JUMP!!!

February 14, 2010 in Challenges with 2 Comments

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

February 10, 2010 in Challenges with 0 Comments

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.

99 Balloons

February 10, 2010 in Challenges with 1 Comment

OK, I know this post should be the post about our outreach to the homeless men on our streets on Sunday afternoon, but before I can get to that, I need to share this video with you guys.

If this does not make you cry, then you need to ask God for a soft heart…

Accessible for all

February 5, 2010 in Challenges with 15 Comments

On my way home from work this afternoon, I was listening to a sermon series from LifeChurch.tv on the topic of the church being for “Church People” and how this goes against what God wanted for the church. That the church is for the outsiders, and not for the ones that are already inside.

Listening to this topic, I started thinking about what is happening in the cell group where we used to go, and how awesome God is in working through these people to really go out and make a difference in the lives of the needy. The group, with us still included, are going to cook food for the men that sit on the street corners over the weekends, looking for piece jobs. They have work during the week, probably earning about R80 a day, but over the weekend they don’t have work and therefore are hoping that somebody needs a causal worker in the garden over the weekend.

Now, if this person is still sitting on the street corner at noon, the chances are pretty much 90% that they will go hungry for the day.

I am freaked out about the fact that we are FINALLY going to step out as a group of friends to really do something, and stop talking about how we can do what.

Just wanted to keep you on the up and up, and I will post feedback about the day with some pictures on Sunday, but in the meantime, please just pray for this group and for the peoples’ lives we are going to impact.

God loves you

February 3, 2010 in Challenges with 15 Comments

Do you really believe this statement?

If you are like me, you have heard this statement at least a million times, but do you truly believe it, or do you, sometimes, like me feel that God cannot love me?

I am too bad to be loved…

But if we look at what God did for us, there is no way that God cannot love us. In John 3:16 it states that “God SO loved the world that He sent His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not have to perish” (own translation)

And then we take a look at 1 John 4:16

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
GOD IS LOVE. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

We need to get to a place where we can really understand the implications of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. We forget too often that we have been saved from our sins, and we simply need to repent and confess, in Jesus’ name, and His blood covers our sin.

Let us all start to really get to that place where we can keep this mantra going and really believe it

God is love, and therefore God loves me

Primary Calling

January 25, 2010 in Challenges with 1 Comment

What is it that breaks your heart, the way it breaks God’s heart?

As you all know, 2010 is the year of change for me, and I really trust God for a new season in my life. To set me free from a dreadful and dreary job, and to release me into a place where I can really make a difference for the Kingdom of God. This is not to say that I can not make a difference at my workplace, but that just isn’t enough for me.

I currently serve in the worship team at church, and always have served in a worship team. That is just my way of doing corporate church. Due to this fact, I always believed that worship is my calling in life, and I must pursue doing that full time. But during the last couple of weeks, stepping into this season of change, my heart has been opened to that which breaks my heart.

Living in Africa, and being used to the poor and beggars all around, I have become insensitive to the needs of the extremely poor. In the last couple of weeks, God has really just softened my heart to the mission field, but specifically children. Whenever I look at a picture of a child suffering from hunger, I just feel an instant break within me, and I am unable to stop the tears.

Now, it is easy to actually do something for the poor. You can give them money, be it directly or through a charity that look after the poor children, like Compassion International, but that just isn’t enough for me. I really want to be with the children and just show them love.

With this revelation in my life, I have made a commitment to myself, God and my family, that I will go on a mission outreach two weeks every year, at least. If God ordains me to go more, I will follow, but what I can do at this point in my life, is two weeks, and I am going to make them count.

So, if anybody know about organisations that does mission outreaches, with which I can join up, I would really appreciate a comment or an email, so I can start to put the things I need in place.

Why do you want God to bless you?

January 25, 2010 in Challenges with 0 Comments

Genesis 12:1-2 – The Lord and said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

During the last month, the Lord has blessed me with some extra money. His timing was great, since I had some extra expenses. As on so many occasions in the past, the amount that He supplied was quite a bit more than I needed to make my budget work, so I had surplus funds in my account.
Last week, while at a church meeting, I got a message from a friend who was on his way to the same meeting. The message said that he needed some help at a filling station nearby. I walked out of the meeting and drove to where he was. When I arrived, he told me that he was out of fuel, and that he didn’t have any money on him. As he was talking, the Spirit told me that this is why he blessed me with more than I needed, and I could fill up his car for him without even thinking about the cost. I think that I was blessed more by the situation than he was, because the Lord helped me realize a truth that will help me so much in future.

I want to challenge you to start thinking differently about blessings from God. Our primary goal on earth is not to have a nice, comfortable life and see how many belongings we can gather. We are here to glorify God, and sometimes (more often than we think), we have the opportunity to glorify Him by being obedient to his calling to be a blessing to those around us.

Compassion International

January 24, 2010 in Challenges with 0 Comments

Our family just sponsored the following kid through Compassion International.

Meet Sandy…

For a mere $38 a month, you too can make a difference in a child’s life.

In Private

January 23, 2010 in Challenges with 0 Comments

If you want to live like Jesus publicly, you need to live like Jesus privately…

Yesterday morning driving to work, I was listening to the first sermon from the sermon series, Carbon Copy from LifeChurch.tv, and this line jumped out at me.

What is the impact of this statement on your life?

For me, it is usually very easy to put up a facade to the world, and to look like this super duper Christian, but are you really? And for how long will you be able to keep up the facade?

Does this statement mean for you that you need to make time to spend private time with God, on a daily basis, or does it maybe mean you need to remove certain things from your life that may have a negative impact in your relationship with God.

Think about it.

Pray about it.

But, please, do something about it.

For me, it is to make some real personal time again with God. To have a time of day, where I can go and sit on the floor, and just bask in the glory that is God. To spend some quite time, just to hear His voice.

Fear of failure

January 20, 2010 in Challenges with 5 Comments

I was reading this blog post on Stuff Christians Like which got me thinking about why I am so afraid to make a move.

I am sitting in a job I don’t like, and is pretty much a dead end job, and I really want to make a move out of my industry, but I am afraid…

My good friend Fritz is a great example for me, with regards to this. He left a good paying job to go do something that he loves doing. And Fritz, I really admire you for doing that.

Now, following the Haiti disaster, I was telling my wife, I wish there was a way that I can GO and help out. Not help out financially or anything, but to go to the area, and help and minister to people out there.

Or, looking at Charity Water every once in a while, I feel like I want to go on one of the trips myself, but every time fear gets the best of me.

Or every now and then, I feel like I should go into ministry or start my own business, but I am always too afraid to fail.

What would my wife say?

What would my family say?

What will I do when I come back?

How will I support my family?

Do I not believe that God will take care of me and my family? Why am I such a coward?

May God start to work in my heart and my life, to get this cowardly feelings out of me.

May God start to make Matthew 6:25-34 real in my life, and may I start to really trust in Him to give us what we need.

25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[b]?28“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

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