Till slip message

One evening, while enjoying a bounce around the aqua pool at my gym, a young lady handed me a till slip on which she had written a note. I was naturally curious and read the very beautiful inspiring message she had written to me. It was a message of hope and I couldn't have needed it more than in that moment.

We had never spoken before so there was no way for her to have known I was a Christian, yet she took the risk to write a God inspired note and had the boldness to deliver her message.

I still have that till slip in my purse and will most likely keep it for some time as it is a treasure.

I want to encourage you to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and be bold enough to give encouragement to people, even strangers whenever he leads you to do so. You never know what that person might be going through and your words of encouragement may help them through a dark time in their lives.

No - Don't say I told you so!

Thankfully, life does occassionally present us with the opportunity to say "I told you so!" most people pounce on the opportunity to do so. But have you ever watched someone's reaction when you do? It's usually a look of pain!

For most of us, the "joy" of watching somebody else wince is quite fun, but I really don't think that it is a reflection of God's nature.

I don't know about you, but I have vague memories of my mom wrapping me in a soft hooded baby towel when I got out of the bath after bath time as a child. It was such a beautiful feeling of warmth, love and safety.

I think that is what God's love is like. When we realize we've messed up and we go to him for forgiveness, he baths us in his grace and love.

We need to learn to be more gracious with others when they have erred.

Too tired to think?

Too tired to think? I know how that feels. What do you do when you just feel like you can't go on? Well in my house that means taking a little "me" time.

That may come in various ways. A candle lit bath or an early night in bed. One thing is sure, you must rest in order to recharge. When you just cannot get away on holiday, it's important to make use of mini break moments.

In a world that is driven to a mad frenzy, it's important to just take time out. Remember that God has made us body, SOUL and Spirit.

Must love....... Cats!

I generally don't enjoy listening to or being part of anything sales related, so my initial response when I was invited to a marketing survey was, no thanks, I don't think so. That was until I heard it would be about my most beloved cats.

The preparations for the evening involved a series of questions and doing a homework assignment which was to do a collage about my cat family and then how I felt about feeding them a particular cat food. The assignment proved to be quite fun.

What facinated me about the evening is that we were given a set of statements to rate on preference. Then more content was added and our views changed because there was a broader picture to look at.

Interpreting the bible can be like that. When a verse is taken in isolation it can be made to mean anything, but when we view it in the light of the surrounding verses the fuller meaning becomes clear.

Challenge yourself to look for more of the context of scripture as apposed to seeing things in isolation.

To spank or not to spank?

My sister is older than me and when we were kids she used to love to tease and bully her younger sister. I remember an incident where she bashed my dolls head on the bathtub.... Now this lead to much 'a bawling and a squaking'.

My mom had endless patience with us as kids... but... When mom got cross, we knew we were in trouble, and this was one such occassion. In case you are wondering.... We both got hidings.

Many folks struggle with the question, when do I show grace and when do I discipline? I suppose our views on that are shaped by our childhood and whether we grew up in a household that exercised the "spare the rod and spoil the child principle".

I suppose it all boils down to intent. If misbehaviour is accidental, then maybe grace and guidance would be the best way to go. If the bad behaviour is intentional, then a good dose of discipline would be in order.

We all have to have experienced grace though to know it's true value. Thankfully, we can be taught about that one by a master. Jesus gave us a great example to follow!

Pesky little bugs

At home I'm waging a little war against some creepy crawly visitors that just don't belong in my kitchen. But the little suckers won't die! It's going to take a Herculean battle to get rid of them.

Sin and bad habits can be like that. They can just become so pesky and getting rid of them is seemingly impossible. This is where having the word of God deeply entrenched in your spirit can be invaluable.

Now most bible scholars agree that the original translation of Isaiah 59 v 19 is incorrect and should read: "When the enemy comes in........ Like a flood the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard againt them".

We can become victors in Christ because the battles we face, we face with God behind us and his Spirit working with us to overcome the enemy.

Common, stand up, fight and tell your enemy.... Die sucker die!

What kind of friend are you?

There is an old saying that got me thinking, "Don't let grass grow on the road of friendship". In our rushed lives today, how easy is it to let an extended time slip by before we reach out to our friends, yet when trouble strikes and there are no friends to be found, we stand confused.

Proverbs 18:24 tells us that to have friends, you must be a friend and that there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Many people wonder why they are alone, yet they seldom give friendship to anyone. True friendships are amazing and can span a life time.

Finding a friend who will stick closer than a brother though is unique and those friendships should be cherished!

Are you going to choose to be a friend today?

Love bug!

For our companies monthly charity drive we are selling various Valentines gifts. The thought crossed my mind: To what extent have our annual special days become simply a commercial money making opportunity as apposed to a true opportunity to show our love and appreciation for our loved ones?

When last did you take the time to say everything without giving anything commercial? Money has replaced the "need" for us to truly search our hearts and think what it is that we really want to say to our loved ones.

My challenge to you as we approach Valentines day this year is - will you simply reach for a gift or will you share your heart?

Protective animal instinct

Many animals have one thing in commom. They develop a territory. Within this territory they will defend their right to live in that space and they will protect their territory and families to the point of death!

This is their protective animal instinct. Designed by God and which sustains natures way of the survival of the fittest and the circle of life. Without this, there is no balance in nature.

Christ's protective instinct drove him to the cross. The knowledge that we cannot have salvation without the blood of a lamb set his mind on course the pay the ultimate price for us.

And with that price..... He bought our salvation. One sacrifice, for all eternity. The only difference, our sacrifice rose again!

What can I give?

The world might be comming out of recession but for many hard working South Africans, the recession is far from over.

This puts the Church and Christians in a difficult position. How do we meet God's requirement for us to live a life of giving?

Well, have you ever thought of how you can give of yourself? Each of us have a skill or ability that we can use. In some cases we can volunteer on Church projects or at least we can help a neighbor or friend.

Once we open the channels of giving in our lives, we enable God to give back to us in so many powerful ways. Will you take stock of your skills inventory today?

Time for your friend?

I've always said that what is most precious to me is time. It seems to me as if there are just not enough hours in the day to get through everything that needs to be done.

I suppose that's where priorities come in. When do you put something off for the next day and when do you push yourself to get it done today? Making these decisions about our relationship with God can be tricky too.

That's when it helps to remember that this IS a relationship. God understands if we don't have time to sit down and read 10 chapters in one day, but how about just fitting in a verse when you are run off your feet. God wants us to talk to him with the reverance that he deserves, but with the comfort of a friend.

How are you going to spend time with your friend Jesus today?

Is it just a game?

The South African Protea Cricket team lost a match this weekend that they should have had in the bag. Our response? Dissapointment and outrage! And that over a game........

Imagine God's anger when Moses found the Isrealites worshipping a golden calf when he came down from Mount Sinai after receiving the 10 commandments. God's anger was due to his jealousy over our worship.

God's jealousy is not like ours though. Ours is selfish with little consideration for the other person. God's jealousy is not only due to the fact that he has created a magnificent planet for us to live in, but that he paid the ultimate price for us..... The death of his Son!

When we choose to worship other god's we tell God that there is nothing in him worth worshipping. I have to stand with King David on that one...... When I think of your heavens, the work of Thy fingers...... Choose for yourself who you are going to worship!

Busy little Bee

I'm a very house proud person, which usually leads to much buzzing around the house in the evenings as I attend to the days chores. The problem with that is that I seldom take the time to relax.

I'm reminded of the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10. Mary chose to be seated at the feet of Jesus while Martha worked. I wonder how often we get like that, focusing more on being of service to God and people, while forgetting to draw near to the presence of Jesus?

We forget in doing so that the very life source we need to draw on to have the energy to serve, is in fact the annointing, presence and love of Christ flowing through us.

I think it would be good for us to take the time to stop and think about whether we have a healthy balance in our lives between service and spending time in God's presence.

Time to anchor down

In life we are faced with many trials. Often they pounce on us without warning. How do we get through these storms and not loose faith?

1 Corinthians 1 v 13 tells us that what endures are: Faith, hope and Love. Hope is the anchor for the soul. Just like a ships anchor holds a massive ship in place in the harbour, so too hope anchors our faith giving us stability in times of trouble.

This is great but faith would also not work without love. We cannot have faith in God if we don't first believe that he loves us and desires the best for us.

When we put faith, hope and love together, we get a faith that doesn't waiver, hope that energises our souls to believe in the precious love of a father who will never leave us or forsake us.

Power Team chain breakers

I remember as a teenager living in Nelspruit, in a youth meeting watching a video of the Power Team. Their leader, John Jacobs, is a monster huge man and the most powerful image left in my mind was of him breaking two sets of police issue hand cuffs with his bare hands.

Imagine my awe when years later I got to see the whole show live at the Rhema auditorium with John (now much older) doing exactly the same thing. His message.... simple... The gospel of Christ has the power to break any bondages you may have in your life.

I've mentioned previously that memories form neuro pathways in the brain. Bad ones form chains that bind us to past hurts and dissapointments. The good news..... When the Holy Spirit works on a root hurt, it snaps the chains and breaks the power that hurt had over you and releases all other memories bound by that lock.

The result..... When one hurt gets healed, a whole bunch of others follow suite.... And the amusing part is, in your mind you'll see them standing in cue, waiting to be booted out the door.

If you'll take the time to draw close to the throne room of grace, God through the Holy Spirit will work in you to break the chains that bind you. I dare you to draw close to him now!

Use it or loose it

Kimberly, South Africa, is well known for it's open pit mining and there are several in that area. These mines give us the opportunity to learn more about our talents.

The world famous big whole, is well known due to the fact that it was dug by hand. To this day there remain millions of rands worth of diamonds which now cannot be mined. This mine was closed due to rock falls and another natural phenomenon. An under ground river has punched the bottom of the mine and filled it with water, so the water we see there today is not due to rain but the river.

If we do not use our talents, our talents too can collapse. We need to ensure that we work with our talents regularly. If necessary, do training to hone your gift and make it effective.

Unless God tells you to, don't allow your talents to lie dormant. God may ask us to do this for a season, but it won't perminant.

Have you checked that dusty shelf in your heart where your talents have been left?

Precious gems

When mining for precious gems, miners have to dig deep below the surface of the earth to mine the ore and bring it to the surface.

This is what our talents are like. Some talents can be found easily like mining for alluvial gold or diamonds, but for the most part you will have to do a little digging to get to the good stuff.

Our gifts and callings are irrevocable, meaning that God will never take away gifts that he has given us, but they will lie underscovered until we are willing to do a little soul searching and self analysis to get to the right answer.

When last did you spend a little time thinking about your gifts and talents?

Eternally Spirit Soul and Body

I think your 30th birthday is one of those really memorable moments in life. Mine sure was. I spent the evening at a morgue. Why? Well I was doing ministry training at the time and part of our practical pastoring course was handling funerals and bereavement.

For the first time I was confronted with death in a non-emotional way and my eyes were truly opened to the fact that our bodies are simply a vessel that transports the true essence of who we are.

That is that we are first a Spirit, we have a Soul and we live in a Body. This reality should change the way we live. When we can see that true life never ends we should become more focused on God's eternal plan for our lives and think less of short term problems that surely will pass.

Take hope and faith in this, that Jesus said in John 11 that he... IS... the resurrection and the life and those that believe in him will never die.

3 in 1

The Godhead - 3 in 1..... How is that possible? How is it, that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit can be 3 unique beings, but still be 1?

Well, have you sliced an apple recently? What did you see? The core with seeds, the flesh and the skin... Right! Well that's just it. All three parts have a unique function, but they are all still part of one apple.

The core with seeds can be likened to God the father. It carries in it the power to create life. The flesh can be likened to Jesus. He gave us his body for our salvation. The skin can be likened to the Holy Spirit. He is the power of God manifest in the earth today and the one who's actions we can most see as he heals the sick and transforms live's.

And God made man in his own image, a tri-part being: Spirit, soul and body. I'll talk about that more in my next blog.

Slipper comfort

Nothing feels better than coming home and sliding your feet into a soft pair of slippers. It's a feeling of being at home and being in a place where you belong.

The bible tells us that the Holy Spirit has been sent to us as our comforter. That's the kind of relationship God desires to have with us, the abiding kind. The type where he is at home in our hearts and our presence.

He (The Holy Spirit) desires to live with us in a close relationship where he can comfort us when we are sad, pick us up when we have fallen, guide us through the trials of life, and rejoice with us in life's victories.

To have a personal relationship with him, you need to invite him into your heart. Have you done that yet?

Dessert before dinner

So I'd like to know who decided that we have to have dessert after dinner. This concept just doesn't make any sense to me. If it's been a good dinner then you are usually full by the time dinner is done and there's no space left for dessert.

Personally, I occasionally love to come home after a hard day and just tuck into a sweet treat and my favourite it a bowl of lovely sweet fruit. It is such a lovely comfort if you are feeling down.

Sometimes we need a little comfort food from God's word too, but at times you can be lost where to start. Some practical ideas:

Get a small A6 index book. As you read the word of God, you will find scriptures that will be of use in future times. Find the theme of the scripture, i.e. "Provision". Then write that scripture under the "P" section. You may not need that verse now, but times will come when you do and it will help to have your own personal index.

Another idea, is to have a concordance handy. You will be able to look up a specific word like "Hope" and find references of scriptures that have the word "hope" in them. Most bibles have a limited, but still useful concordance. Of course, if you are using a Bible program these will have search facilities in them.

Grace test

Ooouch! My words were barely cold yesterday with talking about Grace and what happens? I'm confronted by someone with no people skills and unable to have a civilised conversation.

My normal instinct is to fight back, but I could clearly see this would only make things worse if I did. Thankfully thoughts of grace came to mind and I walked away from the confrontation and decided to find a more reasonable solution. Not easy to do when someone is hurtling abuse at you!

James 1 talks about the fact that we should count it a joy when we are faced with trials and temptations. The reason the writer James says, is that these are sent to test our faith and build patience. This isn't just our faith for believing for things that we are waiting for but the actual essence of our Christianity.

So how did that apply to my situation? In times past I would have entered into a screaming match with the other person. Over time hopefully I've learned to control my anger and respond with less agression.

Don't get me wrong, being angry is not the sin, but God's word tells us, "Be angry but don't sin". We do this by expressing our anger in a constructive way, i.e. Telling the person that we have an issue with calmly, "I have to discuss an issue with you because it has made me very angry."

So, as we learn to pass these tests, it will mean on less trip "around the mountain".

Radical Grace

Often when we think of grace our minds may slip towards something more along the lines of kindness, goodness and gentleness. This however is not the kind of grace that Christ showed us. His grace was radical!

I can think of no words to express the the enormity of his grace when looking at the price he paid for our salvation. It cost him everything.

I have often pondered what Christ meant when he said to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, "My Grace is sufficient for you", but I think I'm getting a glimpse of it now.

True grace is compassionate beyond our wildest dreams. To be able to sacrifice something of yourself takes a lot. We often get aggravated when someone does something to irritate us without remembering the extreme anguish that Christ must have felt to carry the burdon of our sin.

I think we need to show more grace to others as we receive God's grace in our lives.

Rest in him!

In our hectic lifestyles today, how often do we take the time to rest? I know this is one area in my life I struggle with. Work and study commitments leave little time for leave.

Hebrews 4 speaks about rest and what I see here is that it is a complete rest. In body, soul and Spirit we need to get ourselves to a place of rest.

Our body needs rest in order to regain physical strength from our bustling activities as well as the all important need to destress. Our soul (mind, will and emotions) need time for reflection and emotional healing.

Most of all we need Spiritual rest and this won't just happen with a nap. Spiritual rest speaks more of resting from striving. So many times we fight battles that we should best leave to God because we are afraid it won't get done on time.

God knows your needs. Caste your burden on him. Put it on the back burner in your mind and allow God the time and space to do what he needs to do. Trust in him, he will never leave you!

Braai bread

As an accountant I've learned a lot about fixing mistakes. Through investigation you can trace back through the audit trail to find the orinating transaction, then apply the correcting entry.

Thankfully in life there are oppotunities for us to fix mistakes we have made. I recently tried a new bread recepe. When removing the loaf from the oven, it at first glance appeared as if it was a total dissaster. The bread was still moist and for some reason it stuck to the wax wrap. I had to slice away the wrap, then later took the remaining loaf with to the braai.

The recepe said to slice the bread and toast on the braai. The end result... A perfect braai bread. Once toasted the bread still had a slight softness on the inside with a crispy outside and it was yummmmm! Had I baked it in the oven any longer it would have gone rock hard on the fire.

I learned that you have to follow ALL the instructions for something to work AND that mistakes can be salvaged.

This speaks to me of God's grace. When we have made mistakes, he is gracious enough to help us fix them so that we have a successful result. There are times when we will have to live with the consequences of our actions, but God is big enough to help us make the best of any situation!