My Visions of Syria

My heart has been stirred by the impassioned letter dated 4th September 2013 sent by the Syrian government to the United States pleading against any military strikes on their nation. Of particular impact was the phrase which read, “...we write to you as fathers and mothers, as members of families and communities which really are not so different to yours.  Moreover, we write to you as human beings asking: If you bomb us shall we not bleed?! The innocent people will be harmed.” 

 

I believe the resolve of the warring factions to either plead or bleed is a strong litmus test and ought to speak volumes to the powers that be, thereby exposing who the real culprits of the chemical weapons attack are, and hopefully awaken everyone to righteousness. 

It is therefore my prayer that through the insight below, the  world leaders will see history reaching out again with a ‘helping hand’. This time it’s in the form of insights from History’s Observatory - The Holy Scriptures.

Insights from History's Observatory

Let us pray!

Our Father in Heaven, please grant us the ears to hear you,

hearts to understand what your will is,

and the will to do what is right. Amen

The Attitude of Gratitude

LET US REASON TOGETHER

TRUE OR FALSE? 

'choosing the path of least resistance is what makes rivers and men crooked'

http://thinkexist.com/search/searchquotation.asp?search=path+of+least+resistance+&q=author%3A%22Napoleon+Hill%22. 

Like most things in life, whether it's true or false is not the issue but rather what we can learn from it. It's what we learn that remains ours, not what we are taught. In order words you choose what you learn, regardless of what is being taught.

The whole idea behind 'training', whether for the child, the childlike or the 'childish' is to reinforce the power of choice. Our ability to reason through even the most daunting matters is a display of that power of choice. One of the tragedies of this age is the systematic erosion of that power of choice.

Take for instance a person found on the path of least resistance. Due to some 'motivational' encounter decides to quit such a path but the power to choose is suddenly more elusive than ever imagined. This has been the reason why most people have been plunged deeper and deeper into the dark deep hole of despair. As though this is not bad enough, they then conclude that this is what life has to offer, and have thus influenced others along the same path.

Thank God the story does not end there! What if you were told that somewhere in our make-up, a perfect choice for life had been made on your behalf? That there is someone who has gone beyond restoring our power to choose, gone beyond pulling us out of the pit of hopelessness, gone beyond clearing the 'paths of least resistance', gone beyond dealing with clandestine enemy.

Jesus said: 

"You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, ..."

John 15:16

This is the Good News!

God's Treasure Chest - 1

You've probably heard this before: Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart (1Sam 16:7). Would you believe it if i told you that God's got nothing better to do than to look at the heart of man. Why? You might ask! Remember, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:34. This is especially true of God as it is of us his creation.


Let's look further. One of Jesus' effective teaching tools were parables. He found them useful for many reasons, in particular, for coding truths. In other words, anyone can understand the stories in those parables, but the truths they carry are actually hidden FOR you not FROM you. In one of the parables of the kingdom, Jesus told a very short story. Matt 13:44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field".


The natural understanding of that parable would be this. The treasure is the kingdom of heaven, the man who found it is us - mankind. The joy of salvation made us sell all that we have, and buy, as it were, this treasure of a salvation. Honourable as it sounds, I've found it to be a lateral inversion of the truth. I know if i sold all that i had, it probably wouldn't buy a return ticket to the field, talkless of buying this treasure beyond measure. The hidden truth lies in our understanding of the grace of God - "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" 2Cor 8:9.


The Treasure is the Heart
"Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you". Luke 17:21


The Field is the Human Body
"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us" 2Cor 4:7.


Jesus, out of exceeding joy, sold all he had, and bought the field.
"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" 1Pet 2:9


"who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory" Eph 1:14


"For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's"
1Cor 6:20

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Heb 12:2
THE HEART OF THE MATTER
Put the pieces together and what do you see? A masterpiece or masterpeace as the case may be. If i may, let me also contribute my piece to the amazing story of grace. 

The beauty of our salvation is only captured when our heart is founded purely upon the grace of God - Eph 2:8 "for by grace are you saved through faith". Heb.11:9 says "Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them".


We might never be able to understand why Jesus went to the most extreme of lenghts, depths and heights to buy this field. The discipline of grace encourages us to just take his word for it. I have learnt that the benefits of such obedience far outweigh the toils of unbelief. He found this treasure and his heart has never looked elsewhere ever since. As dark and deceitful as the heart is, its beauty is only in the eyes of the beholder. What an amazing ongoing love story. One to which we are all entitled to play our roles in.


...to be continued.

The Simplicity of Faith

“Only believe... But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
(Luke 8:50; 2Cor.11:3)

Over the years I have always held on to a belief which has been tested, tried and proven to be absolutely true – God is so simple; it takes man to complicate Him.

Any form of complexity, controversy or ambiguity that has ever been associated with God's dealings with Man was all done away with in Jesus Christ. Heb1:1-2.

To further simplify things for us, God did not only 'show us what to do' (Matt.17:5), His Son Jesus has 'showed us how to do it' (John14:1), and finally the Holy Spirit has come 'to help us do it' (Jn 16:13). Such is the amazing trilogy of the Godhead. All obstacles or excuses for unbelief have thus been removed in Christ Jesus.

God came to personally solve mankind's misguided search for Him by searching us out. The turmoil that our troubled hearts have put us through came to an end when God wrapped up all our expectations towards Him in one person – His Son Jesus Christ (Heb.1:2b-3). The simple act of believing in Jesus hands over the driver's seat of our troubled lives to the Author and Finisher of our faith, thus initiating peace with God.

This theology of sonship, otherwise called faith is too high for 'creeps'! No wonder the serpent (the creepiest of them all) has deployed all possible tricks in the book to keep our hearts burdened. His plan is to keep us from rising through faith and take our position in Christ as sons and daughters of the Most High God.

Why not dare to believe today and watch the Sun of Righteousness break through the dark clouds of unbelief, and the web of deceit in your heart. Let him bring into your heart the healing in his wings. It is your time to Arise, Shine for your light has come. And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you  (Isaiah 60:1).

 

The Treasure Hunt

This shows the heart and wisdom of our God. There will come a time in your life when you'll realise there must be more to life. A lot more than what you've seen so far. What drives each one of us to this point might vary but the purpose is the same - TO CRY OUT TO GOD.

The cry of our heart gets God's attention like nothing else does. We established in a previous article that God's got nothing better to do than to look at our hearts. Why? He's watching and waiting for you to just cry out so he can set in motion the series of events meant to lead you to fulfillment. Foremost of these events would be salvation. This will singlehandedly secure you in a good place while all other events take their course.

Of all God's creation, only Man has the capacity to cry out to God in the language of sonship. A Son's heartfelt cry can never go unanswered. It triggers a process that will ultimately lead to you fulfilling God's ultimate plan for your life. Most people have been cut down by the wicked one before reaching this crying out stage. The enemy knows that once that God-ordained process has been triggered, nothing can stop it, not even death. I am of the opinion that Death is one of the enemies that is included in the promise that says; "When a man's ways pleases the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him" Proverbs 16:7.

This is why the prayer of the faithful is perhaps the most lethal weapon dreaded by the enemy. So don't complain and thus waste a good trial, turn your heart heavenward and cry out instead. That's always something the forces behind our trials never bargain for. You are living in the best of times, at time when adversity can be turned into opportunity. A time when you've sank or dropped so low that the only way is up.

In the Spirit of Christmas



Design Gallery - 1

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOCJAVlESEo

God's Treasure Chest - 2

There are so many amazing things about grace, and there are quite a few books that have done great justice to that matter. I would however like us to pry into something I consider to be beyond amazing. Let’s talk briefly about God’s seeming ‘obsession’ with the heart – particularly the heart of man.  First of all, we all know It’s an absolute rarity to find the word ‘impossible’ associated with God, as the scripture says “…for with God nothing shall be impossible” Luke 1:37. Where we however find God linked to impossibility, then you’ll agree with me that such should demand our utmost attention.

We are told that “…without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” Heb 11:6. The only place in the universe that has the capacity to deal with this impossibility is the heart of man – “For it is with your heart that you believe...” Rom 10:10. In other words, no other creature has the capacity to respond through faith but Man. And no other being in all creation has the ability to respond to faith but God. Whenever, or wherever man responds in faith, God shows up to honor it. When David said in his heart that “One thing have i desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after…” Psalm 27:4. God showed up saying “I have found a man after my heart,…” Acts 13:22. Where this divine ‘hide and seek’ is going on there is only one valid question – Who initiates the first response?

The Bible makes it clear that “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us… We love because he first loved us;” 1John 4:10;19. Faith is therefore not our pursuit of God, but our response to a pursuing God. Truly amazing isn’t it! With this in mind, we can begin to why Jesus saw, still sees a jewel of inestimable value in this earthen vessel, and will forever continue to respond to faith, wherever or whenever. Nothing else captures this more than recent insights from the global phenomenon that took place 2000 feet in the dark bowels of the earth in Chile

CBN News recently interviewed miner Jose Henriquez, the man some called "The Pastor," who helped his companions go from darkness into the light. He is a man whose life has been forged in the mines of Chile, where he has worked for 33 years. For the same 33 years, he has been married to his wife Hetiz. Thirty-three is also the number of miners who were trapped in the San Jose mine.  According to Jose, The 33 miners needed more than food and physical strength to survive 2,000 feet underground during those two months. "I believe that the key to all this was in the Word of God, in having believed God," he added. "That's why I say to the whole world that the Lord wants them to believe in Him to believe in His Word". http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/October/From-Darkness-to-Light-A-Miners-Story/

2Chro.16:9 "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.". God saw faith in the heart of one believing miner, and He came to the rescue of the entire 33. Some of us may have also felt trapped in our lives, maybe not 2000 feet below the earth, or perhaps deeper for some. Please don't lose hope. Such situations simply chart the course to the typical location of God's Treasure Chest. Where we see dark and deceitful, God sees weird and wonderful. The Bible tells us that "For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." 2Cor.4:6.

What God did at creation in Genesis, he is doing again in our heart. This time in the face of (or against the background of) the second Adam - Christ Jesus our Lord and saviour. The heart was the stage on which the story of grace began. It might appear to have been lost for a moment in time, thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him 2Cor.2:14" The light that gives the knowledge of God's glory has nowhere else to shine from but our hearts. This is why we are told to guard our hearts with all diligence, because out of it flows the issues of life Proverbs 4:23.

Wherever the enemy, the thief has come to steal, kill or destroy in your life, let's take heart and take Jesus at his word. His has come that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. The miner Jose had this life in him. He knew God, and through his faith in God, 33 miners spent 2months in the bowels of darkness, but God showed up. Today, they are definitely having that life in abundance. This life is also yours just for the asking. I humbly echo the words of the enbedded movie, 'though i ain't good enough, but he still loves me'. I welcome you to lift your hands, sing, dance and pray your way into this Love.