Lucky Friday the 13th?

There will be thousands of people stressing about the significance of Friday the 13th today. For me, it is just like another Friday, but in keeping with the date, I wanted to offer some wonderful verses that contain the number 13 in them. May you be blessed.

1 Corinthians 13:13 - And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Psalm 13:5-6 - But I trust in your unfailing love;
    my heart rejoices in your salvation.
⁶ I will sing the Lord’s praise,
    for he has been good to me.

Mark 13:13 - "...but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved."

John 13:1 - "Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end."

Proverbs 13:13 - "Whoever scorns instruction will pay for it,
    but whoever respects a command is rewarded."

Living in Grace
D3LM3

Looking for God

“You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world." - Matthew 5:8

"Just remaining quietly in the presence of God, listening to Him, being attentive to Him, requires a lot of courage and know-how." -Thomas Merton

Living in Grace
D3LM3

Release of new Book - 7 days and counting...

I am excited to announce that I will be releasing my new book, Whatever it Takes, on the 18th November 2015. If you are anywhere near Pietermaritzburg next Wednesday and you would like to join us for the launch please feel welcome - the more the merrier. It will be at Wesley Methodist Church from 6pm, until about 7:30pm.

It has been a long hard journey over the past 5 years, but I am relieved that the work has finally culminated in the writing of this book. Whatever it Takes takes a deeper look at 10 ways in which we can be inspired in our faith journey. It is my prayer that this will encourage and challenge many people.

Lastly, I want to say a huge Thank You for taking the time to read this blog - it is your helpful feedback and support that encourages me to keep writing. You will never know how much of a role you play in this journey. God bless you.

Soli Deo Gloria

Living in Grace
D3LM3

When the Tooth Fairy doesn't show up!

Parenting tip of the day - if you have young kids who still "believe" in the Tooth mouse/fairy, please make sure that you actually take the tooth out the pouch and replace it with some cash! #justsaying

Yes, you guessed it, we made this blunder last night. We were so exhausted last night that we went to sleep and forgot all about the Tooth mouse. That was until this morning at 5am, when a dejected little boy came sobbing into the room saying, "He didn't come, he didn't come!"

After wiping the sleep out of our eyes, we looked at each other and tried to figure out what happened and then it hit us between the eyes - we FORGOT about the tooth mouse! Well, parental guilt came crashing into our hearts and we tried our best to make up for the bad faux pas we had just committed. It is amazing what thoughts come racing into your mind at that time of the morning.

But, how do you come back from forgetting the Tooth mouse!? Can you ever come back from that? Well we tried .....

We blamed it on the Rain (we all know that mice struggle to travel in the wet conditions - don't they?)
We suggested that we need to put cheese out tonight, as this will help him smell were the tooth is hidden.
We fumbled our way through a few more excuses, while we secretly set 10 reminders on our mobile phones for later on :)

In the end the little guy seemed to be ok and we breathed a sigh of relief. However, it did get me thinking of a few things. Here are some of these random thoughts.

1. I know that we play these harmless fantasy games with our kids to keep their hopes and dreams alive, but it is hard to keep making up stories to cover the truth.
2. Which, leads us onto the point of lying - Keeping the truth from people is a tiring past-time - you have to keep covering your tracks and this gets you into all sorts of trouble.
3. Do we ever feel that God is like the Tooth mouse/fairy? We give him some little things and then we expect him to do other things for us?
4. Have you ever been disappointed in God? Maybe you felt really let down by God - how did you make peace with that?

Let me finish with this promise. God will always SHOW up for us. It may not be in the way we expect or imagine, but GOD ALWAYS keeps his Promises.

Joshua 23:14 - You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.

Living in Grace
D3LM3

To the Brave Ones - Brilliant local Artist

I am so blessed this morning to be listening to an Album entitled "To the Brave Ones". What makes it so special is that it has been produced by my friend Mark Counihan. Mark was a member of our Youth Group when I was serving as a Youth Pastor at Bryanston Methodist. Mark was always an energetic young man, but also full of nonsense at times :) I am just so humbled that God would use his talents to bless the world.

Please can I ask you to support his ministry and go and buy his album on itunes. It only costs R70. Yes, that is right - only R70 for a brilliant worship CD. (Go to itunes and type in 'To the Brave Ones' and you should find it.)

For those of you who have Facebook, click on this link

"Being brave means to know something, scary, difficult and dangerous, and doing it anway, because the possibility of winning the fight is worth the chance of losing it." - Emilie Autumn

God bless you.

Living in Grace
D3LM3

Let's Imagine

Sometimes we imagine what something will be like. We can dream of the natural beauty of a holiday destination (for example) and then when we see it for the first time we judge these first impressions with the ‘created’ image lodged in our minds. In the end, it either lives up to our dreams or it doesn't! It either tells a story of disappointment or sheer delight!

I have to admit that most of the places I have visited in my life have lived up to my expectations  and perhaps even more. In a simple way, this is what I imagine heaven to be like. We have very little idea what it will truly look like, but the images we have from Scripture, give us a glimpse of the ultimate Paradise. I am convinced that whatever God has created heaven to be like, it will not disappoint any one of us.

I definitely want to be there. How about you?

Revelation 2:7 - Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Living in Grace,

D3LM3

Steadfast

This Psalm came across my path today and it contains a timeous message for many of us. The word "STEADFAST" appears a few times in the opening lines of the Psalm and the message is clear -
We can remain steadfast, because God is STEADFAST.

"My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast;
    I will sing and make melody.
    Awake, my soul!
² Awake, O harp and lyre!
    I will awake the dawn.
³ I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples,
    and I will sing praises to you among the nations.
⁴ For your steadfast love is higher than the heavens,    and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds." - Psalm 108:1-4

May we remain Steadfast in the knowledge that God is with us.

Living in Grace
D3LM3