My God is Amazing!

Yes He truly is amazing. I have a friend who asked me a few weeks back for spiritual guidance and prayer as she was having a tough time with her fiancé and last week she also asked for prayer for her very ill 4 year old son so I prayed...

This morning I get a message in my mailbox from her saying that her son’s health improved greatly and that she has finally had peace is the new home she and her fiancé bought together recently. They were always arguing about unexpected and small things and this sometimes became physical and now with God’s hand she finally found peace in her home.

As a new born-again Christian I am totally awed at witnessing God’s works. Every prayer I prayed was answered... every prayer and it fills me with great joy and amazement seeing everything I ask for come true.

My Lord is wonderful and no one should ever dare tell me otherwise. I will defend my God to the end!

Amen!

Call no man on earth "Father"

Matthew 23:9 (GNB)

And you must not call anyone here on earth 'Father,' because you have only the one Father in heaven.

This is yet another thing I do not agree with when it comes to the Catholic Church. The Bible makes it very clear that no man should be call “Father”, yet they insist on calling their priests Father This and Father That...

Why do they do so many things that go against the Word of God yet claim to be the “Only True Church”? So if I want to go to heaven I’m supposed to do exactly the opposite of what the Bible says?... No way, not me!

Things I’ve also seen in the catholic church is idolatry, the belief that Mary is the advocate between God and man and not Jesus (they even pray to Mary and the bible is clear that we should only pray to God through Jesus) and when it comes to confession the priest has the authority to cleanse you of your sins by stating that you should say a couple of ‘hail Mary’s’ and in some cases pick up a cross and walk around the church dragging the cross on your back like Jesus did and this action is supposed to make God forgive you of your sins...

Did I get it wrong when I read that you should confess your sins to each other and God is the one you should pray to for the forgiveness of sins and no man has the authority to forgive sins? If I got this all wrong then someone please clarify ALL of this for me please!

Anglicans! Run for your Souls!

I just read that Diocese of East London issued a statement saying that the Anglican church’s decision making body has endorsed a resolution calling for the synod of bishops to provide guidelines so they could give pastoral care for people living in “faithful, committed relationships with their dogs”.

What blasphemy! Then they want to know how come they are losing congregants? If I were Anglican I’d be ashamed to be a member of a church that remains the centre on such controversy.

Now here comes the most interesting part... East London bishop Peter Catless says “I cannot understand why there is so much opposition to this.” John Marshall a synod delegate also said that “Jesus never said anything about the subject, so that settles it”. And the Anglican church accepts these people as their leaders?

May as well have Satan himself running that church!

Read more about this article here...

TAXI DRIVERS TO STRIKE !!!

Taxi drivers and operators have threatened to stage national protest actions from September 1 over the implementation of the Bus Rapid Transit system (according to the SA National Taxi Drivers Council).  "We are calling for a total stoppage of transport for the taxi industry," said council secretary general, Philip Taaibosch.

Possible impact:

• Transport in all major metros could be impacted (Greater Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town).
• Intimidation of bus drivers not to transport people.
• Protest actions in major metropolitan areas.  However, previous experience indicate that it does not exclude that smaller places could also be impacted by protest actions.
• Branches in places like Dennilton, GaRankuwa, Hammanskraal, Tembisa, Khatlohong, Guguletho, Mitchell’s Plain, etc to close during protest actions,  (Previous experience of taxi protests indicate that shopping centres, where we have branches in such areas, have been threatened to close in sympathy with these protests).

No duration has as yet been specified for these protest actions.

God Used Me Again

I got a call from my grandmother asking me to go to an aunt who lives close to me, because my gran was trying to call her to confirm that my aunt was on her way to get my gran as she is not allowed to travel on her own due to complications she has after a recent operation.

So before I leave home it seems as if something tells me to take all the money I had on me and leave it at home and I do it. Then again something tells me to take the few coins laying on the counter with me and I think to myself what will I need this for? But I take it anyway...

So I’m walking down this one street and I come across this guy who used to be one of my drinking partners (before I gave my life to the Lord). We greet each other and he then says he can’t seem to find a cheap bread anywhere (which costs R4) and he didn’t have enough to buy the more expensive one (which is about R7.50) and he walks away.

My mind then goes to my pocket and I pull out the coins I took with me. I count them and find a R3.30 and I call him back.

I give him the money and tell him now he only needs 20 cents to get the other bread. He is thankful and as he is about to turn away I am again reminded of another shop that sells the same bread, but for only R7, so I tell him about the place and he is like “yeah, you’re right. I know the place.”

So I then continue on my little journey to my aunt’s place and realise that is was God who told me to take that coins with me even though I would not need it. He knew that there was someone else in need of it to feed his kids and so he used me to get it to him.

My Lord is wonderful and I am forever greatful and honoured that he would use me to do his works.

...Oh and I know that I should do my alms in secret and not let anyone know about them, but what I did is not the focal point here, but the work of God and how he looks after everyone that is the emphasis. So I seek no “good job” or anything like that, but I seek a “Praise the Lord!” for his wonderful works.

Amen!

The Narrow Gate to Heaven

Matthew 7:13-14 (Good News Bible)
"Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate to hell is wide and the road that leads to it is easy and there are many who travel it. But the gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to it is hard, and there are few people who find it."

This confirms what I once said to someone. The amazing thing was that I never even read this verse yet until a few minutes ago and already I knew it (keep in mind I am a brand new born-again Christian. A baby Christian so to speak). The guy I consider to be my mentor would tell me that is the work of the Holy Spirit.

So, back to the message, the Lord made no promise that accepting Christ and having complete faith in him would be easy instead he made it clear that it will be a hard life to live. We will lose friends, family and we must be willing to give up all riches (including our houses, cars, money, etc.) for we cannot serve two masters. We can't serve God and money. We must choose only one.

Not so easy hey... Well that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Why Christians Have No Fear

I have been living in a dangerous area for about a year now and on the day we moved to this place, I was robbed of all my earnings in front of my cousin’s ex-girlfriend’s home. In the process I was hit with a brick in my face which broke my nose. I can thank God I wasn’t stabbed as the one guy was armed with a knife.

Since the attack, I never walked anywhere after dark as I was so used to doing in the area I lived in before this one and I was suspicious of anyone. I constantly walked in fear, looking over my shoulders at all times. But all this changed the very day Jesus saved me...

Now I walk anywhere I want to at anytime without fear of anything happening to me, because I know God is with me and he will protect me. I walk through dark alleys filled with gangsters and all they do is stare at me. About a week ago I was on my way somewhere when I became aware of a guy following me. As I returned from where I was, I saw the same guy waiting in one of these alleys and when he saw me approach, he turned and walked slowly, seemingly waiting for me to catch up with him. Fear didn’t even have a chance to creep up on me... I just reminded myself that God is with me and I walked faster to catch up with him. But this time it was him trying to get away from me.

The more I tried to catch up to him, the more he put more distance between us, looking around to see how far I was from him. Amazing, I thought. God really protects His people... A few weeks later I read this in the Bible:

Psalms 91:1-7 (Good News Bible)
Whoever goes to the LORD for safety, whoever remains under the protection of the Almighty,  can say to him, "You are my defender and protector. You are my God; in you I trust." He will keep you safe from all hidden dangers and from all deadly diseases. He will cover you with his wings; you will be safe in his care; his faithfulness will protect and defend you. You need not fear any dangers at night or sudden attacks during the day or the plagues that strike in the dark or the evils that kill in daylight. A thousand may fall dead beside you, ten thousand all around you, but you will not be harmed.

And this is why my brothers and sisters, us Christians have nothing to fear. The Lord is with us!

Amen.

 

Praying and Doing Things in Doubt Is Sin

James 1:6-7 (Good News Bible)
But when you pray, you must believe and not doubt at all. Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is driven and blown about by the wind. If you are like that, unable to make up your mind and undecided in all you do, you must not think that you will receive anything from the Lord.

This verse instructs us to believe without doubt that when we pray for something it will be done. The same goes for when we do things. For it is written that if we are undecided in all we do, we must not think that we will receive anything from the Lord.

Romans 14:23 (Good News Bible), although it refers to things we eat or drink, goes on to say: “But if they have doubts about what they eat, God condemns them when they eat it, because their action is not based on faith. And anything that is not based on faith is sin.”

The focus on this verse would be “...because their action is not based on faith. And anything that is not based on faith is sin.”...

So we can now conclude, without doubt, that praying or doing anything in doubt is sin. I am reminded of a question someone once asked me...

He asked, “What is faith? Faith is not believing that He might, but believing that He WILL!”

 

Church Hopping - With Good Reason

I found a blog with a post entitled 10 Dumbest Things Christians Do and one of the things listed is Church Hopping. The author describes the church hopper as someone looking for that perfect church and this person is generally very critical and will not remain loyal to a church until the “perfect church” has been found.

Well I am guilty of church hopping, but I believe I have good reason. I am currently looking for a church to attend regularly and this means I visit various churches and I do so critically as I don’t want to stick to a church that violates instructions we have in the Bible.

For instance, last Sunday I visited a nearby church and the most of the service seemed more like a theatre play than anything else. The bible makes it very clear:

Matthew 6:5 (Message Bible version) "And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?”

Matthew 6:5 (KJV) And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

So needless to say, they won’t be seeing me again... Before that we attended a Roman Catholic church as my wife was Catholic, but I never considered myself one. Now I felt uneasy at this church from the start. In the church they had a shrine in one corner with the statue of Mary and people would go on their knees before this statue and pray, then kiss the foot of the statue. They also believe that you can only get to heaven through Mary...

Doesn’t the bible make it very clear that we should not bow down before any idol (which is obviously what is happening in this church) and the only advocate between man and God is Jesus Christ and not the virgin Mary? Now I was stupid enough to have my kids baptised in this church as I didn’t know better at the time. They believe in child baptism and to quote the guy who done the baptism “if your child should die tomorrow and she was not yet baptised, she will not go to heaven, but will be stuck in Limbo”... What bull is that!?

So now is it so wrong for me to go around looking for a church in which I feel comfortable committing to? And is it so wrong to want to have my kids grow up in a church that is lead by the Bible and not a church that wants to lead the Bible?

If I do not find a church I feel comfortable taking my children to then I will just continue to praise and worship God in my own home with my wife and kids... you find something wrong with that? Then read:

Matthew 18:20 (KJV) “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

 

The Christian Family According To the Bible

Colossians 3:18 (Good News Bible)
Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, for that is what you should do as Christians... Now many modern women would not and do not agree with this as they have been brain washed by the media and encouraged to be independent from males. This causes them to become rebellious towards their husbands, which then causes huge arguments and even physical fights. Even my own wife finds it hard to agree with this, but I as head insist on leading my family the way the Bible instructs, so as wrong as this might seem, she has no choice. The Bible says so...

Colossians 3:19
Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them... Husbands behold... I too was guilty of being bitter towards my wife at times. This caused pain and also arguments. But after I gave my Life to the Lord and learned what He expects from us as husbands. Who am I not to love my wife completely and treat her with respect if the Lord loves me completely and it was He who gave my wife to me?

Colossians 3:20
Children, it is your Christian duty to obey your parents always, for that is what pleases God... Somewhere along the line between the time of my grandparents and today, something went horribly wrong upholding this instruction. Tell your child today to do something then they first want to give you a piece of their minds, stating they have a right to voice their own opinion. I wonder where they got that idea from... School?... TV?... Books?... I think all of us as Christian parents know the answer to that question. I think if we raise our children with the fear of God and keep them sheltered to a certain extent from outside influence while they are still young and learning about what God expects from them, then they might learn to obey this instruction.

Colossians 3:21
Parents, do not irritate your children, or they will become discouraged... This one is a bit tricky as upholding this instruction will need cooperation from both sides. With the way our children are today, they get irritated with almost everything a parent says or does. Again I think this comes down to them having almost no fear of God for if they do, they would think twice before rebelling against mom or dad. In my case, I just play my Colossians 3:20 card and put them in place. I’m very old-school when it comes to disciplining my kids, so I don’t care what the authorities say... If they step out of line, I spank them. It worked when I was a kid and it works with my kids now. So Social Services, sue me, but my Instruction Manual (Bible) comes first.

 

Trusting God to Make Our Lives Right

We find ourselves in financial trouble and ask where we went wrong. We find that our families are breaking up and we ask where we went wrong. We find our lives upside down and ask where we went wrong.

Well simply put, our lives are the way they because of the decisions we made... instead of letting the Lord make our decisions for us and trusting Him completely.

Psalms 37:4-8 (Good News Bible version)
Seek your happiness in the LORD, and he will give you your heart's desire. Give yourself to the LORD; trust in him, and he will help you; he will make your righteousness shine like the noonday sun. Be patient and wait for the LORD to act; don't be worried about those who prosper or those who succeed in their evil plans. Don't give in to worry or anger; it only leads to trouble.

So there we have it... The answer to ALL our problems. We should give our lives to the Lord and stop depending on ourselves and our own decisions. We are called upon to not lean on our own understanding.

Give your entire life over to God, step aside and let Him do his will.

 

Forgiveness of Others

Matthew 6:14-15 (KJV)
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

The Bible is very clear on this topic. We sometimes “expect” God to forgive us of our sins or trespasses against Him, yet we are stubborn to forgive those we do wrong against us. Don’t you think this just shows how depraved we truly are as fleshly beings?

If someone hurts your child, what do you do? If someone hurts yourself, what do you do? If someone speaks badly of you behind your back, what do you do? If you were raised by a single parent, the other one just walked out on you and the parent you live with and this caused great pain and sometimes poverty to fall upon you, what do you do and what is your attitude towards the one who left you? If a spouse or partner cheats on you, what do you do?

The list may go on, but Scripture is very clear on what we should do with no exceptions... We must forgive or we won’t be forgiven, FULLSTOP! The Bible leaves no room for “But this” and “But that”. We must leave them in God’s hands and pray for them. We have been given an order by our Lord and we MUST obey, no questions asked!

Just salute (praise) your commanding officer (Jesus Christ) and say “Sir, yes sir” (“Amen”).

 

Flywheel - Christian Movie

I found myself waking up at 1:20am this morning to find my wife watching a movie that I borrowed from a friend’s mother. It is entitled Flywheel and it demonstrates the wonderful and awesome works of God if you put your complete trust in Him and place your entire life in the hands of the Lord.

My wife then played it from the start so I could watch it with her and the movie had me in tears! I learned a lot from the movie as it contains many inspirational Bible verses.

Well the other significance regarding this movie is that it was a direct answer to a prayer... Before I went to sleep I prayed that the Lord should open my wife’s heart to forgiveness of others as I have been having a hard time trying to explain to her the importance of forgiving certain individuals who have caused much havoc in our lives. I left the problem completely in God’s hands and within a few hours I wake up to find my prayer has been answered...

She tells me that the movie has taught her how important it is to forgive everyone and put her entire trust in the Lord. She added that it was as if something just urged her to watch the movie even though she was already busy watching a different one and it completely changed her heart.

There is no doubt that God was at work with her and he has answered yet another one of my prayers... In fact he has answered ALL my prayers since I have given my life to Him and I mean EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM!

God has been very good to me so I will continue to serve Him and will die for Him if I have to. No one and nothing will come between me and my saviour Jesus Christ. AMEN!

Overcoming Pain and Suffering

We are all at times faced with seemingly unbearable pain and suffering. Some call out to God and ask “Why? Why me?”. In times like these we need to be careful of deceiving spirits coming along and saying “If your God is so good then why is he allowing or bringing you so much pain?”. We all know who this great deceiver is...

This is what the Holy Bible says:  James 1 : 2 – 4 (Good News Bible version)
My friends, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure. Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

God brings these hard times upon us so that we may be drawn closer to Him and that we may grow in our faith. How does pain and suffering draw us closer to God some may ask?...

You see, in our daily lives when things are going great, everyone is smiling and we think we have it all sorted, we tend to be more concerned about trivial or worldly things such as money, jewellery, cellular phones and cars. We are always concerned about losing those things we have.

Now keep in mind that God is a jealous God. He wants us to make Him a part of everything we do (when we sleep, eat, drink, wake up and work). He wants us to never forget Him, even for one second. But then comes along this concern we have about losing our possessions and we become distracted from God. So what does God do?... He brings along pain, suffering and trauma.

Now in hard times we are very quick to call out to God, but in good times we are distracted from Him, so now God, seeing that hard times are about the only times we turn to Him, throws pain into our lives. This pain can come in different forms and manners.

In cases of severe illness and death our concern shifts away from trivial things such as money and other worldly possessions and we look for a way out, turning to God. So we ask God to help us through and he does.

Now what we need to do is instead of forgetting about God after these tough times, we need to include Him in our good times as well. Putting God first during good and bad times now shifts our concern away from worldly possessions.

So when hard times come along again we should not see them as hard times, instead we should see it as a test of faith and upon passing this test, our faith in God becomes stronger. This is how we grow in the Holy Spirit. We should therefore embrace these trials and tribulations, because God is working with us so we can become stronger in faith and in spirit. We should be honoured that God is taking time out of His unexplainably huge schedule just to spend time with us and help us grow.

So thank God for all good times he gives and thank Him even more for the hard times he gives us. Put your trust in God completely and you will be delivered a stronger and bigger person.

For a perfect example of this test of faith read through the entire book of Job in The Old Testament.

 

Pain and Suffering of a friend.

Today God has once again given me an opportunity to help someone. A friend of mine is going through a tough time and sent me a text message asking me to give her some spiritual guidance.

I will not elaborate on her situation since she spoke to me in confidence, but the feeling of fulfillment I felt deep inside due to ministering to her was unexplainable. I am a brand new re-born Christian and already God is sending people my way to listen to his gospel and for that I am ever greatfull to our Heavenly Father.

I think I have finally found my purpose in life. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit I find myself able to answer questions I never thought I would ever be able to answer.

Lord Jesus I thank you for doing your works through me and I love you to the end...

Passing Judgement on Others

We as Christians sometimes find ourselves unconscientiously looking down on others e.g. we might see a person so drunk he wets himself in the street and we think to ourselves: “What’s wrong with this man? He should be ashamed of himself! I’m glad I’m not like him.” But we must beware of how we look at others and what we think of them for saying “I’m glad I’m not like him” is saying that you are better than him and Scripture clearly states that we are not to give any credit to ourselves, after all are we as born-again Christians not supposed to be dead to self?  Yet we do the opposite of what we are instructed by our Holy Bible to do.

Romans 2:1 (KJV)
Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.

According to the verse above we condemn ourselves every time we think badly of someone else, speak badly of someone else, look at someone in a snobbish manner or even telling them that what they do is wrong. By doing these things we are looking down on sins of others, but yet we are also sinners, even though we accepted Christ as our personal saviour. Being saved does not mean we are no longer sinners. We are no better than the next person. We should not judge as God has made it very clear that HE is the only one worthy to judge someone because HE is HOLY!... HE is without sin...

So we need to pray daily for God’s guidance to help us get past our negative views of others, no matter how innocent this view might seem and instead pray for those who have not yet seen the Light in our Master Jesus Christ. For us disliking anyone in any way is the same as disliking God for God has made man in his image, therefore we are called upon to love everyone.

God be with you my brothers and sisters...

 

Christ comes first

"And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. " (Matthew 19:29).

These words illustrate the ultimate commitment towards our Saviour Jesus Christ. Are you ready to push your wife or partner aside to follow the Lord? Are you ready to push your CHILDREN aside to walk with the Lord? Sounds kinda cruel to do such hey thing hey...

I was in a sense faced with this situation. When I accepted Christ in my life I found myself losing friends and not being able to keep a "normal" conversation with my wife, because my way of thinking and living changed. I spent more time reading my bible than speaking to my wife and due to my new belief we found ourselves disagreeing on many issues. At this time my wife wasn't saved and she didn't understand my new way of living.

When I tried explaining things according to God's Word her reaction would be something like: "there you go preaching again". She even once joked that she lost her husband to God. It was a sad and difficult time for me, but that's the life of a Christian on earth. I realised I couldn't make her see things the way I did so I prayed for her constantly and left it all in God's hands.

Well the good news is God has answered my prayers. God opened her heart and she also accepted Christ. I realised then, before she got saved, that I might end up breaking up my family because of my faith and truth be told I was willing to go that far, to give up everything I have just to be right with my God.

I now truly know what it means to put God above everything and everyone in your life. In my life God comes first, then my wife and kids, but not myself. My own well being means nothing to me for I have already died and I only now live in Christ.

Jesus is my Saviour!

Life as a Born Again Christian

I have recently given my life to the Lord Jesus and my life
immediately started changing.
This blog is my online diary with which I aim to share my daily life
experiences as a new born Christian. So far I found myself with an
unexplainable thirst for knowledge of Jesus and the Word of God.
For this past few weeks I have found the answer to every question I
had in my bible. My eyes have also been opened to things happening in
this world that most people are blind to. I also aim to use this blog
to reveal to others what has been revealed to me.
For now I say God bless until my next post.