You are unique - walkingbyfaith.com.ng

Have you ever stood at the middle of a large market square and what different people come in and move around while doing their shopping?

if you watch keenly,you will discover that no matter the number of people that move around the market square, each of them is different.

None of them resembles another. there could be people who look alike, but they are not exactly the same. There are differences in shapes, heights and sizes.

Some are fat, tall or short!

Others are slim, tall or short. There are differences in skin complexion. While some have light skin colour some others have dark skin complexion. Such Discovery makes us understand that God made us to be uniquely different from one another.

“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attend” (Psalms 139 verses 6).

There are many things that makes us unique from one another. We are unique in our understanding, perception and evaluation of issues and events.

Not in one mould

We are not in one mould. some are sharp and spontaneous in understanding and analysing situations, while others tend to take much more time in doing so.

some are very comfortable with a busy environment, while others love less busy and quiet environment.

I want to be a little personal about myself here. I find it difficult to recognise some faces, road or text just at the first sight, unless I really concentrate to make a full view of them and perhaps commit them to my memory.

I’ve discovered in our pastoral ministry that sometimes I miss the flat of some of our members who I want to visit even when I have visited the place once or twice.

I have often asked my way through. But my husband is not like this. He recognises people even from a distance. At first sight he is able to pick the face of people even without really concentrating to look at them closely.

He recognises throughout just at the first visit or passage through them. my husband is Sharp and fast and response continously to issues why I am a bit slower in my response to issues.

He learns how to manipulate electronic gadgets much more easily than I do.

He is meticulous While narrating stories of events. He tells the minute detail of stories. He is able to do this because he pays attention to details of invent when he participate in them.

He can recall word for word what was seeing in a meeting if he was present. In almost every occasion, he can remember all that he said and did with precise clarity and accuracy.

In the same way he is copious when listening to a story or narrative of an event.

In order to keep his interest, the narrator needs to mention the minute details and links while narrating the events in the order they took place.

Otherwisehe, he will easily spot some missing links or details and demand for them. On the contrary I am bored with long tails.

I normally go for the main points. I am not often patient for the minute details of what happened. I don’t mind if there are missing links in the story.

I am rather more interested in the final outcome of the event. I find these differences very interesting in our relationship.

They make us compliment each other rather than draw us Apart. it is a shame that in the bid to maintain unity and order in the society, we are often coerced into a mould.

There are human set standard on how to do different things. For instance, some have set standard on how to access a good and powerful preacher.

some think that unless you jump up and shout at the top of your voice, it may not be certain that you are preaching under the anointing of the holy spirit.

Sometimes, we discover that there are preachers who have very little knowledge of God’s word, or are ill- prepared for the proclamation of the gospel but who are acclaimed powerful man of God and great pictures.

Such may have learnt to rend the air with there screams of “Amen”, “praise the Lord”, “hallelujah”, which is the fad of today’s Christianity in order to make their preaching correspond with the expectations of people.

Many ministers caste themselves into this mould in order to be recognized and cheaply accepted even when they knew that God is not leading them that way.

Some bebble in places of speaking in tongues because others are speaking in tongues. But the gift of speaking in tongues is from God and comes through the holy spirit.

God guilds and lead us in our unique natures. if we really seek his face, he will establish our ministry for him in the way he has made us and in the way he is leading US.

So in a bid to be in conformity with societal values and demands, it is expedient that we also maintained our unique identities. This will help to guide us against becoming erratic in our Christian ministris and losing the vision God has set before us.

If we cast ourselves into one mould in our Christian ministry, we may become too artificial and cosmetic, just copying what we see others do and progress in.

There is much in the irreverence towards God today through some of the new formulars employed to Mark our liberated faith!

All done under the cloak of the holy spirit. We know that from the day of Pentecost, we have been in the era of the holy spirit. But some Christians have made God inconsequential in our religions developmental stage in their bid to demonstrate that we are in the era of the holy spirit.

Someone says : “God is my father. I command him and he does everything I commend him to do”. I do not believe we

can command God. We make supplications to him. We can hold him to his word, but should not think that this implies that we can command God and to fill our wants.

God should not be portrayed as a dog. We can command a dog but not God. We can command the evil one Satan and this agent in the power of God.

We are rather commanded by Go for he is our maker.

Irreveranceses towards God

Another irreverence towards God today is found in the way we address him. some are so familiar with him that they call him a guy. I have heard people say:” we gonna talk to that guy up there”, pointing skywards as they say it.

They mean our great God. He has become just a guy. God is not a guy. Is the maker of heaven and earth; the master of all universe.

He owns all our reverence. We are not even worthy onour own to come into his presence. But since Jesus has opened the

way, let us come before him with reverent awe and the; let us approach him with confidence because of what our Savior Jesus has done for us.

He knows me so well……

The psalmist marveled at God’s complete knowledge of him and every other personal when he said “such knowledge is too wonderful for me; too lofty for me to attend” (Psalms 139 verse 6).

He used the whole of psalm 139 to express God’s omniscience. He understand that God knows our present existential conditions and situations.

Even thoughts within our mind, both Good and evil are laid bare before God. We can hide nothing from him. He judges not only actions but also thought and motives.

Darkness and light are the same to him. Really there is no single thing done or planned that God does not know. God does not come to know us only after our birth.

The psalmist reviews that right at conception God knows us( palms 139 verse 15). He is present at the stages of our formation in the womb and we are really very important to him at that point, Just as every other adult is to him.

“The eye of God sees my unformed body when I was in the secret place”. (Palms 139 verse 16 ).

This means that the foetus in the womb has a right to live. God has given life to the foetus;a unique life. It is not just a growth in the body of the pregnant woman which she made this card at will.

it’s a full human being known to God. By this the Bible speaks against convenient abortion.the foetus is a real human being and has its life to libe.

This may sound too hard in our scientific, technological and philosophical world, where everything is accepted as good when arguments make it seem so.

The truth is that foetus is God’s child. God knows it, loves it and want it to live. The foetus need to be protected from destruction and that is why God has confined it to the uterus and has provided the body of the pregnant woman with all it needs to care for the child.

The pregnant woman is really accountable to God for her baby. Naturally the child is required to grow and eventually nurture other young lives. this way the cycle of human existence and human flourishing is maintained.

It is because we were cared for and not discarded at that stage that we were grown to full adulthood. Let us therefore protect God’s children in the wombs.

One thing is very precious to the palmist in Palm 139 to know God’s thoughts and his comprehensive knowledge of every person.

God’s omniscience make some shudder and hate him. They did not want a God who will see their evil. They would prefer a God who will close his eyes to there evil and overlook them and deliver them when others are oppressing them or when evil is up on them.

That is parochial and selfish. God is a righteous judge. He knows all the things and need no human testimony. It is very refreshing to know that God knows us completely.

Sometimes our actions and motives are misinterpreted by people. Some people are castigated and scandalized by others and entire societies made to believe that they are evil, while they strove for truth and holiness.

Our cruel society and her principalities have given some people a bad name, and through there means reduce the integrity of some people.

some people have lost their lives through the evil schemes of some oppressive persons. Sometimes it appears that while facing victimization some godly people have no one to speak on their behalf.

In some cases, some people are made to believe that certain godly people are file and deserve to be eliminated. At such times

when non speaks on behalf of the godly person when the society reject such person because they have been conditioned to do, such can surely rely upon God’s ominiscience .

He understands. He is not deceived. His judgement is not thwarted by what people say or do or think. God knows our Frailties and strength.

We can count on him to vindicate us at all times, even when others reject us. He knows where we are now. He understands our situation better than we understand it. We can call upon him from where we are and he will hear us.

We are in God’s presence at home, while on a journey,prison and when others cannot see us. He knows us and substance us. We just need to call upon him from where we are.

No matter the number of people calling upon God simultaneously all over the world at anytime, God hears and cares for each of them. What a mighty god we serve !

God’s ominiscience is much reassuring for us that at all times. it reminds us that God will always attend to us individually in a world crowded with people seeking his help.

He is no man. Some spend days, months and years booking appointment to see a particular ruler in the hope that he will vindicate them but to no avail .

some cases in the courts are continually and sometimes endlessly adjoined till we grow weary and give up. But God is not like that, we can call upon him from where we are, without protocal ,if we allowed his world to abide in us.

No man can claim to know fully the exact problem and need of another man .we cannot even fulfill all the need of our beloved ones.

Husbands may not fulfill all the needs of their beloved wives and vice-versa, however wealthy there maybe. But God is not like that.

He is able to meet all our needs, in things spiritual and temporal. He likes to intervene in our situations. We need to praise God for his mighty power that is always at work for our good.

In the world, most people are lost in the crowd. many are oppressed ,many are I’ll – treated and many are marginalized.

However comprehensive the humans schemes for relieving people of their problem are, some are still left out without benefiting from such a survival scheme.

No man can know all the people who need relife. In fact, all do need it but in different magnitudes. Some need to be relieved from their need and want because of material poverty, while others need to be relieved from greed and obsessions.

The church from time to time has engaged in humanitarian activities to relieve people from hunger. Sometimes the church gives food and shelter to many people in need.

Yet most are lost in the crowd, who may have needed more attention. This is because, sometimes, the relife materials are

too little to get around to all who are in need, and sometimes some have interest on who they want to partake in the relief, and so some are lost in the crowd. It is also caused

by inadequate knowledge of the need of every person. But it is wonderful to know that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. With God none is lost in the crowd.

Crowned with splendour…

“what is man that you are mindful of him the son of man that you care for him” (palms 8:4).

This is the humble confession of a religious man who viewed with curiosity at the unique nature of Man from every other created order.

God is mindful of hmankind. This is expressed in the kindness and favour which God has shown to humankind. He is placed above every other creature and given Dominion and authority over every other created order .

Humankind is created after the image of God. This implies that it has got some of the attributes of God; possessing knowledge, emotions and will.

Humankind is given a moral sense for responsible behaviour. There is something intrinsic in humankind and gives it the sense of right and wrong; and that is conscience.

Humankind is equally giving God-consciousness, to have the quest for God, to worship and adore him.

Humankind is the favourite of God and endowed with the dearest Providence. It takes presidency over all the inhabitants of this lower word for it is made a little lower than the heavenly beings.

This privilege which he has given to humankind reviews the meaning of the fact that all mankind are created in God’s image. This palms recounts God’s creative art in Genesis 1:2.

Humankind is aware or full privileges which have been conferred on it by God. Humankind is crowned with glory and honour and rulership over the works of God’s hands.

Everything is put under his feet -the flocks of sheep and heads of cattle, beast of the field, the birds of the air, the fish in the sea. It is clearly expressed in the second chapter of Genesis that humankind gave names to the living creature which God created.

Humankind here are given the privilege of joining in finishing the work of creation. Humankind was here and powered over every other creation.

It is God privilege to humankind that he has enabled it to investigate into nature and invent things. Christianity is not anti – intellectualism.

science and technology are all gift from God. He has crowned humankind with knowledge in His Divine wisdom. But as we

develop in science, philosophy and technology, we need God’s wisdom to direct us, least we make ourselves gods and fall into great perversions of God’s purpose and plan for humankind.

Development of any kind without God’s wisdom is very dangerous. Our unique nature of places us over what the animals.

when will behave like animals, either in the present drive for sexual perversions to animals or people of the same sex (homosexuality and lesbianism) which God

detests (lev 18 verse 22 to 29) or in fornication and adultery which have become fashionable for many, will reduce our self to ordinary animals and they face the image of God in us.

Let us rise, stand and shine in God’s splendor which has been bestowed upon us. We regain our splendor in Christ Jesus. Yet in our fallen human nature in a fallen

world, we have not come to experience the fullness of the wonders of God. we are just at the beginning when we receive Jesus

Christ in our lives. There is much more Splendour, unimaginable and in comprehensive now, which we can experience in our wonderful God.

Shalom…..