The Bandjoun nomad

God has a huge issue who those schemes on how to kill another. Does God encourages slavery by giving laws for them including giving your own daugther to slavery? It seemed a bit harsh and almost unfair that God laws encouraged vengeance and retaliation. The defender of the house is guilty if a thief is killed in his house after sunrise? Does that mean is A thief is required to pay back double for everything stolen It's still our problem if borrowed property gets stolen or damaged. Sexual immorality must be compensated with money. Sexual relations with an animal is worthy of death. Charge no interest between family members. Don't misguide the truth by ignoring and encouraging wickedness Help those who hate you. For God does not accquit the guilty. Remember that you were an alien in Egypt. God wants us to remember and celebrate the times when he delivered us through feasts and good eating. "Destroy other people's gods and worship only me" ...

The way is over. Rato and I got our tickets and we're going to be part of history come October 8th. Bring it on!

The Passover, which in the Jewish religion is part the Three Pilgrimage Festivals , was commanded by God. For at this time God truly showed His power against the Egyptians. For God was very specific on how to remember the passover. Not a once off event, but something to remember forever.... well until another event that God required us to remember which also involve a sacrifice and gift that we didn't ask or expect: The body and blood of our lord Jesus Christ. We remember this time during communion every time we meet. It's worth noting that we should teach the miracles that God has done for us to our children and make them understand how grateful we should be for what he has done. We should say "With a mighty hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt". God decided to let the Israelites go through the desert instead of the Philistine country. It says He did that to prevent them from being completely discouraged and flee back to Egypt where at least they had security...

The very famous story of the Israelites in Egypt. It's amazing to notice that they stayed in the same land (Goshen) that Pharaoh had given to Joseph and his family 400 years earlier.  Moses flees Egypt to Midian after killing an Egyptian guard. He sees the burning bush while being a shepherd. Gets commanded by God to free the slaves from Egypt but he has his reservations. One amazing thing here is that most of us would have said yes and not communicated our fears directly to God but expressed it through rebellion or disobedience. Moses was very aware of his weaknesses. He didn't hide them or pretend they were not there. He asked God for help and He duly answered by providing Aaron to be by his side.  God predicted that because he will harden Pharaoh's heart, his mighty hand will be revealed in all the land.  He even says this is the reason why He raised Pharaoh up. This is another hard teaching that God decides who dies and who lives. It's not for us to...

The story of Joseph is often compared to the story of Jesus. Apart from him, he's only character in the bible that is portrayed with no faults whatsoever. Through hard work and integrity, he becomes friends with the captain of the guard. (It's funny to note that the Apostle Paul was in the same situation, but because of the unveiling of the new covenant, the prison guard's family became Christians.) He continuously gives glory to God for his ability to interpret dreams from the cupbearer and baker and only asks not to be forgotten in return Joseph explains Pharaoh's dream. But what's interesting is that he squeezes in some advice on what to do in order survive the famine. It's unsure if that was direct revelation from God or Joseph's acquiring wisdom from God and coming up with a plan. Nevertheless he's made 'Prime Minister' of Egypt. Israel (Jacob) has come full circle. His misleading ways have become righteous actions  to the point he...

Don't Panic from Parachutes Sitting on the couch and thinking "i need to be more positive about what's going on around me"

The deceitful nature of Jacob takes over again and flees from his father in-law. Only to find out that he struggled for 20 years under his roof. 14 years for his daughters and 6 years for his flock. Even after all this time Laban still says all that Jacob has is his; including his wives and their sons! Through fear and uncertainty, Jacob develops a plan or plans to win his brother Esau over. This shows a faithless heart captivated by fear... But yet his brother embraces him and still he's weary but conscious of God's plan that he should return to the land of his relatives. Jacob wrestles with God. How cool is that? And at the end he praises God for he saw him face to face and was not killed. Joseph tells his dreams to his brothers not once but twice. I know he was young, but surely he should have understood that it was a hostile situation. Or maybe he learned to overlook the harsh words and loved unconditionaly? In contrast to Joseph's story is the story of Judah...

Who would have thought, here I am In Eersterust for funeral on a cold winter morning. Times like these make you understand the power of sacrifice and denying of self (although in another language). May I continue to learn this hard lesson. Paulin kantue

Green eyes from Rush of blood Seeing your first love for the first time and being blown away by God's beauty in front of you.

A miracle happens... Sarah gives birth to a son at the age of 90 and names him Isaac (which means joke or laugh) Abraham plans to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to God. He reasoned that since God have him a son child at 100 years, he might as well do anything! The servant goes out to find a wife for Isaac. This is for me the first sign of evangelism. He stands in a place where people gather, prays specifically on who to meet and waits patiently on God's answer. Amazing! It's really amazing that at Abraham's death, Ismael came back to bury his father eventhough him and his mother were mistreated. Isaac follows his father's footstep by lying through his teeth about his wife. The bible says that Esau caused grief to his parents. No wonder the mother sided with the youngest. I mean they were twins... Now Esau seems like he doesn't know what he wants and marries Ismael's daughter because his wives were causing trouble... Eventhough Jacob had received the...

Warning sign - Rush of Blood This is an outward of exclamation of someone's love. No holding back. the bare truth of someone's heart.

The tower of Babel - Men are their ambitions. Can definitely relate. Abram off to Egypt and hides behind the fact that she's beautiful so calls her 'my sister'. (Only to find out that he wasn't lying after all, they are siblings of not the same mother). Abram needs to rescue Lot from foreign kings and meets the ancient priest of Salem (Jerusalem) Melchizedek and gives him his tithe. God sets up His covenant with Abram by revealing to him his children slavery in Egypt for 400 years. Ishmael is born of Hagar out of Sarai's request and then changes her mind... confused woman Through circumcision, Abram changes into Abraham at the age of 99! He must have been shaking like hell with that axe/knife in his hands! Sodom and Gomorah destroyed by the three visitors although Lot escapes (with a statue of his wife).

Much has been said in this area. In fact, countless believers and non-believers have 'crossed floor' over this issue. But going through the book Genesis, one has to take a stand on what each represents. Creation (God as the creator) has produced in Christianity a culture that tolerates the weak and encourages peace and harmony (with its undesirable consequences). Yet evolution is based on random events of mutation and forward progress but yet where the 'survival of the strongest' promotes competition instead of cooperation. The belief that looking down on the weak and helpless will advance your personal status is a principle that even the most devout Christian struggles with. So to accept a theory, is to accept it's entirety in full. Order of the day: evolution or creation. What will it be?

So in the beginning... God created man in his own image and likeness. The thought of looking 'like' God is a scary one. Him being just like me makes me wonder about alot of things that I do and think and whether God himself would approve. Maybe I'm just seeing the scripture wrong... If I was Cain, will I really kill my own brother? I guess approval from God was much more of bigger deal then than it is now... How much of the world in Noah's time resembles ours today. Has it even changed over the last thousand years? As soon as the flood has receded, Noah made a sacrifice with some of the animals in the ark! But since there was only one pair of each animal, some species became extinct in one swing of a righteous axe!

Trouble from Parachutes. Enough said. Just a brilliant classic

I must first start by saying I've never had the privilege of carrying a Peregrine Falcon. But there's something about this creature that has intrigued me over the years. Besides its deadly high speed chase of its prey, the Peregrine falcon is built like an F-22 Raptor waiting for the command to seek and destroy. Most of you don't know this but I LOVE NATURE. If it wasn't for engineering, I would have been out there in the wild living off honey and grasshoppers (maybe not!). "Whatever is praiseworthy, think of such things". Even the bible recognizes we should praise and admire nature and it's beauty for "in that there's no law". So having said that, and using the zoned-in eyes of my favourite creature the "Peregrine Falcon" I would like to welcome to my first nature post and hopefully everytime I go out, I'll post pictures of my "wild" nature adventures. Let the games begin!!!

I've finally decided after 10 whole years of being in Jesus that it was time for me to become a true student of the Old Testament. I've shied away for Leviticus, Numbers Ezekiel and the like for far too long. It's time to take the bull by its horn. I'll still get my "heart pumping" through Jesus scriptures in the NT but my focus for the next three months (June, July and August) will be to get my head (and heart) around God's word before Jesus. Let's hope I last the journey...