Tag Archives: God

Coaching Connection: Never Forget!

Posted by Bill on October 20, 2012

Every moment in every place on earth is a battle zone for Christian believers who mean business for the Lord. The Enemy is at war against us! He’s like a ravenous wolf, looking to devour our joy and godly endeavours. Through a myriad of diabolical ways he stalks our every thought and movement. We can’t appeal to our sensual faculties for help as he operates in the invisible, and he is far too powerful a match for us.

However, our help is close at hand – coming  to our aid by merely ‘remembering’ and by taking hold of the essentials of our faith … remembering the goodness and greatness of our God. That’s all we need to do to send Satan packing! He can’t stand our remembering the goodness and greatness of our God … it pains his ears.

In Psalm 103, David paused in life to take time to remember the goodness of God … “Praise the Lord, I tell myself, and never forget the good things He does for me” (v2), and then, in Psalm 104, he took time to remember … “O Lord my God, how great you are!” (v1) …

  • You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens (v2b)
  • You lay out the rafters of your home in the rain clouds (v3a)
  • You make the clouds your chariots; you ride upon the wings of the wind (v3b)
  • You placed the world on its foundation so it would never be moved (v5)
  • You clothed the earth with floods of water, water that covered even the mountains (v6)
  • You set a firm boundary for the seas, so they would never again cover the earth (v9)
  • You send rain on the mountains from your heavenly home, and you fill the earth with the fruit of your labour (v13)
  • You cause grass to grow for the cattle. You cause plants to grow for people to use (v14)
  • You made the moon to mark the seasons and the sun that knows when to set (v19)

Remembering the greatness of the Lord invigorates our faith that we may, like David, stand calm, confident, and victorious in the battle, proclaiming “I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will praise my God to my last breath!. May he be pleased by all these thoughts about him (v33, 34 NLT).

As the Lord rejoices in all he has made (v31), may you rejoice each time you remember His greatness. Remember in your many battles: The Creator is greater than the ‘created’ (the Enemy).

Jimmy’s vision for a small groups church!

Posted by Bill on March 3, 2012

Pastor Jimmy and his wife Christie - Southport Baptist Church

Jimmy & Christie

Jimmy is the youth pastor of Southport Baptist Church here in Queensland, Australia. I first met Jimmy when he signed up for small groups development training, a course I facilitated at Gold Coast Christian Family a few years ago. Jimmy, is a tender-hearted ‘Timothy Type’. He’s an absolute delight to know and partner with. Oh, Lord … how can I adopt Jimmy as a son!

Last week I received the following testimony from Jimmy. Let me tell you: This is the stuff that fuels my passion in life. Jimmy says …

Without a doubt, our Life-group is our favourite time of the week. God is doing great things! We’ve seen our group reach out to our un-churched friends (currently we have 4 un-churched friends as part of our group!). We’ve seen people begin to exercise and develop their gifts through serving in the group, and the we’ve seen a real growth in fellowship and accountability.

It is such a joy at the end of the night to see an un-churched friend take steps forward in their spiritual journey, to see a friend grow in confidence as they serve the group, and have such good friends around you to help you stay strong in the Christian life. And most of all, it is actually so simple, anyone can do it!

God has encouraged me so much through our Life-group. What I really have on my heart is to plant a simple church, starting with three or four groups as the core (just like the three groups that meet at SBC on Tuesday nights). They are functioning how they should – they are  ‘reaching in ‘ and ‘reaching out’. This is what excites me the most – It’s my biggest joy!

This is my passion in life: I love evangelising and seeing non-believers join the church; I love seeing shy people develop their leadership potential; I love encouraging people; I love to see Christians growing together, and keeping each other accountable.

Life-groups are so simple. I don’t know why we make church so complicated!

God of the second, third, fourth, fifth …. chance

Posted by Bill on October 29, 2011

Ania Wisniewska - Christian Fellowship South

Ania Wisniewska and daughters

Ania Świątczak, was one of the members of the small groups development training groups that took place recently at the Christian Fellowship South church, in Warsaw. With unusual attentiveness and keen interest, Ania stood out from others in the group. During a short recess in our second week of training I had the opportunity to hear from Ania her amazing testimony of God who did not give up on her. This is her story …

My name is Ania Świątczak. I was born in Katowice, Poland, in 1977. I’m a professional musician and singer.

In January 1999, my friend, Agnes Bellon, caught me on the street and invited to her church (Warsaw Church of Christ). In my search for God I was a little skeptical because many, many churches began to operate in Poland. I went everywhere to experience them. Agnes was a member of a small group of Christian university students who met once a week to study the Bible, worship God, and spend time with each other.

On the Wednesday before I went with her to her church, we had a Bible discussion, followed by a party on Friday. The party is called Mrożonka’s Party (means cooking with only convenience food). It was an amazing experience. I already knew a little of the Bible, but such relationships I had never experienced before! I was sure that the people I had met were not from this planet. There were no forced smiles or irrelevant discussions … there was friendship, openness, willingness to help, listen, and laugh. Life with this group was so different from the one that I had known (even from people who claimed to know and love God). After two weeks of building my convictions from the Bible, I was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and He became my Lord!

Over the following three years, I started with my friend, Radek, to lead a small group at Warsaw University, and shortly thereafter began to work full time for the church on their worship team and the university students in church.  All of this probably would have lasted until today had it not turned out that I had exhausted my physical and emotional strength. I protested to God that I had done so much for Him, and He did little or nothing for me. Like a huge balloon that had burst open … air escaped from me. I left God, disappointed and tired.

Friends in my group, and the church, wanted to help but because I had for so long hidden from them my unhappiness I could not listen to anyone … and then I slept a full two weeks. After that time, my professional life had peaked. I travelled the world and performed at concerts. I met a man who became my husband. Our wedding was a transmitted ”live” by the broadcasting media in Poland.

Our daughter, Eti, was born in 2006, and one and a half years later, our second daughter, Vivi, was born. From time to time, I would look at the sky and wonder where I was, and where God was. In my mind, I would ask God, Do you see me? Do you hear me? I felt a great emptiness. It was at this time I decided to leave my profession as I believed I was on a road to hell. I wanted to escape far away because of my failures and mistakes – I believed I was a disappointment to God. I did not fulfil my promise to Him. I let Him down.

After 6 years my marriage ended. I moved out with my girls, with no idea of what tommorow would bring. As I had worked with my husband, I also said good-bye to my job. I was too ashamed of my life to look up to God , but His desire for me remained – I felt His hands upon me. After eight years, God sent “His people” to me J. At my first church service at Christian Fellowship North (SchPółnoc) I met many people from the former church and they told me how persistently they prayed for me … eight years! God heard their prayers – He accepted me, even though I had rejected Him.

It was last year (2010) when I returned to my Father. Today I am part of Christian Fellowship South church (SchPołudnie). I am actively involved in building our church through small groups and I am amazed as to how God is teaching me. The Lord used Beryl and Bill to help me experience the best that comes from walking with God. Their hearts of “celebrating honest mistakes”, openness, patience and love for us has become for me the essence of what Christ taught. From them, I learnt to rely on the Lord; learn from His source ”that never dries up”, to honestly admit mistakes, and a most important theme of their teaching: by working together, lives can change (Building the Kingdom is the real work).

I think that in a world where people every day use empty words (and who are completely lost in their personal lives), God teaches us that loving others, sacrificing for them, and helping them is our priority in life … giving hope to our friends who don’t know Jesus. What touched me the most in Bill’s book (Small Groups Development) is learning the importance of  ”doing life together”.

I now want to teach others how to be actively involved in building Christian community: to trust, serve, support, and learn from each other.

Thank you Lord for Your greatness and faithfullness in loving me as You  do. Our God is ”the” God of second, third, fourth, fifth … chance. His love changes us, and, through us, He changes the world!

What an amazing testimony!!

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