To You The Precious Saints !!!!
Wednesday afternoon when I got off the bus and was starting to walk home kinda day dreaming a bit. I suddenly noticed this young woman running like crazy to catch the bus I just got off. My instant thought was "Hey you dummy (meaning me not her), if you had been more observant you could have asked the bus driver to wait" and then I would have been able to add another notch to my halo. Suddenly I got this feeling to stop. I felt that I knew exactly what was going to happen next. So I waited and watched.
Whoosh the young woman dashed past me with a look of anguish on her face, nope she wasn't going to make it. Sure enough the bus virtually disappeared in a smelly, belching cloud of black smoke as it started off. She didn't make it. She was desperate, she just keep right on running. Well it was a no contest. But meanwhile at the stop street where I was standing a woman was waiting in her car to cross the busy main road. She was in the right hand lane to turn right with her indicator on. She was also watching proceedings and suddenly there was no traffic and she cut across the left hand lane and turned left and rode after the young woman, hooted to draw her attention and then picked her up and had a dice with the bus and dropped her off at the next bus stop ahead of the bus.
For me it was just such a thing of beauty of reflecting God's glory, His grace mercy and love.
I started thinking of when Elijah was standing on the mountain before the Lord. A mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was a mighty earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a gentle whisper, when Elijah heard it he went out and the Lord said "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (Beautiful passage in 1 Kings 19:9-18)
I felt that that's what God was saying to me through this woman's actions in such a gentle whisper "What are you doing here, Raymond? Can you see what I'm showing you? How to reflect my glory. Take in what I've shown you"
So precious saints never stop doing good in this world, look and listen for God's whisper, by you obeying His whisper He'll be using you and your actions to whisper into someone else's life.
Marvellous Light
Lead us out of darkness and into your marvellous light
When we wander into valleys far from home
Where shadows hover over our souls
Find us in Your mercy
Saviour of the world
You are the light of the world
(Jesus is the light)
You are the way the truth and the life
(You are the life)
You are the light of the world
(Jesus is the light)
Lead us out of darkness
And into Your marvellous light
Sanctify our spirits
Purify our minds
As we look to You, eyes open wide
Give us understanding
Set our hearts on fire
Give us understanding
Set our hearts on fire
Fill us with desire
Your are the light of the world....... precious Jesus
(by Steve Hindalong)
Jesus said to the people, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life." (John 8:12)
LoCTY !!!!!!!
Friday, November 26, 2004
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Did You Know(3)
To The Precious Saints !!!!!
What is it about our solar system that contributes to life on Earth?
More and more astronomers are learning how the other planets tie into the habitability of Earth. For example, George Wetherill of the Carnegie Institution showed in 1994 that Jupiter - which is huge, more than three hundred times the mass of the earth - acts as a huge shield to protect us from too many comet impacts. It actually deflects comets and keeps many of them from coming into the inner solar system, where they could collide with Earth with life-extinguishing consequences.
This was illustrated very nicely by the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into Jupiter in July,1994. This comet was attracted by Jupiter's tremendous gravitational pull and broke into fragments, with all of them hitting Jupiter. Likewise Saturn and Uranus also participate in that kind of comet-catching.
In addition, the other planets in our inner solar system protect us from getting bombarded by asteroids from the asteroid belt. The asteroids are mostly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Our first line of defence is Mars, being at the edge of the asteroid belt . It takes a lot of hits for us. Venus does do.
Can you imagine these planets acting like big brothers, loving protectors putting their 'bodies' on the line to protect the life that is on this planet Earth. Does not that remind you of someone?
More on Gods awesome creation to follow, watch your mail.
Info taken from The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel (2004)
The River
To the river I am going
Bringing sins I cannot bear
Come and cleanse me come forgive me
Lord I need to meet You there
In these waters healing mercy
Flows with freedom from despair
I am going to that river
Lord I need to meet You there
Precious Jesus I am ready
To surrender every care
Take my hand now lead me closer
Lord I need to meet You there
Come join us in the river
Come find life beyond compare
He is calling He is waiting
Jesus longs to meet you there
(Brian Doerksen, Michael Hansen & Brian Thiessen)
LoCTY !!!!!!
What is it about our solar system that contributes to life on Earth?
More and more astronomers are learning how the other planets tie into the habitability of Earth. For example, George Wetherill of the Carnegie Institution showed in 1994 that Jupiter - which is huge, more than three hundred times the mass of the earth - acts as a huge shield to protect us from too many comet impacts. It actually deflects comets and keeps many of them from coming into the inner solar system, where they could collide with Earth with life-extinguishing consequences.
This was illustrated very nicely by the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into Jupiter in July,1994. This comet was attracted by Jupiter's tremendous gravitational pull and broke into fragments, with all of them hitting Jupiter. Likewise Saturn and Uranus also participate in that kind of comet-catching.
In addition, the other planets in our inner solar system protect us from getting bombarded by asteroids from the asteroid belt. The asteroids are mostly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Our first line of defence is Mars, being at the edge of the asteroid belt . It takes a lot of hits for us. Venus does do.
Can you imagine these planets acting like big brothers, loving protectors putting their 'bodies' on the line to protect the life that is on this planet Earth. Does not that remind you of someone?
More on Gods awesome creation to follow, watch your mail.
Info taken from The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel (2004)
The River
To the river I am going
Bringing sins I cannot bear
Come and cleanse me come forgive me
Lord I need to meet You there
In these waters healing mercy
Flows with freedom from despair
I am going to that river
Lord I need to meet You there
Precious Jesus I am ready
To surrender every care
Take my hand now lead me closer
Lord I need to meet You there
Come join us in the river
Come find life beyond compare
He is calling He is waiting
Jesus longs to meet you there
(Brian Doerksen, Michael Hansen & Brian Thiessen)
LoCTY !!!!!!
Tuesday, November 9, 2004
Street Evangelism (2)
This year we started doing street evangelism. John Lawton, Clint Gibson and myself (Raymond White). That is the team!
The broad (and very flexible) plan was to go out on the street every other weekend on a Saturday or Friday evening alternating between ministry work at the soup kitchen and walking up Voortrekker Road (using the soup kitchen location as a starting point) up to Vasco station on one side of Voortrekker Road and then back down to the soup kitchen location on the opposite side of Voortrekker Road, just basically talking to people about the Gospel and handing out tracts. Unfortunately the team never got big enough to do both street work and effective ministry at the soup kitchen so we concentrated on the ‘sowing of tracts’ up and down Voortrekker Road. Doing this kind of thing leaves one with a whole lot of snapshots of life.
The first time we did this was on the 24 January 2004. We opened in prayer and asked God for His protection and for His Spirit to go before us, we also asked for divinely appointed encounters. We started off at about 7.30pm. We spoke to roughly 100 people and handed out about 70 tracts (The Way to God, in English). We had some incredible meetings and chats with some people, many of the people had had a few drinks and were rushing off to go to another ‘jol’. There were very few people who outright rejected our ‘free’ offer (about three or four) and we were amazed and stunned at how some people just opened up to us. Quite a few of them asked us if we were Jehovah’s Witnesses and when we replied that we were not and explained who we were and where we were from they immediately became more relaxed with us.
This became roughly the pattern for subsequent ‘outings’ on the street on the following weekends. Clint joined us during the year and then John was not able to continue with us.
Here are some snapshots for you.
Taking home a young mother who was hitchhiking to Summer Greens, we had previously, briefly met her on the street. Giving her supper (burgers) and then helping her to reconcile with her own mother and giving her a lift back home again. We finished at 11pm that night.
Being treated to a song and dance routine by some ladies who were celebrating a birthday.
Praying for an elderly man who had lost everything and had also been rejected by his family.
Many a night the first person that we spoke to told us that what we were doing was so important. Like the well-dressed dude who was on his way to Grandwest who told us his favourite Bible story in a very colourful and entertaining way.
Coming across a wedding reception and congratulating and blessing the bride and the family.
Pushing a Muslims car out of the traffic after it had broken down, yea Jesus died for you too!
The many Christians that we met who were encouraged by what we were doing and in turn encouraged us. Just imagine if you can, having a discussion on eschatology on a street corner in a howling south-easter.
The prostitute who answered me when I offered her a tract that it was too dark too read, I said she could read it later, she then countered that she did not have anywhere to keep it. Taking one look at her I knew then to give up.
Chatting to the ladies at the Laundromat and leaving a couple of tracts there after they had asked us.
Praying for a lady and she in turn asked if she could pray for us. She then proceeded to knock our socks off with prayer of such passion and power, wow goose bump stuff.
We don’t force ourselves on anybody, we don’t chase after people, no preaching, we give everyone the option of saying no to the tracts and we say it’s for free. When we mention the word free this often gets peoples attention.
This has been a really exhilarating experience for John, Clint and myself, we just step out in faith on a Friday or Saturday night and we know that it is God who is doing the work, Christ the redeemer is calling the lost, His Holy Spirit works through us and touches complete strangers. All we do is try our best to listen and be obedient to His Spirit within us. We are so grateful for this opportunity to do His will. We can only encourage you to join us.
LoCTY!!!!!
The broad (and very flexible) plan was to go out on the street every other weekend on a Saturday or Friday evening alternating between ministry work at the soup kitchen and walking up Voortrekker Road (using the soup kitchen location as a starting point) up to Vasco station on one side of Voortrekker Road and then back down to the soup kitchen location on the opposite side of Voortrekker Road, just basically talking to people about the Gospel and handing out tracts. Unfortunately the team never got big enough to do both street work and effective ministry at the soup kitchen so we concentrated on the ‘sowing of tracts’ up and down Voortrekker Road. Doing this kind of thing leaves one with a whole lot of snapshots of life.
The first time we did this was on the 24 January 2004. We opened in prayer and asked God for His protection and for His Spirit to go before us, we also asked for divinely appointed encounters. We started off at about 7.30pm. We spoke to roughly 100 people and handed out about 70 tracts (The Way to God, in English). We had some incredible meetings and chats with some people, many of the people had had a few drinks and were rushing off to go to another ‘jol’. There were very few people who outright rejected our ‘free’ offer (about three or four) and we were amazed and stunned at how some people just opened up to us. Quite a few of them asked us if we were Jehovah’s Witnesses and when we replied that we were not and explained who we were and where we were from they immediately became more relaxed with us.
This became roughly the pattern for subsequent ‘outings’ on the street on the following weekends. Clint joined us during the year and then John was not able to continue with us.
Here are some snapshots for you.
Taking home a young mother who was hitchhiking to Summer Greens, we had previously, briefly met her on the street. Giving her supper (burgers) and then helping her to reconcile with her own mother and giving her a lift back home again. We finished at 11pm that night.
Being treated to a song and dance routine by some ladies who were celebrating a birthday.
Praying for an elderly man who had lost everything and had also been rejected by his family.
Many a night the first person that we spoke to told us that what we were doing was so important. Like the well-dressed dude who was on his way to Grandwest who told us his favourite Bible story in a very colourful and entertaining way.
Coming across a wedding reception and congratulating and blessing the bride and the family.
Pushing a Muslims car out of the traffic after it had broken down, yea Jesus died for you too!
The many Christians that we met who were encouraged by what we were doing and in turn encouraged us. Just imagine if you can, having a discussion on eschatology on a street corner in a howling south-easter.
The prostitute who answered me when I offered her a tract that it was too dark too read, I said she could read it later, she then countered that she did not have anywhere to keep it. Taking one look at her I knew then to give up.
Chatting to the ladies at the Laundromat and leaving a couple of tracts there after they had asked us.
Praying for a lady and she in turn asked if she could pray for us. She then proceeded to knock our socks off with prayer of such passion and power, wow goose bump stuff.
We don’t force ourselves on anybody, we don’t chase after people, no preaching, we give everyone the option of saying no to the tracts and we say it’s for free. When we mention the word free this often gets peoples attention.
This has been a really exhilarating experience for John, Clint and myself, we just step out in faith on a Friday or Saturday night and we know that it is God who is doing the work, Christ the redeemer is calling the lost, His Holy Spirit works through us and touches complete strangers. All we do is try our best to listen and be obedient to His Spirit within us. We are so grateful for this opportunity to do His will. We can only encourage you to join us.
LoCTY!!!!!
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