The Gospel According to D. J. Blyden

I haven’t blogged any of my thoughts and ideas for a while, I’ve been too busy too string anything together but after 6 months of saying nothing on here not only is this a waste of hosting space but I actually saw digital tumbleweed roll across my website…

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A difficult week. I was ready to throw in the towel, ready to pack it all up and go live in a cave somewhere, unable to keep up with the socio-cultural ideals and expectations of contemporary living and then it came… the Sabbath, the 24 hour period where God said REST, leave it all behind. Now you don’t need to worry my child. You are RICH. 

Good News: Just a bit of commentary on what I’ve studied so far in this weeks Lesson Study on Justification by Faith.

As I began to examine my life this morning, I came to the realisation that while I find the concept of justification by faith very simple, exciting and amazingly profound, I am probably more often than not dumbfounded by itin my daily decision making practices and my lifestyle.

For those of you who dont know, the concept of Justification by faith alone simply says that there is NOTHING in your own selfthat you can actually do to attain eternal life. This idea totally goes against everything that’s embedded in the human psyche from generations ago, since we are always taught that you have to do something to reap rewards. These are the two main considerations I have been pondering.

Firstly, From an earthly perspective, I, Myself, Daniel J. Blyden, is an entrepreneur, a go-getter, a very independent person, so for me, the idea that I cannot attain anything through my own efforts logically would have to go amiss every time. But here’s the thing that I have to remind myself every time, and that every onlooker of my life must remember - it isn’t actually me in my own strength that achieves these good things, It’s Christ in me.

‘Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.’ James 1:7 

On the contrary, entrepreneurship is quite an unconventional route and I believe its something that God has put in my character and on my life at this moment in time anyway. To go down that route, particularly at this time in earth’s history takes faith and dependency on God in a similar way to that required to be justified by faith.

Secondly, If we are justified by faith alone, why do we do anything? why do we Christians bother to try to keep the commandments? Why do we go to church? Why do we do communion and foot washing? Why do we go around doing good if it doesn’t even earn us salvation or get us into heaven?

The answer is that it’s the faith that calls you to action. Because I believe in God’s promises that has made provisions for me through his death on the cross, it compels me to do the aforementioned.

• We try to keep the commandments because we know that’s what God wants and have the faith that he will enable us to do so
• We go to church because we want to be around other people who are likeminded and share with others what God has done for us.
• We do communion and foot washing because it as a ritual reminds us what Christ went through for us and causes us to realise his love. 
• We go around doing Good because the love of God is the source of life.

As I said, none of this gets us into heaven. I’ve always said I hate doing foot washing, I in my own self hate handling people’s crusty feet, but I’ve also experienced that ‘putting myself in Jesus shoes’ which helps me to understand the type of God we serve.

I don’t know if I made my point properly here, I can’t think of what I need to say to conclude but make of it what you will. But just to reiterate the point, its important that faith in the promises of God call you to action - not just religion or routine otherwise you could begin to believe that you are saving yourself and become insincere in what you are doing. 

Bye for now.

Revelation 21:1-2 1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Earlier on I saw this quote from @thomaschristianson:

“This world would be quite different if Christians would stop trying to get to heaven, but rather tried to get heaven to earth.”

This caused my mind to recollect some thoughts I’ve recently had around the concept of Heaven.

I was thinking that in popular media, art and culture and many times in the church, heaven is more often than not depicted as this fantasia of perfect looking people with wings living in this utopia floating in clouds with trees and gardens. Wonderful. The bible says no eye has seen, no ear has and no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Corinthians 2:9), so when we depict or exemplify heaven in these ways I think sometimes it restricts the imagination. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying don’t use artist impressions or think upon heavenly thoughts, I’m just saying I think the afterlife will be much more and it will appeal to every sense of our being, spiritual and physical.

Heaven is where God (The Father, Son and Holy Spirit) abide. Though it is a beautiful place, according to the bible, ‘Heaven’ itself is not where we as human beings were created to be. That is where God lives. We as humans were created to live on earth, that is the earth as a paradise/perfect place that God created to be and personally, I think every human being has what I can only describe as a spiritual attachment, a love for this earth as our home, a love for life and living, and God created it to be that way. What God didn’t intend for us to become attached to are all the evil things, the natural disasters, the sickness and self satisfying indulgences that we’ve grown accustomed to.

This spiritual attachment and love for this earth I think is why we all have this innate fear of death and the unknown. We know that at death we will no longer be able to see the corners of the world we never had the opportunity to visit and explore or spend time with those we love. 

If I take this a step further, many of us, particularly if we are not Christians have difficulty relating to the idea of going to this place called heaven which is often presented to us as somewhere off in the clouds where good people go after they die. For the Christian who has a better understanding of who God is, we have a longing to be with our creator God, so the idea of being in heaven is more about being reconnected with Him who made us, but that attachment to the earth as our home, I think deep down still remains.

The Gospel According to Daniel J. Blyden. If you want to know more about this topic, message me and I we can talk. 

This morning I woke up, about 7.30am, looked at the ceiling and all I could see was a dark cloud over my life. I did not want to get out of bed. Looked at the window because I know that usually if it’s a sunny day with blue skies, I know that’s God’s way of motivating me pre devotional time to actually move and go about my day. But there was no blue skies, no sunshine. Only grey clouds.

I reach for phone to disable the alarm that was still going off, saw text messages missed calls and emails from people who care, but still, apathetic towards the messages I read, the voicemails checked, the emails read, still no motivation to move, borderline depression. cba with life.

It gets worse, I reached for the word and began to read my devotional for the day, Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.Ironic eh? Still apathy.

So I prayed, I explained to God who knows and understands and the minute I said Amen, I kid you not, I moved straight up out of the bed. But still I was only half way there, He put a song in my heart.

My Jesus, my Saviour
Lord there is none like You
All of my days I want to praise
The wonders of Your mighty love
my comfort, my shelter
tower of refuge and strength
let every breathe, all that i am
never cease to worship you

shout to the lord, all the earth let us sing
power and majesty, praise to the king
montains bow down, and the seas will roar
at the sound of your name

i sing for joy at the work
of your hands
forever i’ll love you
forever i’ll stand
nothing compares
to the promise i have
in you

It’s now 9.34 I’m on the bus on the way to work not only that I’m filled with enough passion and positivity to meet whatever challenges the day ahead might bring. All this is at the name of Jesus. So I want to encourage you, if ever you experience this, remember that ‘In Him (only in him) we live and move and have our being’ Acts 17:28. Remember to call on Jesus, ask him to give you what you need for the day ahead. He will.

saraleenny:

And it’s my own fault when I feel like I don’t have any friends..