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How will you bow?

Lets start with an exercise: Think about your best image of God. Who is He? What is He like? How would you describe Him to a 3-year old? For the past few weeks I have been reading the book of Job and although this will be at least the third time I have read this book, I am seeing it from such a new perspective. Job talks about God’s superiority and sovereignty in ways that are both awe-inspiring but can also leave you feeling very helpless before this powerful God. He says things like:

“To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his. What he tears down cannot be rebuilt; those he imprisons cannot be released. If he holds back the waters, there is drought; if he lets them loose, they devastate the land. To him belong strength and insight; both deceived and deceiver are his. He leads rulers away stripped and makes fools of judges. He takes off the shackles put on by king and ties a loincloth around their waist. He leads priests away stripped and overthrows officials long established. He silences the lips of trusted advisers and takes away the discernment of elders. He pours contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty. He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings utter darkness into the light. He makes nations great, and destroys them; he enlarges nations, and disperses them. He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason; he makes them wander in a trackless waste. They grope in darkness with no light; he makes them stagger like drunkards.” Job 12:13-35 NIV.

Job and his friends described the God-man relationship in a manner where God is this inapproachable powerful being. They described God by his deeds; the things they had seen or heard or imagined Him do. Similarly, the Israelites’ perspectives of God versus that of Moses were very different. The Israelites looked to God for things: the meeting of their physical needs of food, water, shelter; protection from their enemies; healing from diseases and so on and so forth. The Israelites only knew God for his deeds but Moses’ relationship was different. He actually knew God for who he truly was.

He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel.

Psalm 103:7 NLT

Job’s characterizations of his relationship with God so far (up until Job 12 that is) is nothing compared to our modern-day- live-under-grace characterizations. While everything Job says about God’s nature is truth, God still invites us by virtue of grace into relationship where we can know him for who He truly is . Unfortunately instead of grace giving us the advantage of a deeper relationship where we can know God beyond our needs, many of us relegate God to the position of all powerful being who we call upon when we cannot figure out things for ourselves. This genie-in -the-bottle mentality pedaled as the essence of Christianity and preached as the “prosperity” gospel (although many of us will not deign to admit that we treat God this way) only serves to rob us of having a deeper connection to our amazing God.

This week in church the pastor made a statement that inspired this post. Now for some mental exercise:

Come back to your image of who God is and picture this: You are standing before God at the end of your time here on earth and then in enters Jesus in all his majestic splendor. In accordance with the scripture says that “…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth…Phil 2: 10ESV” you WILL bow, but how will you bow? Will you bow in reverent worship and recognition of the great King with whom you had formed a relationship with while you walked the earth? Will you bow in excitement that you’ve finally made it across the other side of eternity and you can finally get to see the full image of God who had been showing glimpses of himself to you all through your journey on earth? Will it be like meeting a date for the first time after years of zoom calls and facetiming? OR will you bow in abject terror of this God because your “genie” turned out to be nothing like you imagined? Will your knees buckle at the realization that you missed out on the great opportunity earth afforded you to get to know God and now you are in the presence of a stranger? Would you bow in shame, pleadingly asking for mercy?

So here’s the question of the week: How will you bow?

Yours Truly

P.S. The food box is going great! I will do a post about it in a few weeks but for those of you eager to hear about it: it has inspired something within the community and people have anonymously thrown in cans of food. Thanks to all who have donated so far and to all who have encouraged me through prayer and kind words. Together, we are on mission for God!

Posted on by intentional4christ · 1 Comment

On Mission for God

Have you ever had an earworm? Don’t worry its nothing gross! It is when you have a song or tune on repeat in your mind and for the past three weeks I have not been able to shake this song: “…But if we are the body, Why aren’t His arms reaching?…Why aren’t His hands healing?…Why aren’t His words teaching?…And if we are the body…Why aren’t His feet going?…Why is His love not showing them there is a way?” The sermons in church have not helped matters because for the past few weeks we have been discussing the up, in, and out dimensions of the relationships God calls us to and being on mission for God has come up many times.

There are so many ways to be on mission for God and in todays times one does not have to look far to find some injustice or cause in the world to be passionate about. Mine is food insecurity. Over the years, I have had personal experiences with being hungry and not having enough to eat and God always provided food in extraordinary ways. I vividly remember one of such experiences where I had been crying through the night because I had no money to pay my tuition and I had received notice from the university that my account was going to be blocked and my rent was also due. Granted I had not eaten but that was the least of my concerns that day. The next morning I received a text from someone I had met only two days prior who told me that that night she could not sleep. She said she had heard a voice through out the night telling her I was hungry (***goosebumps! I know!***). By the end of that day, my tiny apartment had been stocked with so much groceries and household supplies from this lady and this is just one of many of my stories of how God has provided for me when I was facing scarcity.

I believe while on earth, Jesus’ ministry was shrouded with a passion for connecting with and attending to issues of food insecurity. We see this in his miracles, his parables, and notable stories of his life involved food and gathering together to eat or made reference to food (e.g. In the house of Mary and Martha, Zacchaeus, the last supper, miracles involving turning water to wine, feeding people to mention a few). One of such notable passages is this one:

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Matthew 25: 35-40 NIV

In the past few weeks this passage has become a driving force behind my passion to be on mission for God in the area of food insecurity. Despite the cliché of “the starving African children” you do not need to look as far as Africa to find food insecurity. There are people in every country who go to bed hungry and wake up without knowing where their next meal will come from. Poverty and its resultant food insecurity is a reality within every race and has been exacerbated by the global pandemic for those who experience it. So how can we be on mission with and for God seeing that he is equally as passionate about this need in the world?

Here is what I am doing: I am starting a community box in my neighbourhood that will be stocked with non-perishables for people to take as needed. I am not sure how this is going to play out. I have tried to talk myself out of it but the more I try, the more passionate I get so I have given up trying to talk myself out of it. I believe in this mission: as God did for me many years ago by supplying me with food even when I was too hungry to pray for food so do I want to do for others who might find themselves in similar situations. If you want to support this mission financially, I have added a donation link to this post so you can do so as you are led by God. But more importantly, I want you to pray for this “passion turned mission”. I have thought of the many ways this can go wrong and I am sure others will too. So pray that this mission will reach the right people who truly need it and that it will not fail.

My community pantry

This week I received an email and the opening line of it read “Imagine you had the ability to spread hope in your community…” (talk of serendipity!) and that is what I want to leave you with. Imagine you were on a mission for God, where would this mission take you? What cause has God laid on your heart to pursue? How has He called you to bring hope to the people in your sphere of influence? How can you be on mission for God?

Yours Truly.

P. S. here’s the link I mentioned: paypal.me/intentionalchristian and be sure to keep an eye out for updates on this project.