My mother, my pimp...

My mother is my pimp:-) I mean that in the cleanest, 'goodest' way possible! Lol... I say she's my pimp because she "sells" me at every chance! She's so proud of me that she wants all her friends and all her colleagues to meet me... THAT's special and I truly appreciate her for knowing the worst of me and still "flaunting" me.

I've always loved watching fathers love their daughters and this morning I just realised that although I didn't grow up with my dad, my mom has loved me all my life and I truly have been spoilt in that regard.

God's Love for me was amplified and revealed a bit more to me this morning as I thought about how my mom - a human being - loves me. Lord, how You Love me! I bless Your name. I thank You for loving me before I loved You... thank You for loving me so much that You gave Your very best - Your Son, Jesus - just for me. To save me. To redeem me.

"If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good and advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father Who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give good and advantageous things to those who keep on asking Him!" - Matthew 7: 11 (AMP)

I adore You Abba Father

Love Reigns

Sex... the thing I'm expected to view as sin until my wedding night when it transforms to 'a beautiful thing'

I recently read a blog on "Sex and the Christian woman". Brilliantly written from the perpective of a virgin Christian woman who admits to thinking about sex.

I've wanted so much to pen smething on this topic and like her, have deleted - changed titles and shelved it... That is, until I read her piece.

I found it to be a beautifully written piece! Frank... Truthful... Sincere... It definitely 'hit the spot';-)

I was telling an older male colleague just yesterday about how difficult it is to be a beautiful, young single Christian woman (yes, I AM aware I'm beautiful!).

It doesn't help when, unlike the writer, you have experienced the 'sinful pleasure' of premarital sex before finally giving in to Christ's Love and deciding to pursue holiness and purity until marriage. Yes, I'm madly inlove with my Jesus and yes, I have moments when I have to fight off the insane cravings my body has! It doesn't help when you're pursued by (dare I say) hot, young (and old), good-looking men every other day while all the eligible Christian brothers steer clear and give you side hugs while they continue 'seeing (wo)men as trees'!

I know I could secretely engage in habitual sexual sin and I know I could just stop fighting my body's desires and give in but I choose to pursue purity in Christ while I wait to be 'found' by hubby dearest! It's really tough being a single Christian woman when it comes to sex... I'm not supposed to think about it, see? Nevermind want it!

I'm supposed to shy away from 'married women conversation' at Christian sisters' bridal showers when what I really want to do is also wear that sexy nightdress she's just been bought 'for the wedding night' and 'teach her a thing or two' in preparation for her 'Big Night' - yes, I said it...

I'm blood-washed, converted, sanctified, redeemed, ransomed, the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and I revell in the love my God has for me and I crave to see all people's eyes unveiled to the gift of salvation but yes, sex features in my thoughts more times than I care to admit or I'm allowed to admit!

So, in the mean time, while God's perfect plan for my life unfolds... I pray and wait...

What is this thing called love?

Yesterday evening I was praying for wisdom on how to handle a situation that needed me to make a decision that would affect someone else's well-being. I know that's a bit vague but anywho... this blog is the reply I received as a reply to my prayer:

---

"We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother." - John 4:19-21

"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." - John 13:35

---

NANDI: Okay Lord, I hear that. So, all men will not know that I'm Your disciple by how many scriptures I can quote or how many hours I spend in church? Or how "good" [read: self-righteous] I am? ... Okay, that seems pretty simple. But, what is Love?

---

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away...

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." - 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8, 13

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.

We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in Him and He in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement, because in this world we are like Him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.

The one who fears is not made perfect in love." - 1 John 4:7-18

---

NANDI: That's a mouthful Lord but I hear You LOUD AND CLEAR:-) Thank You for loving me enough to patiently repeat lessons You've taught me before. You really ARE LOVE.

Love Reigns

Are you persuaded?

I have a friend who calls himself a "spiritual atheist" and he recently sent me an article to share with me what it is that he believes in, in his words this article "encapsulates my thinking".

Our friendship is an interesting one in that he does not believe in God (or so he says) and I think he is lost but we both show eachother immense respect. Talking to him over the years has pushed me to think more about my beliefs and what it means to be a Christ-follower. This has been vital in allowing me the opportunity to say, as the Apostle Paul first did in his letter to the Romans, "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel (good news) of Christ, for it is God's power working unto salvation [for deliverance from eternal death] to everyone who believes with a personal trust and a confident surrender and firm reliance, to the Jew first and also to the Greek".

I am also grateful for a spiritual home where the unadulterated Word of God is taught. Practical Christian living has been a reality for me because of the teachings that I've received and because of the hunger that I have to know more of what it means to follow Christ.

Christian... Believer, know your story. Know why you believe in God and in Jesus Christ. I'm not saying you should entertain every argument and fight about religion (because I believe these are hardly about God anyway!) but KNOW WHY YOU BELIEVE. Know what it is that you received at salvation. You are regenerated. You carry a divine nature. It's not just about "being good". Did deep in your faith. Let us grow up and stop being shallow in the faith.

Again Paul writes in 2 Timothy 1:12, "... Still I am not ashamed, for I know (perceive, have knowledge of, and am acquainted with) Him Whom I have believed (adhered to and trusted in and relied on), and I am [positively] persuaded that He is able to guard and keep that which has been entrusted to me and which I have committed [to Him] until that day.".

I exhort you, as Paul did to his disciple Timothy, "Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth."

Let (allow) Love to Reign (take over, rule, have eminence) in you and through you.

Your heart is a garden, tend to it

This morning I woke up and went to do some work in my vegetable garden and as I was working, some thoughts came to me:

Our hearts are like gardens. What grows there are plants that we have sown as well as weeds. It is up to us to regularly tend to our gardens so that the flowers may blossom and the the food-bearing plants may have some food. As I was working I realised that some of the weeds looked pretty and one could easily mistake them for plants. Diligence and discernment is needed as we daily tend the gardens of our hearts. I also realised how easy it was this morning to do the weeding because the ground was moist. So, as you daily work on your heart, soak in the Word of God; allow the Holy Spirit to have a go at you - pointing out what weeds are in your garden and as I broke out into a sweat I realised that it's all work, but it's worth it.

In Proverbs 4 we are admonished to "Guard your hearts with all vigilance...", again in 1 Thessalonians 5, "...let us watch and be sober...". In 1 Peter 5 the word of God instructs us, "Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour. Withstand him; be firm in faith [against his onset--rooted, established, strong, immovable, and determined], knowing that the same (identical) sufferings are appointed to your brotherhood (the whole body of Christians) throughout the world."

Let Love Reign♥

Some truths I've learnt...

There are a couple of lies that I once believed. I once believed that God wouldn't forgive me for my sins and that He could never Love me (despite knowing the lyrics to the song they drilled in me in Sunday School - "Jesus loves me"). I believed that such a holy God would not want me anywhere near Him. I believed that I would never be healed. I believed that I was too weak to overcome temptation. That was when I didn't know any better!


I praise God that I know the truth. I "flipped to the end of the Book and found out that we win!". I learned that His blood washes me white as snow and that He removes my sins from me as far as the east is from the west. I found out that when I accept Him as my Master, He embraces me; cleans me and clothes me with His righteousness.

I found out that He loves me with an everlasting Love! I found out that He knew me before I was ever formed in my mother's womb and that He chose me before the beginning of time to do good works (even though He knew just how wicked I could be!).

I discovered the sweet truth that He died so that the wages of my sin would be His death and I would have eternal life just by believing and confessing that He died for me!

I learnt the sweet truth that by His stripes I was healed (even when the healing doesn't manifest to my senses as quickly as I'd like).

I learnt that I do have the power against temptation, that He has made a way for me to escape. I found out that even when I fall and give in, He still gives me another chance to stand.

That is some of the truth that I have learnt and my life has never been the same!

Love Reigns in me and through me♥

About turning 30...

While I was home during the December break I started really thinking about my turning 30 years old in March 2013.

So as this year (2012) begins, I've been thinking so much about purpose and about the future.

I believe that God has a plan for each person alive on earth today and that each of us needs to find out what that is and spend the rest of our lives living that purpose. This line of thinking also took me back to when I was a child and I've been trying to remember what I always wanted to be; what I dreamed I'd become and what I really enjoyed doing. I've decided that this year is the year that I find out what my purpose is (yes, I'm a 28-turning-29 year old who doesn't know her life's purpose!).

I believe that finding this purpose and living it out will cause so many other pieces of my life's puzzle to fall into place so, I'm really excited about the journey I'm on.

I'm praying about it; asking God to reveal to me what He had in mind when He fashioned me in my mother's womb and I've also sought the services of a Christian life coach. When I turn 30 I want to be a new, better me. Afterall, I am a new creation in Christ Jesus so it's now time to leave behind old habits, limiting thoughts, and to walk into the glorious future that God has in store for me.

I woke up one of the days this week with a distinct feeling of hope warming me up and I was so grateful. I know what it's like to wake up with feelings of despair and honestly just not knowing what tomorrow holds. I still don't know what tomorrow holds but I think the biggest difference now is that I have such confidence in God's plan for my life that I've rested in His love and His perfect plan for me. One of the scriptures that carried me into 2012 is Psalm 31: 14, 15, "But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hand..."


30! Bring it on:)

Communicate your thoughts

Man, if only we communicated as well as Jesus did. Really!

I was reading from John 14 and I just love how Jesus never left you guessing about His intentions or what His thoughts were on anything. He was an excellent communicator. Ofcourse there are many instances that we could look at to illustrate this but let's just look at this one.

He starts of by saying, "Let not your heart be troubled..." - here He's addressing the emotions that He knows His hearers must be feeling, not just delivering a message and not addressing the emotions.

He then tells them of His plan, not assuming that they know already, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

So often we assume that people know what we're thinking or what we planning to do and so we neglect to tell them explicitly. Now this is what I liked the most about what He said, "... if it were not so, I would have told you...". Now that's a man who's word is bond, hey? He says trust what I say and if I don't say it then it isn't so.
 
Jesus is a great example of how we should communicate with those around us, especially those we love. State your thoughts/ plans clearly - don't assume people know what's on your mind. Also be sensitive to the emotions that your thought/ plans might evoke in them and address them.
 
Remember that what you say might not necessarily be what the hearer hears because we all have different processors and filters on our minds but leave as little chance as possible to your message being "lost in translation" by communicating better in the first place.
 
As you can probably pick up, I'm venting from a misunderstanding that led to a communication breakdown.
 
Thank you for lending me your "ears".


Another lesson learnt:-)