Since 2009, when I’ve been taking Kidsong World seriously, God has used it to teach me amazing things. And I’m loving it! Last week was the 25th Hillsong Conference. As usual, I was serving as a kids leader in our kids conference Kidsong World.

This year was different because I was a tribal leader instead of a group leader and didn’t have a specific group of kids allocated to me, but a group of about 7 leaders who were leading a group of 100+ kids. And I had two electives to present. In addition, my friend and leader Dave had a great idea during conference and needed my help to execute it. As a result, I didn’t spend as much time as I wanted with the kids.

However, this lack of time didn’t stop God from using me to impact the lives of a few children, which made me happy. I love when God does that! I love when I see the smiles of children after conference, and how much fun they had, and how sad they are to leave (ok, this part is not fun, I also feel sad when conference ends and I have to say good bye to the kids who live far away and whom I might never see again).

After Conference, when I stopped to thank God for everything, He reminded me that even though I feel good when He uses me to change children’s lives, He is the one who makes it happen, and it is all for His glory. He also reminded me of the great honour and privilege that it is to be trusted as a leader to the little ones whom God loves. And He reminded me of the impact my life has in these kids.

While being a children’s leader with influence is amazing and is a blessing, it is also a great (and I cannot stress this enough) responsibility, because the kids watch every step I take, and my decisions can have a positive or negative impact in their lives. As it is written:

“But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck.” – Mark 9:42 (NLT)

Now, I definitely don’t want to be thrown into the sea, or, even worse, make the kids I lead to fall into sin, or stumble. Of course, that doesn’t mean I have to be paranoid about everything I do, but I must live a life that honours God and leads people to God. And it is not supposed to be very hard, because the Holy Spirit lives in me, and all I have to do is listen to Him and do what He tells me.

And this is one of the great things about God: when He reminds you of something, He already has all the tools you will need ready to go! What an amazing God!

Cadu

PS: By the way, you should watch the video Dave, FMD and I made during conference (this was Dave’s great idea):

5/5/09 – Redfern

Isaiah 40

“All people are like grass, and all human faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the LORD blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of MY GOD endures forever.”
- Isaiah 40:6b-8

“WHO can fathom the Spirit of the LORD (YHWH),
or instruct the LORD as his counselor?
WHOM did the LORD consult to enlightem him,
and who taught him the right way?
WHO was it that taught him knowledge,
or showed him the path of understanding?”
- Isaiah 40:25

“‘To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ says the HOLY ONE.”
- Isaiah 40:25

“He, the LORD, gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
[...] those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary;
they will walk and not be faint.”
- Isaiah 40:29,31

WHO can compare himself to God?
Nothing in the universe is comparable to God.
Idols are made of wood, metal, plastic…
they have eyes but don’t see,
they have ears but don’t hear,
they have hands but can’t move.
Not even flies are scared of them;
Flies come and sh*t on their faces,
but the idols can’t even clean themselves.
They are useless like a fly’s sh*t.
But GOD, THE LORD OF HOSTS, created the flies.
And with His word He can kill them.
The LORD is Almighty, Holy and Glorious.
His word will remain forever.
His enemies fear Him,
they run away like a scared rabbit.
Before the LORD they can’t do anything other than surrender,
for the LORD of HOSTS is powerful.
People are like ants to Him,
He can kill them with His pinky finger.
One little breath and they fly away like sand in face of a hurricane.
Compared to the LORD, they are NOTHING.
He is GOD. He is what He is.
He is because He is.
He is Almighty God.
He is the alpha and the omega;
Everlasting, Beginning and End.
Creator of the Universe, King of Kings,
Lord of Lords, Perfect and Eternal.
He is the Righteous Judge,
the LORD of HOSTS,
the ONE that never lies and keeps all his promises.
He is also MY GOD.
He came to Earth, became an ant like me,
layed down His life for me and died on the cross.
His death was not an accident, He died for me.
That cross was mine, the punishment for my sin, but He took it!
He died and rose again.
He is victorious over death!
And all His power is now mine, through His Son Jesus Christ!
Even though He is so HUGE and powerful, He calls me “son”.
And I call Him “Daddy”.
And if anyone wants to harm me, I can call my Dad.
He is scared of no one.
I am victorious, because of Him.
And because of Him, I fear nothing.
Daddy, all I am is yours,
every moment of my life is an offering to YOU.
Please take it and use me as it pleases you.
You are mine, and I am yours.
And I love you…
even when I don’t understand anything.
Even when it looks like the world is falling apart, I trust in you completely.
I just love you forever.

Amen.

Cadu

WARNING! This post may contain stories that normal people would classify as unpleasant. You’ve been warned!

This past week I was forced to remember an interesting event that happened to me in one of the triathlons I did in Brazil. If you didn’t know yet, I trained triathlon for 2 years while in Brazil. I stopped when I came to Australia, but still have plans to restart training. Anyway, one of the competitions I did was a long distance triathlon, which included 1800m swimming, 66km cycling and then 18km running (Here is a photo of me finishing it). For some reason the start was just after lunch, which is unusual for a tritahlon. But that was not all. Everything was fine until the running…

As soon as I started running, I felt sick, wanting to vomit… but at the same time, I did NOT want to vomit, because it feels so bad to do it (you have to agree with me). Then I kept running, and running, and running… My legs were already tired after all the cycling, and I still had a lot of running to do. I tried to drink some water, but it didn’t help. My mind couldn’t work anymore, all I could do is keep running. I wanted to FINISH it! And more importantly, finish in front of my friend, who was 2 minutes behind me. But I was getting sick of being sick, and asked a friend for advice on how to get better. He said what I didn’t want to hear: “stop and vomit!”

After some fight with myself, I did. I stopped to vomit, but it didn’t work… nothing came out… and then I kept running. But not for long. After running for a little while, I needed to pee, but I didn’t want to stop… I was almost finishing. Then I had a great idea: “I can stop, open my legs and pee”. Since I was wearing skinners, I thought the pee would go straight on the ground. So I stopped and peed… but… for some reason the pee ended up inside my left shoe, and I couldn’t do anything other than laugh! When I started running again, the noise my left shoe made every step was very cool! I will never forget it…

Maybe you are wondering why am I telling you this terrible (and funny) story… well… the fact is our Christian life is like a long distance triathlon. In fact, the Bible compares it to a race many times (2 Timothy 4:7, Hebrews 12:1, 1 Corinthians 9:24, …). And it is true! It is long, and it is hard. We find difficulties along the way, sometimes we are tired and want to give up… sometimes things don’t go well and all we want is stop and rest. But in a race, if you stop, you lose…

Paul said: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” (1 Corinthians 9:24-25, TNIV)

God gave us a race to run… He called us and every day He gives us oportunities to bless and impact other people’s lives! And our prize is not a medal or money… Our prize is to bring people into the Kingdom of God, and one day, to Heaven! Our prize will last FOREVER!

The big question is are we running our race in such a way as to get the prize? I’ve known stories of professional triathletes that defecate while riding so they don’t have to stop… it sounds terrible, but many of them won their prizes! And they did all this crazy stuff for a prize that will NOT last!

Our race is much more noble than a triathlon… and sometimes we don’t want to make a sacrifice and run it in such a way as to get the prize. Paul said in Hebrews 12:4 (still talking about the race): “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”. Are we resisting to the point of shedding our blood? To the point of having to pee in our shoes? To the point of having to defecate while riding? No, it doesn’t sound pleasant… but sometimes it is the only way to win the race.

Maybe things are not going well in your life, in your ministy, in your race… maybe you feel like sitting down and waiting until the pain goes away… maybe all you want to do right now is to give up… well… don’t give up! There are good news: God is running this race with us! He is there to help! And with Him, we will all win the race!

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor 4:16-18)

“The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” – 2 Chronicles 16:9

I love Hillsong Kids, specially VOLTAGE. I love to be there, just be there, talk to the kids, listen to them, watch them, see God moving in their midst. What I love most is when in the middle of all the kids, I see the ones that have their hearts fully commited to God, the ones that have HUGE God-given dreams, the ones that are in the middle of a horrible world but don’t want to be part of it but change it. And when I see someone like that, I do EVERYTHING I can to bless this one kid, because I know it will be worth.

This is me, a man. An imperfect, limited man. And yet, I can be happy for days because I saw just one kid that has fully commited his/her life to God. I know I already said that, but… I am just a man. Now GOD, He is GOD. He is the Creator of the Universe. And yet, His eyes range throughout the whole Earth… 6bi+ of people, and they STOP when they find someone who has his/her heart fully commited to Him.

In the middle of all this foolish and blind people that hate God, mock Him, think everything is funny and fun, there is a child, a tiny little child, insignificant and useless to the eyes of most men. But the eyes of God STOP to stare at this little child. And when God sees a child whose heart is fully commited to Him, he doesn’t just get happy as I get. He also does EVERYTHING to bless this tiny “insignificant” person. But don’t forget, He is GOD, He CAN do EVERYTHING.

For this reason, when I look at the children, I don’t only see them, with their lives, dreams, hearts commited to God. I also see God staring at them, super-hyper-over-excited, just waiting for the right time to use them to shake this world, kick the devil’s butt, make a huge revolution of power and love to glorify His Holy name…

“For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” And my eyes do the same thing…

“In the beginning it was the Word, and the Word was with (by) God, and God was the Word. This, the Word, was, in the beginning, with God. In the beginning all things were created through Him, and without Him not even one thing that was made would have been made. Life was with Him, and the life was the light of the human race. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake or understand it.”
John 1:1-5, Cadu’s Translation

“No princípio era o Verbo (palavra falada), e o Verbo estava com Deus, e Deus era o Verbo. Isto, o Verbo, estava, no princípio, com Deus. No princípio tudo foi criado através dEle, e sem Ele nada (nem mesmo uma só coisa) que foi feito se fez. Vida estava com Ele, e a Vida era a luz da humanidade. E a luz brilha na escuridão (trevas), e a escuridão não venceu ou entendeu ela.”
John 1:1-5, Tradução do Cadu

This post is directed to children of all ages…

Jesus said something like this: how many of you have parents that give you pretty much everything you need? If you ask for food, they give you food, and not a rock, or dirt. If you need clothes, they buy you clothes; they don’t want you to be cold or to wear clothes that don’t look good. If you want to have some fun on a sunny Sunday, they might take you to a park or something like that. If you like football, perhaps your dad can take you to a nice football game.

I can think of examples from my parents, and I’m sure you can think of examples from yours, and the list will go on and on. Now, if our parents, that are not perfect AT ALL, do these nice stuff to us, and usually give us what we need when we ask, how much more will God give us all his good gifts and everything we need?

Maybe what you want is something big like a new house… or maybe it’s only a new game that you want to have. Maybe things are not working very well at school, your friends are not being nice and picking on you because you are a Christian and love Jesus. Perhaps you are sick and need some healing, or you need help with your homework or exam that is too hard. Maybe the things at home are not going very well, mum and dad are fighting and you are sad because you are not sure about what is going on. Maybe you don’t even have a mum or dad, or maybe they don’t live together anymore. Perhaps you couldn’t sleep last night because you were scared that a big snake would attack you and kill you during the night (and I felt many times like that when I was 10 y.o.).

I doesn’t matter what exactly you need or what kind of stuff you want God to give to you. It can be big or small, easy or very hard; as Jesus said, if your parents know how to give you good things, how much more will our Daddy give us good gifts, if we ASK Him.

Even though God knows everything, the key here is to ASK! Have you asked Daddy today for what you need? Have you told Him about your day and your difficuties? Don’t miss the opportunity… Ask Daddy…

http://www.jellytelly.com/

I just read this on Dave’s blog, and I had to post it here… it is a great idea, and I will be a part of it, for sure!

I can’t wait to see this new generation free from the crappy things of the world…

I’m sorry, this embedded video didn’t include the subtitles. PLEASE, watch here with subtitles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M2czuswxHo

As my leader, Dave, said… what do I have in my hands? Am I using what I have in my hands?

What a responsibility is to have children in my hands……

(as you can see… I have no comments, no words…)

Tu és soberano
Asaph Borba

Tu és soberano
Sobre a terra, sobre os Céus
Tu és SENHOR, absoluto

Tudo o que existe e acontece
Tu sabes muito bem
Tu és tremendo

E apesar desta glória que tens
Tu te importas comigo também
E esse amor tão grande, eleva-me, amarra-me a Ti
Tu és tremendo

—

You are sovereign
by Asaph Borba

You are sovereign
Over the earth and over the skies
You are the absolute LORD

Everything that exists and happens
You know very well
You are awesome

And besides all the glory You have
You also care for me
And this great love rises me up, and ties me in You
You are awesome

We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us, and no one will find fault with our ministry.

In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God.

We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind.

We have been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food.

We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love.

We faithfully preach the Truth. God’s power is working in us.

We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense.

We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us.

We are honest and truthful, but they call us impostors.

We are ignored, even though we are well known.

We live close to death, but we are still alive.

We have been beaten, but we have not been killed.

Our hearts ache, but we always have joy.

We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others.

We own nothing, and yet we have everything.