Wednesday, 21 November 2012

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

Friday, 9 November 2012

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

Wednesday, 7 November 2012

"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