Hope:-)

I have always understood the meaning of the word 'hope' in an abstract sense, until recently when all that could lift me from the dumps was HOPE itself. Life had suddenly thrown in my face hope, and how beautiful it tasted and felt. I could now sleep in absolute peace, not dreading the middle of the night when the whole world is dead asleep and nothing can offer a sense of relief. I had hope and what a joy it felt, i couldn't wait to give someone else  a little bit of this that had so graciously been given to me. It was God's way of saying i was not forgotten, that i was loved and that somehow he would find a way of keeping his promise to me.
So then hope set me on a journey, i could literally see possibilities, i started dreaming again, making plans, enjoying the renewed work of my dear palate:-) hope had given me a sense of purpose again. I was overwhelmed, i could now hear my own voice belting out in a beautiful song seeing the future rising before me.......i was full of hope and it was overwhelming!

God loved me and had not passed me by, sadly i had thought that possibly he had become so busy else where or rather that somehow i had not pleased him enough for his love to stay with me. How wrong i was!!! so wrong. God is steadfast, unchanging, immovable and unchangeable. Hebrews 6:17-19, reminds me that by two things in which it is impossible for God to lie....it is impossible for God to lie. He will love me no matter what, he will never leave me nor forsake, he is my God and am his child and he will never ever stop loving me. He ultimately is my HOPE. I am loved, blessed & highly favored. God has not forgotten me!!!!

There is hope:-)

Life!

This morning i got news of the demise of a lovely young lady who had been a colleague and good friend while we both worked at an Institute for the Blind in East Yorkshire. She was one of those you couldn't help noticing when you walked into work each morning, the kind with the most cheerful disposition, a contrast in her personality was her ability to make fun and never find it funny while leaving the rest of us reeling in laughter.
As i prepared for work, even though i was thousands of miles away i could not help missing her so much!  I had only left Yorkshire seven months ago, having lived there for four years, creating some deeply lasting friendships i could not help feeling a bit of despair.
For a while all my friendships meant a whole lot of a difference to me, at that moment i began to realize how much had been offered to me by people i had met a long my life's journey. Time seemed to go so slowly for me as i thought with such tenderness of friends who had meant the world to me. I decided to hold back my tears for a few hours until i had an appropriate place to let them flow freely.

Life is a gift and only when it ends do we then realize how blessed we were to have met some people who had touched us so profoundly. Why does this realization come only when a life has ended......i wish that every single day i would appreciate my friends and loved ones so dearly before i never can let them know how much they meant to me.

Phoebe

Faith

by Phoebe Oluka on Tuesday, July 17, 2012 at 1:09am ·

 

Day by day i have been coming to a new perspective of what faith is. We have grown up in a generation where faith i believe has been less represented for what it really is. For decades we have camped on the one sided view that faith is something abstract that we hold onto to receive things that are beyond human reach and that ought to happen by a supernatural belief in God who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly far from any ounce of human understanding.

I in no way dispute this hold on faith, but recently i have been thinking more and more of the eternal  perspective that the bible presents. See the bible says all things were made by him, for him & through him, meaning that the end result of everything has to be in him and for him. I do appreciate the reality of life and how material things are beneficial for our living and i rightly believe that God has made faith available for us to receive those things that make life easier , but i also believe that when Jesus speaks of the end times he says "whoever will endure to the end...will have their names written on a pillar". So faith seems to be the means to an end, somehow the original purpose of faith was for us to receive eternal life and salvation.

The call is never to forget that life on earth is not the ultimate, the measure of faith ought not only to be based on how much we get when we ask God but more so, will our endurance last till the end, its our faith in God that he is God & that price paid for salvation was so dear, that keeps us so focused on finishing this race excellently well. Salvation is by faith & that is far more than the gains of this life.

NB: God gives all things pertaining to life and to godliness 2Peter 1:3   His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence