Worship

Everything we do, say and are becoming must reflect God’s glory and give glory to Him; worship is a way of life, lived through six days of labour and refreshingly highlighted on Sabbath rest. Worship is every thought brought into the subjection of Christ. Worship must be the foundation of every dream, the first response of our heart, and forms the basis of our community in Christ. In other words, God is highly esteemed. He created us, redeemed us from certain death, is moulding and shaping us, and for the faithful has promised us eternity.

John Klassek

Rebel Bikies

I normally reserve this space for gentler, perhaps more spiritual topics. And so I felt a little notorious by uploading a short video yesterday of the Rebels motorcycle club. All of a sudden, some 1000 bikies on their noisy Harley Davidsons came thundering through the wheatbelt town of Cunderdin where I was working. I was relieved to see a generous police escort.

These men are quite unique. They’re “family”. And while we may not agree with some of their activities, or feel a bit afraid when they walk into a tavern, they have something we all wish for: a great sense of brotherhood and belonging.

Ask yourself: How many good friends do you have? I don’t mean work mates or sporting buddies. What I mean are people you have a deep, deep (non-sexual) friendship with. How many of them can you implicitly trust? Most of us will probably admit that our good lifetime friends can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

You don’t have to ride a Harley Davidson, have a tattoo, or grow a long beard to identify with someone who’ll be a life-long trusting friend. Simply pause in prayer, and the one who longs to be your best friend will, in confidence, listen to your every word. His name is Jesus.

 

Love from Grandpa

NY Tropfest 2013 short film entry.

Perhaps one of our most ambitious short films yet, and perhaps also one of the most loved. Many thanks to Peter Cox and Samantha Zinner for their wonderful character portrayals. Thanks to Hannah Klassek for her cinematography, and all those who have helped, encouraged, and blessed us in the making of this film. Enjoy.

 

What was Jesus telling John?

Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulphur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed-by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths.

(Revelation 9:14-18 NKJV)

What was Jesus telling John in this vision? Is this a warning for our generation? Or is this simply an allegorical bit of mumbo-jumbo, safe to ignore and open to ridicule?

Might we be wise to heed Jesus on this one? Is this a prophetic picture of what is brewing near the Euphrates River today, ditto, Iran? Is the tension on the Korean peninsula part of this equation?

“Fire, smoke and brimstone” sounds like thermo-nuclear war, doesn’t it!

 

When good men do nothing.

I borrowed this quote because I think it speaks to all of us.

Is it true that so many times in life we fail to seize the day? We miss the moment and spend a lifetime regretting it!

Like the altercation I saw last week. It ended up as an assault. I hesitated before taking out the camera to film it, and missed the incident. Why did I hesitate? Because “I would have been conspicuous”.

Doing nothing is not an easy matter to forgive, in this life or the next. Because, Jesus says that there is no room in His Kingdom for cowards or the fearful.

Instead, we might learn from an ancient, embattled king, Hezekiah. Facing the prospect of a known enemy, Hezekiah said to those around him, as paraphrased in The Message:

“Be strong! Take courage! Don’t be intimidated by the king of Assyria and his troops–there are more on our side than on their side. He only has a bunch of mere men; we have our GOD to help us and fight for us!” Morale surged. Hezekiah’s words put steel in their spines. (2 Chronicles 32:7-8  MSG)

Good men are also courageous men.

– John Klassek