A Home for You

Holy Spirit come into my heart

My chimney-like heart

Dark and shrouded in secrets and selfish thought

Bring in the broom and brush and vacuum cleaner

Don't forget the scrubbing brush

Painful though it is

Let your floodlights shine forth and reveal all the murk and slime within

Look under the bed and covers

Under the piles of books I should have read but never did

My big reference Bible that has gathered dust

Look under my basket of jewellery and hair pieces

And please, do not leave out the inner chambers and ventricles  

Shut to keep out the Lord, even when I had  'given my life to Him'

Those  secret places of my heart where like a masochist

I trap the images of hurt that I  hate but long to keep

So, I can bring each hurt out, one at a time, and from time to time

Place them on the centre-table of my heart

In worship of sufferings once endured

Pains that I would not let go of...

Clean every crevice, every nook and cranny until

My heart becomes a fit and worthy home for the Lord Jesus

Written June 4, 2005

The Great Gift of Christmas

What a great and liberating chapter of the Bible Ephesians 2 is.  I, once DEAD in trespasses; the stench of which rose daily to His throne of grace, made ALIVE TOGETHER WITH CHRIST because of the RICHES OF GOD's MERCY demonstrated towards me;  that while I was still dead in trespasses, incapable of changing my situation, God sent His only begotten son, our Christmas gift to lay down his life in my stead. 

He that knew no sin was imputed with all the weight of my trespasses; the deadness of me and others like me, was laid on Him. What a great infinite, indescribable weight that was!

No wonder that He groaned with so much  agony and pain at Gethsemane that blood mixed with sweat rolled out of his pores.

Because of his abundant riches of mercy - imagine that others are rich in naira, dollars, Euros, pounds, diamonds and gold - Almighty God not only owns all of these, in addition to the cattle on a thousand hills, but he possesses a vast, boundary-less strong room of mercy and love.

There is no greater love than that which the Lord Almighty demonstrated toward me when He sent his only begotten son to take my place and to thereby open for me the doors to the  riches of God's abundance which are to be found in Christ Jesus.

What manner of  mercy, love, and favour is this? That I, once dead in trespasses, was made ALIVE TOGETHER WITH CHRIST. Not only made Alive, but I ROSE TOGETHER WITH CHRIST and now, I am SEATED IN HEAVENLY PLACES TOGETHER WITH CHRIST JESUS; above principalities and powers.

What manner of grace is this? I did not deserve any of these nor did I work to achieve any of these. Everything that I am is an outcome of God's nature -  He is rich in mercy and grace and abounding in love.

I now sit in the circle of his loving-kindness,  favour and grace, basking in the warm golden glow of his love. I am contented, beloved, joint-heir with Christ of God's abundance. I receive in faith,  without fear and doubt, the inheritance of the saints  on earth as well as in the realm of the heavens; in this life and in the hereafter.

(Inspired by an exhortation by Pastor Ike Monye of Temple of Glory Church, Wuse II Abuja on Friday, December 16, 2011)

Breathe, Live, Love

Inspired by a Denis Jernigan song.

The Father's Love: infinite, all-consuming, passionate, healing

I want to tell you a story
About a certain kind of love 
That leaves no painful memories in its wake
It bears neither past nor present nor future pain 
Constant and unchanging, trustworthy and gentle
It keeps no journal of wrongs imagined and real

I look into His love-eyes
Overflowing with warmth and love
His outstretched arms, tender and inviting  

His hands bear the marks of the agony he endured for my misdemeanours

As I look into his love-eyes, melt in the warmth and love therein
I see reflected, the true image of who I am
His eyes moisten and soften as He looks into mine
"Child, he says, "I saw it all... what you did";

My heart drops, I will the earth to open and engulf me
I feel dirty, woeful and the sob rises from deep within me
From depths that I never knew existed within my being

His voice when it came this time echoed all around me

 His-words pierced through me - flesh, bone, marrow
I felt His-words wash over me, a refreshing spray as from a fountain

"Grief not; wipe away the tears
"I already paid in full with my blood 2000 years ago
"See, these hands still bear the scars of my down payment for your sins for all time
"Breathe, live, love...
"Come, step into grace and favour, life  unending 
"It's my supernatural love-gift to my love-child".

Fruits of the Spirit

The Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)

• Love
• Peace
• Joy
• Long-suffering
• Goodness
• Kindness
• Faithfulness
• Gentleness
• Self-control

... By their fruits, you shall know them... Fruits conform the Christian to Christ's image.

The Fruits of the spirit have to do with our character traits that we display daily in our engagement with others and in our spiritual walk with Christ.

I recall when I first gave my life to Christ many years ago as an undergraduate, I desired the Lord with a passion. And then one day, while I was praying with my friends (a group of young believers too), something happened that I cannot forget till today. We were deep in the spirit and suddenly, a scream came out of my mouth and it was as though something was wrenched forcefully out of me. The scream was such that it drew students from the surrounding hostels - hostile boys who threatened to break down our room door, if we did not bring out the man we were harboring. God intervened and a few leaders from the campus fellowship came to our rescue and helped to disperse the crowd that gathered at our door.

Even as a very young Christian;    barely months old, I knew I had been delivered of demonic possession, oppression or depression or something akin to this. But for the next couple of months, rather than thank God for the deliverance, I went from one spiritual leader to the next asking questions. My fear was "was I really saved? if I was, how come that I still had anything of the devil in me?"

I was so worried. The doctrinal belief then was that at the point of salvation; when the spirit of God comes into you, the Holy Spirit eliminates all contrary spirits and things in your life. It was a time of deep torment to me and nobody could provide answers to my nagging questions. "If any man be in Christ, He is a new creature; old things  have passed away". This must be understood in context. Yes, you are a new Creature in Christ. The old man with evil ways will recede to the degree that you allow Christ's image to be formed in you; the degree that you yield to the Holy spirit.

"Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" is a call to Christians not unbelievers. It shows that there is great work to be done on the New Man. being "Born Again" does not imply a magical transformation; it requires a consciousness about the place of the fruits of the Spirit in our lives : Love, Joy, Peace, Long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and  self-control.

It is really amazing how that as a young Christian, there was so much emphasis on the Gifts of the Spirit rather than the Fruits of the Spirit which will enable us to conform to the image of Christ.

When we have the foundation of the Spiritual Fruits (which build the integrity of character in us and makes us Christ-like ), then we would be able to operate effectively with the Gifts of the spirit - which have more to do with operations, the tools you need to exercise authority and do the Christian work. That is why 1st Corinthians 13 is so apt. The fruits will abide with us through eternity but the gifts will end here on earth. In heaven, we will no longer need prophets and the gift of tongues; the action would have been taken to another level.

Bearing the fruits of the Spirit in our lives takes some discipline: Remaining in the presence of God, reading and living the word of God. Christ is the word and if we are to be like Him, then the word must abide in us. bearing the fruits of the Spirit means that we have yielded ourselves to the Holy Spirit. The Fruits do not come down and into our lives in one fell swoop just as the mango tree does not yield all of it's fruits to us all at once. We must remain near the tree, water it and even tend it over time. As the time becomes ripe, we enjoy the pleasures of the fruits.

The Greatest Time Traveller of all Time

I was a bit bored a week ago... Maybe, not so bored as tired. The last two years have been mega challenging. I feel sometimes as though the world around me is an oyster shell where I am totally alone and enclosed.  Like John the Baptist, I feel like a lone voice crying in the wilderness. I am not a lonely person. Being alone in my space allows me to experience God in more unique and spectacular ways.

I wonder why that in such an interconnected world, with billions of cyberspace-savvy individuals glued almost permanently to email, facebook, twitter and a host of others, interpersonal relationships have cracked down the middle. The 21st century human finds it almost impossible to nurture relationships around him or her but has millions of friends in cyberspace. Divorce rates even in the so called conservative African context  have shot through the roof. 

Many smartly dressed and upwardly mobile persons, wielding mobile phones of all shapes and sizes - BBs, Ipads - possess hearts that have suffered a serious condition of  atrophy. So many out there crave the human touch - eye contact that says, "stranger, though I have never met you but  as long as you're God's creation, I care"; a gentle touch on the shoulder; a smile...our fingers are so adept on laptops and iPads but lack the sensitivity to touch hearts and lives. We are poor in the heart business while our bank accounts continue to swell in dollars and Euros like  busted septic tanks spewing their filthy waste all around.

Dear reader, I digress. I set off to write about my visit to the bookshelf but my heart is very heavy tonight. I must write to stay alive.

So there I was, standing in front of a bookshelf overcrowded with books I am dying to read or re-read. The refrain that runs around  my brain these days is: "I am too busy to read; too tired to read; I have to work hard for the money".

I digress again. So sorry. So, there I am in front of the bookshelf. I survey the vast titles - women empowerment, Christian literature, English literature, English Syntax, history  - I lovingly caress my favourite books - Wuthering Heights,  Crime and Punishment... I wonder how such a gentle and peaceful woman could be enraptured by such tempestuous works. Could it be that I have fires burning that may erupt some day under standard temperature and pressure? Who knows!

Dear Reader, I am digressing  yet again. Perhaps you should put a rein on my thoughts..."I live because I write" or is it that 'I write because I live?'

So, there I am in front of the bookshelf. Some books are so mildewed...I skip them - Girls at War; I wonder how  Achebe ever came up with such a title. My fingers glide over other books - public relations,  corporate sustainability, my friend's work about Edo history. I sigh, I think of friends that touch one's life at a point in time and then disappear down the road; they disappear like vapour from  life's teapot or life's pot of  egusi soup. This is why I started thinking of the time traveller.

While still ruminating on whether to read Joyce Meyer's Battlefield of the Mind again, I spot this paperback publication in an attractive orange and white colour. Though very frayed at the edges, I nevertheless stand on tip-toe and stretch to pick it out of the rows and rows of neatly stacked books. I mutter under my breath,  "there is a time for everything under the sun". How come that in all these years, I do not remember ever reading H.G. Well's Selected Short Stories?

I reverently flip over the initial pages. Aha, there it is; my name and the city and date where and when I purchased the book – Calabar:  It brings back strong emotions and memories. The date reads 8th of May 2002. Is it a coincidence that I am writing this piece in May, nine years down the road?

I turn more pages and the “Time Machine” is the first chapter I come across. I wonder, 'did the writer of the movie,  The Time Traveller's Wife' receive his inspiration from Mr. Well's short story?

Intrigued,  I make a cup of tea and lay down on my bed with the title I have finally selected. Ready to travel through time and space in the pages of the book.

"...space, as our Mathematicians have it, is spoken of as having three dimensions, which one may call Length, Breadth and Thickness, and is always definable by reference to three planes, each at right angles to the others", observes the Time Traveler who is the chief protagonist of this strange tale.

He continues, "...why three dimensions particularly - why not another direction at right angles to the other three". Pursuing the same train of thought he argues, " there is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it". Following on this argument, the Time Traveler invents a Time Machine that can take its passenger back and forth in time; sometimes at giddying speeds of one year per second.  

This ability to accelerate into the future and  and to go back into the historical domain reminded me of one of my most cherished Bible verses.  It states that God Almighty knows the end from the beginning. He can move with fluidity from the foundations of the earth (when chaos existed and the three- in-one Godhead held a conference on  the status of the earth and decidedly intoned, "Let there be...” and the awesome creation story was put into motion...And the invisible became visible. The invisible things are eternal, endless; while the visible world is transitory.

Unlike the Time Traveller, I believe that rather than being a linear line where you have only the past and the present, Time surrounds the other dimensions of space which because they are visible belong to the class of transitory elements – they are bound to get exhausted  and  to pass away.

Time is invisible;  thus, it is eternal. Every man and woman who wears the visible human body knows that the body will only live in a portion of the time resource which is very limited in comparison to the unlimited and inexhaustible resource that Time represents. The visible body which we see has restricted access to an average of 75 years  out of Time's  endless and inextinguishable expanse. When the earth body which is visible exhausts its allotment of the Time resource, it releases the invisible part of the man or woman – the part of the human  person which is eternal.

My conclusion is that God is not a time traveller who has access to only the past and present and cannot control his movement through the futuristic and historical realms. God owns Time. He is the Alpha and Omega; the beginning and end. His motion in Time is not linear. He can create time and stop time; He can even shorten Time and lengthen it for that matter. He controls all the dimensions of Space. He can reposition them and defy the laws of gravity [Jesus did and so did Elijah, and Enoch. In the case of the floating axe head, was it a defiance of gravity or  control of the laws of magnetism?] Truth is, God is the quintessential Time Traveller of all time.

When Jesus came down to earth, he came to demonstrate that human beings can operate like the Godhead. He said, if you have faith as little as mustard seed, you can command an inanimate object - a mountain - to be repositioned in time and space and it is bound to obey. He said we can do greater works than He did. We can also control time and make it work for us. We can  also shorten time, lengthen it and stop it by Faith.  Prophets constantly reach into the future to prepare people to face the future and to be prepared and in control.

May 14, 2011.

Resurrection Power (The Force Behind the Easter Story)

Though often celebrated solemnly and sometimes quietly, Easter remains one of the most significant Christian celebrations. On Easter Friday, our Lord and savior Jesus Christ submitted to death on the cross in obedience to God's plan for mankind's redemption. In Jewish culture, this was one of the lowliest of deaths. It was not surprising that the creator of the universe, Jesus the Christ, was flanked by two common criminals  after he  was nailed to the cross at Golgotha.

The Easter story is one of the most fascinating I have ever heard;  as fascinating  as the birth of Jesus which the world celebrates with such pomp and  fanfare. 

What does Easter mean to me? The son of the Most  High God, humbled himself, was born onto this world. He manifested in human flesh but this did not make Him any less God. The bible says the fullness of the  godhead dwelt within the human form of Jesus who was fostered by Joseph, the carpenter. Joseph was the fiance of Jesus' mom - Mary who was chosen as God's vehicle to fulfill his plan of redemption for you and I and every other male and female on God's earth. Jesus was 100% man and 100% God as he grew up prancing down the roads and walks  of  the little town of  Nazareth  and until he completed his ministry at age 33 years.

The first time I really read and understood the Easter story was the time I gave my life to Christ. Suddenly, the scales literally fell from my eyes when the Holy Spirit increased my understanding of the spiritual issues. Previously, it was just a nice story or at best a Christian myth as intellectually inclined people are likely to describe it.

As the star actors/ actresses of the Easter story -  Judas Iscariot, the high priest - Caiaphas, Pilate and his wife as well as the Jews -  played the roles that they were scripted to play from the foundations of the world, they fulfilled several prophesies recorded in the scriptures long before the Easter events unfolded. Had they known...

What are the things that really, really excite me when I read the Easter story as a believer? The first thing is the fact that as the saviour of the world  writhed   in pain from the contemptible treatment he received from the self-same folks he came to save and from the nails that were driven into  different parts of his anatomy - darkness fell on the land  and  lasted from 12 noon to about 3pm.

Jesus cried out, "Eli, Eli lama sabachthani" which means "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me". Some bible scholars have explained that as the filth and sins of the world were heaped on his son, our thrice holy God turned his back on his son for that brief moment in time; and for Jesus, who had endured the unendurable, this was just too much!

Then, a divine and breathtaking  thing happened as Jesus died to  resurrect on the third day. He conquered death for us all. He became the first of an uncountable number of sons and daughters of God endowed with resurrection power.

The  bible records: "Then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after  His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many" (Matthew 27:46-53). Resurrection power  was demonstrated  in full public glare.

Why did the temple curtain slit down the middle? The death and resurrection of Jesus brought an end to the era whereby only the High Priest  had the authority  to venture  behind the curtain into the Holy of Holies where God's presence was, represented by the ark of covenant and other Holy implements.  Others were relegated to the outer courts. Annually, the high priest  was the only human permitted to present  the blood of animals for the cleansing of the sins of the people in the Holy of Holies. Usually, the priest would approach this annual assignment with great trepidation. This was a very tricky business because even the High Priest was  a ‘man’ and so, also susceptible to sin. Since Adam, sin  had became part of man's make up or DNA. So, a rope would be tied around the waist of the priest with which they would drag the dead body of the priest out; just in case he did not make it out alive.

When Jesus the son of the Most High God who knew no sin, shed his blood on the cross of Calvary, it meant that the blood of the lamb that takes away the sins of the world was available for the forgiveness of the  sins of mankind; no matter how  hideous that sin may appear to human beings. The biblical principle is that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. All we are required to do is ask in faith. Then, the blood of Jesus would cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Thereafter, covered by the blood of Jesus, we have free entrance or access into God's presence - the Holy of Holies - and we can enter into His presence without fear. The blood of Jesus converts us from outcasts (separated from God because of our inherently sinful nature) to sons and daughters of God.

Thank God for the blood of Jesus that takes away the sins of the world! The bible puts it  succinctly: if by faith we believe and accept Jesus as our personal savior, 'we are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light (the kingdom of God's dear son, Jesus.) I am sure no one wants to hang around in darkness if he or she can be transferred into a light-filled domain at no cost. Jesus has paid the complete price for our redemption.

All quotations are from the New King James Version of the Bible. 

Naked I Stand ( A poem that captures how I feel as the new year is born)

A Note: Usually, I enter the New Year with a sense of power, confidence and the ability to achieve great things and I would inevitably draw up a list of resolutions, dreams, strategies... But  2010 was different. The year was one of the most challenging that I faced and through it all I came to realize that no amount of strategies could have produced the results I got. God was with me when I "walked through the valley of the shadow of death"   economically, spiritually, physically and emotionally - when all seemed lost. He delivered me from all manner of snares.  For once on a New Year's eve, I was overcome by a great sense of my mortality, a fear that with each passing year, the hour glass of my life seems to run out faster... I  went over the eternal question that I believe generations before  me have posed: Have I  fulfilled even a tenth of the purpose for which I  was born and for which I have traversed this earth over the last decades?   That day when I shot through my mother's birth canal, a  crying, helpless mass of blood and flesh ... the journey began for me as it does for every individual; for every human person.  I was completely overwhelmed by the realization of my finiteness in this awesomely vast, precious  and beautiful universe. I asked myself if over the decades I  have set the right priorities? Have I loved, laughed  enough? Have I shared my life with others? Have I shared my knowledge and experience to guide others? Have I written all the books and poems I have longed to write? Have I seen the most beautiful sunset yet; enough to melt even the stoniest heart? have  I enjoyed the fragrance of wild flowers at night, set the stars alight, waltzed under the moonlit sky? Have I brought up my children right? When I  take the last bow on life's stage, will there be a standing ovation in heaven and on earth? Will I leave a mark, a dot, a memorial  on my infinitesimal little spot on the highway of time?

Naked I Stand  

I tremble, vibrations rock my feeble frame

Awe-struck

Before your majesty

Creator of  the heavens and earth

I stand naked

No veneer of cover upon

My naked frame

You wrench  of every vestige of hypocrisy

Like a whirlwind, violent, intense, directed

You tear off every shred of pretense

Every human-invented cover

Every veneer of civilized woman

Righteousness like rags, filthy

Naked I stand

But even that is not enough

You separate  muscle from muscle

Vessel from marrow

Bone from sinew

Fiber from tendon

Until nothing

Absolutely nothing remains

hidden from your knowing

From your all-seeing gaze

I tremble  the more

I am weak and cold

For I know that you know

Just when I think  it is over for me

Naked I came

To return to the elemental

To dust

You extend a hand

Endless, eternal

Rock of ages

You whisper, “Come”

“For I have loved you with an everlasting love”.