Rev. AR Jansen

I know it is a harsh thing to say that “ a fool says, "Happy Birthday Jesus" on Christmas day ”, and I am one of those fools as well. But as I was doing theological reflection and praying, I came to realise that it is foolish to Box Jesus in something so absolutely silliness as “Happy Birthday”. And the reality is that how often have we heard the silly statement on the 25th of December, where people would say or post “ Happy Birthday Jesus ”. These words are so theologically incorrect and absolutely a silly thing to say, with hidden theological dangers in that statement. Maybe we need to explore this a bit more. When we reflect on some of the Old Testament texts, some of the authors give exact dates, for example in Ezekiel 1:1, the author gives the date as follow “In my thirtieth year , in the fourth month on the fifth day , while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.” But now, when it comes to the birth of Jesus, we do ...

Psalm 13 How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? 2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? 3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death; 4 Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”; Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved. 5 But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. 6 I will sing to the LORD, Because He has dealt bountifully with me. Where are you God? Sometimes I feel like God has forsaken me, and I am sure that at times all of us go through the phase that God has somehow forsaken us, that feeling of feeling alone. We ask ourselves if God is there, does He hear me, does He know what I am going through? The reality is, God does know what we are going through, how we feel and what space we are finding ourselves in. This is because God is always t...

O ne of the many concerns I have is the way people use social media, especially parents. I have noticed more and more lately of posts on Facebook for example, that of missing children, and me being a parent myself this hit home more as that would just devastate me if such a thing would happen to one of my children. Questions like “Where is my child?”, “Is my child OK?” and never finding out. I am not saying that the posting of photos on social media is to blame, but it surely must play a part in these type things happening as well as other things like house robberies and so forth. Now, God did not make us stupid, but in our vanity, selfishness, wanting to share everything with world, we end up in a place where common sense just flies out the window. We sit with people on the web looking for victims, pedophiles and rapists searching for potential victims and photos of little children in a bath for example, or ladies who get themselves ready to go have a good time dancing, and flagging...