If... the condition is on us... the promise is certain, will we take Him up on the invitation?

Good morning... sometimes I wonder how much of the meaning of words, phrases and sayings we misinterpret, misunderstand and completely loose in translation...

This morning I went back to 1 Peter 2:3 and the Lord said to me, "look up the meaning of the word 'if'." 

Well, like me, I'm sure your understanding of words as well, may make you feel underwhelmed by this as I was, but let's put it into perspective of the big picture, not only this verse, but the entire Bible has conditional if's throughout and if we overlook them, what are we missing, does it matter in the long run if a 2 letter word in the Bible is present, goes missing or replaced... (don't get me started on this one)

 Firstly, I looked up the Biblical meaning of the word 'if' thinking I'd find nothing... huh, how wrong I was... turns out our whole Bible is pivotally positioned on the knife point of the fundamental 'if' starting at Cain and Abel and coming right the way down to you and me today! WOW! I was blown away by this, which made me realise, this one little word if must have some significance in my everyday life and certainly pivots the way I view my verse now. (my source for this info was very informative, look at this site https://www.ogchurchofchrist.org/Sermons/the-biblical-word-if/)

The status of this tiny word is so huge that our entire relationship with God is dependant on it... I was wrong above, it started even in the perfect Garden of Eden, if Adam and Eve had not eaten the apple, all life would have been in the perfect garden and never disrupted, but, they ate from it and here we are now...

Then, Cain killed Abel, if he hadn't he wouldn't have been banished. There are so many if's that I can only choose a few to list here, but think about the overall condition of mankind... there are the good conditions, if Abraham goes to where the Lord shows him, the Lord rewards him with the children as plentiful as the stars in the sky and sand in the sea... WOW! Beautiful condition... then there's Israel, if they will obey the Lord, they will live with Him in His promised land and as their King for as long as they obey... what did they do, just like Adam and Eve, us too, if we're honest with ourselves... they break their promise of obedience and boom the punishment attacks and they're removed from the promised land...

On and on throughout the Bible we see people like Ananias and Sapphira, if they had been honest, they wouldn't have died, that money was theirs, they didn't owe it to the apostles, they didn't need to die, but they chose to be dishonest... God removed them, we don't really know why, perhaps a little leaven destroys the whole batch, but we still really don't know... 

Back to today's point, I went back to my current text and put this new perspective, this new paradigm into what I was reading here 1 Peter 2:3 - the if is conditional, not based on God, it's based on us "if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

What does this mean for us:

(I don't like writing in bullet points, but feel it's necessary this time, to sink home what and how we can get this... I always think of mine as a thick skull, how will I get this into my thick skull, it's either not seeing the picture or it's stubborn and won't listen until the Lord breaks it down and pin-points my involvement in no uncertain terms... I'm not as innocent as I thought I was after He breaks things down for me... anyway I know no one else has this issue, but let's break it down anyway, in case it helps you)

1. Is the invitation - "if indeed you" This brings the onus onto us to say that there is something we need to do here, if we have tasted that the Lord is gracious - we need to go and find out for ourselves if He is gracious! Now I can tell you He is, because I have gone and found out, but I can't taste the carrot cake my daughter makes (which is exquisite) and download flavours for you and transmit them via the ether - there are still somethings we can't do virtually, for all the Star Trekkers out there we still don't have replicators for food hahaha) This you will have to do in faith, in trust, the Lord's promise is if you draw near to Him, He will draw near to you, He won't leave you hanging... He will meet you there... will you come...
2. The acceptance of the invitation - When you come will you stay and find out what it feels like in your inner being when He comes and touches it? I remember the first few times I came into the Lord's presence when I was a new born Christian, wow, it was so intimidating. It was so confusing, I simultaneously felt the most amazing love and a certain type of pain, I wasn't sure what it was or where it came from. I learnt later, after pressing through that strange feeling that I had the pain all along, only now the Lord was taking me from that place of pain, carrying me and loving me back to wholeness. The reason I didn't understand it was that I knew I was looking at the pain I already had, which was awkward and difficult, but I couldn't feel the pain as badly as usual. I could let that pain be there, look at it and it wasn't hurting as much as it usually did and that was because I was looking at it from a stand point of being with Jesus, He was holding my heart, protecting me from extra pain, showing me what had happened and how He was healing me, while shielding me from the intensity of the pain... This isn't because I knew something someone else didn't, this isn't because I have a special phone line to God, a fibre installation no one else had, no, this is because I took time, worshipped, came into the presence of God and sat with Him... I took the time for the invitation, I accepted, and He met me... He's waiting for each of us daily, let's allow Him in, unfettered access to our inner most being... after a while when I came into the Lord's presence, the pain was gone and there was a treasured place of meeting between Him and me where He downloads spectacular things to me, daily, if I accept the invitation...
3. The Promise "the Lord is gracious" - His promise is when you accept the invitation, He will meet you with grace! He is so gracious, even when I've messed up... boy oh boy I'm good at that! I've messed up in my life, I've messed up in my family's lives, I've messed up in work, I've messed up in life, in general... but the word says love keeps no record of wrong (1 Corinthians 13:5) - His name is LOVE (1 John 4:8). The word is so full of promises and they are all easily and readily available to each of us, the question today is for us if indeed we will taste that the Lord is gracious? All the rewards, promises, plans and purposes that we can never imagine or dream of to prosper us and not to harm us, to bless us to 1000 generations, think about that, that could be to the end of time... if... can we afford to avoid or miss that if... can our children and their children's children afford for us to miss a 2 letter word... today the invitation is out there, the promise is clear the choice is yours... if... you'll take Him up on the offer, He has 4000 years of faithful promises met, I think you can trust Him... try it out and let me know how it goes... baie liefde mense... loads of love people!

 

 

Spiritual Housekeeping

Good morning, this morning I woke up with this word in mind, "spiritual housekeeping", which I'm sure has existed for sometime, we'll get into that later. But, this morning I woke up with it in my mind.

Last night, I took the opportunity for a nice long leisurely bath and some deep intimate word and worship time with my Saviour, because I knew I wouldn't be able to do it today, what with it being a public holiday and all...

The Lord again took me to 1 Peter 2:4 - which in my mind feels like a sidenote in the middle of the paragraph - I didn't really see how it fit into the paragraph or where the relevance was to the rest of the verses, till I said, Lord, what are You trying to show me here... uhuh! Gotya!

1 Peter 2:4 "If you have tasted that the Lord is good" - mmmhhmm now what the next verse speaks of, "as you come to Him as a living stone" - clearly starting a new thought pattern, then I noticed, this verse is the last part of the previous sentence, it's not a complete sentence in and of itself, so now I have to start at the beginning of this sentence....uhuh!

Here is the spiritual housekeeping! I may have mentioned for 80days of this year I did a course of detoxing the body, soul and spirit... now I did the body part, lost a full 11kg's - was horrified that I needed to loose 20, but taking a break now for my body to settle down and then will look at the rest when the Lord leads me... it's really good and feels amazing to be my old usual size again... I digress, but I would recommend it for anyone who feels slow, sluggish, unable to achieve what you need - it's really that good!

The soul detox, I figured, we're doing that daily by not allowing the filth of the world in, but it's amazing how much of your stuff comes up when you want to loose weight. You didn't think an extra 11kg's has anything to do with emotions, comfort, past hurt and unfinished business. So, while I didn't have to eliminate music, movies etc that are inappropriate because I try to limit my exposure to those things as they would be a spiritual hinderance in my line of work, I had all these real life revelations of what's happening inside of me that I haven't dealt with...thank God I have Him - I have also been through my spiritual counselling and know how to process these things if needs be and have the relevant help too! Thank You Jesus for Your body working together!

The spirit detox, well, I just tried to get myself back on the bandwagon of reading, praying, worshipping and writing. While all these other things were going on, this was all I could actually focus on, anymore and I wouldn't have been able to manage. I just took it one day at a time and allowed the Lord to lead me. As soon as something came up from the other 2 areas I would go into prayer and say, (my biggest problem is my comfort zone) I would say, "Lord, please forgive me for the way I have dealt with my need for comfort up until now, please help me to rely on You for my internal comfort and to stay busy with what You have called me to, and not get involved in anything else.

Back to today's message, after this long amount of time I wasn't ready to start processing a whole bunch of new info, so I felt the Lord saying to me to just take a break. I took a break from all detoxing. Now, the last week or so, the Lord keeps sending me back to this 1 Peter 2:3 "If you have tasted that the Lord is good." It's not a question, have you tasted that the Lord is good, it's at the end of the sentence, so, I went back to the beginning...

"Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, ² as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow ^[a]thereby, ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

So, if I have tasted that the Lord is good, I will trust Him to lead me in growth by allowing Him to address these areas in my life... wow...

Uhuh - I see now, the Lord is ready for me to do some serious spiritual housekeeping... can you tell...

Let's start with laying aside:

I looked it up and Merriam-webster dictionary describes it as:

Dictionary.com - Also, lay away ; lay by . Set apart for a reason, save for the future,

I love this second one, as it says "Set apart for a reason"

We know the reason - our spiritual closeness to Jesus, with that as my target and aim, everything, absolutely everything can be set aside, as He leads me...

So, if everything is up for grabs then I have to read this piece carefully noting every detail to scrub my heart of things I need to "set aside for a reason"

Let me just preface this with I am always humbled, when I ask the Lord to show me my own heart. I'll be thinking, oh well, mine's not that bad is it Lord, show me what I have of these so I can quickly run through them... haha... jokes on me usually... no quickly about it, girl, you're in the mix with the worst of them, scrub-a-dub-a-dub... that heart needs the full works to get it cleaned up... so, I'm definitely not coming from an angle of I got this... follow me... I'm coming from the angle of I've made all of these mistakes, keep yourself from falling into my traps💖

The Jewish people have a feast, where they take a feather duster into their homes and symbolically go and remove any traces of yeast in their homes, it's called the feast of unleavened bread. Of course the yeast is symbolic of all sin in our lives, we're effectively doing the same thing here.

I'm going to list these with their definition, it would be exceptionally good for your spiritual housekeeping if you would go into prayer and ask the Lord, "Lord, please show me if I am hiding any portion of this in my heart, then also pray for your family members, that the Lord would lead them in purity in these things, it helps if we cover everyone. Not everyone will know that we need to do these or how to do them, so we can pray that the Lord will lead them to it...

This is the list: "all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,"

Malice - 

 

Deceit -

the action or practice of deceiving 

someone by concealing or misrepresenting the truth. (notice it's also mis-representing, if it's not the whole truth, it's not the truth, be careful not to excuse yourself here for some reason, I did and had to go back and start again with this point.)

Hypocrisy - 

Envy - 

Evil speaking - 

1. slander.

   "it is a sin to speak evil of the king" - (this definition is from my most commonly used definition source listed below)

Speaking evil of an absent person: relating something evil, which was really done or said by one that is not present when it is related - This is an Ai definition

All the definitions used here were found under the dictionary from Oxford Languages which I use most commonly, unless otherwise noted. https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/ 

Taking this to the Lord and allowing it to affect you now is a really good idea, so that we go into our next season the Lord has prepared for us with much less baggage... I hope this has helped you as it helped me... I may do more on it as the Lord leads...

If you find it beneficial in anyway please share testimonies, so appreciate that, but also, if you feel we can do a more intensive you can mail me and we can set up a course. Not major, we cover over 7 days, with 3 days in visual contact, where the Lord can cause us to delve into this and show us prophetically what's happening. Of course He could show you those things yourself and you don't need assistance, sometimes it's good to do it in groups... let me know... chat soon!

By the way don't be fooled by the image attached here, it's not a light easy thing, these people take out the leaven, make huge fires, burn every trace of it... this is serious business. God doesn't take this lightly, neither should we...

From parenting to melting earth to pick up your cross, all in one...

This morning I woke up late, I woke up out of sorts and cross with myself that I'd overslept, even though I really needed the sleep. How am I ever going to get this balance right...

Firstly, you start out with babies, who can't do anything for themselves, you find yourself exhausted from having to look after multiple people's needs while running the practical necessities of home...

Then, you have young children who can't keep up and have to be kept up and cleaned up after etc and taught every little detail of life...

Next, it's onto bigger kids where teaching involves consequence and this is a whole other ball game, where you want to love and protect and give in, now you have to have rigid guidelines and everything seems black and white, but all the while life is big and bold and sometimes messy...

Teens are their own special creation, they're not sure if they're happy, ok, sad, or angry just yet and they are so busy being that, that when bed time comes, they've just figured out that life's not that bad and we'd really like to do what we're now happy doing, for the next 2 hours, but it's now bedtime... shame, you gotta love them at every stage... boy I love children... I actually think it's my downfall...

I'm serious, I feel so very deeply what they're feeling and experiencing... it's detrimental... cos while I'm supposed to be upholding the consequence, I'm thinking, oh boy if I were in their shoes at that age I would definitely be feeling, thinking, doing... and I put myself back to where they are and find the consequence at times impossible to give... 

Is it good, no, there must be consequence, so for severe infringement, my kids know they're in for it... but for minor issues they come and tell me many things and I urge myself to hang back on the judgment, till I've had a chance to say, "where were you when this happened?", "How do you feel about this matter?", "what would you have done differently if you were in their shoes?" This has given me many unique perspectives into my children's lives.

What I would have done differently with my children, is given my eldest a little more leeway in decision making, not helicopter her... and spoken a lot less and had black and white details for my youngest... who's a black and white kinda person, where my eldest is not...

What on earth does this have to do with my blog and how could it relate to anyone else... well, firstly, I don't know if you knew this, but I write as I learn, so some of these revelations, I'm currently learning and growing in... I couldn't write them if I hadn't been learning them, but none of them have me at expert level, that's for sure!!

Secondly, I woke up irritated with myself, had a lot of morning routine stuff to get through and then, walking to my prayer chair... the Lord said read 2 Peter 3:5 "For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,"

What... I could not read that as a stand alone verse, so I started at the beginning of the paragraph and read... well, surprise, surprise, a theme that's been running through the last few weeks, now that's not to say I'm saying the world's ending this week, no, it's not for me to know...

Back to the point, read 2 Peter 3, there are so many revelations there, I couldn't possibly unpack them all... let's say I am so impressed with the Lord, that He could take something that we use as a measure of stability, like as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west... He makes the sun melt away like a sea... uh... that smashes my understanding of life and stability... He takes the waters of the sea as in Noah's day that didn't exist as a sea, and makes it flood the entire earth to then, from that day on, create a sea... and will make that same water to burn and be dissolved... it says here in 2 Peter 3, the elements will be dissolved, this is incredible, but this is what He will do to the elements... some say, "what's taking Him so long, if He's going to do it, let Him do it already!"

And just like that we have the correlation between my parenting deficit and the Lord's dealings with us... look at this fantastic verse 9 "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward ^[c]us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

You see, can you see it, the Lord is also longsuffering with us! WOW! WHY? We don't deserve it... He's longsuffering because, verse 9 says, "HE IS NOT WILLING THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH BUT THAT ALL SHOULD COME TO REPENTANCE!" Isn't He incredible!

He is patiently waiting for each of us to believe, and then the fact that you weren't swept away to heaven the minute you believed, means you have a job to do... here it is in verse 11-12 "Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?" - why, if the Lord's coming and taking us away, why should we be worried about our conduct, you are the only Bible some people will ever see!

You are the only Bible some people will ever see! Think about this, some people may never read the Bible. Some people may never own a Bible in their homes, some people may never open a Bible anywhere... it's impossible for you and me to understand, I was practically born in church, my parents say I was 3 days old and my mom was playing the piano, so we were there, her and my family and I... Bible is who I am... now... what about those who don't know...

In the words of my son, when I read this to him, he said, "So, if we go out and tell everyone in the world about Jesus, the Lord will come sooner?" I said, "yes", he said, "Let's Go!" Which isn't just the statement of let's go, but it's a modern day expression, of let's get out there and do this thing, what's taking us so long!

I love it, and that concludes my write up, LET'S GO!

P.S.

It reminds me of the words of Jesus Matthew 16:24-26

"²⁴ Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

²⁵ For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

²⁶ For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

Let's pick up our cross, follow Him and be the open book others can read and find Jesus for themselves... love to all!

Reflect, remember, record - to God be the glory great things He has done

This morning I woke up with the scripture 1 Peter 2:3 in my mind. I had no idea what it says, so I had to go look it up... again, Peter, mid-sentence, adds in this little beauty " if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

Let's just think about that, firstly he's talking to new believers because the next verse says "desire pure milk of the word", so why would it be relevant to everyone, well, in my humble opinion, we can't graduate to 'mature' believer, until we've been through the training ground of 'new' believer. So, here Peter is saying something that can be read as, "if you have tasted the Lord's goodnes (which every new believer has, or they wouldn't be believers), then start to desire the pure milk of the word, don't pollute it with anything else." which, granted is probably his meaning here... but, I submit to you that it could also mean, "If you have tasted the goodness of God? Then mark it down take stock, not only a mental note, but sit down and record for future generations, the goodness of God over your life, their lives... think about it, how will they know the goodness of God over their lives if we don't spend time documenting it and making clearly laid out for them, when and where God stepped into their impossible, our impossible, the impossible of the people around us, if we don't write it down, talk about it, make it a normal part of conversation in life."

Perhaps, when we slow down today, as it is the day of rest and we reflect over the past week, month, year, we can spend some time declaring His goodness to our families, friends and everyone we come into contact with... we can share the way He has shaped us...

Think of the many things He has orchestrated in our lives and how we have been changed by the fact that He cares for us...

 

Some verses related to this verse because of keywords in the verses that link them:

One we love, but we, at times, neglect to state the second part: Psalm 34:8 - "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!" When we've tasted and seen that He is good, we should know that Blessed is the man who trusts in Him... one results in the other... when we stop and smell the roses, we take time, we take stock, we write it down and discuss it with our loved ones, we see that wait a minute, because I love God and He loves me, I am blessed...

Titus 3:4;6 "But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared," "whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,"

You see God has generous poured out the love of God our Saviour towards us, you can put your name in there...

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward Asnée appeared, whom (Jesus was poured out on Calvary) He poured out on Asnée abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

can you believe it, it's almost too much for me to take in, God wants me to read His word like this, "My God, great powerful, mighty, all-powerful God poured out His kindness towards me and also the love of Jesus (our God and Saviour) towards me, Asnée, appeared, so He wants to appear in my life, He wants to be real, visible, tangible ( I can touch Him), He (Jesus), poured it out on me abundantly through Jesus Christ my Saviour"... this is mind blowing to me...

God wants to reach me, He wants to be tangible to me, He wants to be real and come into my life and make a difference in a real world, feelly, touchy, manner, actually make a difference and change circumstances, situations, obstacles, problem relationships, He wants to reach in and see them change.

The word taste - is a word that means: (Ref: Strong's #1089) "to eat, partake of, feel, experience." Interestingly, it is used both naturally and metaphorically.

So, you can taste, a physical change is measured and interpreted when God gets involved in your circumstances, when God reaches down to come into your everyday life and bring about His changes... I feel like someone is saying, what if they're changes I don't like or want... well, firstly they are changes you like and want, cos guess what, the maker of the universe breathed life into you and He gave you the DNA, your make up, is from Him, so not only does He know what you love best, He knows the things you're gonna love more and He knows which things can hurt us and derail us from His perfect plan for our lives... and if you doubt that, then you'll have to go and do a study on aligning your heart with His... He made the universe and everything in it and wants to give you abundantly above what you can imagine or dream of (Eph 3:20), but you have to believe Him, that He has and knows the best for you, otherwise you will always doubt... nothing wrong with that, but we have to grow from there... Just say, Lord, I want to believe you,help my unbelief (read the story of this father Mark 9:23-25, it will help you see Jesus' grace for our unbelief, even if it's a split second of doubt, there's no condemnation, we just have to nip it in the bud)

This is my favourite! WHOW, wait for this one... let Holy Spirit align your heart... it's that good

It has nothing to do with us... I always see this as such a safety net, when the Lord says, I got this, you relax, I'm taking it from here, you sit back and relax... check this one out...

Mat 11:30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." - I love that that is the end of the chapter... haha... He has got it... we don't have to have everything in a row, neatly worked out, He has got it! I remember a time when I just started my first blog, I think in about 2018, there was a group of moms and I at the school my kids were at and the little saying we had was, as long as all your ducks are in the same pond, they don't all have to be in a row... to give each other some grace...

What is Jesus saying here - straight from the mouth of our Saviour to the weight on our shoulders:

definition of easy: chrestos (oh my word when I saw the correlation between this and the name of Jesus, Christos - wow, that's another story for another time, just note it, INCREDIBLE!) Ref: Strong's #5543 - "The word denotes that which is useful, pleasant, good, comfortable, suitable and serviceable." The legalistic religious system was a severe burden, but service to Jesus does not chafe, because it fits well and is built on personal relationship with God by the indwelling Holy Spirit - comment taken from my Bible study notes, my Bible, this one is NKJV Spirit-filled Life Bible)

Let's put this into context, Jesus is saying to us my yoke, which we know as the figurative weight of His religious rules and regulations, is easy and my burden, which we know as His religious rules and regulations as a Rabbi, teacher of the word.

As your Rabbi, teacher, leader, Saviour, I am inviting you into a relationship where the severity and harsh abrasiveness of the past is lifted and comes into a relationship where the weight of my rules and regulations are no longer hard to bare, they are light, useful, pleasant, comfortable, suitable to each of you and serviceable, you are able to accomplish them. And as the notes in my Bible say, through our relationship with the Holy Spirit this is made possible.

So, in conclusion, let's go back in our minds and even ask Holy Spirit to remind us, what is it that I need to stop and say thank You for, rely on Him, He will remind you those prayers, big and small you prayed, you perhaps thought you'd never see an answer for and now you have it, in front of you, stop and thank Him, in Jesus' name, to God be all the glory, great things He has done!