Now that everyone I happen to talk to after my last blog post is asking me about mangoes, let me begin by giving updates. Yes I went home. Yes I ate a lot of mangoes. So many that I didn’t see the importance of taking other meals. Yes I carried some (though not a bucket- irefe). The updates end by reporting that there’s no any remaining as per now.
Now, this semester has been quite interesting. We made a lot of noise about Chastity Campaign. Then suddenly we kept quiet. It’s not that the campaign ended. No. There were other things happening behind the scenes. One of them is small group Bible studies on this subject purity. This happened in most Christian Unions across the country.
I belonged to one of the small Bible study groups in our Christian Union- Kenyatta University Christian Union Ruiru Campus. Every Monday evening was something to look forward to. It’s a beautiful thing when intellectuals come together to dissect the word of God. We spent hours having these discussions and most of the times we’d spill past the allocated time for the small group Bible study.
As we did this, we weren’t oblivious of the fact that we are prone to sin as well. Therefore we challenged one another to speak out and share our hearts out. In one of the small groups in JKUAT, a slogan was born- #TuambianeNdioTuombeane (we are indeed a hashtag generation) which means “let’s tell each other so that we can pray for each other”.
Clearly, the pursuit for purity is both individual and corporate. Individual because a person has to initiate effort and be convicted of the importance of walking in purity, and corporate because the pursuit of purity cannot be achieved when someone is walking alone. We have to walk with young people, peers and old people whom we are like-minded. We’ve got to challenge, rebuke and restore one another in case one of us falls. This will need us to be very vulnerable and open to each other. By all means, let’s help each other get to heaven.
The Bible studies in the Christian Unions were culminated with a session of signing the purity pledge. This was both a glorious and scary moment. Glorious in the way it was a demonstration of young people ready to commit themselves to walk purely amidst perversion, and scary because of the nature of the commitment. Either way, one thing was evident- indeed God has preserved for himself his own people in our times. He’s set apart people willing to walk in holiness despite their past mistakes, after knowing the truth. Honestly, no one can make such a commitment by themselves. Seeing people make this choice was an evidence of God’s saving Grace that saves and empowers people to live holy lives.
Perhaps signing the pledge will be of more impact in the purity journey. The cards will remind us of what we’ve committed ourselves to. The witnesses present in the signing session will remind of the great cloud of witnesses cheering us on. The accountability partners we committed to walk with will remind us the importance of walking together. The small group Bible study members will remind us that we discussed, explored and drew conclusions from the Bible together. The insights and convictions we got from God’s word concerning purity will act as witnesses against us if we sway from the truth. We’ll therefore be careful and deliberate in our walk.
I desire and pray that after all is said and done, after participating in all these activities geared towards encouraging people walk in purity, after these blog posts on sexual purity, that I will not be disqualified from the race. That I will be found holy and blameless during the glorious return of our Savior Jesus Christ. This, is the most important thing. Let’s therefore work out our salvation with fear and trembling, watching out that we may not lose on eternity.
The Bible study guide on purity was an initiative of FOCUS Kenya. We are indeed grateful to the staff who saw the need and took time to develop the 9 studies in the guide. They have also been the people behind the whole Chastity Campaign thing, encouraging us and facilitating the initiative. God bless them!
Ahaa… good read here. Quite profound.
Sometimes last year, I stood on the KUCURC podium on the subject of pleasure…
I reckon with the call for sexual purity. In my days as a university, we used to say, “dhambi ni mbaya…dhambi ni dhambi… haikukatazwa kwa sababu ni dhambi…ni kwa sababu ni baya” also we’d say, utakatifu ni lazima
Sure… Sin is really terrible!
Thanks Mary for blogging on this area of chastity. It’s my prayer that we shall walk in purity as the Christians in this hashtag generation as you put it.
Sure. May grace to live holy lives abound!
thank you for the disclaimer there as you begin, I was waiting for the mangoes..
so much profound, as you conclude is the best thing of all, that we may be found, holy and blameless on Jesus Christ return
Sure! That’s the essence of all these things.