The Ditch "I" - Part 2

I am very sure you are still wondering what I meant by the ditch “I”.

The word “I” is so strong. In English language, it is referred to as personal pronoun. It is used to describe the person speaking. It is also the 1st person singular and also a subject. When God speaks he always says I. he says ‘I am the light, the truth and the way..” obviously that means there isn’t any way or light except him and we can only come to God through him.

And when we often talk to people and we say I, it shows some form of responsibility. A funny scenario of a guy who impregnates a girl and when he’s been asked, he says “I am the one responsible for it”. There is no need to bargain furthermore who did it.

Here is the breakdown of the ditch to be ever careful of according to Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 8

In verse 1 he said: when we get to the land which our LORD has promised on oath to our ancestors, we should remember him always. It simply means when we have eaten and we are full; when we are out of our struggles and challenges, out of poverty, we should not forget our LORD GOD.

In verse 2 he said: we should remember that the wilderness he led us for all these while was to test us in order to be humble. The wilderness as stated earlier is our poverty and years of suffering. We should never forget nobody was born rich no matter what rich family he/she was born into.

In verse 3-4 he said: God humbled us causing us to hunger and then feeding us with manna which we and our ancestors know nothing about. Our clothes didn’t wear out and our feet didn’t swell.

He has actually been sustaining us and providing for us all the while we were nothing. The most watched word of a “poor” man when asked how tomorrow will be is “tomorrow will surely take care of itself”. At this point we are so humble on getting what we want. We don’t even mind prostrating flat to someone who we are old enough to be their father. A saying goes “if you want to know how humble a man is, check him when he is poor”. That is actually when we are most humble. We are humble when we want to get our first contract and when we are well fed, we big in to show some pride. Somehow we don’t know how the spirit of pride imbibes in us.

In verse 5-6 he said: know then in your heart as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD disciplines us. We should also observe the commands of the Lord our God.

I overheard a conversation one day and the question asked was “who is the most aggressive set of human on earth?” And someone replied saying it is the poor man. In fact, that can be true to some extent. We worry a lot on what’s forthcoming and what’s not forthcoming. We worry on what to eat and what to wear. We even cut down the size of food we eat and number of clothes we wear. That’s discipline. That’s the discipline Moses was actually referring to. We discipline ourselves a lot when we talk, who we talk to and how we talk. He says we should not forget all these disciplines when we are full and well fed. When we are satisfied shouldn’t be the time we need to begin to consider if all these disciplines and sacrifices we made back in the days are not necessary bat all. When we were actually wearing our one pair of shoes and one shirt with trouser to church and we are loyal to God, we should never forget all those.

When we read further to the end we will understand all the commandments. The moment we begin to refer to ourselves and begin to count on our might of how far we have come and how well we are, we have entered the DITCH. We need to be so careful a lot. When we begin to be hailed by people in our surroundings, and we acknowledge their praises forgetting it is GOD who brought us this far, we have entered the DITCH.

When we are full and have entered the Promised Land which God has given us, we should never forget to always give him praises for all he had taken us through. He molded us and tested us in those trying times and to some extent we have passed them. The moment we switch over in status, we should not switch over from GOD. It is more like one who is living in the slums and finally gets a miracle to live in banana islands, for sure his caliber of friend will change. That should not imply that we should start referring to the slums where we were once before as a lowly regarded place. WHEN WE FORGET WHERE WE WERE COMING FROM, GOD WILL ALWAYS REMIND US OF WHERE HE TOOK US FROM. AND WHEN GOD REMINDS US WHERE HE TOOK US FROM, THAT’S CERTAINLY GOING TO BE HARD. Taking a cue from 2Chronicles 26. King Uzziah became king at age sixteen and his fame took all over the land. He began to feel too big by trying to burn the incense by himself which was meant to be done by the priest. Despite the priests warning him, he was immediately struck with leprosy by God.

The moment you have fallen into the ditch you begin to question yourself how you rose to the top. As a matter of fact, when God promotes us, it is not permission for us to be lawless. Increase is no permission to be lawless just as you should know that you are guided by spiritual and physical laws. “GOD IS NOT AFRAID OF TAKING US TO THE TOP. HE IS CONCERNED OF WHO WE WILL BECOME WHEN WE GET TO THE TOP”.

5 quick principles we should never forget when at the top.

a).We should not forget our communion and fellowship with God.

b).No matter how high he takes us to, we should always depend on him continually.

c).We should never fail to understand why GOD took us to the top and why he wants us there. There are destinies attached to us all at the very point we were waiting on God for our breakthroughs.

d).We should always make God’s business our business. We are so consumed by our needs we forget to acknowledge God. Like the saying “more money more responsibility and problems”. Let us not be too consumed we forget to give God our own time because he took us to where we are.

e).This is the most important of all. The best is saved for the last. We should always have a heart of tenderness and correction. We should always be humble and willing to accept faults, errors and deeds. If we won’t accept the rebuke of men, then we have no choice than to accept the rebuke of God forcefully. Most of us, when we are not yet at the top, we are so arrogant we don’t even take to corrections. Like they say “money answereth all things”. How then shall we now be corrected when we are at the top?

Think about it.

PAEZOUT

The Ditch "I" - Part 1

I was on the internet yesterday and I saw a post of a very rich and classy handsome Nigerian guy. Igbo to be précised. He is the younger brother to an elder brother. By now you should know who I am I am talking about and whoever comes to your mind is who I am referring to. LOL!!! The picture showcased him, his elder brother and their mum by the pool side. And when I looked closely, I saw lots of advanced gadgets on the table. And stretching my eye, behind them was a black Mercedes bus parked amongst other exotic cars beside a very big mansion. I decided to continue reading and then I got to the comments section. I couldn’t but see how much rages were fired from people either out of enviousness or hate with lots of anger. I just wouldn’t know why. But one comment caught my eye which was “we aren’t taking any of all these to heaven. It is vanity upon vanity.” A reply to that comment said “even the phone you used to post this comment, you aren’t taking it to heaven. So enjoy your life”.

To me, that was E.O.D (end of discussion). I mean, we are all entitled to OURSELVES and whatever CHOICES we decide to make. It either for our benefits or not. And we alone will bear the consequences.

Nothing good comes so easy. And if you want to confirm, ask the gold. The gold surely has gone through lots of beatings and shaping and carvings before looking so bright and glaring at sight. When the end product is out, we stare so much we are always in awe. But we forget who carved it out. It sure didn’t carve itself and out itself into that fire and came out despite those harsh conditions it went through. Someone definitely did that.

We are definitely like the gold. We were born into this world with raw talents and skills and acquisition by our master and creator, God. Just like the parable Jesus gave in the bible, the multiple talents. Everything good must have gone through something before it’s so beautiful at sight. Everything God created is beautiful and marvelous in His sight.

While we are now on earth, we are now compelled to succeed and even without being told, with everyone and with the influence of society and community, we also desire good things by the sight of things we see. And then we pray so hard we neglect things and begin to bargain with God. Hannah needed a child and she became desperate for the child she bargained with God; if she has a child, he automatically becomes His.

We never forget to fast and pray all for our breakthrough not also leaving out our supposed “enemies” as we push more energy on them believing we are not where we ought to be because of them. Well, if you ask me it mostly because we are not living by God’s principles. We also run from pillar to post and our ears are so straight to hear God speak. We always want that and that’s the very time we become humble. Mountains upon mountains to the extent we are even recognized by those mountains. Mind you, I am not against all these. If you will follow me, you will understand what I am about to point out soon to our own understanding and knowledge.

When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they always cried lout to God and in His infinite mercies he heard them and always spoke to them through His servant, Moses. When the Children of Israel were in the land of Egypt, the Lord remembered his covenant he had with their forefathers. To those who followed and worshipped Baal of Peshor, they were destroyed. That’s the same with us. When we are waiting and seeking God’s face, we feel it is too long and not necessary. We begin to feel that we are much wiser and better than God who instructed us to wait. Then we go for other options by worshipping smaller gods. We all want riches and wealth but in our impatience, we do all sort of uncalled things out of wrong desperation.

In Deuteronomy, from the beginning of the chapter 4, we see how Moses was instructing the children of Israel on whites ahead of them. The Promised Land which they are about to cross into and possess. He also made mention that those commandments must be taught and passed on to their children and off springs to come. I see teenagers become so rebellious that they think the wrong is the good. They’ve taken the abnormal as the norm. We are being corrected and molded by our parents. Although they might look harsh and stern to us but we have no choice than to do them because it’s of more benefits to us. This is the commandment if God to us and permit me to say that’s what some Americans are actually missing out. They’ve kicked out Christianity among themselves and so why would they know the commandment which God has asked us to keep?

If we read on to Deuteronomy 8 Moses gave some stern warnings to the children of Israel. The stern warnings is the DITCH “I”. You are wondering what that is. I will break it down to you.