Order in chaos

I was having a conversation with a friend recently and events from a dark time in my life came up, and I was given an opportunity to go down memory lane and review so many things that went through my mindat that time. One thing that stood out for me was the goodness of God. Sounds basic because we say it all the time but I believe I have been given a different view from a very awkward angle.
 When I you are faced with an affliction that baffles reason and being calvanist you know for sure that God is sovereign, you mind keeps trying to make sense of the events and hopefully see the lesson in the misfortune and you come up empty. The one answer that kept me sane in this situation was "God is good". when I go on my nagging/wailing session (which I would like to call praying), and I have nagged to my heart's content the holy spirit would so gracefully and lovingly bring me back to this truth "God is good" and my whole world would somehow be okay again.
Friends, God is good regardless of what madness is going on around us. He is a shelter and a hiding place in the midst of chaos.

"My soul magnifies the Lord
And my spirit rejoices in God my saviour"
Luke 1:46-47

"Praise the Lord!
Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good,
For his steadfast love endures forever!
Psalm 106:1
AMEN

The psalmist: A man after God's heart

One of my favourite psalms so far is the 139th psalm. You can clearly see the heart desire of the psalmist David, he is aware that nothing he does is hidden from God, God has watched him right from when he was in the womb and even then his whole history was already known by God.  

God is knows when he sits and when he stands, even his thoughts are open to God. Before a word is on his tongue, he already knows what he would say, so he asks "where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presense? He is aware that God is everywhere, even our darkest place is as bright as noon sun to him.    
 Then he declares his love for the Lord, knowing the Lord can see his heart. And finally he makes his heart desire known
 
"Search me, O God and know my heart
Try me and know my thoughts
And see if there be any grievous way in me
And lead me in the way everlasting

This was his heart cry, that his heart be pure and his path straight. He wanted God to test him and know him and lead him.    
Its no surprise that David was a man after God's heart, this is the attitude God desires of us. A desire to be sanctified.

Book review: Pilgrims progress

In every way, this book deserves to be our very first book review, before I start singing its praises, let me first give a quick background history

"The Pilgrim's progress is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan and published in February, 1678. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been out of print." He wrote this book while he was in jail for preaching without a licence from the government and he spent 12 years in jail for the crime of refusing to stop preaching.

"At one time, The Pilgrim's Progress was considered the most widely read and translated book in the English language apart from the Bible."


So lets get this straight, the book has been available for 335 years. If you are an inquisitive person just like myself, you would want to find out what is in this book that has reached across thousands if not millions of people from over 3 centuries. I have this book and I have read it twice, it is just as moving, convicting and captivating each time. I doubt if thereis a real Christian out there that cant relate to the story. It is a definitely a must read for everyone

Warning!
If you plan to buy the book make sure its a current edition, and not the one with victorian english, except you studied literature and can understand it well. its also quite had to find in nigeria so if you really want it and cant find it, leave a comnent below

HAPPY NEW YEAR/CRAZY FRIDAY

Happy new year, Umu chineke (christians or people of God)
 My sincere apologies for the late greetings, and for going M.I.A for a while, am here now so lets get the party started!

We are going to kick off the new year with some funny/disturbing posters and by his grace tomorrow I will have our first write-up ready.

The aim of pisting these pics is not just for ridicule but to create an awareness of what the church has become and our need to retrace our steps.
May God help us to let go of superficial Christianity and hold on to what is true.

F.F.F (Friends For Food)

If you went to a board school, this term would need no explanation because you would at least know one person with this character (if not you were the class FFF). For the rest who are not familiar with this term, this is a person who is only your friend for the good times, when you have money to spend, the minute the money(or food) is finished they disappear like mist, faster than you can say Ngozi! Are you getting the picture now,am sure a name has popped into your head.

We all know how it feels to be used by someone, it is not a good feeling, but have we ever considered how God feels when we are F.F.F with God? For many of us, blessing is the basis of our relationship with God. When things are going well we are super active in church, in fact we will be in church before the pastor on Sunday. But the minute any trial or hardship comes, we start loosing interest in anything that has to do with God, we start running from one place to the order for deliverance as if God has suddenly fallen asleep and let the devil destroy you and it is your job to wake him up. Some people even contemplate suicide or run to the nearest witch doctor for a quick fix. Let me borrow the words of the faithful man Job " shall we receive good from the lord and not  evil?"

I believe the main problem stems from how most Christians have been trained, they believe that God is there just to grant all their fleshly desires, meanwhile God wants to mature us even through hardships and trials because it is only then that we can learn how to trust him as our deliver, only then can we know if we are truly his possession if our faith does not fail.  The only way to purify gold is to put it through intense heat and when it comes out it is more beautiful and pure than before.

So let us not be afraid of being tested because it shows that God is still interested in you and wants to draw you closer to him, and show you many more things about himself.

God bless and happy new year

Worrying about nothing

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each has enough trouble of its own. Matt 6:34

This straight forward reminder from christ should be pasted everywhere in ours home cos worry is slowly becoming part of our generation.this is no surprise as we are constantly bombarded with  information 24/7. Just sign into your facebook account or switch on the TV and you will know what i am talking about. "So and so just got married(ladies you know what an talking about) or just got into university or just got a new job (and you havent) or the economy is in recession, there is a new viral disease, or fuel scarcity, it goes on and on. A Constant inflow of bad news, its no wonder that many people are depressed. But our saviour is telling us to act differently, how? DONT WORRY! Its that simple. 

What astonds me most about this verse is that the God of the universe knows that we have alot of issues to face on a daily basis, he knows that we are busy bees always on the move. I have two phones that I sometimes use at the same time, it does not makes sense to me either but here I am, guilty as charged.
Basically God is saying relax, you cant solve any of your problems by worrying, you are already overwhelmed by today's issues, why not trust an all-powerful and all-knowing God for tomorow? 
I believe its our pride that holds us back from trusting God for the future cos we want to fix everything by our selves. 
I have decided to save myself all the headache and heartache let him handle my tomorrow, i will take it oneday at a time. And when the temptation comes to worry(cos it will) i pray that this verse will bring me

back to this spot of total surrender. Amen


N/B
If you have not read my previous blog calles the love dare, please do and join us in making this christmas one the we will not forget.

hhhhmmmm can someone say VVIP

guys wats up with this? please someone explain this to me... for those of you who are not nigerians,  this is chris okotie, a pastor in nigeria.