Hugging Strangers We Know

It was the dawn of a new year and she was there. Right beside me. I didn’t know her; I didn’t know her name and I didn’t know anything about her except her lovely brown Bible and the fact that right here, right now, she was standing next to me and she was smiling. I smiled too and we did the natural thing when everyone roared ‘happy new year’- we gave ourselves a big warm hug. It was the kind that makes you feel good from your hair to your toe nails. 

We are One Body in Him

This very moment, although she was a stranger, she was also my sister and that fact wiped out every other fact. She is my sister. Period. Why? Because we share the same Brother, the First Born of our family. His name is Jesus, The Christ, and if you believe in Him, you and I are siblings, directly related by the Blood that truly matters.

So the first person I hugged this year was a stranger and the only thing we knew we had in common was our faith. We met at a three day conference in Adebayo, a tiny village near Ibadan, Nigeria. It was my first time there and I had gone on the invitation of a friend who eventually didn’t attend the programme due to an unexpected health issue. So there I was in a sea of people, lost, friendless and lonely- yet I was among family. It was a wonderful conference. The word, worship and prayers were amazing and life transforming and there was no room for pity party.

I initially felt that although it was an interdenominational programme, the organisers were conservative (SU folks) so I expected to be judged. Why was I automatically defensive? Heaven knows. But I also know that a partial reason is because we are usually stuck up in our ways with our pretty little (or mega) churches and our doctrines. Anyone who even barely strays off what we believe is heretic. But dear friend, this divided church isn’t what Christ paid for and it sure isn’t the one He hopes to meet when He returns.

Regular readers may have observed how I tend to harp on unity among local churches. Jesus did too and He spent a lot of His final words on praying that they may be one. Do we need that prayer or what! Thankfully, during the conference, when everything was focused on Christ rather than doctrine, there was almost nothing to argue about. Nothing. Granted, I wore skirts all through, covered my hair during service (a kind sister gave me a scarf), sang more hymns in three days than I had sang January to December but those are very secondary issues that didn’t matter enough to deter me from enjoying a great family time of learning about faith in Jesus.

I encourage us all today to look beyond the things that divide us and look at the Cross of Christ instead. At this Cross, we are the same- no Greek or Jew, man or woman, African or Asian, Baptist or Pentecostal. God sees all His children through Christ and except one of us is none of His, how will you and I not be family?

Go ahead, hug a stranger. You know the kind I talk about. 

Blessings,

Miss August

PS: Happy New Year everyone. Sorry to come on here so late. It is extremely crazy at work January- April. By His grace, we will keep things up.

WHEN TIME IS UP! I DON'T WANT TO WAIT FOR PURGATORY

Sometime in June, I shared with us how life alarms go off to remind us of the realities of life and to keep the proper perspective in life. One of such alarms is death (of a close friend/relative), natural disasters, personal near death experiences and if I may add, whole number birthdays (30, 40, 50, 60… you get the drift). My own birthday comes up in a few weeks (*hint, hint) and I am quite taken up with assessing my life from the last birthday to now. I’m asking, “Have I just added a year without significantly improving the quality of my life in God’s perspective”? It is a sobering thought.

There is 'time' after 'time'. Pix from www.thinkpoint.wordpress.com

How did I go from yapping about Christian community to this? Well, Governor Philip died. I don’t think you know him but here is a bit: Philip was our faculty governor during my post graduate studies. Philip was a great guy. He was uber-cool, friendly without being a clown, warm towards everyone, knew us all by name and he would try to say a good word to individuals from time to time. He was a true leader. The departmental class governor was another story entirely but that’s for another day.

If good works and stewardship only are the basis of spending eternity with God, Philip has a VIP ticket and a chauffeur-driven limo ride on the streets of gold. However, that is not how it works. I don’t know if Philip was a believer but with all my heart, I hope he was. I sincerely do. I desperately do. I was so desperate that when I got the text announcing his death, I started praying for his soul-until it struck me, isn’t this rather late?

It led me to do some reading about life after death and related issues. I discovered that Catholics believe in a state/place called purgatory. This I understand is a temporal state after death from where sufficient prayers by living human beings can help propel a person to heaven. It is a sort of second chance after death.

Well, I don’t know. The concept is entirely new to me and I can’t say that I have seen anything like that in the Bible. The scriptural backup I saw for the existence of the purgatory are in the book of Maccabeus (which is not in my version of the Bible). There is also the thought that when Apostle Paul prayed for Onesiphorus here, the brother was already dead.

It sounds like a comforting idea to people who are mourning a loss but I don't believe that this concept is true. I have never been to the other side of life but my Bible says here that it is appointed for man to die once, and after that, judgement.

I do not intend to get into a debate on purgatory and other things that are still mysteries to me, but here is the bottom line: we have some really nice unsaved around us- at work, in the neighbourhood, our families and even in church. Are we going to wait till they die so we can pray for them? Wait till they enter purgatory? How much prayer is sufficient to move a person from purgatory to Heaven? 2hours? 4hours? 12 hours? If it requires 12 hours but one person is only able to garner a total of 11 and half hours, does the person get a third chance or do they get yanked off the list? At this point, is their soul doomed?

Many things that we won’t know until Jesus returns but this we know: that anyone who calls on the Name of Jesus now, will be saved, other scriptural references are here, here and here.

We are mortals bound by time. Like an examination, one day, either by death or the Second Coming of Christ, the examiner will say “time up!” After then, it wouldn’t matter that we still have a few brilliant answers to put down, it wouldn’t matter that you studied hard but blanked out 1 hour into the test. When the time is up, it is up. There is nothing left to be said.

 So I ask myself today, do I want to leave my life to chance? Do I want to wait till I get to purgatory and hope that my grieved loved ones will pause from crying to devout enough prayer to get me in? Why don’t I fix it here and now with this simple heartfelt prayer: Lord Jesus, I come to you today, believing in your miraculous birth, your death and your resurrection. I believe you died for my sins and you said whosoever comes to you, you will not cast away. This day, I confess my sins to you and I repent of them. Please forgive me, wash me clean with your blood. Make me a new creation in you, write my name in the book of life. Save me O Lord. I believe You have heard me. Thank you for saving me and for helping me grow in you. Amen.

My sincere desire and prayer is that we will lean on the Grace of Jesus that it may keep us in the Faith until His appearing. Help us Lord Jesus. Help us. Amen.

Did I get the concept of purgatory wrong? Did I misrepresent what it truly means? It is pretty new to me. Please leave a comment and share your scriptural thoughts on this issue.

God bless.

As always,

Miss August.