By Odon Bulamba (April 2011)
Jonah - April 2011
Showing posts with label Jonah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jonah. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
SHOW US A SIGN
By Michael Bahjejian
Mat 16:1-4
1 ¶ Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.
2 He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, `It will be fair weather, for the sky is red';
3 "and in the morning, `It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.
4 "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." And He left them and departed.
Here is a simple and well known passage in Matthew that seems quite easy to understand, but do we really understand what it means? Could we for example answer some of the following questions: What is the sign of Jonah? Why did the Pharisees and Sadducees want to test Jesus? Why didn’t Jesus show them a sign from heaven, and why did they especially ask for a sign from heaven?
The sign of Jonah
As you know, many amazing things happened in the book of Jonah (between Obadiah and Micah, it is not the easiest book to find). Which one from these amazing things do you think is the sign of Jonah? Is it the fish that swallowed Jonas in the middle of the stormy sea, spit him on the shore 3 days later, and by doing so saved his life? Is it Jonah's prayer of repentance and supplication in the belly of the fish? Is it his complete change of mind when he decided to go to Nineveh and warn their inhabitants of its coming destruction? Is it the rapid growth of the vine, followed by its immediate withering the next day? Is it Nineveh’s repentance of the entire population of Nineveh with its 120 000 people who were so far from knowing what’s good and what’s wrong that the Bible says that they couldn’t tell their right hand from their left? Or is it the whole book or history of Jonah?
If we consider that the definition of a sign is ‘a perceptible indication of something not immediately apparent’, maybe that the sign of Jonah is none of all these things but just the manifestation of God’s goodness, something that deeply saddened Jonah who was looking for justice, a pre-view of God’s promise of salvation for the whole fallen world.
Mat 12:38-40 sheds some light on this passage.
38 ¶ Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You."
39 But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40 "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Jesus makes it clear there that the sign of Jonas’ is a prophecy about Jesus’death and the three days He spent in Hades before His resurrection. And in Luk 11:29-30, Jesus calls Himself ‘a sign to his generation’, as Jonah was a sign for his one.
29 ¶ And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, He began to say, "This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.
30 "For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.
Was it wrong to ask for a sign?
Obviously, Jesus was not happy with the request.
Mark 8:12 goes further:
The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven, to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and said, “Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.” And he left them, and getting into the boat again he departed to the other side.
This Gospel doesn’t even mention the sign of Jonah. Jesus leaves without an answer. The Pharisees might have found it rude and could have accused Jesus of being in a bad mood. But we know that Jesus is not moody nor rude but that He knows the thoughts of the heart and the hidden intents of people; in that case, the Pharisees were not interested at anything else than accusing Him and in his wisdom, Jesus knew that it was better to keep silent. But there was more to all of this.
A sign from heaven
Imagine someone asking for something he or her has already been given. People would say, “Open your eyes, you’ve already got it!” And if they insist, wouldn’t they become annoyed with this person? Jesus was the sign already given by God to that generation and the many miracles that occur in chapter 14 and 15 of the book of Matthew attest that, with the many healings that occur, as well as both the multiplication of the food with the 5000 men and the 4000 men. What were they still looking for it? And why did they ask for a sign from heaven? Obviously, they had missed all these signs that made people believe in Him, believe in who He was saying He was. They had not rejoiced with the healed people or with the well fed crowd. And also, you just don’t ask for a sign, it is rude! You wait for it and when it’s there, it is the time to open your eyes, not to close them. It would be like asking someone if she or he is a Christian after that person has performed a miracle in the name of Jesus. Wouldn’t it be weird to answer yes or no? And that‘s exactly what the Pharisees and the Sadducees did. No wonder why Jesus compared them to a blind leading a blind. They didn’t want to see the signs and the sign they were asking for was Jesus himself. When Jesus refers them to the sign of Jonas, He meant, “If you’ve missed ‘the sign’, then go to the previous one!”
There is a sign from heaven mentioned in 1Thes 4:16, the Lord himself descending from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. However, this was not yet the time for this to happen, and it hasn’t happened yet, 2000 years after Jesus death and resurrection. This sign is for another time, another dispensation. Jesus had to suffer and to die first and be resurrected of the third day. There was an agonising hour to go through, a cup of sorrow to drink, a crown of thorn to wear, a door to go through to be called the good shepherd and not a thief and a robber. When Satan tempted Jesus after his fast or through Peter’s human advice later, he wanted to lead Jesus away from his purpose of going through the cross. Jesus had already rebuked them and here again, this wicked generation asks for a sign coming from heaven, a sign that is supposed to make them see and believe without the need to have faith. This generation was wicked because they didn’t understand the need for salvation and God’s plan of redemption. God‘s plan was, “If you believe, you’ll be saved’. Faith came first.
Today, we are the signs for this generation; the glory of God veiled for still a little time in a perishable body. Like Jesus, who came into the flesh and was born in a stable from a poor family, our Christian lives are lived in humility and sometimes humiliation but always by faith. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were expecting a Messiah dressed in heavenly glory, a Messiah who would have delivered them from the Roman occupation and oppression, a Messiah who wouldn’t have challenged their unbelief and exposed their wickedness. They didn’t want to deal with their sin problem that was also, by the way, the reason for their political problems because hey thought they were healthy and didn’t need a saviour.
Pharisees and Sadducees
Sadducees and Pharisees who requested the sign from heaven had never stopped testing and questioning Jesus. For example, they accused him of blasphemy when He forgave the sins of the paralytic, accused him of violating the Sabbath when He healed the dry hand, tested Him on the legitimacy of the tax to Caesar, and kept questioning Him on many topics. They wanted to find a reason to accuse him and eventually to kill him. The more they did so, the more numerous were the layers that hardened their hearts to the point that Jesus started speaking in parables to avoid being accused all the time. When Jesus was challenged, he would always send his accusers back to their hearts: “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out? If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” And they had nothing to say. (Luke 14 5) The wrong understanding and use of the Law had destroyed the life itself in those who were supposed to teach it to the point that they did not recognise their God when Emmanuel, ‘God is with us’ came to live in their midst.
To be religious versus to be holy
In Mat 15:3-9, Jesus touches the heart of the problem of the religious authorities when He accuses the Pharisees and scribes to void the word of God that is holy for the sake of their tradition.
Jesus presents the word of God, ‘Honour your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death’. It is the word of God and it is a command. The tradition has changed it in “If a man says to his father or mother, ‘whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God’, he is not to ‘honour his father’ with it.”
Jesus means ‘Here is your tradition. It is not the word of God anymore. You’ve changed it. You’ve changed it because you are hypocrites. You pretend to honour me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me.’
What are the differences between these 2 commandments?
In the first one, the real word of God, the word God is not mentioned. It is like with the book of Esther where the word ‘God’ is never mentioned. However, it is mentioned in what Jesus calls a tradition. They added the word God to God’s commandment.
Also, the first one involves people, love and respect for people. The second one involves people and God, but it lacks love and respect for people. It looks more holy and religious but God’s aim is betrayed by it. Hypocrites look religious, but in their hearts, hypocrisy reigns when love is absent. God never dissociates the love for God and the love for human being, in that case, parents. For Him, the love for your neighbour has an equal value than the love for God as He considers the two commands as similar. When tested again about the greatest commandment in the Law, Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,’ this is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself,’ All the Law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.” Mat 22:37-40.
Conclusion
As Jonah was a sign for his generation and Jesus a sign for his generation, we are also today’s sign for our generation. And as we have been reminded this week in a 2 day course on Islam Sylvie and I attended, we are the only visible Bibles people around us can read. Whatever we do, whatever we are, let us be a light in this world of darkness, a sign that shows clearly to people the right direction towards the One who is the way, the truth and the life.
May God bless you.
Mat 16:1-4
1 ¶ Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.
2 He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, `It will be fair weather, for the sky is red';
3 "and in the morning, `It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.
4 "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." And He left them and departed.
Here is a simple and well known passage in Matthew that seems quite easy to understand, but do we really understand what it means? Could we for example answer some of the following questions: What is the sign of Jonah? Why did the Pharisees and Sadducees want to test Jesus? Why didn’t Jesus show them a sign from heaven, and why did they especially ask for a sign from heaven?
The sign of Jonah
As you know, many amazing things happened in the book of Jonah (between Obadiah and Micah, it is not the easiest book to find). Which one from these amazing things do you think is the sign of Jonah? Is it the fish that swallowed Jonas in the middle of the stormy sea, spit him on the shore 3 days later, and by doing so saved his life? Is it Jonah's prayer of repentance and supplication in the belly of the fish? Is it his complete change of mind when he decided to go to Nineveh and warn their inhabitants of its coming destruction? Is it the rapid growth of the vine, followed by its immediate withering the next day? Is it Nineveh’s repentance of the entire population of Nineveh with its 120 000 people who were so far from knowing what’s good and what’s wrong that the Bible says that they couldn’t tell their right hand from their left? Or is it the whole book or history of Jonah?
If we consider that the definition of a sign is ‘a perceptible indication of something not immediately apparent’, maybe that the sign of Jonah is none of all these things but just the manifestation of God’s goodness, something that deeply saddened Jonah who was looking for justice, a pre-view of God’s promise of salvation for the whole fallen world.
Mat 12:38-40 sheds some light on this passage.
38 ¶ Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You."
39 But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40 "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Jesus makes it clear there that the sign of Jonas’ is a prophecy about Jesus’death and the three days He spent in Hades before His resurrection. And in Luk 11:29-30, Jesus calls Himself ‘a sign to his generation’, as Jonah was a sign for his one.
29 ¶ And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, He began to say, "This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.
30 "For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.
Was it wrong to ask for a sign?
Obviously, Jesus was not happy with the request.
Mark 8:12 goes further:
The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven, to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and said, “Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.” And he left them, and getting into the boat again he departed to the other side.
This Gospel doesn’t even mention the sign of Jonah. Jesus leaves without an answer. The Pharisees might have found it rude and could have accused Jesus of being in a bad mood. But we know that Jesus is not moody nor rude but that He knows the thoughts of the heart and the hidden intents of people; in that case, the Pharisees were not interested at anything else than accusing Him and in his wisdom, Jesus knew that it was better to keep silent. But there was more to all of this.
A sign from heaven
Imagine someone asking for something he or her has already been given. People would say, “Open your eyes, you’ve already got it!” And if they insist, wouldn’t they become annoyed with this person? Jesus was the sign already given by God to that generation and the many miracles that occur in chapter 14 and 15 of the book of Matthew attest that, with the many healings that occur, as well as both the multiplication of the food with the 5000 men and the 4000 men. What were they still looking for it? And why did they ask for a sign from heaven? Obviously, they had missed all these signs that made people believe in Him, believe in who He was saying He was. They had not rejoiced with the healed people or with the well fed crowd. And also, you just don’t ask for a sign, it is rude! You wait for it and when it’s there, it is the time to open your eyes, not to close them. It would be like asking someone if she or he is a Christian after that person has performed a miracle in the name of Jesus. Wouldn’t it be weird to answer yes or no? And that‘s exactly what the Pharisees and the Sadducees did. No wonder why Jesus compared them to a blind leading a blind. They didn’t want to see the signs and the sign they were asking for was Jesus himself. When Jesus refers them to the sign of Jonas, He meant, “If you’ve missed ‘the sign’, then go to the previous one!”
There is a sign from heaven mentioned in 1Thes 4:16, the Lord himself descending from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. However, this was not yet the time for this to happen, and it hasn’t happened yet, 2000 years after Jesus death and resurrection. This sign is for another time, another dispensation. Jesus had to suffer and to die first and be resurrected of the third day. There was an agonising hour to go through, a cup of sorrow to drink, a crown of thorn to wear, a door to go through to be called the good shepherd and not a thief and a robber. When Satan tempted Jesus after his fast or through Peter’s human advice later, he wanted to lead Jesus away from his purpose of going through the cross. Jesus had already rebuked them and here again, this wicked generation asks for a sign coming from heaven, a sign that is supposed to make them see and believe without the need to have faith. This generation was wicked because they didn’t understand the need for salvation and God’s plan of redemption. God‘s plan was, “If you believe, you’ll be saved’. Faith came first.
Today, we are the signs for this generation; the glory of God veiled for still a little time in a perishable body. Like Jesus, who came into the flesh and was born in a stable from a poor family, our Christian lives are lived in humility and sometimes humiliation but always by faith. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were expecting a Messiah dressed in heavenly glory, a Messiah who would have delivered them from the Roman occupation and oppression, a Messiah who wouldn’t have challenged their unbelief and exposed their wickedness. They didn’t want to deal with their sin problem that was also, by the way, the reason for their political problems because hey thought they were healthy and didn’t need a saviour.
Pharisees and Sadducees
Sadducees and Pharisees who requested the sign from heaven had never stopped testing and questioning Jesus. For example, they accused him of blasphemy when He forgave the sins of the paralytic, accused him of violating the Sabbath when He healed the dry hand, tested Him on the legitimacy of the tax to Caesar, and kept questioning Him on many topics. They wanted to find a reason to accuse him and eventually to kill him. The more they did so, the more numerous were the layers that hardened their hearts to the point that Jesus started speaking in parables to avoid being accused all the time. When Jesus was challenged, he would always send his accusers back to their hearts: “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out? If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” And they had nothing to say. (Luke 14 5) The wrong understanding and use of the Law had destroyed the life itself in those who were supposed to teach it to the point that they did not recognise their God when Emmanuel, ‘God is with us’ came to live in their midst.
To be religious versus to be holy
In Mat 15:3-9, Jesus touches the heart of the problem of the religious authorities when He accuses the Pharisees and scribes to void the word of God that is holy for the sake of their tradition.
Jesus presents the word of God, ‘Honour your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death’. It is the word of God and it is a command. The tradition has changed it in “If a man says to his father or mother, ‘whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God’, he is not to ‘honour his father’ with it.”
Jesus means ‘Here is your tradition. It is not the word of God anymore. You’ve changed it. You’ve changed it because you are hypocrites. You pretend to honour me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me.’
What are the differences between these 2 commandments?
In the first one, the real word of God, the word God is not mentioned. It is like with the book of Esther where the word ‘God’ is never mentioned. However, it is mentioned in what Jesus calls a tradition. They added the word God to God’s commandment.
Also, the first one involves people, love and respect for people. The second one involves people and God, but it lacks love and respect for people. It looks more holy and religious but God’s aim is betrayed by it. Hypocrites look religious, but in their hearts, hypocrisy reigns when love is absent. God never dissociates the love for God and the love for human being, in that case, parents. For Him, the love for your neighbour has an equal value than the love for God as He considers the two commands as similar. When tested again about the greatest commandment in the Law, Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,’ this is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself,’ All the Law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.” Mat 22:37-40.
Conclusion
As Jonah was a sign for his generation and Jesus a sign for his generation, we are also today’s sign for our generation. And as we have been reminded this week in a 2 day course on Islam Sylvie and I attended, we are the only visible Bibles people around us can read. Whatever we do, whatever we are, let us be a light in this world of darkness, a sign that shows clearly to people the right direction towards the One who is the way, the truth and the life.
May God bless you.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Jonah (part V)
By Odon Bulamba (summary only)
Jonah 3:4-4:4
Those people of Ninevah decided that not only they should fast but also the animals among them. This was my first time to discover that animals can also fast. Animals can fast? For the purpose of our sin? What we learn from this is that we have to give God everything that we have. We have to show God that if my body is fasting, my soul is fasting and everything around me also has to share that same sorrow or problem with me.
Most of the time when we are praying we don't involve people around us, we keep quiet. When for example I am is crossing a problem it's not easy for me ask others to pray for me or to ask others for their support. We don't have to make it a requirement to know all about the problem, you can ask for support from a brother or sister in Christ, ask them to pray for you so you can feel supported. Sometimes we think we can pray by ourselves but sometimes God will work through someone else, outside of your family to answer your prayer requests. We have to support each other in our way of praying and we have to make others participate, make our friends to participate and teach our children to pray for others and that will help the world to recognize who God is .
In Chapter 4:1, after God seeing that those people didn't continue in their sin and they recognized their fault, God decided to forgive them. Jonah interpreted that in a wrong way and he was angry. Many times whenever someone tries to help us or gives us a warning, we can just interpret it in our own way and become angry. When I become angry I will not please God because anger is not a gift of the Holy Spirit, instead I will please satan. So what shall we do? When ever you receive a message we have to think about it and if it’s not clear we have to ask so we can understand clearly.
After listening to what God said, Jonah became angry and he interpreted the result in his own way. He complained to God, “how come you're not going to punish them anymore, you promised. They will think that God can promise and then changed his mind after two minutes, you promised to punish them, do it now”. He became angry. Do you think Jonah was angry against the people of Ninevah or against God? He was angry against God because God changed his decision and sometimes we can easily become angry against God too. For example, some people are not happy with the way they look and they complain to God because others are better looking. And when those who are better looking than them look in their direction, they become angry and think the person is vain and proud. Our way of interpreting things can sometimes lead us to sin. We have to ask God questions to understand better and we must thank God for whatever He gave us.
In verse 4, Jonah was asked, “do you have really the right to be angry?” Do you also have the right to complain to God? Do you have the right to become angry or to do whatever you are doing against God? That is the question we are called to ask ourselves, all of us. We have to know the Lord our God is always right and He will never change, He will be right every day and He can kill, He can heal, He can give or He can take away whatever He has given but He will still be right. We have to remember that if we lose something it’s not because God is against me or God is not just. If for example you want something and you are not given the chance or the grace to receive it, don't blame God.
Jonah's message was a poor message because he didn't do it with a spirit which was animated by the power of God but that message transformed the life of all the nation. That message of Jonah helped the people of Ninevah to recognize God. The way that we are here, all of us can take the gospel to others and preach to others. Maybe we can just write some pamphlets or some notes on a sheet of paper and put them in mailboxes around us. Although we don't want to go to Nineveh but if we do it our actions can produce fruit the same way it was for Jonah. Jonah didn't want to preach in Ninevah but whatever he did by telling people about God, God made it to produce fruit in their lives and the lives of those people changed.
So what will it cost you today to sit in front of your computer and type maybe one sentence, “my friend Jesus loves you” and then print maybe 20 copies andput them in mailboxes around your neighbourhood? Maybe someone will read it and find that Jesus loves them and wonder who wrote this for them and that message can give life to that soul and maybe ten years later or maybe two weeks later you will hear someone say, “I received a note in my mailbox saying Jesus loves me and that was a message of joy for me. I was crossing a hard situation and I needed love and I found Jesus”.
It will not cost you anything but through small actions like that one God can heal all the population of a country. We have to find strategies and find what way we shall preach. If you are not able to stand on the street and speak then find another way. Some people can even use email. If we are ashamed to speak we can find another way but if we have the courage to speak, what are we waiting for? We have to speak, we have to inform others because soon Jesus is coming back.
If there was a fire on this street, I believe each person here would yell and warn their neighbors of the danger. We are people who are called to help others from that fire so we have to shout, we have to open our alarms and put them in action and tell others that the end of time is here, the end of the world will be burned soon so you have to come out from wherever you are, if not you will perish. We are living in a free society so we can talk to others and there is no consequence or danger if you are telling someone about Jesus, so don't worry.
This message was just about Jonah's gospel but today I will call it Hayley's gospel, or Marcia’s gospel and Sylvie's gospel. It’s my gospel and I must share it with others and help them to find salvation. Let's pray so we can get enough strength from God to work for God to call people to his kingdom. Let's pray.
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Jonah 3:4-4:4
Those people of Ninevah decided that not only they should fast but also the animals among them. This was my first time to discover that animals can also fast. Animals can fast? For the purpose of our sin? What we learn from this is that we have to give God everything that we have. We have to show God that if my body is fasting, my soul is fasting and everything around me also has to share that same sorrow or problem with me.
Most of the time when we are praying we don't involve people around us, we keep quiet. When for example I am is crossing a problem it's not easy for me ask others to pray for me or to ask others for their support. We don't have to make it a requirement to know all about the problem, you can ask for support from a brother or sister in Christ, ask them to pray for you so you can feel supported. Sometimes we think we can pray by ourselves but sometimes God will work through someone else, outside of your family to answer your prayer requests. We have to support each other in our way of praying and we have to make others participate, make our friends to participate and teach our children to pray for others and that will help the world to recognize who God is .
In Chapter 4:1, after God seeing that those people didn't continue in their sin and they recognized their fault, God decided to forgive them. Jonah interpreted that in a wrong way and he was angry. Many times whenever someone tries to help us or gives us a warning, we can just interpret it in our own way and become angry. When I become angry I will not please God because anger is not a gift of the Holy Spirit, instead I will please satan. So what shall we do? When ever you receive a message we have to think about it and if it’s not clear we have to ask so we can understand clearly.
After listening to what God said, Jonah became angry and he interpreted the result in his own way. He complained to God, “how come you're not going to punish them anymore, you promised. They will think that God can promise and then changed his mind after two minutes, you promised to punish them, do it now”. He became angry. Do you think Jonah was angry against the people of Ninevah or against God? He was angry against God because God changed his decision and sometimes we can easily become angry against God too. For example, some people are not happy with the way they look and they complain to God because others are better looking. And when those who are better looking than them look in their direction, they become angry and think the person is vain and proud. Our way of interpreting things can sometimes lead us to sin. We have to ask God questions to understand better and we must thank God for whatever He gave us.
In verse 4, Jonah was asked, “do you have really the right to be angry?” Do you also have the right to complain to God? Do you have the right to become angry or to do whatever you are doing against God? That is the question we are called to ask ourselves, all of us. We have to know the Lord our God is always right and He will never change, He will be right every day and He can kill, He can heal, He can give or He can take away whatever He has given but He will still be right. We have to remember that if we lose something it’s not because God is against me or God is not just. If for example you want something and you are not given the chance or the grace to receive it, don't blame God.
Jonah's message was a poor message because he didn't do it with a spirit which was animated by the power of God but that message transformed the life of all the nation. That message of Jonah helped the people of Ninevah to recognize God. The way that we are here, all of us can take the gospel to others and preach to others. Maybe we can just write some pamphlets or some notes on a sheet of paper and put them in mailboxes around us. Although we don't want to go to Nineveh but if we do it our actions can produce fruit the same way it was for Jonah. Jonah didn't want to preach in Ninevah but whatever he did by telling people about God, God made it to produce fruit in their lives and the lives of those people changed.
So what will it cost you today to sit in front of your computer and type maybe one sentence, “my friend Jesus loves you” and then print maybe 20 copies andput them in mailboxes around your neighbourhood? Maybe someone will read it and find that Jesus loves them and wonder who wrote this for them and that message can give life to that soul and maybe ten years later or maybe two weeks later you will hear someone say, “I received a note in my mailbox saying Jesus loves me and that was a message of joy for me. I was crossing a hard situation and I needed love and I found Jesus”.
It will not cost you anything but through small actions like that one God can heal all the population of a country. We have to find strategies and find what way we shall preach. If you are not able to stand on the street and speak then find another way. Some people can even use email. If we are ashamed to speak we can find another way but if we have the courage to speak, what are we waiting for? We have to speak, we have to inform others because soon Jesus is coming back.
If there was a fire on this street, I believe each person here would yell and warn their neighbors of the danger. We are people who are called to help others from that fire so we have to shout, we have to open our alarms and put them in action and tell others that the end of time is here, the end of the world will be burned soon so you have to come out from wherever you are, if not you will perish. We are living in a free society so we can talk to others and there is no consequence or danger if you are telling someone about Jesus, so don't worry.
This message was just about Jonah's gospel but today I will call it Hayley's gospel, or Marcia’s gospel and Sylvie's gospel. It’s my gospel and I must share it with others and help them to find salvation. Let's pray so we can get enough strength from God to work for God to call people to his kingdom. Let's pray.
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Jonah (part IV)
By Odon Bulamba (summary only)
Jonah 3:5
After Jonah gave that message, the Bible says, the people of the town took the Word of God seriously. That message is really important and we must be serious because if we are not serious with this message we will perish. How many times do we take things seriously in our lives? Maybe when it's time for my studies or my exams I can study seriously, I can concentrate seriously on my work but when it's time to pray I will feel it's too late or I'm too tired. We are not motivated to do God’s work.
Those people were really wise because they were serious and the first step to winning our souls or winning the souls of other people is to be serious and to commit ourselves to God’s work. If we want our neighbors to be saved we must first of all be serious and make a decision and a plan. We have to pray for them and make a decision to visit them and then it will be accomplished. I must be serious. If I am not serious, God will never be serious with me.
Those people of Ninevah were serious and they decided to fast. Do we as Christians really make a decision and commit ourselves to it? We have to know if we are really working for God or not. Are we living for God? If so, we must be really serious with this life because this life needs to produce fruit . If our lives don't produce anything, God will make us pay the price for that. I can tell you sincerely that God is sometimes nasty. When He is angry nothing will stop Him from becoming angry. When He punishes nothing will stop him from punishing. When he is unhappy no one will stop Him and no one can push Him to become happy. So we have to remember that everything that we are doing today God will one day say, “this is the end of the story of your life, you must change your way of living, you must change your way of talking, you must change and if you don't want to change it by yourself I will change it by force”. When God changes things by force that is the time the person starts to pray to fast and God will try to be a little bit far and observe and you will go through problems to the point that you will start to regret and say why did I do whatever it was.
Look at the example of Job; that man was really quiet. He didn't have any problem with God but because God wanted to prove to the world that even his servant can be allowed to go through suffering, he allowed Job to go through that. Job suffered for many years, he lost everything that he had, everything except his life. If he was really handsome he lost that beauty, if he was really rich he became poor, if Job was healthy that time he became sick. This means that our lives are not ours, our time is not our time, your activities are not yours. Remember, there is a God who lives in you and He controls your life, He controls your steps, your activities. If you forget that he controls you, you will go far away from His will and during that time he will punish you.
So those people came to God by fasting and then God accepted them. In verse eight it says, every person was supposed to pray to God with all his strength. Everybody was pushed and was asked to change their actions to good actions, to become people who will really please God.
These people decided to pray. They were serious and knew this was the time for praying, this was the time for forgiveness, this was the time for action. And to take action we must first of all confess, to repent of our sins and then to fast. Then we have to make a decision so that with all our strength we can pray.
So what does praying with strength mean or with all your force, what does that mean? With concentration, that's all. In the Bible, it says that we have to forget about what's going on around us. You have to focus your eyes on God and say, “here I am and my problem is this, this and that”. And when you are telling God your problems you must feel in your heart there is something. But if you are not concentrating on what you are doing at the time, God will not really listen to your prayer. If you say, “God, I stick on this, I concentrate on my prayer and if you are not responding to me now, you will see me again tomorrow and the day after tomorrow until the day that you respond” and you will see God respond.
But the thing that we don't have is courage. I can make the decision to pray but when it's time to pray I will say that I will pray later after TV or a movie but after that maybe something else will come and I will do something else and then I will decide to pray tomorrow instead.
We have to concentrate and when we concentrate on our prayers we have to make sure God is not far. The Bible says that God is really close to us and he's not far from us so the concentration now will make us to say, “God I am here and I'm here not for myself but for You. I'm here because I want You to listen to my voice. I'm here because I am crossing a situation which is really, really hard for me and I'm going into trouble and I need your support and help. I need your participation in my life and I need God your presence in my prayer”. Then tell God your problem.
Cry to God when you are crossing problem. Cry to God because of the souls that appear in front of you. Cry to God for the salvation of those people in front of you. Pray to God for any personal problem in your family, pray to God because of the personal problems in this world and God will listen.
Churches are facing a load of problems but do we really pray to God for those problems? We don't have time or the opportunity to cry in front of God or the opportunity to think about God's love for others or the opportunity to think about how Jesus was crucified because of us. We don't even have time to think about redemption and we think that's normal. We have to be serious and think about our lives and commit our lives between God's hands.
SUMMARY
- We must be serious with Word of God and with our lives
- We must make a decision for God and stick to it
- Our lives belong to God
- Pray with all your strength = concentratration
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Jonah 3:5
After Jonah gave that message, the Bible says, the people of the town took the Word of God seriously. That message is really important and we must be serious because if we are not serious with this message we will perish. How many times do we take things seriously in our lives? Maybe when it's time for my studies or my exams I can study seriously, I can concentrate seriously on my work but when it's time to pray I will feel it's too late or I'm too tired. We are not motivated to do God’s work.
Those people were really wise because they were serious and the first step to winning our souls or winning the souls of other people is to be serious and to commit ourselves to God’s work. If we want our neighbors to be saved we must first of all be serious and make a decision and a plan. We have to pray for them and make a decision to visit them and then it will be accomplished. I must be serious. If I am not serious, God will never be serious with me.
Those people of Ninevah were serious and they decided to fast. Do we as Christians really make a decision and commit ourselves to it? We have to know if we are really working for God or not. Are we living for God? If so, we must be really serious with this life because this life needs to produce fruit . If our lives don't produce anything, God will make us pay the price for that. I can tell you sincerely that God is sometimes nasty. When He is angry nothing will stop Him from becoming angry. When He punishes nothing will stop him from punishing. When he is unhappy no one will stop Him and no one can push Him to become happy. So we have to remember that everything that we are doing today God will one day say, “this is the end of the story of your life, you must change your way of living, you must change your way of talking, you must change and if you don't want to change it by yourself I will change it by force”. When God changes things by force that is the time the person starts to pray to fast and God will try to be a little bit far and observe and you will go through problems to the point that you will start to regret and say why did I do whatever it was.
Look at the example of Job; that man was really quiet. He didn't have any problem with God but because God wanted to prove to the world that even his servant can be allowed to go through suffering, he allowed Job to go through that. Job suffered for many years, he lost everything that he had, everything except his life. If he was really handsome he lost that beauty, if he was really rich he became poor, if Job was healthy that time he became sick. This means that our lives are not ours, our time is not our time, your activities are not yours. Remember, there is a God who lives in you and He controls your life, He controls your steps, your activities. If you forget that he controls you, you will go far away from His will and during that time he will punish you.
So those people came to God by fasting and then God accepted them. In verse eight it says, every person was supposed to pray to God with all his strength. Everybody was pushed and was asked to change their actions to good actions, to become people who will really please God.
These people decided to pray. They were serious and knew this was the time for praying, this was the time for forgiveness, this was the time for action. And to take action we must first of all confess, to repent of our sins and then to fast. Then we have to make a decision so that with all our strength we can pray.
So what does praying with strength mean or with all your force, what does that mean? With concentration, that's all. In the Bible, it says that we have to forget about what's going on around us. You have to focus your eyes on God and say, “here I am and my problem is this, this and that”. And when you are telling God your problems you must feel in your heart there is something. But if you are not concentrating on what you are doing at the time, God will not really listen to your prayer. If you say, “God, I stick on this, I concentrate on my prayer and if you are not responding to me now, you will see me again tomorrow and the day after tomorrow until the day that you respond” and you will see God respond.
But the thing that we don't have is courage. I can make the decision to pray but when it's time to pray I will say that I will pray later after TV or a movie but after that maybe something else will come and I will do something else and then I will decide to pray tomorrow instead.
We have to concentrate and when we concentrate on our prayers we have to make sure God is not far. The Bible says that God is really close to us and he's not far from us so the concentration now will make us to say, “God I am here and I'm here not for myself but for You. I'm here because I want You to listen to my voice. I'm here because I am crossing a situation which is really, really hard for me and I'm going into trouble and I need your support and help. I need your participation in my life and I need God your presence in my prayer”. Then tell God your problem.
Cry to God when you are crossing problem. Cry to God because of the souls that appear in front of you. Cry to God for the salvation of those people in front of you. Pray to God for any personal problem in your family, pray to God because of the personal problems in this world and God will listen.
Churches are facing a load of problems but do we really pray to God for those problems? We don't have time or the opportunity to cry in front of God or the opportunity to think about God's love for others or the opportunity to think about how Jesus was crucified because of us. We don't even have time to think about redemption and we think that's normal. We have to be serious and think about our lives and commit our lives between God's hands.
SUMMARY
- We must be serious with Word of God and with our lives
- We must make a decision for God and stick to it
- Our lives belong to God
- Pray with all your strength = concentratration
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Jonah (part III)
By Odon Bulamba (summary only)
Jonah 1:6-12
The people on board the boat woke Jonah up. Some versions of the Bible say that they told him to stand up, “you cannot continue to sleep while we are in trouble, people are suffering with fear, people are suffering with trouble and you, yourself are sleeping, wake up”. Jonah woke up and told them to shout for help from his God. Jonah knew that he had a problem with the same God that he had to go and ask help from. Most of the time when we are going through problems, the problems will push us because there is no solution anywhere else so we have to pray.
Sometimes we reach a point where we can do nothing ourselves, we try our best but nothing works and the only solution is to commit the problem between God's hands. When you are crossing a really hard situation you can pray and even cry and you can feel really bad and many people can even ask God why is the situation happening to me why am I crossing this, why and why and why?
Because they are pushed they come to God. This was the first thing that God did in Jonah's life, He told people to wake him up and push him to ask for help. Jonah felt shameful; “I cannot ask help from God, I'm a sinner, I did something wrong against Him, how shall I go and stand in front of God and ask Him to help us?" He found there was no way he could do it so he was now obliged to confess that it's because of his fault the situation is happening. Jonah recognized he was far away from his God and was forced to fix this problem with God. He was supposed first fix his problems with those who were around him.
Do I have the courage to see the person who is next to me and say, “ I am sorry it is now two years that I've been living here and I've never talk to you about Jesus please forgive me”. Is that really easy? I think, no. Is it really easy to go to your colleagues at work and say, “you know I have a new identity since maybe 1972, I have been a Christian since then.” Maybe they will answer, “You are a Christian? I didn't even know”. Will you have the courage to continue? “I am sorry because I didn't even tell you I was a Christian since a long time but now I call you to come and join us so all of us can be called a child of God”. This is really a hard task and is not easy.
Because of that situation people started now to play with Jonah and ask questions, “Jonah, which country are you from?” and he was, supposed to respond. “From which tribe are you? Tell us because we've never seen someone like you”. Jonah said, “I am Hebrew and my God is the God of the Hebrews, the God who created the heavens" and so on. Today we are living in a society where the best God, the god which is known by every person on earth is money. Children and adult people and old people know that the best thing in life is money. Money can be there and our faith will be sacrificed. Money can be there and everybody will be happy. But if there is no money we will find that life is hard. We can study and work just because of money. We can spend our time, many years at university because in the future we are expecting to get money, to find a nice job and to live properly on earth. But it is not too easy to spend many years learning about God so you can gain something in the Kingdom of God. Why that? Because for some people money is equal to God.
Jonah was really clear, “the God that I am praying is the Creator of heaven”. So who is your God? Is your God your house, is your God your children, is your God your studies, who is your God?
That day Jonah confessed and he told those people about all those secrets, I did such and such mistakes and that’s why we are here today so take me and throw me in the water.
In chapter 3 Jonah reached Ninevah and he started to preach that within 40 days God will destroy this town. Although Jonah was preaching he wasn’t preaching because he wanted to but because he was pushed by God. Sometimes we are also pushed, sometimes people push us or God pushes us to do this or do that and we have to know what to do.
If Jonah was arrogant, after coming out from the fish’s belly he could just end up on the beach and look around and say I am free here are not inside the vicious stomach any more, I am free, I can go where ever I want and God will not stop me. But he thought of those people who pray to other gods and he remembered how close he was to death in the fish’s belly and he didn’t want to forget what he had been through.
Today we have a problem with the church because we can easily forget what God has done for us. We can even forget after five minutes. We can easily forget, and we know that we are alive now and nothing bothers me now so I can carry on with my life the way that I want. I've heard people say, especially Christians, “this is my life, this is the way I want to live my life.” That's true, it is your life but you don't have to forget that you took it by credit, it's a life from God, He gave it to you for a time and He will take it back one day to Him.
If you are not clever you will be compared to those five foolish girls who were thinking that they were waiting for their groom to come and then they forgot that they needed oil in the lamp. So they were just spending their time. We are called to not be like those people, we have to think and remember that within 40 days maybe, within a short time this world will be destroyed and we know that one day Jesus will come. He will come to destroy this world, to punish the world, so why don't we tell people that Jesus is coming back soon? Within a few days, in a few months maybe the world will be destroyed and people who don't believe will perish. I will not be happy to see my brothers and sisters perished. You also will not be happy to see your people perish.
SUMMARY
Share the gospel before it is too late
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Jonah 1:6-12
The people on board the boat woke Jonah up. Some versions of the Bible say that they told him to stand up, “you cannot continue to sleep while we are in trouble, people are suffering with fear, people are suffering with trouble and you, yourself are sleeping, wake up”. Jonah woke up and told them to shout for help from his God. Jonah knew that he had a problem with the same God that he had to go and ask help from. Most of the time when we are going through problems, the problems will push us because there is no solution anywhere else so we have to pray.
Sometimes we reach a point where we can do nothing ourselves, we try our best but nothing works and the only solution is to commit the problem between God's hands. When you are crossing a really hard situation you can pray and even cry and you can feel really bad and many people can even ask God why is the situation happening to me why am I crossing this, why and why and why?
Because they are pushed they come to God. This was the first thing that God did in Jonah's life, He told people to wake him up and push him to ask for help. Jonah felt shameful; “I cannot ask help from God, I'm a sinner, I did something wrong against Him, how shall I go and stand in front of God and ask Him to help us?" He found there was no way he could do it so he was now obliged to confess that it's because of his fault the situation is happening. Jonah recognized he was far away from his God and was forced to fix this problem with God. He was supposed first fix his problems with those who were around him.
Do I have the courage to see the person who is next to me and say, “ I am sorry it is now two years that I've been living here and I've never talk to you about Jesus please forgive me”. Is that really easy? I think, no. Is it really easy to go to your colleagues at work and say, “you know I have a new identity since maybe 1972, I have been a Christian since then.” Maybe they will answer, “You are a Christian? I didn't even know”. Will you have the courage to continue? “I am sorry because I didn't even tell you I was a Christian since a long time but now I call you to come and join us so all of us can be called a child of God”. This is really a hard task and is not easy.
Because of that situation people started now to play with Jonah and ask questions, “Jonah, which country are you from?” and he was, supposed to respond. “From which tribe are you? Tell us because we've never seen someone like you”. Jonah said, “I am Hebrew and my God is the God of the Hebrews, the God who created the heavens" and so on. Today we are living in a society where the best God, the god which is known by every person on earth is money. Children and adult people and old people know that the best thing in life is money. Money can be there and our faith will be sacrificed. Money can be there and everybody will be happy. But if there is no money we will find that life is hard. We can study and work just because of money. We can spend our time, many years at university because in the future we are expecting to get money, to find a nice job and to live properly on earth. But it is not too easy to spend many years learning about God so you can gain something in the Kingdom of God. Why that? Because for some people money is equal to God.
Jonah was really clear, “the God that I am praying is the Creator of heaven”. So who is your God? Is your God your house, is your God your children, is your God your studies, who is your God?
That day Jonah confessed and he told those people about all those secrets, I did such and such mistakes and that’s why we are here today so take me and throw me in the water.
In chapter 3 Jonah reached Ninevah and he started to preach that within 40 days God will destroy this town. Although Jonah was preaching he wasn’t preaching because he wanted to but because he was pushed by God. Sometimes we are also pushed, sometimes people push us or God pushes us to do this or do that and we have to know what to do.
If Jonah was arrogant, after coming out from the fish’s belly he could just end up on the beach and look around and say I am free here are not inside the vicious stomach any more, I am free, I can go where ever I want and God will not stop me. But he thought of those people who pray to other gods and he remembered how close he was to death in the fish’s belly and he didn’t want to forget what he had been through.
Today we have a problem with the church because we can easily forget what God has done for us. We can even forget after five minutes. We can easily forget, and we know that we are alive now and nothing bothers me now so I can carry on with my life the way that I want. I've heard people say, especially Christians, “this is my life, this is the way I want to live my life.” That's true, it is your life but you don't have to forget that you took it by credit, it's a life from God, He gave it to you for a time and He will take it back one day to Him.
If you are not clever you will be compared to those five foolish girls who were thinking that they were waiting for their groom to come and then they forgot that they needed oil in the lamp. So they were just spending their time. We are called to not be like those people, we have to think and remember that within 40 days maybe, within a short time this world will be destroyed and we know that one day Jesus will come. He will come to destroy this world, to punish the world, so why don't we tell people that Jesus is coming back soon? Within a few days, in a few months maybe the world will be destroyed and people who don't believe will perish. I will not be happy to see my brothers and sisters perished. You also will not be happy to see your people perish.
SUMMARY
Share the gospel before it is too late
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Monday, May 11, 2009
Jonah (part II)
By Odon Bulamba (summary only)
Jonah 1:4-6
God gave the chance to Jonah to go on the boat. When the wind and waves appeared, Jonah thought he should go down to sleep. But who can sleep while they are in trouble? Who among us can sleep while he is fearing something will happen to his or her life? For example, if today you receive a letter from Bin laden saying that he is coming to visit your house tonight. Will you sleep? I think you will decide to sleep somewhere else, away from your house.
Many people in this world have this message from God to share with others but they don't have the courage to accomplish it. They think they just have keep it to themselves and to give the impression to others that they don't care or that they don't see what is going on around them. And when we close our eyes or our ears from what is going on around us we are like people who are asleep. And many times God will come back to us and we will tell God we didn't hear Him. Today God wants to tell us that we will be responsible later on because we neglected it or we didn't want to fulfill it.
While the waves pounded, those people on board the ship wondered where Jonah was. They went down and found him. The first question they asked was, “what are you doing here?” And the people of this world are asking us what are we doing here in this world, this world which is moving in the waves of the power of darkness and we're here quietly hiding ourselves and we don't want people to know who we are.
Our conscious is telling us, what are we doing here? If God asked you today, what are you doing in this world? What would you respond? Would you tell him that you are working for the government? Or will you tell God that you're working for maybe an engineer or a counselor? What answer would you give to your God if he asks you what are you doing here? Maybe it will be hard to tell God about things which don't have any spiritual meaning because God expects from us spiritual things more than physical things. We must have an answer every day, every time or at any moment because we don't know exactly the time when we will be asked about our mission on this earth.
SUMMARY
- Spread the gospel
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Jonah 1:4-6
God gave the chance to Jonah to go on the boat. When the wind and waves appeared, Jonah thought he should go down to sleep. But who can sleep while they are in trouble? Who among us can sleep while he is fearing something will happen to his or her life? For example, if today you receive a letter from Bin laden saying that he is coming to visit your house tonight. Will you sleep? I think you will decide to sleep somewhere else, away from your house.
Many people in this world have this message from God to share with others but they don't have the courage to accomplish it. They think they just have keep it to themselves and to give the impression to others that they don't care or that they don't see what is going on around them. And when we close our eyes or our ears from what is going on around us we are like people who are asleep. And many times God will come back to us and we will tell God we didn't hear Him. Today God wants to tell us that we will be responsible later on because we neglected it or we didn't want to fulfill it.
While the waves pounded, those people on board the ship wondered where Jonah was. They went down and found him. The first question they asked was, “what are you doing here?” And the people of this world are asking us what are we doing here in this world, this world which is moving in the waves of the power of darkness and we're here quietly hiding ourselves and we don't want people to know who we are.
Our conscious is telling us, what are we doing here? If God asked you today, what are you doing in this world? What would you respond? Would you tell him that you are working for the government? Or will you tell God that you're working for maybe an engineer or a counselor? What answer would you give to your God if he asks you what are you doing here? Maybe it will be hard to tell God about things which don't have any spiritual meaning because God expects from us spiritual things more than physical things. We must have an answer every day, every time or at any moment because we don't know exactly the time when we will be asked about our mission on this earth.
SUMMARY
- Spread the gospel
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Sunday, May 10, 2009
JONAH
By Odon Bulamba (summary only - 10th Sept, 04)
Jonah 1:1-5
Jonah was a servant of God and his gospel was for all the nation of Nineveh. Jonah was selected by God to go to Nineveh but he didn't want to go. Because he didn't want to go, God tried to show to him that he had to go because he was the only person that God could send at that time. God pointed at Jonah and told him that he must go into the night, “I will share with you the gospel because that is very, very important for everyday practical life”.
When God tells me to go and share the gospel with others it’s not really easy.
When Jonah was sent by God to go the first thing that Jonah did was to make the decision, "should I accept to go where God is sending me or shall I say no to God's mission?" God didn't talk to Jonah twice or three times, He only told him and it was up to him now to say the last word, to make the final decision. His decision was negative.
Maybe Jonah didn't tell his friends or his family that God spoke to him because he didn't want to go to Nineveh, he decided that he wasn't going and that was all. Many times in our lives God has been talking to us telling us to stop sinning and to live for Him. He tells us, “I will give you the strength to work, I will give you the ability to speak on my behalf, I will give you the strength to pray for others, to intercede, or to preach or to share whatever you have”. But most of the time we say, “no I don't have time for that because I have to study or because I have to work or because I have to take care of my children”. We have a lot of reasons which stop us responding to God’s mission.
God left Jonah and Jonah continued his life. He took the boat and he wanted to go to Tarsus and on his way God did not speak to him, from his home up to the beach, to the boat, He didn’t speak to Jonah at all. He gave him the chance to think. This is the same for us also as Christians; most of the time when we say no to God's mission, God gives us enough time to change our decision. God is there watching to see what we will do. He will not let us continue until the end of our lives to do the same mistake though, somewhere along the way, God will say, “Stop! It’s enough, no!”
When Jonah was in the boat he found everything was fine but when the waves started to get frightening, he recognized that God's power was next to him and he feared because he knew God wanted to punish him. He decided he should leave that place or others will be hurt so he went down to sleep. For him the solution was to go to sleep because if he is asleep, he won’t know what is happening and he will be far away from people and if he dies in his sleep, it will be fine because he won’t know it.
Time after time God tells us, “I said this in my Word and those people who were living around you, your family members, your friends, they need to know about my Kingdom of God, tell them about Me, show them you belong to Me because you are the light of this world, you are the salt of this world so show people that you belong to Me your creator”. But we think how can I go and talk to my neighbor about Jesus? First of all my neighbor is not a Christian and secondly my neighbor has never thought or talked about God so I need courage to go. That courage is not enough, how shall I go and speak in front of him? Where will I start? It's a really big test and God is there observing and saying, “now you must do it”. Finally you will say, “because I don't find a good opportunity to talk to my colleagues it's better to stay at home and live with people who will not bother me, it's better to live among Christians and not have contact with non-christians and God will not judge me because of not preaching to them”.
When Jesus came down he came with a new strategy because the Israelites couldn't share a meal with people who were not Israelites. But when God came he could visit sinners. He visited for examples Zacheus and he ate with Zacheus and people asked, “how can someone like you who is pure share your dinner with someone like Zacheus who is a sinner?” Jesus answered, “no, I think that I came for people like this”.
And as Christians today and churches and congregations and pastors and evangelists and others teach us that we have to share everything among us Christians. But Jesus wants us to go out and contact sinners and to be with them and talk with them and then they will get that chance or that grace to be saved. Because they are sinners they are spiritually sick, they don't have a normal health spiritually and they need someone to treat them, they need someone to cure them.
You and me who have been given that authority to heal people (that healing is not only physical it is also what we call the spiritual healing) you can pray for someone and that someone will get salvation, you can pray for someone and that someone will get healed. We have that power and that power is between our hands and we just have to say to God, “I’m going to visit that person, I commit that person's life between your hands to save him or her, touch him or her and heal him”
Whenever I'm sick I will go to see my doctor and he will prescribe something for me, maybe Panadol or whatever he wants so that I can feel better. Our souls also need a prescription but one that is different to medicine. When I go to meet with my doctor I will tell him/her I have a headache for example. My doctor will listen to my problem and then write a prescription and I’ll go to the pharmacy and from the pharmacy I will get medicine. We are the doctors of this world. People will come to us or we will go to them and tell them about the life which is Jesus Christ. Then they will find what they need to be healed because spiritually they are sick. Then we will recommend them to read in the Bible verses that will heal their souls. If we don't do that, make sure that people who are around us will die and the death will be on our shoulders.
SUMMARY
- Make a decision to work for God
- Share the gospel with your friends and family
- Pray for those around you to find salvation
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Jonah 1:1-5
Jonah was a servant of God and his gospel was for all the nation of Nineveh. Jonah was selected by God to go to Nineveh but he didn't want to go. Because he didn't want to go, God tried to show to him that he had to go because he was the only person that God could send at that time. God pointed at Jonah and told him that he must go into the night, “I will share with you the gospel because that is very, very important for everyday practical life”.
When God tells me to go and share the gospel with others it’s not really easy.
When Jonah was sent by God to go the first thing that Jonah did was to make the decision, "should I accept to go where God is sending me or shall I say no to God's mission?" God didn't talk to Jonah twice or three times, He only told him and it was up to him now to say the last word, to make the final decision. His decision was negative.
Maybe Jonah didn't tell his friends or his family that God spoke to him because he didn't want to go to Nineveh, he decided that he wasn't going and that was all. Many times in our lives God has been talking to us telling us to stop sinning and to live for Him. He tells us, “I will give you the strength to work, I will give you the ability to speak on my behalf, I will give you the strength to pray for others, to intercede, or to preach or to share whatever you have”. But most of the time we say, “no I don't have time for that because I have to study or because I have to work or because I have to take care of my children”. We have a lot of reasons which stop us responding to God’s mission.
God left Jonah and Jonah continued his life. He took the boat and he wanted to go to Tarsus and on his way God did not speak to him, from his home up to the beach, to the boat, He didn’t speak to Jonah at all. He gave him the chance to think. This is the same for us also as Christians; most of the time when we say no to God's mission, God gives us enough time to change our decision. God is there watching to see what we will do. He will not let us continue until the end of our lives to do the same mistake though, somewhere along the way, God will say, “Stop! It’s enough, no!”
When Jonah was in the boat he found everything was fine but when the waves started to get frightening, he recognized that God's power was next to him and he feared because he knew God wanted to punish him. He decided he should leave that place or others will be hurt so he went down to sleep. For him the solution was to go to sleep because if he is asleep, he won’t know what is happening and he will be far away from people and if he dies in his sleep, it will be fine because he won’t know it.
Time after time God tells us, “I said this in my Word and those people who were living around you, your family members, your friends, they need to know about my Kingdom of God, tell them about Me, show them you belong to Me because you are the light of this world, you are the salt of this world so show people that you belong to Me your creator”. But we think how can I go and talk to my neighbor about Jesus? First of all my neighbor is not a Christian and secondly my neighbor has never thought or talked about God so I need courage to go. That courage is not enough, how shall I go and speak in front of him? Where will I start? It's a really big test and God is there observing and saying, “now you must do it”. Finally you will say, “because I don't find a good opportunity to talk to my colleagues it's better to stay at home and live with people who will not bother me, it's better to live among Christians and not have contact with non-christians and God will not judge me because of not preaching to them”.
When Jesus came down he came with a new strategy because the Israelites couldn't share a meal with people who were not Israelites. But when God came he could visit sinners. He visited for examples Zacheus and he ate with Zacheus and people asked, “how can someone like you who is pure share your dinner with someone like Zacheus who is a sinner?” Jesus answered, “no, I think that I came for people like this”.
And as Christians today and churches and congregations and pastors and evangelists and others teach us that we have to share everything among us Christians. But Jesus wants us to go out and contact sinners and to be with them and talk with them and then they will get that chance or that grace to be saved. Because they are sinners they are spiritually sick, they don't have a normal health spiritually and they need someone to treat them, they need someone to cure them.
You and me who have been given that authority to heal people (that healing is not only physical it is also what we call the spiritual healing) you can pray for someone and that someone will get salvation, you can pray for someone and that someone will get healed. We have that power and that power is between our hands and we just have to say to God, “I’m going to visit that person, I commit that person's life between your hands to save him or her, touch him or her and heal him”
Whenever I'm sick I will go to see my doctor and he will prescribe something for me, maybe Panadol or whatever he wants so that I can feel better. Our souls also need a prescription but one that is different to medicine. When I go to meet with my doctor I will tell him/her I have a headache for example. My doctor will listen to my problem and then write a prescription and I’ll go to the pharmacy and from the pharmacy I will get medicine. We are the doctors of this world. People will come to us or we will go to them and tell them about the life which is Jesus Christ. Then they will find what they need to be healed because spiritually they are sick. Then we will recommend them to read in the Bible verses that will heal their souls. If we don't do that, make sure that people who are around us will die and the death will be on our shoulders.
SUMMARY
- Make a decision to work for God
- Share the gospel with your friends and family
- Pray for those around you to find salvation
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
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