All posts by : Simbo Odunaiya

I had the opportunity to visit Alaska this week and was impressed by the natural habitat of Anchorage and its surroundings.  I found myself taking pictures and videos every opportunity I got.  Right from just before we landed, I took many pictures of the landscape, because I know that a picture is worth a thousand words if I must describe this beautiful place. In the end I resigned to the fact that even a picture cannot adequately capture the essence and the beauty of the place.  One clear situation was when we saw this Moose and every one of us in the tour bus were screaming because it was a sight to behold.  I took many pictures only to find that my photos are not as exciting as what we saw.

Having seen the habitat, my thought went naturally to the power and glory of the one who created such a beautiful place with all the wonderful creatures of nature that inhabit it. On our first night, I woke up at 3:30am only to find that there is already daylight at this time of the morning.  By the second and third day I realized that we were having about twenty hours or more of daylight daily.  Then I was told it is a complete opposite during the winter season.  A cursory look at the mountains in the far distance reveals this gleaming white snow that seems to get whiter as the sun shines brighter. What about the peace and serenity that I encountered at the top of a mountain called Flattop mountain? Standing on that mountain top all the thoughts in my mind were how great our God is.  And as were descending the hill, at the motorable part, there by the side of the road, just standing there was a Moose, as huge as they get, and I immediately felt the fear of God rush through me. But each moment and each encounter just confirmed to me that indeed, all heavens declare the glory of our living God.  There is no doubt that the amazing beauty of Alaska does indeed declare the glory of the living God.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge” (Psalm 19:1–2).  Each time one witnesses the amazing beauty of nature that God has blessed us with on this mother earth, the only response we can have is praise.  When we witness the order, the beauty, and the forethought that accompanied our created world, we are convinced that there is a creator behind all of these, and we also note that the character of this creator, wise, good, gracious, mighty, glorious etc., is never in doubt.  Apostle Paul in Romans 1:20, says “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”  The eternal power and divine nature of our God are so much evident in His creation that it ought to always lead us to Him.  Every aspect of nature reveals the glory of God.  In Anchorage, Alaska, that glory was confirmed again for me as the Spirit of God led me to just think about His majesty.

When Moses asked that the Lord should show him His glory, all God had to do was manifest His presence through a public display of any of His characteristic attributes. God chose to reveal His glory in part and Moses bowed and worshipped Him. God did not show Moses the fullness of His glory because no one can see the fullness of God’s glory and live. This is how it is when God directs our path and we come across some of the wonderful works of His hands.  Just imagine how confounded we are anytime we are confronted with another side of nature that we have not seen before.  We experience the power and nature of God anew.  His greatness is confirmed for us once again.  And that is when our spirit should sing “You are big, big, big; great, great, great; large, large, large”.  This is because we even run out of adjectives to describe the little we have experienced about God.  The song by Chris Tomlin, titled “How great is our God” should typify our response whenever we are confronted with the greatness of our creator.  So, my brothers and sisters, each time we look up to the heavens, or look around, everywhere and anywhere, be reminded that His glory shows forth in all His creation.  The heavens declare the glory of God.  When we see this glory let us acknowledge our great and mighty God even as we bow down in His praise.  That knowledge that we serve a loving, powerful, eternal God should serve to moderate how we live our lives, and lead us on the path of life everlasting, even as we live in absolute obedience and adoration of Him.

People of God, I have found that it is quite easy for us to talk the talk about love, but when it is time to walk the walk of love, it is a different ball game entirely.  For example, we have learnt that love makes allowances for others, but when you really think about it you find that many of us go into relationships with expectations that are quite rigid.  We find that many of us can be quite tolerant of other persons as long as they are doing things in the way we approve.  However, immediately they do things differently from the way we are accustomed to, or the way we feel it should be done, we are not quite as tolerant anymore.  It does not take much time before we swing into our critical nature. The Bible however says, “Make allowance for each other’s faults and forgive anyone who offends you” – Colossians 3:13a(NLT).  Yes, make allowance, give room, for each other’s faults.  This is to say we should not be quick to go into the critical mode when we feel people are not doing things the way we think they ought to do it.  Making allowance for each other’s faults is one of the key aspects of showing love. The way many of us react to issues at times makes one wonder whether we have ever heard about the parable of the unforgiving debtor (Matthew 18:21-35).  If God makes allowance for us, why can we not make allowance for others.

The idea of making allowance for other people’s faults means that when we go into relationships, we go into them fully aware that people are not perfect. Our Lord Jesus Christ knew that Apostle Peter will deny Him three times before the cock crows the following day, yet He did not become critical of him.  Rather He said, “But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail” – Luke 22:32 (NLT).  He lifted him up in prayer, when He could go on a tirade against him like we will normally do.  This is what we are called to do.  When we see the failings of our brother, the love we have for them should lead us to make allowance for them and when it is necessary, we let them know the truth in a loving manner.  Jesus basically said, that is alright, but when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers (Luke 22:32b).  He did not condemn him.  He prayed for him, and then told him exactly what will happen, but in love.

When in love we make allowance for other people’s faults; it means we are choosing to be positive about their faults and choose forgiveness over hatred and grudge.  Our Lord Jesus taught us to forgive those who sin against us “seventy times seven” times.  Our human nature is to hang on to hurt feelings, not making allowances for people’s mistakes, therefore not forgiving. And the more we hang on to the hurt feelings the more resentment we feel which makes it even harder for us to forgive.  Psalm 14:3 teaches that “There is none who does good”.  None of us is righteous, none of us is perfect.  When we know that, then we should learn to make allowance for the other person.

Whenever we decide not to make allowance for others, what naturally follows is to become critical and to condemn.  We behave like a people with critical spirit who always use a wrong standard to judge people.  The Bible however has taught us to remove the log in our eyes before removing the speck in other peoples’ eyes (Matthew 7:5).  Let us all pray that God will deliver us from the critical spirit.  We know we have overcome a critical spirit when we are characterized by a forgiving spirit because we know we have also been forgiven by God.  That is why our God is the God of love and the God of grace.

People who have a critical spirit are never gracious.  They seek to put down rather than lift up.  Many times, we do this under the guise of speaking the truth. If we truly love every truth, we speak to each other, even when we are trying to correct someone who is derailing, it should be done with the aim of lifting that person up and not condemning them or tearing them down.  The word of God in I Thessalonians 5:8 says we should put on a breastplate of faith and love, and then goes on in verse 11 to say, “Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.”  The essence of making allowance for each other is so that we can be gracious to the ones we love just as our God is always gracious to us.  We have been graciously forgiven by God for all the sins we have committed.  He even sent His one and only son to die on the cross for our sins.  When we make allowance for other people’s faults, it is the natural response of someone who is forgiven by Jesus, the response of one who has been washed by the blood and is ready to extend the same grace to the people of God.  May the Lord Himself teach us to be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of our love for them (Ephesians 4:2b).

One of my favorite songs as a young boy attending Sunday School is the song “Brighten the corner where you are.”  It is such a lovely song with a lovely tune and a noble message.  As I grew up, I began to understand the message within this captivating song.  The first verse goes like this: –

“Do not wait until some deed of greatness you may do,

Do not wait to shed your light afar,

To the many duties ever near you now be true,

Brighten the corner where you are.”

The song encourages us to bear good fruit wherever we happen to be planted. This song which tells us that even little deeds matter reminds me of a story I read a while ago. At the funeral of a man who had been part of the team that developed the Boeing 747 aircraft, the Pastor had spoken glowingly about the man’s contribution to Boeing and by extension to the world.  After the Service, the Pastor continued to have a conversation with the widow of the dead man.  She commented on how remarkable it was that her late husband had helped to build that marvelous machine.  The widow then went on to say that the truth is that a large part of her husband’s work had been devoted to this one little switch which she described as being the size of a “loaf of bread.” She added that this was all he worked on for over 15 years, but when the 747 lifted off the ground for the first time, “it was the happiest day of his life.”  One might wonder why such a “small contribution” engendered such happiness in the man or why the Pastor had showered so much praise on him for such a relatively small contribution.  The truth is that without that little switch the B-747 may never have been able to lift off not to talk of performing as creditably as it had over the years. Everyone contributing their little quota is what results in big successes. 

A few years ago, my wife and I, along with the children, had this nasty experience of our car suddenly shutting off on the highway.  While they initially told us that it was due to a malfunctioning alternator, which later metamorphosed into being the whole engine, we later heard of GM’s travails over this little one-dollar switch that had led to deaths of many people who had similar experience as our own. We were inclined to believe that this same switch led to our experience.  I bet the team or the person that designed this little switch must have agonized over the flaw in that little switch.  Little efforts by many people will result in a huge success of the whole body.  All we must do is brighten the corner where we are.  Our main task as Christians is to ensure that we lead others to Christ. If you model Christ in your behavior and outlook to life in your own little corner, wherever that may be, you have a better chance of appealing to people to try this Jesus that you believe in.  The song says, “do not wait until some deed of greatness you may do”, just shine your light so that you can “brighten the corner where you are”. Some folks will come and shine some powerful lights that will brighten everywhere at once and that is okay; the name of the Lord will be blessed.  However, what the Lord asks of us is to, at the least, brighten the corner where we are.

Our Lord, Jesus Christ, asks us to let our light shine before others, that they may see our good deeds and glorify God (Matthew 5:16).  We must let our light shine before the people God places in our paths.  Sometimes the people near us may not want to see the light, but still, we must shine our light for them to see.  Shining our light for someone to see may simply be to patiently support and care for someone in our own homes, or just be there for someone who is going through difficult times or offer some encouragement for someone who just lost a loved one.   It may be saying some kind words to a neighbor or someone we just met or praying for a brother or sister that is on a hospital bed.  Whatever situation we find ourselves, and wherever the Lord has placed us, we must realize that we are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14) and know that we have all it takes to brighten the corner where we are.

We thank God for making a day like this possible when we can honor our mothers.  They do deserve the honor.  Our mothers are unique and our relationships with them are also unique.  When I think about a day like this, I wonder what else can one say about mothers that have not been said before.  Absolutely nothing.  What we can do is to examine the practical events of our lives and try to make some enduring points out of them.  In a home it is often assumed that the mothers are the loving and loyal ones while protection is often left for the fathers.  However, there are protections which are instinctive in nature where mothers are best.  Our mothers can protect because of the heart a mother has towards her offspring, their urge to protect is the instinctive kind.  This instinctive protection of a mother should be constant and, in all circumstances, should be a priority.  The Bible teaches about a woman who was a good protector of her child. In Exodus 2:1-4 we read about how Moses’ mother took great risks to protect her son.

Moses’ mother was a slave among a people that can be considered wicked.  Their plan was to control the male population of the Hebrews among them. They reasoned that if the male offspring are decimated, they can ultimately take absolute control of the land because they would have wiped out the Hebrew population.  Moses’ mother put him in a basket to protect him from the Egyptians. She placed him in the Nile while his sister watched from a distance in the hope that someone who can take care of him will pick him up.  The sister watched until one of Pharaoh’s daughters picked him up. Mothers’ instincts have protected us in many ways. They have protected us physically and kept us from danger. Mothers have protected us morally by teaching us right from wrong. Many times, they have also protected us emotionally by keeping us from things they knew would hurt us. Mothers have also protected our spirits and brought us up to love and serve the Lord.  We owe our mothers a debt of gratitude.

Something happened in Nigeria recently where a famous actor was arrested for sexually abusing a minor.  The allegation was that the famous actor had previously abused this child when she was just seven years old.  The mother (foster mother) of the child claims that she just found out that this popular actor, who was a regular visitor to their house at some point, was the culprit of the abuse that happened seven years before.  So, in collaboration with some other folks, they decided to set up the actor so that they can have some concrete evidence of the abuse.  They did.  There was a CCTV video recording that showed the actor touching and kissing the young girl (now 14 years old).  This video was used as evidence in the arrest that was made.  However, many people have observed that there is a failure of protective motherhood in what happened.  First was the observation that a child was repeatedly abused, and the mother did not notice it even at that young age.  The second issue is that seven years later the mother thought the best way to gather evidence was to expose the poor daughter to her abuser again.  Essentially the mother allowed the minor to be molested again in order to obtain the desired evidence.  It is one thing if the camera system was set up for protection, but in this case the camera was set up so that they can catch the man in the act.

Can one say this mother has acted as a protective mother?  At what cost should a woman play detective with the life of her own daughter?  Can the joy or the satisfaction derived from catching this predator be compared to the emotional discomfort that this child was made to suffer in the hands of her abuser a second time?  How come a visitor can sexually molest your seven-year-old child when the man does not reside in your home?  I believe her intention was to protect her child because every woman has this instinct, but did her action bear this out?  Mothers are a natural when it comes to protecting their children, but not every mother out there exhibits this trait.  How about you?  Are you a protective mother? As we celebrate Mothers’ Day, I pray that you will not only be a protective mother, but you will also, indeed, be the kind of complete mother that the Lord wants you to be, a loyal, honorable, loving, and protective mother. Happy Mothers’ Day!

It is yet another time to be thankful.  Yes, every time we have the opportunity, we must always spend time showing our gratitude to our God most high.  Considering what the whole world has been going through since November 2019, it should be a habit for us now to daily lift our voices in prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord.  Every day now is a day seen only by His grace.  There is that song that goes “Every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart, I will pray” which some of us prefer to sing as “Every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart, I will praise Him”.  And that should always be the spirit for us because only the living can praise the Lord.

Whenever we feel the Spirit of God moving us, it is positive proof that we are still counted amongst the living, and it means we can still praise the Lord.  Every time we feel the Spirit of God moving in us, we know that whatever our fears may be, we still have the grace to overcome them.  Every time we feel the Spirit moving in us, we know the opportunity is still there to fulfill those dreams we have been having but are not fulfilled yet.  Every time we feel the Spirit moving in us, it is confirmation to us yet again that His compassion fails not, they are new every morning.  We serve a God that deserves our gratitude because He is a great God.

The Spirit of God moving within us is a stark reminder that we are not all we think we are.  It is a reminder that our powers as humans are limited.  It is a reminder that there is one who controls our body and Spirit and does not need our permission to do what He does.  You see, we go to bed at night because our body just gives up and we really find out we need to lay ourselves down to rest.  Then suddenly, the Spirit moves within us in the morning, and we rise to do whatever we do again. Then night comes, and it is time to shut off again.  It has nothing to do with what we do or what we do not do.  Whenever we go to bed we are like a deflated balloon, then we wake up in the morning and wonder where the air that filled us up came from. We do not possess the power to wake ourselves up, neither do we have the power to put ourselves to sleep.  Whenever that Spirit moves in us early in the morning, we do not have to cross our arms and just give a long sigh. We should acknowledge the grace that we have when the Spirit of God pours through the very breath in our body.  That is the time we should recognize the compassion and the love of the God we serve. That is the time we should lift our voice in Holy adoration of our God most high because every time the Spirit moves within us is a confirmation that He reigns, and He reigns forever.

One more thing about the Spirit of God is that when He moves, things happen.  Like what happened on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2).  Every time the Holy Spirit moves, He is accompanied by signs and wonders.  The very act of the Holy Spirit moving within us is itself a wonder.  Added to this is that the Holy Spirit moving within us is a call to service for us.  It is a call to engage in the work that the Lord has purposed for us.  When the Spirit moves within us, it is a reminder that the Lord still has things for us to do that we have not accomplished yet.  It is a call for us to take up our mantle and be ready to work for God. 

On the day of Pentecost as the Spirit of God began to move amongst the Apostles, God’s presence was manifested amongst them and was symbolized as a violent wind that filled the house that the disciples were in and that settled on each of them like divided tongues of fire. With this wind and fire, the disciples felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, and one can say the Spirit moved within them.  They began speaking languages that they did not even know, but these languages began to appeal to the people that had congregated. They could actually understand them.  This is the same call we get daily.  Each time the Spirit of God moves within us, it should cause us to do things we never knew we could do and speak in languages the people of God can understand.  We should speak using different love languages, kindness, patience, compassion, and acts of service.  The Spirit of God moving within us should cause us to understand God’s gift freely given to us for His own glory, and to surrender before Him in holy adoration and recognition that our assignments here are not done yet. 

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).  This is why many people say, “love conquers all”. I find it interesting how just having God’s love in our hearts can help us conquer a lot of situations.  I have also heard people say “love is blind” – this is obviously not strictly true, because God’s love is not blind.  As a matter of fact, God’s love sees all needs.  A blind love cannot and will not see any need. I am also intrigued by Paul’s teaching that says as Christians we should not owe any debt except the debt of love (Romans 13:8).  It is interesting to view love as a debt we will always have and that we must always strive to pay.  And in that same Romans 13:8, Apostle Paul again says, anyone who loves others has fulfilled the law.  So, in essence love is at the center of all our relationships with God and it does indeed conquer all things.

The law that is referenced here are the ten commandments that was given to the people of Israel in Exodus 20.  If there is love in our hearts then we will not murder, we will not steal, and we will not covet our neighbor’s things. Love in our hearts fulfills the intent of the law because all obedience to the law can be summarized and fulfilled by expressions of love. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13: 3, if I have not love, I am nothing.  Love will never do harm to one another; therefore, it meets all the requirements of the law.  Our Lord Jesus Christ takes time to remind us at every opportunity that love is the greatest of all the attributes God placed in us. In Matthew 22:39, He said that the greatest commandment was to “love God and love your neighbor” and said that these summed up all the Law and Prophets. Apostle Paul is saying essentially the same thing, that when we love our neighbor, we are truly hitting the mark, doing exactly what God wants us to do.  And in Matthew 5:17, our Lord Jesus alluded to this idea when He said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” And, indeed no one has fulfilled the law the way Jesus Christ did.  “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  He came to express the greatest love of all and fulfilled the law in the way no one else has.

We can look at this and see that our Lord Jesus Christ came to simplify the law for us.  If only we can always remember that our lives should be lived in love.  That we should always deal with our neighbors in Love and that loving God can cover a multitude of sins, we will not need to remember the individual laws that were itemized in Exodus 20.  Apostle Paul says love does no wrong, so anyone that loves has overcome all the “shall not” that are in Exodus 20.  Many laws of life are about what we should not or cannot do.  With love, we overcome all of those things because the reason to avoid them becomes clear to us.  We see clearly when we love with the love of God.  Love is key in our lives, brothers and sisters.  All our actions are propelled by love or the lack of it.  In fact, we can better understand all of God’s revelation, through the Law and the Prophets, by loving God and loving our neighbor.

One thing we must understand as Christians is that the laws were given so that when we obey them, they may lead us to Christ.  Now we also know that love fulfills law, so love will lead us to Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to fulfill the law by giving the greatest sacrifice of all.  When He fulfilled the law by dying on the cross, showing us the greatest love of all, we also died to the law through His body and now we belong to Him.  He said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”  If indeed we belong to Him, we must listen to His voice and follow Him.  His word for us is to love each other as He has loved us.  He then added that we are only His friends if we do what He commands.   Our Christian journey amounts to nothing when we do not obey His command and the command of the Father.  Let us love with all of our hearts because the love of God in our hearts does fulfill the laws.

On Thursday, we watched the Disney movie, Aladdin to celebrate Morayo’s 4^th birthday. During the movie, Morayo asked me to pause the movie, she looked at me and asked:

“Daddy, why did God create Jafar? He is so mean and evil, and I am sure he supports the devil.”

For those who have not watched Aladdin, Jafar is the second most powerful person in the fictional Kingdom of Agrabah, answering only to the Sultan. He presents himself as a respectable and caring advisor to the Sultan and to the citizens of Agrabah, but behind the scenes he is scheming to take over the Kingdom. He briefly succeeds by using his magic and sorcery, but he is defeated by a young boy Aladdin.

Morayo’s question is a fair question and one that many Christians and non-Christians ask. If God is a good God, why did he create bad people to do bad things? Here is how I explained it to 4-year-old Morayo. I pray it ministers to each of us who may be dealing with this question today.

1) Everything God created and creates is good. When Jafar was “created”, he was good. He was not the evil sorcerer we see later in the movie.

Genesis 1:31 – God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And There was evening and there was morning -sixth day.

1 Timothy 4:4 – For Everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.

2) God gives us a choice: Just as he gave Adam and Eve a choice. They chose to listen to Satan and eat the fruit, although they were in paradise with all sorts of delicious options. However, they wanted that one fruit that they could not have. Jafar was the second most powerful person in the kingdom. He could have anything he wanted in the entire kingdom, except for the position of Sultan.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 – ¹⁵See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. ¹⁶For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

¹⁷But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, ¹⁸I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

3) God gave us a helper, the Holy Spirit, to help us make the right choices. 

The Holy Spirit helps us choose to follow Jesus Christ. It is the Holy Spirit that exposes and reveals our sin, helps us see that Jesus died on the cross for our sin, and we are saved and forgiven from death and condemnation. The Holy Spirit leads us to make the right decisions.

John 16:13–15 – When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Roman 10:9-10 – If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

In conclusion, God created good people who have chosen to reject God and do bad things. God has also made a way for people who do bad things to be forgiven. Lastly, God loves us so much that he has given us a helper to help us do good things.

My prayer for each of us is that we will choose to follow Jesus Christ, we will depend on the Holy Spirit to help us make good decisions. But when we make bad decisions, we will repent, ask for forgiveness and surrender to God as the only one that can help us. Don’t be like Jafar! Amen!

About this time last year, precisely on Easter Sunday, I wrote about how difficult and strange the times were.  I did not know at that time that it was going to get a lot more difficult and stranger.  I do not believe I have witnessed or ever heard about so many deaths as I have heard in the past year.  I had thought not having the opportunity to worship at the Sanctuary on Easter Sunday was one of the most difficult experiences I have had, not knowing that we were just at the tip of the iceberg then.  This past year, beginning from April 2020 for most of us, has taught us that the ability to control our situation does not perfectly rest with us.  This past year has changed our lives in ways we never deemed hitherto possible.  We social distanced, we physical distanced, we wore masks, and washed our hands many more times than our previous years on earth put together. And, despite all of these, this raging virus wrought more death in the world than we could have ever imagined.  Every time we think we see a ray of light at the end of this dark tunnel, something happens, and we are back where we started. This has left many of us wondering about what tomorrow will bring. 

My brothers and sisters, I want to encourage us with the words of the song by Larry Ford, “I know Who Holds Tomorrow”. “I don’t know about tomorrow; I just live from day to day; I don’t borrow from its sunshine; For its skies may turn to grey; I don’t worry o’er the future; For I know what Jesus said, And today I’ll walk beside Him; For He knows what is ahead. Many things about tomorrow; I don’t seem to understand; But I know who holds tomorrow; And I know who holds my hand.” We may never know what the future holds for us in these very uncertain times, but we sure know the one that holds the future, and we know He lives forever.  The greatest threat that the virus has brought upon us is death, but Christ Jesus Himself defeated death and won a victory for those who would believe His name.  Often, at times when seriously bad things happen to us, we always think and believe that our life has come to an end.  All throughout His ministry Jesus Christ promised life-everlasting to those of us who believe in him. 

So, while certain circumstances of life, like this corona virus may be capable of ending physical life, and make us think that our life has ended, Jesus says because He lives, we also will always have a life.  He said it so very clearly in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full”.  So next time you think life has ended for you because of its uncertainty remember that you already have abundant life in Jesus Christ and as believers we must daily hope for and anticipate that abundant life.

My brothers and sisters, in times like this, we should not act as people who do not have a life.  It does not matter how much damage the virus has done within a year.  Of course, we do not know how much longer this nightmare is going to last, but we still have life.  This circumstance does not change our abundant life.  This circumstance is time-limited, but the abundant life Jesus offers us is forever.  Many people today hope for a long and happy life, but Jesus offers so much more.  He offers forever—eternity, life without end!  The promise of life everlasting is the heartbeat of hope.  And the resurrection of Jesus ensures that we too will be resurrected.  Because He lives, we too can live, and we can face tomorrow because we have so much to live for.

God gives us the strength to go through circumstances, which comes from knowing Jesus Christ in our relationship with Him. The same power that resurrected Jesus from the dead enables us to have the strength we need to overcome whatever trials come our way.  There are times things happen such that we begin to think God may be angry with us, while our experiences are just to build us up.  And even if God were angry with us, “His anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night but rejoicing comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5). We are on our Friday before resurrection, our Sunday cometh soon.  Only those who are Christian can look at the Fridays of their lives and face the future with the kind of certainty that will allow them to say, “It is Friday, but Sunday is coming!”. It may look very dark now.  The valley may seem very deep now.  But I assure you, light comes in the morning and the God we serve on the mountain is the same God in our valley. Let us celebrate our risen Lord with hope for tomorrow.  Happy Resurrection and may the power of resurrection continue to work with each and every one of us now and always!

My stepdaughter’s father, a devoted Moslem, has this constant response for most things I greet him about.  It does not matter what the live event is, his usual response is “In all things we thank God”.  When his father died and I greeted him, his response was the same.  When he was appointed as a member of one world body on IT security, his response was still the same.  In essence while he is a Moslem, he seems to still be able to follow the injunction of Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians that we must give thanks in all circumstances. “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” – 1 Thessalonians 5:18. I took note of this because I know for a fact that it is one of the hardest instructions to follow.

Ordinarily, no one thinks about thanking God in times of grief.  The most common emotion is “why me?”.  If we pause to think about it a little more, we realize there is no why, because the question has always been “when me?”. The truth is it is quite difficult to escape this life without having experienced grief.  Our prayer is that we can go through whatever situation led to our grief and come out of it much stronger. However, if ever there is an odd couple of events in our lives, it is gratitude and grief.  How on earth can I give thanks when my heart is so troubled because of the great loss just experienced.  It is like the case of the Israelites who were carted away to captivity and were still asked to sing the Lord’s song (Psalms 137:3).  They wondered how they could sing the Lord’s song in a strange land (Psalms 137:4).  When we grief, we are in the strange land of our lives.  When we grief, our hearts and our joys are essentially held captive by the events of our grief.  King Solomon says there is “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance” (Ecclesiastes 3:4).  We tend to show gratitude when we are happy and joyful.  So, we interpret King Solomon’s statement to mean that the times of grief and joy do not go together.  And we also live our interpretation.  But the Word of God says, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”.  If God says this then grief and gratitude must not be as mutually exclusive as we think.

We must stop viewing grief and gratitude as mutually exclusive emotions. In His Sermon on the Mount our Lord Jesus Christ made a statement that confirmed we can show gratitude to God during our moments of grief.  He said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). The Lord is saying here that, those who grieve are blessed and they are comforted.  Even if we cannot thank God for anything else, let us thank God for His blessings, let us thank God for His comfort.  His blessings and comfort deserve our gratitude. In our time of grief, only the Lord gives us the kind of comfort we need.  He never stops loving us, He never stops to lead us, rather He shows up, calls us by our names, and lets us know that it shall be well.  Even while we are broken, His word continues to speak to us that our afflictions are but for a moment and achieves for us an eternal weight of glory that surpasses the afflictions (2 Corinthians 4:17).  We can thank God for that.  We can thank God for His words of encouragement and we can thank Him for the promises of a better tomorrow.

It is hard not to grieve when we lose loved ones, and it is okay to grieve anyway because God is not annoyed by our sorrow.  In fact, it seems that He is attracted to it because it creates a window of opportunity for us to enter God’s presence for some desired intimacy.  Our God shows up in the crucible of our emotion. Some folks will say a child of God should not grieve; I say, let us go ahead and grieve, but let us grieve with hope.  As we invite our good Lord into our grief and gratitude, He teaches us how these seemingly mutually exclusive emotions can coexist when we need it most.  In moments of grief, gratitude helps to lift us up and open our hearts to the immense possibilities of God’s goodness and grace.

No matter what we walk through in this life, we are called to give thanks, to praise His holy name, and to worship Him. To know God and make Him known. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  So, we can grieve but we can also thank God for the memories of our loved ones.  We can thank God for the life of faith they lived.  We can thank God for His promises for us.  We can thank God for what He is teaching us by walking through our trials and tribulations. We can thank God for the imperishable hope He gives us in the middle of our pain, knowing fully well that whether we are alive or dead we belong to the Him.  But above all we can thank God that even amid our grieve, His comforting presence is ever felt amongst us.  So, in all things, be it joy or sadness, we can thank God.  To His name be all glory, honor, and majesty now and forevermore.

The promise we have in the Word of God is that God will not leave us comfortless.  In fact, the Word of God says He is “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort”- 2 Corinthians 1:3b.  This promise is available to us today.  We however go through some things in our lifetime that tend to increase the level of our discomfort and we begin to forget the promise that God will not leave us comfortless (John14:18). “God is our refuge and strength an ever-present help in trouble” – Psalms 46:1. So, we know He is always there for us. And verse 2 in the passage above says it does not matter even if the mountain falls into the sea, we will continue to trust in our God.

God knows what we are going through, especially in difficult moments like this.  There are just so much news of death around us these days that it cannot but depress our hearts, but God knows. He sees exactly what is going on and His Word for us is to stay strong and be courageous. Right now, it may seem as if the wind of life is blowing against us, but we must remember the experience of the disciples in Mark 6.  Jesus had asked them to go ahead of him to Bethsaida after they just finished feeding five thousand people.  The feeding of 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two pieces of fish was itself a remarkable event.  But this is the time that Satan chose to test them and test their faith, because it was not long after they entered the boat that the wind was against them.  While Jesus was praying, He saw that they were straining and that they needed help.  Jesus knew their limits and at the appropriate time He showed up to help them out.  God knows our limits and He knows our circumstances.  God knows right now how low we feel in our spirit, but He is our help.  He is the glory and lifter of our heads.  He is the lifter of our souls.  He is our God, our comforter and He will not test us beyond our limits.

This is a trying time for a lot of people all over the world.  Parents losing their children, spouses losing their partners, children losing their parents, and lifetime friends lost to a raging pandemic in a matter of days.  We live in a fallen world.  This means pain and suffering are inevitable.  Sometimes these pains are in the form of the loss of our loved ones.  And as Apostle Paul stated in 2 Corinthians 4:7, our bodies and minds are truly like jars of clay that are easily broken and shattered.  Right now, many of us are in that place.  However, regardless of the terror of our present storm, we can be rest-assured that the captain of our soul has not forgotten us. There is no doubt He is praying for us now just as He was praying for the disciples all the while during that long stormy night (Mark 6:46). To know that should have calmed their inner storm and ours too, if not the outer. It is to us caught in the storms here and now, not just to the disciples, that the writer of Hebrews says, “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Heb 7:25).  Be comforted, brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus Christ is praying for us too, and He is able to save us completely as we go to God through Him.

There is a word of comfort for us in Isaiah 41:10, 13; it says, “I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.  For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.”  He is our God from whom all our help comes.  In this time that grief seems to surround us, we shall continue to put all our trust in Him.  We realize our helplessness and acknowledge that He is almighty.  He is our God, Our Comfort.

Something marvelously strange about our comfort is the fact that we are not God. There is something here that should give us the peace we need.  If we turn all our affairs to the Lord, then every call is His call.  It may not be what we desire, but He oversees our affairs now and as we continue to trust in Him, may He deal with our affairs as He wills.  He is our God, our comforter. The winds are His, the storms are His, the darkness is His, the sea is His, but underneath all of these are His everlasting arms.  We give all glory to the one that is able to lift us up.