The seat of your life Part 2

In part 1 we saw how the heart is central to human life that it’s the source of everything that we experience in life; the heart is the platform of all our human experience. We were brought to an awareness of how we must pay a little more attention to our heart.

Today we will examine how to know the condition of our hearts and how God trains our heart or rather how we can write things in our heart so that we follow after God.

Matthew 12:35: a good man brings out good out of the good things stored up in him and an evil man, evil stored up in him.

We established that the heart is the center and the engine of our lives . we cannot experience life outside of our hearts . So how do we really know what is in us ?

·         What do you value the most? What’s in your heart will be communicated by the things you value in your subconscious and in your conscious. What is it that you can spend your money, time and other resources on? If you have found it then that is what you value the most in your life.

 If you purport to be a Christian and a lover of God, just examine how you treat people . If you love God, it’s known by how you value people.

The bottom line is that what you value the most is probably your treasure and your treasure is probably that which is lurked in our heart.

·         What will you sacrifice to obtain/acquire what you value

There was a Drama in David the kings palace and it was about an incestuous crush that ended up with fatal consequences . Amnon had a crush on Tamar , her half-sister. Its said that he was so in love with his sister that he fell sick (2 Samuel 13:2) he was willing to sacrifice and play sick all the way in order to get to her. It was a wicked thing but goes to show us when something is in your heart so much that it makes  you sick, you will be willing to do anything to acquire it.

The commitment of the early church towards one another  led them to sell their property and shared money with one another. It’s said that they were devoted to one another and to fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer and the apostles teachings. You are probably going to sacrifice to get what you value the most

·         Self-talk: what do you find talking effortlessly to yourself about when no one listening? Have you ever been startled by silent conversation/s of your friend or and individual that influenced you to change the previous judgment you had of him or her? Have you ever been surprised by the subtle conversation  you have with yourself at times? If you pay closer attention to these silent mimes , they most probably tell a lot about what is In the heart .(proverbs 23:7)

·         What emotions dominate your life?

Just as the heart is the door to your life. Your prevailing emotions open the door to your heart. Its fair to say that if emotions of anger dominate your day and are the dominant patterns of your days , then your heart is anger and you are a person bound by anger. Whatever emotions that form prevailing patterns in your life reveal what is in your heart.

How do we write things in our hearts / How God trains our hearts to store things deep within.

·         By meditation and Repetition : meditation is  a key Christian which eventually moves the word of God from our lips and our minds ans stores them in our heart. The word meditation in Hebrew Higgayon has a connotation of murmuring and mattering words as a musical notation. When the transforming word of God is in your heart, it will bring about the desired change.

Psalm 19:14, psalm 104:34.

Meditation helps us to hide the word of God in our hearts

·         Allow positive words to write emotions in our heart. I believe the word of God is not motionless and definitely not emotionless. Generally words produce emotions with the intended results as received by the recipient.

The word of God is living and active. Learn to store positive words  inside your heart . when we meditate and think about the words we are internalizing , emotions will be formed along with them.(Your heart will be shaped by the words that you allow to take root in you)

·         Putting what you have learnt into action. James reminds us to be doers of the word. James 1:22-23

James tells us that those who are hearers only is like a man who looks intently at his natural face and goes out and forgets how he looks like. Just to have words in you that you don’t put into action will soon fade away into a sea of forgetfulness.

The most important thing on life is to live from the resources of the wealth that you have within you. In Christ God has given you a new heart , he has removed the old heart of stone and has given you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 11:19). Remember that  you cannot become any better than who you really are on the inside.

The seat of Your life ..part 1

The seat of who you are: Navigating the Complexities of the human heart

What a topic to write about especially in our postmodern, fast paced, millennial 21st Century! The humankind has managed to come up with most sophisticated innovations in history. It’s amazing how many inventions we have had in history which has changed the course of million and Billion of lives. Its however worth taking note that of these inventions , none has been made to deal with the human heart and hence improving the quality  of his life. We may have state of the art equipments and infrastructure but no invention has been made to help man deal with stress , solve issues of crime or decrease rate of divorce and suicide,etc.

We may enjoy all that technology has to offer but not unless we deal with the issues that really matter, i.e Heart issues then our lives have not necessarily improved.

Proverbs4:23 Guard your heart with all vigilance, for from it are the sources of life. (NET)

Proverbs 4:23 And keep watch over your heart with all care so you will have life.(BBE)

Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. (Kjv)

Proverbs 4:23 , Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it is the wellspring of life. (WEB)

If the heart is the source of everything that we experience in life and if the heart is the platform upon which human experiences and behavior happens, we must pay a little more attention to it. The bible implores us to guard our hearts with all diligence. If you have something from which your survival springs from then you will surely guard that resource with all your heart.You will probably employ all your energies towards safeguarding that resource.

and Hey ! If you have something to which everything depended on it how would you handle it?

Think of this: Every life experience that you have ever had has been processed through the heart.

Dr James B Richards says in his book ‘Moving your invisible Boundaries’ The heart is the inner path to the kingdom of God.[1] He reiterates that what we need today is more than information. We need to learn to live from the heart. We will highlight the attributes of the heart in part one of this series

·         The heart is the real you. You can’t escape from who you really are. We live in the age of superficiality where people make faces and really hide from who they really are. Its important to always stay in touch with who you are because you cannot become anything else than who you really are.

Proverbs 23: 7 for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.

“Eat and drink!” he says to you,

but his heart is not with you.

Have you ever come across people who will say one thing but you can actually tell that they mean otherwise from the heart? It can be frustrating right? What about someone who you approach for help and he tells you that he cannot come to your aid but you know he or she has what it takes to help you.

Even though you can manage to hide behind nice, soothing words, what is hidden in your heart will eventually come out in the open for the heart is the real you. It’s important to live from the reality of who you are for there can never and will never be a better version of who you are than who you really are. You are not who you are on the outside more than who you are on the inside.

·         The heart is the seat of your being.

   The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. (Mat 12: 35)

Good and bad are brought from the heart. Who you are on the inside can never be in contrast with who you are on the outside. The heart is the seat of your being. Your emotions that define you are processed in your heart. You cannot be who you are without your heart.

Jesus taught that it’s what comes from within that corrupts a man.( Mark 7:20-23) This he said.

The heart is the citadel of your being. If the physical heart if the engine of the body, then the heart is the engine of life.

  The heart is the real you.

 Someone said you are who you are when no one is watching.

Proverbs 23:7 Do not eat bread from a stingy person. For he is like one inwardly calculating “eat and drink” he says to you but his heart is not with you.

 You can cheat people for long. Eventually the real you will come out.

It’s amazing how some people may appear to have nice words on the outside while utterly bitter          , angry and wicked on the inside.One of the experiences which usually troubles me is finding out how indifferent people may seem to be other than what they portray.

-          The human heart is complex, capable of loving and hating at the same time. Capable of rescuing and murder at the same time.

-          The bible says the heart of man is desperately wicked. Who can know it? Off course this is so when a human heart has not been transformed by the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The human heart is capable of literally anything when the light of the gospel illimunes on it, it can love to the uttermost, anything apart from this means the heart can plunge into the depths of darkness, become the craftiest thing and literally an engine of evil.

  The Lord relates with you according to your heart

1^st Samuel 16:7

We learn an important lesson through Prophet Samuel and the lesson God taught him as he went to anoint David the next king of Israel.

Man looks on the outside appearance while God looks at the heart

Romans 10:9 if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is lord and believe with our hearts we are saved.

If the heart is the center of everything, we must pay attention to the voice of God calling us to have an intimate relationship with him

A lot of people pay a lot of attention to the outside appearance while ignoring the inside. The inside is where real life happens.

You can change clothes, money, cars etc. but the transformation that happens in your heart lasts forever.

Let your heart be transformed by Gods love. Hear his voice calling you from the deep, ease your heart and listen to his voice. He says come let us reason together. Though your sins are as red as scarlet, I will make your heart as white as snow.

Hope you have been blessed , In our next sermon we will examine how to examine your heart. How we write things and make them stick to our heart. We will examine on how to train our heart rather how God trains our heart to follow after him.

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[1] Dr James B Richards,Moving your Invisible Boundaries: True Potential Publishing(ReachTheWorld),Travelers Rest SC ,2013.

In death By Love

John 11:25-26"You don't have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one, who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live.

26 And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?

We live in a world full of seasons, timing, events, deadlines, budgets and everything that the world needs to sustain life and at least move the wheel of life a stride further.

We also live in a world of expectations, demands and happenings.

The last two weeks has seen my country Kenya plunge in a dungeon of sorrow and misery as we mourn our fellow 147 Kenyans killed mercilessly by terrorists in North eastern Kenya.(Article drafted in April 2015.)

Its also unfortunate that this happened just a day before good Friday, when Christians all over the world commemorate the death of Jesus Christ our lord. Its normal for something of this magnitude to evoke questions amongst us Kenyans and especially Christians. We take note that the majority of Young people who perished were Christians who had woken up for early prayers and devotions oblivious of what and who were about to attack them in a merciless fashion.

It feels like bewildering times for Kenya and for Christians there are those who are wondering if God is good why would he let such an obnoxious episode rule the light of day . They are those who said that there were warning and prophecies that preceded this attack. There are much estimation out there to try and explain what we are in to which are of no avail in comforting the mourning families nor in restoring, hope peace and confidence amongst Kenyans

In death by Love

I really have no sufficient explanations to answer ‘the problem of evil’ that we see in our society today. I know there are those who would wish that all our Muslim brothers be annihilated from this land probably because we are faced by what is taking shape of jihadist killings. Oh how we would wish that evil be eliminated from us. But if that’s our desire, we are asking that God kills all people in the world for evil doesn’t exist independent of human life. Sin got attached to us like super glue and evil pervaded all faculties of human life. So we can’t just wish evil away.

You don't have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live.

Let me draw our attention to the hope we have right here, now.

Jesus says “I am, right now, resurrection and life”

In death by love, Jesus ripped away the entity of sin and all vices from us. He is the resurrection and life. I would draw attention to this ;that Christ did not have to die for anyone sins , for starters he didn't have to forsake his deity and take human form but that is what he did.

If we believed we died in Jesus, let us also believe that we are raised up with him in a newness of life. Its for us that he died and for our justification that he was raised from the dead.

Heb 2:16-17 It's obvious, of course, that he didn't go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham.

17 That's why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people's sins(the message Bible)

No words can capture the horror we underwent as a country in the past week. I do sympathize with the family who lost their loved ones in the Garrisa attack. I also cant imagine the horror that the cross was. Smitten and pierced, Christ took upon himself the weight and the intensity of human suffering. This was one event that for all time changed the course of history

Yet we don’t currently see evil completely wiped away from the face of the earth but we see Christ crowned with glory.

Heb 2:9 What we do see is Jesus, made "not quite as high as angels," and then, through the experience of death, crowned so much higher than any angel, with a glory "bright with Eden's dawn light." In that death, by God's grace, he fully experienced death in every person's place.(The Message)

What we see even in such a travesty is not the ideal picture of a world rid of sin but we do see Christ who tasted death for all of us. This is the power of his death because his death was also our death. He drank that bitter cup to its dregs. He came and lifted us from that misery which is death and sat us in the highest seat in the heavenly places .

1^st Cor 15:55-57Who got the last word, oh, Death? Oh, Death, who's afraid of you now?

56 It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power.

57 But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three - sin, guilt, death - are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God (The message)

Who’s got the last laugh now? That which was a master over us even death is defeated by one stroke of death which was also a stroke of life. Greater still, sin and guilt and finally death is dealt a blasting blow by a single stroke of death.

Death is no longer frightening if you know what life is really yours in Christ. We are not the ones to recoil back at the sight of life’s uncertainties. Jesus said he who believes in him heaven though he dies he will still live for he has not really died at all. Its as complex and easy the same way the cross is to us, the same way the lamb of God was slaughtered before the foundation of this world .
Friends as Easter is approaching, Its time to reflect in the hop of salvation that we have in Christ Jesus for Christ not death has the final word. Jesus is our captain and he is got the final word.. Common put on your dancing shoes and celebrate this life with Me!

The New Wine part 2

In part one of The post ‘The New wine ’ we established some important facts.

Ø  The promise of restoration of Wine and oil to the nation of Israel was not only for that time but for the latter day when the spirit is to be out poured in the whole world.

Ø  The promise of the new wine speaks of the era of the spirit when the spirit is poured on all flesh. This has been inaugurated by Jesus being manifested in flesh and after his death and resurrection the spirit being released and poured on all flesh (Acts 2)

Ø  The Lord is   doing something new , by outpouring his spirit upon all today. He is doing a new thing and it springs forth,,, the question remains “will you perceive it ?”  The threshing floor will be full of grain and the vats overflowing with wine.

In the second part of this post, we examine the fact that you don’t put new wine in old wineskin for the wineskin will burst out . We also don’t do it the other way round; put old wine in New wineskin for it simply cannot be compatible.

Scrip: Matt 9:17, Mark 2:22,Luke 5:37-38

First of all before we engage further, lets shed off the old thinking, the old mentality of lack, striving , always struggling to get things and acquiring status, being people pleaser, etc. I will call this the Old wine skin mentality for now.

We have seen that Jesus brought with him something new, superfluous and out of this world which is to succeed the old frail, monotonous, predictable, boring, religious way of thinking. Jesus did not bring an improvement of the old order neither does he intend to patch up the old cloth with a piece of a new one. He brings something totally new.

Matthew 9:16-17: “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.. N I V

The Pharisees wanted to pin Jesus down and to disgrace him by opposing his ministry in every way. This time they accused his disciples of not fasting as the others were. This kind of fault finding judgmental tendencies was what they had superbly specialized in. However in their endeavor they missed the point completely. They thought they could confound Jesus into their little winy behavior modification system of religion. What was unknown to them is that Jesus did not bring a behavior modification scheme but a whole different way of life.

The pharisaical way of thinking is that of patching a new cloth on an old garment. It looks like repair on the old garment of which result is catastrophic. You don’t want to do that .If you bury your head in the detail of religion, ou will miss out on Christ. Religion is basically a way of life which is performance based . Its fueled by how well you feel you can pray, how well you have mastered your bible (With the aim of proving others wrong), it could also manifest the good things we do in the name of God ignorantly  but missing out on the newness and freshness that Christ brings.

I have found out that whenever I seek to do things of Christ with an old mindset, I get to be frustrated. I may appear to be zealous on the outside but hurting and remorseful in the inside. I may do good things religiously giving praise and honor to God but murmuring J Ryle says that we need to be careful not to attach excessive importance to lesser things of religion.[1] When we attach so much meaning to our outward expression. How good we look, how happy we make people be, we’re likely falling into religion and missing out on the new life, freedom in the spirit that Christ has for us.

Peter the apostle tells that we have been rescued from an empty way of life.

1^st Peter 1:18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors 1^st peter 1:18.

I will equate this empty way of life with the worthless, empty way of life handed over to us by our ancestors. The empty way of life could be human tradition we have held on to for ages.. it could have been wisdom packaged and filtered through human minds and passed on to us that creep in subtly and occupy the spaces in our hearts where the true unadulterated word of God is supposed to settle.

I would ask you what kind of garment are you? Do you want to take the promises of God, the fresh new things that God promises and patch against an Old heart ? Is that even worth your time and effort? Why wouldn’t you allow the fresh wave of the spirit overwhelm and flood your heart with his loving kindness? Why would you waste your precious time patching up worn out segments of your garment and God is inviting you into something altogether lovely and new? He with one stroke of loving kindness and mercy can give you a whole new heart, change your heart completely.

Why do you labor so hard for that which doesn’t satisfy, why do you spend so much on that which is not bread ?(Isaiah 55:1-2) Come to the waters. Come to him who pours into you new wine, New way of thinking. Receive the spirit through whom we receive life and all that pertains it freely from God. Come , ooh Come yee.

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[1] J.C Ryle,Matthew (Expository Thoughts on the gospels ):The Banner of Truth trust,Edinburg(2012),7

The New Wine .Part 1.

Joel 2:24-25“The threshing floors shall be full of grain;
the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
I will restore to you the years
that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
my great army, which I sent among you.(ESV)

 As we have welcomed the New Year with aplomb, it’s my desire that personally I get to lay hold of what God has for me this year and that I may not miss out on that new thing that he has set for me to behold. It’s my prayer too for you whose life usually tends to be on the runway that you will take off and scale new heights that you will experience the abundant life God has for you.

It’s however a tragedy how we can make resolutions at the beginning of the year with so much zeal and piousness and loose the steam almost immediately after the year sets out. This is so especially as the heat and pressure of the year sets in. If you are one of those who make New Year declarations every January only to stick at the same spot the following year you probably know what am talking about.

The promise in Joel 2 is one of the most profound promises found in the Old Testament.

For hundreds of years In Joel’s time the earth lie pregnant with anticipation of when the spirit will not only come upon a person but flood the whole world. When Jesus was in this world, there was something special about him; he brought with him presence, presence that was not there in the world before. That is something that was not readily available for the people in the Old Testament to enjoy. One of the marks of the Holy Spirit upon a land or in people’s lives is the overwhelming presence of God.

In the events occurring during prophet Joel’s time, there was a landmark national disaster as a locust plague had destroyed the whole of Israel’s food plantation; wine and grain. Joel (1:5, 7, 10, 12). In the midst of this impeding calamity Joel foresees and foretells of the restoration that will come. Joel does not only foretell (To foretell is to simply to predict a future event) about the impending restoration of the nation of Israel but also forth tells(To  forth tell is to speak words of wisdom, warning, rebukes or promises of God) about how God will pour out his spirit on both the young and the old. Vs. 28.

Before this he talks about the threshing floor being full of grain and the vats overflowing with wine. Wine in the bible is used to describe the Holy Spirit. It’s the new wine that Jesus was talking about that we don’t put new wine in old wine skin.(Mat 9:17,Mark 2:22,Luke 5:37) When Jesus  miraculously turns water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee (John 2) it symbolizes the advent of the new covenant which Jesus came and inaugurated by his ministry but it wasn’t until his death and resurrection that his spirit was outpoured to all(Acts 2)           

The bible tells us not to be drunk with wine (Physical wine) but to be filled with the Holy Spirit. (The New wine) Eph 5:18. The comparison is exciting; the insinuation here is that that intoxication that we look for in the physical wine, the spirit can fill us to the overflow… have you ever heard of “being drunk in the spirit.” The point I want to make is that we have the new wine of the spirit which is not as the old wine which runs out or intoxicates only for a moment.

The bible says that if we are in Christ, we are a new creation. The Old is gone and behold all has become new. (Kainos).. 2^nd Cor 5:17. Friends let us delve into the New that God has for us. The old didn’t satisfy, It was so temporal and perhaps it drove us to the brink ;it made us sweat and try to work our socks out, it was frustrating and it laid its weight on us , but the new wine, The Spirit outpoured on us and the one living in us. The bible teaches us about him that he reveals to us the things given us by God (1^st Cor 2:12).

I don’t know about you but I want to experience and love in the overflow. Jesus came and ushered us into something new greater and superior. I wil urge you to open up your heart and get ready for an overflow of the New wine this year.

A D I O S

In part 2 of the new wine, we will Contrast the New wine that Jesus talks about from the Old wine. What did Jesus mean when he said that we can’t put new wine in old wine skins for the old wine skins will surely burst out.

Report for February

Thanks Giving Items

-Thank god I finally moved to a new place

- thanking god for successful month in my internship (kinara)

-thank god for friends who supported me through month of February.

Our God is an awesome God , a God of wonders in the same breadth. The month of February has been an eventful one for me, I prayed to God to do something new to me this year and wow, like an instant brewed coffee he is already in business. Most of the time actually he is up to something but because of our human tendencies , we get caught up in many cares and distractions and we fail to recognize the fact that God is intensely involved in our affairs. The month of February was punctuated with such moments where I would exclaim “Oh God, you are surely in Control” 

God is deeply involved in the lives of the ones he love. His hands are upon us even when we are not aware. Paul knew this and acknowledged that in him we live , move and have our being. (Acts 17:30)

Kinara 2017

It has been the second month of my internship here at Nairobi Chapel and what a Journey it has been ! Kinara is a leadership development program by Nairobi Chapel which trains young leaders who eventually become part of the church planting movement of the church . Its only the beginning and am grateful for what God I doing with my life. This is surely going to be  a journey of trust for me; trusting God for everything; trusting that he is going to take care of me, trusting for provision as I do ministry and become a blessing to the greater Nairobi Chapel fraternity and so much more.

          Outreach : MAKINI PRIMARY SCHOOL,JAMHURI PRIMARY SCHOOL, ST HANNAHS SCHOOL AND KAREN C PRIMARY SCHOOL.

                                                              a sample of lesson plan we use

 

                                                                  a class session at Makini school

 

Fun after class session in St Hannah's school

what an opportunity to grow in fellowship with these young souls!

I believe that a strong society has to be built from the grassroot and our young children are not only our future but the present. Our young kids have the capacity to hear and respond to the gospel in ways that we cant often seem to understand. Their response and friendship continues to leave me dumbfounded

Tunzakids

For those who have been following with our Ministry with Moved by Love foundation, Mama Tunza ‘s Home in Ngong Kibiko had to be closed down after the passing on of Mama tunza Last year . The kids have sinced been distriburted to other homes. We have been engaging with the Children department in Ngong to reestablish contacts with these kids wherever they are. We hope to do so as we work on how to have a sustainable program as well as establishing contacts again with these kids.

Prayer requests

-Pray for ministry in march, for young people in schools

-Pray for youth ministry at Nairobi chapel Karen that I currently oversee

-      Am trusting god for a laptop which will work as my work station

Gods blessings abound your way this month; live it fully ! minimize on excuses and maximize on praise

New Year New Things

its been a whole three months absent from this page , wow such a lengthy time for someone purporting to be a writer. Its been  while , alot has happened since October. Am back in the city (Nairobi, Kenya) after one and half years outside the city . Ministry in the rift valley Kenya has been one exciting one . Almost all my ministry life i have been doing Youth Ministry and i felt that time has come for me to get a fresh experience.

Kinara Program:

At the turn of the year i joined Kinara , Leadership development Program by the Nairobi chapel , one of the Mega churches here in Nairobi ,Kinara is a program that seeks to develop leaders by enabling young leaders to tap into their leadership potential for the growth of the church . I felt particularly that God wants me to channel my energies to the growth and expansion of the church and especially in Church planting.

The whole of 2017 sees me engaging in this program and our engagements will mainly center around schools and campus ministry , being sent to a church plant as well as doing a leadership course that will help me sharpen my skills.

Word of the moment

Remember that God is always in the mission of love. I have learnt that during my period of uncertainty from October to December last year . I am not lost in his focus no matter how lost i seem to be. Won't you go ahead in the strength and might of God and see how 2017 turns out for you. Remember His promise ."when you pass through the waters i will be with you ,,,,,, Isaiah 43:2... stay blessed