Zombie walking

No matter how positive and strong we may be feeling there are just days that life just takes it out of us and you finish the day feeling like the walking dead!  Your energy is gone and you are in serious need of a recharge. 

As Christians we are a walking dead of another kind.  Colossians 3:3 "For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God".  What does this mean?

It means that at the moment of our salvation our spirit man died and we were crucified with Christ but now we are reborn and our identity is Christ's identity.  We are swallowed into His being.  Now when God sees us He does not see our sin, He sees Jesus! 

So every time you are tired and feeling like a zombie, smile and remember you are already dead :-)

Let's play

I'm always amazed and amused by the playfulness of animals and this trait is seen throughout the animal kingdom.  Closest to home will be my two little fur balls that remind me on a regular basis to laugh and have fun.  I love it when a game starts and their eyes go wide open or when we go for a walk round the complex and they charge past me tails in the air. 

For millions of years before mankind walked the planet God only had these beautiful animals to keep Him company and that tells me a lot about the heart and nature of God.  He wanted to have companions who could live free, play and have fun, pounce, charge and generally make Him laugh. 

That makes me wonder if mankind makes God sad?  Does He regret that He created us to have freedom of choice that would lead to us taking on the sin nature of Satan, with characteristics that could bring about hate, envy, strife, malice and murder?  Does He regret giving us inventive minds that could create automobiles that kill people and the ability to create weapons of mass destruction?  To be honest, yes I think we do make Him sad. 

We moan and complain when all God wanted was companionship and to be able to walk together in the cool of the day and enjoy mutually satisfying conversation.  How about we start to try and stop doing the things that make God sad and become the fun and playful beings He created us to be?  How about we do something to make God laugh out loud??? 

Sushi

On Saturday it was time to start pulling out the lavender.  It was a task I wasn't looking forward too as they have served me well, but I do need them out to reshape the beds and redo the landscaping.  Oh boy, who knew chopping out lavender could be such a hard job.  I had planned to get the heads chopped off so that I could then dig out the roots.  Being such a tough job though I didn't finish which left me feeling unsatisfied with the progress, there was no sense of accomplishment.  Who knows I might need to get help with this one. 

Worse than this though was the failure of our beloved Springbok team to beat the Japanese rugby squad, which by all intents and purposes should have been a walk in the park.  Academically speaking, we were better than them but what we had failed to take into account and should have was the good coaching that they had received was well as the well known Japanese toughness and grit. Well needless to say the sushi jokes have been flying ever since.... :-P   I know its still early days and things could change but for us it was as if a national day of mourning had been declared and the grey sky's did not help the mood. 

A sense of accomplishment is what keeps us going in life, but what we often forget is the hard journey along the way to reaching a specific point.  My beautiful side garden did not happen over night it has taken years of trial and error with plants and constant change (and it is still changing).  My front garden has been through many evolutions as well but then I figured out that I didn't like what I had done before and wanted something new, so now it will certainly take time to finish again.  The work however will be worth the effort, of that I am sure. 

Accomplishment is not a single event, but many moments of slog and toil that arrive at a positive destination.  In our relationship with God we cannot expect to reach our spiritual growth goals in one moment.  No, they will take consistent effort at developing our personal relationship with God - day by day. 

And that is why no matter how old we are, or how long we've been serving Christ, every day will be a day in which we can only say that we are ......

Growing with God! 

Scorcher

I woke up to no electricity (thanks Eskom) and for some reason it was a little colder than it has been for a while.  I figured, no problem, I'm sorted with gas, I'll bring the little heater up and I'm sorted (done it before).  Then I started to get a little too warm so I turned it down a fraction, but as I'd probably had it at the lowest level it could go already it just did not want to hold the flame so I wanted to turn it off completely.  Somehow I wasn't watching my mark precisely and instead of pressing on the lever with my thumb I hit the grid. 

Oooooouuuuuuuuuucccccccchhhhh!

Well to be honest this month has been one long scorcher for me and I can feel myself cracking!  I knew I'd have six weeks of hell after my leave.  Its been four with two more to go but I just can't take it any more!  Life just does not feel peachy right now!  

Is there a sunny upside to this...Nope!  And there are times that no matter how hard I want to be spiritual and remember to be considerate and kind to others, it just doesn't happen because I don't feel others are being kind to me. 

Ok so enough moaning, what am I going to do about this?  Well believe it or not I really did pray and ask God to help me to stay cool, calm and collected and I really did try, more than that I just cannot do.  There is only one solice -

Hebrew 4:14-16
"Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."

God knows me, He understands me, He forgives my weaknesses and He gives me His grace! 

What more I can I ask for?

Just another day at the office

Normally I complain when my day is  a little dull, but today I was feeling a little 'tender' and to be quite honest I was grateful for just another ordinary day at the office.  The relative calm helped me to gain composure and have a productive day. 

I often wonder though, what was going through each of the disciples minds the day that Jesus approached them and asked them to follow him?  It must have been just another day at the office for them, going about their normal business and this man approaches them out of the blue and makes this simple offer. 

Truth be told, we don't know if there was anything more to the conversation because the bible simply doesn't tell us!  What was it about this man that made them drop everything they were doing and follow His commands?  He must have made one heck of an impression on them somehow.  OR, was it perhaps because somehow God allowed them to get a small, spine tingling glimpse into a vision of something they just could not understand yet.....His Glory!!??  

Don't push my buttons

I should have known better....................................!!!!

I was driving to work this morning thinking about last week and a couple of things that had left me feeling angry.  I decided that I don't want to be ruled by anger so I needed to choose to take charge of my emotions and think through things.  To be honest over the past few years I've learned that being 'controlled' angry is far more lethal than being 'wild' angry.

Ok, ok, by now I can see your frown....so you think Christians aren't supposed to be angry at all??  Is that what the bible says?  No, it isn't.

Ephesians 4:26 (KJV) "Be ye angry, and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath" 

Here's the thing, when we get wild with anger we will not be in control of our thought processes and as a result we will say things that will hurt others.  When we focus our anger it is like firing up a high pressure hose pipe, you let it loose and it blasts the dirt away. 

So how do we calm down and gain focus and get control back of our anger so that we can use it wisely?  Well one of my colleagues was kind enough to listen to my gripes and even had a good chuckle at my face turning different shades of red as I recounted the number of things that had gone wrong and were pushing my buttons, all in one morning. She was even able to give me one or two points from a different perspective and that helped me get back on track and finish the day successfully. 

So take a deep breath and relax and allow God to guide you on your path to being a more 'focused' angry person....tee hee! 

The ceremony begins

This weekend was a rather productive one on all fronts, but especially because I managed to finish tidying up the side garden.  I am still waiting for Lifestyle nursery to bring in their new berry bushes so once they arrive I'll have the berry garden completed for the season.  The side garden however has been trimmed and cleaned, compost laid and new seeds sewn and is now ready for growth.  That prompted me to begin my favourite candle ceremony. 

In the warmer months and as often as I am home at sunset I like to make a cup of coffee and park myself on my back stairs.  From there I can see almost all of my garden.  The berry garden is behind me, I can see the whole side garden and most of the front garden is in view.  Often I'll have a bible or book with me or sometimes not.  It is a personal sacred time of reflection and meditation.

From here I can reflect on my garden and the progress I've made but it also gives me time to reflect on the week that has past, maybe some of the mistakes I've made and areas of my life I need to pray about.  I also take time to reflect on what is good in my life and what I love about it and in general it just brings me closer to God. 

Do you have a sacred time or space in your life for reflection?  If not, I'd like to encourage you to do so.  It is one of the key and most important building blocks to growing in our relationship with God.