Things I will miss about South Africa

1) Muta (one of my guys)

2) Bahati (one of my guys)

3) Lawrence (one of my guys)

4) Patrick (one of my guys)

5) Aubrey (one of my guys/sort of)

6) Renier & Helize (campus staff director and wife)

7) Lucas (student leader, now interning with Crusade)

Paul (student leader, getting ready to do missions in Somalia)

9) Duan (student leader for next year, “chair person”)

10) Darius (student leader for next year)

11) Talkalanie (student apart of Crusade)

12)Ntando (student leader for next year)

13) Student leadership committee (past and present)

14) Chris Dirks (AIA)

15) Eddie (Staff)

16) Minte (Netherlands Stint)

17) Lerato (friend from UJ)

18) Balokile (friend from UJ)

19) Sammie (student leader at UJ)

20) Lizwi (student leader at UJ for next year)

21) Robert (student leader at UJ for next year)

22) Louie & Erica (BEAM owners)

23) Lordwick (pastor and staff at BEAM)

24) Ronnie (staff at BEAM)

25) Brian (staff at BEAM)

26) Blessing (staff at BEAM)

27) Given (kid at BEAM)

28) Cia (kid at BEAM)

29) Happy (kid at BEAM)

30) Ruben (Older boy at BEAM)

31) Diamond (Older boy at BEAM)

32) All the kids at BEAM

33) Francois (Erica and Louie’s son)

34) The Staff at BEAM

35) The scenery

36) The weather (warmth and the storms!!)

37) Blue Bulls/Springbok Rugby (They pretty much won everything they possibly could in one year, including the World Cup in 2008)

38) 15 Rand Wednesday movie night

 

Not to us

Not to us

The cross before us, the world behind,

No turning back, raise the banner high;

It’s not for us, it’s all for You.

Let the heavens shake and splite the sky,

Let the people clap their hands and cry;

It’s not for us, its all for You.

Not to us; But to your name be the glory

Not to us; But to your name be the glory

Our hearts unfold before Your throne,

The only place for those who know;

It’s not for us, it’s all for You.

Send Your holy fire on this offering,

Let our worship burn for the world to see;

Its not for us, it’s all for You.

The earth is shacking, the mountains shouting; it’s all for You

The waves are crashing, the Sun is raging; it’s all for You

Your Children dancing, dancing, dancing; it’s all for You

Nothing is ours, nothing can be said that we have done; all of it is Christ’s and everything we have done is through the power of the Holy Spirit and given to us by God Himself.  He made us in His image and for those that he calls to His kingdom, He already foreknew them before time began.

 

I’ll be home for Christmas

I’ll be home for Christmas, and definitely not in my dreams, but actually there! I am sure getting excited for Christmas:) Even those here in South Africa are getting excited, with all the decorations they have in the malls.  But they don’t have Thanksgiving, so the only thing they can look forward to is seeing red and green and white, but probably not, only in their lights:)

 

Came to my rescue

Come to my rescue

Falling on my knees in worship

Giving all I am to seek your face

Lord, all I am is yours

My whole life I place in Your hands

God of mercy humbled I bow down

In Your presence at Your throne

I called, You answered

And you came to my rescue and I,

I want to be where You are

In my life be lifted high

In our world be lifted high

In our love be lifted high

I do like this song, but some people could look at this as a song singing about us and not fully about God and Jesus Christ. It is tough though to figure out what exactly are biblical songs that are directed at God and not focused too much on us as humans.  This song still has a good message to it, even though it might be skewed in the focus of the song.  The part I am mostly focusing on is the chorus, where it says “I called, You answered; And you came to my rescue and I, I want to be where You are.” God did come to our rescue and we should want to be where He is, but us calling Him is something I don’t believe is true.  No one is going around saying “Hey God, I’m here! Help me out!” Usually, we rebell and want to do our own thing. It is not until the Holy Spirit come’s upon us and puts the regreat of what we just did.  God called us, those that are His children and the elect.  Our sinful natures did nothing before God sprouted a response in our soul.

This is how I think that part should go: “You called, I answered; And you came to my rescue and I, I want to be where You are.”  Another thing with the song, is a lot of times Christians just sing it and never really think to understand what they are saying.  “Falling on our knees; giving all we are; all we are is His; whole life in His hands; humbled we bow down; Life, world, love, God should be lifted high”.  These things are huge in someone’s life, becuase of how much we want to be able to control somethings.  We should be giving our alls to Him, and I even know of myself that I don’t do it all the time, but we need to keep that thinking constantly in our minds and ask God for help as well.

 

A watchman for Israel

A friend and I were talking the other day about the lost and how we are supposed to keep a careful watch on what we do, how we think towards the lost and if we are trying to do it in our strength or the Lord’s.  We were talking about friends and those that don’t know Him, and I said that I was afraid that they would come to know the Lord and be with Him forever.  She used the example from Ezekiel 3:18-21 about not telling those and warning them of the upcoming disaster that awaits them.

“18 If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 19 But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. 20 Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand. 21 But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.” Ezekiel 3:18-21

I do believe that we need to share the gospel with everyone we know, but not because of being scared into it, thinking that if we don’t everything will be on our shoulders.  We should share with everyone because it is the affect of an overflow of Christ’s love in us and the willingness to be sent out to tell everyone, even those that are closest to us.  What I don’t believe, is that there are prophets in today’s world, where there were prophets back in the Old Testament times.  I am not saying that there might not be people who have the gift of Prophecy, but it would not be in the same context as the prophets in Old Testament times.  God spoke to them and used them to speak for Him, where today we have Jesus Christ and God speaks through Him to talk to us, as well as, using the Holy Spirit to help us proclaim Jesus and what Jesus said.  We are called to tell those about Christ, which is different from the prophets having to tell people exactly what God, Himself, said towards their lives and what they should do.

Ezekiel 3:16-17 “16 And at the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.” In verse 15, it says that Ezekiel came to the people that God had told him to go to, and became overwhelmed at the sin that he saw there and sat there for seven days.  God had told him exactly what to do, and Ezekiel wasn’t really doing it. I assume that he was probably thinking that this couldn’t work at all with what he had to say and where those people were in their sin. God gave him stern warning that he was the only one that could speak to them, because God had elected him as the watchman of Israel and those people were still apart of Israel.  I have tried to talk to my friends about Christ and Him crucified, but they usually don’t want to listen and change to subject.  My fear is that they are not called by God to be a child of Him, not that I haven’t done enough or nothing at all, but that God hasn’t chosen them or elected them into His kingdom.  I know I can’t decided for God who He should give grace and allow into His kingdom and I know He has totally control over all life, it just hurts to know that people that I love might and probably will not be in Heaven when they die.

We all need to continue to spread the great message of Jesus and what His death on the cross means for all of us, but maybe look to the New Testament for verses to spur you on to share with others.  Passages like Hebrews 3:12-13 and 2 Timothy 4:1-5 would be good to look at.

 

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:

His truth is marching on.

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,

They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;

I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:

His day is marching on.

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:

“As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;

Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,

Since God is marching on.”

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;

He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!

Our God is marching on.

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:

As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,

While God is marching on.

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

While God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,

He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave,

So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,

Our God is marching on.

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Our God is marching on.

Both the notes and influences are pretty interesting.

 

Heaven and Prosperity

Thought theses were good, something else to ponder about the whole thing:

 

Heaven and Joel Osteen

This continues the Heaven talk with the actual video of when Osteen and Larry King talk. This quote is from the guy that put this video up on youtube.  I don’t really like the tone that he uses in these first few sentences or even some of the words that he uses, but there is a way that we can be sure that someone is not going to heaven and that is because they don’t have Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour and pronounce Him to be that for them to anyone that they meet. So I do agree with him on some parts, the main and basic ones!

ATTENTION NON-JUDGMENTALISTS!  PLEASE READ THIS:

For Osteen not to say that the unbeliever is on his/her way to burn in hell for eternity, when the vast majority of Larry King’s viewers are unsaved, atheists, heathens, etc., is one of the most egregious sins a so called ‘man of God’ can commit.

For those that don’t have Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour and are not living for Him, but living for themselves, they will be sent to Hell for all eternity, alone and lonely.  Jesus will be the final Judge and we are suppose to love and continue to share to good news with everyone, but some will not hear and will not be with Him forever if they try and go “their own way.” And in those kinds of situations, you can sometimes tell from the actions where someone’s heart is at and who is in control.

To say that Jesus told us not to judge another person’s heart is an out right lie. Jesus said that “every tree is known by his own fruit.” Luke 6:44; “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Mat. 12:34. Jesus told us to “judge righteous judgment.” John 7:24. “Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.” 1 Tim. 5:20.

If you look at the Context of John 7:24, Jesus is talking about work on the Sabbath and how the Jews are following rules that will hopefully make God happy with them, while Jesus healed a sick man on the Sabbath because of the work that God was doing. Jesus did that miracle on the Sabbath because it was glorifying to God and as Jesus said in verse 17 of Chapter 5 “My Father is working until know, and I am working.“  So for us to use this and seeking our own righteous judgment, we can look to see if the actions of others are not just about appearances, but that they are focused towards the glory of God.

Jesus said, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten:” Rev. 3:19.  John said, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God,” 1 John 3:2. (read the whole verse, this is just a part)

In Revelation 3:19 and the whole context of 3:14-21, is a letter to the Church in Laodicea stating that they were lukewarm and in need of some reproof and discipline  for what they were not doing for God. They had money and everything else and decided that they didn’t need anything else, as Jesus “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” Rev.3:17 Pretty harsh statement to make, but with the condition of all of us, it is good to hear and understand.

Paul said, “But if ye be without chastisement… then are ye bastards, and not sons.” Heb. 12:8.

Hebrews 12:8, in the ESV Bible, says this “If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” (I am not sure where he got that translation.) This verse as well as the context or verses 3-17, talks about how God disciplines us, not becuase He hates us or likes to see us hurting and weak, but to bring us back to Himself where we can find all the strength we need to live on and fight for Him.  Please read all of Hebrews 12, but especially verses 3-17 becuase it explans so well the things that we will go through and why they come to be in the first place.

Jesus said to “repent.” Rev. 3:19 This is not ‘condemning’ a person (Heb. 4:12).

Hebrews 4:12 says “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The Bible doesn’t condemn a person, it shows the way to eternal life! It doesn’t condemn a person, it help in their growth towards the Creator! It doesn’t condemn a person, it brings new life to those that believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the only way to get to heaven. If people, those that don’t believe in Jesus and Him being the only way, try and go their own way or do their own thing, then they have condemned themselves and no body else is to blame.

When Jesus said, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” Matt. 23:33;

The whole chapter of Matthew 23 talks about the Scribes and Pharisees, and how they were not allowing people into the kingdom because of the wrong things that they were saying. “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so practive and observe whatever they tell you–but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice.”  Matthew 23:2-3 Jesus called the Hypocrites because they said one thing and did something totally different. It was not a way of showing others how to live for God, instead they were showing others how to live for themselves, that is why Jesus called them what He called them.

And when Paul said, “thou child of the devil,” Acts 13:10;

Paul,who in that time was still named Saul in Acts 13:4-12, meets a magician, a Jewish false prophet that was lying and pushing people away from God with the incorrect things he was saying.  This magician was trying to turn another man that Saul and Barnabas came to talk to away from the faith. This man was very intelligent and probably in a high position, so that if he did believe, which it says in verse 12, he could be able to spread the gospel further.

And when John said, “all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire” Rev. 21:8;

John, in Revelations 21:1-8, saw a vision of the New Heaven and the New Earth, the time when Jesus would return to place judgment on all.  As you read that passage, you see that those who are believes will rejoice when Jesus comes back, because He will make everything new, but for those that don’t believe, the end is a dreaded place.  “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexual immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, there portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” Rev. 21:8 For those that are Christians and are a little freaked out about this, don’t worry; if you have repented of your sins and continued to live your life for Christ, He will and did take all of our sins on the Cross and has forgiven us of everyone that we committed and repented of. Really He has forgive us, children of God, of all our sins, because He loves us so much and wants us to be close to Him so we can be able to glorify Him more and more.

they were not condemning anyone! They were warning us!

 

Veterans’ Day

Too bad this one doesn’t have some kind of music; still good pictures

 

The National Anthem ~ Veterans day

This is the first video I saw of the four girls from Lubbock, Texas and was amazed by their harmony. This is great, at a Texas Tech Basketball game:

A good video of how the girls think of the different songs they sing:

Also, Happy Veterans day.  Thanks to all of you who served in our Armed Forces, either in battle on in the offices making the calls and the machinery that helps those out in the field.  And dad, thanks for serving for 21 years in the Air Force!!