“Since you have never traveled this way before, they will guide you. Stay about half a mile behind them, keeping a clear distance between you and the Ark. Make sure you don’t come any closer.” (Joshua 3:4).
It was a déjà vu moment for Kung’u. “It feels like I have been in this place before.” He thought to himself. “Or did I read in in a book?” He further thought as he attempted to make sense of what was going through his mind.
He recalled a book he had read titled “The Road less travelled” by Scott Peck, a 20th century psychiatrist. He had read the book after a recommendation by a friend and had identified strongly with the message of the book. Among the themes in the book, one had really stuck with him. Something Scott called ‘maturity of love’, but his mind had digressed. He realized the feeling was not about the book, even though he appreciated it as a good read.
For a while before that moment, Kung’u had felt like he was at a fork on the road. The picture that came to his mind was that of a highway with many people , all flowing in the same direction. Some were slow, others fast , others were spectating and others were struggling to keep the pace. Still others were hesitant travelers not sure to keep going or if there could be another way.
This last category was a torn lot. They had a pull to go forward by the promise some seemingly short distance ahead of them. They had been moving for this promise of better tomorrow for a while, but were beginning to wonder whether the promise was a mirage. “Maybe after the next turn we will find the destination.”, they had felt severally. On the other hand they had this discontent that kept them constantly thinking that there must be another way.
They had come across several forks and wondered whether that was a better path, but the pressure to conform to the popular path where the majority were could not allow them to take the alternate path. There were times they had taken alternate paths, but therewith found that people increase on the path with time and it turned out to be highways eventually.
Kung’u was among the hesitant ones and he was at yet another fork.
“What is in that path to interest anyone?” some of his friends wondered aloud that he could even think of it.
“Is there even a path there?” another had asked.
“How is it that they cannot see this path?” Kung’u wondered to himself silently.
“You will have to create the path yourself for I cannot see anything where you want to branch.” Another retorted as if reading his mind.
It then dawned on Kung’u that he could be seeing something that others around him were not seeing.
But, how?
“What is this all about?” Kung’u asked in his mind.
As if giving an answer to his own question, a voice from within him answered,
” There is a path that only you can walk. That is not a physical path, but a spiritual path. It is a path that is walked in the heart and since it is inside of you, no one can walk that path with you. That is the reason others are not seeing it. It is the way of the kingdom of God, which is within you. Your spirit within you is made in the image of God and for communion with Him. Other people around you may only see the outward manifestation of the kingdom of God within you. Your spirit in communion with God’s Spirit, leading your submitted soul(intellect, emotions, and will) to outwardly bear fruits that God has called you to bear. “
Then Kung’u recalled Jesus’ words,
“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” (Matt 7:13-14)(NLT)
There was a moment of depressed feeling in those words before he recalled some other words by Jesus,
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”Matt 11:28-29 (NLT)
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah30:21)
Sometimes last week, I needed to buy a bible. Being in a new city, I had to search the internet both for the book store that would be likely to stock such, and for the directions.
Though it was a distance I decided to use a bicycle which I figured would serve the dual purpose of site seeing and physical exercise. Fortunately for me, the routes in the city are very well captured in Google maps.
At first I could look at the map and then check again at the next turning to confirm I was still on track. With time however, I realized that the audio directions were also working – you know the lady that says, “in 600 meters turn right”?
After increasing the volume on my phone, I put it in my pocket and continued cycling. Every some distance from a turning, Google would faithfully say, “in 500 meters turn left on such street.”
When there was a long stretch, Google would tell me, “continue for 1 km on such street”, to reassure me that I am still on track.
It was not all smooth however as there were a couple of times I either took a turn too soon, or went past the turn. At one point I lost the GPS signal and another time Google told me to make a ‘U’ turn.
Earlier in the day, I had read Isaiah 30:21. It later occurred to me how my riding experience had parallels with the message of the verse.
A coincidence?
I do not think so. I believe the Lord was communicating to me that He leads those that wait on Him. The learning for me was that it was not about making all the right turns, but rather being attentive at all times (even when there are detours ) and trusting the voice to direct every step to the final destination.
One more thing I observed is that the more I rode in response to the instruction I was hearing, the more confident I became in trusting the voice. This brings Heb 5:14 to mind, “….who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil. “ There is a sharpness of hearing God’s voice that comes with exercising the spiritual senses and obeying the voice of our Shepherd.
Beloved of God, you will make many turns in your life journey. Whether to the right or to the left, wait on Him, and you shall hear His voice directing you.
Wait on the Lord!
“18Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.” (Isaiah 30) (emphasis are mine)
The first day I met you is still vivid in my mind. Accompanied by your last born daughter, I had come to your home to express my interest in her which was going to be a very defining moment. It was a bit intimidating at first to face your whole family alone – I had requested just to see you and Mom, but you had insisted that I had to meet the whole family. This sense of fear however ended up being unfounded as you, and indeed the whole family made me feel very welcome.
You were an answer to my prayer as I had always longed to have somebody I could call Dad, having grown without one. I confess that I was initially disappointed as I had this mental picture of a macho man who commands authority through machismo.
This has since changed to enormous respect and admiration as I have interacted with you and the story of your life. Your calmness that could easily be mistaken for weakness is understood better when you spoke.
The wisdom of your few words is evidenced by the family you have raised. One can only imagine what it took you to take care and raise not only your own family of 7 children, but also your siblings starting at an early age of 20 when your own father passed away.
The highlight of your impact in my life has been through my interaction with your daughter that you graciously allowed me to have her hand in marriage. One of the character traits that attracted me to her is her confidence and belief in the good of life.
This she does at even the toughest of seasons. For some time I thought it is just her personality, the sanguine type. This may be part true, but that is not the main one. I realized this as she ones made a statement, “One thing I’ve never doubted is my dad’s love for me.”
Later she was to tell me that your love for her helped her know our heavenly Father’s love better as she asked herself, “If my earthly father loves me like this, how much more my heavenly Father!?”
Dad, we’ll miss you, but we’ll ” not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” (1Thes 4:13b-14 NIV). We know you are with Jesus and we shall see you again.
Virginia is a very intelligent person especially in social matters. I often bounce off my thoughts on her just to pick her mind.
The other day, I asked her, “What is the difference between a Program and a Project?”
One of the things she said was ‘a project is time based while a program is more longer term.’
Reflecting on that answer I started seeing how the things that happen to us or we get involved in during our lives can be viewed as either a project or program.
But how?
Think with me of anything, say going to school, working on a job, raising a family, or even a small task of going shopping. All these things have one thing in common, they have have a start date, and an end date. Even each of our very lives on earth has a start date, and end date, birth date, and dying day.
Does that therefore mean that everything that happens to us is in the category of ‘Project’?
No!
And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. Rom 8:28 (BSB)
One other thing that differentiates a program from project is that a program is made up of several projects. Of course illustrations like these are limited, but please stay with me.
Looking at Rom 8:28, you will notice the two categories , project and program in ‘all things’ and ‘His purpose’ respectively. The ‘all things’ are time based while ‘His purpose’ is eternal.
This means that whatever is happening to you right now, or has happened in the past, or even in the future in the category of all things is being worked by God in fulfilling His eternal purpose.
Good or bad, the experiences you go through may not feel like there is any relationship with what God is working in you, but rest assured that God’s purpose for you that love Him will not be thwarted. His purpose is to conform all things to Christ, that He’d be All and in all.
We also note something else in the quoted verse, that all things are plural while His purpose is singular.
“But only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:42 (BSB)
Does that mean we ought to abandon everything of the temporal kind and withdraw into seclusion waiting for God to work out His purpose in us?
Again, No!
Going to school, going to work, shopping, etc are necessary for this life, but they are temporal. It means that our heart focus is is to be singular on His purpose. It has less to do with what we are doing or involved in externally, and more with where our heart is.
How is that possible?
In the days of Martha and Mary referred above in Luke 10:42, there were two options available. One could either be at the feet of Jesus listening to Him, or in the kitchen taking care of necessary affairs of this life, but not both.
In our day however, the choices have been made easier as we can take care of temporal affairs as we are involved in the needful at the same time. Jesus has taken His abode in us that we can focus on Him as we go about taking care of ‘projects’.
Let me leave you with a quote I picked from Jeanne Guyon, “You see, by simply turning within to your spirit, you begin to acquire the habit of being near to the Lord and far from all else.”
May we be found dwelling in His presence at all times.
In 2017, my family and I left Nairobi for the coastal town of Mtwapa. I was not too sure what to expect, but had one desire on top of everything else – bearing the testimony of Jesus Christ. One afternoon in the estate where we first stayed, I spoke to one of the workers inviting him for a bible study in our house. He happened to be the same person that had shown us around the neighborhood in our first days.
He was hesitant at first, but somehow he reconsidered it and joined us. We had hoped to attract a bigger group of people, but ended up being just the three of us, Enock, Virginia (my wife) and I. He had no bible of his own and we gave him one (english/swahili parallel) we had bought for ourselves to learn the scriptures in Kiswahili.
For the next one year or so, we went through the scriptures together using a guide (discovering God), that emphasized reading, retelling, and application. This guide takes you through the bible story from Genesis to the gospels using selected portions of scriptures.
What we witnessed happening is a pelleting for God’s word that eventually led to personal responsibility for knowing God through the scriptures. We experienced it and observed this happen in Enock as his bible became a most precious treasure, reading it from beginning to end.
By the time we got to the story of Nichodemus coming to Jesus at night, Enock was ready to make a response to Jesus invitation to life and was asking, “What must I do to be saved?” “Repent and be baptized.”
We have since moved from the area, but have kept a close contact with Enock. The transformation that has taken place in his life has not only been in his personal life, but also in his desire to share the good news of the gospel that has changed his life. He shares the good news of Jesus Christ with everyone around him that cares to listen, saying that he’d like to do to others what was done for him, empowered to know God through the scriptures.
The people who knew him before marvel at how much he knows and how it has transformed his life. To those that are attracted to his life , he desires to give bibles and help them know the word of God for themselves.
We have tried to help Enock to the extent we are able to, but he still needs more bibles. Lately, he has been talking with some fishermen from whom he buys supplies for his fish business and they asked him for bibles. This is where I need your help.
If you would like to help us with bibles to be able to reach more people with the good news, please email me on maina.nuhu@gmail.com or henzolajeri@gmail.com . If you’d like to help, but would prefer to make direct purchases, you can purchase the bibles specifically for that work here@CLC or here@Bible Society of Kenya.
Irungu turned for the umpteenth time on his makeshift bed. This he did as if when he found the right position, he’d find the elusive sleep. It was definitely quite late, evidenced by the quietness outside in the night, the only sounds being those of neighborhood dogs barking, crickets, and some occasional croaking of frogs from the sleuth outside the pig pen.
Not that he often had a good night sleep, a practical impossibility with bedbugs all over him, and a tattered semblance of a blanket, but today was quite an exception. Often times, the tiredness from feeding the pigs on a hungry stomach, in addition to carrying of feeds from the stores to the feeding troughs, was so much that by the end of the day he would literally collapse on the bed out of exhaustion.
In the last couple of days however, Irungu had been finding it increasingly difficult to find sleep, today being the height of it. He had no way of telling the time, but he could estimate to around 3.00 AM. After a couple of more turns, he could hear a call to prayer from a distant mosque indicating it was already 5:00 AM.
By this time, he had mastered the number and position of trusses under the ceiling-less roof of the shed he called his bed room. What could one do when he had no sleep, but count the trusses on the under side of the tin roof?
Fortunately, there was some light rays from the security light outside, coming through spaces between the second hand iron sheets that made the shack roof. Another interesting occupation for the night was observing the ant formations as they journeyed from one end of the roof to the other in such synchrony they would render military match child play. These activities served as breaks to Irungu’s recurring thoughts of the good old days, which he had tried to brush off his mind previously, but today they were overly insistent.
In one instance, his mind went to the days before he left home and the picture of his bed room came to mind. It had been a cozy room, incomparable to the current place he was staying.
At home he did not know how the room got cleaned or even who did it. With servants all over the house, he only needed to put his used clothes in the dirty clothes bin and they’d be clean, folded in the wardrobe when he came back.
He did not know where food came from. He had to only appear on the dinning table at meal times and eat to his liking and fill. This, as he thought was a complete opposite of what he was experiencing now. He was emaciated for lack of good food. The clothes on him were tattered and he could not even remember when they were last off his body leave alone when they were last washed. He had literally no clothes to change to – in fact the jeans trouser he was putting on he had collected from a waste bin at the gate of the pig owners’ house.
“What would it be like to be back to my father’s house?” he had asked himself.
This question had been brushed aside previously, as it had sounded to him absurd or not even conceivable. After all he had taken all his inheritance and disconnected from his family.
All that had remained at home was practically his brother’s. But today, the thought of home had lingered and he had not so insisted to brush it off. He allowed his mind to ponder all the possibilities.
Irungu thought he had not even the audacity to call that home. He remembered vividly the words to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate1.” This literary meant that he had no share of the estate back home.
That however did not seem to stop the thoughts of home. The issue about the estate were a non issue in light of his condition with an empty stomach. Then as if a light bulb went on in his mind, he told himself,
”How many of my Father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death. I will set out and go to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son, make me like one of your hired men2”
By the time it was daylight, Irungu had made up his mind.
He was going back home.
He reasoned that it was better to face the wrath of his father, the jeers of his friends, and the embarrassment from onlookers, than the life he was living. A doorkeeper in his father’s house than these tents of wickedness3.
The journey back home was anything but easy. From the laborious walk giving a through beating to the already worn out body frame, to the wrestling of the mind and the second guessing of not knowing what to expect.
Would the father accept his proposition? Would he even want to see or listen to him? “But then, “, he continued reasoning,
“What is there to loose? If my father accepts my proposition, I live, if not I have tried. Why stay here and die? ”
To ease his anxiety , he told himself that the best is to wait for the reception he receives as nothing depended on him, but instead everything depended on his father’s reception of him.
With three days of walking, sometimes covering his face as he approached home lest somebody recognized him, his pace had reduced to slow steps, and a pause after every couple of them.
It was mid morning when he finally got to the finely paved road that the drive leading to his father’s homestead was. He could recognize that the trees that lined the drive way had grown since he’d been away. They now were overarching the way making some good covering and shade from the already scorching sun.
Part of him felt a sense of unworthiness stepping into the clean walkway with his shabby clothing on a skinny frame his body had become. On the other hand, part of him, albeit awkwardly had a serene feeling of belonging. That helped a bit in the trepidation he kept feeling as he imagined what awaited past the gate that stood in front of him just ahead, or would he even get beyond it?
These lingering thoughts did not take long to be responded to as they were shortly interrupted by an unmistakably familiar figure suddenly opening the gate and running towards him. He had to turn and look back and see whether there was anyone behind him that his father could be running to.
“How could he be running towards me after I have messed myself up like this? Maybe he wants to be sure I do not come any closer to his home!”, Irungu wondered as he stood waiting to see what would happen next.
His father, upon reaching where Irungu was, threw his hand around him and kissed him4.
Half confused, half delighted, Irungu was not sure how to respond to his father’s reception. He started mumbling his rehearsed script,
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.5”
By this time father and son were just about the gate, and the servants who had curiously followed their master to check why he had suddenly ran out of the gate uncharacteristically were also there waiting on their master. As if he had not heard his son, the father instead of responding to him, addressed the servants saying,
“Quick, bring the best robe and put on him, put a ring on his finger, and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead, and is alive again. He was lost and is found.6”
The rest of the day went on as if Irungu was in a daze. The excitement and the joy his coming back home brought his father was beyond his wildest imagination for a reception. The servants in response to the father’s instruction treated him like royalty, the very opposite of what he had asked of his father, to be treated as one of them.
The only interruption to their celebration was his brother’s reaction , as a servant told Irungu what he heard of the elder brother confronting their father,
“Look, all these years I have been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so that I could celebrate with my friends.7”
That cut real deep into Irungu’s heart, but it was was short-lived as he heard their Father’s response,
“My Son, you are always with me and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead, and is alive again. He was lost and is found.8 ”
To Irungu, only his father’s response mattered, and he knew, the brother also was obedient to the father and hence was able to receive him back. He was accepted back by the father and that was all that mattered.
That evening as Irungu lay on his cozy bed, he contrasted the realities coming to his senses had brought to his life against his life just three days prior. There were no more bedbugs, no trusses to count , and no safari ants to monitor. There was even no room for such thoughts as he easily drifted into sleep with a smile on his face. As he transitioned to dreamland he had this humbling thought of how little he knew his Father,
“but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord9.”
“You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” (Ps 32:7)
“Surely, things could not get worse.”, Paul thought to himself as he cuddled in a fetal position on the sofa. It was 10am already, but he did not have an iota of energy to get up.
He had stayed up late into the night pondering the series of events that had left him with no single cent in his pocket and having to keep evading creditors. The last one that had broken the camel’s back was an investment in cryptocurrency that had gone burst.
“Knock, knock”, came the sound from the door. “I am not going to open that door.”, Paul said to himself as a matter of fact. “Knock, knock”, came the sound again, this time Paul took a cushion and covered his face with it as if that will make the person knocking go away.
Then the knock came the third time, this time Paul decided to check who it was. He walked to the door holding his breath as to who it was this time.
He peeped through the key hole before opening and noticed that it was somebody he was sure he had not met. That made him relax a bit, albeit curious to know how a stranger had the boldness to insist on knocking without giving up. “How did he know that I was inside?” Paul wondered to himself.
Opening the door, the build and form of the strange visitor was more clearer than it had been through the pin hole. He was not particularly attractive, but had some aura of peacefulness (if there is such a word) that made him inviting.
At first he had struck Paul like one that needed his help, but a second look on his eyes revealed some tenderness that melted Paul’s barriers.
The smile in the man’s face had such genuineness that Paul just could not help but invite him inside. He found himself ushering his visitor inside, only to realize that he had earlier taken the single chair he had in his house to his study table in his bedroom.
The lone sofa did not seem appropriate for the guest because it had pillows all over, not to mention crumbs from his half eaten crisps that were his miserable dinner the previous evening.
Curiously, the visitor did not seem any way disturbed by the state of Paul’s house. As Paul went to his bedroom to pick the chair, the visitor waited admiringly at the entrance. His eyes never seemed to leave Paul as he observed him and around the room at some wall hangings Paul had put up.
By the time Paul came back with a chair, the room had been arranged in a better setting.
The small coffee table had been set in front of the sofa with some smaller stools at the edges. Paul set the chair on the opposite side of the sofa across the coffee table and invited his visitor to sit down.
As the visitor sat down, it hit Paul that it had not even occurred to him to say a word, even to ask who the visitor was or what his mission was. There seemed to be unspoken communication from his aura that he was up to some good.
As the visitor sat down, he immediately started to open a bag he had carried on his side, one that Paul had somehow not noticed up to now.
The first thing he brought out of the bag, to Paul’s great surprise was a clean crisp table cloth that he overlaid the table with. Next, he brought out two packets of packed lunch, and then a bottle of wine, and two clean glasses.
All this while, there had been no word spoken from either Paul or his guest. They both seemed to prefer communicating by action and observation. Top on Paul’s mind was how all that set on the table had fitted in that ugly looking, small bag that he had barely noticed earlier.
As the guest invited Paul to the meal he did not have words and started to pick a fork, still with eyes gazed on his visitor. With fork on one hand and his other hand on the sofa as if going to stand up, he started looking the visitor straight into his eyes.
The visitor was looking back at him while he noticed something interesting. It was as if as they looked into each other’s eyes, Paul on his part was feeling like he’s entering into the visitor, the way one enters a house, and on the other hand , the visitors eyes felt like they were exploring his inner most being.
Paul felt like his life was being laid bare in the eyes of the visitor, as if he had known him all his life. On his part, the more Paul looked into the eyes of the visitor, the more he felt like he’s getting to know him.
The aura he sensed in the beginning started to take different dimensions the more he gazed at his eyes. Paul realized that the aura or fragrance the visitor had was part of his character, in the very first sense was love, then peace, then forgiveness, then joy. The more Paul gazed at his visitor, the more these character traits began being reflected in the visitor.
Paul started enjoying the experience so much he forgot about the food. Time seemed to freeze with the calmness that flooded Paul’s heart. The anxiety that he had at first before opening the door to the visitor not knowing what he had come to do was all gone. It did not matter any more what had brought the visitor to his house. All he knew was that he could stay forever if he wanted.
It was several hours before Paul could come out of his hiding place. But not before some words started flooding his heart and mind as he gazed intently on his somehow strange visitor;
1. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”….(Psalms 91)
Paul’s experience with his visitor ended gradually when he started hearing a call to evening prayers from the local worship hall. As he started being conscious of his environment, he realized that he was no longer sitting up but rather lying on the sofa.
He had set down the folk and the lunch was still set as it had been. The only surprise is that the visitor was no longer there. He was for a moment a little confused by the experience. He did not know whether it was a dream or a real experience, but then the set table spoke volumes.
Just then, a knock from the door again got him up from the seat. This time round he was not afraid to open the door. He had some renewed confidence that whatever it was, he could handle it with the assurances from the hiding place.
Beloved, there is a place of refuge available for you and me. That place is actually a person, Christ our promised land. Available not just to visit, but also to abide. Christ in you and you in Him.
Joash sat with excitement in the 3rd row at the lecture theatre in his new school where the Christian Union (CU) fellowship was taking place. As he listened to other students share their testimonies of how Jesus had transformed their lives, he wished that the meeting would not end.
It had only been the previous weekend when he himself had an encounter with Jesus. This was in the school main hall where the CU had organized a gospel outreach to the students popularly known as Weekend Challenge.
During the Weekend Challenge meeting, Joash had sat at the middle of the hall with the other form one students. He listened keenly to the preacher, and responded immediately when the call for those who’d want to receive Jesus in their heart was made.
Tears of joy ran down his face as he walked to the front to join the others who had responded. The experience of the new birth and the lifting of the guilt of sin from his heart was so real, that for the next couple of days he was just smiling and desirous to hear more about Jesus.
That is how he could not afford to miss any of the CU fellowships and wished that the meetings would keep going. The meetings however could only be on weekends, and then only in the evenings up to 9:30pm.
For the next couple of weeks before the end of the school term, Joash was literally in every CU meeting to hear and share more about Jesus. As the end of term approached he longed to go home and share his new found faith with his family and friends.
After going home and continuing to share the good news with anyone close by him, he started noticing something. – Not everyone was as excited about his faith as he was, including some in the local church where he had grown up. Some started suggesting that he needs to be baptized by ‘much water’ to complete his salvation. Others had other suggestions according to their denominations.
By the time Joash went back to school, the initial joy of salvation had gone, and in its place was the unending need to be correct in his belief. That was the beginning of a life of denominational hopping in search of the true brand of Christianity that was to go on for years.
Fast forward to 3 decades later when Joash is grown and a family man. He is bemoaning the loss of the last 10 years of his life invested in the denomination he was a part of. He had just left after falling out of favor with leadership when he burned out and insisted on taking a break from service, to focus on his personal life & family.
It is in this state of reflecting on how he has lived his Christian life that his thoughts take him to the day that he opened his heart to Jesus in the school hall at 14 years old. He starts smiling as he recalls the joy that flooded his heart that night.
As his mind lingered on that moment decades earlier, he started realizing that he was actually experiencing the same joy that moment. It was as if the Jesus he had encountered those many years before was telling him, “I’m here, as I’ve always been. It is you who have had your focus elsewhere.”.
The realization that Jesus was with him and that He wants Josh to spend time knowing Him was so refreshing, he immediately resolved to have Him as his single occupation for the rest of his life. He realized what Mary must have gotten hold of when Jesus said of her,
The story of Joash is my story, a story that can be different if a new believer is introduced to the life of faith as a journey of developing a relationship with Christ, increamentally knowing Him, as opposed to a never ending list of religious obligations.
Donna Lee Batty in her new book, “To The Young Believer” does a very good job at setting the believer (both new and old) on the all important journey of knowing the Lord. I recommend it to all that desire to know the Lord intimately. You can check it out here.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8)
Recently my family and I had a chance to watch a move named, “Freedom” . The movie was about a family attempting to escape slavery in the southern states of USA to the free Canada in the north, through the renown Underground Railroad.
I didn’t realize though that the movie was a bit age inappropriate for the younger ones. One of them was woken up by a nightmare that night. The mistreatment of the slaves is extreme, and should not be done to anyone.
On the more positive side of the movie experience, I have to say that I just stumbled on it as I was searching for something for us to watch together. The title, “freedom” attracted me and the curious me wanted to know what about freedom it was talking about.
On one part, the movie told of the third generation of slaves escaping from their owners, while it paralleled it with the journey of the first generation from the slave port in African to the slave market at the shores of America on the other.
The story has a nice ending where the slave family finally crosses the border to the free Canada with the help of some Christians. This freedom is worth celebrating, but I also saw in the movie some other kind of freedom that could easily escape the notice of a casual watcher.
There are two notable characters in the voyage of the slave ship from Africa to America. One was Newton, the ship captain and the other was Ozias, the interpreter. Newton was a freeman, while Ozias was a slave, with a collar around his neck.
Ozias was in the ship to assist the slave traders communicate with the slaves from the point of purchase and through the whole journey. He had a very endearing character of being an encouragement to others, both the slaves and the traders. He spoke, and sang hope to the hopeless and sobering truth to the conscience of the proud.
Ozias’ faith in God was from a personal encounter with Him, as he had shared with Newton at the beginning of the voyage. Newton on the other hand did not believe in God, as he sang once, “If you are drowning in the sea, will God keep you afloat.”, and as he told Ozias, “I’ve learnt to expect nothing from God.”
At some point in the journey, there was a big storm that threatened to wreck the whole ship with all on board. Though the storm eventually calmed down, Ozias was one of the victims of the storm. He succumbed to effects of battling with the storm, but not before reminding Newton that it was God that had saved them. Interestingly, this time Newton concurred.
On his deathbed, Ozias, with the captain beside him was still smiling, a character that had distinguished him free indeed though still an earthly slave. The captain, though considered a freeman had until that night been a slave of his “privileged heritage”. As Ozias breathed his last, and on his, Newton’s, part cut the collar on the neck to free him, he also became truly free calling Ozias his brother.
The captain who had previously not believed in God had his own encounter with Him that night, an experience that transformed him from that day. He was truly free and that became his last dealing in that trade. He went on to share of his conversion during his wedding that followed soon after he went back home.
That story, especially the two characters really spoke volumes to me in that area of true freedom. This is an issue I’ve been wrestling with asking, “When one becomes born again, do they of necessity get free from all adverse circumstances?”
Reading from that experience and those of many faithful believers, it doesn’t seem to be guaranteed. But what does that mean? It seems to me that if you are in union with Christ, it doesn’t matter your circumstances, He is with you in whatever you are to go through.
“…20Each one should remain in the situation he was in when he was called. 21Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let it concern you— but if you can gain your freedom, take the opportunity. 22For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman. Conversely, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave.…” (1Cor 7.)
In light of the freedom Christ in us brings, other circumstantial inconveniences of this life become shadows. “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (Rom 8:18)”
I do recognize that freedom from slavery is an emotive topic, but the pursuit of that freedom is outside the scope of this post. My focus is the freedom that is universally available to all that would believe in the true freedom Giver, Christ Jesus!
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free,” (Luke 4:18)”
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. (John 15:13)
The moment I saw Josh walk through the gate, I knew there was something terribly wrong. It did not take him more than five steps before breaking down in tears , proving my suspicion right. I had to run to support him from his staggering walk. As awkward as it felt at first, I found myself providing a shoulder for him to cry on.
African men are not supposed to cry, but Josh was no typical man. He had his stack of stories for his atypical life. Even then, it was the first time to see him cry and I could only try and fill up for myself what could have happened – he just kept mumbling words in the line of, “ndugu yangu, kwa nini haya? (my brother, why these?)”
With little expertise in comforting crying men, I allowed my Josh to cry and sob, as much as he needed to before asking the details of what had happened. The last time we had spoken was the previous day and I knew he was on night shift at work, so I thought it had to be something to do with how he found his family when he came back in the morning.
As it turned out, his boss had later in the evening given him permission to be off-duty from work, and he had decided not to wait till morning to go home. As late as it was, he decided to pick a bike home and spend the night there as he could sleep-in the following morning as a well deserved rest from the busy week.
He was however not prepared for what he found at home. While his children were fast asleep, his wife was not at home. “Where could she be?” , Josh wondered.
True to his latest characteristic of exercising himself on listening to the guidance of the inner voice, he started to walk out of his compound to some blocks around the neighborhood. It was like a voice telling him turn there, walk to the left, forward, and then right, until he found some three people in a distance by the side walk.
As he approached them, he could not figure out the faces in the dimly lit walkway, but the voices were becoming discernable. To his amazement on one hand, and the accuracy of the inner voice guidance on the other hand, one of the voice was that of his wife, and her position in relation to one of the men was less than one would expect of a married woman.
“What are you doing with my wife here at this hour?” Josh paused, but before an answer could be given, two blows had landed, one on the man, and another on the wife. As Josh was narrating this, he was also saying, “God will forgive me.”
Long story short, what followed after that was a very intense season of seeking the Lord for guidance on what to do going forward in the backdrop of that magnitude of betrayal. I must admit that at that point I felt inadequate to advise him on what to do.
I could only encourage him to do what I had told him a couple of times before, “let the Lord show you what to do”. I know it is supposed to be good advise, but somehow that time it felt inadequate. At the back of my mind the story of Hosea and Gomer appeared.
Fast forward to when we were catching up recently, almost an year after that incidence. It was as if the series of events were five years compressed into those intervening months. After wrestling with a decision on how to move forward, he had forgiven his wife and decided to give her a chance to change her ways.
This may have been the best decision according to Josh, but did not go well with those around him. He had made the decision and kept it between his God, his wife and the men, and himself, but as the saying goes, “no secret between three”, and somehow the information found its way to the parents and siblings.
His own family demanded that the wife goes back to her parents home until they go for her. He on his part obliged as his position was, “anything that will bring peace and unity at home.” It however turned out that there was no intention to go for her, but rather to do away with her. He was told that if he went for her, he’d have to leave the family home and join his wife anywhere , but in that compound. According to them, he was bringing disrepute to their respectable family, and was weak in not being able to control and manage his wife.
In all this, he maintained his position that, it is true his wife had done wrong, but he had forgiven her, and that to him it was simply because he loves her. As he shared these things, he said something that I thought quite profound. He said, “all these I cannot do it on my own, I cannot do it. It is God that has enabled me.” I’ve thought about that since, and how true it is. Further I started seeing the picture of Christ and His bride in Josh’s Story:
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness,” Jeremiah 31:3.
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” Eph 5:25.
“He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.” 1Thes 5:10.
As I write this, Josh is together with his bride, who is simply smitten by her husbands love, even as everyone around him has advocated for their going separate ways.
Life beyond the walls 