"I was at ease, but He shattered me"

"And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not." (Deuteronomy 8:2)

I have been learning alot about myself in these past couple months.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.  I have uncovered my hidden motives, my self-righteousness, my impatience, my inflexibility, my lack of compassion, my selfishness.  I have seen myself at my worst.  Trying to have everything go my own way.  But then God throws something like Galations 5:19-20 at me:

"It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom"

Nothing like a wake up call or anything.  When I read things like this I am just reminded how alive God's word really is.

I have also learned true dependence that stems from humility.  True dependence on the only True Authority.  And a dependence that creates a deep longing in your heart.  That nothing, I mean nothing else, can satisfy.  I think of Job 19 when it says, "For I know that my Redeemer lives and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.  How my heart yearns within me!"

In all my brokeness, in all my shame, in all my mistakes, in all my imperfections, I am loved with a perfect love.  Now that is humbling.  "Instead of your shame you shall have double honor" (Isaiah 61:7)

Copy and Paste this link to see a video on one of our ministries in a township school:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJR_CtL4adc

A few of the grade 7 boys at Motheo School where Sportslink is coaching

Ubabalo in action:  Incorporating life skills into football practices

Recently, Sportslink spent a day at OM's Mission Discipleship Training Center sharing the basics of sports minsitry