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What if heaven is real?

What if heaven is real?
What if there are really mansions of gold,
And beauty and bounties untold?

What if heaven is real?
Where the weary and worn at last find repose,
As they exchange for a crown their cross?

What if heaven is real?
Where loved ones never say goodbye,
And we sing and talk and walk by and by?

What if heaven is real?
Where there’s healing and retribution for every wrong,
And God at last avenges His beloved throng?


What if heaven is real?
Where sin cannot rear its ugly head,
But all is love, joy and death is dead?

What if heaven is real?
Where we’ll know no thirst or want,
For we’ll have Christ for whom our hearts pant?

What if heaven is now!
What if its a Person before whom sin, anxiety and death bow,
And He can live in us if we allow?

So, what if heaven is real?
Is it not worth seeking and thinking through,
If these sayings are faithful and true?

“KJV Revelation 21
5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.”

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11JpuT57E1fYbWoDTTwFfBcMCL-87BhwJ/view?usp=drivesdk (AUDIO VERSION.)

R.I.P. Mr. Krabbs.

Have you ever watched Spongebob? No, wait, that’s criminal to ask. I should rather say, Who hasn’t watched Spongebob…So, yeah, in that cartoon show, there’s Mr. Krabbs, who is Spongebob’s boss. And if you’ve watched the show, the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about Mr. Krabbs is, say it with me…MONEY! And it’s obsessive to a fault. The more he gets the more he wants. Let’s talk about that today. No, we’re not talking about cartoons, we’re talking about the Mr. Krabbs problem. Because Mr. Krabbs lives in us all.

A popular saying we’re embracing in Kenya is, Mambo ni mengi na masaa ni machache (meaning: time is inversely proportional to all there is to do). But I think there’s a worthier, relatable saying that we should have. That, Mambo ni mengi na pesa ni kidogo( Money is inversely proportional to our wants😂). I feel like saying, if you agree please type, amen. But honestly, you don’t need to, truth is independent of opinion😂. Oh, and I also study professionally about scarcity and wants😅.

But okay, okay. Let’s be practical. So this is me. I’ll be okay, minding my own business, but as soon as I see the message, “Confirmed! You have received..” Yes, there’s that glorious feeling, but immediately afterwards, I start remembering that I need new shoes, let’s take away my fare to school Each day, oh and then there’s that cause I was to support…Oh, yes and then I’m a Christian so just take away tithe and offering😅( and I know this should be first but that’s not always the case, let’s be honest). And before I can even thank the one who sent the money, I’m already depressed because I’m remaining with 5 Bob.😅 Relatable?

We have a scarcity problem. We live in want. Not because there’s no resources/ money, but because our wants exceed them. We are ever seeking but never filling. But even more tragic is we want to blame our parents, the government, inflation etc…while the real problem is sin. The real problem is that we have forsaken the owner of everything. And listen to what He says about it:

KJV Jeremiah 2
13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Our vessels are broken. They can hold no water. And then you realize that you are still expected to give?! From what? You hardly have enough for yourself. You see to truly give; emotionally, materially and spiritually is impossible for the sinner. To give without expecting to receive, to give and not begrudgingly; is brutal to the heart in want. And as Christians we still fall into the same loop. But God has helped me crack this problem, thus far I think😅 And the following things have helped me learn contentment:

Child of a King.

The moment we accept Jesus into our lives, the Bible says we are adopted into sonship. We become children of the King. And this is not just the king of a regional place, its the King of the universe, His dominion is not constrained by space or time. He is the Creator of it all. And this means two things:

1.God is Father to the Christians (Rom.8:15). And that means God obligated Himself to take care of You. You are the object of His love and care, the apple of His eye. And He gladly takes up the responsibility, He is not a neglectful, absent dad. He is willing to sustain us.

KJV Matthew 7
11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

2. God is Sovereign and in control. He is not limited in His means to provide. He has a thousand ways to provide for us of which we know not of. He is not burdened by our needs; all that is ,He created. And when I am under His care, I place myself under the arm of infinite treasures. And He is intentional about providing for our temporal and eternal needs. And this is not to say that He will give us everything that comes to our mind, some of those are not even good. But He will give us all that we need.

So, I have learned to ask of the Lord and trust that He will supply. The problem is that often we seek these things instead of seeking God; The owner of all these things. And even as we seek God, we seek Him because of what He has and not who He is. Don’t get it mixed up. If we do that, we will get tired. Find God out for yourself, who He is, and He satisfies every need we have. Spiritual, emotional, relational and material.

KJV Matthew 6
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Notes on religion 2.

Previously we set out on a clarity excursion of what religion really is. If you didn’t note, there was no affirmation or validation of if religion is true or if there’s a real God, who is good. And I’m hoping I could do that today.

Now there are many apologetics out there on religion. Note: Apologetics mean, “reasoned arguments or writings in justification of something, typically a theory or religious doctrine.” These include historical evidences, the complexity of creation, objective moral standards, etc.

But I would like to take a slightly different curviate. You see, as already established, the ultimate Christian belief is in a personal, all-powerful, personal, loving God. The moment this is done away with, then there is no theology, doctrine and ultimately religion. The problem is we (even as Christians) cling on to explanations and theories that we term as truth, of a God we have never met!

Jesus said :

KJV John 14
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

God is the truth. That means, you take away God, then there is no truth.

What I’m I trying to say dear reader? That ultimately the evidence of religion and of truth is an encounter with God Himself. And that is something beyond explanation. It has to be an experience. God is not a theory dear reader. He is not a nice Man that lives in pages. He is Someone that can be met, talked to, heard and felt.

Yes, God has given us the Bible, His infallible word. But not as an end, but a means to an end. The Bible is to lead us to an actual, personal God and into communion with Him. That is what worship is. That is what religion is and that, changes sinners into saints.

So, finally, my charge is that you may seek out an experience with God. Ask Him to reveal Himself. Try, test and prove the promises in His word. Seek Him out, for He is willing to be found by you.

KJV Jeremiah 29
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Notes on religion 1.

What is religion? Do you consider yourself a religious person? What does that look like?

These questions are taboo, especially if being asked around religious circles. We are not supposed to ask them as if they are supposed to be obvious. But no. The absence of clarity results to ignorance of reality. If your religion is enshrouded in mystery with no liberty to ask questions; well, I dare say, reconsider.

So I consulted my dictionary on this matter and this is how it describes religion:

The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.

Religion suggests the existence of a Power above and beyond us, this being not just a force like gravity but an actual person behind that power. For Christians it’s God, Muslims its Allah, some have gods etc… But that’s not my point today. My point is, so what?

So there’s a Person(s) with ultimate power somewhere, then what? Sounds bizarre to ask, right? But you see that’s where most of us leave it at. And it’s as crazy as it sounds. You ask people and they say, “I’m not religious, but yes, I know God is real.” What?! How can that leave you indifferent? How can you live indifferent to the fact that there’s Someone with absolute power, who can prosper or annihilate you? That’s crazy to me and frankly there can be no difference between that person and an atheist.

Now a historian called Lord Acton said: Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And given our immediate context of the existence of One with ultimate power, this should send our minds racing.

If religion is to be true and significant, the question is not merely in the existence of a powerful being, but is He good?.. If this Being is under Lord Acton’s school of thought, then we’re in trouble, if not then that’s the best news to fall on mortal ear.

Dear reader, are you religious? Do you believe in the existence of a literal, personal, powerful Being and Is He good?

A desire to desire.

A desire to desire,
A longing to long.
So is it with the heart.
And by day and night, the soul painfully bleeds until it finds the thing.
The thing that drives it out of the warm bed at dawn;
The thing that keeps it up in the twilight shadows;
The thing upon which to set its affections;
The thing that is worth plunging into the deep, or scaling the uttermost height;
Worth to live for;
Worth to die for.
And until then, there is no rest.
Until then, we barely live.
We grop on frantically in the quest;
Longing to long;
Desiring to be filled with desire.

Drawings: Bridled.

KJV Psalms 32
9 Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

It has been interesting for me to discover the inseparability between holiness and happiness. Thus when sin comes into the picture, it has a backpack full of woes. Pain and suffering are not necessarily an arbitrary action from God because we sinned. Rather sin is its own punishment.

Psalm 32 talks about the blessedness of God’s forgiveness. But then there is a paradigm to this horse analogy, and I suggest this is why…

Even though sin is the one that comes with trouble, God has specialized in bringing good out of evil. Consider this quote:

It is written that God cursed the ground for man’s sake.Genesis 3:17. The thorn and the thistle—the difficulties and trials that make his life one of toil and care—were appointed for his good as a part of the training needful in God’s plan for his uplifting from the ruin and degradation that sin has wrought.

God has has fashioned the trouble we bring on ourselves to refine us and in essence bring us back to Himself. Thus, the previous verse states:

KJV Psalms 32
8 I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

Even so, verse 9 reveals something interesting. After we have experienced the blessedness of forgiveness God desires to redirect our path to right ways. However, what usually happens? We fall into a state of calmness to a fault. We once more easily are led astray because there is no pain or guilt leading us back to God. We become like a horse in need of bridling. So we fall back into sin, then sin brings woes, woes lead us to seek God and the cycle continues.

God is clearly saying in verse 9, that he is not pleased to watch us bridled and tamed by suffering so that we turn to Him. It is sad that we cannot be trusted with joy or peace. True, some afflictions come to us because of other people’s bad choices; but my prayer is that pain and affliction may not have us running to God, but that it should find us already sitting at His feet.

Can you be trusted with joy?

My joy recipe.

There’s a girl and a pot. What’s cooking? Joy. As I share my recipe, I would like you to know that all these have taken surrender to God, openness to learn and consistent reminding. You will notice that most of the things that strangle our joy may be external, but they root from our own minds and how we think. The call is not to change the world, but to actually allow yourself to be changed.(by truth.) Let’s get cooking..

1. We don’t own people.

I am here to demolish the Disney, Hollywood fallacy first. We have grown up to be taught by it that we are to have a person or people, that are ours, and their allegiance is to us and ours to them. This has been harshly countered by the reality of what life is. Our loved ones move, die or we even just drift.

It may seem austere and I hate to break it to you but we don’t own people. In fact, I lied, I don’t hate to break it to you. This is rather a very liberating truth. Its expedient that we realize that we cannot cling to people thus and that people can’t be lifelines. God is wiser than to place us in a situation where we can’t function when a loved one leaves. Fact is, according to Scripture we don’t even own ourselves let alone other people.

KJV 1 Corinthians 6
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

2. Loving the right way.

We naturally and rightly yearn to be seen, to be heard, to be loved and as well, to love. However, it is dismal that the natural/carnal mind can only give to be given. And this is not giving in its true sense. We love to be loved. This is unquestionably a recipe for disaster.

Our recipe today says, we may only love because we’re already loved. Our love to others is not on a reciprocal basis. And even in romantic relationships and close friendships that require mutuality in effort and vulnerability, we can even there only truly love from a point of wholeness; where we understand we are already loved. If our love is self-seeking, our joy will never be full.

KJV 1 John 4
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

3. Sanctification.

In God’s plan to save humanity there are three processes; justification(saved from the penalty of sin), sanctification (saved from the power of sin) and glorification (saved from the presence of sin). Christ has of course paid for the penalty of sin by His death on the cross. The ongoing process in the believer is now being sanctified. This process is not easy. Its not supposed to be. It is declaring war against yourself.

It has been helpful for me to realize that this process first, takes time and second is actually a revelation of God’s willingness to save me. The fire is to consume my sin and not me.

KJV Revelation 3
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

KJV 2 Corinthians 12
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

…to be continued.

Drawings: Consider the flowers.

Let the soul be drawn out and upward, that God may grant us a breath of the heavenly atmosphere.We may keep so near to God that in every unexpected trial our thoughts will turn to Him as naturally as the flower turns to the sun. SC 99.4

Its easy to be anxious. In this dark world, its easy to get caught in the twilight webs. As my anxiety kicked in this week, I remembered the above quote. So, this time I drew these sunflowers.

It begs me to ask, how naturally do we turn to the Omnipotent Arm? Its easier to call a friend, sleep or cry right? And often, we have sought these in vain. Often, we perish in the presence of abundant help. Yet our Father bends over from His throne, awaiting even a whispered petition.

And as I woke up today, I remembered a beautiful hymn;

My faith looks up to thee, thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine; Now hear me while I pray, take all my guilt away, O let me from this day be wholly Thine.

May thy rich grace impart strength to my fainting heart, my zeal inspire! As thou hast died for me, O may my love to thee pure, warm, and changeless be, a living fire!

While life’s dark maze I tread, and griefs around me spread, be thou my guide; bid darkness turn to day, wipe sorrow’s tears away, nor let me ever stray from Thee aside.

Then as if that was not enough, my devotion today, fell upon Psalm 23.

KJV Psalms 23
1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

And so it is my prayer, for myself and for you, that we maybe so near to God, that in these unexpected times, we turn to Him as naturally as the flower turns to the sun. For there is all our Sunshine.

AOB: Grateful for all the feedback in the “Putting the ‘art’ in Soulsunshine.art.blog” piece. I’m encouraged to continue posting my drawings and their reflections. We’ll call these ‘art’ blogs ” Drawings “; Because they contain drawings and we as well draw lessons from them. Keep sending feedback!😊

God and attachment styles.

How we relate with God, shows me who we think He is. In relation to the attachment theory I would like to show you our theology disoders and maybe eventually how to fix them.

Avoidant attachment style.

This style is of the “independent Christian.” It is manifested by Christians who prefer to “do for God” rather than be with God. They avoid intimacy with God, emotionally, physically and spiritually. Emotionally: they are unable to open the heart to God, unable to tell Him their cares and desires. Physically: intimacy requires privacy; they hardly find time to spend with God alone, in His word and in private prayer.

Its important to be involved in ministry, to spend time with the brethren. However, all this cannot take the place of private time with God. Christians that are aloof to a loving, relational God tend to have this attachment style. It is easy for us to treat God as our Master and forget He as well wants to be the Lover of our soul; and these two are not in tension.

Anxious attachment style.

Anxious attachment style in the God-man relationship, is the worried Christian. They are afraid of rejection, they are afraid of sinning and sadly being afraid of sin doesn’t prevent you from sinning. And so when they sin, they flee from God instead of coming. They may also constantly seek validation from other Christians so that they feel that they belong. There is so much comparison with others and unfortunately this makes them proud or depressed.

Dear anxious Christian, I would like you to know that you are fully known, seen, loved and accepted by God. He has grace enough for you. He came to love and not condemn. He will not teach you to merely fear sin. He teaches us to hate sin and to love righteousness. And lastly you should know, you can never burden Him with your needs.

Disorganized attachment style.

This is a mixture of both avoidant and anxious attachment styles. They believe that they’ll always be rejected, but they don’t avoid emotional intimacy. They fear it, and they also consistently seek it out, only to reject it again. Christians who are like this have mostly experienced traumatic disappointment in the past, where they feel God should have come through but He supposedly didn’t. They are in limbo because life, and ultimately God seems unpredictable.

It expedient for this group to realize that God is both loving and able. In Him there is no shadow of turning. If you cannot trace His hand you have to trust His heart. And that the Christian race is very predictable, because we know how it ends, we already win. As long as the head is upward lifted, and the anchor is cast on the Rock, the end is sure.

Secure attachment style.

This should be our ultimate goal. The place where we are able to communicate freely with God, able to trust Him, He is our first resort in trouble or triumphs.

But how? You see, our attachment styles are a result of our idea of who God is. And our understanding of who God is direly affects how we relate to Him, it affects our relationship with Him. It is true that, we may manifest the disorder styles unconsciously, but the goal I’m sure is that we all grow towards the secure one. And that, requires intentionality.

I am basically campaigning for true healthy theology. Eternal life is to know God. Thank goodness, that our God is terrible at hide and seek in the sense that He is not a good hider. He does not hide. All over His creation He has left traces of Him. We have His word, the Bible, with us to be a lamp unto our feet. The problem is that we have placed the words of men where a ‘Thus saith the Lord’ should be.

God is willing to be known. We are often just not willing to search for Him.

KJV Deuteronomy 4
29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

Putting the “art” in Soulsunshine.art.blog.

Hello dear reader. Let me tell you a story.

In the beginning😅, as I was setting this blog up, I had to pick the website tag name. And you may have probably been wondering why “Soulsunshine.art.blog”. If not, then I guess you can now pause your reading here and wonder a bit😅. And just in case you think I was being intentional, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I was not. I don’t know what the ” art” part was about. At least until now. Let me tell you how.

So recently, I bumped into a dear reader. And after the greeting formalities, he expressed concerns of my recent inconsistent blog posting. And yes, I really appreciated feedback. And I apologize. So yes, sometimes life gets in the way. They say, when life gives you lemons make lemonade? Today I want to share my lemonade with y’all. It puts the “art” in Soulsunshine.art.blog. (drumrolls!>>)

I started a new hobby! Okay, to be honest, I continued from where I left many years ago. Let me insert a visual.

Taddaaaah!😅😅

Yes, I started drawing. And here is why…

Its crazy how unavailable we are nowadays. Its easy to be busy than not. And we stay up too late, plan too much, get too worried; we have added years to life, but not life to years. When was the last time you thought about happiness? Or connected to that old friend? Or did something you actually love not because it earns you a living? I know, I know you don’t have time. No one does. You make time.

So I’ve been drawing instead of writing😅. Sorry, not sorry. And I drew these birds this week to remind me, His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.

Tell me if you think I should share more “art” in the blog and the reflections I have with them.

Also, tell me what themes you want featured on the blog. What type of sunshine would you like. Send your feedback to my email at nyarangidee@gmail.com.