New Creature

Have you ever tried to decipher God? Like try to crack Him open like you would with a written code or a coded signal? Or better still like the way you would try to cut open the human brain and try to understand how it works? Not that I have ever opened a human brain, but truth be told, even doctors do say that brain surgery is a “delicate” operation. At times I try to decipher God! I didn’t get the answers as how I wanted to, you know why? Because God is not predictable! He’s unpredictable! But He’s a sure bet to bank on!

Mark Batterson writes in His book, “Draw A Circle,” “God is not a genie in a bottle that we rub and He comes out to give us our wishes; our wish shouldn’t be His command, but rather His command should be our wishes.” I think this statement takes care of all the times we want to dictate to God how He should be running things, instead of actually following what He says.

The other day I was doing devotion with my kids and the young one asked, how come God doesn’t part the Red Sea like He did with the Israelites and how come we don’t have another ‘Jonah’ being swallowed alive and being taken to where God wants? Wow! It was such a hilarious moment, and I looked at him wondering if what I was about to explain, would actually make any sense to Him. I Started telling him that the way God does things is unimaginable, unquestionable and unpredictable, however God is still in the business of performing miracles every single day and no miracle is similar to the other! It’s not a one size fits all when it comes to how He works. My Red Sea may be a healing, while to another, its provision, while still to another may be a child who is into drugs, But God parts our seas, and makes a way. 

God doesn’t hide himself from us, no He doesn’t. Who He is, His love for us, His plans over our lives is all found in the Holy Scriptures, and when you truly seek Him, He reveals Himself to you.

I have read John 3:16 so many times in my life, countless times; however, every time I read this verse I get to realise, internalise and understand God’s plan again on a level that I hadn’t understood before, its amazing! I journal a lot, but I had never journaled scriptures, until my Rev. Pamela together with Edith, who is a journaling guru gave me insight on journaling God’s Word and I thank God for them. So here I am with my newly acquired skill so to speak and I feel God’s Spirit leading me to read John 3:16-18 and am thinking, Lord why would you want me to read this? I know what it means, I have  crammed and memorised every word since I was a child, is there anything different? But still I obeyed and opened.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”. In other words, God planned for His Son to die, even before He formed the earth. He who knows everything, knew that man would sin, and the only way to bring us back to Him was through sacrificing His Only Son, like a Lamb to the slaughter. I don’t know about you, but such love is too much to comprehend. To know that God had put things in place way ahead, so that when we come, our work is just to believe and accept Him into our hearts and follow His ways, is just amazingly awesome. John 15:16 Highlights this point further when Jesus says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, and so that whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you.” 

God desires a relationship with us, a personal relationship, like you would have with your children, husband, parents or anyone that is close to you. Truth be told, we care about the people we love and we send them love messages and give them a call, and when we don’t receive the same love back, we do get hurt and concerned as to why our loved ones aren’t paying attention to us. God wants a relationship with us whereby we talk to Him everyday, converse, letting Him in into our lives, telling Him our Fears,  celebrate and thank with Him when things go right. He desires an intimate relationship, He wants to be your accountability partner, uphold you when you’re on your right track, and lead you back when you go astray. He’s simply that loving!

However, when we go on with our lives like He doesn’t exist in it, then He hurts! Our Heavenly Father hurts when we put Him aside and in His place, we put other people or other things, and they become demigods. Just the same way that we are involved in the lives of our children, in their studies, in the same way, God wants to be involved in our lives, He is our Father and we are His children.

I recently learnt the legal meaning of the word shall from a lawyer friend of mine. He said, anytime that the word shall is used in legal terms, it means “mandatory,” “must.” If the laws of our land abide by the meaning of the word “Shall,” how much more will God Honour His Word when He says, that Whoever believes in the Son of God, Shall not Perish, but have everlasting life?

Isaiah reminds us of the spoken word that comes out of God’s mouth in Isaiah 55:11 God says, “So is my word that goes out from my mouth; it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” God’s Word is alive and active in our lives. Gods Word is like a verb, a doing word, actioning and orchestrating our every move. No matter all the hurdles that we may get in life, the pain, the loss,  the persecution, name it all, there is a promise that we are guaranteed afterwards and that is eternal life in Christ. When all is said and done, what is your goal at the end of life? Philippians 3:14 reminds us what we need to do, “I press on towards the goal, to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.” May we Receive Jesus and attain our ultimate goal, which is eternal life, found only in Jesus Christ the Son of the living God!

When I was a little girl back in the days, (well not so long really), we used to make promises with our friends and whenever one failed to honour a promise, made to another friend, then people would abandon you and you’d be all by yourself. This was torture! the most painful thing a child can endure, is not having their friends around and your friends calling you fake! And so as children, we strived hard to make sure that we kept promises to our friends and they kept their promises to us! Now pause for just a minute and imagine, that these are just earthly promises that we make with each other, what more of our Heavenly Father who is Faithful and True? What He says always comes to pass, and what He starts, He always finishes! May we find comfort in this.

John 3:17 says “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” I have heard so many narratives of people saying how can a loving God allow so much pain and suffering into the world? The unfortunate part about this statement by people is that we are always quick to judge God and everything bad going on in the world, but we aren’t quick to judge our actions and the evils that we as human beings keep doing everyday, its like were playing double standards.

One thing that God has given us is the power to make our own choices and decisions, He doesn’t impose Himself onto us! The best example I have of free-will is the story of Cain and Abel in the Bible. Cain was the first born son of Adam and Even and he was a farmer, who worked on the soil. Abel his brother was a shepherd and kept flocks. The time came for them to bring an offering to the Lord Genesis 4:3-5 Cain brought SOME of the fruits of the soil as an offering while Abel, brought FAT PORTIONS from some of the firstborn of his flock. This even in humans eyes is not rocket science to know who brought the best, it was obviously Abel, but when Cain’s offering wasn’t looked with favour he was angry and his face was downcast. But I love what God says in the next verses “why are you angry? why is your face downcast? if you do what is right, will you not be accepted? but if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it”!

We must rule over sin, we must choose right over evil! But even with Gods warning, Cain still did not heed, but rather he allowed sin and jealousy of how his brothers offering was accepted to consume him and eventually he killed his own brother. God who is all knowing knew how the events would take place, but he wanted Cain to make a choice over right and not wrong, and Cain made the wrong choice. How much more has God allowed us to make choices and we have made the wrong choices? Still, God’s ultimate plan for mankind is that no one will perish, but have eternal life, the only condition is that you choose Christ as your Lord and Saviour.

John 3:18 says Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

The narrative that most people have about Christianity is that its boring, its not fun and once you get saved especially for the young dudes, then its like life has come to a complete stop. This is completely wrong and quiet the opposite if you ask me. Life in Christ is absolutely amazing! It’s like you’ve just boarded a cruise ship around the world and everyday your discovering something new about this ship, or your destination and you have this anticipation of wanting to know what will happen next simply because there’s excitement, there’s learning and new things to discover. Paul reminds us in Philippians 2:12 that we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Those of us who have gone to a gym know that getting that perfect body you always want is hard work, sweat, dedication and sacrifice. There will be toils and pains but the outcome that we get to see afterwards is amazing. The same it is with Christ and salvation, not everything will be handed to you on a silver platter, we have to work hard, learn, strive, because Christ too was persecuted and went through hard times!

God’s ultimate plan for you is eternal life In Christ Jesus! He desires a relationship! He desires our time, and He will honour our Faith and Belief in Him. Choose Christ and discover His plans for you and enjoy the journey!

Blessings!!