GOD IS NOT SANTA CLAUS

Hello everybody Christmas is upon us again!! How time flies, I remember writing my Christmas article last Christmas on having fun during Christmas. You can check it out here. I love Christmas, I love the festive mood, the reunion with friends and family and the general magic that comes along with the atmosphere. As a kid, part of that magic was Santa. All the movies and songs portrayed him as real and on his way. While most Nigerian kids didn't really believe in Santa (they were too many at different places at the same time, plus our parents didn't make a fuss about it like western parents did) we still kept the illusion going for the fun and magic of it.

However there is an aspect of Santa that has evolved from a twisted idea of God. Many believe God is vengeful and relates with people based on their behavior. This is the traditional view of any deity and this view was imposed upon us by the fall of Adam. This is the view that Jesus came to eradicate. He also came to give us a proper vision of God. It is a God we could never imagine existed. He is Love. Not that he chooses to Love or he has love, not even that he loves, but HE IS love. One of the attribute of Love is that he keeps no records of wrongs (1 Cor. 13)

Beloved, our God is not Santa. He does not have a naughty or nice list, giving the naughty nothing and giving the nice their wishes. He lets the Sun shine on both the good and the wicked, and he is kind to ungrateful and evil people (Matthew 5:43; Luke 6: 32-36). God is not a book keeper. The only book he keeps is the list of those who have chosen Life over Death; Jesus over Religion; The Finished Work over self effort. Any person who ends up in the lake of fire on the day of judgment ends up there because they have chosen to save themselves by their good deeds rather than accept that they have been saved by Grace ( Ephesians 2: 8-10)

The essence of Christmas is not about a God who gives good gifts to the good people but about a God who saw a perverse world heading for self destruction and instead of accepting that, he came and joined us in the person of Jesus. He took our destruction and evil on himself and conquered it in every form. In that way, he redeemed us from our own evil.

Even the original Saint Nicholas (from whom we get Santa Claus) was a man who went about giving gifts to destitute children. I don't think he was keeping a naughty or nice list, and i'm absolutely certain that all those children weren't nice kids. Let us keep the spirit and intent of Christmas going; the birth of Jesus, giving and being with family

I believe in Christmas and that kids should enjoy all the magic and fantasy that accompanies. I don't even think we should make a big deal about Santa. I mean saying "Santa is Satan" is very uncool and ridiculous  come on !! However, I believe we should be conscious of the idea of God we portray to our children and if Santa is going to conflict with that idea, we should make sure they get the distinction; God is real, Santa is fiction and God is not Santa Claus.

Have a Merry Christmas everybody

BEING HUMAN

“By this you know the Spirit of God; Every Spirit that confesses Jesus as the Christ who has come in the flesh is from God but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God and this is the spirit of Anti-Christ….” 1 John 4:2-3

“For many deceivers have gone out into the world, people who do not confess Jesus as Christ coming in the flesh. This person is the deceiver and the antichrist…”2 John 1:7

One afternoon, after getting bored with writing arguments and drafting Affidavits, I decided to delight myself with a round of my PC game: “Chinese mahjong”. Expectedly, one round turned into two and then three and then….. you know how it goes. After a while I got stuck in a level and I found myself going over it again and again without completing it. Somewhat frustrated, I suddenly thought to myself “why not ask the Holy Spirit to help you out with this game?” so I did. I said “Holy Spirit, help me finish. Jesus, join me in playing, so we can win.” Just as I had finished saying these words, I got a nudge in my spirit; I could sense Jesus telling me “I was already playing the game with you and as for exercising some sort of divine insight to win, what would be the fun of that?” Wow!!! Good news folks; Jesus loves being human.

There is something about us that makes us want to live superhuman lives; we wish we could fly; we fantasize about having x-ray vision, telepathy, pyrokinetics and so on. We therefore celebrate anyone who looks like they possess these qualities, even if it’s a work of fiction; hence our devotion to characters like Superman, Spiderman, Tony Starks, Edward Cullen and so on.

But we see Jesus and we see a regular guy. He did not possess any supernatural qualities in and of himself. As Jesus, God became totally and irrevocably like us in our fallen state (which is what is meant by God, THE Word becoming ‘Flesh’). Contrary to popular opinion, Jesus never performed any of his miraculous deeds as a result of some “special power” inherent in his DNA. He did all he did in fellowship with the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was born as a baby, and he grew up as a regular child; obedient to his parents and learning new things every day (Luke 2:51-52). He probably had to learn the family business of craftsmanship like everyone else, with many mistakes and missteps. He wasn’t pretending to be Human, he was and is Human. He spent the first thirty years of his life building things and doing nothing extra-ordinary. Now I'm sure he was a very good man and he was sinless, I'm sure people would have regarded his values as a little weird, though good natured but I seriously doubt that he gave life to a dead bird or he healed any of his brothers when they were sick.

Beloved, Jesus did not start being God when he was baptized in the river Jordan and the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove. He was God right from when he was born; all through his formative years and the period wherein he was a carpenter. Jesus is the express image of the invisible God; he came to make our God known, to express him and to explain him. And what did this image do? He lived a normal human life for thirty straight years. It doesn't mean that God was imitating humans; rather he was showing us that humans are living out Divine life by being human. He also showed the type of total trust and fellowship with the Father that a normal Human was designed to have. We were not created to try and conjure up spiritual power or strengthen ourselves, we were made to draw from His strength and let God be God in our lives.

When we realize that God is not only with us in our human activities, but that we are participating in his life while engaging in human activities, it gives our lives a whole new meaning. Just knowing that God, in the person of Jesus is with me; expressing his life through me when I chat with friends, do my job and even watch a movie tends to magnify the pleasure from those things a million times more. It also makes me realize the importance of what I do and how I live my life. I realize that my humanity is not to be discarded, but to be embraced and enjoyed; because God enjoys it. Hence, we are told to do whatever we are doing in Christ.

There is nothing wrong with being human, we were made by God and he doesn’t make mistakes. If there was a mistake, Jesus would not have remained human in his resurrection. He could have shed his skin and become another entity. That would have meant that our salvation included a transformation into something else, like a being of light; that is a form of heresy called Gnosticism and as we have read in the quotations above, any denial of Jesus’ humanity is a plunge into heresy and anyone who teaches such things is an Anti-Christ.

Please note that I absolutely believe in the supernatural. I also believe the Holy Spirit will teach us all things and will do wondrous things through us. I just don't believe we should look down on our humanity and expect to be transformed into some other type of being, and I believe Jesus has a lot of fun with being human

So enjoy your life, relish the legitimate pleasures of humanity and may the Grace of our Lord Jesus be with you forever

THE LORD WHO SERVES US

But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that in this world kings are tyrants and officials lord it over the people beneath them. But among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must become your slave. For even I, the Son of Man, came here no to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many”… Matthew 20: 25-28 (NLT)

This is the last in a series I started a few weeks ago on the Lordship of Jesus. You can check out the first post here and the second one here. In light of the just concluded elections in America, I think we’ll find them instructive. My point of emphasis has been that Jesus is Lord. That statement is not just one of a deistic or dualistic God; i.e. Yes, Jesus is Lord in some spiritual way but he is not involved in the affairs of this world. No!! It is a statement that bears serious implications on all things. Whoever is president of your country, that country ultimately belongs to Jesus, he has a purpose for every nation and every person and he will see that purpose fulfilled without violating our wills. That is the beauty of Jesus.

So I just want to encourage you, whether or not you believe in the candidate that won; whether or not you believe in politics or politicians; whether or not you even care either way. Fix your eyes on Jesus; the owner of everything and recognize that he is Lord. We have a leader that cares about us deeply:

Jesus washing his disciples' feet

 All of scripture is about Him. But all of Him is about you. Who he is, is who you truly are. He told us that unlike the world where their Lords are despotic, in the Kingdom of God, the first shall be the last and he who wants to be greatest must be a servant. He demonstrates that to us by being the First born of all creation and through that medium, he serves us thoroughly (Ephesians 1: 20-22, Colossians 2:9-11). He is our Lord and he is no hypocrite. If he says that leaders must serve, then he is the greatest servant of all. He makes all of Him available to all of us. He perfects our imperfections, authors our faith, strengthens our faith and completes our faith. What a Lord, what a God. When I think on these things, I bow down and worship, giving reverent praise to the Lord, my servant.

Congratulations America for a peaceful and successful election process, you should cherish it. Many of you probably don’t know the value of a Peaceful election. I’ve seen otherwise and I think you should be grateful.

May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ continually be showered upon you. Amen

"Ghetto" by Shank

If you know me personally, you'll know that I LOOOVE music; All kinds of music, rock music, Hip-Hop, Soul, Reggae, electronic, you name it. My only criteria is that they are well crafted, thoughtful and intelligently made. I don't even need it to be morose or solemn, it could be happy go lucky, but still be well crafted. Which is why I love this song. "Ghetto" by Shank. There is just something about the song that takes me back to days in the streets of Shogunle wondering if we would ever make it out of there. Yet the song is fast paced with a fast paced, great afrocentric beat by Sarz. I must confess that with this beat, Sarz reached new levels of Genius (especiay with the bridge, WHAT!!!!). Yet it is Shank's braggadocios verses and evocative crooning that he "comes from the ghetto"on this fast based beat that touches a part of your soul (especially if you are from the Ghetto). It is a match made in Heaven. The video to the song is below

And just in case you were wondering, I believe everyone who is truly gifted artistically is gifted by the Holy Spirit, they might not know it or even acknowledge him, but it is God that gives them both the songs and the gift. I think blindness to God, worldly influences and personalities that have been shaped by personal experiences only leads to improper interpretation of his influence on us sometimes. I absolutel DO NOT believe that the Devil created anything, that includes any genre of music. At any rate, I really love this song and I hope you do too

THE VICARIOUS HUMANITY OF JESUS

Below is a link to a great video by the good people at Grace Communion International. It is an interview with Dr. John Mckenna. I must say that GCI  has the most expansive material on the Theology of the Trinity that I know; Videos, Articles and other kinds of media. You can check them out at this link http://www.gci.org/.

The video below is a wonderful discussion on the representative nature of Jesus Christ for all humanity. The effect and implications of his being a man on the Cosmos. It is lovely. You can either download the video or audio or stream it

 Just click the link below and enjoy


The Vicarious Humanity of Christ

ROMANIA AND OTHER THINGS

Hey there!! If you have been following this blog you’d notice that there has been a silence for quite a while now. Well, it was not intentional. Certain things had to be done and it involved lots of preparation so I was temporarily unable to sit down and write.

One of the things that needed my attention was my trip to Romania. My lovely sister graduated from Medical School in Bucharest so we all went to celebrate with her. I spent two weeks with her over there. Incidentally, she has also planted a Church in Romania and another fellowship too. They decided that since it was a holiday period for the students, they would hold a one-day conference. It was tagged “Justified”. Well, it was a wonderful meeting in a beautiful hotel. I was invited to be the guest minister and the Lord really moved in the hearts of people. We also had the chance to answer peoples’ questions after the message, which is a really good thing. Afterwards there was music and partying and as is with students all around the world, the party didn’t stop until the deejay shut down. All in all it was nice. 

my lovely sister Rolly

I also got the opportunity to preach in another Church on a Sunday where I shared the Gospel from the perspective of the value of man; I so much wish we had recorded that meeting. In addition to this, I got to meet and make friends with people who are also growing in grace and it was nice to be around people of other cultures. For pictures of the conference please follow this link to their facebook page, Justified and please like their page

It’s so wonderful that our God would create us in such a way that in Jesus we are all one and yet we will never lose our uniqueness, our spark, that factor in our personality that makes us different from everybody else. Of course this is very much in keeping with the nature of God himself i.e. Trinity; our one God is three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. Each one of these persons is not the other but each one is God. And within the Trinity is perfect love, perfect harmony, perfect joy and perfect unity. They are ONE, yet they do not lose themselves in one another. It is a mystery; a divine logic beyond the realms of logic. Yet, that is what we see in humanity too, in Christ, he has made humanity to mirror their life and their logic

Let me just say that I'm really proud of my sister; Not only is she a Medical Doctor, she has also set up the foundations for the Gospel of Grace to spread in her own world. That is commendable. I'm also proud of all those who have joined her in this work and most of all I'm happy to have made friends with them, beyond ministry you are my friends and I know we will have a swell time on this journey together.

Till next time, may the Grace of our Lord be with you

THE LORD WHO LOVES US

“Have you noticed that even though you call me ‘Lord’ and ‘King’; I have never really acted in that capacity with you? I’ve never taken control of your choices or forced you to do anything, even when what you were about to do was destructive or hurtful to yourself and others”…

-Jesus in “The Shack” by WM. Paul Young

I am continuing on my thoughts on the Lordship of Jesus from my last post. I love Paul Young, he expresses in one Novel volumes of theological thinking in a way that is understandable and that hits the main point of the Gospel home i.e. God; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit loves you. And in the passage from his book that I quoted above, he drove home one simple fact; Love does not force its way.

Like I said in my last post, Jesus is Lord over everything and everyone. That is the Gospel we proclaim; the arrival of a new Emperor who has all authority and power in his hands. The good news about it is that this Emperor is on our side. He loves us deeply and dearly and wants us to partake of everything he’s got! Unlike the emperors and Kingdoms of this world who go about imposing their will on their subjects and forcing everyone in their path to either bow or be beheaded, this King decides to pick ragtag men from unlikely places (The Apostles, lowly Gentiles) and sends them into the ends of the Earth with one message; Jesus is Lord and he wants you to reign with him.

For approximately Two Thousand and Twelve years he has watched his brothers shun him, denounce him, kill his emissaries and followers and make a mess of the World he created. Yet he does not act in force, he does not destroy nations, he does not punish them, neither does he engage in a great act of wonder to make himself known to the World and to force his will to be done on Earth. He does not turn us into robots that obey his every word without questioning it.

Why is he like that? Because he is Love, and Love is patient and it is not self serving. He does not force his way because Love does not operate that way. So even though he is Lord of all things (and whether we like it or not, that is who he is), he will never ‘Lord it over us’. He will speak his mind and give instructions but if you choose to disobey, He will always respect your choice and the consequence of your actions. When you repent of your choice and turn to him for deliverance, he will deliver you instantly because he is bigger than your mistakes and he loves you. He will never bring that mistake to remembrance between the two of you because Love keeps no records of wrongs. Even if you disobey again and start the cycle all over again, he will keep doing the same thing; advising, respecting and delivering until you are ready to move on and get healed.

This is why I believe in Hell, I don’t believe it is the place where Jesus punishes those that reject his Lordship and banishes them from his presence; I believe it is a place where people exile themselves in a futile bid to run away from his presence and rebel against him (in case you’re not aware, it is physically impossible for a place to exist where God is not present, everything is in God; specifically Jesus). Whether or not there will be any such people is left to be seen and I will not speculate on that issue by giving a general statement for or against it. I’d rather stay on the side of Christ and say whatever choice you make will be respected, whatever torment you suffer as a result of that choice is still your choice. But God will not stop loving you, chasing you and drawing you unto himself. He has made the way open for all men to engage in a relationship with him but a relationship is always a two way street, even for the Lord.

IT IS HIM WE PROCLAIM

I have no ambitions. Seriously, I don’t. It’s one of the things my wife keeps talking to me about. I believe the Lord orchestrated my life to be this way. Growing up I never was one of those folks that wanted to have a large, complex life. I’ve always preferred to live simply and enjoy myself and my family. I never dreamt of being a billionaire business magnate with my hands in so many pies that all I have time for is the business. I just wanted to always have enough to give my family the best and keep my children grounded; respectful and loving towards others (eat your heart prosperity preachers)

Of course this way of thinking has shifted slightly as an adult. I don’t mind being a billionaire any longer, if it will afford me the chance of living my simple life and taking care of others. Plus, there are so many things I could do with those resources now in ministry and personally. But my point is that I have never had grand dreams, visions and goals for any of my business ventures. I just do them because I either have the skill to do it or I love doing it. Sometimes I try to create some great goal for my Law Practice; what do I want to do? How big do I want it to be? More often than not I draw a big blank.

Even in ministry, when I realized that I was called and gifted to preach the Gospel and plant Churches. I adopted the dreams and visions of most people ahead of me. I adopted their ideas of success in ministry and had these grand dreams of creating my own vast empire. I later realized that this was not what I wanted; it was just my attempt at trying to fit in with the crowd and not be myself in the midst of all the bandwagon riding. After reaching that point in my life where I abandoned all ambitions, goals, and fantasies of building my own empire, the Lord began to show me HIS purpose, HIS goal and HIS ambition. It is to build a temple where he can dwell in through Christ, to raise us up to be the Bride fitting for Christ and to make us a perfectly functioning body of Christ(an extension of his physical body everywhere) and to be his Sons in Holy Spirit and through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Subsequently, he began to show me that every minister should have no aspirations of his own, because we were not made ministers by ourselves. He chose us and sent us to play our part in the fulfillment of his grand purpose. I came to realize that it was not my job to build things or make it grow, but to plant and water the seeds that I have been given by God (1 Cor. 3:5-9). My part is to proclaim to the world that a new emperor has emerged; Jesus our Lord and God. He is the supreme super power and the one for whom, through whom and in whom everything exists and as many as accept that and make use of his Lordship in their lives are given the right to be Sons of God. To reject Jesus is to reject truth and ultimate reality. It is to confine oneself to Hell.

This is why all Kingdoms eventually fall, all empires eventually fail and all superpowers eventually crumble, but Jesus lives forever and he reigns forever. Because they are all lies and only Jesus is true

I am the way, the truth and the Life… (John 14:6)

Of course when I say ministers should have no aspirations I am in no way saying they can't imagine or want their ministry flourishing. If God calls you to be a minister in any capacity, or he gives you a dream or business idea. It can be as far reaching as possible within the zone of the Grace he has given you. Our God is a BIG God. My point is whatever dreams one has , it should be in line with God's grand purpose and the Lordship of Jesus

We will be exploring this fact in the next few posts on this blog. What are the implications of Jesus' Lordship and how does he exercise it? It's going to be fun!!! 

Peace be with you

WHEN WORDS STING

There are times in every relationship where words get spoken by the other party that sting or stick to the memory of the person being spoken to. Whether or not such words were meant to inflict the sting is immaterial, the fact is the deed has been done. The words have been spoken (sometimes foolishly).

I find such times to be very troubling; especially when it is my wife that has spoken such words. Sometimes men can just be oversensitive, we take certain things too far and regard every suggestion by our women as a bruise on our ego (Although i must admit women DO take words very seriously for the most part) anyway, people generally do not like being spoken to in a bad way. Words are very powerful and they have a way of affecting us very strongly, sometimes even more than physical assault. As a result, we find ourselves lashing out at the person; one way or another. Even when we say we won’t lash out and we repress it. The best solution is to talk to the person about it and let the cards fall where they may. The problem is that is easier said than done

In my case, I find it hard to say I’ve been hurt by words. I’m not a talkative person (which is why I know that it is only by the Grace of God that I preach) and I find myself repressing a lot of feelings. But repression will not stop us from ruminating on the words; turning them over; thinking of all the witty replies to the statement; all the flaws to the statement; all the reasons why what she said proves that she does not have my back…. This kind of thing can go on in my mind for the whole day!!! If unchecked, this kind of thinking can take root and become a very deep seated bitterness and resentment towards the person. You find yourself subconsciously seeking justice and unknowingly punishing the person for saying something they didn’t mean to be understood that way.

 If you are like me in this department, I have come to understand one simple fact- THE PERSON YOU’RE THINKING ABOUT IS COMPLETELY OBLIVIOUS OF THE FACT THAT YOU’RE UPSET. They probably would have never in their wildest dreams imagined that those words would have had that effect on you. They most likely did not mean it that way. The other person is either lying next to you enjoying a good night sleep, or at work doing their own thing while you’re there philosophizing on a forgotten statement for hours. In addition, even if the words were made to hurt, the purpose has been accomplished by your allowing it to affect you that much. You have given the person the satisfaction of hurting you

We should also recognize that we are all broken in some way; even when we realize our identity and completeness in Christ, we have a lot of mind renewal to undergo. So we have two or three people who have issues of their own trying to live life together, surely stupid things will be said

The reason we hurt so much is because we have come to depend on this person for our happiness, so we don’t even love them because we love them anymore- we love them because we want them to love us back. However, to become dependent on a loved one makes it impossible for us to truly love that person. When we live our lives needing their approval, their respect and their love, we make it impossible to be honest with them and to be free to just love them.

The truth is, man was designed to be loved, approved and affirmed; we just weren’t designed to seek it from one another. God made us to live in His Love, His approval and His affirmation. Just like Jesus did. When he stepped out of the waters of baptism, he received the Holy Spirit and the words of his Father calling him “beloved” and the one in whom he was “well pleased”. On the strength of that statement, he went and conquered Satan. Beloved, God is saying the same to you too right now; He loves you, approves of you and sees you as pleasing. On the strength of that, we go out and love others. Like John said, “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). That way, we can be honest with people around us and actually tell them when we were hurt and let the cards lie where they may. We will also be able to look beyond ourselves and see things from the other person’s point of view; most times the other party has a point. Then the healing can really begin

Now I am not undermining the pain of hurtful words, neither am i in anyway condoning abusive words in a relationship of any kind (if you're a victim of abuse please realize your freedom in God from the shackles of that abuser). This post is dealing mostly with just everyday stings of words and arguments that occur between two people who genuinely love each other and are working at having a healthy relationship 

May the Grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

HE LONGS FOR US III

Well, I am on my final lap, the final week, the end is near. My wife will be returning at the end of the week of writing this and everything will be back to normal again (thank God!!).

In preparation for her return I’ve set out to set the house in order, and to take care of myself too. I’ve cleaned, cooked, changed the sheets and fixed some things in the house. I’ve also shaved, cut my nails and so many other things. I’ve even done some things she would have had to force me to do if she were around and I was excited to do it too; all in preparation for her glorious return.

As I was engaging in one of these activities, the Holy Spirit reminded me of a very similar statement made by Peter

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; when it comes, the heavens will disappear with a horrific noise, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze, and the earth and every deed done on it will be laid bare. Since all these things are to melt away in this manner, what sort of people must we be, conducting our lives in holiness and Godliness, while waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God?........... Therefore, dear friend, since you are waiting for these things, strive to be found at peace, without spot or blemish when you come into his presence…” 2 Peter 3:10-11;14(NET)

Just as I prepare for my wife’s return with much fanfare, so should we prepare for the return of our Lord, as I have kept the house and my body just because she’s coming back, we keep ourselves pure in anticipation for the Lord’s return. Not because this will in anyway affect our salvation; it is by God’s grace we have been saved through faith. It is because we love our Lord. If I do not do any of the things mentioned, she wouldn’t divorce me, she probably won’t be angry either. She’d just get it done after resting appropriately (including the ones she has to force me to do).  As a matter of fact, I’m quite certain that she will still notice some things I didn’t quite get right, didn’t do to her taste, or didn’t do at all and she’ll rectify it.  In the same way, when our Lord returns, he’s not going to start pointing out all the evil we have done and just keep us at arm’s length until we get our act together. Instead if there are still any defects in our characters and mind set, he will fix it. He will draw us near and make us new, he will bring us to understand how truly like him we are. One thing that I’m most assured of is the replacement of our bodies. We will all be given new bodies, just like his. Bodies that cannot die, that cannot be sick and that are not bound by time and space (1 Cor. 15: 50-54). We will be just as he is.

In the mean time we prepare for the Lord’s return, we know he will come back and we want to “stay in shape” for him. I find it disturbing that many believers around me seem uniformed of this return. While I do not take this as a sort of excuse for escapism, I think it is important we know these things. I think it’s important we realize that this single life we live is not all there is. It helps us to withstand persecution, to endure suffering for the truth and to remain upright in this increasingly evil world. It also helps us to pinpoint the source of our longing and nostalgia; we want to meet the Lord. When we come to truly believe he’s coming back, our posture will change. Even though we know Christ will still be engaged in some mind renewal when he arrives, we still live sanctified and sober lives. This admonition is strewn all over the epistles.

Lord Jesus, we wait with bated breath for your return, confidently expecting the replacement of our Mortal Bodies and the renewal of our minds to the realities of your Grace. Till then, lead us deeper into the truth of your sanctification and righteousness. Amen 

Grace be with you

HE LONGS FOR US II

Before we go to today's post, I must first offer my sincere apologies for the drought of posts recently, been busy. Please forgive me. Now that we are through with that, let's go to the post. I will be continuing my series on my wife's trip and the things i was taught through it. I wrote them during that time period, I just couldn't get to post them. As a result, I don't intend to change the tone and tense of the post:

In the last post, we explored how God had a plan to be in close fellowship with us forever and how we abandoned that fellowship to strike out on our own. We saw how God missed us and went to great length to get us back through his Son Jesus.

Like I said in my last post, the parable of me missing my wife illuminated the Gospel to me in two dimensions; first is before the Cross, which we have dealt with, second is after the cross which I intend to write about today. You might be wondering, since the Holy Spirit is in us and we are in him, and the fullness of the God head dwells in us through the Spirit, how can we say that God misses us again or he longs to see us again? Well, there are two sides to my post today: He wants to see us physically and we want to see him physically

There is a passage in Paul Young’s book “The Shack” where Mackenzie the protagonist of the Novel meets with the Trinity for the first time. As he is about to knock on the door, it is opened by Papa (the character representing the Father) who upon seeing him gives him the biggest bear hug, he is lifted from the ground and kissed all over the place. His defenses are melted immediately, this has never happened to him before and tears start streaming from his eyes. Ultimately this is something every heart longs for; to be hugged, accepted and welcome by God. We seek it from every other person, every thrill, every Job, every good deed we do in ministry, every stride we take, but the truth is that we are seeking that these things fill a hole only God can fill. And he is willing to fill it, if we let him. I believe our hearts are longing for that bear hug from Papa, or more accurately we are wrestling against it in our ignorance and seeking it from others. However, not only do I accept the Holy Spirit’s agency in giving me this hug, I can’t wait to see him physically. I can’t wait till he returns and transforms my mortal body to the resurrected form and to see him. To touch my Lord and to see him hug me with tears in his eyes and mine as he says “welcome home my brother”. It is not the physical appearance of Heavens that creates a longing in my heart any longer but the person of Jesus himself

In the same vein, I believe the same for God himself. He has made his home in us and he finds rest in our bodies. But we are still told that Jesus will return, that he will split the sky and call us up to where he is (1 Thess. 4:16-18). If he were satisfied with the present state of things between us, he wouldn’t do that. He wants to see us and feel us; to eat and drink with us (remember God has become a man in the person of our Lord Jesus). I believe even though the Holy Spirit gives him something more than a digital impression of his presence, he still longs to return to us and feel us with his physical hands, see us with his physical eyes and speak to us one on one. We are his bride and we take his breath away.

So we can pray like the early Church prayed Maranatha, come Lord Jesus come

HIS HEART LONGS FOR US

Last weekend I saw my wife off to the Airport. She was going to see family and she’s going to be gone for a while so I’d been tearing up all day, in fact all week. But I never let the emotion show, I reasoned that she would not be gone for so long and the days would just pass by swiftly, so there was no need to worry. Whenever we talked about how much we would miss each other, I tried to keep a stoic demeanor and just be frank about it all

But as it remained two hours for her to leave, I began to feel the heavy weight of deep loss, I really didn’t want her to go, and I would miss her presence too much. As she walked past the security gate and went out of sight; not to be seen for the next couple of days, I felt a part of me leaving with her, and even though we have means of communicating with each other; Skype, chatting and plain old calling each other’s cell phone, nothing beats her being present with me here. I still miss my wife a whole lot, I’m not used to coming home, watching movies or even praying alone. Now more than ever, I cherish the presence of my spouse sharing everyday life with me. I cannot imagine how old people feel when they lose their spouse, no wonder they tend to sleep in the Lord quickly (especially if they were very close)

As I was driving back home from the Airport and contemplating these things, I suddenly felt a nudge in my belly: “This sense of loss I feel does not originate with me, it is a parable and it originates from God”, I could feel it originating from the heart of Jesus himself, communicated to me through the Holy Spirit.

I will talk about this in two layers; before the Cross and after the Cross

BEFORE THE CROSS

When Adam fell, he died. He separated himself from God and in his utter confusion about God and his character, he started hiding from God. This little act has degenerated over millennia to mankind having all these myths about the Father; twisted and convoluted ideas about the Nature and character of God that make us constantly fear him, distrust him and run from him. In a way we were passing through the Security gates and leaving the place of pleasure (Eden) and fellowship with him forever. We could still communicate with him sometimes, Israel had the Temple and he spoke through his Spirit to certain men. Many other nations had inclinations of their origin in God, but Satan twisted these inclinations and set himself and his demons up to be gods in those Nations. However, God still communicated with Gentiles, just not as frequently and directly as he did with the Jews.

But that was never enough, what he wanted was to live in us and share everything with us. He wants us to have a conscious knowledge of his presence in all that we go through in life; good or bad. He wants to fully express himself in humanity, and include us in the unbroken and unbreakable fellowship of the Trinity. This is what Jesus came to give to us. This is the plan that began in Eden but was not fully consummated.

He came to show us a true picture of God:

“No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” John 1:18

He came to give us Life (a living fellowship with the real God):

“Father the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life; that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:2-3

Now I’ve had a glimpse of how the Father must have felt for millennia without our fellowship and of how the Son would have felt, waiting for millennia to become flesh and claim his Bride. Not that God is incomplete without us or anything like that. He can do without us; he is wholly whole and satisfied in the Trinity. He has just chosen never to do without us. Like Karl Barth says, “God refuses to be God without us”

So when he became man, he became the last Adam; fully representing us in a way that is much more powerful and effective than the first Adam. When he died, he put to death that Adamic race that alienated himself from God with its idiosyncrasies and he rose again to newness of life, a man completely innocent before God with complete access to the throne room of God. Now all that is left is for us to accept who we are and what has happened to us, and make use of it by engaging in a real relationship with God. The moment we believe this, the Holy Spirit makes his dwelling in our hearts and that connection is made.

“And you were also included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession to the praise of his glory” Ephesians 1:13-14(emphasis mine)

Please do not get me wrong, I understand the severity of Sin and Christ’s need to die and take our punishment. But we must remember that is not where the story starts. There was a plan before the fall, and the fall did not stop that plan, it only meant that Jesus had to make certain stops in carrying out that Eternal plan

Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, just know that God longs to make his dwelling in your heart. He’s not disgusted at you, unhappy with you or disappointed in you. Sure, you might be doing things he does not like, but he’s not surprised and he’s very aware of the fact that only in him can you find the strength to change. He literally died to make it possible. If you have not accepted this gift please do and if you have, the least you can do is enjoy his presence and let him love you.  In fact, I believe that is all that is required of us.

Now, this post is getting too long for my liking, so I’ll write about the next insight in my next blog. Stay tuned.

REDEFINING OUR VOCABULARY

In recent years there has been a resurgence of the real Gospel, a sort of excavation of old and ancient foundations that were buried deep underneath a super structure of Legalism, spookiness, Gnosticism, secular Humanism and general worldliness. We are beginning to recapture the essence of the Gospel. We are beginning to read the Bible without the lens of religious conditioning.

As a result, I believe there is a need to recapture the true meaning of Christian terms and phrases. I have come to find out that a lot of the words we use bear a totally different meaning from what we were made to believe growing up. Most times, what we are taught are meanings steeped in Old Testament theology. Well, we have come to know that the Cross made a difference. The coming of Jesus and his death on the Cross has turned these terms on their heads and in fact abolished the Old Covenant. And it is in this context that the New Testament writers came to see and use these terms

A good example is the word Righteousness. We were told righteousness means doing right, obeying all the rules and being sinless; in other words, being spotless in terms of our behavior (it’s funny that those who interpret it this way and encourage people to ‘be righteous’ are not righteous themselves if they are to go by this definition). However, we have come to know that this interpretation is faulty in light of the New Covenant. No one can be righteous based on their performance. No one is spotless in and of themselves. So, God goes the other way round; he makes us righteous by giving us his righteousness and when we lean on that, impulses are created in us to do his will. We begin to bear his fruit, as opposed to creating fruit. Righteousness is not a doing; it is a state of being.

Similarly, there are various terms in our vocabulary we must begin to either redefine or rediscover its true meaning. Words like faith, sin, The Word of God, holiness, Church, responsibility, hope, Hell, repentance, Covenant and many more have a totally different meaning in light of the New Covenant. This is one of the things I’ve been thinking about in recent times. I will share my thoughts on these things as I feel the release to do so of course, but I would implore you to think for yourself and ponder on these things too. You have the Holy Spirit and he will lead you into all truth

Below is a video teaching by Ryan Rufus where he expounds on redefining Holiness, I think you’ll find it quite enlightening. Even if you do not agree with it, keep an open mind and let it spark up thought in you on these issues.

Till we meet again

May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ continue to be with you

Hol

BEEN A LONG TIME

Hello everybody am back!!... I guess

First of all, i'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year. I hope the year has been fun for you guys as it has been for me. I have been absent from the blog for a couple reasons;

First, I am really concentrating on equipping a fellowship of believers, we call ourselves Grace Community. We meet twice a month and it's at the beginning stages; So it's going to take a lot of attention and care. Second, I have a lot of things to tidy up in the area of my business; Got to build a brand and all that stuff.
Third, I have been doing a lot of thinking (more than usual) about the preceding things over the past two months; praying, contemplating and questioning. Finally, I like to say, am a bit lazy, so to add writing to that mix is a bit difficult. Plus by the time I'm through with that, coupled with family life, i just feel emotionally spent. BUT, the Lord is my strength, so I will be doing some writing here and there, I love you guys and enjoy sharing my journey with you. I can't promise you on regularity, but I will try.

Till then, just keep in mind that no matter what happens in your life, God is not the author of evil. But he is a specialist at bringing out the greatest things out of the messiest situations. That is the power of grace. So feel free to admit when you have done wrong or made a bad choice, just don't wallow in guilt over it and expect our Father to make the best of it

Grace be with you
Mayowa