Jumping for joy

What is it in life that makes you jump for joy?

Is it maybe your job that makes you excited about life, or maybe your wife/husband, or maybe you really life for playing sports over the weekend?

Whatever it is that really makes you feel like living, it says something about you?

I just had a meeting with our Worship Pastor about getting involved with our Young Adults ministry and what my passions are within ministry, since I am in a change over process of moving into ministry for my standard IT job I used to do.

Talking about this, we touched the subject of a dream that has been growing within me for the last year, at least, which is to establish an internet ministry point for our church, and the more we talked about it, the more I wanted to jump for joy about the prospect of actually getting this project of the ground, and to really change the way we do ministry in our church. Afterwards he just confirmed my feeling within himself, and I am now burning to get this thing of the ground, and to start building this web portal for our Young Adults ministry, and to really bring the whole Web 2.o and Social Networking into the reckoning.

So, what is it that makes you jump for joy?

Radical

What does it mean to be a radical Christian?

For a very long time, I had this picture in my head of going to the impoverished areas around  us and across the globe, and sharing the Gospel with these people and making a definite difference in their lives.

No, there is nothing wrong with this view, and I still dream of going on mission trips into Africa and to really help people, but this afternoon I just realised how skewed my view of being a radical Christian is. I realised this, as I was having quite a heated discussion with my mother on my view around the Reformed Church, and how they started to ignore the difficult to explain things in the Bible. How they tend to not focus on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and where she couldn’t understand how I am so excited about prophesies, etc.

Driving away from my visit with her, God just spoke to me and told me that that was radical. To stand up to the people closest to me. To stand up to the people that I have the most respect for, and to really talk to then, and telling them about my experiences with God and the Holy Spirit.

This has always been a bit difficult for me, to speak out to my parents and family about the revelations God has opened for me, and where I disagree with them around religion. It was always just so much easier to talk to my wife afterwards about what I feel and then just to not say anything to them about it, as I didn’t want to upset them and not rock the boat, which is also funny, since I am the type of person that LOVES to rick the boat, every once in a while.

Now, may this have been the start of this new process, of growing in my own faith and this new season that I am journeying in.

So, friends, family, strangers, EVERYBODY!! Watch out for me on the streets, since I found a sense of confidence in myself this afternoon, and you might be my next subject to whom I have to preach to.

Praise the Lord for growing me in this way, in such a short while, and may He do it for you as well, as you ask Him to transform you, in His image.

HOPE

In what do we put our hope?

Do we put it in our abilities to perform something, in our talents or in our jobs?

Do we put our hope for something better in a promised promotion, or maybe that new job that you will be starting at next month?

Maybe you put your hope for a better marriage in the birth of your coming baby?

For as long as we put our hope in our own abilities or in worldly things, we must be ready to be disappointed.

As long as your hope is not in God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, we will always be disappointed.

It is not always easy, and we tend to sometimes fall back into our human/worldly tendencies to rely on our own strength.

²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.²⁶In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. ²⁷And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

Romans 8:22-27 (NIV)

How do you pray?

I have been watching the DVD’s from Andy Stanley called He still has the whole world in His hands, and the second message of the series really stuck with me the last couple of weeks/days.

I took his message from Phillipians 4:4-7

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (NIV)

Now, this is a really well known piece of scripture, and I do think that we tend to read over this without getting the meaning of this.

The whole teaching series of Andy Stanley is about the people in the USA that has lost their jobs, and then sit in church saying, that is all good and well that you say God will take care of me/you, but you don’t know what I am going through. I think this is very relevant to most people today, across the whole world, as everybody is struggling in some way or another.

But we need to know the scenario in which Paul wrote this piece of scripture, especially verse four.

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Do you know that Paul was at this stage in jail, sitting there for almost 2 years awaiting trail by the Roman Emperor, which in the end never happened, and he got decapitated without ever standing trail to defend himself against the accusations brought against him by the Jews? You obviously also know that Paul was before he was thrown in jail, stoned, flogged, etc. all in the name of God?

Now then, I really think that when Paul writes that we need to rejoice, no matter what, he means it, and we need to learn to do it ourselves.

Andy Stanley further points out that in verse 6 Paul uses words that usually doesn’t get associated with prayer. Words like ‘petition’ and ‘thanksgiving’. Going back to the original Greek text, he points out that what Paul was trying to convey here, is that we need to stop praying the easy little questions, and we really need to start praying for that inner fears and feelings we have.

We need to get down to our fears and feelings, and stop praying only for a job. Why do you want/need a job. What are you afraid will happen if you don’t get that job, etc.

I have been applying this in my prayer for a while now, and all I can say is that once you start getting down to you real fears and feelings, and putting them before God, quite a bit of weight gets removed from your shoulders, as you can trust the God will take care of them.

The Vision

I just found this quote on Daniel Bashta‘s website, and it just speaks to me as to what REAL worship is about, as well as explaining a bit if where I am residing in my life currently.

An excerpt from Red Moon Rising… Peter Greig’s
” What’s the vision?
The vision?
The vision is JESUS – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.
The vision is an army of young people. You see bones? I see an army.
And they are FREE from materialism.
They laugh at 9-5 prisons.
They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.
They are free yet they are slaves for the hurting and dirty and dying.
What is the vision?
The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure.
This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day its soldiers choose to lose
that they might one day win the great
“Well done,” you faithful sons and daughters.
Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night.
They don’t need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards
and hear the crowds chanting again and again:” COME ON!”
And this is the sound of the underground
The whisper of history in the making
Foundations shaking Revolutionaries dreaming once again

Waiting on the Lord

So this weekend, I was playing at the Turn2God event that was held at the Union Buildings here in Pretoria, with the likes of Louis Brittz, Retief Burger and Joe Niemand.

I saw this event as n huge thing for myself to be able to go and do what I was called to do, and one of the main reasons why I left my job at the end of February. I had to get in with the ‘IT’ crowd, so they can know of me, and I need to impress them so they will call me again in order for me to get some work through them.

As the week and weekend wore on, I struggled to get time to speak to the different persons, and when I do get the time to have a word with them, I failed constantly to get the conversation turned to what I do, etc.

During one of the worship sets on Saturday, God just spoke to me and said, do what you are here to do, which was to worship Him. Do it to the best of your ability, and let Me do what I do best, which is to show you how great I am.

So yes, here I am, waiting on the Lord to do what He does best, and the greatest thing of it all is, I am fine with waiting. I KNOW that God will not drop this ball, since He has made a promise to me and to my family, but we need to let Him do it, and not want to do it out of our insufficient human power, since His power surpasses everything you can think to comprehend on earth. I mean, He has the ability to go ‘poof’ and there will be something newly created, standing right there…

Are you OK?

During the last week, that I have been without a job, after following the prompting of the Lord to really go out and live Unsafe, without that cushy little ‘tip’ slip I have been receiving for the last 10+ years, and to follow my and His dreams for my life, this is probably the question that I have been asked the most.

Are you OK?

Now, I know that this question comes from people in my life that really cares, and I mean really cares. They are the people that I know I can call up at 1am in the morning to come bail me out of some sort of situation, and I know, as I know that God is my Lord, that they will do everything within their power to come to my and my families aid.

So I just want to use this post today to lay those fears that these people have to rest…

I am OK. In fact, I am more than OK. I know that God would not have called me to do this work that I am setting out to do, if He knew I would not be able to do it, and I also know that He is holding my hand, as I am walking this unknown forest road, that is my life right now.

I do appreciate all the prayers that I am getting from all of you, and I know that you all care. I love you all, and love every minute that we can spend together in life, and all the adventures that we have together.

Thank you all.

The Landing

So, after taking the jump, finally, I have arrived at the place, where I am no longer employed, and I have to make thing happen for myself now.

It is somewhat of a surreal feeling, getting up this morning, knowing I don’t have to go to a corporate job, EVER AGAIN!

So what now, you may ask…

I have a GIG this weekend playing at the Turn2God event at the Pretoria Union Building with musicians like Retief Burger, Louis Brittz and Joe Niemand, and I trul believe that this weekend will be crucial for me to be able to make ends meat through music, since I am pursuing a career as a session mucisian, as well as going into ministry at our church.

All I can ask at this stage is that you guys will pray for me and my family through this new season, which we know has the Lord’s blessing all over it, but we obviously still need prayer to keep us focussed on the end goal ahead of us, and not to get stuck into worrying about money etc.

JUMP!!!

Woohoo!!!!!!

I am so freaking excited, it is not even funny…

I am finally taking the jump.

If you refer back to my post, Fear of Failure, you will know that I have been sitting on this problem of wanting to get out of my job, but being just too scared.

Well, due to the workings of my WONDERFUL wife, I am resigning tomorrow, 15 Febuary 2010.

I am finally getting all my guts together, and now I am stepping out in faith that the Lord will show me the way, into living out my passions that He gave me.

Needless to say, I am going to need a heck load of prayer, for the right opportunities to come along, etc, but this is going to be the start of a new life, serving the Lord, in which ever way possible.

Please pray for me tomorrow as I hand in my resignation letter, that my boss will see it in her to let me go by the end of the month, as I already have a GIG lined up early in March that is going to require me to be available for, but I trust the Lord will make things work out the way He has planned it out.

In any case, just wanted to let you guys know about this new Challenge, and my new quest of really being Unsafe.

Oh yes, and to top it all off, my mentor gave me these 2 verses yesterday from the Lord to encourage me on my way

Isaiah 41:10,13

So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

For I am the LORD, your God,
who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
I will help you.

Outreach

So, we went on a bit of an outreach on Sunday afternoon, handing out food to men sitting on the side of the roads, looking for ‘piece’ jobs.

This was an experience for all of those involved, and it really made an impact in most of our lives doing this.

I must say, there really are few things as humblings as giving somebody food, out of your own pocket, and to see the gratitude in their eyes.

Yes, we gave them food, but in turn we received a piece of Gods heart for the poor. We are planning to do this on a regular basis, and if any of you would like to get involved, in whatever way you want, please feel free to contact me.

Matthew 25:34-41

³⁴“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

³⁷“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

⁴⁰“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

⁴¹“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.