Hope in humiliation – The story of human existence

” I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob,..He is not the God of the dead but of the living” Matthew 22:32

Joe Biden has stepped down from running for the US presidency. The news commentator reporting on this “Breaking News” said, “....he lost the war against old age”. I could not think of a more honest way to sum up what his presidential campaign bid has meant to the entire watching world.

But this is not a post about politics. Its a reflection of how powerless we really are as human beings. That the most powerful man on earth could not beat his own human weakness. Old age was the “achilles heel” that cut short all his powerful accomplishments and presidential ambitions. There could not be a more humbling picture of human existence displayed infront of the whole world.

We will all have our ” Joe Biden” Day here on earth. Its the one thing we can bet on. That there will be a day when we will struggle against our own human existence. On that day, we shall be confronted by an unvanquishable foe living within us, our own humanity. We shall realise how truly powerless we really are against ourselves. We will fight, we will wrestle,….we will come up short, and at the exhausting end of our very personal battle,…we shall sure lose!! Inescapable fact of life.

But that’s the foot note to life here on earth, its not the whole story. There is a bigger, brighter and more hopeful side to life beyond what consumes us on a daily basis. Life is not just lived in flesh and blood terms. Our flesh and mortal bodies will die at some point, but that does not mean we will cease to exist. Often times, when we come to the end of ourselves, we discover there is more to ourselves.

Our flesh will fail us. It is a mere canister that contains our souls as we walk this earth. But like any vehicle, wear and tear will happen and soon these beautiful bodies of youth are consumed by the excesses and emptiness of earthly existence. There is life for the human soul after the human body has broken down and given way….and in many ways, our human bodies do break down even as we still walk this earth.

Unlike human bodies, human souls remain largely intact through life. Our souls are the essence of who we are; an indestructible part that enlivens us then leaves us to go back to Source. God is the Maker of our Souls. It is Him who creates human souls, owns every one of them, gives them to us as gifts of individualized, uniquely fashioned identities, and takes them back from us, when we we exit this earthly stage. That’s why salvation is so mission critical to the human race.

The whole point of salvation is so that our souls may be saved. Our earthly bodies will suffer, decay, destruction and death, but our souls need not suffer the same fate. This is the chief reason God sent His son, Jesus, to come to earth in human form. To die, (the ultimate affirmation of the reality of human existence on earth), ressurrect from the dead, (Powerful demonstration of life’s triumph over death’s defeat) and ascend back into heaven. (Manifest His living power beyond this earthly existence into the realm of immortal life)

We shall all struggle against our own human weakness. This is the inevitable assurance of life here on earth. But the infallible promise of God to every human being is this: “If you only believe, you shall have life without end”.

Healing touch

I had a conversation yesterday with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while. I was quite sad to hear how much loss and pain she had suffered in the time since I last saw her. Her health had suffered as a result of all the stress. Constant fatigue, sleeplessness, relentless pain, migraines, nerves misfiring…… the burden with disease is not just the physical suffering that punishes your body, its also the isolation and loneliness. Your poor physical condition cuts you off from community.

Its hard to cope with life when it crushes you and you have no comeback, Like the woman in the bible who spent all she had to overcome her 12 year bloody issue ( no I am not cussin’) …..when we have spent all we know and have and find no help, cure or solution, our bodies bow over to disease. Our minds hurt and our hearts bleed. Sickness has a way of shutting us out from life.

This is me and this is you reading this! This is a lesson from the unclean woman in the bible. She touched Jesus and became whole.

The law required that anything she touched would become unclean and defiled [Leviticus 15:25]. The very thought of touching a “ Holy man” was counter cultural. It should not have been a reasonable option for her. The outcome though, justified her actions. In the end, it was not the case that she would defile Jesus, but rather that Jesus would sanctify her.

In today’s world, it must seem counter intuitive to pray and ask God for healing….. Who is God? We don’ t know Him very well, much less believe that He truly exists or that He could possibly care about me and my pain. Faith in Jesus gives us a new and different perspective. Like the woman who had nothing else to lose or live for, we can reach out to Jesus for healing and freedom.

Don’t hold back anymore. Jesus is near and willing to heal you. Believe!

Buyer Beware (Bring your Brain to Church)

The recent news coming out of Kenya has roused me out of my writer’s block stupor. That one man ( or two) could mislead over 100 people into starving themselves to death in order to get to heaven is beyond appaling. The reason lies are so powerful is because they often get repeated so forcefully that even sceptics start to doubt their own sceptism and embrace a lie.

The need for truth to be told with equal passion has never been greater. That’s why I am “woke” today.

This one thing remains true from all the deceptive tactics that led to to the tragic deaths of over 100 people. People have a deep desire for God, heaven, spirituality, belief ( what ever it is you want to call it) . People are hungry for something “otherworldly” beyond this present life and world we live in.

This deep desire is the basis by which I invite anyone reading this to seriously consider the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By seriously considering, I mean put away mythical, mystical, supersticious and irrational thought. In short, use your brain to read the bible.

The foundational principle to Christianity is Loving the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul and mind. Any “Christian teaching” that supports the need to override your thinking faculties is false. God delights in intellectual thought. Its our way of loving Him with all of our mind. Any teacher who claims to be the authorative source on scripture and discourages personal fellowship with God through your own reading of the Word of God is seriously in error; avoid by all means.

The second key to true Christian doctrine is The Cross of Jesus Christ. It is not enough to claim Christ. The true Gospel is incomplete if the Cross of Jesus Christ is absent. Many false teachers claim to show their followers the way to Jesus. Worse yet, others claim to be Jesus. But the most commonly misleading are those who act as “Agents of our Lord Jesus Christ” They have the lingo and look of a disciple of Christ but their message is devoid of the Cross.

There can be no Christ without the Cross. The centrepoint of true Christianity is Christ died on the Cross to accomplish our salvation. He rose from the dead to secure our salvation unto eternal life. This is the only true way to God’s heaven. To add anything more or take away (or reduce any part of this truth) is error and falls into the danger of falsehood.

The Problem with Spiderman, No Way Home

I recently got to watch the New Spiderman, No Way Home with my kids. Its been a while since I have been to the movies- so I enjoyed the mind numbing visual effects through 3D glasses, the loud SFX that transport you into feeling the whole story plot through every fiber in your being…. and the tedium of nearly 2 whole hours waiting for the end becuase the thin story line just seemed to beg for more CGI to thicken the drama…. But I digress,…. I am not a movie critic…Plus I actually enjoyed the movie…or rather I enjoyed that it gave me something to connect with my teenage boys about.

The real problem I have with Spiderman’s story is on 3 levels and they all hinge on spiritual thoughts. The first thought is how it seems to blur the lines between good and evil. I applaud the movie for trying to introduce a new way of looking at Good Guys and Bad Guys. The stuff we grew up watching always had a superhero who always manages to vanquish the villain, making for what we thought was a happy ending. Here the good guy…. or should I say the good kid, tries his best to help rehabilitate the bad guys…

This is the first problem. Spiderman communicates a false expectation of reality. That we can have enough good in ourselves to not only overcome evil that is done to us but also to help evild doers change for the better. This is a big fat lie… and yes I am calling out the storyline on this score. Spiderman suffers great personal tragedy, yet he is still able to rise above the pain and grief and commitedly seek the restoration and redemption of his enemies. This idea is not only false, it can be incredibly frustrating, especially for youthful, idealistic audience whom are obviously targeted by this movie.

The second false narrative is that we can overcome evil and turn it into a force for good. This is closely connected to the third false narrative in the movie that evil can actually become good. There is no thin line between good and evil. The movie seems to attempt to bridge the gap between a world where movies had a clear distinction between good and bad guys. In presenting this novel perspective, it tends to humanize or make the bad guys seem not so bad and give the appearance that evil people need not be seen as evil but empathized with becuase they too are victims of their own evil. The real danger here to young audience is that that the real complexities of “sacrificing your good self in pursuit of redeeming a bad person” are completely avoided or somewhat romanticised. This illusion can set up an unhealthy, unrealistic standard for young peoples’ relationships.

Apart from avoiding real world realism in the depiction of the complex relationship between Good and Evil, the movie presents a worldview that overemphasizes human goodness. The idea that we are capable of goodness in and of ourselves and even goes as far as to suggest that we possess enough goodness in ourselves to overcome consequences of evil in our lives and rise above its painful effects to help turn evil people to good.

In short, this movie is an affront to Christ. It attributes the work of salvation to human effort and not divine plan. The burden of saving bad people from their evil ways is suqarely placed on the shoulders of good people and moreso on the barely formed broad shoulders of a teenage kid.

The subtle takeaways from Spiderman is that we can do for ourselves and others that which could only have been done and accomplished by God through Jesus Christ. It is only through Jesus Christ’s atonement and sacrificial death that evil in this world was conquered. It is only by our accepting and believing in Jesus Christ that we can possess any good in ourselves, be capable of good actions, or accomplish the superhuman feats of forgiveness for the pain and injury caused to us by the evil actions of others,….and of a certainty, we can never make evil people good, any more than we can save them from thier evil ways. This is the sole prerogative of God, through the savior of all the world, Jesus Christ.

Finding Faith in Feebleness

“My gracious favour is all you need. My power works best in your weakness” (2nd Corinthians 12: 9)

We are staring at a new week where my father in law is scheduled to have a specialised surgery whose risks potentially affect the brain and carotid artery. Its a good week to thank God for faith and the many lessons in the bible that teach us how true faith can be quite irrational, outrageous, audacious, outright-odd-ball-against-all-the-odds…

There is a story told about a Gentile ( Syrian-Phoenician) woman who approaches Jesus and pleads with him to heal her little girl. There are so many things that are not quite appropriate about her and her request.

The first obstacle to her faith is that she is an outlier. She is a woman from a disadvantaged background. ( read Jews had nothing to do with Gentiles, they considered them unclean) She had all the prejudice and biases that accompany outcasts staring her down as she approached Jesus.

Secondly she had no propriety, no privilege, no pedigree that she could present to secure her request. All she had was a petition, a prayer made in passionate pleas begging Jesus to save her child.

As if that wasn’t hard enough to do, Jesus rebuffs her. He doesn’t deny her appeal, he delays her answer. He tells the woman that his mission at the time is to His own people. In fact Jesus response is a study in truth-telling. He indeed had come for his own “the Jews” (but they refused him) but he also foretells that there is a hopeful future for Gentiles who are predestined too to be heirs of salvation.

“yes, yes….I get that”…. the woman seems to say in her mind, but she is not about to give up the only thing she has going for her. …belief in Jesus ability to heal her daughter completely! Her faith response overrides the order of events that had been divinely established. She genuinely understands her hopeless cause yet holds on to hope in the Messiah whom she had heard so much about. Jesus graciously heals her little girl.

My takeouts; God responds to our faith in Him. Its impossible for Him not to. Faith will get you answers, indeed it will move mountains. Because God is sovereign ( He is free, not beholden to anything or anyone) He can freely choose to re-write His own plan, process and timeline in response to our faith. He answers prayers to change any outcome and still remains perfect in establishing His will.

God does not judge us by the labels we package ourselves in. He listens to us on the basis of what we believe of Him. If we believe him to be God, Savior, Healer, Help, no matter who we are or what we’ve done, the simplest act of calling out to Him receives the greatest reward of His gracious response. You will never come away empty.

Is Eternal Life Worth It? ….(Part 2)

” He will remove all their sorrows and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever” ( Revelations 21: 4)

I signed off the previous blog with a question on what is so good about Eternal Life that I should desire it more than this life that I now live? ….Little did I know the answer would be served up to me in shovels of realities and practicalities.

Since then , my mum got quite ill and was hospitalised and had to spend some time in my home under my nursing care. I have had someone known to me lose a loved one, practically every other day such that saying words like , “My thoughts and prayers are with you” ….and “May (s)he rest In peace” is almost becoming as inane as saying “Hello”

Why do we think so little on eternal life and about eternal life?

Did we get too comfortable in this life? Are we so at home in this world that the thought or desire for another life that is supposedly better just really doesn’t appeal to us. Or perhaps we got so accustomed to pain, grief, loss, disease and disaster befalling us that we have resigned ourselves to accepting the worst of our lives as the rest of our life.

Whatever the reason, the reality is we are far too blinded or jaded by our fallen nature to ever appreciate, much less desire, a state of existence that will be free from darkness, death, destruction or decay in any form. It just cannot enter into our mind that we can dwell in such a perpetual state of blissful perfection forever and ever. ….that’s a fool’s fantasy!

Yet the bible promises us nothing short of that. The whole purpose of Jesus life, death and resurrection here on earth was to publicly declare irrefutable evidence that there is eternal life and it is far more glorious than we can ever dare to dream, think or imagine.

It is a life that is free of disease and death. A life that can never be corrupted or tainted by sin and sorrow. A life where there will be no need for tears or sighing because pain shall be no more. To every believer in Jesus, it is the never-ending joy and delight of being in the presence of God, our Father, whom we have come to know more and more as the source of absolute Love, Light, Truth and Good.

Eternal life is real. the grave is the gateway. The way can only be found by those who are willing to believe in Him who has walked the path from the Grave here on earth to Eternal Glory in heaven and lives on today to testify to this. Jesus Christ.

Is Eternal Life Worth it? ( Part 1)

For it is my Father’s will that all who see His son and believe in him should have eternal life – that I should raise them on the last day” ( John 6:40)

There will be a Last Day!….

Apart from the fact that Jesus spoke several times about a Last Day,……… (and everything he said came to pass with 100% accuracy)……………Why is it reasonable to expect a Last Day here on earth?

In the same way there was a first day, when God created the heavens and the earth and proceeded to create every living thing in the following 6 days… there will be a Last Day. Allow me to rephrase,……..because there was a First Day here on earth, you can bet there will be a Last Day.

We too have a first day of our lives here on earth. We call it our birth day and as every year rolls around we celebrate or at least acknowledge that we have turned a year older. We hardly stop to think that we have drawn a moment closer to our own Last Day here on earth.

The Earth too shall have a Last Day. If it had a First Day, and given the state of rapid environmental decline we witness with each passing day, it’s not too far fetched to imagine a day when the Earth shall end. So what comes next after the Last Day? Is the end of all things really the end of us?

It would all be so pointless to live this life knowing that beyond our expiration day or the earth’s expiration day ( whichever should come first) there is nothing else to look forward to. Thankfully, Jesus disabused us of this futility by assuring us that after the Last Day there is Life without end or Everlasting Life.

We no longer need to live with a seemingly morbid view of our Last Day. We can project our gaze further on into the horizon of Eternity where Life Indeed does go on. The Last Day is a portal or gateway to Eternity. Jesus spoke a lot about Eternity and emphasized that the only way you get to Eternal Life was by believing in Him. ( John 3:16)

But pray tell, why should I believe, or more to our generational Ask, Why should I desire this Eternal Life? What is so Good about Eternal Life that I should desire it more than this Life that I now live? …. ( Answer coming up shortly)…

the most powerful words you will ever hear…

” For God So loved the World” … John 3: 16

God is not indifferent or ignorant of what is happening in the world right now. He is not at a loss over what to do about the plague or the poverty that bedevils us nor the disasters that befall us whether natural or man-made.

Let’s go one bewildering step further…. So intimate is His understanding of our current context that He already made a way out for every man, woman and child….indeed for all creation. Whether the concern of your crisis is at global scale like climate change, or a granular level like unemployment and looming household poverty, God is so deeply invested in every detail of human existence.

The proof you seek is in the above statement. He loved the world…. (not just you) but the whole entire world even before we arrived at this hardly unlovable place of our existence. His love was not an insipid , impotent feeling that dulled him to sleepy dreaminess. It was potent, proactive, imminent power the compelled Him to do something about the world He so loved.

He made a way out so that we do not have to perish or be doomed to our dire circumstances. The way to the way out that He made is by believing in His only Son Jesus. It is precisely for this reason that Jesus was born and dwelt hereon earth among us. That by his life we might find life, not just today, but tomorrow and forever after. It’s your call,….. Do you believe ?

Finally,…There is a Cure

” Bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all my iniquities and heals all my diseases…” ( Psalms 103,2-3)

It’s the most wonderful time of the year….. and I don’t just mean Christmas. In a year that has seen humanity grapple with the horror of a global illness that has killed millions, news of the the COVID vaccine launch is bringing hope to many hearts.

This year has taught us how fragile our bodies are and how important good health is. This year made financial might seem fickle and economic stability showed itself to be shaky ground. When our lives are stripped down to “survival minimum”, (as we saw of many COVID patients in critical care), we are no better than the fleeting breath we draw moment by moment. If this then is the basics of our existence what then is the least we can hope for as we look forward to 2021?

That we would have good health, should be at the top of everyone’s list. But we know that good health goes beyond breathing. It even goes beyond our physical wellness into our emotional and mental wellbeing. While the COVID vaccine may fix our physical susceptibility to Corona Virus, we are still fatally prone to the virus of sin, which causes unending suffering and most certainly ends in death.

The only antidote that can save us is God. Through Jesus Christ there is healing from every sickness we bear in our hearts and souls caused by sin’s mortal wound. We live in a fallen world where we cannot escape being touched by sin’s infectious stain. We will all suffer the painful cost of sin which is death. But because God has made a cure through his son Jesus Christ, we can receive complete healing not only in our sick bodies, but in our wounded emotions, tormented minds and dying souls through his Life Giving Spirit…

The Prosperity Deception

” …The Lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are righteous, for you are not. You are a stubborn people” ( Deuteronomy 9:6)

Material riches are no more a sign of God’s blessings than financial lack is a sign of God’s curse. What ever side of the material prosperity see-saw you find yourself, God can use whichever circumstance you find yourself in to fulfil His glory and your eternal good.

There is a very human tendency to interpret our material prosperity as God’s reward to our deserving, well behaved selves. To be clear, it is God who does give us the ability to become wealthy. But we are woefully mistaken when we replace His prerogative with our sense of entitlement. The very real danger before us is that as our wealth increases so does our pride and prejudice. Ultimately the centre stage of our hearts moves from being a sacred altar where God alone is worshipped and self takes the stand.

A healthy perspective on wealth should straddle the midway between the extravagance of King’s Solomon’s splendid kingdom on one hand, and King Jesus earthly poverty and suffering, for the sake of many inheriting his Eternal Kingdom. Between these extremes, God is present by His grace working to glorify Himself and bring about our highest, holiest good. That middle path can only be discovered by knowing that Christ is truly ALL that you need, and everything your will ever need is Christ.

How great is our God who spans the earthly treasuries of wealth and riches and the heavenly riches of grace, mercy, long suffering and eternal love. Both poverty and wealth are in His hands. We would do well not to think that we are entitled to either riches or poverty. To do so would cause us to stumble and fall because of pride, or despair and die of hopelessness.