Nic, Jay and Luke will be doing an interview on LifeFM tomorrow and playing a song from the incredible Edge Vol.1 album! So if your driving in to work tune into 99.8FM around 8.15am tomorrow to hear them talk about the upcoming Beyond Borders Conference!
Look at these handsome lads.
Legends.
It’s only two weeks now until the Beyond Borders Conference when we will get to hear from some incredible speakers and musicians from NZ and overseas.
One of the couples who will be coming to speak are Jon and ReAnne Daniels. The Daniels lead Coastlands church in Adelaide, South Australia. Coastlands is a growing multi-site church with a passion for Jesus and His ways. They both love leading people in worship and have written many songs that are sung around the world. They have 3 kids-Reece, Isabella & Evangeline.
Jon will be leading a seminar on Church planting and speaking at the main meetings. He and ReAnne will also run a seminar on team leading. We are really excited to hear what they have to say and get the chance to hang out with them for the few days they are here.
They will also be speaking at both our Sunday services next week (July 18th). It’s always encouraging to hear what God is doing in other churches around the world and we look forward to hearing what the Daniels bring to Edge. So come along and be inspired!
If you want to see more of what they do check out the Coastlands website www.coastlands.org.au. Hot site guys, good job.
I have been mulling over something written about Jesus and wondering about the possible wider implications, of what it says about God in my everyday life…
I was reading the gospel of John the other day and came across the story of how John the Baptist first recognized that Jesus was the Christ. John says that he wouldn’t have recognized who Jesus really was unless it was divinely revealed.* I’ve read that a hundred times before, but this time it really struck me. If anyone could have recognized who Jesus was I would have thought it would have been John. There was no one who matched John in all of history! He trumped Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Moses, Abraham… the guy had some serious spirituality!! (at least I think that’s what it means when Jesus said that there was no one greater than John.*)
It has got me thinking that if John couldn’t recognize Jesus outside of the Holy Spirit telling him, then how do I expect to recognize Jesus without the Holy Spirit? Which then gets me wondering where God is hiding that I just haven’t seen him in yet. Is God hiding in my day dreams, in my kids playing, in my laundry? I’ve been asking the Holy Spirit to show me God in places that I haven’t seen him yet. I like the idea of finding the Creator’s thumbprint on a dirty coffee mug in my sink… gives me some better motivation to do the dishes.
-Erin
* John chapter 1
* Matthew 11:something
“Lord of all…
The good times and the stink times. Lord of the double rainbows and the double whammys. Lord of the washing machine that my soul is being thrashed around in right now… Lord of the deep, the wild waves that threaten to drown me; and yet at the same time you are Lord of the rock that I’m desperately clinging to (Psalm 18).
… we are singing (filming/painting/crying/living/buzzing out) to you…”
Anonymous.
Hi peeps.
Thursday Prayers is on tomorrow from 7am-7pm. So come on in and enjoy some quality time with God. And instead of sitting in traffic after work, bust a move to the Chapel as we continue to ask for a revelation of Jesus – of his worth and his work – during our pending Beyond Borders gathering.
The Beyond Borders prayer focus will kick off at 5:30pm.
Jay.
Over the past few weeks our Edge Albums “Your Love Is A Song” has been playing loudly over the stereo system at an Auckland suburban kindy.
Our boys had been talking to a teacher about their “church music” and their favourite song. The boys then took the album to Kindy to give to her as a gift. I was thinking, “Its so going to end up collecting dust in the bottom of a draw or get thrown in the bin”! But still we gave it to her anyway. What did we have to lose?
Straightaway the album got opened up and played, loudly through the Kindy sound system.
Every morning as parents dropped their children off, Your Love Is A Song could be heard playing as you walked through the gate towards the building. The song was loved so much that it was included on the play list at the recent Kindy disco. So now, here at a public Kindy – ( a mainstream NZ education system run Kindy) on the dance floor under flashing coloured lights – teachers, children and parents were dancing and singing to Your Love Is A Song.
It was the most amazing moment, heaven and earth colliding, the sounds of Edge playing out. I wonder what sounds of heaven are we all to carry with us as we live out or daily lives??
May the sounds of Edge – musical and non-musical continue to impact our Nation and Nations beyond.
Cath.
We are governed by them.
Whether we like it or not our lives are determined by eternal seasons, cycles
that provide for us boundaries that constrain us and opportunities for us to grow.
Like the Garden.
The word ‘season’ comes from a Latin word meaning ‘to sow’
According to the Moons cycle, I should be careful when to sow and when to leave
the ground alone. Like, ‘Plant your potatoes on the shortest day of the year’…What’s that all about?
Something greater than my plans are at work, that I am subjected to, if I choose to be.
And there is wisdom in following something bigger than me, the sun and the moon,
great lights that circle the earth, put in place so that I can reach my full potential.
A time to sleep, a time to wake, a time to plant, and a time to leave fallow.
There is another set of Seasons that we can follow, if we choose to.
This is the Church Liturgical Season, which engages us in a completely different
rhythm, a journey from chronos – chronological time, to kairos time, which is viewed
as an opportunity or encounter.
It is also an eternal season, which offers -
‘an invitation to live time in eternity, to discover a new understanding of God and Creation.’
-Henri Nouwen.
So we are in Winter. And according to the Church Calendar, the season of Ordinary Time.
Our focus is on the life of Christ, God became flesh, and all of the mysteries and wonders that
surround that incredible season in the history of the World.
How does that affect me today?
I like to believe that it ‘s influence is as powerful as any breath-taking frosty morning or snow
capped peak.
So let’s engage ourselves fully with the Seasons that we live in, for as the writer of Ecclesiastes
says, ‘There is a time for everything under heaven….’
Linda
I have a birthday calendar.
I like to think that I could remember everybody’s birthday without recording them, but that’s
getting harder as the years go by. But even with my concise system in place, if I don’t look at it on a regular basis,
I am bound to forget a birthday or two…even a whole months worth sometimes.
Birthdays are important.
In my family, they are the reason that we gather at least 5, (and more recently 7)
times a year to celebrate the life of one, no excuses, no absences…!
Edge Family is having a Birthday on Sunday. We are turning 11.
That’s an achievement to be proud of.
Now at my family gatherings, everyone has to attend. It’s the only time they do what they are told!
I’d like to say the same to all of you….but that would be taking things a little far.
But I do want to encourage you all to come along, join the celebration and remember many of
the amazing times we have shared together on the journey so far.
Happy Birthday Edge.
Linda
I was totally struck this morning by an incredible passage in Isaiah (40:1-2)…
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
And proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed,
That her sin has been paid for…
You know what? No matter how long I’ve been following Jesus I am always so stoked to be comforted by God. He spoke to the Israelites as a woman, tenderly and graciously. He declared a time when all the sins of humanity would be satisfied in Jesus Christ and he would comfort us.
As I read it I remembered the moment God spoke to me when I was living totally against Him. He spoke my name when I had chosen not to listen. It brought me to tears remembering how graceful He is.
This passage is just before the one John (the Baptist) quotes in his declaration of the coming Kingdom. Jesus came and is coming again. We are living with sin for only a short time longer now before our world is renewed and those in Christ will enjoy His fruit like we never have before.
I pray that today, whatever your doing, you remember what God has done for you. And find a second wind, a passion and a renewed excitement about what’s coming for us in Christ.
Strahan.
Over the last four weeks those of us at Edge School have been stimulated and challenged to re-think who Jesus really is, stripped of flannel board cosiness and sterile religiosity
Last night we we took another good long look at the Image of the invisible God: Jesus. Even though we can’t see him in flesh and blood, we can see him in history, in the story, clothed in normalness; and, with our imagination infused with the Holy Spirit we can really, truly see God. Maybe this is what Jesus meant when he said that it was better for him to go… maybe seeing him through the Spirit is even better than flesh and blood.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as
well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
The way isn’t a method; it’s a relationship. Truth isn’t a concept; it’s a Person. Life is knowing Jesus, not just a head-knowledge, but an all-of-life-experience-knowing. Jesus expresses EVERYTHING of who God is. He perfectly represents God. Jesus sums up God’s character in every way. Jesus is our reference point for understanding everything about God. God with us; God knowable; God who weeps; God who feasts; God the Storyteller; the Humble; the Gracious; our Defender. A God who has true feelings, who welcomes children, builds furniture, restores dignity, rides donkeys and suffers on our behalf.
Let’s keep dismantling and demolishing our plastic versions of Jesus!
Erin.
