Archive - October, 2009

Straight and Narrow

October 30, 2009 in Challenges with 1 Comment

straight-and-narrow-way-2

Train me God, to walk straight; then I’ll follow your true path. Put me together, one heart and mind; then, undivided, I’ll worship in joyful fear. Psalms 86:11

Yesterday I had a bit of bloggers block, again, and really just couldn’t get anything to blog about, but after the happenings the last 24 hours within our church, I just got this great relief when I read this scripture.

The last time I read this, I was very focussed on worship more than anything else, but pondering on this scripture over the last day, the first part really started to stand out.

This just again tells me, that even when we try our hardest within ourselves, there will just be no way that we will be able to keep to the straight and narrow. We need to get God in on this journey we are on, and even if we are the biggest ‘Christians’ out there, you will not be without temptation to do something that you might be very disappointed about later on.

Expectancy

October 28, 2009 in Challenges with 2 Comments

adventure

This morning, after a very long night with my baby girl not being able to sleep due to mosquitoes, I decided to do some Bible study, a little bit earlier than usual. Now, I am busy reading Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson and this book is challenging me so much, to jump into this adventure God has planned for me and my life. And just to rub it in, I had to read this passage this morning:

Romans 8:15 (The Message)

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?”

Now, I think I have been expectant for quite some time now, and I also think I have received many opportunities in the last year to embark on this adventure, but due to my cautious nature, I have never taken the chance.

After reading this passage this morning, I only asked God to give me the courage to jump as well as to make clear His adventure He has in store for me.

Lengthening the rope

October 27, 2009 in Challenges with 1 Comment

end of your rope

Romans 7:24-25 (The Message)

I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

How many times in life we try to overcome sin on our own? We realise we are falling back into the well of sin, but starting to turn back to those old habits, that through grace we were saved from.

I you are anything like me, you tend to try and get yourself, out of your own power, to turn away from those old sins.

Reading this passage this morning, I just realised again what amazing thing Jesus did for us on the cross. We have been saved from all sin, through His blood on the cross, and we need to say thank you a lot more than we do. And we also need to turn to Him first, when we realise that the temptations are there and we need to show resolve not to do it.

Worship

October 26, 2009 in Challenges with 18 Comments

worship

Yesterday morning during worship at church, I finally gave everything to God.

I have given my life to Him a long time ago, but I finally gave all the comfortable things to Him. I have had this urgency in me the last couple of weeks to either go on a mission trip or something, to really go and give something back to the people out there, and yesterday in church I just really felt pushed to give everything to God in this matter, as the only thing keeping me from going, is my sense of responsibility.

I really want to ask each and every one of you reading this, to please pray for me on this, so that I will get the opportunity to go on the right mission trip, that God wants me to go on, and for me to just get some clarity on all this.

The what?

October 25, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

sabbath-keeping

This morning in church we got an amazing sermon on the balance between work and rest, which obviously went pretty much around the Sabbath as well as giving time to your family during the week as well.

In today’s day and age, we are being driven to work more and harder than ever before, which in the end makes us compromise on the time we spend with our family and the people the we care for. We leave earlier for work, and work longer hours, probably getting home after dark, and if you have small kids, most probably miss some days with them due to the hours we spend at work, all the time promising we will make it up to them over the weekends.

Come the weekend, we are so tired and drained, that we are unable to spend real quality time with our families, and in the end we wonder why we have no relationship with our kids, and why the passion in your marriage is dwindling…

God created the earth and everything on it in six days, and rested on the seventh day, but we as humans think we can carry on working seven days as week. How is that?

We are created in God’s image, and Him being omnipotent and all-powerful felt the need to take a days rest…

This sermon this morning really touched a nerve with me this morning, as I am just a guilty as everybody else, by not observing the Sabbath as the Lord intended it for us. I do not know yet how I am going to reorganise my life in order to be able to take a Sabbath day, but I do know that I HAVE to do this.

Go and think about this a while, and really go and spend some time with the Lord on this issue, to find out how He wants you to reorganise your life to observe the Sabbath He has given you.

Book Reviews

October 23, 2009 in Challenges with 17 Comments

Just wanted to let you guys know that I have been accepted as a Book Review Blogger for Thomas Nelson today, and my first book that I will be reviewing is Fearless by Max Lucado.

I am extremely excited about this, as I love reading and I have some hidden aspirations to become a writer.

I have this feeling within me the God wants me to write a book in a couple of years, and I think this new challenge of reviewing books might be the first step in getting to that.

Please pray for me for persistence in this matter as well as getting that topic and motivation for this pending book, to come sooner, rather than later.

Open Doors

October 23, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

open-doorAnd once again, we will be looking at the things God does for us, and not us for Him.

Romans 5:1-2

By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

How many times have you made a decision for God in your life, only to realise a bit later how everything that pre-empted that decision falls in place at that very moment in time?

Reading this scripture this morning I just realised again that God uses EVERYTHING to bring His plans to fruition, and no matter how many time in life you want to do things on your own or not want to do things because you are lazy, God will use you if He has a plan for you.

Sometimes it might take a bit longer, or maybe not, due to you missing certain promptings from the Holy Spirit, but recognising the next one, and taking that, which in the end, gets you to exactly where you need to be.

I always stand in awe at the way the Lord uses things for good in life, where the only thing we as humans can do is to listen to God’s word and do what He asks us to. In the end, He doesn’t need us to bring His plans to fruition, but He wants to use us, and we should be glad about that, because I think life would be rather boring if we were not part of the greatest adventure ever.

Vince Antonucci

October 22, 2009 in Challenges with 13 Comments

I read this post on his blog this morning, and I just have to place a link to it here…

Trusting

October 22, 2009 in Challenges with 4 Comments

trust

Carrying on from yesterday’s post, I read Romans 4 this morning, and verse 16 really stood out for me

This is why the fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God’s promise arrives as pure gift. That’s the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father—that’s reading the story backward. He is our faith father.

Last night at home cell, we discussed Isaiah 40:31 and what it means to wait on the Lord. For me, it means to trust that God will provide what He promised, but we need to let ourselves go, and really simply trust Him to provide in His time.

We, as humans, tend to want to speed things along by trying to put certain things in place for God to make it easier for Him to fulfil His promise, but once again I see that as being arrogant towards God. God really doesn’t need our help in doing anything, as He is the creator of all, but He wants to use us.

We need to get to a point where we can hear His voice, and then we can really live within His will by listening to His guidance, and not try to guide Him to where you want to be.

Getting in step

October 21, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

foot-stepsFor so long, I have tried to get my life in step with what God wants it to be, and with what I believe God wants it to be.

Forcing myself into certain things just to align my life with what God wants.

Then this morning I read this little passage in Romans 3:27-28

God does not respond to what we do; we respond to what God does. We’ve finally figured it out. Our lives get in step with God and all others by letting him set the pace, not by proudly or anxiously trying to run the parade.

Now, having knows this for a while, that I must not try and force things from my own will, but listen to God, this just had so much more significance to me this morning. Especially that God does not respond to us, but we to Him. How arrogant of me to have it, in soem strange way, in my head that God would do certain things because of what I do.

He would only do something if He wants to do it, and we can only listen to His voice, and respond on that, and that is the only way of getting into step with what He wants.

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