Belt it baby

Mmm mmm mmm mmm. Shhhh, come a little closer! Let me whisper this one in your ear! I have a little secret I want to share with you......... :-P

When you are alone with your thoughts, what happens? Ever find yourself slumping into a negative hole? Well I've got an extreme solution for you. Guess what the devil hates? HE HATES IT WHEN WE ARE HAPPY....whoooo!

Okay, nope, I'm not on happy pills, but I am full of praise! Full of praise for an awesome God! Full of praise for the sacrifice of His Son and full of praise for the awesome things that I know that God can and will do in our lives when we surrender our lives to His mercy and guidance.

Guess what else? When you are belting our God's praises there is no way that you can even squeeze in an …..... “Awwww, I feel depressed.” Nope, no way!

So common Christians, belt out God's praises and raise the roof!

Doggie doo

Have you noticed that it is just when you are starting to win a battle that the devil comes and runs round your heels to trap you up. You've just managed to lift your head past one step ahead and then you walk into his trap. I have referred to it in the past as the 'ankle tap tackle'. If we aren't careful, it is at these time, that we can easily slip back into negative thoughts.

[Now bare with me on the next analogy]

However, when our spiritual senses are at their peak we may encounter this situation to be a bit more like walking in a garden where there is doggie doo. Sometimes you can smell it, but you just can't see it. When we are awake and aware we will be able to do the double lift and just step past it. Lol!

How do we awaken our spiritual senses to.... sniff out... our opponents game plan before he strikes? Faith! When we have programmed our spiritual GPS and we know which direction we are headed, we will not loose sight of the end goal, despite the momentary set backs.

If your faith has been weak due to endless struggles and trials, have faith and believe! Jesus rose from the dead to enforce our victory over sin, death and the grave and no force can stop you from achieving that which God has ordained for you to achieve!

One extra day

A public holiday on a Monday is just bliss. That one extra day to sleep in. One extra day to pamper yourself or just to spend some time in the sun and in my case, some time doing gardening. For others spending the day with loved ones, maybe over a braai was the best way to go.

Easter Saturday must have felt like the end of the world for Jesus disciples, but then He rose again on Sunday and their shot at a few extra days turned out to be 40 days. Can you imagine the bustle? They must have wanted to draw out ever last inch of information, encouragement and leadership from Jesus before He departed from our planet and returned to heaven.

The knowledge, life and faith that Jesus imparted to His disciples turned religion as they knew it upside down, or as we prefer to say, right side up. Through His sacrifice Jesus imparted a strength of faith that would carry each one of them until their own death as a Christian Martyrs.

If you could have 40 days personally to walk with Jesus, talk to Jesus and seek your own encouragement what would you talk about? Thankfully as Christians today we do have that opportunity. With the help of the Holy Spirit we can talk to Jesus everyday but not seeing Him physically presents us with a challenging question.

Do you really believe?

Words

I'm giving away my age here but I remember an old song from the 70's early 80's and part of the lyrics were, “words don't come easy to me.” Communication is such a vital part of our lives and yet most of us struggle in one way or another to express ourselves through words.

The cliche that “sticks and stones may break by bones but words will never hurt me” is the furthest thing from the truth that you can ever imagine. Words are powerful! The Apostle James talks about the fact that we use small bit in a horses mouth to turn their whole body and that ships are guided by a relatively speaking small rudder. So too our tongue is a small part of our body but can cause a great fire, i.e. conflict.

In bible school we learned that through studies they have found that there are 5 major causes for divorce and I challenge anyone to defy the logic thereof and these are: Communication, money, family, sex and religion.

Above all these, one fact confirms the true power of communication. The written word of God. God chose to communicate His love for us by not only sending His Son to die for us but by leaving a historical account of His great works over the ages through the words we see in scripture.

Yes, words are powerful, so lets pray and ask God to guide us to use them wisely!

Opposite ends

It's that beautiful time of year again when the air starts to cool, leaves turn golden and then fall to the ground and you know that autumn is in full swing. It won't be long though and then all things will turn blue with cold.

Yet on the opposite ends of the planet new buds will be forming, snow may be melting, and being outdoors is becoming a little more comfortable. The glory of spring is delivering hope of days in the sun to come.

Opposite ends, opposite experiences, opposite hopes and dreams. As the much as the seasons keep us opposite poles apart, so in life people are on opposite ends of their spiritual experiences. That can be tough to deal with. You could be laughing it up and enjoying the time of your life while someone else is going through the most life devastating experience.

That's when we need to remember that balance is important. When you are on the mountain top, don't lord it over others but use your season of victory to be an encouragement to others. When you are down in the valley, lift your eyes to the hills, because that is where your help comes from.... THE Lord!

Most of all, remember that from the mountains to the valley our praises must rise up to the Lord!

Movie time

Spending time with family is always precious, so being with my folks for Easter was really special. Mom treated her neighbour and me to a ladies afternoon at the movies. Afterwards we had coffee and chatted about the movie like real movie buffs giving our opinions about what we liked and disliked.

What a blessing it is to have a wonderful friendship with your parents, that is one of the truest joys of adulthood. Being able to relate and talk about life on a mature level with love and understanding.

It reminds me of the old chorus: “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer.”

Do you know Jesus as your friend? Are you able to share your deepest joys, secrets, fears and dreams with Him? If not, maybe it is time to start having those conversations. Not the ones where all you do is ask for His help, but the ones where you talk about the wonderful and crazy aspects of life.

God longs for us to know Him and to have a close relationship with Him. Open your heart to Him today and enjoy the wonders of knowing Him as your friend.

Something new

We all love it, something new. The leather smell of a new car, a new cell phone, a new TV, a new suit, the look of new linen and even new relationships make us giddy. Well the good news is that in Christ we can have the best new thing ever! A new and eternal life!

That is what Christ paid for when He died on the cross. A brand new you!

2 Corinthians 5:17 reads, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

From a spiritual stand point that means that your spirit man is recreated and is completely new. From a soul perspective it means that Christ's death and resurrection affords us the opportunity to plug into the work that God wants to do in our lives and have our soul transformed so that we can be transformed into Christ's image.

What do you most want to transform or change in your life? Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to finding the right solution to the areas of transformation you need in your life. In God all things are possible and we can change into the new person God wants us to be.