Fast Pace Change

‘Six months ago we would not have believed it was possible to run a DIY computer course on your own computer, with our Head Quarters in America and our software technology in Cape Town!’ One of our IT guru’s confessed to me at our BAND OF BROTHERS monthly meeting at Harvester Reformational Church.

It seems that all things have become possible in the IT business – anything goes! Cell phones are so advanced that they might soon replace laptops or perhaps there is something else being designed as I am writing that will make cell phones completely obsolete within two years! Wireless communication has taken on an ID of its own!

Changes are coming so fast at us that it is hard to keep up! It is like travelling through space: there is so much to discover but we are going to fast!

In the old days we used to speak of ships passing at night – the romantic notion of two slow moving objects with dim lit decks filled with lonely passengers all hoping to find their wealth or happiness in another country, another place.

But today everything has been speeding up – fast and furiously!

When teenagers watch a movie, they remark: ‘it’s so slow…it takes forever to get going!’ So the Bourne Identity trilogy with its neck breaking speed and hand held camera shots capture the attention of the youth because the pace never lets down and the editing is in touch with the modern stressful lifestyle of constantly being bombarded with images and info and having to make quick decisions all the time until there is a blow up or a collapse!

Everything in our age has to be a convenience before people purchase the product! Tokyo’s brand Uniqlo has brought fashion retailing into the age of the convenience store.. It sells nothing but T shirts packed into clear plastic tubes and stacked like so many cans of soda. The store is named UT – and nothing costs more than $12!

The concept of an Internet Café is already outdated! Some people have never even used one! Today the Geek Terminal Restaurant in Singapore you get a laptop to use with a battery charger and any power device you require and power supply sockets are within easy reach of every customer. Wall mounted flat screens display websites and banner ads and anything you see you can buy because the restaurant doubles as a sales agent for Apple and TV makers in Malaysia. Oh, by the way, you can also order food in the restaurant! The next restaurant to open is in Kuala Lumpur and then Dubai and London. The mere provision of a wi-fi isn’t going to cut it any more! (Time, Aug 20, 2007)

Sweden now has one sauna for every five people in Helsinki, Finland! Sauna Bars, Sauna Laundry Café’s, restaurants such as Eatz, and Baker’s night club offers private lounges for 8 people all require reservations at $28 a head for two hours. Even Bowling alleys have saunas in Helsinki!

Just look around you – see what changes fast – and see the pace of change in your neighbourhood as a sign of the times we are living in.

In this fast paced life of constant change…there is an anchor: our faith in an unchangeable God! When everything else changes, He remains the same!

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever! That is why we can anchor our hopes and our faith on Him. He is always the same! There is no shadow of change with Him. We are securely connected to Him. He doesn’t constantly demand more fees for higher upgrades. He has already paid the full price for a life long membership in His Household of Faith where there are constant supplies of everything we need for this life and for the life hereafter. Only a fool will say in his heart, there is no God!

Then again, living at Sunset Beach, Cape Town, I see the sunsets, every night, and I say to myself, (Sachmo), ‘what a wonderful world’ and I see the ships on the horizon at night passing each other with dim lit lanterns on their decks and yellow dots for cabin lights and I hear the sound of the fog horn in the distance and see the beam of light from Milnerton Lighthouse and the one from Mouillie Point and I think to myself, nothing has really changed much…

Clean up time

"I can't go to the toilet at school!" Hilton remarked. I thought at first that he had a problem but he assured me that the toilets were in such a terrible state that they cannot be used! It's hard to believe that a school with so many sporting facilities and excellent staff and academic records do not pay attention to the most basic human needs.
When I questioned the vice-head about it he assured me that it actually is a problem - a huge problem and they do not know what to do about it. Two years ago a lot of money was spent on repairs, but the boys break the seats, the break the urinals and the towel rails off the wall, the mess the place up and have no respect for the facilities...and they issue is addressed from time to time at assembly.
"Why don't you give the boys toilet duty to clean the place up - then they will soon keep it in a decent order!" One of the mothers suggested.
"You don't know how parents will react to a suggestion like that!"
Well, perhaps the parents need to come and do the cleaning up after the mess their boys make at school! There should also be a maintenance team and procedure in place to keep it in order.

Why is it like that in public places? What is wrong with people? What is wrong with boys and girls - the one mother assured us it was just as bad at girl's schools!

The problem lies with our values: we are all easily taken up with the outward impressiveness of things, but the inner reality is often ignored...so the school will spend a lot of money to upgrade the entrance so that the first impression is good, but the toilets remain a problem.

Isn't this exactly what Jesus referred to when he rebuked the Pharisees for being so particular about the outside of a cup but inside it is filthy? Isn't this an indictment against humanity that pays so much attention to the appearance of things rather that the inner beauty and the things of the spirit?

Paul warned that terrible times would come in the latter days because of three reasons: people would be lovers of themselves, lovers of money and lovers of pleasure. As a resutl of these three priorities everything else would be sadly neglected! No wonder the preaching of the cross has once again become foolishness to most preachers - they have to preach motivational messages to tickle the ears of the people, to gather teachers to teach what people would like to hear, to satisfy the insatiable appetite of the human ego, instead of crudifying the self-life with Christ so that the life of Christ may be seen...

Dr. Roy M. Gray told me once at Miracle Valley Bible College in Arizona, where I went to study the bible, that a person's real character can be measured by how that person views the Cross of Jesus Christ...If such a great sacrifice does not move someone to respond with gratitude, what else would? People are basically ungrateful and can never get enough of what they want. But when we have crucified the flesh with its lusts, we step into another lifestyle of living for a higher purpose, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the establisment of His kingdom in the hearts of men, women and children.

Maybe it is time to clean up our act together with the effort the school will make to repair the toilets - but more than that , pehaps it is time to teach our children to be grateful again, by setting and example for them! Maybe it is time that people pray a prayer of thanksgiving at every meal to acknowledge the hand of God in providing for them in their basic needs. Maybe it is time to learn to give rather than to live to get. Maybe we need to pay our tithes to the church and tax to the governmnet and not find reasons not to do so. Maybe we need to appreciate each other again and make room for mistakes, but to learn from our mistakes...

Maybe prayer and meditation in the Bible should become priority in our homes again and replace the TV as the principle law giver and standard for our families. Maybe we ought to be thankful just for being alive today...It is a good thing to give thanks - that is the will of God.

I heard the news today O boy

When the Beatles sang their song, 'I heard the news today, oh boy!' it was pretty tame in those years to hear what was going on in the world. Since then things have increased with a speed! There are so many wars and rumours of wars, that it is hard to keep up with it all today. Violence and corruption have escalated to an alarming extent and the natural disasters are spelling the end-time in such clear signals that only fools would fail to pay attention!
The inconvenient truths as they claim are based on global warming statistics and people are scared about all that might transpire in the near future. Terrorism is making normal life impossible and religious fanatics actually seek heroic exists out of this life - only problem is they always want to take out as many people with them as they possibly can!
The result is basic: people are living one day at a time: I might die any moment so I might as well enjoy today! This type of attituce is often found in times of war. Licenciousness is something people explain to justify actions they would otherwise have ignored. Anarachy grows out of licenciousness, people become lawless...
Where there is no vision, people perish. The Lord laments in His Word, 'My people perish from a lack of knowledge!' And yet at the same time there are prophetic utterances that in the end-time knowledge shall increase! We have to ask ourselves, what kind of knowledge do we lack and what kind of knowledge is increasing in our time. And then we have to make a concerted effort to absorb the right kind of knowledge and avoid the kind that simply wastes our time!
The public media is hell-bent on sensationalism to sell their newspapers and keep people glued to the TV ('Don't go away - we have more for you in a moment!')
What is the role of apostles and prophets of the Lord Jesus Christ in these alarming times? What is the role of every believer? How do we manage our lives and stay in touch with reality in the midst of a world that seems to be spinning out of control?
There is a simple way: there is a short and easy method of prayer that Madame Guyon prescribed to her disciples. When you open your heart to God in prayer after meditating in the Bible (and you must first believe that it is the inpsired Word of God!) then you can simply allow the presence of God to cleanse you from all the dirt and filth of the world, and to commune with you in such a way that your heart will be uplifted and encouraged, and you will sense the comfort only the Holy Spirit can bring!
Try it...now. It does not have to be long...5 minutes is tremendously refreshing!