Why Community?

To whoever is reading this, do you know that you’re part of a community/a group of friend’s/a click/a sisterhood/a brotherhood ?

We tend to surround ourselves with people that we have common interests with. We should also be able to recognize how influential that community is in our lives-heck! I’ve recognized that. (This might be an exception to those introverts out there lol) . You also may notice that you become who you surround yourself with. Whether you like it or not-it will slowly change you. Either it has changed your for the better, or changed you for the worse.

In every season of my life-I was blessed with a refreshing change in community. I was also blessed with the friendships that have lasted through the seasons. So why the need to emphasis this so called “Community”?

There are so many examples of beautiful raw relationships born out of a love for God. Jonathan and David, Moses and Aaron, Elijah and Elisha, Naomi and Ruth and for me, my personal favorite was Esther and Mordecai. Mordecai adopted his orphaned cousin Hadassah (Esther), which he brought up as if she was his own daughter. Mordecai was Esther’s right hand and someone who fought with her spiritually for their people.

I can also think of three basic reasons why Community/Fellowship is important;

1. Community allows the opportunity to grow, pray, serve, worship and witness.

I don’t know about you but this is the DEFINITION of Community for me. I know i can call a sister/brother  up and ask for her/his prayers with me for a particular circumstance I’m going through. I also know i can count on her/him to speak truth to me when i cant make sense of things. I also know that these are the platforms for witnessing and testifying of God’s goodness. [Proverbs 27:17-As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend]

2. To have accountability and guidance

I don’t know about you but i have those girlfriends/cousins of mine that i call up and just need to Vent! and of course confess my sin (ITS NOT ENOUGH JUST TO CONFESS TO GOD). This comes with a risk every time because i know I’m about to get some straight talk but I also know I need to hear it. The straight talk is the way of getting me back on track and repenting and that’s real love. [James 5:16-Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person  is powerful and effective]

3. For the practicality of God’s word.

God’s word can not be merely described or talked about to others, he has to be experienced. So if you’re learning patience, endurance or love-you best be ready to back that up with a testimony. God’s word needs to become flesh-become real in our lives. The only way this is done is if its practiced……..on others. [John 13:34-35-So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples]

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You see-the greatest commandment God gave was to love each other! That means you actually got to be open to the opportunity of learning to love others. (And I’m not talking about the romantic, naive kind of love. I’m talking about the real Agape love. The kind of love that compels you to forgive those who have wronged you so many times). We are known to be God’s disciples through our love.

I hope that you RECOGNIZE your Community for 2018. Make a STAND for the type of people you surround yourself with. Be with those who will ACTUALLY contribute to where God has you heading to and CHOOSE those accountability who are NOT afraid to give you the truth when you need to hear it. Also have DISCERNMENT in knowing what relationship you need to stick through and which one God needs you to leave to him. Its our job to plant the seed of his word, seed of hope, encouragement and love  in others. However its God’s job and that person to nurture the growth.

Thank you to all those who have blessed me with your love and accountability in every form and for every season of my life.I will always be Eternally Grateful. There’s so many of you but here is just to show a few.

[God knows how important it is to also FIGHT for community.If your heart is in the right place, God will bring you to it and it to you]

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Honour

There’s something fascinating about this term “Honour”. It’s been etched in my heart and mind this season.

What was God trying to reveal through this word? What was he trying to teach me? -are the questions I would constantly ask myself as this word constantly burdened my heart.

It’s as if I felt God say so many times “You need to Honour me”. Those words fervently whispered to me by my Maker at the time of my life where I doubted my worth, doubted God’s plan, became insecure and mostly discontent.

You see, all those insecurities, those doubts and uncertainties can cause anyone to put themselves in predicaments and toxic situation’s that are dishonouring to God (which is what I basically did). Thinking that doing so-it was not going to do any damage to myself. Maybe in those moments of rebellion it was a way of reacting out like I’ve never done before and truly letting go. However in that ‘letting go’ it came at an expense.  It came with consequences that I would have to deal with eventually. So really-it WAS doing me damage but most importantly what we tend to forget is, it would hurt my Maker.

Why would it hurt my Maker? If I were to truly understand why every decision we make affects God’s heart is to understand that we are NOT our own. Our bodies, soul’s and mind’s are GOD’s.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

So eventually I understood that in every decision I made-I needed to honor God in it. Let’s analyze some situations;

1. If I swore constantly and gossiped uncontrollably-was I honouring God?
2. If I repeatedly drank alcohol to prove a point but only to harm myself-how would that be honouring God?
3. If I would have random sexual encounters with people without any commitment just for the fun of it-was I reflecting God’s glory and love in me?
4. If I lusted, masturbated and constantly watched pornography even though no one was watching (knowing that feeding my mind is doing so to God’s body) how am I glorifying him?

A lot of the times we are consumed by the idea of doing these damaging things to prove a point and satisfy our flesh. Then we wonder why we hit a roadblock, and sometimes its the same roadblock-every time and there is never any growth!

The truth of the matter is-OUR WORTH IS IN GOD AND THERE IS NO OTHER POINT TO PROVE EXCEPT TO HONOUR HIM. Not to a man, woman, parent, husband or wives who will inevitably disappoint you and can never fill that void. It is to honour God.

I know that our heavenly father looks at the attitude of our hearts and our thoughts. So I’ve come to the conclusion that if in everything we do, we choose to HONOUR God in every decision we make (keeping in mind it does affect him) He will be pleased, He will bless you and He will bring HONOUR to his name through you.

I urge whoever is reading this to never give up doing what is honoring to God-delight in him, constantly seek him and make choices that reflect his place in our hearts. In this way we will bring him the greatest honour he deserves. In time we will also have a share of his Glory.

[PC:San Fransisco Golden Gate Bridge-2.01.2018]

~Honouring God is a choice. I choose to honour him this season~

GOD knows me!

 How amazing are these words-how David writes it in Psalms 139:

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body

and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,

as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

You saw me before I was born.

Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

Every moment was laid out

before a single day had passed.

I don’t know how many times I need to be reminded of this verse. Probably as many times as I keep forgetting my worth and that God knows what he is doing. Mahn! have I struggled so much with discontentment this season-2017. Discontentment in where God has me, I’ve question my calling, I’ve questioned the type of work I’m in, basically because I couldn’t understand what he was doing and why.

My expectations got the best of me because they were not of God.They were man made highly unrealistic, shooting the stars-kind of expectations. And a lot of times this analogy pretty much sums it up:

“I’m a child walking this long hallway filled with many doors, with Jesus by my side. I’m holding his hand as tight as my small hands can grip. Then I get overly excited with the amount of doors lined up, I let go of his hands and rush to open the first door I get to. Locked tight- it doesn’t open. Then I try another door in the expectation that this should open. Yet the same thing- locked shut. I moved on to another door hoping this one would let me in-but the same happens. I look back and I realise how far ahead I’ve gone from Jesus-and his standing at the same spot I left him. My excitement at this point turned to gloom-like a child walking back to his father with disappointment, so was I walking back to Jesus. He held my hand again this time even more tightly gripped, I look at him and He smiles. Then he takes me”.

So you can imagine the many times my expectations have pushed me to open doors that were not meant to open. And every time I came back with disappointment.

God made all the delicate parts of me, knit me together, made me wonderfully complex-he alone is familiar with how i was formed. He alone knows what is best for me-because every day of my life is recorded in his book!

So I’m going to have to remember this every time I may need to.This is also for anyone who is challenged with knowing their worth, dealing with self-pity, dealing with discontentment, dealing with guilt or circumstances you can’t shake-or can’t make out. GOD IS VERY FAMILIAR WITH YOUR FORM-HE KNOWS YOU SO WELL AND HE HAS HIS REASONS FOR WHAT HE ALLOWS YOU TO GO THROUGH.

So now its a matter of choice. Choosing to focus our minds and heart completely on HIM. Choosing to step out of discontentment,discouragement, step out of complacency, step out of worry and step into HIS WORD AND PROMISE IN PSALM 139.

[Picture Credit: Fiji Times-Suva Marathon 2017]

(Recognize your current Season and be grateful for it)

It is Well With my soul?

You must be familiar with the title of this blog and you’re probably wondering why the question mark.

I grew up in a Methodist church where we sang hymns. Annually the Methodist congregation held Choir competitions between churches and it was a way to also fund raise money. This one year we sang this song “It is well with my soul”. Beautifully dressed in white, we stood boldly on the stage and sang our hearts out. Really not knowing the depth to it. It’s surprising to me that I did not question the composition of the song then and by whom.

So I write this for many like me, who do not know the songwriter’s testimony. Of what this really meant for Horatio G. Spafford.

In researching, I found that (and I’m summarising here)  Horatio G. Spafford was a successful lawyer and businessman in Chicago. He had a wife-Anna and five children. In 1873 his wife and four children took the French Ocean Liner Ville du Havre and crossed the Atlantic from the U.S. to Europe. There were 313 passengers on board this ship. Spafford decided he was to take another boat and join his family later.

The Ville du Harve collided with a powerful, iron-hulled Scottish ship called the Loch Earn about 4 days into crossing the Atlantic. Can you imagine within 12 minutes the ship sunk and disappeared into the dark waters of the Atlantic. His wife however survived and was taken to Wales. When Spafford crossed the Atlantic to join his wife-he passed over the waters where the ship had sunk. And it was while on this journey that he wrote;

“It Is Well With My Soul”

When peace like a river attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll,

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul.

Chorus:

It is well with my soul,

It is well, it is well with my soul

You’d think that that was the only tragedy he faced. I mentioned above that Spafford had four children that crossed the Atlantic with his mother. That’s because their fifth child prior to the ship sinking, died with pneumonia in 1871.

Spafford’s reaction to the death of his children astounds me and probably always will. In the cases of such adverse situations and unimaginable circumstances, its natural to blame God. Even we as Christians do this. I’m talking about being ripped of your most beloveds and still be able to say ” It is well with my soul” .

Spafford shows a faith and reverence for God that I cannot fathom. One that I wonder-in the face of my foes and tragedies, will my heart be that of Spafford’s. A heart that was humbled, vulnerable and did not question God’s sovereignty.

So I guess as I ask myself, I’m also asking whoever is reading this.Will you be able to trust God in those difficult, tragically hard seasons and still say-It is well with my soul?

 

 

 

This Season 2017

Ive always tried ways to find a medium of sharing how amazing God works. I realized i have been complacent in this for many years. I’ve had epiphany after epiphany, revelation after revelation and because our memory  can only retain so much- i journal them.

I believe there is a need to journal my everyday thoughts, moments,experiences in life and with this God. Something beautiful about capturing that exact time you surrendered your life to Christ-because coming back to reading those old faded pages, i am reminded of the joy of my salvation.

But journaling really isn’t enough-if it means sharing encouragement so as to lift the body of Christ-then there is a need to blog these moments.

I pray you can relate to my vulnerability and raw experiences that come from nothing more than a sinner saved by His grace.