Let Go!!!

Let go of your fear. It says 365 times in the Bible - "Fear not." That's one for every day of the year. Let go. Cast all your care on God. Say, “Lord, this is too heavy a burden. I can't handle it. I'm too afraid." Let go of your fear.

How do you let go of your fear? There's only one way. Recognize and remind yourself that God is in control. That's the only way you will ever let go of a fear. Recognize and remind yourself that God is in control. Then you can relax a little bit.

Exodus 14:1 - "Then the Lord said to Moses, `Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea.”

Who told the children of Israel to camp in a cul-de-sac? There was no exit! The Red Sea was ahead of them, mountains and deserts flanked them, and the Egyptians were chasing them. They had reason to be afraid!!!
But God told them to go there. Not Moses. God led them there. He put them in an impossible situation with mountains on two sides and an ocean ahead and the Egyptians coming.
Sometimes God sets you up for a miracle. He sets you up by pushing you. "I don't know how I'm ever going to get out of debt! This is a total mess. There is no way it can work out." You have a Red Sea on your hands.

Remind yourself that God has led you there and the safest place to be is in the centre of God's will.

So what's the lesson? When God guides, God provides!

It was a test of faith on behalf of the Israelites. Are you facing a personal Red Sea today? My word to you then is "congratulations!"
God can do something significant in your life. Let go of fear because you know if you're trying to the best of your ability (not perfectly), live for the Lord, God has allowed these things. Nothing can happen in my life without the heavenly Father's permission. I am a child of His, so He's watching out for me.

God is in control!!! Therefore I don't need to be afraid because where God guides, God provides. If you're in an impossible situation, you're probably right in the middle of the will of God. He's setting you up for a miracle. So let go! Let go of your fear.

The Story of Grace

1 John 2:1-2 – “I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus.
When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good - not only ours, but the whole world's.”

The unconditional, all-encompassing grace of God is not an excuse for us to sin. The reality is that sin carries a price tag. Not with God – He does not condemn us or punish us for our sins. Jesus carried that judgment and punishment in full. But sin does have consequences, and they are often painful.

However, the reality is that we all sin and fail. The Bible says that if anyone says he has no sin, he is a liar and he deceives himself. Now the devil has twisted the truth, and people confuse the consequences of sin with the punishment of God. Settle this issue for once and for all – God does NOT punish sin. Since the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, sin does not separate us from God.

But I still meet people all the time who are living in deep condemnation because of past failures. These people feel unworthy to ask God to help them dealing with the consequences of their failures, because they feel they have disappointed God too deeply and too often. Perhaps you are at a place where you’re about to quit on God. You feel that somehow you’re worse than other people, and your sins are greater and more regular than anyone else.

You need to good dose of the love and grace of God. Perhaps you will find it in this beautiful story;

Fiorella LaGuardia was the mayor of New York during the worst days of the Great Depression and all of World War II. He was adored by the citizens of New York – a colorful character who used to ride the New York fire trucks, carried out raids with the police department, and would take entire orphanages to baseball games.

One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself. Within a few moments, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told LaGuardia that her daughter’s husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving. But the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. “It’s a bad neighborhood, you Honor,” the man told the mayor. “She’s got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson.”

LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said, “I’ve got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions – ten dollars or ten days in jail.” But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He extracted a bill and tossed it on the bench saying: “Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant.”

So the following day the New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered old lady who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren, fifty cents of that amount being contributed by the red-faced grocery store owner, while some seventy petty criminals, people with traffic violations, and New York City policemen, each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation.

What an extraordinary demonstration of grace. You know what – we, with all of heaven can stand and give the greatest author of grace a standing ovation – for solving our sin problem for once and for all.

Here’s the issue: Your sins and failures are no longer a barrier between you and God. People who say that God is judging the world, or judging people, have absolutely no concept of the real story of the Bible. It’s the story of grace! And it’s your story. It is my story. Have you been running away from your Father, instead of running to Him, afraid of His judgment? Fear no more! Turn around, and run home today. He's waiting - waiting for you!

No Religion Just Jesus - Part 1

A Healthy faith has to be based in reality! Unfortunately, most Christians are caught up in a system that is far removed from reality, and is by definition unhealthy.

Morpheus, in the movie “The Matrix” said, “What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.”

Every person alive has a vacuum that needs to be filled by God. In our search to have it filled, we have been sold a style of Christianity/religion, which at best, is a very poor substitute for the genuine article – the grace of God. Somehow the church in general today is more interested in looking good than being a place for sick people. Now because the church places a huge emphasis on looking good, people are silently discouraged from ever revealing the true state of their hearts. Consequently people are and remain sick in their hearts. Marriages are screwed up, depression is rampant, and we struggle with secret sins. We can never admit any of this stuff, because “it doesn’t make the church look good.”

David said in Psalm 23:4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” That is the expression and expectation of a healthy faith. Not only that God is with us, but that there are some dark, deadly shadowed places in this old world of ours. The valley of the shadow of death exists in our lives! I have seen it and so have you. It exists because we live in a fallen world. A healthy faith, that is honest about these valleys and the condition of our hearts, will get you through the dark times. An unhealthy faith pretends the valleys don’t even exist!

The same David also wrote in Psalm 40:12, “For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me.”

In many churches today that would be considered a bad and negative statement. And would probably result in a sharp rebuke. Confessions like that don’t make churches look good.

So what!?

Jesus categorically stated; "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

In my book, David's confession was the expression of a healthy faith. It was the start to the healing of his hearts condition (which wasn’t pretty). In the same Psalm he says, “He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and the mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”

You can only get well when you can admit to God and to yourself that all is not well! Then God can start the process of placing you on a rock and giving you a firm place to stand. But as long as we stay caught up in the show of religion – looking good – we fool ourselves. A friend of mine commented on my post last week and referred to it as “cosmetic Christianity.”
A healthy faith embraces who we are, what we are and where we are. Then it trusts a good, loving, God of grace, to involve himself in my frail humanity, and to fix what I am unable to fix.

Last Sunday, a member of our church stood up during testimony time, and started by saying “I have had a sh*t week!”

Ok, probably not the best language, nevertheless, a delight to my ears. Not because I encourage bad language, but because I’m starting to see men and women get real with themselves, God and each other. You see, the black and white of the issue is that we must either deny our vulnerability or deal with it.

So, my friends, embrace the fact that you are a person who must live by grace through faith every day of your life. Remind yourself that God already knows the condition of your heart, so you might as well get real with him and yourself.

I’m kind of fed up with religion that looks so impressive on the outside, but leaves people sick and weary on the inside. So if you’re feeling disillusioned today because you’ve been sold a form of faith that is actually quite empty, you’re not alone! Your pain is shared by many who have to try to somehow reconcile tragedy and reality with “look good” religion. Your disappointments with God only increase your pain.

Please allow Jesus to use your pain, failures and even sin, to bring you closer to himself. They are NOT a barrier to God. They are in fact a bridge!

John 16:33 – “I have told you all this so that you will have peace of heart and mind. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows; but cheer up, for I have overcome the world.”

The Victorious Limp

This week I kind of feel like a failure.

Most of the testimonies about a victorious Christian life do not match my own experiences. I hear about people giving their lives to Jesus, and their marriages become orgasmic bliss. A young girl becomes a Christian, and a few weeks later she becomes Miss South Africa. Pimples disappear, and jobless people become millionaires. People are healed of incurable diseases and the Blue Bulls become Currie Cup champions.

I struggle to relate!!!

Yet, when I read the New Testament, I get a different picture. Jesus on the cross. The New Testament image of victory is better described as a victorious limp. Jesus was not victorious because he never flinched, talked back or questioned. But, having flinched, talked back and questioned, he remained faithful.

Get this: What makes a good disciple is not a person who has visions and seventh heaven experiences, understands the mysteries of the second coming or overcomes every obstacle with a broad smile and a skip in their step. It’s the man or woman who has a capacity for honesty and faithfulness.

It’s the person who can admit to themselves that they have been bent by the winds of failure, been battered by their own disorganized emotions, have stumbled and regularly fallen, experienced lapses and relapses, gotten handcuffed to their own lusts and temptations, and wandered off to a far away country. Yet, they keep coming back to Jesus.

After life has left its scars, they can claim, “I am still a ragamuffin, but I’m different.” And they’re right. Where sin abounded, grace has more abounded.

In Hebrews 11, which is often called the gallery of faith heroes, I am confronted by a sobering, yet very comforting truth. Man, what would I not give to be named alongside such spiritual giants. These are the men and women that God chose to give special mention to. Yet, the reality is that Abraham was a liar, David an adulterer and a murderer, Rahab was a whore, Jacob was a cheat, Samson a womaniser and Gideon a coward. That’s what I’m talking about when I refer to the victorious limp!

And then finally I’m brought to the failure of Peter. Peter, the rock, who turned out to be a pile of sand. Jesus told him that before a cock crowed, he would have denied him three times. Of course Peter didn’t believe him He replied “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” In his mind he possessed all the necessary loyalty, strength and faithfulness to be a good disciple. He made the same mistake we all make. He assumed his relationship with Jesus was dependent on his ability to produce the qualities that he thought would earn him the Lord’s approval.
But, after he had indeed failed his Lord, just as Jesus had predicted, he would remember his failure as the moment of the triumph of grace over failure and Christ’s conquering love. Instead of a shrug, sneer, slap or curse, Jesus responded in the kindest and most gracious way imaginable. He named Peter the leader of the faith community and entrusted to him the authority to preach the Good News to the poor in spirit.

This is the victorious limp I speak of. Sinners, regarded as heroes, not because they’re fantastic people, but because of grace.

In John 1:1 we read that the Word was made flesh and he lived among us. This is Jesus saying to you and me, “Yes, the Word was made flesh. I chose to enter your broken world and limp through life with you.”
One day, when we arrive at the great cabin in the sky, many of us will be bloodied, battered, bruised, and limping. But, by God and through Jesus Christ, there will be a “welcome home” sign on the door.

It was Winston Churchill who said, “Success is never final; failure is never fatal. It courage that counts.”

So, to end where I started; I kind of feel like a failure this week. But whilst I’m pretty big on failure, I am bigger on courage. I am nothing more than a ragamuffin! But I am a ragamuffin with extraordinary courage, and next week I will be back to write, having failed, bruised and still struggling. But, I will be back – with my victorious limp!