Scandalous Graceful Messiah

Scandalous Graceful Messiah

Throughout the centuries
promises were prophesied
about a Saviour, Messiah

He will redeem His people 
our sins forgiven, washed clean

A sinless perfect Saviour
we imagine his family
to be sinless and perfect too
How scandalous and shocking to find then
the social outcast, pagans, gentiles, 
tainted sinners, prostitutes and murderers. 
How did God allow these people
to be in the royal family line?

And yet these chosen sinners
did not in any way
taint the perfect sinless Saviour

It only points to more of His grace
and how now centuries later
He is still in the business of
adding to His family line
the social outcasts, pagans, gentiles,
and all kinds of tainted sinners
In His family line we are all
washed clean and pure

How scandalous, we think, 
as only perfect people go to heaven
(in our tainted mindset)
Reality being there is only ONE perfect person
and He died to cleanse us, and make us into His perfection. 

Grace



Riana Odendaal
December 2014

Our one deep desire Psalm 27:4

Psalm 27:4. One thing I have asked of the Lord, that I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. 


Questions, questions all around.
always seeking, wanting desiring
One. More. Thing.
But what is it that you
deep down
deeply, truely, really really desire?

May our deepest heart's desires be
the same as David's
One thing I asked of the Lord
that I will seek after, pursue mightily
to dwelling in His house
all the days of our lives
forever and ever
to gaze upon his infinite wondrous beauty
and to inquire in His temple -
He is the temple (Rev21:22)

are we content with Him, just Him?



Riana Odendaal
December 2014

Faith

Faith....

It's a gift of grace
and it's all you need for life

It will take you with all your sin and shame
to the Father's grace-filled throne
Faith will  give you new life, new ways, new perspective

and yet

Faith will take you
through trials and perils abound
passing through the valley of the shadow of death
Danger may abound
care and love may not be around
but by faith you will be
where God in His grace needs you to be

Carefully manicured feet
will become cracked, dry and tired
as they walk so many miles to the middle of nowhere
sunburnt you will be, as you sit in the sun
sharing your faith
and silently deep inside cry,
Cry out the Saviour
for one more soul, so lost
to understand, to receive the gift of grace
the faith, the faith that will lead them home

Faith may sound so neat and tidy
a word so meek and tame
and yet it's a wild journey
to places unknown
except to Thy Great Author of Life

Faith has brought you
out of the slimy pit of sin
to the river of grace
took you safely passed death valley
and led you to peace
It has brought you thus far
and will carry you home
the Home that is not on this earth.


Riana Odendaal - December 2014.

Our half painted pictures

A picture we paint

A thousand time over
in a million different ways
yet it's not complete

A poem we wrote
using the best words available
describing you magnificent You are
Yet it falls so tremendously short

a song we sing
the chords strung
and words sung
with all our heart
yet it comes nowhere near

All our best attempts
can never fully describe
how truely great You are

With the same hands
You flung stars into the sky
Hold our beating hearts
and held a nail to the cross for our sins
Only by You are we here
and only in You is true Hope found

Are you just a pew-warmer or are you praying for your pastor

This is an excerpt from last week's sermon by Pastor Johann Odendaal.
For the full sermon go to:  http://www.christbaptist.co.za/sermons/body-life-prayer-involvement


The pastor's have their responsibility in preaching the word in truth. and we the church members can simply come every Sunday and warm the pews, drink tea and go home.....  Really??

We as church members are also called upon to support. Your practical involvement has the potential not only to change your life forever, but also the life of these ministries and other that will believe, and respond on God's Word. The focus of your prayers for the preaching is like that of the preacher also threefold.

A) Pray for the preparation of the sermon. 
- Pray that your pastor and his message become one. It is our duty to as members of the body of Christ to pray that our pastor preaches with integrity. God hates hypocrisy. The major component of the strength of a sermon is the integrity of its preacher(s). The old testament deals extensively with the integrity of Shepherds. Jeremiah 3:15 " And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding."  Jeremiah 32:2 "Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attned to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord."
It is our task as members of the church to ask the Holy Spirit to convict a pastor of sin regarding the practice of the truth he seeks to understand and proclaim.

- Pray that your pastor could prepare uninterrupted. Pastors face many obstacles in the preparation of their sermons. It is a matter of Eph 6:12 "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." That becomes a reality when he sits down to prepare. The interruption of  phone calls, emails, and any others means that might try to steal time from the one thing that has the power to make our Church stand out as a church seeking to be a true model of a biblical church- the preaching of the Word.

- Pray that your pastor will receive grace and illumination by the Holy Spirit to rightly divide the Word of God. Only the Holy Spirit can bring clarity of insight from the passage he deals with. It is a matter of Psalm 119:18. (Psalm 119:18  Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.)
Pray that for the glory of God and the edification of the church he will be an embodiment of 2 Tim 2:15. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

- Pray that the words your pastors will use in the outline of his sermon will be an effective tool for the Holy Spirit to convince and convict those who listen to the sermon. What the pastor desires for the Church is what the Psalmist said "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to the Lord."

His words must not be misleading or distracting but to bring light to the seeking soul. 

- Pray that your pastor will have insight into the difficulties and needs of the Church as he prepares his sermon. 

B- Pray for the delivery of the sermon. 

- Pray that people will show up for church. A pastor cannot preach for empty seats. We need to pray that people will be faithful in attending Sunday services. Our Church members' spiritual battles start the moment they wake up on Sunday morning. We can never take it for granted that there will be people. It is God the Holy Spirit that work in us to will according to His will. Phil 2:13 " For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." Pray that the variety of obstacles and hindrances will be overcome so that the preaching venue(s) will be populated. Pray for yourselves that nothing will prevent you from coming.

- Pray that the people will show up with the right frame of mind. Remember that we are involved in a spiritual warfare. We can so easily be side tracked by bad relations and arguments that can even start where we park the car at the church building and then destroy our receptivity of God's word. Pray that your own heart be well prepared to receive His Word.

- Pray that God would guard us from any form of distraction during the preaching. It is so easy to be distracted by a crying baby, a cell phone ringing, a dead microphone, and many other things that might distract us. Bring this to God in prayer.

- Pray for clarity and power in the pastor's language. Power in the pulpit does not  come from a manuscript that is learned by heart. Pray that the Holy Spirit give your pastor freedom of speech and words to use as was the case with Moses in Ex 4:11-12. " Then the Lord said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind. Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak."

- Pray that God will give understanding to those that hear God's word this week. Pray for alertness to hear God's voice and to make everyone attentive and eager to understand the preaching. Pray that God would prevent Satan to steal the Word of God as it is sown on the prepared soil of man's heart. Ask the Holy Spirit to illumine His Word and allow those present to mentally keep track with the truths that are preached.

- Ask the Lord for the most effective and fruitful sermon your pastor has ever preached. This is really a bold request but it is also reasonable. Literally pray  what Paul commanded Timothy in 1 Tim 4:15 "Practice these things, immerse yourself i them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.



C - Pray for the response to the preaching.
The spiritual attack on the preaching begins the moment the preacher said Amen. There are at least four specific items we can mention here in prayer.

- Pray that all of us will put the sermon into practice. The sermon does not end on Sunday. That is only the beginning. It is right here that we must ask what James 1:22 says - that all will be doers of God's Word. Ask the Lord that you will be the first to take the words of Christ seriously in Mat7:24-27. Pray specifically that everyone in the service will not walk away and be a hearer that forgets. James 1:25.

-   Pray that the sermon will not be compartmentalized. Don't just apply the sermon to one area of your spiritual life. Pray that the Lord will even challenge you to trust him in areas that might ask of you to leave your comfort zone in order to please Him.

- Pray that the application of the sermon would be contagious. Pray that the Lord will make you enthusiastic about what has been shared and that you will pass it onto others. 2 Tim 2:2 " and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."  Pray that you will be able to rejoice with Paul as he mentioned the faith of the people in Thessalonica - 1 Thes 1:8-9 "For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God."  Pray that everyone would become an ambassador for Christ.

- Pray that the sermon itself will be repeatedly delivered. Pray that sermons will be studied  and that the notes being taken or the CD's and MP3's that are send out will achieve its purposes to glorify God and extend His kingdom here on earth.



Praying like this will be the catalyst to transform lives, our Church and society. Let's be such a church.


Be praying my fellow brother and sister in the Lord. Be praying.

The court case

The court case

There I'm standing knowing i'm guilty

the full wrath should come down on me

Every thing I ever did is haunting me

My only hope is in the judge

- yes the same judge that just said

how guilty I am before Him

you might say 

that is so crazy

Well you know, the judge

is also the one who took the wrath

that was destined for me, on Himself

He paid the sacrifice

and now I'm free

free to do His will

to share His grace and love and truth 

with the world around me

The full wrath destined for me

He took on Himself

The life I was supposed to live

He lived for me

such grace upon grace upon grace

Riana Odendaal

August 2014

Birds announcing seasons and times

Slowly the winter cold seeps away

Small blossoms bring the hope of spring

joyful birds serenade the day

the soft calls of the burchell's coucal

makes us look forward to the first rainfall

In the dark velvet nights

stars shine so bright

with the cheerful night song

harmonizing plovers and thick-knees

and far off in the distance we hear so clear

the small nightjar gracefully calling

"Good Lord, deliver us". 

Spring melt into summer

more resonantly declared

by Woodland Kingfishers with pretty turquoise flare.

The sweltering hot days cooled down 

by scarily impressive thunderstorms

The soft pastel sunrise of a new day

announced by cheerful chattering guinea fowl