Grace To You

MAKE THOU NO ROOMS ANYMORE

2012-01-05T07:33:00.000-08:00

In haste I sweep myheart floors with a broom at the announcement of the Visitor. My eyes are lit upin alarm to quickly put up an acceptable presentation of my untrue self.

“Be quick! Be quick!”my soul cries out in a hurry to splash water over what should be scrubbed. No timeto put away loitering clothes but do see some wall cracks to stuff ‘em in.

I plant a smile rightaway over my fake face and if needed, will show remorse and deceive myself thisremorse isn't momentary.

“Shoot!” I cursed atmy clothes ‘cos they look so filthy.

“Ah Ha!” Got alint remover. Now that should do it.

“hmm! What smells? Isthat me?” Darn it!

Perfume to the rescue!

“Whew! That was close.”

“Now let’s check onmy breath! Ew! I thought so! This is a job for a mouthwash.”

Finally ready!

Visitor comes…Visitor goes…

Only a matter of timeand they all start creeping back…

Breathe goes south…andthen the perfume wears out…

Lint remover doesn’tclean clothes…washing does…

Weariness overshadowsmy former smile…

And my body itches. Definitely need a bath…

…and then…a squeakysound…

“Oh no! Don’t tellme!”

A rat seems to be having fun pushing through the wall cracks and playingwith the clothes I stuffed away earlier.

“That’s it! I’m tiredof myself!”

Can’t continue makingpatches on torn clothes when there is a chance to get new.

Gotta take out thebandages and get a real treatment for what ails.

Making room withinhas become hoarding of the old.

I can no longersettle for convenience in sight of the real deal if can just pushmyself a little more.

Can't stand the pity I've earned for always making excuses.

O wretched man that Iam! Who shall deliver me from this life of death?

No wonder I’m unhappy…nowonder I’m sore.

I cannot retain theSpirit with dirt shoved to side – the cause of my ill-health!

“You know what? I’llempty myself, be imbued by the Spirit and filled anew. My soul, make thou no rooms anymore!!!

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

FEAR THAT BRINGS WISDOM

2011-12-09T08:09:00.000-08:00

NY Subway crimes these days are escalating beyondcontrol! It has caused a crack on even the most confident soul!

Gadgets usually brought out fordisplay and use have now been reclined to the safety covers of carry-on bags.

The daring boldness of daylightrobbery can be attested by the weary looks of passengers with fears shown.

Just a more-than-a-second-look atanother prompts a closer grip of personal belongings alone!

Fear!

That terrible, yet inevitable realityof our existence!

Fear!

Completely unavoidable even with foreknowledgeassistance!

The void of uncertainty isn’t reallythe birthplace of this crippler.

One thing for sure is it is, without adoubt, a character definer!

Ironic that the scriptures boldly declare the fearof God as the beginning of wisdom;

You see, fear only has all the powerthat you give it!

On one hand, it can cause the throwingin of the towel, and on the other, a revealing of the truth about our debilitating humanity!

Is it wise to only fear what can killthe body and not more, what can kill both the body and the soul?

What do you think drives us to preventdeath by any means necessary when the truth is it is beyond our control?

So, here it is:

Fear that brings the acceptance oftruth;

That births a need to plan as early asthe days of your youth;

That makes you change what can bechanged

And accept what cannot be;

That unveils the reality ofuncertainties;

And yet split the curtains for you tosee –

After all planning is done for thefuture, to still commit yourself to Christ, the one true Savior

Whose fear is the opposite of theworld’s –

A fear with a definition that relieveseven in the subways or wherever it might find you;

One that opposes the other whichcreeps up on random –

The fear you should really embrace: Thebeginning of wisdom!

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

I'm Coming Home!

2011-07-13T05:36:00.000-07:00

A well-known artist declared this theme enough to put it to rest.

If nothing, I must make a go at this to pass the test

My test is to never give up, come what may

Life is too short to wile away

No matter how hard I try to be the best

I need to find refuge always in God's saving nest

I can't live for tomorrow without living today

I must heed God's call no matter what failure will say

What are my coordinates? North..South...East...West?

I command my soul to rise with each bang on my chest

Away I bid thee! No pleas! Away!

I will not dare to hold you darkness at bay!

I cannot work for my salvation as the Word says to only work it out

This is my stand on my long journey home

Let Christ imbue and overflow, within and without

This is my hope on my long journey home

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

In Vain Have I Smitten

2011-03-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

Whom I love, I chastise!

Recall memories of parental discipline

Love calls its own to order

Teaching a child how to grow

What will be said? –

When I child is let go to make mistakes and never learns

Deeper and deeper the quagmire goes

Yet onward, the wanderer astray knows

God told Jeremiah, “…In Vain Have I Smitten…”

Yet in love I chastise in and out of season

Return again to me, saith the Lord

Or how will it be said? –

That in vain loved even our God?!

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Give Me To Drink!

2011-01-05T12:40:00.000-08:00

It wasn't a drought that brought this upon me!

Water is in abundance. Waterfalls of the element of earthly life right before me.

Enough for now and always to use and abuse yet my soul deny its fill.

I'd rather drink sand than taste a drop of this earthly liquid.

For I have seen it...

seen what it can do!

I have stood by while others drank after warning them not to.

The taste, I am told, is sweet and soothing when taken.

It streams down your inside when drunk, leaving an immediate satisfaction as guaranteed.

However, as many turn to leave afterwards, their pupils dilate red and their spirit begin to pale. Sweetness becomes sour as poison flood the entire system.

You see it was the enemy I say, the enemy I say.

The accuser of men must have done this to cause all to sway.

Still I die to the world as I watch others take their momentary fill.

My flesh fade as I see many live within a few distance of abundant evil waters.

When will my fill come you ask me?

When will my thirst be undone?

A drop of living waters fell from heavens gates straight onto my lips. I took it with great thirst and waited for a while to see if it had poison. But lo, nothing bad happened.

Then I asked for more as I gaze skyward. And then...more came for sure.

When many saw me they stood amazed. A few summoned courage to ask me where did you find your fill and I told them:

rather you stay by this deadly waters, body swelling and begin to sway,

look to Jesus, ask like me, for all you have to say -

Give me, of you, to drink!

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Gift for God

2010-12-07T13:35:00.000-08:00

In accordance to tradition, a family celebration is meant to bring a house unit together.

I recall such an occasion.

It was a great celebration because all concerned didn't utter a word; all gathered couldn't voice a sound.

That great, it was!

One by one, we were allowed to witness the sight of greatness; an occurrence truly breathtaking.

A mother unveiled the life she carried, tucked in a thick woolen cloth.

The Gift: an innocent child who gazed at its visitors with shown interest.

A sound escaped the baby's lips, tugging at the heart of mother. In love, joy's true smile beamed across her face which was then matched by the whole family.

So likewise, in the heaven of heavens, God's face is lit; His Spirit is whelmed with joy; His Soul smiles in width wider than the overturned rainbow.

Don't wonder what it was dearly beloved. God smiles at his newborn children...you know like a mother forgets her travails after childbirth, Christ smiles, having forgotten his travails over you,

you the gift for God!!!

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

2010-10-05T14:18:00.000-07:00

It is the Sabbath!

Four words that weigh heavier than a thousand milestone stacked, one after the other:

It is the sabbath!

Tis today's camouflage for the public; an excuse for one day service!

In layman's language, what you are on the outside isn't what you are within; who you are in public isn't who you are at home. Words heavy enough to bring a soul down to hell! Claws inextricably clutched to skins dragged to hades.

It would have been better to say the same for ev'ryday.

Lets try it.

Today is Monday and my response is "Oh my, it is the sabbath."

Wanna try it for Tuesday? Ok I know I know.

Wednesday then.

No?

Thursday?

You gotta give me Friday or Saturday.

I don't believe it!

Only Sunday? And for a few hours to be holy?

Wow!

No wonder!

My relationship with Christ is a mess. I can't keep a goal for long. Procastination and depression are closer than friends.

All because one day in seven is the sabbath!

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Messiah is coming

2010-08-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Do you see what I see?

Drinking and partying now a global decree?

Do you hear what I hear?

A terribly weak resolve to endure in the face of personal fear?

Do you eat what I eat?

Inorganics that rob of the bush taste of simple foods like meat?

Do you wear what I wear?

Clothes with no longer a purpose to cover but to cause a stare?

Do you live where I live?

Watching my back trying to protect my life from a neighborly thief?

Do you drink what drink?

Dregs full of self that make me from humanity sink?

Do you walk the way I walk?

Pride that kill brain cells and return me to mom to sulk?

Do you sit where I sit?

Alone, in need, but unwilling to move my feet?

Do you know these times are telling?

Infallible proofs above that the Messiah is coming?

The Will of Him Who Sen Me!

2010-07-08T04:13:00.000-07:00

A messenger, I was, without an inkling of knowing on my end. I was sent out for a reason and with a purpose but nothing seemed to register. I must have fallen and got kicked in the head because only a concortion can cause the amnesia I had.

....the will of Him who sent me....

All I can do is play a guessing game to ascertain. You know what?

It has to be something powerful...something grand!

I think its to save the world...or....something!

...or something...

Come to think of it I'm guessing a messenger is sent out with a message.

Light slowly illuminated my brain.

A message! A message that fulfills it purpose when its delivered.

...the wil of Him who sent me and to finish His work...

...finish His work...

The message that must be delivered.

Wow! No wonder I'd forgotten all these while.

While I was figuring out something pride-mounting and fame-proclaiming, it was always near and terribly simple.

No wisdom needed.

No puzzle to solve.

And there and then it hit me like a thousand light bolts:

Christ and him crucified!

I said it!

There I said it!

Packaged. Unpackaged.

...And now delivered.

To everyone I must tell that Christ died and rose.

His will is done.

An eternal price paid by God's Son.

Ages ago crucified yet His blood's efficacy still undiminished.

Message delivered - His work finished!

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

What do you seek?

2010-06-15T07:52:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

What do you seek?

Time is too precious! Every step echo dangerous warnings to retreat! Heartbeat pound the rib cage in fright of recompense to come. Yet your resolve stays unshaken; your spirit hold down the soul before it flees away.

"This I must explore!" you say.

And on you go.

Carefully, yet determinedly you advance. With three soft steps you're in. There and then you gaze at incredible beauty that astounds any. Your eyes light up like never before at such glory and splendor and did I forget wonder? No! I couldn't!

Without knowing you covered the middle of the room in bedazzled steps.

Who dwells in such a place as this? Your heart questions.

Obviously, its one thing to visit as an aristocrat but to live within-day in and day out- would be only for the highest of nobles.

Slowly, the quiet pinches. The silence crawls over your brilliant skin.

Simply put, consciousness returns.

Your eyes meet others who stare. A stare of judgment or resentment you can't say. Is it pity or empathy your confidence stray. One approaches and stops behind you. Slowly, you turn, expecting the words:

"what do u seek?"

But the words you hear change your life forever:

"Welcome my child and dwell with me. Your soul has wandered for years with a future that's bleak but you found me and I dare not ask what u seek. You've spent yourself low, its time for the peak. So my son- christ for you he died, givin you strength..you no longer have to be weak!

Believe and live! All that's mine is yours! You came seeking...you leave a living being!

2010-04-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

From where do you know me?

Never have I seen such a party!

Grand, beautiful, luminuous and wonderful!

Music and laughter fill the air, availing to all attendants the liberty of its debauchery. At the center seats the majesty whose voice was heard with the same pitch in defiance of distance. The majesty begins to ask a question: from where do u know me? He exclaimed. Standing up and going from one corner to another, from nobles to peasants, the majesty sought the answer to his question.

Guests started responding. Slowly at first. Then, in a chorus, the answers varied but did come speedily without much thought or truth.

Then, the majesty stopped in front of me.

....where do u know me? The same question posed.

My eyes slowly welled up in tears; hands clutched in remembrance.

I said to myself:

You were sentenced to death for what you rightly deserved. Depression, sorow, and low self-esteem had become your buddies. It was there you recalled God knew you: where moth and rust had seeped too far in, and robbers had stolen more than you could bear. Sin, so heavy, you once carried without choice or reason, where hell, you once called home.

Now looking unto the majesty, your hands point to the unseen and your lips tremble of weighty words unable to utter. The majesty nods in comprehension. When the majesty's hand touched your cheeks in love's reach, all you could say, at the mercy of all who heard, was:

"Christ! It was in Sin's deliverance I knew thee!"

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Doves in The Valley

2009-03-17T10:22:00.001-07:00

The mention of the word valley spurs me ironically to think of a mountain. I mean, my mind cooks up two mountains with a valley between.

The valley: a place that I can affirmatively say isn't a good place by just reflecting on psalm 23 - …through
the valley of the shadow of death...

The valley seems to denote extremities or deficiencies. For example, when
the rain is done falling, the mountains are never flooded unlike the valleys; while the sun beats the mountains, the valleys are enriched of its lack.

You can stand on the mountaintop and behold a glimpse of the world's kingdoms and its many glories but to see the mountain peak
from the valleys remains impossible.

So picture this:

You are standing on the mountaintop with soothing sounds of beautiful birds chirping in the hollow before you transcending gravity and humanity. Doves, sparkling white as ever, ascend out of the darkness beneath. Then wonder strikes of such beauty found in such a place? Is it a force of darkness clothed like the angel of light or the real deal?

Can the
messiah be from the least tribe of Israel or we are our own saviors?

All these are possibilities but I yearn to latch hold of the very last. Let it all be gone and I'm human again. Loneliness overwhelms! Reality sets in! I am not of my own! Life is of pure design and the creator I seek!

It may be a lost shot but I'd rather hope and lose than not hope at all.

Doves in the valley!

Beloved can you see?

The creator, defying
deaths for three days, ascend up from abysmal depths to save thee!

Come Down Before My Child Dies

2009-03-04T21:50:00.001-08:00

Thin legs of mine ran with long strides, sounds like that of horses. Heavy gasps of breath forced through my lungs for release. Only, if only, I find Him, then the journey will not be a waste.

The tougher part will come later- an encounter I dread so much it slows me down. But I cannot dwell on it right now till I see Him...till I stare trembling before the Master to ask a favor. The part I fear most is if He rejects me and grants not my desire then all is lost.

My soul had grown weary from looking until I spot Him and then my countenance changed. Immediacy cried heavily in my ears and I knew there wasn't time for many words.

A few moments after, I was on my way back. My wish was granted!

My request was given!

Without looking back I knew He was coming with me. I didn't have to say much nor did I, with Him, need to have ties. All I said was:

Jesus! Quickly, for life goes and time flies;

What I ask is for many and my soul desperately cries.

Come down before my child dies!

By The Pool Bethesda

2009-02-21T14:55:00.001-08:00

One of those people who had given up trying was me.

I had a lot of goals-so many there were but none have been spared.

As fast as never… before I run as slow as ever…hoping to reach the finish line only to have another claim d prize.

Once-known passion dwindled to lackluster and then to hopelessness, only to end in despondency.

What's the point of trying only to be shut down afterwards?

Strength is stolen as the yrs go by.

Life ages as time waits for none.

Giving up is logical, actual, and real.

…You will always have a choice a proverb says…

My response: not for me!

Then another, like other blessings past, came in sight.

A plain man walks to me with a wanderer's look and rich in lack of physical wealth.

"Pick yourself up," he says "and live again."

My answer for him is capped in three words: "what's the point?"

"You see the blessings u seek? Though far, I bring near; unreachable by you but freely offered by me. Here! Take! Have what you've sought. The emptiness that plagued you, like the leper beside Bethesda, fullness I give.

Whatever you need and whenever,

Grace and mercy receive!

Take up your bed and walk from nigh and far,

Deliverance meets thee by the Pool Bethesda!"

Born of God

2009-02-07T19:22:00.001-08:00

I wish to witness my birth!

But Ye, I can't.

It would have been something- I know-but such will never be granted!

You know what next I wish for?

A flat screen where I can behold my every step…and to ask for too much… amend my steps to the way it should be. But you know what? If I am to be granted such a priceless blessing, then, only I must glare at the screen, for shame, oh so mighty shame and revulsion that stink out will be mine only to bear.

Wow! I started this message with curiosity but now have none left. My heart raced with excitement but not a before.

Then a Man, with holes in his hand, whispered in my ears:

"What if you can have it?"

What? I asked.

"What you just fantasized about?"

How? It can't be possible.

"What if you can have it but in a different way…Another of the same?"

What if? I wondered.

"This time, I, knowing the future, can guide you.

I , loving all, will help you."

What about...

"Your shame and mistakes you mean?

Guess what? I'll cover it!

When you fall I will be there to pick you up.

You don't have to wish to watch yourself born and grow when it's source is of man.

Behold something greater:

You-being born of God!

God of love…God of mercy

2009-02-02T23:50:00.001-08:00

God of love, God of mercy

Have mercy upon me

God so pure, and so holy

Let my life be full of your glory

Thou art so sweet and so caring

My heart for you - be unfailing

Thou art so beautiful and so creative

In you I find the will to live and live

A wonder of awe and artistry

Culminates to announce your majesty

Calling things not as though they are

Takes your reverence, in me, higher and higher

I command this soul of mine be humbled

Let Christ have you though u've stumbled

Never deem it hard to be too obedient

For no sacrifice, too costly, will cause you to relent

The Father of Mercies

2009-01-23T14:48:00.001-08:00

The father of mercies!

These words strike a chord in memory, a recall of something to do with boasting. Bear with me for I will thus explain. The father of mercies tickle in me the vision of someone presented to all as having mercy. This question was asked: Is there anyone merciful in this hateful world of quick judgment? A Being steps out to answer:

"I am!"

As spectators behold the one who dares to claim such a rare status, another one speaks within the crowd: "what about the father?"

Many concerned folks, weary of great longings of mercy, thirsty of ages past of such rare glory, turn to behold the one who defies such a moment.

A commoner, just like any other, steps out into the open - nothing of sight to reckon with but eyes full of a greater depth that comes with knowing. 'Tis a knowing that signifies experience and not words

The commoner speaks again:

"If you claim to bear mercy, what about the ocean that overflows in abundance of it? If you dare to deceive with a show of pity, what about the rivers of rare glory that flows from the source of mercy?

You speak with words to show. I speak of a place to go! Come! Let me show all where to drink from; a fullness provided for all and not for some! Follow into the throne of grace and stand before the mercy father face to face."

After all said and done, only one step it took for all to quench their longings that whelmed for ages, for we all, shortly after, lay by the ocean of grace provided by the father of mercies!

The I am that I am; the One who stretches hands of empathy to feel what we feel and stare with eyes heavy of love at us –

I acknowledge the Father of us all!!!

What Is It To You

2008-10-01T21:18:00.001-07:00

What is it to you?

When anything of value loses its substance

When the winds fail to make one tree dance

What is it to you?

When the one you love does not reciprocate

When you'd rather punish than emancipate

What is it to you?

When the wicked prosper and I hold out on judgment

When my name is continuously defied and I do not comment

What is it to you?

When evil becometh of the land and justice comes not

When the path to rightness is not sought

What is it to you?

When I justify where I must condemn

Let a repented sinner into heaven

What is it to you?

I am God and there is none other

When you and me even I cannot sunder

What is it to you

THE BURDEN OF THE WORD

2008-09-05T23:54:00.001-07:00

Burden is such a word I can identify with

It's quite ironic that the Word bears a burden forthwith

Course through the breeze whistling by and do wonder if there is such a burden

For the word is as the breeze, if not lighter

But those who have been bruised, lifted by the word;

Those who have been abdicated, crowned by more than this two-edged sword

Can testify; raise their hands to signify their concord –

There is such a burden in word!

Unfortunately, the consensus reveals the norm in the abundance of our hearts;

Our lips are rarely opened before words of conceit, anger, hate, and evil are voiced.

Commanded myself to stop for the list is endless of heavy burdens – milestones they are – that leave our mouths only to hang over another and drown them in the wiles of life!

So if you know nothing of a burden, you know that of any word!

Before thou cling so easily to the heaviness of ours, challenge thy open-mindedness for another word that holds light is blowing through!

Though its lightness is a burden but be comforted, its yoke is easy and its burden is indeed light!

Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I shall give you rest!

This is the burden of Christ:

Believe and be redeemed!

Be saved once and for all!

So simple!

So easy!

Yet a burden –

THE BURDEN OF THE WORD

2008-07-29T17:33:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

The LORD possessed me in
the beginning
of his way, before his works of old.

If you ask me, all I know about ‘the beginning’ is that God created the heavens and the earth…

If you tell me otherwise, all I have to say is I totally respect your volition to have, and to hold, such a notion, whatever it may be.

If you ask me about possession, all I’ll say is I often respond to such a word with caution and a little fright of the unknown taking my known.

If you ask me of works of old, all I’ll say is David speaks of being young and later old, yet have not seen the righteous forsaken. He definitely knows about the works of old but me, the more I know is the more I need to know.

So let’s revisit that marvelous scripture, put the pieces together.

Hmm!

What do we have here?

With great caution and fright of the unknown inhabiting my known; the unknown that created the majesty of the heavens and the earth, though, I be young, and knowest nothing, his works of old was attested by King David…and one affirmation from the one after God’s own heart is enough to let go of all my inhibitions and take in the one who defies my bounds with His boundlessness, erupts my confines with his vastness, reveals the sweet joy in fearlessness…

So let Him possess me in my beginning
(the same way He must have in Jesus’ case),
and open my eyes to my destiny before my form took shape in the hourglass of time.

Profound?
You have no idea!

Incredulous?
Wait and See!

You ask me if it’s possible...If it’s true?
Well….So let’s….

MY OFFICIAL WEBSITE IS OUT

2008-07-21T11:16:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Hi Everyone,

I am extremely grateful for the encouragement and support that you have given, even by merely reading my postings and responding to it as deemed fit. My official website is

www.sovereignbooks.com

You can click on the wings of the wind and read more about the description and also the excerpt. Afterwards, you can go ahead to purchase your copy. For readers in Nigeria, I'm working out a way to get the books available for you guys. It's going to take a little while but God if faithful.
New postings will be simultaneously posted on here and on my new website as I gradually move all my writings to sovereignbooks.com.
Great things are bound to happen to those who live by faith, and not by sight.

Grace and Peace,
Olushile Akintade

Wings of the Wind

2008-07-10T23:12:00.001-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Do listen to the whispers of faded time

As it courses through – running past us

You hear it!

You feel it!

You see it!

It overtakes without aiding…

But oh Beloved….do listen!

Thou knowest not the Source…

Where it goest…Where it comest from!

Certainly, it comes!

It waits not for your bid.

You don't have to compel!

It comes.

Surely, it does!

You know why? The reason is simple! It carries Someone! The water suddenly ripples up waves. The peace of the clouds is disrupted!

Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind!!!

The Lord Jehovah! Behold Him! He comes!

Sorry I haven't updated my website recently.
Guess what?- I just finished my first book. Its fiction rapped around historical setting. The name is

The Lion of Africa I: Wings of the Wind.

You can actually read an excerpt about it online to see if it stirs your interest and its only $18.69 online. Can you pls read the description and excerpt online for me? Not to blow my horn but it is a wonderful book cos it took a lot from me and I feel a part of me slumbers within its confines.
Click here: Lion of Africa I: Wings of the Wind

I will really appreciate your criticism and views and will look forward to hearing from you soon.

Understanding the Mysteries

2008-05-16T08:28:00.001-07:00

If you could understand the complexities of life, the woundings of circumstances, the inexplicables of life's occurrences, would you still be human?

If you could choose the soul of a god for yourself and hold the power to will the scepter of control or trudge on the hot sands as mortal, weak and contemptible, what would it be?

If you could afford lavishes of liberty and merry in the pool of improvidence or be subjective to the Unseen and acknowledge incompleteness, what would you buy?

What callest thou a man who claims godhood?

What callest thou a god who bears manhood?

Why do legends and myths claim the insatiable constancies of gods mingling with men? Is it a tale of endless desires or soul-cries of man to have gods inhabit their world?

If divinity is clothed in mortality, and mortality now bears the DNA traces of divinity, then what are we-gods on earth?

If…only if….

If you're capable of impossibilities and have been fed with ordinaries, aren't you a little bit curious to explore and unlock those potentials?

If the Creator, with the power to destroy and re-create chooses to love and save, would you be glad you got a chance to live?

If you could be shown and still retain the power to choose, would you agree?

Pictures, frames, stories, proofs, wonders, beauties, are all I offer!!!

Let's walk through the twenty-second Psalm and behold the understandings of the mysteries…

My resolve…My purpose!!!

2008-04-11T22:44:00.001-07:00

Why have thou forsaken me?

Why is there pain where there should be strength?

It's high time I made a decision.

Mourning may indeed endure for the night but joy comes in the morning!

In my opinion, its about time those words become more than words.

People want reality not words.

However reality isn't variably independent.

It is a by-product of something else.

Nothing becomes real unless we make it to be.

Nothing can be more real than what we perceive or make ourselves see.

So I blind myself to the negativities that surround me without excluding them from consideration.

Thick scales rooted in the Word block my sight and all I see is what I see.

All that's real to me is the Word.

And if I dare say, Christ is the Word.

Nothing matters more. Nothing drives close to home than this: Christ and Him Crucified!

So when I face adversity, my strength is not in me but in Him.

When troubles come my way, my hope lies not in this world but in the Holy Spirit.

Do you care to know what I say to the impossible and the seemingly unreal? Have you any idea to second guess my conditioned response to the uncontrollable stimuli that fills this worldly sphere? Will you dare underrate my dreams as mere figments of imaginations?

Well you can try, and try you will.

This is my resolve. Though my eyes are red and my heart, milestone-heavy of pain and sorrow, I choose to believe, and believe I shall. God hasn't seen any like this. A broken-down, death-trodden infant who holds on to Him when many would have called it quits.

Jesus I believe!

Help my unbelief!

New Beginnings!

2008-04-06T17:40:00.001-07:00

Told me once not to despise new beginnings

Why should I hope in what always is recurring?

If I ever be counted as a righteous man who falls

Though I be not one, duty calls

At the road side where my step is lost

To go to the start is such a dreadful cost

At the spot on the wayside where I failed

There I must continue be I frailed

Beginnings may be essential and vital

Continuance is indispensable; the without is lethal!

THE JOY OF HIS COMING!!!

2008-02-25T15:37:00.000-08:00

Mr. No-Change looks like everybody else: a large barrel containing something, or sometimes, nothing. Mr. No-Change fits perfectly in the first category, which is of those who contain something. He is always full of something and seems to enjoy whatever fills him at various points in time. Whenever its time to uncork the tap and let go for a refill of something else, Mr. No-Change reveals his true form and cleaves on without letting go.
I approached him one day and asked him do you believe in Christ? He said Yes, of course I do. I asked him do you feel content with this world and how things are? He answered me and said as long as he gets his fill then the world is a perfect place to be.
In the other side of the city lives Mr. Passing-By. He's regarded as the dumbest fool of the city. Whenever you need anything, just go to Mr. Passing-By and ask him. As long as it is within his possession he will gladly give it to you. Remember what I said earlier, about everyone being a barrel? Well, he also is filled with something all the time. The only difference is that he gladly turns the tap and let go to fill other's needs. The weirdest thing I've ever heard is that no matter how much you take from him, he seems to have his barrel full in the next instant.
I asked him one day how is it that you let go of things so easily? He said that since he has no home and travels a lot, he might as well lighten his load as he moves from city to city. My brows ruffled up as I looked at him puzzled. He went on to explain that his refill comes every second and the earlier he lets go the better. When he turned to refill some opportunist I asked him will he be travelling soon. He said he's been travelling his whole life and has no intent to stop. His home isn't here and will move on to another city very soon.
So tell me who will be ready to let go of his skin and get a new one when Jesus comes? Who will be more than happy at His return?
Which one describes you exactly?
Oops! I forgot to tell you.
Mr. Passing-By is also a christian just like Mr. No-Change.

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS

You Can Try

2008-02-07T07:37:00.001-08:00

Smother me

Or let me be.

Numb my senses

Sure try lowering my fences.

You could try to beat it

But you can never win it.

Shatter my defense

And behold a new offense.

Dare to make me starve

There's something you'll never have.

Cause me to sin.

I have another chance to begin.

2008-01-01T11:50:00.001-08:00

Forever.

It is such a beautiful word.

So profound and yet so simple.

You don't need an education to know what it means. It can be proven, if you dare to know, that even the individual who has never had any form of education has in his or her finite mind a concept of forever.

Isn't it weird that you could define a word and still be thrown overboard by its exploration? How peaceful we feel when we keep words as transient as it shouldn't and then move on without taking a break to dig deeper. I remember a scripture that even the atheist knows yet it has caused dissension amongst the body of Christ believers.

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.

You see everyone is fine until they get to the last two words:

EVERLASTING LIFE.

If you've ever appraised and embraced what these two words mean then I'll stop my weary hands and rest my caring mind from helping you see what forever means.

To understand everlasting life is to understand forever.

So if you want to keep it simple so will I.

If you rather not go deeper, out of the fear of making things more confusing and avoid arguments then I'll take this walk with you.

Simple truth: You may never have fully understood what John 3:16 is until you take forever as simple and as powerful it is.

So you say forever means to last always.

Alright then.

John 3:16 says if you believe in Christ then you'll live for always.

Simple and Guaranteed.

Eternal life. Everlasting. Forever.

Do you want to keep things simple and avoid strife,

then occasionally dwell on God's words cos there's none better;

believe in Christ and have eternal life,

then dwell in the House of the Lord FOREVER!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

…IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD…

2007-11-12T07:14:00.001-08:00

If you have been lost in the whirls of the busy city and no longer know what it feels like to be refreshed; maybe you feet are worn by the long walks it takes day in and day out; or your senses dulled by the noises that clog your system, then it may be somewhat difficult if not impossible to relate with times of refreshing. I mean after a certain period of time the body tends to acclimatize to its surrounding and thereby becomes alien or defensive to a new sense. I'm sure it's easy to understand the strangeness of a new horizon that brings a peculiar form of weather, in this case the temperate kind, when, as an organism, symbiosis has been established with the tropical.

But hold on…
You can feel it again.
I speak of the times of refreshing.
They are not coming FYI!
They are here!
You are seated right in front of me. In this place you can sense again. There might be a thousand excuses to why you no longer have time for the common; why you no longer indulge in the simplicities of life; why anything less than complex isn't real and cannot hold any form of truth; why the gospel of Christ Himself, as simple and profound, seems incredulous and ludicrous to your liberated mind.
But hold the phone….
If you won't converse with another, and welcome others' opinions then hear what is real as it passes by. Listen to what hovers around; though seemingly transient, yet real. You know it's there though you can't see it. It's the breathe from it that you rely on to live on. Since you're seated then you can, for a brief moment, suffer it to wash you over.
Drown the echoes from your wisdom head. Put off the thought that bears you away to the unreal and for one time, in this lifetime, relax and appraise.
The seconds turn to minutes and for once you feel like you just rested for the first time in eternity. Its like needing a massage so bad that once you get it you drift off in slumber and only stir when something foreign rudely intrudes.
Open your eyes now.
You felt it didn't you?
You touched it isn't that true?
You saw it face to face but for some reason, just like me, you can't explain or describe it. it's beyond words and astounds you so terribly.
It's the wind bearing witness to what is invisible yet existent; what walks on the wings of the wind.
The times of refreshing are here!
If you want to relax again and go through this marvelous experience then come again to this House: God's House, where you thought He didn't exist and let the silence that abhors time teach your proud self that it can be refreshed from the outside.
Imagine if it were always from and in the inside.
Come again I beseech you into the House of the Lord for the times of refreshing wait for no one and yet, is for everyone.

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

The prisoner of Christ

AND I SHALL DWELL

2007-10-16T08:04:00.001-07:00

"To dwell in happiness!"

I love this phrase!
Sometimes, there are words we say that are judged by our hearers based on the triviality that beds it or the seriousness that ushers it. It is good to listen to the heart when, in passing, it voices that, "I would love nothing more but to dwell in happiness." Wouldn't it be nice to be at a place in life and love every minute of it. Remember the saying that "when change is avoidable, not to change is inevitable!" Conversely, there is a part of life that is not susceptible to change. A part that cannot be corrupted by the irresistible influences the world enforces. There is a place, remote and real. Therein lays peace. When the strong winds blow, and the tempest visits; when the storms rage and age rises; when time is lost in continuous motion and blissful moments sublime; there is still a place.

Do you hunger for it? I may have said it in passing, like many of us who voice out the truth in casual conversations. Our shoulders shrug as we laugh off what truly matters to us and holds heavy in our hearts. Do you recall the scriptures saying, "Avoid jestings…?"

Why?

The truth is we have missed the truths confined in words of playfulness and hurt another when we never got to know what is truly being said. You might think you know someone when you can quote, word for word, what was said. Unfortunately, we say more without words than we should.

But listen to this again.

…And I shall dwell …

When said in passing, this phrase still is profound. Powerful. Beautiful. Wonderful.

I shall dwell!

When David proclaimed this he declared it for himself. "I," he said.

When David declared this he was sure of it. "I shall," he said.

When David was sure of it he meant to stay for good. "I shall dwell," he said.

When you hear others say a word or two, and you don't know or truly can decipher, amidst many mystifying words, what is being said, listen again to what is not said.

After sin possessed man, from God's side, we fell

After healing, from Christ's sacrifice, made us well

If there is no other thing I know, this I can tell

That always, in the Spirit's bosom, I shall dwell!

The Prisoner of Christ

All the days of My Life

2007-10-04T23:00:00.001-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITON OF GOD' WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS

To hear the words above said by teenagers would literally mean a time period they would hasten to arrive if they have the chance or should I say choice to make the change. If it were to be said by the aged, it would mean probably mean a whisper that ordinarily lets itself out if not willed, or a vapor, caught by the eye for a moment, only to disappear into the air.

What about if it were to be heard from the lips of the proud who would only bask in the idiocy of personal gain in order to ride over the weak? What if it grazed the mouth of the self-pitied in search for more pity to justify personal failures?

But listen closer.

Feel the power stemming from the simplicity of such everyday words. This time these words were said by the least expected of the mass. If anyone were to utter a word, you wouldn't have thought of this individual. It came from the lips of a man whose heart resembled that of a teen; a man whose beard definitely matched the aged. Here spoke a man whose life's conquest calls for his every word to be edged with pride; a man who could have trodden the path of the self-pitied in search for God's own heart.

Yet, if you read closely, and listen deeper, as deep calls to deep, the first thing that strikes you in this passage is humility.

All the days of my life!

"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God."

I don't know if you can see that in the phrase. It echoes powerfully a humbled man who knows his days are not in his hands but in the hands of the Giver of Life.

So, here it is! The lips of the least expected have declared it! The humbled have spoken the same words but yet it sounds different!

You may owe your life's work and all that you are to yourself, and I have to tell you, what a load of work you must have put into it, but David knew different. He owed his life to someone else. With his eyes looking up in worship, and his hands outstretched in complete surrender, we have a model to emulate. Remember we were commanded to look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith! Why not follow the footsteps of a man after God's own heart?!

Therefore, when you seem to have it all, and know it all, and overcame, unlike any other, whatever stress and strife;

Do take a step back and give honor to the one who gives honor, and gaze at the one who exalts the humbled, by pledging allegiance to Him,

all the days of your life.

…Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…

The Prisoner of Christ!

…Shall Follow Me...

2007-10-02T17:18:00.001-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITON OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS

It would have been easy if I were to ignore the true significance of the word "shall" in the phrase above but my heart wouldn't let me. A word that bears no typical meaning in our generation and barely used even by the scholastic of us still strives to exist and proclaim its significance and utmost relevance if, by chance, we leisurely look up its root and uncover the dirt to reveal the gold in its profound rarity.

To express determination that instantly obligates us to what has proceeded from our lips or from another strikes us like a bolt from the blue in the present day world.

Yet, the scripture retains it. It marks not only one, but many pages of the wisdom-filled, unflipped pages of our bible. Do you remember when you found the strength to do what you have declared without a promise said? When did the heart of man need a backup word called "promise" before belief is born within to accept what has been said? Do you know there was a time in history when words spoken are automatically, deeds promised?

Though it might sound ludicrous yet those times did exist.

And they still do!

…Goodness and Mercy shall follow me…

We may need to go further in order to find some form of meaning to these phrase but take a step back from your fast-paced, crazed world and see the abundance of blessings contained and still retained in that phrase.

Tis' is to say that God has spoken!

God's words are obligations!

God's words are sureties!

Tis'to say that no matter the poverty that afflicts our over-resourced world, goodness and mercy will come to me. If it be I alone, and truly this is not to be found illed with folly, goodness and mercy shall follow me!

Why?

Simple!

It was said!

It was done!

So don't let the situations that clamor your ears from hearing what the Spirit has said to the churches, be your lasting convictions and the last hanging ropes of existence. The Spirit is not speaking on the outside with the noises we breathe as needed air into our lungs.

The Spirit is speaking within!

The testimony is sure and true!

Look at the promise which is yours-already due!

Why worry about what is going to be-

When the Word says "Goodness and mercy shall follow me?

The Prisoner of Christ

Surely Goodness and Mercy

2007-08-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Let me ask:

Have you ever waited for a prayer to be answered?
Did you persevere till the dawn of the morn for some form of response from the throne of Grace?
I remember saying once: “If you ain’t gonna answer my prayer, at least acknowledge my existence.”
Nay!
I must have said that more than once!
For those whom the journey through life has been anything but rosy; the hearts of likings who identify with my cry, definitely know what I speak of.

Maybe your dilemma is as paramount as the terrible wars fought in the past. I’m sure your shoulder must have slumped once before, from the weighty burdens of pain. Do you know what it feels like for a few to stand against many? Can I press you to recall, and if you can’t, then fantasize about what it is to withstand when at the verge of Babylon’s flames?

Can I speak my mind, or do you think I impose my willful thoughts on thee?
Can I share a story, or do you think it best to avoid truth and then, flee?
Will you spare a moment, or would you prefer to voice out: “Let me be?
Will you listen for a second, or do you know, from life’s experience, you don’t have the key?

Come.
Stand with me.
We are about to be cast into Babylon’s flames.

Come.
This you must see.
The three Hebrew brothers have declared we embrace the flames.

Behold.
We have cried all night long. The dawn has come and still we’ve heard nothing from the hills were comest our help. It is time. The wait has been long. The stress has been draining; the perseverance, now long-suffering.

The man after God’s heart now speaks:
“Surely goodness and mercy.”
The evil man belonging under God’s feet proclaims:
“Will you bow down and worship me?”

King David said there is still a certainty. King Nebuchadnezzar said there is no place for importunity.
The three Hebrew brothers are still standing. That is surely consistency!
King David is still singing. What continuity!
The Angels are still praising. The sounds, so heavenly!
The night has come and gone. Nebuchadnezzar declares worship. What mutiny!
I urge you still. Let us defy the earthly and hold on to divinity!
We may be struck down or be in the face of death as we speak but there is one portion meant for us! Just one path mapped out in destiny:
That despite the pain, the sorrow or tears life brings us, our hearts are still resounding, and our hands will remain steady. Our legs are still standing and our voices are always declaring:

Surely Goodness and Mercy.

The prisoner of Christ

…My Cup Runneth Over…

2007-08-07T14:51:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

I have seen Oliver Twist once.
Nay! It must be twice or thrice.
When I find myself take a walk down memory lane, I realize many instances where I’ve been the least deserving of anything unlike hungry Oliver.

Oliver was still able to ask for more.
I had always known, by my actions, my penance was to be erectly poor.
Oliver’s fear crumbled while his belly grumbled for food worth asking for.
My heart knew the truth not to display defiance when shown the door.

If it be that I go hungry or full, I know what I deserve. Sometimes, popularity seems to denote fame and tend to send little spidery feelings of importance down one’s spine. We are consumed with anything media, and idolize, if not purposefully, then subconsciously, the icons paparazzi struggle to proclaim and/or reclaim. I’m sure the lust to be known dwindles when the reason of knowledge is not to praise but to disdain. When many shoulders rise higher in the flashes of camera lights, you might shrink and wish that the floors would swallow no one but you in the ambience of travesty.

Have you ever been in a situation where the exit was sealed?
Have you had your cup stretched out with sorrow-filled?
Do you know how the daily poor feel when they ask for a piece but, in return, get crumbs?
Do you know the heart’s pace of the fearful, when asked to face a crowd, sounding like jungle drums?

At life’s limit, you venture not to ask anymore. Drained of all hope, you stop to watch the favored ones drench themselves in stupor. Withered of all faith, tears come as the wise bask in their fill of knowledge. Robbed of all love, Tis comely to expect the pass of the richest wine, served first to the most blessed, and then to the rest.

Will you approach the table of cups to get served if it was customary that you and I, the chiefs of sinners, partake also? Everyone took a cup. Will you take only one? Did you reach the table at a time when the finest cups were in possession, leaving you with the only rugged, wooden cup? Hands stretch out for cups to be filled with wine; could you barely raise yours?

The cold wind matched in from the silent sea in the distance running a chill down the rich and the poor.
He came in to only put a coat upon you as cover.
He ushered you to His table, like David welcomed the lame son of Jonathan to dine at his table for ever.
You might wonder who it was that paid the price to be your lover.
T’was the same one who anointed you with oil before; how could you forget the Father?
Others may judge and walk away in disgust but His Spirit didn’t just come to hover;
But now resides in you and me; as we delight in the feast before us…I dare say…am the most blessed for my cup runneth over!!!

The prisoner of Christ!!!

Thou Anointed My HeadWith Oil

2007-07-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

The crowds gathered.
Both the wretched and the rich; the Gentiles and the Jews.
Everyone was waiting for the anointing.
Stories have been told, before I was born, about the God of the land pouring forth His precious oil on His chosen ones. It was to be a grand occasion. The whole universe waited in anticipation of such grandeur.
You could see the distinction of places occupied by the rich to the poor.

The former took the high grounds paved with gold while the latter, of which I belonged to from forever, garbaged the low grounds, soaked in filth as the mud seeped in slowly into our bare feets.

“He approached,” cried someone from the crowd.
I tried to get a closer look but as always, got shoved to the back.
There was silence as footsteps were heard.
Something was definitely wrong.
The rich should be celebrating by now. There should be the usual banters thrown at us from the high grounds but the silence announced something else. Crashing of gold glasses must be cutting across the air as the rich were meant to celeberate but this signal, I tried to pick up with my ears.
The seconds stretched on endlessly as I scratched off ticks from biting off what was left of me.

“Oh no!”
“This cannot be,” declared another rich folk.
“He walks towards the low grounds.”
“Tis betrayal holds no bounds.”
“Our God has forsaken us,” announced the most opulent of them.
“He goes to those whose lips do nothing but curse.”

Again I tried to see what my ears heard but which my heart couldn’t perceive.
Murmurings grew in the low grounds as I heard the footsteps now. It wasn’t loud but yet it was! The grounds didn’t shake but our hearts did! We couldn’t speak, yet our very souls were already reverberating from impounding echoes!
Truly He approached the weak. The low. Defiled. Depraved and the Wretched.
I didn’t know when my head dropped low in fear and did obeisance, for my God approacheth.

My Christ is here! My precious Holy Spirit Divine has come!

The crowds in the low grounds parted as He came into and through us.
The footsteps were getting closer.
I could feel them within myself as I tried to fight from being drowned by my heartbeat.
He’s coming closer.
My eyes closed as tears flowed down my mudded cheeks.
He’s standing in front of me.
I knew from that moment how condemned I was. I knew that there was no other reason for my God to stand in front of me but to judge me and send me to the uppermost darkness for all time.

My knees buckled under and knelt before the King of Kings.
The Lord of Lords.
The Ancient of Days.
Tears were flowing uncontrollably now.
I couldn’t apologize for the sins so many.
I couldn’t stand ‘cos my burdens so heavy.

Then I felt something touch my head. It felt like a drop at first but then I could feel calmness introduced into my blood veins as the liquid ran through my head. I was shaken from having cried a bucket. I had bathed in the rain many times just to be a little clean but this liquid did more than the rain.
The itch on my head was no more.
I watched as it ran down my hands and for the first time, in a long time, I saw the true colors of my skin.
The burdens in my heart felt lifted and when I dared to look up to my King, there was no condemnation in His eyes.

YOU CLEANED MY HEART FROM THE SPOIL
YOU LAID MY SOUL OUT LIKE A FOIL
YOU DIDN’T WELL UP IN A VIOLENT BROIL
YOU ANOINTED MY HEAD WITH OIL

WHEN THE RICH SHOULD BE THE ONE
WHEN, AS A PEASANT, I WAS DONE
WHEN I’D GONE TOO FAR TO RETURN
AND MY HEART ALWAYS DID MOURN

WHEN I THOUGHT YOUR ANGER OVER ME WOULD BOIL
WHEN MY GUTS, AT MY DISGUST, DID RECOIL
WHEN MY BURDENS HELD ME TO THE SOIL
THOU ANOINTEST MY HEAD WITH OIL

….so go on and bear your heart out to the One who chose you out of the low grounds
...you don’t need to labor for grace or toil, for God, hast anointed your head with oil

The prisoner of Christ

IN THE PRESENCE OF MY ENEMIES

2007-07-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

You have seen their faces.
You know how they look like.
Creatures you would have denied were not formed by the same God that formed you.
There eyes sparkle with hate and evil. Their lips darkened by the smoking cigars of darkness.
You must know those I speak of.
To call them enemies would be too kind of us. You know the many names that cross your mind when you see them. Should I be so bold to speak? Could it be that I’ve found the courage to be true and real with how I feel?
They sometimes approach in horde, coming for the kill. These ugly, vile, wicked, inhuman humans, possessed by principalities to cause harm and pain to your innocent self, have become somewhat of a familiar encounter with you.
You can pinpoint their exact location, and tell when and where next they’ll strike in a heartbeat. How you’ve survived for these years still remains a mystery once you find it in yourself to reminisce. There are seasons of war and seasons of peace where you can find some time, if it will, to relax and listen to the calming silence.
What if, if I may ask, you find, within the silence, characters of Brutus and Cassius, as friends? What if, to your bewilderment, you find enemies amidst those you call loved ones? When will you see that greater harm can come from those close to you than those afar? When will you come to find peace in knowing your enemies by heart and not by face?
In horror and deep-seated anguish, you must have cried. The earth must have been shaken by the grief that escapes your lips to claim the air. The birds must have ceased, if it be for a moment, not to venture into the skies because of the terrible winds of mourning that blows out from your lungs.
“Father, why am I encamped around by such great evil? Why is it that in the world there is so much tribulation? Why does it seem that there be no more seasons of rest and why have my solace being intruded by the world rulers of this present darkness?”

(silence…a still small voice whispers…)

YOUR BLESSINGS AND CHASTISEMENTS ARE SET ON A HILL FOR ALL TO SEE;
YOUR STRENGTH AND SUFFICIENCY COMES FROM NO ONE BUT ME.
BLESSINGS, THAT YOUR ENEMIES MAY SEE THAT I DO NOT LEAVE MY CHILDREN BEHIND;
THAT THEY MAY NOT GO FAR WHEN THEY’RE PUZZLED ABOUT YOUR SOURCE, AND SEEK TO FIND.
CHASTISEMENTS, LEST YOU BE EXALTED ABOVE MEASURE AND STUMBLE;
ENEMIES ARE GIVEN AS THORNS IN YOUR FLESH FOR YOU TO STAY HUMBLE.
SO NOW BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS AND SEE THE BOUNTIES I HAVE PREPARED FOR YOU;
REMEMBER YOU WILL NEVER BE FOUND WORTHY BY WHAT YOU HAVE OR DO.

“Oh sweet, precious HolySpirit, I shall ever be grateful for what you’ve done for me and I now fall on my knees,

For you have prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies!!!

The prisoner of Christ

THOU PREPAREST A TABLE BEFORE ME

2007-07-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

I don’t know if you ask me.
I really don’t.
It seems to me that I have, most times, been the one to wait on another.
If there be, as I’m sure there is, that someone has attended to me; my mind is clouded by my own servitude and not of any other.
So be it said that I have thus, chosen to incline myself to even welcome and explore the numerous uncountables when I have been served.
I have grown to have food provided by a guardian. This task has seen its way through parents to loved ones.
A dutiful servant regards a simple gesture of attention more so as a luxury; ‘Tis be also regarded likewise as common in the heart of the opulent.
When a rare occasion becomes a recurring event, adoration dwindles in the prescience of familiarity. What should be held in utmost grace and gratitude becomes scorned and devalued by the eyes of the commoner. It is verily so that servitude may be necessary in life’s course, (Nay! for it is indeed mandatory, in some shape or form), the heart longs, if not for a long period of time, for a brief intercourse with the feeling that courses through the one being served.
I proclaim the inevitability of servitude in the climb to greatness! I fantasize with the emotion of the served, in its ethereal royalty and loveliness!

Unfortunately, I may serve another all through the brevity of human life and have it not reciprocated. It is funny how those held in the inextricable jaws of sin, poverty, and death, cannot reason within their finite minds, nor welcome the sheer thought, to serve first in order to climb the ladder, the same kind that Jacob saw in his dreams.
If the poor cannot serve, what can be said of the rich?
The camel can go through the needle’s eye but not so the rich.

“…the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Can you then quantify the inexorable wellsprings of astonishment, and eventual down flow of elation when the Creator of both the rich and the poor decides to stoop low and serve?
Will it ever be found, in the vain lips of Man, the exact words to qualify the depth, and height, and length, and breadth, of the immense riches and quickening of human spirits when God resolved that our place, He was to have?
Bear with me this thought: “for whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? Is not he that sitteth at meat?...”

Jesus went on to finish that above statement by saying: “but I am among you as he that serveth.”

For this reason I put away my expectation to be served.
I renounce, with a resounding declaration, my portion to be halved.
No man needs to serve me; no one needs to feed me.
I have come to know the unknown. Please, let me share with thee:
There’s no greater portion, nor inheritance, and thou must wanteth not -
For the rich serve thee, it may or may not be
Tales can’t fathom; legends cannot compare, eyes have not seen as I see
When God, in Christ Jesus – the blessed One forever! - came to serve me
Join me at the feast of eternity to exclaim:
Thou Preparest A Table Before Me!!!

The Prisoner of Christ

…THY ROD AND THY STAFF THEY COMFORT ME

2007-06-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Shepherds are known to carry Moses-like rods when wandering the earth in search for flourished grasslands for their sheep. Like we all know, there are times of great abundance, and there are times of great scarcity. A man that has trudged the sands of time and have faced and fought the insurmountable Goliaths will slowly have the memories of his great feats slip into oblivion when in the round of great plenty and a seemingly, lasting peace.

Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me…

Sometimes the experiences we have within our grasp soothe in us reservoirs of unequalled wisdom and undeniable folly. The former, when there isn’t anything new under the sun because you probably have faced such a challenge or have an idea how to deal with any rising circumstance due to previous exploits. The latter, when the characteristic pomposity that accompanies greatness nourishes self-aggrandizement and slowly, the little wisdoms of a child are no longer championed by you.

Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me…

It’s times like these that a heavy rod laid on the back is in order; times when a king’s guiding staff, from you, must not sunder. Verity bespeaks that the rod be not spared, and the staff must be heard. Since obedience is better than sacrifice, the rod must disobedience, sacrifice. When obedience brings forth abundance, the staff must be your only guidance.

So, if you need Christ’s rod to strike when you find on your lips murmurs and grumbles, then you need to pray this prayer with me. If you need His staff, the Holy Spirit, to guide when you find on you mind arrogance, self-deceit and blasphemy, then this proverbial words you must see.

“Remove from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.”

I now adjure you to come out of your folly and see-
Come, come, and from your acquired wisdom flee,
And maybe then you’ll be able to honestly say with me -
Father, “Thy rod and staff, they comfort me.”

The prisoner of Christ

…For Thou Art With Me

2007-06-07T09:32:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Have you ever been lonely before? Have you felt the deep pangs of heaviness that escorts the heart-felt pain loneliness brings? I guess it would be appropriate to know what loneliness is so as to know what one accrues as its fruits. It is possible that such clear-cut, none-needed definition of such a plain and simple word as loneliness could be misconstrued even by the heights and depths of human wisdom. I could summon the Webster’s Dictionary to do justice to this or could place, line by line, the many profoundly-proclaimed dictionaries to decipher the weights of such a feeling. The truth still stands that there are no resources out there that can tell the heart what it feels except the heart. A shrewd bystander that has collected the many experiences of travelers still doesn’t know nor can describe the cavernous sensation of loneliness like the traveler.

Maybe you know what I’m saying. If it be possible that you have experienced it before, then I say to you it is good. If you haven’t, then celebrate not. You will come to know this great companion of all great men and women. Many have sought solace in family, friends, relationships and activities to rid themselves of such a fate having failed to realize that such means are solutions temporary with time.

David felt this once.

Nay! he felt it twice.

When his own blood sought for his blood, it must have been thrice.

Job knew this. He was cloaked and clothed with it.

A man of great wealth became of great dearth. Jesus lived this. When his skin broke up in sweats mixed with blood, Oh, His heart felt no bliss.

If you empathize with these great men because you have felt this loneliness of a spirit then you should have craved for the same thing. Nay, you must have yearned for it.

“Be with me!”

Sometimes these are the words that shout out of the acts of many law breakers.
“Stay with me!”

Sometimes these are the words championed in the sought for counseling from broken-hearted loners.

Hear then, O ye lonesome creature
See with your heart and not your eyes the real picture
In the lonely nights, God’s Spirit hovered the earth
While there was chaos, therein, He gave birth
When you feel the loneliness no one can solve
Come to the spring of life, for Jesus can absolve
Jonathan told his armor bearer, “Are you with me?”
If the Lord be with me, from the enemy I cannot flee
Come. O ye people. Come!
The physically strong and the lonesome
Jesus! There are no words before or after, I now know and see
That it is a statement not a phrase,
“FOR THOU ART WITH ME!!!”

The prisoner of Christ

I FEAR NO EVIL

2007-05-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

I hear it!
I think you do too.
The sound of an inestimable silence.
The reverberations of such heavy stillness.
My soul longed to be crushed by some mighty blow than to endure the cold torture of the quietude. If it be that something approaches, I bid it, “Come. Come speedily.”
Will my resolve be stretched beyond its elastic limit as I bear the agony of no intrusion?
The last of my strength spent to withhold the shrieking sound working its way through the hollow pathway to my voice piece.

I’ve been here before.
I’ve felt like this for sure.
In the utter quiet there’s war.
My Will broke, I do this no more.

“Father! Here thy son!”
“Bid that which cometh to come!”
“Master! Your Will be done!”
“My loudest might sounds like a hum!”

Suddenly, the earth quakes and my adversary approached. Darkness gave birth to its greatest weapon-Fear. In the faintness of my fading vigor, I remembered a small lad.
Someone. Some child. He walked this path once. Ye, him alone.
He must have thought it fitting that five stone would be enough. Jehovah knew it took only one. He must have figured to release the sling with all his might. Jehovah knew it took only faith. He must have seen the beast in front of him as a defiant of the Living God. Jehovah knew he was born for such a time as these.
The beast must have counted on feeding the little lad to the birds. Jehovah knew His will be done. The beast must have rested on the power of his armor. Jehovah knew the armor of His own power. The beast must have proposed to kill the lad for sure. Jehovah knew it was disposed of Him to lead the beast through death’s door.

So here he stands in front of me. The same beast. The same but of another. Here he looks at me. The same look thousands of years ago. The same but of another. Here he thinks the same. The same thought wars fought before. The same but I no longer bother.
A lad stood once here before. Thus I stand.
A boy won with one stone. So surely, I’ll win.
The same boy said "the Lord said to my Lord..."
The same Lord Jesus stands with me now.
Though it be big, strong, and fearful, if it will, be it the devil.
In the largeness of my smallness, I fear no evil.

The prisoner of Christ!

…the valley of the shadow of death…

2007-04-17T16:46:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

This is the place.
Look at it.
See the very pathway that has swallowed up fallen saints. Can you make the steep terrains that define its valley? If your existence has been shaken by world tragedies then think again ‘cos this is worse. If you thought that the ghetto kills people more on your bloodied alley then reconsider, this is more than just a valley.
See the river of thickened blood flowing through its hollow. Watch as the sun fails to smear the thick darkness below.

Many are called but few are chosen. ‘Tis here, above all else, you will find the true test bespoken. ‘Tis here, beyond all else, saints have found their humility false. ‘Tis here, defy all else, horses and chariots venture not but pause.
The praise of great men who slew Goliaths stifles in the echo that reverberates from the surrounding hills. The nightly sound from the forbidden beast touches your spine with chills.

Look at your faces-filled with blood as bravery deems from your essence. Must I now tell you that this road is the only path that leads to the Savior’s presence? Will you stand where others have fallen? Will you look at the deathly fiend while your Master bids you to come in?
Children of the past, brace yourselves to be men of the present. Awake, and do awake fast. We have a helper. He is heaven-sent.

See how the vultures rise from their carcass. Look how they stare in anticipation for us.
If you think you came this far to walk through this alone then you need to sever from your folly. David approached Goliath with God’s sufficiency and that made him holy.

And if you fall…if u fall. Remember the One who fell and got up. Do not forget the Christ who made us one, both the fallen and the standing.
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, so what? It won’t be the first time. He brought me thus far. He will take me home.
Though my legs sink the quickening of the sand dunes, then what? My body may be taken but not my heart.

Though I be struck and torn by the inhabitants of shadows, I care less. I’m dead in Christ already. So I do not live but Christ lives in me and the life I live, I live by faith in the Son of God who died and rose again.

Soldiers: We are ready!
Alas! The response required of Christ’s saints.
Let’s dare to venture into the alley full of sorrow and the devil’s breath;
Come. We go hence, through the valley of the shadow of death.

The prisoner of Christ

...FOR HIS NAME SAKE!

2007-03-29T13:40:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Do you know, if I might ask, the reason of existence? I mean what’s the point of living without any sense of purpose? Have you ever being in a fight where you know, by the stance of your opposition, there is no chance but you went in anyway just because

You wonder why the ellipsis? Well, so that you can fill in the space.
What was the motivation? What was the inspiration? Was there ever a reward? Did you get a return? Maybe it was love…maybe lust…maybe envy…maybe pride.
There are times when we don’t need a reason to do things. All we need at such moments is just to act. Many call it living. Stop the procrastinations that totally wind you in and take a bold step and do something spontaneous. It would be inappropriate to stifle this piece with debates to ruffle such clean sheets.
Be it as it may, there are other times when your heart finds an urge - some inexcusable, and indelible stroke of reason.
Powerful. Unquenchable. Vibrant. Potent. And real.
Painful as it is, many have fully accepted a life of mediocrity. The twist and turns of life have really shut down the fire that burned once in them; the love that captured their hearts; the anger that ruptured their control to do. “…the love of many has wax cold.”
Jesus said we shall receive whatever we ask in His name. Precious Jesus authored and finished our faith for His name. A good example here is for me, without reason, to proclaim Him the blessed One forever.

You look tired dearly beloved. You have traveled far haven’t you? Look at your feet so sore. I pray thee, can you take any more? Touch your temple. You do need a drink from the living cisterns. It’s been a while since you’ve waited. Will you give hope credence?
Stand up for a while. Glance ahead of you. The latter road seems to be longer than the former.
If you were of Israel, I’d champion David’s mighty men! If you were of Greece, I’d call you Spartans. If you were of Africa, I’d praise the name Carthaginian.
Nay, not of all these are you from but of one whose city is the New Jerusalem; a citizen of heavenly places; a creature adopted as God’s son.
Still tired? Look. The Giants of Anak approach!
Thirsty? Stand. The desert wind blows.
Hungry? Hold your ground. The seven years of Egyptian famine looms.
Listen. The Master speaks:
Christians. Fellow soldiers of Faith. Lovers of Hope. Carriers of Love.
Arm yourselves. Draw your swords smeared by God’s Holy Word. Take up your shields fastened with faith. Where is thy silver helmet cast in the fiery furnace of salvation? Show me your feet shod by Christ’s gospel peace.
Stand with me.
If there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy and brace yourselves. We do not live because there wait, for us, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
We go like David against Goliath, in His Holy name.
Feel your foreheads.
Feel out the name written on it and embrace your owner.
Do you care to drink again from the living waters?
Answer me soldiers.
Strike the ground like Moses stroke the rock. Let the waters from Christ, your solid foundation, gosh out in power. Let it flow and remain like a lake…
…fill yourselves for we go a step further for His name sake.

The prisoner of Christ

...HE LEADS ME IN THE PATH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

2007-03-20T17:47:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Do you care to notice that lovely meadow? Care to crave for its loveliness as it waits on the other side, full of promise? Watch, I adjure you. Watch. See how the rivers flow of milk and honey? Try to relish how the sun dares not to set in the New Canaan.
Care to join the crossover team?
What was that?
You ask of how?
Look. We have a leader.
Behold. There is the path that leads to bliss.
You hesitate?
Oh! I see.
Your life has been filled with devils, and your soul, mingled with filthiness that you found yourself unworthy to even enjoy a glimpse of the new heaven and the new earth, let alone go with us.
Be still. Beloved.
Let us reason together.
I felt that way too. I know the heavy burden my soul carried. I felt the milestone tied around my neck. Look briefly at the scars the mighty tides of life have inflicted on me.
It was all my doing.
In sin I was conceived. In sin I was born.
But before you drink again from the dregs of bile, and wallow in the mire of squalor, let me, if you please, give light to your darkness.
See the master? I mean the one who leads us in this journey?
Yes. He is the one who glows in light too bright for the eyes to hold.
He told me that He leads all of us who bear no inkling of rightness.
He came to seek and save that which is lost.
He said those that need a physician are not those who are whole but those who are sick.
So I beseech thee. Sample those of us who are on this path.
Look how vile and despicable we are. See the rottenness of our teeth, and the incorrigibility of our essence.
Now do you see how you fit in?
Do you dare to care?
Will you care to dare?
The acceptance of our insufficiencies is the perfection of His efficiencies.
For it became of him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings.
So if our leader, the God of light and love, would care to cross over in order to lead us to His kingdom, won’t you think it suffice enough to show gratitude by yielding to follow?
Don’t common sense prick you to lay off the sin that easily beset you and come with us?
Come.
You have tried to be right before but you failed.
Follow.
You have struggled to stand before but you fell.
Obey.
You have traveled many paths before but you found nothing.
Look at the bridge.
You can’t see it?
Wait.
Let me lift you up as my strength can bear.
Be unburdened and awake your confidence.
The road may be hard, steep, rough and long but do not fear
He leads in the path of righteousness!

The prisoner of Christ

He Restores My Soul

2007-03-14T17:15:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

It’s been a long journey.

It wasn’t so hard to understand the possibility of taking advices from King David, a man who got chased from his throne by his own son. I joined him in his flight.
Do you think it strange when I ended up in prison with the ruler, Joseph, a man who was sold by his own brothers? In the darkness we gasped for light.
It wasn’t a mystery discovering the great supplanter, Jacob, whose life was desired to be ended by his own twin. We ran away with all our might.
Would you have been puzzled when I found myself in a ship with Jonah, who thought it best to run from his God? Storms in the ocean turned us white.
It wasn’t at all startling to find myself locked up in an ark with Noah, who shut himself and his family from his own people. Our lives were shaken by the waters’ height.
Maybe it should have been a wonder when I ran from Damascus with Paul, who was to be killed by his own religious brethren. He taught to fight the good fight.
But…
It was with great humility we were all summoned to join, in death, our Savior, Christ Himself, who didn’t survive eternal punishment from his own creatures. He gave us the strength to go on even in the chastisement and blight.

Christ promised us restoration.
Spirit guaranteed our redemption.
God ushered His Son – a reward.
Jesus gifted the Spirit – His due we can never afford.

Paul suffered the most of all the apostles….but God…restored his soul.
Noah wept at the futility of his muscles ….yet God…restored his soul.
Jonah repented at the belly of the beast…but God…restored his soul.
Jacob ran in fear, for his brother’s right he leased…yet God…restored his soul.
Joseph yearned and long-suffered for his family…but…God restored his soul.
David wrote some psalms in pain…but…God restored his soul.
Christ was killed for my gain…and God…raised his soul.

I look back and couldn’t see anyone, yet, somehow, without a doubt, I knew I was surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses. It wasn’t the first time I found myself in such a predicament. Some were sufferings for good; others, by my own foolishness.
Nevertheless, he restored and still restores many. He shall surely restore me again.

The sand felt hot under my cracked feet.
My belly roared for some form of meat.
In spite of it all the bleak distance shone in hope. Courage seeped into me again to take another step.

Why?

Because every time I’ve found myself in lack, Spirit made me whole;
Each time I found the strength to go, Christ was, and still is my goal –
And every time I get caught in the deep, God, He restores my soul!!!

The Prisoner of Christ

He leads me beside still waters..

2007-02-27T15:11:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

I was by the ocean once.
I feared it once. I still do.
I could hear its distant sound as we drove miles away towards its bed.
It had its voice. It refused not to be heard. Its language, no matter how vague it was, commanded the arrest of all creatures. If I were so bold enough to put words to its eloquence I’d say, “Hear me- a defiant of all boundaries; a crash of mighty thunders. Indeed I, must be heard.”

18 yrs later. Fully grown and masked with unequalled depth, God leads me back to my fear. The torture of my soul. The echo that chills my bones.
He laid me down in green pastures once. It was time to walk the waters.
Peter had the courage to take a few steps on the tremulous sea. Yet, my soul, how decadent it is, drowned in the sands.

GO.

It was a command. My sufficiency-the precious Holy Spirit of grace-ushered on.
I could have sworn I saw, in the distance, the Leviathan rise and submerge.
Sea creatures crawled out in flight of such terror.

“Why must I go?” My soul asked God.

LOOK UNTO ME.
‘TIS BURDEN MANKIND MUST TOW.
HENCE, ALL FEARS FLEE.
‘TIS PATH MANKIND MUST TROW.

I heard Peter cheer in a cloud of witnesses, “Go. Son. Go. Let not my letdown be yours to know.” I had journeyed with two pairs of footprints. Without looking down, I knew there was only a pair as I walked on.

Eyes steady…Faith ready...
From sunrise… To sunset…

The only hold the great waters had on me was a soothing caress of my worn-out feet.
The same waters, of which the skilled of sailors melt at its fierceness, became still.

My problems’ bigness decreased; so did I.
My Christ’s vision increased as my praise went high.
Temples relaxed; shoulders collapsed. Man proposed it falters;
God disposed as he led me beside still waters!

The prisoner of Christ!

HE MAKES ME LIE DOWN IN GREEN PASTURES

2007-02-15T13:31:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

It was one of those nights that claimed its displays of both good and evil. A tired soul walked past a couple of guys perpetrating atrocities under a tree on his way to the tennis court. His destination was saturated with an atmosphere filled with cries of fellow crusaders. Every night he would come, like a sheep in obeisance to his shepherd, for the nourishment derived from green pastures. Once he crosses the dangerous bushes, his heart would find such soothe as his feet felt the coolness of graveled grounds.
Samuel would walk the first two courts before stopping at the third. He would lie down on the gravels and use his slippers as pillows. Many crusaders would walk by, pause for a second and stir at the absurdity of this fellow countryman before walking away with a disapproving nod.

After a while of intense prayers, the Shepherd came to visit along the courts' garden. The first stop He made was by a young crusader who had rested on the wall in slight slumber.
“Dear sheep of mine,” said the Shepherd, “where would you seek to lay down?”
The young crusader stirred and replied, “Master, set my feet on easy grounds were solace is not what is sought for but wherein lies in excess; where I no longer twist and turn in the beds of life seeking comfort where there is none.”
“Son,” replied the Shepherd, “why haven’t you asked me for the very thing that provides sustenance to your weary soul? Why doesn’t your spirit thirst for the soothing waters that streams from wellsprings of life? Why doesn’t your existence hunger for the feeds that give strength to the many sheep? Wait a while here. Let me ask your brother and find out his desired pasture.”
The Shepherd moved closer towards the tired soul that found rest on prickly grounds.
“Dear child, why have you found peace on such bristly surfaces when your brother rests his back on Jericho walls?”
Samuel, the tired soul, stirred from his slumber. “I have sought solace before in places of human rest and found my soul robbed of calm; I have once rested on the Jericho walls, in pride and wealth, but have suffered a lasting wound as the wall came crushing down my back. My feed is to eat from the bare shrubs that scantily grow on the dry earth and I have now found solace in the prickly grounds of life’s persecution, derision and scorn. Master, I beseech thee, let me dwell in the sanctity of thy Truth for therein lays liberty.”

The Shepherd called the young crusader and declared: “You have asked me for easy grounds. Well, here they are. Lie beside your brother and learn;

You asked for beds of rest. Well, don’t look far. Lie beside your brother and yearn.”
He then turned to Samuel and said, “Come my child. You now fully understand what it means to abide and be faithful in all things. Come. Lie down in green pastures, for the grounds you stand up from is now your former pastures. I have lain with you, the whole time, and will always be with you.”

Samuel looked up as the young crusader joined him on the floor. He looked unto his master and said: “Master, I beseech thee, let me stay with my brother, for surely we travel the same course and therefore will lay in green pastures together. I have come to realize that your never-ending provisions abound even on prickly grounds. Pls hear my request and grant the desires of thy servant's heart.”
The Shepherd looked at him proud to have a sheep like this in His camp. “Then I shall watch over you as always in case the enemy tries to rob you of your joy for I am the Lord who watches, the Lord who saves.”

“…for I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content.” – Phil 4:11b
No matter what I go through, my heart still speaks that God's grace affords providence in all things. Whatever situation I find myself, I regard all as my green pastures
… He makes me lie down in green pastures.

The prisoner of Christ

...I SHALL NOT WANT

2007-02-08T13:38:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

I was privileged to know my father before he was pruned from this world. My lovely sisters would be sent by we miscreants (my brothers and I) in request for a favor. This request ranged from going out to rent a movie or play games to visiting the country club where we, as kids, had so much fun. Irrespective of the number of times we'd had more success than failures at this, our hearts raced with either the same or a greater anxiety as we waited in anticipation for our sisters to return with the verdict. I remembered the last time the room to my father's door slid open and my sisters came out with a gleeful face. "Dad said we should all dress up cos we leave at five."

It felt great to have a father who was always there for us.

It felt great to have sisters who advocated and stood in the gap for us.

It felt great to have a family who stood as the Great Wall for us to relax our backs on, anytime we wanted.

Food was always on the table; clothes, on our backs; tuition was always paid, and life felt so good.

I SHALL NOT WANT!

The fact that my father was always there to provide for us made me feel like, for the rest of my life, my lot would be laid with beds of roses. The presence of his love convinced me that in the toughest of times, I would have someone to count on at all times. My father's nightly inspection of his kids while we slept stirred me into deeper slumber all the time.

I SHALL NOT WANT!

A powerful observation was that sometimes my father denied me of my demands from time to time but I knew I was denied for my good, and my good only. He never gave me a stone in exchange for food. He never gave me a rebuke in exchange for encouragement. He never spared the rod in exchange for abuse.

...Because he was my father I never lacked what I needed.

Nature has granted me the right to infer that if my earthly father cared this much, and if the Lord is indeed my Shepherd, then I can say I Shall Not Want.

"If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you." -Jn15:7

I SHALL NOT WANT!

As kids, we needed to send someone to go for us and advocate for us; so also, His "Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be uttered..."

As we got our desires met just because of our earthly father's presence so also our needs are met when we ask the Lord.

The true test to verify my sonship to my earthly father is a positive paternal test.

The true test to verify my sonship to my Heavenly father is the Word that abides in me!

I don't receive everything I ask for from my earthy father. Why? He knows when to deny and when to provide. Simple.

I don't receive everything from the Almighty God. Why? He knows me more than I know my self and sometimes "I ask amiss to consume it upon my lust."-James 4:3.

...

Five minutes later. Fully dressed and ready to go out. My father came out of his room. "Come on kids. Its time to go."

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD; I SHALL NOT WANT...

The prisoner of Christ

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD

2007-02-02T10:01:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

I thought of how best to dignify the Lord with one of the rarest, most beautiful, artistic write-up about His shepherdry (if there is such a word), but the Holy Spirit hit me with a bombshell: no human vocabulary can ever qualify the selfless sacrifice; the loving grace; the encompassing shadow of His watch as the Lord of our lives. My intent is to try and delve deep into the unrevealed mystery of Psalm 23 and try to feast upon the deciphered keys of Christ – our Lord and our Shepherd.

The Lord is my Shepherd!
Eternity is quite challenged by my loss of counts of the times I’ve read this particular Psalm without stopping for a second to ponder on its treasury or be engulfed by its richness of Truth.

The Lord is my Shepherd!
I remember, not too long ago, when I would see, from time to time, nomads who would travel far and wide to find enough feeds for their cattle and sheep. From a distance, it seemed their lives were totally dependent on the welfare of their herds. When night would come they would build hatches and watch the herds with their lives. If there be, by any chance, a predator in search of fresh meat, it would have to go through these nomads who equate the lives of their animals with the cost of theirs.

The Lord is my Shepherd!
It’s quite remarkable how such a simple story could hold such great ounces of foolishness that defies the mightiest of worldly wisdoms. There hasn’t been any well-written story by the profoundest of script writers that has such resounding wellsprings of life like the story above: an unknown African nomad who watches his sheep with his life.

The Lord is my Shepherd!
Now I know what stirred the mind of David when, by the inspiration of the Spirit, penned down these great words: The Lord is my Shepherd. Why wouldn’t he when it was The Lord who saved him from the mouth of the bear in the fields; why wouldn’t he when it was the Lord who provoked him to pursue the beast that took his sheep from its shelter.

The Lord is my Shepherd!
There are no complexities in this! Dwell on its simplicity. Christ will watch over you. Why? He is your Lord. It comes natural for the Spirit to guide and love you. Why? He is your Shepherd.
I sleep with such sweet release! I slumber at His watch! My heart rests because I know, without a doubt, the Lord watches; the Lord saves!

The Lord is my Shepherd!!!

Selah

The Prisoner of Christ

Finish the work!

2007-01-24T13:50:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

"...my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work" -Jn4:34

No man needs to be told that food is a necessity of life! Oh, what importance is credited to the invisible wind that affords us abundant breathe; oh, what power a family's love carries in the nourishment of a child; oh, what lasting effect sheer words of encouragement has to mold the broken walls of despair. Yet, in all these things, you cannot cause a smile to appear on a hungered face; the greatest of comedies cannot amuse a starved soul in need of the simplest, most basic element of life; David's mighty men may be found unable to muster the singlest of strength after days of deprivation.

But Jesus! - Sweet Jesus, staring at the cold face of hunger, declared he had already found His satisfaction; Jesus! - Wonder-working Jesus, when He epitome a vehicle of drained strength and utmost weakness, proclaimed His contentment: "my food is to do the will..."

Another striking phrase in this blessed scripture is "who sent me." Hard work gets a new job and realizes that his new high income doesn't implore the need of his expertise. Diligence suffers in frustration when a day of idleness begets another day. Dutiful agonizes in the presence of a good week at work when his ingenuity is unchallenged. Creativity drowns in despair when he lies lame throughout a week of nothingness.

But Jesus! - Master Jesus, had a purpose! Jesus!-loving Jesus, knew His will! Unlike a servant who bites his nails till his soul is stirred by an outcry from the Master to complete a task, Jesus served from the Beginning with a mission. Oh my soul, how I long to be sent! My terrible soul, how I crave to do! My restless spirit, how I tire of wandering and hunger for exploit rendering!
Thanks be to Jesus for in His word I found my lifelong destiny.

Lastly, what does it mean to "complete His work?" Foolish, the precious words of the Spirit declares a man who builds without counting the cost. He is like a fool who claims to embark on a treasure-finding quest when his soul is due to be taken the previous night. He is like a talebearer whose words hold no ground in the midst of the city. Spirit's task is to walk the journey all the way. God's command is to begin and end. Christ's bid is to do and finish.

Therefore, Christ's food is my food. Christ's will is my will. . Christ's grace is my grace. I will also do the will of Him who sent me which is to believe and spread the gospel. I will not live on bread alone but on every word that proceed out of the mouth of God. I will complete my work just like Christ and my sufficiency is the precious Holy Spirit-my life, my everything, my all.

What is your food?

What is your will?

What will you complete?

The prisoner of Christ!

In My Minds Eyes...

2007-01-16T15:31:00.002-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

In my mind's eyes I see a new Me-God's own creation, whose courage never falters; whose legs never flee
In my mind's eyes I see a brave Soldier-God's own beloved, whose face bespeaks strength; whose strength stems from hunger
In my mind's eyes I see a good Son-God's own begotten, whose sacrifice was ultimate; whose Will is done
In my mind's eyes I see a new World-God's own earth, whose circumference is rounded in good; whose children are not galled
In my mind's eyes I see a new Race-God's own people, whose purpose is worship; whose desire is to see the Creator's face
In my mind's eyes I see a new Peace-God's own doing, whose authenticity isn't determined by polity; whose treaty isn't based on sanctions or fees

In God's eyes I see Love-a perfect description of which the heavens open for a dove
In God's eyes I see Hope-a perfect assurance of which, with present sufferings, I can cope
In God's eyes I see Faith-a perfect belief of which its not too long before I breath

What we see now is totally opposite to what is observed here.
If I be said to be unreal then my contentment lies not with what I see or feel;
If I be said to be a dreamer then my unresolved persistence will make the world a believer;
If I be said to be a counterfeit, then my proof comes when we meet at the Master's feet;
If I be said to be an outcast, then my worries of not being persecuted becomes of the past;
If I be said to be imperfect, then my soul is gladdened because it has revealed its defect;
If I be said to be imprisoned, then a prisoner of Christ I am proclaimed as envisioned.

In my minds eyes...In God's eyes!!!

The prisoner of Christ

A NEW BEGINNING!!!

2007-01-01T00:23:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

A new beginning is to many a resolution...
to some its a beacon of hope that things are going to get better...
to some its another repetition of a failed pledge...
to some its a defiance of a failed self...

A new beginning is to many a declaration...
a proclamation of planned achievements...
a voice over reality proposing newly-found dreams...
a wash over of external strengths over internal weaknesses...

A new beginning is to many a new foundation...
a beautiful outlay of gold over filth...
a mix of stolen warmness with coldness...
a lavish of untrue words embedded in fantasy...

A new beginning is to many a new decision...
a realization of insufficiencies and emptiness...
a rare humility of kneeling before the God...
a year dedicated not to earthly pursuits but divine exploits!

Look deep; know thyself; embrace thy faith; lose thy fate...
Look up; beyond the horizons; call the Christ; believe the Christ...
Look beside; help thy brethren; love the poor; supply the cure...
Look down; humble thyself; hold thy meekness; His Spirit the witness...

The prisoner of Christ!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2006-12-31T13:24:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

May you get a clean bill of health from your dentist, your
cardiologist, your gastro-enterologist, your urologist, your
proctologist, your podiatrist, your psychiatrist, your plumber and the
I.R.S.

May your hair, your teeth, your face-lift, your abs and your stocks
not fall; and may your blood pressure, your triglycerides, your
cholesterol, your white blood count and your mortgage interest not
rise.

May New Year's Eve find you seated around the table, together with
your beloved family and cherished friends. May you find the food
better, the environment quieter, the cost much cheaper, and the
pleasure much more fulfilling than anything else you might ordinarily
do that night.

May what you see in the mirror delight you, and what others see in you
delight them. May someone love you enough to forgive your faults, be
blind to your blemishes, and tell the world about your virtues.

May the telemarketers wait to make their sales calls until you finish
dinner, may the commercials on TV not be louder than the program you
have been watching, and may your check book and your budget balance -
and include generous amounts for charity.

May you remember to say "I love you" at least once a day to your
spouse, your child, your parent, your siblings; but not to your
secretary, your nurse, your masseuse, your hairdresser or your tennis
instructor.

And may we live in a world at peace and with the awareness of God's
love in every sunset, every flower's unfolding petals, every baby's
smile, every lover's kiss, and every wonderful, astonishing,
miraculous beat of our heart.

Unanimous

ONE OF THE MANY SAYINGS!

2006-11-28T09:34:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

God is searching...if He finds me not, I'll find Him!
God is passing by...if He passes me by, I'll run after Him!
God is drawing near...if He pulls away, I'll wrestle with Him!
God is speaking...if He stops, I'll begin!

God is everlasting...if He doesn't see me, I'll see Him!
God is saving...if He saves me (and He did), I'll seek no other!
God is loving...if He loves me (and He does), I'll love another!
God is calling...if He calls (and He did) I'll answer Him!

David was a man after God's own heart!
His path, I intend to be my part!
God searches for those to do His Will!
His Spirit, on my life, a lasting Seal!

Obedience is better than Sacrifice!
When I fear the Lord, then, I'm wise!
God established Jesus forever!
An inextricable bond with man, none can sever!

I have been lukewarm, and not bold!
I thought I was hot, but I know I'm cold!
God awaits the manifestations of His children!
My heart is thus inspired; mine and my brethren!

My sins, so heavy, and so deadly!
My soul scorched by death, ungently!
But Jesus, sweet Jesus, took my place!
I'm, thus, forever acquitted, Jesus!-I seek thy lovely face!

The prisoner of Christ

MY FIRST LOVE

2006-11-11T21:11:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

I have travelled long and far;

the road has been difficult and wearisome.

I find myself looking back as the memory frees itself,

for the vessel it possessed in the beginning is now discarded.

I have tried to meditate and ponder,

what exactly got me travelling in the first place?

It seems along the long, narrow road

my purpose and drive has become hazy in the enveloping darkness!

Although I try to remember,

and my soul tries to acclaim what it lost,

now I know that I have substituted Grace for Works,

and my first Love for self-aggrandisement!

The Bible says, "work out your salvation,"

and not "work for your salvation."

I must now put an extra, conscious effort every moment of my life,

for Christ must be first, and Him alone!!!

The prisoner of Christ

The Essence We Forget!

2006-10-16T17:08:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

In the US, cell phones were once the great tide that swept the whole nation like the Katrina storm. Now, the great tide has subsided. The influx of cell phones into nations, and the world at large can be compared to a great wave that never returns without leaving a deposit or residue. Unlike some puzzles that take a while, leaving treasures, most times, unfound because of its undecipherable secrets, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the purpose of cell phones. You might have guessed it: “communication made easy.” I remembered when cell phone held on to this sole purpose. Unfortunately, this purpose has been demeaned as now the primary purpose, and you know when there is a primary, there is undoubtedly, a secondary. I know a friend... let me see... probably two who have more than one cell phone. Ah! Now I remember! Companies now offer cell phone-owned employees blackberry, solely for business. For those who don’t know, blackberry is not a fruit no more, but a cell phone.
In the midst of a world of affluence, with resultant but yet undignified wastes of resources, a 60-yr old woman in the beautiful havens of nature, found in faraway S/Africa, held a cell phone in the year 2006, for the first time in her life. All her life, she had longed for one day when she would join the ‘Rich’ of her community to hold one. Sometimes, when motorbikes, in need of an engine tweak, roar by her small village, she would gaze long enough for the dust to clear only to see one of the bikers holding a cell phone to his ears. She would then sigh, turn back and enter into her thatched home consumed with thoughts like, "if I could only be favored to see one up close, not even to own it.”
The privileged ones out of us fail to realize what great bliss it is to have what we have till we lose it. When needs become wants, we tend to devalue and eventually trivialize the importance of life’s necessities by the whim of a brow. Many crave to wake up in good health like we do without acknowledgment; some face extreme hunger that the many good stuffs that end up in our refuse bins could satisfy a soul, if not more, for a lifetime; others experience great thirsts that a drop of water, will give their weary, bony soul enough hope to hang on for the morrow; many lives have faced the inevitable Death if only they had the knowledge of a Savior who has already made provisions for eternity.
I heard a song recently. It said, “You have too much to gain, to lose.” Love as long as you live! Give as long as you have! Praise as long as you breathe! Appreciate as long as you sense!
We have the One whose footsteps are worthy to remember and follow: God!-He is love!
God!-His Son He has given for our sins! God!-He is worthy of our praise! God!-His Spirit is our very Breathe!
You only live once!!!

The prisoner of Christ

TAKE A TIME!!!

2006-08-22T11:38:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Take a time to breath
no fragrance can compare to the air around you;
take a time to sit
to worry is the least activity needed for a breakthrough.
Take a time to stand
if the cost would be your own demise;
take a time to run
time and tide doesn't wait for the unwise.
Take a time to sigh
sometimes instinct needs a second thought;
take a time to act
a good counsel always need to be sought.
Take a time to read
my people perish for lack of knowledge;
take a time to play
in the elation of joy, watch out for the ledge.
Take a time to pray
the hidden cry within is Jesus calling;
take a time today
heed to hold on to God, or end up falling.
Take a time to meditate
you have all it takes for life and godliness;
take a time to wait
Spirit speaks! Listen! You are His righteousness!!!

Take a time!!!

prisoner of Christ

TAKE TIME!!!

2006-07-28T06:40:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Take time to think
It is the source of power.
Take time to laugh
It is the music of the soul!
Take time to read
It is the foundation of wisdom.
Take time to work
It is the price of success.
Take time to love
It is God's given privilege.
Take time to give
It is too short a day to be selfish.
Take time to play
It is the secret of perpetual youth.
Take time to pray
It is the greatest weapon in existence.
Take time to care
It is the pathway to empathy.
Take time to serve
It is the route to greatness.
Take time!!!

Elizabeth
O.A.U Ile-ife
lizzyash2002@yahoo.com

The Ponderings of A Tall Man

2006-06-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

A tall man once wondered how people viewed him:
in a view beyond the frame of pretence or
a piercing sight into his inner man?
"You are so cute!" some said;
"You are such a good boy," he allowed himself to be misled.
Tauntings, he thought, grew;
words spoken in stares, allude.
Years passed without him knowing the truth,
which is simply, "Not in a life that you should."

A tall man once wore the spectacles of people.
An action to see how he was seen.
Non-plussed, at what he saw,
it was a view behond the frame of pretence:
a piercing insight into his inner man.

In the One who held him in embrace-
he found a bile of despise;
In another who paid him compliments in many ways-
a liver of lies.
In the silence of a watchful observer-
he stumbled on a heart of love;
In the secrecy of an admirer-
he was a beggar craving for attention at the curve!

A tall man later said: "Never do things for those you see,
moreso for those you don't see;
only One can hold you in high esteem and love-
and that is THE LORD JESUS TO THEE!!!"

The prisoner of Christ

2006-05-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

What if?
What if tomorrow doesn't come?
And you make a journey home
In your sinful state and proud personality
Make a swift passage to Christless eternity
What if your life is cut short?
And all your dreams are brought to naught
In your self righteous confidence
End up in hell's burning incense
What if you die this very hour?
For over death you have no power
And in your belief and faithlessness
Cross to unending hopelessness
What if the trumpet does sound?
And in your Savior you are not found
In your backslidden compromise
Burn forever, paying sin's high price
And an end comes to life's race
In your careless neglect and complacence
Share everlasting moments in Devil's presence
What if?

Bola Adeoye

2006-05-15T11:20:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

"I will hearken what the Lord God will speak in me."
Blessed is the soul which heareth the Lord speaking within her,
and receiveth from His moth the word of consolation.
Blessed are the ears that gladly receive the pulses of the Divine whisper,
and give no heed to the many whisperings of the world.
Blessed indeed are those ears which listen not after the voices which is sounding without, but for the Truth, teaching inwardly.
Blessed are the eyes which are shut to outward things, but intent on things eternal.
Blessed are they that enter far into inward things, and endeavour to prepare themselves more and more, by daily exercises, for the receiving of Heavenly secrets.
Blessed are they who are glad to have time to spare for God, and shake off all worldly impediments.
Consider these things, O my soul, and shut up the door of the sensual desires, that thou mayest hear what the Lord thy God shall speak in thee.

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST-Thomas Kempis

THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL!!!

2006-03-22T17:42:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

I was kind of thinking, what stirs an indifferent soul
what drives away the emptiness and makes one whole?
what a puzzle it is to find what appeals-
A quietus for every grief, that definitely heals!

Mesmerized, when I realised its one true remedy,
as I sauntered the road down to Schenectady;
just a simple caress, as a mother held her own-
A hug that speaks more than what was seen or shown!

I stopped in my tracks, amazed at such passion,
displaying the divinest of all divine, yet merely an action.
The night was cool and dear as a wishing star sped by,
and I knew what my wish was, with just a sigh!

Like a haze I caught my breath as the clouds covered;
touched way beyond as the snow-my pale skin smothered.
With understanding I knew nothing else could come from above-
Than the greatest gift of all-I leave for you to resolve!

The prisoner of Christ.

KNOWLEDGE

2006-03-07T10:24:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Knowledge is foundation for great minds, inclined to change the world with a simple thought or a vast ocean of ideas.

Knowledge is the key to success opening doors that were forbidden before.
Giving perfect opportunities to expose or propose your definition of what would make you and this world excellent.

Knowledge is the ultimate power to overcome poverty of the environment and the mind, which are illusions that are designed to blind us and keep us in a box.

Knowledge is the art of knowing and growing, implementing what you have learned and continuously learn in life, constantly analyzing, strategizing, the need to enhance your world to make ours a better place.

Knowledge is the outcome of a person or persons having a thirst to seek and obtain a greater conscious mind, and once having that, reaching and encouraging others to do the same.

Iketa Gibson

BrooKlyn, NY

NOT GUILTY

2006-02-15T10:08:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

"Oh God!" The youth swore.
Stepping out into the well lit streets of Manhattan, he struggled to cover his head with the headwarmer as the gusty winds met him in a fierce embrace. The weight of his bag like a milestone, with its handle looped across his cotton-stuffed chest, the youth struggled to blanket his weariness but his bag won't let him.
"Come to this side, will you?"
A passerby looked at him and shook her head in disbelief. In her heart she pondered how a young lad could lose all sense of sanity, and find a companion in nothing else than his bag.
The youth looked at her and realised he must have spoken loud, for plastered on the face of the blonde was sympathy and a line that masked her eyes in pity. Without waiting for the traffic sign, he stepped out across the road and almost got hit by a car. In his shame to get away from the hypocrisy of the passerby, he realised that by sheer stupidity of crossing the busy road he had only worsened the bemused look on the blonde who now thought of a certain that he was insane. Taking large steps, he was almost running to the subway.

***

The Man sat, with so many others, on one side of the car. Their lungs suffered from the awful smell exhuming from the beggar on the other side. The beggar sat alone on one role while the role of seats opposite him was unoccupied. As the train came to a halt in one of the stations, many that sat with the Man got up and changed cars; some came in and only had to inhale once before exiting the car in preference to either change cars or wait for the next train. A lady dressed in a white shirt, dark skirt and stockings that kept the winter chill at bay stepped in and immediately moved to the other side to join the others and the Man in obvious disgust of the lonely beggar. The Man noticed the woman make a face while a young lad stepped in as the car doors were closing. The announcements were made, and the Man knew they all had to suffer in silence until they got to their destination.
The youth stepped in and immediately noticed the obvious. He was about to join others at the other side but something bade him not to. He found himself standing beside the stinking beggar, his tommy taking a turn in anguish.
"Why do you stop me from joining the others?" This time the youth was wise enough to whisper to himself. He looked at the other side and read the remark on the faces of people on the other side.
The Man looked at the young lad wondering if he was insane. Maybe he was a beggar, he wondered to himself, but he could see the lad wasn't badly dressed as such.
The youth realised that he hadn't succeeded in escaping. Someone on the way thought of him insane and now here are a bunch of people who felt the same. "I need an answer. Why do you stop me from going. This place smells like hell. I will puke if you don't let me leave."
"HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN?"
"Forgotten what?"
"IS IT THAT EASY TO FORGET, SON? DON'T YOU REMEMBER ONE TIME WHEN YOU STANK WORSE THAN THIS BEGGAR?
"What are you talking about?"
"IT WASN'T LONG AGO, YOU KNOW."
"But I never smelled bad. I always take my bath."
"YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN THAT YOU STANK SO BAD YOU WEREN'T ALLOWED INTO THE THRONE OF GRACE. FROM YOUR MOTHER'S WOMB YOUR SIN SEPARATED YOU FROM GOD. IN DEPRAVITY OF MIND YOU WERE UNBECOMING OF A CHILD OF GOD. YET HE SAVED YOU."
The youth closed his eyes. He hated himself for always being close to tears, but he could feel his heart break at the chastisement.
"WHILE YOU WERE UNGODLY, CHRIST CAME FOR YOU. GOD DEMONSTRATED HIS LOVE FOR YOU THAT WHILE YOU WERE A SINNER, CHRIST DIED FOR YOU."
"Oh Father. I'm sorry. I will stay beside him and will not join others at the other side, not because I'm better than them but because I was once lost and you found me; a beggar and you blessed me."
The Man,with others, stared at this young lad standing in relish of the odour oozing from the beggar. How can anyone survive such a smell. He was certain the beggar must have defaecated on himself, for the smell was so bad.
Seconds turned into minutes, yet the young lad didn't move, instead there was a characteristic change visible on his face. He was blooming in joy. But in what, the Man wondered. With every stop the train made at stations, people came in and immediately changed cars only after uttering words of disgust at the beggar, while the young lad laughed. For once, the Man felt like shouting at him what was his problem. The young lad's gentle face was smearing his skin and bruising his humanity, but he couldn't find an explicable reason for his hate.
As the train pulled to its last stop, the Man watched the young lad tap the beggar. The announcements were made that people should leave the train cars but he wanted to see what transpired between this young lad and the beggar.
The youth tapped the beggar, handed him a twenty dollar bill and told him, "Take this. Go to Lenox on Nostrand, ask for Jesus. Someone will show you the Way."
For the first time the beggar looked up in tears. "Thank you, son. Thank you."
That did it for him. The Man was thrown back. He realised his stand. While he condemned the beggar all the way, this young lad didn't. While he couldn't stand a breath of him, this young lad touched him. While he joined others to spite, this young lad had changed a life forever. At that moment it came to him as the young lad left the subway. It didn't matter if the beggar went to where the young lad told him to go. Neither did it matter if the beggar went out to blow the money down the drain. All that mattered is that the beggar had come in contact with someone who identified with him without condemnation and while he picked up a stone to throw, the young lad, by his character, had said to the beggar in summary:

"NEITHER WILL I CONDEMN YOU, GO AND SIN NO MORE."

shalom!!!
the prisoner of Christ

...then I met His gaze!

2006-02-08T10:31:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

"...looking unto Jesus." - Heb12:2

It was one of those days. Nothing to do. Nowhere to go. Vanity couldn't provide another area of life to be wasted; itself out of resource. Purposedly, I drifted my thoughts immediately the voice in the wind tells me to pick it up and read.
"Ah, well, i might as well read it and get it over with," I said to myself. "Let me start from the book of Acts," thinking loud, "maybe I could run through this one."
The words I read, the pages I turned, but none seeped in. It was like having two minds in one. Having read a few chapters I got to the point where a commoner was arrayed to face judgment. I came alive when I read that he looked up and saw the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
Like a bolt of lightning, it hit me; it was like pouring a hot coffee in a cup and at the same time looking at one of God's creations in admiration, only to feel a tinge of a nerve and then a shot of pain as the hot water smears your skin. "Did Stepen really see what he claimed?" I wondered.
"He must have for the scriptures says it."
I beckon to you to recall those moments when you know, and you know, that you know, there has never been any moment than when you find yourself standing before the throne of Grace. My eyes went up; not in belief to see what Stephen saw, but in hidden mockery;
times when you lay your hands on a sick person, not believing to heal but doing to conceal your unbelief while trying to justify your works;
Do you still remember when you are told that all you need to do is to pray and believe, then you bend down to pray again; knowing you've prayed before; this time, merely an act;
the former prayers, you thought you were praying to God, while within you were blaming God for the mishap; the latter prayer before the child of God who instructed you to pray, only a whisper of weariness; never passing beyond the roughtops above you.

I felt exactly like that. It was one of those times. I lifted my face up like Stephen, but not like him. Stephen's was out of belief; mine was out of duty.
Then I met His gaze!
My eyes were undone as Christ's eyes burrowed into mine!
Pain shot through my heart as my heart He unfolded
Tears of shame, trapped beneath my eyelids as my doubt He revealed.
"Depart from me Oh, Son of Man,for I'm a sinner. Defiled and unmade I am Oh, Righteousness of God. Leave me in my state for I've failed You."
"LOOK UP AGAIN, SON. LET ME SEE YOU."
"I can't Father. Stephen is your son, for he looked at you in boldness."
"LOOK UP AND LIVE. YOU CANNOT UNMAKE YOUR SONSHIP. YOU ARE MINE. LISTEN AND LIVE."
Fear, greater than that of Zechariah when he attended to the temple of God, filled me.
As I looked up...
"IT IS FINISHED!"
AND IT WAS! MY SHAME WAS GONE. MY SIN WAS LOST. MY UNBELIEF UNDONE.
NOW I LOOK BACK AND REALISE THAT I WAS NEVER SAVED UNTIL I CAME TO THE CROSS...NEVER JUSTIFIED UNTIL I SAW THE EMPTY TOMB... NEVER REDEEMED UNTIL I WAS BOUGHT WITH HIS BLOOD.. NEVER SANCTIFIED UNTIL I WAS COVERED WITH HIS BLOOD...
NEVER SAW UNTIL I LOOKED UNTO JESUS...
TRY IT BELOVED, YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU WILL MEET HIS GAZE!!!

Shalom
the prisoner of Christ

A Heavenly Language

2006-01-11T19:02:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

"I am crucified with Christ..." -Galatians 2:20

How beautiful it is to see christians stand up and declare, with such a great boldness that, "I am crucified with Christ," after thirty minutes of being under the voice of an inspiring Man of God. Sometimes, with an aura too overwhelming, a tear escapes the confines of my eyes as I join them in afffirmation of Apostle Paul's words. Funny isn't it that the atmosphere we find ourselves in, when in Church, takes an upheaval immediately we breathe in fresh air the wind brings on our way home. Sometimes it takes only an hour (to be truthful, most times less) only to have almost forgotten today was a Sunday. Ha! I hope you no longer wonder what Jesus meant when He said that, "the word of the Lord is like a seed; some land on the floor and the birds come and pick it up..."
Dearly beloved, how innocent you are of this! For those who have attained unto righteousness by works will not have a clue of what I'm talking about, but for us who know, of a truth, that,"our sufficiency is not of ourselves," can say we've have been found guilty of this unfortunate tragedy.
Do you ever wonder the frame of mind of Paul when he beat his chest to declare such heavenly tongues of mystery: "I am crucified with Christ!"
Without ever seeing Paul, I could vouch that he meant that there should be an exclamation at that point; a pause of thought; a silence of all human wisdom; a letting go of worries that seem to cloud the present; a centurion's order to halt while every inclination of his subordinates is to obey, without understanding; a divine order for all hearts to stop in defiance of nature- for a revelation has just being made! When Paul said, "I know a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know, who was caught up in the heavens and heard things unfit for a man to hear," atleast, we now have an idea what he meant.
Try saying it, O saint of God, "I am crucified with Christ!" Again. One more time. It ain't gonna hurt yah; it won't kill you mate; wa guan, say it; make una say am... Irrespective of the languages of mankind, it will come to a time that as you meditate on those words and say it, you will come to feel a strong clutch on the reins of your heart, and come to experience the superiority of the nudging over the feeling; then you will find yourself in the upper room with the disciples on Pentecost-the endueing power of His Spirit. Atlas! those tongues of fire will purge you and in all truthfulness, and with all sincerity, you have learnt another, of the language of the heavens: one is 'Halleluyah,' and another, "I am crucified with Christ!" Come on. Don't wait for me. Go on. Finish it.
"Nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me, and the life I live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me."
What better time to start learning the language you will find yourself overwhelmed with, when you finally get to the place filled with jasper and streets paved with gold and precious stones! And beyond the billions of angels and saints and the beauty of beauties, that blind out the former world from the windows of your soul, coupled with the enchanting orchestra of praise crying, "Holy! Holy!! Holy!!!"- there lies the One. This time you won't forget, for He is the Christ you claimed to be crucified with... the one you truly were crucified with!

Selah!

The prisoner of Christ

For me to live is Christ!

2006-01-07T09:25:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

"For me to live is Christ."
- Phi_1:21
The believer did not always live to Christ. He began to do so when God the Holy Spirit convinced him of sin, and when by grace he was brought to see the dying Saviour making a propitiation for his guilt. From the moment of the new and celestial birth the man begins to live to Christ. Jesus is to believers the one pearl of great price, for whom we are willing to part with all that we have. He has so completely won our love, that it beats alone for him; to his glory we would live, and in defence of his gospel we would die; he is the pattern of our life, and the model after which we would sculpture our character. Paul’s words mean more than most men think; they imply that the aim and end of his life was Christ-nay, his life itself was Jesus. In the words of an ancient saint, he did eat, and drink, and sleep eternal life. Jesus was his very breath, the soul of his soul, the heart of his heart, the life of his life. Can you say, as a professing Christian, that you live up to this idea? Can you honestly say that for you to live is Christ? Your business-are you doing it for Christ? Is it not done for self- aggrandizement and for family advantage? Do you ask, "Is that a mean reason?" For the Christian it is. He professes to live for Christ; how can he live for another object without committing a spiritual adultery? Many there are who carry out this principle in some measure; but who is there that dare say that he hath lived wholly for Christ as the apostle did? Yet, this alone is the true life of a Christian-its source, its sustenance, its fashion, its end, all gathered up in one word-Christ Jesus. Lord, accept me; I here present myself, praying to live only in thee and to thee. Let me be as the bullock which stands between the plough and the altar, to work or to be sacrificed; and let my motto be, "Ready for either."

Charles Spurgeon

2006-01-06T06:34:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

"Now the hand of the Lord was upon me in the evening."
- Eze_33:22
In the way of judgment this may be the case, and, if so, be it mine to consider the reason of such a visitation, and bear the rod and him that hath appointed it. I am not the only one who is chastened in the night season; let me cheerfully submit to the affliction, and carefully endeavour to be profited thereby. But the hand of the Lord may also be felt in another manner, strengthening the soul and lifting the spirit upward towards eternal things. O that I may in this sense feel the Lord dealing with me! A sense of the divine presence and indwelling bears the soul towards heaven as upon the wings of eagles. At such times we are full to the brim with spiritual joy, and forget the cares and sorrows of earth; the invisible is near, and the visible loses its power over us; servant-body waits at the foot of the hill, and the master-spirit worships upon the summit in the presence of the Lord. O that a hallowed season of divine communion may be vouchsafed to me this evening! The Lord knows that I need it very greatly. My graces languish, my corruptions rage, my faith is weak, my devotion is cold; all these are reasons why his healing hand should be laid upon me. His hand can cool the heat of my burning brow, and stay the tumult of my palpitating heart. That glorious right hand which moulded the world can new-create my mind; the unwearied hand which bears the earth’s huge pillars up can sustain my spirit; the loving hand which incloses all the saints can cherish me; and the mighty hand which breaketh in pieces the enemy can subdue my sins. Why should I not feel that hand touching me this evening? Come, my soul, address thy God with the potent plea, that Jesus’ hands were pierced for thy redemption, and thou shalt surely feel that same hand upon thee which once touched Daniel and set him upon his knees that he might see visions of God.

Charles Spurgeon

MY NEW YEAR'S GIFT

2005-12-26T21:44:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Laid on your altar, O my Lord divine,
Accept my gift this day, for Jesus sake
I have no jewel to adorn your shrine
Nor any World-famed sacrifice to make;
But here I bring within my trembling hands,
This Will of mine, a thing that seems small
Yet you alone, O Lord, can understand
How when I yield you this, I yield my all
Hidden therein your searching gaze can see
Struggles of passion, visions of delight
All that I have, or am, or fain would be,
Deep loves, find hopes, and longings infinite.
It has been wet with tears, and dimmed with sighs.
Clenched in my grasp, till beauty has it none.
Now from your footstool, where it vanquished lies,
The prayer ascends, "May your Will be done."
Take it, O Father, ere my courage fail,
And merge it so into your own Will, that
If in some desperate hour my cries prevail
And you give back my gift, it may have been
So changed, so purified, so fair have grown,
So one with you, so filled with love divine
I may not know or feel it as my own
But gaining back my Will, may find it yours.

lizzyash@yahoo.com
Elizabeth, O.A.U Ile-ife.

THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH

2005-11-20T14:09:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

"The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks."
- Pro_30:26

Conscious of their own natural defencelessness, the conies resort to burrows in the rocks, and are secure from their enemies. My heart, be willing to gather a lesson from these feeble folk. Thou art as weak and as exposed to peril as the timid cony, be as wise to seek a shelter. My best security is within the munitions of an immutable Jehovah, where his unalterable promises stand like giant walls of rock. It will be well with thee, my heart, if thou canst always hide thyself in the bulwarks of his glorious attributes, all of which are guarantees of safety for those who put their trust in him. Blessed be the name of the Lord, I have so done, and have found myself like David in Adullam, safe from the cruelty of my enemy; I have not now to find out the blessedness of the man who puts his trust in the Lord, for long ago, when Satan and my sins pursued me, I fled to the cleft of the rock Christ Jesus, and in his riven side I found a delightful resting-place. My heart, run to him anew to-night, whatever thy present grief may be; Jesus feels for thee; Jesus consoles thee; Jesus will help thee. No monarch in his impregnable fortress is more secure than the cony in his rocky burrow. The master of ten thousand chariots is not one whit better protected than the little dweller in the mountain’s cleft. In Jesus the weak are strong, and the defenceless safe; they could not be more strong if they were giants, or more safe if they were in heaven. Faith gives to men on earth the protection of the God of heaven. More they cannot need, and need not wish. The conies cannot build a castle, but they avail themselves of what is there already: I cannot make myself a refuge, but Jesus has provided it, his Father has given it, his Spirit has revealed it, and lo, again to-night I enter it, and am safe from every foe.

Written by Charles Spurgeon

BE THANKFULL!!!

2005-11-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

"Be thankful unto him, and bless his name."
- Psa_100:4
Our Lord would have all his people rich in high and happy thoughts concerning his blessed person. Jesus is not content that his brethren should think meanly of him; it is his pleasure that his espoused ones should be delighted with his beauty. We are not to regard him as a bare necessary, like to bread and water, but as a luxurious delicacy, as a rare and ravishing delight. To this end he has revealed himself as the "pearl of great price" in its peerless beauty, as the "bundle of myrrh" in its refreshing fragrance, as the "rose of Sharon" in its lasting perfume, as the "lily" in its spotless purity.
As a help to high thoughts of Christ, remember the estimation that Christ is had in beyond the skies, where things are measured by the right standard. Think how God esteems the Only Begotten, his unspeakable gift to us. Consider what the angels think of him, as they count it their highest honour to veil their faces at his feet. Consider what the blood-washed think of him, as day without night they sing his well deserved praises. High thoughts of Christ will enable us to act consistently with our relations towards him. The more loftily we see Christ enthroned, and the more lowly we are when bowing before the foot of the throne, the more truly shall we be prepared to act our part towards him. Our Lord Jesus desires us to think well of him, that we may submit cheerfully to his authority. High thoughts of him increase our love. Love and esteem go together. Therefore, believer, think much of your Master’s excellencies. Study him in his primeval glory, before he took upon himself your nature! Think of the mighty love which drew him from his throne to die upon the cross! Admire him as he conquers all the powers of hell! See him risen, crowned, glorified! Bow before him as the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the mighty God, for only thus will your love to him be what it should.

charles Spurgeon

THE MAN OF CONTRASTS

2005-10-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

He who is the Bread of Life
Began His ministry hungering.
He who is the Water of Life
ended His ministry thirsting.
Jesus Christ hungered as a man
yet fed the hungered as God;
He was weary
yet He is our rest;
He paid tribute
yet He is the King;
He was called a devil
but He cast out demon;
He prayed
yet He hears prayers;
He wept
but He dries our tears;
He was sold for thirty pieces of silver

yet He redeems sinners;

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter
yet He is the good Shepherd;
He gave His life by dying
but He destroyed death;
Oh, the lowly carpenter of Nazareth
Is the Mighty Architect of the Universe!

lizzyash@yahoo.com
Elizabeth
Animal Science
OAU, ile-ife
Osun State
Nigeria

WHO SAID BROADMINDEDNESS!!!

2005-09-20T11:01:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

There is no room for broadmindedness in the chemical laboratory;
Water is comprised of two parts- hydrogen and one part oxygen. The slightest deviation from the formula is forbidden.
There is no room for broadmindedness in music; the skilled director will not permit his first violin to play even so much as one-half note off the written note, the chord and key.
There is no room for broadmindedness in the mathematics classroom; neither geometry, calculus, nor trigonometry allows any variation from the exact accuracy, even for old time's sake. The solution of the problem is either right or wrong. No tolerance there.
There is no room for broadmindedness in biology; one varying result out of a thousand experiments will invaluate an entire theory.
there is no room for broadmindedness on the athletic field; the game is to be played according to the rules with no favours shown, not even for charity's sake.
There is no room for broadmindedness in the garage; the mechanic there says the piston rings must fit the cylinder walls within one-thousandth part of an inch. Even between friends there cannot be any variation if the engine is to run smoothly.
How then shall we expect that broadmindedness shall rule in the realm of christianity and morals?
He that forsakes the Truth of God, forsakes the God of Truth.

lizzyash@yahoo.com
Elizabeth
Animal science
O.A.U, Ile-ife
Osun state.
Nigeria

TRUE GREATNESS

2005-09-05T12:45:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

learn to grapple with souls
Aim at the conscience
Exalt Christ
Say little, serve all
And pass on
This is true greatness
To serve unnoticed, to work unseen
Oh the joy of having nothing
And being nothing, And seeing nothing
But a living Christ in glory
And being careful for nothing
But His interests down here!!

Elizabeth
lizzyash@yahoo.com
Animal Science

IT'S NOT ENOUGH!!!

2005-08-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

It isn't enough to have a dream, unless you are willing to pursue it. It is not enough to know what is right unless you are strong enough to do it. It is not enough to learn the Truth (Jesus), unless you also learn to live Him!
It is not enough to reach for Love (God), unless your care enough to give. Men who are resolved to find a way for themselves will always find opportunities enough and if they don't find them, they will make them!

Unanimous

THE PASSION FOR CHRIST!!!

2005-08-21T18:26:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Hard i find my books to read
His Word alone, i long to feed;
for what a love- so great a deed-
He dropped in me a mustard seed.

My eyes go dim, as i go slim
to find the Wisdom that He so deem.
The fear of God, a shining beam-
Show the Christ, Jesus is Him!

I wonder and ponder, is there a yonder?
if i just dare from Him to wander.
His love constrains, my heart grows fonder-
my One with Christ, naught can sunder.

Fascinated! Captivated! His love intoxicated!
Liberated! Saturated! His mercy-consecrated!
Sanctified! Glorified! His blood-emancipated!
All this, much more, I am perfected!

the prisoner of christ

NEW HOPE

2005-08-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

You've not come to the end of the rope
there is fresh strength and new hope
for in this new semester
you'll find the help of the Master
As you work, pray and study
He'll be your father and buddy
like a glow rekindled and bright
He will flood your life with light
maybe last semester didn't go well
and all your enthusiasm and drive fell
remember there's still a chance
for success to make an entrance
God won't go to sleep or rest
trust Him to give you the best
as you start again, only believe
and your dreams you'll achieve
you've not come to the end of the rope
there's fresh strength and new hope!!!

Unanimous

2005-07-28T07:57:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have mastered, you will never grow!
True freedom comes with a knowledge of the Truth-John 8:32
If you don't believe you can influence your future, you intend to camp around your fears;
No matter how massive your problem is, never let the bigness of your problem overshadow the bigness of your God.
S-C-U-D: satan continuously uses distractions
We are in this life as it were in another man's house
In heaven is our home, in the world is our inn; don't entertain yourself in the inn of this world for a day as to have your mind withdrawn from longing after your heavenly home.
Little self-denials..
Little passing Words of Sympathy,
Little nameless acts of Kindness
Little Silent Victories over favorite temptations-
These are the silent threads of gold which when woven together, gleam out so brightly in the pattern of life that God approves.
God is not silent for approval of sin but He wants us to change.
A young lady determined and willing, will find a way or make one (everyone grab this)
Never try to get the applause of people by a natural thing.
Yours has to be a spiritual breath! your word has to be the Word of God.
I must understand that there will be testing times, but they are only to make me more like the Master.
Have this faith that laughs at impossibilities and cries: "it shall be done".
There is a rest of faith if we have entered into it. This rest of faith ceases from our own works, ceases from our own struggling, ceases from making our own plans.

elizabeth
lizzyash@yahoo.com
Animal science
OAU, ile ife

APPEARANCE DECEIVES!!!

2005-07-02T16:38:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

I know a little fellow whose face is fair to see,
But still there's nothing pleasant about that face to me.
For he's rude and cross and selfish if he cannot have his way,
And he's always making trouble, i've heard his mother say.

I know a little fellow whose face is plain to see,
But that we never think of, so full of love is he.
He carries sunshine with him, and everybody's glad
To hear the cheery whistle of this pleasant little lad.

You see it's not the textures that others judge us by,
But what we do, i tell you, and that you can't deny
The plainest face has beauty, if its owner's kind and true,
And that's the kind of beauty, my brother, my sister, for you!!!

Whoso trust in the lord, happy is he - Prov.16:20
Elizabeth
Animal science, ile-ife
lizzyash2002@yahoo.com

BE STILL MY SOUL

2005-06-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Be still, My Soul
thy God doth undertake
as He has the past
Thy hope, Thy confidence
Let nothing shake,
All now mysteriously shall be bright at last

Be still, My Soul
thy Waves and Winds still know
His voice who ruled them
While He dwelt below.

lizzyash2002@yahoo.com

DELAYED FOR A REASON!!!

2005-06-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

"For the vision is yet for an appointed time........
though it tarry, Wait for it,
because it will surely come......."

God instantly answers some prayers
like prophet Elijah's fire call on Mount Carnal
but the almighty sometimes delays for a season
Only to accomplish a reason.

Abraham tarried a hundred years for Isaac
that his testimony in faith may be full
Hannah dedicated infant Samuel to the lord
having endured Peninah's painful taintings.

Would John the Baptist be such effective forerunner
If Elizabeth bore him decades before Christ
or would the blood-issue woman be so daring in faith
had she not waited twelve years for a cure.

External factors atimes delay answers to prayers
like the prince of Persia to Daniel's 21-days travail
sometimes human failures hold God's hand
like the sin of Sodom to Abraham's intercession.

God in His Sovereign Omniscience
makes all things beautiful in His time
but when He delays answers for a season
be assured He delays ever for a reason.

written by Elizabeth
lizzyash@yahoo.com
animal science
ile-ife

THE PRECIOUS HOLYSPIRIT

2005-05-21T10:40:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

There is a Pentecostal Breath;
The Spirit's gracious dower-
and souls upraised from sin and death
are quickened by His power.
Oh to be filled with life divine;
oh to be clothed with might;
oh to reflect the lord and shine
as shine the saints in light.

There is a pure baptismal fire;
a sacrificial flame;
which doth the inmost soul inspire
with love in Jesus name.
oh to be purged from sin vile faint
oh to be drawn by love's constraint
to blessing manifold.

There is an Unction from on high;
the holy oil of joy-
which all our need can satisfy;
which nought can ever destroy.
We thank thee lord for this great Gift
in such abundant flow
as doth both heart and mind uplift
the truth of God to know.

The Holyspirit like a dove
comes in His gentle grace
diffusing peace from Heaven above
on every troubled heart and face.
Oh to be kept so calm and still;
mid sorrows surging round-
that faith and hope my heart may fill
and charity abound.

There is a Seal both strong and sure,
which makes the immortal heir;
and they who have Him shall endure
thru every toil and care.
We hail the Spirit's inward voice-
earnest of perfect rest;
which makes the trusting soul rejoice
as those whom God hath blest. Amen

DID ANYONE EVER TELL U

2005-05-09T14:34:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Did anyone ever tell u;
what ur life is all about?
Did anyone ever tell u;
what u were made to be?
Did anyone ever tell u;
This is ur life?
Did anyone ever tell u;
without Christ, u live in vain?
Did anyone ever tell u;
without God, u'll be insane?
Did anyone ever tell u;
without Spirit, u're all a waste?
Did anyone ever tell u;
if u really see urself, u won't believe-
what such greatness lies in ur heart?
Did anyone ever tell u;
u 're made for exploits!!

A PRAYER THAT WAS ANSWERED!!!

2005-05-03T16:02:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

May some who never could be melted by the furnace of Sinai be dissolved by the beams of Love from the tearful eyes of Jesus!
Since you want to display your mercy, here is our sin;
Since you want to show your strength, here is our weakness;
Since you want to manifest your lovingkindness, here is our need;
Since you want to glorify your grace, here we are.
May we never take our eyes from His divine person; from His infinite merit; from His finished work; from His living power or from the expectancy of His speedy coming to judge the world with righteousness and the people with His truth.
Psalm 96:13.
Your word has changed our lives; removed our burdens; comforted our hearts; set our faces flint against Sin and has made us eager for perfect holiness.
May the proverbs furnish us with wisdom, the Psalm comforts us, the gospels teaches us the way of holiness and the epistles instruct us in the deep things of the kingdom of God.
May we be conscious of thy presence Oh God, to a far greater extent than we are conscious of anything else.
May those who have said, "Aha! the gospel has lost its power", be made foolish by the wisdom of you Father even as Jannes and Jambres were made foolish.
HALLELUYAH. AMEN!!!

BE SUPERNATURAL, GOD'S WAY

2005-04-19T20:29:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me?... Lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea." (Exodus 14:15-16)

If you hang around God very much, it won't be long before you'll start wanting to do things the world considers supernatural. You'll start wanting to lay hands on the sick and have them recover. You'll start wanting to cast out demons. You'll start wanting to cast mountainous problems into the sea. What's more, you can do it if you want to! How? Not by jumping out and "trying" to do supernatural things, but by obeying God one step at a time. By doing the things He's already given you power to do.
That's how it happened with Moses. He didn't have the power to divide the Red Sea. But he did have the power to stretch his rod out over it. And when he did that in obedience to the Lord's command, the Holy Spirit did the rest. It will be the same way with you. When you start doing your part, the Holy Spirit will do His and supernatural things will start happening around you.

What is your part? Feeding on the Word. Praying in the Spirit. Listening to what the Spirit of God says to you. As you do those things, as you move as God impresses you to move and take your direction from Him, you'll flow in the supernatural as naturally as a bird flies in the air. You won't struggle and strain and try to "part the sea." You'll just trust the Lord, stretch out your rod... and watch the miracles roll.

Grace Copeland

BE OF GOOD CHEER!

2005-04-19T06:20:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

"And now I exhort you to be of good cheer." (Acts 27:22)

What do you do when you're in a really perilous situation? If you're like I used to be, you cry out to God in desperation. One afternoon when I was squalling to God about something, He interrupted me and said, "Kenneth, did you know I don't hear the cry of My children when they cry out in desperation?" "What?" I said. "I thought you did." He said, "No, I hear the desperation cry of a sinner because that's all he can cry about. But once you get born again, son, you ought to be crying out of faith. I hear the faith cry."
What is a faith cry? It's calling things that be not as though they were (Rom. 4:17). It's what the Bible means when it says, "Let the weak say, I am strong" (Joel 3:10). The Apostle Paul knew how to use the faith cry. That's why in Acts 27 he exhorted the men on that battered, sinking ship to "be of good cheer." He was telling them to start acting by faith. Can't you imagine what those sailors thought when he said that? "Listen to that stupid preacher. We're sinking and he says be of good cheer. We've thrown everything we have overboard and he says be of good cheer."
You may feel just like those sailors did, right now. You may feel like your ship's going down. You may feel like crying out in desperation. But don't do it. Instead, do what Paul said and be of good cheer! Cry out to God in faith and say, "Lord, I'm not going to panic. I'm not going to despair. I'm going to be of good cheer because Your Word says You'll deliver me from this situation" (Ps. 34:19). Then start being cheerful. It may take more determination than anything you've ever done before, but God will give you the strength to do it. He'll give you the power to be cheerful in the middle of the most ungodly darkness the devil can bring up. Instead of crying out in desperation, take a faith stand. Sing and rejoice and praise God for your deliverance. Be of good cheer and you can be sure God will bring you through the storm just fine!

Kenneth Copeland

MY GOD, MY GOD!

2005-04-16T05:45:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS

Echoing in the darkness as i walked on by, with mud all over and tears smudged on my face, i wander on, without destination nor purpose, was the sound of coming hell . Life was amiss and i kept on wondering, " what benefit do i attain, serving Him? the one who walks on the wings of the wind?"In the beginning, i remembered making a summon to Wordmen for support and it doesn't strike u any harder than this- " alone in a foreign land, no one to encourage, no one to hold" and there it hits u that indeed every man walks alone in his valley of the shadow of death!The owl hoots. The frog croaks. The cricket sound fills the night, and as my leg hits a twig, i cry out to Him, " my God, my God! why has thou forsaken me? why is my soul nigh unto death? why is my flesh to become meat for things i have dominion over? why are u so far from helping me?;i cry in the daytime but u do not hear. Now the night has come and death looms so strongly, clinging to the still darkness and still, i am not silent".
Suddenly, a twig snaps not too far behind me and i knew,there and then, it has come.Turning my head i cried; " Out of the depths, i cried unto u oh lord, please hear my voice, let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. If thou lord should mark iniquities, who shall stand?, but there is forgiveness in thee that thou may be feared. I wait for the lord, my soul waits and in His word do i hope".How ironic it is that in the midst of terrible fear and discomfort, there lies the carnage of strength; in the midst of immediate and threatening siege, there comes boldness to look into the eyes of fate, and declare faith;-
" for His sake we are killed all day long; as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us". And as it leaps into the air to devour its prey, i proclaimed- "i am persuaded, neither life nor death, angels or dark powers, things high or low, things present or future, NOTHING shall be able to separate us from the LOVE OF GOD which is in CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD".
And suddenly, there was calm!... And with eyes closed, i felt the sting of light, as the sun overshadowed me with its radiance and my eyes adjusted to my surrounding, Lo and behold, before me was an outstretched land, full of green, waterfall not to far left, songbird crying out to God as the blue sky blanketed the horizon in an ecstatic and breathtaking beauty!
Echoing in the mountains were words not evoked but uttered as my throat exclaimed-
"my God, my God, how great thou art"!!!

THE BRUISED REED!

2005-04-12T12:16:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!
It stood with assurance!
Head held high on strong stalk.
But that was before the careless bump, the harsh rain.
Now its bruised. Bent. Weakened.
It seeks gentle fingers to straighten and not break.
It needs a firm touch to heal and not to hurt.
Tender power.
Soft strength.
Is there such a hand?
Victorious arms that breaks not the bruised reed?
Mercy's touch that quenches not the smoldering wick?
Loving heart that empathizes with weakness?
Glad tidings i declare unto you this day.
Sweet words of soothing power stems onto you
There is One who cares; One who shares!
One who bears; One who hears!
One who loves; One who died!
One who rose; One who saves!
Are you a bruised reed?-Christ is the soothing seed!
Are your sorrows so much?-You need the Saviour's touch!!
Believe and live. He still heals, He still saves!!!

2005-04-07T19:24:00.000-07:00

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS
To God be the glory, great things He has done, to give me this grace- an extension of His immense love;no power can sunder, no strength can plunder what He has adjoined and possessed;forever His name be praised.,Dearly beloved, u all join me to start this site for God and i trust Him with all my heart, and dare not lean on my own understanding; in all my ways i will acknowledge Him and assuredly, He directs my every path;- lets all come to One and make a ruin of the kingdom of darkness in Christ, our victory!!! Amen