Archive - October, 2009

Kick up the backside

October 20, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

I read this blog post from Mark Betterson yesterday.

Now this post is everything that I needed, to get a wake up call, in term of my quite time with God.

For a long time I would get up at 4am in the morning to do Bible study and simply to have time during the day, where the house would be quiet and I could really listen to God, but due to my weak human nature, of wanting everything in life to be comfortable and easy, I let that slip, which resulted in me not being at the spiritual level that I want to be at.

Thanks to Mark, I have once again started, this morning, to focus on my quiet time with God, and I pray that I will be back at the place I need to be sooner rather than later.

Equals

October 17, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

1 Peter 3:7

The same goes for you husbands: Be good husbands to your wives. Honor them, delight in them. As women they lack some of your advantages. But in the new life of God’s grace, you’re equals. Treat your wives, then, as equals so your prayers don’t run aground.

Ok, so today I am only going to tell you guys how much I love my wife, and why…

She is beautiful, clever and drives me to be different in everything that I do.

I used to be a very stubborn person, still am, but hopefully less. She has, over the years, taught me that even if I am unhappy about something or somebody, I don’t need to react on it. Sometimes it is better to “Smile and wave” :)

She uplifts me in everything I do. If I were to come to her tomorrow and say I am leaving my job to go do something totally ridiculous, I know she will stand with me, all the way. She would even push me to go do it, and THAT is something that I know is why God gave this wonderful woman to me.

If it was not for her, I would be a very sad and uninspired person, but she pushes me to dream great big dreams, and then she will go out and push me to make my dreams become reality.

Just wanted to share this with you guys…

Priestly work

October 16, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

1 Peter 2:9-10 (The Message)

But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.

How often do you preach to people about what God did for you?

How often do you step out of your comfort zone in order to tell someone that you don’t know about the Amazing Grace of God?

Do you ever tell people about God that doesn’t know Him?

Why don’t we put some stories up here of the reactions of those  people, if at all…

How do you fill the void?

October 15, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

We all know the feeling: You try to sort out your life and make things better, but the nagging feeling that something is wrong just won’t go away.
You work harder, but the success that you achieve is not enough, so you work even harder.
You try to sort out your marriage, but you just can’t seem to let go of the things that make your spouse mad.
You keep on buying new gadgets, but the newness wears off after a day or two and you need another gadget.
You add another room to your house, and then immediately start planning the next improvement to impress the neighbours.
You can’t seem to stop eating.
You notice that you’re not satisfied with your usual drink once or twice a week.

Somehow you feel as if you’re on a runaway train.
Somehow you feel as if you’re stuffing a burst pipe with tissue paper and the pieces are just washed away.
Somehow you feel as if you’re trying to fill a hole with dirt, but the hole is so deep that you can’t even see the bottom. You know that you’ll never get it done.

If one or more of the sentences above describes you, the void that you feel might be the place where God should be in your life. His desire is to give you true peace.

Matt 11:29 (NKJ)

Take My yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Genuine Proved Faith

October 15, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

1 Peter 1:3-7 (The Message)

What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.

I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.

So, last night after home cell, I got into bed, feeling like a fraud. Over the last couple of weeks, I have let the world get a bit more ingrained in my life again, and I have been standing on the cliff. Having to make a decision on whether I am going to jump right back into the worldly easy life, that I have been used to, or carry on with the seemingly difficult life of following Christ, and being an example to the people in my life.

So this morning, having had a bit of time between showering and having to wake up my Baby Girl to go to daycare, I read 1 Peter 1.

Thank the Lord for giving me this passage this morning, as it has been exactly what I have needed to get my but kicked into gear once again.

I ask all of you to please pray for me on this journey, as I sometimes really struggle to keep my focus where it needs to be and I really need to be kept accountable on this. I know the God has really big plans for me here on earth, and I really just want to start getting the courage to jump into what He wants me to do, irrespective of the financial consequences it will have.

Simple sharing

October 14, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

2 Timothy 4:1-2(The Message)

I can’t impress this on you too strongly. God is looking over your shoulder. Christ himself is the Judge, with the final say on everyone, living and dead. He is about to break into the open with his rule, so proclaim the Message with intensity; keep on your watch. Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don’t ever quit. Just keep it simple.

How often do we try and complicate the Message Jesus gave us?

How many times we try to fight back at some questions being asked, only to confuse ourselves in the process?

How do you think we can proclaim the message effectively, without making it complicated, or loading it with theological things that the person on the street can not understand?

I believe we should just preach Grace and the Salvation of our souls through the death of Jesus Christ. Nothing more, and nothing less.

What to do…

October 12, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

This is for me the most direct words in the Bible as to what we need to do in our lives. It is a well known piece of scripture as well, but today verse 2 is jumping out at me.

Do not get so well adjusted in the culture around you so that you fit into it without even thinking.

Be different, and be an example to the people around you.

Authority

October 9, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

1 Peter 2:12-14 (NIV)

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.

This scripture has been in my head for a couple of hours now already, due to an incident that happened at the work place yesterday, but luckily I was not involved in the incident.

The message here is pretty clear, in my opinion, that whether you agree with your boss or not, they are appointed as an authority over you, and therefore you, as a Christian, must submit yourself to that authority.

The world is challenging us as people in these days, to challenge authority, and unfortunately a lot of Christians fall prey to this method of Satan to try and create doubt with us, and I must say, that he is extremely successful in using this tool in creating doubt.

I have for a very long time fell prey to this in my life, only to not get what I want from my job, and basically be extremely unhappy with my life. A couple of months ago, I read this scripture again, and suddenly it jumped out at me, at what I need to do, in order to get peace with my job and my life.

Since then, God has blessed me in countless ways here at work and in my life, and I can do nothing but thank him for the current season in my life I am in.

How to live

October 8, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

Micah 6:8 (The Message)

But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do,
what God is looking for in men and women.
It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don’t take yourself too seriously—
take God seriously.

This must be one of my favourite passages in scripture. Micah states this so clearly, on how, we as Christians, need to live our lives. 3 easy steps, with no real thinking needed.

This is, in my opinion, on top of striving to live a holy life, even though we will only be able to get that done the day we ascend into heaven to join God for eternity.

I especially love the part where he says we must not take ourselves too seriously. There is this thing out there that Christians are not allowed to have fun , but I am telling you now, that God loves to have fun, and He wants us to have fun as well. This is not the type of fun we get from being sarcastic to other people, or teaming up on somebody and having fun at their expense. This is such a fine line, and something only God can show and teach us, how to have fun in a godly way.

Behold God

October 5, 2009 in Challenges with 2 Comments

Mark 1:35

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

During our church service last night, Brett Solomon said something which rang very loudly in my heart.

We as Christians have become so adept at praying, and do not behold God enough any more.

We have turned prayer into an easy shopping list, which could be completed in 3 minutes flat. We need to go sit down in our quite time, and behold the power of God in our live more than going to Him asking for help with all your troubles.

With this, I am definitely not saying we should not pray any more, but we need to make time in our lives to behold the power of God more.

There may be many ways that you personally behold the power of God. What ever that may be, do it on a daily basis, and get back to really be in God’s presence.

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