Gospel – Page 2 – Mimi's Thoughts

Ash Wednesday

When you are around children, you find yourself answering all kinds of questions. Some of these questions require some research of your own because they have a way of asking about things you thought you knew but really, you don’t.

With my 9 year old son, its one question after the other every day. He is one curious kid. And just like I wrote in Questions, I used to be afraid of questions, but now, I look forward to them.

Today’s question was really good for me. I loved it.

We were on our way to school early this morning, around 7:30am, when i saw a swarm of people walking out from a nearby catholic church. I realised the swarm was a lot larger than the usual morning mass one. Then it hit me, it was Ash Wednesday. It always fell on the Wednesday just before Terver’s (my husband) birthday.

I didn’t realise I had spoken my thoughts out loud, but as soon as I heard the question; “Mummy what is Ash Wednesday”?, I knew that I had.

Growing up catholic is something that I have always loved. Even though I no longer go there, a part of me has always remained with the Catholic Church. Every year, I look forward to Lent.

Ash Wednesday is the first day of lent. On this day, practicing Catholics (and some other Christians) smear ashes on their foreheads as a symbol of their immortality (dust to dust, ashes to ashes) and also a way of imbibing the ashes and sackcloth method as a show of repentance and humility.

The period of Lent (40 days – Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday) is a period of sanctification, a time to pause and reflect. A time, to abstain from things that may prevent us from communing with God. These things differ from person to person. For me it may be anger, for you it may be food. For another it may be alcohol, bitterness or anything else.

As I explained this season to my son, I realised how teachings have dwindled. I wondered how many people had ashes on their foreheads just because it was expected. I guess I will never know.

I only hope that many get to enjoy and feel Gods presence throughout this Lenten season.

Have a happy Ash Wednesday.

Elevation at 17

A couple of months ago I wrote in Beauty in Candour about candor. In my post I mentioned how my pastor drew me with his openness and his vulnerability.

As I celebrate with him, his wife Holly and the entire Elevation Church on their 17^th Anniversary as a community, I will like to share something I learned afresh from the anniversary worship experience.

It is okay to be vulnerable:

2 Corinthians 12: 9-10

As the church waited to hear a word from Pastor Steven, it was clear, from his red skin colour and his bent head that he was crying and emotional. It was not till he whispered to Holly; “I can’t talk” that it hit me; this man was okay with showing the world that he didn’t always have it all together. Trust Holly to take it up from there and speak beautiful words of wisdom and encouragement.

This renewed realization coincided with something similar I recently read from day 35 of Rick Warrens The Purpose Driven Life, he said “Vulnerability is the pathway to intimacy” and then he also said “Honestly share your weaknesses, ministry begins with vulnerability”.

I pray for God’s grace upon the entire Elevation Church worldwide, may we continue to be renewed in our minds and our hearts. As we continue to build the “New You”, may we not forget the value of community and the need for deeper intimacy with each other through honesty, openness and vulnerability.

Kisses to my egroup, I love you ladies so much.

How do we know?

On the 16th of October, 2022, Pastor Steven Furtick preached a sermon on The Faith of Abrahan. While going through views and comments from the sermon on an online discussion group, I found something written by Thelma Allen, I thought it was worth sharing:

“How do we know?”

How do we know when we’re doing something in our own strength, according to our own blueprint, like Abraham did with Hagar, or when it’s God that’s prompting us.

I love what Chad said about relationships and how the more time we spend in them the better we know the one we’re in a relationship with. So it’s important with God – to spend time – and the longer we’ve known Him and the more time we spend with Him, the more we know.

It made me think of a verse that has really helped me with this: It’s Jer 29: 13 & 14a – “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD,” I came across another translation once that really helped me: NASB20 – ‘And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. ‘I will LET MYSELF BE found by you,’ declares the LORD.

I thought about when we play hide and seek with little children and how, if the game depended on them, they’d never find us. We let ourselves be found by them. That game depends on us. And so it is with God. It doesn’t depend on how smart we are to figure it all out. It depends on God! He shows Himself to us when He sees our hearts searching for Him. We can count on Him. We watch over our little children and God watches over us, looking for our searching hearts.

Shush

Everyday… every minute. Scrolling. What’s the content?

Is my soul quiet?.

Can I hear a still small voice?

Did I miss it?

Was it too quiet? Or was I not paying attention? Scrolling… Dark Blue app, Light Blue app, Pink app… App… App… App

Oh my soul, be quiet. I missed the whisper before.

I don’t want to miss it anymore.

God help my soul.

Beauty in Candor

“You’ve got no shame, have you?”

I got asked that question and I honestly began to wonder what the real response was. It wasnt until i got a compliment about my candour that i realised that it wasnt that i was shameless but I happened to posses too much candour.

TMI is what they may call it now.

A couple of weeks ago, my pastor spoke about how a member of the church said his openness about his imperfections had caused her late husband to give his life to Christ.

The testimony which was meant to be a compliment left him conflicted. He wondered why, with all the good news he had preached about for years, it was a story about his imperfection that led a person to give their lives to Christ.

I totally understand with the guy who related with the pastors imperfections. In fact, as wrong as it may sound, it is what drew me to him in the first place.

In a world full of people who either don’t know what they want or who just want to do what people expect of them, it is hard to find a person who is honest enough to be true to themselves, what more, true to others.

Well, I’m glad that the pastor stated his distaste for fake things, i guess that’s what makes him put himself out there as a real human rather than an “anointed flawless man of God”.

There is beauty in being candid:

It makes you free.
It makes people respect you, even if they don’t tell you to your face.
You don’t have to worry about covering up stuff and mixing up your stories.
People trust you and try to build connections with you.
It increases your own self confidence. It allows people to want to trust you with their own truth.

Candour is beautiful. Try it. Experience it. Feel it. Enjoy it.

Community

The Bible tells us in Hebrews 10: 25 that we should not give up meeting together. That means we ought to belong to a community.

I belong to a number of communities;

OBF: I was born into this community.
Tre and Stace family: I have been a part of a community for a long time.

I love these communities. They give me joy, I try to give them joy, they work with me, I work with them, they listen to me, I listen to them, they encourage me, I encourage them, they celebrate me, I celebrate them… This is community.

We all belong to several communities; school, work, alumni/alumnae associations and lots more. The community mentioned in the book of Hebrews is what we know now as Church. The church community gives us spiritual encouragement. We are asked not to neglect this community.

Recently I have been a part of a church community that has helped my spiritual and emotional growth. Finding the right church is very important. Our local church is our main community. It gives us a lot to hold on to, especially at those moments in our lives when we are not so certain of anything.

Benefits of being part of a church community

You have a sense of belonging.
You get to encourage others and be encouraged.
You have a safe place to go to, physically and mentally.

Whether we find the right church community or not, it would be lovely if we could find and be a part of any community that will build and encourage us.

Try as much as you can not to be alone.

The Tower Of Hope

My friend Helen who had just recently moved to a new apartment sent me her new address and so I set out with my son to find the place. As we drove closer to the description she had sent us, we noticed a structure that was very familiar to us. It was my son who spoke first; “hey, mummy, look, it’s Tower of Hope”. Tower of Hope is a school near our home with the words ‘The Tower of Hope’ boldly written on its roof. It suddenly occurred to us that we had driven a long distance only to end up close to our home. We noticed a small path in front of Helen’s place that went in the direction of our home, it was not motor-able and that meant we could only go through on foot. SonTer and I decided then that we would make time to find that path that connected our home to hers someday.

That day came one cool July morning, I woke SonTer up for a morning walk and then we started to use our mind’s eyes to find our way to Helen’s place. We did, it was a ten minute walk. It was pretty easy too. All we had to do was to keep our eyes on the Tower of Hope.

I guess this is very similar to how we live our lives. I wonder how many times we have had to take longer roads and use more complicated means to get to a goal or a stage in our lives only because we do not know any better. I realised that if I could just always look up to my own personal Tower of Hope, it could be a whole lot easier.

We all have our Tower of Hope and He is our God. Ever present, ever faithful.

Idolatry

I heard Dante Bowe sing the words to a song and I got confused. The words sounded so familiar to me. Words I had heard and read in romance movies between lovers. Words I had used my self to express my need to please a fellow human like myslef. I must confess that I had never really spoken those words to my God.

Tell me what what moves you?
You are my treasure.
No matter how much the cost.
You are the only thing that matters.
I live to please you.

We say these words so easily to people and things; our phones, self, friends, spouses, parents and children.

The word idolatry has been defined from the stories in the old testaments, especially from Deuteronomy where it explicitly states that “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything………”.

Over the years, our idols have changed from carved lifeless images to every day people and things. We commit idolatry when we make anything more important than our God. I found myself guilty of idolatry through the song. I repented and I am depending on a friend like no other, Jesus, to see me through.

Is there anything more important than God in your life?

Click on the link below to listen to the song-

Move your heart – Maverick city music & UPPERROOM Download

Hurting with Hope

A couple of months ago, I started a Bible reading plan with 4 amazing women. It was a 6 day plan that was meant to run from June 4th through June 9th. Some how, I didn’t go along with them. I decided to catch up some days ago.

It turned out that I really needed the words from the plan in this point of my life. I am sharing a word from day two and I am hoping someone needs it as much as I needed it.

Day 2: The Invisible World

At any given moment, there’s always more going on than what we can see with the naked eye. If you’ve ever spent any time stargazing, you know this is true. On a cloudless, dark night, when you are far from civilization, it’s possible to see as many as five thousand stars. But on a cloudy night you might not see hardly any. That doesn’t mean they aren’t there—there are always stars in the sky—you just can’t always see them. So it is spiritually. You must not rely on the naked eye. Faith is the telescope that allows us to see the spiritual realities at play all around us.

The apostle Paul taught about this in one of his letters:

We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Every moment of every day, you are in an invisible battle that rages on—as real as the ancient ones you read about in history class and as current as the clips shown on the evening news. This is the war: every moment of every day, we must make the all-important choice of whether we will rely on the naked eye.

Will you trust what we can see is there or believe what God says is there?
Hurting with Hope – Levi Lusko

I shared it with my sister and she had this to say:

“I always want to believe and choose to believe that everything is working for my good even though I don’t see it.

That there’s a plan, a carefully laid out process that I’m being led through by God to get to where he’s taking me.
… but the journey with God, from my own experience hasn’t been straightforward. It’s been hard, I know, for all of us here but I’ve come to see that it’s part of the process of building us into the person he wants us to be”.

Story of my likes

Last week Tuesday, on the 23^rd day of August 2022, I turned 40 years old. For this milestone, I baked for myself a four tier cake; one tier for every decade.

I had made at least three different sketches of what I wanted the cake to look like and on the fourth sketch, I had just what I wanted. The cake was meant to be a combination of the things that make me happy.

To determine the components and to properly plan this cake, I had to go through my mind to find out exactly what makes me happy. Coincidentally, my pastor thought it was the best time to take a few weeks to teach on happiness, a topic he has never taught on before. I decided I was on the right track. Praise God.

What did I find? I found that I was usually happy when I knew I was in the right place with Jesus. That place where you are certain He is smiling at you and giving you a pat on the back. I also found that I am really happy when I know that He is in control and I have nothing to worry about in my mind and soul. I found that my heart literally swells when I feel His presence. I didn’t know how to put that on a cake. That was the moment I decided I would spend that day telling of the goodness of God in my life at a breakfast prayer meeting. I did and I enjoyed it.

What did I put on the cake? On the cake, I decided I would put up things that keep me going in this busy and tedious world we live in. The things that keep me going when I am stuck or when I need a push. Things that help me relax after a long hard day. I found five things; coffee, wine, books, music and motion pictures.

The cake

The Base: On this tier, I made four roll ups of some of my favourite motion pictures (films and series) like Seinfeld, The Office, Downton Abbey, The Big Bang Theory, Mamma Mia and lots more. On the body of this tier, I placed screenshot images of songs by Dierks Bentley, Maverick City Music, Elevation Worship, Brett Young and so many other lovely musicians.

The Second Tier: This tier displayed a few of my favourite books to appear as though they were on a shelf. My favourite book is The Purpose Driven Life.

The Third Tier: I made this tier in the shape of a barrel. I love to have a good glass of wine or whiskey at the end of the day, especially a very hard day. I think it is one of the reasons I love Olivia Pope.

The Top Tier: This, I made in the shape of a Nescafe coffee cup. It is how I start a good number of my days.

This is the story of my likes, crowned by Grace from my God. These are the things that keep me happy.

What are your likes? What makes you happy?