17. April 2010 by Johan.

“When things go wrong as they sometimes will, and the road you’re trudging seems all uphill, when funds are low, and debts are high, you want to smile but you have to cry ….”
I’m sure most of us have felt this way on more than one occasion. Rediscovering the words of Romans 8:31-39 is so important when we feel God has put me on the shelf and maybe He forgot about me. God is near in prosperity and pain. God is not the One that needs to ensure that my life is a ball. Sometimes, pain and suffering is exactly the megaphone the Lord uses to reach a deaf world, as C.S. Lewis puts it. God’s presence is not equal to the absence of hurt and hardship and that’s many a time humanity’s big mistake about God.

Posted in Home | No Comments »

28. January 2010 by Johan.

One of the recommended lectionary readings for Sunday is the well known 1 Corinthians 13. I won’t be preaching on it Sunday but I took a few minutes tonight reading through it carefully and it once again struck me that this well known chapter calls us to protect the integrity of other people. It’s your calling as Christians to first believe the very best of other people. The Lord expects us to honor, serve and respect fellow-believers and other people. Don’t instantaneously believe perceptions. Faith becomes empty if you play along with the rest of the world’s game of gossip, spreading suspicion and breaking down other people. A critical heart endangers our spiritual well being.

Posted in Home | 1 Comment »

16. December 2009 by Johan.

I see images of rioting crowds in Copenhagen and I see images of new missiles being tested in Iran. I see images of despair in Pakistan, Palestine and Darfur and I listen to couples swearing and shouting insults at each other 2 o’clock in the morning when the pubs close downtown.

Should we be scared and should we hide, should we flee from all of this?

Our Christmas celebrations reminds us that God did not take off when He saw what was happening on earth, He didn’t go into hiding because the world seemed out of control. He sent His Son.  How can we His followers then flee from the hard realities of life when we have experienced the healing and mending power of Jesus in our own personal lives?  Proof of the true message of this season is to be found in Christians standing next to our Lord addressing and finding solutions for the chaos all around us.

Posted in Home | 2 Comments »

14. December 2009 by Johan.

The impression that visitors have of the warmth of a church will hinge primarily on the experiences they have as they interact with greeters, ushers, worship leaders and those seated around them - Kennon L Callahan

Posted in Home | No Comments »

22. October 2009 by Johan.

Sunday is Reformation Sunday and for Presbyterians God’s word is all important.

“If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you

believe, but yourself.” Augustine

Kierkegaard said that “most of us read the Bible the way a mouse tries to remove the cheese 

from the trap without getting caught. Some of us have mastered that.”

We read the story as though it were about someone else a long time ago; 

that way we don’t get caught.

Posted in Home | 1 Comment »