Reflections on 2011

January
An old Hasidic tale
The rabbi asked his students: "How can we determine the hour of dawn, when the night ends and the day begins?
One of the rabbi's students suggested: "When from a distance you can distinguish between a dog and a sheep?"
"No," was the answer of the rabbi.
"Is it when one can distinguish between a fig tree and a grapevine?" asked a second student.
"No," the rabbi said.
"Please tell us the answer then," said the students.
"It is, then," said the wise teacher , "when you can look into the face of another human being and you have enough light in you to recognise your brother or your sister. Until then, it is night, and darkness is still with us."


February
"As I get older, I place less emphasis on what people say and more on what they do." 
- Andrew Carnegie 


March
Walk with me, walk with me
Lest mine eyes no longer see
All the glory, all the story of Your love


Walk with me, walk with me
As You walked so lovingly
When You walked there and
You talked there by the sea


April
I cannot remember when this conviction in me about the power of words to curse and bless became very very real to me. I reached a point where I was unwilling to or would rather say nothing than say something that will tip the spiritual balance towards Satan. It was as if I could see the spiritual environment around me darken ever so slightly whenever I said something or heard something that was not Godly. I've become increasingly reticent through the years. I firmly believe in the power of words to transform lives - we either bless or curse people through the words we say. I fail, and fail badly sometimes. Thank God that when that happens, I am able to turn to Him and say "Lord, forgive me because I have sinned" and know that I have been forgiven because of His sacrifice at Calvary. Thank God for His grace and love for such a sinner as me. 


Lord, sometimes I worry about my heart because I can feel the rocks. Pour out your Spirit into me that I may have a heart of flesh. Grant me that heart for peace-making, which encompasses wisdom, courage, sensitivity, love, devotion to truth and understanding. Amen.


C.S. Lewis:
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.


When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong, they need your prayers all the more, and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house.


The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.


May
John F. Kennedy
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.


We need men who can dream of things that never were.


June
Lord, thank You that You know how weak I am and You love me regardless. Enable me to always have that humility and that honesty to come to you with all my weaknesses and not just my strengths; with all my failures and not just my accomplishments; and with all my tears and not just my joy; with all my pain and not just my pleasures; and with all of me and not just a mask, a facade or a front. For Lord, when I am weak, then I am strong in You. 


"A minister said.......You can tell how popular a church is by who comes on Sunday morning. You can tell how popular a pastor or evangelist is by who comes on Sunday night. But you can tell how popular Jesus is by who comes to the prayer meeting." - Jim Cymbala


July
"The church must be equipped to serve in the world precisely because it does not belong to the world. If we start with the world, the church will lose its mission. If we start with God, the church cannot refrain from giving its life for the world." 
- R.Paul Stevens, professor at Regent College Vancouver


August
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW4AMgaUjJ4


I want to sing
Until I am lost in Your love
Till I'm found in Your presence
Worshipping before your throne
Moved by Your Spirit
Entering into Your flow
How precious this moment
Lord I want you to know


It's You
You who have won my heart
Taken me into Your arms
Comforted me like a friend
Your love
Surrounded me from the start
I never want to be apart
From You ever again




September
True grace comes to us by costly sacrifice. Costly grace changes us from the inside out. Neither law nor cheap grace can do that. 
- Timothy J.Keller


October
Love that seeks no recompense. It is an affront to materialism and naturalism. And it is the sweetest joy that one can experience, according to C.S.Lewis.


November
 "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it." (Luke 9:23, NKJV)


December
Emmanuel, Emmanuel,
His name is called Emmanuel,
God with us,
Revealed in us,
His name is called Emmanuel


Truly, God came and dwelt among us and is still with us through the Holy Spirit which is present in every believer and follower of Christ.

Living water

John 4:13-14 (ESV)
13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him l will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

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In the beginning was the Word

My senior pastor gave his last sermon on 18 December. It was with both a tinge of sadness and joy as the man I've been listening to for almost all of the time I've spent in the church retires but consequently gains the freedom to move into even bigger things God has planned for him.

Significantly, for someone who has increasingly focused on the supernatural and prophetic with the focus of bringing the Kingdom of God down to earth, my pastor chose to focus on Hosea 4:6 as the main reference for his sermon.

Hosea 4:6 English Standard Version (ESV)
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

As God's people, we have a covenant with God. Deliberate ignorance of what this covenant relationship with God entails on our part will have devastating consequences for us. This is laid out very clearly in Hosea, where there is a warning of destruction for followers of God who have rejected knowledge or have not pursued knowledge, and where there is also a warning of rejection from God not only for ourselves but also for future generations if we forget the law of our God.

And where do we learn about God and His law? From His Word. That is where we begin and that is where we should end.

He gave supremely that all men might see

Such an old song but what beautiful lyrics. The worship team sang this in church today. A reminder that we're to let Jesus shine through us so that all may see His love. 


He is Lovely - Bob Fitts
I can see that you love Jesus first
It’s plain to see
And that you sit close
And hear His heartbeat
For in your eyes I see shinning love
That speaks so clear
And I can hear them saying
So sweetly


Chorus:
He is love - ly
He is ho - ly
He gave supremely
That all men might see
He is gen - tle
Tender-hearted
Risen Savior
He is God


Master Maker, Life Creator, come
And dwell in me
That my heart may know
Your tender mercy
Shine through me that all may see Your love
So full and free
And I’ll declare Your praise
Through endless ages


You are love - ly
You are ho - ly
You gave supremely
That all men might see
You are gen - tle
Tender-hearted
Risen Savior
You are God


You are God
You are God

The essence of faith

"If there were no eternal consciousness in a man,

 if at the bottom of everything 

there were only a wild ferment, 

a power that twisting in dark passions 

produced everything great or consequential; 

if an unfathomable insatiable emptiness 

lay hid beneath everything, 

what would life be but despair?" 

- Søren Kierkegaard

Emmanuel, God with us

Just back from a counsellors' appreciation dinner. The ending song before the closing prayer was the most meaningful to me. Emmanuel, God with us. Truly, God came and dwelt among us and is still with us through the Holy Spirit which is present in every believer and follower of Christ.