Found my manifesto for the year

Reading Mark Batterson’s blog today he posted his Lion Chasers manifesto.

This really hit me between the eyes, as I am seeing 2010 as the year of change.

I am going to stop doing the easy, comfortable thing, and start chasing my dreams. Even if that means that I need to sacrifice certain things.

The year of big things was also professed to me over the weekend, so I am really excited about what is going to happen, and what God has in store for me.

May this be true for each and every one of you as well.

The La-Z-Boy effect

I am busy reading a book by Vince Antonucci called, I became a Christian and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt.

Now, in my opinion this is a must read for everyone, because you get to see a human, just like you. Not a super Christian that does nothing wrong, but a person that goes through the same struggles that you and me go through.

In a section of the book he talks about his La-Z-Boy that he got himself, after dreaming about it for years, and coming to the realisation that this chair is the one place you will not grow.

Think about this for a second.

Have you ever grown in your faith by doing the easy, comfortable thing?

If you are anything like me, then the answer to that question is a resounding NO!!!!

In fact, I usually get so comfortable, that I tend to forget about spending time with God, because life is SO comfortable. I do not need Him right now…

Well, another point Vince points out in this section of his book, is that when members of his congregation goes on mission trips, they always comes back saying they had the best time of their lives.

Why is that?

Is it because they went to an awesome place, or is it because they got out of their comfort zones, and served others?

Thinking about this, we read John 13, where Jesus washes His disciples’ feet. After doing the deed, Jesus says these words

¹³“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

John 13:13-17 (NIV)

I believe no words are needed after this…

Friendship

Last night I had to look back at the past year, and just see all the blessings the Lord has placed on our lives, and this is only by looking at the friendships He blessed us with.

A year ago, me and my wife had no real friends. People that we knew we could call upon in hard times, and people that knew they could do the same.

We had friends, but it felt like it was all conditional friendships. You had to be willing to do certain things to really be accepted into the group of friends.

When we joined our current church, we really prayed to God to give us real friendships. The type of friendships you usually only read about in books.

One thing I can say it the God really came through in a BIG way on our prayers, and all we can do is say thanks and really try and give as much as possible back to God for all these blessings.

To all our friends, you all know who you are, I love every minute I can spend with you guys, just being myself, and also being able to cry and laugh together. May we all sit around in the old age homes one day, and talk about these days we had together, and may God bless each and every one of you beyond your wildest dreams.

The joys of giving

Ok, I know, I have been slack with blogging the last 2 weeks. I have to say sorry for it, since I have been a bit lethargic due to end of the year syndrome, and slacking in all spiritual things in my life.

Yesterday, while walking to the car after dropping my wife and daughter off at the airport, for them to go on holiday so long, with me following on Thursday, a guy came walking up to me.

I could see in his eyes that there is a huge hurt in there somewhere, and you could also tell that he is really not comfortable to walk up to strangers.

In any case, it turned out that he was released from prison that morning, and he needed to get back to Port Elizabeth. Correctional Services gave him money for two thirds of the money he needed to get home, and now he needed to get the rest of the money somewhere.

After listening to his story, I really felt compelled to give him money, and I had enough cash with me to give him more than half the money he needed. He almost started to cry. He further told me that people has sworn at him and said terrible stuff to him, just because he has been to prison.

Needless to say, I drove away with a smile on my face.

However, this morning in church the pastor read 1 John 3:16-17

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

Listening to this, I was really shocked at the reactions this man was talking about that other people had towards him. After feeling this, however, God started to speak to me, and really just opened my eyes to what I could have done for this man.

It was within my powers to give this man all the money he needed to get home, and some more, without it being almost a hassle for me. I did not pray for him, while standing there, I did not take the time to maybe get some more information about him, and maybe to follow up with him in a couple of days, to try and find out if he got home alright, etc.

I know this was not God telling me I should have done this, but Him teaching me to be more open to these things the next time I get someone like this crossing my road.

I praise the Lord for just giving me this little piece of teaching among everything, and I really pray that God will bring someone like this across my path again, before Christmas, just so that I will be able to spread some of the Christmas joy to someone less fortunate than me.

Awesome Prayer

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still.
Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, “Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.” Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.

From A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2007).

Acts

Listening to another Podcast from Mark Batterson at National Community Church in Washington DC, on Chapter 2, the early church, I got inspired by the title of the book of Acts.

What does this title mean to you?

Is it just another title of a book, or does it tell you something of what the Christian Church should look like?

The message I got from this sermon I was listening to, was that we need to do. Jesus didn’t come to earth to speak to us, He came to earth to die for our sins. He came to DO!!!

So, the challenge for today is how are we going to DO for the world? We must step out of our comfortable churches where we get served and start serving…

Extending you basic Faith

What is your basic faith? Is it believing that God created the heavens and the earth, or is it believing that Jesus died for OUR sins on the cross, or is it simply believing that everything happened by chance and there is no eternity waiting for us?

If your basic faith is the last one, I want to commend you, in really having great faith, as this is a bigger stretch of faith for me, than having faith in a Creator and an Omnipotent and Omnipresent God.

To really believe that we humans, and other animals, have just happened form nothing, and to be passionate about it, really is amazing to me. How emotions, and all that goes with it, could just happen. That the drive that all of us have in us, is just because…

I have great faith in the fact that God created everything. That I am not here by accident, and that God really has a plan for my life, which He is already putting in place. By having this faith, I want to extent it by doing what Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1:5-9 (The Message)

So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.

By doing this, I really want to develop and grow in my relationship with God. I want to be able to get up in the morning, and tell the person on the street corner that Jesus loves him, and pray for him, and be able to, confidently, lead that person to the cross, and give him/her eternal salvation.

I want to be able to take my musical talents, and be able to play to people in such a way, as that they will want to know what is different in me. I want to be able to bless people just by playing music.

A guy in our worship team came to me one day, and said that me and my wife brings healing through our music that we make, and I want to start seeing that. Not just play and be recognised, but to start making a difference for the kingdom, by using my talents that God gave me. To live my calling, and to be able to lead people to the cross.

I believe that we all have a certain thing that God gave us, that we need to use for His glory, to lead the unsaved to the cross. Let us all go out, spend time with God, and hear from Him how we are going to be able to do these things with our talents, and let us change the world one day at a time, through the power of Him that gives it to us.

We can do it

I have been listening to the Hero sermon series from NCC (National Community Church) for the last couple of days, and this morning I was listening to a sermon about Caleb.

Now most will know his name, but he basically lived in the shadow of Joshua. However, he had the best attitude of all the spies that was sent into the Promised Land, and had a belief greater than what he could see in the physical.

Numbers 13:26-29 (The Message)

They presented themselves before Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation of the People of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They reported to the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told the story of their trip:”We went to the land to which you sent us and, oh! It does flow with milk and honey! Just look at this fruit! The only thing is that the people who live there are fierce, their cities are huge and well fortified. Worse yet, we saw descendants of the giant Anak. Amalekites are spread out in the Negev; Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites hold the hill country; and the Canaanites are established on the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan.”

From this section you can see that the scouts had no hope of being able to capture the land with their own power. In the very next verse, Caleb steps in

Caleb interrupted, called for silence before Moses and said, “Let’s go up and take the land—now. We can do it.”

What would happen in your life, if you started to take up a ‘Can Do’ attitude. To start to look at life with faith, and knowing that with God on your side, you can do anything.

We tend to get caught up in the fact that we, as people might not be able to do something, and then we forget that God is always with us, and the He is all powerful.

Let us start and be more positive, taking on a ‘Can Do’ attitude, and I promise you that life would just start to feel a bit more breezy.

Not of this world

How many times a day do we just wish that the people around us, would accept us and love us?

How many time a day we just do something, because the people around us do it?

I am quite often guilty of trying to fit in, because it is the easy thing to de, but Jesus is pretty clear about this.

John 15:18-19 (The Message)

“If you find the godless world is hating you, remember it got its start hating me. If you lived on the world’s terms, the world would love you as one of its own. But since I picked you to live on God’s terms and no longer on the world’s terms, the world is going to hate you.

Pretty harsh, to know that the world is going to hate you, isn’t it?

Why do we do it then? Why do we follow God, an proclaim to the world that He is the salvation and the way?

This answer will probably differ for many of us, but for me, it is because I only need the love and acceptance from one person, and that is God. For a very long time in my life, I was an ‘Sunday’ Christian. Going to church, and playing in the worship band, but to get the sine for being on stage, and to impress with my talents. I went to church, because my family went to church.

Only after the birth of my daughter, did I really come to grips with what it means to be a Christ Follower. Now, all I want to do is serve, and be Jesus for the poor and the needy, to help the widows and the orphans.

I pray that all of you reading this, will also get to that point, if you haven’t reached it yet, where you can stand up boldly before the world, and proclaim the name of Jesus.

Another scenario from scripture that I really like around me becoming less and Jesus more is in John 3

John 3:27-30 (NIV)

²⁷To this John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. ²⁸You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ ²⁹The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. ³⁰He must become greater; I must become less.

Throw in the towel

NO, not that way. Let us read John 13 and take it from there

John 13:1-17 (The Message)

Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come to leave this world to go to the Father. Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them right to the end. It was suppertime. The Devil by now had Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, firmly in his grip, all set for the betrayal.

Jesus knew that the Father had put him in complete charge of everything, that he came from God and was on his way back to God. So he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron. When he got to Simon Peter, Peter said, "Master, you wash my feet?"

Jesus answered, "You don’t understand now what I’m doing, but it will be clear enough to you later."

Peter persisted, "You’re not going to wash my feet—ever!"

Jesus said, "If I don’t wash you, you can’t be part of what I’m doing."

"Master!" said Peter. "Not only my feet, then. Wash my hands! Wash my head!"

Jesus said, "If you’ve had a bath in the morning, you only need your feet washed now and you’re clean from head to toe. My concern, you understand, is holiness, not hygiene. So now you’re clean. But not every one of you." (He knew who was betraying him. That’s why he said, "Not every one of you.") After he had finished washing their feet, he took his robe, put it back on, and went back to his place at the table.

Then he said, "Do you understand what I have done to you? You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so. That is what I am. So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet. I’ve laid down a pattern for you. What I’ve done, you do. I’m only pointing out the obvious. A servant is not ranked above his master; an employee doesn’t give orders to the employer. If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it—and live a blessed life.

Reading this, and understanding what washing feet meant in Jesus’ time, a chore for the lowliest servant of the household, this passage starts to take a whole new meaning.

According to this passage where Jesus says that if He doesn’t wash Peter’s feet, Peter won’t be able to be part of what Jesus came to do, and that is to SERVE.

We as Christians need to start getting out, and getting sweaty for Christ. We need to start serving people, ALL people. Especially those that would never expect to be served. The orphans and the widows, the needy and the sinners.

Jesus never served in the well off places, but He went into the slums of the times, and ate with prostitutes and tax collectors.

I challenge all of you, and myself, to start putting a towel around our waists and to start serving. Especially over this Christmas period. Why don’t we try and get one demographic of people needing service, and go out and bless them with what they least expect. Let us go out, and preach the name of Christ, and IN the name of Christ, to the people that need to hear it the most.