WORLD CUP FEVER
World Cup fever! What’s is all about?
Some national team, from a little country somewhere, the butt of the world’s
scorn, won a rugby match. This “illustrious” event, which is supposed
to unite our nation, has also plunged us into controversy with disgruntled
losers over the “flawed” refereeing that got us the victory. So, this
win not only unites but also divides.
After all the hoo-hah of their win and the extravagant praise given to the
Springboks from the president down… they will also retire and die. This
glorious celebration, which has captured the imagination of the nation, will be
forgotten tomorrow… when the realities of living in South Africa hit us
again. Who will benefit from their victory in the end? Will the Bok’s fourth
win in the RWC event change anything for the better in South Africa?
There is one event in world history that will never be forgotten. This
indescribably successful achievement was conceived in eternity and will be
celebrated throughout the ages… the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Has His death made a difference? A resounding “YES!”. Will it ever be
forgotten? No! Every person who has ever lived and believed in
Jesus will be with Him and will be like Him in His eternal kingdom forever
because He died and rose again.
Philippians 2:9-11 NLT
[9] “Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave
him the name above all other names, [10] that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue
declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
All in heaven will celebrate that victory, people and angels forever and
forever.
Revelation 5:6-14 NLT
[6] “Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it
was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the
twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the
sevenfold Spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth. [7] He
stepped forward and took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on
the throne. [8] And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the
twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they
held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. [9]
And they sang a new song with these words: “You are worthy to take the scroll
and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has
ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
[10] And you have caused them to become a Kingdom of priests for our God. And
they will reign on the earth.” [11] Then I looked again, and I heard the voices
of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings
and the elders. [12] And they sang in a mighty chorus: “Worthy is the Lamb who
was slaughtered— to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour
and glory and blessing.” [13] And then I heard every creature in heaven and on
earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang: “Blessing and honour and
glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever
and ever.” [14] And the four living beings said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four
elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb.”
Let’s get real, brothers and sisters! We congratulate the Boks on their win
now. Let’s continue to celebrate the Lord Jesus for His victory, now and
forever.
PRAYER
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered— to receive power and riches and wisdom
and strength and honour and glory and blessing.”
There is no higher praise that we can give to you, Lord Jesus, than to fall
down at your feet and worship you, and to love you and honour you by our
faithfulness and obedience to your commands.
Thank you, once again, for your great victory over sin and death. We shall live
forever because you died and rose again, taking us with you into your eternal
home. We shall praise you throughout all eternity for your love.
Monthly Archives: November 2023
DON’T LIGHT FIRES, MEND FENCES
DON’T LIGHT FIRES, MEND FENCES
James 2:12-13 NIV
[12] Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, [13] because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
James 2:12-13 NLT
[12] So whatever you say or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free. [13] There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.
There is so much evidence in God’s grace towards us that encourages us to “pay it forward”. This response to those who sin against us is perhaps one of the most powerful ways we can reach out to unbelievers, and especially those who hate us for our faith in Jesus.
Revenge is the name of the game in modern society, even more than the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Too many people in our land take revenge to its ultimate end. “You don’t do… give me what I want so, I’ll take your life.”
Both Old and New Covenants record stories of people who acted in mercy towards those who should have received judgment. David is a superb example of an Old Testament saint who received mercy because he showed mercy.
After the death of King Saul and Jonathan, David had every right to secure his throne by exterminating their descendants. Instead, he brought Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s crippled son, into his own household and restored everything he should have inherited from his father and grandfather.
When David sinned against the Lord by committing adultery and murder, his fate should have been death. Yet God showed him mercy. He forgave his sin although David did not escape sin’s consequences.
A glowing example of mercy in the New Covenant is, of course, our Lord Jesus Himself. Peter described Jesus’ way of dealing with His persecutors in these sublime words,
1 Peter 2:22-24 NIV
[22] “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” [23] When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. [24] “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
By His life and death, Jesus mended the biggest rift between man and God, our sin-debt to the Father, and the strongest boundary fence between us and the hostile world. His love for us, and everything that love secures, is the guarantee that we shall be with Him forever.
Some people, including certain politicians in our country, love to light fires. They enjoy watching those burn whom they hate, forgetting that eternal fires await them in the future. This attitude fosters only more pain and suffering than we already have.
So, Paul counsels us to put an end to the fires of revenge in our hearts that perpetuate hatred and bitterness.
Romans 12:17 NIV
[17] “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone….
[19] Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. [20] On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” [21] Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.”
Jesus’ gracious forgiveness opens the way for us to do the same. Imagine the difference we could make if we deliberately and purposefully want about mending the rifts between ourselves and others rather than lighting the fires that will forever burn the space between us and them.
DECEPTION
DECEPTION
Two characters in Scripture have the same name but a very different perspective on life and very different destinies. Their names were Saul and Saul. Both were prominent figures in God’s story.
Saul, the first king of Israel, was tall and handsome, a Benjaminite whose father was a wealthy and influential man in his community. Saul was a man of privilege, but he had an unfortunate sense of insecurity which caused him to fear David to the extent that he ordered the murder of an entire priestly family in revenge for helping David.
Saul’s insecurity led him to disobey God on more than one occasion so that God took the kingship away from him, chose David to replace him and had him and all his sons but one killed in battle.
Saul pronounced his verdict on himself when David refused to kill him for the second time, “Surely I have acted like a fool, and I have been terribly wrong.”
.
Saul, renamed Paul, was a highly educated Pharisee who had a miraculous encounter with Jesus on the way to Damascus. His life was transformed from an arrogant religious fanatic to a humble yet powerful servant of Jesus.
Paul’s verdict, at the end of his life, was vastly different from king Saul’s.
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”
2 Timothy 4:7-8 NIV
What made the difference between these two Sauls? King Saul lived for the moment and failed to take his future into account. He bought into the devil’s lies. “God doesn’t see; God doesn’t know; God doesn’t care.” Saul played to the people and lost… his kingship, his dynasty, and his life.
Paul, by contrast, played to an audience of one. H;is focus was always on Jesus. His life was centred on pleasing the Lord. He kept his eye on the goal.
“So, whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.”
2 Corinthians 5:9-10 NLT
So, what is the great deception?
Whom do you believe? Who do you trust? Satan says, “Believe me and don’t take God seriously.” Saul believed the lie, lived for the moment, and lost everything.
Paul believed God and trusted Jesus. He lived today with his eye on tomorrow. He obeyed the Lord because he took Him seriously.
PRAYER
Father God, thank you that you continuously warn us in your Word to be careful of deception. The devil is a deceiver, and he has many people who work for him to spread his deception all over the world.
Please help me and all your people to guard our hearts against deception by reading your Word and believing the truth you Word teaches us about you, us, and the life you want us to live.
Thank you for the Bible. You gave us this book to save us from sin and foolishness when we believe what is written.
SPEAK TO THE BONES
SPEAK TO THE BONES
Imagine how Ezekiel felt when he gazed on a scene of utter desolation; thousands of human bones, bleached white in the sun, lying scattered across a valley of desert sand. Could anything be more dead? His own nation was as dead and unproductive as a boneyard, as rotten with sin and rebellion as a decaying, stinking corpse.
God speaks softly to him, “Ezekiel, what do you think? Can these bones live?” Ezekiel thinks for a moment. Of course, in the natural, his mind can only answer, No! But he is not dealing with “natural”! He’s in conversation with GOD.
“Only you know, God” he replies. “Good answer, Ezekiel,” God commends him. “Now, this is what you must do. Speak to the bones.”
“What! What good will that do? These are dry, dead bones. I’ll look like a fool, lost it, speaking to bones!”
“Just do it Ezekiel.” So Ezekiel just did it. He spoke to the bones,
“‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
Ezekiel 37:4-6 NLT
Ezekiel was shocked, gob-smacked, when the bones did exactly what he commanded them to do. With an ear-splitting noise of rattling and clattering, the bones began to reassemble into an army of human bodies, clothed in flesh and skin but still dead… just as lifeless as they had been, scattered bones on the desert floor.
Again God spoke. “Speak to the breath.” Emboldened by the bones’ response to his instruction, Ezekiel responded, “What must I say?”
“Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’”
Ezekiel 37:9 NLT
So Ezekiel spoke to the winds… the mighty, divine force, energy, power, Person, who gives life to all. As he spoke, breath entered the bodies lying in the dust, and they stood up, breathing and alive, a vast army of people ready to do battle.
We are all confronted with our “valleys of dry bones” – relationships, businesses, finances, families, health… as dry and dead as the bones in Ezekiel’s vision. In our grief and despair, God asks us, “Can these bones live?”
Ezekiel’s vision, and God’s astonishing response, reassure us that there is nothing beyond God’s power to undo. Our circumstances, whatever they are, may seem too far gone to save. Yet, there is always hope.
What is God’s answer to His own question, “Can these bones live?”
1. Speak to the bones. Address the situation from God’s perspective. Ask God for the word you must speak, then speak it with boldness and confidence.
2. Speak to the breath. God’s Spirit, His breath of life, will enter death, as He did the body of Jesus, to bring back life into that which is “dead” to you.
3. Watch and wait with expectancy to see what God can do. Dry bones are never God’s last word.
MOLLY AND ME – NEVER APART AGAIN
MOLLY AND ME – NEVER APART AGAIN
I’ve recently returned from a five-day visit to my family in Johannesburg. Just
as much as it was a blessing to be with them and to meet my six-week-old great
granddaughter, it was severely traumatic for Molly.
I told her many times that I would be away for five days. Unfortunately, our
level of understanding didn’t accommodate such intricate information. Instead,
as when my friend and I make our short trip to buy our Sunday roast, she
expected my return within an hour.
For five days, I was missing. She did not know where I was, and she could not
find me. She lived through those days, tenderly cared for by a loving
substitute mother, in the company of her best furry friends but, at the same
time, so alone.
Then the moment came when she heard my voice…
Molly hailed my return with ecstatic joy. Her wriggling dachshund body and
violently-wagging tail told me that she was delighted to have me home. She
could not have told me more visibly that she was pleased to see me.
I assured my little dog that I would never leave again!
Before His departure via the cross, Jesus told His disciples that He was going
away. Unlike Molly, they understood the ominous words He spoke but, at the same
time, they had no idea what He meant by “going away” or where He was
going.
“There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not
so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?… And
you know the way to where I am going.” “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said.
“We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
John 14:2, 4-5 NLT
We are also, like Molly waiting for our Beloved’s return. We sometimes feel
lonely and abandoned. We are busy with His work but feel the pain of His
absence and, yet…
Unlike my absence from Molly, Jesus is with us always and even more. By His
Spirit, He is in us. We cannot feel or hear Him, but He speaks in ways we can
understand. His love and peace steady us in life’s storms. His Word guides in
the darkness. His presence surrounds and protects us in a dangerous world.
Molly needed to see me and hear me to know I was here. We know the presence of
Jesus by faith in His promises. He said He was going away but, He also promised
us a representative exactly like Himself to be with us forever.
Do you know His presence? Take heart. He is Yahweh Shamma… The God who is
there!
“And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:20 NLT