Book Review of "His Name is Jesus" by Max Lucado

What a lovely book! I was won over at the mention of Lucado’s name! Besides being an aesthetically beautiful book, it is also superbly compiled. The pictures captured me, the words, even though they are excerpts from other books Lucado has written drew me in as I again encountered the birth, life and death of Jesus. This book is captivating to any age. Even my 2-year-old sat quietly with me as we paged through the book and read about Jesus.

This hard cover gift book is beautifully presented. It comes complete with a sturdy slide-in cover to keep it protected. While I know the story of Jesus’ life, I was reminded by this book of how completely human He was. It is easy to read, and is nicely laid out so that one could read it in short pieces or as a devotional. While this is definitely a beautiful coffee table book, it meant far more than I expected to me. It’s a non-threatening journey of Jesus’ life which even skeptics would be tempted to delve into a little. I honestly loved this book and would recommend it as a gift for anyone at any age.

Fruit

A poisonous fruit
A bite, death will follow suit
Too soon words forgot
My lips glazed in sweet rot

Through ages of lives
We stumble with bloodshot eyes
Defeated our souls lay
Given over to death’s decay

Unripe, healing fruit in animal trough
Choked by poison we laugh and scoff
Three; moulded metal key
Ripe fruit hammered back on tree

A healing fruit
A bite, life will follow suit
Soon words recall
From my lips crimson blood sprawl

Me and J. Iscariot

There are two people in the Bible that makes me very uneasy. The first one is Jesus because I want to be like Him. The second is Judas Iscariot because I don’t want to be like him. You see, I look in the mirror and I am supposed to see someone that looks more like Jesus, but instead I see someone who looks more like Iscariot. Poor Judas thought he did the right thing, honestly he thought Jesus was fake and so he did what he thought was best. But me…. I know the Truth, but still I do the wrong thing. I hate the Iscariot in me that shows his face time and time again.

I have broken skin on my knees and bleeding skin on my hands. Oh, how I wish I could say it is from constant prayer, but it is from falling again and again. How many times can one man fall before God does not catch him anymore? Truly His grace is too big to comprehend.

Am I the only Christian that falls, gets up and battles his Iscariots with broken bleeding hands? Am I the only Christian that keeps on pushing forward on a rocky road with bleeding knees? Am I the only one, or are there more of you out there? I can only wonder.

I sit in the dust and it is only Jesus that comes to attend my wounds. I look up and tears stream down my face for He has done it so many times and I fear that this might not be the last. How I hope it is the last, how desperately I hope.

I walk

A random heart with random thoughts;
At worlds end
I prepare to meet a royal friend
This road I walk, I stumble
He orders mountains of steel to crumble

Darkness;
Smothering ink around
Blindness keeps me bound
Pain bleeds through vein
The ‘me’ to blame

Light;
He who’s Name is not to be uttered
Brightness convey order to a life cluttered
Clear radiance shatters bounding chains  
Allows Live through dead veins

Life;
The journey with no end
Eternity with a Friend
Mercy and grace
Commence my heart ablaze

HE;
YHWH

Me;
Breath

The Blame Game

Now here is the odd thing. We go through life blaming a lot of people for our spiritual walk with God. We don’t go to church because someone offended us. We don’t pray anymore, because people in our small group look at us funny after we did not pray this or that, or for this or that person. We don’t listen to sermons in church anymore, because the preacher’s word is boring and dull. We don’t worship, because the music is not right or too loud or self-centred or what not. We don’t talk to God, because we have broken relationships and God does not want to mend it and we become bitter. We backslide, because our eyes were only upon our pastor or spiritual leader that backslid. We make our life phrase that reads: “If that is what a Christian looks like, I don’t want to be one”.

Two Scriptures bother me though. Philippians 2:12 “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” 1 Peter 4:17 “…judgment begins at the house of God…with us…”

You see the thing is that we are responsible for our spiritual lives. We are going to stand in front of God’s judgment seat one day and will be utterly alone. It will be very, very lonely, no one there to blame. No “buts’” or “ifs”, God will look down and ask what YOU did with His Son. This is where it comes down to your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you had a relationship with Christ, He will be there to defend you, if not, well…. Stop blaming the church and everybody else for your spiritual walk and take the responsibility upon yourself like a mature Christian. Use the circumstances that God gave you, no matter how crippling they are, to worship Him.

It's all mine!

It was a hot dry day. I took my my son Seth to the kithen to give him a nice suprise. I pulled out of the freezer a nice ice lolly. He was so happy that he immediately dug into it. I waited a while and then I asked him for a bite. He pulled away and did not want to give me any. It was not that I wanted any, I merely wanted to see if he would share with me. Little did he know, there were three more in the freezer waiting to be eaten.

This incident made me think about our Father’s heart. God gives us so much and He only askes ten percent of that back. Everything He gives us belongs to Him anyway and yet we are so reluctant to to give back to Him. In Micah 3:10 it tells us about giving a tenth. This is the only place in the Word where God allows us to test Him. Have you tested Him to see if He is faithful?

I have heard so many people say:”but tithing is Old Testament, I’m not giving anything anymore”. What a cop-out! The Bible speaks about giving far more than any other subject. If, for arguments sake tithing was only relevant to the Old Testament, we should in actual fact give 100% and not 10%. For the New Testament says in John 3:15 that God gave His all, so we too should give our ALL to Christ.

Let’s give to our Father and experience His Faithfulnes in our lives.

P.S: It is not just money that is talked about here!

7 things you don't know about me

I’ve been tagged by Liesl.  This is how it works:

1.  I love to bind and cover Bibles with leather and wood.  Here is the first one I ever covered.  It is my Bible.

2.  I have always had a fear of drowning in the open ocean.  Floating in the open ocean and not knowing what lies beneath freaks me out.

3. As a child I was afraid of lightning storms, but now am fascinated by it.

4.  I love biltong more than anything (except for my wife and child).

5.  Dipping my hand into a bowl or barrel of fine rocks, balls, grain or anything like that makes me feel like a child again.   I can’t resist it.

6.  I always hoot the horn of my car when driving through a tunnel.  It is a tradition and I have never missed it once in my life.

7.  I’m so time-conscious that I waste time being punctual.