Category: Christian living

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Christian living

How does God guide us?

Christians have always been fascinated by this question and there is no shortage of weird and wonderful teachings on the subject.

We’re interested in the question because decision-making is such a big part of our lives.  We make hundreds of choices every day.

Every time we make a choice we receive the consequences of that choice – intended and unintended.

Often our seemingly most insignificant decisions have the biggest consequences.

We could make the choice to leave 5 minutes early for work and be in a terrible car accident that affects the rest of our lives.

Because we don’t know the future, making decision-making can be tough.

How should we make decisions? How do we hear God’s voice? How does God Guide us?

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Christian living

Portraits of faithfulness

In a world of unfaithfulness, what does a faithful gospel worker look like?

Phumezo Masango is a great example.

Phumezo is a good friend of mine and a lecturer at George Whitefield College, the Bible college affiliated with our denomination. He has also been a minister at Christ Church Khayelitsha for many years.

He has faced many challenges serving among many who embrace African Traditional Religions, where the ancestors are venerated and prayed to for help, guidance and protection.

Phumezo and the team at Christ Church Khayelitsha face particular challenges around the practice of circumcision.

They don’t have a problem with circumcision itself, but they do have a problem with the boys being part of rituals that call upon the ancestors.

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Christian living

Loving those who don’t love you

loveI confess that I love to read revenge books. I especially like the author Lee Child.  Child’s novels are all about an ex-military police major, Jack Reacher.   Reacher, as he is known, is a no-nonsense guy, a man’s man who goes about getting justice his own way.  You don’t want Reacher to be chasing after you because Jack Reacher definitely does not love his enemies, nor does he do good to those who hate him.  The Reacher series includes the books: Bad luck and Trouble; Make Me; Personal; Killing Floor; and Die Trying. I’m sure you get the picture.

In the world’s eyes, Reacher is a hero and a winner.  But not so much in God’s eyes.  

In Luke 6:27-36, Jesus tells us to be the exact opposite of Jack Reacher: to love our enemies and to do good to those who hate us.   This passage is of the most challenging of the teachings of Jesus.

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Christian living

Being dead to sin and still sinning

crossbonesJoaquín  Guzmán ( Nickname “El Chapo”, which means shorty) is a Mexican drug lord and been in the news lately.  Forbes magazine called him the “biggest drug lord of all time.  El Chapo was arrested in 2014, but he escaped from prison again in 2015 by exiting through a tunnel dug to below his cell.  He was then recaptured by Mexican marines in 2016 after granting interviews to people like Sean Penn – because he wanted a movie made of his life.  El Chapo escaped his prison cell, but due to his own foolishness and pride, ended up back in bondage.

The same may happen to us as Christians.  We are freed from sin’s penalty, power and prison; and as free people we are told not to return to sin’s bondage.

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Christian living

Hallowed be my name (posts and prayers)

selfieWe all want to hallow our own names.  To hallow means to set apart, to magnify, to honour.  The hallowing of our own names is an age-old problem that goes back to the beginning of history.  Adam and Eve wanted to be their own arbitrators or right and wrong.  Our forefathers sought to build the Tower of Babel to make a name for themselves rather than for God.  Humans are fundamentally narcissistic.

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