Unmasking the Truth

Clowns. Somebody that might be hurting in the inside, whilst he is making the rest of world burst out in laughter. Have you ever thought that underneath all that facial masking, might be a different person, from the one we're seeing falling over her oversized shoes and that the face paint is just something superficial?

If I look a church (gathering) of Christian (followers of Christ), I see a lot of smiles and contentment amongst them, although there might be something lurking behind the sea of happy faces.

Like it or not, all of us sometimes put on a happy, my life-is great face, just to say to the rest of society everything is fine, and there is nothing missing in my life, that will make my life incomplete, even though my life might coming crashing down like the World Trade Centre over and over again!

I think the main reason why people put on these types of masks is that the rest of the world may see that Jack and Sarah are still in control of their different lives.

When you apply face paint, like people that is clowns, after a while, especially when it is hot outside and your facial skin starts excreting perspiration, the face paint starts to flake, causing the skin to itch, so much so much that you need to remove the facial mask of paint.

In real live, however, we as humans are stubborn beings. We want to wear the mask as long as possible, because we don’t want to let others see the flaws in our own life, because we are scared, to death even, that others might see our imperfect “face” and turn their backs on ourselves, just because the don’t like the real you.

“Incomparable, unchangeable, You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same …”

But the ironic part in it all is if you look at the previous quote from the song “Indescribable” by Chris Tomlin, is that God loves you with an everlasting love, and He knows the depths of your heart – so He sees through the “mask” you are trying to hide behind.

In Scripture, the psalm-writer says the following in Psalm 139:

“Oh Lord You have searched me and You know me. (Verse 1b)

“You are familiar with my ways.” (Verse 3b)

“For You created my inmost being” (Verse 13a)

Just reading the few verses from Psalm 139, as quoted above, myself and maybe you also, might be frightened, knowing that God knows your deepest fears, pains and sin – stuff you don’t want the rest of the world to know about. But knowing that God knows everything of you as a human can also bring freedom. You will be able to live a life, without worrying to keep your deepest secret a secret, because He knows it all.

In Psalm 139, there is also a plea from the psalm writer to God.

“Search me, O God and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way Everlasting.” (Verse 23-24)

In the last two verses of psalm the psalm writer sees himself in a mirror, and he is pleading to God to search him throughout, so that he with God’s help can know the way of Everlasting life.

And God did show the way. His Son, Jesus Christ became man, living amongst God’s creation, sacrificing himself, taking all the sin in the world – past, present and future on Himself, paying the wages of sin, thought His death on a cross. He rose from the grave three days later, overcoming sin and death forever.

Shortly before His death, Jesus spoke amongst other words these two quotes below:

“I am the Resurrection and the Truth” and “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”.

The significance to these two quotes is the two words in each of them “I AM”. It is told in the Old Testament, that when God met Moses at the burning bush, Moses asked God what he must tell the Israelites, if they asked him who has sent him. And God answered Moses “Tell the people that ‘I AM’ have sent you.”

Now Jesus calls Himself “I AM” in the two quotes mentioned earlier, publicly declaring that He is God.

My prayer this Easter (I’m writing this piece in the days before the commemoration of Jesus’ death and resurrection) is that you would let go of your masks and give all to Jesus, because He wants to set you free. His intention is to set you free from eternal death, by giving you the choice to choose Eternal Life.

In the Beginning God created human beings as the splendour of creation, giving humans the ability to make choices in life. God knew that bad choices (sin) will bring a great divide between humans and him.

The effect for our sin is eternal damnation to hell. But because he created the human race in His image, he had to put a plan in place, to save the human race from eternal death, even before satan came and tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden. Satan tried various times to prevent God’s plan from succeeding. But not in his wildest dreams satan could comprehend that God will go so far as to send His Son on the ultimate rescue mission.

My friend, Jesus stepped down from His thrown in heaven, been born into a normal Jewish family. Being completely sinless, He made the choice to take the entire world’s sin – past, present and future on Himself, fully paying the wages of sin – death.

The final step in His rescue mission is that to overcome all the power of the authorities of hell, Jesus had to step down into the depths of hell, spending three days in hell, but getting the victory over all authority of hell and death through his resurrection, three days after He died.

May you fully understand the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection this Easter. May you make the choice to accept God’s free gift of Eternal Life by just believing in His Son, Jesus. May you grow closer in your relationship with God through Jesus as your Brother, Friend and ultimately as the Lord and Saviour over your life.

My Woorde

Woorde. Sommige kere so subtiel soos 'n sjokolade-truffel wat jy aan jou geliefde voer en dan stadig in haar mond wegsmelt. Maar woorde kan ook 'n storm in 'n koppie laat losbars, met Katrina se proporsies.

Allterasie en Assonansie - maniere hoe woorde kan vervleg word in 'n taaldans: Ritmies. Lewendig. Polsend.

Sommige mense sal van mening wees dat my skryfstukke effens ongestruktueerd is, meet geen kans dat dit voldoen aan die taalstruktuur van Standaard-Afrikaans( of Engels) nie!

My skryfstukke kan in dieselfde lig gesien word as 'n vrye vers. Per definisie is 'n vrye vers nie soseer gekoppel aan 'n vaste digstrukteer nie.

In daardie lig wissel my skryfstukke ook: paragrawe is nie ewe lank nie of sommige kere begin my sinne verkeerd, byvoorbeeld op 'want' en 'maar'.

Wat ek hiermee regkry, is om my woorde neer te pen, soos dit rondval in my gedagtes: ru en teer.

So, as julle nie hou van die manier hoe ek my tweetaligheid 'verkrag' nie, maak soos Kerkorrel sing in die laat 80's en vroeë 90's "SIT DIT AF, SIT DIT AF!"

Welcome to the planet ME

Why is it always that we tend to criticize the faults and the shortcomings of other people, and yet we do not attend to the "bad spots in our own life's?

In the Gospel according to Matthew, Matthew documents one of the teachings Jesus taught as part of the Sermon on the Mount.(I think it is called the Sermon on the mount, because of the location where Jesus taught the people - either a hillside or on top of a mountain.)In this teaching, Jesus says that we must attend to the beam in our own eye, before taking out the small splint in another person's eye.

You might have realized by now, that the the above-mentioned analogy Jesus has used in his day is something we are guilty of, even until this very day and age.

We tend to judge and compare people by looking by their outward appearances an comparing it again to the "good characteristics" of our selfs. So "I" became the measure of success, love life, social standing, fashion, etc.The world started to revolve around the planet called "I", and everything is being monopolized by "I".

We live in culture that celebrates self-centeredness, with self-gratification as the only need, it seems, to be satisfied every minute of every day.

I must admit, I am also guilty of being self-centered and selfish, and I know that through my selfish, self-centered actions, I have caused hurt to people surrounding me, I acted in a manner that God would see as sin and in the process, I hurt God as well.

As you might have noticed, love played a pertinent role in my previous posted blog-entries, especially a love for your neighbour. I think that is what Paul meant in the letter he wrote to the church in Philippi, where he urged them to put the needs and issues of other people in front of your own needs and desires.

How would the world look if we were not worried about 'me', but thinking of the person, that might be stuck in rush-hour traffic in the car next to you, that might be in the need of neighborly love, without your judgmental attitude towards them?

I want to leave you with a challenge: To love other people, with the love love you give to another,will reflect the following words of Scripture:

Love is patient, Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1 Corinthians 13:4 - 7, NIV

The human touch

The biggest killer on earth is not a disease like cancer, but the inability to be inspired by another human being.

If humans were not inspired by another human being, then life would be a living hell. Because any form of inspiration, causes a human to react in a way that could impact people surrounding them in a positive manner.

Words are the main medium of inspiration. It can be written or spoken. Also words can be unwritten or unspoken. The “unwritten” or “unspoken” I am referring to is the things you could do to inspire a person. I try to inspire other people surrounding me using both written and spoken word, but also deeds that might inspire them to make a difference in the world.

Did you know that just because of one person’s action, generation after generation has been saved because of his unselfish love for the human-kind? The same person was labeled peculiar by his own people! The person I am talking about is not just human, but also fully God.

His deeds did not just change parts of the Middle East and Turkey, but is still changing the world as we know it today, and will do the same into the future, until He comes back for a long visit, one or another time.

So, be ready to give up your “house”, because when He moves in, He will never leave! “Never” is a absolute never, not the type you will get at some marriage vows, just to find “never” being over before you can even say “happy 5^th anniversary!”.

But what is it about Him that inspired writers, artists, and for that matter, everyday people, to life their lives in a way that is totally different, than what the society would consider as normal. I know that He is the one whose example I want to live by.

I think the reason that I want to live my life in the same way as He did, have to do with the way He treated humans around Him. His compassionate eyes caused Him to weep, due to the suffering in this world, and unlike most of us, that struggle to do something about the suffering in the world, He did something.

With limited resources (2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread), He was able to feed over 5 000 adult men. (The amount of woman and children present at the specific occasion has not even been mentioned)

If you have not figured it out by now, the Person I am talking about is no one else than Jesus Christ. By many He has been seen as a religious nut of some sort, or even a fictional character in a mythical or cultural story-telling.

I believe that He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, and I have seen Him at work in my own life on several occasions, and that He manifested Himself to me in different ways.

During my life so far, I have been involved with three different motor-vehicle accidents, every time just walking away, with a bruise here and a scratch there. There has also been a incident during the course of last year, when a 18-wheeler, try and ran my bakkie (Pickup truck) off the road.

This is not really the point I am trying to make here, but it might be that you are starting to realize that there is a God and He is real. And that Jesus came to this earth to set me and you free.

The point I am trying to make, is that through my words and my actions, I want the world to know that He loves us with an Everlasting love.

Jesus said, just before He ascended into heaven on the clouds, that we must go to all the corners of the earth and make the people that we meet and interact with, His followers, teaching them also the things He taught when He walked the earth.

This includes the sermons on being humble, caring for one another, loving each other with a sacrificial love, a willingness to put another person’s life(and all aspects of that person’s life), before your own. And this does not mean to give another the permission to trample your life into the mud.

A certain aspect of putting another person’s life, before your own, is to stop looking down at other, thinking that certain character-traits of them are inferior to you, and also not to judge them, according to your standards. When Jesus walked the dusty roads of Judea, he treated the Pharisee and the Tax Collector the same, dying for them both on the cross.

I just realized that while I typing the couple paragraphs, before this one that everything Jesus did on this earth was never for Himself, but always, for the people he loved so much. And that through His human touch a lot people has been inspired to live their life’s differently and inspiring others to do the same. In the original Greek, inspiration means literary, “to be breathed upon”. And I believe that through my human touch, God will also breathe upon your heart today.

The Greatest Commandment

I have come to the conclusion that God still uses everyday people to answer life’s greatest conundrums and let His will be known for the world through these ‘everyday people’. (By everyday people, I mean the people that you would interact with everyday, like your family, friends, colleagues and other people that might cross your path.)

My story starts a week or so back, when I was in a battle with myself. Will I make a choice, based on the accepted norm of society within the teaching and morals of the church, or will I follow my heart’s desire.

I have to come out of the closet about something, not many of you might know: Two of my friends are lesbians. One of my lesbian friends I knew from the time that I was in my last year of school. Thus we have a friendship of over five years and it is still continuing. It was only when I was almost finish with my High School finals, that I suspected that she might be a lesbian.( I would soon enough find out that she was actually a lesbian)

The other friend I got to know through the friend I mentioned in the previous paragraph. I did, however saw her a lot of times before I was actually introduced to her, seeing that on several accounts, she was the waitress of my table in my favorite coffee shop. She and my other friend have been engaged since July of last year.

If you have not realized it by now, the battle I found myself in surrounds my two friends. Will I, like the most of the churchgoers take in the stand of rejection towards my two friends, because they are lesbians, and according to the Bible, homosexuality is an appalling sin, or will I hate the sin of homosexuality, but I will love the sinner.

Did Jesus, Himself go and gather with the people which the religious leaders of that time, rejected as ‘sinners’.

To come back to my story, I ask God to give a clear answer, what I must do. I pray to God for an answer, but God was silent to my request, or so I thought …

The next morning, my friend Chris, gave his departing sermon in church, before leaving for Port Shepstone, where he has been called to minister in the local Dutch Reformed Church.

His sermon was on the whole story surrounding the Pharisee and the tax-collector in the temple and how that the Pharisee prayed and thanked God that he is not like the tax-collector, whilst the tax-collector had a more simple request, that God will have mercy on him.

The point Chris wanted to bring across, is that all of us is sinners and fall short of God’s glory and that we can be only saved by God’s grace alone. And he left us with a straight-forward challenge: To accept God’s Saving Grace through Jesus Christ, and loving other people in the same way Jesus loved both the “sinners” and the “sinless”(Pharisees) of that time.

I also gained something from that sermon, God answer my question; I have struggled with during the previous 24 hours. I made the decision to accept my lesbian friends for who they are, and not throw away a friendship, because of the opinion o the church. I will love Lelanie and Haylee with the same compassion and love, Jesus had for the sinner of that day, and still have till this very day, and even beyond this moment in time.

After saying al of this, I decided to get out of the closet and declare that some of my friends are gay or lesbian, and I will not reject them, even if the church does not think likewise. I will love them as Jesus instructed me to do. Jesus gave the command “LOVE ONE ANOTHER!”

Happiness is ...

{All of these quotes comes from the back of brown sugar sachets, that is served with the coffee, at my favorite coffee shop. Their peppermint Crisp Tart is also a favorite with me}

There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy

Robert Louis Stevenson

Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product.

Elenor Roosevelt

Remember, that happiness is a way to travel, not a destination

Roy Goodman

Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have

Hyman Judah Schactel

Happiness is perfume, you can't pour it on somebody else, without getting a view drops on yourself.

James van der Zee

Hope in a hopeles world

Friday 19 October 2007 around about 22:00 local time.

For now I am going to unhook myself from the laptop’s power chord, and just time, whatever comes to mind, until I am reminded by the laptop of the battery.

At this moment in time I am feeling the emotion of euphoria, sweeping over me like a giant wave. The Springboks are facing the English roses in the World Cup Final Match (which they will win), but on quite the opposite pole I feel a certain degree of uncertainty.

There are so many things going on in the world at this moment in time, no wonder we have people with chronic stress-related diseases. The people of South Africa fear for their lives, because of crimes. People are dying in neighboring Zimbabwe, because of poverty. The freedom of people in Myanmar (Burma) is in an imbalance due to the rule of the Militant Junta.

I know, by this time, you are considering, going to the next best available website. But just read on for a little while. I believe with all my heart that the next couple of sentences, paragraphs, are just what God wanted to tell you this week.

Saturday, October 20, 2007 around 06:30 AM

After I’ve typed the full stop of the last sentence, I went asleep. So I am going to carry on, where I have left off.

This past week, I was searching for an envelope in the side table of my mother’s bed. And I came across a book that I borrowed her, quite a while back, called “And Jesus Wept”. So I though to myself, “what is the significance of me finding this book at that time”, a question left unanswered for two days or so.

Later the week, I went back to the side table to retrieve the book. I turned the book around and this is what the back covered read: “A marriage ends in up in divorce, a terrorist-attack kills thousands, A mother of four killed in a vehicle-accident. What did Jesus do when this happened? He Wept. When Jesus sees our pain, and sees our heart ache, he weeps with us …”

The profound thing here is this: Most people ask the question “why?” when something terribly goes wrong. They asked it with 9/11, they asked it with the Tsunami in Thailand in December 2004, and they are still asking it today. Let me rephrase the previous sentence: We asked it with 9/11, we asked it with the Tsunami in Thailand in December 2004, and we are still asking it today.

Have we totally forgotten that God, our Father in heaven, may also have felt the pain and the suffering? You know the One that created man in His image? Do you think it was easy for him to flood the planet in the days of Noah? Do you think it was easy for Him to see His Son die on a cross?

The point I am trying to make here is this, God is still at work in the lives of people around the world every day, it does not matter which religious background they follow, just because they, we are His creation, image-bearers of the Creator, and covered with His fingerprints. God wants to lift us out of a state of hopelessness, and give us in abundance. He wants the Believers to go out with their brokenness and bring healing to other broken-hearted people. He wants to use YOU, with YOUR brokenness, hurt to bring healing, to give others HOPE of everlasting life!