Crisis

6 months ago my family’s life hit crisis. My sister, Bianca (27) was shot.

Dead.

B had always been my best friend, one of the most beautiful women I had ever met and was using her life to change the lives of others. She was living her call passionately.

Why her? Why me? Why us?

This is part of the reality of my life story. Crisis. Chaos. Confusion.

Christ? Where is He in this?

This is another reality of my life story. Could I experience Christ in the Crisis?

This is not trying to explain why bad things happen to good people (Although I believe good and bad things happen to good and bad people...).

This is not trying to explain why evil exists.

This is not trying to explain why a loving God lets so much suffering to occur.

This is my experience.

I felt God told me very clearly that I was standing at a crossroad.

I could begin a journey down a road with a backpack full of questions, hurt, anguish... But the road I would walk would be alone. And the destination? Bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, hatred. I could feel a pull to go down this road...

But God showed me another road. I could begin a journey down a road with a backpack full of questions, hurt, anguish... But on this road, also marked Crisis, I was not alone. Christ was walking with me. On the road marked Crisis, he was walking with me. Even though I have questions, even though I still feel deep pain, I feel Him with me. He walks each step with me. And the destination? Forgiveness, wholeness, peace...

What is your Crisis? If you are alive, you will face one.

Just remember there is another road. And even though we may have to endure some difficulty, if we chose the right road, the destination is victorious!

I’m walking, I can feel the weight of the backpack heavy on my shoulders... But I’m not alone.

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Matt 11:28

Don

Noise

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will counsel you and watch over you." Psalm 32:8

God is speaking...

He wants to lead and guide us, he wants to speak to us. But so often we struggle to hear. Sometimes we are hoping that we would hear God’s booming voice loud and clear, telling us what to do.

But maybe we need to try things differently. Maybe God is speaking, but His voice is drowned out by all the noise around us.

1 Kings 19:11-13 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

We have winds of work and stress, earthquakes of hurry, fires that burn with the desire for instant answers and solutions. But God so often comes as a gentle whisper, and these things drown out His voice. We can so easily miss it if we don’t take a step back, remove the noise and listen for the whisper...

Have you ever taken time out in silence and solitude?

In his book Leading On Empty, Wayne Cordeiro says that there are only four ways to live your life:

1. Reaction – passively dominated by urgencies and pushy people

2. Conformity – succumbing to the fear of man and just being and doing what everyone else wants, which is not necessarily following God’s will for you personally

3. Independence – nonconforming rebellion in the name of freedom, marked by doing only what you want and ignoring godly authority over you

4. Intentionality – reverse-engineering your life and living it prayerfully and purposefully, journaling your thoughts throughout the day, and using silence and solitude to hear from God and organize your life

How are you living your life now? Where would you like to be?

Why not try do things differently from now on. Instead of wanting God to shout above the noise, why not try spend some time and turn off the noise and listen for the whisper...

Don

New

So this is the new year... Hmmm... Well, being a new year often comes new years resolutions. I know I have a few... Like more cardio, learn to surf, read more books to name a few. Each new year brings with it new ambitions. Often times we make ridiculous resolutions that never materialise, (like one of mine once was being the 5th member of U2... Ridiculous... But it is good to dream!) Have you made any yet? Why do we do this ritual every year?

Maybe it is because there is something within us that longs for a new start. As you can see from resolutions, we hope for the opportunity to start over, try again, do things differently.

I think we have this desire in us because it is a desire of God... God is in the business of new.

Revelation 21:5 says "And the one sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making everything new!""

It speaks of the newness of what God does in our lives. There is a sense in which God does that every day in our lives. Each day is new each day is fresh. It’s so easy to miss…

There are also new seasons of life. Just look at nature. There is new life all the time - new blossoms, new leaves, new life, new fruit. From winter to spring. From infancy to adulthood. Everything is about new and about change.

There is a scripture that has always stuck out to me, which speaks about the idea that God is in the business of new:

Isaiah 43:18-19 Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

There are some very clear points that come out of this scripture.

Firstly, God is saying we should forget the former things, that we should not dwell on the past. There is this idea that the past haunts us, that there is stuff that happened in the past that is hinering us moving forward. Sometimes we experienced great things in the past and thus constantly look back at those times instead of forward to the newness He has. Maybe there are some things that are in your past that you feel is holding you back. What are these things is your life? Because the promise is that the past is forgotten. God has forgotten it, now we need to.

Secondly, we see again the idea that God is wanting to start something NEW! God is saying to us that he is doing a new thing. What is more, he is wanting to announce it to us. God is wanting to speak to you and me about the newness he has for us. How does God speak to you? Through prayer, solitude, nature, worship? How often do we listen to His leading? The promise is He is speaking, so are we listening?

We also need to understand that with newness comes a new way of doing things. We can’t expect new things if we go about doing them the same way. There is a saying that if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.

Jesus used an awesome analogy to explain it to his disciples.

John’s disciples come to Jesus and asked him why he was doing things differently. Jesus reply in mark 2:22 says:

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.”

When newness comes you have to do things differently... From today you have to start doing things differently. Lets not try put the new wine God wants to pour out into our lives into the old wineskins of how we did things before, or how we expect things to be.

To remember this, why don't you start doing something differently? Drive a new way home? Start a new book? Try a new hairstyle? Try a different Chocolate bar (or in my case, a new fruit!) Whatever it may be, try do something differently.

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"

Don