Jesus is the only name. Jesus is the Only name to remember.
Am listening to a song , Only Jesus by Casting Crowns actually.
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You know, in Africa , our houses do crumble fast , in seventy years , a house nolonger is. But the whites have sort of learnt a way of building houses that will last 200 years , at least I think Britain’s Castles do, but where are the remains of Greece , where’s the Old temple of Solomon , built in splendour , Everything does crumble, sometimes that’s what counts.
There’s indeed only one, Whose name will last forever . But no surprise there , After all only One Name Saves. The others we can remember once a while , And attribute art and science to , But only One is Redeemer. Only on One do we call every day , And we Live For Only One. Only One Whose name will last forever.
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Like someone once said, Only what’s done for Christ lives On. But how short our memory is !
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Only One Life, It will soon be past. And Only what’s Done , For Christ will last.
” Sexual purity is receiving no sexual gratification from anything or anyone outside of your husband or wife.”
Every young man’s battle . by Stephen Arterburn ,Fred Stoeker with Mike Yorkey
Don’t you like that, receiving sexual pleasure from nothing nor anyone, besides your marriage partner. And here we are, in the era of sex toys , Satan must be having a good laugh.
Purity is one vast treasure. And well, sexual purity is a matter I doubt am qualified to ever talk about. But well,I have read about it alittle for now. I guess we all should be fighting for sexual purity. People are losing track of the fact that even masturbation is sexually immoral. The altar of sexual idolatry sure is a real thing. Sex is like a whole new part of who you are and you suddenly discover there are other organs of your body that can bring you pleasure and it’s in a way , a unique pleasure just like all the others , it’s like one discovering they have a sense of taste and can enjoy ice cream. Only, you have always enjoyed the pleasure of taste , and sight and hearing probably, this may turn out somewhat different. I’m not married yet so I definitely don’t know much about that actually .
I guess I can use my time being single to define sexuality God’s way and also remember, am missing nothing, afterall, intercourse isn’t like food, it isn’t something your physical body can’t do without . For instance in regards to homosexuality, I could keep this in mind ,” Eros alone is not evil, but eros outside of God’s ethics is. ”
(This is for the Ladies ,Literally sexual purity means just that, ask my father ( my earthly father ) for the key, a key not to my body but to my heart . It’s our hearts we should be guarding❤️)
The world says, “Sex means nothing.” But the Word says, “Sex means unity.” Put differently, sexual intimacy means spiritual union.
The Song of Solomon , An Invitation to Intimacy. by Douglas Sean O’Donnell.
I guess the whole sex means unity thing is the basis of the no prostitution rule . Let me quote the bible , “Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 1 Corinthians 6:16 “
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. St. Matthew 5:8
But the Word says, “Sex means unity.” It’s an inexplicable act of mutual passion, possession, and submission: I give my total self to you, and you give your total self to me.
The Song of Solomon , An Invitation to Intimacy. by Douglas Sean O’Donnell.
All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. 1 John 3:3
Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Hebrews 13:4
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.St. Matthew 5:28
If you are a Christian and probably going this is impossible. I mean no masturbation ( it’s sexually impure) , no prostitution, no lust, no pornography (God makes the right thoughts a huge priority ) , and then , guess what, even the marriage bed ought to be kept pure , so no masturbation in marriage and no pornography always , now that feels crazy. Well, sex is sort of part of pleasure giving between a married couple so I presume sensual pleasure and you seeking your own might just be impure. And in the novel Every young Man’s battle, they do say that if you can’t win a war on masturbation out of marriage, you will have to continue fighting with it even in marriage, marriage does not suddenly make you win your sexual battles like people think it does.
Actually, it’s in God that all longings are fulfilled. Everything will leave you wanting more because only God can satisfy. But am no expert and am also a representative of the female gender, the war in sexual purity is one we win quite easily, that’s after we figure out a way around dating ofcourse. What actually drives us to immorality will be loneliness, feelings of worthlessness, fear of rejection , etc , in a way, our war is against our emotions mostly, not our physical bodies. The men’s war might be physical mostly but ours , emotional mostly , turns out the sexes do differ abit afterall. But well , we all fight for purity nonetheless.
I guess people should really check out these fun novels. And I will probably be reading about dating , a novel called Kissing Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris. I hope I will remain focused on it, I might switch in the middle, a bad habit that’s developing. But am making twenty years this month, and am so confused about what dating ought to be, though I have never gotten physically involved with anyone, I obviously have gotten emotionally involved while trying to be smart , I ended the relationship but it still hurt and led to a quarrel . And though I can’t keep from getting hurt, I want to know what God thinks about dating in this society, moreso when all my peers think sex is part and parcel of dating. Actually , the relationship in which I got myself involved , we had remained friends even while I talked to him for hours till 2pm in the night , talk just seemed to flow easily , in a way , am scared of dating. But am good with being single , I still don’t know what to think about marriage, and I am enjoying studying.
Back to sexual purity , well, if you think Purity impossible, you should remember we are in a battle . And this time round your body might work against you. But nowhere is battle such an easy thing. Choose Authenticity. Choose Purity, Choose to Fight. Choose God.
I can’t stop listening to the song country roads, it’s just so enchanting, they had something so glorious.
A family of musicians, Today, it feels like we glorify Hollywood more, but I doubt that makes a difference.
Things have changed , and are still changing , We can’t tell whether Scientists , Philosophers , Historians Or Artists are to be remembered most.
But yes, Leonardo Da Vinci, Micheal Angelou, Isaac Newton, Pluto and Socrates, Mahatma Ghandi and Mother Teresa , Whitney Houston, all these we do remember sometimes.
But how enchanting belonging Is. The tales of friends holding on to each other in war and story telling nights with friends.
We remember all the times we spent together. Personal endeavors are remembered as part of the whole.
Country Roads, take me home. And now am Nostalgic, Where’s the place where I belong ?
In my family, anger is the one emotion we trust. If you are ashamed , lazy , tired, lonely, exhausted, selfish , self centered, jealous, and you’ve probably failed, then you display anger.
Anger makes the others unlikely to call you selfish. It pushes people away, they literally have to wait until you are laughing again to confront you on your self centeredness so if you can be angry for years and at all times, you might just avoid confrontation, remember, I said might.
Last year , while we were still excited about phones. Now we use them for reading at most.
Recently I was mad about a confrontation which reminded me that my family is one of Record Keepers. I suggested we change jobs at home and said I would cook food I have to and suddenly, every one was talking of how I hate cooking and avoid it, but we haven’t gotten into a cook food fight for like four years . So to be safe, my family keeps records.
Keeping records sort of means you could be conversing happily this afternoon and tomorrow morning, someone will give you the impression that they are clearly mad at you , I sometimes feel like reading facial expressions is a Curse. Point is , you never know why , but if agitated you tried to fix the relationship by trying to talk it out or being kind and doing whatever it takes to solve the issue, you are wasting valuable time. Because you are not perfect , you will make another mistake and the person will be reminded of the long record they are still keeping. But that person is imperfect too, and you forgive them and keep no record but that doesn’t mean they are not as selfish. They are probably self righteous and think themselves perfect ,moreso if they think they do most of the hard work. I spent most of my life before Christ thinking I was self righteous, even though I went to Church, a Roman Catholic One, I never really saw Christ for who He was.
So, why keep trying. Record keeping hurts not just because even while you try to be a better person, that other person still doesn’t trust you but also because your next mistake won’t be a new record, it will be an opener into an old record. It also hurts because record keeping makes it feel like everyday ought to be spent trying to please one , everyday ought to be spent trying to please God, not people. Record keeping goes hand in hard with Bitterness , so it’s not shocking that in my family, people tend to say they are just talking when according to their tone of voice , you feel like they are quarrelling, simple they are bitter and already angry before they talk. And they probably won’t forgive you even after that issue is dealt with.
I’m not asking that my family members trust me, I actually thought that was expected of siblings and I’m just learning that it’s not. They can trust that you will always fail them. I just think keeping a record is selfish, afterall you are obviously not keeping a record of the good things one does ,only a record of the bad, isn’t that unjust.
But then again record keeping feels like a protective measure , like you are ensuring that someone won’t hurt you the same way again because then worldly speaking it would feel like you are a fool . One time I kept a record on my dad so I avoided casually speaking to him so that he wouldn’t say something that would end up hurting me, I was trying to be cautious so that I’m not a fool. Then my sister who follows me started to avoid talking to me casually, she would ignore me while I told her stories about my school, when I asked her, she said she was teaching me a lesson, showing me how annoying it is to dad. I told her I only did it to dad so I wouldn’t get too casual and speak to him as to a friend and get hurt , she said my excuse wasn’t good enough, and I told her she actually didn’t deserve getting an excuse from me, some rights only God has, not people, I told her I didn’t care what she thought. But for the first time it really felt like vengeance is of the Lord Alone.
It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 1 Corinthians 13:5 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.1 Corinthians 13:7
So, love keeps no record of wrongs and love always trusts is actually not that easy at all . I wonder what other secrets loving people God’s way holds , also I don’t think I have learnt how to trust and keep no record of wrongs. Moreso now when I desperately want to keep a record on my sister, a record that says she’s keeping records , and also distrust her knowing that if I trust her to be kind, I might have to deal with unkindness everyday which will hurt as much everyday.
My selfishness. It’s highly connected to shame. One time I was so tired, sad , angry, selfish , obviously blaming and not knowledgeable. This is what I did, I walked further ahead and left my siblings and mum , going with the flat shoes when I was supposed to be exchanging flats with heels with my sister along the way since heels make walking harder. That memory is connected to shame because later that evening, my mum lectured me on how mean that was. I already knew it was mean but her kindly talking about it made it feel more ashaming.
Family . As I have been learning, we look like the ideal family. But we don’t openly show love, at least not in our primary language which might be Words of Affirmation. Therefore, food, clothing, the best education, shelter etc etc is provided despite the hardship involved. Yet , when it comes to saying I love you, or you look so nice on that dress, or I’m so glad you helped me do the work, or it’s so nice that you finished on time , we usually don’t do that here at all. My dad comes from a broken family, four wives, chaos , no money for school , almost never present family members, this looks like an upgrade, the fact that he pays out fees and comes home in the night and tells tv and food jokes feels like an upgrade. Yet still, people crave for kind words. For alittle heads up or politely saying can I use some of that water instead of the usual rudeness that looks like some one is saying I’m entitled. I wish my mum knew I have so much to do and she didn’t call me useless because she does more work than me . I wish my sister Bridget would kindly say , please go to the shops instead of being so furious and angry before a good conversation with me and not trusting me at all, I wish she would kindly say, Emilly you forgot to wash these plates instead of just putting them on the verandah with an attitude that says How dare You or I don’t believe I’m having to do this for you or how lazy can you possibly be and shouting rudely when mum asks about it like somehow everyday I should be trying to please her. I wish Berna didn’t get mad when I told her to remove utensils or give the impression that she wasn’t going to do it, I would be so glad if she kindly said, give me a minute, I’m on it. I wish Elijah didn’t talk as if he was the man of the house, as if I had to obey him , as if giving orders was okay, he’s afterall still the youngest. And I wish my dad didn’t make it feel like my opinions about faith are dumb and immature or like all I do is disrespect authority.
But then again, I don’t claim that relating well would solve all of our problems, I’m just reflecting, not actually trying to solve. There’s more to family issues than just how we relate with each other after all. For instance, I can’t get rid of the fear that the joy in the beloved might mean me being a slave to my siblings all my life, trying to please people I can’t please. Afterall , isn’t it true that one’s Joy depends on them, not on You ?
For nature lovers and all. This song is forever amazing. And thank God for the last stanza. One time while continuing with the song translation, someone accidentally said Thy was my . Clearly , Thou , Thy , Thee are translated , You , Your , You. So how great thou art can be How great You are and The works thy hand hath made can be the works your hand has made and God to thee can be God To You. But it always feels more enchanting when the thee ,thou and thy are left that way.
In Choir one time,my Liturgy teacher ( By then I was still Roman Catholic) , agreed that the song had gotten boring and a few changes were made,it was sung Faster and alittle bit of the beat and flow slightly changed too, I’m not much of a music person , but I still prefer the slow version, it’s the most enchanting, descriptive and it helps us Meditate on How Nature Shows the Greatness of God.
Rock of Ages , Cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood, from thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double cure .Thou must save and though Alone. ( A hymn to remember.)
From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Psalms 61:2
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The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalms 18:2
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He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. Psalms 40:2
In years past, it would have been easy to explain why it had to be a blood sacrifice , why death on the Cross for atonement.
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But in this era, people are not keeping slaves , carrying whips and wishing babies would be crashed. It’s not that we are better , we are equally murderers and murders entertain us on our televisions. We keep guns , bombs and pangas and serial murders are all around us. But we are a generation of the Educated , the Self Righteous.
They plan on saying, he was crucified and laid behind the stone is disgusting and the Act Cannot Save them. But they should be afraid, because they will die because of it. There’s no other Name that can save.
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But for people who think they have all things together, salvation is far from their seeking. My question is why the Blood, why is it Blood that saves, Why sacrifice. In a way , it’s not just Sacrifice, it’s atonement. And the wages of Sin is Death So He had to go All the Way To Atone. This was the Son of God On That Cross.
The cross stands across all time ( Pinterest)
Gloriana said it would be immoral to believe that her sins can be forgiven by the torture and death of Another. One person once said the One Thing You can’t Do at the Cross is Pity. Out there is the Son of God who can destroy all his torturers in a split Second afterall. I wonder though, does Gloriana know that that Torture and Death is what she Deserves . The Maker of the Universe is no dictator, He has Given Us Free Will, But he is A Judge. So, does she Know He is getting what She ought to be getting because for me, that would put things in Perspective.
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The mystery of blood is Unfathomable. It’s beyond our Wisdom. But for now, we do know that God said Life is in the Blood. And the Wages of Sin is Death. It had to be blood because that’s the Punishment we deserve and whoseover atones, carries on our entire Punishment.
My life,My Story, My walk with Christ. 