The recent events in France have left all of us horrified. The brutal murder of journalists, writers, satirists and the law enforcement professionals coming to their help is something we should be concerned about. Freedom of speech allows writers and bloggers like me to freely express our opinions and views on a whole range of issues. In my case this forum is almost exclusively

Christianity-related writing – something that threatens many extremist “muslims”.

I have friends who are not Christians. I have friends who are Muslim. My current assistant is a young Muslim woman. We engage in discourse about our beliefs and how we see God and relate to Him regularly. This kind of discussion is becoming a sort of “friendship evangelism” as the personal relationship I have through Jesus is unlike anything she can find in her own religion, and id something she seeks quite genuinely.

I have friends who are satirists and comedians. They poke fun at the way life is and the lunacies of existence. They all live and work in the “safety” of a developed country – England in this case – where freedom of speech and expression is relatively protected.
So the murders in France have touched a nerve for me. But I will stop short of the “Je suis Charlie” movement.

I am not Charlie. I may empathise with the families who are grieving, and be outraged that such an action could take place, but I am not Charlie.

What I am is David. I write what I believe to be the Truth as God reveals it to me. I speak the same as well when I have the chance. Like the victims, I will not be swayed by someone disliking my opinions. I am free to believe what I choose to believe. Like all Christians before me I believe Jesus Christ is, was and always will be the same. I believe His presence guides me. I choose to live my life devoted to Him and allow myself to be empowered to do this through the presence of the person of the Holy Spirit living in my heart. I believe Jesus is the only way to God.

I’m an extremist too. A Christian extremist. I hope to be able to be one like Paul or Peter, so caught up in my walk with Christ and living it to the extreme that the World around me cannot help but see a difference in me and be drawn to it.

We’re all called to be Christian Extremists. Christians who show Christ’s Love to the World so that they are drawn to Him by our example.

I spent some time over the last few days thinking about the Crusades 800 years ago. Militant Europeans travelling to reclaim the Holy Land from the barbarians. That kind of physical warfare has no place in evangelism. It’s a dark part of Christian history, the evangelical outreach sponsored by the Genghis Khan School of Ministry in the 13th Century. It was a time where “christians” did unthinkable acts with the same conviction these fanatics have now, just in a different name. If C4 explosives and AK47s had been available then, I’m certain they would have used them.

But I am David.

I am an extremist. I would even say I was “militant”. I’ve been described as “racist” for my beliefs about Islam being a false religion. I’ve been called “closed-minded” for not believing that all religions end in the same place.

So I’m a racist, closed-minded Christian. If I choose to believe what the World says.
Jesus called all Believers His brothers. He reached out to Jew and Gentile, calling us all home. To show His arms would never be closed to us He had them nailed open. (Thanks to Max Lucado for the imagery there).

Don’t be Charlie.

I am David. I am hidden in Christ and I seek to show Christ to the World. Sometimes I use satirical writing or sarcasm to make a point. I’ll happily “blaspheme” to a Muslim by telling the Truth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and no prophet of a false god, Allah.

I won’t be Charlie.

I rather choose to try to be Christ, or at least Christ-like to those around me.

We all should.

But remember the grieving in France. And remember anyone is a target to that kind of militant – especially if you dare to speak the Truth.

I dislike this time of year. Quite aside from summertime in the Southern Hemisphere meaning climbing temperatures and shrinking clothing, there is this expectation of everything being a new start and a new “you” – whatever that means.

The issues we have on December 31st don’t magically vanish at midnight. Our struggles and battles continue into the following day, just as they would on any other day. Our hopes and dreams come with us too.

The New Year is a time to ponder and reflect on what has happened in the previous year. To take stock and review. Too often that gets buried in a raucous party of pseudo-friends, family and genuine loved ones staying up into the late night and celebrating another 12 months circling the sun. Personally I don’t feel the need to celebrate that on 31st December any more than on July 22nd. Or any other day for that matter. We make “resolutions” which usually last about a week at best and then spend the rest of the year doing much the same as we did the previous year until the following year when we make the same promises all over again.

It’s insanity. We fail to change our behaviour, yet our expectation is that we will somehow change our outcome.

Somewhere along the way we need to shift our paradigms. As Christians we should understand this even more than the World. After all, Salvation is a major paradigm shift. We go from being Spiritually dead to being Alive in Christ. There’s no bigger shift that I can think of. Yet we struggle often to move beyond that initial change. We get “saved” but nothing really changes. Our health issues remain in spite of healing being available through the atonement. We remain broke despite prosperity being promised to us in both Spiritual and material terms. Even many of us retain our “old man” personalities with bad tempers and grouchiness combined with a difficulty to forgive despite the forgiveness offered to us. I struggle with that on a daily basis – especially in traffic.

We refuse to let go of the past hurts and allow the healing Love of God in the person of the Holy Spirit to come in and comfort and heal us in those broken areas. We remain brittle with reduced strength to fight temptation and sin, too often falling into old habits.

The old issues don’t go away in the New Year. They can only go away through a conscious shift in our thinking and behaviour. We need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds into the very likeness of Christ, reflecting His Glory to the World. When we get it right we see miracles happen, lives changed and serious questions asked of us. We need to be ready with the answers.

And even though I’m writing this at the start of 2015, we need to remember it for the rest of the year. It’s never too soon to make a change. Never too late to shift our thoughts in line with Gods.

Never too late to put down the old issues and forgive the ones who hurt us.

So Happy New Year, and again for tomorrow. And the next day.

My Grandfather was a Salvation Army officer for many years. One of his favourite themes was the difference between what he termed “head knowledge” and “heart knowledge”. We spoke at length about it just a week or so before he went home to be with God, or as the Salvation Army puts it was “Promoted to Glory”.

It’s something I’ve been mulling over for over 15 years now as he died in the 1990’s. He was a very passionate man who did what he could to truly live his Faith in everything he did – with the possible exception of repairing his motorbike, when his language was less than holy.

He differentiated between what we comprehend in our intellect and what we truly believe. It was a revelation to me when we discussed it. Knowing about faith and having Faith are not the same thing. We need to do more than understand with our minds. It needs to permeate every part of our being, become so much a part of ourselves that we can’t experience a day without experiencing God in what we do and say.

Head knowledge and heart knowledge are what James refers to when he says even the demons know there’s one God. Knowing simply isn’t enough, ew must make that knowledge a part of us.

The truth alone cannot free us. It is only the Truth we know in our hearts that can liberate us from poverty, sickness and walking a dead life in this world. That’s not to say we don’t need to understand with our minds, rather that we need to understand with our full beings, transformed by the renewal of our hearts and minds on a daily basis by the presence of God.

Perhaps as Christmas draws closer this year it’s a chance for us to begin to renew our minds. Really think about what we’re really celebrating. Not a transcendental baby glowing on a bed of hay, but God Himself coming into a war-zone to take back from Satan what had been stolen and restore a true Relationship with His children.

It’s something to hold in our hearts this Christmas.

We live in a modern society in the West where Personality has become more important than a person’s Character. This has filtered into the church as well. We see the mega-churches where worship leaders are more performers than worshippers, with choreographed routines, lights and even in extreme cases smoke machines as a part of the service. There are teachers whose appearance is more important to the masses than the message. They have their costumes – white suits and coiffed hair are popular – with whitened teeth and showbiz-style smiles. They preach what people want to hear and miss the point of the Gospel in their pursuit of popularity.

Jesus didn’t set out to be popular. He didn’t go for the personality and acclaim – the Pharisees did enough of that. He went for the jugular of the spirit in each person – their character. It’s apparent in His dealing with the rich young ruler:

“Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth.What do I still lack?”Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

(Matthew 19:16-22 NKJV)

The issue was not really the man’s money, but the fact that his money was first in his life. His character was one based in idolatry – money being his idol. Jesus recognised this and was telling him to surrender his idol and follow Him.

My grandfather was a Salvation Army Bandmaster in England. He used to remind me that character is who we are when nobody’s looking. That’s what we need to get back to. Showmanship is all very well if the heart behind it is sincere, but if the leader got the following only because of his looks and persona then watch out. He may not have the character to truly be a spiritual leader, and there is the danger of him (or her) being obsessed with self instead of in Love with Jesus.

A few decades ago this atmosphere of personality-driven churches was unthinkable. The minister and elders needed to be above reproach in their conduct and the way their families reflected them. If they couldn’t guide their own family, how could they guide a church? Today we have leaders whose moral integrity has been called into question, so they go into their TV show and shed tears of “repentance”. We, the viewer, buy the act and they go back to cheating on their wife, fiddling their taxes and fleecing the flock.

Where has our sense of the need for character gone?

We rebuke the minister who tells us to live a life of absolutes, that God is a God of Righteousness who cannot abide sinful behaviour and that any Christian should seek to be Christ-like in his behaviour. That means no adultery, stealing, jealousy, or any other immoral behaviour: not because we have to live by a set of rules, but because the Spirit of God lives inside us and urges us away from those ways. Instead we listen to “progressive” ideas that suggest Jesus is just one route to God instead of The route to God. Messages that dilute the Gospel and make a mockery of the concept of moral absolutes by suggesting exceptions or that “modern” ideas have somehow disproved the standards God established several millenia ago as irrelevant. We lean on our own understanding and wisdom. God sees it as a joke – and not the funny kind.

Personality is what matters in the World. We see people of no moral character as “leaders” in the shape of politicians, self-help gurus, actors and pop stars. The desire to emulate them and follow their example, then delight in pointing when they fall because they are lacking the moral backbone of true Godly Character a genuine leader needs.

The church is not immune to this form of personality worship. While it’s true we need to understand the personality of God, and recognise the twinkle in Jesus’ eyes as He spoke to some of the people in the Gospels to grasp the truth in His words, it’s the character of God we need to cling to. His nature of Love more than His sense of humour is what’s important. This is not the God as shown in “The Simpsons”. He’s no charicature sitting on a cloud, but living in and around us, influencing everything we do and see. His character would make the very rocks around us cry out if we fail to worship Him in Truth.

My character is flawed. I’m short-tempered a lot of the time. Whilst writing this I received a call from a bank telling me I was just a few Rand (about $6) short on a home loan payment made last week. The call probably cost them more than the shortfall. My response was not the way I’d like my character to be. I’m working on it.

Who each of us is varies in each situation. We adjust the personality we show. But it’s time we get rid of that and make a conscious choice to focus on our character consistently. We need to be the same person in public as we’d like to think we are behind closed doors.

And we need to stop worshiping the personalities we see on our televisions and get back to the truly deep nature of our character.

A situation recently has made me think about forgiveness. We are called to forgive our enemies. We are called to forgive our friends. But I’m not sure this means we live in a world where actions don’t have a consequence.

For example, a child is molested. We as Christians find out about this and healing is brought to the relationship through forgiveness and wholeness to the family. Does this mean we let the perpetrator babysit? Of course not.

I recently heard a pastor had admonished a family member for making a “fuss” over such a situation as the man had “repented”. What actually happened was the man “got caught” when the victim – just five years old – had the strength to confront him at a family party.

We live in a world where consequence is belittled. Hell is treated as a metaphor instead of a real place, and as a result there is no fear of it.

We must forgive, yes. We forgive for ourselves, not the aggressor. We release the anger and hate and allow hope and light back in to clean away the darkness. But there must be a consequence to actions. Either in this world or the next.

Jesus spoke of Hell as a real place. Judgement – God’s wrath against the ungodly – is mentioned through both Old and New Testaments.

Forgiving doesn’t mean we allow the same action again. That is foolishness and it has no place in our walk with Christ. It would be equivalent to buying alcoholics a drink to help them recover. Utter nonsense. They should seek help and avoid the temptation. Equally, adulterers, abusers, idolators etc should be forgiven but face a consequence to their actions.

Actions have consequences. And forgiveness is not a free pass – it’s a gift we give ourselves to keep our own heart free.

Jesus never held back. He was brutally honest in all his dealings with everyone. The woman at the well he was hard with – calling her out on the number of husbands she’d had and the fact that she now was living with a man she wasn’t married to.

He was hardest on the pharisees, blind guides leading others into the pit.

But all his bluntness was delivered from a place of Love. Brutal, total and unashamed Love.

We try t emulate the “honesty” but miss the motive. We point out the flaws in our friends, celebrities, strangers and everyone but ourselves, but the motivation is rarely Love. It’s usually self-righteousness.

We need to be brutally honest with ourselves before we can be honest to any degree with others. We need to turn the spotlight onto ourselves and ignore the World and it’s standards. We need to line our lives up with the known Will of God before we can line our neighbours up.

It’s difficult. Looking at our attitudes and behaviours through God’s eyes is to cast a stone into a pond that will cause a tidal wave of repercussions. If we truly seek God’s face, ask Him to be brutally honest with us so we can be more like Him, then we need to brace for an ugly picture of how we are in comparison to Him. His standards are not ours. Yes, we are covered by the blood of Jesus – thankfully – but we need to remember that the covering of the blood will only make a difference as far as we allow it to. There’s no point in accepting the covering and continuing with viewing porn, having an affair, coveting next-door’s car or flower-bed. It gives us nothing.

Paul describes the benefits in 1 Corinthians 13 where he outlines the purpose of Love. Not boastful. Not full of itself. Sacrificial. It considers others first and is not judgemental. But it is honest.

Brutally so.

We need to seek to manifest that Love so we can be brutally honest in His image.

That kind of brutal honesty draws people to the cross. Self-righteousness drives them away.

There’s a fresh buzz in our home right now. For the first time in over two years there’s a growing positive movement back towards where God has had us directed.

The difference is a new business, re-learning communication skills and remembering who we were created to be.

It’s been a traumatic time for us as a family over the last few years. The loss of a business, selling our home, illness and hospitalisation and the passing of dearly loved friends and family have taken a heavy toll. But we can begin again. It’s not too late.

It’s coming into spring in the Southern Hemisphere. Everywhere I look I see a reminder that after the death and devastation of winter, life grows back and beauty is reborn from the seemingly dead landscape. The branches of the trees that have been bare are budding, flowers beginning to bloom and a massive display of colour along the roadside serve as a reminder that even the harshest of winters is followed by new life.

Our Spiritual life is often the same.

There’s a new church plant locally to us that I’m (hopefully) going to visit. Spiritually it’s important not to isolate ourselves from other Christians. It’s why I write and want people to respond with comments and dialogue. If every reader agrees with everything I write I’m obsolete. I want to make people – including myself – think about Faith. Consider the real Jesus and build a relationship with Him.

It’s a difficult thing to do; come back to life after so long. It’s painful. In many ways it would be easier to stay where I was. We are all tempted to do that. We wallow, get into a self-pitying mindset and mope around feeling sorry for ourselves while the world keeps turning. There’s nothing to stop us staying there, either.

Except our Spirit.

Our Spirits, joined with Christ, long for rejoicing. We long to exchange ashes for joy. Our hearts yearn for it. We were, after all, designed to worship God with our whole being. There’s no flaw in the design, so despair and depression become seasons which can and inevitably do pass.

My heart broke for the family of Robin Williams this week after he lost his personal battle with depression. We are all tempted in the same way as he was. Many lose the fight in the same way.

I’m not judging him. It’s not my place to. Not too long ago I suffered depression badly enough that I not only considered ending my own life, but I attempted it no fewer than four times. My doctors couldn’t explain how I didn’t succeed. But I lived and the winter eventually became spring. I met my wife after the worst time of depression I’ve had was ending. After almost 11 years I’m still Blessed by her daily, and although we have struggles with health both mental and physical, we fight through because we have the strength of Christ powering us.

In fact, we have more power than we can imagine. We limit it ourselves. Jesus wants to give us far more than we believe we are worthy to receive. In Ephesians 3, Paul points to our lack when he reminds us that God is “able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (3:20 – emphasis added). We can limit the beauty of the spring in our lives.

Nature overflows in springtime. Colours and life in a way not seen any other time of the year. After a spiritual winter, a beating and pain we can also experience the springtime in the same way. In fact, we are able to see more than we can imagine is we will only allow Him to give it to us.

It’s a time of changing seasons wherever we live. Summer becoming autumn in the north and winter becomes spring in the south.

Either way, it’s a time for a new start. Preparation, healing, recovery and life’s abundance are only a small step away.

Take it. Start again.

Allow yourself to have a new beginning and shake the dust and ashes from your heart.

A while ago I wrote for an online Christian website as a volunteer writer.

It set my mind thinking as it has been a challenge to write for them. On this blog I can write whatever I feel, an invitation they extended to me as well, but with a caveat of a 1000 word limit. I had last had a word limit to writing over 20 years ago when writing for English Language projects at the age of 16. It’s made me have to think about how to deliver a concise and yet meaningful piece of work.

Our wings as Christians need to be given room to grow. This project, a weekly column, has challenged me to expand my writing ability beyond where it has been. I am forced to devote more time and effort to editing my pieces and making sure all the pertinent details are included.

As I’ve been writing it struck me that this is a great exercise for my walk in general. Not everyone will take kindly to my full testimony as after almost 30 years as a Christian there is a lot to it, so I need to learn to be concise and salient to get the message across when people ask why I believe in Jesus.

I’m still working on a short version.

I believe God wants us to spread our wings and stretch out faith every day though. And not only in how we express our beliefs, but in how we live our lives. Every action needs to be a calculated act to demonstrate the Love God has for the person we’re talking to or being observed by.

It’s critical in fact.

We need to grow in our understanding. Growth and life are synonymous in the Christian walk as we never stop growing in our likeness to Jesus this side of the grave, and we have eternity unending to fathom the depths of His being beyond, such is His love for us. He did die so He could have our company after all.

So don’t be afraid to step out in Faith about things you may be nervous about. I am terrified to speak to the people I am closest to and love dearly about Jesus, so I try to write to them – paper not email – to express things God speaks to me in my prayer time. It’s easy and comfortable for me to speak in front of a group as there is an anonymity there. Mostly the group has no personal knowledge of me so I am free to relax and speak my heart. But in a one-to-one with preople I know and care about I get tongue-tied or worse I remain completely silent. Hence the letters!

We all need to have our boundaries pushed and our limits expanded. We all need to take steps of faith to achieve the dreams God gives us.

We all need to learn to fly on the wind of the Spirit of God by Spreading our Wings.