Our Authority as Believers

I was thinking about authority as a subject and how Jesus said to His followers that He had given them His authority. I realised that this authority is on one hand like his signature. We are able to 'write letters to God' and afix Jesus' signature to them thus making them official. And of course seeing as Jesus is the one writing the letter it carries great weight and importance. This means that firstly we are going to get our prayers answered, and second that we should be careful how we use the 'divine letterhead.'

The second thing I realised about this authority (using Jesus' name) is that we have power to command situations to change. Just like Jesus commanded the wind and the waves, and at other times He commanded other things. We have this authority. However just like a policeman who doesn't wear his badge has lost his authority... sometimes we don't seem to carry it with us... we have little faith and we act like we actually do NOT have any authority.

There is a great deal you can change and influence in the name of Jesus. Be a active believer, follow the Lord and use His name to change things for the kingdom of God.

Visiting the Orphans

Tonight we are going to visit a church on the way to Pondicherry and then tomorrow we are visiting the orphans that the church here works with. Life in India is never dull. You should come to India to see.

Sunday in Chennai

Today was Sunday in Chennai and I preached 3 times at the Calvary Community Centre here in Adayar. The people are very warm and I have the highest regard for Rev. Vincent and his son Ps. Premnath Samuel. They are godly men called and chosen and comitted here. One of the things I like the most about Ps. Premnath is his heart for missions and how he has already organised the planting of 5 regional churches in remote areas where the gospel is most needed. This is a great blessing to hear about and its very enjoyable being able to serve them here in their church in India.

Being a Tourist in India

On Saturday in India we were able to relax and be tourists for the day. India is a fascinating place where you never know what to expect, or at least I didn't. On Saturday evening we ate at a genuine Indian restaurant where banana leaves are laid out on the table and a variety of sauces and rices put on the leaves. The food is typically hot and there are lots of curries and spices. In typical Indian style it is all vegetarian. After this we went and saw some of 'the sights' including a Catholic Church which focused very heavily on worshipping Mary. This was a shock to see people bowing and kneeling before a statue of Mary. They were selling bottles of holy water for 10 rupees. I have heard of this kind of idolatry before but this was the first time I saw it with my own eyes. The Bible says we are not to worship images, and whilst Jesus Mother Mary was his physical Mother in the earthly sense, she is definitely not the 'Mother of God' as is claimed. Mary is a created being like you or I and is not to be exalted. We owe our great allegiance to Jesus Christ. After this we saw the beach at Chennai where the tsunami came in. The beach is covered in shops like you would see at a carnival. We were told that after the tsunami swept the shops away it took a long time for people to get the courage to come back there again. Its a strange world isn't it! I'm loving India, everything is a new experience and there is so much I would love to write about.

Healing Service in India

After flying in to Chennai late on Friday we had a meal and straight away I was asked to preach at a Healing and Deliverance Service which the church here has as an outreach. This was a good evening with the people all speaking the Tamil language. I was able to share with them from John 15:1-8 about abiding in Christ and then prayed with many people.

On the Way to India

Hi All. I'm sitting in a coffee lounge in Sri-Lanka on the way to India for a church mission trip. Wireless internet is free and by some amazing stroke of luck I had the right electrical adaptor to plug in my laptop. Coffee here tastes the same as in Autralia which was nice, but its really tea which Sri-lanka is famous for...Ceylon Tea that is. South East Asia is a whole different world to Australia or other western nations. These people need Jesus. I was sitting next to a Malaysian Hindu lady in the airport lounge who was telling me that her family pray to a god called Vishnu and that [she believes] if she is good, she will get reincarnated as a human being again. She said that [she believes] that she shouldn't eat meat because they could be eating a human who was reincarnated as an animal. I feel very sorry for people who have never had the chance to hear the gospel in a way they can understand. The Bible is clear...there is only one way to Heaven....Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. (John 14) There is no name under Heaven by which we can be saved. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Please pray for that lady that the things I said to her today would stay with her and bring her many troubled thoughts until she receives Jesus. Please also pray for my time away that I will be safe and do a great job representing Christ.

Marie Harris

Allow me to introduce you to Marie Harris, someone who means a great deal to me. Marie lives in California, USA and is a unique woman with a great heart for Jesus Christ and is perhaps one of the most creative and imaginative people I have ever met. In recent times I met Marie through some extrodinary circumstances and I give great glory and thanks to God for her friendship and love.

happy mother's day

To all the mothers in the world we wish you a happy mothers day. Today in particular I want to pay tribute to my Mother, Hazel Alley who has been a remarkable example of life and love and service to Jesus Christ. Well done Mum. The bible says that God made male an female in His image... I think that means that none of us have ALL of His image but each of us have some of His image. As I think about all this I cannot help but wonder if God didn't put His best qualities and characteristics in Mothers. He gave them tenderness, kindnes and a caring heart. When we can recognise and admire these qualities we should also recognise and remember that they came from Him first.

blog postings lost

Its a shame but recently I was trying to delete spam coming through my blog contact form and filling up the quota on my hosting account. As I was deleting this content I accidentally deleted about 15 months worth of blogs. My apologies to everyone. However the older blogs are still availalbe from 'blog archives' on the menu link.

JB and Band Free Downloads

For years John Batley and I have been best of friends, and so now I am honoured to be able to list the songs that his band plays for free download. My personal favourite is Prison listed second. Recently the third song Come on Baby was a feature on Sea FM.

John (JB) is a talented musician and songwriter with experience and expertise in many fields from rock and blues through to softer styles of music. Rhys and Josh who play in the band with him are professional musicians and their music is entertaining.

The Music is free for personal use, but for commerical use you will need to contact John. (johnbatley@hotmail.com) You can also use the contact form on this website and I will forward your email on to him.

Click to Download

Instantly

Prison< BR>
Come on Baby

Dont Lie to Me Now

Hannahs Song

JB and Band Free Download

This blog is to let you know about some free MP3 downloads that are now available on the site....click to follow the link. http://www.davidsplace.info/index.php?id=325

JB and Band Free Download

This blog is to let you know about some free MP3 downloads that are now available on the site....click to follow the link. http://www.davidsplace.info/?id=325

concert in mt morgan

Hi everyone........this is just a quick note to let you all know that we are having a concert on February 24 at our church on 80 East Street in Mount Morgan. Two great acts will be performing. One is my longstanding best friend JB and his band, and the other a great band called Hudson who I have been wanting to hear for a long while.

Crazy Kids

Kids sometimes don't know what is good for them, and will sometimes do things that are risky or downright dangerous. The other day I saw this young teenager climb the train bridge in Rockhampton and begin to walk over the top of the beams about 50 meters above the river. It was a very dangerous thing to do, especially if a train decided to come along at that very moment. He actually did it because there was a young girl his own age with him and he was trying to impress her, but she didn't seem impressed and was only worried for his safety. He refused to come down when he was asked. Sometimes we are a bit like that with God. He asks us to do things which are good for us, but we refuse and instead go off to do things which we think are fun, but are actually spiritually dangerous for us. Let us learn to trust what God says because it is always the best.

Just Ask God

Yesterday I got to go geo-caching with some friends and that was heaps of fun. I've never done that before and really enjoyed that. You should try it some time.

Sometimes I have looked back over my prayer life and noticed that it's a bit like a roller-coaster. Sometimes its up and I'm prayerful and things are really happening. Other times I struggle to pray as consistently and often as I want. Then there comes the time when you just sit down in your lounge chair with no one else around and you simply say to God 'Lord I really need you to move in my life in this area,' and you know what....He does.

Ask yourself the question, 'How often would you get an answer to prayer if only you actually asked?' The Bible says in Matthew 7:7 to 'Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will open.' It's a pretty straight forward scripture. It basically says that if we want answers to prayer we only need to tell God about it. Further on in that same passage in Matt 7 it says that our Father in Heaven loves to give us good gifts. I like the sound of that myself.

Sometimes people don't ask because they don't have much faith. Some don't ask because they never get around to praying. Some don't ask because they think that God will only answer spiritual prayers. Some don't ask because they don't think God will listen to them. Whatever reason people don't ask, the Bible is clear that 'We don't receive because we don't ask.'

So if you have needs in your life and there are areas where things have to change....then you need to ask God about it. One thing is certain, He loves us deeply and will listen to us when we ask.