Paul – ‘a giant of a little man’

By Colleen Podmore

Often we can take the Scriptures and use them to confirm or prove our particular point of view. That is, we start with an idea and then look for verses that will back it up. For example we might say that it is ok to drink alcohol because there are no Scriptures forbidding the drinking of alcohol, but we forget that we are not to stumble our brothers and sisters with our actions (1Cor 10:24, 32). We forget that we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit, not the Jack Daniels spirit (Eph 5:18). We forget that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and that drinking alcohol can lead to immorality and the Scriptures say a lot about that – no drunkard will inherit the kingdom of God (1Cor 6:10).

It is also important to study the Scriptures in their context, to know the historical backgrounds, to know who the author was and why they wrote what they wrote – then we can get an idea of the meaning behind what is written and this will inform our doctrine about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the purpose of the church and our place in God’s plan.

Our starting point must be that ALL Scripture is inspired by God and we cannot pick and choose what we will believe and what we will not believe (1 Tim 3:16).

Men were guided by the Holy Spirit and wrote things down according to how He directed them (2Peter 1:20,21). So regardless of which of the 66 books of the Bible written by 44 different authors we study, we can be assured that God had a purpose.

Our brother Robbie quite rightly pointed out last week that it is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean but it is what comes out of our mouths (Matt 15:11). I would like to add to that and also include that which we write – our text messages, our emails. If we must guard our tongues and what we say, we should also guard our words and what we write.

I’ve been intrigued by the Apostle Paul. I’ve been trying to put myself in his shoes and see things through his eyes in order to understand a little more this ‘giant of a little man’.

Tradition has it that he was quite short – I’m not sure exactly how short but perhaps 5ft, 5ft 6in? Apparently he was thin on top, a bit bald with a hooked nose. His face could be likened to an angel at times. He was not that impressive. People were saying of him ‘…his letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.’ (2Cor10:10) 

But Paul himself was not concerned. He said, ‘...I came to you with weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.’ (1Cor 2:3-5)

Tonight I would like to give a brief over-view of Paul’s life, then to focus on some of his words to the church of Philippi, then to look at some of his words of advice.

Paul was born around 5AD and tradition has it that he was beheaded around 68AD under the persecution by Nero when he was about 63yrs old. He was born in Tarsus and his father was a Roman citizen and his mother a Jew. As a young child and man he studied under the rabbi Gamaliel in Jerusalem.

There is no doubt that he was extremely intelligent and zealous about religion. He describes himself as being a ‘…Hebrew of the Hebrews, in regard to the law, a Pharisee, as for zeal, persecuting the church, as for legalistic righteousness, faultless,’ (Phil 3:5,6) and ‘I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.’ (Gal 1:14) Acts 23:6.

Paul’s Jewish name was Saul, and he is described in the book of Acts as Saul of Tarsus. The first mention of him is at the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:58), one of the first Christian martyrs.

I don’t know if Paul saw Jesus or heard Him preach. He doesn’t say so in any of his writings. He describes himself as an apostle, one sent by Jesus Christ, and asks the question in 1Cor 9:1, ‘Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?’ It is believed that this refers to the time of his conversion (Acts 9:1-19).

But before his conversion, Saul of Tarsus, didn’t know Jesus and that is why he persecuted the followers of Jesus, believing them to be a sect which polluted true Judaism.  I’m sure we all know of Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. He saw a bright light and spoke with Jesus and the rest as they say is history. Saul of Tarsus became Paul the Apostle – Paul being a Greek version of Saul.

After his conversion Saul preached in Damascus for 3 years. He went to Arabia briefly during that time and then he went to Jerusalem to preach but he was so provocative that the Jews tried to kill him. He left Jerusalem and returned to his hometown of  Tarsus where he stayed for 10 years.

Barnabas retrieved him from oblivion and brought him to the church at Antioch to help with the growing number of converts. After a year there he began his first missionary journey in AD 46, when he was 41 yrs old and it became clear that he was an apostle to the Gentiles and he worked tirelessly to preach the gospel and establish churches as far away as Rome. For 20 yrs he worked and his life was not easy but he did everything for the glory of God and for the church of Jesus Christ.

Over his lifetime Paul wrote 13 letters or epistles to the churches he had established and the one I want to focus on now is my favourite – Philippians. It is such an encouraging joyful letter.

Paul wrote a letter to the church at Philippi in AD61 when he was under house arrest in Rome. He was around 56 years of age, about my age. If I was in prison, how would I feel? Would I be bitter, disillusioned, wondering where on earth God was and what was He doing? Probably, but not Paul, he was rejoicing! 

As we read his words to the Philippians we can get an idea of the heart of Paul.

I’ve just picked out a couple of examples:

(i)                 Chapter 1:3-6 demonstrates his uncompromising goodwill toward the people at Philippi .

He has a friendly disposition, benevolent and kind.

(ii)               Chapter 1:12-18 demonstrates his positive attitude toward his situation. I might write, ‘Look, I don’t know why God is allowing me to suffer like this under house arrest when I could be out sharing the gospel. Satan also has the victory because some people are spreading rumours about me and the reason I’m in prison. Where is God? Please pray for me.’

But no, this is what he says – read Phil 1:12-18. He was rejoicing in his situation!

(iii)             His main and his only concern was that Christ was glorified. He wasn’t concerned about his reputation, his health, his freedom – no in whatever circumstances he found himself – his goal was to glorify Jesus. (Phil 1:20)

Finally, even though he was writing to thank the Philippians for their gift and to give them news of Epaphroditus (Phil 2:25), he couldn’t help also including some good advice for them.

Firstly, in chapter 2, he exhorts them to ‘be like minded’, doing nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility considering others better than yourselves’.

Secondly, in chapter 3, he exhorts them to ‘rejoice in the Lord, and to put no confidence in the flesh, encouraging them to keep ‘pressing on, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead’

In chapter 4, his advice is to ‘stand fast in the Lord’ and ‘whatever is true….. to think and meditate on these things!

Paul was an amazing ‘giant of a little man’, who went from being Saul of Tarsus to Paul the Apostle. God used his past to shape his future because Paul had met Jesus and knew the power of the risen Lord. His desire was ‘to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like Him in His death (Phil 3:10)

Paul had learned the secret of being content in any and every situation (Phil 4:12). Paul was a man just like you and me. Let’s listen and put into practice his advice.

Revelation 7 (Part 7) Issachar

ISSACHAR

By Odon Bulamba (3rd June 2005)

Issachar was the fifth of the six sons born to Jacob by his first wife Leah.

Blessing in Genesis 49:14, 15
 

Issachar is a strong donkey,
Lying down between the sheepfolds,
When he saw that a resting place was good
and the land was pleasant,
He bowed his shoulder to bear burdens 
and became a slave at forced labour

Lying down between the sheepfolds,

God in Revelation 7 chooses that man and the Bible tells us God gave him enough strength. He was a strong donkey.

What does a donkey do? It pulls a cart and carries heavy things.

The donkey also lies down, “couching down between two burdens”. Nobody can tell a strong donkey: “Stand up!” Donkeys are stubborn, they are unique. All donkeys look alike, you’ll recognise them trough their actions only. If you try to push a donkey, they’ll turn around and kick. I’ve even seen a donkey bite a human being. They are really naughty and arrogant although they look good and seem to be nice and obedient. Their actions are rude.

So Issachar was given power from God, good power to work hard.

 Similarly when we got saved we all said; "I want to server you, I want to be with you and I want to pray."  and somewhere on our way, maybe because we carry a heavy bag, we decide to sit down.  If I prayed twice a day, I'll only pray in the evenings, if I used to pray before leaving home, I'll decide to pray on my way to work...with these new habits we'll start to lose our old good ways.

God knew that through Issachar, others would be born, Samson or David.

Issachar wasn’t good at working, so he started to lose his strength. A clever child that never reads his notes or never does his homework will start to lose his intelligence. In the same way, if we don’t work we might be strong at first but end up losing our abilities. We might find ourselves down.

God’s will was for Issachar to be strong and support others so that weak people could go to his descendants and find help. They were meant to feed and support the  disabled. God continues to bless them though. But whenever they find a place of luxury and easy life, they stop and settle there. “Why should we carry on?”

Similarly when people have needs, they kneel down and pray with power asking for God's help but when their need is met, they forget God.  If they were looking for a husband, then they have one, they forget God:  "God, Hallelujah!  God answered me.  Bless me now".  And that is it for God in their lives.

WHAT IS THIS TRIBE LIKE TODAY? 

God’s will was for them to be the brightest.  Issachar’s tribe was supposed to protect and support others but when they found the honey of this world and God’s blessing among them, they stopped there. Most of these people want to study and do business. They are the cleverest ones among the tribes of Israel. They are strong not only physically but also mentally. All of them are doctors, scientists or philosophers. They have put God aside to choose the luxury of this world and they use their knowledge to create things for the world that might even destroy the world (atomic bombs and other things).

Sometimes, God looks at them and feels sorry for them. He remembered why he had chosen them: to be His people and to help others gain freedom. Unfortunately, they didn’t fulfil this role. Instead, they found themselves between two things; on the one hand they know God blesses them and on the other hand they work to survive, they make an effort to become someone in life. They are between two saddlebags (sheepfolds) and they find it hard to make up their mind. They carry God’s power on the one hand and the power of this life on the other hand: “What shall I wear tomorrow and what shall I do for God?” When we do this, we become divided, we don’t know where to go, what to start with, God, my family, my needs? At that stage, God opens His eyes widely, observes us and how we act.

What should they be doing?

Some people start with a prayer whenever they walk in their office in the morning “God bless me, bless my colleagues, bless my office.” One day when I reached work, I prayed and God said the

chair I was sitting on wasn’t good, someone had said a magic prayer on it. It wasn’t clean. So I changed the chair and thanked God for His protection.

Be careful in this world, we don’t know who is who, you might be listening to a witch, and you’ll never know. First pray and you’ll know. Through prayer you might discover your best friend or teacher is not who you think he is. Appearance can be deceiving. Be careful, just pray at every second.

Do we bend our shoulders to show God we can’t carry on?  Because of these two heavy burdens they were carrying they started to bend their shoulders. Will they carry on or just show they are tired because it’s too heavy? And how many times do we show God we can’t carry on anymore?

We tell God: “Give me enough faith, enough power and strength.” And God gives. But despite of all of this, when temptation comes, even though the temptation is lesser that our faith, we are the first to complain. “This is heavy, I can’t control it, I can’t carry on”. God then reminds us He had just given us more strength and just asks us to persevere. We complain more and more. Finally, God who tried to support us, sees that we don’t understand Him, we don’t understand He is with us. And sometimes we all do as Moses did: “God, I can’t speak.” But God has given us a mouth. You might stutter or not be able to express yourselves clearly, remember people will still listen to you. So if even people give you their attention, why do you think God can’t?

In this tribe, God will chose only 12 000 people. When Elijah (Yahweh is my God) and Moses will be back to announce Jesus-Christ, some people from this tribe will stand up, speak with power and go to their people to encourage them to believe in Jesus. These will be the 12,000 chosen.

This tribe understand the meaning of times

1 Chronicles 12:32: this tribe understood the times.

We are also called to understand the times we are living now. If you suffer, remember suffering is not your friend, you were not born to suffer it’s just for a time. First go through that time and then God will change your life. If you have a need today, think about this notion of time. Even in our faith, let’s think about time: we will not be Christians forever, one day this life will end and we will go somewhere to rest with God. When Jesus comes back, our Christian life will stop, I won’t read my Bible every day, kneel down, cry before God and spread the gospel anymore.

So, think about time. Whenever you go through a hard time, tell yourself it’s just for a time. If I suffer today, tomorrow it will end. If people don’t listen to me today, tomorrow, they will. If today God doesn’t respond to my prayers, tomorrow He will. By doing so, your faith will grow. But if you keep complaining you didn’t receive what you asked for and don’t know what’s next, you’ll lose hope.

Remember Jesus came on this earth and waited for more than 29 years to speak out the gospel although He saw people sin every day, commit crimes and abuse the Word of God. He was there,

observing, living with them until the day was right to start his ministry.  He was patient, waiting for the right time to come.

One day I had to go to a meeting and my plane was due to leave a 4:00am. But at 4:00 am we were asked to wait because of a technical problem. I was sure this would make me miss my meeting. We were late and I was complaining, ready to hate the people of that company. But behind this, God had a plan. The people who left before us had a plane accident as they were landing. Although we arrived with a two-hour delay, we were safe. I could have died on the other plane. This was God’s timing. When God delays things, let’s understand the time is not there yet.

Revelation 7 (Part VI) Zebulun

 By Odon Bulamba (3rd June 2005)

 Revelations 7:7-8

In each tribe, God will select only 12 000 people after (not before) the coming back of Jesus-Christ. When Jesus-Christ comes back, grace will stop for us but God will give His people a short time to “catch up”. Whoever accepts Jesus during that time will be saved. Some Jewish say the 12 000 don’t count old people, women or children.  According to them these 12 000 will be only men. But when the prophets will be back, they’ll preach Jesus’ Gospel and the 12 000 saved will count men, women, and children. It will be a very small number.

Zebulan

Is a son of Jacob by his wife Leah (Genesis 30:20).

His name means “dwelling” or “honor”.

  

His blessing in Genesis 49: 13

“Zebulun will dwell at the seashore;

and he shall be a haven for ships,

and his flank shall be toward Sidon”

GOD GAVE BUT THEY FORGOT HIM

Zebulun is a commercial tribe, involved in selling activities, sharing and giving. Even today the descendants of Zebulun have a gift of giving and will succeed in business. God put that ability in them and because of it, they decided to leave the land and settle on the coast to do business (oil …)

They became a haven for ships but something was wrong with them. This business caused them to sometimes forget the glory of God, forget to stop and worship God. They would sometimes forget to join others in worship or offerings, they were too busy on the shore doing their business. God started to be angry: He had given them money and the ability to work but this led them to forget the Provider.

Today in our church we see this category of people. We all look the same with two hands and two legs but if you give me and someone else$50 worth of bananas, I might sell mine in 5 days and someone else in 2 days at the same market. Customers will be drawn to the other person’s business more than mine. It doesn’t depend on him or me, but on God. So when He opens the door for you to receive, always remember this is not your strength or who you are but only God’s doing. Glorify Him!

God can say to His people: “I offer you this land but come back to me and give me a part in your land” God blesses our land and farm to produce crops. If He didn’t, we wouldn’t get anything from it even if we are experts and use special chemicals. Nothing will work without God. This is a message for us New Zealanders. We have enough land and it is blessed but do our farmers glorify God for that? Do they remember their God?

Zebulun will be like a haven. In other words, they will offer anyone joy and strength. Unfortunately, when Christians are blessed, they think others just want to use them. We have negative thoughts against people, forgetting that blessing comes when you give to others.

God asked these people to remember to use whatever they receive for His glory and they tried their best to give every time they could, even if they went fighting they contributed not for their glory or anyone else’s but for God’s glory.

There is an example in 1 Chronicles 12: 33 & 40; they served for God’s glory. They had the ability to invest and in the meantime didn’t forget God or other people. They knew by giving to others from their own blessings, they’d bless them and be blessed back in their own job. But if they kept what they had and didn’t bless the people of God, the Provider would stop His blessings.

For example if a wife puts all her trust in her husband’s studies and thinks they won’t have any trouble anymore once he gets his degree, what would happen if the husband dies on that day? She’ll see herself at the very bottom and wonder where to go and who to go to for help and assistance?

GOD CARES, PROVIDES AND LOOKS AT OUR ACTIONS

God can do whatever he wants in our lives, he can end it today, He can give us one thing, end all your trouble till the rest of our life or make someone poor. But if you commit yourself into His hands and say: “God, I know I’m studying hard but after my studies, take control of my life, guide me. Tell me what I shall do to be able to offer something to my wife, children and others?” God will start to provide slowly and at the same time He’ll watch your actions and reactions.

When God starts blessing a human being with money for instance, He often gives a small amount first. He’ll raise your salary from $10 to 15 and 20 and then look at your generosity. If you don’t remember God in your actions, He’ll react and you’ll go down.

Today because of their blessings, many people can hate others, they’ll minimise others. They think that others are not as good as them because they don’t have as much as they have. For example, if a businessman has millions of dollars, his wife will never care about other people as long as her husband is alive. But if he dies, his wife will then start to think about others. She will ask herself what to do since the one who used to organise things is gone.

Be careful to keep good relationships with others, rich or poor people, black or blind. Be careful because nobody knows what will happen tomorrow to you or to your family.

So the tribe of Zebulon offered 50 000 people to join in the army, to support God’s work. They offered food and whatever they had to support God’s work.

God has opened many doors into our lives. What do you offer to support God’s work? Do we pray for His preachers, His servants around the world, do we assist God in visiting whoever needs to be visited, do we assist God in giving away booklets to others, telling them about God? We have enough to share around, what do we do with it?

In this tribe, only 12 000 people will be chosen. Who will they be?

They will be people who accepted Jesus and accepted to follow His rules. If they keep thinking they don’t care since they already have their own money and what they need, they’ll stay behind.

 PUT YOUR PROBLEMS ASIDE AND ATTRACT PEOPLE BY YOUR GOOD ATTITUDE

We are also the haven of the church today and people have to find joy through us. The Holy Spirit must dwell and find His place there.

- If you are a haven, what do you think people should expect from you?

- Joy, a door of compassion, a gate of blessing.

But if people come to you and see you’re always angry, no one will approach you. Even if someone is facing problems, nobody will come to a moody person. If you have a problem with yourself, just commit it to God, don’t express your problems, your anger or your negative points to others. Just try to be kind, simple and to humble yourself so that the people of God can come to you and get what they need through you.

In shops, the shop assistants always have a smile on their face, especially girls. “How are you today? How can I help?” They try to be familiar with you, to show they know you so that you’ll feel free to express your needs. But if the shop assistant looked angrily at the clients and asked aggressively: “So, what do you want here?” What will the client do? Leave and say good-bye. This client will speak about that shop assistant to others so that nobody will come to the shop. This shop sells good things but don’t go there. The shop sellers’ attitude towards clients puts off buyers.

If you are grumpy like this in a shop, you might not sell anything for 10 years, but I can assure you the bills will keep coming as well as Inland Revenue for taxes. How are you going to pay? 

So our attitude towards people must reflect the picture of Jesus, of joy to attract them. Put aside your attitude, even if you are in conflict with yourself or others and give an impression of joy to others so that they’ll come to you. Otherwise, the visitors will pay the price of your own problems. In any case, let’s not talk to them angrily and let’s try to fix our own problems.

DOING GOOD!

By Hayley Boud

Tonight’s message is an encouragement to keep doing good.  All of us need encouraging from time to time.  Even if you don’t need it tonight, maybe you will need it in the future.  All of us here began doing good works for God when we were first saved and all of us continue to strive to do good.  All of us!  Be encouraged, God sees your good work.

NIV “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”. Galations 6:9

NAS “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary”

Don’t lose heart in doing good.  Don’t grow weary or tired.  Every one of us will have a different role from God, a different desire that he has placed in our heart, a different work, each of us have different “doing good”.  Eph 2:10, ^“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  Whatever is in your heart, whatever you know God wants you to do, don’t give up but keep persevering because at the proper time, you will see the result.

Sometimes we will be discouraged, usually with people but we have to keep going and not lose heart or grow tired.  We have to keep going because if we persevere we will reap at the end but only if we keep going.  If we give up somewhere along the way, we will be disappointed when Christ comes back.  E.g. I started learning French years ago but I found it a BIG work and people discouraged me and I gave up.  But four years after I started to learn, my class mates were graduating from university and they were now really good at French.  I was jealous, why did I stop?  I would be fluent by now if I had persevered.

We have to remember this with God’s work.  For example, if God wants me to ring people and encourage them but after two years I get tired and stop, I won’t see the fruit of that work.  Maybe through me, God was going to use the encouragement to bring people to salvation, or maturity in Christ but because I got tired, I won’t see that harvest fulfilled.

All of us have different works to do and all of those works are important and I just want to encourage you to keep going, even when you feel tired, or disappointed, or discouraged, or you might feel like it’s useless or doing nothing, or you lose your heart, or you lose the joy of doing it, keep going.  You will be happy when you see the end result.  Like Zoe last year with hip-hop, she was really tired, she worked so hard and sometimes she was discouraged, disappointed and she wanted to give up, but if she had, she would never have made it to the World Champs.

We have to remember that the word is “work” which means that it is a work.  It’s not something that is easy, it takes effort and it’s hard because we chose to become “servants” of God which means we are expected to work.  Just like our boss at our day job, he/she expects us to work 8 hours a day and to complete the job we have been given.  God expects at least 10% of our time and for us to finish the job He gave us.

The first step is to ask ourselves, what is the work that God has for me?  Everyone will have a different answer but we will also have the same answers because some “works” are expected from all Christians.  We are all expected to read the Bible, to pray, to intercede for others, to fast, to worship, to tell others about God, to encourage others, to visit the sick.  If any of these things feel like a work to you right now, if it feels hard….be encouraged, it IS hard sometimes to pick up the bible, it IS sometimes hard to fast, it is sometimes hard to say yes when someone asks you to take them to the supermarket or take them to the hospital, it IS hard, (especially when people are there to discourage you) but be encouraged and know that when you persevere, you will see a good result at the end.  At the end there will be a harvest!

So think about what things you know God is wanting from you, what is in your heart right now?  Now think about the end result if you continue to persevere.  If Zoe didn’t think ahead and keep in her mind, “World Champs”, she might not have continued to work so hard and she might not have made it.

For example, if God wants you to fast and pray every Tuesday for your mother to find salvation (just an example), try to imagine the final result that might come about because of your prayers.  How happy will you be when your mother is saved?  But in the mean time, you will be working hard, fasting and praying, with no encouragement from others, maybe even you will see your mother getting worse, maybe people will mock you for fasting or maybe when you fast, you feel sick.  You will find the work is hard but if keep persevering, keep your eyes on the end result, the harvest…..at the right time, you will see it being accomplished and then you will not even feel like you worked hard after all.

Revelation 7 (Part V) Judah

By Odon Bulamba (Friday 27th May 2005)

He was given that name and was praised by his father as a young lion because of only one good action he did. In Genesis 38: 24-26, he went with Tamar, sinned and condemned her. But thanks to the signet ring, cords and staff she had kept from her father in law, she was spared and Judah recognised Tamar was more righteous than him. He recognised his weakness and inability to deal with the Word of God. He felt guilty, ‘I’m the one supposed to know the law, called to practise it but I don’t, I am wrong’.

Today in the church when people face a similar situation, when they are told their mistakes, instead of recognising their weakness they justify themselves. “What did I do wrong? It’s not me, it’s that person.” I know some people who get angry when others tell them their mistakes, they don’t want to listen: “This is my life. Don’t worry about me. Leave me alone.” To protect themselves, they raise up their voice, they bring up more justification. God is against that.

1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.

For God, it’s not an issue but just a matter to say: I was wrong, God forgive me.

If you have a problem with Peter, go first to him and fix your problem with him, then go to God. Don’t go straight to God.

Here Judah was in front of that lady and knew he was wrong, he condemned himself, he repented and that’s why he was chosen.

WHERE ARE WE AMONG THESE FOUR SONS? 

(Reuben, Simeon, Levi & Judah)

What is our position, where am I, where are you, where is the church?  Let’s compare these pictures with the church.

Can you see Reuben’s picture in the church today?  Idolatry in the church, for example people adore the pastor or materialism …

Have you ever seen a pastor repenting?

            Once....this is sad because by doing it he would also teach others and the young ones to do the same. Pastors who want to be clever often kneel down and ask for repentance.

  

Can you project Simeon’s picture in the church?

            People gossip in the church and we all practise anger.

SOLUTION TO OVERCOME ANGER IN ALL SITUATIONS

            Yes, there is a solution; repent as soon as possible. Say you are in the wrong and repent. It’s the only solution. If you keep practising that, Satan will be a bit deceived, he’ll try to push you. If you react or get angry, the only solution is to say sorry straight away. Anger comes slowly by your way of thinking, of speaking and whenever you feel it, just stop it.

Angry people will never inherit the Kingdom of God. If anger wasn’t a sin, why would the Bible warn us about not entering the Kingdom of God? When you fall in anger you hate (1 John 2:9). Anger is just another branch of hatred.  We are not angry because we don’t like people but because of their actions. They make us angry, our way of talking changes and starts showing hatred. Anger doesn’t come by itself, it’s linked to hatred and we end up saying that people are not good because of their actions. Better to protect yourself from anger.

Ephesians 4:26 "Be angry but do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your anger", this verse doesn’t say: ‘through your anger, don’t sin.”

If you wait for the sun to go down you might die in the meantime. So just repent and be sinless.

This verse comes from Psalm 4:4.

If anger comes, you’ll feel it coming out of your heart, control it. If you say no to anger, it’s no.

Revelations 7 (Part IV) Simeon & Levi

 By Odon Bulamba ( 27th May 2005) 

Simeon and Levi

Both of you sat down in your violence and decided to kill.

Simeon, “he hears” and Levi, “attached” went against God’s will. The Bible says faith grows by hearing the Word of God. You can be taught every day, listen to that Word, learn it and still be in front of the Throne of judgment. You might be attached to your faith, to the church, to sermons but one day you’ll be in front of God to be judged on one thing, violence.

God says: “You did something wrong against my people one day”.

What did they do? They had a sister, Dinah and one day as she was visiting the people next door, Shechem raped her (Genesis 34). They admitted their mistake and asked to marry her and make one family of the two peoples. It was not in a bad way, they came to repent and sort out the problem. Unfortunately, Simeon and Levi who had decided not to accept their apology attacked them two days later. They killed all the men. Jacob knew the law forbids killing and was ashamed of his sons’ wrong doings. His reputation was stained in that area and he wasn’t safe anymore but Simeon and Levi didn’t care, they didn’t listen to their father. Dinah came back to the family.

How many times in our churches and our normal lives do we try to kill each other? When someone comes to you, admits their fault and tries to fix up the problem, we often answer No way! I won’t fix the problem with you.

Christians must be flexible and understand others’ needs. Let’s try our best to fix problems with people. Let’s accept their weaknesses too. Christians sometimes expect pagans to reach their level: ‘How can you act or react like this?” but we forget this person is not saved yet and doesn’t know Jesus’ love yet.

If a baby plays with a razor blade and cuts himself, he’ll cry because he sees the blood.  A razor blade is like a toy for him, he doesn’t know what it is yet, he doesn’t know it’s dangerous. If Christians think of loving pagans before makinr decisions against them, God will really look after us, He’ll protect us and make us stronger Christians but if we are unable to understand what weak people are doing, it will be hard for God also to understand us sometimes.

Jesus, our Lord said: “Father, forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing.” How many times in our lives do you use that passage? Or do you just keep this in your heart, judge them and point your finger at them? We need to forgive others when they don’t know what they are doing.

Simeon and Levi were really angry and the church today is suffering because of anger. Many Christians in the church can easily be killed because their pastor is angry or don’t receive the message because of anger in the church.

There was a discussion on the radio one day about girls’ clothes in the church. The pastor on that radio got angry and supported the NZ culture. It would have been better for people to sort out their problems with the pastor alone instead of going to the radio station. The pastor was boiling and was defending something that could be easily sorted out, the NZ culture and the culture of the Bible. Finally the host asked the pastor why he was angry. If this man was my pastor and sinners or my unsaved friends had listened to him, they would have asked me what’s wrong with him. What could I have answered?

Our way of talking, of asking must be without anger. Let’s try to manage our anger and put it aside. When we are angry, we can break anything, we can destroy. That is what Simeon and Levi did, they got angry and killed.

On the Day of Judgment, angry people will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

The Bible tells us only 12 000 people in each tribe will be chosen.

God decided to remove the people of Levi because they repented, He offered them a new service.

If we are Simeon’s descendants (spiritual descendents) we are people who hear the Word of God, people who are not deaf but we lose the Word of God because of our anger. You might have faith, you might believe in God and trust in everything God tells you but if you continue to marry anger with your faith, you’re nothing. This is a huge problem in the church today. Many people trust in Jesus and the Word but they don’t control their anger. So, try to put anger aside.