Provoking your season
Today is the last day of the summer holidays and ‘la rentrée’ begins tomorrow, in principle. Back to school, back to work for most people, back to jackets and soon winter coats; the careless ease of summer, open sandals and casual wear is over; it’s a new season. A season imposed by agenda other than our own, by the school calendar, by the weather and we must follow suit.
Every season in the natural is an opportunity and a reminder to take stock of where we are with God, is it cool weather or warm weather, is it casual open sandal season, careless ease, lazying on the beach or are we girded up in proper clothing to withstand the rigours of life in a fallen world. It is a reminder that things change even in the spirit, we might find that we are more lax in the things of God than when we first believed, that we are less caring than when we first fell in love, that…
Spiritual seasons need not follow the agenda of circumstances or the flesh, they can be provoked by an act of our will in submission to the Holy Spirit. How do you provoke your season?
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Ambushed by God
Someone wrote in an email to me the other day a word of thanks for all the wonders of the gospel that I take such pleasure in teaching and conveying to them. I love the expression ‘the wonders of the gospel’; I make ample use of it because it captures something of the awesomeness of God’s work in Christ. The gospel is objectively beautiful, who Jesus is, what God did and does in Christ, redemption, reconciliation, forgiveness, righteousness, ah, it is all an absolute marvel and defies description. And we need to think on it until it changes our perception of reality and my job is to bring people to that point, not just happy in being saved, but aware of and deeply moved and changed by the nature of God and His purpose.
Yet in preaching all this, I cannot but wonder who benefits the most, my hearers or I? I do not generally ‘preach to myself’, as I have often heard preachers say, and might even say on occasion myself. As a rule Read more
Liquid gold
Sometimes the best things happen when you are tired. Some of those happened this Sunday. I came back from Brasilia exhausted after ten days of mission, 24 hours of travel and one lost suitcase, but God had put a message in my spirit while I was away that will take us on a journey for the next few weeks and I could not wait to get it out. I had missed the church, but hopefully they had learnt how little they need me and how much they love me and I was glad to come back with a message and not a sermon.
The message was hot, literally. The word ‘fervens’ means boiling, speaks of the state of something that is hot, very hot, incandescent, it speaks of passion, ardour, intensity of zeal; engagement of the heart. Romans 12.11 says ‘be fervent in spirit’, and that is what we will be chewing on Read more
Irréprochable Dieu ( ?)
Ce matin je me suis retrouvée à dire à Dieu en prière, ‘Seigneur, je n’ai aucune raison de me plaindre, tu es irréprochable’. Pour certains, parler ainsi c’est de la présomption, pour d’autres ces paroles sont sources de guérison. Soyons vrais, il nous arrive souvent, trop souvent d’ailleurs, consciemment ou inconsciemment de reprocher quelque chose à Dieu, de trouver qu’Il n’a pas assez bien fait. Read more
Nothing to complain about ( ?)
This morning i found myself saying to God in prayer, Lord, i have nothing to complain about, i find no fault with you. To some that is presumption, to others, healing words. If we are real, we know that often, indeed too often we consciously or unconsciously find fault with God. Life does stuff that point hidden fingers at God and condemn us to an emotional pit and theological bewilderment. And so as I heard myself, unpremeditated and unbidden begin to speak these things I was understandably delighted, finally, child, you are growing up. I celebrate God. He has done me no evil. That makes me very glad, glad that He has done me no evil and even gladder that I know it.
All is not perfect in Bola kingdom, yet God is, and is in His dealings with me. The last time I checked there was much that needed improvement in my current sphere of living. Simply put, I have a long list of things I would like to change, and, like any pastor, or just any human, of people I would like to see change. I have a long list of circumstances I would like to see change, but God is not responsible for any of this. Yet because of our limited understanding of the interplay of the fallenness of the world with its attendant evil, divine sovereignty, and human will we hold God responsible for all that is wrong.
Even those of us who chant God is good every Sunday still sometimes secretly nurse a grudge against God because we think He is God after all, He can do anything, and He did not do that for me, it’s not fair. Sometimes it is also because we have a special relationship and understandably greater expectations which when frustrated, cause us to lose some of our passion and zeal and become less certain about truths we previously espoused. Much Read more
A palace for the Lord God
There was a man called David who enjoyed the favour of God. God took him from nothing to the throne, made royalty out of a nobody. David loved God despite his imperfections. One day he looked around and said I cannot possibly be living in a beautiful home when the ark of my God is under a tent, and he decided he would build a place for God. But God stopped him and said no, you will not do it, your son will. David, rather than be offended, did the next best thing, he made ample provision for the work, gave generously from his own pocket for ‘the palace will not be for man but for the LORD God.’ (1 Chronicles 29). And when it was built it was glorious indeed.
We are all as David, God took us from nothing and made us children of the kingdom, literally turned us into the temple of the Holy Spirit. Then He requires us to meet together to worship Him, and for that a place is needed. Question, what attitude do we have towards our place of worship? Do we have the heart of David, that our place of worship should not compare unfavourably with our own places of abode, the heart to build a place of worship worthy of our God, to give sacrificially and generously to ensure that the place where Read more
AUTHOR
pastor bola olivia ogedengbe,
The Theophilus Company,
ABBA HOUSE, Paris,
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