Live...Love...Laugh...On Purpose!

Live...Love...Laugh...On Purpose!

How hopeless the world can seem at times. If we're not facing natural disasters, we are trying to cope with man-made disasters. Desolation can happen anytime and any place - sometimes accidentally or sometimes on purpose. Think about it, I could accidentally step on your foot. But at the same time, I can purposely step on you foot! Sometimes things happen in the world accidentally - factory explosions, traffic accidents. However there are things that happen purposefully like terrorism. People make it their mission to cause disaster and misery to others and they are passionate about it too! 

I love something that Bob Marley was quoted saying, 'The people, who were trying to make this world worse... are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness'. If there are people who cause pain on purpose, will I bring joy purpose? Or I will I live passively and let whatever happens, happen, or will I live on purpose? 

In response to all that is happening in his world we are to be zealous for good works and not lose hope- we are to rise & shine. I think of Esther as an example. We can go through life and fall into things by God's grace. We can not intend to be in places or be things, but life sometimes leads us there. We can see this in the life of Esther. After her parents died, she spent her early years being brought up by her uncle. Being a Jew, they were living in a foreign land away from their people. Interestingly, Esther soon found herself in the king's palace as the king was looking for a new queen and so sent a decree for his servants to find beautiful virgins. The woman who entered into the palace alongside Esther, were to go through a year of beauty preparations and await to see who the king chose to be his wife. Esther kept her identity hidden- nobody knew she was a Jew, she seemed to be going along with where life was taking her. But how long could she keep this a secret? Especially as the king had chosen her to be his wife! Esther continued to keep the secret hidden well...but life was going to take a sudden turn, a violent shaking, where Esther would have to make an important decision. One of the king's servants had been promoted and so the king had given him a lot of authority, so much so that he had the authority to make decisions. The problem was that this man carried bitterness in his heart and wanted to have all Jews killed!  Remember that there was a Jew living in the palace....Esther. The servant's plan was soon made known to Esther and she had a decision to make. Keep her identity hidden or fight for the deliverance of her people. Esther was in two minds, but a word from her uncle seemed to change her mind. 'You may have been called for such a time as this.' Could it be that this was a good work that Esther was prepared for? Was she called for this time? Esther fights for the deliverance of her people and exposes her identity, as she trusts in God....and...the people were delivered!

I can so relate! We can passively go through life, forgetting that we have something to offer, forgetting that we have this treasure in earthen vessels, forgetting that the world is waiting for the beauty inside of us to be unveiled. Isaiah 60 reads 
Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
² For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And deep darkness the people;
But the Lord will arise over you,
And His glory will be seen upon you.
³ The Gentiles shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising.

There is darkness in this world! But we are to arise, and shine like stars! Let His light shine from us! It is hard but Paul talks about fighting the good fight of faith, which makes me think that it is not something we can passively do. We have to be active in this walk of faith, knowing that everyday we have opportunities to shine our light and expect God to do great and mighty things through us. Besides He has good works prepared for us too! Could it be that He has called you for such a time as this?! Titus 2:14 says that we are to be zealous for good works. Passionate for good works. Just as I mentioned earlier, there are people who want to bring destruction, will we purposely build up our world, or continue to walk naively without understanding?

Like Esther and we are not to be passive but we are to live purposefully with understanding and wisdom and choose to walk in the good works thst He has prepared for us. He has good works prepared for you to walk in today, will you walk in them? You have treasure inside of you, let it shine :) Live...Love...Laugh on Purpose!

"Because I'm worth it!"

The worth of something. What determines the worth of something? How do you know the worth of something? How do you know your worth? Why am I asking so many questions?! These questions are important to ask. Do you think it is true that the way you treat something is determined by the worth you place on it?

A couple a months ago the garage where I bought my car was doing a deal, where you could upgrade a newer model, so I thought I would check it out. I was happy with my car, but my car lacks some of the facilities the newer models have, so I thought it would be good to check out these new vehicles. I could soon be hitting the road with more hi-tech facilities! Now I am not very knowledgable about cars, so I am afraid I am one of those who is just looking for something that looks good! So I was getting ready to trade my car for something I thought would be better! We get to the garage and the guy goes to take a look at my car to give me a valuation for it. When he comes back he tells me all about my car. The spec that it was built to and the uniqueness of it all. How I wouldn't find another car with interior like it and so forth...unfortunately somebody else had to tell me about the worth of my car. But what if he hadn't? I would have traded my car for something 'standard' because I didn't know the worth of my car.

Wow! How easy we will trade the things of worth for something sub-standard, because we don't know their value. We hear of this story in the Bible. Hungry, a young man comes in from hunting to find that his younger brother is cooking stew-the smell of the delicious stew seems irresistible, so the young man asks his brother for some of the stew. The younger brother agrees, under one condition. The young man must give him his birthright. In those days, the older brother had the birthright, which meant that a great part of the inheritance and the family name passed to that older brother. The young man failed to see the value of the birthright (the Bible even said he despised it) and so he sold it to his young brother! (Genesis 25)

What about somebody else who made a trade? Moses grew up in a rich family. Born a Hebrew, he was brought up by Pharaoh's daughter from a young age. Hebrews 11 paints an interesting picture of this all:

²⁴ By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵ choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, ²⁶ esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in^[e] Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

Moses grew up surrounded by riches, but he made a trade. He traded those temporal things for eternal treasures. Why? Because he saw the value. Because he saw the worth. Without seeing the worth or value of something, we can easily give it away or let it pass us by. 

What are you worth? How do you treat yourself? Do you sell yourself short?

So many times we settle for less, or we allow ourselves to be used because we don't know our worth. We trade ourselves in and compromise for what seems great, but we soon find out that all that glitters is not gold and we have given up something great for the temporary pleasures. 

The Bible says we have this treasure in earthen vessels. It says we are a royal priesthood. It says that we are God's treasure possession. It says that God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten, whosoever believes in Him will not die but have everlasting life! He traded all for us...He saw us as worth it. He saw my worth- when nobody else saw it, not even me, He died for me! Like how I didn't see the worth of my car - times we don't see the worth of ourselves. But we can't treat ourselves anyhow or sell ourselves short, for we have this treasure in earthen vessels.

If you had treasure what would you do with it? Hide it? Flaunt it? Protect it? Share it? Value it? Knowing that you have treasure in yourselves, what will you do with you? We can hide ourselves, not knowing the treasure that is in us is a gift for the world see. We can flaunt ourselves, spending our treasure unwisely- flashing it here and there-compromising ourselves. These are things we can do...what will you do?

Born to fly

I blow the dust of my blogger and realise it has been very long :( but I am sharing thoughts, and hopefully I won't leave it so long next time...

I have recently been on holiday to Canada, New York and Liverpool.....12 days of non stop tours of some major cities were eyeopening! Not because of the grand, ancestral buildings that hid in these cities. Not because of the tall, skyliners that looked over these cities and not because of the amazed, intrigued crowds that filled these cities. But, as boring as it sounds, it was the process- the journey to these places. For some reason, just before the holiday, I had been consumed with a plague that has wiped out many, even whole nations-fear! I was afraid to die, afraid to fly, afraid to go out at night and didn't take long for me to think 'Lord, am i coming out here to die?!' I sounded like the Israelites sojourneying through Egypt. I sounded like Joram king of Israel, who was convinced that God had called him and the other two kings together to be killed by the Moabites. But I needed to be persuaded by the Word of God. God had Himself told me that He had not brought me there to die and reminded me of promises- that I have a future... Just like the Israelites i guess- He had not brought them there to die but to go through and reach a land filled wih milk and honey- freedom.

He intended for me to go THROUGH and reach a place of freedom- not living in fear or serving my fear but living with love, power and a sound mind, serving Him.

I am petrified of flying and had flown twice already in the same month, once by myself and the love of God had kept me :) but for some reason i was so terrified on this flight to New York, my heart began to beat a rhythm for fear to dance to as dread filled my very being. I had consulted fear, instead of consulting God. But though I make my bed in Sheol, He is still with me! God was teaching me about trust.

At 36000 feet it is a long way down! My trust is completely in the pilot (in God, but you know what i mean). The pilot would make some manoevres and I would think 'Is this guy for real?! Does he need me to show him how its done?!' I kept telling my friend that some of these pilots had only just got their licenses ☺. Then I started to think thats how we are with God. We are higher above 36000 feet because ofcourse we are seated in heavenly plAces, but even so we live on earth and go  through trials. Our hope, our trust is in God, but there are times when we do think, 'God where are you taking us? What are these manouvres?!' My friend reminded me that although I felt as if these pilots passed yesterday, God had passed His teat time ago. In fact, was His Spirit not hovering over the seas many years ago?! He invented flying!! He knows what Hes doing- I can trust Him! 

The flight back home seemed to be a test of what I had learnt. I felt like the pilot had passed his test years ago, but the journey was very trying. Violently, turbulence shook the plane from side to side. Panic began to fill me, but then I thought to myself, God's got this! Jesus said that there would be trials in this world, but we would overcome them. Turbulence is not a thing where the plane can just reverse and try again tomorrow. It's got to go through it (like going on a Bear Hunt). So we go, trusting God that He will bring us through. Not battered and torn. Not beat up and bruised. But we are hard pressed but not crushed! Struck down but not destroyed! Not confessing our fears but confessing that Christ is in us, the hope of glory! Paul says 'with that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak.' As we trust and believe in God we see things differently- not death, but life.

2 Corinthians 4:18 - what do you see and believe? Because that will have an impact on what you speak.