Miscellanies 58: Follow Jesus or get eaten

Jesus calls us to follow him.

Where are we to follow him?

We are to follow him to wherever he calls us. Yes and ultimately to paradise.

Then it is a good thing that we are sheep. Because a sheep only goes where his shepherd goes.

Wherever the Shepherd calls his sheep to go He must go with them and lead them. If they are to go beneath the unstable tunnel, He must tarry with them. If they are to make the journey through the storm, He must protect them and keep watch.

Only a naughty and unfitting shepherd calls his sheep to go to a place where he is not willing to lead them.

Now are you willing to follow Jesus wherever he calls you to go? Now don't go making a sentimental decision that has no dirt in it - I mean if you are going to stick your root somewhere then stick it to the ground and in order to do that you will get dirty.

Follow Jesus and you will live. If you stay and follow the world then sooner or later the wolves will come and feed on you.

K.Oni

A short story: Lets be friends

"Hey"

"Hey"

"Why don’t we become friends again?"

"I thought we are friends."

"No we are just acquaintances, you know people who see each other and just say hi and hello. We see each other once or twice a week and then we say goodbye. I would like us to be friends you know, the kind that when I ask you about your day or how’s your heart, you will tell me more than my day is fine or my heart is doing ok. I know there’s history between us and a silent coldness. What I mean by that is that there are feelings that we feel for each other which is not positive and I think we feel like that because we are not friends. Maybe I have done something to upset you in the past and if I have I am sorry. I am willing to be friends again and I think you know why.

I tell you this now because I feel that I have been a coward. You see every time I see you my day brightens up and every time I feel that I am a good person I am always thinking about you and nobody-else. Yes I like you and I like you a lot but you don’t have to feel the same way. That’s ok with me but I would still like us to be friends if you want to be because I really think that me and you being friends will draw out the best in each other or at least you will draw out the best in me."

"I don’t know what to say."

"Why don’t we take a sit and talk a little bit about friendship?"

"But you have many friends and I have many friends. I know what friendship is and I am sorry if you don’t but I don’t feel that we can be friends in the way that you want us to be friends."

"My dear"

"Don’t call me my dear."

"But sometimes when you talk to me you finish the conversation with 'love'. For example you say, see you later love. You know I am an observable person and every-time you speak tenderly to me or use that phrase, I stop to think about it. Don’t look away. Look at me please. I want us to be friends, the kind that can be real together and talk about things that really matter. You know I was writing the other day and this line came to me spontaneously it goes like this ‘I think I should chase her but she seems out of my range’. It was you that I was thinking about and I really do feel that you are outside of my range but moving away from my fantasy land, you are very close in proximity and I felt that a little effort from me we could be friends again."

"What if I don’t want to be friends the way you want us to be friends. What will you do?"

"I’m not sure what I will do but my heart will still be thinking of you. All I have is goodwill towards you and a lot of love which comes from the bottom of my heart. And I just want to bless you. I love your eyes you know and your smile. I don’t think I've ever told you that before but I do love them. And I like the way you roll your eyes, the way you move your legs.  To me your smile is like a gentle sunrise that makes our eyes see the beauty and colour of the world."

"Stop, stop".

"I won’t stop because this is what I am feeling in my heart right now and I just want you to know. You see I have bottled these things up for a time, throwing my letter in a sealed up bottle into the sea hoping that one day it magically drifts to you and you open it to read my heart. But in-order for you to read my heart then I must tell you."

"This is why I cannot be friends with you because you are madly in love with me."

"I’m not going to deny that but more than my mad love for you I would like us to be friends. Friends with good benefit."

"O love"

"You said it again"

"It’s just the way I speak"

"I can understand that but every time you use words of affection towards me my heart always takes it to mean more. So much more but not the kind that is forceful or unrealistic – this is why I want us to be real with each other because I am tired with making assumptions. You see this is why sometimes I have a cold feeling towards you because I worry about upsetting you. So I try to avoid you believing that silence and avoidance is what you want. But I hate it because I just can’t help feeling good and warmth about you whenever you are around. My eyes will always find you. If you made any sudden movement or leave the room my eyes will always notice no matter how busy I may have been. I want us to be friends like we were at first. Sitting and laughing, hugging when we say goodbye and feeling free to touch each other on the shoulders without thinking any more about it."

"But you have just told me that any affections that I show towards you, your heart always takes it to mean more."

"That’s why I want us to be real. You tell me what is really in your heart and I will stop making assumptions. And my offer to be friends you don’t have to take it on pity but if it is really in your heart not to be friends then I will respect your decision; but I can’t promise that I will stop thinking about you for your own good and not merely for my pleasure and happiness or in some cases to my sorrow.

I love your eyes"

"You have already said that."

"I want to say it again. It makes me happy when I say things like this, I hope it is not upsetting you."

"It’s not upsetting me."

"Then why are you holding back?"

"Holding what back?"

"The joy of my compliments. You know complements are more enjoyable when the person being complemented smiles and really show what they feel inside. Sometimes we humans have a way of closing our curtains that the world doesn’t get to see our joy or sadness. We hide away our true selves and then we come out into the sunlight with all of our fake clothes. It’s not how it should be – we should be naked before our friends and families. Living life this way makes the mango sweeter. There we go. That was the smile that won me away when I first saw you, so bright and friendly. I thought that no-one could make an enemy out of you not even the devil."

"Stop it"

"But I like seeing you smile. It makes me happy on the inside. Do you like seeing me smile?"

At my question she paused a while with flickering diamonds streaming from her unavoidable eyes. I could tell that she loved my smile but being ever so hardened, determined to hide her true feelings from me. I also said to her

"I know that your heart is for someone else. That you are now in a relationship. I am happy for you and one day I hope to meet him. I just want to be friends in a good way with you because you draw out the best in me. Can we talk more about this?"

 She rose and said,

"Can we talk more later love."

This wasn't a question but a goodbye. With those words she departed leaving her scent of beauty for me to inhale until I was left the only man in this café wondering when righteousness and peace will finally kiss.

K.Oni

 

My dear/ a bright star

My dear/ a bright star gazed at by my lovely eyes

A present unaffordable leaving traces in the grass and flower sweet

Full blown born with beauty under her wings

Instrument stringed soft young flute corresponding to her amazing scene.

A butterfly winter Loving her a whole summer long

Drinking her lioness mantra with my lover’s dewy moist

Forgetful not her never could help but remember

My bright star now known by mortals all gazed at by unlovely eyes.

K.Oni

Let us all listen to this somebody

Are you wide awake?

Or are you still sleep walking through life?

The truth is that many people sleep walk through life because they haven't yet awakened to what really matters.

Who I my to say what the truth is? The truth is I am not somebody to say what the truth is but I have heard even more I have read someone who is somebody say what the truth is and what really matters.

Because He is somebody we should therefore listen to him. Or at least pause the music, put our tea down and close facebook and listen to what this somebody has to say.

Who is this somebody? This somebody is Jesus.

Wait! before you dismiss him and say what makes him a somebody. I shall tell you.

What makes him a somebody is that he is GOD. I'll say it again. It is because he is God.

Did you get that - did you understand that.

Unless you are already a Christian then this is easy for you to accept but if you are not yet a follower of the way then you are probably already dismissive of him.

You can only understand this if you are wide awake then you can be awakened to what really matters.

You see, what really matters is Jesus and what you make of him because He is the reason why everything exists, things you see and atoms which you don't see. You see that Sun in the sky or that wall in your room, they exist because of Jesus and for Jesus. I could get all philosophical but this goes way beyond a philosophical point.

All this dosen't make sense to you because you are not wide awake and the only way you can be wide awake is if somebody comes and wakes you up. What can wake you up is the wind, it needs to blow on you, but as we know, the wind blows wherever it wants to blow and we have no control over it. (Read John 3 in the New testament- in-fact start form the 1st chapter).

But there is one thing you can do. You can pray or to put it more simply you can ask. Ask the God that you do not yet know, call out and feel a little bit silly and you will see that your silliness was not in vain. And if you do already know, then ask for more because in this case it is not greed to ask for more.
K.Oni

Have a lightful conversation

"Hey thanks for calling - its good to know that someone cares."

Sometimes in our places of aloness, a place where we don't really want to be, it is good for someone to intrude our space, to barge the door open and shout 'I care about you.'

This place we often find ourselves in, or perhaps a place where only a few of us take ourselves is a place where we don't often feel like talking.

But in this place, perhaps the dark corner that we put ourselves in is where we need the light of conversation.

It is easy to drown in our memories, easy to linger on the past, easy to keep running in our failures and it is in this place where we keep on dying.

But the light of conversation can spark a hope of life because life comes when we connect with another person because they have life in their heart.

But not all people have a good life in them. Some people have a bad life. They are the kind that will keep you in your place.

We see this with the women who came to annoint Jesus' feet with her perfume and tears. She was in that dark place and all the conversations she has had thus far were with people who didn't have the light of conversation or to put it in another way the light of life in their heart.

When she met Jesus, Jesus spoke to her the words of life. Jesus barged through her door (not literally) and spoke light into her life because he has light and life in himself.

Only Jesus has light in himself.

Are you in that dark place? Have a conversation with Jesus.

Do you know someone in that dark place? Go and barge through thier door and bring the life of Jesus to them. Have a lightful conversation. Make them feel wanted. Let every word be from the dictionary of love.

K.Oni

Montogomerry

Montogomerry if you must know

Was a ginger cat with big round eyes

Who never missed a chance to purr 

At Estilla the orphaned puss

After dinner all the house cat fled

To the alley of the infamous Fred

Where all cats, puss even the ones that were red

Danced until the mice were dead

Montogomerry his name was sung till dawn

The praise of the catch micing gang

Where a day before it was heard and told

Montogommerry caught big Birdy soon to hang

Montogomerry Montogomerry

Immune to flatter of any sort

When his owner did propose a change

Montogomery was never found again.

K.Oni

Life is to be shared and lived in relationship

Life is to be shared and lived in relationship. There must be communication and that communication must be intelligible in the sense that the person you are communicating with can understand or is able to feel the love of your presence. All good relationships should be rooted in love and we know that from love flows an hatred for sin. From love there is also mercy and grace and we all ought to have goodwill towards all men like God who causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust so that they can have their daily bread. The two millennial old Christian cliche is that one must love their enemies. We all know this in theory but to put it into practice is another thing. Some of us are still trying to love our friends with an agape love that has no selfish trait in it; and if some of us are still trying to love our friends then how can we even begin to love our enemies or even care deep enough for the stranger.

We must do away with our tendencies to be silent. We must do away with bottling up our good and holy affections  - we must begin to live our lives with colour, the kind that can colour the rainbow and make it just as beautiful.

Share your day with those whom you are in relationship with. Express it like a dancer or like a kid playing in the park. And if your day has been all bad then express the misery of your heart perhaps with tears or with words or with a sad expression that people may know that there is no sunshine in your heart only the presence of the night.

God is the ultimate communicator and He is a revealing God. He rejoices over humanity, namely, His sons and daughters and He is sad when they have gone away from his ways. God expresses himself in words, in visions and in dreams. God makes himself known through a picture and that picture is what we call our universe.

God made himself known as a man and we see that this man was full of grace and truth. He manifested himself as a man of humility possessing infinite love for his friends and enemies. He even prayed for his enemies forgiveness when they had nailed him to a piece of tree.

God is a communicating God and delights in relationships. I believe that He calls us to do the same. In relationship can beauty be displayed and enjoyed - one can love and be loved. It is true that we were created to be happy, to be loved, to be admirers. We were created to admire God and in admiring him we get our greatest sense of happiness and satisfaction. I am sure that there is someone close to your heart, that you love and admire. When you admire them or when you are with them how does it make you feel? or how does your heart feel. You feel happy or if you are sad you are comforted.

I am happy if I know that a certain person is thinking about me or perhaps a few - it makes me happy. But for me to know, I must be told and when I am told, I am happy because I admire them. You see, for some of us we are told that God loves us, that we are never hidden from his thoughts but we don't feel satisfied. That's crazy! We should be satisfied and one of the reasons why we don't have that sense sometimes of that satisfaction and happiness is that we don't admire God enough. If you blush in his presence or feel him to be an awesome glorious person, then you will cry with tears of joy and worth that such an infinite being is thinking of you.

So life is to be shared, lived in love and in the canopy of relationship. And how awesome that is! If you are a Christian, your fellowship, your relationship is with God the Father and His Son. And if you are not a Christian then you are welcomed too. Just believe and there is good evidence to believe.

K.Oni

Mr Hasley's unacceptable dinner practice (2)

To have understanding of the 2nd part you may want to read the first part of Mr Hasley's unacceptable dinner practice: http://countedrighteousinchrist.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/mr-hasleys-unacceptable-dinner-practice.html

The first introduction of Mr Hasley’s barbaric dinner practice first took place among his own family when Mr Hasley was a private schooled educated boy. Mr Hasley was not yet the husband of Patricia Siningar but the Son of Emile Hasley, a well-known politician across the Atlantic. Mr Hasley sitting in his usual position on the dining table next to his astute Father introduced the barbaric principle that he learnt and treasured from Fredrick Alkman. This introduction shook the Hasley’s traditional belief in dinner etiquette, instilling into those who were present to almost renounce Mr Hasley from the Family. This barbaric utterance bought with it a new and unbridled language from the mouth of Emile Hasley that at once Mr Hasley was filled with radical scepticism of his new treasured practice.

Meditating on the criticism that was branded on him on the dinner table, Mr Hasley ingeniously employed a way to make his favoured dinner practice encounter no condemnation. Mr Hasley knew that among company that His Father was a man loved and treasured for his character, and for his dialectic reasoning and brilliance in exposing errors and his diagnosis of them, that it was best for him to expose his dinner practice when such a company was present. His Father would unleash no attack but a civil disagreement with those who were present. Mr Hasley also thought that in order to bring his Father no shame that He would entirely take the blame for his atrocities and say that his unwanted malady is a symptom of biology. Such was the mind, thinking and beginnings of Mr Hasley's unacceptable dinner practice that until now, Mr Hasley still runs the same errand when guest are present to the shame and ruin of his family. 

K.Oni

My first hymn

My first attempt to write a hymn. A little child could have written this. It was written spontaneously and with much joy and love for the Father, Son and Spirit. 

To the ground we go when this life is done
Now we march onwards to claim the land
Hallelujah all For Jesus' sake
Father bless this land we may prosper in our days

Sing with me all the saints here below
Lets see the earth shake with our heavenly song
To the ground we go our Spirits will go up
To worship forever the gladness of our hearts.

K.Oni

I wonder if life be found on Mars

I wonder if life be found on mars what sort of creatures will be discovered. What would their social scenario be - would it be something that we can comprehend or perhaps something we can even see with our visible eyes. Will their intelligence exceed ours, or will it be even duller than the animals that exists on out planet. Any such news of higher beings I suspect will create a wind of excitement and fear - excitement in the sense of uncertainty and fear in the sense of what danger these creatures posses to the human race. I can imagine the news channel all subscribing to this uprising, having Dr’s and Scientists conducting interviews and granting their special knowledge to ordinary citizens. Such will be the atmosphere in this country albeit through out the known world that this news would cause people to dismiss the idea of the Christian God or dismiss the truth of it without having giving the whole idea a second thought.  And if these poor creatures are found to be less intelligent, I am sure that there will be the discussion of going hitherto to mars to covet and expropriating their resources and minerals if it is of any use to us. Mankind if desiring to settle in mars if by some miracle scientist find ways for Man to live there would without fault carry their depravity there. Nature has long made mars a desolate and fierce place but mankind’s dwelling there will make it much more a graveyard. At the moment there are none of those evil spirits present such as greed and malice but soon mankind’s reign on that red planet will soon birth these unkind spirits into the atmosphere. Of course the place would look more beautiful for it is man’s innate will to clear up a place that hurts its physical eyes and it is for demons to love the trash. Man loves a clean environment and Mars would benefit from those things which are neutral that men would bring with it, such as music, language, literature, technology, sport and education. These genial giants will soon adorn the crusty terrains of Mars but man being corrupt will soon use only these angelic tools for his own glory. I wonder what reign would be established, what governments would be set, what constitution would be written - who would lay claim to the north and to the south. Surely Mars belongs to no man only to those creatures that are found there. But if they have no spirit of intelligence, Man would at once subdue their existence. Man would dominate and exert his control over the planet. Man would seek to civilize these lower creatures. Man would make Mars his home and the lawful citizens its guests considering them to be privileged to host such intelligent creature far superior to their own.

K.Oni

The writings of Sunny Caane (5)

Another good old friend of mine, very religious and zealous but yet reminding me a little of my other old friend spoke to me on the same theme of love, painting me a rather one sided portrait of his love and possibilities of his emotions. I remember little Jimmy, a very whole character he was and still is. I have no doubt that when I see him again he shall bombard me with the usual topic of religion and philosophy and urge me to live zealously for the Jewish messiah. He is my late night coffee because when we are together sleep is given a break until the early hours of the morning. This is what little Jimmy wrote rather unjointly:

My dear Sunny, bear with me as I lay to you what is at the moment in the vein of my heart. With some, selfishness knows no bound and I must do away with any notion of jealousy or envy if she is taking by another. May God bless him and her shall be my departing words. Although my heart shall for a time dwell in sorrow, mourning the fact that she was never mine to hold, yet my heart will not linger in bitterness for agape love knows nothing of selfishness but always puts other people’s interest before their own. My chief interest is to love her and to have her, but she feels not the same way so I must put her interest first submitting to it and to do it willingly and cheerfully. For nothing must be done through selfish ambition; and my loving her and hating the person whom has captured her heart is the manifestation of my selfish ambition to have her, but nay, I must love both cats and dogs. I must look out for her interests and not merely mine. Her interest is to love him and not me so I will love him and not be rude or evasive of him. I shall try as much as grace is given me to love him as a friend, as a brother and to meet any of his needs in as much as I am able to. But in doing all this my heart is still broken hoping one day to mend when the king of heaven and earth returns to take me home. Such is the love that I have for her that I cannot love again, I cannot climb the hill of love because I have settled upon her mountain. Of course I love my Christ more. Selfish love is linked to pride and unselfish love is linked to humility. I must not be prideful in my loss of her but must show humility by my love. All this I have spoken in possibilities, it is not yet a reality. My dear Sunny i shall come to you soon before Mid December.

K.Oni

Miscellanies 57: O happy day

O happy was the day when Jesus washed away my sins. On Him does my glowing heart rejoice, and rest at peace my long-divided heart, breaking my fetters setting me free. O happy was the day when Jesus washed away my sins, He taught me how to watch and pray, how to live and laugh. He taught me how to cry and weep, how to give all my burdens to him. O happy day, that blessed day when Christ on the cross did hang, for sins not his own, adding my sorrows to his earthly tears, taking all my guilt washing all my sins away. O happy day my friends won't you be happy with me? When in life's latest hour I take my bow then i shall still remember and rejoice in that happy day when Christ washed all my sins away. 

K.Oni

Miscellanies 56: Why am I so favored?

Are these not sweet words from Elizabeth when she saw Mary and said ‘but why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should visit me?’ O are these not the utterance of all those who have been kissed by effectual grace? They say like Elizabeth, but why am I so favored that God would let his light shine in my darkened heart so that I may behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. O why me. Why such a visit to a sinners house, why the free costly cleansing, why the love unconditional, why such large mercy. O I have not an answer, not at all except that my eyes water, and my heart praises my God for such a mighty hearty affection towards me a willful rebel. 

K.Oni

Miscellanies 55 - Love is wickedly cruel when not returned

Love is wickedly cruel when not returned was once what some old hardened man once said. But love I say perhaps is not so cruel in loving those who will never return that love with which you have loved them. Nor is it the aim of love to be loved back. If you are to love do it freely without expecting love in return. For the firmness of your love is displayed when the object of your love doesn't love you back or think very little of it.

K.Oni

Same cycle

There’s a stream where I long to live

My heart is thirsty made dry by the sins in my mind

Lost in its ways, I try to change

To change my life but nothing changed

So I keep living the same lie

I need truth better yet I gotta live it

Dear Lord let me see it

The paths of the righteous are ordained by God

Can I believe this cuz I seem to be walking the wrong way

Tell me pastor will I change

Every Sunday you preach it

And every week I seem to miss it

Can’t seem to get out of this endless cycle

Like riding my bicycle on the block for the same tour

Same ways, same chicks, same me and same things

Still hanging round selling the same things

Playing games, this is life can’t get away

Time to change pace but how will it all be strange.

K.Oni

I am coming to you

I am coming to you like a child

For you have said ‘let the children come, the humble ones for such is the kingdom’

I am coming my Father, I come with faith

With a joyful tone with a great bundle of humility.

I come to play in your park, I come without worry

I come with my big dreams and ambitions

I come knowing I will be Loved and treasured

I come singing hosanna in the highest.

I know there will be food on the table

I will eat with gladness knowing tomorrow there will be much more for me.

I come knowing that I am not an orphan but a child.

I know I am coming to my Father’s house

I know there is a room prepared for me by my brother

I know that I am not the only Child

K.Oni

Miscellanies 54: Receiving prayer

There are days when I awake feeling the comprehensiveness of my sins or swimming in my sea of unrighteousness that I cannot look beyond the horizon to gaze at the unending righteousness that is so large and not my own. All I see is the multitude, the greatness and vastness of my iniquities unsuitable as an offering to the Lord. I look inside to see if there is an inch of cause to rejoice, but there is none. I am swallowed deep in my wallow, I am like one in a deep mire. I have no means of escape unless it comes from outside of me. I know much of the theological doctrines of justification but this morning I have only applied the theory of it and not the application. I must feel it in order to be restored and my soul fears that awful principles which only devils would nourish namely, 'shall we sin so that grace may abound.' The source of my release or that which was to put a stop to my rotten thinking which would have gradually rose till the end of my day, or until God saw it fit to sovereignly uplift me from my prison was this, the dear prayers and words of friends. They prayed over me, which did make me smile bringing that inner tranquility which I at times ruin like Samson or Peter because we did not heed the voice of faithfulness. But in their prayers, in the simplicity of the placing on of hands, in the giving of encouragement I was restored. In one of the words spoken, I felt it to be entirely true, I am a key that opens doors and will not go in myself until all the weary and lost have found a seat for their poor souls. I do love my Jesus, O I love him and I pray that I be not a Judas but a Paul, a John or a Mary who daily considers him, longing for his return and reign as it is done in heaven. 

K.Oni

Women of the Bible: The first women missionary society for the support of the gospel

In the New Testament times the position of women was not equal to that of men. Women were regarded as inferior to men. In marriages, only men were allowed to dissolve a marriage and in the temple area, women were permitted to go only as far as the court of women and can only share in the synagogue worship only by listening.

The mixture of the sexes in public was an uncommon thing, opposed to the custom of Palestine. The rabbis were not in favour of associating with a woman in public but we read of Jesus that as he went about through the cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good-news of the kingdom that some women provided for him and his disciples out of their means (Luke 8:2-3).

Some of the women mentioned were Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna. These women all had personal grounds of gratitude to Jesus for some of them were healed of evil spirits and infirmities.

In Jesus’ social context, there was a lot of disdain towards women. Women lack influence and power, they were shunned in public and treated as second class citizens. A rabbi in the second century AD said that the Jews should daily utter three Thanksgivings with one of the Thanksgivings being: ‘Blessed be God who did not make me a woman, for a woman is not obligated to keep the commandments’. Such was the hostility towards women in public life that Jesus countered the social hatred by accumulating women to travel with him on his journeys.

These women displayed their gratitude to Jesus by providing for his missionary work out of their own personal resources; we could say that this is the first woman missionary society for the support of the gospel. Another Rabbi may have shunned these women’s support and bid them go back to their own homes, but Jesus, the ever compassionate Saviour allowed these women to be the backbone of his ministry.

We read that in Jesus’s suffering hours that these women were with him. He had them for company from Galilee all the way to Jerusalem. The gospel writers were not misogynist for they included the presence of these woman in the dying hours of Jesus’s life whereas they were completely silent about the whereabouts of the chosen twelve save a few.

These women were loved and cherished by Christ. Jesus also came for them. He came for their reconciliation to God’s society and to God himself.

We see two valuable traits in these woman of which we can all learn. The two traits are service and loyalty.

Service

These women offered their service voluntarily. I am sure that Jesus did not oblige them to provide for his needs just because he had set them free; their debts were for him to pay, but in the view of the mercy and love which Christ had showered upon them, these women responded by giving him their hearts. They offered him that which they could give in whatever heights or depths. One thing can be said, namely, that they gave their service willingly. God loves a cheerful giver and Christ and his disciples must have loved these women for they supported the ministry out of their own means. And when Christ had ascended into heaven the disciples were found devoting themselves to prayer with the Women and Mary the Mother of Jesus.

Daughters of God and sisters of Christ, is your heart melted by Christ as these women’s once unclean souls were? Are you quick to offer your service, money and time to Christ, supporting the work of his ministry or are you still lingering in your struggle to conquer Adam and fight your rights of equality? Will you not be like Christ who considered equality with God, not as a thing to be grasped but emptied himself and was found as a servant? Will you not be a servant? Will you not go quickly because of your gratitude and in your great joy sell all of your ambitions to gain Christ? O will you not be one of the Mary’s?

I pray that you render your service to Christ and to his Church for the joy and salvation of the world.

Loyalty

The beloved Apostle tells us that standing by the cross of Jesus was his Mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdelene. The loyalty of the other women were recorded for us by Matthew when he writes, There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

These women were faithful to their Christ, there was not a Judas among them – they did not pick up the cause of Christ, putting their hands to the plough and then turn back like some of the disciples at Capernaum who turned back and no longer followed Jesus. These women endured the hard teachings, they suffered the fear of being thrown out of the synagogues because of their association with Jesus. These women were seeds planted on good soils, they yielded the fruits of faithfulness.

These women’s loyalty was like Uriah’s loyalty for his fellow soldiers when David had taken him away from them. Uriah refused to go back to his own home to sleep in comfort but he slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord’s and did not go down to his own house. Although David may write that the faithful have vanquished from among the children of men, we can say of these women that the faithful have not perished from among the daughters of Eve. These women stood and watched the crucified Christ from a distance although powerless to do anything yet they showed their support for the suffering Messiah by being there and standing near the foot of his cross.

In all truths of heaven, women are not second-class citizens of the Kingdom of God, they are first class, highly honoured and crowned with beautiful gems decorated with a special name which God their Father has given to each that belongs to him. They enter the kingdom of heaven like all men namely through the effectual calling of God, who justifies them and then glorifies them conforming each to the character of his glorious Son who carried their sins on the cross.

My dear Ladies, be Women who are full of gratitude because of what Christ has done for you. Hold nothing back, live for Christ, serve his church, love your family, use whatever gifts Christ has given you, be a good daughter, seek his kingdom, be loyal, be faithful, provide for the ministry like the Women mentioned in the gospels who provided for Jesus out of their means.

K.Oni

Students, Welcome to Bristol

Coming to Bristol as a student is more than just studying, partying, eating and sleeping. There is so much more this ancient city of commerce offers to her new in-dwellers  From the time of the earliest organized human societies, men and women have enjoyed telling stories, listening to music, painting and dancing. Bristol is the city for all of the above as Bristol is the largest centre of culture, employment and education in the south-west region. 

Bristol is a city full of fun decorated by its vibrant multi-cultural artistic hub in stokes croft. Bansky, the controversial local graffiti artist famed throughout the world for his street art is a cherished son of Bristol as well as the beloved wizard Harry Potter who was supposedly inspired after J.K Rowling met a young boy in Bristol (so it is claimed). 

Bristol boasts two major institutions of higher education, the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England. The city has two Football league clubs. Bristol City and Bristol Rovers as well as a number of non-league clubs. The city is also home to Bristol Rugby Union club and an excellent first class cricket side. 

Bristol has a rich spiritual heritage. During the 19th century many churches and chapels were built in Bristol. Isaac Newton, the famous and renowned scientist, famously noted on his discoveries in philosophy that 'If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants'. As a Christian student coming to live in Bristol, you are standing on the shoulders of Giants such as John and Charles Wesley, William Tyndale, George Muller, and William Wilberforce. These men were remarkable in their time and displayed such great faith that history cannot but notice them and celebrate their works. As a follower of Christ, their victory is your victory; but we live in the present and just as they were entrusted to shine the light of Christ to their generation, you have been entrusted to do the same. 

It is with this view of standing on the shoulders of giants and willing to go further do I welcome you to Bristol. I welcome you with all the applause of heaven and the pleasure, which is all mine in meeting some of you. “Whatever your hands find to do (in Bristol), do it with all your might and to the glory of God.” 

K.Oni

I love to hear, watch her smile

Striving to buy her the finer things in life

Dreaming about her awake

Love to leave my house to go and see her live.

K.Oni