The Basics of Christianity (part IV)

By Odon Bulamba (summary only)

2 Corinthians 13:8, we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. Amen

We are called to act only according to the will of God. The will of God is the truth. It means that we as Christians are called to walk according to the scriptures. The scriptures are the Bible and the Bible is God Himself. God is the truth, the truth is Jesus Christ, the truth is the Holy Spirit and the truth is life. We are told to walk according to this truth.

Each country has a constitution, for Christians the Bible is our constitution. God will judge the world through the scriptures and woe to the man who has not mastered what God asks him to do. People know when they are guilty. For example, someone who drives 60km/h instead of 50km/h knows he is guilty and when you are pulled over you will make excuse after excuse to the policeman why you had to drive over 50km/h.

Everybody that breathes knows the truth exists and one day the world will be judged by this truth. Jesus Christ said, “I will not come back until every ear has heard my name”. To study law in some countries can be very expensive, but the law we have cost us nothing. Three quarters of the world have their constitutions based on the Bible. I know lawyers who defend their clients using the Bible and sometimes judges say, “according to this article it is written this and that” but the lawyer will answer, “according to the Bible it says this and that”. The judge will accept the Bible more than their constitution because God’s law is above all laws. This is why it is beneficial for us to learn this law and to know how to walk according to the will of God. We cannot do anything that opposes God’s law. This means we are to respect His law and live according to the Word by acting forth this Word.

God is the Word so we must live by this Word. Nobody can live without breathing and the Word of God is the oxygen we breathe. So if your spirit doesn’t find time to breathe this oxygen, you can be sure your spirit will die and something will go wrong in you. You cannot see oxygen. Oxygen is essential for our bodies like the Word of God is essential for our souls. Everything that God has promised is the truth and will be fulfilled whether you like it or not.

Numbers 23:19, "God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should repent, has He said, “will He not do it, or has He spoken and will He not make it good.”

Everything God says will be fulfilled. Jesus said, “I will be back to take you”. Many years may have passed but Jesus will be back. As Christians we must respect this Word because this Word gives us light and in this world there are many stumbling blocks, so we must know where we are going.

Psalm 119:11, your word I have hidden in my heart that I may not sin against you.

When we know the Word of God sin becomes a hard thing to do. When this Word is in our hearts God doesn’t allow us to sin. Amen. When this Word is not in us, it is easy to sin but the secret to over come sin is to know the Word.

Matthew 5:22, but I say to you that anyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court, and whoever shall say to his brother “Raca” shall be guilty before the supreme court, and whoever shall say “you fool,” shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

If you call someone stupid you have to go to the Supreme Court. How many times have you told someone they are stupid? When you’re driving and someone slows down before you, your instant reply will be, “you stupid fool”. Christians and pagans do it without realizing what the consequences are. When you go to a supreme court you have to face a jugde. How many times have you called someone a fool? Every time you say someone is a fool or Michael is a fool, you are fooling yourself. Will you be given the opportunity to ask Michael to forgive you when you are in hell? This is why Christians sin. The Bible says, my people perish because of lack of knowledge Hosea 4:6

If people go to hell the number one reason is that they do not know the truth and haven’t had the truth in them. A lack of knowledge is a danger for Christians. It is good for a Christian to have some knowledge of the Bible. If you had the choice whether to kill the mother bird or baby bird, who would you kill? What is the consequence if you kill the mother and leave the chick, or take the chick and leave the mother? What is your answer? If you kill the eggs and the chicks but leave the mother you will live a long life because the Bible says that if you respect your parents you will live a long life. If you do the opposite you sin and your life will be cut short. People don’t think it is a sin to take the mother bird. If you are not serious in the little things you cannot be serious in the big things. The Bible says you must be ready and worthy to manage little things and from here God will give you big things. If you don’t know the little scriptures like the mother and her chicks, how will you look after the big things? Peter can you tell me the fifth commandment? We have Ten Commandments so we must know them, if you don’t know them how will you know what a sin is? What is the second commandment? We must study harder.

The Ten Commandments are in Exodus 20. If we don’t know them by heart we must have some understanding and this will help us a lot. The fifth commandment is Do Not Murder. How many people have you killed? Have you killed anyone? In 1 John 3:15 the Bible says, When we hate someone we are murderers. There is no difference between a person who kills with a gun and someone who kills with hate. We must be careful. The Word of God is very useful for every believer as it is written in Isaiah 8:20.

To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them

The one who doesn’t respect the Word of God must go back to the Word. We always talk about the new birth and it says we must be born of water. The water is the Bible and this Word is God Himself, the truth is Jesus Christ, the truth is the Holy Spirit and this truth gives spirit and life to us. We must read the Word of God. How many chapters do we have in the book of Jude? How many verses are there? Old Bibles are very useful. The old versions have good translations and when we compare it to new Bibles we can discover words or verses that are misinterpreted, so we must do our research. Meditate on the words sanctification and beloved.

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