Family Business and The CEO Takeover

Once upon a time there was a Family. The Father of the family was wealthy and had great power. His Family Empire spread far and wide. The family loved the Father and always spent time listening to him. He had many sons, daughters and servants. His three most trusted servants looked after everything. However since it was such a large Family one of the trusted servants of the Father decided to take over. He wanted to be the CEO and felt that he had the right to be in charge. He moved some of the family wealth into his own bank account and took over some of the family businesses. With some of the other servants he placed himself in charge. The family followed this servant who was now CEO. He tried to remove everything that reminded the people of the real Father and the family business.  He made the people work extra hard. He made them so busy they did not have time to look for the real Father or care about the family business. The new CEO led the people into illegal businesses. Stuff the Family business would never have done. Over time people forgot the real Father and what the family business was about. They forgot where the Father lived and how to get to his house and visit him.

The Father was saddened by this. He was sad that family could not find him and visit. He had very little family around for Christmas and Easter.  He was sad that no one came to visit and talk to him anymore.  They were far too busy.  He had his lawyers try to get the money and the companies back from the servant. He had the illegal businesses investigated. He knew he would win but it would take a long time. The Father had a son and decided to send his son to speak to the people. His son should be able to convince the people to work for the family business again. The Son knew the Father and could lead the people back to the family home and the family business if people would listen to him. The more the Son tried to convince the people to go back to the family business the more people resisted.  Some people enjoyed the illegal businesses they were in. Some people had made a lot of money and did not want to lose it. There were some people who wanted to go back to a family business. They knew that it would be better for them. The CEO was upset and got some thugs to ambush the Son and kill him so that people would not follow him back to the family business. The CEO though he had killed the son but had just knocked him unconscious. After three days in intensive care. The Son made his way back to his father so that he could tell his father about the people he had met. The Son had made a list of all the people’s names that belonged in the family business and wanted to be there. He had arranged with the daughter of the Father to lead people back to the family home. All they needed to do was show that they had signed a covenant agreement.

Join the family business I say.....

Cheers

Greg

75 Days

75 days. That's how long it had been since it all started. 75 days of rollercoaster emotions. 75 days of doctors, nurses and hospitals. 75 days in a bed. 75 days of needles and tests. I had had enough. My body could not take it anymore being this human experimentation. The medication was destroying me mentally and physically. 75 days and it was over. The doctors had given up. They had no more medicine or mixes that could fix me. No more specialists. No knowledge or degree could help me. I was going to be a statistic, a young person who died before their time without achieving their goals. There were no more answers, just lots of questions. Where was I going? Would they miss me? Could my life have been better? Did I have time to make it all right? I had hurt so many people. Done so many things I regretted. It was too late to fix it. Too late to find all the people I had hurt and to make it right. As I lay on the hospice bed too weak to do anything except wonder what could have been. I wondered if God existed would he forgive me. Would he even care? I rationalized that it was worth a try. If God existed and he was what everyone had told me then he would forgive me. I closed my eyes to pray. I had not done that since I was a child. “God, if you are there, forgive me”. I felt a tear run down my face. Emotions began to bubble up in me like I had never experienced before. I realized that I had finally let go. I had recognized God.  A hand touched my shoulder. I opened my eyes. A man smiling and full of love sat next to me with his hoodie around his neck. For some strange reason I recognized him. It was Jesus. God had sent him. God must have cared a lot. He said nothing and just smiled. It was infectious. I smiled back. Warmth covered my body and I felt safe. I knew everything was going to be ok. My questions were no longer relevant. I dozed off finally letting go while he sat next to me watching over me.


75 days later I was still alive. I was more than alive. I was completely healed.


Jesus healed many people in the bible, some by their faith, some with forgiveness and some by driving out demons. In whatever way it happened it glorified God. There is no system or formula. The only common ground was God. Believe.


hope you all enjoyed this story i wrote.


Cheers


Be encouraged.


Greg Hay

Jesus Drives a small car.

I was angry. Today was looking like a day from Hell. It was wet, miserable and cold. For the fourth time in my life I was stuck on the side of the road with a flat tyre. What made it worse was that the spare also had a puncture.  It had been disabled for more than three months. I had been telling my husband for weeks about it. That he needed to fix the tyre so that I would not end up in the predicament in which I now found myself. I felt unloved, uncared for, but especially angry. I was soaked to the bone, makeup streaming down my face trying franticly to wave down speeding cars. I must have looked quite a sight.

It was then that I saw a car slow down and pull up in front of my car. It was a small car. Nothing fancy but had new numbers on the back. It looked like it had not even been registered. The figure who stepped out the car was strangely familiar. Not tall or short, just right. He was young. Thirty something with long hair that seemed well kept. He smile seemed warm in this cold weather. He walked up to me and handed me his car keys. He smiled and said “Your Husband needs you to Love him and not be angry”. “Take my car and go to him.” At first I was unsure. Do I trust this stranger? Should I take his car? Do I really want to be with my Husband? What had he meant by the comments that I should love him?  Had he been reading my mind? After some hesitation I grabbed my stuff from my car, took the keys jumped in and took off. As he was leaving I heard him shout “Talk with you tomorrow morning Angel”

When I got home my husband was in tears in the main room. He had been badly beaten.  We had been robbed, our car stolen. He had been held at gunpoint for a long time. The men all dressed in black had threatened to Rape his wife when she came home. He had eventually convinced them that there were no more valuables in the house and that they should leave.  A cold sweat broke out on hearing that word. I realised that I had been spared grievous bodily harm by breaking down on the road. That my husband had suffered alone yet with the terrible fear of me returning to a terrible fate. I was grateful that he had not had the tire fixed. The material losses seemed like nothing. We had our lives and we had each other. We hugged for a long time. I was not angry. Tears streamed down my face. I felt loved again.

I then realised who was in the other car. i though he was familiar. Only Jesus called me Angel. He had saved me in more ways than one. I was very grateful and was going to make a point of speaking to him more than I had ever done before.

With Jesus, all things are possible. Are you open to the possibilities? He created the universe. Everyday day he does miracles. Do we see them? Do we expect them? Live with Jesus and expect the unexpected every day.

Hope u all enjoyed.

Greg

What really happens at a Funeral

The Story begins,

It was a dark day. Rolling clouds covered the sky. The wind blew gently increasing the feeling of cold. The trees had lost their leaves for the season. The building we were in was pleasant yet plain. Nothing made the building stand out. There were no bright colours. The building felt like the weather, Grey sprinkled with some moisture. The pews were hard as rock. No matter what way you sat it felt uncomfortable, yet they were all full. The building held close on three hundred people with ease. The crowd was strangely silent except for the occasional sniff. Everyone wore black. In the front was a long wooden box propped up on a rickity stand with wheels. It was placed near the stage that contained all the music instruments. The lid of the box  was open. The box contained our dear sister. We had all gathered for this sad occasion. She was a stalwart of the Faith. A women who had held it all together. She had made a difference in many people’s lives. This could be seen by the turnout that day. She had prayed, preached, healed the sick, fed many and had left us with so many memories. Why had she gone so early? Had she finished what was required of her? Had she gone to a better place? No one knew the answers. Everyone was feeling lonely and Sad.

Suddenly a figure came in the door. He was dressed well with long well-kept hair. His sandals trotted on the dark carpet almost making it seem like he was gliding. He was not wearing Black and seemed joyful. At first I was surprised but when he got closer I realized who this was. The confident gait gave it away. I could see the leaders in the front tense up. They looked as if they were getting ready for a confrontation. Jesus ignored them. Close behind him was Lazarus. Lazarus had been raised from the dead a few weeks ago in a very similar setting. Was Jesus here to repeat what he had done to Lazarus. Jesus went straight to the box while removing his headphones. He leaned in and kissed Sarah gently on the forehead and said. "You have made it". "I am so proud of you". "My Father has prepared a place for you". Then he turned and in a loud voice said. “Why are you all so Sad”. “Sarah is in a better place, you should all want to be there”. “Celebrate where she has gone.” Then he left just as quickly as he had come.

Rob Bell says God loves us and wants us all in heaven. He is correct. The Sad part to the story is that some people will not make it. People who have tried all sorts of formulas will fail to get there. Sinners and lost people will make it because they know Jesus and have a relationship with him. Let’s all pray that we can be like Sarah and have Jesus love us and be happy with us that we have made it to his kingdom. That’s where I would like to be in the house with many, many rooms. No one let’s strangers in to their house.

Cheers Deep Thinkers

Greg

Use it or Loose It.....seriously

Hey Everyone,


Been a rough week. I have been sick as can be. The Docter patched me up with some antibiotics which was a great help and the first Docter....God was very involved i am sure. I still have an irritating cought though. I had a few people pray for me here and there which is great. Always good to geat Prayer whenever you can and to make a point to pray whenever you can. Have you ever tried to pray for someone you don't get on with? It's a great way to get God's heart on a situation. He will change your attitude towards them. So think for a second of all the people that get you down and bug you.....now write down their names...and pray for them. Let it be God's issue and not yours.


Always had people say to me.....Remember...relationship before issue. I think that's a really good point. We need to not let our gripes get between us all. It's harder when you have to practice that model. I guess that is the next step. First pray for the person and second get together with them and make peace. Something I will be learning this week.


On another side note i have been thinking about the use it or loose it principal. Basically any sportsmen or musician has to keep practicing to be good at what they do. If you don't keep practicing you will get worse at the sport and potentially become really bad at it. The same applies to our physical bodies. If we liedown for a year and then try to walk again. We will have lost the ability and will need to work very hard to get the ability to walk again. The same goes for spiritual gifts. Strictly speaking you won't lose the gift but you will get really bad at it. Same as the person trying to walk again. If we don't practice hearing God regularly, praying regularly, preaching regularly or whatver it is that God has given us as a gift we will get worse and worse at excercising the gift. So be challenged to get ou there with what God has given you and use it. If it's to Preach.....Preach. If it is to prophesy.....Prophesy. If it is to lead...lead. Sounds like Paul writing int he Bible.....But that's what he was getting at. If we all just do what God has called us to do we will be better off.


I guess that's why Doctors have a practice. They need to keep practicing to get better at what they do. I suppose we get to ask the Question of ourselves...Are we Practicing Christians? Do we put into action what we believe. If you believe prayer heals....then why don't you pray when you are sick or pray for others when they are sick?


It's a tough one i know.


Till next time....


Cheers




Greg

Daryl the dog wisperer

Hello All,


wow....sleep. Somethimg we have been missing. The Dog wisperer (Daryl) said throw your shirt in and the dog will sleep......Well Darn it, It worked. The dog slept and therefore we slept. Needless to say it did wake us up with the usual first light alarm. But hey that's better than several alarms during the night. It was great to sleep and sleep well. This of course leads to a very early morning blog for me.


It's been quite a week. I have had several meetings over coffee and food and some interesting subjects have come up. One of the discussions was with some christians who had a general distaste for church as a structure. To the extent that i got the impression that attending church was pointless and futile much to my dismay. Unfortunatly some of the comments would have been correct as Church has it's flaws. It's full of people of course it will not be perfect. Nothing involving people is perfect as we are imperfect. So what's the point? Why go to church? I guess the best answers for me are around the words Support, Covering, Blessing and Family. Church is a place to get suport. Find people who hopefully have similar beliefs to you that you can talk to and help you through the tough times. It's hard to have support from people who have no clue what you are on about and what church is. Second one is covering. This is probably an area the church in general has abused. Covering is about protection. Knowing that there is a group of people who can assist in keeping you safe. Much like a pride of lions or any other group of animals stick together. It's easier to feed and easier to defend yourself. When you are on your own there is a significant more change of starvation and death. Who will rescue you if you fall into a trap? Granted this can be done by a group of christians not necessarily the church as we know it in the form of a sunday morning service. The point being that a sunday morning service is not what church is about. It's a bit more than that. I think church is like Marriage. Commit. Get involved and be a part of it. Don't just do the functions of the marriage. Have relationship with the people. I think that's why Jesus said people wuld know us by our Love.


Another interesting discussion i had was over creation and evolution. I am no scientist but I do know that not all scientists agree on what did or did not happen. Forget the religious side of the argument. I suppose these days it's easier to believe those that have a bigger marketing budget. As i have always said. Don't beliee it just because it's on TV or in a book or in my Blog. Go and do the research. From my side even if evolution was scientifically correct. (Which is hard to believe) It's a significant jump to go from nothing to stuff, then dirt and then man. There are many Lotto's in that equation. Imaging winning the lotto 10 million times in a row. For hat to happen does not take chance. It takes planning and influence. Creation is that significant. It took planning and influence and that's what we call GOD.
The only person who existed at creation was God. I guess as he sole witness to the event we should probably listen to him more than a bunch of people who were not there.


I also had a shock this week to discover my name plasted on some news websites. Kinda weird. I had some work with SPAR and Expand which I did and it seems to have been a big thing. So now we have marketing people using it to get more buisness. It makes sense and yet feels weird searching the web and finding comments from me. Hopefully if people do search they ulimatly end up at the blog and learn something new about me and the God i serve.


Well, that's pretty much it. Keep in mind that it's relationship before issue. So keep your friendships going even if you disagree over certain things and through that relationship help each other to grow. Did you know that Christians should hold each other accountable? Yip it's biblical. I guess you could call it judging. You can't judge non Christians but if a person claims to be a christian they MUST be held accountable by other christians for their actions. Obviously this needs o tbe done in love....Remember...Relationship before issue.


Anyways....Cheers and have a wonderful week.


Greg Hay

Red Bull Will Kill you

It's been quite a week. The Puppy arrived and made an impact on sleeping patterns immediatly. It's been a week of late nights and early mornings punctuated by barking and yelping. Waking at 4am is slowly becoming normal for Michelle.....I am still not a morning person. My body refuses to adjust. To survive during the day I have become accustomed this week to drinking a red bull every morning. This helps me through the day. By mid afternoon when the red bull wears off i am ready for bed......which comes much later. Yesterday i had a nurse shout at me. "Red Bull will give you a Heart Attack". I guess being in the medical profession she must know some things. Which lead me to the title of this blog. Do we really know what most of the stuff we drink or eat does to us. I certainly do not want to die of a heart attack. I was reading this week in the bible about your body being a temple of the holy spirit. So if it is a temple we should probably take a bit more care of it. I guess that's not my strong point.


I also went to a short session by Jeremy Stefano at the church yesterday. He said some quite interesting things that are a bit of a challenge. One was as leaders do we train the people in the church to get close to God and become self sufficient or do we just create a title and job roles for everyone. At the end of the day as leaders our job is to assist people to get closer to God so that the entire body can be prepared for when we become the bride of Christ. He also challenged on the point Jesus raised to his Disciples. Jesus said to them "Who do you say I am?" It's a good point. We often theorise or go through logic to answer the question. The point being in your heart who do you say Jesus is?
It's a kinda important question and your life depends on it. He will be speaking again tonight at the Kloof Combined churches meeting.


All in all an interesting week. I am sure next week will be just as good.


Cheers


IHMS (In His Majesty's Service)


Greg