Inspirational There is one thing stronger than all the armies of the world, and that is, an idea whose time has come.(Victor Hugo). Look to this day! Yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision. But today makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope!
Text & Image: Rina Smit
Loving the Unlovely Michelle tried to find somewhere to wipe
Text: Tracy Tredea Images: Runaire & one.org, morguefile.com
the dirt off her hands but everywhere she looked it was covered in mud and grime. After working all day in the muddy fields and feeding the farm animals, it was only inevitable that she would be covered in filth from head to toe. Her feet ached and longed to soak in a warm bath but she knew the possibility of getting anything more than a bucket with lukewarm water and an excuse for soap would be highly improbable. As she pushed the farm cat off the haystack to sit down, it felt like every muscle in her body was screaming at her. Her nails were cracked deep into the skin.
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Her hair resembled a jar of grease. And her clothes had become tattered and torn with no chance of a needle and thread to mend it. Everything was dirty. Every part of her body smelt like the waste products from animals. She wanted to run away. Run away from herself. But where would she go? Surely she could not go back home. How would her family ever accept her again after everything she has put them
through? Life had not turned out the way she had hoped. Her big dream to move away from home and stand on her own two feet definitely backfired. It all started so well. The money she insisted her father give her, gave her the freedom to pretty much do anything she wanted. She travelled. She partied. She spent and bought
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It didn’t stop her though. She wanted to get home. Her walk turned into a slow run and before she knew it her feet were bleeding from the old sores being opened up by the rough terrain. She was not deterred. She continued through the night and into the next day. Finally exhaustion overtook her and she collapsed. What was she thinking? Did she really think her father would take her back? She decided right there and then that even if her father allowed her to be one of his servants that would be good enough for her. So she stood up, and mustered every bit of strength in her to continue the journey home. Meanwhile, her father was tending to his usual tasks of the day. He missed Michelle more than words could say. He had prayed for her every day and often stood on his patio watching into the distance for any sign of her. Day in and day out. Month after month. Until the rest of the family had given up. But he never did. On this particular evening, the moon was shining bright. The path leading up to the house was brightly lit. Suddenly in the distance, he saw a figure walking, almost staggering towards his house. He starred at the figure examining the posture. Could it be her? Tears instantly filled his eyes as he recognized his daughter. “My daughter, my daughter!” He started to run towards her and as he got closer, he saw her ragged clothing. He smelt the stench of dirt and sin covered all over her. He saw her pain-stricken
Just as He creates an environment of acceptance and love. So should we as the church do with those who are undeserving and unlovely in every way! If you were at church and a prostitute arrived in the service what would you do? Show her the way out or invite her to sit with you throughout the service? If a bus load of homeless people walked in with their smelly clothes and dirty hands – would you greet them with a hug like anyone else or shy away from their smell? If a known drug addict sat down next to you, would you find somewhere else to sit, or would you show them the love and acceptance of Jesus? If a street child wanted to join your kid’s church, would you allow it? If the church cannot love the unlovely and welcome the dirty, who will? Jesus was known to mix with the sinners. So why can’t we handle the concept of having a busload of them in our pews on a Sunday? Why do we only cater for the prim and proper and clean-smelling suits? Before you start feeling like I am attacking you, I want to remind you of this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbour as you love yourself.” “If I speak in tongues of humans and angels but have no love, I have become a reverberating gong or a clashing cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can understand all secrets and every form of knowledge, and if I have absolute faith as to move mountains but have no love, I am nothing!” Being a Christian is not just about saying the right thing or wearing the right clothing. It is about loving. Loving the lovely and the unlovely. Accepting the sinner – but not the sin. Giving others just as much grace and mercy as we have received from Jesus Himself. If we cannot do that, we cannot call ourselves followers of Christ because Christ lives out the story of the prodigal son every day! So be challenged! And as beautifully put by GK Chesterton: “To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless!” So love! Love the way Jesus loves and love the unlovely! RM
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Michelle buried her head into her dirty hands. Her tears formed streaks down her dirty cheeks making way for her soft skin. Why had she not listened to her dad’s warnings? Why had she been so stubborn? She suddenly longed for the comfort of her home. For the first time in a very long time, she yearned for the rules of her father’s household and the security and safety it had given her. She imagined her mom’s famous Sunday roast and the abundance of the family celebration meals. She wanted so badly to go back. No. She needed to go back. With a sudden glimpse of hope, she jumped up. Ignoring her aching muscles, she started to walk. Faster and faster she went until her feet felt like needles were being pushed through her soles.
My daughter was lost but now she is found!” (Luke 15:11-24) The story of the prodigal son always humbles me as I once again understand the undeserving grace and mercy that Father God offers us. But recently God showed me another angle to this story. Just as He accepts us as we are, filled with dirt and grime and sin. Just as He embraces us and offers forgiveness without us explaining ourselves.
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Life was good. No one to answer to. No rules to follow. It was everything she wanted. Until… she lost it all. The money did not last long and strangely so, as soon as the money ran out, the friends ran away. Her new found love also quickly exited her life and before she knew it, she found herself begging for a job to work on a farm tending to the pigs!
face. And without question, or prejudice, he threw his arms around her, kissing her dirty cheeks, embracing her dirty body and everything it symbolized. His wails of joy drew the rest of the family outside. He shouted, “Bring me some clean clothes and shoes. Bring me my signet ring. Prepare a banquet.
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anything her heart wanted to dive into. Her friends were plenty and everyone wanted to be around her. Even though she was unfamiliar with the land, she quickly found her feet when meeting a dashing young man, who helped her flaunt her new found wealth. He also convinced her to do things she knew was not right but it had just felt so good!
THE GREATEST THING CALLED: LOVE Text Rina Smit & Images: Morguefile.com
LOVE
can be so illogical. Of course, the love of a mother for her child is logical. We can all understand maternal love. But sometimes there is simply no human reason why we love someone. Love is its own justification. When we say that two people are in love, their ‘chemistry’ sparks, even when the pair seems to be mismatched. One of the partners may be highly cultivated, handsome or beautiful, while the other may be the opposite - plain, awkward or uneducated. There is simply no accounting for love. We don’t understand why God loves us, but thank God He does! When mankind stumbled into sin and was contaminated by it, God would have been justified in stomping us, like a brood of vicious vipers. He could have started over with another creation. But the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Right there in the Garden of Eden, God announced that the Saviour would come from the seed of the woman and bruise the serpent’s head Genesis 3:15. God’s love is always redemptive. He never abolishes anyone. The need for intimacy, to be one with another person, sharing our lives, our secrets, our pleasures and pain, is undoubtedly one of the great motivating forces for humanity. The desire for marriage and family suggests that we consider ourselves incomplete without someone else. Art, music, and literature are often expressions of reaching out to unite with others in a more than superficial way. Communication is an impetus in the recent explosion of technology. We group ourselves into gangs, communities, churches, and governments to eradicate loneliness. Yet, the pain persists. We feel like aliens on our own planet and search for ways to ‘join’. In our desperation sexual perversion, suicide, drugs and alcohol abuse seem like possible solutions. Divorce destroys our homes. We don’t trust our government or our neighbour. We move further and further away from unity. In contrast to this growing trend, we see a consistent theme of ‘oneness’ in the Scriptures.
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“This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another” 1 John 3:11. Though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. From
the beginning of time and creation of the universe and man, we see nothing less than an expression of God’s unfathomable love. Jesus Himself came to this earth as atonement for our sins, a sacrifice of love. Line after line, verse after verse, God’s Word is filled with descriptions of God’s abounding love. You may ask what true Christianity is. It is love. We are, because He loved. We are, because He gave His life. In receiving His love, we must also give His love. Love puts the best possible construction on any situation. It sees the potential for good in the very worst characters. For this reason, love succeeds when everything else fails. This love brought success in many people’s lives. The entire book of Ruth is a picture of what it means for Christ to be our Redeemer. The book concludes with a marriage between Ruth and Boaz, her kinsman redeemer. The Lord spoke through this beautiful love story to let us know what was in store for us when Christ would come to redeem us. As the book unfolds, we see Ruth moving from being alone, abandoned and destitute to being part of a family and provided for. Boaz, the kinsman redeemer, is clearly a foreshadow of Christ, our Redeemer. He was introduced to us early in the book as a man of grace, reminding us that our relationship with the Lord can only be built upon this same foundation. Ruth ask, “Why have I found favour in your sight?” Ruth 2:10. She is genuinely puzzled when Boaz tells her to harvest all she wants from his fields and to drink from his water jars. She knows this is not what she deserves since she is a foreigner. She is amazed by his graciousness. We too must realise when the Lord comes offering us the Kingdom that this is not what we deserve. That’s why it’s called “grace”. Romans 3:24 says, “Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus”. Redemption is based upon the kindness in the heart of the redeemer, not some resident goodness in the person being redeemed. Gomer (Hosea’s wife) was a harlot, Ruth was a foreigner. We are completely incapable of justifying ourselves and buying our own freedom. That’s why
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Christ, our Husband, has the right to redeem us because He is “one of us”. He (Jesus) is not ashamed to call them brethren. Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same. Hebrews 2:11,14. Jesus became a part of the family of man in order to be our representative. He constantly referred to Himself as the Son of man to let us know He was doing what He was doing as one
The scriptures teach that we are all under God’s curse prior to redemption. Deuteronomy 28:15-68. Failure to keep the law brings with it certain terrible consequences. Since we have all come up short of God’s standard (Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:10-18,23), when the worst thing possible happens, we’re merely getting what we deserve Romans 6:23. Thankfully, because of His great mercy towards us, the Lord doesn’t want us to receive our due. He wants to move us out from under the curse into the place of blessing. Describing our Husband-Redeemer, the Scripture says, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law” Galatians 3:13. Being under the curse meant being in the place of disfavour with the Father, but Jesus, like any good Bridegroom, wanted His bride to be in Father’s favour, so He did what was necessary to put us in the place of blessing. To move from being cursed to being blessed means that God is no longer “against us” but “for us”. In the beginning Naomi was convinced that God was against her. No wonder
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Jesus literally poured out His life’s blood so we could be redeemed. He gave His life that we might be His bride. Boaz was able to be a redeemer kinsman for Ruth, because he was a relative and could legally represent the family in buying back the inheritance lost previously. Naomi, the mother-in-law, was rejoicing when she told Ruth. “The man is a near relative of ours, one who has the right to redeem us” Ruth 2:20. According to the law recorded in Leviticus 25:25, one had to be a kinsman in order to be a redeemer. The whole point of this law was to restore the property sold earlier to its original owners and keep it in the family. Boaz not only wanted Ruth for his wife, he also wanted their descendants to have their inheritance restored.
As our Redeemer, the Lord not only wants us for His bride, He also wants us to have our inheritance. Jesus speaks of our receiving that inheritance in Matthew 25:34, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Our original ancestor, Adam, sold what was rightfully ours for nearly nothing, much as Esau sold his birthright. But as a part of our redemption, Jesus restored what was belonging to us as His bride, then and now.
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Although we cannot pay the price of our redemption, someone has to pay. Hosea paid fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley to buy back his bride, Gomar Hosea 3:2. Boaz also paid to be Ruth’s redeemer Ruth 4:9-10. The price paid for us to be the Bride of Christ is the greatest price ever paid for anything in the history of the world. We cost the life of God the Son! In Him we have redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace Ephesians 1:17.
of us. In order to redeem us, Jesus had to die to sin and be raised to newness of life as our representative. Romans 6:6-11. To be our representative, He had to become a flesh and blood human being just like us. This is the reason for the incarnation.
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we need a redeemer.
she was so bitter. Who can possibly win in life when God is against you? But, in the end, she found that the Lord was on her side. Sometimes when a young man is dating the daughter of a very protective father, the father really doesn’t like the person who is trying to steal his daughter’s affection. However, if the daughter knows this is the one person in the world for her and they marry, the father may change his mind and be very supportive of his new son-in-law. He may move from a position of being against the young man to being for him because he married the daughter. Our position of favour with Father is the direct result of being joined to Jesus as His bride. We were not in the place of blessing prior to our becoming one with Him, but now we are just as convinced that God is for us as we were previously convinced that He is against us. We couldn’t possibly win before, but now we can’t possibly lose. We want to cry out with the Apostle Paul, “If God is for us, who is against us? Romans 8:31. Boaz, who is a type of the Lord our Husband, further extended his grace to Ruth, “Do not fear. I will do for you whatever you ask” Ruth 3:11. He not only blessed with his words but was also prepared to demonstrate his love for her by doing anything he could to see that she was blessed. That his love for her at this point is unlimited is undeniable. He has given Ruth a blank cheque; he has already said “Yes” to anything she may require!
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As amazing as it may seem, Jesus comes to us as the Suffering Servant depicted in Isaiah and says: “Ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you” John 15:7. His love for us is unlimited. He laid down His life as our Redeemer, and He surely will not withhold any of the lesser things that will give us joy. This promise is preceded with the words: “If you abide in Me...” Meaning this applies only to His bride, those who have been joined to Him inseparably. He knows
He can trust us with the privilege of asking because, in Him, we no longer act out of selfishness but out of love. The Lord has desired a bride since before the beginning of time. Little wonder Jesus wants to celebrate now that He has come as the Bridegroom, Matthew 9:11-15. The Lord has come as our Redeemer, and the reason for that redemption is matrimony. When we think of redemption merely in legal terms, such as being saved from torment, and go on our merry way, forgiven but forgetting the One who saved us, we’re missing the main point of what He’s done. The result of redemption is to be in a love relationship with the Lord. Anything less is not full redemption. There are many words used to describe the intimacy that is the result of real redemption. Communion, fellowship, a daily walk, but all of them describe eternal life as well. Jesus has told us that eternal life is knowing Him, John 17:3, a term used in Scriptures to denote intimate relations between a man and a wife when children are conceived. The result of redemption is not only love but a new life as well. Jesus is coming back for one purpose and one purpose only: to claim a holy bride without spot or wrinkle. Like a husband who’s been away a long time making preparations for his wife to be with him, our Lord assures us, “I am coming quickly” Revelation 22:20. As our beloved is anxious for His return, our Lover also anticipates the day when love will know its dullness, when everything that separates’ will be abolished, and we’ll be reunited with the One for whom we were created, the Lord our Husband. RM
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TO WORSHIP GOD Text Rina Smit & Image: morguefile.com
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Imagine the depth of this women’s tears being enough to clean the dusty feet of Jesus! Imagine the gratitude that moved her to boldly display her devotion and adoration of the Man reclining at the table. She had heard Him teach of the kingdom of heaven. She had understood the heart of the Lord. She had seen the miracles He had done. She had been delivered from her old way of life through His loving acceptance of her. With tears flowing from a sobbing heart, she washed the Lord’s tired feet and wiped away the soil with the tresses of her hair. Then she perfumed His feet with oil from her alabaster jar that was valued at a year’s wages. Her love for Jesus knew no bounds. When the others voiced their disapproval of her behaviour, Jesus said: “Leave her alone. She has done a beautiful thing to me”.
What is worship, and what are we doing when we worship? True worship, the kind of worship that God seeks, is described in John 4:23-24: “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth”. True worship is when one’s spirit adores and connects with the Spirit of God, when the very core of one’s being is found loving Him, lost in Him. True worship is not about the songs being sung; it is not about the size of the choir. Although music is a wonderful expression of worship, it is not in itself the essence of it. The core of worship is when one’s heart and soul, and all that is within, adores and connects with the Spirit of God. In fact, regardless of how magnificent the musical moments are, unless one’s heart is fully engaged in the worship being expressed, it is still only music. The song of a pure heart that
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Everyone in town knew her as a sinful woman, but her selfless display of excellent true worship changed how everyone remembers her now. Jesus was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon. “When she learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them” Luke 7:37-38)
Jesus knew the woman who anointed Him with her precious perfume fully understood that she had been forgiven for terrible sins. When we stand before the Lord to worship Him, we are to worship Him in truth. If our worship is spiritual and truthful, we will search our souls and appraise the value we place on His love for us. Her action of elaborate love toward her Lord is a powerful example of true, heartfelt worship. Her act of worship had nothing to do with music or song, but it had all to do with being in the presence of her Saviour.
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Holy, Holy, Holy
“ is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come” Revelation. 4:8
is yearning for more of God and less of oneself is the music that holds the key to many victories and delights the heart of our King. When we lift up our hearts and sing, “I will serve no foreign God or any other treasure...”, Do we really mean it? The implication of the song is that God is above all, there is nothing that compares to Him. In our spirit do we understand what we are singing? Yes there are treasures and idols that attract us and seek to take us away from the Lord, and in worship we fight them. One definition of worship is gazing upon God. When Moses gazed upon God, he returned a changed man, covered by the glory of the presence of God. We all know that sometimes it is a struggle to get into that place of intimacy with God. We long to come into the presence and feel the Father, but it doesn’t happen automatically. Well, gazing upon the Lord in worship is a quick way to enter the presence. As we gaze upon Him, admiring Him, offering ourselves to Him, telling Him how powerful and awesome He is etc. our spirit begins to be moved. If we stay in that place long enough, expressing our adoration of Him in words or song, our spirit will soon know His presence in a very profound way. The more we gaze upon Him, the more He reveals Himself: His love, power, goodness, majesty, etc. As our spirit and soul keep soaking up that revelation, we reach a point where we just want to bow before Him. We begin to see Him in His true light, as the greatest Being in the universe.
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We catch a revelation of His purity and, before long, our heart begins to remind us of the things that are holding us back from consecrating ourselves to Him. We are confronted with the reality of our idols and very soon, we find that we cannot continue worshipping without first dealing with those idols.
“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who had called you out of darkness into His marvellous light” 1 Peter 2:9. Worshipping our Saviour, Jesus Christ, is fundamental to living a faith-filled, Spirit-led, Christian life. There are countless, conflictions as to how we actually worship the Lord. There are multiple worship methods, plans, and styles that vary amongst cultures and geographic boundaries. The Lord enjoys the diversity of sincere worship when expressed through His Spirit and in truth. Worship should be a way of life, with many facets of expression. But regardless of the method, the act of worship must be in Spirit (from our rational consciousness) and truth (consistent with the rest of our lives) John 4:24. We don’t have to be great singers or musicians to worship God. Our worship can be filled with radical demonstrations of praise and other times be very quiet and personal. Neither is better than the other. But we do need to be in a personal relationship with our great God and live with the truth of His greatness reflecting through all we are becoming and all we do. To be a worshipper is to fall in love with God, the Author of love, and accept the love He has for us. He adores us. God gave you His Word as a living love letter that contains everything you will ever need to get through this life and beyond. The Word encourages us to be established in love and to grasp how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is for us. His love “surpasses knowledge” Ephesians 3:19. His love is at work within us to the measure with the fullness of God. If we could understand even an inkling of this love Christ has for us, our hearts would be full of worship for the One who loves us so much! RM
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Life's Best Gifts
Text Olivier Kizika M Daniel & Image: Rina Smit
Looking closer though, I have come to a conclusion that what people really want and pursue in life is not firstly the material things. It is true the human heart can never be satisfied with material things. What man is really after is usually intangible and invisible: the deep longing of one’s heart. It is with this perspective that we can observe that the best gifts of life are immaterial. The most expensive commodities of life are intangible. These are the things we are all after. From sports to food and everything in-between our deepest desire is usually the “experience” and the feeling we get from them. There are people who would not normally wear a jacket unless it has an “Italian” brand on it. Because
It is a matter of prioritizing and making a distinction between having influence and affluence. Between being a good person and just doing good things, between impressing people and the true motives of the heart. In our pursuit of excellence seven “must-have” of such priceless things come into account: 1. REPUTATION The Bible says in Pro 22:1 if you have to choose between a good reputation and great wealth, choose a good reputation.
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The clergy has not spared time and efforts of warning us of the pursuit of vain glory and the lust of the eyes in this world. It is often said that he who pursues the world can never be satisfied.
It is always a delight to see a young man who’s just gotten his first car. What a sight! He is overjoyed! But not really for the tangible car itself, but for the freedom it gives him. It is the same when you buy a beautiful house; it is comfort and safety that you are really after. The most important things of life are those that we cannot touch; those that we cannot buy or put a price on, such as good relationships and friendship. A person with an excellent spirit maximizes and invests more in these areas. A wise and insightful person pays more attention to these things just like a good manager would emphasize on good attitude towards customers from his employees.
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In every heart where hope has ever been born, there is a sense of pursuit. Every human being is pursuing something. Pursuit is what makes one active. And we pursue what we focus on and what we value. What we value we prioritise. And our decisions are determined by our priorities.
it is really not the fabric that impresses them, but rather the sense of status and importance they get when he dresses Italian. We are after experience, feelings, status, a sense of belonging, identity, a sense of worth, abilities and means. We all long for love, respect, esteem, favour, good reputation and freedom to name but a few.
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In the past
two or three decades bookstores all over the world have been flooded with “howto” books. It is as if the quest for success and the experience of a life that cuts above the ordinary has gotten more intense by the day. The world is looking for the perfect ingredients to make the recipe of a life that has meaning. A life that is of significance and not just of survival. Is there a formula? Are there methods to achieving and fulfilling dreams according to God?
As a businessman your reputation is just as important as your products and services. A good reputation is priceless. When you are established in the market place, your reputation will bring you more clients than all the adverts combined. Good reputation is one intangible thing we need to maintain and work on. It inspires trust and confidence. If you want to be successful and excellent in everything you do, do not indulge in any kind of compromise that can potentially tarnish your reputation. This is one thing you cannot afford to lose! It is how the world perceives you. Your image and brand must speak of integrity and excellence. 2. WISDOM We can never over emphasize on the importance of wisdom. The scriptures clearly put it this way: “wisdom is the principle thing”. Those who work with their minds rule over those who work with their hands. Wisdom, creativity, insight are what gives an edge and an advantage in life. A wise businessman makes right decisions at the right time and it spares him from costly mistakes. Proverbs 8:1 says: “I am Wisdom, I am better than jewels; nothing you want can compare with me (GN). A man with wisdom knows how to get wealth and increase it, but an unwise one can only lose it. Wisdom from God is the advantage we have in this competitive world. It is said of Joseph and Daniel that they had an excellent spirit within them and they displayed great wisdom. Without weapons they managed to impose themselves, rule and reign in a hostile land, thanks to wisdom. 3. FAITH AND COURAGE It is literally impossible to achieve anything without a measure of faith and courage. He who possesses these qualities shall win every time. Courage is more powerful than weapons. In the battlefield of life the opposition and challenges you face would not go away just because you have weapons to defeat them. But it is your courage, boldness and determination that decide on the outcome. The world has a way of intimidating us, especially when you have a vision and a dream from God. In your pursuit of excellence, you will be judged, criticised, rejected and misunderstood. The only thing that will keep you focus and on course to fulfilling your destiny will be your faith and the courage you display in moments of crisis. 4. FAVOUR
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Favour is an affair advantage that God in his sovereignty just decides to put on you. I heard a wise man saying: “one day of favour is better than a thousand days of labour.” How true this is! Favour is when God himself smiles on you and situations and circumstances just work to your advantage. With favour you are distinguished and rise above the ordinary. Talent can take you far and gifting can open doors for you, but favour will make you unique and
extraordinary in your field. Favour is that intangible thing that makes one attractive to good things. With favour you can succeed anywhere and every time. Because of favour Joseph even after being sold into slavery, prospered both in Potiphar’s house and prison! 5. FREEDOM There’s no self-discovery and self-determination without freedom. Before you become anything you must be free first. Freedom is vital in the pursuit of excellence and fulfilling your purpose. Any form of dependency and bondage can potentially hold you back from making progress. Freedom is always the first step towards pursuing destiny. Everyone in the Bible that was called by God was to separate himself or herself first, in essence to be free. From Abraham, Moses, Joseph to David, they all had to experience freedom from the familiar to discover what God made possible and available for them. No country in the world has ever achieved a collective destiny of prosperity without the starting point that we call: Independence Day! Being restricted by lack means to fulfilling your dreams is lack of freedom. The essence of freedom is to be able to make independently your own decisions and implement them without restrictions. Free to think, free to choose, free to be and free to do is the first condition before achieving greatness. 6. POSITIVE ATTITUDE AND EXCELLENT SPIRIT I consider myself to be a student of life and a careful observer. Sitting in my house one day, I marveled at the sight of an insect that was trying to fly outside. Unfortunately for it, the windows were closed. It kept on hitting the glass on the window in fruitless attempts to get out! I first wondered, why can’t it just understand that the window is closed? Then I realised that in the mind of the insect he is saying to himself “if I can see through it, I can go through it!” That is attitude! “Attitude is everything,” you may have heard that before. A good or a bad attitude is what separates the winners and the losers. An attitude is the atmosphere we create around us. Ultimately it determines who we are and how we are perceived. We attract or repel by the attitude we adopt. Something as simple as a good attitude can give you a considerable advantage in life. A smile, a “thank you”, an apology when you are wrong, little assistance to someone in need, they all say something about your attitude. Life has its time of pressure and challenges; in this regard we have a choice to make whether to adopt the attitude of a victim or a winner. The Bible says, when the twelve spies were sent to explore the Promised Land, ten came with a bad report. But Joshua and Caleb who were among the twelve spoke with a “yes
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-we -can” attitude. Winning has more to do with your attitude than your strength and abilities. The lion is the King of the Jungle not because it is the biggest animal or even the fastest or strongest, but because it is fearless and bold even before an elephant! How one’s life changes when instead of seeing problems you see possibilities and opportunities. When you define every setback as a learning experience instead of calling it failures. When you refuse to adjust your life to limitations and the expectations of others by challenging normalcy with a positive and a creative spirit. Aim at the moon to at least hit the highest mountain! Aim at perfection, to at least reach excellence. If I can see through it, I can go through it! A winner never gives up. A winner is not eager to be popular and please everybody. A winner makes decisions with convictions and leaves the consequences to God! A winner is never satisfied but by the best and what is excellent!
Image: andyewilliams.com
7. LOVE Love is truly one thing money cannot buy. When God wants to protect you, He takes someone out of your life, when He wants to bless you; He brings someone into your life. Love given and love received puts you in a right frame of mind and emotional stability to face difficult situations with fortitude and confidence. You can never be successful if your life is not based on love and giving. Give your best, that’s how you find fulfillment. Give yourself; that is how you find your place in the world. Give your all, that’s how you become the most important person in the world, to achieve significance. Jesus’ life and deeds were all based on the principle of love and giving. Someone said: “we make a living with what we do, but we make a life with what we give!” Treasure your relationships, invest in them. God always uses a human being to help another human being. Never compromise your relationships for selfish ambitions. Preserve trust, because it is priceless. Your relationships is your support system, they bring stability.
Image: eftspain.com
CONCLUSION 2Co 4:18 for we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever. (GN)
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Let’s focus on the lasting and the imperishable. What really makes us human beings? Let’s focus on the best gifts that God gives. The gifts of becoming in His likeness and Image in Christ. True riches and wealth can never be evaluated. These are virtues and qualities that only God can give: freedom, love, peace and His power. I believe in you and remember, no one really knows you, we are all discovering you! RM
Our tour to South Asia
Text & Images: Jaco Pretorius from Echo Youth Development
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I recently went with some friends on a bit of a weird tour to South Asia. It
Bangladesh - according to the World Bank one of the poorest and fastest growing cities on earth.
is quite the “in thing” for South African pastors and other Christian leaders to venture to the States and Europe on what they call “study tours”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there is a lot to learn in the so called uptown side of the world. But when the opportunity came in the form of sponsored plane tickets, we decided to give India and Bangladesh a shot. We’ve heard that a lot is being done there with less, and we figured that if something can work in these extreme parts of the world, then maybe it can also work in Pretoria? We shared the believe that people living in real physical need has a lot to teach us about life. So, we decided to learn from the poor about the poor.
We met up with the friendly people of Grameen Bank. It is a unique bank founded by Professor Muhammad Yunus, who in 2006 received the Nobel Peace Prize for his achievements in empowering poor families in Bangladesh through a micro-credit program focused mostly on woman. They give small loans to poor people possessing no collateral - meaning there’s no fat cat on the top buying himself a Boeing and a few islands, everything is thrown back into empowering more people. The aim of the bank is to establish credit worthiness and financial self-sufficiency amongst the poor and vulnerable. They helped more than 3,2 Million people up to date.
The four of us who travelled together, are all involved in development programs in Pretoria: I’m with ECHO Youth Development and the other three, Francois, Marinda and Sharaine, with Pen - an organization that runs some mind blowing projects in the heart of the inner city.
The statistics alone are pretty amazing, but it was seeing this system at work in everyday life in poverty stricken rural Bangladesh, that really touched us. We visited some of the villages, joined a micro-credit women’s meeting and spoke to some of the clients.
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Our first stop was the crowded city of Dhaka in
One lady, who until recently had only the equivalent of R2 a day to support her family of four, borrowed
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We volunteered in Kalighat because we wanted to see from the “inside” what the Sisters of Mercy was all about. The four of us joined in with other volunteers from all over the world. The whole idea was helping with the cleaning, dressing and moving of patients. Sometimes we had to help them eat and other times we just sat down chatting in broken English while massaging their cramped arms and legs. Mother Teresa said that she often saw Jesus in the eyes of the most vulnerable people in Kolkata. We saw Him too. money from Grameen Bank and is now the proud owner of a cow. She sells the milk and every now and then rents out the cow to pull someone’s cart. Recently the cow gave birth to a calf. This might not sound like a big deal to you and me, but it seems to make a world of a difference to this lady and her family. Some other woman bought very basic hand loom weaving machines and started their own little business.
We realised that there is something of God’s heart that you don’t find in beautiful cathedrals, the most touching spiritual music, the best of Christian books, not even in Bible study groups or at prayer meetings. It seems life chooses to reveal something of His heart through the poorest of the poor. It was Jesus who said:
We saw hope in the eyes of these friendly women. Thanks to Muhammad Yunus, once a poor man himself, they look forward towards a new future full of possibilities for them and their children. As followers of Jesus we were humbled by this selfless Moslem initiative to help the poor. Next we visited Kolkata (previously Calcutta) in India. If you look for the church in this city you might be drawn to beautiful old buildings with huge towers; when you enter you will most probably be surprised at the lifelessness - a bit like entering a museum.
“I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me...” Many Christians today tend to move away from suffering in search of comfort and safety. What a strange phenomenon for people claiming to be the body of the Christ doing just the opposite? Jesus did not call us out of the darkness, but rather into the darkness. He never promised a comfortable and safe life for his followers. The core of His message was a call to self sacrifice - seeking out the darkness, giving yourself to be the light.
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In Varanasi we met up with more of God’s strange people who is doing just that. These weirdos run
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We found another manifestation of the church right next to a huge Kali temple in the chaos of downtown Kalighat called: The house for the dying. We were still standing around in the entrance when a voice behind us said: “Please excuse me,” it was from a Western girl in her early twenties carrying in her arms a near dead naked old man she found somewhere on the dirty streets of Kolkata.
a coffee shop a few blocks from the Ganges. They call it Open Hand. Most of them are South Africans who gave up their comfortable lives and moved there more than ten years ago. Through the coffee shops they create work opportunities for some of the most vulnerable people in India, whose hand crafts they sell. They also run an amazing project with the homeless children at the Varanasi station and have some similar non profit initiatives in other parts of the country. Inspiring stuff, to say the least! Jesus said that to give will bring more joy than to receive. The enormousness of South Asia’s suffering broke our hearts and turned our guts, but we also saw this joy breaking through. It was visible in a little girl looking after her cripple sister, homeless children sharing whatever a tourist gave them and especially where God’s people moved in to make a difference.
alleys. The two girls in our group were robbed in Bangladesh, our taxi driver got beaten up and we were cheated and misdirected on more than one occasion. We had a lot of laughs, wept a few times silently and shared our dreams and frustrations about the role of the church in this broken world. There was a little site seeing, and a lot of hope seeing. It changed our lives. Somewhat of a funny tour, won’t you say? Maybe the biggest lessons in life are not to be learned in the Christian bubble away from injustice, poverty and human suffering, but right in the middle of it. RM
It was my first visit to India since I lived there fifteen years ago. I went there as a poor student and came back rich - with less money in my pocket. The same happened to the four of us on this visit.
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Some people argue that the centre of God’s will is the safest place to be. Not so for John the Baptist - the centre of God’s will was the place he lost his head, or just think of Steven who got stoned to death while being obedient - or Jesus for that matter. The centre of God’s will can sometimes be a very uncomfortable, even dangerous place, but it is also the place where his children will feel the most alive. On the tour we discovered a different understanding for the promise of a life of abundance in the Gospels. It seems not to be a guarantee of safety and comfort, but rather an assurance to God’s people that they will have the ability to be a light in the face of darkness, that they could walk courageous in dangerous places and that true joy is possible without material stuff or human status. God promises a peace that passes all understanding - even when entering some very nonpeaceful places. R ay M
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We spent a lot of time on trains, planes, Indian taxis and walked for miles on end in dirty crowded
Jaco Strydom ECHO Youth Development A community all about: freedom, fun and fellowship Tel: +27 12 3312341 Cell: +27 844 777 123 Email: info@echoyouth.co.za ; jaco@echoyouth.co.za Website: www.echoyouth.co.za Motto: “Don’t tell them Jesus loves them ‘till you’re ready to love them too...” Mission: love passionately travel lite be open be real be courageous honour the poor stand up for justice dare to care seek out the darkness and be the light give yourself follow Jesus...
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Lord I am a lost sinner I realise that my sins have created a barrier between You and me (Isaiah 59:2). I now want to sort out this matter with You (Isaiah 1:18). I confess that I am a sinner and that I am sorry for all the sinful things that I have done. Please forgive me and cleanse me with Your precious Blood that flowed for me on Calvary. I am willing to forgive all who wronged me and to do restitution where this may be necessary. Lord Jesus, I acknowledge that You are the only
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Then pray this prayer out aloud:
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Our only key to eternal life is a new birth, which takes place through the immortal seed of the Word of God. Without this new birth we are lost forever, cut off for eternity from the life of God that is found only in Jesus Christ. The new birth takes place when you pray a prayer. The choice is yours. Do you want to accept Jesus Christ as the Lord and Saviour of your life?
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Sinner’s Prayer
true Saviour and therefore I ask You to become my personal Saviour and Redeemer. I accept You today as my Lord and my God. I believe that You died in my place and that God raised You from the dead in my stead. I also believe that by accepting You, I am set free from the power of darkness and you are transforming me into the Kingdom of Your love. Lord Jesus, by faith I now receive You as my personal Saviour. I receive the incorruptible seed of Your Word in my heart and thus I receive the new birth. Thank you that You are now my Lord and my God. Thank you that Your Holy Spirit is now living in me and that He enables me to walk in Your ways and keep Your commandments. I confess that from now on I am a child of the Living God. I confess that my name is written in the “Book of Life”. I confess that I have received the gift of eternal life and have thus received my heavenly passport. Thank You, Lord Jesus. RM