Never Again…
Verse of the Day Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. Galatians 5:1 MSG
Verse of the Day Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. Galatians 5:1 MSG
We must work . . . while it is day; night is coming—John 9:4 Ever feel like you’re spending way too much of life watching? I mean, what’s your personal watching-to-working ratio? And, by “working,” I don’t mean work-work. I mean working on those specific things for which you were created—for example, those things mandated by the two great commandments (Matthew 22:37-39). “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Are you engaging in your good works? Or do you find that you’re watching too many sermons about the Gospel, rather than living out the Gospel? Or watching too many movies and reading too many books about other people’s adventures, rather than living out the adventures God has for you? Or watching sports too much . . . watching others face their fears, face great odds, and push themselves beyond their supposed limits, rather than doing those things yourself? Don’t get me wrong, sermons, movies, books, and sports are good things. There’s nothing wrong with inspiration . . . but it’s got to be inspiration for something. “Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind . . .” (Ephesians 1:4 MSG). When God dreamt about you so long ago, did he dream of you watching others live out their great stories, but not you? Of course not. Of course he dreamt of a great story for you too. Of course he has a story he cannot wait to share with you, right now. Okay, so what do we do? Search your heart, brother. What’s going on in there? Is it rising? Falling? Is it light? Heavy? Stop, now, and pray to God that he lead you into your story . . . your ancient story. That’s a good prayer. That’s one, I think, to which he’ll likely respond. So, you might buckle up…
Deep Sea Fishing – Sodwana Bay. Sodwana Bay is well known for its marlin and sailfish as well as many other game fish such as giant kingfish, barracuda and dorado. Sodwana Bay has one of the best Fishing hot spots in the world in my opinion – part of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage Site – Deep beautiful Blue waters makes this the ideal place for any fisherman, with a variety of big game fish like Giant kingfish, barracuda and Dorado and Bill fish such as: Blue Martin, Striped Marlin, Sail Fish and many more all make their way through the Sodwana Bay coast line. Most Fishermen make their way to Sodwana Bay through out the months of November to May each year. Although you can fish any time of the year. There are also a variety of Fishermen Sports and Competitions through out the year.
It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? Galatians 5:13 MSG
Hitting the Throttle And we all . . . are being transformed . . . from one degree of glory to another—2 Corinthians 3:18 There’s a pattern to the lives of men trying to follow Jesus Christ: sin, confession, repentance, change . . . sin, confession, repentance, change. There are other aspects to these men’s lives, but this pattern is always present. It ensures that lives are transformed, over time—that sins change and lessen in severity through the cycles of the pattern. It is, in this way, an upward spiral of increasingly coming into the character of Jesus. The pattern ensures that no man gets stuck in sin, or worse, in a downward, ever more severe, spiral of sin. God the Holy Spirit—when and if we offer our lives to Jesus—will guide us into upward spirals. If we hold onto our lives, though, we’ll inevitably slip into downward ones. It may not be obvious at first, maybe not for years, until we can deny it no longer—until anger, anxiety, depression, despondency, loneliness, isolation, boredom, or rebellion take over. And, even then, we can still offer our lives to Jesus and begin upward spirals. The penitent thief, crucified next to Jesus, began one just minutes before his death (Luke 23:40-43). Now, being men, a question arises: can we hit the throttle of change? Can we speed the velocity of our upward spirals? Absolutely. The Spirit does most of the work—it’s called grace. But, we can couple more and more of our obedience to more and more of his grace and, thereby, crank up the speed of our transformations . . . and, in fact, the transformations of our faith communities. Okay, so what do we do? Get into community with other men. Create a safe place for authentic, raw confession. Encourage each other to turn from sin, from wrong beliefs about yourselves and about God. Pray expectantly for ever more change. Do just those . . . and things will get interesting quickly.