I want to talk (about) shit. I do not mean fecal matter but matters of cussing. I have two points that I hope to make;

1)      Cultural/contextual  cussing

2)      The vulgarities of cussing

If I was to summarise, I would say, the first one talks of when cussing is okay and the second when it is wrong. I will give my reflection using meditated scriptures

I used to cuss a lot. If you can imagine a thirteen year old boy calling his friends motherf*** then you can get the idea. I never knew it was wrong to cuss. I thought it was a language that my peers and I used. Granted much of my vulgarities I had picked from watching movies like Juice, poetic justice, Friday and a host of other low budget movies with this kind of story line. The music I listened to didn’t help either. I listened to N.W.A when I was around ten years old. Couple this with the whole death row records artists who you might remember if you grew up in the nineties.

The first time I heard that the bible forbids foul jokes and cussing was in High School. I never knew it was a sin and in my heart I felt convicted to stop. I did not struggle to stop. In fact this was one of my markers that I knew I was saved. For a whole week I did not cuss!

Before then, I had always believed the vulgarities I spoke were the language of my generation. Today I listen to teens talk and I don’t get some of the words they use.

I have heard a couple of preachers cuss. It was very shocking after all the sermons I had heard about cussing. I have cussed. As a Christian, I have watched standup comedy where the comedian said a lot of cuss words. I have been involved in various conversations about cussing.

A majority of Christians would not have room in their theology to imagine that cussing would be okay in some contexts.

Here is something I believe, God is not a blonde. He is all knowing. He knows all our possible words even before we speak the actual words that we choose to speak from the infinite possible ones he knows. To me, God understands!

Cultural/contextual cussing

Cultures vary depending on what contexts you are in. There is language that makes sense when you are online or writing or speaking. The same word can have a different meaning when used in a different context.

For example, when Michael Jackson says he is bad he means is really good. When you call an artist a wicked keyboardist, it means he is really good. You are actually praising someone when you call them wicked or bad in this context. The same words “bad” and “wicked” have different meanings which are not praiseworthy.

In Swahili we get as many examples from our sheng language. You can say Mwalimu King’ang’I ni fala sana .A word translation will mean “that guy is very stupid” a meaning translation would mean “that guy is a joker-with a tingle of positivity.” Am sure you could think of others. Words used from greetings to casual conversation words to formal corporate lingo. Words which when used out of context can get you in jail.

With this understanding we then get that Jesus was not being disrespectful when he called his mother “Woman” or Herod “a fox” or the Pharisees “unmarked graves”. Neither was Paul being vulgar when he compared his righteousness to shit. He actually used a cuss word of their time. Taken out of context of course he was cussing. We also understand that Ezekiel was not being vulgar when he said that the women of his day and a time to come would just/just wanted men with dicks that were the size of donkeys, neither was Isaiah being vulgar when he compared our righteous acts before God as used tampons.

Cuss words when used in context are okay

The vulgarities of cussing

If you are a hater and all you think about are impure thoughts, things that dishonor women or guys, and generally things that are not good or disrespectful, naturally you will talk a lot of vulgarities. If you continually feed yourself with music, movies, entertainment or conversations that are vulgar your mind will be full of these things and you will talk them out often.

I think it is great not to cheat yourself, if you have friends who cuss a lot, you will start cussing especially when you are not with them. It doesn’t matter how much a moral person you consider yourself to be. But God does not want us to be vulgar or share foul jokes. He wants us to live in communities that are pure.

Cuss words spoken from an impure heart are wrong.

There are several things I have not talked about but this is an ongoing conversation not final. Things like minced oaths (e.g. when you say crap instead of shit, or heck instead of hell…) which I can just repeat, God is not a blonde. Maybe I should now add, God is not a blonde, neither should we be. To me, therefore, a minced oath is just being religious although it is good to sometimes use minced oaths when in certain audiences.

So Juanita Bynum can use a minced oath for her book cover instead of calling a spade a spade

“You are the one who is always acting like I am dumb not knowing what you do when you are with…”

“You are the one full of emotional clutter. Always, on an emotional rollercoaster…like the way you are overreacting now…”

“Remember that day I said I had gone to…well, I actually went to…but because I knew you will react like this I never told you”

Drama!

I am just trying to imagine the conversation. My pal is in shaggz at this writing. He left his chick in his house. As I write this, his chick is in bed with my neighbor. I will refrain from the graphic details. Neither will I talk about the conversation they had outside my window. There is a blackout now as I write this drama. My laptop cursor like you is blinking for me to give details. I will not.

This passage of scripture speaks volumes to me.

 Once while I was at the window of my house, I looked out through the shutters and saw some foolish, young men. I noticed one of them had no wisdom. He was walking down the street near the corner on the road leading to her house. It was the twilight of the evening; the darkness of the night was just beginning. Then the woman approached him, dressed like a hooker and planning to trick him. She was loud and stubborn and never stayed home…she said “…I have been looking for you and have found you…let’s enjoy each other’s love. My husband is not home; he has gone on a long trip…”(proverbs7:6-23)

The ending of the guy in the story of the book of proverbs is not interesting. The writer gives us advice to get wisdom.

I wrote this note at the beginning of this year when the drama was happening. My pal is also my neighbour and was cheated on by our other neighbor. I didn’t update this blog post for I got to wonder if I would be gossiping in the name of the Lord!

I know a couple for websites that have specialized in gossip. They operate under the idea that posting as an anonymous person justifies them having idle talk. There are also some intercessors who “pray for you” after you share your need with them while in actual sense they are just gossiping about you with their friends. Gossip is simply put idle talk. There is a verse in the bible that says we shall be held accountable for every idle word we ever spoke. Am presently meditating on the following verses to get a grip on what gossip is all about especially with regard to virtual/online conversations. perhaps we can think on them as we examine how if we gossip online

Leviticus19:16

You must not spread false stories against other people, and you must not do anything that would put your neighbor’s life in danger. I am the Lord.

Proverbs16:28

A useless person causes trouble, and a gossip ruins friendships.

When a new believer joins some Christian communities he/she is bombarded by words that sound good even though the one speaking them may not understand what they mean. By the way, it is usually not long before you learn how to speak Christianese.

I want to us to explore words commonly used in Christianese. I couldn’t think of anything richer than exploring the words used in reference to the order of salvation.

The predominant order of salvation in Christian-entities (Christianity) is a linear conversion based on the following order;

Election-Gospel Call-Regeneration-Conversion-Justification-Adoption-Santification-Perserverance-Death-Glorification

Am sure you have heard one of these words if you have been in a circle that speaks Christianese. Granted theology has a poverty of words. These words therefore have unique meanings when applied in reference to the knowledge of God. Their interpretation will result to different views of the grace and majesty of God and role of man in the mission of God to save humanity.

I’ll briefly attempt to expose each word then summarize with a diagrammatic representation of what I consider a proper picture of the order of salvation away from the linear model.

1)      The doctrine of election

That is, in Christ, he chose us before the world was made so that we would be his holy people-people without blame before him Ephesians1:4 NCV

The predominant interpretations of this scripture is

1)      God has made a sovereign choice in eternity past to save certain individuals to be called Christians for himself

2)      The blessings pertaining to heaven talked about is bestowed upon Christians in accordance with an eternal purpose

An exposition of the words in the verses reveals;

In Christ

The gospel is Jesus Christ is Lord not “you can be saved and this is how”. If we therefore consider Christ is Lord, then we are chosen by him. We are chosen in him and not for him. As in, the verse does not begin by saying, “for Christ”, but rather it says” in Christ”. This is coz it is the goodness of God that he chose us. William Burkitt says it best, “the death of Christ was the fruit and effect, but not the cause of our election”. This brief reflection therefore shifts the Christian world view from an exclusive-certain individuals have “it” and others will not because God has used his sovereignty to choose “them”-entity to an inclusive-everyone can have “it” entity if they choose to because God has used his sovereignty to choose so.

He chose

God would have refused to choose even with his foreknowledge of how the world would turn out before he created it because he has freewill and is sovereign. He however chose to favour us (every human being) that with all the infinite possibilities of how peoples’ life would turn out, they can willingly join his will of turning the world to a better place of how he intended it to be.

Us

Paul was a Jew who became a Christian. He wrote this letter to Ephesians (Gentiles) who had become Christians. This “us” therefore refers to both jews and gentiles communities. It does not mean that God has chosen some individuals and rejected others, but rather God chose to have covenant with people not confined to one “tribe”. Some theologians interpret it to mean the “us” refers to gentiles as the jews had previously referred themselves as the chosen people of God. A better exposition to include both is to differentiate the “chosen people” Jews from “the Israel of God” (Gal6:16, Rom4:11-12) as some have rightly done.

Before the world was made

This phrase refers to the eternity of Christ.

Summary

Election from a thesaurus refers to choice, determination , appointment, selection, voting…All through the bible we see God choosing people for an office eg Abraham, selecting a nation eg Israel to be his own and even individuals such a s Peter and John, you and I.

What if we used the word voting when referring to election?

A believer is therefore an eligible voter for he has met the conditions God has set.

A non-believer is an un-eligible voter.

This makes me understand the doctrine of election in a whole new way.

1)      God has selected some to go to heaven and others to hell because of his sovereignty

2)      God has a plan that was established before the world began. What God does is not an after thought

3)       God has no new plan for the plan He established is eternal. God is not changing. What he actually does, he always meant to do

I believe these intrepretations were springs which served the church at a time and they worked even if not well. Interestingly, the first audience in 66AD did not have the interpretations above. They believed none of us is born children of God. We are made into children of God, hence we (the entire human race) are predestined to be children of God. The first time in church history we read about predestination/determinism in a different light is in 300AD by Augustine. John Calvin then took this thought to its extreme end in the 1500sAD by giving some of the interpretations above. Various responses have been made to these teaching of determinism. Here is a delta theism response;

A story

Assume I owned a bus and I organized a retreat for my friends two months in advance. The retreat starts when you get in the bus, the journey and at the destination. Let’s say some of my friends come, and others don’t, and some of my friends’ friends crashed for the retreat. What sought of conversations would be going on among my friends with regard to my retreat plan?

Some might say that I predetermined they should be in the bus, while others will say they chose to be in the bus because they are my friends. Is it proper to say I predetermined that some will miss the retreat or is it that some chose to miss the retreat? Am I in control of everything in the retreat?

That is, in Christ, he chose us before the world was made so that we would be his holy people without blame before him. Because of his love, God had already decided to make us his own children through Jesus Christ. that was what he wanted and what pleased him ephesians1:4-5 NCV

A brief exposition on Ephesians1:4-5 if we were to break it down we see the following phrases and words for interpretation;

1)      In Christ

Who is Christ? Why Christ? How did Christ do it?

Christ means anointed king or Lord. Lord means owner. In our culture we would understand Lord easier than a King. If you have a landlord, it means he owns the space you live in. If your land lord is good, he will give you the terms of living in that space and let you self determine your life. The landlord is sovereign over you in the space you are living in. He cannot just kick you out any time if he is a good landlord for he respects the terms he lay out when he gave you the space. If your landlord is bad, then sovereignty is synonymous to meticulous control of your life when you live in his space. He can kick you out any time; he always gets what he wants. You have no freedom to do whatever you want when in his space. All you have to do is just do what he wants for the land lord always gets what the land lord wants.

In this passage of scripture, it is important to observe that the whole of this declaration is happening in Christ and not outside this. To mean that Christ is Lord over the declaration

2)      He chose

Does God continue to make choices or his choices are frozen in the beginning of time? How does God make choices? When does God make choices?

God made a choice. Our ability to make choices is because we are made in the image of God. God could have refused to choose but he did. Seeing the passage talks of letting people into a good thing we understand that God is good and loving. He can be nothing but good and loving. It is his very nature.

3)      Us

Who are these us?

This is where most questions about the passages arise. Is the us certain individuals or communities-a group of individuals. If individuals is it;

1)      The apostle Paul and his missionary companions as we see in his other letters like 1thes1:6?

2)      The entire human race?

If communities is it

1)      The gentiles who have become Christians at Ephesus?

We live in an individualistic culture that the idea of communities doesn’t make sense much. Even in Kenya where our parents grew up in a culture where children are for the community (extended family) is no longer a reality as people are pushing more toward nuclear families. There is a lot of bombardment in the media for individuals to just be themselves, share publicly what is on their mind…all these makes it hard for people to see these verses as communities; it is easier to see it as certain individuals. In Kenya the media has made the word community to be synonymous with ethnic tribe. If we are able to see this log in our eyes, then the toothpick truth in the passage to who “us” is becomes clear.

4)      Before the world was made

This phrase appears a couple of other times in the bible. It was used twice by Jesus to talk of his eternity attribute in John17:5,24. In context seeing the whole of the declaration rests on the lordship of Christ it is logical to infer that this phrase means Jesus Christ is eternal. It does not in any way mean individuals are eternal. They can only experience eternity through Christ.

5)      His holy people

We see a community of people with the mark of holiness in their life

6)      Because of his love

This is the reason God is doing all the declarations being made in the passage. God can be nothing but loving. Love is his very nature.

7)      Already decided

What is binding this decision that it is foreknown?

In context this foreknowledge is about the revelation of Christ to save the world in due time. It is the same phrase that occurs in 1Peter1:20

8)      Through Jesus Christ

What is this that works through Christ?

The agreement that God is going to have with people in these last times is through Christ and no other.

9)      What he wanted

God has wants? God has desires?

A relationship between man and God based on love; it is out of benevolence not coercion or compulsion that God desired. God does not co-opt our choices so that God gets what God wants because God is love

10)   What pleased him

What pleases God?

I read this note by William Burkit. You can wrap your mind around it, “The attribute mentioned here by the apostle, which moved God to predestinate us to the adoption of children was the glory of his grace, he mentions not the glory of his holiness, or the glory of his justice or the glory of his power, because the glory of his power is manifested in making the world, the glory of his holiness in making the law, the glory of his justice in turning the transgressors of that law into hell, but his grace he shows no where so much as in the predestination of his children, the fruit is being children”

He then adds “God did not love us from eternity because Christ was to die for us in time, because he loved us with an everlasting love, therefore in the fullness of time Christ died for us”

Some of the questions I raised eg God making choices are best answered with other portions of scripture but this blog post is about ephesians1:4-5. I hope this brief exposition calms down some arguments about determinism being present from this portion of scripture.

May you fill your everyday business with that which will profit your health, wallet, and friends, church, the government…activities that will further your education, family life and generally stuff that you will be proud of to read as a newspaper headline after doing them!

Like you I have set my new year’s goals. They are small and simple. They are actually personal habits which when I get a hang on them, I will set some grand goals for the year.

If you have set a goal to read through the bible this year I am excited for you. If you haven’t, this is a great resolution to make. Perhaps you once made this resolve, tried and failed. You are therefore probably skeptical with such talk. Or you just don’t want to read the bible.

I want to share with you how you can read through the bible in one year and read the new testament (NT) twice doing so by December.

Here is a key. If you have made this resolution, read the bible like a story book.

I was told at one time not to read the bible like a story book. You probably have been told the same thing. As a result, you probably ended up reading the some sections of the bible eg the book of Revelation like reading a horoscope. You read some books like proverbs by cramming them as if you were memorizing for exams. You have probably never read books like Zephaniah or Nahum for you don’t know which technique to use. Cramming is not cool, and horoscope reading doesn’t help.

This year, read the bible like a story book. The bible is a story of God’s love for people. Let’s remind ourselves how the bible is arranged.

Books of the law

The first five books from Genesis…to Deuteronomy contain the story of creation and the many laws the Jews were to keep. They explain why the people were to be holy and pure. Remember ODM and “the pentagon”? Well the books are sometimes called the Pentateuch because they are five books. I know, not earth shattering info *slumps in seat*!

Books of History

The next twelve books from Joshua…to Esther tell the history stories of God’s people. If you are an epics fun, you will love these books. They are full of swords, scandals and rays of hope. They have tales like of how one man killed a whole army! Makes Troy look like a joke! But even if you are not a sucker for epics like me, but you feel chivalry or just want to know what it’s like when people obeyed God and when others don’t, they promise to be a great read.

Books of poetry

These are five books after the books of history. They are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.  If you are an artist or melancholic in personality, these scriptures you will love. If you want to know words to use to express your praise and honor for God, these are the books to ruminate on. That’s what the Jews used them for; party songs

Books of prophecy

In most government offices in Kenya there are people called messengers. I don’t know their relevance in our generation of IM, twitter, facebook, text…but I understand they provide employment for some families which we celebrate. God’s special messengers are called Prophets. The last seventeen books of the Old Testament from Isaiah…to Malachi are books of prophecy. Some books are really long, while others are short. If you are into the back story, investigative journalism, detective stuff, mysteries…you will not put down these books. Even if you don’t like the stuff, reading the books and comparing with historical accounts of the fulfillment of the messages, is really cool.

The gospels

In Kenya, many artists brand their songs gospel *shaking my head*- story for another day. The first four books of the NT are called the gospels. They are narratives of the life of Jesus told from four different perspectives. When you read them, you will understand the meaning of the word gospel, which is “too good to be true news, but its true”

History of the church

Acts is the fifth book of NT. It gives the history of how churches began to be planted. These accounts will fuel your passion for the church for your story to be Acts29

The letters

The next 21 books of the NT from Romans…to Jude are letters. They were written to guys who were confused to what it means to live as a Christian and were generally passed from one church to another. These letters are very important yardsticks especially in Kenya where people call themselves Christians but live contrary to the epistles (that’s the jisty word for them).

Revelation

This is the last book of the bible. It is a book of hope. Spoiler alert, when you are to read it, you will see the book tells Christians they will share in the victory with Jesus in life.

So read it like a storybook. You will find it really refreshing. You will be amazed that you know things you would have struggled to remember before. I want to share with you a method how you can start reading the bible as a narrative.

Bookmarks

Get 8 bookmarks. Put one book mark at the beginning of each eight book categories listed above eg. One bookmark at the beginning of the book of Genesis, the next one at the beginning of the book of Joshua, the next one at the beginning of the book of Job…up to the beginning of the book of Revelation

Commit to read three chapters a day of the bible.

Start with the first three chapters of Genesis then move your bookmark after these three chapters. The following day, read the first three chapters from the book of Joshua and move your Joshua bookmark to where you’ve reached. The day after this, read the first three chapters of Isaiah and move your bookmark here, do this until you get to Revelation.

After reading the first three chapters of Revelation, the next day, go ahead and read Genesis chapters four to six where your bookmark was and put it where you’ve reached. I think you get the idea.

Give yourself one day off. Don’t read the bible every day. I recommend you skip Sunday but maintain the three chapters a day pattern. With this reading plan, you will read through the entire bible and the NT twice this year.

Go ahead. Get yourself eight bookmarks each @ ksh15 and fill your 2012 clean bill with good stuff.

We need to answer the question, “how am I differently wired from others?” Understanding difference will help you discover your purpose in life e.g. you have a safaricom line and not airtel for reason of difference. You buy pizza at Pizza inn and not Highlands inn for reason of difference. Knowing the difference you have in your life will make you valuable to others for you will be able to solve their problems.

I will not put my difference here. In fact, I want to review what was common in Kenya in 2011. I’ll pick three things; music, movies and trends.

Musically speaking

The three biggest tunes in Kenya in 2011 were;

1)      Sawale

This song was a bit hit in Kenya. I don’t know the name of the artist who did it. I’ll sleep better at night if don’t attach a face to the song. I hear the meaning of the song is vulgar and the song is actually banned in some countries. There are several reasons why I don’t like it including but not limited to me not understanding what he is singing about and I generally don’t like Nigerian music and movies. But chiefly, there is a shop attendant who played this song every day, yes, every day, since the time it became a hit. He routinely used to do this early in the morning when he was opening shop at 6:30am. For you to get the picture, imagine an Ukwala supermarket promotion at 6:30am. On one occasion I actually told him I’ll call NEMA on him.

Why did most Kenyans like sawale?

I suppose the admiration of Nigerian culture is a growing trend in Kenya. It is considered comical to talk like a Nigerian in Kenya. Since no tribe in Kenya has a Nigerian accent, all Kenyans can get away with this. I believe the sawale song complemented this fun trend. I will not be objective if asked whether the music was good or not. But you will agree it was a really bad song!

2)      Kigeugeu

Yesterday I watched Jaguar’s interview on TV. This was the first time I got to hear his life story. It got my attention how he kept referring to God. He said he believed God must be rewarding him for all the days he hustled. He added that God will never leave you. His advice to the youth was that they should keep way from drugs and alcohol and if you didn’t know, he doesn’t drink or do drugs. This talk sounded much like discussions I have with my Christian friends. Which really emphasizes that the gospel is not “you can be saved and this is how” but rather “Jesus Christ is Lord” (Rom1:1-3).

Jaguar said one more important thing. He said he didn’t expect Kigeugeu to be a hit. I was not surprised by this. How can that song be a hit? I thought the melody was really wanting and the beats would have suited an auto-tune piece by Danko. But the song was a big hit in 2011.

Why did most Kenyans feel kigeugeu?

I imagine Kenyans have great disappointments in their lives. Many guys have aspirations but feel trapped in a web of poverty. Nearly all my friends have a tale about how they were let down in their relationships, or even by Christians. I remember one of my friends mum was involved in an accident along thika road. When they rushed her to hospital x the nurses refused to even give her first aid until they had paid ksh10, 000 which he did not have. He was so frustrated.

Jaguar’s kigeugeu song does not give a prescription of what to do. It’s a simple lament. I would call it a dirge for the living and that’s why Kenyans loved it.

3)      Furifuri

People should stick to their professions. Bob Collymore, Julie Gichuru, and Jeff Koinange, should all stick to their respective careers. Music isn’t their thing even if it is for a charity cause, unless they want to scare away philanthropists. But Jimmy Gait and the other guy he sang the original furifuri song with had a big hit this year. The only time I came to enjoy this song was seeing teens in our church dance to it.

Why did Kenyans like furifuri?

I assume Christians and non-Christians had different reasons. For Christians I’ll consider the song talks about giving one’s life to God fully which is a great desire for them. For non-Christians, I guess it’s the sense that you are listening to a gospel song and enjoying it.

My music preference is different and I know what I like

What’s trending

The top three trends in Kenya this year were;

1)      #Kenyansontwitter

If there were awards for group trends in Kenya, this group of people would have gotten “the most narcistic group of the year” award. They are ever claiming to be the cause of change in Kenya. They ever took the credit for anything major that happened in the country this year. Allow me to pull some of these narcistic tweets

we have raised all millions for relief through social media campaigns alone, bravo #kenyans4kenya

attending a surprise birthday bash at the Ole Sereni, my friends are the best

Granted there are some which have proved to be funny, like the ujinga ni, tunga sentensi…which have found themselves as groups on facebook.

On facebook, most of the guys on my timeline this year have been putting up Christian updates. I am usually worried for I don’t think all these 2000 or so people are born again. I also believe some of the Christians on my timeline need to keep journals to put some of their thoughts down and only share that which is for the masses with their updates. A blog can also do justice.

However there are updates that have got me in stitches, others have really worried me about the doctrines we preach. My top two posts are;

“Kenya has so many sins and that is why Al Shabaab is winning. Repent Kenya.”

“There are some demons from your tribe that pretend that they do not hear nor understand English declarations. But I sense a shift in the spiritual realm for you child of God! You need to rise up and pray in the next 3 hours in your mother tongue…so that they can hear and understand.. go ahead and decree; ”MY STORY IS ABOUT TO CHANGE!” shout that in your mother tongue!”

The funny thing is these guys had people liking and commenting in support of their posts!

Kenyans through the year have generally joined various social media platforms.

2)      Dancing

In the last quarter of this year the solidarity song has got to be the most over used strike song in Kenya. Strikes have been very trendy. I remember in 2003 December, I acted in a play where God said he was going to go on strike. Then after reasoning with the prophets he decided to come as a baby that he may not be judged for not feeling guys. It was fun!

But the union guys have this monotonous dance of holding hands while singing the solidarity song. They are not as creative as Ezekiel Kemboi. He performed my favourite dance this year in Daegu. It gets me shuffling every time I see it. Much like the pampers baby dancing blowing a whistle. My nieces (6yr and 4yrs) love that advert. At least COTU has a different theme song for their strikes and Francis Atwoli, the secretary general, has a dance too. This year, AFC danced their way back to the league beating Gor on several occasions.

3)      Inflation

The free fall of the shilling this year was not interesting. Raiyaa.com guys defined inflation as “kusota ya ubabi/majuu”

Movie review

I’ll only share one movie, the Adjustment bureau. If you haven’t watched it, you need to watch it before the year ends. It has a great Christian message. Of course, there are some things which are not theologically right. But, if you have ever asked yourself if God has a plan for your life, you need to watch this movie. Spoiler alert, we are freewill agents self determining our possible futures. That is my Christian take out from the movie.

May you remember that we are wired to solve problems in life. Doctors solve health problems, preachers solve spiritual problems, lawyers solve legal problems…As you close the year, may you remember to take stock of our life and see your difference that you may know which opportunities you can venture into next year by solving those problems.

PS:

Next year the blog moves here www.alexshianda.com to allow for more flexibility in management and new content.

Happy New Year!

The atmosphere in church was charged as the Sunday school children and youth group performed their Christmas Cantata. There were numerous skits, for the church I went to, used to have one service for all its daughter churches in our town. The various congregations would therefore come with their presentations. Songs, dances, narratives and endless hymns were present in these Swahili services.

I never slept during the service. I found humour in watching people doze off but the smell of fart and bad breathe around also contributed to my alertness. To some degree you can say I feared God. Feared in the sense of scared not reverence. I didn’t therefore want to have issues with God coz I slept in his house without permission.

Easter was the other time I attended a church service in my preteens. The mood of the house was fairly sober not full of jokes like the Christmas service. I think I had watched the Jesus film on KBC and was greatly moved around this time. Maybe it’s what influenced me to want go to church.

Overtime, I have come to understand John21:25. It’s given that we celebrate the birth of Jesus in December and then 84 or 112 days later, depending on the moon’s orbit, we celebrate Easter. John (one of the guys who recorded Jesus’ life while on earth) said “there were many other things Jesus did. If every one of them were written down, I suppose the whole world would not be big enough for all the books that would be written.”

An insight I get from this verse is the books wouldn’t be enough because you and I live between Easter and Christmas. Our lives are part of the books to be written of what Jesus did and is doing in our lives. But even if we were to focus on Jesus’ life while on earth alone, the books would still not be enough. Let’s pick two things from his life for example.

The cradle

In the books of the bible, every time God was to meet with people, the first thing he would say is “do not be afraid.” All angelic/supernatural visitations before Jesus had the angels begging humans not to fear as their salutations. The cradle that we remember during Christmas, tells that God has broken this communication barrier; for who would fear a baby? Which human being would fear a baby in a cradle?

The God who spoke and the mountains trembled. The God in whose presence people were filled with great fear. The God who none could stand before him, was, during Christmas, struggling to use never before used lungs, couldn’t control his bladder, cried when hungry and was at the mercies of his mother to survive at all times.

For the first time in history since the fall, God could again talk with man in the cool of the day. People could again come and bring gifts to hail him without fear.

The cradle of Christianity reminds us God has provided a framework for our relationship with him that we don’t have to fear him when he talks to us.

The cross

The baby Jesus grew in stature, wisdom and in favour with God and men. In Hebrews, there is a verse that says Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. There was a guy called Stephen who when he was being stoned to death for calling himself a Christian, said he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Both these verses talk of life after the cross with regard to Jesus.

Before Jesus, there had never been a human being in heaven. Angels, demons, the devil, cherubim, seraphim and all spiritual beings have been to heaven but no human being has ever been. Yes, a person with a heart pumping blood, with nailed pierced hands and feet, with pubic hair and to this experience every creature in heaven bows down. It’s almost like the reaction human beings used to give angelic beings when they visited the earth.

The cross of Christianity reminds us that human beings can get to heaven through it.

Everyday life

How does the cross and the cradle apply to our everyday life?

The cross speaks of many things including telling us of our inability, our brokenness, our humanity, our unrighteousness, and how God transforms us and our everyday struggles to be a little heaven down here on earth en route. The cradle on the other hand tells of God’s love for his creation, God’s redemption agenda for the world, and it invites us to come join this mission of God of making this world a better place starting by knowing Jesus.

I was never big on celebrating Christmas as a child. There are people who are usually bubbly whenever a holiday is due. I am not like that. Actually, through my teens and my young adult life, I have never enjoyed the craze fm stations get with replaying Christmas jingles. So I create my own play list during Christmas. Usually it is full of hymns. Perhaps it is me trying to relive my childhood Christmas experience only in a clean, serene environment, bordering a British culture.

This Christmas I tried to build a Christmas tree with what the birth of Jesus means to humanity. So I light it up with three updates a day on my timeline about Christmas for thirty days. There are days I said more others I said less. Let me share my favourite fifty updates to date. I was limited to 126 characters on twitter so I’ll try and expound what I wanted to say in the posts

1)      During Christmas we remember angels have names like Gabriel. I wonder if they have an Ondieki or do they just have English, Greek and Hebrew names? Or are angels given names according to their stations eg Alex’s bedroom angels (remember when you were scared of the dark and you were told angels are watching over you?)

2)       The Christmas season is a great opportunity to examine the claims of Christ. He claimed to be God. These claims can be substantiated to be true. Everybody has an opinion about Jesus. People are generally okay to talk about God provided you don’t talk about Jesus. One claim that Jesus made is that he is God. Christmas is a great time to examine these claims.

3)      Great communicators can learn a lesson from the Master teacher Jesus on the importance of having a proper environment to teach your message. Jesus taught about resurrection at the tomb of Lazarus just before he raised him from the dead. Christmas reminds us of the birth of this great teacher.

4)      Christmas remind us of our call to join God’s mission of redeeming the world. We are to have a convicted civility amongst Christians who don’t believe like you do and invite non believers to the Kingdom of God. You need to give a shit about this and be civil if you don’t want me to us the word shit.

5)      The gospel that we proclaim like Paul in the bible is not “you can be saved, and this is how” but rather that “Jesus is Lord.” This is important to remember because Paul said if anyone preaches any other gospel apart from this then he/she is cursed. Whether it’s an angel from heaven or people.

6)      During Christmas we remember Jesus brought peace and good news to all our troubles and better news for all our successes.

7)      Did you know, there are 332 distinct prophecies about a messiah in the OT? The mathematical probability of one man to fulfill all in one life time is 1/(840*10^32)

8)      Christmas reminds us to honor our spouses. Joseph would have dishonoured Mary but he stuck with her through the drama whether people believed her or not.

9)      During Christmas we celebrate with all the angels and creation with one word that means the same thing in all languages, hallelujah

10)   Christmas is not about so much about spending as it is about giving. If you are to spend, remember to spend on the poor or those less fortunate than you. I posted this when I saw a headline on the news paper on how to get great savings during Christmas. The article was titled a Black Christmas comparing it with Black Friday

11)   In the story of Christmas, we see Caesar Augustus conducting the first world population census. This is a great lesson for governments that they need population statics for planning purposes. Governments ought to therefore mark Christmas celebrations in this light.

12)   With all the replayed jingles and commercialization of Christmas, may the advent- second coming of Jesus- save your Christmas story. May you be hungry for the second coming of Jesus and may Jesus not meet your hunger but meet you in your hunger

13)   Jesus brought peace. We celebrate him during Christmas for we can have peace even when we are sick, broke, defeated, failed. This i posted during world AIDS day.

14)   We are freewill agents. A good way to submitting our freewill to God is to answer like Mary when the angel Gabriel brought the news of her immaculate conception. “Be it unto me, according to your word”

15)   It’s like God chose to be born in a boma of cows that there be no accusation of favouritism or of having a privileged background. A great lesson to have during Christmas

16)   Christmas remind us not to read stars. The magi, who went to see Jesus, did so after seeing his star. They were astrologers. They however did not call Jesus a capricon hence ascribe the myths of those born in that day. By the way, astrology is based on the belief that the earth is the centre of the universe and every planet and stars revolve around it. I think you know better. You know better thanks to astronomy. It is therefore not wise to read horoscopes

17)   Every living thing that has breathe is allowed to sing about Christmas. It’s who you are singing to that matters

18)   Christmas reminds us not to judge people by their appearance. When the wise men went to see the new born king, savoir of the world, they saw a baby in a manger

19)   A proper perspective is really important about Christmas. You can either see Christmas as having pagan roots or you can see it as a time when pagans can celebrate the birth of a saviour

20)   When Job was going through his issues, he asked God, “Do you have eyes of flesh that you do not see?” for a time in history, God did. We remember this in Christmas

21)   Did you know, had Jesus been born before John the Baptist, Jesus would have brought a curse of judgment to the world (Malachi3:1-3)

22)   During Christmas we give gifts especially to the less fortunate coz Jesus said when we do this, we are giving to him

23)   We sing Christmas carols because the night that Jesus was born, the angels broke in praise. It’s like the way we say, the opera isn’t over until the fat lady sings, well the fat angel must have sung for the party to begin (Luk2:13)

24)   Christmas is good news for Africans because Africa has a special place in Jesus’ heart. Jesus was a refugee in Africa like millions of Africans today

25)   Christmas reminds us of the value of family support. Imagine the pressure James (Jesus younger brother) would have felt every time being asked “why can’t you be more like Jesus”

26)   During Christmas we remember Jesus overcame the stigma of a questionable background. Imagine him telling his pals his mum was a virgin. He can therefore help you if you struggle with your identity

27)   Jesus Christ is a name and a title. The name is Jesus meaning savoir and Christ is the title meaning anointed King.

28)   On December 25^th we remember the one who split human history into two. Life before him which we date as BC and life after his death we date as AD. We are in 2011AD

You can follow the rest on my timeline.

Have a merry Christmas

I however can still see this excessive confidence that the colonizers must have had amongst certain westerners today. These westerners call people of my generation in our country third world, and their people, first world. When people talk of world they refer to what sustains everyday life. My world is different from my neighbor’s though we live in the same neighbourhood. My everyday world includes Christian Doctrine, life groups, church, DVD rip movies, coffee dates, kesha, mentoring boys, and eating lots of fries. My neighbour’s world orbits around table tennis, vampire diaries, porn, clubbing, one night stands, an 8-5 job and being cooked for by his girl of the month.  We are both Kenyan young males in our twenties with ambitions whose worlds are called third world by Westerners.

Other times they call themselves the developed world and us the developing world. In essence they mean Africans like me don’t have a work ethic, but they do. These benefactors of colonialism have this cancer that makes them claim I don’t have an identity as an African because I dress in a certain way, talk a certain way, think a certain way and act a certain way but they do. They claim as a post-colonial Kenyan, I am still identifying myself; trying to define who I am as an African.

Having made this diagnosis, they are using the chemotherapy of telling the African story as one of bad governance and failed states to treat this cancer. When this Chemotherapy doesn’t work, they use a dangerous radiation therapy of sanctions, structural adjustment programs and international media to show citizens of our country and to show their citizens; our poverty, failures, mis-education, corruption, poor infrastructure among other moral anarchy and all rotten things that they brand as African.

But this is not why I write today, I write because am concerned that some of our politicians and our local media are showing signs of this cancer. This cancer of the “primacy of the west” has gene mutated in our executive, judiciary, legislature and local media and I know they are feeling symptoms of this sickness for I can see the signs. I am aware not all these people have this mutant primacy gene. Some have the full blown cancer as we see the reports from the Durban climate change talks. I however want to talk about these signs and the dangerous therapy being applied to the mutants.

Analysts

In my opinion, our prominent political analysts are reading books from the 1970s.These books, are the therapies they are using for their cancer. When I hear analysts like Mutahi Ngunyi, I am not surprised by their pronouncements. To go on national media and tell us aspirant X will bring Y votes from people of this ethnic group is a mutated “cancer” gene that sees some tribes as more superior than others. But at least he has a solid cancer support group chaired by Julie Gichuru in her countdown2012 series. I know these pronouncements will get worse 6mothns to the elections especially from a group claiming to be part of the second liberators of Kenya. They are not part of my generation.

My generation sympathizes with such analysts as we celebrate 48 years of Kenya being a republic. You see my peers really don’t want to know who will bring what votes from this or that tribe on our media. Neither do they want to hear from politicians claiming they will build roads, bring water, improve sanitation and the recycled list of to do things availed every election year. A person from my generation will want to know the presidential aspirants ideas eg his/her foreign policy with regard for example to the Al Bashir’s case, not hear accusations of being taken back to dark days which we don’t even know of.

You see we have grown up with bad roads, blackouts, being sent home because of school fees in primary school, seeing the face of the president everyday as the first news item for a quarter of a century. Believe me, therefore, we really don’t care about the second liberation talks of dark days. We have also grown up with the internet. We don’t need to travel to other countries for exposure. We have lived lives we considered normal and we are saying the so called second liberators need treatment from their cancer.

I want to hear ideology from political aspirants (not party politics) and these ideologies dissected on the local media table (not tribal supremacy).

Vision2030

I visited the new VISION2030 website yesterday. It has a lot of details which I intend to go through. The first step towards the treatment of chronic diseases like cancer or addictions is acceptance. I have never heard an acceptance from the strategists of Vision2030 that the gap that stands between the present and the pre-colonial past is unbridgeable. I can’t help but wonder, from which viewpoint did they write this vision 2030? Was it from the hyperconfident tone of westerners’ reality of Africans of how to change poor infrastructure, fulfill MDGs… or from the dreams of pre-colonial Kenyans?

I clearly see vision 2030 spells out the “Kenya we want” characterized by double digit economic growth, reduced maternal deaths, education… which is a picture of the colonizers cancer instead of the “Kenyans we want” which I believe is what our pre-colonial Kenyans like my grandfather wanted.

The therapy the present CEO is applying of talking of global factors such as oil prices as challenges of why Kenya is not realizing the Vision2030 is toxic. It’s as dangerous as the citizens who have a blue gene to support such logic. If we had an ethics/moral pillar or a sense of national community in vision2030 for a tribe called Kenya, I think this cancer of making plans with the lens of Westerners will be treated.

The obituary

Watching KTN news is like reading the obituary. I am convinced the news editors can feel their cancer symptoms. There is not a day’s prime time news they will not report at least three deaths from our counties. That’s their minimum standard serving, three death reports daily. Often times they do more. Their dead news set background concept doesn’t help. Surely if they can afford to buy two Ipads for their news anchors, they can at least hire a set manager to “beautify” their news set. Or just hire someone to change that background thing that makes them look like they are floating on air and couple this with their death stories you can’t help but feel you are just dying.

This background thing showing lack of creativity is not just limited to KTN. It’s a cancer that is seen in all the other stations (except Citizen today) emphatically broadcasting that Kenyans lack creativity because they are poor or bad governance of the media; the stories of some westerners.

There is no creativity in program line ups. As local citizens we don’t know which month new local series begin. I am of the opinion it’s only Vioja Mahakami that has earned its right to be on TV every week without a season’s break. The day I will sit on the remote and it switches to KBC and find Vioja Mahakami on, I watch it and be guaranteed to laugh.

I will not start on football and EPL for then you might consider me ranting. I think you get the general idea that I may not have to talk of other signs my generation sees such as ethnic fm stations, the cancerous discussions on our local fm stations, our print media (why don’t they just do a tabloid and stop all those “free” pullouts like pulse, DN2…) or even mention about the non-performance of our legislatures, executive and public service issues and the FKEs KEPSA…

So I write to the media and politicians because you will attempt to retell to us about the struggle of independence this Jamuhuri day in your broadcasts and pronouncements to my post-colonial generation. As I have come to learn, the history of Kenya is skewed depending on the tribe of the author of the history book you used in your GHC class. I hope the media will retell the Kenyan story differently this year.

I hope in this 48^th Jamuhuri day, the media helps Kenyans to move beyond just condemning colonization as it happened, to embracing it as the start of our Kenyan stories-when Kenya became a republic. Let us not start the stories with bad governance.

I think Mugabe remembers his country‘s story and the west hate him for it. We can learn from his mistakes and love our haters. I will love all the haters who call my world third world.

Happy jamuhuri day!

A) Perhaps the disciples of Jesus had also heard this teaching before John 9:1-2(NCV)

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been born blind. His followers asked him, “teacher, whose sin caused this man to be born blind-his own sin or his parents’ sin?”

Perhaps they asked to know which Rabbi’s teaching Jesus leaned to in regard to original sin teaching. Judaism generally teaches against this doctrine. It is safe to say that the context of this verse is the relationship between sin and death or sin and its consequences in the natural world. Throughout Christian history the teaching of original sin has been debated in various ways. Some like Augustine affirmed it, Pelagious disputed it. The various arguments for and against take various courses.

3. Jesus answered, “It is not this man’s sins or his parents’ sin that made him be blind. This man was born blind so that God’s power could be shown in him. While it is daytime, we must continue doing the work of the One who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (NCV.

On the teaching that original sin is true, I find this giving more power to evil than we should. If we are ok to propose that evil can be handed down in the DNA of a man then why is salvation which is good not handed down in the DNA of man? If Mary had this sinful nature as a result of her lineage to Eve (Gen2:26) and her DNA was in Jesus as a result of Immaculate Conception, was Jesus therefore born with a sinful nature?  Or was the conception immaculate because it did not have the seed of a man but only the seed of a woman hence sinful nature is not in women? I believe Jesus was spotlessly conceived.

I believe babies are born as natural beings. Not good as Pelagious taught or evil as Augustine taught.

Through the bible we see God creating man in four ways from his word;

1)      He got dust from the ground and blew into it (Gen2)

2)      He got a rib from a man and formed Eve (Gen2:)

3)      He got the ovum of a woman and formed Jesus (Luke, Gen2)

4)      sexual procreation (Psalms)

In Gen2:1 God looked at all he had created and called it good. Babies are hence not naturally good but good because God calls them good. In Psalms children are called a gift from God. James1:27 says every good gift is from God who has no evil in him. With this word, children are good. As children grow, they are taught obedience. Jesus learned obedience (Hebrews). You cannot therefore say children are naturally bad (as in you cannot teach a child to do bad things) for they are learning obedience like Jesus as they grow. Jesus grew in wisdom (luke2:).Ezek18 gives a matrix of good parent-bad child, bad parent-good child and in vs4 affirms it is the person who sins who will die. Psalms affirms that God punishes the generations of those who hate him but has mercy on those who love him.

How would we argue with the creation story? Did Adam’s nature have elements of the dust/ground? Yes. The same compounds found on the earth were in Adam’s body. Did Eve have the nature of Adam? Yes. Her composition had elements from Adam. Did Jesus have the elements of Mary?  You can say NO or YES. You can say YES because you understand baby development in the womb or NO and argue that God did not allow any of Mary’s nature into Jesus. From the two preceding thoughts of how God created it is safe though to say that Jesus had part of Mary’s nature and the Holy Spirit in his body. Parents generally pass their DNA to their children

One may object by saying that the sinful nature is spiritual and not natural. Hence Jesus (may have) had the natural elements of his body from Mary but not the spiritual sinful nature from her. I would respond that if through Adam the whole world is judged guilty of sin hence the spiritual nature of sin, then through Jesus the whole world is justified from sin, through the work of salvation hence righteous (1cor). But not everybody has this new nature of Christ even though Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. This nature is appropriated by faith therefore not everyone has the Adamic sin nature.

As for the consequences of sin being attributed to original sin I refer to Jesus response to the disciples in John9 above. What of death due to original sin? Was the death physical or was it spiritual separation from God or both? Jesus said he conquered sin and death (spiritual separation from God). The bible adds the last enemy Jesus defeats will be death (physical).

1corithians says these three things remain; hope, faith and love. I want us to share in hope. To hope that God is good and his mercies endures forever.  To hope that in the fullness of time we will understand all things. Hope with me that I will see my two siblings in heaven who died as babies and not hell because someone said they were born with a sinful nature. Hope with me that my friend who had a mentally challenged brother who died will be in heaven and not hell because he couldn’t make an intellectual comprehension when alive to receive Jesus and was born with a sinful nature. Hope with me that my friend (who’s born again) who performed an abortion and is really sorry for it will see her baby in heaven and not hell because someone says she conceived in sin. Hope with me that God understands. Let’s hope that this understanding attribute of God is his very nature. He therefore can be nothing but understanding that we call him Just. Hope with me that we may fall truly, madly, and deeply in love with God even when we don’t understand things for understanding is not part of our very nature. Allow me to hope; to hope with you too.

Delta theism therefore provides a manifesto of hope to original sin doctrine. It does not deny it

One of the most common Christian teachings in Kenya that I am sure you have heard is that God has a blueprint for your life. Better I say God has a plan for your life. Therefore, everything that happens to you happens for a reason because God allowed it to happen. It’s not only common in Kenya but present worldwide.

The above teaching has many challenges. The biggest challenge is through the scriptures, we see God changes his plans every other time. In fact, the verse usually quoted from Jeremiah says God knows the PLANS he has for your life. Am sure your own experience and reason tell you some things that happen to you are just not God’s will for your life. There is no way you will expect me to believe, that my friend’s parents who died of HIV, that it is God who allowed/ordained this to happen to leave them as orphans to struggle. This experience is not of God. Other times people claim God’s ways are illogical to man justifying it with (proverbs). I would argue that John1:1 says that God is the word. The Greek word translated here word is logos which the root word for the English word logic. So to say God’s ways are illogical/not of reason then goes against this central idea in Christian teachings. Further in proverbs scriptures tell us to get understanding. To add to the affirmation that the Holy Spirit has been speaking to your life through reason and experience, is the bible verses that I want to share about the same.

To be fair, the teachings you learned first, and you have continually heard as a Christian, will make you very skeptical about a view that is contrary to your God-view. For example, if you have never heard about a guy called Erasmus but you know about Martin Luther you can already see your bias in calling one teaching false when you hear it even though both were present during the reformation period of the church. Or if you know about John Calvin and have never read about Jacobous Arminious or if you know about St Augustine but you don’t know about Pelagious you can easily call the others teachings false. Worse still if you have heard about them from a reviewer who was advancing your favourite theologian’s doctrine, we then become carnal like guys in Paul’s day of I follow Apollos and others say I follow Peter while others I follow Paul.

I think most Kenyan Christians though have a very inclusive nature to a majority of these teachings. Guys will often mix one teaching with another without knowing. Kwanza it becomes so clear that many of our preachers have very little theology of practice. You will find a preacher in the same sermon talk about how God has given you freewill and then he says God has predestined your life or in another sermon you hear him say God is in control of everything, then later he says the devil is in control of this world, then another time God gave man control of the world..

But still it is a good thing. I think this mix has generated a good theology by Kenyans. The view that teachings of God change, I feel like calling it delta-theism. In fact that is what I will call it. Delta-theism is thus the theology that teaches that Christian doctrines are like shock absorbers of a car that needs changing over time.

That is a really a cool word; Delta-theism.  I think I will spend a couple of writings to just develop it.

Back to God being open; have you ever asked God, yourself, a friend or your pastor any of the following questions?

Does God change his mind?

Does prayer change God?

Does God regret?

Is God surprised at how things turn out?

Is God 50/50 about the future of some things?

Is it safe to recycle the cliché answers to some of these questions first? I think it is safe, coz at the banner of this blog, is written Alex Shianda, and, I am Alex Shianda

 “Prayer does not change God it changes us”

“God is the unmoved mover”

“God is never surprised”

“God is not bound by time.”

I affirm the perfect divine nature of God. The above questions almost seem as if they are attacking the core perfect qualities of God. The three common ones are

Omniscience- God is all knowing

Omnipotent-God has all the ability

Omnipresent-God is at all places at the same time

I would argue that the answers to the questions will show these qualities are affirmed and not discarded. A general principal, in bible reading is; you will find what you are looking for in the bible. If you read with the lens of cynicism, you will find cynical things to take about from the bible. If you read the bible with the lens that God has predetermined everything in life you will see a lot of predestination stuff. In fact you will see the following verses as figurative the same way if you read the bible with lens of free will you will see God’s mind and not God’s will when you read the bible.

I let you see the log in your own eye that you need to remove

1)      Does God change his mind?

Ex32:14, Num14:12-20, Deut9:13-14, 18-20,25:1, 1sam2:27-36, 2kings 20:1-7 1chro21:15, jer 26:19, Eze20:5-22, Amos7:1-6, jonah1:2, 3:2, 4:10

2)      Does prayer change God?

jer 18:7-11; 26:2-3, Ezek33:13-15, Joel2:13-14, jonah4:2

3)      Does God regret?

Ge6:5-6, 1sam15:10,35, ezek22:29-31

4)      Is God sometimes surprised at how things turn out?

Isa 5:3-7, jer3:6-7, 19-20

5)      Does God test his people to see if they will remain in him?

Gen22:12, Exo16:4, Deut8:2 13:1-3, jud2:20-3:5, 2chr32:31

6)      Is God 50/50 about the future of some things?

num14:11, Hos8:5 Ex3:18-4:9, 13:17, jer38:17-18, 20-21, 23 ezek12:1-3 Ex4:1-7, Ex13:17, ezek12:3

Delta-theism therefore teaches that God foreknows every possible future event but it is not all his will as a development to classical theism. It’s a spring/shock absorber for your life’s road. I like that word, Delta-theism.

Application

Q) Was the Post Election Violence in Kenya a part of God’s will?

A) NO.  It was in God’s mind (foreknowledge) but not God’s will (predestination). God’s will is absolutely good. His divine perfect nature does not have evil. God is not ambiguous in moral, evil and good at the same time. Some people (free will agents) did not choose to obey God during the PEVs and worked with the devil (a free wil agent).

Q) Does God have a blueprint for your life?

A) NO. God sometimes changes his mind. If he changes his mind as we have seen above, then there is no blueprint.  He knows every single possible outcome of the choices you will make. He therefore has given you a free will to submit to him or not. God therefore brings everything that happens to you TO reason and NOT that everything happens FOR or WITH a reason. Sometimes shit happens. God foreknew it all but some is not is not his will as there are other free agents in the picture like the devil and people.

Q) Can an all knowing God change his mind?

A) Yes! God has conditionally (where the word is the condition) bound himself to the free will of man here on earth. Hence there are some future things he has left open and some must happen the way he wills.

Q) Is God in Control of everything that happens in your life?

A) NO. The idea of God being in control developed during the industrialization age where mechanization was taking place. All through the scriptures we see God being relational not mechanistic with people. Hence God wants a relationship with you in everything in your life. Sometimes free agents eg the devil or other people or even you make this relationship not to work.

here is a movie i recommend you watch.”The Adjustment Bureau”. it was one of my favourite movies this year. i think it will help you get some idea of what predestination and free will is all about