the seventh day....

Genesis 2 : v 2 ......so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. And God made that day Holy, because on it He rested.

God took six days to create all that we see, then He rested.
It took me considerably longer to write the preceding six pages of this blog.
While i pause, for reflection on all my "good work", it doesn't really come close. By the way, all of the imagery is my own work, although i can't call it work because it was a great pleasure to go out and capture some of God's magnificence.

Sunday, the seventh day, is my favourite day because i get to play my bass for Him. I am always reminded of my arrogance in informing Him that if He got me a decent bass i would play for Him. Little did i realise what that would mean, that i would surrender myself completely to Him, and not count the cost.

Jesus came into this world to set us back onto the right path. In a way we are all prodigal sons having wandered afar and only now are returning, heeding that call of the Shepherd who has and will give His life for us. If you have seen Me, then you have seen the Father. I and the Father are one, and again, I am in the Father as He is in Me.

John 12 v 24. "Truly, truly i say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Jesus' death on the cross was not the end, it was the beginning of a new life which has and will bear much fruit. That traumatic time on the cross when He gave His life for us and took all of our sins, was the only time when He was separated from God His Father. Matthew 27 v 46 ......"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" was a cry of heartfelt anguish, of being separated, for the first time in His life, from His beloved Father. Having taken on that tremendous load of our sin, He was not able to approach God.
His last words were "it is finished"

But that was not the end, Jesus had done all that His Father had asked Him to do. He had died for our sins. That terrible task was now finished.

In the days that followed He set in motion God's master plan, we were gifted the Holy Spirit. That same Spirit that God used to raise Jesus from the grave, now lives in each of us who truly believes that "rock"( Mt 16; v 18 ), that He is the Son of God. He lives!




It is interesting to note that the bible commences with a garden (paradise, aka "garden of eden") a place where God would spend time, in the cool of the evening, walking and talking to adam and eve.

Then because of a single sinful act we (adam and eve's progeny) lost that relationship with our creator.

The bible ends ( in revelation ) with a new earth and a new heaven, literally we get what we have prayed for: "Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven....." Once more we have a face to face relationship with God.  

and it was the sixth day....

Morning has broken like the first morning;
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
Praise for the singing!
Praise for the morning!
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word....


And God said,"Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness, and He called it Day. And the darkness He called Night.
Paul says (in Thess. 5: v5 ) that we are all children of the light, children of the day. Sometimes this is hard to remember when the world, with all of it's troubles, closes in and we are left alone and in darkness. But this need not be the case, for we have the promise that He(Jesus) will be with us always.

In the Qu'an there is a lovely sura (entitled "the Niche") which advises us to place our light in a niche where it can reflect and lighten the whole room.
In Luke ( 8: v16 to 18 ) Jesus says that no one, after lighting a
light, places it under a bed. He then goes on to expand the idea,
referring to our gift of talents and the perils of not using them.

Light can affect us in many ways, stay out in the sun too long and we get sun
burn. Moses, after his face to face discussions with God in the the tent of meeting, had to wear a veil to hide the Glory of God shining forth from his
face. Jesus was the Light of the world. In john 12: v35. Jesus tells his disciples
"to walk in the light while you still have it". and later "while you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become sons of light".

Without light in this world of ours we can do nothing. If the sun, for some strange reason, was suddenly switched off, our world, as we know it, would
cease to exist. We would all be dead within approximately eight minutes (the time it takes for the sun's light to reach us ).

Photography's very existence relies on light, and in the studio students are
 always trying to add more light thinking that that is the answer to a successful
shoot. In reality it is how you control and handle the shadows. shadows are a vital element in any image as our clues to depth and time of day are all given
us by the shadows within our image.

Our camera lightmeters all default to a mid grey (a tone halfway between black
 and white), while the software has improved immensely our expensive
cameras can still be fooled. Ansel Adams Zone System goes a long way to 
remove some of that guess work.

I have always  believed that there are two kinds of photographer: those that point
their cameras at things/objects that catch their attention, and those who attempt to
capture the light that envelopes that object. Being sensitive to light in 
all of it's forms is the key to a successful emotion charged image.

O house of Jacob, come let us walk in the light of the Lord.

I see Your face in every sunrise
The colours of the morning are inside Your eyes.
The world awakens in the light of the day
I look up to the sky and say:
"You are beautiful".

the fifth day....

Georgia o'Keefe was born on 15 November 1887. In later life she moved to the crisp fresh air and the artist community living in New Mexico. I think that it was that crisp fresh air that influenced her talent for seeing beauty in the small things that surrounded her. Extreme close up flower studies, with saturated colour, became the way that she saw the world.

Ansel Adams was born on February 20 1902. Inventor of the Zone System and master of the large format monochrome landscape image. He believed that only by individually processing each sheet of film could he obtain the print  tonalities that he had foreseen when he exposed the image. His was the large vista that he discovered in Yellowstone National Park, and by exposing onto monochrome emulsion he abstracted those geological forms ( by removing all sense of colour ) and concentrated on the light, form and textures that remained. On those rare occasions when he did point his camera "downwards" still managed to infuse that grandeur of the large scene onto a delicate bloom.
While both could be considered west coast artists, they were in fact quite opposite in their artistic intentions.
The two images, pictured above, were captured, by me, using my iPhone5/procamera app "combo", with a little help from CS4. Inspired by these two great artists and masters of their chosen fields, i attempted to capture the essence of their talent and world view.

All of us have hidden talents, which for one reason or another, remain hidden. These talents were gifted to us to be used, and used to God's glory.

In Matthew 25: verse 14 to 30 Jesus relates the story of the rich man, about to leave on a trip, and calling his three servants gives them a number of talents ( three to the first, two to the second and a single one to the third) with instructions to use them well. On his return he again calls them in to account for what they have done with their talents. The first two servants are commended for their efforts whilst the third, who received the single solitary talent, did nothing with his. The story ends by the master saying:" So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents ( the first servant). For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one  who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be  weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Not using a gift of God is a serious offence.

Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians (1Corin 12: v4 to 11) writes:
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
The message is clear, we cannot afford not to use what is God given

day four and counting....

A pause for reflection. I always tell my photographic students that if you want to determine where you are going with your craft, look back, pause, and reflect on what you have already achieved. Too often we can't see the wood for the trees, we need to step back occasionally and take a calming breath.

I started this blog for personal reasons, i wanted to ascertain where i was headed and desparately needed a backwards glance over my life. Convinced that i had been gifted that second chance, i wasn't about to "mess it up". I deliberately chose those biblical characters because i relate to them. In a different time they could have been me.

Jonah and the whale, a story that everyone remembers from their childhood. I seriously doubt that we truly understood it when it first came to our attention. On the surface, a tale of obedience to God and the consequences of not obeying. Jonah was told to go to Nineveh and preach repentance of their sins or else face the wrath of God. Jonah refused because they weren't jews, they were "unclean". What he didn't realise that they were still God's creation, this was shown him when he cried out to God in the heat of the day and God provided a vine to give him shade. To prove a point God then removed the vine and it's shade showing Jonah that all/everything was under His control.

The story of Job is about faith and despite everything that happens to poor old Job, he still continued to praise God. The devil (who caused all of the bad fortune that beset Job) was defeated by Job's steadfast faith and praise. Job had lost everything, his family, house and livestock. His body was covered in wet open sores, all that he had left him was that small glimmer of life giving hope and faith in God. Never once did he blame God. His story has a happy ending where God grants him more that he had before. I am reminded of that phrase:"Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, then all else will be given you...."

And finally, the prodigal son. He leaves the loving security of his home to seek fame and fortune elsewhere. How often has the grass looked greener, for us, on the other side of the fence. It is also the story of having too much money splashed around and gaining only fair weather "friends". As that old blues song goes:"nobody wants you, when you are down and out....." Coming to his senses feeding swill to that most unclean of animals (to a good jewish boy), he returns home, hopefully to work as a servant to his father. But that is not what happens. Looked at from a different perspective if we truly repent and ask forgiveness, God will welcome us back with open arms. God/Jesus will accept us just as we are, in all of our filth and depravity. It is not necessary to clean up our act before approaching Him, that is just wasting time we could have spent in His presence.

Amazingly, handing over control to Him has not lost me my freedom. Jesus has given me the will to live and to use what ever talent ( which is food for another blog) that i possess to the Glory of His Name.

and it was the third day....

All of my zeal, for my religion and the church, flew out of the window when i saw the abundance of wall to wall women on that first day of university.
Maybe it was helped by the "make love not war" music hanging in the incense filled air. I had come to study the noble profession of Architecture, arriving in Durban with an A2 sized drawing board, a defretted semi acoustic bass and a jumbo sized folk guitar. It was a good time to be at university.

I soon had shoulder length hair, the obligatory hippie beard, but, not wanting to lose control, refrained from my friends pursuit of recreational pharmaceuticals. My herdingkatz mindset, however, ensured my place in the gang, as i would always come up with the idea that met with their approval.
Then in true hippie tradition i dropped out of 'varsity life at the end of my third year.

I eventually found "accommodation" in a squalid single room, in the backyard of a rundown Umbilo tenement. It was on one of my lonely friday night walks that i landed up, quite by chance, outside the Central Methodist Church. To scared to go in, i watched the young music group rehearse. I must have vocalised that strange yearning deep inside of me when i "suggested" to God that if He got me a good bass i would play for Him. I left dejected before the young group had finished, as i didn't want to have to explain my presence there.
Forty years later, i did acquire that bass ( God's sense of time is rather flexible, but He always delivers). It was a vintage, genuine American Fender fretless jazz bass. By this time i had married and had two sons, of whom i am extremely proud. I had told Michele, rather excitedly, that i was in love. "You can't have it"was her reply, knowing that it would never have been another woman. Such is love.
The morning i went to collect her, she was carried straight to her first gig, playing a collection of church and sixties styled songs.
Years later my collection of basses having grown and now playing in a Gospel band called "b'ra Khah", having completed a spell in "Malachi" and a further stint in "Live the Life". A duo that i had formed playing the afrikaans christian churches i was diagnosed with prostate cancer. It was decided that i adopt radiation treatment, and eventually received forty sessions of radiation. Half way through my radiation treatment i was rushed to Addington Hospital with a ruptured appendix, this having(with hindsight) happened on the tuesday night. It was now thursday, and if it were not for that delicious concoction called morphine, i would have felt just a little worse for wear.
I was gutted, quite literally, with a scar commencing about 100mm above my navel and descending southwards stopping just short of the soft dangly bits. The delay in having received any treatment, coupled with the fact that i was a cancer patient, meant that it was now a serious major extravaganza. It was "touch and go", but i like to think that God, in His Wisdom, had some unfinished busy with me.

On the day that my doctors proclaimed that the radiation had preformed it's task successfully, i met Daan, the multi instrumentalist and songwriter from b'ra Khah, having coffee in the hospital restuarant/coffee bar and told him that i was looking for a church to play in thanks for all that had happened to me. He suggested st. Elizabeth's Anglican Church  Westville, where three years later i still perform bass duties with the new love of my life,"Pearl"(having had to sell all of my other basses to acquire her). The Prodigal Son has returned, i am back home, with a new spiritual family.

the second day....

I come, refreshed, from having watched my goldfish drift serenely around their pond trying to determine if there was any order or predestination in their movement. Is their movement only restricted and determined by the shape and water depth of their environment, or does some thought appear, in their fishy brain, as to what lies "over there". Is there any pattern.
Then i got to thinking about driving habits and how the jostling and ducking and diving of some cars was just a reaction to their environment. Again, is there any pattern.
We are all an integral part of life's web, we are the very strands and thread that make up this life that we lead. Yet we are all fiercely individual and would never admit to group thinking or a group mentality. We have free will. We also have a democracy, which is freedom of choice within a pre assigned system. We are not free to do exactly as we will, we are restricted by law, culture and peer group pressures. The only truly free will that we have is whether to follow God's Path, or not. Here there is no "fence sitting", you are either for Him or against Him.

It is written: "That I knew you while you were still in the womb. I knew your name...."
and again:"Not a hair on your head shall fall without Me noticing it".

Belief in Jesus guarantees us protection. Only two arch angels are named in the bible. Gabrielle ( the bringer of good news to Mary) and Michael, the protector of Israel. God said to the Israelites that He would send someone who contains His name, that His name would be within him. Michael, means to be like God, or Godlike, and it was he who was the column of smoke and pillar of fire that led the Israelites during their desert journey. Having that belief and having accepted Jesus in our lives gives us an even better and stronger protector than that of Israel. We are gifted the Holy Spirit, that same Spirit that God used to raise His Son from the grave.
I ask again, is there a pattern here. The answer has to be a resounding yes! We are all, whether we realise it or not, are subservient to His will and pattern. He is the ultimate pattern maker. This, the world /cosmos we live in is all His creation.

Jonah spent three days in the darkness of some aquatic beast because he refused a job offer from God himself. To Jonah's mind, being sent to the heathen city of Nineveh to preach repentance was wrong, because the Jews were God's chosen. After he was spat out, he went off to His will.
In a similar vein, last week, i spent three days in the metaphorical hell of an Addington Hospital queue, also to be finally spat out ready to do His will. Exactly what that is, i am still not sure, but i have an open mind on that subject.
Two things that Jesus was always "on about" to his disciples, was prayer and obedience to His words.
Further, i was reminded of Job's ordeal, when having lost everything, he still praised God's name. My three hospital days resulted in receiving word that my cancer was having a rematch and that my eyesight problem wasn't going to go away anytime soon. Also my car was taken in for a service, only to find that the whole clutch assembly and possibly all of the shock absorbers needed replacement. Now, i am beginning to sound like Job, yet i will continue to praise God.
I always disagree with those who fight cancer, as i believe that fighting produces stress and harmful chemicals which could cause more harm that the cancer itself. By being calm and "chilled out" you remain in harmony allowing your body to heal naturally. Afterall cancer is merely one (or more) of your own cells that have lost the plot and gone rogue. Can you really fight yourself and win?