A Week that will be Shortly Forgotten...

What a rough week in terms of university . Two Midterms and one 500 word essay on The Status of Feminism. Not to mention the 3 labs that were due. All the the long days on top of that pile and to think I'm only getting started. Barely a month in university. Its a jungle out here!
If you had a similar week, click the headbutt game and release your frustration or stress for that matter!
http://www.break.com/games/zidane_head_butt_game.html .
-Lloyd

Beauty in Suffering 2

SWITCHFOOT - Learning to Breathe


This continues my blog on the Beauty of Suffering. The band's name is Switchfoot(My 2nd favourite rock band. If you now me, you probably worked out that Tree 63 is my No1. Local is lekker (for those Candadians readng this entry "lekker" is an Afrikaans word for "nice/good"!Getting sidetrack, anyway moving on...) Switchfoot is a Christian band that hit mainstream in a big way 3 years ago. The beautiful letdown (album produced in 2003) sold more than 2.1 million copies world wide. If your scared to evangelize to your friends, buy them the album and they will find Jesus. They have never been a band about selling records but rather proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in their music. Enjoy the live performance and the song. The words for the song are here below:

Hello, good morning, how ya do?
What makes your rising sun so new?
I could use a fresh beginning too
All of my regrets are nothing new

So this is the way
that I say that I need You
This is the way
This is the way

That I'm learning to breathe
I'm learning to crawl
I'm finding that You and
You alone can break my fall
I'm living again, awake and alive
I'm dying to breathe in these abundant skies

Hello, good morning, how ya been?
Yesterday left my head kicked in
I never thought I could fall like that
Never knew that I could hurt this bad

I'm learning to breathe
I'm learning to crawl
I'm finding that You and
You alone can break my fall
I'm living again, awake and alive
I'm dying to breathe in these abundant skies

So this is the way
that I say that I need You
This is the way
That I say I love You
This is the way
That I say I'm Yours
This is the way
This is the way

-Lloyd

Beauty in Suffering

What a week it has been. In short, it has been rough. I don't even want to think of the challenges next week going to bring. I've had to deal with my short comings as an individual, questions of my suffering. On top of that, university has been loaded to say the least (Anyone know anything about "Feminism" English Essay I have to write)! Thats beside the point. How I'm coping?Just fine on my knees and his words rejoicing that my faith develops perserverance and in perservance it may lead to maturity (James 1:2-4). I bought a Lifehouse Album No Name Face (Last week in fact, only recently have I appreciated the albums beauty). The song was entitled Breathing. Little did I realise the beauty in suffering when we aknowledge our dependency on God.

I'm finding my way back to sanity again
though I don't really know what I'm gonna do when I get there
and take a breath and hold on tight
spin around one more time
and gracefully fall back to the arms of grace


cause I am hanging on every word you say and
even if you don't want to speak tonight that's alright, alright with me
cause I want nothing more than sit outside Heaven's door and listen to you breathing
is where I wanna be yeah

I'm looking past the shadows in my mind into the truth and
I'm trying to identify the voices in my head God which one's you
let me feel one more time what it feels like to feel alive and break
these calluses off of me one more time

cause I am hanging on every word you say and
even if you don't want to speak tonight that's alright, alright with me
cause I want nothing more than sit outside Heaven's door and listen to you breathing
is where I wanna be yeah

I don't want a thing from you
bet you're tired of me waiting for the straps to fall off of your table to the ground
cause I just want to be here now

cause I am hanging on every word you say and
even if you don't want to speak tonight that's alright, alright with me
cause I want nothing more than sit outside Heaven's door and listen to you breathing
is where I wanna be yeah

-Lloyd

"Home is Where the Heart Lies"

For my English course I stumbled on a short story, that definitely turned a new page in my blog. The story is written by well known Canadian author, Margaret Laurence entitled-Where the World Began. She discusses why she loves her home town in lieu of living in other beautiful places of the world. Some Canadians dismiss her home town as "dull, bleak, uninteresting and flat." ( Nows the time you wake up!).

She concludes, "I'm not a very patriotic, in the usual meaning of the word. I cannot say My country right or wrong in any political, social or literary context. But one things is inalterable, for better or worse, for life. This is where my world began. A world which includes the ancestors-both my own and other people's ancestors who became mine. A world which formed me ad continues to do so...A world which gave me my lifework to do, because it was here that I learned the sight of my own eyes."

Before I get to my point, I have a confession. Yes, I had heart touching moment. Yes, I stood by the quote (for most of the day in fact), saying to myself life in Canada is great. My home will always be South Africa.

At first glance I could annotate these three words: Proudly South African. That sentiment, for all its worth holds no value.A song entitled Homesick- by Mercy Me sums up my post for the week:

You're in a better place, I've heard a thousand times
And at least a thousand times I've rejoiced for you
But the reason why I'm broken, the reason why I cry
Is how long must I wait to be with you

I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now

Help me Lord cause I don't understand your ways
The reason why I wonder if I'll ever know
But, even if you showed me, the hurt would be the same
Cause I'm still here so far away from home

I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now

In Christ, there are no goodbye
And in Christ, there is no end
So I'll hold onto Jesus with all that I have
To see you again
To see you again

Our true home is heaven. Under one banner with my Brothers and Sisters in Christ I want to Praise my King. His death has formed my world. His blood was the ransom for many. The sight of Calvary's Cross demands my heart. I guess, "I've never been more homesick than now..."
-Lloyd

Grace in the Old Testament

I've been labouring on the 1st five books of the Old Testament for my own quiet time for some time now. Though it feels like I've been wandering at times in the desert, I've been so amazed to find themes that define the New Testament such as grace, election, judgement etc in the pages of the Old. Deuteronomy also provides a really good summary of the the 1st five books as well as the law. Today was no exception. So I'm on my way to the promised land and I made to Chapter 7 of the book Deuteronomy. A couple of verses (6,7,8):

"For you are a people holy to the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the people on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possesion. The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all people. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and that he redeemed you from the land of slavery..."

Take a look at verse 7, "The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all people," we find that the book of Deutronomy makes it clear that God chose Israel out of pure grace. He did not select them for their impressiveness.

Reading further on in Chapter 9:5 " It is not because of your rightousness or your integrety that you are going in to take possesion of their land. " Here's another reminder Moses issues Israel. That its not because of goodness that they deserve the promised land and reminded later on that it is only because of God who will bring them there on oath he swore to their forefathers. I love verse 9:7 "Understand then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff necked people."(Are we as Christians any different)?

Lastly, the Isrealites are not given the land because of their faithfulness. Read 9: 24, "You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you."

Tying everything up, God chose Israel because he loved them and had made promises to their forefathers. How much different is message of God's grace here in Deuteronomy different to any other New Testament book? Not much, if any. Yet again I've been bowled over with amazement between the links of the Old Testament and the New. After writting this post, it has encouraged me greatly to look deeper in the Old Testament. Why don't you find out about Grace during your quiet time in the New Testament and put the two together? Have fun!
-Lloyd

Just Moved Onto UBC-O Res

So this place will be my new home for the next six months. Looks great. Made a couple friends already. The only kicker is going to be those early morning lectures at 8:00 am. Lovely! I find it really hard to get up morning. So the week ahead should be interesting. Everything moving smooth at the moment. This is just the short honeymoon phase. Once classes begin, let me assure you it going to be different story! -Lloyd