“TRUSTY”

Posted on December 16, 2014 by Noelene

“PRESERVING THE PAST SO THAT IT CAN BE ENJOYED IN THE FUTURE”

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Trusty came into our lives in 1995.  I still remember the day my husband came home and told me that, he and his brother, had bought a truck.

IMG-20140223-00349Steve and Tom were still struggling to establish their business and we had very little money.  Certainly none to spare on buying a 1949 truck!  It was, however, one of the best decisions they ever made – Trusty has brought so much joy into all our lives.

She is used for outings.

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For work. 

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For transport to dances.

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For charity causes.

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And just for us to go for rides in and watch the world go slowly by – her speedo goes up to 60mph (Steve reckons its top speed is a modest 35 – 37mph) which gives one ample time to look around!

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All my husband ever wanted to be, from the time he was young, was to be a truck driver just like his dad. His dad strongly suggested he learn a trade instead! (On the magazine covers below his dad is on the first cover and Steve on the second cover – 26 years apart)

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Trusty was built in 1949 in England and in 1950 she was shipped out to the then, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), to be used as a mobile workshop for bridge repairs.  In the 1980’s she was driven by her owner, Bill Sleggs, from Zimbabwe to South Africa and was bought by Tom and Steven in 1995.

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They lovingly restored Trusty.

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 In the words of Bob Tuck, “It’s probably the vehicle’s own history which is more important than its gradual restoration to a cross between a much cherished family runabout and a possible mobile business exhibition vehicle”. 

Tom was tragically killed in a motoring accident in South Africa in  2003 but his memory is always with us, never more so then when we take Trusty out for a drive.

Tom and our daughter Sarah.

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Sarah 16 years later in the back of Trusty.Cape Town-20130412-00634

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven”  Proverbs 3:1

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THE SEEDS WE PLANT

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Noelene

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We need to be mindful of the seeds we plant in our children’s lives.

Mary J. Blige, an international recording artist, once said that when she looks in the mirror, she sometimes sees the damaged soul of her past because of the seeds planted in her head during her childhood.

Simply saying we love our children is not enough; we need to demonstrate our love in practical ways. As flowers need water and sunshine to grow, our children need individualized attention and a caring touch to enable growth to their fullest potential.

I carry significant guilt about a particular sunflower seed incident. Actually, make that two sunflower seeds. When our two oldest daughters were in preschool, they came home one day with sunflower seeds wrapped in cotton wool. They told us they had taken responsibility for the seeds’ eventual growth into thriving plants.

For the most part, they remembered to water the seeds and talk to them daily. I remember walking into the kitchen and finding our oldest daughter engaged in conversation with the seeds at the windowsill where we had put the pieces of cotton wool.

There was a real sense of excitement when the first little green sprouts appeared. Eventually, each sunflower was strong enough to be planted in our garden, so my husband Steven dutifully dug two holes into which we placed the sunflower plants. He erected a small wire fence around each planted area to protect them from being trampled.

What we did not take into account was our dog Jake’s toilet habits. The little plants were growing beautifully until Jake started to lift his leg to dispense his own brand of “watering.” We witnessed what was happening and moved the perimeter of the fence a bit farther away from the plants.

Jake took this as a challenge and became more determined to sprinkle them. It was as if he were in competition with himself to see how far his reach could extend! The acid in his urine ultimately killed our budding sunflowers.

As parents, we should have put a much stronger barrier around our sunflower plants to protect them. Similarly, we need to establish the same boundaries with our children. We need to surround them with a solid physical, emotional, and spiritual fortress of protection during their youth. We need to envelop them with our continual prayers and share how God has blessed us and is at work in our lives.

Furthermore, Solly Ozrovech writes: “If we pray the blessing of the Lord for our children, it must be because we have experienced it as a reality in our lives.”

We must commit to reading the Bible to our children since the Bible declares:“The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11). We must purpose to plant His seed in their hearts when they are young and have fertile soil in their hearts. It is only as they become older that this soil becomes tainted and polluted.

As stated in God’s Word, “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop” (Luke 8:15).

We can strive to instill a good self-image and feelings of worth in our children, along with the assurance that they are loved. However, children are born with their own minds; as they mature, they experience a freedom of choice about which road they desire to travel.

Bearing this in mind—and because of my own parental insecurities—I find comfort in the words a minister once spoke:

“If your children behave badly and make wrong life choices, take heart. Adam and Eve had the perfect father in God and just look at how they rebelled!”

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Extract from God’s Promise for Families

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On the Tenth Day of December . . .

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Noelene

Definitely a ‘must see’ video!
Thank you “Kindness Blog” for sharing.

kristijojedlickipeck's avatarKindness Blog

Compassion Quote With The Moon Shining Through the Trees Photo Credit: Pinterest

Some of the greatest teachers and biggest motivators in my life are the guests at the day shelter for homeless men where I work, and I love to share my experiences with them for a variety of reasons.  I feel an immense responsibility to tell their stories honestly and respectfully to give them a voice among those who often turn a deaf ear to their pleas and to make them visible in a world that often turns a blind eye to them.  It is a daunting task at times, but it is one that I value.

Tonight, I came across a video that caught my attention, and as I watched it, my eyes began to well with tears.  The people in the video remind me of some of the gentlemen I work with, and in this season of giving, I thought that it was perfect to share here:

He Asked…

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GROWING OUT OF HYPOCRISY

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Noelene

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Seven years ago I made a decision, and since then, there has been major spiritual growth in my life (also physical growth judging by the fact that I no longer fit into certain clothes in my cupboard!).

On the 8th December 1991 I was baptized. 1 Peter 3:21 says:  “In baptism we show that we have been saved from death and doom by the resurrection of Christ; not because our bodies are washed clean by the water, but because by being baptized we are turning to God and asking Him to cleanse our hearts from sin”.

My mother had telephoned me to ask if she could attend my baptism service.  She wanted to be there to share the experience with me.  I told her very politely not to bother as I was fine on my own.  She did not  pursue it any further, but I knew I had hurt her and I had done so intentionally. I was still trying to get back at her for the hurts from my childhood.

There was so much anger and un-forgiveness in my heart that my baptism was more an act of self-righteousness and hypocrisy than “dying to sin and living for righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).

Sixteen years after my baptism I was still struggling with a sense of hypocrisy and I was tired of being lukewarm about my faith.  I was tired of confessing one thing with my mouth but doubting God’s Word in my heart; tired of worrying and constantly questioning myself and my faith.
I needed to decide whether or not I was going to do what Psalm 37 instructs:

“Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.  Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him and He will do this:  He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun”

In the book of Matthew, the Lord declares:  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled … Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God”

I longed to have a right relationship with God, a deeper more intimate relationship, a living and growing relationship.
I wanted to see Him in every aspect of my life, so I made the choice to believe Him and committed these words from Romans 3:23-24, to my memory and heart;

“All have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious ideal; yet now God declares us ‘not guilty’ of offending Him if we trust in Jesus Christ, who in His kindness freely takes away our sins”.

I made a conscious decision to remember Psalm 37:23-24, which reads:

The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with His hand”

Every morning when I wake I put my hand into the Father’s hand and ask Him to uphold me for the day.

“May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer”  Psalm 19:14

Extract from “God’s Promise for Families”

BOOK VIDEO

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Kahlil Gibran

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Noelene

peterlangerman's avatarPeter Langerman

In writing this novel, I looked for a person, an author, who seemed to set the right tone for the story that I was trying to tell. Eventually, I read some of the works by Kahlil Gibran and really connected with what he says about love and loss. However, I need permission from the copyright holders of his work to quote from him. I wrote to them yesterday and am hoping to hear from them today.

Gibran’s most famous work is “The Prophet” but he also wrote poignantly about beauty, love and truth in many of his works. Listen to some of what he writes:

Only our spirits can understand beauty, or live and grow with it. It puzzles our minds, we are unable to describe it in words; it is a sensation that our eyes cannot see, derived from both the one who observes and the one who is looked upon. Real…

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LOOKING UP

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Noelene

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There is a Maori proverb that says “Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you”.

“A  friend once told me about a lecture she had attended. The woman giving it worked with mentally-challenged children and told the audience these children never looked up. They either looked straight ahead or down. Due to this limited point of view, they limited their knowledge of the world around them. The lecturer explained how she started conducting an exercise with the children, asking them to lie on the grass outside looking upward.

She said it was an incredible experience to watch their facial expressions change, as some saw clouds for the first time. An aeroplane flew past and they gasped in amazement. A flock of birds flew overhead, and there was joy on their faces. Then the lecturer shared how she taught the children to stand and look upward. It took a long time for them to adjust to looking up. All the delights and beauty of the sky had been theirs from the time they were born; yet, they had never seen it.

This exercise reminded me of how many of us live our lives exactly as these children had lived theirs before being taught to lift their heads up. We are so caught up in our own problems and pain that we fail to look up. Being self-absorbed causes us to miss out on so much of what God wants to give us.

Our heads are bowed down with sin, failure, unforgiveness—the list seems endless. We cannot see the beauty around us because we are looking downward. In Leviticus 26:13 God declares, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.” 

God sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for us so we no longer need be slaves to our sin and negative emotions. Through the forgiveness granted to us by His shed blood, we are free to walk with our head held high. Psalm 3:3 proclaims, “But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.” 

For some, it takes years to change attitudes and outlooks on life. Eventually, just as the lecturer’s children learned to lift their heads up, we can also learn to look outward and upward to see and receive all God’s blessings that He wants to rain down on us.”

Extract from God’s Promise for Families

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BECOMING THE PERSON GOD CREATED US TO BE

Posted on December 5, 2014 by Noelene

DSCN1294One of the deepest desires of my heart is to have an intimate relationship with God.  I long to become the woman God created me to be, living my life in such a way that people see His light and life reflected within me. I want to cultivate such a close relationship with God that the fruit of the spirit is evident in my life.  “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” Galations 5:22-23

I don’t even begin to come close to any of these ‘fruits’ – just ask my family!

I identify fully with Henri Nouwen when he writes:

“God is the one who calls me Beloved, and I have a desire to express to others how I try to become more fully who I already am”.

Too much of my time is taken up with guilt, worry and fear.

I want to be set apart and used by God.  To be able to witness to the people I come in contact with about His great love for us. To be part of the collective “we” spoken about in 2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit”.

Because I am a person, who in the natural, has very little sense of self-worth I need to continue trusting on a daily basis that “God, who began the good work within me will keep right on helping me grow in His grace until His task within me is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns”. Philippians 1:6

“Joy comes from seeing the complete fulfillment of the specific purpose for which I was created”.1
My prayer for each one of us is that we may find our purpose here on earth and that we would grow into the people God created us to be.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could live our lives as follows:

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid into heaven – a glass of wine in one hand, strawberries in the other – body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and shouting, ‘Woo hoo, Lord – what a ride!” (Unknown)

1.  Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

 

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WHY DOESN’T GOD HEAR MY PRAYER?

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Noelene

001 How many times have we asked the following question and heard other people ask the same question: “Why doesn’t God hear my prayer? Why doesn’t He answer me?” Some of our prayer requests may be quite selfish but the majority of our prayer requests are genuine and in line with God’s word. In John 14 Jesus Himself says the following:

“I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it”

He expands on this in John 16 and says:

“Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.  Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete”

 God desires for us to live lives free of sickness.  Free of addictions –  drugs, alcohol, eating disorders. He wants us to live our lives free of fear, worry or anxiety. We know He wants this for us because in Jeremiah 29:11 it clearly states:

“I know the plans I have for you.  Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”.

 God created the human race to glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever.  Sin, however, messed up the plans God had for us in a very big way.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”  Romans 3:23.   “But your iniquities have separated you from your God;  your sins have hidden His face from you” Isaiah 59  

The way we get back into right standing with God is through prayer.  Through communion with God and through reading His holy Word. Oswald Chambers has this to say about prayer:

“We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.  To say that ‘prayer changes things’ is not as close to the truth as saying “prayer changes me and then I change things”.  God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things.  Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature”.

For me prayer is the means through which we get to know God in a deeper sense. I want to share an extract from a letter with you. It is an example of what prayer is and of what real communion with God is. The letter was written by a Methodist minister, Andre le Roux. The letter is dated the 26th May 2010 and he wrote it after he was given the news that despite the chemotherapy treatment he had been undergoing, the cancer in his body was continuing to spread and grow and that he only had a matter of months to live.  This is what he wrote:

“Now, more than ever, we are left with a miracle as the only option for healing.  We hold onto that hope, though will need to find, and own, a new hope too – one that is not dependent on the cancer being taken away, but on being carried through this disease, and if necessary through the valley of the shadow of death.  It is not about what God can do for us, but about who God is to us.  And the God I believe in is not the magic genie god who jumps out of our “prayer lamps” to grant us our 3 wishes (though at times God does that for us).  I believe in a God who is with us in all things: carrying, guiding and challenging.  However, at this time, that picture needs strengthening and deepening in me – it needs a new depth that I have not needed before.  I am determined to find it.  God cannot be the “fix it” only God – that would make a mockery of everything that Jesus stood for. In the end, the incarnation is about God being with us.  I hope to find that in a way that sustains me along this road.  Never having been there before makes it a new journey for me – one that may prove lonely at times, no doubt frustrating and confusing at others, but there will also be the special moments that come from seeing the world through new eyes opened by the discoveries I make along the way.” 

He ends the letter “Still held in Healing love”,  Andre  Andre died on 13th July 2010, 48 days after penning this letter.

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A TEST….

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Noelene

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Pastor and author, John Ortberg, was very good friends with the philosopher Dallas Willard, and he recounts how he phoned him up once when he was in deep despair and said: “Hey Dallas.  My heart is breaking.  I cannot fix this.  I don’t understand it.  I am sadder than I’ve ever been”.

He says there was a long pause.  And then Dallas uttered a single sentence: “This will be a test of your joyful confidence in God”.

Dallas did not say “I am so sorry to hear that” or “I wish there was something I could do to help you” or even “I will pray for you”.  No, he immediately brought it back to God and said “This will be a test of your joyful confidence in God”.

When we are going through trials and tribulations and unanswered prayers we need to remember those words.  “this is a test to our joyful confidence in God”

 “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33

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GIVING THANKS FOR UNANSWERED PRAYER!

Posted on December 1, 2014 by Noelene
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One of the worst times in my life was when I felt that God had let me down by not answering one of my prayers. From as far back as I can remember I had always wanted to be a writer and I finally completed my first book when I was 43 years old. I believed the promise God made to us in Psalm 37 “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him and He will do this”.
One of the main desires of my heart is to write and to share with others what a mighty God we serve.
Someone had prophesied over my life that God would give me the desire of my heart and the verse given to me in confirmation of this prophesy is found in Jeremiah 30:2 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you’”.
I had covered all the bases – I had prayed about the book, someone had confirmed it with a prophesy which was then followed up by a scripture verse and the book itself is very scripturally based. In fact a friend of mine who read the manuscript before I submitted it for publication had this to say “Actually, Noel, it would be a very good book if only it didn’t have so many scripture verses in it!”
I truly believed and had absolute faith that the book would be accepted for publication. I posted it off to three publishers – two of them never bothered to reply and the third one sent me a politely worded rejection letter.
To say I was devastated is an understatement.
I was totally shattered and my faith and trust in God’s faithfulness was shaken. I had believed so strongly that this book would be accepted for publication and my faith had been unwavering! I spent days crying and weeks asking God why my book had been rejected.
After a period of time I started working on the manuscript again. I rewrote quite a few things and added some other things. I also spent a lot of time in prayer and reading the Bible.
Six years later I submitted the book to a partner publisher in America and they accepted it for publication.
I know now that if my book had been accepted first time round it would have been one of the worst things that could have happened to me and my family. I would have taken all the credit and become insufferably proud. I would not have been able to cope with the public speaking that goes hand in hand with having to promote a book. There was still a lot more healing that had to take place in my life and issues from my past that needed to be dealt with before my story was made public. I needed those years to grow in Him, to learn to rely solely on Him and to trust Him in all things. I needed that time to realize that God’s timing is always perfect and that He will not allow anything to happen to us – whether good or bad – until the time is right and He has equipped us to deal with the situation.
I thank God with every fiber of my being that He did not answer that prayer of mine at that time.
John 7:18 says: “He who speaks on his own does so to gain honour for himself, but he who works for the honour of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him”
If God had answered my original prayer and the book had been published when I first submitted it – I would have spoken in my own strength and failed miserably.
In Ezekiel 36 it states “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you”
I needed those years of unanswered prayer to recognize and acknowledge God’s spirit in me and to grow into the new heart that God had given me.
The minister and writer Theodore Cuyler said “I do not believe there is such a thing in the history of God’s eternal kingdom as a right prayer, offered in the right spirit, that remains forever unanswered.”
It took six years for my prayer to be answered and what a blessing that it did take so long.
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