Archive for October, 2006

Press On has launched… with a bang! More than 500 people rocked up at Brackenhurst Methodist last night for a huge party. With tons of giveaways and a whole pile of black and orange balloons falling from the ceiling, excitement was in the air. Roxy played emcee for the evening and Reverend Peter offered a prayer of blessing for the magazine. Return to Sender, Same Old Story and Long Story Short kept the crowd entertained.

The mag itself looks just incredible. You can see how many late nights went into getting every article, interview and page layout just right. Congratulations to the team, this is something to be immensely proud of. All the best for every issue to come; with God at the center I’m sure you will live up to your name.

The web site is up and running at www.presson.co.za so go and download a subscription form now!

There aren’t a lot of stories involving how men and women should come together in a relationship, Isaac and Rebekah are my favourite so today we’ll do a quick bible study of the story.

Read with me in Genesis 24: 1-66

Notice a few things:

I see God’s position as Abraham in the story.

Notice what both Rebekah and Isaac were doing at the time in the story.

What are the main parts that stand out for you? Why?

Is this how the world views dating?

Is this how you view dating?

For further reading, the story of Boaz and Ruth in the book of Ruth is really beautiful.

Lord, even though your word is not as clear cut as I would like it about finding the right partner, please help me to find your guidance about the issue always.

For those of us who aren’t married or dating I came across some really encouraging scriptures from Paul in 1 Corinthians 7

An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs - how he can please the Lord.

An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit.

The purpose of being single is not to wallow in loneliness and try every effort to find someone. I believe that the finding we need to leave up to God, if our desire is to be married that is what will happen. If you don’t believe me see Psalm 37:4.

There are a few goals to the single life I have found helpful in keeping focused :

• Time to deal with all those past troubles and issues
• Come to a better understanding of who you are
• Find out who you are as the woman/man God created , what your purpose is as a wo/man in this world.
• Get to know how the opposite sex thinks and works, through friends and observing friends who are already married.
• Get a good idea of the person you would like to marry one day.
• And most importantly build a strong relationship with Jesus, one that no man or woman can influence, but only make stronger.
• Spend time building friendships with both men and woman.
• Get involved at church, figure out what your gifts and talents are!

Obviously these are things that couples and married couples can still grow and learn in!

Lastly just a note to those of you who are in relationships, take care with the single people around you, encourage them, teach them, and try hard not to leave them out!

Lord, help me get the right perspective of my single time, help me to make the most of this special time in my life!

Genesis 2:18

The Lord said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Usually when you want to know what God feels on a certain matter you turn to the beginning – Genesis!

It is quite clear that God created men and women to be in relationship with one another.

Reading further on to verse 24 it says ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.’ We get the first illustration of marriage and formation of a new family.

Everyday the world distorts this meaningful relationship, so it is important for us to have a Godly perspective on the kind of relationship that God wants us to have in His Kingdom.

It doesn’t matter if you are single, dating, married, divorced, outside of those intimate relationships we all interact with members of the opposite sex everyday. If it’s at work, varsity or even in your family, somewhere along the line a relationship with the opposite sex may have affected the view you see all men/women in.

At some time in your life you will need to evaluate your view of men and women and see if lines up with how God views them. This task is important if you are to fully understand your design and purpose as a man or woman and help and encourage your partner now or one day to be fully the man or woman God created them to be.

Think about it today and I encourage you to find some books on men and woman to give you some biblical perspectives , we all need a little help. There are so many, here’s a few I’ve come across; Understanding the Purpose and Power of Woman/Men – Dr. Myles Munroe, His needs, Her needs – Willard, F Harley Jnr, The Five Love Languages.

Lord, show me if my view of the opposite sex had been distorted by the world, and help me get a kingdom perspective of them.

Romans 13 vs 9 and 10 “…’love your neighbour as yourself’. Love does no harm to its neighbour. Therefore love is fulfillment of the law”.

1 Corinthians 8 vs 1 “…knowledge puffs up, but love builds up”.

Romans 12 vs 9 to 10 “Love must be sincere…be devoted to one another in brotherly love”.

Genesis 9 vs 20 to 23 “Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backwards and covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father’s nakedness”. Love covers all.

1 John 4 vs 7 to 9 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is Love”.

John 15 vs 13 “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do as I command”.

Are you getting the picture?

If you want to know more read 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 14 : 1 as well.

1 Corinthians 12 vs 22 to 26 “On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honour. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.”

If we are the body of Christ we need to unite and treat each other with equal care and concern functioning as a whole. We need to recognise that each function and contribution of the members of the body is important and valuable. What am I contributing to the body? In what areas am I not honouring members of the body?

Romans 14 vs 19 “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification”.

Just a heads up: the deadline for submitting your drawings for the Paballo fundraiser is the end of this month. Hope you’ve been doodling away, or for the artistically challenged among us, at least bugging encouraging your friends who aren’t! In fact, you don’t even need to be able to draw, ’cause even A5 photographs are allowed.

Have a look at what some of these guys have been busy with:

And when you’re taking a break from drawing, you should visit the 1000 drawings blog for some more of these mug shots… they’re a cool preview of what’s going to be on sale on the 16th of next month.

Luke 6 vs 31 to 36 “Do to others as you would have them do to you… But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful just as your Father is merciful”.

The Bible makes it perfectly clear that we don’t get to pick and choose who to love but are expected to treat everyone with mercy.

Matthew 25 vs 40 “The king will reply ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me’”.

Romans 15 vs 7 “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God”.

Who do you struggle to accept? Jesus never hesitated to accept you.

Read Luke 10 vs 29 to 37. As a background, Northern Israel had been conquered by the Assyrians in 721 BC. The Samaritans were a half-breed nation descended from Assyrians that had the conquered Jewish territories and intermarried with the remaining Jews. Pure bred Jews considered them as unclean and social outcasts. Who in our society are the Samaritans?

The Early Church of Believers in Jerusalem

Acts 2 vs 42 to 47 “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved”.

Study this passage closely and identify how your church or cell group is getting community living right and where they could improve.