Insurmountable

Hi there.

This week has been an especially trying week. It seems I am a surrounded by circumstances and situations that are just too big for me to handle.
Some I got myself into through lack of understanding and wisdom. Some brought on by life in its unique way of testing not only our faith but our resolve and hope. I choose the word hope for I wonder if you can ever find joy without hope.

This blog is about HOPE, sharing encouragement I have found in the Father, His Word and through the relationships that encourage me in my journey. I sincerely pray that it would also bring the same encouragement to those who find themselves feeling as I did this week. Out there also are those who have at one point gone through the same and I am sure they smile and remember fondly how the Father walked them through the insurmountable moments and times in their lives.

Here are two words that no matter what scripture I read give me HOPE grace and mercy.
I am not going to share every scripture but I would like to highlight 2 Corinthians 12:9(Our Father's grace is sufficient for all our needs, and through it we find divine strength for this life).
"His mercy endures forever". 41 times our Father tells us in His Word , He realised we might sometimes forget when we loose focus.
Friends there is nothing His grace and mercy cannot contain. So then let us lift up our eyes to Him who is our HELP, our help comes from the Lord, Him who made the heavens and the earth.

Living in Worship

Molweni (Good day)

One Sunday Arno said something about how we might have distorted what worship is. He made the comment in passing but I sensed his conviction and this encouraged me to go back and explore what God says in His Word about worship. We all know that worship is more than just singing not that it is not one of the ways but what does He say.

“Discovering knowledge through exploration is a lifelong journey” that is my most favourite quote. And discovering more and more of who God is and how He relates to us through exploring His Word is even a better experience. So I went and searched His Word to find out what He says. The study bible I use records 161 mentions of the word worship in His Word. No we won't go through all of them but a few stood out to me and I would like us to chew on them in this week.

The first time a person is recorded saying “I will go and worship” is in Genesis 22. This is the chapter that tells us the story of Abraham asked to sacrifice his son.
He says to the servant he and his son will go and worship. In this passage of scripture I learnt from Abraham that worship involves sacrificing. Sacrificing what we hold most important and love. Worship is holding God most important and loving Him more than anything else. Abraham teaches us that worship is completely dying to self and submitting to our Father without reservation. Living in  worship of God we can't have things more important than Him.

When his son asks him where is the lamb Abraham says “God will provide”. I wonder for Abraham was human did he think God would make Sarah bear him another son or did he believe God would provide a lamb as He did. The lesson I learnt from Abraham is that worship is trusting the Lord. Trusting that in what He has asked us to do He has provided a way.

One other passage passage that stood out  is Romans 12. In this passage God urges, beseeches, begs us to present our lives, who we are, as living sacrifices and this He says, is our spiritual act of worship. Once again worship involves sacrificing self.

Our Father then continues to say that we should renew our minds through His Word so that the selfish, me first and God last patterns of this world we would not conform to. But be transformed into His image. For His sacrifice can never be matched but as we sacrificially live in submission to the Father just as Christ did we also glorify and worship the Father as Christ did.

Truly grateful

Molweni Good Day
Guess who is coming to dinner or Guess whose home you will end up in. In our church all congregants are invited to sign up as hosts or guest and you can imagine the surprise and enjoyment as you try to get to know each other and enjoy the time together.
Last evening I had such a wonderful time at the home of Charmaine and Wikus, a couple i had not had the opportunity to meet during our Sunday services. Around the table was a mixture of people you didn’t know, people you were starting to build a relationship with, people you had seen in church and even started greeting but never had the chance to talk to and get to know.
In the two times I have participated I have met and connected with people I would not have in the normal Sunday service and this is important for I have only finished a year in East London. And I am grateful, truly grateful.
A year ago I was medically retired from working and moved back home to East London. I missed my friends and church in Cape Town. I decided to find a home in Christ in East London and committed myself to Everyday People. At first I just went but as I have made an effort and a conscious decision to be involved and build relationship God has blessed me with new friends, new sisters and brothers to share and be real about the joys, the challenges and even the quite difficult to understand circumstances of being loved by God and loving God.
I say difficult at times to understand because I am 41 years old, literally saved  from death by God. Walking and fully functioning by His grace and mercy. Now gratefully enjoying faith in a family provided by Him. Yet I am not working and cant work because of a Taxi accident I was in when I was 19 years old.
The last part of not being able to cope with working I don’t quite understand but then I remember a Holy God came down and died for me. Then I am  grateful .
I remember how He has provided for me all my life then I am grateful. Then I remember that when I could not physical cope with work He has provided a salary till I fully retire. Then I am grateful.
Sometimes i am tempted to believe that the love He has must fall short. For surely He can heal me surely He can provide a job.  Then I remember how imperfect I am and  how I have been forgiven, redeemed, delivered and transformed then I am really grateful.
You know when pain comes and financial debt collectors are always emailing or messaging I want to cry Yhini Bawo ndincede (Oh my Father please help). Then I remember that this will pass also for we have been promised a better life both now and after death. Then I am truly grateful.
What’s this all about, last night in talking and sharing I whined about how can I be walking with a crutch when my Father was able to make me walk from a wheelchair. And I realised how ungrateful that sounded, human as it is. BUT  look up and focus on Him and you see just how grateful you should be.
Oh there is so much I would like to share with you on why I should be grateful but that would require a book. My encouragement today is that each and everyone of us would take time to lookup and write that book on how grateful we are for who God is and the amazing things He has done in all our lives that outshine the things or circumstances we don’t quite understand  sometimes.