The Eyewitness

A witness is someone who has seen an event and is able to describe it to others. Yes, we know that witnesses may see the same event and yet describe it in two different ways, but this does not deny that the event took place. In trying to understand the dynamics of this event, or identify the people involved, we must engage with their version of the story. When John claims that he saw Jesus, this should make an impression on us - let us read what he says:

1 John 1:1-4 - "We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. ² This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. ³ We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. ⁴ We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy."

Is it not remarkable that we have the words of someone who claims to have 'seen' Jesus and 'touched' him? John was so close to the Messiah, that he was truly able proclaim that He was the Christ.

“I would have preferred someone else to have been in charge of rescuing this story, but once again life has taught me that my role is to be a witness, not the leading actor.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Midnight Palace

Living in Grace

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When the words can't be taken back.

Following on with our theme of gossip and slander, I came across this powerful story which highlights the impact of gossip. It certainly has made me stop and think more before I speak. Enjoy.

    "Yiddish folklore offers a telling tale about gossip-makers. One such man had told so many malicious     untruths about the local rabbi that, overcome by remorse, he begged the rabbi to forgive him. 

"Rabbi, tell me how I can make amends." 

The rabbi sighed, "Take two pillows, go to the public square and there cut the pillows open. Wave them in the air. Then come back." 

The rumormonger quickly went home, got two pillows and a knife, hastened to the square, cut the pillows open, waved them in the air and hastened back to the rabbi's chambers. 

"I did just what you said, Rabbi!" 

"Good." The rabbi smiled. "Now, to realize how much harm is done by gossip, go back to the square..." 

"And?" 

"And collect all your feathers." 

    Colossians 3:8 - “But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice,         slander, and filthy language…” 

Thought: I think the lesson in this story is obvious. Now, we are asked to put it into practice.

Living in Grace

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Do you belong?

We are created to belong! I firmly believe this truth. 

We are created to be in community and to be known and loved by others. This is also why it is important for us to remember that we are invited to be part of God's community - to belong to God's family. When Paul wrote to the church in Rome, he reminded them of this beautiful gift:

"So, you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. " - Romans 8:15-16

The author and speaker, Brené Brown, puts it in a slightly different way, but it is equally compelling: 

“A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all people. We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don't function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others. We get sick.”

Question: Do you feel that you belong? Why or why not?

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To walk, act, think, speak and live

Gracious God, help us,

To walk in your light;
To act in your strength;
To think in your wisdom;
To speak in your truth;
To live in your love;
Amen.

It is no secret that I love reading and am inspired by Christians who have left behind amazing legacies for us to witness. This prayer (above) is another beautiful prayer from William Barclay, and it really speaks to me today. I think the simplicity of the words help us to digest the power in their meaning. 

I invite you pray this prayer again slowly. Take it one sentence at a time. May it add blessing and grace to your day.

Living in Grace

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Words that have no heart

There can be nothing worse that listening to someone speak about a really important issue, but realising that they don't really care about the particular issue. Politicians are especially good at doing this - but, then again, we may not be so innocent either. Our times of prayer can so easily become moments of 'religious repetition', unless we carefully monitor the movement of our heart. Do our hearts really believe in what we are praying/saying?

It is noticeable that John Bunyan wrote a lot about prayer, and this is most likely because he was a man of prayer himself.

 “In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart. ”

“Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.”

“Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan.”

Matthew 6:7 - “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.

Thought: Have you recently been tempted to speak without truly meaning the words?

Living in Grace

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First to speak

"In a lawsuit the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross-examines." - Proverbs 18:17

This proverb is so true. How often have you been involved in a challenging conversation with people and been convinced by the initial ideas put forward? The more you think about what is being said, the more you feel 'This is right!' 

However, as soon as you have let those ideas settle in your mind, then someone else comes along and presents an equally compelling argument. And then you are stumped! Mmm, what do you make of that argument now?

I guess, it is always good to hear both sides of any story, before you make a judgement. In trying to discern the truth, it goes deeper than just two good speeches - knowing something about the characters who are speaking also makes a difference.

Proverbs 18:21 - The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

"We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork, you must make a decision." - C. S. Lewis

"Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come." -Robert H. Schuller

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23 - Practise what you preach

As soon as Jesus entered Jerusalem, he began to speak out more and more against the religiosity of the Teachers of the law, often exposing their faults and false practises. Of course this didn't do anything for his populatity, but Jesus was not worried about winning the award for "most polite Rabbi" of the year. Jesus knew his days were numbered and so he was willing to challenge anyone who was willing to hear the truth:

"Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them." - Matthew 23:1-4

His words in verse 3 are known the world over, albeit in different forms. We have all heard the phrase "practise what you preach" and this is Jesus main argument against the Pharisees. They had lots of good things to say (things that we God-fearing and holy), but they didn't actually live these laws and ideals themselves. That is the tragedy of the whole thing - they were so close to being true disciples, but they refused to do what Jesus had asked of them.

So, as we edge closer to Easter, I think it is worth asking ourselves the question:

"Do we practise what we preach?"

If we don't do this people will soon see through our masks and disguise.

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Which one?

"Truth sees God, and wisdom contemplates God, and from these two comes a third, a holy and wonderful delight in God, who is love." - Julian of Norwich

So which one of the three do you think most relates to your relationship with God right now?
Are you someone who is focused on the TRUTH?
Do you find that you are drawn to contemplating God through WISDOM?
Or are you at a place where you are experiencing the 'wonderful DELIGHT' in God?

I find that I move between the three quite often. There are moments where I need to see the TRUTH of God or to contemplate God through WISDOM. However, I confess that the best moments are those that I share in the DELIGHT of God.

Psalm 37:4 - "Be delighted with the Lord." (Living Bible)

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When the Tooth Fairy doesn't show up!

Parenting tip of the day - if you have young kids who still "believe" in the Tooth mouse/fairy, please make sure that you actually take the tooth out the pouch and replace it with some cash! #justsaying

Yes, you guessed it, we made this blunder last night. We were so exhausted last night that we went to sleep and forgot all about the Tooth mouse. That was until this morning at 5am, when a dejected little boy came sobbing into the room saying, "He didn't come, he didn't come!"

After wiping the sleep out of our eyes, we looked at each other and tried to figure out what happened and then it hit us between the eyes - we FORGOT about the tooth mouse! Well, parental guilt came crashing into our hearts and we tried our best to make up for the bad faux pas we had just committed. It is amazing what thoughts come racing into your mind at that time of the morning.

But, how do you come back from forgetting the Tooth mouse!? Can you ever come back from that? Well we tried .....

We blamed it on the Rain (we all know that mice struggle to travel in the wet conditions - don't they?)
We suggested that we need to put cheese out tonight, as this will help him smell were the tooth is hidden.
We fumbled our way through a few more excuses, while we secretly set 10 reminders on our mobile phones for later on :)

In the end the little guy seemed to be ok and we breathed a sigh of relief. However, it did get me thinking of a few things. Here are some of these random thoughts.

1. I know that we play these harmless fantasy games with our kids to keep their hopes and dreams alive, but it is hard to keep making up stories to cover the truth.
2. Which, leads us onto the point of lying - Keeping the truth from people is a tiring past-time - you have to keep covering your tracks and this gets you into all sorts of trouble.
3. Do we ever feel that God is like the Tooth mouse/fairy? We give him some little things and then we expect him to do other things for us?
4. Have you ever been disappointed in God? Maybe you felt really let down by God - how did you make peace with that?

Let me finish with this promise. God will always SHOW up for us. It may not be in the way we expect or imagine, but GOD ALWAYS keeps his Promises.

Joshua 23:14 - You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.

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Two of me ...

I was helping Josh brush his teeth this morning when he suddenly said, "Look, I see two Daddies?" I wasn't sure what he was getting at, but then noticed he was pointing at the mirror and then at me - two daddies - one in real life and one in the mirror!

How true his little statement is! There are two of me. The person the world sees and the 'real' me. How different the two 'daddies' can sometimes be. We all wear masks - we all try to portray ourselves to be better than we truly are. The real struggle in our Christian walk is to allow Jesus to take the 'real' me and to transform him into the person I was created to be. God knows our potential and he is willing to chip away at all our rough edges, making us into his masterpiece.

Jeremiah 17:9 - "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"

Who are you?

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Truth will conquer

It is hard to know who to believe anymore. We read of comments made by political and community leaders but there are always some doubts as to the 'truth' in their speeches. The truth seems to be distorted and in the public arena we are left trying to discern the "real" story. I love these words of John Wycliffe:

"I believe that in the end truth will conquer."

I also believe that!
I know that I struggle to understanding the timing of this process but I still believe that the Truth will come out victorious.

How do you feel?

“Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.” - Warren W. Wiersbe

1 Corinthians 14:3 (MSG) - "But when you proclaim his truth in everyday speech, you’re letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience his presence with you."

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Truth - in pursuit of this noble virtue

"Seek the Truth, 

Listen to the Truth, 

Teach the Truth, 

Love the Truth, 

Abide by the Truth,

Defend the Truth,

And unto death."

  - John Hus (1370 - 1415)

These were not just nice words that John Hus made up one sunny morning. They were his Credo and passion. He lived, and ultimately died, defending the Truth of Jesus.

We will be confronted by many opportunities to 'bend' the Truth or to create a 'new version' of the Truth. In the end all of these options will take us away from Christ, who is TRUTH. The choice still lies with us, but it is worth heeding the words of Hus.

John 8:32 - "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

John 1:17 - "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

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Is it time to move on... or perhaps not!?

I realised late last night that indeed it had been Guy Fawkes (5th November) - it kind of felt like a damp squib, to be honest. Certainly in South Africa there was very little mention of the event, compared with previous decades. Perhaps this has a lot to do with Diwali taking a lot of the "firework" attention away from Mr Fawkes. I am sure that many pets across the land were quite relieved not to have many crackers going off again last night!

So, here is my question: 
Is it perhaps time to move on from Guy Fawkes and to "Remember" someone else OR is there still a place for us to remember the 5th November as Guy Fawkes night?

You see, I think that most of us don't even know who or what we are celebrating/remembering when we light fireworks on the 5th November. Do we realise that the tradition goes back 409 years when Guido Fawkes was found guilty, along with 13 others, of plotting to blow up a building in the British parliament? He was executed for his role in this plot and their attempt to kill King James.

The people of England were then encouraged to remember this event by burning effigies of Guido Fawkes on the anniversary of the "Gunpowder plot." Over the years, the effigy became known as the "guy" made of straw and soon the whole event took on the name of "Guy" Fawkes.

On the other hand, some scholars have portrayed Guido Fawkes as a positive character, someone who was willing to challenge the government and to put his life on the line for effective change. Sure, his methods are questionable, but we must remember that he lived in the 1600's. In this era, life was short, brutal and impoverished for most of the population. One scholar, has even suggested that we should remember Mr Fawkes as "the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions."

I can just see that things in our own Parliament are getting out of hand. Any time a member of an opposition party speaks out against the government, they are vilified and labelled as "disruptive." Agreed, sometimes our modern politicians use questionable ways of speaking the truth (e.g. The EFF's chant... "Pay back the money! Pay back the money!"), but the truth is usually very uncomfortable for those who wish to hide from it.

So, here is my brief conclusion. I will remember Guy Fawkes as a day where people should be able to have freedom of speech. If what is preached/taught is uncomfortable for those in power, then perhaps they need to listen more to the cries of their people. I will also remember that my Saviour was crucified for opposing those in religious authority. The truth cost him his life.

What are your thoughts on Guy Fawkes? Please let me know.

Living in Grace
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Just say sorry!

As I have been reflecting on St. Francis' prayer over the last few days, I have come to this line:
"Where there is error, truth."
This prayer challenges us to instruments of truth, but this is a hard task in the midst of world that seeks to hide from the Truth. We don't like to admit that we may be wrong. We find it extremely hard to admit that we have made mistakes.

This leads me to the whole Nkandla issue in South Africa. How hard would it be for the state President, Mr Jacob Zuma, just to say "Sorry!" Wouldn't it be refreshing to hear from his office, how they got it wrong and that they would do all they can to redress the 'error of their ways.' We are not asking our president to be 'perfect', because that would be hypocritical of us, but we are asking that he (and his team) accept responsibly when the truth of their error is exposed!

Before you think that I am taking sides in this heated debate, let me add that my critique goes further than just our president. It goes to all political parties, all in leadership, all officials in governance, and in fact to all pastors and preachers of the Gospel too.

So, this leads me to the hard question for you and I - How quick are you to say that you are sorry? When you have messed up and you have been 'caught out' do you apologise and then try and make amends OR do you try and blame everyone else?

....just asking!?

Ecclesiastes 10:5 - "There is an evil I have seen under the sun, the sort of error that arises from a ruler."

Mark 12:24 -  "Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?"

Living in Grace
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Lent 5 - Lips or heart?

We all know people who good talkers, don't we? People who are good at saying the right things, but never seem to follow up with their actions. We are often 'taken in' by such people for awhile, because they seem gregarious and fun, but in the end we get frustrated by their lying lips.

God knows that there are many religious people like this - we talk the talk, but we don't seem to be able to follow up with the right actions. We promise the moon, but can't even deliver a feeble commitment to worship. Jesus spoke out against people like this:

“‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." - Matthew 15:8

So, here is the challenge for us this Lent - do we honour God just with our lips or are we allowing our actions to prove our real heart?

"Some have me often enough on their lips, but they have little of me in their hearts." - Thomas a Kempis

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Live pure, speak true, right wrong

 There is a wonderful line written in Gareth and Lynette by Alfred Tennyson. It reads:

“Live pure, speak true, right wrong, Follow the King-- Else, wherefore born?"

Gareth says these words to his mother, who is trying to dissuade him from leaving to become a Knight with King Arthur. In his heart he believed he was called to 4 great tasks:

• Live Pure

• Speak True

• Right Wrong

• Follow the King
  

What a powerful sentiment and personal mission statement. If more people sought to live pure lives, to speak the truth of Christ, to right the injustices in our society and to Follow the King (Jesus), then perhaps our world would be a better place?

Any thoughts?

Living in Grace

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The final word!

One of our readings on Sunday was from Revelation 22, which is the final chapter in the Bible. If you didn't know this, the Final word of the Scriptures is the word, 'AMEN.' This word has remained untranslated from the original Hebrew word. It can mean the following things:

'Let it be so'
'Truly'
'Oh Yes!'

So when John finishes his account of Revelation with the word 'Amen' he could be referring to the first part of verse 21, "The Grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people,' OR he could also be referring to the whole vision of Revelation, OR even the whole Bible.

Let it be so!.... Oh Yes!....Truly!

We worship a God who was, who is and who is to come again. That is the FINAL WORD!

Let us hold true to the promises of our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

Living in Grace
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Words, words, words - Lent 12

Words are easy to come from our mouths, but sadly they are not always followed up with action. David wrestled with a situation where people were happy to lie to each other and deception was common practise - wow, that sounds a lot like our world in 2013, hey?!

Everyone lies to their neighbour;
they flatter with their lips
but harbour deception in their hearts. (Psalm 12:2)

Yet, despite the attitudes and examples of those around him, David still reminds us that with God things are different. God is always a person of his word!

And the words of the Lord are flawless,
like silver purified in a crucible,like gold refined seven times. (Psalm 12:6)

When God speaks, his Word brings life!

Reflection: 
1. Think of the many people who flocked to hear Jesus preach and perform miracles. Reflect on how their 'words' changed over 5 days (from one Sunday until the Friday). Words of praise quickly became words of hate and condemnation. Are we also so fickle?

2. What 'words' are you going to be using today? Guard them well.

 “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” - Rudyard Kipling

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David and Lance Armstrong

Here is a deep question for you?

Are someones words declared null and void after they have been caught out by their sin?

Think first of King David: He said these words a long time before he committed adultery with Bathsheba:
"How great are you, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you - there is no other God." (2 Samuel 7:22) These words remain true to me, even though David's life erupted like a volcano!

Now think about Lance Armstrong. He said these words, long before he was found out for cheating:

“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. That surrender, even the smallest act of giving up, stays with me. So when I feel like quitting, I ask myself, which would I rather live with?”

For me, these words still speak some kind of truth, despite Lance's character being exposed for what it is.

Here is my dilemma - Is "truth" able to withstand the character of our humanity?

I believe it is able too, but would love to know your thoughts.

Living in Grace
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Right?

"Right action is better than knowledge; but in order to do what is right, we must know what is right." - Charlemagne

How can we know what God wants us to do, if we don't spend time reading his word? If we want to know what is 'right' and what God's will is, then we need to be disciplined in understanding the truth.

So, how is your reading of the Scriptures going?

Genesis 4:7 - "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

Living in Grace
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