I've got testimonies!

As I sat at my desk at work, I felt the urge to call my mum. It hadn’t been long since my last conversation with her but it was always good talking to her. So I called her and we spoke generally about how we were both doing. I told her about my work and the amazing things I was getting to do. I also told her about the idea God had just given me, speaking confidently about it because God had also given me boldness - boldness that awakened me to the fact that anything is possible for me because I’m in Christ.

My mum shared an awesome testimony with me. She had been looking to start an academic program for some time and to do this, she need to fulfill certain requirements. She needed her GPA from her previous program to be higher than the stipulated minimum and she also wanted a program that would offer funding.  After a prolonged period of waiting and inquiring, she finally got her GPA. It was less than what was required but on getting home, she found that there was a mistake in the calculations. By God’s favor and grace, she got it corrected and in the end, her GPA was higher than the required minimum!

This was absolutely amazing and what’s more was that she found a program that met her criteria! It came with a scholarship, was at a renowned institution, and its location would allow her to be close to her house. Her testimony got me really excited. God is faithful! I thanked him for giving us the desires of our heart and that His plans for us are always huge and fueled by love.

Today, I thank Him for inspiring faith in me with all the wonderful blessings he gives me.

In addition, at work I’m doing things that are absolutely amazing and I’m thankful for the opportunity. I’m constantly reminded that, as he told me, His word propels me and sets me apart in everything I do!

I love God! And YES! I’ve got testimonies!

----Tolu Kehinde

Loved By God.

Clip on Love

Here's a video I made a while ago.  Hope it blesses you :)

Please leave your comments. Thank you.

From Mary Kathryn McMurray

Dear Lord,
Sometimes my heart swells so much with love for You 
it closes my throat up with pain. 
I am not much as children go, I know. 
I am not like Mama or Aunt Martha.


Mama used to pray thank You prayers 
in the meadows and sing to You. 
She said there are earth psalms all around us singing praises to You and 
it is nice to join in. 
Since I am not much good at singing, 
I hope you will understand 
I am grateful for so many things.


Tears, a balm, soothing and cleansing. 
Cups, of plenty and sorrow. 
Cold to make me appreciate warmth. 
Manure, though I do not know if you will like me saying so. 
But Lord, when spread over turned ground where new seeds have been planted, 
it brings forth growth. 
Like my troubles in life, Lord.
 It was Affliction and Distress 
that made me come to You and now I do not ever want to leave.


I am thankful for the pieces of fabric 
the quilting club gave me - 
woven and designed like You wove 
and designed me in my mother's womb. 
Like you designed my children. 
I am grateful for our new fireplace 
that gives us warmth, light drawing each of us together.


Dust! The small particles 
dance on in the light. 
Would that I could dance like that for You 
in broad daylight instead of going off 
in the woods because the last time I did it 
my children thought I was out of my head.


I am glad for the candles so I can see to write. 
You are my lamp. Lord, lighting my way out of darkness. 
I am thankful for the gold nuggets Kavanaugh 
brought home yesterday, 
pure and soft the way my heart should be. 
Lord, make me so.


Thank You for the Good Water we have. 
It quenches my body's thirst and reminds me 
that You are the Living Water for my soul.


Even the Air I breathe, Jesus.
I cannot see it but it is there, 
moving and necessary to keep me alive. 
Like You. 
And the Flowers. 
I have never seen so many colors and kinds 
splashed across the hillsides. 
Even Gray Skies are a good thing from You 
because they make me yearn for sunlight. 
Seeds show me death and resurrection. 


I do not know if You approve 
of me saying this, Lord, but I am grateful for the way I feel 
when Kavanaugh knows me. 
Even with James I never felt this 
explosion of fire and light inside me 
like a rain of stars.


Is all this but a hint of what it 
will be like to be in full communion with You, Jesus? 
Do You show us the part so that we can yearn for the Whole? 
I remember Aunt Martha reading to me once that 
to look upon the face of God would bring death. 
Still, sometimes every bit of me yearns to be in 
Heaven with You all the while I still want to stay here 
and live to be an old dottering woman seeing 
her children and grandchildren around her. 
I do not understand all that is changing inside me.

-Mary Kathryn McMurray

in The Scarlet Thread

One year on...a testimony from Tomi Lawal

In February last year, I started this wonderful journey. Unassuming of what would become of me, full of doubts about what was happening to me. One thing is sure though, I wanted it to happen. He must have seen my desire, and acted He acted on it. He’s just awesome, I mean, He puts the desire in me, then fills me up. That’s just love.

I won’t lie by saying it’s been all rosy, cos it hasn’t. There have been quite a few times, that I was weary, I felt like nothing was happening, I felt as if I was just stagnant, making no progress. Trust me, those were horrible times, but He held my hands up and made me rise again, stronger than I was before I fell. He became my pillar and my rock. I absolutely love you.

You took off the veil that hindered me from seeing afar off, the veil of sin that made me short sighted by expanding Your Word in my heart. Indeed, Psalm 119:130 is my testimony. You’ve thought me so many things, loved me unconditionally. Even at times when I kind of ‘ditched’ you, You did not leave me to suffer with my bad decisions. I love you!

I laugh sometimes and feel slightly embarrassed (I know I shouldn’t, but I do) when I think about the things I did when we newly began this splendid journey, but it only helps me to know how far You’ve brought me. I know I’m not even close to the heights You’ve destined for me, but I know I’m on the right track. Though, I waver sometimes, You help keep me stay on track. I treasure You!

I’ve come a long way now, and there ain’t no stopping me, I only get better, with You by my side, showing me the way to go and a heart that obeys You.

A toast to the best relationship ever..cheers!

Your Precious daughter!

           

P.S- This is also to encourage anyone who’s strayed of the Way. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. He would take you back, the question is do you want to come back? Just make sure it’s not too late before you give a reply to that question.

Hephzibah

The mirror lied, every time I looked into it. All it did was show me inadequacies, inabilities...faults. It crippled me.

You see I accepted those images as truth; reality I didn't like but was so nonetheless. I struggled every time I looked at it because the images it reflected fell very short of "beautiful." 

Beautiful. That meant my hair had to be a certain way; that my skin had to glow with every ray of sunshine that fell; that my mouth had to be perfectly positioned in pictures.

But my features betrayed me. They always fell short - very short. I tried to make myself beautiful, tried to do all I could to measure up physically. It worked and each time I would give myself a pat on the back for a job well done. 

But soon the success of my efforts would wear out and I would be back again, in front of the mirror, looking and thinking, "I'm so not perfect."

It was a draining process, having to convince myself that I was beautiful. It really was. 

The strange thing was I was Christian. I was saved and knew what the Word of God said - that it called me Beautiful and blessed. It called me Hephzibah*, God's Delight and Beulah, Married. I was Hephzibah and I was Beulah - God's Delight, married to Him. Yet, it seemed, this wasn't enough. Every time I would look in the mirror, I would see scars - emotional and physical.

At times, I felt very different from what God had called me; like I was NOT Hephzibah. Not His Delight.

But I fought the feeling. I was his delight, I told myself; I was his Chosen.

But the images from the mirror started at me, weighing me down. I fought them but it often seemed I didn't win.

*"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith..." 

Weights. For me, the mirror was one. It bore down on me, telling me all sorts of lies and most of all, keeping me from fully knowing the love of my Father, my Savior, my Jesus. 

But nothing can separate me from His Love...

Hephzibah. That's what He's chosen to call me. So I lay down past images, knowing that he has called me out to be His Delight.

I am his Delight. 

I am Hephzibah.

Lay down your weights.

Signed,

Hephzibah ♥

*Hebrews 12: 1& 2

*Beulah & Hephzibah are taken from Isaiah 62:4.

Today it dawned on me.

Today it dawned on me what it meant to “present yourself a living sacrifice” –it means to present your will to God. To let your life be such that God lives through you. Your life is sacrificed for His.

I was walking past the food display today. God told me not to get rice but I did – I was hungry.  I sat down to eat and remembered that I had just prayed to hear God’s voice clearly. Well, I had heard, and even though he knew why I shouldn’t have eaten the rice, I chose to ignore him.

Being a living sacrifice means I don’t always understand but I’m obedient- in all things.

Today, a prostrated person came to mind – Jesus, who took our pains and bore our diseases; who hung on the cross for us. He was a living sacrifice. He hung there on the cross for us even though we didn’t…couldn’t deserve it. He came so we could have life, and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

Today, it dawned on me that a living sacrifice should be a prostrated person. One who offers himself up for others and lays himself down for others – Jesus.

Today it dawned on me that that was who I was called to be – a sacrifice, offered up to God, clean and holy.  It means that I can’t run my life going: “What should I do in the next four years?” Instead, it should be “What is God thinking about for the next four years?”

The answer you’ll get will excite you! He has big plans for you –big plans - but you’ll have to ask him.  They are amazing plans but they involve you being a living sacrifice - allowing him live through you and consequently, you through him.

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him (Romans 12: 1, The MSG)

More on Isaiah 46

Hi all!

Thank you for your comments! I read the chapter and it seems to me like God is doing a comparison between Himself and Bel and Nebo.

1. God carries himself!
Bel and Nebo were two Babylonian gods. They were handmade, mounted by men and taken down by men.  The beginning of verse 1 states, "Bel bows down; Nebo stoops;"(ESV).
The New Living Translation puts the verse like so:

"Bel and Nebo, the gods of Babylon, 

bow as they are lowered to the ground. 

They are being hauled away on ox carts. 

The poor beasts stagger under the weight."

These Babylonian gods had to be carried around with the people. Like you would have to do to dismount a huge statue, I imagine long ropes would have been used to pull down the gods from their places. The idols would have to come to a "stooping" or "bowing"position to be lowered and placed on beasts that would then carry them to the desired destination. I imagine that these idols were very heavy and would have put a heavy burden on the animal carrying them.
In the verse, God was saying that the gods that these people worshipped and trusted to relieve them of their burdens were themselves cripples and heavy burdens. Human hands made them, carried them and bore their burdens but God was saying, "I carry myself, thank you very much!"( Haha!)


2. God lifts your burdens! (and He doesn't bow)
Verse 2 goes on to say:

"They stoop; they bow down together; 

they cannot save the burden, 

but themselves go in captivity" (ESV)

Again, God emphasizes that Bel and Nebo themselves have to bow when they are being dismounted. They are loaded unto the animals but cannot do anything to save the poor animals from their weight. Instead, they are carried away into captivity, subject to the porters' (both human and animal) wills. 

God is saying, "These God can't save themselves, they bow! Well, I don't and Guess what? I don't weigh you down, I lift you up!" (Matthew 11:28-29 come to mind)

"Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (ESV).

3. God carries you! Don't be deceived by what you see.

Verse 3 says:                                  "Listen to me, O house of Jacob, 

all the remnant of the house of Israel,

who have been borne by me from before

your birth, carried from the womb;"

God is calling his people, "Listen to me. It's really easy to lump me with these other gods - Nebo and Bel - but I'M NOT LIKE THEM! I have thought about you even before you came into the world. I have known you. I have loved you and I still do" (See Jeremiah 1:5). 

God carries you! 

He promises that when you walk through the waters, He will be with you and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you, and when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you (Isaiah 43:2).

4. God made you!

Verse 3 says that God made you. He's calling out to those "who have been borne by him". Read John Chapter 1! Verse 12 clearly states that God has given all those who believe in the name of Jesus the right to become the sons of God, children born of the will of God, your new Father! 

God created you, He loves you and He has called you! :)

5. God will always save you! (And you're never too old to be saved)

Verse 4 says:                                          "Even to your old age

I am he, and to gray hairs

I will carry you.

I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and I will save."

God is again restating his concern for you. He has made you and He carried you even before you were born. He's also reminding you that as a responsible Father, he will carry you, even till your old age. You never grow too old for his care!

He will carry you, He will save you because He made you!

God loves you!

-Child of Promise