A NEW CREATION (Part I)

(One of the branches of the great salvation)

By Odon Bulamba (25th July 2003)

Your body’s like a car: How will you drive it?

Tonight we are going to talk about a topic that everyone knows about it; a vehicle. Everybody knows about cars or planes etc. So if God has put things the way they are it’s because He wanted us to learn something. If today we have cars, it’s not by chance but because God wanted us to learn something from it and cars are very important in our lives. In some third world countries, only rich people have cars and in other countries a car is a normal thing. Why do we have cars? It’s because we need them for all the activities we do.

I don’t think anyone will put a car in his house to make it better. Even if your car has leather seats, it will still stay in your garage and it will never come into the house meaning that the car has its place. We all know about cars, cars have different colours and different shapes and each colour depends on the brand and each brand depends on the factory and God created human beings on earth and He gave different colours to men and different shapes to men. Some are short and fat and others are tall and slim and some are black and others are yellow and this depends on God Himself.

So for the first time in the Bible in the book of Genesis, God found it good that there was a vehicle and the first vehicle that was made was Noah’s ark. And God wanted to teach us that also on water a vehicle can work, but as for us human beings we can’t walk on water. A boat even though it is heavy can float on water. At that time people mocked Noah, “Do you think that what you are making will float on water? It is very heavy and very big. If I am a human being and I can’t float, how will this heavy thing float?” But Noah said, “You will learn, because I put my trust in God and He will do something”.

For the second time in Genesis 41 other things came and they were chariots, they came for the first time in Egypt. When Joseph prophesied the Bible said that Pharoah took his ring and gave it to Joseph and a chariot was given to him so that he could go all over the country. A country like Egypt with a bad reputation makes a vehicle, how can you explain that? We can study divine pyramids and we can learn something about Christian life from them. The country like Egypt, which is dry teaches us something.

In time a plane was invented. One day Elijah was taken by the Lord and a chariot of fire came and took him away and he flew in the air. So already what we see as a plane already existed in God’s plan.

Tonight we are going to talk about the vehicle that is the car. What is the car? It is something artificial and very useful. The car has a motor and the motor helps the car to move ahead or backwards. But on its own the motor can’t do any thing, it needs also the body of the car and needs also tyres and a driver. And when the driver drives, although your car has twenty headlights, your eyes will always look ahead of you. You cannot drive your car with your head turned backwards. Why is that? Because you want to know where you are going and if you don’t, you will have an accident, which means danger and even death. So the car I’m talking about is our physical body that we have. In the old days we would use vehicles for two things, either for peace or war. Today we will talk about peace.

So can we describe a car? There is a part in the front and in the back. And the front has the engine, which controls the whole car. It is the same for man who has his whole life controlled by something. And the control of human life is man’s will. If you want to drink water, you will drink water and if you want to sleep you will go to bed, so that is the first thing that controls man.

When our brother Paul has a car, he will need a key to start the engine. What is the key? It is the life that we have. If we lose our life, our bodies will not work. If we lose our life, we will stop doing anything. Try to lose your ignition key somewhere and then say to your car, “Open because I want to go”; the car will look at you. You can say to the car, “I bought you”, but the car will say, “I don’t care, I don’t know you, prove it. Is your name written on the car, no”. In the same way; the body we have are not ours. You can tell your body you need this but if life is not in you, your body will not respect you. Many people die on the road and you can never go back to life, even if their soul said I want to go back to life, their body will say no.

So for instance, our brother Paul gets into his car, he must know how to use the car and if he doesn’t know, the car will not accept it. Even if it is your car, if you don’t know how to deal with it, the car won’t do anything.

Two or three years ago, Peter took me somewhere to teach me to drive and we had the old blue car and I wanted to know how Peter knew better. It didn’t mean that I didn’t know how to drive. Peter said, “don’t you know how to drive a manual car?” and I said “no I don’t”. And we went somewhere on Crosby Road and there was a car behind me and we were on a steep road and a give way and I looked at Pete and thought. “Ah here we are”. And I put on the clutch and we went backwards, and Peter said, “No go ahead” but it didn’t want to and the one behind was just thirty centimetres behinds us and I said, “No I can’t Peter you come” and Peter came and put the handbrake on and he used the pedals and we went. And I put this in my head and one day I thought that I would talk about it.

The next time I took Michelle and we went somewhere but before leaving Michelle’s house someone gave me the key and the steering wheel and I made as if I didn’t know anything. I started the engine and the car would bunny hop and everybody laughed, “Oh he’s that old and he can’t drive, why that”. Because the car doesn’t need your age, you can be young but if you know how to drive a car, you can drive. You can be old and if you don’t know how to drive a car, you will not drive and the car will never be afraid of you or ashamed. If you don’t know how to drive everybody will look at you and laugh and you might be in the car but the car will never hide you, why is that? Because our bodies too, when we cannot drive our bodies, this will expose our actions in front of everybody and if they see our brother Paul, they will say he is a good man, his actions are good, and he stands out and if you look at someone else, people will say, no not this one because their body has exposed them.

So in the car you have pedals and each pedal has its role. You have an accelerator, a brake and a clutch. If you want to speed up you will never put your foot on the clutch, or the brake. So you must put your foot on the right place at the right time. So if you want your body to speed up in the gospel you will speed up. If you want your body to stop at some stage, your body will stop. To change gears, you must use the clutch. The clutch is the prayer we do. When do you change gears when you drive? When you want to either speed up or slow down. When you come to a curve you put the brake on and you will also put your foot on the clutch. And when you find circumstances in your Christian life, you must slow down in your way of thinking and you must slow down in your way of judging and in your way of complaining to find the best speed for this circumstance and this is done through prayer. Unfortunately today we have automatic cars and those ones have no clutch, they are like Christians who have no prayer in their lives. And when they come to a curve they just put the brake on so to find a solution to their problems, they just stop. Because you disturb me so much I better cut off my relationship with you so that I will find a rest.

There is also a steering wheel which steers the car and without it, the car will not go. What is your steering wheel, what drives your body? Is it your spirit, your thoughts or Jesus Christ? What drives your life? This is a question every Christian must ask them selves. It is true that my body is mine and it belongs to me but what leads this body. The feet are on the pedals and they will never use the steering wheel and your hands will never push the pedals. So who drives your car? We must find an answer and every one might have his own.

So when you drive a car, if you want to go right you will turn right and if you want to go left you will. You might have people in your car but you will still carry on with your car. You can be alone in your car and your car will still go the same way but we must not forget we have seats for others. Why do we have seats for others? I think it’s to transport others. And how many people do you transport in your heart? How many spirits do you have in your heart? Does Jesus have a place in your heart? The bible says that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit; does the Spirit have some room in your life? If not, why not?

And when we drive a car, on the dash board there are indicators and you have other things to show you the petrol and lights etc. So if you are a driver, you must know all the signs because sometimes the car knows it is running out of petrol and you will have a sign and if you don’t know how to read this sign you will think the whole car has a breakdown. At some stage this car will stop. For us Christians we must also understand the signs of life in our bodies. When we feel sick for example, what does it make us think about? And when others disturb us, what do we think about and when our families abandon us, what do we think about? All those things are signs and we must find a solution to carry on with our walk.