The Way

Highway, freeway or just another way-this road is never really straight. It's not without its potholes and patches, depressions and ascents, blind curves and the long dead traffic lights. You also got other road users. Some obliviously 'park' their 30+ tonne truck right in your way; others would not care any less whether or not they are encroaching onto your lane; some don't even know the word 'respect' exists, let alone practice it.There is still more: The learners. The drunkards. The frustrated. The ever-late.The unlicensed. Once in a while - the First motorcade. Such and more is the road called Life.

There are so many choices to make, sometimes at the snap of the finger. To step on the gas or to hit the brakes; to swerve or to risk collision; to give way or not; to help a stranded motorist or to mind your own business and just drive on; to overtake or be overtaken; to change lanes or to maintain or to take another route altogether. Or else to do absolutely NOTHING and leave all to chance. To some, the road can be one huge oasis of confusion.

Sometimes you wake up and find yourself on a road that you absolutely have no idea whence it cometh or whither it goeth. You don't know which way is going forward and which is going back. You don't even know whether you want to go to the supposed 'forward' or not. In short, you are placed right in the middle of nowhere and you just have to figure out how to go on from there. Then slowly but surely the amnesia begins to fade away; you start to recall how you got to this strange place.... bank balance is in the negative,  surviving from hand to mouth; marriage on the rocks; the doctor diagnosed  a terminal illness and there is a best-before date attached to your life.....or is it that you have back-slidden and you don't remember the last time you felt the urge to kneel down and pray; or maybe you have forgotten what it is to smile and go through a single minute free of frustration. Oh yes, life handed it to you pretty nasty and you just sorta-kinda landed "here".....in this strange place.

Good news is there is The Good News. If you happen to have lost track, or have been bumped and crushed by others, or you simply think you can't make it on this road no more, or you feel like you in a tunnel that seems to not end there IS the perfect campus to put you back on track and direct you henceforth. The one and the only who can do this is JESUS. He's commissioned to encourage the poor,to help the brokenhearted, to decree the release of captives, and the freeing of prisoners, to proclaim debt cancellation, to comfort and strengthen all who mourn. This is what He says He will do: He will give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness and restore whatever was ruined in your life

 [note, He ain't man that He should lie or the son of man that He should repent] 

To access His (Jesus') service, there ain't no need for qualification; not even money! In fact He says all who are thirsty (tired of the solo drive), come and drink, you who have no money, come buy and eat....without money and without cost!! It's all for free. All that is required is that you believe in your heart the risen Lord Jesus and confess with your mouth that He is Lord then you are good to go. 

His name is an ever-present, most reliable road-rescue assigned to us; there are round the clock road angels ready to help us and pick us up wherever, whenever. He says to tell you where to go, your ears will hear a word behind you saying, "This is the way, walk in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left."  He will literally direct you ALL the way. After all He is The Way so you won't get lost. He is The Light so never will you fumble in darkness. 

If any man be IN Christ, if you be in Christ, it don't matter no more the terrain of the road or any other vagaries, you sure can bulldoze your way through life. If high waters come, they will not drown you. If spitting fire is darting at you, it will not burn you because He will shield and shelter you. When challenges come in, the Holy Spirit- like a mighty flood, will raise a standard and flush them away. You just can't be defeated, you will make it well on the road. You will. For as long as you remain IN Him. Live the real life with Jesus; let Him drive and He will take you where you are going - safe

Isiah 55:1-2.....
             Isiah 61:1-7.......
                           John 14:6.......
                                     Isiah 30:21......
                                                    2Cor 5:17......

Meditation Moment

I am the salt of the earth, 
Set apart to preserve, to add taste, an antiseptic for any kind of wounds.
I am a city built upon a hill and cannot be hidden,
The city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy God,
'Glorious things are spoken of thee O city of the Most High'

I arise and i shine for my light is come
And the splendor of the Lord shines on me, 
His glory appears over me in darkness.
No-longer do i look to the sun for light by day,
Nor to the moon for brightness by night.
For the Lord is unto me an everlasting light,
One that will never go out; that is not fueled of human means.
A permanent source of light is my God.

Nations shall come to my light,
Kings shall gather at the brightness of my rising,
They shall be drawn to the shimmering light of the Lord's glory upon me.
Sons and daughters from faraway lands shall come
To behold the wonder that the Lord's glory is in me
Blessed be the Lord for all His goodness.

Come and see what the Lord has done:
He has made the wealth of the nations come to me
The riches of distant lands belong to me.
And now, the little one has become a thousand,
The small one a strong nation.
Yes, that is the doing of the Lord and it is marvelous in our eyes!

Behold what the Lord does for me,
How He loads me daily with His benefits!
He is the all-sufficient God, Jehovah El Shaddai
Mighty are Your works Lord, i declare them unto all lands

From coast to coast, all will know of God's mercies,
His rich favour, His overflowing grace and His abundant goodness!
They will know that He is the Father of lights, The One from whom ALL good things come
They will sing His praises from East to West,
From morning to sunset, even in the night upon their beds, they will glorify God
Because of His works among the peoples.

Sing praises unto the Lord and honour Him;
Grateful praises are due to Him and Him alone.
He is worthy to be praised!! Alleluia

Isiah 60    Psalm 87:3    Matthew 5:13    Psalm 145:3    Psalm 47:6-7    James 1:17

Of New Identities

Find for me anyone who can proudly flash their Identity Card photo from ten years ago and you have found for me one in a million. It seemed as if every camera had the specific instruction to plant some 'bad' features and make the person look their very worst. I am inclined to guess that the default settings on the camera were: 1.)well combed hair  equals a mad-man's one-of-those-days hairdo; 2)the eyes equals exact replica of those used in the horror movies; and 3) make variations with whatever else can be distorted. Such is the story of the early Identity Card photos.

  

But for some of us the story went beyond Identity cards; it pierced through to the IDENTITY. I simply did not have an identity. Well i did have one; one which i did not want to associate with anyway. Back then, i looked at myself and said behold a majestic ball of nothing, a grasshopper among the giants, a waste from the scum of the earth, a voice carried about in the raging wind, a sharp eye cast about in a dark tunnel, a pair of eager feet treading on a path leading to a place called nowhere. If one wanted a clear definition of doom, gloom, despair, filth; all they had to do was read the story of my life. That was my identity. But thank God for Past Tense.....and thank God too that a sentence can start with the word "but" and still be perfect English.

At this point i thank God that old identities have an expiry date; more so that the expiry date for my identity came and naturally i was only too eager to get rid of the stinking identity, throw it to the dogs, walk ahead and burn them bridges behind me. Just to make sure that even if i so happened to want to return there was no possible way that could happen - at all. So i visited the place where the new identities are issued. I expected the typical long, draining and boring ques, being transferred from one office to the next, only to be turned down because some document is missing - or that one did not qualify, even for such a flimsy reason as that one's village of origin was not in the file. With this process, anything goes. But NO, that was not the experience. It was all different; surprisingly so. Though millions came in at the same time to the same office, there was always room for each one and for one more, even a billion more! It was easy; as easy as a mere confession. Yes that alone sufficed -confessing with my mouth and  believing in my heart the risen Lord Jesus. That was the very beginning of my getting a new identity; one which, a century later i am very sure that i will still produce it without hesitation and claim as my own with no trace of shame.

 2 Corinthians 5:17    

                                Romans 10:8-10      

                                                            Mathew 11:28

2bcntd.....

Shoes. Again

Yes. Again. Shoes. I love shoes, so does at least ninety-nine percent of the female population in the whole universe (that is just a wild and probably biased guess BTW). I believe shoes have a wonderful and totally relatable story to tell to anybody from just about any walk of life. So does anything and everything else, really..... Relevant fact is everyone has a pair of these shoes because as long as one is alive, by default one has a pair of metaphorical shoes on.

Isiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

I specifically love that the running and the walking without wearying and/or fainting has got nothing whatsoever to do with the condition of the feet. It doesn't really matter what kind of shoe you are putting on: whether stiletto, trainers, boots or what have you; whether too small and tight or too big and loose or fitting just fine; whether pink or black or blue or brown or polka dot; whether new or old or even too old and tattered; whether or not you even have the shoes on to begin with. All those variables are immaterial for the promise still holds firm - that you shall run and not be weary, and you shall walk and not faint. Yes YOU. Now how adorable is that!!

I've often heard people say "you don't know what it's like to walk in my shoes. You don't understand how heavy and sodden they are. You've never worn them and so you don't know how difficult it is to walk, let alone run in them." Of course it is "fact" (not necessarily truth) that the various and unique  circumstances in each person's life have a huge bearing on the fit, size, colour, shape and any other feature on the 'shoes' of the particular person. The spectrum of such circumstances is very wide; from divorce to single-parenthood to poverty to rejection to downright failure in every sphere of life to depression to......whatever else may be left in the bag of life's unpleasantries. But boy i love this God who says all you have to do is wait upon HIM - yap it is that simple. Wait upon the Lord and you would have salvaged the whole "shoe" situation, for just by adhering to that prescription you will run and not weary, walk and not faint. Guess what, the shoes can't hold you down anymore!! 

If you've never heard of miracles - i have seen and tasted quite a lot of them. They do happen and they are real. Too real to be anything but absolute. My mentor often says that the condition for a miracle is when there is zero possibility of possibility -when it's impossible to move an inch in those shoes. Because what is impossible with men is very possible with God. Like someone with very big shoes to fit in - sole breadwinner, raising a family single-handedly, high expectation from family or society, in a recession-hit economy; basically someone who's got the weight of a quarter of the world on their shoulders. It seems impossible to walk steadily in such shoes but BINGO - one can even run without wearying in those same shoes. HOW? Simple - if they can but wait upon the Lord. 

He will renew their strength and raise them up with wings as eagles. He will make them more than conquerors, rising above every situation. He will make them the head even though they were once the tail; they can be so prosperous that they will lend to many NATIONS and borrow from none, they will be above only and  not beneath. He is able to do exceeding abundantly ABOVE ALL we could think or ask. Because He is God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, the universe and its fullness. He is the Master of all forces and certainly nothing is impossible to Him - what is a bill before Him, what is a notice of eviction before the Lord, what is divorce papers before the King of all flesh, is there anything too hard for Him to turn around??? Certainly nothing. I am a million times sure that no-matter the condition of my shoes, He is able to renew my strength, miraculously mount me with eagles wings and i will run and not weary, i will walk and not faint. Same goes for you too - in fact for everybody who waits upon the Lord.

By the way the real title of the post is "wait upon the Lord"

Remember to look at the world just the way God would....He loves you too much.

Ephesians 3:20   Jeremiah 32:27   Deut 28:12-13   Genesis 1:1  Romans 8:37

Shoes

Hoping. Praying. Praying some more and hoping for a change. A change for the better. A material change in the full sense of the word and more. A glimpse around you and you realise that you are different, just like everyone else is. You can't be them and they can never be you. You are you and just that. Created for God's own pleasure - believe it or not. Their story is different and you don't know it. You have your very own unique one, which you can relate to totally; of course you have lived every one of those moments personally and no one can or will beat you at fitting your own shoe. It's yours, it's been tailor made specifically for you and you got to learn to move in it. After all progress has not much to do with speed as it has with direction.

So, back to the shoes - it doesn't really matter whether you hobble, drag along, hop - no matter the style of movement so long you are going in the direction that you want then you are making good enough progress. Keep going for there is One above, who watches you, who knows every intricacy of your being and has a plan for your life. Amid all the confusion, noise, drawbacks, disappointment and what have you in between - it doesn't really matter what it's like at the moment. It matters that He knows exactly what is happening. It matters that He sees it all and never for a moment lets you slip off. So hang on and hang in there. You have the best and greatest consolation in that He knows where you are coming from, where you are now and ultimately where you are going. His peace, which surpasses all understanding will overtake you and overshadow you. It will give you that quiet deep inside; inexplicable calm.

And the story has inevitably swerved to Him whose name is Holy, Holiness is who He is. It is humbling to know Him and have the surest assurance that He is near. Even more humbling to talk to Him knowing that in all your littleness, He still has time to listen to you and understand you. It is overwhelming to know that you have a perpetual and never-failing covering. A solid rock on which you can stand for all others are but sinking ground and cannot be trusted.

That brings me back square to the shoes, the very shoes which were designed for me, or is it that i designed them? I really don't know but what i care about is that with those shoes; whether straight or crooked, beautiful or ugly, intact or tattered - no matter what they are, I can humbly come in them before Him the great I AM, and remove them as Moses did when he encountered the burning bush. I take off them filthy and heavy shoes; take off all the burden embedded in the shoes; get rid of all the ridicule associated with them shoes; i literally dump at His feet all the shame, the worry, the sorrow, the grief, the anger, the disappointment, all the what have yous that come with them shoes. Shake off all the crap that makes the shoe; the shoe by which the world judges me, the shoe by which the world levels me up; the shoe which the world put on the scale to determine my weight and worth. Surprisingly, yet not so surprisingly, all that grit and slime and ogre and dirt that make the shoe too heavy to walk in steadily- become very very light when placed on the 'world scale'. They 'miraculously' suspend most of their weight in the air only to record a feather weight. Definite ridicule in the sight of the world.

But what does it matter? What does anything matter at all? Except now you are before The Fire and as carefully yet carelessly as possible you take off the shoes and leave them there. Chuck them away, far far away - and now it is just you. Just you before your Maker. He is there for the pure you, the clean you, the undefiled you, the undenied you. The you that is free of debt, sickness, worry or any other cares. It's just you, the beautiful you, the glowing you, the happy you, the fulfilled you. Phew. Relief. That place. The place of peace, calm, quiet. Nothing and nobody else gives that. Is it any wonder then, that a day in the courts of the Lord is way way better than thousands elsewhere.

No better place to get a new pair of shoes than in the house of God....God is AAAwesome!!

Isiah 55:1-2
            Mathew 11:30 
                    Psalm 55:22