How's your soil?

Our complex entrance gardens are a bit of a mess. Long story short we just haven't been getting the best out of our garden service staff. The trustees and myself decided it was time to do a spring day entrance gardening revamp. The brief was to get plants from family and friends.

Tonight I went to a friends house to scout for some plants. I found two plants I was interested in but as the garden hadn't been watered the plants just weren't going to come out. I realized that it takes time and effort to prepare soil for both planting and removing plants.

Our hearts too need to be prepared in order to receive the wonderful blessings heaped in God's word. It our spiritual garden isn't watered our hearts can become hard to God's word. When we spend time in God's word and time in worship, the soil of our hearts is softened to receive from God.

How is the soil in your spiritual garden?

Be the hand

King Belshazzar was faced with a frightening sight. A hand appeared from nowhere and began writing on the wall. The king needed help interpreting the message and in came Daniel.

God's greatest desire is to communicate with us and make us understand the message. Sometimes he may need a....hand (excuse the pun) with getting the message accross.

It is my belief that the sole reason we exist in bodily form is to communicate the love of God with others. The question is, are you willing to be God's hand and deliver the massage to others that he is trying to communicate?

Smile

I was feeling grumpy when I left home this morning and I just couldn't shake the bad mood. Always one to try and juggle two things, I was trying to switch from reading to sun glasses when the case somehow slipped from my fingers and fell on the floor. I put the reading glasses on the dash (I know stupid), when they too went flying.

Eager to rectify the situation I decided to turn off at the next street, stop and fix the problem. As I get to the corner and who do I see, but one of our home cell members who's an estate agent handing out business cards.

I teased his wife about his beard but in honesty, seeing a smiley familiar face in an unexpected place made me laugh and lifted my mood. Round off the evening with dinner with good friends and I reckon the day turned out great.

Are you willing to let God lighten other people's mood through you? If so, wear a smile because nothing replicates faster than happy faces.

Just scream

I can still hear Kate Winslet's character 'Rose' in the Titanic movie saying, “It was everything. It was my whole world and all the people in it, and the inertia of my life. Plunging ahead and me powerless to stop it.”

Have you ever felt powerless and just wanted to scream? I did today. There are times when you feel like you are screaming your lungs out and nobody's listening. There could be no less frustrating feeling than feeling that way about God. Does he hear me? Is he listening? Does he know how I feel?

God does! Though we don't see it or recognize the signs, every word we speak, every cry we make, God hears. Then one day when we least expect it, the answer comes and we are amazed. How did God do all that? Then as we examine closer we see every decision, every turn, every failure, every success that lead us to this point in time, and it all makes sense.

Moments of clarity from the mountain top are rare and precious. They last but a moment, but in that moment we are able to see clearly and know what path to take. With renewed faith in God's control in our lives we can have the courage to once again leave the mountain top and head back to the valley where the hard work lies.

Believe! Your mountain top is coming soon!

One giant leap

20 July 1969 Neil Armstrong steps on the moon. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Those words rung out as a statement of faith that mankind can and will overcome any limitations we may have set on ourselves, be they physical, mental, emotional or spiritual.

As a child of the 70's I remember those words reverberating as a regular refrain. The sense that we could overcome immense challenges became a turning point in world history. Since then we've seen the fall of communism in the once mighty USSR, the wall dividing East and West Germany has fallen and many more challenges that have faced humanity have been overcome.

As much as Neil Armstrong’s words have given faith and echoed through time, so too the words of Christ have echoed through humanity.... “It is finished!” Christ paid the price and overcame death, securing our eternal salvation.

As we remember the life of Neil Armstrong, let us continue to hold the faith that God is able to do great things through humanity if we will only believe.... all things are possible.

From snow shoes to sandals

It has been barely three weeks since a freak snow storm blew through the country and now we find ourselves reaching for sandals. The seasons change so rapidly. I don't put it past winter though to send us one last snap reminder of the season past.

The thing is as quickly as seasons can change on earth, so too the spiritual seasons in our lives can change. The question we need to ask ourselves is, are we ready to change with it? When God moves your mountain and produces your miracle, are you ready to seize the opportunities that the seasons change brings?

Solomon reminds us in Ecclesiastes that to everything there is a season. That however means that we need to do a little planning. The farmer knows he needs to have his seeds ready so that he can plant at the right time.

If you've been praying for a miracle, start preparing your heart for God to bring the rain you need. Have your seeds ready because a time to plant may be very near!

He was there

Mark 11:23 “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.”

How many of us know this scripture by heart? I'm sure most of us do. For many years I've quoted this scripture in faith, not really understanding how Jesus could be referring to a mountain, which to us is clearly and immovable object. Then it came to me......

While standing on a rock koppie (hill) and looking at the end result of an asteroid that hit earth and caused the Vrederfort dome phenomenon, I finally got it!! Jesus could say this because he was there when it happened. The creator of heaven and earth was probably playing God's version of what we do when we throw a stone and make it bounce across water.

Jesus had seen exactly how this “mountain of earth” had been moved during the asteroid strike, so he knew that moving mountains was “playtime for God”. How awesome is that! We no longer have to fear the future but know that God is supremely busy moving everything around us in place to where it needs to be for our miracle to happen!

Hallelujah!