One of my most favourite scriptures has to be Isaiah 40:31 which says, "But they that wait upon The Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on wings of eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not fait."
Waiting is not one thing I do well, as a choleric personality, I often want to take things into my own hands. Doing, is something I live by, but learning to trust The Lord and in His promises is what I need to remind myself of continually.
What exactly does this waiting really mean? Strongs concordance says it comes from the Hebrew verb "qavah" which means to stretch, then for tension. Waiting is therefore not a passive word indicating someone who is in a relaxed state twiddling their thumbs, but someone who is pursuing The Lord and all His promises for their lives.
The pursuing or stretching in this case however, is having a trust and hopeful expectation of what The Lord is going to do, not an attempt on our own parts to make things happen but to have faith that The Lord has an answer to all circumstances.
I wonder if this is what the Israelites were thinking in Exodus 32 as they were waiting for Moses to come down the mountain after receiving the Ten Commandments? Unlikely not, as in their inpatients they crafted through Aaron the golden calf. This inpatients, I think is often repeated in our own lives when we need answers. Whether it be a miracle or simply direction for the ensuing year, we grow weary of waiting and often take things into our own hands, not trusting The Lord is able.
Ephesians 3:20 tells us "now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work in us". As we learn to trust The Lord that He has all things in hand, I believe this is when we ultimately begin to see what The Lord really is able to do in us and through us.
God bless and Shalom!
Wednesday, 10 September 2014
Saturday, 6 September 2014
Go into all the World and make disciples
Jesus in his last command to the church from Matthew 28 said "Go into all the world and make disciples...". Today I was contemplating this scripture and started to think, what does this ultimately look like. Naturally we know what a disciple of Jesus looks like, someone who in turn is producing the same sort of fruit that Jesus produced in his life, that is doing the very things that Jesus did when he walked the earth. Healing the sick, making the blind to see, the lame to walk and proclaiming the year of the Lords favour. This is not limited to the natural but also the spiritual.
So we know what disciples look like, but what does the making of disciples look like, how do we practically engage in the making of disciples? Is their a formula or program or even flow chart that can demonstrate how this takes place? I doubt there is and if there were I am confident that everyone would know about it.
In no way am I going to claim to have THE answer, but I would like to share a simple observation I have made in my own life.
Whilst at home today, I decided to start a fire in our combustion fire to warm the house up. Naturally when we start fires there are a few elements necessary to make a good fire. Firstly, we need fuel, something that can burn and in turn can sustain the flame. Secondly, we need heat or at least a flame as a source of ignition. Thirdly we need oxygen, for when there is no oxygen the flame cannot be sustained. When all of these elements are in place, we can make fire, but naturally it also requires something or someone to bring all these things together. There are potentially many ways in which these elements can come together, for example in nature, especially in warm dry climates like Australia where many fires are ignited from lightning setting aflame many of the grasses and dry branches that are found across this parched landscape.
What is interesting about fires or flames is that when they come into contact with materials such as tried up branches it takes very little for them to catch alight. In deed scientist tells us that it is the simple transference of heat to these items that see them catch fire. This was displayed when I finally got my own fire place alight, to continue to see my home maintain it's heat, all I needed to do was place more logs on the already burning fire, they inturn began to burn.
This I believe is a way in which we ourselves make disciples of Jesus. When we are alive, alight and inflamed with the very Spirit of God and the presence of Jesus, it takes very little for those around us to also become alive. Proverbs 27 in the bible also speaks of this, "as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." This I would say is a very organic or natural way in which we can make disciples but of cause it is not the only and limited way to do so.
The pre-requisite for others to be inflamed by the power of Jesus within each of us is that we must first be full of his love, power and presence. I pray that I can be this person every day of my life and when I am not, that I can be full of His grace.
So we know what disciples look like, but what does the making of disciples look like, how do we practically engage in the making of disciples? Is their a formula or program or even flow chart that can demonstrate how this takes place? I doubt there is and if there were I am confident that everyone would know about it.
In no way am I going to claim to have THE answer, but I would like to share a simple observation I have made in my own life.
Whilst at home today, I decided to start a fire in our combustion fire to warm the house up. Naturally when we start fires there are a few elements necessary to make a good fire. Firstly, we need fuel, something that can burn and in turn can sustain the flame. Secondly, we need heat or at least a flame as a source of ignition. Thirdly we need oxygen, for when there is no oxygen the flame cannot be sustained. When all of these elements are in place, we can make fire, but naturally it also requires something or someone to bring all these things together. There are potentially many ways in which these elements can come together, for example in nature, especially in warm dry climates like Australia where many fires are ignited from lightning setting aflame many of the grasses and dry branches that are found across this parched landscape.
What is interesting about fires or flames is that when they come into contact with materials such as tried up branches it takes very little for them to catch alight. In deed scientist tells us that it is the simple transference of heat to these items that see them catch fire. This was displayed when I finally got my own fire place alight, to continue to see my home maintain it's heat, all I needed to do was place more logs on the already burning fire, they inturn began to burn.
This I believe is a way in which we ourselves make disciples of Jesus. When we are alive, alight and inflamed with the very Spirit of God and the presence of Jesus, it takes very little for those around us to also become alive. Proverbs 27 in the bible also speaks of this, "as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." This I would say is a very organic or natural way in which we can make disciples but of cause it is not the only and limited way to do so.
The pre-requisite for others to be inflamed by the power of Jesus within each of us is that we must first be full of his love, power and presence. I pray that I can be this person every day of my life and when I am not, that I can be full of His grace.
Wednesday, 3 September 2014
Treasure in Heaven
The bible is clear that our treasure needs to be in heaven rather than on earth as Matthew 6:19 says “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal." As it were, this very scripture became evident last week, when we had our home broken into. We are so grateful to God that no great damage was done to the house and that all that was taken were a few things of little value.
But it was this event that made me start to contemplate man's ever increasing need to lay up for himself things that ultimately will not and cannot last. These things I refer are naturally physical items which over time will eventually decay and erode.
The main thing we should ask in this world is what then are things we should be doing with our time and energy and resources? I remember an advertisement that Mercedes Benz ran a few years ago, it showed a younger man driving a new car, obviously a benz, and stated that life should begin how it often ends, with all the fine things in life and therefore time to enjoy them. And whilst this sounds nice, to live your life in enjoying the finer things it is often not these things that bring real enjoyment. Statistics show us, the things that bring most pleasure in life are relationships with family, not houses, cars and money.
Yet time and time again, the emphasis, especially in our western world, is on the gaining of more and more riches. A fact that we in the western world often forgot is almost two thirds of the worlds population live on less than one dollar per day. Less than 10% of the worlds population control 90% of it's assets. Staggering figures when we think of it. I have had the opportunity to travel several times to Vanuatu. A Country that has very little resources and which has been in years gone by dominated by Western rulers, namely the English & French. It wasn't until the 80's that rule was handed back to this Island Nation. Despite the low income and lack of resources that we are so used to in the Western world, Vanuatu has been voted time and time again as the happiest people on earth.
I recently invested some money into a long term savings account only to find that we would only receive 4% interest on our return and whilst some would say this is fine for a bank which is low risk, it at the end of the day will take a very long time before we can do anything significant with these returns. If however, we are able to invest this money into the lives and well being of others, we see an instant return on our investment whilst at the same time having the opportunity to help someone else out of poverty or even slavery.
Naturally at this point, I could say we need to learn to give of what we have and share some of the wealth that we so enjoy. The reality though, is it is unlikely this will happen. Mammon rules our society. But as Christians, we are encourage not to be of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Perhaps if we were to spend half as much time in accumulating things, to developing meaningful and loving relationships, such as the Neevans in Vanuatu do, perhaps our world would be a better place to live.
But it was this event that made me start to contemplate man's ever increasing need to lay up for himself things that ultimately will not and cannot last. These things I refer are naturally physical items which over time will eventually decay and erode.
The main thing we should ask in this world is what then are things we should be doing with our time and energy and resources? I remember an advertisement that Mercedes Benz ran a few years ago, it showed a younger man driving a new car, obviously a benz, and stated that life should begin how it often ends, with all the fine things in life and therefore time to enjoy them. And whilst this sounds nice, to live your life in enjoying the finer things it is often not these things that bring real enjoyment. Statistics show us, the things that bring most pleasure in life are relationships with family, not houses, cars and money.
Yet time and time again, the emphasis, especially in our western world, is on the gaining of more and more riches. A fact that we in the western world often forgot is almost two thirds of the worlds population live on less than one dollar per day. Less than 10% of the worlds population control 90% of it's assets. Staggering figures when we think of it. I have had the opportunity to travel several times to Vanuatu. A Country that has very little resources and which has been in years gone by dominated by Western rulers, namely the English & French. It wasn't until the 80's that rule was handed back to this Island Nation. Despite the low income and lack of resources that we are so used to in the Western world, Vanuatu has been voted time and time again as the happiest people on earth.
I recently invested some money into a long term savings account only to find that we would only receive 4% interest on our return and whilst some would say this is fine for a bank which is low risk, it at the end of the day will take a very long time before we can do anything significant with these returns. If however, we are able to invest this money into the lives and well being of others, we see an instant return on our investment whilst at the same time having the opportunity to help someone else out of poverty or even slavery.
Naturally at this point, I could say we need to learn to give of what we have and share some of the wealth that we so enjoy. The reality though, is it is unlikely this will happen. Mammon rules our society. But as Christians, we are encourage not to be of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Perhaps if we were to spend half as much time in accumulating things, to developing meaningful and loving relationships, such as the Neevans in Vanuatu do, perhaps our world would be a better place to live.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)