Book Title:TRUE FACED Authors; JOHN LYNCH, BRUCE McNICOL, BILL THRALL… The authors of this book relay the message that God’s dreams for us are ultimately not really about us. His dreams only take form for the benefits of others i.e.them feeling loved, filling their heads with dreams and hopes, guiding them, serving them, influencing them etc. God’s dreams for us reflect His heart. If we are therefore not maturing in sync with His heart, how can we distinguish others- centered dreams form our own self-centered dreams? God wants to reveal Himself to us in authenticity. His dream for us is that we would influence others far more out of who we are rather than out of what we do. So, above all else, your destiny requires you to be a maturing person. The Father wants us to mature into the likeness of His Son. True Faced goes ahead to talk about how then we can be true faced before God and others in order to live out the purpose for which God created us. THE MASK Pretending to b...

Book Title: CHRISTIANITY EXPLORED. Author: Rico Tice and Barry Cooper Christianity Explored is an exposition on the Gospel according to Mark. The authors seek to make the readers better acquainted with who Jesus is. Rico Tice, one of the authors, did not have a particularly religious upbringing and thus reading the book becomes more interesting as one seeks to find out what then brought the change in his life. From the introduction of the book that has most of its references from the book of Mark, we are made to keep asking ourselves, ‘Just who is this man Jesus?’ Mark, the writer of the Gospel gives us a clear answer. Jesus is ‘the Son of God’- Mark1:1, He is ‘the Lord’ over sickness, nature, death and sin. As He teaches, calms the storm, raises the dead, heals the sick and forgives sin, He is acting in God’s world with God’s authority. He behaves as if He is the ruler over everything, as if He is God Himself. And if that is true –that Jesus is God- then things start gett...

  ORDERING YOUR PRIVATE WORLD .                   Author: Gordon MacDonald . What on earth is a private world? That’s a good place to start. Gordon explains it as the part of life where we know ourselves. Best of all, it is where self-esteem is forged. Where basic decisions about motives, values and commitments are made, where we commune with our God. As he puts it, for practicing Christians, our most persistent advocate of ordering our private world is the Holy Spirit. Is there need to have my private world in order? From the book, I can most certainly say yes. Our inner world is more spiritual in nature. Here is a center in which choices and values can be determined. Where solitude and reflections might be pursued. It is a place for conducting worship and confession. If neglected, this private world will not sustain the weight of events and pressure that press upon it. Our outer world on th...

Cont' of REST IN THE STORM- Kirk Byron Jones . Jesus wakes up and addresses  the storm " Peace Be still" In Greek Jesus was telling the storm to "muzzle itself", to hold its energy inside itself and to bring the turbulence to a place of rest. Amazingly the storm obeyed. Jesus command emphasized the capacity for peace to be observed through an internal holding , or muzzling of energy. The power to affirm a state of calm lies within the storm itself. The storm has the ability to diffuse its own rage. Its within the storms capacity to have peace if it will restrict its own energy , which is raging out of control.  The storm must believe and execute its potential to calm itself, and hold itself. Implied here is more than a momentary action but continuous action.  TO GET CALM AND KEEP CALM!!! Peace is not merely the absence of conflict but the presence of Christ. Its neither something we affirm through our awareness of and commitment to a divinely grante...

HOW DO YOU GET SELFCARE WHILE GIVING OTHERS CARE Gillian’s read on “Rest in the storm” Kirk Byron Jones We look outwardly happy and successful but most of us suffer from inner pain, mostly because we are trying to do too much and trying to be all things for all people. This has effects in our families and the people we lead. We must learn to confess personal overload and confess insufficient self-care as a subtle but lethal expression of personal and social violence. As Howard Thurman writes “teach us how to respond to the needs of thy children in ways that do not undermine the self, but inspire and enliven the spirit”. Is there someone being ignored? Through many years of wear and tear and toll taking ministry service mostly someone is being ignored and that is “Me”.   Is self negligence a very strong word to use? This negligence seems to be acceptable and an easy camouflage for our society.   Why Acceptable?   Because its most often rewarded with...

  A DECADE ..ENTERING 2 DIGITS.. Memories are made in my heart as i think through 10 years ago. It starts before then, growing up in a single mum family made me think i did not need a man , but my mum never painted a negative image of men and am so thankful to God about that. As a teenager i always thought it would be cool to have a great job 1 kid and drive a nice car and that was  it. Thankfully i met the Lord and then i became too radical and thought there was no brother who would like to marry a Jesus die hard girl. And i was ok with staying single yeahh ,,, Well i am glad that God thought differently and gifted me with marriage. Both me and Robert  were commissioned by Focus k and Focus U respectively as missionaries to Norway and that is where we met. On first glimpse i saw a preacher who was very biblical but kind and loving. i had never met a caring loving and kind man like him. We became very good friends to a level that i didn't notice when he was intereste...