SINGLE STRIDE AWAY!! A NEW START

From time to time, Christians feel iced up for the reason that they think that to pursue God best, they need to get back to an earlier, more spiritual version of themselves. But we can follow God from right where we are. In fact in life generally, no one can go back and make a brand new beginning. What we ought to do is start right where we are and make a brand new ending.

Many of us remember a time when we walked more closely with the Lord. 

We can even discover ourselves comfortably anesthetized in a state of lethargy, ostensibly unable to move forward because we’re permitting something in our past to hold us back.

It could be because of many reasons. It could be we displeased God. It could be we hurt someone or perhaps we committed deliberate sin. Perhaps we’re struggling to forgive someone who hurt us. Possibly we’re mad with/about someone or something. “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” Ezekiel 36:26.

More often, deliberately or subconsciously, we leave ourselves to the thought that our lives are in all probability not what they were sought to be and it’s all Plan B from here. How do you have hope in Plan B?

A better question would be: How do you pursue God when life doesn’t work out precisely as you had planned? What do you do following a letdown that was your own responsibility or a bolt from the blue that was out of your control?

Perhaps something occurred and you can’t disengage yourself from it and you’re at all times thinking about it. Remember, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end”, Lamentations 3:22-23.

The contemplation is for all time there, prowling just beneath the facade, ceaselessly grabbing a few of your hard drive space and depleting you of optimism and self-belief. The thought goes something like this: “There was a time when my faith was really strong and I walked with God, but I’m just not there anymore. I could never get back there. I’ve tried to get back to that point but I just can’t.”

You don’t have to. Christ is enthusiastic to start all over again in you and with you from wherever you are right now. You’re one stride away from give in, one step away from approaching home. Isaiah 43:18-19 says “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

If we were excellent enough to gratify God on our own, we would’ve never desired a Savior in the first place.

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” Philippians 3:13-14.

The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become - because He made us. He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be. . .It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.

The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.

Every story has an end, but in life every ending is a new beginning. Maybe it’s not always about trying to fix something broken. Maybe it’s about starting over and creating something better. Never be afraid to start over. You got covered by Christ already.  “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous hand”, Isaiah 41:10

It's a chance to rebuild your life the way you wanted all along.

Permit God to do what He’s trying to do. He’s trying to tell you to let your past rest in his sea of forgetfulness. Don’t allow lies and guilt over “these things I’ve done, these places I’ve gone, and these things I’ve seen” to derail the most important relationship you could ever have. Jesus is so much bigger than your failure.

There is hope when God gives you a new beginning. God is doing a new thing (Isaiah 43:19). God will not look you over medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars.

Straight Talk To Men: Mastering Life's Challenges

As a boy growing up in a remote village of Chepkorio, like most of my friends, I loved athletics. I am a big fan to date. I even tried out to be on the team that would represent our school in the athletics competitions that would happen every year during second term. Well, my lessons in humility began right there and there – I was cut before the end of the first week of second term.

Now, I just had to give up from then, and my aspirations were dimmed. I next tried playing handball (Our school was doing so well in this game), but sad that ball games used to happen during first term. So, I had missed that opportunity, but I always looked forward to January the following year. Meanwhile, I would play handball with some friends during that time during P.Es and games time.

Back to athletics, I knew that timing was very essential, that I would look at the finishing time of world beaters then calculate how many minutes he took to complete every round of 400 meters. I had to run and make sure that I would try hard to finish each lap with the time used by the world record holders. I tried, but I couldn’t beat that. Today, I am glad to report “with utmost and great humility” that beating those records was a challenge too hard for me (to date). I settled to running to the shop to go buy sugar, paraffin, salt, run after the sheep and goats whilst confining them to their grazing fields, and running to do some errands (This is so common to Kalenjins: A Kalenjin would always tell you “acha nikimbie hapa nirudi” which I actually do to date).  

My attempt to try athletics is a good graphic of what can happen as we strive to commit ourselves to a life of obedience, that we really want to submit our lives and ourselves to God…but along with it comes myriads of obstacles, some which we feel are the hardest we’ve ever encountered in our entire living.

At that very moment, there is always a two pointer choice. One is to decide whether it’s not worth the effort and give up and the second is whether you can continue down the path of obedience and learn the secret of doing what it requires to master and take the hurdle one by one as they come.

As a man who seeks to be ‘The Man You Have Desired to Be’, you must learn to MASTER the Challenges, the hurdles, that are certain to arise in your attempt to live a life of impact.

The Challenges didn’t begin with you; It began from the Church.

From the very commencement of the church, we see in the Bible that the early disciples faced not one, not two but a number of challenges. Paul faced these as well and underwent relentless persecution of the church. Looking at just but a few of them, the first challenge the Disciples of Christ faced was that of whether to leave their nets of casting fish to be fishers of men. This was whether they will choose to follow and serve Christ or bow to pressures of the religious leaders of the day. For instance, Peter and John, two of Jesus’s Disciples were put before Sanhedrin, the main religious counsel in Israel. They were seriously threatened and commanded to stop preaching in the name of Jesus.

What was the outcome? These two men of God resisted and this is what and how they courageously declared in Acts 4:19-20 “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we’ve seen and heard.”

From this analogy, we ultimately realize that the path to obedience is seldom rarely and it wasn’t that smooth even in the early days of the church but the optimism of the two bold men resisted the challenge to disobey their Savior’s commands to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8).

Now this is even more interesting. What do you think was the ultimate effect of their obedience? Amazingly, “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of the lord boldly, and their influence was felt even to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Now this is a big influence! My prayer is that as a man, a man who really wants to be the man he’s always desired, you will boldly and courageously master the challenges that come your way and follow the pattern of obedience set by these men.

Can I ask you a question? This actually seems to be the best moment to challenge you a bit!! Who are you directing your obedience to? To Jesus, to your spouse or something else unworthy for a man? Are you in your life as a man striving towards clearing the hurdles before you? Are you deeply rooted towards standing firm in obedience? Are you standing up firm for your Christian beliefs?

Brother, we all know that Christ was the beginning of the church, and He is the beginning and the end of the life of ever man of influence. In order to have a lasting and indelible mark on this world, man, you must obey Christ and master the challenges.

The Challenge of Obedience

It wasn’t easy for Paul and his men. Paul’s path was wrecked with so many challenges to their faith together with his missionaries. As such, obedience is not easy for every man who desires to be an influence. But looking critically, this (obedience) is what God called Paul and his men to do/be. Same for the Disciples, that’s what God asked of them. To stop being ‘fishers of fish’ and turn to be ‘fishers of men’.

Brother, if you want to be the man you have always desired to be, obedience is what God is calling you and I for – irrespective of the many challenges we face. Mind you, obedience to God always has its challenges. Desiring to be the man you’ve always wanted to be will always have its challenges. May be this is why it is a less traveled path!! Disobedience on the other hand, seems to be more traveled, more well-worn path. In fact, it is characterized by gridlock! Why? Because disobedience is easy path. It’s the path we’re tempted to take when things get sticky. It’s the path with least challenges. And sadly, it’s the path that makes us men of little or no influence/ positive impact.

What are some of the challenges that we face in our quest to be a man you’ve always desired to be? And how can you and I overcome and master these challenges and keep moving onward in our quest to become the man you have always desired? I am sure there are probably a few ‘pet’ challenges in your own life.

I will probably mention mine that I struggled with in the past, and as you think, you will find that you got so many.

• The Challenge of Ignorance:

One of the most tragic challenges to obedience and godly influence is ignorance – about the commands of Scripture. Knowing God was not/ didn’t seem to be a priority for me. And sadly, this is what is happening to most people in our society today. Maybe it’s your hectic lifestyle that’s keeping you preoccupied to spend time in God’s word. And this ignorance costed me so much. One day as I was driving on the Nairobi – Nakuru Highways at 110Kms per Hour, I was pulled over by a police officer at Naivasha junction. I tried to explain to the officer that I hadn’t seen the 50KM speed limit erected at Kinungi. How far did my plea of ignorance get me with that officer? 10,000K fine. 

•  The challenge of Flesh: 

Every Christian would agree that the presence of sin in our world is a fact of life that challenges our obedience. From the second sin that entered the world through Adam and Eve’s disobedience, all mankind (including you and me) entered into a struggle with obedience. Sometimes, that struggle is with God and His word. Sometimes it is with the Government and its laws – like speed limits etc. Brother, every Christian Man Battles with Flesh … even the great Apostle struggled. As you read below the book of Romans, sense the conflict between Paul’s sinful flesh and his desire to obey God. “²¹ So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” Romans 7:21-24

Mastering the flesh is a lifelong battle, and they are real but you can master your flesh rather than letting it master you. Here are some practical steps to M-A-S-T-E-R the challenges of flesh. 

M-onitor your time with those who drag you down, whether they are friends, workmates or family.

A-ccount for your struggles to a more spiritually mature Christian.

S-rengthen your inner man by the study of God’s word and through prayer.

T-rain your eyes to avoid anything that might fan the flames of your fleshy desires

E-xecrcise purity in all our relationships with the opposite sex

R-un from the lusts of flesh

• The Challenge of Apathy: 

Ignorance breeds apathy. And apathy for a Christian – a Christian meant to live boldly for Christ – is like dying of hypothermia, like freezing death. When you and I are exposed too long to the cold wins of ignorance and compromise, we slowly drift through complacency into the icy death of apathy.

Friend, apathy is a heart condition. It turns your heart for god into a heart that thinks it can exist without God. How do you keep from drifting into spiritual apathy? How can you keep apathy from settling into your life? Check your spiritual temperature on a regular basis by asking yourself these questions:

Am I making excuses for missing church? Am I becoming comfortable with little sins? Am I able to take or leave God’s Word? Am I spending more of my discretionary hours with non-Christians other than Christians? Am I looking to myself or the world rather than to God for help for life issues? Am I resisting the warnings of fellow believers?

If your answer to any or most of these questions is yes, then, my brother, you are well on your way to apathy. But realize that with God’s help, you can overcome the problem. Here is my ‘spiritual prescription’ for dealing with apathy.

• Recognize that apathy can happen to you
•  Realize that God’s Word is essential
• Reach out to those with ‘hot hearts’ for the Lord 
• Requests that others hold you accountable for your commitments to God.

The Keys to mastering Life’s Challenges

Ignorance, the flesh and apathy – these are the three definite challenges that can cause Christians to stumble on the path to becoming a person of influence. But the three keys o mastering these three challenges are:

Acknowledging the challenges of ignorance, the flesh and apathy,

Looking to God for help, and

Taking appropriate action

Brother, it’s ultimately you who determines whether you want to remain ignorant of God’s word. It’s you who decides whether you want to give in to the flesh. It’s you who dictates whether you drift into apathy. All three of these challenges can be mastered as you look to God for His strength in the inner man.

A person who can master the challenges of inner life will unquestionably have an influence on others.

God's Bigger Plans for Your Future

Futurologists are people who make predictions about the future. For instance, HSBC has told us to get ready for a 'severe fall' in the stock market (you can read it here http://www.businessinsider.com/hsbc-red-alert-get-ready-for-a-severe-fall-in-the-stock-market-2016-10?utm_content=bufferd3e77&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer).
Some look to futurologists to know what is coming. Others go further. Some people read their horoscopes because they want to know what the future holds. Jeremiah warns in the passage for today, ‘Don’t for a minute listen to… spiritualists and fortune-tellers, who claim to know the future’ (Jeremiah 27:9). 
As the one who holds the past, present and future in his hands, only God truly knows the future. Much of it is hidden from us. However, there are certain things about your future that God tells you. 

PSALM 119:25-32

• YOUR FUTURE IS FREEDOM

The study of history helps us to predict the future. As Winston Churchill once said, ‘To understand the future we need to understand the past.’
I love the psalms. There is an honesty, reality and authenticity about them. The psalmist does not disguise his feelings. He speaks openly and vulnerably about them: ‘I am laid low in the dust; preserve my life according to your word’ (v 25).
We all face temptation, sin, difficulties, sorrows, fears, hopes and desires. The psalmist says, ‘I gave an account of my ways and you answered me’ (v.26). He spreads his case before the Lord, opening his heart with sincerity to him. There are times of deep sorrow: ‘My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word’ (v.28).
How does He respond to all these difficulties? He prays, ‘Preserve my life according to your word’ (v.25). He meditates on God’s word (v.27) and prays, ‘Strengthen me according to your word. Keep me from deceitful ways; be gracious to me through your law’ (28–29).
Resolve to follow God’s ways in everything, but not out of a sense of obligation or guilt. Choose to run in the path of God’s commands, for He has set your heart free (v.32). 

2nd THESSALONIANS 1:1-12

• YOUR FUTURE IS SECURE

Jesus is coming back. His second coming is the most important thing to know and believe about the future. It changes everything about how you live your life now, and infuses every moment of the present with hope. No one knows exactly when it will happen, but live every day as if He were returning today – doing what he would want you to be doing.
Paul begins this letter with the assertion that ‘our God gives you everything you need, makes you everything you’re to be’. He thanks God for their growth: ‘your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. ⁴ Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring’ (3–4).
There is a great deal of emphasis in the New Testament on spiritual growth. You are not meant to stand still. Your faith and love should grow. God is trying to increase the muscles of your faith. Is your faith getting stronger? Is your love increasing? Do you react differently from two or three years ago?
So often, it is our struggles rather than our ‘successes’ that make us stronger. The Thessalonians’ faith and love was growing in spite of – maybe even because of – the persecution and trials that they were enduring (v.4).
Paul tells them that in the future God will put things right (v.6–7). ‘God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well’ (v.6). When Jesus returns he will execute a perfectly just judgment: ‘This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.’ (v.7).
God desires that all people repent and come to knowledge of the truth (1st Timothy 2:4). But He warns those who consistently reject the knowledge of God throughout their life, and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:8) – as was the case with those who were persecuting the Thessalonians – that there is a judgment to come. They will miss out on the possibility of eternal life.
The opposite of eternal life is ‘destruction’ and being ‘shut out from the presence of the Lord’ (v.9). Those who know God and obey the gospel will experience his presence and his majesty into eternity ‘on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed.’ (v.10). Paul says this includes the Thessalonians ‘because you believed our testimony to you’ (v.10b). Their long-term future is totally secure.
Their response to the gospel determined their future. The gospel message is urgent. The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time.
As far as their short-term future is concerned, Paul writes, ‘We constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith’ (v.11).
Do not simply sit around waiting for Jesus to return. God has a ‘good purpose’ for your life. He has called you. He puts ideas into your heart. He works in you both to will and to act according to his good purpose (Philippians 2:13).
In all this, Paul prays that the name of Jesus will be glorified: ‘If your life honours the name of Jesus, he will honour you’ (2 Thessalonians 1:12).

JEREMIAH 27:1-29:23

• YOUR FUTURE IS HOPEFUL

This passage contains one of the most wonderful and often quoted promises of God about his future plans for our lives. Jeremiah was a true prophet. He heard the word of the Lord.

But there were false prophets around, like Hananiah. Jeremiah says, ‘The prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord only if his prediction comes true’ (28:9). Hananiah’s predictions did not come true because the Lord had not sent him (v.15).
Jeremiah’s prophecies did come true. The people of God did go into exile as he had warned.
Jeremiah speaks the message from the Lord to his people in exile. He tells them, ‘Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper’ (29:7).
There is an important principle here. Generally, you should seek the peace and prosperity of the place in which God has put you and pray for it. This includes places where you may work, your local church, your city and your nation.
There is an expression: ‘Bloom where you’re planted.’ This passage encourages you to make roots even where you feel uncomfortable or isolated (like in exile). Sometimes the place where you find yourself is not where you want to be but if God has led you there, then that place must be fertile ground for God’s work in you to thrive.
God promises his people that the exile will come to an end: ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place’ (v.10).
This is the context of the wonderful promises: ‘For I know the plans I have for you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you’ (v.11–14).
God has good plans for you. They are not plans for your failure or defeat. They are plans to ‘prosper you’. They are not average or mediocre plans. They are ‘good, pleasing and perfect’ (Romans 12:2).
But God will not force his plans on you. He requires your cooperation. If you want his plans to be fulfilled in your life, you need to seek him. He promises that, if you do so, you will be found by him (Jeremiah 29:13–14). As you spend time with him, you will become like him and he will lead you into the good plans he has for your life.

Lord, thank you that you have a path of freedom for us and that in times of struggle we can turn to you. Help us to run in the path of your commands.

Lord, today we want to seek you with all our heart. Thank you that you have great plans for us. Help us to walk in your paths and fulfill the purpose you have for us.

Lord, thank you so much that our long-term future is secure. Help us to make the most of our life here – to grow in faith and love, fulfill the purpose you have for us and bring honour to your name.

Waiting Patiently On God

I waited patiently for the LORD to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. - Psalm 40:1

It isn’t just people who try our patience. Situations do it too. We find ourselves in places we don’t want to be, doing things we have no desire to do, in circumstances we don’t want to embrace, and there’s little or nothing we can do about it. So we fume and fester, and our frustrations intensify.

David knew all about this. He was God’s man, but he spent far too much time on the run from his enemies. The throne was his by right, but the wilderness was where he spent many a night (see 1 Sam. 16:13; 18:1–24:22). He said, “Troubles surround me--too many to count! They pile up so high I can’t see my way out. They are more numerous than the hairs on my head. I have lost all my courage. Please, Lord, rescue me! Come quickly, Lord, and help me” (Ps. 40:12-13). It is not surprising that he turned to the Lord for help, and it is perfectly understandable that he wanted it “quickly.” Men usually want solutions to be delivered at once, if not sooner. But note how David began this Psalm. “I waited patiently for the Lord” (40:1). His natural desire for quick solutions had been tempered by long experience of the way God works. David’s natural desire for a quick answer was tempered by a willingness to “wait patiently.” He knew from previous experience that it was only a matter of time before he could once again testify, “He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along” (40:2).

God is not the God of the quick fix. Neither is he the Lord of the instant. He takes his time growing an oak from an acorn and allows the long winter to prepare the earth for the warmth of spring. But it is precisely the promise of spring that makes the winter more palatable, and it is the certainty that an oak lies hidden within the acorn that makes it bearable to wait for the tree to grow.

Why, we wonder, does God take his time? No doubt his reasons are many and profound, but perhaps it is because we can only appreciate how solid is the rock he provides when we have thoroughly experienced the mud and the mire.