so last week at enGAGE (sun eve congregation gathering at stellenbosch vineyard church) we had over 40 people there including a bunch of first-timers and roymond preached up an elijah storm in his first ever preach on the firetruck in the desert and your buckets capacity... at the start of the service i challenged the congregation to be more committed in terms of choosing to hang with us more regularly (attendance can be a bit [...]
Awesome SA is a site dedicated to the good news of what happens in South Africa that we seldom get to read about in the newspapers or watch in the news - they send out regular newsletters with testimonies of south africans living and loving large and helping make this nation the thing it truly can be - i encourage you to get connected 'Awesome SA is about encouraging South Africans to positively influence the [...]
‘Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.’ [romans 13.8] i love that verse. i have been reading romans for quite a long time now and i just keep getting stuck on that verse any time I am near it the continuing debt to love one another – what a cool way to be in debt – and the idea [...]
do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good i really struggle to ‘get’ how people have such issues with Jesus-following when the basics of what it is all about is gems like that – love God, love people, look after orphans and widows, forgive those who wrong you, look after the land you’ve been given, share this love message... i do sadly understand how people can have issues with christians and a [...]
five centimeters... from a huge upset and a big chance of Bafana Bafana progressing to the second round of the world cup which no white person predicted (let's be honest) - oh wait i mean expected cos i spent the whole week predicting a Bafana Bafana 2-1 win over Mexico and it was that close - just sent-to-meet-her's past the post to deny what would have been an incredible victory we decided to go watch [...]
“i’m talking bout the man in the mirror – ooh yeah – i’m askin him to change his face... ooh wa... and no message, could have been, any clearer... if you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and change your face” [Michael Jackson, adapted by plastic surgeons anonymous] yes i know that’s not the line but it’s the one i always sing when i hear of that song – [...]
so this teacher of the law comes up to Jesus and says, “So what is the most important command in the law?” it’s a trick question and yet Jesus floors the gang of them by summing up the whole law as “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength. and love your neighbour as yourself.” [paraphrase, Matthew 22.37-38] and since then, christians through the [...]
so i was at the beach yesterday which i really don’t do enough and was actually in the water (ditto) which was amazingly warm (or maybe amazingly warm for cape town beach water – i am not really a swimmer type person usually because i find the water too cold but here i had to be in to watch the kids and it was surprisingly not that bad) and i started to watch people i [...]
so i read in the newspaper today before church (stocking up on caffeine and chocolate crouissant at the bp) that Jacob Zuma (our president) has fathered another child. i never used to like Zuma. i heard a lot of bad things about him and saw him involved in some criminal cases with various accusations and he made some infamously bad statements about showering preventing AIDS (after being head of some AIDS council or something) and [...]
do you see yourself as rich? i would imagine probably not if i had to put myself on a wealth scale i would probably rate myself as below average i would compare myself to the people i know who have so much more than me - own houses, better cars, holiday house, huge screen television, able to fly overseas on holiday (or even have lavish comfortable holidays here), more impressive toys and so on would [...]