Death-it's reality

This week started with the shocking news of one of Zambia’s finest poet, Luka Mwango. All the memories I had of him came rushing through my mind. I remembered how he commended me for starting a blog and how he encouraged me to continue writing amidst my never ending writers block. I can still remember the day so vividly.

On the day news about his death came, social media was flooded with stories of how people would miss Luka and what memories they had of him. Most recounted about his passion to write, his faith and how he was not ashamed to proclaim what he believed in. He is a shining example of a life well lived.

I then thought to myself “what will people say about me when I die?”

It is the truth that each one of us is faced with the reality of death. Each day that passes brings us closer to facing our death day. But what is important is to make use of the time that we have now. How are we living our lives presently? Are we seeking to glorify God in everything we do?

Ecclesiastes 11:9 tells us; Rejoice young man in your youth and let your heart cheer in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring into Judgement.
Hebrews 9: 27 puts it this way, and just as it is appointed man to die once, and after that comes judgement..

We will each be asked to give an account of how we have lived our lives whilst here on earth. Will Christ look at you on that day and say,

“Well done, good and faithful servant, enter now into the joy of your master”.
Or He will say;

“Away from me you worker of iniquity”

The time is now to make things right with God. It is time to repent and give our lives to God, honouring him in everything that we do. He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins.

Rest In Peace Luka, till we meet again on the other side.
                             Signed,
                                   Kaps.
                                 
                               

Beauty from Ashes

Not too long ago I took material to a tailor to have a dress made. At first glance the material looked ordinary but soon after came a beautiful dress. Isn't it true? How the seemingly useless and ordinary can be turned into beautiful? It brought to mind the phrase "Beauty from Ashes".

What do we do with ashes?

Throw them away.

But not so with the Lord. HE takes what we think is useless and turns it into beautiful. He has promised to make all things new, to use the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

Ashes in the Bible are a symbol of repentance and deep grief.

Often we have dreams and aspirations of how we would like our lives to turn out. But soon we see our dreams turn to ashes and our castles crumble. Life is not always happy, sometimes it hurts, sometimes its hard and dark. And it leaves its mark, like ashes of grief in the deepest parts of our souls where no one but God really sees and understands. Theres beauty and greatness behind every mark of darkness. The ashes will fall away. They don't stay forever, but God's goodness, greatness and glory shine forever through every broken place and flaw we have struggled with. There's nothing beautiful about ashes but sometimes painful experiences cause beauty to come forth. The beauty can be new strength because His strength is made perfect in our weakness. Or a deeper relationship with the Lord. Our brokeness is something the Lord can use for his glory.

We read that Job was in ashes (Job2:8), but later blessed abundantly.

Joseph was thrown into a pit and later sold as a slave by his own brothers (Genesis 42) but God used him to save his family from starving.

Jesus went through agonizing pain on the cross and from that came our salvation.

No matter what we have done or what we  are going through right now let us give HIM our ashes and he will turn them into beauty. We can sing with Bill Gaither;
                                 Something beautiful, something good
                                All my confusion Jesus understood,
                              All i have to offer him is brokeness and strife,
                            But he made something beautiful out of my life
       
                                                 Signed,
                                                     Kaps❤

Running on hope

For starters, this is exciting!!! Getting to guest blog on here is one of the best things to ever happen.
And as I went through the week, thinking and praying about what to write, and actually opening my laptop to start, I stared at the screen for a lot of minutes until it happened so here we are!
One of the themes that seem to have been recurring in my life is hope. Especially of late.
Am not talking, “hope I passed that test I didn’t adequately prepare for, or hope I get home safe tonight” type of hope. I’m talking major, life or death type of hope.
I’m talking staking out your life on God hope.
Truth is, I get that everyone has struggles, some harder than others. Life has a tendency to do that. A tendency to start rolling back and forth and leave you feeling unmoored and lost at sea.
I remember coming to school last year and having to struggle with whether I’d register or not after fees were increased.
I had no immediate anchor or safe stay that would assure me it would be okay.
Let me set the scene.
I was first year. I was a foreign student. I hadn’t even half the amount to pay.
And I sat staring at the wall one full hour thinking, God, what is this? Although  I probably  asked  in a more dramatic tone.
There was no set precedence and well-meaning people asked me if it had been done before, where someone in my situation actually got to stay and register.  And if you’re anything like me, common sense isn’t what you want to hear when you’re desperate.
I did. I still don’t, for the life of me know how. But I do know God.
Hope. I am way past feeling like hope is an emotional thing. Strength fails. Motivation wanes. Logic and reason sit you down and convince you it’s over. And like another post on this blog, But God. God comes in.
Hope that relies on a sovereign, all powerful God is not a timid hope. It is an emboldened faith that spurs us to trust God more. To obey him and more importantly, to love him.
Hope allows us to trust God and hope against hope. It is not a safe bet against the odds, it’s a firm belief rooted in knowing that the promises of God can be believed, from being saved from sin and being loved in the everyday. If it is in his word, we can trust him for it. After all, who has ever set precedence for God? He is precedence itself.
So, to close off this post, I’m gonna ask, on whom do you base your hope?

Lessons From Lazarus

Today I want to share an except from a book I was reading about a month ago. The book is titled; Having A Mary Heart In a Martha World by Joanna Weaver. It is a book I would highly recommend to anyone.

Chapter 8 of the book is titled Lessons From Lazarus and the text is John 11:1,3.


Now a man named Lazarus was sick....so the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord the one you love is sick".
Four lessons can be drawn from these two verses;

• God's will does not always proceed in a straight line

When Lazarus' sisters sent word to Jesus that their brother was sick they must have thought he would go and heal him immediately. But Jesus did not until Lazarus died and was buried. This means we will not always understand God's plan, one reason for this is that God is weaving together a greater glory than just our own...all things work together for good to those who love the Lord. So don't get upset when point A does not automatically lead to point B. God always has a plan, but it may not follow human logic. He always has the big picture in mind as he handles the stories of our lives. We will not always see the pattern in what happens to us.

God's love sometimes taries for our good and his glory

We live in a world so big on cause and effect. We want explanations, we want to know why. But we must understand that we are not pawns on some celestial chessboard, expendable and unimportant. We are cherished and highly loved. While we may not fully understand why God's love sometimes lingers, we can rest assured that God's love is always at work. He may not move according to our schedule, but he is right on time for what is best. And he has our ultimate good forever in mind.

God's ways are not our ways but his character is still dependable

We might not be able to see the end of the story but we can trust the storyteller. Martha and Mary, while waiting at Lazarus' deathbed waiting for Jesus to arrive had nothing to hang on to except what they knew about Jesus' character. They knew Jesus loved their brother, that he had the power to heal. In times of struggle and difficult circumstances let us go back and remind ourselves about the God we know. You find out that the God you know is the God you can hold on to, even when his stories dont unfold the way we think they should.

• God's plan is released when we believe and obey

Faith and obedience go hand in hand. It takes faith to choose obedience even when you are shaking with fear. But when God speaks a promise to our hearts we can take him at his word. Jesus wept, and he weeps with us as well. Though he sees the joyful ending just around the bend, he still gets down in the middle of our sorrow and holds us close, mingling his tears with our own.

                                                  Thanks for reading,

                                                        Signed with love,

                                                                         Kay.

Gratitude

I recently had to come terms with the truth, I am not a morning person. waking up is hard work, I have to set an alarm(s) otherwise I will be late to wherever am going. By the time am leaving the bed am sulking, grumbling and saying all sorts of things to myself.
Most of us can agree that we have the tendency to complain just about anything. We focus on what we don't have in our friendships, within ourselves instead of looking at what we have and be thankful for it. This can be traced as far back as the fall in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were given a beautiful place with everything they needed but when Satan came to tempt Eve she lost sight of all the good things and started to want more. Our fall has always been and will always be that we aren't satisfied in God and what he gives. We hunger for something more, something better, something other.
The bible tells us again and again to be grateful for what we have. Here are some examples;
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever-1Chronicles 16:34
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole; I will recount all your wonderful deeds-Psalm 9:1
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with  thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God-

Phillipians 4:6
Here are some ways that can help us learn to apply gratitude in our lives
⦁    be thankful for the little things,even waking up early. someone might not be waking up early as you do maybe because they do not have a job to go to and they wished they did.
⦁    remember that everything is a gift from God. thank him for for everything
⦁    remember for everything there is a season.God blesses us differently and at different times.
⦁    as the old adage says; comparison is the thief of joy. there will always be someone better than us. better job, house, car etc and if we start comparing ourselves with others it shows that we are not thankful for what we have. but that does not mean we should not strive to work hard and be successful.
⦁    count your blessings, name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
only in Jesus are we able to become the kind of persistently thankful people God has created us to be. Let us learn to rest in his promises and place our confidence in his faithfulness.

                                            as always,
                                                 Kaps
P.S feel free to add more ways we can learn to be thankful in the comment section.