Are You “Beloved” By The Lord? (Part II)

By Odon Bulamba (24 May 2002)

Solomon was chosen by God to build His temple. God asked him what he wanted and Solomon asked for wisdom and understanding. Christians today often ask God for material things like a house or overseas trip, and we never ask for things that will glorify Him in His temple. God gave Solomon everything he asked for and he was beloved by Him.

Now there were two prostitutes (1 Kings 3:16-27) with sons and one of them died because when one of the mothers went to sleep and she must of accidently crushed the child during the night. So why do our bodies need sleep? Some people say that our bodies need to rest, so for those who have slept for twenty years in the grave haven’t they had enough rest? Jesus said that you will rest when He returns and He will wipe away your tears, so why do we need sleep? Why do we go to bed every night? Is it laziness? Is it the way we have been brought up?

The first person to fall asleep was Adam but when he slept he bore fruit, so does your sleep produce Eve? Do we produce something similar to ourselves in our sleep? We have two ways of sleeping; the physical and the spiritual. The physical sleep is when you are tired and you need to rest, but spiritual rest only exists after war because on this earth we are still fighting the devil.

How many times do we fall asleep spiritually like the mother who fell asleep on her child? What does spiritual sleep mean? It means that when a Christian doesn’t want to read their Bible or pray and gives rest first place in their lives. When you rest and put God’s will aside, you go against the law. When the mother who’s child had died and decided to steal the other mother’s child to make up for the lost, they had to go before the king to find out whose baby was whose because they both had babies at the same time, so they went to king Solomon for a solution.

The king used what God had given him to find a solution for these ladies, so as Christians who know the Word of God, do we use it to solve our problems? Do we think about God’s Word to seek out other people’s problems?

When I was in prison ten years ago they told me that if I accepted not to preach the gospel, I would go free but I said no, I want to carry on. So they took me and put me in a little cell in which I was sitting in water. I thank God because He helped me through the first day and in the morning the guards were shocked that I was able to sleep, so they decided to shave me with broken glass, and if I didn’t have hair you would see my scars. When they were shaving me it hurt, so I said to the Lord that if He doesn’t help me to resist I will give up the faith, and God did something.

Often when people hear these testimonies they think it is just a story, but remember there are people who suffer in other countries. So I said to the Lord, Lord you have given me the gospel and everywhere I have gone, I have kept it. The Lord allowed me to be tortured but at the end of it all, those who tortured me understood that they were wrong, and this happened ten years ago.

Recently I received e-mails from Mobutu’s wife and Hayley saw some of them. Mobutu’s wife asked me for forgiveness for what had happened in prison and wanted to be my friend and she offered me money so that I would help her. So I looked at this offer but I said no, there is danger here and God doesn’t need money. If I accepted this money I could have done many things but God helped me to recognize that these people needed to understand about spiritual help. Solomon didn’t ask God for material help but he asked for something that was good for his people so Solomon could solve any problem and keep being called beloved by the Lord.

When we became Christians we really loved God, but are you in the same state today as you were when you were first saved? Is your first love the same or has it changed? If your first loved has changed then where are you up to now? Will God still call you beloved? Or will he call you just a citizen?

We must live as Solomon did and find solutions for other people’s problems, we must not fall asleep spiritually because if we do, remember that the devil doesn’t sleep. If you visit his kingdom one day you will see that he works day and night and never sleeps. As Christians we have this grace to work but we don’t know how to use it. Think about what you are sowing because a time will come to reap, and if you haven’t sown anything you won’t reap anything. Moses did this and Paul did that and Christians talk about them all the time, but what have you done? If you haven’t done anything, then what will your reward be?

One day I went to small country in Sri Lanka and these people were a bit difficult. I had a Christian brother who really loved Jesus but he had no feet, hands or eyes. This brother would go everywhere to preach the gospel even though he couldn’t see anyone and would talk all the time without shame. This brother would say to people who were not handicap, why do I work for the Lord and you who have all your body parts don’t? Everybody around him started crying because they had never asked themselves this question. Someone who is handicap can work for the Lord but woe to the man who doesn’t work.

We must be careful because there is a limited time for grace given to us, Jesus can come back at anytime or you can die in the next minute, and when you die you die alone and God will ask you, what did you do on earth for Me?

God might see that you slept a lot. God might find that you didn’t have enough time to help sinners. Those who are not called beloved by the Lord will go to the devil and God will ask you, are you My beloved? Your mouth won’t answer for you but your soul will and your faith will show God where your heart was. So it will be terrible if you were a Christian but you don’t go with God.

We are created in Jesus’ image and everywhere we go we must bear Jesus’ identity. When God weighs up our lives, He should see that we live in the image of Jesus. Let’s not be like wet matches that cannot produce fire, they are matches but they can’t work so we must avoid this. Try to find out how you can produce fire for your spiritual life. One way to do this is through meditating on the Word, practicing the Word and pleading with God in prayer.

This will not cost you anything, only a bit of time. How many people have died on this earth and have done nothing? Adam lived many years on the earth, so where is his work? Noah built the ark, so where is it? Moses received the Ten Commandments, so where are they today? Remember that your time will go; if you do studies today remember that one-day your PhD won’t get you into eternity, but remember that your soul and my soul has to qualify. Above all this is the Word of God.

Why do we want things that are for a time only but miss things that are eternal? I am not saying you shouldn’t study or go to work, but make sure you find some time for God. Remember when we talked about 10%? 10% must be given in everything. God gave you 24 hours in a day so give your God 2.4 hours back, which is not too much to ask for especially when He gives you 22 hours and 30 minutes. If you go to God and He sees that you can’t be trusted in the little things, He will never give you big things, so let’s be trustworthy with the little things in life. It is important for us Christians when God can say, Michael is my beloved or Michelle is my beloved one, so let God call you beloved and not yourself or others.