Kiss & Tell

By Joy Inyamu Akut

What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Matthew 10:27 (NIV)

A kiss that soothes

A kiss that cleanses

A kiss that heals and forgives

A kiss of grace and favor so beautiful, you have no choice but to tell!

God, the lover of our souls expresses His love for us daily with the kisses of His grace and mercy. There is a kiss available for everything you go through and so much more When the wind howls, and the clouds grow dark. When you feel lost, and you struggle through storms. When you feel youve fallen too far off from God and you cower and hide in your sin, there is a kiss of forgiveness for you. We have the kisses of God available for everything we go through, every mess we find ourselves in, every trial that comes our way and every moment we celebrate in joy God loves us that much.

The author uses everyday experiences to encourage us as we wade through life. Kiss and tell is a book filled with kisses from God in form of words of inspiration, to trust even when the chips are down, to hope even when you feel forlorn, and to call on God and run into His waiting arms of love no matter how much you feel youve failed Him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 19, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490858685

Joy Inyamu Akut

Joy Inyamu Akut is the author and publisher of “iNyamu’s Eldorado,” a blog site where she writes about life, the awesomeness of God, and encourages people by enriching their spirits with words of inspirations. Joy lives in Nigeria. When she’s not writing, she’s getting inspired to write some more.

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Copyright © 2014 Joy Inyamu Akut.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Cover photo by Inmee studios.

Author photo by Rain Vedutti.

ISBN: 978-1-4908-5869-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-5868-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014919600

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/19/2014

Contents

Dedication

Introduction

In the Beginning

Conquering the Smalls

The Grateful Heart

Letting Go

Mountain Climbing

Slowly, Slowly, Catch Monkey

Oliver Twist

Zebra Crossing

He’s Right There

A Pinch of Doubt, A Tablespoon of Hope

Pregnant Again

True Talk

Despicable Him: Casting Crowns

Superhero

Cold Cold World

On Pains, Pools and Hope

Naked and Unashamed: Audacity of Grace

Louis Vuitton

We Got Annie

You Are No Better Than Me

Judge or Juror?

Rollercoaster

Band-Aid Effect

Broken, Barren, and Beautiful

Whirlwinds, Storms and Yachts

The Game Show

The Man

Work in Progress

Light Up

The Real Decoy

Salvation Subsidy

My Mourning, My Dancing

Popeye

Be a Coward

The Scar

100 Most Beautiful People

Desperate?

Mary, Did You Know?

The Judas Route?

Kiss and Tell

Notes

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations in this publications are from The Message. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Common Bible: Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

Dedication

T o the Lover of my soul, the one who has loved me from eternity, and continues to love me through eternity. The one who has kissed me with these words that I share.

To every reader of iNyamu’s Eldorado, you gave me the push and the courage to TELL.

Introduction

T he greatest love story ever told is that of God’s love for us, so much that He gave us the best of gifts; His only son, to save us from the damnation we deserve through sin. Love is about sacrifice, and God made the greatest sacrifice ever for us. God therefore is the greatest lover man can ever have. He is the lover of our souls, and none can love like He does. He has loved us with an everlasting love (Jer 31:3). The book of Songs of Solomon 1:1 (NASB) says May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth… A kiss is an expression of love, and God kisses us to express how much He loves us.

This is a tell-it-all inspirational book on faith, love, joy, peace, grace, blessings, and salvation, inviting those looking in from the outside, and at the same time, encouraging those already on the inside.

God kisses us every day with His loving kindness, grace, and mercy; His kiss holds us together in a world falling apart. I write as one who has been kissed with the kisses of His mouth. He has kissed me with these thoughts, turned into words in a book. He has kissed me with His spirit of wisdom that uses my foolishness to write about Him. He has kissed me, and I have no choice but to tell.

I don’t write as one who knows it all, I am just a girl who has seen God come through in the difficult times of my life, and been led by His light in times of darkness. I am a girl who has been kissed with an everlasting love that has soothed my heart when it cried out from brokenness. He has kissed me in my struggle to go through life. I write as one who has been kissed by the master builder Himself, kissed with His peace, joy, love, hope, provision, strength. I write as one obeying the instructions of my Love, What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Matthew 10:27 (NIV)

I write, in the words of C.S Lewis "for the unlearned, about things in which I am unlearned myself", or adding to his words, for the unlearned about things I am unlearned myself, but have been guided through, by the Spirit of God Himself.

I pray you get kissed with the ‘kisses of His mouth’, the kiss of the Spirit that gives understanding and life as you read this book.

God bless you.

Joy Inyamu Akut

In the Beginning

T here’s such a reverence attached to the first day of a New Year. The night before, we become sober, and promise to be all things wonderful. There is a burst of energy within us when we wake up, with expectations for the New Year blaring in our head.

Although we cross into the New Year with no significant change in our lives, and the day still feels like it did the previous day, there is a blind hope, a surge of strength in our speech, our laughter, and life in general. We still look the same, our body doesn’t automatically transform to the size six we will it to be, and the bad habits don’t do a back-flip away from us, even when we have them all written down as our New Year resolution.

There is something about the clock striking twelve midnight, something beyond the fireworks and the hugging and kissing of friends and family, something that snaps in us, a snap that makes us determined to conquer the world in the New Year. We see it as the beginning of a new era, a new beginning, and another chance to start afresh, make right all the wrong, and be the wonderful people we were created to be. It’s not always easy, as we sometimes find ourselves doing a double portion of the things we swore off before the end of the first week.

In the beginning "…the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" Gen 1:2-3 (NIV).

A place or life described as ‘formless, empty and dark is quite useless, nothing worth caring about. It lacks order; it is unused, murky, and gloomy. That’s what we are before salvation, before our New Year or New life. But God’s Spirit was hovering around this place of nothingness, waiting for a word from God, for permission to change it all…And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day" Gen 1:3-5 (NIV).

The past year, the old, or our past life is formless, empty, dark, and gloomy, lacking of purpose, and without direction. But then, He gives us a chance for a fresh start… the Spirit of God is hovering around, desperate to do wonderful things to and for us, to bring light to the place that has known only darkness, to add beauty where only ugliness resides.

The Holy Spirit is just waiting for that word from God, and God is waiting for that word from us, because He is what a lady would call a ‘Perfect Gentleman’. He refuses to force Himself on us.

God waits for that word that calls on Him to take over and be the wheel-handler of our lives, the word that moves Him to say, "let there be..." in our lives, to grant us the wonderful things we hope for, joy unspeakable, righteousness, peace, health, prosperity, a life of purpose, love… and the Spirit gladly manifests it.

When we get to that point of accepting Christ, which is giving God the wheel of our life, everything changes. It’s like waking up on the first day of a New Year. Things still look the way they did, there’s still that pimple from yesterday on our nose, but it doesn’t change the fact that our inner man is bursting with joy. We are ready to conquer the world, just like we were when we set resolutions. The Spirit has moved inside us, and we can do all things.

But somewhere along the line, we get disappointed and discouraged, just like we do when we realise all the resolutions we set in our jolly mood have been dropped along the way. Things aren’t working the way they should, we stumble in our walk sometimes, and we fail at other times. Isn’t the Spirit meant to be working in us, taking us to the place of conquering the world? Why should we go through all the unpleasantness?

"And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day… Gen 1:5 (NIV) Notice how the Bible emphasises on evening first? Even though it says God created light first, it could easily have said and there was morning and there was evening." The evening represents the darkness we go through. You know how life seems to throw all its filth at us day in and day out, the gloomy evenings of financial ruin, delayed dreams, and stolen joy? All these last only for a moment, because our morning is guaranteed to come with light that heals broken hearts, gives boldness, and renews our hope for better things. The morning gives life to those dreams that appeared dead in the evening of life. It makes possibility burst with life again.

And there was evening, and there was morning…

Don’t get discouraged if you do not achieve what you set out for yourself in the New Year, or new day, or your new life as fast as you hoped to. Just because it feels like you are not getting it right in the New is no reason to give up on your dreams and head back to the Old. The Spirit is moving and working on us. He gives strength that keeps us safe in the dark, strength that keeps us hoping and drenched in faith as we await the morning light.

Don’t give up on God. In His word, He told us that trials will come, but joy does come in the morning. And there was evening, and there was morning…

God has not forgotten His own, the one who gave Him permission to take over, the one whom He gave His Spirit the go ahead to make alive.

We will come into our morning soon enough, a morning so glorious, that the evenings of our lives would become distant memories, a morning so alive that we would feel as charged up as we did when we made those resolutions and dreamed those dreams before the evening drained our enthusiasm.

Remember to invite God to your beginnings, so He can speak the word that brings about your joy, and guard you through the darkness of the evening.

Every day is a new beginning, with new opportunities. Invite God into your day.

Conquering the Smalls

Those who lose sight of the ultimate become slaves to the immediate.

- John C. Maxwell

S mall-minded people are the distractions laid out on the path that leads to our destiny and greatness. It’s our choice to either stop and address them, or ignore them and keep moving towards our purpose. We would do ourselves much good by ignoring them, and treating their words as irrelevant, because that’s what they are. Someone said, If you stop to stone every dog that barks at you, you would never get to your destina tion.

After Samuel ordained Saul as the king of Israel, the people rejoiced … But the riff-raff went off muttering, ’Deliverer’? Don’t make me laugh!" They held him in contempt and refused to congratulate him. But Saul paid them no mind. 1 Sam 10:27 (The Message). He paid them no mind; he rose above their smallness, ignored them, and focused on what lay ahead.

Even Jesus, with a kingdom agenda like no other, filled with holiness, love, peace, kindness, and goodwill, had detractors. He walked on a path laid with small people spewing words of venom, and those who questioned His authority based on His root. "Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?" Matt 13:55-56 (KJV).

In their small-mindedness, they confined Him to the box of His origin, that they failed to see the bigger picture. Can anything good come from Nazareth? Jn 1:46. Jesus refused to be distracted by the smallness of the people; He still went about doing good, and pursuing the kingdom agenda.

We shouldn’t let people use our past to determine the pathway to our future with their vile talk and bitterness. People will make it their agenda to bring us down to their level; we are all things wise when we refuse to stoop or get distracted by the smallness. Like Isaiah 50:7 says, Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a stone, determined to do his will. And I know that I will not be put to shame.

Set your face on the prize, on your dreams and hopes. Focus on God’s plans for you, plans that are good and not evil (Jer 29:11). Peter took time out to peek at the waves for just a few seconds, he was probably distracted by the howling wind and raging waves. Thus for a few seconds, he lost focus on his destination, the outstretched hands of Jesus, and that was all it took to get him sinking. Lot’s wife looked back, and turned into a pillar of salt, she didn’t get to the destination. Looking back and listening to small voices stalls the passion of your mind, and keeps you rooted with the weight of discouragement, in a place that is far from your destination.

People are always ready to pull a fast one on you. They have your past mistakes, your background, your insecurities and fears, in a ‘goodie’ bag, dangling it at you to peek at.