Dear Yagie,
As you are in heaven rejoicing with the father, this is God’s love letter that I am supposed to share with all:
English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpSE3eZTCNoArabic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPHiXN2rOwUSwahili:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-pfEvoFY8QSpanish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHP1J3F5ZgIFrench:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvF_cLCvposGerman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMNektxVfJwYagie, your whatsapp profile message says “Jesus is the reason”. I found out the news of your home going to Jesus through whatsapp, the same mode that we have communicated many times through the years. My dear sister, I went from shock to a sense of peace knowing you are with Jesus….back to still more shock that you departed us so young. We were the two Bodis (you were Bodi senior) and I was Bodi junior. I learned so much from your wisdom and creativity from the early days of our youth. We shared much laughter, tears, food, and also prayer moments together. You were always checking on me to see if there were additional items I needed. I still have the many items and my cherished net sponges that you gave me. I have refused to leave it anywhere. It oftentimes comes to the room with me next to my belongings. Your last message to me on whatsapp was “Amen, you too” Yagie, it is well with your soul. Though my heart has been left with a void, I still hear your voice in my mind. I recall when we saw in Canada, I was so happy to see you and also meet your colleagues as we explored various sites, went to the buffet restaurant, and had our first limousine ride after some bargaining. I recall after the ride, the limo driver conveniently mentioned tax to hike up the price and we continued with another round of bargaining. I also recall the crucial role you played in the matchmaking endeavors and the laughter we shared through the process. There were many shared moments.
I admired your heart, your giving, your concern for others, your advice, your sense of style with Nigerian fashion. I learned about the latest Nigerian styles from you and I am grateful for the many styles that you sewed for me.
I was prompted to learn more about what you could have seen as you ascended to our heavenly father and I feel comforted that you were escorted by angels to sit at the feet of Jesus.
I recall when we were younger as you were in secondary school and I was in primary school and the various experiences you informed me about in the boarding school. I also remember our many trips to the market and going from store to store looking for our shoe size because we both inherited grandma’s big feet. Fast forward, I remembered the visits to your house and our excursion to the park on Christmas day for a picnic with your special fried rice.
And now you are at a place with no more sorrow and pain where you can worship at the master’s feet. Yagie, this is not good bye because this life is temporary and fleeting. The most important thing is for us to do the will of God in these last days until our home going. There are many lost souls on this earth. I have also had to examine my walk in the lord because the devil is cunning, The bible says in 1 Peter 5:8 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because[a] your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. The devil’s sole assignment is to keep us away from eternal life and he will do this through many areas
To ALL: Once we give our life to Jesus Christ, Do you know that we do not have to fight the battle on our own? He that is in me is greater than he that is in the world.
1 John 4 says:
On Denying the Incarnation
1Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirita of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
God’s Love and Ours
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19We love because he first loved us. 20Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
For all who are reading this, know that Jesus Christ is the only way to everlasting life. Even when our loved ones depart early we can be rest assured that they are in the savior’s arms because they have committed their lives to God. This body is temporary. We need to read God’s word, the bible, to understand what he wants of us and be obedient. Good works will not save us. The lord does not count up good and bad works and decide if one will go to heaven. We are not saved through good works and this can be seen in the bible:
Ephesian 2: 1 – 10
1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesha and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Romans Chapter 8 (New International Version Says)
Life Through the Spirit
1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set youa free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,b God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.c And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
9You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives lifed because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because ofe his Spirit who lives in you.
12Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
14For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.f And by him we cry, “Abba,g Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Present Suffering and Future Glory
18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21thath the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, whoi have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
More Than Conquerors
31What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”j
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,k neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Isaiah 64 (New International Version)
1Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!
2As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! 3For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. 4Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. 5You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? 6All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. 7No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over toa our sins. 8Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. 9Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people. 10Your sacred cities have become a wasteland; even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation. 11Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins. 12After all this, Lord, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?
To all who do not know Christ, please say this with your heart and out loud: Dear Lord, I confess that I am a sinner. Even when I thought I was doing good it was sin in your eyes because my flesh is sinful by nature. Lord, I want everlasting life through your son Jesus Christ. I acknowledge that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and I accept him this day as my personal savior. I am also asking for the guidance of your holy spirit to help me to do your will on a daily basis. Please help me to find a church and group where I can sharpen my faith. Guide me in understanding your word. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen.
My dear Yagie, until we meet again at the savior’s feet. Rest well in the everlasting love of Christ in Jesus name. Amen.
Who are we to God? – See these resources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLHsQF131HQGod’s love letter to you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpSE3eZTCNoSurrendering
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcnfT4arZtIWith Love,
Dr. Bernice Bodi Rumala