Archive - September, 2010

The great deception

September 11, 2010 in Challenges with 0 Comments

self_deception_lumen Over the past weekend we have been on a breakaway session with a small group of people. The focus and aim of this time away is pure encounter with God; realignment of what we believe and as a fundamental principle, what we believe.

Last night I was overwhelmed with a series of thought provoking ideas that has pointed to several incorrect paradigms in my own life. Possibly the most profound of this is my unconscious hang-up regarding the requirements (or perceived requirement I grew up with) of my salvation. When we come to know Christ we often start this journey through the knowledge of the Word and particularly as the Word pertains to the commandments. At some point this is often replaced with the knowledge of grace and how this fundamentally changes our identity in Christ. The shocking discovery I uncovered once again last night is that I subconsciously still believe in requirement, commandment and rule. My childhood was shaped through the do’s and don’t of life and I subconsciously transfer this into my relationship with Christ. I believe with all I am that requirement has been dealt with on the cross and that grace is mine. BUT every now and then I find myself looking back in thought to the yard-stick of requirement and law; somehow thinking that these equates to my worth and favour in the eyes of the Lord.

The statement that shocked my into clarity was the following:

“Jesus accomplished more (victory) on the cross that Adam ever broke (losses) in the garden.”

Think about it. If you are anything like me you will realise that somehow those had an equal measure of weight when it comes to the scales of salvation. We dull down the work that God almighty creator of the universe had completed on the cross thought His Son and compare this to our failures and shortcomings. We pick up a yardstick to measure how good we fare in our own eyes (our Adam eyes) and we miss the astonishing work completed on the cross.

When God talks about the woman who lost a coin and went looking for it in Luke 15. We very easily identify with the lost coin that God searches for. What we miss is that the coin has the same value whether it is in the Master’s pocket or lost under the bed. The mistakes we make (and Adam made) does not take away from our worth, it merely leaves a few marks and scares of experience. But when the Master finds the coin and brings it back to the rest the value bestowed on that coin is just as much as the day it was made.

Listen, you would not go out and buy a brand new Ferrari just to take it to the panel beater straight from the showroom floor to ‘fix’ it up. It might get dirty sometimes, but we wash it! J

Know today…. God does not make junk. You are valuable. Stop measuring yourself against yardsticks other the one held by God through the blood of Jesus.

Go evaluate and examine your faith. Make sure you are not being driven my deceptive patterns from the past the enslave you. The Bible says – Those the Son has set free are free indeed. Believe that!

Verses to look at for further reading: 2 Cor 3:8, Romans 8:15, Heb 2:10-11, John 17:22

My prayer for today

September 8, 2010 in Challenges with 0 Comments

This song, by Charlie Hall, remains one of my favourite songs to sing as prayer, as it keeps on challenging me each and every time I listen to it.

To Save A Life

September 8, 2010 in Challenges with 0 Comments

OK, so let me start off with saying that this is not a review of the movie, but more of a continuance of my previous post on accepting people for who they are.

The title however comes from the movie, and my topic comes from the question the movie asks in the end.

If, at this stage, you have no clue what I am talking about, go and watch the movie, then you will understand, as I do not want to get into describing the movie here, but talk about the question.

Now, I am going to put the question like this:

I you can save a person’s life, but acknowledging that person, then why not?

I really think that if you are of the popular type of people, you can really make a bit of extra difference by associating yourself with the not so popular people.

Since we, as Christians, should pretty much make an effort to be ‘nice’ to all people, irrespective of who they are, we sometimes tend to focus on out little comfort group of friends, and when you get to a place where there are many people, we miss those people sitting alone somewhere, be this at school, work or church.

What we also don’t always know, is if this person is going through some kind of trauma or issue, that we can help get the person over, if we are just willing to step out of our comfort zone, and go and speak to that person.

We, and especially I, tend to miss these opportunities to go and be Jesus to somebody else, since we are comfortable with our friends, and in turn we are comfortable with just making our silly little jokes with each other, and not reach out to those people in need…

The rejection

September 4, 2010 in Challenges with 0 Comments

Don’t we all just want to be accepted for who we are?

Don’t we all just want to be able to live our lives, without having to worry about what other people think of us?

Then why is it, that most, if not all, of us, are basically living to fit into the mould the world has created for us, which is supposed to be normal?

Even in and at the church building, we tend to try and fit in. We want to be accepted by the “COOL” crowd, and we want to be known by the pastor and all the church staff, and so forth…

Why is that?

We have been created by God to be unique in every way, so the question is, does normal exist?

In my personal opinion, I want to say that normal is not a Godly word, and is something that has been placed on us by the enemy. As long as he can keep us focused on trying to be normal as far as worldly standards go, we tend to forget who we are within Christ, and thus our relationship with Christ suffers, and is that not exactly what the enemy wants?

Another thing is, why are we always so afraid to speak what we really feel? To really be able to say what we want to say in church, to our friends, our family and generally everybody around us?

When someone says something that we have a big issue with, in church or wherever, we usually just keep our mouths shut, and bury it inside. Then this thing starts to grow within us, and eventually we are unable to look beyond that thhing, and see the person behind it anymore.

I saw this happen this week to a dear friend of mine, who has been going through really dark valleys in his life lately, and he simply does not need negative or synical people around him. He needs people that he can speak to, who will listen to what he has to say, and who will validate his views. I have decided this week, that I should probably be that person.

We really need to, as Christians, start to accept people that does not believe the way we do, for who they are, and stop to try and force them into our little mould of what a Christian should be.

The only mould we can try to force anyone, including ourselves, into, is the mould of Jesus Christ. And quite frankly, while we are mortals here on earth, that is going to be impossible. Every other persons view of what we should be, look like, and think like, is skewed, since we are all uniquely created by God, and we cannot be someone else, even if we try to.

So, let us all stop this general rejection of people different than ourselves, and start to love them for who they are. Even if they look like this…

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