Of Life And Death

————————Of DEATH—————————

Lately, I’ve heard the charming of the charmer, of how a serpent charms its prey like an unwanted food. Death does beckon to all, especially to those who take pleasures in overreacting and overwhelming themselves with labours of no reward.

I’ve lost great friends and my elders has passed on into glory without a goodbye a day before their end. They all died through mysterious ways unknown to my little mind.

At least, a father ought to tell his children when the time of his passing arrives as I was taught, but death recognizes not “goodbye” neither is the language of “come back” part of its vocabulary.

All its expression is the venomous poisonous of a serpent unleashing on its prey. It knows neither small nor great, neither poor nor rich. It poisons everything it comes in contact with, with sadness, agony and it leaves the rest with unforgettable memories that keep haunting them.

It creates fear in the heart of men and send them into a prison house where torment and sorrow are dish out as daily food.

If all men could make a wish for just one thing, it would have been to imprison death itself. To chain it and afflict it with the pain which it dishes out on mankind. Mankind would have lived forever, if death could just be overcome by one means or the other.

As it has done to us, we would have gladly re-pay it without pain or pity. We would have hung it outside our doors and make fun of it, then search all his family members one after the others to punish them with an everlasting punishment.

We would have banished away sickness and sorrow, affliction and oppression, pain and agony from our city center and from the four walls of this our little tiny pale-blue-stone called The earth. We would then have known what life truly means.

But, its powerful than us and there’s nothing within our capacity that can be done to stop its ruler-ship over us.

Sigh!

—————————Of LIFE————————–

On the other hand, we all love Life.

Life is the best and most loving neighbour one can ever have. Just as every child would love to keep his/her tiny little toys away from the stranger, so also we love to keep life as if we have control over it.

We cherish those moments that life offers us as we would love to think.

But, we don’t like dying. We hate it.

Despite we loving life, we mostly ignore and misuse life. We love it but we don’t really care about it. We toss it here and there by our ways of life and what we do.

We ought to cherish life not just the moments, and love the Giver of it.

Isn’t it ironic that we want to love life without loving the Giver of Life? No wonder we are messing life up because we have no blue-print on how to handle life.

Life comes with a manual, we can’t get to buy this in any book-store. it must be gotten from the One in whom Life issues out from.

For those that has come to the Giver of life, my questions to you:

How have you been responding to this life?

How have you been obeying the instruction that’s attached to life?

“Who out there has a desire (love) for life? Can’t wait each day to come upon beauty? Guard your tongue from profanity, and no more lying through your teeth. Turn your back on sin; do something good. Embrace peace—don’t let it get away!”

Christ didn’t just offer us life so that we can do our own things, speak our own words and fulfill our lusts.

NO!!

Life was given to us so that we can keep our tongue from profanity:

“Let not corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.

Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man

But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth

So that lying won’t be in our mouth:

“Lie not one to another… “

Since you put away lying, Speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another

So that we can turn away from sin and every appearance of it:
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

So that we can do good:

Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. 

But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased

So that we can embrace peace:

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

Above all, life is given to us in order to show to the world, the Love of our Father and by this, draw men to him.

…but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to give answers to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect…

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

This life we have as believers ought to propel us to walk in the nature and character of that Life. It ought to change our paradigm from the earthly things to that which is heavenly and eternal.

If in any case this life isn’t doing these in us, let us not lie to ourselves, we may not yet have or believe this life at all. We may just have the appearance of godliness, but the power is nowhere to be found in us. We may just be like a fig without fruits.

And this means, we are yet to have life and appreciate the Giver of it.



For those that are yet to embrace life:

“In him was life; and the life was the light of men”

“Whosoever believes in him will not perish (as in death), but have eternal life”

He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

This Life is not in a thing, a program or some activities or some hyper spiritual gymnastics. It’s not a Sunday worship thing, neither is it associated with a set, a cult or a place of worship, rather This Life is a Person. We are called to this Life, we are called to live forever and enjoy the blessedness of God.

This is another opportunity that Christ is offering you and I, to come and have life.

Do you love life? Come to this fountain and embrace the water of life.

Do you want to be rid of death? Come to the One who is Resurrection and Life. The one who conquered death for us.

Do you want to overcome and be victorious? Embrace the One who is Victor, Christ.

This Life is in a PERSON; and that Person is Christ.

We cannot get this Life from anything or anyone else.

Most assuredly, I tell you, he who believes in me has eternal life.

Grace and Peace.

***Scriptures: Psalms 34:12-14, Ephesians. 4: 12, 29; Col 3:8-9, Hebrew 12:14, 13:16, James 3:18, 1 Peter 3:11, 15, 1 John 5:12, John 1:4, 3:15, Matthew 5:14-16, Galatians 6:10, Titus 2:11, col. 4:6.*****

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NEED FOR CIRCUMCISION Vol 2. Part 1

What Circumcision is

We've seen what circumcision is not; let’s talk about what circumcision is.

In the old, it is refer to as “removal of foreskin” which most often applies to male child. Then you would probably be asking, "are we still under the old law? Why should I be circumcised?" Before arriving at a conclusion by saying we’re under the new covenant and there is no need for circumcision.

Paul made a clear reference when he was talking about circumcision in his letter to Philippians’

For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. (Phil 3:3)

From the passage above circumcision is in contrast to the flesh, which means: worshiping God in the flesh shows that one is not circumcised. One’s confidence in the flesh is a clear indication that one is not circumcised. Should one also failed in rejoicing in Christ Jesus (in his spirit/heart) daily then, the problem is un-circumcision.

In whom (Christ) also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: (Col 2:11)

But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.( Rom 2:29)

As I have made it clear previously that circumcision is not salvation, I will like to add that circumcision is not also the removal of the “foreskin” from a male child according to the Law of Moses. It has nothing to do with that under the new covenant.

What circumcision is really is the putting off of body of sins (which is also the body of death). It’s the removal of flesh in the heart of man. It involves cuttings, pains, shedding of blood and the circumstances that surround circumcision are not palatable.

Circumcision itself is not a joyous thing; none really want to go through it. God has always been the initiator of it. To Abraham, He commanded it. To Moses, his wife understood what it was and did it for her husband lest God smote him, to the children of Israel; God gave the order to Joshua to circumcise them.

And in bro Paul’s letter, he said “we are circumcised in Christ”. This means that God has ordained this circumcision for everyone that would ever come into Christ.

We can conclude then that circumcision is an inward thing according to the book of Romans 2:29 not of outward things. One can display various characters and even pretend to be what he/she is not. We can be religious, fervent so to say, we can also be diligent and full of activities but the revealer of our uncircumcised heart is our “tongues”.

  

What Is the Problem?

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THE SERPENT OF BRASS

 THE SERPENT OF BRASS

 And Moses made a serpent of brass (As the Lord commanded), and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.(Num 21:9 KJV)

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life. (John 3:14-15 NASB)

The important thing here is that before looking up to the Serpent of Brass there must first be a "bite" from a serpent. Before any healing can happen, there must first be sickness, before any binding of wounds, there must be brokenness, before salvation and restoration there must be a falling short of glory of God.

Negative first before the Positive,the natural before that which is spiritual, the carnal Law before the spiritual Law.

"Let there be Light" God says "and there was light" but, there was darkness first. The emphasis from that verse was not the biting of the serpent, neither was it on the people that were bitten rather on the Serpent of Brass that was hung on the tree. That's the focus, the objects of all worship and adoration.

Serpent that was biting the people here means...sins, craftiness, lies, evil works, the devil himself...the antidotes to these things is nothing but looking up to Serpent of Brass for healing.

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