Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Giving a Gift

It was one of the best moments I have ever had as a dad when I gave a 1984 Camaro to my son last month.  He couldn't believe it and I was just so happy to give it to him.  It was a moment that continues to teach me the value of giving a gift that means something.  As you can see from the picture, this car is not a toy (but boy is it fun to drive!).  It would have been entirely inappropriate to give him this car at the age of 10 years old or even 15 when he was learning how to drive.  No, the time was right, the car was right and most of all for dad, the price was right!
Now, ride with me down the road with this thought...It got me to thinking about how we try to force the things we want from our heavenly Father when we are clearly not ready for whatever reason.  I sometimes get in the mode of wanting God to move on MY time, with MY agenda, and at MY price!  I know it is an old cliche but it works here--"good things come to those who wait."  Well, the truth is, the Lord brings us His good in His time at the price of His blood poured out on the cross.  Makes me think of how good the Lord is and how impatient and rushed we are.  If only my heart would wait on the Lord and trust in His gracious hand to provide for me exactly what I need.  After all, His love is extravagant toward His children! (1 John 3:1).  Just like Jesus said, "If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asksfor a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:11-13)

Not sure about you but I'm kinda hoping maybe there's a camaro with my name on it!!!  ;)

Walking in grace, George

Monday, May 7, 2012

God is not into visiting us ; He wants to invade our lives!


Hey guys, it's Malene here again. I thought I'd just bless you guys with a lil post I wrote earlier

‘’ These glasses are for the visitors, no one touches them!’’ sounds familiar?
Y’all know what it’s like when you have visitors. I mean you clean up the whole house; you get rid of the sand paper and put real toilet paper in the bathroom
Because the visitors are coming, you buy biscuits and if the kids dare to touch it they’re dead because it’s for the visitors. You tell the kids to put on their best behaviors and all that for the visitors. Once the visitors are gone it’s back to world war 3 again in the house!!
Well maybe my introduction was a bit too much or i was exaggerating but you ,guys ,all know when you receive or you parents are expecting important visitors: you suddenly turn into an Angel of the Lord!! Hallelujah can I get a witness... just one??
The thing about visitors is that you know exactly when they are coming, you are expecting them and they always call before visiting. They also never stay for too long before you know it they are gone.
Let’s take a look at this verse in John 1: 14 (msg) : The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.
The bible says that the word moved into the neighborhood,
You see when someone is coming to invade your life they don’t call and let you know ,they just come and take full control.
Some of us Christians are like: “God, you take control of my life on Sunday I take care of my life from Monday to Saturday; God, you take control of my spiritual life I take control of my secular life! You take care of my kids during Sunday school I do the parenting the rest of the week!
My friend, God wants to have full control of your life. He is not a visiting God; He is a life filling, invading, hope giving, and life transforming God!
Some of us have been Christians for quite a long time and still feel like our lives haven’t changed much since we were born again and saved.
You see this is because we do not want to totally surrender our lives to Him, not For God to control us but for Him to transform us.
John continues in this verse describing Jesus as being Generous inside and out true from start to finish! Just by reading this I am already captivating by this One-of-a-Kind God’s son. I want someone like Him to not just visit but to invade my life so that I can be made just like Him: generous, true from start to finish…
I am writing this just to tell you how I once was thinking that God only was visiting my life and never really wanted to stay for long, oh how I was wrong!
As a result of that whilst being a Christian I settled only for a once a week God encounter every Sunday I’ll go to church and the rest of the week I’ll be doing my own thing, ruling my own life, I was my own Boss well at least I thought I was,
But I was wrong, for sin was in fact the boss of me!
Something in me, you see, was still empty I wanted to encounter God for myself and have a deep relationship with Him but I didn’t know how to formulate my desire into a prayer. How I really wanted to experience the Jesus that I have heard so many other Christians testify about every Sunday. I also wanted to have a testimony.
But praise be to God, as I couldn’t reach out to him and cry out, He instead stretched His hand towards me and reached out to me. Instead of giving me a testimony He made my life a living testimony.
Now as I lay my life down daily as a living sacrifice to Him not only has He invaded my entire life, He has transformed me into a new being.
My friend today God is knocking at the door of your hearts for some of you wanting you to let him in so He can invade you,
For others you might have let Him in but only gave him a portion of your life. For example, someone gives you a house. The person says I give you complete ownership of the house but you realize that he only has given you the keys to the living room and locked every other room in the house!! This is exactly how God feels in your life. He feels left out. He wants to be part of your daily life; He wants to be your partner in this life and why not in eternity!
God doesn’t want to visit your life my friend, He wants to invade your life 24/7 and come bring change and transformation and that only happens in a special place.
It is a place where you are willing to lay down your life as a living sacrifice, where you lay everything at the altar
Where you recognize that on your own you can do nothing but with God you can do all things!
Some of us are in a certain place where there is hurt, pain, discomfort, challenge, and unforgiveness let me tell you that nothing is ever too big for our God. Impossible is not in His vocabulary.
Let God get into that dark place and bring healing, restoration, life and liberty.
That place is where you are now, in your church in you house in your university in your circle of friends in your ministry and we often don’t like that place cause it’s uncomfortable. We wish our lives were different but you have to understand that the pathway to your destiny is often paved with discomfort, inconvenience, obstacles, challenges and hurdles and in order to fulfill what God has for us there are obstacles, challenges that we need to face but we do not need to get stressed out about them because Jesus said He has overcome the world!
Don’t walk out on that place; don’t leave the place where God has planted you.
Allow God to be God in your life. Don’t detest that place and turn around and acknowledge Him in that place. In your darkest, driest hour He is there.
We serve a God of incredible love, incredible mercy the One who says that He has a place in His kingdom for you and me.. Stop thinking ‘man I am not good enough for God,” you know what none of us are’.  It’s about Him and how amazing He is, how he wants to invade your life.
And I believe that for some of us, the first place we have to take it’s the place where we put Jesus first in our life. Not where you have a religious encounter once a week on a Sunday but where you put Him in the right place in your life and everything else will fall into place in your life.