Self-image - God-image

Thoughts about Him and thoughts about me are in-changeable. I can't believe He is wonderful and not think I am wonderful. They go hand in hand. - Corné Pretorius

These thoughts are inspired by the above mentioned quote from Pastor Corne's facebook status.

Psalm 139: 14 says I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Here is the question how WELL do we know this about ourselves and about God? Do we marvell at His wonderful works when we look at ourselves or do we exalt our works above His. Over amplifying our good works or our bad works about His wonderful works. That is are we so conscious of what we do well or wrong that we are blinded from seeing His magnificence in and through our lives. Let us give Him the glory that is due to His Name.

Let us exalt Him by knowing and being fully conscious of His wonderful works. Some say that is true humility when we see ourselves as God sees us. It probably takes being a little bit objective and not just seeing yourself (wether way over the top or way below the truth). Either way seeing "ourselves" whether we worship ourselves or loath ourselves is some kind of false worship. It is Him we must see and us in Him in that same positive light. God absolutely adores us. I have learnt that. He loves His work. He is delighted by His work (you). Thus in loving ourselves correctly we are loving Him correctly. xxx siki dlanga


I will give you praise, for I am strangely and delicately formed; your works are great wonders, and of this my soul is fully conscious. BBE (not it's not the BEE Bible version, though that is a good thought :) Psalm 139:14

p.s. i love you :-)

I saw you...

I saw you
Smiling.
Your face
Was a dance.

Your eyes,
A song of angels.

Your laugh
An applause of heaven.

I saw you
Dreaming,
Daring,
Being,
Living.

I was inspired.
I was thrilled
That,
I saw you.

© siki dlanga

Gender wars and loss of identity in the New South Africa

There are women younger than myself who are still hardcore feminists. Isn't feminism a move that was brought about during desperate times where men's blindness had caused them to see women as nothing less than sex objects? Something free-women today sometimes freely choose in the name of exploring their sexuality. Then feminism was a necessity that was essential to the rights and freedom of women or to be seen as equals to men. Now of course men dress in pink to be like their female counterparts. A sure sign of the victory of feminism. Why then are there still some feminsts in this generation?

I have never seen the need to prove that I am equal to a man thanks to my grandfather whose requirements of girls and boys were all the same. Thus I walked with a mindset that yes we are different but equal. Diversity is a strength not a weakness. In the days when women were oppressed, women still embraced femininity. They did what they did best. While with the victory of feminism I am unsure if men know how to be men. I am afraid that to be a woman is far clearer and thus they follow after us even becoming like us in everyway but of course true femininity cannever be outdone. Are men ashamed of manhood or is it a simple loss of idea of what that even is? Having been failed by those before them whose idea of manhood failed their mothers and children. So what good picture has there been to look to in history. The other disoriented extreme destroys feminity. He is a violent rapist, an abuser who is destroying this nation tearing women apart. He is far worse than the one who has become a woman because he respects femininity though at the expense of rejecting himself.

What are we going to do now? Women in South Africa are in desperate need of true liberation. More so than in any other time in history. The amount of women raped daily is a number I don't even want to record because we are the most endagered women in the world. This is not women's problem because this is a struggle men have with their own gender. If men were at peace with their sex there would be no man trying to prove his power over a woman for it is himself he must master and has failed. What are we going to do? Are we going to simply wait for women's month and 16days against violence every year?

What are we going to do? We do not need more feminists as it has already served its purpose. We need a new response one that will bring healing and reconcilliation to both sexes. We will not gain anything by despising each other after all we need to make love, not just sex and procreate. Sex is a new weapon used against each other in this generation. It is a powergame. Whatever is not of love will ultimately bring destruction to the one who believes in their supposed power. There is no power in hatred. It is poison and it will destroy its possessor.

What I fear the most about the current prolonged state of the raping of women in this country is that; who can stand before the rage of women?

We need the new man to show leadership and bring an end to this senseless raping of women. Or else a much greater miracle is needed for us all.

Einstein Quote on Relativity

Put your hand on a stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.
- Albert Einstein

Eric Miyeni buying black favour with a violent pen

So I decided to investigate the Eric Miyeni saga since I had already read tweets and columns about it. I had made peace with the fact that in this world we have people like Eric Miyeni. This meant that I had to read the complete article that caused him all the trouble and not just take snippets of the issue. I have to say that from what I had read about it I was very grateful that I read it.

Beyond his violence against a woman Miyeni actually did have a point though he made his point with hands covered in blood and with bloodshot eyes. I was somehow unsure whether he needed to be taken straight to hospital or therapy, prison or anger management classes first before listening to what he had to say as not even Malema was ever that violent. Not even at the bloody agent!

It is a fact that where the DA gets its money is where the DA gets its money. When the devil is constantly accusing you, you start believing that the devil's accusing voice is God's voice. He pretends to be be righteous, and thus you mistake him for God. To prove his point about your unrighteousness he will not point at things that are not there that is how he works to keep you trapped. So yes to be fair, let everyone open up their books then and be investigated. Point taken Mr. Miyeni.

However, what was new to me was Miyeni's new found love of being black. O wait, I don't know that for sure. He speaks so eloquently about it and defends it in such a pplausable manner like one well versed in the importance of tenders. I am just not convinced about his dedication to blackness. This is about his pocket but I am not saying there is something wrong with a man who looks after his pocket. I can imagine that there are mouths to feed and an image to keep up perhaps or just to make ends meet just like anyone. It is hard to be a black man after all since everyone assumes that gold magically falls on your lap like manna just because of your skin colour so hey, a tender must go a long way.

What concerns me about Mr. Miyeni is his blatant personal attack on City Press Editor Haffajee. He wrote that people like her, "are most likely to be the kind that wakes up in the morning sees their black faces in the mirror only to feel a wave of self-hatred rising up to nauseate them."

When I read that I thought that in order for anyone to have that image and so eloquently depict it takes much more than talent. After all the man who wrote this about a "black" woman, is the same man who once reported in the 90's on a then "white" magazine that he only dated white women because black women were not ambitious enough for him. The message was clear of what he thought of blackness and in his rise to fame he was now too good for black women. I was young when I read that and I made it a point to remember what kind of black I did not want to grow up to be. To demean my own people like that! This man was a new black star when black stars were so few that you wanted to cheer for anyone who appeared even by a hair because if they made it we were making it and we would make it. We needed the one person that is there shining to tell us how great we are or can be and not look down on us. Eric Miyeni failed us and especially black women as he has just spectacularly done so again. My ambition then even as a young girl was enough to be spread among few people. I also knew many black women who were ambitious so I despised him from that day because he was clearly ashamed of his black skin.

So perhaps Eric is angry at his own image in the mirror because in order to hurl insults like that says there is a problem with where they are coming from. I also happen to have met one of the beautiful white women he preferred over us. It was then that I decided not to despise him and let bygones be bygones after all now many black women have proved him wrong. But now the tender is what pays so his speech has turned towards the pocket. I hope he first deals with his own anger and murderous hatred.

Eric Miyeni's article is not brave. Not as the ANCYL would like to believe it is. What is brave about siding with people who are in power? It is as cheap as white people who are now suddenly defenders of justice against a corrupt democratic government when they failed to show up in apartheid years, in a time when their passion for justice was most needed. I am not talking about repentant white people who take responsibility for the past when they look at the present. I am talking of the ones who refuse to see how the injustice of the past is exactly what is our problem in our current world. It needs them to be angry enough about it to do something about it rather than point fingers now. I wanted Eric Miyeni to speak like that when it was the right time but even now the way he speaks exposes him as one who is trying too hard to prove something to make up for what he himself does not believe.

Kuli Roberts and Eric Miyeni truly remind us that we must deal with our cancerous past. This talented man could have written a great article had it not have been for the hellish violence he began with. Since this violence is no different to the one we find daily in our townships destroying our people. A violence we are not angry enough about and do too little about. We wish it away until we see it in educated people of influence. How much longer will we treat it as unrelated incidents?

the great thirst

the great thirst
awake me from my slumber
call something deeper out of me
offer me more than what i have seen

i thirst
i thirst
i thirst for what you thirsted for
i thirst for that drink you wanted
as you hung on that cross

awake me with conviction
as you awoke pilate’s wife
with a dream of the knowledge of your righteousness
let me slumber no more

as the earth quaked at your death
let me feel the tremblings of the earth
begging me to realise that you are the son
like those men responded with a shout
saying surely he was the Son of God

awake me as the marys awoke that third day
searching for your body, loving you in death
they found you alive, they found their Lord
more glorious than they remembered

stop me with flashes of light
as you stopped saul on his way to damascus
so that i no longer discuss what is finished
that i might run for the joy set before me

yet i thirst still
i thirst for one sip
of the water you gave the samaritan woman
the water that caused you fame in all of samaria
give me drink i pray
give me drink for i thirst for you
still

© siki dlanga

Poetry and Scriptures

Say


My beautiful reality

Exists within the parameters

Of the world

Of your words/

Untie the knots

Of my deception

Undress the lies

They are stinking rags/

Say a word

Shower me like rain

I close my eyes

I am crowned

With jewels

Better than diamonds

Purer than silver

I covet your words

More than gold

I wait for your voice

© siki dlanga

08 April 2011

It would be fun if you can spot which scriptures you can spot that embody each line. First stanza Gen1,John1, Hebrews11:3, Heb1:3, Stanza 2/3a, Ezek 16 , Stanza 3b, Proverbs1/2, Psalm 119 mostly..

call it a modern psalm.

Psalm 12:6 And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.

Psalm 119:140 Your word is very pure: therefore your servant loves it



The long version for those who don't do poetry :-)



I wrote this on Friday. Thought I should put it up since Tim's sermon Sunday on "Word, Power". This is probably more Word-Love. I suppose love because I think God's love is the most powerful substance we will ever discover. I believe healing and all things associated with His power come from His love. If you are the beloved and when you hear your Lover speak, who also happens to be so powerful over all-things something within you must live for that Voice and to behold His Word. It is the love David spoke of so many times in the psalms "I love your word more than fine gold"(Ps19:10).



It is the substance that created our reality. When He sends His word we live. It is the thing Jesus spoke of, the love He spoke of when He said if you love me you will obey me. You will do what I say. Why? Simply because you love. You love so much that you live to hear that voice and then when that voice speaks when those words come they are like heaven itself because they come from the one you love with all that you are. You will quote them you will revere them. You will hide them in your heart as a treasure. You will love them and you will mutter and utter them because they came from the Creator of all things. Thus they are more potent and more important than anything you have ever encountered. They are life itself to the bones. They are bread itself and you will devour them like a starving man. They are food, the most treasured words in all the earth they are this secret that is spoken and all can hear yet few understand. As Andrew Bateman could not get over this verse “for the Jews were entrusted with the very words of God”(Rom3:2).



They are life and joy to all who believe. They are the source of salvation, they will make you clean John15:3. They are the greatest wealth greater than fine gold, wealthier than any kind of wealth is the one who has them. Therefore we keep them and we treasure them, yet must share them and they will not leave us but instead they will increase. These words will heal you. They will make you seem noble and clothe you with glory. They will cause you to be wiser than the aged. There is no end to the possibility of what will happen if we love and do God’s word. If we do not love nor know the power that comes with them we may remain in the dark for these words are even light itself, a light unto your path. There is no end to the beauty of God’s word or the joy it brings.



.