Hier is die fotos van die Augustus 2010 InVino event… Suzaan en Anita van Oemf eethuis het ons op ‘n reis gevat om te ontdek hoe wonderlik wyn en kos mekaar komplimenteer! Dit was ‘n heerlike interaktiewe aand gewees waartydens ses verskillende wyne en “tasters” geniet is, en almal lekker saam gesels en geleer het oor die smake, teksture en geure van elk! Lyk na pret né? Sien julle by die volgende event!

written by Dries Cronje — about his recent visit to the Taizé Community…

When is the last time you fell asleep under a tree? This year? Last year? Likely not any time recently… It is not something that happens often in a society that is all about faster, and even more about… well, more! Still, if you stepped out of your hectic life and slowed down, got into a healthy spiritual rhythm and spent some time in solitude and silence, God could really use that to shape and direct you.

I fell asleep under a tree… on Friday, 3 September 2010. And the funny thing is… I’m not someone who sleeps easily during the day! Quite the contrary. I’m a go-getter. An activator… always on the move. Concerned with doing as much as possible with my time!

Yet, here I was – sleeping under a tree… in France.

What happened?!

I arrived at the Taizé Community on Sunday, 29 August 2010. I was going to spend a week here. Little did I realize how powerful an effect this week would have on me…

Taizé is a community of about 70 brothers who took a monastic oath and are living in celibacy, poverty, and simplicity. They offer people, especially young people, the opportunity to come and join them for a week, and to be exposed to:

1. Their rhythm of prayer, bible reflection and meditative singing three times daily,
2. The simplicity of their lives, and
3. Ample time for solitude and silence out in nature, something that is absolutely unheard of in our in-a-hurry 21^st century world.

During a visit to Taizé, you gain insight and respect for the size of the sacrifice these men are making to live a life committed to God only.

I was there courtesy of echurch, my own family of brothers and a sister on a mission to make an impact for Christ in South Africa and the virtual world. It turns out that this opportunity is a gift larger than any that I have ever received…

I went to Taizé with the goal of trying to discern what my ultimate destiny is… I wanted to discover that one unique thing that I alone could offer to the rest of the world. I guess my reason for wanting to know this is that it would be easier to give my all my effort and time to a vision that I knew was truly mine and unique to me – my ‘ultimate calling’ or something like that.

However, God, as He usually does, had other plans. He was not going to help me find or discover some outer purpose to my life.

An outer purpose has something to do with doing and the future results of the doing… An outer purpose actually changes throughout your life. Initially it is just to grow up. Then, it becomes to learn whatever you need to learn in order to function healthily in our world. After that, your outer purpose has something to do with making a living, and leaving an impact on the world through your efforts and creativity. This happens in various ways, and what exactly it is that you are doing typically changes as you progress through life. After that, you retire and any serious outer purpose diminishes…

No. God intended for me to make a discovery that has everything to do with my inner life purpose. My primary purpose on earth. A purpose I share with every other human being on the planet. This inner purpose that we all share is also the purpose of God’s work with all his people today… Every today that there ever is!

An inner purpose is more about being than doing.

An outer purpose has a lot to do with what you do. Your inner purpose is all about how you do whatever it is that you are doing. If you get the how right, in other words, if you can fulfill your inner purpose, you will not care about the results of the what that you keep yourself busy with. Success or failure will not be important in whatever you do, because you will already be successful to the highest degree possible.

So… you must be fairly curious by now. What is this inner purpose that we all share? According to Jesus, the inner purpose of every human being is to awaken to the higher reality that He calls the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven. This is also sometimes called the reign of God, but I prefer Eugene Peterson’s phrase of our ‘God reality’. It truly is an alternative reality to what we are used to…

We normally assume that Jesus remarks about the kingdom of God refer to heaven – a ‘post-mortem’ destination that we might or might not be allowed into.

However, I am firmly convinced that the kingdom of God is an alternative reality that we can enter into here and now, on earth. A different level of consciousness that makes all the difference. And God longs for us to live from this reality here and now — it is our only hope to experience life as He meant for it to be experienced, and for our lives to mean something on a larger scale.

Life is a gift from God. He wants us to live it with a sense of peace and joy. The kingdom of God is all about deep inner contentment, peace and joy. About the end of all self-inflicted suffering. It is the end of striving to fit in. The end of trying to achieve success in whatever form. The end of wanting and fearing. The end of all worry and anxiety.

Living with the kingdom of God as your constant reality, you won’t really care too much about success in the way that the world around you defines it. The world’s type of success is all about attaining, reaching, striving, possessing, achieving, etc. If you fulfill your inner purpose, you will already be successful, and you will feel it. You will not need anything.

The peace and joy that Jesus speaks about is real feelings… and yes, you can feel these if the kingdom of God is your reality. With these feelings as your constant companions, you won’t rely on realizing some dream, living in a bigger home, getting a better job, or finding your perfect soul mate for happiness. You will already be perfectly happy and content.

Please note… I am not saying that none of those things will happen to you. All I am saying is that you won’t really care or worry about whether they will happen to you, or when they will happen to you. You will be freed of anticipation, worry and anxiety. And I bet the quality of whatever you do will improve in leaps and bounds, while filling the world with a positive energy instead of polluting it with negativity.

Human beings suffer from an illusion of separation from everything and everyone around them, including God. This illusion causes fear, and this fear causes all kinds of suffering. Some people even believe that fear is the opposite of love, based on what John wrote in 1 John 4:18: “… perfect love expels all fear” (NLT).

The core of the message of Jesus is that somewhere deep within us, we are part of a reality where we will feel and experience union with God, other human beings and all of creation. It is much more than a concept we need to ‘know’ in our minds… it is a reality we need to experience. In this reality we will feel deeply loved, and there will be no more fear. Maybe this explains why Jesus and his disciples could remain filled with joy even while they were being martyred and murdered… Why they did not need to get angry, or blame their persecutors.

And maybe that is also why Jesus prayed for forgiveness for those who killed him… They truly didn’t know what they were doing. They were unconscious to the only truly real reality there is.

References to the alternative reality of the kingdom of God are found in most if not all the letters Paul wrote to his early congregations. When Paul writes that we are now “in Christ,” he is referring to this alternative reality – this new realm of consciousness and awareness that we have entered. He keeps on reminding us how we need to stay “in Christ,” and he likens this to some marathon that we are running. We need to ‘run’ in a certain way otherwise we might be disqualified.

All this sounds like things that I have heard over and over in my life. Yet, at some level, something clicked during my time at Taizé. It is as if these phrases that I have read and heard so many times have taken on a brand new deeper meaning… Somewhere deeper than my mind and my thoughts, I now know this to be true. Maybe it has something to do with experience! Maybe if you feel the peace and joy and the sense of connectedness to God and everything around you, then you move into a realm beyond mere knowledge.

Maybe once you realize that the life-essence – the Christ-consciousness – that is inside you is inside every other life form created, and you can sense this connection, you can feel it… maybe then things change… I believe that this is part of what I experienced.

Now, looking forward, I need to run this race to its completion. I need to honor and respect this deeper reality that I have experienced. I need to discipline myself so that I focus on this reality with everything I have in me – because the world’s false reality is still active all around me. If I lose focus I might just be lured back into a life of anxiety, a life of striving, where my focus is on the illusions of tomorrow rather than the bliss of a wide-awake today (Matthew 6:31-34).

If I can manage to stay conscious of “Christ in me” as Paul calls it so often, I will do everything that I do differently… better. If I manage to feel the peace and joy constantly and to live from that peace and joy, I will also be spreading that peace and joy and infecting others with it… No matter what I do! The how changes… Not necessarily the what.

A part of awakening to the reality of the kingdom of God is to overcome the false identity we have created for ourselves. We all have certain labels that we apply to ourselves in the false belief that these labels will provide us comfort and a sense of belonging when we are being treated badly or criticized.

Am I an Afrikaner, a web designer, a Protestant Christian, a photographer, a writer, a mystic, a teacher, a coach, a consultant, or an elder at my church? Do I find any comfort in any of these labels?

Or… am I a manifestation of life, with the life-essence of God vibrating at my very core? Am I a center of consciousness who needs to overcome my fears – illusory fears – and take a torch of faith, hope and love into a dark world? Do I have the primary purpose of adding flavor to a bland-tasting world, of adding color to a black and white world?

I think the answer to the above is quite clear and obvious.

Spending some time far from everyone you love is something that takes you out of your comfort zone. If you are out of telephone contact or Internet contact, in a foreign country, it feels like a bit of a boot camp to your ego. All this was an integral part of the Taizé experience for me, and I think it added to the necessary pressure that I needed to experience to realize what was right in front of my eyes all along.

I have taken on many identities in my life. I have enthusiastically launched many new projects and aimed really high with some noble ambitions. However, spending too much time in the future, anxious about what might or might not be, added to the memory of past mishaps, has prevented me from bearing much fruit on any of my adventures.

Instead of pouring out my whole being into what I did, and thereby making sure that it would add value, I was too worried about the results of my doing…

It is like Seth Godin writes: “Anxiety is practicing failure in advance.”

If, however, I allow the presence of Christ – his consciousness – to fill me and flow through me, my past becomes totally irrelevant – not applicable! My future is also not an issue – I already have all that matters, inside me! And I am much, much more than (merely!) a worldly success. I am a completely new creature. In fact, there is no longer any I separate from Christ. He lives through me. I am merely a willing vessel.

I now know that… The one thing I do not know is why I couldn’t grasp this earlier. Why did I need to travel halfway across the world to ‘see’ what has been so obvious all along.

I guess I will never know the answer to that. However, what I will know is this: “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need” (Matthew 6:33, NLT).

Isn’t knowing that worth more than anything else?

Lectio Divina

Luk 19:1. EN Hy het in Jérigo gekom en daar deurgegaan.
2. En daar was ‘n man met die naam van Saggéüs, ‘n hoof van die tollenaars en ‘n ryk man.
3. En hy het probeer om Jesus te sien, wie Hy was; maar vanweë die skare kon hy nie, omdat hy klein van persoon was.
4 . En hy het vooruit gehardloop en in ‘n wildevyeboom geklim, sodat hy Hom kon sien, want Hy sou daarlangs verbygaan
5. En toe Jesus by die plek kom, kyk Hy op en sien hom en sê vir hom: Saggéüs, maak gou en klim af, want Ek moet vandag in jou huis bly.
6 . Hy maak toe gou en klim af en het Hom met blydskap ontvang.
7 . En toe almal dit sien, het hulle gemurmureer en gesê: Hy het by ‘n sondige man tuisgegaan.
8. Maar Saggéüs het gaan staan en aan die Here gesê: Here, kyk, die helfte van my goed gee ek vir die armes; en as ek van iemand iets afgepers het, gee ek dit vierdubbel terug.
9. Toe sê Jesus aan hom: Vandag het daar redding vir hierdie huis gekom, aangesien hierdie man ook ‘n seun van Abraham is
10. Want die Seun van die mens het gekom om te soek en te red wat verlore was.

AA-Stap 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Moeilikheid van bely

1. EN Hy het in Jérigo gekom en daar deurgegaan.
2. En daar was ‘n man met die naam van Saggéüs, ‘n hoof van die tollenaars en ‘n ryk man.

Die probleem van Jerigo, ‘n tollenaar en ryk wees.

Kyk na die sub-tekste oor verslawing:

• Verloën wie hy werklik is.
• Hy vat en kry nie genoeg nie.
• Jy vat wat nie joune is nie.

Hoekom loop ons die pad?

• Vra diep innerlike refleksie. Om wakker te word uit die movie!
• Kan nie bekostig om my te sien soos wat ek werklik is nie!
• Kry blik op jou wonde en seer – nie net dit wat ek gedoen het nie – maar ook wat aan my gedoen is!
• Geestelike reis deur die eeue begin met: Reiniging. Salig is die wat arm is van Gees…’’begging dependance and brokenness”

6 van die 12 stappe gaan oor selfondersoek en om amendamente in jou lewe te maak!

Moralism as betrayal van Jesus – Eugene Peterson

7 . En toe almal dit sien, het hulle gemurmureer en gesê: Hy het by ‘n sondige man tuisgegaan.

“I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not hide my iniquity.” (PS. 32:5)

Dalk drie tipe-belydenisse:
• Crowds
• Boom
• Huis

Lloyd C. Douglas in his classic, “The Mirror” – “Zacchaeus,” said the carpenter gently, “What did you see that made you desire this peace?” “Good master — I saw mirrored in your eyes — the face of the Zacchaeus I was meant to be.” Ons word nie regtig verander na iemand anders wat ek nie eers kan herken nie – jy ontmoet wie veronderstel was om nog altyd te wees en hoe jy geskape is.

Om terug te gee

8. Maar Saggéüs het gaan staan en aan die Here gesê: Here, kyk, die helfte van my goed gee ek vir die armes; en as ek van iemand iets afgepers het, gee ek dit vierdubbel terug.

“Restitution” means that we will make right the things we have done wrong in so far as possible.

Teologiese begronding: God wat die hele aarde en Skepping in Jesus wil herstel en wil regmaak soos wat dit behoort te wees.

Dit gaan nie oor:
om aan die veilige kant te speel….
skuld…
plig
psigologiese verligting nie

of ‘n ondeurdagte of onvoorbereide daad…

In OT was daar verskillende wetgewing vir restitusie: (Ex 22 en Lev 5). Restitusie gaan nie oor enige voorskriftelikheid of redelike kompensasie nie – dit gaan om te wees soos wat God self is!

James 5:16 Amp “Confess to one another, therefore, your faults, and pray also for one another, that you may be healed and restored, to a spiritual tone of mind and heart. The earnest heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available, dynamic in its working.”

Wilma en twee van haar vriendinne kuier die afgelope twee jaar gereeld saam. Hierdie mamma-trio deel hul lief en leed oor kinders grootmaak. Lucca wat nou twee jaar oud is, is gewoonlik baie opgewonde as Stef en Lika kom kuier. Wat vir my baie interressant is, is hoe die vriendskap tussen die baba-trio verander. Die begin was baie maklik – hulle het skaars notisie van mekaar geneem – mekaar alles gegun en sou nou en dan ‘n glimlag gegee. Die geringste geluide en aandag veskaf die grootste plesier. Dit is asof die instinktiewe behoeftes na aanraking, sekuriteit, aanvaarding, erkenning, beheer en mag op hierdie ouderdom sonder veel moeite of stoornisse vervul word. Al is dit wesentlik dat hierdie emosionele geluksprogram van ‘n kind vervul word, gebeur dit op hierdie ouderdom baie makliker omdat kinders dan nog nie ‘n vaste identiteit ontwikkel het nie en hulself eerder sien as deel van alles.
Verlede Woensdag kon ek sien dat hierdie eenheid enharmonie nie deel is van ons genetiese poel nie. Lucca is tans baie erg oor Barney. Dit is sy stapelvoedsel – die verslawende wysies straf my ‘n paar keer elke dag. Dit gebeur toe dat Stef naby Wilma en sy Barney-dvd kom staan. Lucca gryp die Barney dvd-kassie en slaan Stef oor die kop en waarsku hom ook dat dit ‘my mamma’ is! Stef het uitgebars van die huil. Lucca het pak gekry. Nou ja, die verleentheid was erg. In sulke tye wonder ‘n mens gewoonlik of die kind na sy pa of ma aard… Ek en Wilma het gelyk geantwoord: Nie na my nie! Ek spot maar gewoonlik dat dit ‘n Joubert-ding is (my skoonma se nooiensvan!).
Lucca word as tweejarige nou meer bewus van sy emosionele geluksprogram. Hy kom agter dat daar dinge is wat hy kan doen wat sy instinktiewe behoeftes vervul. Sy lewe bestaan uit oorsaak-en-gevolg. Sy gedrag moet aanhoudend sy behoeftes na sekuriteit, aanvaarding, selfwaarde, beheer en mag vervul.
Die probleem met enige emosionele geluksprogram is dat daar altyd kortsluitings plaasvind. Geen pa of ma is perfek nie. Onderwysers, oupa’s en ouma’s kan hierdie instinktiewe behoeftes ook nie volkome vervul nie. Wanneer ons emosionele geluksprogramme nie vervul word nie, bring dit diep wonde. Dit beïnvloed wat ons dink en glo van onsself. Die enigste uitweg vir oorlewing is om ‘n persona of gedrag te skep om die emosionelegeluksprogram te maak werk. ‘n Kind wat nie liefde kry nie, skep bloot nuwe gedrag om daardeur liefde te kry. Omdat hierdie gedrag nie bewustelik is nie, is dit moeilik om die gedrag te onderskei. Dit is gewoonlik die tydperk waar die kind oor-identifiseer met objekte. Iemand wat nie bewus is van sy emosionele geluksprogram nie, sal oor-identifiseer met ras, kultuur, godsdiens, familie of enige objek wat hierdie instinktiewe behoeftes vervul. Die identifikasie is met ekstrene bronne waarna die kind kyk om sy geluk te verower.
Ouers moet hulle kinders begelei na ‘n interne emosionele geluksprogram. Die kind moet sy ekstrene wêreld ontdek – maar ook sy innerlike wêreld. Daarom is emosies, begeertes, vrese, drome en ons innerlike wêreld van uiterse belang. Pa’s sukkel veral om hierdie wêreld van emosies te wys. Ouers kan strewe na emosionele heelheid vir hulle kinders deur:

• Eerstens hierdie wêreld te spieël. Dit beteken dat ouers kinders help om hulle emosies te verwoord. So ontwikkel daar emosionele intelligensie. Ek verstaan dat wetenskaplikes praat van spiëel-neurone wat in ons ontwikkel. Richard Rohr het onlangs in Kaapstad vertel dat daar ontdek is dat baie moordenaars nie spieël-neurone besit nie. Dit kan terug herlei word na ‘n afwesige pa en ma wat nooit hulle innerlike en emosionele landskap herken het nie.
• Die erkenning van emosies – veral wanneer die emosionele geluksprogram in duie stort. Woorde soos: “Pappa weet jy is bly, of pappa weet jy is hartseer…” kan kinders help om hul eie emosies te identifiseer. Indien negatiewe emosies ontken word, bring dit skuldgevoelens en die kind ontwikkel verdedigingsmeganismes om sy emosies te ontken.
• Enige emosionele geluksprogram moet in God vervul word. God nooi ons ook na ‘n bruilof en feesmaal! Gehoorsaamheid moet emosioneel wees omdat dit van liefde praat. Die een vertaling van Gal 5 is: “Die werk wat sy teenwoordigheid in ons tot stand bring is liefde, vrede…”
Die vraag sal dan wees hoe ek my kind kan help dat die Heilige Gees self hierdie emosionele geluksprogram herskryf.
En dit is die primêre roeping van elke ouer.

Lectio Divina

Matt 16:24-26: ‘Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?’

Step 3: ‘I decide to give up ‘playing God’ and to surrender myself as completely as I can to God.’

Man is the creature who wants to be God. Jean-Paul Sartre

Daar is iets inherents binne ons wat wil volg. Baie sigbaar as jy klein is. Kinders dophou – neem nie lank nie dan is volg hulle iemand. Speletjie “Follow the leader”. Hoe ouer ons word hoe minder wil ander volg – dan draai dit om – wil graag hê mense moet my volg.

“I don’t know Who – or what – put the question. I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone – or Something – and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.” Dag Hammarskjöld

“But the explanation of how man should live a life of active social service in full harmony with himself as a member of the community of spirit, I found in the writings of those great medieval mystics [ Meister Eckhart and Jan van Ruysbroek ] for whom ‘self-surrender’ had been the way to self-realization, and who in ‘singleness of mind’ and ‘inwardness’ had found strength to say yes to every demand which the needs of their neighbours made them face, and to say yes also to every fate life had in store for them when they followed the call of duty as they understood it.”

Wiskrag vs Gewilligheid
My ego is no longer central. It is no longer impor- tant that I … have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Galatians 2:20 Msg
… quit being so full of your- selves and so obsessed with money … go after God …1 Timothy 6:17 Msg

“Society had taught me to say no rather than yes, to try to determine my own destiny taher than give myself, to seek mastery rather than surrender. For a long time, I tried to believe that I could learn enough and sterngthen my will enough to take complete charge of my own life, but it never quite seemed to work.” G May

Self mastery eerder self-surrender.

•  Coping-mentality: Kan jou probeleme oplos deur net introspekse en presies te weet hoe werk jou koppie en verlede. Die woord “deurwerk” is waaroor dit gaan..
•  Happiness-mentality: As jy die regte dinge doen gaan jy geluk vind.Indien jy nie happy is nie, dan doen jy iets verkeerd. As jy sleg voel kry ‘n pil, luister Dr Pil en kry die gos-pil.
•  Growth-mentality: Dit gaan oor potensiaal wat vrygestel moet word.

As jy mooi kyk na die benaderings het alles te doen met dinge wat jy moet kry! Die Bybel se pad is dinge wat jy moet laat gaan.

“ “Most of us are engaged in endlessly inventive evation…of the experience of God that we claim to desire.” Janet Ruffing.

Hoe gee ek myself oor?

Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. 12:1 Msg

Om oor te gee gaan oor vertroue. Daarom is die via van Jesus geloof, oorgee en vertrou. Die oorgee is nie aan ‘n konsep of idee nie – maar aan ‘n lewende verhouding.

Woorde en intensies is ook nie so belangrike nie. Te veel verhoop die perfekte manier om na God toe te gaan. (Wonder of dit die boosheid self is nie aangesien Lucifer se naam light-bearer beteken…) Dit gaan nie oor regte en verkeerde geloof nie – maar oor die oorgee aan die regte God. Hy stel homself voor aan jou!

Dit gaan nie oor een vinnig kits besluit waarin jy die hemel verower het nie, dit gaan nou oor ‘n elke dag se oorgee in alles wat ek is en het waarin ek my willfullness kan oorgee in willingness (Rom 12:1).

Communitas… Om eenkeer per week in die kerk te wees is om in ‘n gat in ons bestaan in te gaan waar daar geen onderskeidings is tussen mense nie. Die wat saam gestuur is — Communitas — moet mekaar sien as mede ligpunte vir die wêreld… Nie as man of vrou, arm of ryk, mooi of lelik, skoon of vuil… ens.

Vocatio… In ons soeke na God, is dit belangrik om te besef dat dualistiese, maklike antwoorde, ons verhinder op die weg. Daar is nie ‘n korrekte, kits-antwoord op elke lewensvraag nie. Van die vrae wat die lewe ons bied vereis meer as ‘n antwoord… dit vereis dat ons daarmee wandel.

Commissio… Hoekom besluit ons om tot bekering te kom? Is dit vir mening in ons lewens… vir voorspoed? Is dit omdat ons nie wil hel toe gaan nie? Of is dit om God te leer ken, en Hom alleen te begeer? Dalk is dit tyd dat mense tot bekering kom omdat hulle verlei word deur God, omdat Hy hulle lewens aangeraak het…

Communitas… Gaan kerk oor my? Oor my behoeftes? Of is die groter prentjie die saam-op-reis-wees van navolgelinge van Christus? Ons leef in ‘n wêreld van verbruikers, en soms is ons besig om die punt van ons saamwees te mis…

Hier volg die eerste deel van die THEO-logie video reeks oor mure.