Sunday 24 August 2014

"I want to be rich".


Sometime ago, one of my friend’s husband had several conversations with his children about what they could be later on in life. It was however very revealing the reply he received   when he asked his seven year old daughter recently what she would like to be in future. She simply replied “I want to be rich”. We all reeled out in laughter.

Sadly there is a tendency to always attribute the word “rich” to finances. However there are other dictionary definitions of rich such as:  “abounding”, “having an abundant supply”, “of great value or worth” and “valuable”. This means that we can all be rich. The Bible encourages us to be rich in several things which include being rich in the word of God (Colossians 3:16), rich towards God (Luke 12:21) ,rich in  God’s work(1 Corinthians 15:58) and good works (1 Timothy 6:18).These latter two involves showing mercy. 
But having a spirit that is rich in mercy is not automatic and requires effort. It flows from allowing ourselves to be recipients of the mercy of God as a result of his love .This is usually not very easy as it requires a certain amount of vulnerability.(Ephesians 2:4 ).We need to be vulnerable enough to admit that we sometimes fall short and would honestly prefer not to receive all that we deserve.  The more aware we are of the mercy of God we receive, the easier it will be for is to show mercy and the more mercy we show, the more mercy we will be shown (Matthew 5:7 ) .

Have you ever met someone who is rich in mercy? It is usually characterised by a very generous and forgiving spirit. There is a way this type of generosity of spirit spills   into spoken words. Words also portray the allowances we make for others and depict how much of their motives we have erroneously attributed to their actions.  If we are almost always criticizing or condemning, then it might be that we are not rich in mercy .This does not mean there is not a place for confronting (Proverbs 27:5) and talking about issues but more times than not, if we would be honest, we are more apt to correct because of our own ego and not necessarily for the good of another .Being rich in mercy allows some wrongs to be overlooked (Proverbs 17:9).

God wants us to be rich in mercy and rightly so because he is the father of mercies and we are his children (2 Corinthians 1:3).He wants our lives to be a proof of his mercy. We will glorify God on a daily basis by being and striving to be rich in mercy.

Yours in Him,

Grace Tom-Lawyer

Friday 1 August 2014

Popular, not proper!

Now Korah, and Dotham and Abiram and On, the son of Eliab…...took men. And they rose up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly famous in the congregation, men of renown. And they gathered themselves together against Moses…..And it came to pass as he had made an end of speaking all these words and the ground opened swallowed them up …..(Numbers 16:1-34 KJV)

The church in the wilderness experienced a rebellion against the leadership of Moses staged by four ring leaders and supported by 250 princes from the congregation. These men caused many of the ordinary people to sway and as a result, several were killed following an earth split. These   princes who were royals were the celebrities of their day. God was not swayed by celebrity or popular opinion then and neither is he now. As his children, we should imitate him (Ephesians 5:1).
It is human to want to fit into the crowd as there is an uneasiness that comes with being different. This conformity sometimes poses problems especially as not all that is popular is right. The perspectives of our society changes continually with increasing blurriness between right and wrong. Rather than a clear black or white, there are several shades of grey now. But if we are to make a difference and imprint our mark in this world, there are several occasions where it would be necessary to deviate from popular (Romans 12:2 MSG). The media is an effective tool for portraying society’s “popular” as acceptable. Some of the things that were a shock some decades ago have now become so common that the average person reckons them as proper or right.

But being popular does not necessarily translate to being wrong. Recently as a resulting of growing popularity via social network, the world was made aware of the plight of over 250 Nigerian girls abducted via the #bringbackourgirls campaign.

Neither should we also accept everything that is popular in the church or Christian circle as right. There is a growing Biblical illiteracy amongst Christians that makes falling into error inevitable. (2 Timothy 2:15, 4:1; Timothy 4:1-2, Colossians 3:16). Before we join the next big thing ,we should check the word of God as the  noble Berean Christians did, even after Paul taught them (Acts 17:10-11).

God is not calling us to be weirdoes, rather he is asking that we do not follow the crowd to do evil (Exodus 23:2) which may sometimes mean not being “politically correct”. This may sometimes lead to persecution but the persecution should not be because we have an attitude. We have been called to be salt and light (Matthew 5:3-16). As Christians, our lives should not be based on what is popular rather it should be based on the unchanging word of God (2 Timothy 2:19; 3:10, 16). This should be our code for moral conduct and our final word on what is proper.

Yours in His Service,

Grace Tom-Lawyer