The REAL Questions

I came across this wonderful quote from Henri Nouwen today - it reflects on what the essential questions in life should be. If you like, they target the REAL questions we should be asking of ourselves, instead of the shallow questions we usually focus on, which are often: "What job do I have?" or "How much money do I have in my accounts?" or "what car do you drive?"

Try these questions as a devotion for today?

"Did I offer peace today?
Did I bring a smile to someone's face?
Did I say words of healing?
Did I let go of my anger and resentment?
Did I forgive?
Did I love?
These are the real questions." - Henri Nouwen

Matthew 21:24 - Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

Living in Grace
D3LM3

The voice of the crowd...

Sometimes people are quite cruel in the way they speak to us or about us. Often it is because they want to make themselves look better or try and prove that they are superior to others. The voice of the crowd can make us lose confidence in our abilities or in our God-given purpose.  Take this scripture passage as an example - Sennacherib's men tried their hardest to strike doubt and fear into the minds of the Israelites, calling out all kinds of lies and threats. They made the fateful error of ridiculing Yahweh and claiming that God was just like all the other 'fake' gods.

2 Chronicles 32:16-18 -^"Sennacherib’s officers spoke further against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah. ¹⁷ The king also wrote letters ridiculing the Lord, the God of Israel, and saying this against him: ‘Just as the gods of the peoples of the other lands did not rescue their people from my hand, so the god of Hezekiah will not rescue his people from my hand.’ ¹⁸ Then they called out in Hebrew to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to terrify them and make them afraid in order to capture the city. ¹⁹ They spoke about the God of Jerusalem as they did about the gods of the other peoples of the world – the work of human hands."

Remember that the first voice worth listening too is the voice of Christ. Jesus seeks to speak TRUTH, HOPE and LOVE into our souls.

The crowds may shout louder, but they often don't have our best interests at heart.

"The longest sword;

The strongest lungs,

The most voices,

Are false measures of TRUTH." - Benjamin Whichcote

Living in Grace

D3LM3

 

Conspiracy against the brave

After I have preached on a Sunday there are usually a few thoughts that linger with me into the week. I am not always sure why the Spirit highlights certain of these ideas, but one has to learn to trust where they come from. So, from todays message, this is the quote that I take into the start of this week. I offer it to you, with my 5 cents worth.


“The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It's the age-old struggle: the roar of the crowd on the one side, and the voice of your conscience on the other.” - Douglas MacArthur

• In this quote, I substitute the words 'your conscience' with 'God'. God desires to speak to us, but often the voice of the crowds drowns out his voice. 

•  It takes guts to go against the voice of the majority, especially when they are wrong.

• God gives us the strength to go against the flow, but we must remember to give Him the glory for getting us through these tough times.

•  If Christ had listened to the demands of the crowds, He may have been taken off the path of the Cross.

What is God saying to you today?

Living in Grace
D3LM3

Silent sermon

How about that?!
Wouldn't you just love to keep us preachers quiet and to have no sermons to listen to - it could be quite interesting hey?
Sometimes the best sermons we can hear are not actually spoken - they are sermons we SEE and they are SILENT. You may think I have lost my marbles for a second, but just hang on for a minute.

Church History records how many Christ-followers were illiterate and poor. Even though the priests preached sermons to the congregations, the ordinary people couldn't understand the Latin and battled to relate to the educated approach. So, what transpired was ingenious. People began to draw pictures of important Biblical stories and these became 'silent sermons.' After all we know that every picture tells a thousand words :)

I have included a picture that speaks to me in this blog - what sermon does it speak to you?

Living in Grace
D3LM3

Enough on your mind?

Do our brains have a limit as to how much they can handle? Some people would argue NO, but there are many others of us, who would definitely say YES. It seems that when we are busy or stressed, that our minds can't process everything and we simply forget a lot of things. Have you ever experienced this? It even begins to feel that we are losing our minds and that nothing seems to stick.

I wonder if God ever feels like this?
I wonder if God is so overwhelmed with trying to solve all of our problems and offer love, compassion and support to billions of people, that his mind is over-worked?
I know that God is Omnipotent, but I can still wonder about these things :)

Colossians 3:2 -Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

1 Peter 1:13 - Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

Numbers 23:19 - God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind.

I am THANKFUL that we are never far from the mind of God and that God thinks about us all the time.

Have a blessed day

D3LM3

Asking for trouble

In the midst of a heavy rainstorm today I noticed a guy working on an electricity box. My immediate response was "Wow, that guy is asking for trouble!" There are some things that one shouldn't do and this is certainly one of them.

What other things are asking for trouble? Perhaps a few of these...

• Pronouncing that you will definitely beat an opponent before the match
• Getting out your car at a Game Reserve
• Driving too fast 
• Jumping through a fire
• Eating your food with a double portion of chillies
• Playing sport without having enough liquids
• Turning your eyes away from the Lord and stating that you don't need God

 Deuteronomy 13:13 - "Troublemakers have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods”

1 Samuel 14:29 - Jonathan said, “My father has made trouble for the country."

May we have enough sense today not to ask for trouble. 

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Unlucky 13?

Flying back from the Methodist Church conference we noticed that the plane had no seats that were numbered 13. There was a number 12 and a number14, but no seat marked 13. That is quite interesting don't you think? It was not as if there was a gap in the seats, it just simply skipped out '13'. What would you make of this?
Do you believe in 'good luck' and 'bad luck?'
Do you think the airline was a little worried about having some seats marked with a 13 on them?

This is what Paul as to say about this...

Galatians 4:8-11 - "Earlier, before you knew God personally, you were enslaved to so-called gods that had nothing of the divine about them. But now that you know the real God—or rather since God knows you—how can you possibly subject yourselves again to those paper tigers? For that is exactly what you do when you are intimidated into scrupulously observing all the traditions, taboos, and superstitions associated with special days and seasons and years."

What do you think?

Living in Grace
D3LM3