JOY! Magazine November 2015

I sit amazed as I hold the draft of our 100th edition in my hands. I never really considered, or imagined, reaching this milestone when I put together our first edition of the (relaunched) JOY! The genesis of a new, relaunched JOY! Our (10 year old) relaunched JOY! traces back to me helping out my dear friend, Nico Bougas, with the marketing for his publication, Today Magazine. (I had met Nico a few years earlier when I was publishing a book on Mentors. Nico has been a great encourager to me personally and a valued contributor to JOY! over the years.) Around my consultancy time, there was a big scandal going on in Johannesburg concerning the head boy from a prestigious Christian school. The young man had been invited to…

ISAIAH 45:1-3 “Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to (JOY! Magazine), whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before you, and I will unarm and ungird the loins of kings to open doors before you, so that gates will not be shut. I will go before you and level the mountains to make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron. And I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, Who call you by your name.” MARK 1:2-3 “Just as it is written in the prophets Isaiah: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,…

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Mixing church with politics? Most mainline churches and indeed Christianity, seems to be at the crossroads of survival again. The hierarchy of these churches may disagree with this, but let’s ponder a few points first. The leaders compile man-made laws and regulations to keep the ‘flock’ in check and, at times, to enforce dogmatic ideas. In other words, they say: “you cannot and will not tell us what to do or how to go about matters and you will do as we have traditionally told you what to do and say. You will also learn what we decide to teach you and you will enforce our way of thinking - traditionally or otherwise”. This leaves very little room for the average pastor, preacher or priest to compile their own ideas…

1 Stop worrying Life has dealt you a blow and all you do is sit and worry. Have you forgotten that I am here to take all your burdens and carry them for you? “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?...For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:31-33 2 Put it on the list Something needs to be done or taken care of. Put it on the list. No, not only your prayer list. Put it on My list. Let Me be the One to take care of the problem. You need to surrender it to Me. I can,…

The University of Tennessee has asked students and faculty to begin using so-called gender neutral pronouns in the belief it will create a more “inclusive” campus. “Ze, hir, hirs, and xe, xem, xyr” are gender-neutral singular versions of pronouns, as outlined by Writeworld, a blog dedicated to educating writers. “[Students] may use a different name and pronouns of their gender identity, rather than the pronouns of the sex they were assigned at birth,” Donna Braquet, director of the University of Tennessee’s Pride Centre said. The university’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion claims the language “alleviates a heavy burden for people expressing different genders or identities.”…