Scrapbook #28: Life Manual

When the hair relaxer manufacturer tells you to handle with gloves and to protect the scalp with oil when applying, you obey to save yourself from burns. He knows what he is talking about.

When the electricity manufacturer tells you not to touch your socket with wet hands and not to overload your outlet, you obey to save yourself from shock, fire or even death. He knows what he is talking about.

When the manufacturer of marriage tells you to love your wife and to respect your husband, obey. It will save your marriage from burns, shock, injury, loss and misery. He knows what He is talking about.

When the manufacturer of sex tells you not to have it outside of marriage, with the same gender, family members or animals, obey. It will save you from injury, damage, shock and even death. He knows what He is talking about.

When the maker of heaven tells you that Jesus is the way, the Truth and the Life to Him, obey. He knows where He lives!

Be smart, believe God, He knows what He is talking about!”

– Pastor Judy Karanja

1. The fall of man in Eden began with a deceptive suggestion from the serpent- did God really say…? Did He really mean…?

2. Beyond whether to eat the fruit or not, he was intimating something far more dangerous – God is not really FOR you. If He was, why would He keep all the “good” stuff from you.

3. Now, I’m a firm believer in asking questions. I eye-ball hard ones on the regular. I like to call it having tea with my shadows.

4. But in my journey of asking and seeking I’ve come to realise that I need to be careful about two things.

5. Where are my questions coming from (source)? What drives them? Is it God? Is it me? Or is the enemy up to no good as usual?

6. What feeds my answers? My limited knowledge and subjective emotions? The world which knows nothing of God? Or God Himself – maker of the entire universe including that which I’m seeking answers for.

7. Context matters. It determines everything you see and just as importantly everything you don’t.

8. Every time I have started tea time with the thought that God is against me- I’ve always ended up a pitiful mess farther from Him. Every time I start with the unconditional truth of who God is – loving and kind – I am left completely undone by just how much I had misunderstood and underestimated Him.

9. I don’t have all the answers. I don’t even know what all the questions are. But I know God is good. I have seen His goodness in the darkest of times. And that is the lens with which I choose to see each day.

10. What lens have you chosen for your life? Not making a conscious choice is still making a choice.

11. Lastly, I’ve never met Pastor Judy, but her Facebook page (Pst Judy Karanja) always puts a smile on my face and a drive in my heart to pursue Jesus even more. Thankful for her voice of truth.