What I have been up too

When I had my 1st child, everybody told me how busy my children would keep me!                                                                                                                                            

I did not realise they were talking about “How busy I would be managing their FAME!!!”

I thought they spoke about changing nappies, making bottles, making food, helping with homework!

Boy, was my perception WRONG!

My latest “Mom on a MISSION” started with a Granny. Yeah for Grannies.

Knowing we are involved in helping the local school with “Cool Kids for Christ”, and been in the ministry for many years, she came to us out of desperation asking if we had a Father’s Heart Daily Devotional for her teenage granddaughter.

Her granddaughter had asked for a Bible as a Christmas gift and she was reading the Bible with her daily and explaining the scripture. But anyone owning a teenager will know: the questions get to technical!

Knowing her granddaughter well, I was very proud of her for asking for a Bible as a Christmas gift and 2nd, I knew she had a  BB, so in a split second I felt I could write a little devotional for the young ladies in the area and send it to them via BBM as we are in a position where they know us well enough for them to actually read what we have said.

After writing the 1st devotional, I looked at it and thought: “This is so long! I won’t even read it!!!!”

And this is how the discussions started with the family as to how we could help!

For them the answer was simple. We record a 30-60 second video with a Bible Scripture and a short motivational message about the scripture. Teenagers love MP4

So, in the same fashion as what this family tackle everything….WITH MAJOR ENTHUSIASM AND NO PLANNING!!!!! We grabbed the video camera, scriptures and our daughter!

and … FYI PRESENTS was born or should I say “a STAR found her FAME”

A spot was found (my bedroom) and we recorded our 1st video. Sent it out and the response was phenomenal! We’ve been getting messages from all over begging for more. And we weren’t ready!

I’ve spent the last 3 weeks managing my daughter’s fame! Standing in front of the camera “LOOKING PRETTY” is the easiest part of FYI PRESENTS!

Here is our video sharing the gospel for Valentine’s Day:

We have now settled into a routine where FYI PRESENTS is not dominating our lives, but where people can still find the Daily Devotionals for those who don’t have BlackBerries as the response from non BlackBerry owners has also been overwhelming

FYI PRESENTS is now linked to all the most popular social network sites, including a couple of Christian network sites we did not know exsisted before FYI PRESENTS.

FYI = For Your Information

For those who don’t want their children exposed to YOUTUBE, we have opened a channel FYIpresents on GODTUBE (http://godtube.com) and INCHRISTNETWORK (http://inchristnetwork.com)

The responsess are amazing with the each video combined been viewed by over a 150 people. The views on the video clips sent via BlackBerries cannot be followed as Vu-Clip does not record hits. But judging by the subscriptions received, the videos are travelling through BB space.

This is a outreach tool from kids wanting to make a difference in other peoples lives. I was overwhelmed by my  children’s eagernes to respond to the “call of duty” the ministry has on their lives. Adults as well as teens, pre teens are all enjoying the short daily devotionals. I hope you will be blessed by it as well.

(You can imagine how many passwords I now have that I can forget!)

If you know of a child, teenager, nephew, niece, godchild who would enjoy these entertaining, but informative clips, you can find FYI presents in on of the following social media networks:

Under 18 safe sites to subscribe:

Smart Phones Email: SUBSCRIBE to fyi.presents@gmail.com    -  We’ll email you the latest video

BlackBerry:  22A7DD02

FATHER’S HEART WEBPAGE

GODTUBE

FACEBOOK: Father’s Heart - FYI PRESENTS facebook page

INCHRISTNETWORK

Other sites:

VIMEO

YOUTUBE

Flickr (look for Father’s Heart)

In case you were wondering…

Holy Spirit, God and Jesus talking

Just in case you were wondering what we got up to the past holidays, watch this:

http://youtu.be/ulfyWiLbe3w

We assisted an Anglican Church with their Nativity Play they have every Christmas Eve.

We wrote the play, had 1 rehearsal and this is the result. We never knew it was so difficult writing a play.

It is the story of God’s heart towards the Birth of Jesus.

There where Christmas carols at the appropriate places (edited out as to not make the video too long).

We often think of Jesus’s birth as been there to save us from our sins. But God did not want His relationship with man broken, thus Jesus was born.

Meditate on the concept of HOW IMPORTANT YOU ARE TO GOD.

We are not trying to be disrespectful by having someone play God, Jesus and Holy Spirit. This is a nativity play where there were plenty of children attending and we could not leave the concept of “an unseen Triune being” and 3 voices booming from nowhere. Would have been to confusing for littlies and they would have missed the heart of the play.

Enjoy!

Pastor Arthur Frost

Afterwards Arthur gave a short sermon on Reconciliation: God’s heart

http://youtu.be/jEVyHISUljU

Hubbi always preaches well!

10/10!!!!!

Christmas Eve many lost sheep were welcomed into the Kingdom!

Praise the Lord!

SUPERNATURAL (Part 1): THE RICH YOUNG RULER

Luke 18:18-23

18 And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

19 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.

20 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.

21 And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.

22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

23 And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.

The same story can be found in Matt 19 v 16 – 29; Mark 10 v 17 – 30    

As Part 1 of the Supernatural series, I’ve chosen this passage of scripture to start prodding your Spirit. Many times when we read the Bible, it is treated as a prescribed reading book at school. I read what I need to enabling me to answer the test /exam questions that follow. Please read the passage with the following intent in your heart: “Holy Spirit, please show me during the next month what my attitude towards money, riches and giving is”

The 1st points I would like you to consider is:

• If I was the rich young ruler, would I have gone and sold all my possessions and given the money to the poor. How easy would it have been for me to obey Jesus command, or would I have become sorrowful.

Some other points of consideration:

• How do I feel and respond when someone around me is blessed.
• When I need something, is my first thought “Oh no, now I have to spend more money”
• When someone asks for something, what is your first thought.
• Have you ever looked at something that you have needed and wanted, but in your heart accepted the fact that you will never have it.
• How do you feel about giving to a beggar, to an orphanage, to a church, to individuals.
• Have you ever confessed “money does not grow on trees”.
• Do you go to work only so that you can earn a salary at the end of the month.
• Would you get up in the morning and go to work if no one paid you.
• Have you ever received any money over and above your paycheck.
• Are you a cheerful giver.
• In your heart, if I gave you a million rand cheque today, would your 1st response be that all your problems are now solved.
• What one thing in your life do you need right now that would solve all or most of your problems.
• How much seed do I really have in the ground.
• If I have an unexpected expense, do I trust God to provide.
• Have I ever done spiritual warfare to claim back what the devil has stolen from me.
• Do I know what the devil has stolen from me.

These points may seem strange and somehow not connected at all to the supernatural. But I have my perspective on the supernatural which does not include some of the standard “supernatural” ideas. I am going to be posting a couple of thought provoking posts to encourage the beautiful believers reading these posts to just start a different thought pattern. The Holy Spirit takes you on a wonderful journey once you open your spirit for instruction and education by the Holy Spirit. Everybody’s journey is different. Revelations are not the same. We all have them at different times regarding different topics resulting in different outcomes. But it is the same Holy Spirit, it is us that are different, not the Holy Spirit.

To me the supernatural is not about finance, but we as people only consider been blessed when we receive money. By the end of the series, I will bring the “money” into context into the supernatural – in the context that I see it. I will be dealing with various issues such as justice, healing, education, government, churches and employment. I will be taking each issue and sharing my supernatural theories.

This part is not part of the Supernatural teaching, but I liked the pictures I found, so I included it for the pictures                                                                        

Luke 18:24-25:

24 And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!

25 For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Dear Lord, I am sorry

Well Lord, this year I heard Your instruction very clearly.
I looked around and in the natural, I did not see the importance or the need to spend the time in prayer that You asked me too. The people you told me to pray for all seemed to be doing great. Little did I know You were asking me to pray so You could do whatever You needed to do for them in the time ahead.
When their evil day came, I realised why You ask us to pray for others. It broke my heart to see so many go through such rough times, and to know I was also to blame.

We are not meant to fight battles on our own, our spiritual family are meant to pave the way in the spirit through prayer. I now know that.

Lord, now I pray for everybody that I either think of, or that I speak too. When I don’t know what to pray, I just ask You to bless them with Health, good relationships, prosperity and peace.

A hard way to learn the lesson “obedience is better than sacrifice”, but Lord, I think I’ve grasped it. There is no way to play catch up in the spirit. You either have to pray preventative, or afterwards, defensive. Lord, I never want to do defensive again. You look after your people, but You need the us to be obedient.

Lord, be close to all your family in this season. We do make some silly decisions, but You will never leave us. It is us that neglect You.

I do love You.

A wiser j9

Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom – let your email find you!

It’s Christmas time!

Not sure if it is spiritually correct to celebrate Christmas anymore?

Is Christ still in Christmas?

Was Jesus really born on the 25 December?

Is decorating a Christmas tree part of a pagan tradition?

Our family celebrate Christmas for the following reasons:

   1. Father Christmas’s is the very personification of Christmas, bringing gifts and wishes of LOVE, JOY and PEACE.  Father Christmas always knows exactly what we want and he always brings the right gift! Why do we not take the time to share with children the story of Jesus and the perfect gifts of His promise: “I shall never need”. Christ is the persona of  LOVE, JOY and PEACE and goodwill to all mankind. Let’s share the source of the LOVE, JOY and PEACE!

2. God instructed Israel to have certain feasts (not Christmas) where they had to be Happy, which suggests we do not know how to be happy. Too many Christians are depressed and focussed on the negative. I was shocked to find out how many people I know are on antidepressants. By default that says to me “we as people don’t know how to be happy anymore, even in the core of our heart”. We do not understand “in His presence is fullness of joy” or “the joy of the Lord is my strength”.  Lets use this time to focus on been joyful.

3. If I don’t celebrate the birth of Jesus, how can I celebrate His death? If the accuracy of the date is a stumbling block for you, you need to question your entire calendar, as Jesus was not born in the year 00 either, which by default messes up all our BC and AD dates!

4. Easter, Christmas, weddings and funerals are the only times you really get people into church who will never enter church at other times. Only catch: some minister/rev/bishop/pastor’s don’t see it as an opportunity to preach the gospel in its power to attract the unsaved. I’ve found the Gospel preached in power has never offended people. Christians make it an offense. One of the spiritually most influential people in my life got saved on Christmas day. He only went to church because it was the “right” thing to do with his family. Today he is sharing the gospel wherever he goes.  Always find a reason in world system to turn people’s focus to salvation, because that is why Jesus died!

5. Decorating a Christmas tree stems from a pagan tradition according to Jeremiah. Worldwide people recognise 25 December as the day of Jesus birth.   Putting up lights, trees etc are all part of the pagan tradition I agree, but so is 80% of what we do and have in our churches, starting with the church building, finance, number of people and believe it or not, even the pulpit! Having worship in a church and not bringing in God’s presence is also pagan worship. But you don’t see the religious folks moaning about those pagan traditions. Most Christians are not even aware that some of what I have mentioned are pagan traditions. Most of them strive after more of all those points including pulpit time which to them is a form of “success” only because they don’t understand God’s “success” is actually prosperity in the purest form.

Solution: substitute the christmas tree for a nativity scene.

If we cannot celebrate and decorate for Jesus, do we have a right to put up balloons, banners, cakes, have theme parties for us and our children on our birthdays? (If your issue is the validity of the date, no historian or theologian have been able to determine the exact date of Jesus Birth)

6.  I understand it is a season that many feel pressured into giving bigger and better gifts, going into credit and thus going into bondage, but in our home, it is a season of growing your faith and blessing people. We believe we are blessed to be a blessing for every good work (2 Cor 9v8: abundance for every good work). We decide which needs we would like to fulfill and we faith in the need on behalf of that family. We don’t have an abundance of cash, but we do bless with what we have so we can be a testimony to people who are believing God for a miracle. I haven’t had a phone for 8 months and the weekend I got blessed with a BB 9700. When I share this testimony with people especially teenagers (cause they all want a BB), I tell them I faithed mine in while they have to pay R1500 for theirs! They respond to the faith message, because they have seen it in action! It is a testimony that grips them and I am suddenly in a position to teach them about God’s faithfulness when you sowing. They actually listen when they see the reaping!

7. With the world removing Jesus out of everything, it is a wonderful reminder to people to actually “be nice & giving” to each other. A message the world doesn’t spread, but which is a reflection of God’s heart. It is a time of year where people are more generous to charities, domestics, workers, poor etc. (Give to the poor and the Lord will repay, Look after widows and orphans, have an abundance to bless every good work)

I think we as God-fearing believers should celebrate and spread the real reason for Christmas by been a true reflection of God’s heart by giving and been joyful!

It’s not about running up debt by buying unaffordable gifts to impress, it’s a time where we can stretch our faith to help others, that way we a testimony of ”blessed to be a blessing”. Freely I’ve received, freely I give.

Woman of God: Modern Day Esther and our Government

What a perfect time in our beautiful nation’s timeline to discuss one of the most popular woman in the Bible, Esther!

The part of Esther’s story that grips us all and keeps us riveted, is the idea of being pampered in a spa for an entire year! What body would not flourish after a year of pampering! It is a thought we all equate directly to heaven!

                  So much so that we actually overlook many very obvious facts about Esther!

• Esther was an orphan – not a fate any of us would like to process emotionally – thus in todays terms, an emo teenager?
• Esther was, in not such harsh terms – abducted or taken hostage by the King’s men – if we or our daughters went through that, we would all be screaming about our rights and our 1 phone call! In today’s terms, permanently in therapy cause she’s to emotionally unstable to overcome?
• Esther was been “interviewed”, for the position of Queen, by having to sleep with someone not her husband or betrothed or even loved by her – in today’s terms – a possible Golddigger

Sounds very much like we are a couple of plastic bags & white powder short of a modern-day human trafficking story!

The only reason we accept the story of Esther without flinching is because we know the outcome. Esther goes on to become Queen, the “bad man in the story” Haman tries to eradicate her race (genocide) and Esther saves the

day by doing the “right” things. A classique story of Good overcomes Evil. And for the feminist amongst us, “Whoooaaa a woman saved the day!”

Now matter which way we look at it, if we do not relate to Esther’s emotional journey, we will never make the parallel to where the world is at today. Many of us have had absent, divorced, been emotionally deprived by not having loving, caring & upbuilding parents in our lives. That has left us with an orphan spirit.

Many of us have had many of our rights stolen, actually, more rights than you are even aware of. We know we have rights and we sense in the spirit they have been stolen, but because of our inability to identify them, we retaliate in the natural and focus on the natural which leads to insecurity, been intimidated, division, hatred, a spirit of fear spreading and a wave of helplessness growing, “nothing that I or anyone else does is going to change these situations”.

Sometimes we feel that the right to have a life or to be alive has been stolen from us.

Esther’s legal guardian, Mordecai and the Jews faced were faced with certain death on a specific date with the approval of the King. Their very right to live was threatened. They reacted the way we all would.

Esther 4:1-3

1 When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry;

2 And came even before the king’s gate: for none might enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.

3 And in every province, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

In today’s terms:

• We can dress in black (our equivalent of Mordecai’s sackcloth and ashes) all we want.
• We can arrange protests or marches every day of the year.
• We can badmouth our leaders in public.
• We can blog, Facebook, Twitter and print all we want to.

None of it changes our situation. All it does is to spread the Fear. Fear is extremely contagious, more so than any biological weapon man can invent. The best acronym for fear I’ve ever heard is “False Evidence Appearing Real”

Many (across the world) are feeling that their governments do not have their interest or their rights at heart. Many consider the option that if only we have a godly government, it will be so much better for us. What we do not realise is, is that a godly government and ungodly government do not exist. Israel had the choice of God and government and they choose the government over God. Governments have never been God’s 1^st choice for His children. God Himself wanted to reign over His people.  God told Samuel that Israel had rejected Him by choosing a government. According to 1 Samuel 8:6-18, there is only one type of government and one type of action (fruit) of a government. Those consequences did not specify a godly or ungodly government, only government.

1 Sam 8:11-18: 

11 This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots.

12 He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers.

14 And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants.

15 He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants.

16 And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work.

17 He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants.

18 And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.

 Still, the people chose to have a government. And this was where the complaining against the government started! The government is not interested in the people who voted them in, we have to pay too much in taxes, we pay taxes and our roads are never fixed, they declare a war and our children have to go fight and get killed, health policies are not adequate, pensions to the elderly are insufficient for them to live from. In summary, everything the government does is never good enough for anybody.

Even though we as people made the government choice, God’s heart was still for us to have the best, which is Him as our King. So once again, God had a principle in place knowing that our choice would soon leave us controlled, in bondage and poverty stricken.

In our story, Esther was taken by the king’s guards and was in our terms “pampered” with 6 months of oil of myrrh, and 6 months of with perfumes and preparations for beautifying women. (Est 2 v 12)

The symbolism of Esther in our society is that Esther is the church in preparation for her king, and God is the king. The part we miss which costs us and other people dearly, is the part of the time period of separation and PREPARATION for a year.

The myrrh is used to, what we would call detox, cleanse and heal the body. We as believers, need to come and be detoxed of our old ways of thinking. We need to be cleansed of the way the world system operates and we need to be healed.

It is a time to overcome and get rid of that which separates us from God.

We then need to be “rubbed down with oils and perfumes” to make us beautiful before the king. There is a time of preparation needed to make us think, walk, talk and behave like royalty.

The way I like to phrase it: “we need to learn to think beauty, talk beauty, walk beauty and act beauty, and have beautiful intentions because everything about God is beautiful and good”.  This side of the process is fun if we tackle it scripturally.

Many Christian are inclined to skip both these processes and to announce themselves as conquerors, overcomers and having the mind of Christ, and they go even further to say, they act and speak on behalf of the King, whilst in reality, all they have done is get saved.

What we as people do not realise, it is our actions and words that give away our source of thinking, not just words. If you have the mind of Christ, life looks different, you act different, you think different, you speak different, you treat other people as important.

Many of us want to race through the process to gain access to the king. Once the king extends his ear, we air our grievances and according to us: the king needs to deal out justice very swiftly on the people that harmed us. If we are still of the mindset that “I am right and another person is wrong”, we have not quite perfected the mind of Christ yet. We need to realise, irrespective of who is right or wrong, God loves us all. God loves the saved and the unsaved equally. If we are wanting God to “judge” somebody for an injustice (even if it is against God’s word), we still need to go back to the “oil of the Myrrh” so we can detox and be in health.

One of the purest signs that Christians have the mind of Christ, is when they can look at other people and acknowledge that God loves them, that Jesus died for them, and that we as the “Esthers” in the our times, are prepared to risk our lives to appear before the king to petition on behalf of an unsaved, and often in our opinion, an ungodly person.

God in His mercy and love still made a way for us to live the life that He wanted for us to have under His reign. God’s heart for us has always been to have a life “quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty”.

In 1 Tim 2:1-3, God tells us how to obtain the life He intended us to have:

1. I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;

2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

KJV

The very 1^st thing God want us to do, is to pray for all men, kings, and all that are in authority. Why you may ask, does God want me to pray for a government if it is not a godly institution and never can be?

God puts up a huge billboard telling us if we go in the direction He points us in   “So that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all Godliness and honesty.”

No more spending that extra money on alarm systems, burglar bars, trellidors, electric fences, pepper sprays, etc!

If we obey God by praying, God kicks in His overriding “principle” or “clause” and He promises to turn the heart of our rulers in the direction He wants.

Prov 21:1

The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.

And we all know, GOD ONLY WANTS TO BLESS US!!!!!!!! There is no evil in Him.

So the flip side of the coin is rather obviously, if we are NOT living a quiet and peaceful life with no godliness and no honesty…. can we make deduce that the Christians are either NOT PRAYING or are NOT PRAYING CORRECTLY the way God instructed us too?

We should not be praying for a godly government, it will not solve our problem.  We should be praying that our current leaders get to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. God’s heart is that no man, woman or child should ever be lost for eternity. He created hell for the devil and his demons. Not for the people God created and whom He loves. What we should be praying is for God to reconcile our leaders, pastors, families, friends (1 Tim 2 v 1 reads: ALL MEN) hearts to Him.

It is not our job to pray our leaders in and out of positions, because God promotes (and by flip side of the coin, allows a person to be removed from office as well). It is not our job to overthrow governments; it is our job to honor them as Rom 13 v 7 tells us too. It is not our job to judge whether our government is doing what we think is a good or a bad job.

Because Israel chose Plan B, God showed us through His Word how His children could still bring about His purpose of peace on this earth, even if we are under the rule of a government.

I’ve been following people’s responses to the secrecy bill this week, and this was the truest statement I read:

“Ag u know all I’v read and seen today about the Bill being passed is b*tch, b*tch b*tch, bt guess what I bet as citizens we won’t even try, stand together or actually take action against this horrifying reality.

We all still gonna sleep tyt tonight, go about tomoros events as if nothing happened and basically sit back and wait til tragedy or something BIGGER takes place to get us off our feet. Everyone is good at following

but no one knows how to lead…”

A direct quote from one of SA’s Young Adults (aged 20)

This is what our future thinks of us as the leaders. Our future is in a bad state when our young people can identify that we have no leaders who have courage to lead. We have the same disease the Israelites had when they choose a king.

We want someone else to go and do the responsible thing, while we do the easy thing, judge and complain.

Rom 13 v 14 tells us to put on Christ (specifically when dealing with the government) and make no provision for the flesh.

Let’s dig down deep inside and separate ourselves to God for our “Year of Pampering”. Entering  into our King’s presence boldly bringing about the deliverance the people of this beautiful nation need. Let’s not waste time by doing the wrong thing and bringing about the undesired results.

Lets Lead in Prayer!

Live again!!!

Beautiful Believers!!!!

Sorry for the “quiet” or “resting/growing” spell…

Have had some technical challenges!

Have not forgotten about the promised SUPERNATURAL post! Have finally found a starting point – Gen 1v1 thru to Rev 22v21. Busy designing some graphics to make explaining easier!

At least we have direction now!
Next week I will continue with the series: “Women of God affecting Nations”. Dealing with the most rejected woman in the Bible!

Excited to write this one, because often what we perceive to be a want, is not always God’s plan, but He allows the want!

See you all next week!

You are all looking beautiful in God’s presence….keep up the hunger for more of Jesus!

See you all in God’s presence!

Loving Jesus more and more every day
j9
Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom – let your email find you!

SUPERNATURAL

I’ve been asked to write a post with regards to walking in the Supernatural. Unbeknown to the reader who requested it, I’ve been slowly studying this topic to eventually compile a thesis on it. I’ve many A4 black hardcover 192pg books I have notes in.

In short, I eagerly started writing! Been my pet subject, I’ve now reached 5 A4 pages of writing only (graphics excluded) in Word which is way to many words for a blog post.

Please share some of your ideas, opinions or questions on the SUPERNATURAL so I can streamline the posts to be more relevant and not bore you with all the details a thesis requires!

Regards
Janine
Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom – let your email find you!

MY HEART: MULTIPLICATION or DIVISION

My reaction to my 1st born is probably a natural, stereotyped reaction any parent has towards their child. When I saw her for the 1st time, I made all the same promises to my child that most parents make. I promised her I would love her, I promised her I would protect her and silently I promised myself I would annihilate any person who ever hurt her (a very Christ-like response really demonstrating I never understood God’s heart of LOVE at all). Praise God one of the promises I also made was to train her up in the way of the Lord that was appropriate for her so as she grew and we faced challenges together, I realized I needed to change some values that were not biblical.

My biggest challenge to loving my child came when I realized I was expecting my 2nd child.

I loved this little child so intensely in my life, I could not fathom how there would ever be a place in my heart for my 2nd child. For many months I struggled inwardly with the concept of having to love two kids. The picture I mentally had for each kid was that they would each have a turn to be the centre of my heart. It felt like my heart was going to be compartmentalized, and that I would need to become this very good actor and manager who would have to learn not to reject the child that was not centre of my heart at that point. My reasoning was I thought acting like that, becoming a good manager or having a good façade, would keep the door open to loving them later and not rejecting them. Little did I realize Love is experienced and that actions carry an experience with them.

When Baby no 2 was born, I felt all the same emotions as I felt with Baby no 1. I could handle that because I had expected that. What I did not expect was the love I still had for Baby no 1. That surprised me and shocked me all at the same time. My love for my 1st born never diminished or disappeared! I was grateful that my heart had the capacity to multiply to be able to love 2 kids and that each child did not need to receive portions of my love at intervals.

Through the years I’ve continually referred back to this principle of multiplication to to understand God’s heart even more. When I felt the urge to write about this, I asked God for the scriptural reference and God immediately took me to the story of The Prodigal Son (Luke 15). I did not make the connection immediately, as in my mind the Father kept waiting for His lost Son. He was been a good Father. He was doing exactly what I would have done.

But a gentle nudge highlighted the OLDER BROTHER and God said to me: “Many of my children know I love them, but they don’t understand I love them as much as I love their brother or sister. Many of my children have the mind set of the older brother where it is only me or him that CAN be blessed. They don’t see that I AM ABLE AND WANT to bless them both. What I do for ONE of my children, I AM ABLE AND WANT to do for them all.
They have not grasped that my heart has a multiplication ability and that their brothers and sisters don’t leave me bankrupt or unable to love them or to fulfill their needs. What I give to one, I am able to give to 10, to a 100, to a 100 000, I am able to give to every person who has lived, who is living and to those who are still to be born in this life.
Rom 8:39
39 Nor height , nor depth , nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Eph 3:17-20
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and the length and depth and height
19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,

In v20, the POWER is referring to the DUNAMIS POWER OF GOD {miraculous power (usually by implication, a miracle itself):ability, abundance, meaning, might (worker of) miracle (-s), power, strength, violence, mighty (wonderful) work.}
I never realized until writing this post that God’s love was refered to twice in the Word as the width and length and depth or height and any created thing:
1st was us realizing that nothing (not a brother or a sister) separates us from the love of God; and
2nd was us realizing with the saints (my brothers and sisters in Christ, the OTHER brother or sister) what the width and length and depth and height of God’s love is. The 2nd revelation roots us and grounds us in the love that the 1st revelation revealed to us.

Loving Each Other

IS THERE PLACE IN MY HEART TO LOVE GOD AND TO ALLOW GOD TO LOVE MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS?

TOGETHER WE WILL BUILD EACH OTHER

Dear Readers

With every post I’ve written, I’ve subtly tried to challenge each of you to change your way of thinking with regards to people, Christian living and God!

I’m now asking you to set me the same challenge by suggesting topics I can research, pray about and find Biblical answers for things you need to face in your life!

I believe that while you grow and “climb the ‘so-called’ ladder” to the “top (where ever that may be)” you have the power to take as many people with you as what would like to go with. And in accomplishing that, I need to help you get the correct building blocks for your unique situation you are facing.

Email me (janinesreflections@gmail.com) or leave a comment with the topic or situation you would like light shed on.

I receive a tremendous amount of feedback via email that does not appear as comments, so please realize I’m not going to be able to answer them all at once, but I’ll endeavor to answer them in the shortest space of time.

No I’ve not run out of topics, I have too many, I’m just trying to prioritize what would be more important to you as the readers!

With Woman’s Day coming up on Tuesday, would you like a post about the power of a woman?

And I don’t believe in putting on more condemnation or guilt or feelings of inadequacy, so I can guarantee you will be uplifted, but challenged.

Much love Readers!
Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom – let your email find you!