THE VINEYARD

I have days I really thank God I wasn't around in the days of Moses because aaah — I was not going to make it. 🥺🥺 

Because why is God saying we shouldn't wear mixed fabrics? 

Why was God interested in farming logistics and seed regulations? 

 Deuteronomy 22:9

You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled. (Deuteronomy 22:9)

Corruption of the vineyard would only happen when a different seed is introduced and in turn that would defile the fruit.

Because the thing with a seed is it subjects itself to death so that it can birth more than itself.. And that is exactly how a corrupt seed begins to circulate. 

To avoid the corruption, God says let the vineyard stay pure. Sow one kind of seed. No mixture.

Then Jesus comes and says the Word is the seed, He is the Vine Dresser, and my friend, your heart is the vineyard.

The seed of the Word must remain purely in it. Because if you mix the Word with something else, what you birth is a defiled fruit.

It is only the entrance of the Word that produces light.

Now here is the detail that quietly undid me. The vineyard doesn't choose its seed. The owner does. 🤦🏽‍♀️ to tell me that the guarding of my heart with all diligence is not the vineyard defending itself ,it is the owner deciding what gets entry. 

Stay away from being unequally yoked with that which will birth corruption.

Look at the church in Thyatira in Revelation 2:19 ,they are not called corrupt because their deeds were bad ,in fact they are commended for their works, love, service, and endurance .But on the other side, they also tolerated Jezebel , permitted her to teach and lure the servants of God into sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols. 

They kept the Word and also gave jezebel a seat at their table .

That is something quieter and far more dangerous. This is addition. The vineyard still looked active. The fruit was still coming. But a different seed had been planted alongside the right one, and it was circulating.

Compromise is not abandonment. It is addition.

Guarding the heart will then look like preventing philosophies, ideologies,doctrines of demons, the voice of a stranger from making entry because what enters will eventually bear fruit. And you will eat of it.

But here is where grace arrives.

To thyatira He says repent, return the vineyard to the owners original intent.

Tend the garden by removing what I didn't permit .

The Vine Dresser has not left the vineyard,but he wants the right kind of seed in it .

He prunes. He cleanses. Where mixture happened

The Word that once ruled can re-establish its purity. 

Grace is not only for the barren fields. It is for the compromised ones too.

DailyWell — Peace✨

THE RACE

I was maybe 9years old when our teacher told us about Dr. Ben Carson while holding a copy of his book 'Gifted Hands '

The boy from Detroit who was called the dumbest in his class. The boy who endured, who pushed, who became one of the most celebrated neurosurgeons in history. The doctor who separated conjoined twins when the whole medical world said it could not be done.

I remember sitting in that classroom in absolute awe and all I was entrenched in was the beauty of becoming a neurosurgeon to help other conjoined twins in the future😃and give them a chance in life to live separately.😃

Then,as I grew up I kept learning that I cannot stand the sight of blood 🤣wounds or even basic injection, I slowly began realising the medical field is not a 'race I want to run' but there's a race set before me that I must run with endurance.

Hebrews 12:1

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

The writer of Hebrews opens this verse with a therefore meaning everything that follows is built on everything that came before. Chapter 11 has just introduced us to the hall of faith. Men and women who believed God in impossible circumstances and whose lives became testimonies.

Their stories are the 'crowd' of those who've gone ahead and their endurance is the 'witness'

And the invitation is this 'let their lives embolden you to finish yours'.

But here is what I also want you to notice;

The crowd is not running for you your race .

The witnesses watch. They inspire. They testify. But the stripping , that is yours.

 The running , that is yours.

 The endurance , that is yours. Ben Carson's story moved me deeply. It still does. But his race was not my race. No matter how inspiring it was.

The verse mentions weights separately from sin. A weight is not always something wicked. Sometimes ,a weight could simply be the wrong race. An expectation you inherited. A dream that belongs to someone else's life. A lane you stepped into because it looked glamourus from the outside not because God placed you in it.

Running someone else's race will exhaust you,it's weighty.

Not because you are weak. But because you were not built for it.

The grace to endure is only available on the road God set for you. You will not find staying power in a borrowed assignment. You will find pressure, performance anxiety, and burnout and you will wonder why God feels distant when really you are just running in the wrong direction.

The crowd of witnesses is not cheering you toward their finish lines. They are cheering you toward yours.

Ben Carson ran his race with everything he had,and I am here, writing to you — not in an operating theatre🤣 but at this Daily Well .

Friend ,find your race. Strip everything that will weigh you down ,run with Endurance. Stay in your lane, undistracted, focused, unbothered by the glamour of lanes that were never yours.

The race God set for you is for you.. run faithfully.

DailyWell-Peace ✨

Atrophying? Exercise.

Being that we learn daily, a couple of days ago I learned a new word: atrophy.

Atrophy is the wasting away of something through disuse. A muscle that is not exercised weakens. A skill that is not practiced diminishes. Nothing stays static. Growth demands stewardship 

Think about this proverb; Iron sharpens iron and during sharpening three things happen ,

✨Friction is involved.

✨Pressure is involved.

✨Sometimes sparks are involved

Yet the purpose is not damage but improvement.

If a blade is not sharpened it will overtime become dull and rusty .

Hebrews 5:14

"But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

When we break that down ,we see that ;

✨Strong meat — requires ability to 'chew' and that is capacity 

✨Full age — speaks of maturity.

✨By reason of use have their senses exercised to discern — speaks of stewardship.

The transition from milk to meat is not because you have outgrown milk. Rather, milk has accomplished its purpose: it has formed in you what is necessary to support the eating of meat. It has brought you to a place where you now possess the capacity to handle deeper things because you have come of age in the knowledge of Christ.

But maturity is not the destination ,it forms in us a steward.

The writer of Hebrews does not say they discern because they heard, studied, or memorized. He says they discern by reason of use. What they received, they practiced. What they learned, they exercised the more they exercised the more they discerned what was good and what was evil .

And that is where many things either grow or atrophy.

Truth unused becomes truth forgotten. Discernment unused becomes discernment dulled. 

Maturity forms a steward in us and in stewardship it's required that we be found faithful.

The things God gives us are not merely to be possessed; they are to be exercised and the more the we exercise,the more we keep Atrophy at bay

 DailyWell- Peace 

THE WHALE FALL

Ever heard of the whale fall? 

No? 

Here is what it is ;

When a whale dies and sinks to the ocean floor, it becomes what scientists call a whale fall and what unfolds is extraordinary. The carcass sustains entire ecosystems in stages, sometimes over decades.

The whale in death is said to give more life than it ever did in life.It sustains more species in its death for extended period of time .

I was busy loving marine biology guys but Jesus is Lord of all I ended up seeing the Light of His Person through this fishy story of death and life 🤣🤣 anyway it's through Him that all things were made including the whale and the strange math of multiplication through death.

John 12:24:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."

Jesus said a grain of wheat, but I'm here using the whale logic ; that dying is not the end of giving of life, it is the beginning of a different, wider kind of giving of life.

As the only begotten of the Father,He chose to be the Seed that Fell to the ground that he would bring many sons to glory. 

Through His death ,many have been begotten of the father, that though death ordinarily ends a life,His birthed many lives. 

Though death should have brought sorrow,His was one that gave God pleasure because His purpose for man would be fulfilled.

Though His death had brought mockery to Him as 'King of the Jews' His resurrection was evidence of His kingship as Lord of all .

His death was a wonder because it was through it that we have come to the NEWNESS OF LIFE, I am the fruit of His 'fall'.

I am born of God.

Many love the prayer of Jabez but I say consider the prayer in John 17 ,it is solid. His hour to be glorified has come, and the prayer He makes for His disciples is this: "The glory You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one, just as We are one." (John 17:22)

This is where the grain of wheat was always headed. 

Much fruit was not just in numbers , it was about union. He bore fruit after His kind, that we would be brought into the very oneness He shares with the Father.

"He who is joined to the Lord is one — one 🥺 spirit with Him." (1 Corinthians 6:17)

Now you see being told 'life is spiritual' is not a far fetched truth , you are born of the the spirit and that which is born of the spirit is spirit .

You've been raised to life through His life .

DailyWell-Peace ✨

BETTER

I love it when I'm reading Scripture and one word sticks.

Not because I am looking for it but it keeps just popping in other scriptures until I pay attention 😀

Yesterday that word was; better.

 Better doesn't just mean nice or improved, it means what is now present is of greater worth, greater value, greater quality than what was there before. Better assumes something came first. And something else later surpassed it.

Several scriptures popped but these three stayed with me;

✨ It is better to live on the corner of a rooftop than with a quarrelsome wife. — Proverbs 21:9

✨ The end of a matter is better than its beginning. — Ecclesiastes 7:8

✨ Christ has become the guarantor of a better covenant, established on better promises. — Hebrews 7:22

The groom in Proverbs chose the rooftop. That corner of the house that is exposed and uncomfortable. But he stayed. He didn't pack his things and walk out completely he just moved to where the peace was and waited.

His was the kind of love that doesn't leave. The kind that watches from a distance and keeps coming back. Because every time he drew near, something in her softened. Maybe she didn't even notice it. But he did. He kept pursuing because he could already see what peace between them looked like and he wanted that .

That's the groom on the rooftop, patient, persistent, pursuing.

And then; the end of a matter is better than its beginning.

We know what "It is finished" sounds like. We've read it,sang it so many times.

But that moment on the cross was the end of a very long matter. A matter that started in a garden where God walked with man in the cool of the day and then sin entered and the walking stopped.

But God never stopped watching for His beloved .

With every covenant, every prophet, every sacrifice it was all Him staying on the rooftop. Drawing near,waiting for the moment He could say DONE. 

The end was always going to be better. He planned it that way.

Which brings us to the better covenant. Established on better promises.

Not just revised promises. Better ones. The old covenant said you keep yourself right before God. And we couldn't. 

So Christ became the guarantor of the New covenant. 

Which means He didn't just sign off on the promise , He is the promise. He absorbed everything,every contention ,every 'quarrelsomeness' that stood between us and the Father and said, I've got this. She can come in.

And the better promises? Peace in the house again.😀 Now I have Pece with God , I have Communion with the Him. Everything the Groom always wanted His bride to walk in finally coming to a fruitful end..

Here's what I kept seeing across all three;

Better always required staying through discomfort and even pain .

The groom stayed on the rooftop, in pursuit, the preacher in Ecclesiastes stayed through the whole matter until the end proved itself better than he imagined at the start. And Christ He stayed through Gethsemane, through the cross, through the silence until that resurrection morning became the loudest proof that the end of a matter is better than its beginning.

 In Christ we have something better than what Adam lost. We have a covenant that can not be broken because its guarantor cannot fail.

Song of Solomon 2:16

My beloved is mine, and I am His.

✨ In Christ ✨

SERVICE AND SONSHIP

Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Israel is My son, My firstborn.

So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. 

Pharaoh had a will to actually release the people and he severally  denied the people freedom and the people had will to respond to that freedom by serving /worshiping God .

The Freedom from Egypt wasn't the end goal ,it was the doorway to worship .

God didn't just say "let my people go" — he said "let my people go so they can serve me." The exodus was instrumental to something else.

Different versions use the word serve/worship interchangeably ,meaning they carry a similarity .

Paul talks severally of being a servant of Christ , not in the capacity of one who don't belong but from the place of being a son that now it gives him pleasure to serve or submit to the king willfully.

Service must be from the place of liberty and Galatians 5;1 reminds us to stand therefore on that freedom wherewith We've been made free.

Service under Pharaoh was extraction without consent ; labor /service demanded from those who had no say. 

Service to God post-exodus is something else entirely: invitation not coercion; relationship not just relief .

 Same word, "serve" has different standings ,One is bondage. The other is worship.

Paul's writing to the Phillipians says "let this mind be in you that was in Christ " to let is to permit , to allow , to grant access.

The expression of the mind of Christ in man works when you let it .

Christ doesn't force his mind on you, he makes it available, accessible and you permit it to function through you. The sense of allowing access rather than commanding compliance.

God doesn't just liberate people from something , He liberates them into the capacity to choose Him. And that choosing, repeated is service. The freedom isn't the destination; it's what makes the destination beautiful and worthwhile.

Slavery in Egypt couldn't produce worshippers, no matter how loud the cries. Only free sons can offer worship .

Abraham left behind servants and went with the son to worship because with Isaac being free to access anything the father had made it beautiful

interesting to note how Paul teaches on Sonship and then calls himself a bondservant, because sonship and service are not opposites. In the kingdom, sons serve because they love the Father.

Service has the privilege of belonging rather than the burden of being tasked to . 

Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours (Luke 15:31).

The father to his elder son here was implying his presence and possession were at the sons disposal ,but the son was serving to attack. what was already his.

✨

THE JOURNEY || FATHERHOOD

I found a story,a story of a father and son .

One that got me hooked .

So , have a seat .

We know Abraham right , okay who doesn't know the father of faith? 

 The guy has a great name and as scripture says , a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches. 

So Abrams dad ,Terah packs up his family and they leave Ur of Chaldeans headed to Canaan. Canaan was the destination.

During their transit, they get to a city called Haran,instead of going through it , Terah settled his family there . 

You can call this "settling for less " If you like 🤣🤣 because technically the family didn't get to the intended destination. 

Then later God calls Abram to complete the journey ."We are for completing the Journey "wasn't introduced by our former president I say 🤣

Okay ,let's slow down on Terah and take note on a few things ;

✨ He had gone through the loss of a child 

✨He moved into a new locality which was unfamiliar 

✨He gave up on his mission /vision halfway through the journey 

I kept wondering ;

Did Abram ever look back to see that the journey to Canaan was actually began by the dad? 

It seems as if the dad had divine insight when it came to Abrams life and purpose, so he set him on a journey closer to the " promised land ".

Did Abraham ever wonder why the dad stopped halfway? 

Well , We don't know since that's not recorded for our reading but what that shows is that fathers are human .

Sometimes they'll be grieving the loss of one son while having to pave way and position the living son to fulfil purpose.

Sometimes they'll not finish the journey as they navigate through unfamiliar territories with little understanding.

Yes ,we pray the Lord leads them because they are His sons .

Most of us judge our fathers /men too harshly,let's be compassionate.

Sometimes a father will begin the journey and a son will finish it . 

The inheritance he lives behind may not be in property,it maybe wrapped in knowledge, wisdom and network 

Honour the father who got you to Haran.

He may not have delivered the promised land to you but he set you on a good path to get there .

🟢To the father/man in Ur of Chaldeans just making the move ,keep moving 

🟢To the father/man stuck in haran because life happened and things caved in on you , there's light in you and those with you .

🟢To the father/man who's picked up the pieces and and is headed to Canaan , prosper in your land of promise .

🟢To the father/man in Canaan you can testify of God's faithfulness 

Grace.