Perserverance...- James M. Corbett

Fight one more round.
When your feet are so tired that you have to shuffle back to the centre of the ring, fight one more round.
When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round.
When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired that you wish your opponent would crack you one on the the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round.
Remember that the man who always fights one more round is never whipped.

Gluttony

(The following is an edited excerpt from the (free) The Lord's Table course I have been involved to help me overcome gluttony in my life!)

One of the problems among Christians today is that very few are willing to say that the act of overeating is sin. It is socially acceptable to overeat and so most would rather say that overeating is a "weakness," or a dietary problem that may be corrected by changing foods, a glandular problem, or that we simply "have a big appetite"...etc.

Overeating is a sin for the following reasons:

• Whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we are to do to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). God is not glorified when I evidence a lack of self control in my eating habits.

• My body is the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:17, 6:19). The temple of God is not to be destroyed or defiled. Overeating or other sinful eating habits defiles the temple and if continued in can lead to its early destruction.

• Sinning leads to slavery (John 8:34). Overeating, like any sin, becomes addictive and may be extremely hard to overcome.

• Jesus told us to take up our cross daily (Luke 9:23) and Paul told us to crucify the desires of the flesh (Romans 8:13, Colossians 3:5). To overeat is to gratify the cravings of the flesh, rather than to crucify them. This is sin. However, we are not at all saying that it is sin to eat when hungry. What we are talking about here, gluttony, is the habit of overeating and indulging our flesh, not the necessary requirement to receive daily nourishment for our bodies when we feel hungry. Food is not evil. Eating is not a sin.

• There are many passages of Scripture which speak of the sin of "gluttony" and instruct us to avoid the path of the glutton (Proverbs 23:20-21) and to "put a knife to our throat" if we are given to gluttony (Proverbs 23:2). (The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines gluttony as "excess eating.")

In Acts 3:16-18, we see that repentance opens the flood house of God's blessing as it brings not only glorious refreshment from the Lord, but Jesus Christ Himself.

You see, if we fail to call overeating sin, we miss out on the blessings of repentance. Why not call overeating by the biblical term of "gluttony," so that we will see the need to repent? And, as we repent, we will experience such sweet refreshment from the Lord, such satisfaction from the Lord, such enjoyment in the Lord, that we will wonder why we weren't ever told this truth before.

Repentance is that which causes me to do a full turn away from overeating or any sinful eating habit and a full turn towards the Lord. In practical terms, it means that I have been looking to food to supply something that has been lacking, and now I turn away from overeating food and, instead, look to the Lord to meet that need. We mourn that we have hurt the heart of God by sinning with food and we may even weep over our willful and stubborn pursuit of satisfaction in food. Our sins not only pierced the heart of Jesus on the cross but, when God grants repentance to us, they also pierce our hearts, and our hearts become torn over our rebellion. But oh, what joy comes when God enables us, by His grace, to turn from overeating to seek the Lord. We experience the refreshment of God’s grace, the renewal of His love, the joy of His fellowship. Oh dear ones, I pray you will see the amazing value of repentance.

At The Lord's Table, we are not into a 60-day diet plan, pills that guarantee weight loss, programs that focus on food, or methods that require us to count calories, fat grams, carbohydrates or sugar. We are about calling ourselves to repentance from habits of overeating, about setting forth Christ as our soul's satisfaction and about developing habits of eating in a disciplined manner. If satisfaction in Christ and self-control would become the habit of our lives, we would see the blessings of God being poured out on us. In Christ there is joy and heart satisfaction, spiritual refreshment and renewal, and we "eat in plenty and are satisfied." Yes, repentance brings refreshment!

www.settingcaptivesfree.com/lords_table

Coming To Adelaide

Hello everyone! I’m back, at least back in the blogging scene. For those that don’t know I have moved to Adelaide. This move has been brought about by my visa requirements that needed me to leave Melbourne and come to Adelaide. It has taken me a while to understand that God had the final say in this move, this move did not surprise God and it doesn’t affect the plan He has for my life, it is the plan!

But here I am… Still a bit spiritually and emotionally confused and disoriented. It feels like a dream that won’t end and in all honesty I feel like a stranger in Moscow (like MJ) and I want to go home. On the other hand I feel like this is my training ground. When I drove into town I felt (for lack of a better word) sedate and anxiously peaceful.

I feel God has lead me to this point to teach me something wouldn’t have learnt if I was in my familiar or comfortable environment. When you look in the Bible, many a man had to spend time in the “wilderness”. Adelaide is a beautiful city and I wouldn’t want anyone to think it’s a bad place (it may be boring but it’s not bad). But many a man in the Bible had to go through an uncomfortable season in order to grow into the person that God wanted them to be and to accomplish the destiny God set in front of them. David, Joseph, the apostle Paul, Moses and even Jesus are just a few of the examples of men that have had to go through a wilderness period in order to grow. In all honesty, I see that I need to grow! I need to get deeper with Jesus! When I look at myself right now I see so many things that need to be cut out of my life so many flaws that I know I need to get rid of now, rather than later!

Now my attitude is slowly becoming one of conquest, conquering my fears and conquering this city! I know God is a good and loving God and as such, I believe that there is a blessing for me here and even though I don’t know what it is I will seek it by seeking God with all my heart!

I have no idea how long I will be here, I don’t know what it is I have to do here but I’m here! It’s an adventure, a tressure hunt, a reconnaissance mission, its exciting. All I can say is be careful Adelaide here I come!

African Spirit

Last week I had the honour and privilege to go and see the Soweto Gospel Choir perform live at the Robert Blackwood Concert Hall at Monash University, Clayton Campus here in Melbourne.

A week later and all I can say is “WOW!” The name of this tour and album are a true reflection of what you will experience, the African Spirit… Sitting in that concert hall, I forgot where I was. For a few hours, I felt like I was back at home! Back in Zimbabwe. I had almost forgotten what the African Spirit felt like. I connected with God in a unique way as the music, dance and culture saturated my soul and spirit.

The music was divine and I found myself singing along to songs that I knew and loved as well as being touched by the new songs! The sound was angelic and even if you didn’t understand what they were saying, the message definitely came across through the spirit in the music. It was authentically African with no apologies, drawing tears from my eyes as I realised how much I love and miss Africa. The African flavour cannot be duplicated or matched, the life that is in it is just incomparable.

What is the African Spirit? For fear of doing it injustice I will just briefly give a few of my insights. I believe the African Spirit is rejoicing even when circumstance does not give reason to rejoice, it is finding beauty in spite of surrounding ugliness, it is unity and a hope for peace and love. I believe the African Spirit is passionate, intricate and strong and has an unsearchable depth to it! I would even go as far as to, cautiously, say that the African Spirit is a unique impartation or manifestation of the Holy Spirit of God!

The Soweto Gospel Choir made me proud to be African. They made me embrace my heritage and see hope for the continent that has been written off my most of the world! I have not written off Africa! I have a dream to see it unified through the Holy Spirit. I pray God will include me in the spiritual revival that will take place in Africa. The songs of the Soweto Gospel Choir are prophetic and speak to this generation and the ones to come!

Tales of a Blessed Man

Long time no see.... It has been a while since I've visited the land of blog!!! What can I say? Lots had been happening in my life since I last posted.... I had my computer die and come back from the grave all by itself, ran a 10 km race, went camping in the height of winter hiking 20 km through semi-raw wilderness, went ice skating for the first time, went salsa dancing, watched my first opera, saw a Motown show, had a return of a long lost friend, said goodbye to a few, struggled through a few things, laughed hard, had truck loads of revelations and found something really beautiful....

While I'd like to tell all those stories right now I think I'll savour them and slowly, relive some of these experiences again via my blog. All I can say is that I am truly alive and well! Enjoying life! Emersing myself in the blessing of living, of painting the portrait of my life and living it the way I want to remember it, continually on the search for something new! Seeing beauty in the mundane as well as the majestic.

The tales of a blessed man, coming soon....

All This For A Piece of Paper

I am not one to go against the value of a good education but recently I had been thinking about what the point is of getting an education, and more specifically a university degree. It is weird how society puts such a high value on a piece of paper that you get after years of hard work and toil! As some of you might, or might not know, I graduated on the 17^th of April. And while I was very happy to be finally walking on stage to receive a piece of paper (that probably cost the university 20 cents to make) wearing ridiculous robes and a totally impractical hat, I couldn’t help but ask myself if this was worth the 20000 plus grand spent.

I really battled myself over this one… As most of you know, I’ve been now working in my first graduate job for about two months now and I have to say everyday I have been learning something new. The sad thing is I use very little of the knowledge I learnt from uni. So I have to wonder what the point is if I could have come straight from high school into my current position and just learnt on the job from there. Is there a need for people with degrees and does the fact that you have a degree make you a better option than someone without one?

Well… I have to admit that a degree is no way to judge someone in terms of ability and suitability, for some jobs. Meanwhile having a degree is a powerful tool. While the knowledge you gain from uni may or may not help you in your future career it is still invaluable. You see, the thing I learnt about university is that it is not so much about all the knowledge you acquire but, it is about how you think. Universities breed thinkers, people willing to challenge status quo. University is not there to fill your mind with other people’s options but rather teach you to develop your own. Not only through lectures and tutorials but through intellectual interaction with your peers.

This is what I valued about uni. All the different people I met from different culture, nations, religions and backgrounds. That is something many people who didn’t go to uni didn’t get the pleasure of experiencing because many get caught up in their small worlds and never venture out from there. University life is a world of its own where different worlds clash and seamlessly blend into one. Uni is more than assignments, tests, lectures, exams and holidays, it’s a learning and growing experience! I guess if you ask me now, in retrospect, whether I thought uni was worth it, I’d probably simply say, “It was the best time of my life!”

Drive on the Left, in Australia

I’ve had the pleasure of having my family over in Australia for the last 2 weeks, for my graduation. It was their first visit to Australia and I have to say, I had one of the best times of my life. While we didn’t do really exciting and adventurous things it was a really surreal and mind blowing experience. This trip I can say was an eye opener for me. I hadn’t seen my parents and brother for about a year and half so even though we had kept in contact for that time we still had a lot of catching up to do.

For the first time we were a complete family again staying under the same roof, under the wing of my father. While he was still the boss, he was in my territory. This really affected the family dynamic in a weird way because I was leading the family. I decided what we did and when and how! A total paradigm shift! At the end of it I guess my dad and I left with a new level of respect for each other. I respect him because I know how difficult and scary it is to run a family and he respects me because of the way I lead and the person I have become, who is so different to the person that they last saw! For me that was my biggest breakthrough I had over the short time we spent together. I thank God for that time!!!

Apart from that we all had a really good opportunity to let our hair down! I honestly felt I was on holiday with them. Totally got to see a different side to Melbourne, a side you don’t see when you are caught up in the day to day things of life. For instance, I actually leisurely enjoyed a tram ride! Yeah I did! How weird!?! Not having a timetable and a place to be felt so… uncomfortable, at first, but liberating at the end. We walked the streets and saw the beauty of it, laughed the whole way through doing groceries at Safeway and actually talked to each other while we were in elevators with other people! LOL!

It was an experience I would not trade for anything!!!

Always On Time

“Always there when I call, Always on Time…” These lyrics have been on my mind, on loop, for the few past weeks. While the rest of the lyrics of the song are utterly useless and should not be given the light of day, there is great wealth in those 8 words.

In my last blog, I was in the unfortunate position of being one of the 4.5% in Australia who are unemployed. Well I’m glad to officially announce that this is no longer the case. In fact, I have been working for the past three weeks. In fact so great is my testimony that literally the day after that blog God started the sequence of events that would find my situation totally turned around in a matter of four days…

Wow… Where to begin? Well let’s try the beginning. On Monday I got a call asking me to come for an interview… I won’t lie I was shocked! It was gonna be my first interview (that I hadn’t turned down) for an actual 9 to 5. I was shaken and didn’t know what I was gonna do, after spending so long unemployed I had gotten comfortable and really wasn’t excited about the whole thing. But I had to get my mind right! Realise that the chilling life can never be forever. Anywhooo… Tuesday I went to the interview. Trust. I hadn’t prepared! I didn’t know a thing about the company, which for those planning to go for an interview, is really bad. When they asked me what I knew about the company I had to admit my folly. They were not impressed. Unfortunately that is not the only thing I messed up… The list is endless. To my knowledge the guys hated me. I left that interview laughing at myself and at my really poor performance. I was thankful though that I had at least gotten one interview and that things would be different in the next interview I went to.

This is where I have to say that God’s strength really is made perfect in weakness, because on Wednesday morning I get a call from the same company asking me for a second interview… LOL! I was so shocked but I realised that God had sent me this job! And as such I didn’t want to make the same mistake twice. So I went to uni got my resume looked over, got interview tips, even watched some 30 minute video on interviews, then I went to the website and actually looked up the company. I was good to go!

Thursday comes and I’m at the second interview. It went so well. I opened up and let them see who I really was. I could feel the presence of God in my interview. I had no complaints the second time around. Went home afterwards changed and went the boys’ house (HQ). Three hours later they rang and let me know that I had the job and that I’d be starting on Monday with SunGard Australia.

Now when I say God is always on time, He is! I was so down from being unemployed and I was starting to fade! Then just before breaking point comes relief! God really answers prayer because I (along with Nyasha Mushambi items [thank you Nyash, Got mad love for you!]) had been praying for God to get me a job by the end of the month. I started work on the 26th of February, 2 days before the end of the month. On top of that all I needed was one interview! One shot, one kill! God didn’t send me through a string of interviews one after another. And wait there is more, I work 15 minutes from where I live! Wow! God didn’t hold back with the blessing! Not one bit!

Guys if you trust in the Lord, he will make your paths straight and Jesus says that He is the light! Your path may start all crooked and dark and you don’t know where you are going and can’t see two steps ahead of yourself, then He comes and straightens the item, clears the path where nothing can get into your way, suddenly the darkness is clear as day. Not even your own flaws or stupid actions, like not preparing for the interview can stop the plan once the ball is rolling! What I mighty God I serve! I word of encouragement. He’s ALWAYS there when you call and He is ALWAYS on time!

Aami Classic

This past weekend I did something that I've never done before... I watched tennis. Not only did I watch tennis. I watched it live. It was truly an awesome experience coz I also got the opportunity to see the best of the best.

Nicole blessed us; Keira, Simba, Fungai, Mufaro and I with free tickets. Her dad works at the club where the tournament was held. But not only were we blessed with free tickets but we has excellent seats. I think they are called court side seats. We watched two matches because it was the finals, the first one was Safin against Murray. Murray won that one, then we watched Federer battle Roddick! Wow! For someone who knows nothing about tennis I was totally rapped up in the game! Unfortunately Federer lost after I got a tip from a friend that he was the horse to bet on!

It was one of the best days I've had in a while! Thank you Nicole!

Hillsong United

Wow!!! It’s rare that I get to do one notable and amazing thing once a month but I guess September is just my month… In just one week I’ve been on a television show and I’ve seen Hillsong United perform live! My GASH!!!

On Friday I went and saw Hillsong United… Nyasha truly blessed me with this amazing opportunity! To be honest I don’t even know how I ended up going to the show (especially for free). All I remember is Nyasha asking me to give her a ride to the item, next thing I know is she had sourced the ticket items (come thru Dale) and we were set! To make things even better we bumped into Stacey, who I hadn’t seen in years (hehe I do that a lot – bump into people I haven’t seen in years). The circumstances had us set up for an explosive evening!

What can I say? It was deep! A seriously deep, Holy Ghost party! These guys came thru… The sound was surprisingly exactly like their CDs (having been to many concerts you find that the sound is not usually the same)! The energy levels were explosive, but what do you expect it was at a youth item! I’m actually quite speechless when it comes to this gwan because it was so deep that words will cheapen the experience, but let’s say I don’t mind travelling to Sydney to check em out again!!! And I’m sure that Nyasha wouldn’t either…. She missed out on her heart throb… Marty Sampson A.K.A “Mighty Simpson”. LOL! So I’m sure she wouldn’t pass off that opportunity!


Hey, I feel another potential blog in the making, “Sydney – the Hillsong road trip”, holla back guys, let’s make this road trip happen, live! Anyway until then enjoy the video we took at the concert! This was the first song – The Time Has Come. See it though our eyes!