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On the seventh day of Christmas…

On the seventh day of Christmas, JESUS gave to me A Body Glorified, Power from on high, Joy for my soul, Love for all men, Peace in my heart, Everlasting Life, and Salvation full and free.

So earlier this year I was diagnosed with a chronic condition and I was devastated. One of my prayers for the year was that no one in my family would receive a new diagnosis of any disease in 2019. My prayer seemed to have been answered as everyone seemed to be dodging the diagnosis bullet except for me and I was disappointed.

I am reminded in this season that there are so many people (Christians and otherwise) who are living with chronic conditions and the stress of the holidays does not make it better. While some are bustling away and enjoying the shopping and busyness of the Christmas season, there are many that dread this time of year; It is a reminder of the fact that they cannot do the things that they love, or eat the things that love, or hang out with the people they love because of the state of their physical and mental health.

This morning, I was encouraged with a promise from scripture:

Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. Isaiah 51:11KJV

There will come a day and soon when those who have been ransomed by God shall return to Heaven (Zion, the beautiful city of  God) with singing and rejoicing and this imperfect body riddled with diabetes, hypertension, multiple sclerosis, paralysis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and whatnot will be stripped away.

I could not have said it any better; such powerful and encouraging words right from scripture:

What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever. But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. I Corinthians 15:50- 53 NLT

What blessed hope!

Yours Truly.

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On the sixth day of Christmas…

On the sixth day of Christmas, JESUS gave to me Power from on high, Joy for my soul, Love for all men, Peace in my heart, Everlasting Life, and Salvation full and free.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8 NIV

I have given you the power to trample on snakes and scorpions and to defeat the power of your enemy Satan. Nothing can harm you. Luke 10:19 CEV

Why is having power so important? Well, the scripture gives us at least two reasons why:

  1.  To be able to be effective witnesses of what we believe. Ever notice that powerful people are confident? Remember the post from a few days ago. God wants us to hold on to our confidence because it will be greatly rewarded and power helps us to do that. Secondly, powerful people have influence. You cannot be an effective witness if you have no sphere of influence. If no one listens to you or cares what you say. The power that God gives us from on high makes us influential. Jesus was endued with power from on high and he had a very large following. People wanted to hear him speak; not only that people believed his message. That’s what power will do for you.
  2. To deal with unseen forces that wrestle with us. Not hocus pocus.. real demonic activities that seek to bring chaos to our lives and the world. Powerful people command authority and when we are endued with power from on high, that authority extends not only in the physical realm but also in the spiritual. These forces work to discourage us so that we are not motivated to share the good news. They seek to shroud us with darkness so the light of Christ does not shine through to the dying world. But today I  come to tell you that you have the POWER to be a witness in spite of. Nothing can harm your soul which is anchored in Christ (even if your body and mind are beaten metaphorically!)

The main purpose of having power is to point others to the source of all that power… to point others to God as a witness. Use your influence, your confidence, and your power for good today.

Yours Truly.

 

 

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On the fifth day of Christmas…

On the fifth day of Christmas, JESUS gave to me Joy for my soul, Love for all men, Peace in my heart, Everlasting Life, and Salvation full and free.

J.O.Y. hmmm… What is joy and how does one get joy?  I find joy although not intangible, is one of the most difficult phenomena to describe. I believe this is partly because joy, very much like peace happens in spite of present circumstances. Although it comes from deep within a person and spills right on the outside, it is beyond a person. When I think of joy, I think of something that wells up and overflows from the inside like a bubbling spring. More importantly to me, than trying to describe joy is how I can get joy in my life.

I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. John 15:11 BSB

Whoa! What did Jesus say that gives us joy? let’s backtrack…

As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Remain in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.  John 15:9-10 BSB

If you love me, you will obey my commandments. John 14:15 NET

well… I guess the secret to joy is out of the bag! It all comes down to love and obedience!  If we love God we will obey Him; When we obey God we will be in God’s love and one of the perks of being in God’s love is that we will have joy. Seems easy yes? Well…. the obedience part is not so easy otherwise the word obey would not appear 69 times in the King James Bible(this does not include other variants of the word)! But there is good news:

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome, because everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. Who then overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. 1 John 5:3-5 BSB

You can do this! You’ve got this! Love God… and obey Him and reap a bountiful harvest of joy!

Yours truly.

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On the fourth day of Christmas…

On the fourth day of Christmas, JESUS gave to me Love for all men; Peace in my heart, Everlasting life, and Salvation full and free.

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. Romans 5:5 BSB

God showed his love to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us and he has poured this love into us so that we love one another. He does not merely ask this of us. He commands it:

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. John 13:34 NLT

When my husband read the first few lines of the post, he snickered and said “you.. love for all men! You can barely stand XYZ!” And truthfully there are people that I cannot tolerate at all and yet the command of God is to love everyone. I acknowledge that while this is a daunting command, it is possible to obey it to the fullest. Jesus is our perfect example.

In creation, Jesus knew that one day the tree that he created would become an emblem of his shame in the form of the raw material for a cross. And yet he still made trees and blessed them and said everything including the tree was good. when he made plants like the beautiful rose bush, he knew that one day a crown of thorns would adorn his head but he did not despise shrubs but blessed them too and said they were good. Oh! he knew full well that man that he had created would turn around and be his tormentors but he still blessed man at creation and gave him dominion and authority over all things and said humankind was good. You see, Jesus saw the good even though he knew the disappointment would come. He chose to bless when he had the opportunity to curse, or ignore, or despise or say “I cannot stand XYZ!” The key is to see people as Jesus sees them: GOOD! If with all my failings and frailties God sees me as good, then who am I to not reciprocate?

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV

Yours truly.

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On the third day of Christmas…

On the third day of Christmas, JESUS gave to me Peace in my Heart, Everlasting Life, and Salvation full and free.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9: 6 ESV

I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. John 14:27 NLT

The peace that Jesus promises is not one that is the absence of chaos and turmoil but one in spite of. It is that blessed assurance that regardless of the present circumstances grace has got you and you are not alone. It is living this conviction every day:

When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. Isaiah 43: 2 NLT

But this peace just like salvation is a gift of God and you can choose to not accept it. You can choose to worry and fret about the what-ifs and the current happenings in your life. My advice: accept the gift of peace of mind and heart in this season. Let not your heart be troubled. Jesus has overcome the world!

Yours truly.

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On the second day of Christmas…

On the second day of Christmas JESUS gave to me Everlasting life, and Salvation full and free.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16 KJV

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10: 10 ESV

Not only have we been given the free gift of salvation. Jesus came to give us an abundant life; a life that is eternal and everlasting. For the Christians out there this sounds like old news but there is something new to be learned from this. The questions I have for you are these: Do you have this life Jesus talks about? Does this life flow out you like streams of living water? Do you exude an abundant life? or is this scripture below your story:

You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life. John 5: 39-40 NLT

Don’t be the one who refuses to see a good thing when its right in front of them. For the believer and non-believer alike, it’s not too late! Come to Jesus and receive this life he gives.

Yours truly.

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On the first day of Christmas…

For the next 12 days, I will be going through the 12 days of Christmas and what my true love gave to me in this delightful twist of the song!

On the first day of Christmas Jesus gave to me salvation full and free.

But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:5 NIV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 NLT

God has offered all mankind His free gift of salvation. To us it’s free, but it cost God the life of His Son. On the cross, Jesus Christ became the final sacrifice for our sins. He paid for our salvation with His blood. But like any other gift, God’s gift of salvation doesn’t become ours until we accept it. Just as we can refuse a gift someone offers us, so can we refuse God’s gift of salvation.

Would you accept His free gift today? It is full and it is free!

Yours truly.

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What if I am wrong about it all?

I recently read a very compelling social media post about a dream someone had about the rapture. At the end of the post, the writer added, “I could be wrong about all of this but what if I’m not?” to which someone commented “You are right. You could be wrong about all this. And you probably are.” Ouch! such an anticlimactic ending to a great message of repentance and salvation.

For a few years now I have been saying the exact same thing though. I tell people it is better to have served God and go into eternity only to realize that it was all for naught than to get to the other side of life and find out that the bible and everything in it was the real deal! But as I reflect on the comment to the post and on my own statement, I recognize that it is very defeatist. It most certainly does not inspire confidence in anything and anyone; certainly not in the God who made the whole world and in His word which is the only truth in this world where everybody is encouraged to find and speak their truth.

As I reflect, the scripture that comes to mind is

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. Hebrews 10:35 NIV

The entire chapter (Hebrews 10) summarizes salvation and the hope we have in Christ. God in his infinite wisdom knew that there would come a day when I would ponder over my life and this message of salvation and will waver in my hope and so He prepared in advance an encouragement not to throw away my confidence.  God admonishes from his Word:

Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Hebrews 10:22 NLT

I need to hold on to the hope I profess of an eternity living and loving in the presence of God when my life on earth is over. I am not wrong about it all. I cannot waver. And the reason I am not wrong is that God can be trusted to keep his promise! He has promised me that obeying Him and serving Him and living for Him here on this earth will be rewarded. He has promised me eternal life and He will keep His promise. That is the confidence I have.

My encouragement as we come to the end of a year and a decade is this: hold on to your faith, to the hope you profess. Do not throw away your confidence or downplay it. It will be richly rewarded.

Yours truly.

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For I know the plans I have for you….

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jer 29: 11 NIV

This scripture has brought comfort to many Christians (myself included) during times of uncertainty. Many times I have prayed this scripture when things happen in my life and I cannot explain them or when I am earnestly asking God for a special blessing, I remind Him from this scripture that his plans are to prosper me and give me a future and a hope.

Over the past few weeks, however, I have had the privilege of thinking about this scripture a little more deeply when I heard it quoted at the memorial service of a Christian young man who died very unexpectedly. The question was posed: “Was this God’s plan?” As I pondered the question, a very unusual answer came to me in the form of another question: “What is the future and hope God promises?”

If our hope in Christ is for this life alone, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ, all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him. 1 Cor 15: 19-23 BSB

As Christians, our hope and future are not of this world. Our hope, our future, our glory, and crown are in the fact that when our life is over in this world, we will stand victorious before the King of kings, Our God and Saviour Jesus Christ in the next world. If you have made Jesus the  Lord and Saviour of your life then you have a hope and a future and that is God’s plan for you. It is God’s desire that everyone is saved and comes to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2: 4 BSB).

So what about the prosperity promised in the scripture? People have a tendency to think of prosperity only in terms of money, wealth, and possessions but Jesus describes possessions not only as earthly but also heavenly. This is why He encouraged that we store up treasures in Heaven as well. This is not to say that I have prayed amiss all these years or encouraged myself with this scripture in vain. But as God calls me to enjoy a deeper relationship with him, I have come to the realization that this scripture Jer 29: 11 is both relevant for my life here on earth and also has eternal implications. I believe that God’s plan for me here on earth is that I prosper, be in good health, be successful, be happy and be delivered from harm. This is all scriptural. But I have also come to know in these past weeks that my prosperity, my future, and my hope is eternal and it is anchored in Christ the Solid Rock on which I stand while on this earth.

Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and steadfast. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus our forerunner has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek Hebrews 6: 18-20 BSB

As we slowly come to the end of the year, the end of a decade, the question I have for you and for myself is this: “Is your future anchored on the hope that is Jesus?” For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Yours Truly.

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And lead us not into temptation

For the past month and a half, I have been mauling over this line of the Lord’s Prayer: and lead us not into temptation. How can God lead us into temptation? We know the bible says

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. James 1:13 NIV

If God cannot tempt us then why do we need to pray that He does not lead us into temptation? The Greek translation of this verse offers some answers (as found in both Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers and Benson Commentary). The word used in the scripture is πειρασμος which includes the two words which are represented in English by “trials,” i.e., sufferings which test or try, and “temptations,” allurements on the side of pleasure which tend to lead us into evil.  This scripture does not refer to temptation (when lust meets opportunity) but rather leans more heavily on trials (the kind that is too difficult for our weakness to endure).

These trials cloaked as persecution, spiritual conflicts,  or the agony of the body or the spirit, may come to us as a test or as a discipline (Ellicott’s). Those who are conscious of their weaknesses are aware of the fact that they might fail in the  face of conflict, and therefore the cry of that conscious weakness is, “Lead us not into such trials,” even as our Lord prayed, “If it be possible, let this cup pass away from me” (Matthew 26:39).

Remember in just a few passages before in Matthew 4, Jesus had been led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted (tried). The temptations/ trials that Jesus faced were directed at those things that easily produce weaknesses in us: physical and emotional cravings, material possessions, and the desire for recognition and power. With the memory those trials in mind and because of his great love for his disciples and by extension for us, Jesus taught us to pray that we are spared those kinds of trials and temptations.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet he did not sin. Hebrews 4:15 NIV

The answer to the prayer, and lead us not into temptation comes in three forms:  as an actual exemption from the trials, or in “a way to escape” (1Corinthians 10:13), or in strength to bear it.  God does not abandon us to our fate. He is our ever-present Shepherd who seeks our best interest in every situation. Even in the trials, there is a master plan.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,  whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1: 2-4 NIV

So trust in His plan for your life fully. Listen for His leading attentively. Watch for His ever-present hands that are reaching out for you to save you from those trials, to guide you through them,  or to comfort you as you endure them.  Remember the premise of this prayer: He is our Heavenly Father!

Yours truly.