Rejection is just God's redirection

I just want to remind you to always rememeber the Lord. Remember Him when things are good and remember Him when things are bad.
One valuable lesson I learnt last year was "Rejection is just God's REdirection." I promise you, if you hold onto Jesus with a death grip NO MATTER the situation, He will turn it around for your good. Don't mourn too long over the job that rejected you, or the door that slammed shut in your face, or the loved one that rejected you. God will turn EVERY disappointment around for your good (Romans 8:28).

Notable people who have been rejected in history:

• Albert Einstein was labelled mentally retarded. Parents and teachers thought that he had a low IQ.  They wrote him off. They rejected him. Einstein became the world's most influential scientist and philosopher in the world.

• Walt Disney:  Described as unimaginative and uncreative.  I'm not even going to get into much detail with his story. I just have one word for you: Mickey Mouse

• Harland David Sanders: Perhaps better known as Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Sanders had a hard time selling his chicken at first. In fact, his famous secret chicken recipe was rejected 1,009 times before a restaurant accepted it.

• Joseph: Rejected by his very own flesh and blood. Sold into slavery by his own brothers and thrown into an Egyptian cell. He rose from slave to Governor of Egypt

• Jesus Christ: Rejected by Jewish society, ridiculed by family members, betrayed by close,intimate friends is today the Prince of Peace, Seated on the Right Hand of God, Ancient of Days, the King of Glory, and the list goes on.

• You: We will  allow history to write this part for you.

It's not easy being young, female and Christian

Hmm...I'm sure many of you can relate to the blog title above : "It's not easy being young, female and Christian." I'm just lying awake in bed knowing that I have to wake up at 6 a.m. to get ready to do kids church only to return to finish off my essay. But I can't sleep and the only thing going through my mind is "God! I can't keep up with this pace.What's a girl to do?!" As, I roll over in my bed, I hear the Lord whisper softly, "It is I that have everything under control."  I love when God speaks, something overwhelming takes over deep inside your soul and at that moment you just know God will do ALL that He said He will do for you.
The scripture says thus : "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace."
I've come to appreciate the fact that being a christian girl in my early twenties just isn't easy. Men, please note that I'm sure it's hard for you all too - but I'm not entitled to speak on your behalf. I do know that for us women it is a challenge.
Since it's the final year of law school, I have to make sure I steer clear of anxiety attacks. These often try and come when you know that the school year will draw nearer than you think and you still do not know where you will be next September. The stakes of marriage straight after college are slim, you are averaging at a grade average of a 2.2 and your work experience is limited. On top of that your "uber" conservative parents don't feel it's acceptable for a christian girl to live outside the home before she is married. So, you are stuck in a bit of a rut.
Like, I said it's not easy being, young, female and Christian.

I know so many of you reading this can relate to at least one or even all of the above scenarios I just listed but before I sleep I just wanted to leave some encouraging words from the Holy Spirit.

• Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. 1 Peter 5:7 (AMP)

• Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ Isaiah 41:10

This last one is one of my favourites.

• Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”  Isaiah 30:21

 

 

 

 

 

 

A great drink for Christian Women.

I don't understand what has been going on these past few days but ever since I read the following scripture, a lot questions I had about life and christianity have begun to be answered.

Isaiah 55: 1-2 “Come, all you who are thirsty,  come to the waters;...why spend money on what is not bread and your labour that does not satisfy?"

For years, I had been searching for life's answers and what my purpose on earth was.  For a good few years even though I have been saved, I feel like I've been in this wilderness; but not quiet sure what I am doing but DEFINETLY searching for SOMETHING. I was searching for that thing that would truly give me everlasting peace and security. I was stretching my hand out for anything that could deal with the unhappiness and emotional torment I was encountering during my teen years and up until recently actually.
Have you ever drunk so much alcohol just so that you could  forget about your current situation? Or have you ever engaged in illicit sex with multiple partners in order for you to have that "void" in your heart filled? Even if it's just for a couple of hours. Maybe for some of you it's overeating or overspending, just so that you can feel better about yourself. You think that if you could just purchase the latest pair of shoes then life will be alright. Right? No, wrong!

But like anything else, all these things give us a great "high" but the crash is horrible. When these wordly things begin to wear off, we tend end up feeling 10 times worse than we did. How come? The reason being is that God did not create us to seek satisfaction in immorality or overindulgence, he created us to find fulfillment in His son Jesus and Him alone.
This revelation came to me the other day after reading the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. I won't go into too much detail here but I could really relate to this biblical icon.  This was a woman who had put her trust in relationship after relationship, only to receive heartache and pain but here was Jesus offering her something so much more.  This woman had been thirsting for true love, for someone to truly love her for the woman of God she was ordained to be. She kept on dipping her bucket in the wrong waters.

“Everyone who drinks this water [wordly things] will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4

So, was God telling me that as long as I continued to look for worth and satisfaction in relationships, drink, fashion, etc I would never be satisfied or at peace? Wow! This was a mind blowing revelation to me. God needs to be our source for everything. Women of God we are continually putting ourselves through pain and abuse if we do not stop to put Jesus as our centre. I am guilty of this but I am making progress in my walk with God.
How naive I've been! All these years I've been trying to find satisfaction in dating, my clothes, parties and even doing "christian stuff" - I never once understood that my needs had to be met through Him.  Sisters in Christ, our thirst for life in abundance can only come if we draw near and drink from the Spring of Living Waters.

“My people have committed two sins:  They have forsaken me,  the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,  broken cisterns that cannot hold water"  Jeremiah 2:13

I have to be honest with readers right now. For a while I thought I was already a failure in my short life of 22 years.  These thoughts were not of God, however I am learning to be in tune with His Spirit.  Yes, those "cisterns", those things of this world which I thought could give me a sense of accomplishment couldn't hold all that God had for me - they were things that failed me. I am not the failure.


In the words of Stacie Orrico: "There's got to be more to life than chasing down every temporary high to satisfy me" - the lyricist put it so well. Yes, there is more to life and that's how Jesus intended our lives to be. Fulfilled in Him.
Lets drink from His Springs of Living Water.

In Christ

Chizor.

Chizor reconciles with Germany

Seriously, I feel like Julia Roberts in the movie Eat, Pray, Love. I've just come back from visiting my  2nd country this year which was Germany and I have a deep hunger to travel a lot more.

Some of you do not know much about my past in Germany and  all the things that I encountered whilst there. My parents moved to Germany in 2000 from my beloved homeland England, we moved to a little town called Dietzenbach just outside the city of Frankfurt. I did not take the move so well, partly due to the fact that I was 12 years old and I could not speak a word of the language. It was difficult living in a foreign country but I soon learnt the language and began to fit in with the locals. My ultimate desire was to fit in and not to be different. Well, my skin colour wasn't helping. Not to go into much detail but my life was filled with substance abuse, multiple relationships and basically anything ungodly that I could get my hands on.

I left Germany in 2004.

Last weekend was the first time I had been back in 6 years. This time I went back as a Christian.

To be honest, I really enjoyed myself. It brought back memories; both good and bad but I'm really glad I went. It was time to relax, eat good German pork, practice my linguistic skills (which by the way are impeccable) and catch up with old friends.

One of the friends I was able to meet was Rachel. We we're friends from the age of 14 back in Germany and let's just say "skiving school" was one of our fondest past times. NOT!  To cut a long story short, we were bad teenagers  at the rebelling stage.Anyway, seeing Rachel for the first time really had an affect on me. She was a beautiful as ever (that's what you get when you are of part Togolese/Jewish/German ancestry) but you could definetly see a change in both of our maturity.
What touched me the most was when Rachel began telling me that she had begun attending church and she had been reading through the bible step by step. I almost fell off the chair when I heard this. Here we are 6 years later and for the first time in all of our friendship we are talking about God and religion.  I couldn't believe it that she was on the search for God. She was also very curious to know what had caused me to become a Christian (I was wild and crazy back then) all of sudden.  This was an awesome opportunity to share my testimony and so there we were both in a bar and I was sharing my experiences with God over the past few years. 

If that's the only reason I went to Germany then I am more than satisfied.
Going back to Germany as a Christian really gave me a different perspective. I no longer needed to bare the burden of my shame and reproach, I could walk through the streets of Frankfurt with a "Garment of Praise".

Are you ready to trust God with chicken?

The whole thing about trusting God with chicken came the other night when I threw a dinner party which consisted of chicken pieces marinated in tequila and lime. So, I invited a few people over to come and wine and dine, however when you have a public facebook event, numbers begin to increase and you suddenly have RSVPS from a bigger crowd than you expected. .
You see, recently I've been asking God to teach me to really trust him. To trust him with Every.Tiny.Detail.  Anyway, I didn't want to spend more money and purchase more chicken for the guests but I felt like I had no other choice so I began to fret. The scripture in James suddenly popped into my mind : James 1: 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
Really?! Ask God about chicken?! That's absurd God doesn't care about chicken I thought to myself. However, what does the above scripture tell us? That if we ask God for wisdom, he will give it to us freely without finding fault in regards to what we ask him for. So, I got down on my knees and whispered a quick prayer asking for wisdom for tonight's dinner party.
"Don't buy anymore chicken" I heard a still, small voice whisper back to me. I knew it was the Holy Spirit, so I chose to listen to His voice and not purchase anymore chicken. Despite the fact that 15 people had RSVP'd, and I only had enough poultry for 8 people .
To cut a long story short, it pays off to trust and listen to God. That night not everyone showed up to the party ; and the amount that did attend was exactly 8. Not one less, not one more.

To some of you this may seem so trivial and petty, nonetheless God taught me the essence of waiting patiently and trusting Him with Every.Little.Detail of my life. It's weird but I've been  in this dry spot with God recently but that's because I haven't been resting in Him and savouring his His love. That's all God wanted me to do, just be with Him.
Another incident: My friend had been suffering with a swollen ankle for weeks, she found it hard to get to class on time but when she told me her plight I just heard this scripture:
"They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Mark 16: 15 . God wanted me to trust Him and see that particular scripture come to life.  Mark 16:15 did manifest itself and to this day my friend has not had issues with her ankle. Jesus! Why do I doubt your goodness?

Are you ready to trust God with chicken? As in, are you ready to trust God with every area of your life? I guarantee you, when you begin to surrender all areas of your life it's painful. However, the rewards of surrendering to God outweights all the pain. Things may not look like they are looking up for you but are you stillready to trust God?  Maybe you've been praying for the fruit of the womb and 6 years on, still no child? It's a painful ordeal for you, you've done tests after tests, the doctor keeps on telling you "next time" - and the only child you did carry did not make it through. Are you still going to trust God with that area of your life? No matter the costs because I tell you there is peace in trusting Him.
Or, maybe you've been unemployed for sometime and with all your qualifications still no work. You are ready to throw the towel in and sign on to welfare. Wait! Hold on if God's Word is true that He is the Jehova Jireh - can you trust God to provide the next meal?
This is a call out of our shallow christianity and it is a call to go deep into deep with God. With a lot of young people, we often have the misconception that we need to do something completely and utterly radical for God, such as drop out of school at age 14 and become a missionary in Afghanistan. Slow down, God does not care about our radical acts but He is in love with a heart that is radical for Him. Afghanistan will come in due time but in the meantime your science teacher has never heard the gospel. Now that's a radical lifestyle.


I'm taking a vacation, not just to Germany next week but a vacation from worrying and not trusting God. However this particular vacation will last a lifetime.

Amen!

Relationships between Christian Men and Women at Uni.

So here is my long anticpated article that I said I will write with regards to Christian Male and Female relationships at University.
Can I speak to the ladies first? Long gone are the days when femininity and authentic beauty was a prized possession to be attained. Now, a lot of us share the motto "I can do everything a man can do, just BETTER! " and these are the cries of several Christian women on campus. The post-modern woman feels if she embraces her femininity, she is weak and men will take advantage of her. Whether we like it or not God created us to be feminine and not to be masculine. Feminity does not mean shopping for dresses and loving all things pink, but it does mean understanding our God ordained positions as women. Our strong but delicate nature is not to be hated but praised.

Some of you arrived at University with a misconception. A misconception that many girls are suffering with the consquences of it today. There is a common lie among Christian female students that they will meet their husband at University. Whoever voiced such nonsense needs a reality check. As a result of this lie, many girls come to University all bushy tailed and bright eyed, waiting for Mr Right in their lecture hall. Christmas term approaches, followed by Easter term ....still no sign of this potential Mr. Right. Not too bad you think, afterall it's only your first year. However, by your second year you begin to get impatient and you begin to wonder that you might have missed him, or worse God is being cruel by not bringing him around. You start wincing at the fact that you only have one more year left of University, so God needs to step His game up.

Before I continue, I know many who have met their spouses at Uni, and have had amazing marriages but if your story does not end up like this don't rush into anything.

Anyway, so we start getting impatient and we start doing things our own way. Take for example my friend Audrey. She fed into the lie that God had to bring her husband during her University career. Well, God wasn't on her agenda and didn't bring him around. Anyway, frustrated and annoyed she began a relationship with Segun. Segun studied engineering with Audrey but he wasn't really walking with the Lord. For example, sex before marriage was a big win for him just as long as he went to church and repented. Audrey a strong believer herself, felt Segun was "the one". He wasn't exactly a Christian but he believed in God, that was good enough for her. Before long, Segun and Audrey began a relationship, which was not Christ centered at all, Audrey's faith began to take a downward spiral as Segun could not encourage her in the Lord. Before we knew it Audrey had comprised her purity and fell pregnant. Segun ended the relationship soon after, and has since acquired a new asset. I mean girlfriend...

If Audrey had waited on God, what would have happened?



Women, do we not know that every guy we flirt with, or every guy we have long intimate conversations with is a dishonour to our future husbands. Or every guy we grind on in the clubs is disrespectful. This is not a rebuke, I'm guilty of the same kind of mess. Some of you are diasgreeing with me right now as you feel like you do not have an obligation to your spouse-to-be. Hmm...maybe but we certainly have an obligation to our first love, Jesus Christ.

Proverbs 4: 23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Before anything else, we need to guard our hearts. If my dear friend Audrey had guarded her heart, I don't think her course of life will be as a single mother back in Manchester. Guarding your heart means to be careful in your conversation, pouring the Word into your Spirit and seeking God's wisdom for the course of your life.



Now to the University men. Men, I urge you to guard your own heart but also be a guard of hearts. I think a lot of reasons why some of our Christian sisters fail in areas of relationships is due to the lack of guys caring for their hearts. It's in your nature and God given capacity to be strong enough to protect the heart of a woman. If you see a girl who you find attractive, wait on the Lord. Pray about it. Attraction isn't everything you know? Ask God to show you more about this girl. Most importantly RESPECT her. As long as you have not put a ring on it ,you could be dishonouring her future husband. So, if she does not adhere to your advances it may be because she too is waiting on God for direction. Not because she is "stush" or "frigid" as some of you may kindly put it but she has made God her all in all, for this season of her life.

As you can see, I do not have too much to write on the Men but I hope it has given you insight in some way.


This is what the Lord has been speaking to my on, and has asked me tor reevalute some areas of my life. I pray if need be, you do the same too.



In Christ



Chizor

The true face of hope

God gave a word the other day and it was HOPE. I'm not fond of Obama as some of you already know but whether we like to admit or not, he is currently the  face of "hope" for Americans. Yes, I can hear my friends groaning all ready at this. Don't worry guys I'm not going to go on a rant about why I hate liberalism. Rather, I want to talk about the true face of hope. Jesus Christ.

You see, I thought this week was going to be extremely rough on me.  I was so worried that I was going to have a melt down this week and 5 days out of the 7 would be spent curled up in bed crying my eyes out. Have you ever been scared of your emotions before? I have. I experienced this phenomenon a few days ago; I was scared what my emotions could do to me if I was not careful. You see, there is something I've been dreading and God showed me specifically in a dream that, that thing I was so scared of was going to come to pass and I need to prepare my body, mind and soul for it.
Anyway, that "thing" - which I won't go into right now, came to pass and it was time to face the music.
Sorry this blog is so abstract today. Please excuse me...
 Do you ever get to that point, where you have finally come to terms with a bad (or good) situation? You start rebuilding your life again, God begins to put back the pieces of your once broken heart back together and all is well with your soul. However, there is just that one thing that could trigger your emotions and set you off in tears. These pain "triggers's" often come in the form of a picture, a long lost gift or worse a long lost memory of what once was. Recently, these "triggers" have not had much affect on me and I've been more than able to get on with things if I come across a ghost of my past. These past few months, I've been so happy and full of unexplainable joy and I was NOT about to let anything steal that away from me.
Well, when it was time for me to face the music the other day , and come face to face with that thing that my heart was dreading, it was strange but I was still full of unexplainable joy.  I wasn't having a breakdown afterall. What once caused my heart to break, was no longer there. Was this a sign of God healing my heart? It sure was. I spent the past 12 months putting my hope in God and not in man and I saw the benefits of it the other day. God was the physician and healed me from the inside out because I had put my trust in him.

God really does exist. Seriously, nothing in this world could ever do what God did in my life these past few months. The only encourgament I have today, is: hand it ALL over to God. I mean everything the whole shabang.  You can't go wrong. There is no point holding on to it, it just won't do you any good. So hand it over to Jesus.
God gave me a simple but MIND BLOWING revelation the other day: HOPE.
Be sure of this scripute: Romans 5: 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
There is hope in my story. There is also hope in your story too.

In Christ

Chizor