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Sometimes a builder has to  pull down a house and take it apart in pieces. His job is not to pull down houses, but to build them up. But he does that which is not his job  that he may do his main job. He cannot build on a rotten foundation. In the same way, God will not  build on a rotten foundation. He will not build upon carnal confidence, carnal trust, pride and covetousness. He must first  demolish our rotten foundation with afflictions and sufferings. He uses  these things to take away any happiness we have in our trust of sin. God uses suffering and pain     to force us away from our sins. He demolishes the rotten foundation, to build up a more excellent building that shall endure to eternity….He does that work which is not his main job, to do his main     blessed good work. He afflicts us to drive us out of ourselves, so that we can trust in him, in whom is all our true happiness and good. RICHARD SIBBES  (Paraphrased from ‘T...

What if someone promised you the perfect place to live, in a more beautiful location than you had ever seen or imagined, with every single one of your needs met and where you would be surrounded by relationships of love forever? What if that person told you that you would need to surrender what you now have, that the journey would be long, and that there would be sacrifices and suffering along the way, but at the end the glories that have been pictured for you would be yours? What if someone promised that when you become weak and disheartened, someone would be there to encourage and strengthen you, so you could continue the journey? What if this person said that there is a place in this gloryland prepared just for you? What would you say and do as you compared the small bag of things you have now to the unprecedented beauty of the gift laid before you? Wouldn’t you say, “I’ll take that journey”? Wouldn’t you be willing to make those sacrifices? Wouldn’t you, in moments of discouragemen...

Hast thou no scar? No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand? I hear thee sung as mighty in the land; I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star. Hast thou no scar?   Hast thou no wound? Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent, Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned. Hast thou no wound?   No wound? No scar? Yet, as the Master shall the servant be, And piercèd are the feet that follow Me. But thine are whole; can he have followed far Who hast no wound or scar? Amy Carmichael ( 1867-1952) Amy Carmichael was a missionary to India where she rescued hundreds of orphans in the midst of terrible suffering. This poem fits well as a commentary on Carmichael’s life. She lived a life that abounded in compassion and was ready for self-sacrifice. The poem is also a challenge to all who profess faith in Jesus. A true follower of Jesus is called to pick up the cross and follow Jesus. To be crucified with Jesus by dying to self. That is t...

I am not what I ought to be! Ah! how imperfect and deficient! - I am not what I wish to be! I 'abhor what is evil,' and I would 'cleave to what is good!' - I am not what I hope to be! Soon, soon, I shall put off mortality: and with mortality all sin and imperfection! Yet, though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say, I am not what I once was - a slave to sin and Satan; and I can heartily join with the Apostle, and acknowledge; By the grace of God, I am what I am!   JOHN NEWTON (Source: The Christian Spectator, 1821) In this era when statues of slave traders are being violently removed in cities in the western world, it is good to be reminded that of how God deals with human sin. The name of John Newton is familiar to all who have watched the film on William Wilberforce, Amazing Grace.   John   was old slave trader who had become a preacher of the sensational good news of Jesus.  Looking back on his life, he estimat...

I probably should not be saying this publicly, but I am quite poor at reading most things that come in hard copy! The main reason is that I have so many things to read so I usually restrict myself to things in easily digestable electronic format. Plus I have always thought that information that I need to know will somehow get to me. Perhaps I have swallowed the notion of "consumer sovereignity" too much that I forget that there are are many barriers to information flowing in my direction. Unfortunately, my failure to read hard copy means that I often miss out on good stuff that is genuinely worth knowing. Which is why I am grateful to God that atleast this month, I managed to read a copy of the GBM Herald. I have only just found out that some of the articles are available in pdf here .  But I would definitely recommend picking up the hard copy. It is very readable on a bus / train ride because of its A3 sizing. Most important it has some great stuff. Here are three quo...

This week I am kindling ' Be A People Person : Effective Leadershio through Relationship ' by John C Maxwell. He has a great chapter on how to be a person people respect. A key part of having respect is "failure proofing" your life through listening for the “alarm bells” in your life. Here are Maxwell's 10 questions every leader must ask to help spot those warning signs. 1. Is My Personal Walk with God Up to Date? Every leader should be able to answer the question, “Do you have a word from the Lord that is up to date?” or “What have you been learning recently from the Lord?” We should have something that God is teaching me us today. 2. Am I Keeping My Priorities Straight? Countless numbers leaders have become “successful” only to discover the tragic price for their success was a broken marriage or loss of health. At some point along the road to success, their priorities shifted. Our priorities must be God, family and vocation - in that order.

The Christian life takes effort, and that’s a good thing; making an effort is the best way to know you’re for real. Be glad that blocking out time for prayer and Bible reading is inconvenient. This gives you an opportunity to prove that you really do love God, for we only make time for the people we care about. Rejoice for the opportunity to love your enemy, forgive the friend who wounded you, kee p your word when it hurts, swallow the gossip you are dying to share, call in a favor to help someone else, and look away from the barely covered model on your television or computer screen. The burn you feel means you’re paying a price, which is something a hypocrite would never do. What has your faith in Christ cost you? Gladly pay it, and keep the receipt. It’s proof that you’re for real. MICHAEL WITTMER Wittmer's point is an important one. The "cost of dying to self" is not just for God. It is for us as well. When we experience the cost it should reassure us that we...

When Jesus transforms our desires, we realize that the problems we have with sin in this world are not because we want pleasure too much; our problem is that we want pleasure too little. It is tragic when so-called Christians live just like non-Christians, running endlessly after the next temptation, the bigger house, the nicer possession, the newer pursuit, the greater notoriety, the higher success, and the more comfortable lifestyle. Such a quest for pleasure in this world reflects a lack of contentment in Christ. Deep down inside, people seem to be afraid that if they let go of the stuff of this world, they will miss out on satisfaction in this world. But disciples of Jesus gladly leave behind the trinkets this world offers because they have found surpassing treasure in Christ. The passionate pursuit of true, deep, and lasting satisfaction always leads to Jesus. DAVID PLATT There's something about the way Platt writes that just cuts the straight to the heart and leaves yo...

Hurried devotions make weak faith, feeble convictions, questionable piety. To be little with God is to be little for God. To cut short the praying makes the whole religious character short, scrimp, niggardly, and slovenly. E M BOUNDS The problem is that we know this to be true, but we must get in the habit of remembering it. This why it is so helpful to keep re-reading E M Bounds. He reminds us what is already obvious in our hearts. If we genuinely love God, we will take more time to spend our very best time with him. But how to do this? This is the paradox of our situation. For it is only through deep devotion and pray that we can yearn to love God more and more. It is only by praying for deeper praying that we grow to pray. It is only by studying God's word that we grow to love his word. Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this deadly paradox? Thanks be God that in Christ, His grace is already sufficient for me. Only by grace can we enter, and ...

God may speak outside the pages of Scripture, because God can speak whenever and wherever He wants. But we should become increasingly humble about our claims the further we get from Scripture. MICHAEL WITTMER This would seem to be a very wise balance to strike between "my Bible is the only message" and "I had a vision in the night". God can and does speak through any means he chooses. But because the Bible is the only most clear and sure way he speaks to us, we must be have the humility to subject everything else to it. We need "holy scepticism”. Wittmer is correct that humbleness is key. I think humility / humbleness is the correct word because it takes humility to admit that the vision may be just in our head. The pride of man is what drives many of us to claim things we have not experienced. And when we find that our "10 minutes to heaven" story does not line up well with the Bible we are prone to reject the Bible rather than accept our e...

The most dangerous idols for all of us are those that are easily Christianized. Selfishness is most dangerous when it masquerades as service. Self-focus is most powerful when it dons the costume of love. Earthly treasures are most seductive when they take on the appearance of spiritual need. Idols do their nastiest work when they wear the latex mask of God. PAUL DAVID TRIPP This is a stinging statement! It is worth coming back to time and time again. Too often we think we are serving God when in fact we are just serving ourselves. The problem is that we are convinced we are serving God.

The greatest battles take place in the smallest moments PAUL DAVID TRIPP There's a lot of truth in that for battles of every kind. I know from personal experience that one does not work one night and discover that they are have suddenly put on weight. It is through small acts of bad eating choices and then bang, you have put on weight. And what is challenging is that those battles are difficult to win because they are repeated often and seem so inconsequential in isolation.  I have also found that areas where it is most difficult to be a light for Christ is in day by day faithful discipline. For example, it is easy to do an evangelism event, but much harder to know your neighbours. It is easy to pray for world peace but harder to greet that colleague who says nasty things. It is easier to give money to foreign missions but much harder to spend 10 minutes with a homeless person down the road. The challenge of Christian living is to allow God to be...

No one is cast off by the LORD forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone. (Lamentations 3:31-33) That is how wide and vast God's love is! What then does it mean for us? The verses that follow answers that question : Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say: “We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven. (Lamentations 3:40-42) I love it. Hearts AND hands. The double emphasis is self explanatory. The outward behaviour always follows where the heart has already been! Changed hearts always leads to changed posture of our hands! Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2014

I find that mere change of scene always has a tendency to decrease my faith at first—God is less credible when I pray in a hotel bedroom than when I am in College C S LEWIS I think what he seems to be saying is that community matters for holiness. The more we grow deeper in fellowship with others the stronger our faith becomes. Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire. He breaks out against all sound judgment.

Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don't have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don't have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life. JIM COLLINS The corporate management guru has made a gold mine statement! When I read this first time I thought it only related to national and boardroom matters. But as I have kept thinking about it this week, it has struck me this truth holds for every area of my life. It applies to personal, family, church and work life!

One percent improvement per week in almost anything will make radical differences in a year. JOSH HUNT This reminded me of another quote that I came across : if you spent one hour each day on a subject, in 5 years you will become an expert on that subject. Consistency is the mark of a disciplined and fruitful life!   Oh, now hard it is to improve consistently by 1%! How hard it is to spend 1 hour a day on something consistently for five years! Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2014

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs. DR DREYFUSS That quote is from a recent horror movie I watched ' Mama' . This came to mind yesterday as we were discussing with friends the sensational and earth shuttering Christian claim that "God lives in me". The world is certainly right to ask, 'we hear you, but where is the extraordinary proof?'

You can set an auto-pilot to take you from Dallas to Chicago. You can turn the stick on the plane and force it to go South instead. But, eventually, you will get tired and the plane will make its way North again. So it is with our desires. We can force ourselves to do what we don’t want to do for a time, but eventually, what we want to do wins out. Eventually we do what we want. JOSH HUNT From Josh Hunt’s book ‘ Good Questions Have Small Groups Talking ’. It reminds us that behaviour modification can never work without belief modification. We must come to believe something different and we will come to behave differently. Beliefs always drive behavior. As Willard said, "beliefs are the rails on which our lives run.

Our home group has been memorising Psalm 91. This is a step up from Psalm 23. My memorisation app says there are 273 words in Psalm 91.  I can now recite all of it! That's a lot of words to remember in precisely the order they appear! What has struck me as I have been memorising these psalms is two things : First, words come alive . I have found that the words I struggle to memorise are words that I miss easily when reading the passage. Words that unlock the mean of passages or even the entire psalm. For example as I have read psalm 91 I kept missing a key word in these two verses : "Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge— no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent" (v9, 10 ESV). The word I missed repeatedly was "allowed". It speaks to the sovereignty of God over all that comes near him! And once you focus on that word the entire psalm fits into place. For example, because God is th...

If we obey God it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the sting comes in. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything, it is a delight, but it costs those who do not love Him a good deal. If we obey God it will mean that other people’s plans are upset, and they will gibe us with it—“You call this Christianity?” We can prevent the suffering; but if we are going to obey God, we must not prevent it, we must let the cost be. - OSWALD CHAMBERS This is by far the hardest thing we are likely to struggle with as we seek to live lives that are totally surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. What if obeying God meant that your family members lost a well-known or well-loved circle of acquaintances? Had to move to a smaller house? Drove uglier cars? Wore older clothes? Lived by a weekly rather monthly budget?Accepting this part of obeying God is especially difficult for men or women who are the breadwinners for their families. The c...