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From the President:
LIFT UP CHRIST - TELL THE WORLD
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Friends, brothers and sisters
During the next few weeks, we'll be looking back over the past, analysing the present, and setting goals for the future. For many of us the past year may have been a year we'd prefer to forget. For some, death has invaded their lives, and they've lost someone very precious... Then there is sickness, and for some of us there has been a new realisation of our mortality - the fragile hold we have on health and emotional sanity...
Life's greatest tragedy is not to fall down, it's to stay down. The greatest disaster in life is not to fail, it's to park there, and say 'What's the use?' Consider Ethel Waters who was born to a 12-1/2 year old negro girl who'd been raped at knife-point. She grew up in back-alley neighbourhoods, a tough little profane girl, who shop-lifted to feed herself when she was six. Married at 13 to an older man, she failed at that too. But she used to sing and dance before a mirror, and eventually overcame her past... You know the song which helped make her famous: 'If his eye is on the sparrow I know he watches me!' Let us be encouraged to continue trusting in the Lord who makes all things beautiful.
Everyone is accountable to God for the gap that exists between our 'actual' and our potential, regardless of our circumstances. We live in a time of profound change and increasing complexity. In the midst of such unpredictability ... our Savior remains constant as He has always been. Let us use the days ahead of us to reflect and celebrate the goodness of God. As you move into the days ahead remember that ... the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. 2 Chronicles 16:9a NASB
God is looking for something in the human heart that will ignite His support in his or her life. God is looking for a select group of hearts found in widely different people throughout the world. This group does not possess race, income, education, culture, intelligence, charisma or style in common. What they share in common is a heart that beats with one purpose alone ... to please God in all things, completely His. What usually happens is that we may start well but not finish well. We may experience success because we trusted God out of desperation, and then usually go on to do one of two things:
1. Take the success for granted and become arrogant and unteachable.
2. We sideline God to one insignificant corner of our lives.
We need to live with a large purpose in life. God is looking for starting points, for men and women, like ourselves, who will be catalysts of change that draw others to God. Nehemiah, the Cupbearer, is a classic example of someone who lived in one place yet positioned his heart elsewhere. His work and his body were in Persia, but his heart was in Jerusalem. His heart was intricately connected to the agenda of God and his people who were hurting and needy. He understood that he could not change everything, but he was convinced that he had to change something!
Stepping outside your comfort zone often begins with something very small. It is not about doing something great for God; rather it is allowing God to do something great in your heart! God seldom does anything great through us until He does something significant in us. Learning what it takes and actually making a difference for God each require a different pace. You can sprint to the knowing, but the doing is marathon. Dislocation of heart (as in the case of Nehemiah) and brokenness develop in private, but radical faith puts you right on center stage. The public arena is a noisy place that is deafening and the action confusing. At times it may be overwhelming too. When Nehemiah asked God for favour before the king, he was stepping out in radical faith that gave God lots of room to operate. Radical faith is not just a faith that you have but a faith that you practice. God wants us to get our clues and cues from Him. When we trust God, our morality, behaviour and relationships will be radically transformed. But that is just a by-product, not the objective. Trusting God and believing - is the number one priority on God's agenda for our lives.
When you read the gospels, you will find the number one priority of Jesus was that His followers trust Him. The only time He ever rebuked them was for unbelief. If you have a big God, the obstacles of life look small. God has more invested in our lives than we can imagine. No matter how large a stage God may put you on, your connection must remain strongest to Him. You may be aware of thousands in the audience, but aim to please One, that is God and God alone! God has a plan for His church and your life as an individual. Where God's agenda is championed, God's resources are channelled. Whatever God is going to do in your life or in that of your family or local church; remember that you are just a piece in the puzzle. That means you must listen carefully to what God is doing in the lives around you. Life may get a little tougher before it gets better.
God's work in our lives is not about paint and scrubbing; it's about reconstruction from the ground up, transformation and radical renovation. When we choose to champion God's agenda, we are invading enemy territory. Expecting challenges and resistance, we forge ahead, with the full assurance that heaven sustains us. It's time again to be available for God to show the world what His people can accomplish. Start by making sure that your heart, your life, belongs to God unconditionally.
May the year ahead be embraced as an opportunity to renew your allegiance to Him who said: Behold, I make all things new.
Lift up Christ ... Tell the World.
Pastor Francois Louw
President:
Southern Africa Union Conference