Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Thinking allowed: Is it possible

I have been thinking lately; thinking through the rattling of my keyboard; thinking as I walk along the UB campus and seeing students sitting under hard concrete benches snuggled under the mosetlha trees. I am just thinking, what will it take to turn this country around? What will it take to see miracles? What will it take to have churches in their 1,000s? Have you thought of that? Maybe you haven't, but you should. Four years I was haunted by these questions: "Are the churches we have the best we could ever have? or is the best yet to come?" Have you wondered about churches in Botswana and remembered those stinging words of Christ as he visited churches and literally put them on the scale (Rev 2: 1-7). He reminded them of the first love. The quality of church leadership, the rot that lies at the heart of local churches; the stentch of sexual immorality that rises from the church roof tops, strong and forceful; strong and forceful as the loud sounding praises of Christians, should be a thing of the past that vanishes in distant horizons behind us. The financial mismanagement; insipidity; hate; unforgiveness; the insatiable love of money and property consistently eat at the core of local churches. What is wrong with our nation? I am just thinking, just wondering and I wish you could join me and dare to believe. Dare to believe that dry bones, white, and desolate and forgotten down in the valley can one day join with the sinews & muscles and come to life again. Yes I am asking you to believe, no, am not asking for religious "Amens" that sometimes thunder truth to silence. I am asking you to believe during your private times; genuinely believe that God desires to change this nation & that he wants to change it through YOU! Will you avail yourself to be God's hands, his feet and mouth through which he channels his grace? Or do you find satisfaction in being an outside; one who watches from the margins; a spectator; a cheerleader; a critic?

Tim Hughes wrote that amazing song, a sound track of hungry souls that are dissatisfied with the status quo, which he entitled "There must be more than this"

There must be more than this, O breath of God come breathe within
There must be more than this, Spirit of God we wait for You
Fill us anew we pray, Fill us anew we pray
Chorus:
Consuming fire, fan into flame passion for your name
Spirit of God, fall in this place
Lord have your way, Lord have your way, With Us
Verse 2:
Come like a rushing wind; Clothe us with power from on high
Now set the captives free; Leave us abandoned to your praise
Lord let your glory fall; Lord let your glory fall

I ask you to believe that there IS more that this. God's desire and wish exceeds our vision and goals. Let's believe there is more than this... and that my friends; that "more" lies only in Jesus Christ our Saviour; one who died so that we might live forever. He is the one who gives MORE.

I am around

I haven't vanished dear friends. I am still around. I haven't lost my faith in Christ. It has instead been fortified by the clear evidence that God is on the march in our country; that where we thought we couldn't reach, the church keeps on moving regardless of the peccadilloes and the impediments that stand on our way. No I haven't vanished dear friends. I am continuously digging my heels; scratching and searching for God's leadership, amazed by his infinite power to transform even the worst of us. So when I wake up every morning and hear the ramblings of my one year old, Lobopo, I am eternally reminded that I am a child in God's hands; that his grace has no limits towards me; that I who was once an outsider, an enemy of God, persona non grata, have found favour in the complete work of the cross.