God in Everything

God in Everything

                Life is simple. Simple with God at least. I heard something somewhere a short while back and it said “when the answer is simple, God is answering”. We live in a fast paced world and sometimes it is difficult to measure growth as against activity. Growth is a natural order, an order that God created so things can get better with time, so that time can play its course through birth and death. The bible tells us that there is a time and season for everything on this earth and while we are here, the least we can do is enjoy each and every day with its simplicities, beauty and functions. Not just one part of our lives should see sunlight! We are all different in a variety of ways but we share one common thing:  Life. As long as we live, there is an opportunity to see what God has put before us: an opportunity to laugh, share a smile, plant, grow, invest, contribute, create, harvest, praise, pray, worship, eat, dance, sing, play a musical instrument, learn a new game, teach a class, learn a new skill… and the list as always is endless. So what does this mean? To have God in everything and to know it. For starters, God in everything means that you are not in charge. It means that to you, He is the King of Glory, Lord of Lords and Lord of Power. It means that when things are not going according to plan, you review whose plan you are running on, yours or God’s.

                If you want to look at it from this perspective, you look at life from the angle of what you have been given as opposed to what you have not. Living a life as God intends will give you peace that no one can explain, understand or fully comprehend. Even when faced with the greatest circumstances and challenges, a calm will come over you in the storm and you will know the value and the reason behind your current stand. More so, if it is a troubling tide, as opposed to solving it yourself, you will look to God through Jesus Christ, asking for Him to show you through the Holy Spirit, what is going on and what he wants you to do as opposed to your figuring it all out and taking credit for yourself. Your life will have only one value; Love. When you figure out that love is all that matters after all, it makes everything else seem so small and every action you take, every move you make and any situation you face, all become a temporary presence to your moments of peace and joy and love.

                Struggles are inevitable in this world, until this world ends and our perfect eternity begins forever. Until then, as in all things, you always have a choice. A choice to submit and Let God lead you into a life of peace, a chance to be reborn, to live from the strength that God’s Spirit gives and not on the arms of man that will surely fail. Dear friend, I encourage you today, to seek God in your heart and ask Him to truly show you what it means to have Him in charge of all you do. It might sound crazy does not mean it is not true, God is everything to Christians or rather should be. Don’t let the world continue to pull you in all sorts of directions of ambition, desires and endless vain passions, instead see the world and the truth for what they really are. As always, we wish you a wonderful life in Christ. Till our next write, Stay Blessed.God in Everything

                Life is simple. Simple with God at least. I heard something somewhere a short while back and it said “when the answer is simple, God is answering”. We live in a fast paced world and sometimes it is difficult to measure growth as against activity. Growth is a natural order, an order that God created so things can get better with time, so that time can play its course through birth and death. The bible tells us that there is a time and season for everything on this earth and while we are here, the least we can do is enjoy each and every day with its simplicities, beauty and functions. Not just one part of our lives should see sunlight! We are all different in a variety of ways but we share one common thing:  Life. As long as we live, there is an opportunity to see what God has put before us: an opportunity to laugh, share a smile, plant, grow, invest, contribute, create, harvest, praise, pray, worship, eat, dance, sing, play a musical instrument, learn a new game, teach a class, learn a new skill… and the list as always is endless. So what does this mean? To have God in everything and to know it. For starters, God in everything means that you are not in charge. It means that to you, He is the King of Glory, Lord of Lords and Lord of Power. It means that when things are not going according to plan, you review whose plan you are running on, yours or God’s.

                If you want to look at it from this perspective, you look at life from the angle of what you have been given as opposed to what you have not. Living a life as God intends will give you peace that no one can explain, understand or fully comprehend. Even when faced with the greatest circumstances and challenges, a calm will come over you in the storm and you will know the value and the reason behind your current stand. More so, if it is a troubling tide, as opposed to solving it yourself, you will look to God through Jesus Christ, asking for Him to show you through the Holy Spirit, what is going on and what he wants you to do as opposed to your figuring it all out and taking credit for yourself. Your life will have only one value; Love. When you figure out that love is all that matters after all, it makes everything else seem so small and every action you take, every move you make and any situation you face, all become a temporary presence to your moments of peace and joy and love.

                Struggles are inevitable in this world, until this world ends and our perfect eternity begins forever. Until then, as in all things, you always have a choice. A choice to submit and Let God lead you into a life of peace, a chance to be reborn, to live from the strength that God’s Spirit gives and not on the arms of man that will surely fail. Dear friend, I encourage you today, to seek God in your heart and ask Him to truly show you what it means to have Him in charge of all you do. It might sound crazy does not mean it is not true, God is everything to Christians or rather should be. Don’t let the world continue to pull you in all sorts of directions of ambition, desires and endless vain passions, instead see the world and the truth for what they really are. As always, we wish you a wonderful life in Christ. Till our next write, Stay Blessed. 

Time: Our Friend

Time: Our Friend

                The time we have in this world quickly comes to an end.

                Time is a constant variable in our daily lives. We work, we play, we pray, we go about our daily day with whatever we are facing; circumstances and situations. In all of that, the time we have to do it never changes. There is a reference to the time we have, in Genesis 6:3, where God says, " Spirit will not contend with man forever, I will give Him 120 years to Mend His ways". So what is Time to us? An opportunity or a Lever of measurement.

                Everyday we go about our daily life,sometimes even forgetting that death exists and we do not have an entire eternity in this world. We say hello and hang out with friends, we pursue endless ambitions, we compete with one another for better life standings and situations, we seek selfish interests in order to achieve a life standard we have set for ourselves. Well, a good life is what God wants for us so what does Time have to do with anything? The answer to that is quite obvious because no man in this world will live forever doing the things that he currently does, taking the bus, train, taxi or walking to work, play, church or school amongst many other activities in the world. It follows thereof, that if Life ends, one way or another, Our Time is Limited. But For what? Why does Life not continue forever for those who have had it all and seemingly have a good life as with what that entails; Money, Cars, Houses, Clothes, Luxury Living and anything you can think of that constitutes a good Life? If their Lives are perfect, then what dies Time have to do with it? Why does the biological structure of man begin to shut down at a particular Age of Life? It must mean that there is something bigger at play here. Bigger than our paychecks and working status; Bigger than our goals and ambitions; Bigger than our plans for the future.

                The Bible records that there was a certain man, as told by Jesus to His disciples, who had a lot of money and said to himself, I will do this and do that and make sure my money lasts forever... i will have a good Life. It is stated that before the next morning, his soul was demanded of him, in other words, he died. Why? The answer is simple: His Time was up. The obvious question therein is, Time for what? We have to remember strongly that time is our ally in the larger scope of things because on the earth we currently live in, things are not in their perfect state as they were on the day of creation and before the fall of man through Adam and Eve. It is like going from one location to a specified destination, some take fast cars, some take trains, some take a horse ride and yet some ...walk. Whatever each person meets on their way to their destination can either be an ally on their journey or a distraction. Time reminds us of that Journey. We have to remember that!

                Therefore, knowing this, what kind of life do we then live? One where we try to do all we can and enjoy this lifetime or do all we can to prepare for the eternal life that has only good and no evil present? Or even a third option where we ask the owner of life and creator of our kind, the best way to walk through life in the timeline that we have been given?! 

The Journey

The Journey

Everyday seems like a beautiful Journey,

Crossing paths, Choosing sides, Making Lives.

Going up and down, For just one thing, Money,

We become just like one Bee with many Hives.

Not knowing where this life goes,

Not knowing much about faith, fear or even foes.

If only, is the question we always seem to ask,

But really, we are aware when we made our choices known.

Making a u-turn or correction becomes a daunting Task,

Time has passed and we have, unwillingly grown.

Not because we want to or have to or need to,

But really because we have taken our mile's walk in our own Life Shoe

Where do we go and how do we know,

If this turn or that turn is a wrong turn for our tomorrow?

Right or wrong, we live, we learn and we believe

That the day not yet lived holds something good, something yet to be achieved

Unwillingly or willingly, we wake up to another day

Saying to ourselves, It is well, Today! Today !! Today!!!

As we walk in our daily life we should realize,

Today, not yesterday or tomorrow, is the day we arise,

The day we strive for a better day, a better way, a better Foyer.

For today is the waiting area for tomorrow

and tomorrow is the day we are yet to see and never will

As for yesterday, that is History's Sorrow.

For all that was, is and will be,

is all part of past, present and history.

And to truly appreciate our Life's Journey,

We can, we shall, we must,

Realize that all we are is flesh, bone and dust,

And true Life, the true Journey we take, is to a place far beyond our Earth's Crust

The End

Who are you?

Who are you?

                When we are born, we are complete. Everything we will ever be is contained in the small package of hands, legs, brain and other body parts that make us human. We are a completely different and unique addition to mankind because every human being brings something to the table of existence and the smooth functionality of earthdom.

                This is not speculation. it is not a "maybe". it is what it is. Everyone is unique. That's how God made it to be: billions of people, each different, each bringing something crucial to the continuity and growth of the human race, so that every man lives to serve, to be for the pleasure of his fellows, to oil the hinges of the planet and we who live therein.

                As we grow, it becomes harder and harder to keep to that originality pure; it gets diluted by comparisons, acceptance, competition, praise, even belief in what we should do as a way to 'leave a mark' on society. We were made to leave marks just by being, through relationships, through service. By operating in our original function of service to God and Man, of seeing others before ourselves, of doing for others what we can without expecting anything in return; we leave a mark. Maybe not the mark we think we should leave (and we only think this because we have been diluted); a mark that can be measured in money, achievements and accolades instead of the mark that was intended, one not to be measured by the standards we have then set for ourselves.

                We were not meant for mark but for so much more. To give what we are to the world in its pure form. That is the way we live! We do not care about how the world will receive it, we do not care about what they will make of I, we do not care about tailoring it to what was before and what is now; we give it as we see it, as we feel it and as we know it. This is because the creator of the world made it that way, to plug into the system for a time such as you are ready, for the purpose that it was made.

                Let us not try to understand why we know what we know or see what we see or understand what we do. Let us not try to give name to what we are in a bid to make sense of it. Let us not limit ourselves to what the world can understand and praise. Let us go back to our 0.1 versions and see as we once saw, be as we once were.

                Let us be us: one significant part of a really, really big picture

               

...and now that you have gone to school, what next?

...and now that you have gone to school, what next?

                Education. A term that has literally come to mean academic qualification in a schooling environment either online or offline. This term borders on the horoscope of development and yet a society such as ours, though full of theoretically educated and academically qualified professionals, lacks growth. Not growth in terms of what we have, what we see and what we have access to as a result of education, but growth in terms of intellectual capabilities to translate what we know theoretically into physical solutions for our society. The essence of education is to broaden the horizons of interest. Now, I know talking, typing and voicing out my opinions do not transform the situation, so it is not my intention to change or transform. However, I would like for you to consider your own life and your own truth. Why did you go after an education in your field of study? Why are you currently in a B.Sc, Masters or Ph.D. program? Is it to get a better job, earn a living, and achieve a dream...? Whatever your reason, I assure you, if what you studied does not in one way or another translate to making our society a better place with your newly acquired knowledge and skill, then it is a waste. A little analogy would show you what I mean:

                If you went to school for a degree at 18 years of age and graduated at 22, did your national youth service at 23 and finished your masters at 25. This has just been 7 years in acquiring employability. No problem with that whatsoever. However, if what you studied, does not relate to what you do hereafter, what was the point. Now, I also know that many times we do not have a say in picking a career path or course of study, but we do have a choice in deciding to make life and living worthwhile, more than just a routine.

                Hence, the question: Now that you have gone to school what next? As someone who understands, I recommend that you take a little while to think about it all and what it means. Is life really about your potential and purpose in the way that you have come to accept it? Do you think it was predestined for one man to fail and another to succeed? Is there really a guarantee that if you follow the plan and path you are on, you are bound to get to your pre-determined destination? The answers to these questions are not a definite yes or no. What is certain is life as it is. To decide what to be in life once the cycle of academic qualification is over is to see your life as one part of many. As there are doctors to tailors, there are tailors to doctors and farmers and industrialists and entrepreneurs and artists and mass communication experts and journalists and so many more job descriptions, some of which have not yet been given identities. Most times we see education as what we need to get a better life. Although I cannot deny that with a good educational background, academic qualifications and professional certifications, you are bound on a good path, what is also key is the quality of life you lead and live. This value is not determined by qualifications but rather by choice and as a result of choosing, education in your field of interest becomes the tool to which you can arrive safely and happily at your desired destination while being grateful for every step of your journey.

                So, dear friend, before you make your next move in life, ask yourself, WHAT IS MY WHY FOR DOING WHAT I AM CHOOSING AND HOW DOES IT FIT INTO MY LIFE. 

What Does It Mean To You?

What Does It Mean To You?

Does your life not mean more to you than food and drink. When you wake up everyday, is your life just filled with the everyday routine of work, eat, sleep, save money, invest money, spend money and the likes. Is that all there is to life and living, does it not mean more? I have personally believed that there is more to life than what we perceive, even in the seemingly little things. The visit to or from a dear friend, the smile we share, the warmth we give and feel, the love, joy, support and friendship. The ability to enjoy simple things such as music and talents which we are all given in different ways. To some musicians, others artists and talents in a variety of worlds.

                If all you do everyday seems to wear you out, then what life are you living and when does true living begin? When do you get to smile and be grateful for the life that you have been given. When do you get to appreciate those who have been brought into your life for one reason or the other. At what point do you get to realize that little things can destroy and big things can destroy too. Little things can bring peace and joy and so can big things. Life is not spaced out into different phases of appreciation. There is a verse in the Bible that says, contentment with godliness is great gain. This simply means that in every moment no matter the situation or circumstance, we should be able to smile and be glad for what we have been given. Does your life add value to the lives of other? Does it give people joy to see you or be in your presence. It might not seem like the obvious thing to do but enjoying life means so much more than money, cars and luxury living. There is pain and death for both the poor and the wealthy, to him who has little and to him who has much, so the question you should ask yourself is what have I been doing with my life everyday.

                If you have a family, and you have sacrificed your family for making more money and this takes you away from your family day and night, what virtues have you left behind and what lessons do your children learn from and also what kind of people do they become. Our world has become what it is because of the choices we have made and yes we all make choices. Not just the people in power or command or authority. The lowly shop keeper makes a decision to be nice to her customers or be grumpy. The employee makes a decision to be ambitious or to be diligent in his or her work. There is always a better way to deal with situations and circumstances than to do the obvious which is to focus all your energies on a single target and forget all about the other areas of life. You should know that what you lose today, you will never get back.

                So in conclusion, we would like you to take a good look at your life, see what it truly means and take time to enjoy it all, when things do not go as well, ask for help, when you can't find help, take pleasure in what you have, eitherway, it all comes to pass, might as well enjoy the moments you have in ways that give peace, joy and love to everyone involved 

Techo Prospero Positivo

                Techo Prospero Positivo

                When I was younger. Much younger, with assembling my first computer at age 13 amongst other technological stuff and interests, I always thought, I would be great at technology. I wanted to be an Artificial Intelligence engineer with a focus on African Solutions using artificial technology. This was to be used beyond just electronical engineering but to involve mechanics, carpentry, wind and solar technology and basically things that we could do in our society without interferring with the big guys like electricity production, IT connectivity and the rest. You see, the world to me was much simpler then, but yet again, maybe I was just naive. Or maybe I was unto something, something that could produce the necessary solutions for living but yet in a much simpler structure, maybe a little archaic for modern technology but at least without all the complications that have come to be a part of our Lives today.

                Technology, as great as it seems, has also come to destroy the very foundations of what it means to live a full life. Yes, it gives you great access to knowledge, devices and capabilities but we cannot ignore the damage it has also caused. Has every single person been affected by the negatives of technology? well, that is a question that we can only give speculative answers and opinions for. An example is how we are suddenly lost in our world of loneliness with an assumption of friendships based on social networking via sites like facebook and twitter as well as the rot in content delivery and availability to the younger generation.

                Sometimes I wonder, do the younger generation even care about anything other than hashtags and DPs (Display pictures) amongst many other technology savvy slogans. Do they think about what the world is becoming and how they fit into the picture. Regardless of the position they take, the direction of technology is obviously influenced by what the societal trends tend towards. Instagram for example is a platform to display pictures, and many do just that, they display anything and ... everything. The Logical question is why and there is only an assumption of an answer and not a real one simply because there is no basis for the actions or rather the basis for which they are done are secondary and unoriginal but a placed thought in their consciousness to ensure the continuity of this kind of process.

                If this is all technology pulls us towards in exchange for the negatives that tag along, how then can we safely take advantage of the benefits of technology while separating the negative influences that are heavily programmed into our subconscious minds? How do we live free from the control that technology has over us once we join a particular product or service offering? Far more than our selves, we need to think of what the damage, if done to us, will affect our children and how that will in turn determine the direction of their lives. For we are all parts of a whole called humanity and the rot and decay starts with one, corrupts some and affects all. If this were a plot to make you see technology as a negative influence on society, that would be a heavy miscalculation and judgement, Technology is a gift that can be used positively in all areas of our lives and at all levels and stages of development, if only we would open our minds to the possibilities of positivity, we could unleash a great ampunt of good as opposed to the negative prosperity of technological rot. If we would only see, as it is and not as we think it is or want it to be, then we would be at a good starting point to developing our society, body, soul and spirit, using this great gift of development called Technology. 

No Country

No Country

                I believe in the power of clothing. The power to shape a people's identity, the power to change behavioural patterns, the power to communicate in silence. I believe that clothes, as light as they are, carry the weight of an individual's self image and anation's collective ideology of life and living.

                Clothes have always had a voice. Just as the colour blue could say 'soft and calm' and yellow could say 'happy and playful', so can a skirt say 'lady' and a formal jacket say 'smart'. When a person's thought goes into what they wear, they are thinking about what they want the world to perceive them as on that day, at that time. A red dress instead of a green one, boots instead of stilletos...

                If our choice of clothing can express so much more than we can say at any given time, doens't it follow that the people who provide these choices have a lot of control on how we express ourselves? Here's an example:

                On a particular day, a young lady is feeling excited. She just gets some really good news and she wants to celebrate. She thinks immediately about what she wants to doto enjoy herself and what she will wear to equally match the feeling and the chosen celebration event. The image she has of how she wants to look is one of a girl she saw on T.V; happy, just like she feels right now, wearing a blue flowery dress, high heeled sandals and curly hair. Now, she may not connect what she is browing her closet for, (Something similar to the blue dress on T.V)to the girl on T.V consciously, but that is exactly what is happening.

                She had to make a choice to wear something that would show the world what she could not possibly tell everyone, and her choice was a blue flowery dress or something close to that because that's what she had seen. That's what she thought would express her feelings adequately.

                Who is in control here? The young Lady? Or whoever made that blue dress and put it on T.V, in a happy commercial so that whoever was feeling like the girl on T.V would automatically want a flowery dress?

                Let us break it down even further. How is it that a blue flowery dress ends up on T.V as a happy person's choice of clothing? Here's why: Because someone somewhere knows  of a flowery field that he or she goes to, whenever he/she feels blue. This place always has a calming, happy effect on him/her. He/she gets inspired to designa dress that captures the feeling this place gives so he/she can share it with the world, and Voila! The dress is born.

                Now, Imagine that 100,000 of this flowery field inspired dress has been produced and shipped around the world. Don't you think that what has been shipped around the world is not just a dress, but a place? A flowery field in country X? And whoever gets this dress, gets a piece of country X? If country X has 1,000 clothing designers that are inspired by 1,000 other characteristics of their country X, and they all produce 100,000 of their different 1,000 designs and ship around the world, does that not mean that a representation of country X is around the world?

                So, if the people of country Y love all of country X's clothing, buy and wear country X's clothing and this then makes up 80% of country Y's clothing industry, doesný this mean that country X is preferred to country Y by the inhabitants of country Y? Doesn't it mean that country Y's choice of expression is being controlled, not intentionally, by Country X? Doesn't it mean that country Y's 20% will also be influenced by country X's 80% in country Y? Doesn't this mean that there is, in fact, no country Y?

                But the blue flowery dress is beautiful. It is functional. It is available, affordable and it makes that young lady happy. And if all she has to do is wear country X to feel this way, country X it is!

                So what's the problem?

                Country X has obliterated country Y's identity. Even the 20% of country 's clothing isn't really country Y's> And a country without an identity is no country.

                Countries are meant to co-exist, to enjoy each other's difference and uniqueness. When I travel to a foreign country, I want to see how they are, what they do, what they love and many times, they dress how they are. They wear who they are. They can wear a blue flowery dress that i bring to them from my country Y, but it doesn't become their go-to happy dress.It could be worn when they feel like looking Y-ish, but it doesn't become their way. And if they love it so much, what it stands for, what it expresses, then they are inspired by it and they take that dress and make it theirs, make it how they are, functional to their society and applicable to their way of life. I believe that fashion carries a weigh; that is is more than a covering, especially in a country like our.

Mama Akara

Mama Akara

                One day not so faraway, I asked myself, What does business mean? So i took a long walk down the roads I had passed so many times before without taking time to notice the activities around me and what I saw and noticed for the fist time was astounding. Business is equal to busy ness. To me this meant that you just decide to get busy doing something, anything really, that you can exhange time and activity for money. I saw market sellers and traders dealing in a wide variety of commercial products, edibles and non edibles alike, people going about in their hunt for daily or monthly earnings, surviving youths just trying to make another day pass and many more interesting sights. And then I noticed something very strange, the most successful businesses in business terms are those with the consistency of cashflow: Money in (Income), Money Out (Expense). This is the story of one who we will name Mama Akara.

                Every single day, she comes to the same spot at a certain bus stop near where I live and sets her wares at exactly 5:30 pm. Begins to produce her products which include basic fried yam, akara, sweet potatoes and a stew based sauce. Her goods are displayed on a tray by the road side with dust, smoke and whatever else was in the atmosphere, yet people, including myself would come to Mama Akara's place of business to transact with her. After observing a trend in myself and others like me to finding Mama Akaras in a variety of places, I decided to do a study on the business of what she does. Now, I am not going to bore you with the details of how much a standard Mama Akara would invest and all the aligning business information but i will tell you how impressive it is to see, that even though this woman does not hold pedigree according to society, She offers a service that is applicable to all who are near her business stand, either they intended to patronize her or not.

                So i realize, something we knew as children but had forgotten because what we did had now become either skill, talent or qualification to be patronized and negotiated on, what we do naturally can also be offered as a service to be sold but the identity remains the same. We are just always that Akara Lover or Basket Baller or Car Enthusiast. It does not really matter what we do as long as it is something we Love to. Or at least have a tolerable level of operation while doing it. The world has proven, just like Mama Akara that in business, Serving and filling a need is paramount and that any need required can be filled and hence anything we choose can become a business. We get to decide if we are going to enjoy it as we did when we were children or Let it consume our daily living such that we are Lost in what was once Joy. The question remains, Does Mama Akara Love what she does? Do you? 

God's Will on Earth

God's Will on Earth

                In the Lord's Prayer found in the Bible, as being taught by Jesus to His disciples, a line reads 'Your will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven'. Now, this Will, would exist among whom? Will it cut across all mankind or will it exist only amongst those who acknowledge and worship God, through His only begotten Son, Jesus the Christ.

                This is a foundational question that, I believe, Christians need in their lives. So what is the answer therein? 'Your will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven'. What does God, Will in Heaven, that Jesus asks to be done on Earth. Firstly, we know that Righteousness does not exist in all places on earth, so people follow follow their own paths; Lovers of self more than more than God, fulfilling their own ambitions and desires.

                Does God's Will exist on earth or will it exist in the coming future? Does it follow that God's Plan and Will are the same thing? Day in, day out, we are plagued with the sinful nature of man and the wickedness thereof.

                God's will on earth is done through people who believe in Him, Christians. And this can be noted in human expression, one to another, obeying the Spirit of God in all things and not the Lustful desires of the flesh. In Genesis, Chapter 1, when man was created, God Willed for man to be Blessed; to be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it, Having dominion over every living thing that moves upon the earth.

                This was corrupted by the fall of man through sin and disobedience. This cost man the simplicity of Life as God had given it. Centuries later, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came down to earth as a mere man to pay the price of the sin of mankind, to return man to the original place of abiding in God's Will. According to matthew, Chapter 4, God's will is for His children, those who have denounced their sinful nature and come back to God through Jesus, to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, to be a blessing and be blessed, sharing God's goodness to all of mankind.

                Abiding in the Will of God, gives peace, unity and prosperity to everyone and this is God's will on earth, that mankind would prosper even as his soul prospers.

God and Me

God and Me

                Once upon a time, God made me. He poured Himself out and formed me in His image and likeness, for His pleasure and glory. He made me out of an abundance of Love, much like a couple in love decide to have children that are a result of love, to share their happiness with, to teach and show the beauty that their love is and to want them to have what they have. That's why He made me. Because He wanted to show me what He had done, who He was and the beauty of Himself. He wanted offsprings of His family, The Trinity, To love, to embody the completeness of what they share; what they are.

                He made me because He wanted to. He saw how good His creation was, how beautiful the animals were as they birthed their own kind, how much fuller it made life; that a kind will reproduce its kind and have more of itself to love and to teach and to guide and to enjoy, and He made me after His Kind. In His infinite beauty and magnificense, we all came. God is All and All come from Him. White, black, yellow, brown... All from His awesomeness. If there were only one-coloured people, with one-coloured eyes and hair and figures, then God would be Just that. But God is so full, so complete, the only complete being, so all that came from Him was all the different colours and textures and wonderful things. Add us all up and you get one beautiful and majestic God! Amazing, so amazing it beats our best imaginations.

                But we disobeyed. And we could not see Him anymore. We could not hear Him teach us about Himself and Life, could not enjoy the beauty of our existence in the simplicity that He made us to. We lost our source of Life, our reason for being. We began to struggle just to live from day to day. It became about Us, instead of about Him; about His way, His reason, His pleasure. He took pleasure from us experiencing all that He made and watching us wonder at the beauty of it all, from us simply being like Him, little versions of Him, coming together in perfect harmony, a perfect family, Us and Him.

                Our reason was simple: Be.

                But we forgot how to be. We lost how to be. We stopped being when we lost our connection to God. Because the only reason we could just be was we were connected to our Father, the Creator - King, the only one who took care of us, showed us Life, taught us mysteries and gave us everything. No connection meant fending for ourselves, meant thinking about ourselves instead of about life and living; there was more focus on what we can do to survive, instead of what God had already done and already given. This was the consequence of our disobedience. The more we focused on us, the farther we went away from Him; and the farther we went, the more evil we discovered we were capable of.

                But in His mercy, His infinite mercy, He saved us from our suffering! You see, through the years, some men had kept their eyes on Him. Though they could not see Him anymore or hear Him, they worshipped Him. They acknowledged Him as the giver of Life and the creator of the world. And they honored Him. God used these people to try to show others how good He was and how much He loved them and wanted the best for them. If they only turned their eyes from themselves and looked to the One who made them, they would be free. He would teach them again, about love and family, about food and beauty; He would take care of them again. They would not need to think about survival. They would just BE, enjoying His creation and giving Him glory. But just men as examples were not enough to show His love to the others. So He sent His Son, His Only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in Him, believed tha He was who He said He was, believed that He alone could repair the lost connection to their Father, would be saved and would live with Him forever! Just like He intended from the beginning!

                Jesus, the Son of God, came for Us. He died on the cross, shed His blood as a sacrifice, paying for all our wrongs, so that His Father, Our Father, could once again look upon us, through the blood of Jesus that cleanses us, and say, "Come, child". We could, once again call Him "Father", and He would Hear. He would show us Life like He wanted to, teach us Love like He is, show us beauty like we have never seen, give us everything that we could ever need, on earth and in Heaven, when we go home.

                What does it all really mean?

                It means that if we want to really live, live the way we were made to, for the purpose that we were made, then we have to take our eyes off of ourselves, and look to Jesus. He is our way, He is our connection to Home. We look and we look and we keep looking, until we go back home. He will teach us, show us, prepare us. And when we are ready, He will present us to our Father like we were in the beginning, and we will live Happily Ever After.

Christian Love! What is it, Really?!

Christian Love! What is it, Really?!

                So as christians, we read the bible and try to practice all it teaches. For some strange reason, we always fall short of the standards set therein, giving in to our own pleasures and wickedness. The funny thing is that this does not erode us from the ability to preach about the goodness specified in the Bible. The underlying message of the Bible is Love, Christ-like Love (1 Corinthians 13). So what is this Love that we can identify as Christian Love? I am a christian, a practicing one and i would like to say that the love specified, is easier spoken of than practiced or lived. This is a hardly spoken of but very true fact, even among christians. Is it even possible to attain this kind of Love and living? To ask us to be kind even when everything and everyone is unkind to us. To serve without any ill feeling. To have compassion for all of God's creation. To give out loans not expecting to get it back. To share our last meals and monies in the toughest of circumstances. In the world where I was born, the world we all live in, this kind of Love is not possible to find, at least not in the way we hope to find it.

                So here is what I know Christian Love to be, It is a way of Life that sees good at all times regardless of the obvious facts. It is totally based on the Faith preached by the Bible. By the way, Faith is Belief in The One who is able to do all things: God (Father, Son and The Holy Spirit). To have Christian Love is to be honest, caring, humble, kind, approachable, teachable and basically to walk and work in the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5: 22) and to keep growing daily until we learn to Love people as God does (2 Peter 1: 2 - 9). This basically means that to have this Love, the Spirit of God must be in control of our every impulses. I once heard a man say that if someone pushes you to anger, the anger was always in you and just needed time to show itself. In the same way, Jealousy, Selfishness, Cruelty and any other attribute that is the opposite of this Christian Love's expression. If this is true, then is it even possible to walk in this Spirit that ensures all that comes out of us is Love? The apostles believed it, and it was them who where first identified as Christians: They who walked with Christ. Of course they did have issues that arise out of human living as well but it was sorted out differently than we do today (Acts 6: 1 - 7). So what did they do differently? They surrendered their will, they let go and they let God guide their hearts, motives, workings and basically let God lead them home.

                As well as there are issues about temperaments and behavioural patterns, there is only also, One Christian way, This is to Love and it cuts across temperament, age, sex, race, account balance, job description, goals and dreams. Infact, in this love, the only thing we are conscious of is, what would God have me do. So I encourage you to see the Truth as it is, To love is not to understand it or define it, It is much more of a Surrender. Leaving what you think is Right and doing what God says is and this comes through His Spirit which guides you in what to do where, when and how. So when next you are faced with a tough decision, think about God. Think about what you are going through and remember the things you first learnt about Christianity and Love, not the things you picked up on human experience. Remember, The truth is always simpler than the circumstance. May God Bless you and grant you Peace.