Pastor's Corner

The end of a thing…

2010-09-13T02:24:00.000-07:00

The smile on my face whimpers away when I hear the expression, “All good things must come to an end!” Nobody truly likes hearing that as it is never easy breaking free from the grip of that which has kept our gaze squarely transfixed for a given time. Yet as the screeching sound of the closing door of the past slams shut behind me, the eerie cold hand of the unknown stretches out its hand to lay hold of the central chamber of my heart and mind. It is never easy to leave the familiar surroundings of a near perfect place which actually became a well decorated comfort zone in my life. Now the door staring me in the eye beckons me to cross its threshold to lay hold of a copious number of a myriad of blessings God has prepared for me. Life has been a stern educator, yet teaching me that the end of a thing is better than the beginning of anything.

The end or latter of a thing is the custodian of valuable secrets. Before it delivers any person to the door of the unknown, it whispers eternal truths about us to the time to come. It makes known that God’s Spirit will hover over our beginning just as He did over the mass of deep dark water before earth saw birth to His brilliant light. The end must give way to a beginning and wait its turn to usher us into the courtyard of the road that leads to our glorious destiny. There God waits for us to crown our heads with the richness of His majesty and fill our hearts to overflowing.

I have learnt that for in every heart wrenching goodbye lies the promise of a welcoming hello, be it in this life or beyond. Every gate that closes opens ways to a path often not tread before. That once a wheel stops turning it brings our vehicle to a place where a visitation is considered paramount. It makes me understand that the end of one chapter gives an opportunity to venture onto a new page with its own remarkable adventure. I see the last crust of bread in my breadbasket as a miraculous way for God to fill my pantry with that which is new and scrumptiously fresh. I see any person at the end of their tether being rescued by Almighty God and brought to safety at a pit-stop called New Hope.

As each day draws to the proverbial end, I look ahead to a new beginning. For though I cannot see what my future holds, I know that God has promised that the glory of the latter will exceed the glory of the former. I now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the end is not meant to be a solemn affair. It simply serves as God’s faithful chaperone to bring me closer to where I want to be… to the One who is the Beginning and my very End.

Eyes have not seen

2010-09-06T03:28:00.000-07:00

As I awoke this morning I dragged my tired body to the refreshing atmosphere of the bathroom. It certainly was refreshing as the brisk breeze flirted gently with the blinds on the bathroom window whispered a good morning to me as I stood in front of the mirror. I looked at my own reflection in the mirror and suddenly my eyes met the puffiness under the eyes of the man in the mirror. I was not in the mood to laugh, but it was if my brain tried to humor me by suggesting that I needed some Nivea DNAge Q10. I tried to stretch the unwilling muscles in my face to form a fake smile, but they clearly seemed to have gotten up on the wrong side of bed this morning.

My eyes met the eyes staring back at me from the mirror. They were red and sore, puffy bags lie just beneath them. As I stood looking at myself and tried to force myself to wake up so I could get ready to drop my daughter at school, I realized something. I realized that yesterday my eyes had witnessed the good and also the inevitable bad, splashed on the canvas of life. I not only saw the lives of others acted out on the multiple tier stage of life, but I saw my own responses to it and ultimately my own life, flash before me. Yet, just after midnight I drifted off into what is known as sleep and I said good bye to the reality of my yesterday. Today, my eyes have not yet seen the moments of internal and external change that God has prepared for me. I have not yet seen the smile of my son, as his face lights up when he sees the man that in his six month old brain he calls Dad. I haven’t seen the face of my daughter looking back at me from the breakfast table. What I have not seen is the one I call “My heart” looking back at me in a quiet gaze as she gives me our three-part kiss which translates into “I love you.” When I opened my eyes this morning they were prophets of an awesome God, proclaiming “His mercies are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness.”

What I realized this morning in front of the mirror was that while physically I was experiencing the remains of the day gone by, I was yet to “Taste and see that God is good.” That while I was sleeping God was orchestrating a display of His splendor for what mine eyes have not yet seen. As I turned away from the mirror I looked into the smiling face of my daughter. It dawned on me how I have not only changed my position from where I stood in front of the mirror, but I had also changed my focus. That which I now saw through the lens of my eyes brought a willing smile to my face. I walked past my nine-year old daughter and my eyes said to me, “let’s go and see what else He has in store for you today…”

Remember Lot's wife

2009-03-16T14:34:00.000-07:00

The command was clear not to look back.
The exit was secure, vast and endless possibilities lie stretched ahead. Sure-footed her family rushes ahead of her. Yet, at that very moment her feet find it all the more difficult to carry her heavy heart into the unchartered, yet promising territory. Behind her she hurriedly left behind more than a piece of her life. She left behind precious possessions that took her entire lifetime to collect. Not only the precious stones and ornamental jewels of gold, but “things” or “baggage” she carried with her for years on end. Her mind rushes back to the day she married the love her youth and to the pains she experienced at the birth of her beautiful young daughters. She remembers the day she and her family parted ways with cousin, Abraham and how they found their own little niche. Slowly but surely they became fully integrated with the new culture.

Now her mind tells her to press ahead, but her heart echoes sounds of murmur and loss. In the meantime her husband and two daughters forge ahead without realizing that her footsteps were not keeping up with theirs. And then in a fleeting moment while her mind and her heart continue their raging war, she motions her head in the direction of her past life. As soon as her head turned degrees to the direction of her past her stained-glass blue eyes turned a dark shade of grey losing its twinkling luster. The crimson blood that rushed through her veins immediately froze and her joints turned stiff and motionless. Not even the gentle breeze of the Ancient Near East could move the modest dress she wore. It looked as starched as the ashen complexion of the pillar of salt she had become. The love that once refrained through the chambers of her merry heart became a hollow sound of nothingness. No one would ever remember her laughter in future or the fact that she had been such a gifted cook. They would only remember her as Lot’s wife, a woman who lost her name, her influence over her family and her position in society. She will only be remembered as the woman who turned into a pillar of salt simply because she looked back.

Often we get trapped in the complexities of life, constantly becoming embroiled in the arguments of yesterday, the voices calling us constantly back into history to recoil on the past, the poison wanting to entrap us and turn the life rushing through our veins into powdered residue of our true potential. As long as we look down, look back we cannot see the waving welcoming hand of opportunity calling us into undiscovered territories. Others pass us daily, their footsteps moving further away from us. In their haste to get ahead in life they smile at us, laugh at their progression, while we become stuck in things. The kind of things that stunt our growth and make of us people who have lost our joy for life. Life without our “things” can be difficult at times, but a meaningless life is far worse. A life where accumulating “things” on the journey of life become more important than the ones we love or the One we ought to adore is nothing more than a monument of salt which aptly displays the lack of the true meaning of life…

Change is approaching

2008-11-19T01:16:00.000-08:00

Hey all

With the sand falling timeously through the hour glass, this year churns slowly but surely to an end. The journey started just mere months ago filled with the promise and the prospect of new beginnings is now nearly something of the distant past. Ironically, we look forward to the next chapter, the next opportunity to indelibly edge our mark on the face of history.

From continents far removed great change has erupted around the globe. Every sphere of society is affected by the signal of a new dawn, a new chapter to be added to the voluminous books in history. Yet with prices sky rocketing, markets crashing and begging for financial bail-out, jobs becoming a rare commodity and the last bout of political murmurs in sporadic areas of the globe… one thing is as certain as the fact that the sun came out this morning… that the Master of the universe will allow change to fall in the final days of 2008.

In the corner where you are nestled right now, change will not pass you by. No matter how they try to shut you up, stomp you down, ridicule your life and challenge your belief in an awesome God. He who blew drops of dew onto the surface of the earth, brushing strokes of rays beaming from the energetic sun… it is He who will do it for you. Whatever He does, He does exceptionally well, where He treads negatives change into cascading colours of positive light, where He touches breakthrough is as true as a highway channeled through the Red Sea.

With days to go before 2008 waves us all good-bye, raise your hand and salute your current circumstances as a token of acknowledgement that it will be no more, change is within your reach. God spoke it, you believe it, now walk tall ahead and live it.

Regards

Rodrique E. George

Pleasant Places

2008-09-17T17:40:00.000-07:00

Her heart is heavy, her movements slow, her face bears evidence of her grief. This road she now treads she has walked a time before. Yet now the sting of her pain seems even more intense. It wasn’t too long ago that she laid to rest the love of her youth, the man who treated her like his queen and built her a home in the midst of green pastures. In a twinkling of the batting of an eye her status had changed from wife to that of widow. Now life has dealt her yet another heavy blow as her only reason for living, her only son, lies lifeless on a stretcher being carried to his burial place.

Right at that moment she longed to bury her head one last time in his dark brown curly hair, to embrace him to smell the woody scent on his masculine skin and hear the laugh of his contagious laugh resonate in her ear. Not even this last request would be given her as touching the dead would make her ceremonially unclean.

It is ironic that she lives in a place called Nain. The meaning of that name, Nain, is Pleasant. How is it possible to live in a place called Pleasant when all you have to show for it is loss, pain and simply more never ending pain?

And now as death made its exit through the city gates, Life made his triumphant entry into her Pleasant place. For the first time in her whole ordeal she feels as if someone can actually see the pain trapped inside her heart. Without a word He motions to the pall bearers to come to a halt. And so without being concerned about becoming ceremonially unclean and being frowned upon by those around, He touches the stretcher. As death gave way to this great exchange, life was restored to the young man again. He sat up on the stretcher and began to speak of what it felt like to have awoken from his deep sleep.

While people questioned and others rejoiced this miraculous work, the widow from a place called Nain wept even more. For her hope has sprung alive and her joy been restored in her Pleasant place. What was meant to be a funeral filled with sorrow turned into a joyous homecoming celebration.

Pleasant places often bear marks of excruciating memories of pain and rejection. Its water colour stains reflects hours of tears and often years of torment. It questions the very notion as to whether the boundary lines spoken about by the Psalmist have fallen in pleasant places. Yet, in the midst of all the uncertainties of life lies this eternal truth, that hope is not merely given, but hope is created, when the Giver of Life makes his graceful entrance into our Pleasant Places.

Rodrique E. George

Neos...like never before

2008-09-09T17:15:00.000-07:00

After months of preparation the day finally arrived.

Perfectly starched napkins, the finest Jewish cuisine, the best musical band in the region of Cana… As they welcomed their guests to their wedding banquet they ran the checklist through their minds. Of course, how could they forget about the wine? Old Jacob, the local connoisseur gave them a good deal on the best wine in his cellar… several gallons for their big day.

Their thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Mary. She was responsible for Hannah, the bride’s exquisite wedding gown. Mary was accompanied by her son, a quiet young man. She introduced him to the bride and groom. “Jesus… his name is Jesus,” she said.

Cutlery beating rhythmically on plates, beautifully dressed Jewish folk chatting merrily about their bountiful harvest, melodious music setting the mood for a picture-perfect wedding… There was however something strangely different about this wedding banquet.

Mary stood within earshot from the wedding planner when the waiter broke the dreadful news to her. Not even two hours into the wedding banquet and they had a major crisis… they’d run out of wine. Mary and the bride’s mother had been friends since childhood. She thought of the humiliation, the embarrassment… the wagging tongues gathering in the town square talking about the fact that they had run out of wine. She whispered something in the ear of Jesus. He rose from His seat and ventured towards the kitchen, Mary following shortly behind Him. Before He could utter a word to anyone, Mary instructed the waiters to do exactly as He told them.

They filled every water pitcher and clay vessel they could find. Yes, He told them to fill it with water. Ehud, one of the waiters, thought this was absurd. Yet, there was something about this cool, calm and sophisticated looking yet simple man that gripped his attention. “Now go and serve the guests,” he said.

Neos, means “like never before.” The conventional way of wine-making dictates that good wine is distilled and cellared over time. Never before has such matured, dark-ruby, purple rimmed wine with richly flavoured nose of concentrated mouth-filling fruit been produced in this way… Neos, like never before… and now the guests were really talking. This was not common practice at any wedding banquet. The good wine is normally served first, yet they actually kept the best wine for last.

YOU are standing on the threshold of a new beginning. YOUR one foot standing firmly in the yesteryear of yesterday and the other in 2008, the year of Neos, like never before. Before you can take hold of the finest tasting wine served from the Master’s goblet you need to remove your foot from the mundane year of man and place it firmly in the place called “like never before.” It is from that place that healing flows into the decaying bones of infirmity. It renders hope to the person masking a torrid life of emotional pain. From it flows a fountain flooding a masonic heart of bitterness… it is within reach of the Master’s hand changing the negative cycle of a barren womb. It has promising benefits for the reshaping of a marriage once seen as going nowhere slowly. Broken dreams are reconstructed into an academy of brilliance never experienced on the face of earth ever before.

YOUR Neos moment is knocking at your door. God is challenging you to a life where you are free to grow… on His terms, far removed from where you are in control. YOUR Neos moment beckons you to seize from pushing your way… He only requires you to allow Him to do it His way… like never before.

Apply within

2008-08-31T14:09:00.001-07:00

Hey all

At some point in our lives we have all sought better employment. One day your eye falls on an advert and there is this silent raging excitement in your belly… yes, the position has your name written all over it. Often with disappointment you receive a letter informing you that your application has been unsuccessful.

Close your eyes… I mean it. Close your eyes…. Now hear the voice of Him who has prepared the ultimate position for you. One day while in conference with the angels He smiled. The angels knew something was up. He had that grin on His face again. The light of ten-million stars radiated from his brow. He thought of you. Down below He had not even spoken the world into existence. Earth was merely a watery mass, chaos revolving into nothingness, yet the Spirit of the Master of the universe hovered upon the water.

Then He lifted His hand and all of heaven fell in reverence before His Holy throne. Angels stood on attention and the echo of the lifting of His hand caused the watery mass down below to quiver at the sound. He looked at His majestic hand and He smiled at the sight. He took his index finger bearing a ring with the seal of His Noble Trinity and He carved a name in the palm of his left hand. There He wrote your name, formulated the blueprint for your life, journeyed into your past, present and future simply at the bat of an eye. He brought that name-bearing hand close to His mouth and whispered the mysteries of His Godly potential into your name. He cupped His hand and sheltered your name with His Royalty as a promise of His providence and protection over you always. The warmth of His breath sealed your name into His hand, making it impossible for you to be plucked from the hollow of His hand. One precious moment of glancing at your name was like a thousand years gone by. Before you were even a thought in the heart of a human being, you were already in the presence of an Awesome God. You were designed and defined…tailored and shaped…crowned and endowed… filled and potentialized with the best heaven has to offer.

He beckons you to apply for the ultimate position He created you for. No need for bureaucratic forms to be completed. No tedious interview required and no need for you to impress the interviewer. He calls you now to apply within. He has waited all this time for you to activate your true potential and to live His dream. His rewards are immeasurable, His fringe benefits incomprehensibly Divine. Go ahead and open your heart… He has already commissioned you for your first assignment. Hear His voice nudging you, feel His Spirit leading you… now open your eyes and see the angels of God applauding you.

With love

Rodrique E. George