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!