Afro-Scot Seeing The World Through The Lens of Worship: Afro-Scot

By Michael Uzoramaka Jonathan

The specific purpose of this book is to describe how we can walk, run, waltz, or whatever speed and movement suits the individual through life with a heart filled with gratitude. The author uses various examples to enlighten the reader on what makes the world beautiful.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Uzoramaka Jonathan
• Release date: Oct 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781739172510

Book preview

Dedicated to Jesus Christ, my Lord & Saviour.

© 2022 AFROSCOT LTD Published by AFROSCOT LTD United Kingdom

Baltic Chambers, 2nd Floor, 50 Wellington Street, Glasgow, G2 6HJ afroscot.org

Printed in the United Kingdom

ISBN is 978-1-7391725-1-0

All rights reserved. No part of  this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the publisher's prior written permission. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Scripture quotations identified KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Contents

 Introduction……….. 9 Body - Cycles of The Season……….. 14 - 19  Winter……….. 21 - 31

Spring……….. 33 - 42

Summer……….. 43 - 53 Autumn……….. 55 - 65  Soul……….. 67 - 76

Spirit……….. 77 - 86

Epilogue……….. 87 - 97

AFRO-SCOT

SEEING THE WORLD THROUGH THE  LENS OF WORSHIP

SEEING

Introduction

I always saw art as something that allowed one to look at the world and ponder its many mysteries. When walking through an elabo- rate 19th-century-styled hotel and driving through the motorway with my eye skimming the horizons of my beautiful city, I sense an eternity scribed deep into the cells of  my heart. As a human, I am born with a natural precociousness and proclivity for self. The notion reigned within me, and my mind concluded that I was born into this world to fulfill my pleasures. Wasn’t this what they taught us growing up? I am not sure who started this system but to come out of my mother’s womb and spend the next few years treated like I was the most important person and my needs always had to go first over others assisted in shifting my mind to one of

profound narcissism. However, when faced with something of immense beauty, like reaching the top of a mountain after a long cycle or stumbling upon a place, you would have simply walked past if you weren’t paying attention or looking extra carefully at the paintings and wallpaper adorned on the interior of  a building you start to feel that the world was indeed more than what met the eye.

Afro-Scot Seeing The World Through The Lens of  Worship

 It was more than you and me. It was something that involved the complete connectivity of the human soul. Of course, there are more examples like helping someone despite it inconve- niences you or displaying love exampled in the scriptures. I know that God created art to open our eyes to the beauty of  creation. I could only express the Bible’s uncreated creator's highest apex of creative ability in the figure of the image of God, one person, and the fullness of the God-head—Jesus Christ. But we will use God for ordinary sake. The true and living God of  the Bible. Some called him Elohim, Jehovah, or Jehovah Elohim. He had many names like Rapha, Nissi, Mekoddishkem, Shalom, and Shammah, but even the use of those names, the old testament Israelite’s view of him, was an act of worship.

 When sitting within a barrack of  a ship or looking outside during the advent of the spring sun, you feel the awe that pushes your soul out of your body and makes you just breathe a sensa- tional sigh as you remark on the wonders and gift of God. I needed to show gratitude to God, and it tended to explore and reach its zenith during our worship of God. Although my mother was not the first to bear this idea, she was the one who brought the idea to a concrete sentence that coloured and painted my actions as an author. Whenever I walked around the city or sat down with my mind on the physical world and the other in my subconscious, a word, poem or prose would play in my head, and a strong urge to pick up my notes and pen the language eased this urge. However, I simply saw it as an exercise to express my pent-up emotions without losing them through the business of time. But when I heard my mother proclaim what I had been doing for so long in concrete terms and with her characteristic vigorous passion, it

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Afro-Scot Seeing The World Through The Lens of  Worship

failed to pass from one ear to the other, and I soon began the practice of this worship to God through the gratitude  of every- thing. Everything, down to my body, five senses, and spirit. Every- thing would be for prayer and devotion.

 I decided to walk through my city, country, and world with the mindset that I should look instead of imagine. I should stay in reality and use the material to invigorate the imagination. That way, I could prove or rather enjoy the ethos of seeing the world through the lens of worship, and to reach such a point and find joy in it was now my new purpose in life.

 The Bible featured many prophets, judges, and men who God anointed to reveal Christ through the inspiration of God. The best example was David, the known Psalmist who wrote beautiful poetry regarding God and Christ. My personal favourite is his prophetic word describing the Father’s relationship with Christ as he says in Psalms Chapter one-hundred and ten verse one:

 ‘THE LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make Thine enemies thy footstool.’

 The language perfectly encapsulated the majestic wonder and mystery of  the heavens. To imagine such a thing is to down- play the significance of its poignancy. The image  of the sky is further described in Revelations, Ezekiel, and Daniel to a degree never seen anywhere else in scripture. The scene invites us to imagine through the Hebraic translation. It reveals the gentle touch and power of description God intended for us to see. However, the immensity of what it describes is beyond anything I can produce. Me saying this is not an act of humility or because I am a Christian. It is the plain truth. I have seen many things that showed

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Afro-Scot Seeing The World Through The Lens of  Worship

fantasy at its highest level, like Lord of the Rings or various Japanese animations that went beyond what I thought was possible human-wise. Their ingenuity sparked my retinas, and I couldn’t look away. However, these things are earthly; as Paul said, they will all be done away with once Christ descends. To think of the eternal is to imagine the vastness of  space. Or every person who ever walked the face of the earth.  Impossible right?

That is how I saw these scriptures, and to give fervent

reverence for these images that God presented us with hidden mysteries for the believer to uncover, is an act of worship. Now, you are probably asking me how such a thing can be an act of worship. I imagine the person asking this is an unbeliever; howev- er, I have seen that even believers can struggle to understand the beauty of the Bible. It’s epic-ness beyond anything one could conjure. To forget such a thing when reading and understanding that you are partaking in a particular type of  worship; a communi- cation between you and God is to downplay the God-head and Christ, who the Greeks called the Pantocrator or, as we would say in English, the omnipotent ruler of  the universe. This ruler spoke to David, and David, knowing the uniqueness that God had created him to be, found the right words to express the spiritual food he was digesting. These words made their way to the book of Psalms, and every time I read it, I