Trust God … and stop the sun

28 May 2019 28 Comments

by Phindela muses in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Promise

“Do not be afraid of them,” the Lord said to Joshua, “for I have given you victory over them. Not a single one of them will be able to stand up to you.”
Joshua 10:8 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jos.10.8.NLT

Faced with a daunting task of going to rescue a Covenant ally, Israel had to seek assurance from God that He was on their side and that they would overcome.

God came through for them and the commitment of victory was made. Therein starts the story.

The promise had been made that they would be victors but the battle still had to be fought for the promise to come true.

So is life, victory cannot be without a battle. In as much life offers the summit as a prize the mountain must be climbed !

The story continues,

Israel battles the Amorite allies (5 Kings) under the assurance from God and they slaughter the armies with the assistance of a violent hailstorm that killed more of the enemy than what Israel achieved with the sword.

The victory

On the day the Lord gave the Israelites victory over the Amorites, Joshua prayed to the Lord in front of all the people of Israel. He said, “Let the sun stand still over Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Aijalon.”
Joshua 10:12 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jos.10.12.NLT

The battle had to be completed. The enemy had to be routed and darkness was not to be an excuse.

Since God had given the guarantee of a complete rout it was therefore not God who was standing in the way of the 100% rout but the sun that was about to give the enemy allies the advantage of darkness to sleep away and possibly regroup.

The realisation.

It was not God to be called upon to ensure the 100% rout. He had already guaranteed it. It was the sun that was threatening the great victory and Joshua understood it very clear.

It was the impediment that had to shift not the Promise giver.

And he stopped the sun in its tracks, and the moon followed suit and there was a sonar and lunar combo never seen before and the enemy allies had nowhere to hide and they were completely routed !

Life has granted us a template to overcome all odds. But the overcoming is premised on battling on and never giving up on the will to make the difference.

When the sun wants to set on your battle, when it threatens to rain on your parade, do not swear at the promise giver, the promise still stands. STOP THE SUN !!

#iamphindelasson

#brokenbutnotafraid

#prpmisekeeper

#stopthesun

Good day Your Excellency (4) : Of Cakes and Cholera

16 Sep 2018 15 Comments

by Phindela muses in Cholera, ED Mnangagwa, Uncategorized, Zimbabwe Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Good morning Your Excellency. I am made to understand that yesterday was your birthday. May I take this opportunity to wish you well and all the best as you serve the Nation Sir.

With the aged [you say] is wisdom, and with length of days comes understanding.
Job 12:12 AMPC
https://bible.com/bible/8/job.12.12.AMPC

Picture courtesy of https://twitter.com/TrevorNcube/status/1041297127153061888?s=19

I pray that the age you attained will usher you more wisdom and that you will derive more understanding from the length of the days that have been credited to your name.

https://www.chronicle.co.zw/zimbabwe-reloaded-servant-leadership-free-of-corruption-red-tape/

As I went through the archives I came across your commitment to be a listening leader and I appreciate the fact that the mantra of servant leadership has continued beyond the elections rhetoric.

I cut short my birthday writting here Your Excellency Sir.

May I then appeal to you on another matter which I am made to believe you are already seized with : Cholera Sir.

For reasons that I would rather not dwell on now, we find ourselves facing a dilemma of critical proportions with horrific memories assailing people who were affected by the same scourge in 2008. I need not go into details but I only wish to point out that we do not need the grief , pain and scourge of that year Your Excellency.

It will take your hitting the ground running Sir, it will take your marshaling the nation forward Sir, it will take the buck stopping with you to hound this tiger to the horizon and see it over the cliff Sir.

The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones.

Brandon Sanderson, The Alloy of Law

I am afraid the cake has to live to be devoured another day Sir. A vital matter awaits.

Good day Your Excellency Sir. May Zimbabwe see better days.

#iamphindelasson

#stopcholera

#thereformagenda

#brokenbutnotafraid 10

23 Dec 2017 12 Comments

by Phindela muses in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , ,

Moses: From Prince to border jumper.

The princess told the woman, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So she took the baby and nursed him. Later, when the child was old enough, she took him to the king’s daughter, who adopted him as her own son. She said to herself, “I pulled him out of the water, and so I name him Moses.”
Exodus 2:9‭-‬10 GNB
https://bible.com/bible/296/exo.2.9-10.GNB

So Moses grows under the care of his own biological mother who is actually paid a royal stipend for looking after him on behalf of the princess, but that’s a story for another day.

When Moses is grown he is taken into the palace and adopted as the son of the princess and hence technically becomes a prince also and obviously benefits from the royal attributes.

I see him in fine linen, great food, great tutors and a bright future. I see him enjoying a diplomatic protection that saw him venture into Israeli territory without fear.

I am not sure what pulled him towards the Israel settlements but it is there that he committed his first murder.

He killed an Egyptian who was abusing an Israeli and thought he had concealed it. In my book it was a righteous deed as he came to the defence of the weak and he sought to correct an anomaly.

The irony of it is that the people that he was defending are the ones who outed him. When he found some Israelites in contention, he did not intervene with a murderous intent, no, he wanted to make peace among brothers but behold what he got. .

The next day he went back and saw two Hebrew men fighting. He said to the one who was in the wrong, “Why are you beating up a fellow-Hebrew?” The man answered, “Who made you our ruler and judge? Are you going to kill me just as you killed that Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and said to himself, “People have found out what I have done.” When the king heard about what had happened, he tried to have Moses killed, but Moses fled and went to live in the land of Midian.
Exodus 2:13‭-‬16 GNB
https://bible.com/bible/296/exo.2.13-16.GNB

Therewith the story:

  1. Those who seek to change the routine do not depend on creature comforts to drive them. The quest for good is heart centred. Palace or no palace, Moses knew he had to right a wrong.
  2. Routine breakers have to be willing to suffer loss for the greater community to gain. Moses lost the prince status and became a fugitive in the quest to be a peacemaker.
  3. The change of circumstances for routine breakers cannot and must not change the quest to be a #routinebreaker. Moses moved from being a protected person to being a hunted fugitive, wanted dead or alive but this did not deter him from doing good and rescuing Jethro’s daughters despite being a border jumper and illegal immigrant in Sinai.

So, the vocation of a routine breaker is not subject to emotions, status or prevailing circumstances. It is premised from the heart and doesn’t stop until all good is done.

#brokenbutnotafraid

#betheroutinebreaker

#iamphindelasson

#brokenbutnotafraid 9

25 Oct 2017 12 Comments

by Phindela muses in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , ,

#betheroutinebreaker Moses continued…

Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.” Exodus 1:22 ESVhttp://bible.com/59/exo.1.22.ESV

Picture courtesy of bibleatlas.org

So Joseph, another routine breaker whose story is reserved for another day, is dead and the children of Israel are in peril again. They have grown immensely and are now a threat to the Egyptian status quo and all genocide efforts seem not to be yielding the required results. In desperation, the new Pharaoh issues a rabid edict : All newly born Israeli boys are to be fed to the Nile river !! In the edict I read the following :

  1. The Pharaoh knew that while the elder ones could placidly accept being subdued, the younger generation that was being born was not likely to accept this.
  2. The Pharaoh knew that while the old Joseph had died and the current generation was content on living on the Josephian history, he was aware that the Joseph DNA had not died and was likely to arise in the Young Lions.

So the edict came out to root out all people and potential that could arise out and the King believed he had the situation under control. Little did he know…

Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. Exodus 2:1‭-‬9 ESV http://bible.com/59/exo.2.1-9.ESV

Many things happened in the verses above. I will try to break them down.

  1. The journey to Moses being a routine breaker started with his parents especially his mother. The good book says she saw that he was a fine child. I don’t know what she saw as all newly born are shrivelled and not so handsome to me but she started the routine breaker gene.
  2. She made a bold decision not to feed the child to the Nile but to hide him. Routine breakers are fed by initiative. She was not prepared to give birth to a child that was going to be crocodile feed.
  3. When he became too big too hide, I guess his cries were now distinct and passers by could tell it was the bawling of a boy, she took a bold step. To the Nile.
  4. But even as she followed the edict of taking the boy to the Nile she was not prepared to surrender him to be fish food. She sought his survival where other children we being thrown in to die!!!
  5. Because she believed that her son was different Moses lived and can you belive it? Moses’ mother was paid by the Egyptian Government to look after her own son.

The woman believed that her son was going to #betheroutinebreaker and she broke all laws to ensure that. As we live this life we have the responsibility to mentor , build, save and believe in the people that will make the future.

Are you a leader? Stop throwing sons into the Nile.

Are you a parent? Start seeing fineness in your children.

Why…? You are creating the routine breakers who will stop the bleeding and cajole life into nations !!!

#betheroutinebreaker

#iamphindelasson