Abba, Father, I …

My son David turned five last December.

Now i know. Late four and early five is the period of immense complaints:

“Daddy, yesterday we prayed in Gracie’s room, why ..again today?

“Daddy i do not like this…”

“But daddy i do not want to go to bed now..”

“But daddy..”

It can wear you out. Today i had just had enough of it. But as i was busy getting annoyed, the Lord reminded me of my own baseless complaints to Him.

So this post is a reminder to myself whenever i am tempted to open my mouth and opine.

Why complaining is a no no

Why do we complain?

Basically, when things are not as we want them to be.

I will give you just three reasons why you should not make complaining a norm in your life.

1. The Lord knows what you need.

Even before you ask Him, He already knows your needs.

²⁴ Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear. ( Isaiah 65:24)

And He has taken measures to meet those needs. In fact, it is most likely that He has already met those needs, or is working towards meeting them.

For the  pagans (other people-mine ) run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ( Matthew 6:32)

So if that is the case, from whence cometh the complaints?

Many times it so happens that His solution to our needs and our preferred solutions do not match. And if you happen to  know better than He does, you open your mouth and out comes complaints. I will give you one example.

A couple of years back i sought to work for a certain high flying energy company. After going through a couple of interviews that went well, i failed to land the job. I was distraught. I complained. Soon after, i took a job with a “less glorious” firm instead.

Two years later, the high flying firm went bust. Enron style. My employer is still going strong. The Lord knew the future, i did not. He set my feet on sure footing. Yet i foolishly opened my mouth to opine, craving that which was dying.

2. A sign that you distrust the Lord’s ability
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I know you are probably troubled by the misery that is Haiti after the recent earthquake.

Some people may have theories about “packs made with the devil” and all that. And some people may theorize on the effects of “voodoo”. I do not know.

I have not asked, and so i do not have an answer to your “why?” I am not a prophet.  But sad as it may be, there are two things i hope you get out of this terror.

(i) For possible explanations, read the post “If God is good, why did he let this to happen?”

(ii) Learn: this may be one of the end time signs

When asked about end times:

³As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” ( Matthew 24: 3 NIV)

Jesus answers that:

⁴Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. ⁶You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸All these are the beginning of birth pains.

⁹“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹²Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. ( Matthew 24:4-14 )

We are so used to stories of starvation in Somalia/Ethiopia, that we might forget that those daily news events could be end time signs for us. We quickly forgot the 1m or so people who are reportedly hungry in North Korea.  Just a couple of years ago, over 200,000 people died in a Tsunami in Asia. We have almost forgotten that. Haiti’s misery is another soon to be forgotten earthquake event.

But, if there is at least something to “get’ from this, it is this: This may be an end time sign. And if it is and this  knowledge helps someone, then those Haiti people may have just been sacrificed to save that someone.

This is the final post ( for now )  on the love trail. See the previous ones:

• a born again christian has no right to hate or dislike another person.
• the type of love shown by a born again Christian must be agape
• a born again Christian cannot hate gays and other “sinners”
• How do you love your fellow Christians?

In today’s post, we shall show some love to our pets.

Americans love their pets. Very very much.

And that is why i saw it fit to put in a word or two on a Christian’s love for pets.

The Trend

Listen to this:

• Commonly heard: “I  am a pet parent“
• The Pet industry is a $45 billion business ( 2009 estimates according to APPA )
• People will continue to spend above and beyond on their pets as the population ages and pets take the place of children at home; however, pet parents will continue to focus their dollars on quality necessities, such as food, leashes, and bedding,..
• It is now common to purchase gifts and diamond jewelry for dogs.

In summary, pets now compete with children and other humans for love and affection. More and more modern girls consider dogs adorable and children “messy” and “demanding”.

More people are choosing to love dogs far more and above humans.

How i love my dog!

How much love should my dog get from me?
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In the past three posts on love, we saw that:

• a born again christian has no right to hate or dislike another person.
• the type of love shown by a born again Christian must be agape and
• a born again Christian cannot hate gays and other “sinners”

In this post, i will attempt to answer the question, how do you love other people?

This is not a trivial question.

By love, i do not mean the superficial  ‘love you” type statements that people so often throw at each other. I mean God-like, agape love.

Love for one another

I will make it easier for us. I will restrict the discussion to loving fellow born again Christians. Those that you may be having fellowship with.

So how do you show love to fellow Christians? The same way Christ shows His love to you, His body, His church;

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ( John 15:12 NIV)

This, of course, means agape love. It means;

Relating to them the way Christ relates to them, His Church.

It means, caring for their needs as much as ( or even before ) yours.

I know. That must be difficult in the  “me-me” society we live.

Worse still, what if the other people are just outright “unlovable”?

It is easy to love those whom we like. It is easier to love those who love us. But that is not a feat that requires one to be born again. Even the non-saved can do that.

6If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. ( Matthew 5:46-48)

Again, what if the other people are unlovable? In that case, ask yourself, “does the Lord love them?”

Of course He does. How does He show them His love? Mostly, trough his body, the church. Through you.  He wants to show His love towards them, through you.

Are you going to say no? If you do refuse Him this favor, how can He be your “Lord”? How can you say you love Him?

But if you are willing to obey His prompting and are willing to work with Him, He will make it possible for you to show agape love to the most “unlovable people”:

But what is impossible with men is possible with God.

So, how do you practically do this?

There is no magic formula. But when presented with any difficult love situation, listen to what the Spirit is telling you to do. He is the author of the love in you, after all.

He always knows what each situation calls for.

What if you just cannot do it?

That is not possible if you have the Spirit. If you have the Spirit, you will want to love others. You cannot but love. Because love is the fruit of the Spirit.

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control. ( Galatians 5:22-23 NIV)

Love for Spouse
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“God hates gays.” seen on a protest sign carried by protesters.

That is extremely absurd. At least to a visitor from another planet.

But lo and behold, if you live in these united states of America, and if you identify yourself with the political Evangelical Christianity you might actually start to believe that statement. You are even more likely to be swayed since some of these protests are sponsored by or somehow affiliated with the Evangelical “Christian” movement or “Family Value” preaching organizations.

Does our Lord hate anyone? No. That is an absurd thought.

( If you are gay, please be assured the Lord loves you, but hates all sin, including yours, and unless you are born again, you will be certainly lost for ever. )

To make it clear for you, let us begin at the beginning.

Back to Eden

When Adam was created, the Lord told him;

¹⁵ The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶ And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Gen 2:15-17 NIV)

When the Devil found Eve, he told her the exact opposite, coated with some truth;

He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
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