{Insert teacher name here}

"Oh by the way, did you hear about Rob Bell's controversial book?", I heard someone say to me a couple of weeks back. At first I wasn't sure what it was about, and I didn't think that it would have sparked the flame within the Christian community because I've been a listener to Rob's DVDs for a couple of years and he seemed ok to me.

After finally going on YouTube to look for some interviews over his new book "Love wins", I was shocked over the way Rob responded to the interviewers and each time he would either give a rehearsed response to the problem in Japan or he would back-pedal over certain issues such as with the questions over God's wrath answering something a little different than written in the book or when asked about whether the crucifixion is the chief and main relevance to Christianity, he would side-step the question.

I would agree that this is a hard thing for me to take in. Like I said, I knew Rob from his Nooma series and it was very thought provoking and helpful, especially within small groups, etc. I read his book "Sex God" and watched his hour lecture on "Everything is spiritual" and based on what I heard, everything seemed clear and fine (based on what I understood ofcourse). To even think that Rob is a heretic was unthinkable. I thought it was just a misunderstanding of some sort (and in a way I think it can be) but I think the gap is too big to look past it.

The more I listened to his interviews the more he sounds different. It's as if he cannot find his own feet with those questions. Now, just to make something very clear, I haven't read his book.
I admit and I will try not to comment on his book but rather on the media around his book and the interviews that are freely available on the web.

Now I may sound like another blog writer giving my two cents worth on the web about a man who seems to have "lost his way" but what I want to get out of this post is not to discredit, tear down or bad mouth him, but rather create the awareness of how easy it can be for any preacher to preach a message that is just alongside the truth. No matter who the person is, no matter how wonderful his/her message seems like, we need to validate their message. Also, just because they've helped a lot of people and stand for worthy causes, doesn't make their wrong preaching right. I know that not everyone is perfect, I mean we might get something wrong during a preaching/teaching and we need to take the responsibility of admitting that we've been wrong when we discover that it is true and to correct it but I'm not talking about slight misunderstandings in scripture I'm talking about something that's a fundamental belief that could alter the way we live as Christians in our lives.
Take for instance the idea of the crucifixion. If I believe that Jesus died on the cross but didn't rise from death, then I won't be able to believe that my sins are forgiven and I would be having a lot of other false beliefs entering my idea of Jesus. That's what I'm talking about.

I can go on and on about Rob's statements but that's not the point of this article, I could have written about someone else entirely who also is close to my heart. For all I know Chip Ingram can also loose his way (and I sincerely hope he doesn't and that God protects him). The point is, this is how crafty the devil is and how vulnerable we are. Any one of us can fall victim to these shifts into wrong fundamental beliefs. Its just that the case with Rob (whether he is guilty or not of heresy) has opened my eyes to the reality that even the best or wonderful of teachers (except Jesus ofcourse) can fall victim to these headlines which we see in the case with Rob. I'm not saying that everyone of them will be victim of it, its just that its a warning to us all to be on the lookout in case it does happen.

So what I would propose is that we pray for people like Rob Bell, also our very own pastors and preachers that they wouldn't fall victim of Satan's attacks and that they (and we) would gain discernment from the Holy Spirit to interpret the scriptures correctly.

God Bless.

Hope of what is yet to come

I am too excited to hold this for myself. I have to share what God showed me this morning!

I was driving on our South African roads from Johannesburg to Centurion on my way to work when I read about our Scorpion unit (our Anti-Corruption Unit) which is going to be downgraded to our South African Police Services. I do not mean to speak ill of my country but hear me out.

I spoke to God on how I felt about it: the crime, the injustice, the corruption... I wasn't whining, I asked God that it should stop, you know, it was more of a plea for change. I mentioned to God that if the Scorpion unit was to split, then all those high officials (charged with so many cases of corruption) would be automatically discharged and not prosecuted by the law (since they would now have power over the Scorpions). Then one of them might become our future president, and then you can just imagine what would happen.

I just said to God (paraphrased): "When will all this stop? Our country is sick and destroyed by all of this. Please raise us up again, Lord! Bring us all back in line with what you had in mind from the beginning of time, let our government and our people be in your line of Grace and Blessing again, Lord! Deliver us!"

I thought for a moment about it and then a thought occurred telling me: what if God wants to show that we are not supposed to rely on the Scorpion unit for deliverance?

When I climbed on the highway, a black BMW went passed me, and I saw something weird written on its numberplate (because it was like one of those custom number plates where you can put anything on) it said "PSALM75 GP".
I then immediately knew what God wanted to tell me. I didn't know what it said but I sort of had an idea. It wasn't coincidence that this happened. This morning I had to fill up my car with gas, if I had not, I might have missed it. It was all orchestrated by God!

I got to the office this morning, raced to my PC and Googled Psalm 75.
Read and see for yourself. I wish I could have taken a photo of that car, but I believe that it was God that brought that car passed me!

GLORY TO HIS WONDERFUL NAME!!!!

Last few weeks of growth

I have to testify to something amazing, not so radical to some but to me a big happening.
Remember when last year when I kept complaining that I didn't pray/read Bible, etc? Well it changed dramatically for the most part.

After discovering this wonderful PDF resource at: http://www.gfa.org/pray
I have seen prayer in a whole new light. Also at church our reverent's wife told us that when we pray, try not to pray in your head, pray with your mouth (not that there is anything wrong with it, it is more personal and focussed that way). I followed both people's advice (including the writer of the PDF doc) and so far I only missed like 2 or so days (maybe more, I wasn't counting) of prayer and meeting time with God in weeks, which is still a patch in comparison to the time I have missed with God!
I also started following a routine to meditate on the word of God that helps a bit. Instead of just reading the verses over and over, I tried reenacting it which helped me to remember it faster and longer. Proverbs 10:12,13,14,19 and Corinthians 6:19,20 was my nightly verses for meditation for 3 weeks now. Now I want to move over to new ones for nightly review.

The bad news also is that while I had experienced this break through, Satan wasn't too happy so he started tempting me with old temptations more than ever and more frequently, unfortunately I fell quite a few times as in more than I can afford to. As disappointed as I am, I haven't lost the will to stop going for God. I realize it's because I still have the tendency to leave Christ at home while I go to work. Not a very "Christian professional" thing to do but I won't make any excuses. It's in the programming, that needs some trimming ;) It sounds rather humorous but actually this is quite serious! :(

Despite me falling for the same temptations I hope you also have discovered something that might help you out in your Spiritual growth. Also, with that comes the price tag of temptation because Satan grows threatened about your progress and seeks ways to attack you. I hope you can succeed where I have failed. I still go on and believe that Christ can help me, I just want to stop removing Him from my mind.

The thing is, one is so sad when you come looking for forgiveness from Christ, but truth be told, He wants us to enter to His thrown of Grace with boldness. (KJVR Heb 4:16) "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." The problem with feeling bad is that you think that God doesn't want to talk to you or want anything to do with you. According to that verse, the opposite applies!

Well, good day to all and have a Blessed week!

A Prayerfull matter

Hi guys. Any of you subscribed to the Gospel for Asia newsletter?
I got one from them where K.P. Yohannan (Founder & President) updated us in the situation in India regarding the religious prosecution there.


You can read the story here : http://www.gfa.org/gfa/newsupdate080906

I thoaght to bring this up because I believe that we need to pray for those people at least. I mean, they live in areas with very little and they are being prevented of accepting Christ as their saviour! They need our prayer and support. Can you just image that! We just don't know how thankfull we should be at this time.

I sometimes just wonder why I wasn't like brought up in such circumstances. Ok, I'm not saying that I'm living a life of luxury either. I had my share of bad deals in life too but I just wondered why some people have it so much worse than others? Well, all I can conclude right now is sothat I can be thankfull for what I have now and to pray and try to give for those who have less or worse.

Thanks! May God Bless you!

Praise for Pray

Today I rediscovered the value of praise before praying.
Usually we tend to separate the two. Tradisionally we pray in the mornings when we wake up and at night when we go to sleep and we sing praises at church. Well I'm not saying that everyone does it but it is adopted umongst many Christians.

The problem with prayer sometimes is that one cannot truly focus on God because everytime we do, we have a TODO item popping up in our minds and then we dwell on it only to remember that we are actually praing now but keep getting frustrated because we can't help it.
A few months ago, I remembered our reverent's wife talking on that subject. Satan just loves to steal our time from God and tries to distract us. The only way to get rid of such thoaghts is not to pray it away, think it away or anything like that...
You PRAISE it away. How? By singing and praising God with your mouth litterally.
When you do that, your brain starts to focus on what you say and the thoaghts start to change. The reason why you have to praise God is because He comes in and your brain finds a place to focus at.

I sang songs of praises this morning and it took my mind off my projects, etc. and made me think about God. I could actually pray for almost an hour. Wouldn't you want to be able to speak with God without any distractions?