written by Stephan Joubert
A church leader tells somewhere how his wife and he once showed up at a restaurant late one evening, a couple of minutes before closing time. The owner didn’t want to serve them because the kitchen was about to close. The church leader then caused a big ruckus and expressed his unhappiness with the poor service. The next morning his phone rang. It was the restaurant owner’s wife. “Were you maybe at our restaurant last night?”, she inquired. Then she added: “My husband, who doesn’t attend church at all, keenly watch your messages on television. He says it looked like you, but he can’t believe that you’d be so rude. I’m phoning just to make sure.”
The church leader then had to admit that it was indeed him who visited the restaurant. He apologized, but the restaurant owner said that he was now finished with Christianity for good. This story caused me to reflect deeply since I know I’m often an embarrassment to the Lord myself… rather than an ambassador. What about you? Are you a dependable ambassador?
written by Stephan Joubert
I once read a tale of two monks that went on a journey. At a river they encountered a woman who couldn’t cross the fast-flowing water without help. The first monk refused to help her, since it was against their order’s rules to touch a woman. The other monk immediately offered to help by carrying her on his shoulders across the river. Afterward, the rule-abiding monk went on for hours about his “shocking” breach of their rules. “I don’t understand your unhappiness,” the helpful monk eventually answered. “I put that woman down hours ago, but you’re still carrying her around.” How true! We don’t get other people off our shoulders easily, especially not those that breach our own religious rules.
Stop your prejudiced opinions about the behavior of others for a change. You can’t live their lives on their behalf. You can’t make your unasked for religious views applicable to them. Only when you have the courage to establish an authentic relationship with them do you earn the right to talk to them about the Lord.
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written by Stephan joubert
“You have no choice but to accept me as I am,” a church council member told me once. “Why?” I inquired. “I have been made and left just like I am,” he replied. “No, you’re wrong,” I said. 2 Corinthians 3:18 teaches me that God’s Spirit transforms us into the likeness of the Lord with ever-increasing glory. We are not victims of ourselves, our education, or our circumstances. We don’t have the “luxury” to stay as we are. Christ gives us the grace and privilege to change and grow.
Too many South African people, black and white alike, are still victims of this guy’s “I can’t change” syndrome. That’s why our deep-rooted prejudices toward each other still run strong, despite 70% of the people in our country saying that they’re Christians. Does this happen since we believe we have the right to think like we always did about things like racial relations? Does it happen because in church we only speak about faith or moral sin while dodging questions about how we need to treat each other across cultural and racial divides? Or maybe because we ourselves are bad examples of true transformation in this area?
written by Stephan Joubert
The other day I realized a funny thing about myself — I’m better at spotting mistakes in other people than at spotting them in myself. I can also admit their mistakes much easier for them to others, in their absence, than I can admit my own mistakes to God. I’m keen on shifting blame when I encounter dark areas in my own life. When things go wrong, I blame anything — from my circumstances to the fact that God did not intervene early enough. But deep inside I know the truth. It isn’t God or anyone else’s fault that I suffer certain shortcomings. It’s me who allowed these areas of concern a place in my life. It’s me who gives anger and non-fulfillment illegal parking spaces in my life. It’s definitely not God who’s allowing bad things to happen to me. No, it’s the rest of humanity and I who’s constantly causing it by not following God’s directions at every possible moment.
