Friday 26 December 2014

Joy in the deepest Place

In November 2012 I stood in the middle of an art gallery staring at the beautiful trinkets spread across the beautiful veranda. Twenty twelve was a turbulent year for me, I fell ill, suffered emotionally from the physical problems I had and felt the weight of my struggling relationships. I was caught in a trubulent storm that had resembled a hurricane. And yet there I was holding on to the One Lonely Tree that remained rooted in the ground while the storm blew through my town. The Tree was Yeshua, Christ the steady Rock. I clung to Him so tightly my knuckles were white and I hoped beyond all hope that life would turn around but it was so dark.

As I stood there in that gallery with the sense of feeling lost, I felt God lead me over to a section where a plethora of wooden hearts hung. My eye immediately fell on one with the word "Joy" written on the centre of it. Joy? The very thing that felt light years away from me, are You kidding God joy? Buy that one He said and so I bought it and hung it right by my front door and hoped in the deepest place of me, that joy would indeed one day soon, be my portion. But as the days slipped on, the darkness did not shift but still I held on - lead me to the Rock that is higher then myself....

Unlike books, novels or movies life is indeed a pathway, a walk, a place where we sometimes have to linger longer then we would like but all of it is purpose - worthy when we have Messiah. My storm did shift, my illness did get healed maybe not in the way I had pictured, but in the way God had it planned out for me. My relationships were restored and my life turned around. I came out of the storm, stronger, with more conviction and more convinced then ever that Yeshua is real and that He is totally in control. In short, my life changed and so did my destiny. I have always been a God chaser, someone who loves God intensely from the very moment I was saved, through every season in my life, I have gradually changed and I am so thankful that God knows the journey and the destination.

God promised me joy and God delivered it on time - joy as I have never felt before. Sometimes God gives us promises that seemed delayed, but they are never too early or too late. Hold on to the promises God gives you and do war with them because they are truth.

Father, I am so thankful today for the joy You have given me. Thank You for keeping Your word to me and please remember every promise You have given me and are yet to fulfil. I trust You and Love You. In the name of my God and Saviour King Yeshua!

Friday 19 December 2014

I adore You / Journey FMF

Five Minute Friday, usually there is where God starts speaking to me, haha. I think it's because it is unrehearsed and just normal..... So here goes! Start!
 I remember the first time I saw you
You do?
Yip, you were beautiful and it was in that magical moment where our worlds connected for the first time.
But not the last...
No
Because I never knew how much I needed you before that moment, that moment where I felt my own emptiness, my own nothingness, and now for me, there is nothing else but You.
He smiles..
I adore You
I love you and I dont want you sitting over there like a stoic statue, I want you wild and free, just like you have always been
And I want You, nothing else but You. She pauses, there really is nothing else like You, no one like You or that is as beautiful as You. I love You. It's been a journey.
Yes it has
You know the depth of it. She pauses...
He lifts her chin as she stares down... you have nothing to fear, there is nothing that still awaits that I have not done. There is nothing that can stand steadfast at your doorway, nothing can stand that I have already removed. Nothing because I just adore you.
Really?
Of course, my throne meant nothing to Me without you, that's why I traded it all for all of you. You are my love and divine treasure, I love You.
She throws her arms around His neck and holds Him tight, He laughs in delight, how I adore You!

Thank You Yeshua! STOP!
 Linking up with Kate M

Friday 12 December 2014

Run on, wild and free...


The horse gallops around the track, it snorts and grunts, I hear it so clear – run, run, run with the wind, run, run wild, untamed and free. I hear the sound of its footsteps running, grunting, wild and free. I hear the sound of the horse thundering, thundering, thundering. Daharot Daharot abbirayv – Galloping, galloping go His mighty steeds. Galloping wild and free, tossing its mane. His legs move swiftly, timelessly, he knows what to do with every move. Effortlessly. The clouds notice his dance, they point and smile, then bless with a song. Open their mouths to sing, he hears their song in the distance, loves its sound but gallops on and on…. The clouds move on, with their path of life, each to their own home, each a purpose to own. The horse gallops on and on, in the shadow silence of serenity, away from the crowds, alone with its rider and the wooden beams that are the audience. The wooden beams that stand like hands showing the way forward, this is the path now follow it. He needs no reminder, or reassurance, he is running because he wants to, because this is who he is, what he was created for, what he will die for. Effortlessly, daharot, daharot – galloping, galloping. The sun begins to set in the comfortable sky, the clouds smile, each to his own home, everything in its place for today. The horse gallops forward, reaching forward, it runs wild and free, effortlessly, following the wooden beams that point like arrows to home, run on gentle giant, run on,  run wild and free, intent upon the prize, focused. His rider and him are one, ride on home graceful giant of God, run the race beneath the setting sky, beautifully untamed, wild on purpose and Heavenly free..

Wednesday 10 December 2014

Why I don't celebrate Christmas!

I wondered about putting this post up before I even wrote it, but then I thought why not, why shouldn't I share my own thoughts and feelings, besides it is my own blog, so I can do whatever I want! Right you are.

This time of year is the one I dislike the most, for a number of really obvious reasons. But for a starters with all the Christmas postings, I must say I dont celebrate Christmas. Neither does my husband and boy we are so glad to be out of the rat race and out of the very obvious non - Christian connections to the day. Every since I was a little girl, my father told me at the young age of 5, that neither Santa, the Easter bunny or the tooth fairy were real. He didnt believe in lieing to me or my brother. Admittedly, I was kind of shocked but then I was like okay and got over it pretty soon. It actually was quite nice to know that it was mom or dad sneaking in to my room with a basket full of toys, instead of a fat man in a red suit whom I didn't know. As a child i spent hours flipping through a wonderful collection of childrens encyclopedia's, entitled Childcraft. I read them from cover to cover, everyday. I loved the one about history and mythology. The pages of those encyclopedia's told me the truth - that Christmas was actually celebrated to the Sun Deity, who was believed to have been born on this day 25th of December. 

When I got saved and started to seek God's face on how I shoudl live my life, He shared many truths with me, one was about the pagan origins of Christmas.

We read in Werner Keller's book The Bible as History the following admission:
"December 25 is referred to in documents as Christmas Day in A.D. 324 for the first time. Under the Roman emperor Justinian [A.D. 527-565] it was recognized as an official holiday. An old Roman festival played a a major part in the choice of this particular day. December 25 in ancient Rome was the 'Dies Natali Invictus,' 'the birthday of the unconquered,' the day of the winter solstice and at the same time, in Rome, the last day of the Saturnalia, which had long since degenerated into a week of unbridled carnival..." (p. 331).
 Myth & Mystery: An Introduction to the Pagan Religions of the Biblical World. Finegan writes:
"...But the worship of the sun-god continued widely throughout the empire, and under Aurelian (A.D. 270-275) the cult was restored to its former high estate. In the year 274 Aurelian declared the god -- now called Deus Sol Invictus -- the official deity of the Roman Empire; he built a splendid temple of the sun in Rome...and set the sun's birthday celebration (naturalis solis invicti) ON DECEMBER 25, the date then accepted for the winter solstice (also in his solar character the BIRTHDAY OF MITHRAS). In the time of Constantine the cult of Deus Sol Invictus was still at its height, and the portrait of the sun-god was on the coins of Constantine....Likewise it must have been in this time and with the intent to transform the significance of AN EXISTING SACRED DATE that the birthday of Jesus, which had been celebrated in the East on January 6...was placed in Rome ON DECEMBER 25, THE DATE OF THE BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION OF SOL INVICTUS. This date appears in a list of dates probably compiled in A.D. 336 and published in the Roman city calendar, edited by Filocalus, for the year 354" (Finegan, p. 211-212
The Catholic Encyclopedia says the following:

"Christmas is not among the earliest festivals celebrated by the Church."

Truth is that this day was always seen as a day connected with something other then Yeshua the Saviour of Mankind. Archeology and general study will lead you to realise that shepherds could not have been watching their flocks at night in the cold of a snowy Israeli December evening. 

The birth of the Messiah is not known for certain, but we can know the approximate time of year when he was born! In the book of Luke we read that the father of John the Baptist was Zacharias, and he was a priest who served at the temple in Jerusalem. He was "of the course of Abia" (Luke 1:5). While serving at the temple, he was informed by an angel that his wife was to have a son, who was to be named "John." After this, Zacharias finished "the days of his ministration," and "departed to his own house" (v.23). "And after those days, his wife Elizabeth conceived..." (v. 24).

The names of the different courses of priests that served at the Temple are given in I Chronicles 24:1-19. "Abia" or "Abijah" was the EIGHTH course. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, each one of these courses served at the Temple for one week, the first course serving the first week of Nisan, in the spring (compare I Chron. 27:1-2), and then each course in its own order. All the priests served during the annual festivals (Passover in spring, Pentecost, and then Tabernacles in the fall). After six months, the order would be repeated, thus each "course" would serve two weeks during a year. 
 
The course of Abijah, then, would have served the eighth week in the rotation. The eighth week from Nisan 1, leaving out the week of Passover, when all the priests served, would have been IYAR 27 TO SIVAN 5, the day just before Pentecost , which generally fell on Sivan 6. After serving a week in the Temple, Zacharias would have remained another week in Jerusalem, because of the Feast of Shavuot or Pentecost that week. Therefore, he returned home shortly after this, and his wife then conceived. This would have been about the middle of June. If we add nine months to this date, the normal time for the gestation of a human baby in the womb, John the Baptist would have been born about the middle of March, in the spring, shortly before the Passover. 
 
Yeshua was conceived about six months after John (Luke 1:24-31, esp. verse 26). This would suggest that Yeshua the Messiah was conceived about the middle of December. This would place his birth nine months, or 270 days, later -- or the month of September! (Thanks to the Hope of Israel Website for this short explanation of the priestly course!)

 My hearts conviction is to honour the Holiness of our King, as Romans 8 says that we are to be transformed in to the image of our Messiah, this is part of knowing that we belong to Him. It is best to do what His word says rather then follow the traditions our fathers gave us. The information I have presented above is a little tidbit of info, to get you thinking about this - Jeremiah 10: 2 - 4 speaks about cutting down a tree and decorating it, as the nations (heathens) do! Instead of trying to find a time to spend giving gifts to the family during this non - Biblical festival, God wanted us to celebrate His wonderful feast days, outlined in Leviticus 23. Not only are these feasts times of celebration, but they are also rehersal days and moments in time that speak of deeper truths about things still to come! 
Yahweh my God, I will seek to serve You with all of my heart, serving You in the way You have ordained for me, not in the way of the nations of this world. For you have called and You have said - behold You are a set apart people, a holy nation, a Kingdom of priests to me, therefore be holy for I am Holy! Selah!


 

Friday 5 December 2014

Dear God, Have I told You lately?



Dear God

How I love you, how You are everything that is all of me. How I love You.
Remember in those first days how I used to sing that song that we loved to sing together?
Well let me sing it here again today, Have I told you lately how I love You? Have I told You there’s no one above You? You fill my heart with gladness, take away all my sadness, ease my troubles that’s what You do.

Oh how I love You. Let’s dance, just You and me. No words, let’s dance. Dear God, my God. Have I thanked You, just for being You and bringing me to the fullness of being free to be me. Have I told You lately that I love you, not a day goes by when You are not all and everything on my mind. No one knows the depth of our path, the one we have walked together, no one can know, no one should. I don’t want them to. I just want it to be between me and You. Such beautiful moments together, how I love You. No it aint been easy but it’s sure been worth it so a million times over. Thank You for coming for me, for coming when I was going towards an avalanche of a nothingness life, thank You for coming for me. Have I told You lately that I love You? Because You never forget to tell me how much You do! I love You and you hear it in the beating and the sighing of my everyday heart...


Linking up today with Kate Motaung

Wednesday 3 December 2014

Sixteen Days against Abuse

I wrote the following piece two years ago for a local newspaper. It was to promote a local charity who works with abused women. The information is pretty concise and helpful, so as part of my 16 days of activism against women abuse post, I want to share the following information with you! Let's stand together everyday, to fight abuse worldwide!



November 25th marks the international White Ribbon Day and kicks off the 16 days of activism where internationally, men and women stand together to highlight the issue of violence against women. Wearing a white ribbon, organising a campaign or donating funds to a women’s shelter are all ways of supporting elimination of violence against women.

Women abuse is a regular pattern of intentional behaviour that is used to control, intimidate and maintain power and control over the actions, feelings and thoughts of a woman. This type of abuse occurs across cultures, across religious groups, financial groups and across the world. It is a mistaken belief that abuse is exclusively physical and that the wounds of abuse are easily seen or acknowledged. Physical abuse is outlined by the South African government as behaviour that is life – threatening in nature. However the wounds of abuse are not limited to the physical alone. Abuse involves unseen trauma and manifests itself as emotional and verbal abuse, which involves behaviour that manipulates, provokes fear, destroys self worth and personal value. Verbal abuse involves attacking, injurious words that promote a negative view of the self, which eventually causes the woman to embrace a false view of herself. Financial abuse readily occurs within many relationships, typically relationships that are bound to specific cultures. Financial abuse occurs when the woman has little or no access to finances, including her salary or wage. The woman is excluded from making decisions regarding finances and has to request money and account tirelessly for her spending. Sexual abuse involves any unwanted sexual activity that is forced upon a woman, this kind of behaviour can occur within a marital relationship. Spiritual or religious abuse is currently a topic of discussion within South African communities. Spiritual or religious abuse occurs when an organisation or individual exerts power or control over a women’s spirituality, this can happen at the hands of a spiritual leader or authority figure.

If you see yourself or a loved one’s situation in the above, it is important that you get in touch with someone that can help or provide information on how to break free from this life – threatening, soul destroying environment. 
A Google search will provide a list of organisations that help abused women in your area!