To Divinity In Motion - Part 1

 Sunday 6th March 2022

Hello, I hope you have been well. Happy New Month!

I just finished re-watching Julie and The Phantoms and it was amazing, even more so the second time I watched it.

I'm really not a fan of musicals much however some things are just an exception.

You may have noticed that I have started posting less. When I first started this website, I had to admit that I was a lot more consistent. 

I guess that's because I didn't have university back then - so I had more free time. Now I have decided to post every two weeks, or as the spirit leads.

I won't always post every two weeks. Unforeseen circumstances might happen. I'll post two weeks if they don't.

So let's get into this.

You might be confused about the Title, which is this:

To Divinity In Motion

To Divinity in motion

God's majestic like the ocean!

I just made that up, but you might be thinking To divinity in motion? What does that mean?

And how did I come up with the title?

Let me tell you something. I actually didn't -- I think it's the title of a Michael Jackson song. 

I love Michael Jackson. I wouldn't say I'm a fan though - after all you can like a celebrity without necessarily be a fan of them. I feel like being a fan of a celebrity is on a greater level than liking.

I don't listen to the song, or if I did, I don't think I liked it. But I liked the title, so I decided to use it.

Some of my posts are even titled after his songs -- remember the Wanna Be Startin' Somethin and the They Don't Really Care About Us posts? 

The former was about how you shouldn't spread rumours, the latter was about how you will be persecuted as a Christian, and why that is okay.

 I might do another post about his Earth Song -- the beginning lyrics say what have we done to the world? Look what we've done... It will be about how you can overcome the world. 

I did a post on why you shouldn't love it, but I don't think I did one on how you can overcome it.

To Divinity in Motion can also link to Christianity. I can break it down by saying divinity means Heaven, or something being divine. Heaven is divine. Jesus is divine. God is divine - and then some. 

Motion means walking or moving.

So in this case, today's title actually means how you can make it to Heaven, by doing things for God. I wanted to be creative with the Title - and sometimes I guess you just need to read between the lines 😉😇

I genuinely didn't know how to make it to Heaven without researching, so therefore I got everything from another website. I got everything from this website here:

https://pursuitbible.com/how-to-get-to-heaven-according-to-the-bible/

And this one: https://www.allaboutgod.com/how-to-get-to-heaven.htm

Scriptures were mentioned in both websites of course, I will just be elaborating on them. I also won't be mentioning everything that they have to say.

Also, I just decided to make this series in parts. So I'll probably use the websites more in future parts. I don't know how many parts there will be exactly.

Here is an excerpt from the first website:

//
It’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of life and not think about what happens when this life is over. 

 But sometimes, things can happen that make you pause to ask the important questions ...The Bible has clear answers and guidance that has brought peace to many people.

Ellipses were used because that wasn't everything they said. I wanted to take some irrelevant bits out.

How to get to heaven according to the Bible?

 
According to the Bible, you get to heaven by putting your trust in Jesus Christ and following Him.

Although we might ask about how to go to heaven, the Bible doesn’t actually use the phrase “go to heaven.” That’s more of a modern-day way to talk about it. Rather, the Bible talks about having “eternal life” or being “saved.”

 
In Acts 16:30-31, someone asks how he can be saved. The answer is: “Believe in the Lord Jesus.”

//

The ESV version of Acts 16 verse 30-32 was used, however I normally use the NIRV version instead. Here is the verse below:

30 Then he brought them out. He asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus. Then you and everyone living in your house will be saved.” 

32 They spoke the word of the Lord to him. They also spoke to all the others in his house.

I've decided that it would be easier for me to talk about those that will not enter Heaven first, so you know what to avoid.

I can't lie, when I thought of these series, I only really thought about the title 😅😆 I didn't really think about what I was going to say until like 5 seconds before I started writing.  But I knew I wanted to post today. God led me to anyway. 

I was almost running out of time.

That doesn't normally happen, I always have a topic in mind beforehand. 

I was listening to a playlist by Bishop Dag Heward Mills, who is the founder of First Love Church, aka the church I go to in university. I attend two different churches.

First Love is for university only (I can't lie - unless there is a Zoom meeting and I'm at home) and I have another one for when I'm at home, but not my university home. 

This is my family church (RCCG Victory Centre). I have been attending this church before university so it wouldn't be right to leave. Especially how my family attends it.

Bishop Dag did a series in 2006 I think called Finish what you started. He first mentioned people in the Bible who didn't finish what they had started, finishing the series with people that did.

I'm going to do the same, slightly. First I'm going to mention characteristics that prevents you from going to Heaven, then I will mention characteristics that will make you enter Heaven.

So I guess today's title is To Divinity in Motion - reversed. But I'm not really going to call it that so I just put part 1 instead.

Before I forget what I am going to say, let me mention the subheadings for today.

Proud, Evil, Sinful, Unbelievers, Rich, Being A Bad/Good Person

These are characteristics that ultimately prevents someone from entering Heaven. 

But please be aware that when I say rich, I'm not saying that all rich people can't enter Heaven. I'll go in depth on it later. And not all good people enter Heaven either (I got that from one of the websites I credited today).

Because I have to go to bed in an hour (I have placement tomorrow), I definitely can't get through everything today. I will therefore do what I think are the easiest subheadings today (Rich, Sinful and Proud) and the rest later.

If time allows me to go through three subheadings today, I will. If not, then only two.

Next time, I will finish it off, and I will talk about what Heaven isn't -- followed by how you can enter it. Not sure if they'll all be in the same post.

These posts will essentially be about how you can enter divinity, in motion :)

I hope you enter divinity amen!

So without further ado, let's begin!

People that won't enter Heaven, or have a slim chance of getting there

#1 The Rich

Have you read Matthew 19:24?

If you haven't, let me quickly reference it. Even if you have read it, you might not remember what it says. Don't worry - I am a kind person. You can find it below.

"Again I tell you, it is hard for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. But it is even harder for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

In fact, let me mention why Jesus had said that. I'm now referencing Matthew 19:16-24 

16  "Just then, a man came up to Jesus. He asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to receive eternal life?”

17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only one who is good. If you want to enter the kingdom, obey the commandments.”
18 “Which ones?” the man asked.

Jesus said, “ ‘Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not be a false witness. 19 Honor your father and mother.’ (Exodus 20:12–16; Deuteronomy 5:16–20) And ‘love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ ” (Leviticus 19:18)

20 “I have obeyed all those commandments,” the young man said. “What else do I need to do?”

21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell everything you have. Give the money to those who are poor. You will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.”

22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad. He was very rich.

23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “What I’m about to tell you is true. It is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

 24 Again I tell you, it is hard for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. But it is even harder for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

The young man was devastated in verse 22 because he had to give money to those who were poor. This was because he was very rich.

I'm not sure about you, but that to me makes the rich man seem a bit conceited. He has all this money but he doesn't want to share it? Unfortunately, a lot of people are like that in society today.

So many people who are rich don't like giving people money. I'd understand if they were poor. But even then -- is it not good to give?

After all, the Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7) and if you give, it shall be given unto you. (Luke 6:38)

If God tells you to give money to someone, do it straight away. Do not ask questions. Just do it - God can always be trusted.

I feel like God will never tell you to give an extreme amount of money to someone. Sometimes, he might. Other times, you might need to double check if you are actually hearing from God or someone else - the devil perhaps.

God won't give you more than what you can handle (1 Cor. 10:13).

I mentioned that I have placement tomorrow. I do every Monday for 10 weeks. It's been 6.

For security reasons, I can't say where I am going for Placement, however where I go - there is a theme each week. The children have like a book and they do activities based on the book until the end of the week.

I'm going to talk about a book they did this week, which actually links to what I am currently talking about.

I don't want you thinking why is a 19 year old girl talking about a book for little children? No, trust me, I know where I am going with this.

So the theme for this week in Placement was The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. It was about a rainbow fish that was the prettiest fish in town and everyone had admired him.

He had shiny iridescent, beautiful scales, everything other fish had wanted but couldn't really have. 

Whilst the other fish in the sea didn't envy him, they did admire him, asking him if they could have shared his scales with them. But the rainbow fish was proud. He didn't want to share, so he said no.

The fish had stopped speaking to him throughout time due to his pride, and one  small one surreptitiously followed him.

One day, the rainbow fish had realised that people weren't speaking to him but he couldn't quite figure out why. Chale, he was depressed but he wasn't sure on the main cause of it. 

So he had talked to a starfish. He had asked the starfish why he was so unhappy, especially how he was the most beautiful fish in all of the sea. 

The starfish candidly told the rainbow fish that whilst they couldn't answer his question, a wise octopus in a cave could.

Long story short, con muchas otras cosas pasando ("with many other things happening" in Spanish. I don't speak Spanish but it's a very beautiful language), the rainbow fish went to the octopus.

The octopus told him that he was depressed because he wouldn't share his shimmering scales with anyone. If he had given each scale to every fish until he had run out of shiny scales, he would have been happy.

The rainbow fish was kinda hesitant to do so, considering how his shiny scales were his most prized possession. But he had listened. He had decided to share his scales with every fish, starting with the small fish that had followed him as they had seen each other first.

The rainbow fish didn't have his most prized possession anymore but he was a lot happier. The moral of the story is that sharing is caring and sometimes you just need to give up your most prized possession in order to be happier.

Possessions won't make you happy. They might, but not fully. Only God can truly satisfy you (Isaiah 58:11 - my favourite verse now), nothing else can.

The rich man's prized possession were his riches, but like the rainbow fish, he didn't want to give that up. I'm not sure if he did after, as the Bible didn't explicitly mention this, although I hope he did.

Whilst the rainbow fish couldn't physically have been rich, he was rich vicariously through his scales. He was very proud. He didn't initially want to share with anyone, kind of like the rich man in Luke 16:19-31.

Luke 16:19-31 is the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man had it all on Earth, but after death, he had made it to Hell. He had made fun of Lazarus, who had made it to Heaven.

The love of money is the root of all evil (2 Tim 6:10), so just make sure that you don't put money above the Lord. That's why rich people have a slim chance of entering Heaven.

A lot of rich people use their money for the Lord, which is a good thing, especially if God tells them to do so. 

So not all rich people don't make it to Heaven after death. It's just rare for them to do so.

Who knew a little children's story would have such a deep moral? I was pretty moved by it.

I didn't even plan to use it today, but I just noticed that it has links to this subheading.

Some children's stories and nursery rhymes have hidden meanings, but sadly not all of them are good. For example, I know the hidden meaning of Ring a Ring a Roses. It's pretty dark. 

But let me not spoil your childhood.

See I told you I wasn’t just rambling on about a random children’s story I had only first found out about this week. 

Hopefully you understand how it links to what I’m saying though. 

On to the next point! 

#2 The sinful

The previous subheading took longer time to talk about than I thought, so unfortunately I will have to cut it to just two subheadings today. I only have half an hour left.

When I say the sinful, I don't mean those that have sinned. That's basically everyone. There isn't anyone on this Earth that hasn't sinned, even if some people actually seem perfect.

The problem is when you condemn others for their mistakes. 

Some people do that very easily. Someone makes a mistake and suddenly they're the worst person in the world. It's not right. If you want to point fingers, make sure your hands are clean.

Or even better, just don't point them at all.

This happened in John 8 vs 1-11.

1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

2 At sunrise he arrived again in the temple courtyard. All the people gathered around him there. He sat down to teach them. 

3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman. She had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of the group. 

4 They said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught sleeping with a man who was not her husband. 

5 In the Law, Moses commanded us to kill such women by throwing stones at them. Now what do you say?” 

6 They were trying to trap Jesus with that question. They wanted to have a reason to bring charges against him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 

7 They kept asking him questions. So he stood up and said to them, “Has any one of you not sinned? Then you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 

8 He bent down again and wrote on the ground.

9 Those who heard what he had said began to go away. They left one at a time, the older ones first. Soon only Jesus was left. The woman was still standing there. 

10 Jesus stood up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Hasn’t anyone found you guilty?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then I don’t find you guilty either,” Jesus said. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

In verse 6, the people wanted dirt on Jesus. They knew he was perfect, so they were trying to see him sin so that they could have used that against him. 

People will do that to you in society. They want to see you fail. Don't give them to satisfaction.

If people want to see you fail, give them the opposite thing. Let them see you succeed.

Sinful people will not enter Heaven. 

I'm talking about sinning on purpose, which links to unbelievers not entering Heaven, but that's another story for another day.

I have numerous Scriptures on no one being perfect and everyone sinning (1 John 1:8, Romans 3:23, Romans 3:10, and then some), but let me quickly reference Romans 6:23 because I seriously need to go to bed.

When you sin, the pay you get is death. But God gives you the gift of eternal life. That’s because of what Christ Jesus our Lord has done.

I always get Romans 6:23 and 3:23 mixed up, but essentially what this verse is saying is that people die mainly because of sin.

Sometimes people die because their life was or is going to be very sinful. And because God doesn't want them to suffer, he therefore decided to end their life.

If you want to enter divinity in motion, you have to sin as little as you can! I can't say not at all, that's not possible.

When you do sin, make sure to repent and never do the same sin again. 

You might by accident, although I mean intentionally. However, try to avoid doing the same sin by accident too.

Not all good people enter Heaven either, but again, that is another story for another day. I do have to get going now, and I hope you were blessed by this post.

So now you know two characteristics you need to avoid if you want to enter divinity in motion.  

I guess that's a new euphemism or synonym for the process of entering Heaven - to divinity in motion. But seriously. I'm not saying avoid being rich, just ensure your riches are not taking over your love for God.

Did God not give you the riches? 😁

Anytime God gives you something, thank him. What God gives you is actually his that he gave to you, it's technically not yours.

Isaiah 42:8 moreover says:

“I am the Lord. That is my name!
I will not let any other god share my glory.
I will not let statues of gods share my praise."

Hence why the rich man couldn't really enjoy his riches in Luke 12:15-21. Because had given glory to himself.

If you can, you should also give something up for Lent. It's a time of fasting, or giving something up for God. Maybe a  habit you don't like, or a habit you just want to lessen. Verses linked to Lent can be Romans 12:1, 1 Peter 5:6, and then some.

Romans 12:1 - Brothers and sisters, God has shown you his mercy. So I am asking you to offer up your bodies to him while you are still alive. Your bodies are a holy sacrifice that is pleasing to God. When you offer your bodies to God, you are worshiping him in the right way.

1 Peter 5:6 - So make yourselves humble. Put yourselves under God’s mighty hand. Then he will honour you at the right time.

It's for 40 days. It started March 2 and finishes April 14.

Time will not allow me to say more. That's all for now, and I might add on to this later (but I've worked too hard and am pretty impatient not to publish this post the day I wrote it). 

See you next time! 

Lola