Who am I ??

One more song that really speaks to me

Who am I?
That the Lord of all the earth,
Would care to know my name,
Would care to feel my hurt.
Who am I?
That the bright and morning star,
Would choose to light the way,
For my ever wandering heart.

Bridge:
Not because of who I am,
But because of what you've done.
Not because of what I've done,
But because of who you are.

Chorus:
I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,
And you've told me who I am.
I am yours.
I am yours.

Who am I?
That the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
And watch me rise again.
Who am I?
That the voice that calmed the sea,
Would call out through the rain,
And calm the storm in me.

Not because of who I am,
But because of what you've done.
Not because of what I've done,
But because of who you are.


I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,
And you've told me who I am.
I am yours.

Not because of who I am,
But because of what you've done.
Not because of what I've done,
But because of who you are.


I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,
And you've told me who I am.
I am yours.
I am yours.

I am yours.

Whom shall I fear?
Whom shall I fear?
'Cause I am yours.
I am yours.

Song : Who am I
Artist : Cating Crowns

Sometimes

Sometimes when I feel good about myself , God , the world and all else then I want to sing this :

I wish I could crash like the waves
Or turn like the autumn leaves
In effort to praise You

I wish I could smell like the forest
The fragrance lifting a mighty chorus
In effort to praise You
In effort to praise You

Chorus:
But I’m such a limited creature
And my word can only paint so many pictures
But somewhere I think I read that I am

Treasured over all creation
So I know that I must try

I wish I could roll like the thunder
To leave the earth below in wonder
In effort to praise You

I wish I could fall like the summer rain
And every drop would sing Your name
In effort to praise You
In effort to praise You

Gloria, glory in the highest
Forever I will hide myself in Thee

Every breath that I breathe
Every moment in my history

Is an effort to praise You
An effort to praise You

Glory in the highest
Forever I will hide myself in Thee

Oh, Gloria
Glory in excelsis deo

Gloria, gloria, gloria
Gloria, gloria, gloria

The trick is, I guess, to be able to sing this also when I do not feel like this.

Listen to this song here

Song details are :
Gloria
By: Watermark
Album: Watermark
c 1997 Rocketown Music/Sweater Weather Music/ASCAP

More of Jon

I sat and read some more of Jon's stuff.

I love the honesty. I love the challenges it makes me face in my life.

look at this : The rumors about me

or this one :We are the wild places.

if you read nothing else then read this post : Michael Jordan and the Prodigal Son and Me.

Three great new blogs I have found

I am not going to say much, I would much rather that these blogs speak for themselves. In my random surfings (using a nice firefox addon called STUMBLE) I have 'stumbled' accros these 3 blogs written by the same christian guy.

Go take a look

Stuff Cristians like

97 Seconds with God

The Prodigal Jon


brilliant stuff - go take a look

Backsliding

It is really amazing how quickly I am capable of losing focus and sliding away from God.

Two weeks ago I was telling my homegroup how I was doing better than ever in my spiritual life and here I am realizing that I have really screwed up and neglected my relationship with God terribly.

And the problem is that it is so difficult to go back and ask forgivingness - again. and again

Not because God is incapable of forgiveness ,but because I struggle to see Him as a loving and caring God who want's to forgive.

I have been busy

In the recent time since my last blog things have been happening rather quickly.

The Photography club that I started in Uitenhage was a huge success.

Some of the clubmembers started posting on the Cameraschool forum that I had on my website

This has since grown and moved to its own website called www.cameraforum.co.za

This means that I have had to start yet another website of my own.

I now manage 5 of my own excluding the blogs.

I must be a sucker for punishment.

I started a blog for my son

My son turned 7 this weekend and I started a blog to post the pictures to.

You can view the blog here

The Methodist church of SA

In a TV commercial for a Audi A3 Sportback the voice over states "I live by Ghandi and Learn by google".

Now while I personally would rather live by Jesus, I do agree that my generation certainly learns by Google. If there is any piece of information that I am looking for, my first attempt to find the info I need is by Google.

And so, wanting to post about the Methodist Church of SA and it's newspaper (the New Dimension) I decided to try and do some research before I open my big mouth. Imagine my surprise at not being able to find one half decent website with some info I can use.

Let us list my searches quickly.

• Save one PDF document about the state of the 'New Dimension', I could find nothing about the New Dimension. No Website. No Email address or contact details. nada. zip. I did find a 2006 post by Digital Dion wanting to post cartoons in the New dimension. And that was still on page one of Google.

• The official MCSA website has buggerall relevant or new on it's site. It has no links to New Dimension.
  

Ok, So what is the bee in my bonnet about the MCSA and New Dimension?

MCSA first :

I am really worried about the state of my Church (the Methodist Church of SA). I am really worried about the fact that a lot of the 'good' white ministers are leaving, the church and or the ministry.

I am really worried about the leadership of my church. I am worried about the fact that the top structure seems to be getting heavier. And that the church seems to be forever looking for new ways to fund this heavy top structure.

I am worried about the strugles for power and the corruption within my church. What ??? Corruption ?? In the Church ??? Please don't insult me by saying that there is no corruption in the church. We all know it is there. Ministers who supposedly don't get stipends, but drive around in fancy German cars. Societies who can not pay their assesments , but whose ministers get R40 000 going away gifts.

I am worried about the fact that white student ministers get suspended or discontinued for trivial matters while black ministers who are not nearly of the same caliber get pushed through the system. In fact , I am worried about the training of our ministers.

And this is where I feel The New Dimension should have come into play.

As a newspaper I feel that the Dimension should have been there to expose the corruption and power struggles. The Dimension should have been there to ask questions about training and ask questions as to why some very good ministers are leaving the church. But alas... "He who pays the piper , calls the tune."

Maybe mr, Stone (editor New Dimension) there is a reason why your reader numbers have fallen from 26000 to 11000. Maybe it is because people don't believe what you are telling them. Maybe it is because your reporting is so obviously biased.

And so , after this long rant , I am still worried about my church. And I wonder when the church is going to split. I wonder when the 'alternate Methodist church' will break away from the mainstream power and money hungry church.

If the alternate Methodist church breaks away , I will be among the first to approve. I suspect that most of the ministers will be white. Ministers who care for the people and who want to get the work done. I suspect that most of the members will be of all races. And please.... This is not a race thing. But it will separate those who are in the ministry because of the calling to care for the people from those who are in the ministry because of the calling of power and status and money.

Please pray for my church. And pray for the ministers who are trying desperately to do God's work in a structure that has long ago missed the true calling of church.

Windows ME

Are you a Pharisee ?

I recieved this in my email this morning from aDevotion.org and I thought it tied in a bit with what Pete said on his blog recently. Although , I disagree with Pete on his view of the passage he used, I do agree that God is a God of grace and that all men will be judged fairly.

This is not my writing , but I share the idea :

" MATTHEW 16:6,12 NKJ
6 Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."
12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Why did Jesus warn His disciples to beware of the Pharisees?
What did they do wrong?

(An entire chapter of the Bible (Matthew 23) is Jesus' teaching against the Pharisees.)

The Pharisees were conservative, faithful "church" members.
They accepted the Bible as the written Word of God. They paid tithes. They believed in miracles (at least in days past). They wouldn't dream of stealing, committing adultery, or such things. You would like living next to a Pharisee as they were model citizens.

But instead of having a living relationship with God, the Pharisees took the Word of God and made just another dead religion out of it.

The Pharisee way of thinking is: keep up appearances. "It doesn't matter so much what you are on the inside, as long as you keep the rules (at least publicly)."

Notice that Jesus likened their teaching to leaven, or yeast.
Why? Yeast spreads easily and rapidly. Humans are very susceptible to approaching God in this manner, "Keep the rules.
Just do these 10 things and you are OK."

Different groups may have different rules, but we all accumulate them. It may be how many times each week you must attend church meetings, or what kind of clothes you must wear, or how you must wear your hair. Or, it may be a list of things you cannot do. But, as long as you meet these requirements, you are in good standing with your group (or denomination).

But, good standing with God is based on only one thing according to the New Testament: faith in what Jesus did for us.
That alone is what makes us right with God. Not our works, but Jesus' work.

LUKE 12:1 NKJ
1 ... He began to say to His disciples first of all, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

The Pharisees were hypocrites. That is, they put on an act.
What they pretended to be in public was not really what they were like in private. They claimed to be perfect in keeping God's law, but as humans they were all sinners, just like the rest of the people were. Yet, in public, they insisted that others keep the Law perfectly, or be condemned.

They were quick to pass judgment on others, and slow to extend mercy or help. The Pharisees had a legalistic view of God's Word and did not realize that God was merciful and wanted to help people.

2 CORINTHIANS 3:6 NKJ
6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Using God's Word to "kill" instead of using it to minister life is wrong. God's Word is meant to help people and lift them up, not place such hard demands on them that they cannot ever measure up. When we load people down with heavy loads of rules to keep in order to be right with God, we are ministers of death.

MATTHEW 23:1-5 NLT
1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples,
2 "The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses.
3 So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don't follow their example. For they don't practice what they teach.
4 They crush people with impossible religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.
5 "Everything they do is for show. . . .

If your "Christianity" is nothing more than a list of "do's and don't's" then you are missing real Christianity, which is a living relationship with Jesus Christ. "