Lockdown 377

Lockdown Day 377 - 7 April 2021

The life cycle of a hurricane has many stages, largely determined by the structure of such a hurricane.

From the outside in, the first structures are the rainbands where tornadoes can form.

Moving to the middle of the hurricane there is an eyewall. This is the part where the worst winds of up to 119km/h and rain happens.

And then, right in the middle of this giant moving spherical storm is the eye. The eye is generally 32-64 km across and  the weather inside is usually calm and sunny with a light breeze of 16-24 km/h.

Such are the storms of life, just when you think the storm has passed you realise you were just in the eye of it. The key is to always have your "gear" ready, keeping your spirit nourished and alert.

And then when it hits, make sure you go for the eye and then go up (hand it all to God) to get out of it safely, just like an eagle does when caught unexpectedly.

This abominable virus has brought all kinds of storms into all of our lives and we have a choice of how we handle them. Know that God has got this and hand over your storms into His hands, no matter their size.

Lockdown Day376

Lockdown Day 376 - 6 April 2021

One of the most difficult things in life is to keep on going when you feel you're stuck. To keep on believing when you don't see the light, to keep on walking with God when you don't feel worthy.

And then, when you've kept on going through whatever it was that made you feel stuck, and you look back over that time (it may be years), you see the golden thread of people in your life placed there to cheer you on, love you, pick you up, rescue you and just be there by your side no matter what.

Some of them came and went, others towed the line with you and others stayed, forming the fence along the road to keep you from losing your way.

The love of my life was everyone, he towed the line with me, he stayed close and protected me, rescued me and loved me. As our walk with God became closer and more intimate, our relationship grew as well.

As with all journeys, ours also had the uphills, floods and battles. But when I look back on the past 39 years together and 34 in marriage, the golden thread has been woven into our lives to form an unbreakable braid nourished by God.

So tonight I am grateful that God brought you into my life. And I thank Him also for the years to come.

https://youtu.be/j10B0eKixRc

#Godsgotthis

Lockdown 375

Lockdown Day 375 - 5 April 2021

Yesterday we celebrated the life we received through the life Christ gave. We had a family dinner, missing everyone in our families that are not with us.

Zooming out of our lives as humans to view our current situations in perspective, the abominable virus really looks small to God in comparison. In perspective, everything on earth is His.

This mere fact raises the question of how the world got everyone to zoom in on such a small thing, causing us all to lose perspective and the world to completely blow this out of proportion.

Although I don't have the answer, I do have God. And every time I find myself in a negative mindset over a little thing, I zoom out and remember He is bigger than all of this.

He is the source of everything, also the joy in my heart when I don't have any reason for it.

One of the characters in The Merry Wives of Windsor of Shakespeare said, “Why, then, the world's mine oyster, which I with sword will open.” Chris Gardner later coined the new phrase, "The world is your oyster, it's up to you to find the pearls."

How true these quotes are. The world is indeed our oyster, but we need to actually believe we can pick it up, open it with a little pressure and force, so we can extract the pearls that are hidden within.

In my own lingo: nothing comes easily, but if you keep on pressing in, you will find your pearl. Your pearl can be joy, hope, love, providence, peace. Your pearl is made just for you from Him because He knows you and what you need the best. Just never ever give up on God. Because He will never ever give up on you. He's got you. And He's got this.

Lockdown 374

Lockdown Day 374 - 4 April 2021

And so the miracle happened. Yeshua rose from the dead and is alive today at the right hand of the Father, where He intercedes for us.

Not only does this mean we, as His children, have received everlasting life, but we will never have to experience being left desolate without hope in complete eternal darkness. He paid that price for us. All He asks is for us to choose to accept it and proclaim He came in the flesh and died on a cross. And that He rose, collecting the keys from death and hades, proclaiming His Kingship over all.

No other 'god' from any other religion can claim to be alive and resurrected after being dead. No other religious writing has been read more than the Bible, because it is the Word, Yeshua Himself, alive and living, sharper than a two edged sword, dividing truth from lies.

So tonight I offer up a prayer for everyone who has accepted Him as saviour for discernment in the times ahead when the enemy will try to deceive by way of resurrecting so-called prophets and false messiahs.

Jesus said in Matthew 24:4b-5, “Take heed that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many."

And in Revelation 17b-18, He said to John, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.  I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. "

He definitely has got this little pandemic. AMEN.

https://youtu.be/1pBeDoSlUnU

Lockdown 373

Lockdown Day 373 - 3 April 2021

Why we still need summer and 30 °C in April is beyond me. Maybe this is a delayed April fool's prank, or a takeover from weather.com. I wonder about global warming fueled by humankind's lack of kindness to the earth it lives from and if global warming wasn't a set-up too.

Of course, having hot flushes doesn't make this heat any easier.😅 I wondered if the earth's axis had something to do with all this, so I did a little research.

I came across a very interesting Nasa article where the earth's axis wobble is compared to a pot of soup on the stove. As the particles move, the soup moves in certain boiling patterns. So the earth wobbles on its axis as mass is distributed in patterns.

Mass on and within Earth is redistributed through changes to land, ice sheets, oceans and mantle flow, affecting the planet's rotation. 

Greenland's ice mass decreased as earth's temperature rose. A total of about 7500 gigatons of Greenland's ice melted into the ocean - this is equal to the weight of more than 20 million ships like the one that was recently stuck in the Suez canal. 👀

Greenland is therefore one of the top continents of mass transference to the oceans, causing sea level to rise and a drift in the spin of the earth's axis. 

So, now we know why it's 30°C in the middle of April in Pretoria. May this inspire us all to do our bit to protect our earth and it's resources. The very earth God gave us to manage.

#Godsgotthis

Lockdown 372

Lockdown Day 372 - 2 April 2021

Good Friday.

And what a good one it was all those years ago when Jesus lost His life for us to live.

But for Him it was the worst ending to a Friday he could have imagined. Although He is God through whom everything was created, He became flesh just like us, except that He was  without sin, crucified for no reason (well the reason was He said He is the Son of God which the high priest called blasphemy).

The life of a person is in the blood. It is said that Jesus lost every drop of blood in His body. John 1: says, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."

When Jesus died, our light went out.

And when He rose, humankind got an opportunity to walk in the light (getting it back) with Him by accepting Him as Saviour. Those who chose Him now walk in the light. Walking in the dark is sadly also the choice of many, so tonight I offer up a prayer for all mankind to see the Light anew.

#Gbwy

#Ggt

Lockdown 371

Lockdown Day 371 - 1 April 2021

Still on the space topic, one of the things I also discovered was a new bubblegum pink planet NASA have found.

This planet called GJ 504b, is about the size of Jupiter, but has several times its mass. It’s actually so far the smallest planet that’s ever been directly imaged with a telescope.

Planets the size of Jupiter appear to be quite common throughout our galaxy – astronomers have discovered many outside of our solar system.

But what’s unusual about this planet is that it’s located about 4.05 billion miles from its star – about 43.5 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. If it were in our own solar system, it would be beyond the orbit of Neptune.

"This is among the hardest planets to explain in a traditional planet-formation framework,” researcher Markus Janson said in a press release. “Its discovery implies that we need to seriously consider alternative formation theories. "

To me, this is God saying, "Gotcha!" How wonderful that the clever people struggle to explain a planet that God has created and according to Isaiah 40:26 has always been there. Maybe it's time to reset perceptions and adopt a heavenly perspective of science.

So on this eve of Good Friday we could think about the Creator of this all and the fact that He decided to give His life so we, a mere speck in the Universe may live.

#Ggt