Date Archives November 2018

The Word Of God ( A Guest Post)

Guest Posts The Christian Faith 14 Comments

Hiiii everyone.
I hope you’ve had a wonderful week. My week seemed really long but great all the same.
Did you read Bukunwa’s guest post last week? Here’s another interesting piece.
Settle in for a treat. ?

Name’s Bukunwa.
I’m a student. An engineering student ? although I’m not too techyy like that but I like solving problems.
I love nature. I enjoy walking in beautiful gardens or by the river line.. all these serene places. I look forward to having more of those experiences. Not alone only… but with someone special hopefully.
I love theology and history and biographies that are somehow connected with Israel and the church. I actually enjoy reading stuff like that.
I also like having deep discussions with people and I like games kinda… though people say I’m serious too…

The Word of God

Some people say music is food for the soul. For others, it’s the breath-taking view of nature landscapes and scenery that gives them goose bumps. For others still, it’s beautiful artwork. Those paintings and frescoes and classical, majestic works of art that instantly transport you into another world. The idea is that these things sort of refresh and awaken the soul. They provide a unique sweetness, satisfaction, pleasure and comfort to the person enjoying them.
However, for those of us in Christ, our food is God’s Word. God’s beautiful voice that takes us away just as the voice of a lover does to his beloved. His comforting, fatherly, loving, spiritually nutritional and eternal Word is what the soul of the believer needs and naturally yearns for. We live by the Word of God. It is our everyday food.
See how King David the Psalmist and a lover of God puts it:

The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

The Word of God is true and sure and sweeter than honey and enduring. It converts the soul. It reaches down deep within, and causes volumes of joy to gush out.
It rejoices the heart. It enlightens the eyes. We are to desire it more than we desire gold or ‘big money’. Take the money, give me the sweet Word of God!
We are to desire His Word: If you love God, you will love the sweet sound of His voice and the words contained therein. You will desire His Word because it pierces your heart with His beautiful fragrance and also because it is the window that grants us to a clear view of His majesty.
The Word is filled with His knowledge, nature and attributes. There’s nothing more rapturous for the believer than to continuously ascend the mountain of God’s revelation. This is what the Word of God offers us richly. 1 Peter 2.2 says that as new-born babes, we ought to desire the pure milk of the Word, so that we may grow thereby. It is very normal and healthy for a believer to long for and regularly feast on God’s Word. God’s Word is sweeter than honey and more precious than gold.
The thing about the desire we ought to have is its burning, zealous, flaming and impassioned nature. We ought to terribly yearn deeply for God’s Word. It’s a Spirit-provoked hunger. It’s the same way the babies (who have weak bones, muscles and cannot walk, talk etc.) cry so loudly when they’re hungry. You dare not sleep around them. You cannot. They’re weak everywhere else but not those vocal cords. Not at all. The loudness of their wailings is just out of proportion. How intense is your love for God’s Word? How long have you been living life without being nourished by God’s Word?
Kindly consider how much you need the nourishment and life from God’s Word. Pray for a revival of the love for His Word in your heart.
A very important key to studying the Word
Understanding the meaning:
Suppose I say,

“Debby, kindly put just three cubes in the cup of tea on the dining table”.

Simple right? So Debby puts three cubes of St. Louis sugar in the hot cup of tea on the table. I arrive few minutes after and I’m speechless. I actually needed that tea very urgently and I dare not take anything hot or my stomach would suffer for it badly. I actually meant ice cubes! Oops!
Did Debby fully understand me? Of course not! She did not get the actual meaning of what I said. She didn’t get what I meant. To her, it meant sugar cubes. To me, it meant ice cubes. So where does the true meaning of my statement lie? With her or with me? Obviously, it’s with me. The meaning of a statement always lies with the author of that statement. It is the author who actually knows most fully what exactly he or she intends to communicate.
Therefore, when we study scriptures, let us quit asking

“what does this mean to me”?

Let us start asking what it actually means. What it actually meant to the bible writers (and most surely, the Holy Spirit who inspired them). We would be greatly mistaken (many of us already are) if we just spin off scripture and interpret it as we perceived it. That’s error! We must seriously strive to find out,

“what did this mean to the apostle as he wrote this down”?

What exactly was the issue in his heart that he was trying to communicate?
We will all be amazed by how much this mind-set will drive us to such accuracy and diligence in studying what scripture actually says. We would tend to read through the train of thought and not just pick one verse out of context. We would have a richer and deeper meaning of God’s message in His Word.
Most people see the scriptures through their subjective, twenty-first century, skewed lenses. The mind-set targeting the author’s intention would remove those misleading (subjective, twenty-first century) lenses and lead to a clearer gaze at the beautiful and very pure truth that ran through the mind of the authors of the scripture. This would most surely lead to a more accurate understanding of what the Grand Author meant to communicate to us.
There’s so much more to say. However, I believe by God’s grace, these few words would serve to stir you in the deepening of you love for God’s Word.
Amen.

Breaking News (A Guest Post).

Guest Posts The Christian Faith 8 Comments

Hiiii guys.
A friend of mine is doing the writing today. I’ve known Bukunwa for quite a while and today he’s writing on both a bad and good news.
Keep reading. ?

Name’s Bukunwa.
I’m a student. An engineering student ? although I’m not too techyy like that but I like solving problems.
I love nature. I enjoy walking in beautiful gardens or by the river line.. all these serene places. I look forward to having more of those experiences. Not alone only… but with someone special hopefully.
I love theology and history and biographies that are somehow connected with Israel and the church. I actually enjoy reading stuff like that.
I also like having deep discussions with people and I like games kinda… though people say I’m serious too…

Hello.
This is a breaking news because it’s worth your attention a million times over. It has to do with eternal life. I mean, you shouldn’t sleep every night and wake up in peace if you don’t have peace with God, are not in a relationship with Him, or have no concrete hope of eternal life.
So I want to briefly share the gospel. What is the gospel?
The gospel is good news. It is not some good news that doesn’t affect anybody like ‘the eagle at the top of the inhabitable Mt. Everest has given birth to three chicks. Awwwn! So cute!’ It’s not that kind of good news. It’s good news that tremendously and eternally affects you. It’s amazing news!
What makes it so amazing is that there was only BAD NEWS and looming disaster before the GOOD NEWS majestically walked in. That’s really why this good news is so beautiful, amazing, destiny-affecting and therefore very critical and important.
The Bad News: Mankind (including you, obviously) is fallen. This means that man was initially created in the image of God. (Genesis 1.27). Man sinned against God. (This is very true and factual. Every account narrated in the bible has withstood the most intense scrutiny throughout all the centuries and has proved authentic and factual). Since God is the Author of life and His breath and presence sustains all things, man’s sin or offence against God meant man stepped out or turned in opposition to God.
When the fish turns in opposition to the water where the source of its life is, what happens? Death happens gradually and inevitably. So also, man experienced a spiritual death or corruption. Man only retains the image of God in a very very residual and remote sense.
Now, the principle God set for procreation is that everything procreates after its kind (Genesis 1.11-12). Tigers reproduce after their kind. Same with spiders, banana trees and other living things. Therefore, man began procreating after his spiritually corrupted kind. This kept on going generation after generation. Consequently, we are all sinners and have a sinful nature. This fact is only proven by our natural impulses and drives for sinful habits, however they might be masked. You are sinful deep down within. And this is because you were born with a sin nature. No one can fulfil the righteous requirements of God. Absolutely no one!
The Really Bad News: God is all-powerful and completely holy. He is also perfectly just. Therefore, he will punish all sin. His punishment for sin is also everlasting. Sin always leads to eternal death and condemnation. This death will be such that the immortal soul of the sinner will experience everlasting, conscious torment, banished from the peaceful, joyful and gladsome presence of God and all good things. This is really a horrible thing.
The Good News: God is abundantly merciful and gracious. He knows about the helplessness of man in His sin and provided a way of escape. God sent His only Son (His Word which became flesh), born of a virgin (and not of the seed of man which would have rendered Him like every other child who inherits the sin nature). His Son is Jesus. He lived a perfectly righteous life because He has the nature of His Father. He should be rewarded or at least applauded right? No! He was then punished for the sins of us all (Isaiah 53.6). God’s plan of saving us was perfect.
It works like an exchange. Jesus grants us the credit for His perfectly righteous life and takes the punishment for our sins. Therefore, we are counted righteous before God’s judgement throne, our sins are punished and completely catered for in Jesus and we have eternal life! Wow!!! How beautiful.
All you need to do is to actually believe this good news. Accept it by fully trusting in it. Bank on Jesus and His righteous provision for your eternal safety. In doing that you must repent of your sins, acknowledging that they are abominable before God.
Then, you would’ve maximized the really really good news that’s been made available to you.

Christian Persecution (Asia Bibi's story).

The Christian Faith 11 Comments

For some beautiful reason, of late, my mind has been centered around Christian persecution. I know its to prompt me to pray but I also want to prompt you to pray.
Lots of Christians nominally live each day in a bubble, passive about what is going on to others who call upon the name of the lord like they do.
Very often growing up, I heard my mum lead people to pray for Christians in the persecuted world by saying (paraphrased):

“you wake up on a Sunday morning and tie your colourful headscarves and on your way to church, you see several others in colourful attires, so you think there are many Christians. But it isn’t so. There are many people in various parts of the world who cannot publicly act like you do. When they get courage to hold services, they do it quietly without clapping to draw any attention. when they meet to pray, they do it in ten minutes in a toilet or some other secret unsuspecting places.”

On the contrary to this thought pattern of there being many Christians everywhere, ChrstianityToday, states that approximately 215 million Christians experience high, medium or low levels of persecution, which turns out to be one in twelve Christians.
Did you read that?
Let’s make this clear. In some of these places, its not just forbidden, it is illegal. Its like having cocaine on you. Religious Nationalism is in place. You mostly cannot share your faith with your children, you can only pray that one day they would be touched and turn to the lord. Sharing your faith with your children is risky as they’re terribly indoctrinated at school and other places. For your safety and theirs, its almost best to wait.
And you won’t believe it! – While typing this post, I stood up to get my phone to check a fact. It was then I saw this from someone on Whatsapp – ‘Asia bibi has been released, praise the lord’ . It was unbelievable. It was sent in by 5:10pm. I checked my phone at 6:00pm. how could I have known that when I set out to type this post, this lady had been released? You don’t get ? She was acquitted today – 31st October, 2018(the time of initial blogpost draft). She was freed from the charges of blapsphemy the day I sought to share the need to pray for persecuted Christians. She’s been acquitted, declared innocent by the supreme court of Pakistan after eight years!
Read the abridged version of Asia Bibi’s story on BBC here.
There’s trouble on the horizon though. The acquittal has stemmed lots of protests and now Asia Bibi can’t leave the country yet. In fact, another appeal can now be made against her acquittal (and that might eventually lead to her death depending on the outcome if carried out). All these because of the violent protests. Read on BBC.
Christians are imprisoned, beaten, made to lose properties, molested and even killed for their faith. Christians are one of the most persecuted groups in the world.
“You will be hated by everyone for my sake, but he that endures to the end shall be saved” Mathhew 10:22.
Christian persecution is hostility based on identification with the lord Jesus Christ. Haven’t you heard that “what isn’t worth dying for, isn’t worth living for?” A time comes when you’ve gone beyond basic bread and butter Christianity, a time when you say like Peter when asked to leave the Lord: Lord, to what person could we go? Your words give eternal life. John 6:68.
I’m only afraid that some Chrisitians have never considered the hard questions – really, would you lose a limb for Jesus? Would you stay in jail for him for eight years like Asia Bibi?
Today, would you pray for the faith of those who go through these things that make you tremble? Would you also build your faith beyond fair-weather Christianity?
One Chinese Church leader who spent 23 years in prison, once said to the Christians who did not face persecution:

“I was pushed into a cell, but you have to push yourself into one. You have no time to know God. You need to build yourself a cell, so you can do for yourself what persecution did for me – simplify your life and Know God.”

North Korea consistently ranks top in the world’s most dangerous place to practice the Christian faith(ranked top for 17 years). Afghanistan comes closely behind. Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan, Eritrea etc. Pakistan scores highest in violence towards Chrisitans
According to Opendoors USA, Every month:

  • 255 Christians are killed
  • 104 are abducted
  • 180 Christian women are raped, sexually harassed or forced into marriage
  • 66 Churches are attacked
  • 160 Christians are detained without trial and imprisoned.

The website also states:

“There is something about hardship that allows us to know God deeply. When times get really tough, we discover more about who God is and how he really works”

Scripture says in Hebrews 13:3 “Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering” .
There are mission resources for praying around the world. As children, my sisters and I used the children edition of Operation World – “you can change the world through prayers“. There are resources everywhere for everyone, you just have to be deliberate about it.
John 15:20:

“Remember what I told you: A servant is not greater than his master. ‘if they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”

2 Timothy 3: 12

“Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

Persecution is seen in all the pages of the Bible, not just with the early church in Acts but right from the start.
The church prayed for Peter. You can pray too. Get specific prayer directions that would help you be accurate in your prayers, you can go beyond repeating “God, I pray for Christians facing persecution” every single day. You can still pray for total protection for Asia Bibi and her family from those still threatening them. You can pray for others too by name or tribe. I knew of Asia Bibi through WOMIG -TKP.
Remember:

1 Corinthians 12:26 “if one part of the body suffers, all the other parts share it’s suffering. If one part is praised, all the others share in its happiness.”

References: Opendoors USA, ChristianityToday
YouTube video on persecution.
Happy New Month.
Love and Light,

Debby.