Help me fight it

I can’t fight it 
The situation keeps me awake
I feel I’m slipping 
Sinking deep beneath the sea
I can’t win it. 
Death seems like life to me
I’ve gotta keep breathing
Drinking in the fountains of hope
I’ve gotta Keep believing.
Dreaming of the end of my woes
When sunny days will roll
And I’ll be firm like the solid grounds.
Somebody please give me a call
Tell me its cool before I reach 
The end of this fall. 
I can’t fight it 
The situation keeps me awake
I’ve gotta try it 
The only way I’m keeping this will
Is if you help me fight it!


K.Oni

What did I go out to see?

What did I go out to see?
A reed swayed by the wind?
A man dressed in fine clothes?
No!
Those who dress in fine clothes are in the Kings’ palaces
But
 I did go to see a Prophet
Yes,
 More than a Prophet
But
 not more than a Man.
A prophet who was the greatest born of a Woman.
I did see this rugged looking man with Camels hair
A Leather belt around His waist
With locusts and Wild Honey for His food.
I did see him preach and reach 
Baptize and teach proclaiming and
Preparing the way for a King.


K.Oni

Does God Love His Enemies?

I can still remember the chair I was sitting in years ago when I read a life-changing page in John MacArthur’s book The God Who Loves. In an economy of words, John exposed, confronted, and changed my thinking on one of the most critical areas of theology, the nature of God. My understanding of God’s love—specifically His love for the non-elect—was never the same.

For months, I had been wrestling with the question of whether God’s love extends beyond those He chose for salvation. “Does God love all humanity, even the Judas Iscariots and Adolf Hitlers of the world?” At the time, I couldn’t answer that question with any degree of certainty. And although I was sitting under sound biblical teaching, I had begun entertaining the idea that God’s elect have a monopoly on His love. I couldn't reconcile the idea of God loving His enemies with the following texts:

• Psalm 5:5, “You hate all workers of iniquity.”
• Psalm 7:11, “God is angry with the wicked every day.”
• Psalm 26:5, “I have hated the assembly of evil doers.”

Beyond those troubling texts, I was grappling with God’s explicit statements about hating Esau found in Romans 9 and Malachi 1. “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” You have to admit, that’s a hard verse to refute. God’s hatred was unrelated to Esau’s conduct or character. It was rooted in His eternal, sovereign purposes.

The more I pondered those verses, the more resistant I became to acknowledging God’s love to all humanity. I failed to see the tragic effects such thinking had on my evangelistic fervency. I had adopted a self-righteous mindset, thinking God was absolutely repulsed by unbelievers—probably just as repulsed as I was. I became blind to all the Scriptures speaking to God’s steadfast love and compassion for the lost. Somewhere along the way, my love and compassion for sinners waned.

I was convinced in my own mind. God loves the elect and hates the non-elect. End of discussion.

But then, I read the following words by John MacArthur:

Scripture clearly says that God is love. “The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works” (Ps. 145:9). Christ even commands us to love our enemies, and the reason He gives is this: “In order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45). The clear implication is that in some sense God loves His enemies. He loves both “the evil and the good,” both “the righteous and the unrighteous” in precisely the same sense we are commanded to love our enemies.

In fact, the second greatest commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk. 12:31; cf. Lev. 19:18), is a commandment for us to love everyone. We can be certain the scope of this commandment is universal, because Luke 10 records that a lawyer, “wishing to justify himself … said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” (Lk. 10:29)—and Jesus answered with the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The point? Even Samaritans, a semi-pagan race who had utterly corrupted Jewish worship and whom the Jews generally detested as enemies of God, were neighbors whom they were commanded to love. In other words, the command to love one’s “neighbor” applies to everyone. This love commanded here is clearly a universal, indiscriminate love.

Consider this: Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law in every respect (Matt. 5:17–18), including this command for universal love. His love for others was surely as far-reaching as His own application of the commandment in Luke 10. Therefore, we can be certain that He loved everyone. He must have loved everyone in order to fulfill the Law. After all, the apostle Paul wrote, “The whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Gal. 5:14). He reiterates this theme in Romans 13:8: “He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” Therefore, Jesus must have loved His “neighbor.” And since He Himself defined “neighbor” in universal terms, we know that His love while on earth was universal.

Do we imagine that Jesus as perfect man loves those whom Jesus as God does not love? Would God command us to love in a way that He does not? Would God demand that our love be more far-reaching than His own? And did Christ, having loved all humanity during His earthly sojourn, then revert after His ascension to pure hatred for the non-elect? Such would be unthinkable; “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever” (Heb 13:8) (John MacArthur, The God Who Loves, 102-03).

John’s simple explanation of those Scriptures compelled me to rethink my position on God’s love. Jesus was God. Jesus loved His neighbors—even His non-elect neighbors. Jesus was a friendto sinners. Jesus loved His enemies—all of them. How could I have missed that? What caused me to overlook such clear, vital truths about the character of God? The answer is pride, that hideous sin lurking in all of us, waiting for the opportunity to express itself.

If you wrestle with some of the verses I listed, or struggle to reconcile God’s love with his wrath, I’d recommend you pick up a copy of John’s book The God Who Loves.

Tommy Clayton
Content Developer and Broadcast Editor  http://www.gty.org/Blog/B110706

Open Window

Although a week a stranger she was to me
But now a familiar face of fantastic delight.
From two avenues we came to join
Still yet I blush and dare not linger my stare.
One morning the Sun shining in its glory
She shone in my eyes
To wave me dimineata*.
I dare not linger my stare
Lest her reddish hair wins me away.
For I am abandoned to another's bright afternoon love.
This is an open window I must close.


K.Oni
*dimineata means morning

A Prayer for my soul - Fill this place

Fill this place Lord with your Power, Spirit and Love.
Fill it with the fullness of your presence that we may encounter you in a new way
Or that old way where the weight of your glory overwhelms us.
Fill this place Oh Lord for the sake of your name.
Should not the nations declare the glory of your name?
Should not the people bow before the Sovereign King?
Should you not be jealous for your glory?
Oh God our heavenly Father,
Oh Christ our heavenly Saviour,
Oh Spirit our heavenly Comforter
Come and dwell upon us
Increase your dwelling in us that we may be full of power, full of love and full of your presence
That we may do the mighty works that our Lord did while he walked this earth.


We are thirsty, We are hungry, We are not satisfied until you come.
So we will persevere, we will endure the barren times
For we know a storm is coming when He will drench us with His Spirit
And the Sons of God will appear with Power.
Then it shall be fulfilled 'The whole earth is full of His glory'.


K.Oni

Staying awake this summer

Last year for the summer holidays, I set up a facebook group called Staying awake this summer. The aim of the group was to help us maintain a healthy reading of the bible because many of us will be going back home away from the Christian union and the church. Therefore it is easy to sleep through the summer period and backslide in your Christian walk. To help us from this danger I set up the group and we read all of Paul's letters and this year I have done the same thing but we will be reading through the gospels beginning at Matthew. We have started already and I am impressed with the comments that people have made on the chapters they have read and it has been a great encouragement to me. I will be posting people's comment on the chapters taking directly from Facebook. We read two chapters a day but the individual can dictate their own pace. If you would like to join us here is the Link, it would be a pleasure to have you involve. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_239817449364674&ap=1

People's comments on the first two chapters of Matthew:

Rebekah: Chapter 1 and 2 remind me about the great gift God sent us, His son Jesus! And about the amazing ways God talks to us and how faithful He is to us! I love the fact that I am reminded that the star led the people to Jesus, and recently I have decided to get myself an object that will be my reminder that God is good, and is always with me, so I can try and put all my requests etc to Him...and this object is a star, What a generous God!

Richard: The thing that struck me most from these chapters is how God is responsible fro basically everything that happens. The only person acting independently is Herod. It's really encouraging to know how much God takes the initiative in every part of our lives.

Rory: I see SIGNS as the theme of the first two chapters. You have a 400 year gap of oppression between Malachi and JESUS' birth Hallelujah HE CAME THEN, for us unworthy Gentiles so that we could be saved! His coming was prophetically spoken about for hundreds and hundreds of years, and more particularly since the fall of men in the garden. All these PERFECT sacrifices the Jews had to make. . no longer the great sacrifice was born, the LAMB OF GOD :) :) :)

You see God uses signs all the time, we too stubborn to notice; The Star(Matt 2:2, 2:7, 2:9-11), which also can be related in Psalm 48:14, "He will be our guide forever." He visits Joseph 3 times if I recall in dreams, and Archelaus (Herod's Son). We don't take dreams seriously that all are from God trying to give us a sign or message. God always speaks to us in the prophetic. Matthew 1:22-23, Matthew 2:5-6, Matthew 2:15, Matthew 2:17-18, Matthew 2:23.

He spoke to the Magi/Wise men in a dream, even saving them because they came to worship Jesus :) The father loves that :) He sings over us (Zephaniah 3:17). God tells us things through natural disasters too, the reason being to shake us up and bring us to Him. It was really cool how the Magi got overwhelmed with joy when the star stopped! ONLY God the Father can grant us true JOY, not happiness which is of the world and does not satisfy! I can't imagine what joy the overcame them for seeing the Messiah!

Interesting how they gave Jesus gifts too; gold, frankincence, and myrrh. The only gift we can truly give to Jesus is our SIN! We can do do do, try try try, work work work. But if we give Jesus our filthy record of sin, in exchange shockingly we get eternal life with him :O AWESOME.

Once again GOD is sovereign over EVERYTHING. He shows He is in complete control due to the protection from the enemy working in Herod. I think its a message for todays church. Be like Joseph and the Magi! Don't do it yours/man's/the world's way do it God's way! Because sometimes we are wrong with out God's voice, and correcting is a good thing. He shall truly protect us from the darkness :)

Sorry I wrote an essay I just LOVE this stuff! :) Leonard Ravenhill once said, "What are you going to do when you get to eternity, if you can't stick in an hour with God down here? In God's name, what are you going to do in a million years in God's presence? Expect some reports from earth about football or something?" lol LEDGE

Charnelle: I can really see how God is completely in control. Throughout these chapters, setbacks came (in the form of Herod etc) but through it all, God was completely in control and all the things that were foretold were fulfilled. These chapters really made me think about our lives and the promises that God has made about them. Yes, setbacks may come but ultimately, God is fully in control of our lives and knows exactly what he wants for us and NOTHING is going to stand in the way of what God wants for us :) These chapters also made me think about what incredible faith Mary and Joseph must have had through all of this and how wonderful it is to have faith in our Lord! It's amazing how i've heard the story of the birth of Jesus so many times yet sitting down and reading it today, God has revealed to me so many amazing things - our Lord is incredible and Jesus Christ was and is truly an amazing gift :D

Will: What particularly stood out for me reading it this time has been seeing God's amazing faithfulness! All that he says is fulfilled, even in that passage most of what happend has been told through prophets, by God, years before. It also gives me a massive encouragement of God's ultimate faithfulness shown on the cross, with only the start of the story it shouldn't be a surprise even (as it has already been written) though it is incredible! Isaiah 7:14 'Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.' GOD IS WITH US!! Look to God today guys! It is only by what Jesus has done on the cross that God is with us personally! How great is our God!

Ken: From the first two Chapters I learnt that Jesus was divine, that he will save his people from their sins, He was born King, he is a shepherd, He is with us and predicted in the old testament.

Also another interesting thing is that Jesus was to be called Emmanuel (God with us) and if you fast forward to the great commission Jesus promises to maintain his presence with his disciples when he said that I am with you always. So He is still with us today. Jesus is still Emanuel.
another point of interest is the genealogy. Notice it mentions five women. this is different from the norm and the woman mentioned were of mixed lifestyles. Tamar dressed as a harlot, Rahab was a Harlot, Bathsheba slept with David whilst married, Ruth was a Moabite (a non-jew) and Mary was thought to have committed adultery but we know that she was pure. This inclusion is a departure from the ordinary and Jesus in His ministry departs from the ordinary by welcoming outsiders into his kingdom. 
Also the wise men worshipped Jesus I think pointing to his divinity.

K.Oni

Miscellanies 9 - To see your face and die

My heart is ever pressing on to know of that infinite satisfaction of Yahweh. To taste in full all of the impressions and dimensions of the love which abounds in unequal measure in the Godhead. I am prone to wonder, to dream daily of that day when the incorruptible will swallow up the corruptible. When this feeble flesh will be utterly resilient to all the temptation of the devil and hell. I long as a father for his lost son to be found in the drowning sea of Yahweh's Love. Here I am unsatisfied because I see but dimly. Yahweh, a masterful arouser knows the perfect means to awake my soul, to leave me with the dew of the morning and make me strive for the evening rain. Better it is oh infinitely better it is for me to spend a day in His presence than for me to enjoy all of the pleasing pleasures of this earth for all eternity. My heart is entirely abandoned to your face, let me see it and gladly will I die, yes to see your face and die - to see your face and die.


K.Oni