Baby Steps

Have you ever asked yourself what a baby thinks as they take their first steps...learning to walk...taking one, two steps, then falling down...looking up and seeing how easy the grown ups make it look. Have you ever thought to yourself... I used to be like that...once upon a time I too was learning to walk... I too, took two steps then fell down...but here I am today...walking...how easy it seems now...but how hard it was then...learning to balance myself, carry my weight...

Recently I was asked to preach at church..and the main theme was on the life of Abraham. As I prepared, I was surprised at what I was learning...you see, for the Christian, Abraham is esteemed very highly...he is after all..the father of faith...

I was struck by the baby steps he took early on is his walk with God... Usually when we read the story of his call in Genesis 12...we forget what is written about him in the preceding chapter...which is highlighted by Stephen in Acts 7... Abraham obeyed God by faith and it was credited to him as righteousness...i.e. he was considered to have met all of God's requirements..yet he did not achieve this at once...

Abraham was called to leave his country (Ur of the Chaldeans), his relatives (his brother, cousins, Sarah's relations), his father's house (Terah and Lot his nephew)...he did the first quite easily...was only able to break off from his father after Terah died...and it took disagreements between Lot's servants and his for him to break off from his relatives...but he took the initial step and progressed through the others.

Today we see Abraham as the guy who left everything and ventured into the unknown in obedience to God...but that didn't happen in a day...

The same can be said of all the great men and women of the Bible, they each had their struggles, all of them had to take baby steps, learn to walk with God. They did not just arrive, they took steps...however small and no matter how many times they fell/failed, they pushed on...

Will you take after their example? Take baby steps, learn to walk...and not be discouraged by any "failure"...and not be intimidated by how easy others make it seem...but take the first steps along your journey. When you fall...get up...for as scripture says "will a man fall and not get up?"...trust not in ur own ability...but in Him who is able to establish you, He who will keep you from stumbling and present you perfect on the day of His coming...take the first steps...

Perfect Information

...swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath...

In Economics 101, you are taught that for you to have a perfect economy, one where free market forces operate and you have perfect competition, a key underlying assumption is the availability of perfect information. A perfect economy is where limited resources are allocated efficiently and optimally to meet the needs that exist in the economy. This will occur if all economic agents are rational and have perfect information enabling them to create demand for the best products which the market will now have to supply, resulting in optimal resource allocation.

Unfortunately we know that this is not true, economic agents are not always rational and they don't have perfect information (with some thanks to the marketing profession), as a result their decisions are not well informed and markets to allocate resources efficiently.

I thought about this in light of human relationships and the judgements we make about people or situations. I find that we are inclined to make decisions based on limited information and this can have adverse effects on us and those we relate with. We are quick to arrive at conclusions and make judgements based on this information, which most times we have not taken the time to confirm.

I was discussing with colleagues at work recently about how people will point to our sector and say we are not doing much. In fact some have questioned our competence and whether we are in tune with worldwide trends and thinking progressively. It is interesting that after discussing the issues with them and providing them with additional information, they discover that their conclusion was arrived at on the wrong premise. They gain an insight into the sector and are able to appreciate the progress that has been made.

This is just to point out that before you arrive at a conclusion, it is wise to consider whether you have gathered adequate information to merit that conclusion. This is especially important in the area of relationships with other people. You will generally get this information if you listen and ask the right questions, before you arrive at a conclusion.

This is the reason why we are exhorted to be "swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (James 1:19) and to hear a matter before answering (Proverbs 18:13). It is interesting that James links the listening to speech and wrath or anger. If we don't have the right information, we will say words that are inappropriate and perhaps become angry when we really shouldn't be. Proverbs 18:13 says if you answer a matter before hearing it fully, it is folly to you, in other words, it is wise. Before you come to a conclusion about a person or situation, make sure you gather adequate information...you may not have perfect information, but the more information you gather, the more you listen, the clearer picture you will have from which to base your conclusion or decision.

Keep listening...

#MOMENTUM

Momentum... I wont even lie that I remember the definition of the word from my Physics classes in high school... yeah Mr. Muleme would not be proud... still got a good grade at the end of the day though...haha..

Anyway, that is besides the point... you see, I haven't blogged since 12 July, 2012... which makes it 4 months ago... quite long.. does it mean I haven't been thinking or I haven't had thoughts worth putting down. Quick answer... NO... I have been thinking, reading...but yes these have not been put down...

I lost the initial momentum I had in the first few months of starting this blog...and it got me thinking... how many things do we start and end up not completing because we did not maintain the initial momentum we had? Personally, I can point to a whole bunch of things... sadly or unfortunately... funny thing is when you start whatever it is.. there is an excitement and you put in all you've got...but with time, that excitement falls off.. the key to maintaining the momentum is therefore to maintain the excitement

I am not going to give you 10 steps on how to maintain the excitement, that's a post for another day...but I have at least gotten you thinking about it...and it has given me an excuse to blog again... :)..more posts coming up..

Trip Down Memory Lane

First a disclaimer... I am not an expert, these here are just my thoughts and my observations...

I have not written anything pertaining to the politics or economic issues of my beloved motherland... there was a time I had wanted to do so but decided against it, well I was also advised against it. Anyway.. on this post I will just be sharing some of my observations.

In my short lifetime, I have seen all 4 presidents of Malawi. I don't have many memories for the first president, except that I was one of many kids who admired his motorcade and would stand by the road outside our nursery school waving flags each time he was in town and was passing by. For me, and for many of my friends at the time, it was fun. For those who might not know who I am talking about (and I doubt there are many of those), our first president was Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda.

Anyway, he is credited to have set the country on a good development path through his DEVPOL's (Development Policy). However, the Structural Adjustment Programmes seem to have hampered much of the progress that was supposed to have been made. This I believe is an argument used by many African countries that implemented these programmes. In general though many today look back to the Kamuzu days and point to the progress that was made at the time. And to a certain extent there is much we are to thank him for, because he pretty much laid the foundations for our economy.

But, because of he was a dictator and he led a one party state, the early 1990's saw a move for multiparty democracy. I remember the euphoria and excitement at the time, although I did not understand much of it. I remember, my mum and aunt coming home, after voting in the referendum, showing me their red fingers that had been dipped in ink and proclaiming that their finger had killed the black cock which is the symbol of Malawi Congress Party, Banda's party. The first general elections saw Bakili Muluzi of United Democratic Front come to power as the country's second president. He was the darling of the nation in his first 5 year term, but when power began to get to his head his popularity began to decline.

During his time in power, the economy went through a lot of changes and he left it in a worse state than he found it. We had a high inflation rate, our kwacha lost its value like never before, domestic debt was very high, corruption was very high, and crime also increased. He had brought democracy and with it came a lot of economic ills.

Then came in our third president, Dr. Bingu Wa Mutharika, who Bakili gave the title of "Economic Engineer". And in his first term he lived up to that title. By his second/third year, Malawi's debt was significantly reduced under the HIPC programme. Inflation rates fell to single digits, and at one time Malawi was the second fastest growing economy in the world with a stable exchange rate and low domestic debt. The Malawi Growth and Development Strategy which was Bingu's brainchild was a success as Malawi achieved growth rates averaging 7.5% in 5 years which was above the targeted 6%. Malawi, for the first time after many years, consistently produced more maize than it needed and the country was food secure.

However, he began to show some dictatorial tendencies especially in his second term. Donors began to withhold funding and the country began to experience some economic problems, mainly due to fuel and forex shortages. The IMF wanted the exchange rate to be liberalized but Bingu did not agree, this led to the IMF programme being suspended and as a result all other donor programmes were also put on hold.

Upon Bingu's death, Malawi had its first female head of state, Joyce Banda. She has clocked 100days in office and has been on a clean up campaign, righting all of Bingu's wrongs. So, the exchange rate has been liberalized, and inflation has soared as a result. Recently, the bank rate was raised, this is the interest rate at which the Central Bank lends to commercial banks, has been raised. This was a rate that was significantly reduced under Bingu's government. What this means is that it is now more expensive to companies borrow, and seeing as Malawi remains a hugely importing country, the cost of importing raw materials for production has also increased. So generally, the cost of doing business has increased.

Generally, it looks like Joyce Banda is taking us back to the Bakili era in terms of her economics without really taking into consideration what Bingu did although the rhetoric might suggest otherwise. It is early days yet, but from what I see, it will not change much. The euphoria of the first month is slowly going away and the rhetoric is beginning to show for what it really is... plain rhetoric.

So for me... in terms of the economics of our new president, we will be taking a trip down memory lane to Bakili's time.

Broken Cisterns

“... my people have committed a double wrong: they have rejected me, the fountain of life-giving water, and they have dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns which cannot even hold water.” Jeremiah 2:13

For the last couple of weeks I have been thinking about how sin cuts a person short of his/her destiny and achieving his/her purpose. A lot of people have settled for less than what they could attain.. all because of certain pleasures they could have foregone... in fact now that I think of it... I had started writing something about it but never got to finish it... maybe I too was cut short haha..

Anyway, yesterday I was waiting for a meeting to start and I decided to spend the time reading an E-book I had gotten sometime back... allow me to withhold the title for now... but one of the chapters starts with the verse I have quoted above... Jeremiah 2:13.. and it hit me... many people have settled for broken cisterns... cisterns that cannot hold water for long... instead of seeking the fountain of living water... a fountain that never dries up..

You see many times, we, like Eve, settle for that which is appealing to the eye as being good and not for that which is everlasting... as Paul says, the seen is temporal, the unseen eternal. And so we end up settling for immediate pleasures instead of being patient and waiting for that which endures. The financial experts will tell you to live within your means and forgo pleasures today so that you can enjoy them in the future after you have saved some money... and the scripture will tell you a similar thing..

The scripture will tell you that, what appears to be fulfilling today, will only last for today, it does not endure... you see this theme all throughout scripture... Jesus talked about laying up riches in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy... in Revelation 3 He tells the church in Laodicea that although it appears rich it is actually "wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked" and He offers a more enduring solution to this... in John 4... He tells the woman at the well that He offers water that will forever satisfy her i.e. she will not thirst again..

Basically, God in His word tells us that what the world offers is fleeting and vain, but what He offers is more enduring.. as reiterated in Isaiah 55:1-3 and Haggai 1:2-11 among other portions of scripture... many have gone for water in broken cisterns... water they labor for but does not endure... this is both the Christian and the non-Christian.

For the Christian... broken cisterns come out of disobedience... when we choose not to go God's way in order to satisfy the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life... and the same reason applies to the non- Christian.. because it all boils down to not following God's word and His instruction... one of my favorite scriptures Psalms 32:8-11 says for those who do not trust God to lead them... sorrow awaits.. Isaiah 48:17-22 also says the same thing... those who follow God's command and obey Him, will never thirst, they do not lack any good thing.. as the Psalmist says... God does not withhold any good things from the righteous for as James says... all good and perfect gifts are from Him...

So will you trust God's word and His leading today... many of us know the sins that have cut us short... fornication, love of money, pride, drunkenness etc these and many other such sins have robbed many a life of its potential... they seem to satisfy initially, but at the end of the day, that satisfaction is lost... only Christ can truly satisfy your soul... trust Him and you will not be disappointed...

Grace and peace.

Behind Every Man is a Woman

Forgive the title... couldn't find one that would capture the purpose of this post... and no I'm not married...yet.. 

This entry is dedicated to my mum... a woman I esteem very highly, not just because she is my mother and has brought me up ( I figure she has done quite a good job really.. if I may say so myself).. but because of her achievements even outside the house... 

Yesterday, one of our local papers featured her in a section they call "Every Woman" (there is probably a proper name for such sections... so educate me).. they are 2 popular papers in Malawi and this is one of them... anyway.. I had seen her working on the questionnaire they had sent but had not looked at her answers... so when I read the article I was amazed.. you can read the aricle here .

Here is my favorite quote from the article "I think until one gets to grip with who they are in Christ, they can hardly call themselves successful; they may have possessions and positions but may not be successful in the true sense of the word because they lack peace of mind which is what we all seek to have." This was in response to the question "Has being successful changed you?"

I find that response to be very interesting and challenging.. because I think a lot of the people we consider to be successful lack this one key element... peace of mind. From the interviews I have read and heard of some people whom the world considers successful, the lack of peace seems to always stand out. "It is lonely at the top" is a phrase many of us have heard so often repeated by these successful people and we perhaps have prepared ourselves for that to happen when we are successful. Yet if one has this peace of mind which Christ offers they will not have that lonely feeling when they are successful.

The other aspect is this... we are only successful if we come to terms with who we are in Christ i.e when we discover our identity and purpose in Christ and begin to live it out. Paul tells us in Ephesians that "we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to perform the good works prepared for us beforehand." 

But I digress from the title of this entry... I have drawn a lot of lessons in life by just watching and learning from my mum. She is an amazing woman and I am truly grateful to God that I was born her child. So, behind this man, is the woman I call my mother...

B U

This is something that I have been thinking about for the last couple of days... ok maybe 2 weeks now if not more. Many of us have heard it said over and over again that we should be ourselves at all times, that is to be original and not a copy of someone else. Phrases like "you are the best at being you", "no one can do you better than you" and many other such phrases are quite common. Yet the advice is lost on us... how many times do we go out trying to be like that famous person..whether movie star, sports star... for the Christian we can add preacher, praise and worship leader and other such people who seem to be successful and have made it in life?

While it is good to have models from whom we can learn, we should also recognize that they are where they are to do because of their unique traits. They would not have made it if they had tried to be like someone else and the same is true for us. If we work at being a carbon copy of someone else, people will look at our lack of originality and not give us respect.

Let me just throw this in as well... those people we try to emulate are what they are today because of the different circumstances of their lives and the environment they find themselves in. Our own circumstances and environment are very different from theirs.. and so the elements that have made them who they are today are different from those around us. It is therefore an attempt that we are going to fail at, in other words, if you are working at becoming a carbon copy of someone else, the probability of you failing is very high... we each have a different set of circumstances, our make up is different and these add to our uniqueness which if we exploit, will give us that edge for success.

All of this is coming from a recent experience I had. A few weeks ago, a person I look up to asked me to lead one of the Bible Study groups at a Youth Conference. Now this person leads a Bible Study that I go to and I am amazed at the things he is able to bring out from the Bible. In a sense he will pick out all that can be picked out of a verse and apply it to life and our experiences.. he thus speaks directly into our lives. Now when he told us this (we were a group of 4), he went through the Bible Study outline with us..and again his ability to expound the scriptures was evident. During this time, I tried to take as much notes as I could so that I would be able to share the same depth of insight into the Bible with the group I would lead. You see, I knew that he would be going around the groups and I did not want to disappoint when he came to our group.

When I went back home, I went through the guide again, carefully reading every scripture and trying to follow his example. As I did this, I realised that the things that were standing out to me were in some ways different from what I thought he would have brought out... so I tried to look at the scriptures from his perspective... what would he have seen from this scripture, how would he link them up? I tried.. then it hit me, that I was unique and he was unique. I was not as old as he was, he had grown up in a country and environment very different from my own, he had been discipled by one of the best Bible Teachers I know... all this made me come to the conclusion that as much as I admired his gift and desired to teach the Bible as he did, I was different.

The notes I took during the time we went through the outline together were only to be pointers, but God wanted me to open up to him and allow him to speak to the group I would have and he required that I use what made me unique to speak to them. 

I changed the angle I was approaching the study. I began to read the Bible as I read it in my own quiet time and God began to bring to light certain things that I could share with the group. I took note of these and added them to the notes I had already taken. I went to the meeting armed with these and we had a good time. To cap it off.. when he was rounding up the study, he used some of the things he had heard being discussed in our group to summarise.

So in everything that you do, BE YOU. Models or mentors are good but bring your own uniqueness in everything that you do, the thing that makes you different from them. The world would be a very boring place if all of us were the same, our uniqueness makes the world better and it also reveals God's creativity. Remember that you were fearfully and wonderfully made they way you are. He has a unique purpose for you and you will only be able to fulfill it if you use those unique traits.

BE YOU

Dare to Do

Here's a quote from a book I'm reading... Wild at Heart by John Eldredge.. Basically urging us to be doers and not just critics... to dare to do rather than fear the what if's...

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly... who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat.

Teddy Roosevelt

Focus and Purpose

When people recognize your potential, they will make demands on your life. How do you choose what you will commit yourself to? Simple answer, your purpose will determine your commitments. In a post on another blog I wrote "Purpose is so powerful that it constrains you to do certain things that are in line with it...  it informs your actions and plans". In other words, your purpose in life will determine the activities that you will be involved in.

From the life of Jesus, we see how purposeful he was. In John 7:1-9 we read of how He didn't go to Jerusalem to participate in a feast because He felt the timing was not right. In that portion, He makes a very profound statement, "My time is not yet present, but your time is always ready..." (John 7:6). While other people will jump at every opportunity that will come their way, a person of purpose will first assess whether this opportunity is in line with their purpose and comes at the right time.

I have been offered many opportunities to serve in the church and there was a time I would spread myself too thinly that I was not efficient in the activities I did. I wanted to help wherever I could and use my gifts for service. From such I experience I have discovered that it is better for one to restrict themselves by submitting under one vision that is in line with their purpose and to faithfully serve under that vision. It is only in this way that one can grow. Today it is easy for me to say no to some of the offers I get because I know what my purpose is and I know where I am to serve. Basically, my purpose now determines what I am to be involved in, that way I am more effective and I can easily measure my progress.

So if you want to be focused in life, first start by discovering your purpose. To do this, you will have to go back to your Creator, seek Him and ask Him to reveal His purpose for creating you. Once you find this out, start working on building yourself up in that area and submit yourself to a vision that is in line with that purpose.

Grace and peace

Why Sit Here Till We Die?

You might have read the story.. the story of 4 lepers who 'won' a great battle for Israel. You remember them?

Israel was under siege and the situation looked bleak, in modern terminology, inflation was high as food prices kept rising, water was hard to come by and people had started taking drastic measures just to survive. If my memory serves me right, people went to the extent of eating their own children. Yes, it does serve me right  for we are told the story of a woman who cried out to the king asking for his help.. she had agreed with a neighbor that they would eat their children and they started with hers but the next day, her neighbor hid the child they were supposed to eat (check 2 Kings 6&7).

So the story goes that the king blamed Elisha the prophet for some reason.. the prophet gave a word saying the following day, food prices would fall drastically (ha! how we wish this was true of our time). Of course you had some people who didn't believe this word. But what I would like to draw to your attention is the attitude some 4 lepers had. These 4 lepers were sitting at the entrance to the city and they said to one another 'why sit here till we die" (2 Kings 7:3). This was their logic, as lepers, they were considered to be outcasts in Jewish society, hence their sitting at the entrance to the city.. there was no food in the city and no one to look after them. If they just sat there, they would die of hunger.. outside the city was the enemy's camp.. if they went out, they would be killed but maybe they might be able to forage some food. Hence, why sit here till we die, when we can go out and perhaps find mercy in the eyes of our enemies and be given food. Rather than complain about their situation, these 4 outcasts, who had every reason to complain, decided to go out and do something.

What am I driving at? If we look at the situation in Malawi right now and to varying degrees this can apply to other countries around the world going through an economic downturn, we can easily get discouraged and start complaining. I for one went that route for some time. I had initially told myself that I wouldn't complain but slowly I found myself joining the crowd and complaining, pointing out all the things I felt were going wrong. In fact at some point I very nearly wrote a blog post aimed at criticizing the leadership, had it not been for the wisdom I received from a friend.

This past week, as I began praying again for the nation, I remembered all the good things that have been spoken concerning our land, all the prophecies that have been made and also just what the word of God says. Paul in Acts 17 says God has determined the times and boundaries of our existence and the psalmist says "The LORD [is] the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant [places]; yea, I have a goodly heritage." (Psalm 16:5,6). This encouraged me, despite all that was/is going on about us, as long as it is God who has determined the times and boundaries of our existence, the boundaries or lines have fallen for us in pleasant places. And for me, this translated, Malawi is a pleasant place, that is the TRUTH for that is what God's word says. Regardless of all that is going on about me, I dwell in a pleasant place. You can add more scriptures that speak the same.. for example, the famous Psalm 23 says the Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want, He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside the still waters... and everything else it says, goodness and mercy follows me all the days of my life, He anoints my head with oil, my cup overflows... notice these are not promises.. this is a declaration of what God has meant to be our portion.

And to cap it off, there is that scripture in Jeremiah 29. Yes the famous verse is verse 11 but before God makes this great declaration, consider verse 7. God tells the Israelites to pray for the city they were in for in its prosperity would be their prosperity, in other words, if the city prospers, so would they. This is regardless of the fact that they were in captivity and they were under leaders who did not fear God and as the stories in Daniel show us, they were living with a people who would do anything to ensure that they did not live by their faith. Yet they were to pray for it, not complain that they were in captivity or that God had forsaken them. In fact, He says, yes you are in captivity, your circumstances are not pleasant... but I know what I am doing, I know the plans I have for you and these plans are not to harm you or destroy you, they are for your benefit, for your prosperity, to give you a great future. Boy, am I encouraged by these verses... when I consider what is going on about me in light of these scriptures, I get excited. 

But there is something I must be doing. I should not be complaining, I should be praying for the prosperity of the land. I should be praying for the purposes of God to be fulfilled.. for His kingdom to come, His will to be done... that is my role. Moreover, I am priest right (1 Peter 2:9) and this means I ought to intercede for the land... if I find fault with the leadership, what am I to do.. pray (1 Timothy 2:1-4) because, the heart of the king is in the Lord's hands and He directs it as He does the water course (Proverbs 21:1)... so why sit here till we die?

In this time, God is not looking for resources, for the case of Malawi, He is not looking to see how He will get the IMF to get their credit facility back on track.. all He is looking for are men and women who will bend on their knees and take responsibility over the things that happen in their land. You see, He has made us into a kingdom of kings and priests.. and Paul in Romans says we are to reign with Christ in this life.. how do we do this, we reign through prayer.. we know the popular 2 Chronicles 7:14... God is looking to you and me to take responsibility over what happens in our land. This might be Malawi or wherever you are reading this from. You are the solution to the challenges facing your land..

During the past weekend I learnt that, in every generation, God always seeks for a people who will establish His will. Decay and apostasy begin to come in when such a people are not available. In every generation, what happens to the next generation is either the result of the success or failure of its predecessor. God has given us a responsibility and we begin to take it in the place of prayer, prayer for the land and the people of the land.

Will you stand up and take your place? Or will you just sit here till you die.

Joy Unspeakable

I have read and heard of so many stories of conversion, but this one quickly ranks among the top of the most interesting if not funniest conversion stories. What I would like to highlight though, is the joy that the conversion brought both to him, his family, the church and the community and also the impact such a conversion had among the membership of the church. It is not enough to just go to church every Sunday, the crucial thing is whether you have had a personal experience of God.

Here is the story of the conversion of the Victorian pastor William Haslam taken from (W. Haslam, From Death Unto Life: Twenty Years of Ministry (Teddington, 2006), 42.)

"So I went up into the pulpit and gave out my text. I took it from the gospel of the day—'What think ye of Christ?' As I went on to explain the passage, I saw that the Pharisees and scribes did not know that Christ was the Son of God, or that He was come to save them. They were looking for a king, the son of David, to reign over them as they were. Something was telling me, all the time, 'You are no better than the Pharisees yourself—you do not believe that He is the Son of God, and that He is come to save you, any more than they did.' I do not remember all I said, but I felt a wonderful light and joy coming into my soul, and I was beginning to see what the Pharisees did not. Whether it was something in my words, or my manner, or my look, I know not; but all of a sudden a local preacher, who happened to be in the congregation, stood up, and putting up his arms, shouted in a Cornish manner, 'The parson is converted! The parson is converted! Hallelujah!' and in another moment his voice was lost in the shouts and praises of three or four hundred of the congregation. Instead of rebuking this extraordinary 'brawling,' as I should have done in a former time, I joined in the outburst of praise, and to make it more orderly, I gave out the Doxology—'Praise God, from whom all blessings flow'—and the people sang it with heart and voice, over and over again. My Churchmen were dismayed, and many of them fled precipitately from the place. Still the voice of praise went on, and was swelled by numbers of passers-by, who came into the church, greatly surprised to hear and see what was going on. When this subsided, I found at least twenty people crying for mercy, whose voices had not been heard in the excitement and noise of thanksgiving. They all professed to find peace and joy in believing. Amongst this number there were three from my own house; and we returned home praising God. The news spread in all directions that 'the parson was converted,' and that by his own sermon, in his own pulpit too.... So clear and vivid was the conviction through which I passed, and so distinct was the light into which the Lord had brought me, that I knew and was sure that He had 'brought me up out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a Rock, and put a new song into my mouth.' He had 'quickened' me, who was before 'dead in trespasses and sins.'... At the end of this great and eventful day of my life—my spiritual birthday, on which I passed from death to life by being 'born from above'—I could scarcely sleep for joy."

No Quarry, No Glory

One of the lessons I learnt early on in my Christian walk is the principle/concept of preparation. For any man or woman that God will use, He will take them through a process where He prepares them for the task He has set for them. Throughout scripture we see examples of how God prepared or trained His vessels. In the Psalms David says, “You teach my hands to war and my fingers to battle”.

David himself, was first a shepherd boy before he became king. As a shepherd he learnt how to stand and fight against the odds. He killed lions and bears, this experience helped him deal with Goliath and this was what introduced him to the whole of Israel. From fighting with Goliath, he became a famous warrior, well known in the nation of Israel such that songs were written of him. These songs got Saul jealous and he began to see David as a threat. As a result, David had to hide from Saul who sought to kill him. During his time in hiding, the Bible says he drew to himself a band on 300 men who were considered useless to society, and he trained these to be warriors named among the best in Israel. These men killed giants like David, one is known to have chased a lion to cave and killed it, others went behind enemy lines just to bring water to David. 

All of this was a time for preparation and testing for David. You see, although Samuel anointed him king over Israel when he was quite young, the fulfillment of this waited for the death of Samuel and several years in the wilderness for David, during which time he learnt not only to lead men into battle and rule over them, but he also developed a relationship with God. During this time he wrote many of the Psalms that we read today, Psalms that reveal the nature of relationship that David had with God. His time away from the throne also reveals the respect he had for God’s anointing and his understanding of loyalty to leadership.

Another example is Moses, who spent 40 years as a shepherd, away from the comforts of the Pharaoh’s palace in Egypt where he was brought up. It was during this time that he was made Israel’s deliverer. You will recall that the key question he was asked when he tried to stop an Israelite who was beating his countryman was “who has made you leader over us?” He did not have an answer for this, until God sent him back after calling out to him from the burning bush. In that 40 years he learnt how to survive in the wilderness, he learnt patience for he dealt with sheep. When God called the Israelites His sheep, Moses had an understanding of what this meant. Also only as a shepherd was he able to better relate with his people. Remember he grew up in the palace, but the Israelites as described by Joseph, were shepherds by profession. And so he was able to relate with them.

We can point to so many others. Jesus for example who was obedient and grew in wisdom and favor with God and men in the 18 years we hear nothing of Him (the last record of Jesus as a child is the story we hear of Him being left at the temple, possibly at the age of 12, we next hear of His baptism at the age of 30). We also have Paul who went away to Arabia for 3 years where he was taught the gospel by God Himself. We have so many examples.

In our own times, we know of great men and women of God, who had to go through the process of preparation before they come out to the public. Gbile Akanni for example writes that when he got the call to preach and teach, God told him that he was on probation but that he would still have to continue with the teaching of the word. 10 years after being told this, is when God told him that he had graduated. Meanwhile, in those 10 years, he had continued preaching, thinking along the line that his probation was over, yet God waited 10 years. We can share similar stories of many of our favorite preachers who did not just arrive on the scene without God taking time to prepare them.

It is the same with you and me today. Do not despise the time of your preparation, do not rush to just fulfill what you feel is your calling without first waiting on God to finish His work in you.

You see, in the Old Testament we are told the story of how Solomon built the first temple. In the account, we are told that there was no sound of a hammer at the construction site because all the stones had been chiseled and properly shaped at the quarry site. There was no noise at the construction site.

Peter says we are living stones being built up into a holy temple and I believe God does not want noise at the construction site. He wants us to be properly chiseled and the quarry site so that He just fits us into our place at the construction site which is the area of our ministry. For the same Peter says we are a royal priesthood which means our service/ministry is to God and Paul says the fivefold ministry is there to equip us for service to God. And so God wants to smooth out our rough edges before we enter public ministry, He does not want the world to hear the noise of His chiseling at the construction site. Allow Him therefore to prepare you. Jesus took 3 years to prepare the apostles, grant Him time to work on you. Do not rush, do not be impatient, wait on Him, allow Him to make you as He made Moses. It might take 3 years, maybe less, or it may take 10 years and maybe more. Entrust yourself to His hands, after all, He is the potter you are the clay.

 

Know this, if you do not spend time at the quarry site, there is no glory at the construction site.

Calling On All Men

Last night we had a cell meeting at home welcoming us to the new are we have just moved to. It seems they do things a little differently than we did in our previous cell and it looks like it will be interesting. Anyway, I will not dive into the details of the differences as that is not the subject of my thoughts today. Rather they concern a subject that is very important for our times but which I am a bit apprehensive to dive into because of my inexperience and also because I myself am in the process of learning more about it. The subject is Biblical mandhood. A friend has been asking me to jot down my thoughts on this and I have been very reluctant, but last night’s proceedings have ignited something.

At the cell meeting, we did a Bible Study on 1 Peter 3:1-7. Immediately I turned the scripture I could almost guess where the discussion would be headed. That portion of scripture gives instructions to women on how they are to relate with their husbands and in the last verse, verse 7, it deals with how men should treat/relate with their wives. Discussions on such scriptures are almost 90% of the time focused telling women what their place is and what they ought to do in the family. Very rarely will men be addressed.

Yet from last night, it was interesting to note that although 6 of the 7 verses dealt with women, it was the men who had a punishment for not abiding by the scriptures. The women are told to submit and to have godly character, and there is no repercussion to their disobedience to the exhortation, yet for the men we are told that if they did not abide by the scriptures, then their prayers would not be heard. 

Now, instead of men taking time to seriously consider this, most will concentrate on the larger portion, yet the one that addresses them has got very serious consequences. I always find that interesting. Or indeed a study on Ephesians 5:21-32, men will concentrate on the portion that says women must submit and forget the huge responsibility that Paul gives them.

As a man or rather I should say as a male myself, I am often challenged by these scriptures. I am currently reading 2 books, “The Dignity of Manhood” by GbileAkanni and “Maximised Manhood” by Dr. Edwin Louis Cole. Both authors agree that being a male is a matter of birth, one has no say in this, but being a man is a matter of choice and it is something one must commit themselves to. This is because God has given males a very huge responsibility that only men can take up. Hopefully in the near future I will write a study on the scriptures concerning men, but today let me just point out a few things and these were also spoken at the Bible study. Mind you, I am not discrediting the role of women but I just want to highlight a few things.

A careful look at the lives of some of the most successful women will reveal that their father’s played a significant role in putting them on that path for success. For those in Africa, it was their fathers who encouraged to proceed with school and not be given away in marriage or take part in some of the cultural practices like coming of age ceremonies that are known to have cut short many girls’ progress in life.

Fathers also determine the type of man their daughters will marry. It seems like men who abuse their wives are setting up their daughters to suffer the same abuse in marriage[1]. Studies have shown that for the girl child her greatest and most effective cheerleader is her father or a father figure in her life. This goes against the traditional thinking that the girl child belongs to the mother while the boys are for the father.

These are just studies done by people reflecting the importance of having men take their rightful place in society beginning first in the family. Men have been said to be the providers for the family, but I believe this provision has been narrowed down too much to such financial provision. Men ought to provide vision for the family, they ought to provide spiritual guidance as well as discipline and focus. It is interesting that the Bible refers to men as being the head of their wives. All the instruments of discernment, of hearing, of sensing and coordination are located in the head giving a reflection of the role men are to play in the family.

You will note that I have concentrated on the family. This is because the family is not only the first institution established by God, it is also the basic unit of society. If you break the family then you have destroyed the whole of society. By focusing our attention on women, we are really failing to see the root of a lot of the problems in our society which is men who have not taken their rightful role and are carrying out their responsibility. If men arose and took their rightful place, a lot of the problems we face today would not be there. 

Men want women to submit, but are unwilling to submit themselves first under the headship of Christ. They want women to revere them, yet they do not revere God. If men did the things they want women to do with respect to their relation to God i.e. if men submitted themselves before God and revered Him, then they would be able to take  up their responsibility for the benefit of the whole society.

So to the men reading this, are you ready to take your place and stop pointing fingers at women? First do what is required of you, choose to be the man God has called you to be.

With the above said, I should be telling you of some meetings designed specifically for young men in the coming weeks.

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[1] This actually got me thinking about what Jacob did with his Uncle’s flock when he was cheated from his share. Jacob had the sheep and goats mate where they came to drink and they would see a reflection of the pealed almond and poplar trees that were now stripped. As a result of this, they bore offspring that was stripped. I guess that is what happens where the reflection we see in the family as children becomes a reflection of our family when we grow up. Of course God is gracious and such cycles can be and are broken.

THE THIRD SPACE

In Acts 17, we are told the story of Paul in Athens the Greek city many of us are familiar with. In this city he engaged 3 people groups: the religious or what we would say today are the church goers, the business people in the market place, and finally  the intelligentsia and those who would sit and develop policies for the city. Os Guinness has distinguished the 3 groups as representing the 3 spaces of society, with the church being the first space, the marketplace as the second space and the intelligentsia and policy makers being the third space.

For the Christian today, the emphasis has been on the first space as many consider this their area of calling or the only ‘space’ where they can serve God. As such the church has developed a lot of programs and requests the participation of members to serve in these programs. If one is not serving  in the church or  in any of these programs, they are at times considered to be second class or weak Christians. That is the general perception among Christians, in order to show how Christian you are, you must serve in the church or minister in some way.

As a result of this, many leave the church on Sunday satisfied that they have done their bit for God, they have served Him whether in the ushering team, the choir/praise and worship team, Sunday school etc. During the week, they no longer serve God but go on about their own business, unless they are cell leaders which means they have at least one more day with the week to serve God. Yet, as I pointed out in an earlier post “A Theology of Work”, Christians spend much more time away from the church, for some this is as many as 6 days of the week since on the 7^th day they are in church and this may only be for a few hours.

Yet, Paul shows us an example. He first went to the church where he preached, but he proceeded also to  the marketplace. Now we are just told that he preached in the marketplace,  but from elsewhere we know that he was a tent maker and at times during his ministry he had plied his trade where he went to preach in order to make a living i.e. to make money to cover for his expenses. I would like to take that angle, from the account we are given of his activities in Athens, I would like to  believe that wherever he plied his trade, he would also take time to preach the gospel and thus serve God. In other words, he took his ministry to the marketplace.

Today, many Christians want to separate their life at church from their life at work or the marketplace (I would define the marketplace as where you work, outside of the church, to make a living). We want to appear to be Christians only at church and we leave God at church and this means restricting our service to Him to the church. The rest of the week we are doing our own thing where we are our own masters. However, a good reading through the scriptures will reveal that Christianity is not to be compartmentalized. In 1 Corinthians 6 for example, we are told that we were bought with a price, we are no longer our own. In Matthew 28:19 we are told to go and make disciples of all nations and some commentaries say the word nations here refers to cultures or people groups and not just people living within a particular political boundary. This would mean the different people groups including the different professions that we find on earth. For the workplace believer, this then means that even where you work, you have a mission field. 2 Corinthians 5 further tells us that we are God’s ambassadors, meaning wherever we go we are to represent God and His Kingdom.

If you are a workplace believer, I want to encourage you. You are not a second class Christian, you have a mission field which is your workplace. You are God’s ambassador to your workplace. Do not restrict evangelism to just what you have on the church programs, do not compartmentalize your Christianity. May your light shine even in the workplace. When Jesus said you are the salt of the earth, He meant the whole earth. You are in that profession to represent the kingdom of God, ministry is not restricted to just the church, the first space, go beyond it to the marketplace, the second space.

It is as you function and operate in the second space that the third space recognizes you and invites you as it did Paul. From Acts 17 we are told that, someone heard Paul preach in the marketplace and asked him to come and share this new philosophy of his to the Areopagus where the thinkers/philosophers met. It was these people who generated ideas which the whole city would embrace and live by. They determined the course of culture in the city and based on the influence of Athens, this spread to other cities as well. So Paul was invited to the third space and from there he won some converts for the kingdom of God. In fact I have heard that there was a street named after Dionysius who was a judge of the Aeropagus and one of the converts.

I am saying all this to spur you my fellow Christian to desire to enter this third space. Lance Wallnau in the Foreword to OS Hillman’s Change Agent says “We are praying for a move of God, but what is needed is a move of people from the periphery in the bleachers to the very center of the coliseum floor where decisions are made and culture is produced.” The Church today is praying for changes in the society, nation and world, but to bring about this change God will use men and women who have given themselves by making themselves available to the move of God. God will answer the prayers for changes in the culture through people and these people will have to be placed at those areas of influence. Os Hillman says, “It doesn’t matter if the majority of the culture is made up of Christians. It only matters who has the greatest influence over that culture.” And Lance Wallnau says, “it is a mistake to think that the majority shapes the culture- it is quite the opposite; it is always a remnant at the top.”

What we need in the church today is to develop a kingdom mentality. Jesus came to bring us into the kingdom of God and our duty as Christians today is to ensure that the influence of this kingdom spreads..."your kingdom come" says what has been called the Lord's Prayer. How does this kingdom come but through the agency of God's people, you the Christian. Wherever you are, you are His ambassador, His representative, called to display forth His virtues as Peter tells us (1 Peter 2:9) or to manifest the manifold wisdom of God as Paul writes (Ephesians 3:10). Your excellence in the work place will set you apart, your integrity and work ethic. These should set you apart as they did for Daniel and his friends or Mordecai. This is they way you are going to bring the influence of the kingdom of God to where you are.. for the call to be a Christian is a call to be a person of influence.

I have made it my goal to be a good representative of the kingdom of God and with His help to enter that third space.