Posted on by intentional4christ

2020… the runaway year?

Have you ever felt like erasing a particular day from history? When I reflect on my life, there are about a handful of moments that I wish I could erase from my existence: decisions I wish I never made, days that I wish were all a dream, moments in time that I wish had never happened. Certainly 2020 has felt like that  for some people and I have seen memes calling for 2020 to be deleted from history!

This week as I read the book of Esther, I could identify with the people of Israel living in Susa who one day were going about their normal activities and the next were staring down a notice of a death sentence. I could identify with Job who just wanted the day he was born to be obliterated from history! How quickly the circumstances of life can change! Anyway the book of Esther is one that demonstrates the omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresence of God in a tangible way. And for those of us just absorbing the stories in the book of Esther God’s power and invisible yet capable hand is manifest as a series of coincidences. God comes through for the Israelites over and over again using what appears to happenstance to remind us that He rules in the affairs of men!

Are you having one of those days (or weeks, or months, or years) where nothing seems to working out like you thought it would? Well…here is my encouragement: Nothing takes God by surprise. He is still very much in control of His universe (and yes although it may not seem like it 2020 is not a runaway train… God is driving this engine!).  So here are a few scriptures to remind you of God’s sovereignty.:

“Remember this, and show yourselves men; recall to mind, O you transgressors.
Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and
there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things
that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,’
Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes My counsel, from a far country.
Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it”
(Isaiah 46:8–11)

“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10–11).

‘This decision is by the decree of the watchers, and the sentence by the word of the
holy ones, in order that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men,
gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men” (Daniel 4:17).

He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives
wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding (Daniel 2:21).

They raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made
heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant
David have said: ‘Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things? The kings of
the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against His Christ.’ For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both
Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered
together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done” (Acts
4:24–28)

This was definitely not the direction this blogpost was going in my mind (speak of runaway trains…lol) but I know that I am more encouraged now than I was starting the post and I hope that you are encouraged too.

Don’t forget to share with a friend. They may need a reminder too that GOD IS STILL IN CHARGE.

Yours Truly.

Posted on by intentional4christ · 3 Comments

The choices we make

Last week news of a US- based Ghanaian pastor who killed his wife of 5 years hit the airwaves and even though I must confess I have not entirely followed the story, the bits and pieces I have heard got me thinking. The one thing I believe to be an absolute truth is that God is omniscient and nothing takes Him by surprise. This led me to asking, “So does this mean that God knew that this lady would die at the hands of her husband just 5 years after marrying him?” and the answer is Yes He did! And had this lady known that this was how she would meet her end would she have still married the pastor? (…and that’s all I will say about this story)

When God put Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden He knew that they would someday be deceived and inadvertently change the course of history. But He gave them freewill and choices. Both the choice to eat or not to eat the forbidden fruit had consequences and God knowing what choice Adam and Eve would make had to make an effort to warn them to make the right choice but ultimately they had to make the choice.

Every waking minute of every day we make choices: Our lives are saddled with choices, each of which lead us on a path to a certain outcome; unfortunately, many times we do not know what the outcome will be until we get to the outcome. And I truly believe that when God says He will never leave or forsake us, He truly means it and He walks with us along the paths we carve for ourselves regardless of the outcomes. However, we are blessed to know an amazing God who sees the end from the beginning and can help us order our steps aright so that we are set up to make choices that lead us on the path to God’s expected end for us.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Jeremiah 29: 11 KJV

He has given us His Word, He has given us His Holy Spirit, He has given us the blessings of the advice of people around us to help us along the way… But more importantly he has given us the ability to have an intimate relationship with Him where we can ask Him to personally lead us through life’s journey. This past Sunday, my pastor started a series in church titled, ‘the Way’ and this scripture is more apt than ever:

 …”Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

John 6:68 NIV

Only Jesus’ words…His daily direction for our lives can lead us towards eternal life because without Jesus as our guide, “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death” Prov 1: 25. So here is my prayer for myself and for you:

Guide my steps by your word, so I will not be overcome by evil.

Psalm 119:133 NLT

And this week, pay attention to the choices you are making, no matter how mundane and be intentional in asking for God’s direction in all of it so that we all come to God’s expected end!

Yours Truly.

P.S. don’t forget to share your thoughts on this post and share it with your friends too!

Posted on by intentional4christ

The Author of Unity

A bag over the head of a handcuffed black man until he suffocated to death… a knee on the neck of a black man until he suffocated to death… a black man shot in the back seven times in front of his kids and passersby… these and many more are the headlines that plaque the media. As my husband jokingly (or maybe not) says “the black race is going extinct!”

These past few days I have asked questions…well to no one in particular… if the rest of the world is not seeing the craziness happening to black folk! Where is the justification in treating a fellow human being with so much disdain and inhumanity! How can people justify the senseless profiling based on race when we are all from the same source, God Himself?

Many, in trying to justify such atrocities among many other unbelievable things that have happened in 2020, have made comments alluding to fact that perhaps God is no longer in charge of the earth. Sometimes it feels like God has just left mankind to their wiles whilst he sits and watches in complete silence. Perhaps this year it has made the most sense to ask “where was our God when (fill in the blank) happened?”

This week I came across a scripture that gave me reason to pause:

Also in Judah the hand of God was on the people to give them unity of mind to carry out what the king and his officials had ordered, following the word of the LORD.

2 Chronicles 30:12 NIV

The hand of God was on the people to give them unity of mind… that does not sound like a God that is passive about the affairs of his creation. God was the author of the unity the Israelites enjoyed.. He was the one who orchestrated their unity and this is what our world so desperately needs today… UNITY and particularly THE GOD WHO AUTHORS UNITY!

We need God more than ever! Its not too late! We need to pray for the unity among the human folk which can only come from God. We need to ask God to make good his promise from Zechariah 11:7 by infusing his creation with mercy (so we can be merciful) and unity (so we can truly love each other).

So I became a shepherd of those sheep doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep dealers. And I gave names to the two sticks I used for tending the sheep: One of them was named “Mercy” and the other “Unity.”

Zech 11:7 CEV

God please make good your promise to shepherd us with Mercy and Unity and let your hand be upon us to give us unity of mind. This we ask through your son Jesus Christ. Amen.

If you prayed this prayer with me don’t stop there… keep praying for unity and share this with others so together we can gather momentum to call upon God to unite us as one!

Yours Truly.