Love God with all your body, soul, and mind

Time passes no matter what we do.  Time goes fast.  What do you think?  You realise that your life is also going fast because everything goes hand in hand with time.  For the first 6 days when God created everything, there were no human being witnesses.  He created everything in first 5 days that is beautiful to look at and admire it.  He didn’t do one item per day but many.  E.g many different species of fish but on the 6^th day, He only took one dust to create you and I.

He made us special, “let us make one like us, one of us, a part of us”.  Although animals can breathe, God did not use his mouth to breathe into those creatures,  He only breathed into human beings.  The love of God for humanity started here.

God gave us time to push us and help us to realise that we will not be on this earth for eternity because eternal life is somewhere else.  He decided the human being will die and when people die, it is painful because we don’t see them again except if we meet with them in heaven.  Because God loves the world, He gave us that one verse, John 3:16: only 26 words.  God gave his Son and whoever believes in his son will never die.  We trust in that and believe in it.

The greatest commandment is to love your God with all your mind, soul, strength and heart.  Four things.  Have you stopped to think how someone can love God with their soul?  How to love someone with my strength or mind?  Once you understand that, it is the beginning of knowing how God loves you and how to love him back.  If you don’t understand how to love God, you will achieve nothing with love.  Many Christians do not talk about this. 

I have asked many pastors, “Why don’t you tell us how to love with your soul?  How do I love God with all my heart? Teach it to me.  How to love God with my Strength? Teach me”, but no answer. 

Today, we will focus on the second part where Jesus added to love your neighbour in the same way you love yourself or your soul.  Do you love yourself?  God loves us and gave his only son and gave us everything we have surrounding us.  Being created in the image of God means we must love other people. 

Do you love yourself?  What is love to me?  If I don’t love myself, how will I love my neighbour?  If I don’t even know how to love, how will I love others?  You can only give what you have.  How much love do you have for yourself?  When I think of myself, I don’t know what I love about myself.  “Odon, can you tell yourself 20 things that prove you love yourself”.  I couldn’t count 5. 

When someone comes to you and says, “I love you”, you feel good but when asked, do you love yourself, what is your answer?  Jesus was trying to remind us that it is impossible to enter Kingdom of God if you don’t understand how precious you are to God and to love yourself.

Love has steps to grow, you need to do work and need fertiliser to grow.  Many people protect their love because they don’t want it to be broken.  Back home, we see people who kill themselves because the one who loved them is dead or doesn’t love them anymore.  I have seen people sacrifice everything for love including putting their Bible down.

Imagine how you love your mum, friend, children.  If you were asked, if you can only love one person on this planet, who will it be?  Many will not say themselves.  Ange I am sure has one child on the top of the list.  When we love those people, we are ready to sacrifice even our own kidney for them to live. Imagine if we loved ourselves in the same way.

We look at physical appearances and  believe that is what it is to love ourselves.  Many will spend thousands of dollars to look attractive.  That is not love or to love yourself, that is to be attractive to others not yourself.  I once watched the Kardashians.  They are see me see me, look at me, look at me, focus on me.  They can go through a lot of things, take operations to appear beautiful.  To look beautiful doesn’t mean people will love you.  They may appreciate your beauty but they do not necessarily love you.  Imagine if the entire world could only love beautiful people, the world would be different and Jesus would only come for the beautiful.

Human beings focus on things that are not important, focusing on our beauty rather than our love.  When you want to love yourself for the Bible, you need to understand that you were created in the image of God and because he loved the world so much, he gave his only son.  Do you give what is precious to yourself or to others?  Do you give so others can also be saved.

We have soul, heart and body.  God, you created us has been teaching us that the body is just dust and not important.  We should focus on what is eternal.  Whoever trusts in God will love for eternity. 

To love myself, I must be clean and happy and joyful with all I see and appreciate it.  Love is patient, that is the first point of definition of love.  Am I patient with myself?  When you do a mistake in your life, we sometimes become angry.  Even a small mistake can make you become wrong.  Some people will say, “it’s every time me, another mistake” and they are good at counting their weaknesses rather than their strength. 

When you love yourself, do you appreciate what you do?  In my community we celebrate wins but in NZ we don’t celebrate achievements or announce it. 

Yesterday I went to Auckland, we saw Samoan vehicles with their flags hanging out the window. They love their nation and are proud.  They were proud of their identity.  Are you proud of your identity as child of God?  I must be proud of how God created me.  God decided to create you in the way you are, with your physical appearance and your nature.  We don’t have to imitate others, just be ourselves.

I can’t say that because Ange sings very well that I must sing like her.  Ange will still be Ange and I will still be me.  Men try to dance like Michael Jackson, but they will never be Michael Jackson.  Love who are and be natural, don’t try to be synthetic.

When I read the Bible, am I patient or do I just read it quickly?

1 Timothy 12:1, do you remember that you are a servant of God?  God has chosen you and given you a place to be and the strength.  Are you strong enough?  Someone who is strong enough is also strong in love.  That’s how you know if someone is strong by measuring their love.  Even if someone hates you or does wrong against you, you will love that person if you are strong but if you hate, then you are weak.

The Bible says, let the weak believe they are strong and only way to be strong is to love.  After being strong, you must be trustworthy.  God trusts you, according to Genesis 1, God gave creation to us to control.  If God trusts you, why don’t you trust yourself?  Why are you unable to trust yourself?  You will only be able to trust yourself when you love yourself.

I love my hands so I will use them for God, I love my time so I will use it for reading Bible.  My father was good at soccer.  Every day we would play and he would always defeat me.  I was learning many skills and when I did those skills and pass my father, I would mock him and say, “you know nothing, you see how good I am”.  One time, by luck I won against my father.  I then told the other kids that my dad has something to say and I pushed my dad to tell them that I won.

For me, my focus was winning but forgot all the games I lost against him.  Our love in Jesus should have a focus of winning.  What do I win by being me?  What do I love?  Do I love my way of reading Bible, praying, thinking of God.

How often we can think of our husband/wife or children and we want to hear from them but how often do we think of God?  Love between you and God should be like the love you have for your family members.  Think about God.  When you don’t see God for a few days, do you panic, do you start the search for God? 

How often do you call God to come back into your life?  How often do you tell yourself to love yourself?  Do you love your heart? Your soul?  If so, what do you do to love your soul/heart?  If I ask my soul, what do you love?  What will it say?  Some might say, when I read the book of Psalms, I feel joy.  When I sing a certain song, I feel joy.  Keep feeding your soul with great things, take care of it.

When you love your soul, it will be easy to love your neighbours.  When you are patient with your soul, you will be patient with others.  When your body asks for something at the same time as your soul, there will be a fight.  Your body will want to sin, but soul doesn’t want it.  How often do you favour your soul when your body battles?

I jumped onto YouTube this morning, it said, “praying to God is wrong, pray doesn’t work, if you pray, you won’t get money but if you give money, you will get money, your prayers are useless just fight for money”.  Why can’t you invest in your soul or for the desires of heart to please the Father who sent his son to die for us.  When you please God with your heart and soul, you will get reciprocal love.  If you only say God loves me but you don’t love him back, it will be like the prodigal son.

Love yourself first then compare the way you love yourself to others.  Do I pray for my neighbours?  If I have a headache, I feel it but when my neighbours go through pain, do I care or not?  The only thing I will look is when my dog barks at them as they pass. When we do not care, we don’t love.  Love cares.  Do you care about yourself?

Soon we will go back to heaven and my soul must go to God and take our love that I have given to myself and others.  If you have protected your soul, your soul will testify.  He fed his body 6x per day but only fed me once/week.  The body was given all the privilege.  You will have to explain why you loved your body more than your soul or heart.  Your body can’t defend you, it was your decision.

Why did I give to you eyes but they were only on your phone 6 hours per day but no time to read the Word of God.  Love yourself means to love your soul.  Once you love your soul, you will pass that on to your children.  Look and try to find what your soul needs.  The need of your body should come last.

Uriah the Hittite - 2 Samuel 11

An Undivided Heart - Psalm 86:11

Love Your Neighbour

Spiritual Assessment

2022 will soon say goodbye and we will never see it again.  For many companies, this is the time they do their end of year assessment to see the performance of their workers. 

What was my performance be this year?  What have I accomplished for God or for myself and for those surrounding me since the beginning of the year?  How important is a self-assessment and spiritual assessment to think about our coming Kingdom of God.

One time, I visited a family and this man was quite large and he stood on the scales to weigh himself around the end of the year.  He was trying to suck in his stomach and his wife said, that won’t help it won’t change anything.  He said, “I’m sucking my stomach so I can see the numbers on the scale”.

In life, what we see is not necessarily what others see and what they think may be different to our thoughts. People will judge us.  The end of the year means we will finish the race for this year but we can come back to God to say thanks to God, challenges were there.

Phil 3:13-14,

According to writer of Philippians, it is important to focus all energies on one thing…forget the past but look forward to what lies ahead.  The past is covered with a lot of things, battles, crying, challenges.  That past is gone and has good/bad memories, it is now time to focus on what lies ahead.

What are your projects for the coming year?  What are you planning for next year?

My mum used to say, one year older.  She was afraid of getting older.  She says, “When I get to 90, I will lose my strength, mental capacity and joy for living”.  That is what she projects for the coming year.  I tell her to have a good perspective, you are getting close to Jesus.  Forget about your body and feelings that try to pull you back.

I’ve never seen a woman who tries to fight getting old like my mum.  If my son says grandmother, she will say, “I’m not your grandmother” because she wants to say she is younger.  Blessed if you are young in Jesus so you can serve him, obey him.

Phil 4:6-7, don’t worry about anything.  What makes you worry in your life?  Why bother to worry?  Why be shaken for things that will pass.  Sometimes we fear what we shouldn’t and worry about things that we shouldn’t but we stop ourselves from worrying about eternal life that is coming.

Instead of worry, pray.  Tell God about your problems, your ups and downs.  Pray means to speak to God.  According to my life, when I worry too much, I lose.  That is the principle.  You lose your joy, strength and ability to do things.  Some feel they can’t make it and start to search for people to intervene.

If you think of all the negativities, you will lose your mind.  When you worry, you think about all the negatives and not the positives.  When you worry you lose trust in God.  Can God allow this?  Can such a thing happen in my life?

The Word of God says to tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done for you.  Sometimes we don’t know our needs.  If can pray from morning to evening to be tall, even if I pray for 50 years, it will never happen.  “God make me white”, it will never happen.

Do you know your needs?  Do you know what your heart, body, or thoughts need?  If you don’t it will be impossible to tell God your needs.  Our repetitive prayers are not our needs.  Identify our needs first and tell God about it.

After knowing your needs, think about what God has done for you.

Once in my class, as kids, our teacher told us to say 10 things of what God has done for us.  We were all unable to find 10 things.  When you pray every day, do you count all that God has done for you throughout the day or do you just say, thank you God for everything.  Take your time and thank God one by one.  E.g. I woke up this morning, you gave me strength, you gave me sleep, I rested, it was so good, thank you for nice dreams,

Children can wake you up but another thing to be grateful for, I have children, they woke up, they speak to me.  Levi will come to me first thing in the morning and he will want to speak to me.  Sometimes I feel like saying “go away” but it is so nice.  When children grow up, they won’t have time for their parents anymore.

Every time we must glorify God and there are millions of things that you can bring in front of God.  You can easily pray for 2 hours.

Phil 4:6-7, then you experience God’s peace.  To get God’s peace is so simple, it’s just to come to God and tell him everything.  I don’t have to worry, tell God what I need and then thank him.  That is the formula for peace of God.  If you didn’t have peace, it is maybe because you worried, you didn’t tell God your need.

“Exceeds everything you can understand” and “guard your heart and mind as you live in Jesus”.  What can guard your mind?  According to Bible, you need peace of God which is like the watchman of your heart & mind, it will guard and protect you.

Who is a guard?  Sometimes I see big people in this world who have people following them (security guards).  They will even spread throughout the crowd.  A few weeks ago, a man threw eggs at the king of England.  In less than 5 seconds, he was already caught and Charles carried on like nothing happened.  Different to George W Bush who dived when someone threw a shoe – he feared.

Charles knew that he was protected by guards and he let it go without getting angry.  No matter what hits your life or how people talk against you, the peace of God is there to guide you.  Don’t bother yourself and ask, how did they treat me like that?  That is not your job.  The guard that God has given you is peace.  Your mind needs to be protected to not react in a way that will harm you.

Luke 13: 6 (parable), God has given to us a lot of things but maybe he came last year to see what we produced but didn’t see any fruit.  Maybe he is like, “Jesus, you should cut down this tree.  I gave to him/her everything and they don’t produce”.  We have to pray and tell God everything.

Most of the time I pray to God and I encourage you to pray to God too,  “I don’t do all that you are expecting me to do, I need help, fertilise my body, mind, heart, desire.  Add some fertiliser in me so I can be productive.  If you don’t fertlise me, I won’t’ produce and I will be the same for 20 years.  Change me, transform me”.  Jesus will plead on your behalf to give one more year.  Tell God where you failed, if you didn’t have enough strength to read Bible or pray, tell God.  Tell God about your situation and where you had problems.

One year I was in a place where the only food they had was rice and snake.  I’ve never eaten a snake before.  I started to think about eating a snake and how they act.  It was a challenge.  I comforted myself, I will tell them to give me rice separate from the snake.  They mixed the whole thing together. because I was hungry, I had to shut my mind and just open my mouth.  To chew that food it was hard to swallow it but because or hunger, I had to accept.

Have you had a hard situation that you found hard to accept?  What do you do?  Do you give up? No, you can’t give up, it is a path of your life and without passing through there, you won’t make it.  E.g. Joseph without going to jail could not become who he was in Egypt.  When you cross a hard situation and you feel like you are incapable of continuing, come close to God and talk to him.

Everything will come to pass even your problems.  Focus on your present and future.  In a movie theatre, once you sit down and the movie starts, everyone will look to the screen and concentrate.  We avoid to listen to others in the room next to us.  The room can be dark but our eyes are focusing on the light.  If someone talks, you tell them be quiet.  You forget that you sat in the seat for 2 hours without moving. 

Do you look at the Kingdom of God coming in front of you without being distracted?  Tell God to give to you the ability to concentrate on the Kingdom of God that is coming.  Where are your eyes?  If your eyes are focusing on Jesus, then all that surrounds you, won’t bother you.

At the end of the movie, every person will give a different story of the movie.  When we don’t concentrate on what is important, we miss the opportunity and when the opportunity passes, that is all. 

When you are at the airport, you can be eating, talking, reading but as soon as you hear your flight number, you will listen.  Do you know your flight number with God?  Jesus is calling us to go to heaven and we are getting ready.  It is time for us to check in.  If you don’t know your flight number for God, you will miss your flight.  If you don’t show up on time, the flight will take off without you. 

How many times have you missed the blessings of God because you delayed or you were distracted?  E.g. my boy Ken.  He was traveling to US a few weeks ago.  We drove from home and just after Huntly I said to Ken, do you have your passport?  “Oh no.  I left it behind”.  We had to go back home.  Now we are in hurry.  Sometimes boys won’t leave behind their PlayStation but can leave their passport.

We got to the airport and he left.  Ken when you arrive, please send us a message and photos.  Nothing.  “Ken, did you arrive?”  “Oh yeah, I’m here”.  “Ken, take photos”.  He didn’t.  Sometimes we do the same to God.  We give promises.  He takes care of us and sends us somewhere with instructions but we don’t do it. 

When it was time to go to airport with Ken, he didn’t even plan how to get to airport.  How are you getting there?  “I never thought about that”.  “Who is picking you up from airport?”  “I don’t know”.  On his way back home, he didn’t even think about who will pick him up.

We spiritually are a new generation acting different to Moses and Abraham. Moses and Abraham would say we are mucking around with God and playing with God as a joke.  We are this careless generation.  We have our own priorities.

Let the end of the year be a good year for us and 2023 be a blessed year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trusting God

Psalm 37:23-24 - Climb the steps

 Today we are going to talk about Psalm 37:23-24

If a person who trusts in God walks around, God watches their steps and controls those steps.  It doesn’t mean you won’t stumble but He is there to hold your hand.  Life is about steps and every day is a new step in your life.  Most of the time steps are challenging.  Before I go to the next stage, I must go through the steps and if the steps are deep, I might have to press my body to go higher.

It's for a good reason we have steps to go higher and if you don’t want to climb those steps then you won’t reach the highest level.  Climbing steps you must start with one step after another.  You can’t jump from the first level to last one. 

Only your feet can climb the steps.  Your arms cannot do it and your legs must accept to carry the entire weight of your body.  If your legs don’t accept to go up, your body can’t do anything.  What is the importance of legs in your life?  They have a role to play.  That role is not small compared to the hands.  There are things that legs can do but hands can’t.  Your legs have 3 parts:

(11. Feet which helps you to balance your legs

(22. Joints (knees and ankles) that make your legs move in different directions and help you to climb. 

(33. Sometimes your legs can tell you that they can’t do it alone and you need the help of your brain, eyes and the support of whole body.  When you fall downstairs, your hands will try to stop your fall. 

God has been teaching us about steps and they are very important to understand.  We as human beings love everything to be easy so we can enjoy life.  I want money, a big house, I want joy without difficulty, I want these things just coming to me without working hard.

When you climb, you feel pain in your muscles, joints and some people are attacked by sickness that attacks their joints so their body feels heavier than their legs can support.  Because it is a matter of life and we all want to be happy, successful, and we just want a good easy way.

When Jesus came, they wanted to crown him king but Jesus did not accept that crown of being a king at that time, “I’m a King, yes but I have to go through some steps of life first and I will only accept my crown after my crucifixion and then I will become the redeemer and saviour of the world”.

The same Jesus that was born didn’t perform miracles from day one, He took His time and at the right time He did things.  Do we like to wait for the right time or do we try to impose on God our time?  Do we accept God’s plan and accept to go through the steps first?

We have stages so people who are seated can see us who are on the stage.  Those on the seats will follow you who are on the stage with their eyes and ears.  When there is dark, everyone (even insects) follow the light.  We must ask ourselves, “Am I the light of this world?”

Jesus was supposed to be crucified before obtaining the crown.  You can’t know the importance of health until you have been sick.  When you are hungry, you can appreciate food.  Back home, there are families that have turns to eat so some will get to eat on a Monday but not on Tuesday while others in the family eat on the Tuesday.  Many families don’t have water and we must walk many miles to obtain water and that water is very dirty but to boil the water it is many miles to obtain wood to create fire.  Many people die from the dysentery.

Children suffer as in world vision advertisements and they have to go through those steps in life.  This beautiful country we live is a step in our lives and it is a blessing.  Many others don’t have what we have but many New Zealanders complain, “Oh this government, oh we are suffering”.  Many people from other countries are desperate to live in this country.  This is your step, a privilege to live in this blessed country.

Sometimes I take the pride to give my New Zealand passport when I travel.  Do you know the value of your country?  We have one of the most powerful passports and nationalities of this world.  You have this big step that God has given you where bribery is not possible.  Go to other countries and you will see that laws don’t respect justice because of corruption.  Students must bribe to get their grades.

God continues to raise up New Zealand and take care of us and gives us what we want.  What don’t you have here?  You have everything.  You eat when you want, sleep when you want, no restrictions, no fear.  That is one of the steps of life physically that God has given you.

The prodigal son asked for his blessing, his inheritance to enjoy life.  Blessings were with the father and the father said, “You should wait for this you are too young,” but the son said, “No I want it”.  Sometimes I think, can I give my car keys to Eden to drive my car?  I can’t because Eden is only 10 years old and she will crash.  She must wait for the right age even if she cries, I will tell her, “No you must wait and then learn to drive and then pass a test”. 

Once Eden passes the first test, she must drive with someone next to her and then after the next test, she will be able to drive with restrictions, she must only drive to 10pm and with no passengers.  Then she must go through another test to get her full licence.

Where are we in the Kingdom of God?  God is asking us to learn first before He gives us what we ask.  Do we read the Word of God to know the rules of driving to heaven?  Do we move on?

I met with a person in Hamilton who has been driving on learners’ licence for the past 30 years.  One time the police asked for their licence.  The police said, “You don’t have the right to drive”.  He justified it saying he didn’t have time or money to sit the test.  For 35 years he didn’t stop and think, “This is important for me and I need it”.

Another member of my family wanted an international licence and he gave the testing station his restricted licence.  We came here together and he’s been driving forever.  He wasn’t able to get the international licence because he didn’t have a full licence.

God has given us everything that you need and now it is for you to make a step to learn what is coming after this life.  If you want to enter Kingdom of God, go to church, read bible, learn about the steps to enter the Kingdom of God.  We prefer to watch Netflix or YouTube or Facebook but not even 3 minutes to thank God.  We are in a journey, we must move forward and climb the steps.  If we don’t we will stay in the same place and others will pass us

Are you waiting there expecting God to come you or are you moving forward?  Our strength as human beings is being intelligent which means we can even kill a lion before it can reach us with a gun and it will die with only 1 bullet.  Human beings can make a lion to sleep with a dart.  We use our intelligence mostly to create material things.  Why don’t we use our intelligence to come closer to God?  Our time on this earth is very short.

We are going to face eternity.  Where are you going to live in eternity?  Many talk about retirement and where they will live but what about after life on this earth.  That is why God is telling us that He will hold our hands because we stumble sometimes.  We must accept to raise up our hand and ask for God to hold our hand.

Sometimes children try to take the child’s hand and the child refuses.  Once we saw a child refused to take the father’s hand so the father left the child there.  We sometimes do that to God.  He is ready to move forward but we stay behind.

How often (like the prodigal son) do we tell God, “This is what I want to do with my life, God bless me”.  You take it and when you come back to God, what are you going to bring back with you?  He gave you everything so when you come back, what will you present? 

If your brain doesn’t tell your legs to move, they won’t move.  Make your brain to communicate to your legs.  How good are you in managing your intelligence and making good decisions for your eternal life and deciding where you want to be tomorrow?  Some people are smart in reaching money or in maths but not smart in searching eternal life.

Are you smart to tell God you are His child and proud to come back home to God?  When you are in your home, you feel free.  When you have a shower you won’t be ashamed to be naked in water and you are free to sing or dance.  In the water of life, are you free to present yourself naked and sing to God or do you feel it is a burden for you?  Do you feel like postponing the Bible study even though you have nothing else to do? 

Should we take a break when we are planning our eternal life?  We sometimes disappoint our God.  My young boy a few days ago went out and a person rang me and said, “Ken is here”.  He didn’t come home for 2 days. 

I rang him, “Where are you”.

“I’m on my way”. 

“Where were you?”

“The police stopped me on my way home”. 

“Did the police tell you not to go home?” 

He was mumbling.  “I was given a warning and they took me”. 

Meaning that sometimes, those that are young spiritually do silly things but keep moving up the steps and holding onto God.  Someone holding your hand can pull you up to renew your strength but they can’t pull you up unless you are willing to hold their hand.

The police in New Zealand are very good.  You can joke with them and they will reason with you.  In my country if the police tell you to stop and if you joke, they will stab you and if you keep joking they will shoot you.  No one will ask what happened, the body will just stay there and even dogs may come and eat you.

The police in New Zealand are even afraid to touch you.  Someone can do something wrong and the police will beg you to come into the station, “If you cooperate, we will make it less hard for you”.  For us in Congo, that does not exist.

The Holy Spirit lives like the New Zealand police, it will ask us nicely, “Don’t do this”.  The New Zealand police have power to take you to jail and press charges.  The Holy Spirit will tell Jesus, “You told me to stay behind with them and this is what Hayley did, Collen did this” etc. The Holy Spirit is policing us and on the day of judgement the actions will follow you. The Holy Spirit is pure and honest and right, He will be trusted by the judge.  What will you say in front of God that day?

“God guide my steps”.  Do I accept his guidance or not?  If not, why not?  What am I going to become tomorrow?  Those who have the privilege make all your steps with God, at work, at home.  When challenges come in your life, do you make steps with God?  Tell God, “This step is so hard, please hold my hand and pull me”

We built a house for my mum.  Someone sold that house by forgery and the new owner said, “You must leave my house”.  This is like our lives.  God has given our lives and all we deserve but we give it to satan and he claims our lives.  When you give place to satan to control our lives, it is like someone who is addicted to alcohol.

On judgement day, you will have to come on the stage, “Angela come before the throne, what did you?” and the whole world is watching you.  You won’t be able to blame others.  Present your problems to God and remember that this is only one step and it will pass.  Don’t make permanent decisions for a temporary situation. 

God Our Father

We are going to praise God because we were all born, including Adam.  As we sang and as we heard from the communion message, we are all sons of God.  This has nothing to do with gender.  We are children of God and it’s not a matter of being a boy or girl.

In the book of Mathew 6:9, JESUS was telling us how to pray and He started the prayer with “Our Father who art in heaven”.  JESUS’ advice is to start prayer with “Our father”.

Who is the father?  God is big, powerful and someone we fear with supernatural power but when talk about a father it is different.  JESUS told us to be like children to enter the Kingdom of God.  A child in front of a father will say, “Daddy hold me, daddy carry me, daddy I want this”.  A father can be in the middle of a meeting and the child can come in without reason and the dad will pick up the child and make sure he is safe.

God wants us to treat him like a father taking care of his children.  Do we really behave like children of God or like teenagers?  To be a child is good.  When I was a child, if I stepped on something dirty, my dad would clean my feet. Children are fed and the parents look after their children 24/7.

God is sufficient. God is Everything.  God is man and woman at the same time.  For that reason God created a human being in His image.  What is the image of God?  God has existed for eternity.  Genesis 1:7, God created Adam and Eve and then later in chapter 2 He came down and using His hands touching the dust, He then made Adam’s body.  The eternal life met with the temporary life. 

God decided to come down and meet with us and decided to create something that He will call son.  Adam and Eve were created on the same day spiritually before God created Adam and Eve physically.

If you look at our prayer that Jesus gave us in Mat 6, many people who speak Aramaic will start with Abwoon  which is a blending of Abba (Father) and Woon meaning Womb (Mother) because God is mother and father at the same time. 

When God created Adam He breathed into that body.  Eve was inside Adam.  As Adam was taking care of all creation, he saw that God created male and female animals but not human because the human being was given everything they needed in them.  God saw that Adam was lonely and bored so God decided to go down to separate Eve from Adam so that there could be companionship.  Woman was separated from Man.

Adam was the first man to give birth, from his side God took out Eve.  Adam wasn’t born and reflected that divinity and eternity.  He didn’t have mother or father.  This is another part of the image of God on earth.  When Adam woke up, he saw Eve and he said, “Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh”.  He knew that he was the image of God and therefore the self-sufficient and knew God had separated from him what was inside of him.  You can only be a child of God if you reflect God’s image in you.  Jesus taught us you must be born again.

On earth, mother and fathers will teach us principles.  E.g. this is not a Kiwi way, this behaviour is unacceptable but for other families, it will be acceptable.  Families will teach you how to behaviour and what is considered normal but this might not be considered normal to other families.  When you marry, the husband will come with his own education and the wife will also have her own education.  Now they stay together, there is a battle.  What one believes is not what the other believes.  Therefore, God says, if you want the right education, read the Word of God and that is the perfect way to live, not what your mum or dad taught you.

If I go from the Word of God, I go astray.  Therefore, God wants us to be self-sufficient with Him and not separate from Him.  The day He separated Eve from Adam, Adam could not give birth anymore, he had to go to Eve.  Even if Eve wanted a child, she can’t without Adam.  They had to complete each other.  When we are trying to complete each other, there is a danger because the devil will try to destroy. 

Leah and Rebekah, they are children of Ange, who can separate that?  No one can separate it even if Angela is sick in hospital, she will still be mother of those children.  Nothing can separate them.  When satan came to meet Eve, he lied to Eve and mislead her.  Why did he mislead her?  Because God gave a big responsibility to Eve to be the one to produce life.  God said to both Adam and Eve, “You have to multiply,” but he gave Eve the capacity to hold life in her. 

You can see a very small lady can hold a baby in womb.  The baby can move around but the lady will hold that heaviness.  God has given hips to women to hold baby.  It would be a disaster if men got pregnant because we are careless.  Men can be stupid.  I’ve seen men going to jail because they have put children in a washing machine or something stupid like that. 

God trusted a woman and gave the job of giving life to women.  Satan realised by Eve having the ability to give life, he will lose.  The devil didn’t want women to conceive only life, he wanted them to also conceive sin.  Satan brought temptation.  The church is also a picture of women.  The church starts to stray from God.  We start to walk a life that we used to think was not a part of Christian life and it becomes a character of and part of our lives because we have walked away from will of God.

Adam and Eve stayed in the garden for a time but left when God put them aside.  Jesus came as a second Adam miraculously as well.  For God to produce a new woman, Jesus was pierced on the same side as the rib that was taken from Adam to create Eve.  This reflected the notion of God removing a rib from Adam and creating Eve.  By being pierced, the curtain ripped and a new woman was seen (the church) and through Christ, we have salvation.

The church treats God as God rather than our father so we don’t come close to Him and we don’t have time to come near Him.  I used to call my father sheriff because he had no jokes and if he sees you playing around, he will have a look and if you see him, you knew you would be punished.  We had rules and we weren’t allowed to do some things.

When I was around 8 years old, he asked for a cotton ball but he called it a name that I hadn’t heard of before and I had no right to ask what he meant.  If I came back without it, it will be punishment.  I couldn’t even check a dictionary.  Sometimes human beings can treat us harshly and let us down but God is telling us, you have to be born again, “You have learnt a lot of rules from your parents, you have been disappointed, come to Me and I will be your father and your mother, I will take care of you”.

Life has seasons as we all know.  In summer we wear light clothing but in winter you see people preparing for cold with warmer clothing.  Today the church doesn’t look at the seasons, we are just as we are. For example, if we have a nice top for summer, we wear it for winter because others like the top.  When the seasons are changing, we need to change and not stay in the same place just because others said we look cool.

Last year’s spring is different to this year’s spring.  Never put your trust 100% in other people but only trust in God our heavenly father.  If you put your trust in someone who is next to you like Adam put his trust in Eve, you will be misled.  How many times have you fallen into traps because you didn’t want to disappoint someone?  How many times did you sin because you didn’t want others to think you were different? 

Pride can make you become a fallen angel.  Arrogance can make you become someone who is not a child of God.  Sins come like a suggestion and you have the capacity to say no.  According to the education of God our father, you have to say no.

When Leah is at home she feels free but she won’t feel free at my place.  Leah can walk freely into Ange’s room but she won’t come into my house and go freely into my room.  Why do we limit ourselves to not access rooms of Gods Kingdom and all the corners of God’s Kingdom?   We try to reject God and consider more our friends.  Leah will have secrets she won’t tell her mum but she can tell her friends.  Friends with friends will mislead each other and do wrong things.

In 1 Cor 4:15 it says that you can have 10,000 of guardians but you don’t have many fathers.  My biological father is my guardian.  The people who surround us are just guardians and they can teach us but they are not our fathers.  We can go to church and listen to the pastor and read books, these people are guardians but not fathers.  Jesus reminded us in Mat 5, call no one your father but the one in heaven.

When there is a danger or challenge, children will go to their father but today we prefer to make our guardians our fathers and put our fathers aside.  We need to pray and ask God for direction.  If you are a child of God, you are not a boy or girl, you are self-sufficient with God because God completes you.  If you look at our blood, there is not feminine or manly blood.  A man can take a women’s blood and it won’t harm (provided they have the same blood type).  Women are not weak, in front of God, that is not true.

In the Kingdom of God we won’t have men or women in heaven.  We live like angels.  Why to make yourself look weak or think you don’t deserve because of your gender.  We need to move with God.  When you pray remember to call God your father.  Anything you wanted from your father, get it. Even when our fathers are wrong, they continue to be our fathers.  They can have rules which can be tough, they can have mistakes but they continue to be our fathers.

God our father has never made mistakes, He is sinless.  One time my father smacked my face because I didn’t notice a lady walking past and he thought I looked badly at the lady.  When he realised that I didn’t do wrong, he said sorry.  God will never punish you but encourage you not to sin.  Imagine if God could punish you like our court system, maybe every day you will be in jail and the list will be a long list of crimes.  From birth to now, how many mistakes have you made?

Easter

What does Easter mean?  Jesus was arrested on the Friday night, crucified and today He is alive.  Why was He arrested?  Why was He crucified?  Why did He come back to life?

The cross at that time was the maximum penalty, there was no worse punishment, it was the maximum pain.  Jesus accepted to go through that for us to be saved.  We believe in Jesus because He died for us. 

While on the cross, He said a few words and then at the end He said, “It is finished”.  Someone came with a spear and stabbed Him in the side after He’d already died.  Water and blood came out.  Usually only blood should come out.  The water was separated from the blood.  Miraculous.  This is only seen when a baby is born. 

When we trust in Jesus, when we go to the cross, we see our new birth, we are born again.  Repent, ask for Jesus blood to wash you and with that blood, we are born again.  Jesus accepts us as new children. 

One day we will die or Jesus will come back for us.  We need to be ready for that.  To be ready we need to:

1. Accept to know what is sin and try your best to live without sin and if you do sin, repent.  If you know how to repent and ask for forgiveness, this is a big step.
2. Feed your soul.  Read your Bible daily.
3. Actions.  On the day of judgement, Jesus will sit on the throne and you will be judged only by your actions.  If your actions are not good, fix them.  If you have a problem, fix that problem with that person. Mark 11:25, “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”  Don’t wait for the person to come to you, go to them. 

Jesus died for you to be saved and we can be children of God.  We must prepare our way for heaven.  The only thing you will take with  you to heaven is your soul and your actions so be careful with your actions.  Do you treat yourself as a Christian or not?  Am I a good Christian or not?  If Jesus comes back now, will He take me or not.

Make a Plan

When we wake up in the morning, we wonder what we will do today.  Parents usually don’t have to shake their children to go to school and intervene unless the children a slow but children usually know how to get ready for school. 

Even if you didn’t plan yesterday what you will do today, you will make a plan for your day.  Why do we have to plan what we will do?  Because that’s the nature that God gave to us.  Our body, mind and soul tells us we have to plan and we have to work.  Do you sometimes feel like you don’t want to go to work but you are forced to go? 

We make plans and then it is our responsibility to fulfil those plans.  2022 is a new year, what is your plan for the year?  For today?  Although we have our plans, if we are not committed, we will fail our plan.  Have you thought about what you will do for 2022.

Proverbs 16:1-3, “To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue.  All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.  Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans”.

God encourages us to have a plan.  In your heart, what do you feel like doing this year?  You must have a plan that is good for you, good for God, and good for others and not a plan that leads you to sin.  Then you need to commit to your plan to God.  Take your plan to Jesus and tell Him, “In February, I plan to do this, in March, this…”

When you plan and pray for something in the name of Jesus Christ and when it is accomplished, it will be a miracle and will only happen by faith and committing it to God.  2021 had a lot of challenges but God stood with you.  You cried and He was with you and pushed you through that plan to be fulfilled.  When things go wrong, that’s a path you have to go through to reach the next step. 

For example, Paul was proudly persecuting the church until God spoke to Him and he realised he was wrong to enjoy persecuting others.  Sometimes we are told by God to speak to our friends and tell them that they should not enjoy what they are enjoying.  Maybe someone you know persecutes their soul or the souls of others but you are afraid to tell them.  You may pray and ask God to talk to them because you fear to talk to them. 

Sometimes panic will hit your mind and body and you don’t know what to say anymore.  It’s not about your abilities, it’s about satan versus the Holy Spirit.  In your spiritual life, when you panic, you lose concentration and everything will be wrong and whatever others do will be negative.  Don’t let 2022 be a year of panic.  Let my fears be victory this year.  What I failed last year, let it be fulfilled this year.  Let your plan be there in 2022 and the rest will follow.

Before to go on a journey, I ask myself if I have all that I need and I check before leaving.  I check the oil and water.  I check the petrol.  I check I have my wallet, sunglasses etc.  Sometimes I have to wash my car before I go anywhere even if I am late.  One time I had to borrow a friend’s car and it was so dirty that I was obliged to spend an hour cleaning it before I could start my journey.  Sometimes we need to help others what they are not able to fulfil and to do it with them. 

If others discover you are dirty it will be a shame and that is why I cleaned the car of my friend.  My son once told me that he tried smoking once because a friend offered him a cigarette.  Don’t accept to sin just because a friend is encouraging you to.  Whatever God has put around you, use it.  As you get older, you use up things.  For example, you may lose up all your hope or you may lose up the fruit of the Holy Spirit and gain wisdom.

In summary, make a plan for 2022, commit your plan to God, complete your plan, use what God has given you and don’t fall in temptation.

 

Who Satisfies Your Desires - Psalm 103:5

Be Watchmen and Watchwomen - Mathew 24: 40-51

Finding the Wisdom of Solomon - Eccl 12:13,14

Fear Not! 2 Chron

The Spirit of Man

Nothing is Impossible for God

 

Nothing is impossible for God.  When you know that nothing is impossible for God, it means you trust God and you believe that no matter what happens, you will be a winner because God is there for you. 

We all like miracles and we all want to see miracles, even when we pray we keep asking God to see changes to get something we don’t have. “Lord protect us, heal me, give me peace, joy, money, job, salvation for my family, I trust you God, you are the only one who can give this to me”.  No one prays to God and says, “I don’t need anything from you”.  God created those needs in our life so we can always go back to Him and remember that nothing is impossible for God.

Before Jesus left, He shared bread and wine and the message, “Do this for remembrance, remember me, it is a symbol of remembering me”.  What do you remember about God in your life?  What pushes you to stop and think about what God has done for you.  Have you stopped and thought about all that God has done for you throughout your life? 

We must first remember from our creation, when God created a human beings it was on the 6^th day and everything was beautiful.  He created just using His words.  In my tribe we believe that if you have eye problems then look into the sun at 5:30am and then you will see a change in your eyes like a miracle.  When you have pain in your eyes let the fresh air from the river to heal your eyes.  We don’t wear glasses in my tribe because we use the nature that God has created.

On the 6^th day, God took the dust and made a body.  He was an artist that day.  He gave the mud a shape and it looked good but the difference was that He didn’t want to speak as He created the rest of the world.  God didn’t make a tree from dust or the sky or the sun or even a lion.  He preferred to use His hands to make a human being and He gave you and I life.

He said, “We are going to make a human being that will be like us”.  He decided to take a portion of Himself to make something new that will look like Him.  That portion is not my body but our soul.  God is eternal and only a soul is eternal.  Our body can easily die but the soul doesn’t die.  He chose the nostrils of Adam and breathed.

When you try to breath, you breath in and out.  For someone to feel your breath, you have to push it out and when you feel it, feels like a wind.  When it reaches you, it rests on you.  God took a soul that is you and me and divided in 3 parts.  First part came out of his lung, mouth and lips.  The second part is the wind that left his lips and the 3^rd part is where the breathe rested.  From those 3, the human being has life.  If one of those steps is missing, there is no life. 

God put that in you.  By putting that in you, it means that you become someone who resembles God.  Do you believe that you look like God?  Most of the time we don’t think so because God is maybe rich and I am poor or He is handsome and I am not or because He has everything and I don’t.  What we see outside is not what He looks at, He looks at our souls.  Does your soul they reflect God?

One day God will take back the soul He gave us.  The body will go back to dust but the soul will come back to God.  He didn’t hide it, it was clear.  The most important thing to God is that when He breaths out and you breath in, you will have to one day breath out the soul and He will take it back.

How can you explain the soul and how it works?  Nothing is impossible to God.  When our mothers become pregnant, something will start to grow in their bodies, the baby.  The baby has eyes but can’t see, they have nostrils but can’t breathe, they have ears but can’t understand, they have mouth but can’t speak until they come out.  When they reach this world, breathing starts, eyes open and ears open and they can start to eat.

The life in us is like a pregnancy.  There will be a time when there will be a rebirth and everything will be open in heaven to us and we will understand everything.  Although God has given us the soul, He said you have to live on the earth where you will face challenges and problems. 

God, you created me in your image but you don’t face problems.  We all like miracles but remember a miracle will only happen when there is a problem.  If you want a big miracle then accept also a big problem.  Once the problem doesn’t find a solution that is when miracle comes.

For example, someone can tell you that they want to be healed.  God says yes, I will open the path.  First step, your pain will be multiplied by 3 and you will go to the Dr and they can’t help.  You might be disappointed and find it so hard, “Lord heal me”.  During that time, you may see someone coming to you and praying then you are healed.  If you did not accept the problem, you could not accept the miracle.

The storm comes into every person’s life.  The devil is here and storms don’t choose what foundation you have, you can be a believer or not, the storm will come and you will face it.  As children of God, we know that problems are there but we forget most of the time that nothing is impossible for God.  All your problems are temporary and nothing is there for eternity.  If you are sick, that sickness has an end.

Remember whatever storm you are facing, will only be there for a short time but you must prepare your soul for eternity.

Luke 1:37, the angel came down and said to Mary, “You are going to conceive and give birth to a child,” and Mary was confused, “Who are you”.  “I am the angel of the Lord, God has sent me to you”.  Imagine someone walking in here, “God has sent me to you, I am an angel of the Lord”.  We will not believe them.  “Don’t be afraid, I am an angel of God and I have a message for you.” We might doubt because the angel didn’t come to Mary with wings but as a human being.

The angel said, “Nothing is impossible for God”.  You can’t exclude even small things.  Your biggest problem, your heaviest one, it is not impossible for God.  When you have no money, it’s not impossible for God.  When you say I want to go to heaven, that is not impossible for God.  When you say, I want my family to be saved, nothing is impossible to God even when they are dying as a sinner.

That day on the cross, the man next to Jesus said, “You are the son of God, why are you crucified next to us, if you are son of God do something”. The other one said, “Don’t forget me when you go to your kingdom”.  Jesus said, “Today I will be with you in paradise”.  Who could believe that man could be saved and in paradise the same day.  He didn’t go through repentance, He just told Jesus that He recognised who He was and don’t forget me.

When was the last time that you said to God, don’t forget me?  When I am in pain, do I tell God to not forget me or do I forget?  A lot of problems surround us.  The first thing you see is problem, maybe your body is in pain.  The first thing those who need glasses do is to find their glasses. Others who are smokers, must have a cigarette as the first thing they do.  If they don’t, they will feel sick. 

Others sing and praise God.  Others don’t have time to praise God, they have to eat first.  Maybe we bring all our problems so God as the first thing.  We start with all our issues before starting our day.

Once we have the answers, we often forget to come back and say thank you to God.  I was lucky to get there on time.  I woke up early and I was the first person in the shop and everything was 70% off and my credit card was approved.  We feel like we are capable but we couldn’t without God.

Once you have solution to your problem, do you thank him or do you just think it is your right.  Once you believe that it is your right, God will tell you no, that is not your right.  Come close to me.  by coming close to God you have to carry all your burdens.

1 Peter 5:7, cast all your anxiety on God because He cares for you.  All your problems, whatever makes your anxious cast them on God, not on a person but all your burdens to Jesus, not to a counsellor or doctor but tell Jesus first, “Here are my problems Jesus”.  God created everything by words meaning our words are also powerful.  I prefer to pray out loud because my words have power and I can change things.

Moses blessed his kids using words.  God blessed us with words.  Jesus used His words to heal.  We need to use our words to tell God our problems.  He wants to hear from you and hear what you will say.  If your problem is big, keep talking about it. I’ve seen people cry in front of others and tell them about their problems but they don’t have 4 minutes to spend in front of God to cry to God.  They quickly pray and then leave it so they can watch a movie.

God is saying, “Come close to Me”.  The father saw the prodigal son and he welcomed him back.  It was up to the son to come close to the father.  When you bring your burden to Jesus, He says, “Come closer to me”.  For that reason, I gave you the example of the man on the cross next to Jesus.  None of the crowd shouting to Jesus met with Jesus in paradise that day only the one close to Jesus who expressed Himself came to Jesus.

You have to carry your own cross and talk to Jesus about your situation.  You can’t leave it to others to pray for you.  Your first enemy is your body.  Your body will push you to become angry, steal, commit mistake, and you feel bad but praise the Lord for reconciliation.  How often do you reconcile with yourself, God, and your soul?

Life is short and none of will live for 160 years.  Yesterday it was someone’s turn and tomorrow maybe mine.  You won’t know the time.  My father used to say, even if you are wealthy, when death comes it won’t accept to take your money to leave you alive.  Your soul will say hallelujah it is my time now to live in eternity.  Your body can fight and they don’t want to leave but the soul will say no, I must go back to where I came from.

We prefer to be in this world to suffer but Jesus wants us to rest in heaven.  If your burden is too heavy, is there no solution to your problem, if yes, now is the time to pray to God and remind him that nothing is impossible to God.