"Is there then anything you will not leave for Christ? You cannot know him - and yet he is the Truth, the one thing alone that can be known! Do you not care to be imperfect? Would you rather keep this or that, with imperfection, than part with it to be perfect? You cannot know Christ, for the very principle of his life was the simple absolute relation of realities; his one idea was to be a perfect child to his Father. He who will not part with all for Christ, is not worthy of him, and cannot know him; and the Lord is true, an cannot acknowledge him ... "

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

From Matthew 6

Posted by Deji Osinulu at 7:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Something I read this morning and thought I'd share:

"To let their light shine, not to force on them their interpretations of God's designs, is the duty of Christians toward their fellows. If you who set yourselves to explain the theory of Christianity, had set yourselves instead to do the will of the Master, the one object for which the Gospel was preached to you, how different would now be the condition of that portion of the world with which you come into contact! Had you given yourselves to the understanding of his word that you might do it, and not to the quarrying from it of material wherewith to buttress your systems, in many a heart by this time would the name of the Lord be loved where it now remains unknown."

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

Grace & Peace,

Deji.

Posted by Deji Osinulu at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Have you ever come home with leftovers of a really good dinner, that was really delicious but with portions large enough to have you planning a reprise for brunch the next day? Then you get home and forget to put it in the fridge? You wake up the next morning, a little bit later than usual, very much hungry and find yourself eying the to-go box on the counter, wondering if you can heat it back up to being good to eat again. Umm ... yeah, I have done that on occasion, depending on just what dinner was. Quick disclaimer - Don't ever ever do this with seafood or you may end up in the E.R. after some really crazy .... (you know what to put here).

I recently made a comment to a friend that if it is pizza, you can probably get away with it but the truth is - it is never any close to being as good. I may be hungry enough and maybe just lazy enough (sometimes it's being low on groceries) to where it seems to work out pretty well. Once the food had gone bad however, you cannot cook it back to being good again. It's just not going work. You may not get crazy sick from it but it is going to taste nasty.

All of that rambling was to get to this point - there are some leftovers in our lives that we may need to take a good look at and perhaps throw out rather than trying to "cook" them into being good again (and that is if it was ever any good in the first place). I don't know what shape or form it takes for you, could be habits, liaisons, lifestyle, projects ... perhaps even work. I know I have my fair share and as I grow in my walk with Christ the layers keep getting peeled away and I see things that I am still holding on to that really should have no place here.

In his preface to "The Great Divorce", C.S. Lewis wrote -

"A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot 'develop' into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be unwound, bit by bit, 'with backward mutters of dissevering power' - or else not. It is still 'either-or'. If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell."

Borrowing from a friend's prayer at the start of the year, my payer for us as we start this New Year is that God gives us new beginnings. That His grace will work in our lives to give us the discernment, conviction, discipline and peace we need to let go of the things that we need to leave in the past; and walk with Him into the newness & joy that He has in store for us.

Phillipians 3:12-14

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, 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.

Happy New Year!

Deji.

Posted by Deji Osinulu at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)