Jesus, like my picture ?
One thing I don’t see Jesus doing is pouting infront of a camera to take a selfie. I don’t see him showing off biceps or pushing off his long hair and asking for likes and comments on facebook, or telling people “follow me” and “i’l follow back”. Alright, He does in a way say He’l come into our lives when we follow Him, but not in the aggressive way and thoughtless way we do this days. He doesn’t just follow anyone to get more followers for the sake of looking nice and spreading more selfies or cat pictures to a wider audience. He does it for an important reason. A reason that was unselfish , even the Bible says New International Version
For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”Romans 15:3
I can’t also picture him getting His identity from the kind of clothes He wore, the price tag and who designed it. I don’t see him writing gossip columns or hiding in the bushes just to take a picture of a pregnant celebrity and then writing something controversial about her. I don’t see Him standing on stage without his shirt and winking at teenage girls. I don’t see Him sitting in front of the TV set all day .To cut it all short I can’t picture Him doing many of the things our culture involves us in . Think of many other things and try to picture someone like Jesus after His father’s will doing all those things. Am sure many things will be off the list in no time.
What differentiates Jesus from us? Well, we might say he had it easier. He knew He was going back to His father and would wear glorious clothes, have a great body, and wear a crown. He’d get all He never indulged in on earth even in better quality there. So it must have been easy for Him . He had angels He could call when He wanted so forgoing a lot of things wasn’t so hard for Jesus. Now this is where I want to call our attention to .I would like to say just like Jesus, so are we.
We too are sons and daughters of God. God is our father as He was to Jesus. Just like Jesus we will get heavenly bodies, crowns, rewards and every good. Why is it then difficult to live like Jesus? We have it just like He did . We even have Him in addition now.
I would like to challenge us therefore to live as He lived. In every thing we do or say, lets imagine Jesus doing or saying this things . He lived 30 plus years without a lot of the things our culture makes us think we’d die without .
God help us all.Amen
Atheists are good people
Athiests are good people. Some atheists are very good people and have so many good qualities. Many may have projects to make the world a better place, give out a lot of money for causes here and there and live moral, decent lifes.
Atheists are good people and this depends on what we define as being good. If being good is doing good deeds and helping the poor and many other commendable things , then they are good people and this should not be denied them in the sight of man. They deserve respect as much as any other man .
But thinking higher. According to God , is any man really good? The answer is no. A non believer does not stop being good or start being good in the sight of God by his good deeds. He is seen as an enemy of God first of all because He has refused Jesus Christ. It is hard for a good man to accept being called a sinner. Why would one accept to be a sinner when his or her life is marked by goodness and good deeds? The fact though is that one is an enemy by not accepting Jesus as lord of his or her life.
Good deeds do not save .New International Version
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–Ephesians 2:8
9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.…
It is difficult for atheists to accept Jesus if they stand on their moral lives and morality to make them good persons. Morality is truely a gift from God. It is God Himself who helps you to be good, so anything you do is not something you have created. It is God’s goodness that helps you to be good. This concept is difficult for anyone who doesn’t believe in God.
Even the Bible says
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
Matthew 19:24.
yes, it is easier for a man who knows he needs Jesus to save him from his wretchedness and failures as someone trying to please God by goodness and works, than for a man who believes in the richness of his morality and goodness .
I pray God supplies the grace in the name of Jesus for anyone who has doubts.
A proper view of human legs
Apart from being eye catching , this topic is interesting especially with the society we live in where legs are a big deal apart from usefulness . Legs have become topics of magazines, its really explosive. Legs have been commercialized, their aesthetics praises and have become something of a product, a sensual product. We now have words that call legs hot as if they were food, and in some way they have become like food, feeding the eyes and the lust of man .
Reading psalms 147:10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,( English Standard Version) I have found comfort in a being who does not view the legs as a commodity. Sure the creator of the Universe sees what He has created as a thing of value that He is willing to send His son to die for us.He sees it with so much value that He is willing to protect it. He doesn’t view our legs as something to be commercialized or advertized. He is not impressed by what it can do either , because He made it work the way they do .
I hope we take he same approach as we lie in our beds . The rest of psalms 147 says :
11 the Lord delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.
God is the real deal, not the media, not the tabloids and not useless polls with questions about man’s opinion of the sensuality of legs .God loves us and He loves us in a way that makes us feel wanted and honored and not dissected into parts as mere commodities and things to be used .
Blood is thicker than water
Yes, but whose blood ? Anytime anyone says this, the person is most times if not always referring to family . Blood represents the bond and the genetic information in each member of that family that helps in forming a connection and a bond. Blood is thicker than water. Family ties are stronger than non family ties . The Bible does says that theres is a friend who sticks closer than a brother One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin,but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother
Proverbs 18:24.
Let’s go back to the question then. Whose blood is thicker than water , whose bond is stronger than anything then especially when many experiences in life do infact show that some friendships are of more value than the ones found between family members. Who is then the perfect example of truth proving this statement?
The son of God. The blood shed by Jesus has made us family with Him and we can be sure of an eternal bond and a tie . He has infact proven this statement true. The covenant made by His shedding of blood has given us a sureness that nothing can take.
Romans 8:38
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now that is why it is important to know by whose blood you place you confidence and hope in. For man’s blood will fail. We will be disappointed if we place hopes in riches or health or friendships. Jesus is the cornerstone.
Well then, how about what Proverbs says earlier. That there are friends who stick closer than a brother. let’s raise our standards of thinking a bit. In our earthly relationships, this means what it means. That a friend, not related by blood maybe able to know us better and we may feel more inclined to open ourselves and experience love and fellowship even better than the ones in our families. Now in spiritual terms Jesus is that friend who sticks closer that a brother and to Jesus we are all brothers and sisters. Jesus sticks even closer than that friend who you believe sticks closer than a blood brother or sister. That is the joy of friendship with Him.
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 100:5 New International Version
Let’s all turn bad, so the world will be filled with good. What’s wrong with this thought?
Everything . Absolutely everything .
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4 New International Version
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.
Those who are victorious will inherit all this…
And the promise goes on…
Many people want a world I have described above but there’s something funny going on in our lives. We are people who hold on to evil and yet want a world where it doesn’t exist. We want to live in a world where no one lies, yet we would not give up on lies. Such a world if it has a mind on its own would say : No, you would turn my abode into hell and make life unbearable for me.
You do not kill and expect life to abound or steal and expect riches and favor to increase.Therefore you don’t you sin and expect the world where mourning and crying and hunger to be gone.This is because sin is everything bad, rebellious and against a God who loves people.
Standards and ideals. But do you know me ?
I think a standard or an ideal is the best of something you can strive for . Other times there are just what they are, a bar to meet up to , one might never meet up to standard of a particular standard or an ideal, but it is there to be like a colorful mark showing us where to head for, to grow properly.
In our society standards are being set. It’s almost mathematical. Rules are placed, ways of lives are fixed. What about the human side of things? What about the non automated side of life ? Experience, misfortune, set backs , tragedy are almost excluded. It seems life is mean to be run and run very fast and with no one asking where on earth it really is runnung to? Where is everyone rushing to ? Why are they in a hurry to pass out ? I have this imagination of people in a frenzy speeding and suddenly falling into a hole , a dep dark hole, and barely having time to calm down and even experience the shock of falling. Like computers. That is not how we were created .
Life was made by God and God is eternal. Life will be eternal. In human life , earthly life, we face struggles and difficulties and not too many shoulders to rest us , because a sort of animal instinct has been fed. Love has grown cold, and care together with it. We experience losses and we wonder if we are abnormal to want to pause and grieve. It seems we are upsetting people if we do, we are not rushing on with life to a direction where most people if they could stop for a moment to think, would say they have no idea where to , or even why they are rushing the way they do .
Why live? What is the purpose of life? Who should you believe? Are the people in the world realy knowledgeable? Do they have the answers? Can you trust those answers? Have they worked ?
Back to standards and ideals. There is a feeling of resentment that comes sometimes in life when people who do not know you seem to have your life fixed. Its usually the rich who have advice and solutions to poverty, people who have jobs that have solutions to the jobless and can easily accuse them of laziness, its those who don’t usually have emotional difficulty that can say with a straight and uncaring face, that life has no meaning, what it is is what it is, evolution at play, a world where there is no pity . If we listen to the world , and search the faces of the people in the world, we would get so many answers . The older we get we tend to form ours . We can easily get disiillusioned and angry and ask but do you know me? you, who has all the answers and advice, do you care to find out who I realy am and what can satisfy me? We realize we do not care about standards and ideals when we hurt. Why should you care what they think of your swearing when your whole family has just been lost in a car accident and all they can say is life has to move on and when are you planning to get back to work and pay for your house bills?
But do you know me? No, I don’t and the problem of pain and suffering I do not have all the answers to , though am sure no one is an alien to it . Then who does know me ?
Jesus knows you. Jesus knows you perfectly well. Not your will and not their will when they do not know you be done , but His will. He knows us all intimately and the most fragile part of our psychological make-up , He understands. He has sent someone into this world to help and to guide you . The Holy Spirit is a comforter.
Let us pray :
Jesus, please help me. Hear the cry of my heart and come and help me. My heart is heavy and my lips will not speak words, but I know you know the beatings of my heart. Please, come and dwell in me and help me . Amen
Iron the creases of my desires
When Paul said “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” Romans 7:15 (New International Version) , he included everything that stands in our way of saying “yes” To Jesus Christ . Sometimes we have strong desires to please God. One more angry word from our lips and we ask why ? Why couldn’t I control myself this time again? Thinking logically does not help when fighting spiritual wars and battles. There are urges and desires that seem to throw a dirty towel on our faces to mock us and tell us little earth creatures, with all your supposed advancements in science and arts, and logic, you cannot get yourself rid of this. They tell us we need a Saviour, we are too weak to pull through . We are not that great at being self sufficient as we thought .
Now, back to what Paul said . There is a passage in Luke 17:33 Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. (New International Version)
Now, what if trying to obey this scripture makes you cry out in agony “Lord, Lord! I do not want to keep my life in a way that makes me lose it , but what I want to do , I do not do . Help !” Reading Luke 18:29-30 does not help either for it says “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”
What am I trying to say ? There is a problem in our times . It is the problem of holding on to the things and the comfort of this world that it has become a threat in our walk with God. We might admire the early Christians in their stand during times of persecution, but yet wonder if faced by such tribulations and persecutions, would we be able to stand ? Sometimes we search deep and we know truthfully that we might not. How many times have we denied Christ like Peter? Compromised many times just so everyone around us could feel comfortable, so they don’t think we are crazy , we keep it moderate. We water our views. We neither say yes or no. We don’t want to talk about it . We are peaceful people living peaceful lives, so let God be the judge.
Take a step back , sit quietly and ponder. Why ? I believe its because of the reality we have created in our minds . We have built such strong towers where we have climbed to and we have our instruments through the windows of thes faulty towers where we view the world. In our heads if we read the Bible , we know the world will pass away . With our eyes in our faulty towers, the world looks so real, nothing could be more real than it . The men and women are powerful and they can mock us and slander us and call us intolenrant or crazy for our views. We feel they are giants and we are small.
Now, I am not here to judge or to make you feel foolish , as many of us want to change. We want to be the salt of the earth , ambassadors for Christ, but daily life seems to suck our energy . We need to get daily bread and being crazy might disturb the bringing of bread into the house, might lead to loss of friends and so on . But we still want to , yet like Paul we have no strenght or courage. No boldness. Where then do we start ?
We need to pray . This needs to be stressed out so much . We need the Holy Spirit so much . Sometimes we forget that we need God for everything literarily. We know somehow that we need God to breath and do big things like in surgery or at a huge event. Do we rememeber to make a conscious effort even when it seems easy to say well God isnt actually actively the one helping drink this glass of water. I mean its just drinking a simple glass of water. Really ? Can dead men drink glasses of simple , petty water then ?
It is a daily and conscious, even minute by minute war that we have to engage in .Consciously assert yourself in Christ . Daily say no to the things you need to say no to, and say yes to the things you need to say yes to . Here is a thought :
Do not sell yourself to someone who does not know you , will probably misunderstand you , ready to accuse you , despise and hate you for what and who you believe in . Do not sell yourself to someone who will not die for you , love you unto death , just to be liked by them. Do not do this when there is a Jesus who knows you deeply, will never misunderstand you , loves you and in whom all the wisdom and Knowledge of the world is embedded in . Do not trade your belief in Jesus for the approval of people around whom you have to be polite on their own terms alone , and around whom you have to act in a way that is againt your new nature in Christ , just so these peole can welcome and accept you . Once again Do not deny Jesus Christ for the approval of people who will not die for you .
May God help us in Jesus name . Amen
My response to youtube comments on Christian preaching or anything Christian !
Contrary to what you might be thinking, this is not a response against non-Christians ,its more of a response to Christians .I respect that not every Christian is on the same level of maturity or understanding as the other, and that is why I think this needs to be stressed . When I read comments on youtube videos by Christians, I promise myself next time it won’t happen , and then it does, maybe because each new time I try to be hopeful that I’l see something different. That next time they won’t have virtual wars and abuse each other and I won’t feel am back in the dark medieval times . Anyway enough with wishful thinking. As much as I wish it could be better, I have realized it might even get worse and I have to take a mental stand and realize not everyone professing to be Christian is Christian and such unruly behaviour is not a true reflection of how we are called to live and speak to each other .
If we get back to the basics , we’d realize that we are not called to follow any preacher. Christians are not called to follow Christians but to follow Christ. That doesn’t mean of course that we cannot imitate good behaviour we see in others,or learn things from others. We can even learn good sound theology from a man and his life may be in stark contrast to what he preaches and that would still be fine because we have been able to filter the good and take it . What then is our response if such a man is preaching this sound theology on you tube and we with our ever tickling fingers can’t wait to just leave a comment? Should our words sound like yells and should we type swear words and insultive words ? Is that what Jesus would do ?
As Christians , we have looked for things to argue about and in the comfort of our homes , we feel like gods and just one click , we spread hurt and hatred , its so dreadful to read. We have quarelled about tongues , women preachers , which man of God should endorse which, why this man of God should preach there and not here. I have thought about this and wondered and I my advice would be : Instead of spending our time writing and screaming , why not become that perfect man of God or preacher and just do things the right way. I am sure it isn’t going to be an easy task , and one more second on a hateful comment that doesn’t build , might be more useful if you put it in building and training yourself and being a better example. Why not hush and quietly let your actions speak better than your words. Am sure if we look down in ourselves , we would find flaws. No one is perfect . A preacher is not God. He, like you is striving to the same goal , so he too could make it to the end of the race. Allow him to also make mistakes as you let yourself do each day and yet think yourself worthy of God’s love and forgiveness and most importantly think nothing of God blowing the heavens up with cristicisms of you . If you are so disturbed by what you see or hear , why not lovingly , that is if it affected you so badly , why not look for all means to communicate with whoever it is you feel isn;t handling the preaching of the gospel well. Speak to them with gracious words and please stop spreading confusion and division on youtube vlogs when you disagree. learn to be gracious.
May God help us in Jesus name .
Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.
Ecclesiastes 5:2 New International Version