Bird's Eye View

The church is the body of Christ. We are his representatives on earth. I find it interesting that we are encouraged in Hebrews to keep going to ‘church’. (Heb 10:25), because church can be pretty hard to go to sometimes (when the church is being church). There’s the cliché saying that church is like a hospital, so the people you find there will not be perfect. My only problem is when the hospital doesn't seem to do any healing, and the people continue in their illnesses. Even death would be better than that. It was so pleasant, so heart-warming, tear-jerking even to be at St. Augustine Evangelical Bible Church again 2 weeks ago. Just being in that building reminded me of what church really was about. They didn't have especially exciting music, or a Charismatic speaker. What they had were smiles. People who ‘knew my name, and were glad that I came’. Genuine people interested in each other’s lives and loving each other. And when I entered that fellowship in 2003, I was a re

Two very good friends of mine are getting married this month (one this morning!), and there’s so so much I want to tell them and encourage them as they start this difficult yet rewarding journey. But they will probably learn most things through trial and error together, which is best anyways. But I still wanted to share some of the important things I’ve learnt so far. 1.       Jesus First Jesus (being God) is the creator of marriage, and he holds all things together (Col 1:15-17). It therefore follows that if you want your marriage to be ‘held together’, then you need Jesus; not just in the marriage, but the centre of the marriage. Sad to say, marriage is temporary. It doesn’t exist in heaven, and we should focus most on storing up treasures that are permanent. The marriage relationship should not be placed over building the Kingdom. A good way to balance this is to understand it as part of Kingdom work, building your spouse and children up in the Lord. 2.       Communic

It's 9:30am. Judah is down for his morning nap. At 9 am, he walked away from where he was playing and tried to climb into my lap. He was tired and I normally put him to sleep by putting him up on my shoulder while sitting in the rocking chair, so it was logical for him to try to get up to me when he was sleepy. Though this isn't the usual thing (I normally chase him down and take him with me to the rocking chair), it isn't surprising. I have a schedule for Judah, but he came up with him. I know his naptime is 9am only because I see him behaving sleepy or, like this morning, he comes to me wanting rest.  He is 14 months old now, and I often wonder if I should keep trying to sleep train him, so that instead of falling asleep in my arms, he'll fall asleep in the crib.  When I was a teenager, imagining what it would be like to be a mother, there were two things I really wanted to experience: feeling a baby kick in my tummy and having a baby fall asleep in my arms.  But

I came across a quote, where someone said Alcoholics Anonymous had replaced church for them. I expected to hear something about hypocrites or money-grabbers, but the reason they gave was that they needed each other. They were dependent on each other. At first, I thought it was silly. In my mind, that's not what church was for. I didn't need anybody at my church. Nobody at my church really needs me. But maybe that's why I didn't get it. When I moved to Barbados, young and in love and in poverty, lol, I needed other people. I didn't want to need them. I wanted to be an independent married woman. I made the decision to get married as a full time worker to a full time worker, so I knew things would be tight. But I thought I could make the little money stretch. Turns out I picked the wrong country for stretching :) So there I was, this big married woman, having to be picked up (no vehicle) with my dirty laundry (no washing machine) to wash my clothes at my mother-in

I’ve just watched this amazing movie (pun intended), and as great as it is, with so many different high points and themes portrayed, the representation of Grace really resonated with me. Spoiler Alert!!! If you haven’t seen the movie yet and you were looking forward to it, you should probably not read on just yet. Grace surrounds three main characters: The paroled prisoner on the run, the priest, and the officer just doing his job. Wolverine (I’ll always see Hugh Jackman in that light…) is enslaved for 19 years for a menial crime. The system is hostile and unjust, victimising the poor. On his release from prison, everyone treats him like he has the plague; mocking him and mistreating him. In response, he becomes hardened. Then the priest steps in and offers him grace. Grace is often described as ‘getting what you don’t deserve’. The priest offers him a place to stay and a meal. But Wolverine is still in his hardened state and does not trust the realness of this free gi

Homosexuality is a sin. (Romans 1: 24-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9). Disobedience to parents is a sin (Romans 1:30). Having that second helping of cake is a sin (Greedy of 1 Cor 6:10). The problem  isn't  homosexuality, the problem is that we don’t understand how serious sin is, so we pick on things that we feel have great consequence to us and our little boxes. So we make a whole lot of noise about HIV and unwanted pregnancies, instead of sin. The world has responded with condoms and abortions. But the stable commitment of living together and before marriage (i.e sin) goes on. Sin  isn't  a big deal because of its consequences to us. Sin is a big deal because is like a drunk beggar spitting into the face of her majesty the Queen. Drunk beggars spit. That’s a given. But the fact that it was her majesty is what makes it such an ignominy! Maybe we don’t really understand who God is, so we try to make the obvious bad behaviour of a drunk seem…bad. All sin is horrid and must be dealt w