Then things will change. It pays to do your best to pay attention to excellence. It’s not very smart to procrastinate and say I’ll do better tomorrow. Say I’m doing my best job now.

2. Gain Wisdom Everyday

“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” - Psalm 90:12

It is not that you haven’t asked for wisdom or that God hasn’t given it to you. It is you haven’t hold out your hand to receive it. Practice receiving. If you haven’t learn how to receive spiritual blessings, you will never have any no matter how much you ask. It’s quite simple. Having faith is believing you already have it! You practice receiving by learning from the opportunities everyday and be thankful to God for providing those opportunities. Do it everyday because you know that your days are always numbered.

Instead of doing, make leadership investments.

Leadership investments are efforts to expand ministry by enhancing people. By enhancing people I mean investing in others as well as ourselves.

While many of us focus on doing and forget to invest in others, almost all of us neglect the discipline to lead ourselves.

Just as its hard to lead people we do not know.  Leading ourselves when we don’t know ourselves enough is just simply a scary and ineffective venture.

Before we upgrade ‘you’ version 1.0 to version 2.0, we need to upgrade ‘i’ version 2.0 to 3.0.

It’s going to be quite an adventure and worthy thing to do.

I share about Kite Flying and what we can learn from it as worship leaders

These are instructions how to fly a kite I found in the internet…

Step 1: Find a buddy to help you get the kite into the air. You hold the ball of string, your buddy hold the kite. Kite should be facing you and the wind [ Leading kids into worship is team work]

Step 2: Unwind about 30 yards of string. [Make sure kids are with you before you start]

Step 3: Signal to your buddy to release the kite. You should pull on the string to launch your kite into the air. [Maximum effort is needed in the beginning when flight is in progress]

Step 4: Pay attention to the wind direction and adjust. Make sure the wind is going in a straight line from you to the other person.  [Be sensitive to the holy spirit, you may need to re-adjust, stop and start again]

Step 5: To allow the kite to go higher, release lengths of string.  [Let go and allow kids to praise. It’s not about how loud you are] To lower the kite, simply pull in the string. [If you are losing the kids, pull again, be more enthusiastic, point them to God before releasing string again] The more you release the higher they go.

3 Areas to pay attention: 

1.       Position  -         Ensure they are in the position to worship. Reach them where “they are”
-         Engage them with clear instructions “Let our eyes focus on God” “Let’s say to one another “I’m ready” 

2.  Pull 
-          You are setting an example in the beginning, you are showing them how it can be done
-     Work harder in praising enthusiastically “Sing your best” “Praise your best”
-          If kids are not engaged in praise with you, stop and start again 

3. Permit
-          When hearts are engaged in praise, step back (although not necessarily in a physical manner), let them do it
-          “Now I want to hear you praise….”  “Come on let the Lord hear you sing”

Keep “Pulling” and “Permitting” and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit at all times. The objective is finally for the kids to actually praise & worship.
 
Final Kite Flying Tips

• It is best to fly a kite in an open field, such as a soccer field or a grassy field since it is wide open. The best place to do this is on the beach/standing near a lake. Since out on the ocean there is nothing to block or divert the wind so it would make a better kite flying area. 

Kids need space to praise! So let’s get the bigger room in 2009.

Things do not own us. Don’t ever own God. That’s the wrong order.

God possess us and we possess everything else.  That’s much better.

So let nothing compel us more than the love of God.

Met an old friend/housemate and the very first few things he told me is that he just changed to a job with unstable income and soon found out that his wife was diagnosed with 3rd stage cancer. With a family consisting of 3 young kids, what could be more real and down to earth than that?

We need to always keep life in perspective, people where they are and God where he is able to oversee us. Moving towards the new year in just a week’s time. Will it be hope? Or will it be like the stock market index? Will there be light in despair? Direction in the downturn? Will there be hope?

There’s always hope in Christ Jesus, our Lord, our hope of life. I’m embracing it now more than ever in the midst of the world’s hopelessness.

Sungha is … 11 year old. Underestimating 11 year olds is actually a common mistake people make. We shouldn’t make such mistakes anymore.

Anyway if he can do that at 11 years of age, you can do something (maybe not playing guitar) just as well at 22, 33 or 44. If we don’t know what that is, we should search deeper. Hope we don’t make the common mistake of underestimating, not discovering and developing it.

Some very nice photos of last Thursday’s Christmas Celebration from Eilton’s camera. These bunch of people work, pray and play hard. It has been an awesome year with them.

We did an intergenerational Service with the Family Group. It was cool and the kids could follow just fine and the adults played the kids game well. Hannah did great job leading that huge prop game. It was a breakthrough to be able to do such a service.

During the Sermon time, the breakout meant that the team had to pack 100 over kids in a ball in our little America room. They played cotton games and there was a juggler. Many kids came. They thought she’s a better juggler than me. I’m okay, I’m secure as my reputation of a 2 ball juggler is not really that great a feat anyway. 

The key breakthrough during this season is to see parents of kids in our outreach buses coming. Last week a parent accepted Christ. It’s fulfilling our vision to seeing kids first and parents will follow. We celebrated the birth of Christ our Lord in a big way.

“….. He is Christ the Lord” - Luke 2.11b

” …. and He will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” - Isaish 9.6b

Christ is what was said he will be; Our savior, counsellor, provider and peace-giver. With Him we are ensured of salvation, help, providence and peace. What a gift of Christmas.

May ‘The Gift’ is shared to all today.

If we don’t fear darkness, there’s basically nothing else to fear.

Christ came for that type of thing. Merry Christmas everyone