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The path ahead

A few days ago, I read a verse from the book of proverbs and I have ruminated on this passage for a few days, wondering why it caught my attention and what God wants to teach me from His word. Let’s look at it together:

Set your gaze on the path before you. With fixed purpose, looking straight ahead, ignore life’s distractions. Watch where you’re going! Stick to the path of truth, and the road will be safe and smooth before you. Don’t allow yourself to be sidetracked for even a moment or take the detour that leads to darkness.

Proverbs 4:25-27 TPT

Fast forward to this week, I have been reading about the life of Elisha. And every time I have read his story, I have been impressed by this one thing: Elisha was a man who simply refused to be distracted from his mission and goals. In today’s post, I want to zoom in on his life and show you specific areas of his life where he demonstrated this.

Elisha’s Call into Ministry

This story is found in 1 Kings 19: 19-21. One day, Elijah, a prominent prophet in Israel, found Elisha plowing a field. He went up to Elisha, threw his cloak on him, and walked away. Elisha, realizing that was an ordination to service, immediately slaughtered his oxen and used his plow to build a fire on which he roasted the oxen. Elisha gave up his everything, even his livelihood, and by so doing, ensured he was never going back to his life as a farmer. He severed all ties to his former way of life so he could be effective in his new vocation without any distraction. Elisha’s actions are reminiscent of the life God calls us into:

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy

1 Corinthians 5:17/ Ephesians 4:21- 24 NLT

So here are my first questions for you to ponder: What is distracting you from your life in Christ? What life’s distractions are preventing you from keeping your gaze ahead?

Elisha’s Desires for Growth: A Double portion

This event can be found in 2 Kings 2. Elisha found out that Elijah was retiring from his role as lead prophet. Elijah asked him what he wanted as a parting gift, to which Elisha responded, “a double portion of your anointing.” Elijah promised that Elisha would have what he asked for under one condition: that he would see him being taken away into heaven. On the day Elijah would be taken up to heaven, Elisha was on high alert and hyper-focused. Nothing was going to distract him from his goal. Even as he and Elijah journeyed along the way from Gilgal to the Jordan river, there were many opportunities to be swayed from his goal, but he refused to be sidetracked. He had his eyes on the prize and was acutely aware of what was at stake: a double portion of Elijah’s anointing.

I ask, after all is said and done, are you aware of what is at stake? What have you set your sights on?

Novice drivers learn very quickly that when you drive you unconsciously steer your vehicle wherever your eyes are focused to. If you look to the left, your car will drift to the left, and the same applies if you look to the right. Neither is it advisable to drive while looking exclusively in the rearview mirror. Apostle Paul, in the book of Hebrews, tells us where we need to fix our eyes as Christians.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. 

Hebrews 12:1-2a

Juxtaposing this scripture onto the one we read earlier from Proverbs 4, the path before us is our journey through life towards an eternal end. We are encouraged to stick to the path of truth in order to have a safe and smooth journey. And we do so by fixing our eyes on Jesus who is Truth, and the author and perfector of our faith. Detours along the way will lead to darkness. Jesus who is the only path to eternal life. Like Elisha, we need to strip off every weight that will slow us down or distract us from what is at stake: eternal life. Elisha indeed received the promise of a double portion of anointing because he was not distracted when Elijah was caught up into the heavens mid-conversation. Similarly, if we are undeterred, with our gaze firmly set on Jesus, we will make it safely home to eternal glory.

I conclude with a hymn written by Helen Lemmel in 1922. May its ancient words wash over you:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

Yours Truly.

Posted on by intentional4christ

Advent Devotions day 1: You are not alone.

It is advent season and I love the idea of advent calendars- everyday for 24 days until Christmas you can reward yourself with something from an advent calendar! And while I am yet to get a calendar, I thought I would end the year with 24 days of reflections on my year from my bible readings over the next 2-3 weeks. I have themed this exercise “advent devotions” and my commitment to you is to meditate on the scriptures I read, reflect on it and share with you. So without further ado, lets begin with Day 1.

Last week I was listening to the radio and I heard something that deeply moved me in a way nothing has for a long time. The radio host said- God is not against us- and that spoke so many volumes to my heart. You see, this year there have been times when even though cerebrally I know God is not against me, everything else felt like the opposite, leaving me feeling all alone. Many times, I took on a me-versus-the-world persona in the face of adversity; forgetting this fundamental truth- God is not against me. Even better is that not only is God not against me, He is for me and if God is for me, nothing can be against me. He is fighting for me and will never stop. He is my sufficiency.

Today’s readings from the book of Psalms 145 only adds to this encouragement:

You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. The Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.

Psalm 145: 18- 20 NIV

So dear friend, let this wash over you: Even when circumstances are dire and it feels like the whole world is against you, God is for you! He surrounds you like the mountains surround Jerusalem and he stands beside you as the Man of War and Jehovah Sabaoth- The Lord of Hosts- you are never alone!

Yours Truly.

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So how does God judge?

This is a continuation of the last post (and if you missed it, I encourage you to read it here) so let us jump right into it shall we?

Since the Garden of Eden, when Adam apportioned blame on his wife and years later when their son Cain singlehandedly decided that his brother did not deserve to live, humankind has been inclined to sit in judgement over each other, deciding who and what is right or wrong.

A couple weeks ago, my pastor in his sermon said, “We judge others by their actions but we judge ourselves by our intent” and that is so true of myself. I get upset when I think I have been judged too harshly by others if my intentions were noble! I say things like “God knows my heart”… or “God knows I never meant to…” and that brings me to another truth I have discovered about God in Romans: God knows all things! Let’s break that down a little further.

Romans 2:16 assures us that a day is coming when God will judge all men’s secrets and nothing will be hidden from him. His judgment will be based on one thing and one thing alone: TRUTH (Romans 2:2). But how do we know what is the truth about anything?

  1. There is something within each and every one of us that that points us to what is right. Romans 2:14-15 says we demonstrate that each one has a moral compass of right and wrong written in our hearts and this compass is policed by our consciences which either accuses or defends us. The problem with our conscience though is that when sin takes over a person’s heart, the standard by which the needle of our consciences moves is tainted and can become skewed through hypocrisy (which are the lies we tell ourselves). So if our conscience can be led astray through falsehood, and God’s judgement is based on truth, then we are in trouble.
  2. How about the law or a set of rules (described as the embodiment of knowledge and truth in Romans 2:20)? What if we follow a set of rules and live by them? That is all well and good but the thing about rules is that it is all or none. Once you break one rule, you are considered a rule breaker (Romans 2: 25-27) and therefore stand condemned. The purpose of the law or rules, therefore, is to help our consciences along by creating a consciousness of sin.
  3.  This is how we are justified: by our faith in Jesus Christ who himself is described as the Spirit of truth or Truth (Romans 3, 1 John 5:6). When we believe in Jesus Christ and belong to his fold, we are no longer condemned (Romans 8: 1).

So back to my initial thought. God knows all things and his knowledge is infinite and based on truth. So how will God judge the world? In truth! What is truth? Our limited minds cannot fully fathom what truth is and that is why God promises us that His spirit will lead us into all truth; because only God knows the “whole truth.”  Therefore how God will judge those that never got the opportunity to hear and know Jesus is really within his infinite knowledge of the truth (answer to last week’s question). However, today you and I are blessed with the opportunity to have heard of Jesus and what I do know is that JESUS IS TRUTH and if I believe in him, I will not be condemned when I stand before the Great Judge.  Let that sink in for a minute.

Yours Truly.

Posted on by intentional4christ

Know your truth and live it

One of the most confusing, weird, and controversial stories in the bible that I have encountered so far has been the story of the young and the old prophet from 1st Kings 13. To summarize the story, God sends a young prophet to deliver a word to the ruling king but not to stop or eat or drink or return the way he came. After he delivers the word he sets on his way but an old prophet chases after him and deceitfully persuades him to come home with him and eat. As soon as the young prophet finishes eating, the old prophet asks why he did not obey God and tells him he will die because of that and true to the word of the old prophet he is mauled by a lion on his way home.

For days, I have been meditating on that scripture asking what lessons can be learned from such a bizarre story and this morning a scripture crossed my mind,

By smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display strength and take action. Dan 11:32 NASB

This scripture, even though contextually was a prophecy about the future state of the Israelites has allowed me to think through this story a little bit more. The young prophet received a word from God not to eat or drink after he had delivered the message to the king. The king tried to convince him to stay for a meal but he refused but when the old prophet came and deceitfully told him God had said he should come home and eat, he relented and went with him. What went wrong? Did he no longer believe God had initially spoken to him? Was he motivated to disobey God’s word because he was afraid to offend the old prophet? I don’t know the answer to these questions but what I know is that there was a disconnect between what he spoke as truth and how he lived that truth in different circumstances of his life.

The scripture from the book of Daniel assures us that those that know their God will display strength in the midst of deceit, confusion, fear, mixed messages or flattery and will resist such influences. They will not only speak their truth which comes from the word of God but they will live that truth. With all the uncertainty surrounding the covid virus and its implications on global health and wealth, there are so many theories out there and frankly, some are scary. And yet God assures us that his promises for us will not fail because He cannot lie. He offers himself to us as an anchor of hope when it feels like we are being battered by the storms of life and that should be the TRUTH we SPEAK and LIVE.

So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath. 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: 17- 20 BSB

Regardless of the circumstances, we need to hold on steadfastly to the truth of God’s word and not be influenced by anything especially fear. Know that the God who has promised is a faithful God, rest in His promises, be strong and courageous and walk in the strength of the Lord.  Jesus is praying and interceding for you.

Yours Truly.