Nr 09/11
September 2011

Dear Member/Guest

Content of Edition

1. Famine striking the War-ridden Somalia
2. Monthly Devotional - Gaining the world while losing your Soul
3. Ending Gossiping - Viewing one another from our own perspectives

1. FAMINE STRIKING THE WAR-RIDDEN SOMALIA

If people are not dying due to war or sickness, then it is famine that is taking the lives of people in drought disaster areas. Kehrhahnministries executive wants to thank people around the world that has opened their hearts to the people of Somalia by donating money enabling relief agencies on the ground to do this service of love to the people who so desperately need it.

As ministry we support this initiative and would like to ask our readers to make donations today through an organization in your own country that has people on the ground, working under tremendous tension and dangerous conditions. Please keep them in your prayer as well that they manage to get the supplies where it need to be, without militia hi-jacking the things that doesn’t belong to them at the cost of others, for it is as a result of what they do that farming cannot continue. We pray that God will open up the skies and send down rain so that that country can come to life again. We also call upon those how are in power to resolve their issues around a table and to put the needs to the people first before their own and that a lasting solution to that crisis may soon be found by all parties involve.

Your donation becomes for someone else, a living testimony of the God in whom you believe and therefore by donating you also minister into the lives of these people in a practical and profound way. War only makes the country poorer, which brings nothing to a nation that the people claim to love, honor and respect, this being the case why making war in the first place? It is all because of them; it’s not for a religion as it is claimed, rather for their own desire to have and control something that does not belong to them in the first place. May Yahweh, the Almighty God be with you all in this time of never-ending trail!

For the voiceless in Somalia!!!

Georg Kehrhahn
CEO: Kehrhahnministries

2. MONTHLY DEVOTIONAL - GAINING THE WORLD WHILE LOSING YOUR SOUL

Devotional text: Matthew 16:24-28 (NIV)

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Dear Friends

The business world is a world where there isn’t time for moral conduct. Money is made and lost; people stab one another in the back in their attempt to rise to higher positions in the corporate world. Secretaries would start relationships with their married bosses knowing that when the time for a promotion comes they will be first in line, or the bosses will be blackmailed with a secret which he or she do not want to be revealed. Even in schools, department positions, also makes friends enemies looking at one another with jealousy, not wanting to reward individuals based on merit. All this happening for worldly things, things that don’t have any eternal value and therefore is nothing but worldly things.

Our text doesn’t suggest that we shouldn’t be ambitious people; rather it teaches us that what is really important in life, is that you abstain from doing things that goes against the very grain of your being, meaning that if something comes your way, accept the challenge, but let it not change you as an individual. Christ gave everyone specific abilities and these abilities increases as we walk a daily walk with God, giving him all the for our successes as well as our failures.

Life isn’t about the stuff you have and the more you have gained, the more isolated you become. Think of the parable of the lost Son, he had everything, since he got his inheritance from his Father, but at times when he needed his friends the most they all disappeared. This picture is what the world understands as wealth and therefore they do not see what really matters, saying that morality will not fill your stomach.

A manager is asked by his boss to get help him in order to get someone fired and because he wants to keep his job he is doing that precisely, not even considering the impact of his deeds could have on not only the life of the individual but also upon the people depends on the salary to make ends meet. He doesn’t even consider the position in which he places the manager, whether the manager thinks it is right or not, making the manager to be in the middle of an ackward situation, since he isn’t happy about destroying a person’s life. His religious convictions isn’t allowed to influence his work and therefore puts the manager in a difficult position and in conflict with himself, knowing that there isn’t a real reason for this type of action and yet have no choice. Therefore he puts his need before the need of others and therefore goes against the grain of his whole being, knowing that he doesn’t live the way which he is called to live.

There are people in this world who wants to live according to their Christian conviction and knowing what they had to do put them into an ackward position Sunday after Sunday, when sitting in church, worshipping their God, while knowing that someone out there wonders what the next step would be in making ends meet. The manager resigned, since his faith played a more important role to him, understanding that this life is nothing but a temporary shelter as Paul so clearly say it.

The cross that Jesus is referring to is precisely this, the choice whether you are going to speak out or bail out, saying and trusting God for your next provision. We are quickly to judge, but slow to learn and understand, for behind every decision that such a person is making is a irrevocable conviction, which stands throughout his/her life and which is non-negotiable. Take time to hear why people did make certain unpopular decisions. Look beyond the person’s actions into the heart and in that way you matters would become clear, since you have reached the very core of a person’s personhood and the crux of what drives them to make decisions, which at times come to the fore-front.

May you gain the strength to take up your cross and following Jesus in your daily life? Carrying that cross is no laughing matters, but it is of immense eternal value and satisfaction once you see how God caters for you, because of that Godly decision you’ve made.

Amen

3. ENDING GOSSIPING - VIEWING ONE ANOTHER FROM OUR OWN PERSPECTIVES

Gossiping is something everyone of us are familiar with, especially when a story can be made so juicy as people add their own little tails to an event that has happened even though most who heard the same story before just in a different way. People forget that in a small community in which I live, people tend to know individuals and yes even those who these stories is being told about since somewhere before this story broke had experienced something totally different with that individual than being portrayed by someone else and therefore have made their own minds up in regards to how they themselves perceives this individual to be.

Being in the counselling world myself, I hear how often men refers to women in a very negative way, calling them all sorts of names and labelling them negatively to people around them and without knowing it they themselves are portraying themselves in a very negative way, just showing the people around them how really sick they are. Gossiping thus is a story with all the added tails that seek to destroy young people’s lives and how people understand it depends on how they themselves perceive their role in the whole event. A young once came to me and shared with me that he was in love with a beautiful young woman and all his friends trying to warn him against her only made things worse for him, because here he was torn between his feelings for her and friends whose opinion mattered to him. In our discussion I later ask this man, whether he knows this lady well on which he replied that he did and he also shared wonderful experiences with me which they both had with one another in different spheres of life. He also shared that even though things has been tough at times
he always saw the good in her and that it doesn’t really matter when some of these gossip stories are true since he himself wasn’t perfect and thus how can he expect her to be perfect. All that matters to him was that she will love him perfectly. He also indicated to me that it frustrated him since he was aware of the fact people were spreading some deceitful stories about him as well and that he was sure some might have reached her and yet she isn’t testing these stories with him. Thoughtful I asked him why he thinks it is happening? His reply was that maybe she was afraid to tell me that or that she might think that she doesn’t trust me at all.
In his voice I could sense that both these people sat with very real feelings, but was afraid to put it in the open fearing the response and thus they remain separate even though everything may put in the same direction of love and compassion towards one another. Gossip just as not being direct and open in a discussion leads to distrust, instead of bringing people together. Reflecting upon his experiences he had and is still having with her, he realized ridiculous these people statements had been. Coming to this realization he started to realize that he needs to fight the nasty battle of gossiping by showing the people who told him this story the errors in their way. He asks the following question to the so-called concerned friend: What is your motive behind spreading this rumour? Are you not aware that I myself have a different experience than you with this individual? You speak very negatively about her and yet you did not even ask how I view this individual and what I have experience with her which caused me in the first place to like her.

People who gossip has got their own personal agenda as a reason for starting such a story and its only purpose is build their own image in a world with which they are at war with. He realized that his so-called friend did it deliberately since the gossiper in reality had feelings for the same girl and hoped that by causing friction between them, may cause them to depart from one another making the playing field level again, but what happens in reality is quite the opposite than his intended desire. Our perception of the other individual will determine whether we are willing to walk a road with them or not and there is nothing and nobody who can change that perception except the two who are the middle point of a gossip story. They and only they can make the call, which will determine the road they walk together, since only they know why they feel the way they do and how they got to that particular point. Yes, people do make mistakes, but our mistakes shouldn’t be greater than the love which we have for one another.

Jesus’ love for us is so great that he reprimands us in the same way that he reprimanded the people of his time. He did this because he knew his heart and the one who he was serving in this world, not himself as we would understand it in our own language but God the father and therefore knowing His true identity, he did not allow other people to define him. I am sure there was a lot of gossiping going around about this son of a carpenter claiming to be a Son of a God. Gossip stories is humanities weak attempt to undermine a child of God and therefore one just need to see who is on the receiving side of gossip stories most of the time. I, however am not referring to people who wants gossip stories to run around for publicity purposes, but Christians who would want to do their thing without any hindrances, going their way, doing their work and having a positive impact in the world around them. Everything we do or say thus not only just impact the lives of the people around us but also has an impact upon us and therefore it is vital that we protect ourselves from these onslaughts that people may launch at us since people may say one thing in front of you and another behind your back. This is the reality of the world we live in and therefore since we are children of God all with our own issues we need to be aware of the fact that looking at our lives, people are learning something about our faith through the actions that we are doing. Thus it is no surprise why Paul warns us against the dangers of a loose tongue. He did not warn us to judge us rather to prepare us against the onslaughts that wants to mislead us from the path that God has intended for us.

When people spread these deceitful lies about us then know that the enemy is busy at work in your life and therefore be slow to anger and move closer to the one who knows us better than the people around us. Perhaps it is our God indicating to us that it is time that we rise above these views that people have of us and that we can do by showing them the direct opposite of what the perceived us to be.

With Regards

Georg Kehrhahn
CEO: Kehrhahnministries