Bad News, Bears

"It looks like it's not going to work out."

"Due to the large number of qualified candidates, we, unfortunately, did not accept you into our program."

"We're closing down."

"She's gone. Forever."

"You're not my type."


                 All these are an example of bad news, some more frequently heard than others. Either way, hearing bad news is rarely easy to stomach or to find a good response to. The strange thing is, I feel that I've become so used to hearing bad news that I don't expect things to work out. I've already defined my life as the struggle before, why need to change that status?

Psalm 4:2 stared me down boldly in the face. "How long, o men, will you turn my glory into shame?"

Shame and all the negative words and feelings that come with that territory isn't for me. I was created to be associated with glory, not shame, not the struggle, not constant bad news.

Glory is my new story.

I needed to hear that, say that, believe it to be true. Father, I believe this to be true because my life was crafted together neatly in your hands. Whatever you touch is a masterpiece of wonder and awe and glory. Let that be evident in me. "Let the light of your face shine upon us, o Lord." vs. 6b

Where does your story need to change?

Valentine's Day Special-Falling in love

This week has been one of lots of searching. I've been searching for answers, searching for understanding and searching for wisdom. I don't know how well this search went, but I know that this has been such an enlightening period in my life because I choose to seek God's face and who He is than what He can do for me.

I have fallen in love with God all over again. I guess you can say I fell out of love with God primarily because I sought what He could do for me and how He could make me happy. It was a take-all-I-can relationship on my part but God kept giving. He keeps blessing us when we don't really deserve it. There were times when I thought I really knew who God was and would not really take the time to build a relationship with Him, but instead tried to make myself a better person so others could see how great I was.

Psalm 103 has just spoken so strongly to me this day and I am so glad to have been introduced to it. I went to a gathering where one of my friends spoke about Grace and how amazing it is. Apart from that, she mentioned God's love. It's not just any kind of love, but the love that abounds forever (Psalm 103:8).

Okay, I can't describe to you what this love feels like, but it's the sweetest kind of love where I felt surrounded by it and in awe of it. It was like a bubble that made me see the world in a different light and I felt I was walking on clouds. Really though. There was no hint of pain in this love.

I thought I knew what love was, but that kind of love that I thought I knew came with waves of fear and pain. That's not the love God gives. His love is unbelievably pure and without malice.

Basically I just want to share that this new love that I've accepted from Him is available to you. It is the only comfort for loneliness and it is the only cure for sinners. I have decided to set myself aside and accept this sincere (Romans 12:9) love that my God has been offering to me since I was born.


Much love, peace and Valentine's grease,

Ife 'Quipayan' S.

P.S. V-Day is not just for significant others; it's for anyone you love. Share that love!! <3

O-B-E-D-I-E-N-C-E

There is a song that I learned in middle school and goes like this:

Obedience is the very best way
To show that you believe:
Doing exactly what the Lord commands,
Doing it happily.
Action is the key--do it immediately,
The joy you will receive!
Obedience is the very best way
To show that you believe.

O-B-E-D-I-E-N-C-E (Yes, sir!)
Obedience is the very best way
To show that you believe

Today's reading comes from 1 Kings 10:23; 11:1-10 (I ended up reading all the way to chapter 14 because the story is SO interesting). This particular passage talks about Solomon was the richest and wisest man in the world, but after marrying 700 wives from foreign nations with foreign gods, he strayed away from the path on which God placed him and the riches and wisdom were slowly being taken away from him. The ironic thing is that God warned him not to take on these wives and their gods because He knew exactly what would happen.

But Solomon didn't listnen.

He ignored God's wishes, started worshiping these false gods and built shrines and alters to them. That, my dear friends, is an absolute NO-NO in God's books. I mean, imagine having a relationship with someone that you love and then they go occupying themselves with things that are contrary to the standards you both set. If you both live by the same standards but one day your friend/significant other decides to throw it all to the wind, how can this relationship still function in the most healthy way when one person no longer lives what he preaches?

That would be tough, and since God had warned Solomon, it was even harder to see someone you love slowly pull away after you've dedicated lots of energy, time and self into this person only for them to turn their back to you.

That's what God felt when Solomon disobeyed. Disobedience. It is our human nature that makes decisions contrary to being adviced otherwise by those who have our best interest at heart.

I am disobedient. I know. Sometimes I do it without thinking and othertimes on purpose. The purposeful ones are the kind that scare me afterward. To realize my capability as a human being to actively do the opposite of what I have been told.

But, thank God for His grace and desire to not see us perish. He brings about punishments and also sends those around us to warn us. Even after that, He willingly brings us back to Himself so that we can share in the love that He pours out for us.

He does not strike us down when we deserve it. That is mercy.

I'm out. Got some thinking to do and some praying.

Much love, peace and obedience grease,

Ife 'Quipayan' S.The funny thing about this song is that is spells out obedience in simple terms (literally and figuratively). It states that 1) it is doing what God wants the way He wants it, 2)without a snarky face and 3) immediately.

Twist

Hey guys,

Todays' Devotion comes from Matthew 5:38-48 and it talks about ways to show God's love and that what things we believe to be strange (things God may be asking us to do) are really the right way.

So, when we think God's got it twisted because He desires us to love those who hate us, remember that He is God and we are imperfect humans

Why we do what we do

Guten morgen/bom dia/

おはよう。

Good morning and welcome back to the Making Moments bloggggg :audience claps:

Hey guys, I've always wanted to have my own TV show. One day, I will. One day. Un dia.

I recently greeted you in three different languages-German, Italian and Japanese!- just in case you were wondering.

Today's devotion comes from James 2:1-9 and it is pretty direct about the subject of partiality.

Having come back from abroad, I have been taking these first few days back to get to know new people because I have been gone for a whole semester and knew that if I didn't get ot know new people, it probably would never happen. Which makes me sad; however, there have been people that I just haven't greeted since my arrival. People that I want to get to know, but have been scared or (here's the key one) thought that if I hadn't gotten to know them until now, no use trying to meet them their last semester...or whatever.

I'm not perfect. I do what I do because I am selfish, scared and proud.

Jesus is perfect. He does what He does because He loves. He is love.

Now, love is the perfect response to any situation and that's what I want to attain. That is what God calls us to do.

In this passage, we hear James reminding the people that showing partiality is a sin and not appreciated by God. But thank God for showing us how to fix this: love your neighbor as yourself. It doesn't matter who this person is/was/will be. There needs to be love shown to this person because that is why we do what we do; so that God is seen through us. If Jesus Christ would have loved, then we should to.

Let's be the people who take the love of Jesus Christ wherever we go and to whomever we meet. No matter who they are.

So, I leave you with,

   Much love, peace and elbow grease,

Ife 'Quipayan' S.

The power within

Hey folks,

Today, we have a....8 minute blog. (I woke up late.)

The bible reading is from Ephesians 3:14-21 (I would read this if I were you. It's pretty ballin' stuff.)

So, it is basically a prayer that Paul writes to the Ephesians encouraging them and asking that God would inhabit their lives from the inside out. He mentions things like "strengthen you with power through the Spirit in your inner being"(vs 16) and "that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (vs 19) and "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us"(vs 20). All these sound like extremely encouraging words, but the reason they caught my attention is how much God wants us to be His through the most natural way: by taking up His spirite/personality.

The latter verse (vs. 20) was exceptionally intriguing because I had heard this verse several times before, but it just clicked that all the "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" is done through His people: the power that we have, the one He's given us.

It's soooo crazy to realize just how much God wants to use us (though we are broken vessels) to do great things on His behalf and for His glory. So, we should let Him. Let Him abide within us and we should embrace the power that resides within us, because God has given it to us so that we can make moments in the lives of those around us.

That's 8 minutes with,

Ife 'Quipayan' S.

Have a fabulous power filled day!!

-Please pardon the error that may be present.

He Already Knows. Trust

Hey there bucks and buckarooos!

Happy NEW YEAR!!!! Woot!

ANNOUNCEMENT
First I would like to say that there are some changes. This is probably going to be a devotions blog and I'll go back to my other blog as more of a day to day environment. So if you're not so much a fan of the devotionals (which I think are super great), then you can simply click on this blog link and you'll be directed there. I enjoy blogging, so you'll probably see a growth in my entries (dating back to 2009).

ACTUAL DEVOTIONAL
Today's devotion comes from :drum roll: Psalm 119: 105-112

'God Knows'

While moving back into my school apartment the other day, I received a call from my sister, who also attends university in the States. She called complaining about how all the classes she'd wanted/needed to take are full, except one class. She spoke with a loud, impatient voice explaining how the money for the loan had not come through so she decided to check up on her classes once more in hopes of finding some of them open. She clarified to me that if she does not get into certain classes, that would make her chances of entered the business school impossible.

I knew all about the problems and implications of these events. No loan, no classes. No classes, no grades. No grades, no business school. No business school, change of major. That would be a wasted semester or she'd have to transfer. This all sounds bad and makes me so sad to hear it, but there was this confidence that I received: God Knows.

God knows that if she doesn't get these classes, this means big wahala (trouble/problem in Yoruba). It does. And He knows that no matter how proactive, determined we are, there is no way we can change or speed up a system. Only He can. He will not let us be put to shame, nor will He leave us as orphans to fend for ourselves (John 14:18). He wouldn't do that. And the simple fact that God indeed knows everything that we are going through and has made promises upon promises to never leave us or forsake us. He is our helper (Hebrews 13: 5 & 6).

So, this passage made me think of is how through the storm, the word that came to mind when talking with my sister was the word of God. This is what the psalmist was talking about in verse 105: how God's word made his way visible and he was able to see what was before him because he had God's word.

There's so much more to this passage and I think it has to do with the importance of following God's word (something I am working on) and be consistent in it, but this stuck out to me and wanted to share it with you. This life can get so twisted and out of whack, but the single hope that I can hold on to (Hebrews 10: 23) the hope we profess for He who promised is faithful. That's my God. Faithful. So, I refuse to let the devil get the worst of me. In Jesus name no.

Life was not made to be travelled through alone. Thank God for God.

Much love, peace, and God grease,

Ife 'Quipayan' S.