These stories often portray the heroes as individuals with needs, weaknesses, and even passions, like our own, who choose to set them aside, accepting the life of loneliness and secrecy to protect those they love and a city in need. In their fight for justice, these brave heroes turn into cape & spandex wearing vigilantes, answering the cries of those victimized by crime and the ill will of others. These heroes always have a rival – an enemy usually written in to create tension- a formidable nemesis set on finding and exploiting their every weakness and seeing to their doom. While some rivals succeed in wounding the heroes and sometimes even defeating them, the heroes never let up, coming back again and again. We know these type of stories well.

[eltdf_blockquote text=”There is yet another story about a hero; this hero won the victory 2000+ years ago. He was ready to execute a plan put in place before the very foundation of the earth was laid and it was in His hands that His Father’s will prospered. Unlike the fictional heroes who save men from the ramifications of crime, He was concerned with giving men life and saving them from the ramifications of sin.” title_tag=”h2″ width=””]

While He wouldn’t be known for catch phrases like “cowabunga”, tit bits like “with great power comes great responsibility” or the succinct “Hulk, smash”, He is known for disarming our enemy, in one instance, by quoting verses from the Bible. His bankable deliveries include the true-to-the-core “it is written that man shall not live on bread alone” statement, the comforting “come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”, the cautionary “repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand” and the straightforward “I am the way, the truth, and the life…”. These words were not the ravings of a mad man but of a man who was and is God. His story stands out because it is true. His story points us to our very deliverance. You can literally hang all your hope on His words because when the comic books are closed and the cameras have stopped rolling, sin will still be raging, killing you and everyone around you. If you desire to survive this war, take heed, repent and place all your faith in the Son of man, Christ the Savior. He is the complete hero before whom sin, death and the devil didn’t stand a chance. How much more crime? Or injustice? Or pain?

So the next time you think of the “fastest man alive”, the “dark knight” or the alien from Krypton, think also of the New Adam, the Ancient of Days. Beloveds, we don’t need another hero for in Jesus the Christ, we have all we need.

The post We don’t need another hero appeared first on Proverbs 31.

In school, I did well academically, but I always felt I was different. I started dating guys while in secondary school, and it became like a crutch to me. I was getting some sort of acceptance from these childish relationships. I belonged. The relationships always ended, and I always moved on to the next person.

I went to study engineering at University. I wanted to do great things, and at the time, being an engineer seemed great enough. I wanted to be someone that made people smile and approve of. My father spoke with much satisfaction and contentment of such people. How I wished he spoke such of me. Perhaps he would though, if I became an engineer. Yet a part of me was giving up, the load I carried was too heavy to drag 5 years through university. It was too long a journey. I was not going to make it.

Adding on to that, a boyfriend I had been dating for 4 years, since secondary school, died in a car accident. That was, I suppose the straw that broke the camel’s back; more specifically the end of my attempting to salvage my life. The darkest cave I have ever been in, and I went back to the usual smile by day, cry by night routine. I still wanted deep down inside, more than anything, to be liked and approved of and accepted.

A relative at the university got concerned by my permanently puffy eyes. She visited my room and told me about God. She then later took me to a SCOM (Students Christian organization of Malawi) meeting, where I got to hear more about God, and pray with people. [eltdf_blockquote text=”I “received” Christ and got “saved”. I had always known about God. My father said he didn’t believe in God, but my mum dragged us to church on many Sundays, so I was very aware of the existence of a creator. I had just never thought of calling out to Him throughout my years of emptiness and feeling like dirt.” title_tag=”h2″ width=””] I only went to church to avoid provoking my mother, but I counted the minutes until service ended. To me church was just dead boring routines and actions I had to endure on the Sundays that we did go to church.

In University, this SCOM, was much more vibrant and alive. You were encouraged to participate. I sang on stage; and prayed with and for people. It was a welcoming environment. It was in a way, what I was yearning for. I was still depressed, but perhaps with all the activities it offered, I had less time to wallow in my woes.

I still decided to quit the engineering course. I attended class but had stopped taking notes, stopped studying; bracing myself for the dropout. I was afraid of what my father would say. How would he handle me dropping out of university? Well, when it did happen, he suggested we talk to a professor friend of his who worked at the university; he wanted to ask him to help me back in. I refused. I was done with that chapter.

Two years later I went to the UK on a working holiday. I tried to extend my stay when my visa expired but my application was denied. I took advice from a friend to stay on illegally. I had joined a vibrant church from the time I arrived there and became very active in the church. The people around really helped me with my depression. I was healed. I was freed from many of my fears. God was truly at work in my life. I was still resisting yielding everything though.

All the while I heard a nagging voice in my heart pointing out to me how judgmental I was of other people. Other sinners. By the time I realized I had actually done all the things I was judging others for, I had lived illegally for almost a year in the UK. I was aware of every day I stayed there breaking the law of the land. Yet I didn’t want to come back home. I was stuck. I was not supposed to be in this country. But back home I felt my parents despised me.

I got disturbed by certain things in the church in the UK that seemed to go against the word of God in the bible. When I brought it up to the pastor, he got very angry. I got scared and stopped going to church. This was the place I had found healing and a new family and God. I let it all go, and I remember packing even my bible away saying “God if that’s what You are really like, I want nothing to do with You”. I went a month without praying. Then a nightmare had me cry out “Jesus!” and I knew then I couldn’t live without Him.

I had had enough of the guilt of living and working illegally, so one day I walked into a police station and asked to see an immigration officer. I told them I was there illegally. I asked if there was a chance they could just make me legal, I had a few debts that I needed to work and pay for. The immigration officer asked if I was in any danger at home. I said no. He then said I will have to send you back home. You will have to apply to return from your home country.

It was a long flight back home. I had disappointed many people instead of getting approval and acceptance. My family, friends in the UK, my pastor, God. I wrote in my bible, the only thing I chose to take( or I felt worthy enough to take) back to my home country with me( as the immigration people had offered to have someone bring my belongings, but I just felt unworthy of taking anything); I wrote ” truly oh Lord you are displeased with wrong doing. Thank You for Your tender mercies oh Lord“. The date on it is 28/02/08. I think that was the first time I truly realized I had wronged God. All along I saw myself as a victim of sexual abuse. Then a victim of hatred from people I couldn’t fit in with because I felt too dirty; people who misunderstood me. A victim needing a savior. I thought that’s what I was saved from when I “felt” saved. But now in this shameful flight back home I saw how I had done everything I judged other people for: the staying illegally in a country, the using dating relationships as a drug to avoid facing my life, looking for someone to accept and approve of me. All reactions of a victim perhaps, but very much the actions of a sinner against God. On that flight I saw that for the first time in my life. Six years of thinking I was saved; saved from being a victim; I was actually being saved from being sinner, Romans3 verse23 applied to me too! I always thought my case was different. I realized, without Christ I am full of sin using my being a victim as my eternal excuse, yet all the while sinning against God. For whatever reason I sin, however justifiable it is in my eyes, the truth remains, God is not pleased with wrongdoing, Psalm 5 verse 4, no matter what face or excuse the wrongdoing wears. The wages of sin is death, Romans 6 verse 23, and on my own, my attempts to heal and sort out my life had ended up achieving the exact opposite. O top of it all, ended up sinning against God. I was indeed in need of a savior. But this time it was not salvation from an abusive past, a dirty soul. I needed salvation from a sinful heart and sinful hands.

All these years I had heard and read and even shared with others that Christ died for our sins, yet I had never really seen my sin. I had occasional faults and disobedience, yes, but I was in my mind justified because of what had happened to me.

Lord You hung on the cross for sinners. Save me from my sin. Have mercy on me.

I arrived home with my head hung low but my life was just beginning in a real new walk with God. I have seen God’s mercy, His grace, His attention to the details in my life. I have seen God untangle many twisted areas in my heart. And it is so real, I don’t have to pretend to fit in, or hide anymore. But most importantly I have seen God lead my life. He really took me out of the miry clay of a mess I had made and set my feet upon a rock. And He has put in me a desire to obey His word and seek to please Him, which is a fight in itself, but Christ who has already won the victory, is right here with me.

Now I am not perfect, but I am very aware that my life is in His hands. He leads, cares for me, corrects, protects and provides for me. I am eternally His. He is working on me. I can be sure He will keep me, and I have much hope in His saving and keeping my children. John 3 verse 16: for God so loved the world, that He gave His only son, that whosoever believes in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life. God’s free love and grace: that’s more than all the approval and acceptance I will ever need.

The post Accepted, Loved! appeared first on Proverbs 31.

Okay okay. Some might wonder what the lordship of Christ would have to do with art yet alone culture, especially when considering that for decades the church has seemed rather apathetic to both. The best way I can tackle this (without turning this post into a book) is by taking a walk through the gospel narrative that runs through the pages of the Scriptures.

The song of creation in the first chapter of Genesis is simply beautiful; God spoke everything into being and all He created was good. The climax of God’s design was the creation of man, whom He made in His own image. What’s more, He described mankind as “very good”. In subsequent chapters, God gave both the male and female a mandate to tend the garden, to keep it and to preserve it. Life was as it was supposed to be: Utopia. Then, the most unfortunate event took place.  The first image-bearers of God, Adam and Eve, were deceived.  Immediately following this deception, they chose to directly disobey God by indulging in fruit he forbade them to eat or to even touch. However, they ate it and thus became separated from God. All of creation was tainted; the first sin cultivated the breeding ground for all forms of distortion, even distorting the way we engage in the world around us and especially distorting the heart within us. 

[eltdf_blockquote text=”The plunge of the whole human race into darkness left us in dire need of redemption. For the Christian, the redemption of the soul begins and ends in Jesus Christ. In fact, the redemption of all things (think culture, relationships, art and even womanhood) is no different than the redeeming of one’s soul; Jesus Christ is the focus.” title_tag=”h2″ width=””] One may ask, “Why have I been redeemed?” We have been redeemed so that we can understand the purpose of God’s design for life. I like how the Westminster Catechism puts it, saying, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” (1 Cor 10:31) We can only do this because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross for all who believe. Great! That is the bottom line. Yet all too often, one may sit and gaze at this truth and still wonder if one is doing things right. Take the classic case of the redeemed artist who is plagued with questions about whether or not artwork is a good and godly thing. Consider the accountant who ponders how balancing a ledger pleases God? What does the outworking of faith look and feel like?

We can take comfort in this: Christ always has been and always will be Lord over all. Colossians 1v15-23 helps us understand this. It reads,

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

One of the greatest advocates of the lordship of Christ over the whole man (as opposed to the view many hold fast to: that Christ has come to only save the soul and equip missionaries and gospel workers, and that God pays no mind to the rest of life) is Dr. Francis Schaeffer who uses art to set the platform for us to enter into good discussion or great debate about Christ’s lordship. He states in his book, Art and the Bible:

“As Evangelical Christians we have tended to relegate art to the very fringe of life… We have misunderstood the very concept of the Lordship of Christ over the whole man and the whole universe and have not taken to us the riches that the Bible gives us for ourselves, for our lives and for our culture. The lordship of Christ over the whole of life means that there is no platonic areas in Christianity, no dichotomy or hierarchy between the body and the soul. God made the body as well as the soul and redemption is for the whole man…God made the whole man…In Christ the whole man is redeemed…Christ is the Lord of the whole man now and the Lord of the whole Christian life and…in the future as Christ comes back, the body will be raised from the dead and the whole man will have a whole redemption. It is within this framework that we are to understand the place of art [and all things*] in the Christian life.” *Interjection mine

The struggle for us women to present all that we are before the Lord is real, especially in an age of multiple choice. Should I be married or stay single to work in the mission field?  Should I study architecture or nursing? Should I home-school or pursue a career as a marketing executive? Whatever the struggle, present it to the Lord who cares not only for you, but about what you do. He is Lord over all. Abraham Kuyper summed this up superbly when he said,

“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”

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