For every problem you face, God has already created the solution

Our pastor, Anton Homann, was preaching such an anointed message last night! The title of this post is a statement from his sermon:

For every problem you face, God has already created the solution.

It really struck me and Anton drew a great analogy for it from the book of Genesis:

When God created the world, He first made the ocean and then the fish, who would need the sea water to swim in. Just so He created the earth and the plants before He created the creatures who would need to live on the earth and eat the plants.

In this way God created the solution to the need before He created the situation for the need.

Whatever you're facing, whatever your need, know that God has the answer and the solution ready for just the moment you ask Him.

The Temple Together

There is value in the church.

There is protection in the church.

There is reward in the church.

We are the church.

1 Corinthians 3:10-17

Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have — Jesus Christ.

Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials — gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.

Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in (among) you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

What value do you place on the church?

Living Water

"I said 'Water', expecting the word would satisfy my thirst."
- mewithoutYou, My Exit, Unfair

We all need God, but just talking about Him or ticking the "Christian" box on forms isn't going to satisfy our hunger for Him.

We need to seek Him in His Word and in prayer.

Prayer is like turning on the tap to the only water that will satisfy your thirst for God.

Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”
- John 7:38


Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
- John 4:10


For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
- Luke 11:10

I can't get Tyler Clementi off my mind

In case you don't know, Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old university student committed suicide on 22 September. This was after his roommate posted footage on the internet of him making out with another man, resulting in great mockery.





What gets me is how hopeless and isolated Tyler must have felt - to jump off a bridge to his death. And even worse is some of the hate messages left on the Tyler Clementi Memorial Facebook page. A sample:

"God says very clearly that homosexuality and suicide are mortal sins. TONIGHT TYLER DINES IN HELL."

When there are many other things God defines as "mortal sins" as well and Jesus said no-one can judge another unless that person is blameless themself.


The point is that God loves us inspite of our sin. That He offers a life of freedom from sin. And that is the only hope any of us have.


What makes it worse is the episode of Glee that (coincidentally) aired a few days later, with Kurt Hummel declaring, "God’s kind of a jerk, isn’t he? I mean, he makes me gay, then has his followers going around telling me it’s something that I chose. As if someone would choose to be mocked every single day of their life."





People need to get an understanding of God's goodness.


I don't know how or why anyone is who they are and why we feel the things we do. But I do know that God's dreams for you are greater even than your own.


I know that He wants you to live a fulfilled life and that that comes from knowing Him.


God's followers disappoint Him all the time - probably more than those who don't follow Him. But He still loves us. Just like He loves you, no matter who you are, what you've done or what you feel.


If you're gay and think that God might be real, but don't know how to get the two to match up, talk to someone who's been there.


Trust me:


God is good. And He made you for Him to love you.

Promises, Promises

What does it mean to respond to God's promises?

Is it building your life as though God's promises are just facts? Rather than hoping that God might one day be in a good enough mood to maybe keep His word?

Read Yep, There’s One For That, a blog post by Mark Altrogge of The Blazing Center, which explains why God's promises are better than iPhone apps.

Growing Restless

A sure sign that I'm becoming restless is the need to change the CD every time I get into the car.

What do you do when you get restive?

The Life Worth Living

"Don't tell me you need a life as well as/in addition to/away from this. This is a life!"

This is what Donovan Coetzee, the South African national leader of the Assembly of God church group, once said about church. I love it.

So often we say we can't serve at a church event or can't commit to a certain role at the church, because it will take up to much time and, "I do have a life too, you know!"

But you don't think it's acceptable to have a life away from your spouse, do you?

So how can it be that we need a life away from the most important relationship we'll ever have and the only relationship that will last into eternity?

This is a life. The only life worth living.

Merely God

"It is at her centre, where her truest children dwell, that each communion is closest to every other in spirit, if not in doctrine. And this suggests that at the centre of each there is a something, or a Someone, who against all divergences of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks with the same voice."

- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

No Debate (Part Four) - Just Choice

In giving us free will, God even allows us to choose whether to love Him or not. To return His love or not.

Because He loved us first.

Wow.

(1 John 4:19)

A Debate (Part Three) - God or God?

I had some difficulty deciding whether to publish this post or not; I realise it may come across as unsympathetic and offensive to some. So if you're going to read it, please read it through to the end before giving your final verdict.  


On Monday I spoke about Jesus healing a man born blind and how the disciples (and many of us) were blind to the point of the story – which was not the man's blindness, but rather Jesus' healing of him.

Yesterday's post dealt with the question of God's fairness.

Now if you're still not satisfied – if you still think, "Yes, but there are actual Biblical instances of God being unfair," then this post is for you.

"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments."

-    Exodus 20:4–6

"How is that fair to the poor, innocent children?" you may ask, "Why should they be punished for the sins of their parents?"

Now I would point out that before God put this into action, He warned the people about it. This is, in fact, included in the Ten Commandments given to the Israelites. It was a direct consequence to their sin. If their children ended up cursed, it would be because of their disobedience, not because of God's unfairness. In this way, the parents were accountable for the lives of their children.

Let's also not forget the other side of the coin – the rewards promised to the descendants of the faithful in verse 6.

What else would you suggest God do to encourage obedience, after rescuing the people from slavery in Egypt and then watching them bow down to a golden farm animal? Perhaps God made this law to teach the Israelites about legacy – what had they been leaving for their children. After all, the generations to come would surely be more responsive, having suffered for their parents' sins and not want the same for their children to come.

And perhaps God knew that some, even if it were only a few, would respond because of their children. If they wouldn't do it for themselves, they would it for their children.

And is it not true that most people today, whether they believe in God or not, still believe that parents are and should be responsible for their children?

Thank the Lord that Jesus abolished this law when he died in atonement for our sins.

And with that God turned the whole law on its head – instead of punishing the sinners' children, He sent His only Son to be punished for the sins of every single person ever to have breathed the air of this earth.

If you still have doubts or questions, feel free to ask/comment. I don't have all the answers, but maybe we can figure them out together.

A Debate (Part Two) - Justice or Fairness?

You may remember that in my last post I mentioned an attempt was made at distinguishing justice from fairness.

Now, when it comes to justice and fairness, I don't believe there is a difference. And there doesn't seem to be a distinction between the two in God's Word: different versions of the Bible translate the same Aramaic word as either "just" or "fair", implying that these words mean the same and are interchangeable. Similarly, the Oxford Thesaurus* list "just" and "fair" as synonyms for each other and the Oxford Dictionary* defines the word "just" as "right or fair; deserved".

Case closed. Yet there is still doubt as to God's true justice.

An example used in our Life Group session to explain God's justice was as follows:

"If you picture God as a parent (which He in fact is, in a supernatural, heavenly sense – something to ponder), at dinnertime He will stand with a big bowl of dessert and dish up equal amounts for each of His children."

Now, while I fully believe that God loves each of us equally, I do not agree with this analogy.

I know that we live in an imperfect world and we are not all going to get the same opportunities, talents or rewards. For that matter, we are not all going to experience the same challenges, setbacks or heartaches either.

But God does promise that we will never get more than we can handle (good – Matthew 25:29 & Luke 12:48 – or bad – 1 Corinthians 10:13).

God also gave us free will for us to make our own decisions and so much of what we experience is due to the choices made by ourselves and others.

God does not micro-manage our lives. He does not tell us where to work, who to be friends with or who to marry.

Going back to the example of earlier, God as a parent at dinnertime will hand the whole bowl of dessert over to His children and say, "Here you go, divide this up amongst yourselves and make sure you all get an equal amount".

Whether we listen to Him and share equally is up to us.

*Oxford University Press. 2007. Oxford Paperback Dictionary & Thesaurus. Oxford, Great Britain. 331, 502.

A Debate (Part One) - Blind or Blind?

So here's that post on the phenomenal Life Group discussion* I mentioned in my last post.


We started out with John 9:1-5, the account of Jesus healing a man who'd been born blind. The focus was supposed to be on the difference between the disciples' reaction to meeting the blind man and Jesus' reaction.


The disciples immediately assumed that the blind man was being punished for sin - his parents or his own - but Jesus, who for obvious reasons had a better understanding of God's true nature, said that "this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life".


At this point we all got side-tracked with a debate over the fairness of God. How can God be fair if He made this blind just so that His glory could be revealed?


(An assertion was made that there is a difference between fairness and justice – so that God could be just, but not fair, which is a whole other discussion about one's understanding of language and one's definition of "fairness" and "justice".)


But I believe that the crux of this debate boils down to a misinterpretation of Scripture:


After Jesus said that this had happened so that God's glory could be revealed, he began speaking about his own role, and the disciples' roles (indeed our roles, if we are followers of Christ), in doing what they'd been called to do.


This would suggest that when Jesus said, "this happened so that God's glory might be displayed," the "this" he was referring to was not, in fact, the man's blindness, but Jesus' actual encounter with the man.


The man was not made blind so that he could be healed and so reveal God's glory.


Jesus meeting and healing the blind man happened so that God's glory might be displayed.


The man being blind was merely a result of living in a fallen world that is imperfect and flawed. How many other blind people have there been on this earth that never got healed? Does that mean that God "made" them blind for nothing? Of all the blind people in this world, Jesus met this man and healed him. It was not his blindness that glorified God, but his healing.

*On a side note: using Twitter and Facebook gets you so addicted to certain things. I find myself wanting to "Like" or "ReTweet" every comment I see on the Web, and I totally wanted to #hashtag the #phenomenalLifeGroupDiscussion!

A Debate (Part Two) coming tomorrow.

Fill Up

I went to Life Group for the first time in AGES on Tuesday night. Very unspiritual of me, I know. And after Tuesday's session I just wanted to kick myself. I'd forgotten how much I was missing out on!


On the drive home, I ended up apologising profusely – and unexpectedly – to God. Out of nowhere this instinctive remorse came flooding out, "I'm sorry, Lord, for skipping Life Group! I'm so, so sorry, because I know that I would never gotten up to all that rubbish that I did if I had been filling myself up with You more often!"


And only once the words had left my mouth did I realise how true they were.


James Murray, a youth pastor from C3 Church in Australia, was the guest speaker at our church conference recently. I remember him saying in one of the sessions that sometimes we attempt giving God our lives, but we hold on to certain areas that we either don't want to give up or that we don't trust God to handle it as well as we might (we can really be dim sometimes). We wonder why particular areas of our lives are continually hampered by sin that we can't seem to shake off.


What really stood out to me – now listen carefully – is what he said next:

"Sin will have no way of filling your life if it's already filled with God. That's why it is so important to be filling yourself constantly through prayer, church, reading God's Word and meeting up with other Christians."

Okay, that is slightly paraphrased, but the gist is spot on.


And I can tell you from first-hand experience how true it is. There will be no room for sin in your life if all the space is taken up by the things of God. I can also now tell how true the opposite is: how quickly sin pervades your life when you stop seeking the right things.


Believe me, the struggle and the guilt and the heartache of having to overcome that (all over again), is not worth a few days' worth of rebellion.


Draw near to God – every day – and He will draw near to you.


That's a promise. From Him in James 4:8. And unlike us, He always keeps His promises.


I had meant to tell you about our discussion in that phenomenal Life Group session and here this post has turned out totally different. Guess I'll have to right another one. Watch this space.

What Happened To Our Souls?

"Does it ever give thee pause that men used to have a soul – not by hearsay alone, or as a figure of speech; but as a truth they knew, and acted upon! Verily it was another world then … but yet it is a pity we have lost the tidings of our souls … we shall have to go in search of them again, or worse in all ways shall befall us."

- Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present; cited by Mary Ann Shaffer in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Sorry

Have you ever said or done something to someone that you wholeheartedly apologised for? But all they'll say in return is, "Sorry's not good enough". And because you're so hard on yourself, you mostly agree with them. What can you ever do to make up for it?


Well, guess what, folks:


Your sorry is good enough for God.

"If we freely admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

- 1 John 1:9

Make The Studio Bigger

You guys hear what happened in Ventersdorp the day the court case started?

Apparently the cops had to separate everyone with barbed wire - all the whites were singing Die Stem, all the blacks were singing Kill the Boer … and the 6 coloureds there were in the middle singing Make the Circle Beega!!

Don't know who came up with this joke, but they deserve an award!

The Twitter Crusade

One thing that's a little creepy and sucks much is when you seem to be the only person on Twitter - IN THE WORLD!!!

I'm having one of these moments this morning. For the past 10 (ten) minutes, my updates are the ONLY ones showing in my news feed - even though i'm following 210 people!!

Where is everyone?

The lame thing about this predicament is that i end up feeling like a total random babbler.

One of those people who just NEVER stop talking and they ramble on and on without even pausing to take a breath and nobody else ever has a the slightest chance of getting something in even edge-ways and they end up being a loser with no friends.

So what am i going to do about it?

i am going to start a Twitter Crusade (#TwitterCrusade ftw!).

Over the next few days everyone on Twitter must Tweet me the name of ONE person they are going to recruit to Twitter. And when that person joins, i will PERSONALLY send a shoutout of their username and YOU, the person who recruited them, getting them (and you) a GAZILLION followers. Well, i'll try. In the words of Shayne Ward: no promises. Just remember, keeping the followers is up to you and your Tweets.

Moodswings and Other Things

Do you ever get into weird moods? So that you don't know whether to laugh or get angry?

Like sometimes when i'm driving i drive purposely on the shoulder, so that people will flash their hazards at me as they pass. Just because i love hearing people say thank you. It makes me feel accomplished, but then i think about it and i realise i must be mad ("but then all the best people are").

Or when i go to the supermarket to buy something small, like a chocolate or one bottle of juice. I stand at the express till, that only handles customers with ten items or less, and then there's someone in front of me with a fully loaded trolley. Or a basket that looks suspiciously full. "That surely can't be just ten items!"

So as they're unpacking their items onto the counter i count them, one by one. I always catch myself doing this and i have to laugh. Or even just smile ruefully at myself. (Sometimes i do laugh out loud and then people look at me like i'm the loon. He's the one standing in the wrong queue!)

But on a really bad day, when the person has precisely ten items and then they ask the cashier to add a packet, i want to point an accusing finger, "Aha! That's eleven items! Please move; you're in my way! Can't you see this is an express queue???!!!"

Of course i never do that. Because it's rude. And because it actually doesn't matter. For every one person who disobeys the express checkout rule, there are nine others who obey it. (Or maybe more than that. I don't know. Someone should research it.)

Most days i don't even notice their overburdened baskets. Other days i'm just in a mood that wants to attack unsuspecting supermarket offenders. (Even though i've personally done much worse. Although not in a supermarket.)

What situation gets you so riled up that you don't know whether to laugh or cry?

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Art or Porn?

What distinguishes one book, film or picture as art from another that's merely pornography?

Some friends and i are going to watch the Oscar-nominated movie, Nine, this weekend (my review of Nine will be up on my Heartflicks Film Review Blog on Monday), despite some people's reservations that it's "just soft porn" and "a bit dodgy". These misgivings were countered with comments that it's actually art that inspires and demands serious talent. While you can't really judge much from the previews, in some ways it does seem like a musical excuse to be smutty. But you can't really tell until you've seen it – and if it's been made by some seriously gifted people and has been nominated for awards, it surely can't be just bad?

Which makes me wonder: what determines the difference between art and pornography? What makes one film a cultured flick and another a blue movie? What makes one nude portrait an artwork and another a dirty picture?

Is it the motivation of the producer for creating it? Is it the quality/skill/technique of the execution? Or is it the intentions of the audience in watching it?

So what do you think makes it art or porn?

How Do You Plead?

Innocent until proven guilty.

This principle assumes that the average person is naturally innocent. But in fact, anyone that's ever been put on trial is undeniably guilty.

Perhaps not guilty of the crime they're accused of, but certainly guilty of something.

Guilty of kicking the neighbour's dog. Or of stealing the boss's pen. Or of having naughty thoughts about the girl across the road.

I was listening to Sarah McLachlan's song, Adia, the other day. The lyrics go,
"...we were born innocent;
 believe me, Adia, we are still innocent"

A beautiful song with beautiful sentiments, but it troubled me, because it got me thinking about babies.

A baby is surely the most innocent being on the planet – yet are babies really born innocent when we are all born into sin?

For "by the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners" (Romans 5:12–21, vs19).

Does that mean a baby is guilty at birth even before his first 'personal' sin?

I guess that's where God's grace comes in. A grace that is even greater than the sin. A grace that makes us all alive, even though we were dead. (1 Corinthians 15:22)

A grace that makes us innocent, regardless of the evidence.

You Get More Than What You See

Like millions of others i saw the movie Avatar. And like millions of others i loved it.

One of my favourite things about Avatar is that expression the Na'vi people have: "i see you".

To them it means much more than just seeing one's outward physical appearance. To the Na'vi it means seeing into a person's heart. It is recognition and acknowledgement of one's worth and one's potential. It is affirmation not just of who you are, but of all that you can be.

How often do we "see" the people around us?

Really see them?

Do you see the gifts and talents of your friends? Do you take note of your employees' potential? Are you aware of your boss's leadership skills? Do you appreciate your partner's true value?

Even in searching for that one person to share your life with, do you really see what is right in front of you? We meet so many people, but no-one seems to measure up to our standards, so we keep looking. There must be something better out there.

But is it really that everyone we've met has fallen short – or is it just that we haven't really seen them for all that they are?

And if we can't see a person for who they're created to be, can we really appreciate them as we should?

Crime and Punishment

"Often times have i heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world.
But i say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you,
So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.
And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree,
So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all...
And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone.
Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who, though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone."

-Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Mightier Than The Sword

I love pencils. The smell of them. Their smooth roughness. The way you can really see when one's been working hard, because a stub is all that's left of it.
 
When i sit down to write i usually write in pencil first. A pencil makes me feel creative. A pencil gets my mind rolling and wandering. I can doodle in pencil. I can draw in pencil. I can scribble and scratch and sketch in pencil.

And it's not about the flexibility – i don't user erasers. There's nothing more gratifying than seeing a pencil-filled page with scratched out lines and circled lines and lines with arrows directing them to a different paragraph. It's the mark of a job well done.

I love pencils so much, even my name is darylhb!

Some of the wisest advice i've ever heard is that if you want to have a day of rest, do only what you love and nothing that riles you up.

I love writing, but the minute i switch a laptop on, my mind shifts to work mode. Pens induce exam stress. But pencils. Pencils get me in touch with my inner child. My alter artiste. My hidden bard.

And a sharp-pointed pencil is the clearest metaphor for the power and frailty of words.

Heartverse

Yes, i know. Another blog. But it's really not doing you or me any good to have everything jumbled here on one poor, over-burdened blog page.

So, as of today, my poems will now be published on my Heartverse Poetry Blog.

What's more, i've gone back to (half) my roots and tried my hand at an Afrikaans poem. Ironically, it has an English title – it's called Roadtrippin'.

You can still stay tuned in here for my rantings and ramblings and musings and outpourings of stuff that is in my head and in my heart.

Thanks for reading. 

A Promise

You couldn't make it harder
For me to let you go
Cradling my broken heart
In the same hands that smashed it so
And i won't hold a grudge
But nor will i forget
That you're the first i fell for
With the softest landing yet.

15 Ways to Let Words Ruin Your Life

Word of advice for the day.

RELEVANT Magazine - 15 Ways to Let Words Ruin Your Life

Newness

i reorganised my desk this weekend.

When i woke up this morning and saw the new expanses of wood and the new piles of books, i was so ridiculously happy!

Change really is as good as a holiday. So if you need something fresh, start small.

Are We There Yet?

Life is a process, not an event. So don't be discouraged by the next step – think of how it will prepare you for the moments to come.

Aah, Love

Love is so beautiful. Real love. Pure love. True love.

Even when I am being ripped to ribbons by love's disappointments, simply seeing love work out for others makes me want to sing.

Don't get me wrong, too much of others' soppiness is certainly nauseating. I recently saw the film Bright Star about a love affair between the 19th Century poet John Keats and a young lady named Fanny Brawne. Well. The extravagance of their swooning got sickly sweet after the first 90 minutes of the film. But that's a side of love usually only visible to the lovers.

I don't understand how anyone can be contemptuous about love. Or cynical and bitter about love. Even when you might not have it yourself, surely seeing the presence of even a little more in the lives of others is cause for celebration?!

Aah, love. I wish I could fly about with Cupid's bow and arrows, granting the purest desires of each heart.

Live Like We're Dying

I was listening to the radio this morning and Kris Allen's song, "Live Like We're Dying", made me imagine several absurd situations.

I do admire the sentiments of the song - it's always good to be reminded not to take life too seriously and to take risks; chase your dreams.

But then I imagine what would happen if I really just quit my job and started writing day and night. If I just went up to that girl and gave her a kiss she'd never forget. If I just gave away all I had and went missioning in deepest darkest Africa.

I guess that's where trusting in Someone Greater with a Plan comes into play. To jump or not to jump?

Heartflicks

I've started a film review blog, because I like chatting about movies that I've seen, but I have very different taste to most of my friends.

So Heartflicks gives my thoughts and movie reviews on the films I see. Would enjoy any comments.

Mastering the Art of Blogging

I recently saw the film, Julie and Julia, which I would highly recommend!! The one thing that struck me while watching the movie, besides the mouthwatering food and Meryl Streep's incredible human chameleon-ness, was that Julie Powell's blog began with a purpose.

She wrote with a plan and deadline in mind that kept her writing accountable and consistent. So here's to a year of blogging purposefully and regularly! 2010 beware!!