Friday 23 October 2009

Crown the Year

I preached a sermon from Psalm 65:11 about the Lord crowning the year with His goodness and making His paths full of abundance, literally drip fatness!
When the end of the year is in sight, we want to slow down, fade out and begin to bail out. But like a good athlete we have to learn to run through the tape and not to slow down before the finish line. Many athletes could have broken world records if they had not slowed down. Let us learn to finish what we started with gusto, with the same energy and enthusiasm as we began. Let us put in the extra effort when we feel we can almost give up. That is where it counts.

Paul the apostle once said to a young disciple called Timothy, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith and now there is a crown of righteousness awaiting me!

As a young boy I was quite and athlete: I normally came first at school and at inter-school sprints. I came 3rd in the entire West Rand Primary School Area, which made me an easy choice for right wing in West Rand Primary School rugby team. It was easy to run away from the opponents who wanted to tackle me and dive over in the corner for a try!
My dad accepted a pastorate on the East Rand by the time I was at high school and I had my tonsils removed. I had also shot up and became somewhat clumsy (something I still haven't recovered from fully!)When I attempted to run durint the trials I came 5th. It was a schock to my system. I remember how I hated sitting on the grand stand watching all the other athletes compete. It felt like I didn't belong there. By Standard 9 I trained hard and became the leading 110 metres hurdler at the Cape School where I finished my matric. Because I skipped a year of school by completing two years in one, I was a bit young, 15 in matric competing against U/19's. But I won anyway.
In the final race the athlete in the lane next to me jabbed my foot with his spikes as we went over the second hurdle. He lost balance but kept on running; I hit the dirt nose first and felt like begging the earth to please swallow me up! But something inside of me urged me to get up and to finish the race. I hardly hit the ground or I was up and running. I caught up with the rest of the athletes and passed most of them. I came second - it was an amazing feeling. My nose, hands and knees were bleeding, but standing on the winner's podium was an amazing sense of achievement and personal satisfaction.
Sometimes we have to go through some things in a year that makes us stumble, fall, get hurt and panic; but the word today is to get up and go on: the race is not over. Run until you run through the finishing tape. Do not stay down. Do not be discouraged. Your year will be crowned with goodness. There is still hope, there is still a victor's crown awaiting you.
Put your faith in the Lord who will crown your year with goodness!

Friday 2 October 2009

David's Heroes

We all saw Kelly's Heroes in the late 60's that made movie stars out of Donald Sutherland and Kelly Savallas with their wacky portrayal of soldiers hunting gold rather than glory with the eventual shoot out between a youthful Clint Eastwood and a German Pantzer tank!
But there are a few heroes whose names are not even important that became David's greatest heroes in his army. He had men who killed giants just like he did when he slew Goliath and then he had men who fought until the sword cleaved to their hand, but the greatest three were of a special kind.
One day David simply sighed in remembrance of the water from the well of Bethlehem where he grew up as a boy. He longed for a drink from that well. But Bethelehem had fallen into the hands of the Philistines and there was no way that he could get hold of that water.
But three of his soldiers heard the expression of his desire and decided to risk their lives to fetch that water for their leader. They set off and fought their way through the garrison of the enemy and fetched a pale of water for David.
When they brought the water to him, David was astonished at their act of bravery.
'I can't drink this water1' he exclaimed and explained why he said that: 'this water is the blood of these men!' Then he poured the water he so much desired out on the ground as a drink offering before the Lord his God.
What a lesson of servanthood. This act of theirs got them promoted above all the other great warriors to be called the greates three of them all. What qualified them? They were not commanded to risk their lives, they were not even sent: they simply heard the heart of their leader and decided to fulfil his wish.
Reinhardt Bonnke the German Evangelist that has shaken Africa once said that Jesus's desire is souls and therefore he will go he does not need to be commanded to win souls for Jesus.
I am a sent one to other lands and I often go because I hear the desire of the Lord that said, Go into the all the world and preach the Gospel and make disciples.

About a month ago we had our monthly Band of Brothers meeting in our church and I simply mentioned: 'wouldn't it be great to have my life long friend Mike Wood and his wife Mary at our summit this year?' Nobody said anything. An hour after the meeting I got a phone call from one of the men that informed me that they had decided to bring Mike and Mary all the way from Australia and pay for their tickets!
It made my eyes shoot full of tears.

Mike had been one of my mentors throughout my life and I owe a lot to him. I am in no position to pay his air ticket, let alone his wife's. But the Band of Brothers clubbed together and raised the funds to purchase the air tickets.

We have just returned from the summit where many of my friends from other parts of the world attended; Graham from Birmingham, Jako from Houston, Duncan and Bev from Sowerby Bridge and Alaster and Simba from Zimbabwe, besides all my friends in church and from Johannesburg and Pretoria. What a glorious time we had in the presence of God - we even went on for an extra day! Words cannot describe what we experienced - and it was all because of a few guys who heard my heart's desire and acted on it on their own expense to bring it to pass! They are heroes of Harvester, this Band of borthers! God bless them.

Heroes are close enough to their leader to hear his heart and to know his desire. It means more to do what someone really wants than to server them with what you think they want!