Evangelism

So the link pasted below will take you to a 5 minute monologue by the comedian, Penn Jillette, who's known for being an atheist, and at that, someone who's crystal clear about his stance on God (basically: there is no God).

In this video, he talks about being given a Bible by someone after his show, and he then gives his opinion on proselytizing (evangelism) in general. What he says might not be what you expect an atheist to say. I definitely was surprised.

....

Okay, now that I've hinted at something unusual, you might be able to guess what happens. (No, he doesn't become a Christian.) (No, he does not get smote by lightning either.) (No, I'm not going to tell you anything more than that.) (Yes, watching the clip for yourself = Good Idea!)

Watch the clip on Patrick Madrid's blog

"As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God"

Interesting title, even more interesting read.

Matthew Parris, writing for the Times Online, writes that "missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa's biggest problem". It's really amazing to read his article and read how he acknowledges the positive changes Christians have brought about in Africa. It's even more exciting to have this written about in such a respectful manner!

I've found it a more common occurrence to have Christians scorned as hypocrites who don't do anything and Christianity attacked for various historical events, so this is definitely an encouraging read, especially considering its source!

Have a look here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece

Just a little bit of rambling about the Psalms, really

So yesterday I had a super super cool amazing but busy day! In the morning I went to a beautiful wine farm, then to the Botanical Gardens for a picnic, and then to a Mexican restaurant for supper!

Obviously then I didn't have time to read my Bible, and when I got home I was so tired I decided to go to bed without doing it. But then some stuff happened, and I was really miserable and mad, so I just had to read a Psalm for comfort!
(On that note, I love the Psalms 'cause they're so emotional and 'real')

So I flipped through the Psalms and found Psalm 69! And it was really cool, cause one of my memory verses for last week was Romans 12:12 "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer", and the psalm was a really wonderful illustration of that! Halfway through, the writer says that he will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving, even though he's spent the earlier half of the psalm detailing his desperation, frustration and @#$TEGgsTr!!!!!

And today I wasn't that keen to read the Bible again, but then I remembered it was Sunday and that Sunday is my "Choosing a memory verse" day, so I was flipping through Psalms and found another illustration of another verse I'd memorized.

This verse was: Hebrews 13:5 "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: never will I leave you, never will I forsake you", and Psalm 73 illustrated it perfectly! Which was awesome timing 'cause lately I've been struggling with wanting stuff and wanting to be rich and live a certain lifestyle even though I know I don't need anything more than everything I already have in Christ! (And anyway, my heart really wants to end up in deepest darkest Africa somewhere.. yes, I know you're thinking: "Can Africa get darker than an Eskom cutout in South Africa?", but you know what I mean!)

So read those verses with those Psalms! Okay, bye now!

Memorizing Bible Verses...again

I say 'again', 'cause I tend to go through phases where I'm superamped and superkeen to memorize Bible verses. However, I tend to get overexcited and put pressure on myself to learn a new one every few days, and then give up after a while because the pace is too much. So now I'm just learning a new one every week :) So far so good! It's a much more realistic tempo, and I've already learned Phil 4:4-7, Heb 13:5 and Romans 12:12.

Reading about Jesus' response to Satan after spending the 40 days in the desert was a great inspiration for my new enthusiasm: struck by Jesus' quotation of God's word to fight off the devil, I suddenly wondered what I use to combat ungodly thought?!?! The only things I kinda know off by heart are random movie quotes, and I have a funny feeling that Satan wouldn't be frightened off by: "You talkin' to me?!" or "I just know, before this is over, I'm gonna need a whole lot of serious therapy. Look at my eye twitchin'."

heehee.. that's actually quite an amusing thought.. Throwing movie quotes at Satan...

PS the quotes come from "Taxi Driver" and "Shrek".

I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart

Sometimes I get so caught up in the personal and relational struggles of being a Christian, I forget the joy ultimately comes from trusting and following Jesus. Even though as Christians we know that we are supposed to not seek happiness from wealth or possession, many times we still seek happiness from 'good things' like friendship, delight in nature and creation.. But God's big lesson over the past few weeks has been that true, lasting happiness can only be found in Christ :)

More than that we're commanded to rejoice (see Phil 4:4 as an example. Wait, I remembered how short it is, here we go: "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"

And this evening again, I was reminded of this. The minister started off and said: "The one goal that everyone in the world shares is to be happy. Everyone wants to be happy. I bet you that you will never ever ever find someone who tells you that his goal in life is to be miserable. And we get fooled by so many things that promise us happiness, like the lifestyles of the stars, but the only thing that can bring us true happiness is loving and obeying Jesus".

It doesn't mean we're always going to be ridiculously over the top happy. Happiness is really a temporal fleeting sensation. I think a better word for the type of happiness we have in Christ is JOY. And what is joy?

So what is joy? As the minister of the first sermon I heard in 2009 explained it: "Joy in the Lord is the deep quiet assurance that I belong to Jesus and that nothing can snatch us away from Christ".

So my resolution this year is to fight for joy and not let the world rob joy from me by deceiving me into thinking that other things can offer me more happiness and satisfaction than Jesus... Let's see how this one turns out!

So the cool thing that happened at communion this morning :)

I quite enjoy going to different churches 'cause people are so different, services rarely follow the same formula.

This morning, I visited a sister church (so same denomination) and we had communion. What I really loved that they did differently was this: They not only had the Apostle's Creed and a Prayer on the service sheet for those partaking of the Lord's supper, but also Prayers for Those Not Taking the Lord's Supper. I was really stoked by this 'cause I've quite often thought it must be lank awkward during communion for those who aren't convinced yet that Jesus IS Lord or for those who are struggling .

They actually had two prayers written on the sheet, and I'm so chuffed by them, I'm typing them both out:

Prayer for those searching for truth.
Lord Jesus, you claim to be the way, the truth and the life. Grant that I might be undaunted by the cost of following you as I consider the reasons for doing so. If what you claim is true, please guide me, teach me, and open me to the reality of who you are. Give me an understanding of you that is coherent, convincing, and that leads to the life you promise. Amen.

Prayer of Belief.
Lord Jesus Christ, I admit that I am weaker and more sinful than I ever dared admit, but through you I am more loved and accepted that I ever dared hope. I thank you for paying my debt on the cross, taking what I deserved in order to offer me complete forgiveness. Knowing that you have been raised from the dead, turn from my sins and receive you as my Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Praise God for differences and different ways of doing things :)

God redeems

I just had a chat with a friend about a gospel opportunity I'd had with a girl she knew. Unfortunately, things had gone a bit pear shaped, and I'd ended up offending the girl with the result that she didn't spoken to me for a year (!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

Still a bit bleak about it, I said to my friend that I'd initially felt as though I could've timed it better, but had concluded that God was ultimately in control. At which point my friend piped up with some lovely words of reassurance: "And God redeems our bad choices".

How awesome! God is the God who not only redeems us in terms of our salvation, but also redeems us from our bad choices, no matter if they've been made in the past, present, or are still to be made!! :)

What a relief. I've made some blunders in the past, and am pretty sure the future's going to be full of them too!

Going to have a nice little nap now before I blog about this really cool thing that a church I visited this morning does during communion :) Over and out!

Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.

Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn't we?"

But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. "Why are you trying to trap me?" he asked. "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it." They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"

"Caesar's," they replied.

Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's"(Mark 12:13-17).

I read the previous passage again the other day and for the first time wondered what bears the portrait and inscription of God?

This verse then sprung to mind.

"So God created man
in his own image,
in the image of God
he created him;
male and female
he created them" (Genesis 1:27)

Then let us give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.

Or you know, you can carry on sitting and thinking about that for a bit longer. ;)

s - i - n

The interesting thing about the word 'sin' is that it so perfectly illustrates itself: "I" is in the center.

You just sit and think about that for a bit.

Or sit. 'Cause that's cool too.

Aliens and Strangers

I stayed over at a friend recently who had moved into her new flat two days previously. She had evidently just finished unpacking, because there were cardboard boxes all over her bedroom floor. They looked extremely out of place with the rest of her neat and tidy room, but the sight of them suddenly reminded me that our lives on earth are essentially spent living out of cardboard boxes. No matter what shape or time frame our accommodation might take form in e.g. suburban house for 20 years, penthouse flat for a year, semi-detached for five years, etc., we are aliens and strangers here on earth!

PS 'Aliens and Strangers' comes from 1 Peter 2:11.

Life is unfair

Yip, it is. I know it, you know it, the mosquito that just got squished 'cause I threw a heavy copy of I don't have enough faith to be an atheist at it knows it*, God knows it. Especially God. 'Cause He's the one who came down to earth and then got crucified by those He created.

He didn't have to, he didn't want to, he received no thanks for it then, his friends deserted him, his enemies scorned him, he was forsaken by God, his body was beaten and broken, and he died a slow painful death. Life IS unfair.

So when people are going through tough times, don't throw platitudes at them. Let's acknowledge firstly that yeah, life can suck. But don't forget to remind them that we are children not of an impersonal robotic God, but of a loving Father who understands all the pain and suffering we are going through, for what He went through and is going through because of our rebellion, is so much worse.

* Very interesting book. Try get hold of it: I don't have enough faith to be an atheist by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek.

GGATHND: Part VI - If heaven is so much better, why stay here?

The other day I was feeling terribly disheartened by the state of the world, and I just wanted to be with God in heaven instead of living in this awful, sinful world.

At this point, I was reminded that Apostle Paul faced the same dilemma. He writes: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain... I desire to be with Christ, which is better by far" (Phil 1:21, 23). However, he selflessly concludes: "But it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again, joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me" (Phil 1:24-26).

Some of you might read that and be encouraged. On the other hand, some of you might share my own very mature feelings: "I DON'T CARE ABOUT ANYONE ELSE!!! I WANT TO GO HOME RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Yeah. Selfless, aren't I.

But when you're in a self-pitying mood, you tend not to think about anyone else...

That's why I was so encouraged when I read yet another awesome anecdote from God's Grace and the Homosexual Next Day. [I promise this is the last time I shall steal excerpts from it!!].

One woman was given the opportunity to share the gospel with her friend with AIDS, who came to know and love Jesus just before his death. One day, as she was visiting him, he remarked:

I appreciate God's love and mercy so much. And soon I'll get to see Jesus face-to-face. There's nothing greater than that. But you get to stay here and see what it means to overcome and learn how to walk by faith. I'll never get to experience that (p. 253).

WOWWEEE!! How true and exciting :) So let us hunger for heaven, but let us not forget that while we are here, we are undergoing the amazing experience of walking by faith :)

*All extracts from Chambers, Alan. God's Grace and the Homosexual Next Door. USA: Harvest House Publishers, 2006.