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Showing posts from December, 2012

Addo Elephant Park

After our 10 day holiday with my wife's family, we decided to tick off another item from my bucketlist and visit the Addo. This is a great park close to Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. We saw a whole host of animals, including buffalo, warthog, zebra, red hartebees, eland, jackal, and the mighty elephant. What I did find strange is that we only saw two elephants. It is called an elephant park, but it seemed like they were nowhere to be found... Fortunately I know that there are plenty of them around. Fact is that these animals are like mice, almost impossible to hear when they walk. The bush is also very dense after all the rain, it would be easier to see them during winter. All that said, it is much the same in our walk with the Lord. We look around and do our best. We jump from the one lookout point to the next, but we cannot find the answers. In the meantime, the answers might be very close, right next to us. It might be that we should just persist...

Spooning

2 Timothy 2:20-26 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will. In verse 20 the author writes about 4 different articles. In

Rest

At least once a year we go on a family holiday. We either go somewhere with my family, my wife's, or both. The reason we do this is because we do no have enough time during the year to see any of them, so we have time to catch up. Also, as it is our annual break, it is a time of rest. My wife and I get to spend more time together than at any time during the rest of the year. We do fun things together, talk, and we sleep a little bit extra. I do not know if it is because of the extreme year we have had, but this years break was particularly needed. We craved it for a few weeks until the day arrived. Maybe you have also felt like this. Maybe you feel like that now. Know that rest is very important. Firstly, in the beginning, Genesis 2:4 By the seventh day God had finished his work. On the seventh day he rested from all his work. Secondly, in Mat 6:31 Jesus talks about the wildflowers in the field and adds: What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be s

Know, show, GO!

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A famous person (to me, anyways) once said: The extend to which we succeed to aligning our paradigms, processes and programs with the revelation of Christ, will determine the extend to which we will become an expression of the glory of God. Quite a mouth full, isn't it?! In Mark 8:17 to 19 Jesus overheard the disciples and said, “Why are you fussing because you forgot bread? Don’t you see the point of all this? Don’t you get it at all? Remember the five loaves I broke for the five thousand? How many baskets of leftovers did you pick up?” In order for us to make a difference while on earth, we have to surrender our lives, serve the Lord and subdue . Matthew 28:18-20 (also a famous scripture) - Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have comma

Align

After all the talking about sin etc etc, it feels a bit somber. The fact of the matter is this: John 6:40 in the Message says: This is my Fathers will - that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who He is and what He does and then aligns to Him will enter real life (eternal life). The dictionary gives the following definitions to the word  align: verb (used with object) 1. to arrange in a straight line ; adjust according to a line. 2. to bring into a line or alignment . 3. to bring into cooperation or agreement with a particular group, party, cause, etc. 4. to adjust (two or more components of an electronic circuit) to improve the response over a frequency band, as to align the tuned circuits of a radio receiver for proper tracking throughout its frequency range, or a television receiver for appropriate wide-band responses. We should align (bring into cooperation or agreement) ourselve

Pleasure

Yesterday I wrote an introduction to the 3 different types of sin. If you did not read it, please do so, it will give you some background on today's short message. The first type of sin was described in Matthew 4:3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” As man we like to do things that are fun. We sometimes build our lives around it, or we live from the one experience to the next, forgetting to live in between. In Genesis 3:6 it is written: When the woman saw that the tree was good for food , and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. A parallel between Jesus being tempted in the desert and Eve being tempted in the garden can be drawn. The 3 different types of sin were already established in this verse. The first, pleasure, both relate to food (here it is the fruit, in Matthew 4:3 it

The end of the year

It is the end of the year and everything is slowing down in a sense. Today I was truly blessed with a sermon that cut open some truths I have never thought about. Especially during the festive season there are quite a few things that should keep track of in order to get the most out of our holidays. When we look at scripture it is evident that all of us will have times in our life when all does not go according to plan. Times when we feel that we are provoked more then normal, or where we cannot break through. Jesus himself went through a time when he was in the desert for 40 days and being provoked by the devil... This is in Matthew 4:3, 6 and 8. Verse 3:  The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Verse 5 and 6: Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.  “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concern

What a waste

Recently I have found myself in an odd space. I regard myself as a driven person who knows what he wants and how to get there, but I might have the end-of-the-year-syndrome... It feels as if nothing get going quite as fast as I would like it to. Nothing works out quite as well. Worst of all, I do not always push as hard as I am used to, as if I am wasting time... Reasons we might waste unnecessary time on: 1. You overload on administrative work. 2. You put off quick tasks that settles the small matters there and then. 3. You micromanage employees/tasks. 4. You let daily developments drive you and do not focus on the bigger picture 5. You don't have a clear social-media strategy - Facebook, twitter etc interferes with work 6. You try to reinvent the wheel by doing things that can be borrowed from others 7. You repeat the same things over and over. Here are some ways to stop wasting time: 1. Stop random email checks - Have specific time for that (including the Internet)