I do not really know why this is, but I can be surrounded by people, people who I love, and feel like nobody cares about me, and they are simply tolerating my, and does not really care about me.

Last night was again one of those nights. I was lying in bed, listening to my wife’s slow and steady breathing of a deep sleep, and all I could think about what a useless twat I am, and how she does not need me in her life.

These are obviously lies. Lies told to me by satan himself. Why? Because I am starting to reach some sort of high in my life, actually, and I feel really good about the direction my life is taking at this moment. I love every moment that I spend speaking to people about God and helping them cope with their problems. I love every moment I spend being creative, designing websites for clients. Thinking about how the pictures must look for the website, that I am going to take later today.

Why then do I allow satan the foothold to tell me such lies?

Simple, I do not spend enough time delving into the Word. Yes I do read my Bible, but sometimes simply because it is a habit, and not because I really want to. Reading the Bible in such a way takes away quite a bit of meaning from the exercise though. I could just as well read something else in that time, since I am not spending that time connecting with God, and reading His Word. At that time I am simply reading a sequence of words, and usually they then don’t impact my life at all.

Simply reading the Bible, obviously, can’t do ay harm, but for me, I need to connect with what I am reading. I need to create some sort of environment in which I can focus on the Word of God, and really listen to what He is trying to tell me in that time. Be this journalling or something else.

Maybe you guys can help me with this, in giving me some ideas on what you do to put more meaning into your times that you study the Word of God.

Please consider leaving a comment: Insecure Please visit the site, and read some of the other articles available there: Unsafe Challenge

What is it that makes a leader worth following? Is it the success he/she achieved through ruthless, focussed processes, or is it something else?

What is it the new generation is hungry for? What is it that they value in their leaders?

Gone are the days when leaders were seen as perfect people, people who is beyond normal sins. The days where a pastor was seen as a person that lives a perfect life, and can do no wrong is gone, and they need to accept that fact, and open up about their “issues”. Everyone knows that you are only human. We don’t really care about the fact that you make mistakes, unless it affects us personally, but that is an issue for another day. The fact that you are willing to open up about your failures and addictions, the fact that your marriage isn’t perfect, or that your kids are doing things you are ashamed of, gives you credibility.

The Bible is littered with stories of broken people, murderers, adulterers, etc. but yet they were used by God as key players in the story told.

Paul, a murderer, was used by God to reach the Gentiles. He was single-handedly responsible for most of what we know as the n testament. David, a man after God’s own heart, slept with a married woman, got her pregnant, had her husband murdered, and then didn’t think twice about his actions, until God sent a prophet to confront him about his actions.

As leaders we MUST understand that God’ grace underscores everything about the story we are telling to the world. We MUST get this thing, that we will fall, we will make mistakes, but we must also own up to them. The only perfect human being that has ever graced this earth we live on was Jesus. To try to pretend that we are perfect is not going to get us anywhere. All it will achieve is breaking down trust that people might have in us, and if somebody confronts you with something that you might have done wrong, listen to them, and do something about it!

A leader worth following is HOT (in the words of Tim Ross)

• honest
• open
• transparent

Go out there, be HOT, and let us change this world!

Please consider leaving a comment: Are you a leader worth following? Please visit the site, and read some of the other articles available there: Unsafe Challenge

8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father; that is all we need.”
9 Jesus answered, “For a long time I have been with you all; yet you do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Why, then, do you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

John 14:8-9 (GNT)

Why do we usually take a stance, like Gideon, towards God? We want to make sure it is God through signs or confirmations on prophesies, like Gideon did with the piece of sheep skin. Just like Phillip in this section from John, asking Jesus to show them the Father, not realising that he is in the presence of God Himself.

Sometimes we confuse new believers in how you get salvation. We tell them that they must be holy beyond measure, speaking in tongues at every opportunity, prophesying to every person they meet, and the likes. In doing this, we so easily make these people feel inadequate, and in the end getting the to question the fact whether they have been saved.

I always shudder in my insides when I hear people say things like: “But I am not as holy as that person.”

We must always remember that if someone has been cleansed by the blood of Christ, they are just as holy as the next believer. They might not have discovered the gifts of the Holy Spirit yet, or they might simply have different gifts than you. But that does not make them less holy.

I actually believe that there aren’t different levels of holiness. You are either holy or not, full stop.

We need to stop making being a follower of Christ complicated. It is not complicated. Read your Bible, live in fellowship with others, and live Jesus to those you encounter in life. You do not become more like Jesus by studying Him more and more, but you become more like Jesus by doing what He did. By this I am not saying that we need not study the Word, but in today’s life we are placing way too much emphasis on this, and not enough emphasis on being the hands and feet of Jesus here on earth.

Sitting and talking about how we are going to change the world helps nothing of you do not get of your backside and actually go and do what you are talking about.

These are simply a couple of examples of us making our faith complicated, but I am sure there are more stories out there that will build this topic. Join me in the conversation.

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We are part of the Body of Christ, better known as the Church.

We share the calling of building the Kingdom of God and to proclaim His Word.

Or do we?

Very often I catch myself simply going through the motions. I go to church on Sundays, do my duty that I signed up for, and then I go home. During the week I might encounter people along the way that I can connect with on a level that might open the door for me to share God’s Word with them, but sometimes it is just easier to rather ignore that open door, and not do what I know I must do.

Does this happen only to me?

I don’t think so, but if it does, then I have some heavy work to do.

During the last couple of days I have come to a place where I am thinking of ways in which I can position myself better to take advantage of open doors like these. To make my main mission in life that of the Great Commission. To maybe put of some other less important things in my day, and to focus on this person. Our business as Christians are souls, isn’t it?

Why then would we rather not be late for our coffee appointment with a friend than to maybe send a message to this friend asking for prayer during the time that you will be late, since you are now focussing on saving a life. You don’t know it, but you might be that persons last chance to be saved.

We so dearly want to be part of the Kingdom of God, but we need to get a new focus on life. It is not about me, but about them. Being the Church means being willing to be persecuted in order to save some souls. It means that by playing church on a Sunday, feeding yourself with some information, does not really work. You need to be willing to go out and be the Church. Be God’s hands and feet here on earth.

Have you ever thought about the honor we have to be Gods hands and feet here on earth? He really does not need us to do anything for Him, yet He chooses to work through us. He places the biggest responsibility there is on earth in our hands, and then He even gives us free will. You can choose if you want to do this work or not. That is a bit of a scary thought to me.

How do you find yourself playing church sometimes, and how can we practically work our way out of this habit?

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Jesus’ strategy of disciple-making did not revolve around a class where He just told His followers how to live, instead His life and the Word was the curriculum. In the context of spiritual community, He sought daily to demonstrate to His groups how to live in obedience to the Father as they did life together. Jesus, the Living Word, showed them how to live, and then encouraged them and equipped them with His Spirit to demonstrate to their small group how to live a life that pleases the Father.

Quote from  The Church at Brook Hills

Taking the theme from my previous post, Feed Me!, further, I came about this quote from The Church at Brook Hills’ website. After having thought back on the book, Radical by David Platt, the lead pastor at The Church at Brook Hills, it further placed something in my heart on how do we change the consumerist culture within churches.

I am now convinced that the only way that we as faith community leaders will be able to do anything about the consumerist mindset of most attendants of our communities/churches is by setting that example. We all talk about servant leadership, as it is very much a bit of a buzz word lately, when it comes to leadership, but do we actually live this buzz word? It is all good and well that we teach people on this concept, and tell them about the examples in the Bible, like when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, but do we actually SHOW our followers what it means?

Do we serve the people in our church, rather than serving the church?

Do we get our hands dirty on outreach, or do we simply organise the outreach, and appoint an eager person in the congregation to take leadership in this matter, simply to not even attend the outreach itself?

Head First

I believe we must dive into the trenches of servanthood, head first. We must be the example of what we are teaching. People will never simply do what you say, they will do what you do.

That saying of ‘Don’t do what I do, but do what I say’ must be erased from our vocabulary and our lives.

I have used this saying more than I care to think of, and thinking about this right now, makes me cringe.

Am I going to tell my children to do what I say, and not what I do, while I am drinking myself into a stupor? They will simply say, but if daddy can do it, so can I.

Hypocrite

I feel like a hypocrite. I tell people what the Word says, but I don’t live it. In some ways I probably do live it, but it is much easier to tell people about what the Word says, than to actually show it.

• ‘Care for the widows and the orphans.’

Do I physically care for them, or is it easier to send some money to some or other ‘ministry’ or organisation?

• ‘You visited Me while I was in prison’

Did I? Did I visit people in prison, simply to encourage them, and help them in some way?

I want to believe that I do all these things, but if I have to be really honest with myself, I don’t. Sometimes I will go on one little outreach, but afterwards I might feel uncomfortable, and then rather not go again.

Yes, God blesses us with possessions and money to help the poor and the needy, and yes, giving to a charity is not wrong, but that can’t be all we do. We MUST get our hands dirty.

Join me in this conversation, and let us find practical ways in which we can show the Word in out local communities, as leaders. Let us show the Word to our followers, so that they themselves will begin to live this way.

Just remember, do it with a joyful heart!

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This is how I feel…

The last year has been in a big way a waiting game for me, forcing me to grow and to learn patience. Entering 2012 has been met with excitement from my side, due to the fact that I have high hopes for this year as being a break-out year for me, as far as ministry goes, as well as for my life in general.

However, up to this point in January, I have yet to see some kind of progress being made. I even feel like I have gone backwards in my own right, and do not have the fervour to carry on, in the way that I did at the end of 2011.

This could be due to many things, like the beginning of the year being hectic with everyone trying to back into their natural rhythm after the Christmas holidays, and the fact that I might simply just be way too impatient. I mean, the year does have 365 days, and we are now only on day 18 of those.

BUT, and yes, this is a big but for me…

Time flies at an alarming rate, or so it feels for me, lately, and I simply cannot sit back and wait in the hope that someone else comes through for me in answering something that I asked in October last year already. I need to put in the hard yards, if I want to make this work.

I need to do everything I can, in order to place myself in such a place where the other people involved simply cannot ignore me any longer by being complacent.

This does raise many question for me, in the sense that I want to be a compassionate person, that is probably one of the things that I work the hardest at being, since it is not something that comes naturally to me, and that creates questions in my heart. Do I use the tools at my disposal, to maybe cause somebody else some form of hurt, even if it was through their own doing, or do I walk away from a deal because of moral issues.

Tied to questions like that, is questions raised during discussion on how do we truly turn a church to be missional. Not just missional in a slogan, but really equipping the members of the church to be missional and seeing the fruit of this in the community around us.

Questions, sometimes I love them, and sometimes I simply hate them.

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The day after that I will do that…

Who do we think we are?

We do not know what tomorrow might hold in store for us. We have no idea what God is planning for us later today. Yet we focus on tomorrow, and not on the now.

Are we ready when God calls our number on earth? Are we sure we will sit with Him in the throne room, praising His glory?

If you cannot answer yes to the question above, I suggest you go make sure about this. The fact that you are young and fit means nothing. God can call your time here on earth to an end with simply a thought.

Yes, I lost a friend yesterday, through a motorcycle accident, and yes I am emotional about it. Questions run through my head like, why him, he was such a good person. Why did he have to leave here in the prime of his life?

The only answer I get is, why not him?

The fickleness of life is simply this. We make plans for our future, not thinking about what God’s plans are for our lives. His plans are so much bigger for us than what we can think of. He knows the future, we don’t. Why are we so fickle as to think we can make plans for tomorrow if we don’t even know what is going to happen in a minutes time?

14 You don’t even know what your life tomorrow will be! You are like a puff of smoke, which appears for a moment and then disappears. 15 What you should say is this: “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.”

James 4:14-15 (GNT)

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Watch out for that new guy. I hear he is a Bible Slapping Nutter. He has been here only 2 days and he has tried to convert me more than once already…

I am a Christian, but I will not be in your face about it.

These are scenarios that I have heard and said before in my own life. Sad, I know.

I used to call these over zealous Christians Bible slappers, because they would be speaking about their faith and Jesus at every opportunity, where I would rather join the others in the office, non believers, in gossiping about this person. Heck, I would even swear and drink with them, simply to not feel different from them. It was more important for me to be part of the in crowd, than to stand up for my faith.

Needless to say, this is not something I am very proud of today as I sit here talking about this.

I read a post by Carlos Whittaker this morning that prompted this post for me.

I do not know who Tim Tebow is, but I have been hearing a lot about him the last couple of weeks. Seems like here is a guy in the public domain who refuses to stand back for his faith. He will rather be made fun of than to not show the world that he believes in the One true God.

Going back to the book of Acts, there are numerous examples of the council calling in the Apostles, asking them to not preach the Way in the public, but did that stop them?

18 So they called them back in and told them that under no condition were they to speak or to teach in the name of Jesus.19 But Peter and John answered them, “You yourselves judge which is right in God’s sight—to obey you or to obey God. 20 For we cannot stop speaking of what we ourselves have seen and heard.”

- Acts 4:18-20 (GNT)

We need to move away from being complacent about our faith. We need to stand up, being bold about what we know to be true about God, and what He does within our lives.

Please consider leaving a comment: Bible Slapping Nutter Please visit the site, and read some of the other articles available there: Unsafe Challenge

One word can change everything.

Forget New Year’s Resolutions. Scrap the long list of goals that you won’t remember three weeks from now anyway. Choose just one word.

One word that sums up who you want to be or how you want to live or what you want to achieve by the end of 2012.

One word that you can focus on every day, all year long.

It will take hard work, and will require intentionality and commitment. But if you let it, your word will shape you and your year. It will guide your decisions and help you grow.

Discover the big impact one word can make.

One word.

365 days.

A changed life.

Once I read the above section on the ONEWORD365 website on new years day, I started thinking about how this can be relevant to me in a year where I am anticipating big changes in my life, as well as hoping to complete numerous big projects that I have been dreaming about for a couple of years already. Thinking about this, I had simply no idea as to what my one word would be, that is until I watched a couple of movies during the day, and a certain topic kept popping out to me. Have HEART in everything you do.

One of the movies, The Mighty Macs had a specific line which popped my one word into my heart. It is a scene where the coach is asking the girls on the basketball team, why teams win, and after all the technical answers one would expect, she simply said it is because they have HEART. They have heart to push through the obstacles in their way, because they believe in their heart that what the feel and want, they can achieve.

That is where I am for 2012. I believe in my heart certain things that is going to happen in this new year. This is going to be my breakout year, the year in which I am going to see my dreams come to fulfillment.

If you are reading this, and you know me personally, and you see me losing heart, please encourage me. Tell me to have heart, and to push through.

Join me this year, and keep me accountable to my One Word. I will sporadically keep you all updated as to how things are going in my year, and towards my goal of having heart, through all obstacles.

Think about what your one word is going to be for this year, and join the movement, keeping each other accountable through it all.

Please consider leaving a comment: One Word 365: Heart Please visit the site, and read some of the other articles available there: Unsafe Challenge

The year of 2012 is one of many exciting things to come, including a complete redesign of this site, as well as the way the content will be shown and shared. I am planning some new and exciting things for my personal website, including Unsafe Challenge.

All of you must have a really blessed December, and may you come to know the heart of God during the Christmas period.

Please consider leaving a comment: Time out Please visit the site, and read some of the other articles available there: Unsafe Challenge