What's in a cup?

So this is it, going to a place I have wanted to go for many years - Sodwana Bay, where you can snorkel and see the underworld of fish. I am going camping with couch-surfers and friends alike. The couch surfers are from various countries, and I look forward to meeting them and learning about their culture, their country and their beliefs. Besides Sodwana Bay, we are visiting St. Lucia and various other places along the Elephant Coast. There are 7 of us in all, a great number! According to Malcolm Gladwell, 7 is the best number for a group, so you can get to know each other at just the right level - he calls it the law of 150! But more on that another time. I am putting aside my concerns for school and return to Rustenburg and trusting the Lord that I can fully immerse myself in Him this holiday. Thank you for this opportunity, my God! I won't be online for a week, and I will sorely miss writing online, but I am an old-fashioned girl in some ways and always keep a dia...

Tomorrow I leave for the Elephant Coast. Right now the wind is swirling up the leaves and pushing the trees to and fro, and bringing my thoughts into its whirl. What the world does not see of me is what captures much of me. It is wise to disguise your passions, the sage Balthazar has claimed, and yet my faith is to play a transparent game. Is that right? I write in ink on dotted lines, and hope that the reader will draw the lines, and one day when it all makes sense and I write a postcard to a best friend in San Francisco or Montego Bay, I will smile and wash away all the pains that hide behind the smile I was taught in Grade 9. Smile, they say, fake it til you make it, and all that jazz. It seems the way, the only way, to catch your breath and continue to stay, in the path of light. Because life works also from outside in, not just from inside out. Let me save my musings for another day, for thus far the wind still whirls up my thoughts in disarray, and yet when morning...

In light of my recent emotional state, this message by John W. Ritenbaugh just about saved me from becoming a bitter old hag; now I can just become old: "...a godly sorrow unto repentance can actually give Satan the opportunity to turn a person's feelings about his sin into an abnormal self-pity, which will destroy that despairing person's relationship with the church and with God. He can turn such a person into a bitter cynic. The Devil is that clever. It does not end there. In addition, he can turn the righteous indignation of those who are offended by another's sin into bitter self-righteousness if they do not forgive and forget and move on. He gets people going and coming unless they are aware that he can turn something good into a ploy to destroy a person's relationship with God and the church. These are not the only weapons that Satan has in his arsenal. Remember, we are involved in a war, and a general will employ every kind of ploy, device, tool, or ...

This post was written in response to the articles I read on the BOUNDLESS website, eg. http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001193.cfm I love God! Wow, I want to live like that, God! I want to be so pure that I can just be everyone's sister. I don't want to date anyone ever again. That lifestyle is not for me. I know it might seem radical to some (and to me), but anything in between is not giving me the freedom that I just experienced from this revelation that not only is it possible to have these kind of relationships between man and woman, but it is how we can experience what God wants to give us - trust, hope, faith, love, etc. I know I am super-excited right now about not dating - never thought I'd say that - and already I want to slash the devil with the sword as he approaches, but I just feel God's holy presence rising in my heart and in my being and giving me his armour of righteousness to wear so that I can go into battle. I sense the spirit of Joa...

When I watched Coco Chanel on DVD, I realised that her life was predetermined. No one else could have done what she did. There was only one Coco Chanel. There was only one woman that went through what she had to go through to become a well-respected fashion icon. She didn't do anything except accept her fate and make the best out of what she was given. When I watched Martin Luther King on DVD, I realised that his life was predetermined. No one else could have done what he did. There was only one Martin Luther King. There was only one man who went through what he had to go through to bring freedom to black Americans. He didn't do anything except accept his fate and obey the Lord in doing His will. Our lives are predetermined. No one can replace us. There is only one of you and one of me. And God will put us through what He knows we can bear, though perhaps our neighbor would not. And God will put us through things whilst our neighbor is going through something t...

Dear Lord, You say that in this cup are many blessings. You say that I am blessed in abundance, that my cup is filled til overflowing. I think of the Pharisees that are compared to white-washed tombs because they are clean on the outside but on the inside they are rotten. Their cups are washed only on the outside, but inside they are stained with dirt. It is by grace alone that I have been saved and thus cleansed on the inside. On hard days, I am reminded more of Jesus' cup of suffering, how he asked You to remove this cup from Him, the cup of suffering, but he added, let not my will but your will be done, and so it came that Jesus had to suffer death by crucifixion - oh what a dreadful end, my Father, if it weren't for His glorious resurrection, our hope of eternal life in heaven. Thank you. Most of the time when I think of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, I feel so sorry that he had to go through that pain. It is as though I remain there, angry that he h...

Have you ever had one of those days when you realise that once you dreamt of this time in your life? When I was young, I always wanted to be older, just like the kids in my class. I wanted to know I was an adult, and I could make decisions for myself. Now I am just that - an adult. Oh, how the children envy me! I feel as though my dream to be a teacher and lead a simple life has come true, and it is so wonderful to work for this small, private school with supportive colleagues and the most graceful principal on planet earth. There are few children in each class, so I get to know them intimately, and I have come to love and adore them. It is the best grounds for me to learn to be a teacher. And the parents bring fresh fruits and vegetables in crates and flowers for the teachers on a regular basis because most of them work on farms, which is truly a fantastic benefit! I am so excited to have this opportunity to teach German because the best way to learn a language and get to...