End Days - Mathew 24:26 - Don't Go

Mathew 24:26

By Odon Bulamba


It’s a joy to be here this morning and a privilege. Early this morning, when I woke up, after praying I watched the All blacks and Irish team playing rugby.  I can tell you that many people were happy to see the All Blacks winning that game.  Those that lost, they didn’t enjoy the game and were sad.  When you lose something in your life, how do you feel?  Do you become angry, blaming someone else or do you accept that you failed?


Today the church is preparing itself for the return of Jesus.  If you fail, who are you going to blame?  Your coach, your team members, your neighbourhood, or yourself if you are not saved?  On several occasions, as a student, I used to be happy to have 100% but if I got 80% I would become angry and instead of accepting, I will find a way to blame the marker, or the teacher, or someone else because I didn’t want to take the blame myself.


Mat 24:26, Jesus told us it will be a time when people will start to tell you that Jesus is in the desert or He is here, be careful, do not go.  This is a lesson like a teacher in a class room, do not go there no matter what they say.  But we all have that intention of going where we are told not to go.


As the All Blacks were playing but people who weren’t playing the game were trying to do the moves to help the players.  Because we are a part of the game, although we are outside of the field, we put ourselves in the game and feel apart of the game.  When one of the players made a mistake, someone shouted, “Oh why that?”  Sometimes we are good at trying to make the Bible fit into our desires and feelings, “God it shouldn’t be this way, I want it this way”.


One of the biggest warning of our time is to not go where people are saying Jesus is.  I travelled recently, in one of the churches, after the pastor finished praying, he took the bread and told people, “This is the body of Jesus therefore Jesus is here, if you want to touch Jesus, come here and touch this bread, if you want healing speak to Jesus”.  Many people came and worshipped the bread.  They believed the bread was Jesus while Jesus said this is just a symbol.


I stood up and ate the bread and said, “This is not Jesus, He said do this to remember me”.  The pastor wasn’t happy and I was told that I was misleading his church.  When we are misleading others, we always believe we are right and others are wrong.  When we mislead people, we try to convince them that what we are saying is the right way and others are wrong.  Therefore, you will see preachers in churches telling you all that they want and because democracy is in the church, the church is ruled by the democracy.


New Zealand law says that all are equal before the law so we try to make the Bible fit our law.  In the Bible it says do not kill but around the countries, some allow death penalty to keep the country safe while only God is the one who can keep you safe.


Exodus 14: the Israelites had become slaves.  I have seen how slaves are treated.  In middle east, Africans have become slaves because they are tricked to go there for work and once there those that exploit them take the Africans’ passports.  I have seen people being burnt by their masters and I asked, “Why are you doing this?”  He said, “I am the master and he is a slave”.  


The Israelites were in Egypt for 400 years of slavery, living in fear and trouble and then it was their time to leave.  Moses told them, “We have to let you go”.  They must have felt joy to leave Egypt to be free.  How do you feel when someone tells you about freedom?  Here in New Zealand, you don’t understand the importance of freedom but where I am from, to find a small hole of freedom, you feel the heaven coming down.


In Congo, when you wake up, you praise God because you didn’t know you would wake up and when you leave the house you say good by to your wife because you don’t know when you will see her again.  When you live in a free country and the government tries to stop your freedom, you will complain but that’s not possible in some countries like Congo.  


The Israelites went through slavery for some time and after leaving Egypt they were singing.  Then God put them in front of the Red Sea and pharaoh behind.  Imagine you are a slave, you used to work hard and everyone makes your life hard and after being freed, suddenly that king is coming to say he made a mistake and is coming to take you back.  


After walking miles and now the king is coming to take you back.  You will feel fear growing in your heart and when fear comes, it doesn’t care about your size, knowledge or who you are.  Fear attacks you to the point you lose control.  You may scream or shout for help but fear will continue to be there.  You will lose your appetite and joy.  You will see things that you normally wouldn’t see.


One time I was flying with Air New Zealand coming back to New Zealand and suddenly the plane dropped like a stone for a few meters and people screamed and we felt it was the end of our lives.  fear doesn’t give you time to shout.  You can start to run but you don’t know where to run or hide.  The pilot apologised but people were not happy and people complained when we landed.  Fear can make you hate someone.


I think Israelites froze with fear.  They started to blame Moses while it was there own salvation.  They accepted to leave Egypt but when things went wrong, they blamed Moses.  Moses looked up and spoke to God and God told Moses, these Egyptians you see, you will not see them anymore.  God told them to continue walking across the sea, believe me you will never see these people again.


Ask someone like me to cross the Waikato river while I can’t swim.  I will tell you better that they take me rather than I cross the river.  I know I will die in the river if I walk across.  It arrives sometimes in our lives where there is a tough situation and we don’t know where to go and we feel that God is not capable of giving us solution to our problems. 


These people of Egypt wanted to keep the Israelites as slaves.  When you were saved, you left Egypt and Jesus told you, salvation is yours.  You felt joy and freedom and you started your journey with Jesus.  Now Jesus is telling you, “When someone tells you I am here, don’t go there”.  The serious problem that we Christians are crossing is that whatever the pastor says, we believe.  We don’t have time to read the Bible and understand that our church leaders can sometimes make mistakes because they are humans too.


We believe everything our pastor says must be the truth.  In Kenya, this pastor was preaching and he said to people, “Jesus is in me and lives in me and I can feel his presence right now.  Women who have been suffering and have problems giving birth and want to be married, its your time now to come and kiss my feet and by doing that you will get all that you need”.  He stood up and put his leg forward and a que of women were coming and kneeling down and kissing his foot.


I wasn’t present but my friend was there and he became angry and kicked the pastor’s foot.  The churches response was to stand up and say, “Devil in Jesus name, we cast you out”.  Young men caught him and put him outside.  We believe that Jesus is here.  Some of those men are going astray and have left the Bible and are trying to mislead the church.

Salvation is a personal matter and the bridge is not your pastor or you friend, the only bridge is Jesus.  Trust in Jesus.  When he says be careful, don’t go, please don’t go.  If they tell you Jesus is in Auckland, check with Jesus, “Are you in Auckland?”


When I was 11 years old I used to say, “I will never fail”.  My cousin challenged me, “You never fail?” and I said, “Yes never no matter what”.  She took 50-100 red chillis and told me to eat them in 10-15 minutes, “Then I will believe that you never fail”.  In my brain I thought 10 mins was a lot, I can finish in 5 mins.  I asked her, “What will you give me if I succeed?”  “I will call you boss and give you glory”.  


After only 2 chillis, I started to scream like a pig.  When my mum discovered what I had done, she asked me if I was normal, “Why are you eating chilli?  You must kill yourself to be called boss?”  She smacked me and told me I am stupid because only a stupid person will do that.


Sometimes we do stupid things when we want glory.  We want to prove we have a greater relationship with Jesus than others but we look stupid.  Who crucified Jesus?  People who knew the Word of God, who used to spend day and night reading the Word of God.  Jesus was never their friend but he became the friend of someone next to Him on the cross.  How many Pharisees came to Jesus to talk about the Kingdom of God? They had no time for that.


You are invited to remember that your life is short on this earth and soon we will give a feedback of all our actions.  Know that Jesus lives in you and you in Him and if someone says, Jesus is in Ngaruawahia, tell that person that Jesus lives in me so I don’t need to go to Ngaruawahia to seek Jesus.  His presence is in you so no need to climb a mountain to see Jesus.  


The first commandant says to have no other God or to make something a God.  If you believe you feel the power of God in this chair or in this corner of the house, you are creating an idol and you may not enter the Kingdom of God.


Once you realise you don’t respect God’s warning, please make two steps back and repent.  Once you know that Jesus has said don’t and you have been doing it, you must repent to keep a good relationship with Jesus.  If not, you won’t enter the Kingdom of God when He returns.


I must accept the responsibilities of my life, my soul and the souls of those around me.

End Days - Mathew 24:25 - "See, I have told you"

By Odon Bulamba

Mathew 24:25


“Behold [or see] I have told you in advance”.


A very simple but powerful message.


When someone tells you, “See, I have told you,” what is your impression?  E.g., “I told you so”.  Meaning you were told but you didn’t care about what you were told and later you face the consequences.  When that consequence happens, someone reminds you, see what happened.


We have the privilege to be called a child of God.  It’s more than a grace to be redeemed, to be accepted and to be one of the children of God.  In my life experience, I see many people going from one church to another running after preachers even moving cities because they are trying to be children of God but they can’t be children of God by simply doing that.

I’ve seen people telling God, “I will not leave this room until you save me”.  Some will die from hunger and God let them die without salvation.  You cannot force God to save you, you can’t purchase it from a shop or order on line, it is just a choice of God.  Once you are chosen, you must understand that you are special.  Being chosen from among millions is a privilege.


One time as a child, we went to a competition and as we were running those that were taller could make one step to my two steps.  They were mocking me but in my mind I thought, “what should I do? Maybe I should run slowly so they will slow down too and after a long distance they will get tired”.  After 20 minutes, they got tired and because my lungs were bigger, I increased my speed and I run faster and I won.  Those big lungs that I had did not come from my feet, they were there to support me to move forward.


God has put things in your life to keep you moving forward.  You shouldn’t minimise yourself and say, I’m not a pastor or prophet so God doesn’t care for me because He does care for you.  Being a child of God means that God tells us in advance what is going to happen.  All of us want to know what will happen next.  When God tells us something in advance, we have that gift of knowing what will happen while others do not know.  


From reading my Bible, I will know what will happen such as people will love money but for those without the revelation will find this normal and won’t see it as a sign of Jesus.  In Mathew 24, Jesus gave us all the signs of His return.  Knowing this is a privilege.  What do you do with that information?


One time I sat an exam at the University of Waikato.  I asked a simple question to my lecturer by email and he replied with all the answers of the exam.  The email was very long and I took the courage to go through it all and the next day in the exam, I couldn’t believe it…it was a three hour exam, I was completed in 20 minutes because I knew the answers. 

God has been telling us the answers to all the questions we will face on judgement, “Your actions will follow you so be prepared, don’t sin, repent because all of these will be the questions that I will ask you on that day”.  We already know the questions and the answers but are we ready to stand up in front of God to give him the feedback.


Mathew 24:25, “I have told you in advance”.  Meaning we won’t have any justification on that day to say, “Jesus, I didn’t know”.  Imagine you have told your child, “Tomorrow this is what you are going to do”, and then your child is not ready the next day what you had planned to do.  E.g. we want to go to Auckland, we are leaving at 11am and we have planned everything correctly and then at 12pm I am not there yet.  You will ask yourself what has happened and then you will be disappointed because I didn’t take our plan seriously.


From this verse, Jesus is giving us a program, “My Kingdom is coming soon and I don’t want to be selfish, I want you My children to live with Me in this Kingdom.  I have prepared everything for you.  I want to show My love to you My children so get ready I am coming to pick you up.  At 8am I will be ready and I will pick you up at such place so be ready. When you see the signs happening, remember that I am on my way so clean yourself and be ready so we can go. 


Yet, instead of reading those signs and preparing ourselves, we say to God, “I am sick of this, this preaching, the Word, the name of Jesus”.  Why aren’t you sick with your behaviour, character and things of this world?  We live the same things every day, it’s a routine.  Aren’t you sick of that?  We should be sick of this physical life and think about a new life that is not boring and is eternal. 


One time my mum told me, “My son, how long do you want to live on this earth?”  I said, “Maybe 1000 years”.  “Regardless of all the challenges surrounding you?”  She told me, “I understand but Jesus said that it is better to live like children,” meaning that children will adapt themselves to any situation.


Ange is holding her daughter.  Imagine if someone tells me to sit on Ange’s lap like that.  I will say no.  Children will let you know when things go wrong and don’t have shame or shyness to express what is inside them.  How often are we shy to prove to the world that we belong to God.  For children to sit on their mum’s lap, they are free without asking anyone and it feels good.  When God wants to hold us because people are around us, we don’t want to be identified as children of God.


My mum told me that everyone on earth works hard to be happy.  We go to work to find money to be happy.  When we visit parts of the world we want to be happy and enjoy what we see.  Even what we eat, we want good and tasty food to make us happy.  My mum said happiness is not on this earth.


If you want happiness think about the next Kingdom to come.  You lovbe money but money doesn’t love you.  You love your house but your house does not love you.  You love God, He straight away loves you without condition.


When I was around 20 years old, I understood that everything around me can kill me.  We are surrounded by several enemies.  For that reason, God said that in my Kingdom, death won’t be there anymore, suffering and crying won’t be there anymore, you will be there living in joy celebrating.  See, I have told you in advance.


When someone tells you in advance, “You get prepared”.  It is not only a matter of being informed but preparing yourself.  Are you ready to meet with the Lord and to enter the Kingdom of God?  Are you ready to sit in the room with Jesus?  When you were told in advance, you don’t have to forget, you must make sure that you don’t forget.


Jesus said, “You will receive the Word of God but satan will snatch it”.  You read the Word of God a few years ago or received a message but now you have forgotten it.  If you have a box to store to jewellery or money, then you should also have a place in your heart to store the Word of God.


When I want to get credit on my phone, I am told to top up my phone.  The topping up process is not for free, you must pay.  Although I have been using Vodaphone for several years, they don’t have any mercy when my New Zealand dollars have finished.  They don’t care that I have been using their service for 20 years.  At the end of the month I must top up and they always take away from me.


If I think about the money that I have wasted topping up my phone you might be shocked.  Although my phone cost me money, my phone is not enough, I must add credit every time before I use it.  When I say that I am not topping up my phone, it becomes useless.


It is the same with the Word of God.  When you are saved, when Jesus redeems you, He wants you to refresh yourself every time, to top up your knowledge, prayers, gifts and all that He gives to you because at the end of the day those that perish will be those that did not.  If you don’t want to perish, top your knowledge. How much do you know, how much is your knowledge and how much are you prepared?


In the Bible, those with handicaps were taken to Jesus to touched to become normal.  Jesus was touching them and healing them.  My heart can be sick and my mind can be sick but I have to go to Jesus to ask for healing.  How often do we ask Jesus to heal our spiritual life?  Come close to Jesus to ask for healing.  Pray to God, “I am your son or daughter, you have chosen me from among millions, please don’t forget me on the day that you come back, don’t forget my family and my people, I want to see them in heaven”.


Jesus said, “Go everywhere to preach the gospel and make them my disciples”.  God wants you to bring people into his Kingdom.  Do you do that?  


I was reading the poems by Gloria.  These poems are deep and touching.  God lives in me day and night.  Even when I sleep and I don’t know what is happening around me, God lives in me even when I am having night mares.  As we were singing, Ange brought a few songs, the second one if you read from your sheet you will be amazed.  


The love of God for you.  He loves you.  Do you love him?  He cares for you, do you care for him?  He wants you to be His child, do you want Him to be your Father?  He is preparing a place for you, are you ready to come?  He wants to come close to you, do you want to come close to him?

End Times - Matthew 24:24 - False Christs and False Prophets

By Odon Bulamba

End Times - Mathew 24:23 - Behold, Here is the Christ

By Odon Bulamba

“Mathew 24:23

We are going to share the Word of God and continue with Mathew 24 and today we are going to talk about this message that Jesus left to us in verse 23.  Whenever someone will tell you that Jesus is here or there, do not believe them.  The secret behind this message is not about the presence of Jesus somewhere but that imperative form, “don’t believe”.  It is a command.  This is an instruction which is a MUST that Jesus is telling the church.

If you look carefully, the whole chapter 24 is about the love of God for His children, those chosen by Him.  Because He has worked hard to redeem us, He doesn’t want us to get lost so He is giving us all the signs so we cannot go far from Him and perish.

The effort that Jesus has made to leave the Kingdom of God to come down here to rescue me and you mean a lot.  Maybe for you as a human being, you might not think about it.  I’ve seen during my time here when I go overseas, I leave my comfort and everything behind and I must go to rural areas where they might not know clothing or cooking as we know it.  You must be with them and eat what they eat, wear what they wear.  I remember one tribe ran away when they saw human beings in clothes, so we had to be naked to spend time with them.

It’s not easy to leave what you know to spend time with others.  Jesus left the Kingdom of God only because He loves us.  He left everything to seek you and me.  After doing all the work He did on the cross and to preach the gospel to accept the path to heaven, to accept to be like us and to be the truth for you and me so that we will not get lost means a lot. 

In my culture we have a truth that is opposite to Jesus, it is a wrong truth.  Everyone has their own culture which is different from the culture of God.  Once you practice another culture and its truth, you lose your visa to the Kingdom of God.  Jesus came down to show us the truth.  Jesus came down to show us that He is the only way to heaven.  “The way” means that we walk on the way to get to the destination.  Jesus made Himself like a path/road that you can use with your dirty feed to reach the Kingdom of God which is what we call forgiveness.  Come as you are, and He will take you to the Father.

After doing all that work, Jesus wanted to preserve us, “Here are the signs so you will know when I come back, think of them and make the right decision”. Don’t believe if anyone tells you that Jesus is here, even yourself, your pastor, the king/queen.  Jesus said this because satan knows very well that if you say Jesus is here, those who believe in Him will leave where they are and go there.

For example, recently in Kenya, this pastor met with two white men and one had long hair like Jesus in the movies and he told that man, “We can make money with your appearance, we can con people.  Whenever I preach the gospel, I will open the curtain behind me and then you appear like Jesus and then you can tell people specific messages.  I can assure you we will get money from this”. 

He wore a robe of white and shawl over his shoulder.  The pastor said, “Jesus is going to be here today”.  Suddenly the lights went out in the church.  The curtains pulled aside and here is the white man with his hands up.  “Peace be with you”.  Then he started to say names of people.  “X person, you have such problem, today you will have solution”.  By naming the people and their problems, people believed him.

Then this false Jesus said, “Now you have to offer”. People were coming from 60km to see Jesus appearing until the government discovered the truth and arrested the pastor and Jesus and the other friend.  I can tell you that 90% of those misled were Christians.  People of other religions didn’t come closer but those who believed in Jesus were victims of the scam.

We must be careful and the command He is giving is, “Do not believe”.  How much do you love Jesus?  To accept His word and instructions, you have to know if you really love Jesus or not?  For love of us, He came down and advised us on the way to live and what will happen in the future and He doesn’t hide anything from us and tries hard to explain to us what pleases or not pleases Him through the Bible.  If you want to offend God, just do what he doesn’t like as written in the Word of God. 

Because Jesus loves us and wants us to have a good relationship, He gave us His Word.  Put it in practice.  Faith, love and hope are three things of importance to God and love is the greatest but we as human beings stick on faith, we want faith and we want things to happen because we have faith.  When we pray, we can say, because of your love Jesus, please do this.  We prefer to say, Lord give me enough faith to move the mountains.  Sometimes we also pray and focus on hope.  I hope this will happen soon.  Love takes the third position very often.

In one of my dreams once, an unknown person came in my dream and said, “Are you saved?”  I said, “Why do you ask this?”  “Be honest, are you saved” “Yes I am”.  “Do you love Jesus?  “I do but not that much”.  “Out of 10, how much do you love Jesus?”  “I know your love your children, your life, your clothes, your food but how much do you love Jesus out of 10, be honest”. My answer was shocking and I felt ashamed with my answer. 

Consider how much you give to yourself compared to that which you offer to Jesus.  I found that I don’t love Jesus that much.  As Colleen said here, when we are planning to go somewhere, you start to prepare.  What will I eat, where will I stay, even clothes, what time am I leaving?  You plan it ahead and it will take time, effort, money and maybe don’t sleep because you are planning your coming journey.  Some will write notes.  Some will read reviews on the internet and visit YouTube.  It will take them hours and they will even ask others who have been there.

If you don’t take time to do your research and prepare yourself then you may regret it.  Once in China I walked into a restaurant and they welcomed me nicely and they brought a small kettle with a cup.  I had a cup of tea.  Then a glass of water.  I ate.  After eating, I saw the bill.  I was shocked.  To sit in the chair cost me US$5.   The cup of tea was US$4/6.  Then the toothpick I used US$1.  The servant who came, you must pay her US$10 on top of the food.  You have consumed our food and effort and you must pay for it.  It was a shock. Because I was lazy to research and find out the truth the hard way. 

Another time, I went to the bank in China, a national bank, a respectable big bank.  I had come with $US and went to ATM machine and all the bank notes were fake bank notes.  The numbers were not straight.  This is not normal.  By observing I could see they all had the same number.  I went to the counter, “This is your money that I just collected from them”.  They said, “No, you didn’t get it from our machine”.  They said, “No I didn’t see you”.  After a long discussion, “Let’s have a look at our video”.  After viewing the footage, they took the fake notes and gave proper bank notes.  That was a lesson for me, I should learn from this: take your own money when going to China because they will rip you off.

When you step into a taxi, the driver will say, “You will pay 5RMB but then they say 25 at the destination and they will take you in the middle of nowhere.  This is what Jesus is telling us.  You have to be careful because many will appear to be good people and say Jesus is here but it is not Me.

It is time now to test your belief.  What do you believe in?  When you love someone, you will believe all that they tell you and accept to follow their instructions.  You will try your best to respect their words and follow what they have told you because you love them but when love decreases, that is when you throw away everything they said, and you do whatever you want.

When Jesus gives instructions, “Don’t believe them”, Jesus is testing you love for him.  “If really you love Me you will listen to my voice and listen to My command so don’t believe when people say that Jesus is here”.  In the past, when Jesus would come down, people would rush to where Jesus was.  Jesus now lives in us so we don’t need to go anywhere to look for Him because He is with you. 

We have to make sure that we remember every time that we are together with Jesus no matter where we go.  if I remember that Jesus is in me, I can easily become His friend, He is talking with me right now and is really close to me.

Today the church is sleeping because we only want to hear, “Someone is here,” and we must go there. That apostle is the one who walks with Jesus in his brief case.  When people hear, oh, Benny Hinn is in Auckland, many people go there because they believe that they will see Jesus through Benny Hinn.  If someone tells you to have your own personal time in your room to pray and read Word of God people will be bored.

Psalm 95:7,8

We are the sheep of God and we are in His hands and He needs us but don’t harden your heart because this is what makes us away from God.  Jesus lives in us and when He speaks to us, we shut our mind and heart and try to close our ears and not listen to Him and decide to do what we want to do it, when and how we want.

Although we have seen the work of God in our lives and the great things He has done, we harden our hearts.  I was touched by Colleen’s prayer this morning, “Our Father who art in heave (Mathew 6), let Your will be done”.  That is a powerful prayer.  Do you let the will of God be done in your life or is your own will take the first place?  Very often our own will takes the first position.

What is my will as I prepare my journey?  I want to be in heaven.  Am I preparing myself to go to heaven?  Did I book my flight, prepare my clothes, prepare all that I need to go to heaven?  Maybe not because I think I have time and I will do it later.  I remember Guillaume used to tell me in 2025 I will be in this position, I will do this and fulfil this in my life but he didn’t see 2020.  Now he is gone.  No one could stop it. 

No one can say I have $500,000, death leave me behind because I want to live longer.  Someone who was walking and talking yesterday, is now in the grave and can no longer move anymore and can no longer pray for forgiveness.  Did he believe in the Word of God or did he believe that Jesus was here or there?  If he believed in Jesus and what he was saying, then praise the Lord. 

We need to prepare ourselves.  Look after your soul first and don’t follow what others are following just because that is where others are going.  Every day ask yourself if your soul ready for the Lord Jesus.

There is an insult, all are following like penguins.  If a penguin goes in one direction, they all follow and if one stops, they all stop.  They don’t think and just follow the one in front.  If danger comes, they all scatter.  Follow Jesus as a penguin is good but not people or congregations.  No one can tell you if you are entering the Kingdom of God, only the Word of God can tell you when you look at the Word of God and your position.  Go to Jesus and ask for forgiveness because He is the path.  I encourage you to prepare for the coming of Jesus.

As we have reached Mathew 24:23. Many false prophets will come, be careful, be cautious and wake up our minds before taking our own actions. 

End Times - Mathew 24:22 - The Elect

 
By Odon Bulamba


Today is another new day so I praise God for that.  I was looking at the song sheets and I was touched by the songs.  “Mighty to Save”, “Here I am to Worship”, and “Remembrance”.  “Everyone needs compassion, a love that never fails”.  Who doesn’t need compassion in their life?  We all need it.  


Today we are going to talk about Mathew 24:22 and the very interesting thing about this verse is that it is just the warning that God found would be good for humanity to know so that one day we cannot say that God has surprised us.  Mathew 24 was given in order for us to know in advance that something is coming, and we have to get ready.  


Surprises happen in our lives.  I don’t know the day I will die or the day that Jesus will come back to take us with Him but because our spiritual life is the most important, God wanted us to know the signs to prepare ourselves.  The Bible says that unless those days were shortened, no lives would be saved so for the sake of the elect, the days will be shortened.  All of us would perish without the days being shortened and we wouldn’t enter His Kingdom.  A very interesting and challenging verse.  


Some people will concentrate on what the days mean but that is not very important without also thinking about your soul.  Will your soul be there in those days and if so, what will happen to your soul?  Christians should ask themselves, am I among those elected?  If not, where are you?  If Rebekah says I am a child of Angela and Angela says, “No, some among you are not mine”, what will Rebekah do?  Even if a child believes they belong to you, they may ask, “Am I yours?”


At the last supper Jesus said, “One of you will betray me”.  All the 12 apostles knew Jesus and Jesus knew all of them but it was time to ask themselves is, “Is it me who will betray God?”  Have you asked God, “Am I among those that are elected?  Is it me God?  Am I among those selected by you God?”  If you don’t, then you don’t care enough to be among the elected.


If you open the Bible in Genesis 1:1, everything was dark.  But although darkness was there, the Spirit of God was moving in the darkness.  You may be going through darkness and don’t know where you stand in your faith in relation to God but God continues to move in the darkness of your life.  Then God said, let the light be.  Then the darkness took off.  Things that were hidden could be seen.  God who is at the beginning is showing us that God can change the darkness to light and all can be seen clearly.


It is possible that some that are not elected will knock and it will be opened.  It is time for us to ask God to open the door because we want to be among those chosen.  For the past 10-15 years, this movie Shrek has taught me a lot, especially Donkey.  When the Donkey talks it sounds funny but you learn a lot from that animal.  


When it was the time for Shrek to choose someone to travel with him, he asked, who wants to come with me?  Everyone was quiet except Donkey who was jumping me, but Shrek was asking, “Anyone else”, and Donkey kept shouting, “Me, me”.  Later Donkey didn’t wanted Shrek to die because he knew if Shrek died, he would perish.  At some stage Donkey was kicked out of the house of Shrek.  He was sad but didn’t go anywhere.  


You can sometimes feel far from God and He can sometimes push you away from Him but don’t go far away, come back to God and tell Him you have no where else to go, “Where you go God, take me” like Donkey who wanted to be with Shrek at all times.  It was evening when Donkey was kicked out.  How often do you make your way to come back to God to be among those that are elected?


On the day of the feast, invitations were sent but many didn’t come then Jesus said call anyone to come.  Meaning that among those that are elected, some will not come back to the table of the Lord and if you are not invited and the call is for you and me, please quickly come back.  If it is a matter of having a uniform, ask for one, this is the time.


Before we were born, where were we?  We were somewhere.  God acts in darkness, He put me in my mum’s womb in darkness for several months and there He was making me to change and grow and become a baby.  Then after finishing his job inside that darkness where His Spirit was moving, He then breathed in my nostrils and I had life.  I was born and for the first time saw and felt the light.


Then my mother knew she had a son.  Although I struggled to open my eyes for the first few days to see the light, the light was there until I could open my eyes.  I was already elected to be in this world and since then, I am here.  God has a plan for you.  Although things don’t work and the situation you are crossing is tough and your spiritual life is weak tell God, “I know You work in darkness, please I want to see the light”.


Saul decided to work for the church to go and kill Christians.  Imagine a priest, a believer, to persecute believers.  In our days, those that kill the Spirit of God are Christians themselves.  Those that persecute are Christians, especially leaders of the church.  They will teach us how to hate other Christians that don’t belong to the same church.  You can’t marry a Jehovah witness unless you are a Jehovah Witness.  In some religions you can’t even eat with others.


When we were organising the funeral of Guillaume, we asked a pastor to pray for the family but he said no because his faith doesn’t allow him.  I told him, Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus who was dead.  He a answered, “For me and my faith, I can’t talk about someone who is passed away”.  That type of Christianity shocks the world.  Mormons, Baptists will tell you something else and then many will be deceived and say that is better for me to not be a Christian.


Saul’s job was to kill and he would leave his house to persecute Christians.  That was his ministry in his church.  How much hatred or lack of respect or bad things do you teach yourself or others?  For those that are elected, the Lord is always there for them.


That day Saul went to Damascus, someone stopped him and he said, “I am the Lord, why are you persecuting me?”  He wasn’t persecuting Jesus, he was persecuting human beings but Jesus said, “You are persecuting Me”.  Whoever will touch you as an elected, is touching God.  Whoever makes your life tough, God will be present to say, you are making my life hard too.  The battle belongs to the Lord.


Everything that happens in your life, God gets involved.  God intervenes.  When someone has a plan against you, God intervenes.  God did not let Saul reach his destination and stopped him.  Many things are coming to your life and God stops them before they reach you.  Many plans are made to destroy your faith, belief, love, family (if you are one who loves God) and Jesus will stop them before they reach you.


Jesus walks by you.  Your prayer every time is to tell God, elect me.  What does election mean?  It means to choose someone to play a role and do something somewhere.  We don’t elect without tasks to be done.  We elect someone who will do a role somewhere.  When we elect someone, we look at criteria.  We need someone who can do this or that.  We choose a person and trust they will do the job for the whole community.


The election of God is similar.  Before to be elected, many people become candidates.  You must be ready to be elected.  You must be ready to play the role.  For God, He looks for those who have the desire, not only faith but also desire to do the job and once you have the desire, it is simple to take actions.  Your faith without actions is a dead faith.  If you want to be among those who are elected you must the desire to be elected and also to serve.  Once elected, the days of tribulation will be shortened because of you and me because we will continue to work, to pray for others and God will have mercy on us and reduce the days of troubles.


If you don’t work, then it is useless.  To become a God worker there are three things, love, hope and faith.  Among the three, the biggest is love.  Are you ready to work for God?  What do you hope to get from that work?  Do you have faith you will reach the destination with the people you work for? Do you love them?  


How can I love this person, we are different races, different cultures?  We decide whether to love a person or not.  How can we tell God we love Him if we don’t love others? We must love others as we love ourselves.  If I stretch it feels good but when others stretch, I will be annoyed.  If someone blows their cup of tea, someone gets annoyed.  Do you really love that person?


I was given puha and watercress by Maori but European’s reject it and prefer sandwiches.  The food is different, so we lower them in our minds.  E.g. if they eat with their hands instead of a knife and fork they must be lower than me.  If you don’t live with others, how will you lead them to Jesus.


I went to a country where there was chilli rolled in naan bread with tomato sauce.  They take the bread and put in your mouth to chew and eat.  That is special for their visitors.  Because of that chilli I spent 10 days in hospital.  Will you say no?  They will feel awkward.  Some may lie and say, I am fasting or I am feeling sick today so they sin by lying.


You can have faith but your actions are more important.  What type of actions do you have?  Do you measure your actions?  Were they good or bad to yourself, others, God?  We have this sickness where we ask God for forgiveness at end of day quickly but we don’t count our actions and let God know at the end of the day how our day was.  Yet, we can tell our bosses at work when we have done something and what we have achieved.


It’s time to fight and tell God, “Did you see what I achieved today?”  You will feel God is happy with you.  How happy is your father with your actions?  Find your place among the elected.  Don’t continue to fight for the gifts to become a prophet or evangelist?  The joy in your heart is more important than your good singing.  Make a joyful noise to the Lord.   

End Times - Mathew 24:21 - Distress

By Odon Bulamba


Word of God is not simply words but food for our lives.  In this verse, it says that there will be great distress, a big suffering that the world has never known and this sign that Jesus has given to us is happening now.  In our physical life, if you look around you can see how much people suffer.  Not only physical suffering but also mental, moral, psychological and spiritual suffering. 


Physical suffering: you will see people on the streets begging for help.  Sometimes you wonder why they beg.  They look strong and they can work but they are on the streets begging.  Others judge them and say, “you are capable of working, why are you begging?”  It is the end of time and suffering will be seen so this is the accomplishment of the Word of God.


You will see young people who say they need food but when you give them money, they buy marijuana instead.  Why?  They are suffering in their mind and in their spirit which proves that drugs is more important in their lives.  They can kill, steal and abuse to have the drugs.  They suffer a lot.  Their bodies shake when they don’t get drugs.  Some can even urinate in their bed.  Others can’t control themselves and this is suffering.


We can feel our bodies aching when we wake up.  Why do we have more pains in our bodies than 20 years ago?  We used to only see a small number of sick people a few years ago but now there is more and more sick even though medicine is getting more knowledge.  We continue to suffer regardless of this knowledge.  All because this sign has to be fulfilled.  No matter the effort we put into not suffering, we will still suffer.


Stress wasn’t common 30 years ago but today, everyone is stressed.  Even children today can feel stressed.  What stresses us? Something inside and sometimes it’s outside of us.

I used to leave my house at 6am and play and then come back at 6pm and my parents never wondered where I was but today if the child is gone for 2 minutes, you will fear.  Psychologically we suffer because fear is increasing every day.  We try to find solutions with counsellors or GPs or friends but forget that this is the sign of the end of time to remind us that Jesus is coming back soon.


Sickness that existed a few years ago now exist.  Today, any person can get cancer.  Immunisation was rare in Africa and we used to live and eat whatever we wanted without washing our hands and we were ok but today if you see an ant in your food or a fly in your food you won’t eat it, it is dirty.  For me, I will put the fly aside and continue to eat.


If you want to be extremely clean and everything has to be perfect then you will suffer in your mind and body.  The cold will come (winter is coming as I said last time).  Winter can come and light can still be there but the temperature will drop.  Today in the church the temperature is dropping.  Yesterday people used to pray with Holy Spirit but today if you are filled with Holy Spirit, people will look at you, who is this person speaking in tongues?  Today many limit what the Holy Spirit wants to do in us.  I went to one church and I wasn’t allowed to pray loudly.


The church is becoming sicker because we try to live according to the human principles.  If music is loud, we can’t play that kind of music.  Churches have debates over what can and can’t be done.  The church suffers.


We start to put aside the Word of God and start to live based on how we feel.  Pastors today bless gay marriage and any evil thing that the Bible says no to and say, “This was the time of the Corinthians but we are living in 20^th Century”.  Then the church is transformed to the world.  One day a pastor was wearing singlet and shorts and preached.  At break time, he had a cigarette and continued with preaching.


Sometimes I ask myself, do we mock God, do we understand what we are doing?  All of that can prove the church is suffering.  When someone suffers, what do they do?  Some express their feelings to inform others.  Others try to find solution.  Others try to ignore it.  As the cold is coming, the leaves are falling from the trees and our actions start to die and we start to act like people who have never known Jesus and act like those that live in the world or even worse.  On Sunday we praise God in church and then go back to our own way of living that does not reflect God’s lifestyle.


In Ethiopia, a colleague came with me to church and when I introduced my friend the people of the church were shocked to see him.  They could not believe the man next to me was a Christian because his actions were worse, he could steal and torture people and instead of improving the lives of refugees, he was making their lives harder.  He was ashamed and apologised.  


A courageous lady said to him, “You should also apologise to God,” which was true.  How often does the church accept to repent and ask for forgiveness from people and God?  How often do people wonder if you are really a Christian?  Do people really see light in you or are you like one of those that have light in you but no oil?  A lamp that can’t be turned on.  That is the suffering of the church.


If you compare the church from a few years ago, we are going downhill.  Many churches today are just like social clubs to meet, enjoy and catch up.  it’s not a place of worship anymore.  Those who used to pray before us, although they were sinners and could not respect God, they were trying to worship God with truth and open mind and heart and repentance.  You can read in your Bible that the Israelites would do something against God but they would all come together with a pure goal to reconcile with God.


Today we don’t want to repent sincerely anymore and reconciliate with God.  When was the last time that you knelt down and repented sincerely, “I need you to rescue me God”.  Very often we pray quickly like someone singing a song without thinking.  Our repentance has no meaning or understanding.  


Most of our prayers and way of repentance is meaningless.  We believe we are forgiven.  We know what repentance means but we don’t have time to practice it.  You can know how to drive a car but if you don’t practice, you will never drive a car.


At 6 years old, my dad brought me a toy car.  I played with it.  I was the driver, the engine and instead of the car carrying me, I was pushing it around.  I would pick it up and keep it somewhere.  If I saw a danger, I would pick it up and hide it.  We walk with God like that.  We have made Him a toy car.  “God come here,” and we try to lead God in the direction we want to go, to do what we want when we want.  


God wonders if He is a toy and you’re God.  What is your relationship with your God? Don’t you see that you have been suffering a long time.  The church has transformed God to be their child or their friend.  When God created everything He said it looked good.  Although the sea looks beautiful, it is dangerous and can kill you.  Many things that look beautiful are harmful.  God is good but He can sometimes become angry.  We believe God is a nice guy but He is the judge, the punisher, the creator and more than our physical fathers.  


What the church is fighting for today is for the consumer rights.  We try to apply our rights in the Word of God.  This is my right to do this.  We complain when events happen in our lives and when God doesn’t respond as we wanted.  It’s my right and I have been praying for 15 years but He doesn’t fulfil it.  When God gives us something, we don’t like it and we want it to be better than that.


Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit but we use our bodies to please our rights rather than to please our Creator.  The church is mentally sick.  The body God gave to you, you want to use it in the wrong way every time.


One of the opposition leaders who passed away two years ago, his body remained in Belgium.  His son became president in Congo so decided to bring back that body to Congo.  It cost $17M US to prepare the arrival of that dead body.  People gathered.  They brought the body down with honour, people were crying and worshiping him.  I asked myself, how we can cry for someone who passed away 2 years ago and can spend money for someone who doesn’t even exist anymore instead of taking care of and supporting those who are raped, children, or those in hospital.  


In the same way, we can see in the church today, we want to invest in dead actions rather than investing in God.  We prefer to spend our $20 to please someone such as beer for someone rather than asking God what to do with that $20.  How can I use this $20 for Your Name to be glorified?  We make our own decisions without asking God because it is our own right.


The president of Congo has spent hundreds of millions of US dollars in 4 months which is needed for 2 years.  He is a bad leader.  Sometimes we want to do things on our own.  God gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us, but we don’t want to be governed by Holy Spirit.  I have seen from the Bible that Abraham did the same.  He went to the mountain and told the workers to stay there.  How often do we limit God, you stay here and I will do what I want.


We are suffering with superiority in the church.  Selfishness has taken over.  The church today is very selfish which is a terrible sickness in life.  Jesus gave us this message so that in the end of the time that suffering will be so terrible more than what has been seen.  Hitler killed Jews and the world knows that that man was not a good man.  In some countries today the persecuted are being killed and the world knows.  


What we do against God in secret is worse.  Our way of behaving shakes the heavens.  Maybe God asks if that is His son or daughter who can do that.  The whole heaven is shocked.  When one soul is saved there is a party and when one soul is lost, the heaven is shaken, more than people crying for the dead.


One time I was a child and I asked my mum why did Jesus cry for Jerusalem.  We are welcoming Him and He is crying.  Imagine Tyrone crying now.  We will wonder what is wrong.  God cries when we disappoint Him, when we go far from Him, when we reject Him, and when we go through the suffering but no one comes close to God to ask why is He crying.  If we ask, we will get an answer.  But if we don’t ask God, maybe we think of God as being annoying now, we are sick of God talking to us.


Christians start to say, I’m not feeling like going to church today.  We are really sick and we need to be seen by a doctor.  The church is suffering.  Jesus is the healer.  Be careful my brothers and sisters and understand we are living in the end of time.  All the signs are there that Jesus is coming back soon, are you ready or are you going to say you didn’t see the signs?  Signs are there but we pretend not to see them or not to think about them.  We can think about birthday parties but we forget to think about the end of the time.


My father wrote a Will before he died with a feather but all that he owned was taken by the government.  All was ceased.  The beautifully written Will written by a lawyer was useless because the government took it all because he was talking against the government.  You can have promises from God but if you don’t look after yourself, it is possible for God to waive those promises.


Winter is coming and we can’t feel the warmth of God anymore because we are not being by His side but prefer to guide our own lives.  My father was extremely rich.  Around 1964 he had more than $50M in a Belgium bank account.  If it were today, it would be billions of dollars but that bank account was frozen and the bank took the money.  In those days, men would not associate their wives in their bank accounts.  My mum was not associated with the bank account.  


Who is associated with your gifts?  Who do you pass on your gifts?  If I’m a singer, do I teach others how to sing?  If I’m a teacher, do I teach others how to teach?  Instruct others and show them how gifts function.


The prophets in the Bible used to open schools for prophets.  Teach others.  Today, we have our children and friends and we have no idea what their gifts are.  If we could share with them what we have, it could help them to teach, sing, preach etc. We have to plant these seeds under the soil.

End Days - Mathew 24:20 - Winter

 

“Mathew 24:20”

By Odon Bulamba


Today we are going to talk about winter and summer.  Pray your flight won’t be in the winter or the summer.  In this verse, God is commanding us to pray so that whenever we fly, it shouldn’t be winter or summer.


What is winter?  Cold and dark.  The sun doesn’t appear as many hours in winter as in other seasons.  Before winter comes we see signs and today we are going to talk about those signs.  Jesus is a tree and we are branches in Jesus.  Branches are the part of the tree that hold fruit and leaves.  When winter is on its way, we see the leaves falling from the tree.  You will see green leaves turning colour and losing leaves.  


We are branches in Jesus and when this dangerous season is coming, we start to lose leaves.  What do leaves represent? Leaves represent our good actions, things that people see through you, your behaviour, attitudes and all that you do.  When winter comes, when this power comes, it will shake you like the wind it will make you move to and fro and you will start to lose your actions, “I’m fed up with this situation, I can’t bear this anymore”.  


Even if you had the gift of patience, because of pressure you feel sick of the situation and don’t have patience anymore, “I must take control of my own life and I don’t want your input in my life anymore” and then I decide to put my good actions aside and act like someone who isn’t a Christian


When someone slaps your right side, give your left side too.  God is not giving you more power to overcome sin.  There is a season for everything.  We have just been through the season where the Spirit will be seen and that time is finishing because we are now facing winter.  


People run from cold to seek refuge where it is warm.  I wear a jersey to protect myself from cold, some use heaters and others use blankets to keep warm.  These are artificial means of heating.  By putting on my jersey, it is not natural warmth but produced by man to keep warm.  Because of that reason, we are living in the cold in the gospel now.  


Many preachers created a warmth which is not from God but from their own mind.  They preach about God’s love but it doesn’t come from God, “No matter what you do, God loves you,” instead of telling you to repent and come close to God.  They tell you, “God understands, it is alright”.  No, God doesn’t work like that.  He follows what He promised.  This will happen and it must happen.  We can’t tell God, “You will understand because I don’t have time to read my Bible anymore”. 


 Here God is telling us to pray and pray that your flight may not be in winter.  Normally, when we are down, that is the time that we seek God’s face.  When we are crossing a problem, that is when we come close to God and pray for God to take away our problem.  That is when we feel that we need God but when the problem is finished, we sometimes forget about God.


God is reminding us that you had summer, the time when you felt His warmth.  The sun rises early in summer and goes down around 9pm.  God represents the sun, He is the light in our lives and warms our spirit and lives.  When you feel the heat, you don’t wear your jersey but wear light clothing.  When God overwhelms you with his Spirit, you feel that it is too much and you tell God to cut it down to what we can handle.


How much power of God do you have in you?  How much warmth do you get from God each day?  We are living in the end times and heading towards a time when we won’t find the Word of God anymore.  After summer comes autumn when you feel the temperature change and decrease.  Once the heat decreases we feel like something is going wrong.  We say, autumn is coming.  Spiritually it is the same.  People go to church and don’t have time for their Bibles, to pray, or to listen to the Bible or do good things.  We start to lose the desire to do good things for God.  we lose the desire to sing and worship God.


After autumn is winter.  It is a big work to pick up leaves.  When leaves start to fall, it is a big job to collect the leaves and find a place to store them.  If you don’t pick up the leaves, they will cover the lawn and if you are not careful, they will become rotten and produce other things.  The church is living a situation where the actions of the people in the church are dying and they are falling.  They are all on the ground and producing something bad.


The leaves don’t have life anymore, they are dead leaves.  Most of our actions don’t reflect Jesus through us.  People will know Jesus through our actions.  We know a person is a good person through their actions.  When someone who doesn’t believe acts, their actions speak.  Today the church’s actions are just on the ground.  You meet someone on the street and you can’t tell that they are a Christian.  You may only recognise them at church and you will be surprised that they are Christian because they are two different people.  I’ve met true Christians but their actions make me wonder if they are truly a son of God.  


When winter comes, tree don’t have protection and you feel like God is far away from everything.  Many today pray not to be saved but to see miracles because we can’t see God or feel Him anymore so we start to seek God through miracles only.  People think that when someone tells them about a miracle, then they know Jesus is there. We can only accept God when a miracle is performed.  If there is no miracle, we won’t know God exists because we feel God is far from us.


As we are heading towards winter, we don’t see as much sun or the warmth from the sun anymore.  We feel cold.  Do you feel spiritually cold?  How do you warm yourself?  With the artificial way?  Do you cover yourself with the fake message.  My body can be protected but what about my soul.  We sons of God need to remember and pray.  There is no other thing.  It’s not about meeting with pastors, listening to prophets or to have miracles but to pray that we won’t flee in summer or winter.


When a danger comes we flee to God to get support.  How do you flee toward God when satan visits you?  How do you go towards God?  Pray to God, “Lord help me, intervene, listen to me”.  


When winter comes, many Christians don’t have the time to pray but instead see a person and choose to speak to individuals and flee our problems and find refuge in human beings and ask them to pray for us.  We sometimes think their prayers are more powerful than our own.  Someone won’t pray for you with the same power, effort, or time as you will pray for yourself.


We are becoming lazy and we are losing the action of praying and coming close to God so we stay far away.  This is not the right time to flee.  Flee to God when the sun is here. 

We should not flee on the sabbath.  The time when we don’t do activity but only worship God.  One time I was hungry and I went to a restaurant but I was told, “We are closing now”.  There was food but they were closing, “Everything has been cleaned and no one is able to serve you”.  This is the time of sabbath.  We are living the last minute of our lives where everything is shutting down.  We can move from one church to anther to find the truth in the Word of God but you won’t find it.  Preachings are like stories today. 


Some churches will only use jokes to make Christians feel happy but forget to tell people about the gospel of the end of the time and that we are living in the dangerous time of our lives.  Are you preparing yourself for the last time of your life.


In some places we see snow in winter.  Snow falls and when it falls it doesn’t fall like a big rock, it is a very small dust falling without stopping and after some time the dust doesn’t penetrate the ground but builds up and becomes big and the more there is, the harder it becomes when it used to be soft.


Today churches, we neglect to see the signs of danger, we see it just like dust and it won’t harm us but once it touches our bodies, souls and minds, it will harm us.  Someone can break their bones by falling on the snow.  Many people go to hospital because of the cold of snow and many die.  Many souls in church today are dying because they don’t protect themselves with Jesus.


I see Anna, she looks nice but it is cold.  For other people we must wear two pairs of socks to feel comfortable.  In church today, we all want to look physically beautiful but we don’t protect ourselves spiritually for the coming winter.  Satan has given this power to push us to test us to tempt us to the point that today we find sin as being normal.  Things we used to find wrong is normal today.


In the church today, we don’t worry about sin anymore because God loves sinners.  We take it lightly.  It is time for you to pray.  We have seen the signs of the end times and we see our hearts becoming colder because Jesus is coming back soon.  How will we run towards Jesus if we are cold?


In other countries you wear different shoes in winter you can’t wear the shoes we wear in New Zealand.  What shoes are you going to wear to meet Jesus while in winter?  Jesus is not coming into the church anymore, He is calling us to follow Him to carry  your cross.  The church is telling us that Jesus is coming to you, stay where you are.  Regardless of your weakness, come close to Jesus.


The prodigal son left everything and decided to come back to his father.  Maybe you are also far from your Lord, maybe you have lost your gifts, maybe your actions are walking without faith or your faith is without actions.  Ask God for good actions, new actions that allow you to live as a good Christian.  Our actions will accompany us when Jesus comes back.  What actions are you going to present to Jesus on that day? 


The Lord is calling us to be on our feet to start this new journey.  Pray that God will not allow us to go through winter.  In other countries, people leave their place in winter to go to another warm country.  When you see winter coming, leave your place and go to where the sun is, light is and strength and ask God for a new life.