PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

          
     Dear Heavenly Father, my 
     Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy    
     Spirit I want to praise and worship      You with all my heart and soul. I        want to thank You for          
     everything that You have  done 
                         and still do for Me.


I want to thank You, Father God for sending and allowing Your most precious possession, Your only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to come to earth and die and rise again, so that I may go free.  Thank You Lord. Thank You.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish but have everlasting life."
John 3:16


I want to thank you Lord Jesus  for laying down your life and enduring the agony of that terrible day on the cross of Calvary so that I could be freed from the curse of my sins.

"but even the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life a ransom for many."
Mathew 20:28

"Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down Myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again.  This commandment have I received from My Father."
John:10:18


After His resurrection Jesus told His disciples that when He left them to go back to His Father, He would send them another Comforter  to comfort and guide them.

Thank You, Holy Spirit, that you lead me and guide me, teach me and comfort me, as I journey through this life.  You give me strength and hope.


"And I will pray the Father and He will  give  you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of Truth; Whom the world cannot receive; because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but you know Him; for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you."
John 14:16 


My God, if I did not have You in my life  what would I do?
Where would I go?
What a hopeless, helpless existence I would have, but because of You I can lift my head and face tomorrow.

"For Thou, O Lord art a shield to me, my glory and the lifter of my head."
Psalm 3:3


No matter how deep and icy cold the waters may be - I can go through them, because You take me by the hand and lead me through.

"When you pass through the waters  I will be with you and when you pass through the rivers  they will not sweep over you."
Isaiah 43:2


No matter how dark and frightening my circumstances are, You are always there. You will never leave me nor forsake me.

"And let your conversations be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have, for He hath said 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'  "
Hebrews 13:5

"Be strong and of a good courage, fear not nor be afraid of them, for the Lord Your God, He it is who goes with you. He will not fail or forsake you."
Deuteronomy 31:6


You are great Lord, You are Awesome,You are my Rock, You are my deliverer, You are my Fortress and my strong tower, my Protector and my Provider.

"The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in Whom I trust."
Psalm 18:2


You are my strong tower,  when I face danger I run to You and I am safe.

"The Name of the Lord Jehovah. Jehovah is a strong tower. The righteous will run to it and be safe."
Proverbs 18:10

"Indeed You are my shelter, a strong tower that protects me from the enemy."
Palm 63:1



I can lie down  and sleep in peace and  serenity, because I know that You have surrounded me with many angels to protect me.

"In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone O God , make me to dwell in safety."
Psalm 4:8



Nothing can hurt me unless it has Your approval, and if You do sanction it, it will always be a learning curve for me. You will never allow hurt without a purpose.  You are the Potter and I am the clay, mould me and make me into the person that You want me to be.

"And we know that all things work together for good,  for those who love God and are called according to His purpose."
Romans 8:28

MORE SOUNDS THAN FIREWORKS TRAUMATISE DOGS

  We all know that dogs are 
   traumatized by   fireworks and 
   thunder, and even though the 
   noise only lasts a short while the 
   dogs stay traumatized for hours.  

                                     
This takes me back twelve years when I was living in a railway cottage in a small town in another remote area, in the Orange Free State, and the kind of noise that I had to endure  went  on and on for hours and every day, for more than a week.


It started off one afternoon with what sounded like a giant cracker exploding.  My next door neighbour was visiting me that afternoon and both of us were startled by the sound.  It was really loud.



The worst part however was the effect it had on my Maltese poodle  - she was absolutely frantic with fear to the extent that she tried to get inside the bottom of my trouser leg in order to escape the sound.


However, the sound did not end there, it went on and on and on. My friend and I consoled ourselves that it would end as soon as the culprit ran out of crackers, but it didn't.  We couldn't understand how, whoever it was could afford to buy so many firecrackers, as it wasn't an affluent area. But it continued  non-stop all afternoon.


On investigation we discovered that the culprit was a thirteen year old boy who had recently moved into the neighbourhood with his parents a few doors away from us.  Apparently he was practicing some stunt with a huge whip.  Every crack of that whip was an assault on my ears and my dog was a shivering, shaking wreck, and it was happening every afternoon now and also on the week-end when he wasn't at school.



As I was suffering from a bad bout of flu and didn't want to leave the house, I made notes of the times he used the whip,  when it would start and when it would end.  

As soon as I was feeling better I made inquiries at the local police station and was told that if I lodged a complaint, his parents would be issued with a warning for "disturbing the peace"  should they ignore the warning they would receive a fine of R200 and failure to pay the fine would result in going to court.



All I wanted was for that child to stop using that whip, so I lodged a complaint.  I thought a warning would suffice, but I was wrong.


A few days after they received the warning, I was working in my garden when the teenager approached and called me to the fence, where he proceeded to verbally lambast me for reporting him. He left mumbling some vague threat. I was amazed at his audacity, to treat an old person in such a  manner.


"Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it."
Proverbs 22:6



A few weeks later I received a subpoena to appear in court. I wasn't happy about the turn of events, because as I said, I just wanted the noise to stop.


The court day arrived and I nervously approached the  office to find out where to go and was told to sit on a bench in front of the Magistrate's Court and wait to be called.  While sitting there the child and his parents arrived with their lawyer.  I was very surprised that they had hired a lawyer.


Soon after this I was ushered into the D.A.'s office  (she was the one who told me they had a lawyer).
She then proceeded to tell me that they would be moving to a plot far out of town within the next two weeks and in order to prevent the case from going before the magistrate she requested that I allow the child to continue with his whipping practice for the next two weeks.


I was adamant that I had had enough and wasn't about to let this happen. She then went out and spoke to the group.  What was said I will never know, but it was decided that the child would do his practice on the open fields far out of town. 


 She did tell me however,  that the child was very angry about this decision and had insisted that he wanted the judge to decide."


It was just as well I dug in my heels because they only moved to their plot four months later.  In any event there was no way I could put up with that noise any longer. My dog and I had had enough.


This story didn't have a happy ending.
About six months later, while visiting my daughter in Johannesburg I received a phone call from a friend to tell me that the boy's father was still doing renovations to their plot when he had a heart attack and died. 

I often still wonder what kind of person that boy has become. He must be over nineteen years old now.  All I can do is pray for him. It may be God has already worked a miracle and the boy has changed his ways.

COME CLOSER TO GOD

  
 Do you ever think about God ? 
   Have you ever hungered for Him?
   Has it ever been your wish to get
   close to Him?


When you are afraid or anxious, do you long for the comfort and  protection only He can give you?

It  may be that you are a  "backslider"  and if so, do you ever ponder the above questions?

Well I have good news for you!
You can get close to Him.  He is waiting for you to make the first move.  He will continue to whisper in your ear and woo you for His Kingdom, but He will never force you. You have to choose.


"I have set before you, life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live." 
Deuteronomy: 30:19  KJV


Whether you have never made the choice or you are a   "backslidden"  Christian makes no difference-  


 "This is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our  Saviour,  Who desires all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth."
1st Timothy 2:4


It is possible for you to know Him on a personal level through belief in the most precious gift that He has bestowed on humankind, the sacrificial death of His Beloved Son, The Lord Jesus Christ. 



"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish, but have everlasting life."
 John 3:16


If Jesus had not risen from the dead there would be no hope for any of us, but He triumphed over sin and death.  He was seen and spoken to by His disciples and also seen by over five hundred other witnesses, after His crucifiction and before His ascension.


His disciples didn't expect Him to rise from the dead - they didn't believe it until they had seen Him for themselves.  They were astonished and Thomas even said "unless I see Him for myself and put my fingers in the nailprints and my hand in His side I will not believe."
John 20:25


These same men devoted their lives to Him, in fact they themselves died as martyrs for their belief. Do you honestly think they would have done this if they had not witnessed the fact of His ressurection?


We are all sinners -  "if we say that we have no sin the truth is not in us."  1st John 1:8


All we have to do is acknowledge that we are sinners, accept that Jesus Christ died and rose again to redeem us from our sins and ask God for His forgiveness.  This is the first and most vital step.  You cannot side-step it.



I recently had a chat with an atheist on the internet and asked him  what he does  about "his sin" His answer was  "I redeem myself."  Well dear friend I have news for you - no-one can redeem himself. No amount of gold, platinum or silver, no amount of good works or deeds can redeem a soul. 


Only God can redeem a sinner  and only because His Son Jesus Christ shed His blood at Calvary. If we could redeem ourselves then tell me why God would allow His Precious, Beloved Son to die in such a cruel way?  Why would He allow Him to die at all?               


Did you know that Jesus did not only die a cruel physical death, but horrendous as that was, by far worse was the fact that He had all the sins, of the world, past, present and future poured out upon His Pure Sinless soul.  No human mind can comprehend how horrific that was. One sin is abhorrent to God and Jesus had trillions upon trillions of this putrid, rotten, despicable mess poured out onto His immaculate soul.


"He is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world."
John 1 :29


Jesus did this for you and for me , don't you think He deserves our obedience to His Will.
We should be so grateful that we worship Him and put Him first in everything we do and say.









  

          "DRAW NEAR TO GOD                           AND HE WILL  DRAW NEAR               TO YOU."   JAMES:4:8

Come closer to God, believe His promises and He will fill your life with and joy.  Your face will shine with His radiance, His peace which passes all understanding will fill your soul,  He will provide for your every need,  He will protect you from all harm, He will guide every step you take, He will comfort you in times of sorrow, He will fill your heart with deep and lasting comfort.

Give Him His rightful place in your life and share His love with the troubled souls around you.

"Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee."   Isaiah:26:3

    

   

BAD SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

  Have you also, at some time, had a bad 
  shopping experience at your pharmacy?

   I recently filled a script for 30 Rythmol 
   tablets. I  didn't open the box right away
   as I still had a few tablets left.  When
   I did open it I was shocked to find 
   that they had only supplied me with 20 tablets.  I had no recourse - I didn't know until it was too late. This is a big loss to me as  10 Rythmol tablets cost R90 and you can only get them on script.   I now  check the contents as soon as I receive my medication.

On another occasion, further back in time, I purchased a jar of Nivea Q10 Plus  night face cream.  At that stage it was priced at R150.  I took it off the shelf, put it in the trolley, paid for it and on arrival at home locked it in a drawer in my wardrobe as I still had some left.  This jar was encased in a perfect box, no scratches, no dents, no signs of damage, just perfect.

When I opened it a few weeks later,  the box was still in the same pristine condition, but when I turned the lid of the jar to open it   I found, to my horror that it  was crushed - not merely cracked but crushed. Needless to say, the contents were unusable as the cream was spiked with crushed glass.  That glass jar was deliberately placed in that perfect box.  There are three different ways to explain why  the jar was in that condition. It could have happened at the factory before or while being packaged, it could have been a curious customer who opened the box dropped the jar onto the floor put it back into the box  and quickly replaced it on the shelf, or otherwise some staff member of the pharmacy was responsible.

Again I had no recourse - again it was too late.  I did send them a letter of complaint but to this day, have not received an answer.  I no longer buy face cream as I do not have time to examine the contents of boxes before I make a purchase.  I personally feel that it is up to the supplier of the goods to ensure that the goods they sell are up to scratch.

On yet another occasion I purchased among other things, a tweezer without a price tag. After paying the bill I realized that it was a lot higher than I had expected and so queried it and found that the tweezer price was over R200 as it was gold tipped. As I do not need gold tipped tweezers I asked for my money back. I was forced to make a scene in order to accomplish this.  They had just taken my cash and now tried to fob a credit note on me.

I am interested to know whether other customers open boxes and turn lids on jars before purchasing them and also whether everyone checks the pills in their packaging immediately they arrive home.  Is it only me that is so foolish?

DID YOU KNOW?

   Did you know that atheists are       recorded in the Bible ?   



   "The fool has said in his heart 'there is no      God.' "   Psalm:14:1


Atheists mock and  laugh at Christians and call us fools for believing in God, but the Bible says they are fools. 

They say that we believe in fairy tales like talking donkeys, Jesus walking on water, and people being raised from the dead. 

It is easy for God to make a donkey talk - He is the One Who made the donkey - so why can't He make it talk?

He is the One who made the sea - so why can't He walk on it?

He created people - so why can't He raise them from the dead?

Nothing is impossible for God to do.  Luke:1:37




      

LIFE AND DEATH ARE IN THE POWER OF THE TONGUE

 Every morning when we wake up, after we have thanked God for another day, we should also remember to ask Him to guide our speech for that day.

We should then watch for His guidance,

and be careful what we say.  It is so easy to point out other people's mistakes be it husband/wife/child or stranger. Some of us even think it is Okay to be confrontational, and say nasty things either directly or behind the victim's

back.

When someone does or says something we do not like, or that is hurtful,  we should think before we speak. Once a word is spoken, we cannot take it back, no matter how sorry we are, the harm is already done. We cannot erase it.  

Proverbs:18:21 says "Life and death are in the power of the tongue."

James:3:8 says  "Even so the  tongue is a little member and boasteth great things; behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth."