“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)
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.”
“20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.“ Gal 2:20 NKJV �
Recently I noticed some development at the initial stages of a phenomenon I had observed earlier over a stretched period in my younger years. In those days, it was just something interesting to observe, but this time round, it spoke to me so much about Christ who is our life, I had to share it here…
In the earlier observation, there was a huge tree at a very prominent place in the homestead I grew up in. The tree used to supply the family with poles from its branches for use in the farm.
Whenever a branch was cut, another shoot would grow in its place and eventually grow to be used for poles.
At some point, there was a branch stump that dried after being cut, leaving some kind of hole that would collect dust and water. With the little water and soil from dust in that hole, another completely different species of tree started growing. A “sower” must have scattered the seed there and it found some good soil to germinate.
The new tree was growing very fast, so much so that in the three month period of a boarding school term, we would come home to notice significant difference.
One would expect the tree to wither as it grew on very little soil, but it had its way. As the shoot was growing upwards towards the sunlight, it was producing roots that were growing downward towards the ground.
“The remnant of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward”. (Is 37:31, 2 Kings 19:30)
The roots seemed to have a two fold purpose. On one part the roots were seeking nutrients for the fast growing tree, and on the other, they were providing support as they seemed to hug the host tree. As the roots reached the ground and round the host tree, they became bigger and bigger, and started merging forming part of the stem.
“30 He must increase, but I must decrease” ( John 3 ESV )
As the roots for the new tree grew downwards and thicker into the stem, the branches on the other hand grew upwards, eventually starting to get higher than the host tree.
What would previously be referred to being one, was now evident to any observer that there were two each of its own kind.
The older tree decreased in visibility, as the new tree became more prominent until one would be excused to identify the tree as the new only.
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.(Eph 4. NIV)
As the new tree became bigger, it seemed to quench the life of the old tree out of it. The old tree became weaker and weaker and eventually dried out. After the old tree dried out, the new tree started closing the spaces previously occupied by the older tree and forming a smooth stem.
One could now only see the new tree, but for the spaces of the previous tree yet to be covered. The tree has since been cut to give way for other development, but the picture is still etched in my mind – the increase of Christ until He becomes All and in all.
Back to the developing tree on our current compound.
It was quite a disappointment earlier this week to notice that someone clearing the area cut the budding tree down including some of the roots that had started to grow downwards.
It felt so bad, my first response was to ask God to restore it to life – I literally prayed for it. For a while it felt like the unfolding picture was gone, until I remembered that we treated the tree in the earlier time the same.
“Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. (Is 11:1 NASB.)”
We severally tried to cut it off the old tree, but every time we would cut it, it’d come back more aggressively. With this remembrance I was encouraged to realize that there is yet a lesson to learn of Christ, that He is the…..;
“…one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life.” Heb 7:16 (Emphasis mine)
In less than a week during this “slow down” time, I’ve been able to go through the old testament of the bible in summary form.
This has been made possible through the action bible, a pictorial comic-like version that highlights the major stories in the bible narrative chronologically.
Incidentally, I’ve always considered it as only useful for children, and hence not read it through before. This time round it was hard to put it down once I started reading it.
What I particularly liked about it is that one is able to go through the narrative as a continuous unfolding story of God’s relationship to man. In that unfolding story, it is easy to note the consistency of God’s character of love and justice and His being intentional in the relationship.
On the flip side of the relationship, the inconsistency of man in his character and response to God’s expectation of him is also obvious. Man is sometimes acknowledging the sovereignty of God and during those times he prospers and is at peace, at other times he pursues his interests independent of God and falls into disfavor with Him.
At crisis times, like the world finds itself in right now, we are bound to ask ourselves whether there is something God is communicating to us through the crisis. My take on that is that God has already spoken and if we are listening we will hear what he’s been saying all the while.
What crisis like the one we are in has the potential of doing is to cause us to listen. May the Lord be gracious to grant us eyes to see, and ears to hear what the His Spirit is communicating.
One of the communication that to me stood out in, and seems to summarize the narrative of the relationship between God and man is in the King’s dream in Daniel 2. In the vision, he saw successive kingdoms of men’s civilization, and how they were all going to end at some point.
36 “This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king.37 Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory;38 in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
39 “After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay.42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle.43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.
“The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”
There is however a unique and distinct kingdom that is set up at those times that has no end. This is not like any of the kingdoms of men, but of God that crashes all other kingdoms. Once it is set up, its expansion has no end. The Price of this Kingdom reigns with a scepter of righteousness.
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:7)
But unto the Son He saith, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy Kingdom. (Heb 1:8)
Nature of the Kingdom:
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, (Rom 14:17)
When is this Kingdom coming?
Some believe that the kingdom of God is coming with the second coming of Jesus, but I see differently from the bible. In response to the pharisees’ inquiry, Jesus had this to say,
20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21)
This means the Kingdom has been on earth since Jesus time on earth, and has been expanding on earth through the saints that have believed.
God’s present speaking:
We started with asking ourselves what God is speaking, and I think it important to ask further, how He is speaking. In Heb 1:1, the bible contrasts for us how He spoke in previous times, and how He’s been speaking since the introduction of His kingdom on the earth:
“1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways,2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. (Heb 1)”
What is He saying?
There are some people who consider crisis like the current one as judgement from God. I do not dispute, but I think that there is a final judgement that is coming at the end of the age. In the meantime, Jesus did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
In that light then, this is what the Lord is saying (as He has been saying):
“I have loved you so much, that I have given my only begotten Son, that if you believe in Him, you shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” ( Paraphrase of John 3:16)
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. (Mat 11:28)
But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” (John 4;14)
Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32)
Beloved, this is your hour, not because it’s a new speaking, but because you are hearing it, for
behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. ( 2Cor 6:2 )
I believe that this speaking is both for those not yet in , and those already in the kingdom. Because of the ever expanding and immeasurable nature of this Kingdom, there will always be an element we need to apprehend of the kingdom of Christ.
Sometimes the very things that worked in our pursuit of God (aka traditions) in previous times could be the very ones that we need to drop to be focused entirely on Christ, the King of the Kingdom.
NB: The last two years I’ve heard the word “utterness” severally and have wondered what it means, and how to apply it. Now I think I am beginning to understand – The Lord is requiring our total surrender to Him if we are to walk with Him victoriously in these times we are living in. “Not one hoof will be left behind!”
Peter is a 19 year old man that I met last year, but only started spending time with last month. The good news is that he received the salvation Christ offers some two weeks ago.
It is as he sought to understand how to live the new life in Jesus that he asked me, “mzee (Swahili word for old man – a salutation I have accepted as I approach 50), there is something I’d like to let you know, now that I have accepted Jesus.” “Yes Peter.” I curiously quip. “You know I smoke weed. Do you think it is okay to do so when I am a Christian?”
If I was asked that question was some years ago, the answer would have been an outright, “NO” with capital N. “go home and burn every trace of the weed and never smoke it again.” But that time is passed now; so I was a little diplomatic, trying to hide my shock as much as possible. What has happened since to tamper my response?
Growing up in traditional conservative Christian environment, some of the gravest sins that one had to leave behind after conversion were smoking, and drinking. I carried that perspective with me even to adulthood. One can only imagine my surprise when one day in a new church I received an invite from the men’s group leader with a note to carry with me my smoking pipe. As you’d imagine the first time I could not get myself to go – reason being that it was to be hosted in a Brew & bistro joint I felt not comfortable with.
Later in the same church I started attending a men’s home bible study fellowship only to realize that not only was there beer drinking, but there was a bar counter at the backyard which meant a provision in the home had been made for that lifestyle in hosting guests.
I was later to encounter a very serious (from my evaluation) believer who had a smoking pipe as his signature image. One does ask, “what happened that softened my stand?” Did those things stop being sin, or were they not sinful in the first place? Or, maybe I was conforming to the culture?
This is what I think happened – I understood that it is not that one becomes righteous because they do not sin, it is that a righteous man does not sin.
“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”. (1John 3:9)
“8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:” (John 16:8)
This to me means that the first step is to receive a righteousness that is not of our works, but of Christ Jesus, our righteousness.
It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. (1Cor 1:30)
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2Cor 5:21)
It is then that the new born spirit receives the indwelling Lord and is convicted of the undesirable things in the life He has taken residence.
Back to our conversation with Peter. I thought of using the route of why he smokes, to which he answered that it gives him psyche to work.
I asked him to consider why those athletes that take steroids to enhance their performance are punished when they are discovered. Of course he was able to say that it is because they are cheating – the performance is not their real self. I stopped that line of reasoning there as food for thought.
Then I said to him that my opinion was that he should consider the approach of what the habit benefits him with, by asking himself, “what value is this habit to me?” From there he’s able to make a decision out of his own conclusions.”
““All things are lawful for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me”—but I will not be controlled by anything. NET (1Cor 6:12)”
By this time, he had become more open to share even how he started out of an influence from a friend, and the way it cost him a job as he acted like a mad person. Out of that he was also able to share how he desires to stop, but is unable. “Now, you have Jesus in you to help you – ask Him.”
Last time we were together two days ago he told me he had stopped smoking the weed 2 days earlier and the desire for it has gone completely.
I believe Peter was a Christian even when he smoked the weed, but not sure of its benefit to him. I praise Jesus for setting him free.
“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. KJV (John 8:36)”
Let us walk in this awesome freedom Christ has secured for us!
“32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.”(Heb 11.)
Earlier last month, my family moved to the coastal city of Mombasa, some 500km from the city we’ve always called home. I however, have still some things to do in Nairobi so I’ve been shuttling every week to and fro – thanks to the new railway service.
As the train traverses the Savannah plains that is the land between Nairobi and Mombasa, one watching through the windows cannot fail to notice how fast local life passes by. From the remote villages of the vast Kamba land to the diverse wild animals of the Tsavo, one only gets a glimpse of what happens.
Given the speed of the train, there is little to experience along the way, and eventually one starts looking forward to the destination. I have wondered more than once what it would be like to experience the village life and graze cattle in the same place I see the wild animals.
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Further I’ve thought how similar our experience of the journey of faith can be:
On one part, one can look at the train journey as a life where one believes in Jesus, departs from Nairobi, and then speeds to Mombasa – heaven to meet Jesus there.
Another can be viewed as a walk with the Lord (like journey to Emmaus) where a couple of you depart Nairobi with Him when you believe, walk with him through the wildlife inhabited plains, for many days unlike the 5 hours on the train, encounter challenges with Him along the way , and scale all of them with Him. You get to the destination Mombasa, having not only arrived victoriously, but also bonded immensely with Him as you’ve experienced life in Him together.
Given a choice between the two, I’d rather the walk – tough, but immensely satisfying.
“11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), 12 it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.”” Rom 9.
When we are introduced into how this world works as little children, we grow up knowing that as the path to fulfillment; get good education, get a means of livelihood, start and raise a family, and then the cycle is repeated by the next generation.
Somewhere along the way, we encounter the Lord Jesus and a new worldview is introduced. “31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God[e] above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. (Matt 6.)”.
There is a danger that lies in not apprehending the fullness of the implications of the new life, the new paradigm, and this is the danger; taking the new life as a support for the natural pursuits. How is this expressed? In our prayers, we’ll be found asking the Lord to bless our pursuits as if that is the reason we believed in Him, to give us success in the world.
The new paradigm requires that the nourishment and growth of the new man of the spirit in Christ becomes the new pursuit while everything else serves that pursuit. For example in my current circumstance, I trusted God for a job and He gave me one, but I have found challenges during the time that have pushed me to almost quit. Lately however, I have thought that sometimes I get this thing the reverse way i.e. the pursuit of the Lord serving my natural circumstances, while it ought to be the other way round.
I believe the right way is God using my natural circumstances to serve His spiritual end which is conformity to the image of His Son. “28 And we know that God causes everything to work together[m] for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.(Rom 8)”
God’s end in His dealings with us is our conformity to the image of His Son. This process takes the form of our daily circumstances, be they good, not so good, or bad to our natural man and our response to the circumstances.
Are we going to respond carnally or is our response informed by the ever willing and present guide, the indwelling Holy Spirit? More than once He’s stopped me in the middle of ‘standing for my rights’, or ‘giving a piece of my mind’ in an unfair situation. I believe part of the reason God allows us to go through sometimes very trying situations is to bring us to a place of total dependence on Him.
“Are not even servants in my father’s house eating to their fill, and here I am scavenging with pigs to feed myself? I will go back to my Father….” (Luke 15:17-18)
Three years ago, I left an employment of fifteen + years to be self employed. I figured that with the flexible nature of self employment, I’d have more time to do the things I really want to do, not just the ones I have to do.
Like most things in our lives, that phase did not go as planned/hoped and I found myself very hard pressed even sometimes incapable of putting food on the table for myself and my family. I wish that I can say like some Christian friends that they trusted God entirely and somehow God always provided – but I can’t. Sometimes I had to ask for help from friends. It was a tough two years until sometime earlier this year when I got an 8 – 5 job.
That period, though very trying , had lots of lessons I feel could not have been learnt any other way, but by experience. One of the lessons I learnt, and still learning is to look up to God for my needs, trusting Him to determine the means through which these needs would be met. The means ranged from unsolicited gifts from friends and family , short term work, and sometimes remembering sources long forgotten like some stocks.
By the time my current job came, it was a welcome relief from the anxiety of not knowing where the next meal will come from. A couple of months down the line, I am starting to be conscious of the risk of losing something very precious acquired during that phase of our lives, dependence on God.
…be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. (Deut 6:12)
Like any other place of work, my job has its own kind of challenges, but for us believers, we must be careful not to let our jobs become our source, such that our faith is no longer entirely on God, but shifts to the job.
The question then becomes, “how do I keep my trust in God for my upkeep/provision while I have a guaranteed income?” This is a question I am still grappling with, to which I think we can find some help from the scriptures.
“…., but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you…(Matt 6:33)”
There is a time I thought that our relationship with God helps us succeed in life in a worldly sense, health, wealth, power, etc, but I have come to appreciate that well apprehended, a relationship with God detaches us from the things of this life, leaving it to Him to add them to us as He deems necessary; “He knows that we need them,”
Beloved, let us keep our trust and hope entirely in the Lord, not in things, even the ones He has given us; for, in Christ, the Father has given us all we need for life and godliness.
“Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.”(Ps 146:5)