Bye bye locks

On my pamper day I decided it would be a good idea to do a big change and go from long to short hair, so it was bye bye locks. I've always enjoyed the feeling of seeing the hair disappear and a new look appear, it gives one a real boost of energy. Good thing is my hair grows fast, so it won't belong before the locks grow back.

I wish all changes in life were that simple. A chop here a snip there and walla! We are good as new! No, sorry it doesn't work like that. The most important changes in life come from systematic work and most importantly, a belief that we can change.

God knows this is possible and it one of the most fundamental parts of our spiritual journey, the journey of renewing the mind and growing in our knowledge of what Christ's salvation has done for us.

A few of my favourite things

To celebrate the end of lent and to rejoice in the new life that we have in Christ, I decided to spend the weekend doing a few of my favourite things.  What were they?  Art, gardening and a bit of time at a spa. 

Do I think Jesus would approve?  Most certainly!  Why?  Because if I'm not taking care of myself and my own spiritual well being, I can't take care of anyone else.....and that is what I desire most in life....to be strong for others so that when they are hurting, I can be there to hold them up! 

Growing in God means that as we grow and become stronger in God we need to turn back, hold out our hand and pick others up to where we are. 

So tired

This year has probably been the first time that I have spent so much effort focusing on lent and what this season means and for some reason tonight I feel really tired, but it is not a physical feeling but emotional one. 

I can never even begin to even imagine what Jesus felt that final hour he hung on the cross, but I know that He must have felt extreme exhaustion. As His life blood drained out of His body He would have known first hand how it felt to die as a human.  His Glory departed with those last gasps of air and Immanuel "God with us" was no more.......That is at least how it seemed to the human eyes watching Him. 

But we know better, we know how the story ends.....The resurrection, the power and the Glory of God manifest in magnificence in the resurrected Christ!  I want to encourage you this Easter weekend to focus and meditate on Christs final hours, His death and resurrection.  For in this amazing story lies the power of the faith we proclaim as Christians, our very existence and purpose of being. 

I wish you all a blessed and peaceful Easter weekend and for now I will drop offline for the next few days, for some final time of deep reflection.  You are in my heart, my thoughts and my prayers!

Shape of things to come

Oh I just love Autumn gardening.  The weather is just right, not too hot or too cold and I can push myself to get stuff done!  Love it!  It has taken me far longer than planned but I finally managed to finish reshaping the beds in the front garden, so now I can get stuck in with some new planting. 

Trying to plan what goes where is tricky and I have decided to make sure I plant shrubs and bigger plants that don't require finicky attention.  For ground cover it will all be herbs like parsley, or some more rocket or something like that. 

Planning for the future gives us direction and focus and can often help get us through difficult times in life when things seem hard.  I know that is what Jesus was doing throughout His trial, persecution and execution....focusing on the future, a future where we would be permanently united with God. 

Grazed

I'm sure you are as grateful as I am for another public holiday season with today being Human Rights day. I decided to spend the morning in bed with the kitties doing the computer work I normally do on Sunday nights.

This year I volunteered to play a very small part in setting up the 'Stations of the cross' display that normally takes place every Easter at our church. As I was wrapping the draping around the one metal cross on display I accidentally grazed my forehead on the one metal spike...ouch!

This got me thinking about the crown of thorns placed on Jesus head during His persecution. They were thick and poisonous thorns and I'm sure as the poison ran into the veins in His forehead, it must have swelled.

At that point in History there were no “Human Rights” and there were no global treaties protecting humanity and so torturers could do as they pleased and go unpunished. Today thankfully those treaties do exist, although they are often violated.

Jesus died to take the punishment for our sins and restore to us our humanity, so let us be thankful for His gift and continue to meditate on the work that the Cross of Christ has accomplished.

Extra extra - Read all about it!

You just can't get away from it, can you?  Everywhere you go you get bombarded with the "News".  From radio's, television, social media, word of mouth, you name it the news is everywhere.  And what does that make us do?  It gets out tongues wagging even more.

Well I can only imagine what it must have been like in Jerusalem when the news broke that this man, Jesus, to whom so many miracles had been attributed too, was going to go on trial, that must have caused a uproar! 

News has that way of gripping our attention, even when we don't want it too, but the good news is that there is one news story that you don't need to run away from.  No, instead, you would do well to run right at it, to chase it wherever it goes and that is the News that we are the redeemed children of God and that all who call upon the name of Jesus can and will be saved! 

Why flames dance

Have you ever wondered why flames dance?  Well I do.  I've tried googling all and many more and honestly can't find a solid answer, but some theories suggest that flames dance when there is insufficient oxygen for the flame to burn. 

Well our faith likewise cannot burn without the oxygen that the Holy Spirit fills our lungs with as we worship God.  And what do we have to do if we really want to fan those flames?  We need to fuel the fire with a passion for serving God with all our hearts.

When we have a fire and passion for God it will show one way or another.  Even in our darkest moments there will be something about us that others can't deny, something that sets us apart and that is when we will know that the passion and fire of God is burning strong within us. 

Hammering the nails

This weekend I completed my Easter art project and yes you probably guessed it was a cross.  This one is special to me though as while I have been working on it I have meditated on an area of my life I'd like to change. 

The final part was hammering in the nails with the fabric I draped across the bar.  My nails were small and thin yet with every blow of the hammer, I could feel the vibration through my hand, arm and whole body.  My thoughts turned to the Roman soldiers hammering human lives to a cross.  How hard must their hearts have been to strike those blows, hear the agonizing screams.....and take pleasure in it, to the point of playing games and rolling dice for their victims clothes. 

Yes these men were criminals and probably deserved to die, but not like this, but this is how the Romans chose to deter other criminals.  Living in South Africa though I wonder how much our hearts have become hardened to crime, we see it every single day on every news bulletin. 

This Easter I want to encourage you to ask God to show you areas in your life where you may have hardened your heart where you shouldn't have.  Ask God to heal you and place in you a spirit of compassion.

The other thief

Much is said about the thief who accepted Jesus offer of salvation, but not so much about the other guy.  I wonder why Jesus didn't try harder to convince this thief that life with Him would be worth more than any item he could have been accused of stealing.

Well I guess that has something to do with the fact that Jesus knew about the most important choice that God had given to Adam and Eve way back at the beginning of mankind's era on this earth.  He knew that God gave us a choice to choose to follow Him or not. 

The wonderful thing about celebrating the cross of Christ and His sacrifice for us every year is that we get an opportunity to make that choice afresh each year. 

What lies beneath

We often look at a person and their behaviour and we make judgements based on our own experience without seeing what is going on beneath the surface of their lives. 

Jesus could have made the same mistake hanging on the cross between two thieves but despite His own physical pain, His heart was still tuned into the compassion that His father had placed within Him.  That is why it was so easy for Him to say to the one thief "today you will be with me in paradise."

Jesus saw through the hardened exterior of the criminal and saw the deep pain he was in and chose to forgive a man who had no hope of ever living a better life. 

Can we do the same?

Which way God?

We all know how a compass works.  It is a magnetized needle that spins in the direction of North and allows us to orientate ourselves in our surroundings and find our way wherever we want to go. 

There are things however that can disrupt our earths magnetic fields such as solar winds.  At times like these finding your way could be difficult, if not impossible.  In the same way in our faith there are times when we feel like we have lost direction and we cannot find our way to God. 

At times like these we need a stabilizing force that can ground us and make us feel secure.  This force is the peace of God, for where the peace of God is active, nothing can distract us from the way we need to go.  The peace of God transcends understanding and gives us comfort in difficult times.

If you are struggling to find direction in life at the moment, stop and ask God to send the Holy Spirit to minister to you through His peace. 

Made for death

It was the most cruel sight of all, a human being condemned to death by crucifixion was the harshest punishment that could be bestowed on man.  The Jews viewed all who hung on the cross as cursed by God and so it was that Jesus took on our punishment and shame. 

If you like me are tempted to turn your face away while reading this, then don't for I am not here today to celebrate the method of Christs death but the fact that HE rose from the dead, in victory and power to live on to be witnessed by hundreds of people before He left our planet through a glorious ascension. 

The power of the Cross lies not in its agony but in its defeat, the fact that Jesus could rise again in victory is proof to us that no matter what the devil has thrown at us, we too can rise from the dead of defeat and be glorious and strong!  We can choose to walk in the power of a new reality.....life in Christ!

The journey continues

Each year since I have started to observe lent in my life I have truly seen God minister to me in a special way and this year is no different.  I am doing a special art project as well to keep my mind focused.  I'm sure you have heard people say that in order to grow in our relationship with God we have to learn to die to self.  For a long time I believed that, but now my own journey is taking me to a new place with a different reality.  I now believe that we do not need to die to self, but rather to live to the fullest for God by becoming all that we can be and a person fully conscious of self and aware of our strengths and weaknesses but knowing that God can work with every part of our being.  (Wow, that's a mouth full!)

Our life experience has made us who we are and we cannot simply walk away from that or die to it.  We can learn to forgive the past and walk away from it and learn to build our lives on the solid rock of God's word and the work that His Holy Spirit can do in and through us.

Jesus did all the dying for us that needs to be done, we need to live for Him and do it fully!  To live is Christ, to die (physically) is gain.