So much more is expected...

There's been a 2 week crusade at our church that started last friday and will end next sabbath. Last night's sermon has really put the tone on the rest of the year. I felt spoken to directly. The pastor is Pastor Randy Skeet, and that man is anointed of God, he has probably read the Bible like 50 times over because he recites it and other good literature as if it is imprinted in his mind. Yesterday the title of the sermons was, "why is the first commandment first?"and the scripture reading was from Gen 25:29-34 (the story of Esau selling his birthright to his younger brother Jacob)

Some lessons that I gathered from the sermon last night are:

• Do not allow temporal "needs" come between  those things that are supposed to be 
• your most valuable possession
• Do not take advantage of others. God takes this personally.
• DO NOT HELP GOD! Just trust Him to do what's best for you.
• Whomever/ whatever directs your life & choices becomes your god/ God (you need to decide carefully)
• When God commissions you to do something, don't give excuses, just DO IT, He will enable you. Ex 4:10-17
• You must not fear that you'll lose something from being obedient to God, if you do lose it, then that thing was not worth having to even begin with.
• The tendencies of the natural heart of the natural heart are downward so you have to make a conscious decision to choose God.
• You need to determine in your heart who your God is , because it is that God that will help you in the time of the end. 

At some point he was speaking of education as he was talk ing about the events of Daniel 1 and the determination of the 4 hebrew boys to hold firm to the teachings of their parents and how much more is expected of me as a child of God, i cannot be mediocre simply because I'm a child of God, there's a certain level of excellence that God EXPECTS.

And so the tone was set.

God will help me. As I remember why the first commandment was made first.

Running vs LIFE

I did my first half marathon yesterday, didn't do it in "marvellous" time but what counts for now is that I finished. 

There are so many lessons that I picked up while running, and as I'd learn, I'd smile to myself and continue running. We started off by arriving somewhat late, if there was nothing we need to do before the starting time it would've been fine but some team members of ours needed to get race numbers from another team members so the task was to help each other find the missing race numbers even after the gun had gone off. About 5 minutes into the race while floating amongst hundreds of people it dawned on me that we're all living life, all on a stairway to one of two places, heaven or hell. We're striving we're all fighting in one way or the other to achieve what we perceive to success. Another very important point that dawned on me is that Jesus knows each of us by name and know everyone of our businesses, to the last detail as if you were the only on the road. 

While running I came across some interesting characters, some of which I had seen at races before this one. The one that caught my attention quite intensely is this white old lady who walks. Now, when I say walks, I don't mean a slow, lazy pace but a very brisk and fast pace, if I'd estimate i'd say she walks at about 6,8 - 7km/hour and she keeps that pace throughout... She doesn't slow down at all... In fact for a while she was ahead of me, then when I regained my energy I zoomed past her, but she made me think of how important it is to be consistent in the good things you decide to do. 

Then there was was this black couple, I'm not sure what their names were, I didn't really ask... All I know is that we were with each other throughout the race, they'd go ahead of me and rest and vice versa... The guy was mostly encouraging the lady. They both taught me how important it is to have an accountability partner or a companion that you can walk this life with, for the benefit of both of you. (They ended up finishing a little ahead of me)

Then finally there was this random guy who just started running with me, as we ran he would tell me bout the people he was running with before he got to me, we kept a good pace but after a while I felt a bit sapped and soaked out having to encourage while I was struggling myself so I left him for the sake of my sanity. He wasn't a bad partner for a while but when he started feeling heavy I had to cut him off. He ended up beating me at the end but that's not the point. I just learned this important unwritten rule that if it's too heavy for you to carry, weigh your options, if it's worth keeping then carry your cross with patience, but if not... Do not hesitate to cut all ties!! It'll do you the world of good, even if it turns out that you made a bad choice... Don't regret! You did what you thought was good for you at the time... So it's fine!!

Here's to remembering the first 21,1km I ever ran!!

Another year!!

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!

24 YEARS OLD, AND NOT EVEN ASHAMED!

Another year has gone by and all I can do is give thanks and celebrate life that I've been gifted with! God has been super gracious to me. 

I believe I've done really well! Looking at my past achievements and the things I've challenged myself to do, just for today I can look at everything and say well done ME!! Tomorrow I'll look at what I can better but today's just time set aside to give myself a pat on the back and just smile about it :-)

THANK YOU GOOGLE!!