In the Beginning.......

Genesis 1:1 (NLT) - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters

I'm back.

This time I'm coming from a different angle.
My name is John-Paul. I'm 19 and I'm a Christian. For those who knew of me from my old blog 'It's Random'  would know that I've been gone for a while. To be honest, I've been busy with second year Pharmacy  whilst balancing ministry, work and Gospel choir. This blog was again another spontaneous decision that I decided to give birth to.You see, I have all this talent but what am I doing with it? Why can't I use it to glorify God  who actually GAVE me this talent. He's probably been sitting in heaven right now looking at me type this up like -

It's been ages since I've written a post whilst starting to take this 'God ting' seriously. Anyways, I'm back and I'm better and I'm ready to start giving all the glory to God whilst sharing to you guys the things that I've learnt from quiet time and from Church.

I'm going to give my testimony now and I really hope you guys learn from it. I'm going to try and be as honest as possible because it is what it really is.

*gets popcorn*

I fully gave my life to Christ on the 18th March 2019. Now some people are going be squinting at the date, YES 2019. Prior to this I was raised a Christian etc etc but was I growing? Small small Was I receiving anything from services? Yes. Were we coached on how to apply it to our daily lives? Maybe but how to continue this Christian living as a young person in 2019 was never a topic so I guess it's a No. It has nothing to do with the denomination because my other Church has taught me so many things and helped me become the person I am today. Funnily enough, some of the things we learn in Church are things that I've known since 2010 because of my other Church. Although both my parents are amazing Christians who love God, their walk with God is certainly not my own so whilst in at Uni, I don't know if I can attend my other Church to be honest because I'm not trying to be a carnal Christian and the energy that some aunties radiate is nasty. That's one thing I wanna point out.

Point 1 - Do NOT let your Parents influence your walk with God. Imagine preventing someone from dedicating their life to Christ simply because you want them to stay in the same Church as you? It's ridiculous and selfish. To put it plainly, when we die, we aren't going to die together hand in hand singing 'You are Alpha and Omega' and choking at the end because half the song isn't in our vocal range. Not at all!! We're going to be judged individually and if you want to be telling God that you didn't serve him because your Mum said so, Jesus is just going to be looking at you like -

because he KNOWS he told us in Luke 14:16 that the cost of discipleship is forsaking your whole family. If you put your parents above God then you will never see that real shift in your life.

 I'm not saying disobey your parents because the Bible also says in Exodus 20:12 that you should honor your Father and your Mother but I am saying that you need you to take control over your own salvation. As much as our Parents say they know what is best for us, they don't know everything. They can't see your future let alone what is going to happen to you in the next hour. So why don't we go to our Maker, who actually knows what is going to happen and knows what is best for us. We should pray that God directs us and that is exactly what I did. After a few months of prayer and fasting and more prayer and fasting, various signs pointed to one direction - I had to focus on my growth in my new church.

Kharis - from the Greek word meaning Grace

Lets continue 

I found a Christian fellowship called Kharis on Campus earlier this year. However, I was running from them simply because of the stigma around campus churches. Around this time, I had stopped going to Church simply because the Church I was attending in my Uni town was not cutting it at all. I was a mess. A hot one at that. I was partaking in all kinds of nonsense and then just being too tired on Sunday morning to actually attend service. But back to Kharis on Campus

Three of my now good friends made me promise I was going to come to their midweek fellowship that week. I rocked up not expecting to receive anything but I promise you tables were shaken. The conviction that I had was eating me up but because of fear, I didn't put my hand up during altar call. However during that service, our fellowship leader mentioned their Sunday services and their BIG London service called KP2 (Kharis Phase 2). The Spirit was telling me to go so I did. That was the day I heard Reverend Dr David Antwi preach for the first time and he triggered and convicted me so much that during altar call that Sunday, I literally ran to re-dedicate my life. 

To this day, I'm so amazed that God still saw the higgy hagga and crinkum crankum in me and still decided to adopt me as his son. Ever since then, I have not looked back but I've obviously fallen into sin. However in this race, you can't be focusing on your mistakes. We have to run this race and keep looking forward. Dust yourself off and run even faster. 

Colossians 2:14 says that our sins have been NAILED to the cross through Christ and that because of that we have been made righteous (that is without sin) in Christ. Of course is you fall, confess it aloud to someone and then God will forgive you. 

If you have not caught on already, I attend Kharis Church and I'm so thankful so God that he directed me to this Church because the people that I have met and the way that my life has changed so much is amazing. 

Now for Point 2- Humility is key to becoming who God wants you to be.

ALL my friends know that I have been Number 1 warrior always fighting those who bashed my other Church which is most certainly not wrong BUT if I was not humble enough to go to Kharis even though I had been fighting this war, I would not have received all the blessings and learnt what I have learnt.

Guys we need to be humble. Pride is a weight that will only slow your walk with God. How can you boast about yourself when you don't even have control over your own life?? It's cute really. Instead of serving the God who can  not only preserve you but can also ensure that your long life is a happy and fruitful life, you're thinking about yourself all the time. 

I promise you, if you don't humble yourself, God will humble you. The way that he will do it will work and will be rewarding but it will be painful. To be honest, I have a lot of pride and I have been praying for God to humble me which he has and I'm actively humbling myself now too which is something I used to think was impossicant - impossible and can't happen.

Another thing that I've learnt from taking my walk with God seriously is how to actually read the Bible and then how to learn from it.

It's one thing to open the Bible and read it but are you able to understand it and apply the Word to your daily life? If you can't then there is an error. 

 When reading the Bible, don't read it like a book. Don't sit down and open Genesis 1:1 and read it like that because you will not last at all. What I suggest is that you listen to sermons from a Preacher, highlight the quoted scriptures whilst writing notes from the sermon, going back and reading over the scriptures then reading around them. This way, you actually have context around the scriptures and therefore it becomes easier to relate scriptures to your daily life. Just like you need a teacher to teach you content at school for your subjects, you need a teacher to help you understand the Word of God. If Christianity was a solo thing that we could learn at home, Jesus wouldn't have picked disciples and he also wouldn't have taught them things too. As much as this 'Church from home' narrative is ideal, it's clearly not working because people are still going back to that boy/girl and going out drinking till they drop. So I guess it's time we all accept that we need a spiritual teacher.

Point 3 - It's a process

One thing that keeps people from coming to Christ is this whole idea that you'll be seen as a hypocrite because you'll start changing and then talking out against the sinful things that you used to do. 

I understand this to an extent but bro sis lets get real. When you were screaming wrong lyrics in the clurbb you weren't worried about other people's views but now it's time to give your life to Christ, you're shy? Come onnnnnnn.

I don't get why you can't change without people saying pim. Whatever you do, people are going to talk so you might as well suck it up and get on with it. At the end of the day, you're actually doing it for God and not for those people who are going to talk. They don't pay your bills,your rent or anything so why are you worried?  More time, they're not even your friends and if they are then you got to cut them off. 

Imagine having friends that don't support you giving your life to Christ<<<<<

But on a serious note, don't worry about it. Matthew 16:24-26 says we need to pick up our cross in order to follow Jesus. Being called a hypocrite is part of that cross. It's just a weight of the WORLD that will fade away. Once you show consistency in your dedication to Christ, I promise you that the people calling you a hypocrite will become more focused on your new self rather than you past. The reward that God will give you is worth much more than anything good that can come from this world.

Furthermore, don't be annoyed if you don't progress as quickly as other people. Your time is coming and your calling is completely different. Don't compare your walk to someone else because that will only distract you. Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us to run this race LOOKING UNTO JESUS. It doesn't say that we should look unto Sally or Gbenga, no! We should look on Jesus Christ because the closer you get to him, the clearer things will become and the easier it will be to live a Christian life. Comparison and envy are not of God. Don't fall into that trap.

Point 4 - Find brothers and sisters in Christ

This one may be harder for some people and I can say that this one was really hard for me at first. 

You see, I am an ambivert. I have both extrovert and introvert qualities. I find it really easy to socialize but I find it hard to allow people into my 'inner circle' or whatever and then on top of that, I have days where I just want to be alone. Now obviously, coming to Christ, I was going to have to cut a few people off for my growth. Some people I even stopped talking to unintentionally because I stopped going out and doing other things so I just didn't have a reason to see them outside of those activities. So I was basically always by myself because I felt like it was easier. I still do have wordly friends but because of my busy schedule, I don't really time to see them that much. They're my bro's and still have mad love for them and I am trying to bring them all to Christ. It's not everyone that you can bring to Christ - some people may even jeopardize your walk which in that case, you'll have to drop them

Ultimately, I felt quite lonely at the start of this year. I just sucked it up and continued on my way. I didn't even bother to really socialize with anyone in Church too tough simply because of my social anxiety( I don't claim but anyways) and also because I hate bothering people if they already have an established friendship group. 

I knew enough was enough when I literally had no one to spend time with when I needed to be around someone else. I prayed on this topic for like 3 days and tried to open up and talk to more people and talk to them outside of Church and lo and behold I now have brothers and sisters in Christ.

If you really want to prosper and walk far with God, you're going to need people around you that are likeminded. Ecclesiastes 4:10 literally says that it is better for a man to have someone to pick him up when he falls. That's another reason why I don't support that 'cHurcH aT hOme' narrative UNLESS you're in the process of looking for a new church. But don't be like them people that have been looking for 6 years. Come onnn. Fellowship is key.

Anyways guys, here I am and this is my new blog. 

As for 'It's Random', I don't really know what I'm going to do with it but we shall see. 

stay blessed and see you next time.