Lessons

"What's your promise?" I said to my daughter as I peered over her shoulder to look at the promise card she was given. What's a promise? Something you vow to someone? Evidently I take it for granted that God vows to do something for me at the start of the new year. The fact is He speaks all year round. But He chooses to honour the eagerness and anticipation around this time and I choose to wait at His feet with extra caution. Almost like the little child who tries to avoid being naughty especially around Christmas time.  It amazes me how the promises of God are always eternal. Take for instance the verse from Genesis 28:15 "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Genesis 28:15 NKJV https://bible.com/bible/114/gen.28.15.NKJV To me, it sounds like a lover's pledge. But the thing is, what has He spoken to me. For one , it is ...

After Christmas Yesterday, I read from Matthew second chapter to my children before they went to sleep. When I finished, my daughter said, "I think God saved the entire family when He sent Jesus away to Egypt." It gave me the jitters to think of the next question they would ask me, " if God saved Jesus from Herod, why didn't he save all the children?" The first Christmas was a promise of hope, joy, peace and love. But horror lurked just around the corner. Who knew? God did. He even foretold this misery. The Messiah was to be born into this chaos and grief. Not afterwards nor before that. Grief turns severe during Christmas. New year leaves not much to hope for at homes that have lost loved ones. But Christmas comes nevertheless. Just like kept promises, Christmas comes and with it comes the challenge to love beyond the grief.  I don't know the answer to why children die - be it in mass shootings or bizzare accidents. But what I do know is this. T...

It's Christmas! At the crack of dawn, I will get ready to go to church. So will my kids. It has never been a time for presents or for a gathering under the tree. Our home looks just the same inside as it did all year through. But the gentle skip in the heart every time my kids heard the word Christmas was almost tangible. Christmas is good tidings of great joy. Clearly it isn't the colours, the decorations or even the carols that make it special. It is a celebration of life as God saw it! Eternal, sacrificial, abundant, peaceful and joyful. "Christmas is our festival because we are Christians" my daughter said recently. But on that first Christmas dawn, the shepherds heard the angel sing a different tune. He said, "to all mankind." Christmas is Christmas for all! It seems it doesn't depend on what one believes. It is like the earth was round even when every soul upon it thought it was flat. The same way, the Messiah came even though His own did not ...

For all those out there still speculating “how could a man who was crucified in the prime of His life be called successful?” He traded our shamefulness by hanging naked on the cross. As the world jeered Him, He was fighting the most crucial battle for mankind. Why, who would understand that? His own people thought he was being punished by God.  Why do you stand afar and salute Him for his ‘famous last words’ if you really can’t make out who He is? This man lived out the gospel He preached. Don’t pay attention to His ‘dying’ words if you are not interested in what he said when He lived among us.  In case you are wondering: He said, ‘bless those who curse you. Bless and don’t curse. Pray for those who persecute you’ If a man could live by what he preached until his dying breath, if that isn’t success, then I think you got to hear more: The first recorded martyrdom for the faith in Jesus Christ is Stephen’s. His last words were the same as those spoken by the one He...

Eternal God: When you saw us leave the garden, clothed in sheepskin, it had to be a blood drenched coat of a blemishless lamb that should cover our nakedness. In a moment’s time we had traded our freedom and glory for slavery and shame. Father, how heart wrenching it would have been for you to send us out from your presence although You knew You would win it all back for us? Did we go to sleep crying? Did we at all sleep that night? How strange was it to us that we wouldn’t see You in the morning or walk by your side? Lord, when I don’t meet with you in the mornings and evenings of my daily life, will I feel strange and lost without you? I don’t want to get used to it. When did we begin to bring the work of our hands to you? Who was it who taught us to give to you?And when we did all that, did we understand that you did not need it at all? When you came down to confuse our languages so that we’d be sure that we are not self sufficient, was it not out of love to give us back what ...

Jesus washes the disciples' feet: It began with a demonstration that made no sense to the participants. There was their Lord and Master - claimed and acknowledged as the Son of God, taking off His outer garment and becoming a slave. This was right after they all had heard the  acknowledgement from heaven. Here, I am thinking of all those moments that I felt self-important: Answered prayers, well thought out responses to difficult questions, leading worship, praying for people... All of those times when I thought how wronged I was. All the hurts and intended meanings that I cried out to God about, together with those times when God dealt with some painful truths about my attitude to people lead up to this question: "Do you understand what I have done for you?" Bewildered as His audience were, I ask myself is this just about the humility of Christ? Thank fully, the Lord, explains Himself: "Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also sh...

" I don't want to come to school to hear the teacher complain about you." I said it even before I knew what I meant. Then I tried changing it...  " It is not about me. It is for your own good. I want you to grow up into a good human being and not be a burden on the society" I realised it was still about me. How do you train up a child in the way that he(she) should go? I had to think hard to come to this point. My children are a heritage. They are not the bearers of my pride. Being a good human being is not natural. It takes seasons of failures and successes in every day life of the parent. Bringing up children is hardwork for me. As much as I cherished the song, ' Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus', and lingered over the lines " Jesus, Jesus how I trust Him, How I've proved Him o'er and o'er" it made more sense to me only after miserable moments of motherhood. I learned to let it rest at Jesus' feet. He gave me the courage to ...

In less than an hour it will be Christmas morn. I am no longer the unable to sleep with too much excitement kid. Over the years definitions of love have changed for me but it essentially has been always to do with me. Tonight I am forced to think of a love that's unearthly. Love that would rend the heavens and take me to eternity. That night the tired shepherds felt the warmth of heaven light up their souls with the greatest news of all time. For unto you... For unto us... The child born the Son given . The love that slaughtered. The love that wept, the Love that offered The love that received, the love that bore, the love that stills bears. They sing "love came down on Christmas morn" and I want to add: that love lingers on.