let’s face it – Christians are not among the most loved and respected people when it comes to those outside of the church and i have often wondered why this is and so i started thinking about some of the core basics of this religion and suddenly it makes a lot of sense. When you look at what Christians intrinsically fundamentally believe (i’m not talking how some of them act or those who claim to [...]
do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good i really struggle to ‘get’ how people have such issues with Jesus-following when the basics of what it is all about is gems like that – love God, love people, look after orphans and widows, forgive those who wrong you, look after the land you’ve been given, share this love message... i do sadly understand how people can have issues with christians and a [...]
at our enGAGE gathering last nite, MJ reminded us of this vineyard song where the chorus goes something like: Bring me back to the place where i love the cross Bring me back to the place where i’m on my knees Bring me back to an undivided heart Oh Jesus, bring me back to You it's a fantastic reminder of a phenomenally good place to return to regularly
busy reading ‘Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture’ by Michael Frost and have little bits of paper and elastoplasts stuck within the pages where i really thort it was profound or spot on (if it was my book it would be folded pages but it’s not – it belongs to the theological library of stellenbosch which has absolutely no relevance so shut up already) and this was one of those pages: From the chapter [...]
Oh. Oh? As in really? You... you're sure? Certain? All-powerful. Oh? Faithful. Oh? All-loving. Unconditionally so. Even me? Even my stuff? Me? Oh? Oh really? As in 'really really?' Like real miracles? Actual miraculous occurances? Blind seeing, deaf hearing, lame walking? Dead being raised? Oh. I get it. It's a metaphoric death. An inner blindness. Deaf to the words of the Holy Scriptures speaking to my disobedient ears. Able to walk tall in the knowledge [...]
i write a weekly thort for the week aimed at challenging Christ followers to actively live out what they believe - longer than my normal blog posts but i think this is important reading, living. Dear friends This week’s thort is specifically aimed at people living in South Africa but feel free to relate it to your specific context – i just feel after this week that God is calling up people who will speak [...]
so recently my wife - the beautiful Val (because clearly) – was on a camp where we had been asked to speak (actually first time the invitation came to us as a couple) and someone was chatting to her and said something along the lines of ‘so are you the tagalong?’ – hm, strangely that person still lives today, but ja Val was not super amped and looking back at that camp, if you had [...]
so i met a cool metallic (as in bits of metal protruding froma variety of face places) german last nite who surprised me by saying he is second year bible college in durban (not your average bible college look, it was great) and proceeded to show me this music video by michael gunga i think it is on his phone - it is very cool (and yes the bit about the flying hamster/guinea pig does [...]
so the other nite we were hanging with some mates from church at our place and the giant of the group (aptly named klein (small) frans) came up with this saying “the God i believe in is not the God you don’t believe in” which i think is brilliant and which i blog posted and made my status line on facebook and twitter (some might say ‘overkill’ – i might say ‘collective ramifications’ but just [...]
"The God i believe in, is not the God you don't believe in." [kleinfrans van eeden] "i know that you believe you understand what you think i said. but im not sure you realise that what you heard is not what i meant." [Ashton Gardner] and that sums up a huge percentage of the frustration Jesus followers have to non believers i would imagine...