God’s way

Thought for the day: When you accept the Holy Spirit into your life it is like a blood transfusion for a victorious life

Ephesians 5: 6-20

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lords will is. ( Eph 5:17)

In the current day and age a lot off us are having endless stress, about work and money, our children. We worry about tomorrow and the next day. We don’t know what lies ahead in the future. All these worries and stress is bad for our health and personal lives, and our relationships.

We so often think God is only available on a Sunday in church. Come Monday morning we are so caught up in our problems again that we forget that god is with us every second of the day. We rely on ourselves to find solutions for our devastating lives.

God says to us that when we surrender to Him and allow the Holy Spirit to transform our lives, we do not have to face to world and it’s problems on our own. he is there for us and He will guide us and help us on our daily paths.

The Holy Spirit and God

Thought of the Day: When you surrender to the Spirit of God, your will learn more about God and Christ  in a week , than what you would have learned in a lifetime , without the Spirit of God in your heart.

Matthew 6:5-15

“This , then is how you should pray: “‘ Our Father in Heaven, hollowed be your name, (Matt 6:9)

We are all familiar with God’s prayer. It was given to the disciples by Christ as a model on how we must pray to God. Our Father in Heaven indicates not only that God is Majestic and Holy, but that He is also loving and personal.

When Christ came to earth a lot of the then Jewish people believed that he was going to save them from the Romans. But Christ did more than that He saved us from eternal hell, and gave us the kingdom of God.

I often find myself searching for God, I want to know more and learn more about Him, but sometimes it feels like i am hitting a brick wall, na matter what i feel far from God and completely lost in His word and learning.

God gave us the Holy spirit to be with us and guide us here on earth while He is preparing heaven for us. The Holy spirit will only work within us if we allow Him too. It is up to me and you to open our hearts for Gods spirit and to allow Him to walk with us. To be with us and guide us in Gods ways.

If you feel lost, and at a dead end in you spiritual lives, ask God to open your heart for His spirit. You will be a new person.

Dear Spirit of God, I surrender to you, please be my Guide for the rest of my life.

Faith

Thought of the day : ” Faith makes all things possible….. love make all things easy”

Mark 11:22-23

22 ” Have faith in God ” Jesus answered. 23″ I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain,’ Go throw yourself in the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says would happen, it will be done for him.

We often pray to God to help us, and the minute we finished our prayers we get up and start worrying about it or trying to advice a plan to get out of the situation. We so often say that our prayers are not answered, but have you ever just thought for a moment why that is.?

In this scripture Jesus is teaching us that prayers that move mountains, are those prayers done in true faith. These prayers are in Honor of God and the fruitfulness of his kingdom. Jesus knew that it seemed impossible to us to move mountains, that is why he use this example. To teach us that everything is possible for God. Our prayer will be answered by God, but not because of our positive mental attitude. No God will answer our prayers if they are done in unconditional faith. Faith that comes from your heart, deep down in your soul.

God will answer our prayer if they are unselfish and to His honor, not those extremely selfish urges that we so often have or because we need to keep up with the rest of the world.When we pray we must have faith in God. Not faith in the object of our request. Jesus teaches us that everything is possible, but that it is not in our will, but in the will of God. Our prayers are often motivated by our own desires and interests. It is not wrong to bring your desires to God and ask Him to help you, but Gods will must always be above ours.

What Soccer taught me about religion

We’re in the fortunate position in that in our small town we’re hosting two of the World Cup Soccer teams namely Denmark and France. These teams couldn’t be anymore different. The French team are very security conscious and have a permanent police presence to their hotel. The Danish don’t. We’re in the lucky position in that we’re currently building a family house for us in the Estate where the hotel of the French is situated.

So to go there during the day requires a stop in the queue of cars at the police barricade, waiting for your turn to get to the front, showing your Estate access card as well as your ID Document. The police then take this and go and check on their systems that you’re allowed access after which you may enter.

Now quite frankly I never thought much of the French team in the first place. I would have ignored them if I saw them. I don’t even know the players. Our son’s school has been teaching them about everything French in the last few weeks so we do now have a bit of knowledge of the French. Still I wasn’t going to support them during the World Cup. Being South African I would have supported our team while they’re in.

Denmark on the other hand is the other team here. They decided to have a public open day yesterday and the day before of their practice matches. They signed flags and shirts for people. I got to see them warm up and practice. They were very relaxed and open to the public.

So where am I going with this, well, the Bible tells us that we should treat people the way we want them to treat us. Maybe this is actually a built in human mechanism.

Here the French came in treating everyone as an enemy and guess what….in return we’ll treat them as the enemy. The Danish came in and treated us like friends, and well I love that team. I’ll admit that I still don’t know who the players are, but you can bet your bottom dollar that I’ll find out now. In future I’ll even follow these players after the World Cup. They’re friends now.

Why didn’t the French just go to a bush camp in the first place where no-one would see them anyway. They’ve come into other peoples homes and treated them as the enemy. So maybe the Bible was right. No-one will treat them as friends but rather as the arrogant individuals that they want to be treated as.

So in conclusion, I’d like to thank the World Cup Soccer for teaching me a valuable lesson. Fundamentally the Bible does work. Thanks Denmark you’re great friends.

Blame it on the bunny

One advertisement that I can remember as a child was the Nestle Nesquik ad. “Have a Nesquik and blame it on the bunny”.

How true is this not in our daily lives. Everything we do we blame on something or someone else. Shifting the blame, is the easiest thing in the world. I was involved in a accident today. I hit a pedestrian with my car and killed him. It wasn’t my fault he ran across the road, right in front of the car. It was not because I was speeding O, NO it was his FAULT.

It is GOD’s FAULT for giving me crappy parents that is why I am using drugs. It is my parent’s fault that I am having sex at the age of twelve – they don’t care about me. It is my husband’s fault that the kids are not listening; he is never at home to discipline them. It is my wife’s fault that I am having an affair, she is not giving me some special care – it always just the kids.

Do any of these sound familiar? We often blame our past for our current situations. South Africa is a great example of this. The people are unhappy with the government because all they do is “pocket all the money” and the man on street must fend for himself and if someone asks why. “It is because of apartheid.” Yet we are 15 years into a democracy. For fifteen years everybody in this country had a fair chance, yet we still blame it on something that died fifteen year ago. Why? Because it is easy and we don’t have to take responsibility.

The same with our own personal lives. My life is in a mess because of my past and the people around me, not because I made the wrong choices, NO NEVER ME, it is them, and the sad thing we always blame GOD when things go wrong.

Has it ever occurred to you that God might have nothing to do with it? We always pretend that we are here and God is there. There is always a distance between God and us. I mean Beth Midler even sang a song about the distance between God and us. “God is watching us from a distance”. We are so use to the fact that God wants this and that from us. The Ten Commandments is not there for God. It is there for us so that we don’t destroy each other and the creation God gave us.

We complain and blame, maybe it is time that we start taking RESPONSIBILITY. Until we have learned that our lives are in a mess because of our own actions, nothing will change. He is not a distant God watching from somewhere up there. He is here with us right now. God lives inside each and every one of us, we must just allow Him to be.

God gave us free will to make decisions for ourselves, and that is why we cannot blame anybody for our lives or the choices we make. If you ask someone for advice and they give it to you. You still have to choice to follow it or not. Maybe we must stop shifting the blame and start taking responsibility for our lives.

BE RESPONSIBLE and THE WORLD WILL BE A BETTER PLACE.