Fokus vir 2010

Nadat ons met geloofsonderskeiding nagedink het oor dit waarop ons moet fokus in 2010 het ons as kerkraad en bestuurspan tot die oortuiging gekom dat daar twee dinge is waarop ons wil fokus:

1. Ons leef met ‘n passie vir God - Ons doen dit deur erns te maak met dissipelskap en dissipelmaking. Om met ’n passie vir God te leef, beteken ook vir ons die bevordering van geestelike dissiplines; die verbreding van ons kennis in Wie en wat ons glo; en die vestiging van ‘n aanbiddingskultuur

2. Ons leef met ’n hart vir mense - Ons doen dit deur moeite te maak met ons tieners om saam met hulle die gemeente as hawe (’n tuiste) te beleef. Om met ’n hart vir mense te leef beteken ook vir ons die bevordering van gesonde, liefdevolle verhoudinge binne families, die gemeente, by die werkplek en gemeenskap; om doelbewus oor grense te beweeg (emosioneel, kultureel, ekonomies, kerk, generasie, geografies, geloof, ras, asook grense van vooroordeling en agterdog); die vestiging van ’n versorgingskultuur binne die gemeente; om die evangelie met vrymoedigheid met mense wat die Here oor ons pad stuur, te deel.

Gesels 'n bietjie saam met ons oor die fokusse vir 2010.

Creation Care - Sonskyn en Ek.

Dit is heerlik om weer rondom ons te kyk en SONSKYN te sien. Om die koue Kaapse water te trotseer. Saterdag het ons soveel walvisse gesien dat ons naderhand ophou tel het. Ons het ook ‘n baba albino walvissie gesien. Ons het kaalvoet rondgeloop totdat ons ou sagte voetjies so seer geword het dat ons moes skoene aantrek, maar wag die somer kom en teen die einde van die Somer trap ons weer die dorings dat hulle breek.

God moet ons eenvoudig baie lief hê om vir ons te seën met hierdie pragtige natuur. Een van die dinge wat ons gesin werklik geniet is om voëls te kyk. Dit bring ons nie net in die natuur nie, maar ook nader aan God en aan mekaar. Dit is ons verantwoordelikheid om ons kinders nie net bloot te stel aan die natuur nie, maar ook om vir hulle te leer wat is hulle verantwoordelikheid teenoor die natuur.

Hoe doen julle dit as gesin:

Ek het onlangs die volgende artikel van Brian Mclaren raakgelees.

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What could be more joyful than rediscovering our God-given role as caretakers, stewards, and lovers of creation? What could be more sad and tragic than missing that dimension of life - linking the human parts of God's creation with the rest? How much would we miss by neglecting or ignoring the vast majority of God's creation that came into being before we did - and that was pronounced "good" by God completely apart from its utility to us?

Here are seven first steps that I recommend to all of us who want to re-enter our primal (and deeply fulfilling) role as caretakers of God's beautiful world.

1. Develop a theology of creation. Sadly, many of us have a gospel of evacuation and abandonment, leaving behind creation to be destroyed so our souls can be beamed up to heaven as soon as possible. We need instead a theology of incarnation and engagement ... where we join the Creator in loving and caring for creation. Thankfully, this theology that includes rather than evacuates creation is deeply rooted in the Scriptures, and is being rediscovered and freshly articulated by many of us today.

(more after the jump)

2. Worship the God of creation. God is first revealed to us as creator, and in the end, God is the gracious source of new creation. From creation to new creation, God the Creator is worthy to be praised. How sad if we worship God within a construction of human doctrines and within man-made walls and ceilings ... and never worship God within a forest of trees or under a canopy of stars or with a choir of singing birds, crickets, and tree frogs!

3. Learn the threats to creation. They are many, and they are complex, and they are interwoven and mutually reinforcing. And we are complicit in nearly all of them.

4. Adjust your lifestyle to creation. In the Genesis story, part of Adam and Eve "wanting to be like gods" must surely involve wanting to transcend our God-given role as creatures in an environment. We are as connected to habitats of soil, water, air, grass, and trees as are gazelles and lions, dragonflies and mockingbirds. We have been living in a fantasy world for centuries, forgetting that we are woven in a fabric of creation ... and we need to re-enter and adjust our lifestyles to that beautiful fabric. Doing so will be a lifelong task. It will involve personal action (changing light bulbs, recycling, composting, driving less and driving wiser, applying new technologies, etc.), but also social and political action. (More on that in #7)

5. Choose a part of creation in which to specialize. God loves birds ... you can join God. God loves flowers and deserts and wetlands and sea turtles ... you can join God. God knows the potential of wind and hydrogen and solar energy to help us live more wisely - you can join God. We can't all know everything, but we can all specialize in certain areas and share our learnings and concerns with one another.

6. Start with your environmental address. A zip code is just so mail can find you. Your real address is a watershed ... a place on the planet where you consume, pollute, garden, tend, and care. We all have to care for the whole planet, but we each must care especially for our own ecological neighborhood. Here's a place to start learning ...

7. Advocate for creation everywhere. Birds don't get to vote. Neither do streams or salamanders. Corporations are given legal status and protection, but forests aren't (maybe they should be?). If birds and soil and trees and wind are going to be given a voice in life-and-death decisions made by humans, people like you and me are going to have to add-our-voice (advocate) on their behalf. That voice will speak in voting, but also in church, and in the office and classroom, and around the dinner table. We can't just speak with a kind of guilt-inducing duty ... we must also speak with love. Because we love people and other creatures who live in desertifying areas, we must speak up and deal with global climate change. Because we love people and creatures who live in areas devastated by mountaintop removal, we must speak up for protecting the mountains. Because we love the spring peepers and spotted salamanders, we must speak up when another shopping mall is going to bury another vernal pool.

There's so much more to be said and done, but this is a start. And these things are not simply a duty, but a true joy. The threats and urgency of the moment can be truly overwhelming, but the Spirit of creation that hovered over the surface of the waters in Genesis 1 is still alive, stirring hearts to rediscover a truly human way of living in God's beautiful green world.

Ietsie vir ons vrouens
Kliek op prentjie vir aanbieding

Breakfastrun - Erediens - Helderberg Gemeente

“Bike-Brekvis”

Aan al die gelukkige Christene(Die met motorfietse), op Sondag 18 Oktober gaan ons 'n breakfastrun vanaf ons kerk hou. Ons gaan so 'n bietjie deur die mooi kaap ry. Ons vertrek 08:00 vanaf die parkeer area langs die kerk en gaan die pragtige pad langs die see af ry: Rooi Els, Pringlebaai, Bettiesbaai, Kleinmond tot in Hermanus. Ons gaan op pad na Hermanus by die Harold Porter Nationale Botaniese tuin stop vir ons erediens (dieselfde tema as wat by ons ander eredienste die oggend hanteer word). Ons gaan sommer gemaklik op die grasperke in die tuin sit en so saam ons diens hou in die natuur. Dan is op pad na Hermanus. By Hermanus gaan daar ook geleentheid wees vir saam kuier, eet en walvisse terg. Ons is reeds opgewonde oor die reaksie en die hoeveelheid navrae. As jy jou gesin wil deelmaak is hulle welkom om agter ons aan te ry met motors of ons te kry by die Botaniese tuine en dan weer in Hermanus. Vir die sonder motorfietse Hardley Davidson en ander huur motorfietse uit vir een dag. Kostes is jou eie petrolgeld, en sorg vir jou eie kos. As jy wil saamgaan kontak asb Paul Barnard by 0823749520 of e-pos hom by paul@nghelder.co.za.

Ons wil ‘n motorfietsbedienig groep vir ons gemeente op die been bring wat so 'n geleentheid ten minste een maal per kwartaal sal reël. Dit is ook die ideale manier om vriende saam te nooi wat jy nie noodwendig die vrymoedigheid het om saam na 'n gewone erediens te nooi nie.

.

Gasvryheid

A LETTER TO A CHURCH

I sat alone at the back of the church,
Desperately trying to control my hurt.
Praying that someone would care,
Would sit next to me so I could share.
Then YOU came - my sister and brother.
I sat at one end - you moved to the other.

I saw YOU come, I hoped you'd see.
But you walked straight by
Not a word to me.
Then YOU approached me with a smile,
"Hello, how are you" I heard you say,
But you walked straight by
Before my reply.

Then YOU came and tarried awhile,
But you looked uncomfortable talking with me,
You could not handle my misery.
I started to tell YOU - a cry for help.
You listened for awhile,
But time was short "I'll pray" you said,
And talked to someone else instead.

I stood alone while YOU drank your tea.
Feeling as miserable as could be.
Everyone busy, milling about,
"I'm hurting inside" I wanted to shout,
But I put on a grin - a smile in the making,
Even though my heart was aching.
Then YOU came - you really did care
YOU gave me a hug and a kiss.
YOU said that I was in your prayers.
YOU said I was greatly missed.
I need your love, I need YOU to phone,
I need YOU to pray with me in my home.
Today it is me, and how many others.
It could have been YOU, my sisters and brothers.

1 CORINTHIANS 12v22-27

Written by: Georgina Smith
Copyright © 1999 by Georgia Smith

A Jesus Manifesto for the 21st Century Church

Daar is die laaste tyd baie vrae oor Jesus en die kerk. Ons glo in 'n Drie-enige God: God die Vader, God die Seun en God die Heilige Gees. Alhoewel ons nie meer klem wil le op een van die drie nie is dit belangrik om pertinent te sê dat ons glo in Jesus Christus ons saligmaker. Hier is 'n Manifesto oor Jesus wat my gevoelens weerspiel. Hoe voel jy hieroor. Hierdie Manifesto is geskryf deur Leonard Sweet en Frank Viola

Christians have made the gospel about so many things … things other than Christ.

Jesus Christ is the gravitational pull that brings everything together and gives them significance, reality, and meaning. Without him, all things lose their value. Without him, all things are but detached pieces floating around in space.

It is possible to emphasize a spiritual truth, value, virtue, or gift, yet miss Christ . . . who is the embodiment and incarnation of all spiritual truth, values, virtues, and gifts.

Seek a truth, a value, a virtue, or a spiritual gift, and you have obtained something dead.

Seek Christ, embrace Christ, know Christ, and you have touched him who is Life. And in him resides all Truth, Values, Virtues and Gifts in living color. Beauty has its meaning in the beauty of Christ, in whom is found all that makes us lovely and loveable.

What is Christianity? It is Christ. Nothing more. Nothing less. Christianity is not an ideology. Christianity is not a philosophy. Christianity is the “good news” that Beauty, Truth and Goodness are found in a person. Biblical community is founded and found on the connection to that person. Conversion is more than a change in direction; it’s a change in connection. Jesus’ use of the ancient Hebrew word shubh, or its Aramaic equivalent, to call for “repentance” implies not viewing God from a distance, but entering into a relationship where God is command central of the human connection.

In that regard, we feel a massive disconnection in the church today. Thus this manifesto.

We believe that the major disease of the church today is JDD: Jesus Deficit Disorder. The person of Jesus is increasingly politically incorrect, and is being replaced by the language of “justice,” “the kingdom of God,” “values,” and “leadership principles.”

In this hour, the testimony that we feel God has called us to bear centers on the primacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Specifically . . .

1. The center and circumference of the Christian life is none other than the person of Christ. All other things, including things related to him and about him, are eclipsed by the sight of his peerless worth. Knowing Christ is Eternal Life. And knowing him profoundly, deeply, and in reality, as well as experiencing his unsearchable riches, is the chief pursuit of our lives, as it was for the first Christians. God is not so much about fixing things that have gone wrong in our lives as finding us in our brokenness and giving us Christ.

2. Jesus Christ cannot be separated from his teachings. Aristotle says to his disciples, “Follow my teachings.” Socrates says to his disciples, “Follow my teachings.” Buddha says to his disciples, “Follow my meditations.” Confucius says to his disciples, “Follow my sayings.” Muhammad says to his disciples, “Follow my noble pillars.” Jesus says to his disciples, “Follow me.” In all other religions, a follower can follow the teachings of its founder without having a relationship with that founder. Not so with Jesus Christ. The teachings of Jesus cannot be separated from Jesus himself. Jesus Christ is still alive and he embodies his teachings. It is a profound mistake, therefore, to treat Christ as simply the founder of a set of moral, ethical, or social teaching. The Lord Jesus and his teaching are one. The Medium and the Message are One. Christ is the incarnation of the Kingdom of God and the Sermon on the Mount.

3. God’s grand mission and eternal purpose in the earth and in heaven centers in Christ . . . both the individual Christ (the Head) and the corporate Christ (the Body). This universe is moving towards one final goal – the fullness of Christ where He shall fill all things with himself. To be truly missional, then, means constructing one’s life and ministry on Christ. He is both the heart and bloodstream of God’s plan. To miss this is to miss the plot; indeed, it is to miss everything.

4. Being a follower of Jesus does not involve imitation so much as it does implantation and impartation. Incarnation–the notion that God connects to us in baby form and human touch—is the most shocking doctrine of the Christian religion. The incarnation is both once-and-for-all and ongoing, as the One “who was and is to come” now is and lives his resurrection life in and through us. Incarnation doesn’t just apply to Jesus; it applies to every one of us. Of course, not in the same sacramental way. But close. We have been given God’s “Spirit” which makes Christ “real” in our lives. We have been made, as Peter puts it, “partakers of the divine nature.” How, then, in the face of so great a truth can we ask for toys and trinkets? How can we lust after lesser gifts and itch for religious and spiritual thingys? We’ve been touched from on high by the fires of the Almighty and given divine life. A life that has passed through death – the very resurrection life of the Son of God himself. How can we not be fired up?

To put it in a question: What was the engine, or the accelerator, of the Lord’s amazing life? What was the taproot or the headwaters of his outward behavior? It was this: Jesus lived by an indwelling Father. After his resurrection, the passage has now moved. What God the Father was to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is to you and to me. He’s our indwelling Presence, and we share in the life of Jesus’ own relationship with the Father. There is a vast ocean of difference between trying to compel Christians to imitate Jesus and learning how to impart an implanted Christ. The former only ends up in failure and frustration. The latter is the gateway to life and joy in our daying and our dying. We stand with Paul: “Christ lives in me.” Our life is Christ. In him do we live, breathe, and have our being. “What would Jesus do?” is not Christianity. Christianity asks: “What is Christ doing through me … through us? And how is Jesus doing it?” Following Jesus means “trust and obey” (respond), and living by his indwelling life through the power of the Spirit.

5. The “Jesus of history” cannot be disconnected from the “Christ of faith.” The Jesus who walked the shores of Galilee is the same person who indwells the church today. There is no disconnect between the Jesus of Mark’s Gospel and the incredible, all-inclusive, cosmic Christ of Paul’s letter to the Colossians. The Christ who lived in the first century has a pre-existence before time. He also has a post-existence after time. He is Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, A and Z, all at the same time. He stands in the future and at the end of time at the same moment that He indwells every child of God. Failure to embrace these paradoxical truths has created monumental problems and has diminished the greatness of Christ in the eyes of God’s people.

6. It’s possible to confuse “the cause” of Christ with the person of Christ. When the early church said “Jesus is Lord,” they did not mean “Jesus is my core value.” Jesus isn’t a cause; he is a real and living person who can be known, loved, experienced, enthroned and embodied. Focusing on his cause or mission doesn’t equate focusing on or following him. It’s all too possible to serve “the god” of serving Jesus as opposed to serving him out of an enraptured heart that’s been captivated by his irresistible beauty and unfathomable love. Jesus led us to think of God differently, as relationship, as the God of all relationship.

7. Jesus Christ was not a social activist nor a moral philosopher. To pitch him that way is to drain his glory and dilute his excellence. Justice apart from Christ is a dead thing. The only battering ram that can storm the gates of hell is not the cry of Justice, but the name of Jesus. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of Justice, Peace, Holiness, Righteousness. He is the sum of all spiritual things, the “strange attractor” of the cosmos. When Jesus becomes an abstraction, faith loses its reproductive power. Jesus did not come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people live.

8. It is possible to confuse an academic knowledge or theology about Jesus with a personal knowledge of the living Christ himself. These two stand as far apart as do the hundred thousand million galaxies. The fullness of Christ can never be accessed through the frontal lobe alone. Christian faith claims to be rational, but also to reach out to touch ultimate mysteries. The cure for a big head is a big heart.

Jesus does not leave his disciples with CliffsNotes for a systematic theology. He leaves his disciples with breath and body.

Jesus does not leave his disciples with a coherent and clear belief system by which to love God and others. Jesus gives his disciples wounds to touch and hands to heal.

Jesus does not leave his disciples with intellectual belief or a “Christian worldview.” He leaves his disciples with a relational faith.

Christians don’t follow a book. Christians follow a person, and this library of divinely inspired books we call “The Holy Bible” best help us follow that person. The Written Word is a map that leads us to The Living Word. Or as Jesus himself put it, “All Scripture testifies of me.” The Bible is not the destination; it’s a compass that points to Christ, heaven’s North Star.

The Bible does not offer a plan or a blueprint for living. The “good news” was not a new set of laws, or a new set of ethical injunctions, or a new and better PLAN. The “good news” was the story of a person’s life, as reflected in The Apostle’s Creed. The Mystery of Faith proclaims this narrative: “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.” The meaning of Christianity does not come from allegiance to complex theological doctrines, but a passionate love for a way of living in the world that revolves around following Jesus, who taught that love is what makes life a success . . . not wealth or health or anything else: but love. And God is love.

9. Only Jesus can transfix and then transfigure the void at the heart of the church. Jesus Christ cannot be separated from his church. While Jesus is distinct from his Bride, he is not separate from her. She is in fact his very own Body in the earth. God has chosen to vest all of power, authority, and life in the living Christ. And God in Christ is only known fully in and through his church. (As Paul said, “The manifold wisdom of God – which is Christ – is known through the ekklesia.”)

The Christian life, therefore, is not an individual pursuit. It’s a corporate journey. Knowing Christ and making him known is not an individual prospect. Those who insist on flying life solo will be brought to earth, with a crash. Thus Christ and his church are intimately joined and connected. What God has joined together, let no person put asunder. We were made for life with God; our only happiness is found in life with God. And God’s own pleasure and delight is found therein as well.

10. In a world which sings, “Oh, who is this Jesus?” and a church which sings, “Oh, let’s all be like Jesus,” who will sing with lungs of leather, “Oh, how we love Jesus!”

If Jesus could rise from the dead, we can at least rise from our bed, get off our couches and pews, and respond to the Lord’s resurrection life within us, joining Jesus in what he’s up to in the world. We call on others to join us—not in removing ourselves from planet Earth, but to plant our feet more firmly on the Earth while our spirits soar in the heavens of God’s pleasure and purpose. We are not of this world, but we live in this world for the Lord’s rights and interests. We, collectively, as the ekklesia of God, are Christ in and to this world.

May God have a people on this earth who are a people of Christ, through Christ, and for Christ. A people of the cross. A people who are consumed with God’s eternal passion, which is to make his Son preeminent, supreme, and the head over all things visible and invisible. A people who have discovered the touch of the Almighty in the face of his glorious Son. A people who wish to know only Christ and him crucified, and to let everything else fall by the wayside. A people who are laying hold of his depths, discovering his riches, touching his life, and receiving his love, and making HIM in all of his unfathomable glory known to others.

The two of us may disagree about many things—be they ecclesiology, eschatology, soteriology, not to mention economics, globalism and politics.

But in our two most recent books—"From Eternity to Here" and "So Beautiful"—we have sounded forth a united trumpet. These books are the Manifests to this Manifesto. They each present the vision that has captured our hearts and that we wish to impart to the Body of Christ— “This ONE THING I know” (Jn.9:25) that is the ONE THING that unites us all:

Jesus the Christ.

Christians don’t follow Christianity; Christians follow Christ.

Christians don’t preach themselves; Christians proclaim Christ.

Christians don’t point people to core values; Christians point people to the cross.

Christians don’t preach about Christ: Christians preach Christ.

Over 300 years ago a German pastor wrote a hymn that built around the Name above all names:

Ask ye what great thing I know, that delights and stirs me so?
What the high reward I win? Whose the name I glory in?
Jesus Christ, the crucified.

This is that great thing I know; this delights and stirs me so:
faith in him who died to save, His who triumphed o’er the grave:
Jesus Christ, the crucified.

—

Jesus Christ – the crucified, resurrected, enthroned, triumphant, living Lord.

He is our Pursuit, our Passion, and our Life.

Amen.

Paul wonder oor 1 Johannes 1:5

1 Johannes 1:5 begin met die volgende woorde

⁵Dít is nou die boodskap wat ons by Hom gehoor het en aan julle verkondig: ...

Hoe sal jy hierdie sinnetjie voltooi? As jy nou vir iemand moet vertel wat jy BY God gehoor het, wat al dit wees?

Sal dit wees met iets wat jy iewers gelees het, of iewers gehoor het. Sal dit dalk wees uiit die belydenis skrifte? Is God vir jou so 'n werklikheid dat jy dit eerlik sou kon voltooi?

Hier is soos Johannes dit voltooi: God is lig, en daar is geen duisternis in Hom nie.

God is lig, ...magtig, skerp, maar meestal onsigbaar. Jy sien God as Hy van iemand of iets af reflekteer. Selfs wanneer lig reflekteer is daar so 'n groot spektrum van die lig wat eenvoudig net nie vir 'n mens so ook sigbaar is nie. Partymaal is dit so helder dat dit ons verblind.

Vandag is daar dalk iemand wat hierdie vraag beantwoord deur te sê dat die enigte keer toe hulle vir God gesien en gehoor het, was toe Hy van jou lewe af gereflekteer het. Hoeveel mense sit in die donker rondom jou.

Nuwe onderwerp

As jy oor enige ander onderwerp wil gesels of kommentaar wil lewer, doen dit gerus hier.

Families "survical unit" opsoek na verhoudings

“When a couple has an argument nowadays, they may think it’s about money or power or sex or how to raise the kids or whatever. What they’re really saying to each other, though without realizing it, is this: “You are not enough people!” A husband, a wife and some kids is not a family. It’s a terribly vulnerable survival unit.” A man without a country, p.48 Kurt Vonnegut

Hy gaan verder en sê dat ons vandag ons uitgebreide families verloor, ons ouers en groot ouers in versorgins oorde plaas. Die res van ons families so min sien dat ons mekaar nie regtig meer ken nie. In hierdie konteks sê hy het ons arm geword. Bietje verder maak hy die volgende stelling: “It used to be that when a man and a woman got married, the bride got a lot more people to talk about everything. The groom got a lot more pals to tell dumb jokes to.”

Daar is 'n groeiende behoefte na verhoudings. Egte verhoudings waar ek veilig is en waar ek kan asemhaal. Maar ons is so besig dat ons nie tyd het vir dit waarna ons soek nie. Om Gelowige te wees vandag is die NOODSAAKLIK dat ons tyd maak om te kuier by ons groter familie (ook ons kerkfamilie) sodat ons, ons "sanity" kan behou. As jy enkelouer is, is dit nog soveel meer belangrik!

Ons is arm aan verhoudings, regte mens verhoudings. As ons in die kerk ernstig is oor evangelisasie sal ons moet besef dat ons preke, dade van barmhartigheid en uitreik bevesit of vernietig word deur ons sigbare verhoudings. Johannes 13:34-35

³⁴Ek gee julle ’n nuwe gebod: julle moet mekaar liefhê. Soos Ek julle liefhet, moet julle mekaar ook liefhê. ³⁵As julle mekaar liefhet, sal almal weet dat julle dissipels van My is.”

God se geduld

Hoekom is dit dat mense wat 'n nuwe "commitment" maak teenoor God, so dikwels baie ongeduldig is met mense wat, volgens hulle, vasgeval is in die ou paaie? Jy het besef op watter dwaalspoor jy was, en nou is jy so opgewonde oor die nuwe lewende verhouding met God. Dit is baie goed, maar nou raak jy openlik krities en ongeduldig met ander wat (nog) nie die ontdekking gemaak het nie. Was God nie juis met jou geduldig oor jare tot op die punt wat die lig vir jou opgegaan het nie?
Ek dink Lukas 13:1-9 sien hierdie inherente spanning goed raak. Aan die een kant die dringende oproep tot bekering, aan die ander kant die wonderlike geduld van God. Die vyeboom wat nie vrug dra nie, word nie uitgekap nie, maar kry nog 'n kans om met goeie kompos en behandeling vrug te dra. Kompos of mis ontbind eers en dan kan dit iets beteken vir die boom. Dalk moet ek in my ongeduld ook eers afgebreek word om iets te kan beteken vir die boom wat nie vrug dra nie?

Amazing gebed van Brian McLaren

A prayer ...

I've been especially focusing my thoughts on the beatitudes in recent days. After the jump is a prayer that they inspired.

God, our Creator, thank you for the gift of Jesus. He walked among us embodying your creative and life-giving Word in his body, his life, his words, his deeds, his sufferings, his death, and his resurrection. When we see him loving the outcast, forgiving the sinner, confronting the hypocrite, and teaching the crowds a new way of life, we see your heart, your compassion, your mercy, your character. To know Jesus is to love him, and to love him is to know him, and to know and love him is to know and love you.

So help me, Lord, to be among your disciples who come to you to be taught.

Help me, Lord, to be among the poor in spirit, to see and know that your kingdom is my homeland even now ...

Help me, Lord, to be among those who mourn, to join you in your sadness for all that's wrong and broken in this world, and in joining you, to find true comfort.

Help me, Lord, to be among the meek, those who find strength in weakness and power in vulnerability, to never fear lack or want, because when I have your love, I have all the world.

Help me, Lord, to desire justice, rightness, goodness, fairness, cleanness, clearness, and integrity more than I hunger for food or thirst for water ... and so let me find the truest fulfillment and satisfaction.

Help me, Lord, to be among the merciful. Help me to be a true friend to those who are hated, misunderstood, rejected, excluded, disregarded ... just as you, God of Mercy, are. When others fail - when they fail me - help me show the same mercy you show to those who fail you ... including me.

Help me, Lord, to be among the pure in heart. May your pure light shine in my heart and dispel every shadow, every layer and fold that conceals or pretends. Since it is only the heart that sees you, remove from my heart everything that keeps me from seeing you.

Help me, Lord, to be among the makers of peace. Many build walls. Many sow fear and distrust. Many spread rumors. Many inflame conflict and profit from it. Help me to be even among them an agent and messenger of your peace and reconciliation, and so bear your family likeness, God of peace.

Help me, Lord, not to fear being among the persecuted, but rather, to rejoice in having the honor of standing for your restorative justice and rightness, so I will see that your kingdom is my homeland, even now.

Help me, Lord, to be among those who suffer wrong well and with grace. Help me not to resent it, not to fear it, not to seek to escape it. Instead, help me to find joy in it ... when others insult me, make my life more difficult, or falsely malign me because of you. Help me to see through the momentary, light trouble to the lasting and weighty reward, even now, for your kingdom comes by suffering rather than by making others suffer.

So help me, Lord, to be among your disciples who come to you to be taught. I am a limping, broken sinner and beginner, far from these realities, but this is where I want to go. In your mercy, lead me in this path. Amen.
(a meditation on Matthew 5:1-12)

My Perspektief oor God wat ons TOETS - Paul Barnard

Ek wonder baie keer wat bedoel God as daar in die Bybel staan dat Hy ons toets. Ek is besig om 'n studie te maak van die verskillende Dissipels en dit wat ons van hulle kan leer in die Bybel. Ek is hierdie week by Fillipus en daar is dit toe weer! Die bietjie wat ons van Fillipus weet lyk dit of hy die logiese ou was - die detail persoon wat in elke situasie gekyk het wat gedoen moet word en hoe dit gedoen moet word. Daardie onmisbare persoon in elke span.

In Johannes 6 gebeur dit dat daar 'n massa mense vir Jesus volg. Dan staan daar: ⁵Toe Jesus rondkyk en sien dat ’n groot klomp mense na Hom toe aankom, sê Hy vir Filippus: “Waar kan ons brood gaan koop sodat die mense kan eet?”

⁶Dit het Hy net gesê om hom op die proef te stel, want Hy het self goed geweet wat Hy gaan doen.

⁷Filippus antwoord Hom toe: “Twee honderd mense se dagloon is nie eers genoeg om elkeen van hulle ’n stukkie brood te laat kry nie.”

In hierdie gedeelte lees ons Jesus stel hoem op die proef WANT HY HET SELF GOED GEWEET WAT HY GAAN DOEN. Wat is die nut om iemand op die proef te stel as jy weet wat gaan hy doen. Ek dink Jesus het geglimlag in sy hart toe Hy Fillipus op die proef gestel het. Hy het gesien hoe hierdie dissipel besorg oor die mense is en dat hy reeds bekommerd is oor almal wat moet eet. Daarom is Fillipus ook reeds reg met 'n antwoord. Hy het reeds uitgewerk hoeveel hy sou nodig het en dat dit onmoontlik is.

Wat is dus volgens my die doel van die proef/toets?

Jesus het hom op die proef gestel, nie omdat Jesus nodig gehad het om uit te vind wat in sy binneste aangaan nie. Hy het hom op die proef gestel(getoets) sodat Fillipus sou uitvind wat in sy eie binneste aangaan.

God stel ons nie op die proef om te kyk of ons slaag of misluk nie, maar om ons bewus te maak van ons eie onsekerheid, ongeloof, twyfel en leemtes.

DAN WAT.

Dan gee hy in elke geval die uitkoms! Dan omvou hy ons met liefde. Dit is nie 'n evaluerings proses nie, dit is God wat in Sy liefde ons help om onsself te leer ken en as ons sien wie ons is, kan ons in Sy arms in hardloop. Hy hardloop reeds na ons toe.

Ek hou egter nie altyd daarvan as God my op die proef stel nie want die ou wat ek vind stel my baie teleur, net om te besef dat God my liefhet.

Mat 5:3 ³“Geseënd is dié wat weet hoe afhanklik hulle van God is,

want aan hulle behoort

die koninkryk van die hemel.

Die Bybelse weg

“For the biblical way is not so much to present us with a moral code and tell us ‘Live up to this;’ Nor is it to set out a system of doctrine and say, ‘Think like this and you will live well.’ The biblical way is to tell a story and invite us in, ‘Live into this. This is what it looks like to be human; this is what is involved in entering and maturing as human beings.’ We do violence to the biblical text when we ‘use’ it for what we can get out of it or what we think will provide color and spice to our otherwise bland lives. That results in a kind of ‘boutique spirituality’ – God as decoration, God as enhancement… In the reading, we submit our lives to what we read, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories but to see our stories in God’s. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves”

-Eugene Peterson (Introduction to I Samuel in the Message)

Het ek vandag God gesien

Alan Hirsch asked three simple, but fantastic guiding questions for those striving to possess a seven-day-a-week missional mindset. What if we asked these three questions every day?

Where did I see God at work in the world today?
How did I join with God today?
How did I resist God today?
Imagine if we reflected on these questions every day? Or just once a week?
Spiritual formation, the process of growth to become more Jesus-ish, happens when we resist God less and join God more.

This daily discipline of self-reflection have a potent capability of cultivating a spirit of anticipation, where we expect God to show up and join with him in advancing his kingdom - his rule and reign - by practicing his ways in our everyday lives.