Following on from the previous post asking if it is okay for a follower of Jesus to get a tattoo, i thought i would share the story behind my tattoo: THE PLACE For the longest time i thought it was going to be tennis ball sized and on my left shoulder. Then quite recently, when i started seriously thinking about it [has been on and off thought for at least five years] i realised that [...]
i have been asked this question a lot, from the Christ-following perspective of 'Is it okay for a Christian to get a tattoo or not?' And then yesterday i got my first one and so my opinion on the matter should be pretty easy to figure out. The one verse i am aware of that speaks of it directly, can be found in Leviticus 19.28 which i thought said, 'Do not cut your bodies for the dead,' [...]
The domino moment…Most of you have experienced some sort of 'domino moments' in your life which you will never forget. Some are good, some are bad but that single moment shifted your life and changed it forever. Our moment happened sitting in a hospital room and being told that our 4 year old daughter Zofeya had a brain tumour. The world around you crumbles and although everything has changed in this single moment, you know [...]
A rendition from the heart: Wouldn’t it be great to wake up one day and see everyone living at peace with each other? Wouldn’t it be wonderful that no one harboured feelings of resentment and injustice with the other instead we stand side by side as brothers? I yearn and hunger for a South Africa of equality in life and in living standards. I long for a land where the needs of the majority are [...]
This is my buddy Dunc, who is my best friend from school and who tbV and i are currently staying with while we try find a place to live [as well as his wife Megan and sons Connor and Ryan]. Three times a week he intentionally causes me a lot of pain... ...and it's great! Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses. Well, to be more accurate he ensures that [...]
*If I had a mic and all of SA was listening what would I say for 2015. My hope, my dream for this beautiful nation is that people would step out of their comfort zones amd embrace other people. I know this is not easy. My dream is that young people would embrace older people, straight people would embrace gay and transgendered people, people of different racial hues would also embrace each other and share [...]
One of the interesting ideas that has come up both in Americaland [with the whole #Ferguson ordeal and everything connected to that and the #BlackLivesMatter movement] and in South Africa is that black people can't be racist. i have always argued that the hypothesis is ridiculous and given my understanding of racism, anyone can be racist against another person. However, by taking time to listen to people on both sides, as far as i understand [...]
Boko Haram... Charlie Hebdo... Pupils in a Gauteng school re-enacting dog-fights... Sometimes, far too regularly, it seems like the world has gone mad. What are we to do? i was encouraged by this excerpt from a Dutch friend of mine who sent this as part of his end of year newsletter: One thing has become clearer to me than ever before: Jesus Christ is the only hope for man and mankind. Especially studying the chapters [...]
There is a tragic moment in the book where Benjamin Pogrund is refused the opportunity to speak at Robert Sobukwe's funeral due to some angry incited politicised youth, as it seems like he would have been a natural choice and even Sobukwe's family had extended the invitation for him to speak. The speech he had planned though was published in Reality later that year: Robert Sobukwe. My brother and my friend. It did not matter that our [...]
Mamelani. Listen Up. Kom ons Luister… all of us. If I had the mic for just a moment, and the audience was a country that I am yearning to see at peace and functional and prosperous – what would I want to say? In just 3 – 5 points? This should be so easy and yet the noise in my head has made this complex. This is my start actually. There is too much noise. [...]