Dave is currently ministering in Richmond, Virginia. To see where he will be ministering please click here



1)      You have God’s attention. When we draw near to Him, He draws near to us.

2)      You enjoy kingdom living  i.e. righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

3)      You have His abiding presence because God comes and inhabits (dwells, to sit down, to remain or settles on) their praises. (Hebrew – yawshab)

4)      God’s power is released in your life. Praise creates faith to believe God.          

5)      The enemy is silenced. The Devil hates the sound of Jesus’ name. In other words, praise and worship brings you into a life of victory.

6)      Worship builds our relationship with God. As we worship we grow more and more in love with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

7)      Worship brings our lives into order. We can be under enormous pressures and our life totally out of control but when we begin to make worship of God a priority in our lives, things are brought into right order and perspective.

Let us pursue and live a lifestyle of worship and not settle for anything less.

1. A Thankful Life

To live a life of worship before God requires a thankful heart and attitude.

Thanksgiving is a gate into the presence of God and as we give Him thanks and praise, He comes and dwells with us. Paul exhorts us in Eph 5:19-20 to “make melody in our hearts to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things.” Thankfulness changes things. It changes attitudes, changes us, and changes situations eg. Jonah in Jonah 2:7-10.

When we love God and have a thankful heart we are able to rise above the circumstances we find ourselves in. (1 Thessalonians 5:18 & Philippians 4:4) As we consider what God has done, is doing and will do in our lives, it brings us into closer intimacy with Him.

2.  A Sanctified, Holy Life

If we are to be true worshippers of God, we are to be a holy people, separated unto Him - Holy in speech, thought and deed.

Matt 5:8 – “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” God is a holy God and without holiness none of us will see God. We are to be holy for He is holy. We must be a person who is yielded to God’s Spirit for it is as we yield ourselves to His Spirit, He changes us from from glory to glory. Joshua 24:15 – “Choose you this day whom you will serve”.

When we allow Christ to be revealed in our lives, there comes a hunger for purity and righteousness. We must crucify daily the deeds of the flesh with its passions and desires. Paul said to the Corinthians in 2 Cor 6:12 - “You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.” Let us set our affections on things above, constantly presenting ourselves as living sacrifices.

3.  A Repentant Heart

God is looking for people that constantly come with a repentant heart seeking His cleansing and knowing that it’s only by His grace that we can enter into His presence. One of the reasons why God said that David was a man after His heart was because he would always come to God in repentance when he made mistakes.

4.  A Humble Heart

By function, you should be committed to serving. You should be constantly involved with people (ie. those whom you are leading). There should be more concern about the “people” of worship than the “music” of worship.

A true worshipper recognises that without Christ we can do nothing. God detests pride and if we ever get to a place where we think we’ve got it together and are better than others we are in serious trouble. Eg. Luke 18:9-14.

5. An Obedient Heart

The true worshipper is obedient to God’s commands because they don’t want to in any way grieve the one that they love. God considers obedience far more important than any external expression of worship. Eg. 1 Sam. 15:22 – “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams.”

6. He is a lover of God’s Word

It is in God’s Word that we discover more of who God is – His character and nature. God can speak to us in a number of ways, but the most common way is by bringing revelation through the reading of His Word.

7. A Passion for His Presence

In Him is our life, our health, our peace, our prosperity, our hope, our joy. He has created us so that everything we need is in Him.

God’s command is that we love Him with our whole being – body, soul, mind and spirit. We must realise that there is a longing within us that cannot be satisfied by anything else, but our intimate communion with Him. We must so desire His presence in our lives that we allow nothing to take His place, or to distract us from knowing Him. No one else, nothing else can fulfil the cry of our hearts.

God the Father desires a people who are awakened in their affections and passions for Jesus. Like Mary in John 12:1-8 the true worshipper is prepared to give extravagantly unto God, holding back nothing. God requires our all and when we give it, the rewards are beyond compare.

Mary’s sacrifice cost her a lot in monetary terms (300 denarii – a year’s wages), was an act of public humility, opened her up to criticism of the guests and challenged the other not so devoted guests.

We constantly must ask the question – “Can I ever pour too much cost, time and effort into achieving greater levels of worshipping God?” When we consider Christ’s love and sacrifice we realise that we could never give too much back to God.

8. A Person of Faith

A true worshipper becomes a man or woman of faith because they have built an intimate relationship with God and have come to know His attributes. Therefore they have the confidence to believe that He will perform what He has promised e.g. David and Abraham.

It has priority in Scripture

God obviously saw it as a priority for His people because He mentions it so many times in His Word. In Genesis we see Adam fell when he failed to worship God. In Revelation, all history culminates in an eternal worship service in the presence of our glorious Lord.

Jesus made it a priority. He called it the greatest commandment – Mark 12:30 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”

This is not just a head knowledge, worshipping only with our minds or just from the soul. It involves our total being, body, soul and spirit. In the Lord’s Prayer He taught us to worship first before we get to petition.

Luke 11:2 “And He said to them, When you pray, say, Our Father, Who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name…” We cannot just come to God when we want something. We must first come to Him in relationship.

In order to praise and worship God for who He is, we must know Him; His nature, His desires, His plans, His heart. It is impossible to praise and worship a God you do not know personally. The more we know God; the greater our intimacy, it creates a deeper desire to worship Him. One of the main reasons for man’s existence is to have fellowship and communion with God. That’s what He created us for. (Isaiah 43:21).

We cannot separate worship from our fellowship with God for there could be no fellowship outside of a worshipful relationship. Worship is primarily for God’s purpose. Like any relationship, this requires time and constant communication between both parties. Example – not talking with your wife or spending time with her. We cannot expect to build a deep relationship with God if we are not prepared to find the time to meet with Him daily. This must become our lifestyle. It is what the Father is looking for:

John 4:21 – 24 - ” But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Jesus was saying that ‘worship must be in keeping with God’s nature, which is spirit. In other words, God is not an object. You do not worship Him like you would an idol. Worshipping in spirit is from my person to God’s person and also involves the intellect, emotions and will. Spirit actually means “rushing wind”. The word for spirit, “pneuma” means “wind” or “spirit” and is derived from the root word “pneo”, which means “to blow” and is a root word which is translated Spirit. Worshipping in the spirit denotes worshipping under His influence or under His control. We can worship God in the dimension of the Spirit by speaking and singing in tongues. This gives expression to our deepest feelings about God where ordinary words fail.

When Jesus said we must worship in truth, the word truth here is “alethia” which means true, and is derived from the word “alethes” which literally means “to take notice”. To worship in truth Jesus was saying that God is looking for His children to literally “take notice of the truth” about Himself. Worship is specifically accomplished when those that know God, understand His true character) take notice of all that is true about Him.

When we worship God in truth, we take faith in His unchanging Word. We allow the Word to take root in our lives and this will produce the fruit of worship. The more we know God the deeper our worship will take us. Our worship must never be based on anything except the truth of God. If we worship only for the experience, or to be noticed, or to gain recognition, or for traditions sake, we are certainly missing the mark.

As New Testament believers, our approach to Father God in relationship and worship is in His Son Jesus Christ, the Truth, in other words, not through another law but a Person. Jesus gave the woman of Samaria a startling revelation. The time had come, He told her, when worship would be centred not in a certain locality, but true worshippers would worship in spirit and in truth. In other words, Jesus was saying that God, being spirit, is not contained in man-made temples, and His worship is spiritual communion rather than ritual; in the heart rather than from a literal altar. No longer would it be necessary for the disciple to visit the Temple to meet with God, for he is a temple himself with the Spirit of God within him. The temple priest has been superceded by the priesthood of the believer. Jesus was affirming that acceptable worship no longer depends upon regulated expressions at certain places or specified times. Through Jesus, our spirits have been liberated to serve and praise in His presence at all times and in every place.

Part 1 – Introduction

I have discovered one of the greatest hindrance to a move of God can be quite simply right between my ears! My arrogant senses of right and wrong, godly and secular, acceptable and unthinkable. My religious education. My British culture. They can all hinder the heavenly, eternal culture of heaven from piercing through the challenging church culture of ministry today.

In my own worship journey, I have discovered one misleading notion after another in my thinking, many of which I have had to reject in order to see God’s power at work. Here are some thoughts and notes I have drawn on over the years. I used these notes with my team in the Ukraine recently that highlight the need for a lifestyle of worship over experiences and style preference.

Over the next ten days I want to post four blogs with some thoughts on a lifestyle of worship.

So how do we define worship? It is the response, in adoration, of all that the believer is – mind, emotions, will and body – to all that God is and says and does.

It is the act of freely giving love to God.

Another definition – “it is the response of the human spirit to a manifestation of the glory of God.”

The word “worship” comes from an old English word meaning “worth- ship”. To worship God is to express His worth. When we worship, it is not to give worship the honor or focus. Worship honors another. Worship is not music or the songs we sing, no matter how much feeling we put in them. It is not frivolous, flippant, shallow or superficial. It is not body posture or facial expression. Just because we might sing along or move our bodies in some way it doesn’t necessarily mean we are worshipping.

This Saturday Matt Edmundson and myself will speaking at a men’s day called ‘Untangling The Web’

This is a men’s event on sexual purity… so much has been said and written on this topic yet it still plagues the men of the church. This causes them to often live a lie, they live with a sense of never being truly free. During our time together we look at a number of areas related to this topic and give some tools on how to fight the battle. It is a battle we can fight and win… The enemy will not want you free he wants you to remain in bondage so expect some spiritual opposition. Often the enemy is near our ear. He doesn’t want you to win this fight, and he knows the lies that so often break men’s confidence and their will to win. Expect to hear lies and plenty of them. ­What you will hear from us is true. There is peace and freedom for us on the other side of this war. There is immeasurable spiritual gain.

Remember Gods standard in Ephesians 5.3 “but amongst you there must not be a hint of sexual immorality.”

The deceiver/enemy will tell us that Gods standard is crazy/unrealistic/idealistic and if we listen to them you will get disappointed.

In my life I began to recognise the lie of the enemy and to apply the Truth of Gods Word. Do you know the Word of Truth?

See Satan says: ‘you’re the only one dealing with this problem. If any one finds out you will be the laughing stock of the church!’

The Truth is: most men deal with this problem, so no one will laugh.

Satan says: ‘you failed again. You’ll never be able to train your eyes. It’s impossible.’

The Truth is: It is not impossible. Job trained his eyes, didn’t he? He was a man just like us.

Satan says: ‘you’re being legalistic! The law is dead and only brings death’

The Truth is: God still has standards of behaviour for us, and you’re responsible to live purely by His standards.

Satan says: ‘Come on! Don’t be such a wooss. This habit changing plan will never work.’

The Truth is: the plan will work, because for most men the problem of sexual impurity is nothing more than bad choices evolving into bad habits.

Satan says: ‘Why fight this battle when the costs of your impurity are minimal?’

The Truth is: you cant always see them, but the costs of your sin are greater than you think.

Satan says: ‘Why live in this high state of alert for the rest of your life? Give up now, and I’ll leave you alone.’

The Truth is: Satan just might keep his word and leave you alone, but even if he did, the laws of reaping and sowing would still exact their payment from you.

You cannot avoid the cost of sexual impurity. You might as well fight.

I am praying for you that you will grow in your faith, favour, obedience, and love of the Lord this New Year!

I want to help change the world.

I want to help change the world of those around me.

I want to help change my City.

I want to help change the world one person at a time.

Help change the world of one person.

I want 2012 to be my most fruitful. 

Here’s a Word God has laid on our hearts 

2 Chronicles 15:7 - ’But you, be strong and do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work.’

I believe God is saying to us that 2012 is going to be a YEAR OF REWARD

Hebrews 10:35 is very similar to 2 Chron 15:7 -‘Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.’

In these verses there are two things which God says will be rewarded – our confidence (ie our faith) and our work (ie our obedient service).

I believe God wants to say to us at the beginning of 2012: (this is part of a prophetic word to us)

‘I have seen your perseverance,

I have seen your standing in the time of trial,

I have seen your standing in the firing line of the enemy,

I have seen you when you’ve just been holding on and just hanging in there,

I have seen your wading through the quagmire,

I have seen your faithfulness and your diligence,

I have seen you holding on to the word of God when your circumstances seem to laugh in your face,

But now I say to you,

My son, My daughter,

My church of Frontline - 

But you, be strong and do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work.

2012 is the year of reward.

THOUGHT:

“If sowing and reaping is a kingdom principle.

Then surely harvest or fruitfulness must be a Kingdom Conclusion ?’

2011 ended and 2012 began amazingly as my daughter got married on New Year’s Eve it was wonderful…

As we begin a new year I wanted us to take a moment to blog… Christmas seems ages away away now! You may have already broken that new year’s resolution you made.

I know for some people the new year is just another day… for me I use it as a opportunity to review and take stock. For me it is important that I don’t allow the circumstances of life to determine the course of my life.. it’s already February..

Let’s take a moment. Scripture says: “Be it done to you according to your faith.” How much faith do we have? The size of a mustard seed? That WILL work!

To be ready for 2012 we have to have faith. God has plans for us but on our part, faith is required. The prophet Zechariah told the people that if we cannot see it then God won’t do it! That’s strong language.

The year ahead will hold many different things for us:

What mountains will we face in 2012? What mountains will our family face? [Financial… health… emotional… spiritual] What will we need in 2012 to be fruitful? What new skills will we need to develop? Will we need more courage or faith? Where might the enemy attack us? What temptations will we face that we need to be ready for? God has made a way of escape and we need not fall!

Where will we need to help our family in 2012? Are our kids growing in God? Do we intentionally plan to help them grow? Can we see the favour of the God on us and our family? If not, then make that a regular request: “I pray daily that favour would cover my family like a blanket on a cold winter night.” God’s favour is also like our shield.

I believe 2012 will be the greatest year my family has ever experienced. I am looking to see more of the King’s presence and kingdom.

I long to see our church grow in health and quantity.

I long to see more souls saved healed and delivered and added to the church on a daily basis; to see God’s transforming power loosed in our city and nation.

On a personal level I believe God will move on our family, friends, city and nation like never before.

Ephesians 3:20 (NLT)
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

I believe my kids will grow closer to Jesus than ever before.

I will watch my son, Mike, get married to an awesome woman of God this year, the beautiful miss Christine.

My daughter Debbie will possibly give us our first grandchild. [please]

Kathryn and Rob will plan during the end of the year to move to Liverpool in 2013, as well as getting married.

Julie and will get more opportunity to minister together.

I will see my new books printed, grow legs and get into the hands and hearts of many.

This year the network of leaders and churches will be more fruitful than ever.

This year we will have the finances to do the work on our house we so desperately need.

And finally that we will play our part in seeing Gods plans and purposes fulfilled in my personal life and our corporate life.

What are you believing for?

 

It’s been a little while since the recent riots I wanted to take the opportunity to comment on them without being seen to be reactionary.

 I was on holiday in Sussex during the riots and I watched the news reports along with the whole country. I was shocked and saddened by the rioting across so many of Britain’ cities.

Rioting is not new. Going back a few years we had the Poll-Tax Riots and the Miners Strikes. Here in Liverpool we had what the press called the race riots of the 80s.

It’s been said that the latest riots were not ones of protest, but simply an excuse for theft and robbery and violence. Banks, computer and jewellery shops were targeted – mainly by thugs with an oversized sense of entitlement to benefits and “why should I work for a living” attitude.

In the aftermath the politicians and social commentators have mentioned about the enormous and apparently growing inequality in British society.

The PM as used phrases like ‘broken society’ & ‘moral collapse’

But what about some of the other wider issues that go beyond the rioters with like …  the MP’s expenses scandal…  bankers’ scandal…   accusations against police… phone hacking … the madness in the application of Human rights…. political correctness…. health and safety…. Benefits society…. ‘my rights culture’… poverty…  homelessness…  unemployment… racism… single parents…  poor education… violence… lawlessness…

David Cameron said there are ‘no quick fixes’. David Millband accused the Prime Mininster of looking for ‘superficial answers’ instead of lasting solutions.

 Many people had long felt that there was something very nasty lurking beneath the placid waters of British society. The sudden, mindless violence that erupted in cities over the last few days was an unpleasant demonstration that this potential for nastiness was not only real, but closer to the surface than anybody feared. I’m not too surprised at the scenes witnessed as we see a break down in our society… the roots go deeper than politics and economics.

 JJ John says ’What if our nation as lost the Christian faith that, in a quiet and unnoticed way, acted as the glue that has held the British social fabric together. For two generations it has been fashionable to sneer at Christianity and to consider it unnecessary for a modern civilised society. The result has been a moral vacuum and amongst the noise of sirens and breaking glass ……’

Much as been said about how the police responded to the riots. What they did and did not do. We could talk about whether the police should have used baton rounds and water cannon sooner. Some would then talk about authoritarianism or totalitarianism – it’s accepting civil society in which gang culture is not acceptable.

As we watched the continual live news updates the riots were brought directly into our living rooms. We watched a riot where masses of people have become excited, uncontrolled, angry and rebellious, overturning cars, setting them alight, breaking windows and stealing. It must be scary to be an observer. One can so easily get caught up in the trouble when they’ve had nothing to do with it!

So how should the Church respond? Prayer walks; brushes and gloves to tidy up the mess perhaps. Certainly that seems to have been the response from some churches across the nation. But not exclusively the church, as other faith groups as well as those with little or no faith have responded in similar ways. There as been a real opportunity to reach out into our communities practically which is appropriate.

But as so often with this approach the social agenda simply papers over the cracks at the expense of the Gospel’s agenda. It doesn’t get to the root cause. Whatever social commentators and politicians believe to be the causes of the latest riots, the real problem, which the Christian should recognise, is the sinful condition of humanity. This is a reality that cannot be denied.

People today have generally moved on from moral absolutes. It’s like nobody knows what’s right and wrong for certain, it’s like nobody knows about God for certain.

We all have to decide for ourselves and not be held to others standards. Some of the problems flow out of the fact we believe in human rights and the dignity of the individual. We don’t see the individual as unclean, defiled, evil. We think of human nature as basically good.

 According to Jesus in our natural state were unfit for the presence of God.

Could it be that we find ourselves in a state today that is sinful, quite independent of guilt? In other words, we live in a world now where we don’t believe in judgement, we don’t believe in sin, and yet we still feel that’s there something still desperately wrong with us.

We can’t cut out our heart. No matter what we do or how hard we try external solutions don’t deal with the soul. As the church we have been give a message of HOPE that speaks and demonstrates a Saviors love… It’s a message never more needed by all than today… So come on church lets take the message to the people

Romans 8:1-2 (NLT)

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.

Absolutely the Church needs to speak out against violence. This is a time for Christians to be truly salt and light, merciful and loving, forgiving and redeeming. Those of us who pastor inner-city churches need to help communities heal and rebuild. However, it’s not just about practical action with brooms and gloves, and helping shop owners affected by the disturbances.

The bottom line is we all need a Saviour.

This blog was written a couple of weeks ago but I wanted to post it now. I’m not looking to give lots of answers but just to share my heart:

Today I’ve taken two cremation services, such a heart breaking day for the families… But I had planned to write some thoughts as I’m sure many of us have questions….

The loss of a loved one is always difficult regardless of age. Whether it’s expected or out of the blue, death impacts our lives. For many years I was a children’s nurse before becoming full time in ministry during that time I unfortunately seen many children and young people die. My own nephew who was in his early 20’s was murdered a few years ago. Each time I felt helpless as I struggled to find words of comfort for our wider family and our friends.

None of us understand why such things happen. If God has anything to do with it, I don’t understand what He’s thinking. What’s his purpose? What’s the point? Why is such sorrow brought upon spouses, parents, friends, and relatives? Sometimes I shudder when, in such circumstances, I hear people say, “It’s God’s will”. I don’t like to let God off the hook so easily. There is probably a very thin line between what God wills and what God allows.

I accept the fact that many things in life are a mystery and we could have lengthy theological discussions about God and evil and why bad things happen to good people. There are many things that happen in life and I certainly cannot give my friend or others easy explanations for why a baby or child or young person dies and other’s live to be 100 years old. Do the good die young?  Yes, sometimes. Do bad people live long lives? Yes, sometimes. Do some of us live long lives because we need a lot of time for a deep spiritual transformation to take place within us? This is very likely. Life really is a mystery.

It is not likely we will solve its mystery this side of the grave. Through faith we believe and trust that our lives and the lives of others, no matter how short, have a purpose and life is not just a series of random, meaningless experiences. I must believe that life and pain have meaning and someday I hope understand it. Part of the mystery of life is that we never know when it will end. This should motivate us to live each day well and to the fullest. Scripture brings insight and comfort.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NLT)  That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.  For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!  So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. 

2 Corinthians 1:2-4 (NLT) May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

Why does God allow young people to die?

It always feels unfair when we see a baby, child or young person die, and we feel that there must be a reason for it. But the truth is, none of us is guaranteed a long life. Death is the great common denominator, and will affect all of us, sooner or later. Our lives here are short, relatively speaking, but whether they are decades long, or only months long, our destiny remains the same. God knows and loves each individual.

We may feel a keen sense of loss over the death of anyone, especially a young person, but it should be heartening to know that our loved one is still safe, still cared-for, and still a loved member of the family of God. Remember, this is only the first part of life we have an eternity ahead of us in which we will fellowship with God himself and together.

I am aware that there are so many other things we can say – we could talk about spiritual warfare etc. We have just looked at the big question of death in our Sunday meeting teaching. If you didn’t hear it can I encourage you to download Nic’s talk from http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/frontline-the-family-service/id338298912