IDENTITY 101

IDENTITY 101 – You Are What You Eat – the blogged version

So…5 years later and here I am…yet again J lol, let’s see if I can become a bit more consistent in the months to follow. So, I really felt very stirred by God to start writing again in September…twenty sixteen – imma just write the year out cause now-now you actually read this and all you see is the year and you start judging me, hard…and now’s not that time.

So why now…it’s simple really – I felt God impress on my heart to share at my midweek connect group about a week and a half ago on the topic of identity and from what was swirling in my head: from all the stuff that I head learnt over all the years, to what I actually wrote down, is worlds apart – and the funny thing was I knew the Lord said to me that this will become a blog, even before I started preparing the message…so now I’m fighting for it!!

Fighting for it?? Well the creative process of writing…or anything creative really…can be quite daunting – then you spice it thick with an over-the-top amount of procrastination and hey presto…years will go by with you sitting along the stream of your life without ever even so much as dipping a toe into that stream – that’s exceptionally deep and somewhat poetic, but now you know.

As a quick disclaimer – I started sharing on this blog about 10 years ago, my writing…though always quite comical and theatrical…I think…I have had to restrain myself from deleting some old posts, thinking to myself…’what on earth was I thinking??’…so ja…just be forewarned.

Let me START…the edited version for this here blog:

All of us at some point in our lives have wondered about identity…wondered about who we are, how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us…I guess, so it’s a massive topic, therefore I know that I won’t cover everything, but maybe I’ll hit something that you can relate to…something that resonates with you…so yeah…come with!!

One of my aims with this writing is that I am going to attempt to break us as human beings down in terms of our external influences, our internal influences – i.e., our internal governance and then our framework – what keeps it all together J

Once again, by my own admission, this is probably better suited to be addressed by a psychologist…but yeah, if you decide to come along on this adventure then you could actually learn a great deal…I rate…

I am going to start with a light-hearted story, a story of Mr. Moroe Jand my great interactions with this man. Mr. M – as I’ll casually refer to him – is a security guard and is employed by the local university (Nelson Mandela University) – I first encountered Mr. M one Thursday morning when I arrived early at the library – both me and Mr. M were in great spirits – the day had just started and we were both arriving for our days’ work – me, I was set to study the whole day and Mr. M, well he was there to maintain the peace and check identity…identity…identity…you see, as you into the library, you flash your student card to Mr. M and upon his approval you either proceed or you find yourself in a forced hostage negotiation scenario – where you are the hostage making your plea for why it is that you may proceed, either that or you whip out your over packed study bag and you start mulling through every compartment whilst every 5sec muttering that ‘I know it’s in here somewhere’ – referring to your student card with the hope…and sort of moral manipulation…that the now backed up queue forming behind you and your sorrowful apologetic state, will now be rewarded with Mr. M’s, ‘okay you may go in’ line…tada success!!

But this wasn’t my encounter – my encounter was that on this morning as I flashed my student card to Mr. M, he acknowledged me and said ‘THANK YOU’ in a quiet, decent manner, that was so counter to what I was anticipating my morning ‘arrival-and passing-through’ ritual to be like, that this ‘THANK YOU’ disturbed me – okay relax – you’re thinking of every other definition of disturb under the sun, but disturbis defined as: “interfere with the normal arrangement or functioning of” ponder that for a moment…

Now…fast forward a little, the day has gone on for quite a while and I have left the library to go hunt and gather lunch and upon my return guess what – I get to go through the same ritual…

I pass through the annoying hip level swivel gate – it’s now more heavier and more tedious than earlier – as my carbo-loaded lunch was quickly gulped down and I am anxious to get back to my study corner and guess who I see, with delight…Mr. M and he’s still seated at his little desk…I flash my student card and away I go…

Same…same, but different!? WHAT has changed?

Well,

I…was not acknowledged.

I…was not thanked.

I…am no longer of any value…

Let’s park Mr. M for a little whilst I unpack IDENTITY but utilize Mr. M in my illustrations…

Romans Chapter 12 v 1-2

The chapter heading reads: A Living Sacrifice

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Every one of us faces this battle of what is going on around us. For some, waking up each and every morning is like waking up to a raging war and we run out to battle and for others it appears to be all white picket fences and sunshine…but don’t always be so fooled by the way things appear, external forces, just like Mr. M…what are we choosing to portray on the outside…

Do our experiences – the things that happen to us – dictate the truth? Just because you have fallen once, are you fallen – because you tripped along the way, are you tripped up – are you a product of your bad decisions and now left like that for life…have you in a sense prophesied death over self and now even the image in the ‘mirror’ portrays this – are you believing others lies about yourself or even worse, are you believing your own lies?

The hard thing is sometimes the tensions we live in, we love to quote: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil 4:13

BUT!! Who is it that we get our strength from? I am a new creation…yes…but do I know my Creator?

Paul writes it well in 1 Cor 9:27, “but I train like a champion athlete. I subdue my body and get it under my control, so that after preaching the good news to others I myself won’t be disqualified” TPT

Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Romans 12:9 NLT

So what’s going on here…to rise up and take your place as one who is worthy of your calling…as a son, as a daughter, we ought to rise up and rest…rest in Him…in the book of James, the writer says: For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. James 1:23-24 NKJV

Question: do I see His blueprint in my life? Look for it, it’s there. Look closely!!

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 NIV

What does it then look like on the outside to be transformed by God…guys, some of us are so desperate to look right, to have the right expression, to dress a certain way, to have a certain body or to not have a certain body…I heard Kris Vallotton say in a preach once, “You can spend whole your life reacting to what you don’t want to be or you can spend your life responding to God’s vision for your life…but when you focus on the former, you’ll spend your entire life focusing on what you don’t want to be that you’ll actually become like the people you hate…”

You see, if you do intentionally drink poison…you will become poisoned (you are what you eat/drink…)…now for my first confession – I felt like God gave me these little sub title confessions that I will use to share some vulnerable situations in my life…

A.   I…am recovering from a low self-image.

Yes! I was once shy and withdrawn but now I’m loud and boisterous blah blah blah…NO…that’s not what this means – what this means is that I was once…and still sometimes…I am like a Zacchaeus – who’s this brah…well he was the dude that was kinda short and kinda skelm, but he jumped into a tree to see this Jesus whom, everyone was going on about and Jesus saw him and came to him and invited himself over for lunch…and what transpired was that Zacchaeus was so confronted by the presence of God personified by Jesus, that he promised to pay back double to all those whom he stole from…

You see, the low self-image that I…that we are recovering from is this stance of seeing ourselves as much smaller and insignificant than what God sees…but one day, just one day…you’ll jump into a tree, knowing full well that all your nay-sayers are surrounding you and you’ll crave your redemption and freedom to such a point that you just don’t care about what’s being said about you anymore, because what’s more important in those moments of the curious and brave leap is seeing Jesus – the only one whom can restore your identity, Jesus the only one whom can bring you back to your original true design, Jesus.

Alright-e-o, back to our beloved character for the night, Mr. M. I guess one of the powerful things that I was trying to illustrate with this story was the big ‘D’ word…the thing that none of us are immune to, the thing that sometimes will come along like a curve ball and take the carpet out right from beneath your feet – nothing can prepare you for it and there is no known human cure for it, yep…its Discouragement…and when this flood of emotion hits you it’s like taking a baseball bat to a surfacing mole…you just sink back and retreat – sorry, I was kinda out of good illustrations…I don’t mind moles and I’m certainly not clubbing any moles for the record…

But what happened with Mr. M between morning and afternoon – what happened with me between those hours…? I mean, I’m one spirit…one sole…one mind…right? Was I busy losing it – was I falling into a deep dark hole of depression, was I creating unreal expectations of those around me, am I secretly really a bad person that only momentarily appears nice but really behind the scenes I am terrible – am I sort of deluded…am I unstable…will I ever find love, will I ever settle…will the world ever make sense – was this all destined from my childhood…was it my bad choices or was it my parents…STOP!!

Flip, sometimes our inner workings – our inside man, our internal governance situation starts having a mini meltdown and we just need to stop, stop and recognize that we are not all flesh and bones but, on the inside,  we have emotions and due to differing atmospheres and environments, we need to become sensitive to our emotions…

SO firstly, I want to say that our emotions, if submitted under the God head and authority of Jesus Christ, that our emotions can be beautiful and can be tamed to be used to serve the body of Christ…fancy that, but do not take your internal state for granted…

Our boy David, in the OT wrote this:

Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?

    Why are you crying the blues?

Fix my eyes on God—

    soon I’ll be praising again.

He puts a smile on my face.

    He’s my God. Psalm 43:5 MSG

What can we learn from this Psalm…quickly…quickly turn to God, look upon the One whom we are fully reliant upon for our salvation and make some faith decelerations!!

Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”

Verse 9: “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!”

I think the reality is that discouragement hits us all at times – but the truth of the matter is, that it is only temporary and what God wants to reveal to us, is that we are so special to Him and so loved be Him that He wills for us to be brought out from underneath that rock of lowliness and despair and he wants us to rise up…

Isaiah 40:31 says, “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Isaiah 60:1-2 says, ““Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you…”

My second vulnerability moment…

B.   I am a recovering extremist.

YOH!! What does that mean…well, I love and live life to its fullest and to all extremes. I work, play and crash HARD…everything I do is either 100% or nothing at all…balance is for sissies and those whom don’t have clear goals and so if you follow me, you’ll either summit Everest or we’re gonna have a tea party at base camp…there’s no in between…

The problem here is that age old saying, ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained…’

If we’re truly going to be living from a place of wholeness and fullness from our innermost, we need to trust that when God has spoken and said go, that we don’t always need the exact blueprint plan…

Some years ago, I gave a message centered around the backwards theme of GO, SET…READY!! We need to train our innermost man to become comfortable with the unknown because even within that word unKNOWN is the word KNOWN.

If you can truly declare and know…holding on to God’s peace…that He has spoken, then focus on the KNOWN and everything else will in its own time either become planted for harvest in due season or will become plucked up to be thrown away so that we don’t become fixated on distractions…

Jesus, Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. Matt 21:19 NIV

Now, every theologian and his aunty has a teaching on this verse, which is great – but what I simply take from this, is that sometime we will encounter something like this tree, that should be in bloom…and because it isn’t we hang around and we try and make it work…’it’, being whatever the thing is that is ‘distracting’ you…when sometimes – and like in this case – we need to see that tree for what it is – it is not the source of life and sustenance we are searching for…and that fact is, you’re hungry and this thing just won’t satisfy you…you need to eat good and not starve yourself trying to appear all spiritual…if the thing you are trying to resuscitate is not in line with God’s will…leave it – curse it – move on, you’ll be in a much better place for it…don’t succumb to the seduction of flogging a dead horse for the sake of looking faithful – remember that Mary chose the better way, that was to hang out at the feet of Jesus – Martha on the other hand was busy with a good thing BUT NOT a God thing, resentment is not from God…stop it!!

Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matt 11:28-30 ESV

Our frame: a fuselage is to an aeroplane like what a skeleton is to a body – you see the fuselage of an aircraft is its frame…and in very much the same way, you and I have a frame…where everything fits together, our outside parts and inside parts are all held together by this frame…and one of the main components of this frame I believe is JOY!!

Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Neh 8:10 NIV

So, I went and found some (LOTS) scriptures on JOY:

Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. Ps 47:1

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Rom 15:13

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Prov 17:22

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 1 Peter 1:8

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Rom 14:17

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Ps 16:11

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. John 15:11

For his anger is but for a moment, and his favour is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Ps 30:5

You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. Ps 4:7

My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed. Ps 71:23

For you are our glory and joy. 1 Thes 2:20

Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! Ps 126:5

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Ps 51:12

And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Acts 13:52

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Gal 5:22-23

His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ Matt 25:21

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. Jude 1:24

Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” Isa 12:6

For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 2 Cor 8:2

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. Isa 12:3

So there was much joy in that city. Acts 8:8

Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Eccl 9:7

You see…joy is in our everything and the amazing thing about it…is that for the most part it makes absolutely no sense…because the reality is, is that our joy is not up to us – we can’t make it happen, we can’t conjure it up and we can’t in a sense mess it up – joy is before us, it’s in our reaction…and it’s in God’s reaction towards us – this one is more than a fleeting emotion or just a state of mind, its real and it’s within each and every believer.

So now finally…ish…a deep encouragement to all…

“Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they’ll be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives.

Make the Master proud of you by being good citizens. Respect the authorities, whatever their level; they are God’s emissaries for keeping order. It is God’s will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you’re a danger to society. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules. Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family.” Revere God. Respect the government. 1 Peter 2:11-17

You see in this above passage, in many other translations it speaks of you and me being called ‘sojourners’…a person who resides temporarily in a place…

Earth…right here, right now, as it is - and as you are…is not your home…can I get an amen!!?? 

This brings me to my final vulnerability statement:

C.    I don’t actually know who I am anymore, is that okay!...?

I’ve become so undone in God’s presence throughout my life that I don’t even know how to describe myself anymore – like…am I the guy that is just destined to struggle with the same habitual sin my life long? But then just a moment in His presence He delivers me, and I am set free – and so no longer am I just a product of my circumstances but as I son I am set free.What about how others perceive me – everyone has always seen me one way and in fact I’ve always heard them say, “he will never change”, now look at me…look at God…wow, even they are amazed at the change.

Who am I? How do I describe myself – you see a sojourner is a temporary resident…and temporary residents don’t take on the molding and the shaping of a people group or a culture, they tend to do just what they are there for and then they move along – Luke 9:3-6 says: And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

Take nothing with you on this journey…cause your identity is not caught up in your things but in GOD and GOD alone!!

So, to finally finally end…

MR M…

…so, no story is complete without returning to the beginning again to ensure you get the full circle experience, so remember that Thursday morning I met Mr. M…the Friday morning after that Thursday I was back at the library again, Mr. M was there…again…checking the myriad of student cards in the queue and he was about to pass me by when I noticed his name printed on his jacket, Mr. Moroe, (this is actually where I learned his name) I flashed my student card and he was about to just go past me when I reached out and said, ‘Good morning Mr. Moroe’, he reciprocated with a ‘good morning, thank you…’ and he moved on…

My identity as a ‘whole being’ made whole and in the image of God is that I don’t take any moment or any interaction for granted, I am destined and it is my will (through Him) that I take every moment captive – you see that Friday I needed to be the one extending an arm of grace to a man who was part of my story, unbeknown to him…why…because the Kingdom of God is not just a matter of words put of POWER, 1 Cor 4:20.

Your identity rests in God.

End.

Creative vs. Reactive

Creative vs. Reactive Philippians 3

(Firstly, read Philippians 3 or glance over it whilst reading this blog, I didn’t want to include it as it is lengthy.)

So, this latest blog post comes from a personal place of me seeking God’s heart in a place of desperation and simply hearing Him say to me (and you) that “In God we are Creative, but outside of Him we become Reactive.”

Now...hopefully, with some prayer - I will begin to unfold these two states of ‘being’ – also, I did preach this message...although only to myself this morning in my devotional time, as is quite customary of me :-) weird as it may sound...it works for me, and my congregation of couches & walls show up faithfully, every time!!

A view taken from Servanthood
Going low in humility is something of value in our Christian walk as we go about doing life and I felt as though becoming a servant and a servant of all, as Jesus did is going to cost us. I felt that there are particular aspects/levels that we are to overcome and will explain them as such:-

1.    External: when you feel this urging or nudge from within to be that guy (or girl) that has to offer up of yourself and your comfort for the sake of others – you may call this serving (servanthood). Yes, it should be so part of our ‘walks’, but for some it does take time and we have grace for that because I believe that Jesus does!!

Now the reality is, it’s way easier when you and I decide to step into something when the whole world is doing it, when you and all your buddies are set on something and you go for it, it’s awesome and sometimes it doesn’t even feel like it costs...because it plainly doesn’t cost you a thing, in terms of our comforts etc.

So one of the first obstacles to cross is this attitude of, “Why me and what about them?!” looking to the outside (external) and wondering why has God chosen me and not in this angelic awe-sens of God’s favour towards you, the ‘chosen-one’, but rather – ‘why me, I seriously don’t want this!!’ kind of attitude.

2.    Internal: picking up from that last thought and secondly, feeling to serve in a particular area may lead to questions about, ‘Am I ready?’, “Am I even good enough?” etc.

One may argue that it exposes insecurities but hey, whatever surfaces – that’s fine, God is certainly big enough and not nervous about choosing you – and I believe that He will deal with you and the root of whatever it is that causes you to tense up when even just thinking about the task up ahead.

3.    Serving: you have finally overcome your fears of being alone, isolated and self-worry and you have risen to the occasion and have stepped out in service and all is going great. You are focused on God and He totally delights in you and your only response to Him is to worship Him – because He alone is worthy!!

Yet, somewhere along the lines your heart gets tested and your motives are exposed for the world to see...WHAT NOW?!

You see, in God we are Creative, right :-) We are called to co-labour and release Kingdom in all we do and all this functions so well apart from the fact that in some cases we find this downward spiral of becoming self-serving!!

4.    Self-serving: the enemy of true servanthood!! This happens when our joy slips away and all of a sudden we find that the poo-poo has hit the fan!! Everyone can see the fan, the poo-poo and your hands...all covered in poo-poo!!

Yet, we become Reactive with shouts of, “You told me to do this”, “Don’t you remember that time, when you said this and that”, “Hey you, can you remember that time that ‘Jack’ said bla bla bla, do you remember!!??”...”IT’S NOT MY FAULT!!”

All of a sudden everyone around you, your great cloud of witnesses, are no longer routing for you and they become those that have deceived you and you play the blame game until you are drained. Everything you worked for, laboured at and saw being created is now coming tumbling down at a rapid pace and you cannot do a thing about it because you are stuck in a self-serving state and when the ground work should have been done, you had your eyes on everything else but serving your Master...it’s almost too late, but never really is, as God will always help you along, in His merciful way.

One thing I really felt to explain is this self-serving vs. serving concept – as I believe it’s either one or the other. Either you serve and you serve God or you serve yourself!!

The servant’s heart attitude is one of plain servanthood – not expecting anything in exchange for the serving, yes the serving (job etc.) may include remuneration but what or rather who are you serving – the Master or His riches?

God’s Kingdom, the Kingdom of Light is not at loggerheads with the kingdom of satan, darkness. The battle has been won and Jesus has conquered death, but long before Jesus conquered the grave He conquered flesh!!

This is quite important for me and every believer in fact as yes it’s awesome that Jesus arose from the grave and now that’s the amazing story of the cross but most (probably ALL) of us reading this havn’t been to the grave yet, but we are living and in fleshly bodies, just as Jesus did!!

So what’s so dramatically radical about that, well Jesus knew no sin but was tempted the same way as you and I. Just a tiny disclaimer, I don’t by any means downplay Him overcoming death but do we realise that there was no temptation that Jesus faced that you and I don’t either OR rather, every temptation that you and I face, He did also – and yet He stayed above water...that’s miraculous!!

You see; if we go back and forth playing as if one moment the Kingdom of Light is winning but then the next moment, the kingdom of darkness is winning we have a wrong view of what Christ has accomplished – once and for all!! If we swivel between sacrificial servanthood and self-serving, all we are doing is deceiving ourselves and it’s not long before the choice we made to follow Christ comes into some serious question and doubt rocks up!!

When we trade Creativity for Reactivity we come into this place of choosing whatever god you want to serve at that moment. Every belief out there has a paradise and some sort of enemy and every belief, believes that their god will get them to paradise (eventually) and when we bow down to this we got a ‘all-roads-lead-to-heaven’ gospel, which is no gospel at all!!

It reminds me of a Tweet I read this week which I shall paraphrase, “Getting drunk is easy, getting high is easy but choosing to follow Jesus is hardcore, it’s rebellious.”

For us, following and modelling Jesus is going to be rebellious, rebelling or rather moving in the opposite spirit of this world!!

You see, everything about God’s Kingdom is C-R-E-A-T-I-V-E and everything that the enemy has lined up for us is the kinda stuff that tires one out, the Reactiveness and forever having to explain or defend your position on matters, when what really matters is just becoming a servant and when you do muck up, to own up but carry on :-)

To end, I asked God to give me a little bit of an example to cement this Creative vs. Reactive concept and it takes the form of a rugby game, which I guess is God’s sense of humour as I am not in the least clued up on the game of rugby, but I have watched quite my fair share of games lately.

My understanding is that the perfect game would be one where the teams playing are adhering to the rules of the game 100% and making perfect passes, tackles and setting up plays that will eventually lead to a tri being scored.

A tri therefore can only be scored when there is a deficiency in your opponents attack.

So, watching your favourite team go; playing beautifully and doing just everything right, you sing from the sideline, “Go!! Boytjies!!”, with much enthusiasm and encouragement. This I would call being Creative – spurring each other on :-)

The flip side is the supporter of the defeated opponent, watching with much nail-biting and negativity brewing inside, little Johnny exclaims something like, “No!! Idiot, you can’t play this game, why did they even choose you...you are useless!!”, ja ja...that’s none of us, hey!? But do you see how that is a very Reactive approach :-(

When the cards are in our favour, it’s easy to praise and be creative in our ways but when the chips are down and ‘it-is-what-it-is’ we become reactive to every little thing and the very people that need our support we end up just driving them further away and in fact if you are the one caught out, the last thing you should be doing is having a shouting match with all those around you – realise your mistake, own up and carry on...don’t leave any room for bitterness to take root.

So in closing I really hope, pray and trust that Holy Spirit has been speaking to you about living your life out in Creativity :-) and being one that rebels for JESUS!!

Love you all muchly,

Ryan

A Father and his Son

Hey!! I hope you enjoy this post and I would actually like some feedback or revelation on this which you may get, my e-mail address is: ryanodendaal@gmail.com – I am yet to be a father myself but am just enjoying growing as a son for now :-)

I was at gym yesterday morning just rocking out on a treadmill and to my left were the squash courts. I often notice fathers and their sons playing squash and it always intrigues me - I have a real heart for family - and seeing fathers and sons sharing each other’s space are quite unique nowadays!!

Anyway, so there was a father and son having a great time playing squash but I noticed the son wasn’t quite the strongest player and returned quite weak shots, yet it didn’t seem to throw the game off or anything. Big ups to the father for his patience and love on display!!

After some time, the father and son swapped racquets and all of a sudden the son’s game improved...huh!! Cause now the dad was playing with the son’s original racquet but his game didn’t all of a sudden drop...

Something was up here and I felt God speak some simple truths to me:

1. “Opponents playing with each other” – usually a sporting activity has a competitive aspect to it, one wins and the other looses or maybe even a draw. In this case the pair would be said to be playing against each other, yet I felt and saw how they were playing ‘with’ each other. Obviously now, the father had way more skill and know-how of this game and he was teaching his son as they were going along. Yes they were playing against each other...but where else would you enter an environment where a game was taking place and your ‘opponent’ stopped to teach, motivate and encourage you, especially if a result is expected at the end?

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)

I think somewhere in the back of my mind, I was expecting the father to get upset and frustrated with his son – yet this was never the case. The two of them just played on and the dad’s body language never gave any hint of anything but love and honour. I was reminded of the above scripture and it spoke to me of how a father just by being gentle and kind can draw such amazingness out of his children.

2. “The Father is always routing for us to win” – wow, Daddy was showing me how He is always routing for you and I. When we get onto that court with Him, He is our biggest encourager and He celebrates us always!! It doesn’t matter what the ‘court’ platform is in your personal scenario...Father God is always routing for you and He loves to see you and I win!!

As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever? (Hebrews 12:7-9) 

God was reminding me that in our childish rebellion, sometimes we want to retaliate – ‘throwing our toys out of the cot’ and just getting plain angry that we can’t do whatever it is that is before us. That son could have given up, thrown down his racquet, hung his head and thrown a tantrum!! But you know what...there was a relationship between the two. A relationship that is built on trust, grounded in vulnerability – one of loving commitment. Man, I wish you could see this; I was actually quite blown away. I think the truest or simplest definition of a son would be one that always allows the Father’s discipline and then within that relationship everything is dealt with – fears, faults, failures, triumphs, victories...you name it.

Lastly, the issue of how when the father and son exchanged racquets all of a sudden the son’s game improved. Yoh...how we long to mimic our dads. As a son growing up you look up towards your father and want to be a man just like him – I am reminded of those images of the father shaving and the son looking at the father with great intrigue or maybe a young preschooler wearing a collared shirt and tie to school on one of those ‘what do you want to be one day when you grew up’ vibes...all with a longing to grow up like dad.

So what was the deal with the racquet exchange, well I am not to clear on that but the simplest imagery to me was that the father was passing onto the son, his (the father’s) tools and somehow the son was able to do better...to go further.

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. (Romans 8:28)

So, whatever your idea is of a father or even God our Father – know that Pappa God is a God of love of grace and mercy – One that is always routing for us and preparing great victories for the obstacles hindering you and I.

His goodness knows no bounds and His heart for you and I is massive. He loves you with a great and eternal love – a love which will never run dry, die out, become flat, cold or dead but His love is fiery and hot. It motivates and causes us to achieve great victories!!

God loves you and just as this simple father and son squash story was unpacked to me, so the Father is keen to reveal Himself to you in ordinary ways. Yes your hurts and pains are real but dare to believe that He is also real and He is alive and wants to encounter you with His presence – it’s in that presence that wholeness comes!!

Awesome, till the next post...love you guys!!

Ryan

Family

God loves family.

In my city, Port Elizabeth, there are many churches – many different spiritual homes made up of families – spiritual families and God loves us all!!

No matter your denomination...God desires to inhabit us and be in our midst!!

This was now so evident in my life as my phone just rang and I got to speak to my own dad, just a short nonsense conversation of how are you and some other random babble but how good it is to hear the voice of a father and wow, how amazing to hear the voice of our Heavenly Father.

So with all of this laid out – my heart is just to say, honour the spiritual home that God has placed you in and realise that there is family in your midst. Seek out your leaders and the rest of your family (congregants) in your church. When you start going astray, realise that leaders and our family members are gonna get stuck in...why...well who in their right minds wakes up one morning to discover missing family members and then does not go after them!!

This process of walking out a relationship with Jesus can sometimes be a tricky one – and I had to chuckle a while back when I just felt in me that usually we ‘warn’ people about Jesus, in the sense of really just His life story spent here on earth and then eventually having to depart earth; but Jesus, far above anyone else was totes excited as He knew that we would receive the Holy Spirit and sometimes we treat Holy Spirit with much clever euphemisms and lotsa nervousness – when I actually felt it’s more that we need to ‘warn’ people about church...now with beads of sweat running down your face, let me unpack this rather quickly, cause I dig local church.

Church 101

“...cause I dig local church.” Because this is my blog, inevitably you’re gonna get some of my personal insights and thoughts. My statement about loving local church is rooted in a deep desire and faith that I would love to see the whole of my city, Port Elizabeth come to faith in Jesus Christ – tomorrow hopefully or as soon as possible!! So with this kinda miraculous expectancy comes a logistical effort of desiring strong Spirit ravaged (or filled) church families in and around my city – cause when all of us are now serving Jesus it would be lekka to have some places to fellowship. With that said, how gnarly would it be to worship Jesus in a mosque perhaps...just saying or whatever else.

But church is, yes – you and me – everyday life as we are temples of Holy Spirit and how awesome that is that God’s presence is no longer restricted to a building etc. but yet we have church buildings and praise God for that. Now it’s just up to you to define your church building or where you and your ‘family’ come together and fellowship.

But how do you define your natural family? Your house...no, cause you and your mom, dad & siblings are still a family wherever you might come together or even when you are apart. But most families do have a home and it’s in this place that a lot gets dealt with.

Coming back to that earlier illustration of waking up one morning and finding ou-boet is nowhere to be found, one becomes suspicious and will go after him or her etc.

The case may be that your family member is hacking in some areas and just needed to get out or has become rebellious and so decided to abandon the family and casually strolls along to go find another family...YOH!!

Serious kinda stuff – is this the love of Christ??!! Pack up and off you go when life gets tough...

You see readers :-) Christ is not confined to a building but He is very present when we meet. So yes, you will find Him in a building and at the same time on the street, homes, cars, work places...you name it. So that’s not the issue here – the simple yet catastrophic issue is the one of family and as mentioned before we form part of spiritual family’s fellowshipping in churches.

So what’s the big deal then...

...God has created you for fellowship. He has made you so awesome that He wants to share you with others. All that awesomeness deposited inside of you needs to come out and reach out to others, whom at the same time are probably just as nervous and sometimes insecure as you are – but why should that stop you? Your life is not a performance; you are not being weighed up daily and then given a pass or fail. At the same time stop looking at others and thinking yeah, he gets it right all the time...he probably gets a ‘pass’ everyday – don’t put peeps on pedestals from which they will topple off of.

You are uniquely you and designed for intimacy and fellowship with God – for His great pleasure and then He was so excited to show off, He somma knitted you together in your mother’s womb and something like 9 or so months later you got released into a world that God wants you to change and rip it up for His Kingdom.

You have a purpose!! To fulfil that purpose God placed people around you and you will find a lot of them in your local church, your spiritual family in your spiritual home!!

Don’t resent them, love your leaders and honour them. Grow up as a son, adopted into Christ’s family and watch how Pappa draws the leader out of you. Enjoy the ‘organic’ process – it takes time and is well worth it. So when the paw-paw hits the fan and you are feeling stretched, you will stick around because it’s family you have around you and not some religious organisation.

Also when you have had it!! and you pack your things and wanna go and okes call you back and try and instil discipline that you don’t dig your heels, but rather let go and watch how when you empty yourself and rid yourself of all the junk...that God restores you to wholeness and surprise-surprise, He reached out with His long Daddy arms and uses other sons and daughters to be His hands and feet – this is the love of Christ, found in spiritual families and homes all around the world...so please don’t take church lightly or an optional extra, it’s God’s very expression of family on this earth.

If it’s still hard for you to comprehend, just start calling it HOME. That’s what I did and something happened in just that simple acknowledgement for me. My home is Harvest Christian Church (PE), but I just simply call it home!!

Wherever God has called you too...make sure it’s home :-)