Light, Heat & God

Here is an interesting piece that I found while surfing at Interesting Facts:

Darkness is nothing but a absence of light. You can measure intensity of the light to infinity but can you do the same for darkness? Cold is nothing but absence of heat. Heat can be measured to infinity but cold maintains a steady value at a certain degree. Absolute zero (-460 F / -273.4 C) is the total absence of heat; and all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. It was proclaimed that Albert Einstein said: "Evil does not exist, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

I certainly do not agree that Satan / evil is simply the absence of God... the teachings of Jesus refer to the 'person' Satan and not the personification... (although God's absence will be the very worst part about hell)... but the above certainly makes for great pondering.

It's Time To Bungy!

WOW... there is nothing quite like putting it out there for everyone to hold you accountable! I'm sure I'm not the only one who knows what to do... but loves to procrastinate : )

For a few weeks I've toyed with the idea of reading each of the 4 Gospels completely each week for 3 months. I knew it would be a big challenge... so I put the decision off.

It's easy to do that when it's just an idea in your head. I felt like a bungy jumper... on the side of a bridge, nervously peering over the edge. You procrastinate and procrastinate and procrastinate. Eventually out of no-where you find your feet taking charge of the situation and lunging off the bridge.

That happened to me when I blurted out at my Elevate Leaders Lifegroup that I was starting the challenge. Well after I told the group... was committed. So first things first... I procrastinated getting started till the next week. When the new week rolled around I figured I should work out just how many chapters that I'd need to read each day... 13! GULP!!!

This is my 4th day... currently I'm 7 chapters behind (I've been catching up)... While the challenge is daunting, I feel relaxed and am enjoying the high speed 'water blast' in the Word.
The words from the Ethics of the Fathers are continually on my mind:
"Rabbi Meir said, 'Lessen your work for worldly goods, and be busy in the Torah. Be humble of spirit before all people. If you neglect the Torah, many causes for neglecting it will present themselves to you, but if you work in the Torah, He has abundant reward to give you."
Avot 4:12

So let me throw a challenge out to you: 'What are you procrastinating on?'
Which group or individuals do you need to blurt out to?
Go ahead, let your legs (or mouth in this case) lunge you off the bridge and into your destiny!

I look forward to your comments!

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My 3 Month Challenge in the Word

I've been reading a great book called 'Meet The Rabbis'. In the book is a chapter which has the 'Ethics of the fathers' - a book out of the Mishnah.

I want to give you a few quotes from it about study of God's Word and then let you in a 3 month challenge that I'm taking up.

"He used to say, 'A name made great is a name destroyed: he who does not increase his knowledge decreases it. He who does not study, deserves to die; and he who makes a worldly use of the crown of the Torah shall waste away."
Avot 1:13

"Rabban Yochanan the son of Zakhai received the tradition from Hillel and Shammai. He used to say, 'If you have learned much Torah, do not ascribe special merit to yourself because it was for this reason that you were created."
Avot 2:9

"Rabbi Meir said, 'Lessen your work for worldly goods, and be busyin the Torah. Be humble of spirit before all people. If you neglect the Torah, many causes for neglecting it will present themselves to you, but if you work in the Torah, He has abundant reward to give you."
Avot 4:12

"Ben Bag Bag said, '[Immerse yourself in the study of Torah], turn it and turn it over again, for everything is in it. Contemplate it, grow grey and old over studying it. Do not move away from learning it, for you cannot have a better manner of life than this."
Avot 5:25

Well I hope that you enjoyed those...

So here is the 3 month challenge that I have given to myself...
I will read through the 4 Gospels each week for 3 months.

To be honest... I have no idea how I'm going to do it... but I know that the time in the study of God's Word will be incredible!

Let me know what you thought of the above verses by leaving a comment.

A Call To Prayer

For most Christians prayer is something we all know we should do more off... but we don't. Too often we have been in boring prayer meetings etc.

Prayer really is a selfless activity, we don't receive anything when we come together in community to prayer... but powerful happen!

Here is an awesome clip that just makes me want to hit a prayer meeting and pray up a storm!!!



I'd love to hear your comments!
How do you include prayer into your walk with God?

In Dark Times Remember...

Hearing From God Pt. 3

In the 1st post in this series on Hearing from God we saw that we can 'hear' from 1 of 3 places: Satan, ourselves or God.
In the 2nd post we looked at how to discern between weather what we are hearing is from God or ourselves.
In this post we will look at how to actually hear from God.

Let me start with a favorite verse of mine:
Psalm 139:17-18a

17 How precious to ^[b] me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.

God is speaking to us all the time... the question is are we listening! Here are 3 main ways that God speaks to us:
1) Hearing
2) Seeing
3) Feelings

HEARING:
For the 99% of us we will not hear an audible voice from God. So how do we hear from God? We hear via a flow of spontaneous thought.
Do me a favor... I want you to think the word 'car for me. Just like that thought was in your head... so God's thoughts stream into our heads. Usually we are so preoccupied that we don't even notice.
By the way, Satan speaks to us in the same manner... thoughts. Those condemning thoughts... very well could find their source from the devil.

SEEING:
Some people tend to get mental pictures or faint impressions that get stronger and stronger. Check out this interesting verse:
Habakkuk 2: 1
1 I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. ^[a]

FEELINGS:
Getting an impression or sensing a feeling.

(In case your wondering... I usually 'hear' and my wife usually 'sees'.)

Let me just add here that the quickest way to quench hearing from God is to evaluate it as its coming to you.
Rather one should write it down while suspending all judgment. Then once you've stopped hearing / seeing / feeling you can go back and 'judge' it (see the 1st and 2nd posts for more on this).

I hope this was helpful.
If you would like further posts on this subject, let me know what you'd like me to focus on by leaving a comment.

Till next time...

Hearing From God Pt. 2

In this series of posts we are discussing hearing from God. If you missed part 1, then click HERE.

In this post we will discuss how to discern if the direction we are hearing is from ourselves or from God.
This can be tricky as our hearts can be deceptive... and if we really want to do something, we can easily talk ourselves into it.

Jeremiah 17:9
9 The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?

So how do we figure this maze out?
Well there are five simple tests that you can use:

• Scripture
• The Holy Spirit speaking to your heart
• The prophetic
• Godly council
• The peace of God

Scripture is the foundation which all the other tests must be tested upon. The obvious question is , "Does this line up with Scripture?".


God is speaking to our hearts through His Holy Spirit all the time.

Psalm 139: 17-18
17 How precious to ^[b] me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.

We'll cover how this happens more in the third post.


Prophetic words from others can be powerful encouragement in one's life. The prophetic word is usually a confirmation and encouragement though. Very rarely will God ever tell you something directive for the first time through the prophetic.

A word of caution too... who prophecies over you is very important. Every prophetic word needs to be judged and discerned.

1 Thessalonians 5: 19-21
19Do not put out the Spirit's fire; 20do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21Test everything. Hold on to the good.


Godly council can keep you from a lot of silly decisions. Having someone trusted, who knows the Word of God well, who is known for his wisdom and application of Scripture in their own life... these people will prove invaluable to you.
A word of caution... when we really want something... we tend to go to those who we know will be sympathetic to our course of action. Bad idea! You may get what you want... but you will not want what you end up with!


Lastly is the peace of God.

Colossians 3:15
15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

In 2004 God dropped a bombshell in my spirit. I was living in South Africa and out of the blue God impressed New Zealand on my heart. It was with me from the moment I woke till the moment I fell asleep... 24/7.
I went to my wife and asked her to pray about what this could mean. We decided to pray about the matter seperatly for a month and then come together and see what God was saying.
I'm an idea a minute guy so it is important for me to give decisions time (espesially very important ones).

I wrestled and wrestled with this. It didn't make logical sense to me... after all I had been in the ministry for 10 years already in SA, I was well known and I had all my plans tied to SA.
I wished someone would just come up and give me a prophetic word to take the burden of making the descisionm off me... but I knew that God had spoken and I needed to make the decsion to follow.
On the third week I decided this was God, I made my decision, but I still wanted to give it time. Logically it didn't make any more sense to me... but underneath all that confusion I felt a peace in my spirit.

When my wife and I came together we were convinced that this was the voice of God to us. The next 6 months was a whirlwind... and as they say... the rest is history.
Now i feel right in the centre of God's will for our families lives. Its the best place to be!

In the next post we will talk about how to actually 'hear' from God.
Until then...

Please do leave a comment and share your experiences.

Hearing From God Pt. 1

I thought I'd do a few posts on Hearing From God. Since the later part of the last century there has been a really big focus on hearing from God to find direction for our lives. From the very start of my spiritual journey I have been taught the importance of seeking God's voice and leading in my Christian walk. I have benefited so much from hearing from God over the years. I have seen the benefit in so many peoples lives... and I have seen it misused and abused.

People who decide to do something really stupid and mask it with, "God told me to...", and they do so because how can anyone argue with God's will? So if you don't want to listen to leadership and good council... just use the magic bullet. It's a highway to disaster!

(My third post will cover the 'How to hear from God'.)

So the first thing to know when listening to God is that we can hear from 1 of 3 people. We can hear from:

• Satan
• Ourselves
• God

Satan's voice is fairly easy to recognize... as it's condemning or suggesting things contrary to what God's Word says. The trick comes when we are trying to discern between my thoughts and God's. More on this in my next post.

What have your experiences been in listening to God? Leave a comment please.

Popularity Vs. Principals

Click HERE to read a great quote from President George Bush on Popularity Vs.
principals.

Video's To Get You Going in 09!

What a great video from the Discovery Channel to kick the year off with!!!




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Happy 09!