31 Days Thanksgiving & Praise - DAY 6

"Every word of God is flawless;

he is a shield to those who take refuge in him."

Proverbs 30:5

Dear Lord, I thank you for the gift of another day to be called your own, to praise, worship, declare your majesty and your faithfulness. Thank you for joy, peace and love. Thank you for your promises, that resides within the collection of personal letters you have written to each and every one of us.

Today dear Papa, I am thankful for the gift of your Word, the gift of you, THE BIBLE.

I am thankful for the Bible because, it is the BOOK OF LIFE. It is about life that Jesus Christ came to give to me. Without His coming I would still be dead in sin and lost!. John 14:6 explains it clearly "Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by (through) Me"

I am thankful for the Bible because the Word is YOU. You speak to me, guide, love and teach me the way that I should go. In John 1:1 you tell me this so clearly, it reads "John 1:1, "IN THE beginning [before all time] was the Word ([a]Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God [b]Himself"

I am thankful because your word, even though written a long time ago, is relevant to every single part of my life today and it will be relevant tomorrow and forevermore. As the word is you, it brings to life the reality of who you are... 'THE I AM' the continuous present one. You are not the I was, or I am going to be, you are I AM! You explain this to me clearly in Exodus 3:14a "And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM and WHAT I AM, and I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE...".

You see even when 'YOU WILL' be what 'YOU WILL BE', it will be that you are the 'I AM' at that moment in time! ha! You show the continuous relevance of your word, of who you are to me every single day! I can testify!


I am thankful because your word has an answer to every single question or situation I could ever have or conjure up! Opening your word is like walking into a personified library, a road map of history, parables, law, codes of behaviour, prayer, sermons, letters and even poetry. (I should really pen some more poems, just for your pleasure papa).

I am thankful for the Bible because it brings me closer to you, it reveals the (with the help of the wonderful teacher Holy Spirit) deeper meaning and understanding of your Will for my life. Through your word, I am learning to know what my master wants, so that I can do that all he says I should do, in willingness and obedience - so that I will eat the good of this land!

I am thankful that indeed, every word written therein is truly flawless, and therefore I have hope and trust in your word, which means I have hope and trust in you!. This hope brings the gifts of your blessings upon my life, as declared in Jeremiah 17:7, which reads "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, And whose hope is the LORD."

So today, dear Papa, I say a big, massive, thunderous THANK YOU for THE BIBLE, YOUR WORD, WHICH IS YOU! I thank you for the gift of your words which gives hope, joy, peace and most of all life to my very soul.

Papa, I pray that my basket of thanksgiving and praise is acceptable and sweet smelling in your sight today. Be glorified, honored and praised, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ I thanks, pray and praise. Amen!!

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, WHAT ARE YOU

THANKFUL TO THE LORD FOR TODAY?

Much Love, Remi

***pictures by google and photobucket***

LECTIO DIVINA

The other day I came across an ancient Christian practice called "Lectio Divina" or "spiritual Reading", as it is sometimes referred to as.

Lectio Divina is described as "the slow, contemplative praying of the Scriptures which enables the Bible, the Word of God, to become a means of union with God"

To embrace the process of Lectio Divina, is to "give room" in our busy lives and "create a rhythm" whereby we can flow in the discovery of the "ability" and the "how to" of offering ourselves and "enhancing our relationship with" God through his word - the reading, speaking and hearing of it.

For the word of God to have meaning, impact and manifestation in our lives, we can take a leaf out of this ancient practice of the early church - Lectio Divina.

The process of Lectio Divina involves the following:

• Reading / Listening
• Thinking / Meditating
• Praying
• Living
  

Reading / Listening the word
Deuteronomy 11: 18 - 20 reads 18 “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates..."

How do we lay up the words of God in our heart and soul? This is by reading, not once, twice but constantly.

Also, God constantly speaks to us, thus, we should learn to recognise and listen to his voice. In
1 Kings 19:12, We see an example of God speaking and Elijah listening. It reads " 12And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire [a sound of gentle stillness and] a still, small voice." This was the revelation of Elijah (It is important to read the whole chapter for completeness).


Thinking / Meditating the Word
After reading and listening to the word of God, the next step is to think about it. To meditate on it. Not just muse over what has been read, but to really, really, think about it. It sounds easy doesn't it? But in today's busy world, it's so easy to let our minds wander over verses, chapters and books, rather than simply focusing on their contents; what is God saying? How does this apply to me? What do I have to do about what I've read? What is God going to do?..... and much more.


It's like going on a sight-seeing holiday. You get to a beauty spot, to view some of the world's most beautiful landscapes, from the top of a hill. Most will take a fleeting glance and say "well that was beautiful, next sight please", but some will place a mat on that hill, sit down and "take in" the whole scenery, the landscape - where the hills stopped and where the valley began, the types of trees, animals, the feel in the air and all of that. Now, imagine that...same scenery, different experiences.

We can take an example from the Psalmist David in Psalm 119: 15, which reads "I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways."

Praying the word

After reading, listening, thinking and meditating on God's word, the next natural thing I believe, would be to have conversations with God about this word.

Imagine the start of your day, you wake up in the morning, have devotional time, and you read a passage in the bible that

strikes a cord in your heart. You get ready for work - thinking about this passage, on you way to work - you are thinking about this passage, whilst at work - you are thinking about this passage. There will come a point during your day that you will voice up and say something like "right God, this is really bugging me, what does this passage mean, what are you trying to tell or explain to me here" Hands up, those of us who have been there!

That "bugging" feeling is the conversation starter with God about his word. Going through all the points above leads us to have conversations with God. It leads us to pray about his word, and the prayer that results from this is not usually the normal "prayer list" of "I want", No. It could be prayers about what his word is simply saying about him, or about the country or city we live in.

Living the word

Finally, we have read, listened to, thought about and prayed the word, now we have to emulate it! Ah, this is the hardest part of the process. We should not only be readers, hearers, thinkers or prayers of the word, but also doers of the word as we are encouraged in James 1:22-25, which reads: 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

Furthermore, John 15: 7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you"

I believe for us to abide in God always, means to make the intricacies of his word a daily part of our reality; for our lives to represent its full meaning.

Here is me wishing you an awesome time in the constant presence of the Lord, whilst living out your today, not forgetting to make him famous along the way.

Much Love

Remi Banjo

***Pictures by Photobucket***

The Jewellery Box

It was her birthday, she was going to be 10 years old. She woke up with bouts of extra excitement, for she remembered her father telling her the night before that he had something very special to give her today. She is so glad today has finally come!

She rushed downstairs, still in her nightgown, her parents were at the table, having breakfast. "Happy birthday" they cheered, with jubilation and much clapping.

Her father beckoned for her to come a little closer and he proceeded to present her with a beautifully wrapped gift. She was excited. She unwrapped the gift ever so carefully, not wanting to ruin it's beauty, little did she know that what laid inside the pretty wrapping paper was even more beautiful and precious. And then she saw the gift; it was the most beautiful jewellery box she had ever seen. She had been admiring a jewellery box from the shop window, down the street for as long as she could remember, but this particular jewellery box was even more beautiful that the one in the shop window. It was pink and had shiny bits attached to it. The inside was carefully laid with a pink satin cloth and yellow ribbons, and when you closed the box, a shiny gold lock was on the cover, attached to a key, to lock it and keep it's impending contents safe. She was ever so pleased with her gift. But then there was more.

She turned around thanked her daddy, but to her greater delight her mummy promptly presented her with another present. This time it was a beautiful fresh water pearl necklace, with a matching bracelet! Her mummy handed it to her and said "now you are a big girl, with a pearl necklace and a jewellery box. The box is to keep all your precious jewellery ssafe from harm and accessible whenever you need to pick one to wear for all those special occasions you will be attending in the future." She felt so grown up!

She was ecstatic she thought to herself "I have the best parents in the whole wide world". As time went on, she acquired, lots of jewellery; necklaces, bracelets and rings and she kept them all safe in her precious jewellery box. Ever so often, when she had an event to attend, she would go into this box, pick up the perfect piece of jewellery just for that event.

There were instances when she did not have an event to attend, yet she would simply go into the jewellery box, observe the contents, made sure they were in top condition; she cleaned and polished them so they were gleaming. Sometimes she would simply wear a piece of jewellery just because she was happy or just because she wanted to feel it's closeness to her skin or simply observe it's beauty.

She wore her jewellery on both happy and sad occasions. A sad occasion was such as when grandma Louise died. She was real sad, as she loved her grandma very much. She had to attend the funeral service in a dark outfit and that made her even more sad, and then she thought, I would wear one of my necklaces to make me feel better. So she reached into her jewellery box and found the prettiest necklace, and she wore it along with her outfit. This made her feel much better, infact when she arrived at the service, everyone commented on her necklace and said she was a brave girl for being so pretty for grandma Louise. The necklace it seemed took away her sadness.

Now think about the HEART OF MAN, envisage this to be the jewellery box and the WORD OF GOD; liken this to be to the jewellery that goes into the box. Now picture the word of God as precious jewels given to you, one at a time and you keeping them safe, locked up within the corners of your heart. Awesome isn't it?

Now, how do we get the word of God into our hearts and keep it safe I hear you ask?

We do this by studying the bible, daily, diligently, in all seasons, through all situations. When we study the word, we should practice instances of memorising verses; of keeping these and the meanings the holy spirit gives to us within the walls of our hearts so that they do not depart. Such as the declaration of the Psalmist David in Psalm 119:11, it reads "Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. "

When we enrich our hearts with the word of God, we are being diligent, as explained in Proverbs 4:23, it reads "4:23 that we should "Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life"

Imagine that. Issues of life flow out of the hearts. So it's safe to say, whatever we put in our hearts, either good or evil, will eventually flow out of it right?. If we store in the word of God in our heart the issues that will flow out will be of blessings, love, peace, joy and much more, and if we store away the world within our hearts, the issues that will flow out will be of hatred, jealousy, envy and much more. Which one would you choose?

To diligently hide and keep safe the word of God in our precious jewellery box, the heart, assists and enables us to sing to God with our hearts. Imagine that!!! If our hearts are not pure, we would not be able to worship God as we ought to - in spirit and in truth, such as described in Colossians 3:16 which reads "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord "

Finally, as the little girl was able to retrieve various precious pieces of jewellery for various occasions, we too should be able to reach within our hearts and retrieve precious pieces of the word of God to help us in in our daily reality, to assist us in that situation, that circumstance, that trial or tribulation, or simply to help us remember the one who is the reason for us being here.

Remember, the word of God is powerful and able to pierce through and rectify any circumstance as explained in Hebrews 4:12, which reads "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

It is to our very great advantage that we understand the jewellery box that is our heart, guard it with all our might, but most importantly fill that jewellery box with the most precious pieces ever known to man - the precious word of God.

I encourage you today to make the living word of God your daily bread. Delve into it's richness daily. Store, the contents and it's meaning within the walls of your heart, for when you find yourself in the valley during your daily journey, I promise you, it is that very word that you stored a month, or two or a few years ago, that will reach down and pull you out into victory and unto higher ground.

Have a wonderful day loosing yourself in the realms of God's word, whilst making Him famous along the way.

Much Love

Remi Banjo

All pictures by photobucket***