The World and the Fear of Humiliation: And why Humiliation Helps Us Come to Ourselves

And when he came to himself - Luk 15:17a 

It Takes a Man to Accept He is Defeated

The world is a hostile place. And none found this truer than the prodigal son. He left his father and threw himself at the world. But the world vomited him out. He left in suits but he returned in rags. He left in style but he returned in humiliation.

But it was humiliation which made the psalmist wiser.

It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. Psa 119:71

Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. 119:67

To be Humiliated is to be Made Stronger

Humiliation is a powerful redemptive tool which God employs many times. Believers should not fear it. In fact they should pray for it more! Humiliation opens the eyes and gives people a new strength which they never thought they had before. When I lost a sister my late dad cried like a baby. And I suffered a serious roller coaster of emotions as a result. He had been the typical African man. But he cried like a baby. The next shock was to see my mom calmly comforting him and everyone present. But she never shed a single tear. It’s as if she stared humiliation in the face and said ‘Come!’ She then prayed like I had never seen her pray before.

Yet a non-believer burdened with the whole earth would never do something like that. He would harden his face. But he would never be free. Probably men should begin to pray for humiliation more. It will certainly make them very strong and very true men.

Paul prayed that he might know the true suffering of Christ. And God gave him a lot of humiliation. He also gave him a nugget (among many) which rings true to this day: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.’

At Gethsemane Jesus prayed that the will of God be done. And the will of God was to humiliate him. And today many in the world are strong because of that humiliation. Many who were on the brink of death have got healed because of that humiliation.

Take Heart, This World is Passing By

In the world you will be rejected, abused, lied, ripped off, hated and even killed. Even the testimony of the secular News Channels attest to the fact that the world is a sick place. How can one possibly be in love with such a place?

‘Therefore I hated life,’ Solomon groaned. And it is a groan which resounds in many homes up to this day. It took great humility for a king to make such an admission. Can you face God like that too, in your utter ‘nakedness’?

And this is the will of God that in everything we give him thanks - including humiliation. ‘And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God…’

I believe that should be our attitude towards this world as believers. It should be an attitude of love, even where that love is clothed with tears.

‘And rend your heart, and not your garments,’ screams Scripture. It is in the closet that we mourn, grunt, cry and even prostrate. That is because we know prayer is power and humiliation is nothing. It is because we ask that we receive. He who does not ask receives nothing.

Loving the World Carefully

Our love of the world as believers should therefore be sober and cautious. Not the secular love of the world which is reckless, energy sapping and mind vitiating. And in the end it leaves a man angry, sad and broke. Like the prodigal.

In conclusion, it is obvious that we as believers will suffer great humiliation while here on earth, as it is written, ‘In the world ye shall have tribulation’. But take consolation: if we endure up to the end we shall be clothed with white garments. We shall wear the crown, and finally, we shall be adorned with beauty for our ashes forever.

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Rom 8:22-23  

For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. 2Co 5:2-4

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Php 2:5-8  

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2Co 4:17-18  

 

 

 

The Lure of the World and its Peril

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1Jn 2:15-17  

But what is Worldliness?

Beginning today I will be doing a series on the meaning of worldliness and why Christianity talks so strongly against it.

Worldliness is a human system or lifestyle. We may be different from the Dark Ages people but that is only in development or civilization. But the heart is basically the same since Cain killed his brother Abel because of jealousy.

After the fall we lost not just Eden but also our relationship with God. We became enemies. And Satan became the ‘prince of this world’. That is why we are still surrounded by darkness. 

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 2Co 4:4  

He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. Joh 12:40       

In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. Joh 1:4-5  

In the Old Testament God told the children of Israel to separate themselves from the Canaanites peoples because they would draw them from God. But they refused to hear. In the end they forgot their God and embraced the religions and traditions of the Canaanites. That desertion of God life is what is called apostasy. And this is what the love of the world can do to a Christian.

Thus Egypt is a type of the world in the Bible. It is a place of bondage. This is where the alcoholic can be found today, and the drug taker, and the lover of pleasure. For pleasure too can be a form of a drug.  

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Joh 3:19  

No One Knows He is in Prison until the Day He is Set Free

Education may have freed the modern man or woman in a big way. But only Christianity has redeemed the individual from the tyranny of the world, self and the devil.

From Prison House to Freedom

Hence the world will always be antagonistic towards the Christian. As Christ has said: ‘If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you’ (Joh 15:19).  

So do you feel you are hated for being a Christian? Remember the world hated Christ too. Do you feel as if you are in bondage here? Christ has come to set us free.

It will be a new life and initially it will scary. Your loneliness might be magnified. You will be ridiculed and hated. But don’t worry. God gives the power to finish what he has started. And ‘leaving’ the world for God is a decision you will never regret. Christ died for you. Believe him that he will never leave you nor forsake you.

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; Isa 61:1  

To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. Isa 42:7  

And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them. Isa 42:16  

And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. Isa 29:18  

But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore. Isa 42:22  

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. Isa 61:3  

 

 

 Covid 19 And the Valley of the Shadow of Death

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. Psa 91:5-6 

 

Last Wednesday my Mom got discharged. She is now recuperating at a sibling’s home in Nairobi. She had quietly braved a third wave complication of Covid. People prayed. And God is faithful. We called and he answered. May his name be praised forever and forever more!

And Then It Strikes So Stealthily You Can Hardly Hear It!

It was on Sunday 14^th, a very normal Sunday, except Mom woke up with a severe headache. I had encountered such things before, so I wasn’t alarmed. I checked her Blood sugar and BP and both were ok. So I gave her her usual regimen of drugs plus Panadol Extra for her headache.

I then left for church. But when I came back later that afternoon I found her looking even worse. She had been lying on the same seat I left her. I asked to transport her to Nakuru to see her doctor but she refused. She said it was Sunday. So I called a local private clinician to come and give her a painkiller injection. He came and left. He wasn’t even wearing a mask! And of course none of us at home did. We had never seen Covid face to face. We knew one usually had a cold and a cough. Mom didn’t experience any of those things. She had been given the injection and things had cooled. But she still felt feverish. Then at 2.30am she woke me up again. It was the headache and it was tearing her up. I gave her more Panadol Extra.

Even now I didn’t worry about not wearing a mask. I mean who does it in their own home and in the middle of the night?

But if I had been careful I should have noticed one anomaly. Between 7pm and 7am I myself had taken six Panadol Extras! For the first time I started to worry.

I took Mom to Nakuru the following day. It is a thirty minute drive. But on arrival at the hospital we were immediately put on drip. Both our temperatures were soaring above 39 degrees centigrade.

The doctor recommended admission for both of us. But I rejected mine outright. Mom got admitted. But she slept badly, being disoriented, and ripping off the drips from her body. She would then walk along the corridors knocking on doors at night. The following day saw more tests being done on her - a chest x-ray, a headscan and a Covid test. The Covid test came out positive on the third day. After that her room was shut from visitors except her family. After a week she got transferred to Nairobi.

And then it hit me proper after two weeks. I felt nauseous, I raised a fever, and my appetite escaped through the window. For one week I did with one meal per day – and it usually took about three hours to clear.

For one week I lived in bed. I prayed, and prayed and prayed. The prayer wasn’t even long. I simply prayed Nehemiah’s prayer over and over: ‘Remember me, O my God’!

There was a time I got a bit disoriented and I stared at the Bible as if it was a strange book. But I forced myself to. Later however the concentration returned – and the appetite - and a lot of thanks to God! ‘Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? who can shew forth all his praise?’ (Psa 106:1-2).

So when is The Last Wave Going to Be the Last?

Christ is coming soon. That is the meaning of Covid. ‘Watch and pray.’ ‘Make your calling and election sure.’ ‘And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed’ (Rom 13:11). 

If you don’t know Christ time is ticking away. Now is the time for salvation.  

For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness. Psa 95:7-8 

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 1Co 10:11  

We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) 2Co 6:1-2 

Not tomorrow. Tomorrow may be too late. Decide and decide today. Some things mean nothing if they are lost. Not a lost life though. That is eternal. ‘For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’ (Mat 16:26). 

God help us to reflect deeply on these things, especially on this day we celebrate Jesus death and resurrection. Life is about sacrifice. Christ paid the ultimate price. What can’t you sacrifice for him?

Life is very short. That is the ultimate lesson of Covid. Today a man is here and tomorrow he is gone. Who will be next?

The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. Isa 40:6-8 

And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure. Isa 33:6  

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2Pe 3:8-9  

 

Desire and Calling: And Why Every Day’s Work is A Calling

Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. 1Co 7:20  

As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place. Pro 27:8  

The Other Meanings of Ministry

What is a calling? Nothing gives a new convert headache like that question. But I believe a calling is something which unfolds on a daily basis. So Paul began as Silas and a persecutor of Jesus Christ once. But later Silas became Paul as he now settled fully into his final calling.

The easiest way to go about it is to accept where you are now as your calling – so long as it is not something evil. As it is written, ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning’ (Jas 1:17)  

We all started our calling in life as children. Then we grew up, and some veered towards the humanities and others sciences, and some became fathers and others mothers – and still others as singles – and many other professions and occupations.

The thing is to treat where you are now as your calling – as a sacrifice – and then do it happily as unto the Lord.

Having that kind of attitude also helps take away the drudge and monotony of daily life. Hence we are ambassadors and witnesses of Christ. Our whole life as a Christian therefore is an epistle or a letter ‘written’ by God and which is ‘read’ by all people.

God is the husbandman (farmer), and in a farm there are lots of works to be accomplished on a daily basis. So what do you feel he has called you to accomplish for him today? Then do it without doubt – and do it with all your might.

So you are a housewife and you are angry with yourself that you are ‘only a housewife’? Change that attitude today and begin to see yourself as a minister of God (as your pastor is!)

For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Eph 2:18-22  

And because it is written again: ‘Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God [giving no offence]’ (1Co 10:31). 

In Life You Will Not Always Get What You Desire

And so it will not always be that job which satisfies, or that woman, or that man, or that house and place where we stay. But remember God does not say no to our desires to spite us, but he does so to give us something better, or to fix a part in us which was about to fall.

That is how we are able to love people who are unlovable in this world – or to live lives which (on the surface) seem hungry. It is the calling. And always it flowers into a rose in the end.

‘What do you have which you didn’t receive?’ asked the apostle. So give back that love, that mercy, that hope and that understanding…

For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead. And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. 2Co 5:14-15  

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 2Co 5:18-19  

So be ready for any eventuality, in season and out of season. No calling is ever easy. But the joy comes in the doing… in the walk… in the journey.

Have you never heard someone (slapping his forehead) and confessing to you later that ‘I had heard this voice but I refused…!’ or ‘I had had that idea once but I let it…’

Just don’t be the one slapping your forehead next time!

For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. Rom 12:4-8  

Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 1Co 12:4-5  

And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. 1Co 12:6 

Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. 1Co 10:33 

 

From Desire to Lust is Only a Breath Away: And Why Desire is killing Men

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God. 1Th 4:3-5 

 

We are More Creatures of Selfishness than Love

I think the chief business why our foreparents went into marriage was to make children – for children are wealth. So their purpose was purely utilitarian. Today’s accent is on making love – and it is a good thing and we are not going to stop it - ‘for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God.’ 

Today love is both a science and an art. One word wrongly placed in the mouth can ruin a whole evening or a month’s conversation. Love is a chemicals and aesthetic event. It makes everybody a poet - it is the palm wine with which words are eaten.

It is for this reason Paul chose (and advocated for) celibacy – not because he hated women and marriage – but because love demands one’s whole heart and mind and soul. And for someone whom God had called even before he was born – marriage can be a distraction (1 Co 7:35) and a cause for great unhappiness. I read in a biography of John Sung where he made the startling admission that he had been better off in his ministry if he had been single and not married.

Perhaps we should have more biographies of pastors today talking candidly about their marriages and ministry like that. What is their understanding of Paul in First Corinthians Seven? Has the Catholic Church got it wrong on celibacy?  Was Paul a misogynist?  What about Jesus? What about God? Should we revise the whole Bible for gender equality purposes?

A pastor who was officiating at a wedding gave the young man this advice: ‘A man must tell his wife that he loves her at least fifteen times a day… for that is what ladies want.’ Now take a man like Paul and give him that advice. And it will make that relationship rocky before it starts. When will he date? When will he love her (fifteen times a day), and when will he mull over his books and his thesis on Justification by faith in his Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans?

That is what distraction means. It is a weighing in of two good options – and choosing one. It is hard, but we make it even harder when we can’t decide – or when we choose wrongly in life.

To enter into the business of love making today (and marriage) requires time, skill and purpose. Are you both of the same mind about it?

And then out of Desire to Please Men have started to die!

Nightfall should normally herald thoughts of peace and not anxiety. But now the bedroom has become a deathtrap. And men are no longer certain they will come out alive…

However men ought to learn that it’s ok to be humiliated once in a while. It is good for character.

Or perhaps we have lusted too much like the children of Israel lusted in the wilderness? God gave them flesh to eat until it started to come off their mouths – until it killed them (Nu 11:33-34). He gave them their request but sent leanness into their hearts. The pharmaceutical industries cannot fill that emptiness. Only God can. Let us first be at peace with him (and his truth) – and that peace will extend all the way to the bedroom.

Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved: but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once. Pro 28:18 

The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them. Pro 11:3  

The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them: but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness. Pro 11:6  

Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions. Ecc 7:29  

We Get Sanctified through His Word – For His Word is Truth

God is radical and he is looking for radical believers. Are there any commandments of him which you are uncomfortable with in this our modern age? Mind you God is the same yesterday, today and forever. That is a radical proposition. Can you live with that?

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Col 3:5  

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Rom 8:13 

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Gal 5:19-21   

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 1Co 6:9-10  

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Rom 8:6- 9

 

 

Desires and Temptations: Why there is No Easy Road to Freedom

‘and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God’ Acts 14:22b.

Don’t Despise the Day of Small Things

In their early years a few Bible College students make a vow to be like their famous apostle Paul (including myself). They announce from rooftops that, ‘It is good for a man not to touch a woman.’ But then they leave college. And today most of them are married. If you ask them what happened they say simply - ‘Reality.’

Now I don’t want to laugh at them. For ‘I am also a man,’ and people living in glass houses should not throw stones.

But I’m also aware that we live in an age where a man can say one thing today and another thing tomorrow – and still he will not lose friends (or sleep) over such a small thing. Rather he will gain more, especially if they be men.

And that troubles me. Because it does not raise but it lowers the moral bar by which all Christians are called to live by.

So the men who say that reality hit them are not so brave or inspiring. Who can trust them if a war broke out? And does this not prove true that money and sex (flesh) are still the greatest temptations for any living Christian, whether married or single?

To be or not to be Honest that is the Question

Now there are things which (we were taught) are very hard to recover when once they are lost – and the chief one is character. But men (even Christian ones) don’t take these things very seriously today. But have we come all this way only to be felled by our own sabers and at such a time as this?

For Christ can still be heard saying, ‘But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.’ And ‘No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.’ 

The reason why Jephthah is celebrated as a hero of faith (Heb 11:32) is because when the time of his hottest trial came Jephthah played the man. He did not flinch. And he was not alone as most Old Testament saints also never wavered in their faiths, ‘and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.’ Another lesson we were taught is that the beginning is nothing, but how the end will look like. These saints proved themselves men from the beginning to the end. As David sang: ‘LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?... He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not’ (Psa 15:4b). 

In the end what do you and I wish to be remembered for - as faithful servants or unfaithful ones?

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. Heb 10:35 

For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end. Heb 3:14 

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Heb 4:14  

Christ’s temptations appealed to three things, which John the Evangelist calls: ‘the lust of the flesh (hedonism), and the lust of the eyes (materialism), and the pride of life (egoism)’ – which ‘is not of the Father, but is of the world.’ These are the same tricks Satan uses to tempt us (as he did with Eve) even up to today. But Christ overcame, showing us that we too can.

For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. Heb 2:18 

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Heb 4:15

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Jas 1:2-3-4   

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Jas 1:12 

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: Jas 1:13 

But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Jas 1:14  

Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Jas 1:15  

Be Proud to be Different

One girl vowed she would be married in church. She stayed for years until people wrote her off. At last she did, almost on the ‘eleventh hour.’ But God had been faithful. He still is.

Loneliness is real. It bites hard. But ‘weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.’ God gives the grace. He gives a way to escape – ‘There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it’ (1Co 10:13).   

The disciples in John Chapter Six were awed by Christ’s teachings. They asked, in effect: ‘Who can believe such?’ And many stopped following him.

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. Heb 10:38  

But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Heb 10:39  

Stick there. Hold up to the end. God is still able to furnish a table in the wilderness.

 

 

The Crowding of Desires and Where One Can Find True Love

Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Psa 37:4  

When it is Hard to Say ‘No’

We live in a day of relationships, sometimes complex, and we must have them whether we like it or not. As it is written, ‘For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself’ (Rom 14:7). 

Parents have not only their own desires, but they also carry in their hearts their desires for their children and even grandchildren – and for the wife for her husband. So one parent may want the child to be a lawyer, another engineer, another doctor, another entrepreneur – and the rest according to what they lack most in life. Probably himself he would love to be a poet but he knows he will be famous only after his death – and only after he has exited this world as poor as a church mouse. So he dabbles in all to please all – ‘and the last state of that man is worse than the first.’

In God Alone is our Chief Desire

One can break free from these entanglements (and desires) only through God. We give him our desires (our prayers) and he directs us in the path of finding them – or finding something better than what we had anticipated (‘like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field’) . We acknowledge him in everything and God directs us to the best, and ‘If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed’ (Joh 8:36).  

Mountains of Spices

Desires have a way expanding into the infinite, as if water in a river, breaking from its banks and consuming every object along its way. Desires are both beautiful and perilous. When they afflict an unstable mind the desire can turn into a nightmare. And desire grows both by what we have – and what we don’t – and sometimes it is the latter which is most intense and intoxicating.  

    As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Psa 42:1 

    O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee         in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. Psa 63:1

    My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for     the living God. Psa 84:2  

    My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times. Psa 119:20  

    I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments. Psa 119:131  

    The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. Psa 119:72  

    I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. Psa 119:14  

    Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold. Psa 119:127  

    I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil. 

Lastly desire can be that chord and note in a song or flower garden…or that thing which lifts the mind from the mundane into the sublime -

    He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Son 2:4  

    Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love. Son 2:5  

    Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow     out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. Son 4:16  

    I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have        eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink,            yea,     drink abundantly, O beloved. Son 5:1  

Desire too can be delusive – immersing one into a hole without an end – or plunging one into a room full of mirrors – and finally desire is progressive – growing into vintage like fine wine: ‘When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things’ (1Co 13:11), and ‘leaving the principles… let us go on unto perfection.’  

God Makes Streams in the Desert

So what is your desire my friend?

‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened’ (Mat 7:7-8).

Sometimes God gives the best wine last. So don’t despair. Don’t give up. Carry on. Soon he will bring you to the banqueting table – so you can sing with the congregation, ‘He shewed me the path of life: in his presence is fulness of joy; and at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore’. In the desert of the soul only God can satisfy. ‘And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes’ (Isa 35:7). 

    Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. Psa 37:5  

    Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be        moved. Psa 55:22  

    Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your            requests be made known unto God. Php 4:6  

    Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah. Psa     62:8  

    He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them. Psa            145:19  

    They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of         the river of thy pleasures. Psa 36:8