Confessions Of a changed Person - Failure Is Just An Option - Part 9

Our First Gift Was For Our Liberation – Part 2
That evening we parted with our very first gift that made a significant difference in our lives. Significant in the sense that it left us without the only means of transport in the family but it also left us so excited that we finally obeyed God. We believed in our hearts that one day we were going to look back and make reference to that day with regards to material breakthroughs. When I told this young man that we have decided to give him our car he was so surprised and did not believe it but we assured him that we were sure that it was the most perfect move we made up to that point in our lives.

Confessions Of a changed Person - Failure Is Just An Option - Part 8

Our First Gift Was For Our Liberation From Possessions
In the book of Matthew Jesus said something that will forever be my motivation for giving. I believe that without the words of my master I would still be languishing in poverty like most people. Here Jesus speaks about three things and they are; the Heart, The treasure and some place. ‘where your treasure is there your heart will be also’ Matthew 6:21 this simply tells us how much power possessions can have over people, but this scripture read in reverse also reveals the power of the heart; ‘where your heart is there your treasure will be also’ now it depends on how you read the scripture.

Confessions Of a changed Person - Failure Is Just An Option - Part 7

THE GOD FEELING

I’m sure that by now you might have noticed that I make very minimum reference to the bible in my articles. I honestly believe that the Bible is God’s infallible word. I also believe that it is the greatest book ever written but unless it is believed, the Bible becomes no less than just a well written novel. It has to be practiced more than being believed. The following statement will help you to become a better person: ‘you only believe the part of the bible that you practice’ everything else you don’t practice you simply don’t believe. I have always wondered what Adam; Abraham; Lot and Noah read. Did they have a written set of rules or directives to live by? No they did not.

Confessions Of a changed Person - Failure Is Just An Option - Part 6

Prosperity is not for the fainthearted

I wish to purposely ignore the house building project for a while and dig deeper into my experiences and challenges hoping that this will help you understand my point and approach better. In this article I will be sharing about how we broke through the barriers of poverty that we were facing. Or shall I say the barriers of lack and want. When we look at Psalm 23 we hear David speak about want. What is want? The English dictionary defines wanting as a state of desiring but not having or having a deficiency; or experiencing insufficiency, and also as lack. What we need to realize from this scripture is that David had this inner assurance that his shepherd was not going to give him over to lack or any kind of insufficiency.

Confessions Of a changed Person - Failure Is Just An Option - Part 5

I will not be able to share about the challenges that we had in our new residence lest I lose focus of what we’re sharing about and also because that by itself is a topic for another day. Al I can say at this point is that yes the place was haunted but since we had nowhere else to go we chose to face the ghosts head on and through faith in God and much resistance from our side we managed to get rid of whatever ghosts that were living in the house and we finally had peace.

Confessions Of a changed Person - Failure Is Just An Option - Part 4

When my mother offered us her house we were very thankful to both her and to God for such grace, but we were young and had a desire like most guys of our age to live in a better area. This house was owned by my parents since 1956 and I was born in it, and so were both my kids. Not only was the house old but the area too was very ancient. It was in one of the three oldest townships in Soweto. But we were glad. We planned that we were going to use the house to be our ‘passport’ out of this township.

Confessions Of a changed Person - Failure Is Just An Option - Part 3

It took our Church just over six months to have an income of R2000 per month I got very excited at seeing this progress. To me it simply meant that we were on the right track and God was backing us up. I could not wait to call a meeting with the gentlemen who agreed to pay me fifty percent of the total income, which at that moment was R500 because our Church income was only a thousand rands per month. The first six months of my full time ministry were more like a school of character building and learning to trust God at all costs.

Confessions Of a changed Person - Failure Is Just An Option - Part 1

It was only after I had lost all my earthy possessions that my definition of success changed. Like most folks to me success was being able to accumulate both, the things that I needed and those that I did not need just in case life dealt me an unfair blow then I can have something to fall back on. At the age of 17 I joined the South African Police Force as it was called back then, and my first pay check was a whooping R85 per month! The year was 1976 and back then the salary I earned was roughly equivalent to about R4000 because a household of 4 could manage well on it. I did not spend much time in the police and by 1978 I resigned and worked for the city council at a Bottle store, and my salary was doubled.

How I Learnt To Trust God - Part 3 - MVK

One morning around four I woke up with something very strange happening to me. There was a voice coming out of my stomach reciting what I would later identify as Psalm 91. The part that remained with me for the rest of the day was the last verse which says: “with long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.” KJV. And it was actually being said in the King James Version. This is the version I was introduced to when I became a Christian in 1983. This is verse 16 of Psalm 91. At first I thought that this voice was coming from somewhere else but on recognizing that it actually came from within my stomach I did not feel comfortable at all, especially because I did not even know its meaning. It went on from when I woke up and continued as I was preparing to go to work. This voice was far from being like mine it was sharp and very authoritative but peaceful at the same time. I went and fetched my Bible and as if someone told me where to open I went straight to Psalm 91 which I was seeing for the first time. This also was not natural. I read the Psalm line by line while the voice continued to recite it.

How I Learnt To Trust God - Part 2 - MVK

I have never been good at praying but looking back it seems like I have succeeded in conveying both my message and concerns to God through the ‘monologue’ that I engage in daily. The challenge that I had from day one was that I am introvert by nature. It’s such a great pity that most people don’t believe it. I also don’t like crowds. It’s truly amazing how I manage to speak to multitudes. My own interpretation of introvert is a person who gets more excited than everyone else but is unable to convince others to that effect. The first time I went to Church I saw a lot of both males and females who could have been my age praying and expressing themselves in the most admirable manner I have witnessed in my life up to that time. And to me that was what praying was all about.

How I Learnt To Trust God - Part 1 - MVK

If you’re ever going to trust in God make sure that you do it right first time. This will help you a lot in tackling all future challenges. Faith in God or believing in God, whichever way you chose to look at it must always be done right or else it does not work. When you do this, the very first thing you realize is how much you have been trusting in other things that took away all your ability to trust in the unseen God. First let me give you a background of where I come from then you will better understand these articles. In one of my previous posts I related how I belonged to a ‘gangster’ like group that gave me so much security that they had literally become my fortress in the township. During that era in the late seventies there were quite a lot of those both formal and informal criminal groups that you could not live without, that is if you really meant business with the township life. Some were simply for those needing to ‘just’ belong to a group and others were for those who were ‘more serious’ about belonging.

The Battle At House Number 1099 - Part 6 - MVK

Every Bible reader has their favourite portion of scripture. I have mine too and my favourite, favourite has always been 1 Corinthians 15:46 which says; the spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. (NIV) But before I go on with this scripture allow me to say that I personally believe that the Bible was not written to Christians in the same way that the South African Constitution was not written to politicians and road signs are not there exclusively for car owners. The bible is a book about people for people and it was written by people who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. This kind of understanding will trigger in all of us that much needed faith to believe God for the impossible. The truth behind this belief only becomes a reality when we are faced with situations that only the Bible gives us hope about. There have been numerous cases of individuals who had reached the end of the road and relied only on what the bible had to offer them. And those individuals have broken through their challenges

The Battle At House Number 1099 - Part 5 - MVK

Have you ever stood your ground even in the face of obvious failure? One day I preached about this in our Church. The content of this sermon was made up manly of the many lessons I gained at house number 1099. I once heard someone say ‘when you are with your back against the wall, the only direction to go is forward” it sounded good and very practical as a word of encouragement but could it be done? One thing that I have learnt in life was how valuable some things are if you don’t just hear them, but when you listen carefully when they are said. Here is the difference between the things you hear and those you listen to; as you read this article you are somehow listening to what I’m saying but in the back round you hear a lot of other noises, including conversations that are not directed to you. Hearing is a gift from God but listening is a skill developed by some people. The importance of listening is that whatever you listened to can not be taken away from you when on the other hand I can’t remember how many sounds I heard today. Check this out; should you hear music played in the middle of the night when all other noises are absent it sticks with you whether it is good or bad music. The art of listening is developed through eradicating all other voices or messages and picking out just that line that will save your life later.

Workshop feb 2011

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Workshop feb 2011

View more presentations from Montoedi Kotu.

The Chat Room - The Chat Room - The Chat Room - The Chat room

LETS JUST TALK ABOUT ANYTHING

The Battle At House Number 1099 - Part 4 - MVK

One thing I have always been interested in was, seeing the manifestations of the promises of the Bible. Before becoming a Christian I used to be a criminal, and in the criminal world threats are carried out, promises are never broken and wishes do come through. All these happen because criminals have integrity up to certain extend. So to me the transition was very challenging because here I was reading the Bible, and it was speaking of better things, promising me actual power than the one I had back in the world. Before I got saved I was a gun smith. A gun smith is a gun mechanic. I gained this experience many years ago when I was still in the police force. I did border training followed by serving alongside the defence force at the borders, and that is where I learnt to strip and fix hand guns and rifles.

The Battle at House number 1099 - Part 3 - MVK

One day an elderly couple from our Church asked if they could pay us visit and we made arrangements for one Saturday afternoon. We agreed and set the date. They came and we really had a wonderful time with them. We were aware that both these elderly folks were gifted in the area of dreams and visions. In the past they told us a lot of things that we were aware of but we could not interpret and the things they said always came to pass. So we naturally loved them and trusted their spiritual judgement. The elderly gentleman passed away last month in August and the old lady is still with us in Church. It was around seven in the evening when they decided to go and Joyce and I walked them to their car which was parked on the lawn outside. As we opened the front door the elderly man got into a semi trance. I hope I will be able to explain ‘semi trance.’ He was still there with us but he paused for a few seconds and began to see in the realm of the spirit.

Insightful Thoughts

We are always faced with a challenge of what others think of us even long after God has forgiven us. MVK

-----------------------

We all need to have an unwavering faith in God, that deep rooted knowledge that it shall be well with us at last. MVK

-----------------------

A good word uttered in good season often produce good results. MVK

--------------------

Talking must always be done like singing it should always be well rehearsed before being released. MVK

-----------------------

Never give up until you have proven that what you're actually trying to achieve is absolutely unachievable. MVK

--------------------

The Bible encourages us to renew our minds and never to remove our minds. MVK

------------------------------------

Rarely does one see the need to think wisely until their bad thinking gets them into trouble. MVK

------------------------------------

No idea is totally bad, if it's not good for today then save it for another day. MVK

------------------------------------

My mind is made up, I want to be a good person, no matter what. MVK

------------------------------------

We need to develop a positive attitude, a mind totally disabled from entertaining negativity. MVK

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

OLD WIVES REMEDY

Two old ladies are discussing their husbands over tea."I wish that Fred would stop biting his nails," says one. "it gets me very upset"?

"Rob used to do the same thing," says the other." But I made sure he broke the habit." "How?".... "I hid his teeth."

----------------------------------------

"Why is it necessary to be quite in Church?" a Sunday school teacher asked her little children as they were on their way to a Church service. One bright little girl replied, "because people are sleeping." DRUM

-----------------------------------

The boss comes in early one morning and finds his manager kissing his secretary. "is this what I pay you for ?" he yells. "No sir," says the manager. "This I do free of charge." DAILY SUN