Miscellanies 70: Death, an unwelcomed foe

Death that unwelcomed foe of life is one that we must all meet. However willing or unwilling we must meet him. He is the enemy of life, the bringer of all things sour. I will have people not mourn for me when I greet him but o how I weep for others who have entered into his voyage. I weep especially for dear friends who have experienced a bitter loss of a dear family member or of them whom they loved with all of their souls. I treasure their tears in those hours and unite in their pain. But as for me, do not mourn for I am going to a better place. People die every day. It is a basic fact. It is part of human existence. Some die young, some die old and some died never lived at all. The greatest misery and blues are of those who died without a saviour. Should I be able to cry for all eternity, I would cry each day for their souls. That pollution that had deprived humanity of heaven, namely sin shall be forever united to their nature. They would know nothing of being united with God in paradise.  And if on a luminous day in eternity, God should gather all of his children and declare that all angels and men should be released from their unforgiving sentence, then I shall rejoice and be glad to welcome such sinners forgiven. I will not be as the first son in the prodigal story but as the angels in heaven when they heard of my salvation. It shall be good news exceedingly. But in all my readings of scripture I do not see such a day as this in eternity, nevertheless God is all the more good and glorious in His infinite counsel. I know I shall have no tears in heaven, no sorrow nor pain. I wish as the apostle that I could be cursed for another, but such is the unaffected steel of divine election by human will. God’s purposes and counsel will stand, and I rejoice in his love which has determined all things.

K.Oni

A Happy week

How blessed is the state of my heart this week that I feel inside it a continual peace and joy. It is firm and honeyed, occupied with that sunlight that emanates from the glorious thrones in heaven. I have no earthly reason to live in such a bliss, consuming nothing that is to my advantage, namely, no prestige, wisdom, power, money, fancy, and so on. I am but weak, failing man, hardly owning anything to call my own, yet I am the happiest of all the green flowers. I may not look it at times but truly in my soul is a heaven upon earth. The cause for this bliss is really owed to this, namely my early rising to pray focusing on the works and power of the Holy Spirit. At six my alarm awakens me and in duty, although of a willingness of heart I pray on my bed because I feel too cold to ascend, but in my heart I pray. As I pray I am left with an abiding presence of sweetness and joy. God does rise in my soul being glad that He has made my heart his temple. I am humbled, for as God saturates my heart with his holy incense, all of my sins, those that arise from the remaining flesh disappears. I am left with holiness, desiring only the bed of Christ. Such is the sweetness that Christ has tipped in my heart that all things have become to me a luxury, thanking God always for all that He is for me and being content in my position. It is an awesome thing for one to have their heart in Christ and it is doubly awesome for Christ to have his heart in theirs. I cannot wait until that glorious day when finally I shall meet my Christ face to face and have the redemption of my body.

K.Oni

Poor Jesus

We are told in the scriptures that Jesus Christ came from heaven. And not from any part of heaven but from the richest place in heaven, namely from the very presence of His Almighty Father at whose right hand there are pleasures forever more. Jesus Christ was also God to whom belongs all things and for whom all things were created. To Him belong the infinite riches of eternity but yet when he became man, that is, in his incarnation he came to our surprise as a lowly obscure inhabitant. 

 Jesus Christ did not come in the manner of a Sovereign or as that of a child of a multi-billionaire attended with the finest clothes and personage, nay, He came humbly and poor. The place of his birth is to be pitied, surrounded by dumb animals and cobwebs for curtains. He was to live with poor parents as they could only offer a pair of turtledoves because the price of a lamb was beyond their income. Christ in his manhood demonstrated his own poverty that when it was required of him to pay his taxes, he had to work a miracle. Christ in his heavenly kingdom had infinite riches to daily feed multitudes but whilst here on earth he could only feed five thousand men through a wonder. Such was the poverty of Christ that at his death he commissioned his beloved disciple to take care of his broken-hearted mother for he had nothing to leave her. No home, no savings, but precious teachings which could not be sold for a price.

O poor Christ! but for him we are not to mourn. We are to mourn our own condition for loving money and wealth. Look how Christ descended to be found among the lowly, consider his humility. Are we ready to clothe ourselves with such humility? Remember that Christ became poor to make us rich, are you willing to be poor to make the poor rich? If we are blessed with wealth, let us consider it as a perishing commodity to be spent for the kingdom. And if we are poor, let us not mourn our portion but rejoice that our lives is more than possessions. K.Oni 

Miscellanies 69: The world always criticizes the way God works

The world always criticizes the way God works. I think most of us would say to God if given the opportunity, that, I think God maybe you should do it this way. The ultimate criticism most people have, perhaps, is of the cross of Christ. Why would you choose to save people this way? what arrogance! one with a heart of humility would repeat after the apostle Paul "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?"
"Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen."

K.Oni

Prayer for my soul - Take my five loaves of bread

Lord Jesus, please take my five loaves of bread and use it to feed this generation, because I’m worried about their spiritual state. They are all buried in the graveyard and need calling out like Lazarus. And besides I am not perfect, I’m hating the sins that I see on my bed side. I long to change, but the past keep telling me it will all be the same. Help me belief, extinguishing all my unbelief because I really want to eat the feast you have prepared for me. Lord Jesus please take my five loaves of bread and use it to feed this generation.

K.Oni

Miscellanies 68: Two gardens in the bible

My friends, there are two gardens in the bible, namely the garden of Eden and the garden of gethsemane. The first garden made redemption necessary and the second garden made redemption possible; even more, Christ's decisive decision in that thorny garden re-purchased for us and more all that Adam had thrown away in his leisure. Therefore my friends, live today in Jesus and not in Adam, being sure that all the kingdom promise is yours in Christ Jesus.  

K.Oni

 

Miscellanies 67: Her sweet love

There was no other place that she would rather be than right here in my arms, and in the comfort of my love. She says with a passionate quiet zeal, that I awaken a fire in her soul that she cannot contain. All the time it is uncontrollable, she wants more. I asked her if this was not lust, and in a flurry of love she declined, and maintained that it was too pure to be lust but it is sweet love. My beloved also mentioned that at my appearance, something in her always comes alive. My love, if you have these passions for me then how much greater do you have them for Jesus? Her eyes fell with embarrassment, and in all my masculine tenderness, I stroke her hair, staring lusciously into her dovely eyes, that her love for Christ must exceed mine, or else I have failed in my ministry towards her.

 

K.Oni