Tag Archives: Grace

February 11, 2026 · 9:46 pm

ONLY GOATS CROSS LAWNS

“ONLY GOATS CROSS LAWNS”

These were the words of my secondary school Principal. I don’t remember how many times I heard him say this, but the words stuck. More than 30 years later, I still take the longer route to get where I need to go, instead of taking shortcuts that cross and deface pristine lawns. These words still ring in my head today, and I don’t want to ever see myself as a goat.  SAMBA, as we fondly called him, was a great man who shaped and moulded our young minds with his words, actions, and charisma. Many of such words still guide my thoughts and actions today.

With this on my mind, I can imagine what occupied the thoughts of the Rechabites when they gave Prophet Jeremiah the answer below:

Then I set jars full of wine and some cups in front of the men of the Rechabite family. And I said to them, “Drink wine.” 6 But they said, “We will not drink wine. For Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, told us, ‘You and your sons must never drink wine. Jeremiah 35: 5 – 6

They had the opportunity to compromise and take some wine. After all, their father was not there looking over their shoulders. He was long gone, but his words remained with them. They had built invisible boundaries with the words of their father, and nothing was going to make them break ranks. Not even the fact that the counter instruction was coming from the revered prophet of God.

At 17, Joseph found himself in another man’s land without parental or pastoral oversight. He was presented with an almost irresistible opportunity to compromise. Instead, he stayed within the boundaries of the Word and chose to face the dire consequences. He overcame by living up to the standards of the Word of God that had been sown into his heart while in his homeland.

As we journey through the paths of life, opportunities to make little shifts in our Word-influenced boundaries will come our way. Those compromise-laden opportunities may appear insignificant initially, but they create footholds for the enemy to hit us with bigger opportunities. When we walk on lawns, the grass does not disappear immediately. Instead, it is eroded gradually until the place where beautiful grass blades once stood becomes bare ground. That is the same way little compromises eat away at the fabric of our relationship with God. The fact that everyone is doing it and it is generally accepted as the norm does not make it right. God’s Word does not metamorphose. It is settled in heaven.

Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven [standing firm and unchangeable]. Psalm 119:89 [AMP]

The thing about little compromises is that when we break the resistance and do it the first time, it becomes easier subsequently. We gradually become numb to the tugging of the Holy Spirit in that area until the boundary set by the Word of God completely disappears. It should not be so.

Also, …

My word, which comes from my mouth, is like the rain and snow. It will not come back to me without results. It will accomplish whatever I want and achieve whatever I send it to do.” Isaiah 55:11 [GWT]

Nobody may see it; nobody may know about it. However, it never leaves us the same. Just like the Word of God always accomplishes God’s purpose, every little and apparently innocuous act of compromise will also accomplish its purpose of initiating a chasm between our Father and us. We ALWAYS have the grace to say NO.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age Titus 2: 11 – 12 [ESV]

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January 5, 2026 · 11:27 am

THE SALT

“You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.”       Mathew 5:13 [NLT]

Listening to a podcast on this verse on the first day of the year, I recalled a part of my English Language lessons from many years ago: Definite Articles vs Indefinite Articles. ‘THE’ is a definite article, while ‘A and AN’ fall into the indefinite article category. A definite article is used with an item that is known with certainty, while an indefinite article is used with an item that is general or non-specific – it is not used with a particular thing that is known.

When the Bible says that we are THE salt of the earth, the use of the definite article implies that there is no other salt of the earth. The statement is not a general statement referring to a non-specific item. We are the ONLY salt of the earth. The church as an organization and the church members at individual levels are the salt of the earth. If the area around us is missing the salt effect, we need to look in the mirror and apportion the responsibility to the right person.

Salt preserves, salt ‘sweetens’, salt brings out the best from all the other ingredients. Talking PERSONAL responsibility for these missing salt effects is tough, because it’s always easier to point at other people, especially leaders with titles. This finger-pointing comes with a filter that prevents us from seeing the changes that we could make in the field that God has committed into our hands to cultivate.

No matter how many fingers we point at other people, it does not change God’s word that allocates this salty responsibility to us, and we are really not at liberty to choose the part of God’s word that is applicable to us. We may not be in the position to change the whole world or even our cities, but we definitely have a space that God has allocated to us to influence. We can change that space by manifesting our saltiness.

We can follow Nehemiah as a great example in this light. When he heard the state of things in Judah, he stepped up to do something about it, starting with prayer.

Then I said, “O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands, listen to my prayer! Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned! We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses. Nehemiah 1: 5 – 7

Following his prayer, he took the necessary steps and did what was in his power to initiate change.

We should never join the band of those that say that we pray too much in our country because praying continuously is in line with God’s word to us to pray without ceasing. We actively oppose the scriptures when we say that. As Christians, we should continuously pray hard and work even harder to show forth the glory of God in every space where we find ourselves, fully bearing in mind that we are the salt of the earth.

When we don’t see ourselves in the ‘corridors of power’, we should plant ourselves in the corridors of prayer because “…The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” James 5:16 [NLT]. We should not doubt the power of prayer, no matter how long it takes to manifest. Prayer and hard work are not mutually exclusive. We should be THE salt in our spaces and start the change now. A small quantity of salt is enough to make a large pot of soup to have a perfect taste, you are more than enough to ‘saltify’ your space.

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June 23, 2025 · 8:34 pm

ELEVATOR PITCH

Following a totally unplanned sequence of events, I found myself in one of the tallest hotels in the world, with 82 floors. I was assigned a room closer to the ground floor than the top floor. I could only imagine what the view would be from the top floor. To get to my room, I only had a short ride on the elevator, compared to someone on the 82nd floor. What if I had the liberty to press any button on the elevator and choose any room that I liked on any floor?


Now, let’s assume for a moment that the higher the floor you’re on, the greater the privileges and power that come with the room, and that the hotel manager has the freedom of choosing to be in any room on any floor at no extra cost. However, for some reason, he chooses to remain on the ground floor and never gets to use the elevator in the hotel. He voluntarily forfeits the privileges and power that come with the rooms on the higher floors.  



That’s kind of our story as God’s children. By the position that we have in Jesus, all authority has been given to us according to Ephesians 2:6 (God raised us from death to life with Christ Jesus, and he has given us a place beside Christ in heaven). However, when we get into the elevator, we restrict ourselves to the lower floors and instead choose to watch a few people access the higher floors and operate from those heights on our behalf.


Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him; for if we share Christ’s suffering, we will also share his glory. Romans 8:17 [GNT]


As Christians, we all have the same free access to choose which button to press when we get into the elevator. How high we can access in the building is completely up to us and depends on the price we are willing to pay to understand and appropriate the rights and privileges that come with being on the higher levels. It is related to the level of commitment that we are willing to put in.


For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:8 [NIV]


We need to take personal responsibility for progressively adding these virtues to our lives and move from milk level to solid food and bones. The output will be evident and undeniable. We will know God and do exploits for and on behalf of the King.

You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong. Hebrews 5:12 – 14 [NLT]

Our Father does not want us to remain on the ground floor and we should not want to remain there either. Let’s arise and press in a little more today and a little more tomorrow. We will gradually get to the place where God has ordained for us to get to – As high as the elevator can go.

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May 18, 2025 · 5:18 pm

IN BUT OUT

Luke 15:31 NASB2020

And he said to him, ‘Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. 

Imagine for a moment that you’re on a trip far from home. No cash, no cards, no friends that you can call on to help out. Instead, you have a bar of gold in your backpack. Many people around you are willing to part with a fortune for your gold. However, you don’t know that what you have is priceless gold, so you continue to languish and starve needlessly.

This is what happens when we do not know all that we have received as part of our inheritance in Christ. The brother of the young man that we have come to know as the prodigal son easily comes to mind to describe this scenario.

He was in the midst of abundance but didn’t know what he had. That’s why he was complaining when his brother was being celebrated. He could have had this celebration every day if he chose to. Everything that their father had was available to him, but he didn’t know and therefore couldn’t access it. Even though he was older, he was still a child in knowledge of what he had available to him and had to live like every other person.

Paul captured this aptly in his letter to the Galatians:

Galatians 4:1-2 NLT

Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had. They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. 

This is not just about chronological age; it’s about knowledge and capacity. In most cases, a young child is not capable of grasping the importance and extent of their inheritance until they become older and more mature. So, until they attain the required level of knowledge, they have to make do with whatever they are given.

Having the requisite knowledge at the appropriate level is what guarantees a victorious Christian life. A life enjoyed to the full extent that our Father has paid for. This knowledge of our place and position in Christ also increases our awareness of our power to live above sin and different variants of temptation.

This is so important that it features in most of Paul’s prayers for the people that he had preached to:

Ephesians 1:16-17 NLT

I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your KNOWLEDGE of God.

Philippians 1:9-10 NLT

I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in KNOWLEDGE and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. 

Colossians 1:9-10 NLT

So, we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete KNOWLEDGE of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honour and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.

Jesus also taught this to those who were listening to Him while He walked among us. John 8:32 NLT And you will KNOW the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Our permanent freedom from all kinds of oppression lies in the truth that is revealed to us. It is only the truth that we KNOW that will profit us. It’s of no use to us if we don’t KNOW it. 

This depth of revelational KNOWLEDGE will not be thrust into our laps. It’s not a free gift like salvation. We need to make every effort to add it ourselves. 

2 Peter 1:5 GNT 

For this very reason do your best to ADD goodness to your faith; to your goodness add KNOWLEDGE;…

If it was meant to be a free gift, Peter would not ask us to add it by ourselves. It is through diligent seeking that we would enter into the depths of KNOWLEDGE that God has prepared for us. We have been given all it takes; it is ours to search out by the help of the Holy Spirit

picture credit: Eternal Life Embassy

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September 10, 2024 · 1:58 pm

OBJECTIONABLE (UNACCEPTABLE) SACRIFICE

I grew up with a dog that had the special privilege of being fed local Nigerian food. As far as we were concerned, there was nothing like dog food in those days. The dog just had to eat whatever the rest of us had to eat. The special delicacies included Eba and Soup Of The Day. The eba was usually moulded into small balls, immersed in soup and presented to the dog on a platter. For some reason, the dog accepted this piece of culinary excellence on some occasions and rejected it on other occasions. On rare occasions, there was partial acceptance as the dog would eat all the food and then transport itself to a discreet corner and ‘eject’ everything. I never really got to understand the rationale behind its choices. 

This however is not the case with God. There is no lack of clarity as to what makes a sacrifice acceptable or otherwise. God does not accept every sacrifice as is clearly stated in Malachi 4:8, but in each case, the people offering the sacrifice are not oblivious of the acceptance criteria

When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn’t that wrong? And isn’t it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor and see how pleased he is!” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. Malachi 4:8 [NLT]

Even Cain knew what he should have done to make his sacrifice acceptable.

The Lord said to Cain: What’s wrong with you? Why do you look so angry? If you had done the right thing, you would be smiling. But you did the wrong thing, and now sin is waiting to attack you like a lion. Sin wants to destroy you, but don’t let it! Genesis 4: 6-7 [CEV]

And now to us; Paul admonished the Romans to present their bodies to God as a sacrifice. This instruction is also applicable to us today. We are not just to present our bodies as any type of sacrifice, but an acceptable sacrifice that remains alive at the altar. Being a living sacrifice implies that we will always have a choice to get up and walk away from the alter but we choose to stay there as part of what we must do to remain acceptable. However, the fact that we stay there does not confer automatic acceptability upon us. We still need to meet the acceptance criteria.

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice — the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Romans 12:1 [NLT]

The body in this passage refers to our physical bodies and not any other spiritual form of body. This body is made up of different components, which could sometimes develop their own minds and want to go out of line.

This reminds me of when Job said “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman.” Job 31:1 [NLT] and Jesus also said “So if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose a part of your body than to have all of it thrown into hell.” Matthew 5:29 [GWT]. David on his own part prayed “May the words from my mouth and the thoughts from my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my defender.” Psalm 19:14 [GWT].

These are just a few of the components of our bodies. For our bodies to be acceptable sacrifices unto God, the individual components must be in line and acceptable to God. Taking stock and seeing how we are doing with this will be a good idea. The ageless hymn ” Take My Life, and Let It Be” by Frances Ridley Havergal captures this aspiration to be an acceptable sacrifice perfectly.

https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/445

If I want to indeed offer my body as an acceptable sacrifice to God, then I need to think in these terms – My eyes and what they behold have to be acceptable to God, the thoughts that I allow to rest on my mind have to be in line with God’s word, anything that flows out from my mouth must not be at variance with things that please God. This is the same with all parts that make up my body, including the parts that are normally shielded with beautiful clothes.


Thank God for the grace of God that has been made available for us to live above sin in our bodies and live as acceptable sacrifices unto God.

For God has revealed his grace for the salvation of all people. That grace instructs us to give up ungodly living and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this world. Titus 2:11 [GNT]

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May 5, 2024 · 8:13 pm

THE SERPENT AND THE STORM

The visual coverage of a horse is approximately 340o. There is only a small section behind its head where it cannot see. In literal terms, a horse facing forward can see almost everything happening behind it. That is why racehorses must wear blinkers or blinders. Without these accessories, they will be distracted by so many things in their line of sight and easily go in a different direction. They are not capable of focusing on the racetrack without these blinkers. The brain of the horse is wired so that whatever it does not see does not exist and whatever it does not hear cannot constitute a distraction. If a horse is restricted to seeing only what is ahead, it is constrained to running only in that direction by what it sees. Apart from helping them to stay focused, the blinkers also help to protect them from being spooked by anything that suddenly comes into their visual range.

Like the horses, we need to choose the object of our focus carefully to enjoy our relationship with God and get the best of His promises for us. We need to deliberately choose what to keep looking at amid the chaos. Life is configured to throw different shades of distractions at us. How we react to those distractions will determine how and where we end up. Our reaction depends largely on what we are looking at and the filter through which we judge the circumstances. Most times, those distractions come to test our resolve to hold on to the word of God concerning different things in our lives. The suffering and difficult situations we experience may be great, but God sees us and is constant through it all. The circumstances do not diminish His power and ability.

“You will keep in perfect and constant peace the one whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on You—in both inclination and character], Because he trusts and takes refuge in You [with hope and confident expectation]. Isaiah 26:3[AMP]

If we can keep our eyes on the Word in the face of all distractions, there is no limit to what we can accomplish through Christ. When God sent fiery serpents among the Israelites as a punishment for their sins, they cried to God in repentance, and He directed Moses to make a bronze serpent and hang it on a pole for them. If anyone was bitten by a serpent and the person fixed their gaze on the serpent, they would live. The fact that Moses hung that serpent up did not mean that the snakes were no longer there. Instead, the people were meant to take their eyes off the snakes that were attacking them and keep looking at the bronze serpent that was in front of them. If they could keep their focus on the bronze serpent, the presence of the snakes around them had nothing on them. It was all about the object of their focus.

On another occasion, Peter and the disciples were in the boat, being buffeted by the wind and the waves. Jesus showed up walking on water and Peter had enough faith to join him.

Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. Matthew 14:24 [NLT]

When Peter left the boat and went on a gravity-defying trip by walking on the water, the storm was still the same. When he started sinking in obedience to gravity, the storm was still the same. What changed? His focus. He moved his focus from Jesus and His promise to the storm and then rational thinking took over. The object of the focus changed.

Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven [standing firm and unchangeable]. Psalm 119:89 [AMP]

The word of God and the promises contained therein do not change based on our circumstances. The ability of God to be a provider does not depend on economic indices. The power of God to save, heal, deliver, and bless does not vary with what is happening around us. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The only thing that could change is the object of our focus. If we are able to keep our eyes off the serpents and the multifaceted storms coming at us from different angles and keep our eyes on the faithful God, we will see the salvation of our God.

Regularly praying for ourselves like Paul prayed for the Ephesians will help us trust God more and enable us to keep our eyes on Him through the wind, waves, and storms.

I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power. Ephesians 1:19 [NLT]

The object of our focus should always be God and His Word. He will guide and direct us on what to do to come out of the situation as more than conquerors. He is always faithful.

Image credit: breederscup.com

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April 16, 2024 · 5:39 am

ILLUMINANCE

Have you ever seen a lady that applied elaborate make-up in the dark? Without telling you what she did, it would be evident that something was wrong. Imagine a gentleman attending a black bowtie dinner putting the finishing touches to his dressing while standing in front of a mirror in a dark room. The angle of inclination of the bowtie would speak so loudly, announcing to everyone who looked at the man that it wasn’t properly aligned. Whenever there is insufficient lighting, errors and imperfections abound.

Part of my job includes monitoring the application of specialized coating on critical equipment. The coating offers the equipment protection from degradation throughout its design life, in addition to aesthetics. The mandatory prerequisites for coating application include a test for the minimum ILLUMINANCE, which literally means the amount of light in the room where the painting is to take place. The reason for this is that poor lighting could make the paint applicator or inspector miss out coating defects on the equipment. When the defects go unnoticed, there is a risk that the item could fail before the end of its design life. It will not fulfill its purpose fully unless there is an additional intervention to fix the defects. When there is adequate lighting in the room, the chances of missing out defects are reduced to an insignificant level.

When things are done in the dark, the difference will always be clear. When someone walks into a dark, crowded room, he will most likely crash into things and other people. As God’s children, this does not have to be our fate. We don’t have to walk in the dark unless we choose to. The revelation of God’s Word beams ample light into our lives, ensuring that we walk in the right direction.

Your Word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105 [GNT]

Understanding your Word brings light to the minds of ordinary people. Psalm 119:130 [CEV]

The Bible abounds in multiple versions today and is easily available to us. The inspired writers gave us these words from God to guide us. Without these scriptures, there are chances that would not see anything wrong with our lives.

There is a way which seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but its end is the way of death. Proverbs 14:12 [AMP]

We may think we are doing the right thing, but the LORD always knows what is in our hearts. Proverbs 21:2 [CEV]

We mostly appear perfect in our own eyes, until we are screened under the light of God’s Word. When under the light, the areas where we need improvement are brought to the fore and we would often have the experience that made Prophet Isaiah speak out and say; “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.”

When we use the word of God as our mirror, it helps us identify and make the necessary adjustments required for us to become who God made us to be.

Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. 2Timothy 3:16 – 17 [NLT]

The more we dig into God’s word, the more our definition of what is tolerable is refined and we are continuously transformed into the image of God, becoming perfect like our Father. Things that are lawful become more and more inexpedient and we shed a lot of weight. The more we study God’s word, the greater the illuminance that we experience, and consequently, the less the level of impurity we can tolerate.

I will end with a reminder that there is more to the Word. Lighting up our lives and our paths is just one aspect. Dive into the Word for that complete package.

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March 25, 2024 · 7:41 pm

MODIFIED COMPASS

Imagine that you are travelling between two locations by air. Obviously, there is a qualified pilot in control of the aircraft. If not, you will probably not be sitting there. There are mandatory requirements that the pilot must meet to receive the authorization to take off from the Air Traffic Control. One of such requirements is submitting a flight plan, which includes the Route to be followed; Cruising speed; Cruising level; Weather forecast; Fuel requirements and Alternative airports in case of an emergency.

In order to follow the route defined in the flight plan, the pilot has to depend on a compass in addition to other instruments. Imagine again that midway into the flight, the pilot decides that the shadow cast by the sun in the cockpit is a better guide than the compass and then goes ahead to disregard the compass and follow the shadow and his feelings. The aircraft will almost certainly end at the wrong location.

Another relatable experience would be to set a destination on your GPS equipment or Google Maps for a road trip. Somewhere down the line, you decide to trust your hunch instead of following the GPS directions. Where do you think you will end up?

In our journey as Christians, we start off with a personal relationship with our Lord and Saviour – Jesus Christ. We then continue with the Bible as our compass. God inspired people to put down those words of the holy scriptures. By His divine power, the words have been preserved across generations, despite multiple attempts to obliterate them. Now, the Bible abounds in multiple versions, that are available to us in both hard and soft copies. The Holy Spirit opens the eyes of our understanding to see light in the word of God as we read.

Every Scripture passage is inspired by God. All of them are useful for teaching, pointing out errors, correcting people, and training them for a life that has God’s approval. 2Timothy 3:16 [GW]

As we study the Bible, we learn to obey the instructions and take the lessons contained therein. We are not at liberty to choose what part to obey and what part not to obey. The instruction to completely obey the Word of God does not depend on our feelings. Technological and socio-cultural developments that have happened across different generations have not changed or modified the meaning of the word. The meaning of the scriptures in the B.C years is in perfect alignment with the meaning in the A.D years and the meaning will not change for Gen-X, Gen-Y, Gen-Z or Gen-ꝏ

Psalms 119:105 says “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path”. If we choose to leave the path that has been lit up by God’s word, we will end up following the “way which seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but its end is the way of death”. Proverbs 14:12[AMP]

The fact that society now considers some behaviour as acceptable does not mean that the instructions of the scriptures related to those things have changed to align with current views. We are not at liberty to modify this compass as we fly unless we want to head away from God’s Kingdom.

God knows the end from the beginning. So when the Bible was written, He already knew how different the world would be in our generation, compared to what it was like back then and He got it covered. There are no surprises with God. According to Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow – so is His WORD. His Word is Changeless. No modifications are allowed.

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September 10, 2023 · 8:56 pm

EMBERS AND FLAMES

This was one priced asset in my secondary school days. Many people born in this generation will never know the joy of using this. It was an essential asset in the boarding house, but only a few privileged people had this charcoal iron as students. Because we had to look sharp in our school uniforms, we usually had long lists of people waiting to take their turns to iron their clothes with the few that were available to us. It requires a special skill not to burn your clothes because it does not come with a temperature regulator or thermostat. We also had to deal with the risk of hot ash creating holes in our clothes as it was intermittently let out through the bottom vents.

The heat for the iron came from bits of charcoal placed in the box of the iron and left to burn for a while. It had to burn for a sufficient time so that when the flame was put out the coal still glowed red hot. However, after a while, the glow would wane and the temperature on the contact surface of the iron would drop. In order to increase the temperature again, you have to fan the embers into flame and the cycle repeats. One cycle of fanning is never enough. It has to be continuous, otherwise, the charcoal iron will eventually become like every other cold piece of steel.

This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. 2 Timothy 1:6

The gifts that God has placed in us as believers are like the bits of charcoal in the iron. If we do not fan them into flame, no matter how gifted we may be, we will pass through the earth and those gifts will remain completely dormant. They will be useless to both us and the people that God intended us to reach with those gifts. It will be like the case of the servant who got one talent and buried it in the ground, waiting for the return of the master.

The gifts of God upon our lives cannot develop themselves. We have to take personal responsibility to nurture them with the help of the Holy Spirit to the extent that the gifts produce fruits thirty-fold, sixty-fold, and a hundred-fold. Personal responsibility comes with personal sacrifice. We start from the personal acknowledgment that we are not empty, but endowed with different gifts that need to be nurtured – and we will give account to God on how the gifts were used while we were here.

Just like the charcoal in the iron needs continuous fanning, these gifts need to be continuously nurtured. It is not a one-off activity. Diligence in nurturing the gifts births excellence and enhances productivity. It places us in a place where God can trust us with more responsibility and in the earthly realms, we will stand before kings.

Do you see a man skillful and experienced in his work? He will stand [in honour] before kings; He will not stand before obscure men. Proverbs 22:29

We cannot get to the point where we say that we have reached the zenith of those gifts. There will always be new unconquered mountains before us. If we do not hone these gifts and talents, we are effectively denying God the opportunity to be glorified from the investment He has made in us…and that is not where we want to be.

When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. John 15:8

Introspect. Discover those gifts. Nurture them. Bless people. Glorify God. This is the will of the Father for us.

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September 3, 2023 · 4:55 pm

JUST LIKE A LION

One of my favourite TV channels is National Geographic because I love watching animal documentaries. It’s especially interesting to watch big carnivores like lions hunting down their prey. Most times, these deft hunters start from a crouching position, hiding from the view of their target and camouflaged by surrounding vegetation. They do this hoping that they can identify and isolate the easiest target from the group unnoticed. Once they are satisfied that the chance of getting the target is high enough. They spring out from hiding. Amid the chaos, they don’t run after all the animals in the pack that are startled and frightened by their sudden appearance. If they chase multiple targets, they will go home empty-handed. They instead lock their focus onto the one that they have identified as the target and try to isolate them from the rest of the group.

No matter how long the lion has been hunting, it still has to go out each time it is hungry to look for food because that is how it was designed. If no animal strays into its territory and makes itself vulnerable, it will go hungry for that day. This is the same with the devil when he goes about looking for prey. We are not at the mercy of the devil, he has to seek for his prey and if we are in Christ, we are not in his territory.

Be on your guard and stay awake. Your enemy, the devil, is like a roaring lion, sneaking around to find someone to attack. 1 Peter 5:8

He does not have the power to attack someone who does not walk into his territory. That is why he must go about sneaking around and hoping to catch someone off guard. He is not as powerful as we often make him up to be. The death and resurrection of Jesus made it so for believers. We cannot live our lives in dread of him. Instead, we should live in the reality of the victory that Jesus obtained on our behalf and delivered to us.

Like a bird that wanders from her nest, So is a man who wanders from his place. Proverbs 27:8

Our place of safety is in Christ. If we do not break our hedge of protection by toying with different shades of sin. We are beyond the reach of the enemy. Yes, we are untouchable! It is so liberating to live and work in the reality of this knowledge and revelation.

Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the LORD: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. Psalms 91:1-2

God is our refuge, our fortress, and our place of safety. In battles, the refuge is usually impregnable unless someone opens the door from within. That is what it is like to have God as our refuge and place of safety. As long as we live in Him, move in Him, and have our being in Him, we remain untouchable. No matter how hard the devil seeks like a roaring lion, we will never be in his path nor within his reach. So if we want to live in perpetual victory over the darts of the enemy, then we need to latch on to the grace of God and live a life of dominion over sin.

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:14

There are so many more verses of the Bible that reinforce this point concerning the victory that we have in Christ. As we dig into them and meditate on them, our faith will indeed be founded on solid ground. The solidity of the foundation depends on us and how we esteem the Word of God. May God’s grace be multiplied to us.

picture credit: pixels.com

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