The concert is in support of the work being undertaken by The Salvation Army in Sierra Leone, a country emerging from the destruction and devastation of the 10 year-long “Blood Diamond War.”

It is incomprehensible for us to understand that still today, rebel fighters invade quiet villages in that country, rape and kill innocent people, then abduct small children and turn them into mindless killing machines.

I am so proud to know that our musicians have a conviction to want to help make a difference in Africa. Already they have raised around $20,000 to aid the cause.

What I am saying is that we are people made in the likeness and image of God, but fallen and flawed, shot full of holes. We make inappropriate decisions and choices, we do things wrong, speak before we think, act before we consider the consequences. We try, every one of us, we try and sometimes we just get it wrong. That’s being human.

We are not perfect and there is a sense of comfort in realising that. Some however, with perfectionist tendencies are never prepared to let themselves off the hook, they drive themselves relentlessly, and that must be exhausting.

Paul described the deliemma in Romans chapter 7:21.

“When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.”

Let’s be reconciled to the reality that you and I will never be perfect and that we will go on doing the wrong thing at times and that includes sinning, simply as a consequence of our being human.

But at the same time, let us be equally reconciled to the truth that God by His Spirit, willingly lives within our humanness, helping us to become more and more like who He originally created humanity to be.

If you want to know what that looks like, then you have only to look at Adam and Eve before the fall. If that does not give you enough information, then look at the one described as the second Adam – Jesus.

With Red Shield Sunday now behind us, you will be interested to know that as of 9.00pm Sunday night, the appeal was $30,000 ahead of the same time last year in our territory.

Now $30k might not sound like a lot of money in view of the $81.5m national target, but in view of last weeks $100 billion fall in the value of the Australian stock market, we could not be happier with the appeal result to date.

The Australian people continue to place their confidence in the work of The Salvation Army and I am incredibly grateful to the thousands of volunteers who supported the collection of the appeal this year. God bless you.

Holiness is the Christian way of “being” and the Christian way of living. It is seen best in the life of Christ, who lived compassion, mercy, justice, love and devotion to God. It is a life that is lived to benefit others with much less emphasis upon benefiting ourselves.

The holy life is not devoid of humanness, neither does it deny our humanity. The consequence of Adam and Eve’s fall was that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Simply put, there is not one of us who is perfect, we all get it wrong at times, think and act inappropriately, speak without thinking and make bad decisions. We are after all only “human.”

Holy living and human being – coexist, one does not nullify the other, but holy living manifests a better self, or as the Reverend F.W. Faber once wrote, “Holiness is an unselfing of ourselves.”

The out working of holy living is that we do become a better version of ourself, and this is the consequence of living in devotion to God, doing His will, reading His word and allowing His Holy Spirit to shape us from the inside out.

(CNN) – Chuck Colson, a Watergate-era “hatchet man” for President Richard Nixon who became an influential evangelical leader after serving time in prison, died Saturday afternoon, according to his website. He was 80.

His death came just over three weeks after he “was overcome by dizziness” while speaking at a conference and rushed to a northern Virginia hospital. Surgeons operated on him for two hours for a brain hemorrhage

“At times, Chuck showed encouraging indicators of a possible recovery, but his health took a decided turn, and he went to be with the Lord,” said the statement on his Website.

News of his death soon stirred tributes particularly from leaders in conservative circles and the evangelical community, with David Frum — a former special assistant to President George W. Bush and a CNN contributor — saying on Twitter that Colson made his “greatest impact when furthest from power.”

“Today the world lost a Christian statesman, a dedicated servant of prisoners and a powerful example of God’s ability to transform a life,” said Lamar Vest, president and CEO of the New York-based American Bible Society.

Read the full article and see the short video here: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/21/us/chuck-colson-obit/