Saturday 22 December 2007

Smile, Jesus loves you!



At the end of a year people think about a lot of things: what happened and what is going to happen next year? There is a lot of sadness and a lot of unfulfilled things, but also some sense of accomplishment and achievement as well as hope for the future. We are creatures of hope, otherwise we won't carry on.
A great secret is thanksgiving. The root word of thanks in Greek, is 'think' - so if we think a bit we have a lot to give thanks for! Out of thanksgiving the new goals and objectives should arise naturally. The most important thing is to think of others as well, not just yourself.
I once asked Hilton, my youngest son, at the end of the U/11 rugby season, 'what was your greatest moment on the rugby field this season?' Without hesitation he said, 'when I beat the Sacs flyhalf and gave that pass to Ty to score his try!' I must admit I was somewhat surprised. I would have thought that his greatest moment was when he kicked the winning conversion in the last minute to win the game for his team! But he was not thinking of his own achievement but of his involvement in the team!
Jesus said we can learn much from little children and so I learned!
In this time of Christmas people are thinking about buying presents for others. It is a good thing, although we should have learned by now that we ought to have good will throughout the year and not only at the end!
A thank you here and there, a kind word to people who do dull, routine work such as cashiers and people at toll gates, could just brighten up someone's day. A word of cheer, a joke shared, a piece of encouragement at the right time, a smile - these things cost us nothing and sometimes they are the greatest gifts!
Let your friendliness be known, Christ is at hand. This apostolic command has much substance in it. When we let our friendliness be known, people will experience Christ, close at hand.
Well, sometimes we have to be friendly to ourselves as well. We all do stupid things and even things we are ashamed of and wonder why on earth did I do it? It is painful to be reminded just how human we are at times. But I think these things are allowed to happen so that we do not think of ourselves more highly as we ought to think. Pride is an over estimation of oneself and under estimation of others. Inferiority is just the opposite. Humility is therefore a balanced, truthful estimation of one's self.
But the problem is that most people do not know who they are! Especially christians who go to seminars to discover their purpose in life! I am amazed how gullible believers are! They try so hard to believe that they are easily deceived! Faith is not an effort - it is a gift! But because preachers make merchandise out of people believers are led astray by cunniningly devised schemes and programmes that eventually make slaves out of the redeemed of the lord!
Oh, we simply have to learn to be thankful and to trust the Lord for tomorrow.
The old adage is still true today: I don't know about tomorrow, but I know who holds tomorrow!
So, saint, think for a while what is there to be thankful about during the past year and begin to place your trust in God for what lies ahead. This should round the year off and you will find that He always crowns the year with goodness!
Smile, Jesus loves you!

Monday 17 December 2007

What's in a friendship?


There are friendships that last and there are friendships that don't. What's the difference? It's hard to tell. But there has to be some sort of heart connection in order for any friendship to survive. I have found in my life that some friends are only for a short period of time, but there are some that last a life time. The ones that last are the ones you should make a special effort to retain. It is not so much how you service the friendship that makes it work, but the heart felt attitude towards someone.
A friend is not a necessarily perfect. A friend has faults. You accept the friend with the faults.
I once sat in a restaurant somewhere in America and the African American waitress slammed four giant glasses of ice cold water onto the wooden table. I was irritated by all the water on the table as the condensation slid down the glasses and onto the table. I called the waitress back.
'Look at the table: it's wet! And to tell you the truth I didn't even order the four glasses of water!'
'Well, you get the wet with the water, baby!' she replied and shrugged my complaint off with a wave of her hand.
Later on someone told me why you get water the moment you sit down in a restaurant in America: because someone choked to death in a restaurant and because there was no water on the table the family sued the restuarant, made millions and caused the restaurant owner to close down because he went bankrupt! Since then you get the wet with the water - whether you like it or not!
In a friendship you get the wet with the water as well!
Jesus called some ordinary guys to come and learn from him for a few years and then there was a twist in the tale. At a certain point in time, in John 15 we read about it, he said to them, ' I no longer call you servants, but my friends!' And then He qualified his requirements for friendship: 'you listen to what I tell you and you do what I ask you!' Simple! A friend always makes an effort to do what you ask, no matter how busy they are, and also knows when to listen and when to speak.
Plato described friendships that work only one was as a burden: the one who sees and advantage in a friendship is only a friend as long as he can take advantage. When the advantage is no longer on his side, he breaks the friendship and hates the one who did not give him what he wanted! I have been disillusioned by such friendships until I reread Plato again. ( I studied drama, languages and philosophy at UCT).
Well, there you are and there you have it - some thoughts for the holiday season about friendship. Think through on it and see whether you can determine who your real friends are!
Last year I experienced one of the high lights of my life: a few of my university friends met together in the south of France to reminisce under the Mediterranean sky for a week. And what a week it was! It reunited the friends after 35 years and each one told his story - some stories made us laugh and some made us cry, but we have been in contact every since and we are planning a get together in the USA this year when one of the guys turn 60!
In closing, let me say this, the best friend to have is Jesus...he will hear you when you call, he will keep you when you fall, and he is never too busy to be there for you! Try Him if you never have - it has divine dividents!

Thursday 13 December 2007

Ketchup? Of course sir!


I sat in a restaurant in Benin City, at the Plaza hotel, mind-you, but it is not the kind you might expect in the good ol' USA! Here the only American thing is how they greet you: ' Yuh ah wulcum suh!' Everyone says it: from the security guard at the boom gate, to the receptionist, to the waitress, and they say it every time they see you. After a week you begin to accept the fact that you are welcomed!
So as I sat, waiting for my belated breakfast (you wait quite long for any orders, it is African time as far as everything is concerned including food on the menu) they brought my omelette, flat as a pancake. There were hints of ham and tomato. No cheese today. I wondered if I should roll it up or add some flavour and after due deliberation chose the latter as the better option.
'Any tomato sauce here?' I enquired of the waiter.
' No,' came the reply.
'Any kind of sauce?'
'We have ketchup.'
'Ok, I'll have the ketchup if you don't have any tomato sauce!'
'Yuh uh wulcum suh!'
It took a while for the ketchup bottle to arrive. I thought of a ditty we used to say at table: 'shake oh shake the ketchup bottle: first nothing will come and then a lottle!' The waiter finally arrived with the bottle of tomato sauce - at least that is what is written on the label. I tried to take it from him, but he seemed quite possessive and withdrew the bottle, informing me in no uncertain terms that he would pour the ketchup on my food. That he did - he unscrewed the top and poured in onto my flat omelette in no small measure! And then, this is the crux of the story: he proceeded ceremoniously to lick the top of the bottle clean with his protruding tongue!
My eyes were riveted on the ritual - surely it is a ritual because it was done in such style and audacity, I gathered that he had at least done this a thousand times before. There was no hesitation, no qualms, no inhibitions, no fear of man!
He closed the bottle with the lid. It was clean. Licked clean. And now, my eyes slowly lowered to my plate and my stomach turned...I had doubts, lots of them, and qualms, overwhelmed by them, and I was inhibited as well, but my fear was not the fear of man, but the fear of the ketchup that was poured from a previously licked tomato sauce bottle.
And all the other waitresses observed and watched as if to determine if this white man from the deep south would be man enough to stomach the sauces from this part of the world.
I took a deep breath and raised my knife and fork as a good soldier would, said, goodbye cruel world and plunged into my omelette, with such dexterity that before anyone could say Jack Rabbit I had consumed the entire helping and licked my own lips clean. I did not need any help doing that! No Sir, I was man enough to lick my own lips. If a man could not lick the communal ketchup bottle clean, then the least a man can do is lick his own lips! That I did, with aplomb!
'Did yuh enjoy yuh meeel Suh?'
'Yes, I did. And thanks for the ketchup!'
'Yuh uh wulcum Suh!'
I have never in my life seen a cleaner ketchup bottle or tomato sauce one either!
The next morning I ordered oats. Yea, oats, the stuff horses eat. Its very good for the digestion they say. I convinced myself that I needed no ketchup for the oats porridge. The waiter approached me after the oats: ' Yuh not havin omelette tuhday, Suh?'
'Not today, no!'
'Yuh wulcum Suh!'
As I strolled out of the punishment camp of a restaurant, I thought to myself, not today, not tomorrow and not ever again! My thoughts were so loud in my head that I turned around to see if anyone else heard what I was thinking! But they all went on their merry way doing their chores, waiting for the next prey to ask for tomato sauce.
Yea, a cruel place, Africa! One has to walk silently in the jungle...and bring your own ketchup bottle through customs!
Yea, this is based on a true event. There are more instalments of this nature awaiting the brave blog reader!

Monday 10 December 2007

Just so wonderful to know


So wonderful to know
By Andre Pelser
(A song composed after a Sunday night service in Cape Town)

Oh it’s so wonderful to know
That someone loves me so
It’s so marvellous to know
That someone loves me so

It’s not an old fashioned love song
It’s oh so real to me
It’s not an old fashioned love song
It’s so real to me

Oh the love of God
Is real to me
Oh the love of God
Is real to me

It’s so marvellous just to know
He loved me first
It’s so marvellous to know
That He loved me first

It makes me feel secure
It makes my heart pure
Just to know He loves me
It makes me feel secure
It makes my heart so pure
Just to know that Jesus loves me
Love so divine and it is mine

I know I don’t deserve it
But I’ll take it anyhow
It’s not just an old fashioned love song
No, it’s real to me right now

Oh, it’s so marvellous to know
That He loves me so
He gave His only Son to die for me
Oh it’s wonderful to know

Wednesday 5 December 2007

Save the Whale


'Mazing! (as Jackie Chan would say) how people would feel consciencious about things they can do absolutely nothing about, somethings like, 'Save the Southern Wale' or global warming that very few individuals even have a clue about. There are those wealthy individuals who would even contribute to causes that sound worthwhile for the planet, such as O3 solutions to the O-zone and the world raises billions to do aids research.
When we prayed for a prostitute who had aids and three physicians confirmed that she was cured, we wrote a letter to The Cape Times to say, God can do something about aids, for free! The letter was replied to on the front page the following day! In fact we were on the street posters on every light pole in the city streets: 'pastor gives false hope to aids victim!' Unbelievable but absolutely true.
The world would much rather believe the lie and keep on spending global fortunes to preserve the lie than to believe the truth that is gratis.
This was the case with Jesus. When he died and rose again, the soldiers were embarrassed because two angels broke the seal and rolled away the stone that was on the grave and they could do sweet blow all about it. When they reported this to their superiors and to the chief priests, the religious leaders concocted and paid for a lie that is still spread among Jews and other unbelievers, even to this day! They paid the soldiers a handsome sum of money to go and tell everyone that Jesus' disciples came at night and stole his body away while he slept, implying that he never really died. They also promised to protect this lie and if anyone told the governor about the soldier's bribe they would appease him. This is commonly reported among the Jews until this day!
How sad that money can preserve a lie! How sad that people prefer to believe the lie!
You see it everywhere, in schools, in business, in churches, in sport, in music competitions, in tournaments, in award ceremonies...there are associations and secret societies that preserve the lies they believe in and they make sure that there are 'soldiers' who would be prepared to spread their lies for a large sum of money.
How about this: a young man told me about a new job that he had taken up, how the previous guy was given a large sum of money to 'take the rap' on behalf of the top directors in order to protect them from public disgrace and so that the company could continue after a giant scam was exposed that could have ruined them. The man gladly retired after being singled out as the only person responsible for the corruption and lived happily ever after! Now it is the young man's job to clean up the mess.
These people exchange the truth of God for the lie and worship adn serve the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. They do not like to retain God in their knowledge. Therefore God has given them over to a debvased mind to do those things which are not fitting being filled with all unrighteousness...undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving and unmerciful. Those who practice such things are deserving of death but also those who approve of those who practice these evil deeds.
Come with me to some places I go to and do missionary work, at the airport or in the street, and you will see how bribery and corruption has become an acceptable life style. No wonder the judgment of God is upon the nations of the world today.
As we learn to judge ourselves, we would do well, to judge ourselves according to the written word of God, The Bible, and I am sure as we reform the world around us will reform as well. That is a start to changing the world...at least!