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New beginnings, again…

March 30, 2011 in Challenges with 0 Comments

Yes I know. I have not been around here for a while, and I am sorry about it.

Not only sorry towards my followers, you guys, but also sorry towards myself. I have been in a hole the last couple of weeks, and thus I started to neglect my blog, which has been an outlet for me.

In any case, I am back now, and back with more fire within me, for these new beginnings that I am working through at this stage.

So, to give you an update of what has been happening in my life the last couple of weeks, let me start by saying I have once more had to make a hard and difficult decision with regards to what I am spending my time on.

Due to financial reasons, as well as me having made decisions in order to please other people, I have decided to climb out of the business I was running with my father. The economy was simply so hard on us that we have not been able to survive doing what we were doing, and after thinking about it a lot, I decided to pursue the ministry once more.

This has been my passion for longer than I can remember, and every time I do something else, I am letting down this dream that God has put in my heart.

Since quitting the business, I have made a concerted effort to pursue ministry opportunities, and lo and behold, me and my friend, Elmo Pienaar, is on the cusp of announcing a brand new ministry we are starting.

So, with this post I would like to ask each and every one of you to please keep is in your prayers, so that we will keep in the direction that God is pointing us, and that we will remain sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, as without God, we will never be able to this.

We truly believe that we are able to make a difference in the lives of the people out there, and we truly believe that the blessing of the Lord is upon this new endeavor.

So, what I am asking for at this stage is for prayer, and continuous, fervent prayer at that.

Since starting this, me and my family has been under constant attacks from satan, and we need to stand strong against him and his cronies together.

Thank you all in advance for this, and please watch this space, since we will be announcing this in the near future.

Yes, No, I simply don’t know

January 25, 2011 in Challenges with 0 Comments

Think about the following statement…

We will do everything and anything, short of sin, to lead unbelievers to Christ!

Are you in?

I can hear the different thoughts going round…

Yes I am in!

NO, I want to stay in my comfortable little box.

I simply don’t know. What does this entail, what do I have to do?

What I believe we should do, is the following.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts 2:42-47

This is the first account of the first ‘church’ after Christ ascended into heaven. This is where we need to get.

As a culture we are so turned into ourselves. We are just trying to keep everything for ourselves, yet here we see that everybody sold everything they had, and gave to each other as they had need.

Is this not the epitome of love?

What do you think will happen to the world we know today, when we stop keeping what we have for ourselves, and start to share everything, for the good of the Kingdom?

What if, every person that calls him/herself a Christian would give up 30 minutes a day to serve someone else? To go and show the love Jesus called us to. That uncomfortable love we know we should do, but it requires us to drop our defenses, and to go ALL IN!

I am praying today, that God, through the Holy Spirit, will show me how I can show THAT love today, and every day after this. I am praying that He will add to the Church daily, to the extend He did in those early days, when thousands came to believe in Him, after hearing the Good News.

May God also show you ways in which you can step out of the box, and show extravagant love, where you have to be ALL IN!

Affirmations, and the power of the tongue

January 20, 2011 in Challenges with 2 Comments

We probably all know about the 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman.

After a conversation last night I got thinking about the specific love language of ‘Words of Affirmation’ and the role it plays in my own life.

For the last couple of years I was fully convinced that my primary love language is touch. I decided to retake the test to determine my love language, an guess what, Words of Affirmation came out tops.

Now I am thinking of the power of words, and the effect this has on us as people.

We all know that the tongue is like a double edged sword, and we can really hurt with words, and I truly think this is true for each and every person that walks this earth. Some people are just more able to hide the pain caused by the words of other people than others.

If we assume that this statement I made above is true, does this not mean that words of affirmation is everybody’s primary love language?

What this definitely mean though, is that we all need to watch our words we speak to each other. Even when are are in a fight with our spouse or anybody else for that matter.

I have seen it countless times, how a husband will break down his wife with meaningless words, that he thinks are harmless, and then afterwards you will find the wife totally broken by his words.

We need to focus on this, each and every one of us, and we truly need to make an effort to ask the Lord to place a guard in front of our mouths every day.

On life, love, and the Great Commission

January 18, 2011 in Challenges with 0 Comments

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:16-20

This is pretty straight forward, isn’t it. With the power we have through Christ that gives us life, we have to go and make disciples of all nations, and we need to teach them to obey everything Jesus have commanded us.

Why then is it so difficult?

If we look at Ephesians 5:1-2…

Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.

…it gets even more straight forward.

Love like God loves. Give yourself, in spite of yourself.

In essence, we need to love people in such a way, so that the broken and hurt come truly to life.

Another verse that ties in directly with this one in Ephesians is Micah 6:8…

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.

The commission

Taking the above into consideration, I truly feel we are missing the point in how we need to make disciples.

So often, we think we need to simply tell people about Jesus, and get them to accept Him into their lives as their Saviour, but that is only the beginning of it. I feel to truly make someone a disciple, you need to show them how to do it. We need to teach them what Jesus taught. We need to teach them how to LOVE EXTRAVAGANTLY!

How do we do this?

In my opinion, this is simple, WE need to love extravagantly.

We need to be willing to open our hearts for others needs and hurts. We need to climb out of our little boxes of safety, and let people into our lives.

Sometimes that means we need to let someone into our homes for an extended period of time, so that they can simply be in a loving environment, so they can heal. Other times it means we must be willing to get out of our comfy, hot beds and drive to them simply to give them a hug, at the time they need it most.

When someone really needs a loving embrace, at this moment, it won’t help that person if you only pitch the next day. It might be too late then.

Love, or better yet, extravagant LOVE

Having said all the above on how I feel we need to love extravagantly, and naming some examples of how I feel we can do it, how would we practically go about it?

I don’t think there is any way we can practically do this, and schedule it into out busy lives.

The best we can do, is to be open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to guide us to the explosion point of LOVE that we need to give. And when we realise the Spirit is prompting us to do something, to actually act on it. To stop allowing the argument we will have with the Spirit, since it WILL be uncomfortable, and simply to do it.

Also, for some people it is easier to LOVE than for others. Some people, like me, are very factual and to the point people, but we need to be willing to step out of our box and meet that person at the place where they are at. This is not always easy, but I definitely feel that it is not an option.

The Conversation

Let us start a conversation in our communities, on how we are going to start to really live the Great Commission.

Let us be willing to break the barriers that culture places on us, and start to Love people to Life…

Obey the rules

December 6, 2010 in Challenges with 6 Comments

OK, so today I am posting about one of my pet topics, namely doing your utmost to obey the rules, and not trying to bend them to suit your needs.

I may very well step on some toes today, but this has been in my head for a couple of weeks now, and I must simply get this out.

This goes around one specific bending of the rules we see so often, namely CD and DVD piracy…

2 Timothy 2:5 says the following…

An athlete who runs in a race cannot win the prize unless he obeys the rules.

Does this not go for us in life as well?

Yes, we are not perfect, and we are sinners, but we have the ability to make choices in life.

Oftentimes, when I would make a comment on how we must not copy CD’s or DVD’s, I get a comment stating that the mucisians/artists make so much money, they do not need mine as well. Yes they often times make a lot of money, but you are still stealing from them when you do not pay for acquiring their products.

We as a community have stopped worrying about these things, since there is nobody that controls these things, and we know we will get away with doing these things. But we as Christians need to do the right thing, and stop stealing these things.

I know SO many guys, that I tend to look up to spiritually, that simply copy a TV series from a friend so they can go and watch it at home. Yes it is nice to be able to watch the stuff, and to be ahead of what is showing on the television here in SA, but IT IS WRONG!!!!

Sorry for this, this is a bit of a rant, but I need to get this off my chest…

Dead Faith

November 23, 2010 in Challenges with 1 Comment

This morning on the radio I listened to an excerpt from The purpose driven life, by Rick Warren. In this particular section, he made the comment, that someone who says they are a Christian, but do not serve, are contradicting themselves.

This made me think of a meeting I had last night at church, where we just gave some input into each other’s lives at our Life Center, a place where we try to love the struggling people out there to life…

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?

James 2:14

I just realised reading this, and experienceing the love last night, where everybody is volunteers to help people struggling with big things in their lives, that we as Christians need to step up and help.

If we simply just look at the example set by Jesus, we can’t help but be compelled to step out in service, and love our neighbours.

We need to ask the Holy Spirit to soften our heart to the things that breaks God’s heart, and then we NEED to act on that. When you feel in your gut that you need to do something, simply DO it. Stop having 60 excuses why you do not want to step out of your comfort zone, and just do it with the power the Holy Spirit gives you.

I have a motto for myself in this season of my life which is the following…

People tend to think that they need to sort out their lives, before they can turn to God, but we need to show each and every person the love of Christ, where He wants you just as you are, with all your baggage, so that He can carry it for you!

I love it to see the difference made in people’s lives through people simply loving them, with no strings attached. May we all be compelled by God to live with a GRACE attitude, and LOVE PEOPLE TO LIFE!

Hypocrite

November 15, 2010 in Challenges with 0 Comments

I am a hypocrite…

I wear masks on many things in my life.

I often struggle with lusts, but struggle to admit it to people close to me.
I often struggle to maintain my temper, and tend to loose it for the smallest things.
I often struggle to show thanksgiving.

These are just some of the things in my life that is easier to keep behind a mask, than to actually speak out about them, and tell the people close to me about.

This affect my closeness to God.

I sometimes feel really far from God, but then I need to be ‘holy’ because I have to be part of the worship team, or need to counsel someone.

In Jesus’ ministry, He was harshest on the hypocrites, which gives one the idea that He HATES hypocrites.

He gives us unconditional love, and forgives all our sins, and yet we still choose to put on masks to our brothers and sisters, because we just do not want to let our junk out in the open.

I have, however, come to realize lately that when you let some of these things out in the open, there is a huge burden that gets lifted from your shoulders.

We need to get these things out in the open, and let our brothers and sisters feel safe to let their junk out in the open to us. Doing this, we will slowly but surely start to create a loving, forgiving, safe community where we are free to let our dirty laundry air…

Proof of Life

November 9, 2010 in Challenges with 0 Comments

I am busy listening to sermon series by Erwin McManus, from Mosaic Church in Los Angeles. The sermon series is about 1 John and the title is Proof of Life.

This morning’s sermon really grabbed my, on the most powerful proof of real life within you is if you Love.

Now, love has become a really misused word over time. I mean, we say, I love my car, I love steak, and then in the same breath we will say ‘I love my wife’ or ‘I love God’.

Now, 1 John 3:14 says

Our love for each other proves that we have gone from death to life. But if you don’t love each other, you are still under the power of death.

The love that John is speaking about here, it the same love that Christ showed to us when He died on the cross for us. If we have life within us, which is the Holy Spirit, we have no choice but to have love within us.

You cannot say you have love within you, if you say demeaning things to other people. I you speak hate over other people or if you have racist thought about a certain demographic of people.

To be able to say that you love, you must treat all people like Christ treated them. Teach them out of love, and treat them like you would like to be treated at all times.

For me personally this is sometimes a really big challenge. We so often get angered out of some stupid thing somebody does to you, that you would say something along the lines of, ‘This person is SO stupid’. It does not take a lot to say this, but do we always realise what the impact of those words can have on the other person’s life? If you say this to the wrong person, you might potentially influence them in such a way that they will not want to have anything to do with the other person, and that specific relationship might be exactly what will be needed for the other persons salvation.

Think about it…

We really need to be very careful with what we say to and about our neighbors at all times, and as difficult as it may seem, we must start to think before we speak out of anger.

Yes, love goes much further that just saying something of somebody, but what the heart is full of will be evident in the way you live, and what you say to other people.

Give us today our daily bread.

November 1, 2010 in Challenges with 0 Comments

If you are reading this, you are probably the same as me. You have free access to the internet, you probably have at least one car in your household, and you probably earn quite a bit of money on a monthly basis. All this means that you probably also live in the top 3% of rich people in the world.

Now, I have come to realise over the last couple of days, that we as rich people have a problem. We can be our own gods, and do not need to rely on God for pretty much anything. The fact that we earn above average salaries, and have a car that we can use, whenever we want, places us at a disadvantage when it comes to the important things in life, like FAITH!

24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Matthew 19:24

These last couple of days I had the opportunity to really trust God to provide for me. Due to stupid decisions in my life, we are busy selling our house, without making anything on it, in order to rid ourselves of the implications of these dumb decisions. Now, due to certain rules within the banking sphere, they are now holding on to all our expendable money we have, until the property registers in the name of the buyers.

This has obviously placed me in a position of dire need, since I need to feed my family, and such and such.

After praying earnestly to the Lord the last couple of days, He has provided for us, through friends He has placed in our lives.

This said and done, I still feel like we have forgotten to REALLY rely on God to provide for us, even though He says the following in Matthew 7

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Matthew 7:7-8

I truly believe we need to ask the Lord to show us how to depend on Him. Even though He has chosen to bless us with everything we have, I feel it is imperative for our salvation to learn once more to depend on Him. We need to stop thinking we can get through this life by ourselves, and we really need to start to engage God in everything.

Living from victory

October 25, 2010 in Challenges with 0 Comments

How often do we say that Jesus won the battle on the cross, but we seldom live from that perspective. We keep on living from the point of view that we need to win these battles every day. We need to win the battle against our finances, we need to win the battle of the problems we experience in our marriage. As long as we live from this perspective, we will always struggle to keep these things in check.

We need to live from the perspective that Jesus has already won this war for us. The devil has no more holds on us, once we accept Christ as Lord, and we need to claim it.

We need to tackle the hardships in life from the point of view that we have already triumphed over our adversary, and then we need to give everything to the Holy Spirit.

I have done this, this morning, and all I can say is that I have such a peace within me, that I just don’t worry about the small things anymore. I am starting to turn my thoughts to what it is that God wants me to accomplish with my time here on earth, and I am going to waste my energy in trying to pursue that, and not waste it on worrying about the things that I already have victory over here on earth.

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