Harvest Festival ... a day of joy at St Mark's

25 March

Stewardship campaigns are vital going forward for St Mark's.  Today's Harvest Festival was a case in point where the Stewardship Committee exceeded all expectations. The Lord was indeed with us as the fruits of His harvest, both financial and vegetable, multiplied before us.

The service was a celebration of joy and our commitment to the Lord and the future of St Mark's. Norman Mangena was in masterful form as he encouraged the congregation of St Mark's to dig deep to fund our future in Yeoville.

Spurred on by emotional choruses both in English and Zulu, he divided the congregation into sections to come forward and drop their offerings in a basket in front of the altar. Norman started off with the Sunday School children, then families, married couples, the women of St Mark's, and lastly the Men for the Master followed by single men ... no grouping was left untouched as the bounty grew to just below R10 000, and that's not counting the plate offering.

A lunch followed for all, and one can but say ... God bless those who kindled the fire of hope for all those who were privileged to be in the pews today.

God is love

23 March 2012                                          

1 John 4:8 The one who does not love has not known God, because God is love.

 So often we hear the statement, ‘God loves you’, what does this actually mean:

The person actually making that statement, have they actually experienced the love of God? If they have how would they describe such love? These questions are very real for some people. This question of its own is actually asking is God real is God a loving God?

If you were asked that question how you would answer it, how have you actually and tangibly experienced the reality of God? Without faith this question cannot be answered.

God is love, He loves us, and when we respond to God’s love, then we need to in faith accept His mercy for those sins we have judged ourselves to be guilty of, and His grace for those sins that God finds us guilty of. This grace is the undeserved favour of God’s love in our lives.

In my life I have been blessed by the Living Presence of the Holy Spirit, tangibly covered in the love of God, and filled with a love beyond imagine. Having experienced the Indescribable, Unnameable God, for me God is real, His mercy unlimited, and His grace immeasurable.

Be encouraged to respond in faith to God’s love.

David

Point to ponder: God’s love is real.

Question to consider: Have you been filled with God?

Pain

22 March 2012                                             


Psalm 69:29 But I am poor and in pain; O God, Your salvation shall set me on high.

Pain is pain, each of us own our own pain. We listen to others and their stories of pain, and we sympathise with them, but until we have experienced similar pain it remains sympathy. This remains true despite the nature of the pain. Pain tends to deaden our thought processes and so the more this happens the more we are controlled by the pain.

Jesus came to set us free and especially free from pain, the pain He suffered on the Cross was excruciating and unbearable, and He bore it for us. This is hard to comprehend when we are struggling with crippling pain. God has provided us with gifted doctors, knowledgeable pharmacists, gentle nurses to cope with physical pain; He has also given us understanding Pastors to help with our emotional pain, Holy Spirit driven preachers to help us with our spiritual pain. Yet it is we that need to go to the Fountain to drink, we cannot complain of thirst while watching the fountain flow.

Be encouraged not to allow the pain in your life control your tomorrows.

David

Point to ponder: Do not be controlled by pain.





Question to consider: Do you allow the pain to control you?

Grow in gace

20 March 2012                                            

2 Peter 3:18 But grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

There are many things that cause change in our lives, so are physical, some are emotional, some are mental, and some are spiritual. These changes are interrelated and each change has a cause. The growth is reflected in the form of change, the more growth the greater the change.

Sometimes we have to change as a result of the aging process, joints crumble, digestion may be more sensitive, and what we could do we now cannot. Often we grumble and see this as a negative, yet it is the way God made us. We grow old, we grow wiser, we grow in our relationships; we can also grow in the negative. So we must always be conscious that not all growth is positive.

The secret to growth is to understand that growth which we can control must always lead to a better person; that which we cannot control we must accept with grace. Wisdom is to know the difference.

Be encouraged today to grow in grace.

David

Point to ponder: Change and growth are interrelated.

Question to consider: Are you growing?

Restored

16 March 2012                                            

Revelation 14:2-3 And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpers playing on their harps, and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth.

In the past few weeks the temperature here at Warmbaths (Bela Bela) has been well into the thirties and at nigh maybe down into the twenties, yesterday we had a cool day at nineteen and lovely cool night. We were really blessed with the rain that was much needed in the area. We cannot produce the weather, neither are we able to cause good rain to fall, only God can.

We should be well reminded that there are certain things that are God’s prerogative alone. We live in a world wherein people presume that nature is dependant on nature, and that with science and knowledge we are like god’s. This desire to be god as man was the cause of the broken relationship between God and man, and it was God that chose to restore that relationship. To do this He had to sacrifice the best that He had, His Son.

Easter is about that restorative process and it is at this time that we are reminded that it is His process not ours. He has done it all for all, our part in the process is to accept what He has done.

Be encouraged today to be reminded that God has done it all for you.

David

Point to ponder: God has restored Himself to you.

Question to consider: Have you restored yourself to God?

Easter

15 March 2012                                             


Mark 8:34  And calling near the crowd with His disciples, He said to them, Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take his cross, and let him follow Me.


As we come closer to Easter, so we should be thinking of what Easter means to each of us. For some it is a time when we are able to indulge in more chocolate treats, egg hunts for the children, family time and public holidays, for some it is a serious time of meditation of the preparation, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. For centuries Easter has been about the death and resurrection, the death of our old self and the resurrection of the new self in Christ.


For each of us we have our own interpretation, and our own perspective of this very special time. Each day needs for us to think of the walk of Jesus to Jerusalem, and likewise we too should be also journeying to our Jerusalem, our Gethsemane, our Calvary, our tomb, our resurrection with Jesus Christ. This year Easter is special, because it brings us to that place where we examine our souls, our lives, and bring this to the cross.


Be encouraged today to continue on this journey of discovery on the walk to eternal life.


David


Point to ponder: Easter is about you.


Question to consider: What does Easter mean to you?


Our webpage: www.christhealing.co.za

The prize

13 March 2012                                            

Philippians 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

What is the mark or target, and what is the prize? The prize is the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, it is this understanding that the ultimate goal is to actually gain the prize. This is not necessarily easy, but an onward striving against the opposition, the difficulties that we face on the road of life those large temptations and the little lapses of faith that we all face at different times.

Many people are called, yet few are chosen, and the choice is made by our response to that high calling on each of our lives. Are we willing to continue to strive towards the goal of God’s calling on us? Or do we give into the temptations to follow an easier path? We have all been called, but do we press on regardless towards living a life of higher calling?

Our primary call is to love God, the second is to love each other, and this leads us into the place where love abounds in us, because God dwells with us. In this we respond by serving God by showing others our respect and encouraging them in all areas that we interact with them.

Be encouraged today to press on toward the mark.

David

Point to ponder: Keep your eyes on Jesus.

Question to consider: Do you sometimes lose sight of the goal?

Our webpage: www.christhealing.co.za