Godzilla vs. Bridezilla

The juxtaposition of the “zillas” will hopefully provide a fresher perspective about this thing called marriage.

I received a call yesterday informing me that I was selected to win gift items because I registered on one of their affiliate sites. When asked to confirm the wedding date, I said that “that was what I put but we are flexible, 2013 covers until December 31 anyway, plus I am not a bridezilla so I don’t sweat the small stuff.”

There was an obvious disbelief on her part because the pause was too sharp to cut the titanium band she was offering me. She came back with an ” oh, okay that is fine” and hurriedly finish what I believe was the script she was trying to read and to put to life by pretending to be excited for me.

After the call, I giggled and said “bridezilla” then thinking of what could be the opposite of bridezilla, I started typing Godzilla. Quite a long etymology for my title huh?

Most brides are stressed and focused on a lot of things-venue, theme, reception, the dress, etc. And why not? Most of us started preparing for our wedding at the age of 7. No wonder why when that time comes we all want the event to be a flawless blockbuster, right?

One thing I learned about getting married ( and this I learned back in high school),is that marriage is more than just the wedding itself. Marriage was instituted by God to be a holy union for the purpose of procreation. You don’t get married because you got knocked up “accidentally”, or to get a divorce after 24 hours or 72 days, or to get a tax break. Marriage goes deeper than that. Some people may not agree with what I said in this paragraph, but just because majority believe otherwise , doesn’t nullify the absolute truth God has given us.

God is the author of life, also the author of our love life. God should be involved every step of the way. God should be our wedding planner. Wedding is not a performance. It should be an act of worship, a covenant to love God first then the spouse, second.

Not discounting the importance of preparing logistically for the event, anyone wanting to marry should launch a prayer crusade for God to manifest Himself to the couple. Asking God to bless the union, prepare the hearts of each other for what they will face in the future, revealing to the couple new things about each other that may provide leverage to handle tough situations, and just the readiness to face bigger responsibilities, like parenting, caregiving and companionship for life. Go through pre-marital counseling with a godly elderly.Seek God first and let Him take control of the wedding timeline and experience a sense of calm and peace that only our loving Father can give.

Without God in the equation, no matter how beautifully you write your vows, life could be an uphill battle all the time.

Am I saying that this will guarantee marital success? That depends on how you define success. God is a god of order and relationships and while a perfect marriage isn’t guaranteed, believing and involving God will definitely make us look at life’s challenges differently.

Mother knows best they say, but our Heavenly Father is an all knowing God. What could go wrong with someone wise, loving and faithful?

Don’t stop praying for your boyfriend or girlfriend. Obey God and He will bless you. Invite God to actively participate in your relationship, and He will honor you.

His love is deeper than any love we can get from anyone. When the right time comes and when your heart is ready, you will be bridezilla no more.

Amazing Grace

Do you have anything in the house that’s been broken for a long time and because you are tired seeing it (but is somewhat precious to be thrown away) you ended up fixing it? And instead of a thank you, you were criticized or someone tried to “improve” on it?

Have you given anyone something and felt bad about giving it because instead of a thank you, that person asked for the gift receipt?

Have you done something for anyone out of the goodness of your heart and instead of a thank you, you get a “I-didn’t-ask-you-to do it”.

As the giver, I bet it doesn’t only hurt it could be insulting to some extent, right?

My employer had a daughter. She was very unhealthy. She would sleep the whole day and would only wake up for a cigarette break. She did not eat healthy and she was diabetic. Her blood sugar was always on the higher 500. She was taking up to 12 prescription pills for pain daily. She was unhappy and quarrelsome and bitter. Very ungrateful, too. It was hard being around her.

Then in March of last year, she was diagnosed with lung cancer-stage 4. It came as a surprise to her. After all, she had only been smoking since she was 15 years old. In just six months, she succumbed and lost the battle. She was 68.

When she was diagnosed with the disease, she was devastated. She was so afraid that one day she called for me and asked me to pray for her. I prayed with her and led her to accept Jesus as her Savior. I gave her a moment to speak to the Lord and with desperation, what I heard was this :” Oh, God please make me well and I promise to be a good person, just give me another chance.” I explained to her that God may not always restore good health ( and He did not in her case), but He gave her the best gift of salvation.

Do you now have an idea where I am going with this? A little earlier than that, we had a discussion and she was upset that God was “unfair”. I asked her to explain and she said, ” well what is up with this salvation for all sinners? You mean to say if a murderer or a rapist confesses and accepts Jesus as Savior that he would go to Heaven?”

“If it was genuine repentance, I believe that is true because that’s what the Scriptures say. “

She couldn’t bring herself to accept the fact that she was gonna be in Heaven with them. I laughed and jokingly told her not to worry about it because she was not gonna be in Heaven anyway. Little did I know that months after that conversation, I would be the same person to lead her to pray and accept her salvation.

We were all dead in our transgressions and sins. If we lie , then we are in the category of liars, which is sin. White lie, blue lie, big lie or small lie is a lie, period. If we take money from the emergency tin can in the cupboard without asking, that is stealing. Robbing the bank and taking money from your husband’s wallet is both stealing. If you look at a woman with lust, you are in the same category as that of someone who cheats and sleeps with someone other than your spouse, it is adultery.

So, if all of us are sinners and fell short of God’s glory, then we’re in big trouble. But because God’s love is great, His mercy made us alive in Christ that even when we were dead in transgressions,-it is by grace we have been saved.

Accept it and be thankful. We can never improve on God’s plan. We can never be saved by doing good deeds. God is all knowing that He knew it would be an issue with us that he explicitly said:

⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved,through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.

“Don’t get any idea”, God must be saying. My grace is sufficient. It is a gift and you cannot improve on my plan. There is no gift receipt for I know what is best for you. Just accept it, receive it . Good works are a by product of the salvation, not our ticket to Heaven.

God’s plan of salvation is simple yet profound. We find it hard to believe that sinners like you and I were the reason for the death of His only Son, Jesus. We are not worthy hence no amount of good work can earn us our salvation. Only God’s grace is sufficient. It’s a gift through the kindness and mercy through and in Jesus.

Now, that is amazing!

Related articles

• A Gift, Not to Be Earned (muyiwabamise.wordpress.com)
• Is salvation possible after death? Is there a second chance for salvation? (savedbygraceblogdotcom.wordpress.com)
• Pluralism, Inclusivism, and Exclusivism: Which Is It? (drtimwhite.com)
• An Unexpected “Gift” by Mark D. Roberts (lacykitkat.wordpress.com)
• Salvation out of my knees (manghahasik.wordpress.com)

This Is Not Heaven, Let’s Upgrade.

Two months ago, we signed up for an internet service with the same provider that services our cable ( whom I shall call “the bundler”).  Our home phone was at that time being serviced by the competitor. Asking for discounts and some concession, we decided to port over our home phone over to our cable provider and bundled all three and got some freebies and discount.

Since our mobile phones are still with the competitor, we still call them and usually at the end of the call, they try to convince us to switch over and try their services.  I actually attempted a switcheroo because we were initially unhappy with the internet speed “the bundler” was providing. Then knowing the difference between what we had and what we were trying out, we finally decided to stay with the bundler.

I do the calling all the time, one particular sales call lasted 40 minutes. Ha Ha! Well, I had nothing else to do, I was bored and I needed someone to talk to, so for once I let a phone salesman waste my time. He tried with all his might, power, clout and tricks to convince me to try a dish cable, throwing in sports channels and what not. No way!

I vehemently refused, I stood my ground and really was firm in saying no, because our cable was really good I believe. The package channels, the freebies, and we’ve had it for quite sometime now. I was willing to try out the internet because I knew what I was missing and what I wanted and I was able to compare it, hence the switch to the  bundler. I have a point, be patient with me lol.

In his desperation, he pulled a Columbo sales tactic on me.  I used to train customer service and sales people , so he was basically preaching to the choir.  In the end, he gave up and as if it was his eureka moment he exclaimed “Oh, now I know why you are unwilling to give up your cable, you have been using the same service for so long you don’t know what you are missing!”

Touché.

I think that in general, we approach death  the same way. We all want to go to heaven but we are afraid to die. We are reluctant to leave the life as we know it because although the scripture painted a picture of what heaven is like, human nature is always “to see is to believe. “

But “to see is to believe” is not always the best philosophy for we walk by faith not by sight. If Abraham and Moses and all the previous saints were to appear and warn us of what it is going to be like after we die, the very purpose of Christianity, of  faith and of God’s sacrifice would be in vain. People then would  readily accept Jesus only because of the perks. That is but natural. But God is  supernatural and it just doesn’t work that way.

Death is the portal to heaven, said the pastor in his sermon yesterday. We prepare and spend time and money on our grand vacation because we heard and see that the venue is good, more than good sometimes that we term it “heaven on earth”.  Is it too weird to say that we should be equally excited dying as when we board the plane to our weekend getaway?

If we are going to heaven, why does it matter when we die?

Look all around us and you will see scary situations, troubling news and restlessness. We are virtually connected but socially disconnected. People are generally unhappy, tired and stressed out. Any which way you turn is hard work, too much insecurities, endless  ridicule and persecution.

And yet, we hold on dearly to our earthly lives, defying  age and prolonging life.  There is nothing wrong with that but when we lose sight of what who we are, we lose sight of where we are going.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.-Psalm 116:15

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.- Philippians 1:21

 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.-Philippians 3:20-21

 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”- Revelation 21:1-4

Related articles

• The Kingdom of Heaven (samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com)
• There’ll be all kinds in heaven – in BSL (deafchristians.wordpress.com)
• Heaven is Just Around the Corner (brokenbelievers.com)

 

See you in Heaven, Sister.

I recently lost a dear friend. She went to the same church camps with me. She was sweet. She was kind. She was  generous. She had four kids. She used to have a husband.

We reconnected through a social network. The short time I spent with her online, she managed to share with me what was going on with her life. Her husband was having an affair. She cried out for help  and asked me to talk to whoever was concern at that time. I felt it was not my place to do it, so I just prayed for her.  Six months ago when I took down my profile I lost communication with her and life went on, until one day I got the sad news of her death. It was heart attack.

When I heard of  it,  the first thing that came to mind was “she really died of a broken heart.” I was numb and didn’t know how to react. I talked to her sister ( the story about her sister is another blog story), we both broke down, but we were sad and happy at the same time. If you are a believer you know why the mixed emotions.

I later found out that her husband finally left her for another woman, her kids left her and she was evicted from her house for not paying rent. She had so many troubles in life, but all through the ordeal her love for God was so profound, she would always be praising and thanking God. (  Some people were offended and found that odd, because people expect troubled people to wallow, be depressed and just curse life and God in general, right?) Not my friend.

Then, I was told that finally she made the painful decision to move on. She found a new place, got rid of most of her possession and called her sister to announce that she did turn a new leaf in her life and praised God for it. A week later she died of a heart attack. Now that kind of thing really sticks with you. We did not question God, not at all, in fact we were happy that she is now with the Lord. God took her home and she is free,

The Sunday service following her death was a confirmation from heaven and I was gently reminded and given the blessed assurance that God loved her and her death was necessary and He knew what he was doing. The message that day was all about resurrection and the importance of death. 

God is all-knowing, God is compassionate and Isaiah 57:1 spoke to my heart, and I hope that this too will be a comfort to anyone who lost someone dear:

The righteous perish,
    and no one takes it to heart;
the devout are taken away,
    and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away
    to be spared from evil.

God bless you endlessly.

Related articles

• Heart Attack And Vine (dadwhowrites.wordpress.com)
• Risk of heart attack death may increase after adult sibling’s death (eurekalert.org)
• Study Looks At Health Impact Of Losing A Sibling (philadelphia.cbslocal.com)

Puny god, Anyone?

Last Sunday our guest speaker, Sean Smith mentioned about the Hulk and the puny god. I didn’t know where he was going with the sermon but it made total sense after he finished the segment. It was a reference to a scene in the movie “Avenger”. ( you can just go to youtube and watch that scene).

After the service, the thought lingered and while it was obvious what it was about, I made mental note of my own puny gods.

When I was little my puny god were my toys. We didn’t have much, so every once in awhile when folks would buy us toys, they were treated like precious gems.

High school, I would say my friends were my puny gods. The cliques, the parties and the good times that came with teenage life were deemed priceless, disobeying parents-lying and sneaking. How invinsible.

College, it was the ideologies. The influx of information, liberalism and “intellectual revolution” plus activism were supreme. I felt significant, relevant and important.

After college, my puny god was my career, making money and competition. I was at the top of my game.

Then, relationships came- life changing but not for the better I’d say. I have learned to enjoy control, so much that when things went awry, I played god myself. My puny self became my own puny god.

It was foolish of me to think that life was better and foolish to think that God didn’t mind.

Unlike Hulk, God did not body slam me, instead His gentle nudge and forgiveness brought me back to earth, my senses and to my Heavenly Father.

How foolish to think that our puny gods can make us happy and satisfied. It was fun while it lasted, but the lingering after effect of such foolishness was overwhelming enough to wallow in self-pity and self- condemnation.

My God is mighty and big. He gave me everything to save me from myself. The gift of death and resurrection of Jesus was big enough to cover my sins.

No other god did that for me.

As we reflect on His death and resurrection, may we be reminded that our God is greater than any puny gods.

What are your puny gods?