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.

The different understandings of forgiving…

October 21, 2010 in Challenges with 0 Comments

Yesterday I linked to a post by Carlos Whittaker about forgiving.

This started to draw some debate from some of my friends on Facebook, saying that for certain kinds of ‘sins’, they will not forgive the person. In this case specifically a child molester.

Now, if we look at the example (Jesus) we have when we need to gauge how we need to react in certain situations, it becomes clear that irrespective of what the person did, we need to forgive 7 times 70.

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

Matthew 18:21-22

Now, should this person have committed this sin against me or my family, I am sure I would find this very difficult to do, but God truly convicted me yesterday that we need to forgive. Not for that person that committed the sin, but for our own good. If we do not forgive, the sore the person left there, will start to fester, and over time this will start to consume your life, which will then enable the enemy to take hold of you.

As long as we hold firm to our faith in Christ, and let the Holy Spirit guide our daily walks of life in a loving way, He will be able to give us the strength to overcome a situation like this.

Another example of ultimate forgiving is the story of the two criminals hanged with Jesus on the cross.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Luke 23:39-43

One of my friends came out and asked if Hitler also had a free pass to heaven should he have accepted Christ as his Saviour before his death?

This screamed at me on how we as humans judge sins. We say some sins are greater than other sins, but God does not see it in that way. Sin is sin, and we need to start to understand this that way.

The only way that sin can be washed away, is by the grace and the blood of Jesus Christ.

This will definitely not be an easy thing to do, as we will be hurt along the way, but through the power of the Holy Spirit all things are possible…

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

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