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 Andy's blog
Andy Strajnic is originally from Sweden/Serbia and heads up the work of Highway. He loves God, his beautiful wife, people in general and also apple juice...
Trial and Tests
There is nothing more sure to get you to pray than tough times. They seem to extract the very very purest of our desires and thoughts. For me I have trials regularly, what father and husband doesn't... - add to that the burden from God of carrying the church in prayer and leadership and you have a pretty sure recipe for a life full of trials and tests. The Bible has a lot to say about being tested, persevering and facing trials, "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test , he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him." "Consider it pure Joy, my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. perseverance must finish it's work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." Verses like these in God's word make me see what is happening to me. I often don't know whether I have caused my own problem or whether God's hand has led me into a circumstance that will make me grow. Only praying, taking long walks and deliberately choosing to put on music and worship will make me come out of my own head and into God's heart. To use the words of Spurgeon "Pray your way out of a muddle" - and how right He was. Every single day as I face trials, temptations and stuff of life, some my own doing and some God's hand. I do the only thing that will bring life. I pray, I pray and I pray. I worship worship and worship. First often not so easily or joyfully, but I press on, press through and the purest, most true and most wise,right and lovely thing comes out. - Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit. It's God's own distilling process at work. How does God get the very best out of us. How does He extract the purest and very very best of us, the stuff heroes and saints are made of. Quite simply He lovingly lets us go through trials and tests! I don't like them, don't think I ever will but one thing I do, I press on to get hold of Jesus, his spirit, His way of life and so becoming like Him, tasting not only His power but also His sufferings. And the miracle is that as I do that, press on, press on and press on. I become the most true version I can ever become of myself, just as God made me, in His image. That's Grace, that heavenly transaction that happens when we change into what God always intended us to be. Lots of love friends - and bring those trials on...... lets PRAY
Andy
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Andy Strajnic, 16/04/2012 |
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Call the cavalry!
So I have been thinking, I'm no superman, neither will I ever be one! - Superman can fly, he is very strong, he has laser eyes and can probably eat rock, take out a whole army with one arm tied behind his back and he is probably never ill (except when he smells cryptonite) and he definitely doesn't deal with toddlers (he would lose!) or have any hardships in his life. After all - He is SUPERMAN.
We'll I'm not strong, i've never been able to fly (I can barely run!) I have very limited sight, I often loose my fights and we have our share of sick days (although we always fight to stay well). Most days I feel as far from Superman as a horse and cart is from a Bentley...
I wish it was different and I wish I was more like superman, I would love it! - Except for the outfit...
I would love to put on super strength and fight all the fights and win. Call the Cavalry in, get help from superpowers or from God the superpower. Every time I'm in trouble I just get God to send the troops in and rescue me and help me.
What I actually want is magic.
But faith is not magic. Faith is not God sending the Cavalry in at a moments notice to rescue me from anything bad or uncomfortable.
Jesus when he was facing execution said to the governor who had the power over him, "Don't you think I can call for legions of angels to come and rescue me in an instant" - And of course He could have, but He had given his life into His Father's hands and he refused to take it back. Faith for Jesus was Calvary not the Cavalry!
Faith was trusting God and facing the cross. Faith is refusing to take the easiest cheapest road. Faith is a real, substantive clear heart direction that God is GOOD, He knows what He is doing with me and I will WALK in a relationship with Him like a SON, not a slave, and I will grow up in my faith, not just be bailed out every time I need bailing out. I feel God is saying - SET your heart on ME, don't dodge the issues and don't rely on instant relief. Instead rely on your Father in Heaven who is growing something substantive, real and eternal in you.
He is growing you to be a true Son who will rule the world with him, not a little Superman with little magic powers.
Peace to you all,
Andy
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Andy Strajnic, 14/03/2012 |
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2012 has begun
Hi friends
I thought I'd wait a while to jot down a few thoughts about the new year but here are a few things that have crossed my heart
thinking and praying for the year ahead.
It's easy to be absorbed by the reports in the news and generally the buzz in the ether about the latest economic news, natural
disasters and the latest gossip. It's harder to keep a sound mind and see with spiritual eyes what God is doing in the nations, see the world
with a lens of hope, faith and love. - I think harder and harder.
It's also an easy route to just be a doomsday prophet and lean heavily on the end time prophecies from the Bible to justify an
end of the world scene where it all just goes to pot and all the christians 'just hang on until Jesus rescues us' sort of scenario.
Most of us (incl me!) don't want to be told that we are in fact God's answer to a world without hope.
There is no plan B. We are all God has to work with and it will be the greatest miracle in the universe when God uses us ordinary
relatively powerless followers of Jesus to bring about the radical change in the middle of a chaotic political, moral and economical
environment. You can see the small prophetic trailer for this in the Bible after Jesus had left his disciples and been taken to heaven.
They were scared, they were few in number, they were threatened and without power. - But they had a promise and they had
each other. Then they all get filledwith The Holy Spirit, the same spirit Jesus had, and it all explodes. They change from a small frightened group to a world changing movement in a matter of months and so starts a movement which continues today and is in fact accelerating very fast.
More people have become followers of Jesus in the last 100 years than in all the 1900 years before put together!!
I can see that God will once again do the thing He loves to do and that He did in the days of the fiorst disciples
, use the small, insignificant people with a childlike faith and shame all the powerful, the religious and the clever people.
I think He will raise up people who have been relatively quiet and unknown and raise them up for His big purposes in the World.
Apart from that,I feel a few key words for the church right across the world will be:
1. The world and it's systems WILL be shaken so don't focus on them. Instead, keep the eyes of your heart steadily on
God's word and with love for His church. "If your eyes are bad, the whole body will be full of darkness, if your eyes are good
the whole body will be full of light" - Be careful what you look at!
2. Keep things simple. The ways of the world will entangle you and darken your heart, harden it. I think there will be a real fight for
living a simple loving, clutter free life. We find we have to really be strong to agree in our house to speak the truth in Love,
not have any no go areas between us, to keep being a blessing financially to those around us, to love freely and show our
children that God is very much real and so incredibly good.
- I think the option is where we say we are believers but act like we don't really trust God at all practically in our lives
will bring disaster to our children and to our own lives.
3 And finally I think the Good news of Jesus will be spreading faster and faster throughout the world. It won't be obvious from
the media but all over the world it's growing and spreading. God is raising up men women and children who will be fearless,
free from religious constraints and who will be so hungry for God that all the previous revivals in the world will pale into
insignificance.
The greatest hour for the church is ahead of us. We might be afraid, small and powerless. Hold fast and be faithful. God will
be faithful to His word and raise us up in due course. The world will not know what's hit it!
Blessings and more blessings as we continue into 2012.
Andy
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Andy Strajnic, 25/01/2012 |
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Simply Christmas
Hi Friends, 
If you are like me, you are finishing everything before the holidays and at the same time finding the joy
(and a little time) of getting a few presents and preparing for christmas.
It's a fight to keep in the right spirit and not be swallowed up into christmas being about how much we can buy and how much we can eat, and oh, yes, how much TV we can watch.
The spirit of God himself coming to us as a humble gift tells you something about the spirit of it all.
He came humbly and simply - and with a surprise!
That's the real magic with it all. Finding simple things and to surprise each other- for instance, someone offered to clean the kitchen for a mum in the church as a christmas present, and boy was that appreciated! - and a great simple surprise! - and an amazing way of expressing Love and friendship.
It's a fight to do things in a new way, I know all about it.
Im praying to be constantly led by the Holy Spirit and I think I need it most when I think I know how to do something already well.
It's only humility - praying for leading when you are on autopilot and you know what you are doing that leads you into something new.
I feel God is calling us to expect more this Christmas. Expect to have a joyful holidays, expect to be blessed by Him, expect to be shown new ways and new things when you can't afford what you would want maybe. - All these are His promises, Joy, rest and guidance.
Don't take my word for it, take HIS word on it and expect good things from your Father in heaven.
And if you are anything like me, cynicism and doubt will always be easy to hand, easy to slip into. Help each other, sing songs, repent, fight that devil when he steals our joy and humbly come and receive again and again your Fathers pleasure over you, His approval of you and His favour and goodwill towards all men - Then share it quickly!
Jesus is indeed "Good news of great joy for all the people"
Luke 2:10-14
Every blessing and lots of love to you all,
Andy
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Andy Strajnic, 14/12/2011 |
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the Christmas Miracle
Hi Friends
December has arrived and the lights will go on tonight in many towns across the world.
It's an amazing time of the year for us as God's people to celebrate - God himself became flesh and blood and moved into the neighbourhood!
We are no longer alone, we are no longer in darkness and ignorance and we are no longer bound to live separated from our Father. No, with the arrival of Jesus we have realized something new about God. He is not a passive God, somehow on the sideline of this world's mess.
He is right there in the middle of our humanity, sharing it, enjoying it, suffering in it and ultimately dying in it.
We celebrate Christmas the best when we share our lives with each other, when we share both the best we have and when we share our realities
whatever they may be and invite God into those with humility. Then and only as we humbly share our lives and invite God in do we experience
the life of God. It seems His life somehow happens BETWEEN us and not in our heads or locked up in our hearts.
In Luke chapter 1 in the Bible the Angel appears to Mary and tells her that she will become pregnant by the Holy Spirit she responds in an amazing way, with great faith and humility. She doesn't analyze or question whether it will happen, she simply states:
"Nothing is impossible with God"
Which puts God and His power and ability before her understanding.
Then she puts her own life in His hands as the ready instrument and necessary carrier of this most amazing gift by saying:
"May it be to me as you have said"
What situation do you face where you need to put God right at the top by saying "Nothing is impossible with God"
and where do you need to change what you say in your heart from: that will never change, he or she will never change etc
to- "Nothing is impossible with God!"
It will open the way for you to put yourself on the line, just like Mary did,
as God will only work in our lives when we are willing instruments for change.
May we have the heart of Mary and may the Holy Spirit move over our lives so we become the miracle our family, our friends
and our relatives are waiting for.
Love and blessings for Advent my friends
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Andy Strajnic, 01/12/2011 |
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God's miracles
Hey friends, in this first week of advent I read of all the people involved in the birth of Jesus. They were all involved in the greatest
miracle in history but they all had their very real part to play. It's time to BE the miracle.
I was reminded of a great article I recently read, it's from Steve Furtick on :
http://www.stevenfurtick.com/
. This is it and let it speak to you like it spoke to me.
When you look at the miracles in the Bible, you see two themes consistently emerge when it comes to the person involved in the miracle.
1) Many biblical miracles were the person’s own initiative, not God’s idea.
Like the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment.
Or Namaan who went to Elisha for healing for his leprosy.
Or the centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant.
And 2) many biblical miracles involved the person’s natural action, not just God’s supernatural intervention.
Like when the Israelites had to walk through the Red Sea after God parted it.
Or when the blind man had to wash himself in the pool of Siloam.
Or when Joshua and his army had to march around the walls of Jericho before it fell.
The bottom line is that when it comes to the miracles you want to see in and through your life, God wants your involvement. I’ve said it before, but most Christians don’t want miracles, we want magic. We want God to wave a magic wand at our problem or need.
We want God to send the money out of the sky.
God forbid we would cut up our credit cards.
We want God to heal us of our physical ailments.
God forbid we change our eating habits or start exercising.
We want to see God do miraculous things through us.
God forbid we get off the couch and give God a platform off of which He can work.
I’m sorry, but God’s miracles don’t work like that. Of course they involve His unmistakable power and provision. Otherwise they wouldn’t be miracles. But they also require your initiative and involvement. Otherwise they would just be magic.
Maybe we could sum it up like this:
Without God, you cannot.
Without you, God will not.
Ask yourself two questions today.
1) What miracle do you need or want to see God accomplish in or through your life?
2) What involvement is God requiring from you before He accomplishes the miracle?
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Andy Strajnic, 28/11/2011 |
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sons of God
God's challenges often come slowly to start with, like our inside is nudged, prompted or guided by the Holy Spirits
gentle voice. God is so kind and so compassionate.
Then as our busy lives so often are not able to hear that voice, the pain grows bigger and our soul and often our body starts to tell us that an adjustment is needed. It's usually something like, "You need to rest now" or "you need to say sorry now" or "This is unfair and i want to scream about it" or "it's time to talk to a close friend or your partner now" or something like that.
We are invited by Jesus to come and "find rest for our souls". How magnificent that God would know our inside, hear our thoughts and then invite us to come and rest from our labours. - We ignore this invite at our peril.
It often takes a good friend, a crisis or an illness to really get us to stop and listen. But God is saying to us today:
"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; i will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. (Ps32:8-9)
We are God's sons! Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. That is our privilege - to be led, not by force or by being dragged or senslesly controlled, but by this amazing union with God and friendship with God we are led by a combination of three things as I see it:
1: God's desires and dreams that we have had since the beginning of time in our hearts (wow) as unique image bearers and sons in the family.
2: The council and voice of the Holy Spirit in our lives. - It's the most beautiful relationship in the world. - The kind Jesus had with His Father!
3: Our circumstances, things that challenge us to grow and exercise our faith, test our patience and produce character.
These are the least favourite things but usually the only things that actually move us into a new experience!
All these things God has worked out in my life as i have learned to go forward with the desires and dreams He put in my heart that seem always to have been there, learning to be led by His Spirit as I move forward in all that, constantly being flexible and open to guidance, and through all the challenges of life that seem hard letting each of them drive me to God, and drive me to prayer.
Praise God, i am His son, I am being trained for eternity, to reign with King Jesus, and how awesome it all is!
Speak soon
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Andy Strajnic, 03/11/2011 |
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Worship
Hi Friends
I asked my friends Brett to let me know what he felt about worship, Brett is an artist and a great worshipper of God.
Here is his answer to me. I have taken the liberty to share it with you all. - Enjoy
When we in the church come to talk about how we might worship together, it seems that we can often get hung up on the formal and practical aspects of playing and singing songs.
A thousand questions spring to mind like;
How far can we push the style?
Where does my gift of creativity come in?
What is the extent of the worship leader’s responsibility?
Should there be any talking between songs?
And so on.
If we take all of these things into consideration, we can certainly come up with something that looks and sounds like worship - that is, as it has been given to us by our church culture - but we may just be missing the point entirely.
If we start with all of the questions of practice, context and creativity as above, we’re approaching worship in reverse order - the focus becomes ourselves and what we’re going to do for God and His glory.
To start off on the right foot, it seems that we must constantly re-direct our passions and energies towards simply loving our heavenly Father in the deep, emotional way that only comes by experiencing Him. The quality of our worship depends on the extent to which we allow our enthusiasms, admiration and hopes to revolve around Him.
I found this insight from the preacher, John Piper particularly helpful with regard to the centrality of worship in the Christian life; he states -
God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
To glorify God is the essence of worship - we want him to look great - making much of God is what worship is about. God is made ‘more of’ amongst us when we are satisfied in him, when we treasure him above all things. Which means that emotion is essential; emotion is the fire and the engine of Christianity. But if it’s not there, then the Lord is less honored.
Even with sound doctrine and right thinking about God, Jesus said that our worship is in vain if He isn’t the object of our joy.
So, a New Sound in the praises of God is not an aim in itself - it will rather be one of the inevitable fruits of our decision to love and enjoy Christ above anything and everyone else.
Brett Richards
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Andy Strajnic, 18/10/2011 |
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here we are Lord...
 I'm at a leaders' retreat at the moment and very much enjoying the stimulating time, the really great talks and discussions and also really missing the family. I feel a bit like I'm going to miss a crucial moment in one of the boys' lives, a first of something or an exciting moment. Retreats are simply places we go to hear God better. Other people help us and there are leaders here from all over the country and both together and on our own we learn to listen, learn to see and receive from God life and a new perspective.
We live in a world full of fears, full of bad news and full of all the wrong perspectives. We simply have to have God's view on the world, God's view on the future if we are ever going to change anything in the world for the better. I feel like I have been washed with hope for the future. Like my brain has been rewired and I have God's perspective on the state of the world. It's like the children's song we sing - 'He's got the whole world, in His hands ....'
Well, He does but He has given it to us to govern and steward - that's the scary part.
And I think many of us followers of Jesus are just waiting for God to do something or Jesus to return and fix it all. But from what I know of God, He created us to actually be responsible and rule the earth!
And I don't think He has changed His mind either. I believe Jesus will one day return and the world will be changed, but not until we have in cooperation with Him made the world around us a very different place to what it is now.
I think it starts with a new view, a new perspective - a repentance from hiding in our little lives hoping Jesus will come and rescue us from a collapsing world, to the taking up our responsibility for what happensd in our town, on our streets and in our schools and places of work.
The moment we do, I believe the Lord of all the earth will give us strategies and a new vision for our family, for our home and then going out into the world with our covenant friends in the church to make a real difference with whatever gifts and talents we have been given.
It's time to beat the hopelessness in our own heart; it's time to change the perception of the place we live. Every night before bedtime I hold our son up to the window overlooking Bicester, where we live, and I say: We love you Bicester, we bless you Bicester' - then kiss him and tuck him in.
We are blessing our town together and I pray he catches a heart for it instead of a cynical negative mindset (I think it happens very early) and that all my family don't stay behind safe locked doors watching while the world becomes more hopeless, but that we follow Jesus out into the homes and streets where He wants to go and love and bless people.
With all my trembling, fearful and weak heart I say - here we are Lord, send us....
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Andy Strajnic, 13/10/2011 |
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Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God
 Ok, new season, in our lives and in the life of the church, this most amazing of all enterprises on the earth. Also the most powerful people movement on the planet. The church will not decline, it is growing at it's fastest rate ever and will outlive any empire,kingdom and peoplegroup. And we are privileged and called to be members of it, living exciting parts of Jesus' own body - Wow.
I've begun to see how God wants me to live more and more. The more decisions have to be made in our lives the more He expects me to be led by His Spirit. The sign of a son of God is that he or she is led by His Spirit. ( For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God - Rom 8:14)
I have grown to actually expect to be led by the Holy Spirit. It's like He doesn't allow me to move until I have heard him, or felt an impression or peace from Him. It's a whole new way of living!
I can see more and more in the bible that that is how Jesus was led and that is how the new church in Acts was led, constantly being impressed and guided by God's Spirit.
In my life as a church leader there is nothing more amazing than being a son of God. And the sons of God have the privilege of being led by the Spirit.
I feel with all the decisions that are required of me daily in family life, in finances, in relationships and in leadership that I have an internal seeking, a deep groan if you want for the moving of the Holy Spirit to help me see what should or should not be done and how it should be done. It has become an obvious expectation now and i can honestly say that I would be completely and totally lost without His constant presence and guidance. - And boring!
I think i would become such a fearful, busy, controlling wreck that I would be impossible to be with.
Thankyou Holy Spirit for your presence, thank you for your love for me and for the church.
I love how you lead us and how you strengthen us always. Thank you great Helper of men.
Amen
Speak soon friends |
Andy Strajnic, 28/09/2011 |
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