The Taste of Life

Over a year ago when I was on this never-ending journey of seeking God concerning the secrets of Celestial. I said to myself, “I want someone to make a CD of just Celestial Hymns”. I really wanted one, not a remixed version just a CD of plain hymns. I wanted this so much that I remember even pushing some of the youth in my church to put one together. I was so eager to get my hands on one.

I mentioned this very thing to one of my brothers in Christ. He then revealed to me that he had a couple of CDs full of CCC hymns and offered to lend them to me. Next time I saw him he gave me 7 CDs, which covered pretty much the whole hymn book.

A week later one Saturday morning I was cleaning the house, I took one of the CDs and played it. Instantly I began to frown, it sounded so old school, the quality was poor, I just didn’t like it. After that one CD, I didn’t even bother trying the rest.

The next time I saw my brother he asked me what I thought of it. I lied through my teeth and said it was great, and I thanked him but deep down inside I was ready to return them. I guess I just didn’t want to sound ungrateful (really bad I know).

I kept them for a few weeks. After a while when I was ready to return them, strangely enough, I couldn’t find them. I looked everywhere in the house, I managed to locate one CD but the other six I couldn’t find. I asked everyone in my house, and no one seemed to know where they were. After a few weeks of looking, I went to my brother with my tail in between my legs apologising explaining that I misplaced them. I felt really bad, particularly because he got them from Nigeria, so they weren’t easily replaced. Anyways he forgave me, lol Thank God for good friends.

Now here’s where it gets interesting. A year later my Brother Gabriel got married and moved out of the house. I moved into his room and my younger sisters took mine. They then decided to get a brand new bed and in the process of removing the old bed, guess what they found? Yes, the 6 CDs. If I’m honest only God knows how they got there. Anyways I was happy that I could now return them to their rightful owner.

I then went to my room and said to myself “I’ve had these CDs for over a year now, let me just try listening to them again” . I put one CD in my player, and when the first hymn started playing, I was overwhelmed. I continued to go through the CD, track by track with my Hymn book in my hand just singing and overwhelmed by how amazing these hymns were. The same CDs I played a year ago that I said was old and rubbish were the same CDs I’m playing now that I can’t get enough of.

Now, this is the key thing I want you all to get. What was given to me didn’t change; The same CDs I played last year are the same CDs I’m playing now. What I was given remained the same, but what changed was my taste. I was now able to taste of the goodness of what was given to me.

If you look back at your life, we have all been there at some point. In the past, there may have been certain atmospheres you couldn’t spend more than a few mins in, whether it be in prayer, fellowship, worship or church. And then one day He just allowed for you to taste of His goodness in these things, whether it manifested itself in a testimony, in salvation, in peace, just by tasting of the His goodness in these things caused you to now today spend hours doing these very things. Hmm, your taste has changed, but what was given unto you hasn’t.

If you don’t know the value of what is given to you, abuse is inevitable. But when God allows us to taste of His goodness in what He has given us it will cause us to hold on to what we have, it will cause you to hold on to your inheritance.

“And for this reason, He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭9:15‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

I’ve paid attention to many of our fathers that have lived. And what’s interesting is that most of them have stories and not just ordinary stories but stories of how God revealed himself to them in a way none like no other, through the church they are still worshiping in until today. Our fathers tasted of something within the church which has caused them to hold onto this church like Gold, there’s something about it.

“What is man, that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?” Psalms‬ ‭8:4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

A big problem which we are having in the younger generation today is that a lot of us don’t quite know the value of what we’ve been given. Most of us from our youth we had prayer passed down to us through our parents. Even until today in their old age they are steadfast in this thing like it’s bringing them money with every word they say. But we the generation they have passed it down to are very undisciplined and fail to be diligent in these things because we don’t understand its value, we haven’t quite tasted of what our parents have through simple things like prayer that was ultimately given to us by God.

We haven’t quite tasted of the goodness of what God has given us in Celestial, which has caused many of us to abuse or neglect certain things God has given us through this church.

Remember the story of the prodigal’s son: ““But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”‭‭Luke‬ ‭15:17‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

It says “he came to himself” in other words he came to his senses and realised Wait a minute, I’m a King, back home the people that serve me are eating better than me. Let me just put my pride aside and go back home. Notice that in order for him to come to his senses and to know that there is something better for him, he had to have tasted something better than where he was. If you read the story you would understand that at this point in time the prodigal son was working with pigs. If before he left his father’s house he was working with pigs what would be the incentive to go back home? There was something he had tasted, something different that he remembered at his time of trouble.

If we are to taste just a little of what God has given us in Celestial, it will cause us to come to our senses in times of trouble and to take more care of our inheritance.

It will cause us to carry our inheritance like Gold, and not drop it like foolish men.

I’ll end with this…

If I was to put a jar of fresh honey in front of a 3-year-old child that has never tasted honey in his life, what would he do?

Curious as children are he would take his finger, dip it in and lick it. Now it doesn’t take more than one lick until he realises that this is sweet. So what does he do? he will go again to the jar and take more again… And again… it won’t be long until he dips his whole hand into the jar and marinates his whole body in honey.

God just needs to give us a small taste of what we have, a small taste of the inheritance He has given us and we will continue to go back for more.

Remember I said it was not until I tasted the hymns, and realised wait a minute this is actually life! That caused me to look deeper and want to taste more of the God of Celestial.

My message is that so we don’t loose what we have, that God will cause us to taste just a little of His goodness in what He has given us, that will be enough to cause us to be hooked till eternity.

Hymn 538:
Mo ro mo, ewu nla ti Jesu, emi ko ni f’ewu na sile

I cling on to the great robe of Jesus and I would never let go.

Author: Hannah Okuyemi

Blogger and contributor for Celestialweekly.com
Publisher for asmilethatholdsathousandwords.wordpress.com
Celestial Church of Christ
Covenant of God Parish UK