The Lord My Shepherd I''ll Not Want

When I left my family and came to Australia as land far away, I felt so isolated and far removed despite the modern technology that kept me close to my loved ones. Being together in person and expereincing the intimacy is a unique social creation of God that we cannot deny in our so called modern world.

How terrible it must have been for David as well when he left his family and was always on the run as a fugitive. Saul was after David as he was a threat to his throne.

How really David felt God's presence in his life as a fugitive is reflected in Pslam 23 . The Lord was his shepherd he will not want, he writes in Psalm 23. He makes him to lay down in green pastures despite his being away from home. He had all he needs.

The Lord's being good to me to have Mark and Marion Schubert as my guardian in Adelaide when I am studing Hebrew for my research work at Charles Sturt University in Sydney. They are concrete guiding and shepherding hands of God to me. I can clearly the Lord's staff protects me, leads me to quiet pools of water and feeds me.

GOD IS SO GRACIOUS

Becoming a grandfather is not just a natural phenomenon, but it is a human psychological explosion. It blows the essence of human life to enjoyable pieces where one experiences as contributor to the continuity of human species. It is so rewarding to see through having children; we do not only keep our own family tree alive, but also the entire human species going. I just become a grandfather. Seeing my grandson melts my heart to appreciate just how marvellous and beautiful human life is.
My grandson, yet to be named, came into the world at 1.00am (EST) on the 10th of March, 2011. He is the son of my first son and his spouse, also first daughter of my co- worker. He weighted 3.1kg and was so healthy that the hospital discharged him hours later. When he was brought to our humble of home, the all family welcomed him. We just stared at him and fondled him till late night, many of us, including myself fell asleep and slept on cold concrete floor.
My daughters, now aunties of the baby argued over who would do his nappies. Their brother, not the father of the baby, who came late when baby was brought home demanded that all of us who wanted to touch the baby should have our hands thoroughly rinsed before we hold the baby. There was joy in house and all of a sudden those joy and happiness demanded rules to guard them. While those activities go on, my grandson slept innocently and peacefully in his bed, trusting fully well that his parents will protect him, feed him, guard him and keep him safe from all harm and danger.
As Christians and belonging to the Lutheran faith, we reflect on the great reformer Martin Luther who theologizes such human experience in his writings. He writes elsewhere, ‘ook at a baby as an example to trust God in your life. When every other persons and things seem to experience turbulence, the baby in his/her mother’s lab trusts that it will be fed and taken care of regardless of whatever else happens around him. It sleeps so confidently. Do the same. Trust in Lord and everything will come to pass.’ Jesus teaches us too. Look at the birds in the skies, do they care and worry about tomorrow? They seem to soar as high as they fly, grace over the creation beneath as smoothly as they can, and seem to fear no one, worry nothing and forget that there is tomorrow. God feeds them. God cares for them. How important are we (human beings)? Very important, indeed, so important that Christ gave his life for us, in order for us to trust in him that whatever else would not he give us, if he gave us his life. What else is important that he will withhold, but to let go his life? Nothing, he let go his life, whatever else is so less important or nothing compared to what he already gave up. For this reason, we are so important he cares for us every day.

The birth of my grandson does not only help continue my family, tribe and clan, but brings a joy that I cannot compare to what other earthly things can give. It is a joy that a life is given to the family to reflect that God is so gracious that his salvation of new life is experienced right here. Rebirth and new life we are born into in our baptism is experienced here in the birth of a new life. He is born, though of earthly parents, the new baby brings forth new life from God. With this new life also brings responsibility to the family to remind of ourselves that new life in Christ is also a life of responsibility. It reminds us of God’s care and love. Despite the troubles of the world, we are to lay confidently in God’s arms of protection, caring, and love and believe God is in-charge.
With joy I receive my grandson, and with responsibility I become a grandfather. I know and trust in all this , God is with me.

Time: An invaluable creation of God

Genesis 1: 3
‘Let there be light and there was light.’ The light God called it day and the darkness night. ‘There was morning and there was evening, the first day.’ The most previous and invaluable commodity that God created here is time. Before that there was timelessness. God has no time. God is eternal-eternity has no time- there is no end and no beginning. To God a day or decade was just the same. It has no relevance to him. The Genesis story tells us of a creation that must now centre around time in which its relevance will affect man and his livelihood. Death and life is determined by time. Seasons are times as reaction of environment. Environments produce certain fruits or weather pattern per time in their specific location of the universe.
When God created light and dark and as it passed time ticks into action. Biblical writers called it the ‘first day,” a segment of time that distinguishes from a period when light was shining to a period when darkness covers the light until next light shines. The eternity is demarcated by segments of day and night and one can give names to the cycle of day and night and created a calendar out of it.
Today church denominations argue against of the name of the day which is determined by a segment of day and night to denote one as important to another. We do this to think that God also will agree with us to pick one day more important than to another. We, in fact, take human assumption into God’s mind and force him to think as we, humans do. We fail to see that time is not determined by the activity of God, but activity of God determined time. For example, God commanded, let there be light and there was light, He separated light from darkness and it was first day. It was not on Monday God created day and night, it was the first day, the activity that identifies with the first day was light and darkness. It could be Monday, or Sunday or even Saturday because the name of the segment of activities of God in the creation determines time. The names of time was a very late invention.
Physically, we cannot tell the difference between Saturday and Sunday. We can only, however, tell by the cycle of day and night as the creation of God functions. If you were left unconscious in a desert or an inhabited island with no watch etc (like Tom Hanks’ Castaway), you can create your own calendar. You can name the cycle of day and night with the same names differently from the world. Would it make any difference? Absolutely not! You can set a day for worship which might be Wednesday in other countries in the same time Zone, but designate it as Sunday in your calendar. Does it matter? It is really not as far as a name is concerned, but it matters as far as worship is concerned, you rested and worship God. Is that what God intends for human beings, to know or rather have time so that we labour for certain time and worship him on certain time.
Time is made for man and not for God because God is timeless. He is eternal and where He is, there is life. There is no death in God thus time is irrelevant. Time is synonymous with man because time determines man’s life. When life is no more that is when death do take over man- there is no time. That is to say, night and day do not happen to the man. Time is just gone.
What does it teach us about this important creation of God, the time? It, one teaches us, that time is a previous gift and is only meant for us, human. We have to use it properly and wisely because it is not renewable and cannot be rewound. We live once. Two, it teaches us that God is eternal and time is not relevant to God therefore we must always see him as the ever living being and worship and praise him for who he is. Three, there is a hope that we can live in eternity; we can pass from timeness to timelessness by believing in Jesus Christ. In the Gospel of John Christ said, “he who believe in me shall not die but have life eternal. He passed from death to life.”

The Big Picture

Genesis 1-2:35

‘Get the Big Picture’

A good friend of mine gives me a gift. It is a priceless gift, a bible. It is a devotional Bible titled ‘Today’s Light Bible that has 2year devotional readings. If I constantly and faithfully read it daily, it will take me two years to journey through the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. That demands commitment and faithfulness on my side as a Christian, yet it is grace on the side of God to inspire me with his Holy Spirit to find joy in reading in His Word and live by it. It is a big task especially for me because I always pray daily as my devotional exercise, and once in a while I would read the scriptures.
I begin with the first page, the readings on Genesis. The text is Genesis 1-2:35 with the title “Get the Big Picture.” It stresses the creation of God as gift of God, He gives to us ourselves, and those things we see and cannot see unconditionally. The text helps us to see not only ourselves and our ego that many times confine us to think of ourselves, what we need, want and do, and ignore other people and creations around us. The creation story awaken us from our slumber of ignorance to look at creation around us to see what God puts into it to bring them into their existence. Where ever we live, just take a moment, see the beauty of your surrounding and praise God for it. Many people who do not believe in God believe Him just by looking at the majestic surroundings of God. The composer of the song ‘O Great Thou Art’ may be an atheist believed in God just by looking at the big picture of God’s creation. We can sing like this writer to praise God for His mercy and love we inherit through Christ, our Lord.
Look at the big picture, God created the world out of grace. God saved his fallen humanity also out of grace. Let us get out of our confinements of ourselves and see God’s bigger picture, his creation around us to help, save, mend, comfort and witness this great God.

GRACE: UNMERITED LOVE OF GOD

Grace is the most popular term found in the New Testament portion of the Christian Bible. Grace is used to show God’s unconditional and underserved love by forfeiting His Son, Jesus Christ in the place of the sinners to die on the cross. Grace can be ambiguously used for Love. Grace in the Bible refers to supernatural act of God. It is unhuman, that no one can show unconditional and undeserved benevolence to another person, even to the worst of one’s foes or the unwanted and rejected. The God’s grace is also free. The recipients, according biblical perception of the grace, are merely given freely on a golden plate so as to speak. It is given freely because if price value is placed on God’s grace, it will not in any way enable the recipient of God’s grace to afford it because there is no equivalence of God’s grace to what man can reciprocate. In the New Testament, God’s grace is effected in his act of giving his son Jesus Christ, (John 3:16). God’s giving is because of his love, and His love involves in His only begotten son’s death.


Love in Greek has many distinctive meanings and four of those many meanings are commonly found in the Bible, especially New Testament. They are agape, philos, eros and stomma. Agape denotes God’s unconditional and undeserved love Philos refers to friendly love that people have for their friends. For instance, Peter and John live in the neighbourhood and grow up together as children and later develop a strong bond of friendship. They love each other as best friends. Then we have third kind of love called eros, from which the English word erotic derives from. It is sexual love that a man would have for a woman or husband would have for his wife. The forth one, not commonly used in the New Testament is stomma, is motherly love. Stomma is the love that one would have especially for one’s mother. In Greek, agape is specific, but in English, the word love would be a bit ambiguous and misleading if it is not seen in the context of God’s act of grace.

Agape love that connects to God’s Grace is a love that involves giving of a prized possession or a life for a cause or someone that supersedes love of the one being given. In John 3:16, the agape love is explained clearly. “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son.” As it states, God loved the world so much. The God’s love for the world supersedes his love for His only begotten Son. In others, God holds dearly his only begotten Son, but his love for the world is so much that if He withheld His son, he might lose the world, so he gave his Son. From human point of view, it is irrational. How could God do that when His dear son is so closest than human beings? This is what grace is meant for humans to understand. God plugged his heart away and gave it for humans. God went to the point of having nothing, not even his only son to gain something.

God’s grace is unconditional and undeserved has another dimension. It is for all. In John 3:16, it is qualified by “whosoever”. It is in fact offered. If it is offered, then it must be received by those who see it as being offered. It gives a degree of free choice where decision is made. “Whosoever” implies anybody without qualification and that is humanity not to be determined by conditions set by human standards. Whoever is a divine invitation of grace that is open to anyone of human origin with sinful nature who needs salvation.

Acceptance of Grace is by faith, not by works. No one needs to labour for it or claim any part of the Grace as a result of their labour or effort. Paul explains this so clearly in Ephesians 2: 8-9“ For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” In this text, the term gift is also explained. Gift is something, someone endowed you with freely that you have not worked for it or contributed to it or put an effort to it. If you had done all these then it will not be a gift, but a reward or payment for your effort. You would earn it. Here gift is nicely defined as “it is not from yourselves, referring to the recipients of the gift. If it was from yourselves, obviously you would have worked for it so Paul says, ”not by works” and naturally people boast of their achievements. No one should boast because it is not an achievement for their effort, but a free gift. The recipient did not put an effort thus achieved nothing. It is given to them out of sheer love. Jesus explains love. “There is no great love than for one to lay his life for many.” That kind of love is so difficult to be shown by human being as it involves sacrifice even to the giving up of one’s life. It is only possible for God and especially for people who deserved nothing that is why God’s love is called Agape.

Paul explains this love which it makes it more practical for Christian living. It is a century old explanation which has so much juice in it to be squeezed out for use in daily life of human relationship. Here is his explanation in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. ‘Love is patience, Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrong. Love does not delight in evil but rejoice with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. “Paul’s teaching circulated among the Christians of the ancient Corinth at least knew what love is and what love can do if the love is to be shown among the Christian community. This is exactly what God did when he showed grace and love for the lost humanity.

Psalms The Book of Meditation

TEACH ME O LORD, WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO, AND I WILL OBEY YOU FAITHFULLY, PSALM 87:11a


The psalmist who wrote this verse was thinking of God as a Father whom he can communicate and relate with. This process of communicating with God and taking his word into his heart and obeying it in his life is called meditation. One of the best books written on meditation in recent times is John W.Klenig’s ‘Grace Upon Grace,’ published by Concordia Publishing in 2008. He shared a chapter on meditation where he referred to the book of Psalms as the manual for meditation in the Bible. Klenig quoted Martin Luther, the great reformer, who wrote his commentary on Psalms described meditation as: ‘therefore this lover, the blessed man, has his love, the law of God, always in his mouth, always in his heart, and if possible, in his ears.” After describing meditation as such, Dr. Martin Luther defined meditation as “continual talking and conversation with the mouth.” Meditation is then unceasing talking, conversing with God then taking heed of God’s law, teachings, directions and will for one’s life and follow them faithfully.

Devotional life is a way where one is in constant communication with his God and take counsel of all his teachings and obeying them in his life. God speaks to his people in all situations of their life. The Psalmists who wrote their mediations were incidents of human facets of life one can experience. In those experiences, they confronted God with their happiness, sadness, grief or joy and accepted God’s direction for them. Klenig affirmed the Book of Psalm as an ideal for our meditation for two reasons. One mentioned already that it reflected all situations of life one can experience and two, as Klenig said, “it facilitates meditation that is inspired and produced by the Holy Spirit.” He said, “The Book of Psalms in its present form has been designed to teach people to mediate. It is the biblical manual on mediation. Therefore, editors of the books of Psalm use Psalm 1 as the opening of the book because it speaks about mediation. The Psalms, as Klenig mentioned, “have been produced by meditation on God’s word, are meant to teach God’s people how to mediate on God’s word.” The editors of Psalms did exactly that by teaching the art of meditation by giving the readers a series of meditations on different topics and an invitation to join. The Psalms invite us to identify with the speakers in the Psalm. Take the first Psalm, for instance, and see how you can identify yourself with the speaker.

Psalm 1

Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

Nor stands in the way of sinner,

Nor sits in the seat of scoffer;

but his delight is in the law of the LORD,

and on his law he meditates day and might.

He is like a tree

planted by streams of water,

that yields its fruits in its season,

its leaf does not withers.

In all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous,

for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.



This Psalm basically related to two basic ways of living to different kinds of meditations. They are people who meditate on the teachings of the wicked and those who meditate on the will of God. The writer showed where these two different meditations will lead to. Those meditate on the teachings of the wicked will end up in doom and damnation while those who seek counsel of the LORD’s law will not stand the judgment of the LORD.

Psalm 87:11a tell us that in our meditation with God’s word, God will teach us and we will obey Him and this obedience will yield fruits in our lives, that is, through the power of the Holy Spirit.



Teach us, O Lord, and help us to meditate on your word everyday so that we may have joy in obeying it and bear much fruit, In Jesus ’name. Amen.

TEACH ME O LORD, WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO, AND I WILL OBEY YOU FAITHFULLY, PSALM 87:11a

I, Me, and Myself


‘I’, It is good to start this Morning Devotion blog within ourselves, the part of us we call it ‘I’, me or myself. I or ego is many times self centred entity that if we do not manage or tame it, it will rebel against us by way of holding our whole body captive to submit to its desires. The self or I is unknown power that rebels against the wishes of spirit of the body. The I, Me or Myself does contradictory things the mind and spirit wish not to do. Paul describes graphically in Romans that “ the good things I like to do , I do not do, but I always do things I do not want to do. It is not me, but somebody inside me that does all those things.” Paul is saying that though he does not like to do those things abominable, he does it all the time. His mind and spirit know that those things are bad and he should not do them. Even though, knowing very well, they are bad, he keeps doing them. So he blames someone, somebody other than himself inside him does those things. He separates I, me and myself from someone else inside him.

Who is this someone else? Paul refers to this someone else as old Adam( Romans 5). It is old “I, me and myself” that lives in us and controls us to do things contrary to our spirit’s desires to produce good fruits of our faith and new life in Christ. When Paul refers to himself as ‘I’ do not do the things I want to do, he is not referring to the “old Adam” I , me and myself, but referring to the new Adam- Christ who lives him and enables him to do things that glorify God. However, the old Adam who continues to be part of our sinful self, rebels against the Spirit of God who dwells in us. The Old Adam causes us to do things contrary to the Spirit. Paul rightly said, our Body is the Temple of Lord because the Spirit lives in us. On the same token, the Holy Spirit constantly overpowers the work of the Old Adam- ‘I, Me, and Myself’ and takes full control of our body. One of its functions is to convict the old Adam to see himself as doings contrary to the desires of the spirit- which we like to call it sin. When Paul realises a power inside him that causes him to do something contrary other than his spirit and mind convict him to do, he correctly points to someone else- this someone else is no other than Old Adam- sinful self, ‘I, Me, and Myself.

What we need to learn from this is that, we must alert like Paul by letting the Holy Spirit help us to see this power. Unless we differentiate our new life in Christ ‘I’ Paul refers to, and the Old Adam, ‘I, Me and Myself’ who rules us over, we will be ‘devil’s workshop’s so to speak and not God’s temple.

It is this desire, “I” “Me and Myself” that brought first man and woman down. When Satan tempted Eve by telling her that when you eat of the fruit, you will be like God, know what is good and what is bad. She told herself, how wonderful is it to be wise? She told herself, ‘I’ want to be like God. How wonderful it is for ‘me’ to be like God? ‘I’ want to know ‘myself’ what is good and what is bad. The self centred ego that lured the woman to now become independent of God and become autonomous, ruling her own life, and making decision of her own and disobedient to be submissive to God s rule.

Paul explains this same human nature of our primeval parent passed down to us, even to Paul who experience’s this inner struggle between the Old Adam and New Adam this way in Romans 5:12 ‘Sin came into this world through one man and sin brought death with it. As a result, death spread to the whole human race because everyone has sinned.’ The very same nature of ‘I’ want to be like God is spread to us, the off springs of the first parents.

Paul explains the cure or way out. His explanation is so simple and yet powerful. Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection is the power for our freedom and way out of this struggle. He uses the analogy of our baptism as an enactment of Christ’s death and resurrection. Our baptism is in fact our participation in Christ’s salvific act of death and resurrection that it has powerful effect in our daily lives. We die with Christ in our baptism, therefore our sin were buried with him in his death and again as Christ defeated the powers of Satan, death and sin by raising up from the death, we too have the power of our baptism to raise to the newness of life in Christ. We are new people, new beings and he says in 1 Corinthians, “it longer I who lives, but Christ lives me.”

How is the relevant to us now as we read this devotion? Martin Luther explains Romans 6 this way in his Catechism: At the close of every day, you make a sign of the cross, thinking of your baptism. In your baptism you died with Christ thus buried your sins. Confess all your sins(both sin of commission and omission) that you commit during the day. Go to sleep in peace believing that Christ washed your sins away, At the dawn of the new day when you wake up, sit on your bed, make a sign of cross to remind you that in your baptism you did not only die with your sin, but rose from the grave to new resurrected life in Christ. Pray that you are a new being, new person in Christ. Pray that God through the power of the Holy Spirit will protect and guide you as you live your new life. Go out to the world, a new person in new life in Christ and work to proclaim the new life or Christ in your work and in your relationships with people around you.

When, like Paul, if the ‘someone else’ inside you makes you to do things the spirit and your mind do not want to you to do, then do the same in the evening. Baptism is a one off act, but living out our baptism is a daily Christian activity or exercise. This exercise will suppress the Old self, Adam, ‘I, Me and Myself’ from taking control of our lives. The key to suppressing all other evil practices and desires and deeds are only possible if we suppress the self “I”. Christ did that even to the cross.

May God give you heart to let God teach you His word. Amen.