Be on your guard

Oh church and faithful Christians,  young and old, brothers and sisters, take heed lest you fall, there is an enemy out to get us, to whither your hope, to destroy your faith, to weaken your theology, to be liberal not enduring sound doctrine. There is an adversary and he lives, yes he is like a lion seeking whom he may devour and his influence is everywhere; he has the sons of disobedient in his hands of whom ye once were but now you are free, you have been set free by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ who threw the decisive blow by the shedding of His blood on the cross. You have been purchased but do not be deceived, make your election and calling sure. Do not make a shipwreck of your faith. Today many upon many are walking straight into hell, many are walking into hell, why because they don’t learn their bibles with such great seriousness and don’t care about the glorious gospel that was preached by Jesus and the apostles; the gospel that was written and preserved for us by God with whom so many have suffered and died for and on top of that Jesus is not at the top of their list. The devil wants it this way, I look at my life and say to myself, what takes precedent, what is first and above all, what do I treasure most and how do I manifest it. Am I bearing the fruit of the spirit, Galatians 5:16-26 was written for a reason. Yea that you may read it and check yourself. Jesus says that a good tree bears good  fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit. Now we are not professionals nor are we perfect nor shall we ever be perfect in this age as corruption still dwells in us. But when we die and be planted into the ground, we shall rise just as he rose from the dead, and those of us who are alive at his coming will be transformed in the wink of an eye. Those of us that have been planted to the ground shall rise to an inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled. Your body will be perfect. But for now, my question to you is that do you love your sin? Yea, do you love the things that you do? has the sweetness of Christ glorious ways not yet tasted sweetly in your mouth that makes you want to forsake your old ways. Check yourself oh Christian, for some who said were of Israel were not of Israel because they thought that God was altogether like them. In the same way, some who says that they are of Christ are not really of Christ because Christ is no part with them and he never knew them and on the day of judgement He will rebuke them and send those who were lawless and treated Him as thing to be stepped upon, them, he shall immediately send to eternal punishment forever and them regretting their foolish ways of not treasuring the wonderful King who gave His life so that they may obtain mercy and enjoy God’s abiding company for ever more. Many say the most important thing is to know Jesus but that is not so, many people claim they know Jesus, the question is that does he know you?

Awake your heart to the righteousness and  pure holiness of God. Be rooted and built up in Christ. Jesus loves you, he gave up everything for you so do the same. As a wife who truly knows her husband and knows that all his heart is for her, and his ways are of righteousness and godliness and good, he will never hurt her, wont she gladly submit herself to him? willing to do all his biding and boasting about him to all her friends and saying what a treasure I have found in this man. She will rejoice because she has known who she has married. Many woman will desire a man like that but the church has a even more perfect man, the man Christ Jesus, the immortal king whose beauty surpasses all and His glory fills the heavens. Should we not stand in awe and worship Him with all that we have; oh, how little I fall short but yet his richness of mercy and love towards me fills my heart with tears that such a rich man should want a poor, poor man like me. He takes off my filthy rag and replaces it with a garment whiter than snow. Should I then roll about in the dirt, in the unclean things willingly enjoying it and say to myself, surely all I need is to go back to Him and He shall make me clean again. I have seen His kindness and compassion surely he wont rebuke me. Oh foolish one, do you not know that you should not tempt the Lord your God. He is all merciful and will forgive the repentance in heart but do not abuse it, let not your theology be soft, don’t gather yourself around preachers that you want to hear, but around preachers with solid doctrine that is one hundred per cent biblical, and just don’t take their words for it, be like the Jews in Berea and search the scriptures to see if what the pastor says is so, especially doctrines about salvation. Meditate that you do not go astray, God has giving us the bible as the path that we should keep on while fixing our eyes on Jesus. The truth is revealed in the word, and pray for the council of the Spirit, for God is His own interpreter. My words to you young Christians as I am myself is that you ought to be careful and be diligent with your faith. There is an adversary that is out to get me and you so that we make a shipwreck of our faith, that the truth become so distorted that it is no longer the truth which I follow. To the more established and older Christians, encourage the younger brothers and sisters and tell them that the One who began a good work in them will finish it. Encourage them to continue to trust him and they ought to love righteousness because God is righteous. God is faithful and you older Christians, check yourself, fight the good fight of faith that you may altogether say the words of Paul in 2timothy 4:7-8. Take heed lest you fall may God be with you all. Amen

K.Oni

Homeless serving

On Wednesday night, I helped out at the wild goose where the homeless are fed. It was a joy to be able to serve and use my time in such a helpful way. I met with a friend who had told me that she helps on Wednesday night and I seized the opportunity in volunteering myself. This is the first time I have done such a thing and to my joy I was humbled and saddened. I was humbled by the smile of some and their faces shone at the little they were able to receive and their gratitude came from the heart. Many had probably not eaten sufficient food all day and they scoffed the food down with great pleasure with many seeking seconds.  I was saddened by some because some came looking all drugged up with bruises on their faces or their bodies. Their clothing looked very rough and unfitting for sleeping out at night.  I was filled with compassion but it remained just a heavy feeling and riding back home on my bicycle, tears rolled from my eyes in prayer, praying for those I had spoken to wishing many may find a comfortable pillow for their heads.


Jesus too was homeless having no place to rest his head but he was connected to God and my prayer is, is that many of the homeless will also be connected to God and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that the churches with open arms will receive the poor and feed and cloth them and that includes me and you.

K.Oni

Loving God and Loving you

A girl once said to a certain boy, “why is it that you always end up sitting next to me?” The question threw the boy of his chair because he knew the truth of it. With many people hearing the question, the boy was well witted and quickly considering the possibilities he knew he had to give a wise answer lest any one should think he fancied her. So he replied, “are you surprise that I sit next to you so often”, he paused and then continued; “it is because I greatly love your company and your genuine smile”. She returned the smile and to further his cause, he furthermore said, “I live not to please myself but others, so I carefully treasure the company of others and have a great love for many people and you are one of them. Even those whom I naturally do not taste to, I discipline myself with care to love them with my heart and mind and it is thus with you. I love you’. And turning to those around him he said to them that “you may interpret my words as you may but my love is pure because I have known and been shown what love is. God first loved me by dying for me and thus I love him and love you all.” Many hearing this thought him strange and equally so many inquired more of him of how they too can love without hypocrisy.


K.Oni

Understanding Ephesians 1

Recently, I met up with a couple of people to read the epistle to the Ephesians and to pray. Ephesians was John Calvin’s favourite letter and Armitage Robinson called it ‘the crown of St Paul’s writings’. One person describes their experience after reading Ephesians, ‘I saw a new world, everything was new, I had a new outlook, new experiences, new attitudes to other people. I loved God, Jesus Christ became the centre of everything.. I had been quickened, I was really alive’.

In finishing the first chapter, it was amazing to see the Sovereign pleasure of God in working out our salvation. Eph 1:4-6, ‘in love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves and also eph 1:11-12 says that we were chosen in Him, ‘having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything  according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.’ My salvation is completely of God and he planned it before I was born and my response is shown in verse 13, ‘in him, you also when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy spirit’.

God is so amazing and I just want to forever praise his name because of who he is and what he has done for us in Christ Jesus.  And my prayer is that the eyes of my heart may be enlightened, that I may know what is the hope to which he has called me, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe.

K.Oni

New Creation Observation of the Sabbath

In Miscellanies 28 Jonathan Edwards expresses his thoughts on how bygone commands to observe the Sabbath now apply to the church (some paragraphing added):

[Israel's] seventh day was the day wherein they were brought out of Egypt. Our seventh day, or first day—it's no matter by what name we call it—is the day that Christ brought us out of Egypt, out of bondage to sin and Satan; of which deliverance theirs was but a faint representation. . . .
'Tis true the sabbath day used to be kept in remembrance of the creation of the world, but the first creation is spoiled; we have ruined it, and have reason to lament that ever we were created, except we are created again.
We are truly to keep the sabbath in commemoration of the creation, but it is of the new creation. We are truly to keep the sabbath on the day wherein God rested from the creation of the heavens and the earth, but we are to do it in the day wherein God created the new heavens and the new earth, by which name God calls the restoration by Christ (Isaiah 65:17-18; Isaiah 51:16; Isaiah 66:22).
God told us that when that was done we should no longer commemorate the first creation, but the second. Isaiah 65:17, "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind." But if we set apart one day in seven for this very end, to remember them and call them to mind, this is beside the revealed will of God.

These thoughts sound similar to those shared by John Piper in his sermon, "Is There a 'Lord's Day'?" Commenting on Jesus' words in John 5:17—"My Father is working until now, and I am working"—he says,

What does this mean? I think it means this: When Adam fell into sin, God got up from his Sabbath rest after creation, and started to work again—not this time on creation, but on redemption—toward a new creation. A new humanity. “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” You do not understand what I am doing. I and my Father are creating a new world, a new humanity, and when we are finished, we will celebrate with a new Sabbath.
And that work of redemption and new creation was finished decisively on the cross. And three days later Jesus rose from the dead to celebrate the victory he had won and the new creation he had decisively obtained and inaugurated. Now he could take his seat with his Father on the throne of the universe and enter his Sabbath rest.
This is why the early church took the first day of the week as its day of worship and turned away from the seventh day. The seventh day marked the victory of the first creation. The first day marked the victory of the new creation with the resurrection of Christ.

By Tyler Kennedy: http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/2531_new_creation_observation_of_the_sabbath/

Happy Birthday Social Trends!

The annual survey of life in Britain is forty years old this week. The latest volume, weighing in at 243 pages, gives a refreshingly cool and trustworthy picture of how the nation has changed over the last 40 years.

Life expectancy is up. Girls born in 2008 can expect to live seven years longer than those born in 1970, and boys nine years longer. We smoke less (surely not a disconnected fact). We are better educated. We are much richer. Real household disposable income per head is 2½ times more today than it was in 1970. And we holiday abroad much more often, making on average 45 million holiday trips today compared with 6.7 million in 1971.All this makes it seem like things have only got better. But there are other, complicating factors.

We may be richer as a society but we are more unequal. The accepted measure of economic inequality, the Gini co-efficient (calculated between 0 and 100, with 0 representing complete equality and 100 representing complete inequality) increased from 26 in 1977 to 34 in 2008. Even if the poor aren’t actually poorer (at least in absolute terms) they certainly feel poorer. 
-We may have more money but we save far less of it. Households saved around seven per cent of their total annual resources in 1970. In 2008, it was under two per cent.

Financial crisis and economic downturn have forced it up a bit since then but we are still a long way from financial security.
-There may be more of us – the population has risen from 56 million in 1971 to 61 million today – but we are choosing to have far fewer children.
-Most tellingly, we may live longer lives, but they are increasingly more fluid and isolated. The number of first marriages has fallen precipitously, whereas the number of single person households, divorces, and children born outside marriage has risen steadily. And while we may congratulate ourselves that the number of teenagers getting pregnant has fallen from 134,000 in 1970 to 106,000 in 2007, the number who gave birth has fallen far more steeply, from 117,000 in 1970 to 63,000. No prizes for guessing what happened to the difference.-

How can we explain this see-saw of statistics, some showing life going up, some seemingly showing it coming down?

Perhaps like this. Life is better for me, but not for us. I can expect to live longer, earn more and travel further. But we are less likely to live together, stay together or maintain economic equality. Or maybe we can put it another way. We are forgetting what life is for. My comfort and my leisure are on the up. But my willingness to sacrifice what I have – for other people, for children, for the future, for the common good – is declining.-

“Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” Jesus’ words carve through distorted notions of life. The more we hoard, the more we will lose. The more we celebrate and exercise ‘freedom’ and ‘choice’, the more we erode the bonds of trust, fidelity, patience, perseverance, love that make us human, that make life truly worthwhile.-


But the more we give away – whether to family, friends, neighbours, or God – the more we will have.

Nick Spencer is Director of Studies at Theos

What does your faith journey look like?Perhaps you had a sudden Damascus Road experience – or came to faith slowly. Whoever you are, whatever has happened, however your views have changed over the years, your faith journey is unique. The Evangelical Alliance is pleased to support an exciting Christian Research initiative that is seeking to compile the first comprehensive collection of faith journeys.  

This remarkable project, called ‘Faith Journeys’, aims to provide a richer understanding of how people come to, and grow in, faith, so that churches and organisations can better support people on their journeys.  

To find out more, and to tell your story, visit www.faith-journeys.com

This is my release

In our prayers, let us consider those who are thinking of taking their own lives and ending it all. Let us pray for them that the light of Christ may shine through and his love and peace may flow through them. Below I tried to get into the mindset of a person who is thinking of ending it all in a poetic/rap format.

Filled with accolade from the crowd

The time is nearer for Jesus to come get me

I’m empty feeling heated like a flask

I’ve reached boiling point about to burst out

Had enough of life I could understand them chicks that took their lives

Nothing more in life for me depression is seen

Evidence on my left wrist

This is my dark release a cry of help

I’m getting bloody soon be bagged up

Resting in peace, let my life be simply forgotten

They say I’m selfish cuz the grief my mama will be feeling

Understand my isolation from the beginning

Nobody loved me that’s for sure

To many nights in pain with my heart throbbing

Demons in my head telling lies of conspicuous woes

This is my release

This is my release

This is what ill be

Free to be

No more painful memories

You probably heared of me

The other night a boy

Got drugged up

With a note by his bed

What a tragic end

Understand I did it for my happiness

Smiling as I go in peace

See the brighter light

The night is gone

The day is coming

And here it is I’ve been freed

From the misery of miserly

Kissing the grave like it was made for me

This is my release

This is my release

Death by the corner why our souls so bad

I’m lost in the tears of my mothers sadness

Please God tell me you living

Cuz im hopeless and helpless

Selfless and ready to be

A part of the source I begin

To catching cases going to war with the devil

In my sleep

To much pressure on my shoulders

Couldn’t carry the wait so the condemnation came

Bitterly sweet they treated me bad

Left me all alone so I’m feeling crap

Understand I tried to come back

Then my heart got this feeling towards her

Couldn’t control it and she threw me back

Please go away

Cuz ill be free now

This is my release 

K.Oni