Blotted tears and Grace

In 2001 I met Jenna (not her real name) at the hospital. Her mother called me: Jenna nearly died as she had been using heroin for over a year. Her mother was tired and worried. Jenna was a beautiful young girl, 22 years old and studying at University. During her third year, she had been experimenting with Heroin and became hooked.
She had already been to rehab , but it had only taken two weeks before she started using again. Jenna was tired of this lifestyle and this last experience really scared her. She cried and told me that she knew that she needed Christ in her life. We prayed together and she accepted Christ into her heart. This was not a decision she took lightly, she started reading her Bible, attending church and altering her lifestyle.

The Day Happy died!

At the end of 2010, I had the privilege to become acquainted with Happy, a petrol station employee. The morning of our meeting was very special: I have told the story of how Happy gave his heart to the Lord, and the affect it had on me. http://paul-barnard.blogspot.com/2010/08/morning-i-met-jesus-at-petrol-station.html
Since August last year I have visited him a few times, and his whole life has truly been turned around. He started living with joy and purpose. His co-workers became his congregation, and like a committed pastor, he has served them with love, care, and the Word of God. 
I recall that upon leaving him one time, I thought that this uneducated man, who had only known God for a few months, could certainly teach a class of theology students and pastors about living with a passion for Christ. Talking to him was exciting, but draining. He tried to ask a 1000 questions in an hour. He was so excited about Christ and the Word of God, reading, talking, and doing. Christ was his life! As I drove off, I thanked the Lord for this inspiration and the privilege of knowing this man.

Miracles for sale - Derren Brown

I Found this piece form Derren Brown on Miracles done by Faith healers. What is your take on this? What is your take on faith healing?

I had to edit this article. One of the comments on this article that was placed on my blog, a story of parents who lost their child, need to be part of it. Please read their story at the end.

My Prison Miracle

While I was still studying theology I worked at the Prison Service in Pretoria during the nights to pay for my studies. I had the wonderful opportunity to work permanent nightshift from 1992-1994. The nightshift started at 22:00 and ended at 06:00 which meant that we had very little contact with the inmates. One of my friends and I decided that we wanted to share the gospel with those around us. The problem was that the inmates were not interested in talking to the guards and especially not about religion. Then one night we realised that if we were busy talking to each another in hushed voices while standing in the hallways outside the cells, the inmates would press up against the bars to try and listen in on our conversations. We then came up with the idea to move from the one cell to the next standing outside and sharing Romans 5 with each other. We would make turns to tell the other in a hushed excited voice: “I have read the most amazing piece of scripture” Then we would take out a Bible and read Romans 5 in a hushed voice. We could see how inmates where pressing against the bars straining to hear. After we had finished, we would move to the next cell and started again.

How do we communicate the gospel, and what do we communicate?

I think this is a brilliant article by “Jesus needs new PR”.  What is your opinion?

 

My thoughts on Mark Driscoll’s hell…

 

I watched it. And then I re-watched it. And then I woke up this morning and watched it again.
And I’m just going to share a few thoughts…
Now, before I do that, let me offer a disclaimer:

A) I don’t know Mark Driscoll personally. But I’ll be very honest: Mark’s public persona rubs me the wrong way. Seriously, I think the man could be discussing nursery rhymes and I’d somehow be just a little irritated by it. And while I do think that some of my frustrations are warranted, I do realize that a part of the reason that Mark’s public “voice” gets under my skin is my problem (not his). So I think it’s only fair to confess that upfront.

Beggars for a begging Christ!

God used 2 Corinthians 5:20 to touch my heart, soul, and mind, in a way far more than just on a logical level. Over the last two months, I had the privilege to be present at various occasions where people gave their hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ. Every time I have the privilege to experience this miracle, I am overcome by God’s love, mercy and grace. But 2 Corinthians 5:20 showed me the heart of God, and my world came tumbling down.

²⁰ Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. (The Holy Bible : King James Version. 1995 (electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version.) (2 Kor 5:19-20). Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.)

The word translated as “beseech” παρακαλέω (parakaleō), is actually better translated as “beg or plead.” It is the same word found in Luke 8:41: ⁴¹ And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue: and he fell down at Jesus’ feet, and begged him that he would come into his house: ⁴² For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying.

The words translated as “we pray you,” δεόμεθα (deomai), can also be rendered “begging.” It is the same word we get in Luke 5:12: ¹² In one of the villages, Jesus met a man with an advanced case of leprosy. When the man saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground, begging to be healed. “Lord,” he said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.

So, 2 Corinthians 5:20 may be better translated thus: “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beg you by us: we are begging you for Christ sake, be ye reconciled to God”

Imagine God almighty on His knees with tears in His eyes begging those who do not know Him to be reconciled with Him! Imagine the Almighty maker of heaven and earth, the creator of perfect love, broken-hearted about you, me, and all the people out there, that His Son died for. The God of grace longing to pour out His grace on us.
When this picture formed before my eyes I not only wanted to praise and worship this God. I needed to run to Him and throw my arms around Him. Crying, holding on, I wanted to say everything will be alright. But then I saw my God’s heart --- how can everything be alright if His beloved children don’t know Him; don’t know Him for who He is? How could everything be alright, if so many of His beloved children are broken or in pain?

I sat down sobbing, feeling hopeless, but then I saw the hope in God. We are God’s hope! Therefore we must go out, begging people for the sake of Christ, to be reconciled to God. We are not suppose to be the beggars, begging God for more. We are suppose to be the begging God’s beggars, begging the lost to come to Christ.

To serve this loving amazing God, is the one thing I want to do with all my heart, mind and soul. We do not proclaim theology, institution, or morals. We proclaim Christ! Christ who died on the cross, so that we could be reconciled with God. It does not matter who you are, or what you have done. God does not want to judge you, He loves you. He wants to be reconciled with you.

We don’t proclaim because we know it all, or because we are commanded. No, we proclaim because we saw this loving God, and He has touched our hearts. We don’t proclaim because we want to notch up another conversion. We proclaim because we saw God’s love for others.

How can I turn away from this God, and those He loves? What is worth doing in this life that is more important than this?

Acts 4:31 ³¹ After they prayed(παρακαλέω begged), the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

Give meaning to your stuff.

We have been trapped by the idea of success according to the Western Culture. You stuff does not give meaning to your life – YOUR LIFE GIVES MEANING TO YOUR STUFF! One of my favorite authors Don Miller wrote the following article on his blog   http://donmilleris.com/2010/10/08/how-to-give-your-home-and-your-home-meaning/ If you decide that you want to follow in his footsteps, let's network and make sure that everyone knows of the opportunities. For example, I know a missionary family in Gauteng who is in dire needs of a vacation but who are not able to afford this. Let's network and start a community of care and love.

Ask a atheist or agnostic if you need help on the Bible.

People all across America were asked some basic religious en Bible questions in a recent study. Here are some of the results, as reported by CNN:

Those who believe the Bible to be the literal word of God, scored slightly under average, while those who say it is not the word of God, scored slightly better.

How do we motivate staff members at our local Churches – Bribe them with money!

As Church we can learn a lot from the business world, but we can never function by the same principles as the business world. We should never consider our church workers as mere employees. We are called to be contra-culture, but especially as regards to the way culture and economics “reward” achievements. In the church today, however, there seems to be a growing tendency of working for bonuses, honour, and outcomes.

When the Church buys into this way of thinking, we give up the idea of worship/service as the highest calling. We, as Church, function on the premise that all are equal before God, and that God the Spirit is working through us. Everything we do, we do because we love God, and we love those around us. We are not in the business of church, we are in the ministry of church. We are not in the business of judging or evaluating each other on accomplishments, or results. We are in the business of worshipping God through our lives.

If we work with scorecards, by what measure, method, or vehicle, are we to judge success? If we are truly worried about what is happening in the church, then we would not “bribe” people to do better. We would spend more time with them in worshipping and make sure that they are experiencing Christ in their ministry. If you are in a leadership position in the church, and you are not praying with people, worshiping with them, and encouraging them through serving them, there is something wrong.

Christian Culture? – By Cobus Van Wyngaard

Cobus is a guest publisher this week on the blog. A Pastor with a vision of Church that is biblical. You can read more of his stuff on his blogs
http://mycontemplations.wordpress.com
http://anderkant.wordpress.com
If you park and enter on level 6 of Menlyn mall, on your way to the movies, you used to walk past the tattoo-parlour and then CUM books. According to some the tattoo-parlour was quite dodgy, with the girl with the leather straps which only cover the most needed parts decorating the front window.

Right next to it was CUM. Surely one of the biggest symbols of Christian culture here in South Africa. I’ve always found this two shops next to each other a beautiful picture of the tension in which we live. Until yesterday…

Stories of Faith

This is the stories of faith that was read on radio

1. Blotted tears and Grace

2. The morning I met Jesus at the Petrol station.

3. My Prison Miracle

4. God loves tough guys.

Send in your stories of Faith.

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Sinners prayer

How would you help someone to give his/her heart to God? I recently came across an article from Carlos Whittaker that I really enjoyed. (http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com/2010/09/rewriting-the-sinners-prayer-amen-the-church-camp-curse/)

Rewriting The Sinners Prayer, Amen, & The Church Camp Curse

“Heavenly Father, I know that I have sinned against You and that my sins separate me from You. I am truly sorry. I now want to turn away from my sinful past and turn to You for forgiveness. Please forgive me and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your Son, Jesus Christ, died for my sins, that He was raised from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become my Savior and the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen”

Part 3: My Whacked out Idea of ministry

This post is part  of the series My whacked out idea of church.
Go to Part 2
Our Sowetan friend, Devon, and Alak, from Thailand, have booming churches. But their ministry models are so simple, so non-existing. It is here where my American friend with the mega church, with a weekly attendance of 14 000, took me by surprise. The big question in ministry is, "How do we demonstrate our faith in the community?"

God loves tough guys.

These days I find myself crying more often than I am comfortable with. But if there is one thing that opens me up like a sprinkler system on a Kalahari farm, it is when somebody commits their life to Christ. This is the most amazing miracle anyone can ever experience and if you are close to me when this happens, make sure you have a raincoat.
The tough guy I am talking about is not me, I would have said “seriously tough” if I was talking about myself. No the tough guy I am talking about is a youngster, seventeen years old. He is a young leader I have met during one of the greatest experiences of my life – The “Kalahari Vasbyt”.
Every year at the end of December till early January Themba Tours organises a tour for young leaders, Grade 10-12. This is for tough guys, leaders and athletes. They would face the toughest and almost certainly greatest 18 days of their life.  They would tour through Botswana to Zimbabwe where they would be river rafting on grade 5 rapids the  biggest in the world(It is here where they learn to pray for small things – like air).

Part 2: My whacked out idea of congregation!

This is part 2 of the series My whacked out idea of church. This week while talking about church and what is happening in the world, the following 4 points came to my attention.
What is your understanding of active members?
I grew up with the whacked out idea that in congregation, an active member implies a person doing the following:

• Goes to church every Sunday.
  
• Partakes in a small group (If a person is willing to be a small group leader or play a specific role in the leading of the small group he/she naturally moves to the next level of membership. They are worth more.
  
• If they are active in one of the ministries of the Church like Family, Outreach, worship ministry then they move to the next level.
  
• If they are giving 10% or more they move to the next level of commitment.
  
• If they are leading someone in Discipleship they are ready to become a Deacon, Elder or Pastor. This would be the highest level.
  
  
  

God please help me with relationships.

When we talk about relationships we use economical metaphors like:

• we value people
• we invest in people
• relationships could be bankrupt (how many times have you heard the sermon that you should do good things for your partner, it is like banking. When the hard times come and you make mistakes you will still have credit)
• people are priceless, etc.

My whacked out ideas about Church?

Where did I get my wacked out ideas about Church? About how ministry is supposed to work, about what is important? This week I have been amazed by the idea about Church that I grew up with. No, more than that, that which I had been taught in my years in the Church and in seminary.

What happened? I had the privilege to spend this week with 9 individuals from different parts of the world. Two of us from South Africa(Devon is from Soweto), one from Egypt, one from Ethiopia, one from Nigeria, one from Tanzania. Two from the USA, one from Thailand and one form Germany. What a challenging group! Each one of us from a different denomination and cultural background. But most of all what an amazing spiritual experience!

What do you worship? God or your personality?

I generally do not like to generalise but sometimes you can’t help but see some patterns. Our personalities have a major effect on how we experience the world, one another an even God.
Some personalities, lean toward a rules based, black and white theology that allows them to easily decide who is right and wrong and who to fight, who is with them or against them. If you disagree with them, you are their enemy. No you are THEE enemy. But are you their enemy because you are wrong about theology, or because they have subscribed to a theology that helps them feel comfortable within the way they view the world? In other words, is this God’s fight, or their own? If they weren’t Christians, wouldn’t they just manifest their personalities in some other fight, some other black-and-white way of viewing the world? For these people rules define who they are. Control is very, VERY important. In a church service, things(Liturgy) must be done in the correct way and the Sermon must give clear and definite answers.

Bikers Egpare Kerk Naweek 24-26 September

Hi almal, hierdie die nuutste info en planne vir die naweek waaroor ons gesels het vir die NG Helderberg Bikers Church uitstappie die naweek van 24 tot 26 September. Die skool sluit daardie Donderdag en die Vrydag is ‘n openbare vakansiedag.
Ek sal nog finale kostes vasmaak, maar dit lyk asof ons sal wegkom met verblyf vir ongeveer R450 per person, insluitende minstens een aandete (skaapbraai en wynproe in Rawsonville reeds vasgemaak en ingesluit). Ek onderhandel nog oor Swellendam se aandete (ek kyk na tradisioneel Portugees) en ontbyt. Ontbyt in Rawsonville sal selfsorg wees… maw koffie en beskuit.
Plekke sal beperk wees tot maksimum 14 mense. Ek sal besprekings neem met deposito van R250 per persoon omdat plekke beperk is en ek 50% moet vooruit betaal. Indien iemand kanselleer nadat deposito reeds betaal is, sal daardie persoon iemand in sy/haar plek moet kry voordat die deposito terugbesorg sal word.

I’d rather be hated than loved with conditions – by Donald Miller

Wow, I like the way Ron thinks about life! I had the privilege to give a sermon on Romans 5 yesterday and what Ron is saying here, resonates with this scripture – Paul Barnard
I’d rather be hated than loved with conditions. I think most people would agree. At least when people hate you, they are being intellectually honest. I mean you know where they stand. But we’ve all shared a political view or a struggle and had people take a half step back, or worse, reveal they no longer want the best for us. When this happens I get a hollow feeling and I associate that hollow feeling with the person and their ideas. So that begs the question, do we actually love our friends without conditions? Are we the kind of friend we hope to have? Ultimately, loving people conditionally is an attempt to control them. We are wrongly thinking that if we can make people “pay” for their faults, or their opinions that don’t match ours, they will have a negative association with their faults or their supposedly wrong opinions. But that’s not the way it works.