Mark on Mondays

Battle Lines are drawn.

The field of battle has been chosen. The men have dug themselfs in. We have been assigned our posts. All is quiet, the birds are singing as if nothing is wrong but, this is war. The war that will end all wars.

The enemy out number us, we know some of our own are traitors; the one in the foxhole with me might stab me in the back.

I will watch my line of fire, all I can do is my job.

The men on the other side are merciless, vengeful killers ready to charge at us at any minute. Armed to the teeth and totally committed.

My first aid kitt is fully supplied; maybe I will get too save someone life today. Many of my enemies will die today but, not by my hands, not by any of us. We are here to try and save those who would kill us in an instant.

The games afoot, they are coming, yelling DIE, DIE, DIE. We jump up yelling LIVE, LIVE, LIVE.   

Casualties of war.

As I survey the battle field of truth, of faith, of life, a tear forms in the corner of my eye and slowly rolls over my cheek.

What has happened? Why has all these ones, whom I once counted as brothers and sisters in Christ, abandoned the faith. Why have they chosen to change scripture? Why have they decided that truths held for so many years are not true anymore?

I hope that they will return one day and that this is just some detour but, I hope against hope.

Sad is the day when you gaze on the destruction around you, friend’s bodies mangled and broken by sin.

In all this I see how God’s grace towers above all. How great is His grace towards those who are saved. We are all inclined to stray and do our own thing. We are rebellious to the core, only by the grace of God are we saved. Only He is able to call us out of our dark pit. He alone can call us to life. Only He can kill our rebellion. Only He can grant us love for Him and for the law.

To love Him, to obey Him that is what He wants, and He graciously grants us both.

Hallowed be His name.

Who wrote the Gospels?

Mark on Monday

Our Hope.

Man is dominated by his dreams and desires; everything we do is motivated by our dreams or desires. The saddest person is the one who has no dream or who has lost all hope that his dream will ever come to pass.

Man has always guarded his desires treasured them, protected them. Our dreams is what motivates us to get up, it gives our lives focus and direction.

The problem is not our desire or our dream but, what is our motivation for this dream. Dreams give us hope. The problem this hope within us could be false or true. It could be a dream given by God, anchored in Him or a dream of our own.

It can be a dream that is in line with what God’s will is or that opposes Him.

We are either against or for Him. We can be friends with Mr False Hope or Mr True Hope. There is no middle ground.

Even if we have a noble dream that gives us hope for the future that is not riddled with sin, it could be rebellion if it is not God’s will for us.

Hope is needed by all, we all hunt it down and want to own it, without hope mans back is broken. We must find true hope.

Having true hope starts like all other things with knowing God.

Our relationship with Him starts by Him calling us through God the Holy Spirit, revealing our sinfulness to us, our utter state of “lostness.” We are dead spiritually and cannot make ourselves alive. Only through the inner work of the Holy Spirit and Christ righteousness imputed to us (credited) to us can we become alive.

Now after we have been quickened (raised spiritually) and all that entails. We often still act as if our life is our own. We plan our lives and dream, dreams and find our hope in them.

In effect we are practicing atheist in a way ignoring God in practice which we would deny but in practice we almost forget Him we leave Him out of the equation.

Our hope is Christ, it is God and His sovereign rule, our hope is too be grounded in His love for us and above all in His glory. See His glory is all that counts, do not for second think that His glory is under threat or could be threatened, it cannot be.

So His plan will never be, even minutely successfully apposed, He has a plan a great plan for our lives, of how we would grow in knowledge of Him. By knowing Him better our faith grows.

I have been a Christian all my life and have been a believing, Spiritual living one for over 22 years.

If I look back I have made many mistakes but, I have always had the knowledge that God is sovereign and has a plan. There is a reason for all that I have experienced the good and the bad.

The dream of full time ministry has always stayed, in the beginning it wasn’t as strong but the desired has grown over the years. The detour of the last 11 years had a reason. To others it might look like wasted time but, it wasn’t and if it continues, it still wouldn’t be.

I remember Moses, he was trained in Pharaoh’s court and fled to the desert land and stayed there for forty years before his visible ministry and service started. Look at Joseph, he was sold as a slave, he was imprisoned before his service started.

Think of the Apostle Paul who also lived in the desert after his conversion before his ministry really took off.

As long as we recognise that we are not the captain of our ship, as long as we realise that God know best and that He is in control we can have hope. We are not exposed to the elements and the whims of luck. Our lives are ordered by God. If someone knows what has to be done and what is best it is Him.

Praise Him, for in Him hope is not empty, candyfloss dreams but rock solid and sure.

James 4:13-17. 

Boasting About Tomorrow

¹³ Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. 

  

Hope is always welcome here.

It has been far too long; feels like a life time.

 Hope has come to visit, he is camped out on the front lawn. I have gone out to have a drink of coffee with him. I’m still scared to invite him in, afraid to give him permanent lodging. He has a bad rep around these parts.

See, he has been here before but, he never seems to deliver. His presence has always seemed, a temporary thing. So I’m not inviting him in, not even for a cup of coffee.

Yes, I’ll will go out and visit with him, enjoy his company for a while but, it’s too risky to let him in, just yet.

I want to know, is this just another pipe dream, a mirage on the horizon or has hope got any sustenance, is it the real thing this time.

As before time will reveal if Mr Hope's first name is True or False.

For now I’m enjoying the thoughts of ”what could be.”

He has been here often enough to know, I might be exposing myself for another bite in the butt but, I’ll keep him out on the front lawn in his tent, his presence comforts me.

Oh, who am I kidding?

He has moved in we had a braai, he has moved into his room, his unpacked and we having the best conversation yet, boy I’m enjoying his company.

Haven’t had this fire burn in me for so long and boy it feels good, I will take the risk that it will crash and burn. Bring it on lets ride the wave and see what the future holds.