Waiting to Wear my Sandals!

My sandals are on!

When we watch movies with my sister, I watch both her and the movie. She gets really engrossed in the story, and she can't hear what you say to her. Her back stiffens in the scary parts and it really is quite as interesting as the movie. Her daughter has inherited this deep enjoyment too. When she loves a movie, she'll watch it over and over amid the indulgent boredom of her parents. Even before she could speak, you could tell that she knew exactly what was coming next in her favourite movies. She'd shout at the shouting part, sing at the singing parts. Now imagine watching both of them watch a movie together. Pure entertainment! 

I've been reading one of the most dramatic stories in the Bible. Moses and the Ten Plagues. I've read and heard this story many times but this time as I read it, I was transported, much like my sister, into this story. It made me wonder, shake my head, pause my reading to reflect, continue reading, get awed, surprised, sad and happy. The hero is Moses and Pharaoh is obviously the villain. Aaron has a great supporting role. The movie, well story, starts with the spectacular burning bush. This reminds me of one of the first sermons I heard my pastor preach he said that when Isaiah was called, he said, 'Here I am Lord, send me'. When Moses was called, 'Here I am Lord, send my brother Aaron!'. True joke! He didn't want to go and thought he was inadequate being a stammerer and all and he kept asking for signs. When the Bible records that Moses said something, and he said many many things before huge crowds, remember that he stammered. Moses was so afraid and faithless that God wanted to kill him. (My back was stiff at this scary turn in the story.) Luckily Zippy, his wife acted quickly and turned God's anger away. So God dispatched Aaron to meet Moses and start the 'Let Our People Go' chorus. It is interesting to note that Aaron is not reported to have hesitated in any way unlike that his brother Moses. But God had decided he was going to use scared Moses not ready Aaron. 

So they go to Pharaoh and ask for the people to be set free to go worship. The first time they asked, Pharaoh decided that the Israelites were very idle and needed more work. He ordered that they no longer to be provided with straw to make bricks but to source their own straw and provide the same number of bricks! I suspect this neither delighted the Israelites nor encouraged Moses. 

As if that was not enough, God hardened Pharaoh's heart and he wouldn't let the people leave. I stopped reading and considered this. It is repeated nine times. Ten times was that heart hardened. I wonder if he felt a tightness in the chest. We'd think he died of a heart attack but we know that honour goes to the Red Sea. As I read this story I was, am really, going through some hard times. I paused and wondered. Could I be praying and God has stopped my answer like he hardened Pharaoh's heart? Why did he harden his heart? As I continued reading, the answer was clear. To show His power. By the time He was done with the Egyptians, they knew who was God and who was not. Pharaohs wise men had seen the limit of their power too. 

Another thing that was clear was that Moses was the best improved student in the school of faith. Hebrews 11:27-28 records this beautifully; By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.  By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

The weight of several of prayer requests in God's 'Pending' tray was becoming difficult to bear. Problems seemed to be having a family get together somewhere near me. I also had the beginnings of a cold that added to the heaviness in my spirit. A friend noticed and would pray for me and encourage me in those days. It is perhaps because of her prayers for my encouragement that the Moses story was coming alive for me. As I read about the last plague, I snapped out of my despair and realised something wonderful. I was looking at Moses, so strong and full of faith and quite different from the Moses at the burning bush. I was also considering what God told him. He told him that this was to be the last plague. The Israelites were going to leave. So sure was their departure from Egypt that they were to sleep with their sandals on! So I got out of my self-pity and said that like Moses and Aaron, I'd keep going back to Pharaoh asking for release knowing that one day, when His power is undeniably evident and my faith strengthened, God shall tell me to sleep with my sandals on! Until then, Pharaoh had better get used to my stuttering and to my articulate brethren!

Footnote - The story ends with these verses - Exodus 13:21-22; And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. As if to confirm my thoughts after I read this, I received a text with these two verses. The very last verses I had read. For sure the Israelites set off into the desert with God leading them by day as a cloud, perhaps to cool them and at night as a pillar of fire, to warm them and light their way. He was to them what they needed for their journey. Exactly what they needed for their journey. He is to us what we need. 

Master Chef: Galilee

Another guest post! This time by Peter. Everyone say, "Thanks Peter!" 

Master Chef: Galilee

For us to say we understand is not enough, because often times we don’t, sometimes we just hold on, and wait.

Creativity is what underscores all the innovators in whichever genre. When we watch the popular cooking competition ‘Master Chef’ for example, the creativity that goes into coming up with the various foods and their names, serves to win over (or not) the judges in a markedly stiff competition for a prize.

However, despite all the creativity that goes celebrated for their abilities to fire the senses up through skill, imagination, color, texture and design, there is still a sense that Jesus’ offerings of his own “body and blood”, a follow up on his critically acclaimed ‘two fish and five loaves that fed multitudes’, notwithstanding creativity, even in this day and age, would have also enraged a public outcry to said television network and the series’ show-runners, as it did then in Galilee. We have seen scandals made from lesser ‘raves and rants’.

But in yet another one of those especially poignant passages that so frequently and powerfully marks the gospels and charges them with the character of Christ (John 6), we encounter Jesus and His twelve in a moment of deep sorrow followed by a great flash of glory. (And isn’t this the only way glory is experienced as demonstrated by Jesus Christ)

Jesus has just alienated many of His disciples by telling them that they must "eat (His) body" and "drink (His) blood." This startling directive must have been even more astonishing to its original audience than to us. They did not hear it through the filter of some two thousand years of systematic theology contrived to intellectualize and cushion us against the blow of His outrageous command, or the familiar relationship that comes from learning of his character. He hit them square in the face with it, and they felt the full force of it, and they were repulsed.

Here, Jesus, who was habitually pushing the margin of reason into the realms of faith, crossed the line. Here, He ventured too deeply into the uncharted territory of the kingdom of God, articulated too clearly the good, yet disturbing news of that kingdom, and called for an obedience too radically opposite to the reasonable sensibilities of many disciples at that time. He called them to follow too far outside their well-defined comfort lines...and they ran away in disgust or stood paralyzed in terror as Jesus walked on - walked on into the blinding light of the liberating truth He had just spoken.

The twelve stayed with Him - maybe reluctantly, maybe for reasons that they didn't know. But when Jesus asked that heartbreaking question, "Will you also leave Me?" it is Peter - the impetuous apostle - who gives us the secret to the hidden heart of discipleship:

"Where else can we go? You have the words of life!"

Peter may very well have been as perplexed over the point of Jesus' teaching as those who abandoned Him, but he was not confused about the person Jesus. Peter might have misunderstood His methods and mission, but he was certain that Jesus was the Messiah. He may have been in the dark about where he was going, but he knew that in Jesus there was light. He may have been scared nearly to death by the demands of discipleship, but he knew that in Jesus there was life. Just before this confession of his dependency on and the sufficiency of Jesus, he had sunk in the storm of intimidating waves and been rescued by the hand of a Master who knew his weakness and the shallowness of his faith (Matthew 14:22- 31).

There is much that we are intimidated by in our walk: our own fallible selfish will and singularly carnal desires – the windows and doors whose locks that don’t seem to close from the inside; doctrines that run counter to our cultures and egos; the zeitgeist that tasks itself on dismissing the age-old faith and beliefs we were raised on, beliefs that in fact seem sometimes nearly irrelevant if not insurmountable; the weakness of our human natures and the seeming severity of God's.

We can get lost in the endless debates over the mechanics of Christianity, even our own place in it, and sink in the despondency of our powerlessness to grasp the mystery of grace, but in the midst of that, we must do what the writer to the Hebrews advised and what Peter did, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith." It is He who calls us and enables. He offered Himself!  His body is our bread; His blood our drink. He has the words of life. He asks the impossible; just to get it out of the way, because it was always going to get in the way… then offers Himself. “I am the Way, the truth and the life.”

Like babies that seemingly endure a diet not of their choosing or making, for their own well-being, we too must trust He who offer’s Himself. We must trust God’s Word is better than bread, for “man shall not live by bread alone.”

One question I hear asked again and again on these cooking competitions by the judges is whether the contestants “are on that plate?” inferring whether they present a personal labor of love, something revealing not just their prowess but their own, identity, culture, passion, etc.; Well, the Master Chef from Galilee did just that, didn’t He?

Nothing Should Remove Your Focus From God

This is actually a sermon that was shared with me by my friend James. He first preached it on 03 January 2012 but the Word is fresh! So here it is as he shared it! Be blessed!

Nothing Should Remove Your Focus From God 

Matthew 14:22-31

 ²² Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. ²³ After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, ²⁴ and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.  ²⁵ Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

 ²⁷ But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”  ²⁸ “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”    ²⁹ “Come,” he said.    Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”  ³¹ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

* Look at a bird sitting on a small twig of a very high tree or a fish resting at the bottom of a very deep ocean. Neither the bird nor the fish is bothered by the height of the tree or the depth of the ocean respectively.

·         One day I observed that when wind came while a bird was sitting on this small delicate twig of a tree the bird continued gripping firmly on the twig and keeping balance till the wind died down then it moved on. The fish also did not leave the water because the waves in the ocean were heavy.

·         Probably the delicate twig you are sitting on today is all the challenges you went through last year. Due to their weight you are worried and don’t know what to do. Please remember that God is aware of your situation and will rescue you therefore put your focus on Him.

·         Perhaps the delicate twig you are sitting on today is your bad health and the condition has seemed to worsen by the day. Take courage and hold firm on God. Keep the balance of faith in the word of God. God will heal you and you will move on.

·         As said once before we do not live because we are healthy nor do we die because we are sick. Not at all but the grace of GOD sustains us.

There is this man who for four years suffered a disease that could not be identified. His body was all in pains but the doctors could not really tell what he was suffering from. This man was not saved then. During the fourth year disease aside he got born again. At this he loved God with all his heart though this problem persisted. After sometimes he realized that if for sure God wanted him to die he could have died out of this disease. Some people he knew had died and apparently they were not sick. After twenty four years since this sickness caught up with him he was still in pains in his whole body everyday but he was alive. He came to his realization that WE DON’T LIVE BECAUSE WE ARE HEALTHY, NOR DO WE DIE BECAUSE WE ARE SICK. WE LIVE BY THE GRACE OF GOD.

·          You have been patient for a long time now with the issue of lack of school fees for your children and this is proving very hard for you and you are worried how long this will continue. You are at the verge of giving up. Please hold firm on God the wind of lack is for a time but will go away.

·         Perhaps you have been sitting on this delicate twig of joblessness for a long time and now the wind of desperation is very high on you, please don’t give up now but continue holding firm on God. Luke 12:15 Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

·         Maybe you have been sitting on this delicate twig of single hood for a long time now and you feel this wind of temptation is very high on you, hold firm on your faith and keep balance in the word of God you are about to get there.

·         Perhaps your delicate twig is that you have been childless and people have said all sorts of things about you. Shout for joy because your invalid womb is being validated and you are going to bear a child from your own womb.

·         Perhaps you are sitting on a delicate twig of self pity/complain. I am not like brother/sister X he/she is admirable, she sings well and loved by people, he is a good leader and I am not, he/she has this or that and I don’t.

·         It is true brother/sister X is different from you because you are not him/her and he/she is not you. You are yourself and God is pleased with you that way.

The king and his flower garden One day the king decided to go and see how his garden was doing. When he got there he found that the plants were withered. When he approached the oak tree it lamented I am not like the pine tree it is tall and I am short. The he went to the pine and the pine said I am not like the mango tree it gives fruits and I don’t. Then he went to the mango tree and the mango tree sadly said it didn’t produce a good scent like the rose flower. Then the king noticed a small daisy flower very alive and shining brilliantly. The king asked the daisy flower how come you are alive and brilliant unlike the rest of you. The daisy flower responded by saying I am sure the one who planted me had a good reason doing it therefore I don’t see the reason of my being sad hence I give my best.

·          All of us have different functions given by God and they are all important to all of us.

·         God wants us to be patient and put our focus totally in Him then leave the rest to Him.

·         There is a great potential in you being a child of God and He loves you. Know that in the eyes of God you are somebody not nobody.

·         The potential in you might not be an obvious thing in the eyes of people, but know today that you are an important person to God and you carry His blessings within you.

·         Consider the name Andrew. From the onset if you looked, you would see the name Andrew only.

·          Do you know how many words are contained in the name Andrew?

	Andrew
1	Aden	6	Dan	11	Den	16	Ear	21	Read	26	Wean
2	An	7	Dare	12	Dew	17	Earn	22	Red	27	Wear
3	And	8	Dawn	13	Draw	18	New	23	War	28	Wed
4	Andre	9	Dean	14	Drawn	19	Ran	24	Ware
5	Are	10	Dear	15	Drew	20	Raw	25	Warn

·         After checking keenly I got twenty eight more words from this name (perhaps you can get more).

·         I want to declare and let you know if you didn’t that our God and Father has placed so much potential and blessings of all kind in you. 

·        Take note that you carry the Spirit of God in you and His breath (you have the power to create good or bad things), you carry healing in you, blessings,  you carry Doctors, accountants, God’s servants, professors, lawyers, engineers, IT experts, leadership etc in you. Why do you want to kill them by your failure to focus on God faithfully? You are blessed.

·         Even in David his family only saw a shepherd boy but God saw a king in him. Be patient friend.

·         One time God helped me to understand that there are five hundred and eighty (580) blessings everyday for His beloved. You might not see these blessings openly but God has put them there for us.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

·         In Math 14:22-31 Jesus had finished ministering to over five thousand people and had also fed them with two fishes and five loaves of bread donated by the small boy.

·         Like this small boy God considers anything you give to others in love and honesty enough in His standard.

·         Feeding five thousand with two fishes and five loaves of bread was not ordinary but Jesus knew the power and the ability of His God and Father and had total faith in Him. He focused on God.

·         Though Jesus having all the power of God with Him we don’t see Him dwelling on this one miracle but rather continue to seek deeper fellowship with His Father. He wanted to hear more and receive clear directions from God so that God’s perfect will is done.

·         Jesus’ focus was His Father and He was always careful to do His Father’s will, give Him all the glory and to honor Him. Our focus also should be God so that He could receive all the glory He deserves. Everything we do should be to please God.

·         Jesus was/are highly exalted of God but we see Him humble Himself even to the point of death on the cross Phil 2. Jesus never exercised His power to challenge His adversaries.

·         Jesus’ focus was to please God. We should copy Jesus and humble ourselves always. Let us not take revenge but forgive people and leave the rest to God. Vengeance belongs to God.

·         In the same manner regardless of how anointed or how blessed one is our focus should always be to God and what pleases Him.

·         Like Jesus, we need to hear and learn more from God hence our deeper relationship with Him. We should know that it is not about us but God.

·         As we have seen above, Jesus had finished ministering to five thousand plus and He must have been too tired, worn out but we see Him putting these aside and spending the night alone with His Father. His total focus was God. We must never be tired and worn out for God.

·         We see Peter ask Jesus to allow him approach Jesus walking on water and Jesus consents.

·         One thing we should know is that the will of God is that all people come to Him and He never rejects anyone who goes to Him.

·         By allowing Peter walk on water, Jesus was also demonstrating to us that all things are possible to those who trust and look upon the Lord. God is no respecter of persons. If Peter did, you can also do it even much more.

There is this lady who had heard that God could move mountains. After getting born again sometimes later she wanted to have a hill which was in her land removed but she did not know how. In faith she reminded God of His promise in the bible of His ability to remove a mountain from one location to the other. Now a road construction company was constructing a road and after carrying out a survey realized that in that lady’s land was a hill that contained the raw materials that the road required. As such they approached the lady and pleaded with her to sell the raw materials to them not knowing that God was answering this lady’s prayers. Not only did she have the hill removed but she was also paid.

·         When he started walking to Jesus Peter could see Him and also hear in His spirit the words of Jesus telling Him to come. Peter had put his total focus on Jesus at this time.

·         Challenges of life will always be there e.g. lack, diseases, people rising against you, disappointments etc.

·         All these comes to divert your attention from God, but when your total focus is God you will walkover the challenges and people will wonder how you made it.

·         Jesus was also happy as Peter walked on water because it proved that Peter believed and trusted Jesus and His word. When you stand firm on/for the word of God despite challenges God is very happy with you.

·         Though Peter’s focus on Jesus was eventually diverted away for a while by the wind, his zeal and the desire to walk on water towards Jesus was a positive influence to the rest of the disciples.

·         Removing your focus from God even for a while is dangerous because you will sink in the water/challenges.

·         Know that not everybody though will be happy with your zeal and desire for God but note that God will be happy with you and there are those who will be influenced positively and will be blessed.

·         We see that Peter was walking well on water until when his focus on Jesus was diverted by the wind. God has given us power over all challenges to walkover them but we find ourselves forgetting this and sinking in them like Peter sank in water challenge.

·          The distance that Peter had walked from the boat towards Jesus was long and good enough but we see that fear of the wind came and diverted his focus when he was a hand reach away from Jesus.

·         There are many who have been walking faithfully to God for a long time but their focus to God has been and is being diverted by challenges of this world and they are now walking away in the opposite direction (SAD). In the spiritual they wear tattered white gowns and are sinking.

·         You love God with all your heart and you obey His commands but note that there is this one thing that you ought to get rid of in order to reach to Jesus without sinking (unforgiveness, anger, jealousy, lies, pride etc).

·         You will realize that God wants to bless you but this hinders Him from reaching you. Repent and ask God to forgive you and He will do it.

·         Like Peter many give up and quit when they are almost there. They don’t observe the ways of God anymore. They are not fully decided. 

·         God hates a double minded person. Jesus is the solid rock and when your focus is on Him you will not sink though it may seem so, hence be courageous and put your faith in Him.

·         You are a sister/brother who has been walking faithfully and obedient before God for many years. God is happy with you and many desire your zeal for God. Remain focused to God.

·         Don’t allow this wind of a man/woman who is perhaps not born again come suddenly with very good promise of marriage and you give in then your focus in Jesus is diverted.

·         You have been jobless for a long time but walking faithfully before God and He is happy with you. When He gives you a job don’t allow the wind of pride to divert your focus from God.

·         We have seen many who have been very faithful to God for many years when single but once they get married this wind of marriage dwindles the love for God instead of increasing it.

·         God loves people who are consistent with Him. People who are not diverted by any kind of wind that comes their way.

·         Though Jesus reached out and saved Peter He however rebuked him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

·         Though God will save us from situations He is much happy when we don’t doubt His word but focus on Him consistently. Let us remain consistent to God and look foolish to people but wise to God.

·         We see the three Hebrew young men Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego remain consistent with God to the point of death. Nothing could divert their attention and focus from God.  

Daniel 3:16-18 ¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. ¹⁷ If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us^[c] from Your Majesty’s hand. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

·         This response by the three young men to the king can only come from people who are consistent and whose focus is in God alone.

·         Elisha was a focused man of God. He consistently followed Elijah even when Elijah asked him to remain behind. Finally we see him receive a double portion of the anointing Elijah had.

·         Unlike Gehazi (Elisha’s servant) who we don’t know his source/end, Elisha was a farmer and when he was called into God’s service He came in with all his heart. We see him slaughter his oxen and bade people goodbye 1kings 19:19-21. We see even after his death his bones were still anointed. Gehazi ended up leprous together with his family and his lineage.

·         The difference between Elisha and Gehazi is that Elisha was focused to God while Gehazi was there for the sake of being there but not for God. Are you like Elisha or Gehazi?

Nothing should remove your focus from God