The sonship of men ; Part 1

In the last three posts, we learnt about the fatherhood of God. We learnt in summary that God is our

-Our source

-He is our identity and

-He is the one who has taken initiative.

The issue that has still grasped my attention is the fatherhood crisis spread all over in our contemporary society. We must go back to the basics in order to retrack sense of normalcy. Once the issue of fatherhood has been settled, then we can understand and appreciate our place as sons of God. (male and female)

Man is a complex being. Sociologists have termed man as a social animal in that he is wired to live in interaction with other human beings, and that he finds satisfaction and fulfillment in this. This is true but I see more.

1.Man is the bearer of the image and likeness of God

Genesis 1 :27 So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

If God is the source of all things, if he is the creator, then man came out of God. By bearing the image and the likeness of God, I am not insinuating that man is a god or he has superhuman D.N.A. Man simply originates from God and the creationist theory makes the most sense out of all the theories out there about the origin of man.

The beauty of a human being is in the beauty of being; Being alive, being healthy, being happy, etc. The primary identity of man is not in doings, as in we are not human doings but human beings; and that’s what I want to highlight here as being the bearers of the image and likeness of God. I believe this essence is what God was trying to communicate to the Israelites. “Be ye Holy for the lord your God is holy” Leviticus 11:44-45

People don’t become holy out of doing holy things. its not about what people can do to become holy. The Israelites kept flopping in their attempt to become holy by ceremoniously keeping themselves clean and the yearly cycle of sinning, repenting offering sacrifices, true worship, apostasy and back to sinning was full circle. they could sustain this lifestyle in Moses’s lifetime and upon the rise of other servants of God, but otherwise they were in serious flops and they completely forgot God overtime.

Its not a matter of doing but being, the essence of God is holiness, its love, God is never worried , he is not hurried as if he is running behind schedule and such and so much more about his attributes are we to image and display the same likeness , we do out of who we are.

2. The son ship of men: Man was created to dominate -rule

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.Gen 1:28 NIV

Gen 1 :27b-28

 God created human beings;
        he created them godlike,
    Reflecting God’s nature.
        He created them male and female.
    God blessed them:
        “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! (Message)

The primary evidence of our heritage as sons of God is locked up in the very first chapter of the bible . God underlies the theme of creation and the creation of man is like the grand finale in his great exhibition. Man was created to dominate over the works of creation. God is the principle owner and the initiator over the works of creation but he has mandated and given man the authority to subdue , to take charge to dominate over it.

There is a verse in the book of psalms that almost seems blasphemous if you don’t study it objectively.

Psalm 82:6 said, “You are gods,
    sons of the Most High, all of you;
⁷ nevertheless, like men you shall die,
    and fall like any prince. ESV

The mandate for man to rule, dominate, subdue and to take charge over the works of creation is intensive for this psalm alludes to reality of men as gods (Gods representatives on this earth). Man will never take the place of God. What man is and dispenses is in the light of what God has mandated him.

Well that’s enough for today. In our part 2, we deal with the third aspect that I highlight of the sonship of men: Man was created to work the land. There is a great truth about the purpose of man that we will unravel next week, meanwhile my take away home for part 1 will be simple; That you have been created in the image and likeness of God. You carry the God D.N.A in you even without doing anything yet. Begin to rule, dominate and subduing the earth like your father. Ask God and he will reveal to you your purpose and the God kind in you that will rule over in your specific flair. Once you find it, run with it like you are the best in your field. Remember the formulae always starts with God or otherwise you will be putting the cart before the horse and it will be hectic moving forward.

Stay put!

The fatherhood of God part 3

In my last post, I highlighted that that we were going to address some attributes of God as our father. My attention amongst many attributes that we can associate God with as our father as

1.       Our source

2.       Our identity and

3.       The one who takes/has taken initiative

We tackled the first one, God our father as source and now let’s take about the rest of the attributes.

2. God our father as our identity

The biggest battle of a human being the battle of identity. Once we figure out the why of our reason for being in this world and once we figure what our mandate is, then we are good to go as regards to life. Similarly, man (Male)’s biggest battle is the battle of identity. A man without identity is like a commoner sitting on a jumbo jet and trying to control it to its destination. I believe a lot of boy child issues like ‘drugs and substance abuse, irresponsible, illicit sexual behavior, violence, suicides, low self-esteem, a lot of transgender issues; Homosexualism, etc stem from this core that the identity of the male child is under threat. We saw it from the statistics in the last post that only 20% of young people enjoy a healthy relationship with their fathers.

This can only spell danger to many people growing up in a miasma of a great identity crisis, our young people are always the biggest target of a negative media influence which majorly wants to portray a negative or a superficial self-image.

But what is man’s identity? (male and female) Are we defined by our pasts, our dysfunctional or even functional families? Are we what the media tells us we are; that a functional man is successful (material wise), is appealing, has a great drive of fulfilling all kinds of desires? I will ask you a direct question. Who are you?

John 1: 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God

The primary identity of man is of being Gods child. You are not what you do. You are not defined by what you wake up early in the morning everyday to do? What you do is very important but does not suffice to define you.

The bible says that if we receive Christ, then we have received the privileged permission of being called a child of God.

43      God our father as the one who has taken initiative.

Men are wired to take initiative in providing solutions, giving direction, innovations and simply calling out things, creating and executing dreams and most importantly, building and sustaining a home.

There is nothing as powerful as a man with a purpose who takes initiatives, is not afraid of risking it out to bring success.

This is a picture of who our heavenly father is; the one ho has taken the initiative. First of all, when he created man, he made sure that man had the suitable environment for his success on earth. Simply no human being ever born on this earth has been born incomplete as if God will come and complete the work of creation later.

And even after the fall of man, God took the initiative of doing whatever he could to restore man to himself. And that’s what love is; it takes initiative.

John 3:16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever may believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

In conclusion I will address the fathers or if you are a father figure or a man in the road of finding your purpose.

-          Fatherhood is not chest thumping or self-advocating: I have heard men who are disgusted with other people exclaim “Utatambua Leo Mimi ni mwanaume” or if a man is annoyed by a woman, then in an anger rush throw careless words which are demeaning or less deserving of respect.

A lion never roams around the jungle announcing itself as a lion. It just prowls stealthily and though the beast is not the fastest animal on land it will bring down an animal twice as fast as itself.

-           Fatherhood is not male chauvinism: You don’t climb the fatherhood figure by belittling others, looking down on members of the opposite sex. Irrationality, roughness, violence has never brought anyone near the Guinness book of records. Real men are calm, collected and reasonable and is able to control his anger. The bible likens a man who has mastered his anger to a fortified city.

-          Remember a man always takes the initiative. Don’t sit down and observe as your world crumbles before you. You can do something. God has made the man (The woman too) as potent as he can be to tackle anything that sets itself against him. Its time fathers offer leadership and direction to their homes. Fathers will not sit and lament when their sons and daughters waste away under the pressure of this world. Men carry solutions, foresight. A man at his best (Man with God) can conquer anything!!

The fatherhood of God, Part 2

In my last post, I highlighted the state of fatherhood today and the crisis of fatherhood with the spotlight in  m nation of Kenya. I do believe the statistics border one another across the globe.

The conclusion was to bring us to attention to the source of our being; to him who has loved us unconditionally and limitless.

And I love this verse by john which we finished with in my last post.

Behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God, and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. (1^st John 3:1 American standard version)

 See what great love Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him (NIV)

Notice the choice of words by the NIV translators ‘lavish’ which is a stronger word than ‘to bestow’ which has an insinuation of expending excessivelyor profusely. God our father has expended, given us his love excessively or profusely. This is our heavenly father who typifies what our earthly fathers should be; those who expend love, care and protection profusely to their members but why is the crisis of fatherhood so rampant today? I believe its because the devil is damn aware of the potential and power of a loving dadand is determined to curtail and prevent this potential from being realised at all cost.

In our post today, I will seek to delve deeper into this issue of the fatherhood of God. We will explore some attributes of God our father and marry them with what earthly dads and men in general should typify.

1.     God our father as source

 God in history was never refereed to as father until the new testament, though he has been the father of creation, father of all who lived from the old testament.

1 Cor 8:6yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. NIV

Isaiah 64:8 Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
    We are the clay, you are the potter;
    we are all the work of your hand. NIV

Acts 17:22- 29

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So, you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’^[b] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’^[c]

²⁹ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.

He is our source of life, no matter how strong or self-sufficient a man (male and female) seems or suggests to be he is never self-sufficient. He can never be like a former giant retail chain in Kenya ‘Nakumatt’ whose catchphrase “You need it you ve got it almost got all of us Kenyans esteeming Nakumatt as a demigod of the supermarket chain industry. Who thought that Nakumatt would go under the way it went? Man is not a ‘you need it, you ve got it’ he has a beginning and an end’ predetermined by God who is the source of life for in him we live, move and have our being.

He is your source you are the clay and he is the potter. THE Very works of his hands, readily available at his disposal to use and to form at will. Until this truth is settled in man, he will operate as a rabid dog biting everything it comes across. Until man’s identity is firmly secured in his God as the source of life, he will chest thump, belittle, pride, take credit for everything, work hard, self-love, overarch, lord it over others, etc. perhaps more than he should.

Wow this just one point out of three that I had, lets reserve the next two for the next post lets this becomes a very large and lengthy post. I hope this concept is beginning to take shape as we progress. The next two points; God the father as our identity and God the father; who has taken initiative and my conclusion will   be covered in my next post. Stay blessed and stay put!

The Fatherhood of God. part 1

The father hood of God: Demystifying Fatherhood.

We live in a post-modern society which is buzzing, busy, innovative, progressive, ever changing and so forth. But we also live in a post-modern society that is laden with broken families struck with awful murders, as liberal as in no place in history, with teenagers more wayward and reckless. Actually, the teenage space has changed worlds apart since I finished my high school education just some 15 years ago. I am like seriously? we were the ones who ushered the “Dot.com” era at the turn of the millennium. We thought of ourselves as the most updated species of human beings walking on earth at that time, yet today I feel like an outdated 33-year-old young professional caught in between two generations (Apparently, I still do a lot of youth ministry).

I have found out that in the midst a morality crisis in my country (Kenya) that threatens to spiral out of control is an alarming statistic. I read in an article b the daily newspaper , the leading newspaper in Kenya prior to this year’s father’s day celebration that only 20% of a sample of 3000 indicated that they enjoyed their relationship with their earthly fathers, the rest either said that  their fathers were  missing, dead, or alive but absent in their lives, in other words alive but missing in action[1].

This speaks of Fatherhood crisis. How do the 80 percent navigate through the turbulent teenage years and into adulthood? I believe the agenda of the enemy still stands strong; to steal ,kill and to destroy and he is seeking to destroy a whole generation by destroying something fundamental to their bringing up, fragmenting homes and destroying fathers and father figures.

But also, God is our father and our earthly fathers are to picture our perfect heavenly father. There is how God set it up for us to emulate and follow, when we forget, disregard,or are not aware of how this system works, we experience fragmentation and breakdown of families and societies and eventually a whole generation.

If you fall in the category of the 80% above don’t worry, you are not alone, I fit in right there in (Ndaani ndaani ndaani)and I can attest its turbulent to manouvre this life if we don’t understand this concept. Fatherhood is central to our identity because fathers primarily give us our identity. I am not an expert who has maneuvered this road, I am a learner and what I believe is that when we understand and Know God as our father; whether we have had earthly fathers or not then almost all of our life’s major issues have already been solved.

Behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God, and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. (1^st John 3:1 American standard version)

In part 2, we delve deeper into the aspect of Gods fatherhood, we will find out that he is our source and identity. We will also try to meet the two, the fatherhood of God and the crisis of our earthly fathers.

Stay put!

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[1] https://www.nation.co.ke/newsplex/Where-are-the-dads/2718262-5161416-lfbxdw/index.html (Date accessed 23rd oct 2019)

Moved ! Part 2

in part 1, In the conclusion, we saw how Jesus was moved and is still is compassionate in reaching out and making us whole.

we asked important questions in part 1. What moves you to do what you do? Are you even just what you do, are you a doctor, teacher, banker, teacher etc. because that's what you do every day or there is a greater force driving you?

Let’s see today now in the light of Christ what should move us now that we are Christ ambassadors in the world.

2nd Cor 5:14 So from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Messiah according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know Him this way.

1 We should be moved by pro activeness (We judge no man by outside appearance)

Have you ever been in a space where people perceived, treated, talked wrongly about you based on a wrong information about you? 

Recently I was on a mission trip with a group of young people and I was the captain for day one. A great bunch was new to me and so as I was giving directives for getting things ready for the trip, some two gentlemen concluded " He is a real tough and mean guy" (the gentlemen told me later after we had bonded.) they judged by my outward appearance and the brief interaction we had at the beginning.

Apostle Paul says that because we are moved by Gods love, we recognize no one according to the flesh

2. We should be moved by proactive listening. Be slow to act and quick to listen.

And ooh my How my spontaneous, impulsive side of me arrives unannounced in a heated conversation especially when in company of good friends. My listening skills tend to sweep itself under the carpet. Off course I am a work in progress for I am not where I used to be five years ago

James 1:19  Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger[f]

Any serious life coach will tell you that listening skills is one of the most important skills to have in cultivating interpersonal skills.

3.we should moved by knowing people for who they really are.

Apostle Paul highlights that there was a way I which they knew Jesus according to the flesh but no longer regard him in that light. Its amazing how you can converse with someone, be even living with someone for months even years yet have no idea what that person really is. When we pay little more attention to people, we are likely to dig in a gen and realize how precious they are, and Yes, I know some people can be quite handful. It’s a choice we have to make each da to wear different set of lenses when studying, analyzing, interacting and socializing with different kinds of people. God will always give our wisdom of dealing with different kinds of people. I think we set walls for ourselves to soon in our interaction with people, we block ostracize, segregate, judge people because of the conclusions we already have drawn about them.

Well I hope I have attempted to squeeze in some juice today, my conclusion will be simple. God is moved with compassion and love towards you, in your dealings with people extend the same. The power is within. God is not trying to place you in a pedestal of trying to please everyone. That’s an impossible task for even after the Israelites were impressed with Gods amazing miraculous signs for generations, they still rebelled against him.

Stay blessed as you are moved in his rhythm of grace today and tomorrow.

Moved! part 1

There is nothing as captivating as seeing someone do something from the depth of the heart and that thing captures the attention of everyone around. I love an actor of a Kenyan local comedy show called ‘papa shirandula’ not because of anything else but this man, the protagonist of the show who carries with him the aura of the whole show; his personality, the way he exudes humor, the way he eats particularly. You can see that he is moved by passion to do what he does.

What moves you to do what you do?  That’s a valid question to ask especially in this age where there is no permanence to stick in a clear set of values and passion. Many people don’t understand their value and purpose and hence don’t tap into their innermost strength to be moved to do the things they do.

·         What moves you, is it passion or obligation? Do you wake up to that paying job ever morning because of the paycheck or because you are actually passionate about what you do? Someone said money should be a reward for exuding passion and seeing needs met. If you are a banker, doctor, athlete whoever you are do your thing with passion like that what’s you were really meant to do

·              What moves you, is it getting things done or  seeing the welfare of the people around you? We live in a selfish society where everybody wants to have his way in literally everything.  There are people who would rather get the job done even if the person doing it looses his breath along the way. This is not what Jesus taught. Jesus taught that we should not lord it over people like the gentiles do. (Mat 20:25-26) The system of this world is a system of lording it over. The strong exercise authority of the weak but Jesus taught that the greatest amongst us ought to be servant of all.

Christ was moved by compassion.

Mark 1:40-41 “Then a leper came to Jesus and began pleading with him. He fell on his knees and told him,” If you want to, you can make me clean.

Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him and told him,” I do want to. Be made clean!”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Jesus was always moved by compassion and great love for the world around him. Isn’t it great and reassuring to hear the words of the master that he is moved with compassion to reach out to us and make us clean. The world has made us leprous with its pain pangs and suffering, but the master storms right into the epicenter of our troubles and ooh yes he is willing to stretch out his hands and touch and make whole, Halleluiah

In part 2 we will see in the light of Christ, what should move us. We should move in the frequency of God in this world. Meanwhile won't the love and compassion of God move towards you today? And as he does so maou move towards hi, with hearts wide open.

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.