Tag: Christianity

Starving

Grace by any other name1 Comment

This is one rich verse. So many in society do one or more of these that I shudder for them.

I had a dream two nights ago that I had hired a PI to investigate my husband who I thought was hiring someone to kill me. We were gathering evidence together so we could report him to the police.

But then, the last meeting I overheard, the hired gun asked, “So where does your sister live?” The relief was immediate. And so was the joy that finally he’d seen the light and was getting rid of her. My PI and I kept quiet and allowed his plan to go ahead. (Haha, that was the first time I was evil in a dream.)

Parts of that dream are based on reality. There was a year I contemplated divorce and my greatest joy was in knowing I’d be free of certain relatives who have spread my problems out to the entire family-sending screenshots of my conversation to everyone, mostly people I didn’t even know, and all, people who never texted to ask how I am. Thankfully I wasn’t swearing or calling anyone names. I had actually commented that it seemed what had happened was a family curse because every other male sibling had done the same. But still, sharing my heartache to randoms was evil. So was lying about why I then blocked her and never confided in the person again. I didn’t know about the lies until a relative asked me if it was true because it didn’t seem like me.

Yep, cos it WASN’T!

So yes, there is indeed a relative that is a liar and makes false promises and is a backstabbing gossip. But I would tell him to rather just stop speaking to them and not commit a crime!

Adulterers cause terrible wounds that can’t ever be erased. Oppressors cause pain and suffering. Imagine hiring someone to work till 11 pm at night and only giving them R2000 salary! Many domestic workers and nannies are basically being used as slave labor! God will avenge them too. Same with oppressing the widow and the fatherless instead of caring for them and surrounding them with love and support.

I’ve discussed how xenophobic our country men here are and how the hatred becomes violent. Looting of small shops they’ve worked hard to stock, and even murder are the order of the day, sanctioned by an entire community in many places. The ones who don’t join in, turn a blind eye and don’t report the plans nor the criminals after the attacks have happened.

This scripture is so relevant to us today.

But back to the widows and the orphan. Here in South Africa and I’m sure in many other places, we have people dying from starvation. See, here, we don’t have benefits for the unemployed. They are on their own unless people take their fate into their own hands. Children are dying from starvation, people! Mothers and fathers… People who could give even one boiled egg to the unemployed don’t. If every other poverty stricken but at least employed though poorly paid relative gave their little, it would help! But they don’t. They don’t give even the little they can. And so people are starving to death in my own country.

Years ago, before we got married, (so it was 25 years ago), we decided that we would help our parents if they became poor, and anyone else who we felt was deserving. For the past few years, that has been an unloved orphan and more recently, our daughter’s birth mother. They are our attempt at fixing what is broken. I wish I could give more. It feels such a pitiful offering but to the receiver, it isn’t. And that gives me so much joy. Others have been so entitled that they even ask for tech-for cellphones… What?? Others claimed they wanted to borrow because the situation was urgent. But never repaid-and they WERE employed. The two (plus more) we are helping now have NO employment at all. Zero. And no family coming together to care and sustain.

My husband got a bonus and so we were able to give a bit more than we usually can-just for a few months. Spreading it out and sending it unexpectedly. That’s fun!! The pain of knowing someone is going to bed having eaten nothing the whole day is indescribable. And birth mom also has her daughters and her grandchild to feed too. I’d go crazy with depression! She sends in job applications but nothing. Story of everyone’s life, university educated like our one friend, and not. Yesterday was even more poignant when the other loved one told me that this month and last month, she didn’t have to worry about where food would come from.

The heartache! I can’t get over it. Yes we give but it can’t last a whole month. And that is always my sorrow. The knowledge that she is on the knife edge hurts. And she is one of the many who are suffering in South Africa. They are..and they are just a few out of hundreds of thousands!💔

Please, I beg you. If you know someone’s story and can give even R10, do so! The one family we helped years ago could live on that R10 for a few days at least. Church folk ignored their plight and they would survive on a dry loaf of bread from a R10 they’d borrowed from a flat mate. It can be the difference between survival, and dying of starvation. Your little, God will expand. Please never think it’s too small. To a dying soul, a slice of bread is worth eating. worry not at how little your gift may be. Just give it.

Please, please give if you already don’t. Not to the drunk, not to the addict in your family. To the deserving everywhere and anywhere. To the orphan and the widow. Both sets we give to are orphaned.

Love. Give. Share your orange, your apple, your sandwich. Like Job, search for those who need help and give. Please. 🙏🏾

Your Brother’s Keeper

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I didn’t know I could still be shocked by people till yesterday. There’s a lady who says they are Christian and claims to belong to our denomination, but puts online, videos and photos that are extremely..not what we have learnt. Tight yoga pants, exercise bras, cleavage, close ups, squats. Let me share a photo to illustrate.

I don’t have a single non Adventist friend who posts any photos this naked. They don’t even post photos of themselves at the beach or in the pool! So to see a so-called SDA from my own congregation do it, is jarring. I do not aim to condemn women who walk around in public like this, but I do have to state very clearly that when Adam and Eve walked around in fig leaves, God gave them coats (robes). And modesty is enjoined also in the New Testament. And what will God give us in heaven? Long ROBES. Would she go to church like this? And our church in particular, has been taught that this nakedness is not godly.

So yes, I myself did once say something to the naked lady. I am my sister’s keeper. If I would want to be told when doing wrong so I can be a good influence, then I know God wants me to help my sisters to be a good influence too. But it was about a photo on a different medium to the public one. And it didn’t change anything.

Someone else then took it upon themselves to try upon seeing the public videos and photos and praises to God while in this virtually baked (for us) state. Can you imagine a Muslim sharing video after video in dressed like this? Imagine what her fellow Muslimahs would say! Or think. Or feel. So, in disappointment or shock, or dismay, someone from a different congregation but from our denomination wrote a message privately and part of it appeared on the public platform, shared by the naked lady.

And this is where I lost even more faith in people. I know the lady who wrote the message. If you worship at our congregation, you will all know the lady, because the naked lady shared some message in which the concerned sister stated that they visited our church sometime last year. And there’s only one other person in my world who would ever VOICE their concern. Not our church elders or deacons or deaconesses, but this sister who doesn’t worship with us.

So, this naked sister put up a caption to go with the private message received, which totally broke my heart. Again, I know the lady who wrote to her in concern, asking if she realised that she was naked and not conforming to modest standards she knew our congregation had been taught. I know her. This naked lady doesn’t know her except for having met during that visit, and from MY statuses. And you can be sure that I don’t share any hypocrisy on my statuses. What you see is real. And I’ve spent time with the concerned sister- together physically and texting weekly. I’ve seen another letter she sent. I know her heart. (I’ll share it in the narc family series) I know she truly wants God to be glorified by those who use His name. I know everything, her private struggles against sin.

So for the naked lady to call her “holy” (you can imagine the mocking tone that is meant and accuse her of “judging” (Love how it’s never about caring about one’s salvation. These people are always being judged.🙄) There was rambling about how she is a sinner so it’s ok for her to be naked in public (Huh!? Make that make sense!)

What I hated was that it was put up to defend what we all know is indecent for someone who has joined a congregation in which THIS below, was taught. And the worst thing is that an elder’s wife commented saying they know the person who sent the concerned message. No rebuke, no “Hmm, interesting points.” That in itself says a lot.

I don’t use that platform except to search for info for my children in the groups I’m in, or for AS info. So I hardly go on there. But that doesn’t matter. It’s still very public so this is my public response.

💔

The end.

What if it’s Family?

Grace by any other name2 Comments

I will set my face against anyone who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute themselves by following them, and I will cut them off from their people. Consecrate yourselves and be holy,because I am the Lord your God. Lev 20:6,7

I wish I was an island. Or let me re-start, family is sometimes more trouble than safe space or safe place. I wish I could hide…

I have been and always will be a Christian. I will die with God, even if He takes me way too early (Ie. When my children aren’t able to survive without me.) I have read the Bible, I believe that was prophesied happened (The Roman Church and the Protestant martyrs) and more is yet to come. I believe the prophecies of Isaiah were fulfilled in Jesus. And I believe the saints who go to heaven when He returns are those who keep the commandments of God (Rev 14:12), not those who disobey them. And His commandments are broader than just the literal wording on the two tablets of stone.

I believe, will not doubt and have no interest in debating.

Unfortunately, others don’t seem to get that. How often I’ve sent messages sent by relatives to my dear friend. Messages I did nothing to provoke. I blog about my Christianity. I post about it on my status where these relatives are ABSENT, and have never spoken a word to them about my beliefs because I know how far from God their own take them.

Sadly, my silence seems to mean that I’m open. And because they are older and we are African, it is extremely difficult to tell them to leave me alone just as I have left THEM alone. Or to tell them to stop wasting their time and my space sending me articles on why the Bible isn’t real, telling me to meditate to spiritualistic music that taps into Satan. (Basically.)

Yesterday was one of the dumb ones. Sometimes, I don’t bother reading or listening, but I had been hoping that things had changed, that the aim of communication was NOT to remove my hold from God. I was wrong. And funnily enough, single thing that was meant to change my beliefs only cemented them further!

I don’t want to offend those who believe that the dead communicate with them, so if you do, now is the time to stop reading. Maybe tomorrow I’ll give you a health update.

But wow, it was the dumbest video I’ve ever seen. The speaker was saying we will know who we are by asking some long ago dead people who THEY were. I am bigger than my people’s past. I have choice, I have will, I create my own present and future and I do so with the One Who created those dead guys.

Bloodlines also matter regarding who to marry. Well, the blood of Christ is what matters to me. I don’t care what bloodline someone has if they are evil, immature, rude, aggressive or abusive. I want cultured, kind, and someone in pursuit of holiness. And…I’m already married! So that’s a bit late now anyway!

My choice of career or pastime is to come from what some dead guy liked doing. So, if he was a hunter…? Am I meant to go kill animals now? What about my having agency over who I become? What about freedom to follow my own dreams?

I’ve simplified the points massively. But at the end of it all is this. I will not make the mistake of hoping people have changed their beliefs, no more hoping for the best. I know now that others are heavily steeped in their ancestor worship. I worship God Himself. And I will stick to reading the Bible. I will stick to learning Who HE was, what He liked doing, and emulating HIM, the only One Who knew me before I existed, before those dead guys existed, and loved me anyway.

Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lordyour God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God.

Deut 18:10-14

Digging into the lives of dead people to get guidance for my life is the same as the two scriptures I’ve posted. And that same Bible tells me to stay away from those who work works He does not want. So what do you do if it’s family? Block WhatsApp? Thats how all these beliefs are shared with me. I guess I’ll just not read. And delete as soon as they arrive. I know in Whom I have believed. And He is enough.