Fullness

You take skimmed milk enough, and its emptiness becomes normative. But you were purposed for the consumption of wholeness.

Colossians 2:8-10 Be careful that you don't let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.
For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,
and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power;

2 Timothy 3:16-17 Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness.
That the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

Hebrews 5:12-14 For although by this time you should be teachers, you again need to have someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God. You have come to need milk, and not solid food.
For everyone who lives on milk is not experienced in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby.
But solid food is for those who are full grown, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.

James 1:4 Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

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Lessons Earned

My apologies for missing our appointment yesterday.  Following the net four (also parenthetical) page breaks, I will intimate a truncated version of that upon which I intended to expound, and the reason for my having now neglected that task.

(Well, I was going to mention a conversation I had with a cousin of mine, wherein we came to understand the unity of the gospel through the books of Job and Colossians, the fact that God’s utmost desire is God’s glory from Colossians, and that all things have been made toward that purpose, but in greater detail.

However, as I was in the very act of publishing those sentiments, my electronic device (O, technology!) decided that my actions merited the deletion of my entire train of thought, such that now, and especially as my time of slumber has long past, that intellectual locomotive is now irreparably derailed.  My apologies to you, dear reader.  Perhaps next time, the Lord willing, I will use a surer method of blog publishing that involves neither operator error nor system malfunction.

Suffice it to sat that glory is God’s; all glory.  He shares it with no one but, because of Christ Jesus, his people are enabled to partake of his Holy Spirit and have the very same Spirit make his abode, their living bodies.  It means that God’s ultimate purpose is God’s glory, and that God is good such that we, who confess Jesus as Lord and believer that God raise him from the dead, are enabled to share in glory, previously restricted to the Almighty.  Are we worthy?  No.  Are we made worthy?  Yes; Jesus has counted us worthy because of what he has done.

I was also going to make much fuss about the global bacon shortage for the year 2013.  At this point, though, my mind is degenerating into the primordial soup that a part of humanity deems to have been the origins of life.  And so, I bid you Adieu.)

Today, I would like to take the remaining space to tell of the family’s latest project.  We have two dogs, Gbenga and Chino.  Gbenga is a mix of Rottweiler and Doberman, and Chino is fully Boerboel (a South African breed.  Of course mentioning the origin of Chino’s breed immediately unearthed my ignorance to that of Gbenga’s mix, despite my familiarity thereof).  They seem to be developing personalities as they mature.  Gbenga is nearly a year old, and Chino trails by only a couple of months.  For the past few months, and especially in this last month or so, the gruesome twosome have been finding ways to get out of the yard, either around or underneath our chain-link fence, much to the dismay of the family and the families of the surrounding Nkwanta-ites.

I have, in fact, just come inside from a long, productive day of interweaving iron rods into the fence and hammering them into the ground to prevent unwanted (on the part of the humans) departure of the canine creatures from the house’s immediate premises.

About 20 minutes after we (my dad, my cousin, and I) came inside for the day, we see Gbenga and Chino outside the fence.  Yippee.  So, more searching led us to see that we had a few more rods to put into the ground well.  As I type, I hear no barking.  That means that the dogs are either asleep or that they have escaped yet again.  In the latter case we shall hasten to change the dogs’ names to Houdini and Angel!

With this said, I will sign off for now.  I am still trying to post every Tuesday and Saturday, as I said in the last post.  Hindrances will be due to electricity, or to time left on the Internet (it is essentially pre-paid usage).

If you want the Gospel, read Ephesians 2:1, 2 and Colossians 1:21 and John 3:16.  If you want it now, then know that you do not have to be an enemy with God forever. He has made reconciliation to and relationship with God possible.  Where does that hope come from?  God.  Who is that hope?  God himself.  If that is not good news, what else could you possibly have in mind?

Two Masters

Today, as we were coming back up the driveway from a quick trip to town, my parents and I were paying close enough attention to behold God's handiwork.
Q: What had graced us this time?
A: A Blue-bellied Roller.

I would post a picture but, by the time we had gotten out of the car and my dad had retrieved his camera, he was unable to get a good shot. If your internet connection is any grade above the one I use (or even equal to it) then I greatly recommend to you the pursuit of a photographic image with this Roller in the foreground. For anyone else, please let me know when you would like to come and visit me here in Nkwanta. Room and board available, usually.

This week, as I may have mentioned last week, I had and took advantage of the opportunity to guide a group of pastors through the book of Colossians. This was an encouraging experience for me, as I had not previously been sure of my ability to teach an entire book of the Bible. I realized the importance of the book being the centrality, supremacy, and sufficiency of the person of Jesus, the Christ, to, in, and for the Christian faith. Secondly, the works of Jesus the Christ (just in case you had him confused with Jesus Justus in Colossians 4:11) stand out as efficacious among the attempts to both conquer the desires of the sinful nature and deliver humanity from the domain of darkness into his own kingdom.

Moreover, the pastors, who graciously learned from me despite the fact that I am younger than they, observed the importance of these truths: Jesus is God, and being renewed to partake of his spirit drastically changes the way we live.

They left our house this morning, on the way back to their respective homes. Two of them live nearly two full days away, by public transport; the third, about 30 minutes.

In your search for meaning, what is your treasure; that which, if found, would end all searching? Do you think you even have meaning? Let me cue you in to something that is true of all people: we were made to worship. The questions are not if and why, but what and how. I urge you, therefore, in view of the mercies of God, to present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is YOUR REASONABLE ACT OF WORSHIP.
Q: What does God demand of your time, gifts, and energies so you can make use of all he has for you?
A: Everything.

Q: What of God time, gifts, and energies has he devoted to the ultimate satisfaction of your soul?
A: Everything

In Christ, you are free. Free to remain in the darkness, trapped by the empty deceptions of your own efforts without the Christ. Free to live, having been transferred into the kingdom of God's beloved Son (Jesus the Christ), who offers freedom and forgiveness and substance rather than mere shadows. Confess that he is Lord, and believe the mystery that God raised him from the dead.

Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

posted from Bloggeroid

Ever Hear A Song

and you realize that your heart knows it already?

Like your heart is singing for the second time a tune which has come to your ears only now,

then your mind remains in wonder while your soul second your heart, and your spirit says, as the Hebrews, amen;

so at last your body rejoices outwardly with this uneven although mostly approving response to its inward and through-ward masters, while the tune may have begun already to fade into the background, and your heart marks the second tally and the ears, though twice the heart and haughty-high, lag once behind?

My apologies for the blog delay, folks. The electricity went out last night and I couldn't get my hands on the wireless modem. It rained heavily and constantly, too, for somewhere in the vicinity of 5 hours...at least that's when I stopped thinking about it. That was actually the first one we've had in Nkwanta since arrivin in early July. Yesterday, I spent some time at the keyboard; it was a gift given to me last year by my parents :) and now that I'm here, well, it finds its home with me! Later in the morning, I swept my room to lessen the possibility of aggravating my allergies. I moved around alot, and I think I was productive although I have not the slightest clue as to what filled my time, for when I next took notice of myself and surroundings, time had hurried into the afternoon. I had intended to study for the upcoming teaching module. I will be teaching the book of Colossians so, of course, I need to be as familiar with it as possible. I know not which day I will teach, because the module lasts three weeks, beginning this next Monday. For this good work, then, I will prepare myself as well as I am able.

Today, perhaps, will be filled with work. Whether out of doors or in, is immaterial at present. For whatever you do, whether you eat or drink or whatever, do it all to the glory of God. I wonder if I can take a nap to the glory of God. Or keep my dogs from breaking out of the yard. Worth a try.

Live in Love. God is Love. Get the Drift?

posted from Bloggeroid

God, and What You're Gonna Do About It

My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,

and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,

when I remember you upon my bed,

and meditate on you in the watches of the night;

for you have been my help,

and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.


Satisfaction, then, is directly related to my memory, and to God's identity, and is an element which can lead to an outward expression of my joy. Everything points to the Lord having been my help, grammatically. If, as a result of who God is, I will sing for joy, then my joyful song is worship--appropriate response to who God is.

There's some basic study for you.

Today, I got to use a pickaxe! So exciting. That may be the highlight of the day. What's more, I broke a piece of rock as I went. I'm trying to continue irrigating the area around our garden, because the rain brings in a copious amount of rocky silt from the land adjacent to ours. Once we finish the southwest wall and put up the other house, the problem will be solved. For the time being, though, it is not solved....

In other news, also a highlight today, my dad told me that I was going to teach the book of Colossians to a group of pastors in couple of weeks. Colossians!!! If you are reading this and you don't know it already, my passion concerns identity in Christ: what it means and why it matters. So, yeah, you should ask me if you don't have a clue about yours. That's why I asked you those questions a little over a month ago. Thus also my excitement about teaching Colossians. Read it sometime, but only if you wanna know who God is, who you are in him, and how you should live as a result. :) Yippee

Who are you? So what?

That is all for now, almost. If you haven't already, click on that big picture at the top of the page.

If you already have, click on that big picture at the top of that page. Stay informed. Live in Love. (Psst...God is love.)

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