Simple Thoughts on Christian Life

Groaning at God

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 00:47:00 +0000

This has got to be a real common experience for every Christian, every day.

How many times have we turned back to God and said "Well why?". "Why have you let this happen to me?"

"I haven't done anything to deserve this treatment!" i say.

"I've sinned yes. Jesus died for my sins...surely bad things shouldn't continue to occur?"

I have to refer back to Job 23 in which Job is really suffering, way more than i ever have, and he is really having a good go at God. he is asking all the 'WHY' questions.

Job writes this in verses 8-9:

I go east, but he is not there.

I go west, but I cannot find him.

I do not see him in the north, for he is hidden.

I look to the south, but he is concealed.

The difficult part for us to understand is the "time" factor. Gods time or ours? We tend to see things or compute events in our time, which is limited. Gods time is endless and infinite.

Whilst Job was complaining here, he also knew deep in his heart that God had not left him at any stage. God had a plan, Job knew it, but he didn't understand why God had left him to suffer like he was.

But reading verses 10-12, God had a purpose in the crisis and it was not to punish Job. The trial will end and good will come from the trial. Job was still valued by God

But, if God was just and a loving God, why would we need to suffer through a period of time so God could see His plans work out.

Well it says in the Word that Christians sometimes suffer for the sake of Christ - Philipians 1:29

Because we live in an evil world, dominated by evil people, evil thoughts and evil actions then suffering is bound to happen. The evil in the world was brought in through sin from Adam and Eve - but one day it will be removed and thrown into the pits of darkness! this plan of God needs to eventuate and yes some people are going to suffer for the sake of Christ to make that plan happen.

Look at how much suffering Paul Endured, and this was even after the resurrection of Jesus

". . . Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; . . . in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, . . . in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things which come upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches"

2 Corinthians 11:25-28

Having a clear perspective of the future, and an understanding of God's purpose for us, is crucial in facing life's difficulties. Only when we earnestly look forward to the glories of the Kingdom of God can we view our own sufferings in a proper perspective. Certainly our trials and difficulties are real and cannot be wished away. Yet their long-term importance pales into insignificance when compared with the sure realization of our great calling.

How has your suffering in Christ built you up?

Undo Me

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 11:04:00 +0000

First of all i need to say that this poem really hit home.
It comes from the awesome radio station www.klove.com
It was read out the other day and i just had to find it and stick it on here. I love it. I can read it over and over because it is so Real!

So thanks to KLOVE and JD Chandler for this poem. Your work in this really has got stuck in many peoples minds.

-------------------------------------

I don’t really worship these day
I don’t really stand up to praise you with songs
Or prayers or actions
or with anything
I am full of all the right moves
I am full of all the right words
I am full of all the right religion
But it is all just illusion
I am really
Lonely
Lost
Calloused
Jaded
Cynical
Too religious
Too realistic
and well really just to lazy
to worship you anymore
I have lost my first love
I have lost the joy of your presence
But most of all I have lost the fear of your glory

Father I need to see you again
Like Isaiah I want to stand in awe of your glory
To fall down at your feet
To come face to face with your
Perfection,
Radiance,
Goodness,
Holiness,
Awesomeness
I want to stand before you and see you for who you are
and me for who I am
I want to be undone

I want to know me for who I really am
I want to see the depths of my heart
And know that you are the only way
You are the only truth
You are the only life
I want to see me and understand
What it really must have taken for you to
Love me
Care for me
See me
Speak to me
Want me
Communicate with me
Die for me
Die for me
Die for me

Lord, I want to stand in that place where all I can see is your glory
And my sin
Because in that place I can’t help but worship you.
Lord let me come undone
Undo my heart
Lord, undo my heart
break down these walls that I love so much
No, wait don’t,
I’m scared I don’t know if I can handle this
don’t
But I can’t live this way anymore
I can’t stand here in this half-life
this going through the motions life
this not really alive life
Father, I need you so come in and do what you must
Cut out the tumor on my heart
Break down the walls that I love
Lord let me come undone
Undo my heart
let me worship you again

Expecting Guidance?

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 02:33:00 +0000

OK, I must admit this has been quite a turnaround and something has been telling me over the last few months to get back onto expressing feelings into “pen on paper”.

Since my last thought sometime ago, we have moved country and a lot has been happening around us between getting everything of ours sold up and sorted in one country and rebuilding in the next country.

This has brought me to writing this thought.

I woke up one night in horror and thought to myself – what the hell have I just done? Last year this time we were content in our house back in South Africa and this year we are in a new country and our lives have been turned upside down.

The scariest part of this is – I have not turned to God once throughout this process. I have not asked Him for His guidance, his protection and His direction. We have just gone ahead and done this alone and expected God to be there for us because we are Christians right?

Does it work that way?

Is it right for me to just think that now that I am a Christian and I am saved, God will just protect us and I can “Expect” that He just continues to bless us. I don’t think that’s how it works right!

How selfish and completely arrogant of me to think that I am just blessed and that God will just fit into place where expected and we will be guided.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.

I just realised that I completely ignored and disregarded this verse from Gods Word.

But God is forgiving right. I know that I can go back to Him in Prayer and ask Him to forgive me for “expecting Him” to abide and treating Him like He owes me something. That’s something God will forgive me on because it is promised in His Word.

But what got me thinking is how often do we actually do this. We go along in our daily routine and expect that We have this path laid ahead of us and everything will just be OK and work and we expect that God has led us in the right direction. Often I wake up in the morning or go to bed at night without praying or having a quiet time with God, because life got too busy and I forgot. What a ridiculous excuse, but I think it happens more often than not. Its very easy to fall out of “speaking to God”.

The thoughts on my mind are,

1. Am i alone in this? I have sinned, where does this leave me?

2. When we leave God out of our decisions and daily movements, what does this mean?

3. When we expect God to fall into place when we expect Him to guide us automatically, does He still?

4. And now that I have walked on my own path in the last while - Will it be difficult to get back on the right path with God and apologise?

I guess the best place to turn is Gods Word. Contrary to what I have done, let me turn to what God has to say about a situation as such:

Answers to the above from the Bible:

1. Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

2. Jame 1:5 - If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

3. 1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

4. a) Psalm 51:10 - Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

b) 2 Chronicles 7:14 - If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

A prayer in closing..... When times like this happen

Dear Lord, I am calling upon you today for
your divine guidance and help. I am in crisis
and need a supporting hand to keep me on the
right and just path. My heart is troubled but I will
strive to keep it set on you, as your infinite wisdom
will show me the right way to a just and right resolution.
Thank you for hearing my prayer and for staying by my side.
Amen!
For Unfailing Strength
Do not look forward to what may happen
tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares
for you today will take care of you tomorrow and
every day. Either He will shield you from suffering,
or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it.

Be at peace, then. Put aside all anxious thoughts and
imaginations, and say continually: "The Lord is my
strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in Him
and I am helped. He is not only with me but in me,
and I in Him."

Driving with Blinkers

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Tue, 05 May 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Its so funny to just notice every now and then people driving in traffic. Once getting on the freeway, its like entering a "challenge" zone.
Everyone is on a mission to go somewhere.
People stare forward, barely noticing what happens on the side of them and often not even noticing what happens in front of them. (I speak from experience).
But when you get off the freeway and drive at a slower speed in residential areas and stopping and traffic lights and the like, you start to notice people looking around more often. While stopped, they look out the side windows at shops, car sales shops, people walking on the side of the road, potential danger etc.
What you also have the opportunity of doing is noticing the small things.
Comparing this to what happens at high speed on the freeway, we hardly notice anything next to us as we are on a mission to go forward ONLY.
The only time you will probably notice something on the side of you on the freeway is if you feel threatened or in danger, this causes you to look and deal with the issue.

Shouldn't our Christian walk be the opposite to this.
I see many similarities of our Christian walk and freeway driving. We are all on a mission to get further in our Christian walk, but we do it so quickly that we fail to notice the "things" happening on the sides of us. We don't see the attempts by the devil to tackle our believes, motives and growth. We don't see distractions coming to us so by the time we actually stop or slow down, it may be too late and we are already taken off course a little.
Often these little side distractions can cause a huge diversion for us in our Christian walk, but if we took things a little slower we could have noticed the distraction and dealt with it straight away instead going through a whole part of your life away from the chosen path of Jesus!

Next thing could be the music we listen to when we drive. Why do we put music on? Its to take our mind off of the traffic and surroundings and get on with our commute. I use music because, to me, it relates very much like a cover we put over ourselves so that we don't have to deal with the darts and issues coming in from the side of us. We feel safer by not dealing with the side issues and we think that if we just go forward and get to our destination, we have succeeded and anything that happened on the side is not our problem.

But this isn't true. All those "side things" do effect us. Some of them you don't even notice, but there are some that you do see, but don't acknowledge. This is like driving past a speed sign that tells you drive at a particular speed. It doesn't effect you. You think: "I know its there, but it doesn't effect me because I normally drive the right speed. If I go over the speed limit it doesn't really matter because everyone else is doing it".
Don't we do this in our Christian walk. We know there is dangers out there, and there are warnings all over the place, but we fail to react to the warnings because we think we are ok, but actually, the question is "Are we ok? Really?"
I am not one to talk here because I go over the speed limit almost everyday, but speed kills and so does ignoring the warning signs in our Christian walk. Something may not happen today or tomorrow or even in 2 weeks time, but one day you will get caught and satans attempt to get you offtrack will succeed.

Doesn't this happen to all of us? It certainly happens to me.

What happens while off-track?

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 05:45:00 +0000

Its been a long time since I last wrote but I think maybe its time to get going again.
I have to ask the question though..
What happens when you walk off the track?
What happens when you leave the thoughts of God, leave the direction of God aside and do things 'your way'?
Is it so bad to leave God by the wayside 'just for a little while' and not have any time for Him?

I have been taught that this is bad and that we cannot live a life without Gods direction. So whenever I go off track, I think to myself: "I don't have any extra time for God, I don't have any extra time to read the Bible, I don't have any inclination to pray or to pick up even a devotional and take a look."

This is fine right?

I find it amazing that when I veer off the "God-track", I don't turn into a worse person. It doesn't make me a ungodly person with complete disregard.
So what is the point.
Well, what I also find amazing is that I had no desire to pray anymore. I would close my eyes and not actually be able to say anything. No words came to mind. Its like my mouth was closed and my brain was in shutdown - I just couldn't say anything.
Often I used to just quietly pray for someone or a situation whilst in a mall or in the street etc, but I found that without Gods direction, that has stopped. The thought didn't even enter my mind.

My bibles have been gathering dust on the bookshelf. My devotionals, Christian books, study notes have all been packed away.
Things that I used to pick up while being out and about in our world, the small things, I just wasn't able to pick up anymore.
I had great ideas, but none of them came to pass. It felt as though I had no direction in terms of being a Christian.
I am not sure what to make of this.
I can certainly tell you that a life without Gods direction and being close to Gods Word is a worthless life. Its a life with no point and no use or worth!
Nothing changed in terms of success, health, family etc but it all leads down to a direction and a "point of life", and without God close by (by my own decisions - not His) I just felt like I was living a pointless life.

I still have many questions to ask, a whole lot of uncertainty and certain doubts - but living without direction is not something I enjoy.
I can just imagine God, walking by my side everyday, even though I have deserted Him on many occasions, and just asking me to talk to Him.
He has been walking by my side even though I have disregarded His presence and have ignored His continued 'greetings', His turning and facing me and wanting to say something and I have just turned my back to do my own things.
I have, in many instances, felt a certain call to do something just out of the blue. Pray for someone, talk to someone strange, help someone, hug someone - but I just didn't do it.

I always knew I was offtrack and I had no inclination to walk back on track with God. I always said to myself - maybe at a later stage.

But you know what. After all I have done, ignored God, walked in a different direction, turned my back - God is still walking next to me every day. He is still asking to talk to me and He is still smiling at me waiting for a response.
If I just lay that past at the feet of Jesus, its over.
When I say to God - Its over and I ask for forgiveness - its forgotten!
It reminds me of the words of the brilliant song by casting crowns.

Here at Your feet, I lay my past down
My wanderings, all my mistakes down
And I am free

Here at Your feet, I lay this day down
Not in my strength, but in Yours I’ve found
All I need, You’re all I need

Here at Your feet, I lay my future down
All of my dreams, I give to You now
And I find peace, I find peace
Here at Your feet, I lay my life down
For You my King, You’re all I want now
Thank you God for always seeing me through the stupid things I have done and will do in the future!
I would love to know your experiences or thoughts if you have been "off track".

Listening to God...or not!

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Why is it so difficult to listen to God?

It says in the Bible that we need to refrain from doing things on our own but rather listen to God. What is God going to say? What is He going to do about my situation I find myself in?

Sometimes I think that we don’t listen because if its Gods that’s telling us, we have to tell Him one of two things:

“Sorry, I don’t think that’s right” – and flatly disregard Gods talking OR

“Hey, You are right” – and follow and trust in Gods way!

Frankly I am scared to think what Gods answer will be. Most of the time its not going to be the answer that I want. Its all about me and what I want to do. God is going to dampen my decision because what I am about to do is not the “Correct Christian thing to do”.

So I disregard Him. I do my own thing. I act out what I thought was correct. In the moment, I feel great! I have made my point. Problem here is, that moments don’t last forever. It’s the long time where it becomes a problem and only after awhile do I realize that I made a wrong decisions or acted without Gods advice.

I guess, by default, humans are “in the moment” creatures. Everything must happen now and in my way!

It says in the Bible that if we listen to God, He will have our back….but if we ignore Him when He was trying to tell us something – He will leave us to deal with the consequences ourselves.

SO how do I actually listen to God. I close my eyes and do what? I feel things are being told to me, I come up with thoughts but how do I know if its just my mind rolling around or if its God actually talking to me?

The force of evil is also in your mind and it is at war with you. Evil is always connected to a feeling of fear. God is connected to a feeling of peace. Satan is the accuser. God is the comforter. Evil seduces you into breaking God's law and then shames you for what you did. Evil knows where you are vulnerable. If you are afraid of being poor, evil will tempt you with money. If you have sexual vulnerabilities, evil will tempt you sexually. Satan says you are stupid, ugly, no good, broken, worthless and unlovable. The goal of the Devil is to destroy your relationship with God. Evil never wants you to communicate with God. It will laugh at you as you read these words.

One thing about Gods voice is that it will never contradict scripture (Which is Gods voice). This is why we should know scripture very well so e will always know whether Satan is trying to confuse you. Often God will talk through His scripture.

Right, so when do I do this. My mind is continually running around things of the day, thoughts of work, deadlines, family, money etc. How does God fit into this?

Well, I really don’t know…..Today, I am really confused. I feel deserted and it feels like everything that I once knew is gone? Weird…Have you thought this before?

Its like all the decisions I am making are my own, like I have never really understood listening to God and if He speaks to me, well then, I am really lucky?

What are your thoughts?

The Killer Grudge!

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Wed, 14 May 2014 06:00:00 +0000

The Grudge!
This word is probably one of the most destructive words in history.
I can talk from personal experience!

I often think to myself, will God forgive me continually for the bad things that I do and the bad thoughts that I have, continually, over and over?

I often believe that I have angered God so much that He has just given up on me and pushed me aside and now thinks "well, He has just passed the sinning threshold - now its over".
I just don't know what the problems are. I don't know how to deal with them. But the problem is, Satan loves these thoughts, because He makes you think that God has given up on you and now, you are on your own.
This becomes a big spiralling ball which gets bigger and bigger daily, and you hold more grudges, for longer and it goes on and on.....
This is a very personal subject for me and I write this from personal experience, which I struggle with on a daily basis.

I hold grudges, all the time! I think that god cant forgive me, so I cant forgive others.
The above statement is the crux of this letter. How can I forgive if I don't 'feel' forgiven?
It often feels good to hold a grudge against another person, because its what I know to do. It makes me feel like I am dealing with the situation in the way that I know best and then I write that person out of my life! Yay, I have beaten my thoughts....I have made a decision that I believe will be for the better. I believe that I don't need people like that around me so I "remove" them..

But is this for the better? Does this help?
In the short term it does! It makes me feel secure. It makes me feel strong (feelings) and it makes me feel confident.
But this is short term. The ball then starts to roll. Satan starts to work in your life and add onto these thoughts. Satan starts to make you think you don't need people like that in your life.
The problem then also is that you have so much "un-forgiveness" in your heart, that you don't believe that God has forgiven you! And because hasn't forgiven you, you cannot forgive others!

"But I just cannot seem to forgive or be merciful towards those who have wronged me! Now what?" That is because you don't truly believe that God is truly prepared to forgive you, and be merciful towards you. You cannot continue to give something that you are unable to receive.
Satan makes you believe that it is impossible to receive Gods mercy, because you cannot have mercy for others, and the other way round. (This is the rolling ball I believe starts rolling).

We are told to forgive others 70 x 7 times. Jesus was saying, basically, that we should never stop forgiving, even if it is the same person sinning against you all the time.

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

Matthew 18:21-22

I have, for a very long time now, struggled with grudges. I build walls around myself to try and protect myself and my feelings from being effected or hurt. I am now starting to realise that it is those same walls that are making me think that God is so angry with me, that He cannot forgive me. (Satan's handiwork)
These same walls are blocking the Holy Spirit from entering into our lives, to heal our hurt. These same walls that we build to protect ourselves, eventually cause our demise.

I try and try to be forgiving, but I just cant. Its like it is impossible. Many times, I am not confident in my relationship with God, and this makes me build more walls around me.
Have you ever had this feeling or experience?

To summarise, what is holding back the healing of our emotional wounds, is the fact that Satan has convinced us that we have messed up so many times, that God no longer desired to forgive or be merciful towards us. Satan wants us to feel like we could forgive others, but God would still be disappointed or angry with us. That is as far from the truth as it gets - this completely contradicts what God's Word tells us about how He delights in being merciful, and promises to forgive those who are forgiving, and be merciful towards those who are merciful towards others. God does not want to even remember our sins... He even wants them blotted out of His own mind!

Holding grudges and building walls is very damaging to your soul.
I have alot of work to do personally, to break down my walls and release my grudges. I know, that with the help of the Holy Spirit, I will be able to do this.

Let me leave you with this:
Don't tear your clothing in your grief; instead, tear your hearts." Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful. He is not easily angered. He is filled with kindness and is eager not to punish you.
Joel 2:13 (NLT)

Bless You

Gods Light

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Tue, 13 May 2014 06:33:00 +0000

I was watching a series called 'Cosmos' the other day and at the beginning of the first episode, the narrator goes on about planets and space and just big it all is.
Our little earth is so small compared to just a planet like Saturn or Jupiter and there are so many stars around that we don't see, shining bright. These planets are so far from each other, we are talking millions of miles away from each other.

And then, the narrator takes us further out an shows just our galaxy. Our galaxy consists of all these planets and stars an all sorts of beautiful creations. As He goes further into 'space', our galaxy becomes smaller and smaller, and then another galaxy pops onto the screen, one just like ours, also in in its own - has millions of stars and planets. And as the go further and further away, these galaxies start appearing on the screen, hundreds of them, now so many that each of them look like stars themselves.

Our universe is so vast! We dot know where it ends.
But what struck me in this programme, is the narrator said something which explained that we don't even know what is further out there, because we haven't been around long enough on earth to see the light of these objects in space even reach us.
Everything in space is measured in light years (The distance it takes light to travel in one year ie: 9,460,528,400,000 kilometres per year).
Everyday, new objects and stars appear to us on earth all of a sudden as their light reaches us. They are trillions and trillions of miles away, and one day, their light just appears and we give it a name.

Makes me wonder...One day, the un-imaginable light of this huge source will reach us. A light that is so crystal clear and bright that we wont be able to even look at it with our 'earthly eyes'.
Right now, that light is travelling at thousands of kilometers per hour to get to us, and when it reaches us, our world (as we know it) will change forever.
This light is the light of God. So bright, so beautiful! It will reach us - and consume our world today!
I look forward to this day, when the light of God shines on us, and the entire universe (of which we know little about) will be displayed!

Jesus - We wait for your second beautiful appearance!

Amen

God Loves Us!

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 06:15:00 +0000

I have attached a video which somehow just shows me how God loves us.

We are ridiculed because of our Father, People tell us we are crazy.

We are killed because of our Father. Our family members in other countries or been mutilated because of their belief in their Father.

Often with all of this going on, we turn against God. We turn our back and shout at Him because we don’t get our own way. We shout at Him because He is not the WE want Him to be.

Some of us are embarrassed by our Father.

But we cannot understand how God loves us. We don’t comprehend how our Father will do anything for us. His Blood is in us, He created us.

He wants us to be in a relationship with Him, We wants us to talk to Him, not be embarrassed by Him, not ignore Him but rather to share what we are upset about, Talk to Him about everything.

The difference between this video and our Father, is that our Father is perfect. Us Humans, tend to see people with deformities, like in this video, as weird and mostly don’t want them around us because they embarras us.

God deserves our time, He deserves our interest and He deserves our love.

Bless you as you watch this video.

The Power of Words

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 13:28:00 +0000

How easy is it to "Do the Word?"

Do you say things that you regret afterwards? Or sometimes don't?

You know, I think I can safely say that we all do this. We talk far too quickly, spraying words out far too loosely, even before our brain has had time to think what consequence they may have. And then, The damage is done. It cant be taken back.
Then our brains kick in and say "ooops, look what you've done!"

Lets look at Matthew 12:36-37.
“But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”

This is very scary. I can imagine myself already taking up all of Gods time with all the things I have said and meant and things that I have said and don't mean. Nevermind anybody else.
But what does this mean.
Well lets look at the word 'idle' in this verse. It basically means - words that you say that you don't believe. You could use these when you exaggerate something or add meat to a story you are telling someone, but some of the things you say, you actually don't believe in yourself.
Take this statement: "I would kill for an ice-cream!"
You obviously don't mean that you would kill someone, its just a word that expresses your feelings right?
Well yes, but its an idle word.
Most people would say, "but this is just a manner of talking or expressing something".
It is, but where does it end?
Everytime you say things that you don't really mean, it begins to effect your heart.
The only reason why we haven't killed someone for an ice cream yet, is because we don't believe in our heart what we are saying.

Our words or everything. This very world was created using words. Jesus spoke creation into being. This was a positive thought, positive words and ending up in a positive action.
The same happens negatively. Talk negative, think negative, do negative!
If we believe we are going to be sick or if we believe that we will always be poor, and then confess that with our mouths, we will get what we believe.
Thank God for faith!
But words need to be believed as well. We can talk many idle words, but we are called to believe in what we say.
So if we really believe that we will kill someone for an icecream, then we will.
Same happens when we pray for healing over someone....
If we do not actually have faith in God and BELIEVE that healing will happen, then it wont happen! We can pray many words for hours and hours, and nothing will happen - but it is because don't believe that it will be done!

Every person on this earth has been given an equal measure of faith. But it is what we do with that faith what makes it count. Some people just do a better job of using the faith they have received from God.

Lets see Romans 12:3:
“For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith”

Negative words are a killer. They make your heart and your thoughts numb over time. Slowly they start 'making' your heart change in what it was created to believe and you become a negative person, spreading negativity, no faith, a feeling of no hope and ultimately death in the power of the tongue.

Galatians 2:20:
........Christ is in me. I am a new creation.....

Its like I am talking about myself here, but if you have nothing positive to say, don't say it.
Don't get hung up by negative words and start paying attention to what we say!

Suffering and Sadness turns to Happiness

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 13:37:00 +0000

We all know someone who has gone through real tough time, suffering or long term sickness and the general question we ask ourselves is WHY?
Why does God allow this?
Well, I don't know.
I do know that God doesn't bring suffering and sickness to anyone as this is not the God I know.
I also know that through suffering and sickness, many positives can be created. This could be influences on people (possibly those close to the sick person). It could also be when that persons life ends.
Why does it have to be through suffering though? No one knows!

Anyway, I attended a funeral today. It was of a lady I knew for around 6 years. this lady is the mother of a friend of mine. She was a beautiful woman! Looking at the photos of her at the funeral just confirms this.
8 years ago and before, this lady was up and running. She was supporting a house, kids and husband. She used to run a successful business and well known. Generally, things were good.
Unbeknown to her, she had an inner (lets call it a disease/sickness for now as I am not sure of the correct term) of the brain. This caused her to slow down in life and eventually to her death a week ago.
I saw this woman go from being free, successful and beautiful to being trapped within herself. She was a literally a perfect brain inside of a body that couldn't do anything. She had to be helped with everything. She couldn't move, sleep, eat, drive...nothing!
She was trapped in herself.
This beautiful was completely at the mercy of her amazing husband to help her do everything.
I couldn't imagine being stuck where I couldn't do anything for myself.

With her being in this situation, it obviously caused a lot of hurt within the family. It led them to ask many questions, asking God WHY?
I think deep down, the family were praying for her to pass away and finally be at peace and rest.
She did.
At the funeral today (in a different language so I couldn't be apart of the singing), I just closed my eyes and this picture came to mind.
I saw her walking along a path, sandy and thin through a wide open field of grass. (She hasn't walked for years). In front of her was our Lord Jesus standing there, calling her. Arms wide open he stood. In the grass on each side of her were her family standing. Some crying and some watching.
What an image! I can just imagine what was going through her mind then. Seeing her Father in front of her calling her to come and spend eternal life with Him in His place. A place which has a huge mansion waiting for her. She was smiling, She was Happy and loving it!
Sadness on the outskirts of her path, but a path that she was walking on leading to eternal happiness, love and peace.
Her period of suffering has come to an end and her eternal infinite life ahead.

Didn't our Father say to us that He will waiting for us with open arms?
I know that its often not a consolation to family members on earth to say that their recently passed parent is happy now, but I know that if the family know Jesus, they know what He promised us in His Word.
This earth is our temporary residence. Its a staging area before our next life.
Our choice of where we go in the next life is up to us. Make the right one!

I write this in memory of a special lady, mother, wife and a person who influenced and touched me (and she didn't even know that she did).

Rest in Peace Merlyn Van Der Merwe....

Revelation 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

John 14:1-3 – Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. in My Father’s house are many mansions

Lukes Gospel - Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 13:54:00 +0000

I find Luke's gospel very thorough. I am studying at the moment and I find that his gospel tells better of the life of Christ than any of the other gospels. Towards the end of Luke, He explains how the disciples were sent out and heal, love, make peace and bring joy.

Did you know:

Luke based His gospel on eye-witnesses and evidence given to him. He wasn't around at the time when Jesus roamed the earth. These eye-witnesses being disciples and people that experienced first hand this man called Jesus and even saw and spoke to Him during His life on earth and after His resurrection.
Luke was written around AD 62
Luke also explains that His gospel is based on truth and that He has carefully put it together after much investigation with key witnesses.

But what grabs my attention even more so, is right at the beginning of His gospel in Luke 1 verse 1.
Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us...

Luke tells us that there were many people trying to write about this man called Jesus. They were all wanting to tell others about what Jesus did and how amazing He was. The miracles He did were something never seen before. Of course you would want to write about this man.
The problem with a lot of these so-called writings is that they have been lost through time (or not found), and this is why Luke wanted to have his version based on truth and evidence so that He could portray many of these writings together into one "story".

Jesus must have been one amazing guy to have created such a stir and frenzy.

As I go through the gospel, I will blog about some of the detail I pick up and I would love to have your opinion as well.

Getting back on the path!

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 16:40:00 +0000

I haven't written anything in awhile. Many reasons actually, but the biggest I think is one that I am very embarrassed to say. I have been too busy for God!

It's the end of the year, work commitments, have been very demanding and deadlines and projects have been on the go. Problem being that God hasn't been apart of that. He has been a far distant memory and someone who comes into my mind when I need Him.

Sad...but true,

Anyway, while I am now on leave and looking back at what I have missed during my work commitments, I now see where God would have been important in my life.

Everywhere!
In fact, everything I did, was without Him. Every thought I had didn't include Him. Every meeting I had, he wasn't there.

Isn't this against everything that a Christian is?

Isn't this completely against our core beliefs?
I didn't partake and grow my relationship with Jesus.

But as I write this, I think to myself how many times I have actually done this. Excluded God from my life. Thinking that everything I do, is something I can do myself. I didn't need God. Why bother?

Is this something that's Christian's struggle with? Where we try and do everything ourselves and completely ignore God in our lives.

Where He is calling us, we are too busy!

Where He is walking beside us, we are going in the other direction, Where He is prompting us, we are are looking at ourselves for the answer and not trusting Him for anything!

The thing is now....what do I do? I have ignored God and not even thought about Him and now I feel bad and want to do something about it? Who am I to decide when to be in a relationship with God and when!

I can't decide that, but that's why God is God!

God is so merciful, so loving, so gracious and so forgiving that He doesn't look at the past, but He looks at the future. God takes as as we are because He knows that we are sinners and He knows that, as humans, we cock up many times and we are still going to cock up some more :)

The decision that is ours though, is that we need to decide which path to follow. When we fall off the small and narrow path, do we continue along the beaten track which leads away from God and towards ourselves, or do we make the decisions to get back on the small track leading to the King of love. If we choose the small track, we need to tell God where we have been, what we have done and where we want to go. We need to ask for forgiveness from where we have been and we need to commit to God where we were heading and where we want to head now.

I think the next few blogs will probably follow this topic as it fresh on my mind from where I have been and where I need to get back to.

I would love to hear your stories as well and your thoughts.

Blessings

A story of Hope...

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 20:35:00 +0000

I have been so excited to write about this since yesterday when it all came to a conclusion. It is a personal story about 2 great people that I have known for the last few weeks. It’s a story of love and healing and how the Holy Spirit wrapped it all up. It was also a story of hope and I was personally there to witness this whole thing unfold and due to the love of Jesus, it worked out just perfect.

I am in awe at the work of Jesus Christ, our Lord who does great things.

Two people whom I had met a few weeks ago at the alpha course that we run at our church, Lets name them Jared and Sally for confidentiality sake , seemed very apprehensive and quiet from the beginning. Whilst Sally has often said a word or two to the rest of the small group, Jared would be very shy and quiet. Jared said at the beginning that he is looking for something more. He believed that God has somehow let go and that He was alone. Why would God want a relationship and Jared was looking for more and a way to get back into the Christian life.

Jared and Sally or both divorced, each with their own children, and they are now together and seem very happy and good for each other. But for me, there was just something not right. It seemed that Jared was anxious or had a lot of hurt from previous situations in his life, as a lot of us do. It seemed that Jared was carrying these hurts with him, but we didn’t know.

As weeks went by, we all got to know each other much better and everyone started opening up a little about their lives.

We all went on the alpha camp this past weekend. The camp is in a beautiful part of the countryside.

We learn a lot about the Holy Spirit on this weekend, Who He is, What He does and How the Holy Spirit can fill us. When a group of people go away together, you tend to find out a lot more about them.

Jared and Sally came on the weekend and brought there kids as well. Jared was still very quiet on the weekend. We came to a time of ministry on Saturday where people can be ministered to, prayed for and spend time with God in a peaceful and relaxed environment. In this time, often people break down, cry, are slain in the Spirit or just sit in the peace of the Holy Spirit. Jared started with tears but very quiet. When asked if He wanted prayer, He opted for it and it came out that He blames himself for a lot of past hurts and how they have effected the relationship between him and his daughter. He blamed himself for what he has possibly done to his daughter emotionally. He came to a time where he wanted to take his life because the past hurts were eating at him. They were stuck inside his heart, blocked in and being used by satan as a tool to keep on blaming himself. He couldn’t release the hurt. There was sever pain there and He didn’t how to deal with it. In this session, He sat and cried a little, closed his eyes and prayed.

We don’t know what happened. Jared didn’t tell anyone. It was personal stuff after all and it was between him and God.

We prayed for Jared and Sally. We prayed for their blockages and hurts to be pulled down and that God would remove them.

Ministry time over, Saturday night came…We all had a bunch of fun together, Jared was laughing and enjoying himself with the others and all seemed well.

Sunday morning we got together in groups again, asking how everything was going, what anyone thought and how they managed in the ministry session the previous day. Some of the people said it was great, some said nothing, Jared and Sally said they enjoyed it but nothing changed for them. It was then that I saw the pain in Jared’s face. It was a look that I have never seen before in a anyone. It was like you could see so much pain in his eyes and that it was getting the better of him. Pain was winning!

A few of us went aside and prayed again for our group, but specifically for Jared and Sally. We prayed that Jared could somehow release all the pain and hurt he was experiencing and that God would remove the blockages and walls that satan was building up in his heart.

After our group session, we had another time of ministry. We again went to Jared and asked him if he wanted to pray or talk. We prayed together, Jared started crying a lot. Him and Sally were hugging, crying together and just really praying to God for help….. But nothing!

We were asking questions in our minds….Why God? What are we doing wrong? We have been praying for Jared so much in the last few days and nothing had changed. Jared was not feeling different, he still felt pain, he still felt the pain of a broken relationship with his daughter. We told him that God will work in his life, but I wanted to know why nothing had changed yet??? Why God, Why?

We just couldn’t get a breakthough….

As the weekend drew to a closure, we had a time of feedback where people that experienced the love of God through His Spirit, poured into their hearts and felt a renewing of their minds. A few people came up, spoke about their experiences and it brought many to tears.

Right at the end, a young girl walked up to the stage, just as some people were started to get up and leave…it was Jared's daughter. We were all so shocked because we had hardly seen her that weekend. Her and her dad hadn’t got on too well on the weekend and this also difficult for Jared to handle.

She started off saying how angry she was, how she didn’t want to come on the weekend and she was forced by her dad and we were getting a little scared how this was going to end up because everyone was in good spirits from hearing all the good stories from others.

And then the bomb dropped. She just started crying. She sobbed ad while she was sobbing she was trying to talk on the microphone. She apologized to her dad for everything, she told how she loved him so much and how she regretted all the ugly things that she had said. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I just lost my emotions and cried and half the hall was in tears. No-one out of the 186 people in the hall knew Jared and his hurt except for a few in our group. At that stage I just turned around and grabbed Jared's hand, He was beside himself. He and Sally were crying so much. He had never heard those words from his daughter, He couldn’t believe it…..It couldn’t have come at a better time!

We all jumped out of our seats and got into a group hug with Jared, Sally, His daughter and the rest of our group. What an ending! Praise God! Praise God! Praise God! Everyone was crying tears of happiness!

As I write this, I feel a tear fall from my eye because its one of those stories that just brings so much thought into my mind. Tears of pain, sadness and hurt were changed into tears of ecstatic happiness, tears of love and tears of a beautiful re-beginning of a relationship between a father and daughter.

Who are we to expect God to act in our time. Here we were questioning God about why He was doing anything, and it was all planned already. It happens in Gods time.

God loves us, He wants everything good for us. He made us. All we need to do is love and trust Him as our dad and nothing will be impossible.

Praise God for His love, Praise God for what He did yesterday and Praise God for being a faithful God and a Dad to look up to.

Amen to a renewed relationship.

On top of the world

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 20:33:00 +0000

I have just had the privilege of chatting to 2 of my beautiful family members in Christ, Avril and Shane tonight. This after having the privilege of being apart of the alpha course and sitting in a group of 9 other people who are so eager to have a closer relationship with our Lord and Saviour.
This was all after hearing a one hour message in my car today from Andrew Wommack, a man whom I admire and have great respect for, in a message of his called "Its up to you!"

Now we are also going away for the weekend to a beautiful part of our country South Africa, where God is going to meet people where they are in life and His spirit will flood the camp.

I must say, the last 2 days and the days to come this week are so exciting. Exciting because the Spirit of God is everywhere around us. We don't know what to expect on the weekend because every weekend we go on is different and The Spirit of God manifests in a different way, We just know that He will be there!

Anyway, back to my chat I had right at the beginning with Avril and Shane. It was nice to catch up but what they told me turned a 5 minutes catch up conversation to a 40 minute in-depth, exciting, adrenalin pumping session :)
These guys, with a group of about 20 other people, go every Saturday and some nights of the week and pray for healing in some of our most poorest and unsafe communities.
Now, if any of you understand when I say poor and unsafe, these are people who live in poverty, filth, sewerage and sickness.
Going to a place like this would strike fear in me because of the situation. But you know what, where God is, Peace is!
The stories that they can tell about healing that they have seen with their own eyes, with their own hands, physical healing, mental healing and emotional healing.
They pray for drug Lords, child traffickers, rapists, murderers etc. They have seen many really terrible sights of blood and pain, but this has not turned them away.
When you have God on your side, you can do anything. God works through us.
I could listen to stories like this all night. Stories that inspire, Good news stories - instead of listening to the bad, mundane stories about corruption, crime and stuff in the newspaper.

When even one person comes to Christ - This is something to celebrate. The Angels in heaven scream and shout in happiness. Healing is real, it happens. I have also personally seen it on many occasions.
We don't have to be special people to pray healing over others. We need God!
We don't need some special relationship and power in order to heal others, We need God!
God does the work through us.
What we need to do is believe 100% that it will indeed happen - and it does.
Through God we can do anything!

When I was chatting to them, they grew so excited about what they were saying. They truly believed in what they were doing. I think "passionate" is the best word here.
When we are passionate about God, he uses us more and more.
Its all up to us to decide where we put God in our lives!

I am feeling on top of the world right now spiritually. I know God loves me, I know He is with me, He accepts my many faults, but He still loves me.
To hear stories like these from close friends in Christ whom I love dearly, To see people coming to an alpha course and wanting to know more about who God is and to hear a man preach on How we can make a difference has just made it all come together and I think one conclusion is drawn here, and that is that through God, nothing is impossible.
He brings excitement in your life that nothing else can offer eternally.
He brings a hope.
He brings togetherness, friendship and love.
And he heals.

I thank God for how He has spoken to me in the last few days, I thank God for my family in Christ and I thank God for what He has done and is going to do for me.

Amen

The Holy Spirit & Our Spirit

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 07:57:00 +0000

Our Spirit, something that we spend little time concentrating on and trying to grow.
Its the part of us that the Lord desires the most and that Satan wants mostly to control.
Its the battle of our Spirit....and we spend the least time on it.

Our Spirit is like our control room. The way we act towards each other, they way we think about ourselves, others and situations. How we relate to anything and everything is all governed by our inner Spirit.
Our Spirit also then becomes a place where we throw our emotions if we cant deal with them. If you are an angry person and anger seems to get the better of you in many instances - its because anger has taken control of your Spirit and is manifesting there and growing stronger and stronger and you are trying to deal with the results instead of dealing with the problem.
The Spirit can be a repository of good and bad emotions/feelings and if it is not concentrated on and fixed at "Spirit" level, anything else you try to do to walk away from issues in your life are NOT going to work.
We have to concentrate on our Spirits, fix what is in there, throw away the bad effects in our Spirit so that our outer actions towards others are completely changed.

The only way we can "fix" our Spirits, is to let the Holy Spirit come into our Spirits and let Him take control. The Holy Spirit is a "Him" because it is 'God...in us'.
We have things in our Spirit which attract bas spirits to come into our Spirit and reign there, hence our actions are effected and our thoughts patterns our changed to reflect these bad spirits controlling our Spirit.
We are all desperate and needing Christ's Spirit in us, in our Spirit and this is why Paul, in Ephesians, prayed for the Holy Spirit to control our Spirits "at all times".

What we do, especially as children as well, when bad things are said to us, we don't how to deal with them and get on with life, so we push these bad things into our spirit so that it doesn't effect us and it feels like we have pushed it away.
When in fact, we have just push the bad feeling/emotion deeper into us and it will grow within us, show its ugly head and get stronger and start moulding your thoughts, feelings, relationships and overall attitude.
Rejection is another things which gets dumped into the human Spirit. We don't want feel rejected sin the short term so we push rejection away into our Spirits....Problem is that it comes back much stronger at a later stage and effects us even worse than before.
Hatred and anger are exactly the same. And this is the part that I am seeming to catch a wake up. I have a lot of anger in my spirit which had been pushed there from years and years ago as a child and growing up and this anger now shows its head, not every now and then, but everyday!
Its because I am trying to ignore my Spirit and run away from it and not trying to tackle my Spirit head-on.
Resentment and insecurity also love sitting in your Spirit. they grow there. Things that may have happened at any stage of your life, instead of dealing with the situation, we ignore it and that's the start of an ugly growth in our Spirits.

But Yes, there is a solution to this. The Holy Spirit!
Its very common to see physically disabled people who seem peaceful with their situation. people like this, one could say that they have an excuse to be angry/resentful, but instead they are peaceful and have accepted their situation.
This is because they have been healed internally. Although externally they still are disabled, internally they are at peace and this is because the Spirit of the Lord has healed them!
Often there is so much hurt that has been caused in a marriage from fighting and arguing an that hurt is stored in your Spirit. We get over fights but the hurt remains and this causes a breeding ground for ugliness and resentment towards each other.
Outwardly we seem fine but inwardly we are crying.
The Spirit of God comes when we pray for one another. Asking God's Spirit to come into ourselves and our partners and openly laying out our lives to God (Laying our spirit bare) will allow Gods Spirit to heal us, break those old bad emotion strongholds in our Spirits and allow us to be free!

Isn't this awesome. Some of us have so much to confess to the Lord. Do it today!
Some of us are "crying inside", Ask God into your life...TODAY! Do it now!

I pray that this bit of writing will bless you as you read it, as much as it blessed me while writing it. I pray that this finds your Spirit and kicks off a renewed call for Gods Spirit in your life!

Amen.

A gentle reminder...

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 07:06:00 +0000

I went to church on Sunday. I don't go as much as I used to for some reason. I write about this particular Sunday because it just right at a time in my life when there is so much going on around me so quickly and I am thinking that I am alone in everything.
But then the stubborn part of me says "Oh boohoo, get over yourself!"
So its round and round in a big circle and I get more saddened at it all.

Anyway, I sat in my normal seat in the service, greeted the normal people that normally sit around me and then the service started.
I feel lonely! I wish I had my family around me!
I prayed to God to help me get out of this ridiculous thought pattern.
It was a communion service and the way that the communion runs in my church is the that the first rows go down to the front 'pulpit' to receive the Body and blood of Christ (bread and wine) and then filter back to their chairs and then the next rows go and so on until they reach the back of the church and every person has been to the front.
Now I sit on the center isle, always, and so all the people coming down to the pulpit to participate in communion walk right past me.
After I had been down to the front, I came back to me chair and sat and started praying, for general stuff.
I cant tell you what it was but I felt probably about 20 hands on my shoulders all the different times from different people, just saying 'Hi'.
When I stopped praying, I must have shaken hands and hugged with another 10 people.

There is a point to this!
It was like this is Gods way of saying "You're not alone, I am with you".
When I say alone, I mean alone in my Christian thoughts and ideas and that there is no-one to share them with. Not physically alone.
Is this what it is going to be like in heaven?
Everyone is happy, peaceful, enjoying the sacrament of Christ, greeting eachother, hugging eachother because they really mean it?
YES! Why? Because the Bible tells us so.
To see love between people, all sharing in the blood shed by Jesus and all sharing in His body is something that every Christian should know,
God reminded me that day that we are not alone in our thoughts about Him, but rather we all share a common theme.......that God is Love!
People that I haven't seen for years came up to me to say Hi, People from when I was at school and people that I cant even remember their names (I just smiled at those :))
I only realized today the whole situation. On Sunday I thought it was really strange, but today it hit home!

Look for God in the small things. They are probably under your nose. Something we do is look at why God is not changing us lie we want Him to or why isn't He listening.....
But maybe....just maybe....we are looking in the wrong place!

Let me leave you with a verse from Gods Word.
Romans 10:17 - So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Is your door been knocked on?

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 11:30:00 +0000

We all have a door in us....
Its is the entrance to our heart....
It is the guard we use to stop anything hurting us, bringing us down or letting evil take control....
With most of us, our door stays shut. Its never been opened, In fact it has weeds growing over it, thistles growing between the cracks and hinges that have never worked....
This door is usually stays shut because we don't people to know us too well or to know what we think and the way we work.
We are so used to having our door shut, that we don't allow any influence into us because we are scared and proud and we try to protect the little that we have....

What's inside your door?
What are you keeping hidden away?

But there's someone who is always knocking on your door, always standing waiting for you to open it, wanting to come inside, wanting to know you.
You can chase Him away.....But He'll come back, every time!
He is known as the light of the world!
He is known as the King of Kings!
He is Jesus Christ!

Our doors do not have handles on the outside which means that no-one can enter without our permission. We have to open the door from our side.
Jesus will always knock on our door, but the handle is on the inside and only we can decide whether to open for Him. He will never force Himself into our lives.

He invites us to sit with Him. He invites to eat with Him and be His friend.
Revelation 3:20 - Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

Jesus offers a personal invitation to each of us, because salvation is for each of us individually. In The days when Jesus was on this earth in flesh, it was customary to sit and eat together. this was a form of friendship and love. This is why 'eating' is referred to in the above verse.
We are often hesitant to let Jesus in or anyone else for that matter because we are scared to show others how "dirty" our inside is.
But remember, Jesus is the only one that clean up the inside. We are not strong enough to do it ourselves. We need Him, We need His redemptive Spirit and His blood shed for us will be poured into our hearts and clean all the "dirt" out.

BUT.....The decision is yours!
Do you hear Jesus knocking on your door?

I think the picture below is a perfect illustration of this story. Painted by Holman Hunt.

Sin and guilt

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 08:39:00 +0000

Someone mentioned this psalm to me tonight, so I went and read it thoroughly and I just love the words that David uses here.
He wrote this after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and organized for her husband to be killed.
This psalm is so true of my life and possibly for many others.

It is so easy to ask God for forgiveness and then carry on with life - but that leads us nowhere. In fact it leads into destructive guilt that we cannot override,
Remember, sin can only be removed by God. We cannot do it ourselves, we are weak and we need God here. Asking for forgiveness is useless without confessing our sin and genuinely trying to repent from it. We can't just carry on doing what we have always been doing.
Eventually it catches up on you. You become burdened with guilt, you develop a hard shell around your heart and your soul and then you doubt yourself with everything that comes your way. You tell yourself that evil is taking over and start asking God why you are in such awkward/difficult/ugly situations.
He graciously grants us forgiveness when we confess and repent. God requires true heartfelt repentance rather than rituals or words.
He wants us to take responsibility for our sins. There is so much hope for us if we want to help ourselves. If we cant be true to ourselves, how can we be true to our creator.
There is always hope for us, no matter how our pasts look.....we just need to be genuine with ourselves and God.

Read the psalm 51 below and tell me what you think. To me, it's a beautiful representation of asking for Gods forgiveness.
Bless you

Psalm 51- New living translation

1
Have mercy on me, O God,
    because of your unfailing love.
Because of your great compassion,
    blot out the stain of my sins.

Wash me clean from my guilt.
    Purify me from my sin.

For I recognize my rebellion;
    it haunts me day and night.

Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;
    I have done what is evil in your sight.
You will be proved right in what you say,
    and your judgment against me is just.

For I was born a sinner—
    yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.

But you desire honesty from the womb,
    teaching me wisdom even there.

Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Oh, give me back my joy again;
    you have broken me—
    now let me rejoice.

Don’t keep looking at my sins.
    Remove the stain of my guilt.

Create in me a clean heart, O God.
    Renew a loyal spirit within me.

Do not banish me from your presence,
    and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and make me willing to obey you.

Then I will teach your ways to rebels,
    and they will return to you.

Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves;
    then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness.

Unseal my lips, O Lord,
    that my mouth may praise you.

You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
    You do not want a burnt offering.

The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
    You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

Look with favor on Zion and help her;
    rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Then you will be pleased with sacrifices offered in the right spirit—
    with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings.
    Then bulls will again be sacrificed on your altar.

The Hard Shell

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 13:38:00 +0000

Last week, by daughter got a bee in her bonnet to go and sleep at Granny's house for the night.
Now for my daughter, who doesn't even sleep at friends houses or go to anyone else, this was quite surprising. Since her brother was born, I think she could be a little insecure and would not go anywhere.
Nevertheless, we took her on Monday to Granny's house for the sleep over. She was so excited to be there. We left and went shopping and got home - nothing much different. In fact I was glad that she has finally got the courage to venture out again.

Let me tell you, I was beside myself. I walked around my garden thinking about her, I went to bed thinking about her and what she was doing.
Now when she is at home, she is normally screaming outside, making a bunch of noise, running around, watching television or whatever, but it normally involved noise.
How I missed this when she was gone!
My heart was crying out for her to be back home, but I didn't say anything. I didn't want her to go in the first place and now it felt like she was gone for ages.
Now when she is at home, we go about our lives in an everyday routine. I get home from work, tired and she wants to do stuff with me and I often push her off.
But when she is gone, my heart falls into a ball of putty. Its like crying inside!

Isn't this like some of our Christian lives as well? We call ourselves "Christian", We try act "Christian", inside we are "Christian"....but we just don't get it right. We act like we are the worst people around, we sin, we don't help others, we swear, we do lots of "un-Christian" things.
But when it hits home, for example when we go to church or have a profound Christian event, we realize what we have done and try change it. But does it ever happen.
Its all a big circle.
Its like we have this hard "unchristian" shell around us but inside, we actually are these awesome people, loving, caring, giving etc.
I am generalizing here because I would like to think that all people are like this deep down. I know there are people who aren't, but surely every single person on this earth has a part of them somewhere that is good and "like Christ".
Its the hard shell around us that blocks this good part of our hearts.
But there are so many really good people around that seem to have this "Christian" thing down to a tee?
We can all be like that. We can all give, love, care and do......its how to break away from the bondage's of this world and break into the mercy of Christ.
Its when that hard shell is compromised, is when we get our backs up and start to protect our fragile heart inside.
Inside of being reactive, maybe be proactive.
These last few lines are so like me. I sin, I swear, I don't love as much as I should, I often don't care about the things and people that I should an I get angry at things that I shouldn't.
Do you find yourself in the same boat?
Its when something you take for granted is away from your heart, its like that's when God talks to you and says "Now see, look at what you have taken for granted, Look at the beauty I have given you and what you have done with it".

But you know what, God does not condemn us, He never tells us that we are failures, He always believes in us and supplies us with endless grace and mercy. We don't have to do something to win Gods love - its already in abundance.
Here's the Gift from God - take it - and spread it!

Amen

The Anger Circle

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 13:06:00 +0000

So again I write this because its a daily challenge for me. I hope this makes sense, because it is a little involved.
I struggle with anger all the time and also struggle to find the best way to stop it.
The problem is, that I have a split second in which to allow hundreds of signals going through my brain to stop and take another path - and this is the challenge.

For me, Anger had become more of a nasty habit than anything else and I think most of it is based on a quick temper.
After serious thinking and thought and worrying and wondering, I think I have found a good flow of what happens in that 'anger' moment.
We need a trigger, first of all. Something triggers our anger. Yes, there are many things that could do this and this is not the problem, its what happens afterwards which causes the problem.
Once the trigger happens, your brain directs a signal down a specific path to pick up your belief on what has just happened. The path that your brain picks is the same and is so ingrained because of the way you acted in previous situations and every time you get angry about something, you brain knows exactly where to send the signal to get a reaction.
Your belief on the situation is most probably a thought that you had previously on the same situation.
Once your brain has sent that signal to the "thought", then a consequence happens. A consequence could be anything from an angry outburst, bitterness towards someone, harsh words or slander against someone or rage.

So here it is: TRIGGER ----- BELIEF ----- CONSEQUENCE

But it doesn't stop here, because this whole thing works in a circle because the consequence and the belief work hand in hand. They both feed each other for the next time you get an anger moment. It grows stronger and stronger, making your belief more 'stubborn' and your consequences more 'outrageous'.
This is the trap I am in and I believe it is the trap that many of us get into.
We have to get out!

Now what I am leading to is Ephesians 4:31:
Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.

This circle of rage that I mention above is completely against Ephesians 4:31, word by word (well I made it that way :))
But the point is here that anger turns to bitterness, bitterness turns to people not wanting to be around you and thus you get more upset, your beliefs strengthen against someone or yourself and then the consequences become worse. In fact, you end up looking for anything to be angry about! Your brain is too aware of the triggers and cant wait to start signaling your beliefs.

How do we stop this?
We need to create a new path for our brain to start signaling through. We need to stop feeding the old aggressive bitter path and start creating a path which leads to
Ephesians 4:32:
Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

How do we create a new path? Well I believe that we need to change our beliefs on certain things. To me, the whole core of this bitter circle is the belief part and it ends up like "What we belief is what we are!"
And changing our beliefs on certain things, we need to look at Jesus. Look at how Jesus acted, what He said, what triggered his emotions and anger and what the consequences were.
Ephesians 4:23: Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

Yes, its difficult. Yes you are going to fail 90% of the time. But that 90% will come down to 40% on so on, and soon you will look back and notice that things that you used to get angry about and things that flared your temper, just wouldn't excite you that much anymore.
But remember, Anger is still a God given emotion and there are still times that we should get angry.

Does this make sense. I don't know if I have relayed my thoughts properly here as it is one of those "write as you think" things...
Let .me know

All thanks and praise to God for His Word.

Angry Christian

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 07:57:00 +0000

This is a topic very close to my heart as it is something that I struggle with everyday of my life and it eats away at me continually.
First lets get this misconception out in the air....ANGER is not a evil thing. Christians do get angry, Jesus got angry, God got angry, we get angry!
By getting angry does give anyone else the right to question your belief and your Christian ethics, in fact it just shows how little the other person understand about Christianity.
There is a BUT here.
There is Good anger and bad anger.
Good anger you ask?

Anger is an emotion that we were given by God. It is not a satan thing. But it is one of the easiest emotions for satan to turn around and use as an evil thing. Satan turns anger to control us instead of us controlling it and when ager controls us it becomes out of control and spirals into hurt, more anger and sin.
Anger is not sin when used in the correct manner.

I often get angry about ridiculous things and then after my little episode has passed I think to myself, "Was that really necessary?"
We should be getting angry at sin, not sin from anger!
For example: I get angry at someone cutting me off in the traffic and almost causes me to swerve out the way because they think they are more important.
But then when I hear on the news that 4 year old girl gets raped and is hung in a tree to die, then its just news.
I have got this anger thing totally wrong!!!
We should be getting angry at sin, at things that we have control over and things that we can change.
By me getting angry at someone swerving in front of me in traffic, is not going to change anything. That person is not going to sit and re-think that they did.
They probably don't even care and possibly don't even know what they did. By me getting myself into and absolute fit about it is not going to change what they do next. In fact, it often leads to fingers being pointed at each other, a few prize words shouted and high blood pressure.

When we express anger in the wrong way and shout at someone and let them have it, we tend to think its a sign of power and strength. Big 'ol me, the powerful! but in fact its a sign of weakness because you cannot control your emotions. Satan has taken that situation and has quickly made you think that screaming at someone will make you a better person.
(Note to self!)

We may also suppress anger, but this also leads the wrong way. If we bottle up anger, we tend to become depressed and bitter. People see this and then don't want to be around you anymore. Then you become more angry at being alone and it goes around and around....

OK now heres the difficult part! We need to confess our anger to God!
My question here is "But how does that help me when I am just about to blow up at someone? How do I stop the anger before it happens?"
The answer??? I don't know truthfully! Because I struggle with this emotion and my anger gets offset extremely quickly, I would think that the offsetting of my anger is my temper (discussed in next blog), what I am going to try faithfully everytime now before I feel anger is arising, is think to myself the old but true statement "WWJD" (What would Jesus do?)

Would Jesus get angry at what I am just about to lose my temper about?
Is me getting angry going to change the world and the current situation?
Am I acting like Jesus did when He was on earth?

You thoughts?

Amen

To Know You....

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 10:52:00 +0000

God is our Father, Jesus is His Son and our Savior and the Holy Spirit is our guide.

The Spirit of our God is in us, advising, guiding and convicting.

Do you know Him?

A letter from Jesus...

To my beloved child
At church or when we are with your fellow church friends and my children, don't you see that you are different? Don't you see that your actions and thoughts and beliefs about me are different?
You come to hear about me, what my Father has done and where you fit in. You come to be apart of my body. You come to learn about my life so you can do the same. You come to know me.
When you fellowship, you are happy, you raise your arms in the air to me, you pray to me with meaning, you speak on different languages and you have a deep love for me.
You see me, you believe me, you trust in me and you ask me for help.
I am so happy to see this.

But what happens when you walk out the door. Everything changes. You fall back into your old ways of sin, unfriendliness, unloving, always in a hurry not to notice me around you, too busy to hear for my voice.
You cant take your friends and the church pastor with you when you leave. When you leave those doors, its just you, me and my Father!
But, my child, understand this. Know that I have your back. I know exactly what your are doing, where you are going and your next move.
Why do you not trust me when its just you and me?
You talk to me in church and through worship and praise, you ask me to come into your life, but when you leave, you put me aside and then run off on your own without hearing what I have to say.

My child, I love you. I loved you even before you were born. You will never be able to comprehend the extent of what I feel about you. I want to be your friend. I want to be your guide and your advisor. I want you to know me!
I gave my life for you and I know that some of you think I am a distant ghost that pops up every now and then when I want to.
I want you to know that I am not distant, I am everywhere! I am where you want me to be, I am around you and more importantly.....I am in you!
But its your decision. If you don't want me around, that's fine. I will never force myself into your life. I love you to allow you to make every decision in your life (even though I made you) - But I would just love to see you make the most important decision of your life, and that is to believe who I am and what I did for you and for you to trust me, know who I am and know what I am like.
I will never walk away from you, even if you walk away from me.
I will always be there. "There" is not far away, "There" is right next to you. but I just want a personal invitation from you to allow me into your heart.
I want to go to wake up with you, I want to go to work with you, I want to talk to others with you, I want to love your family with you and I want to go to bed with you.
We can talk to each other whenever you like...because I love you.

I can teach you so many things. I can show you the grace that my Father His blessed you with. I can tell you about my life as a human. I can show you how to give of your time to help others (but only if you want).

Don't you want to know me?
You are my child and you were made so perfectly.
I want to spend time with you and get close to you so that our time together so that when we meet at the throne, we can crown you with all the riches that my Father has to give and guess what..... We can spend all our life together, forever in heaven.
I can show you all the animals, birds and insects that you have never seen. We can even go and feed all the forest animals and hug them. We can run together in the green grass and laugh together and tell stories about how you were saved!

So, My special child, don't let satan get in between me and you. Whatever ha slipped in between you and me, bring it to my feet and lay it before me. Satan cant handle that, he lost the battle and he is forever lost. Don't let Him take you with him.
I am your Blessed Redeemer!
I love you!

Jesus.

This is something that I believe God writes to us everyday of our lives. I find it so easy to be "Christian" at church and with my friends at church, but what happens when I leave church grounds - everything changes.
Lets take up our cross now and live like Jesus all the time. Lets lay our sin at His feet!

I hope you enjoy reading this as much I loved writing it.
Bless you

iPod God

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 08:59:00 +0000

Had a bit of a laugh in my car this morning thinking about ipods and then funny enough how it could relate to God. I found quite a tie up between the two, well at least I think so :)

Often we treat God like our ipod.
Lets take a 16Gb iPod and what do we do......fill it with music right?
The first time we get our iPods, we fill them with all our favourite music and videos and etc... But after awhile, we remove the songs that we don't like anymore or those that we have not played in a long time or are relatively boring. This is how it goes for the lifetime of the ipod until a new type of ipod comes out, a bigger and better one, with more Gb's and a better looking screen and new enhancements.
But it does pretty much the same as the old ipod you had, but some things are made easier.

Now lets imagine God being the full 16Gb on your ipod. When we "convert" to Christianity or accept Jesus as our Saviour, God is the best thing. I mean, He is great, you feel on a high (just like when you bought your new ipod) and all is good.
But during the our time as a Christian, we mould God into what we want him to be. Just like we delete some songs from our ipods and replace them with other newer ones, we delete thoughts and ideas about God and replace them with other ones, often ones that have been put into our minds from our surrounding environment. We try to make God fit into our plans or we try make ourselves believe that God is something that He is not!
And as we go about deleting, moulding and replacing our ipods with 'new stuff', we go about removing the goodness of God and replacing it with ideas that we have come up with and try mould Him into those ideas.
Here's an example, one that I have thought and applied to God, but is a total lie and biblically incorrect.

When I accepted Jesus as my Saviour, I knew I was saved from eternal evil. Why, Because the Bible says so. I thought that now, my life would get better, I would start doing lots of good stuff, giving alot more, helping more poor people etc etc.
This didn't happen. I knew God would somehow fix the bad things I did previously and He would build on the bad and turn them into good things.

But this is wrong. It has been something I have always thought and something I have moulded God into, but its completely wrong.
God DOES NOT build on our past! He wipes away our past! We are a new creation. Once we have accepted His Son, our lives are renewed. Everything is wiped clean we get the chance of starting again - from scratch!
Also, this thought that there is many ways to God or that all roads lead to heaven? This is a world view and complete nonsense. The Bible says that there is only one way to God and that is through His son Jesus Christ!

So we cannot delete and replace ideas and thoughts about God and think we have this up-to-date relationship with Him. What God is....is in the Bible!

Another thing, The battery on an ipod, after using it, starts giving you less and less usage as the ipad gets older. This seems to be the same as our christian lives. As we live our lives in this world, we start "Going flat" and our spiritually charge gets less and less until we die (Spiritually that is).

Don't put God into a box. I know I do! But its wrong. God is not a thing or an "it", He is a person, and He deserves our undying attention and love.

I hope this put something into perspective for you because it certainly did for me while writing it.

Amen

Passion for Gods Word.

noreply@blogger.com (Simple & Thoughts) — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 05:30:00 +0000

Continuing from the previous blog about our lives being so rushed and hurried, we tend to forget or not have time to do the important stuff.
Like spending time with our kids or wives, intimately.....
or reading Gods Word - to learn more on how to live a good life.

In my life, I really need to ignite a passion to get back into reading the Bible again. I used to read but that has come to a halt.
How can I possibly learn about God or have a relationship with Him if I don't even know the kind of person He is or know Him intimately?

Often I will say "I don't have time to read the Bible".
Really? There are so many books in the Bible that take literally 10 minutes to read. Books like James and some of the letters of Paul in the New testament. They are so short and yet are packed with important knowledge about God.
There is no excuse. There are thousands of pod casts on iTunes and on websites that you can download for free and listen to in the car while driving to work.

Where do I begin?
I have always found the old testament extremely tiresome and possibly boring to read. That leaves me with the new testament. Which book do I start with, what verse/chapter/sentence?
These are just excuses. I got a free bible reading plan from the net, it guides us in what to read daily.

The Bible is boring or dull.
Well yes, possibly. If you read a verse here and there in between books and don't know the real back round of what you are reading, it could be dull. Why not try reading a few chapters which could give you a proper back round and context of what you are reading. Also, getting a study bible also helps.

You know, I could go on and on about all sorts of excuses about time and that I hear the Bible read to me at church on Sunday but there is a reason why we should read the Bible, and that is to get to know Jesus and the kind of character God is.

What we read, we should do! I don't, and that's what makes me a prime candidate to read the Bible because I am clearly not acting as a Christian should be.
I love reading other Christian books, those written from authors about subjects in the Bible. This is also fine, but the problem here if I look back is that these books are also an opinion of those authors. They are writing what they believe or take from the Word of God.
We need to read the Word ourselves and get from it what we need.
To understand the Word of God and also read other Christian books at the same time, to me, will greatly help in becoming the kind of people God wants us to be, and that is people who take and interest in who God is, what He has done for us and what He is going to do for us in heaven.

Lets rekindle our passion for Gods Word!!
This is short and sweet....Now let me get reading :)

Blessings.