Your True Identity

By Odon Bulamba (19th June 2011)

We can’t see the changes in our lives because they happen slowly day after day but other people such as our neighbours or family members or God can see those changes.

Whenever I go overseas, the UN will advise me to change my name and print out a new passport with a new identity and I will now have a new name and new country of birth. Sometimes during that life, someone will come and call me Odon and I will have to keep quiet and sometimes hide my true identity.

1 John 3:1, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.”

We should be called children of God and that is what we are. People around us should know we are children of God and not because we wear a tag but people will just know it. None of us here had the right to be called a son of our earthly father; we didn’t do anything to be born to them and it’s the same with God.

Eph 6:1, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right”

Eph 1:5-6, “He predestined us for adoption to Sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” We were adopted by Jesus Christ. Regardless of your status, weaknesses or strengths, you are a child of God and without God you won’t be whoever you are. Most of the time we forget who we are and we forget about our appearance.

Zacchaeus was short and climbed a tree in order to get a good view of Jesus. Among the thousands of people who were there, Jesus Christ met with Zacchaeus. Jesus chose a short man who was unfair in his business dealings but Jesus said, ‘regardless of this, He is mine’, and chose to eat with him. For Jesus it was a chance to chat with Zacchaeus. Whenever you are a child of God, God invites you to share food with him.

When you eat your hands are in action without communicating to your body, every system will operate without you even thinking about it. You can talk while eating and you can walk while eating. Sometimes children will refuse to eat certain food even if they are hungry because they don’t like that particular food.

When Jesus invites you, He doesn’t care if you are weak or a sinner or that you don’t deserve it even though we keep making the same mistakes.

Luke 15: the Prodigal Son; The father jumped up when he saw his son and kissed him. Because of the love he had for his son, he said welcome home and shared a meal with him. But before to come back the son said, “I don’t deserve to be a son of my father anymore” and sometimes we also realise that we don’t deserve to be a Christian or to pray or read the Bible and satan uses that tool. Sometimes we decide to leave God and wait for God to come and get us.

Before the son left his father, he was probably a good son, doing good works. The father didn’t forget his son’s deeds and God also doesn’t forget your works and actions.

Mephibosheth was a young man whose grandfather was King Saul and his father was Jonathon who had an agreement with his friend David to be friends forever and to look after each other’s descendents. When David got power, Saul and Jonathon were killed along with all of their family members except Mephibosheth who was only five years old when the nurse looking after him realised that he will be killed also and picked him up and ran but accidently fell and broke both of his legs and he grew up disabled. The nurse continued to hide the baby and where they lived was completely dry. David asked if there are any descendents of Jonathon and one man named Ziba told him about a crippled boy without even mentioning his name.

David invited Mephibosheth to eat with him because of the love he had for Jonathon. Mephibosheth chose not to eat with David because he couldn’t even think he could sit with David. When Saul was alive Mephibosheth had everything but he had lost all his wealth and how much could he have judged his nurse for making him lame. We the church also judge others the same way and sometimes we try to help others but if something goes wrong, they blame us.

Ziba exposed Mephibosheth by telling David about him and put him in serious danger because normally a king would have had the descendents of the previous king killed and how much Mephibosheth could have felt betrayed by Ziba.

Mephibosheth told David, “I’m only a dead dog” and he minimised himself but David said, “no you are one of my sons”. We often feel minimised and say, “I’m a sinner, I’ll try to change” but then we keep going back to the same mistake.

By sitting at the table, no one could see the legs of Mephibosheth and God also doesn’t look at our weaknesses. For example, the parable of the coins; God gave only a few coins but although they were only small, that is all that God needs. There is no small sin; sin is sin and God is ready to forgive us.

After David ate with Mephibosheth, he told him that all that was Saul’s is yours and Ziba was now to be your servant. We don’t have to minimise ourselves no matter what the circumstances, no matter what we see, we are not called to stay in the same situation but to change.

In Israel dogs are not respected and to be called a dog is a humiliation. If you feel like a dog; people don’t respect you and you are less valued. God needs you; God doesn’t see you as a dog but as a child; just be at the table with Jesus. We have to compare what is good in our lives and what is bad and when you see weaknesses, also ask yourself, what is good in me?

God invites you to eat with Him (to go to church, to pray, to read the Word of God), you are not forced but if you don’t go, you’ll miss out on the conversation.

We are all children of God with different identities but some use a false identity. What was the surname of Adam? What was the surname of Moses? What about Jesus? They are all children of God. You are a child of God and that is your family name and we should stick on that family name and the values of that name. God needs you and misses you, even if you don’t miss Him. He needs you to be close to Him, He needs you to kiss Him and hug Him. Come close to Jesus today and eat at His table and have a chat with Him, regardless of your weaknesses, He needs you at the table.