By Odon Bulamba
Mathew 24 gives us the signs of the return of Jesus. Those signs are not hidden but are there for
us to see and to remember that Jesus is coming back soon. When Jesus comes back it will be sudden and
quick like a blink. Jesus will come back
to take the church at the same speed it takes to blink and you will not have
time to repent. Those who are not ready that
day will stay behind, therefore God gives us signs so we can be prepared.
One of those signs in Mathew 24:6-7 is famine. Today people talk about famine and non-profit
organisations ask for money to help those who are starving. The alarms are everywhere, even here in New
Zealand you can see people begging for food.
Another sign is earthquakes.
Christchurch had a terrible earthquake recently which came out suddenly,
out of nowhere. Beautiful houses that
people spent years making were destroyed.
The earthquake shook everything and destroyed making people to lose not
only their houses but their lives. We cried
in New Zealand we were humbled. The
earthquake only lasted a few minutes but everything was destroyed.
Everyone was shouting for help, even the police and army. This is a sign that can teach us a lot. Most of the time we invest in material things
that wars and earthquakes can take and destroy.
The war in Syria came like a joke and now many Syrians are
refugees. Their status has changed. They were once living peacefully in their
country and then war came and took their peace.
Syrians running here and there looking for shelter and they left behind
everything they had, even their families.
When shooting starts you forgot even your shoes in order to save your
life. There are abandoned children who
can’t find their parents.
Imagine war in your country today.
We are supposed to flee but where will we go? The airport will be closed. Can we escape under the Waikato river? Can we go to the police station? Even the police will run away and we find
there is no refuge.
When Jesus was talking to people He was telling them physical things
but they had a spiritual meaning. We
have earthquakes in us: problems with power that destroy all our thoughts and
shake us. Pain, hunger, no water, every
second you face is a challenge. When you
see time moving quickly you feel that you have to hurry up and the situation is
alarming and then you see everything collapsing. You had joy in the morning but peace is now
gone.
Inside us we have the heart and that is where Jesus lives and that’s
where we put all our faith and trust.
Our heart and soul has been given to Jesus. In order to show we love someone we draw a
heart shape. Is that really the shape of
our heart? No, someone just drew
that. When Jesus lives inside us, the
heart doesn’t have that shape. The cross
in you is Jesus living in you.
The role of the heart is to work hard pumping blood to keep us alive
while it is a small part of the body and yet it is the engine of our life. If the heart stops, we die. Your arm or leg can stop to function and you
can live but not your heart. Satan will
also come to your heart and try to destroy it, to shake it. You will have an earthquake of thoughts, and
problems will grow and attack your heart so that you will feel sad or
angry. It will grow and if you are not
careful, you will sin.
Some who lost their houses in Christchurch still can’t go back to their
houses even though they had insurance. Insurance
couldn’t buy back the house even though they had been paying insurance every
week but the insurance company couldn’t afford to fix all the problems. What will you do/
Jesus says to come to me for your rest.
You have to come to Jesus. If not,
you won’t get rest. You can be in front
of Jesus and tell Him all about your problems and how heavy they are but Jesus
will say, “it’s true, I see it but come to me first”. Come means to move from one place toward that
person. It is an invitation to move
forward to that person. “Coming” is not
a matter of jumping in one second, you have to advance and the distance gets
closer between you and your God.
The big mistake of the church today is that we prefer to tell Jesus to
come to us. For example, a mother calls
their child to come, the child won’t say, “no, you come”. When Jesus asks you to come, what is your
answer? What do you tell Him? If you call your child many times and your
child doesn’t come, as a parent you will stop calling your child. At some point Jesus will also stop calling
us.
What brings us close to Jesus?
The Word of God. Reading the Word
of God helps us to find solutions. Read
verses to Jesus in the same way that a child reads to their parents. As a child I would read to my father and
where I was wrong, he would correct me and by accepting his correction, my
reading kept improving. My dad would
tell me to think about what I am reading.
It is the same with the Word of God, accept God’s correction and keep
improving and when we read the Word of God, take the time to think about it.
To find refuge from war and earthquakes in our lives, we have to read
the Word of God and find the time to mediate on it. When you read your Bible every day, think
about what you are reading.
We are half way through the year and very soon the year will end. You have already gone through a lot this
year. Your problems shouldn’t be your
priority but your life and the lives of others should be your focus. When the earthquake comes, you leave
everything behind to save yourself and the lives of others. Leave behind tv and pray for others.
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