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| Photo from Seattle Church of Christ |
It's that time of the year, holidays when people reflect on the past year, eat, drink and be merry in preparations for the new year. It is also the time when people indulge in too much alcohol resulting to fights, disorderly behaviour and accidents. While it's a cause for great celebrations, it is also a time when we have to be extremely cautious. I have witnessed two car crashes in the last two weeks that were so severe, the cars had no way of recovery, completely written off. One was a drunken driver, the other was a show off who was speeding and crashed/ fell in a ditch in broad daylight! Thankfully, no member of the public or passengers was involved or hurt in the makings of these un-accidents. The only people that sustained wounds were the careless drivers themselves and their poor cars.
Christmas is a time of giving in remembrance of the greatest gift bestowed upon mankind. The real reason for Christmas is Jesus Christ. In the middle of all the fire works, big bang theory, diamonds and ruby giving, we have to remember the reason for Christmas! We should be thankful to God for the greatest gift. In addition, it is through this gift that we have received salvation through grace. Where would be if God was indeed a man? If he was human, half of us will be gone by now, zapped, killed off with a wand each time we disobey, step out of line, misbehave and doing all those humanly things that we do. I remember one reader who approached me to make the point that I have not talked on this blog about my beliefs, my Christianity and why i am not writing devotionals like i should. In my head I unsheathed my fiapoto claws with the retort
"My blog is mine alone and you can't tell me what to write! The title of this blog is 'Samoa Aviator' not 'Holier than thou' blog'. It is not 'MY' Christianity, it is the lifestyle that we live as believers. It's not me me me. Christian means-CHRIST that lives in me, the I-A-N in the end, is I am nothing. In a whole phrase, this means without Christ I am nothing. At least this is my understanding of what it is to be christian. Being a christian is not to point the finger at others as 'they' or that we are better than them. I've come across people who think and proclaim themselves as Christians but on the first note of doing something they don't view as christian behaviour, hell, fire and brimstone will fall down on your head. They will also use one verse from the Bible to justify this passing of judgement. Let us not fall into the seat of judgement, let God be the judge. Proper judgement is used to discern what is good and bad, not WHO is good or bad, this proper judgement is according to God's measure, not man's.
As a christian, if we are to judge anything or anyone, we ought to judge ourselves. We ought to search our hearts and minds if indeed we are living as Christ taught. To love one another as we love ourselves and to love God with all our being. Are we really trying? Do we live as we are commanded and not based on our perceptions on how we ought to live. What standards are we living by? We cannot know the mind of God and Christmas is the illustration of his ultimate love for us. In his limitless power, glory and might, he became one of us and dwelt among us. Now, we don't have a visible representation of him but as a believer we have faith in him and reading the scriptures to guide, correct, teach and sustain us.
Believing in Jesus is a soul coming to Jesus to be satisfied in all that he is. That is my definition of faith on the basis of John 6:35.
Faith is “Seeing and savoring Jesus, being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus, and trusting Jesus,” and that those three things are “equivalent realities.”
But those realities should also be apparent in our actions,
When you treasure God in your soul, "you outwardly are set free from the slavery of sins, which people can start to see, and you are set free for the sacrifices of love, which people can see. So the root of your salvation glorifies God privately, and the fruit of your salvation glorifies God publicly."
I don't have to write in this
blog of how christian I am. After all, actions speak louder than
words. I can preach about the love and all the other amazing
characteristics of God but if I don't SHOW that through my life, to the people around me, I will
be wasting my time giving lip service. I will be just another hypocrite
joining the masses. As for devotionals, devotion is a personal time
you spend with your God. You don't have to follow writings to be
devotional! It can range from five minutes of praying to a whole day of
meditating on the word of God. For me, devotional is a personal,
habitual must if we are to be living in Christ. This is where God
reveals himself to each person.
At church, we stand with our fellow believers saying "AMEN" to God but devotional(s) is where you write your personal story with him. We may not be able to reveal in church our innermost secrets/ longings or shortcomings. You can do this via devotionals, here is where you are free to express these to our Creator. It may not be words at all, a song, a poem, a line!It really depends on your spirit and it's condition. So my reader, this address is for you.
I am a christian and I do not have the answers to everything, only God has and that's okay. It's okay to not know everything, that will exhaust the human brain! It's okay to not be perfect, only God is, that will mean we are Gods, demi-Gods, Goddesses if we were perfect. Oh how boring and colour deprived the world would be if we were perfect!How un challenging and distasteful, that will mean we don't need God, there is no salvation because we can save ourselves. Fortunately we can't. In the true spirit of christmas, do something worthy. Even if you are not a christian, there is someone somewhere who needs a hand. Be safe and try to look through Christ's eyes if we can't use our own.
