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Going into business or partnership with a party diametrically opposite to you, is a definite no, no.

I know that, there is that saying, “opposite attracts”, however, when you put positive one together with negative one, the result is zero. Which can mean extinction, destruction or extermination.

Let’s delve into the Scriptures a little bit; 2 Corinthians 6 v 14-18: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? ¹⁵ What harmony is there between Christ and Belial^[b]? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will live with them
and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they will be my people.”^[c]

¹⁷ Therefore,

“Come out from them
and be separate,
says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you.”^[d]

¹⁸ And,

“I will be a Father to you,
and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”

Paul started this piece by saying that, we should not be tied (either in business or personal “relationship-wise”) with unbelievers, or those who practice idolatry (worship in a House of Gods) and goes on to state that there is no commonality or common ground between the two parties.

If there is doubt about differentiating between the two parties, Paul gave us clues about differentiating them; see if you and the people you worship together with display the following characteristics, then you definitely belong to the party of darkness, Galatians 5 v 19-21; The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. On the other hand, the temple of God, which is you and me and the people we worship together with, that is the party of light (not necessarily those that clothe themselves with white garments), can be recognized according to the following behaviours listed in Galatians 5 v 22-23; But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

The reason why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6 v 17 that we should separate ourselves from the other party is to be found in 1 Corinthians 15 v 33; Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” If you put a bad fruit in a bag of good fruits, the bad fruit will corrupt the good ones.

However, while we are in the process of renewing our minds, on this physical realm, we can not totally avoid the world and those that indulge in the acts of the flesh, and worship mammon (those to whom money is everything) and congregate in “House of Gods”. We can well in the time that God grants us on this realm, comport or conduct ourselves as ambassadors for Christ, let us behaviour reflect Christ in us, as shinning light, Paul explains it in Romans 12 v 1-2; Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. This is nothing to do with our outer or superficial garments, or following a set of man-made rules or tenets, or what comes into our body, as our Lord Jesus Christ taught us in Matthew 15 v 11; What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” Our speech (gossip, slander, backbiting, envy, jealousy, lies) all come out of our mouth and our hearts, and these are what defiles us, not whether we drink in moderation, or smoke or whatever we put in our bodies, if these are done in moderation and under control.

But then religion has over thousands of years twisted God’s laws and precepts for various reasons, not only the old established religions and denominations, but also the new ones that sprung up within the last two hundred or so years, that try to fulfil various “modern” needs of society and cultures.

Adultery

I spent most of my adult life in a society that believes it is okay to admire members of the opposite sex, even when you are with or have a partner, as long as you don’t do anything about it physically. However Jesus Christ teaches us differently.

Matthew 5 v 27-30

 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’^[e]28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

However, this should be in a relationship where the roles and responsibility are defined and complied with, such as laid down in Ephesians 5 v 22-33: Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing^[b] her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— ³⁰ for we are members of his body.³¹ “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”^[c] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Did you know that bitter things are part of life and many times, they come on the heels of great victory?  But God can use the bitter times and turn them in to sweet times … even when you think that is impossible.  At the cross, God changed the bitter things in life into the sweet things.  He also has a miracle or two waiting just for you.  You’ll discover how God takes life’s bitterness and makes it into the sweet life.

The waters of Marah

Exodus 15 v22-27

God revealed Himself as the Healing God when He turns the bitter waters of Marah into sweet, fresh drinkable water, to quench the thirst of the Israelites.

Exodus 15 v 26 Jehovah Rapha: God the Healer

Ephesians 4 v 19-24:  Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

²⁰ That, however, is not the way of life you learned ²¹ when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. ²² You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Put in the cross. It changes every negative to a positive. Factor in the cross. Because according to Romans 8 v 28: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who^[i] have been called according to his purpose.

What do you do when life unexpectedly caves in on you and you think it can’t get any worse? Well, the first thing is to remember there are things happening behind the scenes that God is orchestrating that you can’t see. Are you trusting God who has your life in His hands?

Job’s life

1. things happening behind the scene (chapter 1 and 2: things happening here on the earthly realm and also in the heavenly realm).
2. The trouble you are facing is a test: Job 1 v 9 ^“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied.
3. The victory is found in trusting God. You don’t have anything else. Trust God even when it doesn’t make sense.

When you’re down, the devil’s minions have a habit of kicking you. I have been down in the valley for six years now, and most of the time, the devil’s minions have been kicking me.

Habakkuk 3 v 16-19

I heard and my heart pounded,
my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
to come on the nation invading us.
¹⁷ Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Saviour.

¹⁹ The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.

Step 1 run to God for your questions: Habakkuk means wrestle with God, in chapter 1 he wrestles with God; God why don’t hear me, God why you don’t help me. Always come to God with reverence.

Step 2 rejoice in Him: even in lack. Praise God in your lack.

Step 3 rely on God to see you through. Habakkuk also means to embrace. Trust the Lord to see you through. Verse 19 Adonai Yahweh means sovereign God is my strength. (Adonai means sovereign and Yahweh means God). 2 Timothy 4 v 16-18 At my first defence, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. ¹⁷ But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth. ¹⁸ The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Step 4 Let God be your strength. In verse 19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.

You can get up when you go down, you can go up to high places with feet like that of hind deer when you make the Lord your strength.

When your kids discover kryptonite to your superman:

What wonderful experience and life-phase, college is; the hours spent engaged in debate and discussions (which constitutes intellectual play, according to Immanuel Kant: Theory without experience). My apologies to my readers who are young adults, in college or recently finished college. My generation fall into the group of being parents to young adults, who I classify for purposes of expediency and experience as semi-literate. No insult intended.

A semi-literate person’s modern analysis of faith (“intellectual”): the most basic tenets of his faith. Salvation by grace seemed far too simplistic. And the resurrection? Nothing learnt in any of science classes made that even a remote possibility; it seemed to be a story designed to bring comfort and hope to people who would grasp at anything to keep their faith alive. Which was fine for them — just not for him. An expression of his when reading the works of apologist such as Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, and C. S. Lewis, was “I don’t think he is looking for evidence to support Christianity. I think it’s a moral issue, masquerading as an intellectual one. I think he wants to find a worldview to support his quest for independence and self-sufficiency as he runs away from God, something that will justify his rebellion.”

Prayer for prodigal child

2 Corinthian 10 v 5

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

The light of God’s love is what scatters the darkness. Tether your prayers to the brightness of His promises.

“We have to learn or understand that we are completely helpless,”. “We cannot change or control our kids’ lives; all we can do is trust in a God who has given us great and precious promises.” We are helpless, at least insofar as it comes to dictating the way our adult children think and behave. Many of them are out of our reach, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

But they are not out of God’s — and He invites us to join Him in the work He is doing, through prayer. We are not helpless there; even when we have no idea how to pray, God has us covered. “The Spirit helps us in our weakness,” Paul writes in Romans 8:26.

We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.