Stay connected

Wow what a stresfull week Im having thus far, filled with commotion and misscommunication.Its amazing though how God can speak to us during all the commotion, softly, gently, peacefully, reminding us to calm down and become still in His presence. Its so easy to get lost within a schedule and buzziness that one forgets to remain plugged into the source. When everything gets thrown out of proportion its easy to try and sort things out by yourself, but who do you run to when the paw-paw hits the fan??Its useless trying figure things out on your own.Like yesterday..I was on my way home to Paarl from Rondebosch and I took the 10:30 from Salt river station..It was my off day so I just wanted to get the 90 minute train ride behind me so that I can get home and relax.The train gets to Muldersvlei station (about 20 minutes from my destination) and just before the station it decides that it wants to stand for a full hour..so I wait..patiently listening to sermons of John Piper on my phone..A hour comes and goes and the train finally decides to snake the last bit towards the station..BUT..on arrival the trian decides "I am sooooo tired" and it stands for another hour...jolly..by now my patience is dry and I dont have anything to listen to on my phone..eisssshhhh..So another hour goes by and just when the train starts to move my boss phones, asking where I am and requesting that I immediately get on the next train back to Cape Town to go to work.at this point I am really frustrated and so not happy with how this day is turning out... I then reach a point on the way back where I just give up and ask God to take control from here coz I have absolute zero patience and I am really about to loose it..Suddenly I just feel this tangible peace set in, almost like a burning sensation burning through my entire body and putting my soul at rest. I realised that it was God answering my plea for help and providing me with His peace that transends all understanding..

God has been teaching me alot about His peace latelty, walking in it, trusting in it and asking Him for it when I need it...Its amazing How God will always take us to the point where we have no other option but to give up. He refreshes our realisation of our need for Him because sometimes we get so wound up in what we are doing we neglect spending time with Him or we rush through our devotions not even waiting on Him to talk to us. We need to walk in a constant connection with God each and every day.Without it we cannot expect to take anything good from our day or have a good outcome to our day. We as children of God our but hosepipes, if we dont stay connected to the tap of never-ending,refreshing and constanly flowing water or pipes are gonna run dry. Its essential that we remain connected THROUGHOUT the day, if not you only hve yourself to blame if things dont turn out for the good...

Peace like a river

Ever had one of those days where people treat you like trash just because they can? When your boss and your senior is so rude to you that it almost causes you to act out of your human nature?Where the missomunication that comes from their side gets blamed as selective hearing from yours? Well that's the day Im having so far, and its only 10:25!! And right here is where I stop it because I refuse to let this frustration consume me in the name of JESUS!

Aaaaaahhh.....just saying that makes me me feel so much better...It just hurts me that people can be so rude and insensitive towards other people. Yeah I know thats's how the world operates but it still bothers me, not just being rude to me but that people can be so rude in general. Im so grateful for being a child of God and that I have found His love. During my B.C life if someone was ever rude with me and I knew that I did nothing wrong I would always retaliate,say what was on my mind and let the person know excatly what I thought of them. Why should I keep quiet if I was the one being treated unfairly? But now that my life is hidden within Christ I have to learn to respond out of love, in fact Jesus said that I should turn the other cheek!!To the world that would seem absurd, but when your a child of God it makes sense. In the beginning it's tough, I mean I struggled hey!!But the closer I get to God the more it bothers me when I DONT react out of love. In the beggining it doesnt bother you so much when you act out of frustration, I hear it all the time from christians "Ek is maar net n mens", which is true but we cannot continue blaming our old nature all the time and just ignore the problem. When we are in Christ we have a NEW nature and it's no longer I that live but CHRIST in me,My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me-Galatians 2:20...We should no longer be blaming are own imperfection but we should strive towards God's perfection and refuse to become mediocre in our walk with Christ. The deeper we go the more the Holy-Spirit starts convicting us for our own good, its sometimes not that easy to ALWAYS listen but that's whats so wonderfull about the grace of God, that even though we fail He still loves us the same, but we should always be striving towards Holiness and LISTEN when the Holy-Spirit convicts us. I enjoyed pastor Eric's preach a few sundays ago about exchanging our stone heart for a heart of flesh. It makes so much sense then why it would hurt me when people are hurtfull towards each other, its because I exchanged my broken heart for that of Christ's-And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.-Ezekiel 36:26.

As I now meditate on this I can feel the Spirit of God filling me with His peace and giving me a better understanding of what He is trying to teach me. My prayer is that you will experience His peace in the same way. There's nothing like the presence of God to rejuvinate a tired spirit......

Just a thought

It's amazing the simple illustrations God uses to teach us valuable lessons, simple but valuable. We always expect God to talk to us in a loud voice or an extravagent miracle.Yet the closer I get to God and the deeper I dive in a relationship with Him I find that He has a thing for using profoundly simple illustrations that we tend to miss because we are expecting something huge. Yes He does encounter us in awsome and profound ways, but unlike the world our God enjoys speaking in whispers and simple illustrations, why? Because I believe He wants us to be attentive. He wants us to become still and focus in on Him. He is not a God of complications...and we're not hamsters running around in pink wheels with no direction...

That's the way God has been speaking to me the most lately, teaching me through very simple depictions. Somtimes it's things that I already know that He wants me to understand better, and sometimes its dimensions of His character that He chooses to reveal in a way which is easily understandable.Yet it is always lessons that comes at exactly the right time. God knows what we need and when we need it. I mean He's the one that created us so it's only logical that He knows us best than anyone else ever could. As long as He is the one calling the shots and making the desicions, even the insignificant ones, Im okay with that. It's not always easy, I do get impatient, but when asked for God will always provide His peace, and its the kind of peace the world doesnt know.It's that Kind of peace where even though everything is going bonkers all around you, up is down, down is up and left is right and nothing is going like you would want it to and decisions have to be made a.s.a.p, but you are still peaceful and just know that God will sort everything out even though you have no idea how He's gonna do it. God is ALWAYS in control altough everything seems out of control..........

Becoming a missionary

We all have our own perspective and views when it comes to missions, (some more uninformed than others) but none of us can deny that we as children of God who call ourselves sons and daughters of the most high all share a common responsibility to share the good news with others no matter where we might find ourselves, whether it be at school, at the mall, at work or at church (especially at church!!). Some think that one needs to go study or do a ten day course to become a missionary, or like most Westerners I have come across who have the idea that coming to Africa will make of them a missionary and get the shock of their life to find out that we are  not that undeveloped as the world portrays! But to get to my point, the Biblical truth is that when we come to know God and when we become adopted in His family and receive salvation through Christ we AUTOMATICLY become missionaries!! We all receive the mandate given by Christ to go into all the earth and make disciples (Matthew 28). Yet the sad fact is that that is not what most of us are doing. We all have been put into different fields of ministry, some in another country and others right in their very own home. The point is, we aren’t called to be lawyers, doctors, engineers, computer technicians or business consultants, we as children of God are first and foremost called to be missionaries! Now some of you might stop me and say “hang on, are you saying that we all are to go into the deepest part of the Amazon and live off slugs and gill weed?” no that is not what I am saying. What I am trying to get across is that sometimes children of God chase and pursue their dreams selfishly and make that their number one priority instead of making God’s will number one priority. Yes it’s okay to be a lawyer or a doctor, God is the one who chooses to bless us with these careers but it is not your REAL job!!Your earthly career is just a cover for your TRUE job!!Get it?? Think of Charlie’s Angels or James Bond. One moment they would be trained lawyers and the next they would be professional musicians, but those Jobs were just a cover to accomplish their true mission whatever it may be. It is the same with us. Wherever we find ourselves…. that is the mission field. I have heard a lot of Christians complaining about their work situations, I was one of them!! But we need to stop and ask ourselves that maybe God wants to use us to lead these people to Him or minister to them with our lives and our actions. You don’t light a lamp and hide it underneath a bucket, remember? We are the light and we have a responsibility to shine it wherever we go, but it is absolutely vital that we always remain plugged into the source and it gives me pleasure to say His name: JESUS CHRIST!!!