I Choose Christ.

During Palm Sunday's mass, the gospel was about the passion of Christ. In my church which i am sure was the norm in all Catholic Churches around the world on that Palm Sunday, the gospel was written as a dialogue and divided into parts. There was a part for the narrator,the words of Jesus were spoken by the priest, there was someone who did a random voice and then there was the part for the crowd, which in this case was us the parishioners.

The passion of Christ if you read the Sunday's Message page on this blog or if you have knowledge of it, is about the last hours of Jesus on earth from the last supper through to his betrayal.During the course of the reading the gospel and especially the dialogue assigned to the crowd as i was a part of, i felt tears sting my eyes by the end of the gospel.

At the beginning of the gospel, the crowd is all about Jesus, telling him they needed nothing when he sent them out to minister with nothing, asking for a sword to defend him from his betrayer.But as the gospel unfolds,the crowd calls out Simon as one who was with Jesus so he could be punished too and by the end of the gospel,the crowd is persecuting and calling for the crucifixion of Jesus.

It got me wondering what i would have done if i was alive in the times of Jesus. Whether i too like Simon would have denied Jesus, or whether like everyone else there at the time would have called for Jesus to be crucified or whether i would have believed that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. I also wondered about the time Jesus appeared to his disciples and Thomas asked for proof by touching Jesus' hand and his side.I wondered if i would have been like the other disciples and believed that it was indeed Jesus or if i would have been like Thomas instead wanting and needing proof.

These days there are all kinds of occults,deities and gods that people have turned to for hope, protection,sustenance and every thing else in between. The most glaring one that seems to be gaining grounds even among young people and is especially popular with the affluent is The Illuminati. I had been hearing a lot about it recently and never paid heed to it but when i read it on Yahoo, then i knew it was for real and it is quickly blinding people from Jesus The Truth.

Not too long ago, i was talking to my friend(yes,i know i reference him a lot but we all actually need that one friend with whom we can freely speak Jesus with anytime) who said while we were on the topic of being disciples for Christ, that disciples (Christ' followers) are not called but they call themselves to Christ. I found it a bit tricky at first but he went on to explain that, we make a conscious decision to follow Christ or be Christ-like, we are not called to be Christ-like but we decide in our hearts that we want to be.

It makes a lot of sense because if people can decide to worship another human being, or an idol,or a deity, or some god, then surely, people can make a conscious decision to worship and serve God too.It is rather unfortunate that in the times, more people are making up their minds to worship the formers instead of the latter.

I see that the quest for fast growth in terms of money is the main reason why so many choose to serve and worship other gods other than God, forgetting that our sole existence in the first place is simply because God authored it and allowed us. John 3:16 reads ''For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 

God chose us and because he loved us so dearly, gave His only son Jesus Christ to come die on the cross for our sins. We are saved and healed by his wounds as the Bible tells us that God knew us even before we were conceived. But he did not or has not imposed himself on us but has given us the free will to realize how much he loved us, the sacrifice that he gave for us and for us to choose him in return and believe in him.

For long, Christians have been taunted by non-Christians about believing and praying to a God we cannot see. Some like Thomas have asked of Christians to show them proof of the existence of our God, some out of sheer ignorance follow the bandwagon and get lost in the mix. But we have blessed assurance from Jesus for believing in him and trusting him even though we have not seen him.

Thomas had not believed his fellow disciples when they told him that Jesus came upon them but wanted to see for himself before believing, and indeed he only believed after he saw Jesus for himself. And Jesus said to him,' have you come to believe because you have seen me?Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.' Blessed are the Christians who call on God, who pray to him, trust and have faith in him without having seen him.

In the beginning of Jesus' ministry, we see that he chose his disciples,which is evident in Mathew 4:18-19 and reads ''And walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.". But Jesus unlike so many leaders today or humans, did not impose the disciples to follow him or obey him. He gave them the free will and ability to make their own  conscious choice of choosing him in return which they did.

I found it interesting that Jesus in choosing his disciples, chose even the one that would eventually betray him Judas Iscariot.This is/was to show us that the same grace that was offered to Judas for a chance at salvation is being offered to each and every one of us at different points in our lives. Some of the people antagonizing Christians might have not yet received this grace and so are yet to be saved, while others are too stubborn to accept the grace of God or even identify it, and while others are just plainly ignorant to that grace lurking around them the whole time.

For those doubting the existence of God, i urge you to just for a moment take a look around you and behold the beauty of your environment.The birds flying freely in the sky, the wonderful nature around you, the earth beneath your feet, the waters surrounding you and especially the air that you breath, all that and more is proof of God's wonderful existence.

Jesus is calling us every day to come into his presence and be partakers of this wonderful glory and belong in his eternal kingdom through salvation. He is extending a hand to you and me and every body else everyday. You are alive because he knew you even before you were conceived in the womb, you are alive because he chose you. Isn't it time you and i chose him too in return like Joshua.

In Joshua 24, Joshua gathered all the Israelites and showed them proof of God by reminding them of the promises he made to Abraham and how he fulfilled it. He also reminds them of how God delivered them from the Egyptians and the many blessings he gave them in form of food,fruits,plants from land where they did not toil nor harvest. 

For Joshua, it is overwhelming proof of the goodness and kindness of God and he was taken aback that despite all that, the Israelites still wanted to go worship deities and their ancestors. And that is when he said the verse that would change the Israelites minds, Joshua 24:15 which reads
''But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” They changed their minds after seeing that indeed from what Joshua said, God was indeed a God of signs and wonders and if they survived all that they had been through, it was only because God chose them and they chose him in return.

So let us not get caught up with  the many arguments that abound in every gathering these days that threaten the core of our belief system,or the negative news coming out from every angle, or the difficult situations we may be faced with that is making us question our faith. Just like he delivered the Israelites out of bondage and suffering, so will he deliver you. And the reason he delivered them was because they were a chosen people,chosen by him and so are you and i. 

So listen to that inner voice talking to you,God is calling you today and he is choosing you. Will you choose him in return? I hope you do, because then you will be releasing a flood of blessing on your life. Have a blessed and happy week and it is good to be back.

Halfway Through Lent!!!

I wrote on Ash Wednesday to tell you of the beginning of Lent and to remind those who had forgotten,that Lent was here.I shared with you the message from mass that Wednesday and the poignant assignment we had during this season , which was to be Ambassadors Of Christ every day of our lives but especially during Lent. I wrote of the importance of honoring God this season, on experiencing Christ's pain on the cross by fasting,giving up bad habits,volunteering and so much more. For those who missed that post, find it here.http://vikkyscreed.blogspot.com/2013/02/ash-wednesday-be-ambassador-for-christ.html?showComment=1363353268480#c8147652278124820038

We are more than halfway through with the Lent season and I thought it would be important for us to analyze how the first half has been so far. I had hoped to chronicle every day here but i thought to wait it out and write midway.

I had planned on giving up so many things during this period, dedicate more time to God, help more and mostly, pray often and spend more time with God. While I am not making excuses, life gets in the way sometimes and it did get in my way.

I had planned to give up chocolate and anything that wasn't good for my body like fries, ice cream, cakes and all the fatty food you can think of, as a way to cleanse my system for Lent. The first week i was able to pull it off and after that, I would forget sometimes and eat them, realize only after i had taken a bite or even finished eating that i wasn't supposed to be eating that.

I had also planned to give away some of my clothes and shoes to the needy and volunteer more time at one of the many community outreach at church. The clothes and shoes i did give away and i was proud of myself because these clothes and shoes, i still had enough wear in them and i loved most of them but i gave them away with so much ease.But i hadn't been able to volunteer my time to help in the community until this weekend and i am so looking forward to it.

Another thing i had planned to do was fasting and it was easy to follow up with this because I had just recently incorporated it in my life. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of fasting and the feeling that comes with it. It is liberating and the joy that comes during and after the fast when you are breaking it with songs of praise and worship is astounding. It is truly something to experience.

And the last things I had planned to do, was not to get angry with people or not to take things too seriously or personally, to be more forgiving and tolerant of people, to show more compassion towards people as Christ shows to me, to love all, to not be judgemental and most of all to love God more by calling and praying to him often.

 I cannot tell you in all honesty that I did all the things listed above as i had hoped to, or that the season hasn't been riddled with its own temptations. I failed several times on the plan of cleansing my body as i indulged, sometimes greedily on satiating my sweet tooth. I got overwhelmed and busy I forgot to volunteer my time to help a just cause.I let people get to me sometimes and lashed out at them only to regret it moments later, wishing i had thought before acting. I wasn't easily forgiving when i got hurt and i occasionally judged people when it was not my place to do so.

Yes i faltered and i take full responsibility for not being a good ambassador of Christ. But i am happy for my little victories too. The times when i craved a chocolate bar and saw it right in front of me but passed it up,the times when someone hurt me and i didn't let them get to me, the joy i felt when i went through my closet picking out clothes and shoes to give away, the times i fasted and the wonderful experience that it was, the times when i was understanding, tolerant towards people and mostly, the times i spent in God's presence.

I analyzed my first half of Lent and it hadn't quite gone the way i had planned to, so i hit the reset button a few days ago and that is why i wrote this morning. To tell you that, you too can hit the reset button. Have you analyzed your first half and you too like me weren't very proud of yourself?  Is there more you know you can do and wish to do? Do you want to correct yourself in the little time we have left?

Good news. You can correct yourself.There are so many things that God has promised us and reassured us of, and one of those things is His forgiveness. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 says 'All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.". In this verse, we see that God already forgave us our sins even before we wronged him when he gave Jesus Christ on the cross for us.Christ coming was to reconcile us back to God and because he loves us so much, he doesn't keep scores of our wrongs.

We have guaranteed grace from God but we must always seek for that grace first.We must always come to God with contrite and genuine hearts for 1 John 1:9 says 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.'  and Acts 3:19 reads 'Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord'. For us to move forward and start all over on a clean slate, we need to ask first for forgiveness for the past wrongs and repent from them,and as we have been assured,God is just waiting for us to ask and it is done.

Starting over not only means asking God for forgiveness but forgiving those people whose hurt in our hearts may be holding us back form our salvation. Mathew 6:14-15 says 'For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.'  and Mark 11:25 says 'And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. ". It is not enough to ask God for forgiveness because we know it is already granted but we have to forgive others. Unforgiveness holds our blessings back from God and it keeps us prisoners of our own emotions and lives, while the person we are angry with goes about their life and we are filled with so much bitterness. Whatever it is, we need to let go and release God's blessings and forgiveness to us.

Some of us might be so disappointed with ourselves that we feel discouraged to start over but God's arms are always open to receive His children. So many times we have read in the Bible of how the Israelites wronged God and how God accepted them into his presence. God has promised to never forsake those who call on his name and if you think you will not be able to do it, just call on him . Isaiah 41:10 says ' fear not, for I am with you;  be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you,  I will uphold you with my righteous right hand'. and Exodus 15:2 says 'The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.'.God is your strength and your courage and he is willing and ready to walk this journey with you.

1 Corinthians 10:13 'No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.' It doesn't matter what may be ahead of you or what you think you are afraid of. God already knows the temptations will abound. They will come in all forms, friends, trouble at work, dysfunction in the family and more and even battle in the spiritual realm that you can't see. But as Paul told the people of Corinthians, he is saying it to you me. No temptation will befall you that man has not seen, but through it all, God will be faithful. He will not let it happen and even if it did, God will make a way through for you.

So braze yourselves up, dust yourselves up and get back on the wagon. For we are not only ambassadors of Christ especially during the Lent season, but every day of our lives and we need both God's forgiveness to start over and his courage and strength to keep going forward. Our journey as Christ's ambassadors, as Christ's feet and hands on earth is never ending. But we need to know that whenever we falter or fall short of doing that, He is always ready to lift us up again with his love,his grace,his mercy,compassion and kindness.

For those who have done good so far, keep it up and expect your reward only in God and for those like me who failed in some areas, here is a second chance to do it all over.It is never late with God because all he cares about is our hearts and its genuineness in serving him and doing his works.So go ahead and make those plans again, this time knowing that God has forgiven the past,is glad you are back and is ready to walk with you through the whole journey.

I leave you with one of the powerful verses in the Bible from Philippians 4:13' I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.' Have that at the back of your mind always and with Christ, indeed all things are possible. Wishing you the best as you go through the last days of Lent,may you find strength in Christ and may he guide your ways always.

Happy and blessed weekend.

Why Do We Limit God?

A few days ago, a friend of mine told me about something that he really wanted to see happen in his life, something he wanted to achieve and that he hoped he would. He went on to say he has prayed about the issue several times and hopes that God answers His prayers. And just a few seconds after saying that, he started second-guessing himself. He started wondering if really he would get what he wanted, and started piling the odds that were against him to achieve that particular goal. He started doubting his abilities and told himself that, it would be difficult for him to make it.

In that instant I found inspiration to talk him out of that mindset, out of the negativity, the self doubt and to give him confidence. But after talking to him, I realized that I too have been guilty of that same behavior at some point in my life.

There have been times when I needed something so very much and after praying and committing it to God, I would find myself asking all kinds of questions. Questions like what qualifies me to have that and not the next person, if I was good enough for what I wanted, if I was really ever going to get it and/or how would I overcome all the hurdles to get it?.

I realized after talking to my friend and examining myself that, so many of us are guilty of this. We want something and we go down on our knees to ask God in prayers as He asked us to. For some of us, we are praying for a new job, some are praying for a baby, some are praying for a job promotion, some for success in exams and so on. And after we make the prayer, we get on our feet and start wondering if that prayer will be answered or if it will come to pass. We start looking for answers or excuses why the prayer will not be answered,we start listing our shortcomings and sometimes even use the past to justify why that prayer will not come true.

Well, fellow Christians, if you have done this in the past or are doing it right now, then what you are actually doing is limiting God.Anytime we go to God in prayer and come back to doubt ourselves and our abilities, we are not only doubting ourselves but we are doubting that God will come through for us.We are doubting His power, His love,His grace,His kindness and His mercy.

When we doubt ourselves, we are saying that we are unworthy of Christ's love and His blessings. We are saying that we don't really believe in Him as we claim to,we are saying that there is only so much that He can do and we are trying to be god of our own lives by answering  all those questions and putting in all those limitations.

Psalm 55:22 says 'Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you;He will never let the righteous fall'. Didn't this singular verse just ask us to cast all our cares and burdens onto God for He will sustain us? Casting our cares means taking our problems, desires and wants to God in prayer and sustaining us means He will see us through and grant us that which we have asked for. When we take a burden or concern to God in prayer, we should really free ourselves from it after prayer and let God do His work.

Mark 11:22-24 reads 'So Jesus answered and said to them,"have faith in God.For assuredly,I say to you,whoever says to this mountain,"Be removed and be cast into the sea",and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you,whatever things you ask when you pray,believe that you receive them,and you will have them'. Questioning ourselves after a prayer says very little of our faith and yet Jesus urges us to have faith in God in this passage. It doesn't matter what we are praying to God for or what miracle we  are asking Him for. What matters is that we we have faith in God, believe in Him and have absolutely no doubt in our hearts and whatever it is that we are seeking for will be granted.

Let not the unanswered prayers of the past be a measuring rod for why God can't do in your life what you ask of Him, for surely there had to be a reason why that past prayer went unanswered(topic for another day) and only God actually knows why. Live in the present and believe in God's abilities and promises for that present situation or prayer.

God assures us several times in the Bible that He listens to us and will answer our prayers when we pray. Passages like John 14:13-14 which reads 'Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it' and Mathew 7:7 says ”Ask, and it will be given to you seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.'

As children of  God and as Christians, we came to know of the love of God from the Bible.It is the only proof of His existence coupled with the miracles in our lives, when we know we couldn't have gotten out of a particular situation on our own. As Christians, we made a conscious decision to have faith in God,we chose to believe and that is what sets us apart from non-believers.

We are not ordinary people but extraordinary people bathed in the love of God and basking in His glory filled with promises.And though we live with unbelievers and pray for the same things as unbelievers, our attitudes and mindsets should set us apart from them. For while they sit and questions their abilities, doubt themselves, reminisce on the past and dwell on their failings,we on the other hand have to rejoice. For we serve a living God, a God who keeps His promises, who answers His children, who knows their minds and thoughts even before they come to Him in prayer and who would not forsake them or allow them to be shamed.

So go ahead.Go on your knees and make that fervent prayer to God about that new job you applied for, that baby you desire so much, that promotion you are longing for at work, that exam you are about to write, that new business you are about to launch and so much more.Make that prayer with all your heart and faith,get on your feet and forget about it because God is now in control of everything.Working behind the scenes,putting the right people in your path, leading you to the right door and direction, opening new opportunities for your, emboldening you even without your knowledge, building you up and strengthening you,connecting all the dots and voila,your prayer is answered.

And for Him to do all of that, we have to let God be God in our lives and stop trying to answer our own prayers. For if we could actually do it ourselves, then  we would have no reason praying to Him but since we can't , we have to let Him do His work after we pray. 1 John 5:14-15 says 'And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.'

I would leave you with one of my favorite Bible verses, the first part of Psalm 46:10 which says 'Be still and know that I am God' . I just found out that still comes from a Hebrew word meaning to 'let go' or 'release' and it just gave a whole new meaning to this verse and makes it all the more powerful. Whatever you ask God for in prayers or whatever miracle you are believing Him for, let it go and release it to Him, because He is still on the Throne and has sovereign control over every thing. And that second part, know that I am God means let God be God of your life and see how beautiful He makes everything in and around your life.

Have a blessed weekend .

Misplaced Hope? Find It In Christ.

If you have been following the news, then you are definitely aware of the situation surrounding Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius. The news of him shooting his girlfriend took the world by surprise and i am almost certain that some like myself,have not only been disappointed to see such a young man with so much potential go to possible waste, but have been asking so many questions in our minds. Questions that we might never get answers to.

As shocked as i still am about the whole situation, i couldn't help but think about the thousands of people that Oscar must have disappointed, the thousands of people whose dreams have died with his ordeal and the thousands of people whose hopes have been crashed in all the chaos.

In the last few days following the incident, so many articles have been published about Oscar Pistorius. Some detailing his life, how he was born without fibula and became a double amputee,his life's journey of how he came to be an athlete, how he became the first double amputee to compete in a major event such as the Olympics and how he became a source of inspiration and hope to so many. Yahoo News reports that he came to have a cult following and became a major celebrity after achieving this feat.http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics--distraught-oscar-pistorius-could-face-charge-of--pre-meditated-murder--111548119.html.

This got me thinking about all those people who had come to admire him, to look up to him, to be inspired by him, who dreamt and hoped to one day be like him especially with the handicapped population. Some of these people's dreams and hopes, together with O.P's career died the instant they heard about O.P's ordeal and that, is the problem with our world today.

It is understandable that as humans, we need some sort of motivation to keep us going on our various causes but that is as far as it should go-motivation. Nobody could have predicted this in O.P's future and neither did he plan to hurt the thousands of people that looked up to him with this unfortunate act. Some of his loyal fans might even be too distraught to want to continue living, forgetting that O.P is just a mere mortal like them and they should have never placed their hope or belief in him in the first place.

Our hope for everything in life and salvation should be deeply rooted in Jesus Christ and not man. Numbers 23; 19 says ' God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?'.Every thing and every one in our lives will fail and disappoint us at one time or another whether they want to or not. But there is only one person in the world who has given us His word that He will never forsake or abandon us because we are His children and He never has. That person is Jesus Christ and that is whom we should be putting our hope and trust in, because what He says He will do, that He does and He always has the final say as long as we talk to Him, believe and hope in Him only.

 Romans 8:24-25 says 'For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.' Why do we humans always put our hope in mere mortals like us? It is clearly stated in this verse that hope that is seen is not hope.All those who had their hopes in O.P were somehow setting themselves up for failure, for no body knows what the next minute holds. If O.P knew that this awaited him in his future, he would have done everything in his capacity to stop it i am sure but since God holds our destinies in His hands, even he didn't see this one coming.

Faith and hope are two words that are in someway intertwined because you cannot hope without having faith in the first place, and hoping in something or someone means you are believing and trusting in them or putting your faith in them. The Bible in many instances warns us against trusting or putting our faith in humans. Passages like Psalms 118:8 which says ' It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.” and Micah 7:5 which says 'Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms' state it very plainly for understanding.

How many times have loved ones failed us,close friends betrayed us or parents disappointed us? But we have many Bible guarantees that when we put our faith and hope in God, He will never fail us. Passages like Proverbs 3:5 says '“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”, Psalm 9:10 says 'And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.” and Psalm 37:5 says 'Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” .Every time we choose to believe in God,rely, depend and hope in Him, He will never fail us, betray us or disappoint us because He is a God who keeps His promises.

For all those people who had built their faith and hope in O.P, together with O.P himself, it is not late to reroute their attention and focus in the right direction. This is a period of trial and tribulation for both O.P and his loyal fans but they can delight in the fact that God will be there every step of the way to give them strength to carry on, support them when they feel alone,give them courage when they feel weak and work things out for their own good. Romans 5:2-5 says 'Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.'.But they can only tap into all of those blessings when they put their faith in God which Romans tells us, has been made freely accessible to us through His grace and love.

For O.P, his fans and anybody who is faced with a difficult situation and is in need of hope, let Job in the Old Testament be your inspiration, your motivation and a Biblical story you can use to draw strength from. For despite all the trials and temptations that he went through at the hands of the devil,he remained adamant to all the talks trying to convince him to give up on God. Instead, he remained strong in his faith and continued to hope in a God who eventually vindicated him before all his enemies. Job 13:15 reads 'Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.'

I hope the message of this piece is not lost in translation because i am in no way judging O.P. It is very unfortunate what has happened to him and i sympathize with him and his family and that of the deceased. God alone knows the full story and i can only offer up prayers for him, his family, the deceased family, and those heartbroken by these events.I pray they all remain strong and put their faith in God, for He alone knows best why things happen the way they do. Find hope in the words of Romans 12:12 which says 'Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.'


I just simply got inspired to use this as a wake up call to all of us. So many of us have misplaced our hope and faith.There are those who put their faith in fake gods,those who have false belief systems and then there are those who put their hope and faith in their fellow man.For all these people, betrayals,failures and disappointments are just moments away.

But there is only one True God who when we believe and hope in, we are certain that He will keep His promise of never failing us and make us the envy of those who do not know Him yet.For all those who had misplaced their hope, it is time you found it and put it in Christ Jesus.

Romans 15:13.'May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.'

Ash Wednesday: Be An Ambassador For Christ During Lent

Happy Ash Wednesday Fellow Christians

The messages of today's liturgy were perfect and on time to usher us into the Season of Lent. Lent is a period of 40 days set aside for Christians to worship God in His entirety, experiencing the pain Jesus Christ went through for our sake, changing our attitudes towards the things of God, and striving for righteousness. This is not peculiar only to the Catholic Church as other denominations partake in it too and i think every Christian ought to share in the Lent, the Passion Of Christ Jesus.

The readings were Joel 2:12-18, 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 and Mathew 6:1-6,16-18 for the first reading, second reading and the gospel respectively.

In the first reading, the Prophet Joel is delivering a message to the people of Zion from God. God is asking His people, men, women and children alike to return to Him with their whole hearts, fasting and mourning for their sins. But that he is not looking at their outward appearance but the depth of their hearts, and He being a merciful, kind and gracious God will always be slow to anger, relent in punishment and shower them with His love.

During this Lent season , we are invited from the first reading to make changes in our lives. Prophet Joel tells us how God wants us to change on the inside and not just on the outside. So what change of attitude do you want to enact during this season? God tells us that He doesn't look at our garments but our hearts.I think the most reasonable change for any of us who call ourselves Children Of God would be to acknowledge our sins each time we falter this season and genuinely ask for God's forgiveness. Every time we sin, we are separated from the Love of God and all that comes with it and the only thing that brings us back into that love, is when we realize our faults and seek forgiveness for He freely gives it to us. That realization occurs within our hearts, and then we make a conscious decision to go to God in prayers, not only asking Him to forgive us but to change us from inside out because when that happens, then we become cautious of the things we say, think or do which limits our sinfulness.

 In the second reading, Paul is calling us to be ambassadors for Christ, to reconcile ourselves to God for because of us, Christ became sin who knew no sin, that we might become His righteousness. He asked us to not receive the grace of God in vain for God heard us in an acceptable time and helped us in the day of salvation.

Paul calls us to be ambassadors for Christ at all times of our lives but especially during this season. We were made in the image and likeness of God and now we have been called to share the message of Christ's salvation.We have been called to be the medium which God uses to reach out to those in the darkness, to those who are blind in the word and to those who have not experienced His goodness.Lent is the perfect season for us to be these ambassadors because it is the period that Christ endured pain and was crucified for our sins and every body needs to be aware of what freedom we have because of that sacrifice.

In the Gospel, Jesus is basically warning us against false worship. That worship which we do in public such as telling everyone when we are fasting or looking famished because we are fasting, praying in the secrecy of our rooms instead of in public because God hears us from the comfort of those walls, and not doing charity work like helping the sick, needy, widows for others to see but because we are doing it for His kingdom.

Whatever we choose to do to honor God during this season of Lent needs to come from our hearts. Let us not be hypocrites or eye servants who say things but do not practice them or who only practice them when we have an audience. That is not to say we should not live out our faith for again, the Bible tells us that faith without works is dead. We have to be careful and know when and where to draw the line between being a plain show off or genuinely doing what He has called us to do. Jesus in the gospel mentioned fasting, praying and giving alms but the list goes far beyond. Whatever means you choose to honor God during this period, let it be from your heart and not because you have an audience to praise your works. For Jesus tells us that His Father in Heaven who is all-seeing would reward us in the secrecy of our hearts and homes.

Forty days may seem too long a time to set any goals and be able to achieve them. These forty days of Lent represent the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness and got tempted. The spirit of God was with Him and He was able to overcome all temptations that the devil teased Him with. It is always advisable to fast during these days but not all can do it.

Not to worry, there are other ways in which you can try to experience Christ during this period. They include but are not limited to volunteering your time, helping the poor, feeding the hungry, clothing those without, providing shelter, treating our bodies like the temple of God that they are by watching the things we eat and the things we do to it, preaching the good news, making sure that our thoughts, actions and words are all to the glory of His name.

It is a long period of time to do all these but we don't have to do it alone.If we can make resolutions to loose weight and accomplish it in however long it takes us, then we surely can follow through with this. Like Jesus who had the spirit of God guiding Him throughout in the wilderness, we need to ask God to never let His spirit depart from us. That His spirit should guide us like it did Jesus, that His spirit should be with us at all times to give us strength when we feel weak,courage when feel discouraged,passion in our hearts to keep going, lift us up if and when we fall.

It is not going to be an easy forty days but with God, we can do it. I hope that somehow i am able to chronicle mine for you here and hope that it inspires you or encourages you to keep going in yours. May God be with us all during this period of His suffering, when we come to first of all feel the pain He went through, be thankful for the sacrifice He made for us and rejoice when He resurrects on the third day.Let us go out there, be ambassadors for Christ in the way we live our lives these forty days and hopefully beyond.

Good luck to all of you participating in Lent and may God be your strength. Happy Ash Wednesday people and a blessed rest of the week. 

Last Sunday's message.

 We Are All Members Of The Body Of Christ.

So I am back with the first Sunday's message in weeks.

Mass yesterday was beautiful and the message couldn't be more timely for the times that we are facing right now.

The first reading came from Nehemiah 8:2-4a,5-6,8-10, the second reading was from 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 and the Gospel was from Luke 1:1-4,4:14-21.

The first reading talked about The Law. The law were a series of rules that Ezra the priest read to men, women and children who could understand and it consisted of the things that God expected from us. The things that we could not do as Christians and all who were present at the reading of the law payed reverence to God by prostrating on the floor with their faces down, and rejoicing in the words He had given to them through the priest Ezra.

The second reading talked about the Body of Christ and its parts. Christ is the head of that body and we are the parts and every single part is important in its own way and none is less honorable than the other, because they all perform different functions that contribute to the well being of the whole.

The Gospel talked about Jesus returning to Galilee and going to Nazareth in the synagogue where He read the words that were inscribed on a scroll by Prophet Isaiah as follows
 'The spirit of the Lord is upon me,
  because he has anointed me
  to bring glad tidings to the poor.
 He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives 
  and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord'.
And Jesus after reading those words said to the people in the synagogue 'Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing'.

There were two poignant messages that were delivered to us in the liturgy yesterday which are: that we are all members of Christ body and that God's spirit through Jesus would free us from any bindings.

What does it mean in today's world to be members of Christ body?  St Teresa of Avila in one of her writings, writes that Christ has no body on earth but ours, He has no hands on earth but ours and has no feet on earth but ours. He remains the head of that body and we are the different parts.

We all have different talents and are unique in our own abilities. Some are writers, some are preachers, some are doctors,some are chefs,some are lawyers, some are volunteers and so on. We all have been called in one way or the other by God to our various careers, hobbies,vocations and professions. We all cannot be lawyers, neither can we all be doctors. But we exist in these different arenas so that we can collaborate and work as one people, a people made by God, a people joined together in the body of Christ.

So we need to use our different talents, vocations and professions to do the service and work of God. This would be especially helpful to the needy, the orphaned and the widows. Because by lending our services and volunteering our time to those in need, we are sending a bigger message of Faith and of a God than we would by mere talk. Not one of us is less honorable than the other just as every single part of our body contributes to the whole function of ourselves.

Jesus was filled with the Spirit of God when he went into the synagogue and read the words of Prophet Isaiah on the scroll, and after reading it, He declared that the scripture was fulfilled to our hearing. He meant that the scripture is fulfilled in our lives as we believe in it.

Jesus was sent to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, sight recovery to the blind, set the oppressed free and proclaim the year acceptable to God.

In our lives, we have been held captive in one way or another, we are blind in certain aspects of our lives and we have been enslaved by different problems. The message of yesterday is to free us from all that has hold over our lives, be it sickness, financial troubles, spirituality, family issues and all.
Jesus is the Son of God who was filled with that Spirit and who declared us free from all bondage. God's Spirit empowers Jesus to proclaim God's presence and release us from whatever kind of prisons we might be held in our  lives.

So as we begin the new week and go about our days, we need to constantly remind ourselves that we are Christ's hands, feet and body of which He is the head, and carry out our duties as members of that Sacred body. Where ever we find ourselves in life, there is a reason why God put us there and we have to make the whole body honorable by first, honoring the part or role we have been given to play in society as members of Christ element.

And Christ is telling us that He has freed from whatever burden we are carrying in life but we need to take it to Him in prayers first, then believe it and it shall be ours. So what do you need Jesus to free you from today? Just ask Him and it will be done.

Have a happy and blessed week people.

Jesus is jealous for me.

Love Series: part 2

Part 1 of the Love series i started with focused on the love Jesus tells us to have for one another.We looked at the second commandment and why it was very timely in the Christmas season because we had to show love to one another. In this second part, i want to talk about loving God. Keeping Him as the number one lover in our lives.

Have you ever thought it a coincidence that the Bible as huge as it is, with so many books and passages has John 3:16 as the most famous, most recited and most rehearsed scripture? Even a non-believer and the devil himself can recite John 3:16 at the top of their heads and interpret its full meaning. This should be a challenge to us Christians that if non-believers and the devil know of the greatness of God's love, then we ought to be basking in that Love.

John 3:16 states “For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life". It is because of God's love for us that He sent His only son Jesus Christ as Messiah to come deliver us from bondage and enslavement. In the present times we live in, we have been enslaved by so much that goes on the world. Sex, money, power, lies, steals and so on have enslaved us and blinded our eyes from seeing the truth that lies right in front us, and that Truth is JESUS CHRIST.

Romans 5:8 reads "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." God loves us and loved us even a sinners. The bible tells us that we by birth have fallen short of the kingdom of God and as human beings, our human nature gets us into trouble every now and then. But despite all that, all of our shortcomings, our failures and our disappointments, God even so loved us more and still gave His son up on that cross for you and me.

So knowing all of that, why not worship Him in spirit and in truth as the Bible clearly tells us to. Mathew 6:24 -25 says" No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.  “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?"

This message is timeless as it was not just for those whom Jesus was speaking to at the time in the Bible but it also translates to us. If we are going to serve God, we need to do that with everything that we have. It really isn't possible to serve two masters at a time because both require some level of commitment and usually, the most requirement that comes with a lot of work would be from the one other than Jesus. 

Jesus honestly requires just little from us as Mark 12:28- 30 says "And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."  This is the first most important commandment of all times. It is very simplistic in that God needs nothing else from us but that we should love Him as much as He loves us. God is a very jealous God and rightfully so. 

If we could pay just one third of the attention to God as we do to our Facebook profiles, our twitter handles, Google+ accounts and so on, then our lives would be so much different and easier. Because all He wants from us is that we should show Him that much care and concern as He definitely shows to us. He wants us in our entirety, all of us, our soul, body, mind and heart because that much He gave to us in the form of His Son on the cross of Calvary.

John 14:21-24 says "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”  Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him,  “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me." This is plain English in which even the lay man can understand. If we love God, there is absolutely no way in which we would not abide by His word and absolutely no way, He wouldn't in turn bless us.

The world gets too rowdy sometimes and we get caught up in all the chaos but as Children of God, we need to always once in a while, stop and stare at our lives, examine what direction it is taking and reroute ourselves back to God. It is very important  that we find time for God, we find that special place that is meant only for Him in our lives because He has a special place for us, reason why He answers every time when we call on Him no matter what atrocities we have committed.

What matters to Him is our hearts and our spirit; that we genuinely love Him and that we are always willing to serve Him and stay connected with Him. Agreed that we have issues that we need to attend to in our lives, but we cannot let those override the time we spend with Him. Jesus needs to know that we are for Him as He is for us. If you were not in communication with Him, it is never too late and so you are not overwhelmed, five minutes a day like they say is a very good place to start. And if you were already but need to spend more time with Him like myself, then it wise to make a conscious decision and set time aside meant only for Him.

 

I thank God for this platform He has given me and as i write, you need to know i am not perfect and most of the time, i am writing about my struggles too. The beauty of it for me is that while writing as God inspires me, i get to see a new perspective, i have renewed hope and renewed aspirations and now, more than ever, is to love My God, the creator and mediator of my life, with all that i got, because it is only by His grace that  i am here and i am able to do what i do.

He is jealous for me and guards me as though i were His only care in the world, it is about time i too were jealous for my God and i hope you too. Jesus loves us and is for us, so how about we start showing and according Him the same love He accords us with.