Miscellanies 20 - Whatever he spoke came to pass

Here in genesis 1 we see that whatever God spoke was whatever came to pass. Who else demonstrated this divine attribute? Jesus Christ - for he spoke and it came to pass. Whenever he decreed a thing even  the thing itself however unwilling it may be in and of itself cannot resist his decree but finds itself to obey and come forth. God spoke this whole creation into being and He can also speak it out of existence. You see my friend, God only needs to speak and whatever he decrees will come to pass. Here is God’s eternal sovereignty over all things which exist. If the eternal has spoken into existence the finite then how silly it is that the finite should think that it can hinder any decree of God? It is impossible and so we see with Christ when He raised Lazarus from the dead. Such authority and power as was displayed without measure in the Son of God at times I must say with great caution is to be found with us but only in the name and authority of Jesus Christ. Peter and John healed the beggar in the name of Christ and in his authority for all authority has been given to Christ. We do not have that divine prerogative in and of ourselves to decree a thing into existence. Some in their misreading of scripture have endeavoured to lay hold of this claim but their interpretations are misguided. All of our authority are derived from Jesus Christ our saviour.

K.Oni

Devotion weekend away

This weekend was the youth weekend away at my church and two of us doing a foundations year at the church went along. Our primary role was to be helpers in the kitchen and on Sunday afternoon we were responsible for lunch. A big responsibility indeed and we did a very reasonable job of which I am well pleased.

It was a pleasure to meet many young people and to have a chance to be friends with them. I hope they enjoyed my company as much as I enjoyed theirs.

Matt was the weekend speaker and spoke on choices. I heard two of the talks and overall very relevant to the kids and adults. Freedom of the will by Jonathan Edwards came to my mind and the whole issue of our inclinations and dispositions and being dead in sin.The kids responded well as Matt used his own life as an example of choices he made and pressed it into the young people that choices matter. Jesus is the best choice of all.

On the Saturday evening we all gathered around a big fire outside where the sparks from the flames were flying heavenwards. Some were standing while others were sitting each enjoying a hot-dog and drinking hot chocolate. In this calmness and togetherness I gathered a few young people and helpers if we could put together a poem and in gladness they met my wishes. This is what we wrote:

                              Fire Fire
                        Oh So Bright
                In the darkness of the night
                    I see your Sparks 
                       Flying up high
                       Up into the 
                       Starry night Sky

Another one:

                                               When the fire simmers down
                                           Smoke will Start to join the clouds
                                           Then the moon and sun will dance
                                       Because Devo is under a heavy trance!

Another one:

Ken is like a fire in my heart
Laura is like a moon shining bright
Emma is the Sunshine that makes us all Smile
And Beth's like a Butterfly that brings new Life


The weekend away was fantastic and I pray that these young kids will continue to hold on to Jesus no matter how good or how difficult it gets for them. For some it may be a rocky path of sin and for others a smooth path of great achievements. Only let them hold on to Christ their rock.

K.Oni

Psalm 15 - An exposition

This Psalm is a psalm of David which naturally implies that the questions asked in the first verse is from David's curiosity. The question asked is directed towards the LORD of which David hereafter seeks to answer himself under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Psa 15:1  A Psalm of David. O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?

Here is a serious question concerning the character of those who may enter the holy hill of the LORD. Who is worthy to stand and dwell in his presence and maintain their stand? David is asking, LORD, let me know who shall go to heaven.  For God is holy and it stands that not everyone will be able to sojourn in His tent or dwell on His holy hill because they lack His holiness; as the writer to the Hebrews says 'without holiness no one will see God'. This question is not for the faint hearted but for those who are prepared to ascend up the hill and are ready to throw off every sin which entangles them. They are in a moment as soon as they find that wretched sin which is not of a godly character willing and determined to cast it away. Like Moses they will reject the passing pleasures of Egypt in order to march towards that heavenly city where righteousness reigns. They will forsake families and friends, fortunes and comfort to ascend the holy hill and finish their pilgrimage so that they may be worthy citizens of Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and being accompanied by innumerable hosts of angels.

Who then is worthy to dwell in God's holly hill and sojourn in his tabernacle?

David in the following verses gives us the characteristics of those who may dwell on God's holy hill and sojourn in his tent. Psa 15:2  He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart.

What man can say in his heart that they have walked blamelessly in the sight of their God and always speak truth in their heart? David who penned this psalm cannot say this true of himself for he would remember the sins of his youth and the grievous sins of his old age when he committed that treacherous crime of murder. David is then by his own act omitted from dwelling with God and cannot go to heaven because he has not walked blamelessly. 

We also read of Job, that righteous man whom the devil inflicted and tormented that after the LORD had spoken to him he said this about himself "I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Job himself saw it necessary to repent thus he has not walked blamelessly in the sense of never being guilty of sin.

Who is it then who has ever walked blamelessly, always doing what is right and always speaking truth in his heart? All have fallen short of God's perfect standard and no man dare say he is without sin. Jesus posed the question to the religious leaders of his day' 'let him who is without sin cast the first stone?' None could throw a stone but each walked away. Like them so will you; you will walk away to the place where sin is punished.

But we see Jesus Christ the man of sorrows is the only one fit to meet this high criteria. He is the only sinless man in all of history and always speaks truth in his heart. My friend you have no reason to sink in despair because you are not fit for heaven by your own works. You have no reason to walk yet into hell where sin is punished but there is another place where it has been punished; on the cross, dear sinner, Christ has died for you and in as much as you will accept him, you too have been crucified with him. He has nailed to his tree all the written records which were eternally against you and paid off all your debts. A line has gone through the invoice which reads PAID. Jesus has obtained a place for you by giving you his righteousness, he has walked the blameless life for you and you are now to imitate him.

My friend you are now instructed to walk blamelessly in his sight and you need have no fear; for this is his task also for he has promised to finish your sanctification. You may be of good character and do what is right and speak the truth to your neighbor. What better truth to declare that God has so loved you and gave his Son for you. What better truth to have in your heart than to let Christ dwell richly in it. You are now to have a godly disposition like the saints of old who had such a light and sunshine around them. We read of that apostle who was always rejoicing and you are to be the same. Oh my dear sinner, now justified, walk blamelessly in the sight of your God.

Psalm 15:3 speaks of the negative qualities one must avoid. Psa 15:3  who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend. We are called to be a good Samaritan to everyone. To every race and kind we are to love, to show such grace and care for our fellow creatures that it is not found in us to slander any man nor do any evil to our neighbors. We are to be a forgiven people; forgiving others just as Our God has forgiven us. Let us have no reproach, no bitterness against the worst of our enemies but with great kindness go the extra mile for them in our goodness towards them. Let them see that we are a redeemed people who have heaven in our hearts and care not for the silly desires of the flesh which are contrary to the Spirit.

Psa 15:4  in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change.

As well as being a good Samaritan to all men we are to be wise as serpents. Not keeping company with those who are of a vile nature. This I mean to be not associating ourselves with their conducts and to not praise them in their wickedness. We are to avoid such people whose deeds are of the same kind of the devil. This does not mean that we do not come alongside them to be a friend or a helper in their misery; we are to be the first in their most terrible conditions but quick to flee from their deeds. If any one of them should be hungry we are the first to fly to their aid bringing abundance where others who possess not the same spirit as we may wonder why we help with such great love such vile persons who are the excrements of society. We shall tell them that once we were like excrement in the sight of our God but He loved us and gave His Son for us; so likewise we give our lives for those who persecute us and hate us. We give our lives for all of humanity so that they may know something of that message of that heavenly man who is calling them to repent, to forsake their ways and join him in his feast.

We honour the LORD and love those who honour the LORD with great excitements because they have found a good thing for their souls. They have such honourable dispositions so that if they should swear to their neighbour that they would sell to them their possessions for such a price that afterwards they will keep their promise and not change the price for gain.

Psa 15:5  who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. The old testament gives us situations where the LORD has commanded interest not to be taken.

 Exodus 22:25 "If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.  Also leviticus 25:35-37  "If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you.

Lev 25:36  Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you.

Lev 25:37  You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.

A wise man will heed to the word of the LORD and any who desire heaven will listen to him who speaks truth from heaven.

Jesus has done all these things and was never moved so my friend you too shall never be moved. Whilst you still remain upon these shores you are to live with these commands in mind as presented in this psalm of the godly man who may dwell on God's holy hill and sojourn in his tent. If you do this you have done well and men will find no reason to throw stones at your conduct.

K.Oni

God is not boring

Recently I spoke at Northwestern College as part of their year-long 100^th anniversary celebration. The title of the message was "The Supremacy of God in the Life of the Mind." One capability of the mind that I focused on was the imagination. It applies to everybody who has a mind. Here's what I said:

One of the great duties of the Christian mind is imagination. It is not the only thing the mind does. The mind observes. The mind analyzes and organizes. The mind memorizes. But imagination is different. It does not observe or analyze what's there; it imagines what is not seen but might be there and might explain what is there (as in the case of most scientific discoveries). Or it imagines a new way of saying what is there that no one has said before (as in the case of creative writing and music and art).

I say that imagination is a Christian duty for two reasons. One is that you can't apply Jesus' golden rule without it. He said, "Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them" (Matthew 7:12). We must imagine ourselves in their place and imagine what we would like done to us. Compassionate, sympathetic, helpful love hangs much on the imagination of the lover.

The other reason I say that imagination is a Christian duty is that when a person speaks or writes or sings or paints about breathtaking truth in a boring way, it is probably a sin. The supremacy of God in the life of the mind is not honored when God and his amazing world are observed truly, analyzed duly, and communicated boringly. Imagination is the key to killing boredom. We must imagine ways to say truth for what it really is. And it is not boring. God's world - all of it - rings with wonders. The imagination calls up new words, new images, new analogies, new metaphors, new illustrations, new connections to say old, glorious truth. Imagination is the faculty of the mind that God has given us to make the communication of his beauty beautiful.

Imagination may be the hardest work of the human mind. And perhaps the most God-like. It is the closest we get to creation out of nothing. When we speak of beautiful truth, we must think of a pattern of words, perhaps a poem. We must conceive something that has never existed before and does not now exist in any human mind. We must think of an analogy or metaphor or illustration which has no existence. The imagination must exert itself to see it in our mind, when it is not there. We must create word combinations and music that have never existed before. All of this we do, because we are like God and because he is infinitely worthy of ever-new words and songs.

A college - or a church - committed to the supremacy of God in the life of the mind will cultivate many fertile, and a few great, imaginations. And O how the world needs God-besotted minds that can say the great things of God and sing the great things of God and play the great things of God in ways that have never been said or sung or played before.

Imagination is like a muscle. It grows stronger when you flex it. And you must flex it. It does not usually put itself into action. It awaits the will. Imagination is also contagious. When you are around someone (alive or dead) who uses it a lot, you tend to catch it. So I suggest that you hang out with some people (mainly dead poets) who are full of imagination, and that you exert yourself to think up a new way to say an old truth. God is worthy. "Oh sing to the LORD a new song" - or picture, or poem, or figure of speech.

John Piper

 Website: www.desiringGod.org

A prayer for my soul

I come before you Lord, after a long time away
I come to seek your presence.
Help me now to remain in you
Steadily nourishing upon your love 
Steadily gazing upon the brightness of your face 
Feeding whole heartedly upon the comfort of your words.
You have known my struggles and my sorrow
You have known my fight.
Humble me once again, humble me my Lord.
Christ, I have come to see is my lasting treasure 
All other treasures here on earth are sand
But Christ is better than Gold, He never perishes
Nor does He ever lack; Help me feed upon my bread
Help me drink the cup of my wine
That I may live with Joy and dance in your courts
That I may love my brethrens and arbour sin
That I may count your word a delight and pray unceasingly
That I may put to death my members here that Christ may be my Life.


K.Oni

Miscellanies 19 - of that sweetness

Oh I have something of that sweetness again this morning, that sunlight which alights everything in its path. I cannot describe it nor can I contain it; its bubbling inside and futile to suppress. It is as a fountain which cannot be repressed, a bird that cannot be caged but must fly, it must fly for all to see. 

K.Oni

More short poems

                            I know you think ill of me 
                       My little acts does make thee sick
                            But I know my every thrust
                   Is all designed for you to loathe me more


Where to, Where we go?
The bridge to see a wayward fish.
She swims I hear on Sunday streams 
To worship the God who did send His Son.


                                                  I have heard of thee             
                                                      But Now I see.
                                                  Oh I see. Oh I see!
                                                And glad I did believe.


K.Oni