Sunday 1st March - Greyville Inner City Mission

Weekend Blurb

The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.

This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.

Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.



Greyville Inner City Mission

Greyville inner city mission (GICM) is an organisation which reaches out to the poor, homeless, destitute and broken people living in Durban’s inner city. GICM’s main activity is to provide these people with restoration, rehabilitation, shelter, food, and clothing and help them develop a real and life giving relationship with Jesus. GICM does this by providing 6 people off the street with shelter, food and assistance to improve their lives. GICM also gives a daily meal to all those in need at lunch and a dinner on Thursday evening which is usually accompanied by worship and a Christian message. The 6 people living at GICM assist in preparing and serving these meals and providing clothing to those in need, as well as maintaining the property. GICM is based in Greyville (a suburb of Durban) opposite Game City Centre and next to the KwaSuka Theatre.

If you would like to make a donation to or if you’d like to get involved please call Cecil on 082 444 8133.

Saturday 28 February - Greyville Inner City Mission

Weekend Blurb

The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.

This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.

Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.



Greyville Inner City Mission

Greyville inner city mission (GICM) is an organisation which reaches out to the poor, homeless, destitute and broken people living in Durban’s inner city. GICM’s main activity is to provide these people with restoration, rehabilitation, shelter, food, and clothing and help them develop a real and life giving relationship with Jesus. GICM does this by providing 6 people off the street with shelter, food and assistance to improve their lives. GICM also gives a daily meal to all those in need at lunch and a dinner on Thursday evening which is usually accompanied by worship and a Christian message. The 6 people living at GICM assist in preparing and serving these meals and providing clothing to those in need, as well as maintaining the property. GICM is based in Greyville (a suburb of Durban) opposite Game City Centre and next to the KwaSuka Theatre.

If you would like to make a donation to or if you’d like to get involved please call Cecil on 082 444 8133.

Friday 27th February - Transmogrification

DAILY BYTE

You are called to become the person God had in mind when he originally designed you.

This means you have to change.

This is not just a little change, a nip and tuck here and there, but a total transformation, a renovation from the ground up. And not just part of you has to change – it’s not just what you consider to be your ‘spiritual life’ that God wants to change, but absolutely everything. Yes, even those parts of you that make you blush when you think of them (perhaps especially those parts).

The Lenten journey is all about that change.

It is about that holy and mysterious renovation of being – a process where gradually every part of who we are begins to reflect more and more of God’s nature. And in so doing, we find we are slowly becoming who we were originally designed to be. This is what is behind Soren Kierkagaard’s wonderful words, ‘Now, with God’s help, I shall become myself.’

The other day, I was sitting at my desk trying to find a fresh word to describe this change, when it hit me – what about ‘transmogrification’?!

I first came across the word ‘transmogrification’ in a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon and was immediately captivated by its definition: ‘to change into a different shape or form, especially one that is fantastic or bizarre.’ (From freedictionary.com).

This particular cartoon depicted Calvin with a ‘transmogrification machine’ (an old dusty box) that could transform him into any creature he could imagine, from scary, drooling monsters to a pint-sized tiger.

As I’ve thought about it, transmogrification seems an excellent word to describe the spiritual renovation Christ wants to bring about in our lives. We are transformed into something fantastic; something so contrasting to the world’s norms and standards that it can even be considered bizarre.

This is because God’s values are often at polar opposites with what society prizes. For example, if we follow after God in his way then material accomplishments no longer become the be all and end all of our efforts. Or what about how in God’s view, service of our fellow human beings indicates success much more than ruling over them does. Many people would view someone who considers ‘learning to humbly serve’ as a great life accomplishment to be quite bizarre!

Therefore, in the world’s eyes, when our lives begin to reflect more of God’s strange upside-down ways, it really seems as if we are ‘transmogrifying’.

So then, may God bless you with his special type of ‘bizarre-ness’. May he bless you this Lent with a complete ‘transmogrification’– an entire transformation from head to toe!

PRAYER

And now, dear Lord, with your help I shall become myself.

READING

Ephesians 4:22-24 (The Message)

Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

Thursday 26th February - Lent & Fasting

DAILY BYTE

Yesterday we reflected on the meaning of Ash Wednesday. Today we reflect on the meaning of Lent as a whole.

The season of Lent originates from the early days of the Church as a time to prepare for Easter. It is seen as a time of introspection, spiritual discipline, fasting and repentance (i.e. an active turning away from sin). The season begins on Ash Wednesday and ends with the great celebration of Easter Sunday - a period of 40 days, not counting Sundays. The 40 days of Lent remind us of the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting, grappling with his purpose here on earth and facing the temptations of the devil.

The reason why Sundays are not counted in the 40 days is because Sunday, as the day of resurrection, has always been seen by the church as a feast day. This does not mean that the six Sundays in Lent are not an important part of this season. Far from it! They are like exclamation marks that remind us, in the midst of our fasting and penitence, of the hope of resurrection and the promised feast of new life that is in Christ.

Lent provides opportunity for people to take ‘spiritual’ stock of their lives as they consider their purpose here on earth and how they are fulfilling it. It’s also a chance to be drawn more deeply into the mystery of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection, which becomes the interpretive lens through which all things are viewed.

Traditionally, people have given up something for Lent (which is really a form of fasting) as a way of being continually reminded to pray, and as a sign of their desire to be filled and nourished by God and not by the superficial things of this world.

The list of things that people could give up as part of their Lenten discipline is virtually endless. It could include things like chocolate, sugar in your tea or coffee, junk food, fizzy drinks, alcohol, cigarettes, TV, red meat, speeding, shopping for anything other than essential foodstuffs, movies, wearing make-up or designer-clothing, browsing the internet, computer games, or even some of your sleep.

When choosing something to give up for Lent it is helpful to choose something that will be difficult to let go of, which will frequently remind you of your intention to trust God. Remember, that the point is not to try to prove how disciplined you are, but to reveal how attached you are to superficial things and your deep need for God’s help and grace.

But observing Lent is not just about ‘giving up’ something. It’s also about ‘taking on’ certain commitments – such as prayer, bible reading and acts of service towards others.

All of this may sound a little overwhelming. A little intense. A little daunting. Certainly, making a meaningful Lenten journey is not for the fainthearted – it requires discipline, commitment and perseverance. But be encouraged and reassured – you are not alone! There are others eager to make this journey also, and God’s own Spirit is promised to come to our aid. So go for it!

PRAY AS YOU GO

Loving God, I want to embrace this Lenten season as the gift that it is from you. But I am also afraid that it will expose my weaknesses, reveal my addictions, highlight my lack of discipline and unmask the poverty of my faith. Help me to see that these ‘humiliations’ are in fact the stepping stones to trusting you more fully. Hold my hand, O God, as I begin this quest with you. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Mark 1:14b-15 (The Message)

Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God: "Time's up! God's kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message."

Wednesday 25th February - Ash Wednesday

DAILY BYTE

Ash Wednesday is a service that originates from very early church days. It is the service that actually begins our Easter journey (which culminates of course on Easter Sunday). We will be looking more carefully at this service because it’s purpose and meaning is as relevant to us today just as it was way back when it first started.

“You are dust and to dust you will return.
Turn from your sin and return to the Gospel.”

These are the words that are traditionally spoken to people in the Ash Wednesday service when the sign of the cross is marked in ash on their foreheads. The words and the ashes remind us of two sobering facts that are true for every single one of us:
We are all mortal and are going to die someday.
We are all sinners in need of repentance.

This is radically counter-cultural, for two reasons. Firstly, the secular culture in which we all live has lost the language of mortality. Death is a taboo subject in our culture, best not talked about. Even for those clearly approaching death, either through terminal illness or old-age, it is still seldom spoken about honestly and frankly. Instead, every effort is made to ignore the fact of our mortality and to deny, for as long as possible, the approaching reality of death that comes to meet us all.

Secondly, the words and symbols of Ash Wednesday are radically counter-cultural in that we have also lost the language of sin. To speak of sin these days seems very old-fashioned and out of date, even in church!

And so to be told: “You are dust and to dust you will return. Turn from your sin and return to the Gospel,” sounds a little strange, and maybe a bit harsh, to our modern ears.

But the gift of Ash Wednesday, and the entire season of Easter, is that it gives us the opportunity to face the truth of who we are, and recognize our deep need for God.

Facing the fact of our mortality - that one day we’re going to die – this challenges our delusions of grandeur and encourages us to make the most of the lives we’re living here and now.

Facing the fact of our sinfulness - that left to ourselves we only make a mess of our lives – this challenges our delusions of self-sufficiency and encourages us to allow God to do His wonderful work of forgiveness, healing and transformation within us.

Acknowledging these truths of who we really are enables us to turn to God in humility and honesty and own for ourselves our complete dependence upon God’s goodness and grace. This is exactly when God can do His most creative and exciting work in our lives that will take us down that path which leads to life at its best.

PRAY AS YOU GO

O God, maker of every thing and judge of all that you have made, from the dust of the earth you have formed us and from the dust of death you would raise us up. By the redemptive power of the cross, create in us clean hearts and put within us a new spirit that we may repent of our sins and lead lives worthy of your calling through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

FOCUS READING

Read through the whole of Genesis 3. 1-19

Tuesday 24th February - Reading the Bible

DAILY BYTE

We’ve all experienced the pleasure of reading a book that we thoroughly enjoyed, but that has no lasting impact. Such books are entertaining and informative, but not life changing. When we finish these books, we have more knowledge but not more character. We are still the same persons we were before.

Unfortunately, this is how we sometimes read the Bible. We look for information, but don’t personally interact with what we learn. We don’t expect our characters to be challenged and changed. The purpose of the Bible is not just information but transformation. The Bible was never written just to be read, it was intended to be listened to and obeyed as well.

With this in mind, today’s devotion is about an ancient form of reading and listening to the Bible. It is called the LECTIO DIVINA, and has been acknowledged as a particular spiritual discipline for many centuries. LECTIO means reading; while DIVINA means divine. In other words, it means sacred or holy reading. LECTIO DIVINA is a slow, contemplative reading and praying of the Scriptures that enables you to experience a life-changing union with God. It involves a number of steps, each of which is outlined below.

1. This method of Bible study begins with slow, reverential reading. You must take your time with it. Let the words sink in one at a time. We’re not accustomed to reading this way. Many of us read the Bible as we read a novel or the newspaper—the main purpose being to finish. But in transformational Bible study, we will begin with a small passage and read it once. Then we slow down and read it again and again.

2. After you read the passage two or three times, meditate on it. That simply means taking time to think about it. Ask yourself questions such as, “What was Paul saying? What did Jesus mean? Why did the Psalmist express it this way?” What does the passage actually say? Do I understand its context? How might this change my life?” Use a commentary if you have to, but ensure that you think carefully over the passages for yourself, asking questions and considering all the possible meanings.

3. This leads us to the next step in the process, which is to pray over the Scripture you are reading. Prayer is a conversation or dialogue with God, not a monologue. We need to listen as much as we speak. Spend significant time in quiet before God, and only then begin to pour out your heart to God, asking him for strength, guidance, and direction.

4. The last step of this process is contemplation. At first glance, contemplation and meditation seem like synonyms, but there is a distinction between the two. Contemplation is the process of nailing down how to put God’s Word into action. As you prayerfully read the Scripture, you discover biblical truths, principles, warnings, and commands. The goal is to define what specific thing God wants you to do to put these truths to work in your life. This is what it’s all leading up to—that we will become “doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (James 1:22 NASB).
Why don’t you set aside 20-30 minutes today to practice Lectio Divina? Try Psalm 15 to begin with.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord God, thank-you for the gift of the Bible. We pray that you would teach us to carefully read, listen to and obey it. Help us to have the discipline to regularly and consistently personally interact with your Word. In the name of Jesus, who is Word and Life. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

2 Timothy 3:15-17 (MSG)

There's nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.

Monday 23rd February - Prayer

DAILY BYTE

This week we begin preparing ourselves for Lent, the 40 day journey that Christians have observed since ancient times as a way of preparing themselves for Easter. Spiritual disciplines have always formed an essential part of the Lenten journey, and so during the course of this week, we will be looking more carefully at some of those.

The first such discipline is prayer. There is a great deal that has been written on the subject of prayer over the ages, and with good reason. For prayer is one of the great mysteries of the spiritual life. To say that prayer is a mystery does not mean that prayer cannot be understood, but rather that it cannot be boxed within any one particular understanding. There are endless layers upon layers of meaning and insight that can be discovered when you plunge into the great adventure of the life of prayer.

Some people find this overwhelming, and even intimidating. And so they run away from prayer completely, or else turn to prayer only erratically and occasionally when caught up in some crisis. Faced with the wide expanse of this mighty ocean, they are hesitant even to get their feet wet in the waves of God’s prayerful presence that break continually upon the shore of their lives. Certainly, the thought of venturing beyond the shallows as a consistent pattern for their daily lives is something that they never even consider.

This is a great pity, because God is constantly calling out to us, longing for us to venture more boldly into the great mystery of prayer, where we can encounter God in ways that we never dreamed possible, and where we can find healing and wholeness for our brokenness and new direction and purpose for our lives.

As we seek to do that, the one quality that will help us more than any other is perseverance. According to the teaching of Jesus, our perseverance is perhaps the greatest requirement if we are to make progress in prayer.

Intuitively we know this to be true. People who say that prayer has failed them are those who have stopped praying. Have you ever heard anyone who has persevered in prayer say that prayer has failed them?

To illustrate this truth Jesus told the parable of the persistent widow and the callous judge (Luke 18:1-8). In the end, justice was served, not because of the judge’s sense of integrity but because of the widow’s perseverance in pleading her cause. Jesus uses the judge not as a point of comparison, but as a point of contrast with God. If a callous judge finally hears the cries of a poor widow, how much more will our loving heavenly Father hear the prayers of those who call to him, and respond quickly with justice and mercy.

Herein lies the secret of the importance of persevering in prayer. We persevere not in order to wear God down, but rather to keep us in that place of open expectation to recognise and receive all that God longs to do for us.

Phillips Brooks said it best when he said: ‘Prayer is not the overcoming of God’s reluctance. Prayer is taking hold of God’s willingness!’

So be encouraged as you commit yourself to persevering in prayer, especially in this season of Lent, and may you be wondrously surprised by the graciousness and generosity of God who longs to bless you abundantly.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Yes, Lord, I will try to pray, even when I am afraid to face you and myself, even when I keep falling asleep or feel as though I am going around in circles, even when it seems that nothing is happening. Yes, Lord, I will pray - not only with others, not only supported by the rhythms of corporate worship, but also alone with you. I will try not to be afraid. Lord, give me courage and strength. Help me to see myself in the light of your mercy and choose you. Amen” (Henri Nouwen)

FOCUS READING

Luke 18: 1 (The Message)

Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit.

Sunday 22nd February - Udobo

<Weekend Blurb

The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.

This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.

Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.



The Udobo School is a pre-primary school that gives hope through love and education to children from poor and marginalized backgrounds in the urban area of Montwood Park, Durban, South Africa. Some of the children are orphans as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The name ‘Udobo’ is the Zulu word for ‘fishing rod’ and is based on the adage, “Give me a fish and I’ll eat for a day, teach me to fish and I’ll eat for a lifetime”. The school program provides for social, emotional, cognitive, intellectual, aesthetic and physical development of the children within a loving, caring, and safe environment. A Trust called ‘The Udobo Ed-U Foundation’ was established to receive funding on behalf of the school both locally and abroad.

The Udobo Ed-U Foundation
First National Bank of South Africa
Branch No. 221026
Branch Name : Mobeni
A/c : 62061351442
Forex SWIFT No. FIRNZAJJ762

Saturday 21st February - Udobo

Weekend Blurb

The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.

This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.

Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.



The Udobo School is a pre-primary school that gives hope through love and education to children from poor and marginalized backgrounds in the urban area of Montwood Park, Durban, South Africa. Some of the children are orphans as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The name ‘Udobo’ is the Zulu word for ‘fishing rod’ and is based on the adage, “Give me a fish and I’ll eat for a day, teach me to fish and I’ll eat for a lifetime”. The school program provides for social, emotional, cognitive, intellectual, aesthetic and physical development of the children within a loving, caring, and safe environment. A Trust called ‘The Udobo Ed-U Foundation’ was established to receive funding on behalf of the school both locally and abroad.

The Udobo Ed-U Foundation
First National Bank of South Africa
Branch No. 221026
Branch Name : Mobeni
A/c : 62061351442
Forex SWIFT No. FIRNZAJJ762

Friday 20th February - God and Second Choice

DAILY BYTE

Some of you may have been reading through this week’s devotions and thinking to yourselves, “Well this is all ok for God. He never has to deal with unwelcome changes, or a second choice world not of his choosing. God is powerful enough to sort it all out with just a wave of his hand”.

If you have ever found yourself thinking like that then you would, of course, have been forgetting about the Garden of Eden. Remember that? God’s first choice world is seen in the Garden of Eden – a place of beauty, justice, peace, love and deep communion between God and humanity. This peaceful place was, however, fractured by humanity’s poor choices, and thereafter sin entered the picture.

It is interesting to note what God did at this stage. God didn’t in righteous anger destroy us with a click of his fingers. Nor did God give up on us by turning away on us and leaving us to our own devices.

No! God, in passionate love, decided on an entirely different, yet far more difficult way. God chose to sacrificially enter this “second choice world” through Jesus and to impact it. God faced human temptations and shared human sufferings. God did this so that he might show us a way back into relationship with him, and so that he might restore us into Life as he originally created us to live it.
It was the long way round but God saw us as worth it.

Make no mistake, God is powerful enough to sort out the situation with a wave of his hand, but love demands following an entirely more difficult route. You see for love to truly be real, free choice has to exist. Relationships have to be chosen, they cannot be forced.

This is why God did not use power to sort us out, but gave up power for the sake of love, (see Philippians 2. 6-8). God’s extravagant love for us means that he would never give up on us, that he would enter into a world comprising the very worst of our mistakes, just so that he could bring us back to him.

This should help us to remember that God can do something wonderful even in the very worst of second choice worlds!

God does not necessarily give us an easy way out of a bad situation with a click of his fingers, but he does offer us all the grace and strength we need to get through it.

Although the path may be narrow, God takes us by the hand and remains with us to the very end of our journey.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, we learn from the Bible that you are not necessarily into “easy-way outs” of difficult situations. For you did not abandon us when we turned from you, nor did you destroy us when we sinned. Instead you took the narrow road, the long and difficult way of love that has brought us a wonderful message of redemption and hope. Give us the strength we need to follow you always even if it takes us down some narrow roads, and help us to keep trusting in you always. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Matthew 7:13-14 (The Message)

Don't look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with sure-fire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don't fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.

Thursday 19th February - Abandoning Perfectionism

DAILY BYTE

The movie, “The Truman Show”, was a clever satire which poked fun at how people choose to live their lives. Jim Carrey played a character called Truman who unknowingly grows up as the central figure on a reality show. He had no idea that all his friends and family members were nothing more than actors, and that the town in which he lived was a giant indoor set.

His was a pretend and commercially driven world where everything worked perfectly. The sun rose exactly the same way everyday, the rains always came on time, his neighbours were unfailingly polite, and his wife was perfect in every possible sense. And yet within all this perfection, Truman constantly struggled with the feeling that he was not actually living and that there was something vital missing in his life.

Scarily enough, we often perceive that our lives should be exactly like Truman’s…perfect. We pray and hope for a nice life in a nice world with no problems. A world where being problem free proves that God loves us and that we are doing something right.

However this perfectionist view of the world is not the world the Bible speaks of. For in the Bible we find that saints make error judgements, Christians die, the innocent face unfair judgements, loved ones are lost, and prominent Christian leaders have strong disagreements.

In other words, life is not always perfect. In fact it is often downright unfair and tough. Life can be messy, and that is the simple reality of it all.

Faith is not about never having problems, and never being stressed, tired or angry. Faith is not even about never having doubts. Faith is about holding onto God and the life God wants us to live, even though everything around us becomes messed up for a while.

So much of our prayer lives has to do with convincing God to buy into things as we would have them done, and to make our lives perfect. We forget about Jesus’ great prayer - ‘not my will but yours be done’. There is no doubt that God wants to bless our lives in an extraordinary way, but sometimes our view of what it means to be blessed differs from God’s. For example, God would rather have us be faithful than successful.

Paul managed to abandon perfectionism when he saw that although he had arrived in Rome as a prisoner and not as a preacher, Christ was still being proclaimed in a wonderful way. Paul managed to see his prison guards as a potential congregation!

Perhaps it is time that we started working through the kind of process that Paul obviously went through. We should commit our lives to God’s agenda and not our own. We should look again at difficult and imperfect situations and see what God could do through them. We should pray for faithfulness before we pray for success.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Holy God, help us to abandon our often vain and selfish ideas of perfectionism. If we face difficult situations, it is not necessarily because we have sinned, but simply because they are part and parcel of life. We commit ourselves to following you no matter what. We trust that your ways are greater than our own, and that your wisdom far exceeds ours. We pray that you would grant us a spirit of deep faithfulness to you and to your plan for the world. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Philippians 1:18-21 (The Message)

And I'm going to keep that celebration going because I know how it's going to turn out. Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done. I can hardly wait to continue on my course. I don't expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn't shut me up; they gave me a pulpit! Alive, I'm Christ's messenger; dead, I'm his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can't lose.

Wednesday 18th February - Paul’s Second Choice World

DAILY BYTE

The book of Philippians describes a person whose first choice world came crashing down around his ears. Paul the Apostle had nurtured a dream for well over 20 years: to go to Rome and to preach the Gospel and strengthen the church in that strategically important city. Paul eventually did get to Rome, but not as he had always hoped. For Paul arrived in Rome as a prisoner of the state and not a preacher of the Gospel.

Paul’s first choice dream was rudely interrupted by the second choice reality of a prison cell and chains!

Paul not only had to contend with life chained between two Roman guards, but also with other preachers who treated him as a rival and badmouthed him behind his back. It always hurts to take cheap shots like that from people who should be on your side and who should know better. Finally, Paul also admits in his letter to the Philippians, that he was feeling weary after a long and fruitful ministry.

Paul’s life had taken a dramatic and unexpected turn for the worse on more than one front. Yet his attitude was nothing like you would expect it to be. He did not react with bitterness or anger, but with joy, peace and love. He managed to see the Godly possibilities behind his truly difficult circumstances.

How did he do this? The temptation is to see Paul as some sort of superhuman saint who lived life on a level too high for anyone else to attain. If we do this we are doing a disservice to Paul himself, who continually spoke of his very real human mistakes and weaknesses. He often referred to himself as the “Chief of Sinners”, and spoke of his “thorn in the flesh”.

No, Paul’s ability to cope with a horrible second choice scenario was not based upon any abilities of his own. It was simply because he had learnt through a lifetime of hardship and difficulties, to trust in God through all things.

We need to know that the God who sustained Paul through his most difficult times, is the same God who offers to strengthen us as well. Paul was not a superhuman being, but he did have a remarkable trust in God. Paul is a shining example to everyone who would also want to entrust their lives to God, even though they may be facing painful second choice worlds.

Tomorrow we will look more closely at what else we can learn from Paul’s example.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Almighty God, when it comes to unwelcome changes and second choice worlds, help us to remember that we are never alone. Even the greatest of Biblical figures faced up to failures, disappointments, grief and shattered dreams. Help us to learn from their examples and to model our faith on theirs. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Philippians 1:12-18 (NIV)

Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.

It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defence of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.

Tuesday 17th February - Second Choice Worlds

DAILY BYTE

As we concluded yesterday, change happens. As difficult as it sometimes may be, that is a truth we simply have to learn to embrace.

I say difficult because sometimes we find ourselves in situations of change that are distinctly unwelcome. Our lives may have changed for the worse over the last couple of months.

Perhaps you didn’t get the exam results you were hoping for, or that promotion at work. Or you may have had to move to a new town, or you may be facing up to some situation of hurt or grief like an unwanted pregnancy, or the loss of a loved one. Maybe you are struggling with the thought of another year doing a soulless job, or living with a toxic relationship.

The author, Viv Thomas, has a phrase to describe situations such as these. He calls them, “Second Choice Worlds”. Everyone likes to make choices in life, and of course we all would like to choose only the best for ourselves. In the ideal world, we all would have wonderful relationships, fulfilling jobs, more than enough money, and fantastically good looks. Most of us would nominate all these things and more as our first choice situations. However, in the real world, things don’t always happen that smoothly.

Often our first choices just are not realistically available to us, or they don’t turn out in the way we hoped.

It is then we have to deal with situations of difficult change, because the reality of second choice worlds can come as rude and unwelcome intrusions. We may get frightened and stressed, or angry and bitter as a result.

Sometimes we even respond by indulging ourselves in “First Choice World” fantasies. We daydream ourselves right out of our situations and into a better reality.
The problem is that these daydreams have no real power to help us deal with the difficult situation at hand. As a young boy, my family often moved town because of the nature of my dad’s job. As I got older, I struggled to adapt to my new schools, and so used to daydream all the time about being back in my old school with all my mates. I did this to such an extent that it took me much longer than it should have to deal with the change. I made new friends more slowly because I was refusing to come to terms with my changed reality.

Of course there is nothing wrong with having the occasional daydream, but we need to remember that continually fantasising about “First Choice Worlds” that just do not exist, will never help us move beyond our pain and struggles. Unfortunately, “Second Choice Worlds”, are part of the reality of life.

Unwelcome change may have brought all sorts of trials and grief to us, but the Bible promises us that God will “refine” our faith through these difficult moments. This message builds on yesterdays, because it is a reminder that not only will God always be with us, but also that God can press divine meaning even into the most unwelcome of “Second Choice Worlds”.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, sometimes life brings us into unfair and painful circumstances. We acknowledge that we can often have unhealthy methods of dealing with circumstances like that. We ask that you would teach us healthy and wise ways of dealing with our “Second Choice Worlds”. In Jesus name. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

1 Peter 1:6-7 (NIV)

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Monday 16th February - Embracing Change

DAILY BYTE

2008 is by now long gone and we all find ourselves yet another year older. Some of us find getting old and all the changes associated with increasing age hard to cope with. I recently came across the following list which humorously deals with getting older:

“You know you are getting older ... when most of your dreams are re-runs; when the airline attendant offers you ‘coffee, tea or milk-of-magnesia’; when you sit down in your rocking chair and can’t get it started; when you watch a pretty girl walk by and your pace-maker opens a nearby garage door”.

But of course age is not the only change we struggle with. The world around us seems to evolve with ever increasing rapidity. For example, we have constant technological changes. New technologies are constantly hitting the markets. By the time you get your new PC home and out of the box, it is already outdated by a newer model!

We also have constantly evolving cosmological changes. This is just a fancy way of saying that what we know about the universe, and the way we view the world around us, are shifting all the time. Scientists are constantly changing their minds about stuff like how the world came into being, whether Pluto can be considered a planet or not, and what ingredients may or may not cause cancer.

I guess what I am trying to say is that whether we like it or not, change happens! As much as we may sometimes struggle with it, change is a fact of life. As Heraklietos once said: “Change alone is unchanging”.

Alvin Toffler, author of the best-selling “Future Shock”, says that when people go through times of change, they need what he calls, “islands of stability”. What he is meaning is that we need to learn what we can hold onto and what we can let go of when our circumstances change. For example, we need to let go of our resistance to change and our fixation with things as they once may have been. We need to embrace the fact of change.

But we also need to know that as we move into an ever-changing future, there are certain things we can still hold onto as being dependable and true, our “islands of stability”.

Read today’s focus reading (Hebrews 13:8), and then remind yourself that no matter what happens in our lives, God’s love for us always has been and always will be. We are God’s beloved children yesterday, today and tomorrow. God will never stop reaching out to us and God will never let go of us.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, in our constantly changing society, it is good to remember that your love for us always has been and always will be. That you will never let go of us and never give up on us. Give us strength to hold onto this timeless and unchanging truth. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Hebrews 13:8 (NIV)

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Sunday 15th February - Makabongwe

Weekend Blurb

The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.

This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.

Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.



Makabongwe Methodist Pre-School had small beginnings with children sitting on cardboard in Grey Street, Durban. It was the initiative of a group of Christian women who felt that no child should be illiterate.

Today that initiative has grown into a bright, sunny pre-school with premises in Alice Street. Seventy children drawn primarily from the street vendors in the area now have a safe environment to learn play and grow as God intended. These disadvantaged children are given a good grade R education following the National Education Syllabus.

Makabongwe means “Let Him be praised” and we do praise Him for He has indeed blessed this little school.

You can help make a difference by sponsoring a child monthly or a once off donation, thus ensuring a brighter future for the children.

Contact:
Colleen 084209409.
Manning Road Methodist Church 031 202 8262.
Bank details:
Makabongwe Methodist Pre-School
FNB
Account - 50710017936
Branch - 223526

Saturday 14th February - Makabongwe

Weekend Blurb

The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.

This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.

Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.



Makabongwe Methodist Pre-School had small beginnings with children sitting on cardboard in Grey Street, Durban. It was the initiative of a group of Christian women who felt that no child should be illiterate.

Today that initiative has grown into a bright, sunny pre-school with premises in Alice Street. Seventy children drawn primarily from the street vendors in the area now have a safe environment to learn play and grow as God intended. These disadvantaged children are given a good grade R education following the National Education Syllabus.

Makabongwe means “Let Him be praised” and we do praise Him for He has indeed blessed this little school.

You can help make a difference by sponsoring a child monthly or a once off donation, thus ensuring a brighter future for the children.

Contact:
Colleen 084209409.
Manning Road Methodist Church 031 202 8262.
Bank details:
Makabongwe Methodist Pre-School
FNB
Account - 50710017936
Branch - 223526

Friday 13th February - Waiting for good

DAILY BYTE

We have seen the wise men demonstrate for us this week that praise is the one and often only response that we can offer to God freely and authentically, even when it is dark, because praise does not only indicate elation and ecstasy.

Praise must also mean faith in a tiny, seemingly unrealistic promise of a world renewed and restored by the power of a loving and almighty God. Praise is not only for the good times, times of plenty, times of prosperity and good health, but it is for all times, the ones that bring us happiness and the ones that cause us pain.

For little children born into squalor and for each of us here today, we must learn to praise God holding the joys and the sadnesses in both hands. We met one of these children amidst the devotions for this week. His name is Lindokuhle.

So, as we prepare for the weekend and Sabbath rest, let us, as Lindokuhle’s name encourages, "wait for good" in the spirit of faith.

For goodness is what God has promised us in the birth of Jesus.

Let us join with all of creation, young and old, rich and poor, flying things and creatures of the deep, singing praises to a God who loved us so much that He risked everything to come down to us.

And though it was dark and there was little hope for light in sight, those who journeyed to see him found ample reason for praise.

Does your life still seem dark? Is there little hope for light in sight? If you take some time to think about the good that entered the world in the humble form of Christ and if you contemplate the striking creativity of God’s created young and old, flying things and creatures of the deep, do you think there may be something good waiting for you? Do you think you can hang on and wait for the good promises of God in your life?

Is it possible that God is there waiting for you? Is this not the ultimate reason for praise?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Pray this prayer of waiting for good, written by Walter Brueggemann from his book, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann:

God, we are strange conundrums of faithfulness and fickleness. We cleave to you in all the ways that we are able. We count on you and intend our lives to be lived for you, and then we find ourselves among your people who are always seeking elsewhere and otherwise. So we give thanks that you are the God who yearns and waits for us, and that our connection to you is always from your side, and that it is because of your goodness that neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor heights nor depths nor anything in creation can separate us from you. We give you thanks for your faithfulness, so much more durable than ours. Amen.

FOCUS TEXT

Psalm 148:13-14

Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven. He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful, for the people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the Lord!

Thursday 12th February A United Front of Praise

DAILY BYTE

This is the world we live in:

A world where 15 million children were left without parents by the end of 2007 because of HIV/AIDS.

A world where leaders prevent food and aid from coming into their countries to feed thousands of starving people because of nothing more than pride and self-deceit.

A world where the Son of God could be born in a place as lowly and wretched as a squatter camp.

In a world such as this, praise is an audacious action. Praising God flies in the face of reason and good sense.

How can we praise when all around us poverty, disease, and violence threaten to knock the life out of us and those that we love. In a time and place when many are asking – no – demanding, "Where is God" in this mess of a world, how can we be so foolish as to praise God?

And yet, we do! When we worship, we make a point of setting aside time to come together, as people from many different families, places, and life experiences to do nothing else but praise God! Psalm 148 says, “Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! Young men and women alike, old and young together!” All of them are called to praise the name of the Lord!

People with HIV, leaders who starve their people, people who live in squatter camps, people who sit next to you in church on Sunday. Praise is not exclusive. There is no entrance fee. The act of giving praise to God is free and open to all. It is something we are all called to do, and it is something that brings us together, as human beings with one central goal. Praising God moves us beyond ourselves and connects us to God and to one another in ways that we would not normally be connected.

As such a family, we will feel both joy and pain, but we will never experience these things alone because we have been knit together. I am often overwhelmed by funerals – not just because the focus is on death and grieving – but because so often, people sing praise to God with more passion and richness than at any other time. At the heart of peoples’ sorrow about the brokenness of the world seems to lie a deep need to praise in spite of it, to join together in lifting up voices in sheer releases of praise.

I remember very little about my mother’s funeral, but what I do remember is standing at the front of the church with my family, facing the casket and the altar, with several hundred people standing behind like an army. And after the sound of the first chord from the organ, a wall of sound burst forth behind me, enveloping me and all my sadness, sending it up in a cloud of praise to God.

I turned around to look and saw people positively bellowing out their praise. Whether it is a way of protesting to God or simply giving thanks, praise is our expression to God of how we see the world and how we desire to see it, describing how God made the world and how God desires it to become. Praise is allowing our voices to burst forth through all of the madness and maintain that we are still alive, we are going to stick together, and we will not be silenced!

PRAY AS YOU GO

Pray this scripture this week, as I reminder of our united, persistent, voice of praise!

Psalm 149:6

Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Amen.

Wednesday 11th February - The Birth of Praise

DAILY BYTE

My struggle about praise in the midst of darkness recently came to a head when I went deep into a squatter camp to deliver a present to a baby boy. The young mother met me at my car just outside of the camp, the baby wrapped in a blanket to shield him from the Cape Town wind, which I hear was unseasonably strong for December. Holding my package tightly, I began to follow her home, weaving in and out of shacks built so closely together that my shoulders almost touched the outside walls. It stank of improper sewage and the air was close to suffocating, as if too many people were trying to breathe the available oxygen so that there was a shortage. Through the dirt and the mess, I continued on following her, clutching my gift and hoping this maze of a journey would swiftly come to an end, realizing though that our destination would not offer much more.

The sun had been shining when I left my car, but as I passed over the threshold into her meager home the air turned dark and still, as if I were entering a cave. I presented my gifts: baby clothes, a few bibs, rash ointment, and held the child, Linbokuhle, whose name means, "waiting for good."

As I looked down at him I realized that I was in the presence of New life, full of possibility and promise, born in a lowly shack in a cramped squatter camp because there was no room "in the inn." As I made my way out to my car, I wondered if this was how the wise men felt... Bearing their gifts, they traveled far, motivated by a star, by a promise of a new king. But when they got closer and closer the scenery changed and their surroundings looked less and less fitting of such potential, of such promise.

Being wise though, they were not deterred by the humility of what they found, for they could see past the surface, past the smell, past the poverty. When they praised God at Jesus’ birth, their praise sprung from a place of great darkness. Yet, because it was of God their praise promised to burst beyond the bounds of darkness into the light of the new day, which would surely follow.

The wise men came to praise the living God and discovered that in order to praise him where he was, they must journey to a place that had no apparent joy or hope, a place where most “respectable” people would never go, a place not fitting for any of us to lay our heads, let alone the savior of the world... but it was there where true praise of God took place. Found in the tension of a broken, inhospitable world and a new life, full of potential, holding that child, my own praise was born.

Where is praise being born in your life? Where are you looking for God?


GUIDING SCRIPTURE

Matthew 2:9b-11a

And there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage.

PRAY AS YOU GO

O almighty God, by the birth of your holy child Jesus you gave us a great light to dawn on our darkness. Grant that in his light we may see light. Bestow upon us that most excellent gift of love to all people, so that the likeness of your Son may be formed in us, and that we may have the ever brightening hope of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
- Revised from The Book of Worship, 1965

Tuesday 10th February - In the Midst of Darkness

DAILY BYTE

Praise of the Lord is a fitting response to the ways God relates to us, as ordinary people. In the greatest gesture of love and solidarity ever known, God became one of us... a simple human being, vulnerable to pain, sickness, temptation, and even death and all because God wanted to be one with us... to feel what we feel, to mourn what we mourn, to struggle, and to need.

In this gesture God added a dimension to God's limitless capacity for understanding, fulfilling the very essence of the meaning of compassion: to suffer with.

When we read Psalm 148, and when we consider what it means to praise, we think of emotions like joy, elation, utter happiness, sometimes even euphoria. In my mind I actually see dancing and jumping up and down and hands raised up.

Yet, I wonder if there is not another aspect to what it means to praise. When we face the realities of our current situations, both in our larger community and also as individuals, we are certain to feel the tension between the elated praise called for in the psalm and the complexity of emotions we experience when we consider the brokenness of our world.

Some of us may have been blessed with elation over these past few days and may be ready to dance and sing in thanksgiving, but others of us may be caught in cracks of despair dealing with family illness, serious financial woes, or just plain loneliness.

If we consider what life is like for our brothers and sisters to our north in Zimbabwe, we feel this tension between praise and brokenness. For in order to praise the Lord rightly and honestly we must examine this shadow side, this dimension of praising, which on the surface is bereft of joy and happiness. What does it mean to praise God in the dark?

For a little more than two months I have been a minister in the historically black township of Guguletu, outside of Cape Town. In many ways these last two months have been a time for me to learn what it means to praise God in the dark.

A Sunday does not go by when tears do not spring to my eyes as I listen to these peoples’ hymns and prayers, to the rhythm of their dance and the jingle of the bell. And what a brilliant, heavenly sound they make. These grannies, young adults, and children have no problem praising God in the dark, since in a way they know better than me that true praise must emerge from darkness. Otherwise, it is incomplete. In these last few months, I have been the one struggling to praise God in the face of hopelessness.

What darkness do you find in your life? How do you praise in the midst of it?

GUIDING SCRIPTURE

1 Peter: 9

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

Monday 9th February - Ultimate Praise

DAILY BYTE

The devotions on Psalm 148 for this week are compiled by the Rev. Mel Baars and the Rev. Anna Layman.

Pray through this psalm twice now, and the second time, allow your heart to land on one specific praise that you particularly relate to at the moment. What about your life or the earth right now makes you want to praise God? In the challenging world we live in, sometimes it can be really difficult to identify praiseworthy things, and sometimes we simply forget to praise what’s right in front of our noses. If there seems to be nothing to give praise for, pray anyway, asking God to show you something about your life or the world that is worth praising!

~ Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all this angels; praise him, all his host! Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. He established them forever and ever; he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed. Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command! Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds! Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! Young men and women alike, old and young together! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven. He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful, for the people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the Lord! ~

What came to mind that is worth praising? A sparkling constellation in the sky outside your window? Recent rainfall that has watered your plants so that you don’t have to do it yourself? A truly magnificent person in your life? A feeling of God’s faithfulness to you?

Psalm 148 is the ultimate song of praise. In it, we are told to praise from the very heights of heaven and from the depths of the earth... young and old... birds of the air and creeping things... all seeming opposites. In Hebrew poetry, this is a place in the text that indicates everything or everyone without actually saying “everything” or “everyone.” The psalms are poetry, after all.

The words must paint a picture for us so that we are able to grasp the enormity of these claims! From the highest point of heaven to the lowest places on earth, uncharted depths of sea... Every person from the mightiest king to a humble man or woman who has been alive but seconds to the oldest human being… Everything and everyone in between - "Praise the Lord!" Every facet, every nook and layer, all things seen and unseen, all of creation is commanded to praise the living God.
So even if you feel like you or your life is insignificant – even if you feel like there is nothing in your life worth praising, think again. If God is saying to everyone everywhere that we must praise him, where is the praise in your life?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, teach us to praise you. Open our eyes to the wonders you are working in our lives. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord - Praise the Lord!
Amen.

Sunday 8th February - Sizanani

Weekend Blurb

The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.

This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.

Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.



Sizanani is the Zulu word for ‘help one another’. This project offers 22 weeks of basic sewing and pattern drafting training to people who are unskilled and unemployed, to enable them to become self employed. The growth of personal dignity, self esteem and spiritual well-being is also encouraged.

The basic course syllabus concentrates on skills like seams, gathering, putting in collars, sewing in zips, buttonholes and facings. The pattern drafting syllabus teaches students how to draft a basic skirt and shirt pattern; how to do variations like flares, pleats, puffed sleeves, etc. The students then design an outfit for themselves, which is modeled at their graduation.

Course costs R1 100.00 and students are provided with everything they need to complete the course. Training is in Zulu.

Sponsorship of a student or a group of students is welcomed.

Enquiries – sizanani@ptnmeth.org.za; Tel 031 7027357

Bank details:

Account Name: PMCMA – Sizanani
Account Number: 133 947 6681
Bank Name: Nedbank
Bank code: 133 926

Saturday 7th February - Sizanani

Weekend Blurb

The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.

This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.

Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.



Sizanani is the Zulu word for ‘help one another’. This project offers 22 weeks of basic sewing and pattern drafting training to people who are unskilled and unemployed, to enable them to become self employed. The growth of personal dignity, self esteem and spiritual well-being is also encouraged.

The basic course syllabus concentrates on skills like seams, gathering, putting in collars, sewing in zips, buttonholes and facings. The pattern drafting syllabus teaches students how to draft a basic skirt and shirt pattern; how to do variations like flares, pleats, puffed sleeves, etc. The students then design an outfit for themselves, which is modeled at their graduation.

Course costs R1 100.00 and students are provided with everything they need to complete the course. Training is in Zulu.

Sponsorship of a student or a group of students is welcomed.

Enquiries – sizanani@ptnmeth.org.za; Tel 031 7027357

Bank details:

Account Name: PMCMA – Sizanani
Account Number: 133 947 6681
Bank Name: Nedbank
Bank code: 133 926

Friday 6th February - Freedom!

DAILY BYTE

So if we are set free from lies, darkness and slavery, then what exactly are we set free for? Well, Jesus mentions that knowing the truth is an essential part of being free, so it is important for us to hear this: we are set free to be part of the family! We are God’s children!

In John 8.35 Jesus says that ‘a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a child belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’ Paul the apostle develops this thinking in a rather exciting way in Romans 8 where he speaks of our adoption by God. That wonderful old biblical scholar, William Barclay, outlines the consequences of this adoption: (it’s complex but well worth reading through)

‘(i) The adopted person lost all rights in their old family and gained all the rights of a legitimate child in their new family. In the most binding legal way, they got a new father.

(ii) It followed that the adopted person became heir to their new father’s estate. Even if other children were afterwards born, it did not affect their rights. They were inalienably co-heir with them.

(iii) In law, the old life of the adopted person was completely wiped out; for instance, all debts were cancelled. They were regarded as a new person entering into a new life with which the past had nothing to do.

(iv) In the eyes of the law they were absolutely the child of their new father.’ To the extent, that a child naturally born to their parents could be legally disinherited or disowned but an adopted child could not!

What Paul is saying, therefore, is that God will not let you go! We can do nothing to deserve it, but God in his rich and abundant generosity, adopts us into his family.

We began this week with Hollywood, and so it would be appropriate to end it with another Hollywood story. In the climatic conclusion of ‘Braveheart,’ Mel Gibson is tortured by having his intestines removed whilst still alive. His great enemy is also nearby on his deathbed. He sits up from his bed, straining to hear Braveheart’s cries of pain and defeat. The baying crowd hushes as Braveheart raises his head with one last great effort and roars: ‘FREEEDOMMMMMM!’

Freedom! This is what the truth of Jesus brings to us. It doesn’t matter if we are lying quaking in fear in the darkness – the light of God’s truth CAN set us free. It doesn’t matter if our life is continually going around in endless circles of hurt, guilt, or the same old mistakes – God CAN set us free.

It does not even matter if we are trapped in the vice grip of ‘missing the mark’, of being less than what we were created for – God CAN set us free. We need no longer be slaves to lies and sin, because we can be children in God’s family, bearing God’s name, and live according to God’s spirit of love and grace. There need be no more darkness, no more lies, no more judgements, no more guilt and condemnation, no more life of slavery held in the icy grip of sin, no more lying paralysed in bed’s of fear. For in Christ, we can all stand and sing of our freedom.

‘You shall know the truth, and it will set you free.’

PRAY AS YOU GO

Freedom! Thank you God for our freedom! We need no longer be held as slaves to anything. Instead we can enter into life as your children, heirs and co-heirs of your love and grace. Help us to live our lives according to this wonderful truth. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Romans 8:15-17 (NIV)

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of childhood. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs ... heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Thursday 5th February - What freedom means

DAILY BYTE

So the truth of Jesus sets us free from the many lies we live under. However, sometimes we don’t full appreciate what this freedom actually means for us. A man once visited a small country town fair. As he was walking around, he noticed a group of quails that had been trained to walk around a pole. Each quail was attached to the pole by a small chain, and they spent all day just walking around and around the pole.

Being tender-hearted, he offered to buy all the quails from their owner. The owner refused because he was making good money off the ‘entertainment’ the quails provided. However, the man made a decent offer which the owner eventually accepted. Excitedly, the man released each quail from their chains and started shooing’ them off. ‘You’re free,’ he said, ‘fly away’. After confusedly looking around, the quails just put their heads down and once again began their never-ending circular walk.

Although they had been set free from their chains, they did not realise the implications of that freedom and so continued in their drudgery.

Unfortunately, this story can be applied to many of us. We are set free by Jesus, but we don’t realise the full implications of what that means. The chains are no longer holding us, the power of our sin has been broken, but nevertheless we keep going around in the same old circles.

One of the ways we do this is by allowing Jesus to set us free, but then simply moving off into a different type of slavery or addiction. We merely transfer our dependence to a different type of sin or addiction.

One very common example of this is in what can be called ‘Do-it-yourself’ or ‘DIY’ religion. Our immediate reaction to the Good News of our freedom is to want to earn it, or to prove we deserve it. Like the man who went to a DIY shop to buy himself a hand-saw to cut down some trees. The salesman convinced him to buy a chainsaw instead, saying that it would make the job a lot quicker. The next day, the man returned to the shop complaining that using the chainsaw actually made the job take twice as long. The salesman took the chainsaw out into the backyard, and started it up. The man looked startled and said to the salesman: ‘Hey, what’s that noise’?

If we try to earn or deserve God’s gift of freedom, then we are like that man who tried to manually cut his trees down with a chainsaw. We are expending a huge amount of effort that will be totally wasted. The man didn’t realise the full power of the chainsaw, and similarly, we don’t realise the full power of God who offers to empower us to live life in his name.

In fact, if we go down the path of DIY religion, we will only lead ourselves once again into slavery and darkness. Our faith will end up becoming nothing more than another vice, something which holds and imprisons us. The kind of faith that God gives brings us into freedom and not more drudgery. We don’t go to church, read our bibles, pray, or follow these devotions to earn God’s approval. That has already been given to us. We do them because we are set free to do them! We do them because that’s what a relationship of love is all about! We do them, because we love God and want to do so – not because we are afraid of God and have to do so. As today’s reading says, we are not given a spirit of fear, but one of love. Is this true for you?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Father God, thank-you that our freedom is gifted to us and cannot be earned. Help us to never go down the rather rocky paths of trying to earn or deserve it. Help us to truly be free in every way! Help us to live in a loving relationship with you, and not one of fear. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Romans 8:12-17 (MSG)

So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

Wednesday 4th February - You are worth more than this

DAILY BYTE

Yesterday, I borrowed and changed an old C.S. Lewis thought by saying there are two equal and opposite errors when it comes to sin. The one is to believe in sin too much (we allow it to have far too much power over us), and the second is not to believe that we have any sin at all. We then focussed on the second of these errors - living under the lie that we don’t have any sin at all and how incredibly dangerous this can be to ourselves as well as others.

Today we will be looking more closely at the first of the errors - when we allow our weaknesses to have too great a power over us and thereby enslave us. It is a lie that we are all too ready to believe that we cannot break free from our addictions and fears. But before we discuss that further, let’s have a quick look at how exactly sin does enslave us.

There is an old South Pacific story told of how one can capture a monkey. Fruit is placed into a bottle which is then tied to a tree. The bottle has an opening just big enough for the monkey’s hand to reach into, but not large enough for the monkey’s fist to leave. When the monkey reaches into the bottle to grab the fruit it finds that it cannot bring its hand out of the bottle unless it lets go of the fruit. And so there the monkey would sit until it was captured – unable to move, not because it can’t, but simply because it won’t.

The real question is – does the monkey have the fruit or does the fruit have the monkey? Likewise, whatever binds us, will have power over us for as long as we hold onto it!

The good news is that Jesus can set us free from whatever grips us. It will never be easy, but the love of God can free us, forgive us, and restore us. Unlike our fellow human beings, God does not harshly condemn us for our weaknesses.

There is a wonderful story in the movie, ‘The Last Castle,’ which illustrates this. Robert Redford plays a disgraced army general who is sent to military prison. The prison is ruled by a despotic warden, who is not afraid to employ brute force to keep his rule. In one scene, a prison guard is savagely beating a fellow prisoner of Redford’s. Redford grabs the prison guard’s arms in mid-blow, looks into his eyes and says, ‘You are worth more than this.’

You are worth more than this!

This is how Jesus treats our sin, by taking you by the hand and saying – ‘You are worth more than this, I have created you for more!’ Romans 8 reminds us that Jesus Christ will not condemn us but love us and set us free. Our obligation is to not live under the power of sin, but to let go, even of those things we find incredibly difficult to let go of (like the greedy monkeys with their fruit). Don’t live under the lie of this sin, that you cannot break free. The truth of the matter is that Jesus CAN set you free.

You are not a slave to sin. Unless you want to be.

PRAY AS YOU GO

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! For this marvellous truth we give thanks O God. We pray that you would help us to break free from our sin and the lies we all too readily believe. We may not be able to break free in our own strength, but in you anything is possible. We bring to you the situations we personally struggle with [NAME THEM] and ask that you would break their power over us and help us to let go. Help us instead to live according to how you created us. In Jesus name. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Romans 8:1-3 (NIV)

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.

Tuesday 3rd February - What about Sin?

DAILY BYTE

So what kind of truth and freedom does Jesus bring us? Well, the area I would like to particularly highlight today is that of sin. Throughout the church’s history, sin and the way we have chosen to deal with it has left many in darkness, quite literally ‘gnashing’ their teeth!

To borrow a thought from C.S. Lewis, there are two equal and opposite errors when it comes to sin. The one is to believe in sin too much (we allow it to have far too much power over us), and the second is to not believe that we have any sin at all. To lie to ourselves that we have no sin is incredibly dangerous because as St Augustine once said: ‘My sin was all the more incurable because I did not think I was a sinner.’

Not only is it dangerous to us personally, but it can also make us treat others with a distinct lack of compassion for their weaknesses. When we get all self-righteous in this manner, Christians have often used sin as an excuse to exclude people or to push them out from their churches.

This is in exact contrast to how Jesus treated sinners. Jesus seemed to go out of his way to reach out and include people like prostitutes and tax-collectors and other ‘sinners’. Why? Well, perhaps because Jesus realised that people could not be set free from a distance; that they needed to be loved and believed in before they would even be open to the idea of being set free.

So, sometimes it is our reaction to people’s sin, rather than the sin itself, which keeps them in bondage. Instead of pushing them away because their sin offends us, we should humbly embrace ‘sinners’. Instead of harshly judging and condemning them, we should speak God’s words of love to them. None of us should ever forget that in fact we are ALL sinners, who have fallen short of God’s glory – see Romans 3.23.

So sin can enslave and bring us into darkness; not only the sinful action itself, but also when we treat our fellow human beings with contempt or disdain for their weakness. The Bible makes it clear that we all have our weaknesses – ‘If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us,’ (1 John 1. 8). When we accept that truth, we should then be able to humbly accept each other as equals realising that we are ALL IN NEED of God’s grace and loving forgiveness.

Do you struggle to accept where you may be in the wrong? Do you struggle to own up to your mistakes? Do you treat other people’s weaknesses less than graciously? Spend time in prayer, asking God to open your eyes and change your heart on this matter.

PRAY AS YOU GO

O God, help us to not avoid the lie that we have no weaknesses. Help us to be humbly and graciously compassionate both to ourselves and to others. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

John 8: 31-34 (The Message)

Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. "If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you." Surprised, they said, "But we're descendants of Abraham. We've never been slaves to anyone. How can you say, 'The truth will free you'?" Jesus said, "I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave.

Monday 2nd February - Truth & Lies

DAILY BYTE

Anyone who enjoys watching movies (as I do), will know that life can be very unlike it is portrayed by Hollywood movies. Hollywood exists behind a smokescreen of special effects and play-pretend, and so much of what happens in movies that we accept as normal, is in fact extremely unrealistic.

I came upon an e-mail recently that humorously depicted how far removed Hollywood can be from reality. The list was entitled, ‘If life was really like Hollywood would have us believe,’ and here are a few excerpts from it:
‘A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.’
‘It is always possible to park directly outside the building you are visiting.’
‘All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red readouts so you know exactly when they will go off.’
‘It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts; your enemies will patiently wait to attack you one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessors.’

However, it is not just Hollywood that struggles with the truth, for in many ways Hollywood mirrors our own very real struggles with what is true and what is fabrication. This week we will be focussing on our struggle with truth and lies, because it so directly affects our spirituality. For living with lies can quite literally bring our souls into darkness.

When I was little, every now and then I would wake up when all the lights were switched off and get scared. My imagination would run riot until every floorboard creak became a hideous monster out to grind my bones and swallow me whole! I would work myself up into such a state of fear that every dark corner seemed to be filled with menace and evil.

When I could stand it no longer, I would shout out to my dad asking him to come switch a light on (I wouldn’t want to put my feet on the floor because I suspected something horrible was lurking under my bed). My dad would shout back and say something like, ‘Son, you are 30 years old now – you shouldn’t be afraid of the dark anymore!’

Nah – I’m just kidding, I was only about 5 or 6, and so my dad would get up to switch a light on for me. My fears would vanish almost instantly with the coming of the light. I could now see for myself that the floorboards were creaking because they were old, that the strange shape in the corner of my room was my school bag, and that although there was something horrible lurking under the bed, it was only last month’s cheese & ham sandwich.

The point is that my fear would be gone with the light because I would then know the truth – that there was nothing out there in the darkness to hurt me. It was the darkness itself, or the lies that the darkness covered up, that left me quaking in my bed in fear. Lies and untruth can create a prison of darkness that limits and entraps us.

Jesus described himself as the light of the world – someone who would bring light into darkness. He then went onto develop this thought further by later saying, ‘You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.’ Jesus can bring to our souls a truth that will free us from the lies we live with daily.

Spend some time today thinking about your own particular struggle with ‘truth and lies’. Is there any part of you that labours in fear and darkness because you are living with an untruth? If so, take it to God in prayer.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Light of the world, we pray that through you we may know the truth and be set free by that truth. Help us to become aware of our own particular struggle with ‘truth and lies’ and set us on a journey of freedom and healing. Amen.

FOCUS READING

John 8:12

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”