I’m suffocating in my own space
Trapped in it’s sheer vastness;
I’ve framed with many dreams, walls of a kind,
But they are far too porous with so many doors,
Behind which are just more questions.
So I’m groping to steady myself in the darkness,
And all I am catching is thin air.

I could live-on on the brink of true experience
Imprisoned by my slumber and afraid to snap out
Of this nightmare of spiritual death.
Or I could just ask The One who claims
That He can turn on The Light.

© 2010, Poem by Tee Akindele

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2Co 5:17

Unfortunately for some who have received Christ, they struggle with believing that God has forgiven them, especially if they find it hard to forgive themselves or if some other people wouldn’t forgive them.

Repentance can be even more difficult. Repenting from sin implies turning away from the sinful act with the intention of never doing it again. It’s easier to tell your self , or spouse, or parents, or children, that you’ll never do something again, but with God, it is probably not usually simple to just say: “God I’ll never ever do that again”. I guess that’s because understandably, sin is usually that thing which we don’t love to do anymore and don’t want to do, but may sometimes find ourselves doing anyway.

Sometimes we feel we sin because we do not have time to think or consider our options. Most of the time, we may have impulsively said something rash in anger, back-bit, or told a little lie just before we realise, with disappointment in ourselves, that we have sinned already. With other kinds of sin, like sexual immorality and similar lusts we may try to convince ourselves that we are giving vent to natural feelings or desires, as if the fact that sin comes naturally to us can make it legitimate.

Geniuine repentance is difficult or impossible if we do not reckon on the grace of God. God never gave anyone an injunction never to sin, save that which he has backed up by His grace.

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Php 2:13

It is by the grace of God that we are what we are, or do what we ought to do. Living the Christian life of victory over sin, is our gift in Christ Jesus. We are not struggling to impress God, but rather His grace challenges us to reckon our selves dead to sin and alive unto righteousness. So that when we are tempted or confront sin, we can know that the power we excercise NOT TO SIN, is not in ourselves but in the grace of God in Christ.

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Romans 6:11-14

Sin is beneath the Christian. Christ went through too much to make us holy instruments of His righteousness. Let there be no excuses, every little sin is big enough to spoil our testimony, even if it is one done in our closets. There is no pleasure in sin for the born-again man, only shame and power loss.

Devotional Prayer

Lord, I know that my victory over sin and sinful habits is not by my own making. I am determined to shun the lusts in my heart and to overcome my weaknesses because your grace has given me victory over sin. I pray you continually use me as an instrument of your righteousness and help me to take daily advantage of your grace, so that I can live in victory and my life can be to you a sweet-smelling living sacrifice.

I would never have taken that first step
When he called: “I am the Lord, come out to me”
But then my little boat was against the storm no help
It would eventually have given me up to the depths of the sea.

And so like a man with neither hope nor anything else to loose
“I’m just a poor sinner” was all I could think.
How could I this grand offer then refuse?
I stepped into the water, hardly expecting not to sink.

I couldn’t trust myself but strangely this stranger did
He said “come!”, Come … on the raging sea?
Was He a ghost or really a savior I wondered?
Well, He had power and that I could see.

Where my faith failed His rescue arms supported me
Hallelujah! This is my testimony today;
I’d never again fear the storms of life’s sea
I‘ve known one who is greater, one who they obey:

… He rides the storms and commands the raging billows;
Jesus was a stranger, now He means to me much more
-In Him I have forgotten the fears of tomorrows-
Captain of my ship, my God and everlasting Savior.

© 2003, Tee Akindele

When we were swallowed in sin and swollen in pride
The saviour loved us;
When the gulf between us and him grew ever so wide
His heart reached out to us.

When for our sins He bore the cross
He fully proved His love to us
Yet when we regarded this great sacrifice like it were mere dross
He didn’t stop loving us.

When for a long time He knocked but we never bid Him stay
He didn’t loose his patience on us
And so when we intend to let Him in only half-way
We reproach such love He had for us.

When His power against sin we slacked to execute
This love (not weak) chastened us
For we were inconsistent and acted like hypocrites
Before His gracious love lifted us.

When we had His rod in our hands and yet cried out in fear
Trusting Him this abiding love taught us
‘Times, so blind we couldn’t see the pillar of fire in our front and rear
Jesus never gave up on us.

Assuredly, as many as gave hid to His earnest bidding
His love did more greatly abound
And as many as after the path of truth are longing
He grants His spirit to keep them in stride.

© 2002, Tee Akindele

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Romans 6:23b

Why does Paul refer to salvation as a free gift (Rom 5:15-18)? It is because we don’t have to deserve it or earn it, to receive it. In fact, the cost of salvation was far too dear, for any man to be worthy of it. It is neither the reward of faith nor the wages of righteousness, but, the trophy that Christ won on our behalf, paying the price to remit our sin with his own blood on the cross – because he loved us.

The Apostle further enlightens us:
For God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable [He never withdraws them once they are given, and He does not change His mind about those He gives His grace] Romans 11:29 (Amplified Version).

This gift of God means eternal life for us; it is the expected and intended end for every true believer. As inheritors of such free full salvation and custodians of the grace of God, we must be conscious of His purpose: In saving men, God seeks to deliver men from destruction and to populate the kingdom of righteousness and peace that Christ will establish one day after he would have judged the earth. We have also received the privilege and responsibility to share this vision. And as we honor God’s word above everything in our lives we must remember the mandate ‘freely you have received, freely give’. We must bring liberation from sin and Satan’s oppression, as well as, the glorious hope of eternal life and security with God through the gospel to souls that come our way; We would help our friends who may stray or attempt to wander outside the fold, showing them God’s love and intent.

God has given us all it takes (no good thing will he withhold from them that work uprightly – Psalm 84:11). Now He is counting on us.

Devotional Prayer

Lord, thank you for the free gift of salvation. I thank you because that gift is complete in grace and power to live the Divine life. And I pray that such grace and power will strongly be manifest daily in my life and I would be fruitful. Help me to bring others to this experience through the gospel and to influence many to righteousness by the light that shines in me.
Amen! In Jesus Name.