8 o' clock news - August 2014

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The Eight O’Clock

News August 2014

8 am Service, Christ Church, Richmond Road, Kenilworth

021-797-6332

lagoon was tamed. Thoughts of my friend again and Dylan Thomas’ words in Under Milkwood: ‘we are not wholly bad Changing times or times of or good, who live our lives under change—neither is easy, Milk Wood’. Her questions to me especially if adverse. Recent of why bad things happen to good events have irrevocably changed people—so hard to answer. our world and jolted the earth on However, what may be lost in the its axis. Thoughts of changed air reality of our every-day existence, travel and the conflict in the Holy may be found in that God saves us Land were uppermost in my mind to change us. As I tried to explain as I journeyed by road to Plett. to her that the sands may shift, the These thoughts mingled, too, with earth may tilt and the oceans roar the recent counselling of a friend but amidst this turmoil, God is rock who has undergone unexpected -steady. change in her personal ‘Change or die’ may not just apply circumstances. to the corporate world but also to The steady rhythm of the motor us personally. Relinquish control car on the long road trip induces and submit to the Eternal, uncontemplative thoughts as the changing God who knows about all lamb fields pass by and the things even before they happen. descent from mountain to valley displays a vista of fields of Cease the striving and the questioning and find peace in His green hues, damask-like and silky. Suddenly this landscape embrace: Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming changes into surprising bursts of sun-filled canola fields and one down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not is overwhelmed by how nature changes too and although these change like shifting shadows (James 1:17). changes happen every year, they still appear fresh and new. And…despite what may happen; As for God, His way is perfect; In the business world and in life in general, we are beset by the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take phrases such as ‘changed management’, ‘re-engineering’ and refuge in Him (2 Samuel 22:31). ‘embracing change’. Even Bill Clinton said, The price of doing - Cheryl Anderson the same old thing is far higher than the price of change. Business author Alan Deutshman popularized the slogan, HAPPY ‘change or die’. SPECIAL Some things change and we feel in control and other changes, like those recently experienced by my friend, topple us into a BIRTHDAY sea of uncertainty. Frustration and fear grip us and we seek To anchor in the storm but what if we do not know God; or know Roal van Zyl Smit (1/8) Him and forget Him? Arriving at my beautiful hotel on the Lookout beach, the ‘You will keep him in perfect Milkwood Manor, I couldn’t help thinking again of how powerfully peace, whose mind is stayed on nature changed this spot seven years ago when the sea came in and wiped out the whole carpark of the beach and surrounded You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, the hotel. The beach was lost to hotel as sea met lagoon. On For in Yahweh, the LORD, is everlasting strength.’ my arrival this time, having last been there two years ago, I was Isaiah 26:3-4 amazed to find that the beach was back and once again the

Changing Times

August 2014 Eight O’Clock News


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