The journey

A boy born a bastard child, his dad left his mother at age 5 and left him and his 2 year old sister in the care of his unemployed mum who with a grade 4 education worked low paying jobs, suffered rejection and ridicule from family,  just to make ends meet…

He lived in terrible conditions growing up often having to share a house with 4 other families each occupying a room which was there world… all through his childhood. After meeting many itinerant evangelists, A dream was born of being a missionary for God, travelling the country sharing Jesus. He dreamt of going to the Olympics after watching Carl Lewis shatter the 100m record.  No godly role models, lack of affection from parents lead him to seek love and acceptance in people that didn’t have his best interests at heart… this took him away from his dream but deep inside the seed was planted…

At age 8 he gave his heart to the Lord, this was the start of the journey that made him who he is. In school he played every sport excelled in athletics and team sports… later this would open the door to him fulfilling his dream… in the teenage years he followed the crowd just to fit in, but deep inside he felt empty and lost the only thing that gave him joy was when he did what was his passion, "leading people to Christ". The grace of God kept him safe all through year’s dangerous and reckless living till the day he reached the point where he couldn’t continue living double life, of acting like a godly Christian and  reckless ungodly living. After a shooting accident, in a hospital room he rededicated his life to God, and made a covenant with God that he will at age 30 dedicate his life to service of the kingdom. And started the long hard journey of fulfilling the God given destiny…

As time passed he reunited with his mum, started the relationship with his absent dad and fulfilled his lifelong dream of being at the Olympics and God used his love of sport and the love of souls to reach the lost at the games while enjoying the dream. His journey has not been easy; the demons of his past has constantly come back to haunt him and destroy the hard work but God kept picking him up every time he fell.

The journey became tougher when he found the love of his life, the constant struggle to be a husband and a father, after having no earthly role models crushed him many times over. The only solace he found was the example of fatherhood by father God this is what helped him be strong and persevere on this journey. It hasn’t been easy but was worth every tear shed.

A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.
Mohandas Gandhi

The journey continues…

Four Stages of Spiritual Maturity

As simple as they are, I found these concepts to be wonderfully helpful in my understanding of what the heck is going on in the world of human religion. Mark K. also seemed to sense their value, and so encouraged me to share them with y’all. I stumbled upon a good synopsis by Len Hjalmarson at his interesting web site: http://www.nextreformation.com/html/...s/holistic.htm
and hope that he will forgive me for reprinting it here:

Scott Peck, in The Different Drum, (1987,) advances a useful growth typology. He discerns four stages in spiritual growth: (though he notes that they shade into one another)

· Stage I: Chaotic, antisocial
· Stage II: Formal, institutional
· Stage III: Skeptic, individual
· Stage IV: Mystic, communal

Peck places all young children and one in five adults in Stage I. This is undeveloped spirituality, which he terms antisocial because those adults who are in it are generally incapable of loving others. Although they may seem loving, their relationships with others are essentially manipulative and self-serving.

Peck terms these people chaotic because they are unprincipled; nothing governs them except their own will. If these people get in touch with the chaos of their being it is extremely painful; some ride it out, some commit suicide, and some move to stage II.

Stage II people are attached to the form, as opposed to the essence, of religion. They oppose change because it is the forms which liberate them from the chaos of their lives. Their vision of God will be that of an external, transcendent being. They may consider Him loving, but also fear His punitive power.

Some stage II people have become institutionalized because they need an external and imposed order to survive. Whether it is prison or the military or a strict religious structure, these people need structure.

If two Stage II people marry and have children, the children tend to absorb the principles of their parents. Once these are internalized, the children are self-governing human beings, and are no longer dependent upon the institution for order. They begin to convert to Stage III -- skeptic, individual -- often becoming atheists or agnostics. Although individualistic, they are not antisocial. They are usually highly principled and independent thinkers. Advanced Stage III people are active truth seekers.

If people in Stage III search for truth for long enough, they find what they are looking for. Like pieces of a puzzle things begin to make sense, and they begin their conversion to Stage IV (the mystic communal stage).

Stage IV people have a sense of the connectedness of all things. They see themselves as good and evil, and recognize that truly "no man is an island, of itself entire." In some mysterious way we share in the destiny of the cosmos.

Moreover, the more we grow in understanding, the more we have a sense of knowing nothing. While people in other stages often seek religion in order to escape from mystery, people in Stage IV seek to approach it. Thus Stage IV people value emptiness, the ability to move beyond pre-conceptions and even rationality to perceive the fabric of reality apart from boundaries and form.

I rehearse Peck's stages to point out the similarity in this progression to the stages of normal psychic development. The infant exists in undifferentiated chaos (psychologists term it symbiotic or primary narcissism); there is no sense where "I" ends and "other" begins. If the home is relatively stable the child forms boundaries and internalizes the expectations and values of the parents. He learns right from wrong and recognize that self and other are a mixture of good and evil and that only God is perfect.

If the child is valued as an individual and taught to think for herself she begins to question her parents' values and faith and becomes a skeptic (a process which makes the teen years more turbulent). If she continues to experience grace and search for truth she begins to understand the meaning and spirit of the law...

What's In Your Heart?

"The good man brings good things

out of the good stored up in his heart,

and the evil man brings evil things

out of the evil stored up in his heart.

For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."

Luke 6:45 (NIV)

Jesus here likened the heart to a storehouse. The heart is a place where things can actually be stored. Every day we either make worthy or unworthy deposits into the storehouse that is our heart. If we liken our heart to a financial institution, then we can imagine that it contains different accounts. Every account has a balance from which we can make withdrawals. Some accounts may be solvent while others may be the verge of insolvency. The health of an account is largely up to the depositor.

According to our text, a man can only bring out of his heart what he has put into his heart. A man can draw no more out of an account than what is deposited there. It is not

possible to bring out what was never put in. In light of this, it is imperative that we discipline ourselves to systematically and consistently deposit good things into our hearts. This will insure that we will have a balance from which to draw when called upon to invest in the lives of others. If we have nothing to give, it is only because we failed to make the necessary deposits into the account from which we seek to draw. You cannot fill needs in the lives of others by trying to make withdrawals from an empty heart.

Our hearts can become empty when we spend without saving. Sometimes we are so

busy spending and investing in the lives of others that we forget to replenish the accounts in our hearts. If we continue to spend without saving we will soon find ourselves in a bankrupt condition, with an empty heart. In such a state we can either take the time to replenish the supply or to continue on by faking it. The problem with faking it however is that we are sooner or later caught in a web of debt and deceit that costs us infinitely more than we could have imagined.

Our hearts can be filled when we systematically and consistently make deposits. When we discipline ourselves to store away a little every day, over a period of time we will find that our hearts have an abundance from which we can draw to share with others. This should motivate us to discipline ourselves to daily store away good things in our hearts. Only then will we reach the point where we can share out of our overflow or abundance.

TEN COMMITMENTS OF LEADERSHIP - Moses

Challenging the Process

1. Search out challenging opportunities to change, grow, innovate, and improve.

-Learned in all the wisdom of Egypt (Ac 7:22)

-His loyalty to his race (Heb 11:24-26)

-Takes the life of an Egyptian taskmaster; flees from Egypt; finds refuge among the Midianites (Ex 2:11-22; Ac 7:24-29)

-Joins himself to Jethro, priest of Midian; marries his daughter Zipporah; has one son, Gershom (Ex 2:15-22)

2. Experiment, take risks, and learn from accompanying mistakes.

The whole Exodus experience. Moses’s leadership experience was a total walk by faith. His time in the desert with Jethro (40 years was a breaking and molding experience).

Inspiring a Shared Vision

3. Envision an uplifting and ennobling future.

-God reveals to him his purpose to deliver the Israelites and bring them into the land of Canaan (Ex 3:7-10)

-Commissioned as leader of the Israelites (Ex 3:10-22; 6:13)

-With Aaron assembles the leaders of Israel (Ex 4:29-31)

-Institutes a system of government (Ex 18:13-26 Nu 11:16-30 De 1:9-18)

-Receives the law and ordains various statutes (Ex 34:29-35)

-Face of, transfigured (Ex 34:29-35 2Cor 3:13)

-Sets up the tabernacle (Ex 24-40)

-Present with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mt 17:3,4 Mk 9:4 Lu 9:30)

4. Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to their values, interests, hopes, and dreams.

-With Aaron assembles the leaders of Israel (Ex 4:29-31)

-Institutes a system of government (Ex 18:13-26 Nu 11:16-30 De 1:9-18)

-Blesses the children of Israel (De 33:1…)

Enabling Others to Act

5. Foster collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust.

-With Aaron assembles the leaders of Israel (Ex 4:29-31)

-Along with Aaron, Moses goes before Pharaoh and demands the liberties of his people in the name of Jehovah (Ex 5:1)

-Institutes a system of government (Ex 18:13-26 Nu 11:16-30 De 1:9-18)

6. Strengthen people by giving power away, providing choice, developing competence, assigning critical tasks, and offering visible support.

-Institutes a system of government (Ex 18:13-26 Nu 11:16-30 De 1:9-18)

-Sets up the tabernacle (Ex 24-40)

-Appoints Joshua as his successor (Nu 27:22,23 De 31:7,8,14,23; 34:9)

Modeling the Way

7. Set the example by behaving in ways that are consistent with shared values.

.Respected and feared (Ex 33:8)

.Faith of (Nu 10:29 De 9:1-3 Heb 11:23-28)

.Called the man of God (De 33:1)

.God spoke to, as a man to his friend (Ex 33:11)

.Magnified of God (Ex 19:9 Nu 14:12-20 De 9:13-29)

.Magnanimity of, toward Eldad and Medad (Nu 11:29)

.Meekness of (Ex 14:13,14; 15:24,25; 16:2,3,7,8 Nu 12:3; 16:4-11)

.Obedience of (Ex 7:6; 40:16,19,21)

.Unaspiring (Nu 14;12-20 De 9:13-29 Ex 32:30)

8. Achieve small wins that promote consistent progress and build commitment.

-Under divine direction brings plagues upon the land of Egypt (Ex 7:1…8:1…9:1…10:1…11:1…12:1…)

-Secures the deliverance of the people and leads them out of Egypt (Ex 13:1…)

-Crosses the Red Sea; Pharaoh and his army are destroyed (Ex 14:1…)

Encouraging the Heart

9. Recognize individual contributions to the success of every project.

-Joshua and Caleb (Nu 14)

10. Celebrate team accomplishments regularly.

-Composes a song for the people of Israel on their deliverance from Pharaoh (Ex 15:1…)

-Is a herdsman for Jethro in the desert of Horeb (Ex 3:1)

God's Word Part 3

2. I must digest spiritual food.

In 1981, 10 members of the IRA went on hunger strikes. All of them died, lasting about 10 weeks on average. Without divine intervention, there's a limit to how long you can go without food. Food is essential to our on-going health, wellbeing and continued life. It’s no different with spiritual food. We need spiritual food to feed our spiritual inner man.

1 Tim 4:6-  If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.

I need spiritual food to nourish my inner man. The food I need depends on my level of growth. So what sort of food does a new Christian need in order to grow?

We've had a little baby. I saw her come out. And I can tell you that babies don't come out saying, "Hey, you! Yeah, you fat man! Don't just stand there. I'm starving. Give me a steak."

What do babies want?

1 Pet 2:2 - as new born babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, a new Christian needs the pure milk of the word. This isn't a punishment. It's normal for a baby to be fed milk. But with a reasonable passage of time, you expect them to move onto something more difficult to digest.

Heb 5:12-14-  For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. (13) For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. (14) But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

The difference between a baby and an adult is not what it can fit in its mouth; or what it can chew, or even what it can swallow. The real difference is what it can digest. As the baby grows, it moves onto solid food and a broader diet. A spiritual baby can only digest the milk of the Word, but a spiritual adult is able to digest the meat / solid food of God's Word.

So what does it mean to digest solid food spiritually? If the crucial difference is what you can digest, what does that mean? John 4:27-34 "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work."

That's really something.

In other words, Jesus drew His strength, not from reading God's Word, thinking about God's Word, agreeing with it, admiring it. He drew His strength - His spiritual nourishment - from doing it.

Heb 5:14 - But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

1 Tim 4:6 - If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.

This is why: James 1:22-25: But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves…

The person who hears God's Word and doesn't do it is like someone smelling a steak, looking at it, cutting it up, chewing it, swallowing it - but what's the point if you can't digest it?

Where do we get our physical strength?

*Looking at food?

*Smelling it?

*Chewing it?

*Swallowing it?

We get our strength from digesting it.

If we don't digest our food, we get zero nutrition.

What about spiritual strength? It's the same - if we don't digest our spiritual food - God's Word - we get zero nutrition. It's no use just looking at God's Word, although it's good to read it. It's no use admiring God's Word, although there's lots to admire. It's no use just thinking about God's Word, although that's good too. But to draw my spiritual strength and nutrition from it, I have to digest it (do it) - just like Jesus did.

This is summed up in one word - obedience.

God's Word Part 2

2. God's Word gives me faith.

Rom 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Faith is our spiritual muscle. But it doesn't matter if you're as strong as Mark Henry, John Cena, Goku, you will get to an age when you will lose a lot of your physical strength. But did you know, that even though we may not be able to maintain our physical strength throughout our life, our spiritual muscles should be growing till the day we die.

We need ever increasing faith - and that comes from God's Word. This brings us to my second question:

How can I make sure God's Word does its work in me?

1. I must listen.

Rom 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.There's a word in that Scripture that's easy to overlook. It doesn't just say that faith comes from the Word of God. It says: faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

If the Word of God is going to profit us at all, we need to be listening to what God is saying to us in His Word. Most Christians that I've known don't do that totally. But what they do is say, "Yes Lord, Yes Lord, Yes Lord" to some areas. But then there's an area where it's, "No way. I'm not going to do that!"

Friends, when you say no to God, that's when you stop growing.

Imagine your life is like a building with millions of rooms. All the rooms are in darkness. When you come to Christ, a light is turned on in one of the rooms. That is your new birth experience. Then gradually, the Holy Spirit works His way through each of the rooms, turning on more and more lights. We call this process sanctification.

But we need to understand some important truths. The Holy Spirit turns on the lights, but you and I are the ones who open the doors. If we keep opening the doors, the Holy Spirit will continue to turn on the lights. If we block the Holy Spirit's access to a door, if we hear that knock and say, "Go away!" the light will never go on till we open up. If we keep blocking the Holy Spirit's access, eventually He may stop knocking.

That means that if I want to keep growing, I must keep a tender heart to God's Word, and open the door every time He knocks.

God's Word

Mk 11:12-14; 20-21

There two lessons in this passage - to have faith, but also that God expects fruitfulness. How disappointing when a fruit tree fails to grow or to bear fruit! God has planted the seed of the gospel in our lives. And the question we should be asking ourselves is: How can I guarantee that I will grow in God? How can I make sure that I will last the distance? And not join the huge number of Christians who have - for various reasons - backslidden, fallen away, and suffered shipwreck in their faith. How can I keep my faith strong, and run the race to the end?

Mat 24:13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

2 Pet 1:10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;

It's our responsibility to make our call and election sure.

The Word of God

I want to ask a couple of questions:

What will the Word of God do for me?

1. God's Word teaches me the difference between soul and spirit.

Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Jesus said something similar: John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. Now how important is it to know the difference between soul and spirit?

Let me refresh your memory:

*Your spirit and your soul aren't the same.

*Your soul is the part of you that makes you conscious of self.

*It has three important faculties - mind, will and emotions.

*Your spirit is the part of you that makes you God-conscious.

*It also has three important faculties - conscience, intuition and communion.

What comes from our soul, comes from ourselves - but it's our spirit that hears from God. That makes it important for us to know the difference. Because the difference is usually a matter of what we want to happen as opposed to what God wants to happen.

It's the difference between our will and God's will.

God's Word helps us discern this difference by clearly answering questions such as:

*Should I marry or form a business partnership with a non-Christian?

*Is it okay to have sex outside of marriage, or with the person I'm planning to marry?

*Does it matter if I get involved in pornography?

*Should I gossip/lie or spread rumours?

*Is it okay if I stop going to church?

...And a lot more.

Many Christians I've known over the years have failed to discern God's will on these and similar issues - but God's Word cuts away all pretence like a two-edged sword, and gives clear answers to the questions.

The Passion of Leadership

Luke 12:49,50 I (Jesus) am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

Jesus has a Passion for leadership and for His leaders. The Old Testament foretold of God's zeal concerning the fulfillment of His plan for mankind.

Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this ... As we all know it is not enough to just have Passion for leadership. Caiaphas, Pontius Pilate, Herod and Judas each had a Passion for leadership but as they went on to demonstrate, Passion without knowledge can easily be misdirected and when misapplied to the leadership role the results can be disastrous. What then is our safety net for the much needed Passions of leadership? Jesus is the anchor of the leadership soul. Jesus has to be the Passion for our leadership for it is only Jesus who has the knowledge and the understanding of mankind and He knows the fullness of His own plan for salvation, therefore Jesus is the only safety net to the Passions of leadership.

John 18:4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?

Whom seek we? ... Whom does our Passion dictate that we should seek after? Unless our Passion dictates that we seek Jesus than like Herod or like Judas we are setting ourselves up for disaster. Leadership by definition involves moving people along through one event and circumstance and into another. Good leadership is going to substantiate good results of growth, maturity and endurance encompassing all of the individuals throughout all of the events and circumstances involved. Because of the rapid succession of the Passion events of Jesus during the Holy week the question could be asked did Jesus get swept up and caught up in a series of events that were bigger than He is or did Jesus in His role of leadership use the series of events to instruct and guide each of us along through our own betrayals, trials and circumstances to bring us into His everlasting resurrection life.

With so much written in each of the Bible's four Gospels about the Passion events of Holy Week the events themselves clearly come into focus as a chain, a series of meaningful connected links connected to establish and fulfill the meaningful events foretold by the Holy Prophets of old. Events that would forever alter the face of history and the destiny of mankind. Clearly these are not just a series of random circumstances but the deliberate and ordained plan of God Himself.

The Passion is a study in the leadership of Jesus Christ as He and the disciples go through one event after another and in the case of the disciples sometimes it is triumph and sometimes it is not a triumph but a momentary failure and regardless of victory or defeat each event is a learning experience for the disciples.

In our own Passion to follow Jesus and to learn from Him, as disciples of Jesus, let's go back with Jesus and the original disciples to revisit and re-live the last week that Jesus spent on earth. This week is also referred to as "Holy Week." The 10 days will be Friday through the next Sunday. To examine the last week we will have to piece together many items and statements from throughout the Bible. As we go back to the original Holy Week, we will travel like students and detectives, searching the scriptures for events and clues that took place nearly 2,000 years ago. We will in actuality be students and detectives of Jesus, searching out who He is and what His ministry came to accomplish here on earth.