17 Today! Happy Birthday!

Birthday blessings and wishes
 to my special and wonderful sister, Jessica! 

May God richly bless you.

Love you lots!

More Precious Than Gold

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory

 at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

~1PETER 1:7

Why do we come to these troubles? What makes these things come? Why should a Christian ever be perplexed? Why wouldn't not everything just run perfect for a Christian? But it doesn't, and we know it.
And sometimes we have more troubles when we become a Christian than we did when we were sinners. 'Course it is written, "Many is the afflictions of the righteous, but God delivereth him from them all." God promised many afflictions, strange feelings, and strange things that would be beyond our understanding, but it's always done for our good. Just can't understand it, because if we did, then it would not be of faith to us; we would go with an understanding. But we do it, and we have it, and we believe by faith His Word, that it's going to work some good thing for us. If we could grasp that today, on this morning. If we could grasp that all of our troubles... And there's none of us immune from them. And if we could realize that those things are for our good...

It is written in one of the Scriptures in the Bible, that, "Trials are brought upon us, are more precious to us than gold itself, for it is God giving us these trials." After we become His property, our confession, and our baptism, and our promise to walk in life for Him, then every trial that comes upon us is to perfect us for His glory. It's to bring us to a place where God can make Himself more real to us than He was before the trial come.


I want to join in this morning with Job to say that I've lived long enough to know that's the truth. I have seen it in my own life, that every time a great situation rises, that I can't get around it, or under it, or over it, God makes a way, and comes out glorious. I just wonder how His grace ever does it, but He does it.
And remember, in all these things Satan tries to make us nervous, and upset us, to get us to think, "Oh, why did this happen? Why couldn't I have been like this?"....

...It's those crucial hours that press us on to those sacred sands. It was in the Bible. And remember, no matter how great the distress is, Satan cannot take your life until God has finished with you. There is nothing can happen to you unless God permits it. There is no evil can come unless God permits it. And it's for your good He's working that.

~Bro. William M. Branham  - I KNOW 60-0417s

A Step Back In Time

Our family has recently been going through some old photographs with the aim of sorting them out and also scanning many onto the computer. Some of the photos are really old and faded and quite fragile and while we are trying to preserve the originals we thought it would be a good idea to save them onto the computer and also make disc-copies for other members of the family. A short while ago Stephanie Ann did a great post on her blog (World Turn'd Upside Down) about how to preserve old photographs and this has been very helpful.
Anyway, I thought it would be fun to share a few of the photos here. :)

This photograph of my Great-Grandpa William's home in New Zealand was taken more than 100 years ago.

Grandpa William was born in Dunedin on N.Z.'s South Island in 1880. From what we've been told of him, he had a very adventurous nature.

Around the age of 18 years old he voluntarily enlisted in the army and was sent to South Africa as part of the New Zealand contingent to fight for the British in the Anglo-Boer War.

When his war service was over he returned to New Zealand but he had fallen in love with Africa and as soon as he was able he came back to South Africa and here he spent the rest of his life. He helped to construct most of the main dams in South Africa, working mainly as a rigger, so he was usually among the first to arrive at the site where the dam was to be built and amongst the last to leave when it was completed.



An African Rock Python



He was also a hunter and went on many expeditions and safaris. He was an excellent tracker and could "read sign" very well, so much so that he helped the police at times to solve crimes. He was an amature naturalist and artist and had many interests and hobbies.

He remained a bachelor until he met and fell in love with my Great-Grandmother, Frances. He was 18 years older than her. They had a happy marriage and two children were born to them, a girl and a boy. The boy being my Grandpa Edwin (Eddie), my mom's dad. :)

Gr- Granny Frances and Grandpa Eddie as a baby

Photo of Gr-Granny Francis' mother, Great-Great Granny Susan Clara. :)

One of Grandpa William's hobbies was butterfly-collecting and in the photo above he (right) and Grandpa Eddie are looking at some of the collections.

Sadly Jessica and I never got to meet either Grandpa's William or Eddie as they had both passed on by the time we were born. We feel we do know them though through the stories and letters and photographs, of course, that have been passed down to us from our Gran and Mom and other family members. :)

The Word of GOD

Heaven and earth shall pass away,

 but my words shall not pass away.

~MATTHEW 24:35

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:

but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

~ISAIAH 40:8

"All flesh is grass, the breath of God blows upon it whether it's flower, grass, how beautiful, it's withers away; but the Word of our God stands forever," Isaiah 40 was prophesying of the coming of the Messiah, said that. All our creeds, denominational systems, educators, genius, and everything else, will perish, but the Word of God shall remain forever. "Upon this rock I'll build My Church; the gates of hell can't prevail against it."
~Br. W.M. Branham - FALLING.APART.OF.THE.WORLD_ 62-1216

 The Word of God:

Generations follow generations - yet It lives.

Nations rise and fall - yet It lives.

Kings, dictators, presidents come and go - yet It lives.

Torn, condemned, burned - yet It lives.

Hated, despised, cursed - yet It lives.

Doubted, suspected, criticized - yet It lives.

Damned by atheists - yet It lives.

Exaggerated by fanatics - yet It lives.

Misconstrued and mistated - yet It lives.

Ranted and raved about - yet It lives.

It's inspiration denied - yet It lives.

Yet It lives - as a Lamp unto our feet,

Yet It lives - as a Light unto our path,

Yet It lives - as a Standard for childhood,

Yet It lives - as a Guide for youth,

Yet It lives - as an Inspiration for the matured,

Yet It lives - as a Comfort for the aged,

Yet It lives - as Food for the hungry,

Yet It lives - as Water for the thirsty,

Yet It lives - as Rest for the weary,

Yet It lives - as Light for the heathen,

Yet It lives - as Salvation for the sinner,

Yet It lives - as Grace for the Christian.

To know It is to love It,

To love It is to accept It,

To accept It means Life Eternal! 

 ~ Author unknown

Sand, Sea and the Long Road

You may remember that I mentioned in a past post that December in S.A is holiday month. Our family wasn't planning on going away but things changed unexpectedly and we managed to take a short holiday after Christmas and visit some friends down at the coast. Rachel and I were born in Port Elizabeth (P.E.) - a seaside town on the East coast. Some years ago we moved inland but we used to go back to P.E. at least once a year to visit friends and family there. Unfortunately for the last couple of years we weren't able to do that so we were all very excited when we heard that we were going down to P.E. again in December! :) It's a 12 hour drive by car from where we are now living and the countryside changes a lot on the way down. (Sorry the pictures aren't too good - most of them were taken through the car's windscreen and the weather was often overcast and drizzily so the light was bad).

 We've had so much rain this Summer, apparently it's the most rain the country's had in more than 40 years and our normally sunny skies are now almost always cloudy. The Northern part of the country is very green but when you go further down you get the area (in the midle of S.A.) known as the Karoo, and it's semi-desert. Although it's looking "greener" now than it usually does.

 Horse/Donkey carts are still used quite a lot in South Africa, especially in rural areas.

Crossing the Orange River. This river marks the border between the provinces of the Orange Free State and the Northern Cape.

 Crafts (windmills in this picture) are often sold on the side of the road outside the small Karoo towns.

A service station and restplace just off the national road. A place to freshen up, get something to eat and of course, refill the car with petrol. :)

 Picture above and below - Part of the Karoo, known as the Plains of Camdeboo.

Starting to leave the Karoo and entering a mountain pass.

We're getting closer to the coast and the landscape is becoming greener again and soon changes to coastal forest.

 A final mountain pass and then we drop down to the sea!! :D

 I love the sea and it was wonderful being down by it again - I wish we could move back! As you can see from the photos we had almost continuous rainy weather but we didn't let that stop us from enjoying ourselves on the beach. :D

 It was so good to see Danielle again - she is one of our best friends and we got to spend most of our holiday with her. :) The three of us and Danielle's younger brother had lots of fun at the beach...

 ...and in the sea. :)

 The view from the home of friends.

A picture of the same beach but on a clear day.

We had a wonderful time but all too quickly our holiday was over and we had to take the long road back home again. :)

Cute Cubs and a Curious Giraffe

During the recent December holidays we went on a number of outings. One of these was to a small game park where you can have quite a lot of interaction with the animals. Here are a few pictures. :)

 One of the tame and curious Giraffes enjoying a meal off a thorn tree.

 These Aardwolf cubs were in such a playful mood and were chasing each other around and in-and-out of the carrier box until they eventually knocked it over on it's side and both got a fright. :D

 This Spotted Hyena cub was so cute and quite friendly.

 A shy and sweet new-born Giraffe calf. The weather was quite overcast with drizzle now and then so the staff at the Park tried to give the calf a little extra warmth with this specially-made Giraffe baby blanket. :)

We found it amusing that even the Giraffe was curious about the 'game' going on in the Aardwolf cubs' pen! :D

 I don't know why, but lion cubs always pull and play with the bottom of my skirt! lol! It's always fun interacting with the cubs but you have to watch out for teeth and claws - even at this young age they can be very rough.

 This was one cute and very sleepy cub - even when Jess and I both patted him at the same time he hardly stirred.

 When driving through the camps where the adult lions are you have to keep your windows closed and also be careful of stopping near them, especially if you are in a bakkie without a canopy on as they like to jump in the load bay and can do a lot of damage, not to mention that it can be frightening and dangerous too!

Our bakkie has a tonneau cover over the load bay and this young male lion jumped up on the bakkie and started biting the cover. Dad had to pull away very quickly to prevent him doing more damage, but the lion wasn't giving up so easily and he trotted after us for a while before deciding we weren't 'playing along' and gave up. Well, Dad had been wanting to replace the cover with a new one and the rips and tears from claws and teeth forced him to do so right after our visit to the Lion Park. :P

Commune With The Lord

And Jesus answered him,
 saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone,
 but by every word of God.

- LUKE 4:4

 

Now, our bodies need food and drink each day to survive, our physical body. If we don't take food each day and drink, then our body weakens. There's something in us that we must have food. One day's food will not last for the next day. You've got to have food each day to strengthen your mortal being. You can live over, but you're weaker. And the second day, you're still weaker. And the third day, you're getting tremendous weak.

Well, that's what many times that we do in the spiritual realm. You see, each day we've got to commune with Christ. We've got to talk to Him each day. We've got to settle it with Him each day. Paul said, "I die each day. (See?) Each day, I die; yet I live, not me but Christ lives in me." So if your physical body needs food each day and drink each day to survive, your spiritual body needs spiritual Food and communion with the Lord each day to survive. Yes.

Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." So each day we've got to study the Bible. Some people doesn't study It at all. Some picks It up every two or three times a year. But a real, real believer that's really spiritually built up, he reads his Bible every day and talks to the Lord. That's right. He has to. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

Bro. William M. Branham - COMMUNION_ 62-0204