Rend your heart

Good morning darlings, well today is Wednesday, 13 February 2013 in Witbank, Mpumalanga, South Africa.  A misty morning and a slight chill in the air but today will be a scorcher.  I have been living in Witbank now for more than 2 years and this morning there wasn’t any water again.  It truly drives me crazy, I am a creature of habit and one thing that I need to do every morning is take a long hot shower, it revitalises me and energise me.

Monday, past I decided to  Fast and pray today and my daily word was ‘Rend your heart – Joel 2: 12 – 14 “Even now,” declares the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”  Rend your heart and not your garments, Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.’

Take this journey with me today and let us draw near to the LORD our God, let us come in to His presence with humbleness and in prayer.  We come into Gods presence tearing our hearts before Him, declaring our love for Him.   Praying that the Holy Spirit will touch the lives of our Countrymen and praying for the criminals that are raping and murdering the people around us, praying for their repentance and drawing them closer to the Lord our God.

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.  After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 

The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’ 

Jesus answered, ‘It is written:  ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.  ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down.  For it is written:  “He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” 

Jesus answered him, ‘It is also written:  ‘do not put the Lord your God to the test.’

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour.  ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’ 

Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ 

Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.”  Matthew 4: 1 – 11

Prayer: 

Humbly Father God I come to You this morning, Lord I dedicate my life into Your hands and I want to tear my heart before You.  I am asking Lord for wisdom, knowledge and insight, I am in need of a word at the right time and an action at the right time.  Humbly I am asking that You will touch our lives and will bring healing where we need it, setting us free from our pasts and helping us stretch out to the future.  Breaking all strongholds in our lives and filling us with You word, teaching us and guiding us.  As I draw near to You today in humble pray with fasting, weeping and mourning for my own life to become more and more as that of my Lord Jesus Christ, I pray for my fellow readers and ask help them face today.  I pray for Your supernatural favour in my own life Lord God with You as well as with man.  I pray and ask You outright Lord I want Your supernatural favour in my life today with You as well as with man.  For myself, my husband, my children and step children and grandchildren and family and friends, blogger friends – LORD I am asking for this favour today in the Holy Name of Your Son Jesus Christ.  Amen

Stop worrying ... Mathew 6: 31

Hello Darlings these couple of days at home have become so hectic I wonder sometimes whether I am coming or going.  You wonder what I have been up to; let me tell you.  I decided to up skill myself and enrolled for a course on Project Management.  I believe I would do well in this area and I feel confident that I would be someone that most companies would be able to use.  I feel that I am easy to work with and get along with most people.

The self-study isn’t that easy I need to put in approximately 40 hours of self-study and learn as much as possible before I attend the course.  I am almost half way there but I must be honest it isn’t that easy.  I seem to be able to go through two chapters at a day and then I have just answered the questions and gone over the syllabus.  I have 4 chapters remaining and the I need to tackle the exams and start the practitioner.  I am putting in my time and effort and I am just praying the Lord Almighty will enrich my knowledge and give me the necessary wisdom and understanding.  I also want to ask that You pray for me when I attend my course 11 – 15 March 2013. 

I have decided to ‘stop worrying’ and give this into the hands of my Lord and Saviour, I want to bring this matter before Him today and ask Him to help me.  The word teaches in Matthew 6: 31 … Do not worry.  I am calling on the Lord with my problems and difficult situations asking Him to help me put my worries in His hands.  Matthew 6: 31 – 33 ‘Therefore do not worry, saying, what we shall eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For our heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.’

Guys I am pursuing my dream, I am doing everything I know to draw near to the Lord Almighty, I am doing the best I can and trusting and focusing on the Lord Almighty.  I want to encourage you today to stop worrying and start believing and trusting in the Lord our God, through the precious blood of Jesus we are saved and have the right to stand before our Father in Heaven.

Heavenly Father God, thank you Lord for today, thank You that I am able to come into your presence and state my case.  Thank You that You are here for me and that You will give me the necessary wisdom, understanding and knowledge I need to do my work today.  Lord I am seeking You and I am knocking on the doors of heaven, please Lord open for me.  I believe in You and entrust my life into Your hands.  Thank you in the holy name of Your son Jesus Christ my Lord and Saviour.  Amen

For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

Darlings what an awesome God we serve, today I was busy reading Matthew 12: 22 – 37.  Now I don’t know if you ever read this but let me give you a short insight into the message.

Now the people brought a demon-possessed man who was bland and mute and the Lord Jesus healed the man so that he could both talk and see.  It was something to behold because the people were astonished and they said ‘Could this be the Son of David?’

Now the Pharisees hear this and they said ‘It is only by Beelzebud, the prince of demons that this fellow drives out demons.’ 

The Lord Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them ‘Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.  If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself.  How then can his kingdom stand?  And if I drive out demons by Beelzebudh, by whom do your people drive them out?  So then, they will be your judges.  But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

Jesus continued to speak ‘Or again how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry of his possession unless he first ties up the strong man?  Then he can rob his house.”

Looking at the crowed Jesus said to them ‘He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.  And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.  Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.   Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.  You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good?  For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.  But I tell you that men will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken.  For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Lord Jesus in humble prayer I stand before You today, asking You Lord to be the ruler of my heart so that what my heart is filled with my mouth will overflow.  I want to speak about You Lord and let other people know how awesome You really are.  Lord humbly I pray and dedicate my blogger friends into Your hands and believe You are there for each one of us today.  In the Holy Name of Jesus Christ I pray.  Amen

Andus van Niekerk – a tribute to my darling husband.

Let me tell you about this man, Andus van Niekerk.  He is a gentle, kind hearted man with beautiful blue eyes and ash blonde hair.  His kind and gently disposition makes him seem aloof but he actually is listening to every word I say.  Never judges and never compares me to other women.  

Thinking of my husband, companion and best friend and wanting you to know just how much I love him and how in love I am with him.  I can remember the first time we met.  Both of us still in primary school, he had such beautiful white blond hair and his blue eyes were perfect.  We were good friends and I was his girlfriend for a while.  Then of course we both grew up and went our separate ways.  After 30 years I received an email message from Andus.  “Would you like to go for a coffee?”  My goodness, I couldn’t believe it.  ‘Yes, why not.’

We met at a restaurant not too far from my little town house.  It was so nice to see him after so many years, he had changed in that he grew much taller than I and he was stronger and of course he had load of muscles.  When he looked at me it felt like my knees were going to give in and my world seems to be so unstable.

I was smitten with him from the very start.  

We decided to get married and I had to make the most difficult decision in my life, leave my job, my children and everything familiar to me and move to a little town with bad water and almost no electricity.

To encourage me, he sent me to attend some fine arts classes, I love to paint, my flowers came out beautiful, I am painting when I can. I enjoyed being able to express myself in an artistic manner.  Then I wanted to try my hand at writing my own blog, he set me up and today I am writing away.  I actually have so much to say thank you.

He truly completes me and we have been married for two years and this time seems to fly.  He has a strange sense of humour and he can laugh at me and find many of the things I say and do fun.  I am of course so grateful for all he does for me.  I love the smell of him, his hands looking for mine when we walk around the shops, the opening and closing of the car door.  He would check on me constantly to make sure I am happy and comfortable, never once complaining about his own needs.

I truly love him and I want him to know that he completes me; he is my best friend and my confidant I cannot see my way forward without him.  I feel like I am the luckiest woman alive. 

‘Bokkie, baie dankie vir alles wat jy vir my doen, sonder jou kan ek nie my lewe voorstel nie.’

God's anointed!

It was so hot and dry you could taste the dust in your mouth.  Miriam was standing in her tent watch the children playing outside in the heat.  She was sticky and hot and irritated today.  This Cushite wife of Moses wasn’t as far as Miriam was concerned a proper wife for an important person like Moses.  There were so many beautiful white women in their camp that he could have taken any one of them to be his wife.  But can you believe her brother decided on marring a black woman. Walking around her tent with her mind mulling over the situation she stopped a moment and then walked over to Aaron.  Aaron was sitting in the doorway of the tent relaxing as he had done most of his duties earlier in the morning.  Looking up at his sister walking towards him with her black curly hair tied up.  As she came closer she sat down next to him on the mat in the doorway of the tent.

‘You know Aaron, I really don’t understand Moses.’ Miriam said as she looked up at Aaron.  Turning his face towards Miriam he smiled and asked her ‘what are you on about Miriam?’  Aaron’s long beard was curly and you could see patches of grey in the beard.  

‘I wonder do you think God can only speak through Moses.’  She said as she sat on that mat and stared out the tent.  Children were running up and down in front of their tent.

‘I don’t know Miriam, hasn’t God also spoken through us?’  Aaron looked at his sister sitting in the doorway.  

With the two of them discussing Moses they never thought that the Lord God was omnipresent and was actually listening to their discussion.  Really getting angry with the two of them the Lord God called Moses, Aaron and Miriam to the Tent of Meeting.

Moses was a very humble man; in fact he was the most humble man on the face of the earth.

Moses walked with Aaron and Miriam towards the tent and they got talking. ‘I wonder why the Lord God has called us together.’  Aaron stated as they walked to the Tent of Meeting. 

The Lord God came down in a pillar of cloud; He stood at the entrance of the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam.

Aaron and Miriam stepped forward and the Lord God said:

“Listen to my words:  When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams.  But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in my entire house.  With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD.  Whey then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”

The anger of the Lord burned against them and he left them.

When the cloud lifted from about the Tent, there stood Miriam – leprous, like snow.

Aaron turned towards his sister Miriam and saw that she had leprosy, and he pleaded with Moses 

‘Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed.  Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten away.’

Moses looked at the both of them and he cried out to the LORD, “O, God, please heal her!”

The LORD said to Moses, “If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days?  Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back.”

Miriam left the camp and was outside of the camp for seven days, the Israelites did not move on till she was brought back.

A reminder don’t speak out against your Pastor or the Priest in your community, remember that when doing that you are speaking out against the Lord our God.