Be Like Children (Part II)

By Odon Bulamba (11th September 2001)

If you don’t put the Word of God into practice you are like Pharisees who Jesus talked about in Matthew 23:2-3.

“The teachers of the law and Pharisees sit in Moses sit. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach”.

Pharisees exist in our church today, they call themselves children of God and were born from God, but they don’t practice what God teaches them. Michelle can tell Zoë to put on her pyjamas every night at 6pm, and Steve can tell his son to get up at 7am for school. Parents push their children to do things so it becomes a habit and when they are use to it they will think it is normal. God taught the Pharisees the law and He pushed them a bit to learn it, but now He just observes them to see what they will do with it. The Pharisees were always ready to say, Steve you have lied and the law condemns liars, but they themselves are liars. They teach people not to do wrongs but they never practice it themselves.

Michael, if you tell Nathaniel not to do this or that but he carries on doing it, what will you do? Michael will become angry because Nathaniel won’t listen. As we know some children are difficult and they often humiliate their parents when many people are around. Parents often asked themselves, why does my child act like this? Did I bring him up right or is he/she influenced from the outside? It is the same thing with the Pharisees, God taught them but they would never put it into practice.

So how many times do we as Christians practice what God teaches us? Are you here on this earth just to tell Kelly her faults when you have faults to deal with? Are you here just to advise Peter when you need advice? We are not children anymore where God must watch every step we take, because now we have grown up and are capable of doing things ourselves. When a child is two years old it knows right from wrong, and if you tell your child that stealing is from the devil the child will understand because a child fears the devil. Even though children do not know what Satan looks like, when they hear about him, they are afraid because not even little children want to belong to the devil. The devil is not a friend.

Jesus taught us this lesson because He wants us to comply with the law. When a child is disciplined it always goes back to his or her parents, and this teaches us about unity. Although we can have problems among us, we must still meet together and carry on. As we know children go to their neighbour’s house to play, so how many times do you visit others? Do you have time to visit Kelly? Why don’t we visit each other? When brothers and sisters have problems why don’t we visit them? If you haven’t had time to ring others, change so you can be in good relationships with everyone and to live in the spirit of unity with the Lord.

When a child becomes a friend with someone it is hard to separate him or her, and when you call your child for lunch he or she will refuse to come, but when we as Christians have visitors, deep in our hearts we want them to leave. When you visit your brothers and sisters you must know the right time, do not visit Celia when it is time to cook tea because if you go to her place at that time, will she look after you or the food? If she looks after you, then her children have to suffer because they have to wait for dinner, so as Christians we have to be careful. Everything has its own time.

Job 14:1-2&10-12-14. “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He springs up like a flower and withers away: like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure. But man dies and is laid low: he breathes his last and is no more. So man lies down and does not rise: till the heavens are no more, men will not awake or be roused from their sleep. If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come”.

Every human has a short life and as children of God we must remember that life is short on earth because death or Jesus can come at any time. So if you don’t behave like little children what are you going to tell God? Summit yourself and become like a child in your household so the power of God will be with you, because when you are in the kingdom of God you will be lifted up, but if you lift yourself up here on earth to show others you are an adult for the kingdom of God, you will be humiliated.

We must remember that our life will not last! Shari behave like a child so that your husband will see the upbringing you have received from God, and when you forgive, forget it forever so that your husband will not doubt the faith (this is not about Shari but everyone). This is how we must live with everyone including pagans to show them the upbringing God has given us. When the bombing happened on September 11th people weren’t expecting they would die, so what will they say to their God? What will they say to Him if they haven’t forgiven people on this earth? If they haven’t obeyed what God told them, what will they say?

The Bible says that in the last day our deeds will follow us, so what are your deeds, what will follow you when you meet the Lord? Many Christians forget about this. So when you die, will lies follow you? Did you know that disobedience will follow you? Magic, jealousy etc will follow you also, and the Bible also says that those who are disobedient will never inherit the kingdom.

So are you ready to meet Jesus? Do you live like a child in the kingdom of God? Do you behave according to the upbringing you have received? Are you like a Pharisee who knows the law but doesn’t put it into practice? Are you there just to show people their mistakes and not worry about your own? Are you an adult where others are children? We must repent like children so that those around us will also find salvation.

One day a servant of God who was strong and powerful invited me to his place. This servant told me to dress properly so that others would respect me and then he told me to take off my shoes before entering his house because he didn’t want his expensive rug to get dirty. He told me this because he wanted to show others that I (Odon) was a good friend, so I said O.K. Before leaving I prayed and God told me that all I was doing was just the fruit of disobedience because this man doesn’t want anyone dirty in his house. God said he is full of pride, he doesn’t want to comply with the law, he only likes those who are rich and when he preaches he talks about money and happiness but never obedience. So God told me to put on my normal clothes and go.

When I arrived there, they refused me entry. The child of this servant of God wanted to speak with his dad so his dad came over and asked him, what is the problem? The child told him that his house was full of darkness because he refused entry to a man who was dirty. The dad asked her if they were her thoughts, but the child said that she dreamt about it and felt that she had to tell her father.

After the child spoke to his father he went back to all the guests and said let’s pray before eating. When they started praying for the meal God changed their prayers to a prophecy against him. God spoke through someone about all the wrongs he had done in front of everybody who was there, everybody was shocked but when the servant heard the prophecy was for him, he said to everyone present that those are just his thoughts. Three minutes later as prophesied the servant sat down, bowed his head and died. I was still at the door and I could see everyone crying so I went inside because there was confusion and the guard was not able to do his job. I asked someone what happened and they said someone prophesied that after 3 minutes he would die, but others thought he was a sorcerer.

Something in my spirit pushed me to pray with the little girl who had the dream, so I prayed with her and when she touched her dad’s body he came back to life and everybody was surprised including the little girl. When her dad came right he asked for a glass of water. He said to the people present, I must live like a child so please forgive me for what I have done. Tell others I was proud, I judged people and I wasn’t serious in my decisions because I was given a 3-minute warning but I didn’t listen to it. As we speak this man is still alive today so remember that if we don’t respect what God asks us to do, He can take back your life at any time. You can dress well and have good food to eat but God will put you into confusion, so let’s try to live like children and have this spirit of forgiveness.

Pray for yourself and the group so that we will all know how to live in God’s family.