All posts by Paul Smit

In His Presence

Pastor's Desk,

Dear Family

I am enjoying our “Journey through the Psalms” on a Sunday morning so much. Never before did I realize just how rich and complete the psalms actually are. It’s clearly no wonder that these were used by the ancient (and present) lovers of God to express their devotion, confidence in, inner feelings, fears, faith, hope and pure love for the God of Gods. They are filled with real life people, in real life situations, with real life questions and answers as they interact with a real life God.

One of the many questions which can be found in the Psalms is David’s human attempt to understand who is actually entitled to be found in God’s presence. In Psalm 15 he provides an answer to his question, “Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary”, listing 11 things:- blameless walk, does what is right, speaks truth, no slander, no wrong to neighbour, no slur against fellow man, despises a vile man, honours those who fear the LORD, keeps his word, lends money without interest, does not accept a bribe. That’s quite a list! It would become a burden above burdens were we to attempt to follow that for the sake of following it by the letter, every day, all day. If you think otherwise, just start with always walking blamelessly and always doing the right thing or being righteous. It’s just not going to happen—if you think you are then you’ve already missed the plot!

I prefer to think that these things are the fruit of true God-lovers. These things will follow those who follow hard after God, who love him with fullness of heart, soul, mind and strength. God’s attributes flowing through his people. The new covenant teaches us in many different ways that “It does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” It’s really all about what he has achieved on our behalf—his righteousness become ours because of what he has done for us. What a relief! My end of the agreement to is keep loving him and allowing him to change what needs to be changed. Co-operation with his ways, led by his Spirit is what’s needed, not an exhausting attempt to keep a list of rules and regulations.

When I look around at the practices of some “Christian” churches and see the cloaks of religious practice in order to please God, I am just so thankful that this is not what Jesus came for! I choose to enter His rest rather than my struggle.

WHO MAY DWELL?

Pastor's Desk,

Dear Family

I am enjoying our “Journey through the Psalms” on a Sunday morning so much. Never before did I realize just how rich and complete the psalms actually are. It’s clearly no wonder that these were used by the ancient (and present) lovers of God to express their devotion, confidence in, inner feelings, fears, faith, hope and pure love for the God of Gods. They are filled with real life people, in real life situations, with real life questions and answers as they interact with a real life God.

One of the many questions which can be found in the Psalms is David’s human attempt to understand who is actually entitled to be found in God’s presence. In Psalm 15 he provides an answer to his question, “Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary”, listing 11 things:- blameless walk, does what is right, speaks truth, no slander, no wrong to neighbour, no slur against fellow man, despises a vile man, honours those who fear the LORD, keeps his word, lends money without interest, does not accept a bribe. That’s quite a list! It would become a burden above burdens were we to attempt to follow that for the sake of following it by the letter, every day, all day. If you think otherwise, just start with always walking blamelessly and always doing the right thing or being righteous. It’s just not going to happen—if you think you are then you’ve already missed the plot!

I prefer to think that these things are the fruit of true God-lovers. These things will follow those who follow hard after God, who love him with fullness of heart, soul, mind and strength. God’s attributes flowing through his people. The new covenant teaches us in many different ways that “It does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” It’s really all about what he has achieved on our behalf—his righteousness become ours because of what he has done for us. What a relief! My end of the agreement to is keep loving him and allowing him to change what needs to be changed. Co-operation with his ways, led by his Spirit is what’s needed, not an exhausting attempt to keep a list of rules and regulations. When I look around at the practices of some “Christian” churches and see the cloaks of religious practice in order to please God, I am just so thankful that this is not what Jesus came for! I choose to enter His rest rather than my struggle.

PEACE!

Pastor's Desk

Dear Family

“Peace” is a most interesting concept. To some it simply means the absence of conflict. To others it means the presence of systems which ensure order. As long as things are adding up and everything is working as it should, that would imply peace. People will sacrifice, fight and even die to ensure that peace is theirs to enjoy. I do believe that all humanity longs for peace. Who would not want to be left alone to live life quietly and comfortably without terror, crime and wars?

The biblical concept of peace is an interesting one. It may include some of the above, but it also encompasses a huge amount more. The Hebrew “shalom” includes such things as safeness, completeness, total health, satisfaction, companionship, tranquility, rest, prosperity and blessing. The Greek “eirene” adds the concept of being free from worry.

Jesus completely demonstrated this type of peace, oozing it wherever He went. He is, after all, the Prince of Peace! And He said that He would give it to us. The same peace which enabled Him to endure temptation, insult, the cross and even death, is the same peace which He offers to us today. It is not dependent on any external factor or specific conditions. It comes from Him and is valid whenever and wherever we find ourselves. Re-member the story of the violent storm when Jesus was asleep in the bottom of the boat. His disciples where absolutely terrified, and the Master just slept. He offers that to us!

Peace like that speaks of total trust in God, which we are only able to know when we understand who God actually is. As the psalmist declared in Psalm 9:10 “Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.”

Jesus invites us to follow Him, to learn from Him, to be yoked with Him. As we surrender ourselves completely to His sway over our lives, we will begin to enjoy the gift of peace which He promises to us. We do not serve and love Him in order to get something out of Him. Rather, as we serve and love Him, He pours out His very own life into ours. And the result of that is simply, WOW!

IT’S ALL ABOUT HIM

Pastor's Desk,

Dear Family

One of those many weird, unanswerable ponder-ings in life for me, at any rate, is to attempt to fathom how we are able to be “in Christ” whilst at the same time, He is “in” us. The Bible says, for ex-ample, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” and also “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. The clos-est explanation I can get to satisfy my pragmatic mind, is to think about a thoroughly soaked sponge in water. The sponge is in the wa-ter and the water is in the sponge. Not that the God who created this water should ever be compared to anything remotely like a mere facet of His creation, but at least it helps me to understand a little more how something can be in something else and at the same time be the thing that something else is in. Confused properly now?

The important thing is that we are in Him, and he is in us! He is our life. He is our past, our present and our future. He is everything we need, and we are the fulfilment of His plan for our lives. Nothing more, nothing less. In Acts 17:28 the Apostle Paul quotes the Greek poet, Aratus, from the first line of his poem on astronomy, “Phaenomena”, which is dedicated to the god Zeus as follows “For in him we live and move and have our being”. Obviously Paul was referring to the God who made the world and not Zeus, but he uses this line to emphasize the incredi-ble relationship we have with Al-mighty God. We live, we move, we have our being – all in Him!

I encourage you never to lose sight of the inexplicable closeness of God. He in us, we in Him. Through good times, through bad times, in celebration, in temptation. He is there! Our promised “Emmanuel”, “God with us” is a truth that, as believers, we should hold dear and high. God is not far removed from our human exist-ence, only popping in occasionally to see how bad things have got be-fore He shuts up shop. Rather, He in us, and we in Him, all the time, forever. Thank you, Jesus!

Paul

 

 

COME OUT!

Pastor's Desk

Dear Family

Living life as a believer is becoming increasingly more difficult in some ways and in others, actu-ally easier. As our world spirals into anti-godliness and the doctrines of man, it can become more easy to see the difference between light and dark. On the other hand, unless we are rooted in the Word, unshakeably, we will find it more and more difficult to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong.

God’s condition for sonship is quite simple as found in 2 Corinthians 6:17-18 “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

Almighty God leaves no room for a watered down life-style. Either we are for Him, or against Him. Running with the foxes and hunting with the hounds is just not what we are all about as believers. God is looking for a people who will not entertain the things of this world as desirable above Him. In fact, we read in James 4:3 “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.” Ouch! Can’t get clearer than that!

Unfortunately we are being pummeled on every side to water down what the Bible says and to believe instead the popular feelings and philosophies of the day. Even large segments of the church have capitulated faith and adherence to the Word in favour of a liquidized religion which proceeds from the mouth of Hollywood. The angel of light is successfully blinding many believers. People who previously stood for the Word and even impacted Christianity in huge measures have been corrupt-ed and fallen from the faith. The Bible warns us that these are all symptoms of the last days.

The call to us is clear: “Come out.” Let’s not be found choosing to rather take an easy road and believe what man is saying just because so many are saying it. If God has said it then there is no debate. Modern man is no more entitled to sin than man in any other previous time. Either it’s God, or it’s not!

(Un)fortunately the choice is still ours!