Echurch» Good News

Beware of snakes

Stephan Joubert — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:30:36 +0000

“Don’t worry, it’s not a poisonous snake,” my friend called out when his wife spotted a snake in the house. “I don’t care what make it is, just get it out of the house.” Sometimes the “make” or manufacture doesn’t count for much when a dangerous creature makes its appearance. The average person doesn’t need to be a snake expert when one appears on the scene. Yet, we have become domesticated and tame when the snake of Revelation 12 makes its appearance.

No, we don’t have to be full-time experts of everything that is wrong. Or about all the latest sins on the market. Indeed, Paul teaches in Romans 16 that we should be ignorant about sin and experts about God. But that doesn’t mean that we can rest on our laurels about what is wrong. We are called to be holy, like Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4. A life well lived for God is equal to a life that flees from that which is wrong. A life that stretches to the honor of God is a life that is not at the same place on the same time as sin. Scared of a snake? No, only careful. The Lord is our only shelter and stronghold!

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Faith is not a menu

Stephan Joubert — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:26:57 +0000

Menus are wonderful things. They offer choices. Last week, when we were dining out with friends, I thought about this as my wife paged through a menu as thick as a magazine. Faith, however, doesn’t work like a menu. At least not the type of faith that Jesus promoted. He doesn’t offer a bunch of spiritual options from which you can choose. It’s not as if you can choose three items from the following list, and ignore the rest: prayer, commitment, self-control, love for fellow believers, plove for all people… Still, that’s exactly what many people do. We have a spiritual menu. We serve God on our terms and inside our comfort zones. We follow Him as long as we can determine the way, the direction and the sacrifices.

No, God is not a Funspoiler. He is not out to try and spoil your fun. The Lord’s route is really packed full with joy. He leads us on the route of happiness… but then it’s on his terms! On Christ’s route we are always followers. We don’t take the lead. That’s why we don’t have the “luxury” of deciding when we want to pray and when we don’t. Or when we want to care about others and when we want to be rude. We serve God full-time, like Jesus explains in Luke 17:7-10. We all have the same calling: to be his disciples! Take note, not his admirers, fans or supporters!

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Good wishes are not enough in 2012

Stephan Joubert — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:10:59 +0000

Everyone is wishing each other merry Christmas and a happy new year. Even banks and clothing stores are doing it nowadays with a general text message. When your birthday arrives, good wishes abound as well. But has anyone ever followed up two weeks after their good wishes and asked whether they are becoming a reality? Have you discovered the true joy of the Child in the Manger like every text message wished you? Has anyone who wished you a happy new year send a message that they’re still praying for those wishes to come true in your life?

When parents tell their working or studying children something like: “Drive safe,” they phone later or send a message enquiring about their child’s safety. Meaning, they follow up their good wishes with good deeds. But this applies to almost no one who wishes each other things like: “May all your dreams come true in the new year.” Wait, I’m not saying that it’s hypocritical to share such wishes. It’s a really nice custom! What I’m saying is that we as followers of the Lord should take these wishes serious enough to follow up with further caring words and acts. Don’t wait for others to do it to you first. Follow Jesus’ Golden Rule in Matthew 7:12. Do first to others what you would like them do to you! Just think how you will take the wind from people’s sails if you give them a follow up call or message here in the second week of 2012 to see if the wishes you prayed down over them are starting to happen. Or if you repeat those very wishes and ensure them that you will regularly ask the Lord to make them a reality.

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The right kind of joy has your name and address

Stephan Joubert — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:43:45 +0000

New year’s resolutions are the order of the day. Everyone wants to lose… weight, I mean! Everyone wants to change and become better. Still, most new year’s resolutions last only three weeks. No wonder that Joey Adams says: “May all your troubles last as long as your new year resolutions.” Mark Twain puts it even stronger: “New Year’s Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”

What about joy as the main aim of 2012? “What’s new?” I can hear you asking. Joy normally lasts only as long as the Christmas season. Joy is gone with the 2011 December break as soon as “real life” resumes in 2012. Well, here’s a news flash. You don’t have to search for joy. It is as futile as trying to catch a handful of wind. Joy searches for you — The Lord’s kind I mean! All other forms of joy are man-made and temporary. Only joy that reads “Made in heaven” is lasting. It’s circumstance-proof. It doesn’t fade with age or lose value with use.

How does God’s joy find you? I don’t know. There’s no recipe or three easy steps. But what I do know is that Ecclesiastes 2:24 is true: “There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.” God shares his kind of joy freely with all his loved ones. You don’t acquire it. You only receive it in surprising, supernatural ways. What I know for sure is that God is today extending an invitation to you to receive his peace. Prepare yourself to be surprised and overcome by heavenly joy during 2012. Live in expectation!

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Not a 2011 Christmas-victim after all

Stephan Joubert — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 18:25:13 +0000

From 26 December, Christmas is on sale. Literally! Then you can buy Christmas trees, crackers, gift paper and many other products at discounted prices. Christmas music is redundant ‘til this time next year. In the same breath, some people are also done with their idea of a sentimental Christmas-Jesus for the next year. Luckily, everyone who’s ever really encountered Jesus head-on, and whose lives are forever different because of this encounter, can still celebrate Christmas beyond Christmas. We know Jesus is the only reason for our entire life. It’s not just a 25 December experience.

On 26 December, and every day after this, Christians can still bow down in awe before the Child of the Manger, the One who came humbly and quietly to our broken world. He arrived among us without any trumpet blowing. His bed was a simple wooden container from which the animals ate. Still, this Child of the Manger rewrote world history. He has permanently tipped the scales. The scales have now shifted 100% in the favor of God’s grace, because Jesus is God’s living, unrefined grace in action. He’s the heavenly proof that God loves the world unconditionally.

A Christmas life looks different with people who follow Jesus. Yes, his people give gifts to those they love during Christmas time, but they don’t stop there. Beyond 25 December they give something of themselves all year long. To them, Christmas is a 365 days long feast filled with compassion. They continually notice people who don’t have food on their tables, and those who have no one to be good to them. They are full-time gifts from the Lord to those around them.

Merry post-Christmas.

Peace

Stephan Joubert and everyone at echurch

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Which clothes are in fashion?

Stephan Joubert — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:31:41 +0000

A legend goes that a shocked silence transpired in heaven when the news broke that Jesus was going to earth. The archangel Michael immediately offered to go in Jesus’ place. Jesus declined his offer. Other angels offered to make the most beautiful royal clothes for Jesus for his long journey to earth. He also didn’t accept that. He mentioned to them that He already had clothes for his journey… clothes not available in heavenly closets. Then the angels had to hear that Jesus’ clothes for his earthly stay was that of slaves, like Paul writes in Philippians 2. In the clothes worn by the lowest and the most redundant He came and walked among us. That’s the right heavenly clothing for earth.

Jesus looked different to those pious sculptures that Christian art left us about Him. He didn’t walk around among us with a golden halo over his head. He also wasn’t surrounded by angels, holy ones or nobles. His pillows were often the rocks of Galilee. His friends were tax collectors, sinners and cast-outs. His pulpit was the open field. His sermons were parables, questions and miracles. His workplace was everyday life — there where God’s favorite lost property stayed, worked and played. Jesus didn’t come only for the sick, lonely, broken and hopeless. He came to open a new door back to his Father’s heart for everyone who lives in darkness. That’s why the Child of the Manger became the Lord of the cross and the open grave. That’s why other clothes are in fashion for Him!

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The feast is in our hands every day

Stephan Joubert — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:36:50 +0000

The mere fact that the current cycle of 31 days is no longer known as November, but as December, causes people to be much more relaxed and cheerful. Suddenly one of the standard questions on everyone’s lips is: “Are you on holiday yet?” Surely we would have liked to spend every 30 or 31 day cycle of the year like this. (I really pray that you’re managing this already and this good news is old news for you.) If we allow the calendar year to exclusively determine our lives, it will also determine our happiness.

A while ago I encountered an elderly man who is angry with the government (what’s new?!). The reason? They want to abolish Christmas. I immediately opened my cellphone bible application and told him that we could read about and celebrate the birth of Christ right there and then. Slightly taken aback, he told me not to fool around and make jokes. Then I assured him that I never joke about God’s Word. That’s why I don’t have the luxury of waiting for Christmas to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Every day is a day of celebration in the Lord’s Name. I don’t have to wait for the government or the church or whoever to announce a holiday before I start celebrating. Every day is a day of celebration with the Child of the Manger and the Lord of the Cross.

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The best is yet to come!

Stephan Joubert — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 11:02:07 +0000

The story of Simeon in Luke 2 is one of my favorite stories for the Christmas season. It tells the story of someone who never lost hope. No wonder that the Spirit of God one day showed him that he wouldn’t die before he saw the Messiah. What a dream to live for!

I know many people who no longer dream big dreams. Or who never even started. They live like robots from one dull day to the next. Nothing excites them. For them, expressions like: “I have also tried that, but it doesn’t work,” are victorious. Not Simeon. For him, every day was a day filled with expectation and new possibilities. Possibly on this day he would see the Messiah!

And then that big day happened. I can only imagine with what joy the heavenly Comforter invited him to the temple in Jerusalem. After he arrived there, the Spirit directed his attention to the Child Jesus. Immediately Simeon approached and picked Him up. All of a sudden his dream came true. Salvation became a reality once and for all in this Child.

Hope has a name: Jesus! No wait, I don’t mean that figure who lies powerless in mangers in every second shop over Christmas time. I’m talking about Jesus the Lord who changes your entire life when He picks you up into his arms. What surprises don’t await you for the rest of your life when you start walking after Him! Then the best is yet to come! Old and new treasures wait around every corner. Indeed, one of the promises that accompanied the coming of Jesus and the outpouring of the Spirit is that old people will dream dreams again, and young people will see visions. Do you know what I’m talking about?

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Vital lessons in the use of spiritual power (part 2)

Stephan Joubert — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 07:57:30 +0000

Yesterday we learned three things about God’s power form 2 Corinthians 12:

Lesson 1: God is the only Source of Power.
Lesson 2: We don’t need to feel God’s power before He starts working.
Lesson 3: We’ll always experience a power-shortage in our spiritual lives on this side of the grave.

Now for four further lessons on the use of spiritual power:

Lesson 4: As believers, we are power cables, not power sources. We transport breathtaking heavenly power. Paul prays in Ephesians 1 the eyes of your heart may be enlightened for this. God works in us with the same power that raised Christ from the dead. However, power cables don’t feel the power flowing through them. And we don’t need to feel it. Our calling as God’s earthly power cables is only to conduct his power.

Lesson 5: The purpose of power cables is to conduct power to the end users. As the Lord’s cables we need to ensure that his power is effectively and speedily flowing to those who need it. The emphasis is not on how much power we get from the Lord, but on how effectively we conduct it to those who need God’s power and grace today. We transport heavenly power to broken ones, lost ones, rejected ones and normal people. They need to experience his power. We’re not here on our own behalf, but to bless others in the name of God.

Lesson 6: We need to be tuned in to the heavenly Source of Power at all times. All power is from God. We can’t mimic his power. As long as we’re in Christ, his heavenly life flows through us to bless those around us.

Lesson 7: We’re not the end users of heavenly power, but daily users of grace. We don’t need power, but we do need the Lord’s goodness and grace. That He showed to Paul. It’s because we swopped these two things around that we experience so many spiritual power outages!

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Vital lessons in the use of spiritual power (part 1)

Stephan Joubert — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:22:29 +0000

We are constantly reminded that we need to use electricity sparingly. Paul also teaches us how to use God’s power in 2 Corinthians 12. Verse 9 in particular shares the biggest lesson. It says that God’s power works through human weakness. Do you remember these words: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

I hear a few vital things about God’s power from Paul:

Lesson 1: God is the only Source of Power. It’s all about Him and never about us or our spiritual power trips! God is the origin of all life, grace, goodness, and power. All honor goes to Him.

Lesson 2: We don’t need to feel God’s power before He starts working. Most of the time, He’s working despite what we feel, see or experience.

Lesson 3: We’ll always experience a power-shortage in our spiritual lives on this side of the grave. I don’t know one text where someone asks God to reduce his faith or spiritual power because he currently has too much faith and is moving too many mountains. No. The constant complaint of all believers is that they have too little faith and too little power! And Paul knows that this feeling of powerlessness fits in perfectly in God’s strategy to keep us dependent on Him. His work is not to remove all the spiritual thorns from under our skin, as Paul originally prayed in verse 8, but to show us his grace. As long as we think it’s about even more power, and as long we look at our “powerful” prayers and wonders as evidence of our faith, we’re busy with a spiritual tour de force and a false showing of faith. Powerlessness is important on our route to dependence and humility before God. The power belongs to God alone. He’s the only Source of Power. We’re merely the power lines that conduct his power here on earth!

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