Inspiration from Petra Pierre - Robertson

…I have finished my course…2 Tim 4:7 The Course   I went to bed at 3am.   I knew better. I should have done better. I had a hill to climb the following morning.   Even though it was a short enough walk, my lack of preparation and breaking of the rules would make the journey more arduous than it actually was.   I doubted I would make it to the top.  As we began the ascent, my hiking partner, earbuds in ear, chipped up the hill some distance ahead of me. Hiking partner making good progress! Music Hastily I reached for my phone; music was a good booster.   It drives movement. “If I didn't hear this song I won't make it up the hill 160/beats per minute ,”   another member of the team had   said. It hit me.   If music could do this to a tired body dragging up an arduous hill, think what music can do to the broken spirit, facing what seems to be insurmountable, uphill trials! How much more can songs of praise get you up your hilly terrain?   So put the praise on!   Pump the m...

"Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;" 2 Corinthians 4:9 Compost and Ackee Tree We called it compost.  As far as I was concerned it was a sophisticated name for 'rubbish heap' because that is what it looked like. A mound of dirt on which was cast discarded biodegradable substances: skins of fruits like oranges, lime, grapefruit, watermelon, banana, pommecythere, coconut husk, leaves from the trees in the backyard and the like. They were cast there to biodegrade; a classy word for rotten. The intention was to eventually hire a tractor to remove the ‘unsightly’, albeit eruditely classified mound, so the wall may be repaired and painted, thus making the backyard more aesthetically pleasing. Rubbish Heap (oops I mean Compost) One day, while I was engaging in an uncharacteristic and first time task of raking leaves in the back yard, (a form of exercise to beat the immobility that COVID-19 and quarantine had inflicted), as I proceeded to the ...

“So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. ”  Jeremiah 18:3&4 I started mixing the dough with a spoon. I didn’t want my hands to get messy.   Some use a bread maker to avoid the mess.   But in the absence of a bread maker, there comes a point when you have to place your hand in the sticky ‘mess’. Hand in the sticky mess! As I reluctantly set aside the spoon, placed my hands in the dough, and curled my fingers around the gooey lump in preparation for kneading, the startling analogy struck: as my hands are in the sticky mess, so the Potter’s hands are in the clay .   He moulds us with his hands. He is in our mess moulding, kneading, fashioning and remaking. Fingers curl around gooey mess STICKY SITUATION? Whoever is reading this, regardless of your sticky situation, He has got you. ...

Measuring themselves by themselves "For we dare not … compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise." 2 Corinthians 10:12 A groan escaped my lips at the sight that greeted me after flipping on my indicator and swinging right into the vacant parking spot; the vehicle next to which I was about to park was crooked. The vehicle was parked crooked As I attempted to reverse-park, my vehicle also felt crooked. The way the vehicles were parked next to me, threw me off. Even though I tried to park straight, my car felt out of alignment with the cars between which I was navigating. Look harder at the line, not the vehicle As I pondered my next move it struck me: When the person next to you is crooked you have to look harder at 'line' to ensure you line up right; or you can be inadvertently misled. Next to the person you may appear straight but the...

Philippians 2:4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests... Artwork by Jean-Luc Robertson The aim: Position the random letters provided, into a word which generates the highest possible score, on the tiles provided. Note the following: Each letter is ascribed a value Certain tiles multiply the value as indicated by the following keys: TL = Triple Letter DL = Double Letter TW = Triple Word DW = Double Word The gameboard automatically provides you with seven letters which you are required to combine into words.   Remember positioning is key! Random letters provided The random letters provided by the gameboard were:  L(3)  N(3)  E(3)  I(3)  H(12)  O(3)  K(15) The level required the generation of a four-letter word. K demands to be placed on the Triple Letter Tile K demands to be placed on the Triple Letter tile since he has the highest value - 15 - and therefore will generate the highest individual score.    H, with a value of 12,  recognises the truism of K's assertion...

And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” (1 Corinthians 12:21) "H e gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ". (Ephesians 4:11, 12). " To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability". (Matthew 25:14) DIFFERENT PERSONALITIES Clones Most often people and leaders are only comfortable with clones of themselves. This results in persons being sidelined and labelled because they don't 'perform' to other people's expectations. “With the decades of Leadership he constantly boasted of you would expect that he would know that the inner circle of a leader should comprise of persons with various skills and strengths that you yourself may not possess. A leader cannot be threa...