Weekly Devotion

This morning I went for a walk in the Estate where we live. We have lovely parks with some of the natural vegetation left by the developers. Now this morning I saw amongst the thorn trees a small deer. It was the most lovely thing in the early morning sun. I was so excited and couldn't wait to tell my two boys about it. But then I stopped to think about it. Why was I so excited? I mean I have seen probably thousands of deer in my life. I can simply go to a zoo and see a lot of them. Why am I so excited then? Then I realized it is because he is free. He is free to roam as he wishes and to go where he pleases unlike the animals in the zoo that are bound to one area, whether they want to or not. I was privileged to see him this morning, but when I see them in the zoo I don't even glance at them, because it doesn't feel special. They don't have a choice.

The same is true for us. The Lord didn't make us robots that have to follow His Will with no choice in the matter. We are not caged in with no choice but to stay there. No, God gave us freedom. He gave us the freedom of choice. And that is why there is so much excitement in heaven when one of us decides to give our lives to Him, to turn to Him out of free will.

Jesus also taught several parables and a lot of them are about something being lost. Like the sheep that was lost, the son that was lost, the coin that was lost etc etc. And He spoke about the rejoicing in Heaven when what was lost is found again.

The other day I went shopping and my two boys were all around me whilst I shopped. Now as it happens I was busy looking at something and when I looked up they were gone. I immediately started searching, my heart pounding and my mind racing as to where they could be. To cut a long story short, I found them hiding from me between the clothes and I was so relieved to see them (they did get a hiding though and some stern words, but I was immensely relieved). That night I gave them each a special hug, which I wouldn't have done if they weren't 'lost'. There is much rejoicing when lost things and especially lost people are found.

Heaven rejoices over us that make the choice not to be lost anymore, but to be part of His Kingdom. It is like seeing a cheetah in the wild walking over the road right in front of your car with small cubs, except the rejoicing is a 10 000 000 times more intense. And as much as Heaven is rejoicing about you, they are rejoicing about each person you bring in as well. Remember that next time you share the Good News with someone. Remember that too if you don't feel like sharing the Good News.

Lord thank you for giving us a free will. We freely choose to follow You. We love You and we long to be with You one day. Amen

I was reading through the Gospel of Matthew this morning and there was something that amazed me. I read how Jesus provided food for five thousand men with merely five loaves of bread and two fish. Now that is amazing and wonderful in itself, but it was not what caught my attention this morning.

What amazed me this morning is that merely one chapter later Jesus wanted to provide food again, this time for four thousand men. And the reaction of the disciples was a classic to me:

Matthew 15:33 "And where would we get enough food out here in the wilderness for all of them to eat?"

Even after they saw Him perform an amazing miracle of feeding the five thousand men, here they doubted that He would be able to do the same and feed the four thousand. Amazing how quickly they either forgot about His previous miracle (which is highly unlikely), or how quickly they lost faith.

Then just a little while later they were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee and they discovered that they didn't bring any food along. And when Jesus told them that they should watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees, they immediately decided that He was saying this because they forgot their bread. And Jesus was amazed at their little faith.

Matthew 16:8-10 "You have so little faith! Why are you worried about having no food? Don't you remember the five thousand I fed with five loaves, and the baskets of food that were left over? Don't you remember the four thousand I fed with seven loaves, with baskets of food left over?"

When I read this I couldn't believe their lack of faith either. It was quite obvious to me, that if Jesus were able to feed five thousand, He would surely be able to do it again and again?

But then I realized, we are just the same. It is easy to point fingers at them, but we are exactly the same. We tend to forget how the Lord looked after us in the past, whenever a new problem peek its head through the door. We tend to forget His promises. We tend to forget what He has planned for us and fall in a rut whenever things don't go our way. We tend to run to 'prophets' of our time, when we feel that we haven't 'heard' of the Lord lately. We tend to forget that God's prophecies concerning us is binding and there to build on.

We need to work on our faith. We need to look up to Jesus, the One who fed five thousand, and trust Him enough to 'feed' us.

Father God, we are sorry that we lack faith some times. When we look at our circumstances we tend to forget to look only at You. Help us to develop our faith. In Jesus Name. Amen

Last week we went to a restaurant for lunch. I had a coffee shake to drink and I enjoyed it immensely. But when we got home, we all went to bed for a nice Sunday afternoon nap. Now I don't get a lot of those with my two small boys, so this nap was very special to me. I snuggled in and was ready for my wonderful rest, when something happened. I couldn't sleep. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't fall asleep. I was so frustrated, as I rarely get the chance to have a nap and now when I do, I couldn't use it. I instinctively knew it was the caffeine of the coffee shake keeping me awake. I couldn't believe it! At one stage I could drink 3 cups of filter coffee 10 o'clock at night and still have a good night's rest. But then I realized, my body is not used to it any more. I don't drink coffee any more. So any drop of caffeine will have a negative effect on me. It is probably like any substance. If you smoke your first cigarette it will give you a rush. When you smoke your tenth one, the rush will be a little bit less. If you smoke your hundredth, you will need a bit more and so your body gets used to it. The same with drinking, the more you drink alcohol, the more you need to be on the same station you were when you had your first drink. It escalates every time.

And so it is the same with getting used to the things of the world. If you watch a movie when you are in primary school and they swear in the movie you will be shocked. When you enter high school, it will take more than swearing to shock you, and when you go to college or varsity even more vulgarity is needed to shock you. We get used to the things of this world.

When I started at my first job, the people there drank a lot. They partied at all the work functions and always on Friday nights after work. It was a standard. Their whole personalities changed and they became vulgar and did things they normally wouldn't. It shocked me. I hated going to the events, but I had to. And you know what, as time moved on it affected me less and less. I started to get used to it and after three years at the firm, it was the norm for me. It was how things were done.  The Lord helped me not to get involved with them and join them, but I didn't see anything wrong with what they did after a while. It was only one day in my quiet time with the Lord that He spoke to me and reminded me that that was not the norm. That what they were doing was not okay. It actually shocked me how quickly I became accustomed to it and how quickly I accepted it.

We are part of the world, we cannot escape it. You will probably be shocked on a daily basis as you watch the news. But remember that we are not of the world. We cannot become accustomed to it and we cannot sit back and accept it. This is not what the Lord planned for His People. We are to be different, and through being different, we need to attract people to the Lord. We can still enjoy ourselves and we can still have fun, but we need to remember that we are Jesus' body here on earth and we need to make a difference.

Lord, this world is a mess. We know You never intended it to end up this way, but our sinful nature took control and ruined everything. Help us now to take a stand for You and not become complacent, but to be the people You created us to be. In Jesus Name. Amen

I spoke last week of making a difference in someone's life, of helping someone to put them on the right path for their lives. It requires a bit of effort on your side, it requires time, but it is more than worth it. You have helped someone to make something with their lives, instead of leaving them to wallow in the unfairness of life, which never gave them an opportunity. The effect you can make is profound.

Now as I said last week, except for making a big difference in someone's life, you can also be the Body of Christ in various other practical ways. I attended Hillsong's women's conference in April and it was absolutely amazing. The main theme they talked about was exactly this, to make a difference right where you are. Don't worry that you are not a missionary for Christ somewhere, you can make a big difference right where you are. I am going to name a couple of practical examples of how you can reach out, but I promise you that if you make yourself available to God, the opportunities will come knocking on your door!

1. The next time you are in a queue in your supermarket and you see someone behind you that you can truly see don't have the money to even pay for what they have in their hands, offer to pay for them and let them know that Jesus loves them.
2. Buy at least one blanket each winter for someone that the Lord points out to you.
3. Smile at the cashier even though you had to wait quite a while to be helped. Show them that God is in your heart.
4. Tell people that Jesus loves them. Be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
5. Ask your friends for what you can pray for them and then do it. There is a lot of power in prayer.
6. Stop yourself before you gossip about someone, that is the quickest way of turning someone away from the Lord, the only life-giving Force.
7. Look something up on the internet for someone who doesn't have access to Internet.
8. Go and welcome your neighbor that just moved in and try and help him/her to settle into some of the activities in the area you might think they'd be interested in.

Etcetera etcetera, the list is endless, and these are things we can all do, without much effort. We can all reach out and be the moving, living Body of Christ. We can represent Him here on earth. And I know it is difficult, I lost my cool the other day with the cashier, because I waited very long in the queue and my two boys were becoming increasingly difficult, but that is not what the Lord wants from us. He wants us to represent Him. Pray that the Lord would give you the strength to do it, because without the Holy Spirit's help we won't be able to do it.

Lord help us to be Your Body. Help us to represent You the way we should. Give us the strength and Your love in our hearts for other people. In Jesus Name. Amen

This morning I heard the following song:

"If we are the Body, why aren't His arms reaching, why aren't His hands healing, why aren't His Words teaching? If we are the Body why aren't His feet going, why is His love not showing them there is a way? Jesus paid much too high a price for us to pick and choose who should come. We are the Body of Christ."

It made me very very sad, because it is true. I don't think people see the Body of Christ at work like they should. In fact I know of people who do not want to believe, due to the behavior of Christians. And this makes me sad. We have a loving Father who wants all people to be saved, and we as the Body are not doing our job.

Then I truly thought about it and the needs of the poor and the majority of people in need overwhelmed me. There are so many people with nothing, that it makes me feel numb, unable to do something. There are beggars around every corner, and it makes me feel hopeless. What difference can I make? Can a single person really make a difference? And I realized that that is exactly the problem, there is such an overwhelming need, that we give up before we even try to make a difference.

And then the Lord spoke to me and said that even if I make a difference in one life, that that is a start. If each of us makes a difference in one life, it becomes a multitude of people won for the Lord. And when I talk about a difference I don't mean giving a beggar your spare change (of course if the Lord tells you to do it you should), but I mean to really make a difference in someone's life. To really give input into someone's life and to help them make the most of it.

For example a friend of mine started a ministry where she got funds to send one person at a time for a course to do call centre work. The course was not as expensive as a degree, but it would help that person to start somewhere. She would then help the person to get work in a call centre and once they have that job, she helps them to register for a degree in something they really wanted to do. Then while they were working, they would study towards something worthwhile. And it was amazing to see how that encouraged that person and not only him, the whole community. The workless community would look up to that person and be encouraged that one of them can actually make it in this world. It was amazing for them to see that they can actually amount to something good, and this did wonders for their self esteem. And when that person finishes and finds a better job, he/she would help to sponsor someone else to do the call centre course and through that cycle, many people got lifted out of poverty and despair.

That is by what I mean to really make a difference, to really put someone on the right course. And since I asked the Lord to show me how I can make a difference on my small scale, the opportunities presented itself. I helped our domestic worker's daughter to enroll for courses to become a paramedic as it was her dream to be one and I helped the lady working at the gym to enroll at UNISA to study towards becoming a nurse. Now I know it is only two people, but I know more opportunities will come and if all of us only help 3 people to get on the right track, it will soon become a multitude of people and His Body will become evident in this world.

Now of course there are many other ways to help people too as the song suggest, but we will talk about it next week.

Lord please present us the opportunities to spread Your Word and Your love. Show us where and how to help. In Jesus' Name. Amen

Last week we looked at the numerical value of Jesus of Nazareth as well as the numerical value of satan and it was exactly the same. Jesus became like satan on the cross, He became like the ancient serpent.

How is that possible you might ask?

Let's look at Numbers 21:7-9. The Israelites sinned against the Lord once again and He sent poisonous snakes amongst them. The people realized that they had sinned against the Lord and asked Moses to pray for them and remove the snakes otherwise they might all die. And this is what the Lord answered in verse 8 "Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live". And it happened like that. The plague stopped because they looked up at the snake at the top of the pole.

Now look at John 3:14 where Jesus is talking of Himself. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up."

Jesus was referring to Himself as the serpent. And if you look at Revelations 12:9, the same Greek word for serpent is used to describe satan.

Jesus therefore knew that He had to take on the sins of the whole world and by doing that, He had to become evil, He became the serpent. The whole expanse turned into darkness when all the sins were placed on Him and even the Father and the Holy Spirit had to leave Him as they cannot tolerate sin or be close to it due to their holy nature. He became black so that we can become white (righteous). And all we have to do is look up to Him to be healed of our sinful nature.

This is confirmed with the number 2197, representing the number of satan and Jesus of Nazareth. It consists of the number 13 x 13 x 13. And the number 13 represents sin, bitterness and rebellion. So in essence the numbers seem to indicate that Jesus became like satan, full of sin, bitterness and rebellion. He took on all the sins of the whole world and became like sin.

Wow. How amazing. Of all the things Pilate could have written, he wrote Jesus of Nazareth, whose numerical value showed exactly what He was here to do. He was here to take the world's sins on Him and become the serpent which was satan, so that we can be freed from his stronghold on us. We can only look up to Him and be saved.

How wonderful is our God! Jesus is our glorious Savior!

Thank you Father, thank you Jesus. We don't know what else to say, but may our lives reflect our gratitude towards You! Amen

The Word of God is full of hidden treasures and that makes it even more exciting to read. There is always something new to be discovered and unveiled. I would like to share one thing that I discovered which was very interesting to me and I am sure it would be for you too.

This interesting treasure was unveiled to me by Roger Price, a late biblical teacher from England and confirmed by a book on biblical numbers that I have of Martin van der Merwe.

To start off with, I am sure you know that the Greeks used their alphabet to count. For example Alpha, Beta etc. Every letter therefore had a numerical value.

Now when Jesus was crucified Pilate posted a sign over Him, which read 'Jesus of Nazareth' (John 19:19). There is therefore a numerical value for this name written on the sign.

Interestingly enough the numerical value for Jesus is 888. Let's pause there for a second. The value 888 symbolizes the resurrected Christ. This number is also the fulfillment of the Lordship of Christ. It also refers to His resurrection and the fullness we receive by the saving grace of the Blood of Jesus.

Now the interesting part is that the numerical value for 'Jesus of Nazareth' is 2197. This is also the number for the Greek name of 'satan'. Satan? You might ask. How on earth can Jesus of Nazareth have the same number as satan, His arch enemy?

To complicate this further look at Revelations 12:9 "This great dragon - the ancient serpent called the Devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world - was thrown down to the earth with all his angels."

Satan is therefore referred to as the serpent. He was the serpent from the beginning (Genesis) and he will remain the serpent till the end (Revelations).

In other words, if the number for 'Jesus of Nazareth' is the same as the number for 'satan', and if Satan is the serpent then Jesus also became the serpent. But how is that possible? How can Jesus, Our Savoir be the serpent? I will tell you next week.

But the message for now is this, isn't the Bible amazing? Every word in it can be explored further. Everything falls into place as it should. Nothing and I mean nothing is simply written there. Everything was inspired by God, every single word of it. Don't you think it is worth spending some time on? Come on, spend some time in the Word, it is truly a treasure!

Thank you God for Your amazing treasure. Thank you that You reveal more and more to us the more we study it. We love You! Amen

As part of the theme 'struggling is good for you' I would like to add one more thing. As I am writing this we are nearing the end of winter. I am so glad that this winter is over. Spring is in the air and I can feel a sense of excitement all around me. The birds are singing, new leaves are coming out, small beautiful flowers are starting to bloom and the people around me is metaphorically speaking coming out of their holes. Everyone has a sense of energy filling the air around us, people are starting to exercise again, the children are playing outside for longer periods and organizations are getting ready to hosts functions and carnivals. It is an exciting time. A time to breathe in deeply and enjoy the life that the Lord so graciously gives us.

This made me stop and think. Would we have enjoyed spring so much if there never was a winter? Would there still be a buzz in the air? Would we feel full of energy again, if we never experienced the deadness of winter? I don't think so.

My sister and her husband worked in the Cayman Islands for 3 years. And those of you that know the Caymans, know that they don't really have a winter. There are times when it is a bit cooler than usual, but overall it is warm all year round. My sister and her husband missed in effect four winters due to the timing that they went to the Caymans. They came back last year and this is the first time they had winter again in 4 years. And I know that they will enjoy this spring with much more intensity than ever before! They will appreciate the summer again, much more so than they did in Cayman when all they had was summer.

We therefore need the winter to appreciate the summer. We need the winter to feel excited about the summer. We need it in order to see the leaves sprouting again, we need it in order to see the growth in nature and we need it in order to understand things in our lives better. The 'winters' in our lives hurt, and it is a dreary time, it could be cold and lonely, but it is sometimes necessary to get us ready to enjoy the summer time that lies ahead. And if we look at nature, what does it do in winter? It rests. Maybe we need the 'winter times' in our lives to come to a standstill and rest. Rest and pray, look up to God and seek the answers from Him. He will provide you with the answers you need and He will work into your life what He deems for your good. And one thing you can be certain of is that spring is right around the corner!

Lord thank you for the winter times in our lives. We know it hurts, but thank you that You work all things together for our good. In Jesus Name. Amen

Last week we used the illustration of a moth struggling to get out of its cocoon. A well meaning environmentalist helped to free him from the cocoon while he was struggling to get out, but in doing that he denied the moth the chance to develop his wings and in the end he caused his death. Then we looked at our children and the need for them to struggle in order to make it out of the cocoon and learn from the process.

Today we will talk about the effect of struggling for ourselves.

The most prominent struggle in the Old Testament was when Jacob struggled with God. I am sure all of you know the story. Jacob was on his way back to his home land, back to be reconciled with Esau, but before he crossed the Jabbok river, the Lord came and he wrestled with God one whole night.

Genesis 32:24 "This left Jacob alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until dawn."

And when the sun rose, the 'man' wanted to leave, but Jacob wouldn't let him go. Then the 'man' said:

Genesis 32:28 "Your name will no longer be Jacob," the man told him. "It is now Israel, because you have struggled with both God and men and have won."

You see Jacob had to struggle in order to change. He changed from being Jacob - the one who deceives - to Israel, the beloved nation of the Lord.

At some point or another we are all struggling with something. It might be past hurts, it might be a disease with which we are diagnosed, it might be our work, we might be struggling to know our purpose in life, we might be struggling in certain relationships, whatever it may be, we all struggle at some point.

But the most wonderful part of it is that God is busy strengthening our wings in the process. He doesn't bring the hurt our way to chastise us, no He allows it to strengthen us. We might struggle and it might be painful, but once we get out of the cocoon, we are ready to fly. We break free from the things we have been struggling with and we leave it behind, never to think of it again. We can start anew, fresh and we can spread our wings, just like Israel did. We can confidently start with the new life that God has planned for us. We are no longer Jacob, the one who deceives, no, we change into Israel, God's beloved.

Thank you that You are there in the midst of our struggles. Thank you God for helping us to strengthen our wings and to fly into Your purpose for us. In Jesus' name. Amen

I received a lovely email over the weekend and would like to share it with you. The writer is unknown, but in his/her absence I would like to thank him/her for this wonderful message.

A British environmentalist, Alfred Wallace, one day picked up the cocoon of a moth and took it home. After a while there was movement inside the cocoon and he noticed that the moth was trying to get out. The moth was struggling and wriggling and truly battling to get out of the small opening of the pear shaped cocoon. Alfred was watching this struggle and he felt sorry for the moth. He decided to help him and he carefully cut open the cocoon with a knife and freed the moth. When the moth came out, he had small wings and his body appeared to be swollen. Alfred thought that it was only temporary and that the moth's wings will grow and that he will be able to fly away in no time. But this didn't happen. The moth did try to fly, but he couldn't get it right and he died within a day or two.

Alfred tried to do good by helping the moth, but at the end of the day he didn't help him at all. Alfred didn't know that the moth needed to struggle to get out of the cocoon in order to extract fluids from his body into his wings, to help the moth to be able to fly when he gets out of the cocoon. He needed this struggling process in order to survive. Alfred helped him in the short term, but caused his death in the long term.

The same is true with our children. Our children will go through similar painful processes during their lives. They will struggle and they will wriggle and they will try to free themselves from the 'cocoon' they find themselves in. It will be a very painful process, something that will cause us as parents to cry. We will hate seeing them suffer. And our first instinct will be to cut open the cocoon and free them from the pain. We will automatically do our best to make it as easy for them as possible. But we will deny our child the opportunity to grow. We will deny them the lessons that they can learn from it. They will never learn that their own choices have consequences, they will never learn perseverance, they will always sit back and wait for someone to free them from the cocoon, they will not believe in themselves and believe that they can make it out of there on their own. They will never be able to test their own abilities; they will never know what it feels like to spread their wings.

Gary Thomas writes in his book 'Sacred Parenting' that a parents deepest hurt is also the child's most important one.

As difficult as it may be to see your child suffer, sometimes it is better to leave them in the short term, in order for them to grow in the long term. I know it is easier said than done, but luckily we have a heavenly Father who would help us. He knows best and will give is the strength to go through the struggling process.

Thank you Father that You designed nature that way, that we need to struggle in order to bring out the best in us. If it was too easy, we would never have been able to shine the jewel inside us all. Amen