Saturday, 12 September 2020
Sunday, 23 August 2020
Sunday, 16 August 2020
Wednesday, 1 July 2020
Thursday, 11 June 2020
Monday, 18 May 2020
Taking a leap of faith
Indeed 2020 seem to be a year of many challenges and new territories to be explored and discovered for all of us. It is no different in Free2Celebrate-land. I initially thought free2celebrate are going to be on a sabbatical for this year because I had no idea how to even make the move in my head from group-relationship-dynamic focused training to online training, while still retaining the basics of what is precious to us at free2celebrate. I think the gap initially just seemed to big to risk making the leap.
However, God obviously had other plans because He did not wait for me to make the decision to take the leap of faith. He just threw me into the deep end with an Online- Zoom-Free2bme for a group in Canada! So I jumped, with the more than persistent encouragement of my friends in Canada and we hosted a weekend free2bme seminar, with very positive feedback from the attendees.
When some of our South African friends heard we managed to host an online weekend in Canada they were very exited about the prospects and once again with some more encouragement from the South African group I jumped again - this time into a 9 day x 2 hours a day free2bme seminar. We are currently still busy with this seminar.
So this post is to inform you that we are taking another the leap of faith to invite you to join us on an online-zoom-free2bme seminar with a group of friends from Middelburg Eastern Cape the weekend of 5-7 June 2020.
Hope to see you there in these interesting times filled with new challenges but also filled with a myriad of new blessings.
Should you want to book a seminar in a different format or time slot for your group of friends or cell group do not hesitate to contact us we have the flexibility at the moment to tailor make the times and format to suit your needs.
Lots of Love
Gerda
Thursday, 19 March 2020
Prisoners of hope
Photo used by permission:
© 2017 Karien Le Roux Photography
A few weeks ago, we had a face to face weekend in Struisbaai, as I was sharing on Zech 9 I had one of those moments where I could hear myself say things that I have never said before. This prompted a new journey of discovery and many a late-night discussion with my friend Annelie, sharing revelation as it was dawning on us. However, I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit that this was a word for the wider body of Christ and therefore I share it with you. Two weeks ago I posted this on facebook and on the Alive2Shine @Work blog that I use for our Monday devotions at work. I could not even imagine how relevant this word would become just one week later when our president declared a state of disaster in our country. I share this with you as I believe it’s a very timeous message for the day and age we live in. Monday I started with a series of messages for our Monday devotions called "People of hope", the first being Hagar. Should you want to follow this you can find it here: https://alive2shine.blogspot.com/
Zech 9 starts off with the Word of the Lord for several nations, but the one who caught my attention is Tyre, in vs 3 it says:
3 And Tyre has built herself a stronghold [on an island a half mile from the shore, which seems impregnable], and heaped up silver like dust and fine gold like the mire of the streets.
4 Behold, the Lord will cast her out and dispossess her; He will smite her power in the sea and into it and [Tyre] shall be devoured by fire.
The word stronghold caught my attention, usually we associate it with the enemy that has entrenched itself in some way and indeed in this verse it once again refers to the city building itself a stronghold to guard her treasures. It’s a stronghold build out of fear and out of a need to self-protect earthy treasures. Do we not do exactly that when we fear or when we are hurt or disappointed? We build a stronghold around ourselves to protect what we perceive as valuable and sometimes our so-called treasures are our vulnerabilities, disappointments, hopelessness and hurts. We create what we think is a safe space for ourselves on an island, separated and isolated from mainland. However, in vs 4 the Lord tells us how He deals with these self-made strongholds of ours.
4 Behold, the Lord will cast her out and dispossess her; He will smite her power in the sea and into it and [Tyre] shall be devoured by fire.
In His grace He does not allow us to entrench ourselves, shield ourselves thinking we can and should guard our own cities and treasures.
But then our Father present us with a precious display of His character in vs 8-12.
8 Then I will encamp about My house as a guard or a garrison so that none shall march back and forth, and no oppressor or demanding collector shall again overrun them, for now My eyes are upon them.
The picture He gives us is one of Himself encamping around His house. He guards it, He is a garrison around His house, and HE will not allow any unwelcome guests march back and forth, and no oppressor or demanding collector to overrun us! He promises to keep His eyes upon us, He watches over us.
10 And I will cut off and exterminate the war chariot from Ephraim and the [war] horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off; and He shall speak the word and peace shall come to the nations, and His dominion shall be from the [Mediterranean] Sea to [any other] sea, and from the River [Euphrates] to the ends of the earth!
Not only does He protect. He goes further than that. He fights against the enemy for us – on our Behalf. He says He will cut off and exterminate the war horse and chariot that comes against us and cut off the battle bow. He shall speak the word and peace shall come to us and our nation and He will reign in His Kingdom to the ends of the earth.
11 As for you also, because of and for the sake of the [covenant of the Lord with His people, which was sealed with sprinkled] covenant blood, I have released and sent forth your imprisoned people out of the waterless pit.
One would think all this to be enough, but Father has even more for us. He makes sure that you and I hear, yes really hear that these promises are not only for Israel or the Old Testament people. He starts the next sentence with “For you also.” You see we so often read through the Old Testament and think that God’s promises have been for a people long gone or it meant for a nation other than ours, meant for Israel, or maybe it’s meant for my neighbour. But God wants you to know that it is for “you also”.
He then proceeds to tell us why He does it all. Because of His Covenant! When God made covenant with us, He knew that we would not be able to enter a promise of any sort with Him because we would break those promises on day one. That does not change God’s character though – He does all this for us because of the covenant He decided to cut with us although He knew we would be unfaithful to that covenant. He honours that covenant although we have broken that covenant numerous times. He sets us free and bring us out of the waterless pit. He brings us out of the dry places that we are imprisoned in and releases us from there – for the sake of His covenant with us. He is a covenant-keeping God. He keeps His Word no matter what.
12 Return to the stronghold [of security and prosperity], you prisoners of hope; even today do I declare that I will restore double your former prosperity to you.
Then comes an amazing invitation – He invites us with open arms to return to HIS STRONGHOLD. Our Father is a stronghold of security and safety for us! There is a righteous stronghold, not one that we build on our own for our own self preserving purposes, not the enemy’s prison, but a stronghold of God, in God, where we are prisoners of hope. If we dwell on this for a moment, what does it mean to be a prisoner of hope? Well it certainly means that we cannot be without hope, that we cannot do anything else but hope. It’s a place where hopelessness does not exist. It’s a hope in things not seen, it’s an eternal hope that never ceases. Its hope against all odds, in all circumstances irrespective of what life looks like in the natural. Its hope beyond our natural abilities. Inside this stronghold hope is alive, it’s safe, it is precious, joyful, rejoicing! Inside Father’s Stronghold He promises to restore to us double our former prosperity. I can imagine that prosperity can take on many forms but today I want to focus on hope. What does it look like when God restores to us double our former hope? When He prospers our hope, we have in Him? Imagine God multiplying, doubling our hope?
What a promise. Come, let us return to God’s stronghold for us. Let us be prisoners of the hope we have in Him!
I want to challenge you to really make this scripture yours – put your name in there, speak, pray it over yourself and your family. Apply it to your own heart and life. Become a prisoner of hope in a time where the world looks around in fear and uncertainty – let us not immerse ourselves in that hopelessness but let us return to His stronghold of safety and security and immerse ourselves in His presence and in His hope!
Much love to all
Gerda and Annelie
Scripture Quoted from the Amplified Bible; Biblegateway.com
Listen to this song "Prisoner of hope" by Abigail Miller
Saturday, 7 March 2020
An Invitation to husbands, fathers, boyfriends, brothers and grandfathers
So... I have a peculiar problem. For some reason people seem to think that Free2bme is just for women. I repeatedly get the question if Free2Celebrate's weekend seminars are only for women. I am really perplexed by the question every time it comes around since we have never advertised it as a 'women only' seminar.? So I am really not sure where that Idea comes from. It is however true that mostly it is women who attend our weekend seminars, once again I have no idea why men seem to be shy to attend. In addition to this I also often sit with another predicament. When I do have a man that wants to come, they often ask if there are other men also coming. Well often in that moment of the process of registration there is no men or maybe there is 1. Thus, I cannot say yes there are some other men (one other man apparently is not enough) so no men or only a few very brave men end up coming. Well if there would be a man or 2 out there that would be brave enough to register early then at least when I get an inquiry I can say YES! there are other men coming! So I am forever in a catch 22 with this.
Free2Celebrate is not a church. I am not a woman 'preaching' on the weekend seminars. This is a Christian Counselling Ministry that specializes in the field of personal development or personal enrichment. We focus on identity in Christ, and the gifts of the believer as part of our journey of growing into spiritual maturity. We all need this information, not just so we can understand how God wired us - but also so we can develop a better understanding of how God wired those we love and are in relationship with.
So I want to extend a special invitation and welcome to all the men, fathers, brothers, husbands, grandfathers, would-be husbands, fathers, grandfathers out there that would want to attend next week's Free2bme at Logos Christian Church in Bellville! Bring your wife, girlfriend, sister, children (high school age) and come discover the treasures within yourself and within them!
We have extended the RSVP date to 10 March 2020
Wednesday, 26 February 2020
Wednesday, 12 February 2020
Dates worth saving...
Attention: Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Lockdown declared by the SA-government and in accordance to these regulations all contact seminars for 2020 was cancelled until further notice.
However please keep an eye open for our exiting step into the world of online training.
Please note that we have some new dates added to our previous post and our
However please keep an eye open for our exiting step into the world of online training.
Please note that we have some new dates added to our previous post and our
"Come to the Well" Weekend's venue changed.
Sunday, 12 January 2020
What do you immerse yourself in?
By now we are almost half way through January and probably settling into all the new year has in store for us. For us as a family this is a year with some new seasons on our doorstep. We have just celebrated 7 distinctions in matric results with our eldest daughter. Time flies. It feels like yesterday when we were taking her to Grade 1! Now she has a driver's licence and in a week's time she is moving to the residence for her first year at University. Our youngest is going to grade 10 - also a new season for her. Some of this brings really big changes for us, having to take several steps of faith in various directions.
I am sure we all have different expectations and maybe uncertainties about the year to come. It may be that we are sometimes discouraged by some of the news reports and challenges we have to deal with. I think we are all aware of the potential storms ahead, on different fronts of life.
As I was praying and contemplating all this year may (or may not) bring, I believe I heard Holy Spirit ask a question:
"What do you immerse yourself in?"
And so the question set off a quest to firstly do some introspection in terms of what I immerse myself into, but also to go to scripture and see what did the people in the Bible immerse themselves into? Although this is not by far a completed journey, in fact, I suspect that I will journey with this question for the rest of this year, here are some of my thoughts so far:
What we immerse ourselves in is a choice - and it has consequences:
What did Adam and Eve immerse themselves in?
The presence of God in the cool of the evening breeze as He came to walk with them...
And then: The doubt the enemy brought...
What did Noah immerse Himself in?
Fulfilling the task in obedience to God's word to him...
And then: Overindulging in wine...
What did Abraham immerse Himself in?
In his covenant with God...
And then: Into making his own plan to fulfill the covenant..?
What did Moses immerse Himself in?
The presence of God in the tent of meeting...
And yet there was the moment of 'Will I bring water out of this rock for you..?'
What did David immerse himself in?
Worship of a Sovereign God, being a man after God's heart
And yet there was Bathsheba...
And so I can go on all though the Bible and right into my own life...
What is it that God wants to draw my/our attention to or warn me/us about? Maybe many different things but surely He wants to make us attentive to staying immersed in Him.. in His presence... His love, His plans for us. (Jer 29:11)
In John 15:3-4 (NKJ) He encourages us with this:
'You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless it abide in Me"
As this year progress and unfold, let us keep this question in mind:
"What are you immersing yourself in?"
Let us immerse ourselves in Him completely, and let us guard our .hearts against the if's, why's and but's of this life...
Let us continuously immerse ourselves in His Hope, His presence, His promises to us, in Faith... In Him as the Vine, the Bridegroom and King of Kings.
May 2020 be an immensely blessed year for all of us.
Much Love
Gerda
free2celebrate@gmail.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)