Saying thank you protects me
During prayer, it is firstly not about me. Even less is prayer a shopping list where I only tell God what I want. No, God is at the centre of my prayer. Payer is the place where I become less and God more. In prayer, I get off the chair and allow God to take […]
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Live love – that’s all
I wonder which word would win, if I were to ask everyone to answer the following question: If you had to sum up Christianity in one word, what would it be? I think love would be at the top of the list. Everything we do as God’s children must be built on the foundation of […]
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God’s friend
I am privileged to lead the annual harvest prayer meeting with the Helderberg farmers, just this side of Somerset West. I’m quite familiar with the area since I’ve worked on a wine farm for a few years. I enjoy spending time with fellow farmers retelling all the old stories stored in a deep filing cabinet. […]
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All good comes from God …
When things are going well, we hardly ever notice, but when things are hard, we quickly wonder why. We look for the cause of the hardship in what we did or didn’t do. We wonder if it might be someone else’s fault. Or we want to blame God. But recently we’ve found that bad things […]
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Praise the Lord!
Sometimes, when there is a highlight in my life, a “praise the Lord!” slips out. I say “slips out”, because it’s a spontaneous reaction. Something I didn’t plan. But I have another problem with that first sentence in that it begins with “sometimes”. Why do we only praise God sometimes? Why can’t we honour Him […]
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Mindful about Jesus
A friend of mine told me about a course he did to help him see the small things in life again. We become so used to things that we forget to look around us and then we miss out a lot. We live in a trance and life slips by unnoticed. The course, which is […]
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Handing out full bowls
Our neighbour across the street always gives something in return when she receives something from us. If we send over a bowl of food or a freshly baked bread or something sweet, the bowl is never returned empty. Whether it’s a few soft biscuits or some fruit, they cannot receive without giving back. That’s why […]
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Finding peace in what you have
Nataniël has a way of putting things. He said this about gratitude: “Get a dog and call him ‘Thank you’. Every time you call him will remind you how grateful you need to be for everything you have and everything you receive undeservedly, by grace.” 8 … if we have bread on the table and […]
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Between heaven and hell, a thank you
What does sin try and do? Sin tries to take the fun from life. First, he tries to tell you a lie by saying he knows where the real fun in life can be found, but before you know it, you have more problems than anything else. Or he tries to tie you up with […]
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God leads our thoughts to love
My mind is normally all over the place, especially when I pray. So I often choose a Psalm and read it slowly and carefully. Then I take pen and paper and write down everything that I hear in that Psalm. I can fill a number of pages quite quickly. It helps me to focus. It […]
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