A communion reflection for you at this very unique time for us all... The original communion moment took place within the context of a feast... a meal between a teacher and his students who became close friends [well, most of them]... ...and i want to call us to this today. With the focus on what is happening with the homeless in Strandfontein, plus our own lockdown context, plus trying to stay connected to family [...]
What happens to all the christians during lockdown? i love Jesus and felt encouraged to share this message with as many christians who are on lockdown as i can. So please feel free to SHARE and tag your friends in this. Send it to your church leaders. Let's get this message out... i wrote this as a status on Facebook yesterday but didn't want it to get lost in the myriad if posts and [...]
Dear Johan, That's not your real name. i'm pretty sure it isn't. Your comments don't strike me as the kind that would come from someone who uses their real name. And the email address is definitely not real. You logged into your computer and you clicked on a link that took you to my blog post and you scrolled down to the comments and with some amount of glee i imagine, you shared a [...]
Blessed are the rich... for they shall be spared sermons! Rene August [preaching at St Johns Anglican church yesterday] didn't quite say those words, but she might as well have. And they feel largely true. One thing Rene did say was this: 'The church has so many programs to help alleviate poverty. The church has no programs to help people alleviate greed.' [which i think was a quote of Bishop Zac Niringiye] Two other [...]
Do you love Jesus? Are you trying to follow Him? i recently compiled a list of 40 tips on some different ways you can be a better disciple. This list is a summary of those tips with a brief explanation of each one, but if you click on each tip it will take you to longer version so you can read a little more deeply. Would love to hear which of these you found [...]
The final five tips in our #4oTipsForChristFollowers series and there are some really good ones here: #36 Do something for the least of these. In Matthew 25 Jesus gives us this beautiful and terrifying parable of a time of judgement to come where the King stands before two distinct groups of people, categorised in the story as sheep and goats. 'Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are [...]
Here are the next five tips in a series of 40 tips for people wanting to follow Jesus better...#31 Be different.Or as Peter Storey put it the other day, 'Be different. If we aren't different, we have nothing to offer the world.'One of the easiest ways to discover that you are failing is if you look just like everyone else who doesn't share your faith [sadly, with a lukewarm compromising church the same can often [...]
#26 Don't throw babies out with bathwater. In fact, maybe just don't throw babies at all. That's probably a healthy starting point. i had a conversation with a friend today about Easter and how some people are refusing to celebrate it at all because of how it has been taken over by the world or by people who celebrate a particular aspect of Jesus [seen as purely saving your sins and making a way [...]
#21 Trust God without a backup plan. Sho, this is a tricky one, because it might seem to contradict Tip #4 which was about reconnecting your brain [Love God with all your mind!] and all i can say is that sometimes we have to hold seemingly contradictory ideas in tension. The best example of this has to be in 2 Kings 4 where Elisha is confronted by the death of a child [whose birth [...]
#16 Stop putting people on pedestals. The reason i prefer to call myself a Jesus follower than a christian is because it reminds me that i need to be following Jesus. [the title really doesn't matter, but how we live our lives completely does!] i have been inspired by many other Christ followers [with Keith Green and his story in the book 'No Compromise' one of the most influential, but more recently people like [...]
