In Mark 3 verse 31 to 35 we see a very interesting dialogue take place as Jesus is informed that His family is waiting outside for Him... what does this mean for us? check it out here. to move to the next story of the sower and the seed, click here.
Wow! 19 months flew by, just like... well 570 days, really. June last year, after about four months of weekly Skype calls with our present and to be future bossman Darin Petersen, the beautiful Val [tbV] and i arrived in Kensington, Philadelphia, Americaland to live and work at the Simple Way non-profit as part of the first batch of an internship program [which was later upgraded to a residency program when they saw our skills, [...]
so probably close to 15 years ago i wrote a challenging email to a couple of friends of mine about some aspect of following Jesus... a week later i did the same... at some point i told someone about it and they asked to be added and so i added them... pretty soon i started spam-inviting people from the typical cheesy group Christian emails that used to hit my inbox and some of them decided [...]
As we look at Mark chapter 3 verse 20-27 i take a bit of a reverse glimpse of it by looking at denominations vs denominationalism [or as i sometimes refer to them in talks as demonisations which is what we make of denominations when we start worshipping them or who they are] and encourage each of us, whether we belong to a denomination or not [don't get me started on "non-denominational"], to be keeping the [...]
next up, we see Jesus select the 12 who He designates as apostles and makes some very interesting choices... so take a look at Mark 3 verse 13 to 19 to see the next post on unity, not denominationalism go here.
So yesterday i wrote a post sharing a deeper glimpse into the future life, work and ministry of the andersons over here - we will be joining a non-profit called Relational Tithe with a working platform called Common Change which, in a very big nutshell, gathers resources from a group of people and then uses them to meet advocated needs from people within the group. It is a very exciting project and both Valerie and [...]
for the last 19 months, myself and my beautiful wife Valerie have been living and working with the Simple Way Christian non-profit organisation in Philadelphia, Americaland and yesterday was our last official office day... we fly out back towards South Africa on the 30th of December... can't wait! but what next? well we hope to spend around a month and a half at home and then [providing we find the financial support we will need [...]
this is a short psalm with a big focus on praising God: 'Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. For the Lord Most High is awesome, the great King over all the earth.' [verse 1-2] which is a great thing to be reminded of. especially when times are tough and we feel more at home reading how God is with us even when we are walking through the valley [...]
i don't feel very strong right now. i feel wronged. badly done by. hurt. betrayed. disappointed. and yet again and again it comes back to me that the call is on me to forgive. pride. ego. self-righteousness. my idea of "justice". all these things rally against me, trying to convince me that i am in the right [maybe i am] and that the other should approach me [maybe they should] and seek peace and restoration. [...]
ah, Psalm 46 - if you come for a visit to the Simple Way, chances are good you will be faced by it in some form or other, and particularly verse 10 [a great one to set to memory] which says: He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” So give yourself a minute now if you have time... [...]