From Darkness to Light

Wednesday was a good day. 

33 men thought lost were found.  After 69 days shrouded beneath 700 metres of rock thousands of journalists with their cameras, politicians with their speeches and family members with their tears, bore witness to this dramatic salvation. 

This was a mesmerising story from the moment the mine collapsed, leaving little hope that anyone would come out alive. It took 17 nerve-wracking days for any contact to be made. In those first two weeks, it was like searching for a needle in a haystack as boreholes the size of a grapefruit were sent deep underground.  The seventh attempt returned with a scribbled note attached, the simple red lines on a scrap of paper offering the first glimpse of this 'almost Biblical rebirth'.

It could have so easily ended in a very different way.  This was life out of death; it was rescue from the jaws of tragedy.  And it made for a great news story.  Not just great, but good.  Amid a back drop of suffering and pain, economic recession and global poverty, for a few days the world has rejoiced.

And cultures have collided.  In the light of such remarkable human ingenuity and courage it was God and not man that was praised.  Each man stepped out of the capsule that had shuttled through nearly half a mile of earth and rock with 'To Him be the glory and honour' blazoned across their shirts.  Even the somewhat sceptical British press struggled to define this remarkable escape as anything but a miracle.  Mario Sepulveda, the second miner rescued was in no doubt where credit was due, 'I was with God and I was with the Devil, they fought me, but God won.  He took me by my best hand, the hand of God and I held on to him. I never thought for one minute that God wouldn't get me out of there'.

I do not know whether this was a miracle. Maybe even asking the question betrays my innate scepticism, maybe I am being too rigid in my categories.  Maybe God can work miracles through our endeavours.  Maybe the work of a surgeon in a hospital theatre is as much a witness to God's involvement in our lives as the prayers said at the front of church.  I am reminded of the story of a man stranded by a flood who turns away a rescue boat, and then a helicopter because he is waiting for God to save him.  The miners in Chile did not turn away the rescue capsule, nor were they in any doubt that God had saved them. 

We can have it both ways.  We can believe in supernatural intervention, where that which was thought impossible is achieved by God.  But we can also rejoice as a man reaches down into the depths of the earth and helps his fellow man to the surface.

I joined with the estimated audience of a billion rejoicing yesterday.  I joined with many of those who were thanking God.  I took time to think of those who have not been granted a little more time, those who die from preventable diseases, lost in accidents and natural disasters, those killed in battle or in peace. 

And I wondered whether I share the same enthusiasm to see people rescued beyond their present life.  Am I as eager to see the world know God as their saviour as I was when I awoke on Thursday to find that the last of the miners had made it to safety? 

 

Danny Webster - Parliamentary Officer

http://www.eauk.org/fnt/from-darkness-to-light.cfm

Evangelical Alliance

Rene and Poet

Rene: So, my good Poet, why the Long face?

Poet: I really genuinely don’t know which step I ought to take for I am besotted with her but when I do see her all of my premeditative plans seems to be non existent and I feel somewhat unworthy and my soul is quietened within me. Perhaps I wish for her not to know although I do but I am not yet convinced either way whether her feelings are reciprocal so yet I linger in the dark but I must not stay there too long lest a charming handsome guy should take her away and forever is my opportunity gone. So what must I do? (Shrugs his shoulder, and then pauses for a little while).

For I enjoy our friendship but I think that at times because of my disposition to withdraw and remain quiet and hardly display no affection that I may be driving her away so I must change and perhaps be loose but to behave in this manner, I am not well trained so my folly may be evident and she being quick natured and cultured may see this and take the wrong assumption from it; although if she made the right assumption then I would be glad, then I could take notice of her following actions and that should give me clear signs of what she thinks of me.

Rene: My Poet, what is she to you?

Poet: She is to me when I’m with her like a summer’s afternoon, the butterflies wandering up and down, the flowers ever so green and hearing the soft sounds of the water trickling down the stream. I lay still with awed eyes tired by the mid-day beam, snared by her availing beauty. (He looks up with a gentle smile starring passionately into Rene's eyes). She is my sunrise, the cascading melody of all my desires.

K.Oni

Hypocrites deficient in the duty of prayer

Some harsh but true words from Jonathan Edwards. 



It is the manner of hypocrites, after a while, to return to sinful practices, which will tend to keep them from praying. While they were under convictions, they reformed their lives, and walked very exactly. This reformation continues for a little time perhaps after their supposed conversion, while they are much affected with hope and false comfort. But as these things die away, their old lusts revive, and they by degrees return like the dog to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. They return to their sensual practices, to their worldly practices, to their proud and contentious practices, as before. And no wonder this makes them forsake their closets. Sinning and praying agree not well together. If a man be constant in the duty of secret prayer, it will tend to restrain him from wilful sinning. So, on the other hand, if he allow himself in sinful practices, it will restrain him from praying. It will give quite another turn to his mind, so that he will have no disposition to the practice of such a duty It will be contrary to him. A man who knows that he lives in sin against God, will not be inclined to come daily into the presence of God; but will rather be inclined to fly from his presence, as Adam, when he had eaten of the forbidden fruit, ran away from God, and hid himself among the trees of the garden.
To keep up the duty of prayer after he hath given loose to his lusts, would tend very much to disquiet a man's conscience. It would give advantage to his conscience to testify aloud against him. If he should come from his wickedness into the presence of God, immediately to speak to him, his conscience would, as it were; fly in his face. Therefore hypocrites, as they by degrees admit their wicked practices, exclude prayer.



If you have left off calling upon God, it is time for you to leave off hoping and flattering yourselves with an imagination that you are the children of God.

But it your case be such as is spoken of in the doctrine, it is surely time for you to seek a better hope, and another work of God's Spirit, than ever you have yet experienced; something more thorough and effectual.

No poison groweth in the paradise of God. The same hope which leads men to sin in this world will lead to hell hereafter. Why therefore will you retain such an hope, of which your own experience shows you the ill tendency, in that it encourages you to lead a wicked life?

Many men cling to a false hope, and embrace it so closely, that they never let it go till the flames of hell cause their arms to unclench and let go their hold.


If you have not spirit to love God above your dearest earthly friends, and your most pleasant earthly enjoyments; the scriptures are very plain, and full in it, that you are not true Christians. But if you had indeed such a spirit, would you thus grow weary of the practice of drawing near to him, and become habitually so averse to it, as in a great measure to cast off so plain a duty which is so much the life of a child of God? It is the nature of love to be averse to absence, and to love a near access to those whom we love. We love to be with them; we delight to come often to them, and to have much conversation with them. But when a person who hath heretofore been wont to converse freely with another, by degrees forsakes him, grows strange, and converses with him but little, and that although the other be importunate with him for the continuance of their former intimacy; this plainly shows the coldness of his heart towards him.

True love to God seeks to please God in every thing, and universally to conform to his will.

A prayerless life is so far from being an holy life, that it is a profane life. He that lives so, lives like an heathen, who calleth not on God's name; he that lives a prayerless life, lives without God in the world.

How can you expect to dwell with God for ever, if you so neglect and forsake him here? This your practice shows, that you place not your happiness in God, in nearness to him, and communion with him. He Who refuses to come and visit, and converse with a friend, and who in a great measure forsakes him, when he is abundantly invited and importuned to come; plainly shows that he places not his happiness in, the company and conversation of that friend. Now, if this be the case with you respecting God, then how can you expect to have it for your happiness to all eternity, to be with God, and to enjoy holy communion with him?

Let those persons who hope they are converted, and yet have in a great measure left off the duty of secret prayer, and whose manner it is ordinarily to neglect it, for their own sake seriously consider these things. For what will profit then to please themselves with that, while they live, which will fail them at last, and leave them in fearful and amazing disappointment?

It is not very likely that you will ever be constant and persevering in this duty, until you shall have obtained a better principle in your hearts. 

Jonathan Edwards

I never knew

The morning comes with light to my soul

And lo I knew its source.

For the night had been dark for long

Lost in my sins

                        and fantasies.

Alarmed dismay the morning will sing

Frantic noise I cannot sustain

To arise again to this gall and bitterness

Yea this bitterness of my hardened soul.

That cup in which He trembled to drink

I did entirely reflect that double was my portion of it.

For no sinner like me there ever was and will ever be

I was frayed,

                    Dreading to wake.

But I never knew in the sunrise

Kind-heartedness He would confirm

That He would breathe life into me

Escorting me to repentance,

And once again cause a Praise

              To arise

From the mouth of a pitiful saint

K.Oni

I dance to your tune

I heard your story
I heard your ways

Beautiful like butterflies
Sparkling like diamonds

Your wings will fly
As  you soar the skies

Your name will be among the stars
Never to fade nor perish

Though we are fading flowers
And the leaves do fall

But you will stand because
You have trusted in Him

So I dance to your tune
To your melody that draws me

K.Oni

Four new things

A good friend of mine on Tuesday asked me a question and the question was, ‘what’s new for you this week?’ In my dejected state I replied and said ‘not much, not much at all’, but in fact that wasn’t the whole truth because in thinking about her question, a couple of things, some to my surprise are in fact new. There are four new things which have happened to me.

1. A new Love for fair trade 70% dark chocolate.   If you knew me and my hatred for the taste of dark chocolate then this news would be a complete shock to you but yes I have moved past my original feelings for dark chocolate which in itself was a tremendous shock to me for I confidently asserted that I would never like such a chocolate for it was too bitter for my sweet tongue. But lo and behold I now enjoy it and deeply understand why people love dark chocolate. Also this perhaps could be related to people’s initial reaction to Jesus. They hate him and find him to be bitter, but when they encounter him like the apostle Paul, Jesus becomes the sweetest thing to them and he who once was bitter, yea a kill joy to their earthly pleasures is now the One with the fullness of life which their new hearts crave so violently.

2. Friends of the Earth. I was about on my way home from town when I was stopped by a lovely girl called Anna. She was a fundraiser and I had been a fundraiser and I love talking to fundraiser and when she stopped me, I gladly stopped and for the next 40-50 minutes we had a lovely conversation ranging from the activities of Friends of the earth, to her personal life and ultimately to the gospel. I shall briefly tell you of how we came to talk about the gospel but the whole conversation was very interesting and she said so herself. Focusing on the gospel, she told me that she had some pains in her body and seeing this as an opportunity I told her of my visit to bath where I saw Jesus Culture and witnessed many healings. She was surprised and asked me whether I grew up in a religious home, I replied positively and then outlined for her sufficient reasons to give the bible a hearing which then paved a way to telling her the gospel. She did raise one good objection which was, ‘the disciples could have stolen the body of Jesus because they felt so guilty for having deserted him’. I told her to think about it and if it was so, then the disciples would have been guilty of a greater crime because many more people, thousands lost their lives because they preached a false message. Now which is more evil? She agreed and I told her the good news of Christ Jesus and through my encounter by the grace of God, her opinions of Christians shot through the roof because her past experience was that Christians were passive so I told her that God is in the business of reconciling the world back to himself. Also she asserted that she would pick up her dusty bible and read it and I told her to read the sermon on the mount and Johns gospel. There are many more things I could write to encourage you but glory belongs to our God. Also I did sign up and now I give £10 a month beginning in December.

3. Harmonica. I purchased a simply harmonica book and DVD box set and it came with a good quality harmonica. I thought it wise to learn an instrument in my spare time and perhaps it may be a good skill to have since I have not many skills. Learning thus far as been good and very soothing to my soul, I play notes at random and love the sound of it. When I play I think of David, yea David the shepherded when he would play his instrument to King Soul and those evil spirits sent from God would depart from him. When I see those corrupt principles in me or when I’m hit with a dose of melancholy, I simply put my tongue to the tune and lo the spirit of gentleness sits with me and temptations fly from me as far as the east is from the west.

4. Leading bible study. At UWE Christian Union, I am currently a supportive bible study leader which means that whenever the existing leaders can’t make the study, I step in and have the privilege of leading souls to the wonders of the word of God. My aim in leading bible study is to hopefully excite in people a passion for Jesus and a deep love for him. I aim to excite all of their faculties, yea even their minds and emotions so that Jesus can be their all satisfying desire and joy amidst the fountains of worldly activities. But before I excite this in people it must first be excited in me because one thing you must know about me is that if I have no Joy in Jesus I would display an almost unmissable sadness that I cannot hide though I try and my conversations with you would be very brief. Also  if I appear dejected it is mainly because I have no experiential peace with God at that moment although I am always at peace with God because of Christ death on the cross. And also if I appear to be enthusiastic it is because I feel the weight of his love upon my aching soul and thus I am with you. So how I am with God naturally expresses itself of how I will relate to you. Although it is to be said that it is more complex but nevertheless this is the crux of it. The bible study went well and I did excite in people a more deeper love for Christ and how awesome it is that Jesus is God, yea, the Word made Flesh.

So four new things have happened to me this week and perhaps there is more but I believe that this is sufficient for this post.

K.Oni

Psalm 1- An exposition

By K.Oni


1. Blessed. The book of the psalms opens with a benediction which is a state of being blessed and the word translated is plural meaning blessedness. The rest of the psalm distinguishes between the blessed man and the man who is not blessed at all because he is not in a state of being blessed. As a Christian one should be abundantly joyful because we are in a blessed state and that always because God has justified us in Christ Jesus. There is therefore no more condemnation for those who are blessed in Christ Jesus but there is still condemnation for those who are not in a state of being blessed in Christ as the psalmist reveals in vs. 4 & 5. Note, that this should cause you to rejoice and perhaps to enjoy your blessedness it is wise for you to consider what it is that you have been blessed with and a searching through scripture should reveal this to you and cause you great excitement because now the LORD watches over you and he does it like a joyful mother looking after her precious son or like a bridegroom caring for his bride.

The blessed man is described both positively and negatively. The blessed man is a man of such character who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, that is that the blessed man does not take advice from the wicked, he despises their company and does not give a thought to any of their suggestions. Also the blessed man does not stand in the ways of sinner. This implies that a man of God should not accompany himself with those who do evil, to stand along side them as if supporting their activities. Although it does not mean that one should not be with sinners for then that would mean for you to go out of the world but for the blessed man not to stand in their ways or conform to their ways.  The blessed man does not sit in the seat of mockers, that is that his ears are to sensible for the things which are holy and despises those things which are profane. When mockers begin to mock God, he stands up and departs, taking no delight in their folly and becomes greatly offended when they use God’s name in vain. The blessed man Loves God and must naturally hate the things that God hates and we see in vs. 2 that the blessed man’s delight is in the law of the LORD. This is his positive character. This was the longing of all those men in Psalm 119, to delight in the law of the LORD and to keep them, especially in vs. 97 which reads ‘Oh how I love your Law, I meditate on it all day long’. Oh how this spirit is so much needed in our churches today, to love the Law of our precious Saviour, Jesus Christ. The messiah himself said that ‘If you love me, you will obey what I command’. And even more so those who love the Lord delights in his command and we see this active fruit in the blessed man, yea he delights in his law and that is that all of his faculties are excited. For when he reads of the two great commandments his heart is so excited that he longs to do them, yea it becomes his passion for he delights in it. Consider those things in which you delight to do, how easy is it for you to do them, are they to you a burden but many see the Law of Christ a burden but it is so with them because they have not yet loved the Lord in order to delight in his divine and pleasurable ordinances.  And we in the age of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit are under the law of Christ which brings freedom and our delight should far exceed the law which is here in view for we have a greater revelation and on his law he meditates day and night. Note here the consistency of the blessed man, it is not enough to spend ten minutes on the law of God but day and night. It does not mean that one spends the whole day in a monastery but rather the law of God is very practical and it is to be obeyed. Day and night the blessed man loves the Lord his God with all his heart and delights in obeying his commandments and thus his meditation is day and night because all he does is according to the law of his precious saviour.

In vs.3 we see the result of the blessed man who delights in the law of the LORD, for he is like a tree planted by streams of water. Note, that he is like a tree, yea, an healthy tree not a wild tree but one which is planted by streams of water. And here water we can say to be the rivers of grace which plants the sinner in the garden of Christ and is upheld by the righteousness of Christ and the Father loves to tend to it and prune it. We see that this tree yields its fruit in season. our blessed Lord in his discourse to his disciples solemnly told them that ‘neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me’, and somewhere else our Lord comments ‘others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop- thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown'. The blessed man will always yield its fruit in season and regardless which season it is whether it be the season of persecution, the season of trials, the season of being rich, the season of depression, the season of signs and wonder, which ever season it may be the blessed will always yield its fruit and that the fruits of righteousness. And also the blessed man’s leaf does not wither, that is that his righteousness will never fade for his righteousness is in Christ  Jesus, he will never loose his beauty nor would a single leaf drop to the ground. Whatever he does prospers. Here let us consider the only righteous man in all of history, the man Christ Jesus. We see that in his life, everything he did and still continues to do today prospers. He gains victory in all things even in his death. So it is with every blessed man in Christ Jesus because God works everything for our good and happily we should take to the plough especially to that of the kingdom for we are guaranteed success because God works for our good even in our deaths or apparent failure it is eventually to our success.

Vs. 4 solemnly tell us that the wicked man has no part in the blessings of the blessed man for naturally the wicked man hates God and he will not be planted by streams of water but rather the wicked will be uprooted for destruction. No one speaks more plainly of this than our Lord Jesus Christ himself when in Revelation he says concerning the wicked that ‘the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars- their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur’. it is a terrifying thing to be numbered with the wicked and I plead with all to take part in the gospel of God and believe in Him who died for their wickedness and was raised from the dead. The blessings of the blessed man is not so with the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. The character of the wicked is that they are like chaff so when cereal crops are harvested the chaff is removed and deposited with the straw in the field. So the wicked are spoken of to be worthless and irrelevant yea irrelevant to the things of God and of his new creation and they will be destroyed with the old creation, yea, with an everlasting stay in hell. The righteous man should be moved by this as God was moved in so far that he loved the wicked man and therefore sent His anointed one to die for them so that whoever believes will not come into judgment but pass into life everlasting. Our preaching of the gospel should therefore be earnest and our praying should be unceasing and our serving should be magnified and our love unconditional. If the wicked man does not come to believe in the gospel, the wicked will not stand in the judgement vs. 5. They will be there to be judged and their own conscience will render them guilty and justice will be their portion. Justice is necessary because God is Holy and because there will be no wicked nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. On that glorious day when the Lord shall come to gather the elect and make a seating for every saint in his kingdom whom he purchased by his blood, joyfully there will be no room for sinners, those yet to be marked by the blood of the lamb and justice shall be served coldly and gladly for the Lord shall rid his kingdom of his enemies.

And a reason for the cleansing of sinners from the assembly of the righteous is giving in vs. 6 for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous. God is constantly looking on the way of his saints, though they may walk through the shadow of death yet his eyes is upon them, a happy smile behind a frowning providence. The LORD delights to watch over them for he is the good shepherded who gave his life for the sheep. He numbers the hair on their heads and although the devil attacks them yet their eternal life is secured and they have authority over all principality and powers. The ways of the righteous shall prosper because God is for them but the way of the ungodly will perish. The end for the ungodly man is certain as is the end of the blessed man. The end for the ungodly man in ultimately the wrath of God in the dungeons of hell while for the blessed man the presence of God forever where there is pleasures forever more. A wise man would no longer delay what type of man he ought to be but the sinfulness of man deceives him. So I plead for you to tarry no longer but to now put your faith in the darling of heaven, the lamb who was slain for thee. Blessed is the man who put his trust in God.

K.Oni