- 08:12
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It’s been quite some time since I have posted on my blog. I’d like to say that I have a perfectly good explanation for that, but unfortunately not.
The last couple of months have been very intriguing;
especially leading up to the New Year. After putting on about 5 stone between
Christmas day and New Year’s, January came and the ‘L’ word hit me right in the face. Disclaimer: this piece is not
attempting to redefine or alter the definition of Love; but rather to cast a light on what Scripture has to say about
it and how the world has tainted its meaning. I swore I’d never write about this
for a long time to come but recent events and convictions have compelled me to do
so. So here we go.
Last week I had a gathering with some friends for a birthday
celebration, and in my attempted ‘speech’, I disclosed how much the celebrant
were loved by their friends. Shortly after, one of my friends denied their love
for the celebrant which shocked me – up until I heard the justifications for
doing so. These justifications consisted of certain ideologies such as: “Love
is a strong word, I don’t use it very lightly,” “I don’t just love anyone. The
only people I am entitled to love is my family”. It shocked me to not only to
hear how boldly this individual was to deny their love for somebody, but also a
clear declaration saying “I am not ashamed to say that I am not fulfilling what
Christ states to be one of the most important commandments”. I vastly
exaggerated what the individual actually said but in doing so, I hope to illuminate
the seriousness of failing to love thy
neighbour as thyself. (Mark 12:31).
But before I embark on that ship, let’s talk about the word
itself and its discrepancies. Contrary to popular believe, you are in control
of who you love, and how long you love them for. This contradicts the infamous
idea of being in love; better yet, falling in love. I fail to believe that
love is a state of mind that one can merely fall into. But rather it is a road that
one is willing to travel down regardless of the individual presented before
them. In other words, love is unconditional. Please notice the way I phrased
it. I did not state that there is a type of love called ‘unconditional love’.
If there is anything that I am most confident about, it is that love itself, true
love, is indeed unconditional. I will leave a link below to all the scriptures
supporting biblical evidence for this but for the sake of argument (and word
count) let’s assume that love is unconditional.
So going back to my previous scenario, there are many
reasons as why that individual may not or may choose to love others as whole
heartedly as they are commanded to. Here are few I’ve come up with:
The individual they refuse to love
- - Is a liar, evil, a thief or has sinned against
you in some way or another
- - Is not close enough to you in order for you to
feel any love for them
- - Is not part of their immediate family
- - Has not been in my life long enough to love
- - Is not trust worthy
-
The truth is, if there is a criteria (even if it’s simplest
of requirements) to meet in order to earn your love, then that love is
artificial. Conditional love does not exist as it a logical contradiction. If
love is unconditional, putting conditions on it destroys its nature.
The earlier verse in the bible that I mentioned is what Christ
deemed to be the most important commandment. And if Christ being God, creator
of all, deemed something important; I think we’re entitled to take it into
consideration; at the very least of course. A question I want to ask is how
exactly do I love my neighbour the same way I love myself?
Well firstly I’d like to say that, “I barely love myself” is
not an excuse. People who claim they do not love themselves
usually mean to say they do not LIKE themselves. Truth be told, their
definition of love is tainted as I expressed in the beginning.
The first thing they do when they wake
up is brush their teeth, shower (hopefully) and eat breakfast. Whether you like
yourself or not, you will take care of yourself – or in context, you will show
love to yourself. The fact that you may or may not have low self-esteem or
dislike your appearance or personality, doesn’t mean that you do not love
yourself. The care you show yourself is living proof of the love you have for
yourself. So what does it look like to love your
neighbour in the same way you love yourself? Well I’m glad you asked.
Let me use a mother and her baby as an example. The mother
has no reason to like or hate her new born child. Yet the mother deems it
necessary to ensure the baby is well taken care of by cleaning, feeding and
sometimes even entertaining the baby. Occasionally the mother may feel annoyed
at the baby because he/she wakes up at early hours in the morning crying and pooing; but this annoyance
does not stop the mother from showing her love by cleaning and feeding the baby
regardless of how annoyed she is. Cleaning, feeding, and putting a roof over
the child’s head are all signs of love. If we were to carry this out in our
everyday lives, it would consist of providing for those that are in need, for
example, the poor, the homeless and the afflicted. (James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before
God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and windows in their afflictions,
and to keep oneself unstained from the world).
But I say to you who
hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse
you and pray for those who abuse you.(Luke 6:27-28)
If we truly loved our neighbour then regardless of what they
may have done to us or how vile their personality may be, we will yearn to care
for them by doing good, blessing them and praying for them. This is why love
isn’t dependant on the individual’s relation to you, such as whether they’re
your family, close-friend, friend or even enemy. Earlier on I mentioned the
idea of loving your neighbour. In
Greek, this can be translated (literally) to ‘any other person’. From this, I
can boldly conclude that as Christians, we are commanded to love anyone and
everyone regardless of their situation or our feelings towards them. It is clear
that without love, we have nothing.
If I speak in the
tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a
clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have
not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body
to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
Scripture tells us that a person who does not love, does not
know God; for God is love (1John 4:8). Love is not just unconditional, but also
sacrificial. God exhibited this in the most profound way possible. He became
man and gave himself up for His people. Regardless of the sinful nature of man,
he loved us so much that He gave His Son a sacrifice to in order to cleanse us
from our sins, and reconcile us with Himself. This
sacrifice is the most vivid example I can use to express the selflessness and
the importance of love.
But God shows his love
for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
Even whilst we were sinning against Him he showed His love
for us. So who are we to refuse to show love to those that do the same?
Stay blessed.
https://www.openbible.info/topics/loving_unconditionally
- 12:36
- 0 Comments
If any of you reading this have ever had a conversation with me, you will know that I am the type of person who not only has an opinion on everything, but if left unattended, will discuss or debate with anyone for days on any subject under the moon. This discussion may consist of an argument going both ways, or at times may even consist of me talking until I've been told to stop or sense that the other people are tired of me talking.
Being constantly called a 'know-it-all', I've had no choice but to look at that phrase closely, and decide with careful discernment, whether this is a compliment or and insult. I do not consider myself to be 'intelligent' or wholly-knowledgeable but I do strive to take in as much information as possible on daily bases. In doing this, it does leave space for some "did you know that..." conversations to arise.
As you can imagine, this personality trait I have can expose me to a lot of bad things. One of them being pride. During the last couple of weeks, it has been something that has been strong on my heart to repent of, as well as to study. So I'd like to share my studies with you!
"Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you." James 4:10
Humility is a very difficult subject to talk about. Matt Chandler talks about it in Part 9 of his Sermon series on the book James and puts it like this:
"Can you know that you're humble? And if you know that you are humble, are you actually humble? If I ask you, 'what has God been doing in your life recently?' and you reply with: 'I just feel a deep routed humility taking hold of my life.' Do you really feel that? Did you just brag about humility?
Are we sure that we are not seeking to be humble so that we may be exalted in our humility?"
So as you can see, it is not easy to talk about this subject without sounding prideful. Many of us tend to believe that all the talents, knowledge and wisdom we THINK we have are ours. Matt Chandler says:
"Most people don't think they walk in pride, they just think they're good at what they do".
The issue with this branch of arrogance is that it causes the deterioration of your curiosity. A man who feels like he is good at what he does will be reluctant to learn anything else within his field. But a person who approaches their field with humility will continuously learn.
Worldly wisdom does not compare to the humble wisdom that God provides for us.
In other words, a man whom the world deems to be wise reads a book and gains a strong understanding of the book. But a man who God sees as wise reads a book several times and gains several different understandings each time.
Never fall under the ironically-ignorant idea that all you know is all there is to know. Proverbs puts it like this:
"Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than him." Proverbs 26:12
At least the fool knows he is foolish and can do something about it right?
But what if you're genuinely good at what you do? You are knowledgeable and wise. How do you keep from pride? The reason why intelligent or gifted people almost always struggle with pride is their lack of understanding of where they received their good assets from.
Let me share my understanding of humility with you. It goes like this:
Humility is admitting that your gifts, talents or good-characteristics are not due to your own hard work or how great you are; they are due to how great the Creator is. How can we rejoice in ourselves as if we are the creators of our own beings? To find humility, it is required for us to boast in the Lord (1Corinthians 1:31) - glorify Him for what He has created and the gifts He has provided His creation with.
This is a short look on Pride vs Humility.
I definitely encourage you to watch the sermon study on James Chapter 4 below for a more detailed look!
Thank you for reading :)
- 14:26
- 0 Comments
The question I want to ask you today is: what does it mean to be joyful?
“The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17)
"A deep contentment and complete happiness." - Victoria
"Unlimited peace and happiness." - David
"Joy exceeds happiness. Joy can turn a bad situation positive. The Joy of the Lord strengthens me when I'm sad." - Paulina
"Never ending. " Victory
"A state. Even in a situation that does not seem plesent, it is possible to be joyful. It is not a feeling but a personality or characteristic you take with you in every situation." - Anthony
The last couple of months have shown me the reality of what it means to be joyful as well as have joy in the Holy Spirit.
Exam season can be mentally and physically exhausting.
The irony is, a couple weeks before our exams begin, many take their Bibles off the shelf, dust them off, and prepare to pray for favour and prosperity. But in reality, our hearts are dwelling in the absence of joy. Whilst trying to seek motivation, strength, intelligence and understanding, we fail to see what we are really missing.
Often we seek happiness, joy and satisfaction in all the wrong places.
To be joyful does not mean to have it all together. It does not depend on how amazing your current situation is. Joy is not associated with your physical or emotional state.
So if Joy does not depend on the situation you're in, or the emotions you're feeling, what does it depend on?
It depends on the Holy Spirit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness (Galatians 5:22)
I'm writing to you today to briefly express what it means to bare such a wonderful fruit of the Holy Spirit, joy.
Just like any fruit, it cannot grow without some sort of sowing of seeds involved. In other words, you will never find Joy if you do not actively peruse it. Furthermore, you will never find it if the Joy you are perusing is not authentic.
To "peruse joy" doesn't mean to smile wherever you go. To rejoice throughout the storm is very different to smiling through the pain. I've always been told to be joyful, but why? How can I just smile when I know I've got 7 different lecture slides to go through 2 days before my exam; it doesn't even remotely make any sense.
Furthermore, it so absurd that alot of us are under the illusion that being joyful means pretending like you're happy even though your life seems to be going south.
Took me a little while to realise that there is one thing that is consistent throughout my happiness and my sadness; and that is Christ Jesus. Rejoice in the Lord always... (Phillipians 4:4) This may seem like a terribly simplistic solution but that's the beauty of it. In every scenario, rejoice in the Lord. Don't smile for the sake of it. Smile because Christ has given us the opportunity to bare the fruit of the Spirit. Joy is not just having a positive attitude and a smile on your face; but Godly joy has meaning behind it. Why smile for the sake of it when you can have a reason to?
Understand that you have the Spirit of the living God within you, through Christ; and I guarantee that whatever the situation you're in, this very fact will keep joy in your heart and peace in your mind.
It takes trust to have joy in the Lord. with joy comes peace, patience, kindness and faithfulness.
Thanks for reading, God bless.
- 06:52
- 0 Comments
For 40 days and 40 nights, Victoria and I decided to unchain ourselves from the bondage of various forms of social media. With the exception of Facebook-for academic reasons-we disconnected ourselves from some the most popular forms of social networking, such as: Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram.
Let me be honest with you, I have never felt so bored, sitting on the toilet seat, than I had during the first week of Lent. Completing the most simplest of tasks, like warming up some rice and stew (YUMMY), without having twitter to embark on, made the 3 minutes feel like 3 hours of silent prayer in a room full of Buddhist monks - awkwardly boring.
I was well aware of the difficulties I would ecounter during this fast. I mean, of course I wasn't tempted by Satan to turn rocks into bread like my good friend Jesus, but I knew that breaking out of a daily habit was not going to be easy.
I was well aware of the difficulties I would ecounter during this fast. I mean, of course I wasn't tempted by Satan to turn rocks into bread like my good friend Jesus, but I knew that breaking out of a daily habit was not going to be easy.
Little did I know how much I would learn.
If you don't know me well, let me tell you a little bit about myself and my relationship with social media.
I'm the person that uses twitter everyday to complain about how much I dislike twitter and people on twitter. Ironic right?
When I'm not complaining about the monstrosities that occur within the proximity of Twitter, I'm trying my best to utilise the timeline to spread the word of God and bring light to areas of darkness.
I could go on and on about how bad social media is, when used recreation-ally, but I won't.(That's a whoooole-nother blog, my friends...)
I'm the person that uses twitter everyday to complain about how much I dislike twitter and people on twitter. Ironic right?
When I'm not complaining about the monstrosities that occur within the proximity of Twitter, I'm trying my best to utilise the timeline to spread the word of God and bring light to areas of darkness.
I could go on and on about how bad social media is, when used recreation-ally, but I won't.(That's a whoooole-nother blog, my friends...)
Instead, I'll tell you a little about what it prevents you from doing. Or rather what it's been preventing me from doing.
My social fast revealed to me that there is life outside my cellular device. Meaning talking to the stranger next to me in church could actually be more productive than checking the trending topics on Twitter. I made more friends in church, uni and everywhere else during my 40 day fast than I did within my whole 1st semester at university.
Secondly, I found myself reading a vast lot more than recently. There's a book called "KillJoys" pioneered by John Pipers ministry "Desiring God ". My joy for sitting down consuming novels whole has diminished since the beginning of university. I used to feel like there was just not enough time. Which I now found out to be a LIE.
After this book, within the 40 days, I read a 2 trilogies and one 4-book series. For me, it was like summer all over again!
The amount of spare time I had was utterly phenomenal. It made me realise exactly how much time I was spending watching other people's boring, yet intriguing, lives on snapchat.
Secondly, I found myself reading a vast lot more than recently. There's a book called "KillJoys" pioneered by John Pipers ministry "Desiring God ". My joy for sitting down consuming novels whole has diminished since the beginning of university. I used to feel like there was just not enough time. Which I now found out to be a LIE.
After this book, within the 40 days, I read a 2 trilogies and one 4-book series. For me, it was like summer all over again!
The amount of spare time I had was utterly phenomenal. It made me realise exactly how much time I was spending watching other people's boring, yet intriguing, lives on snapchat.
The most interesting thing for me was my grounding in the word of God. Finding time to read the Bible has always been a struggle, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. During this period, I found myself consistently dwelling in the word of God. Don't get me wrong, I didn't become Pastor-Evangelist-Deacon-Prophet-Elder Rupert within 40 days; but I did find a more consistent pattern in my studies. This was not because I simply "had more time". It was alot more than that.
I realised that in the past, everytime I'd say I'm going to read my Bible, I'd get distracted by something that's going on online somewhere. Not only that, but often times if I'd read things on twitter that would anger me so much that I'd rather go to sleep than embark on the word of God.
Hear me out for a second though.
Hear me out for a second though.
I don't blame social media for the my lack of disciplines in His word; but the absence of it has really revealed to me alot of things that has set a spark of change for the better.
I'd encourage you to try it sometime in your life.
You never know what you'd gain.
Happy Easter and Thanks for reading!
Rupert A.
- 14:21
- 2 Comments
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