Revival

So churches are allowed to open tomorrow. But, there are such stringent protocols involved. Sanitizing, scanning, masks, no singing, no testimonies…. Sitting in a building wearing mask, 2 meters away from anyone, listening to a sermon. Then going home without any interaction doesn’t sound like what church was meant to be. A gathering of the saints, worship, sharing, breaking bread… That’s church. If this is an attempt to destroy the essence of Christianity, it won’t succeed. The more persecution is placed on Christianity the quicker it spreads and grows. These are the perfect conditions for a revival. The last big revival by the looks of it.

I don’t deserve

Have you ever thought or said to yourself, “I Don’t deserve?”

I don’t deserve to have new shoes because I don’t make enough money.

I don’t deserve to take a holiday because I owe someone money.

I don’t deserve to enjoy my life because my business is not doing well.

I don’t deserve to have nice things because I’m not good enough.

 

Or

 

Have you bought the shoes and the clothes and gone on the holiday and had fun, and it didn’t change your mindset at all. You’re asking yourself what’s wrong? This is what I wanted, this is what I needed but it hasn’t changed a single thing! It hasn’t because the only way you can start looking at yourself differently is through God’s glasses. How does God see you? Have you ever wondered?

Does God see you the way you see yourself or does God see you the way your family sees you? Maybe God sees you the way the people in the church see you, or the people you work with?

All these people probably see you differently anyway.

God sees you the way He sees Jesus.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

 

2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

 

Ephesians 4:24

and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

 

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not of works, lest anyone should boast.

God saves us because He wants to. Not because of anything we do. He doesn’t look down from Heaven and say, “Mmmmm, Frikkie is a really good person, let me save him.” Not at all!

He looks at Frikkie and says, “Frikkie, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, it doesn’t matter that you’ve made a proper mess of your life, it doesn’t matter that you’re on the wrong road. It doesn’t even matter that you’re trying to fool people into thinking that you’re okay. I love you. I love you so much that I sent my Son to die for you and all you have to do is accept that. I want to save you so that you will be in eternity with Me. I want to make you whole and I want to see you the way I see my Son, Jesus.”

That’s just the thing. We have preconceived ideas about just about everything. Even about God. We think way too much about what things are supposed to be like according to whoever is the flavour of the month. I think we need to seriously embrace our new life in Christ. Even if we’ve been Christians for years and years we forget and we get stuck in a rut. We need to shake off all the excess baggage and live a life of liberty. If we need to get rid of things that are weighing us down then we must make up our minds and just do it. If we need to forgive, we need to do it. If we need to ask for forgiveness, we know what to do. There is no time to put it off till later. Even if Jesus doesn’t come back in the next month or two, none of us know when our time here on earth is going to run out.

No time like the present. Embrace the freedom that Jesus gave you. Your father is the King and you are of royal birth. Step out in freedom and don’t look back

Feed the Hungry

I have a very good reason to praise God today. This is the 200^th episode that I’m publishing on the podcast. I have also taken 50 of my devotionals, put them together into a book and published them on Kindle. Technology is really awesome if used for good. Even though I live in the middle of nowhere I can publish a book without leaving town. All you need is the internet.

Having small victories to celebrate is wonderful and we should be doing it all the time. Sometimes it looks like there aren’t any victories to celebrate and everything looks bleak. There is an economic crisis at the moment. There’s less expendable income and there’s much more debt. There are crises at the end of the month where people who have borrowed more than they can repay. There are children who go to school hungry and some of them just go to school because of the feeding schemes. I know that there are social grants which are paid out to many parents for the care of their children which never reach the children. People drink, smoke and gamble and have paid television channels but they can’t feed their children. What is the problem?

In my opinion the problem is not the country’s economy. It is a spiritual problem. People are being held in poverty by the spiritual darkness that is part of the history of this country. There are so many people who are pretending to be Christians. I am deeply saddened by the mindsets of people who are in churches but who are still blinded by the wiles of the devil. They cannot see the problems which are right in front of them.

James 1:27, Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

If this verse is to be taken seriously then there are very few churches and Christians who do what the God expects of them. Why do buildings and programs get preference over missions and poor people. A few years ago a lady who represented one of the local churches showed me some sweaters that the ladies had knitted. She said that they were being donated to a charity in a neighbouring city because our town doesn’t really have needy people. I was so shocked that she didn’t know what was happening right in front of her face! In the early church the believers took care of widows who couldn’t afford to look after themselves. Acts chapter 6 gives a clear account of that. Where did things go wrong? When did people decide that the state should take care of needy people instead of the church? When the church stopped doing this and also stopped educating children they lost their voice in society. If a government which isn’t Godly takes care of the poor people and is in charge of education then the alliance of the people are to the government. They do not have to listen to the church because the church effectively becomes irrelevant in their lives. Why should people who are poor listen to a church which does not offer them anything to alleviate their situation? There are churches which are very affluent and the people who attend those churches reflect the state of the church. People who are poor and needy and do not operate on that economic level feel extremely out of place. If doesn’t help to preach to a man while he is hungry.

Matthew 25:35-36,   for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

Only once we have fed the hungry, clothed the naked and housed the homeless we can preach to them. Preaching to the same people Sunday after Sunday for months and years is not the aim of church. A church should not be an impressive building with all kinds of social programs. A church should be the people who are followers of Jesus who are physically going about their daily tasks doing what Jesus did. We should all be preaching the Gospel, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, casting out demons and loving a broken world to wellness.

Coffee and Unity

I got to church on Sunday just as the service began. My spirit was too low to praise and sadness surrounded me. I was there for about two minutes when I realized I couldn’t stay. My state of mind was clear to see and people with the very best intentions would either ignore e, or surround me with love and compassion, and I wasn’t open to accepting either in a group situation. When I got to the front door, a friend walked in who was even later than me. She hugged me and asked if  I was all right. My tears started to flow and she suggested that we go and sit in her car. We spoke for a while and I felt better. I told her that I would not be going back to church and she suggested that we go for coffee. It was the best thing that could have happened to me. God’s timing in impeccable. We spoke about spiritual matters and our children and work and the weather. It was glorious. It was exactly what I needed.

Ephesians 4:1 – 6, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

How are we ever going to live in unity if we don’t get to communicate on a personal level if we don’t interact on a personal level. We will never get to know anyone’s heart if we don’t connect with them in a way that we can actually hear what the desires of their hearts are. That is not something that’s going to happen in a church service. A small group or cell group is going to take us closer, but there’s nothing like one on one conversation over a cup of coffee.

Jesus didn’t just walk around preaching and multiplying loaves and fish, He shared many meals with people. I’m sure if coffee was around at that time, Jesus would have told parables over bottomless cappuccino.

Luke 19:1 – 10 tell of how Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus’s house for a meal. The result was miraculous. Zaccaeus repented of his devious dealings and gave half his good to the poor.

In Luke 10:38 – 42 Jesus has a meal at the house of Mary and Martha and Martha complains bitterly that she has to slave away in the kitchen while her sister sits at the feet of Jesus.

When Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law in Matthew 8:14-15, she got up and started serving them.

Matthew chapter 22 tell of the preparations for the Passover meal which became the basis of Communion as we know it today. A group of friends having a meal and discussing the imminent fate of their Master became known as the Last Supper. A simple meal shared between them was set down as one of the auspicious occasions in history. The meal where Jesus announced that He knew who would betray Him; a meal where the disciples argued about who was the greatest; a meal where Jesus predicted Peter’s denial and His own death. This happened around a table, over a meal, not in a synagogue or a church with dramatic organ music or drums rolls stirring up the atmosphere.

I am not saying you shouldn’t go to church. Not at all. Church has a place in our lives, a very important place. It is the place where we worship and celebrate Christ’s love with other believers and should not be neglected. But coffee is what fellowship is all about. This is where we get down to grassroots.

So have coffee or have tea or juice or cheesecake with a friend and fellowship and get to know each other’s hearts as well as God’s heart.

Spiritual drought

I was watering the garden begin the shop in the late afternoon. I just took two small buckets and gave the plants the bare minimum of water. I didn’t have the time or the inclination to do more. Everything is really extremely dry because of the lack of rain and also because of my lack of care.
God showed me that the church is like my garden. The people who haven’t given up of the church and left, are barely holding on. Their roots are even drying out. Their leaves are wilting or brittle. They aren’t receiving the water of the Holy Spirit, the living water that they so desperately need in order to grow.

The caretakers of the garden (church) don’t take the time or have the inclination to spend time in the Word to get filled up and to bubble over and spill over. The people who are sitting in the pews are satisfied with the scraps because they haven’t received the real life-giving water for so long that they don’t know any better. They aren’t reaching out and searching for more. Complacency has set in and apathy is the order of the day. If the gardener isn’t excited about growing plants how can the plants be excited, and if he convinces the plants that they are receiving enough water who are they to argue?
The other thing I noticed was that there were thorns sticking into the soles of my shoes. They are very aptly named devil’s thorns. Picking up ‘thorns’ is very easy when there isn’t any nourishment and water.
For the turning away of the simple will slay them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them;
Proverbs 1:32