calven blog

by Calven CelliersThis past week I was involved in a bumper bashing. Thankfully no one was injured , but my vehicle definitely came off second best.  No doubt, every one of us have had our fair share of accidents in life. If not in a car, then perhaps we’ve injured ourselves, or at some point we’ve fallen down. Ironically, falling down is part of growing up.As far as the record of history and the record of God's Word goes, we as believers do not have any promise that we will escape suffering. In fact, in the Gospel of John Jesus made it quite clear that “33In this world you will have trouble.” (John16:33NIV) As I contemplated this issue, I found myself reading an online article ‘The Reality of  Accidents’ in which the author made the following four observations regarding the events of life and the categories they fall into. EVENTS WHICH GOD PLANS – These events have to happen because they are a part of God's purpose, and they are predestined. They cannot not happen.  EVENTS WHICH GOD PREVENTS – These are things that would have happened if God had not stepped into history and by His providence prevented.  EVENTS WHICH GOD PROHIBITS – These are all the things that God forbids. These things do take place, however, because God has given man the freedom of choice. God does not will these events, nor does He prevent them.  EVENTS WHICH GOD PERMITS – These are events which God has not planned, but neither has He prohibited, or prevented them. This is where we put accidents. Accidents are events which God did not plan to happen, nor did man choose to happen. They happen because of mistaken judgments, carelessness, and unawareness of the consequences of what is being done.  No matter how you look at it, the reality of life on this side of eternity is that there isn’t a human being alive on this planet who isn’t acquainted with troubles. The great comfort for all who believe, however, is found in Jesus follow up statement, “33In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33NIV)Jesus doesn’t want us to be under any false illusion that life in this fallen world will be full of ease and comfort. Life is tough, accidents happen. The Bible, far from dodging this fact, acknowledges it and embraces it. Jesus himself guaranteed it. And instead of promising to eliminate trouble from our lives, Jesus instead promises to give peace and comfort in the midst of trouble. The finished work of Christ removes the teeth from suffering. By entering into our world and suffering alongside us, Jesus offers certain hope that transcends the temporal sorrow and suffering this world throws at us.  “17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”…

by Calven Celliers“6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4: 6 & 7NIV) “Anxiety is the natural result when our hopes are centred in anything short of God and His will for us.” (Billy Graham) At its worst, anxiety is a crippling disease, taking over our minds and plunging our thoughts into darkness. But God wants so much more for us than to walk through life full of fear, worry and anxiety. But our instruction to not be anxious doesn’t just stop there. The apostle Paul goes on to tell believers exactly what the solution is and what we should focus on – “8Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8NIV)The first step to an anxiety-free mind is to fix your thoughts on Jesus – “5 …take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5NIV) –  and to gain control over what you think about yourself and life. In the Gospel of John, Jesus makes this awesome promise – “36 …if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36NIV)   Many people seek peace of mind, and yet it eludes them because they seek to fabricate something that only God, the God of peace, can give us through His one and only Son, the Prince of Peace, and the abiding presence of His Holy Spirit, who produces peace within us.We must, however, work with the Holy Spirit, by thinking about what we allow into our minds. Guard your mind from garbage! The old computer cliché, GIGO – Garbage in/Garbage out — holds a lot of truth. If you put bad data into a computer, you will get bad results out. If you put mental garbage into your mind, you will get garbage out in your life. As long as we live in a fearful, stressful, fallen world, negative thoughts will come our way. We have the option of either stamping out those thoughts or nurturing them. The apostle Paul not only tells us what to think about, but he implicitly teaches that we can control what we think about. When a negative thought comes, we as Christians, who have the mind of Christ, have the ability to push it out of our mind and replace it with godly thoughts. This takes practice, but with persistence, it gets easier. The good news is, negative thoughts can be replaced with positive ones, and the more that godly substitution takes place, the more peace and joy we can experience.Christians must think about what they’re thinking about and not allow their minds to have free rein. In our spiritual warfare, we’ve been given the helmet of salvation to guard our minds.God bless,Calven

by Calven Celliers Last week a friend of mine shared this really encouraging video clip with me: https://thenewharvest.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Better-Together-Video.mp4 Better together! What a fantastic slogan. Simply put, when other people are in our lives, we not only survive, we thrive! God has created and called us into relationships. Not only has He called us into a personal relationship with Himself, but He invites us to have significant relationships with other humans. In his letter to the Church at Rome, the apostle Paul made a simplistic appeal, “16 Live in harmony with one another…” (Romans 12:16NIV) Harmony, as all musicians know, is a pleasing arrangement of different parts. You get harmony when different notes are joined together in such a way that one note enriches and complements another. Harmony is not unison. You don’t get harmony by everyone playing the same note. You get harmony when different notes are brought together. Harmony does not mean that everyone thinks the same, does the same, or is the same. “Live in harmony with one another” means that believers should live in such a way that we enrich and complement each other. By joining together, we are more than any of us would be on our own. There is a display of beauty that comes from taking what is distinct and different and making it one – life is better together! Just like the majestic redwood trees that survive because they live in groves with their root systems entangled with numerous other trees, support each other, so too we can’t survive alone. We need each other. We were never meant to go it alone. We need the support of one another to make it. One of the major purposes of the Christian church is for the very purpose of encouraging and supporting one another. When we have real, connecting relationships in our lives, we can know and be known; love and be loved; celebrate and be celebrated; and serve and be served. God bless, Calven

by Calven Celliers Earlier this week a member of our congregation shared the following short article with me, and I want to share it, and some of my thoughts, with you: “As church attendance numbers fade and online services become very convenient (who doesn’t love not getting ready in the morning or leaving home?), it’s important to remember why church attendance for you and your family matters so much. You can’t serve from your sofa. You can’t have community of faith on your sofa. You can’t experience the power of a room full of believers worshipping together on your sofa. Christians aren’t consumers, they’re contributors. We don’t watch. We engage. We give. We sacrifice. We encourage. We do life together. The church needs you. And you need the church. Wherever you are, find a local church where you and your family can be part of community and use your talents to advance the kingdom and reach others. To come alongside one another physically, not just through a screen. While I’m grateful for technology to keep people connected that can’t physically come to a facility or need to be away, it’s absolutely not like being in the building. Never will be.  Yes, church on the sofa is nice. But it’ll never be the same as church in the sanctuary.” The church’s physical gathering is a glad and visible expression of its spiritual nature: believers are the called-out people of God, united by faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour. Community, however, requires commitment. Only the Holy Spirit can create real fellowship between believers, but it takes God’s power and our commitment to produce a loving Christian community. I reckon there’s truth in the statement that ‘to neglect, or forsake, assembling with other believers is to turn from God’s design for His church and embrace a false substitute: the notion that Christianity is individualistic, rather than familial or communal.’ Life is meant to be shared. God intends for us to experience life together. The Bible calls this shared experience fellowship. Fellowship includes unselfish loving, honest sharing, practical serving, sacrificial giving, sympathetic comforting, and all the other “one another” commands found in Scripture. Most, if not all of those, cannot be done online. We are not neglecting nor forsaking the assembling of God’s people if we temporarily obey a government order to protect public health. But we are neglecting and forsaking our assembling if we decide that physical gatherings are simply not necessary or relevant or as convenient for us. The physical gatherings of the church are God-ordained means for believers to have their faith in His promises strengthened. I firmly believe that for us as believers, our churches’ physical gatherings are essential means of growing both spiritually and relationally. No matter how you look at it, the words of Hebrews 10 are relevant, “ 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one…