Sunday 3rd July 2022
Hey, what's up? I hope you've been well. I certainly have been.
It's my birthday on Saturday (July 9th)😊 But I'm not posting about it until the actual day. I meant on WhatsApp and that.
On here, it's different. I normally post every two weeks so by the time I'm back here, it'll probably be mid July. I would have already had it. But either way, happy new month!
Normally I don't think much of it, but I think it's because I'm going to be 20.
20 is like a whole new era, plus I feel like I have been waiting for centuries.
It can be quite discouraging for me especially when it's like mid to late June and everyone else has already had their birthday. You wonder when will mine come? Will it ever come?
And if waiting gets really bad I do sometimes wish I was born earlier, but then if I was then I wouldn't be born in July. I'm very grateful for how far God has taken me, plus I'm sure there are some people who wish they were born this month, but aren't.
So yes, I'm very thankful. Let's praise God because we are halfway through 2022 (the halfway day was yesterday) and nothing bad has happened to us.
Today I'm kind of "deviating" from what I've planned to talk about. So I have posts in mind, but at times, ideas for a new post come to me out of the blue.
Whilst this post today was out of the blue, it kind of wasn't as well.
So on Friday 1 July, the Friday that just went, I went to my first ever funeral. Don't worry, I'm okay. I didn't know the deceased personally but she was the grandmother of one of my uncles. My mother invited me to pay respects.
Before the funeral, I had a lot of questions - too many. My main concern was what if I was too happy?
If you know me well, you know I am very bubbly and cheerful, but I knew that kind of personality was too much and even sort of disrespectful for a funeral.
You know something's up with me if I don't speak to you for some time, assuming I talk to you a lot. But this is more so over text or online. In real life, if I look unhappy or am quieter than usual, then you know something's up.
I remember once I had to have a serious photo for something and I couldn't smile, I forgot what it was for. When a photo was taken for that, I couldn't stop laughing. I'm naturally happy.
I asked a very close friend of mine for advice experiencing my first funeral. They were the only person I told about it, considering how I didn't know the deceased.
The funeral went according to plan by the Grace of God and it was a catholic one. I'd be lying if I said it didn't scare me a bit, or make me worry about my future. Days before my birthday (like 1 July) sometimes I worry that something bad will happen, that happened last year.
By the grace of God, I saw last year and I will see this year. At the cemetery where the deceased was buried (they were 88), I saw a lot of graves of people younger than me and even slightly older than me that were no more.
I saw people who died aged 19, 15, 21, 11, 9, and then some.
11 and 9 really made me sympathetic. The oldest I saw was 90 something - the cemetery was massive; there were about 1K+ graves there. Long story short, this gave me an idea for a new post.
Live your life to the fullest before it's too late, or a title similar to that anyway.
Yeah, this is dark, I know. But I just want y'all to know how and why I got the title/idea for this post today.
Just telling you this - in case you never know. 😁
So yeah, that's where the title came from. I'm sure you've heard of the term you only live once. It's also called YOLO for short, occasionally with a hashtag. It can work both ways - with or without one.
Today, I'll be discussing people in the Bible that lived a fulfilling life, and maybe some secular people too. Then I will contrast it with people who didn't live a good life so that you know what to avoid.
Let's get into it!
The phrase you only live once sounds very cliché, and I know it does.
But at the same time, you need to take it into consideration. Unfortunately, not everybody realises or remembers the fact that they only live once, so they live their lives in crazy ways - or they act as if they have more than one life to live.
Let me quickly reference Hebrews 9:27
People have to die once. After that, God will judge them.
Notice it says people die once. Not twice or thrice, once.
I even saw a quote once that said what if life was all a dream and when we died, we woke up?
I'm not sure about you but I think that's a bit extreme - though it's definitely an interesting concept, to an extent.
Surely if life was a dream, then we'd get what we want when we'd want it, right? Basically life would be full of ups with no downs. But it doesn't work like that, and it shouldn't.
I learnt at my home church today that everyone has a story, however no one's story is perfect. Everyone has been hit by the downs of life, and life's vicissitudes.
Sorry, I love that word. Vicissitude. It's my favourite word, also meaning a change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant. Or an alternation between opposing or contrasting things.
There is no one one Earth that is exempt from experiencing bad things.
Even celebrities - I don't even focus on them like that but I read an article about an X factor contestant whose fiancé died on the day of their wedding. It was even recently, late June I believe. His world was absolutely shattered.
When I'm about to get married, I cannot imagine losing my fiancé. Especially on the day of the wedding, I don't think I'd be able to handle it, I'd cry my eyes out.
Anytime you compare yourself to someone else, you're comparing bits of them to the whole of yourself. You don't know anyone's story. Nobody knows about my past and I don't want anyone to.
Read these two following quotations:
For instance, you have a classmate that you're friends with at school, but at the same time, you don't really know that well. They're always happy and smiling, and people are just naturally drawn to them.
They're also very attractive so people compliment them on their looks a lot. They get good grades, always top of the class and they just seem perfect.
Ahahahahaha. That's the word right there that changes everything, the word seem.
That's what you see on the shiny outside. What you don't see on the inside is they can't get over the death of their twin, who no one knows about because they don't like talking about it. They're an only child now, and if someone asks them if they have any siblings, they say:
"No, I'm an only child."
They don't say, no, I had a twin. They'd rather just say that they're an only child instead of saying that they had a twin who is now deceased. That shows vulnerability, and they hate that. Sympathy too. And those that know about the twin are no longer in contact with them for whatever reason.
They get a lot of attention but they hate being the centre of it, because they feel like they are being judged. They have a lot of friends but they feel lonely, and they spend several hours at school deliberately since they have an unhappy home, they hate their family.
It's a lot, I know. But that's actually the reality of some people. Maybe it's even worse, though I don't wish that on anyone.
There's nothing wrong with focusing on others, as long as it's for inspiration and not comparison. Maybe someone secretly admires you. Just because someone doesn't tell you something nice doesn't mean they're not thinking it.
I'm sure there are a lot of people who wish to be in your shoes had you swapped lives with them. Either way, just know that the grass isn't always greener on the other side.
You only live once so make it count. You're going to be you for the rest of your life. You don't become someone else halfway, I'd actually hate that. There's only one you!
Let me reference Psalms 39:4:
“LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away.” (Psalm 39:4, NLT).
Then Ecclesiastes, 1 Timothy and 2 Corinthians, respectively.
For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
1 Tim. 6:7
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinth. 5:17
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die.
Ecc. 3:1-2a (the first sentence of verse 2 basically)
Essentially, there verses are talking about how we have a limited time on Earth. The Ecclesiastes verse is talking about how there is a time for everything, and nothing lasts forever.
As I sometimes say, even if something does last forever (i.e someone being famous), when they die, it'll all be over, and pretty worthless too. Fame is nothing if you're not glorifying God with it, for instance there are some famous pastors out there, or famous spiritual authors.
By the grace of God, that'll be me one day!! 🤩🤩
In the future, I want to write a Christian book and make it an international bestseller. Actually, I kind of already have. But I haven't finished it - no further discussion.
There's another book I'm working on that I want published. There's an app where you can write books, that's what I've been doing to write these. It's private - but obviously I'm not writing about anything I shouldn't be.
There's just some things I like going into detail about but not fully, this is one of them. If only I had finished education, then I'd be able to do these things.
I said I would mention some people who lived a good life in the Bible and who didn't, so you know what to avoid. Then I said I'd mention people away from the Bible that didn't - people that lived on this Earth in other words.
So the secular people will be Rosa Parks and Adolf Hitler.
The Biblical people will be Sarah and Mary, then Lot's wife. Let's start with them.
I already have some notes on Sarah after doing an assignment for my home church. I will be taking notes from there and adding it here, not everything - it's almost 4K words.
The notes were also on Mary as well. Sarah will be in dark orange and Mary dark blue. My colours have got to match the theme of this website.
//
SARAH
Sarah was the wife of Abraham, who was a very obedient
person, listening to God regardless of what God had told him to do. She was
also the mother of Isaac and was additionally born in Chaldea.
From Wikipedia, Chaldea was a small country that existed between the
late 10th or early 9th and mid-6th centuries BC. After that, the country and
its people were absorbed and assimilated (considering something as similar)
into the indigenous population Babylonia.
She didn’t have any children until she was 90, with God
telling Abraham in Genesis 17:6 that she would have been a mother of nations.
Genesis 17:6
I will greatly increase the
number of your children after you. Nations and kings will come from you.
Sarah wasn’t the only
person that was slightly doubtful when this had happened because Abraham was as
well, mainly because of her age.
Abraham fell with his face to the
ground. He laughed and said to himself, “Can a 100-year-old man have a son? Can Sarah have
a child at the age of 90?” Genesis 17:17
Sarah had laughed along
with her husband.
Then the Lord said
to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Will I really
have a baby, now that I am old'?" Genesis 18:13
The fact that both of them
had laughed when this had happened had showed that they didn’t really trust God
and also that they might have thought that he was lying.
My pastor for my home church said that we
shouldn’t worry about our future because it shows that we don’t really trust
God. Excessive worrying and distrustfulness comes from the devil.
You shouldn’t
let him get to you or have the satisfaction of seeing you upset.
If God tells you to do
something, just trust that everything will turn out well at the end of the day.
*****
Asterisks used because I cropped some things out.
Sarah had submitted to
Abraham and vice versa. They had obeyed and respected each other with honour.
Women of God are expected to honour their husbands and the other way around,
with no exceptions. This can all be found in Ephesians 5 vs 22-25.
22 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
Saviour.
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.
We should always look to Jesus as an example. He made himself of no
reputation and even though he was the son of God, he didn’t use that to his
advantage (John 3:16, Philippians 2:7-10)
//
There is a passage that I didn't mention in my notes but it reinforces how close Sarah and Abraham were.
It's taken from Genesis 18:1-15.
The Lord appeared to Abraham near the large trees of Mamre. Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent. It was the hottest time of the day.
2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. So he quickly left the entrance to his tent to greet them. He bowed low to the ground.
3 He said, “My lord, if you are pleased with me, don’t pass me by. 4 Let me get you some water. Then all of you can wash your feet and rest under this tree.
5 Let me get you something to eat to give you strength. Then you can go on your way. I want to do this for you now that you have come to me.”
“All right,” they answered. “Do as you say.”
6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick!” he said. “Get about 36 pounds of the finest flour. Prepare it and bake some bread.”
7 Then he ran over to the herd. He picked out a choice, tender calf. He gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it.
8 Then he brought some butter and milk and the calf that had been prepared. He served them to the three men. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.
9 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.
“Over there in the tent,” he said.
10 Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year. Your wife Sarah will have a son.”
Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him.
11 Abraham and Sarah were already very old. Sarah was too old to have a baby. 12 So she laughed to herself. She thought, “I’m worn out, and my husband is old. Can I really know the joy of having a baby?”
13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Will I really have a baby, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for me? I will return to you at the appointed time next year. Sarah will have a son.”
15 Sarah was afraid. So she lied and said, “I didn’t laugh.”
But the Lord said, “Yes, you laughed.”
Notice in verse 13, God was speaking to Abraham, but in verse 15, Sarah replied.
Sarah had heard what God had said to Abraham. I also found it quite fascinating how God had spoken to Abraham about that and not Sarah. It was very likely that Sarah was so close to God that she had managed to hear him talk to Abraham.
I discovered this late February, perhaps early March. But I haven't said anything about it as there was no post where I could have referenced this. It wouldn't have been relevant, but it was today. 😆
Moreover, in verse 10, one of the men said that they would have seen them next year and Sarah would have given birth to a son. I feel like God sent them to say that.
There are some verses or stories in the Bible that require you to look twice (or more than once at least) as it just completely catches you off guard, albeit in a good way.
It's like these photos. I literally typed photos that will require you to look twice on Google like five minute before I typed this sentence.
What does this look like?
Someone's eye, right? Maybe they were washing their face and left out their eyes, for inevitable reasons - and the photo is in black and white.
But look closely.
And you'll realise it's a sink - and water is being drained into the sink, simultaneously with some soap.
Cool, right? I love these kind of optical illusions. Well done if you knew it was a sink already, and if you didn't - don't worry. I hardly did. You learn something new every day!
What about this one? This will be the second and the last one.
Looks like she's flying, right?
No, the wood is just stuck well into the sand. I didn't know what else to call it. But congrats if you knew that already.
I mean, I don't know why it's in the sand in the first place, but, hey, I'm not one to ask questions about things that don't concern me. 🤷🏾♀️
Unless I'm genuinely curious about something.
So these two photos required you to look twice, just like the Bible passage above did. I wouldn't even have known that Sarah had responded to God speaking to Abraham or that God was speaking to Abraham about something concerning Sarah had I not look twice.
I didn't realise it myself though, it was discussed in a meeting.
Another person in the Bible who lived well was Mary, the one who Jesus spoke to first when he had risen from the dead. I normally talk about Biblical men and hardly women, so that's why I'm doing so today.
I already had notes on Sarah and Mary from late February so that's why I'm talking about these two and no one else.
Like I said, Mary's notes will be in dark blue.
//
Mark 16:9 à Jesus rose from the dead early on the first day of the week.
He appeared first to Mary Magdalene. He had driven seven demons out of her.
Mary Magdalene was someone
who had demons inside of her. This could indicate that she had made many
mistakes and sins in her life otherwise she wouldn’t necessarily have them.
Regardless, she is one of the most
celebrated disciples, and she is also well known for being one of the first
people to see Jesus resurrect. This had happened in Mark 16:9-10 and John
20:14-17.
The fact that Jesus had seen her first
shows that she was the most important person in Jesus’ life whilst he was on
Earth.
The
unchallenged facts about Mary Magdalene’s life establish that Jesus cleansed
her of seven demons (Luke 8:2 and
Mark 16:9), probably implying that he cured her of a physical disorder rather
than the popular notion that he freed her of evil spirits. *
*Credits to Biography
and Facts about Mary Magdalene
**********
6
Lesson you can learn from her life
Mary Magdalene's
Life Lessons
1.
Gratitude should
influence us daily in our lives
- Luke 8:2 à Jesus casts out 7 demons from inside her.
-
She had loved Jesus a lot
for healing her from the demons inside her.
-
It was rare for a woman to
be the disciple of a Rabbi, but Mary hadn’t let that affect her.
-
This gratitude had kept Mary
faithful to Jesus until the day she died.
-
We are expected to be
grateful as well, by thanking God in the good times and bad. Sometimes bad
times lead to something beautiful.
-
She followed Jesus, learned from him, served his physical needs, and set
a ground-breaking example for other women everywhere. All because of
gratitude.
2.
Your Past Doesn’t
Matter When You’re In Christ
-
Not much is known about Mary’s past, but from how other characters in
the bible are treated when they had demons, she most likely wasn’t the most
popular woman in her town. She was probably rejected, isolated, and hopeless.
She may even have experienced deep shame from being possessed.
-
But none of that stopped Jesus from healing her. Jesus doesn’t focus on
the past because he knows that everyone is a sinner. It’s impossible to be
perfect. Perfection shouldn’t and doesn’t exist.
-
Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord has the opportunity to be
set free from many demons (fears, doubts, loneliness, rejection, anxiety,
hopelessness, etc., etc.).
-
When you call to him, he will set you free. Being born again means that
you have been transformed into someone who is able to walk away from all past
sin. You have repented and you are forgiven.
From the aforementioned website
3. Don’t Let Disappointed Hopes
Discourage You
-
Mary Magdalene was there when Jesus had died and when he had gotten
buried
-
Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John simultaneously say that she had witnessed both Jesus’ crucifixion and
burial, with John 19:25-26 additionally stating that she had stood by the cross
where Jesus had died.
-
She was disappointed
when this had happened, however she didn’t let Jesus’ death stop her.
-
God’s plans are
always better than ours because his thoughts are higher, which you can find in Isaiah
55:8-9. Sometimes not getting what you want can actually be a blessing in
disguise.
-
God wants to give
what’s best, not what’s good enough. At times like these, it’s good to remember
that He is the Potter and we are the clay (Jeremiah 18:1-6).
4. Remember That Jesus Calls you by your
name
-
When Mary Magdalene heard her own name spoken by Jesus after he
had resurrected, her doubts had turned into peace. She heard an audible voice
but even today we can hear Him speaking our names.
-
We sense Him saying, “Fear
not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine”
(Isaiah 43:1).
-
A whisper within our souls that lets us know that He is indeed
with us, whether it may seem that way or not.
From website
5.
Seek First The Kingdom of Heaven
-
And everything else will be given unto you. Matthew 6:33
-
Colossians 3:2
-
When we seek God’s kingdom first, and make God your only idol, not your
top one (Exodus 20:3) then the rest of your journey will fall right into place.
-
The disciples didn’t believe Mary at first because her worried
explanation could have been too much for them to handle. However Peter and John
had ran to the tombs to see for themselves, mainly because they had sought
Jesus first.
6. Go Forth and Tell The Good News
-
Throughout history, women have been treated as less than the
equal partner that they were created to be. They weren’t even thought of as
reliable witnesses in a court.
-
But Jesus gave women the opportunity to be the first witnesses
of his resurrection. He trusted them to pass this marvellous good news on. And
they did.
-
Mary lived these words from Colossians 2:6-7:
-
“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your
Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and
let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth
you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
-
Mary Magdalene was one of the first people to share gospel truth
with a broken world. Her testimony urges you to do the same.
-
People all around you are lonely and feeling hopeless. Do
something about it, ensure that you help these kind of people as much as you
can and God will bless you as you do so amen.
//
Mary was a lot harder to do than Sarah, when I initially wrote this. I was struggling like crazy.
I also didn't copy all of my notes about Mary, hence the asterisks again.
Next I'm going to talk about someone in the Bible whose life you shouldn't follow.
Then I'll summarise the secular people, and then that's it. I'm trying to do everything within a specific time frame as I had promised my brother I'd do something with him.
There are a lot of people, whose lives you should not follow, i.e Jezebel, Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, and then some. They each had a characteristic that God didn't necessarily like. Unfortunately, some of them had more than one.
But today's one will be Lot's wife. She turned into a pillar of salt for looking back at Sodom and Gomorrah when God told her not to.
16 Lot didn’t move right away. So the men grabbed him by the hand. They also took hold of the hands of his wife and two daughters. They led all of them safely out of the city. The Lord had mercy on them.
17 As soon as the angels had brought them out, one of them spoke. He said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back! Don’t stop anywhere in the valley! Run to the mountains! If you don’t, you will be swept away!”
18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords! Please! 19 You have done me a big favor. You have been very kind to me by sparing my life. But I can’t run to the mountains. I won’t be able to escape this horrible thing that’s going to happen. And then I’ll die.
20 Look, here’s a town near enough to run to. It’s small. Let me run to it. It’s very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”
21 The Lord said to Lot, “All right. I will also give you what you are asking for. I will not destroy the town you are talking about. 22 But run there quickly. I can’t do anything until you reach it.” The town was named Zoar. Zoar means Small.
23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the Lord sent down burning sulfur. It came down like rain on Sodom and Gomorrah. It came from the Lord. It came out of the sky.
25 The Lord destroyed these cities and the whole valley. All the people who were living in the cities were wiped out. So were the plants in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back. When she did, she became a pillar made out of salt.
Notice that Lot's wife was so disobedient that the Bible didn't even mention her name. I'm sure if she had a better reputation, then she would have had her name revealed for sure. But she didn't.
Please note that I'm not saying every nameless person in the Bible was bad, some were good i.e - the good Samaritan, or the leper that came back to thank Jesus in Luke 17:11-19, when Jesus healed 10 men with leprosy.
Lot's wife was no exception of a bad person. Perhaps she had a good life, until she disobeyed simple instructions, to not look back - in verse 17.
Her one life was wasted. She could have lived a longer life but she didn't.
As for the good and bad secular people, let's start with Hitler.
Adolf Hitler is one of the most well-known—and reviled (condemned)—figures in history. As the leader of Nazi Germany, he orchestrated (started) both World War II and the Holocaust, events that led to the deaths of at least 40,000,000 people. In the ensuing (following) decades, he was the subject of countless books, documentaries, and TV shows.
Holocaust was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. - from Wikipedia
There's also a quote about him.
Hence why I purposely chose Hitler. I was going to do Osama bin Laden, a terrorist in the 9/11 attack, but there wasn't a quote on him or maybe even from him that could have linked to today's topic.
I haven't done History for a long time, or cared much about it. But I'm not against it, inevitably. You have your interests/hobbies, and I have mine. Next is Rosa Parks. There's no right or wrong hobby.
We all know what she did, but here is a reminder.
Rosa refreshed the struggle for racial equality when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. Parks' arrest on December 1, 1955 launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott by 17,000 black citizens.
Here's a twist, did you know that someone else actually did this before Rosa Parks?
Her name is Claudette Colvin, who is still alive. She's 82 and was born September 5th, 1939.
But why was she not as famous as Rosa Parks? Here's why:
Colvin did not receive the same attention as Parks for a number of reasons:
she did not have "good hair"
she was not fair-skinned
she was a teenager
she was pregnant.
The leaders in the Civil Rights Movement tried to keep up appearances and make the "most appealing" protesters the most seen. - from Wikipedia
It's easier for me to copy and paste this than me writing it. Now that I've mentioned her, let me add a picture of Claudette:
Thankfully she got some justice, which is another story for another day.
But yes! As I round up today, I just wanted to remind you that you only live once. Live like Sarah and Abraham, and make a difference, a good one like Rosa and Claudette too for that matter, did.
And if you get in trouble for doing something good, especially something righteous, then never forget Matthew 5:10
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Yeah, it was kinda longer today. But I'm not apologising - there's no reason to! Hopefully y'all were 2x as blessed!
See you next time, and thanks for tuning in again
Lots of love. Lola xx
hopefully I should be getting an Aaliyah top for my birthday as that was what I asked for. Just don't know which one 😋
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