The Open Door

The truth is, every human being alive today can be saved. All they need to do is invite Jesus, because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

The truth for each one of us alive today, insofar as we still have breath in us, is that;

Jesus Christ, the King of Glory, yet full of grace, knocks at the doors of our hearts, with a still, small voice.

The ear of faith hears the Holy Spirit!

REVELATION 3:7-8

{3:7} And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; "These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; {3:8} I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name."

The Proactive Good Fight

GOD does great things. So the enemy may rage, plot and scheme all he wants, but we need to ask GOD to heal our spiritual blindness, that we might see as Elisha's servant saw. While he was yet preoccupied with fear of a mighty band of warriors come to seize the prophet of GOD, his spiritual eyes were opened. Then he saw that a great army of angels had surrounded the oblivious enemy army.

2 Kings 6:15 - 18
{6:15} And when the servant of (Elisha) the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, "Alas, my master! how shall we do?"
{6:16} And he answered, "Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them."
{6:17}And Elisha prayed, and said, "LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see." And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
{6:18} And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And He smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

GOD's promises are a source of comfort and they are also instruction in His ways. GOD's law, the ten commandments, are good and righteous and just. Right now I am learning this lesson, whose future observance promises rich reward if I abide its the conditions. Grace is furnished to sustain the journey.

GOD is working, and His ways are known to those who seek Him diligently. If we by slackness and profligacy allow His great works to become invisible to us, submitting to despair, folding our hands and shivering before the enemy, we become guilty of severe dereliction of our duty. The great controversy between GOD and the devil is a war, and every one of us is a fighter in it one way or the other. Now imagine how effective the fighter is who stands stationery on the battlefield, dazed and awed at the enemy's mighty battle equipment, divisions, formations, organization, tactics and movements. How effective is this fighter going to be in combat? Bure kabisa, amelala! 

The tone of this blog these past two years or so has been altogether devoid of hope. I have looked with much awe at the enemy's devices, and quaked in my boots. I have failed to see that in the great controversy, GOD also works! We only need to look and see for ourselves!

The war imagery is fitting. We ARE at war, the only difference might be which side we're fighting for. The devil is armed to the teeth with the whole spectrum of literal arms, brute force, deadly deception and popular delusions. However the Almighty is all-powerful, and yet His armies' weapons are righteousness, truth, justice, mercy, love, longsuffering.

Exodus 34:6-7
{34:6} And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, "The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
{34:7} Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation."

Exodus 20:5-6
{20:5}Thou shalt not bow down thyself to [graven images], nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
{20:6} And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Whoever you are, you can join the army of GOD now- to walk the Way of peace, your Instructor the Prince of peace. Fighting the good fight involves enduring violence and hatred, but it is endured, not inflicted by the servant of GOD. The literal fighting is taken care of already!

Exodus 14:13-14
{14:13} And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.
{14:14} The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

GOD has done, does and will continue to do great things unto eternity. Yet He prefers to work through any of His children who seek Him freely, with the whole heart. Then GOD's ways will be known to them as He works though them, they having devoted their very lives to Him. And the blessing of GOD is no small thing! Even this minute, in this nasty world we inhabit, there are people of GOD studiously living lives that cause others to praise GOD for His great works. If we saw all the good that their divinely-inspired positive influence yields, we would easily go so far as to call them angels in disguise while praising GOD for sending them. And these people of GOD could include anyone, anywhere on this wide world, who seeks Him with the whole heart.

PSALM 14:2
The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.

May GOD open our eyes, that we may see the battle through heaven's superior scope, and not be afraid! Let us pray for the excellent courage that comes with certain foreknowledge of victory, and the excellent grace to never stop working, ever conscious that the fields are ripe and the laborers few. Let us do our diligent part in the great controversy, not for ourselves only but also for others.

As long as we battle on the side of GOD, the enemy's vast numbers don't matter one bit. Indeed the Bible tells us that when Jesus returns with the armies of heaven, His enemies will not stand and fight!

REVELATION 6:15-17

{6:15} And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

{6:16} And said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

{6:17} For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"

Let us plan, instead, on being present at the marriage supper of the Lamb with as many as possible of our fellows, strangers and even "enemies" that we can talk into it. At the feast, they will be glad they were told, and gladder they passed it on.

Horror Movies in Context

I do not watch horror movies. Horror movies are a diabolical scheme by the empire to dehumanize humanity! You should be able to tell, by the time they are affronting you with the visual abomination of a psychotic masked man lopping at human beings' anatomies with a chainsaw/ axe/ blunt weapon. Right from the start, and all the way to the closing credits, they leave the audience with gut-level fear that all manner of things will go very wrong in the worst ways possible. 

Enough introduction, now we step straight into today's conspiracy. Remember the time you almost pissed your pants while beholding the cold dark supposedly seductive glare of Dracula, just before the saber-toothed guy stepped out of the 3D TV and came for your neck. Kinda reminds you of life in the twenty-first century. Life today feels like a reality horror show, except there's no director to shout "Cut" when things go elephant. 

I am actually saying that I have unearthed a scheme to have everybody subconsciously afraid most of the time. Except, as part of the conspiracy, they call it 'anxiety disorder' (not fear) and make you buy sleeping pills to salve its side effects. This evil plot reaches into every part of our lives. What does this wickedness achieve, you wonder? Scared people are highly suggestible. What if you woke up at night and your house was on fire, and somebody told you to grab a teddy bear on your way out? You see?

Do I have evidence? Evidence is for state prosecutors to worry about. Right now I'll just point out that the last time they were celebrating 'economic growth' in State House, Revenue Authority, Central Bank and everywhere else that formal narratives are given birth to, my wallet actually shrank! They also released 'inflation' figures that did nothing to return my wallet to its former capacity. Elsewhere, firms were 'downsizing' and government was 'privatizing' and everyone declared a new dawn for efficiency in service delivery. The result was Suffericom Customer Care, among other things. Sounds familiar?

The guys pulling the strings have brought us to that stage where you are lucky if you have a job. Your employer knows how lucky you are, and reminds you of the wealth of luck you enjoy, and even threatens to remove your good fortune if you grow a brain, and then who knows who'll pay back your university loan. The ranks of the unemployed swell day by day. Even those entering university this minute know this. Very soon we'll have a global highly-skilled non-work-force. Meanwhile everyone is scared, and someone is reaping major profits, and some fondly reminisce on Karl Marx.

We return briefly to the horror movies. In what sort of society does a vampire become a cult obsession? Or even a werewolf? What does it say about us as a society, that we are now taking sides between heartless creatures which suck the life-blood out of human beings and hairy naked creatures which maul the life out of human beings late at night? The short answer: a scared society whose adolescent girls are hooked on Twilight. The very fact that Twilight is NOT considered a horror movie shows just how upside-down the moral compass is.

Choose? No, thanks! (screenshot for vampires vs werewolves iPhone game from blogs.houstonpress.com)

In other news, Lord of the Rings – secretly a horror movie – is a charming apology for racism. Yes! You will look up and down for the black race in the film and you may not see them among the noble elves, brave dwarves, personable hobbits and magical heroic humans. But consider the Orcs and the Uruk-Hai, and tremble! 

"Uruk - Hai" image from mucklefiguren.de

Reflect upon the underlying plot. Generally: the aforementioned (white) races were just chilling and minding their own business in their pristine lands. Suddenly, Dark Lord Sauron emerges from well-nigh-nowhere after a centuries-long silence, leading a swarthy, ignorant army of mass-produced dunderheads in the invasion of white men's countries. Sounds like a scare campaign against immigration. I haven't even mentioned the manifest black arts and devils' doctrines on displayed with such stunning visual effects in the Lord of the Rings franchise.

Of course you think I'm making too much noise for nothing, scaring myself – until you think about it. Besides, a little paranoia never hurt anyone.

Be a Conscious Man when You Fall in Love

I have neglected my blog of late. Yet no sooner is the rug swept out from under my feet than I come running to the blog – my virtual shoulder to cry on. This alone might reflect badly on my social habits.

“What happened?” the reader wonders. I’d rather let it kill me inside. All I’ll say is that Jolly Brothers’ song “Conscious Man” applies to me retrospectively. I recommend it as a reality check to all love struck young men out there. It’s an old-timey reggae track, but its message is worth overcoming any reggaephobia for. Below are disjointed sections of the lyrics.

When you fall in love with someone who doesn’t love you
They use you as a puppet on a string!
Look into yourself my friend, try to get wise,
And be a conscious man when you fall in love!

Solomon was wise but he couldn’t find the secret of a woman
(O yes it is true)
Samson was strong and deceived by a woman
(can’t you see?)
Look into yourself my friend, try to get wise
Don’t let a woman get you down
Just be a conscious man when you fall in love!

I know I’ve stirred readers’ curiosity for the back story to my posting of this apparently sexist song. The lyrics are probably relevant to you; let that suffice. All I know is right now there are too many convenient relationship arrangements established on other foundations besides LOVE, and I just very nearly fell into one such trap. I’m just shouting it out there that, whereas “you can’t eat love,” on the flip side, “money can’t buy you love.”

And the sum of the matter bears repeating: “Be a conscious man when you fall in love.” By all means fall in love, just keep your eyes wide open! Once in the past, an old flame, having analyzed my hyper-deliberative approach to life, confronted me. “Does EVERYTHING have to make sense to you?!” she demanded. Back then I was young and eager to please, so that I jumped to the defensive to minimize the image crisis. “Not EVERYTHING,” I lied.

But now, looking back, I understand that I had driven her into becoming an activist against my conscious conduct (but do I say). And when I saw the evangelist of blind roller-coaster romance preparing a crusade against my sober ways, I bowed my head in premature chickenhearted surrender.

DISCLAIMER: Being conscious is not an excuse to be mean and arrogant. Do not misconstrue me. it ought to facilitate looking for love. And remember – love is what love does, not what it says or looks like

Ecclesiastes 7:26
And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.

Kenya’s abortive class struggle

On election day, the armed guard at my polling station said to me and others present, “The most foolish thing is when poor people vote to make rich men richer.” He was speaking dangerously – he talked the language of class consciousness. I know the universities have done a thorough job implanting a knee-jerk reaction against socialist-communist-sounding themes in our educated psyches. However, the reality of the matter is that class struggle is Kenya’s real problem, and tribalism is the smokescreen by which class consciousness is being obscured and successfully prevented.

Every five years an opportunity comes around for the wretched of the earth to overhaul government in their favor. As classes, we have more challenges in common with one another than we have with our self-appointed tribal representatives. Thanks to democracy, the lower classes have the wherewithal to take their destiny in their own hands, rather than subscribing to tribal scions to elevate them into the much coveted middle-class. Individuals proudly and audaciously claim to embody the interests of entire tribes, yet we know we are in the 21st century. We also know they will go ahead to fill their own stomachs if elected. Come Election Day a circus lately baptized “tyranny of numbers” dictates the outcome: the tribes with the biggest numbers vote their candidate in.

In such a neo-patrimonial political game, two things could happen: either the president forgets them till Election Day, in which case they’ve been fooled; or the president remembers them richly, in which case the other tribes grow resentful and the next election will be much too tense. Either way the voter loses.

Kenya today stands where democracy and tribalism overlap, even if right now that democracy is on trial (twitter #democracyontrial) and the tribalism is, well, tribalism. I dare to prescribe to Kenya that class consciousness is the way out of our current myopic cold war. Too many speeches have been made by impassioned Kenyans about how the wealthy politicians play golf together while their respective poor tribesmen stare daggers at one another amidst squalor.

Class consciousness is the stuff of revolution – but democracy is the means by which that revolution can be peaceful and 100% legal. Then afterwards we can all turn our attention to a future in which tribal identity is good for diversity rather than for division.

Dare we approach Vision 2030 galloping straight ahead with our tunnel-vision tribal blinkers in place?

Ask for the Old Paths

How old are the ancient ways? The question seems to answer itself, but consider: even the ancients called the old paths ancient!

I pose this in contrast with "new" paths, called progressive and liberal, which we young-uns readily subscribe to. If the education of today was left to its own devices, we would want to be as far removed from the old paths as possible. Besides, peer pressure and movies increasingly glorify the anti-establishment rebel. "New improved this-and-that" is a byline that sells brands like hot cakes. Yet new lifestyle choices and "isms" from communism to neoliberalism, backed by science-so-called, are doomed to pass away. Indeed there is nothing new under the sun, and so much of the "new" stuff is the same old transient vanity newly come around.

Ecclesiastes 1:9
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

The old paths are the faith of our fathers, which endured for generations and handed to us a rich legacy. Our spiritual fathers are not our biological fathers, but those whose faith we have made our own example to follow. The heroes of the Protestant Reformation shared one thing in common, for which they withstood persecution: "We have no king but Jesus!" They have as much to teach us today because the principle still stands.

As Abraham by faith became an heir of the promise, so we by faith can become heirs of the same promise made to Abraham. And the promise made to Abraham was an eternal reward and heritage through Jesus Christ. Yet indeed even at Abraham's birth, the old paths were already very old! We could go backward in time from the apostles to the ancient patriarchs and we would find that each one of these heroes of faith found the old paths well worn already. Even Adam at his creation awoke to a paradise whose every pulse resonated in harmony with the ancient and perfect will of GOD.

The old paths are older than us, from eternity to eternity. Our best bet is to abide in the old paths as our fathers did - to maintain faith and obedience in Jesus Christ, the Rock of ages.

1 John 2:17
The world passeth away, and the lusts thereof ; but he that doeth the will of GOD abideth forever.

Hannah's Prayer (Samuel 2:1-10)

1 And Hannah prayed, and said,

My heart rejoiceth in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation.

2 There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.

3 Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.

4 The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength.

5 They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased: so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.

6 The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.

7 The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up.

8 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S, and he hath set the world upon them.

9 He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.

10 The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.