Welcome to the August 30th edition of Faith & Life Lessons.
You will see this email full of tidbits from my week. My goal is simple. I hope that from how I live my life, you can find a thing or two that helps you as you try to live a life that matters. I am always trying to do one thing - make Christ-focused decisions in love, work, and life. And this was my week.
The Story Of My Week
Late in the week, the news cycle came out with news that actor, Chadwick Boseman had passed on after a battle with colon cancer. I liked him as a person. I also liked him as an actor
One of the things I enjoyed about his acting is that he made you remember the character he played and not the actor playing the character.
This is a talent that most actors don't have.
Chadwick had this in loads.
A couple of friends I hang online with started asking if he was a Christian. Different people brought up different reasons to come to a conclusion.
I'll miss Chadwick. He left a body of work that speaks to his skill and dedication to the work.
And the dignity he carried himself with as he fought the disease over the last 4 years is remarkable.
As the good book says "It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart." (Ecclesiastes 7:2)
And this really reminds me of why I need to never forget to offer the people around the one product with an eternal life guarantee - Salvation.
It could be check-out time like lightning across the sky.
It's good to have them ready to ride on the chariots of fire.
Things I Learnt
1-Letting People Answer Their Questions: it has taken me years to learn this and even more years still trying to practice it
It’s something I picked up from watching Jesus answer people’s questions. Instead of giving answers, He would give them a fresh perspective which they could use to answer their own questions
I got to practice a bit of that this week
Someone responded to something I had written last week - you can read the full stuff here
Anyway, she asked "does a decree not mean it was allowed 'Tomato ToMAto'?
So using the Jesus approach, I asked her if these two sentences convey the same meaning
a-At the sentencing trial of the criminal, the judge decreed that he should be put in prison
b-At the sentencing trial of the criminal, the judge allowed that he be put in prison
She responded "In this instance, it doesn't. I get you though, allowed sometimes wants to imply that God didn't have control or He just let it happen. Whereas, decree is more of in control, deliberate."
Case closed for now and I didn't have to say anything
2-When Christians Become Political Commentators: On an online group I am on which is made of mostly Christians from my home country, someone put up a post that due to the issues in the country, the country should be split along religious lines.
It's not the first time I have heard stuff like this. In recent times, it's been name-calling the political leadership of the country or declaring the country a hopeless case.
Literally, everything they say lines up with what I hear talking heads on the news or political shows blab about.
But this is so far from what I believe we should do as Christians
We may not have voted for a political leader but once they get into office, we owe them our consistent support.
Things may not be working as we want in our country but we cannot make it about our emotions.
It's interesting that King Ahab in the Bible is described as being very bad but we only have two records of Elijah confronting him.
Samuel only confronted the people of Israel twice about their decision to ask for a king as a rejection of God. He spent the rest of the time praying for them.
Political commentators make good critics but Christians make bad critics.
We cannot join the bandwagon of saying what God has not about our leaders or country.
We may even look like sorry
What we say must be based on God's vision for us that reflects how we represent Him.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue and we will give account for how we used that power
Our words will be called into account
Including the ones we speak over our political leaders and countries
Let my words be few
Postscript
May the news of life keep you trusting more in God and not discouraged to move forward. Amen
Tata,
Tola
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