Our Hearts, God's Home? Part II

I hope I wasn’t misunderstood yesterday. I don’t want anyone to think that I’m against church. It’s just that some of us abuse the gift it’s meant to be. Who’s to blame? Let’s not point the finger instead let’s explore our responsibility. Is it our duty to attend church? Is it our responsibility? What do these words mean? Duty sounds a bit like performance, doesn’t it? Do we build relationships based on performance? When speaking about who repairs our car, we will say yes. When building relationships with one another and with God would we establish them on performance or duty? What about responsibility? It’s related to duty, isn’t it? It’s a choice, usually because we think it’s the right thing to do, yes?

Would you want someone to choose to be your father, mother, or spouse because they think it’s the right thing to do? Would God love you because it’s the right thing to do? God loves each one of us as if we were the only one to love. Wow! Do we love God the same?

Duty and responsibility will fail us eventually. Performance disappoints and burns out. But Love… Paul told the Corinthians “the greatest of all is Love.”

What is love? God is Love. 1 John 4:16,18 “There is no fear in love because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

Punishment conjures up performance- Punishment awaits those who do not perform accordingly. That’s the world’s message. God’s message: “The Lord disciplines those He loves.” He loves us and has plans for us so that we won’t get caught up in performance, duty and punishment.

1 John 5:13: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us- whatever we ask- we know that we have what we have asked of him.” This is Love! You can’t get that through performance, you can’t earn it! We have it already, even before we do anything! It’s about who we are to Him, not what we do! How can we know who we are to Him? Spending time getting to know Him! That could mean setting some time each day to listen for his voice, to share our concerns, fears, and thanks. But also through getting to know those around us whereby we share His Love with one another.

1 John 5:3: “This is love for God: to obey His commands. They are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” (To overcome the world is to gain victory over the sinful pattern of life. Choosing to obey God over serving ourselves and that which we aim to accomplish and achieve. It’s not impossible for the believer because He’s born again. Holy Spirit dwells in him, has come alive in him because he has believed. Holy Spirit gives strength to those who have put their faith and hope in Jesus. John speaks of double victory: firstly, turning in faith from the world to God; secondly, through the day by day victory of Christian living.

By the world I mean the realm of sin controlled by Satan that is organized against God and righteousness. God’s will forgive those who confess their sins. Hebrews 10:22:

“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts cleansed from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together but let us encourage one another and all the more as we see the Day approaching.

1 John 1:9 tells us He will forgive us. He will provide the forgiveness that restores communion with God that was interrupted by sin. He did provide the forgiveness. He gave his only son as an atoning sacrifice for us- that communion with Him could be restored. God knew the power of His Law. Once spoken it could not be changed. Once Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil communion was broken. He was good, now they were of good and evil. They had disobeyed and separated themselves from Him. They had placed their trust in another, subjecting theirselves to his domain.

How could the God of Love ransom them? Rebuilding. Over hundreds of years he began that rebuilding in their hearts. By helping them realize the broken communion between them. His heart was broken for them. Now they would hear the voice of reason instead of the voice of Faith, Hope and Love. We know in part that the ‘greatest of these is Love’; but we need Holy Spirit to illuminate our hearts for the revelation that will help us turn our hearts back to God again. It isn’t a turning through choosing to attend church at Christmas or Easter… but that’s one decision that should start us on the journey. From there we shouldn’t remain strangers, but develop relationship with one another as they did when Holy Spirit came upon the first believers- they had everything in common, with glad and sincere hearts they met together daily, broke bread together, went from house to house praising God and God added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Remember when God said to Abram, ‘leave your people and your country and follow me? Remember Abraham was known as ‘friend of God.’ Whose friend are you? What does it mean to be called friend by the creator of the universe? Twenty years ago we and some friends asked that very question. And we’ve been on the journey of our lives with God ever since. We didn’t break away from those in the church whom we loved. All the more are they the ones who spur us on in our good deeds, encourage us and enable us to stretch out His hands to the poor. We went from realizing God had commanded us to go to the poor but there were no poor among us. We searched for them, we went outside our comfort zones into the highways and byways of the inner city of Atlanta and those we found also made room in their hearts for us. No doubt God came to dwell in us all. That one small step on Saturday mornings turned into Tuesday nights and Friday nights and eventually Sunday mornings and then to everyday walking out Christian living with Atlanta’s homeless and poor to linking up in Cape Town, South Africa and Kigali, Rwanda and Kampala, Uganda and Zimbabwe, Zambia, Congo and ultimately all of Africa until the Dark Continent becomes the Continent of the Father’s Love! That would be one big church if we could ever call everyone to one physical place. But that place is called the Kingdom of God.


S.Hill
bnfrsa@sentechsa.com
Blood N Fire, RSA
Cape Town, South Africa
31 December 2007

Our Hearts, God's Home?

“God loves each of us as if there was only one of us to love.” William Barclay

Do we romanticize our relationship with God? How can God truly be God instead of who we think He is? Is my heart clean? Would God choose to dwell in my heart? Could He find a home in my heart?

I read a story to my son when he was young: Where Would A Bunny Find A Home?
Bunny looked everywhere- in the robin’s nest, the river with the crocodile; always asking: “Are you my mother?” He didn’t know her and she had not known him. This was a tragedy to be rectified! Yet everyone said, “No.”

Quite by accident one day Bunny tripped over a log, only to discover another bunny hiding beneath it. She wasn’t his mother, but they became friends and chose to build a home together. That was how Bunny found his home.

I want to know God more personally, don’t you? How would you go about getting to know God? Like the bunny, we notice others in whom perhaps we see signs of God. Signs of what? Safety, security, encouragement, love? Do we expect to encounter admonishment, accountability, discipline and respect as well? Jesus came to ‘show us the way.’ He said, “I am the way,”

Can a weekly appointment in a building with hundreds or thousands of strangers look anything like that way? Is is enough to find personal, one on one relationship with God in that weekly appointment alone? Sunday school teachings, good gospel readings, being one who takes the offering, lights the candles, places the flowers- are these ways to a closer walk with Christ? Certainly all these are good intentioned ways to get closer at church. Is there more? Does anyone else wonder?

We encounter a lot each day with spouses, children, parents, clients, bosses, bills, deals, contracts; with people on the roads, in the shops, at office, at home, in the neighbourhood, in the street, in the town… how can a person cope? “Just help me get thru till Sunday service! Then I can get thru another week!” Can you?

Shouldn’t we want more than a weekly meeting? More reading, discovering, praying, worshiping, and realizing there’s more to relationship with God than Sunday teachings and Wednesday night services. AA even offers more than the weekly meeting. When you join them you get a personal sponsor, too. A sponsor is someone who’s committed to walking thru the storms of quitting drinking with you. At ‘church’ we can join a small group and/or choose to get more involved with church on a daily basis. All good stuff, for sure. But do we know about the covenant commitment God has made with His people?

Hopefully you won’t get so busy showing up for all your new activities that you have less and less time for the One who wants to know you more than any other! You don’t need to join anything to get to know Him. Matter of fact, you might need to skip a few things because He will come when you least expect it and if you aren’t careful you could miss Him. Have you noticed those ten virgins in the book of Matthew?

In the midst of difficult, even tumultuous times we get busy, deny or do something desperately drastic. We become so overwhelmed we simply move into overload, shut down or come apart at the seams. This is the time when we need to look for Jesus. Can you see Him in those circumstances? Don’t be afraid! He’s right there with you!

Your searching may be a bit like ‘Where’s Waldo” at first, but hang in there, stick with it. He’s about to appear! Listen for His voice, His words, His Love. Solomon says…

“Who is this coming out of the desert like a column of smoke perfumed with myrrh and incense, made from all the spices of the merchant?”

Who are those at the wedding banquet without proper attire?

“The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city,

‘Have you seen the one my heart loves?’

Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and I would not let him go.

For then you will hear your lover say… How beautiful you are my darling!

Listen! My Lover! Look! Here He comes! My lover spoke and said to me,
“Arise my darling, my beautiful one and come with me.” But my heart- is it deceitfully wicked? Can it be cleaned? Can pure love, true love wash away a multitude of sin?

“Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and I would not let him go.”

Scarcely do we get passed our sin to forgive ourselves, scarcely are we allowed to pass thru to learn that… God’s love is the only love great enough to accomplish the cleansing our hearts need. It’s always available, like an open heaven. Come on in! But don’t do a drive by or order take away; come in, spend time, sit, relax, lie down, immerse yourself in His presence like jumping in the swimming pool. He’ll surround you, envelope you and fill you.

“Who is this coming out of the desert leaning on her lover?”


S.Hill, bnfrsa@sentechsa.com
Blood N Fire, RSA
Cape Town, South Africa

Arms of Love by Janice VanCronkhite http://www.jvcartworks.com

Inner Court

Inner Court by Janice VanCronkhite
www.jvcartworks.com

The Inner Court of Our Promised Land


The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

So Abram left, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him….
Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh and Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

Genesis 12 is the anchor of hope I’ve based my life upon. Abraham was known as the friend of God. Are we known as friends of God? How was it that Enoch just was no more? Promised Land is about relationship with God and what we find along the seeking journey. God has always been the ever present help I needed throughout my life. When my youngest brother gasped to breathe during asthma attacks as an infant, while holding him in my lap in the backseat of the car while Mother drove to the emergency room I prayed to God, who I knew could help him breathe and keep him alive. I was six years old then and today at the age of 49 faith is still producing evidence of God’s nearness in my life. From praying for my brother to leaving corporate America behind, selling home, cars and furniture and moving into a rented duplex in Atlanta’s inner city to serve the homeless and poor in the city’s 42 government housing projects and on the streets; God has always, always provided for us!

Henri Nouwen wrote, "Here we see what compassion means. It is not a bending toward the under privileged from a privileged position; it is not a reaching out from on high to those who are less fortunate below; it is not a gesture of sympathy or pity for those who fail to make it in the upward pull. On the contrary, compassion means going directly to those people and places where suffering is most acute and building a home there."

Heschel taught: A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair. [New York Journal-American, April 5, 1963]

I’ve encountered trials, hardships, suffering and pain but also great and glorious moments along the journey of life. Often my family and I have witnessed many dramatic miracles which evidenced all the more God’s present reality to me. We would remark to one another that no one would believe some of these stories… reminding me of God’s response to Habbakuk’s cry of: “How long, O Lord?” “Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed, for I am going to do something that even if told you wouldn’t believe.” I remain always utterly amazed!

My High School English teacher, Betty Dillard, required all her senior students to keep a journal. We had to write in various poetic form everyday how we felt that day. My father died very suddenly of a heart attack the summer before and I was going through one of the lowest and most lonely times of my life. Writing in that journal brought me back to life, forcing me to face feelings in a healthy way. Hope returned as I wrote of the emptiness in my heart and an even greater relationship with God as father blossomed as well.

Attending North Carolina School of the Arts opened up an incredible creative world to me, inspiring me to move to Boston to further pursue artistic interests. While in Boston God introduced me to the man he’d chosen for me to marry and after 27 years, he still is the most incredible man of my dreams!

After our two children were born and we were living out a pretty comfortable lifestyle God intervened, introducing us to an awesome life of love for others that broke open the wells of God’s love in us fresh and anew. We thought we’d spend the rest of our lives in Atlanta’s inner city but ten years later God intervened again and led us to a new promised land- 8,000 miles away from home – South Africa!

The last seven years we’ve experienced miraculous times of God’s sovereignty. As a child, my siblings and I would remark that no one would ever believe the stuff we’d been through! Drawing from the hope of some of those stories I began writing about them. Encouragement and faith spurred up again and I began to understand how our lives become a testimony to others. Oh, I’m not saying I’m great or anything like that at all. As a matter of fact, I found myself writing down times when God had been so faithful because I needed the encouragement, too!

We set up a booth in the wind and rain at Greenpoint Stadium to sell pens that Ned had crafted from wood and I would wonder… what in the world a nice family like us was doing trying to sell pens to raise funds for ministry? It was hard and humbling and we didn’t sell many of the pens. Tourists were looking for cheap treasures to purchase that would boast of their trip to Africa. We thought our indigenous pens would be just the ticket. Guess African masks and baskets, etc. were more in line. So why did we go through all that? God was teaching us compassion for the folks in Green Market Square that I meet with weekly. I started out just visiting… sounds like just browsing, doesn’t it? I’d stop by Sylvia’s Hair Braiding Booth to encourage Sylvia and Patience. These two wonderful women of God came to South Africa seeking asylum from war torn Congo. Cape Town was also very hard. There was wind and rain and unbearable sun, and often a huge lack of customers. We’d practice speaking French and English to one another and end up praying together. The whole experience grew into meeting and praying for one another every week for the last couple of years. And as the Bible teaches in Acts; ‘the Lord adds to our number.’ We still sit on the public benches out in the open on the outskirts of the market. It’s not open air preaching with a microphone, etc. That just isn’t the way Jesus would do it, in my opinion. We sit, talk, pray, sing and read our Bibles together- in several different languages as family would sit in the lounge of one’s home. We just happen to think we are sitting in God’s living room at his feet instead of a very public market.

I started a prayer journal with pictures and stories of everybody from the market one year and it just kept going after that. Then our family went through some personal grief and challenges. Each morning I would sit with God and talk it over with him. Holy Spirit would come and I wrote down most of what occurred as a result of my visits with God; whether in my chair or in the Kirstenbosch Gardens under a tree.

I lack the training of a professional writer and it’s taken years to get this material into a readable form. So I am praying that you’ll be able to follow my train of thought throughout and our stories will inspire you in your own faith in God who loves us all. I pray it will spur you on in your journey to the promised land God has set before you. And when the race is finished, lets stand on the same side together, hand in hand, in hopes of hearing the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Now enter into your rest.” Until we meet in Eternity, Bon Voyage!

Susan Hill
bnfrsa@sentechsa.com
Cape Town, South Africa

Please Forgive Me Oprah?

You know that old Louis Armstrong song…
“Won't you come home, Bill Bailey, won't you come home?
I've moaned the whole night long
I'll do the cookin', honey, I'll pay the rent
I know I done you wrong

Will someone sing this to Oprah for me to the same tune? “Won’t you forgive me, Oprah? Won’t you please? I’ve waited the whole year long! Won't you have tea with me? I know I done you wrong"

Putting things in Perspective:

I wrote about Oprah’s opening of a school in South Africa in my blog last year. At the time I didn’t think I’d said anything bad, really. But it certainly has stuck in my craw throughout the year. I’ve had many a discussion with folks about Oprah, the school and I’ve heard everyone’s personal opinion of Oprah.

I accused Oprah of “drive-by outreach”. Please, Oprah, will you accept my sincere apology? You helped, you cared and who am I to judge you on that? Reading that you’d marched into South Africa, set up plans for building a school and technically waved your $$$ wand and made it happen just hurt me. I realize now there are several reasons I felt this way which have helped me to see the error of my ways; thoughts, words and actions.

Seven years ago my family moved to South Africa from Atlanta, Georgia. We’d been in full-time ministry ten years prior and literally I’d longed to serve God and His people in Africa all my life. When we arrived in Cape Town we were at amazed at the massive conglomerate of folks from around the world who'd given their lives to helping others here. A few South Africans asked why we “needed” to go to South Africa to serve God? There are so many others already helping- what more did we have to offer than those already sweating it out? Certainly we didn't want to seem arrogant as we surely knew we possessed no real corner on the market as far as ministry was concerned. So we spent a great deal of time praying; talking over with God our heart and His for our being in Cape Town. There are many organizations in the townships to help, big and small. ‘What did we have to offer?’

Initially when we visited Cape Town on our ‘spy out the land’ tour, we visited some of the ministries already established. We then set out to find what the work was that God had for us. It was in the very last days of our visit that we spied out a sign: District Six Museum. Following the signs we found a quaint, little church located in the parking lot of a large university. That seemed odd. Firstly, why build a church in the parking lot of a university? Wait, it wasn't really a church but a museum! Walking across the threshold our eyes beheld a hand drawn map on the floor. The map was of a former community called District Six. Inside the quaint, little church were remnants of a vibrant community. From street signs to pictures, hand-sewn, quilted reminders marking the spots on the map where families had once lived their lives. We sensed their loss, their sadness and the longing of God’s heart to rebuild family in community. It was at this moment God revealed His plan/vision for us. Later that next year when we moved our family to Cape Town, several South Africans would say: “they’ll never be able to rebuild District Six.” Had Nehemiah been met with the same when rebuilding Jerusalem? Those words hurt at first, but then we realized it was truth! We couldn’t rebuild, recapture all that had been District Six. You can build the houses, streets, schools, shops, etc. You could bring as many of the people back as you could find- but it wouldn’t recreate what was. That vibe, that feel, that sense of community was destroyed in the Group Areas Act. And still...God said ‘what the enemy meant for evil, I will use for good.’ So…. there is hope in rebuilding, like He said to Habakkuk: “Look and watch and be utterly amazed. For I am about to do something you wouldn’t believe, even if told.”

Some have pinned hopes on that literally being about District Six alone. Some have put their own dreams into what that will look like… and even have been disappointed that they haven’t seen it with their own eyes… yet. But we believe that God is doing something so amazingly different, it can’t be seen with the naked eye… it’s experienced when we come together as in Psalm 133: How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity….There’s the place God can command His blessing, even life forevermore!

What does all this have to do with Oprah? It has to do with all of us really- in that coming together place. Looking back in the Old Testament we learn about a time when they were all together in one place and decided to build a way back to heaven. Their only problem was they left God out of their equation.

I didn’t like the comment the one little girl made when meeting Oprah at the opening of the school. “How did you make your first million?” It wasn’t fair to attribute that to Oprah. The media prints what they want, don’t they? What they think we want to read versus what is really from the heart. What’s Oprah’s heart on that?

Celebrities don’t have to respond to media. They don’t even have to care, do they? Nor do we have to care about anything if we don’t want to do it. And here’s where I see Oprah makes a difference.

I first heard about Oprah when she came to Atlanta to interview the folks in that county where it was discovered blacks were not allowed to live, work or attend school. ‘That’s a pretty cheeky thing to do for a black woman!’ I remember thinking when I read her intentions to interview the people of the county on their views. That was a launching moment in Oprah’s calling. Some might say she took a huge risk, perhaps banking on it being the breakthrough moment in her career. Look what she’s done with her life! Who can say the same? Are we taking the risks? Are we going to the front lines of our lives and becoming who we were meant to be? And are we using it for good in the lives of others?

I have at times wished I had Oprah’s money to do all that she does. Putting things in perspective: My Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Nothing is impossible for those who believe. Oprah’s place is not where I belong. I’m called to be right here in South Africa, to be able to move around Africa according to God’s will and in His timing. I think he actually uses the fact that I’m short on cash a lot to get me to pray and seek Him before just giving it away. Don’t get me wrong, I love this about Oprah: she understands the power of extravagant giving! And she’s a wonderful example of sharing your gift with others. We can learn great things from this… and God will use these for good in our lives and the lives of countless others. Who knows, perhaps He will use Oprah and me together! I’d love to see her bus in the streets of Kigali and Kampala and Kinshasa, making African women’s dreams come true! I want to remind us all that God is alive and very present with us in our hopes, dreams and prayers. He will not forsake us or forget about us! He knows the plans He has for us! Plans to prosper us, to give us a future and a hope so that we can see and do like Oprah did. Thank you, Oprah! Thank you for not staying in the hurt that was meant to paralyze you into never becoming who you were meant to be! Thank you for believing beyond your wildest dreams for the future; for taking the risks and for having such a huge heart for others! I’ll be praying for your school and for all those involved in the mentoring and training of those precious young women. I’ll be praying for you, too, that you personally will get to know those girls and their families. Have tea with them, spend time with them, let them have access to your true heart. Let them know about the color purple. Help them to know the voice of God in their own hearts. That’s my prayer for you and them.





Susan Hill
Rebuilding Family in Community
Blood N Fire, RSA
Cape Town, South Africa