Actions speak louder than words. Does your life reflect God?

I should be the last person to write this, but anyway here i am writing it anyway. Anyways if we wait till we are perfect before we say something whether it on a blog or verbally, no-one would say anything.

It came out in a book I was reading and after that in some sermons and bible studies about ... well to live a life not like the gentiles (non-believers) do. And the message started to burn on my heart, because I see it everywhere, and sadly not the good part of the message.

In the book I read (Walking in the dust of Rabbi Jesus - Lois Tverberg) it came out what it means to blaspheme. It has a lot more to do than to use God's name in a vain sentence, or a cuss word. It should be obvious. There is this very true saying : Actions speak louder than words.

Let me put it this way, and I'm using an example that Lois used in the book here. If a Muslim extreme terrorist shoots however many people dead, whilst shouting Allah Akbar "Allah is great". Is the rest of the world suddenly saying yes Allah is great? In fact our reaction is totally the opposite. We think that Allah is not great. nor is his actions. We don't want anything to do with him.

Our actions give glory to God or they detract glory from God.
How many times have you heard people say "I'm not going to church anymore because those people have hurt me/ they live just like the rest of the world - what's the point/ I don't trust Christians, they are just as crooked as the rest of the world; etc. Sadly I hear this all the time. It hurts me. It hurts God a lot more than we can imagine. Does that glorify God? No, in fact it turns people away from God.

I work in the insurance industry, and you know how many claims do we handle for "Christians" that want to claim for more than what was damaged or stolen, or revamp instead of merely fix etc etc. Churches that have had legit claims, for a small fire in the kitchen but instead of just claiming for the kitchen repairs want to rebuild the whole place??? and another church who had a legitimate claim for storm damage, but instead of only wanting to claim for the repairs to the ceiling and painting of the wall etc, want to replace the whole roof, when there was no damage to the roof??? And you know what, those actions made people to say I don't want to believe in your God, and I don't want anything to do with any church because you (all Christians) are just as crooked - if not more- then the world. "I thought this was an honest person". It hardens peoples' hearts toward God.

As another example, my dear brother in the Lord, Nathan Odede, gave in a message to the youth this example about sports teams. If you were playing for team B but then changed to go play for team A, but then at the match you show up in your old team's jersey what is going to happen? You could get fired from the team. Why then do we as Christians say we are on Team Christ, but live like we are really on Team World and walk around in our Team World jerseys?

Let us then consider how we live and what we do. Yes we all do sin, but we should try to stop our sinning. If you know what you are doing is wrong- don't do it; stop doing it. Ask God for forgiveness for the sin and stop doing it.

If we say God changed our lives but keep on living the same old ways, we are really saying He did not change my life.

No, I haven't referenced scriptures here, because the whole Bible is so full of it. But here is some, a little paraphrased.
"You'll be known by the fruit in your life."
"Do not live like the gentiles (unbelievers) live"
"Live a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called"
"do not become conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds"
"consider your ways"
"be Holy (set-apart, different, not like them) as your Father in heaven is Holy"

Behold our God

This beautiful song is stuck in my head for the last couple of days.

Behold our God

As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

As I walk through the valley

And the shadows of death darkens my way

I know You are with me

You hold my hand and

take me through the dark valley

The green grass that You are weaving

Into my life, my character

Will only portray as bright green against black

 In the times when all is well

There is little gratitude for the beautiful green grass

It is in these dark times when we grow

ever so close to You Oh Lord

When you shape us

and deepen our faith in You

Your goodness, kindness, grace, love

And the knowing that You are always with us

The Emotion of Love in Christ

There is not a circumstance of our Lord's history 
which is not another form or manifestation of love. 
His incarnation is love stooping. 
His sympathy is love weeping. 
His compassion is love supporting. 
His grace is love acting.
His teaching is the voice of love.
His silence is the repose of love.
His patience is the restraint of love.
His obedience is the labor of love.
His suffering is the travail of love.
His cross is the altar of love.
His death is the burnt offering of love.
His resurrection is the triumph of love.
His ascension into heaven is the enthronement of love.
His sitting down at the right hand of God is the intercession of love.

Such is the deep, the vast, the boundless ocean
of Christ's love!

~ Octavius Winslow "The Emotion of Love in Christ"

Walking in the dust of Rabbi Jesus. (sort-of a book review)

I've been reading a book "Walking in the dust of Rabbi Jesus" by Lois Tverberg. What an eye-opening mind blowing book. You would say the Bible is supposed to be that book. YES absolutely true! But we read it in a post-modern Western culture context - and totally forget that the Bible is an ancient (yet still very valid for today!) Middle Eastern book. There are 1st century Jewish culture references and idioms used in the Bible which we westerners (and others living in the 21st century) totally look over and don't understand and and and. This book shows some of these things and blows the 2000 years of dust off our minds and open our eyes to see. To make us treasure the Bible as the beautiful, rich, ancient life-changing text that it is.

 If I can give one example... Matthew 22:17b- 22. "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, Why put me to the test you hypocrites? Show me a coin for the tax. And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this? They said "Caesar's". The He said to them "Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. When they heard it they marveled. And they left him and went away."
                      What do we typically think this passage means? Pay the tax that are due and give something to the church or something along this line. But just think... in Whose image are we made. Gen 1:27 is a clue for you. We are made in the image of God. "Give back to God the things that are God's." We were created by God, made in His image, Saved by His amazing Grace. We should give our lives back to God. No wonder the Pharisees left Him and went away.

A 11th century Rabbi said:
The scriptures are like a letter written by a king to a subject whom he loves. But when it arrives, the words have faded and the writing is unclear. Out of love for the king, knowing he's reading the very words written by the kings hand, the subject is happy to decipher it - in fact, he sees the difficulty of the task as proof of his love, strong enough to be put to the test. (Rabbi Bahya Ibn Pakudah)

God is the King who gave us gentile believers His Book. I think it would do us good to read the book in the context it is written. Not do us good really, it will make us to live the way God intended for us to live.

If you can get this book  Please do! and you can also follow her blog  ourrabbijesus.com  for more great insights which will make you to understand some things better. Of course we cannot know and understand everything there is to know this side of eternity, but there is things to learn and apply in our walk with Jesus.

Martha

I'm a Martha
always running around and helping and serving
anxious and troubled about many things
But I find peace in becoming Mary
I find true peace by sitting at the feet
of the Prince of Peace
Martha's of the world,
listen to the call
of the Prince of Peace
"Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart
and you will find rest for your souls
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. "

Martha's of the world, become Mary's who sit by the feet of our Lord.
the work to be done can wait, the Lord cares about you. 

*Luke 10:38-42
*Matt 11:28-30
*Is 40:31

Outreach to Mashushu

Well, where do I start. One usually start at the beginning. It is just to define the beginning. Well as usual I was preparing myself, like many others, to go on outeach in Mozambique, to “my” village Panhame. Well then… plans had to be changed. Late in January the Limpopo river valley received basically their yearly rainfall in roughly about 4 days time. Remember the floods in January 2000. Yep, the same scenario replayed. (The border is still closed.) Ok , so a new plan had to be made. Samaria Mission identified a couple of villages in the Limpopo province for outreaches. We went to Mashushu. A small village situated in the mountains at the start of the Orrie Baragwanath pass. As you can imagine it is absolutely beautiful. It is just so sad that those who live there, don't see the beauty of it anymore. "Familiarity breeds contempt." And as a brother in the Lord who came with us on team, (who originally came from Zimbabwe) explained that those who are the poorest would usually be the ones who lived the highest up the mountain - so that had to walk furhter and further for water and firewood. In our point of view they would have the best views from up there but they don't see it anymore. In my lesson about creation they were almost laughing at me, when I said look around you and see, Who created these beautiful moutains and the stars in the nightskies. They were probably thinking what beautiful mountains is this paleface talking about?

Psalm 121: I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

A Sunset

 We came alongside the local church “Back to Jesus Baptist Church” with Pastor Lazarus Matlala and his wife, Rose. He is a graduate from Christ Seminary. The people in the area has heard a mixture of “gospels” from the ZCC to “give me your salary and then it will all go well with you and you will be wealthy”, and anything in between. Hence the name of the church – the area should turn back to Jesus. 

 

We went on house-house visitations in Mashushu and 3 other villages nearby. I went with Zachariah, Kate, Tracy, Mervyn, and two locals, Lydia a youngster and Noria a gogo. We were visiting in Mashushu. The first day, we visited about 6 homes, of which the last one was the local witchdoctor. The moment we sat down, Zachariah who sat next to me, said we are now at the witchdoctor’s house. I prepared myself to run if something happens or if we get chased away. None of those happened. We could talk to them for a good while. We can only trust God for the seed planted during this week.

The next day we went to several houses again. One of them was Mama Esther. On walking into her yard I said a quick quite prayer “Lord give me words to speak”. It was my turn to share. We all made turns to share and pray with Zachariah interpreting for us. We sat down.  She said that she is a born-again believer. Years ago she got burnt on her legs and it is still painful. Because of the pain in her legs she did not go to church anymore. (it is plus minus 1kms walk to the church from her house in a mountainous area.) I felt peace in my heart to be sharing encouraging words with her, and we prayed for her. We told her about our ministries and evening services that we had on in the afternoons and evenings but that we would understand if she would not come due to the pain in her legs. Well, she showed up the whole week at the ministries and evening services. It was a joy to see her at the ladies meetings, as her face lit up and she listened so attentively with a smile on her face to the teachings. 

On the other two days I went with other teams to the other villages. On Thursday I went with some of the Boksburg family. They went to a drop-in centre and gave Bibles to the ladies running the place as well as some beanies and blankets for the kids.  They then visited a home they visited the previous day. They promised her a bible and took it to her. She was so excited to receive one and read us Psalm 23 in Pedi (Sotho). The previous day they prayed for her, and for some terrible pains she had in her neck. She was overjoyed and excitedly told us that the pains in her neck is gone. We can only praise God and thank Him for taking the pains away! 

The lady with the Bible in her hands, and the orange & beige shawl on her head is the one we visited whose neck pains were healed. Praise God! 

On the Friday, a great deal of our team went to help the church set up things for a conference they had.

We had children’s; youth; and woman’s ministry. The men prepared for their teachings but no men showed up, so they had no men’s ministry. I was involved with the woman’s ministry. We had 9 ladies on our first day. We can pray that  the seed of what we taught them during these 4 days would grow. And that they would read their bibles, especially those whom we gave bibles to. The only lady, Monnya, hugged her bible when we gave it to her.

All in all, the week felt too short. For those who want to know, weatherwise, we had all kinds of weather in the week we were there. The days were mostly hot,  but as soon as the sun disappareared behind the mountain it was cold again. The nights were cold (but thankfully not freezing). On thursday it was quite overcast and cold and friday we had rain! The stars are breathtakingly beautiful and clear. Lots of fellowship times were had by the fireside which was next to the shower (because it's the donkey's fire that makes hot water for the great showers.) We had several donkeys (the animal kind) walking around and whose noise was echoing in the mountains.

This is the view from the church door. The cross some of the guys on team put up for the church, as there was no sign to mark it as a church.