Various things

To paraphrase Eddie McGuire, what a week it's been in Christendom. On Wednesday night, Third Day brought their unique brand of Southern rock gospel to a capacity crowd at Richmond AOG. I've been waiting two years for them to play in Melbourne again, and it was worth the wait. This band doesn't just sing about Jesus to sell records; they also live out their faith, using their influence to support the work of World Vision and other Christian development agencies working in the developing world. In my opinion, Cry Out to Jesus was the show stopper. Without going into specifics, this song really speaks to my heart, reminding me to perservere in my faith even when things become difficult in certain areas, as they sometimes do.

Yesterday was Australia Day, and 5000 Christians from around Melbourne gathered at Festival Hall to pray for our nation. Our churches, political leaders, educational institutions, indigenous communities, and youth were all brought before God in prayer. Christians have been praying for months about the state of our nation. It has been suggested by those in prayer ministry that the current water crisis is reflective of a spiritual drought afflicting the church in Australia. The only way for this situation to be reversed is for God's people to turn back to Him. Repentance is a common theme throughout many of the Old Testament prophetic books. God often said to His people, "Return to Me, and I will return to you." Yesterday's meeting was just the beginning of a time of rediscovering this truth.