Anonymous asked: Are you gay...;)?

Only on tour.

Anonymous asked: Why type of schecter are u playin, with what pick ups and what type of amp and stack do u play thru?

I play the Schecter C-1 Elite with active EMG’s 81 and 85.
Amps? Fiddy One Fiddy all the way!

This is my friend Justin from The Great Commission.

I found everything that he said at this show to be very relevant and accurate.

I only hope you feel the same.

Yes God is raising up today’s saints as a mighty army blessed with much power and authority in Jesus name and yes we are a chosen generation, but we need to testify, confess and encourage each other daily.

Check out the band and support their ministry in prayer (or in finances if you are in a position to).

Get their full length album ‘And Every Knee Shall Bow’ it’s mega heavy and full of TRUTH… out now on Strike First Records.

www.myspace.com/thegreatcommission  
www.strikefirstrecords.com 

Today we got our first shipment of swag from USA’s Seventh Dagger apparel.

Seventh Dagger have some of the best Straight Edge merch available and are responsible for paving the way for many amazing bands by releasing records for the likes of xTyrantx, Awaken Demons, Eyes To The Sky, xArmed For Battlex, xRhinocerosx, xRepresentx and even the latest vinyl release from my all time heroes Earth Crisis.

I was more than stoked to find out that the brand/label owner Danny Sober was into my band and wanted to sponsor us.

Danny gets mad respect from me, the dude has been edge for 20 years and is still proud and still commited as ever to the lifestyle, to the bands and to the worldwide hardcore scene.

Myself and Nick are now exclusively endorsed by Seventh Dagger (as we are the only two straight edge members of Saving Grace) but Danny is very supportive of the whole band and there are talks of an awesome collaboration going down in the coming months.

Make sure to check out www.seventhdagger.com for all the latest merchandise and releases.

XXX

A little over a fortnight ago the Lord laid it on the heart of my wife and I to get back into youth ministry.

Trust me… this was a total God thing, as I don’t have the desire, the patience and definitely not the time to take on a responsibility such as this out of my own accord.

We attempted to start a youth group a few years ago when we welcomed a half dozen unsaved teens into our home on Friday nights to watch movies, listen to music and eat pizza (which we all paid for out of our Tithe money, because it was… “minstry” ya know?) and awkwardly bring up God every now and again.

We called this thing ‘Black Friday’ which we envisioned as a youth movement for Gisborne City as a counter reaction to what we saw happening at Primal Youth Church where Helen and I were both youth pastors until we left, due to not seeing eye to eye with the direction of it’s activities and some of it’s members.

Needless to say, this didn’t last long and fell over very quickly with the kids disbanding and choosing to follow the wider path, with little or no revelation of why God needs to be revered, feared, worshipped or glorified.

The kids went about their lives going to parties, getting into drugs, alcohol and girls, all the same stuff that I was doing when I was their age.

Looking back at those days now, it’s evident to see that God didn’t honor what we were doing because we tried to create it, take it and lead it on our own strength, and we also dishonored some friends of ours by leaving Primal they way we did when they asked us not to go.

You live, you learn…

So, a couple of weeks ago we got to talking with some friends involved with youth ministry work in Gisborne, and seeing as Primal Youth Church has recently disbanded in Gisborne, a few dozen kids have basically become ‘orphans’ and have been meeting on Thursday nights in parks and such to continue to fellowship.

We wanted to offer them a place to come and to get real with God, seek His face and His direction and wait on His instruction and really be obedient to how He wants to do things, as opposed to having set structures, expectations and other general ‘spiritual barriers’.

We met with the former youth pastors and offered for them to partner with us to host a Thursday night service in our church, keeping it simple with absolutely no agendas aside from wanting and welcoming God to show up and minister to us.

We have been struggling a lot with our own church lately, Helen and I and feeling that God really hasn’t been evidently showing up on Sundays for a long time now (as is the case with most stagnant and burnt-out-by-religion churches in our day and age) however we love a lot of people in our tiny congregation and have built some very strong friendships with these people, particularly our elders Ray and Grant and their wives.

We felt that any kind of youth ministry work that we take on should have a strong backing of a church or at least eldership accountability, as I see the main reason for Primal not working out and eventually falling over is because so much emphasis was placed on the fact that it was “not church” and the leadership had no ‘wise counsel’ or scriptural accountability structure to fall back on.

The bible calls us to be the church, Ekklesia, the called out ones. (See Matthew 16:18)
Not a geographic location or a building with four walls, but rather a corporate body of believers in the truth and saving grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ, living their lives to glorify Him and working out salvation with fear and trembling. - Philippians 2:12

Having said that and having invited everyone to begin the first meeting this Thursday night at our current church, our last visit to a Sunday service reaffirmed that both ‘Sunday Morning’ and ‘The old local’ have both “had their whack”.

God is doing things differently now and if we really want to see Him move and be a part of something real, something that can impact and reach out to the unsaved in our community and the world, we need to get out of those dusty church pews and on our face, otherwise we will miss what God and The Holy Spirit are doing entirely within our generation.

These are the days for which we were born, and we are here on this earth with God given purpose and responsibility and it is heart breaking to see so many people hurt, let down and driven away from the real Jesus Christ due to years of organised religion which has said “We’ll take it from here God, we’ve got it down” while all of the annointing, fresh vision and Heavenly manifestation happens in cafes, bedrooms, hardcore shows and city streets.

We got in touch with everyone last night with a last minute ‘Change of Plans’.
Tonight, 15 of us met in our garage where we read scripture, worshipped, prayed, prophesied, ministered and wept… all under the anointing and almighty power of the loving Father who simply showed up to hang out with his kids, because He was expected, He was welcome and He was the reason why we were there.

Praise be to Him!
These are exciting times.

It’s crazy the feeling I have had in my spirit over the past year or so.
It’s very hard to explain, but it’s disturbing, troubling and frightening.

The more I think about it the more uneasy I become and I really don’t know what to think anymore… Is this a caution in my spirit or an attack from the enemy? because the scriptures tell us that ‘The Lord has not given us a spirit of fear”, but with every new earthquake, tsunami warning and conspiracy theory I find myself getting beaten down and scared about where we are right now, in accordance with scriptural prophecy and end times alignment.

My heart goes out to every person who has lost their loved ones, their homes, their everything in places like Samoa, Haiti and Chile over the recent months.

I know that these happenings have left many people wondering “where is God?” or “why would He do this?” and as stupid as it sounds to the non believer, we have to love Him, trust Him and realise that everything that happens is meant to be.

All I know is that serious stuff is happening right now and that we are in the middle of a huge spiritual storm.

Right now more than ever it’s important to draw near to God, be accountable, repentant and armed with His word, spending intimate time with Him daily as hard as it is when from the moment that we wake up we are thrust into a world of apathy and distraction, especially in middle-class New Zealand.

All I know is that I can never turn my back on the Lord and I know what I know, I guess I’m just scared, but I need to have faith and trust in Him and not in the ‘security’ of anything else in my life… ya dig?

Day job: Clients, paperwork, numbers, stress, coffee.

Night job: Label, management, booking, contracts, promo, emails, emails, emails.

Design: Clients, emails, coding, coding, emails.

My God, my wife, my dogs and my home keep me sane.

My mum got married last weekend… that was amazing.

My band put out a new record which is now available worldwide, we toured again with our best friends and once again it was sad to leave them.

This weekend we are playing Hamtown Smakdown for the 3rd time.

End of March we are playing with As I Lay Dying and Emmure, pretty psyched, I’m sure the show will be crazy big.

The weekend after that we go back to Australia for the 4th time which will be fun.

Next week we will adopt a dozen youth orphans in to a brand new Thursday night prayer/worship service at my church, this time it’s personal.

God is doing stuff… big stuff.

Aside from that, I have learned to value sleep, a flat cellphone, fellowship, vitamins and prayer more than ever before.

xtiredx.

Today I celebrated my 24th birthday, with a group of my closest friends and my darling wife Helen (who gave me the best gifts as always, and made sure I had an incredible day as she always does).

It’s crazy thinking that I’m nearly in my mid-twenties now with a wife of over two years, a house and two dogs… it feels like it was only yesterday that I first moved out of home and left school.

I am so blessed to have such a great family and friends, and even though each year after my 21st, birthdays seem to dwindle in excitement and grow in insignificance, today was a really great and special day.

Thank you to all of you who sent birthday wishes on Twitter and Facebook, there were far too many and you were all so kind.

God is good.
All The Time.

Sunny Gisborne is not so sunny right now.

For me this brings joy and excitement.

Farm owners everywhere are moshing.

The forecast for the future ladies and gentlemen is gloooooooom…

This weekend I will be watching many movies with my wife and dogs as well as listening to the likes of The Smiths, The Cure, The Dear & Departed and sleeping during the day time with the lights on and the rain beating against the window… for actual.