Can you handle the truth?

"You can't handle the truth!" is a famous line in the movie A Few Good Men is spoken by Jack Nicholson's character in response to being told " I want the truth"

I doubt if anybody being likes being lied to so I would guess that we all like being told the truth. At the same time "the truth hurts" is a well known saying. It's easy to say that I want the truth but what if the truth is not exactly what you want to hear but is what you need to hear?

Recently I read this somewhere " A communication consultant says many people fear that honesty will cost them friendships, love, or respect. So they will either keep their lips zipped or say something other than what they mean. Lack of self-worth and fear of hurting someone's feelings also impede honest communication." How true that is especially when we know the truth has the possibility of hurting the other person's feelings.

However once in a while we( me included) all need a little kick to bring us back to our senses since it's so easy to see others' faults yet overlook our own- see the mote in your brother's eye in other words. So the challenge is how to speak the truth in a loving manner that will bring goodwill and build each other like in one of my earlier articles- Irons sharpens iron. For instance what do you say to your friend who you know is being unfaithful to his or her partner or perhaps one of your friends who you're hanging out with is developing a drinking problem. Or maybe if your close friend or partner has done something that hurt you. It may be tough to speak uncomfortable words but sometimes it may be necessary for we are told in proverbs 27:5 it is written "Open rebuke is better than secret love".

So how exactly do we "speak the truth in love" as we are told in Ephesians 4:15? Honesty may hurt, but if we speak kindly and compassion we may give the support that somebody needs to face reality. It's obvious that we need great wisdom from above! we can get some of that divine wisdom which helps us speak effectively from the book of James 3:17 "But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere."

Naturally criticism is easy to give but hard to receive. It's all too easy to give somebody a piece of your mind but not quite so when the shoe is on the other foot now is it? One of the hardest things to cultivate is humility to listen first and that is something that I personally have to learn so I ask once again " Can you handle the truth?"

Be blessed

Heavily borrowed from Matt De Haan's word's in the "Daily bread" for May 22nd

Faith reminders

Some scriptures to build your faith in God. Be blessed

If you ask anything in my name I will do it. John 14:14

Is anything too hard for the Lord?- Genesis 18:14

You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love Nehemiah 9:17

You are precious in my eyes, and honoured and I love you Isaiah 43:4

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you John 15:7

Have faith in God Mark 11:22

Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours Mark 11:24

Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full. John 16:24

Your father knows what you need before you ask him. Matthew 6:8

He took our infirmities and bore our diseases Matthew 8:17

Through God you are no longer a slave but a son Gal 4:4-6

Give and it shall be given back to you ; good measure, pressed down shaken together, running over, will be put in your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back. Luke 6:38

Hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience.Luke 8:15

If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:12

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end Lamentations 3:22-24

If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my father in heaven Matthew 18:19

Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be yours as well. Matthew 6:33

condensed from the book 'anything you ask' by Colin Urquhart

Bumps on the Road

Every once in awhile some bumps come in the road of life, some big some small but they all add to the experience of the ride. Wouldn't be the same if life was just a straight and flat road.

I've recently gone through one of those 'bumps' had it all figured out and everything was going all right and looking forward to big things then all of a sudden things changed. Disappointing it was at first but if there's one thing I'm thankful is for God's presence through it and the help, support an prayers of family and friends. I'm also learning to trust more and more in God and His plans for my life. This journey is nowhere near over yet! All is well in His hands

So to all of you thanks a lot and God bless you, been a blessing to me


Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Rubbing the Wrong Way

One thing in life is the people closest to you are the ones who have the greatest effect on you. They can give you the happiest moments and the saddest moments. It's easy to think that life is all clear blue skies and when a cloudy patch comes up you wonder what's up and think that something major is wrong.

One of the scriptures that is frequently quoted with respect to friendship is proverbs 27:17- " Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend" (KJV)
Now consider how this happens, two knives do not sit up next to each other warm and cosy and then they magically become sharp. No what happens is they strike each other and sometimes sparks fly, that's how it goes down. Similarly with our friends there can be those heated moments which come up when due to our humanity our flaws become evident. Nobody's perfect and so we do not see eye to eye all the time but we can build each other using the right words and end up being the better.

Let me quote Dr. James Dobson who put it so well in his book "Life on the edge"

" Whenever two human beings spend time together, sooner or later they will probably irritate one another. This is true of best friends, married couples, parents and children, or teachers and students. The question is: How to respond when friction occur? There are four basic ways they can react.

- internalize anger and send it downwards into a memory bank that never forgets. This creates great pressure within and can even result in disease and other problems
- They can pout and be rude without discussing the issues. This further irritates the other person and leaves him or her to draw his or her own conclusions about what the problem may be.
-they can blow up and they to hurt the other person. This causes the death of friendships, marriages, homes and businesses.
- Or they can talk to one another about their feelings, being very careful not to attack the dignity and worth of the other person. This approach often leads to permanent and healthy relationships."

And I end with the words of Psalm 133:1 "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity"

Monkey Business

Picture this.
An ape in the forest high up in the trees, moving along with his troop. Every time he switches trees he has to hold on to the tree he's on, grab the next then release the current one so as to keep moving.

Was just thinking about this in relation to life. We have to keep moving from one stage to the next as we progress. However if we try to grab onto the future and still insist on holding on to the past- the old branch so to speak we'll just end up hanging in the air not progressing. So to move forward you've got to let go if the past, with it's victories, failures, disappointments etc and reach out to the future with it's new possibilities!

In those same lines consider what Paul said "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. " Phil 3:13-14.

Don't get hang up on the past keep moving forward to greater things!

A Work of Art

Just realized that the last couple of years I've written a post about the most outstanding movie I'd watched during that year. In 2007 it was Transformers if only for the visuals and last year it was obviously The Dark Night the highlight being the performance by the late Heath Ledger.

This year saw the sequel to transformers though a roller coaster of special effect and action lacked the wow factor of the first. I'm a big science fiction fan so when I heard James Cameron had a new movie coming out I knew it would be quite something. After all he is the man who brought us The Terminator which also had a sequel this year. There had been a lot of buzz about Avatar so when it came out I had to give it a look to see the special effects. This is the same man who took the game a notch higher with Terminator 2 back in the day, both in terms of special effects and budget and he has outdone himself once again.

He's well known for being late and over budget and for the third time one of his movies is the most expensive ever made and he's been quiet since his last Titanic effort (pun intended). I can say that the wait was worth it. Would have loved to see it in 3D but with the nearest IMAX over 1000km away I watched it the old fashioned 2D way. It is visually stunning and looked 'realistic' even though Pandora was a fantasy world. Story was good too deepest not exactly but good enough to keep me on the edge of my seat and though it was long just kept wishing it wouldn't end- however knowing hollywood they could try to milk this one with a sequel.

One particularly interesting aspect of the story is a departure from the humans are good aliens are bad theme we usually have. Found it sort of similar to District 9 in that respect and you really get to sympathize with the aliens' plight. I also think that this movie is some sort of Allegory of the bush invation of Iraq. In fact some of his catch phrases like 'pre-emptive attack' and 'shock and awe' and the obvious invasion because of mineral resources. Entertaining but also makes youu think of human nature and greed.

So this year they saved the best for last. I give this one 5 stars without reservation.

My tree

I have a tree in my garden
When the wind blows, the gusts do not reach me,
When the sun scorches I hide in it's shade,
When I am hungry it's fruits satisfy
It's flowers delight both the eyes with their beauty and the nose with their fragrance
What a treasure it is

But my tree needs to be watered, lest it's flowers fade and leaves wither and die
Any good farmer must tend his own and so shall I
As I the Lord sustains with the rain from above

If you wonder what I call my tree
Friendship is it's name
And tend my tree I shall

by
Gituma Nturibi