Life and how we respond to it is part of God's unique plan for our lives

An  FB friend, Gail Hansmeyer, shared the following, poignant ideas:

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"I was driving to an important appointment, but had a physio appointment that went on till after 08h00. Knowing it would take two hours to get to my next appointment at 10h00, I prayed that God would open the road ahead and give me favour to get there on time. The road I had to use had one lane in each direction, which opened up to two lanes at times. Heavy vehicles reduced traffic to a crawl, but every time I came up behind a truck the road split into two. I did not even have to slow down, and I arrived at my destination on time. It was just like the Red Sea crossing miracle!"

"My colleague had to do the same trip on the same road a few days later. She prayed the same prayer I had prayed, sayng, "Lord you did for Gail; please do so for me too. Unfortunately, her experience was quite different. Every time she got behind a truck, the road was in the single-lane phase, offering no double-lane relief. Needless to say she was upset - it seemed so unfair!"

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Win the battle in the air and you will experience victory on the ground

The battlefields of the heart and mind need a strategic perspective just as human battlefields do.

US military doctrine largely hinges on airpower. Ground wars are dangerous and technology can be countered by sheer numbers, as Napoleon and Hitler learnt in their wars against Russia. Technology can also breed over-dependence on a vulnerable resource.

So, as happened in most post World War II US theatres of war, airpower has become the key to tilting the balance in favor of US ground forces. The plan has been well honed. During Desert Storm, General Norman Schwarzkopf used air-cover in the first waves, to neutralize missiles and other fixed artillery points.

Most military forces have focused on building significant strike capabilities using manned and, more recently, unmanned aircraft. Stealth bombers like the B2 have enabled previously dangerous aerial targets to be engaged with relative impunity, whilst longer-range standoff weapons have enabled remote engagement from ships or aircraft operating outside the radius of fire.

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Costly, priceless, precious beyond measure ... is the church of the Living God

In a previous post I described a picture of a rich man's son. What to all others was valueless, because it was the amateur workmanship of a friend, was priceless to the father. So priceless was the son, that the gardener who successfully bid for the auctioned picture, secured the rich man's vast estate. In a nutshell, the rich man's will had said, "whoever takes the son, gets everything else."

My friend Jerry Hobbs, triggered a deeper set of thoughts about this illustration, when he argued that to many believers, value or pricelessness relates to the financial cost of the Christian institution, its buildings and other assets. No I am not having a go at Catholicism, because materialism is widespread in Christendom. It blurs all perspective for unbelievers, but many believers have been equally beguiled by its power.

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The simple sketch of a priceless life, became the priceless heirloom of a simple soul

My friend Arnold de Wet, a gifted musician, launched his latest CD last night. It was a great moment, but one of the highlights for me was the poignant story that Arnold shared.

He told of a very wealthy art collector, who first lost his wife and then subsequently lost his only son to war. As he tried to reassemble his broken world, he received a visitor. Before him stood a young man who had known the rich man's son and had also done a pencilled sketch of the boy before he died. He showed the drawing to the father, who saw beyond the amateur drawing to the heart behind it. It moved him enough to take the picture and frame it as a personal and moving tribute to his beloved son.

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So how does your garden grow?

Come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses....

My brother sent these thoughts, just after I published a post about apple trees and what makes them bear fruit. It is timeous and relevant.

A garden needs thyme: Thyme for each other, thyme for family and thyme for friends

Plant three rows of peas: peas of mind, peas of heart and peas of soul

Add four rows of squash: Squash gossip, squash indifference, squash grumbling and squash selfishness

Plant some lettuce: Lettuce be faithful, lettuce be kind, lettuce be patient, lettuce really love one another

No garden can be wthout turnips: Turnip for meetings, turnip for service and turnip to help one another

Water with patience, cultivate with love. There will be much fruit because you will reap what you sow.

Source: Chris Missing

Its more than life and death

With four more matches to play, the world cup is all but over. Nations came and went. Some just came to play, some came for much more. Someone once said of cricket, “It’s not a matter of life and death, its more than that”. The same could be said of some of the teams and nations represented in this competition.

The Dutch team somehow managed to assemble an entourage of 100,000 people who joined their cavalcade through the streets of Cape Town. The Argentineans played their drums. The South Africans trumpeted their Vuvuzelas. Others sported their national colors on their faces and in their waved banners.

The picture of a Mohican warrior supporting his own team, captures the spirit of the occasion well enough. Not far below the smile, joy and innocence of the moment is a warrior mentality. Maybe the advancement of the human race has tamed much of that feistiness that set nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom in past eras.

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The sound of trumpets

The FIFA world cup has had its highs - the opening ceremony, the arrival of teams, the national spirit of a land that has opened its heart to all, the celebrations and the general atmosphere of the occasion. The lowest moments have been where teams have been forced to leave the stage and head back home. It is already almost over, yet has scarcely begun. Oh and of course every team has criticised the Jabulani ball, which loves to curve and do its own thing at altitude, thanks to its superb aero-efficiency.

Then of course, there is that unbelievably annoying trumpet that has absolutely drowned out all noise at matches, the motorious vuvuzela. It plays a monotonous B-flat at such volumes that it is damaging to one's health. I have mentioned before that the name is drawn from its "Vu-Vu" sound.

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More than life and death

The adjacent face says it all. The FIFA world cup is a big deal for any soccer fan, a massive deal for Africans and beyond measure for South Africans.

Many years ago a famous Star Trek episode showed two colonies at war with each other. However, it was a virtual war, played out in the cyber world of computer games. The games helped to ensure that innocent lives were spared and civil infrastructure was not impaired.

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Every move you make

In 1983 Gordon Sumner aka Sting, released "Every move you make" with the Police. There is an ironic twist to the song, given that it was by the Police, for indeed they do watch, like big brother, ready to pounce if we err. However, it was a love song, not a policeman's rap.

The words speak of watching over every breath and move as we break our bonds:
Every breath you take and every move you make
Every bond you break, every step you take, I'll be watching you
Every single day and every word you say
Every game you play, every night you stay, I'll be watching you

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Catch the wind

God displays His power in a refined and channeled way despite His boundless capacity for raw power.

There was a time when the concept of manned flight involved a lot of raw power or brute force (and ignorance). Flapping of feathered limbs, in the way of birds, was one approach. Others jumped off bridges and cliffs or used exertion to launch themselves into the air. Even the pre-flight era muscled along in brute force and ignorance, believing that a wing should be designed to ride the wind and batter its way into supremacy over the air. Other attempts focused on making lighter-than air vehicles, which was inherently frustrated by the inclusion of the “man” component of “manned flight”.

Then the Wrights realized that the secret to flight lay in harnessing the wind and using its physical properties to carry the aircraft aloft. The secret lay in the shape of the wing, which exploited the laws of aerodynamics.

Sailors had similar joys in harnessing the power of the wind. The concept of catching the wind soon gave way to the better idea of riding the wind, which enabled sail boats to actually face the wind and be drawn forward by the venturi effect of aerodynamics. The alternative was to rely solely on following winds as they pushed you around the earth, a long way to go if you needed to go a bit upwind for a loaf of bread.

The power of God is also depicted in scripture as a wind, for good reason. It is accessible to all, free and abundant, but its power can only be harnessed by applying appropriate principles of spiritual dynamics.

We need to shape our lives to catch His breath and live in His power.

A sailor tacks to get the optimal angle of attack into the wind, but opens the sail when sailing with the wind. When sailing upwind, the sail is trimmed to its optimal shape, enabling the wind to draw the boat through the water.

Two things are needed for sailing upwind: tack and sail trim.

Spiritual tacking implies a need to face God, spend time with Him and humbly seek His ways. It’s about aligning our lives to His Word and life. Clearly if we just wait for down winds, we will slowly drift away from the source. To head back to God, we need a different approach. His Word is powerful and life giving, but if we don’t expose ourselves to it or skillfully navigate our lives into the wind, the power of His Word will be lost to us.

Of course we also need to shape our lives, through application of His truth. It is not enough to just face God and enjoy His wind in our faces. We must apply ourselves to His truth if we ever hope to tap into the power of the life that blows through our lives. We can go to church and busy ourselves with many things, yet never really progress as we wallow around in dead water. Or we can deliberately respond to His truth to stop that noisy flapping in the wind.

There is an unsustainable, tiring and inefficient way to walk with God, but there is also a way to tap into His rhythm, know His heart and feel His heartbeat.

The vision in Ezekiel 47, of a river flowing from the temple of God, speaks of a tide that we can immerse ourselves in. We may start off at ankle- or knee-depth or even stay on the banks to watch the kingdom flow past us, but the best place to be, is in mid-river where the current flows strongest. The river that Ezekiel saw eventually flowed out into the fullness of the Promised Land and that is where we will end up if we go with its flow: we will experience its power, realize its boundaries and see His promises fulfilled.

There is no doubt that the wind or tide of God’s Spirit describes vast power, but it is not the raw power that we normally associate with power in everyday life. It is not explosive or kinetic or pneumatic or any other kind of power. It is spiritual power, capable of transforming ordinary lives into history makers. It challenges the gates of hell and raises us from the uttermost to the uttermost to equip us for eternal life. It is a healing, restorative and quickening power.

It may be subtle and often almost imperceptible, but no one who has trusted in His truth has ever been put to shame, for His truth will always win the day and prevail against the darkness. In the immortal words of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, “His Truth is marching on”.

(c) Peter Eleazar at www.bethelstone.com

Power for all

The power of God is accessible to everyone. It is able to save, heal and transform ordinary lives.

Peter spoke of the divine power of God, in 2 Peter 1: 3. He said that it has given us all that we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.

All power has utility value else it is of no relevance. The heat of a fire is useful and harnessed to heat food, water or cold bodies. The glow of the sun is useful for photosynthesis and maintenance of a viable biosphere. Electrical energy is not totally efficient, because what is not used cannot be stored, but what is used has changed our world. Whilst sophisticated first world societies are very well developed, crisis would even the scales and potentially kick lesser cultures back to prominence, because their systems are less vulnerable, more able to bounce back from disaster. Such is our dependence on electrical energy in every aspect of modern life.

God’s power also has utility value. There is raw power, just as the heart of a power station consists of the raw, unbridled power of the furnace. God possesses awesome power and if the universe expanded from an infinitely massive singularity of infinite density, I can imagine Him picking that grain up to blow it out of His hand. The idea that God spans the heavens with His right hand (Isaiah 40) comes to mind here, for at some stage a very small universe was blown out of His hand to become the vast expanse that now stretches across the heavens.

The power of God cast stars into space and introduced the four fundamental forces of nature within one second of the big bang. But, God has harnessed and distilled His awesome power to us to enable life and godliness. Sometime His power is so subtle, so deft that we often miss the point and thereby miss God. He is able to rule the heavens and overthrow His enemies, yet is equally capable of such finesse. His creativity crafted delicate beauty in flowers, insects, microcosmic matter and the wonder of sunsets, soaring mountain vistas, pounding oceans and exploding galaxies.

But He has also made it accessible to everyday human reality. His love and power relates to our daily struggles and persists with us even when we reject Him. It transforms wretched lives and lifts others from the gutters, to carry us on the wind of His Spirit until we reach the distant shore. Out of such transactions will emerge everyday heroes, people who will overcome all kinds of odds to reach glory and be crowned with His everlasting blessing.

Glory describes the ecstasy of the winning runner in a marathon or the afterglow of a mother who has just given birth: that is partly what is meant by divine glory. But it is also a share in His glory, the ecstasy He feels in His finished work and the realization of His power to save us from the uttermost to the uttermost. It suggests an embrace of lover and beloved or the arm-in-arm celebration of fellow combatants in the glory of victory.

Everyone who truly walks with God will emerge with a living testimony of His faithfulness.

(c) Peter Eleazar at www.bethelstone.com

The power curve

Does the power of God vest in our practices and structures or in our knowledge of the heart of God?

Energy has a tendency to surge and stabilise, with peaks and troughs throughout its lifecycle. Various things are used to smooth power curves so we can use energy efficiently in our everyday lives.

Spiritually we also face a power curve. When we come to the faith, our locus of power and influence is rooted in the world, and ultimately in sin. We respond to what we see, hear, touch, taste or feel in our emotions. We apply logic and emotional responses to work successfully navigate the world. Those are the skills we are born with and that is all we know, so we do the best with what we have.

Our responses are of course moderated by cultural, cognitive and experiential factors. Thus Abraham, despite his roots, was influenced by his pagan culture. It shaped his traditions, values and responses.

Then God called him: it was the strting point that would trace the two influences of his life. From that moment the still, small voice of God was on the ascendancy and the prevailing voice of his culture began to recede.

Over the ensuing years, the voice of God emerged from the background clutter to become his dominant influence. During the phase of his life that led to him siring a half-son, Abraham faced intense competition between his established concept of truth and his emerging consiousness of the divine. It posed deep dilemmas for him as he wrestled with a relatively unknown God, whose light exposed all his real flaws.

Slowly the voice of God gained the upper hand and through his struggles, clarity and certainty of faith emerged. Then, when his heart was sufficiently renewed, God tested Abraham. In effect the LORD said, "You came out of that pagan world and reached thus far in your walk with me. But now that you can discern between these two world-views, it is time to finally decide which value system to adopt for you and your descendants".

It was an agonising moment for Abraham as he looked truth in the eye and confronted the crux of his faith. He had to dig deep to determine whether the God that he followed was the real thing. In his heart he knew that the sacrifice of children harked back to his pagan roots and confronted the unspoken regrets of his past. "LORD, why do you ask me to do this? This is not you. Have I grown so familiar with you that when you remove your distinctions I can no longer separate you from paganism?"

This is a deep issue. If the things that you presume to define your faith, such as church life, prayer, praise or whatever, was removed, would your faith still stand. The ecumenical movement would argue that our differences are not enough to sustain the divisions between faiths.

Do you buy that? In some ways they are right. There are good people in all persuasions, hard workers, generous, socially active souls that contribute very meaningfully to the world about us. So Christianity most certainly does not have a monopoly on the virtues we deem to define us.

Indeed, if your faith was stripped down to the bones you would feel very insecure, because a lot of Christian practice has become a linus blanket for keeping our faith intact. But, as for Abraham, the stripping away of the veneer represents the tipping point of our faith, where we must finally realise that if God is anything, He is everything and the faith we have is distinguished in the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

When we get to the heart of our faith: the heart of God and His deep values relating to love and truth, we can finally say that the curve which describes our faith has become the only voice in our lives, silencing every alternative view. God is not a relative concept, He is the only true absolute by which all truth will be measured.

Knowing Him in such a riveting, personal way is the key to our power: it removes energy sapping distractions, focuses our lives and taps into the zeal of God that consumed the passion of all bible characters.

(c) Peter Eleazar at http://www.bethelstone.com/

We have the power ...

Power is not an irrational force, as science sees it? It is an expression of divine truth & light.

In 2008, an experimental fusion reactor in France plans to demonstrate a viable and sustainable thermonuclear fusion capability. If successful, humankind will have found the ultimate, self-sustaining energy resource. Fission, the splitting of atoms, has defined nuclear technology to date. But fusion, the flip-side of fission, would reconstitute Helium atoms, releasing enormous energy: the fusion of atoms results in a loss of mass that is expressed as energy, consistent with Einstein's energy formula.

The amount of concentrated thermal energy required to induce a fusion reaction is enormous. Experiments like the Tokomak reactor in Russia, used immensely powerful magnets to contain the reaction at the centre of a containment vessel, because existing materials could not bear the heat created by converging high-energy lasers.

Fusion power initiates futher fission reactions, which also release energy. The result is a chained energy system based on the sun, that is perpetually self-sustaining. It is also immensely complex and expensive to achieve.

However, there is another energy source in our universe. It is complex, immensely powerful and completely unrestrained. I refer to the Spirit of God.

The earth was a dark void until the light, released by God in the Big Bang, initiated a sequence of events that created the four known forces of our universe: within less than a second. Those forces were the key building blocks of the universe, providing the gravitational and nuclear forces that aggregated matter into planets and stars.

Genesis 1, however, has a double meaning. For when God said, "Let there be light", He also referred to spiritual light, the great power that governs the laws and dynamics of all things. That light ensured an ordered universe, but it was the same light that brought order to the world. Moses was the channel through which God introduced the first constitutional dispensation, ensuring that universal egality, objectivity and fairness displaced the subjective, relative and barbaric systems of the pagan world.

That same light also illumines the human heart: for every person that calls on His name. The dark void of our hearts is a place of relative chaos until His light shines into the void to bring meaning, value and purpose to all.

Humankind has achieved incredible things, yet has never nor will ever transcend death. The power of God, by implication, exceeds the best we can achieve. It miraculously transforms corrupt lives into noble sons and sets within them the power of the resurrection: for "if (Romans 8) the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, dwells in you, He shall also quicken your mortality through His indwelling Spirit."

For all that man has achieved, humanity is effectively regressing. Sure there has been technological advancement, but socially we have passed our peak. Anarchy and lawlessness pervades our planet and the love of many waxes cold. But the kingdom of God, despite centuries of repression and opposition is reaching her finest hour as the church prepares for the return of the King.

So what power will you tap into? Where will you find your centre and who will sustain you when the world lapses into inevitable chaos?

(c) Peter Eleazar at http://www.bethelstone.com/

Get the better connection ...

For all the power God gives us, of what use would it be if we chose not to plug in and be connected?

It takes a vast amount of energy to generate the electricity we consume in our homes and offices. It may all be just a flick of the switch away, yet it requires vast resources to bring it all the way inside your living space.

Of course it would be no big deal if energy was required for you alone: then the cost would be nothing more than the price of a generator, unless you converted to alternative energy. But to deliver a thousand kilowatts of energy to one home for one hour, requires an infrastructure capable of delivering megawatts of energy for twenty four hours of every day.

The cost of a power station can cost over a billion Dollars: the same again for maintenance. But it depends on fuel and that fuel needs to mined at great cost: be it nuclear or fossil fuel. The fuel also needs to be transported to the power station.

A large power station can take five years to build, but to deliver its energy to living areas, vast networks of cabling and related management systems are needed. That also costs $billions to build and maintain. And of course local authorities need to also link you to the power grid. Lastly suppliers of electrical goods need to build and deliver appliances and tools that are able to convert the energy into useful work.

The fact that it takes a lifetime to build all of that is lost on all of us who take the availability of energy so for granted. Yet it would still be utterly meaningless if we opted out of the system. Power can only come to the plug points and switches in your living space, leaving you with the small task of flipping the switch – but if you don’t and for as long as you don’t, the energy delivered is forever wasted, as it cannot be stored.

To bring salvation to humankind, God invested His own life and the sacrificial offering of His beloved Son. That sacrifice represented the culmination of four millennia of human history and God’s patient, deliberate work to provide the resources we need for salvation and eternity. It was not easily or cheaply given: the cost was beyond measure and it has taken a further two millennia of maintenance through the handed down traditions and teachings of apostles, martyrs, theologians and faithful hearts, to bring it right into your own personal living space.

But if you fail to plug in or connect to that heritage, it will pass you by and do you no good. Yet if you call on Him, he will answer you.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void. For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God ~ 1 Corinthians 1:17-18

For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (Rom. 1:16).

(c) Peter Eleazar at www.bethelstone.com

Imagine, no power

No one has seen electricity. Few have felt it. Once a novelty, we now just take it all for granted.

Something of everyday utility value, from what has for years been one of the world’s most reliable and affordable electricity utilities, has suddenly become a major newsmaker. We face daily blackouts now and the economy is hurting.

But God is a greater reservoir of power that we also take for granted. He has always been there and we also take that for granted. The sun will surely rise tomorrow and life will continue much as it always has. Many will find personal strength in their knowledge of God, through prayer or meditation, His Word or other sources of inspiration. He will reach us through everyday moments and extraordinary experiences: sunsets, deaths, births, marriages, changing seasons and artistic expressions.

But what if He took a day off, or shut down the system for maintenance or reached an overload? Just think what happens when electricity fails and you will get some idea of how we will miss Him.

If power fails, lights fail and we are left in darkness. If God fails, the light that guides the conscience of humanity, our sense of right and wrong and our awareness of the implications of death would all cease to exist. We would be reduced to the instinctive existence of lesser animals, bereft of higher thought and reason. Without a conscience, could we truly appreciate beauty, innocence, love, artistic expression or music?

If power fails, security systems are compromised. If God fails or we lose connection with Him, our ability to transcend corruption and sin would be compromised. The influences of the world would no longer stop at the gates of our lives, but would overwhelm us. Our sense of being would be undermined, because human worth and dignity would have no residual currency in a Godless culture.

If power fails, hot water ends and we battle to keep ourselves or our clothes clean. If God fails or we disconnect, we will lose the cleansing, refining influence of His presence in our lives. The noble instinct to rise above the cesspool and aspire to a fuller life would be displaced by a one-dimensional instinct for survival. Expedience would rule, principle would die.

If power fails, heating and life support systems, including hospitals may also fail. If God fails, life will fade and we will retreat into a marginal existence. Our sense of community would die and we would become totally self-centred, fighting for personal survival. Our health and lifespan would be compromised and life would become cheap.

If power fails, traffic systems fail. If God fails, we lose all sense of direction and order in our lives. We will not know when to stop, go or turn and the probability of colliding with other lives would increase. Peace, stability, order and personal direction would fail and we would stray off course.

If power fails, aircraft cannot safely land. If God fails, we cannot find our way back home. We will wander through the night with no place to rest or set ourselves down, until we burn out and fall into a heap of ruins.

I could go on … but if you can imagine a society with no power for any period of time, you will get some sense of how bad life will get when God withdraws His spirit from our world. That is exactly what will happen in what the bible calls, “the great tribulation”, when humankind will be given over to its depravity and divine restraints will be removed (2 Thessalonians: 6-7).

Oh how we need Him. Malachai 3:6 says, “God never changes”. He has always been there and will always be there. He never fails and they that call on Him will be saved, for Power belongs to God, Psalm 62:11.

© Peter Eleazar at http://www.bethelstone.com/

Power to the people ..

Is God merely a resource: a facility we use to get through life, a convenient utility which provides power to the people …

As happened in California not long ago, my country is facing a significant power crisis.

Economic growth has outripped energy capacity resulting in outages, load shedding (planned outages to prevent catastrophic failure) and potential rationing.

It gave me cause to reflect on God. He is not a limited resource, a capacity that must respond to human demand or consumption levels. He is the same whether we draw on His grace or not. He never goes away and as long as we remain plugged into His grace, He will never fail us.

His light never dims: indeed from a dispensational perspective we have more light now than the cumulative course of human history. The problem is that too many of us still choose to live in darkness.

The truth of God has transcended the universe, revealing His power and glory through events and physical realities light years away, without taking anything away from the beauty of a flower, the wonder of a new-born child or the glory of a majestic sunset.

God never sheds power. He never casts of His capacity nor is He is ever overloaded. If all six billion inhabitants of the planet were to cry to Him now, He would hear each person as an individual and know all about them. He would also guide them in a unique and personal way through His mysteries into present and eternal light.

God also never adjusts His tariffs for peaks and troughs in load consumption. Whether we call on Him by day, by night, in sickness or health, in good or bad times, He remains constant and the price of His grace is unaffected: because he already paid all accounts in advance, through the cross.

The price of sin is still death, but the reward for heaven is still glory, all of it: not a pro-rata or discounted share. God loves without prejudice and will receive every single person, from whatever gender, race, creed or culture … if they call on Him. He saves everyone who turns to Him and rejects all who reject Him: it is that simple.

God is more than enough. We don't need or seek another, for He is eternal and unlimited. Read Psalm 73 and see how Asaph almost stumbled becaue he misread God. Then he saw the end of wickedness and knew that God is enough.

(c) Peter Eleazar at http://www.bethelstone.com/