Among the Watering Places with Liz

A Location Church in South Africa 'The life of Jesus lived out in the life of His people - that is what perfect moral righteousness is. It is a life of integrity. It is a life governed by truth and honesty. It is a life committed to godliness. It is a life set free from selfish ambition and vested interests. It is a life liberated from the defilment of self-righteousness.' '...self-confidence and self-condemnation are both 'legal' deceptions of the flesh; obstructions which clog the fountain of God-life in us.' Ivor Hopkins, "Restore", June 1986

Daily Creed by John Grey Let me be a little kinder, Let me be a little blinder To the faults of those about me, Let me praise a little more. Let me be, when I am weary, Just a little bit more cheery; Let me serve a little better The God we would adore. Let me be a little meeker With the brother who is weaker; Let me strive a little harder To be all that I should be. Let me be more Understanding, And a little less demanding, Let me be the sort of friend That You have always been to me.

The story of a wonderful Christian man called Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, is told in the New Testament Book of Acts. Once Joseph had become a follower of 'The Way', his behaviour and attitude to life touched other believers at the very centre of their faith life. It seems he had a precious ability in the way he spoke about Jesus to make people forget their petty differences and troubles and those with big problems saw a ray of hope. The words Joseph spoke ministered 'grace' to the hearers - they were built up in their faith and spiritually refreshed. If you don't remember ever having read about Joseph before, that may be because his special talent for blessing others so impressed the Apostles that they gave him a nickname by which he was commonly called - Barnabas. It means 'Son of Encouragement' (Acts 4:36). Have you ever bemoaned the fact that you have no obvious ministry? Did it ever occur to you that you too, could be a 'Barnabas'? Barnaba...

This is Lily, a beautiful lady my sister Patsy and I met in Gulu, July 2008. She roasted us fresh groundnuts (known as gee-nuts in Uganda; they kept asking us 'Why do you call them pee-nuts?') Lily brought the nuts to the guest house where were stayed for two nights, for our breakfast - only to find we had already left for the day. She was very sharp and followed the tracks left in the muddy road by the 4x4 to the part of the village where we had gone. Yep! She found us! What a precious soul! Love must be cultivated and nurtured daily. It is nourished on tolerance and thoughtfulness, flourishing on common courtesies and mutual respect. Kindness is love in little things. And small things can make life grey or glorious, because life is largely made up of little things. Elizabeth Rowlands Charismatic Contact

Steaming green bananas for the children in the orphanage, Uganda, July 2008 'And Jehoshophat said to the King of Israel, "Please inquire for the word of the Lord today".' (1 Kgs 22:5) God speaks to us - to encourage, chasten or to teach - every day, if we are willing to listen. He has fresh bread for 'today', never the stale left-overs of yesterday. We can do more than simply acquire knowledge by understanding the message, and the Lord teaches in a gentle way - precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little. He is aware of our human frailties and unwillingness or perhaps sheer inability to take a diet of strong meat (see Isa 28: 9-10). As our Joshua leads us into our own 'Promised Land' in the spiritual sense, to possess our inheritance and to wage war against the enemy, He does so with the same careful planning revealed to Joshua son of Nun. The enemy was not driven out in one year, lest the land become desolate. 'Little by l...

Mpumalanga, South Africa, 2008 Look to this day, For it is the very life of life. In its brief course lies all the verities and realities of your existence. The glory of action, The bliss of growth, The splendour of beauty; For yesterday is but a dream And tomorrow is only a vision But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of Happiness, And every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day.

Billboard I saw in Gulu, Uganda, 2008 "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Matt. 6:28-29 Today is really all we have, but it is ours to use or abuse, to cherish or to waste, just as we choose. How we work with what is essentially the raw material of life will be governed by our attitudes and personal hang-ups. We may see a day as only a pebble in the ocean of a life-time, or we can look at it as though it were a rock in the foundation of, for example, a Sydney Opera House, a cathedral, even a family home or perhaps a lighthouse... It is easy to be overwhelmed by the thought of how fleeting each day is and often, how little is achieved. The trick is to see the small in its place as part of the large; the single stitch as part of the warp and woof of the finished article, each colour charefully chosen, blended, harmonised. It doesn't do to ...

Fabulous! Masterful writing. Brilliant linking of themes and subplots with all roads leading to 'Rome' - in this case, answering the question "Who is Bettina?" So clever, I could readily visualise each chapter as an episode in a TV mini series. This is Australian non-fiction at its best. The characters were well drawn and the author did not spare her mother, Bettina, quoting her as saying "I was always impossible." By the end of the book I felt some understanding of why she was like this, therefore also gained some sympathy for her. She was certainly loved by her husband and kids, which softened the edges of the portrait of her. Anyway, all horsey people are eccentric, but Bettina was also very, very interesting! As the daughter in the story, Phyllis must have found it difficult to keep a balance in the portrayal of herself, but I felt she managed well. She did so by contrasting her own love for order as opposed to Bettina's seemingly 'misman...

The primary meaning of the word 'soliloquy' (n) is the act of talking when alone or regardless of any hearers, especially in drama. ( Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary ) Mmmm! Does that make me a 'drama queen' or a 'soliloquist'? No matter. I first came across the word in my early twenties when I read The Confessions of St. Augustine . He described his writings as soliloquies and he wrote screeds! This either meant he was lonely - or - he was alone a lot because he was given to monopolising proceedings by voicing his opinion unceasingly. Sorry Augie. That finger of accusation might be turned on me one day, so I had best take care.