I have been praying for Church leadership, Pastors, Elders, Deacons and other leaders the past two weeks. I am just so aware of people hurting and wanting to get out of ministry and it is so difficult for me to understand because this is my life. This is what I live for. But I am convinced that godly men are broken by Church structures that focus on being business rather that tools for ministry. I have just finished “So Beautiful” by Leonard Sweet and was very much impressed by what he was saying. But then again it is the same as what Ron Martoia and Goerge Barna are saying.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Does God Care about Sports? If the WP win or the Bulls loose
Thursday May 27, 2010
This one actually emerges from one's theological orientation, but there's a very good set of questions and observations at CNN.com, and in our sports-shaped world today, a good conversation awaits us:
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Our mis-understanding of Sin
What is your understanding of Sin and what is the effect of your understanding on your relationship with God?
One evening while praying my youngest son, Jörgen who was 4 years old at the time prayed: “Thank you Lord for my sin?” Not sure what to make of it I asked him if he knew what sin was? He replied without blinking: “No, but you get it at church so it must be good.” What he heard was the message of sin, not the message of love or grace. In his little mind he knew that God is good so if sin is that important to the people of the church it must be good.
The sad reality is that we focus much more on what is wrong than on what is right. On what is bad than on what is good. God called us to live a life of triumph in His presence not to wriggle away in fear, overwhelmed by our own shortcomings.
One evening while praying my youngest son, Jörgen who was 4 years old at the time prayed: “Thank you Lord for my sin?” Not sure what to make of it I asked him if he knew what sin was? He replied without blinking: “No, but you get it at church so it must be good.” What he heard was the message of sin, not the message of love or grace. In his little mind he knew that God is good so if sin is that important to the people of the church it must be good.
The sad reality is that we focus much more on what is wrong than on what is right. On what is bad than on what is good. God called us to live a life of triumph in His presence not to wriggle away in fear, overwhelmed by our own shortcomings.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Abuse: Physical, Emotional and Spiritual abuse
We live in a society where we encounter Abuse around every corner. We read about it in the newspapers, see it on the news and find it in homes in our areas. Abuse is visible across all levels of society, some levels of society are just better in covering up. In some circumstances it is done with intend and in others the abuser is not even aware that he/se is abusing the other person.
Physical abuse is much easier to recognise than emotional or spiritual abuse. This kind of abuse leaves marks on the outer as well as on the inner person.
Emotional and Spiritual abuse are much harder to recognise because it only leaves scars on the inner person.
People who are emotionally or spiritually abusing other, are usually not even aware that they are doing it. In many cases they grew up in households where there were bad relational skills, resulting in shouting, name-calling and ridiculing. This usually goes hand in hand with poor listening skills, low self-image and the belief that you know what the other person thinks and what his/her motives are. Then any normal conversation has the ability to explode at any moment. When these people get angry they would usually dominate the other person or waiting till they are in a vulnerable state or position before starting a conversation. If this happen, emotional abuse has already been happening, before the conversation started. If compared to physical abuse, it is at this stage where the one spouse is starting to manhandle the other spouse. In both cases the abused person has now already started to panic, fearing what is to come. In the case of the physical abuse, if the abused do not agree with the other person they would get a beating, or what ever form of violence the abuser decides on. In the case of emotional abuse, it would usually start with actions like not giving the other person chance to talk, not willing to listen to the other person. When the other person make reasonable points, to ignore them and to jump to incidents that are not applicable. To make use of any and all possible unrelated scenarios, shouting, making all kinds of assumptions and getting very emotional. Then starts the name-calling, saying the things that you know would really hurt the other person and justifying it to self and the other person. In the worst cases using God, their believe/love for God or the Bible to grind them into the ground. The sad thing is that these people do not realize what they are doing.
In Physical, Emotional and Spiritual abuse the person who is doing the abuse would usually apologise for what they have done. But they would almost always immediately give you the reasons why they had the right to do so. This is the worst part of the abuse. Saying sorry clears them form the responsibility but by giving the reasons why they had the right to do this, they are putting all the blame as well as the blame of the abuse on the person that was abused. This empower them to go on as if nothing has happened. Everything is cleared after saying sorry.
Thus they end up further apart and the abuser can not understand why. The person abused either start to except that they are responsible for the whole thing and accept the blame, or they tend to pull away from the person. In extreme cases this can lead to a permanent split.
Remember NO person has the right to abuse another person! The most important thing for the abused person is to speak to somebody. To have somebody they can talk to openly.
In the case of physical abuse make sure you talk openly to your doctor, take photos and get help immediately.
In the case of emotional and Spiritual abuse the first step is for the other person to realise what they are doing and why? If this happens there is a lot of hope. If necessary show the person articles like these. If they are not willing to listen then you must get help.
Remember that underneath every abuser there is a broken person, but that does not give them the right to take it out on you.
Physical abuse is much easier to recognise than emotional or spiritual abuse. This kind of abuse leaves marks on the outer as well as on the inner person.
Emotional and Spiritual abuse are much harder to recognise because it only leaves scars on the inner person.
People who are emotionally or spiritually abusing other, are usually not even aware that they are doing it. In many cases they grew up in households where there were bad relational skills, resulting in shouting, name-calling and ridiculing. This usually goes hand in hand with poor listening skills, low self-image and the belief that you know what the other person thinks and what his/her motives are. Then any normal conversation has the ability to explode at any moment. When these people get angry they would usually dominate the other person or waiting till they are in a vulnerable state or position before starting a conversation. If this happen, emotional abuse has already been happening, before the conversation started. If compared to physical abuse, it is at this stage where the one spouse is starting to manhandle the other spouse. In both cases the abused person has now already started to panic, fearing what is to come. In the case of the physical abuse, if the abused do not agree with the other person they would get a beating, or what ever form of violence the abuser decides on. In the case of emotional abuse, it would usually start with actions like not giving the other person chance to talk, not willing to listen to the other person. When the other person make reasonable points, to ignore them and to jump to incidents that are not applicable. To make use of any and all possible unrelated scenarios, shouting, making all kinds of assumptions and getting very emotional. Then starts the name-calling, saying the things that you know would really hurt the other person and justifying it to self and the other person. In the worst cases using God, their believe/love for God or the Bible to grind them into the ground. The sad thing is that these people do not realize what they are doing.
In Physical, Emotional and Spiritual abuse the person who is doing the abuse would usually apologise for what they have done. But they would almost always immediately give you the reasons why they had the right to do so. This is the worst part of the abuse. Saying sorry clears them form the responsibility but by giving the reasons why they had the right to do this, they are putting all the blame as well as the blame of the abuse on the person that was abused. This empower them to go on as if nothing has happened. Everything is cleared after saying sorry.
Thus they end up further apart and the abuser can not understand why. The person abused either start to except that they are responsible for the whole thing and accept the blame, or they tend to pull away from the person. In extreme cases this can lead to a permanent split.
Remember NO person has the right to abuse another person! The most important thing for the abused person is to speak to somebody. To have somebody they can talk to openly.
In the case of physical abuse make sure you talk openly to your doctor, take photos and get help immediately.
In the case of emotional and Spiritual abuse the first step is for the other person to realise what they are doing and why? If this happens there is a lot of hope. If necessary show the person articles like these. If they are not willing to listen then you must get help.
Remember that underneath every abuser there is a broken person, but that does not give them the right to take it out on you.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Church: Are We relevant?
The problem is that many committed young people(15-35) break away from main stream churches. In recent studies by a Princeton workgroup in Religion working on this subject they were asked why they are not comfortable in these churches. The research was done online and platforms like facebook and other social networks were used. Teens and Young people from all over the world gave their opinion. Six areas of concern were identified and the next stage would be to start conversations about these concerns.
DO YOU HATE BORING SERMONS?
I found this brutally true article on http://emergingbracken.blogspot.com it was posted by Guillaume Smit
There is no excuse for a lifeless sermon. Although it remains a different matter to establish the criteria for lifeless sermons, I firmly believe in the vision that every preacher should engage in self-development to better his/her sermons.
After all, it is God's Word that is being proclaimed,Die kerk moet oor seksuele oriëntasie tot inkeer kom
Ek het hierdie interresante artikel van Gerrit Brand gekry by http://blogs.litnet.co.za/gerritbrand/die-kerk-moet-oor-seksuele-orientasie-tot-inkeer-kom
Maan 17 Mei 2010, 09:30Allan Boesak en ander “geestelike leiers” het ’n belangrike memorandum oor “diskriminasie teen mense wat lesbies, gay, biseksueel, transgender en interseks is” onderteken. Hiermee voeg ek my handtekening by.
Ek doen dit spesifiek as Christen, as teoloog en as NG kerklidmaat (maar nie as “geestelike leier” nie – wat is dit in elk geval?). Met ander woorde, die rede hoekom ek dink die kerk en die breër samelewing behoort af te sien, nie net van diskriminasie – byvoorbeeld deur uitsluiting – teen die betrokke minderheidsgroep nie, maar ook van die morele veroordeling van hierdie seksuele oriëntasies en verhoudings, is dus nie dat “sekulêre” oorwegings hier vir my swaarder as geloofsoorwegings weeg nie, maar juis omdat ek die Bybelse getuienis oor God se liefde vir mense ernstig probeer neem.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Coffee and some interesting medical facts!
And the good news is, coffee is actually good for you. Yes! According to Tomas DePaulis, Phd, a research scientist at Vanderbilt University,
"For most people, very little bad comes from drinking it, but a lot of good." "At least six studies indicate that people who drink coffee on a regular basis are up to 80% less likely to develop Parkinson's, with three showing the more they drink, the lower the risk. Other research shows that compared to not drinking coffee, at least two cups daily can translate to a 25% reduced risk of colon cancer, an 80% drop in liver cirrhosis risk, and nearly half the risk of gallstones."
Apparently coffee contains oodles of antioxidants. Well, who knew? I just know that if it's made well, it's delicious, but if it's poorly made, it's tastes foul. Invest in some really good roasted beans, a good coffee maker, and learn how to make the perfect cup of coffee. One of the best places to get these beans is at
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Questions I am asked: What about cremation?
It is easy to be light hearted about the subject if you do not have to make a decision about a loved one that has recently died. But it is a very difficult subject when someone close to you had died and nobody knew what they might have wanted.
We tend not to talk about death. It is one of those subjects that people try to sidestep. Death is a very natural thing, unless Christ returns on the clouds before we die, the one certainty that we can live with is:
Nobody will leave this life alive!It is very important to sit down with your family and to talk about dying and death.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Lost in the cosmos: Breda Ludik
Breda is working on his post Doctoral at the Lutheran Seminary in Minnesota. He wrote the following article on Walker Percy.
Walker Percy, the acclaimed novelist, wrote a book called “Lost in the cosmos: The last self-help book” in which he ruthlessly and hilariously unmasks our growing preoccupation with ourselves. These are some of the alternative titles he suggests for the book:
Walker Percy, the acclaimed novelist, wrote a book called “Lost in the cosmos: The last self-help book” in which he ruthlessly and hilariously unmasks our growing preoccupation with ourselves. These are some of the alternative titles he suggests for the book:
- Why it is that of all the billions and billions of strange objects in the Cosmos – novas, quasars, pulsars, black holes – you are beyond doubt the strangest
- Why is it possible to learn more in ten minutes about the Crab Nebula in Taurus, which is 6,000 light years away, than you presently know about yourself, even though you’ve been stuck with yourself all your life
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