Echurch» Powerful

Your walking is your preaching!

Stephan Joubert — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:49:49 +0000

Someone writes: “There is no use walking anywhere to preach, if your walking is not preaching.” True words. It’s easy to tell others how they should live, or to continually find fault with the behavior of those around us. Still, we all have clay feet. Wait, let me rather just talk for myself. Recently, when someone reminded me that I wrote about the control of our tongues and that it seemed to her that I spoke too easily in a specific situation, I tasted my clay tongue right there. I remembered that it’s easier to preach than to walk your preaching-route in everyday life.

However, there’s good news. Every one of us who belongs to the Lord is still under construction. We are life-long sculptures in progress in the hands of our heavenly Sculptor. We are under permanent construction of the Holy Spirit. He’s the Master Builder from heaven. He transforms human ruins into living temples who honor God. Sometimes we play owner-builder and chaos ensues. Thankfully God starts over with us on a daily basis. That gives me hope to keep walking every day.

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Your route map for 2012

Stephan Joubert — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:26:08 +0000

According to tradition, tent-dwelling Bedouins in the desert asked three things of any strangers they encountered: “Who are you? Where are you coming from? How far have you progressed on your journey?” Good questions, right? How about another here at the start of 2012: “How do you feel about the stage of your life that you’re currently at?”

We’re all travelers, and that doesn’t only apply at the beginning of the year with all our plans and resolutions. All of life is a journey, one with a starting point, a direction and a final destination. The art of a well-lived life is to know who is your Traveling Companion and other fellow travelers, on which route you find yourself, and where you’ll encounter the end of the road. By the way, if your most important Traveling Companion this year is not God Himself, then you’re going to get lost along the way. Then you aren’t really traveling… No, then you’re merely wandering around from day to day. Ask Jesus to be your permanent Traveling Companion. Then He’s also the Way and the real Destination like He says in John 14:6.

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That “midriff” … and other pleasures

Stephan Joubert — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 09:00:00 +0000

A piece of additional good news here in the week of feasts, parties and eating-big is that researchers from the USA found that people don’t really pick up as much weight during the Christmas season as everyone thought. Yanovski and his team suggest that the average American pick up about 0.48 kg during the Christmas season. In fact, Lorrie Grant found that 25% of people doing shopping during this time suffer from intense headaches, and 11% of people struggle with sleeplessness. As to be expected, people generate 25% more rubbish during the festive season than in any other time of the year.

This time between Christmas and new year is socializing-time, eating-time and shopping-time. That’s also why it’s a good time to keep moderation in mind. And to not forget about the Lord. He isn’t on leave because we might be on leave. He’s not off-duty when we’re not on-duty. God doesn’t sleep or slumber over the festive season. That’s why we bow before Him even here in the last week of 2011, and welcome Him as the Guest of Honor to every feast. Then we’re living towards 2012 in the right way.

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Hello there!!!

Stephan Joubert — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:00:06 +0000

In a scene in one of the ever-popular Charlie Brown sketches, he stands dejected in front of his post box. That’s after he realized that he still didn’t receive any letter or Christmas card. Then Charlie walks away and mumbles: “Nobody sent me a Christmas card today. I almost wish there weren’t a holiday season. Now I know nobody likes me. Why do we have to have a holiday season to draw attention to it?” Ouch! But still, this comic character gives us a window to see the loneliness that many experience during Christmas time.

Maybe Charlie Brown’s experience is everyone’s deepest fear. “What if people really don’t like me?” “Imagine I call out ‘hello there!’ and no one answers back?” There’s a good reason why fear for public rejection is listed as one of the dominant fears that face all adults. And here’s good Christmas news: Jesus cares. No, this is not just another feel-good remark. Christ cares enough for Him to have come here and said it with his own life, even to you and me. Jesus answers with heavenly grace every time when we call out his Name.

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Build your future right

Stephan Joubert — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:30:49 +0000

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it,” writes Alan Kay. We don’t know what our futures look like. Like the author of Ecclesiastes say, we don’t know what lies around the corner. But we do know what God’s future is like. For instance, we hear in Matthew 25:31-46 that on the last day of world history Jesus will ask every person on earth how he treated Jesus’ friends. And his friends are the blind, naked, poor, strangers and jailbirds. This question is a certainty in the future of each of us.

Well, if I know what’s waiting for me in God’s future, then I should rethink and recreate my own future. Then my priorities need to look different from here on. Proverbs 19:17 teaches me how. This text says: “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord.” Even though I can’t be everything for everyone, I can care for one person at a time in Jesus’ Name. Every day I can fill at least one person’s life with normal bread and living bread. I always remember Mother Theresa’s words when my path crosses that of others, especially the less privileged: “Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.”

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It doesn’t matter

Stephan Joubert — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:00:11 +0000

It doesn’t matter where you are in your life right now — the Lord is there.
It doesn’t matter how dark your life is at the moment — the Lord’s light is shining at full strength in the darkest dark and the brightest day.
It doesn’t matter how far you have fallen, or whether you’re still falling — the Lord will catch you every time. You can never fall far enough to fall out of his hand.
It doesn’t matter how small your faith is — the Lord will never give up on you. He stays faithful even when you are unfaithful.
It doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are, God never measures your worth in monetary terms.

You are too precious for God to let you slip through his fingers. You carry around eternity inside you, because Christ bought you. The Lord’s signature is on your life. The title deed of your life is in his possession. You belong exclusively to God… today, tomorrow and forever! All this simply because you confess that Jesus is the Lord of your whole life. Please confirm this wholeheartedly today and live!

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God’s way!

Stephan Joubert — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 08:45:21 +0000

Frank Sinatra sang: “I did it my way.” I would also like to someday sing: “I did it God’s way.” No wait, I actually want to sing that tonight before bedtime already. I really don’t want to postpone walking with the Lord, from early to late, for another day. Days come and go. Months race past, the one after the other. But Godly days — they come only once.

I have tallied more than enough wasted time. Like Shirley Valentine said somewhere: “I got lost in unused time.” It’s happened to me too often. I immediately want to stop wasting time. Like Paul, I want to buy out my time. My life, which is surrendered and available to the Lord today, is my deposit right now. I want to start by experiencing Jesus as my Guest of Honor today. Then his priorities will become my own. I’ll be on the lookout for people who long for a heavenly touch. I’m going to trust Him to place people on my radar screen who need a prayer or a word of wisdom or encouragement… and I will share it with them.

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Break down the house

Stephan Joubert — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 09:33:58 +0000

Divine chances might come only once in a lifetime. That’s why the friends of the paralyzed man in Mark 2 opted for the radical route. They decided to break open the roof of Peter’s house in Capernaum, and to lower their friend down to the feet of Jesus. Talk about extreme! They couldn’t not do it. Maybe tomorrow Jesus would be gone. Then the chance of a lifetime would have been missed. They would lose their only chance to bring their friend to Jesus.

Jesus also couldn’t not notice their bravery. When that roof started crumbling above his head, and dust started falling on everyone, the paralyzed man and his friends were right inside his personal space and field of view. That’s radical faith. That’s what happens when people only have one day at a time to their disposal to change the world, or to help others. Then roofs must be broken down. Then decency count for nothing. All that matters then is that Christ touches lives. Do you know what I am talking about, or is it mere Bible knowledge for you?

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“Mine, mine!” or “I lack nothing.”

Stephan Joubert — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:40:15 +0000

“Mine!” That’s what most toddlers say when you take their toys. There’s trouble if you dare not leaving it alone immediately, because it’s “Mine!” Some adults still live like this. Every desirable item they see has their name on it. “Mine, Mine!” is what they tell themselves every time they see a nice new car, cell phone, piece of clothing, camera, computer, or whatever. And then there is no rest for their souls until they acquire that very item. Oh yes, and they barely have it before the next thing must become “Mine!”

We live in a consumer driven world that continually creates new desires for things that we don’t really need. Enough is never enough. If we don’t watch out, we become prisoners of our own desires! That’s why the Bible warns us against constantly wanting the things displayed on life’s “must have” shelves. We can’t quote Psalm 23 as our favorite psalm and forget what follows right after “The Lord is my shepherd.” It reads, “I lack nothing.” Only when I confess that, from my heart, do I really have enough.

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Fast and slow enough in the same breath

Stephan Joubert — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 09:48:18 +0000

Do you sometimes want to push the guy in front of you in traffic off the road, out of hurry or pure frustration? Do you sometimes finish slow speakers’ sentences for them? Does someone who appears unexpectedly throw your schedule into disarray? Is your heart hurried? Wait, it’s not wrong to be fast. The problem is to be too fast. Or too slow! I’m referring to too fast or too slow for the Lord. If He does not determine your pace of life, you are always too fast or too slow!

God created the world at the pace of one day at a time. In the process He reduced his speed from eternity speed to walking speed like Genesis 3 tells. Talk about a speed reduction! The eternal God adjusted to one-day-at-a-time speed. But then there are also times when He is fast, immeasurably fast — like when the man next to Jesus on the cross begged for mercy. God’s grace-speed was light-years faster than the speed of light!

Adjust your pace of life to that of God. Fall into the rhythm that He has in mind for you right now. Then you’re living fast enough! Then you’ll always be in time for the important things, especially for God!

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