Isn't it weird that it seems I always write an end of month post? Hmm...
May. Is going away.
I remember that as April came to an end, I thanked God for certain good things and hoped to do some new good in May. Well, the fifth month of the year is over and now we are crossing into the second half of 2011.
One. If there was actually a rapture and it took a select few, then I am in trouble. It means no more grace; this translates into getting what we deserve, earning our salvation, henceforth meaning we must all be on our best behaviour even after accepting the good Lord and Saviour. Not that we behaving badly was sanctioned before the rapture, but that after the rapture, there is no grace, no cover for your wrongs. Thank God Jesus is the picture of grace. Thank God for grace. With it, we can actually live a life pleasing to Him even when we are so weak (of course through faith- Eph 2:8)
Besides that, there are things I thought I would have done by the sixth month but the machinery for bringing them is taking its time. I am still patient though, because I have hope, I have a dream and will keep believing till I see these things come to pass.
Now, May has been particularly victorious. I was able to form a mutual benefit friendship with a very wise person and we are both reaping from the support we give each other. Iron sharpens iron, they say- cannot be truer. The Word says that two are better than one, one person puts 1000 men to flight, two people put 10,000 men to flight. So I am glad for the victories that are out of friendship that is honest and supportive.
However, scoffers were shouting very loudly in this month and for the past few days, I felt like I had no faith whatsoever! I was scared! Uneasy. Unhappy. Only for grace did I get the courage to pray and tell Him about it and already I am feeling better.
Love is funny. But it is beautiful too.
I am hoping for a June that is far greater in excellence than May. I know it is possible- I am believing and praying. May has been a testimony that God actually hears us when we pray and sends us the help we need.
Come June. You are already blessed.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Go with them two miles
I don't want to sleep tonight.
I have a working day tomorrow notwithstanding.
I think the muse had plans for me tonight but must have forgotten to make up his mind along the way; and I just thought, maybe music comes from the word muse.
I like to remind myself- there is grace, and it has no greys. To remember that when it rains, all our sins are washed away. Grace is not a mystery, it is not in need of a thesis. Grace is precious like gold, yet common like the airtime vendor. Nothing complex about it yet it is very comprehensive....all our sins are washed away.
Well, when the grace of God is in your life, you realise quickly that you've been given a get out of jail free card and some others to give out. Isn't it strange when we fail to do the same for others, when we fail to mete out the grace poured upon us to others? Claiming how incredulous people can be yet that's what the "accuser" is always telling God about us?
I can be dumb. Allow me to express myself though, hoping to emulate King David in his sincerity.
I never thought I'd ever be stood up, at least since 2007. I thought I had a good understanding with the people I connect with in that if anything happens maybe I will get a call to warn me about the danger of being stood up. For example, if I am running late, be told so.
I did not think it too much to ask since I like to be the one keeping time most of the time, and since I have learned to wait. I once had to wait close to two hours for a meeting I had been invited to to start, in those two hours none of the "inviters" had showed up!
I do not think it too much to ask for a warning.
Anyway, on this day as I get to the venue, I receive a text announcing how the other party has already left. The party cites their reason for leaving as having been there earlier and the waiter giving strange looks.
Blank stares and disbelief follows. I go an extra step and call up other party. They promptly apologise and go ahead to hang up on a call I have made... Hmmm. This time laughter ensues. I decide I will not whine or complain so I turn my attention to other things.
Today though, this thought comes up because worse than being stood up is being left on a date, with the wine glass in your hand, or worse still with the ring still in the box.
And are those not the times it calls for grace? I have my failings, I agree but they have to do with relatives... relatives can be such a test... As for those we relate with by choice, certain actions can easily cause anger, disbelief, ire, etc... So, in consideration that we have done worse to God, can't we be more gracious to others in how we react to the wrongs they do us?
Jus saying.
Baseline
You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Matthew 5:38-41
I have a working day tomorrow notwithstanding.
I think the muse had plans for me tonight but must have forgotten to make up his mind along the way; and I just thought, maybe music comes from the word muse.
I like to remind myself- there is grace, and it has no greys. To remember that when it rains, all our sins are washed away. Grace is not a mystery, it is not in need of a thesis. Grace is precious like gold, yet common like the airtime vendor. Nothing complex about it yet it is very comprehensive....all our sins are washed away.
Well, when the grace of God is in your life, you realise quickly that you've been given a get out of jail free card and some others to give out. Isn't it strange when we fail to do the same for others, when we fail to mete out the grace poured upon us to others? Claiming how incredulous people can be yet that's what the "accuser" is always telling God about us?
I can be dumb. Allow me to express myself though, hoping to emulate King David in his sincerity.
I never thought I'd ever be stood up, at least since 2007. I thought I had a good understanding with the people I connect with in that if anything happens maybe I will get a call to warn me about the danger of being stood up. For example, if I am running late, be told so.
I did not think it too much to ask since I like to be the one keeping time most of the time, and since I have learned to wait. I once had to wait close to two hours for a meeting I had been invited to to start, in those two hours none of the "inviters" had showed up!
I do not think it too much to ask for a warning.
Anyway, on this day as I get to the venue, I receive a text announcing how the other party has already left. The party cites their reason for leaving as having been there earlier and the waiter giving strange looks.
Blank stares and disbelief follows. I go an extra step and call up other party. They promptly apologise and go ahead to hang up on a call I have made... Hmmm. This time laughter ensues. I decide I will not whine or complain so I turn my attention to other things.
Today though, this thought comes up because worse than being stood up is being left on a date, with the wine glass in your hand, or worse still with the ring still in the box.
And are those not the times it calls for grace? I have my failings, I agree but they have to do with relatives... relatives can be such a test... As for those we relate with by choice, certain actions can easily cause anger, disbelief, ire, etc... So, in consideration that we have done worse to God, can't we be more gracious to others in how we react to the wrongs they do us?
Jus saying.
Baseline
You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Matthew 5:38-41
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Open letter and apology to my homosexual friends
For the homosexual who may not be comfortable with his or her sexual conduct, I pray you give me ear.
There is a debate going on about the passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill and it has generated a lot of anger from you. It seems like the intention of the Uganda Government and all in support of the Bill want to lock you up and let you rot in jail because of what you sanely choose.
Sorry for appearing like a self righteous bigot whose only estimation of you is that you should die. If that has been seen in the way I express myself I am sorry, I beg to rectify that image.
As a Christian, I take great comfort in knowing that I once was bound in hopelessness too, hating the thing I was doing but not seeming to stop doing it. I take great comfort in Jesus laying His life down for me so that I could receive His righteousness. I recognize when He reached out to me, I was a sinner to the core without hope and a child of His wrath because of my disobedience.
I learned that no matter how much I wanted to change, the law could not help me, it was but a shadow. It showed me the standard but did not really show me how to live to it. It never empowered me. In the same way, many of you feel like the Bahati bill cannot in anyway cause you to change, and that it in fact condemns you. It seeks not your welfare but your destruction. I understand how you feel. That is the work of the law. It shows perfection, rarely gives a solution.
The tug of war that seems to be going on between so called pro and anti has taken away much of the attention from the core issues I think we need to address. Yes, some of you seem to be in a circumstance you cannot control, but it is known there are others who have been oriented into that position.
While I agree the Bahati bill cannot work towards rehabilitation, it works especially against those who shamelessly do their acts in an aggravated manner. From my estimation of the bill, most of the focus is on aggravated homosexuality though it still addresses homosexuality in it’s “consentual” form. The aggravated form of it needs to be addressed, and in this case there are victims as well, who do not offer any consent and suffer.
I personally would like that a clause be included for those willing to change.
My beliefs may never meet with yours but I ascribe to rehabilitation. There are many who have changed their “orientation”, in which case I bring you to notice it is more about what you train your mind to accept rather than what you naturally feel.
I do not desire any of you perish. No, not in this life or the next. I pray that you may be able to see the grace of God available for you to change. Of course this only applies to those who see gay conduct as ungodly. There is help in God. No hope is lost.
God loves you, He seriously does, to the point He sacrificed His own son. Being gay is a choice, you can walk out of it, it is not God’s will.
I would like to say sorry for all the hate you seem to meet, sometimes we are misguided. In the end, my desire is we all may live righteous and uphold God’s holy law by the power that is given to us through Christ.
You can change.
Much love.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness through the passing by of the sins that had taken place before, in the forbearance of God; for the display of His righteousness at this time, for Him to be just and, forgiving the one being of the faith of Jesus. Then where is the boasting? It is excluded. Through what law? Of works? No, but through the law of faith.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the Law. Or is He the God of the Jews only, and not also of the nations? Yes, of the nations also, since it is one God who will justify circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make the Law void through faith? Let it not be! But we establish the Law.
Rom 3:23-31
There is a debate going on about the passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill and it has generated a lot of anger from you. It seems like the intention of the Uganda Government and all in support of the Bill want to lock you up and let you rot in jail because of what you sanely choose.
Sorry for appearing like a self righteous bigot whose only estimation of you is that you should die. If that has been seen in the way I express myself I am sorry, I beg to rectify that image.
As a Christian, I take great comfort in knowing that I once was bound in hopelessness too, hating the thing I was doing but not seeming to stop doing it. I take great comfort in Jesus laying His life down for me so that I could receive His righteousness. I recognize when He reached out to me, I was a sinner to the core without hope and a child of His wrath because of my disobedience.
I learned that no matter how much I wanted to change, the law could not help me, it was but a shadow. It showed me the standard but did not really show me how to live to it. It never empowered me. In the same way, many of you feel like the Bahati bill cannot in anyway cause you to change, and that it in fact condemns you. It seeks not your welfare but your destruction. I understand how you feel. That is the work of the law. It shows perfection, rarely gives a solution.
The tug of war that seems to be going on between so called pro and anti has taken away much of the attention from the core issues I think we need to address. Yes, some of you seem to be in a circumstance you cannot control, but it is known there are others who have been oriented into that position.
While I agree the Bahati bill cannot work towards rehabilitation, it works especially against those who shamelessly do their acts in an aggravated manner. From my estimation of the bill, most of the focus is on aggravated homosexuality though it still addresses homosexuality in it’s “consentual” form. The aggravated form of it needs to be addressed, and in this case there are victims as well, who do not offer any consent and suffer.
I personally would like that a clause be included for those willing to change.
My beliefs may never meet with yours but I ascribe to rehabilitation. There are many who have changed their “orientation”, in which case I bring you to notice it is more about what you train your mind to accept rather than what you naturally feel.
I do not desire any of you perish. No, not in this life or the next. I pray that you may be able to see the grace of God available for you to change. Of course this only applies to those who see gay conduct as ungodly. There is help in God. No hope is lost.
God loves you, He seriously does, to the point He sacrificed His own son. Being gay is a choice, you can walk out of it, it is not God’s will.
I would like to say sorry for all the hate you seem to meet, sometimes we are misguided. In the end, my desire is we all may live righteous and uphold God’s holy law by the power that is given to us through Christ.
You can change.
Much love.
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