The Royal Wedding.

So this weekend for us Brits was a very full-on experience of ‘British-ness’. There was a huge royal wedding and the whole nation (including myself) were totally infactuated with the entire season. It’s a real-life fairy-tale. Girl meets a prince and becomes a princess. I, also being a girl of colour definitely appreciated the cultural aspect of the entire enchilada. It’s a new day and a new season for the monarchy, we have another royal to welcome- and speaking from the general opinion here; The people of the UK think she is amazing.

I , and in a more restrained way now, loved the entire ordeal, as a firm lover of the history and culture that the royal family brings . I had been waiting for this weekend to come and by jove was not disappointed in any way. Retrospectively I have a different take, but I think the buzz of the weekend got to my head juuust a little bit.

All of my friends were incredibly excited and we all shared in the joy post-wedding talking about our favourite bits, speaking about all that happened. But one of my friends said the most wisdom-filled thing I had never expecte. We had been speaking about the wedding so I called her a day or two afterwards to get her over arching remarks.

“So … doll, what did you think ?!”
“Well… I didn’t watch it.”

 “I’m sorry, what ?!”

I asked her why and in essence, she felt that there was the potential to get to emotionally involved in something that was too much of a fairy-tale to be a healthy intake. I was honestly flabbergasted … not at her absence of the most watched broadcast that weekend; but of her incredible character to do such a thing.

Here’s the deal , as lovely, quintessential, glamourous and elegant that wedding was; to God, it meant nothing more than another couple unifying in a church (that I am presuming) He was not invited to. Now I could be inaccurate – no one knows the heart of all the people there , there might have been some true earnest God fearing indivudals in the wedding party; I just don’t know.

What I do know however, is for this time period , as the Americans across the pond would say : ‘I drank the coolade’.

Romans 12:2 New Living Translation (NLT)

2 Don’t copy the behaviour 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.

GOD

And the world are on two VERY different levels. Its almost like comparing the intelligence of a leaf to a human brain, or the strength of a stick to a rhino and ever more so.

When we uphold what God upholds and look down on what He looks down on – we’ll find that we live in a topsy-turvy world where truly : The first are last and the last are first. (MATT 20’16)

Where the wealthiest people in the world are families who uphold the gospel in their communities no matter what the cost.

Where being born in a privileged family means being exposed to Christ at an early age.

Where beauty is a woman wo seeks God and values discretion and modesty.

Where joy is a state of having a clear conscience and being right with God.

Where freedom is walking as an upright slave to Jesus.

Where love, means sacrificially giving, serving and asking for nothing in return.

Imagine this; the colour yellow is yellow right ? But imagine over a period of time a man kept telling you that yellow was actually blue . Would you eventually end up believing him ?

 We live in a world that the enemy has quite skilfully subverted the true definitions of important things in life and turned them into lies lies lies.

This weekend, the Courts of Heaven rejoiced and upheld in honour a unrecognised poor couple in a village somewhere who gave their marriage to God so, so much more than the pomp and glamour we saw in Windsor.  

We must pray for Kings and those in authority. (1 Timothy 2:2) They set the tones of the culture and the culture sets the direction and course of the world.

But lets not be deceived, lets not believe the lies.

Let us trust in Christ and His definitions -they are the only ones that are true.

This is my desire. The song.

So I woke up this morning with a song in my heart you may have heard it from the old times Hillsong classics;

This is my desire.

I've listened to this song many many times but a line really jumped out at me today : it's the end-part of one of the verses. 'All that I adore is in you'. I immediately thought to myself: is everything I adore in Christ ?

ADORE - is a word I use sparingly; in my mind it's even more emotionally giving than saying you 'LOVE' something or someone. (I use 'love' a lot, and it's probably the only thing that annoys me about the English language, we only have one word for love)
** To Adore :


1: to worship and honour the Deity - CHRIST IS THE ONLY DEITY.
2: to regard with loving admiration and devotion.
3: To be very fond of.


Is there anything else in the world that you are all very fond of apart from Christ? Do you have loving admiration and devotion for your favourite sports team for a particular actor/actress - Or even for a close family member ?
Beginning with myself; we have to closely evaluate what we adore in our lives. If the things we value in life are outside of Christ; we need to seriously consider where our honour and worship is directed.

Giving honour to something is as simple as showing 'merited respect'.
And worshipping something or someone is :

1: to reverence as a divine being or supernatural power
2: to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion "a
celebrity worshipped by her fans"

- do you see the example in the second definition ?


Now I don't really like to call them a celebrity because a celebrity means: a celebrated person and I don't want to celebrate pretty much any of them at all. But even the Merriam-Webster dictionary identifies how people of public renown can be worshipped.
Careers can be worshipped, grades can be worshipped, bodies can be worshipped, television shows can be worshipped.

This time last week I was really frustrated. I was going through the book of Colossians doing a theoretically great Bible study ... But for some reason, the words didn't seem to penetrate me. I wasn't feeling a deep spiritual-buzz (if you know what I mean). And it was incredibly annoying. I knew that I was at fault somewhere; but I couldn't pinpoint.

I asked God about it and I felt like I had this response - I was taking too much in and I was watching too many secular TV shows. Exposed to too many messages that are contradicting to God. And in relations to the definition of adore:- I was getting fond of entertainment.

It reminds me of sometimes when someone is trying to lose weight for for example, when they reach a plateau they have to take the next big step to achieve their next goals.
To cut out all that want to do different or intense exercise. If they want something they've never heard they have to do something they've never done.

In a similar kind of way I felt like I I have drifted from the Bible studies that I knew were possible with Christ. And I wanted them back.

I thought that God wanted me to take a break from secular television this week. And I did and I immediately noticed the difference by days three and four I was having amazing devotions watching sermons in the evenings and finding that Gods Word was staring up on me more than before. I watched Christian movies the dog is of course documentaries and other lifestyle videos and I found that watching enhancing TV is better than watching entrancing TV.

It made me question how much I really adore Christ how much of my time is geared to wanting to learn more about him. I do you Leah and I'm striving for this myself everything we do with the work rest hopefully should have some way of pointing back to Him. The Bible says to seek his will in all you do and he will make your path straight


It says; He delights in every detail of your life

It says :when they seek me with their whole heart they will find me.

I want to be relentless in my pursuit of Christ and like an athlete doesn't do anything to destroy the training that they have been undergoing in the run-up to the Olympics.


- we are running up to the end of time we have to lay aside every lurking sin, and every weight that so easily besets. - no matter how small. And invest in the things that will help us get closer to Him.


IMTAPA

In my thoughts and prayers always

How to Honor and Please God - the formula.

COLLOSIANS 1'9-10

9 So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.

I've been feeling abit recently that I really need to get stuck into some deep study with Gods Word. Some deep, life transforming, arduous, diligent, study. 

And thats the thing, with school work, you put in some work , and you get the grade. It's fairly black and white. But you don't get that with God; He doesn't give you a grade for your Bible efforts of the plans and books you've aimed to finish reading. He doesn't grade you by assessment guidelines...He gives you something so much better. 

He gives you fruit. 

Your character begins to change as you seek God more; you realise your need for Him, you incapability and terrible, terrible lacking of self control. His character (not the law) shows you how far off you are, and gives you a goal.
He is the 'assessment guideline'.
He is the standard to which none of us can achieve. It's sort of like, if you have an exam to enter a prestigious school ... and the pass mark is 100%. The exam is impossibly hard, and no one will ever get full marks. You may even get above 80% - higher than all your friends but it's not 100%...
But somehow, by the mysterious plan of the headmaster you get an acceptance letter; and then after a few years you find out that He expelled His Son from the school so that you could get in. 

- I'm not sure if that makes any sense, but Jesus accepts us even when we have no right to be accepted. The only thing we can do is give our lives to Him and let His sacrifice give us a meaning to our lives. 

----

"...We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord..."

So I was reading Col 1'9 this morning and it struck me. 

In order to abide in the will of God, 

You must have Spiritual Wisdom and Understanding.  = Then the way I live will please Him.

ie: FORMULA =      Spiritual(Wisdom+Understanding)/Applied = Pleasing God

So how do I get this Wisdom ? 

1. ASK = JAMES 1'5 // 5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.

2. FEAR GOD = PROV 9'10 // Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom.

Now we understand the process of asking, we do it every day... but what about fearing ?

** FEAR - profound reverence and awe.

- All we need to do to Fear God , is to have an accurate picture of who He is. When you understand who an important person is, fear comes automatically. Read the Old Testament epic stories ... read Jesus New Testament Miracles , Watch the Blue Planet . Look outside !!!

When you see the things He's made, what He's done in the past --- the very fact that HE IS GOD of the Universe and beyond. It'll come ;)

How do I get this Understanding ? 

1. Knowledge = PROV 9'10 // Knowledge of the Holy One results in understanding. 

What does it mean to know someone ?? 

-
**KNOW = (1) : to perceive directly : have direct cognition of

(3) : to recognize the nature of : discern

(1) : to recognize
(2) : to be acquainted or familiar with
(3) : to have experience of

- Do you see those words ?! It makes perfect sense ... to know God is to recognise Him, to be acquainted with Him, to have direct cognition of Him. 

- Okay now KNOW is a verb of finality... it takes a process of which 'to know' someone is the end result. 

So what is this process ?

I literally googled this and found some results that said things like :

- Initiate a conversation

- Spend time together

-Pay close attention to the person

-Listen carefully to them 

-Be vulnerable with them

There were lists and lists of thing to 'get to know someone'. 

Think about it in your own life ... whose your favourite person in the world, how often do you speak to them ?

For example ... My Mummy and I are best friends , we speak on average about 1.5 hours a day (I'm a few hours away from her at Uni), when I have an important decision to make I call and ask her what to do, I get her permission on things like trips and outings, I value her opinion above anyone else, when something amazing happens she the first person I want to tell. When I'm upset , shes the one I go to, when I find something funny - I think: "Mummy would have loved that."

- Get the picture ?

I know you have someone in your life who is like that too. But more importantly GOD - is to be in that relationship with you and share in so much more, because He never leaves. He's always around and PSALMS 37'23 : The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.

Thats right EVERY DETAIL. 

Don't lock even one door of Your house to Him. You might find that His transforming skills make your house in to the most beautiful home. 

IMTAPA

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