User's Manual

Sometime back, my son asked me to fix his lego, I fixed it so many times that I thought I could do it without the manual. After going through the motions, I thought I did perfectly until I saw one part was still rolling on the floor when I "finished" fixing it.  For reference this is what I was trying to fix:

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Fortunately for me, my son was already happy with what I have done, so he did not mind the "extra" piece.  As I thought about what happened, I realised that if I only used the manual I could have done it better.  So when everyone was asleep I went ahead and fixed that water strider lego properly.

As Christians, it is no secret that we also come with a users manual for life, it called the Bible, however, we have been doing life so long that we have forgotten to check the users manual.  Just like lego we get used to doing it without the manual.  For little things it is not an issue.

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I can fix that airport ground tug without looking at the manual.  Some harder stuff, we can still do it by winging it.

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I can still do that frog without the manual, but more likely than not it will take me at least 3 times the time it would have had I taken the time to read the manual.  Now for really complicated stuff...

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If you want to see how complicated the Millennium Falcom lego is to build you can check out the .PDF manual here.

Just by looking at the picture of the Falcon in the box, I already know I cannot "wing" it.  This is a lego I need to spend time on the manual to complete.

It's just like life, we have been going through life for so long we think we can wing it.  We do not go back to the manuals, we try to do it our way.  As Christians, we should not try to wing it with life.  We have a user's manual prepared by our creator.  Some Christians think reading the Bible is a waste of time and concentrate on their ministries and rely only on the Word spoken during fellowships and preachings of their pastors or on TV.  You can find the frequency and demographic of of how much people read the bible here. Unfortunately this is not enough.

Reading the Bible regularly will help us to understand how to love life as God planned it for us.  It is our user's manual.  It is never a waste of time.  In fact it will save us a lot of time and allow us not to waste time trying to correct mistakes we have done in life, more importantly, some mistakes cannot be corrected anymore.  You can live through it and grow through the mistakes but it would have been better not to have made the mistakes because you knew what you should have done in the first place.  Imagine the relationships we can save?

It was just like me fixing my son's strider.  I went through it once and found that I made a mistake.  In rushing to fix, I wasted time fixing it again.  Time, I could have spent resting or enjoying a movie before sleep.  I could have not minded it, but it would have broken down more easily the next time my son played with it.  Which would mean I wasted more time, in the worst case, it could even lead to me getting angry at my son for not taking care of his toys and not playing with it properly.

That would have put an additional strain in my relationship wit my son.  No I am not the perfect father, or spouse. In fact I make a lot of mistakes.  That actually helped me to realise that I need more patience and I really have to get back to the Word.  

I realised I need help to live this life, I realise it more and more every day.  I cannot do it alone.  I need God's help in every area of my life and the only way to do that it by reading the Bible.  In Joshua 1:8 in the Amplified states:

"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall read [and meditate on] it day and night, so that you may be careful to do [everything] in accordance with all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will be successful."

Read the Bible, make your way prosperous and be successful.  Let us not waste our time groping in the dark on how to live our life.  We have a user's manual prepared for us, all we have to do is take the time to read.

God Answered Your Prayer, You were NOT Listening

Have you ever been in a situation when you have been praying so hard and so long about something but somehow despite doing everything humanly possible, you still fall short and the doors appear to be closing on your face at the last minute, every time?

Ye-ea-ah... been there.  It is a crappy experience.  These are the times when we tend to ask God why?  What did we do wrong? When did we make a wrong turn?  What should I have doe better?  

Over the years I have realised that when this happens, there are only 2 reasons, the first one is it is not the right time and the second, and this is going to hurt a little more, it is not for you.

The first one, is a little easier to accept.  It is because we are not ready.  It is either we lack the necessary preparation, the skills have not been developed enough, we are not mentally prepared or the people around us are not ready for what we are praying for, and receiving what we are asking for at this time will most likely do more harm than good.

The second, is more painful because it is difficult to accept that what we want the most, what we have worked so hard to achieve is NOT FOR US, and most of the time this the case when God has been telling us a long time ago to stop thinking about it, but we refuse to listen.  It is not that God was not listening to us, but that he was listening intently and he already gave an answer days, weeks, months, years some even decades ago, but we refused to listen to the Answer

Psalm 44:21 says "Would not God find this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart."  God know more than we do and he knows what's best for us.  When this realisation finally dawns on you, then you can move on, and guess what?  What he has prepared for yours better than the one you have been asking for and it is specially made for you, tailor made for you and will fit no one else but you!

Ephesians 3:20 days "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us."

When God Answers your prayer with "you are not ready" go ahead and pray some where and do everything you can to get ready.  But when he answers your prayer with a resounding "NO."  Acknowledge it.  Move on. Listen to what follows the "no" because it always has a "but I have something better for you."  And guess what? That something better? It is something that we never thought we always wanted and needed in our lives.

Take heart for God's love will never fail us.

No Interruptions

If you have gone through this blog, you would realise quickly how important praise and worship is for me.  I believe it is the most important part of Sunday Service because it is the time when we give back to God with all that we have.  We pour our hearts out to god and let our spirit speak and for with the Holy Spirit in worship.  That is why when an amazing worship session is interrupted it really bothers be and it makes me think what the church leaders are doing.  if we can go with the flow for the entire service, there would be no need for preaching!!!

I have visited different churches in the area where I am and I find that there is always a Pastor or church leader that disrupt the flow of worship and frankly I can not understand it.  It is either a Pastor or leader who wants to exhort the church in worship, asking the community to pray for the needs of the community, collecting tithes and offerings in the middle, or having people speak testimonies.  The problem with these is that they are all programmed interruptions, and these interruptions are actually destroying the flow of worship.

I understand the idea behind  these interruptions, tithes and offerings are also a form of worship, it allows us to show our obediences through our finances.  Testimonies are a way to acknowledge the work that God has done in our lives. Exhortation is supposed to allow flow of Spirit to be smoother during praise and worship.  Praying in the midst of worship is, I believe the most effective way to pray, but not in communal worship UNLESS the flow of the Spirit calls you to pray.

Some even take this time to train speakers, which I believe is the worst idea.  The purpose is admirable, but the negative impact to the greater whole is tremendous.

The ideas are all meant to help the church, but it ends up disrupting worship.  While it should not be so easy to disrupt the flow of the spirit, human focus however is easily disrupted and honestly when the flow of worship is disrupted it is very easy for minds to drift somewhere else making it difficult for most of the community to get back into the flow.

This has even gone to the point where Praise and Prayer night is interrupted regularly DESPITE the fact that the flow of the Spirit is amazing. And it just kills the flow.

There are times to exhort the community when the flow of the Spirit is somehow stifled or blocked, bu when the flow of the spirit is smooth and worship is flowing like the stream, doing nothing is the best the church leaders can do.  Go with the flow.  NO Interruptions.

Indivisible

This may come a little late, but I was just able to watch the movie Indivisible which was released last year.  The movie is based on the life of Darren Turner a Chaplain in the US Army.  The movie is basically what happens to Christians when the daunting realities of life smash apart our comfort zone, when the new found passion we have for Christ settles down into everyday life, how do we handle life?

As Christians, it is important to have a deep foundation before we go too deep in our ministry.  Don't get me wrong, I am impressed with Christians who immerse themselves in ministry immediately upon receiving salvation.  It is, however, the Pastor's duty to ensure that these newborn Christian's don't bite off more than they can chew.  Build in them a strong foundation.  The more passionate they are, the deeper their foundations must be built.

Why do I say this?  Christian churches have recently been shaken by the "deconversion" and lost of faith of popular Christian personalities.  While I do not know how deep the foundations of these guys were, I only know in hindsight that it was not deep enough.  Don't get me wrong this is not to criticise them in any way, this is just a point of reference.  They have helped more Christians grow in faith than I ever had, and I appreciate their contributions to the faith, it is just unfortunate that they reached the point where they had to renounce their faith.

I do not know what they went through to reach the point where they are in now, but I know it must have not been so trivial.  It could have been one big issue or a series of small issues or a combination of small and big ones.  I do know that as an ordinary Christian, the challenges they face and the attacks they suffer daily is more than what I am going through and somewhere along the way they lost their point of reference, which  should have been Christ.

In the movie, Darren Turner was suffering from a lost of faith, when the people he led to the Lord were taken in the war or suffered disability.  He began to question God, he began to lose himself and the people around him.  He was like Job, who lost everything he had, but unlike Job, he was also losing his faith.  He concentrated on the circumstances surrounding him, he became the centre of his world, not God and he lost it, almost permanently.

But through the efforts of the people around him, he realised that how he was looking at the circumstances around him with the focus on him.  He realised that his focus should have been Christ. And with this realisation, he was able to regain what he lost.  He regained his faith, his family and his idealism.

After saying all this my only point is that as Christians we will suffer tribulation (John 16:33) but take heart that we have Christ and we will have peace.  Being a Christian does not mean we will not suffer in life, it means we have the means to overcome the sufferings that life throws at us.

There will always be those who walk astray or backslide.  When we see these people, we should not judge, criticise or spite them, on the contrary, we should reach out to them, and pray for them because they are going through things we do not want to go through in life.  Let us be a good example, so when it us going through life's bumps and blockades there will be people who would reach out and pray for us  and with us as well.

In writing this post, I first began with a working title "Why me?" But as I started writing what I wanted to communicate, I began to ask myself, why is my outlook in life so pessimistic recently?  And it just made a mess out of everything out of what I have already written and with that, the train of thought just vanished.  I realised that every time I asked myself the question "Why me?" were the times were I felt so stressed and felt like I was facing unsurmountable mountains.  It felt like giants are blocking my way.  Most times, I was just making mountains out of mole hills.

Then I realised, that in those times, I got through it because I believed my God is bigger than the mountain and the giants.  I always remember the verse:

"Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them"

That is Mark 11:23.  The Bible is full of guidance.  I remember my mom say in the past, read the Bible, though you can't memorize everything, you will remember what you need to when the time comes.

So read your Bible. You don't have to memorize.  Just understand it and you will know how much God loves you and what he has planned for you!

Moving Forward

It's been a long time since I've touched the keyboard.  I though that life caught up to me, it took me a while to realise that I just had to live my life with God as my north star and the Bible as my map.  I am moving forward again after so many missteps. I seem to have a lot of free time coming backs I have time for at least a little of this.  At this stage I am reminded of an old song Moving Forward by Ricardo Sanchez which is really what I aim to do.  Look forward, MOVE FORWARD.   Its time to stop looking at the past and letting the past weigh me down.

The lyrics really hit home:

"Not going back, I'm moving ahead

I'm here to declare to You my past is over
In You all things are made new
Surrendered my life to Christ, I'm moving, moving forward"

The guitar chords for the musicians can be found here.  You can also google it, everything is at the tips of your fingers nowadays.

PS.  I'm breaking myself in slowly.  Trying to recall the shortcuts and right buttons for this. Feeling like a relic right now 😅!

Am I Ashamed to Pray in Public?

I remember a very good statement made by a Pastor in one of the Bible study groups I participate in.  He said "Public prayers should be short, if you want to pray a long prayer you can do it in your quiet time with God."  He explained further that people, especially adults have very short attention spans, in order to keep them in the spirit of the prayer, we should try to keep our prayers made in public as short as possible.

This was a confirmation of what I always believed in, and also what other in our group believed in.  When we say short prayers before affairs, there have been instances when people have asked me whether I was ashamed of praying in public.  The answer is a resounding NO.  I am not ashamed to pray, whether in public or in private.  I just don't get the point of praying long prayers before affairs and meals.

Praying Hands

First, when I am asked to pray before or for an event or meals, I believe I am asked to ask for God's blessing for the event, affair or meal.  I am not asked to impress other people with the way I pray and my vocabulary.

Second, people are not there to hear me pray, they are there to eat the food or to participate in the event and eat thereafter.

Third, people's concentration tend to drift away from prayer after a minute or two.  Yes studies show that the attention span of an average adult lasts a maximum of 20 minutes but that sustained attention does not last on prayers, trust me I know!  And I know you know it too.

I have to admit that when someone leads a very long period of time, my attention tend to drift away and before long I would be daydreaming.  Has that ever happened to you?  Never?  I guess I am alone in this then...  But really it does tend to end that way right?

And lastly, when we pray too long we tend to turn people off, we give of a holier than thou aura that other people shun.  Instead of people opening up to us, they tend to shut us out.

This is the reason why I would recommend that if you have to pray in a public event or gathering, keep your prayer brief.  Reach out to people by mingling with them during the event not during your prayer.  Your long (or very long) prayer won't do it for you.  On the contrary, your long prayer may be the reason why they won't be there to mingle with during the event.

Of course there are instances when you could pray a long prayer in public, but these are exceptions, the general rule is you should keep them short.  At least it is from my point of view.  If you disagree, let me knoe and we could discuss your points.