Letter to my Sister (2) :Naomi’s Response...

Dearest Eunice,

You’re right. The most important thing to remember is that it’s for God. I’m proud of you and glad you love God so much. I pray you remain steadfast in Him. About your prayer, the bible says;

‘Ask and it shall be given to you…’ Matthew 7:7a

‘The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.’ Psalms 34:10

‘For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him’ 2 Chronicles 16:9a

‘Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart’ Psalms 37:4

Hence, I do not believe God has a problem with giving you someone special to marry, or with you asking. Just remember that at the end of the day, it is His will not yours that you should seek to be established. So ask away and in the manner of our Lord, say ‘But Your will, not mine, Father.’ And mean it.

Whenever I think how unfair it seems when people wait on God and then end up marrying people who treat them so wrong, I remember that God never took your hand and placed it  in another’s. <We choose and our choices determine the outcomes of our lives and as Christians, it is our duty to learn how to make the right choices> (Mensah Otabil, paraphrase, mine). I pray we both do.

But if it appears God’s will was done and yet there is a mismatch, I remember Hosea who by all indications, God was pleased with and yet God made him marry a prostitute. Not a reformed one oh! This one continued prostituting herself even after she was married to the man of God. But it was all in God’s will, to illustrate His relationship between the church and Him. And I believe Hosea has the most striking portrait of that relationship between the church and God.

So if we are absolutely sure it was God’s leading, He will show us exactly why and how He intends to use it to His glory if we ask Him in prayer. But we must be careful not to attribute decisions of our flesh to God.

When I get home, we can search the scriptures more on this issue…

Your Sister,

Naomi

Letter to my Sister (1)

This letter was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend’s younger sister. It was written to encourage those who may need encouragement or know someone who does… 

Dearest Naomi,

O, how the tables have turned from yesterday! I hear them whispering behind my back; saying in hushed tones ‘Can you believe her!’  I see them point and laugh. They call me ‘relic’, ‘dinosaur’ and taunt me with their stares. But I am unfazed; I do not care. And it only makes them stare harder, wonder more. What is with her?

I went to school the other day to find scrawled on my locker; ‘Get with the program, girl! The definition changed from dignity to a lack of opportunity’ I smile and wipe it off. When will they get that I don’t care? That I have no desire to enroll in the so-called program?

I thank God for the little talk we had before you went off to college. It’s helped me understand them and respond in love. Animosity towards what’s different from you is probably as old as society. We tend to shun and ridicule what we do not understand. But I’d be all too willing to explain if only they’d ask!

I’m not doing this to feel special or to get attention for being different. This kind of attention, I can live without. It’s neither cos I was told in Sunday school nor cos I have ice running through my veins. I have the same desires they do. I’m doing this for one reason only, to honor God’s temple.

And even then, this is not all it takes. It’s the purity of body, mind and spirit and becoming more and more like Christ by consistently doing God’s will through Christ who strengthens me that honors God. So I do not feel any better than anyone for all sin is sin.

I have a question for you though, do you remember at youth fellowship when Auntie Mary said there were fringe benefits to remaining a virgin before marriage and she gave the example of your husband not having to wonder if any guy who greets you a little too familiarly once owned what is now his? You got up, nostrils flaring and said, ‘If it was for a man, I would have given up ages ago; these men who cheat and beat their wives?’

Everyone was surprised because you were always so quiet but it did drive a point home; it’s for God. And that is why sometimes I worry when I find myself praying; ‘God, I really hope you have someone special for me’, as if I deserve some reward for honoring Him. Do you feel that way sometimes?

Your Sister,

Eunice

Dear God... Fond Childhood Memories

I have always had an intense and passionate relationship with books. I love reading and when I was young, all who were close to me knew that whenever they wanted to give me a gift, a book was their surest way of putting a smile on my face.

one of the books I remember fondly is a book with a compilation of 'Dear God letters'. It contained questions from young people all over the world, addressed to God.

The only question I remember off the top of my head is 'Dear God, do you have a wife?' (how typical!) Some of the letters were funny, heartwarming, ridiculous (to adults), etc. But they were all innocent, honest and very pertinent.

Thanks to our dear friend Google, I found the book. It is 'Children's Letters to God' by Stuart Hample and Eric Marshall. I think it would make a great gift for any child you know who loves to read.

Some of my favourite letters were;

proof to support Eugene's letter

• Dear God, I didn't think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset you made on tuesday. That was cool!...Eugene

• Dear God, I went to a wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that okay?... Neil

• Dear God, What does it mean you're a jealous God? I thought you had everything... Robert

• Dear God, I think about you sometimes, even when I'm not praying... Elliot

• Dear God, In Sunday school, they told us what You do. Who does it when you're on vacation?... Jane

Reminiscing about the book and the warm memories of my childhood and Sunday school it holds, I thought of a few questions I would ask God were I to write Him a letter...

• Dear God, Why doesn't every Christian die old and in their sleep?

• Dear God, If you are coming soon, why do we have to do hard stuff like go to school and work? (I know the practical answer to this... but what's the point?)

• Dear God, Why are there more women than men in the world? Is it true that you never intended a one to one mapping?

• Dear God, Are you our heavenly FATHER not mother cos the earthly mothers do an adequate job whilst the fathers...

• Dear God, why do you allow good people to die young whilst some evil men remain?

What would you ask God in your letter?

Love,

Etoile

THE POEM (more like a speech)

Who you are in Christ (For the ladies)


First, you are loved and delighted in by your creator
The Bible declares in Jeremiah 31:3 "The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness"


Zephaniah 3:17 says: "The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing"


No matter what your past has been, what others have told you, or what you have been led to believe about yourself, Christ sees you as a jewel, a treasure, and his beloved.


Second, you are the pure bride of Christ
Ephesians 5:25-27 says, "... just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle, or any other blemish, but holy and blameless'


This paints such an exacting picture of the incredible divine romance Christ has invited you into. Even without a romantic relationship with a man in your life, you have the greatest love story of all time. Your bridegroom loved you since creation, died for you, cared for you, and place His spirit within you. You belong to the one lover who meets your every need and satisfies the longings of your heart.


1 Corinthians 7:34 says, "... An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs. Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit."


You will never be disappointed by the passionate love of Christ :)


Third, you are beautiful
As women of God, you have the deepest beauty of all. Each one of you is beautiful on the outside, but what defines your incredible beauty is that which Christ has given you. A woman, whose heart belongs to Christ, is desirable.


I heard a fellow man make a comment recently concerning a wonderful woman of God; "My spirit is attracted to her". Your true value and attractiveness comes from within. As men of God, we see Christ in you and a desire to seek Him, and this amplifies the beauty you were born with.


Proverbs 31:31 says, "Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised".


So with that, we thank you; for seeking God, for inspiring us to be better men of God, for adding a certain level of civility to our lives, and for being true ladies...




AWWWW..... Lol


(c) Brad Ewton (2011)

Service to God... (Who said Godly men can't be romantic?)

On Thursday, one of the nicest things that ever happened to me took place. The guys at our campus ministry decided they were going to honour, appreciate and serve the ladies by hosting a dinner for us at the church premises. It was very aptly timed, Monday being valentine's day and all.

After coming down with single-itis on Monday and missing home a bit more than usual, this evening was just what I needed. of course, I didn't know until I got there and I very nearly cancelled my plans to attend due to a pending deadline. Thank God I didn't! It would have been a huge mistake!

It wasn't a bring your date kind of event. It was purely a girl's night out, hosted by the guys. We arrived to the sound of great music and entered to find a couple of guys on stage, serenading us as we got seated. There were guys ready to pull out our chairs for us and make sure we were comfortably seated.

The place had been beautifully decorated, with scented candles providing this calming fragrance and lighting. Apparently, the guys met earlier and ate so it would be all about us when we arrived. They were all dressed up for us in their tuxedos and what not and waited on us hand and foot. Before your water finished, it was refilled. There was more great music and a skit (their own rendition of Don Quixote).

Service was impeccable and we really felt pampered. Being the ladies that we are, we were only able to enjoy it for five minutes before we felt we should be helping and felt guilty we hadn't thought of anything for the guys. The guys stood their ground however and we could only sit back and enjoy, all the while plotting what we could do to make them see how very much appreciated they were.

Whilst I know this is a rare occurrance and savoured every moment as such, I couldn't help but think that this is perhaps the kind of gesture that revived the last glowing embers of a dying marriage. As we sat plotting how we could surprise them and make them feel equally special, the glow from our smiles could have lit up the whole state. It's truly the little things.

Dinner was a  three course affair and was kept simple. Salad, macaroni and cheese, and cake and ice/whipped cream. Believe me when I say it could have been gari and water and tasted just as good.

There was dancing afterwards and even that wasn't couple based so that everybody got to dance. We had the group dances and circles with a few dance lessons thrown in. I was grinning from head to toe by the end of the night... and I had some renewed faith in men. Maybe all is not lost after all... :) :)

The most beautiful part of the night? This poem they read out to us... I don't know who wouldn't feel loved and pampered and utterly cherished after hearing it. I will try and post the poem soon. For now, I say, Vive la chivalrie! and God bless our men :) :) :)

Bits and Pieces from here and there...

This is a rather random piece, with bits and pieces from all over...

# Lesson Learnt:

No matter how strong/hard you are, a broken heart must be given due time to heal. It should not be ignored, wished away, plastered over, prayed and fasted away, etc. Attempting to do so is like putting band-aid on an untreated sore. Sure, it will look pretty and put-together on the outside, but the wound festers within. 

# It is the 21st century but some people do not have the basic freedom to worship. The Bible is still a banned book in many places. Shame to those of us who have all the freedom and allow our bibles to collect dust on our shelves. Yes, I said us. I am guilty of this from time to time.

# Since my dreams of learning how to sew and become a closet fashion designer have been put on hold, I unleashed my creative juices on crocheting. Here is my first project *read the first project fit to be shown in public* 

# There is this issue that has been on my mind a lot this week. Your insight will be much appreciated.

Preamble: If you claim to love someone, you should either be able to accept them, with whatever religion they ascribe to, or leave them be. It is that same religion that helped mold them into the man or woman you met and fell in love with. 

Question: With Muslims believing 'Islam is the only true faith...' and Christians believing 'Jesus is the way, the truth and the life...', how do I promise to live with my spouse who I love and want the best for, accepting to never try and convert him/her? How do I say I love them, knowing(or at least, believing) the path they follow will not lead them to Heaven, Paradise, or whatever I believe man's ultimate destination should be?

(PS: I will not even attempt to extend this to friendship, that can of worms will be too big to contain)

Behold He Comes...

I had two thought provoking dreams over the Christmas holidays. At first I thought they were due to overeating and decided not to write about them. But if you continue reading, you will find that this is a very strange theme for overeating dreams and perhaps, it's the decision not to write about them that was rather inspired by overeating and laziness :) 

I was just kidding about the overeating part. These dreams were too serious for such thoughts. I just felt they were memos God was sending me for me but now, I feel this was to share.

Now, we all do not know the exact time or date that Christ will come but that is really not the essential thing. The essential thing is to know where you will go WHEN He comes because He will come. Are you Christian? Do you believe Christ will come? Are you prepared? The lesson I learnt from the dream is that some 'Christians' will be surprised at the rapture. It's like we have made accepting Jesus Christ an insurance policy just in case it is true He will come. Do you really have unshakable faith in what you believe? If you do not wholeheartedly believe, pray for faith and strength to carry the faith through. Bottom line: There is no surface swimming with faith. It's either you believe or you don't.

The second dream was a reminder of Hebrews 12:1 New International Version (©1984)

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" 

All too often, we play with the sin that entangles us and by so doing, coddle our 'sickness'. I dreamt of a mother with a baby who had a serpent entangled around his neck. The mother made a few attempts to fight off the serpent and then gave up, telling herself the serpent wasnt trying to hurt the son and so perhaps just wanted to play and carried the child with the serpent around his neck and played with the boy, carrying the serpent and the boy home. The serpent stood for the sins that so easily entangle us.

What serpent have you carried home because it seemed too harmless for you to spend all that time and effort fighting? Remember, a serpent will always be a serpent no matter how harmless it appears and there is no serpent too small or trivial to fight. It is after all, the little foxes that destroy the vine more easily and unnoticed.

Songs of Solomon 2:15 New International Version (©1984)

Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom. 

God help us all not to miss the mark. Amen!

Sharing My Man

There’s only one man I know who loves from head to toe
And not only that, even loves your soul
If he were just flesh and blood, he’d be called a toke
But believe you me, this man is no joke

He’s everything you could ever want in a man
And that place where most men seem to fall,
Happens to be this man’s greatest strength
This faithful man, He’s no ordinary man, at all

You see when I met this man, I was young
I needed protection and strong arms (He delivered)
Now, because he’s kept me, I’m strong
And still need protection and strong arms (He delivers)

I’ve outgrown more toys and boys than I care to count
And yet no matter how much I grow, I remain His baby
Helpless, naked, hungry, and vulnerable, no doubt
But in Him, I’m secure, fed and clothed in radiant robes

You see this man, bought these clothes with all He had
On the cross of Calvary, where He shed His blood
These clothes cost more than any designer brand
Yet I didn’t have to ‘pay in kind’ like with other guys

What could I ever want that this man can’t provide?
Lyrics? He wrote me a whole book. It’s called the bible
Cash? Jewellery? Shoes? The earth and all in it is His
Attention? He’s there 24/7 ever waiting for my call

If you’re waiting for a ‘but’, I’m sorry, there’s none
There’s rather an ‘and’ Yup, you heard right, there’s more
You can have this man too. And no, I’m not…
Suggesting a ménage a trois, Get your mind home

This man is Jesus and He’s amazing
He satisfies me in every way conceivable
But don’t just take my word for it
You’ll want to experience Him for yourself.

If He’s your man too, you’re probably nodding
If not what are you waiting for?
Get on your knees and tell Him you wanna know Him too
And He will take it from there
(Go on, you know you want to)

The Blessings of Life and Good Health

I hate hospitals. Every time I visit one, I receive confirmation I made the right decision not going anywhere near medicine. As noble and prestigious as it is, it is unfortunately not for me. Aside the fact that I can’t stand the sight of blood (which is ironic because I am a woman and no matter how careful I am not to get hurt, nature has dictated that I have to see blood on a regular basis), I find hospitals altogether too depressing and come away from each visit deeply melancholic. And no matter how everyone I meet tells me the disturbance and grief I feel witnessing death, dying and suffering would have passed with time had I gone into medicine, I am convinced otherwise. I would probably have committed suicide or taken to drugs or drinking by now. Barring these, I’d probably go mad. It’s not the profession. It’s just me.

Yesterday, I went to the hospital and the situation was not much different. I spent about two hours at the central OPD (Out Patients Department) and saw more suffering during that period than I saw the whole of last year. Seeing a group of nurses and doctors chatting heartily and laughing as they passed the corridor, I couldn’t help but gain some more respect for our men and women in white and green who work surrounded by pain and suffering all year through and maintain a merry countenance. Perhaps we really are unfair to our nurses. If I just lost a nine year old patient, I would definitely not be patient and would probably snap at you if you refused to take your soup because you don’t feel like it, or you cry because you hurt your little finger or something of the sort. Granted, some people are just sour and bitter without provocation and would snap at people even in they worked at Disneyland but I’ll just give them the benefit of the doubt.

Within five minutes after sitting down, I saw a boy who couldn’t possibly be a day over six years who had lost a leg and was using crutches, a daughter patiently walking her mum who had had a stroke and had little co-ordination and an eleven year old girl who had just had her eye taken out. I know her age for sure because I asked. Later, I realized these sights had been a walk in the park when I had to go through the accident center to get to the operating room where my mom was to be treated. A ‘kind’ nurse offered to show me around the male accident ward when she saw me looking around, probably because she thought I was interested. One look in the ward had me declining the offer faster than a speeding bullet.

Why am I sharing this with you? Being at the hospital yesterday made me realize how much we take for granted day-in, day-out. Many of us have not been to the hospital for anything more serious than a rash, the flu, malaria, changing the prescription of our glasses or tightening our braces in over five years. Some of us don’t remember the last time we were detained at a hospital. A few of us haven’t been sick for as long as we can remember and we don’t even realize how blessed we are. The blessing of good health is one of the easiest to take for granted, especially when you don’t come into contact with sick people very often. Yesterday, I was forced to take another look at that blessing.

When after six hours my mum emerged from the emergency room all wrapped up in a bandage, I thought I had never seen a more beautiful sight. Her operation had been performed with a local anesthesia so she was able to come home. Even though she will have to go back for dressing of the wound every other day and I will have to wait on her hands and foot since she cannot use her right hand until the wound completely heals, thinking of how many people came to the hospital with a parent, child or spouse yesterday and went home empty handed made me extremely grateful. Some patients died, some lost body parts and some were irreparably damaged or terminally ill. Some even go through all four conditions. Life is indeed a precious gift.

As my mom was recounting her experience in the operating room, she told how at a point, a vein tore and had to be tied up. Exhibiting my ignorance, I asked my dad if it would be sewn back, or if it wouldn’t affect her in anyway. Apparently, we destroy thousands of our finer veins every day. When you sit, you block the blood flow through hundreds of tiny veins in your backside. However, your internal transport system quickly adjusts to the diversion and nothing happens to you. When you get up, many of those blocked passages will never work again. However, new ones quickly replace those and the diversions work while this is done until it’s like nothing ever happened. In trying to explain the process to me, my dad stopped at a point in time and said “In fact, the whole process is incredible and so detailed and well-orchestrated that it tends to suggest that we were indeed created and not a result of say, a big bang”.

As you can well guess, this was the highlight of my day. Hearing this from my dad, who had studied science and the human anatomy for God-knows-how-many years, warmed my heart greatly. In this era of ‘enlightenment’ where academicians and scientists the world over are claiming their studies has led them to discover true knowledge and enlightenment and led them to reject God, it was a refreshing break. I won’t let myself be carried away by this topic though; it is a topic that will take at least another article to tackle.

If you woke up today and nothing hurts and everything works, if no loved one of yours is in intensive care or terminally ill. If you don’t have to take twenty-two pills a day under doctor’s advice to move on to the next day, you are blessed. Exercise and a good diet have not kept you that way. Certainly, they have helped. However, professional athletes in top form have dropped dead with no apparent reason. You are blessed. Use the blessing of life and good health wisely.

And just as an aside – the fact that you have access to healthcare should you fall sick, is another blessing on its own. Visit the WHO (World Health Organisation) website and find out exactly how many people don’t have even that. You will be amazed.

Copyright (c) 2010

First Published in the 'Daily Graphic' (March, 2010)