They Turned Away From Us

“You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me— may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.”

If you have ever experienced what Paul related to us here, then you can identify with him from personal experience. For being a follower of Jesus Christ, and being a minister of the gospel, which we are all supposed to be, will get you rejected and abandoned and cast aside even by people of your own family, your closest friends, others within the gatherings of the church, and by pastors and elders of church congregations, too, who are not following the Lord with wholehearted devotion, and whose lives are not totally surrendered to Jesus Christ to doing his will, but who are still worldly.

And what Paul was speaking about, and what I am speaking about has to do with us having our lives totally surrendered to the Lord Jesus in absolute commitment to serving him with our lives full time in service to him in doing whatever it is he has called us to do. And that doesn’t mean we are engaged in Christian service full-time like I am, or like some pastors and missionaries are, but that we are all to be serving the Lord with our lives full-time, and we should always be on-call for whenever the Lord has something he wants us to do. And we should be ready always to answer that call with “Yes!”

And this is about speaking the truth of the gospel and the truth of God’s word to the people, and not all just the happy-happy stuff, but the hard stuff, too, which there is a bunch of! And so that opens us up wide to being hated and rejected, even by others who call themselves Christians, but whose lives are not surrendered to following the Lord Jesus with their lives, or who are not mature in their walks of faith, or who are being deceived by the lies of the enemies of God.

For so many of them are being fed lies and not the truth, and so they are accepting the lies as though they are the truth, while they are rejecting the truth as though it is the lie. They may be believing half-truths, but half-truths are still lies if they are delivered in a way intended to deceive and to lead the people astray to a false gospel. And many people are being duped by master deceivers and manipulators into accepting the lies as the truth because the lies sound good, but the truth is hard to accept (example: “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” John 6:60).

So, don’t get disheartened, and don’t get discouraged if you are following the Lord in obedience and in surrender to his will and so you are being rejected and cast aside and lambasted (condemned, scolded, attacked) because you take God and his word seriously, and you take his calling upon your life seriously, and so you are doing what his word teaches that we all should be doing. But keep on in doing what God has called you to do in ministering his word to the people of this world. For people need to hear the truth, and not many are teaching the truth these days.

I know that when the Lord first called me to this ministry 20 years ago that I did not have much support or encouragement from anyone, and I had many who turned against me, and so I had to choose between the acceptance of human beings and the acceptance and the will and purpose of God for my life. That day I died to self and to self-will that I might follow my Lord in obedience to his will and purpose for my life, even if it meant that I had no encouragement from anyone. And I didn’t have much encouragement at all for a very long time, and I did have a lot of opposition.

But one day I cried it all out to the Lord, and I appealed to him on the basis that when he walked this earth that he had at least 11 disciples who were in support of him, although some were a little flaky sometimes, and that even Paul, when he was in prison, had people who visited him and who encouraged him. And so I prayed and begged God to please give me some encouragers, for this was very hard!! And he did, little by little, and now I have more than a few, and I cannot tell you what a blessing that has been to me and what joy that brings to my heart. But I know full well that my dependency must remain in the Lord and not in humans who may fail me.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-19; John 15:1-21; John 16:33; John 17:14; Acts 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Eph 6:10-20; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

You Loved Me

An Original Work / December 3, 2019

A song based off the poem by the same name @ Original Works

Music and lyrics by Sue Love @ Original Works & Tosin Iyawo Ogaga

Vocals by Tosin Iyawo Ogaga & Sue Love

When I was lonely and afflicted,

You were there to pick me up.

You took me in Your arms,

And You held me tenderly.

Your love embraced me.

Your grace sustained me.

When my heart cried out to You

In my fear and my despair,

You never turned away,

But You let me know You loved me.

Your grace forgave me.

You did not shame me.

Then, when I answered the call,

“Here, Lord, send me.”

You sent me to where I must be.

Your mercy held me, did not fail me.

All this, You had planned, to use me.

And, when all trials and scorn

Came to test me.

You gave me all that I would need.

You strengthened me so I’d not fail You.

Your kindness blessed me, it touched me.

And, when I needed the church 

To lift up me,

To hearten me so I’d not fail,

You blessed me with folks who would love me.

Their presence with me, Your praise hailed!

And, when I walked through the valley

Of the shadow of the death,

And tears flowed from my eyes,

Still Your kindness was there for me.

Your touch, it healed me.

For I believed You.

When now I think about the ways,

Of the many, many ways

That You in Your great love

Show me that You’ll always care for me,

My heart, it thanks You,

And gladness fills me, fills me.