Open Yourself

How open are you to new ideas?

I think for most of us, it remains a struggle. Change raises our fears, takes us out of our comfort zones and generally makes us edgy.

Yet we find in Scripture that change is unavoidable. Jesus asks us to give up our things that make us comfortable. He also challenges us to keep growing as Christians and to do so requires change.

So, then how can we overcome our fears, doubts and complacency?

One way is to trust God. I mean really trust Him.

Trust that He has a plan for your life, that when you let go He will catch you.

Easy – no!

But rewarding – yes, becoming the person that God knows you need to become.

Amen!

No matter where you find yourself, a long way down the road, just starting or just a little faded…

Start each day with these words: Lord into your hands I place my Spirit today…

Tattoos

I don’t know about you, but when I first heard of tattoos, I was intrigued mainly because my parents forbade any one in our family to have one.
Tattoos are permanent; they don’t just wash off, in fact to get them off takes more hassle than getting them on! They are also usually have to do with something important to the tattoo'ie (or so I’m told).

Vulyelwa spoke on Sunday night about a new covenant that God made with His people i.e. Christ was the sacrifice upon which the new covenant is based. More so, the new covenant would be written on our hearts. She used the analogy of the new covenant being like a tattoo!

Awesome!

We need to think of God’s new covenant as permanent and special to every person.

So do you have a tattoo? Do/have you received God’s covenant into your life?

If you would like to, then click on our Tell Me About Jesus link and pray with us.

Setting Ourslves Up

One of the most amazing things we do is to set ourselves up!

Either for failure or success.

But fear can prevent us from being successful: fear of failure or fear of success.

It may sound strange but fear of sucess can be a factor in our lives.

One of the most helpful things we can do is to ask ourselves which one is preventing us from living to our full potential.

If its fear of failure then we can deal with it by not taking ourselves too seriously and living for the moment but if it's fear of success, it's a little harder because it sounds weird (or at least it will make us sound weird to our friends and family.)

You see, Jesus knows our potential and allows us to live free the fear of failure and free from concerns about becoming the person God knows we need to become.

So take some time this week and reflect on whether you are living to your full potential.

If not, then ask Jesus to help you do so and if you are, then ask Him to continue to help you to live to your full potential.

Becoming a Branch

One of the most amazing things (and there are many) of being part of a community of faith such as North Rand, is that we get a chance to be a branch of each others lives.

No, don’t switch off!

Sure, we might rub each up the wrong way sometimes, but then there are other things like…

Allowing other folks children to become ‘our’ children. And we watch them grow up, develop into young people and then go off to study and finally get married have children and bring them to church where…

Also we get to share and witness intensely personal things with each other, like when God touches our lives and what that means for us. The truly awesome thing is that we do so because Jesus sets us free in love to be able to share and understand what we witness in each other and at the same time allow others to feel free not to share but just be a part of the body.

Awesome!!!!

If you are part of a body of faith, then I encourage you be really allow yourself to become a branch of the very life of that body. Use your gifts, talents and resources to build up the body and most important allow yourself to share and encourage one another.

If you are not part of a body then…

Load Sharing

Wow!

What a hot topic – load shedding.

It’s something that affects us all here in South Africa as power outages have become part of life for us, sometimes at the most inconvenient times.

The way I see, we have two choices:

1. Bury our heads in the sand and hope it goes away

Or

2. Deal with it constructively.

At church on Sunday, we took time to talk about it during the service and ended up with asking what Jesus would say about it.

Bottom line: I believe that Jesus would want it to be fair and with a sense of justice. Thus we all need to informed (even those who can’t read) when it will happen and the shedding needs to be consistent for everyone. Being informed and the shedding done with justice and consistency, I believe, will help us all to be more tolerant until the situation is improved.

And when shedding is done in this way, then we may refer to it as load sharing as we are in this together for each other.

Please share you feelings and suggestions by clicking on the Comments link.

Rights and Privileges

2008 has officially commenced in all it’s glory for most of us!

One of the most awesome things about starting anew, is that it brings with it hope of new beginnings, dreams and the belief that this year’s going to be different to the past.

However, we might find, a few months in, that things have not really changed – we still have that difficult relationship with work; we still can’t meet our monthly expenses; we still have trouble in our personal/family life etc.

It might be helpful to pause for a minute – right now at the start of the year and remind ourselves that in God’s world, we have few rights but many privileges.
For example, the opportunity to work and earn a living comes because God has blessed us in that way and with it comes a responsibility to make it count in every possible way.

Abraham Lincoln used the expression “there for the grace of God go I,” but we can take it a little further – Lord, help me to make the most of my opportunities (however they may seem to me) to the best that I can and to accept my responsibilities and remember that there are those, who by no fault of their own, who are less fortunate than myself. Thank you for the privilege.

Do you have a story related to being privileged; then please share it with us.

An Open Invitation

We won the cricket test against the West Indies over the weekend. But in the middle of the celebration we also feel sorry for Neil McKenzie who having received his call up to the test team, injured his leg and is out of cricket for a few weeks. Before the test, one of the selectors said that McKenzie was ‘busting a gut’ to play for South Africa.

Do you know what it feels like to be ‘busting a gut’ to do something, but to be excluded?

The odd thing about the coming of the Magi to worship baby Jesus is that they were not Jews. Could it be possible that Gentiles should worship the Jewish king? Right at the beginning of Jesus’ life the message is very clear – the invitation to follow him is for all people! No one is excluded – unless they choose to exclude themselves.

Those who are hurting and struggling are invited. Those who have bad thoughts and bad habits are invited. Those who feel marginalised and excluded are invited. Whoever you are, YOU are invited.

You might be ‘busting a gut’ for healing in some part of your life. God’s invitation is to you. Come and worship Jesus, accept him for who he is, and allow him to bring that healing.