And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth” - Mat 28:18 (NIV).
A friend of mine had one of those birds that enjoyed making a home in her beautiful compound. This bird is sort of honorary; she won’t have anything short of a castle, where she gathers all amount of dirt and parades all in glory.
Tired of all the dirt, one day my friend asked her shamba boy climb up to cut down the tree branches. “No!” The young shamba boy refused. He would not dare do such a thing. Curious my friend asked, why!
“My mother told me that if you hurt that bird nasty things will follow you!”
At that point my friend remembered that she was a believer in Christ and no longer a captive of old traditions. So, she got hold of the panga, telling the young man that her faith in Christ was beyond those worries, struggled up the tree and cut down the branches. The young man stood watching amazed.
Later, after realizing nothing bad had happened to his master, in the days that followed the young man, like her, started cutting down the remaining branches. He had been converted over by one person who had put her faith in Christ.
Prayer for Today: Lord Father in heaven, today I pray that I may never doubt the faith and power I have in you as a believer in Christ.
Related upcoming events
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19/04/2024 - 20/04/2024 All day“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” ( Isaiah 43:19).
Just before fire was unleashed down on Sodom and Gommorah, Lot was told to pack up with his wife and two daughters and leave their homestead. Now, once out of danger, “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” ( Gen 19:26). Perhaps here we might pause and ask why she was bothered to look back.
Of course it could have been that old “curiosity killed a cat” mistake! Yet, it could also have been Lot’s wife was not sure where she was going and longed for her old life back. This is a common error. There was nothing stirring to look back. Just before Lot’s neighbors had attacked his house eager to rape his visitors. “They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them” ( vv 5). Was there anything worth looking back to!
The case of Lot’s wife could be anyone else’s experience. The Lord has plucked you out of some mess. You have been delivered to a new life. Yet, somehow you decide to look back, as though there was anything good and worth longing for. Sometimes it is a bitter past you have been delivered from. Other than rejoice in your new blessings you keep being drawn back!
A wise caution goes, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly” ( Proverbs 26:11). If the Lord has just led you out of a certain mess why look back like it was much better! Instead look ahead, for “he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past” ( vv 17- 18).
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, I thank you for delivering me from the darkness of the past and I look forward to a bright new future in you, this I pray in Jesus’ name!
