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You remember one of our songs: Onye Nwe Anyi, anyi n’ario gi zitere anyi amamihe Gi amamihe di anyi nkpa! Prophet Hosea lamented that God’s children are destroyed for lack of wisdom and knowledge of God. We have learnt the importance of facing truth and reality in life. Today we are looking at honesty-Honesty is a facet of moral character that connotes positive and virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, straightforwardness, including straightforwardness of conduct, along with the absence of lying, cheating, theft, cunning, deception, etc. All of these attributes is very much lacking in people especially in Africa which is where an average African is different from the people of Europe and the America including some other developed countries where good morals plays a vital role in their every day conducts as a people. Honesty also involves being trustworthy, loyal, fairness, and sincerity in life on earth. Honesty promotes authenticity. Honesty is a reflection of your own thoughts and feelings. Are we truly honest to ourselves talk less of God? As we continue exploring why, in order to experience good emotional, mental and spiritual health, we need not be afraid to face negative emotions that may, from time to time arise within us. This is the first step in the process of mourning. During a counselling session with a woman who I felt was repressing or trying to forcefully put down and subdue her emotions, I made mention of the second beatitude: ‘’4Blessed and enviably happy [with a [a] happiness produced by the experience of God’s favour and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!’’ as seen in Matthew 5:4. On hearing me mention this Bible passage She reacted by saying; ‘I have always had great problems with that beatitude because I never feel sorrow or grief, or any of those negative emotions you talk about in the beatitude. I am happy all the time. I don’t feel the need to mourn over anything.’ As we talked, it became clear to me that this woman certainly did have negative emotions, but was unwilling to acknowledge them. Her marriage was a troubled one which by reality ought to be giving her great concern, yet when I asked her how she felt about the fact that her husband paid her no attention she replied: ‘The Lord wants me to love my husband, doesn’t He?’ Notice what happened: I asked for a feeling response and what I got was a rational response. Rational response concerns using reason or logic in thinking out problems based on rules and processes, the capacity to be agreeable to reason. On the other hand feeling response concerns emotion, affection, sentiment, passion or love to a person, thing or situation. Do you now understand that there are people who want to have a reason why they will do a thing and there are people irrespective of whether they are at fault or not, will go miles out of love, passion, emotion, affection or out of a deep seated concern for the one they love and cherish to plead for peace to reign! The fact is that today people no longer actually love or cherish people! Are you such a person who love and cherish or you are one that will not move for reconciliation unless there is a reason for you to do so? You can now see why the woman does not mourn, because she feels there is no reason for her to do so and as such she fools herself with a happiness that is not real, a pretended happiness whereas in reality she is dying and crying inside! After several weeks of intense counselling, this lady realized that she was avoiding facing reality. The problem wasn’t so much that she couldn’t admit to her emotions but that she did not want to do so may be out pride or right. Many of us are like that! She was afraid to feel any negative emotions, such as grief, sorrow, sadness or regret, or mourn and her claim to always being happy was unauthentic, not real. It was a happiness achieved by means of denial, which is not the kind of happiness Lord Jesus wants us to have. However, it was a good moment both for her and for me when she came out from behind her defensiveness or right claiming and was then able to rise to a new level of honesty in her life.

A quotation I have used many times in my writings over the years is that of Oswald Chambers, who said, ‘Life is more tragic than orderly.’ When we look at life with a realistic gaze we see grim and depressing things happening around us. There are, of course, many good things that happen to people, too, but we cannot turn our eyes from the bad things that occur and deny reality. We don’t, however, have to become preoccupied with the sad things by constantly thinking about them, but it’s important to accept that they happen and we are required by wisdom to draw all the lessons we ought to from them in other to guide our future activities so that we don’t repeat past mistakes. David in Psalm 23 portrays a fully-rounded person who through wisdom knows that the Shepherd will guide him or her through the highs and lows of life. As a fully-rounded person, do you know that your Shepherd will guide you through life’s highs and low? One good principle of emotional, mental and spiritual health is this: integrity requires that whatever is true must be faced. And here’s another; a balanced view of life is essential if we are to live effectively. If we believe that in order for us to experience a life that is good we must avoid negative feelings, eventually we will not be able to feel positive emotions either to their fullest extent –joy, pleasure, satisfaction, and so on. We will become emotionally anaesthetised: we will learn to limit ourselves to a small range of emotions with few high spots in exchange for the guarantee that there will not be many low spots either. No doubt you know people who fall into this category. They have mastered the art of detachment and live on a monotonous flat plane. Little affects them emotionally. Such people live lives of tedium and boredom. In the words of an old song: It’s the heart that’s afraid of breaking That never learns to dance We don’t achieve anything by living a detached life rather we try to learn how to carry along amid all circumstances! This is why we must submit to the Holy Spirit as our Shepherd because He is the only entity that can help us be able to carry along amid all circumstances.

Can you hear that, that the Word of God says if we should try and live our lives in accordance with the will, plan and purpose of God being a partner in all our labour it is assured or in other words we have God’s assurance that all we do in life will fit perfectly into God’s aim and plan for our creation (why He brought us into life on earth through our mother’s womb) without failure or distortion to the extent that the Lord God’s aims in our life will always be fulfilled in such a way that people will see God’s glorious manifestations of all His promises in our life and they will be forced to call us blessed in the Lord God. At first glance, the second beatitude, “4Blessed and enviably happy [with a [a]happiness produced by the experience of God’s favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!” as seen in Matthew 5:4, seems somewhat strange and difficult to understand because people have not known how this principle plays out which is why they ask such question like: How can someone who mourns be contended and blessed? For us to understand this word of God in Matthew verse four even though it is happening to us everyday yet we have not comprehended its import; first you have to critically study the verse by picking out such vital phrases like ‘...happiness produced by the experience of God’s favour called His matchless grace’ which He manifests or brings to people whom He loves and wants to show His mercy ‘...especially or specially conditioned grace by revelation or in other words God’s timely intervention or involvement to save His people with an act called His matchless grace, that enabling of His Holy Spirit to intervene or get involved on behalf of the mourner to save (remember that God’s matchless saving grace is always manifesting in diverse form) His Child and thus display His comfort to them who mourn’. Is the Lord God not showing us His matchless grace every day? Think of all the things that you got involved in which would have ruined or destroyed you and take good notice of how the Lord God saved you through all of them, can you or have you forgotten a lot of them simply because you feel some of them are too disgraceful and dehumanizing to be retained or remembered in your mind? This is why we sing the song, count your blessings name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done! Blessings in this regard that we ought to count are not limited to only the good exciting and gladding blessings; it also includes those heinous ones we do not want to remember because they are too embarrassing. Let’s reflect on this together: Most commentators say that what Lord Jesus is alluding to here is the need to mourn over our sin or our erroneous actions, to face up to its pain and consequences, and then to find comfort in Lord Jesus grace, that His merciful intervention or involvements on our behalf in other to bring comfort and encouragement to us to still live on without losing faith in life. But I wonder, did Lord Jesus have something else in mind as well as this? I am thinking of the need to face, feel and process the pain and agony that arises within us when we meet with difficult and distressing circumstances. Mourning is the process of grieving and grieving involves coming to terms with loss and all its attendant emotional heart aches. Our unwillingness to face the pain that comes from our losses and the hurts and injuries that occur in our heart in lives, and mourn because of them, is a major cause of our psychological problematic breakdown called mourning. In life Reality must be faced. A psychiatrist once said: ‘People can’t take in too much reality so they run down the convenient road of denial. And that road that always leads an individual away from life reality because he or she does not want or have the courage and ability to face reality is a crowded highway. As a psychiatrist, I should know because that road is where I have to travel to find most of my patients.’ Do you hear that, does it describe to an extent how you try to throw away or shout down anybody who is telling you the raw truth called reality? Yes once again Reality must be faced because any individual who is not sincerely ready to face reality does not have any chance to receive the much needed divine truth, wisdom and knowledge of the Lord Jesus gospel of good tidings to the meek; the poor and afflicted; and as a broken-hearted person or a captive you cannot receive the Lord’s proclaimed liberty and the opening of the prison and of your eyes and as such your year of His favour or grace and the day of vengeance of the Lord our God unto all your enemies who have been making you to mourn and holding you in bondage cannot be proclaimed or made known to you because you cannot face reality, you cannot receive truth and thus you will remain uncomforted in your mourning state or condition because you have not allowed nor received the functions and duties for which God sent Lord Jesus Christ came to your earth as given by Isaiah 61! Life and life actions and decisions can be very difficult. For instance an unfaithful spouse lets you down, a son or daughter is suspected of being on drugs, somebody disappoints you and let down your trust...all these things, and many others, affect our emotions. Being willing and ready to accept that life is difficult will save us from unrealistic expectations which can trigger anxiety and depression in us. Then, when troubles come, we are not surprised, but face it realistically in the confidence that no matter what happens to us, God can graciously turn it all around to good in other to comfort us. That comfort or gracious intervention of God (God’s unmerited favour called grace) can come to us in diverse ways not necessarily the way we want and expect, God brings it in the way He sees fit! It is our responsibility to accept it as God gives it and be sincerely happy in it with praises to His Holy Name!

Can you see here what makes up a person’s character whereby it is said by their fruits we shall know them! Your mission on earth, what the Lord God created you to accomplish for humanity on earth spells out your character and the time His Majesty Lord Jesus Christ is manifesting the year of His favour unto His people is on the other hand the same year He is rendering the day of vengeance of our God to those who deserves it and to comfort all who mourn. For instance if you take the case of Ndi Igbo and their brethren who committed atrocity in their act of selling their brethren into slavery and received their recompense in the consequences of the Biafra civil war which raged and now they are in bondage which started since the end of the civil war and are currently being besieged by their enemies including saboteur children who oppress and deprive them of their dues in a country that flows with milk and honey; as their time of visitation approaches the Lord sends them a person who acts a saviour and a deliverer to them when the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God clocks to comfort all who have been in mourning. This is how the principle runs and operates! As we have been reflecting on what I have always described as the psychology of Lord Jesus, and the attitudes which make it possible for the soul to thrive, to grow strong and vigorous, to do well, to prosper, we come to the second of Lord Jesus’ sayings in the beatitude which says: “4Blessed and enviably happy [with a [a]happiness produced by the experience of God’s favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!” as seen in Matthew 5:4 which is exactly the same with what prophet Isaiah hinted and said that the Messiah Lord Jesus will do when He comes and now that He has come, He Himself expanciated by teaching the people, those who will hear how according to Isaiah He comforts all who mourn by telling them that mourners happiness are produced by their experience of God’s favours that comes to them through God’s matchless grace which He uses to save them from all their sin caused troubles and challenges of life by His being merciful unto them and telling them that this gracious blessed and merciful intervention to save will always make those around who witness His gracious intervention to envy them. Before we look at this in detail, it is important to note two things: first that there is a very definite order in these sayings of our Lord Jesus, and second, that we should not see these beatitude utterances of the Lord Jesus as a code of ethics, but understand that these qualities as spelt out by the Lord Jesus in the beatitudes are found in those who have a personal relationship with Christ. When you have a strong holy and righteous personal relationship with Christ, any time you are confronted by trials, temptations, life threatening troubles and challenges of complex and diverse type and kind; Lord Jesus by His Christ intervenes to save you by making ways of escape for you being merciful. This is why you must make sure that you always feed the Christ content in your soul with the food of the spirit so that it will keep growing and waxing strong. Always know that Worldliness and Sinfulness poisons your Christ content and either pacify, dwarf or kill it, so be at alert always and conduct the way you live your life carefully which is why the Lord Jesus gave us His teachings in the beatitude for our guide. Lord Jesus does not present these Beatitudes in a random manner: every one of those beatitudes of the Lord Jesus, I believe was carefully and prayerfully thought through and given a precise place in the spiritual sequence of the growth of every true child of God. Once we are able to see that entrance into the kingdom of God it is through the acknowledgment of our spiritual poverty and that the acceptance of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ is by His merciful graciousness then we are ready to go on and consider the next beatitude. Again, let me stress here that the Beatitudes are not a set of regulations that must be followed in order to become a Christian –the New Testament equivalent of the Ten Commandments, No! The simple truth is that for us to try to produce these qualities of life that the Lord’s Beatitudes recommends in our lives through our own efforts is no easier than trying to live up to the Ten Commandments in our unaided strength. Just like the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes cannot be lived and practiced by any individual if Christ doesn’t help or assist you. Dr Martyr Lloyd-Jones put it well when he said: ‘We are not told, live like this and you will become a Christian, but rather, become a Christian and you will live like this.’ First we learn to know the Person of Lord Jesus Christ. Then, as we know Lord Jesus deeply and intimately, we will find these beatitude qualities appearing in our lives as naturally as a flower open up to the sun. All it requires is sincerity, honesty in your belief.

We have now come to the realization that part of the problem why we cannot receive and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is our inability to reach out unto Christ with sincere and true faith believing that He is truly our Saviour, God coming Himself unto us to save us. We are exploring how the very first beatitude spoken of by Lord Jesus saying– ‘Blessed (happy, [a]to be envied, and [b]spiritually prosperous—[c]with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the poor in spirit (the humble, who rate themselves insignificant), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!’ as seen in Matthew 5:3 –does not refer to material poverty as most people thought but refers to in reality to spiritual poverty. What we need is a willingness to face and recognise our spiritual bankruptcy, our being bereft spiritually and ask for help from the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit Who alone is given the divine authority to fill us with the Holy Spirit of God or in other words Who alone can awaken Christ in our worldly rendered passivity and dwarfed personal spirit. In today’s passage, as Lord Jesus Christ went along the road on one occasion, a crowd jostled and milled around Him and then a woman with a serious physical issue of blood condition came timidly through the crowd and touched His cloak or dress. Instantly she was healed. Lord Jesus aware that power had gone from Him, turned and said to the crowd, “Who is it who touched Me?” as seen in Luke 8:45. The disciples were incredulous amused that He asked this. They saw the crowd milling around Him and pressing on Him from all sides, and they just could not understand His reason for saying, “Who is it who touched Me?” But Lord Jesus having the fullness of the measure of Christ in Him knew the difference between someone pressing close to Him in a crowd and someone who touched Him in order to be made well, healed and whole. There is a great difference between jostling and touching Him. Jostling means to push, elbow to elbow push, or bump against (someone) roughly, typically in a crowd. Every week thousands go in and out of our churches, join in activities, sing the hymns and choruses, listen to the sermon; in reality they jostle and mill around Lord Jesus but they are never making any genuine reach out to touch Him. I wonder, am I speaking now to someone who is just jostling like this? Do you go to church regularly, mingle with the worshippers and, to a certain degree, enjoy the atmosphere of spirituality and worship just jostling–but never touching Lord Jesus? This is so with us today where many people go to Church jostling without touching the Lord Jesus, so from now onwards don’t just keep jostling; try to reach out and touch Lord Jesus Christ. Touch Lord Jesus for forgiveness, touch Him for inner cleansing, touch Him for power over temptation, touch Him for victory over fears and everything that stands in the way of your being blessed by God. Cease milling and jostling around in Church and reach out and touch Lord Jesus–today. From this teaching here we realize that the reason why we are not receiving our needs and desires with regard to our numerous problems solved by the Lord Jesus is because we are not sincerely and truthfully reaching out to touch the Lord Jesus Christ with all our heart. So find out what your distractions, hindrances and obstacles are and beg, asking the Lord Jesus to help you remove them so that you can be able to touch the Lord Jesus and receive whatever you want or desire from Him!