A new strategy

Samuel describes David’s battle with the Philistines in 2 Sam5. David came against a large Philistine army and asked the Lord to help. He gave him the go-ahead and they routed the Philistines.  A short while later the Philistine army gathered again in the same valley. One may think that David would know how to go about winning again but he does not presume and asks God. God gives him a totally new strategy, sends him to attack from another direction and tells him to wait until he hears the “rustle in the mulberry trees” before he attacks. David hears the sound of an army on the march, he attacks and is victorious.

The strategy changed. He had to wait for the supernatural edge. Like Joshua at Jericho, Moses before Pharaoh. Like Abraham’s Sara, Hannah and Samuel, Elizabeth and John the Baptist – empty wombs that had to wait till the time was right before they could bear.

There is a moment when the time is right and when the supernatural power of God is released to create a miracle. We have to wait and we have to ask. We dare not presume that we can do it in our own power and according to previous experience. The waiting produces the sense of helplessness that is the hallmark of true humility. True humility is the knowledge that we have nothing to give, the feeling of total impotence to change the situation and with it the faith that only God can help. Like a paraplegic who has to come to the place where he faces his future without legs before he can decide to embrace other ways to move around and live his life.

One of the reasons why our prayers are not answered is because we have not learnt that “man shall not live by bread alone but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Deut. 8). To learn that, Israel had to be humbled. God allowed them to hunger and then gave them supernatural food that they had no previous experience of – something they had to eat and live from because it was what God gave – not ideal, not as divers as what they would have liked but still God’s provision. They had to be really hungry before they could accept a future of eating only manna, although it was God’s provision. They were submitted to the experience because God wanted them to learn one of the most important lessons mankind can learn – the humility that makes us wait on Him.

This attitude produces prayer that is always answered because when you are at that place, you don’t mind what the answer is going to be. You are beyond prescribing as if you know better than the Creator of the universe and you are ready to let Him do what is best, even if it seems to you to be the worst thing that ever happened.

We need a new strategy for our lives – one that is born from a sense of humility.

Ten marriage lessons learnt

My children wrote this note to accompany a wedding gift. I thought we can all learn from it.

One of the things we always say when we end up talking about marriage on the balcony, is we wish somebody had told us about marriage.  The real thing – given us practical tips in the day to day reality of being together till death do us part.  Since you will probably be reading this after your vows we decided not to scare you spitless but share with you some of the handy lessons learnt that have been invaluable to us. You remember that song “Sunscreen” (To the class of 98)?  Well, here is your own personal sunscreen for newly weds:

Marriage lesson learnt no. 1:  Find something to laugh about with each other at least once a day – the couple that laughs together laughs the longest. Friendship really counts in the long run.

Marriage lesson learnt no. 2:  Don’t sweat the small stuff – even though you may feel it’s a total deal breaker, believe us when we say that a little while later you won’t even understand why it was so important.

Marriage lesson learnt no. 3:  Find time for each other everyday, make it a priority – you see, if you believe it the other half will as well.

Marriage lesson learnt no. 4:  Compromise, not on what you believe but on what you think makes you perfect for one another – you won’t believe how powerful the words of Bridget Jones really are “I love you just as you are”.

Marriage lesson learnt no. 5:  It will obviously never be all fun and games, and marriage is designed to hit all those areas you thought you had dealt with.  God has a funny sense of humour when He looks at marriage, He knows it is one of the best ways to help us grow – that is why He says “No back door!”

Marriage lesson learnt no. 6:  When it really gets tough and it feels like there is nothing left to say, force yourselves to remember the amazing things you felt brought you together in the first place.  Ours was this scripture that said “You fools, how can you think you can perfect something that God has created.  He will complete the perfect work He has started.” (Totally paraphrasing – haven’t got clue if I got this right, but it’s the concept that counts.)

Marriage lesson learnt no. 7:  Truly, making a commitment like this in this day and age where the odds are stacked against it is a real supernatural blessing, remember this that He will perfect it in you, sit back and enjoy the view.  It becomes really tough when we try to force our own will on a relationship and it probably does the most damage.

Marriage lesson learnt no. 8:  Words can be just as devastating as an actual blow, in fact in marriage they can create scars that could take a lifetime to erase, maybe even longer.  So when you feel it boiling up from that dark scary place we all have inside of us, decide what is more important – that you are right or that you are loved.

Marriage lesson learnt no. 9:  Reacting from being loved and feeling accepted takes time, it does not come over night.  Funny when you see a really good marriage, odds are you weren’t there the first couple of years when a foundation for the happiness was first laid out.  It takes hard work and a lot of times where you feel you have to make all the sacrifices, but weirdly enough your other half probably feels the same way – so have compassion or a glass of wine both should take the sting out of it. You’ll see it is worth it!

Marriage lesson learnt no. 10:  This has to do with the paint by numbers in your gift bag.  In fact this is the soundest lesson we’ve learnt.  SO here goes, throw away the picture – we guarantee you your lives together won’t look like anyone else’s.  In fact all the numbers and perfect advice in the world won’t change the fact that you will discover your own picture as you go along.  Expectations have a funny way of killing creative loving and relationship.  With expectations there will always be the possibility for you to fail.  Expectancy on the other hand creates the environment for learning and loving together.  There really is no greater gift.

At the end of all this we can truly say that this is the most amazing experience of our lives.  Nothing really beats it!  So enjoy the start of an incredible journey together. It only gets better from here!

(PS. The party hats and champagne are to help celebrate the art of free painting, throw away the brushes too – paint away!)

We wish you both sheer pleasure together, memories that will make all the difference and a new understanding of love that only God can give you.  Enjoy the honeymoon!!

Lots of love

Lynie and Hagan

(PPS. We’ve only been doing this for 4 years and 10 months, we’ll talk again in 60 years)

‘Happy is he…whose hope is in the Lord.’ Psalm 146:5 FB Meyer says: ‘The education of our faith is incomplete [till] we learn that God’s providence works through loss…that there’s a ministry to us through the failure and fading of things. The dwindling brook where Elijah sat is a picture of our lives! ‘Some time later the brook dried up…’
(1Kings 17:7 NIV) is the history of our yesterdays and a prophecy of our tomorrows…learn the difference between trusting in the gift and trusting in the Giver. The gift may last for a season but the Giver is eternal. If the Lord had led Elijah directly to the widow at Zarephath, he’d have missed something that helped make him a better man – living by faith. Whenever our earthly resources dry up it’s so we may learn that our hope and help are in God.’

Genoeg gehad van kerk speel?

Genoeg gehad van kerk speel, is ons nuutse vertaling van Wayne Jacobsen se boek met rofweg dieslefde titel. Ons is besig om die boek voor te berei vir uitgawe in Julie en ek is baie opgewonde oor wat die boek gaan doen vir almal van ons wat “ja” antwoord op die titel-vraag. Dit is ‘n kykie op vier jaar uit ‘n pastoor van ‘n groot charismaties kerk se lewensreis na waarheid en realiteit. Geskryf in roman vorm, raak dit mens op dieselfde plek as Die Shack. Miskien nie so emosioneel nie, maar dit raak die plekkie in my hart waar ek smag na realiteit, na die ware lig. Jake se reis gee my hoop dat my reis moontlik outentiek is en dat ek erens heen op pad is.

Ek sien en hoor van baie mense wat net nie meer die gespeel met godsdiens kan hanteer nie en wat nou op plekke kom waar hulle wil uitskei uit die span osse wat die wa, genoem “Die Kerk” uit die drif moet trek. Die swepe wat klap oor ons skaamte en ons kry om te perform maak seer en baie is by die huis besig om hulle wonde te lek – niks nader aan Jesus as toe hulle 10 of 20 jaar gelede ingespan is nie.

En intussen is die kerke besig om aan te gaan met hulle prgramme asof daar niks verkeerd is nie. As hulle op die sinode of ander kerkvergaderings praat oor die “probleem in die kerk”, is die motivering meer dat die kerk leegloop as dat daar mense is wat seer het. Hulle is bereid om nuwe inisiatiewe te begin om die mense weer geinterresseerd te kry in kerk toe gaan, maar daar is min inisiatiewe om genesing te bring aan die beseerdes. Dit is asof die wedstryd verby is en terwyl ons in beseringstyd speel, is daar ‘n nuwe wedstrydplan om nog vir oulaas ‘n drie te druk.

Dit lyk eintlik soos Bafana Bafana se wedstryd teen Spanje gisteraand – baie aktiwiteit met min plan en geen resultate nie. En op die bank langs die veld gaan die afrigter tekere soos ‘n besetene want sy planne word nie uitgevoer nie en alles wat hy probeer het om in die arme Bafanas se koppe te kry, het netso weer uitgevloei.

Ek weet hoe dit voel. Ek was ook ‘n “coach” van ‘n kerk vir 16 jaar en ek het ook gesien hoe alles wat ek hulle probeer vertel en leer het, nooit in die wedstryde gewerk het nie. Ek het my hare uit my kop getrek, kwaad geword vir God, uitgebrand en uiteindelik uitgevind wat die probleem regtig is en, nog beter, hoe om dit reg te maak.

Dit is die reis wat ons meemaak met Jake in die boek – die reistog om die probleem te identifiseer en dan die oplossing te ontdek. En dit alles terwyl hy en sy familie aangaan met hulle lewens, die pyn, spanning en vreugde van ‘n lewenstog wat die ontdekking van Jesus altyd kenmerk.

Dit is ‘n boek wat mens oor en oor moet lees.

If this is heaven on earth, was I in hell before?

Patricia’s second question:   Since I have come to a place of  “Heaven on Earth” as a subject in His Kingdom, I am confronted with this thought:  If this is Heaven on Earth, was I in Hell before?   Well, if Hell is darkness and being in want and lack and great misunderstanding, then yes I was. I have noticed that Jesus was more about our life and how to live it now.  Not so much about Hell for eternity (or Heaven for  that matter – Stephan).  Very different from what I’d learned in church.   I also noticed that Jesus was not about fear, rather faith.  Yet, most church teachings taught me to be afraid and in a sense, selfish for my own eternal needs.  (avoiding Hell).  It also planted fear that I would ‘goof’ and then in effect, send myself to Hell, despite loving God and others.  I have come to believe that God’s love is beyond my goofs.   (Focus on Him and Love; not me and my mistakes, or missing the mark (sin)).

Thanks Patricia – I love these questions! Most of us have either been threatened or bribed into the Kingdom. We are either threatened by, “where will you be if you are hit by a bus this afternoon after the service?” or bribed by, “Come to Jesus and he will sort out all your problems. He will prosper you and make you happy.” Neither of these motivations are correct because both stir up the very thing that real Christianity requires to die – self. Most of us came to Jesus in desperation, either because we feared Hell or because we needed to be saved from the consequences of the lives we lived outside of Him. We come to Him from a very selfish motive and He knows it and loves us anyway. Few come to Him because we want to know Him. When you are introduced to Jesus, it is mostly an introduction to a belief system, to a doctrine or to an institution and not to a person. Something that can improve YOUR life.

If I keep on telling you how beautiful my wife is and what an excellent cook she is, how much she loves people and how much I want you to meet her, it will be stupid of me to just bring you to my house where my wife lives without introducing you to her. You can actually be in my house for a long time but if you are never introduced to her as a person, you will never know her. You may sit upon the nice couch, watch the nice TV, read the books in the library, but you will miss the reason for the visit – meeting my wife. You may learnmuch about her and even think you like her so much that it borders on worship but if you have not met her, your visit will never be satisfactory. And at some time or another you WILL lose interest in my stories about her and you WILL leave. Unless I can make your stay so beneficial that you just won’t be able to leave. I will either have to make you a senior member of my household and give you responsibilities that will make you feel good about yourself or give you some other benefits and tasks that will keep you so busy that you will not notice that you have actually missed the reason why you came into the house in the first place. This is what happens in a large percentage of the church today. We invite people in for their own benefit and then we design systems that will keep them satisfied so that they don’t leave.

Few people who come into Christianity can actually say that they have met the real Jesus in the church. The church is more about morality – living good lives – than it is about the person we set out to meet. From there the focus on sin and the fear to not “goof”. When we meet Jesus, the battle is won (and I am not talking about praying the sinner’s prayer). Once we have seen Him and come to know Him as our Friend, we want to know Him. It is not necessary anymore to coax us into activity, to preach fire and brimstone to get us to repent and become holy – we are in love and love does the work.

That is when we come out of hell. We can be in the church and still be in the hell of hard work and performance where our shame is always highlighted to get us to perform. We can profess Jesus like Israel professed to be the ‘people of God’, but find ourselves in the hell of the wilderness for forty years while we learn how to walk away from self and join ourselves to Jesus.

So, yes in a way you did come out of hell and into the kingdom in your experience of life and that had nothing to do with your circumstances being changed or receiving a blessing. Your brokenness and the brokenness of your world remained, but you were lifted out of it like a girl who discovered love for the first time. But, Paul says to the Colossians that we are translated through the blood of Jesus from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. It is a once off translation by His blood and that happens to you when you are born again. This translation qualifies you for the journey to get to know Jesus in a personal manner and to grow daily in your experience of heaven on earth. So sad that so few find it. Jesus said, “    And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (Joh. 17:3). Anything outside of eternal life, in my opinion is hell and the experience of hell on earth will climax in the place called Hell where the fire of the consequences of the choices people make on earth will burn forever without any hope to get out. While they are able to look upon the rest and the peace of those who came to know Jesus and are feasting with Him. There will be gnashing of teeth.

Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’  (Mat 7:21-23) “Normal” church activities can be lawlessness! The criterion is whether you allowed Him to know you, not how much you know about Him. And that “know” is a very intimate and personal knowledge according to the students of the original language.

That is heaven – to be known by Jesus and to know Him.

Patricia said, “The more I do life like Jesus instructs…the better my life is.  (Praise the Lord)!” How beautiful is that statement – thanks.

Lenie skryf: Ek wil weet hoe lank bid n mens vir iets? Hou jy aan soos die weduwee en die regter in Lukas 18? Of vra jy in alle erns en probeer dan om rustig te raak met die wete dat jy dit oorgegee het vir God; soos in kwel jou nie oor more nie want Hy weet die beste?
Dankie Lenie vir die vraag. As ek my verhoudingsbril opsit dan gaan gebed nie oor resultate nie maar oor gesprek. Ek glo God kon ons op ons koppe laat staan het om hom te beindruk en hom te kry om te doen wat ons wil he Hy moet doen as Hy wou. Dit gaan nie daaroor nie maar oor verhouding en gesprek. Daarom het Hy gekies dat ons met Hom moet praat as ons iets wil he – dan kry ons darem ‘n geleentheid om na Hom toe te draai en met Hom te praat. En Hy? Hy kan in ons oe kyk en ons Sy liefde laat voel. Hy WIL met Sy kinders fellowship! Hoe meer ons in Sy teenwoordigheid is, hoe meer verander ons.
Die verhoudingsbenadering maak my vry om soos ‘n kind te wees en te vra tot ek hoor Hy se nee of ja. As dit ‘nee’ is dan sal Sy genade genoeg wees – Paulus het dit geleer met sy doring. As dit ‘ja’ is, kan daar voorwaardes wees: ek kan byvoorbeeld nog nie op ‘n plek wees waar ek die ‘ja’ kan hanteer nie, of dit is net nog nie God se tyd nie en daarom is daar dan ‘n wagtyd. Maar, persoonlik wag ek net as ek klaar ‘ja’ gehoor het en hou ek net op met vra as ek ‘n duidelike ‘nee’ gehoor het. Tot dan, is ek soos ‘n kind wat aanhou vra en aan sy pa se baadjie trek. Jesus het mos gese ons moet soos kinders word om die Koninkryk in te gaan.
As jy net onthou dat gebed nie oor resultate gaan nie maar oor gesprek, maak dit meer sin. Onthou een ding wat ons nie kan doen nie, is om God te beindruk. Ons gaan Hom nie beindruk met ons geloof en die feit datons net een keer bid en dan wag nie en ons gaan Hom nie beindruk deur aan te hou vra nie. Dit gaan nie oor ons nie en dit gaan nie oor beantwoorde gebede nie – dit gaan oor verhouding met Hom en wie kan nou verhouding he sonder om te praat?

Groete

Is Jesus’ second coming a reality now?

Thanks so much Patricia for these questions – I apologise for not answering them sooner.

1)  Jesus’ second coming.  For me, He is already here.  I already am living in His Kingdom.  Under His authority as best I understand His instructions.  As I study his commands and disciplines, then as I put them in to practice I experience peace beyond all understanding.  It is my dwelling place.  I think it is the promised land. I hear people talk of His second coming and I realize that in the physical it is yet to be, but in the spiritual it is already here. Is there any way the second coming only personal?  (As is repentence)?

From the fall of Adam and Eve, the desire of Creator God was to fellowship with His children. Much like you and I long to spend time with our children when they are far away like mine who live in Chicago. Every time God came too close to His people, they cowered in fear and awe and it was impossible for Him to sit with them and hold them. So, He disguised Himself and came in the form of a man. They did not recognise Him and they could for the first time since the garden episode, really be close enough to Him to see His eyes and the love He has for them. His disguise was so good that even the disciples who lived with Him, did not really know that He was God. And He could fellowship around a fire and at supper with some wine and good food and talk with those He loves more than anything else in the universe.

But, He had to suffer, be crucified, die and go back to the unseen realm and there was a point when He had to tell them. This happened over lunch or tea and was described by John in the 14th chapter of his gospel, just before the events were to unfold. Jesus said,  “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (Joh 14:1-6)

He was going to leave but the purpose of His leaving was to prepare a place – an unseen place where He could live in close fellowship with them forever. And when the place was prepared He would come back and receive them there and they would be with Him forever. They would be where He is. And, asked Thomas, “Where would that be and how would we get there?” Good question. All the others were thinking it but they did not have the guts to ask. Jesus said, “The place is the heart of the Father, the way is through Me.”

So, now to the question of the second coming. Jesus’ words can be correctly interpreted as referring to Heaven and to His second coming as most people refer to it. But, we now know that He came back soon after that in the form of the Holy Spirit who came to take up residence in the disciples and in us (many mansions). Jesus actually promised that He, and the Father and the Holy Spirit will come to make their home in them. And He said that it would be sooo much better than just having Him there in the flesh. He promised a oneness with the Father and with Him. He actually promised that they would become the fourth person in the Godhead!

This is how John remembered the conversation: “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever– the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
(Joh 14:16-20)

So, the second coming has already happened in a way for those who believe it and for those who are willing to live in the unseen place of their hearts where there are many mansions and where Jesus has prepared a place for us to dwell together with Him. This is eternal life really means today – living as if He is in us. And when we die, it is what life in Him will mean then. It is just a seamless crossing from this life to the next with Him leading us across the divide into the unseen.

But, there will be a second coming when we will hear a trumpet blow – I don’t know what that will be but all I know is that those who expect it will know that there is a powerful intervention from God about to happen. Then, in the blink of an eye, the dead will be raised incorruptible and those of us who are alive will be changed and receive heavenly bodies like the body Jesus had when He was resurrected and appeared to the disciples on the beach and in the upper room and on the way to Emmaus. And then He will be with us and we will be with Him for at least a thousand years on earth as we rule and reign with Him. (read 1Cor 15)

The focus is on being with Him, whether in the unseen parts of our earthly bodies or on the earth during the millennial reign or after that forever on the new earth. The focus remains on being one with Him, on being the fourth person in the Godhead, the expansion of the Trinity. And for that we are getting to know Him better now, because He is the only way into that incredible conspiracy of God to get His people back to Him and to show them His love.

Yes, Patricia, you are living in the kingdom now and the Kingdom is him. There is no distinction in my mind between His kingdom and His person. We only enter into the kingdom to the degree that we enter into His life. Yes, and it is the Promised Land.

My skoonma wat nou 80 is, is ‘n voorbeeld van die oorwinnende Christen. Sy het haar seun aan die dood afgestaan in sy twintigs, sy het twee keer kanker gehad, drie rugoperasies en twee knievervangings. Sy het 35 jaar oorleef met my as haar skoonseun en saam met ons gestap deur van die meoilikste tye in ons lewe.Sy het haar man vir amper 6 maande met kanker verpleeg en saam met hom deur die donker dae van pyn gestap. Een ding moet ek van haar se: sy is die positiefste mens wat ek ken.
Sy vertel gister vir Linda van haar vriendin wat ook in haar tagtigs is en aan Parkinsonisme lei. Die tannie kla die hele tyd oor haar toestand en oor die feit dat sy so maklik val. Dit het al haar hele gesprek geword – sy praat en dink nie meer oor veel anders nie. My skoonma het haar gister opgetrek en gehelp om na die positiewe in haar lewe te kyk. Klein dingetjies soos die feit dat alhoewel sy geneig is om te val, kan sy nog loop, sy kan nog TV kyk, luister na haar kleinkinders en ‘n boek lees. “Ons moet net na die goeie dinge kyk, dan kan ons die slegte goed oorleef”, het sy gese. En sy KAN dit se want sy het die ondervinding en die reg om te praat – sy het die reg om te praat oor positief dink deur pyn verwerf.
Dit het my vanoggend laat dink aan my eie lewe. Ek is melankolies – ek het lankal besef dat ek ook geneig is om meer na die negatiewe te kyk as na die positiewe en dit maak my iemand wat nie altyd in die vreugde van Jesus leef nie. Ek is dikwels in ‘n plek waar ek Sy veugde onder ‘n klip van swaarmoedigheid wegsteek. Die oorsaak is grootliks geneties en dan sukkel ek nog met lae bloedsuiker ook wat op sy eie depressie kan veroorsaak.
Ek het vanoggend besef dat ek minder moet kyk na my probleem en na my onvermoe maar meer moet soek na die positiewe en terwyl ek so sit en Jesus praat met my, besef ek dat ek, net soos my skoonma se vriendin, vasgevang geraak het in my geveg met swaarmoedigheid en my skuldgevoel oor ek nie positief en vol vreugde is nie. Ek het die afgelope paar dae meer geveg daarmee as wat ek met Jesus gepraat het en die verlore stryd het net die skuldgevoel vererger sodat ek nog verder van Hom af gevoel het.
Al die tyd het Hy gduldig gewag want Hy het geweet ek gaan hoor wat my skoonma se – sy weet nie eers ek het gehoor nie – en Hom hoor praat deur haar. Ek het vrede gemaak met wie ek is. Ek het ook gesien dat daar baie goeie karaktertrekke is wat ek het, saam met hierdie ou probleempie wat al so baie my lewe opgefoeter het. Daar is wraggies baie om voor dankbaar te wees en ek wil wegdraai van die ander dinge af en konsentreer op die positiewe – soos my verhouding met Jesus en die lewe en vrede wat ek uit Hom kry. Ek het ook weer besef dat die lewe van Jesus in my is en dat Hy net wag dat ek uit die pad kom sodat Hy deur my kan lewe. Dit is wat ek vandag gaan doen. Ek gaan draai na die postiewe toe en al voel ek nie vol vreugde nie, weet dat ek vol vreugde is want Jesus is vol vreugde en Hy is in my.
Dalk kan ek ook soos my skoonma op 80 my vriende help om die positiwe raak te sien.

What did Jesus say about discipleship?

Jesus was asked by a lawyer, “What is the greatest commandment?” Or in other words, “What is the one thing I need to do to impress God?” Jesus said, “if you want to do the right thing, become a professional lover – firstly of God and then of people.” He didn’t even mention one commandment!
Brennan Manning said it well: “Jesus’ dominant awareness of God is not in terms of power, knowledge, beauty, or otherness, it is in terms of love…. God is close to humankind in love. Hence the privileged path for gaining access to God is love.”
That is why Jesus calls himself “the way”. Just look at his life to see the way into the presence of God. It was a life of love. He loved his Father with a passion that brought about unswerving obedience. He loved men with a love tha caused him to lay down his life for them – can there be a higher form of love?
We are in my opinion too hung up on God’s judgment, his power, glory, justice and we overlook the fact that Jesus majored on his love. Should we major on anything else?
I was called by a friend today who does not deserve any consideration except judgement from God. He wanted me to hear from God for him, for he can’t hear himself (I am not surprised). If I majored on God’s justice, I would have told him that he had it coming and that God is judging him for not listening to repeated warnings for the last couple of years. But, I have learnt to leave the just decisions to God and just to show his love. I am not called to judge my friend. Jesus gave the disciples and us a new commandment, that we should love one another as he has loved us. No greater love has anyone but to lay down his life for his friends.
I want to major on love, I want to love my friend back into the arms of Jesus. I want him to repent because he has looked into the eyes of the greatest Lover the world has ever seen and give up his sin because that love cleanses us from all sin, not because he is scared of judgment.
So, what shall I do? I shall pray and I can pray with faith because I know that the path to God is love and He has laid down His life, covered the path with His own blood so that I can walk on it and so that my friend can also walk back on it – like the prodigal son.

As daar net een God was, of as God net een persoon was, sou die hele boodskap van Christenwees verander het. Want as God net een was sou Hy nie kon liefhe nie en sou ons nie kon bestaan nie want ons is die produk van die liefde wat daar in die Godheid bestaan. Hy het so lief dat Sy liefde doodeenvoudig oorgespoel het in ‘n skepping.
Weet jy dat daar net drie direkte uitsprake oor God se karakter is in die Bybel?
God is Gees
God is liefde
God is lig
Interressant dat daar niks is soos: “God is oordeel”, of “God is geregtigheid”, nie.
God is nie oordeel soos wat Hy liefde is nie. Dit is nie deel van Sy karakter of wese nie. Daarom het Jesus nie gekom om die wereld te oordeel nie maar om dit te red en kon Hy met oortuiging se dat Sy Vader niemand oordeel nie want Hy het al die oordeel aan die Seun toevertrou. En dan later se Hy, “Ek oordeel niemand nie …”
Ek dink ons dien ‘n skadu van die werklike God – ‘n skadu wat ons self geskep het. Die beeld wat ons van Hom het laat ons nie na Hom toe hardloop as ons verbrou het nie maar van Hom af wegvlug.
Hoe dan verklaar ons die Groot Wit Troon Oordeel?