Stanaxe.com

Unless you are really serious about being serious, you are only playing games... This thought came to me in reading 2 Corinthians 5:11-19. It talks about being new creatures in Christ, forgetting what has happened in the past. I can't forget the past - it is past experiences that influences my decisions, knowing what works and doesn't. At the same time I cannot live in it to the extent that it stops me from moving forward. Before I can move forward, I have to seek forgiveness, as well as forgive those that I have wronged or felt they have wronged me. It is easier to forgive than to ask forgiveness. To ask for forgiveness and to be sincere about it, I have to admit I was wrong. Not only to admit that I was wrong, yet to admit it without self-justifying tags attached to it. Efesians 4:31-32, Mark 11:25-26 It would be easier to walk away from the forgiveness issue. As long as I postpone it or ignore it, I will not be able to enter that area where I am relying on His streng...

"This was the unkindest cut." Julius Ceaser act 3. Mark Anthony says these words, he is speaking of Cassius stabbing Julius Ceaser. It was the unkindest cut because of Julius love and trust for Cassius. Child abuse is the unkindest cut of all, because of the love and trust children place in us adults, a love they give freely, and when abused, if they survive their future ruined because of that abuse. Recent cases comes to mind, yesterday 26th Sep: a date has been set for the trial of a man who allegedly raped and murdered 11 yr old Annastacia Wiese, he is also charged of raping a three year old girl. Last month in the first week, a man was sentenced in the Cape high court, for sodomising and murdering six year old Steven Siebert. Other recent cases for this year : 7 yr old Sheldean Human, Pretoria, raped and murdered. February. 11yr old Annastacia Wiese, Cape Town raped and Murdered March. 8 yr old Refiane Ringane Limpopo Province murdered June. 2 yr old Sonja Brown western C...

I have never looked up the word "Prodigal" in the dictionary until today, I didn't have to - I knew what it meant. Everybody knows what it means, everybody who has read or heard the story of the prodigal son, knows what it means. What does it mean to you? To me it always meant simply the one who went away and came back, or went astray ... along these lines. That was the impression that I got the first time that I heard the story, and it never changed, till today. Which means for 50 odd years I have had the wrong impression on something. In itself not important, it is after all only a word. Yet how often don't I make a snap judgement on something, only to find out later how wrong I was, and then go and eat humble pie a la mode. There have been times when I didn't need to eat the pie, as my impressions have been private and personal. However, the revelation of the impression no less humbling personally. Jay was a quiet unassuming guy - didn't say much, pr...

We live in an instant world, to the point where a click on a mouse can direct us in milliseconds to millions of choices. Old favorites will appear on our screens in an instant. Is this instannt gratification carried over into our every day and spiritual lives? Has God become a favorite that we havent used for a long time? When needed he must perform instantly, in the perception that we want a God who is all-knowing and all-powerful to Whom nothing is impossible, yet still control Him, we want to tell Him what to do, when where and how and above all it must be in an instant. There are even secret formulae and mantras, pray like this, chant it like that x times and it will happen in an instant. A close relationship isnt built up in an instant. If you have been hurt in the past by someone, it takes time for that hurt to heal, it takes time to learn to trust again, you spend time together, doing things together because that is what it takes to build friendship and trust. Maybe you have be...

I have read many times, if you save a life you are responsibile for it. What happens when my life is saved? Do I owe a responsibility to that which saved my life? After all said and done, I would not have the same life without the intervention. Some time ago, whilst driving in the Limpopo Province returning from a private game reserve, my better half and I were discussing the changes and development in the province. The promoting of game farms, holiday resorts all highlighting the province's natrual beauty and attrations. In my normal manner I digressed from development to talk about birds. In particular the fascinating habits of weavers. More than 150 different species, three quarters of them prevalent in Africa. Needless to say my discourse was not given scientifically or in textbook style. At the end of my impromptu lesson my better-half told me I really had a gift. I assumed she meant the gift of the gab. Several years ago, I was hitch hiking to Cape Town from Johannesburg. I w...

A silence like a lost soul trapped to ideals and dreams in search of it's whole; with parts lost in life streams, others shackled by chains. Bits strewn in spindrifts and drowned in rains while waiting for the freeing lifts. A silence like a man and wife sitting at breakfast welded together in life, held in a clenched fist what they had to say, they had said too soon. now the empty hours lay tightly closed in a cocoon A silence like a dream stillborn a truth unspoken; emotions fully worn memories the only token of times swept and spent in the wake of yesterdays broom; of hours that had been illspent lay buried in a tomb. Stan