Are we significant?

I was watching the night sky here in Edmonton, Canada. In these wintry days, its cloudy but somehow clearer than usual, more noticeable in some way. I remembered the days when I was in Nigeria, where every night showed sparkling stars covering the night sky. The moon shone at nights, other nights it would be cloudy, but most nights I and my family would sit outside at night and watch the night sky. We would often discuss about the vastness of space, and how the small twinkling stars are actually huge suns.

Here’s a video that may help you get a little sense of the size of the universe. The video is from YouTube originally, and is an excerpt from the documentary “Cosmic Voyage” (1996). “Cosmic Voyage” was nominated for an Oscar in its category, and is based on another documentary from the 1970s called “Powers of Ten” (1968, 1977). In turn, “Powers of Ten” is based on a book called “Cosmic View” (1957). Just some interesting facts about the video. Before reading ahead, why not watch the video first

Watch Clip from Cosmic Voyage

Just to clear some terminology in the video, 1 light year is the distance traveled by light in 1 year. And we are using light as our measure because its got the fastest speed. How fast? About 300 million meters per second. But how fast is that? Well, a beam of light could travel around the Earth 7 times in 1 second!

I don’t know about anyone else, but watching that video I felt small, I felt very insignificant trying to find the Earth even from out of the vast view of the universe, let alone finding myself on Earth! From the view of the Milky Way, we couldn’t see all our fancy inventions, iPhones, Shakespere’s works, the Soccer World Cup, Grey Cup, my home, nothing was obvious. Here’s a verse from the Bible that comes to mind:

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? (Psalm 8:3-4)

Who is this that the verse is talking about, whose fingers can create the heavens? Christians believe that everything, from ants, to humans, to the magnificently large galaxies were created by God. But how can we be sure of this? As I watched the video, the macro- and micro-design in our universe struck me. Is it logical to expect a designer when we see intricate design? Here is another verse from the Bible that is worth considering:

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world (Psalm 19:1-4).

That sense of design and designer that comes to us when we see nature is the speech of creation, without voices, without sound, telling us, point us to God. But why do we need to think about this? Or anything else for that matter, given that we are seemingly insignificant and our galaxies seem like dust particles in the grand scale of the universe? Let’s investigate what God thinks about us from the Bible, starting from Luke 15:3-6:

Then Jesus told them this parable: Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them (Luke 15:3-4).

Let’s pause here before we continue. What would you do if you had 100 sheep and lost 1 of them. In the modern world, its a little hard to think about loosing sheep and putting value to them. How about substituting sheep with iPhone, or Blackberry, or laptop, or even cars What would you do if you had lots of phones and lost one of them? Hopefully you would have synchronized your contacts across these phones I’d probably forget about it.

Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep (Luke 15:4-6)

That seems like a strange thing to do. Jesus seems to be suggesting doing something that’s quite the opposite of what we normally would. And on top of that, there is even a celebration party afterwards! Would you celebrate if you found 1 pen out of 100 that got lost? What is Jesus trying to say? Digging deeper, let’s look at the actions of Jesus in his life for more clues:

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ”Do you want to get well?” ”Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, ”Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. (John 5:1-9)

In this story, there are a lot of people with many lying around a pool. These people are not really chilling out, and its not a pool party either. They are people who can’t walk, can’t move, diseased, paralyzed. And its not just a few, but many of them. In our modern society, more so back then, these people were regarded as unproductive, and outcasts. They were not contributing to the progress of society and humanity, they were not helping the economy, they seem to be neglected by their families even. Sort of insignificant one could say. For some reason, Jesus goes into this area and picks out one particular man. This man has been paralyzed for 38 years, a long time! He was, in many ways, even more of an outcast than the others, having been unproductive for about 4 decades now! Jesus picks out this man and heals him.

Jesus, in this story is reaching out to a “lost sheep”, to someone seemingly insignificant. Jesus did this at other times too. At another time, Jesus healed 10 men with leprosy (Luke 17:11-15). Leprosy is a contagious disease of the skin that rots the skin. People having this disease were thrown out of society for obvious reasons and quarantined in their own societies. Jesus again reaches out to people who were very low and insignificant on the social scale and heals all of them. You may be wondering how this relates to you. It does, because Jesus died on the cross for you.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

You may still be wondering how even this is important to you. The Bible tells us that in the beginning of human existence, we sinned (Genesis 3:1-24). But we don’t really need to go back to the beginning, sin exists even today. People do all kinds of bad things and the news is full of it. The Bible says “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) . But there are consequences of our actions. Justice demands it because our whole existence is built on cause-and-effect, we see it in everything. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), which may seem extreme. But here’s the thing, God clearly warns Adam and Eve that if they disobey him, they would die (Genesis 2:17). But Adam and Eve, like so many of us today, decide that God doesn’t really know what’s going on or maybe He is lying (Genesis 3:4-5).

We are a creation gone bad. Would a creator reach out to a failed and rebellious creation?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

What John 3:16 is telling us is that God didn’t discard us, but gave a substitute to bear the consequences of our sins. This substitute is Jesus, a very different man. But God didn’t just give a substitute, God is the substitute! The Bible tells us that Jesus is God. God actually died for us, we are that important to him, He loves us that much.

In our lives, we try to be significant by being rich, famous, or do good things. But are we really remembered for these things? For how long? Are these things significant from billions of light years away in the universe? But see yourselves through God’s eyes, and we are so important to Him that he came down into his own creation and stayed on that iota of speck among specks called Earth, and even helped us out of our problems, even death. He reached out to us with love, and has given us the way to life forever: faith in Jesus. Does God know what he is saying? Can we be significant by ourselves? How will you respond?

My Testimony

Growing up, I was introduced to the Bible, attended Church and knew about the story of Jesus. As time went on, I made a lot of mistakes in my life, and did many wrong things that emotionally hurt. It hurt me, and it hurt the people around me. Sexual sin , anger, blasphemies, lying, cheating, and so many other things. Each time I sinned, I felt that feeling sorry about it, praying about it, and going to church would fix it. The main focus of my religious experience was avoiding hell and I saw God from a fear perspective only.

I believed in some parts of the Bible, but I also thought many parts of the Bible couldn’t be taken literally. I didn’t understand what it meant to accept Jesus into my life, or give my life to Christ, they were difficult and vague concepts to me. It was easier to think that doing good equals getting good. Then one day I was reading this hymn that went something like this “crying will not save me, prayer will not save me, only Jesus can save me”. And I was so surprised, shocked, and depressed by this. This hymn was saying there was no way I could earn heaven, except through relationship with Jesus. I tried ignoring the hymn, but it just kept coming back in my thoughts.  Up to this point I had not seen Jesus as a real person and it really began to challenge my beliefs.

This was about 10 years ago, and things suddenly began to change. Through testimonies of friends and Christian literature, my trust in the Bible started increasing. Eventually I believed that Jesus had taken the punishment for my wrong actions and I gained forgiveness through Him. But I had accepted Jesus as my Savior, but failed to give him my attention and my time. My heart was saved but it wasn’t fully submitted to Him as Lord. Sin again found ways into my life and habits, leaving me with shame and disappointment. I began to doubt that what Jesus did could fully save me.

Then just about 5 months ago I came to Canada, and God has met me in a new way. Through this Church and the promptings of God within me, I came to understand what Jesus taking my punishment by dying on the cross really meant. God loves me, and He actually wants a loving, intimate relationship with me. He lavishly loves me, He blesses me, and yet he longs for me to love him back by my own free will.

I now spend more time in Church than I have in the past 28 years of my life combined; I spend more time in prayer and in talking to others about the love of God. My wrong habits have become so easy to break away from. But the real difference in my life is that I can call Jesus “Lord”, because he has first place, above my Dad, my sisters, the woman I love, my friends, above everyone. Jesus is my Lord and my Savior. He showed my that he loves me and now I want to live the rest of my life showing my love for Him.

“Unlimited Wants”

Here’s a lesson in Economics. Economics is “the study of scarce resources and unlimited wants”. Ergo, the resources around us, food, clothing, money, and other material things are finite and get used up. However, we always need food as long as we live, our needs are infinite and need to be replenished after being satisfied.

But let’s look at nature as God designed it. A seed is a very tiny thing, but a tree grows out of it. Look at ourselves, we were once tiny beings within our mother’s womb, and have grown bigger and bigger. It seems that in nature, big things come from small ones. Instead of diminishing, our sizes increase, a tree takes on more and more leaves. Things of nature are not in themselves “scarce” in that they are expanding from little to more and more.

Let’s now go to the story of the fall of humankind. God cursed the ground, “Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life” (ESV). Adam, and all humanity toil to meet their needs because of the sin that became part of our nature from then on. This sin separated us from God and his provision.

But when Jesus came to the earth, He did the exact opposite of our fallen nature. Remember the feeding of the five thousand, turning water to wine, healing our disease, even forgiving our sins? Jesus meets our unlimited wants the way God designed them to be met. The extravagant blessings of the garden of Eden seemed forever lost: walking and talking with God, eating and never wanting, happiness, and so much more. In Jesus, it is all re-discovered, and He has demonstrated this! Jesus meets our unlimited wants, even more than the lost garden of Eden.

cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life

The Red Wallet – Part 2

Part 2

I did get my wallet back eventually! I have it now with me, and its amazing whenever I hold on to it because it reminds me of my fear and hopelessness, and at the same time the amazing truth that “with God, nothing is impossible”!

But getting to the Metro office to get the wallet was not easy as it sounds. Remember that this is my first time in the US, I’m a complete stranger here, and when I set out to get the wallet it was around 8PM at night. Plus I had till 10 to get to the office.

So I set off in the Metro rail. Here, I will give some details that might seem strange if you’ve not used the Metro. I took the red line, and had to switch to the blue line. Then using the blue line, I would get off at Crystal City. From there I had to find the 9A bus, which passed near the Metro office.

So I got off at Crystal City, and had not the slightest idea how to locate the bus I was looking for. Obviously, I would have asked the people around me, but it was now around 9, and there were very few people around. I saw a Metro bus just near the station! But it was not the 9A. The man gave me directions that involved finding a particular street number, turning lefts and rights. Following these directions in my confused and anxious state, I couldn’t find my way to the bus.

I was just walking around in circles for about 10 minutes when I decided to ask a man passing by. What a nice person he was, as if God had sent an angel to help me! He walked me to the bus and even payed for my trip! I finally got to the Metro station, with 15 minutes to spare, and found the exact spot via mobile to the station. What a relief it was to again hold my red wallet, with everything intact! Nothing stolen, nothing lost, it was like someone coming back to life. Praise God for his mercies, none are too small.

This true story follows from The Red Wallet – Part 1

I did get my wallet back eventually! I have it now with me, and its amazing whenever I hold on to it because it reminds me of my fear and hopelessness, and at the same time the amazing truth that “with God, nothing is impossible”!

Getting to the Metro office to get the wallet was not easy as it sounds. Remember that this is my first time in the US, I’m a complete stranger here, and when I set out to get the wallet it was around 8PM at night. Plus I had till 10 to get to the office.

So I set off in the Metro rail. Here, I will give some details that might seem strange if you’ve not used the Metro. I took the red line, and had to switch to the blue line. Then using the blue line, I would get off at Crystal City. From there I had to find the 9A bus, which passed near the Metro office.

I got off at Crystal City, and had not the slightest idea how to locate the bus I was looking for. Obviously, I would have asked the people around me, but it was now around 9, and there were very few people around. I saw a Metro bus just near the station! But it was not the 9A. The man gave me directions that involved finding a particular street number, turning lefts and rights. Following these directions in my confused and anxious state, I couldn’t find my way to the bus.

I was just walking around in circles for about 10 minutes when I decided to ask a man passing by. What a nice person he was, as if God had sent an angel to help me! He walked me to the bus and even payed for my trip! I cannot emphasize how thankful I was for this man’s help and God’s providence in a new and strange place in the middle of the night.

I finally got to the Metro station, with 15 minutes to spare, and found the exact spot via mobile to the station. What a relief it was to again hold my red wallet, with everything intact! Nothing stolen, nothing lost, it was like someone coming back to life. Praise God for his mercies, none are too small.

Good Friday

When Jesus was crucified on the cross, the book of Mark tells us that at “the ninth hour, Jesus said in a loud voice … My God, my God, why are you turned away from me?” (Mark 15:34). What did this mean? To understand the complete meaning of this sentence, you need to go to Psalm 22. It also gives us a glimpse of what Jesus might have been feeling, his suffering, his love for us, and for the Father.

As you read this Psalm, keep in mind that the Psalms were written about a thousand years before this first Good Friday. I am amazed and touched whenever I read this Psalm. I realize the Holy Spirit moving through time and ages, revealing to David explicitly what Jesus went through on the cross….

My God, my God, why are you turned away from me? why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my crying?

O my God, I make my cry in the day, and you give no answer; and in the night, and have no rest.

But you are holy, O you who are seated among the praises of Israel.

Our fathers had faith in you: they had faith and you were their saviour.

They sent up their cry to you and were made free: they put their faith in you and were not put to shame.

But I am a worm and not a man; cursed by men, and looked down on by the people.

I am laughed at by all those who see me: pushing out their lips and shaking their heads they say,

He put his faith in the Lord; let the Lord be his saviour now: let the Lord be his saviour, because he had delight in him.

But it was you who took care of me from the day of my birth: you gave me faith even from my mother’s breasts.

I was in your hands even before my birth; you are my God from the time when I was in my mother’s body.

Be not far from me, for trouble is near; there is no one to give help.

A great herd of oxen is round me: I am shut in by the strong oxen of Bashan.

I saw their mouths wide open, like lions crying after food.

I am flowing away like water, and all my bones are out of place: my heart is like wax, it has become soft in my body.

My throat is dry like a broken vessel; my tongue is fixed to the roof of my mouth, and the dust of death is on my lips.

Dogs have come round me: I am shut in by the band of evil-doers; they made wounds in my hands and feet.

I am able to see all my bones; their looks are fixed on me:

They make a division of my robes among them, by the decision of chance they take my clothing.

Do not be far from me, O Lord: O my strength, come quickly to my help.

Make my soul safe from the sword, my life from the power of the dog.

Be my saviour from the lion’s mouth; let me go free from the horns of the cruel oxen.

I will give the knowledge of your name to my brothers: I will give you praise among the people.

You who have fear of the Lord, give him praise; all you seed of Jacob, give him glory; go in fear of him, all you seed of Israel.

For he has not been unmoved by the pain of him who is troubled; or kept his face covered from him; but he has given an answer to his cry.

My praise will be of you in the great meeting: I will make my offerings before his worshippers.

The poor will have a feast of good things: those who make search for the Lord will give him praise: your heart will have life for ever.

All the ends of the earth will keep it in mind and be turned to the Lord: all the families of the nations will give him worship.

For the kingdom is the Lord’s; he is the ruler among the nations.

All the fat ones of the earth will give him worship; all those who go down to the dust will make themselves low before him, even he who has not enough for the life of his soul.

A seed will be his servant; the doings of the Lord will be made clear to the generation which comes after.

They will come and make his righteousness clear to a people of the future because he has done this. (Psalm 22 BBE)

Noises

Big noises, galaxies swirling, planets moving,

thunder rolling, waves crashing, gales thrashing

And a prayer is heard over it all

Is it possible? A thought in the heart is so small

Small noises, trees swinging, bees buzzing,

crickets chirping, drops dripping, voices shouting

And a prayer is heard over it all

Isn’t it amazing

A voice in the crowd is so small

The Red Wallet – Part 1

This is a true story. As a prelude, I am currently in Washington DC, on a student exchange program at the American University. This event happened on a Tuesday.

We arrived at Rosslyn and found the Metro bus we were to take to Dulles airport. The bus took a long time moving through its stops, and when we finally got to Dulles, I was a little sleepy. Spring break is in March so me and my sister are planning to travel to Chicago then. When we got out of the airport, I checked my pocket so that I could make ready the fare for using the Super Shuttle buses. I couldn’t find my wallet. “I think I lost my wallet,” I told my sister, hoping that I had just misplaced it in another pocket. But after searching everywhere on my person, it was not to be found. I had lost my wallet, and it contained some money and cards, my student ID card, my national ID card, as well as the keys to my dorm.

We concluded that the wallet must have fallen in the bus, because that was the only place I had brought it out of my pocket.

Depressed, we started back to American University in the Super Shutte bus, and the trip back seemed much longer than while coming. I read the Metro bus phone number off the signs as we passed by them. When we got to the university, I called up the number and got in touch with the Lost and Found department. But nothing had turned up so soon. I was advised to check back in the evening when the buses come back to the garage and park for the night.

I spent the rest of the day in classes, and at evening called back. But nothing still.
In the morning, I was very upset. I blamed anything I could think of, and finally myself for my carelessness. Then I asked God (after blaming Him too) that He could move kingdoms and nations, could He not move something as small as a wallet back to me?

Later in the evening, I went for dinner. By this time I had had a new student ID made, and was planning to forget the whole incident and start replacing everything that could be replaced. It would cost some considerable amounts, but I saw no other choice. For some reason I have forgotten, I decided to call the Metro office for one last time. They had found it!!! And not only that, the wallet had everything in it!!!

Now I had to get to the Metro office and get it back. It wasn’t so simple. It was around 7PM at night, and I didn’t really know where their office was, except that I could take the Metro rail to near the office. But my biggest concern was that I had been told I needed to retrieve the wallet before 10PM the same day, because it could not be kept at the Metro office due to the money in it. It would be shipped out to their main office, and would take me about 5 days to get it back from there.

So I decided, after much thinking, that I would go and get it now…

A small IT miracle

I have been troubled by some of the software I have on my laptop. Its nothing technical actually. Its just that I didn’t purchase these: Macromedia, Corel, and some others. I got them from my friends, and some others I downloaded using P2p. The trouble is that I felt I was doing something wrong. As a software developer, if I apply the Golden Rule:

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Luke 6:31 BBE

I certainly won’t feel happy if someone else started using software that I meant to sell. So after a long struggle, I uninstalled all of these software. It was hard because I have so many files already created in certain formats, such as CorelDRAW and Macromedia Flash. But with God’s help, I did away with them.

OK, but this isn’t a self-righteous-act post. Here’s the absolutely amazing thing that happened. It started when, after uninstalling CorelDRAW, I decided to look for some free alternative to it and found Inkscape, an open source software. Although I couldn’t open my old files, the software looked pretty good to continue my works. But today, something even better happened… I found another software called Uniconverter, that converts Corel files to the W3C standards-complaiant format SVG… that Inkscape opens!!! Viz, I can now work with all my old files from Corel! Praise God! This taught me an important lesson, that if we trust in God, and just obey Him, everything will fall into place.

Harrison and Larry

At my university are two drivers for the staff bus that I take a ride on everyday at 5PM to home. When the day is through, its so relieving to know that I shall get home without worrying about how. The bus schedule rotates drivers so that a driver is assigned for some days, then another’s turn comes. Two frequent drivers are (for the sake of anonymity) Harrison and Larry.

Harrison is very strict, and as soon as its 5PM, he leaves. Larry on the other hand is very lenient, and always waits for everyone from the usual boarders to come before leaving.

Whenever Larry is on duty and is waiting for everyone to come, those that are there always complain about time-wasting because they want to get home after a hectic day. But when Harrison is on duty, the same people who are eager to get home get left behind.

Harrison follows the Law: strict, doesn’t allow for mistakes, works blindly. Larry follows Grace: patient, cares about individual circumstances, gives another chance, loves. Even though the passengers complain about having to wait for others, they too find themselves on the other side of being late for the bus. Would you like to be in Larry’s bus, or Harrison’s?

Jesus is Grace. Even though you are not perfect, he loves you and will cover your mistakes. If you want to be under the Law alone, you will never be able to live up to the standards.

You will definately miss the bus one day or the other; as they say, nobody’s perfect. When it happens you will want Larry to be waiting.

Who Am I?

I want to make it clear to anyone reading this blog that I am not a perfect and “righteous” person. This is mainly because I feel whenever a non-Christian listens to a Christian talk about his or her faith, they come under certain incorrect impressions:

1. The non-Christian often feels being judged
2. The non-Christian thinks the Christian is saying he or she is superior

However, the truth is that “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, and when you hear the words of Jesus, they are not being said by someone any different than you. They are not being said to condemn you, or boastfully, but out of love for you.  If I or any other person talks to you about Jesus, they are trying to put across to you that you need to be saved from your sins and the coming destruction of the universe. Don’t you think that if someone loves you, they’d want you safe from destruction?

“The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” [Galatians 5:19-21 NIV]

I confess that I have done all of these things. Do you know what the Bible says will happen to me?…

“I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” [Galatians 5:21 NIV]

So why do I keep this blog, and how am I “heaven-bound”? Because “it is by grace [I] have been saved”. It is through Jesus that my sins are washed clean, blotted out, and I am a sinner no longer because I have been forgiven. I am heaven-bound because I am redeemed by Jesus.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16 NIV]

That is all there is to forgiveness from your wrongs, from the wrongs others did to you; it is to believe in Jesus. And to believe in Him, you have to believe His story, all in the Bible. You have to believe His promise, He shall come back, and raise all to life and a new creation.

Don’t you believe in gravity? Its the thing that pulls you down when you jump. Believe in Jesus to the same extent; he can pull you back from the gates of hell. Don’t you believe in Einstein? He was a scientist who was born at the end of the 1800s, and died around the 1950s. Believe in Jesus to that extent; he lived on the earth some 2000 years ago, died, arose from the dead, and is alive today! And most importantly, know this that He died for your sins, so that you will never have to take punishment for your sins if you just believe in Him.