Monday 26 February 2018

Alive based on Grace

God's Grace





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Prayer Requests

Today's Prayer Requests



dawn | I would like to ask you to pray with me for the safety of our President Trump. He's not just fighting a media war or a war with the government, he is fighting against dark powers and satanic things. They have tried to kill him several times and he needs our help because if they kill him we will be living in an unimaginable hell until Jesus returns.

VERA BANKSTON-JONES | FATHER GOD, You showing me the errors of my ways and guiding my steps, mind, and heart, and thank you Father!.......SELAH

vijay aggarwal | Plz pray for money in abundance for a comfortable life

KAKA KENNETH | GOD SHOULD OPEN EVERY CLOSE DOOR FOR MY EMPLOYMENT.
I NEED TO SECURE A JOB .

Bertie Coutinho | For the growth of my small church that I Pastor

Lthompson | Please pray for unity in my family. I am interested in evangelism-please pray that the Lord will fill me up with His Holy Spirit (power for service). Also please pray that the Lord will provide my lifelong partner. Thanks

Blessings Soko | God grant me wisdom as i am doing my secondary school studies

Donald Dzebu | A pray God forgive me of all my sins.I begin to feel bad if i cast my mind back to those days where ladies aborted babies for my seek.May the good Lord wash away my sins and cleanse me in Jesus name.

BB | Please pray for me to have spiritual, emotional and financial blessings. Praise God for all my blessings.

Adony | I pray that my Family can get back together. I miss them so much. I ask for the Justice of the courts to make the right decision. GOD bless us always !!!

Ewan Ohiomoba |  I need God favour and blessings in my life. I have an interview to attend come to attend a friend graduation in the USA. I need God favour to be granted my Visa thru the American Embassy. I also God Almighty to break the curse of every household enemies in my life and family. Amen

daya caleb | plz pray for my dad and mom and also lord jesus christ

Ralph Hardesty | Please pray for my wife while we are separated because of differences out of our control  please pray for he peace of mind   Ill be ok  she needs the lord in her heart

Denise I Webb | Pray that God will take away all the evilness out of my body and take away all pain and heal my dad after having two heart attacks


Saturday 24 February 2018

Our Kintsugi Souls

Broken Yet Together



"I'm not a Christian because I'm strong and have it all together. I'm a Christian because I'm weak and admit I need a Savior."
 -- Lecrae [1]

One night during a dark time in my life I lay on my floor praying and sobbing.  It seemed like my students at the time were going through difficult situations, while all of my close friends were struggling in their walk with the Lord.  I had an intense desire to help each of them, but what could I possibly do?  I knew that I wasn't capable of fixing a person's heart or saving their soul.  But I could hear God saying, "Anna, these people are my responsibility, not yours.  Just do what I have asked you to do."

I poured my heart out to the wise woman I call my mother, and she told me, "Parents often feel as though they are not doing good enough, and that they are not providing their child with everything she needs.  And they aren't!  But we must remember that a person's life is like a mosaic.  A mosaic has many small tiles and pieces of glass which make up a bigger picture.  Similarly, a person's life is made up of many people, and even if they are small or in our lives for only a short time, they play a role.  All you are asked to do, Anna, is to do what you are capable of, and God will provide whatever and whoever else your child, student or friend needs."

My Ceramic Heart


I had a vision once of my heart, which looked like it was made of ceramic   It was broken and had wide open cracks in it.  Then I saw the Holy Spirit like a brilliant orb of light descend and enter inside of it, and through the broken gashes the light shone out into the surrounding darkness.  I heard God say, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 

Paul quotes that passage in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, going on to say,  "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 

Our aching hearts can only be made whole in Christ, and God will use our brokenness and shortcomings to glorify Himself.  I have struggled with hating myself when I sin and being unable to forgive myself.  I used to think on some level that God loves me more when I'm doing good and performing the righteous deed.  Satan whispers lies and accusations, trying to distract me;
"You're too weak at heart; you're too far from God to be used by Him successfully."
"You're a failure as a pastor's wife."
"The only people who will ever love you are people who are needy for you...how could anyone love you if you're the needy one?"

However, the truth is very different.  I'm more sinful than I realize, yet I'm forgiven and more loved than I can ever fully know.  Ephesians 2:8-10 declares,  "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Being Made Whole


Yes, we are messy, sinful, broken people, but God makes us whole and gives us the power to follow and obey Him.  There was a song by Casting Crowns called, "Broken Together."  The song is about a married couple going through a difficult time, and the lyrics have struck a chord with many people.  The chorus goes,
"Maybe you and I were never meant to be complete
Could we just be broken together
If you can bring your shattered dreams and I'll bring mine
Could healing still be spoken and save us
The only way we'll last forever is broken together" [2]

Much of Casting Crowns music has deeply blessed me, but I found this particular song troubling.  This feeling of brokenness resonates with the vast majority of people, but God ultimately has another plan in mind for His children.  James 1:2-4 says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

There's a beautiful Japanese art form called kintsugi.  It involves taking broken pottery and piecing it back together with lacquer mixed with gold, silver or platinum powder.  Not only does this make the shattered pot whole and functional again, but it makes it more beautiful and valuable   This is exactly what God does with us after we've been beaten and battered by the world, and even after we've sinned.  Our shortcomings give God a chance to do what we can't, which will show the world around us just how good and powerful He is. This is why we don't need to get bogged down in shame or feel we're not good enough to bring glory to God.  

We are vessels carrying The Fire of the Holy Spirit.  None of us is perfect vessels, but it's The Fire itself we're carrying which is important.  So I encourage you, brothers and sisters, to be a conduit of the Holy Spirit's light.  You can't do this in your own power, but Christ will be faithful to work through you as you worship and seek after Him.






Author Bio


Anna Sojourning is a child of God and is the wife of a Christian pastor of the Asian persuasion. She enjoys travelling, going on dates with her husband, and drinking innumerable cups of tea while she writes. She has a passion for deepening her relationship with God, and she desires to show others what He has taught her through scripture and through life experiences.

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Sources: 
[1] LeCrae. AZQuotes.com, Wind and Fly LTD, 2018. http://www.azquotes.com/quote/865872, accessed February 17, 2018.
[2]  Casting Crowns, "Broken Together." Thrive. CD. Beach Street/Reunion. 2014.



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Thursday 15 February 2018

We MUST Go to Others!

A Sermon on Mark 1:29-39



May the gifts of the love, the mercy and peace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ so accompany you in your life that you are aware of those who lack it, and may that lack inspire you to reach out to them with your greatest treasure!

Must?

As I tried to come up with a sermon title this week, knowing I was preaching on the gospel I tried to come up with something special, something that would inspire and catch on, a phrase you can’t get out of your mind, encouraging you to walk with Jesus, just as the apostles did,

I couldn’t come up with something, so I figured a great title is found in Jesus’s words,

“We must go on to other towns” or in these days, we can make it simple, “we must go to others.”

The problem using that as the title is that it sounds different than it really means.  It sounds like work and obligation that is demanded of us by God.  To use Lutheran-speak, it sounds like the law, and therefore it points out where we fall short, where we fail God and deserve to be punished.

But that isn’t at all what Jesus is telling the apostles when he says “We must go to others, and I will preach to them too, for that is why we came.”

We need to hear Jesus, and more than that, we need to understand Him.  This isn’t about us being good children of God or good members of the church.

It’s concerning understanding for ourselves those things Paul explained to the people in Athens,  Repeat along with me.

'In him, we live and move and have our being,'' Acts 17:28 


What did “they” do?

Let’s go back a few verses, as Jesus and the apostles go to Simon Peter’s house.  There, Jesus finds Peter’s mum sick, so sick that with a very important guest at her house, she is lying down, burning up with a fever.  I mean, think about it, how sick would our ladies here be, if they didn’t get up and be hospitable?

So Jesus heals her, helps her up, and the word spreads.

The next thing you realize, we have a people at the door and it seems busier that St Jude’s Hospital ER during flu period.  People with every type of illness and disease, people even possessed by demons, every one being brought to Jesus.

Mark’s gospel tells you that the entire town turned out to watch these miracles….

But how did they know all this was happening?

Someone, more excited than someone winning the Superbowl had to have told them.

That’s what happens when we begin to realize the depth of God’s grace, the depth of His mercy.  When we find out in Him we can live, really live.  When we see our souls begin to be healed, we see others who need it, and then rejoicing even more that there is no limit.  When the demons that torment us lose their grip. And we are freed from them and the guilt and shame that they try to plague us with disappears.

As we get used to that freedom, we never want to leave His side… so how will people know God’s love?  How will they have the blessing of God’s love, the blessing of His mercy and forgiveness revealed to them?

Remember those words


In him, we live and move and have our being!


Jesus doesn’t say, “I must” or “you must”

For that is why he came, to give us the knowledge that in Him is everything we are, our life, our breath, what we do, everything we are.

It is exactly what the cross is centered on, and all sorts of those church words, redemption, justification, reconciliation, renewal, revitalization, the many words picture that in Christ we have died to sin and all that isn’t of God, and our lives, our very being is found in Him.  It is why he was born of a virgin, suffered and died, rose from the ascended and sent the Holy Spirit.

So that He could transform us so that He could give us life.

You see that as He doesn’t just say, “I must go to others,”  and He doesn’t say “you must go to others.”  What does He say, “we must go to others”

We must, Jesus and all those who are with Him must go to others.  All those whom He has joined to Himself.   We Must Go, We being Jesus and you all and me.

And then He is the one who reveals Himself to them, as He draws them here. And we don’t have to go all that far.


Why He Came


Perhaps many of us are called to travel to another country, to go along with Bernie to Sudan, or with Christina to Turkey, however, if Jesus says “we must go to others” it may be to our neighbor, who might be from Sudan, or Guyana or Indonesia or France, or Germany or Switzerland or possibly somewhere really strange - like Boston or Wisconsin.

All of us live in a temporary age when individuals from every country on earth save 1 or 2 have arrived at our neighbourhoods!  We must go, with Jesus, to them, so that He can demonstrate to them His love.  They even come to us occasionally, as they did yesterday.  As I pulled up, 16 people were in the parking lot, playing a game called Pokemon go, a few hours later, I went to the bathroom and there were another dozen people.  Both times, as we waited for the game to set, they asked me how I heard about the game being live on our campus.  I said… uhm, I am the pastor here… and they asked questions about the church and about the school. People as young as a five-year-old, as old as all of us. came here to play a game on their phones,

At least that is why they think they came…

We, you, me and Jesus need to go to them and let Jesus reveal Himself, and the news of His love.

We, you and me and Jesus, need to go to others and let them know about the love and mercy and healing of their hearts and souls.  Whether that means going across the parking lot, or across the street, state, country or world.  We, Jesus, you and I must go..

Because this is why He came…

And as He goes to others, we simply go with Him, for in Him we live and move and have our being!

AMEN!




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Can the Church Leadership Quit Lusting for Power and Control?

Power and Control


Christian responsibility in work cannot be limited to just putting in the hours. It means doing the task with technical and professional competence… and, above all, with love of God.

The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: 2 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; 3 Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. -1 Peter 5:1-4 (KJV)

A society that tends to turn people into puppets of production and consumption always opts for results. It needs control; it cannot give rise to novelty without seriously compromising its purposes and without increasing the degree of already existing conflict. It prefers that the other be completely predictable in order to acquire the maximum profit with a minimum of expenditure.

I often receive advertisements for books and seminars about Christian leadership.  Books that talk about the management of the church, the proper way to administrate things.  Some bring the best and brightest of secular management and leadership theorists into play.  This is nothing new, as names like Peter Drucker, John Maxwell and Steven Covey have long tried to bridge the gap between secular leaders and leaders in the church. Most of the church consultants I know use those kinds of models, those kinds of systems.

By leaders, I mean anyone who leaders, whether it be the Sunday School leader, the deacons, elders, or altar guild, or the pastors and denominational leaders that go by terms like Bishop, President or even Pope. My favourite title for a leader and I have heard every Pope in my life refer to it, is their title, "servant of the servants of God."  Not the King, or the Lord, or high exalted leader but the servant of those who serves.

Back to leadership itself.  I think the problem we often see when secular leadership style and theory come into play in the church is the idea of profit.  Not necessarily monetary, but the idea of profit as in return on investment (ROI).  I've seen this as churches prepare budgets, as denominations determine where to plant new churches, and whether to close other, smaller churches.  The latter because they use up too many resources (money, land, building space)

St Josemaria calls us o think differently, to work with the love of God.  Not just putting in the hours, but truly investing our talent, our knowledge, our competencies, all bathed in the love of God.

Francis likewise warns of turning the church into a puppet kingdom, where we strive for results and growth, forgetting the person's needs, and basing outreach on maximum profit for minimum expenditure.  I've seen this in meetings where rather than come alongside smaller churches in urban areas, advisors tell them to become legacy churches, closing and selling their properties to help growing churches thrive.  We want predictable and sure methods for growth or revitalization, something with a quick turnaround, rather than something that might consume us.

We come full circle back to Peter's epistle then, where he tells us not to do out work for pay (whatever the "payoff is - it might not be money)  Rather we should do our job from a desire to serve, even as our Lord served.  To work, not demanding this and that of those we are entrusted to, but by being examples to those we care for, investing in them, not expecting them to invest in us first.  We need to love them, not manage them,  Just as Christ loves and guides us, with gentleness and care.

This is contrary to modern business practices, yet it is the nature of ministry, of serving others, it is the nature of imitating Christ Jesus, who expended it all to save a bunch of corrupt and often shameless sinners like you and me.

May we lead our people into the peace and wonder that is found as Christ is revealed, as He ministers to, cleanses and makes us Holy. May we all find that healing available only in Jesus, as we help others heal.

AMEN!



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Credit: Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge (Kindle Locations 2578-2581). Scepter But Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Pope Francis. A Year with Pope Francis: Daily Reflections from His Writings. Ed. Alberto Rossa. New York; Mahwah, NJ; Toronto, ON: Paulist Press; Novalis, 2013. Print.

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