Its gone!

I don't know yet whether to be annoyed or grateful, but 'somebody' decided that it would be a good idea to chop down the Oak tree in the garden behind mine. Now I know they can get real big and the roots can become a problem, but I do have to wonder if it hadn't already done any damage it was going to do? How do we know it would still grow taller or had it perhaps reached its maximum growth?

Anyway, not much I can do about it now. On the positive side it was a really beautiful feature and even a wonderful backdrop to my little herb garden, but on the negative side there were those pesky leaves to deal with.

I have no idea as to whether the additional sunlight is going to have a positive or negative effect on my herb garden, but I am going to have to find another way to pretty the area up but I'm not too sure how yet, but I'm sure something will come to me.

One thing is for sure though, anything that can grow roots and disturb the foundations of our faith must be stopped at every opportunity. Depression can do that. One moment you are sure footed, knowing where you are going and the next you feel like you are scrambling, fighting to hold on to every breath. That is where standing on the word of God is so important and making sure you have a way to hear the word of God on a regular basis.

For faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God!

Just kept screaming

On Thursday night, our power went out late in the evening. For some unknown reason when this happens every now and then the alarm key pad starts beeping with a loud scream to let you know that there is no power coming to the control panel (as if you didn't know that already). You usually have to go and key in your pin code and then the screaming stops.

This however went on all night. I would just fall asleep and it would start screaming again. Up I got again every time. At around 5am however it decided that this time it would not keep silent, no matter how many times I keyed in the code. Exhausted and still needing more sleep I dragged my bedding downstairs and crashed on the sleeper couch. The distance of being downstairs and a closed door helped.

I tried contacting my boss to find out if I could have the day off as lack of sleep makes me really grouchy. Unfortunately for me it was a “No can do!” Unfortunately neither he or my supervisor were available so I'd have to make the trip. The day was long and dragged on but I finally got through and crashed early that night.

There are times in life when we are just not going to have everything go our way, but we need to have the grace and strength to deal with it. At times like these we can take courage and strength in God's word! After all, we CAN do all things through Christ!

Connected

Today I had another opportunity to experience a small personal victory. Strangely though I just could not shake a deep sad feeling. Later in the morning news came of a dear elderly family member who has taken a health turn for the worse. Although the feeling could still not be shirked I at least understood the meaning of my sadness.

The work of the Holy Spirit is so amazing and mysterious. Without my knowing it at first my heart had been bonded with my family going through a time of need and I was able to empathize with their sorrow.

Yet the most important part of the Holy Spirit's work comes through His work as our comforter. There is nothing harder to deal with in life than ill health but through it all the we can draw comfort and strength from Him at these precious times.

If you are facing similar circumstances right now, know that you can always rely on the Holy Spirit to work through you so that you may be able to experience His compassion for others and comfort in times of need.

My thoughts and prayers tonight are with my family members as they walk through this difficult time.

Livening things up

A year after starting my garden make over I am finally starting to reap some benefits of my efforts. The best part being the availability of fresh, tasty and amazing herbs. They say fresh herbs are best eaten within 4 hours of picking. Well mine are gone like a flash!

I am so amazed at the difference fresh herbs can make. The strange part now is that if I get home late and am unable to pick my leaves for the day, the salad is just plain dull and bland. So what herbs can we add to our spiritual salad to liven things up?

Maybe for starters, the Celery of truth. With truth we can we can drive away deceit and lies and create a base for strong and lasting relationships. To balance truth, some Mint of kindness. With kindness we can give love and compassion to those we meet. Then add the Parsley of stead-fastness. When we are steadfast and secure in our relationship with God, we give others a positive example to follow. Next some Thyme for patience and Oregano of grace.

With our herbs in place, life should be a whole lot more tasty. Bon appetit!

Just plain nice

Lol!  After complaining about a dull grey day, what does God do?  He blesses us with the most perfect day's I could have ever asked for.  So I should start out by saying, "Sorry I complained Lord!"

There is one thing I truly love about Heritage day and for once it is not the history. It is one of the most amazing days to have a holiday.  It's early spring and if you've done a little planting the garden is starting to look colourful and plants are becoming green again.

What makes the day even more perfect is that the weather is blissfully moderate and it is just a marvellous day to enjoy spending time outdoors.  It was just nice to be able to get lots of fresh air and enjoy lingering outside until well into dusk.

These simple joys of life fill my heart with gratitude that our Father has graced us with such a beautiful planet and the wonderful gift of life.  I can't really think of anything else to say except, “Thank you Lord for a beautiful day!”

Just hate dull grey days

If there is one type of weather I really hate it is cold and overcast days.  I love it when we get fast and hard thunderstorms and I love sunshine, but anything in between is just plain bleh!

Does that attitude sound familiar?  In Revelation 3 we read in the letter to the Laodiceans that God says "I wish you were either hot or cold, but because you are luke warm, I will spue you out of my mouth."  Harsh words, but why does God say that?

Well if we are hot for God we will live our lives with a passion for Christ and be an example to those who lack faith.  If we are cold towards God then He knows that He can turn us around in the same way that He did with Paul.

If we are however luke warm there is no passion in our lives at all and we do things out of religious tradition or habit and our lives are no testimony for God at all.

Will you choose to be hot for God?   Will you allow your faith to ignite a passion within you to follow God more deeply?  I hope you will!

What's the value?

I've developed a new talent, rescuing art! Beautiful pieces of man made creativity which for various reasons have lost their purpose. For me it makes the story of their creation and now their second acquisition all the more fascinating. I do not know the artists but I can definitely piece together a picture of their soul.

I've also discovered that I have a particular liking for oil on canvass. The rich colours bring vibrancy into an otherwise dull space. The question now is are these pieces valued less or more without being paid for?

Jesus asked the same questions relating to value to His disciples. Consider the birds of the air, they do not labour yet the Father tends to their every need. Are we not worth more than the birds? How do we determine value and in particular our own value?

One thing is sure, God valued us enough to send His Son to die on the cross for us. Do you know your own value?

Along for the ride

Have you ever felt the momentum shift? One moment you are slogging through mud and the next its like falling into a fast flowing river and you just get swept away. If you are smart you'll tuck yourself into a tight log like position and just go with the ride. Momentum like that can take you miles.

That's pretty much what happened to the early church. After the devastation of the cross, Jesus affirms Peter, the disciples experience Pentecost and the flood gates for the spread of the gospel open up and thousands of people are added to the church on a rapid basis.

Have you felt lately like you are just dragging yourself through life? If so, maybe it is time to get close to the heart of God, open your heart to worship and let God touch you with a fresh move of the Holy Spirit. When the rivers of living water are flowing in our lives we can go along for the ride and experience revival and growth in our lives and relationship with God.

Stepping it up

Have you ever worked with someone who positively challenges you to step up your performance and deliver your best work? I know I have and the one thing I can say for sure is that the reason I felt confident enough to step it up and deliver is because they showed belief in me.

It is truly amazing to work in that kind of environment because you know that no matter what the challenge is you will always rise above the circumstance because belief shown in you by another person gives you the courage to try anything and take risks.

It was only after Jesus reaffirmed him that Peter had the courage to stand in front of a crowd of thousands of people and preach the gospel of salvation. Jesus belief in Peter even gave Peter the courage to face the same horrific death He had encountered and this being crucified upside down.

If you are working with someone right now and you know that they are not delivering their best, try to affirm them and tell them that you believe in them. You never know how much your words of encouragement might propel them forward to success.

Garden club

I decided to pop in and check out the garden club being run by Lifestyle Nursery in Randburg. You never know what you can learn from being exposed to some new ideas. What always amuses me is that the minute you put the word 'club' onto any title, you end up with a room full of women, Lol!

I decided not to let that bother me and I'll be back for more next month. The cool part was that I entered their lucky draw for the day and won a bag of fertilizer. I was so chuffed. In addition when you join you get a card giving you 10% discount on all future purchases, now that makes me happy! Next month I'm hoping to get myself a miniature Bottle Brush bush. I just love those red little pomp-poms.

After picking up some flowers and lawn dressing it was time to head back home and I spent the afternoon planting, treating and fertilizing plants. I also managed to clear the beds where the Clivia's are from weeds and unnecessary stones. I'll clear the other side of the pathways beds soon and then I will be able to see clearly what additional work needs to be done.

The one thing I realized I enjoy most about gardening is that it brings me fully into the present realm. My thoughts seldom wonder to the issues of life that may be bothering me. God desires that we walk with him fully in every day, being present and fully conscious of the realities we are dealing with.

If thoughts of the future have got you down, find something you can use to bring your thoughts back to God and back to now!

Pure coffee bliss

Earlier this year I wrote about my desire to get a new coffee machine to celebrate my 40^th birthday. Well it has been pure coffee bliss since I got my Delonghi Icona. Its the right size machine for my kitchen and perfectly compliments the look and feel of my little space.

I've been thinking today about people and their aspirations. There are people who have huge goals in life but they have no clue as to how to make those dreams come true. One thing I have learned in life is that in order to achieve a dream the goal must be clear and the vision strong or it just will not happen.

In order to get my dream coffee machine I had to have a goal and a plan of how to get it. God's word tells us to do this too. Habakkuk 2:2 reads, “and the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it.”

When we visualize our dreams and then make them known in writing, God is able to use our faith to guide us in the right direction to achieve our goal. The words 'he may run that reads it' means that if our vision is clear, when people who know how to make it happen will join the vision and help you to achieve your goal.

What's your vision? Have you written it down?

Distractions distractions

With the Survivor finale on Monday and Strictly come dancing on SABC3 tonight, it has been really hard to focus on writing, but its all in good fun. Honestly though life is full of distractions and they affect our faith as well.

Deadlines at work keep you working a bit later than usual, family extra curricular activities, sports, social engagements, it just doesn't end. Shjoe before you know it, one week, two weeks and then who knows how long, but we haven't spent any time in God's presence.

Is it possible to pull your focus back to God in these hectic times? Absolutely! However it probably takes the one thing we least want in any relationship and that is discipline. It might take putting note on the fridge door or a memo on your mobile, but remind ourselves we must.

In ancient time a small scroll would be rolled and the tied to the forehead as a reminder to keep God's law in front of your eyes. We don't need to get legalistic about it but we should find ways go continually draw our focus back to God and His will for our lives.

Deaf and Blind but not a quitter

Helen Keller became deaf and blind before her second birthday.  Despite this debilitating disability, she learned to read and write, and became the first deaf/blind person to gain a bachelor degree.  She campaigned on issues of social welfare, women's suffrage, disability rights and impressed many with her force of personality.

Helen once wrote: "Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, that it may prevail."

Helen could have easily chosen to use her disability as an excuse to achieve nothing and live on sympathy, but instead she chose to user her disability as a driving force to help others.  She not only motivated herself to rise above this difficulty but in turn became an inspiration to many.

As Christians we can rise above difficulty too.  We can stand strong and repeat the Apostle Paul's words in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  Whatever challenge you may be facing right now, take heart!  There is nothing that the Holy Spirit cannot help us through or give us strength for. If this message is for your today my thoughts and prayers are with you!

From slave house to White House

Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in 1856 in the State of Virginia. After the emancipation of the African American people Booker worked to pay for his studies at Hampton University and Virginia Union University. Washington argued that the surest way for blacks to gain equal social rights was to demonstrate "industry, thrift, intelligence and property."

He played an integral part in influencing political decisions to ensure the freedom and rights of disfranchised black people in America and was often asked for advise by presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.

His life echoed that of a very influential biblical figure namely Joseph, Prince of Egypt. In the same manner that Joseph went from Slavery to political influence through strong ethics, Booker did the same. I do not think this pattern is accidental.

In life many of us seek influence and leadership yet are unwilling to pay the price for such acclaim. It is no mistake that hard work played a significant role in both these men's lives. Likewise today the call we have as Christian's is the same. Work hard, trust God, maintain your ethics and God will do the rest and ensure that we have a legacy of excellence to leave behind.

This years mission

This years gardening mission is not so much about building something new as it is about perfecting what has been started. As the season had drawn close to an end in autumn there was a lot of effort spent on just getting plants into the ground so that they would be more self sustainable during the winter.

Well nature did take care of its part but the weeds moved in as well. I'll therefore have to do some cleaning out before new planting can commence. The work in my garden much resembles the work that God does in us as we grow in Him.

Philippians 1:6 tells us that “He who began a good work in you will complete it to the day of Christ.”

This means that Jesus began working in our lives from the day we first received Him as Lord and Saviour. In our early days as Christians there is much work done and a foundation is laid as we begin to become familiar with God's word.

Then we begin to build on that platform and finally we can begin perfecting what has already been built in our lives. Perfection will only come on the day we meet Jesus but until then our lives are spent in the building and perfecting cycle. The one thing we can most certainly count on is that Jesus always finishes what He starts and in that we can rejoice.

Sibling fun

5^th of September is my sister Jacquie's birthday. We are four years apart in age but I remember she always used to remind me that it was actually 3 years, 11 months and 2 days. Being the baby of the family myself, I've never known what it must be like to have a little sister or brother, but I can only imagine the fun it must have been, although my gran has said that apparently little miss Jacquie did ask if mommy and daddy could return me too the hospital, Lol!

Growing up I remember summer holiday's in garden and pool, trips around the Lowveld with family and friends and many wonderful times of fun. Mom pretty much used to let us get away with anything as long as it was innocent childhood play, but we both knew when that line was crossed.

Having a big sister in matric when I was in grade 8 proved to be very useful at our annual grade 8 / matric dance and finding one of my sisters friends to pair up with was real easy. I think Jac's even made me my very first mid-less top, Lol!

Family is a precious gift and one we would do well to appreciate. We have another family though too, our family in God. As God's family we can play the role of big sister or big brother to many young people in the world and be a secondary support to their natural family. Will you ask God to show you someone whom you can be family too and reach out to them today!

Death of a star

Financial month end in any company is difficult. It is compounded for me now with entering into what will hopefully be my last month in my current department. There is always so much information to try and impart and it isn't easy to get the balance right. A transition is never easy as it feels like somewhat of a death on side and a birth on another.

This pattern isn't new. The heavens declare it at every turn, for it is within the death zone of one star that new stars are born. The very gases needed to create the new star are only found within that space where the death is occurring.

As human beings we encounter this process as well. When we are born again or spirit man is taken from death to life, but it is only in the death of our physical body that our spirit is free to transition to eternal life.

If you are going through an experience right now which seems to be a moment of emotional death, do not fear and take heart. It is within this death that your soul will find the new strength it needs to rise above these circumstances.

Lesson from a lioness

My trip to Felidae cat centre left a large impression on me. Viewing such magnificent creatures and their behaviours is really an eye opening experience. While observing the lions feed I noticed an important behaviour.

The alpha female ate first by herself while her cubs lay a few feet away. Later she brought along a piece of meat for them to feed on and then they ate together. I suppose that what I learned from this is that in life we have to take care of ourselves first before we can take care of others.

Similarly we cannot love others until we have first loved ourselves which might sound like the converse of Jesus commandment that we should love others as we love ourselves. Think of it this way though, can you truly show love and compassion to another human being if you look at yourself in the mirror and despise what you see?

In this commandment Jesus challenges us to not be proud and arrogant but it also challenges us to look at our own self image. God has made us all perfect. The fact that some may be blind, others deaf and still others crippled means nothing, that is merely a casing that we are housed in. Our spirit is created with beauty and with an eternal flame of life.

Many of us would have seen the picture of a kitten in front of a mirror with the lion staring back at him. What is your self image saying about you? Can you dare to love yourself today the way God loves you? After all God gave his precious Son for us, how can we not love ourselves the same way too?

Pinched nerve

Somehow I have managed to get a nerve in my shoulder and neck muscles pinched and it hurts like crazy. My neck is so stiff right now it feels like I have whip lash and the limited movement in my neck is making hard to drive. I'm not quite sure I know what the right course of action is but I know I will have to get it figured out soon.

Painful memories from our past can be like that too. When those memories come to the fore they can be so painful that it makes it hard for us to focus on the positive things of life and they may even limit our emotional movement.

In the same way that muscles will need work from either a masseur or a physiotherapist so our our soul needs work too. That is when the work of the Holy Spirit can become an amazing healing force.

The Holy Spirit is our divine therapist. If you are struggling with emotional pain right now, ask the Holy Spirit to help you work through those areas of pain. If you allow Him access to your heart you will find that His healing hands will bring the closure you desire enabling you to move forward with life pain free.