SunBurst vs 2

Two months ago, i posted a song review on one of my favorite songs by Hillsong :SunBurst.
I had posted This three months ago and promised to do a review of verse  2.

This song as we had said talked about Gods love that pervades the entirety of our lives like a sunburst.
Like mountains mirror the sunrise Reflecting Your glory
Might we exhibit Your hope bright
Salvation in us.

Just as the mountains mirror the rays of the majestic sun in the same way we mirror the excelence of the exuberant love of God expended to us.

2nd Cor 4: 6  seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,”who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The light shining is not a separate entity from the source for its God himself shining in us, Reflecting the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

God desires to display his glory even in the likeness of these lowly earthen vessels

Vs 7But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.

Its not about how earthen vessel like we are, but the exceeding greatness of who dwells in us. We are to mirror the one who exhibits this greatness. He does this motivated by love rather than intimidating us.

And now lets go back to the chorus
And like the rising sun
Wake up Your light in us
And we will shine like grace
As we call on Your Name
And when the day is done
This sound will carry on
Ti l the night folds over
In awe of our Saviour

May we light up in his glorious light this christmas.
Let the sound of victory be echoed in us

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.

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 jihad killings. Oh how we would wish that evil be eliminated from us. But if that’s our desire, we are asking that God to kill 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.I wish to submit that God is deeply engraved and sympathizing and encouraging us with all the comfort we need in Christ Jesus. Human suffering reveals the fragility of human life, anytime is time to die, anywhere can be place to die if grammar hasn't eluded me there yet.There are simply million ways to experience suffering and death of the human sol but inside of us we roar with life ,immortality, hope that endures forever.

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.

If we believed we died in Jesus, let us also believe that we are raised up with him in a newness of life.

Heb 2:16-17It'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 .

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

Insights from John Bunyan’s spiritual autobiography.

if you have not yet landed on a piece of literature that will make you dread on the thought of religion, then you would want to land on this small booklet by John Bunyan called 'Grace abounding to the chief of sinners'
If you happen to be an avid reader of Christian literature, John Bunyan may not be a stranger to you. An avid person and extremely religious. We know him from his famous writing ‘the Pilgrim’s progress’ John Bunyan was a classic English writer cum pastor who lived in the 17^th century, a period where the church had begun experiencing reformation from the Roman catholism.
What strikes me the most about this individual was how religious he was and he captures this very well in his spiritual autobiography ‘Grace abounding to the chief of sinners.’
This spiritual Biography is a spectacular journey of John Bunyan’s spiritual endeavors One full of struggle, conviction, self identity crisis, egoism and finally spiritual triumph.’
This was a person who in his religious endeavors tried to become the perfect human being. Infact at one instance he indicated that in his prayers he boasted that there was no pious man in England than him .He was extremely captivated by piety and his once profane life suddenly began gravitating towards religiosity and extreme morality. He says that he did this with all his passion and he had all the pleasure of pleasing God with his own righteousness.


The story and Life of John Bunyan gives reference to this virus of religion that plagued the church ever since the medieval ages when the gospel was domesticated under the then Roman catholic church . Things as I see began going wrong way back. 

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation,,,,,, Rom 1:16 . The absolute singularity of the gospel is missing today’s church. Church programs and other biblical teachings that seem logical to our religious mindsets have taken place of the gospel. what am I saying,,, is that fiery teaching that you may ve come to know as ‘gospel’ really the gospel ?we may have good teachings that appeals to our estimation of who we think God is and really say that such a message is the gospel. One of my friends usually jokes that God created man in his own image but Man has created God in his image. This portrays how religion operates in the faculty of a God imagined in our own minds and presumed as the eternal God. God is not an image formed in our minds, neither is he an estimation we learn from religion. God is our eternal father and his invisibleness made manifest in the person of Jesus.
I ve heard of many teachings being presented as the gospel but has got nothing to do with Jesus and his power of resurrection and what he has done and accomplished for us. Probably you and I have not yet heard the gospel being preached in our neighborhood.
Paul says that if anyone even him preaches another gospel other than what he preached, such a person should be cursed ,,,(Gal 1:6-8)
When I read Bunyan’s spiritual biography I see exactly the virus that had plunged the church at his time. Paul also speaks of the same

Gal 1:6-8 Am surprised and astonished that you are quickly turning renegade and deserting him who invited and called you by the grace (unmerited favor) of Christ (the messiah) and that you are transferring your allegiance to a different (even an opposition) gospel.

7. Not that there is (or could be) any other (genuine gospel)but there are (obviously) some who are troubling and disturbing and bewildering you with a different kind of teaching which they offer a gospel and want to pervert and distort  the gospel of Christ (the messiah) (Into something which its absolutely not)

8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to and different from that which we preached to you, let him be accursed (anathema, devoted to destruction, doomed to eternal punishment.)(amplified)

Paul is absolutely livid with any distortion in matters gospel. He is cursing anybody who distorts the gospel that’s according to what he had preached. That’s something I tell you.

Back to our friend Bunyan, His encounter with the gospel is something outstanding. He was amazed by four poor widows who were discussing the scriptures with a lot of pleasantness, refreshing themselves as ones enjoying pleasant beams of sunlight while he was shivering in the cold, afflicted with snow and dark cloud .[1]

At this stage the gospel was scandalizing everything he knew Christianity to be about . That’s what the gospel does by releasing us from the chains of religion and self into a new arena of freedom. Freedom not to sin but from sin, making us dead to sin and being alive unto God. The gospel falls on us like a ton of bricks pervading every area of our sorry lives. This is grace abounding to the chief of sinners.

We must take note that we should not promote a teaching that is in opposition of the gospel. For that teaching even if it massages our religious ego its doom to fail terribly. I will tell you that religion is facing a massive fall in today’s context. People are getting bored with routines and regulations and yearn for fellowship, for relationship.

People want to be accepted and loved but in the eyes of religion this is another license to sin, an absolutely preposterous estimation of human beings that we don’t see people in the church as people loved but instruments of sin. How can the gospel of grace be a license to sin?

Romans 6:1so do we bring back  competition between sin and grace? That’s what you want to do by bringing the sin issue back.(kainos amplified)

The gospel is most certainly about the grace of God that abounds to the chief of sinners. The heart and the engine of the gospel is love and God is certainly in the mission of love. Lets exalt God by declaring his goodness which abounds to all spheres of humanity. Blessings

Bunyan, John. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. Welwyn, UK: Evangelical Press, 1978.

---

[1] Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, 26.

Grave Cop.

Romans 6:1-4 : so do we bring back  competition between sin and grace? That’s what you want to do by bringing the sin issue back.

6:2 we hope that you know that we can’t go back to the graveyard and urge the corpse to live again. We can’t be dead and alive at the same time.[1]

6:3similarly through baptism we have been murdered, dead and buried. Sin is now a dead foreign language.

6:4 the baptism of Christ In which we share In an equal stature shows us how dead we are and how alive and active we have raised up to life to walk in a kainos new way of life to the glory of God.(Kainos Amplified)

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.(Esv)

The gospel is good news proclaiming life, peace and salvation to all and even as Prophet Isaiah said “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion , your God reigns”(Isa 57:7)

The gospel sounds too good to be true. How can the gospel just be about peace, good tidings, salvation? The ‘Gospel of grace’ has been misconstrued as the ‘free’ ‘easy’ gospel. I have heard of many accusations concerning a firm radical proclamation of the gospel.Many are the times people who preach this gospel have been considered s heretics, people who appear to be too easy and cosy with sin .

Lets go back to the heart of the matter. If we have been raised with Christ and are sited with him in the highest seat of heaven. If indeed we are heirs of God and co heirs with Christ, if we are the prime recipients of what David was seeing ahead that blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven (Psalm 32:1) then why do we want to go back to the grave and resurrect the dead while we are living ?

Why should you and I be grave cops? This is indeed what we insinuate when we say that we should continue sinning that grace may abound. To be a grave cop is to inundate yourself with the duty of being a grave cop and always reminding people of their sins. That even though they have been forgiven and their slates washed clean that they will indeed never be free from sin as long as they live . If indeed we are waiting for death to make us finally free from sin as Pastor Benjamin Dunn says, we have then made death our savior. We have hence deposed Christ and installed death as our savior.

I am usually at pains that as believers we take pride in thinking ourselves as fallen, sinful, miserable people who each and every time will always need an ounce of God’s grace to come through the travesty of life at least as the one who as escaped a fire by a whisker .we think its humility to think ourselves as nothing, as sinners in the hands of an angry God. With humility I say this is a great scorn at the cross, its to demean the on who can cleanse you until you become clean indeed.

Another misconception we have is that of time. We think that we are not Christ like because it can’t be possible on this earth. A lot of evangelicals believe that sanctification is a lifelong process which basis can be argued (this is a Pandora’s box for another day). We sometimes believe because we are thinking wrongly then we are not truly sanctified or rather something is amiss in the process. I would only think time as a servant that is meant to reveal something we have eternally in us. We simply have to renew our minds and believe the spiritual realities that have already been accomplished in Christ. Then as we believe, we realize that we already. The scriptures take emphasis to reveal what we already have not what don’t have and especially scripture s that speak of what Christ has already accomplished for us .

Why do we continually take pride in pampering your sinful nature, (if you believe you have any still) and wallow ourselves in self pity, always being unaware that we have been bought at a price and indeed have been born of the imperishable seed(1st Peter 1:23) I call this being a grave cop .

I am not insinuating sinless perfection here. I am trying to say that we should be righteousness conscious. Even though we sometimes succumb to the deeds of the flesh and sometimes our actions betray who we are, we should always go back and look at the cross of Christ, from whence our sins are washed away and our slates made clean.

By no Means! How can we who have died to sin continue living in it? How could we possibly go back to the grave and urge the dead corpse so to say live again? Am saying this with full awareness of the fleeting desires that seek to entice us . For a believer sin is no longer within but its on the outside trying to entice itself in us. The scriptures attest that our old sinful man was cut away /circumcised from us : Col 2:1-15. This was a glorious operation which happened in Christ to completely remove sin and its influence in us.

We have been baptized in Christ. I wrote about baptism in the last post to show that we have been sunk into the nature of Christ. We have been baptized into his death, buried through baptism in his death and also raised to live a new life. This represents spiritual realities already accomplished in Christ so that we who believe in Christ now might be to the praise of his glory. This is what I believe what Paul was communicating in Ephesians 2.

If we indeed have left the old country called sin and are no longer citizens of that city, why would we want to be grave cops again? If you think you can satisfy that urge to always be conscious of sin then I have some news for you, Christ died once and for all and when he comes again he won’t be coming to open up the old scroll called sin again.

To many grave cops out there, I do understand the incessant urge to preach against sin and uphold God’s holiness. I just have one thought. You cannot extinguish sin by preaching more sin, you cannot extinguish darkness by talking more about darkness, you simply have to switch on the light

Arise n shine for your light has come !

Good news the baptism of Christ In which we share In an equal stature shows us how dead we are and how alive and active we have raised up to life to walk in a kainos new way of life to the glory of God.

Christ was raised so that we too might have the experience of new life in him, It cant get any better than this, any holier than this, any more serious than this. It’s a done deal . The light is shining deep in the darkness of the world. Darkness will never triumph over light. No more grave copping, we are the city of light exposed upon a hill that we may shine for the whole world to see and come to the light.

---

[1] Similarly we cant die more or lesser than we have already died, Dead is dead and alive is alive . The talk of dying daily is out of context .The only thing that remains is to renew our minds that our mental faculties catch up with the reality of what has already happened in our spirit .

Immediately

One of the accounts of the gospel I love is that of mark. When I set my eyes on this book my Adrenalin goes on a high pedestal. It’s like being taken through a whole season of Game of thrones in a single episode. Its in this book that the author loves to display the flow of events using words as,’once’ ‘Immedeately’’then Jesus said or did’ .There seems here to be a seamless flow of events which is very captivating .

Mark 1:21And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching (esv)

The author isn’t interested in giving a detailed account of the genealogy of Jesus. He just plunges us into action. It’s not to belittle the account of Mathew who dedicates almost a whole chapter to give an account of the genealogy of Christ. The author just plunges us into action boom, Jesus’’ ministry.

Mark 1:23-26 and immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out,

24 "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God."

25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!"

26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him(esv)

I can imagine how Jesus storms into a religious meeting and starts teaching about the kingdom of God. He was a student of no one neither had he any reputation against the scholars of the day, nevertheless he storms right there and begins his teachings and all who were around were amazed at how he spoke with such authority, immediately off course .

Mark 1:40-42And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, "If you will, you can make me clean."

41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, "I will; be clean."

42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.(Esv)

After Jesus storms into a religious meeting and his authority is made manifest before the people , a case study actually does the icing sugar on the cake . Here comes a leper imploring and kneeling before him but immediately Jesus reveals himself , who he is, Lord manifest in the flesh but moved with pity . I am thinking the first thing that immediately must be registered in my mind is about the compassion and the loving kindness of our lord . He always precedes our diverse situations such that even before the leper came imploring jesus to heal him, he was already moved with pity/compassion .

Well that’s how the Book of Mark rolls. You may want to read it for yourselves and get captivated in its thrill but what’s the point here ?

 The word ‘immediately’ or once as used in the gospel of mark in Greek is eutheos which when translated means straight away, at once , directly . This is what captivates me about this account of the gospel . While the religious party are caught up in their normalcy , Jesus enters the scene and straightaway introduces a new way of ministry, a new message that completely disrupts the normal flow of events, of understandings or conceptions . I think that’s what the gospel does by immediately pervading our lives and scandalizes all the misconceptions we have heard about God, about the gospel and even about ourselves.

The gospel when immediately enters the heart of a sinner , that sinner is immediately made a saint . Its not about the process. the religious folks in Jesus’ time were so much into process, into methodologies. “Who is Jesus? Where is he from? Who taught him these things?” etc the gospel is the good news of God towards mankind that when proclaimed immediately enters human hearts and dislodges everything that is not in accordance with it.

The whole point of the use of this ‘euthos’ language in the book of mark is to display the ministry and the works of jesus; his message of the gospel and how it breaks into human life making all things new. It sounds like the effect the gospel has in us , how it lands on us like ton of bricks submerging us in it and making us all new .

As you enjoy reading the book of mark, How about being submerged in its breathtaking narrative, How about being aware of Gods immediate activity of pervading your life, after all that’s what being baptized in Christ really means .

Romans 6:3-4Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Esv)

6:3similarly through baptism we have been murdered, dead and buried. Sin is now a dead foreign language.

6:4 the baptism of Christ In which we share In an equal stature shows us how dead we are and how alive and active we have raised up to life to walk in a kainos new way of life to the glory of God.(Kainos amplified)

The gospel is as the murdered life . The person and the being opf God has immediately pervaded our lives, we are dead and buried. Sin becomes a foreign language and now the reality in experience is how we can live and walk his life in a newness of way so to say. We live now for his glory .

The Happy Gospel

 

 

 

The Happy Gospel, The book

I have never read a single book for such a long time, not because am inundated to read yet another boring piece of literature but because of the amazing goodness and bliss am able to sap from it every page I read such that i have to read and reread a chapter at least five times. Benjamin Dunn does a splendid job of communicating the gospel with such an ease but behind the ease is a truth that scandalizes everything we have probably learned as Christians or have perceived about God.

The Gospel as Benjamin Dunn Puts it in his book is a massive stumble in the vineyard which its source is an unusual goodness .Dunn mask the shame religion brings upon us but a far more revelation of the breathtaking recovery we have in Christ Jesus.

The Happy Gospel, The happy Message

What is this happy gospel that we are talking about is it about the gospel of ease and ‘don’t care about anything buddy’. We are so used to a sullen, shrunk, sad gospel such that joy becomes something far fetched. I had come to believe before I was overwhelmed by Gods goodness that Christianity is a religion of seriousness ; Being serious about sin, about God about worship, just serious about everything.

Its widely acceptable that a gospel that takes people to heaven is that of preaching against sin, calling believers to be serious about their walk and talk, ‘soldiers in the army’ Christianity where we are all but careful about the next sin in our lives.

In the midst of this chaos and the massive misrepresentation of God and of the gospel in this current age is the happy message. It’s the good news that announces the salvation of men.

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

Romans 1:16-17 “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

17 For in the gospel righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."(NIV)

”

1:16 there is nothing that makes me ashamed of the extraordinary Generosity and goodness of God which is the gospel, for in the gospel the powerful already accomplished rescue mission is announced to everyone. If it’s God who announces it then it’s really powerful and carries with it sufficient believability not only to those who seem to be near God but to everyone else.

1:17the gospel announces the genius of God which is that our right standing with him is of faith from the first to the last, from the beginning to the end as it has been declared that those who have been declared just shall live by this faith.(Kainos Amplified)

What religion has stolen from us, the gospel comes with its massive power and declares our breathtaking recovery reveling a righteousness which is from faith to faith.

Religion will always remind us of something imperfect in us that always calls us to do something that we think we ought to do to get out of our imperfection, How ever the gospel, the word of his grace (acts 20:32) always announces the breathtaking recovery to fullness, Holiness, righteousness we have now in Christ and this is the spirit of the happy gospel.

Well you may ask “what about preaching against sin?” “What about rebuking bad behavior?” I will say that the gospel carries with it power, power to make you change. Its always in the good news of our blessed God. The gospel brings to conformity all our deeds to what Christ has accomplished for us. While there is a place for rebuking and refuting evil? Its always done in righteousness for the believer.

There is not enough to quote what Benjamin Dunn says in his book. Through it all it’s apparent that the gospel is the only route out of sin into the glorious life of Christ. The best religion has done I to plague us into performance contracts and the result is usually a life of frustrations devoid of the joy and bliss that Jesus said “that our joy may be full”(John 15:11)

So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can

Keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the

Country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live

In our old house there? Or didn't you realize we

Packed up and left there for good? That is what

Happened in baptism. When we went under the water,

We left the old country of sin behind; when we came

Up out of the water, we entered into the new country

Of grace—a new life in a new land!”

(Romans 6:1-3 the message.)

You and I in Christ have left that old country of sin and are now found in Christ. Let this reality hit us hard as tons of bricks and scandalize the little religious beliefs that we have held up to for a long time.

Christ does not only set us free from sin but also from ourselves.

At the first sip of the Good News we come face to face with

The realities and limitless possibilities of the New Creation.

A Christian is altogether new and enjoys a joy-filled life in a

New world. Christians are set free not only from sin and its

effects, but are also set free from themselves (Benjamin Dunn, The happy gospel ,)

A Contemplative look into 2015

2015 is here with us . The old year is gone and behold we have another year, an opportunity of feasting in his blessings. at the beginning of last year I wrote something about what majority of us look into every other year .Its yet another periodic Chronometer where new year resolutions are trending like Hotcakes . Nevertheless I have chosen to approach this year from a contemplative angle.

A story is told of John and Mary who were having a walk down the beach during the Holidays .enjoying sun sand and surf. While taking, they kept walking faced each other with glaring eyes and John spoke more clearly and slowly as Mary was drawn and catapult in amazingly lovely daze and at this point they listened intently with their heart .

Why don’t we simply call this a contemplative moment. After reading this portion of story I had a whole different view of contemplation, reflection. We see the couple here had an amazing contemplative moment and I would assume that their relationship is simply marred by these kinds of moments.

The same it should be with us as regards our relationship with God. The end product of our relationship with God I believe is being catapult into him as he is even more catapult into us. It’s the love initiative which contemplates how depthious and intimate it can go.

I want to believe that these were such moments that King David would always have.

Psalm 27:4 I'm asking God for one thing, only one thing: To live with him in his house my whole life long. I'll contemplate his beauty; I'll study at his feet

David was a man assured of Gods love and in such a tabernacle he knew that he had limitless access for his enjoyment.

Why don’t you kick start 2015 from such a tone of contemplating on the goodness of God and getting stayed at his feet ?

 I was taught by my lecturer recently that the word contemplation as used modernly does not paint the intended meaning as it was used in the middle ages . The dictionary defines to contemplate as to think carefully and thoroughly .But according to the ancient use of the word, it used to mean that you are not only thinking about something but you are innately and thoroughly digesting what you are thinking about in love. Its as John and Mary in the story who are as much astounded by each other that what they need is their hearts to listen to one another.

Such is the extent of the love that gives identity to what we share with our father . To contemplate on Gods word is not simply about thinking about the word of God and probably derive some action points from the words you are reading but its about being fascinated by the word and the person of the word who is Christ .

Psalm 19:10-11 0 God's Word is better than a diamond, better than a diamond set between emeralds. You'll like it better than strawberries in spring, better than red, ripe strawberries. 11 There's more: God's Word warns us of danger and directs us to hidden treasure.(The message)

What about contemplating on the blissfulness of his love? That God hasn’t registered a scorecard against us? How about not being carried away by the numerous expectations, deadliness, Bills ,threats , opportunities,Challenges ,etc that away you in this year and simply dwell in the bosom of his love .

Lets begin to cherish the diamond betwixt the emeralds, yea lets grab the juice that saps out of his unadulterated word which is the wine of the new covenant.

Yes let this be yet another year where you reach for the best that God has for you. Not not your heart be full of contemplation of what  or how your year will turn out . Instead keep your hearts stayed in that treasure which is Christ himself and for sure he directs and guides and your path wont be devoid of joy and bliss .