The Law of the Lord is

 Perfect!

20 September 2025

"Every page of Scripture thunders with this truth: God is the hero of the story."

 Matt Chandler

What a week it has been! This past week I had the incredible privilege of teaching at an Equipping Pastor's Worldwide Conference in Kasama. What a wonderful time of fellowship and getting together in the Word of God it was! There is something so refreshing about gathering with fellow servants of Christ, opening the Scriptures together, and watching God speak through His Word.

As I taught and listened and fellowshipped with these precious pastors, I was again reminded of a truth that never gets old - the whole Bible from the Book of Genesis to the Book of Revelation breathes who Jesus is and what Jesus has done and is still doing for us. Every page, every chapter, every verse somehow points us to our Savior! As Jesus Himself said to those disciples on the Emmaus road:

"And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." - Luke 24:27

Can you imagine that Bible study? Jesus Himself showing how every part of Scripture testifies of Him! From the promised seed in Genesis 3:15, to the sacrificial system pointing to the ultimate sacrifice, to the prophecies declaring His coming - it's all about Jesus!

I was also powerfully reminded that God does nothing just for the sake of doing something. He is a God of order and purpose in all that He does and allows to happen. Nothing is random with our sovereign Lord! Every detail of history, every circumstance of our lives, every challenge in ministry - He orchestrates it all according to His perfect will and for His glory.

We even see from the Scriptures that God uses the unbeliever to accomplish His purposes. Think of Pharaoh hardening his heart so that God's glory would be displayed in Egypt. Think of Cyrus being called God's anointed to restore Israel. Think of the Roman soldiers unknowingly fulfilling prophecy as they crucified our Lord. God's sovereignty extends over all things and all people!

This truth hit me afresh as I watched God work through this conference. Pastors who had traveled long distances, some facing real hardships in their ministries, all gathering to be equipped and encouraged. And God met us there! He used His perfect Word to strengthen hearts, clarify calling, and renew passion for the gospel.

Oh how good it is to be reminded that we serve a God who has everything under control! When ministry feels overwhelming, when the challenges seem too great, when we wonder if we're making any difference at all - we can rest in this truth: God is the hero of the story, and He will accomplish His purposes through His perfect Word and by His sovereign power.

Thank you Lord for Your perfect law that revives the soul! Thank you for conferences like this that remind us who You are and what You have done. Help us to continue proclaiming Your truth with boldness, knowing that Your Word never returns empty!

Here am I Lord, send me!

The Reality of Sin 10 January 2025

 The Reality of Sin

10 January 2025

" Don't ever think of your sin 

in relation to how bad others are. 

Always think of your sin in 

relation to how Holy God is."

                John MacArthur

Wow what a thought to ponder on. We are always so quick to compare ourselves to others. But the reality is that the lives of others are not the bench mark. In fact they are nowhere near the bench mark. When we compare our lives we need to compare them to God. Then as Isaiah said in Isaiah 6:5-6

5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” 

6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” 

Isaiah never compared or measured himself against another man but he compared himself to God and was found wanting. Oh how I am so wanting!!!

But thanks be to God who has taken all my sin away through the death and resurrection of Jesus. When God sees me now He sees absolute perfection. He does not see sin anymore. Oh no that sin has been paid for. The slate has been swiped completely clean.

Therefor as Isaiah I am able to say 

Isaiah 6:8

8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” 

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

I am only able to go because of what God has done for me and in me. I am the worst of the worst without Him.

Thank you Lord!!

God Know Everything 5th January 2025

 God Know Everything

5 January 2025

         "    O LORD, you have searched me 

         and you know me. 

          You know when I sit and when I rise; 

         you perceive my thoughts from afar. 

          You discern my going out and my lying down; 

         you are familiar with all my ways. 

        Before a word is on my tongue 

         you know it completely, O LORD"

Psalm 139:1-4

As we start this year it is comforting to know that God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what we are going through, all our trials and tribulations, all our heartaches and pain. He knows us so intimatley far better than we know ourselves.

However, this also calls us to realize that God even knows all our secret little wrongs or sins. This is pretty daunting as there is nothing that we can hide from Him. He sees all. But yet as a Child of God He loves me and is patient with me desiring that everyday I grow a little bit more in Him. Such a patient God! Such a loving God! Let me not take this for granted and try through the power of His Holy Spirit to transform little by little into His likeness.

I started this Keto diet this week to try and restart my body. This last year of 2024 has been a real struggle for me health wise. After contracting Bronchial Pneumonia in February I have struggled to feel good. I think then with all the travelling that had to be done and all the antibiotics that I had to take to keep going it took a real toll on my body. But lessons have been learnt and I pray that this diet will help. It has helped me to lose a bit of weight already so that it good. It is also working on my self discipline as I deal with the cravings, especially of sugar. Wow I did not realize that it is quite a drug.

Well that is enough for now. Glad to get back into my diary after nearly 10 years.

Love you Lord!!

8 December 2015

The Unpredictability of the Preconceived Certainty.

Often we take so many things for granted!! We open a bottle of milk and presume that it is still fresh and pour it into our coffee. We buy a bottle of medicine and we just presume that it is not past its expiry date. We take good care of our vehicle and we presume that when we get into it, it will start and drive well, why? Because we have taken the time to service and maintain it. In fact when we really sit down and think about it, a lot in life we just presume will be as we want it.

But there is that time when the milk we buy is sour even though it is before its expiry date. The bottle of medicine is in fact expired and the car breaks for no apparent reason. Well this is what happened to us this last week. I use the Isuzu Trooper to go out to the village to do ministry. I try my best to keep it maintained to the best I can and then it breaks on me.

But there is ONE who is outside of this principle of unpredictability and that is the Lord. You see it was an absolute miracle that I made it back from the village with a completely broken wheel bearing. Scientific logic was defied as I drove into the yard and parked the vehicle only to discover that the wheel was almost dislodged from the axle.

So even though we live in a world where we try and keep everything predictable and certain we will always have the unpredictability and uncertainty that comes along. How do we handle it? Trust in the Lord as He is the only one who is outside of this principle. There are absolutely no uncertainties with Him!

Well I have the new bearings and will be repairing this vehicle in the next few weeks. But I need to keep my trust in Him.

“It is better to take refuge in the Lord, than to trust in man.” Psalm 118:8

 

19 November 2015

Preparing For Rain

The rains are upon us! I love this time of the year when the first big rain clouds start to build up and and stretch way up into the heavens as they absorb moisture. It seems all of life waits in anticipation for the heavens to open and the refreshing rains to fall.

But it is not all peace and joy. Yes we want the rains to start but at the same time are we ready for the rains. There is so much that we need to do in preparation for the rains. We have very seasonal weather here and it would be very out of the norm to have rains during the dry season so we tend to relax about covering things. But as we approach the rainy season we begin frantically to prepare. Things need to be covered and tired down as sometimes high winds can accompany the rain. Lands need to be prepared and seeds planted. The rainy season cattle kraal needs to be prepared in anticipation for the cattle during the rains. Ministry in the village needs to finish as the roads just become impassable. So much to do! Do I really want the rains to come now? Yes, yes and yes.

But this reminds me so much of life. So often we are wanting something out of life, but are we really ready for it? In our professions we would love to land a great contract, but are we really ready for it. Up here I have been praying for God to render His Heavens and come down and move among the folks in a mighty way. Oh that so many folks would be saved! But then are we ready for it? You see we really do not have enough spiritual leaders to manage a huge revival. Making leaders takes time and God in His infinite wisdom knows when we will have enough. So I keep praying and waiting for the Lord’s spiritual rain to fall while continuing to disciple folks. All in His time I guess.

12 November 2015

Body Surfing

Yesterday, while in town,I spent some time visiting a friend. I enjoy our visits as he comes up with some profound insights into life in Zambia and the current economic situations that we are facing. One of the profound things that he said yesterday was,’’In Africa we always seem to miss the crest of the wave”. What he was saying is that in Africa we always seem to be late to the feast that the rest of the world has eaten and we are left with the crumbs.

Now I  grew up in Port Elizabeth, which is a beautiful city on the sea. One of my fondest memories was heading down to the sea for a good swim and some body surfing. Oh how I loved the thrill of flying down the face of the wave, feeling the power of the wave hurtling me forward with incredible speed and power. There was nothing like the feeling of having caught the perfect wave.

But timing was everything. If you were too late in swimming you floated over the crest of the wave watching it leave you from behind and you felt a little let down. You nearly had it and felt a bit of its power but it was gone. Now my fault was that I always tried to catch it a bit early. I was always a little closer to the shore than I needed to be. Well the result was that you got nicely “dumped”. As you set off ahead of the wave it kind of curled over you and hit you from the top. The result was that you were eating sand and seaweed for a while. But when you timed it perfectly it was amazing!! The feeling of riding and harnessing all that power was out of this world.

It got me thinking about life. Timing in life is so important. I am a bit early for most things. I try and plan, not for the good results, but to anticipate the problems. I am way ahead of today as I want to fix the problems before they have even happened. So I end up living life in the future and tend to get “dumped” many times. Why not get the timing right and ride the perfect wave? Well it is all about timing.

The Lord challenges us to wait on Him. Well I guess that is good advice as He is the One who created the waves and orchestrates life and its events. Catching the perfect wave in life would be having an eye and ear on the Lord and waiting for him to say “go”. So hard when you just want to surf that wave! I have been dumped so many times in life as I learn to read the waves. But as I  spend time with the Lord I am slowly beginning to read the waves. Some days I get a great ride, others I am afraid I get horribly dumped. But the things is, we have to get up, get the sand out of all those nasty places and try again. The Lord is so gracious with us and keeps the waves coming. Lets learn to get the timing right!

“Wait for the Lord;

be strong and take heart

and wait for the Lord.” Psalm 27:14

11 November 2105

Things are not always as they seem.

Our impression of things in life are not always what we perceive them to be. This morning, around the breakfast table, we were discussing the economic instability that we are facing as a country. This brought back a profound experience that I had when we first came to Zambia.

I needed some cash from the bank. This was before the days of ATMs. So first thing, as soon as the bank opens I am there. I really do not like standing in queues! I fill out the necessary forms and head to the counter to meet the smiling teller. She looks at the cash withdrawal slip and hesitates for a moment. My first reaction is that I have made a mistake on the slip so I ask if all is ok. She then looks at me and says that they do not have any cash in the bank at this time but if I would be ever so kind and take a seat until someone comes to make a deposit. My mouth dropped. I thought banks always had cash!! Well needless to say it was a slow morning but I did get my cash eventually.

Life with all its up and downs is very much like this. As we face each trial, usually that trial blinds our perception of the rest of our life. Yet in reality it should not when we compare it to all of life. I think this is why the Lord reminds us not to worry, as He knows life from the right perspective.Oh so hard to follow!!! Yet so right!!

 “ Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?”

Matthew 6:25