When all else falls

Now remains faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Cor. 13: 13).

Devotion

Today is devoted to loving God.

Hogsback Hilarity

Just been 2 Hogsback with 5 other AMAZING people: Helen, Verashni, Lieschen, Eben & Emiel.
Here's to a great weekend that was unplanned fun and hilarity! The Lord is incredibly gracious to us. Be blessed and have a great week. Be strong in Him and in His provision! For those of you dont know these people, make an effort to meet them and get to know them - they are wonderful.

Cheers!
(P.S. Evolution is about to be blown out of the water, but not how you think! - watch this space...)

Something Purposeful: Living on Purpose

It's easy to wander (wonder) through life without clear purpose. Even as Christians we can live without purpose. However, the Lord calls us to live with purpose - to live on purpose.

"And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ" (Col. 3:23-24).

Here are some ways that we can live on purpose:

1. Quiet Times - Sowing into your life now for strength and blessing in times to come, as well as fellowship with God now ("but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life" - Gal. 6:8) .
2. Relationships - Pursuing relationships with purpose and direction (e.g. life-time friendship based on accountability, love and devotion - covenant friendship), and not just convenience for now/alleviation of loneliness/etc.. The world seriously lacks faithfulness - we need to learn to lay down our lives for each other (if anyone has any ideas on how this is actually done, please teach me, because I am keen to learn - headknowledge without implementation is meaningless). "A friend loves at all times" (Prov. 17:17).
3. Talents & Hobbies - Enjoying them because God enjoys it when we enjoy doing what He made us to enjoy doing! Working on our talents as glory to Dad, and maxing it out because we can! (Col. 3:23-24 again, maybe there are others more suitable).
4. Studies - Working hard at them for the benefits to come later, and the discipline it brings, using that as motivation for pushing through the mundane now. He that is faithful in the little will be considered faithful in much (see Luke 19:17).
5. Character building... Anything worthwhile takes time, effort and will - Proverbs are hectic like this.
6. Etc. (i.e. there must be tonnes others too)
(Add you own...??)

These are things the Lord is teaching me now. There needs to be a soberness with which we view the various components in our life, as well as a joy in pursuing the destiny God has for us.

(If you need prayer call your trip:-) )
Bye!

Guest Appearance! Tony & Eben

Tony and Eben.

This is Tony at the bottom, testing the waters in Ezekial.

This is Eben at the top. When this photo was taken it was his birthday (and he only told us half-way through the hike). (There's now a cool little kloof with some indigenous forest named after him).

We were (the 3 of us) lurking at a river at the bottom of Featherstone Kloof. We found this awesome forest with a cliff, Outeniqua Yellow-wood trees and Knysna Louries! Getting out was fun - but we found lots of Motherless Daisy bushes (endemic to this area).

Eben is great. We did an O-week mission session together in Feb. When Eben is praising God in church then all is well with the Universe.
Tony has a dry sense of humour, and a very happy dispostion. It's always great to have Tones around. He is deep too, which adds meaning to all fun.

Check you - :-)

Fred

There are some wonderful people in Grahamstown. Here is one of them.

Frederick R. Otten (aka Fred or Freddie)(Fred's on the left of the photo, for those of you who weren't sure!)

Fred lives in the room next to mine in 3 Graham Street. He is a very loving and caring guy. This year ALONE he has made me endless cups of tea; he always pops into my room to see what's up (Nathan's the only other one who does... - and he's about to leave :-( ); and in the beginning of the year he sorted out my computer (he says it was a system thing, but I reckon he drove out several demons from it). Nothing is too much for Fred. He defines servanthood. I remember one Friday evening I was watching the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King on Dean's machine, and was feeling miff because of the example set by the Hobbits in their friendships (and I wasn't living that out/experiencing it - partly my fault... - a time of "relational character building": the most hectic bits were how Sam went back to help Frodo after Frodo thought Sam was against him, on the mountain ladder/spider scene: flip - that is my number one lesson in faithfulness at all costs; the other hectic lesson was the care and concern between Merry and Peregrine espec. on the battlefield. I want to be that.); well, Fred waltzed in on cue that evening and offered tea and a chat (I'm sure he's actually an angel sent to minister to us frail heirs of salvation!). Fred loves the Lord and His Kingdom. Fred is selfless and no matter what goes on, he goes on - whether there's no milk or he rolls his car. Most of all, he likes my jokes (the others pretend not to - IMPOSTERS!! Be sure your sin will find you out...). He is very consistent - I've never seen him throwing his toys out the cot (and he has a lot of toys - well, guitars!) And Fred is an excellent cricket coach: After 29 years of limited overs knowledge on my side, he ironed out some of the creases in my batting and didn't leave me stumped by his explanations. He pitched in and helped me out. As said at a previous occassion, he will know how to bowl his maiden over! (that is so wicket)

Fred, I love you bru! For you: "Oh how great is Your goodness that You have stored up for those who fear you!" Psalm 31:19

Bye now -

A Parents are not deceiving

"Honour your father and your mother: that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God gives to you." (Exodus 20:12)
"For God commanded, saying, Honour your father and mother: and, He that curses father or mother, let him die the death." (Matthew 15:4)
"Children obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour your father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise) that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth." (Ephesians 6:1-3)

Whether we have Christian parents or not, or virtuous parents or not, we are commanded to honour our parents. It's a privelege to have godly parents. In a world of family chaos, it is a very great privelege to have parents who have committed themselves to the Lord and each other through thick and thin. So, in honour to my parents, this is for Dad and Mom!

Dad:
Dad is hectic. He has two Phd's, lectures a full week, and still found time (and money) to take us on holidays every vac! We went to the Drakensberg once a year, to my grandparents in Uvongo once a year, and to the bushveld once a year! (and often to Zim, or other exciting spots in S.A. - hence my birdlist... Dad always encouraged me in that, which is cool). Dad loves the Lord (he is a teacher with a strong dose of the prophetic); he also loves building model aeroplanes; flight simulator computer games; and growing roses. My most memorable moments with Dad are playing hand-tennis in the back yard and that he taught me to body-surf (a skill I treasure more than life!). Dad would always come and ruffle my hair, and I pretended not to like it but I really did... (flip, I do that to my digsmates now).

Ma:
Mom is an example of a Proverbs 31 lady, and her children definately rise up and call her blessed. I remember in winter Mom used to wake my sister (a blog feature to come...) and I with a warm face-cloth. I pretended not to like it but actually it was great! Mom was always at home at lunchtime waiting for us with lunch after school. That's a rare thing in this life. We had family dinner every evening (and not in front of the antichrist - I mean TV - either), and a home very neat and orderly. And now Mom has just completed her Masters in classical culture at UJ! A hectic lady. And she has always loved us to bits :-)

Love you Ma & Dad! (cheesy grin)
Enjoy your trip to England!!
(phew, that's about another 10 years onto my life...)

'bye!
Ralph



COMING UP NEXT - My favourite DIGSMATE!!!!
(Whoever guesses right gets a chocolate)

The End of Term III!

Flip, a whole term just went by. There was only time to journal twice! What a term it's been.

Wahahahahahahahahha! cough-cough wahahahahaha!!

This is the gore and guts of what has been learnt this term:

1. Faithfulness in the face of adverse circumstances. Not faithfulness for reward (although that's nice if it happens), but being faithful because it's the right thing to be and this is God's character : "Faithful and True" (Revelation 19:11). But is very nice when it's appreciated! (let's be honest now).

2. Love vs "loving selfishness". I am still on a journey to discover self-less love - or love that gives without expecting; receives with thankfulness; and makes no demands but always hopes. DISCLAIMER: I am not there yet. By the grace of God we will be what God desires in us and delights to see us become! "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).
(the product kindly requests that all defects be reported immediately to the Man-ufacturor).

3. Learning to fight. It's important to believe God, His Word, and to know that we can ask anything in His Name - that we can legitimately fight in prayer for what is important to Him and to us. If we are off-track, the Lord will tell us gently, but if we have a go-ahead to pray for something and to pursue it, then we must engage in warfare and persevere! We can make petition to God about things that are important to us and He will answer! In fact, God likes it when we ask for things! (get that! - kick out the lies that God is grumpy and grudges us the answers). "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints" (Ephesians 6:18). "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him" (1 John 5:14-15). And more - get into the Word ladies and gents, it's all there!

4. Persevere: "stay your course" is the word the Lord gave me earlier this term when things looked rocky. This is what the Lord wants us to do when He's given us direction but there are difficult times - stick to it, stay your course, don't waiver, don't be shaken. [No verses here! Get your own.]

OK, apart from the heavy stuff and there has been so much fun! The dhindindee at Bond Street, followed by strolling around town at midnight singing to people for their birthday; Neels's surprise party (well done Vash!); lots of great Trip Events (go Neels & Dyl); Men's Min. hike to Thomas Baines N.R. (now called the hike to Thomas Paines...). And more!! Photos to come...

The highlight: was dipping under a waterfall during some "silence and solitude" with the Lord in a kloof below the toposcope on my birthday! (no photos to come... : -) and a lovely dinner at Bond Street the evening before!

'kay bye!