The things I Believe

In the past weeks or so , I battled with prayer , and what I can and can not pray for. And I came to realize that I can only pray for the things that I believe .

Things that I believe to be true of God. And things that I believe about the nature of God. And so I want to list them here. This will however not be an exhaustive list of all the things I believe , but of the things I can think of right now. I will also add to this list as time progresses and I learn more about God.

so here we go.

I believe that :

• God loves me
• Jesus died on the cross and was raised again.
• Jesus' death and resurrection was necessary to redeem me from my sins
• God knows me better than I know myself and that He only wants what is best for me
  
• living in God's will and in His plan is the only way to be truly happy.
• God wants me to have a happy and fulfilled marriage.
• as the Author and designer of sex , God wants me to have a happy and fulfilled sex life
• God wants to meet my needs and care for me , also wen it comes to earning a living.

There are many more things , but these are the things that I can think of now, and these are the things that I can pray for and from God.

• 
  

One more

And so with the previous post still fresh in my mind I received this email from the same people today. One would think that God is trying to drive home a point.

It is just SO DIFFICULT not to worry.



Cast Your Cares

1 PETER 5:7 Amplified
7 Casting the whole of your care -- all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all -- on Him; for He cares for you affectionately, and cares about you watchfully.

God is not just mildly interested in you. He cares for you just as a good mother cares for her infant child -- affectionately and watchfully.

Would it be reasonable for a well-loved infant to worry?
Neither is it reasonable for you to worry when God loves you and has promised to take care of you.

To worry you must believe one of two lies: God can't take care of you, or God won't take care of you.

PHILIPPIANS 4:6 NRSV
6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Worry is not appropriate for a child of God.

SAY THIS: I throw all my cares on God because He cares for me.

Let us set the score straight

Unusual for me I actually subscribed to one of those - a verse a day - websites.

And so for the past few days I have been receiving bible verses and devotions in my email once a day.

And this evening I received this devotion in my inbox and it made think of a post that I posted a short while back .

And I guess that this devotion is an answer to that question. and so I need to post this in order to set the record straight. As difficult as it is for me to believe (and more so in my current circumstances) Jesus does care about me. And also about the small things. And so I pray that God will come to my aid soon. That He will show me the way and open the doors so I can earn a living again.

I am sorry Jesus for my doubts. I am sorry that I like Peter see the waves and hear the wind and that I get scared and that I start to doubt. Save me .... Save me..

Here follows the email as I have received it.



Jesus Understands

HEBREWS 4:15 NKJ
15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Whatever you face, Jesus Christ has already faced it.

Jesus knows what it is like:

to be hungry
to be tired
to be lonely
to be hurt
to be hated
to be beaten
to be persecuted
to be misunderstood
to be mistreated
to be mocked and laughed at
to be betrayed by a friend
to be tempted to sin
to be responsible for employees
to feel forsaken
to feel hopeless
to have no spouse
to have no earthly father there to help
to have lost a loved one
to have to pay taxes
to have money stolen from you
to have the responsibility to provide for a family to live under an oppressive government to experience extreme pain

HEBREWS 4:16 NKJ
16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Don't be afraid to talk to Jesus about anything. Not only does He understand, but He knows how to help you so you can overcome and have victory.

Remember, Jesus loves you -- enough to die for you. And He also ever lives to intercede for you.

So Jesus not only understands what you face, but He is able and willing to help you.

SAY THIS: Jesus understands what I am going through and is leading me to victory.

Do I always just complain ?

It feels as if I only want to blog when things are going bad and when I am down. Looking back through the posts I realize that this is not quite the case , but that I do have a tendency to complain on the blog more than I would in real life.

But first .... about the bird.

The picture above is of a brownhooded kingfisher. (or so says my bird book). I have seen this guy sitting on the same branch every evening at sunset a few times before. So last night my son rushes into the house to tell us that we should come and take a look at the 'most beautiful bird he has ever seen'. I went to fetch my camera and came back to find mr. and mrs. kingfisher sitting int the tree. They allowed me quite close and I got a few nice pics.

Die burger is running a wildlife photography competition that I hope to enter. We will have to wait and see how that goes.

I wanted to complain again on the blog now , but I just realized that it would be a waste of time. It is not as if anyone reading this would be able to do anything about my complaints. So I will not.

I will ask this though of any who read this. Please pray for me. And my family. Pray that I will be blessed in the new cameraschool venture that I am undertaking. Pray that it will allow me the financial income I so desperately need while still being able to be my wife's helper in her ministry. I believe that I have a role to play in my wife's ministry , even if it is only to try and keep the house clean and look after our son.

And pray for me that I will get to know God better. That I will deepen in spiritual life and understanding and that I will find my place in His kingdom where I can serve Him.

In general , please pray for me and my wife and my son.

And speaking of prayer :pray for my prayer life. Maybe this is why I am asking all of you to pray for me. Because I really battle to pray to God at the moment. I am trying..... but the ceiling is hard.

MAy God bless all of you who read this.

Cameraschool

I have updated my Cameraschool webpage and I hope to get the whole cameraschool going as soon as possible.

In fact I already have 2 weekly students with 2 more on the way shortly. I am just waiting for the Schools to open and then I will try to get cameraschool classes in some of the schools in Uitanhege as well

In the greater scheme of things

I have been wondering :

In the greater scheme of things of God's majesty and might , what does my little insignificant life with my insignificant problems matter to God.

How can I, in this time of Easter, pray for my little problems or for things that influence my happiness if their are such greater and worthier things to pray for. What is my happiness or my life worth compared to the salvation of the world. Why should God care about my puny (maybe selfish) problems?

Clearing the Temple

I realize that I actually need to post one extra post about what happened to us in the last two months and how God led us to be where we are now.It is a rather long and remarkable story. Let me just however say at the moment that my wife got the Job as Youth Pastor( Does that make me Mev jeug pastoor now?) and that we are settled in in Uitenhage,.

Last night( as every Sunday night) we had a youth evening service. At this service we have about 100 young people between 13 and 25 who come to worship. Well that is the problem . About 50 of them are there to worship. The other 50 sit around, listen (or try to because the music is loud) to their Ipods , or talk (scream) to each other while the worship team is trying to lead the rest in worship.

And I for one find it extremely annoying and distracting. Last night , as with the previous Sunday, I had to really bite my tongue and stop myself from not chasing and dragging those kids out of the church.

This morning in my quiet time I read amongst other things , how Jesus cleared them temple and said :"It is written in the Scriptures that God said, 'My Temple will be called a house of prayer.' But you are making it a hideout for thieves!" (Matt 21:13 GNB)

And this is essentially what these kids are doing. They are robbing other people , and themselves, of an opportunity to draw near to God. They are acting like they are more important than the other people who want to worship. They are acting like they are more important than God.

And so , maybe I should chase them out next Sunday. Problem is , it is not my job to do so . And making a scene would probably not help either.

But , this needs to stop. They are spoiling what could be a very meaningful experience for a lot of people by their arrogant and selfish behavior.

WOW !!

Last night we had some spectacular thunderstorms in the area. Here are a couple of pics.

Goetertjie

Since we moved into our new house in Uitenhage about a month ago we have been sharing our home with these little guys. We seem to have at least one of them in every room. I have gotten so used to them that I invariably look up at the ceiling when I enter a room to see where they are.

My wife and I have started to call them "goetertjies" which translated to English would probably be translated as " thingy" .

This afternoon my wife rescued one in her office from the dog who wanted to play with it , and after some trouble i got this one to pose for a couple of photos.

so here you go :

Weekend away

I spent a part of this weekend with my brother who is a ranger at Shamwari Game Reserve near Alicedale in the Eastern Cape.

Here are some of the pics I took this morning.