Your Destination Remains The Same; Don’t lengthen The Journey

If you are like me this is a period for stock taking. I like self-examination so I do it rather frequently and I have found that if we are true and sincere with it, we can correct ourselves before we incur the wrath of God. Despite my frequent self-checks through the year, I have found that at times like this, i.e. about the end of the year, I instinctively get into that mode. I am definitely not one of the resolution making people and have always been bad at it but I make decisions and give God all of my weaknesses again believing that every New Year reveals a better me but this is a matter of opinion. So what about you reading this blog; do you feel the same way toward the end of the year or would you rather be sad and/or moody through that period because of the mistakes you made, or goals you did not achieve or even things you truly failed at? I understand calling to mind the failures with a view to taking another look at one’s decision making process just in case it may need some adjusting or complete over haul but it should never be such that leads to depression. History is important to the extent that it helps us refocus more accurately and make better decisions; where it fails to achieve that or makes us depressed instead, then it may not be very relevant. We are encouraged to forget the past as we press into the future. Holding unto the baggage of the past as we enter into the future is like hoping to go forward carrying heavy weights; it just makes going forward much tougher.

 

Philippians 3: 13b “but I focus on this one thing; forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race…”

 

Having lived on earth for a good number of years myself, albeit very few compared to some others whom I respect very much for surviving the dealings of life, I can say with a certainty that there is no avoiding the issues of life no matter how bad or perfect one is. No wonder God prepares us for warfare and counsels that we must be wise and quick to hear and understand. To successfully go through this journey of life as a believer, one must be fully focused on one’s purpose and/or goal which you can only see through God as well as be able to let go of the past easily as one presses forward which requires strength and/or stamina. I have realized that our destination never shifts; the Promised Land did not keep shifting to make the journey longer, the Israelites made it longer themselves. God chose His preferred route for their journey with their best interest at heart but then they made the journey even longer for themselves by the many bad decisions they made. I believe very much that a number of us have made our journey to our Promised Land even longer because of some of our bad decisions. For all of us that fall into this category, it is time to stop making those bad decisions. How long will it be okay to keep making the bad decisions? The truth is Christ is coming soon and even if He doesn’t come soon, the day we go to glory Christ has come for us and much as we would love to live on earth forever nobody knows when their journey on earth will end; so we are running out of time and must advise ourselves – circumspection is required in the way we live.

 

Ephesians 5: 15 – 17 “So be careful how you live. Don’t be live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.”

 

So please let us be focused on going forward in this New Year. I honestly believe every believer who desires to go forward shall indeed go forward. The word of God to us is “Go forward.” The situations do not change the word of God but God changes situations and causes them to align with His purpose for our lives. That which He spoke concerning us from the beginning is waiting for us. The manifestation point for each blessing that is ours has not changed. God has not made the journey to these blessings longer; they are still where they always were - that same place where you ought to have connected with them in the course of your journey of life but maybe you made a wrong detour somewhere and so may be needing “a course correction” to connect to them; be assured that it is never too late to make that correction. My Pastor always says “it is never too late to start again.” He translates a Yoruba adage to English which says “whenever you wake up or ‘come to yourself’ is your morning”. When ‘your morning comes’, do not be afraid to do what needs to be done. Please do not give up on the word God spoke to you whether it is about your life or a child or even a situation. In this year 2016, let us start to believe God all over again. Let us renew our faith and start our walk with God afresh. You may even want to buy a new bible just as a statement that we are renewing our faith and/or belief. Our God is still on the throne.

Merry Christmas – The Process That Birth the Season

Everything surrounding the birth of Christ remains a mystery “magical mystery,” if there is any such thing. From the conception to angels announcing his birth, to stars leading some people to the manger where He was born, everything sounds interesting and magical but it is all truth because it all happened. The more I think on it all, the more I realize it had to be magical because since the time of Adam and Eve when mankind lost fellowship with God, God was again coming down to earth to reconnect with man and this time, in a more involved way. It indeed was a magical night when heaven came down to earth, the beginning of a relationship that even God had never experienced; Him indwelling everyone that chose to have a relationship with Him. This fellowship was even much better and much more beneficial to man than the previous one He had with Adam and Eve. God must have been excited, Himself, for all His goodness that was coming in the way of man because His thoughts toward man are always of good. God, must have indeed been excited. He was again giving man a fresh opportunity to reciprocate the love He always felt for man. The thought of just having all that love returned by man must have pleased God immeasurably. All of this drama that took place in that one night often tends to make us forget that this is just the end of a process which started years before that day.

 

Jeremiah 29: 11 “For I know the plans I have for you, ‘says the Lord.’ They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

God must have been “desperate” to have many children who could love Him so sincerely that He went to so much trouble to confirm that Jesus was the Messiah that was promised for the reconciliation of man to Him. Despite all the pains God took to prove that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Only Begotten of the Father, it is interesting to note that Jesus arrived very simply and as a child who was born like any other child and formed by the implantation of a seed. Such a great miracle that would affect the entire world forever and also impact on God adding to His own joy too came so simply and was also a process. One would have thought that it would all happen suddenly just like the return of Jesus Christ but God in His wisdom chose to start with a seed. Despite all the time that had passed from when prophets began to speak, by the Holy Spirit, of the coming of the Messiah to when He was actually born, God did not eliminate the process of His coming or do anything to hasten it. The miracle – Christ, came as a seed that grew for nine months in His mother’s womb, was born and then grew to maturity. God did not expedite the process despite that He, God, was one of the benefactors of the process. I wonder why then we often think God would expedite processes for us. Obviously, there must be some disadvantages to expediting a process that we are unaware of.

 

Habakkuk 2: 3 “The vision is for a future time…If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.”

 

Jeremiah 1: 12 AMP “Then said the Lord to me, you have seen well, for I am alert and active, watching over my word to perform it.”

This entire season is indeed a reminder of the fact that His word shall surely come to pass and there is nothing you need to be doing to make it happen other than be who He desires for you to be and doing what He desires for you to do; and He would then be working to ensure the performance of His word. When He said it, He intended to bring it to pass because He cannot lie. It’s just that He starts with a seed and in my opinion, the bigger the miracle the longer it seems to take to bring the entire thing to that conclusion that we call our miracle and/or blessing. Sometimes we forget that it takes a while when we see other people’s miracles manifesting; without thinking of how long they had been waiting and what they went through in that period, we start complaining and loose hope. Sometimes we even feel we have the right to speak things against God that should not be uttered because we are upset but we do ourselves harm in doing all of that because all that is referred to as murmuring and complaining which actually slows down the miracle and may actually cause an abortion of it. I guess it might help to remind ourselves of the process that gave us Christ and the fact that God let it all play out fully. I would dare to suggest that the best way to go through the process or wait for it to unfold is by having an attitude of thanksgiving. Waiting patiently is easier when one has the right attitude of mind.

Christ Was Born – Reason Enough To Celebrate

I am so glad I am able to write another blog. I have no excuse for this long absence other than I got caught up in other things so that typing became my least favorite past time. The past few days have been exhausting. Could it be age related? I hope not. Lol! So please bear with me. Here we are, again in that season when we give gifts and eat too much of all the things we ought to eat in little quantities – Its Christmas when we celebrate the birth of Christ. There is often a lot of argument about the actual birth day of Christ so much so that some people miss out on the joy of the season because they lose their Christmas joy from arguing about the accuracy of the date. This Christmas, I would like to remind every such person that whether or not 25^th of December is the accurate day, we choose to celebrate His birth on that day. Who cares about the accuracy of the date? We care that He was born so let us just celebrate His birth since we know, without a shadow of doubt, that He was and that is the reason for us having hope. Moreover, any day one chooses, to celebrate their birth is their business; after all, we just celebrate the fact that we were born. Too many arguments about Him already; please don’t add this trivial matter of date.

 

2 Timothy 2: 23 “Again I say, don’t get involved in foolish ignorant arguments that only start fights.”

When I was much younger, Christmas season was never one of my best. I felt the weather in my Country was at its worst in this season and I worked too hard helping my mum with the cooking and washing up. As an adult and a believer in today’s world where it would appear that there is full onslaught from hell against Christianity, it has become very important to me that Christmas is celebrated. I now love to see houses decorated, though mine isn’t for obvious reasons (laziness), and feel all the joy in the atmosphere with people just looking forward to visiting one another, giving gifts and showing the love of God. It is now to me, another way of ensuring that our faith and its origin are not forgotten. A lot of Christians don’t even remember what Christianity is all about anymore. It is fast deeming in our memory. It is no longer really taught in schools which makes it expedient to talk about its origin. I don’t care how funny several mangers or even Christmas trees I see may look, I am just excited that you have one anyway so that some other person who has never heard about it can ask a question and you can then explain to them about the birth of Christ because you love them enough to explain.

Galatians 4: 4 - 6 “God sent His son born of son, born of a woman, subject to law. God sent Him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that He could adopt us as his own very children. And because we are His children, God has sent the Spirit of His son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, Abba Father. Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.”

Now more than ever before Christmas has become very important. In a world where all sorts of people are celebrated for every evil thing; believers are left with no option but to greatly celebrate and make a lot of noise about everything concerning our faith. From the bible account, the celebration was loud even on the actual day He was born; both in heaven and on earth it was announced with a lot of noise. It is time to borrow a leaf from the bible account of the announcement of the birth of our Saviour. God is not coming down to earth to do it, He will do it through us so this is another opportunity to celebrate let us take advantage of it. No one who was once a slave and is now enjoying liberty should be silent at this time when the birth of the deliverer is celebrated. The unique thing about this deliverer is that He has the power, still desires to and is still delivering slaves from that same form of slavery today. Who knows, because of your announcement, somebody may get saved.

Luke 2: 13 “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God”

Have you noticed that people are no longer subtle? Everyone fights to be loud so they can attract attention so that the subtle ones are drowned. We may not want to be loud all the time but when the season permits, like at Christmas, I believe it is time to go loud and also loudly proclaim the reason for the season. Even if ordinarily, we often look sad and defeated, this is one Christmas when we must make a decision to rejoice. I know that there are people who have very good reasons to be sad because of the recent turn of events in their lives; but I really would like to encourage you to rejoice. We don’t often rejoice because of the turn of events in our lives but because we have a hope and we know that He who has asked that we rejoice is always is working to give us even more reasons to do so. Today however, rejoice for Christ who came that He destroy every work of satan that we may have joy and that our joy may be full.