“An Ongoing Response To The Call…!”

“An Ongoing Response To The Call…!”(Rev.22:13-17).
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End…” Alpha and Omega are respectively the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet. Whatever is after Alpha and before Omega, after the First and before the Last, after the Beginning and before the End are merely in-betweens.
The in-betweens of birth and death is physical life. Physical life is like a shadow if it is not fed by what exist in the place where the beginning begins and that place where the end ends. That place is the cosmic sphere, the place of the Supernatural and the Invisible.
African ontological worldview is a five tier separation. At the top is God, the creator and sustainer of life. Next to God are the spirits – including spirits created as such, and the spirits of ancestors. These spirits serve as intermediaries between humans and God. The third are human beings. Below humans are animate creatures created to serve humans satisfying both their spiritual and physical needs. At the bottom are inanimate objects like mountains, hills, rocks, etc.
Human beings, being at the middle of this ontology is not coincidental because the ontology is purely anthropocentric. The difference between the African understanding of God and the Christian God is that African ontology is human-centered, whereas the Christian ontology is God-centred.
Herein lies our predicament: The choices we make in the life in-between is the determinant whether when we exit this in-between we are going to be with him who is he that is the End of our end; and the Beginner of our new beginning in eternity!
In this life we must be knowledgeable of him who is the source of our beginning and who is the end to whom our end must end. We have been alienated from our Source because we chose to listen to the voice of a stranger. But he in whom we live and have our being has not given up on us, because he created us with a purpose.
The distinctive characteristics of our Alpha and Omega is his unbounded love, demonstrated through the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus the Christ. Embedded in this unbounded love is mercy, grace and compassion without which none of us merits his salvation.
Wherever we may have strayed, whatever we must have done that has irked the LORD, he calls out: “Return to… the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall…return to the LORD and say to him: ‘Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously…’…”(Cf. Hos.14:1-7).
Oh yes; “Sinners Jesus will receive…” When in the house of Levi teachers of the law and Pharisees wondered why Jesus was eating with tax collectors and “sinners,” Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners”(Mk. 2:13-17).
A walk down memory lane: “And the LORD said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live for ever. So the LORD God banished him from the Garden…”(Gen. 3:22-23). That was “Paradise Lost;” but today the Lord Jesus Christ calls again, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.” This is “Paradise Regained!”
What was lost in the beginning is regained in the last days. “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come, and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.’…”
Heed the call and do not remain outside the city gate!
Sunday prayer: Spirit of God prompt us to seek entrance and drink our fill of the free gift of the water of life found only in Jesus Christ. Amen!
Have a blessed Sunday! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.