Pastor Nigel

IN ADVANCE-TOUR DEVOTIONS 3.

Whilst we were traveling in Iraq, Chaplain Peter Fischer led us in a study on the following famous verses:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God —
not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2.8-10.

Peter reminded us that often we don't remember verse 10 when we read verse 9 and 10. The reason God doesn't just save us and send us straight to Heaven, is that he has work for us to do-work which he has prepared in advance. These verses had a special poignancy for Peter because he had spent nearly three years working on the God and Country tour. He'd heard different bands mentioned as possibilities along the way before Third Day were confirmed, but encouraged the guys in Third Day that they were God's men, doing God's work, in God's timing. To be the first Christian band to play in Iraq, in a combat zone, was particularly significant and couldn't have happened unless the Lord's hand had been upon it.
Personally, I couldn't have agreed with Peter more. I don't believe God does things by accident, and I never underestimate what could be seen as just coincidental. I only knew for sure that I was going on the God and Country tour about 2 weeks before it commenced, but had a conviction from God that it was all part of his plan. So be on the lookout for the good works that Christ has prepared in advance for YOU to do.
(Picture is of Peter and I outside the Al Faw Palace, once home to Saddam Hussein and now HQ of the Coalition Forces in Iraq.)

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM.

I've posted a photo album of The God and Country tour on my personal blog site. You can find it at 'Spin Like the Wind' in the photo albums.

FELLOW SOLDIERS- TOUR DEVOTIONS 2.

The Apostle Paul often called the believers traveling with him 'fellow workers', which is understandable, yet he also called them 'fellow soldiers', which is more of a challenge to understand considering Paul had often been on the wrong side of the Roman army. What did Paul notice about soldiers that could be applied to living as Christians? The New Living Translation defines a soldier as 'a person on active military service'.

*A person- male and female are both qualified to be part of God's army. We met many women serving in the US military. One lady, a Lt. Col., pictured with me, was responsible for Human Resources and her job was to safely get all the soldiers safely in and out of Kuwait and onto Iraq. She's in the National Guard and had also deployed in the first Gulf War.
*Active- there is no room for passengers in an army, everyone has to be involved. Our liaison officer Woody's job was Mortuary Affairs officer, ensuring that the remains of the soldiers who had been killed were returned to the USA with as much dignity as possible.
*Military- there is a battle between good and evil, it's not for nothing that the church is called the army of God. We met a number of soldiers who were out on patrol each day in hostile territory, and we came home from Iraq to Kuwait on an 'Angel flight'- carrying the casket of a fallen soldier who had given his life the previous day, killed by an illegal explosive device.
*Service- Serving is at the heart of Christian life and at the heart of army life. Time and again we met military personnel who just wanted to serve God and Country and were proud to do so. Some pay the ultimate sacrifice. Compared to them, the sacrifcies we make are trivial. Here are the crew, along with Chaplain Peter Fischer in the middle, the tour was his vision, and Lt. Col. Wood, our liaison officer on the right.The picture was taken inside Al Faw Palace, previously a residence of Saddam Hussain and now US Army HQ Iraq.

SINGING THE SONGS OF ZION IN A STRANGE LAND-TOUR DEVOTIONS 1.

On our way from Kuwait to Iraq, early on in our USO tour, we studied these verses from Psalm 137:
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars we hung our harps,
for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?
I reminded the guys that the ancient empire of Babylonia was actually located in modern day Iraq, and that the Israelites had been exiled there against their will. They were struggling to retain the integrity and intensity of worshiping the one true Lord. I challenged all of us to realise that we would be singing the songs of the Lord in a foreign land, to military personnel who hadn't chosen to go to Iraq, and who in most cases felt that they were exactly like exiles in a strange land. To think that we were going to be walking in the land where the likes of Daniel and Nehemiah had trodden thousands of years ago was awe inspiring. We were later to be amazed at the reception we received and the powerful move of the Holy Spirit as Third Day led many soldiers into worship.
Some things we discovered:
*The 'For God and Country' tour was the first ever USO undertaken by a Christian band into a combat zone.
*The US military chaplains conduct 2,500 worship services in the Baghdad area EVERY WEEK.
*There are about 300 US military chaplains deployed in Iraq right now, for about 135,000 troops.
*There are many senior ranking officers who are passionate followers of Jesus- 'WOODY' our army liaison guys was one such man, he's at the far left of the soldiers in the audience above.
*Our concert in Liberty Camp, Baghdad, may have been the largest act of Christian worship in Baghdad in living memory if not of all time!

"FOR GOD AND COUNTRY" TOUR.

I'm sitting in a hotel in Kuwait having just completed our "For God and Country" tour with the USO. We've been visiting US Army bases in Iraq and Kuwait and the tour has been life-changing. I'll post a blog about our devotions in a day or two, and a full report of the tour, but I can say that the troops we met had a real thirst for God, were worshippers, and loved the Third Day concerts! The US military chaplains we worked with were outstanding men of God, and the sacrifice of the military was brought home to us today as we flew from Iraq to Kuwait on an 'Angel flight' - a C130 Hercules transport that was flying a fallen soldier home in a casket. He'd been killed on the base we were visiting yesterday.
"Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. And as Christ’s soldier, do not let yourself become tied up in the affairs of this life, for then you cannot satisfy the one who has enlisted you in his army." 2 Timothy 2.3-4

SPECIAL OVERSEAS TOUR.

As part of my increased commitment to Third Day in the next two years, I am about to leave with the band for one of the most intense tours we have ever undertaken. For security reasons I am not able to disclose the exact countries we are visiting until we return, but I can say that there will be 8 concerts squeezed into a 4-day period whilst we are visiting the Persian Gulf region.
Your prayers over the next week will be very welcomed!