Love

Love

One of the most common passages that are read during Christian weddings is from 1 Corinthians 13. But got to read it again today and allowed me to view at it differently. It describes love. Love in all its form and beauty and to the extents it goes. It describes various characteristics of love. These are

1.       Patient

2.       Kind

3.       Not envious

4.       Not boastful

5.       Not proud

6.       Not rude

7.       Not self seeking

8.       Not easily angered

9.       Keeps no record of wrong doings

10.   Does not delight in evil

11.   Rejoices in  truth

12.   Protects

13.   Trusts

14.   Hopes

15.   Perseveres

16.   Never fails

So many attributes to that four letter word!!!!

Now, help me with an exercise.... replace the word love and place your name instead. In how many of these characteristics do we fit? I for one barely fit in any of these fully let alone perfect one of these characteristics completely. Are we by this standard able to live a life that Christ wanted us to live? Don’t all these qualities amount to one with an amazing testimony? It was Jesus’ love that won everyone, the love that had all of these in full capacity and He gave it al,l that is why we are saved not because we loved him, but because He loved us and gave His life for us. As we read this passage today and meditate on it........ Let us analyze ourselves.

This lockdown has brought the worst to us and has driven us crazy. It has made us feel lost, helpless and hopeless and in all that we lose that joy! I do not want to lose this joy that Christ has given me and hence I choose to examine myself and build on love, the greatest emotion of all!!!

 

The Light

A giant lighthouse at the shore looks not at itself, neither guides itself, it looks on at the dark blue sea, and allows it to see the distant ships sailing at the horizon. 🧐 

........

A tube-light in the room helps us see the other objects of the room, of things around us, relative to us, not us. 🧐🧐

........

A lamplight in the study assists in reading the book in front of us, of what we study of the world, not us. 🧐🧐🧐

........

A candle in the darkest of the nights and in the most lacking of circumstances, aids in seeing what’s immediately around, prevents us from bumping into things, but in all its humility doesn’t let us see ourselves. 🧐🧐🧐🧐

From the ones that spread light to great distances to the ones that grant clarity to the vision to not more than a few meters, these sources of light have never allowed us to see.....Ourselves. 

We are so smart in picking at others faults, pointing mistakes, mocking and weighing out someone else’s sins and wrongs.... standing either completely blindfolded or ignorant about ourselves. We delight in ranking ourselves higher than others in our minds.

My Lord Jesus, sacrificed himself for me and became that one light that would help me see myself...... I see myself in all my inabilities and weaknesses when I look at the Cross.... and yet despite all the potholes and black marks I carry.... HE CHOSE ME!!!!!😇😇😇😇

Grace

Grace

We are sinners who have been forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ, and at are very best, we are still sinners who have been forgiven.

This is the unmerited favor the Lord chose to show on us. A favor that included no boundaries of any sort, be it talent (for He chose the weak that the proud may be put to shame), color, race, occupation.... even wealth!!! A favor that I can claim in any circumstance for he owned me to be His Child.

I am His!!!!! I need nothing else.....................

The God who makes the impossible possible

Isaiah 41:19-“I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together.”

I am not sure if you would have given this verse much thought. I say because I previously never did. But today morning during my quiet time, this verse hit me. It hit me like a bullet hits glass. The glass in response just shatters to pieces. One of the books of the Bible I really appreciate and find very assuring is the book of Isaiah. It has loads of promises that keep me going. The promises that the Lord made to the children of Israel, the promises that the Lord made to me before I was born the promises that keep me standing. The promises that he never breaks, because unlike us mortals, Jehovah never breaks the promises that he makes to his children.

What queer thing do you find in the above verse?  If you say that the Lord is turning a dull dry wasteland into green fields, well that is true but not exactly what I am asking you to see. I shall indicate it myself. The list of trees mentioned in the verse is the key. You would be surprised to know that each of the trees has its own significance. I shall not describe in detail for fear of wearing you out, but in a line or two I shall explain.

First of all the wilderness or wasteland is the desert, where nothing grows, and nothing happens. It is a symbol of solitude for nothing accompanies it. Moving over to the trees, the cedar, fir and pine are trees that grow only at a higher altitude. The shittah tree grows in desert; the myrtle is a deciduous tree that grows close to tropics and the olive tree is one that grows best in the coastal climatic conditions.  Each of these trees has its own habitat that is far from a wasteland. These do not grow in a dry land. If you say shittah, I would disagree with you for even the sturdiest of desert plants only grow at its rim. At the heart of a wasteland grows nothing.  But, the verse contradicts all rules of nature.

The Lord shall make trees of all varieties grow in such a wasteland. You think he cannot give you a job tomorrow or he is incapable or probably sleeping while you fight against a false accusation and are being mocked at? You think he chooses to be silent and would let you fall when you find your surroundings and the circumstances overwhelming? If so, know that, you are the child of God that can make a tree of the mountains grow in the heart of the desert. You are held by one who can make water flow in the wilderness. This is the reason why I felt the glass shatter in me. My God, with whom nothing is impossible.

Do not question his might!!! For verse 20 goes on to say this- “That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.”

#Hope #GODofallpossibilities #nomorewasteland

Soar on wings

Isaiah 40:31- “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.”

The above mentioned verse is a very familiar passage that we often come across. Some of us even know the song by the Artist Don Moen- Eagle’s Wings. To a commoner like us, like me, one that struggles through the hardships of everyday, waiting and hoping for our dreams and expectations to come true, what does the above verse stand for?

First I thought, it means I shall be provided for anything I ask. Who wouldn't want to believe that. Life would be a lot more simple. All I have to do is wait........

On the contrary, the truth is, if my ambitions are in alignment with the will of the LORD in my life, not only would I be joyous at the arrival of what I had hoped for but also it would be a completion of the what the Lord wants in my life. In the worst of our days when all we have is to hope, pray and wait, this verse is an assurance on various levels. Firstly, our waiting is never in vain because we aren’t knocking on a wall that won’t give way, secondly, we wait on no one other than Our LORD, the God of all possibilities. Thirdly, our strength is renewed when we wait on the LORD, and fourthly, the Lord grants his strength and peace that makes us soar like an eagle. A flight over the highest mountains that scare us and still leaving us with unfathomable peace.
What more of an assurance do you want?

#DonMoen #Eagle'swings #hope

Are you defending your faith???

Apologetics is the term related to the art of making your perfect defence. Used more commonly with the ability to defend your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the blood he shed for you and me on the cross of Calvary, apologetics, until yesterday did I realise was something that every believer ought to know. Something that every believer is ought to understand how to do and how to bring it to proper action. The striking verse that hit me was 1Peter 3:15-“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear”.

When I was reading, I noticed that, that particular phrase commands us forthrightly to be ready always. This doesn’t tell us to be ready whenever we want to be ready nor when we feel we have become theologians are we ready nor when we think we are spiritually grown to defend our faith. This doesn’t involve time or circumstance but a duty that we hold to the faith that we believe. To the faith that we hold so high!!

Don’t we naturally defend things that are we are attached to? Don’t we defend the people we hold dear? Then why not this? Why not defend in front our non-believer friends, family and colleagues about this saving grace that has turned the tables for us, for no righteousness of our own, save the eternal and undying love of the Lord for us.

This verse opened my eyes yesterday to the countless lost opportunities, where I could have defended my faith instead of holding a mute acknowledgement and a thick facade of unknowingness and weakness of our mighty Lord that I portrayed.  I decide to no longer be silent.... I decide to speak up and defend what I believe and thus obey the command. Do you?

My Purpose

For those of us who wonder their importance and purpose in life and come up with questions like “why am I here?”And “what is my purpose in life?” the Bible has a simple answer to all this. You might take this as the conclusion or the final word to it all when it comes to what the Holy Scripture has to say about this. It is not a big huge monologue or a bunch or pages or a page or half a page even. You’d be surprised to see how small a conclusion like this could be. To top it all it was written by none other than King Solomon the Wise. He says in the book of Ecclesiastes 12:13-“ Fear God and Keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man”.

Notice the two things mentioned here, firstly, fear the Lord and secondly to obey the commands. Most times in life, we fail to observe either of them. Before doing something or falling into the traps of temptation we don’t realize how much more precious is the love of God and fearing him and the delight that we have in obeying his commands. Rather we decide to go in for the temporary joys of temptation and bear a lifetime of regret!

This Sunday, today, I realised this. How much more I should value His love and how much more I should value Him. We sometimes take the cross and the sacrifice made on it way too lightly. But I know today that like I please my own father by respecting him and obeying him, I would be bringing joy and fulfilling my purpose by fearing the Lord, the Master Creator, and by obeying his commandments. This was a reminder to me...... was it for you too??