I have found a site that is a bit easier for me to use than WordPress. If you follow my blog, pleasecontinue here …http://trevorbotha.yolasite.com/
I have found a site that is a bit easier for me to use than WordPress. If you follow my blog, pleasecontinue here …http://trevorbotha.yolasite.com/
I read this on Steve Murrell’s blog today (who got it of somone else’s blog).
If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of exactly 100 people it would look like this:
- 1 of the villagers would have a college/university education
- 1 of the villagers would own a computer
- 70 villagers would be unable to read
- 20 of the villagers would earn more than 12,000 AUD a year
- 80 villagers would live in sub-standard housing
- 9 of the villagers would possess 50 percent of the wealth
- 50 of the villagers would suffer from malnutrition
- 60 villagers would live where torture & ill-treatment by the authorities is common
- 30 of the villagers would be Christian
- 28 of the villagers would not have a Christian friend
What are you doing about it?
The Every Nation Church in Innsbruck along with some of our other Every Nation churches hosted the European Conference in Innsbruck last week. It was an awesome time and great to so many Europeans committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The theme of the Conference was CROSS CULTURE – The Cross Changes Everything.
The most challenging message of the conference was brought by Pastor Steve Murrell. The title of his sermon was “TAKE UP YOUR CROSS”. He gave us some testimonies of people who are paying a dear price for their faith and still take up their cross daily to follow Jesus.
These are believers who have committed to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ regardless of the persecution they might face. Some have spent months in prison enduring severe circumstances and in some churches most every believers have scars because they are beaten up when they give their lives to Jesus.
This made me think about the price I am willing to pay for the Gospel of Jesus. It seems like the greed of western wealth makes too many Christians forget what the real cost of discipleship is.
Bumper packed service on Sunday. We didn’t even have enough space in our venue. People were standing out of the door. We would love to say it was revival … but it was because we had 4 babies being dedicated on Sunday.
Despite some technical hick-ups we had a great service. We continued with the Phlipn’ Attitude series we are doing. It was a great opportunity to talk about Confidence. We looked at Philippians 3:2-11. 2Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
In what do we place our confidence? Paul says that he used to place his confidence in the flesh, law and religion. We looked at these three comparisons: Flesh vs Spirit, Law vs. Faith and Religion vs. Resurrection.
Flesh vs Spirit.
Do you place your confidence in the flesh i.e. your own credentials. Do you feel that you can obtain favour from God by the things you have achieved in your life? No matter of success or achievement can bring any amount of favour or salvation into your life. Only through the Spirit of God can we receive God’s favour and blessing in our life.
Law vs. Faith
Too many people place their confidence in the obedience to the rules and regulation that are imposed upon them by their religion or church. They feel that God will be pleased with them if they say their prayers, do their rituals and take part in all the sacraments that is believed to bring salvation. None of these laws have any power to save. The only way to obtain righteousness is by faith in Christ. Our confidence should be in what God has done for us through the cross instead of what we are doing for Him through our laws.
Religion vs. resurrection
Do you feel you will receive life when you are faithful to your church or denomination? This is misplaced confidence. It is only through the resurrection of Jesus that we receive life. No church, denomination or religious institution has life in itself. An unhealthy commitment to a church will bring more death that life. I do believe we should be committed to our churches when God has placed us there, but we should never get to the place where we think that those who are not part of our church are not saved. Salvation belongs to God and it is where your confidence should lie.
Where is your confidence? In your own success, your ability to obey laws or in your church … or is your absolute confidence in God’s grace through Jesus Christ?
When looking at a topic like humility, there are truly innumerable opinions and definitions. Within every religion it is defined differently and in some philosophical circles it is even criticised as “the worst form of conceit” and named by others – like Nietzsche – as a weakness.
To even look at this topic of humility and write something in a few paragraphs is in no way a reflection on the full meaning of the concept. So, instead of me writing a thousand words about it, I thought these pictures could say it.
During the month of August we are doing a series called Phlippn’ Attitudes… simply because most of us need to change our attitude to be more like Jesus’ attitude. In Philippians 2:5 Paul writes “Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility]”
During this four week series we will look at Humility, Confidence, Contentment and Endurance.
A group of us will be blogging daily through the book of Philippians. You can follow it here.
“The little estimate we put on prayer is evidence from the little time we give to it.” E.M. Bounds
Most people know how important and powerful prayer is. It does seem however that this knowledge simply got stuck in the heads and not reached the hearts of many.
If I knew someone was going to be hit by a bus and they are not aware of it, I will at some point act on it. Our actions are determined by how important we understand something to be.
If we truly understand and have a revelation of the power of prayer, we will without a doubt or hesitation spend more time in prayer than what we all currently do.

I’m getting my head up again after battling to build for the last two months. What an intense time! This series we are doing is sure coming at the right time. On Sunday I spoke about these two things… What are you building? and What are you Battling?
These two things should work together just like in Nehemiah 4:17 Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon. The reality is that even though they are supposed to work together, each one seems to have the ability to distract your attention from off the other.
Sometimes we get so focused on what we are building that we get blindsided by a sudden attack from seemingly nowhere. During other times it seems like we are so focused on the battle that we completely lose track of the reason we are here… to build the Kingdom.
What are you building?
The question I asked on Sunday was simple… What are you crying about? When Nehemiah gets the news about the state of the walls in Jerusalem, His reaction reveals his heart! 1:4 So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
When you cry … are you crying about your own struggles and bad situations or are you crying about the state of someone else. Nehemiah had reason to complain about his own situation. He was a slave in captivity in Babylon. He was not living the utopia life at all. Yet the king never saw Nehemiah sad – Ch 2:1 … Now I had never been sad in his presence before…what Godly character! The day Nehemiah got news about the state of Jerusalem he got so depressed that he cried and mourned for days… even to the point where the king asked him “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart.” (Ch 2:2)
This very thing that caused Nehemiah to cry about determined his passion to build. He built the walls of Jerusalem in such record time that even his enemies saw it as a move of God.
Your tears reveal your passion and will determine what you build. When you are simply crying about the sad state of your own life, your selfishness will cause you to be focused on simply getting your own needs met. We have so many of those around!
Then you get those who cry about something else … Children dying of hunger, broken people being abused, people going to their graves without knowing Jesus Christ as their saviour…. what makes you cry? This will eventually determine what you build!
What are you battling?
Nehemiah had two types of enemies. Those who attacked from outside Nehemiah 4:7-8 and those who attacked from within in Chapter 5.
Whenever you build something you will always have resistance and opposition. Jesus said in Mathew 18:7 that offenses will come. These kinds of attacks are inevitable and we should learn how to handle them. If you cannot handle people being nasty to you … stay out of the battle!
Resistance is not only something that comes from those who disagree with what you do, but sometimes from those who feel insecure and have to get you out of the way to make themselves feel valuable. These kinds of unnecessary attacks are usually the most painful. Getting stabbed by those you trust. But – the reality is … we are facing an enemy that is cruel and will try to take you out … no matter what method he uses.
Then you get the kind of resistance that comes from within! Your own fears and temptations! This is oftentimes more difficult to deal with than one realises. Temptations are usually something you justify somehow and try to get away with. At these crucial times is when you find those hidden sins destroying what you are building. Only a wholehearted commitment to Jesus Christ and a holy life can keep you from falling into these temptations. No – no accountability group has the ability to keep you from sinning. No matter how much you confess … if you have not made a quality decision to stay away from sin you will never be able to confess yourself away from it.
Jesus cried about the lost state of mankind. This drove Him to action and He came to build His kingdom on the earth. The battle he had to fight was worse than anyone will ever face … but looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2
Let Jesus be our ultimate example. He had a passion, He is building His church and he overcame the fiercest battle!
What are you building… are you overcoming the battle?
This is a pretty good 3 minute video I saw on Dan Smart’s blog.
Turning chaos into order is a gift that some people have naturally. Going into a warzone that has been left in a mess by others and turn it into a place that’s fitted for God to dwell is not an easy thing. This is what Nehemiah did!
This guy was as bold as a lion. He had values that were so deeply imbedded into his life that he never compromised on them even in the face of extreme circumstances. Nehemiah was the leader of the third group of exiles to return to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity in 445 B.C. (the first being Zerubbabel 538 B.C and then Ezra 458 B.C.). He was an extraordinary leader with a clear vision and purpose.
Two things in his life stand out as the reason for his success.
1) Prayer: Nehemiah realised his absolute dependence upon God. Nehemiah prayed throughout every stage of this project (a summary of his prayers are set out below).
When we look at the way Jesus trained his disciples He also emphasised this. Even after many years of training and preparation, the disciples were ready to be sent out. They witnessed the crucifixion and now witnessed Jesus raised from the dead. Their faith is restored and strong and they have a story to tell … but Jesus told them not to do anything until they have received the power of the Holy Spirit.
Not even Jesus expected the well trained and fully prepared disciples to be able to evangelise and convert people to the Truth without the Holy Spirit. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is the most important part of successful evangelism. When we build the kingdom of God we should continuously seek God in prayer just like Nehemiah did when he built the city walls.
2) Knowledge: Nehemiah knew God’s law. He did not just follow the tradition and culture of the day. He was very clear on what the Word of God instructed. From God’s Word Nehemiah understood clearly what the reasons were that brought Israel into this captivity … their sin.
Most of the Jews completely forgot what the law of God said and got so entangled in the immoral and sinful lifestyle that gets justified by the word “culture”. Nehemiah on the other hand had a fear of God and was not influenced by popular opinion.
It was this characteristic that made him stay focused on what needed to be done. The wall of Jerusalem needed to be rebuilt and nothing should distract them.
Staying focused on God’s promises is key … but first of all we would need to know his promises!
Jesus is the absolute example of this – Hebrews 12:2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Nehemiah’s prayers:
During the month of June we looked at the topic God is…
This was amazing. I loved the messages and it spoke to me deeply. The last message in the series was on Sunday – “God is … waiting on you” by Mark Beeson. It was a really good and timely message. The best part of the message was actually when Andrew Holmes got up afterwards and elaborated a little on one of the three points of the message.
Andrew mentioned how a person’s eyes would adjust to the light. When you go into a dark room you will be unable to see for a few seconds while your eyes adjust to the light of the room you are in. This is like life … when you are in the light and something happens that might cause you to sin – whether it is offense, a temptation or some kind of struggle, you will end up moving out of the Light of God’s holiness. Often time’s people will stay in this place of hurt or offense and refuse to forgive and move back into the life of closeness with God they came out of.
Just like your eyes will adjust to the light, your spiritual life will soon adjust to the place where you are in … in this place of darkness… and this darkness will soon seem to be light for you. That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 6:23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
If you are in a place of darkness and do not realise it because you have become accustomed to that place, your ability to discern between actual darkness and true light will become very week. This is when people start to backslide without noticing. This is when false teaching seems very appealing. This is when lies seem true and people get deceived… truth gets obscured!
The question might then arise in your mind … but where is God in my struggles? He is right there where you left Him – still waiting on you. God will never leave you or abandon you… but He will also never justify your sin. God is right where you left Him still waiting faithfully on you to make the move back to Him. When you forgive, repent or let go… you will find God in the light.
God is waiting on you …
Follow our mission to Gent here.
Why should we actually read our Bibles? Isn’t it just enough to go to church on Sundays? Isn’t it a bit overboard to expect people to read and/or study the Bible with a busy schedule and crazy, fast paced lifestyle?
These questions are simply a matter of perspective. We could simply ask “Why should I eat food? Isn’t it enough to just eat one meal every weekend?” If your life is too busy to eat and you simply give no attention to it, you will very soon find people commenting on your health and physical appearance. A few days ago someone made a comment out of the blue “Wow Trev, you’ve lost a lot of weight.” People notice when you change. Hopefully people will not make comments like “Gee! You got fat.”
This is the same as reading the Word. Spending time with Jesus in prayer and studying His Word is simply spiritual food. Just like taking care of your body through a healthy diet and exercise, we need to nourish our spirit through feeding on the Word and prayer. When anyone neglects their spiritual diet the signs will soon become evident. All around us are images and messages bombarding us from all directions… media, work, culture, etc. All these different philosophies and ideologies make their way into our mind and hearts. When someone lives on junk food and chocolates, their health will suffer severely. We need some serious help … from God … to be able live life on this earth. And God has given His Word as our daily food to sustain us.
It is only by living in a relationship with Jesus through His Word and the Holy Spirit that we will be able to live through the temptations and deceitfulness of this world we live in. I once thought about my spiritual diet in this way. If I would spend the same amount of time in prayer and the reading the Bible than I do preparing and eating food, things will be a lot different.
So what are the evidences that we are spiritually malnourished? The answer is simple … sin! Common symptoms of spiritual malnourishment are offense, unforgiveness, judgmental, deception, lust, greed, selfishness … and these are just some of it. The Bible says the only way we can overcome this “fleshly” behaviour is to live in the Spirit. Gal 5:16 Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. So let’s give the Word the proper place and understand its importance.
We are doing a short two week mini series called “WORD”. Yvette preached this last Sunday (her first sermon ever). You can listen to it here.
During the month of June, all our congregations from Every Nation London will be joining the global One Prayer initiative. This year the focus will be on the theme “God is … “.
I asked for some comments on my Facebook and got a few people to fill in the blank. Read some of the results.
God is …
What do you think? “God is …”
This past Sunday we preached on the topic “Jesus Healed”. It is something I am quite passionate about and love to preach on. I wholeheartedly believe that healing is for the church today and that this is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to the church as a tool to spread the Gospel. In my sermon I used the illustration that the Gospel is like a fruit salad. In a fruit salad there are many different kinds of fruit.Some people seem to eat only the grapes and leave the rest of the fruit.
The Gospel is the good news that Jesus redeemed us from sin. It is only in the Christian faith that we really find a true definition of sin. This ultimate separation from God was restored when Jesus took our sin on the cross. One of my favourite scriptures in the Bible is Romans 10:9 “ if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the hope of humanity. In His resurrection we have the hope of eternal life … but more than this, we have a hope for this life. And this is the “fruit salad Gospel”. When Jesus died on the cross, He did not only destroy sin, but also the effect of it. When we look at the scriptures in the Bible that refers to the forgiveness of sin, healing is usually mentioned in the same breath. Unfortunately most people only want to take the forgiveness of sin bit and leave the healing behind.
Just like the fruit salad, we should eat everything. When we accept Jesus, we received the whole lot – forgiveness, deliverance, healing, restoration, peace, love, joy, provision, etc. Jesus did not only obtain forgiveness, but total redemption.
Look at Psalm 103:3 “Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,” Healing and forgiveness is seen as one – not separate.
Even in the famous prophesy about the cross in Isa 53:5 “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” The message of the cross was much more than just getting sin forgiven – it was getting freed from the result and effect of this sin … in our present world. When we accept Jesus, we inherit all God has for us …
Listen to the sermon here.
This is true Worship! Check it out.
And here is how you dance in the presence of the Lord
Micah Unplugged
This coming Sunday all four our congregations in Every Nation London are preaching on the topic “Jesus Healed”. Throughout all my travelling around the world and coming across different kinds of churches, opinions and experiences I have found this one of the most debated issues in the global church.
In some places it is not even a question. You pray for the sick and they get healed. Deliverance from demonic oppression happens so frequently it is not even weird to see any manifestations when you cast out demons. Especially in places like Africa, India, South America … places where people are very aware of the spiritual.
In the western/European countries, this issue is highly debated. Theological discussions about “is healing for today?” and “Does God still heal?” is a question on almost every persons lips. Strangely enough we don’t see any kind of healing close to the amount or magnitude we see in the previously mentioned places. So the question arises … are we asking the question because we don’t see healing or is it more a case of we don’t see healing because we are asking the question.
Is the western world too caught up in their intellectual explanation of everything that we don’t have the faith to see healing, or does healing have nothing to do with our faith at all … it is simply a sovereign move of God. Has God decided to move in supernatural ways in some countries and not in another, or does the manifestation of healing have to do with our faith?
I would love to get some opinions … what do you think? Is healing simply up to God or does it have to do with us as well and our faith? Leave your opinion please ….
Two weeks ago I preached a sermon relating to the fact that many people have unanswered prayer in their lives. No easy topic I have to admit … and I know there is no one-answer-fits-all solution to this issue.
When we talk about the issue of unanswered prayer, there are a few obvious reasons we should look at when approaching this topic. Ignoring these obvious hurdles is nothing but ignorance.
Let’s start with the most obvious…
When we approach God we should remember that God is Spirit. John 4:24 states that “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” We cannot go to God in prayer based upon any of our five senses. And it is in this that I believe most people misunderstand God and prayer. Prayer is a spiritual exercise and not a mental one.
The Apostle Paul explained to us in Romans 7 & 8 so clearly that there is a battle raging in our lives between the flesh and the spirit. When we think about our relationship with God we should always remember that it is a spiritual relationship. It is through this relationship with God that we can overcome the flesh. Gal 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
So the big question is then “how does one live in the spirit?”
Without giving an exhaustive explanation to this question, the two most important things are to make sure we are constantly living in love (Mathew 22:36-37) and living in relationship with Jesus through His Word (John 15:7).
To hear some more about this, you can listen to a more in-depth explanation here.
So the kids are growing up. Yeah I know … they are still small – but it feels like time is going past to quick.
Monet is sitting up now and Micah is using his potty. Phew … just the other day it felt like I was still wondering what it would be like to become a dad!
Over the last few days we have been potty training our little boy Micah. He is the most adorable little boy and really good at listening to most things he is told to do.
This however was a bit of a challenge and after 5 days of trying to get him to sit on his potty …. WOOOHOOO! He did!
I hope this is over now … I have had enough of his horible nappies!
Yesterday was a very unusually interesting day. Two pretty long meetings back to back. I don’t think you can get two more contrasting scenarios in one space of time than what I experienced yesterday.
Early in the afternoon I met someone I work with. We had the most inspiring meeting talking about innovative ways to preach the Gospel. We looked at all kinds of things – from the way our services are conducted and bringing more excellence into it to making the presence of the church known in our city. The excitement was high and the faith and vision was passionate. I felt like I was walking on a cloud of faith just ready to get the world saved. The meeting went on much longer than I thought and I had to cut it short after two and a half hours because I was already late for the next meeting I had to attend.
If I knew the second meeting was going to be so opposite to what I had experienced with my friend I would not have gone there. I had a meeting with a pastor from another church thinking that it would only be the two of us. Getting to her house I was greeted by a whole panel of ladies who were on the leadership of the church. From the very first sentence spoken I was bombarded with the deepest offenses and hurt in their hearts that eventually ended up in a strange way accusing me of the pain they were experiencing. The pastor however didn’t say anything accusing or offensive and continually stopped the other ladies from stepping out of line too much. The meeting ended in me simply telling them that there is not much to do about the situation … but that their only hope in helping their church is for them to deal with their offenses.
I deeply grieve that so many people walk around with so much hurt and that these unresolved offenses end up in the most unusual accusations, judgement and self justification. I pray for them and hope they find that place of forgiveness.
With my friend on the other hand … we are still excited about God’s kingdom expanding and are gearing up for great things to happen in this amazing city of ours.