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Gifts & Scars

Do you have a special Christmas Day tradition? Our family tradition since I was a child has been to gather together as the extended family to enjoy some nyama choma (roast meat). We used to get together at my grandparents’ place, but now we rotate venue between my siblings and me.  And this year’s Christmas get together was held at our place. 

My big concern as the day drew closer was on the preparation and post-cleanup. You know what it’s like when everyone leaves, and you have to deal with a sink overflowing with dirty dishes, an unclean floor, and messy living room? I’m happy to report that the Lord graciously gave strength and enthusiasm for all this. So much so that on the 26th of December, I was nowhere near as tired as I expected to be. All glory to God! 

Speaking of the 26th, a friend sent a belated Christmas card that mentioned cherished Christmas memories. As I read the card, my heart sank a little. It sank because I couldn’t help but wish that I had recent Christmas memories that I could treasure. You see, since I turned away from celebrating Christmas as a non-believer, to celebrating Christmas with understanding that it’s all about Jesus, I seem to end up with Christmas scars instead of gifts. I cannot remember the last time I had pleasant memories from Christmas Day. 

There seems to always be that one family member who is out to inflict pain or elicit offence in me, unprovoked. And I must confess that I have sometimes responded in ways that I’m not proud of. Which then makes me feel terrible because I know that I am not being the best representative of Christ, and yet my (many) unbelieving family members need to see the gospel in action.

As I reflect on this Christmas, I am reminded of God’s kindness to us in giving us His righteousness purely by His grace, and through faith. I am a child of God, and have eternal life because Jesus bore our sins, and I believe that He covered over all my sin. I am not born again because I do or say the right things. Isn’t this wonderful? I never tire of hearing this good news! 

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” 
Romans 3:23—24 (NIV)

So, if you picked up a scar yesterday, or perhaps inflicted the scars, take heart! Your righteousness is a free gift from God. You didn’t earn it, and at your request, God is willing to help you become more and more like Jesus, and heal your scars. 

However, if you haven’t received this free gift yet, all you have to do is ask!

What good news!  

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Watch!

In the past few days, interesting content has popped onto my YouTube feed. I say interesting because these videos have spoken about Jesus’s return, and some of them have gone ahead to suggest roughly what year that will be. Before you roll your eyes and dismiss this post with “nobody knows the day or the hour,” (which, like you, I believe!) hear me out. 

As I watched the videos, and heard how close to the current year (2024) that these predictions are, I found myself wondering . . . what if they’re right, and Jesus’s return is that near? Am I watching out for the signs He said would precede His return? Am I being a wise and faithful servant? Am I living in the way that Jesus said I should live? Am I pursuing the things of the world, or am I pursuing things related to the Kingdom of Heaven? Am I living as though His return is a far-off event, and putting myself at risk of being caught unaware when He comes back? Will I be one of the wise or foolish virgins on His return? 

Weighty questions! And I find myself sighing as I share these thoughts because I can’t say that I am living as one who is aware that the King is coming soon. 

“Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”
Mark 13:35–37 (NIV)

So in addition to the new actions I purposed to take recently, I include a new prayer, 

“Our Father and our God, only You know when Jesus’s return is. I am not living in a way that has my focus on Your Kingdom and being found ready. There are so many distractions all around me! So many things for me to pursue so I can survive here. I need Your power and strength to stay awake and do the things that Jesus said I should be doing. I would like to be found ready on Jesus’s return. Help me, Lord.  Do a new thing in me and change my heart’s desires.  I ask in the name of Jesus.”


I am encouraged to know that God answers all prayers that are according to His will, so He will prepare me. He will prepare you too, if you ask Him. Consider praying the above prayer. 

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
Jude 1:24 (NIV)
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New Actions

This is part three of a previous post. Catch up with part 1 and part 2 before you dive into this.

Knowing that the Lord was waiting on me, I decided to take action and do two things differently. 

First, rather than pray “please end this and take me back home,” I will instead ask for strength to go through the challenge. 

Second, I will spend 30min every morning praying and meditating on Ephesians 3:16, asking for His strength. My desire is that the Lord would strengthen me with power so Jesus will dwell firmly in my heart, and so I will know with all my heart that God loves me. 

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

Ephesians 3:16-18 (NIV)

Then, when I am confident in God’s love for me, and in no doubt that He has my back no matter what, I can stop being like a pendulum. I can be relaxed like Jesus was when He slept through the stormy boat ride. 

The strength and power I need can only come from the Holy Spirit. I cannot ‘empower’ myself. So, in my 30minutes I am expectant that as I silently sit with the Lord, He will strengthen me. 

Today marks day one of these two new actions and I’m excitedly looking forward to the new thing the Lord does in me, and through me.

Pray for me, won’t you? Or, if like me you need new strength, please join me in taking these new actions!  

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Through, Not Around


This is part two of the previous post. If you haven’t already read it, please start here.

Another thing going on is that being here has got my emotions all over the place because of certain challenges I face with my relative. This is despite the Lord showing me two years ago – before there was a problem – that everything would go well. Of course I did not understand the vision then, but now I do. So, I already have assurance that things will work out and end well. But I’ve found myself wavering between holding onto this hope and being overcome by doubt. Somewhat like a pendulum swinging left to right, high then low. 

Even with the faith booster from my extra Bible reading, my thoughts still venture into the realm of doubt and despair. I can’t tell you how many times I have cried out to the Lord to take me back home! Why? Because I know He already intends to heal and save this relative, and He has the power to do so in an instant. There’s no need for Him to wait to do what He is able and willing to do! 

Which is why I’ve been asking Him “what are You waiting for?” Then yesterday it clicked . . . He is waiting for me to stop being a pendulum; He is standing by until I am “strong, firm, and steadfast.” The Lord doesn’t want me to take a shortcut that avoids this situation, but rather to go through it, with Him by my side, and come out stronger. 

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast

1 Peter 5:10 (NIV)

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Triple The Word

Since my last post, I have had to relocate to a different town to support a relative. What I thought would be a 2-week stay has turned into 6-weeks, with no sign of my return home in sight. In these six weeks I have learnt a few lessons I would like to share.

Initially, I thought I was here to help my relative. However, one week into my stay I discovered the Lord has me here so He can separate me from my every-day tasks. Why? So I can spend extra time with Him. I’ve sensed Him guide me into tripling the time I spend reading my Bible. Yup! You heard right . . . tripling!

And you know what’s odd . . . about six months ago a friend invited me to a Bible study that I thought covered way too many chapters per day. I told her it wasn’t possible for me to fit in that many chapters into my day and politely declined to join. Well . . . that’s exactly the number of chapters I now find myself reading! Ha! I guess you could say the Lord helped me “create” the time. Doesn’t the Lord have a great sense of humour?

While at the start it seemed like a lot of reading, I have experienced how reading the Bible has a way of increasing my faith. I can’t quite explain how, but it certainly brings to life the verse about faith coming as a result of hearing the word.

Now, if like me, you find yourself in a situation where you need to turbo charge your faith, I recommend you spend more time reading your Bible.

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

Romans 10:17 (NIV)

I’m grateful for this first lesson. And praying for grace to maintain this new reading pattern in the days & years to come.

Be sure to look out for lesson two!

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Use the Key!

Monday September 30, 2024.

If you live in the same country as I do, then you’ll no doubt be aware that there is a lot of evil doing happening here.

When I consider all that’s going on, I cannot help but draw parallels between us and what the Old Testament nation of Israel went through in the period of the judges. We are repeatedly told that Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord by serving foreign gods, which angered God. The result? God “gave them over” to oppression. And isn’t oppression the right word to describe what’s happening to our children, our payslips and farm produce?

But every time Israel turned back to God and cried out for help, the Lord sent a leader who would lead them in pushing back the oppressive enemies. Then the land would have peace until the people again turned away from God. And thus the pattern goes throughout the book of Judges.

Now, it’s easy for us to point fingers at our leaders and call them greedy and all sorts of other names. However, we too need to look inwards to check on the state of our hearts. What is our relationship to money? Who, between Jesus and money are you serving? Who, between the two has more influence over your choices? Is your top priority to accumulate wealth on earth (where moth & vermin destroy), or to store up treasure in heaven? 

These are questions I have had to grapple with recently. And I was shocked to find out that my desire to grow financially was deeper than my desire to submit to Jesus and put Him first in my life. It was a painful and heartbreaking realisation to discover that my heart was just as flawed as those I criticised, all while believing I was one of the ‘good ones.’ 

Today, I invite you to do some introspection . . . 

See, when you and I acknowledge that we are just as greedy for wealth as our leaders are, then truly repent; that will initiate the change Kenya needs. When we commit to serving God and not money, God will hear our cry and push back the oppression.

You and I hold the key to turning things around. The question is — will you use the key?

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A New Appreciation

Allow me to share my experience as I chatted with two fathers about their children.

The first father was visibly distressed about his child’s poor performance at school. I could actually see the pain on his face as he asked me to have a word with her. He shared that her grades had been steadily dropping since she joined high school. And the rate at which she was going, she was almost certainly going to fail her final year exams.  

The second father has a slightly older daughter. She completed her bachelor’s degree about four years ago and she has had trouble securing a job in her field of study. This father was sharing his plans for his daughter’s further education, and he was in despair because he did not have as much money as was required for a master’s program. I could hear the anguish in his voice when he shared this. 

As I’ve reflected on these two conversations, I have come to a new realisation about fathers. I reckon fathers are some of the most uncelebrated, unacknowledged people in our society. This is a new appreciation for me because I have seen firsthand the pain fathers have caused to many children (me included). But these two fathers, and my own dad (story for another day) have shown me up close that fathers are often misunderstood, and that they have a deep love for their children; even when they are unexpressive.  

Through these two fathers, I also have a fresh awareness of what our Father in heaven’s heart is towards us. Like the two fathers, our Father in heaven cares immensely about our wellbeing. He wants what is best for us and is grieved when we either go astray or do not experience His good plans for us. Through these two fathers, I can clearly see what the psalmist meant when He wrote,

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him; for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust. 
Psalm 103:13–14 NIV

So, take a moment to join me in thanking God for being our perfect Father in heaven, and asking Him to give society a new appreciation for fathers.

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More in Love

Not so long ago, when there was a public interest court-case in progress, the public could only keep track through courthouse photos and articles in the newspapers. Today, thanks to social media, we can actually follow the entire case from the comfort of our sofas. How life has changed!

Now it so happens that today is one of those days when I’m following a court case on social media. The accused person has a team of some of the best legal minds in Kenya. And as I watch the proceedings, I find my mind drifting away from the screen . . . 

I observed that the accused is quietly seated, while the lawyers speak on his behalf. The lawyers are referring to evidence from the prosecution, various sections of our law, and a previous judgment that is in support of their client’s innocence. And the judge is listening carefully as the lawyers as advance their arguments. 

My mind then strayed to a verse in the Bible, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” (1 John 2:1 NIV) Instantly it became clear to me that Jesus’s role as my Advocate is to speak on my behalf, before the Righteous Judge, to counter accusations levelled against me by the accuser (aka satan).   

In pleading my case, I imagine Jesus states that because I have confessed Him as Lord & Saviour, His blood has covered all my sins and made me righteous in God’s eyes. I can “see” Jesus cite verses such as Romans 8:1 which says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (NIV) And “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9 NIV)

So, on the basis of Jesus’s blood shed on the cross, my confession and belief in Him as my Saviour, the Righteous Judge issues a verdict proclaiming me innocent and nullifying satan’s accusations against me. No wonder, the message Jesus brings is called the good news! 

But this good news doesn’t give us a permit to live in any manner that we please, simply because we know we are already forgiven. As it says, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1–2 NIV) 

The only fitting response from us is to fall more in love with Jesus and voluntarily live as He did, with God’s word at the centre of our lives!  

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Dilemma & Crisis Solved

Today is the 20th of August 2024.

On Sunday 18th August, a friend — one whom I love very, very dearly — sent me a text requesting for a not-so-small amount of money. Money that was needed urgently. 

Remember in my recent post I shared that I am currently on a lower income? If you haven’t you can catch it here.

Well, as I read the text, an image of my bank balance promptly flashed through my mind. And I quickly established that I had a dilemma on my hands. Whereas I was willing to give, I would be left with less than I need for the month.

After I had panicked for a moment, I remembered that all silver and gold belong to God. So, I said a prayer asking Him to be the one to give this friend the money required. And, because I didn’t want to use the sometimes not-so-helpful “God will provide” response, I texted back saying I would see what I can do on Monday and promised to pray for the friend’s business to pick up.  

On Monday I again reminded the Lord about the amount my friend needed. Plus, I refreshed His memory (ha!) of how much I would be left with after sharing with my friend. Finally, I told the Lord I was willing to give, because He is able to provide for my needs. Then I picked up the phone to call my friend. 

And guess what? My friend — without me asking — told me that the emergency for which the money was required was no longer a crisis. Just like that, the Lord had solved my dilemma and my friend’s crisis! 

What an awesome and faithful God we serve!

He did it for me . . . may He also come through for you. 

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Uncertain Times

It’s been a while since I shared a thought here. Mainly because so much has been going on in my life, and in my nation. If you aren’t already familiar with what’s going in Kenya, please look it up.

For quite a number of years now, I’ve sensed the Lord guide me towards a career change. At first, I ignored the ‘feeling’ and thought perhaps I simply needed a revised strategy or new approach to my work. But at the start of this year the ‘feeling’ was too loud for me to keep ignoring. I no longer found joy in my work. It had become an unpleasant chore that I performed because I had no choice. Well, that, and I needed the money!

At the start of this year (2024), I decided to get on board with what I was sensing the Lord say to me and I walked away. It was very difficult because this was what I had done since 2006; and all that I was an expert at. Plus, I couldn’t see where the Lord was leading me to. But in March, He brought about an opportunity that I thought was something to do while I wait for the next real job. This is now the final week of July, and the ‘real job’ hasn’t come along yet. What’s started to dawn on me is that this opportunity might be ‘the real job!’

This new opportunity has come with a much lower income, but it is also something that I’m enjoying. However, between the lower income and unrest in Kenya, I have been very anxious about my financial security. I must say I’ve been struggling to trust that God will provide and that He has my back. Some days it’s gone well, and other days it hasn’t.

But God doesn’t only have me covered financially, He had already gone ahead of me and worked in me to write and publish a little book a few years ago. I thought I needed the book at the time I was writing it, but I realise that I need it even more now. One thing that has amazed me about how God works is that the little book brings me so much comfort and peace. Every time I re-read it, it’s as though I’m reading it for the first time!

When I look around me, there seems to be turmoil almost everywhere and it seems that we are in need of words that bring peace and comfort more than ever. So, if you find yourself staring at uncertainty and need to hear God’s personal assurance to you, check out the eBook here: Uncertain Times: God’s Personal Assurance to You