He’s In Control

Mathew 17 : 24-26

24After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

25″Yes, he does,” he replied.

When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own sons or from others?”

26″From others,” Peter answered.

“Then the sons are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 27″But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

For morning devotion at the school I work at there re 2 teachers assigned to each class. My partner and I take turns giving sermons and leading the 15 minutes we have with our class each morning. This morning she shared about how last week she was having a problem and without knowing it my sharing was very specific advice for her.

Even now I don’t remember the sharing I gave. Quite often I go to class with little or no idea what I am going to talk about and just talk about something I have heard or learnt in the past. But God is God and He is in control !!

Why didn’t Jesus just take a coin out of His pocket and hand it to Peter to pay the tax ? Because He wanted to make the point that He is in control of everything, nature, money, every circumstance, everything !

One of my favourite experiences as a Christian is when you have the revelation or ‘re-revelation (remember) that God is working in every aspect of your life. He knit us together in our mother’s womb, He clothes the lilies in the field (Matthew 6:27-29), He commanded the waves and wind to stop, He cures disease and HE LOVES YOU AND ME !! How wonderful that is, if He is with us, who is against us ?

Lean on Him today, trust in Him, have faith in Him. They are the key words in Christianity because that is what Christianity is all about. The fact that God is God and He has a beautiful plan. Love Him, trust Him and know that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

GBU

“Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

In the story of Lazarus and the rich man the rich man begs to be sent back to earth to tell his 5 brothers that there is a God and if they don’t change the way they are living they will end up in hell.

27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers —so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’

The answer he receives is :

29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.

In Matthew 22:14 we hear that “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” What does this mean ?

The revelation I am beginning to get is that everyone on earth is called. The bible is there, the word of God is there, His saints are preaching His message, the church doors are open. It is their choice to answer the call or not.

Then there are those who were chosen. God had predestined them. He touched them on the shoulder at some stage in their life and said “Hey, you are mine. I have work for you to do” I believe he did that with me. If you read my life testimony you will see a complete life transformation. Why? Did I get sick of the life I was leading and work hard to change direction? NO! I CAME FACE TO FACE WITH THE LIVING GOD AND HAVE NEVER BEEN THE SAME SINCE!!

I pray that you are one of the chosen. If you are it is only a matter of time. If you are one of the called, answer the call. It makes absolutely no difference if you are called or chosen as long as you answer the call.

Put your life on track to spend eternity in Heaven. If you need help with this email me – Geoffcollins1@yahoo.com.au

                                                           God Bless You, Gef

Creatures of Habit

Human beings are very habitual. Being habitual is an instinctive trait. Memory builds a list of experiences that bring desired outcomes and we tend to stick to those experiences to fill our needs. Stepping into a new experience can bring rushes of adrenaline, anticipation and even stress. Don’t believe me? Just think about the extra sense of excitement when you a try a new exotic food (and then there’s sky diving!)

The thing about habits is that they can be bad or good. A golfer practices their golf swing to build muscle memory. After a while, your body can repeat your golf swing with very little conscious effort and it will be remarkably similar time after time. So why aren’t all golfers of Tiger Woods caliber? The problem is in the programming. When building the muscle memory people build in mistakes that they then repeat over and over again. It’s the golf coach that analyzes the swing and instructs about where correction is needed. The golfer must then make a lot of effort to re-program their swing as it is easier to build a new habit than renovate an old one.

In life we have also built in bad habits or had them programmed into us by people as we have grown up. We can however, change our bad habits. We can replace bad habits with good ones and fine tune our habits so that they become beneficial for ourselves and others.

A lot of smokers are successful in giving up because they replace smoking with drinking water. When they have a craving they drink a glass of water or eat candy. Instead of eating to relieve stress you can retrain yourself to go for a walk or go to the gym. Instead of waking up slowly and unhappily, depressed about the fact that you have to get up early, you can train yourself to get out of bed earlier than normal, eat your breakfast and go for a walk.

“ Many things effect your life but none as much as you.”

Take a good long look at yourself. Don’t try to change everything overnight. Choose one thing about yourself or one habit you have that is negative and work on replacing it with a habit that is positive.

Quote from ‘My name is Earl’ : “ We tried replacing cigarettes with carrot sticks but we couldn’t get em to light”

Don’t let life get you down, build yourself and others up. Amen

2 Possibilities – 1 Response

I always used the analogy that the world was like the Titanic. It was going down and our job was to grab as many people and stick them on the ‘life boat’ as possible. Then a new train of though was presented to me and I entertained the notion that perhaps Christians will eventually work their way to the top of every area of life, politics, business, education etc.

My conclusion is that it doesn’t matter !! It doesn’t matter if the result of human greed will cause the destruction of the planet and at D-day a certain number of people will be saved and the rest will not. It doesn’t matter if eventually the entire planet will be a ‘Christian utopia’ and Jesus will descend from Heaven and thank us all for preparing the earth for His arrival.

What matters is MY response is the same :

Luke 10: 27 He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself’

I can spend the rest of my life trying my best to do those two things. Then, if the world ends tomorrow, I am safe in the knowledge that I did all I could with the time I had available. If the earth takes my lifetime to evolve into a place where all people love God and surrender their life to Jesus, I am safe in the knowledge that I did all I could to bring that about and I have a place there.

GBU

I Fell – Part One

It’s been a long time since we have had internet on at home, usually I use the internet at work. A week ago we had the internet connected and I was faced with a whole new set of challenges. Almost straight away I noticed that our time as a family started to decrease as I wandered around in cyber world looking at things on YouTube and chatting on face book. But the biggest problem was that there was a new temptation in the house….pornography.
For the first few days I made sure I drove my wife and kids to the places they wanted to go rather than being left behind, in the house alone. A few days ago my wife went to the doctor and I was surfing around when I followed a link and before I knew it my spirit was telling me it was time to close things down. But I didn’t. I kept clicking and clicking even though I knew I should stop.
Now that I have seen things I didn’t want to see but couldn’t resist I have gone through a range of emotions. The first was erase all the evidence so my wife won’t find out. The second was ‘Oh my God, what have I done’ Why risk the happiness of my marriage and my very soul for something I DEFINITELY DO NOT WANT TO LOOK AT when I am in my right mind. The next thoughts I had were ‘I have to get the net disconnected’ and confess to my wife what I have done. My final thoughts were ‘This is why I need God’s grace!!

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you have faith as small as a mustard seed you can say to the mountain move and the mountain will move !!!

So what are you worrying about ? What are you stressing about ? Can God trun sround your marraige ? Can God turn around your health ? Can God turn around your finances ? YES but if they don’t turn around is it because of something you have done or are doing ? Do you need to reset your expectations or dreams ? Do you need to remodel your finances ? Do you need to change your habits ? Do you need to stop whining and stressing and start praising God ?

Then do it !!

‘Call on God but row away from the rocks’  Indian Proverb…….’And if you hit the rocks anyway trust it was God’s plan so go out singing praises to His Mighty name !!!!!!!!!!!

The cow ‘turds’ of my past are the compost of my future

As I rode my motorcycle to an orphanage a year or so ago I was petrified I wouldn’t have anything to say to the kid I was going to counsel. I had thoughts of listening to his story and not even understanding what he was saying as he was from Ambon and, even though my Indonesian is pretty good, I might simply not be able to understand what he was saying. Even if I managed to understand, I was filled with uncertainty about whether I would be able to be of any help to him whatsoever. Doubt tortured me and I wondered why I had volunteered myself to be an ear for these kids.

And then it happened. As the kid spoke I was filled with awe at how great God is. He shared his life story, growing up in Ambon and how his father had abandoned his family. His struggle with guilt because of the terrible model he had been for his younger brother and on and on…. It was all exactly the same or very close to the experiences I had during my childhood and teen years.

The next week I went through the exact same doubts and in a completely different context the next kid had experiences very similar to mine. And so, week after week, God sent teens for me to minister to and ironically He had prepared me to minister to them over a decade before through the experiences I went through during my childhood.

Not long after a minister was preaching and he said “Pupuk masa laluku menjadi pupuk untuk masa depanku” (the cow ‘turds’ of my past are the compost of my future) For me it all fit together as it only can when God is the orchestrator. I saw that all the pain and problems I had experienced with my father’s suicide, leaving home at 14 years old and almost 10 years of substance abuse and wandering, were partly preparation for the ministry I love doing these days.

I resolved to take a different perception of problems and always be (at least partly) pleased when trouble strikes as I trust that God has something in store for me. Amen

My Love, Hate Relationship With Money – Part Two

I have done several significant things with money in my life.

1) Blown every cent I can get on pointless, self destructive things. Accumulated huge debt and gambled away large sums of money. For a long time I was almost a carbon copy of my father but then I met my wife and began to change. I realize that there are still attitudes about money that I have that are left over from the old me. I am afraid of being financially successful.

2) Before I got married, I taught private lessons after work ( 3-4 times a week) The money was very good and I used it to save up for my wedding. After we got married, the money was still good (LOL) so I kept doing it. When my wife got pregnant, the money from private lessons was essential. After my daughter was born, it seemed more essential. One day I left for work before my daughter woke up. When I got home in the afternoon, she was sleeping. I showered and changed and went to teach privates. By the time I got home, she was asleep for the night. I called my private students and told them I would be finishing at the end of the month. I PUT MY FAMILY TIME BEFORE FINANCIAL SECURITY AND ALWAYS WILL.

3) My wife and I went through the mental wringer trying to decide what to do as our 2 year rental contract was expiring. We looked at moving closer to the school I work at ( http://www.citahati.org/ ) and struggled when we found out that there was no way we could get a bank loan as I was the sole wage earner and a foreign citizen, therefore there was no way for us to buy a house. We were looking at paying 2 years rent in advance (the common custom here) and throwing all that money away on rent. BUT GOD IS A GOOD GOD, He answered our prayers and we were able to begin paying off a house. Completely above our understanding but God did it. It meant that we were paying 40% of our income on house payments. The next thing we did was buy a car on hire purchase. There goes another 25%. So before we had paid for milk, nappies, immunization, water, electricity etc. 65% of our income was gone on house and car payments. BUT WE TRUSTED GOD. Maybe the car was our own stupidity and God didn’t intend us to have it BUT HE MADE THAT OK TOO. We had never thought of how long we would be paying most of our income into the house and car. Things were very, very tight and we often had to juggle bills over several months. BUT I still didn’t sell my family time by going back to teaching privates. When my new contract came around, my wife and I were saying how great it would be if my salary went up 5%. How it would take the pressure off. I called my wife straight after I received my new contract with a raise of 30% !!

4) The last significant thing I have done with money was in the past few weeks. I am determined to be disciplined and not feel regret because we often pay only a portion of our tithe because we fear there will not be enough money left. I have organized for a savings account for my daughters. We are paying extra off our loan and we will put our tithe at the top of our budgeting column. God comes first !! We may struggle financially, we may not be blessed with lots of money to travel and buy a new hot water heater BUT we will do what we know is right with our money. Be disciplined and ask God what to do with it.

Look for future testimonies about how God looks after my family because we put Him first. Amen

God Bless You

My Love, Hate Relationship With Money – Part One

I fell I have a serious hurdle to overcome, I have a love / hate relationship with money. I think this relationship is seeded in my childhood experiences of watching my family suffer because of money problems. Another thing that has led to this problem coming to my attention is that I want to live for God so much that I don’t want to want or need money.

I understand that hating money and not wanting money is me taking the easy way out. What I really need to do is be more disciplined with money and actually learn to receive and use money graciously. When people want to give me money to help with ministry work I actually feel guilty. I don’t want people to think I have ulterior motives for talking to them and that I am always trying to get money out of them.

The key to me overcoming my problem is to take control of my money through being disciplined and learning to trust God more on financial matters. If I was single, I assume this would be easy. I love to give money away and use money to bless others but now that I have 2 children, house and car payments, a roof that needs replacing, an air conditioner that broke down, a hot water heater that hasn’t worked in 2 years (we heat water on the stove for showers) and other responsibilities, I can’t run from the fact that I have to make money work for me.

I diligently budget leading up to every salary and the story my budget tells me is that after we pay our bills, we can barely afford to get one of the list of things that need fixing fixed and then will be living on a shoestring budget for the month hoping that the nappies and milk last.

Everyone says that this is normal for ‘1st time home owners’ BUT I DON’T BELIEVE IT !! My God is an awesome God, I know I do things which displease him with money and the main one is not trusting him enough. I fear money, I fear it will lead me astray and my God does not give me a spirit of fear so I know this is not right.

I BELIEVE those who serve God should be paid better than rock stars and those who sell sex, drugs and rock and roll should be paupers. That is not the world we live in, the world’s finances are fickle BUT I am not. I love God and I want to serve him in every way. My finances are in His hands and I WILL DO the things I know he wants me to do but have always been too lazy / scared to do.

See Part Two

What Is A Real Blessing ? Part Two

There is only one thing that God will bless you for which is just for you…..your relationship with Him. That is the one thing that you cannot fully share with anyone else. He is with you 24/7 and you could never explain to anyone else just how much He means to you. I like a song in Indonesian that says “no painting, no words, no poem is beautiful enough to explain my walk with you”. He does want you to talk about it so that others may know Him but the only ‘REAL BLESSING’ in life is revelation of God himself. Everything else is just a distraction.

If you haven’t read it already, grab a copy of ‘The Prayer of Jabez’. It’s a great book about how to pray to God for blessings ( I like the kids version best ) Basically, when you pray just ask God to bless you in whatever way he sees fit to make your life more productive for His kingdom. Remember Solomon, he prayed for wisdom to lead his people and God gave him all his hearts desires as a bonus. ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and all ‘other’ things will be added unto you’.

Here’s an illustration of how this works. Think of the most important thing you own. Or even 5 things you own. Now imagine that tomorrow there was a change of government in your country and the new leader stated that anyone born with your eye color was now considered a foreign citizen and had no rights. The piece of paper that tells you own those things is now irrelevant.

‘Oh…but I have my family, I’ll be ok’….Sorry but any one of us could loose our family to fire, accident, murder etc, etc, etc at any moment right ? So then there is your health. Check up at the doctor at 5pm. 4:30 everything is hunky dory and by 6 o’clock your told you have cancer and 5 weeks to live.

WE DON’T HAVE ANYTHING EXCEPT GOD !! When you realize that blessings take on a whole new form. But don’t fear, He is a good God and ‘all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purposes’. It may not be easy to see that when you are in the midst of a problem but God is always with you, there are things you just have to go through so you will hold onto Him with both hands and never let go. Job is one of my favorite bible characters. I have tried very hard to develop my relationship with God to the point where I can say ‘ The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away’ I have no claims on what God should do in my life but I love Him and trust Him and will try my best to follow Him diligently wherever He leads my, no matter what the cost.

GBU