First time I've blogged in like 3 years, this feels so surreal. I've just really felt to start blogging again just to get some thoughts down as a release to myself. Lately a lot of things have happened and I have caused a lot of hurt and frustration to the people closest to me. Tonight after seeing and praying with a friend I felt heavily convicted hence this post.

As the body of Christ, we are called to live in community with one another. The idea of people watching us or knowing about the sin in our lives can often make us feel uncomfortable. Being known by others and being held accountable is necessary however, not only to meet our basic relationship needs, but also to afford us a measure of safety from the enemy’s devices.

Ananias and Sapphira had a well-known problem. They lied about giving all the proceeds from the sale of their property to the church. Judgment came because they pretended to be something they weren’t. Playing a role to imitate the sincerity of those around them (Acts 4:34-37), they forgot that God knows the true condition of our hearts (Proverbs 24:12).

Believers who take seriously the presence of the Holy Spirit living in them recognize the following:

Transparency means…

• Pursuing “holiness and sincerity in all our dealings” (2 Corinthians 1:12).

• Being honest with others about where we are spiritually (Ephesians 4:25).

• A willingness to be admonished by those who love us (Proverbs 27:6).

Tinted windows may keep our cars cooler by allaying the sweltering summer heat, but tinted lives leave us open to the enemy.

I'm Moving Forward

Wow it's been a while since I've been on here and I now I feel I'm ready to blog again. The last couple of months have been a bit of blur like Woah!! have they flown by and honestly I can't believe how much has happened. For the last couple of months I've been in the wilderness with God and at times it's been very hard but I now know its happened for a reason. In this period God taught me to persevere during the really tough times but also to let go of the past and look forward to the future I have in him. I've been 20 for two weeks now and I've really just been reflecting on my life and looking ahead. For me a lot has happened to me this year that has left feeling very broken at times but thinking about sometimes when God has big plans for you he has to put you through some stuff and leave you feeling broken before putting his foundations in you and building you up to be all that He made you to be. The next 10 years of my life are going to very important in every aspect of life but I know just based on this year alone that no matter what happens I will be with Jesus every step of the way.

The Journey is not easy

At the moment life should be brilliant but it's not. Like I'm studying music and it's pretty much like one massive jam because all the best musicians and singer doing my course are christian so its just a brilliant environment to be in. I'm also signed to a football club on a youth development contract and its going very well and from that got several big clubs interested in me. Last week Saturday I got injured playing football within 15mins of the match. I sustained ligament damage in my right ankle after a nasty challenge. I've felt very handicapped since like I can't walk well without being in pain, running is a definite No. Yesterday I had a very crap day like nothing happened but I just wanted to hide away and just felt so low so I stayed in half the day and cried in bed I didn't answer or text anyone of my phone just let it ring or whatever was going on. Today Ive just been thinking "Soly whats up dude?" and just been thinking why I feel like this. Here's the thing I've realised having this injury hampered my ability to do stuff like I can walk but not very well, if I tried to run I would be in a lot of pain and not run very well and I think its the story of my life at the moment like things might be great in some areas but there's a real handicap in one area which is affecting me in general and just making me internally struggle and feel very lost inside the deep wells of emotions and thoughts. I'm finding it very hard too like just the mood swings and the last 48 hours have kinda been like the hardest but today while heading home I was listening to How He Loves Us the Jesus Culture version and I was reminded of God love for me and I'm going to hold on to that love with all I've got as somehow that I will never understand God works all things to the good of those who love him.

His Love Endures

 

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.

Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?
And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.


Ruth 1:16-17
But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.

"Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me."


I Corinthians 13:1-13
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.


I John 4:7-19
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

We love, because He first loved us.

Love is the answer

 

This post has been on my heart for a while and for me personally it been something that God has been challenging me with for a while now and it's the whole subject of Love.

Love is a very powerful word and these days especially with our day and age more precisely in youth culture the word "Love" always brings to extremes, one of which is the whole boyfriend and girlfriend being very lovey dovey and the other extreme is the use of the word just thrown around loosely for example a guy telling a girl he loves her just to satisfy his own sexual desires. Over the last couple of weeks I've been thinking about this whole subject of love and I started of by reading the Gospels and seeing the way Christ lived his life and just the Love he displayed to those who were classified as the outcasts of society. I then began to look at myself and think about how I measure up to his standard and without a doubt I failed but I began to notice a lot of things about my understanding of Love.

Firstly I read 1 Corinthians 13 verses 1-13 which reads;

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

I also began to look for passages that mentioned one anothering. Here's what I found

Wash one another’s feet—John 13:14.
Love one another—John 13:3; 15:12, 17; Romans 13:8; I Peter 1:22; I John 3:11, 23; 4:7, 11.
In honor preferring one another—Romans 12:10.
Don’t judge one another—Romans 14:13.
Receive one another—Romans 15:7.
Salute one another—Romans 16:16.*
Greet one another—I Cor. 16:20, II Cor. 13:12, I Peter 5:14.
Serve one another—Gal. 5:13.
Don’t provoke one another or envy one another—Gal. 5:26.
Bear one another’s burdens—Gal. 6:2.
Forbear one another in love—Eph. 4:2, Col. 3:13.
Forgive one another—Eph. 4:32, Col. 3:13.
Teach and admonish one another with song—Col. 3:16.
Comfort one another—I Thess. 4:18.
Edify one another—I Thess. 5:11.
Exhort one another— Heb. 3:13; 10:25.
Consider one another to provoke unto love and good works—Heb. 10:24.

The Biblical view on Love is so different to what we see in the World. We live in the a "Me,Myself and I" World where everything is based on what can I get to make myself happy and it's very individualistic. As I was thinking about my view on Love I began to think about the whole concept of "The focus of your attention". Like being a very big Football fan this World Cup I have seen my hopes rise and fall with how well the team I was supporting were doing. For example Ghana went out to Uruguay and for the whole game my attention was fully focused on Ghana and I was going for it willing them on but when the went out on penalties I just began to feel like noooo this can't be what happened. This can be the applied to some Christians that put all their attention and energy into worthless things especially with relationships. both parties in the relationship will put all there attention in making the relationship work and stuff that sometimes their own walk with God will determined to how their relationship is doing. I began to think about the passage in 1 Corinthians and for me personally the love that is spoken in that passage is Unconditional Love and this is what God has been challenging me to do. Just a study of Jesus life shows that he loved us so much that he done two of the greatest acts of love of all time. Firstly Jesus gave up his Heavenly Privilege and humbled himself to be a human being just like us. Just think if we were Jesus and we were in his shoes and we had to come down to the Earth full of sin, for me personally I wouldn't be able to that but because he loved us so much he did and to top it all of he died for all the sin of the world that had been committed and the sin yet to come but also to bridge the gap between mankind and God. Now that is Love and that's the challenge for me and also to you to Love as Christ did but remember its Unconditional Love as Jesus showed us we show others.