Over the last few months I have had the privilege of witnessing God's most beautiful and astounding gift of salvation worked out in front of my eyes time and time again. As someone who preaches a fair amount, I will often get to witness many hands go up after a sermon in response to the call that goes out, but the last few instances I am refering to are extra special as they have been one on one moments where I have seen people go from death to life, from hopeless darkness to glorious light in a powerful moment of encounter with Jesus.
And it's these occasions that brings all of life into perspective. This is why I am alive! Whether it has been a teenage girl grappling with rejection and abandonment issues, or a young man with his back up against the wall with no where else to turn, or a girl matric girl who has been so let down time and time again that she has become caught in a spiral of depression, my Jesus has broken into each circumstance with incredible accuracy, compassion, grace and power!

Jesus is perfect theology!

These people weren't looking for a well reasoned argument, they were needing the powerful reality of the Gospel! And Jesus never disappoints. My greatest joy this year has come from leading these people to their Saviour, baptizing them into his fullness and then spending hours chatting through all their exciting questions and discoveries!

With each and every time I chat to them, not about what "the next step is" but about how alive they feel, the joy of my salvation is restored. Often we become professional christians, trying to better ourselves, and we try and call it sanctification while in reality it is just well-disguised filthy rags of human effort! O God, keep my heart captivated with this great Gospel of yours! For it doesn't contain power...IT IS the power of God!

The beautiful moments when our depravity meets with his divinity!

Church Planting Tips

Tim Williams, a Cape Town local, who has taken over a church in the heart of France, gave these helpful practical tips and thoughts for all those who have even the inkling of a desire to church-plant, support a church-plant or to just go to the nations for the Gospel. Hope you find them as useful food for thought as I did.

1. The King and his Kingdom must be the treasure of your heart
2. Get a biblical understanding of God's plan for the nations
3. Seek God's face for a region or a nation
4. Start learning the language
5. But don't use language as an excuse not to go
6. Communicate your heart to the elders of your local church
7. Put your feet on foreign soil
8. Start saving your money for a trip
9. Consider a short term trip
10. Consider going with a team
11. Go to serve rather than be served
12. consider going for a season
13. Go to be a blessing not a burden
14. Your homegroup can adopt a nation/ church-plant to pray for, bless with finance, letters etc
15. Develop a heart for the lost now (don't live in the "when I get there" future)
16. Support those who are going to the nations
17. If you go, be ready to count the cost
18. ...but it's not about the cost! (he is faithful and our very great reward!)
19. Consider all these things when you choose a spouse
20. Be faithful to what God has called you to now

Romans.10:9-15

In just one moment

Sometimes we need to do something completely radical in order to get our flesh to bow it's knee to the Spirit. Tonight was such a night...
"Draw near to me...and I will draw near to you"

*A Call to Intimacy
-Am I pursuing and preaching 'the call' or am I practicing 'the intimacy'?
-Do I love 'The Call' or 'The Caller'?
-Have I allowed the call to become an idol?

*A Call to Nations
-Have I become domesticated, safe, predictable, cautious, "balanced"?
-Have I allowed the everyday things to cloud the bigness of the vision?
-Have I resigned myself to 'the process'?

Oh how long will we sleep for? How long will we strive and wrestle with the flesh when we have been called to wrestle with things so much greater?

It pays to know who you are!

The picture on the coffee canister caught him cold. The man blinked, rubbed his eyes, and peered over his grocery cart at the image on the Taster's Choice coffee canister sitting on the store shelf. The face peering back at him was unmistakable. The sideburns were darker, and the lines around the eyes weren't there yet, but it was clearly him- Russell Christoff- an unassuming fifty-eight year old kindergarten teacher from Northern California. Christoff picked up the coffee can and showed it to a clerk. "Yep, that's you all right, " she said. "Wow, you're famous."

Christoff bought the can, and then headed to a lawyer's office. A legal dispute began with the coffee company. It seems sixteen years earlier, Christoff had been working as a part-time model and had posed for the picture along with several other models who tried out for the role. Company representatives told Christoff that if his picture was ever used, they'd call him back and finalize the contract. No call came, years went by, and all was forgotten. Then one day an employee pulled the photo to use in an advertisement, evidently believing that consent had been given. The picture was printed. And printed, and printed, and printed. For six years it showed up on coffee canisters sold all over the United States, Canada, Mexico, japan, South Korea, Israel and Kuwait

When the dust settled, a jury concluded that Christoff's picture had indeed helped the company sell coffee. Lots of coffee. And it had all been done without Christoff's permission. The court awarded Christoff a payment that included more than 5 percent of the profits from Taster's Choice sales for the years the photo circulated.

His award: 15.3 million dollars!

What's the moral of the story?

It pays to know who you are!

Recycle Swop Shop

Below is a guest blog by Ang Benjafield, wife to gavin, mom to Caleb and Judah. Check out all that she is talking about below by checking out the Recycle Swop Shop's facebook page...but only after you've read the blog!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Recycle-Swop-Shop-Cape-Town/274245865920062

"I went to Recycle Swop Shop this morning to take photos for our social media campaign. I’m not one of the regular volunteers. But standing there, snapping away at faces, seeing the huge need and people living with great lack, it was impossible not to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty.

I helped a lady from the community of DuNoon hand out soup to the mothers and kids who were there. Ladies who bring recycling are given tokens after their bags have been weighed, and one of the tokens is a food token. With a food token, they are able to ‘pay for’ a cup of soup and a bread-roll. It’s not an ideal system; where hungry moms and kids queue without being able to eat until their bags are weighed. But it’s a system that works.

While serving soup, my heart broke. I became acutely aware of the overwhelming need in this community. Even with all our efforts and the enormous impact that Swop Shop is making… it’s not enough. Children cry with hunger, and moms share cups of soup and one bread-roll between several little ones. I must admit; I turned a blind eye when the odd bread-roll or cup of soup went, without a food token, to some of the frail-looking, horribly thin moms with babies on their backs.

But what I cannot get my head around, what has stayed with me all morning, is the fact that these people aren’t ‘somewhere in Africa’. They are here, 5km away from leafy suburbia. Is it possible that people living so nearby can be so ignorant of the need that exists just over-the-bridge? I know it is. I am one of them…

We must be able to do more. In our community of Tableview there are businesses; and families who can get involved. There are so many churches in this area, and why does the church exist, if it is not to love? To show compassion, and kindness. Jesus even said that it is true love when we love those who cannot repay us. There is a whole community in need of love, and education and help, and they are right here. Only ten minutes away.

It just takes a little, from many, to cause a lot of change. Many need to get involved. Many need to help, if we are to see the lasting impact of love in this community.
And while we wait for the help of many, still doing all we can: we hope. Hope that our efforts will create awareness. And that awareness will spark compassion. And that compassion will lead to action."
-Ang Benjafield

The Head and Heart of Revival

Below is an extract from the journal of John Wesley, the great revivalist of the 18th century. In this portion he speaks of his "lights on" moment- his new birth in Christ. Every story of grace coming alive in a heart get's me excited and reminds me of what we are called to. We preach for heart transformation, not mere mental assent.

"In the evening I went unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

I began to pray with all my might for those who had in a more especial manner despitefully used me and persecuted me. I then testified openly to all there what I now first felt in my heart. After my return home, I was much buffeted with temptations, but I cried out, and they fled away. They returned again and again. I as often lifted up my eyes, and He "sent me help from his holy place." And herein I found the difference betweenthis and my former state chiefly consisted. I was striving, yea, fighting with all my might under the law, as well as under grace. But then I was sometimes, if not often, conquered; now, I was always conqueror.

The moment I awakened, "Jesus, Master," was in my heart and in my mouth; and I found all my strength lay in keeping my eye fixed upon Him and my soul waiting on Him continually. Being again at St. Paul's in the afternoon, I could taste the good word of God in the anthem which begun, "My song shall be always of the loving kindness of the Lord; with my mouth will I ever be showing forth thy truth from one generation to another." Yet the enemy injected a fear, "If thou dost believe, why is there not a more sensible change?" I answered (yet not I), "That I know not. But, this I know, I have 'now peace with God.' And I sin not today, and Jesus my Master has forbidden me to take thought for the morrow."

Wesley, Journal of John Wesley, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/journal.vi.11.xvi.html

Strong medicine

Below is a guest blog by Nick Davis, a pastor, a pioneer and a preacher who has shaped my journey profoundly. Check out more of him at http://nicksblog3ci.blogspot.com/

“Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the
LORD!” - Psalm 31:24.

This must surely be one of the most defining verses of the Bible. In it we have the intersection between heaven and earth. In heaven, is the Lord. In heaven is all power, glory, goodness, provision, purity, fullness, peace and joy. On earth there is chaos amongst men. On earth there is an overflow of cruelty, fickleness, poverty, misery, worry and sadness.
What is the intersection point? Who can deliver us from the storms in the world and in our own hearts?

In a word – JESUS. Jesus, the One who took on human form, who walked among us, who suffered and died. Jesus, who takes away our sins. Jesus, who brings us back to the Father. Jesus, who intercedes for us. Jesus, who baptizes us in power. Jesus, who provides for us. Jesus, who ever intercedes for us Jesus, our high tower. Jesus, in whom every promise of God is “YES”. Jesus, our Man in Glory.

Jesus IS "the Rock that is higher than I". On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.

And how do we come to Jesus? How do we approach Him? By faith. By believing he exists, and that he rewards us with all we need as we ask and seek and knock. Too many Christians now leave the asking and seeking to their pastors or the “zealots”. To this, Jesus has spoken and said to each one of us, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving Me”. It is the Lord you are serving! Your life belongs to him, is wrapped up in him. Do you not know this? This is spiritual milk, that you no longer live but Christ lives in you. You have been seated in Christ at the Father’s right hand. Why do we forget? Because we do not think on these things. Why? Because we have become busy with other things, worldly affairs, temporary matters – stuff that is inconsequential compared to the Glory of God in Christ.

“We have lost the aura of glory, the mood of joy, the air of expectation.” - D Salochi

Can you get it back? Of course. Of course you can. Of course.

“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” - James 4:4–10.

Strong words. But strong medicine is needed in the face of all the…chaos, cruelty, poverty, misery, worries and sadness. And in their place, the Holy Spirit can and will raise up in you, through your humility, what is already overflowing from heaven – power, glory, goodness, provision, purity, fullness, peace and joy. Believe it! Only believe.

The burning ones

Just sitting behind the sound desk at Life Changers, with my foot tapping and my heart singing along with the first band of a marathon worship session today. It's the 12 hour Burn Worship Event that has swung into town (or at least into Tableview). The whole concept of these days are to create space where we gather around the simplicity and at the same time profound nature of worship and "burn" together. Running with the concept that was birthed from an idea from friends of ours in America, they describe these moments as something like this:

The world around us is crying out to know and feel the presence of God. We
are a grassroots movement that plants furnaces of vertical worship and prayer
around the world. We are creating a dwelling place for God's Presence

The crazy thing is that last night, I lead worship at Cape Town United, our combined youth event that stretches across the city. We had somewhere between 800 and 1000 teenagers going absolutely crazy...the screaming voices, the crowd surfing bodies, the dancing feet were just the outward expression of what God is doing in our city. The tide of extravagant worship is rising!

Whether it is the quieter "soaking" times like today at the Burn is, or if it's at 100 miles an hour moments such as last night, the sound of worship over the Mother City is becoming louder and stronger than ever. Old and young alike, rich and poor, black and wide, the atmosphere is changing!

Add your voice to the sound.

Truth or Dare Conference (Zimbabwe)

Back from Zimbabwe and here are5 photo's of our time there with the Dae2Serve team and conference. Check ot this link for more photo's...
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10150357387840786&id=684965785&ref=notif&notif_t=feed_comment#!/media/set/?set=oa.10150273116413565&type=1&closeTheater=1

A haitian parable

An old parable told by a Haitian pastor.

"A certain man wanted to sell his house for two thousand dollars. Another man wanted to buy it very badly, but he was a poor man and didn't have the full price. After much bargaining, the owner agreed to sell the house to the man for one thousand dollars. But the reduced price came with a stipulation. The owner would sell the house, but he would keep ownership of a large nail protruding from over the front door.
Several years later, the original owner decided he wanted to buy the house back. Understandably, the new owner was unwilling to sell. As a result, the origial owner went out, found the carcass of a dead dog in the street, and hung it from the nail he still owned. Soon the house became unlivable, and the family was forced to sell to the owner of the nail".

The Haitian pastor concluded the story: "If we leave the devil with even one small peg in our life, he will return to hang his rotting garbage on it".

Everyday, every moment, is spiritual (guest blog by Malcolm Herbert)

Luke 17:20 Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, Luke 17:21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”

This verse shows that there is no separation between the secular and sacred. The Kingdom of God is within me, 247. The invisible Kingdom in us, makes the Kingdom visible to the world.

When we keep the secular and the sacred separate, like in a religious system, the result is we are able to live a double life.

Jesus did not separate the 2, and He lived and displayed utter freedom, and yet everything he did fitted perfectly into His Father’s will. In His freedom and perceived rebellion against the religious system of the day, He never sinned or disobeyed His Father. Get rid of the religious Spirit in our lives, live free.

Jesus changes our hearts, and the Holy Spirit takes up residence. So, every day, God walks this earth wherever we go. God’s presence moves around the earth with His people. So, going to church is a ludicrous notion. We are, permanently, and always, the church, wherever we are.

And we are all still growing into maturity. Every time that I think I have peeled off a layer of religion in my own heart, I just find more. Which is why this message has been burning on my heart.

(Malcolm Herbert)

"How to listen to a sermon"

How to Listen to a Sermon
by George Whitefield

Keys for getting the most out of what the preacher says

Jesus said, 'Therefore consider carefully how you listen' (Luke 8:18). Here are some cautions and directions, in order to help you hear sermons with profit and advantage.

1. Come to hear them, not out of curiosity, but from a sincere desire to know and do your duty.
To enter His house merely to have our ears entertained, and not our hearts reformed, must certainly be highly displeasing to the Most High God, as well as unprofitable to ourselves.

2. Give diligent heed to the things that are spoken from the Word of God.
If an earthly king were to issue a royal proclamation, and the life or death of his subjects entirely depended on performing or not performing its conditions, how eager would they be to hear what those conditions were! And shall we not pay the same respect to the King of kings, and Lord of lords, and lend an attentive ear to His ministers, when they are declaring, in His name, how our pardon, peace, and happiness may be secured?

3. Do not entertain even the least prejudice against the minister.
That was the reason Jesus Christ Himself could not do many mighty works, nor preach to any great effect among those of His own country; for they were offended at Him. Take heed therefore, and beware of entertaining any dislike against those whom the Holy Ghost has made overseers over you. Consider that the clergy are men of like passions with yourselves. And though we should even hear a person teaching others to do what he has not learned himself, yet that is no reason for rejecting his doctrine. For ministers speak not in their own, but in Christ’s name. And we know who commanded the people to do whatever the scribes and Pharisees should say unto them, even though they did not do themselves what they said (see Matt. 23:1-3).

4. Be careful not to depend too much on a preacher, or think more highly of him than you ought to think.
Preferring one teacher over another has often been of ill consequence to the church of God. It was a fault which the great Apostle of the Gentiles condemned in the Corinthians: 'For whereas one said, I am of Paul; another, I am of Apollos: are you not carnal, says he? For who is Paul, and who is Apollos, but instruments in God’s hands by whom you believed?' (1 Cor. 1:12; 2:3-5). Are not all ministers sent forth to be ministering ambassadors to those who shall be heirs of salvation? And are they not all therefore greatly to be esteemed for their work’s sake?

5. Make particular application to your own hearts of everything that is delivered. When our Savior was discoursing at the last supper with His beloved disciples and foretold that one of them should betray Him, each of them immediately applied it to his own heart and said, 'Lord, is it I?' (Matt. 26:22). Oh, that persons, in like manner, when preachers are dissuading from any sin or persuading to any duty, instead of crying, 'This was intended for such and such a one!' instead would turn their thoughts inwardly, and say, 'Lord, is it I?' How far more beneficial should we find discourses to be than now they generally are!

6. Pray to the Lord, before, during, and after every sermon, to endue the minister with power to speak, and to grant you a will and ability to put into practice what he shall show from the Book of God to be your duty.
No doubt it was this consideration that made St. Paul so earnestly entreat his beloved Ephesians to intercede with God for him: 'Praying always, with all manner of prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and for me also, that I may open my mouth with boldness, to make known the mysteries of the gospel' (Eph. 6:19-20). And if so great an apostle as St. Paul needed the prayers of his people, much more do those ministers who have only the ordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit. If only all who hear me this day would seriously apply their hearts to practice what has now been told them! How ministers would see Satan, like lightning, fall from heaven, and people find the Word preached sharper than a two-edged sword and mighty, through God, to the pulling down of the devil’s strongholds!

This excerpt is adapted from Sermon 28 from The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield. Published by E. and C. Dilly, 1771-1772, London. George Whitefield (1714-1770) was a British Methodist evangelist whose powerful sermons fanned the flames of the First Great Awakening in the American colonies.

Above all else The Kingdom!

Couldn't sleep last night.

If I got an hour and a half I was lucky.

But it was not anxiety, nor restlessness, nor fretting of future endeavours that were keeping me up. It was the sheer presence of God in my very room coupled with the reality of the times we are living in that brought abour an absolute stubborness to my eyelids.
Ephesians.5 has a great verse which says, "be careful therefore how you live, because the days are dark". Other translations replace the word "live" with the word "walk". "Be careful therefore how you walk..."

After a night of being wide awake both physically and spiritually, I have been confronted with the story in which Soloman was given the liberty to ask God for anything, knowing wih absolute assurity that what he asked for would be his. Somehow the allure of wealth, fame, victory over his enemies paled, in that moment, into absolute insignificance when measured up to the wisdom of God.
Knowing the thoughts of God.
Hearing the voice of God with clarity.
Feeling his heart beat.
The famous passage of Matthew 6:33 pulsates through my very core this morning..."seek first the kingdom of God". I haven't yet moved onto the part where God grants Soloman everything he didn't ask for aswell as all that he did ask for. Nor have I yet come to the end of the verse that says "and all these things will be added unto you". My heart is still catching up with the first thing. First the Kingdom!

My prayer today (and hopefully everyday till my faith becomes sight!) is that every fibre of my being, every breath and every resourse that I have at my disposal would fall in line with this chorus! My money WILL be tied to something that has eternal value!
My desire WILL be for his fame and reknown!
In my season of singleness, my affections, heart and energy WILL be spent in pursuing him alone!
When I get married that that would not change except that my marriage WILL become a weapon for the kingdom!
That my home, car and wallet WILL become dispensers of grace and Gospel frontiers!
And above all else, that my heart WILL pine, ache, long for and yearn for the very presence of my God.

A little bit strong you may say? Consider this:

"It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too
weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and
ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go
on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the
offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."— C.S. Lewis
(Weight of Glory and Other Addresses)

A wake up call

A Chinese pastor visited America to have exposure to the way church was being run in the Western world in order to gain lessons in how to do things better back home. After a week of being shown the huge new building projects, the high-tech multi-media systems, the attractional programs and events that drew thousands and the great, new communication strategies for preachers, he was asked what his greatest thing he learnt had been. And this was his answer;
"I am amazed and in awe of all the incredible results the Church in the Western world are achieving without prayer and the Holy Spirit."

If the Holy Spirit left the Church alone, alot of it would just carry on,
business as usual.

It is my strongest prayer that this would not be said of yours and my life!

Lessons from an unlikely source

I've always said that I support two English premier league sides: Liverpool and whoever is playing Manchester United that week. But with that said, it is an undeniable fact that they have achieved great and unprecedented measures of success over the last 25 years and, I would be hard-pressed to not say that the root of that success can be traced to one man. Sir Alex Ferguson. An incredible tactician and strategist, he has lead the Red Devils from a floundering outfit of misfits in the mid 80's to the almost unstoppable machine that they are today. Those close to him say that his greatest skill and "trick up his sleeve" is his man management.
In a 2009 interview for the New Scotsman, Ferguson said that the three most important qualities for leadership were

"control, managing change and observation."

Pressed to flesh out the last attribute, he said, "Spotting everything around you, analyzing what is important. Seeing dangers and opportunities that other's don't see. That comes from experience and knowledge".Great lesson to be learnt from a great man.

Maybe my next lesson is to get over my dislike for the team he manages?

Trouble-shooting with Titus #1

Titus 2:11-14

In Paul's letter to Titus, a young man he has left to oversee alot of his work in the churches in the region of Crete, he outlines useful practical advice in "straightening out what was left unfinished" amongst the churches. But snuck in this very useful and practical letter are three brief but outstanding portions of glorious Pauline theology that must have been of extreme comfort to Paul's trouble-shooter Titus, who was often sent in to bring order to chaotic and difficult situations (twice was sent into wild Corinth).

Here's a quick glimpse at the middle nugget, found at the end of chapter two, as Paul presents the Grace of God as something that has strength and that provides backbone, rather than the common misconception that Paul's "Grace gospel" was a soft one. Grace is more than just a doctrine that emphasises God's goodness and man's weakness, it is the very operating system of heaven that empowers us to live this thing called life out here on earth. As Heinz Schrader (lead elder of 3CI, Pretoria) once said, "I thank God for my salvation, and I can't wait for heaven, but it's just this messy bit called life in-between that I struggle with".

The Grace of God:
*brings salvation

-God draws us to himself through his kindness, and even while we were yet his enemies his Grace was at work wooing us to salvation by his Holy Spirit. Our salvation is an act undertaken entirely by God.

*appears to all men

-"For God so loved the world...God's grace is not restricted to just a few. God's will is that all men might reach out to him and be saved. Psalm 145:8-9. For more on this point check out http://saved-by-jesus-christ.blogspot.com/2006/07/common-grace.html

*it teaches

-firstly to say NO to ungodliness and worldly passions. The grace of God is not promoting licentiousness. "Should we sin more so that grace may abound? NO!" Grace empowers us by crucifying our old nature, the flesh, and making us alive by the Spirit.

-secondly, to live self-controlled, upright and Godly lives. Grace provides us with a back-bone. Where we were once foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions, the grace of God came riding in and redefined who I am. I am a new creation with a new nature. I am no longer lead by my flesh, but by my teacher, the Grace of God!

*it aides us in "THIS PRESENT AGE"

-Grace is not restricted to some future time and place. it is not just an access card to get into heaven one day. Grace brings strength to my steps and my every breath NOW!

verse 13 and 14 gives us a reminder that Christ gave himself in exchange for us:

-to redeem us from all wickedness

-and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

There is most definitely a future element to this thing of Grace and I can't wait for the day, the glorious appearing of my great God and Savior, where my faith will be made sight! But I do love how the future and the present are intertwined here as we read that Christ's Grace outstretched to us is working in us, purifying us and creating a new response system in me that is eager to do what is good in the here and now.

The Grace of God is strong, wild and uncontained. It secures for us a future hope and yet at the same time becomes the necessity for our day to day living.

And always in prayer!

"In God's name, I beseech you, let prayer nourish your soul as your meals nourish your body. Let your fixed seasons of prayer keep you in God's presence through the day, and may His presence frequently remembered through it be an ever fresh spring of prayer. Such a brief, loving recollection of God renews a man's whole being, quiets his passions, supplies light and counsel in difficulty, gradually subdues the temper, and causes him to possess his soul in patience, or rather gives it up to the possession of God" Fenelon

It was said of Charles Spurgeon that he glided from laughter to prayer with the naturalness of one who lived in both elements. With him, the habit of prayer was free and unfettered. His life was not divided into compartments as our lives today have become. "I had my quiet-time" some say, before turning to the days tasks. "Prayer meeting tonight" announces the church bulletins, rallying the saints to their weekly hour of prayer. Of course these elements are not wrong, but there's a desire in my heart for the more. To live in constant fellowship with my Father in heaven.
To be ever in touch with God.
To have it as natural for me to pray as it is for me to breathe...

God, let prayer become in every circumstance of life the most natural outpouring of my soul! Let it be the unhindered turning to you for communion and direction! Whether I am in sorrow or in joy, in defeat or in victory, in weakness or in health, in calamity or in success, may my heart leap to meet with you my Dad!"And now brothers, pray without ceasing"

"Will we Tarry?" A post by Alan Frow

'Tarry.' Strange word. Forgotten word. The word Jesus used to describe what his disciples should have done with him in the Garden of Gethsemane and didn't.
Essentially, it means to pray watchfully. "Could you not tarry with me for one hour?" was Jesus' rhetorical question to them.

Like most of us, the disciples' spirits were willing but their flesh was weak. In their case it was because they were sleepy. More accurately, they were 'exhausted from sorrow.'Ironic, but so true, that when we are exhausted, discouraged or depressed, the very thing that cures our condition seems so hard to do.

Prayerlessness seems to me to be one of the epidemics of our culture and time. 'I'm too busy to pray!' is the excuse so many give. John Wesley's response to that excuse was, "I'm too busy not to pray."I have found that prayer brings space to my day, and when I neglect it, things seem more frenetic.

I remember another John; John Wimber, speaking about prayerlessness to his congregation not long before he died. They had become a large, high profile church and he felt they had become passive in prayer. "We are charging on someone else's credit card!" he warned. "We are living in the fruit of the prayers of those that have gone before us instead of investing in prayer for the next generation." An extremely sobering statement.

Of course prayer is inconvenient. But being a Christ -follower, means that the full and inconvenient gift of the Cross, calls for a full response from us. And in the inconvenience of it all, we discover the rare privilege of partnering with the Lord of All, fueling the shaping of history one prayer at a time.


For more from Alan Frow (worship leader, song-writer, pastor, pioneer), check out his blog http://alanfrow.blogspot.com/

Strangely strengthened

Just reading in Acts.14:21-22, a most interesting couple of lines that hold a MASSIVE truth. Paul and Barnabas, two great apostolic figures amongst the early churches had been preaching the good news in the big cities of the day when they returned to Lystra, iconium and Antioch, cities they had already had great influence in. But on their way back through these strongholds, their aim was to strengthen the disciples and to encourage them to remain true to the faith. And this is what their encouragement looked like:

"We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God"

"Must" and "many hardships". Would you call that an encouraging message? The Holy Spirit seems to indicate that it was very much a part of the encouragement and strengthening that they brought to the churches because it is what He chose to highlight.

What Gospel are we embracing? What gospel are we proclaiming to those around us?
In our search for strength and encouragement, and in our dispersal of the same things, let not our remedy be a cheap, easy and temporary substitute that is full of shortcuts.
Walk through God's processes fully.
They may be hard, but true strength and courage will not be far away.

It's Friday but Sunday is coming Part 1

Saturday night about to switch off the light and cram in 8 hours of shut eye before the early morning wake up for church! Been sick all day with flu and quite a high temperature (the first time I've been under the weather in my year and a bit here in Cape Town though!). Maybe the temperature was a warning not to get out of bed to watch the Sharks and Stormers game but alas, I didn't heed my body's "escape clause" and hence my body has embraced what feels like even more weakness...more than the usual amount of course! But I digress.
With us just coming out of the Easter weekend, and with the evening meeting series "Anno Domini" coming to a close tomorrow night, I have been struck with the thought of Jesus' death and subsequent resurrection were not just events that happened, but are cataclysmic moments that need to be embraced to the full if we are going to live in a glory to glory capacity of resurrection power.
Scripture is clear, "the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me", and "greater works shall you do". With encouragement from scripture of these truths, the question then is raised, why are there not many living in the FULLNESS of Spirit-filled, Christ-following existences?

And here's my thought:
Maybe we don't live in resurrection power...because we are not dead.

"If a grain of wheat does not fall and die,
it abides alone!"

Our embracing of Friday and it's denial of self, counting all things as loss style attitude will give us a fuller grasp of Sunday in order for the Mondays and Tuesdays to be walked out in power.

Born to be wild!

I'm lying in bed, sleep somehow resisting me and there's so much noise going on in the house next door that I'm sure they must be re-decorating at midnight or an elephant is trying to change the channel in their living room. Either way, my thoughts are more caught up with Christ and his Kingdom and therefore I assume that the bible will bring a kind of stability to my heart and mind at this late hour. Luke.9:57-62 so arrests my soul to such an extent that I feel God shake me more awake than i have ever felt before in my life! In this short passage of scripture, Jesus encounters 3 people, all professing a desire to follow him but all with a footnote attached. Check it out:

"As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." He said to another man, "follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Still another said, "I will follow you Lord, but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God"

Remember what we have been called to! We are called to be a wild, nomadic people who count all else as loss for the sake of Christ and his Kingdom! A people who are not attached to assets, homes, riches, comfort! A people who are not attached to the past and constantly looking over our shoulders and a longing for 'how we've always done it". A people who are not attached to the opinions, infatuations and the praise of mortal men!

Comfort, nostalgia and a fear of man will rob us of our future!

We are a wild people.
We serve a wild God.
And the future that lies before us is one that is far wilder than what we can imagine!

My heart and flesh cry out!

In Luke's account of Jesus' last few days before the cross, we read in chapter 22 of how Jesus withdrew up the Mount of olives to pray with his Father. In this moment of intimacy, Jesus knew the absolute horror of what lay before him. Looming large ahead was not the fear of beatings, torture, rejection, betrayal, denial, piercing or mortal death, but it was the absolute terror of knowing that his Father's presence was near to being ripped apart from him. The deep intimate union that Jesus and his Father shared was such that Jesus' ministry was littered with phrases such as, "the Father and I are one" and, "I only do what I see my Father doing" and, "I am in the Father and the Father is in me". He and the Father were so inextricably linked that the mere thought of separation from that closeness lead to verse 44; "And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground".

And it is because of this that we can take heart.

Because Jesus submitted to his Father's will, and did not give room for his very legitimate fear to dictate how he would respond, 2000 years later we can take courage from the fact that though we may face moments of fear and anguish, the presence of God will never be removed from us again. Romans.8:35 throws the almost mocking rhetorical taunt, "who shall separate us from the Love of Christ?" right into the face of the enemy.

In light of this, the question is how will you and I respond when fears and anguish's grip our soul? Do we submit to the presence of fear and become victims of our circumstances, or do we submit to the never departing presence of the Father?