Category Archives: Pastor’s Desk

YOUR WAY

Pastor's Desk, ,

Dear Family

We live in society of choice, perhaps otherwise known as a free society, or so it seems.  We have the right to decide on so many issues every single day. This may sometimes feel like a burden, and at other times feel like a blessing.  Sometimes we may even feel like we have not been given enough choices, and at other times we may long for someone just to decide for us.  Depending on how much expendable income one has, the scope of choices can also vary.  The bottom line: in South Africa at the moment we have a wide range of choices we need to make on a daily basis and these choices do affect our quality of life, health, emotional, psychological and spiritual well being. Most often than not the choices we make today will determine what our future will look like. Where we base our choices on prevailing societal trends, we are certain to be subject to them consequentially.  But for the believer, we have the potential to base our choices upon the enduring Word of God, and, when we do so, to enjoy the benefits of full obedience.

In Psalm 86:11 we find the key to be ably to choose wisely: Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.”  Here we find a prayer, deep from the heart, for God to be the Teacher of His Way, so that the psalmist can “walk in your truth”.

God delights in the person whose heart is committed to learning His way of doing things.  When we know and are dedicated to following His way, we then are empowered to make choices that will benefit ourselves and others around us for eternity. No longer will we be choosing and hoping for the best. God’s way is always best in any and in every situation.

Romans 12 teaches us: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Wow! Go for God!

 

IN HIS CONFIDENCE

Pastor's Desk,

Dear Family
It is simply mind blowing to think that “the LORD confides in those who fear Him”. We are talking about the Creator of all things, the God of all wisdom, and the Mind of all reason. Why on earth would He, the All Sufficient One, want to share anything with us in the first place, let alone take us into His confidence? I think part of the answer to that is God’s longing for true fellowship with His created beings. We see that from the very beginning God walked with Adam in the garden of Eden in the cool of the day. It appears that this was a customary thing—the God of all glory popping in for a leisurely stroll as He interacted with the crown of His creation. We know the sad ending to that story, but we are eternally thankful for the truth we now walk in on a daily basis. Because of the last Adam, the life-giving Spirit, Jesus, we now have access to that stroll with God in the cool of the day, all day, every day!
Jesus said, “He who belongs to God, hears what God says” and, “My sheep hear my voice”. We have this unbelievable access to the confidence of Almighty God all day, every day. Wow!
So how does God speak to us? Well, in a number of ways, but the most reliable and regular way would be through His Word. Every single time we pick up that blessed book we are able to hear and discern the confidence of God, as long as we’re seeking His righteousness in the process and not our own will. He has given us His very own Spirit to live in us, the Spirit of Truth, who helps us to understand what God is saying.
The church has got very lost down through the ages, giving certain people (the clergy) exclusive rights to hear from God. This has resulted in gross abuse of the Scriptures as well as an inherent laziness on behalf of the people. God has given gifts to the church to help the church function properly. He has not given positions and titles and certainly never intended an exclusive bunch to be the sole recipients of His confidence. It’s for all His children who fear Him. Isaiah wrote in 66:2 “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” Don’t run to the priest, run to your High Priest, Jesus, and there spend time soaking in this truth, “The LORD confides in those who fear Him!”

Shut up!

Pastor's Desk

Dear Family

There is just so much stuff going on all over at the moment that I feel desperately sorry for the person without God. We have a country and a world in crisis. From natural disasters to political turmoil to out of control violent crime to super bugs in hospitals to every nook and cranny of society in trauma, we are a world waiting for the next serving of bad news! And all of this is to be expected. Psalm 14:1 says, “The fool says in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is none who does good.” Everything we see around us that’s going wrong is simply the outworking of this verse. A world filled with people who have rejected Almighty God, His order and His path, and chosen instead to follow after their own devices and their own very limited wisdom. No doubt, things will still get a lot worse in time to come because that’s just the nature of evil man without God, spurred on by satan and his minions.

Now, in the midst of all this stuff, God has His children who, although they find themselves in this world of trouble, can walk as though not of it. Jesus promised us peace because He overcame the world completely and finally. There is obviously onus upon God’s children to walk in His way in order to enjoy the fullness of His peace in the midst of chaos. We cannot apply worldly principles to deal with issues of the heart. Another bottle of whisky will not fix the brokenness of humanity. God commands us quite forcefully when He says in Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God…” This is not optional, it’s a command. “Shut up” your fears and concerns. “Shut up” your anxieties and negativities. “Shut up and know that I am God”. These are moment by moment choices that we are able to make in the midst of whatever is going on around us. We place our trust and faith in Him and He empowers us with peace and certainty. The verse goes on to say, “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Ha! Ha! We know the end result and it’s coming. Jesus said we must not panic when stuff goes on around us. He is coming back and He will keep us in complete peace in the interim.

“Do not be discouraged, do not be afraid” rings in my head whenever I feel weighed down by cares of the planet. Join me in deciding to be still and know that He is God.

Complete!

Pastor's Desk

Dear Family

I am so glad that our Heavenly Father sees us as complete in Christ. Whilst we are on a journey of being conformed to His image, we are, from His perspective, a perfected item waiting to happen. It’s like the concept of “back to the future”. We have not yet arrived but we are already there. Confused? Me too! Which is why I love what the psalmist says in Psalm 116:13: “I will take up the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the LORD.” The psalmist says this in response to his question as to how he could ever repay the LORD, the incredible God who saved him from the “chords of death” and the “anguish of the grave”. (Psalm 116:5). He has decided that the very best way to “repay” what God has done, is to declare God’s salvation boldly and unashamedly call upon His name.

The Bible is full of injunctions to offer to the LORD a sacrifice of praise. The words of our mouths, as reflections of our hearts in love with Him, are a pleasing aroma to God. We cannot be silent when we consider all that He has done, past, present and future. We deserved nothing, He gave us everything, and now we need to praise.

It is a strong indictment against our level of maturity when we find ourselves only able to praise Him when things are going well. A little child will struggle to see a bigger picture when a parent removes their toy from them because it’s bath and feed time. Whilst they have the toy and are playing with it, the world is bright and full of life. But take it away and everything becomes instant tantrum material. We are so often like this. When the weather is good, there is money in the bank, our children are behaving and our health is great, it is easy to praise the LORD. But when things are not looking too rosy, we struggle. Why? Well, quite simply because we need to grow up in Him and to realize that He does not leave us when things go wrong. In actual fact, maybe things have gone wrong for a specific purpose known only to Him. Maybe that toy is bad for us. Maybe it’s bath and feed time. But whatever it is, He is still there, working everything out for our good. He sees the end picture and knows what it will take to get me there.

So, as we journey with Him, let us leave the details to Him, take up the cup of salvation, and call upon His name.

What is man?

Pastor's Desk,

Dear Family

If we truly take a good, long, honest look at ourselves as the human race, it takes very little effort or imagination to realize that we are indeed a motley bunch of creatures. We have enormous capacities to injure one another, to hate, to deceive, to trample on and to do just about anything else which, if left unchecked, would ultimately result in the extinction of mankind in a ridiculously short space of time! The bible puts is like this in Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Is it any wonder that when God adopts us into His family that He deems us “new creations”?
And yet we have a Father, the God of all creation, who has said of us in Psalm 8:4: “what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” I find it incredible that God actually has us in mind in the first place. That He actually loves us, and actually sees us as we can be, and actually invites us into His kingdom, and actually chooses to adopt us as His sons and daughters. Mind blowing stuff! Is it just not possible to meditate on these things without being gobsmacked by how wonderful, loving and kind our God actually is, especially seeing as we do not and cannot deserve His kindness.

Psalm 103:13-14 puts everything into perspective: “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”
What a relief—He knows we are dust and He chooses therefore to have compassion on those who fear Him!
As we witnessed the goings on in parliament recently and saw the gods of our country doing their very best, we became acutely aware again that outside of submission to Almighty God and the fear of Him in our land and powers of parliament, we have nothing and instead find ourselves bent on a road of self destruction. We will continue to point fingers and blame until we all find ourselves on another planet, but nothing can change until we remember who we actually are and who God actually is.

He has compassion on those who fear Him. He knows how dusty we are. He knows how to fix and what to do. He knows! Now more than ever we need to be in secret in our cupboards praying for our kings—the pattern to use is simply “The LORD has compassion on those who fear Him”. Let’s keep on keeping on, praying our leaders into the will of God.