Archive - November, 2009

A new beginning

November 12, 2009 in Challenges with 2 Comments

stream

Isaiah 44:3-5

For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring,
and my blessing on your descendants.They will spring up like grass in a meadow,
like poplar trees by flowing streams.

One will say, ‘I belong to the LORD ‘;
another will call himself by the name of Jacob;
still another will write on his hand, ‘The LORD’s,’
and will take the name Israel.

At our church, we are in the process of getting a new pastor to lead us into a new season of faith and growth. On Monday night, when he was introduced to the people involved in ministry, he gave us this scripture with the words following, that we as church need to live to the outside, and not in to each other.

What was amazing, is that out Worship Pastor got this exact same scripture, with the same revelation just a couple of days earlier.

I love the way that these people are starting to think, and I am super excited about this new season our church is entering. I am fastening my seatbelt for the ride, and believe that God is going to do great things still.

How to not get blacklisted

November 11, 2009 in Challenges with 2 Comments

blacklist

Psalms 15 (The Message)

1 God, who gets invited to dinner at your place?
How do we get on your guest list?

2 “Walk straight,
act right,
tell the truth.

3-4 “Don’t hurt your friend,
don’t blame your neighbor;
despise the despicable.

5 “Keep your word even when it costs you,
make an honest living,
never take a bribe.”You’ll never get
blacklisted
if you live like this.”

I just took the time to catch up on a bit of Bible reading, and first reading Romans 13 and then Psalms 15 you have to be amazed at how close they are together.

Romans 13 is on how to be a good citizen, meaning that you must obey the laws of your government due to the fact that all governments are under God.

Then reading Psalms 15 handling more moral laws, and doing the right thing.

The two passages ties up very nicely for me in the way that if you would be the person that would obey your government laws, you would naturally be the kind of person that would obey these moral laws, hopefully.

I want to challenge everyone reading this, and myself, to start keeping our words, always. Not forgetting about something we promised for convenience sake, and start living the Christ like life we were called to.

Billy Coffey

November 10, 2009 in Challenges with 1 Comment

Over the last couple of months I have been following this blog with earnest every day.

I simply love his writing, and his post this morning, just puts things in such great perspective for me.

Read it and enjoy…

Don’t hit back

November 9, 2009 in Challenges with 4 Comments

This morning during Bible study I was working my way through Romans 12, and these verses jumped out at me.

Romans 12:17-19

Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”

These verses hit me particularly hard after the last couple of days, of really to put it simply, judging people.

Acting in such a way as to justify my actions to myself, and trying to make me feel better about it.

The biggest one for me was going to our previous church yesterday morning for a Christening, and walking out of there judging the whole thing, and saying thanks for not having to be there any more, etc.

Who the heck am I to judge a corporate worship service like that? Yes, it may not be the place for me in the current season of my life, or for that matter ever again, but that was the place that I had the priviledge of  meeting my wife, or rather to realise that the two of us will spend eternity together, and where I discovered my calling to worship through music.

Yes I have moved on since we left there, and I have grown immensely in faith, which caused me yesterday to look down at everything going on in that place.

I thank God today for opening my eyes to my wicked ways in judging people and places that does not do things exactly the way I want them to be done, and I praise Him for His grace in forgiving me for these stupid things that I do sometimes.

Actions in Christ

November 5, 2009 in Challenges with 1 Comment

guidance

Romans 12:6-8 (The Message)

If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate; if you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.

Romans 12 is probably one of the best known chapters in the Bible, due to verse 1-2, but today, I would like to have a look at verse 6-8.

Paul gives us some great tips here on how to do what we do, and how to do it well.

I love the section that tells us not to get bossy when we give encouraging guidance. I think I love this though, due to the fact that I have a very dominating personality, and I can get bossy very quickly. There is only two ways to do something, right and wrong, and do not dare to take option 2. :P

Now, during the last couple of years, I have had to learn to overcome a lot of my mannerisms such as this, due to the fact that I had to realise that I am not the only person in the world, and I hurt people close to me quite easily with being this way.

I have definitely not mastered this, but with the grace of God, and His guidance, I have been able to assess a situation much better, and I truly believe that I am getting there as far as this goes.

I also like the section in this scripture, that if you teach, stick to your teaching. So many people these days, have learned the slogan of do what I say, and not what I do, but if you look at children, you will notice that they do what you do. Having a little girl of 19 months opens ones’ eyes to this fact very easily, as she is starting to speak now and you have to be extremely careful at what you say around her. I love this fact, strangely enough, just because it keeps you on your toes.

Now, through the grace of God, may we all be challenged by this scripture today, and really go out and apply it in our daily lives.

By His Power

November 4, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

Reading this passage this morning during Bible study, it just again hit me between the eyes at how stupid we humans tend to be, by trying to control our lives.

Romans 11:7-8 (The Message)

And then what happened? Well, when Israel tried to be right with God on her own, pursuing her own self-interest, she didn’t succeed. The chosen ones of God were those who let God pursue his interest in them, and as a result received his stamp of legitimacy. The “self-interest Israel” became thick-skinned toward God.

In this passage it is clear that no matter what we as humans try to do in order to be right with God, it is not possible. Once we have made the decision to believe and walk in faith, we need to let go of our own will and let God take control of where we are going, and what we are doing.

I know this is difficult, and I am sure it will always be, as to really let go means we need to walk purely in faith. We tend to diminish faith by saying we believe, but it is SO much more than that. Faith means that if we receive a word from God to do something, that we actually do it, and not try to argue about it, or ask for more signs.

In the word there are different things that will give you clues about how to know if it is the Word of God, and once the word fits in with the the Bible says, we should stop wondering, and do.

Abraham and Paul is probably the best examples of people that listened and did when God spoke, and my prayer for myself and for all of you today is that we can get to that place where we will hear the Word clearly, and then have the courage and wisdom to act on it.

Sinning and skipping breakfast

November 3, 2009 in Challenges with 1 Comment

I usually have breakfast before leaving home each morning, because I know that without it, I will not be able to hold out until lunch time. It has become part of my morning routine, just like brushing my teeth and combing my hair.

This morning I just wasn’t hungry and I decided that I could do without breakfast (I should know better by now). As can be expected, I was very hungry halfway through the morning. So I ate my lunch. Problem solved, right? Wrong !

Now it’s halfway through the afternoon and I’m hungry again. My blood sugar is low and I’m feeling grumpy.

So while Coenraad and I were chatting, we realised that it’s just like most sin in our lives. We know what we should be doing, but we choose to ignore our conscience and do what feels good at the time. Afterward we are angry with ourselves for having to deal with the consequences of our actions. Pretty stupid.

Your Love Never Fails

November 2, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

yourLoveNeverFails_LG

Over lunch I had a nice conversation with a friend of mine regarding all the great things God is doing in our lives, as well as how everything seems to be working together to get us to a specific place in our lives.

Driving back to the office, I listened to ‘Your Love Never Fails’ by Chris Quilala on the Jesus Culture CD with the same name, and the bridge of the lyrics all of a sudden got new meaning to me.

Verse 1:
Nothing can separate
Even if I ran away
Your love never fails

I know I still make mistakes, but
You have new mercy for me everyday
Your love never fails

Chorus:
You stay the same through the ages
Your love never changes
There may be pain in the night
But joy comes in the morning
And when the oceans rage
I don’t have to be afraid
Because I know that you love me
And your love never fails

Verse 2:
The wind is strong and the water’s deep, but
I’m not alone here in these open seas
Cause your love never fails

The chasm was far too wide
I never thought I’d reach the other side
But your love never fails

Bridge: You make all things, work together for my good

This is one of my favourite CD’s purchased in the last couple of months, and probably having listened to this song a couple hundred times over this period, this meaning of the bridge never stood out to me, as it did today.

I can just sit in praise for the Lord now, as I am thinking about His anointing on our lives.

Doing Nothing

November 2, 2009 in Challenges with 1 Comment

Romans 10 (The Message)

It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—”Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you.

This weekend we had our church’s congregation camp. The message that was shared during the weekend was Love, and how do we as humans love.

Last night, during the final service, back at church, I probably cried about 3 time during it all, as all the emotions within me got the best of me. Listening to stories of people that loses their children, and finding that peace once somebody shows them true love just really got to me.

I was spending a lot of time last night thinking about how can I sow that kind of love to people and really communicate the love of God through the love that I show people.

Reading this scripture this morning it just became abundantly clear that nothing I can do will make me be able to do this, but only through the grace of God, He will fill me with this love in such a way that I will not be able to contain it within me any more, and the anointing will be on me, and flowing out of me.

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