The Adventure of Living game

Life is like a board game.   I am thinking of something like Monopoly or Careers.

There is a certain amount of luck or chance.   You throw the dice and you are stuck with that random integer.   The skill, however, comes in the decisions you make.    Although you are working within the confines of a game, the decisions are real and they have consequences to the game.   What are also real are the emotions engendered.   We can all remember being brought to tears by having to sell all our hotels and houses in a bravely fought Monopoly game or the excitement of throwing a six at just the right time.   Even once the game has been packed up and put away those emotions of loss or defeat linger like sticky shadows.   In the end though, real life goes on.   The game was like a two dimensional interlude in three dimensional life.

In the same way, our life on earth is merely a 3 dimensional interlude in 4 dimensional eternity.   There is a certain amount of luck or chance involved and we cannot work out of the boundaries defined by our given personality or circumstances.   The choices we make, however, are where the skill comes in.   The trick is to play our best game with what we are given, realizing that others play a different game according to the roll of their dice.

However, unlike a board game where real life goes on regardless of how we played the game and whether we won or lost,   The game of Life is central to the unfolding of our eternity.   It is the only method given to us to shape that eternity.   The decisions we make in this life are crucial to our future life....and we only get to play once!

Bright little speck

Tonight I saw a parable.   As I was sitting in a crowded hall, listening for the umpteenth time to Nicky Gumble's talk on healing, my eye caught a bright speck on the carpet.   As I saw the brightness, it looked like there was possibly a room beneath us, well illuminated and there was a small hole or crack allowing me to see the light from below.   I couldn't take my gaze away from this curious incandescent spot.   After the talk I reached down and forward to try to retrieve this thing that fascinated me so.   I felt nothing and my fingers came up empty yet the little bright speck had disappeared.   I can only imagine it was a small piece of glitter, left over from Sunday School activities.

We are like that little speck.   We have no light of our own.  All we have to do is face the Light and reflect Him.   It's not up to us.   On our own we are nothing but a tiny speck of glitter on a huge carpet but when His light shines on us at just the right angle the effect is mesmerising.

Napier video

A Video to give you a glimpse of life in Napier New Zealand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwwQw1JSSzs

The X factor

Yesterday is X-perience

Today is an X-periment

Tomorrow is X-pectation

We need to use Yesterday's X-perience in conducting Today's X-periment to fulfill Tomorrow's X-pectations

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

For my mother on her 75th Birthday

Dear Mom,

I am thinking of you on your birthday and contemplating all that you are.

You didn't have a happy childhood.   Your father died when you were five and your young mother battled.   You were passed around to relatives and never knew the happiness of a stable family life.   Yet look what you've made of yourself!   Out of the dust of disappointment and despair you created diamonds.

Look at some of those diamonds.   The best decision you took was to marry a wonderful man and now after 57 years you are still happily married.   Together you made for your children a happy family home.  You were a good wife.   I remember how you used to put on make up and make yourself look pretty before Dad came home, holding hands as you walk together and I think you still do.

You were an exceptional mother, wanting the very best for your children.   Facets of light that stand out for me:-   mashed potatoes made into snowmen with peas for eyes and carrots for a nose, shucking peas then tying the pea pod to string and pulling it around for cats to chase, Friday nights and fish and chips on the way to the drive-in, or, if it was rainy or there were no suitable movies showing, a family night together reading comics.

I remember how you made clothes for me, watching the fashions in newspapers and magazines and trying to dress your daughter in the latest trends (unfortunately your daughter was more conservative and didn't always like the latest fashions - remember tent dresses?).   Then there were the ballet and tap costumes - creativity that I didn't realise at the time but which in retrospect is quite remarkable.   I hope I've inherited some of that creativity.

But apart from family things you are a remarkable woman in your own right:   Running an very successful Guide Company for many years, serving on the training team, enabling and encouraging others.   You are a published author and a leading light in the writing community, having given courses and served in leadership positions.   You make a success of whatever you do from joining and then running trim gym to enthusiastically entering competitions for the WAA.

I am so proud that you are my mother and If I can accomplish half of what you have done in your 75 years I will be very happy.   HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Birthday Bash

 

It was going to be a birthday lunch at Cresta.   On the way the unexpected happened.   Now there's another hole in my birthday   (And in our car and soon to be in our pocket)

There's a hole in my birthday

As children we thought of birthdays as magic.   Anything was possible - nothing bad could happen.   As we grow older, we notice the holes.   The people who are no longer with us - the sadness that life has brought, dreams that have vanished like a popped bubble or just faded away like a handfull of smoke.   These make the holes.

When I was a little girl, we used to make paper doilies by cutting folded paper.   We folded a square of paper in quarters then diagonally and drew our master template on it.   This always had to start with a cross in the middle.   One arm had to go to the folded centre and the others ambled where we wished.   Then we cut out the holes.

 

What makes the pattern is the holes.   Without them we would have nothing but a plain, boring, piece of paper.   The same with my holey birthday.   Each hole is specifically shaped, not a nebulous nothing and somewhere exists or existed the substance of that hole, uniquely designed for the life that is mine.

bridgebuilding

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

The greatest science experiment

got this from the Sunday Times. It ties in so well with my book, "Noah's Diamond." I want to learn all about quarks and hadrons and gluons all over again.

http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Article.aspx?id=833254

Great site for doing this is http://particleadventure.org/

Gratitude

The following is an extract from Max Lucado' book, "Every Day derseves a Chance."

Excerpts from the diary of a dog:

8.00 a.m. Oh boy, dog food - my favourite.
9.30 a.m. Oh boy, a car ride - my favourite.
9.40 a.m. Oh boy, a walk - my favourite.
10.30 a.m. Oh boy, another car ride - my favourite.
11.30 a.m. Oh boy, more dog food - my favourite.
12.00 p.m. Oh boy, the kids - my favourite.
1.00 p.m. Oh boy, the yard - my favourite.
4.00 p.m. Oh boy, the kids again - my favourite.
5.00 p.m. Oh boy, dog food again - my favourite.
5.30 p.m. Oh boy, Mom, my favourite.
6.00 p.m. Oh boy, playing ball - my favourite.
8.30 p.m. Oh boy, sleeping in my master's bed - my favourite.

Exerpts from the diary of a cat:

Day 283 of my captivity. My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre litlle dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat while I'm forced to eat dry cereal. I'm sustained by the hope of escape and the mild satisfaction I derive from ruining a few pieces of furniture. Tomorrow i may eat another houseplant. I attempted to kill my captors this morning by weaving through their walking feet. Nearly succeeded. Must try this strategy at the top of the stairs. Seeking to disgust and repulse these vile oppressors, I once again induced myself to vomit on their favourite chair. Must try this on their bed. To display my diabolical disposition, I decapitated a mouts and deposited the headless body on their kitchen floor. They only cooed and condescended, patting my head and calling me a "strong little kitty". Hmm - not working according to plan. During a gathering of their accomplices, they placed me in solitary confinement. I overheard that my confinement was due to my power of allergies. Must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage.
I am convinced the other household captives are flunkies, perhaps snitches. The dog is routinely pleased and seems natively happy to return. He is, no doubt, a half-wit. The bird speaks with the humans regularly. Must be an informant. I am certain he reports my every move. Due to his current placement in the metal cage, his safety is assured, but I can wait.

The day of a dog. The day of a cat. One content, the other conniving. One at peace, the other at war. One grateful, the other grumpy. Same house. Same circumstances."

I have always thought myself a cat person. Now I am going to work at being a dog. I would like to be grateful for all things and enjoy whatever comes my way.

The Party

Yesterday, all of a sudden, I understood the parable of the Great Banquet. This rich guy had planned a banquet and invited all his favourite friends and relatives. He went to a lot of trouble and expense getting caterers, decorators etc to make his banquet special. At the appointed time people started dropping out. One had just bought a field and wanted to look at it, another had bought a team of oxen (the equivilant to a new car perhaps?) and wanted to try it out so one by one they excused themselves, leaving the host with a lot of debt, too much food and no guests.

I don't know if this has ever happended to you. It has happened to me and my family.(see the post on Yesterday's balloons). It always left me feeling profoundly hurt that my friends thought so little of me and my relationship with them that they found other things more important. I felt rejected and of no value. It also made me angry that I had gone to trouble and expense which would now be wasted.

I think that is the essence of the parable. It is all about relationship. God longs for an intimate relationship with us. He longs to give us from His bounty. But we regard other things as more important. In the parable the host takes people off the street to fill his party and partake of all the special food he had prepared. He makes sure that none of the invited guests get any.

God offers us so much - His love, forgiveness, grace, guidance, protection and most of all a relationship with Himself. When we find other things more important He is deeply wounded and possibly even angy. What do I find more important than my relationship with God?

Who is Jesus

Who is Jesus? (from a sermon given at Randburg Methodist Church just before Easter)

Those of you who know me will know of my passion for Alpha so you won’t be surprised that most of my sermon is based on Nicky Gumble’s book, “Questions of Life” .

We will be looking at Who is Jesus. What did he say about himself. If he didn’t claim to be God, then that is the end of the story, but if he did, that opens another set of questions. If Jesus said he was God, Was he right? If he was wrong, either he knew he was not God and deliberately set about trying to fool people, or he really believed he was God but was mistaken, in other words He was mad.. We will look at evidence so you can decide for yourselves. Some people don’t need evidence. They believe what their parents or Sunday School teachers told them.

But I am a scientist. My father told me “A good scientist takes nothing for granted, but tests everything.” I first put this into practice when I was very young. My parents told me there were such things as germs which you couldn’t see but could make you sick and you had to wash your hands before eating and after stroking the cat. Now who is going to believe in something you can’t see just because your parents say so? I knew it was just a ploy to have children with clean hands to impress their friends. Later on I went to University and studied Microbiology. Now I believe in germs – I can even classify them.

Then there was the whole World is round thing. Anybody can see the world is flat, apart from a couple of hills and valleys of course. It was only when I first flew in an aeroplane that I could see for myself that the world is actually round.

Perhaps you re a bit like me and you want to find out for yourself without believing everything you are told. In this talk I am going to use a number of quotations from the bible. Don’t just take my word for it, look them up yourself.

So, Who is Jesus. Did he really exist? Besides the new testament, there are accounts about him from other historians.. eg the Roman historian, Tacitus, Suctonius and the Jewish historian, Josephus, born in AD37.

He wrote the following:

“Now there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works – a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was Christ and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him: and the tribe of Christians, so named after him, are not extinct to this day.

Although there is evidence outside the New Testament for the existence of Jesus, most of our information does come from the New Testament. People might say, O but how do we know that what has come down to us s what people wrote so long ago? We do know because of a science called textual criticism. Essentially, the more texts we have, the less doubt there is about the original. F J A Horst, a leading textual critic has said, “In the variety and fullness of the evidence on which it rests, the text of the new testament stands absolutely and unapproachably alone among ancient prose writings”

So, if we accept that Jesus existed, Who is he? Was he just a good man, a great religious teacher, or was he and is he, God?

First of all, let’s look at what Jesus said about Himself.

In the Old Testament, Moses asked God what his name was. God said, “I am who I am. Tell them, “I am” has sent you.” The word, Yaweh, meaning “I am,” is very similar to the word used to translate, the Lord, in the Old Testament. The Jews did not take the name of God on their lips.

What did Jesus say? “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35.) Psychologists recognize that there is a deep hunger in the human heart. Freud said, “People are hungry for love” Jung said, “People are hungry for security”, Adler said, “People are hungry for significance” and Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” In other words, if you want your hunger satisfied, come to me. He also said, “I am the light of the world” and “I am the resurrection and the life” This is not the sort of thing great religious leaders say. Great religious leaders might say, “I will show you the way,” Jesus says, “I am the way”. Great religious leaders might say, “I will tell you the truth,” Jesus says, “I am the Truth”, Great religious teachers might say, “I will teach you how to live the life”, Jesus said, “I am the Life.” So in a culture where people did not use the name Yaweh, or I am, Jesus was I amming all over the show.

He said that to receive him was to receive God and to have seen him was to have seen the Father.

Then there are his indirect claims. He claimed to forgive sin.

In Mark 2 vs 5 he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Some teachers of the law were sitting there and thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone? Jesus knew what they were thinking and he said, “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, Get up, take your mat and walk’? But that you might know that the son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” He said to the paralytic, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”

Jesus also claimed that one day he would judge the world. Now imagine if your minister stood up in the pulpit one day and said “On the day of judgment you will all appear before me and I will decide your eternal destiny on how you treated me and my friends” I think we would start questioning his sanity and possibly make an appointment with a panel of psychologists at Tara.

Then there are his direct claims: In Mark 14:55-64 we read the account of Jesus standing before the high priest. They were having difficulty convicting Jesus. They had even hired a couple of false witnesses to tell lies so they could get something on him. Unfortunately the witness’s testimony didn’t agree. The high priest was getting very frustrated. Jesus wouldn’t answer questions! He was being accused mostly of blasphemy from the Jewish point of view and of inciting riots from the Roman point of view. The chief priest asked him directly, “Are you the Christ, the son of the blessed one?

What did Jesus say? I AM.

On the other end of the social scale we have the Samaritan woman. She’s been having a conversation with Jesus and it had got onto spiritual things. She talked about the promised Messiah. Jesus said, “I who speak to you am he.”

. Now, just because somebody says they are something, it doesn’t make it so. Lots of people say lots of things and they are not always true. Some of you might remember Paul, who used to hang around the church. He once told me he was an angel from God sent on a secret mission. There are people in insane asylums who claim all sorts of things. Politicians claim many things but that doesn’t make them true. We need to look at the evidence and decide whether Jesus was telling the truth

Let’s look at the evidence. What did other people say about Jesus? What did Peter say about Jesus? Jesus once asked him. He said, “Who do people say I am?” Peter had all sorts of ideas, “some say you are John the Baptist, some say this, some say that.” Then Jesus asked him, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter said, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” ((Math 16:16) Peter had been with Jesus. He had had time to examine the evidence. He had seen how he lived.

Then there was the centurion. He had seen how Jesus died. He said, “surely this man was the son of God.”

His teaching: His teaching is widely acknowledged to be the greatest teaching that has ever fallen from human lips. His teaching is the foundation of Western civilization, many laws were originally based on it. Institutions like the Red Cross, Hospitals were based on Jesus teaching. We are making great progress in fields of science and technology, communication and travel and yet in 2000 years no one has improved on the moral teaching of Jesus Christ. Could that teaching really have come from a con man or a mad man?

His works. Jesus said that the miracles he performed were evidence that “the father is in me and I am in the father “(John 10:38)

Jesus was most amazing person to have been around. At a Party, out sailing, at a picnic, hospital visiting.

But mostly it was his love that stood out. Love for those rejected by others, prostitutes, lepers, people who were not in the “In crowd.”

Are these the actions of an evil or deluded man?

His character. Here was someone who was unselfish, humble, but not weak, full of joy but never at another’s expense. Even his enemies could find nothing to accuse him with except that he claimed to be God. The greatest test of character is how you react under pressure. How did Jesus react when he had been tortured, was in pain on the cross? He said “Father, forgive them?” ((Luke 22:34) Was a man with a character like that evil, or unbalanced?

His fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy. Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophesies spoken by different voices over 500 years. Of course some say he could have studied all the prophesies relating to the Messiah and gone around fulfilling them. But some were quite difficult. Eg where he was to be born or about his death and even burial.

His resurrection.

What evidence do we have that Jesus rose.

His absence from the tomb. Many people have come up with a number of different theories about how this happened. Some say Jesus wasn’t really dead.

Well for a man who had undergone a Roman flogging, under which many died, been nailed to a cross for 6 hours, it seems very unlikely that he would have been strong enough to move a stone weighing about 1500 kg. The soldiers were convinced he was dead and they were experts. This was their job. Moreover, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear (John 19:34) and blood and water gushed out. This appears to be the separation of clot and serum which we know today is strong medical evidence for death, but which they wouldn’t have known in those days.

Some say the disciples stole the body. This is psychologically improbable. They were defeated and downcast , depressed and disillusioned. It would have taken more than a seedy plot to transform them into dynamic evangelists. They suffered floggings, torture and death. Nobody dies for a lie.

Some say the authorities stole the body. Well then, all they had to do, when the rumours started that Jesus was alive was to produce the body. They never did.

The other interesting thing is John’s account of what he saw when the women told him the tomb was empty. In fact it wasn’t empty. The grave clothes were there.

If I was going to steal a dead body, I would take it wrapped and all.

His appearances to the disciples.

Jesus appeared to his disciples on 11 different occasions over 6 weeks. Over 500 people saw the risen Jesus. He was not a ghost. He could be touched and ate broiled fish. On one occasion he cooked breakfast for the disciples. While one person could have an hallucination, 500 is a bit much. And hallucinations don’t cook breakfast.

The immediate effect.

Jesus rising from the dead had a great impact on the world. Christianity spread at a tremendous rate.

Christian Experience. Christians all over the world are experiencing a relationship with Jesus Christ. There are many in this room who will testify to his reality. Many of us spoke to Him just half an hour ago.

I said at the beginning I want you to think for yourself, make decisions for yourself. Examine the evidence for yourself. Jesus said he was God. Was he lying? Was he a mad man… or was he telling the truth.? One thing is for sure. He was not a good man or a great human teacher.

C.S. Lewis said, “A man who was just a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said wouldn’t be a great moral teacher, he’d either be a lunatic – on a level with a man who says he’s a poached egg – or else he’d be the devil of hell. You must make your choice…”

If you have a bit of scientist in you, I encourage you to do some experiments. You could, for instance pray. Ask Jesus to show you if he is alive. Another approach you could take is to assume he is God, and act as if that was true and see whether refuting evidence comes along. If you prefer the intellectual approach, do some research, read through the gospels critically as history and try to get a picture of Jesus The Gospel of John is a good place to start.

.

Every silver lining has a cloud

I first started thinking about it when someone asked me how my weekend was.   I said it was great.   But looking back, there were moments when I was in tears.   There were moments when I missed my husband who was not with me.   Overall, however, it was a great weekend.

As I considered memorable events and occasions, I realised that most of them contained an element of sadness or stress or even pain.

The days when my children were born were some of the high points of my life.   Yet without doubt there were moments of pain, fear, exhaustion and even irritability.   Yet over all - absolutely awesome and momentous.

When I took a group of Girl Guides to an international camp in Canada, it started badly.   Canadian Guiders had kindly agreed to share tents with us.   My assistant and I were separated from each other and from our girls who were put under the care of Canadian Guiders.   There were hundreds of dome tents pitched on a large field for the adults.   The lady I was sharing with was not there when I arrived so I put my stuff in the tent and went off to do the things we needed to do.   At about 9.30 we were finished and it was about time to think about bed.   I couldn't find the tent where I was supposed to be.   I wandered round and round looking for landmarks.   By now it was really late and almost everybody was already tucked up in bed and sleeping.. I can't remember how I found the tent.   I only remember sitting outside the ladies toilet crying.

That was not the only stressful event of the camp.   Three people were killed on a light airplane trip and my assistant and I helped by taking charge of the Guides who had been in the care of one of them.   Later during the camp a tornado hit and we all had to be evacuated to a local church hall.   Arrangements were made with a local laundry to dry all the wet sleeping bags.

I can think of other occasions - the training weekend where I felt I just couldn't cope with the task I was given but by the end of the weekend I had done it; the Otter Trail where I was so sick and miserable and tired that I felt like giving up but didn't.   It seems to me that the most worthwhile things reflect a true balance of life.  Life is not only about the silver linings, awesome though they may be. It is about the real stuff - the struggle, the pain, the disappointments.   If we only had silver linings we would not recognise them.   We need the clouds too.   If you are in the middle of a dark cloud remember the words of King Solomon "This too will pass..." and perhaps the following link will help you put things in perspective while you wait for the silver lining.     http://mylemonadestand.wordpress.com/2007/07/04/top-10-quotes-on-hope/

No Guts No Glory

No worthwhile achievement comes without effort, without sacrifice or without courage. People and forces will try to stop you from achieving your goal. You are at war.

What is the enemy? It can be summarized as “The Flesh” but contains many different elements.

v Your heredity. The genes you have inherited from your parents have shaped a lot of your characteristics. You might be tempted to say, “I am lazy, that’s just how I was born” or “I am not a tidy person. A leopard can’t change his spots.” You might even blame your parents – “I’ve got my Dad’s bad temper”

v Your past. These are the experiences and decisions in the past that have shaped what you now are. Your early circumstances, your level in society, the advantages and disadvantages you may have had. It includes your training, the example set by your parents, their mistakes, your mistakes. You are a product of the decisions you have made. “I had a bad start in life. My Dad left us when I was little and my Mom turned to alcohol. What chance do I have?”

v Your human nature which is more commonly called “the Flesh” in the Bible. You will recognize this human nature by the following characteristics. It would rather stay in bed than get up early and pray. It would rather chuck the paper on the floor than pick it up and put it in the dustbin. It would rather be brought coffee in bed than make coffee for somebody else. It would rather eat chocolate than apply the discipline of dieting. It would rather watch TV than study. It hates being told what to do, it resists discipline and does what it feels like.

Fortunately you do have various weapons at your disposal.

v

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v Devine help. You are made in God’s image and you do not even imagine the capabilities He has built into you. If you go through the Bible you will come across many promises – “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13), “Nothing will be impossible for you “ (Math 17:20), if you have just a little faith, “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26). Seek God and seek his help.

v Help from others. There are so many experts, trainers, mentors, coaches, nobody needs to struggle on his own to achieve a worthwhile goal. If you are a student struggling to make the grade there are student counselors, if you are battling to overcome an alcohol addiction there is Alcoholics Anonymous. If you want to train for the Olympics you need a coach with knowledge, skill and inspiration.

v Discipline. You need a plan or a training schedule and you need to stick to it. If you break the task into bite-sized bits it will not seem to daunting. Do you want to pass your exams at the end of the year? Will 2 hours of study a day do it? If not, allocate more. If you have not been studying up till now and are not in the habit (and your flesh is sticking its feet in and resisting all the way) try one hour a day for the first week, then 2 hours, then 3 hours until you get used to it. It will become easier. If you are going on a diet, make a decision to stick to it for today only. Then tomorrow make a new decision. If you are training for a marathon, start with a short distance than increase every day. Your discipline muscles might be very flabby and after a short time you might want to just give up. That’s where the guts comes in. Hang in there.

v Your will. This is the only thing that can get you doing the necessary hard work. How strong is your will? If your discipline muscles are flabby, you need to exercise them, to build them up. The same with your will. Force yourself to do certain things each day to strengthen your will. It should be something you don’t enjoy but which is good for you or the situation. It can be something as simple as tidying your workspace if you are an untidy person. Determine to organize one area a day and on subsequent days keep that one area ordered and order another. If you are doing weight lifting or exercise, force yourself to do another couple after you are exhausted. If you are a Christian and want to get closer to God, set the alarm clock for half an hour earlier then put one foot out of bed as soon as it rings.

Realize that there will be setbacks. This is no easy task and nobody said it was going to be easy. Perseverance requires courage. It requires guts. Are you up to it? Remember. No Guts no Glory.

So, who is winning the war at the moment? Who is in control here? Your will or your Flesh? Who will be winning the war tomorrow?

Make a Smilebox photobook

Panda's on the move

From: Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?

Date: 2008/07/20 09:07:00 AM

To: jenny.young@wol.co.za

I

What's mine is mine

At last I’ve got my car back. That is to say, it’s not quite my car. Well, to be quite honest, it’s not my car. I did not pay for it, it is not registered in my name and I didn’t earn it.

The car, named by me as “Flaming Arrow” or “Flame” for short was my husband’s company car. I got to drive it. So I got to regard it as my own. When my husband retired, we had planned to buy the car from the company. At the beginning of the month my husband retired. Since the car was not ours, we had to give it back until the pension money came through and we could pay for it.

I was so annoyed with the company. How could they be so mean! Did they realize how much inconvenience I was going through because they insisted that the car sat in their garage and nobody drove it?

Of course, it is still not my car. The money has come through and Brian has paid for it and at last I am allowed to drive it again. But it will not be registered in my name. It will never be mine.

How many things that are not ours do we regard as ours? I talk about the school where I work as “my school”. I have absolutely no ownership in it. What about “my country?”

They say possession is nine tenths of the law. What is it about possession that grabs us?

I talk about “my life.” It is not really mine. I did not make it, buy it or earn it although it may be registered in my name. It is a gift of God. My husband and my children are also gifts. So are all my talents and accomplishments. God can take them back at any time and no doubt I will then also accuse Him of being mean. I think this was the mistake of the tenants in the parable of the tenants. (Math 12). They thought the vineyard belonged to them and they could do what they liked with it, reap the profits, and when the owner sent servants to collect some of its fruits, they rebelled violently. They went to great lengths to hold on to what was never really theirs, greedily depriving the owner of what was due to him. They did not even respect the son, but did away with him so they could get on with their own selfish lives.

“Lord, please forgive me for regarding as mine what is rightfully yours and please help me to give you your due.”

The Body

Acceptance

Service at Randmeth Sunday 16 July 7pm

Different generations of people tend to like different kinds of music.

It would also be true to say that different cultures or races or nationalities like different types of music and that is not the only thing that is different about them. Let’s face it, we are all different. I am a different generation to my daughter. I think blouses and tops should be tucked into skirts and pants, she thinks they should hang out. The church is made up of different kinds of people.

Paul likens the Church to the Body of Christ. He says,

Now anybody who has ever done any Biology will know that our body is made up of cells. Perhaps you’ve had to learn to draw a diagram of a typical animal cell and it looks like this… …

Every cell in your body has the same DNA, bundled into 23 pairs of Chromosomes.

That is what makes you, you and me, me.

Now every part of Christ’s body has His Holy Spirit. If we have asked Jesus to come into our lives and take over ownership, we have the Holy Spirit living in us. That is our spiritual DNA.

But guess what? If we look carefully at the cells of our body, we don’t even see one that resembles the typical animal cell we just talked about.

Let’s look at muscle cells.

Kind of long and skinny, aren’t they. These cells are very active and use a lot of energy. They get things done. There are people in the church like this and let’s face it, the church would not function without them. They are always busy – feeding the hungry, raising money for the poor, educating the illiterate. If Martha was a body cell, she would probably have been a muscle cell. Other cells might say they are not spiritual enough. But even muscle cells need to be fed. They need a time to rest as well as a time to work. Otherwise the body would not function properly.

Then we have bone.

Bone gives structure and order to the body. Christians who have studied the bible extensively and have done a lot of reading are a bit like bone cells. They usually have an accumulated life experience as well and have walked with the Lord a long time. They are wise. They know the rules and stick by the rule book.

Other cells might say they are too rigid and set in their ways. The biggest danger to bone cells is if they lose their connection to the Lord. If routine and discipline and order strangle out the voice of the Spirit and they just keep going in the same path without the life of Christ, the bones might get brittle and break too easily.

Still with bone, we have bone marrow. This is where new blood cells are made.

These people are the evangelists. They are so excited when people come to the Lord.

They are essential for the life and the ongoing existence of the body. Billy Graham might be an example of a bone marrow Christian. It is the job of all cells to reproduce- to make new cells to replace old ones but bone marrow does it as its primary function. Other cells might say they are not practical. They are so busy thinking about people’s souls, they forget their bodies, their need for support and sometimes the new converts are left to flounder on their own. The danger for bone marrow Christians is when they start judging success by the world’s standards. How many people came to the rail or signed commitment forms. They forget whose work it is. Only God can make a person a Christian.

Then we have the pray-ers, the red blood cells,

supplying oxygen and life for every cell in the body,

the nerve cells,

the communication network ,

macrophages,

who guard the body from infection and distortion,

and my favourite picture, the cells in the eye.

These are rods and cones, the cells that make up the retina of the eye. They have different functions. The rods see light and dark, the cones see more detail. These are the people who see the vision. But unless they communicate with the nervous system, the vision is lost. Some cells might say they don’t do anything so they are useless.

There are many more. I could spend 100 pages showing you pictures of body cells but this is a sermon, not Biology class.

The point is, just as there is no typical animal cell, there is no typical Christian. We are all different and that is not a mistake, God did it on purpose. We are all unique and God made us with a purpose, with a plan in mind.

Of course we think that all Christians should be exactly like us, should think like us, should worship like us.

Because we are all different, God deals with us differently. Nobody can say to another Christian, because your experience is not my experience, you are not a Christian.

Paul says, “For we are all baptised by one Spirit into one body- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” We can make this more relevant to our situation by saying “We are all baptised by one Spirit into one Body, whether Youth or Old Fogy, Black or White, Educated or Uneducated- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”

He goes on to say, imagine of one part of the body felt inferior to the rest of the body.

Imagine if a bone cell were to say, because I am not a muscle cell, I am useless, or if a nerve cell were to say, because I am not a rod or a cone, I am not part of the body. We can all see that that is ridiculous. We would hate any such thing going on in our body.

And Christ hates such things going on in His body.

Jesus prays for His disciples in John 17:20-21. “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

In 2000 years, Jesus’ prayer has not been answered. His disciples are not one. Being one, does not mean being the same. God made us individual and unique, he does not want “typical Christian clones.” But what he does want, is unity. He does not want Christians refusing to accept each other, criticising each other because of their God made differences.

Paul says in verse 18, “God has arranged the parts of the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be.”

God has put us where we are. He has put us with the people He has ordained. It is not for a toe cell to decide – I don’t want to be part of the foot – I am surrounded by calloused cells. I want to be part of the hand. That is where the action is. I’ll just move.

One part of the body, can’t say to another, “I don’t need you.” When that happens in our body and one part starts attacking another, it is an autoimmune disease and we die from it.

Vs 24 “ But God has combined the members of the body and given greater honour to those that lacked it, so there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it, if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.”

When we first look at a body what hits us is skin. The skin is the largest organ of the body and statisticians would probably find out that there are more skin cells in the body than any other kind. So it would be easy for, say the adrenal gland to think I am not a skin cell, therefore I don’t fit in. Those who think they don’t fit in are all the more important because they have their uniqueness to offer. “God has given greater honour to those who lacked it”

What can we do practically, to accept other people, particularly those in Christ’s body?

First of all, Jesus accepted everyone. Here he was, the sinless son of God, and they brought Him a woman caught in adultery. As a good Jewish boy he knew very well that adultery was a sin forbidden in the law of Moses. Notice he did not condone her sin. He said, I do not condemn you, go and sin no more. He accepted her. He treated her with respect.

The Samaritan woman, a hated foreigner, he treated as a person of worth. South Africa’s equivalent today would probably be a Nigerian – after all many people think they are all criminals. We make jokes about them. But Jesus never treated anyone other than with respect and acceptance.

Paul says in Phil 2:5 “let this attitude be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.”

Let us treat others with the attitude of Jesus.

That includes the teacher at school who has it in for you, it includes the inefficient black woman at work who has been promoted over you because of affirmative action, It includes the loud, noisy neighbours who’s teenage son has just bought an ear splitting new car sound system.

As our section of the body, the Randmeth Church, I would suggest the following four steps.

1. Find out what your gift is, your purpose and use it to God’s glory and the building up of our church. Everybody has something to offer. But remember – Christ is the head. It is His Body and He is in control.

1. Don’t be oversensitive. I’m sorry to be the one who has to break it to you, but the world does not revolve around you. People are probably not talking about you when you come to a little group in discussion, they have much more important things to talk about, themselves for instance. If your name does not appear in the church notices, it is not because the office staff are out to get you.

If you are not invited to present your team’s report at some boring meeting, it is not because your team is unimportant.

Oversensitivity is a subtle form of selfishness. It is relating everything in the world to you and how it affects you. It is just as much a sin as the more overt form of selfishness.

Because sin has tarnished the image of God in all of us, you will sometimes get negative comments. Other people aren’t perfect either you know but just because one person in the church says you can’t buy two cakes at the cake sale does not mean that the whole church rejects you and you should now find another church. Just because one person criticises the work you have done for the Lord, does not mean that nobody values your work and you will never do anything for the Lord again. In fact it would be much safer if you just did everything for the Lord and not for people anyway. Christ is the head of the Church. He is the one in control. We should never confuse God’s work with our work. We are working for Christ according to His instructions, not what seems good to us.

1. Put on rose coloured spectacles. I have said we are all imperfect and a mixture of good and not so good. It is easy to see the not so good. Let us make an effort to see the good in people, in their work and filter out the not so good.

Can we see God’s image in other people? It is there, you know. One of the Holiday club leaders told us last week that although they had gone to teach children, in some cases they had learned from Children. That is seeing God’s image in other people.

Don’t look at the differences that irritate you. Look at the things we have in common. We are all working for the good of one body.

1. Let your words build up, not break down. Tomorrow, somebody will probably phone the church office to complain about tonight’s service. Perhaps they didn’t come for a Biology lesson, but an uplifting sermon. Perhaps they didn’t like the music. Let’s put on our rose coloured spectacles and filter out what we didn’t like and look for perhaps just one thing that we did like.

Compliment rather than criticising and complaining. When you feel a negative comment coming, zip your lip. Think hard to find a positive comment and then hand it to someone as a gift from God.

You know yourself how a simple thank you or a well done grows your spirit.

Shall we withhold life and growth to our fellow body cells?

And when you are given a compliment, sniff at it and then give it to the Lord. Any beauty you have is from Him. Any talent you have is from Him. Anything you have achieved is only because He has enabled you. Give Him the glory.

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

Believing Lies

From a sermon I gave in an old age home in 2006.

This is a riddle by Greg Mc Kinnon.

You are on the road of life and you come to a fork in the road. One road leads to heaven and the other to hell. There are two guides standing at the fork in the road and you can ask only one question of either of them. One of them is an absolute liar and will not tell you the truth. The other is one hundred percent honest and can only tell you the truth.

Which one, and only one, question can you ask that will let you know without a doubt that you are on the right road? Even after asking this question you will not know if the guide told you the truth or not, but you will know that you have chosen the right road.

The answer: Since you can only ask one question and you don’t know which guide will tell you the truth, you can ask either guide this question. “If I were to ask the other guide which is the right road, what would he tell me?” You then take the opposite road.

Here is why: If it was the liar you questioned, he will lie about the true answer the other guide would give, so you would want to take the opposite road from the one he told you. If, on the other hand it was the honest guide you questioned, he will truthfully tell you the lie that the other guide would have told you. So you know the opposite road is the answer. So this one question will produce a wrong answer no matter which guide you ask and you can take the opposite road.

Today I want to talk about believing lies.

Twice I have received counselling for depression, once from a Psychologist, and once from a Christian Counsellor. Both of them told me the same thing in different words.

I am made in the image of God. The devil has used the world and circumstances to make me believe lies about myself and obscure that image. It occurred to me that it is very likely that there are many others who have also believed lies of the devil and as a result are living in depression. I just want to add that there are more than one kind of depression. Sometimes when we have experienced a trauma or loss we are in a state of depression, like a bottle of oil and water all shaken up. This is a perfectly natural state of affairs and I think we would be most concerned if we did not react like this. It is wise under these circumstances to go for trauma counselling or bereavement counselling. Sometimes there is a chemical imbalance in our bodies and medication is called for – this is just as natural as insulin for a diabetic – there is some malfunction in our endocrine system, and medical science is advanced enough to be able to supplement the deficit.

So today I am just going to talk about the image of God.

The bible says that we are made in the image of God.

Isaiah 44:2 says :”I am your creator. You were in my care even before you were born.” Albert Einstein said, “ God doesn’t play dice.”

In his book, “The Purpose driven life,” Rick Warren says,

“You are not an accident. Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of Nature. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He was not at all surprised by your birth. In fact, he expected it.

Long before you were conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God. He thought of you first. It is not fate, nor chance, nor luck, nor co incidence that you are breathing at this very moment. You are alive because God wanted to create you. The bible says, “ The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me.”

This is exactly what psalm 139 vs 13-18 says. From “The Message”

“O yes, you shaped me, first inside then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High god – you’re breathtaking!

Body and soul I am marvellously made! I worship in adoration – what a creation!

You know me inside and out. You know every bone in my body. You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit; how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, the days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.”

This tells us, before we were even conceived, God planned us. Think about it. I think we all know the biology of fertilization. Only one egg cell is produced by the mother. Millions of sperm are produced by the male, but only one, the fastest, the strongest, in fact, the winner, became each of us. So in that sense, we were winners even before we were born. And God watched, from conception to birth as His plan unfolded. Think of a new born baby. Think of yourself as a new born baby. As it is born, God takes it onto his lap and loves it. He doesn’t love it for anything it has done. It has not yet done anything. He loves it because it is His. Made in his image. And nothing we can subsequently do can make God love us more. Or less.

We are made in our Father’s image. We glorify God. Those of you who have children might remember that love that came over you the first time you saw your baby. That is only a faint shadow compared to the love God feels for each one of his children. So be assured. God loves us, very, very much. I am my Daddy’s little girl and the apple of his eye. And so are you.

But the devil will do anything to discredit God and distort his image.

Let’s look at his modus operandi.

First he casts doubt on God’s character and our relationship with him. In the garden of Eden he says to Eve, “Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?” What is his implication? Wow God is so mean. He makes this beautiful garden and won’t even let you eat anything in it. He doesn’t really love you, my dear,does he?

In fact, that was not what God said. God gave them permission to eat from any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

When he talks to Jesus in the wilderness, the first thing he says to him is “If you are the son of God…” He is trying to cast doubt on Jesus’ very identity, his love relationship with God. He is saying, in fact, prove you are the son of God. Jesus does not need to prove anything to the devil, nor do we.

The aim of the devil is to cause a rift between us and God. He does this by putting doubt in our minds about God’s love for us and our relationship with him, but also about the word of God. In the Garden of Eden he misquotes God’s word, but keeps close enough to the truth to make it sound plausible. In the wilderness he actually quotes scripture but uses it out of context. He uses verses from Psalm 91: “ He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

Jesus wisely counter quotes and says “It is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

The devil hasn’t changed his tactics. His main aim is to cause a rift between us and God and to make us believe lies. Quite often he uses people and circumstances to make us believe lies.

The fact is: We are made in God’s image and God loves us.

The devil gets the world to tell us things like,

“You are not good enough. You have never been good enough”

There are variation on this theme: You are not a good wife, or you are too old to be any use to anybody, or you are not interesting , You have to earn your value.

Another line of attack is to attack our relationship with God. It starts similar to the opening attack on Jesus, “ If you are the son of God,” In our case it usually starts, “If you were a real Christian….”

Have you ever heard any of these lies.

“If you were a real Christian, you wouldn’t be worried about going in for this operation or you wouldn’t be worried when your husband goes in for a heart by pass.”

“If you were a real Christian, you wouldn’t be suffering from depression.”

“If you were a real Christian, you wouldn’t have lost your temper.”

“If you were a real Christian, you wouldn’t have evil thoughts like that.”

All of these are lies. Being a Christian is a relationship. Once we have invited Christ into our lives, we become children of God. Our actions do not change that. Certainly we can put up a barrier by sinning against God, by turning our back on Him, but in the same way that a child is still your child even if he gets into trouble and makes wrong choices, or sulks and won’t talk to you, we are still children of God. Our humanity, that God created, does not affect that relationship. Of course we will be afraid if we face danger and possible death. Of course we will feel sad if something has happened to upset us.

Besides using people and the world to tell us lies, like the teacher who says “You will never be any good” and the friend who says, “I don’t want to be your friend, you have no personality,” the devil also uses circumstances and trauma. If you had an unhappy childhood, he will whisper, “it’s all your own fault, you deserved it.”

After a major setback or trauma like a hijacking, he will say, “See, I told you God doesn’t love you. He would never have let this happen to you if he really loved you.”

He might even quote scripture like he did to Jesus for instance, God made a number of promises to the Israelite about their 40 years in the wilderness. Their shoes and clothes would not wear out, none of them would miscarry, the diseases of Egypt would not affect them. The devil might use some of these texts and say, “see God does not keep his promises. Your daughter had a miscarriage. God does not love you. He can’t be trusted.”

God never promised a trouble fee life. He never promised to protect us from problems and disasters. In fact Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble, but behold, I have overcome the world.

So how can we defend ourselves.? Like Jesus we need to know the word of God to be able to see God’s word as a whole and not just isolated texts here and there.

We need to focus on the facts revealed by God.

Fact 1. We are made in the image of God.

Fact 2. God loves us very very much, more than any human love that we have ever known or ever heard of.

Fact 3. God has a plan for our lives and it was planned before we were born. God has a plan for our whole lives and not just two thirds of our lives.

Fact 4. God has made it possible for us to be forgiven, no matter what.

Fact 5. God has prepared a mansion in heaven for us where we can live with him forever.

These are the facts. Are you going to believe the facts of God, or the lies of the devil?

When negative thoughts come into your head, Ask yourself, is this of God or is this a lie of the devil?

I want to tell you a story about believing a lie also by Greg mc Kinnon.

There in the middle of the chickens was an eagle. It was a full grown, king of all birds eagle! But he was scratching in the dirt looking for worms, insects and seeds. He was clucking and cackling and flapping his wings as he flew just a few feet at a time.

This eagle had a six foot wing span that would allow him to fly above the clouds, but instead he was just fluttering around on the ground. His keen eyesight and sharp talons were supposed to make him a threat to every small bird and mammal anywhere near him. Yet the only thing he was a threat to was some unsuspecting worm he might happen to unearth.

Why in the world was this eagle acting like a chicken? Here is the story: An Indian brave found the eagle egg and he didn’t know what to do with it, so he put it in the nest of a prairie chicken. The eaglet hatched and grew up with the other chicks. He never saw another eagle – only chickens. All his life he thought he was a prairie chicken. He mimicked their every move.

One day when the eagle was growing old, he looked up into the sky and saw an eagle soaring on the wind far above him. “What a beautiful bird!” the eagle said to the chicken next to him. “What is it?”

“That’s an eagle – the king of all birds,” the chicken clucked, “but don’t give it a second thought. You could never be like him.”

Don't believe lies - they might stop you from achieving your full potential.

Wherever I go, I go too...and spoil everything

I have been thinking about sin. My ideas come from many books I have read, many sermons I have heard and formal studies I have been required to do but they must not be regarded as church doctrine or Christian doctrine. They are merely the result of my personal reflections on the matter and the accumulation of impressions that have made sense to me.

I believe God made the universe perfectly. He built into it various laws that hold it in place. These are not only physical laws, like the law of Gravity or the law of thermodynamics, but also spiritual laws. What we regard as the phenomenon of cause and effect is our observation of these laws in action. God made us, humans, in love, out of love and through love. He made us for Himself - to express His love and He made us for Love - to love Him, to be in a relationship with Him and with each other. Not wanting love from mere automatons, God gave us the greatest gift He could - free will. We could choose to love Him, or not. We could choose to obey Him, or not.

Whether the Garden of Eden is literal or figurative, the message is the same. The devil, who is against God and all He stands for, set out a choice before man. "If you eat of this fruit, you can be like God..." In other words, you don't need to obey God. You can make up your own rules.
You can be your own god. That is what man chose.

The result was a cause and effect thing. God created the whole universe for man that He had created to be in a relationship with Him and as a result of man's decision, there was a subtle shift in the fabric of creation. Creation fell and was no longer a friendly place for man. In other words, the relationship between man and creation that was supposed to be, was broken.

In the same way, Man fell. As a microbiologist my best picture is of a nucleotide poison that entered his body (spirit? will?) and got into his DNA. There it inhibited some of the perfect functions of the genetic material so that various imperfections came about. The body would no longer last forever, but get old, die and decay. Abnormalities could arise. These abnormalities were not any immediate change but rather a potential for the future. The worst effect, however, was a breaking of the relationship with God. Fear came in for the first time. The change was a change in tendency, a new direction alignment. So instead of focussing on God, loving Him and relying on Him as God, the default setting was now to focus on ourselves as god.

The third effect was in breaking the relationship between man and man. What was meant to be a community of love, encompassed by God's all-embracing love, became a collection of little gods, all wanting the best for themselves and not caring about the effect of others. Instead of love, there was now suspicion and fear. Man was now a flawed creature. That is sin. The actions that follow from this flaw eg murder, anger, slefishness, they are sins.

These changes were in the very fabric of nature, possibly even in the atoms or quarks and because they were in the genetic material, they were carried over into each new generation.

God choose a people for himself and made a covenant with them. He gave them the 10 commandments. If they followed them perfectly, they would not commit the sins that result from the flawed nature and the relationship with God could go ahead although not in the originally intended love community. The first one is "You shall have no other god before me". That deals with the broken relationship with God. The other 9 have to do with how we treat other people.
Jesus summarised the commandments by saying "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and you should love your neighbour as yourself." The problem is, all these commandments are actions but the basic flaw is a tendency.

Little children do not need to be taught to be selfish. That is their tendency. They do not need to be taught to grab a toy away from another child. It is inherent. They are gods and the world is there to serve them. Left to themselves, they would grow up not much better than animals, relying on basic instincts like hunger, self preservation, sexual instinct.

However, still in man is a genetic memory. He was created for God and there is a God-shaped vacuum inside him. Something deep inside him knows what is right. We instinctively know we should be truthful and feel hurt when somebody lies to us. We know that courage is to be admired and selfishness is to be deplored but we don't have the necessary ingredient, perhaps it is strength, to be able to always do what we know to be right. We make resolutions and sometimes have a bit of success but it is always a battle against our default setting. Most people find it easier to lie than to tell the truth. We have to teach our children to share and to be kind to others. So often we know what is the right thing to do but we don't do it - then we berate ourselves afterwards. This the human condition - sin. It leads to the feeling of "wherever I go, I go too and spoil everything." Paul described it as "..what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do" (Rom 7:15)

This tendency leads to the actions of sin. In an extrovert, it is easy to pick up the tendency in conversation. The entertaining conversation consists of what I did, how I felt, how I told the so and so what's what. Long stories where I am the hero because I am my god. In introverts it is much more subtle and might go unnoticed. I think people are talking about me, I am hurt, I am over-sensitive. The centre of my world is still me. Again I know what is right. I must forgive.
I must not hold onto grudges, I must not keep remembering the hurt that was done to me so many years ago but my natural tendency resists. We live in a constant tension of not being able to quite come up to the mark. That is one definition of sin - missing the mark.

The better of us spend our lives striving to do what is right. We probably do not murder, commit adultery, lie (well not much anyway) or steal. Maybe we covet, but coveting never hurt anybody, did it. Maybe we don't abuse people but we ignore them or treat them as of no importance, or just, in our preoccupation with ourselves and our own little problems, we don't even notice them.(after all, we are the gods here) However, if we look at humanity as a whole, we see the outward expressions of the inward tendency. Our newspapers are full of the outward expression of the human condition - corrupt politicians, hijackers, murderers. The bottom line is we have broken God's laws. Even if we have kept 9 out of the 10 commandments 90% of the time, we have still broken the conditions of the contract. We have still broken God's law. That means we are sinners - whether we like the title or not. We like to compare ourselves to others and there are many people who we think are much greater sinners than we are. We are not rapists, serial killers, child abusers, thieves or corrupt despots. Neither are we Mother Theresa. Although Mother Theresa was a very good woman, she would have been the first to admit that she was not perfect and that she was a sinner, falling far short of God's requirements. Where does that leave us?

Storms and Boats

Imagine you were a boat builder. You wanted to build a boat that would be your last and would be your masterpiece. All the skills you had refined over many years of boatbuilding would be utilized for this, your best project.

You’d use the best materials and design. You wanted your boat to last. Not to be a showpiece in some fancy Sandton toys for big boys shop, but a boat that could go to sea, could withstand salt water, buffeting winds, relentless hammering waves. You’d make it strong.

Then you’d take your boat out to test it. You wouldn’t go on a calm day on a peaceful pond. A sea going vessel can only be tested on the sea and you’d thrill as it weathered storms and cut through the challenging waves.

We are living in perilous times. You only have to look around you to realize that. You only have to read a newspaper, listen to the TV or even talk to other people. Life is not plain sailing.

And God knows that.

I recently listened to a tape by Tom Inglis called “Born for storms.”

He says God created us for storms.

That made a lot of sense to me. We all know that life is full of problems and trials, challenges and setbacks. Even the bible says so.

2Ti 3:1 says, "but this know, in the last days perilous times will come"

If God knows everything, then of course He would have created us to be able to cope with whatever life will throw at us. I don’t think God intended us for a life of ease, with no challenges to overcome, no victories to celebrate.

What happens when there is a major disaster? Like the twin towers of September 11^th?
Stories of bravery emerged, stories of helping each other, of pulling together. Sometimes it takes a crisis to get the best out of people. With the recent outbreak of xenophobia, the ordinary people of South Africa were amazing in rallying round to do something to help the displaced people.

God’s plan for us is that we should be the best that He intended for us. He wants us to grow more and more like Jesus. He is more interested in our growth and maturity than in our happiness. He uses storms to grow us. Even Jesus had to face storms.

So God allows storms in our lives so that we can grow. But the good news is, the storms are tailored to our ability to withstand them.

! Cor 10:13 says “Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people, But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out.”

Isn’t that great? We are destined to be over comers. We are destined to win. The devil is destined to loose.

So God sends storms tailor made for us to emerge stronger and victorious.

So how do we handle storms? How do we handle all the bad stuff that comes up in our lives?

James 1:2 tells us:
“My brothers, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure. Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

God never promised us that we would have no problems. What He did promise is that he would be with us. Psalm 23 says, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me.”

Let’s look at how the disciples handled a storm. Jesus had been busy all day, preaching, telling parables. The disciples had been involved too. At the end of a busy day, Jesus says, “ Come let us cross over to the other side.” Wow! a chance to go somewhere with Jesus. Let’s go.

The bible tells us they took Jesus with them. It is always a good idea to take God with you when you are going somewhere. Of course first, they had to leave the crowd. Why? Because the crowd didn’t want to go where Jesus was going. In general we will find we will have to leave the crowd to go with Jesus. We will need to go against what is popular and considered the social norm. The disciples were happy to do that.

Suddenly a strong wind blew up, and the waves began to spill over into the boat, so that it was about to fill with water.

Now most of this crew were fishermen. Don’t you think they had come across storms before? So they used the skills they had learned before. They took down the sail, angled the prow to the wind and started bailing water as it splashed into the boat.

But it wasn’t working this time. The water was coming in as fast as they were chucking it out. What to do?

Ah! We forgot. We have God in the boat with us. Quick, call on Him!

One of them is delegated for the job. He comes back in a short while.

“Guys, I have good news and I have bad news. God is in the boat with us.’Yay, all cheer! “ The bad news is - he’s asleep”

Well, go and wake Him ups for heavens’ sake, before we all drown. It’s amazing to think that these disciples really believed that they were all going to drown, God with them. So they wake him up. “Teacher, don’t you care that we are going to drown?’

This is an honest, desperate plea. No fancy words or polite phrases. It’s telling it like it is. So Jesus woke up and spoke to the wind. He addressed the storm. “ Be quiet, “ he said, “Be still.” Then He said to His disciples “Why were you so frightened? Have you still no faith?” The disciples were filled with awe. They had not realized how powerful the one with them was.

Did the disciples learn from the experience anything of value? Anything that they would not have learned if there had been no storm?

You bet! They learned how mighty Jesus is. They had had a life changing experience. Their faith and their trust grew in leaps and bounds.

Was it a comfortable experience? No way! They were wet and soggy, bailing to exhaustion, pitching and tossing on an angry sea. They were really frightened and had got beyond their ability to cope.

God is not interested in our comfort, but in our growth. If any of you have watched survivor, how many of them said it was an experience of a life time. Yet were they comfortable? Not in the least. It was much worse than they expected. But God’s rules of the universe decree when you face storms with the right attitude, you grow.

So what can we learn from this? First of all, if we are facing a storm right now, know that we are overcomers. God made us for storms. We will get through. We are destined to be victorious. We need to do everything in our power to help ourselves. We can use all the coping skills that we have learned in the past, seek help if necessary, rely on our support system.

Secondly, always go with God. Take Him with us in the boat. Sure, there are times when he seems to be asleep. The situation just gets worse and worse and it seems like

our prayers are falling on deaf ears. Remember, God will not allow us to be tested beyond what we can endure. Persevere.

Wake him up. Be honest. Tell Him you are afraid. Tell Him you are angry with Him because it seems like He doesn’t care. Storms are a time for fellowship with God. Almost anybody you meet who has got through some kind of struggle will tell you how they got closer to God through it.

Then, trust Him. Just leave it up to Him. There is nothing really else that you can do anyway.

One version of James says, “Count it all joy when you face various trials.”

Don’t moan, don’t complain, don’t grumble. Count it all joy. You will overcome.

Broken

This morning I picked up my porcelain doll from the chair where she sits and, with a clinking sound, the top of her head came off in 8 or 9 fragments. She had looked fine. Nobody could have carefully arranged the pieces to stay together so I must conclude she did not drop on the floor. Perhaps something fell on her head or she was hit by an idle broom or something.
I love that doll. I made her myself about 10 years ago. She is the size of a newborn baby and she's got a soft body which is very cuddleable.
I am hoping that with a bit of strong glue and a lot of patience I will be able to mend her and perhaps hide the cracks under her wig.

Aren't we all like that? We are broken. Circumstances which were beyond our control have worked together to break us in some way or other. Sometimes we can hide the cracks and we pretend we are whole but sometimes it is beyond hiding. We are surrounded by other broken people, all hiding their cracks and pretending till we think we are the only broken one.

It brings to mind a strange dream I had last night. I dreamt I had a baby boy who had fairly big ears. He also had the capacity to open his ears and one could see the earhole opening wider. His father didn't like his big ears and flicked him painfully around each ear and told him to stop opening his ears. Such a look of pain crossed that baby's face that it still brings tears to the back of my eyes. Then slowly and painfully he started retracting his ears into his head until there were no signs of an ear at all. I knew that he would never hear again for the rest of his life and he was only 6 months old. That was a broken baby.

They say that we are all the characters in our dreams. What does that say about me? Broken I know about but deaf?