Uncompromising light!

Did anyone ever stand up to anything that stood out to you? It may have been something small, something huge, something blatant, indirect...
Ok so the the seed of this thought was an action of a friend of a friend...this person had decided that they would no longer watch any movies with profanity in. I don’t know this person, I have never seen them, in fact I do not even know their name...yet their stand to live wholeheartedly for God had an impact on my life! And I am sure they are unaware of that as well!

I don’t think we stop and think often enough of the impact our actions/or lack thereof can have on other people.
Just consider these verses from Matthew chapter 5 for a moment: "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (14-16)
That people may see your? deeds...which causes them to praise God. We shoul live a life in such a way that when people see our actions they will turn to God in praise. If we live like the world, they will see nothing different than what they already see...darkness.

Now I’m not talking about behaviour modification here, I’m talking about a change in heart. A desire to please God in all, to impact the lost, and encourage fellow believers. In fact, living a life without compromise would not be worth your while if it were not for God, as it is not likely to bring you popularity...

I just wonder, when will our desire to please God be enough? When will bringing honour and glory to God be first? When will it be more important than being comfortable? When will it be more important than being “cool”?
Let your uncompromising light shine with wreckless abandon!

Illogical Trust

For the past few weeks I have been wanting to write something, yet there were so many thoughts in my head and so much in my heart that I expected them all to explode into the paper in some sort of unintelligible shrapnel.

These past weeks through many hills and valleys there has been a common thread weaving its way through the fabric of my life...trust. Not trust in myself, not in my own abilities, not in people, friends, family but trust in my creator.

The first person I encountered in my awakening was Gideon. Basically at that time he was put in charge of saving the Israelites from the Midianites (big scary army of about 135000) But first he gets Gideon to cut his army down from the standing 32000. I wonder if Gideon at this stage is thinking...hmmm...ok surely the more people the better our chance of winning, especially seeing as we’re outnumbered already. So he says to them "Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home" and get this: 22000 (yes - no typo) leave. And then if 10 000 is not small enough, God cuts the army down to a meager 300. Seems impossible, yet Gideon trusts God. We have to remember at this stage that Gideon could not read ahead in the book of Judges to see the outcome as we can. From where he stood it didn’t seem the logical outcome looking at the odds, yet still he trusted God...and God was faithful to deliver him!

Then another person, Andy Stanley, has a series called "The best question ever" which is largley about wisdom and it got me to thinking about God’s wisdom. Sometimes God has these laws and requirements of us that we just don’t understand. Often in the past I have thought, "But why?" and something I have learnt is that it doesn’t matter. Think of it this way: As a parent or teacher we often have to stipulate and enforce rules on children. They have no clue why and seem to resist it, yet we in our maturity and experience know that it’s for their own good. See where I’m going with this. God is the ultimate and perfect father and knows what is good! So that is why I say we don’t always need the answer...we just need to trust that he knows best...which he does! There are some things that we can’t see or understand in our human logic and knowledge.

Then there are men and women I think about such as Noah, he built a massive boat even though there had never been any rain before, people must have thought he was losing his mind. Moses leading his people for so long and hitting a dead-end (so it seemed). Mary facing public ridicule...I’m sure a virgin birth didn’t seem credible to those around her. I could go on and yet with each person my words could not do justice to the faith they had and the complete trust they put in God.

In my own life the last trial I faced brought me to my knees. I didn’t like my circumstances and I couldn’t control them and I was faced with a choice: to either throw my hands up at God in question, or to choose to trust him even though I didn’t understand, which I really didn’t. These things aren’t always easy, yet God calls on us to trust him inspite of this. At that moment I just knew I would rather trust in the God who knows the number of hears on my head. The one that has been faithful to His people through the generations. The one who loves them so much He sent His son to die on a cross in their place. Yes, He is the only one worthy of it!
In all of these stories I have noticed a common thread, difficult circumstances, imminent failure according to human logic, weak human beings according to human standards...yet in every single story of trust, God’s faithfulness!

Lastly a verse that you probably already know, but hopefully you will look upon it with new eyes:
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

Perspective?

I was driving along the other day on familiar road. Now this road leads up to a robot on a fairly steep incline. On that particular day as I was approaching the I thought to myself "Gosh, this is weird, this road hardly seems steep at all today".So that got me thinking...was it that the angle of the road had changed overnight? Well clearly it hadn’t. So why then did the road seem much flatter to me that time?

It all boils down to perspective.

And haven’t we all seen how different people re-act differently to the same circumstance? Like in the face of a difficulty some become humble, get angry, stay postive, break-down, get depressed. What drives people to respond in these different ways is what they believe about how life works, or how things are supposed to work .

So what is the cause of these misperceptions? It is what we believe to be true about something that causes us to respond in a certain way. Of course it doesn’t matter how I saw the road, it’s not going to change my life in any way, yet it does matter what we think and believe about God, because it determines how we behave and react to life!

After my road incident I spent a weekend at our church’s family camp where the theme of the weekend was based on the life of Job and what an amazing and perfect example of how the truth about God alters your perspective! What a blow to my self-righteousness. Job was a man that was living his life in a way that pleased God, just minding his own business then WHAM – absolute calamity strikes! He loses all his wealth, his whole family and then finally his health. After that he loses the support of his wife and friends, basically the next worse step would be death (which would have been a relief at that stage). And to top it off, we know that God has allowed all of this to happen! At this point don’t we start questioning God’s goodness? But Job turns to God at this point and says "naked I came from my mothers womb and naked I shall depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. And in all of this Job did not sin." What? Did I read that right?

Job understood the truth about who God is and His place before God! His perspective was not twisted.

This is what he understood. God is God. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, holy, just, perfect, blameless, loving, patient...I could go on! When it comes down to things we not only don’t deserve God’s mercy that He has freely given us through the cross of Christ, but we also don’t deserve anything else from God. Ok you may be thinking, gosh that’s pretty hectic, but it is true. And if you are thinking that, then your perspective is all wrong. You are focusing on the wrong part. We stand condemned, we don’t deserve ANYTHING from God, yet in His love for us he has made a way out. He sent his one and only son to die on the cross to bear the weight of the world’s sin on His shoulders. And every single day He bestows on us, countless blessing (half of which we don’t appreciate). What is not loving about that?

In my life there have been many times I have held on to my own idea of a truth to the point of stubborness. And so many of those times I have been proved wrong! (know what I mean?). So think on this: it may be true that what you are holding on to is in fact not true at all. So does everything come down to perspective or is there any truth at all? I’m so thankful that I have the answer – God’s word! And that’s exactly what it is, His very breath! In it is every true word about everything! To teach us about who God really is and what he has done for us!
Heb 4:12 "For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. "

So now my challenge to you (and mostly myself). Look at God’s word and let it change your perspective, let it change what you think about life and God. Let it ignite your heart in passion for your maker! Let it guide you towards a meaningful relationship with your God!
Psa 119:105 "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, And light unto my path."
Don’t walk around in the dark...

Called to more...

Recently I have been so challenged to live my life to God's standard and not just how I think God wants me to live. I want to know Christ and live like Him. I don't want to look around and see that I can attain the standards of those around me or even be swayed by them, but I want to always look to the ultimate and absolute truth of our Lord. It's not that I am looking for a set of rules to live by or become legalistic, I just want to live a life that is pleasing to God by looking at the instructions he has given us. And even more so that there is so much joy in this as well. Not happiness that things are going as you want them to, or even that things are going well, but a deep-seated joy and contentment that can only come from a true relationship the one who knows you to your very core!
There is so much depth and so many facets to being a Christian that we can often focus on one particular thing while forgetting what really matters! A camp that I know of "Camp die Kroon" has an awesome theme "Know Christ, Live Christ and Help others do the same!" Imagine if we could grasp the heart of Christ how much more we could live like him and impact those around us!
Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)
Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.