Taking off our shoes

God instructed Moses to take off his shoes as a sign of awe, reverence and worship. This must have been humbling for Moses, but he wasn't going to argue with God. In truth, Moses was probably looking for some way to respond to the holiness of the moment - so if God was asking for 'no shoes', then Moses obeyed.

When last did you take off your shoes as a sign of awe, wonder and amazement?

Ah, but you are arguing that you have not seen God in the burning bush lately - which is true, but God has revealed his glory all around us! Perhaps we have been looking in the wrong places.

"Earth is crammed with heaven,
And every bush is aflame with God
But only those who see, take off their shoes." - Elizabeth Browning

Sense God's Grace today.

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Photo from this site

Inspirational Prayer

I am often inspired by the prayers of others. They put into words, things that I want to express, but just don't know how to.

Read this moving prayer and then spend a few moments in prayer yourself...

"Dear God,
I am so afraid to open my clenched fists!
Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to?
Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands?
Please help me to gradually open my hands
and to discover that I am not what I own,
but what you want to give me.
And what you want to give me is love,
unconditional, everlasting love.
Amen." - Henri J.M. Nouwen

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Pause

When you are watching a DVD and there is an interruption, who pushes pause on the remote?

When life is hectic and you feel as if you are juggling too many things, who gets to push pause?

In the first instance, it doesn't matter who pushes pause, as long as you don't miss the important part of the movie and to be honest, time doesn't matter.

In the second instance, we are the only people who can push pause, but we seldom do! We don't push pause because we are worried we will miss something or we say we 'can't afford to stop' or who will do my work for me?

But, here's the thing - if you burn yourself out, because you don't want to push pause, someone else will end up having to do your job, look after your kids, step in for you at Church, finish that task etc.

PUSH PAUSE! You have the remote in your hand!

"Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." - Mark 6:31

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Happy Camper

As a family we managed to spend a few nights camping over the long weekend. It was great! However, the camping didn't start off so well, when on the first night our inconsiderate 'neighbours' decided to party until 4am. I can tell you that was NOT a 'Happy Camper!' After my initial complaint (just after midnight) our camping neighbours decided to roar into life and eventually when some other campers got involved the drunken party came to an end.

Needless to say I was tired and grumpy the next morning at 6 when my kids woke up! One of my boys thought we should execute a little revenge and offered to go and bang pots and pans outside their tents - I was extremely tempted and after entertaining the thought for a few seconds I took the 'ministerial' option and tried to teach the kids about forgiveness (I am not sure if I was convincing ... I sure hope so!)

Anyway, in the end, it turned out that the forgiveness route was best, because two of the 'drunken' group walked around the entire campsite apologising for the behaviour of their camping 'party' and promised it wouldn't happen again - which it didn't.

I wiped the sweat from my brow and said to the boys, "You see, forgiveness works sometimes!"

I realised that forgiveness is definitely a choice and one doesn't have to feel super-spiritual when choosing to forgive. The choirs of singing angels doesn't happen like the movies portray, but one does feel good when forgiveness wins out.

Psalm 130:4 - "But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared."

Thank you Lord for forgiving my sins.

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Where were you?

On Tuesday we will celebrate Freedom day and for many South Africans
it will remind us of our first Democratic elections? Do you remember
that? Where were you that day and what was happening in your life at
that time? I know that we realised we were living in historical times,
but has that event changed us in any way? The disciples perceived
(albeit later) that they were witnessing something amazing in Jesus
and He changed their lives!

May God renew our Freedom in His love,

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Pure Grace

As we go about our daily tasks, I encourage you to think on this:

"Only as we experience God's grace as pure grace, not something we earned or worked for, can we offer love with no strings attached to another person in need. There is but one true Giver in the universe; all else are debtors." - Philip Yancey

May you be blessed by God's pure grace today.

Soli Deo Gloria
D3LM3

Hiding in God

"Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee." - August Toplady

Sometimes we will face things that we feel we just can't handle by ourselves. If you ever get to this point, I encourage you to 'hide' yourself in the shelter of God's grace. God will provide comfort from the storm!

Psalm 55:8 - "I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm."

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Dream it!

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." - Anatole France

If you are brave enough to write down what you dream of accomplishing ONE DAY, then I challenge you to go to www.livingingrace.co.za and to record your dream (click on the "DREAM IT" picture and record your dream - it will take you 30 seconds)

Let's see how big our dreams can be! I DARE YOU :)

Joel 2:28 - "I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions."

Living in God's Grace,
D3LM3

Wow, what a planet!

Earth day is today (22 April)! Just a quick glance around at our majestic planet should send us into uncontrollable applause. God is truly amazing! How is it possible that we get the privilege of living on such a beautiful home? Sure, some of our fellow 'earthlings' leave us feeling gutted and angry, but that's for another blog post. Earth is a master piece, intricately designed by our God.

Psalm 47:7 - "For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise."

Psalm 24:1 - "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it."

Let's do all we can to be good stewards of what God has given to us. I want my great-grandchildren to see parts of our amazing planet.

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Photo from here

Four-way Stop!

Maritzburg has been having a problem with power failures again! This has obviously caused many of our traffic lights to become 'tin soldiers' guarding the roads. In situations like this motorists are supposed to treat the intersections as a 4 way stop! I say 'Supposed to' because most of the motorists DON'T!

I am convinced that many of our motorists have no clue what to do when confronted with this situation. When I was nearly wiped out yesterday, it confirmed my nagging suspicions - South Africans are clueless at 4-way stops!

Question:
"Did we not have to learn how to handle 4-way stops before we passed our drivers test?"
Answer:
YES, we did!

So either, we have forgotten what we learnt or we just choose to ignore it.

Which, brings me to this point -

"Are we not like this in our faith sometimes? We may have learnt in Kids Church (or somewhere else) that we need to walk in God's ways or love our neighbour's or trust God, but when we face a crossroads in our life, we don't know how to handle it!"

Is it because we have forgotten or do we choose to ignore what we have learnt?
Or maybe it's a little of both.

What do you think? Maybe I am being to harsh on our drivers and our faith :)

When you get to a crossroads in your life, allow the Spirit to jog your 'faith-memory' and then trust in God to get you over the obstacle.

Be Blessed today,

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Lesson from the Volcano

The Volcanic eruption in Iceland has caused a tremendous amount of stress for people around the world. If you have been locked away (in a self-imposed media fast) for the past week then have a look here for more details.

A combination of natural phenomena has made this eruption catastrophic, not in a life & death sense, but in a financial and personal sense. People have been left stranded in airports and homes all over the world, but mainly in Europe. As a family, we are waiting to hear whether my sister and her daughter can fly home this weekend - so even people in Africa are affected!

On reflection, there is a powerful lesson for humanity in the eruption of the volcano. We need to remember that although we think we are 'god-like', we are not Omnipotent. If the lava from one volcano can cause millions of lives to be disrupted, without even physically harming one person, then that Volcano deserves a little respect.

Even more so, our Creator, who created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 2:1 - "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array."

I don't believe that God sent the Volcano to punish us, but if we could learn something from this event then it may be this....

"Humanity needed a little reminder that we are not 'God' and we can't always be in control."

What do you think?

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Sabbath Reading

What books do you read when you are chilling out or when you go on holiday?

I should be telling you that I only read the Bible or books by John Wesley, but I have to admit that on this Monday I read the newspaper and I started reading 'Spud - learning to fly!' Yes, I know that these don't sound too 'classic', but it has been good to laugh (reading Spud) and cry (reading the paper)!

My 'days off' also include reading a portion of Scripture and my devotion for this morning (Proverbs 1) was deeply profound. Read it if you get a chance...

..."The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." - Proverbs 1:7

If you have a moment, please answer the question I started off with - I would love to hear from you.

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Change

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." - Leo Tolstoy

If we could change the world by changing ourselves, would we try?

It is always easier to recognise the faults in others and to expect them to change these faults, before we are willing to change ourselves. This is especially true in our friendships and relationships. We say to ourselves, "I will be more loving or patient when my friend treats me differently." But Tolstoy argues that we need to begin with ourselves first.

Jesus agrees...
Matthew 7:3 - "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"

May we change the world, by first changing ourselves.

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Doubts

William Shakespeare once remarked, "Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we might win, by fearing to attempt."

How True!?

When Thomas was overcome with his doubts, he was 'paralysed', in a sense - he was unable to carry on with his faith journey. Jesus' encounter with him changes Thomas forever and we understand that he continued to be a radical follower of Jesus. Can you imagine what Thomas would have missed out on if he had remained in his doubt?

Allow your doubts to move you to a point of faith!

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Defining Moments

We will all face crucial moments in our lives that will end up defining our lives. Some of these can include moments of celebration (marriages, births etc), while moments of tragedy and difficulty can also change us.

What defining moments have you experienced in your life? I encourage you to make a list now and have a look at these events.

How is this for a defining moment in history?

Matthew 27:51 - At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split.

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Doors

We see doors everyday.
Some keep out the cold, whilst some doors can keep the air conditioned room bearable! Some doors keep people secure, whilst some keep criminals locked away. Some doors pass on a message of 'leave me alone!', whilst others invite us to enter in.

What door are you looking at today?

Luke 11:9 - "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Revelation 3:20 - Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

Living in Grace
D3LM3

P.S. Photo from here

Alpha Course

We are starting the Alpha Course tonight at Church and we pray that many of us will be able to deepen our faith and that many others will be able to ask some tough questions about Christianity.

I love meeting together with other believers to 'sharpen' our faith and to be honest about our questions. I feel that we grow the most, when we meet in true fellowship.

Talking about 'questions', I have one for you:
"How is your relationship with Jesus today?"

"Those who deserve love the least need it the most." - Unknown

May you know God's overwhelming love and grace, despite your answer to the above question.

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Beautiful

Flying home from some church meetings in Johannesburg, I noticed the sun setting over the mountains. The view was breath-taking. God is such an amazing artist and creator. To think that God did all this for you and me. Next time you have a moment stop and notice what God has given to us - often it is right before our very eyes!

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

No place like home

Having just spent a great few days away it was really nice to be back home and in familiar surroundings - "Home Sweet Home!" - as they say!

That's when I remembered these words from Jesus -
Matthew 8:20 - "Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.""

I wonder if Jesus ever got to feel that 'Home Sweet Home' feeling? Maybe when he finally return to His Heavenly Home? What do you think?

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Easter Sunday

The God of the resurrection is awake all the time (George MacDonald). I love this quote. Not only does the resurrection mean that death and sin couldn't hold Jesus in defeat, but it also means that He is alive in the power of the Holy Spirit. That is good news for everyone.

John 20:18 - Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news:
"I have seen the Lord!"

May you have a blessed day. Our Saviour is alive - hallelujah!

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

P.S. I will be on leave for a week, so I won't be sending any posts for a while. God Bless you.

The Cross

Central to my faith is the Cross! Today is not a public holiday for many of us - it is truly a Holy Day. I thank God that Jesus died for my sins, because there is no way I could ever start to make amends for them.

"Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without a cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Jesus was not crucified in a Cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves." - George MacLeod

"Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." - John 1:29

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Time travel

We watched the Time Traveller's Wife the other night - it is an interesting concept for a movie (even though the acting was a bit dodgy). Have you ever wanted to be a 'Time Traveller?'

I have heard some people say that they have wanted to travel back to Jerusalem at the time of Jesus and to stand up for Jesus in the hope of stopping the cruelty of the Crucifixion. I find that noble, but naive.

Jesus' own disciples tried to fight for him in the garden, even cutting off the ear of one of the soldiers. However, Jesus resisted the opportunity to escape. He knew that the Cross was the only way to deal with the sins of humanity. Besides if we managed to successfully travel back in time (and save Jesus) who would then defeat SIN and DEATH?

Not sure, if this makes sense, but this Easter I am once again humbled by the love of my Saviour. He did what no human being could ever do and no other god was ever able to.

Thank you for the Cross, Jesus.

Living in Grace,
D3LM3