Justification (Part I)

Man’s Heart – Between God and Satan

By Odon Bulamba (14 March 2003)

This is a good opportunity and a time to meet together. Praise God because He gives us the grace to meet. God is good and his kindness is great, nobody can say God is not good. In everything he does He’s good and perfect and if we meet together tonight its because God is good and because He’s perfect in everything he does. Before we start tonight we’re going to pray, all of us, we’re going to ask God to forgive us and to help us have a good heart.

One more time we have the grace, but one day this Grace will end. It’s like someone who is very hungry, starving, and when she’s given food the person eats with great appetite. They feel that their stomach gets something, but at some stage the stomach is full and that’s it. They have no appetite anymore; in the end they don’t want to eat anymore. With Gods grace it’s the same thing. God gave the grace to the world because the world is starving and each person is called to eat from this grace. But one day there will not be grace anymore. Woe to the one who didn’t get this grace.

Tonight we’re going to talk again about justification. How can we know where we’re up to before God? How can you know who you are before yourself? It’s true that some people don’t know exactly who they are. One day I was asked this question. “God wasn’t black, Jesus Christ wasn’t black why do you believe in Jesus“? This is a harsh question. I said “Who told you my brother that I’m black”? And he said “Yes you are black” I showed him my shoes, that day I was wearing black shoes I said “Do you think I’m like this?” he said “not really but your race is called black race” and when you say not really it means that I’m not black, and he thought he was white, but he wasn’t white either. Who is white amongst us? Who is this colour? - Nobody. Although you call yourself white you’re not white, although I call myself black I’m not black.

If I look in depth what a colour is our eyes can never determine a colour, because sometimes our eyes are full of mistakes, maybe one day we’re talk about it.

So we must know ourselves as Christians we must know who we are and we must also know the God in whom we put our trust.

A few years ago there was a war in 1945. A German went to war. He found a mirror, he said this is a treasure I must bring it back home because in my village there were no mirrors, and it was like Africa 100 years ago; a white man could offer an African a mirror in exchange for 500kg of gold and I think that in New Zealand you had the same story too.

So why did these people love mirrors? A mirror has significance in their lives. This mirror means something of great value in these people’s lives. So this German went to war and he took the mirror, he said I want to bring this mirror back with me if God allows me to come back healthy then this mirror means something. He was married to a beautiful girl maybe she was even prettier then Delilah, maybe even pretty as you are my sisters here.

This man was very proud of his wife and he thought the best gift to bring back to his wife was the mirror. The war lasted 5 years, during those 5 years the woman was the wife somewhere, and the man somewhere else. Because the war was going on everybody was in great trouble, sometimes the wife didn’t have time to look after her body so what happened when the German solider came back? He said this is what I bought you back and she was very happy with the gift. She opened it and looked at it and said “what’s that?” he said, “look again” she said, “no I don’t want to I can see a monster’, the man said, “no this is you” she said “no, that’s not me, I know myself, I know myself better than this thing.”

At that time the woman lived with her mum and her mum was old she had no teeth and the man said ok give me my mirror back. The wife said “no mum come here and see come and see what kind of second wife my husband came back with” and the mum was angry, “what is that? Who gave him the right to marry another wife when he went to war he was told to be careful and honest but he comes back with another wife” and the mum said “show me this wife” and she looked at the mirror and said “what kind of woman is this, she’s ugly, she has no teeth, you are not ashamed to marry someone like that” and the man said “mum that’s you” and she said “No I might hate, curse you because you are playing with my personality.

This is exactly the image of the Church of God. From time to time Jesus wants to see us, and when he visits us he sees a change in us. When he see this change he knows that if he tells us “Odon you have changed” then I might discuss or disagree with Him. So I find it better for you, to give you the mirror, the Word of God. Look at yourself, and when I look at it I’m the first one to say, “this is a monster” I’ll say, “what kind of word is it there are no teeth and I will argue with it”

James 1:23-25 Because if any man is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a glass; For after looking at himself he goes away, and in a short time he has no memory of what he was like. But he who goes on looking into the true law which makes him free, being not a hearer without memory but a doer putting it into effect, this man will have a blessing on his acts.
So when we don’t practice the Word of God we are compared to this wife and her mum because they were given a mirror and they didn’t admit whom they were. So with justification everyone must look at himself inside, you must observe yourself and know who you are. Without witnesses you’re be alone and you will ask yourself who am I, and when you ask yourself who am I, this is where God will come and show you who you really are.