As If

“As If” is a phrase made popular by a movie that came out some time ago. I’ve never used the phrase myself, but if I did, I would probably not use it as a stand-alone. Now, I don’t know much about phraseology, but I think it had to do with rejection of some sort. On the big screen it played out like this. A smart but not-so-popular boy would work up the nerve to ask a super-popular girl something  like, “So, do you wanna go to the dance with me Friday night?” to which she would raise her brow, contort her mouth and reply “As if!” and walk away.

Interestingly enough, this is yet another term the world has used as a form of denunciation that God uses to enunciate His love for us. How so? Ephesians 1:7-8 says “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us; with all wisdom and understanding” and to further make his point, Paul wrote in Romans 5:1-2 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God”.

Of all the many wonderful blessings noted in the two scriptures above, the justification portion is eating away at me today. Redemption, forgiveness, grace, wisdom, understanding are all topics I could talk about for weeks. However, I want to focus on justification for a moment. Let’s be clear about one thing; God is just and we are not. Even on our best day, we don’t have the power to be anything close to good, let alone just-outside of a pure relationship with Christ.

So, why the need for justification? Where redemption saves us, grace assures us, wisdom and understanding lead us and forgiveness pardons us, justification is a major prong in the spiritual legality of God. I read somewhere that to be justified by God makes it just as if I had never sinned in the first place.  

When we apply the blood of Jesus over our situations it makes the sin in our lives as if it had never happened. At this point in my life I am more grateful than ever for a clean slate. How about you?

Build,

Nakeia

www.twfginc.com

Little Children

Sometimes I think we are all crazy like that song by Cee Lo. We have this awesome Father who has given us everything we could ever want, need or ask for and what do some of His children do? Squander his gifts like brats.

As a parent-formerly-known-as-adolescent I can relate to this scenario on many levels. I've been the kid who gets exactly what she asked for only to toss it to the side like an old rag moments later. And I've been the parent who worked diligently so I could have money to buy gifts for my children, or stayed up late at night working on a project so I would have time to spend with them the next day, only for the effort to be unappreciated. Am I saying my children don't appreciate me or that I didn't appreciate my parents?
Well, yes.

As little children we don't appreciate what we have until we wake up one day as adults and wish we could crawl back into our twin bed with our super-hero blankets and sleep in comfort and serenity. Actually, it's a natural occurrence for children to be somewhat oblivious to their fortune. However, it is the job of a good parent to lovingly remind our children of just how fortunate they are.

But what happens to adults who never fully mature?

Adults who continue in the milk of life while rejecting the meat will have telltale signs; we disrespect God, take His kindness for weakness, ignore His counsel and shun His wisdom. Bottle-drinking adults are really just old children. Frail, helpless and searching. Then Jesus inserts Himself into our world and everything changes. The hope that was lost is found again. The light that was dim is rekindled, and the pain we've inflicted upon ourselves is replaced with forgiveness.

Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3 that he could not see (perceive, understand) the Kingdom of God unless he was born again. In order for us to mature into the human beings we were created to be, we must abandon our old selves and start all over. What a concept! After total abandonment, Jesus tells us that he can then send us out as "sheep in the midst of wolves", but warns that we must learn to be "wise as serpents, and harmless as doves" (Matthew 10:16) in order to fully appreciate what we have been given and share it with others. It's quite doable when we surrender ourselves to the power of the blood of Jesus.

Proverbs 10:12 says, "Hatred stirs up strife, but Love covers all sins". Isn't that good news for us as we mature in Christ, Little Children?


Build,

Nakeia

http://www.twfginc.com/

Bad News

How do you handle bad news? There are many phrases that can help the average person along the way. One such saying is When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. What happens when life hands us lemons, and grapefruit. And we, being human, add to our bitter citris punch-a splash of lime. Then others come along and pour in vinegar instead of water! I know what you're thinking, That sounds nasty!

Isn't that how life is sometimes? Just downright unpleasant? I heard an elderly man say 'In the meantime can be some mean times' and I agree. Life can throw us a problem or two and our human nature doesn't always help the situations very much. What do we do? How do we go on when life knock us down with bad news? How do we turn our lemon, grapefruit, lime and vinegar into anything drinkable???

Christ took on all of our sin, just to make our burden lighter. Matthew 11: 28-30 says "Come unto me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light".

We have to carry something, but Christ took on our burden, so we wouldn't have to be so heavily weighted down with it. We can live in a world filled with bad news and still find the good in it. Christ took on the bitterness of this world, so we could enjoy it's sweetness. He will take your bad news and show you something good. All you have to do is believe.


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Nakeia

What's In A Word?

Today I read some pretty interesting blogs about editing by Eric A. Kimmel and Debbi Mack. The best part about them was they inspired me to start my own! :-)

 Since I started writing a novel several years ago and an editing company last year I have been getting familiar with words in a whole new light. I've always known that words have power; we can speak death and life whether we know it or not. Scholars call that the self-fulfilling prophecy. Either way, the words we use, the meaning and motivation behind them and the actions we take because of them are all linked in a cosmic way. How cool is that?

In addition to having power to speak death and life, we also have the power to write in the same fashion. I choose to write life. It is my desire to help those writers like myself who wish to add more than they take away by editing with that in mind. This is not to mean that characters will never die or be eulogized in my books. They will. However, my writing will always point to the words that give. Probably because I've been given so much.

Build,

Nakeia

Check out my site: www.twfginc.com