From the category archives:

iLive

So what’s the Vision?

by John Baw on February 1, 2010

The Vision from Dave Wright on Vimeo.

So this guy comes up to me and says:
“what’s the vision? What’s the big idea?”
I open my mouth and words come out like this:
The vision?
The vision is JESUS – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is an army of young people.
You see bones? I see an army.
And they are FREE from materialism.

They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.
They wouldn’t even notice.
They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won.

They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations.
They need no passport.
People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.
They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.

What is the vision ?

The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes.
It makes children laugh and adults angry.
It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars.
It scorns the good and strains for the best.
It is dangerously pure.

Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.
It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games.
This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day its soldiers choose to loose,
that they might one day win
the great ‘Well done’ of faithful sons and daughters.

Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don’t need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: “COME ON!”

And this is the sound of the underground
The whisper of history in the making
Foundations shaking
Revolutionaries dreaming once again
Mystery is scheming in whispers
Conspiracy is breathing…
This is the sound of the underground

And the army is discipl(in)ed.
Young people who beat their bodies into submission.
Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain”.

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes.
Winners. Martyrs.
Who can stop them ?
Can hormones hold them back?
Can failure succeed?
Can fear scare them or death kill them ?

And the generation prays

like a dying man
with groans beyond talking,
with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and
with great barrow loads of laughter!
Waiting. Watching: 24 – 7 – 365.

Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive

Inside.

On the outside? They hardly care.
They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide.
Would they surrender their image or their popularity?
They would lay down their very lives – swap seats with the man on death row – guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.

With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,
they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.

Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.)
Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.
Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.

Don’t you hear them coming?

Herald the weirdo’s! Summon the losers and the freaks.
Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes.
They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension.
Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.

And this vision will be.
It will come to pass;
it will come easily;
it will come soon.

How do I know?

Because this is the longing of creation itself,
the groaning of the Spirit,
the very dream of God.

My tomorrow is his today.
My distant hope is his 3D.
And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great ‘Amen!’ from countless angels, from hero’s of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.

Guaranteed.

(The Vision – - by Pete Greig)

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Leading your tribe

by John Baw on January 30, 2010

I just finished reading Seth Godin’s book “Tribes” and have just been fired-up with its message of radically changing the rules of the game through the fluid, cause-based, leadership of communities that he aptly terms “Tribes”. Anybody who is involved in influencing the market of ideas, would do well to take this book’s central themes to heart. By the way, YOU are that person, involved in influencing the market of ideas. If you care about stuff, if you want to get things done, if you want to change things, if you use the power of words to bring about change…… then this message os for you.

If you are passionate about an idea, or a message, then there is a tribe out there waiting for you to take the initiative and lead. Your message needs you – your tribe needs you….. welcome to the new world.

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How we can help Haiti – Crisis response protocol for adoption

by John Baw on January 20, 2010

The following email was sent to Gibraltar’s Minister for Family, Youth and Community Affairs, asking the Government to introduce a fast-track system for adopting children that are orphaned in disasters such as Haiti’s massive earthquake.

————

The Honourable J J Netto
Minister for Family, Youth & Community Affairs
14 Governor’s Parade
Gibraltar

Dear Sir,

Re: Crisis response protocol for adoption in Gibraltar.

It is with astonishment that we witness the scenes of devastation coming out of Haiti. every day. In times like these we all wish that there was something that we could do to help, and no doubt the typical response from our community will be to contribute money, energy and time to help the lot of those less fortunate.

Although I’m not aware of the intricacies of the adoption process here in Gibraltar, I am writing to ask whether the Government of Gibraltar has considered introducing a fast-track protocol for the adoption of orphaned children following a disaster such as Haiti. Parents who decide to adopt these orphans would be able to bring the child to Gibraltar under a certain protocol, that would relax any bureaucratic impediments and expedite the whole process.

I am aware that there may not be multitudes of Gibraltarians standing in line waiting to adopt orphans, however I am also aware that sometimes small but poignant gestures, such as having Government introduce the said protocol, will serve as a powerfully symbolic catalyst to motivate some to take action. Sometimes not doing anything at all can be the worst thing we can do.

Thank you for your kind attention to this matter,

I remain,

Yours faithfully,

John K. Baw

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My 2010 resolution

by John Baw on January 11, 2010

Of pot and potter...
Creative Commons License photo credit: Himalayan Trails

Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth – 1 Corinthians 5:8

Talk to someone about what they think of the “Church” or of “Christians” and painfully often you will hear THAT word: “hypocrites”. Ouch!

It hurts me that people will often refer to Christians or the Church as “hypocritical”, sort-of in the same vein as one hears people talk about politicians, perceived by many to be milking the public purse for personal gain, or bonanza-bonus-taking bankers, who, many argue, are paying themselves huge sums out of money that they only have because they have mortgaged our whole economies for the next few generations.

St. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthian church, urges them to “keep the festival” of the (new) Passover, but to keep it in the spiritual sense, having Jesus as their sacrificial lamb that makes atonement for their sins. This festival of the Passover is the foundation of Christianity.

I will spare you the intricacies of Jewish Passover-observance, and the rituals of purging-out of yeast that goes with it – suffice it to say that Passover requires a cleaning-out of every nook and cranny of your kitchen in order to remove any traces of yeast – yeast is symbolic of sin and impurity. He then goes on to state that this festival is to be observed “with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Now here’s a thought: We place a lot of emphasis on keeping the festival with the proper truth (and doctrine becomes the rallying-cry for many movements, divisions and separations), but are we placing equal emphasis on keeping the festival, on being true Christians, with the quality of transparency and sincerity? Surely if the world sees the Church as full of hypocrisy, we need sincerity by the bucket load – for fail you might, but people will always appreciate you if something is genuine.

In Paul’s Corinth, it is said that it was normal practice for people selling earthenware to cover-up imperfections, cracks and crevices with wax, pouring it into all the nooks and crannies, and then paint-over the whole vessel. These were sold in dark shops, so the unsuspecting buyer got the shock of his life when a perfectly looking vessel was used to pour hot water into it – the wax invariably melted, and the water was spilled on the ground – and what looked like a beautiful earthen pot was therefore useless. The way to detect that the vessel was “sincere” was by holding-it up against a bright light, and the wax would let the light through in contrast with the opaque clay and all imperfections would be highlighted.

From this practice of filling-up cracks with wax, some say that we get the word “sincere” from the latin sin (without) cere (wax).

Here’s where this thought is taking me: I don’t want to appear as if I’ve got it all together, only to discover wax covering my cracks and faults. In 2010 I purpose to hold my own heart and life up to the “bright light” of God’s presence and have Him reveal all the imperfections, shortfalls, nooks and crannies. I apologize to you all beforehand if it isn’t a pretty sight, but when all is said and done I want to be part of the real deal.

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2010 – Happy New Year Friends!

by John Baw on January 2, 2010

Happy New Year Friends!

The dawning of a new day…..
the birthing of a new year….
the ushering-in of a new decade.

One word comes to mind for this 2010 – PROMISE. As you nurture the dreams of your heart, may the HOPE of PROMISE guide your every decision, help you at every turn, and propel you to new heights.
Love,

John, Annabelle, Aaron, Eli & Ethan.

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Merry Christmas!!

by John Baw on December 24, 2009

Xmas Tree
Creative Commons License photo credit: R. Motti

Merry Christmas to all my friends and enemies. What a wonderful time to be grateful for all our blessings in life, for the lovely friends and family that surround us, and to reflect on the greatest gift of all……. God giving his own Son Jesus for us and sending Him into our world to destroy the power of evil once and for all.

When God shows up…. everything changes!!

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Poem: Forget me not when I am old

by John Baw on November 25, 2009

Memories of a soldier
Creative Commons License photo credit: Frank Taillandier

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Forget me not when I am old
When I repeat the same things
When I insist on having my way
When I forget your name
When I spoil your plans

Forget me not when I am old
When I am just taking-up space
When I am a burden on your day
When I call you a hundred times
When I seem to presume too much

My child, afford me a little dignity
- spare me a little patience
- show me a little kindness

Forget me not when I am old
for this much I have earned:
Through countless sleepless nights
-caring for you
Through a thousand tiring days
-working hard for you
Through these many years
-watching over you
-to see the beauty of who you have become

Forget me not when I am old
For your care of me
Brings out the best in you
and sows the seeds
of your own tomorrow.

(c) 2009 – John K. Baw

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The Challenge of Jesus, by N.T. Wright

by John Baw on November 15, 2009

The Challenge of Jesus

The Challenge of Jesus

The cross is the surest, truest and deepest window on the very heart and character of the living and loving God; the more we learn about the cross, in all its historical and theological dimensions, the more we discover about the one in whose image we are made, and hence about our own vocation to be the cross-bearing people, the people in whose lives and service the living God is made known.

When therefore we speak… of shaping our world, we do not – we dare not – simply treat the cross as the thing which saves us ‘personally’, but which can be left behind when get on with the job. The task of shaping our world is best understood as the redemptive task of bringing the achievement of the cross to bear on the world; and in that task the methods, as well as the message, must be cross-shaped through and through.

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The WildOx gang invades Crocodile Park

by John Baw on November 10, 2009

What does the WildOx do when he is not changing the world?  He packs a car full of yung’uns and heads-off to Torremolinos, Spain to visit Crocodile Park.

We had an awesome time – well recommended for those of you who live in this neck of the woods and have kids.  I learnt a tonne of stuff about crocs – unfortunately we did not get to feed them because, as you all know, crocs do not eat from Autumn to Spring time.

I shot a few pics…….

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Living Waters Church: 7 Years in Photographs

by John Baw on September 30, 2009

I was finally doing a bit of housekeeping on my Flickr account (Which I had abandoned for a while in favour of just using FB) and managed to organize some of the photos that I had of Living Waters Church going back to 2003.

Although it is by no means a chronicle of the church’s history – and although there are glaring gaps when a lot was happening and no photographs were taken – it neverhteless felt good to see a photographic timeline since 2003 – the various stages of our development and growth. I am a grateful man today to have been allowed to experience these baby steps and this growth.

Click here to view photographs

MORE LORD!

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The Red Arrows visit – Gibraltar 2009

by John Baw on September 21, 2009

After a 16-year hiatus, the famous Red Arrows returned to the Rock of Gibraltar [link] .  I was unable to see the show myself but a colleague shared his photos with me and I am putting them up here in the spirit of awesomeness!!!!!!  These guys rocked the rock!!!!

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Kris Vallotton – Choosing Life: An issue of abortion

by John Baw on August 28, 2009

YouTube Preview Image

In the above video, Pastor Kris Vallotton of Bethel Church in Redding, California is speaking out on the issue of abortion through a dream that he had regarding how God feels about this issue.  People, it is time to embrace LIFE.

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3 words….

by John Baw on July 2, 2009

I was flicking channels the other day and landed on a really cheesy Mexican  soap-opera channel called “TL Novelas”  – where an ‘experienced’ actress was being interviewed.  For a split second – literally the time it would take me to click and surf on to a “man channel” (Sky News, CNN, National Geographic, History Channel, Discovery channel, etc)- I heard her mention 3 words that she said were critical for success in acting:

Passion….Patience….Discipline.

Those words struck me.  I think that those three words are vital for success in ANY field or endeavor!!!!!    That is what your destiny is waiting for – the alignment of your passion, patience, and discipline.  Many today are dreaming about success and making their dreams a reality, but they lack the combination, or alignment, of these three factors.

How about you? What steps are YOU taking today to align these three elements, so crucial to your success?

No athlete makes it to the games on gifting alone – but on the powerful combination of gifting and discipline” – (Pastor Bill Johnson)

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Living waters – Holy Spirit retreat

by John Baw on June 28, 2009

OK I know…. among my tribe the word “retreat” is not cool. It speaks of defeat, of giving up ground that was previously occupied. I want to redeem the word.

There is a lot to be said for the practice of stealing away for a weekend with a bunch of people who are hungry for more of God and of the presence of His Spirit – we call it a retreat…. a getaway….. a weekend break.,

At Living Waters things are moving full-throttle. We have just spent a whole weekend learning about, meeting, hosting and celebrating this most-neglected person of the Godhead. Focusing on the Holy Spirit, we focused on Him and had awesome teaching workshops, times of impartation and also quiet times in the prayer room …. getting to know God in a deep way.

Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away. – Song of Solomon 2

We had a friend come all the way from Holland to be with us – he is an awesome guy who is gonna Rock Holland!!!!!!!

A HUGE thanks to my leadership team, Mario and Jaydan who managed to organize everything whilst I was in London. Guys you rock!!!!

Peace, out.

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One year ago….

by John Baw on June 13, 2009

ethanbaw

The smurf burst into our lives filling the Baw household with indiscernible coos and ahhs.  Ethan Francis Baw is now one year old.  Now someone please tell me where the heck the last 364 days went?

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7 Keys To Starting A Movement

by John Baw on June 5, 2009

YouTube Preview Image

Note: This is from RugamuffinSoul.com – This blog post is just SO good, that I am simply going to scrape it and re-post here word for word. Carlos Whittaker, ….thanks for this!

If you are catching this via RSS or email, please click here in order to load the blog on your browser and watch the video.

[7 Keys To Starting A Movement]


A few things I think we can learn from this video.

  • One man can start a movement.
  • A movement need not be started by the most skilled member of the movement.
  • When beginning your movement and you look around and no one else is joining the dance, just keep dancing.
  • When the one guy who joins your movement slowly fades away, keep going.
  • Before you know it, the people joining your movement won’t even know you started it.
  • When your movement takes a life of it’s own, just let go. There will be no stopping it.
  • The very people who are staring at you like your nuts as you movement alone, will be the very same people dancing the hardest in the end.
  • WOW

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    Poem: Who am I? (A pro-choice poem for the unborn)

    by John Baw on June 2, 2009

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    This little poem is offerred, in the spirit of being pro-choice – it is lovingly offered to those being denied the choice.  The choice of whether they want to live and breathe, to love and be loved.  The greatest moral tragedy unfolding in history is the legalized slaughter of our unborn babies.  To those silent cries, I dedicate this:

    Who am I?

    Who am I?
    I am the one denied the dawn
    the one without an embrace
    The sun my skin will not warm
    the rain won’t dance on my face

    Who am I?
    I am the weakest of them all
    The one without a voice
    My dreams destined to fall
    My hopes hostage to “choice”

    Who am I?
    I am the one who will not be allowed
    to smile at the moon, to frown at the cloud
    Nobody gave me the benefit of the doubt
    Nobody gave me the chance to shout
    I am the one given no room
    my life snuffed out….. from womb, to tomb

    It could have been you, instead of me
    Denied a voice, by some decree
    It could have been you, instead of me
    Never knowing what it is to be free.

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    Poem: Another body washed ashore

    by John Baw on May 28, 2009

    Timbuktu, Mali, Sub Sahara W. Africa

    Creative Commons License photo credit:

    I wrote this poem after I was scandalized by the number of illegal immigrants who needlessly drown every year trying to make the crossing of the Straits of Gibraltar into Spain, in search of a better future in Europe.

    Another Body washed ashore.

    Thousands die in a dark abyss
    an ocean never satisfied
    Driven by fear and hopes of bliss
    no guidance from the qualified

    They dream of a better tomorrow
    they escape a ghoulish hell
    An extra day they cannot borrow
    another story they will not tell

    A watery grave receives them
    hordes of poor with hope deferred
    When will we rise up and condemn
    life discounted so absurd

    How many more must die
    how many more must perish
    When will the rich ones try
    their lives to save and cherish?

    Enough tears of the orphan
    enough of the widow’s mourn
    I see their bodies often
    floating lifeless ripped and torn

    Thousands die in a dark abyss
    no chance to have a dream
    Something here is so amiss
    for I no longer hear their scream.

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    The Sahara Forest Project: New paradigms in sustainable development

    by John Baw on May 27, 2009

    Sahara Forest Project

    Sahara Forest Project

    I came across this futuristic-looking project as part of the reading involved in my Chartered Surveyor-wannabe quest for membership of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and immediately fell in love with it.

    The innovative use of seawater greenhouses combined with solar power could very well be used to turn parts of arid desert into fertile agricultural land. This would be a huge deal if this model can be replicated and scaled up across Sub-Saharan Africa! Just consider the possibilities for a moment:

    • The generation of employment in the agricultural sector will provide a much-needed boost for many of these economies.
    • The generation of employment in their homelands would serve to stem the flow of illegal immigration into Europe from this region – a tide that is tragically claiming thousands of lives every year as desperate people make the perilous crossing of the Straits of Gibraltar
    • The transformation of desert into blooming fertile land can secure a much-needed food supply for the increasing global population. This would help level-off the increase in commodity prices that hurt poor economies so much.
    • - As much seawater would be diverted into desert regions this could initially help to absorb some of the rising sea levels as a result of global warming, buying us some more time to come-up with more permanent (sustainable?) solutions.
    • More living and breathing greenery in general will help to remove carbon dioxide from our atmosphere and replace it with oxygen.
    • The concept of solar mirror arrays, like the one seen outside Seville in Spain, as an alternative source of energy shows huge potential in providing energy whilst weaning us off dirty fuels. This has enormous geopolitical implications for the world community as well.

    Now, why am I going on about this stuff on a blog that is supposed to explore issues relating to spirituality? Well, I think that this is a huge Kingdom issue!

    The turning of a desert into a garden is one of God’s ways of blessing His creation – a reversal of the fall. We have already seen a modern prototype of this in the nation of Israel as a direct fulfillment of prophesy within scripture as they have successfully turned extremely arid and depleted land into agricultural land that is at the forefront in terms of innovation and development in this sector. They secured their own food supplies, and created surpluses for export under the most adverse climatic conditions. Israel is undoubtedly the renowned leader in developing new agricultural technologies. Isaiah 51: 3 reads, “For the LORD will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, And her desert like the garden of the LORD; Joy and gladness will be found in it, Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.” - a prophetic “blueprint” that has been foreshadowed in Israel and will be replicated globally as God put this world to rights.

    As Christians we have ignored the environment for too long, and have therefore forfeited our place in the bringing to fruition of solutions that bless the world – our Abrahamic mandate (“…And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”). Maybe we have focused so much on moralising that we have taken our eye off the stewardship of the world and its resources. Frankly, we should be at the vanguard of solutions that deal with the challenge of climate change – sadly, we are nowhere to be seen. The reasons for this are explored in part here, but really form the meat for another post.

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    Nothing short of outrageous

    by John Baw on May 20, 2009

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    I wrote the following letter to the Gibraltar Chronicle after they published a story that a man who was caught in Gibraltar distributing thousands of the most extreme images of child pronography was sentenced to only 18 months in prison, due to a “glaring gap in Gibraltar law” (!) :

    Dear Sir,

    NOTHING SHORT OF OUTRAGEOUS

    It is nothing short of outrageous that in a society like ours a man convicted of a gross crime against the weakest of all should be sentenced to only 18 months in prison.

    I am not well read in the intricacies of law, but common sense surely dictates that aiding and abetting a crime must carry the same degree of guilt as the crime itself. So for example, if I purchase and supply the gun that is subsequently used to commit murder, I must be as guilty as the person who pressed the trigger.

    Most readers will agree that this man has been an accomplice to the kidnapping, prostitution, physical and sexual abuse of minors, and the human trafficking otherwise known as the sex slave trade. He must be as guilty as the perpetrators of these crimes. For this catalogue of offences, Mr. Klinkiewicz will spend 18 months behind bars.

    In sentencing, Mr. Justice Dudley said that “unfortunately” it was not an offence to process these images in Gibraltar. I would not call this unfortunate, I would call it scandalous. That our judges do not already have the tools in place to deal decisively with these heinous crimes constitutes negligence at best. At worst it sends a signal that we are soft on a perversion of the darkest genre, and we send out an open invitation for the breeding, cultivation and perpetuation of this deviant exploitation of minors. Somebody, it seems, has been asleep at the switch. The legislation in question must be fast-tracked into law now.

    I also propose, that after this man has enjoyed the comfort of Her Majesty’s hospitality for 18 months Government buy him a one-way ticket to a dubious destination far away from our shores.

    Yours faithfully,

    John K. Baw.

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