By Odon Bulamba (11 April 2003)
Moses said these people of Israel, are members of my family, I must set them free, I must fight for their safety, I must fight for their lives. Moses forgot everything around him, at that time he came from the war which he had won in Ethiopia, he was expecting a crown to be called a Prince of Egypt to later become Pharaoh’s successor, but Moses said “no, I’ll put my crown aside along with my success, my money and my victory; I will first save these people”.
Later Moses became a Shepard. Imagine Michael (a dentist) taking a stick and is with his sheep leading them along the road, people will wonder why he must be in his surgery, what is he doing with his sheep? The clothes he would wear would be different, imagine that. Moses left everything he had and took his coat and his stick and leads his sheep. The sheep baaa and he says left, when the sheep run away he has to chase them and bring them back. It’s through this that Moses accepted to humiliate himself, he forgot his victory over Ethiopia, he forgot that he was the first one in the kingdom of Egypt to the point that he lowered himself and became a Shepard.
God said that this is now the right time to visit him, “I want to go and see him, to use him to be the redeemer of my people”. God visited Moses. Moses saw something strange, he said I must first go and see what’s there and a voice spoke to him and said, “take off your shoes”. He didn’t say take off your coat or your hat, he first said take off your shoes because you are on holy ground. Was this ground holy? It was just somewhere ordinary, but on that day, exactly at that time, it was holy ground because God was there. God couldn’t be there if Moses was still in Egypt, or if he was still hanging onto his crown, or if Moses didn’t want to humiliate himself, but God said humiliate yourself more, take off your shoes. Maybe it was in winter and maybe there were thorns, but God wanted Moses to show obedience. Moses did not discuss, he took his sandals off and said, “here I am”, and what did God say? God spoke and said I’m going to send you to set my people free.
Since Moses was born this was the first time God ever spoke to Moses, God talked to him because he humiliated himself and if you really want to listen to God’s voice in your life then humiliate yourself, there are not two ways only one, humiliate yourself.
Secondly obey God and you will hear His voice. So God said o.k. I’m going to send you. What did Moses say? He said I only have a staff, he didn’t say I’ve got a crown, or I have the victory, he didn’t show God the honour he had before man, he said I’m absolutely nothing, the only thing I have is a staff. God said through this staff I will do something, throw it on the ground and what happened? It turned into a snake, and God said, “pick it up”, which is not easy. In our country when people see a snake everybody will scream, sometimes people climb trees. And even if the snake is dead ask my sister if she will touch it, no never, there is fear, many people fear.
When God says, “do this”, we are afraid, “no God I can’t I’m sorry, in my eyes this is dangerous, if I touch this I might lose my life” and they forget that God Himself is life, they forget that God is the protector. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego have shown us that God protected them, He was glorified. Do you believe that God protects you and if not who protects you?
So Moses picked up the snake and it became a staff again, Moses said I’m not quite to sure yet, so God told him a second thing; put your hand inside your coat and when he took it out it was covered in leprosy. Moses saw that God had acted. Moses said, “God I will go where you want, but I will ask You one thing, when these people ask me who You are what shall I say?” And for you, when you are sent by God, do you find the time to ask Him one question? Do you say I agree and I will go and speak on Your behalf, help me to know how to say things in front of these people? For instance, when Ange wakes up in the morning to go to work, does she find the time to pray to God and ask Him, “God where I go to work I know that I will talk to people, help me God so that they will know that You sent me, so what shall I say to these people about You God?”
Many Christians don’t even spend time to ask God “you sent me, so what shall I say”? Even when we exhort others, people don’t even take time to ask God what shall I tell your people, they think oh today I’ll talk about the Spirit, they open their Bibles but don’t understand, so they put the Bible aside and say it’s too difficult, I’m going to talk about something easy, Ezekiel, oh no I don’t want, oh one day Steve talked to us about Isaiah so I’m going to talk about Elijah, but then you say no there’s nothing, maybe tomorrow I’ll find time, so you carry on like that. Oh no, today’s Wednesday and I’m the exhorter, so I take my notes and check what I can do, o.k. our preacher talked to us last Sunday, I’ll talk about that, of course it’s not bad as you’ll share with others what your preacher shared with you last Sunday, but why don’t you ask God so that you will give something to His church, why don’t you go and meet Steve and talk with him and prepare something together seriously so that you can feed the people of God.
So a servant of God must be someone who asks God, “what shall I tell your people?” and then you’ll have God’s answer. What did God answer Moses? Go and tell them “I am who I am”, what a vague answer, I am who I am, who will accept this? Sometimes you might ask God what shall I tell your people? He’ll say go and talk about “alseekenno” and you’ll say what’s that? You first must go and look for the meaning of this word because maybe you only know the meaning of El Shaddai or Jehovah Jireh and you don’t know other words, you’ll say this is vague, but God will tell you go and tell them this! It’s up to you to know where to start and what you’re going to say, this is how we ask the Holy Spirit to lead us to fulfil what God wants, tell the Holy Spirit, “God gave me this so it’s up to You to teach your people”.
On top of all of that, God said to Moses don’t fear, I created your mouth so don’t ask yourself what am I going to say. Moses couldn’t accept it, he was just stuttering. Many servants of God today when they have a programme they get on the phone; “Sylvie, I’m not coming tonight I’m sick, or someone can take my place because I’ve got something on”, this might be true but it is not right if you haven’t taken the time to prepare, it means that you don’t take God seriously.
Finally, Moses went and set God’s people free. You and me today we are like Moses, we were called by God to set the people free, we must bring them the divine message and tell them to leave this kingdom and everything that belongs to Egypt. Do we play our roles or not? If we don’t what are we waiting for, we live on holy ground where we are. How many times have people exhorted us, how many times has God talked through us, what are we waiting for? Maybe you’ll say “God I’m not really good at preaching”, He’ll say what have you got, you’ve got eyes to read that’s enough, you have a mouth to speak that’s enough. There are different ways to preach, show God what you have and from there God will do something. Many people will first learn theology before bringing the gospel, maybe they want something that will help them and push them other than God, this will never work; if you are called Moses are you really Moses or not?
The Bible says go everywhere in the world and preach the gospel, set the captives free and bring them to me. Who doesn’t know this verse? Who was this message for? Many people say it was for Jesus’ disciples, aren’t you a disciple of Jesus? If you are a disciple of Jesus you must also do it, woe to you if you don’t. It’s better to be Judas Iscariot because he killed himself. He hung himself but he still preached the gospel, it’s through him that we have salvation. One day I was talking with Michelle; if Judas Iscariot didn’t exist where would our salvation be? Because to be free, someone had to betray Jesus. So what is our role in the church of God and in our families, do we represent Miriam, or Moses, or Aaron, Amram or Jochebed.
I can tell you today that you are also called redeemers, so go and redeem the souls that are lost, go and encourage others who are weak, it’s time to set people free. If you stay where you are, woe to you!
Let’s pray.
Showing posts with label Redemption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Redemption. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Redemption - Moses (Part I)
By Odon Bulamba (11 April 2003)
We’ve talked about redemption, which means to redeem. When we redeem something it means that the thing is free forever, nobody can say that the thing has a debt or should be condemned. So when there is redemption there is something which reflects a picture of birth; when a child is born he can never go back to his mother’s womb and once someone is redeemed this person has no room in the world that they were in before.
The redemption cannot be fulfilled without going through someone. Before redemption there must be a bridge between the person and the redeemer and this is why Jesus came and is the bridge between God and us. Because He accepted to pay the price we call Him redeemer.
In the old days, when the people of God walked through the mud of Egypt God thought that it was now time to redeem His people. God couldn’t leave heaven to come to the earth to redeem them because His time was not there to be on the earth yet. This is why God preferred to go through Moses. He sent Moses to see Pharaoh so that Pharaoh could set His people free. If you look at this in depth Moses wasn’t talking but God was talking through Moses, Moses was just a tool and God used him. People would see Moses as a human being but God would see Himself in Moses’ life and when He said to Moses say this, Moses would just open his mouth and talk, it wasn’t Moses’ will that was fulfilled but it was God’s will that was fulfilled, it was the will of God. Moses didn’t say, “Pharaoh I think that you can do that” instead Moses would say, “you must do that”, that was a command which came from God.
I’m sure you already know Moses’ story and I think that most of you have read it. The father of Moses was called Amram which means “friend of God” and his mother’s name was Jochebed which means the “glory of God”. Moses had a sister called Miriam which means “rebellion” and a brother named Aaron which means “the illuminator” or “the one who enlightens others”. Moses means “one who comes from water”.
So, if we look at that carefully we see that Amram means God’s friend and if you are “God’s friend” you must marry “God’s glory” and that will produce something very good in your life. The very first thing that will be shown in your life will be “rebellion” against sin, if you are God’s friend you’ll be an enemy of sin. Who can tell me what a rebel is? It is a person who opposes the government to change the political system in his country, he fights for his country.
Our country is the kingdom of God, we are called to fight for this kingdom. God gave us everything, He gave Adam the power to reign on earth, but later on the devil took this power away. And us as Christians, Jesus gave us a great authority, this authority is over the power of darkness and over everything. Satan continues to fight the souls of man, he keeps murdering Christians, he keeps on stealing the souls that are called to go to Jesus.
As for us, we are Christians, but we are called to see the injustice that is on the earth, if someone sees injustice he will decide to become a rebel, if someone sees something not right it’s the time for him to become a rebel. And for us, when we see something in our life that is not right, do we make decisions to be in rebellion against our bad thoughts? I can easily see parents who are always correcting their children but they are not able to do the same thing for themselves. They can do something wrong but justify it by saying “I’m old, that’s understandable”, but they will never accept that their own children make the same mistakes, so we must be careful. If we are God’s friend and if we have married God’s glory we must rebel against all devilish power.
The second child born was Aaron. Aaron was called to be a light for others. The second thing in a Christian’s life is to be a light in the world. In your actions you must be a light, in your prayer life and everything you do you must be a light. You are not called to be a light for a cigarette, you can see a light from a cigarette but it will not help you to even pick something up from the ground. For instance, if I drop a $2 coin and give a torch to Zoe and I use the light from a cigarette, I believe Zoe will find the coin before me even though my eyes are bigger than hers. Even if the cigarette is only a few centimetres away from the coin, I will never find it using the light of a cigarette.
Many Christians live like the light of a cigarette, from far away people see them but when it’s about enlightening a situation they can’t do it; “don’t touch me, don’t touch my life, leave it, even if I don’t care about this, it doesn’t matter I’ll get away with it” but for God everything matters, don’t forget that, on the day of judgement our actions will be with us. The Bible doesn’t say that our little actions or big actions will be there; all of them will be there.
The third child who was born was Moses, which means saved from water. Once you are a Christian your salvation must have a foundation, this foundation must be the Word of God, this foundation will never be your culture, it will never be your race or your political party, the Bible tells us that this foundation must be the Word of God which represents water.
Moses was born, he was saved from water. God wanted to use Moses so his mother kept him safe for a time and then Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses and suddenly Miriam was there and she was asked to find someone to look after the child. Don’t you think that the princess couldn’t find someone in Egypt to look after Moses? But because the Word of God must be fulfilled, the presence of Miriam had to be there, “rebellion” had to be there and this rebellion went to look for someone who could look after this child. Rebellion went and found “the glory of God” and the glory of God went to be with Moses, and when Jochebed arrived she did not say “I am Moses’ mother”, she kept quiet, she observed everything that was happening in Moses’ life. This is the same for God, He also observes us; when we are in a difficult situation the very first thing is that God is informed that there is something not right in this man’s life, so God intervenes, He doesn’t intervene by talking but He comes and looks after us.
In Pharaoh’s house there were other children that were not adopted and these children who were Pharaoh’s descendants always had to be right before the child who was adopted. Also, remember that this wasn’t a Christian family, they believed in other gods, but Moses’ mother kept quiet, if Ramses smacked Moses his mother never asked Ramses “why do you smack my child? ”
About twenty years ago a man prophesied, he said that the very thing that will destroy Christians in this world will be their children, their parents will love their children more than God, they will be there to defend even what their children do wrong, they will never accept their children’s mistakes. This will give Satan a jack (the tool you use when you have a flat tyre on your car). He will lift up the church and people will think that the church is growing but it is actually shaking because you just have to pull the jack out and the car will fall. This man of God said, “you parents must be careful, don’t live like Sarah, because she loved Isaac and hated Ishmael”. But Ishmael was also a descendent of Abraham, he also had rights because he was a descendent of Abraham. God didn’t say to Sarah I must bless you and your descendents will be blessed, but God said to Abraham I will bless you, and your descendents will be blessed. Sarah said that because Abraham will be blessed I also will be blessed and this started hatred and jealousy.
We must know that our children we have do not belong to us. Michael, Nathanael is not your son, he is God’s son and God said it. He will say, “this is my servant, this is my son, and you are only the keeper”. Steve will be told the same thing, “Amber is my servant, I have the right to do whatever I want with my life, so what have you done with my servant?” Steve will say on that day, “I didn’t know”. But if on that day Steve will say, “Oh God I’ve done this and that” it will be great joy, you’ll get a crown. Today many people need children, many people are barren, they even buy children with money, they do everything they can to get a child, but we have received children as a free gift from God and we treat them as being for the devil. We let them grow in hatred, we let them grow in confusion, in pride and other things. God is against that.
So Jochebed looked after Moses for a long time. Moses grew up knowing the Egyptian religion and he also knew what God he should have and how to respect Him. As for us as Christians, we help others to give birth, we must participate and help them. For instance, if you have brought someone to Jesus you must fight so that this person will grow in the Lord, we must do it the way that Joshua did it; the gospel must start in my house, as for my household we will serve the Lord, it’s not about going to other families first, start in your own family first. If Lebon has a problem with me I must first fix the problem with the Word of God, if Michael sees Lebon in a mistake, as a Christian Michael will look after this child and correct him, if Ange sees Nathanael doing something that is not good she will tell him no, don’t do that. Unfortunately, us Christians today when the child comes home he will say “mum you know that the people I were with did this to me, I’m not happy with them”, from there you will be against those people.
When we were in our country there was a mother from our family (my brother Oscar can testify). If she arrived home and found her younger sister (or whoever) smacking her child she would also smack her child too and after smacking her child, then she would ask what happened? Because she knew that if Colleen did this, she is not crazy, and if Odon did this, it’s not for nothing, it’s because there is something. I can tell you this really helped because the children never ran to their mother for help. Something happened, a few years later and the father died and the mother was in a problem and left to go to Canada. The children stayed behind, these children had to live with other family members, so imagine if their upbringing wasn’t good how could they live with other families? If they had lived knowing that every time I can go and talk to Mum or Dad, how could they now live in other families? But because they lived in the light, all the children in this family are married and have a very good life before God and before man.
So us as Christians we must remember Moses. Moses was chosen by God to be His servant later. Moses’ Mum had to look after Moses completely according to God’s will, not her own will; she knew that God would use this child. For you Michael, what tells you that God will never use Nathanael, what tells you Steve that God will never use Chloe? So we are called to look after these children according to God’s will so that God will use them one day. If Jochebed made a mistake what could have happened in Moses’ life, if Moses couldn’t understand the Hebrew language how could he have been able to intervene, if he hadn’t learnt something about the living God how could he be called Moses today? So we must be very careful with our children’s upbringing.
We’ve talked about redemption, which means to redeem. When we redeem something it means that the thing is free forever, nobody can say that the thing has a debt or should be condemned. So when there is redemption there is something which reflects a picture of birth; when a child is born he can never go back to his mother’s womb and once someone is redeemed this person has no room in the world that they were in before.
The redemption cannot be fulfilled without going through someone. Before redemption there must be a bridge between the person and the redeemer and this is why Jesus came and is the bridge between God and us. Because He accepted to pay the price we call Him redeemer.
In the old days, when the people of God walked through the mud of Egypt God thought that it was now time to redeem His people. God couldn’t leave heaven to come to the earth to redeem them because His time was not there to be on the earth yet. This is why God preferred to go through Moses. He sent Moses to see Pharaoh so that Pharaoh could set His people free. If you look at this in depth Moses wasn’t talking but God was talking through Moses, Moses was just a tool and God used him. People would see Moses as a human being but God would see Himself in Moses’ life and when He said to Moses say this, Moses would just open his mouth and talk, it wasn’t Moses’ will that was fulfilled but it was God’s will that was fulfilled, it was the will of God. Moses didn’t say, “Pharaoh I think that you can do that” instead Moses would say, “you must do that”, that was a command which came from God.
I’m sure you already know Moses’ story and I think that most of you have read it. The father of Moses was called Amram which means “friend of God” and his mother’s name was Jochebed which means the “glory of God”. Moses had a sister called Miriam which means “rebellion” and a brother named Aaron which means “the illuminator” or “the one who enlightens others”. Moses means “one who comes from water”.
So, if we look at that carefully we see that Amram means God’s friend and if you are “God’s friend” you must marry “God’s glory” and that will produce something very good in your life. The very first thing that will be shown in your life will be “rebellion” against sin, if you are God’s friend you’ll be an enemy of sin. Who can tell me what a rebel is? It is a person who opposes the government to change the political system in his country, he fights for his country.
Our country is the kingdom of God, we are called to fight for this kingdom. God gave us everything, He gave Adam the power to reign on earth, but later on the devil took this power away. And us as Christians, Jesus gave us a great authority, this authority is over the power of darkness and over everything. Satan continues to fight the souls of man, he keeps murdering Christians, he keeps on stealing the souls that are called to go to Jesus.
As for us, we are Christians, but we are called to see the injustice that is on the earth, if someone sees injustice he will decide to become a rebel, if someone sees something not right it’s the time for him to become a rebel. And for us, when we see something in our life that is not right, do we make decisions to be in rebellion against our bad thoughts? I can easily see parents who are always correcting their children but they are not able to do the same thing for themselves. They can do something wrong but justify it by saying “I’m old, that’s understandable”, but they will never accept that their own children make the same mistakes, so we must be careful. If we are God’s friend and if we have married God’s glory we must rebel against all devilish power.
The second child born was Aaron. Aaron was called to be a light for others. The second thing in a Christian’s life is to be a light in the world. In your actions you must be a light, in your prayer life and everything you do you must be a light. You are not called to be a light for a cigarette, you can see a light from a cigarette but it will not help you to even pick something up from the ground. For instance, if I drop a $2 coin and give a torch to Zoe and I use the light from a cigarette, I believe Zoe will find the coin before me even though my eyes are bigger than hers. Even if the cigarette is only a few centimetres away from the coin, I will never find it using the light of a cigarette.
Many Christians live like the light of a cigarette, from far away people see them but when it’s about enlightening a situation they can’t do it; “don’t touch me, don’t touch my life, leave it, even if I don’t care about this, it doesn’t matter I’ll get away with it” but for God everything matters, don’t forget that, on the day of judgement our actions will be with us. The Bible doesn’t say that our little actions or big actions will be there; all of them will be there.
The third child who was born was Moses, which means saved from water. Once you are a Christian your salvation must have a foundation, this foundation must be the Word of God, this foundation will never be your culture, it will never be your race or your political party, the Bible tells us that this foundation must be the Word of God which represents water.
Moses was born, he was saved from water. God wanted to use Moses so his mother kept him safe for a time and then Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses and suddenly Miriam was there and she was asked to find someone to look after the child. Don’t you think that the princess couldn’t find someone in Egypt to look after Moses? But because the Word of God must be fulfilled, the presence of Miriam had to be there, “rebellion” had to be there and this rebellion went to look for someone who could look after this child. Rebellion went and found “the glory of God” and the glory of God went to be with Moses, and when Jochebed arrived she did not say “I am Moses’ mother”, she kept quiet, she observed everything that was happening in Moses’ life. This is the same for God, He also observes us; when we are in a difficult situation the very first thing is that God is informed that there is something not right in this man’s life, so God intervenes, He doesn’t intervene by talking but He comes and looks after us.
In Pharaoh’s house there were other children that were not adopted and these children who were Pharaoh’s descendants always had to be right before the child who was adopted. Also, remember that this wasn’t a Christian family, they believed in other gods, but Moses’ mother kept quiet, if Ramses smacked Moses his mother never asked Ramses “why do you smack my child? ”
About twenty years ago a man prophesied, he said that the very thing that will destroy Christians in this world will be their children, their parents will love their children more than God, they will be there to defend even what their children do wrong, they will never accept their children’s mistakes. This will give Satan a jack (the tool you use when you have a flat tyre on your car). He will lift up the church and people will think that the church is growing but it is actually shaking because you just have to pull the jack out and the car will fall. This man of God said, “you parents must be careful, don’t live like Sarah, because she loved Isaac and hated Ishmael”. But Ishmael was also a descendent of Abraham, he also had rights because he was a descendent of Abraham. God didn’t say to Sarah I must bless you and your descendents will be blessed, but God said to Abraham I will bless you, and your descendents will be blessed. Sarah said that because Abraham will be blessed I also will be blessed and this started hatred and jealousy.
We must know that our children we have do not belong to us. Michael, Nathanael is not your son, he is God’s son and God said it. He will say, “this is my servant, this is my son, and you are only the keeper”. Steve will be told the same thing, “Amber is my servant, I have the right to do whatever I want with my life, so what have you done with my servant?” Steve will say on that day, “I didn’t know”. But if on that day Steve will say, “Oh God I’ve done this and that” it will be great joy, you’ll get a crown. Today many people need children, many people are barren, they even buy children with money, they do everything they can to get a child, but we have received children as a free gift from God and we treat them as being for the devil. We let them grow in hatred, we let them grow in confusion, in pride and other things. God is against that.
So Jochebed looked after Moses for a long time. Moses grew up knowing the Egyptian religion and he also knew what God he should have and how to respect Him. As for us as Christians, we help others to give birth, we must participate and help them. For instance, if you have brought someone to Jesus you must fight so that this person will grow in the Lord, we must do it the way that Joshua did it; the gospel must start in my house, as for my household we will serve the Lord, it’s not about going to other families first, start in your own family first. If Lebon has a problem with me I must first fix the problem with the Word of God, if Michael sees Lebon in a mistake, as a Christian Michael will look after this child and correct him, if Ange sees Nathanael doing something that is not good she will tell him no, don’t do that. Unfortunately, us Christians today when the child comes home he will say “mum you know that the people I were with did this to me, I’m not happy with them”, from there you will be against those people.
When we were in our country there was a mother from our family (my brother Oscar can testify). If she arrived home and found her younger sister (or whoever) smacking her child she would also smack her child too and after smacking her child, then she would ask what happened? Because she knew that if Colleen did this, she is not crazy, and if Odon did this, it’s not for nothing, it’s because there is something. I can tell you this really helped because the children never ran to their mother for help. Something happened, a few years later and the father died and the mother was in a problem and left to go to Canada. The children stayed behind, these children had to live with other family members, so imagine if their upbringing wasn’t good how could they live with other families? If they had lived knowing that every time I can go and talk to Mum or Dad, how could they now live in other families? But because they lived in the light, all the children in this family are married and have a very good life before God and before man.
So us as Christians we must remember Moses. Moses was chosen by God to be His servant later. Moses’ Mum had to look after Moses completely according to God’s will, not her own will; she knew that God would use this child. For you Michael, what tells you that God will never use Nathanael, what tells you Steve that God will never use Chloe? So we are called to look after these children according to God’s will so that God will use them one day. If Jochebed made a mistake what could have happened in Moses’ life, if Moses couldn’t understand the Hebrew language how could he have been able to intervene, if he hadn’t learnt something about the living God how could he be called Moses today? So we must be very careful with our children’s upbringing.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Redemption - Exodus, Ruth, Israel (Part II)
By Odon Bulamba (28 March 2003)
If we read the story of Ruth we will see that redemption happened later. Ruth who went with Naomi started living in a new country, she was no longer a Moabite, she became a Jewish girl, and she married someone; I think you know the story, redemption happened.
This means that in our lives, when it happens that we go up the mountain and down into the plains, we have to always remember the house of the bread of God. Am I with God or not? What I am doing, does it enable me to be in the house of God or not? If we have love we’re going to have love for our souls, we’re going to have love for our spirit. Who can tell me that they don’t like their life here, who doesn’t like his life? Maybe death can show it because when death comes it exposes the true state of someone. Death exposes the inner thoughts of everyone.
When I was a child, I had a grandfather who was very old. One day I said to him “you should die because you disturb everyone”. He was very angry and said, “You, I’m going to curse you, be careful with me, you can joke with everyone else but don’t joke with me”. He was afraid of death. When you tell young people (especially) to die, they will say, “no I am not ready to die, I need to live and to see what’s going on in the earth”. Most people take care of their bodies but they forget about their souls. They want their body to live for a hundred years and forget that their souls live forever.
Peter! If you are asked to die today will you be ready? Be sincere? Are you ready to die today? Ange, would you accept Pete to die today? It will not be easy, although you may say for yourself I can die but for those who love you, it will not be easy. It’s the same thing we must do for souls, when a soul is dying we must put ourselves in the place of this soul and say it’s not easy. I’ll explain; if Peter died today Ange will not see Peter on the earth anymore, I don’t know if she will happy on that day or not but I think not, Ange will cry because Peter will be gone forever. In God’s love when a soul dies, for people who live in Bethlehem they really cry. How many times do you cry for the souls? If you cry for something that will last for one hundred years and forget to cry for something that will last for eternity won’t you call yourself stupid?
Ange works at the hospital. How many times do you see people die? “Quite a few” Does it worry you? “It’s part of the job”. A person dies and is forgotten after a week, another one will die tomorrow and another after that. But for someone you love and you looked after them, they were hospitalised and then died, how would you feel? I think it would be hard and you’ll cry. For us Christians we are the sons of God and we acknowledge that God is our king, we married love, so we always cry for someone we love, if we don’t love all the souls around us, it will be difficult to love God. The Bible says that if you don’t love your neighbour how can you love God? By loving your neighbour you will also love God, and when you love a soul that dies I believe that you are going to kneel down and cry before God.
I will not talk about the book of Ruth, I will not teach about this book, but I tell you that there was a redemption. Go and read these four chapters of Ruth and discover this redemption.
The third redemption is the last one, which is what Isaiah, wrote. This redemption will happen in the last days. Each human being will see this redemption, although some people will reject this redemption it will still be there. For tonight this was only an introduction about redemption to give you an idea to know that there are three redemptions in the Old Testament; the first is in the book of Exodus, meditate on it and next week I’m going to ask questions about it; the second redemption is in the book of Ruth, read it also, there will be a few questions; and the third is Isaiah. So go home and read and discover. We will discuss about redemption altogether, in Boaz time, in Moses time and what Isaiah prophesied for the future. We’re going to stop there for tonight.
Question: How can we love people that we don’t know? Love is eternal, because God loved me He created me black and because He loved you He created you white, He created everyone, but our souls are only one colour, this colour is identical and in all of that we all have red blood, all our bones are white etc, this is to show us the value and colour of a soul. The love we have must not be limited to the physical. When we speak about God’s love we first see the value of the soul of a man. For example; if my father died today I will glorify if he has gone as a Christian, I might even sing, but if I only look at the physical body then my love is limited and as you know love practices justice, and when love practices justice it means that love is just, so I can’t love this one more and this one less.
Without forgetting there are different kinds of love, when we speak about God’s love this love is perfect, when we speak about human love it’s a love that is a little imperfect. But because the spiritual always gives birth to good deeds that are physical you will find that the one you couldn’t love yesterday, you will love them today and tomorrow you’ll love them more.
I’ll give you an example; what’s happening today in Iraq with the war; when you watch TV and see people shot, how do you feel? When you get together to pray, do you pray for them or not? You will see that many people pray for these Iraqis, they pray for peace, they pray that God might stop the war, of course it’s love, it’s not bad but do they pray for their souls that they might be saved, few Christians really pray for the souls in Iraq that they might be set free.
You will find in the church today the carnal love has more place than spiritual love and when you practice carnal love you can say that I love Peter more than Odon, because I’m led by the flesh, but when you are led by the Spirit of God everyone who is around you will manifest the glory of God, through this person you will see that God manifests Himself, physically it’s not easy to define but you will feel that you love, that’s how it is. Sometimes try to discern the souls, if you love someone’s soul it’s better than loving their body, because we know that this body will eventually decay and die. If a soul is dead you will never see this soul ever again.
It’s like someone who has $5 and loses it, you might be bothered but after ten mins or two hours you’ll forget about it, but if you lose your job, you’ll think about it longer, maybe you’ll even hate your life. The carnal life can be compared to this $5, but when you love the soul of man we know that the source of life is there, this will have such a great value in our love. A few years ago I talked about love, love is joy, love is patient, but this patience is not the effort I make to be patient, it’s something that comes from the inside. I put myself in other’s shoes and ask myself what the Bible teaches me about this person, I find an answer and put it into practice. So love one another and avoid discrimination and avoid prejudice, let’s practice pure love instead of practising carnal love, it’s not possible with human nature but everything’s possible with God, so ask God and God will give it to you.
Let’s pray, everyone is to pray for himself, and pray for the group in general that God will help us to understand the meaning of redemption
If we read the story of Ruth we will see that redemption happened later. Ruth who went with Naomi started living in a new country, she was no longer a Moabite, she became a Jewish girl, and she married someone; I think you know the story, redemption happened.
This means that in our lives, when it happens that we go up the mountain and down into the plains, we have to always remember the house of the bread of God. Am I with God or not? What I am doing, does it enable me to be in the house of God or not? If we have love we’re going to have love for our souls, we’re going to have love for our spirit. Who can tell me that they don’t like their life here, who doesn’t like his life? Maybe death can show it because when death comes it exposes the true state of someone. Death exposes the inner thoughts of everyone.
When I was a child, I had a grandfather who was very old. One day I said to him “you should die because you disturb everyone”. He was very angry and said, “You, I’m going to curse you, be careful with me, you can joke with everyone else but don’t joke with me”. He was afraid of death. When you tell young people (especially) to die, they will say, “no I am not ready to die, I need to live and to see what’s going on in the earth”. Most people take care of their bodies but they forget about their souls. They want their body to live for a hundred years and forget that their souls live forever.
Peter! If you are asked to die today will you be ready? Be sincere? Are you ready to die today? Ange, would you accept Pete to die today? It will not be easy, although you may say for yourself I can die but for those who love you, it will not be easy. It’s the same thing we must do for souls, when a soul is dying we must put ourselves in the place of this soul and say it’s not easy. I’ll explain; if Peter died today Ange will not see Peter on the earth anymore, I don’t know if she will happy on that day or not but I think not, Ange will cry because Peter will be gone forever. In God’s love when a soul dies, for people who live in Bethlehem they really cry. How many times do you cry for the souls? If you cry for something that will last for one hundred years and forget to cry for something that will last for eternity won’t you call yourself stupid?
Ange works at the hospital. How many times do you see people die? “Quite a few” Does it worry you? “It’s part of the job”. A person dies and is forgotten after a week, another one will die tomorrow and another after that. But for someone you love and you looked after them, they were hospitalised and then died, how would you feel? I think it would be hard and you’ll cry. For us Christians we are the sons of God and we acknowledge that God is our king, we married love, so we always cry for someone we love, if we don’t love all the souls around us, it will be difficult to love God. The Bible says that if you don’t love your neighbour how can you love God? By loving your neighbour you will also love God, and when you love a soul that dies I believe that you are going to kneel down and cry before God.
I will not talk about the book of Ruth, I will not teach about this book, but I tell you that there was a redemption. Go and read these four chapters of Ruth and discover this redemption.
The third redemption is the last one, which is what Isaiah, wrote. This redemption will happen in the last days. Each human being will see this redemption, although some people will reject this redemption it will still be there. For tonight this was only an introduction about redemption to give you an idea to know that there are three redemptions in the Old Testament; the first is in the book of Exodus, meditate on it and next week I’m going to ask questions about it; the second redemption is in the book of Ruth, read it also, there will be a few questions; and the third is Isaiah. So go home and read and discover. We will discuss about redemption altogether, in Boaz time, in Moses time and what Isaiah prophesied for the future. We’re going to stop there for tonight.
Question: How can we love people that we don’t know? Love is eternal, because God loved me He created me black and because He loved you He created you white, He created everyone, but our souls are only one colour, this colour is identical and in all of that we all have red blood, all our bones are white etc, this is to show us the value and colour of a soul. The love we have must not be limited to the physical. When we speak about God’s love we first see the value of the soul of a man. For example; if my father died today I will glorify if he has gone as a Christian, I might even sing, but if I only look at the physical body then my love is limited and as you know love practices justice, and when love practices justice it means that love is just, so I can’t love this one more and this one less.
Without forgetting there are different kinds of love, when we speak about God’s love this love is perfect, when we speak about human love it’s a love that is a little imperfect. But because the spiritual always gives birth to good deeds that are physical you will find that the one you couldn’t love yesterday, you will love them today and tomorrow you’ll love them more.
I’ll give you an example; what’s happening today in Iraq with the war; when you watch TV and see people shot, how do you feel? When you get together to pray, do you pray for them or not? You will see that many people pray for these Iraqis, they pray for peace, they pray that God might stop the war, of course it’s love, it’s not bad but do they pray for their souls that they might be saved, few Christians really pray for the souls in Iraq that they might be set free.
You will find in the church today the carnal love has more place than spiritual love and when you practice carnal love you can say that I love Peter more than Odon, because I’m led by the flesh, but when you are led by the Spirit of God everyone who is around you will manifest the glory of God, through this person you will see that God manifests Himself, physically it’s not easy to define but you will feel that you love, that’s how it is. Sometimes try to discern the souls, if you love someone’s soul it’s better than loving their body, because we know that this body will eventually decay and die. If a soul is dead you will never see this soul ever again.
It’s like someone who has $5 and loses it, you might be bothered but after ten mins or two hours you’ll forget about it, but if you lose your job, you’ll think about it longer, maybe you’ll even hate your life. The carnal life can be compared to this $5, but when you love the soul of man we know that the source of life is there, this will have such a great value in our love. A few years ago I talked about love, love is joy, love is patient, but this patience is not the effort I make to be patient, it’s something that comes from the inside. I put myself in other’s shoes and ask myself what the Bible teaches me about this person, I find an answer and put it into practice. So love one another and avoid discrimination and avoid prejudice, let’s practice pure love instead of practising carnal love, it’s not possible with human nature but everything’s possible with God, so ask God and God will give it to you.
Let’s pray, everyone is to pray for himself, and pray for the group in general that God will help us to understand the meaning of redemption
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Redemption - Exodus, Ruth, Israel (Part I)
By Odon Bulamba (28 March 2003)
Redemption means to be redeemed. For example someone can be arrested because he was speeding. This person is required to pay some money so that he doesn’t have any further problems with the police. If this person doesn’t pay, he risks to go to jail.
Sometimes someone can do evil, and someone else will say that I will pay for this person. There was a man aged 85 who had a son who was arrested for armed robbery. The penalty in this certain country was death. However, his father said, “since I am already 85 yrs old and my son is only 30 it would be better that I give him the chance to carry on with his life and I can die, I will pay the price for his life, because if he’s killed today maybe after two weeks I will also die from worry, it’s better for my son to be set free and I die”. This old man was shot and his life was gone, he accepted to pay the price; this is what we call redemption.
When we pay the price for someone’s life there is no room for fear and selfishness will not find any room. If you consider redemption carefully you’ll see that it works together with love because when you love you are not selfish, when you love you are not afraid, when you love you are ready to sacrifice yourself for someone else.
The redemption that we’re going to talk about tonight is a word that God created; in God’s eyes this word has great value. I know that in some churches there are sometimes preachings about redemption, this is about when Jesus died for us. But tonight we’re going to add something a bit higher to this redemption that Christians know; we’re going to go into the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament there are three kinds of redemption; these three types help us to know how to find redemption; the first redemption is found in the book of Exodus, secondly in the book of Ruth and thirdly in the book of Isaiah.
The first redemption in the book of Exodus is about the children of Israel, these children of Israel were loved by God, they were the people of God and God loved them very much, but they were slaves in Egypt for four hundred years. God had promised that the Israelites would become slaves. Who did God promise that to? God had promised this to Abraham since a long time ago that His people would be slaves for centuries, but these people were redeemed by God from the beginning and God loved these people very much. These people lived all this time in Egypt, and eventually the time to leave Egypt was there. First of all they were redeemed, they were the people of God, but they went through a situation as slaves and God came back a second time to set them free.
This means that we as Christians are really the people of God and sometimes we might enter the kingdom of darkness and go through difficult situations in sin but in the end God will set us free again. This doesn’t mean, however, that we have to live in sin thinking that God will set us free later.
These people were the people of Israel, they had in their minds that they would be there for four hundred years and after that they would be set free. When this freedom came nobody could stop it, nobody could tell the Israelites not to leave the country, nobody could tell them to stay because the price for the redemption had been paid, the price had been paid and nobody could say no.
This is the first step; these people left Egypt and took the direction toward the country that God had promised them. So meditate on that and you’ll understand the rest.
The second redemption is in the book of Ruth; as you know Ruth was a woman who lived in the country of Moab. There was a man named Elimelech who was Jewish, he was born and raised in Bethlehem and he married a lady called Naomi. Naomi also lived in Bethlehem and they had two sons.
Bethlehem means “the house of the bread of God”. These people lived in Bethlehem in the house of the bread of God. Elimelech means “my God is king”, so Elimelech acknowledged that God is his king and he lived in the house of the bread of God. Elimelech fell in love with a woman called Naomi and Naomi means “love”. “God is my king” got married to “love” and both of them lived in “the house of the bread of God”. Does this make sense?
Someone who acknowledges that God is my king will always marry love. This is the first principle of redemption, if you acknowledge that God is your king you must first try to find love, this is why Jesus said that love is the first command. If God is my king (me Odon) I will get married to love, and me and love together will live in the house of the bread of God.
John tells us that the Word is the bread of God and Jesus Christ is the bread of life. If I acknowledge God as my king, I will live in the Word and live in it with love and I will have love for the Word of God, love for people, and love for everything that God gives me. There maybe enemies but I must love them.
This couple lived together in Bethlehem but one day Elimelech said that famine is here so we must leave, we must leave Bethlehem to go to Moab. Moab was the son of Lot. Lot married a woman who gave birth to two daughters after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and they hid somewhere. Lot’s daughters saw that their father was getting old and so were they so they asked themselves, “who will we get married to?” According to the Israelite law they couldn’t marry foreigners. An idea came into the eldest daughter’s mind and she said, “we will give our father wine so he can get drunk and when he’s drunk I will sleep with him and have a child”. Wow, what a solution! Was it good or not?
She slept with her father and got pregnant. She told her sister to do the same thing, which she did and she got pregnant also. Their father did not realise what he had done to his daughters, he was completely drunk. If it was the right thing to do then these daughters wouldn’t have had to make their father drunk in order for their father to accept to sleep with them. This means that it wasn’t a good thing. I don’t know what was wrong with the father because he accepted to drink so much wine that day. So us as Christians we must learn something about that; the devil organises strategies so that something is born in his kingdom. We must be careful with the wine we drink; the Bible says be drunk in the Spirit, but don’t get drunk with wine.
The first daughter gave birth to Moab; Moab means, “I found him through my father”. The second daughter gave birth to Ben-Ammi, which means “son of my descendants”. Moabites were well known for their seduction, it was their role. Because seduction goes against God’s will, I would say that all the Moabite people were impure, although Ruth called them the people of God later.
So Elimelech decided to live in the land of the Moabites; he left the house of God, he left the bread of God’s house and went out of this house to live in the house of seduction and he wasted so much there.
Mahlon was the name of the first child born to Elimelech which means “weakness”. What was the? The second sons’ name was Kilion which means “fallen”. The first name given to the one who called God his king was weakness. As Christians you acknowledge God as your father and king but it happens at times that you might give birth to weakness. The first thing that attacks the Christian life is weakness, weakness in decisions you’ve made, weakness in your life and in everything; such as in prayer, reading the Bible and visiting people. God never gives the gift of weakness to people; it’s us who creates this so we can walk the way that we like.
Next, there was birth to the son who fell and when you are weak you will find yourself falling sometimes. When you are weak in prayer it’s very easy to fall into temptation, when you are weak in the word of God it’s very easy to fall into confusion. For example, I can ask who was Abraham’s third son? And you will see what people will do, some will scratch their head, some will look down, some will pretend to open their Bibles and read just to deviate; the lack of knowledge leads us to confusion. When we used to have Bible studies, people would preach and teach and I was always the one to disturb. I would ask challenging questions to the point that those who were teaching didn’t have an answer. It wasn’t to tempt them but I wanted all the Christians to think together and find a good answer.
I was asked one day what Jesus’ race was and what was Satan’s colour, ‘of course it was black’, and Angels, ‘they were also white’. For me, as an African, because I’m black I would say that Satan belongs to my race and the white people would say God belongs to us, Jesus is our race. Following this many people started creating God according to their tribe. When the missionaries came to our country to preach the Gospel a few years ago they would help us understand it by using pictures, and the devil was always black. The people who were taught by missionaries were black, everybody would look at themselves and say is this man mocking us, is this the Gospel of love or did he come to abuse us? As for us black people where is our place in all of that? This means that all these kinds of things can create confusion because people don’t have the knowledge.
What gave birth to weakness in your life? What gave birth to the death that you have in your life? If you are weak today are you waiting to give birth to ‘fallen’? If you have Mahlon (weakness) why would you carry on and give birth to Kilion (fallen). Because Elimelech gave birth to these two sons, his life did not last long. He died. He didn’t die in Bethlehem but he died in the city of Moab. The one who called God my king was gone and love (Naomi) stayed alone. Love said, “Although weakness is here and fallen is there, I will still carry on to look after them”. Although we die in our actions or our spiritual activities, the love of God is always with us, whatever our weaknesses the love of God is always with us.
Even though Naomi’s sons were like that, she made them grow up and they even got married. After getting married, weakness continued to be weak and fallen continued to be fallen. Whatever keeps being weak will break, and whatever is fallen, if it doesn’t get up the sand will cover it. So these two sons also died.
But love was still there, it was Naomi. Naomi was still alive, weakness passed away, temptation passed away and pretension passed away but love remained. Who were the two daughters in law of Naomi whom married her sons? They were Ruth and Orpah. Naomi told these two women to go back to their own families “as my sons have passed away, go back to your own families, I am already old therefore I can not conceive anymore sons for you that you could marry them, furthermore I don’t have a husband anymore”.
Naomi was a bit tough with her daughters-in-law but they said to Naomi, “we love one another so we’re going to go with you”. Although our actions and our attitudes are not good, if we’ve got love people will like living with us. Although Naomi was harsh with these two daughters they still said that it’s better for us to go with you. Naomi said, “where am I going to go, I’ve lost my husband, I’ve lost my sons, I have to go back to the place I came from, I don’t want to live in this situation, I don’t want to live in this area of seduction, I will go and live in the house of God”.
The daughter’s insisted and said it’s an opportunity to go and see the country of this lady, maybe we’ll have love like her or joy if we go back with her. How many times do people follow you? How many times do people say, “we’re going to go with you where you pray, we’ve discovered love in you so we’re going to live in the church where you pray, teach us the message so that we might know the love of God”. At times we might be tough like Naomi was and say to the drunk people, “no stay where you are, I don’t have time to think about drunk people, I don’t have time to think about people who are not believers, stay in your world, I will only think about those who are Christians”. Where is love? Where is love? Love teaches us that we even have to love our enemies, love teaches us that we have to love everybody, despite one’s race or whatever, so do we love or not?
Redemption means to be redeemed. For example someone can be arrested because he was speeding. This person is required to pay some money so that he doesn’t have any further problems with the police. If this person doesn’t pay, he risks to go to jail.
Sometimes someone can do evil, and someone else will say that I will pay for this person. There was a man aged 85 who had a son who was arrested for armed robbery. The penalty in this certain country was death. However, his father said, “since I am already 85 yrs old and my son is only 30 it would be better that I give him the chance to carry on with his life and I can die, I will pay the price for his life, because if he’s killed today maybe after two weeks I will also die from worry, it’s better for my son to be set free and I die”. This old man was shot and his life was gone, he accepted to pay the price; this is what we call redemption.
When we pay the price for someone’s life there is no room for fear and selfishness will not find any room. If you consider redemption carefully you’ll see that it works together with love because when you love you are not selfish, when you love you are not afraid, when you love you are ready to sacrifice yourself for someone else.
The redemption that we’re going to talk about tonight is a word that God created; in God’s eyes this word has great value. I know that in some churches there are sometimes preachings about redemption, this is about when Jesus died for us. But tonight we’re going to add something a bit higher to this redemption that Christians know; we’re going to go into the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament there are three kinds of redemption; these three types help us to know how to find redemption; the first redemption is found in the book of Exodus, secondly in the book of Ruth and thirdly in the book of Isaiah.
The first redemption in the book of Exodus is about the children of Israel, these children of Israel were loved by God, they were the people of God and God loved them very much, but they were slaves in Egypt for four hundred years. God had promised that the Israelites would become slaves. Who did God promise that to? God had promised this to Abraham since a long time ago that His people would be slaves for centuries, but these people were redeemed by God from the beginning and God loved these people very much. These people lived all this time in Egypt, and eventually the time to leave Egypt was there. First of all they were redeemed, they were the people of God, but they went through a situation as slaves and God came back a second time to set them free.
This means that we as Christians are really the people of God and sometimes we might enter the kingdom of darkness and go through difficult situations in sin but in the end God will set us free again. This doesn’t mean, however, that we have to live in sin thinking that God will set us free later.
These people were the people of Israel, they had in their minds that they would be there for four hundred years and after that they would be set free. When this freedom came nobody could stop it, nobody could tell the Israelites not to leave the country, nobody could tell them to stay because the price for the redemption had been paid, the price had been paid and nobody could say no.
This is the first step; these people left Egypt and took the direction toward the country that God had promised them. So meditate on that and you’ll understand the rest.
The second redemption is in the book of Ruth; as you know Ruth was a woman who lived in the country of Moab. There was a man named Elimelech who was Jewish, he was born and raised in Bethlehem and he married a lady called Naomi. Naomi also lived in Bethlehem and they had two sons.
Bethlehem means “the house of the bread of God”. These people lived in Bethlehem in the house of the bread of God. Elimelech means “my God is king”, so Elimelech acknowledged that God is his king and he lived in the house of the bread of God. Elimelech fell in love with a woman called Naomi and Naomi means “love”. “God is my king” got married to “love” and both of them lived in “the house of the bread of God”. Does this make sense?
Someone who acknowledges that God is my king will always marry love. This is the first principle of redemption, if you acknowledge that God is your king you must first try to find love, this is why Jesus said that love is the first command. If God is my king (me Odon) I will get married to love, and me and love together will live in the house of the bread of God.
John tells us that the Word is the bread of God and Jesus Christ is the bread of life. If I acknowledge God as my king, I will live in the Word and live in it with love and I will have love for the Word of God, love for people, and love for everything that God gives me. There maybe enemies but I must love them.
This couple lived together in Bethlehem but one day Elimelech said that famine is here so we must leave, we must leave Bethlehem to go to Moab. Moab was the son of Lot. Lot married a woman who gave birth to two daughters after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and they hid somewhere. Lot’s daughters saw that their father was getting old and so were they so they asked themselves, “who will we get married to?” According to the Israelite law they couldn’t marry foreigners. An idea came into the eldest daughter’s mind and she said, “we will give our father wine so he can get drunk and when he’s drunk I will sleep with him and have a child”. Wow, what a solution! Was it good or not?
She slept with her father and got pregnant. She told her sister to do the same thing, which she did and she got pregnant also. Their father did not realise what he had done to his daughters, he was completely drunk. If it was the right thing to do then these daughters wouldn’t have had to make their father drunk in order for their father to accept to sleep with them. This means that it wasn’t a good thing. I don’t know what was wrong with the father because he accepted to drink so much wine that day. So us as Christians we must learn something about that; the devil organises strategies so that something is born in his kingdom. We must be careful with the wine we drink; the Bible says be drunk in the Spirit, but don’t get drunk with wine.
The first daughter gave birth to Moab; Moab means, “I found him through my father”. The second daughter gave birth to Ben-Ammi, which means “son of my descendants”. Moabites were well known for their seduction, it was their role. Because seduction goes against God’s will, I would say that all the Moabite people were impure, although Ruth called them the people of God later.
So Elimelech decided to live in the land of the Moabites; he left the house of God, he left the bread of God’s house and went out of this house to live in the house of seduction and he wasted so much there.
Mahlon was the name of the first child born to Elimelech which means “weakness”. What was the? The second sons’ name was Kilion which means “fallen”. The first name given to the one who called God his king was weakness. As Christians you acknowledge God as your father and king but it happens at times that you might give birth to weakness. The first thing that attacks the Christian life is weakness, weakness in decisions you’ve made, weakness in your life and in everything; such as in prayer, reading the Bible and visiting people. God never gives the gift of weakness to people; it’s us who creates this so we can walk the way that we like.
Next, there was birth to the son who fell and when you are weak you will find yourself falling sometimes. When you are weak in prayer it’s very easy to fall into temptation, when you are weak in the word of God it’s very easy to fall into confusion. For example, I can ask who was Abraham’s third son? And you will see what people will do, some will scratch their head, some will look down, some will pretend to open their Bibles and read just to deviate; the lack of knowledge leads us to confusion. When we used to have Bible studies, people would preach and teach and I was always the one to disturb. I would ask challenging questions to the point that those who were teaching didn’t have an answer. It wasn’t to tempt them but I wanted all the Christians to think together and find a good answer.
I was asked one day what Jesus’ race was and what was Satan’s colour, ‘of course it was black’, and Angels, ‘they were also white’. For me, as an African, because I’m black I would say that Satan belongs to my race and the white people would say God belongs to us, Jesus is our race. Following this many people started creating God according to their tribe. When the missionaries came to our country to preach the Gospel a few years ago they would help us understand it by using pictures, and the devil was always black. The people who were taught by missionaries were black, everybody would look at themselves and say is this man mocking us, is this the Gospel of love or did he come to abuse us? As for us black people where is our place in all of that? This means that all these kinds of things can create confusion because people don’t have the knowledge.
What gave birth to weakness in your life? What gave birth to the death that you have in your life? If you are weak today are you waiting to give birth to ‘fallen’? If you have Mahlon (weakness) why would you carry on and give birth to Kilion (fallen). Because Elimelech gave birth to these two sons, his life did not last long. He died. He didn’t die in Bethlehem but he died in the city of Moab. The one who called God my king was gone and love (Naomi) stayed alone. Love said, “Although weakness is here and fallen is there, I will still carry on to look after them”. Although we die in our actions or our spiritual activities, the love of God is always with us, whatever our weaknesses the love of God is always with us.
Even though Naomi’s sons were like that, she made them grow up and they even got married. After getting married, weakness continued to be weak and fallen continued to be fallen. Whatever keeps being weak will break, and whatever is fallen, if it doesn’t get up the sand will cover it. So these two sons also died.
But love was still there, it was Naomi. Naomi was still alive, weakness passed away, temptation passed away and pretension passed away but love remained. Who were the two daughters in law of Naomi whom married her sons? They were Ruth and Orpah. Naomi told these two women to go back to their own families “as my sons have passed away, go back to your own families, I am already old therefore I can not conceive anymore sons for you that you could marry them, furthermore I don’t have a husband anymore”.
Naomi was a bit tough with her daughters-in-law but they said to Naomi, “we love one another so we’re going to go with you”. Although our actions and our attitudes are not good, if we’ve got love people will like living with us. Although Naomi was harsh with these two daughters they still said that it’s better for us to go with you. Naomi said, “where am I going to go, I’ve lost my husband, I’ve lost my sons, I have to go back to the place I came from, I don’t want to live in this situation, I don’t want to live in this area of seduction, I will go and live in the house of God”.
The daughter’s insisted and said it’s an opportunity to go and see the country of this lady, maybe we’ll have love like her or joy if we go back with her. How many times do people follow you? How many times do people say, “we’re going to go with you where you pray, we’ve discovered love in you so we’re going to live in the church where you pray, teach us the message so that we might know the love of God”. At times we might be tough like Naomi was and say to the drunk people, “no stay where you are, I don’t have time to think about drunk people, I don’t have time to think about people who are not believers, stay in your world, I will only think about those who are Christians”. Where is love? Where is love? Love teaches us that we even have to love our enemies, love teaches us that we have to love everybody, despite one’s race or whatever, so do we love or not?
Sunday, August 23, 2009
The Power of Redemption (Part III)
By Odon Bulamba (summary only)
One day the church will be raised up and will start judging the world. I don’t know if there is a lawyer who doesn’t know the law. I don’t know if there are lawyers who don’t respect the law. So why do lawyers respect the law? Because there are penalties if you don’t and also you will be a hypocrite. If you are a lawyer and you don’t respect the law, you are a hypocrite. If you are a lawyer and you don’t respect the law, you won’t have any client’s coming to you. Even the judge won’t believe you.
We Christians are the lawyers of this earth. Jesus chose us and made us in His image. He gave us the power of redemption to give the gospel to others, to talk to them about the divine law. And people will ask us “What does the law say?” And I say don’t do that, that and that because one day the Judge will judge you. Amen! And if you don’t live according to the law, it’s time to wake up because the Bible speaks about the law. The Bible says He paid the price for you and you have to help others know the law.
Psalm 107:1&2, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord for He is good, For His loving kindness is everlasting, Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary.”
We are the ones whom God has redeemed therefore we must give thanks to God and praise Him. For us who have been saved and know the power of redemption, we must say Halleluiah at each moment. Who has received redemption among us? So if you have received it, you are entitled to say Halleluiah. You have to proclaim it everywhere.
I will give you an example - in the Arabic tribes you will find in a community, 25,000 people called Ahmed. And first names and surnames are all together. And if you call Ahmed 25 people will come. And if you say the surname, all 25 people will say that’s my surname and they are from different families. But there is only one name that God uses - that is redeemed people. That’s what it is for us Christians. David is redeemed, Moses is redeemed, you and me are too because we are under the power of redemption.
Hebrews 9:12 You did not enter by means of the blood of goats or calves but He entered the most Holy place once for all by His own blood having obtained eternal redemption.
So our redemption is eternal. It’s not a six month redemption like how we sign a work contract and after two years you have to sign it again. It’s an eternal contract. So if you are saved it’s eternal. Jesus paid for your eternal life. It’s not the blood of goat or a cow but it’s His own blood, a pure blood without any disease and without the virus of sin. It’s a very pure blood. A blood that gives life and this blood is a pact agreement between us and God.
Jesus gave us eternal life, eternal salvation. So you brothers and sisters, try to avoid having a four month salvation. Many people might say, “I was a Christian when I was 18 and I remember singing and doing God’s work, but now I am tired and my body is old” - NO - push yourself and ask God for strength that you might keep this salvation eternally.
We are here at Sylvie’s place and it’s very cold and our brother has $20 in his pocket and I say because it’s very cold I will light the fire but I don’t have any newspaper. So I ask my brother to give me $20 to start the fire. Would you give this to me? I don’t think so!!! To give the $20 is a big problem! So we must not allow our salvation to be burnt by the devil. We must not give it to the devil and tell him to start the fire of sin in our lives. When the devil comes, send him somewhere else. Ask him to go elsewhere. Tell the devil not to waste his time here but to go elsewhere because I won’t give you any room.
SUMMARY
- Live and teach others the law of the Bible (we are lawyers of this earth)
-Praise God He has redeemed you (at every moment)
- Keep your redemption for eternity (don't give up)
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
One day the church will be raised up and will start judging the world. I don’t know if there is a lawyer who doesn’t know the law. I don’t know if there are lawyers who don’t respect the law. So why do lawyers respect the law? Because there are penalties if you don’t and also you will be a hypocrite. If you are a lawyer and you don’t respect the law, you are a hypocrite. If you are a lawyer and you don’t respect the law, you won’t have any client’s coming to you. Even the judge won’t believe you.
We Christians are the lawyers of this earth. Jesus chose us and made us in His image. He gave us the power of redemption to give the gospel to others, to talk to them about the divine law. And people will ask us “What does the law say?” And I say don’t do that, that and that because one day the Judge will judge you. Amen! And if you don’t live according to the law, it’s time to wake up because the Bible speaks about the law. The Bible says He paid the price for you and you have to help others know the law.
Psalm 107:1&2, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord for He is good, For His loving kindness is everlasting, Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary.”
We are the ones whom God has redeemed therefore we must give thanks to God and praise Him. For us who have been saved and know the power of redemption, we must say Halleluiah at each moment. Who has received redemption among us? So if you have received it, you are entitled to say Halleluiah. You have to proclaim it everywhere.
I will give you an example - in the Arabic tribes you will find in a community, 25,000 people called Ahmed. And first names and surnames are all together. And if you call Ahmed 25 people will come. And if you say the surname, all 25 people will say that’s my surname and they are from different families. But there is only one name that God uses - that is redeemed people. That’s what it is for us Christians. David is redeemed, Moses is redeemed, you and me are too because we are under the power of redemption.
Hebrews 9:12 You did not enter by means of the blood of goats or calves but He entered the most Holy place once for all by His own blood having obtained eternal redemption.
So our redemption is eternal. It’s not a six month redemption like how we sign a work contract and after two years you have to sign it again. It’s an eternal contract. So if you are saved it’s eternal. Jesus paid for your eternal life. It’s not the blood of goat or a cow but it’s His own blood, a pure blood without any disease and without the virus of sin. It’s a very pure blood. A blood that gives life and this blood is a pact agreement between us and God.
Jesus gave us eternal life, eternal salvation. So you brothers and sisters, try to avoid having a four month salvation. Many people might say, “I was a Christian when I was 18 and I remember singing and doing God’s work, but now I am tired and my body is old” - NO - push yourself and ask God for strength that you might keep this salvation eternally.
We are here at Sylvie’s place and it’s very cold and our brother has $20 in his pocket and I say because it’s very cold I will light the fire but I don’t have any newspaper. So I ask my brother to give me $20 to start the fire. Would you give this to me? I don’t think so!!! To give the $20 is a big problem! So we must not allow our salvation to be burnt by the devil. We must not give it to the devil and tell him to start the fire of sin in our lives. When the devil comes, send him somewhere else. Ask him to go elsewhere. Tell the devil not to waste his time here but to go elsewhere because I won’t give you any room.
SUMMARY
- Live and teach others the law of the Bible (we are lawyers of this earth)
-Praise God He has redeemed you (at every moment)
- Keep your redemption for eternity (don't give up)
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Thursday, August 20, 2009
The Power of Redemption (part II)
By Odon Bulamba (summary only)
As you know, when kings die they are buried. Whether poor or rich, every one of us will be buried and if the lions eat you, when the lions die you will be buried too. Anyway, life finishes there. The earth received David. The earth received Adam. The earth has swallowed a lot of people that we know and kept them. But the day when the earth swallowed Jesus, three days later the earth threw Him up. Jesus was bitter for the taste of the earth (like the bitter taste of vinegar Jesus was given to drink on the cross). The earth knew that this man couldn’t stay there, He had to go out.
When you are sick for example, are you in peace? I don’t think so. Even if you are driving, you feel that you have to stop to throw up. If you are in a meeting, even if it were with a president, when sickness is there, you won’t stop it. And the earth could feel this nausea with Jesus too and this nausea was the power of redemption. It was the power of freedom. The earth was in trouble and the earth said let Him go.
So Jesus was alive. And something else - the tomb that was closely guarded, the tomb felt that it was not possible. In the same way as when you feel like you need to vomit, you cannot even close your lips, it has to go and if you close your lips it will come back again and go with pressure and you will throw up. And the tomb also could feel this power and rejected Jesus with power. All the soldiers in front of the tomb fell on the ground. That was the power of redemption.
And us as Christians, one day we will feel that we have been redeemed and Satan already knows how strong we are and if Satan hasn’t thrown you up yet that will be the time when he will throw you up because your price has been paid already a long time ago.
When Jesus was resurrected, the Bible says that His body was transformed. When you would see it, it was the same Jesus but He was living in spirit. He had a body that maybe didn’t have water. He had a shiny body and He had a body working as a spirit. And your body and my body how are they waiting? If someone has already paid the price, why are our lives and bodies not transformed too? If you smoked, you keep smoking, if you were drinking, you keep drinking. Have you already received redemption? The Bible says redemption is eternal.
Ephesians 1:7. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace.
Our sins have been forgiven and we have received redemption through everything that He’s done. It means He paid for our sins. He paid also the price for our lives and on top of all this, He gave us grace. What a miracle! Animals don’t have grace. Birds don’t have grace. But for us, God gave us grace, the power of redemption. We have to be proud as Christians because someone paid our price. When I’m hungry, He gives me some food. When I’m sick, He heals me. When I’m in distress, He gives me joy. But what do I give him?
And do you know one thing? - after Jesus’ death on the cross, someone who was very courageous but in a negative way, took a spear and came in front of the body and pushed the spear and said “Die again.” He pierced the body which was already dead. What a misery. Something that is not good for us Christians, and us Christians today, we do that. When our brothers or sisters are in a mistake, and we find out that they are dying spiritually, we take also a spear to pierce them to say let’s finish it once and forever. This is a danger for us.
So the power of redemption gave us transformation. The power of redemption gave us life. That’s how you have been called by God and saved. When you were saved, I can tell you that it was not your will. That was God’s will because He loved you first. How many people in this world look for God and cannot find him? They ask me, “where can I find God? I really need to be saved but I can’t. I really need to know the gospel but I can’t. I push myself to read the word of God, but I can’t understand a word. I try to follow people to have the Word of God explained to me but I can’t understand anything”. They cry everyday and say that if Jesus came back today I’ll be lost. And you who have received the grace of knowing Jesus, you don’t even think of when Jesus will return. Take the assurance of salvation tonight. Be assured that if Jesus will return today, you’ll be with him in the heavens. And you the good news that Jesus gave you - when Jesus will return only those who belong to him will be caught up in the air. It means that you and me will be caught up in the air. I see my sister Colleen and say “Ah, sister you are here. Praise the Lord!” And we are going to dance together, and sing with our brother. We are going to sing with everybody. What a joy! The price of our life has been paid.
For the full message please email: littlebethlem@windowslive.com
As you know, when kings die they are buried. Whether poor or rich, every one of us will be buried and if the lions eat you, when the lions die you will be buried too. Anyway, life finishes there. The earth received David. The earth received Adam. The earth has swallowed a lot of people that we know and kept them. But the day when the earth swallowed Jesus, three days later the earth threw Him up. Jesus was bitter for the taste of the earth (like the bitter taste of vinegar Jesus was given to drink on the cross). The earth knew that this man couldn’t stay there, He had to go out.
When you are sick for example, are you in peace? I don’t think so. Even if you are driving, you feel that you have to stop to throw up. If you are in a meeting, even if it were with a president, when sickness is there, you won’t stop it. And the earth could feel this nausea with Jesus too and this nausea was the power of redemption. It was the power of freedom. The earth was in trouble and the earth said let Him go.
So Jesus was alive. And something else - the tomb that was closely guarded, the tomb felt that it was not possible. In the same way as when you feel like you need to vomit, you cannot even close your lips, it has to go and if you close your lips it will come back again and go with pressure and you will throw up. And the tomb also could feel this power and rejected Jesus with power. All the soldiers in front of the tomb fell on the ground. That was the power of redemption.
And us as Christians, one day we will feel that we have been redeemed and Satan already knows how strong we are and if Satan hasn’t thrown you up yet that will be the time when he will throw you up because your price has been paid already a long time ago.
When Jesus was resurrected, the Bible says that His body was transformed. When you would see it, it was the same Jesus but He was living in spirit. He had a body that maybe didn’t have water. He had a shiny body and He had a body working as a spirit. And your body and my body how are they waiting? If someone has already paid the price, why are our lives and bodies not transformed too? If you smoked, you keep smoking, if you were drinking, you keep drinking. Have you already received redemption? The Bible says redemption is eternal.
Ephesians 1:7. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace.
Our sins have been forgiven and we have received redemption through everything that He’s done. It means He paid for our sins. He paid also the price for our lives and on top of all this, He gave us grace. What a miracle! Animals don’t have grace. Birds don’t have grace. But for us, God gave us grace, the power of redemption. We have to be proud as Christians because someone paid our price. When I’m hungry, He gives me some food. When I’m sick, He heals me. When I’m in distress, He gives me joy. But what do I give him?
And do you know one thing? - after Jesus’ death on the cross, someone who was very courageous but in a negative way, took a spear and came in front of the body and pushed the spear and said “Die again.” He pierced the body which was already dead. What a misery. Something that is not good for us Christians, and us Christians today, we do that. When our brothers or sisters are in a mistake, and we find out that they are dying spiritually, we take also a spear to pierce them to say let’s finish it once and forever. This is a danger for us.
So the power of redemption gave us transformation. The power of redemption gave us life. That’s how you have been called by God and saved. When you were saved, I can tell you that it was not your will. That was God’s will because He loved you first. How many people in this world look for God and cannot find him? They ask me, “where can I find God? I really need to be saved but I can’t. I really need to know the gospel but I can’t. I push myself to read the word of God, but I can’t understand a word. I try to follow people to have the Word of God explained to me but I can’t understand anything”. They cry everyday and say that if Jesus came back today I’ll be lost. And you who have received the grace of knowing Jesus, you don’t even think of when Jesus will return. Take the assurance of salvation tonight. Be assured that if Jesus will return today, you’ll be with him in the heavens. And you the good news that Jesus gave you - when Jesus will return only those who belong to him will be caught up in the air. It means that you and me will be caught up in the air. I see my sister Colleen and say “Ah, sister you are here. Praise the Lord!” And we are going to dance together, and sing with our brother. We are going to sing with everybody. What a joy! The price of our life has been paid.
For the full message please email: littlebethlem@windowslive.com
Saturday, August 15, 2009
The Power of Redemption
By Odon Bulamba (summary only - 6th Sept, 02)
What is redemption? What do you understand by redemption? Each day we sing about redemption and we read about redemption, so what is it?
Redemption means that someone is a guarantor to pay your debt and God accepts to take all the problems you have. Even if the price of these problems are life; He will give His life for you.
One day there was a hunter in the forest hunting and when he was hunting he saw a monkey and there was a baby sitting on his chest. And the hunter said it’s a good opportunity to eat monkey today. He took his gun, he aimed at the monkey and the monkey saw the man. And the monkey made noise. The female monkey arrived and when she came, she took the child. She put out her hand toward the man and showed him her baby and touched her breast to show that she was breastfeeding. So it means that if you kill me, it’s over for my baby. The male monkey came in front of his wife and hid her and his baby and he showed that he was ready to be killed. I assure you that this man didn’t kill this monkey. He left and said it’s incredible to see a monkey ready to give his life because of his family and little baby. Isn’t this something important?
When I (Odon) watch TV there’s a programme about animals on it and often when the Lions are hunting animals, they often attack the small animals and the adult animals always sacrifice their life to protect them.
When I was 12, we had a hen and this hen had chicks. I named her Jociah because she knew how to protect herself. One day I wanted to get one of her chicks, although I had a stick in my hand, the hen didn’t fear the stick and attacked me to protect the chick.
Doesn’t this teach us something? A hen that is ready to take many risks to protect her chick and the monkey to take many risks to protect his family.
We have more value than all these animals but for us human beings it’s often impossible to protect our brothers and sisters. Animals can do it, so why not us humans? And from that, God saw that mankind was not on the right way. We started sinning against God. Men started killing one another and from that God said that everything we do is sin. Satan is here with a weapon and is destroying us spiritually.
God really wanted man to find a redeemer. He looked at man who had so much value on earth and there was nobody to redeem them. So He said it would be good if someone sins that they kill an animal to redeem the price of a life. So the animal was used to protect the life of a man and man started sacrificing dove, cows etc to try to redeem their souls.
But God saw that the value of the blood of these animals was not equal to the value of the blood of man. The value of the blood of these animals did not have the value of the soul of a man. Because God remembered that He said to man that he has to dominate over everything on earth and how would it be possible for the life of an animal to be more valuable than the life of a man? Is it possible for a slave to be master of his master?
And God said “no, it’s not possible”. The only thing left that has more value than man is me, God. So I have to go down to give my life. As I created man the first time that I gave them life, I want to give him life again. And God asked, “Who is ready to go and save man?” From that time God made the decision to leave Heaven and come to earth and the only aim of leaving Heaven was to give us redemption.
One day I was in the 7th day Adventist Church and the preacher said that Jesus was a tourist, that Jesus left Heaven to do some tourism on earth. But Jesus didn’t come to sightsee. He came to give us redemption. He came to redeem us and pay the price of our life. So Jesus was born, grew up and worked and one day, the day came when he had to die. What happened? He already said that he would die. “I will die and my death won’t be a normal death, because I’m here to bear all your burdens. I will die so that you will have life. I will die so that your souls will be redeemed. I will die so that you won’t be a slave anymore. I will die so that you will be completely free”.
And Jesus gave his life. He said, “Here I am, take me”. And men who thought they were strong arrested Jesus. They flogged him and spat on him. They took his clothes off. He was completely humiliated. As you know, prisons here are better. But visit prisons in Asia or Africa and you will see the value of a prisoner. Each morning you are woken up with a whip. During the day you are tortured and when night comes, you say thank God because now you can have a rest. And on top of that you cannot eat. You sleep on the floor and there’s water on it. Maybe that’s the place where the prisoner’s go to the toilet. Sometimes you have to eat it. It’s really a life of misery, problems and difficulties. And Jesus Christ said He would take everything. So He was made naked and said He would pay the price for the people.
He knew tortures of all kinds and after being whipped a crown was made and put on his head. It was not a crown that kings and queens put on their heads. It was not a crown of diamonds and gold. It was a crown of something else. What was it? A crown of thorns. A crown that made blood flow. A crown that would humiliate the presence of Jesus. It was a crown of suffering and Jesus was there and he was patient. He was paying the price of my murders. He was paying the price of your pride, your slanders, your hatreds and disorders.
And it was not enough. Man said there are still people doing evil things on earth and if Jesus has to pay the price for everybody, he must be tortured more. So he had to carry the cross. I tried to do some research. The cross that Jesus bore was 99kgs in weight and himself, was about 72kgs. And he bore His cross for three hours. Imagine how heavy it was. After being flogged and whipped He had to bear this heavy cross. He was taken to the place of the skull and that’s where He’d be finished.
The soldiers arrived with nails and hammers. Imagine yourself coming with a hammer and nails and you are asked to nail Odon onto the table in front of you. Do you think it would be possible after crying and shouting to now nail me (Odon)? Who can do it amongst us? Could you do this to someone else? Even if it’s your enemy I assure it’s not something easy. You can give the first hit but the shout of this person will touch your conscience. And your conscience will tell you that what you are doing is not good. But this man nailed Jesus to the cross. Although Jesus was crying and shouting, they said “We don’t care, He has to pay the price”.
His feet too were nailed and us Christians today nail Jesus on the cross again. We don’t have any pity on all that He has known of suffering, and we keep making Him pay the price of our sins.
So Jesus was nailed on the cross and after this He was raised and said He was thirsty. What was He given to drink? He was given vinegar. It was a vinegar with added bitter herbs to the point where Jesus tasted it and he couldn’t even swallow it. It was very bitter and He said it’s better to be thirsty and die, than to drink that. And man would just laugh. They didn’t even feel like they were killing someone. And how many times do we take pleasure in other people’s misery.
And at the end Jesus said it’s all finished. It is finished. Just one more thing, I must find the key of redemption. I must find the power for redemption.
Jesus left his body. He was buried and remember, He promised that after three days, they would see him again. The promises of God are always fulfilled. It might be 10 or 100 years but it will always happen. So don’t lose faith, don’t stumble in your faith. Always trust God and you will see what God will do. It’s just a question to do what He asks you to do. What you have to do, just do it.
Because after three days He said He’ll be alive, they put soldiers in front of His tomb and Jesus went down and the Bible says that first of all He went to free people. The people that had been captured for a long time. He went to set them free. Secondly, He took back the key of life to give us freedom.
SUMMARY
- Redemption means someone pays the price of our debt for us
- Our soul is so important that God Himself left heaven to redeem it
- Jesus sacrificed His life in order for us to live for eternity
- Every time we sin we crucify Jesus again
- Jesus took the keys of death and hades to set our souls free
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
What is redemption? What do you understand by redemption? Each day we sing about redemption and we read about redemption, so what is it?
Redemption means that someone is a guarantor to pay your debt and God accepts to take all the problems you have. Even if the price of these problems are life; He will give His life for you.
One day there was a hunter in the forest hunting and when he was hunting he saw a monkey and there was a baby sitting on his chest. And the hunter said it’s a good opportunity to eat monkey today. He took his gun, he aimed at the monkey and the monkey saw the man. And the monkey made noise. The female monkey arrived and when she came, she took the child. She put out her hand toward the man and showed him her baby and touched her breast to show that she was breastfeeding. So it means that if you kill me, it’s over for my baby. The male monkey came in front of his wife and hid her and his baby and he showed that he was ready to be killed. I assure you that this man didn’t kill this monkey. He left and said it’s incredible to see a monkey ready to give his life because of his family and little baby. Isn’t this something important?
When I (Odon) watch TV there’s a programme about animals on it and often when the Lions are hunting animals, they often attack the small animals and the adult animals always sacrifice their life to protect them.
When I was 12, we had a hen and this hen had chicks. I named her Jociah because she knew how to protect herself. One day I wanted to get one of her chicks, although I had a stick in my hand, the hen didn’t fear the stick and attacked me to protect the chick.
Doesn’t this teach us something? A hen that is ready to take many risks to protect her chick and the monkey to take many risks to protect his family.
We have more value than all these animals but for us human beings it’s often impossible to protect our brothers and sisters. Animals can do it, so why not us humans? And from that, God saw that mankind was not on the right way. We started sinning against God. Men started killing one another and from that God said that everything we do is sin. Satan is here with a weapon and is destroying us spiritually.
God really wanted man to find a redeemer. He looked at man who had so much value on earth and there was nobody to redeem them. So He said it would be good if someone sins that they kill an animal to redeem the price of a life. So the animal was used to protect the life of a man and man started sacrificing dove, cows etc to try to redeem their souls.
But God saw that the value of the blood of these animals was not equal to the value of the blood of man. The value of the blood of these animals did not have the value of the soul of a man. Because God remembered that He said to man that he has to dominate over everything on earth and how would it be possible for the life of an animal to be more valuable than the life of a man? Is it possible for a slave to be master of his master?
And God said “no, it’s not possible”. The only thing left that has more value than man is me, God. So I have to go down to give my life. As I created man the first time that I gave them life, I want to give him life again. And God asked, “Who is ready to go and save man?” From that time God made the decision to leave Heaven and come to earth and the only aim of leaving Heaven was to give us redemption.
One day I was in the 7th day Adventist Church and the preacher said that Jesus was a tourist, that Jesus left Heaven to do some tourism on earth. But Jesus didn’t come to sightsee. He came to give us redemption. He came to redeem us and pay the price of our life. So Jesus was born, grew up and worked and one day, the day came when he had to die. What happened? He already said that he would die. “I will die and my death won’t be a normal death, because I’m here to bear all your burdens. I will die so that you will have life. I will die so that your souls will be redeemed. I will die so that you won’t be a slave anymore. I will die so that you will be completely free”.
And Jesus gave his life. He said, “Here I am, take me”. And men who thought they were strong arrested Jesus. They flogged him and spat on him. They took his clothes off. He was completely humiliated. As you know, prisons here are better. But visit prisons in Asia or Africa and you will see the value of a prisoner. Each morning you are woken up with a whip. During the day you are tortured and when night comes, you say thank God because now you can have a rest. And on top of that you cannot eat. You sleep on the floor and there’s water on it. Maybe that’s the place where the prisoner’s go to the toilet. Sometimes you have to eat it. It’s really a life of misery, problems and difficulties. And Jesus Christ said He would take everything. So He was made naked and said He would pay the price for the people.
He knew tortures of all kinds and after being whipped a crown was made and put on his head. It was not a crown that kings and queens put on their heads. It was not a crown of diamonds and gold. It was a crown of something else. What was it? A crown of thorns. A crown that made blood flow. A crown that would humiliate the presence of Jesus. It was a crown of suffering and Jesus was there and he was patient. He was paying the price of my murders. He was paying the price of your pride, your slanders, your hatreds and disorders.
And it was not enough. Man said there are still people doing evil things on earth and if Jesus has to pay the price for everybody, he must be tortured more. So he had to carry the cross. I tried to do some research. The cross that Jesus bore was 99kgs in weight and himself, was about 72kgs. And he bore His cross for three hours. Imagine how heavy it was. After being flogged and whipped He had to bear this heavy cross. He was taken to the place of the skull and that’s where He’d be finished.
The soldiers arrived with nails and hammers. Imagine yourself coming with a hammer and nails and you are asked to nail Odon onto the table in front of you. Do you think it would be possible after crying and shouting to now nail me (Odon)? Who can do it amongst us? Could you do this to someone else? Even if it’s your enemy I assure it’s not something easy. You can give the first hit but the shout of this person will touch your conscience. And your conscience will tell you that what you are doing is not good. But this man nailed Jesus to the cross. Although Jesus was crying and shouting, they said “We don’t care, He has to pay the price”.
His feet too were nailed and us Christians today nail Jesus on the cross again. We don’t have any pity on all that He has known of suffering, and we keep making Him pay the price of our sins.
So Jesus was nailed on the cross and after this He was raised and said He was thirsty. What was He given to drink? He was given vinegar. It was a vinegar with added bitter herbs to the point where Jesus tasted it and he couldn’t even swallow it. It was very bitter and He said it’s better to be thirsty and die, than to drink that. And man would just laugh. They didn’t even feel like they were killing someone. And how many times do we take pleasure in other people’s misery.
And at the end Jesus said it’s all finished. It is finished. Just one more thing, I must find the key of redemption. I must find the power for redemption.
Jesus left his body. He was buried and remember, He promised that after three days, they would see him again. The promises of God are always fulfilled. It might be 10 or 100 years but it will always happen. So don’t lose faith, don’t stumble in your faith. Always trust God and you will see what God will do. It’s just a question to do what He asks you to do. What you have to do, just do it.
Because after three days He said He’ll be alive, they put soldiers in front of His tomb and Jesus went down and the Bible says that first of all He went to free people. The people that had been captured for a long time. He went to set them free. Secondly, He took back the key of life to give us freedom.
SUMMARY
- Redemption means someone pays the price of our debt for us
- Our soul is so important that God Himself left heaven to redeem it
- Jesus sacrificed His life in order for us to live for eternity
- Every time we sin we crucify Jesus again
- Jesus took the keys of death and hades to set our souls free
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
10 Branches of the Great Salvation - Redemption
By Odon Bulamba (summary only)
This means to accept to pay the price for someone else’s life. Redemption goes together with love. In the Old Testament there are three types of redemption that give us information on how to find redemption. They are found in the books of:
1. Exodus
2. Ruth
3. Isaiah
Naomi (which means love) married Elimelech (God is my King) and they left Bethlehem (house of the bread of God = Jesus = Word of God) with their two sons; Mahlon (weakness) and Chilion (fallen).
When you leave the Word of God you will become weak and then you will fall. When you are weak in prayer you will fall into temptation. When you are weak in the Bible you will fall into confusion.
Ruth (a friend, drunk, satisfied) married Mahlon (weakness) who died before they had any children. A friend of weakness will never produce fruit. Be careful not to become a friend to your weakness.
Amram (God’s friend) married Jochabed (glory of God) and had three children; Miriam (rebellion), Aaron (enlightens) and Moses (who comes from water). If you are God’s friend you must marry God’s glory and the first thing you will produce is rebellion against sin. Secondly you will be a light in the world and thirdly you will be saved by water (Word of God) which must be your foundation.
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
This means to accept to pay the price for someone else’s life. Redemption goes together with love. In the Old Testament there are three types of redemption that give us information on how to find redemption. They are found in the books of:
1. Exodus
2. Ruth
3. Isaiah
Naomi (which means love) married Elimelech (God is my King) and they left Bethlehem (house of the bread of God = Jesus = Word of God) with their two sons; Mahlon (weakness) and Chilion (fallen).
When you leave the Word of God you will become weak and then you will fall. When you are weak in prayer you will fall into temptation. When you are weak in the Bible you will fall into confusion.
Ruth (a friend, drunk, satisfied) married Mahlon (weakness) who died before they had any children. A friend of weakness will never produce fruit. Be careful not to become a friend to your weakness.
Amram (God’s friend) married Jochabed (glory of God) and had three children; Miriam (rebellion), Aaron (enlightens) and Moses (who comes from water). If you are God’s friend you must marry God’s glory and the first thing you will produce is rebellion against sin. Secondly you will be a light in the world and thirdly you will be saved by water (Word of God) which must be your foundation.
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
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