Just loving it!

Oh it really is becoming more and more fun!  As you mix the colours together and make careful strokes on the page, you see an image appear.  Different brushes provide different results and the picture is carefully laid onto the paper with each new stroke. 

Then there comes that moment when the image is done, you can step back and say, I've finished!  It is new, it is unique and it is special! 

That is the way God views us, unique, beautiful and spectacular one of a kind original masterpieces and He placed every one of us on this planet for a unique purpose. 

If you ever feel as though your life is pointless and that you have nothing to offer the world, stop that thought immediately!  God loves every bit of you because He made you Himself! 

Little things

There are times when being in physical pain just leaves you feeling brain dead.  At those times it is hard to think of anything good or positive in your life.  But it is precisely at these times when you need remember the small things that you take for granted. 

A home, a bed, a meal, a knife and fork, small everyday things that may mean very little to some, but for others would be a miracle from God. 

Whenever things are going quite your way, remember to step back for a moment and thank God for the small but wonderful blessings He has blessed you with. 

Tuck me in

I think I can guess my cats favourite time of day......bedtime!  I'm guessing this is because the bedtime routine includes lots of tickles and love!  I can often tell when they are tired, because like small kids do, they have a particular meow to let me know it is sleepy time.  There is usually much twirling and swirling and sticking bums in the air for tickles while they settle down.  The funny part is that it often takes a number of attempts before they eventually settle down. 

I know how this feels though as I still well remember what it felt like when mommy used to tuck is in to bed when we were kids and by far the most favourite evenings were the ones when mom would read us a short story as we relaxed and got ready to sleep.  There is nothing in the world that is better than a mother's comfort. 

Our comforter, The Holy Spirit, fulfills this role in our faith.  One of the names of God refers to the feminine side of the Godhead and when we are tired and weary the Holy Spirit comforts us like a mother does by reminding us of God's word (like reading a bedtime story) and wraps us in the warmth of His/Her love (like blankets in our bed).  This warmth we feel is the annointed presence of God.

I pray today that the Holy Spirit will wrap you in His arms and make His presence known to you!

Have a little patience

It happened a couple of months ago when I noticed my microwave oven just wasn't cooking like it should.  Upon investigation I was told that the magnetron (the thingie that makes the microwave cook) was busted and to get it fixed was going to cost more than the whole oven cost when I bought it.

Well it wasn't a difficult decision to dump it.  What was a more difficult decision was to resist the urge to rush out and buy one straight away.  I decided I should push myself a bit and wait until I had enough money at month end (right before payday) to get it.  You see changing spending habits is a matter of will. 

Well I'm pleased to say, that at the end of a very long month, as the December to January pay day usually is due to early December pay, I finally got it today.  What a joy to be able to get it at the end of such a long month.  Usually by now I would have been penniless...tee hee!

Getting a new microwave wasn't such a big deal, what was a big deal was learning again to have the patience to wait for the things we want in life rather than to rush into things.  When we act in patience the joy is far more rewarding when we eventually get what we've been wanting.

Learn to wait on God and wait for His timing!  It really is worth is!

Hell's stairs

Yesterday was a day of pure Hell, just all sorts of things not going my way.  The cherry on top though being that I was rushing down our stairs at work to get to the car park to switch off my car lights that I had accidentally left on.....when...... my shoes gave way underneath me and I fell down the stairs and landed painfully on my left buttocks.  I've never in my life seen such a huge bruise!!!

After the adrenaline wore off I could finally feel ALL the aches and pains and boy are there many!  There are a couple of complications I need to sort out before I can get proper medical care, so that is driving me crazy. 

I decided though that I am not going to let this really bad experience ruin the good things I have experienced this week.  The months of preparations and hard work that I put into our body corporate work paid off with a really smooth AGM meeting on Monday and some bitter pills went down with almost no opposition, which was a first. 

Then we've had some awesome rain here in Gauteng and I hope that the water/rain will eventually be able to get to the other provinces that are still gripped by drought.

So in the midst of much pain, I am still going to declare that God is good!

AGM

Tomorrow night is our next (tongue in cheek) dreaded body corporate AGM.  Well you would think that with the number of AGM's I've chaired so far that it would simply be a matter of procedure, but no, each one makes me nervous.  The reason, because at the end of the day I need to get a full meeting of owners to obtain majority agreement on the major points needed to move forward for the next year. 

Shjoe, pick two people on any given day in an argument and you end up with major altercations, trying to get everyone on the same page and singing the same song is a (another tongue in cheek) Herculean task.  Excuse the pun, my complex is called Hercules, bwahaha!

The power of walking in agreement is clearly demonstrated in Matthew 18:19, which reads: "Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven."  The devil knows this all too well and that is why he is 'hell bent' on causing strife and division within the body of Christ.  Tee hee, my sense of humour working overtime tonight,"body corporate" vs "body of Christ", sometimes not such a big difference as to how they behave...but getting back to my point....when we walk in agreement with our fellow believers it unlocks the power of God to perform miracles!!

Did that breeze past you too quickly?  Let me say it again.....agreement unlocks the power of God to be manifest in our lives and at these times great miracles can occur. 

Have you been praying for a miracle?  Hint, have you been praying alone?  Then it is time to get a prayer partner and walk side by side and bring your requests to God together in faith!.......Then watch what happens next!!!!!  

:-)


 

Grounded

Oops, I disappeared again...!  Sorry, sometimes life happens a bit faster than you can plan.  I needed to do a quick trip for a few days to Durban to attend to some family business and catch up with my sister and her family. 

Saturday before last, my mom caught the bus from Kimberly to Joburg and then we flew down to Durban together on Saturday evening.  As we boarded the plane it began to rain, first softly, then much harder.  It wasn't long until there was thunder and lightning all around us.  In their wisdom the aviation authorities grounded all the planes and we had about an hour delay. 

Once we did get going it was all systems go and they had to make quick work of things and had planes taking off roughly every two minutes, it really was quite impressive.  What was amazing but scary to watch as the planes ahead of us took off was the huge white spray of water behind the wheels as the plane picked up speed. 

In life sometimes our plans do get grounded.  You may be ready to head off in a different direction when suddenly, screeech, your plans get halted and you don't know why.  Know this, our divine aviation authority, God, is hard at work sorting out the thunder and lightning around you.  I felt that today as I headed back to children's ministry.  I was ready to start preparing myself for an exit from the ministry round mid year, when God said...not so fast!  You may have gained what you thought you needed too already, but I'm not done yet!

Whenever you find yourself with your plans grounded, take heart, God is working for you not against you and He is busy making sure that when things are ready, you can take off safely!

Gotta turn that soil baby!

Boy are we having another record breaking heat wave, other than earlier this year I can't remember when last we had such a long persistent heat wave that just felt like it was going to spit you out!  As I have said before that has made gardening this year really difficult.  I had however blamed the lack of growth of some of my plants to pure heat, but I realized the other day that I was wrong. 

In the early days of developing the back garden, I spent a lot of time planting, moving, digging up plants I didn't want and sowing seeds of all sorts of stuff while trying to figure out what was going to work.  As a result the soil got turned regularly and this gave the plants much needed air to their roots.  It also helped me to see quickly if there was a problem with the soil, i.e. bugs eating at the roots that needed attention or work.  I must admit, I forgot all about that. 

As a result some of my new plants have just died and I have only realized why too late.........A picture starting to come to mind.... Uh huh!  You guessed it, the same thing happens to us in our spiritual lives.  We get stagnant in our efforts to work at our salvation and faith and what happens?  Our spiritual roots get suffocated, the bugs move in and before we know it, we are backsliding in our faith. 

If we want to grow spiritually then we have to turn the soil of our soul and think through and ponder God's word, focus on prayer and talking to God and do activities that regenerate our spiritual soil.  When we do that the healing power of God's Holy Spirit rain can soak into us, strengthen us and bring much needed healing where necessary.

Update needed

I was busy trying to work on a project when my software just did not want to play along.  One of my pet hates is updating computer software, so much so that I leave it until the package falls over.  So that was my job last night.  Oh the uninstall and then long download and reinstall process is annoying.  The only thing that I can be grateful for is that I know how to do it without having to hire someone to do it for me. 

It was just one more obstacle in getting the project working and I didn't need the interruption seeing as I have been struggling to find the time to work on it.  One thing I have learned though is that when obstacles stand in your way of getting something done, chances are you are on the right path and that is an encouraging sign.  

Why encouraging?  Because the devil hates it when we make any plans that can translate in personal success and victory.  So what do you?  Deal with it....know that it is part of the process and once you get through the obstacle you'll be on your way again.  Be prepared though, there could be many obstacles in your way so don't ever give up!  

 

Bump and grind

When you start contemplating change, many emotions come to the fore, predominantly the fear of the unknown.  A song came to mind this morning, a good old little chorus we used to sing way back when, "God's not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind..." i.e. 2 Timothy 1:7

That's what psalms, hymns and spiritual songs are supposed to do....remind us of scripture.  This particular verse is short but packs a punch.  Note it does not say emotion of fear, but spirit of fear, that is because fear is not merely an emotion but a force that can grip us and hold us captive.

We are however not left wondering what to do when fear comes into our lives, no we are told exactly what to do:

1. Focus on love - when the source of our fear revolves around relational issues, we are often left feeling as though we have no idea as to how to address the issue with the other person.  When we focus on love first and remember to love our neighbour as ourselves we will think twice about what we say and how we say it.  I'll confess straight up that this is an area of weakness for me but one I am growing in daily.
2. Focus on the power that you have within you - you are a child of God and therefore have a resurrected spirit.  Also remember that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, therefore you have the ability of Christ resident within your being.
3.  Focus on being sound of mind - talk yourself through the situation you find yourself in.  More often than not we already know the solution to our own problem, we are just running too wild to remember it.  Slow down, take a deep breath and think.

As the rock and roll of the bump and grind, also known as 'job' gets back into swing, remember you are a beautiful, powerful soul and God has given you all the tools you need in life to succeed!

Year of the Butterfly

I have watched and listened with interest as I have heard people talk about their plans for the new year.  I've seen a lot of people refer to this year as "My year."  This does not surprise me at all, as if you have seen anything about biblical numerology you will know that the number 6 refers to the number of man and 16 is symbolic of love (I suppose it's not surprising either as it is a leap year).  Numbers do indeed have meaning in God's kingdom and we would do well to take note of that. 

I don't see anything wrong with us having a year of focus on self, as long as we never loose sight of the fact that God has a divine plan and purpose for our lives and if we want to bear fruit, we need to stay submitted to Him.  

As for me, what are my plans?  Well for the last two years I have chosen to focus on themes for the year rather than specific goals.  The themes have come to represent an end state of soul.  The 'year of the Ronosaurus' and the 'Lion heart year' both came to mean what they were set out to mean.  Therefore this year I am declaring as the 'Year of the Butterfly.'

For the past 7 years my life has been in a cocoon of biblical discipline, judgement from God (in a good way) and restoration.  Now it is time for the caterpillar that has been transformed to emerge as the butterfly that God created it to be and bring Him glory. 

I know only one thing for sure, this year will be a year of change.  Big changes and small changes, but change I must.  A new direction and new heading guided by God's Spirit. 

What have you set out to achieve this year?  I would like to encourage you to say this prayer with me as our year begins: 

Father God, guide my feet, my words and my actions as I prepare to take on the year and help me in every way to find your plan and purpose for me.  Help me to be and become the person you created me to be in every way.  Help me to make this year a year that will bring glory and honour to you.  Amen!

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For your interest, you may want to have a look at these websites on numerology.  Remember that they are intended to enhance our knowledge of God and not create our own interpretation of His word.

http://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/introduction.html


http://asis.com/users/stag/numbtabl.html