By Colleen Podmore
Barnabas was a man of God and a servant of God. The people of Israel called the prophets ‘men of God’ and God called His prophets ‘servants’. Barnabas was a prophet. He was humble, like Moses, the epitome of all prophets. Barnabas served God, along with Paul to bring the light of the gospel to the Gentiles. Although overshadowed somewhat by Paul and the lasting legacy of his letters to early churches, nevertheless, Barnabas is still venerated today in his home country of Cyprus.
Barnabas was called Joseph before the apostles changed his name after the generous gift he gave the church (Acts 4:36) and although Barnabas can also mean ‘son of prophecy’, the meaning given for the name was ‘son of encouragement or exhortation’. He was a Levite from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus who owned a field. Levites did not own land but however he came to be the owner, it was clear through his actions, of his commitment to the new move of God in the city of Jerusalem.
Barnabas, as a Levite, had intimate knowledge of the sacrificial cult. Perhaps he had served in the Temple or had trained there, as Paul had under Gamaliel (Acts 5:34; 22:3), who was a respected and venerated teacher, a Pharisee. While Paul learned about the Law, Barnabas was involved in Temple sacrifice and worship. There are various gospels attributed to him, but they lack authenticity. Barnabas may have written the letter to the Hebrews. Typical of this man of God who did not draw attention to himself, the letter addressed to the Hebrews, is anonymous. Like Paul, the author of Hebrews did not know the Lord Jesus first-hand (Heb 2:3). He received the message through those who had been with Jesus and believed what they said regarding His resurrection from the dead (Acts 2:24) – perhaps he was one of the converts on the Day of Pentecost when 3 000 were added to the church (Acts 2:41). Once again his personal testimony is unknown, just like countless believers down through the ages and even to us today. At the end of the day, it matters not how we start our journey of faith, but how we end it! The author of Hebrews has a lot to say about staying faithful to the end and not shrinking back (Heb 10:38), typical of Barnabas, the son of encouragement and exhortation!
Barnabas is perhaps best known as the companion of Paul. However, it wasn’t always like that. After Paul’s spectacular conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 9), it was difficult for the disciples to accept Paul because of his reputation for persecuting the church (Acts 8:1; 9:1). I wonder how much impact the martyrdom of Stephen had on Paul? Praise God that not one Believer dies in vain for the sake of the gospel!
Barnabas was not afraid of Paul. He knew a true convert to Jesus Christ. He believed in forgiveness for past sins. He believed in new beginnings for past persecutors, so he took Paul personally to the Apostles (Acts 9:27), but before long Paul was in trouble again – this time with the Grecian Jews and Paul had to return to his hometown of Tarsus for a time (Acts 9:30).
The Bible says that Barnabas was a ‘good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith’ (Acts 11:24). He was the one who was trusted by the Apostles and the church in Jerusalem when news came that something was happening in Antioch. They sent Barnabas to bring them an accurate and reliable report. Barnabas, the encourager immediately discerned the grace of God amongst the Believers at Antioch, which was both physically distant from the Jerusalem church and culturally distant with its Jewish roots, while the church at Antioch was mainly Gentile converts. God was in the process of grafting in the Gentiles to Hi Household, fulfilling His ancient promise to bless all Nations (Romans 11:17), ‘making one group out of two, destroying the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, thus making peace, reconciling them to God through the cross by which He put to death their hostility’. Amen! (Eph 2:14-20). Furthermore Paul says elsewhere – there is ‘neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Gal 3:28)
It was Barnabas who brought Paul (still called Saul) to Antioch (Acts 11:25) to help with the work of making disciples. He had to go and find him in Tarsus. Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians that he was in Syria and Cilicia (Gal 1:20). His home town of Tarsus was in Cilicia and Antioch was near Syria. From the time of his conversion in AD35, he had been learning and growing in faith, converting, discipling and teaching others. Now, 8 years later (AD 43), he returns to Antioch with Barnabas to work in the church, ‘teaching great numbers of people’(Acts 11:26) for a whole year. During this time they also took a gift of money to the church in Judea. Interestingly, in describing the duo at this stage, Luke still places Barnabas first perhaps indicating his level of importance and seniority. Paul is still known as Saul although the later exclusive use of his Greek name Paul could be a reflection of his exclusive Gentile ministry in his later years. He may have been known by both names. When they returned from Jerusalem, they brought back with them John, also called Mark (Acts 12:25) around AD44.
On returning to Antioch, while they were fasting and praying, the Holy Spirit anointed Barnabas and Paul for a specific task and they were sent off as apostles, as messengers, as missionaries of the word of God. They first went to Cyprus, the homeland of Barnabas. During this journey, Paul became known as Paul and after the confrontation with the Jewish sorcerer and false prophet Bar-Jesus, Paul became the leader of the expedition (Acts 13:13). Paul was the one gifted in evangelism, preaching and teaching tirelessly (Acts 14:12). The duo was now referred to as Paul and Barnabas by the author of Acts, the doctor Luke who was a later companion of Paul. They travelled throughout the region of modern day Turkey as far as Derbe, then retraced their footsteps, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith (Acts14:22).
Did Barnabas feel threatened by Paul, was he jealous of his companions spiritual gifting? No I don’t think so, he was an encourager and would have been a supporter of anyone who was promoting the faith, but they did have a falling out over the inclusion of the young man John Mark in their next missionary journey. Unfortunately or perhaps providentially, Barnabas and Paul separated after 6 years in AD49. Even though John Mark had let them down and deserted them , Barnabas wanted to give him a second chance (Acts 1537), but Paul would not. Both Paul and Barnabas continued in the work (Paul refers to Barnabas in his first letter to the Corinthians (AD55),that Barnabas is still working -1Cor 9:6). From now on we follow the work of Paul. Perhaps because Luke was Paul’s companion and not Barnabas’ or perhaps that is what the Holy Spirit wanted recorded.
Nevertheless Barnabas’s confidence in John Mark was not in vain or perhaps because of his confidence. John Mark vindicated his trust. Paul has a good word to say about him (2Tim 4:11 – AD60) and Mark became associated with the Apostle Peter (1Peter 5:13). In addition it is surmised that Mark may be the cousin of Barnabas because of a reference in Colossians 4:10. Mark also wrote the memoirs of Peter of the words and works of the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel of Mark. Maybe dictated or maybe written down and compiled by Mark as Peter preached and taught. He was probably the same young man in the garden on the night Jesus was arrested (Mark 14:51,52) a curious reference!
It cannot be overstated, the powerful influence of Barnabas in the early days of the church. This man of God, of integrity of faith and his influence in the lives of the servants of God; two of whom we know about through the Scriptures. Paul and John Mark were strategic in God’s plan for the spread of the gospel. Barnabas’s pivotal role in providing support, encouragement and unconditional positive regard to his fellow believers cannot be disregarded. He stands for all eternity as a model Christian. Let us find Paul’s, John Mark’s, brothers and sisters in the faith and encourage them, help them, give them second chances so that their potential in Christ might be fully realised.
References:
Study bible NIV
Bible Dictionary
‘Barnabas – a model for Barnabas Fund’. From the ‘Barnabasaid’ Jan/Feb 2012 magazine
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
THE DOOR
By Odon Bulamba (summary only) 19th February 2012
A door is very important. A house that only has an open space where the door should be is not very good because anyone can come in or out. A house that has no opening to get in or out is also not good because when there is a fire, we use the door to escape. In the Bible it talks about Jesus being the door which is very true but today we are going to talk about another door which we will read in Acts 5 and 16.
In Acts 5, the religious authorities were against the apostles teaching because people were leaving them and were putting their trust in the teaching of the apostles. The religious authorities were jealous and decided to put the apostles under arrest. In those days, being under arrest meant going to jail.
In order to get into prison you have to go through a door and it’s locked behind you. In those days if someone escaped prison, the maker of the jail would be killed along with the prison guards that were on at the time of the escape so people made sure no one could escape because they feared death.
One night while the apostles were in jail, an angel of the Lord came down without opening doors. The guards were there protecting the prison but the next morning the apostles were gone. The angel said to the apostles, “I’m coming to redeem you so you can preach the gospel”. The angel wasn’t giving them freedom so they could see their family or to do their own plans but to share the gospel and the first thing that Peter did after being released was to preach the gospel. If you had escaped from prison would you go somewhere everybody will see you doing the very thing that put you there in the first place or will you go and hide yourself?
God knows your situation, He knows what you are crossing. Yesterday you were free but today you are locked up with maybe sadness or maybe disappointment or maybe you were someone who was sincere but today lies have locked you up and you keep telling lies day after day and slowly, slowly you are in prison and you can’t stop telling lies or maybe you can’t stop stealing. Maybe you are locked in a character that doesn’t please God.The one who keeps the key to that door is satan and he is extremely evil and keeps you locked up to stop you from being a good person for God.
Some of your behaviours lock you in. In what cell are you?
There is maximum security and minimum security in prisons in NZ. In jail there is another system and people use words and signs that are not used outside of prison and people who are alike will associate with each other and support each other. In the jail of satan there is also another system which is different to God’s system. For example, when you don’t respect your husband, you’ll start to associate with people who will give you the wrong advice. And your brain will give you the worst advice. Satan will pump you with ideas and you start to raise yourself up and believe you are better than others, even better than God.
In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were in jail and around midnight they started to sing and pray… then suddenly the jail started to shake (an earthquake). Would you keep singing? When you are in prison or a slave of satan – your singing and your prayers will release you from that prison.
How often do I pray or sing to adore God? How often do I tell God about my life, my attitude? It’s very sad if I only pray for others but never pray for my own weaknesses; we have to prepare ourselves first and then pray for others.
Usually we sleep at midnight and our singing is snoring but Paul and Silas were in a big challenge so they prayed and sang. We have to also recognise when we are weak, when we are in a bad situation and then pray and tell God, “I’m in this jail of sin” and sing so that God will open that prison cell and you can come out.
In Acts 16, the doors not only opened for Paul and Silas but all the doors in the prison were opened. The guard wanted to kill himself because he was sure everybody would escape but Paul said, “I’m here”. Many people will say they are waiting for Jesus to come down to tell them to stop their behaviour or to transform their life. It doesn’t work that way, we have to make a step, we have to make a decision. Are we ready?
Jesus was once in a tomb but the door was opened and He came out alive. We can also come out of our jail and come back to life. Are we ready to step out?
Maybe you have a problem with finances, maybe you can’t pay your bills and there are daily challenges. Present them to God without fear. Maybe your family are not saved yet and you need to see them in the Kingdom of God. It’s a big challenge.
Pray with me, you know your situation, your challenges, pray not only for your sin and your challenges but pray also for the lives of those around you, your country and other countries and ask God to open the door to come out.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Hope
By Hayley Boud
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”. Romans 15:13
Does anyone here need hope? Why do we need hope? What do we hope in? How do we get hope? What is hope? Does hope help? How does it help? Is it tangible? Can I touch it? Or is it just in my head? Is hope important and if I don’t hope, am I sinning?
What is hope?
The Greek meaning of the word “hope” (Elpis) in this verse is “desire of some good with expectation of obtaining it”.
Do you have a desire tonight of something good? Do you expect to obtain it? If you don’t expect to obtain it then it’s not hope according to the Bible but hope according to the world. “I hope to pass my studies but I’m not confident I will and I’m even sure I will fail” is not hope according to the Bible. Hope according to the Bible is being 100% sure it will happen.
So how do I get that kind of hope where I am expecting to obtain it? Sometimes I’m expecting to obtain something and I still don’t, so what happened? Did I not have enough faith?
I can think of times when I had no hope and yet I obtained something very good and other times when I had hope and was confident and really expected something to happen and it didn’t. So…why? As we go on, we will discover why.
Why do we need hope?
1. Hope gives faith - “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1-3)
2. Hope is a command - Love hopes (1 Corinthians 13:7)
We need hope because the greatest commandment is to love God and then your neighbour so if you don’t have hope, you don’t love and if you don’t love, you are against God’s command. Therefore hope is a command.
3. Hope is necessary to please God - The Bible says it is impossible to please God without faith (Heb 11:6) and without hope, can’t have faith and therefore without hope, can’t please God. Therefore hope is necessary to please God.
Faith, love and hope (1 Cor 13:13) Hope gives us faith, so without hope we can’t have faith and without hope we do not love….therefore need hope to have both faith and love. Also need to have faith and love in order to have hope. The three go together.
4. God’s eyes are on those that hope - “But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,” (Psalm 33:17-19)
5. God delights in those who hope - “the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love”.(Psalm 147:10-12)
What do we hope in?
1. God Himself - in this verse, we read that God Himself is hope. We can hope in Jesus because the Bible says He never changes, He is the same yesterday and forever and He is totally trust worthy. So, when we need hope, we can hope in God Himself and depend completely on Him.
The Greek meaning of the word Elpis in this verse also means, “Trust and confidence in someone…confidence, security”. We can have trust and confidence in Jesus Himself and He is the one who provides the confidence and security.
So, for example, one time I was 100% sure I would not get sea sick because I had faith and I was confident and I expected that I wouldn’t and yet I got sea sick. I didn’t lack hope….I had enough hope I wouldn’t get sea sick because I truly expected that I wouldn’t. The problem is, I hoped in the wrong thing. I should hope in Jesus Christ that no matter what happens, I will trust Him to keep me secure. If I hope that I don’t get sea sick and then I do, I might be discouraged and think I didn’t have enough faith but the Bible says that we only need faith the size of a mustard seed which is really tiny so we all have enough faith. It’s not about faith….it’s about God. That is why the verse says to trust in Him. Don’t trust in yourself or the amount of faith you have, just trust in God and trust Him no matter what happens, He knows what He is doing. Hope only in Jesus, not in material things.
“Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.” (Isaiah 49:22-24)
Hebrews 10:23, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful”.
We have to know what to hope in. When we hope for material things or people, we will only be disappointed but when we hope in Jesus, we will never be disappointed.
We can hope that God will never leave us or forsake us because that is His promise and he is faithful to keep His promises.
2. We can hope that He will come back one day and take us to be with Him in Heaven. “Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming”. (1 Peter 1:12-14)
3. We can hope in His protection - “We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield”. (Psalm 33:19-21)
4. We can have hope on the promises in His Word. “You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word”. (Psalm 119:113-115)
5. We can hope in God’s calling and His inheritance – “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.” (Ephesians 1:17-19)
6. We can hope in the gospel “if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel”. Colossians 1:23
7. We can hope in Christ who is in us – “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”. (Colossians 1:26-28)
8. Hope in eternal life – “in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time.” (Titus 1:1-3)
9. We can hope in his unfailing love (Psalm 33:17-19 &147:10-12)
So this is the answer to why I sometimes obtain what I didn’t hope for and why sometimes I don’t obtain what I was sure that I would. It’s because I’m hoping in the wrong things. Our hope must be in the things that we can be confident and sure of….our hope must be in Jesus Christ, in His word, in the gospel, in eternal life, in the fact that Christ is in us, in His inheritance, in His protection, in His promises, in knowing that He is coming back for us and in His unfailing love for us. These things we can hope in, these are the things we can trust in and expect to obtain. If we hope in these things, we will never be disappointed.
What is the purpose of hope?
1. To share with others – “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,” (1 Peter 3:14-16)
2. To strengthen us in faith – “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD”(Psalm 31:23-24) and “but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint”. (Isaiah 40:30-31)
3. Gives joy – “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer”. (Romans 12:11-13)
4. Gives peace – Romans 15:13 (the verse we are reading)
5. Gives boldness , especially to be witnesses of Jesus – “Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold”. (2 Corinthians 3:11-13)
6. For God’s glory – “in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:11-13)
7. Inspires us to endure – “We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 1:2-4)
8. Salvation – “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet”. (1 Thessalonians 5:7-9)
9. Encourage us to work for God – “That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe. (1 Timothy 4:9-11)
10. Encourages us to pray – “The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.” (1 Timothy 5:4-6)
Let’s read our original verse again, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”. (Romans 15:13)
Our God is a God of hope and He will fill us with joy and peace as we trust in Him and when we trust in Him, our hope overflows by the power of the Holy Spirit. When our hope overflows, it will pour out and touch others and give to them hope also. So may God fill you tonight with His joy and peace and may you trust Him in every situation and may His hope in you be so great that it overflows and touches those around you by the power of the Holy Spirit.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”. Romans 15:13
Does anyone here need hope? Why do we need hope? What do we hope in? How do we get hope? What is hope? Does hope help? How does it help? Is it tangible? Can I touch it? Or is it just in my head? Is hope important and if I don’t hope, am I sinning?
What is hope?
The Greek meaning of the word “hope” (Elpis) in this verse is “desire of some good with expectation of obtaining it”.
Do you have a desire tonight of something good? Do you expect to obtain it? If you don’t expect to obtain it then it’s not hope according to the Bible but hope according to the world. “I hope to pass my studies but I’m not confident I will and I’m even sure I will fail” is not hope according to the Bible. Hope according to the Bible is being 100% sure it will happen.
So how do I get that kind of hope where I am expecting to obtain it? Sometimes I’m expecting to obtain something and I still don’t, so what happened? Did I not have enough faith?
I can think of times when I had no hope and yet I obtained something very good and other times when I had hope and was confident and really expected something to happen and it didn’t. So…why? As we go on, we will discover why.
Why do we need hope?
1. Hope gives faith - “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1-3)
2. Hope is a command - Love hopes (1 Corinthians 13:7)
We need hope because the greatest commandment is to love God and then your neighbour so if you don’t have hope, you don’t love and if you don’t love, you are against God’s command. Therefore hope is a command.
3. Hope is necessary to please God - The Bible says it is impossible to please God without faith (Heb 11:6) and without hope, can’t have faith and therefore without hope, can’t please God. Therefore hope is necessary to please God.
Faith, love and hope (1 Cor 13:13) Hope gives us faith, so without hope we can’t have faith and without hope we do not love….therefore need hope to have both faith and love. Also need to have faith and love in order to have hope. The three go together.
4. God’s eyes are on those that hope - “But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,” (Psalm 33:17-19)
5. God delights in those who hope - “the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love”.(Psalm 147:10-12)
What do we hope in?
1. God Himself - in this verse, we read that God Himself is hope. We can hope in Jesus because the Bible says He never changes, He is the same yesterday and forever and He is totally trust worthy. So, when we need hope, we can hope in God Himself and depend completely on Him.
The Greek meaning of the word Elpis in this verse also means, “Trust and confidence in someone…confidence, security”. We can have trust and confidence in Jesus Himself and He is the one who provides the confidence and security.
So, for example, one time I was 100% sure I would not get sea sick because I had faith and I was confident and I expected that I wouldn’t and yet I got sea sick. I didn’t lack hope….I had enough hope I wouldn’t get sea sick because I truly expected that I wouldn’t. The problem is, I hoped in the wrong thing. I should hope in Jesus Christ that no matter what happens, I will trust Him to keep me secure. If I hope that I don’t get sea sick and then I do, I might be discouraged and think I didn’t have enough faith but the Bible says that we only need faith the size of a mustard seed which is really tiny so we all have enough faith. It’s not about faith….it’s about God. That is why the verse says to trust in Him. Don’t trust in yourself or the amount of faith you have, just trust in God and trust Him no matter what happens, He knows what He is doing. Hope only in Jesus, not in material things.
“Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.” (Isaiah 49:22-24)
Hebrews 10:23, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful”.
We have to know what to hope in. When we hope for material things or people, we will only be disappointed but when we hope in Jesus, we will never be disappointed.
We can hope that God will never leave us or forsake us because that is His promise and he is faithful to keep His promises.
2. We can hope that He will come back one day and take us to be with Him in Heaven. “Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming”. (1 Peter 1:12-14)
Whatever we are crossing, whatever situation we are in, we can remember that it’s only for a short time and Christ is coming back for us, this is the hope that will get us through.
3. We can hope in His protection - “We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield”. (Psalm 33:19-21)
Jesus protects us from sin, satan, eternal death and temptations. The Bible promises that God will never let us go through anything we can’t bear and where there are temptations, He promised to make a way out for us. We can hope in that.
4. We can have hope on the promises in His Word. “You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word”. (Psalm 119:113-115)
Whatever is written in the Bible, we can trust it is true. Whatever promises are in there, we can hope in them and be assured of obtaining them.
5. We can hope in God’s calling and His inheritance – “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.” (Ephesians 1:17-19)
If we are poor on earth, don’t worry, put your hope in the fact that we will be rich in heaven.
6. We can hope in the gospel “if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel”. Colossians 1:23
Jesus died to take away our sin and was buried and rose again on the third day and now sits at the right hand of the Father. We don’t have to worry about whether we are truly saved or whether God will forgive my sins even though I keep repeating them, we don’t have to worry about whether we will make it to heaven or not….we just have to put our hope in the gospel and trust that if we have confessed our sins, Jesus is righteous and just to forgive them and all who call on His name will be saved.
7. We can hope in Christ who is in us – “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”. (Colossians 1:26-28)
Greater is He who is in us than He who is in the world gives us hope to overcome.
8. Hope in eternal life – “in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time.” (Titus 1:1-3)
9. We can hope in his unfailing love (Psalm 33:17-19 &147:10-12)
Jesus loves us no matter what we have done and no matter who we are.
So this is the answer to why I sometimes obtain what I didn’t hope for and why sometimes I don’t obtain what I was sure that I would. It’s because I’m hoping in the wrong things. Our hope must be in the things that we can be confident and sure of….our hope must be in Jesus Christ, in His word, in the gospel, in eternal life, in the fact that Christ is in us, in His inheritance, in His protection, in His promises, in knowing that He is coming back for us and in His unfailing love for us. These things we can hope in, these are the things we can trust in and expect to obtain. If we hope in these things, we will never be disappointed.
What is the purpose of hope?
1. To share with others – “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,” (1 Peter 3:14-16)
2. To strengthen us in faith – “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD”(Psalm 31:23-24) and “but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint”. (Isaiah 40:30-31)
3. Gives joy – “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer”. (Romans 12:11-13)
4. Gives peace – Romans 15:13 (the verse we are reading)
5. Gives boldness , especially to be witnesses of Jesus – “Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold”. (2 Corinthians 3:11-13)
6. For God’s glory – “in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:11-13)
7. Inspires us to endure – “We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 1:2-4)
8. Salvation – “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet”. (1 Thessalonians 5:7-9)
9. Encourage us to work for God – “That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe. (1 Timothy 4:9-11)
10. Encourages us to pray – “The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.” (1 Timothy 5:4-6)
Let’s read our original verse again, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”. (Romans 15:13)
Our God is a God of hope and He will fill us with joy and peace as we trust in Him and when we trust in Him, our hope overflows by the power of the Holy Spirit. When our hope overflows, it will pour out and touch others and give to them hope also. So may God fill you tonight with His joy and peace and may you trust Him in every situation and may His hope in you be so great that it overflows and touches those around you by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Revelation 12 (Part 10) The Fight With satan
Revelations 12:7-17
By Odon Bulamba (10th August 2007)
Revelation 12: 15, “And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, So that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood”.
The dragon saw the woman flying, and thought he couldn’t catch her anymore. He thought, “I have to use a strategy, instead of using fire like other dragons, I will use water”.
We know that water represents life. The Word of God is water. Satan has found that the church of God is far from him, “people are running away from me, the only strategy I can use will be by using the Word of God and I will use it in the way that will cause the church to be broken, completely destroyed. If I use other weapons, I won’t be able to fight. Jesus gave them the power to overcome me, to win the battle. So my new strategy now will be the Word of
God”.
Now we can go back to Jesus’ word: “At the end of times, you will see lots of false prophets, lots of false teachers, lots of false pastors, lots of messengers, people who will proclaim they are Jesus among us. Many people will be led astray. Many people will get lost. Satan will never and ever use something not close to Christianity. He will use something that is similar so that people can say: “Yes. I can see there is some truth in there, let us follow it.”
Then his demons can perform miracles and these miracles will not be just simple ones, but they will shake the world, they will make everybody think: “Yes, this is God!”
How many people today worship satan without knowing it? How many people pray to him without knowing it? How many people believe today that they trust in God but they don’t know in whom they trust? And how many times we neglect the battle we have against satan? We might say: “Yes, we are in a battle field. We are fighting against the power of darkness, we are fighting satan but we actually neglect that fight. We don’t want to practise at all, we don’t realise we need training and we need to get ready. Unfortunately we keep on saying: “Yes, we are strong enough to fight against satan.”
How can we fight against him? Tell me. “Resist him and he will flee from you …” So we can see that we have everything we need. If you say:
“I don’t have faith”. Just resist and satan will be forced to say “ok”.
I will take an example. I have cocaine with me and I need someone to inject that thing in their vein. I will come to you Shari:
- “Shari, do you want some?”
- “No, I don’t need cocaine in my life”.
So I will offer that to Tyrone, Benedicte and everyone. People are free to say
- “Yes, I’ll have it”. Or
- “No”.
If you resist you will become a winner but when you don’t resist, that’s the time when you lose your battle. To resist against what exactly? Against sin. Sin doesn’t hide itself, sin is clear. When you want to lie, you will know this is a lie and you will tell a lie and you will try to varnish it, to colour it so that it will look like a true message. You know it’s a lie, you prepare it properly, and pass it on but if you decide not to lie but to say the truth, it will be the truth, no matter what people think or want to hear from you, but the truth will just be the truth.
When the idea of killing or stealing comes to you; the idea comes and you will know that this is wrong: killing or stealing is wrong. The last decision though is entirely yours: “I will do it” or “I don’t want to do it”. If you resist that will be it and the idea will know that there is no place for it here and it will leave you alone. Like David when he said: “The armour you have given me is very heavy and I can’t wear that, I will just use whatever I have”. Maybe your small faith is enough, use it and you will win the battle.
So we have different ways to win the battle provided we have the willingness to do so. Finally, verse 16 and 17 the Bible says:
Revelation 12:16 & 17, “But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who kept the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus”.
The earth opened and swallowed everything. If satan is trying to spread the false gospel in the life of the church, the earth must open and swallow that river. What is this earth? The earth is my body, it is your body because we come from dust. Your body will say:
- “Yes, I accept this message” or
- “No, I don’t”.
For instance, some people will say:
- “Our pastor is this man, he is a preacher. He is good and does such and such”.
- Fine. But other people will discover that the pastor serves satan (just an example). But because you are the pastor’s fanatic and you love that man, you love what he says, you will say:
- “OK. I have to go with him”. You won’t say:
- “I have to go with Jesus.”
You will decide to go with him, and say, “I have to be close to him and participle to everything he does and do whatever I am required to do”. Your body will push you.
Another example: Judah Iscariot. When Jesus told them that one of them will betray Him, everyone asked if it was them, including Judah although he knew it was him. He just asked as well to give good impression to the other disciples. And Jesus told him straight it was him. Instead of saying:
- “Look. Forgive me. I didn’t want to do it. I made a mistake, please don’t allow me to carry on”.
He got angry. He stood up and left.
- “I will prove now to you who I am. I must do it”. And he did it.
But if his body could just cool down and say:
- “I will save that warning.”
He might not have been the one who betrayed the Son of man. Sometimes also our body can’t escape God’s plan, but we have the choice to stop that river of water which comes from satan. It’s easy to know for the preacher himself when they give a false preaching.
When I was younger I went to a Catholic college. We learn there that Mary (the mother of Christ) was a virgin until the day she passed away. Mary used to go for walks with 12 stars around her head. Mary, the mother of Christ, is now standing up at the right hand of God telling God to forgive us, to go to Jesus, you have to first go through Mary.
Finally, the priest gave us a small card: on Saturday, go to the priest and repent.
- I stole $5 yesterday.
- Son, what did you do with the $5?
- Priest, forgive me. I used them for such and such.
- OK. I forgive you and God forgives you. Go in peace.
Every time you go to church, they will tell you:
- OK. Once you are in, you must look at the cross, kneel down and do this.
- What for?
- I don’t know. The preacher says something.
- Yeh, yeh. The preacher says something else:
- Yeah, yes.
When he comes in, the bell is rang.
- The Lord be with you.
- With you too. And then you sit and stand up… up and down and up and down. From the beginning of the service to the end of the service. Why all these ceremonials? The church today knows that most of them are magic ritual and people continue to do it.
Before eating the bread, we must have candles. I am not sure how many candles Jesus had that night. Let us light one, some Sundays they are yellow, others white and others red. What can we learn from all of that? Preachers are everywhere, preachers who try to contradict the Bible.
For example: who was Jesus’ father? It was surely Joseph. But if you read the genealogy in Matthew, we see that Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father, but why is he in the genealogy of Christ? Why is Jesus a descendant of David? If God had taken Mary to be in Jesus’ genealogy, because they have some physical relationship, it could be understandable. Today people are desperate to find an answer to that question… but they are questions you can never and ever answer. Tell me why you have two legs instead of four? Why do you have two ears and not one? Why do you look the way you look? Who can answer such questions? No one. Why do you have a brain instead of gold or diamond because people say gold is so valuable, it’s a treasure?
So we see that God makes things according to His will. He has the right to write and tell us whatever He needs or wants, without us challenging Him, or challenging His Word. When the river was swallowed by the ground, the woman was freed.
Korah, in the times of Moses, revolted and the ground opened and swallowed them. When the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, God Himself caused it to stop. He put a path and they crossed it.
So He is able to do anything. Don’t say that you won’t be able to do something or to fight satan, to stop his arrows because you are weak, no. God can make you able to do so, with one condition: trust in Him. This is all I can say tonight.
QUESTION:
- If the woman represents the church, and if she is in a desert, in a hard place, does that mean that the church today is in a hard place?
- Yes. There is no easy life when living for Christ. And if you want to know how hard life is, try to follow God’s instructions. You will see how hard it is. It’s really hard.
By Odon Bulamba (10th August 2007)
Revelation 12: 15, “And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, So that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood”.
The dragon saw the woman flying, and thought he couldn’t catch her anymore. He thought, “I have to use a strategy, instead of using fire like other dragons, I will use water”.
We know that water represents life. The Word of God is water. Satan has found that the church of God is far from him, “people are running away from me, the only strategy I can use will be by using the Word of God and I will use it in the way that will cause the church to be broken, completely destroyed. If I use other weapons, I won’t be able to fight. Jesus gave them the power to overcome me, to win the battle. So my new strategy now will be the Word of
God”.
Now we can go back to Jesus’ word: “At the end of times, you will see lots of false prophets, lots of false teachers, lots of false pastors, lots of messengers, people who will proclaim they are Jesus among us. Many people will be led astray. Many people will get lost. Satan will never and ever use something not close to Christianity. He will use something that is similar so that people can say: “Yes. I can see there is some truth in there, let us follow it.”
Then his demons can perform miracles and these miracles will not be just simple ones, but they will shake the world, they will make everybody think: “Yes, this is God!”
How many people today worship satan without knowing it? How many people pray to him without knowing it? How many people believe today that they trust in God but they don’t know in whom they trust? And how many times we neglect the battle we have against satan? We might say: “Yes, we are in a battle field. We are fighting against the power of darkness, we are fighting satan but we actually neglect that fight. We don’t want to practise at all, we don’t realise we need training and we need to get ready. Unfortunately we keep on saying: “Yes, we are strong enough to fight against satan.”
How can we fight against him? Tell me. “Resist him and he will flee from you …” So we can see that we have everything we need. If you say:
“I don’t have faith”. Just resist and satan will be forced to say “ok”.
I will take an example. I have cocaine with me and I need someone to inject that thing in their vein. I will come to you Shari:
- “Shari, do you want some?”
- “No, I don’t need cocaine in my life”.
So I will offer that to Tyrone, Benedicte and everyone. People are free to say
- “Yes, I’ll have it”. Or
- “No”.
If you resist you will become a winner but when you don’t resist, that’s the time when you lose your battle. To resist against what exactly? Against sin. Sin doesn’t hide itself, sin is clear. When you want to lie, you will know this is a lie and you will tell a lie and you will try to varnish it, to colour it so that it will look like a true message. You know it’s a lie, you prepare it properly, and pass it on but if you decide not to lie but to say the truth, it will be the truth, no matter what people think or want to hear from you, but the truth will just be the truth.
When the idea of killing or stealing comes to you; the idea comes and you will know that this is wrong: killing or stealing is wrong. The last decision though is entirely yours: “I will do it” or “I don’t want to do it”. If you resist that will be it and the idea will know that there is no place for it here and it will leave you alone. Like David when he said: “The armour you have given me is very heavy and I can’t wear that, I will just use whatever I have”. Maybe your small faith is enough, use it and you will win the battle.
So we have different ways to win the battle provided we have the willingness to do so. Finally, verse 16 and 17 the Bible says:
Revelation 12:16 & 17, “But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who kept the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus”.
The earth opened and swallowed everything. If satan is trying to spread the false gospel in the life of the church, the earth must open and swallow that river. What is this earth? The earth is my body, it is your body because we come from dust. Your body will say:
- “Yes, I accept this message” or
- “No, I don’t”.
For instance, some people will say:
- “Our pastor is this man, he is a preacher. He is good and does such and such”.
- Fine. But other people will discover that the pastor serves satan (just an example). But because you are the pastor’s fanatic and you love that man, you love what he says, you will say:
- “OK. I have to go with him”. You won’t say:
- “I have to go with Jesus.”
You will decide to go with him, and say, “I have to be close to him and participle to everything he does and do whatever I am required to do”. Your body will push you.
Another example: Judah Iscariot. When Jesus told them that one of them will betray Him, everyone asked if it was them, including Judah although he knew it was him. He just asked as well to give good impression to the other disciples. And Jesus told him straight it was him. Instead of saying:
- “Look. Forgive me. I didn’t want to do it. I made a mistake, please don’t allow me to carry on”.
He got angry. He stood up and left.
- “I will prove now to you who I am. I must do it”. And he did it.
But if his body could just cool down and say:
- “I will save that warning.”
He might not have been the one who betrayed the Son of man. Sometimes also our body can’t escape God’s plan, but we have the choice to stop that river of water which comes from satan. It’s easy to know for the preacher himself when they give a false preaching.
When I was younger I went to a Catholic college. We learn there that Mary (the mother of Christ) was a virgin until the day she passed away. Mary used to go for walks with 12 stars around her head. Mary, the mother of Christ, is now standing up at the right hand of God telling God to forgive us, to go to Jesus, you have to first go through Mary.
Finally, the priest gave us a small card: on Saturday, go to the priest and repent.
- I stole $5 yesterday.
- Son, what did you do with the $5?
- Priest, forgive me. I used them for such and such.
- OK. I forgive you and God forgives you. Go in peace.
Every time you go to church, they will tell you:
- OK. Once you are in, you must look at the cross, kneel down and do this.
- What for?
- I don’t know. The preacher says something.
- Yeh, yeh. The preacher says something else:
- Yeah, yes.
When he comes in, the bell is rang.
- The Lord be with you.
- With you too. And then you sit and stand up… up and down and up and down. From the beginning of the service to the end of the service. Why all these ceremonials? The church today knows that most of them are magic ritual and people continue to do it.
Before eating the bread, we must have candles. I am not sure how many candles Jesus had that night. Let us light one, some Sundays they are yellow, others white and others red. What can we learn from all of that? Preachers are everywhere, preachers who try to contradict the Bible.
For example: who was Jesus’ father? It was surely Joseph. But if you read the genealogy in Matthew, we see that Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father, but why is he in the genealogy of Christ? Why is Jesus a descendant of David? If God had taken Mary to be in Jesus’ genealogy, because they have some physical relationship, it could be understandable. Today people are desperate to find an answer to that question… but they are questions you can never and ever answer. Tell me why you have two legs instead of four? Why do you have two ears and not one? Why do you look the way you look? Who can answer such questions? No one. Why do you have a brain instead of gold or diamond because people say gold is so valuable, it’s a treasure?
So we see that God makes things according to His will. He has the right to write and tell us whatever He needs or wants, without us challenging Him, or challenging His Word. When the river was swallowed by the ground, the woman was freed.
Korah, in the times of Moses, revolted and the ground opened and swallowed them. When the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, God Himself caused it to stop. He put a path and they crossed it.
So He is able to do anything. Don’t say that you won’t be able to do something or to fight satan, to stop his arrows because you are weak, no. God can make you able to do so, with one condition: trust in Him. This is all I can say tonight.
QUESTION:
- If the woman represents the church, and if she is in a desert, in a hard place, does that mean that the church today is in a hard place?
- Yes. There is no easy life when living for Christ. And if you want to know how hard life is, try to follow God’s instructions. You will see how hard it is. It’s really hard.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Encouragement
By Hayley Boud
Hebrews 10:24-25, "And let us consider how we may stimulate one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching".
“ let us consider”, we have to take time to think about encouraging others and find new strategies. I always tell Michelle after the meeting thank you for hosting the meeting which is good but now it is a slogan without real encouragement. It would be better for me to think of new ways to encourage her, send her a card in the mail or ring her during the week just to lead to know that I'm grateful. Let's find unique ways to encourage each other. Take the time to think about it in its make sure we consider everyone. Maybe we can use the list and tick people off and see if we can encourage everybody at least once a week. Let’s think how will I encourage the person in a way that makes them happy.
“ stimulate one another”, our encouraging should be stimulating for others. For example, the laser is a light that is amplified by stimulating electrons to produce a very powerful ray of light. The electrons do nothing, they are just resting but by stimulating them they create a laser which can do so much and is so powerful. The laser can perform dentistry, heart surgery, corrective eye surgery, face lifts and so much more, they are even used in compact disc players. So if we stimulate other Christians they can become more powerful lights. We as Christians are lights to this world but if we are lasers we will be Christians that are light amplified, lights that are more powerful, lights that can achieve much much more than ordinary lights.
“One another”, Let's not miss anyone out. Sometimes we only encourage those that are closest to us, or those we like, or those that we think need it. Often we forget about those that we don't have much contact with, or those that we don't really like, or those that seemed to be already awesome Christians. But everybody needs encouragement.
“ Love and good deeds”, our encouragement must help each other to love others and to put this love into action. Good deeds are actions that are good according to the word of God and not according to this world. Sometimes encouraging someone will not be treating them as though they are a cute animal but loving the person respectfully encouraging them to see the truth. If you see someone who needs help in a certain area, for example prayer, don't tell the person bluntly you are not good at prayer but instead encourage the person and tell him you are very good at praying and I believe you could be even better. Then we could make some suggestions.
When I was five I was sitting at school on the class mat with all the other kids and I was slouching and talking to my friend when the teacher said, “I want everyone to sit up nicely like Hayley” and immediately it encouraged me to stop talking and to sit up straight with my arms folded. Every day after that I would make an effort to sit up nicely so the teacher would point me out again. She encouraged me to make an effort. If she had growled me and said, “look at Hayley talking and slouching”, I would have been discouraged.
“don't forsake meeting together”, we often take it for granted and forget just how important it is to meet together and just by turning up this is a huge encouragement to others. I remember one intercessory prayer meeting Ange came while she was about three days away from giving birth and that encouraged me. It made me realize, that if Ange can do, so can I. Don't neglect meeting together, it is very important and we should meet as often as we can and do it with joy.
“Our own assembling together”, this includes the official meetings and just when we meet together. Don't take it for granted if someone wants to meet with you, everyone and every meeting is valuable and an important way to encourage each other to love and good deeds.
“as is the habit of some”, just because you see others not coming to the meetings doesn't mean you should follow their lead. Just because Hayley has said she is sick and can't come and has a habit now of doing that, don't be thinking, ‘ I'm too tired tonight I won't go’. Don't follow the bad habits of others but follow people with good habits, people like Tyrone and Coleen and Michelle and Ange and others who go every single meeting.
“encourage”, it's not about being pushy, it's about giving someone the courage to do something. Our way of speaking needs to be in such a way that our words will bring comfort to others, they will support others and appeal to others, our words will help others. We can do this by thanking the person for their good deeds or by telling the person about their good characteristics or by supporting them through difficult times (which can be simply by listening or by reminding them about the word of God).
Tonight we are going to encourage each other in a unique way: we are going to write our names on a piece of paper and then hand it to the person on the right and that person will write something encouraging about the person. Write one thing that you like about the person, or something that you would like to say thank you for. Then we’ll pass it around the room until we get our own one back.
Hebrews 10:24-25, "And let us consider how we may stimulate one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching".
“ let us consider”, we have to take time to think about encouraging others and find new strategies. I always tell Michelle after the meeting thank you for hosting the meeting which is good but now it is a slogan without real encouragement. It would be better for me to think of new ways to encourage her, send her a card in the mail or ring her during the week just to lead to know that I'm grateful. Let's find unique ways to encourage each other. Take the time to think about it in its make sure we consider everyone. Maybe we can use the list and tick people off and see if we can encourage everybody at least once a week. Let’s think how will I encourage the person in a way that makes them happy.
“ stimulate one another”, our encouraging should be stimulating for others. For example, the laser is a light that is amplified by stimulating electrons to produce a very powerful ray of light. The electrons do nothing, they are just resting but by stimulating them they create a laser which can do so much and is so powerful. The laser can perform dentistry, heart surgery, corrective eye surgery, face lifts and so much more, they are even used in compact disc players. So if we stimulate other Christians they can become more powerful lights. We as Christians are lights to this world but if we are lasers we will be Christians that are light amplified, lights that are more powerful, lights that can achieve much much more than ordinary lights.
“One another”, Let's not miss anyone out. Sometimes we only encourage those that are closest to us, or those we like, or those that we think need it. Often we forget about those that we don't have much contact with, or those that we don't really like, or those that seemed to be already awesome Christians. But everybody needs encouragement.
“ Love and good deeds”, our encouragement must help each other to love others and to put this love into action. Good deeds are actions that are good according to the word of God and not according to this world. Sometimes encouraging someone will not be treating them as though they are a cute animal but loving the person respectfully encouraging them to see the truth. If you see someone who needs help in a certain area, for example prayer, don't tell the person bluntly you are not good at prayer but instead encourage the person and tell him you are very good at praying and I believe you could be even better. Then we could make some suggestions.
When I was five I was sitting at school on the class mat with all the other kids and I was slouching and talking to my friend when the teacher said, “I want everyone to sit up nicely like Hayley” and immediately it encouraged me to stop talking and to sit up straight with my arms folded. Every day after that I would make an effort to sit up nicely so the teacher would point me out again. She encouraged me to make an effort. If she had growled me and said, “look at Hayley talking and slouching”, I would have been discouraged.
“don't forsake meeting together”, we often take it for granted and forget just how important it is to meet together and just by turning up this is a huge encouragement to others. I remember one intercessory prayer meeting Ange came while she was about three days away from giving birth and that encouraged me. It made me realize, that if Ange can do, so can I. Don't neglect meeting together, it is very important and we should meet as often as we can and do it with joy.
“Our own assembling together”, this includes the official meetings and just when we meet together. Don't take it for granted if someone wants to meet with you, everyone and every meeting is valuable and an important way to encourage each other to love and good deeds.
“as is the habit of some”, just because you see others not coming to the meetings doesn't mean you should follow their lead. Just because Hayley has said she is sick and can't come and has a habit now of doing that, don't be thinking, ‘ I'm too tired tonight I won't go’. Don't follow the bad habits of others but follow people with good habits, people like Tyrone and Coleen and Michelle and Ange and others who go every single meeting.
“encourage”, it's not about being pushy, it's about giving someone the courage to do something. Our way of speaking needs to be in such a way that our words will bring comfort to others, they will support others and appeal to others, our words will help others. We can do this by thanking the person for their good deeds or by telling the person about their good characteristics or by supporting them through difficult times (which can be simply by listening or by reminding them about the word of God).
Tonight we are going to encourage each other in a unique way: we are going to write our names on a piece of paper and then hand it to the person on the right and that person will write something encouraging about the person. Write one thing that you like about the person, or something that you would like to say thank you for. Then we’ll pass it around the room until we get our own one back.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Revelation 12 (Part 9) The Fight With satan
By Odon Bulamba (10th August 2007) Revelations 12:7-17
Revelation 12:12,13, "For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath , knowing that he has only a short time….And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child".
Amen! This woman is giving birth. Imagine that pain of having a baby, the whole process and tiredness. She is tired and the dragon stood up and said it was now the right time to attack the woman: “I want to kill her. I want to finish her life.” First of all, at the beginning of the chapter, he wanted to kill the child but now he wants to attack the mother in order to kill mother and child together maybe.
Let us think, imagine you are in your house and you see a dragon coming and attacking you while you are holding your new born baby, what would you do? And what if fire comes out of its mouth? You will run…
You see it wouldn’t be easy. This lady with a new born is facing now a dragon, and the dragon is not happy, he is attacking her. The dragon is trying to follow, to pursue her and I can take that picture back in Exodus chapter 14:8 where Pharaoh decided to follow the children of Israel who was behind them. The Israelites were on foot but not him, it took horses, he went with his entire army and said he had to go, like army for a battle. So he went with that power of thinking he would take them back, he would kill, he would take them and they would serve him again. These poor people: in front of them, there is the Red Sea, on the left and the right sides, mountains, where to go?
Imagine a dragon following you and your baby and you are in front of the Waikato River… How will you swim with your baby, what to do and maybe you can’t swim like me. So, what would you do? Would you say: “Dragon, here I am. Kill me.” Or you would call for your husband?
These people of Israel found themselves in a situation where they didn’t know what to do and where to go. “Look now, Moses. You were the one who told us to leave Egypt”. They blamed him and pointed the finger at him: “It’s you! If we die it would be only because of you!”
In Revelations satan came to attack this lady and the lady was alone. As we said last time, the lady represents the church. She was alone, she didn’t know where to go and she didn’t know what to do at that time. But she had hope, the child was already born and the child must live.
Before even the dragon reached the woman verse 14 says that the woman was given the wings of a great eagle so that she might fly in the place prepared for her in the desert. She was given wings. Let’s see you flying like an eagle. What would you say? Most of us will think: This is just magic! Imagine you are talking to someone and suddenly wings appear and the woman can fly! I can tell you that if someone visits me who is flying with wings, I won’t accept to talk to her and if I talk to her, I will always a question in my mind: “Should I ask her about what happened the other day? How did she get these wings? Where were they from?” I will be a little bit curious to know but I will continue to fear: Who is this person?
So this lady was given the wings and she flew. She left the place where she was and God sent her to the desert. In Exodus 19:4,
Exodus 19: 4, "You, yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself."
Amen! It is not talking about bird’s wings, it’s just the direction God gave them. He helped them to leave Egypt, to go trough a certain way and reach a destination and this lady also was given the chance to avoid satan, by going to the desert.
Imagine if I say: we now live in NZ, but is there anyone who wants to live in Morocco, or in the desert in Australia? Can you go there, live by yourself in the desert for 4 years? Would you enjoy it? You would feel lonely. Here it’s cool, nice colours… but if we want to go to the desert to be suntanned … you will see you skin colour changed. If I am black, I will become blacker… if I am red I will be seen as I am cooked… The desert is really hot. I went trough the desert and I can tell you it’s better to live in the Antarctic where it’s extremely cold rather than where it’s extremely hot. The desert is not a good place. It is a place where you can breath suffering: the air is really hot, there is no oxygen, it’s not easy.
So this lady was sent to the desert: difficult to find trees, not easy to find food, not easy to find water, not easy to find people to talk to you. It is true that the wind blows but it’s just the sun to the point that ladies would never leave their hair uncovered. No one will see the beauty of your hair or your face because it’s just sand. Some people went through the desert like John the Baptist who stayed in the desert for years. What was he doing there? Eating honey, why? Why didn’t he go to the shop? He preferred to be in the desert for honey and he was there to prepare the way of the Lord, not just to eat but for a purpose, to bring back the people of God in order to make mountains flat.
You know, every time we have tall situations, tall problems, we, people we are short. People who are short in nature want so much to become angry and prove the taller he is stronger: “Don’t step on my nose because you are taller than me!” And tall people are proud because they believe a short person can’t threaten them. John was sent in the desert like someone who hadn’t t study, someone who knew nothing to come back and preach to people who were educated, people who had knowledge, people who had experience in civilisation, people who very well knew the development of the world.
Look at this man, Jesus, He went there for 40 days only while John stayed there for his entire life. Why 40 days and 40 nights? He went there to pray. But it was not all.
God told the people of Israel: “Leave Egypt now”. After crossing the Red Sea they went where God told them and found themselves in the desert for 40 years, walking around and around and around. They didn’t move on: we could say that God put a tornado in their lives, just turning and turning at the same place. They got lost in the desert, it is still a mystery. In Deuteronomy 8:3 the Bible says that the people were there for 40 years and they didn’t change their clothes, they didn’t change their shoes, they didn’t worry about food.
Imagine if I leave with my son now, he is 13, when we come back he will be 53. As he was growing, the clothes too, and the shoes also. This is powerful and miraculous. When he grows, everything on his body also grows. The clothes didn’t wear out, the shoes didn’t have holes because of the long walking and after 40 years, they discovered they had not bought shoes or clothes and everything was provided by God.
If I experience something like that, I think I will save a lot of money, day after day, and I will be so happy. Just having something that looks newer every time, I will say: “Yes, God, You are so good!” But these people were not really happy, and God said He would cook for them. He started to send manna: “ Don’t worry about cooking, don’t worry about standing in front of the wood to cook, No. I will take care of that. Just sit back and relax. If you have a game of cards, play cards, if you have the Torah read it, if you want to play basketball, do it. Don’t worry about your clothes, don’t worry about water. Don’t worry about life. And every morning the one thing you will do, collect the food. Take at much as you want under just one condition, to eat it and finish it.”
I am a little bit curious to know what the food tasted like. Did it really taste like Indian food, Chinese food, European food, I don’t know. But if someone told me today: This is manna. Have a taste. I think I would say: “Yes, God, I can die today, because I want so much to taste it. But complainers came, they were not satisfied, the food wasn’t good, they blamed God and said: “You are not good! We didn’t come here to eat manna, we didn’t come here to stay in the desert. We are tired!”
How many times do we complain against what God has provided for us?
- Lord, I hate my life. Lord, look how big my lips are, why didn’t you give me someone else’s lips?
- Look at my ears, there are so big, I don’t like my hair color, my neck my feet…
And we complain about everything. To the point that I met a lady who complained about her nails. She said she couldn’t keep her nails 2 weeks without breaking, and she said she hates that.
- I hate that!
- Come on, they are only nails. Can your really hate something like that?
I know that accidentally another lady went to a saloon and asked someone:
- Do such and such on her hair.
- Fine, just wait for me. I’ll be there within 2 minutes.
Another silly boy came with clippers and started to cut her hair:
- What are you doing?
- Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I thought that was my customer.
- Put my hair back. I need my hair back.
- Your hair will grow back.
- No, no I need my hair back. I will complain. Who is the manager here?
- I am the manager.
- I have to sue you.
And we can complain about anything. You can book an appointment with someone and ask God to help you meet with that person. God will give you the chance to be there, and the person will just be 5 minutes late. You start to complain:
- You are always late. You are such and such…
- Hey, hang on. You should maybe ask the person first of all why the person was late. There might have been a reason, something happened.
We always complain and when we are late we don’t want others to complain, we want them to shut up and accept the situation and carry on as normal.
So these people of Israel were complaining. The desert is a place where God will send you to learn his will. The desert in a place where you human beings you start to fight the desires of your body. Your body wants to do something wrong, but you will fight against it, you will start to remove all the routes of sin in your live. For instance if you make the decision to follow Jesus Christ: “From now on, I won’t take Marijuana anymore. From today on, Jesus will become my Saviour. From today on I won’t steal anymore, or do such and such and such anymore, then you will start to find that desert life, hard life, tough life, tough against yourself.
Then that lady was taken away where God should look after her, and she was in a desert that’s where God wanted her to be looked after. God fed her, the same way He fed Elijah for 3½ years. The ravens fed him, they would come with food. Imagine a raven came to you with food, will you really eat it? I’m not sure, I might think about it 7 times. That food again: a piece of bread and meat. Where did that meat come from? The raven cannot go to the butcher and buy meat, the raven cannot prepare or cook the meat for him. It must come from somewhere, somewhere dirty maybe.
Then Elijah, 1 Kings 17 went to see that lady who offered him oil. So we can see now, that in the desert where there is suffering, hunger, but God continues to provide. In your life, full of the desires of the flesh, God continues to provide you with something small for your soul to carry on living, to continue to survive. Do you accept what God offers you as meat or not? People will say: “Today I went to church, I didn’t enjoy the preaching”. The only preaching they will enjoy is the kind of preaching their soul will not enjoy. They need something their bodies will enjoy, that’s all. How to enjoy the preaching, how to enjoy the message from God? They might sometimes be enjoyable and other times not: they sometimes will correct us, or bless us and sometimes they will even curse us and we have to accept all of that.
Revelation 12:12,13, "For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath , knowing that he has only a short time….And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child".
Amen! This woman is giving birth. Imagine that pain of having a baby, the whole process and tiredness. She is tired and the dragon stood up and said it was now the right time to attack the woman: “I want to kill her. I want to finish her life.” First of all, at the beginning of the chapter, he wanted to kill the child but now he wants to attack the mother in order to kill mother and child together maybe.
Let us think, imagine you are in your house and you see a dragon coming and attacking you while you are holding your new born baby, what would you do? And what if fire comes out of its mouth? You will run…
You see it wouldn’t be easy. This lady with a new born is facing now a dragon, and the dragon is not happy, he is attacking her. The dragon is trying to follow, to pursue her and I can take that picture back in Exodus chapter 14:8 where Pharaoh decided to follow the children of Israel who was behind them. The Israelites were on foot but not him, it took horses, he went with his entire army and said he had to go, like army for a battle. So he went with that power of thinking he would take them back, he would kill, he would take them and they would serve him again. These poor people: in front of them, there is the Red Sea, on the left and the right sides, mountains, where to go?
Imagine a dragon following you and your baby and you are in front of the Waikato River… How will you swim with your baby, what to do and maybe you can’t swim like me. So, what would you do? Would you say: “Dragon, here I am. Kill me.” Or you would call for your husband?
These people of Israel found themselves in a situation where they didn’t know what to do and where to go. “Look now, Moses. You were the one who told us to leave Egypt”. They blamed him and pointed the finger at him: “It’s you! If we die it would be only because of you!”
In Revelations satan came to attack this lady and the lady was alone. As we said last time, the lady represents the church. She was alone, she didn’t know where to go and she didn’t know what to do at that time. But she had hope, the child was already born and the child must live.
Before even the dragon reached the woman verse 14 says that the woman was given the wings of a great eagle so that she might fly in the place prepared for her in the desert. She was given wings. Let’s see you flying like an eagle. What would you say? Most of us will think: This is just magic! Imagine you are talking to someone and suddenly wings appear and the woman can fly! I can tell you that if someone visits me who is flying with wings, I won’t accept to talk to her and if I talk to her, I will always a question in my mind: “Should I ask her about what happened the other day? How did she get these wings? Where were they from?” I will be a little bit curious to know but I will continue to fear: Who is this person?
So this lady was given the wings and she flew. She left the place where she was and God sent her to the desert. In Exodus 19:4,
Exodus 19: 4, "You, yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself."
Amen! It is not talking about bird’s wings, it’s just the direction God gave them. He helped them to leave Egypt, to go trough a certain way and reach a destination and this lady also was given the chance to avoid satan, by going to the desert.
Imagine if I say: we now live in NZ, but is there anyone who wants to live in Morocco, or in the desert in Australia? Can you go there, live by yourself in the desert for 4 years? Would you enjoy it? You would feel lonely. Here it’s cool, nice colours… but if we want to go to the desert to be suntanned … you will see you skin colour changed. If I am black, I will become blacker… if I am red I will be seen as I am cooked… The desert is really hot. I went trough the desert and I can tell you it’s better to live in the Antarctic where it’s extremely cold rather than where it’s extremely hot. The desert is not a good place. It is a place where you can breath suffering: the air is really hot, there is no oxygen, it’s not easy.
So this lady was sent to the desert: difficult to find trees, not easy to find food, not easy to find water, not easy to find people to talk to you. It is true that the wind blows but it’s just the sun to the point that ladies would never leave their hair uncovered. No one will see the beauty of your hair or your face because it’s just sand. Some people went through the desert like John the Baptist who stayed in the desert for years. What was he doing there? Eating honey, why? Why didn’t he go to the shop? He preferred to be in the desert for honey and he was there to prepare the way of the Lord, not just to eat but for a purpose, to bring back the people of God in order to make mountains flat.
You know, every time we have tall situations, tall problems, we, people we are short. People who are short in nature want so much to become angry and prove the taller he is stronger: “Don’t step on my nose because you are taller than me!” And tall people are proud because they believe a short person can’t threaten them. John was sent in the desert like someone who hadn’t t study, someone who knew nothing to come back and preach to people who were educated, people who had knowledge, people who had experience in civilisation, people who very well knew the development of the world.
Look at this man, Jesus, He went there for 40 days only while John stayed there for his entire life. Why 40 days and 40 nights? He went there to pray. But it was not all.
God told the people of Israel: “Leave Egypt now”. After crossing the Red Sea they went where God told them and found themselves in the desert for 40 years, walking around and around and around. They didn’t move on: we could say that God put a tornado in their lives, just turning and turning at the same place. They got lost in the desert, it is still a mystery. In Deuteronomy 8:3 the Bible says that the people were there for 40 years and they didn’t change their clothes, they didn’t change their shoes, they didn’t worry about food.
Imagine if I leave with my son now, he is 13, when we come back he will be 53. As he was growing, the clothes too, and the shoes also. This is powerful and miraculous. When he grows, everything on his body also grows. The clothes didn’t wear out, the shoes didn’t have holes because of the long walking and after 40 years, they discovered they had not bought shoes or clothes and everything was provided by God.
If I experience something like that, I think I will save a lot of money, day after day, and I will be so happy. Just having something that looks newer every time, I will say: “Yes, God, You are so good!” But these people were not really happy, and God said He would cook for them. He started to send manna: “ Don’t worry about cooking, don’t worry about standing in front of the wood to cook, No. I will take care of that. Just sit back and relax. If you have a game of cards, play cards, if you have the Torah read it, if you want to play basketball, do it. Don’t worry about your clothes, don’t worry about water. Don’t worry about life. And every morning the one thing you will do, collect the food. Take at much as you want under just one condition, to eat it and finish it.”
I am a little bit curious to know what the food tasted like. Did it really taste like Indian food, Chinese food, European food, I don’t know. But if someone told me today: This is manna. Have a taste. I think I would say: “Yes, God, I can die today, because I want so much to taste it. But complainers came, they were not satisfied, the food wasn’t good, they blamed God and said: “You are not good! We didn’t come here to eat manna, we didn’t come here to stay in the desert. We are tired!”
How many times do we complain against what God has provided for us?
- Lord, I hate my life. Lord, look how big my lips are, why didn’t you give me someone else’s lips?
- Look at my ears, there are so big, I don’t like my hair color, my neck my feet…
And we complain about everything. To the point that I met a lady who complained about her nails. She said she couldn’t keep her nails 2 weeks without breaking, and she said she hates that.
- I hate that!
- Come on, they are only nails. Can your really hate something like that?
I know that accidentally another lady went to a saloon and asked someone:
- Do such and such on her hair.
- Fine, just wait for me. I’ll be there within 2 minutes.
Another silly boy came with clippers and started to cut her hair:
- What are you doing?
- Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I thought that was my customer.
- Put my hair back. I need my hair back.
- Your hair will grow back.
- No, no I need my hair back. I will complain. Who is the manager here?
- I am the manager.
- I have to sue you.
And we can complain about anything. You can book an appointment with someone and ask God to help you meet with that person. God will give you the chance to be there, and the person will just be 5 minutes late. You start to complain:
- You are always late. You are such and such…
- Hey, hang on. You should maybe ask the person first of all why the person was late. There might have been a reason, something happened.
We always complain and when we are late we don’t want others to complain, we want them to shut up and accept the situation and carry on as normal.
So these people of Israel were complaining. The desert is a place where God will send you to learn his will. The desert in a place where you human beings you start to fight the desires of your body. Your body wants to do something wrong, but you will fight against it, you will start to remove all the routes of sin in your live. For instance if you make the decision to follow Jesus Christ: “From now on, I won’t take Marijuana anymore. From today on, Jesus will become my Saviour. From today on I won’t steal anymore, or do such and such and such anymore, then you will start to find that desert life, hard life, tough life, tough against yourself.
Then that lady was taken away where God should look after her, and she was in a desert that’s where God wanted her to be looked after. God fed her, the same way He fed Elijah for 3½ years. The ravens fed him, they would come with food. Imagine a raven came to you with food, will you really eat it? I’m not sure, I might think about it 7 times. That food again: a piece of bread and meat. Where did that meat come from? The raven cannot go to the butcher and buy meat, the raven cannot prepare or cook the meat for him. It must come from somewhere, somewhere dirty maybe.
Then Elijah, 1 Kings 17 went to see that lady who offered him oil. So we can see now, that in the desert where there is suffering, hunger, but God continues to provide. In your life, full of the desires of the flesh, God continues to provide you with something small for your soul to carry on living, to continue to survive. Do you accept what God offers you as meat or not? People will say: “Today I went to church, I didn’t enjoy the preaching”. The only preaching they will enjoy is the kind of preaching their soul will not enjoy. They need something their bodies will enjoy, that’s all. How to enjoy the preaching, how to enjoy the message from God? They might sometimes be enjoyable and other times not: they sometimes will correct us, or bless us and sometimes they will even curse us and we have to accept all of that.
The Resume of Jesus Christ
Address: Ephesians 1:20
Phone: Romans 10:13
Website: The Bible.
Keywords: Christ, Lord, Saviour and Jesus
_____________________________________________________
Objective
My name is Jesus -The Christ. Many call me Lord! I've sent you my resume because I'm seeking the top management position in your heart. Please consider my accomplishments as set forth in my resume.
Qualifications
I founded the earth and established the heavens, (See Proverbs 3:19)
I formed man from the dust of the ground, (See Genesis 2:7)
I breathed into man the breath of life, (See Genesis 2:7)
I redeemed man from the curse of the law, (See Galatians 3:13)
The blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant comes upon your life through me, (See Galatians 3:14)
Occupational Background
I've only had one employer, (See Luke 2:49 ).
I've never been tardy, absent, disobedient, slothful or disrespectful.
My employer has nothing but rave reviews for me, (See Matthew 3:15 -17)
Skills Work Experiences
Some of my skills and work experiences include: empowering the poor to be poor no more, healing the brokenhearted, setting the captives free, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind and setting at liberty them that are bruised, (See Luke 4:18).
I am a Wonderful Counselor, (See Isaiah 9:6). People who listen to me shall dwell safely and shall not fear evil, (See Proverbs 1:33 ).
Most importantly, I have the authority, ability and power to cleanse you of your sins, (See I John 1:7-9)
Educational Background
I encompass the entire breadth and length of knowledge, wisdom and understanding, (See Proverbs 2:6).
In me are hid all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, (See Colossians 2:3).
My Word is so powerful; it has been described as being a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path, (See Psalms 119:105).
I can even tell you all of the secrets of your heart, (See Psalms 44:21).
Major Accomplishments
I was an active participant in the greatest Summit Meeting of all times, (See Genesis 1:26 ).
I laid down my life so that you may live, (See II Corinthians 5:15 ).
I defeated the arch enemy of God and mankind and made a show of them openly, (See Colossians 2:15 ).
I've miraculously fed the poor, healed the sick and raised the dead!
There are many more major accomplishments, too many to mention here. You can read them on my website, which is located at: www dot - the BIBLE. You don't need an Internet connection or computer to access my website.
References
Believers and followers worldwide will testify to my divine healing, salvation, deliverance, miracles, restoration and supernatural guidance.
In Summation
Now that you've read my resume, I'm confident that I'm the only candidate uniquely qualified to fill this vital position in your heart. In summation, I will properly direct your paths, (See Proverbs 3:5-6), and lead you into everlasting life, (See John 6:47 ). When can I start? Time is of the essence, (See Hebrews 3:15 ).
Send this resume to everyone you know, you never know who may have an opening!
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