Fasting over and others

Hi There,


Truth be told i finished fasting quite a while ago. I did not make the 40 days as planned. I made 11 days. It was still worth it even though it was shorter than expected. i got closer to God and that's what counts. It was a great fast. It's the only one i did this year and was way better than expected. This was due to all the prep work i did. Next year i will do a fast and maybe even a few more. Maybe i'll lower the sights and try to hit 20 days first. Do the 40 days later. I guess we will see next year...i could add this to my new years resolutions but it's probably a bit early for that.


After the fast i also got the privledge to Preach at church again. It's great to Preach and I do enjoy it. I just get nervous inside realising the responsibility that comes with it. The scriptures are quite clear on what happens to those that lead people astray.....it's not a pretty ending for them. So yes, when you preach, speak, lead a home cell or do any stuff related to speaking on God and teaching people there is a huge responsibility to get it right and not only get it right but to say what God wants to say. It's great to open you mouth and waffle but if it's not what God wants it's probably better just to keep quite.


So it was with great care that i planned what to preach on. I felt attracted to two topics but was more drawn to one. This is normally one of the ways God leads me to a topic for a sermon. So I had my sermon which was around fathers and God as your father. Many people get freaked out by this as they associate God in the same light as their earthly father. Sad thing is that God is the perfect father. He is most likely quite different to your earthly father who at the end of the day should reflect God as the father. Unfortunatly we probably get it wrong quite a bit. I got quite a bit of feedback from people after church so it seemed to have gone down well. I though it would as there were some worship songs that tied into the theme and the worship leader did not know what i was preaching on. Breaking of bread also tied in the scriptures around God knowing you in the womb. So i guess God had a message for a few people.


Something else that struck me this week was how priveledged some of us are. A young girl came to home cell for the first time. She has had a rough life. She had 13 siblings. 10 have died. Her father has also died. Her mother has problems with alcohol and her brothers battle to get work while she does what she can to help with her work while still doing night classes to finish matric and feed her child......It's like a tv show. Yet it's here in SA. There are many more people like this in SA and the question is "What r u doing about it". More importantly and probably a bit of a cliche "What would Jesus do?" and since we are his embassadors and a reflection of him and a reflection of our Dad...God....What would he want us to do.


I read a blog this week where some christians and non christians were arguing quite strongly about how christians act weird and try to be too spiritual and not do anything practical or real. So i guess in the cases above....what can we do practically. Prayer is great, But sometimes people need a bit more. The scriptures say that they will know us by the way we love each other. It does not say by the way we pray or fast or do other things. So Love once again is the motive.


I have been reading acts and noticed how practical the early church was. Someone needed food they made a plan. Someone needs heling they prayed for them and they were healed. They baptised and evangelised eveyone and no-one was without need. In our churches do we have people without need? If the answer is no then we have probably messed up. As the early church no-one had need because veryone stepped in to sort it out.If we have needs it's because we don't step up and relly on God and work as a community to support those around us.


oh well..... Enough rambling...


That reminds me. Been at Tech-Ed this week. Other than all the work related stuff do you know how technology can reach people for the church in ways we never expected and i suppose it will be used by the antichrist in the last days to control and destroy the people of God. (He fails......read the book)


Cheers


Greg Hay