When Surrender Leads to Breakthrough Have you ever felt like God was withholding something precious from you? Hannah knew this pain intimately. The Bible tells us that "the LORD had closed her womb" (1 Samuel 1:5, NKJV), yet her husband "loved Hannah" and gave her "a double portion." Here's a profound truth:  being barren doesn't mean being unloved. Hannah suffered year after year. Her rival provoked her severely, making her weep and lose her appetite (1 Samuel 1:6-7). The bi

In part 1 we spoke about the fear of death and our doubts about what will happen to us in the afterlife. As much as we fear about physical death, did you know there's such thing as a spiritual death? We can be alive, living our best life but be spiritually dead. This means not having life in Christ and being dead in our sins. This may not make any sense to you unless you understand why Christ came on this earth. We are all spiritually dead because we are ancestors of Adam. He

“I’m a believer of Christ. What’s the different between someone that’s comfortable and a disciple?” Neither one will make you more saved or less saved. However one will create impact in his Kingdom which will be directly linked to you. One can support others in finding and remaining in their salvation. Do you want to apart of the Kingdom or building his Kingdom?

We often hear this saying from churchgoers or their friends and families. It's typically said after they hear about yet another church event that isn't part of the usual Sunday service. Being a Christian is often reduced to attending church for a couple of hours on a Sunday, and that's it. But we find that disciples are more involved. They attend Bible studies, fellowships, mid-week services, outreaches, and any other events the church might organize—hence the saying, "It's n

With maturity comes the ability to self reflect. Self reflecting is then followed by the ability to recognise where change is needed. Though we like to think we are mature and able to do this, how honest are you when it comes to self examining? Yeah you might be able to highlight areas where you need to improve like, ‘my time keeping is bad’ but are you able to see that you have a bad attitude or that you are untrustworthy. Yes it takes maturity to own up, but it requires eve

When we read or pray The Lords Prayer, we understand ' Give us this day our daily bread' to be a request to God asking him to provide for the day. We need food daily hence we ask for this daily. However, in John 6:35 it says “Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’” And so if we combine the two it also makes sense that we ask for Christ (the bread of life) daily. Just as we need

Making friends in life is no walk in the park and it’s certainly not any easier when it comes to making friends in church. If you are that person who is struggling, you’re most likely thinking A) these people aren’t my cup of tea or B) these people don’t see me.   Let’s digest point A first.   Why is it that you’re in church (I’ll let you answer) ….? Ok and so the friends you currently have, do you believe that these people are going to help you with this? If your answer is n

This is probably the most common question among Christians. “Why should I give away my hard earn money? The church is corrupt! I give to charity that’s enough. We believe our God resides in heaven, right? Do they have ATMs up there? I thought not. And so God doesn’t need our money.” Even if he did, no amount you give could repay him. Not only that, you could give 100 million in the basket, and still not pay yourself to heaven. So if he doesn’t need our money, then why do the

Some will mock and ridicule us because of our faith. They find the idea of us having a saviour absurd and hilarious. The thought of us having to believe in a man and dedicate our lives to him. What sort of entrapment is that? Where is the freedom? Those are the same individuals that need to burn their lungs with smoking to relive stress or drown their liver with alcohol in order to feel alive? They’re tied to a lifestyle that circulates depression. Bound to a life of sleeping

Lets' admit it, our prayer life is mostly made up of us asking for things, praying for miracles and prayers of healing. Here and there it might include a sprinkle of repentance and dash of thanksgiving. But where is the praise? Where is the selfless devotion? A time where all we do is give God praise. The praise that he deserves for what he has done, is doing and will do. The praise for not just in the ups but also in the down. The praise not when we've just received our answ

We all know having a routine is good for us. We allocate time in our day to workout, to do chores, a time to sleep and so on. We even try to do the same in our walk of faith. We set a time to fellowship, to bible study and so on. All this is great but there’s also a downside to having a routine. When it comes to our daily devotion, we squeeze this in somewhere in our day. Your routine may be to read your bible first thing in the morning and have your prayer time just before b

If somebody said they’ve never been scared of this thought, they’re probably lying. At some point we have all most definitely been scared of the idea of ‘death.’ How can we not, it means separating from your loved ones and not being able to do the things you enjoy. It’s finite. Then we have some Christians, who aren't scared at all but instead are full of joy and anticipation. So how can it be, that some Christians dread the day whilst others await it? Well, how can you be re

We all have some idea of what a church is and have our own assumptions on how it operates. You say 'Catholic' and people automatically equate that to a man in robes (like the Pope). You say 'Pentecostal' and people envision the the mega churches full of prosperity preaching. But lets' draw away from the big picture and focus on what actually makes up the church. It's the people. It's your first day at church, maybe you've been invited or were on the hunt. You attend, someone

Have you ever heard a Christian say "all sin is the same." Which then leads you to respond "so there's no difference between murder and telling a white lie?" It is true that God treats all sin equally, however we are looking at it in the wrong way. Does this mean that if you lied to a child about the hidden vegetables in their dinner God would react in the same way to you killing someone innocent? Well the bible doesn't specifically talk about the different degrees of sin. Th

In part 1 we spoke about the different ways of reading the bible and the importance of it. What we did not discuss is how the word of God can also be used as form of protection. As Christians we must spiritually shield ourselves. We need to be in a bubble covered by the word because we will face obstacles and sometimes it's only the word that can get us through it. Below is a short clip detailing this. It's a must watch!

Did you know there are different ways of reading the bible? There’s reading and there’s consuming. A lot of us will read the bible as a chore. This means we’re reading with the goal “I must read my daily verse/chapter” and in this way of reading what we find is that our mind is actually elsewhere whilst we read. We read robotically whilst thinking about our house chores, weekend plans, recent events, a new pair of trainers etc. and what tends to happen is that we end up read

There comes a point in life where we are able to look back at our accomplishments and say to ourselves 'wow I've come a long way.' Then there also comes a point where we'll realise we've gone back a few steps. We then begin to self depreciate, de-value our achievements and all round become negative. This blog is to remind you that in order to have moved backwards, you first must have moved forward. Yes you have moved forward. Don't forget this. You have done well and will con

Advice, criticism, council, direction, guidance, instruction; oh how we love to dish this out but when it's our turn to be on the receiving end we aren't interested. So why is it so hard? One thing that kids and adults have in common is, we don't like being told what to do, especially when we think we know whats right and whats best. Sadly, this isn't always the case. There are times when we may ask a variety of people for their thoughts/opinions and what tends to happen is

Did you know being in the house of God does not equate to spiritual growth? There are many people in church that are just seat warmers. One of the main reasons of church is growth. Through sermons, bible studies, fellowships, outreach etc, we should often feel conviction whether it be from a word or someones actions. This conviction should then lead us to reflection and admittance. This is when change begins to happen. If this is not happening, what is the point of your walk

Marriage has changed over the years. From the meaning, its value, the roles each person plays, divorce rates and the nuptials. There's no doubt theres been a shift, but has this been for better or for worse? We're all familiar with what is called a 'traditional marriage' and many will believe that marriages then were far better. They base this on the fact divorce rates were lower and because the marriages had structure. Though divorce rates where next to nothing, does this me