THE MUSICIAN, HIS MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, HIS MUSIC

I got my first electric keyboard when I was eight years old. I think I was in Primary 3 or 4 at that time. What earned me the keyboard was simple. We had a music class in school where we had to learn to play the recorder (the plastic toy-like one). I turned out to be pretty impressive for a girl my age at playing the recorder and dad noticed. So he promised to get me a way better instrument – a real saxophone. I got a keyboard instead. Many years later, from conversations with dad, I now suspect that he got the keyboard because he always wished he knew how to play the instrument, and since he couldn’t, he hoped his children would be able to. Yeah, that’s not selfish at all. *wink*.

Okay, at this point, I should clarify that dad didn’t buy that keyboard specifically for me. He got it for all of us kids, but I happened to be the only one interested in it, so I took control of it and luckily, my siblings didn’t object. 

Twenty-One years later and a newer, bigger electric keyboard (standing right beside where I write now), I still cannot play the keyboard to save my life.

While I agree that my musical intelligence is highly pathetic, I must say that I know a few things about instruments. I know that:

1. An instrument cannot play itself. It requires the input of a musician – skilled or amateur (like me) to produce sound from it.
2.  The quality of music produced from an instrument is highly dependent on the skills of the musician who plays it. 
3. If an instrument refuses to yield to the musician – if the keys of the piano are too stiff; if the pedals of the drum-set wouldn’t move; if the strings of the guitar or violin are broken – the instrument cannot be played; at least, not to its optimum performance. A good musician will try to get his instrument fixed; however, if the instrument doesn’t bulge after his efforts, he’ll get a replacement.

These things I know for sure… And you know, it kind of explains Romans 6:13.

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. – Romans 6:13

For a long time, I thought I had to bring the music out of my life. I thought it was my job to do the work that needs to be done to get it right with God. I thought for many years that Jesus had done the work on Calvary and it was my turn to get it right for myself – “put in the hard work, get it right Temi or get out of God’s Big Book of Life.” But then I read Galatians 3:1-3. In this passage, Paul expressed anger at the Christians in Galatia for trying to work out their salvation by themselves without the Holy Spirit who convicted them of sin and caused them to be saved. Paul, in fact, told them it was foolish to even think like that. 

Here’s part of what he told them:

 Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. – Galatians 3:2-3 (The Message)

Hmmm… So it meant I was doing it wrong. 

A while later, I found out, through study of my Bible, that that portion of the Bible where we are asked to work out our salvation with fear and trembling has a follow-up verse. No one told me about verse 13. They always stopped at 12. So who could blame me for trying – working my salvation out – with literal fear and obvious trembling? 

Oh how liberating it was to find the treasure in verse thirteen!

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. – Philippians 2:13

That certainly buttressed Paul’s point in Galatians. Working out one’s salvation isn’t the work of an individual by himself. He has to do it in partnership with the Holy Spirit – God taking the lead. You cannot do it by yourself; you’ll only crumble under the weight of it all. If it was something you could do for yourself, Jesus needn’t have come to die for us. If we could maintain our salvation by ourselves, we could as well have saved ourselves from the start. 

This truth perhaps goes to show the difference between the Christian who lives in line with God’s principle and those who live carnally. If we would ask Paul today, “How can God work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure?”

He’ll refer us to Romans 6:13, and give us this simple answer: Yield!

To yield is to “give up or surrender oneself; to give over, to relinquish, to resign oneself to something else.”

What amazes me most about that verse is that Paul didn’t ask believers to only yield ourselves to God. He also asks us to yield our bodies as instruments of righteousness unto God. 

So, back to instruments… Being told to yield ourselves as instruments unto God, we can rightly say that God is our Musician and we are His Musical Instruments. If we yield to Him, He’ll produce amazing Music from our lives. Just as an instrument cannot play itself, in the same way, we cannot play music off of ourselves. We cannot become perfect by our own human efforts. We cannot work out our own salvation without Him working in and through us for His good pleasure. We need the input of the Master Musician to produce beautiful music out of our lives. How Amazing! How Relieving!

But… 

If you followed closely, you’ll realize that I skipped something. I didn’t mention that there are two musicians – both, highly skilled. The earlier phrase in Romans 6:13 tells us of another musician - Sin. There are two musicians; and this goes to show that unlike my inanimate keyboard that has no choice as to who plays it, every person decides which musician plays him/her. Your choice against one musician is an automatic choice for the other. So, the difference between a believer who pleases God and he who pleases the devil is the choice each made on to whom he’ll yield.

God wants to produce pleasant music out of our lives. He wants our lives to call the world’s attention of His love and sacrifice on Calvary. He wants the music of our lives to turn others to Him. But this is completely dependent upon us. Yes, it is foolish to try to finish what God began, but God won’t force Himself against our will. If you refuse to yield as an instrument in His hand, it will be difficult for Him to produce good music out of your life.

So my friends, to whom do you yield?

COME BOLDLY...

Hi friends, it’s been a while – I’m sorry!

I’m studying the Book of Hebrews, which focuses on the theme, “Christ, Our High Priest.” I indeed must say that Hebrews is a very detailed book. Although, I have studied Hebrews before, I come to realize each time I study the Bible that the more of God you know, the more of Him you do not know. How amazing to know that one can never fully exhaust the knowledge, revelation and inspiration from the Bible. Get started on it if you haven’t, folks.

Anyway, I’d like to share something from the Book of Hebrews with y’all; stay with me, please.

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One of the first things we learn in Hebrews about High Priest Jesus is that He’s been there, man! He has walked this earth and been through it all.

For we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

-          Hebrews 4:15 (KJV)

He knows what you are going through. He is not just a sympathetic High Priest; He also is an empathetic one. He understands pain (He was beaten, scourged, pierced – Isaiah 53:5); and hurts (He was belittled by His own relatives (Mark 6:1-6) and abandoned by His friends at the most difficult, most trying time of His life – Mark 14:50-52); and disappointments (the primary people He came to save did not believe in Him – John 1:11); and shame (He was paraded on foot around town while hauling a cross to His death ground for a crime He did not commit – John 19:14-18); and loneliness (Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani – Matthew 27:45-46).

He also had some good times just like we do – healing the sick – Luke 8:43-48, Luke 5:17-26; raising the dead (most notably, his friend) John 11; wiping away tears – Luke 7:11-17; teaching – Matthew 5:1-2; forgiving sins – John 8:1-11; hanging out with friends – John 7:36-50, John 21:8-13, Luke 19:1-10; etc. And also like us, in the midst of all these, He encountered storms – Mark 4:35-41; was often harassed – Luke 20:20, John 8:6; and was tempted (not one, not two, not three times – scriptures say Satan went away for a season; which simply means that old dude must’ve come back to try his luck some more times) – Matthew 4:1-11. Our High Priest went through it all.

We can rightly say that sin is the root cause of all the problems in this perfectly-created world we live in. And I am also correct when I say some of our personal problems, in fact, many of them [even as Christians], are as a result of our own sins/shortcomings. But here we have Jesus, our High Priest, who went through more than what we go through, and without sin. He did not deserve any of the hurt, pain or shame; yet He went through them. He could have thrown tantrums at the Father as we often do; rightly claiming that He did not deserve to go through those, but He didn’t. Isaiah says He was led as a lamb to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7) – gently & willingly. Unlike us, He did not give up and He never sinned – NOT once.

And this is why He could become our Perfect High Priest. As High Priest, He is our intercessor. He made atonement for our sin; and this He did with Himself. He was the very sacrifice that He sacrificed. As our High Priest, he leads us into the very presence of God (Hebrews 6:19-20). Without Jesus, we could not approach the Father. But with Him, we not only approach Him, we have been asked to come boldly (Hebrews 4:16).

I used to think that the Throne of Grace was for those who has it together. That “come boldly” threw me off. I couldn’t imagine a sinner coming “boldly”, so I just imagined that Christians who have it all together are the ones to whom that verse referred. But some months ago, God opened my eyes to the truth in that verse. Let’s examine it:

·         “Let us therefore

·         Come boldly

·         Unto the Throne of grace

·         That we may:

o   Obtain mercy, and

o   Find grace

·         To help … In the time of need.”

Yes. I know I just broke that verse in bits. That was how God showed it to me. Let me explain:

1.      First, “Let us therefore” indicates that something has been said before that we have to pay attention to (vv14-15). This, I already explained above.

“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

-          Hebrews 4:14-15

Now, in that light, knowing that our Forerunner (that is, the One who leads us (Hebrews 6:20) into the presence of God– to the Throne of grace) has been through it all without sin, we can therefore…

2.      Come Boldly: We come boldly [fearlessly, confidently, freely, cheerfully courageous, assuredly, openly] NOT based on anything we have done or can ever do (we’ll see for certain that it’s not us in a bit), but based entirely on Christ’s merit. Now, you may think that the people who are completely in right standing with God (by their own efforts – if it were possible) are the ones who can come boldly/confidently – at least, that’s what I thought. It is, however, not so at all.

We have been invited to come boldly…

3.      Unto the Throne of Grace: The Throne of Grace is the place Jesus, as our Perfect High Priest leads us to. It is the very presence of God. It is the place every believer should long for daily. I won’t go into any details about this place today. I’m going somewhere; let’s move on.

4.      That you may: We have been asked to come boldly to this Throne of grace for two things:

a.       To obtain mercy: Now, this is it where it may shock us. I personally do not know of any “put-together” individual who needs mercy. Do you? I mean, if I never cheated you, why do I need to ask you to forgive me for cheating you? I do not need the mercy or forgiveness of someone whom I have not offended.

What is mercy? Mercy is not meting out the punishment that one deserves on him/her. So for example, you burgled my home, damaged some of my properties and attempted to steal from me, but unfortunately for you, you got caught. Now, rather than report you to the police to have you jailed, I chose to just let you go. That is mercy. That is something God invites us to come boldly to obtain. Note that coming boldly precedes the mercy that is offered. A person who has offended you, who is in need of your mercy, should come fearfully to you, not boldly. But here God is asking the sinner, the prostitute, the murderer, the adulterer, and yes, the Christian who like me screws up on a regular, regular, annoyingly regular basis to come boldly.

What does this mean? It means we come boldly NOT on our own merit but solely, completely, totally on the merit of our sinless High Priest.

Now, if God had stopped at mercy, He would have been perfectly justified. If all God told me was, “Temi, I won’t count your sins against you,” it would have been perfect by me. But He did not stop there. He went further. He did more than He should have; way more than we deserved. Not only does He offer mercy at the Throne; there we also come to...

b.      Find grace: Back to my owner and thief story. So after I caught you stealing from me, and I was merciful enough not to report you the authorities, I went further to provide you a fully furnished apartment to live in; I gave you a good paying job in my company; and extended to you a lifetime (but voluntary) weekly offer as a lunch guest in my home every Sunday; and just kept on treating you like nothing ever happened. That’s beyond mercy. That is grace.

God’s grace, as I (personally) would like to call it, is an undeserving extension of God’s mercy (1 Timothy 1:12-14). It is God’s unmerited favor towards mankind (Romans 5:8; John 3:16). It is available to all men (Titus 2:11) – to saints and sinners (1 John 2:2). All the benefits we have in Christ, we receive by His grace. Your hard work [even for the Lord] cannot provide you any of those benefits. Paul declared, “I am what I am by the grace of God” (1st Corinthians 15:10).

A put-together person does not need grace. What does he need it for? He has it all together already. But if you are like me, I am grateful for grace. I am grateful for mercy.  I need my High Priest every day. I am empty without Him. Left by myself, my name should be, “Temi Screw-upper Lasisi”. I cannot breathe without His mercy and His grace.

There is something that His mercy and His grace do for me.

5.    To Help… In the time of need: Again, put-together people do not need help and they do not have times of need. But Screw-Upper Temi Messy Lasisi needs help every step of the way. Every time, I am in need – desperately in need of Him – every every time. The moment I feel put-together, I screw up so BIG; even I don’t believe I did what I did. I am glad He always meets me and helps me. I’d be lost without Him.

So, hey, fellow left-by-themselves screw-uppers like me, God is saying to you, “Come boldly.”

You promised you’ll never gossip again, come boldly.

You’ve sworn that never again will you watch pornography and masturbate, come freely.

And to you who do not know how to handle the storms, the confusion and the troubles in your life, you know you’re in a desperate time of need. You need help, just come.

To my preacher, Bible teacher & Christian counselor friends, we know how we like to look put-together before our congregation/Bible students/counselees. We must agree, though, that behind the scene, we mess up too – we exaggerate, react too harshly, get angry, yell … dang … we look lustfully sometimes (hey, honesty here), etc. We like to look put-together, and sometimes, we like to deceive ourselves that we are too; whereas, we’re a broken glass inside, a little more self-deception, and we’ll shatter. Enough of the sham; come humbly, come confidently, come as you are.

Satan will want to deceive you that you should remain timid before God (especially right after you’ve fallen short) because you do not measure up to God’s holiness. He’ll tell you that should remain ashamed of yourself to show that you’re remorseful for your wrongs. Brothers and sisters, remorse does NOT move God. Get that right! Repentance is what matters to God and it’s by His mercy and grace that you can keep away from sin that soils. So next time Satan comes with such demoralizing & intimidating debasing thoughts, just shake it off, put him in his place, and COME to the Throne of grace…

                                                            …BOLDLY

They Deserve the Least Act of Love, but Jesus Says to Pray for Them

Some days ago, I was with a group of people and we encountered a person who had cheated me badly many years ago. It was apparent that life wasn’t dealing very nicely with him, and the people around me noticed it. I wasn’t interested in any of the chitchats because I didn’t want to have to say hello to him. I may love him, because the love of God is shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost which I have (Romans 5:5) and I am not capable of hate; but I do not like him and I do not have to pretend that I do. So I did not talk to or say hello to him. But when someone by me made a comment about his sorry state, I thought in my heart that it served him right. I mean, “Anyone who did what he did should not move forward in life.” So I thought. But God didn’t think so. In fact, a few minutes later, God told me, “Temi, you have to pray for him.”

“Pray for him? No! Of course not. What kind of prayer am I to pray for him?” That was the least thought that could have naturally crossed my mind. I knew God was talking to me, and I know how He gets to me. He gave me a scripture – Luke 6:28b, “...and pray for them which despitefully use you.” Boom!!!

“OK. I understand that Lord. But I have forgiven him. I have moved on and I do not even remember that this individual exists. So why do I need to bring him up again in prayers?”

God so merciful made me understand that when I forgave him, and when I healed, and when I moved on, I did all that for myself. But when I pray for him, I do that for him – it means I consciously ask God to do something good for him. That is love at its peak. Remember Romans 5:8? “…in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  Now I had no choice. I had to pray for him. And I did … today … almost a week later. Haha.

I’ve pondered on this phrase from Luke 6 since that day last week and I believe strongly that God wants someone who’s reading this to do the same too.

First, let’s examine that scripture from verse 27, because that’s where the sentence begins in the King James Version of the Bible.

“But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.” Luke 6:27-28.

In the above passage, Jesus highlights four categories of least likely people that you should express varying degrees of kindness to.

First are your enemies. Enemies are those who do not like you and who ordinarily do not wish you well. They may or may not cause you physical harm, but they definitely do not want you to prosper. God says to love them. We all agree that it’s really difficult to love people who are apparently our enemies.

Those who hate you aren’t very much different from your enemies. However, they may be a little bit more scary than your enemies because those who hate you can pretend to be your friends and perpetrate evil that could cause you harm. Jesus says, “Do good to them. Be like your Father and be kind to them (Luke 6:35-36).” God help us!. Jesus, really??? Arrghhh!!!!!!!!

Next are those, who beyond secret or obvious hatred, go to the extent of placing curses on you. Jesus says, “Bless them.” I personally do not find this one particularly hard to do, because I understand the scriptures that say Christ was made a curse for me (Galatians 3:13) so I can’t be cursed, and that a curse causeless will not come to stay (Proverbs 26:2). So that’s not too hard. They, in fact, need blessings. Hehe.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He goes on to say we should pray for some people. They are the least likely ones that deserve any act of kindness, but Jesus says, “Pray for them.” Those which despitefully use you – pray for them. “Wow!!! Why LORD, why? Not these ones! They are worse than enemies, haters, and cursers put together. They express their hatred, disdain and contempt for me with all they’ve got.” They do not deserve mercy. We all know that. Even God agrees. But really, who does? Now that you have Jesus, God says, “Pray for them.”

I know it’s difficult. But God will give you the strength to, just like He did me tonight. I mentioned the names of several people who have despitefully used me over the years and prayed for them from my heart. It is for them, but trust me, you’ll benefit from it too.

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So, you my sister friend who was/is being sexually abused, Jesus says, “Pray for him/them who abused/s you.”

And to you who was a victim of pedophilia. It’s really horrible. I agree. And Jesus agrees too, but He says, “Pray for him.”

That lover boy who was exploited by the girl he loved. She drained you of all your cash – owned and borrowed. It super hurts; but oh please, pray for that sister. She needs Jesus.

Oh dear reader, who is despitefully used every day by your boss. You understand errands better than you understand how to do what you were trained for. You probably went to the company to develop your IT skills, and what you have developed is your tenacity to stand in long queues at the bank. You understand the various dimensions of a bank queue at different hours of the day than you understand the various sizes of an A4 or A3 paper. Coupled with that, rather than have you improve on your programming skills, your boss prefers you improve on your driving skills because he wants his family to be in safe hands while you chauffeur them to and fro the airport. Yeah, and your salary never comes in on time too. It’s unthinkable, but Jesus says, “Pray for him.”

And to that maid – (she probably won’t be able to read this because she’s not even allowed to eat on the dining table with the kids, let alone touch a computer). She gets whipped for crimes she did not commit – crimes her “madam” knows the kids committed. If you know her, will you please tell her that Jesus says she should pray for her boss?

However you have been despitefully used, abused, or insulted, Jesus is telling us that our forgiveness isn’t complete until we’ve prayed for these ones who do not deserve our prayers.

Please, will you pray with me?

Dear Lord Jesus, I thank you loving me and for teaching me this hard truth today. I pray for (mention their names here). Please bless him/her. If he/she isn’t saved, please, let him/her come to know you and accept your gift of salvation. If he/she is in trouble, please, deliver him/her. Send helpers to him/her. Make him/her fruitful. If he/she feels bad about what he/she did, please, help him/her to forgive him/herself. This I pray from my heart Lord. In Jesus’ name. Amen.