PE......Never again!!

Why did I think that a trip to Port Elizabeth would be un-eventful?
Louise and I went on Saturday and all was going fine until I lost my accelerator cable!
Yes, something that I've never experienced before happened. I tried to put the peddle to the metal so to speak and found nothing there!
With much thanks I had enough momentum to allow me to pull over to the hard shoulder where we both scratched our heads among other things!! (Exploding tempers, frustrations and, well you get the drift!!)
I was able to push the car into a local car park where we had to call for help.
Help came in the form of my bestest Mother and Father-inlaw. Who came out and made it possible for us to get the car towed away and for us to get home.
WOW!! Why did we go to PE?
Never again, well, not until we really really have too.
But all was not bad.
We worship an amazing God.
We were to phone the storage yard where our car was towed to in order to arrange for the car to be towed on to a mechanic. Once contact was made we were informed that the repair had already been done and that their would be no charge. The cable had become unattached and the mechanic was able fix it.
Louise and I both were expecting to be stung with garage charges but that wasn't to be.
I say again, we worship an amazing God.
I can reflect on this event and say that I'm disappointed with myself. I'm teaching in our small group about persevering in hard times but when this happened to us, perseverance wasn't what I was thinking about. Still, God is so cool, I know that I'm still learning and every event in life like this gives me an incredible boost in confidence in our great God.
Live and learn eh?
So, the car is back home and all is well.
Both of us was quite glade that the weekend was over, not what I was expecting as I looked forward to the weekends arrival!!

The weekend, it be approaching!

(Part one of two)
It's Friday and I have that Friday feeling!!
Last night we had our small group as normal; it was great to catch up with our friends.
I started a new bible study with the guy's that looks at the book of James. The study is called 'Live Wisely' and is written by Bill Hybels. Anyone who has read the book of James knows that it contains some really down to earth teaching about the Christian life.
The first session looked at 'Developing Perseverance' and was taken from both James 1.1-4 and Job 1.13 - 2.13. It was an interesting topic to start with and looked at some rather difficult issues for us as a group, their required a lot of soul searching on all of our parts.
Troubles come our way as Christians, no one said that such things wouldn't, but we need to be asking ourselves:
Do we hold on to Jesus in those times?
Does our faith grow and do hard times promote perseverance within us and our relationship with the Lord?

2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.
3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.
4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
(James 1.2-4, NLT)

James encourages us to look at our troubles in a new light; they are opportunities for growth within us as we grow into maturity in our life with the Lord. That isn't an easy thing to do is it?
But we can find joy in God even in hard times, (read Paul's words in Philippians). That joy is hardly likely to be in the very thing that is causing the hardship but should be in our faithful God who is always there with us in the hard times, who always brings us through such things, who always loves us even if we mess it all up.
With such real encounters with Jesus we can view hardships as growth opportunities even if they are ‘times’ that we would rather didn't come our way.
I guess we need to be looking first to God and then to what the end result in it will be?
Know this; it will involve opportunities to glorify God and also opportunities to become, more and more, the person He has created us to be.
One more thing we looked at in this study was the need for brotherly love and support of each other, particularly seen in the reading from the book of Job.
Job had three friends who came to be with him, they didn't get it right at every moment as you will see if you read the whole of the book of Job. But in this reading they did something really well, they spent time with Job; they sat with him for seven days and nights, they grieved with him.
Notice though, that they were silent!
When we support our brothers and sisters, our friends and our families we don't always have to have the right words to say. Often it’s about just being there with your love, with a hug and a smile.
We can all do that, can’t we?
Are you facing hard times at this moment?
Will you hold onto Jesus in the midst of them?
Will they cause you to grow more and more, into the person God has designed you to be?
Or are you someone who has been through a number of battles, and the very person whom God is looking for to support another person who He loves dearly?
Things too think about eh?

I've got more to say but think that I should maybe do another blog entry so as to keep each entry within a measured chunk!

Make a cup of tea, and then come back to my next blog entry!!

Part two, (how’s the tea?)!!

(Part two of two)
Well, this one will only be a short one.
As I said earlier, ‘it’s almost the weekend’, YAY!
Louise and I are off to Port Elizabeth Saturday. We tend to visit PE once every second month. Louise does it for me really; I miss the opportunity to get out on a Saturday to walk around the shops etc.
Trips to PE tend to be rather eventful but often for the wrong reasons sadly. So this weekend, we’re looking for a break from what is becoming the norm!
It is going to be our last visit to PE before we leave for the UK in December and we want to stock up on groceries etc (boring, I know!!). While we are there we are hoping to maybe pick up a few Christmas presents for people. I’m also hoping to buy myself a watch; I’ve been saving pocket money and should have enough to find one I like.
So that will pretty much be our Saturday.
Sunday will see Louise attending a Sunday school pick-nick, so we’re praying for a nice sunny but not too warm day. I hope that everyone has loads of fun!
I’m preaching Sunday evening and have just completed my sermon; I’ll probably give you my thoughts on it in another blog post.
So that pretty much is going to be our weekend.
I hope that everyone who reads this has a great one and thank you for reading.
God bless ya!

Questions, questions, questions!

Thanks Jay for not only reading my blog but also for responding to it.
I hope that I've understood your question correctly.
My understanding of 'Renewal Theology' is that it stems from Charismatic/Pentecostalism.
Do I think that in every area of study it is 'truth'?
Well I have to say I would question any theology that would say 'your not truly baptised in the Holy Spirit until you can display gifts of The Spirit' such as the ability to 'speak in tongues' which some in such movements would claim.
Some Charismatics and Pentecostals believe that you are filled with the Holy Spirit when saved but at some point a believer is later baptised in the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 1.13-14 says:
13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.
14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

When we first believed in Jesus and asked Him to save us and be our Lord He gave us the Holy Spirit. Some people who have the Holy Spirit in there lives will manifest gifts of the Spirit such as the ability to pray and speak in tongues but if they don't manifest such gifting it doesn't mean they aren't saved and haven't been baptised with the Holy Spirit.
I do believe that there is more of the Holy Spirit that should be sort by a believer each and every day, scripture says, 'go on being filled with the Spirit' but I think this is experienced as we surrender more of our lives to the control of the Holy Spirit. We are being filled more and more by the Spirit as we live under His Lordship and are becoming more Christ-like in the way we live our lives.
Part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit as the 'Spirit of truth' is to make 'truth' known to us as believers and I would join you Jay in praying that He will go on doing that in all believers lives.
I hope this has helped Jay.
Can I ask in future for your thoughts and feelings as well as the questions on such subjects as I know that I would find such things very interesting.

So, what else?
I've been asked about 'surfing'!!
What a great sport?
Done by those who can and watched by those who can't!
I've watched from the sidelines but haven't as yet had a go. One day maybe I will, but first I have other challenges. Get to know me better and I might tell you what they are!!
Keep reading and responding.
God bless ya.

Leadership training

This last two days, myself and some of the other leaders in my Church have attended the 'Global Leadership Summit 2007' held at Jeffrey's Bay.
We've all really enjoyed the two days which has seen us sitting under the teaching of Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Church together with various guests invited to speak at the summit.
I've never been on a conference that has looked purely at leadership and skills needed by leaders in the Church today. I feel that I have learnt a lot of things that will serve me now and in my future as I pursue the call to full time ministry.
I have lots of stuff that I want to unpack in the coming days that I've learnt but I wanted to share a little something from a session lead by Bill Hybles called 'What Ever You Do Inspire Me'.
Bill asks the question concerning leaders, 'who is responsible for inspiring leaders'?
He explains that, as King David did (see 1 Samuel 30 and particularly verse 6), we need to find our strength in the Lord.
Who is responsible for building us up as leaders, who is responsible for inspiring us?
We are, we need find our strength in the Lord.
Bill gave us ten ideas that he himself adopts as he works at inspiring himself. I want to share them with you because I have found them particularly helpful.

TEN MOTIVATIONAL ACTIVITIES:

1. Stay crystal clear about your calling from God.
2. Leverage your spiritual gifts the way God gave them to you.
3. Make sure the players on your team are inspiring people.
4. Read inspiring books.
5. Make a point to rub shoulders with exceptionally inspiring people every now and then.
6. Participate in exceptionally inspiring events.
7. Pay attention to physical disciplines.
8. Pay attention to your working environment.
9. Have an inspiring recreational life outside your work world.
10. Practise daily spiritual disciplines that keep your faith fresh.
(Taken from: 'The Global Leadership Summit 2007', delegates book)

I hope that you will find this list that Bill Hybels has put together as helpful as I have.
I would encourage you to visit http://www.willowcreek.com/ to find out more about the teaching of Bill Hybels and the ministry of Willow Creek.

Before I close I just want to thank everyone who has responded to some of my earlier post. For those who have posted responses asking me questions, I just want to say that I intend to respond but want to go away with your questions and think about them before I do.

God bless you all.

Charismatic Theology

Well, I've had a great day studying.
As the title says, I've been studying Charismatic theology and have found this unit very interesting.
I can't say that I hold with all that a Charismatic would hold too concerning spirituality but in looking at this subject it has made me think about the 'Emerging Church' and the way in which they are viewed by the Church today.
I had to think about what the Evangelical Church must have felt like when the Charismatic movement started gaining momentum back in the 1960's. I would say that they looked at it with scepticism much like a lot of people do today when they think about the Emerging Church.
All I want to say at this stage is that my reading on the subject of Charismatic theology isn't broad enough for me to say that the Charismatic movement is wrong never have I read enough on the Emerging Church. Should I voice an opinion when I don't know the arguments from both sides?
Clearly 'no', or if I do so I need to remember that such an opinion is going to be ill informed.
I think people judge before investigating and in doing so they may well get it wrong.
I don't want to miss God doing something new in our world today, do you?

The beach!

Wow, man!
What a blessing it is to live in a place like Jeffrey's!
I woke up early today and the sun was shining so I gave Max his breakfast early and headed of to the beach to give him his early walk.
As I walked on the beach watching and listening to the sea I just got a real sense of how blessed I am.
Having grown up in a 'tower block' and having spent all of my life living 'inner city', you just don't get to experience such mornings.
Its still early and I'm back from my walk, thankful to God for it and ready to get stuck into my studies.
I hope your day has started as well as mine.
God bless.

Rambles!

Today (15 Oct), I spoke with my friend Jay in the UK. Its great to chat with him, whenever I do I feel like I'm back their in the UK. Its like I've not gone away. Its hard also because I know that when we discuss things I can't do anything practical to help with troubling things. Sometimes though, simply chatting has a way of making us feel better eh? I hope so anyway.
Its late here and I should be off to bed (late, ha, 22.45, some might laugh at that but well...). Anyway I just felt like rambling a bit before I turn in. I haven't used this blog for such things really but I'm told that rambling is what its all about.
I guess it gets easier as you get into it.
I've only recently started to use the internet as a way of communicating and have found that it can be a lot of fun. I use 'facebook' and the various applications that can be installed, its all fun stuff but its also a great way of keeping friendship alive. I've just located a good old football and work friend who I feared I had lost contact with to a point (Steve, its great to me in contact with you). So if you haven't tried 'facebook' can I say, 'give it a try, its great fun'.
I've also been using 'Skype'. 'Skype' is a little chat communication program, it can be used to make internet calls including video feeds. I haven't used the call features much due to internet capping by my internet service provider but find it another great way to chat with people all over the place.
So anyway, all these programs together with blogging are still new to me but are things that I want to make full use of.

Catch ya soon.

Thoughts from my sermon

Last night I preached from Isaiah 55.1-3.
This is a well known passage that looks at God's invitation to the thirsty.
We live in a world where sadly there are a lot of unfulfilled discontented people.
I asked the question, why is this?
In answer, I believe that people are looking for fulfillment in the wrong places. They look for jobs or possessions and so on to meet there needs without recognizing that actually the need at the heart of us all is of a spiritual nature.
Jesus is the only one who can fulfill that need.
We see in the reading from Isaiah that God offers water, wine and milk, each are significant.
Water represents the water of life; it’s what God invites us to drink from as He invites us to receive salvation. The wine represents the Holy Spirit. Wine was often used to purify undrinkable water, it killed of the bacteria in the water. The Spirit purifies us as we receive Him into our lives. The final substance is milk which is used to describe the Word of God.
As you can see, in these three substances offered by God to those who thirst, they are everything we could possible need. Salvation, purification and growth through God's living Word in our lives.
Are you looking for contentment?
Has the world and the pursuits of wealth and even more possessions been your way of trying to find satisfaction?
Well I've some bad news for you; such things will never give you real lasting satisfaction and contentment. What the world has to offer is of no real lasting value, it will always see us striving for yet more in an attempt to meet our need.
God, in Isaiah say's, 'why go after things that don't satisfy'?
We need to hear His call; we need to respond to His invitation and drink of the substances that lead to life and fulfillment in and through an ongoing relationship with Him through Jesus.
Are you thirsty?
Has the life you've been living been coming up short?
Are you looking for lasting satisfaction and eternal contentment?
If 'yes' is your answer then Jesus is your man. Turn to Him and start to live in the satisfaction that only He can bring. The satisfaction that comes through living in a relationship with Him where you can receive ever blessing God has promised us.
One last thing.
How much will all this cost us?
Let me just say that you will never be able to pay for it!
The great thing is, God knew that before He ever made an invitation to man to receive such blessings as salvation.
That's why He sent Jesus.
Jesus is the only one who can pay the price and He has done so for you and for me.
The question is, 'will you let Jesus quench your thirst'?
Will you receive the water of life, the Spirit of purification and joy together with the milk which is the very Word of God?
Or are you going to carry on with what the world has to offer?
The worlds best can only temporarily satisfy, what God offers brings satisfaction and contentment for all eternity.
The choice is yours!

Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer

Louise and I had a DVD night last night. We sat and watched Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer

Wow, what a great film.

We're both fans of super hero movies (something I've had a huge impact on concerning the wife!).

We both really enjoyed the first Fantastic Four movie and wondered whether they could really pull off a second.

We weren't disappointed. I wonder whether this was actually better the the first film.

I know some of you are thinking that this film has been out for ages now and why the fuss? Well some of us don't get to see all the big films at the cinema and have to wait for them to come out on DVD.

We've both recently been disappointed by the latest Spiderman film and came to this film hoping for our faith in the good old 'super hero' movie to be restored, it was!

The movie has all the humor of the first film that you may come to expect and a great storyline.

The 'Silver Surfer' might sound like a strange thing to have in land but he really worked and his skills really impressed us.

At one stage in the film you get to see London minus the water in the Thames. Wow, London with no Thames really is a sad place!

The special effects in this film are great and go some way to make it such a great watch.

If you haven't seen it yet, let me just say, I put it as one of my favorite 'super hero' films.

Get out and rent the DVD, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Ups and downs

So, last week was something of a hard one. If you read my last blog entry you'll know that I was preaching Sunday (Sept 30th). Well just before I left to go to Church I started to feel that my left knee was becoming very stiff. God is good and this didn't stop me from preaching. However Monday found me in all kinds of pain with what I understand was 'gout' in my left knee. I've never had it before and would hope to never have it again. My knee swelled up to something like a rugby ball and left me almost unable to walk for most of the week.

This made it hard for me to meet Louise's Auntie who had come through to J’bay for a short break with Louise’s folks. Every time that we had set to go around I found I had to pull out off because I was still in so much pain. Still Friday saw me feeling a certain degree better and I joined Louise and went out to 'Spur' to help celebrate Louise's dad's birthday.
I finally got to meet Marion which was an absolute pleasure. We celebrated dad's birthday early so that Marion could come out with us all. It was a lovely evening which ended back at our place for coffee. Sadly Marion flew back to Jo'burg on Saturday which meant I didn't really get much chance to get to know her, still I'm sure we’ll all get together again at some point.


This last Sunday saw us start something new at Church. We are having a coffee/fellowship lounge in the evening before the service. Its all about fellowship and everyone who popped in had a good time I’m told. We're hoping it will be something that young adults in J'bay will want to come too. Louise has come up with a great name for it 'J'bay Java' and we're also advertising it on 'facebook'.
Talking about 'facebook', I've also started a new group called 'Christians in Jeffrey's Bay'. The hope is that Christians all over J'bay will join it and collectively we can seek to be effective for God in our community, it'll be nice to also make known to others the various things happening in our Churches.
Well, that's about it for now I guess. I'm preaching again this Sunday, not sure on what as yet, but when I have something I'll share some thoughts in another blog entry.
My knee is loads better, just a bit of stiffness now, Thank you Lord.
God bless ya!