Fattened For Slaughter

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When Isaac was born (Genesis 21), he did not know that he appeared in the middle of his father’s journey. Abraham who had left his home land to a place to be shown by God, had gone through a rough process. He was old, his wife had been barren, he had gotten a child with their maidservant and He had God brooding over him.

Have you ever seen a child being raised by wealthy grandparents? That is how it felt for Isaac. He was a child of the promise. He was an explosion of joy not a just a bundle. I see Abraham showering his son with everything sweet and beautiful. I see Isaac growing into one happy chubby boy. Let’s say a little obese. Every birthday, Abraham would throw such a huge bash and they would feast to their fill.

Abraham must have done his best to teach Isaac about God their father. I see him giving Isaac stories that seemed fictions.  How he had lied about his mother in Egypt. How he thought God was never going to come through. How Ishmael was supposed to replace him and how he had a great promise following his life. I just wonder how Isaac took all this.

Then one day, kaboom! God appears and demands Isaac for sacrifice. Abraham knows nothing but perfected obedience. But that does not deal with the matters at hand. Now how do I break this news to my dear aging wife Sarah? How do I bring Isaac, a now stronger man than I to lie on the altar?

Isaac was so used to his dad’s escapades it seems. This 3 days trips to the mountain to sacrifice to God without a sacrifice on sight was unusual. “Is dad getting too tired to remember we need a ram?” He must have wondered.

When it dawned on Isaac that he was the one to be sacrificed, he must have wondered. You mean my dad has been fattening me for slaughter? You mean I am just but a delicacy? But then again, what can I do but be for my dad his delight, and to His God, now our God, a fulfillment of His desire?

And at times life feels like that. We experience so much goodness and favour just for God to come back and demand the same. Did you just get a pay rise and now struggling to give more? Have you just gotten married and now unable to serve in ministry? Have just had a baby and you now have no time to pray? Has your business received a new contract you have no time to engage with God? Has God showered you with so much blessing, you are too chubby to fit through the doors of the church?

Indeed the test of perfected obedience is more challenging when you are walking in abundance than in lack.

Here a poem to summarize this thought

Fattened for Slaughter

Picked from the wild

Into a pen placed

Daily fodder provided

Fresh water availed.

Well sheltered

All needs met.

Home have I found

My shape now round

Check out how so proud

I bounce and sound.

Freed yet bound

Here now am ground

Picked from the flock

Now the owner's choice

Keenly He eyed me

For this great day

Guests already settled

Dressed ready to feast.

Facing the knife

The culmination of this life

My now fatty meaty heart

Is making dinner delicacy

Fulfilling the very reason

He gathered me in His pen.

And it’s a matter of laughter

How I was fattened for slaughter

But what other reason greater

Than be slayed for the master

Thoughts by Josef Munuhe

Scarcity Mentality

If there is something that irritates me is when am in a jav and it runs out of fuel especially when they have overcharged the passengers. I just don’t get it. You can’t say you don’t have money because the tout has a batch in his hand and even if you can blame a broken fuel gauge, you should be able to gauge how far your fuel can stretch if you are a good driver.

I have met so many people who are affected by a scarcity mentality. This is the mentality that makes you think that you can never have enough. And such people tend to be mean, they hoard resources and they don’t enjoy spending even when it is necessary. Such people tend to think about everything in terms of cost. What a sad way to live.

There is a game I conduct in my team building sessions that brings out a scarcity mentality in us. Where we believe if you get it, it means I don’t get it. That is why we have a lot of office politics, back stabbing, lack of team work and collaboration and worse still unhealthy competition. This culture has scarcity mentality as the backbone.

Things can be tight, but our attitude towards resources determine how we manage the little we have, attract much more and enjoy life.

I believe naturally there is a scramble for resources and our capitalistic society teaches us that the more we amass for ourselves the safer we are. But having understood God and his ways of operation, I have come to believe that there are resources for everyone of us so longer as we are focusing on our purposes in God.

When we speak of living in faith and not sight, it does mean we don’t work hard or we stop being aggressive, but rather it is the frame of mind that tell us, God has all I need for my life and those He has brought under my care. I just need to do my best, be a faithful steward and allow God to do the rest. And most of all, being ready to trust God when in the natural, it seems as if I am disadvantaged.

Remember these verses: God loves a cheerful giver. (Not what or how much you give but how you give). Generosity is a mentality. It is more blessed to give than to receive. (To get more, give). Generosity is not because you have enough but because you know He that blesses.

Have an abundant mentality!

Simplify your life

It is very unfortunate that as human beings we have made life very complicated. Just check how many of your friends on facebook have their status as it's complicated and you will understand what I mean. The issue is not even relationships but generally life has become complicated.

I was sharing with a friend who was looking for closure on the issue of his dad. His dad left them when they were young and he has never forgiven him or even understood why God allowed that. And he has been carrying very heavy burdens, hurts and pains of the past. He has lived his life from the past. Looking at himself as a victim of circumstances and as a reject of life. The worst past was that he actually hated the other children who his father got from a relationship with another woman because he believes they stole from him what was rightful his.

I must say, such situations are tough and painful. When you ask yourself what it could have been had your dad been there for you. Painting all the pictures in the mind of what you missed and how you could have been a better person had your dad been there. And such mental pictures on add agony to life making the burden of the past just more unbearable.

Luckily for me when we were having our meeting, another friend of mine came and joined in the fellowship. And as we were sharing he happened to be a child of another woman. (I hope you get the picture). This guy was raised by a man who neglected his rural family and got a new wife in the city and got children and life continued. I thank God because he is a God of purpose.

And as we were fellowship, now having a deeper sight into life, we realized that there are so many things in life that we have no control of.  There are things that were done to you, that hurt you and brought much pain, but that is past and you know it was beyond you then. But now that you are here what are you doing about it?

It is so easy to carry heavy loads with us all our lives, blaming circumstances, blaming people and wishing it was better. But wisdom dictates we lay our past down and decided to live our lives all a new; to start all over again, to be grateful that we are here and that we have the power to change our future. To focus on what we can do now with what we have than to keep complaining of things we didn’t have.

Jesus says that his yoke is easy and his burden is light, that He came to give us a new life, an abundant life. And as we focus on the plans He has for us it will be easy to let go of our burdens, of our hurts and of our pains and to allow Him to breath in us a new life and a new ability to forget the past and focus on the future.

And that is how to simplify your life. To understand that today is the first day of your life, that today you can start all over again, that today you can write a different story out of your life. It is not easy but it is possible to live a simple life.

Let go of the past and its burdens and press on to your place of glory in God.

Amazing!

Isn't it amazing that this page is available to everyone who gets online and types the correct URL? Isn't it also amazing that if I wrote an email and sent it to working emails, everyone will receive the same email no matter where they are so long as they connect to their mail?

Then why do we still have a scarcity mentality? The thinking that you getting mean me not getting is so outdated. I believe there are resources for all of us, so long as we are connected and positioned right.

Isn't that amazing?

May we all experience abundance and let go of envy and that scarcity mentality that limits us to share and be generous, hoarding resourcess so that we can have more. It doesn't work like that. Give and you will always have more to give. Keep and you shall always be strained as you try to hoard. 

He who refreshes will also be refreshed. And that too is amazing!

Abundant Life

In our own processes, struggles, ups and down, remember to enjoy the process. Remember that everything that happens in your life, i mean everything, happens to serve you. You are the master.

I want to share on the thought of abundant life. Jesus said in John 10:10 that the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came that we may have life and have it in abundance.

What is abundant life?

Have you ever felt guilty that you are enjoying life? I have. There times that the blessing of God are so evident in my life and i am having a blast in God. But in those moments i start feeling like that is not right. I start feeling that things should not be so sweet and fun. That i should be struggling and that i should be having problems. Have you ever been there?

I have learnt that the enemy seeks to steal joy from us, to kill the state of abundant well being, to destroy the moments of blessing in our lives. And he does it through our thoughts and feelings of guilty. Trying to make you feel like being well in Christ should be reserved to people in heaven and not on earth. What a lie! But i thank God for the truth. The truth has set me free. I know that Christ has given me life and abundant life for that matter.

So, i seek to enjoy my day, my work, my struggles, my problems and i also rejoice in Christ when all is going on smoothly. When i have success with my clients, when i am rich, i am having a blast. I have learnt to accept the life that Christ have given me and yeah i am having an abundant life.

Do not live in a lie. Life in Christ is good. It's fun, it's easy. He is there with us. And remember, He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. So,

Lets have life and have it in abundance.