THE TEST

This post isn’t a long one, just a short, concise for you to think about. I was reading the Bible earlier and I came across this verse:

“Proverbs 27:21 NLT- Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but a person is tested by being praised”

This verse stood out to me because it’s commonly accepted that to test something; you have put it through trials, tribulation and every bad thing under the sun. This verse shows us that this may be true for jewellery, helmets, cars, and so much more but for us humans- it’s the exact opposite. Our test is Praise, power and ultimately- free will.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” He’s got the right idea. When faced with fire, no doubt everyone will seek survival. Most people will obtain the survival. In that sense, everybody will have a “surviving character”. However, when we have praise and power, people do different things with it.

Some celebrities with praise and power have created positive impacts on lives of themselves and others- a clear manifestation of good character.

Some on the other hand, have allowed power to get to their head and fallen down in various ways- a clear manifestation of bad character.

This much is clear in national leaders, C.E.O.s, teachers, the list goes on. However, on the most common level everybody is being tested. You’d agree with me that humans (not girls) run the physical world. No animal can really compete with us for what we have. Our praise comes from knowing this. We’ve been given a lot of power. We’ve been given free will to do whatever we please. This is our test and one day, we will all reap our results for this test and be sat before the judgement throne of God. “Ephesians 5:16- Make the most of everyday, because the days are evil”.

I’ll end with these two passages from the book of Ecclesiastes.

“Ecclesiastes 5:18- It is good for people to eat, drink and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life… ¹⁹ …This is indeed a gift from God.”

“Ecclesiastes 12:13- Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commandments, for this is everyone’s duty. ¹⁴ God will judge us for everything we do, including everything secret thing, whether good or bad.”

Common Misconceptions of Christians: Christians are judgemental hypocrites

Ah yes! The “Judgemental hypocrites” stereotype. I actually love this one because it shows how Christians have derailed lately. To begin with, I want to apologise on behalf of ALL Christians that may have come across as judgmental or hypocritical to you at any point of your existence.  I’m apologising because this is exactly how Christians should not be but ironically, these are words that often get associated with Christians today. Even Jesus himself didn’t come to judge. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”- John 3:17. I think that’s amazing! In fact, he even went as far as reprimanding those who did judge; Matthew 7:1-5 “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgement you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” When he said this, he was addressing the Pharisees who were so caught up in their “religion”. They acted like the supreme leaders, judging people when their hearts weren’t even right with God. Now that’s real hypocrisy. Jesus Christ himself hung out with tax collectors, prostitutes and all other lowly people in society. The self-righteous religious leaders could not understand. This verse pretty much explains it though. Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17) And everyone is a sinner according to Romans 3:23. Nobody is perfect and that includes Christians. I don’t know where this idea came from but it seems that Christians are expected be perfect. No. We are to strive for perfection but also realise that it is impossible for us. If it was possible for us to be perfect, then Christianity wouldn’t exist because Jesus wouldn’t have had to save us (more on this in the final post). Jesus forgives us of our short comings which are inevitable through our faith. One should NEVER entertain the notion that Christians are to be perfect. The only difference between Christians and everyone else is that Christians have acknowledged their sin and have turned to Jesus who is the only one that can save them. If you ever feel a Christian is being judgemental towards you (a non-believer), please do not become irritated. The chances are that person doesn’t realise and is being a bit of a Pharisee (I am guilty of this also!). However, don’t hesitate to examine yourself either. You too aren’t perfect!

THE TRUTH

The truth is beautiful. I say this because as long as we can’t time travel, the truth will never change and will always remain constant. For instance, if I eat some crisps now, I’ll still be able to say I ate those crisps on this day 25 years later. The truth is the same yesterday; today and tomorrow- nothing can change it. As a result, the truth is the only thing you can truly depend on.

There’s no way you can win a debate with opinions because everyone has an opinion. This includes your opponents and like you, they will use their opinion to back up their points. Consequently, the debate will go back and forth forever! However, if someone approaches me and says, “Hey Temi, you have NEVER eaten crisps before”, there’s no way they will win the argument. (You have only won the argument when your opponent agrees with you in their hearts.) Why? Because I would KNOW for sure  in my heart that I had eaten those crisps on that day; in fact I could even throw a date up for my accuser (although I’m not sad enough to be taking note of the days I eat crisps lol).

Even if not eating crisps is an offence worthy of death penalty, I will die with peace of mind because I know the truth. This brings me onto my next point. According to John 8:32, – “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. True freedom doesn’t come from taking off chains, submitting that time consuming piece of homework or even finally getting to take off the pair of skinny jeans you’ve been wearing all day, no; True freedom comes from peace of mind. If you’ve ever told a lie, you’ll know what I mean. Lying doesn’t stop at saying (or doing) something. It involves making sure that what you’re trying to hide STAYS hidden and doesn’t creep back up again. Often this makes you paranoid, scared, anxious and essentially disturbs your mind. Then why do we do it? Because of fear! Check out Fear (2) which I posted earlier on.) However, when telling of the truth, regardless of the consequences be it persecution (see Acts 6- Acts 7 to read on Stephen the martyr) or hate and rejection (see Galatians 4:16), there is ALWAYS peace of mind which is true freedom.

Not knowing the truth brings on confusion and an unsettled state of mind and this is exactly what the devil wants. It’s for this very reason that Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life…” in John 14:6. Imagine your life without any truth. You’d be left wondering who you are, where you came from, why you’re here and the list doesn’t stop there! The truth is our anchor in life. Those that don’t know the truth are without purpose, doing everything in vain and will never be truly satisfied simply because this world is a lie; everything here will soon pass away. To know the truth, we need to spend time reading the bible where the truth is written!

Action points:

• Substitute “The truth” in this blog with “Jesus” and understand the message!
• If you don’t know the truth and would like to please please please contact me through WordPress or Twitter! I’d love to have a chat!

Common Misconceptions of Christians: Christians are delusional

I can confidently say that this is the biggest stereotype. When you think of a delusional Christian, does a crazy old man that goes round with a megaphone quoting bible verses against the will of others, looks unkempt and just seems a tad bit insane come to mind? Or is it the lonely, isolated monk type of character with a morose face who doesn’t want anybody to have fun?. If it is something like this, I’m really not surprised. To address this stereotype, I’m not going to tell you that we Christians are not delusional; that would be of no use because delusional is a completely relative term and therefore based on opinion rather than fact. I’m just going to explain why we can sometimes appear delusional to non-believers.

First off, I have to be honest- if I was not a Christian, I too would think of Christians as delusional. (In fact, even as a Christian, I still find some other Christians delusional… That was a joke by the way.) I’d think this because Christians give up a lot for something they can’t even see, they constantly study some old scriptures from over 2000 years ago and what’s worse, is that they can’t even explain it because it seems to oppose science! It all sounds a bit stupid doesn’t it?

However, I will be completely honest with you. Christians will always seem delusional and therefore distant to the non-believer. For instance, I find Manchester United fans delusional because I support Arsenal. I can’t understand why anybody would ever support Manchester United but the thing is Manchester United fans probably feel the same about me. Ever heard the quote, “A caterpillar cannot relate to what an eagle envisions?” Now I’m not implying that believers are eagles, no. In fact, the believers can be the caterpillar if you like. The point I’m trying to make is, if you don’t put yourself where someone else is, you can’t understand them and what they do. The most you can do is empathise with them. Won’t the caterpillar imagine and try to comprehend the kind of view the eagle has? Of course! But will what the caterpillar imagines be a true representation of what the eagle sees? No! Why? Because the caterpillar has not been there himself! It works vice versa as well. The eagle can’t understand what it’s like on the ground until he himself comes down and spends time there.

This applies to Christianity. Christians are both the eagle and the caterpillar, simply because no one is born Christian. This means that they were once non-believers but they have made a conscious decision and stuck with it. There’s a reason that Christians, with all the knocking they get are still Christians and no non-believer will ever understand it without coming to see for themselves and experiencing the full love of Christ. And one thing is for sure, once you experience Jesus, you can never ever truly go back to how you were before so I invite you to come and taste it!

Common Misconceptions of Christians: Intro

This next series of posts is primarily for non-Christians but could also be useful for Christians too. I just want to clarify a few things with you guys about the Christian faith, explain to you what exactly it’s about and talk about some common stereotypes. Whenever people hear I’m a Christian they tend to be genuinely intrigued and I think that’s simply because they don’t know enough about it and never come round to accepting Christ as their saviour. A few times I’ve had some interesting conversations with some of my non-Christian friends at school. One went like this:

Friend 1: You’re a Christian?!

Me: Aha that’s right

Friend 1: Do you believe in God then?

Me: Yeah.

Friend 1: Do you go to church on Sundays too?

Me: Yep

Friend 1: What do you do there?

Me: Praise, worship and learning

Friend 1: Ahh, what’s the music like and do you have to wear white robes?

Me: LOOOOL the music varies but it’s usually Christian rock and noooo! Why would you think we wear robes?

Friend 1: I dunno

Another one went like this:

Friend 2: What’s that wristband about?

Me: It’s a Christian thing

Friend 2: Oh you’re a Christian, I didn’t know

Me: Lol yeah man

Friend 2: Do you pray?

Me: Yep

Friend 2: And does God answer your prayers?

Me: Yep

Friend 2: Good for you

After conversations like this I always wish I said more as opposed to just yes or no but I’m working on evangelism because that is very important (but that’s another post for another day). Anyway, conversations like this just show how little people actually know about Christianity and how distant and unimportant it is to them. Personally, I believe this is because people don’t evangelize anymore and also because of the stereotypes on Christians. So I’m about to clear things up!

Watch this space!!!

FEAR (2)

Fear is something we have all experienced. Fear doesn’t respect age, knowledge or size. If you told me you were fearless I would definitely be sceptical of you because the fact is that everybody is subject to fear in one area of their lives or another. Every individual has different fears but I can confidently say that to some extent, we all (including me) pertain to fear of being rejected; that is- fear of man.

First of all, we need to understand what fear is. Here are some quotes on fear that I particularly find useful:

“Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.” – German Proverb

“Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake.” -Edgar Wallace – The Clue of the Twisted Candle (1916)

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” -FDR – First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

“To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.” –Bertrand Russell 

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain

“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity”. –Henry Van Dyke 

“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.” –Jim Morrison

From these quotes, we can learn a lot about what fear is:

• Fear is an emotion
• Fear is inevitable
• Fear is a time waster
• Fear amplifies and places emphasis on the negatives
• Fear is a killer
• Fear must be overcome

That’s right; we must overcome fear and in doing this, we mark the beginning of many great achievements. Before we go any further, we need to understand that fear is not of faith! In fact the two contradict each other. Fear is everywhere faith isn’t. In fact, there’s absolutely NO need for any follower of Christ to be afraid. Why? Because:

“God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4

When we acknowledge this, we realise that we have the means to overcome fear easily because we know God! All we need to do is accept it. We also realise that our fears are petty when looked at in the bigger picture. If you don’t mind, I’ll quote from my own poem, “This life is but a blade of grass in the forest of eternity”. The term “This life” includes all of our worries, problems and fears. So all in all, our fears are tiny and we can beat them with the help of God.

Furthermore, embracing fear is a sin. We know that fear is not of faith and this is shown in Romans 14:23 which says, “But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.” Revelations 2:18 even makes this clear by informing us bluntly that the fate of the cowardly is in the fiery lake of burning sulphur! Doesn’t this then mean that we are sinning unnecessarily? Yes!

Believe it or not, Jesus’ closest friends got scared. Remember when Peter denied Jesus three times for fear of being persecuted? Remember when the disciples saw Jesus walk on water towards them and got scared. Mark 6:49 reads, “When they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out”. You only cry out when you are VERY scared. However, in the next verse Jesus told them to “Take courage!” Even the apostle Paul who wrote a large portion of the New Testament experienced fear. In 1 Corinthians 2:3, he says, “I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling”. I don’t know about you, but I take comfort in the fact that even they experienced fear. This shows that even those closer to Jesus than we are, those on higher spiritual levels than us, those who are commonly mistaken as fearless actually do experience fear.

But upon reflection, I notice that there’s a difference between them and myself. Why haven’t I achieved as much as they have? The answer is this: Whilst I wallow in my fear and retreat from the exit of my comfort zone, they beat their fears! Romans 6:14- “For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” They stopped allowing fear to control them and stepped out knowing God was with them and they were certainly not disappointed! We must follow these examples and beat our fears too. If we truly know God, we know that there’s nothing to be scared of because he dearly cherishes each and every one of us (1 John 4:18 –“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…”) Too often we think about our fears, iniquities and problems instead of focusing on the Lord that goes before us. Let us beat fear, and become effective disciples!

Action points:

• Ask God in prayer to give you boldness and stay with you always.
• Make a list of fears that limit you and set out to conquer them right now!
• If you do not know the Lord then please get in touch with me through WordPress or Twitter. I’d love to have a chat with you and show you how you have nothing to fear!