Kingdom Conscious Reality. What does that mean?
The name of this blog is Kingdom Conscious Reality. I had brainstormed a name for a different type of platform and this name best described what I wanted its purpose to be. So when I finally decided to start the blog, it was easy to decide. I had to admit after I said it in my head that it sounded a little strange. I even went as far as to count the syllables in it. Eight syllables…who would have the time to remember that? But then I went back and thought about the motivation behind the name. That’s what I want to share with you today.
Hello friends, thank you for stopping by again, or for stumbling onto the site. If you are either subscribed or have been following along in any way, you will realize that I skipped a week(OR TWO) in the posting schedule. This is because I battled a lack of inspiration and a form of writer’s block. I am back now and praying that God will sustain me because its very easy to run out of ‘juice’. May you be blessed today!
Where did I get the idea?
My heart behind starting this blog stems from a conviction I had regarding my walk as a Christian. Not-so-simply put: the Lord allowed me to have a time of serious reflection on my life and the way I was living it. Having had a chance to look I soon realized that my life was not surrendered to God. I was very much in control. Having a closer look at my heart I just realized how far I was from the Lord. And as it should any Christian, it disappointed me.
I had become complacent. The Google definition of Complacency is ‘a feeling of smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one’s achievements.’ I had grown prideful in my walk with God. And I believe the breaking I felt was in part also the breaking God’s heart must feel at seeing His children walk in pride. Holding on to idols of my heart, I had pledged allegiance with the world while trying to live life with Jesus. I asked myself questions like: “What have I been doing for the past 2 years?” “Do I truly love Jesus?” The answers to these questions were devastating too.
I quickly moved into a state of panic and despair but was reminded that this realization was a conviction. Not condemnation. A young lady once said “I know God is faithful when He convicts me of sin.” The Holy Spirit hadn’t convicted me in order to drive me to despair but rather to move me toward Jesus. The only thing I could do was turn away from my sin, direct my heart towards God and walk in repentance toward Jesus.
And that’s what I did. The Holy Spirit led me to a place of complete surrender of my life. The manifestation of this repentance in my life was great. I let go of parts of myself and my life I never thought I’d be without. (Real talk: The enemy of our lives is constantly looking for an opportunity, and I will admit that he got to me a little. Fear, pride and self righteousness subtly crept into my heart. Because the enemy couldn’t stop the work God was doing in my life, he sought to poison my heart and mind. But yet again, God is faithful and He is delivering me of all of that!)
With all that I released, I got the invaluable opportunity to slow down and assess. I realized the danger of casual ‘Christianity’. It’s so rampant in this world and I realized that I was a part of the problem. I have placed a Bible verse below. I pray that you will read it, and that the Holy Spirit may whisper these words into your heart where you need them most.
A living sacrifice
Romans 12v1-3(NLT):
[1] And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. [2] Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. [3] Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.
If you are in the same boat I was in and are recognizing a deep desire to plunge deeper into God I encourage you. Start by meditating on ALL that God has done for you. Read Ephesians 1-3. (May I suggest maybe using the method I shared on how to study a passage of scripture.) When you finally realize the weight of all God has done and how much He loves you, giving yourself as a living sacrifice will be a joy. Laying ourselves down at God’s altar is our true form of worship.
Reading Ephesians made me realize that being a Christian is a big deal, the enemy has just been trying to make it seem inconsequential. And this is why some of us get so casual. We get to believe in wonderful truths and promises that change how we live. Things of external value and things that are unseen, in faith, we get to say all those things are our reality! 100% NOT casual.
Paul warns us simply not to lie to ourselves when we assess our lives. Whatever measure of faith we have[whether we exercise it or not], we recieve from God. Let us evaluate ourselves honestly, if anybody knows the idols of our hearts and lives, it’s us and God Himself. Let us be honest with God, having faith that He will use our honesty for His glory and our good. And I want to stress that this doesn’t look like self-loathing or self-pity. If anything, I think this honesty should make us look more at God than ourselves.
I don’t know what God wants to do in your life and what laying it down to Him looks like for you. But I do know that He wants our worship, He wants us to offer ourselves to Him.
Conclusion
This is my intention: to remind us as believers to fix our eyes on Jesus. I want to share God’s testimony in my life to show just how bountiful His grace is and how good He is. Yet it’s not even enough.
Thank you for reading! Please do leave comments or consider e-mailing me if you have any questions or concerns. (P.S. What would you like to read about?) I thank God for you and pray that your faith and love may increase. Hope to interact with you soon!
My special encounters with the Holy Scriptures
Greetings beloved reader! If you’re visiting again from an email notification, it’s lovely to have you once more. And if you’re only stopping by, I hope you pick up something useful for the journey ahead. If you’d like to be informed about future blog posts as soon as they hit the ‘net, be sure to subscribe to the blog at the end of this post.
And now moving onto the reason for today’s post. As you can judge from the title, I’ll be sharing stories from times the Word of God became so real to my circumstances, it became alive! I was inspired to write on this topic while writing other posts on the Bible; Read the Bible as a Christian and How do I know that the Bible is true.
Following both these posts I believe it’s so important for me to display in my own life how the Word of God isn’t just true but that it is also active. I pray you may truly be blessed and be moved to remember times in your life when small miracles happened. I say ‘miracles’ because isn’t it just bizarre how a book written a couple thousand years ago can resonate so intensely in our spirits. Sounds like a miracle to me. I’m also hoping to reignite or put some fresh sparks onto my own flame as I am going through a not-so-smooth patch. But without further ado, let’s get right into it!
Psalm 105v12-15
This encounter with God happened only a little bit after my big turn to God, in the January of 2022. I had gotten baptized not even 2 months before, I had turned 16 and was going into a very important academic year. It was going to be a great year. My mother and I were out running errands one morning which led us at to a government facility. A single trip with no more that 4 hours dedicated to it became half a day of tears and mental and emotional wounds.
Out of respect for my family I am deciding not to share the sensitive details of the experience. Mainly how it affected me and how God’s hand reached out to me.
If you have read my testimony you would remember that I’ve grown up in an all female household and unfortunately this day was a day when this was a great disadvantage. My mother and I found ourselves under an unforgiving and cruel hand of injustice. We were stifled and, honestly, left without any reasonable hope all around us. Life as we knew it could’ve changed forever on that day. I felt the most terrifying lack of safety I’ve ever felt in my entire life.
We got back to our house and I remember I had my Bible out on my desk from that morning. The same Bible I had turned to when I realized that my life was headed for destruction without God. Lifting it up, I split the book open at random and allowed for a passage to select itself. As I looked down at the Bible, my gaze fell on Psalm 105v12-15 : When they were but few in number, few indeed, and strangers in it, they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another. He allowed no one to oppress them; for their sake he rebuked kings: “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm.”
At that point I didn’t even have a real understanding of what God’s protection was, but in that instant I knew it was all I needed. This scripture warmed my heart as it gripped the sever reality of the situation. We were two females without anyone to speak for us(few in number). We were treated as foreigners (strangers) who were not deserving of dignified treatment. And to add, at that point we had moved a total of 4 times in 5 years so it did feel like we were wandering from place to place. And to know that God was watching over us and rebuking our oppressors, saying “Do not touch my anointed ones,” truly felt like He was holding me.
These verses still have a special place in my life to this day. Is it still difficult to understand and accept God’s protection over me? Yes. But this moment is a reminder that He has proved to be faithful, because as unfortunate as it was, we had to return to that place on the same day. But God was watching over us. It was scary and harmed me mentally, but what the enemy had planned for evil, God is using for good.
If all else was amiss in my eyes, the fact that I randomly opened my Bible in distress [which isn’t the best way to approach scripture] God still used it to speak directly to my turmoil. I personally have full conviction that the hand of God is too heavily pressed on this experience for me to sum it up to coincidence. So we can’t blame on chance.
1 Peter 2v10
This special encounter with the Holy Scriptures was during my final year of high school, right around the middle of the year. I was already stretched so thin during that year. Between school work, school leadership duties, service at church and extracurricular activities, I was severely burnt out. And I truly credit this to a lack of wisdom and pride, but I’ll explain that soon. The midyear school holidays came around and the first week was the annual Adventure Bible Club(ABC) at the church, which I had served at the previous year and was eager to do it again. This is where lack of wisdom is highlighted, because the week after the Bible Club week, I would have to be in Durban for another week for cheerleading national championships.
What a disaster.
The championships were finalized months prior to me finding out about the Bible Club. I was so torn but I decided to do both. This is a little bit of a complex story because cheerleading was an unsurendered part of my life, yet God still showed me mercy concerning it. I hope to be able to elaborate on that in another post but for now we’ll leave it at that.
So there I was, at 4am on the Monday morning if ABC week setting out to help wherever I could. It wasn’t long before I realized that I was not serving wholeheartedly. I only ened up being able to join the team for 3 days that entire week, and that inconsistency was harmful. On the second day of the week I had a retinal migraine which usually indicates an imbalance in my body. By the middle of that week I began realizing that I was in over my head. I had taken up too much responsibility.
I was so confused. Why couldn’t I commit fully to both of the physically strenuous and time consuming things? On one hand I really wanted to serve at the church, I just didn’t want to be absent. On the other hand I knew the physically demanding aspect of the week that was to follow. Why was it so difficult to accept that it was probably best that I rest for the ABC week, so I would be ready for championships? It was torment inside my mind and heart. I just didn’t understand.
This led me to a time of reflection. I had to ask myself why I was so adamant on being everything to all. I soon realized the pride in my heart. This pride made me want to be a part of the ABC week so that I would get recognized. I wanted to be needed. Just going through my Journal entry from that night, I am so shocked at how vividly I remember the entire experience. From there, I then started thinking about the reason behind the hunger to be involved. I was afraid of being discarded, being forgotten. And that was a tough one to swallow. How it was so easy to allow pride in, in order to combat rejection and fear.
That night I was reading on 1 Peter 2 and I came to verse 10: “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had received no mercy, but now you have received [God’s] mercy.” The verse almost jumped out from the page and into my conscience.
Following the shame of realizing I dishonored God by serving Him with a prideful heart, this verse soothed me. Letting me know that even though I had been forgotten, discarded, and left out in the past, it was no longer my reality. That now I was God’s own possession, and that I no longer had to live out of lack, but out of the abundance of His mercy! Wow! I remember crying as I physically felt the weight leave me.
It’s also worth saying that I wouldn’t have known that what I held in my heart was pride, had I not learnt the humility Jesus walk in and called us to walk in as well. In saying this I am highlighting 2 Timothy 3v16-17. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. The Lord corrects us through His word.
John 15 and Ephesians 1-3
This is the most recent encounter and it changed the entire trajectory of this year. At the beginning of 2024 till about the middle of the year I was caught up in a very weird place in my walk with the Lord. Though I was growing, I was growing in a way that was killing joy in me. Think of it as the growth of an ingrown nail.
At the end of 2023, I recieved a wake up call that I wasn’t taking God as seriously as I should be as a Christian. According to Matthew 6v33, I was not putting God first. It was almost as if it was everything first, then God. And when I realized this I was devastated by the disappointment I felt. In turn, I allowed for this disappointment to turn into a fear. And this fear ruled over me.
I want to clarify that there is a difference between the fear I am speaking of and a holy, revenant fear. A holy fear is a fear that moves us to want to be close to God, to walk with Him in the light and to obey Him because He is God. It leads us to pour out our lives as an offering that is pleasing to Him. The kind of fear I lived in was not a holy fear. Guilt, self-righteousness and pride worked hand-in-hand with this fear. I believed that I could do things in order to prove that I was deserving of the gift of salvation which is in direct opposition the Ephesians 2v8-9.
Eventually I began to crumble under the weight of all that I arrogantly took on. I realized that I was actually so far from God and I was trying to do life on my own but for Him.
The one thing that always made my stomach churn during those months was the word obedience. Terror filled my heart everytime I thought about the consequences of the inability to obey or blatant disobedience. And we’ve seen in the Bible that there are consequences. But I feared the punishment of sin more than I loved God.
An older sister in Christ stepped in and helped me to see that I had strayed away from the gospel and was relying on my own power for salvation. So then I had to stop and ask for God to correct my distorted views because they were stopping me from seeing God as He truly is. I began reading and studying the gospel of John. Chapter 15 of John blew my mind away. The words of Jesus spoke to the hardness of my heart and breathed life into me again. The language is not of a heartless tyrant who demands burdensome things of his people. They were words of a loving King who wants for His subjects to have His joy! Not rules and regulations.
Verses 10 and 11 read:”If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
My hearts eyes were enlightened to the truth that God desires we should abide in His love because it brings Him glory. And we abide in His love by obeying His commandments. But that ultimately, the commandments God gives He gives so that we would have joy. My friend, not just any joy, this is His joy! This is echoed in 1 John 5v3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”
Love God with everything you are. Love one another.
I also began reading Ephesians and the truths found in the first 3 chapters have changed my life. In the Christian movie ‘Overcomer’, the lead is told to read the book of Ephesians and discover all that God has done for her. We see her completely transformed and I can see that change in myself as well. I have never been more eager to walk with God, now that I see all that he has done for me. Joyful obedience. This is something I thought was impossible. Yet here I am. (P.S I literally used to cringe at people who claimed the promises of God gave them new life…ain’t that ironic.)
Well friends, that’s all for today. Again, may you be blessed by today’s post. I hope we interact again soon. Till next time, keep your mind stayed on our King, and live your life conscious of His kingdom. What a beautiful reality it is.
How do I know that the Bible is true?
Hello there! To all those returning, I am honored to have you back again. And to first-time readers, you are most welcome! I post weekly content on topics that I believe matter and that the Holy Spirit enables me to speak on.
The post for this week will continue on the topic of the Bible that we began a few weeks ago. This time I will be sharing some research I found very interesting and that has honestly left me stunned. I will try to keep the information as reader friendly as possible, because I too struggle to read bodies of work based solely on research.
From all the research I’ve conducted, it appears the the bible’s accuracy and reliability can be strengthen with 4 main proofs. 1) Secular History, 2)Archeology, 3)Dead Sea Scrolls, 4)Consistency of the bible’s internal evidence and Prophecy. I choose to say these proofs strengthen the case for the Bible because I believe that the divinity of the holy scriptures is great proof in itself. Personal experiences of the word of God piercing into my life and heart in a way that no other person’s words can, assures me of this. I hope to tell the stories in future, but for now we will look at these 4 proofs.
Secular History.
I choose to start with this proof because it’s one I find very interesting. I will look to research published by Life Hope and Truth under a series call ‘Is the Bible true?’, author Jim Franks, to explain the proofs in this post. To help better understand this idea, I recommend an article published by Carolina Messenger, author Micheal Grooms, titled Secular History vs. Biblical History. I will only be sharing to most basic ideas of each proof.
The Bible is not a collection of historical books but it does contain a lot of history. There are more than 100 biblical characters(Old Testament and New Testament) that can be identified in secular history. The most easily identified Old Testament charcters, are two Egyptian Pharaohs, Shishak and Hophra. The Pharoah of Egypt Shishak (mentioned in 1Kings 11v40 and 14v25) has inscriptions and records that conform to the biblical account. These include inscription on the walls of temples, recording his campaign against Palestine (dated 924 B.C.). The Pharoah of Egypt Hophra (mentioned in Jeremiah 44v30) is recorded in Babylonian records, as the one who was defeated by Nebuchadneza of Babylon(572 B.C.), during the time of Jeremiah the prophet.
Some New Testament characters are Tiberius Ceasar, Pontius Pilate, Herod and his brother Philip, as well as Annas and Caiaphas and are all mentioned in Luke 3v1-2. Tiberius Ceasar is found on multiple Roman coins. The Pilate stone in the Israel Museum shows record of Pontius Pilate: “Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea.” Famous Jewish historian of the 1st century A.D., Josephus mentions Herod as tetrarch of Galilee and Philip as tetrarch of Ituraea. He also mentions Annas and Caiaphas in a list of Jewish high priests in the 1st century A.D.
But this aren’t the most significant characters. Naturally we would want to know about whether Jesus is found in secular history. He is! A history teacher back in high school once said: “whether you believe that Jesus is the Son of God or not, He lived and walked on this earth.”
There are two Roman historians born within 50 years of Christ’s death [and resurrection] that mention Christ in their writing. Publius Cornelius Tacitus [most importantly] confirms Christ as the founder of Christianity in his work Annals, published 115/ 116 A.D. He places Pontius Pilate as governor who convicted Jesus and allowed the crucifixion. He also stated that all this happens during the reign of Tiberius Ceasar. The second historian, Gaius Plinius Ceacilius Secundus, was a senator and wrote in a letter to an Emperor. In it, he mentions Christians were being questioned, imprisoned and even killed. It’s worth saying that both these historians were no fans of Christianity, yet within their writing is found historical proof of Jesus and the Bible.
Archeology.
From all that I’ve read and material I’ve consumed on the archeological finds relating to the Bible, there hasn’t been a consensus on every discovery. With a combination of research from Life Hope and Truth as well as an article from Crossway titled 10 Crucial Archeological Discoveries Related to the Bible, I have found the most interesting amongst many that I will share.
Hezekiah’s tunnel and broad wall. 2 Kings 18-19 and 20v20 as well as 2 Chronicles 32v1-5 and 30 records the story if the righteous king of the souther kingdom of Isreal(Judah), Hezekiah. The Assyrian king at the time, Sennacherib, had been conquered many neighboring nations including the northern kingdom of Isreal(Isreal). Judah’s fortified cities were invaded by the Assyrian king, apart from Jerusalem(only being besieged) because Hezekiah pleased God.
The fresh water supply to the Jerusalem was outside the city wall which left the city vulnerable to a water supply cut by their enemy. In order to protect this supply Hezekiah built a tunnel that diverted the water from Gihon spring to Siloam pool within the city of David. He also built a second wall to protect the reservoir.
Archeologists discovered the tunnels in 1838 and the broad wall was unearthed in the 1970’s. Both being dated back to the 8th century B.C. which is aligned with the reign of king Hezekiah of the southern Kingdom.
Additionally 3 clay artifacts discovered by Colonel R. Taylor record the campaign of Sennacherib. They list victories over 46 fortified cities, among which Jesuralem doesn’t not appear and even names king Hezekiah as a ‘prisoner in Jesuralem’ reference to the siege. This corroborates the recorded events we find in the Bible.
Concluding this section is a quote by Jewish archeologist Nelson Glueck:
It may be stated categorically that no archeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries.
The Dead Sea Scrolls.
This proof is both historical and very much archeological but is just so pivotal, that it deserves its own section. The first of the scrolls were accidently discovered by a Bedouin shepherd boy in the Qamran area, near the dead sea in 1947 and more were decocered in 10 surrounding caves. These scrolls are divided into two general types: biblical and non-biblical texts. The biblical group of the texts include either partial or near-complete copies of all the books of the Old Testament apart from Ester. The non-biblical group includes letters, prayers, hymns and legal documents.
These scrolls rocked the archeological scene of the 20th century and sparked the interest of zealous biblical scholars. Here’s why.
Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest manuscript of the Old Testament were dated to the 10th century and are known as the Masoretic Text. This name comes from a group of Jewish scholars called Masoretes, who were tasked with preserving, through transcription, the Old Testament(Romans 3v2). The process used by these scholars was meticulous and once a text was copied and assured, the old one was destroyed. This practice continued untill around the year 1000 (the end of the 10th century). The Masoretic Text is what out modern day Old Testament is translated from.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are [generally] dated from about 200 B.C. to A.D. 68! About 1000 years before the Masoretic Text.
These scrolls out of caves near the Dead Sea support the accurate preservation of the Bible as there is a close similarity between them and the Masoretic Text. In fact there is a 95% word-for-word identity found in comparative studies of the Isaiah scroll.
In my opinion, the preservation of the scriptures throughout a span of a known 1000 years with little alteration, speaks to the divinity and wonder of the One whose words they claim to be.
Consistency of the Bible’s internal evidence and prophecy.
We’ve been looking for proofs and evidence outside the Bible but this proof looks within the Bible. The Bible was written by 40 authors but it’s ultimate Author is God(2 Timothy 3v16-17). When we look within its pages we find noteworthy consistency, considering that it was written over 1500 years. We cannot deny that the Bible has challenging passages, but to go as far as to claim it contradicts itself, would be an injustice.
Most alleged contradictions of the Bible can be easily resolved or have more than one logical explanation. According to Life Hope and Truth, there can be 5 reasons why claims of contradiction may be made; copying errors, translation errors (different words chosen by different translators, numerical issues, the context of the passage, the use of literary devices in the passage.
I am not informed about all the alleged contradictions of the Bible but I am certain that there are too many to discuss. I do have a certainty that the reading and the understanding of the word of God that leads to a true knowledge of God, is empowered by Him through His Spirit. In John 14v26, Jesus says “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
It remains a fact, however, that Jesus Christ fulfilled more than 300 prophecies made about Him hundreds of years before our Lord’s time on the earth. The fulfillment of prophecy alone requires for many factors to be met, quite an extraordinary phenomenon. The probability of a man fulfilling only 48 prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 157th power². Apart from prophecies of Jesus there are many others fulfilled in the bible. E.g. Jeremiah’s 70 year prophecy(Jeremiah 25v11-12), the prophecy about Bethlehem (Micah 5v2) and the prophecy of Cyrus before he was even born(Isaiah 45v1).
That is the end of that post. I hope you enjoyed the reading and I pray that the Holy Spirit will give you wisdom and discernment in how you take in and use the information in this post. Up untill we interact again, let us keep on running to good race, being sober-minded and keeping our gaze on Jesus and what it means to follow Him. Love you all dearly!
Links to Life Hope and Truth articles sourced in this blog post:
Secular history, Archeology, Dead Sea Scrolls, Fulfilled prophecy, the Bible’s consistency.
Building on the cornerstone/foundation. (Spiritual house and living stones)
Greeting to you, reader, young or not so young. It is an honor to have you visit the blog again. And to those reading for the first time, you are welcome! Before I get into the topic of this week’s post, I have a couple of announcements I’d like to share with you.
First, I have decided to commit to a weekly posting schedule. This is so I remember to honor this platform and all those God may be reaching through it. Even if that is one person. So if you plan on visiting the blog often, you can expect a brand new post on the Sunday of every week. If you’d like to be informed about new posts, be sure to subscribe to the blog at the end of this post.
Secondly, I was supposed to have posted a second part the the “Bible Reading” series. Unfortunately, I have not been as diligent in conducting the necessary research and investing the time into producing a clear body of work. I will continue working on this, and hope to be posting it soon.
Now to focus on the title of this post: Building on the cornerstone/foundation. This is a theme in the bible that I just find so fascinating and truly enlightening to the understanding of God. Let’s get into it!
There are a few scriptures I will work with to explain this theme but the main ones are; 1 Peter 2v4-12 and Ephesians 4v4-16. I encourage you to read them for yourself before hand, and also read the other scriptures in this post for a whole and clearer understanding.
I’m praying that the Holy Spirit will help me communicate this in a true and clear way. What fascinates me here is the duality of God’s working and building. By ‘duality of God’s working and building’ I mean how God is actively building a church as well as working on individual stones. The church being the global and eternal church, the body of Christ. The stones being you and me as individuals in respect to the body of Christ.
The cornerstone or the foundation?
Often times in the bible, Jesus is referred to as the cornerstone or the foundation(the living rock). At first glance there is no distiction between the two, but I have come to learn that there is such a cool difference!
The most clear distinction I’ve been able to understand is found in Ephesians 2v19-20. “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,…”
In a physical first century building or house, cornerstone was the first stone lain. The foundation and is subsequently put together in response to the cornerstone. In essence, the cornerstone in the foundation of the foundation.
Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. Putting our faith in Christ as well as His finished work, surrendering our lives to Christ and conforming to His image, becoming His disciples who will follow Him everyday.
This is the cornerstone of the life of a Christian and the work of God in the world.
The apostles and prophets are the foundation: the words of Christ delivered to us through the apostles and prophets, the Holy Scriptures. The apostles and prophets are obviously not equal to Jesus in foundational importance, but the words of Jesus came by the Holy Spirit through them. Building on this foundation means living in agreement with the teachings of Jesus, living out the word of God and submitting to the scriptures which are the foundation. Jesus in Matthew 7v24-27 speaks of everyone who when hearing the words and does them, will be a wise man who builds on the rock(foundation or living rock).
Our lives as well as the life of the global and eternal church should build on the foundations of the scriptures.
We are living stones?
In 1 Peter 2v5 speaks about the members of a church being living stones and Ephesians 4v7 of how grace has been given to ‘each one of us by the measure of Christ’s gift’.
Each believer is a living stone that God is building/assembling into a bigger building. God is concerned with each stone and works within each of us through the Holy Spirit and each other. None of the stones are a perfect fit for this building which is why we constantly yield to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Romans 12v1-2 says “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Meditating the love, grave and mercy of God in Christ Jesus will lead us to surrender and to pursue holiness. This is God’s will for each individual in the family of believers: sanctification.
And Ephesians 4v16 says that when each of these parts of the body are working properly it makes the whole body grow and build itself up in love. The functioning of the body of Christ as a whole, is affected by the work of God within each believer or living stone.
The spiritual house or a holy temple?
In 1 Peter 2:4-12 the Apostle explains that we are being ‘built up into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood’ and are ‘a chosen race,…, a holy nation, a people for His own possession.’ Ephesians 4v4-16 speaks of ‘one body’ and ‘unity’.
Here we see God’s hand at work in building a group of people who are His own people. Who will be set apart for Him. God is building a temple, using His people, that He can dwell in. He dwells in this temple by the Holy Spirit.
God desires that this people, this ‘holy nation’, be holy. Set apart. Different from the nations around it, living and operating to please God and to fulfill His purposes on earth. In fact, the Bible goes as far as to label the family of faith as foreigners and sojourners on this earth. Jesus commands us in John 15v12 to love one another as He has loved us. And with a deeper dive into the scriptures and teachings of Jesus, we realize that God has very clear expectations for the church. Whether it be in how we feel about one another, how we represent on another, how we treat one another or what we do when we are gathered together, God is concerned with the church.
I encourage us to read the Bible eager to see God’s purposes for the church, seeing how we can conform to His design, and not tweeking His design to fit our structures.
Conclusion
I’ve come to see that God is just so wise in everything He does.
I’ve fallen into a selfish way of living, even in Christ. Where I viewed my walk with God as something exclusively personal and as not involving anyone else apart from me. It is true that we all have to make a personal confession of faith and build a personal relationship with God as He works within us. However, it does not end there.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ says that God created a good and perfect creation, but sin entered and created a rift between man and God. Sin creates a chasm between man and the Creator of the universe. But God, being rich in love and mercy, sent Jesus Christ, His Son. Jesus being fully God and fully human, lived a blameless life and knew no sin, but died as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. He died a criminals death on the cross and rose again 3 days later, defeating death and sin. Jesus is now the mediator between man and God, buying redemption and forgiveness for all those who believe in Him and turn to the Father in repentance. An undeserved gift of grace.
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. From that point on God is at work within the believer, transformation into the new creation they are meant to be in Christ. This is where we build a personal relationship with God by walking with God. Getting to know God, and daily submitting ourselves to Him.
God is also continuously building His holy temple out of His people. So we shouldn’t turn a blind eye to God’s desire to create oneness within the the believers, just as the Father and the Son have oneness(John 17v20-21).
Matthew 22v34-40: And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Let us be obedient children of God yielding to God’s transformative work within us, and move away from individualism by conforming to God’s expectations of us within the global and eternal church.
Until next time, dear reader, continue to live a life conscious of the King of kings and what it means to be a part His kingdom. The old has passed, the new has come. This is your reality. May the love and peace of Christ be with you!
Reading the Bible as a christian (all ages)
Reading the Bible as a christian (ALL AGES)
The Bible is the holy book of the Christian faith, this makes it clear that it is very important. There is a difference between reading the Bible and studying it. I will explain what it means and how to study the scriptures in the steps I follow when reading the Bible later. So please note, ‘reading’ and ‘studying’ will be used interchangeably in this post.
I will make this post the first post of a two to three part series. There is just so much that I know is so important with regards to the Bible. So I hope you will be back to read more once I have gathered as much information as possible.
For this post I will focus on the importance of the scriptures in our lives and how we can effectively read the Bible. Let’s jump into it!
Why should I read the Bible as a christian?
I’ve heard a few of my peers say things like “I’m christian but I don’t read the Bible.” And I think it’s so detrimental to make this a normal way of thinking within the christian community. This is in no way to judge those who believe this, but to correct the indifference to the Word of God. The Bible also isn’t just a book recollecting many stories and historical events. 2 Timothy 3v16-17 says “All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
To see the Word of God as a necessary tool for the Christian, I believe, begins with the understanding that the human being is limited and is not equipped to walk in holiness. And this is because of the sinful nature. Because of the fall in the garden of Eden, we all have an inherited brokenness and a sinful nature that is instinctive to follow. God designed a perfect creation but because of sin we are wired to do all that is bad in God’s sight, heading straight for destruction.
John 3v16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life.” When we believe and thus proclaim Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are also saying we will follow Him. God also gives us the Holy Spirit, who lives within us and helps us.
Jesus lived a perfect and holy life while He was on the earth, He modeled perfect righteousness. It’s very clear that not one of us can live the way Jesus did (follow Him) with our own understanding, wisdom, strength or capacity. So when the Apostle Paul writes that the Word of God is breathed out by God and ultimately makes us complete for every good work that means a great deal to us!
Ephesians 2:10 says: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” God wants us to walk in ways of holiness and righteousness and goodness and he gives us all we need to do so. To be a Christian is to believe in Jesus, His death and resurrection and to walk by faith and follow Him. It’s not enough just to say it. We must live it.
We are living for a God who saves us, gives us Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit who helps us AND gives us the scriptures He breathed out to live according to. All so we can live in the ways He has called us to…it’s too good not believe.
“The Bible contains the mind of God, the state on man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners and [joy] of believers… Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you… It’s the traveler’s map, soldiers sword…”
-The Gideons
In Romans 12v2 instructs: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” And before this we are told to present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. We make ourselves living sacrifices when we offer every single part of ourselves to God. And our minds are a crucial part of that. This is where the scriptures come in.
The Word of God renews our minds.
When we read the Word of God we are filling our minds with the scriptures, which the Holy Spirit uses to convict and direct us by way of rememberance. John 14v26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
Okay but should I read the Bible everyday?
There is a passage of scripture that so beautifully answered this question. Matthew 4v4: But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” This is when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness after 40 days and 40 nights of fasting.
It is so significant that Jesus uses bread in comparison to every word that comes from the mouth of God. We should be eating everyday, so the body can function normally. The Word of God is, in the same way, sustenance for our spiritual and eternal bodies. We live by it.
Jesus also says this while the devil is tempting Him in the wilderness, demontrating one of the ways scripture should be used. In spiritual warfare, Jesus quotes scripture. There’s no coincidence in that. If Jesus read and ingested the scriptures so much that He could use them to push back the enemy’s schemes (despite physically weakness), we are to do the same. We are followers of Jesus.
So now, to the dear young christian. Yes, you. The Bible isn’t ony read by old people who need hope or have nothing better to do. The physical book can’t fend off scary dreams from underneath your pillow at night. It’s the scriptures inside that have been breathed out by God. The Bible is relatable and true. Daily bread (Mathew 6v11).
I hope that has been enlightening. However, now that we know that reading the word of God is imperative, it surely matters that we do it right. Right?
How do I read the Bible?
The first step is to set a time everyday to spend time in the Word. Speaking from experience, it’s hard to stick to a specific time, daily, to spend in quiet with the Lord. School, extracurricular activities, work, friends, family and the list could go on and on. The secondary priorities and distractions are ALWAYS going to be there. Yours, however, is to make the choice to place God as the biggest priority in you life, in your day.
It’s best to stick to the same time daily, if your schedule is consistent enough. And if you can, stick to that time. Commit to spending time with God in the Word everyday at that time. It is also advised that you select a general area that is free from distractions to spend time with the Lord. We’ll call this time and place the secret place.
Additionally, a shift that can really change our perspectives toward this discipline is a simple change in thinking. Think of it less as reading the Bible, but rather studying the scriptures.
I have found that having more than one translation of the Bible has helped broadened my understanding and insight into the scriptures. Whether you’re starting out or are more advanced, a selection of 3 translations that vary in difficulty is great. I ,for example, have and English Standard Version bible as my primary translation, and complement it with the Contemporary English Version and the New Living Translation bibles. I occasionally go online to find more translations or read in my home language (siSwati). You are not limited!
Confession: when I started reading the Bible I went straight for it. Arrogantly. One of the first books I read was the book of James. I read it like I already knew all there was about Christianity and was only reading to make sure I was right. This is WRONG. Don’t do what I did, no matter how long you’ve been at it. We have to acknowledge that God’s ways are not our ways and that His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isiah 55v8). We have to be eager to seek God’s face, His character and heart, and His will in the scriptures and to lean on Him.
Working off of the S.O.A.P study method (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer) I discovered a method that worked for me.
Steps I follow when reading the Bible:
- Get into right posture by praying. God has given us the Holy Spirit and He helps us. Pray that He will help you to understand the scriptures by His wisdom and ask Him to transform you as you read the word. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your mind and heart up to the word of God. (Your mind to the right thinking and understanding of God and your heart to the right valuing of God.) Pray that God, by His Spirit, may help you to stay focused and attentive during the time of studying the word. Assuming you have selected the scripture, gather all your study material; Bibles, notebook, pens, highlighters etc.
- Read the passage of scripture/book you’re reading, and try to understand by conducting research. I suggest getting an easy to use commentary on the bible to help you in this(optional). A very necessary disclaimer is to take heed not to value commentary above the scriptures. Commentaries are useful, helpful and good ones lead us back to the word of God and don’t disagree with it. We need not depend on them above the scriptures themselves. Read the scripture and study the face of God in it, then read the commentary. Since all scripture is God breathed, all scripture reveals Him in some way or another. Ours is to observe and try to understand, through the Holy Spirit.
- Meditate on the passage you have read. In the S.O.A.P method this is titled application. This is where you sit with the scripture and apply it to your own life. A video on Godly meditation I find very clear is this one by the late Dr. Charles Stanley. Ask questions such as: What is God saying? What do I need to change? What does this scripture reveal about God, what He likes/loves, what He doesn’t like/hates, His character and His heart? How can I apply this to my life? What verse can I memorize today? Essentially, this is the time of this whole activity where you should be the most still and patient. This is the time to shut everything out, and focus on God, believe what He says and absorb it.
- Close this time off with prayer. After that time of quietness from the previous step, you will now speak what you have learnt back to God. And what I mean is to agree with God with whatever He has said in Him word. Confess sins that you have realized and ask for forgiveness, thank Him for blessing and promises He provided or ask Him for strength to fully believe, obey, and apply what you have read. The word of God is profitable for reproof and correction, so there are going to be some difficult feelings to work through. So be honest and earnest in your prayers to God. He cares about you.
I pray this post has been helpful to you for your journey in reading the Bible. I will be back again shortly to upload a post defending the holy manuscripts, their relevance and significance.
Untill then, live conscious of the kingdom of God and it’s King, which is not on earth but in heaven. Child of God, this is your reality.
The testimony of God’s goodness and mercy in my life
“Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.”
This post is a retelling of the events in my life before Christ(BC), when Christ became known to me and my life now with Christ. Basically, the story of God in my life. I pray that you will be encouraged, seeing the How God has been so merciful and gracious to me.
I just want to start by saying that my walk with God did not begin on the day of my repentance. God has been in my life since I was a thought in my heavenly Father’s mind, and I believe that to be true about you as well
Before Christ:
I won’t spend too much time explaining my early childhood memories. This is not because they’re not important, but because there is just so much that is worth dissecting that it makes my brain itch.
My childhood seemingly had nothing wrong with it. I was born and bred in Soweto and lived there untill I was 9, with my grandmother and my mother in a single room house. I always had food to eat, clothes on my back and a place to lay my head. My physical needs were always taken care of. During those years I was primarily closer to my grandmother as she was home more often, while my mother was working to support us. It’s worth mentioning that my grandmother connected me to a church from very young. I remember attending the children’s ministry group while the adults stayed in the main hall, but I don’t remember grasping very much about the gospel.
In that environment I was in, I was exposed to many things and realities that children typically can’t handle nor understand. Fun fact is that I am Swati-South African, which for me meant having more than a few differences from the other children. I didn’t really fit in, and as “pick me” as that sounds, it’s the truth. On the natural scale my childhood was a happy one, but unfortunately, because of a lack of emotional support, I developed a pseudo emotional intelligence.
By the grace of God, my mother moved her and I from the township to a quaint little suburb. This move was a difficult one. Enrolling in a [great] new school at the begining of grade 4, in a new environment, with new people around, a new home and nothing familiar at all. Loneliness and rejection crept into the cracks and slowly began perverting my view of the world around me. Bullying is the unfortunate tale of many children and it is a part of mine. It didn’t look like being slammed into a wall or having my books thrown on the floor. No, no. It was the subtle joking about appearance or a blunt segregation during lunch times. And because of the way humans are wired, I wanted revenge for everything. I wanted a big comeback so I could show the world, my small world, that I didn’t deserve to be rejected so harshly.
With my primary school years taking place in the midst of an uneasy living situation, I turned to school for comfort and a sense of identity. I became very manipulative and calculating (some would say observant). I had become so good at appearing to be someone I wasn’t, so I could fit in with almost any group of kids. This got me into many sticky situations with the girls around me. By grade 6 I was willing to do about anything to get a little bit of attention and traction, and this willingness was most available to boys. I began experiencing attention from boys that fit into the gap of a fatherless upbringing so well. It was all just so confusing and my behavior expressed it.
Around this time I started attending a small Christian youth group on Friday nights. All for the wrong reasons might I add. To hang out with and make more relevant friends, to get a boy’s attention and build my epic comeback story. My time and experience at this small church was just so distracted that whatever I did learn about God I also managed to stifle with my thirst for what was pulling me away from God. This is how I know for certain that sin doesn’t discriminate. Young or old, it is always eager to devour and rule over us (Genesis 4v7). I had experienced things no child is meant to experience, and become rebellious in my heart. Blatantly rejecting my mother’s and my grandmother’s guidance.
I started highschool still strongly determined to pave my own way. My secondary schooling began at an All-Girls school then transferred to a Co-Ed school half way through my first year. I had lost all sense of the word ‘identity’, all types of perversion and rebellion were justified in my pursuit of ‘happiness’ in my life. Even after moving high schools, I was still making the same mistakes. My 9th grade year collided with the global shutdown due to Covid-19.
When I met Christ:
I had not directly heard anyone preach the gospel to me. Apart from hearing about the character of Jesus back in children’s ministry (which I stopped attending in grade 3) and the youth group I attended briefly, I was clueless. But there came a point when I just knew that the things I was doing and the way I was living was not good. I knew there was a God and I was certain that the way I was doing things was not pleasing to Him. The weight of the emotional burden that I kept on carrying to all these sins was also not getting lighter. After spending the whole quarantine period in a miserable cycle of sin, loneliness and what I know now to be depression, I came to the end of 2020 just so hopeless.
There came one night in the December of 2020, and I found myself crying my eyes out and pleading with the pain in me to stop. I had an old, hard-cover bible my grandmother had given that sat in a desolate corner of my room. I tried opening it and reading from Genesis to Revelation a few times in the past (unsuccessfully). Some nights I slept with it under my pillow when I was a little scared of the dark. But that night I took it in my arms and just hugged it and prayed through the tears: “God, please help me! I can’t do this alone, please help me!”
I remember I sleeping really well that night.
Looking back now, I see how serious the Lord is about bringing us to Himself. When I went back to school the next year I slipped back into my old ways, even though it was [surprisingly] harder. There was a small disagreement I had with my friends. That small disagreement was a way God had created for me to get out of my old ways by choosing to be honest and removing myself. But my old ways were just so natural to me, that I didn’t think I needed a way out. I missed the opportunity.
In my grade 10 year I was actively trying to change my ways. Reading the Bible, telling girls I didn’t wanna gossip anymore, trying to lie less to my mom, trying to work harder in school etc. I just had a desire to be less like the girl I was before. But like the Lord said, “the spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26v41). I was still stuck seeking validation from popularity, friends and boys.
Untill finally…God shook the ground of my old foundations and my house came CRUMBLING!
I had been in girl drama before, I was no stranger to it. But what happened in my grade 10 year is so significant because it felt like a personal ‘attack’ on everything I had built my life on, I lost all security and identity I had forged. I sincerely thank God for that experience. He, so lovingly, yanked me out of that situation because I now belonged to Him and He had different plans.
A little bit before the time of this epic turning point I began attending a small youth group in the area I lived (different to the one of my primary years). And I was able to see God for the first time, even though my understanding of Him was so limited. I often say that at the time, I had an “I have to have it” mentality, like a collector at an antique furniture store. I had to have this Christianity, it was just so beautiful. The people were kind, accepting, joyful and so loving. I wanted to be like them. I know now that Christ is not an accessory that we get to put on, but that we follow Him and we must deny ourselves (Luke 9v23). And how faithful God is to correct us.
My life with Christ:
From mid-2021 God started doing incredible things in my life and in my heart. From the time of that big falling out with my friend group, I wanted to isolate myself. I truly didn’t want to let myself recieve good things. I wanted to be punished for what I had been in the past. God spoke to me in that space through the most unlikely character, the friend I had wronged the most. She said: “God said it’s not good to be alone. Look what He did in the garden with Adam and Eve.” That could’ve been nothing else but the goodness of God reaching out to me!
I found a community of people who loved Jesus and who were willing to love me. I had never had that. People who I didn’t have to feel guarded around. God blessed me with 2 ladies who are still my closest friends today. We would leave school in the afternoon and go sit on some person’s lawn and have Bible studies once or twice a week. We would pray, read the Word and even dance before the Lord on the street, making ourselves jokes in eyes of many.
At the youth group I was attending on Friday nights and Sunday mornings, I began forming really loving friendships and relationships. A true blessing. I was recieving discipleship in the cell groups we were divided into. I had a space to laugh, to confess my sins, to recieve prayer, to be loved and to love. It was so wonderful for me to see the hand of God in the social sphere of my life because that’s the place where I trusted myself the least because hurt so many people. I was afraid to get close to people. I remember actually referring to myself as somewhat of a social hazard. And I know now that that was a lie from the enemy, planted to keep me in isolation.
In my school life I also had a miraculous break through. I excelled academically, culturally and as well as in the various student leadership roles I volunteered for. I was never great at sport but I also did well in that area. I’m convinced it was miraculous because I wasn’t doing anything different in those spaces, my mind was just constantly going back to God. I don’t know how else to explain it. God made the difference. In October of 2021, I was invited to step into youth ministry leadership, where I still currently serve the Lord and His people.
On the 5th of November 2021, I got baptized and proclaimed the faith.
Fast forward to 2022 and I’m still just falling in love with this new way of living. It was an academically intense year. I still struggled with many of the sins of my past and the guilt of sin. Because the human nature is so weak, it became very easy for me to remove my eyes from God, His holiness and His love and to rather fix my gaze on all the gifts He had blessed me with. The friends, the freedom(my mother trusted me more, so she loosened her grip), the achievement and the spiritual gifts. These things all become idols in my life, and I was just so ignorant to it.
I was still writing a comeback story, forgetting that I had already come home.
Convictions about the posture of my heart were being set before me by the Holy Spirit and it felt like torture because I didn’t know what conviction was at that point. I once wrote a poem about how even though my life was now Jesus’, my mind and heart were still so filthy and it ate me up. I wanted to be pure but it felt impossible. This is mainly because I was neglecting reading and meditating on God’s Word. I wish I had prioritized getting to know God more!
But God is faithful. (1 Thessalonians 5v23-24)
I had allowed all the things God had done for me and all the rejection I experienced to shape the way I knew God instead of allowing Him to be God. To teach me who He was. 2022 was a fight to do as much as I could so I would be who God wanted me to be. I had strayed from the truths in Ephesians 2v8-10, spending so much time outside of the house. Filling my time with so many things that weren’t necessarily bad. I was just putting them before God in my heart.
2023 on the other hand was my final year in high school. I don’t know how it works in other places but here in South Africa, the Matric year is notorious for leaving many beaten up and wounded. Surprisingly, however, it was a much simpler year for me. I was now seeking to make my heart pleasing to God. I was so ready to be wholly devoted to God and seeking Him FIRST by the end of that year. It was difficult seeing how selfish I could be even with God Himself and I was discouraged. But then I was encouraged, knowing that God would help me. Being convinced that He was [and still is] sanctifying me.
My prayer was [and is]: “Let it be real, God I’m ready.”
Jump to right now. 2024. I’m relearning the Lord, so to say. On an adventure of time with God. Knowing that God, who began the good work within [me], will continue His work untill it is finally finished on the day when Christ return(Phillipians1v6).
The gospel of Jesus Christ:
God created a perfect creation, He created man so He could dwell with them. When sin entered the world, we were separated from God’s good and perfect design, and from His presence. But God, in His grace and mercy, sent His only Son Jesus Christ to redeem humanity. Jesus, who is equal with the Father and is God, lived a perfect and sinless life while walking in the very bodies you and I have. He gave His life away as a holy and living sacrifice for our sin. Three days later, the Father raised Him from the grave and He defeated sin’s power, thus creating a new covenant. A covenant of grace, that allows for those who believe in the Son of God and His sacrifice to be made right with God! Hallelujah! Romans 10v9-10 NLT
[9] If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. [10] For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.10.9-10.NLT
This is the Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has not lost its power because Jesus is alive!
Untill next time, beloved reader, may God be with you.
Here’s a quick poll I’d really appreciate you answer.