Untitled

[tomkaastra-blog]

Mental Health Monday - An African's Perspective on Mental Health

Mental Health Monday – An African’s Perspective on Mental Health

  Please, God, no more yelling,     no more trips to the woodshed. Have pity on me and heal my feeble body.     I’m so starved for affection.

Can’t you see I’m black-and-blue,     beat up badly in bones and soul? God, how long will it take     for you to let up?

Break in, God, and break up this fight;     if you love me at all, get me out of here. I’m no good to you dead, am I?     I can’t…

View On WordPress

[tomkaastra-blog]

THE FRAGRANCE OF WORSHIP - 2/18/2018

THE FRAGRANCE OF WORSHIP – 2/18/2018

    God has brought us back to life together with Christ Jesus and has given us a position in heaven with him. He did this through Christ Jesus out of his generosity to us in order to show his extremely rich grace in the world to come. God saved you through faith as an act of grace. You had nothing to do with it. Being saved is a gift from God. It’s not the result of anything you’ve done, so no…

View On WordPress

[tomkaastra-blog]

THE FRAGRANCE OF WORSHIP - 2/11/2018

THE FRAGRANCE OF WORSHIP – 2/11/2018

      I heard a sound like massed choirs in Heaven singing, Hallelujah! The salvation and glory and power are God’s—    From the Throne came a shout, a command: Praise our God, all you his servants, All you who fear him, small and great! Then I heard the sound of massed choirs, the sound of a mighty cataract, the sound of strong thunder: Hallelujah! The Master reigns,     our God, the…

View On WordPress

[tomkaastra-blog]

THE FRAGRANCE OF WORSHIP - 2/25/2018

THE FRAGRANCE OF WORSHIP – 2/25/2018

        So I looked, and there was a Lamb, slaughtered but standing tall. He came to the One Seated on the Throne and took the scroll from his right hand. The moment he took the scroll, [the heavenly hosts] fell down and worshiped the Lamb.  And they sang a new song:

Worthy! Take the scroll, open its seals. Slain! Paying in blood, you bought men and women, Bought them back from all over the earth,

View On WordPress

[tomkaastra-blog]

FRAGRANCE OF WORSHIP - 2/4/2018

FRAGRANCE OF WORSHIP – 2/4/2018

    Hallelujah! You who serve God, praise God!     Just to speak his name is praise! Just to remember God is a blessing—     now and tomorrow and always. From east to west, from dawn to dusk,     keep lifting all your praises to God! Psalm 103:1-3

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;     his greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends your works to another;     they tell of your…

View On WordPress

[tomkaastra-blog]

Mudslides - Part Two

Mudslides – Part Two

I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,     and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair,     out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground     and steadied me as I walked along. Psalm 40:1-2

My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness I dare not trust the sweetest frame But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ, the…

View On WordPress

[tomkaastra-blog]

Mental Health Monday - A Toxic Environment Unwittingly Produces Positive Transformation

Mental Health Monday – A Toxic Environment Unwittingly Produces Positive Transformation

Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Al…

View On WordPress

[tomkaastra-blog]

FRAGRANCE OF WORSHIP - 1/28/2008

FRAGRANCE OF WORSHIP – 1/28/2008

    Lord, I passionately love you and I’m bonded to you!     I want to embrace you, for now you’ve become my power! You’re as real to me as bedrock beneath my feet,     like a castle on a cliff, my forever firm fortress,     my mountain of hiding, my pathway of escape,     my tower of rescue where none can reach me.     My secret strength and shield around me,     you are salvation’s ray of…

View On WordPress

[tomkaastra-blog]

Mudslide - Part One

Mudslide – Part One

  I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,     and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair,     out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground     and steadied me as I walked along. Psalm 40:1-2

My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness I dare not trust the sweetest frame But wholly lean on Jesus’ name

On Christ, the solid…

View On WordPress

[tomkaastra-blog]

Mental Health Monday - Why You Procrastinate (and How to Conquer It Once and For All)

Mental Health Monday – Why You Procrastinate (and How to Conquer It Once and For All)

  Be wise in your behaviour towards non-Christians, and make the best possible use of your time. Colossians 4:5

    Procrastination is the tendency to put things off – often to the point where they’re no longer manageable. It’s the disconnect between your intention and action. 

And it usually makes hard things even harder.

When you look at most people’s list of bad habits they want to break, proc…

View On WordPress

[tomkaastra-blog]

Mental Health Monday - Tips for Embracing Change

Mental Health Monday – Tips for Embracing Change

        The year has just changed. Without exception CHANGE is an essential ingredient of life! Change produces a variety of new things: e.g. size. My favorite example is the butterfly because the transition is so vivid. A funny story goes like this. Two caterpillars, hanging out on a branch, are chattering. Suddenly a butterfly swoops by them. One caterpillar says to the other: “You’d never…

View On WordPress

[tomkaastra-blog]

THE FRAGRANCE OF WORSHIP - 2/11/2018

THE FRAGRANCE OF WORSHIP – 2/11/2018

  O God, you are my God;     I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you;     my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land     where there is no water. I have seen you in your sanctuary     and gazed upon your power and glory. Psalm 63:1-2

  Jesus I Need You

Hope be my anthem Lord when the world has fallen quiet You stand beside me Give me a song in the night And Jesus I…

View On WordPress

[tomkaastra-blog]

WORSHIP - 1/7/2018

WORSHIP – 1/7/2018

      I believe in …  in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell; The third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the…

View On WordPress

[tomkaastra-blog]

Sunday Worship - 1/7/2018

Sunday Worship – 1/7/2018

I believe in …  in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell; The third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

  “Giv…

View On WordPress

[tomkaastra-blog]

WORSHIP - 1/21/2018

WORSHIP – 1/21/2018

      Jesus, having become man, humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, even to the extent of dying, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal. That is why God has now lifted him so high, and has given him the name beyond all names, so that at the name of Jesus “every knee shall bow”, whether in Heaven or earth or under the earth. And that is why, in the end, “every…

View On WordPress

[tomkaastra-blog]

Mental Health Monday - Year-End Review

Mental Health Monday – Year-End Review

  Resolutions themselves are wired for failure. More than forty percent of people who make resolutions, abandon them in the first month. Less than ten percent of resolutions are actually achieved.

The resolutions we do find the courage to make are important to us. They’re things we think about a lot, like: “I wish I could quit smoking,” “I need to lose weight next year,” “I can’t handle one…

View On WordPress

[tomkaastra-blog]

Advent - Why Jesus Came III

Advent – Why Jesus Came III

  JESUS CAME TO REVEAL THE CHARACTER OF GOD Christ is the visible expression of the invisible God.” (Colossians 1:15). It is in Christ that God gives a full and complete expression of himself.” (Colossians 2:9)

  JESUS CAME TO REVEAL AN AUTHENTIC HUMAN BEING “Behold the man!” (John 19:5) “You have begun life as the new man, who is out to learn what he ought to be, according to the plan of God.”

View On WordPress