Now, the Hour has Arrived
“The bread is almost ready,” Mary thought as she looked at it on the hot stone in the brick oven. She suddenly realized it was almost time for lunch. She put the vegetables on the table, took a sharp knife and as she started to peel, she noticed her three year old playing on the …
Why Jesus
In the huge black and dark hall satan and all his followers were gathered. Sulphur fumes filled the air with hissing and coughing sounds all around. One of the leader demons gathered enough courage to address satan, “Boss, we are so proud of you after you persuaded Eve to eat from the forbidden tree. Wow, …
The Narrow Road
My wife and I returned home from vacation recently when we took the scenic but narrow Meiringskloof road meandering through the mountains. At one spot our car left the road slightly and when I over-adjusted, it started to spin out of control. When we finally stopped, the car faced in the opposite direction. Right next …
Eyes of Light
Our eyes act as information grabbers and memory makers all through our lives. It depends on where and what we would focus our eyes on to gather the information we prefer to build our memory and enhance our experience in life. As a young boy I was sitting in church one day, waiting for the …
The Phone
As a ranger, Gustav spent most of his life in the forest with his wife and children and they loved every second of it. Eventually each child got married and moved out of the house to settle in different places and consequently, they asked their parents to get a cell phone because it was the …
Precious Moments
Thinking back over my life I remember the times when my daughter was very small, moments when she was terrified of something or got hurt and came to dad for the rescue. I remember after picking her up into my arms how she clung to me, holding on for dear life. I could smell her …
The Rock
Peter was a man of solid rock. When he confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus called him the foundation of the church. Peter was a man of action and it was evident that Peter played a prominent part. Peter walked on water. He did not hesitate to ask Jesus questions …
The Seed that didn’t Grow
We see people develop into beautiful Christians on seed others have sown into their lives. Yet, looking at people we ourselves are in contact with, we often fail to see any development on seed we have sown and it causes doubt in our minds considering our seed and our ability to sow. And then the …
Fragrance of Life
I met Mike at a funeral of all places. We were in the hall after the burial, enjoying tea and refreshments when I saw him sitting quietly with his teacup in his hand, his head bent forward slightly. I took a seat next to him. “Hi, my name is Ken. Are you a member of …
Losers
From where he sat in the classroom, Tim had a view of all his fellow students. All of them were scholars of a local high school in a small town. Most of them had been together since primary school. This class was not the most popular one in school, in fact, that was an understatement. …
Faith or Fate
I always ask Jesus for the subject of the next message. This time He answered, “You want Me to give you the next message?” “Yes, Lord, its due on Friday.” “Take your pen and write down what I give you. If the readers don’t believe you, it’s fine, just carry on writing. Who is in …
God’s Orchestra
A man telephoned the airline office and asked, “How long does it take to fly to Durban?” The clerk said, “Just a minute…” “Thank you,” the man said and rang off. It is easy to make a mistake and misinterpret words but it is a sin to use words to change facts. Creationism and evolutionism …
The Essence
Sometimes God inspires me to write poems. The words are not directly from God but the meaning and ideas portrayed are. I would like to share with you the essence of one I have received recently. In a previous series, I wrote a message about the manager of a hardware store, Sam and his wife …
Moths around a Lamp
John shakes his head as he looks at the figures in front of him. He’s been trying desperately for his business to succeed but success seems to be constantly evasive. “Why, Jesus? What am I doing wrong?” The answer came in an instant. “If I would ask you to take a step closer, John, where …
Cowboy
As I was paging through a magazine one day when I stumbled upon an article about an autistic boy called Will. Will could not tolerate the close presence of strangers and obviously, he could not speak to them either. His skin being extremely sensitive to the touch of water, his mom had great difficulty washing …
The Forest
During the holidays I saw Bill sitting on a bench next to the beach. He was looking at the people enjoying their day in the sun. He appeared to be lonely and I sat down next to him. We started chatting. After a while, he told me a story. “A ranger walked into a forest …
Blessings
There are two people in my life who’ve made an impression on me, not because of who they are in particular, but sadly, because of what happened in their lives. The prominent figure in the couple’s life was the wife, Nelly, because she behaved in a way that pushed her into the centre of attention …
Wysiwyg
WYSIWYG is a term used in the software and computer world that stands for “what you see is what you get.” If you should see something in the development stage of a program you would get exactly that when the program is running. Two computer programmers, Ronnie and Linda, were sitting on the beach admiring …
Christchurch
The date was 21 February 2011. The place – Christchurch, New Zealand. The event - a magnitude 6.3 tremor. The air was filled with dust. Everyone tried to grasp what had happened. It seemed unreal. Abbey looked at the ruins of the church building on the other side of the street. She thought that if …
The Beautiful Book
Pamela and Ben entered the huge library for the first time. “Look at all these books, Ben! How many hours would it take to read them? We haven’t started studying yet and I am already tired just thinking about the work that lies ahead.” “You know Pam, that the name ‘library’ stands for ‘a place …
Tsunami
I was standing in line at the information desk at the bank, facing people in the same queue moving towards the same counter but in a different direction. The winding queue was long and crawling slowly towards our common goal. If there is one thing that I hate, it is standing in a queue doing …
Muddling
I’ve known Jason for a few years and thought I knew the guy - a pleasant, likeable young man working in his dad’s business, happily married to his wife who bore him two children and he was deacon in the church. Whenever one looked at Jason he portrayed an image of a perfect son, husband, …
Word Counter
Remember Gert? He was the one I told you about some time ago who had a quiet neighbour, called Steve. Steve was the farmer who walked through life almost absent while Gert was the loud and busy one. Remember when Steve died and Gert’s wife told him about the death of his neighbour and how …
The Day He Died
On this day, approximately 2018 years ago, we (humans) witnessed how we took an innocent Man and hit Him, spat on Him, slapped Him, mocked Him and hit Him some more until He was unrecognizable. Finally we crucified Him. We did not understand it then, but we know now that Jesus did it for us. …
Love
I once ministered to cancer patients in the oncology ward of a hospital in Bloemfontein. One day I visited a patient who was very weak and in my prayer I committed this person into the hands of God because he was too weak to fight on his own. The intention was to strengthen the patient …
The Day is Coming
Here it is. I'm dead, and this is my last post to my blog. In advance, I asked that once my body finally shuts down from the punishments of my cancer, then my family and friends publish this prepared message I wrote—the first part of the process of turning this from an active website to …
Womb of the Morning
It is safe to assume that Darwin and all his followers are fools. That’s not me talking but the Bible. Psalm 14:1 and 51:1 states that a fool says there is no God. Believing in a big bang, self-evolved creation is the same as saying God does not exist. If you believe in God you …
Forgiven
Stink, the demon spy, moved over the small town of Sleeping Trees. He had been commissioned to watch over the people because a terrible thing had happened there. A pastor from a Christian denomination visited the town and convinced its sleeping inhabitants to become Christians! Sleeping Trees was not far from a big city and …
Family
The McLaughlin family is a normal average family. Granddad McLaughlin lives with the family of his son John, since grandma McLaughlin died. Granddad is big in posture with a small heart and everybody calls him Big Mac. John and his wife, Mary, have three children of whom the eldest is nicknamed Mackie. He is his …
Sow the Seed
Everything is on the move. Time, sound, development and even this year is moving towards its end. We find people constantly on the move – new places, opportunities, goals. Everything seems to be moving..... except the church. Pieter looked at the boy in front of him in disbelief. “Do you want to tell me that …