Imagine!

In the movie "Sahara" the character Dirk while trying to convince his boss to lend him his speed boat to go hunting for an Iron Clad warship in the middle of the desert, says to him "Imagine" i.e. Imagine if we find it! And........... they found it!

Okay, I know it's just a movie.... but.... Think of this... Nothing on earth that has been created by man, has been created without it first being imagined!

I marvel at modern technology. I am tying an email that will be sent via a cell phone to a web page in cyber space. Phew, what a mouthful. None of this would be possible if a man named Alexander Graham Bell, had not first invented an object named a telephone.

And he first had to imagine this device before he could create it. I could go on for hours with listing fascinating inventions, but my point is that somebody somewhere dreamt up an object and made it happen.

What ideas are you sitting on that could transform our world and make a difference to peoples lives?

Common ....... Imagine!

Fresh leaves anyone?

Adam to Eve , "I didn't know that silk worms ate Fig leaves." So Adam needs a new Fig leaf? But don't we all at some stage need a fresh start?

God in his infinate wisdom knew this and set in motion the laws of the Universe that give us the opportunity to see this miracle of "New things."

Every day we wake up to a new day. Our calendars guide us through new weeks, new months and then new years. Each of these bring with them the opportunity to experience the grace of God with "starting over". Some lament the passing years as they grow older, but I am learning that with age comes wisdom, courage and inner strength.

Lamentations 3: 22-23 tell us that the mercies of God are new every morning. When we have sinned / failed / or even been hurt, the opportunities to experience God's forgiveness, grace and compassion are given to us fresh every day. Wow, God is amazing!

Cold Turkey!

The Christmas Turkey is barely cold when out come the "Back to school" promotions and every child in the country goes Aaaarrrrgh!

The event we've been so looking forward to gets eaten up in a bevy of heavy meals. We try desperately to hang onto "holiday fever" by partying up a storm at New Year and then what?

Back to reality, life goes on and another year has started. Then before you bat your eyes out January flies by and we lament that life is just flying by all to quickly.

This was the theme of a great movie called "Click". We end up spending our lives wishing away time till the next big event.

Well then, I suppose my New Years resolution is going to be to be present every day. To learn from the bad times and enjoy life's beautiful moments as they come.

Will you join me?

He's amazing..... daily

Yesterday I woke up with an excitement, expecting something good to happen. The whole day I waited with eager anticipation, for what I thought would be some amazing event.

Strangely, nothing out of the ordinary occured and I felt quite dissapointed as I made the drive home.

Then I realised that I had woken up to a beautiful day. Due to the school holidays the roads were clear and I could get to work comfortably. I have a job, and although it's not the dream job of a lifetime, it is providing for my needs and I have money to buy food. I can go home to two beautiful cats that adore me and sleep in a safe, warm bed.

Not sure about you, but I reckon that is something to not only be grateful for but to be celebrated as God's true goodness. I truly do hope that one day God would do a miracle through me and enable me to be a blessing to others as I know we live in a world with desperate needs.

Let's not take God's daily grace for granted. Let's celebrate each day!

Is your PC bugged?

Computer software is vital to the smooth operations of an organisation. Large companies can spend millions on software licencing, implimentation and more importantly protection.

Virus protection is vital, yet even with it, hackers can still get through these measures and cause millions in damage. There are many types of viruses but essentially they corrupt and destroy data.

That's what the Devil does. He hacks into our minds and corrupts and destoys neuro data and corrupts the way we think which ultimately leads to negative or bad behaviour.

Let's take annorexia as an example. A perfectly healthy person, can be driven to starvation through an incorrect belief that they are fat. These thoughts have been fed to them as thought bombs which corrupt the way the person sees themselves and causes them to believe the lie and act out by starving themselves.

Dealing with our corrupted data files takes hard work. The same way computer files need to be rebuilt our minds need to be renewed. Romans 12 tells us that we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. How do we achieve this?

We need to constantly feed our minds with the word of God, so that his word can rebuild our damaged neuro path ways and thereby rebuild our thought processes to be aligned to his word. Along with this comes the work of the Holy Spirit as he heals our emotions. The word and the Spirit working together lead to a restored and whole life.

Winding through the storm

I've been told by my mother that my Great Grandmother, "Ouma Louw", loved to fly. I think I've inherited that joy. I've flown the flight too and from Kimberly many times now and it's usually quite routine. Ascend to cruising altitude, switch to auto pilot and cruise all the way there. Very often we'll encounter clouds along the way and the ride will get a little bumpy.

This time it was altogether different. The flight to Kimberly was unique. It seemed to be all routine, until the captain announced that there were some storm clouds ahead and he was going to have to try and fly around them. And boy, did he do that. With great care he lowered altitude and swayed left and right as he dived past the storm clouds.

I wish I could have been in that cockpit. I would have loved to see the whole process in action, and I had a thousand questions. Like, "Why dive below the clouds when you could soar above them?"

My stepfather was of great use when he explained that the Doplar radar systems on board the flight contols helped the pilots to plot out the route with the least turbulance and air resistance.

I think the work of the Holy Spirit is much like that. He sees things that to us with naked vision are impossible to see. When he guides us at times it seems as if he is going the wrong way, as he navigates us below the storm where we are sure to encounter rain and wind. You see Jesus never promised us that we will not go through storms, but that he would be with us and get us to the other side.

We truly need to obey the directions of the Holy Spirit and trust that he is guiding us through the storm safely!

A swallow miracle!

I've just witnessed a modern miracle of nature. An old De Beers diamond mine that is currently being re-mined, has some time in the last 20 years become a natural bird sactuary.

Official mechanical mining of the diamond pipe ended in 1990. Some how since then a marsh has formed and thus the bird sanctuary developed. More importantly it has become the Southern Hemisphere home to millions of European swallows. Millions you say? I mean ...... MILLIONS!

Never before have I experienced something like the sight of thousands of swallows swarming in over your head at the same time. The entire spectacle lasted about an hour and then just as fast as it started, swooosh they dove into the reeds and were gone!

So what can I add to this? NOTHING! There just is no way I can top being witness to the amazing power of nature to heal itself! Our God created an amazing planet that is capable of healing itself if given the chance. Our God is Great!