HE CALLED HER THE “WORST STORY OF HIS LIFE”

This is a story that really saddens me as a Christian and a wife that we as Christians would camouflage the true identity of Christ. When our lives are a lie, then we make God a lie, which He is not.

….

 Tia thought she knew him. She had met him a few years ago. He looked humble, God-fearing, reliable and charming. She easily fell into a trance with him. She longed for that one call from him every day.

It was not after a few months of chit-chats that their love culminated into a relationship. She was a lady whose heart yearned for the word of God. She loved God and compromise was not something she would even think of. That was understandable since her family was enrooted in Christianity. As a family, they had gone through a lot of challenges but the word of God was the only constant joy in their lives.

Her father was unmatchable. He was her first love. So every guy was vetted through the qualities he depicted. He loved God and would always say the truth does not go out and come back empty.”We are part of the body of Christ, and in Christ we have eternal life. Nothing can separate us. No power on earth”. He loved the story of Jehoshaphat. The sons of Moab and Ammon came against him with a mighty army but the spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel and said through him “Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”

She believed her father’s counsel even in the silent loneliness of her tribulations. If she believed everything he had taught her then why does she ache with grief, which swells and spills over her in waves, spreading with a strange, confused anger? Why did she have to be such a fool for Christ?

………

Tim had hurt her more than once. But she had always forgiven him since that was what the bible taught her. He knew that and he had taken it for granted. He said he was saved but then he had not publicly declared the Lord as His savior but he believed in his heart. Was that really salvation? How can one accept the Lord in the privacy of their heart and not declare it to other people? That really disturbed her but with time she brushed it off.

Tim was an outside child of his father. He always longed for the affection that a father could give to his son but that came very late in his life. His grandparents were his parents. He lived life to prove a point to himself, that he was not a mistake. He started his own business and was doing well. He entered into a relationship with Julie a few months after university. He loved her and always thanked God for her. He had willed to take care of her and protect her. He thought deeply about the family he intended to share with her and prayed that it shall come to pass but he had his doubts which he referred to as red flags in his relationship. She had accused him of insensitivity and that offended him.

In February of that year he had met her for valentine and they shared a meal, at 680 hotel. They shared memories of their wonderful tenth month relationship, he was happy. He wished he could take her home with him, but he stayed true to his gospel of purity. He knew he would marry her one day.

They had been drifting apart, that is what he believed. Julie would not pick up his calls. He was devastated. He decided to go for a 40 day fast of self discovery. He had many issues to mull over among them his relationship; he wanted a third eye perspective. He let her decide whether to walk away or stay with him. He was possessive of her; he needed someone who would love him back. He thought by buying her gifts or taking her to expensive locations he will win her love. He was wrong.

Tim blamed Julie for his misery and hurt. He had seen red flags but he believed love can conquer that. He had literally built his entire life around her, he reminiscent over what they had shared which seemed to be fading away with the wind. He clung onto it; he never entertained the thought of him being a mistake in her life like to his dad. Something that he did without his knowledge.

He decided to do a SWOT analysis among his friends to reevaluate himself, the feedback was devastating. First his girlfriend believed that he never gave people enough space, he literally chokes her space. Others said he was task-oriented forgetting his vital relationships and could easily be manipulated. He decided it was time to turn over new leaf. His fears were more than his faith in God. He yearned for fulfillment everywhere but failed to listen to God. His heart longed for the Lord yet he could not get rid of the thorn in his flesh. Away from the fellowship of the brethren he failed God; he killed Christ and crucified him again and again.

He was a hypocrite.

Julie decided to end her relationship with him. Tim claimed it was a relief on his side because he never really enjoyed the relationship, he said she had so much baggage and too many unresolved issues.

Then he met Maury from church, who told him she cannot hang out with him in a view of dating him. He never sat down to reevaluate himself and his position in the Lord. He wanted so much to belong that he forgot that he was a child of God, he belonged.

The thorn in his flesh was eating him up, he longed for that which is despicable before the Lord. Purity was no longer his gospel. He attended Christian classes, enjoyed fellowship among his fellow Christians but the moment he left he caved in to his old self. He went through a spool of relationships, looking for someone to love him yet He was already loved by Christ.

He drowned himself in work so that his body would be very tired to do anything but fade into slumber. He diminished himself and like a dog he returned to his vomit again and again. He was numb to the Holy Spirit.Beginnning of October that year he finally grieved the Holy Spirit. He had craved for the desires of the flesh, made his body a master that he had finally drowned in it and defiled the body of Christ. He loathed it. He had failed God again. The Sunday sermon rang in his ears, “Who is really in charge of your life?” the pastor had asked the congregation.

….

End of that year, he met with Tia.She was a wonderful person, full of enthusiasm and loved God. He had started being fond of her. She was a staunch Christian, she had gone through a lot from childhood but her faith in God was amazing. Her mum has always been a pillar in her life. When life was just too much for her to handle, she would separate herself from others, alone with herself.

Bowing her head, she would tighten her hands, emotion swelled.”You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies”, she would whisper brokenly and would weep.”Oh, Father, forgive me. Amend my ways. But gently, Lord, lest you reduce me to nothing. I am afraid. Father, I am so afraid. Preserve me by the strength of your arm”, she would weep. She would open her eyes and opened her hands again.”The Lord provides’” she said softly. She would feel oddly at peace.

Tim was intriguing to her; he was not someone she pictured herself with. Friendship was her own baseline of their relationship. So when he asked her out she accepted with that in mind. It was a very rocky beginning, he was very secretive. He would often entertain other ladies, brush off questions about him being in a relationship with Tia. His faith had dwindled such that there was no mark of Christ left. She prayed but gave up on him. In March of that year, he fell back into defiling his body to feed his desires which he kept secret from her.

He would be go to church every Sunday, participate in different ministries but He knew not of God. She became aware of his affairs later that year and decided to break off the relationship. He pleaded with her through her close friends, mentors and finally she gave him another chance. He loved her, he proposed to her later that year and they got married. They would often argue, had many disagreements which made them drift apart.

He was vile that one day he called her the “worst mistake of his life”. That shattered her to the core. That was the epitome of it. All she wanted was to be the best mother to their kids and wife to her husband but it was becoming harder by the day. He was trying to break her day in day out. He was changing .He attended church, claimed to be a good Christian but his life was not that of Christ. Among his peers he was the best friend but to his family he was again a hypocrite.

Tia was becoming miserable in marriage but prayed that God would change her husband to represent the true meaning of Christianity.

That he will remember the LORD.

…………………

This was a very sad story to me because I believe a Christian husband considers his wife very precious and gives her the honor she is due. The first thing a real genuine Christian husband does is cleave. One tie must be broken before another can be established.

The joy of a Christian marriage goes far beyond the smiles. When there is strife and discord in the home, prayer is hindered until peace is restored. When an atmosphere of love and consideration exists, both husband and wife can join together in prayer before the Throne of God and expect some wonderful results and showers of blessings for their home.

POWER OF THREE STRANDED CORD IN MARRIAGE

“Are you OK, honey?” My husband’s kind eyes searched mine. “You were quiet during dinner, which is unusual for you.” He smiled, trying to make a joke, but he didn’t miss the strain on my face. Soon I was able to tell my husband about a difficult day at work and a friend who is facing a family tragedy. Then, he took my hand and offered a simple prayer for my peace and my friend’s comfort. Patric’s listening ear, faith, and encouragement were just what I needed. My husband is a true friend.

Yes, I have other friends. But my husband is the person I love to spend time with … who I share all my secrets with … who knows me better than anyone else (except for God). He is my best friend. One key to our deep friendship is our shared faith. Together we look to Christ for our needs.

Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, “A cord of three strands is not easily broken.” In other words, when Christ is the center of your marriage – the third strand of the cord, with the two of you being the others – your marriage is stronger and better able to withstand life’s tumults.

“Where two are closely joined in holy love and fellowship,” Bible commentator Matthew Henry (1662-1714) explains, “Christ will by his Spirit come to them, and make the third, as he joined himself to the two disciples going to Emmaus. Then there is a threefold cord that can never be broken.

The illustration of the three-stranded cord though makes even more sense when you speak to a rope maker.  They will tell you that this is the strongest cord you can make because all three strands are touching each other.  If you add more strands, the rope becomes thicker but not necessarily stronger because not all the strands are touching at the same time.

If one or even two of the strands becomes frayed or broken, the cord will remain intact as long as the third strand does not break.  This gives time for the other strands to be mended.  God works in this way in our marriages.  During those hard times when both spouses are at a breaking point, God holds the marriage together until He heals the other two.  And the good news is that God is a strand that can’t be broken.

I will be honest, in the end one spouse may still choose to walk away and break what God has joined.  Our Creator has given us all free will, and one spouse may choose to exercise it by walking away from the marriage.   However, by bringing God into our marriage through obedience and submission, we will make that break harder for them to accomplish.  

Building the third cord

Your love for Christ can motivate you to be a better friend to your spouse, and he to you. Even if just one marriage partner is a Christian, then out of love for Christ that person is motivated to be a true friend to the other and can move the relationship into a more fulfilling friendship. In other words, your friendship with your spouse deepens when you make Christ the center of your life and your relationship.

Try to make and keep Christ the center of your marriage through

• ·         Continue to grow in your personal walk with Jesus
• ·         Read scripture together
• ·         Pray together
• ·         Pray for your spouse
• ·         Ask God to guide your marriage and your family
• ·         Be committed to your marriage
• ·         Go to worship together
• ·         Attend small group or Bible study together
• ·         Find a ministry in which to serve together

When you put God first in your marriage and engage in God-centered activities, He is pleased. He honors that priority, joins you, and provides the clarity and direction to keep your marriage safe and strong.

When Christ is first, you’ll also discover that you and your spouse have a shared purpose. That binds you together. A marriage centered on Christ is an unshakeable foundation for a healthy, strong friendship – one that can both continue to deepen and endure over the test of time.

I am WOMAN!

“I am strong! I am invincible! I am WOMAN!” I remember striding down the school hallway with a couple of friends, belting out these words. We were determined to show the world that we were in control. These words summed up our resolve. “I am woman hear me roar—in numbers too big to ignore—no one’s ever gonna keep me down again!” We were perched on the verge of womanhood. And we were confident that we would be the first generation to get the meaning of womanhood right. 

We tried. We really did. We embraced education, careers, prominence. We despised all relationships and responsibilities that would hold us back. We moved marriage, mothering, and homemaking from the top of our lists to the bottom–or crossed them off altogether. After all, we were so much more enlightened than our fore sisters were. The world had revolved around men, but it was our turn now. We would make it bow to our demands. We decided that the role of a housewife was totally passé. 

So we redefined boundaries. We changed the rules of male-female relationships. We boldly pushed back against traditional definitions of gender and sexuality. We claimed our freedoms. We bought into the feminist promise that woman would find happiness and fulfillment when she defined her own identity and decided for herself what life as a woman was all about. How very wrong we were. For ultimately, who we are is a matter decided not by us, but by the One who in the beginning created us male and female.

The creation of the sexes was not something God did impulsively or arbitrarily. His plan existed from eternity past, before the foundation of the world. On the final day of creation, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:26-27).

 We don’t fully understand what the image of God is all about, but two things are clear. First, bearing His image gives us enormous dignity, privilege, and responsibility. He has crowned us with honor and glory and has given us dominion over the earth. It’s a breath-taking charge to go about the business of daily life and all-the-while reflect the image of the Almighty. And that leads to the second thing: What a mess we’ve made of this awesome dignity! The image of God in humanity is badly marred; sometimes even beyond recognition. It begs for redemption. Transformation. A type of re-creation. And stunningly enough, God stamped this vision and hope onto human beings in the very beginning, before they had even sinned. When God created male and female, He provided an object lesson—a parable, as it were—of His entire redemptive plan.

Before the ages, God had a plan, but it remained hidden (1 Cor. 2:7; Col. 1:26). It wasn’t until Christ died that God’s eternal purpose—and the purpose of manhood, womanhood, and marriage—became clear. Paul connects all the dots in Ephesians. In chapter 3 he explains that the mysterious plan came to light when Jesus Christ died for the church (v. 7). In chapter 5, he correlates the mystery of redemption to male-female sexuality and marriage. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church . . . ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” (Eph. 5:25-33)

The profound mystery, hidden from eternity past, was that God intended to display the glory of His grace and covenant-keeping love through Jesus Christ, His Son, who laid down His life to redeem and purify His Bride. It cannot be said often enough: When God created male and female, He had the relationship of Christ and His Bride in mind. Men are to reflect the strength, love, and self-sacrifice of Christ. Women are to reflect the character, grace, and beauty of the Bride He redeemed.

We got it wrong. Womanhood is not about displaying my own strength and invincibility. It is for the praise of God’s glory that I am woman.

Creation-Fall-Redemption-Recreation

I find it helpful to think in paradigms, particularly in terms of the biblical sequence creation-fall-redemption-recreation. The glorious vision of the recreation of marriage under and in Christ has expanded my small thoughts on the entire issue, to help lift my eyes off the everyday pettiness and look at my marriage through the lens of the powerful cosmic-sized gospel.

 

    “…when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away” (1 Corinthians 13:10).

Another month is passing away. Thank God. Not only for the massive amounts of unquantifiable grace we have received from him, but also because we are closer to the passing away of this partial age and all of its incumbent sorrow and weariness.

“When the perfect comes.” Those inspired words stir up deep longings for a time we have never known and yet desperately want.

Paul may have been talking about spiritual gifts when he used that phrase in 1 Corinthians 13, but we know because of Romans Eight that “the partial” means so much more. Right now even the best things are not what they should be. And so much goes so very wrong. In this partial age, our bodies, our loved ones, our careers, our creations, our investments, and our plans are all subject to the forces of futility (Romans 8:20). This age is marked more by suffering (8:18), longing (8:19), groaning (8:23), and hope (8:24) than by fulfillment.

So at year’s end, especially if what we feel at its passing is another disappointment, we must remind each other that the partial, this age that is all that we’ve ever known, is passing away and the perfect is coming.

To all you road-weary travelers who have found that the way that leads to life (Matthew 7:14) is harder than you ever imagined, the perfect day of rest is coming (Matthew 11:28).

To all you who find yourself at the end of this year poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3), humbled, desolate, and in desperate need of what only God can provide, the perfect day of the all-abundant kingdom is coming.

To all you who are mourning the loss of a precious one (Matthew 5:4) and finding it hard to press on under the heavy cloak of sorrow, the perfect day of death’s death (1 Corinthians 15:26) is coming.

To all of you who are growing tired in the relentless struggle to hold back the flood of unrighteousness, both from within and without, and who long deeply for a time when all is made right (Matthew 5:6), the perfect day of your satisfaction is coming.

To all of you who have been injured by the maliciousness of another and have responded with a tear-filled mercy (Matthew 5:7), the perfect day of restoration is coming.

To all of you whose soft heart (Matthew 5:8) is tormented over the sin-hardened, sin-infected world around you, the perfectly pure day is coming when you will see what your soul most longs for.

To all of you peacemakers who are blessed of God (Matthew 5:9) and yet find this blessed work heartbreaking, misunderstood, and under appreciated, the perfect day of reconciliation is coming.

To all of you who find yourselves in a disorienting darkness that feels unbearable and wonder if God has abandoned you (Psalm 88:14), the perfect day is coming when the Light, in whom there is no darkness (1 John 1:5), will shine upon you (Numbers 6:25).

And to all of you who increasingly love and long for Jesus’ appearing (2 Timothy 4:8), who have an inconsolable homesickness for a country far better than any that exists here (Hebrews 11:16), your perfect home, a home prepared especially for you (John 14:2), is coming.

When the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. The promised “soon” (Revelation 22:20) is getting sooner. Let us keep encouraging one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:18). Let us hold fast to the hope set before us (Hebrews 6:18). And let us press on to know the Lord (Hosea 6:3).

THE DRY BONES WILL RISE AGAIN...

[Ezekiel 37]

And He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, You know!

Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath and spirit to enter you, and you shall live;

So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a [thundering] noise and behold, a shaking and trembling and a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

This is a powerful prophecy. It is an apt picture of how circumstances in our life, (the death of a loved one) can kill our hope.The life of Peter Kaberere has actually encouraged me on the same,that one day dry bones will rise again.

What word did God give you for your life? Sometimes when we are waiting for the fulfilment of His promises our faith can grow cold. Notice that the bones were in a valley, a place of depression, there was no life in that valley to the extent that the bones were completely dried out.

This is the valley of dead, dry bones (Ez 37). The Spirit carries the prophet, pregnant with God’s Word ‘shut in his bones’. God shall trust the people with visions of revival and they shall call others to see. He that sees first and moves with the vision… that is the leader of men. The vision may tarry, but the God that gives it is faithful and the leaders of revival shall not be disappointed. According to God’s Word, the vision shall eventually confirm itself, ‘it shall speak at last!’

Every morning my passion for revival has made me ‘crazy’ for Jesus.

He was a preacher and Prophet not an undertaker. He was in the spirit. He was not carnal. He knew how to walk in the Spirit so as not to fulfill the desires of the flesh. Even, the hand of the Lord was upon him. Yet he was found in the valley full of dry bones. How can such a person be found in the midst of dry bones? Dry bones were found in the valley he was carried to by the Spirit of the Lord.

But why would God allow such to happen to an annointed preacher and prophet? Why not in the midst of the rich and influential? Why not even in the midst of the poor so he could minister to them? A lot of questions could be pondered about but God the almighty knew better.

It is gratifying that the story didn’t end in the valley of dry bones.

There is a great message for you today from the throne of grace. The message will emerge from the scriptural passage in Ezekiel 37.

‘The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones’ (Verse1)

I therefore charge you by the word of God to prophecy now into those situations. The power in the word of God shall cause the dry bones to reconnect and reunite until life is restored into those circumstances.

Open your mouth now and begin to speak the word of God to those situations. That is your hope. That is your power. That is your opportunity. Use it now!