Nothing you find

See, you have found nothing valuable
It is all as good as stubble
No glory herein
And your actions do prove it.

Twenty weeks have passed here
And I have poured my libations-
Devotions seen and breathed
Actions now and tomorrow.

These you have looked upon
With grey and pink face
Black and white smirk
Devoid of direction.

Twenty weeks now set upon me
And I have not seen your Sun;
My libations still flowing
My prayers still chanted
Still you withhold your Sun.

Indeed, you have found no value;
For flowers, olive oil, whole grain have I poured,
Even the red blood and flesh that goes with it
You answer still with the black of night.

Wasn't there then but I am now

Forgive me,
I knew but I did not care to care;
I did not invite consideration for a minute
To understand the kind of pain you were going through.

My eyes may have beheld the horror,
My ears hearing the screams,
But my heart seemed to slumber
In my own present safety.

Only now do I taste the bitterness
Of the memories that remain,
Oh that you would not remember,
Yet the images refrain.

Your words are as brief as an ode
Yet they raise this heart from the dead,
I wasn't there then
But I am now.

I will pray for you and the kin that you know
Ask the dear Lord, to send a comfort to your souls
You've been through the fire, indeed the valley of death
But the Shepherd has been with you, and will never go away.

 A Psalm of David.

Jehovah is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of Jehovah forever. 

Fighting God

Today I discovered or, re-learned that it is very easy to miss out on God's desired place for you when faith is omitted.

On my way to work, I usually get a lift from friends of mine but we do not stay in the same area. So, I get a taxi for a cost of about 500/- to the main road where I wait for them and they drop me near work. It saves me the energy of trekking from Cooper complex to City Square to get a taxi. Also, it is cheaper to get a taxi from where I am dropped off.

On this particular day, I was a bit late. The friends called to notify me they were on their way yet I had not even got a taxi and by now the taxis were taking ages to appear. I had prayed earlier on, that I would get a taxi and make it to the stage before my friends came.

I was late. A taxi showed up but it was already filled. Hmmmm. I thought to myself. That earlier prayer perhaps hasn't been answered, let me just get a boda boda. So a boda boda came along and I flagged him down, jumped on and was ferried along to the place. As we went we passed by two taxis coming along probably to pick more passengers but I thought, Nah, can't get off the boda, those taxis will not make it on time. I continued till destination and got off.  He took a kay. 

I was early now. Tihihi. So I began to wait. And then I noticed the traffic jam. The jam was incredible at that particular time, and I was not seeing these guys. I waited close to thirty minutes till they came.

Surely, if I had waited and entered a taxi, I would have got to the stage before my friends came as I had asked of God. Selah.

Later on at work. We are all busy at our desks, sending that email, inserting that piece of code, aligning a certain pixel when power goes off! Frankly, it is the third day it is happening in a row and it gets annoying working on generator, having to plug and unplug from the UPS. Quite frankly I was not impressed. So I said,

God, let power come back so we can work. Let it not go again. Right?

So, we wait till the guys decide the generator must come out. After plugging in everything, switching onto generator power, the power comes back! Hardly 3 minutes after unplugging from UPS! lol.

Isn't it weird that God answered both prayers even when I changed my mind? I call this fighting God. Asking God for help and then for one reason or another turning to your own means. Today, God heard both prayers, answered them too. However, my impatience caused me to labour and spend more than ought. You might say this is slight but God forbid I change my mind on big things I have prayed for! I may get the good thing from God but also waste my own strength trying to answer my prayer and fail.

Help me Father not pray and then try to answer my own prayer.

Manoeuvre

Note: when you mouse over the scriptures they will pop up. :-)

"Ran out of places I can run...". 4th Avenue Jones finishes that line by saying "...God take me away..." in their song Take Me Away. I do not have the ignorance to ask for such a thing anymore. The escapism and individualism that some of the monks had. Placed in a world full of dirt and slime, one would think tis better to run away or get away so as not to be tainted. Unfortunately, that luxury does not exist. Not even Jesus Christ took it. The only time He did that was the 40 days He fasted and more so the prayers He would have, away from the crowds.

Point taken:- You cannot get away from the world physically. You can get away from the world Spiritually. How? Through prayer and fasting.

 Back to this world. It is such a distress that it seems slime and dirt follow me everywhere I go. The very things I am avoiding are the very things availing themselves.

Scenario: I am trying my best to keep my eyes away from indecency. Trying to avoid those women who were deceived that the more flesh they show, the more likeable they are. To an extent there is some truth; the flesh will demand of the flesh. The eyes will want to see more "skin". So, in the flesh, the more skin the better, the more skin the more "beautiful" or "likeable" or as the world commonly puts it "sexy"/"desirable".

What is worse is that sometimes it is not even the women exposing their skin. It is the men. In my line of work, I look for a lot of resources in terms of graphics, that is, vectors, pictures, brushes. In this line of work, the women may not neccessarily choose indecency however, due to the "gift" of drawing and animating some men have, they will create their women, with barely enough clothing or none. Sometimes I cannot avoid stumbling onto these.

I hate it when I am watching a program or a match and then the ads come on. Now I like ads, some are really nice. However, I wonder why a woman is always involved. And most times she prolly has no clothes on, even when the advert is about jeans!

I know, you're going to say I have a weak or dirty mind. If that is the case, then I am attempting to detoxify. It is hard, I must say. So hard that my advice to the pure of mind is for them to make up their minds never to get dirty. lol.

Point is, how do I manoeuvre these things? They are all over the place! In the papers. On the radio. In the TV. On the internet. Everywhere. Does that mean I am a slave to these "chancings" of decadence? No. I am accountable. To God, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. I must mind what I hear, see, read, think.

Christ began with a fast, however, we see Him at 12 years of age having already been a student of the word. We see Him treasure prayer so much he even rebuked His disciples once by saying "What, could ye not watch with me one hour?" See more Matthew 26:40-44.

Gosh, this calls for repentance!

Bottom line is, I believe I must once again, target my heart through my mind and also strengthen my spirit. At the end of the day, when it pops up, I can simply turn away, and not follow the link. And not buy the paper, and not turn up the volume, and not rewind the scene.

See John 6:63. See Romans 12:2

Be blessed.

Every Prayer

Every Prayer

I heard 'em say He brought me from a mighty long way
And now today I can testify that I believe it
And on my way I realized He's the one who kept me
When the storms of life arise, sleepless nights and desperate cries
He has captured every tear assuring me He hears

Every prayer, waiting on the answer only to discover He is near
And He hears every prayer for He has done great things
And I believe He's a God that always answers prayer

I heard 'em say the prayers of the righteous availeth much
And now today I can testify that I believe it
Now on my way I wanna let you know that He will keep you
When the storms of life arise, sleepless nights and desperate cries
He's captured every tear assuring me that He hears

Every prayer, waiting on the answer only to discover He is near
And He hears every prayer for He has done great things
I believe He's a God that always answers prayer

Don't despise the tears you've cried
Or the prayers that you have prayed
Heaven heard your every word
And the answer, the answer's on the way

I heard 'em say there is an answer on the way
My God has done so many great things, great things
Hold on and you will see there is an answer on the way
My God has done so many great things, great things

Oh, there is an answer on the way
My God has done so many great things, great things
Hold on, hold on, there is an answer on the way
My God has done so many great things, great things

Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on
You can make it, you can make it
You can make it for he has done great things

I believe He's a God that always
I believe He's a God that always
I believe He's a God who always answers prayers
Yes, He does

Israel Houghton feat Mary Mary

A thought on a recent storm

Certainly storms shake up things. No one walks steady in a storm. With the reckless rain spewed out of the dark clouds blinding and battering, somehow the storm moves the man, most times to his knees and closer to his King.

Joh 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in me ye may have peace. In the world ye will have tribulation, but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.