By Odon Bulamba (9th Feb 01)
Lets look at Revelation 1:4 - 6
4. John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,
5. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood,
6. And He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
This message was sent to the 7 churches. If we look carefully at the number 7 you will see it has a lot of meaning. You know about the 7 days of creation, the 7 words Jesus spoke on the cross and the 7 years of judgement, the 7 lamp stands in the church of God; so from the beginning 7 plays a vital role.
These 7 churches must receive a message from John. John said grace and peace be given unto you. Peace and grace don’t come from man but from God. So what does peace and grace mean? From time to time we talk about grace but what is it? What is peace? It is up to us to think about those things and understand what they mean.
When God gave this message it was the same God who is and was and who is to come, to say that this message was not a message from the God who was in the past, but from the God who is in the present and tomorrow. Most people say God is now old. Brothers and sisters, God never goes old, He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
Some people say it was only for the church of Ephesus, but the church of Ephesus exists today. People say this church was in Asia so it doesn’t apply to us in the Pacific. This church exists today; the Bible says there were 7 churches and also 7 Spirits before the throne. What are the 7 Spirits of God?
Isaiah 11: 1-3, Rest, wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge and fear.
These are the 7 spirits of the Lord, if you want to know about the 7 spirits meditate on this and you will really know who God is. You will see how His spirit is with us and how He can give us the wisdom to know Him better. The church is the picture of God Himself and the church is meant to use these 7 Spirits. The Spirit of God is always with us. We must know that if we want wisdom we’ll find this wisdom in the Lord. To know this wisdom the Spirit of the Lord must lead you, that is what John said, “the 7 spirits from the throne and from Jesus Christ the faithful one”. These 7 spirits are with Jesus. He is the faithful witness. One day He’ll ask you, “did you learn about those seven spirits?” If sinners don’t receive the message Jesus will ask you, “why didn’t you preach this message to the people?” Jesus loves us and has set us free from his death. The Bible says that Jesus will come through the clouds and when something is in the clouds you cannot see it clearly.
I remember when I was a child I saw a plane in the clouds then all of a sudden I would only hear it, but if you had asked me who was in the plane I would have said that nobody could be in something so small. So I talked a lot with my parents about it. One day I went to the airport and had a big problem. My parents told this was the plane you saw in the sky but I said no, it’s not possible and I couldn’t accept. When the Lord comes He will come through the clouds but not everyone will see Him. Some people will say I think there is something but it’s not clear, we need to get closer to see God face to face. If you don’t want to make an effort to get near to God, you will only hear a noise. The Bible says most people have eyes to see and ears to listen but they still don’t know who God is. That is why the Bible says we must be careful; we must open our eyes and see the Lord come through the clouds. It’s not like the sun, it’s not like the stars, but we must know how the Lord comes through the clouds.
What do clouds mean according to science? Clouds are water vapour; if this vapour looks like smoke will you know there is water in it? When they taught us about evaporation our teacher would say, when water is boiling you can see steam rising, the water steams then this vapour goes up and makes condensation. So I had a bottle of water and wanted to put vapour in the bottle so I would have rain, but this was impossible.
I couldn’t understand a thing. So I ask my mum, is this true or not? She said yes but it was hard to explain. You can see that when God talks to us about certain things it is difficult to analyse and understand. When you get wet from the rain you can see it, but with vapour you cannot see it, and if you touch vapour you will not know if you have touched it or not. This means that when God reveals Himself people think He’ll do it like the rain and therefore each person wants proof. That’s why the Son of God asks us to have faith. It means to believe without seeing and when you believe you will see it later. Faith does not mean, “seeing is believing”.
We have many examples in the Bible about faith. If you want to be healed Jesus would say, “first believe and you will be healed”. If you have faith everybody will see the result of it. We must first believe and then God will show us everything.
The Bible says in Revelation 1:7 that every eye will see, even those who Pierced Jesus. Unfortunately Jesus said that some people have eyes but can’t see. Can the blind see Jesus? Woe to the person who is blind [spiritually]on this day for the Bible says, “He’ll come like a thief in the night”. People will see Him but it will be too late. Those who have eyes can understand what is happening here on earth, Jesus gave us signs and those signs are already here. Jesus is at the door so get ready! Don’t just think that this is for the world only. Who pierced Jesus? Can you tell me how many people pierced Jesus?
When He was crucified the Bible says there was only one person, but the Bible says it in a plural way. It means that some people kept on piercing Jesus and some continue to pierce Him, up to now and the one who pierced Him along time ago was silly. Why do I say this? The Bible says that Jesus was already dead. The solider pierced Jesus after He had died. Can you tell me where Jesus was pierced?
John 19:30-34.
30When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. 31The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. 32Then came the soldiers, and broke the legs of the first, and of the other, which was crucified with him. 33But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they broke not his legs: 34But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
Jesus was already dead but they still pierced Him. If a solider commits suicide in Congo you can whip his body to punish it, but what will you gain by doing that or what difference will it make? Because the life has gone from the body this person who pierced Jesus side was wasting his time because Jesus was gone. Some people will try to find life in Jesus Christ but it will be too late because grace will not be there anymore.
The Bible says water and blood came out. As you know, when a mum gives birth there is always blood and water, this is a sign of birth.
In some Bibles it says the solider received a miracle, he could not see out of one eye but the water that gushed from Jesus touched his eye and it was healed. Even though he hurt Jesus he found healing. Those who keep piercing Jesus today might not have the grace for much longer. They might see and remember all they did do Him, but it will be too late.
There is an example in the Bible about Lazarus and the rich man. The rich man saw Lazarus as a poor man and could not imagine that the presence of God could be in him. The rich man forgot that you cannot love God if you don’t love your neighbour. The Bible says that the rich man was surprised when he lifted up his eyes and saw Lazarus in glory and we all know what he asked for. It means that water is important. God opened the red sea to let His people go through it and also John was surrounded by water. So we must know the meaning of water.
The Bible says that all the people on this earth will lament over Jesus. Whether you like it or not people will cry. How much lament can we see today? How many pagans lament? I’ll give you the example of an eagle. Someone walked through the forest and found eagle eggs. He had a hen at home and put these new eagle eggs with the hen eggs. So the hen sat on the whole lot and one-day the eggs hatched.
The hen would go everywhere with her chicks but among these chicks was another species. So after one month the size of the eagle chick was the size of the mother hen. The mother hen then started wondering, why is this child growing up so fast, in one month it is like me? One-day an eagle flew over the chicks and saw that it was like himself. The eagle flying over thought, “maybe this is one of the eggs I lost”.
When the eagle whistled one of the chicks would listen but the hen would say, “there is danger, flee”. Only the odd one out stayed and listened to the voice. The mother hen asked the eagle chick, “why don’t you come and hide with us otherwise you will be eaten, have you forgotten how eagles eat? Please come with me for I am your mum and I cannot fight with an eagle”. But this chick wouldn’t listen. Finally the eagle left but the message got through to the little chick and it connected with that whistle. The eagle started realizing that he was different from the rest because his colour was different, his beak was different and his body shape was different. So from here he realised he was different. “Tell me who is my dad”? The following day the hen took her chicks for a walk, the eagle knew that the chicks were there so she whistled again. This would terrify the hen but bring joy for the eagle chick. The hen said, “come inside”, but the mother eagle said to the chick, “try to open your wings, try to jump”, so he tried but couldn’t because he wasn’t trained. However, the eagle chick made a better effort and flew off.
The hen tried to fly but couldn’t fly higher than 3 metres so she called for the eagle chick. “My child, come back”. It is the same with God. God is the eagle and those who are called by Him will always listen to Him. Even if you are in one denomination or one church, if you hear His voice you will come and work for God. Do not be deceived by others, many will try to persuade you to follow their rules. Blessed are those who have eyes and can see.
We must know that God called us. He said he is the “Alpha and Omega”, so we must let God start in us and finish in us. In the end times people will say, “my Pastor deceived me, I wanted to pray but he said the opposite”. Maybe when Christ comes back you will see that pastor cast out for Jesus will say, “go, I don’t know you”.
God is and was and is to come. He was with the Israelites and He is here with us now but shortly He will be back. The Bible says very soon He’ll be back, so it is in our own interest to get ready and know what it is to be called by God. We must also open our ears to listen to what He has to say. We must remember He is the same Jesus as He was when He used the ravens to feed Elijah. He is the same God who opened the Red Sea; He is the same God who fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish. If we start to ponder how two fish can feed five thousand men we risk going far from the truth and this is how the world today understands the book of Revelation. With our own minds it is impossible to understand. God bless you
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Revelations Chapter One (Part I)
By Odon Bulamba (9 February 2001)
Praise the Lord. The Lord says that, “When two or three are gathered together I will be among them”. I thank you one more time because you have left what you were doing to share the good news. God said to Elijah, “you must leave everything to go on a journey”, “yes Lord I will go”. He left everything for God’s calling. As he was travelling he became tired. The Lord could see that he was hungry and needed something to eat, but because he was in a desert there was no food, so the Lord thought of a way to feed him. After eating he made a step to go where he did not know. Elijah submitted to the Word of God. If he couldn’t accept the food God provided for him, then how could he have accepted God’s calling? In order for him to eat he had to submit.
We are going to speak about the first chapter in Revelation. Before that we can read in
1 kings 17:1-7
1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall neither be dew nor rain these years, except by my Word.”
2 The Word of the Lord came to him, saying,
3 “ Go away from here and turn eastwards, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.
4 “ It shall be that you will drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.”
5 So he went and did according to the Word of the Lord, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.
6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.
7 It happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
While others were suffering from hunger and thirst, Elijah ate and drank. Elijah told the people that the rain would stop but they didn’t believe him. They said, “we have rivers and streams everywhere and the ground is fruitful, surely there is no chance of a drought”? They didn’t listen to Elijah’s message. The same happens today in the church; the church neglects prophecies.
I can remember when I was in Africa singing to God with a friend. This song was saying whether or not God would come back because it has been 2000 years already and still no sign of Jesus. If there is an end time for the world why does God allow children to be born?
There was only one man in the whole community God fed and that was Elijah. The others didn’t realize that Elijah was eating when the drought happened throughout the land.
The Bible says that the ravens brought him bread and meat. Try to imagine ravens bringing bread and meat? Ravens are not butchers or bakers, so where could they have found this food? We know that a raven can provide food for himself, but for a man is quite different. Try to imagine what happens. This is what God did with John. When people said we’ve had enough with John’s gospel let’s get rid of him but John carried on submitting to God’s Word. He was taken to the island of Patmos where this island was surrounded by water and nobody could go to visit. Nobody could go to talk with John and he suffered there, but this was the place he could know the Will of God. It was a place where he could be quiet and not speak to people.
As God visited Elijah through the raven to feed him, He also visited John to feed him spiritually. Elijah received bread from God and as you know in John 6:35 Jesus is the bread Himself. Elijah prophesied that something would happen but the people didn’t understand what could possibly happen at that time. Jesus said, “What you are drinking is My blood, but remember where this bread comes from. This is the blood of the Lamb and when the lamb is killed meat is left”. Exodus 12 tells us how you can treat this meat. It is written that this meat must be roasted. When you take some meat and put it over the fire, you can see that water starts dripping from it. I don’t know how but you will see the water flow from it, and then it becomes good to eat. This is what happened with Elijah when he ate the meat.
You know where this water comes from. Jesus said to the Samaritan, “give me water and I will give you living water and you will never thirst again”. So people cried because they were thirsty. When God gives us water to drink people don’t accept it. That’s exactly what John was doing, he would give them water and food spiritually but they didn’t accept it. God said, “because they refuse to listen to Me and you are the only one to accept, I will tell you what is going to happen, I will not only tell you what is going to happen now, but what will happen in the future”. Let’s read Revelation 1:1-3.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what, must soon take. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw-that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
This book was written to speak to the servants of God. The Bible says that this message was revealed to John to show us what was going to happen. This message was given God’s servants so they could know God’s plan. Most people are confused about this book. The Bible says this book was written at Patmos, which was surrounded by water. If you don’t have a boat or can’t swim you cannot reach there. It’s the same thing with this book, people want to reach and understand what God has written, but they can’t because they only have their own thoughts. Instead of asking God to reveal to them the message of this book they rely on their own knowledge and because of this they say that prophecy stopped in the days of John the Baptist. Other people say it stopped after Malachi or after the first church. Is this book of Revelation a book of prophecy or not?
If prophecies have stopped then why is this book being fulfilled today? Why was this book sealed in the past but now people today can find its meaning?
So when servants of God cannot find an explanation they put the book of Revelation in the corner. Many preaches never preach on Revelation because they think it is too difficult, so they become afraid to interpret it. The Bible says we are not allowed to be afraid and that the spirit of fear is not in us, so when you say you are afraid to speak about this Book it means the Spirit of God is not in you.
God sent an angel to John on Patmos to talk to him. It’s not a truth revealed by men, it’s not a truth revealed by knowledge or science, but a truth revealed by Jesus Christ. It’s not something we learn by reading books or at school, but Jesus will come and talk with us and visit us.
Remember when the Israelites left Egypt? Only a few people believed that the Red Sea would open and could walk through it.
According to science and human knowledge a sea to split open in two brings a lot of doubt. When Pharaoh reached the Red Sea he carried on through hoping to risk it but the Bible says he died with his army. This is happening in the church of God today; when God reveals something to someone or reveals something to the church there are always those who oppose or fight the message. The Devil tells his army to get up and attack those people and that these people have physical eyes but not spiritual eyes. Everything that is happening right now on this earth is just the fruit of this book. Christians and non-Christians can see what’s happening but their eyes will be open when it is too late. Elisha’s servant Gehazi said to him, “an army is coming to attack us”, but Elisha said, “Do not fear the army for we have a stronger army then this one”. So he asked God to open his eyes to see what was happening. This is exactly what the church needs today. As for us Christian’s we need to pray for others so we will see together, we also need to open our eyes because if our eyes are closed the world and crowd will shake us and we will be weakened. If I say this to the priest and because he is my friend, will he be against me? If this world is against me it will be hard. For us Christian’s we must not fear man’s attack but God’s. The Bible says in Revelation 1:3
Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heeds the things, which are written in it: for the time is near.
How much time do we take to read this book? How much time do we take to put it into practice? Do we obey what is written in this book? If you want to obey you must know WHAT to obey. If you say I must obey my mum and dad, you first have to know WHO are your mum and dad? If you say I obey God’s Word, you first must know WHAT is the Word of God because you cannot obey what you don’t know. That is why the Bible says this message is for God’s servants so we can help others know what they must obey and blessed are those Christians who listen to this message. Not everybody will accept or listen to this message, but blessed are those who do. It means woe to those who don’t listen.
Praise the Lord. The Lord says that, “When two or three are gathered together I will be among them”. I thank you one more time because you have left what you were doing to share the good news. God said to Elijah, “you must leave everything to go on a journey”, “yes Lord I will go”. He left everything for God’s calling. As he was travelling he became tired. The Lord could see that he was hungry and needed something to eat, but because he was in a desert there was no food, so the Lord thought of a way to feed him. After eating he made a step to go where he did not know. Elijah submitted to the Word of God. If he couldn’t accept the food God provided for him, then how could he have accepted God’s calling? In order for him to eat he had to submit.
We are going to speak about the first chapter in Revelation. Before that we can read in
1 kings 17:1-7
1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall neither be dew nor rain these years, except by my Word.”
2 The Word of the Lord came to him, saying,
3 “ Go away from here and turn eastwards, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.
4 “ It shall be that you will drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.”
5 So he went and did according to the Word of the Lord, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.
6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.
7 It happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
While others were suffering from hunger and thirst, Elijah ate and drank. Elijah told the people that the rain would stop but they didn’t believe him. They said, “we have rivers and streams everywhere and the ground is fruitful, surely there is no chance of a drought”? They didn’t listen to Elijah’s message. The same happens today in the church; the church neglects prophecies.
I can remember when I was in Africa singing to God with a friend. This song was saying whether or not God would come back because it has been 2000 years already and still no sign of Jesus. If there is an end time for the world why does God allow children to be born?
There was only one man in the whole community God fed and that was Elijah. The others didn’t realize that Elijah was eating when the drought happened throughout the land.
The Bible says that the ravens brought him bread and meat. Try to imagine ravens bringing bread and meat? Ravens are not butchers or bakers, so where could they have found this food? We know that a raven can provide food for himself, but for a man is quite different. Try to imagine what happens. This is what God did with John. When people said we’ve had enough with John’s gospel let’s get rid of him but John carried on submitting to God’s Word. He was taken to the island of Patmos where this island was surrounded by water and nobody could go to visit. Nobody could go to talk with John and he suffered there, but this was the place he could know the Will of God. It was a place where he could be quiet and not speak to people.
As God visited Elijah through the raven to feed him, He also visited John to feed him spiritually. Elijah received bread from God and as you know in John 6:35 Jesus is the bread Himself. Elijah prophesied that something would happen but the people didn’t understand what could possibly happen at that time. Jesus said, “What you are drinking is My blood, but remember where this bread comes from. This is the blood of the Lamb and when the lamb is killed meat is left”. Exodus 12 tells us how you can treat this meat. It is written that this meat must be roasted. When you take some meat and put it over the fire, you can see that water starts dripping from it. I don’t know how but you will see the water flow from it, and then it becomes good to eat. This is what happened with Elijah when he ate the meat.
You know where this water comes from. Jesus said to the Samaritan, “give me water and I will give you living water and you will never thirst again”. So people cried because they were thirsty. When God gives us water to drink people don’t accept it. That’s exactly what John was doing, he would give them water and food spiritually but they didn’t accept it. God said, “because they refuse to listen to Me and you are the only one to accept, I will tell you what is going to happen, I will not only tell you what is going to happen now, but what will happen in the future”. Let’s read Revelation 1:1-3.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what, must soon take. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw-that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
This book was written to speak to the servants of God. The Bible says that this message was revealed to John to show us what was going to happen. This message was given God’s servants so they could know God’s plan. Most people are confused about this book. The Bible says this book was written at Patmos, which was surrounded by water. If you don’t have a boat or can’t swim you cannot reach there. It’s the same thing with this book, people want to reach and understand what God has written, but they can’t because they only have their own thoughts. Instead of asking God to reveal to them the message of this book they rely on their own knowledge and because of this they say that prophecy stopped in the days of John the Baptist. Other people say it stopped after Malachi or after the first church. Is this book of Revelation a book of prophecy or not?
If prophecies have stopped then why is this book being fulfilled today? Why was this book sealed in the past but now people today can find its meaning?
So when servants of God cannot find an explanation they put the book of Revelation in the corner. Many preaches never preach on Revelation because they think it is too difficult, so they become afraid to interpret it. The Bible says we are not allowed to be afraid and that the spirit of fear is not in us, so when you say you are afraid to speak about this Book it means the Spirit of God is not in you.
God sent an angel to John on Patmos to talk to him. It’s not a truth revealed by men, it’s not a truth revealed by knowledge or science, but a truth revealed by Jesus Christ. It’s not something we learn by reading books or at school, but Jesus will come and talk with us and visit us.
Remember when the Israelites left Egypt? Only a few people believed that the Red Sea would open and could walk through it.
According to science and human knowledge a sea to split open in two brings a lot of doubt. When Pharaoh reached the Red Sea he carried on through hoping to risk it but the Bible says he died with his army. This is happening in the church of God today; when God reveals something to someone or reveals something to the church there are always those who oppose or fight the message. The Devil tells his army to get up and attack those people and that these people have physical eyes but not spiritual eyes. Everything that is happening right now on this earth is just the fruit of this book. Christians and non-Christians can see what’s happening but their eyes will be open when it is too late. Elisha’s servant Gehazi said to him, “an army is coming to attack us”, but Elisha said, “Do not fear the army for we have a stronger army then this one”. So he asked God to open his eyes to see what was happening. This is exactly what the church needs today. As for us Christian’s we need to pray for others so we will see together, we also need to open our eyes because if our eyes are closed the world and crowd will shake us and we will be weakened. If I say this to the priest and because he is my friend, will he be against me? If this world is against me it will be hard. For us Christian’s we must not fear man’s attack but God’s. The Bible says in Revelation 1:3
Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heeds the things, which are written in it: for the time is near.
How much time do we take to read this book? How much time do we take to put it into practice? Do we obey what is written in this book? If you want to obey you must know WHAT to obey. If you say I must obey my mum and dad, you first have to know WHO are your mum and dad? If you say I obey God’s Word, you first must know WHAT is the Word of God because you cannot obey what you don’t know. That is why the Bible says this message is for God’s servants so we can help others know what they must obey and blessed are those Christians who listen to this message. Not everybody will accept or listen to this message, but blessed are those who do. It means woe to those who don’t listen.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
JUDE 5
By Hayley Boud
“Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things.” Jude 5
So these people knew everything but Jude wanted to remind them of what they already knew. And throughout scripture we can find many, many verses where God tells them to remember. Why? Because, as humans, it’s our nature to forget easily.
But I’m here to remind you we are Christians now, so we have the power from God to remember. So why don’t we remember if God is in us and we have that power? I think that it is laziness.
I’m not here because I want to remind YOU, but because I know that I need reminding too. We all need reminding. So let’s stop and think for a bit, since we first started to pray until now, do we have the result we should have? Or does our result have a handicap or maybe there is no result. Look at yourself and don’t think about someone else, it’s too easy to think, “Well Pete once talked about love, but I don’t see Hayley practising what he taught, she still doesn’t love.” Please, don’t do that. There are times when you can see a fault in others, and there are times when God allows you to tell that person, so there are times when we can help each other. But for tonight, I want you to only look at yourself. Everything I say is for yourself and for myself, please don’t think about how much this message is good for Ang or for Sylvie or for Michelle. This is for YOU and for ME.
So think about what you have been learning. We have been together since the 15th April 2000 and so we have had hundreds of messages and many of those were from Odon. It’s true that from those messages everybody has learnt something. But who here can tell me what half of those messages were. Can you tell me 50 messages?
When the Israelites were hungry they ate manna the first day, and the second day and the day after that. But soon they started to complain and they lost their motivation to eat. Are we like the Israelites? Have we moved forward or have we gone backward since we began meeting? Look only at yourself. Remember the danger that came to the Israelites because of their attitude at the end.
Joshua 1:8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart form your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
Meditate night and day. Day represents the times when we have joy and peace and night represents the times that are hard or when we a crossing a situation where sin is close.
Joshua had a good relationship with God, they met daily, but God told him to remember or it will be hard to get prosperity. How will you prosper (spiritually) without meditating properly and this takes time. All those who are great men of God (Billy Graeme, Benny Hinn) have got this spiritual prosperity from meditating, reading the Bible day and night and praying. It’s only by meditating that we can prosper.
Who can tell me the last five messages Michael gave? Or Pete gave?
Mathew 25:14, When Jesus gives us the Word of God, if we don’t use it properly, the part that we do have will be removed and give to someone else. The reason, because of laziness.
Who can tell me what the last five exhortations for Wednesday were?
God put us together to learn together, after learning we don’t have the time to meditate. 2 Thess 3:10, who ever doesn’t work doesn’t have the right to eat. Work means to make an effort by yourself. Work first and then you can eat. God can send His servant to feed us, but we have to work to find a lesson.
When Odon asks us a question, we all say, “Yes….. I remember….. but…..I don’t….” When your friend says to you, “So you have been studying for over a year, what have you learnt in a whole year.” What will you answer? You should be able to tell her over 100 messages. People and God have to find the fruit of what you are doing.
If someone becomes a soldier, it’s not because they like the uniform. They become a soldier to defend their country. He knows that oneday, if a battle breaks out, he will have to sacrifice his life to defend his country. It’s the same for us, why do we meet together on a Wed or Sunday? Is it because we like something here. Maybe I like to be with Sylvie, or maybe I want to please Michael, or maybe I have to give Oscar a ride. But we have to know that there is a battle going on and we must be ready. The same way that a soldier gets ready, he learns how to use the gun and he learns the techniques of battle. We must know the techniques of being a Christian.
Because the point of my talk is to “remind”, so who can remind me of the steps that Odon taught us on the programme of a Christian? Those present were Derek, Shari, Odon, Oscar, Kelly, Ang, Donna, Michael, Sylvie, Hayley and Pete. Those absent were Andrew and Michelle who did receive the notes and so the only person exempt is Leroy. (Pray, Housework, Bible, flee youthful lusts).
We need to practise. If you had been practising this teaching, you would have easily remembered. It’s like learning to write. You begin by writing A over and over, then B, then C and at the beginning it’s hard but you get faster as you practise. If you don’t practise you will be useless, you would never learn to write by theory only. It’s like at uni; the students are only taught theory so in the labs I laugh a lot at the way people do things because they just haven’t practised. And if you stop practising you will be slow again. Like riding my bike, I was really a good cyclist , really fit when I was riding it. But now I’m afraid to ride again because I know I am useless now.
In our battle, we fight against satan. Remember how Jesus would fight against satan? He would say, “It is written.” What will you tell satan when you don’t know where it is written. You have to read your Bible, memorise and meditate.
We will not live eternally on this earth, so we have to take every opportunity God gives us, struggle for what is important (spiritual over physical). If you say, “I’ll do it tomorrow,” remember tomorrow doesn’t belong to you. There was a man in the bible who stored food for tomorrow and food represents the Word of God. Because we have a stock of preachings, we have to use it, because God is a God of the presence. I am who I am, not I will or I was. He acts in our present, not our past or our future but at the time we need Him. God can give us prophecies but in the right time they will be fulfilled which is in the present. When God gives a teaching, it’s for the present, the present is the right time to receive it and do something with it.
If you cook some food, and keep it for the future, it will change. It won’t be the same as when you first cook it, it will go cold and it might even rot. At the right time, you have to eat it. When God called people in the Bible, you don’t see them saying, “Alright, I’ll come, tomorrow.” Because tomorrow doesn’t belong us.
Luke 12:16, the rich man thought having a lot of food in store was a guarantee for his life but he was wrong. And it’s the same for us. We might think we have a store of tapes, or a store of notes and this might be a guarantee for our life. But we are wrong because unless we use what we have, we will be like the rich man and look what God said to him.
So lets remind each other all the time about what we have learnt. Lets discuss among us, so we don’t forget. And don’t forget to take notes and then read them. And if you don’t understand something that Oscar has said, ring him and ask him to explain. And listen to the tapes, they are collecting dust and you don’t know what can happen in the future (they could be destroyed). Work hard to find a lesson each time. I remember one time someone spoke and afterwards I was asked by someone who wasn’t there that night, “what did they speak about?” and I told them something like, “Peace” for example. But then I thought to myself, actually I haven’t a clue what the lesson was. So they talked about peace but he didn’t explain how I can do this in my life. And I put the blame on the speaker. That may have been true, but it’s now my job to work hard at finding a lesson. When God put Adam and Eve in the garden he didn’t hand feed them, they could pick the fruit they wanted. And it’s the same for us. God doesn’t hand feed us, we have to work hard. This means reading and meditating and practising.
It’s true that Odon spoke some time ago about fasting and it’s true that none of us are practising this. Only once has a group of us got together and fasted in the correct way. We all desire to fast but only once we have done it according to how the scripture says. Why? Because we are lazy. Fasting requires a lot of work, we have to begin preparing at least four days ahead, with verses and with cleaning ourselves. We also need to know exactly what we are fasting for. But I admit that I haven’t fasted in this way at all. I have spent some great times with God and I didn’t eat during that time, and I prayed for some awesome things and I know God was with me and I know that He answered me, but I don’t consider this fasting. Fasting must be done the way God wants, and so lets not give up fasting, but also lets not fast every Thursday just because we have a habit of not eating that day. Neither way impresses God. To stop doesn’t please him and to continue in our own way doesn’t please Him. We have to practise God’s teachings to improve. I know that all of us desire to do God’s will and we all desire to fast and pray. So lets not forget to do it sometime. I admit that I am busy and I don’t have the time to prepare myself the way I should. But I shouldn’t let that stop me all together. Maybe I can tell God, Jesus, you know that I’m busy but holidays are coming so I would like to fast and pray. If you allow me please tell what I should pray for and when and for how long. Remember that God might not allow you to fast and pray because he didn’t allow David to build the temple.
“Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things.” Jude 5
So these people knew everything but Jude wanted to remind them of what they already knew. And throughout scripture we can find many, many verses where God tells them to remember. Why? Because, as humans, it’s our nature to forget easily.
But I’m here to remind you we are Christians now, so we have the power from God to remember. So why don’t we remember if God is in us and we have that power? I think that it is laziness.
I’m not here because I want to remind YOU, but because I know that I need reminding too. We all need reminding. So let’s stop and think for a bit, since we first started to pray until now, do we have the result we should have? Or does our result have a handicap or maybe there is no result. Look at yourself and don’t think about someone else, it’s too easy to think, “Well Pete once talked about love, but I don’t see Hayley practising what he taught, she still doesn’t love.” Please, don’t do that. There are times when you can see a fault in others, and there are times when God allows you to tell that person, so there are times when we can help each other. But for tonight, I want you to only look at yourself. Everything I say is for yourself and for myself, please don’t think about how much this message is good for Ang or for Sylvie or for Michelle. This is for YOU and for ME.
So think about what you have been learning. We have been together since the 15th April 2000 and so we have had hundreds of messages and many of those were from Odon. It’s true that from those messages everybody has learnt something. But who here can tell me what half of those messages were. Can you tell me 50 messages?
When the Israelites were hungry they ate manna the first day, and the second day and the day after that. But soon they started to complain and they lost their motivation to eat. Are we like the Israelites? Have we moved forward or have we gone backward since we began meeting? Look only at yourself. Remember the danger that came to the Israelites because of their attitude at the end.
Joshua 1:8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart form your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
Meditate night and day. Day represents the times when we have joy and peace and night represents the times that are hard or when we a crossing a situation where sin is close.
Joshua had a good relationship with God, they met daily, but God told him to remember or it will be hard to get prosperity. How will you prosper (spiritually) without meditating properly and this takes time. All those who are great men of God (Billy Graeme, Benny Hinn) have got this spiritual prosperity from meditating, reading the Bible day and night and praying. It’s only by meditating that we can prosper.
Who can tell me the last five messages Michael gave? Or Pete gave?
Mathew 25:14, When Jesus gives us the Word of God, if we don’t use it properly, the part that we do have will be removed and give to someone else. The reason, because of laziness.
Who can tell me what the last five exhortations for Wednesday were?
God put us together to learn together, after learning we don’t have the time to meditate. 2 Thess 3:10, who ever doesn’t work doesn’t have the right to eat. Work means to make an effort by yourself. Work first and then you can eat. God can send His servant to feed us, but we have to work to find a lesson.
When Odon asks us a question, we all say, “Yes….. I remember….. but…..I don’t….” When your friend says to you, “So you have been studying for over a year, what have you learnt in a whole year.” What will you answer? You should be able to tell her over 100 messages. People and God have to find the fruit of what you are doing.
If someone becomes a soldier, it’s not because they like the uniform. They become a soldier to defend their country. He knows that oneday, if a battle breaks out, he will have to sacrifice his life to defend his country. It’s the same for us, why do we meet together on a Wed or Sunday? Is it because we like something here. Maybe I like to be with Sylvie, or maybe I want to please Michael, or maybe I have to give Oscar a ride. But we have to know that there is a battle going on and we must be ready. The same way that a soldier gets ready, he learns how to use the gun and he learns the techniques of battle. We must know the techniques of being a Christian.
Because the point of my talk is to “remind”, so who can remind me of the steps that Odon taught us on the programme of a Christian? Those present were Derek, Shari, Odon, Oscar, Kelly, Ang, Donna, Michael, Sylvie, Hayley and Pete. Those absent were Andrew and Michelle who did receive the notes and so the only person exempt is Leroy. (Pray, Housework, Bible, flee youthful lusts).
We need to practise. If you had been practising this teaching, you would have easily remembered. It’s like learning to write. You begin by writing A over and over, then B, then C and at the beginning it’s hard but you get faster as you practise. If you don’t practise you will be useless, you would never learn to write by theory only. It’s like at uni; the students are only taught theory so in the labs I laugh a lot at the way people do things because they just haven’t practised. And if you stop practising you will be slow again. Like riding my bike, I was really a good cyclist , really fit when I was riding it. But now I’m afraid to ride again because I know I am useless now.
In our battle, we fight against satan. Remember how Jesus would fight against satan? He would say, “It is written.” What will you tell satan when you don’t know where it is written. You have to read your Bible, memorise and meditate.
We will not live eternally on this earth, so we have to take every opportunity God gives us, struggle for what is important (spiritual over physical). If you say, “I’ll do it tomorrow,” remember tomorrow doesn’t belong to you. There was a man in the bible who stored food for tomorrow and food represents the Word of God. Because we have a stock of preachings, we have to use it, because God is a God of the presence. I am who I am, not I will or I was. He acts in our present, not our past or our future but at the time we need Him. God can give us prophecies but in the right time they will be fulfilled which is in the present. When God gives a teaching, it’s for the present, the present is the right time to receive it and do something with it.
If you cook some food, and keep it for the future, it will change. It won’t be the same as when you first cook it, it will go cold and it might even rot. At the right time, you have to eat it. When God called people in the Bible, you don’t see them saying, “Alright, I’ll come, tomorrow.” Because tomorrow doesn’t belong us.
Luke 12:16, the rich man thought having a lot of food in store was a guarantee for his life but he was wrong. And it’s the same for us. We might think we have a store of tapes, or a store of notes and this might be a guarantee for our life. But we are wrong because unless we use what we have, we will be like the rich man and look what God said to him.
So lets remind each other all the time about what we have learnt. Lets discuss among us, so we don’t forget. And don’t forget to take notes and then read them. And if you don’t understand something that Oscar has said, ring him and ask him to explain. And listen to the tapes, they are collecting dust and you don’t know what can happen in the future (they could be destroyed). Work hard to find a lesson each time. I remember one time someone spoke and afterwards I was asked by someone who wasn’t there that night, “what did they speak about?” and I told them something like, “Peace” for example. But then I thought to myself, actually I haven’t a clue what the lesson was. So they talked about peace but he didn’t explain how I can do this in my life. And I put the blame on the speaker. That may have been true, but it’s now my job to work hard at finding a lesson. When God put Adam and Eve in the garden he didn’t hand feed them, they could pick the fruit they wanted. And it’s the same for us. God doesn’t hand feed us, we have to work hard. This means reading and meditating and practising.
It’s true that Odon spoke some time ago about fasting and it’s true that none of us are practising this. Only once has a group of us got together and fasted in the correct way. We all desire to fast but only once we have done it according to how the scripture says. Why? Because we are lazy. Fasting requires a lot of work, we have to begin preparing at least four days ahead, with verses and with cleaning ourselves. We also need to know exactly what we are fasting for. But I admit that I haven’t fasted in this way at all. I have spent some great times with God and I didn’t eat during that time, and I prayed for some awesome things and I know God was with me and I know that He answered me, but I don’t consider this fasting. Fasting must be done the way God wants, and so lets not give up fasting, but also lets not fast every Thursday just because we have a habit of not eating that day. Neither way impresses God. To stop doesn’t please him and to continue in our own way doesn’t please Him. We have to practise God’s teachings to improve. I know that all of us desire to do God’s will and we all desire to fast and pray. So lets not forget to do it sometime. I admit that I am busy and I don’t have the time to prepare myself the way I should. But I shouldn’t let that stop me all together. Maybe I can tell God, Jesus, you know that I’m busy but holidays are coming so I would like to fast and pray. If you allow me please tell what I should pray for and when and for how long. Remember that God might not allow you to fast and pray because he didn’t allow David to build the temple.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Revelations Introduction (Part IV)
By Odon Bulamba (2nd Feb 01)
There was a ceremony in the Bible and this unfortunate king used God's cups for his service. He used the cups that was for God's use, and the Bible says when they were using them they saw a hand manifested. This hand began to write on the wall: MENE, MENE, THEKEL, PERES.
Ministers and Kings saw this handwriting but couldn’t understand its message. In order to understand the word of God you need the Holy Spirit. If you only rely on your own knowledge to understand what is written you will be confused. These people were educated but they still struggled to understand its meaning. Maybe the wise men said this is all but new for us. If they were wise they would think, what is this hand and where did it come from? If they knew whose hand it was maybe they would know what was written. The one who explained the meaning was to receive a healthy reward.
This is happening in the church today. Pastors say that the book of Revelation is hard to understand but when they are given money the Pastor will make his own interpretation. Odon scratches his head, "if I can write this book the way they want it my bank account will be full”. Chapter 1. What can I say about the island of Patmos? Where is it on the map? I will say that this geographical line represents Jesus and the island of Patmos is the church”. When people see that you are making a lot of money through interpreting the book of Revelation they will compete against you, and this is not good. Don’t trade with God's Word. If you have received freely then you must give freely.
So why do you want to sell God's Word? I know a brother who had lots of money and in the last second of his life God said to him, "You must die”. The very first thing he thought about was his money, "What shall I do with my money"? He forgot about his family and thought only about his money. It was hard for this man. So he died indeed but his money remained. Those who sell God's Word for money will reap a serious consequence, so what good is money when you are 6 feet under? They stumble because the Bible says do not sell God's Word but they do it. So woe to this church or us Christians because now is the time that God's hand must touch everybody.
Now is the time for each Christian to open his heart and think what time it is? As the Son of God did on the cross He said, "Father this is the time, take my Spirit”. It was time for Jesus to leave His body. As for you and me when is the time to leave this earth and meet Jesus? We are going to speak about Revelation then revert to Daniel so we will know what time we are living. I am not here to fight against servants of God but I am here to speak the truth. Jesus Himself was called Beelzebub when He was speaking. I am not here to abuse anyone's name but I give what I have. Reject what you think is no good. Search the Bible and ask God to help you understand and He will reveal things to you. If you find something is wrong don't hesitate to come and see me. And if you don't believe me just kneel down and ask your Creator. He is not mute. He will speak to you. To conclude we will look at 2 Timothy 3:1-6
1This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 6For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts.
These are the signs to know that the end of times is near. Timothy was a Pastor and his message came to him from God for the church and not for pagans. He gave this message for the end of times. Observe in your church to see if this is being fulfilled or not and you will see that Christians are more haughty than non-Christians. They are more selfish. As it is written in v.5, they will keep the outside appearance of our faith. On the outside they say they are Christians but deep in their hearts they have rejected the power of God. This is a danger in today's church. When you go home meditate on your church life and those you have visited and meditate on Christian life. Wherever you go meditate on your own life to see if you have all this.
It is now time to leave like the Egyptians who accepted to follow the Israelites. The crowd must not carry us away because the wide road always leads to destruction. As for us Christians let's pray to God and ask Him to see what is happening in the church today. It is not for nothing we left where we were and my brother can testify that we were working in Congo for God but God had another plan. So we must work according to God's will and not our own will. Once again I am not here to tell you to leave your church. As many leaders say, "He is a member of my church and these are my Christians”. So have you created them Pastor? Do they belong to you? They are God's Christians not yours.
We also must know that Pharaoh cannot mistreat us anymore. We are not at that stage to be whipped to do hard work in order to make what is outside more beautiful, but we must work for what is inside. When you meet a Christian along the way in Kenya he will greet you and say, "My name is Odon, I was saved this morning and I am going to heaven”. How many times have you been saved? What does it mean to be saved? So you will see this is a problem for Christians. They memorize things like parrots. Instead of fighting against the Devil we fight against each other (denominations). We are losers right from the beginning. The Devil is just watching us fight against each other and to those who are left he will eventually destroy.
Some servants of God always ask their Christians, where did you go last Sunday? “Oh Pastor I went to another church”, “No, no, no, don't go there this is the Devil's church and the power of God is not there, the power of God is here”. But who told you that God’s power is in your church Pastor? Who gave you the revelation? Who are you to judge God's church? Be very careful. This is how the Devil plays with the church of God and us. With little things he lays down foundations and now there is hate among Christians.
A Christian told me one day that I couldn’t teach them anything because we use to pray under trees. So I said to him, "I am going to teach you what you don't know and what I've learnt under that tree. I will teach you that Jonah saw how important a tree was, I want to teach you this because what I have received I must give”. Then he said, "No, because you are an African this is hard for me, what you are doing is discrimination and all you speak is just Africanise and not the word of God”. The church of God is not a country or race but altogether we are one in Jesus, altogether we are the body of Christ. What race was Jesus from?” Some people say He was a white man, some people say he was black. Some say Jesus Christ was black because they found the roots of humanity in Tanzania. They found bones millions of years old and said that because it is in Tanzania that the first bones have been found, Adam was there, and because God created man in His image, God is black. What confusion. If you go to Asia they will tell you stories as well, so you will see what Christians think about and end up disturbing their own mind instead of thinking of what is essential. You can do everything you want except doing what is essential.
When He came for the Jews the Jews said, “we are waiting for the Lord, time has come for Isaiah prophesied that after a time the Messiah would be here”.
Jesus came and they didn’t even know He was the Messiah. This is what we live today, God is among us but we don't even know it. Time is at the end but we don't even know what is happening. We are distracted and distraction is everything we live. The distraction in the church is what we call denominations, taking away parts of the Bible and adding other parts. And the Bible says that if one member of the body suffers the whole body is affected. If I have a headache my hand will make an effort to reach for the pills and put it in my mouth, and maybe the other hand will make an effort to get water. Then the stomach will receive it and what will treat the head goes through the stomach. Can you understand this? To say that God's people are people that must work in unity. You might have a problem with your head but your stomach will treat the head. This is how we live in confusion. Things are clear before our eyes but we don't want to practice them. We want to divide ourselves and each one wants his own share but we forget that God has put everything together.
Let's pray now for the church of God; let's pray that God will help us understand the time we are now living. May each one pray for his own life and family's life and the life of the whole church on this earth.
There was a ceremony in the Bible and this unfortunate king used God's cups for his service. He used the cups that was for God's use, and the Bible says when they were using them they saw a hand manifested. This hand began to write on the wall: MENE, MENE, THEKEL, PERES.
Ministers and Kings saw this handwriting but couldn’t understand its message. In order to understand the word of God you need the Holy Spirit. If you only rely on your own knowledge to understand what is written you will be confused. These people were educated but they still struggled to understand its meaning. Maybe the wise men said this is all but new for us. If they were wise they would think, what is this hand and where did it come from? If they knew whose hand it was maybe they would know what was written. The one who explained the meaning was to receive a healthy reward.
This is happening in the church today. Pastors say that the book of Revelation is hard to understand but when they are given money the Pastor will make his own interpretation. Odon scratches his head, "if I can write this book the way they want it my bank account will be full”. Chapter 1. What can I say about the island of Patmos? Where is it on the map? I will say that this geographical line represents Jesus and the island of Patmos is the church”. When people see that you are making a lot of money through interpreting the book of Revelation they will compete against you, and this is not good. Don’t trade with God's Word. If you have received freely then you must give freely.
So why do you want to sell God's Word? I know a brother who had lots of money and in the last second of his life God said to him, "You must die”. The very first thing he thought about was his money, "What shall I do with my money"? He forgot about his family and thought only about his money. It was hard for this man. So he died indeed but his money remained. Those who sell God's Word for money will reap a serious consequence, so what good is money when you are 6 feet under? They stumble because the Bible says do not sell God's Word but they do it. So woe to this church or us Christians because now is the time that God's hand must touch everybody.
Now is the time for each Christian to open his heart and think what time it is? As the Son of God did on the cross He said, "Father this is the time, take my Spirit”. It was time for Jesus to leave His body. As for you and me when is the time to leave this earth and meet Jesus? We are going to speak about Revelation then revert to Daniel so we will know what time we are living. I am not here to fight against servants of God but I am here to speak the truth. Jesus Himself was called Beelzebub when He was speaking. I am not here to abuse anyone's name but I give what I have. Reject what you think is no good. Search the Bible and ask God to help you understand and He will reveal things to you. If you find something is wrong don't hesitate to come and see me. And if you don't believe me just kneel down and ask your Creator. He is not mute. He will speak to you. To conclude we will look at 2 Timothy 3:1-6
1This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 6For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts.
These are the signs to know that the end of times is near. Timothy was a Pastor and his message came to him from God for the church and not for pagans. He gave this message for the end of times. Observe in your church to see if this is being fulfilled or not and you will see that Christians are more haughty than non-Christians. They are more selfish. As it is written in v.5, they will keep the outside appearance of our faith. On the outside they say they are Christians but deep in their hearts they have rejected the power of God. This is a danger in today's church. When you go home meditate on your church life and those you have visited and meditate on Christian life. Wherever you go meditate on your own life to see if you have all this.
It is now time to leave like the Egyptians who accepted to follow the Israelites. The crowd must not carry us away because the wide road always leads to destruction. As for us Christians let's pray to God and ask Him to see what is happening in the church today. It is not for nothing we left where we were and my brother can testify that we were working in Congo for God but God had another plan. So we must work according to God's will and not our own will. Once again I am not here to tell you to leave your church. As many leaders say, "He is a member of my church and these are my Christians”. So have you created them Pastor? Do they belong to you? They are God's Christians not yours.
We also must know that Pharaoh cannot mistreat us anymore. We are not at that stage to be whipped to do hard work in order to make what is outside more beautiful, but we must work for what is inside. When you meet a Christian along the way in Kenya he will greet you and say, "My name is Odon, I was saved this morning and I am going to heaven”. How many times have you been saved? What does it mean to be saved? So you will see this is a problem for Christians. They memorize things like parrots. Instead of fighting against the Devil we fight against each other (denominations). We are losers right from the beginning. The Devil is just watching us fight against each other and to those who are left he will eventually destroy.
Some servants of God always ask their Christians, where did you go last Sunday? “Oh Pastor I went to another church”, “No, no, no, don't go there this is the Devil's church and the power of God is not there, the power of God is here”. But who told you that God’s power is in your church Pastor? Who gave you the revelation? Who are you to judge God's church? Be very careful. This is how the Devil plays with the church of God and us. With little things he lays down foundations and now there is hate among Christians.
A Christian told me one day that I couldn’t teach them anything because we use to pray under trees. So I said to him, "I am going to teach you what you don't know and what I've learnt under that tree. I will teach you that Jonah saw how important a tree was, I want to teach you this because what I have received I must give”. Then he said, "No, because you are an African this is hard for me, what you are doing is discrimination and all you speak is just Africanise and not the word of God”. The church of God is not a country or race but altogether we are one in Jesus, altogether we are the body of Christ. What race was Jesus from?” Some people say He was a white man, some people say he was black. Some say Jesus Christ was black because they found the roots of humanity in Tanzania. They found bones millions of years old and said that because it is in Tanzania that the first bones have been found, Adam was there, and because God created man in His image, God is black. What confusion. If you go to Asia they will tell you stories as well, so you will see what Christians think about and end up disturbing their own mind instead of thinking of what is essential. You can do everything you want except doing what is essential.
When He came for the Jews the Jews said, “we are waiting for the Lord, time has come for Isaiah prophesied that after a time the Messiah would be here”.
Jesus came and they didn’t even know He was the Messiah. This is what we live today, God is among us but we don't even know it. Time is at the end but we don't even know what is happening. We are distracted and distraction is everything we live. The distraction in the church is what we call denominations, taking away parts of the Bible and adding other parts. And the Bible says that if one member of the body suffers the whole body is affected. If I have a headache my hand will make an effort to reach for the pills and put it in my mouth, and maybe the other hand will make an effort to get water. Then the stomach will receive it and what will treat the head goes through the stomach. Can you understand this? To say that God's people are people that must work in unity. You might have a problem with your head but your stomach will treat the head. This is how we live in confusion. Things are clear before our eyes but we don't want to practice them. We want to divide ourselves and each one wants his own share but we forget that God has put everything together.
Let's pray now for the church of God; let's pray that God will help us understand the time we are now living. May each one pray for his own life and family's life and the life of the whole church on this earth.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Revelations Introduction (Part III)
By Odon Bulamba (2nd Feb 01)
Moses came closer to God and started talking with Him. How many times do we talk with God? How many times do we get closer to Him to talk with Him? We must think about it. It is now time for God’s people to be released (as the Israelites were released from Pharoah). In churches today we hear that the end of times is near, but they don't make any effort to prepare themselves and other Christians for Jesus. All the signs that Jesus gave us have been fulfilled but who sees those signs? The blind cannot lead the blind.
At the right time the Samaritan woman met Jesus. She didn't go to the market place but went to the well, and where she went for natural water she found eternal water. When she met Jesus it was the exact time because Jesus had sent His disciples away and was alone. It means that as Christians we need time to be alone with God. Some Christians only pray on Sundays, and when a brother asks them to pray for him they just close their eyes and pray. When they are told to turn to the book of Matthew they start reading Revelation because they don't know where in the Bible it is, and yet some can confess they have been Christians for 20 years. These people forget to give time to their Lord.
Today many Christians make appointments with doctors but never with their God. It is nearly impossible to find a Christian who says, I am going now to God's office to talk with Him. According to some people time is money and to be with God is just a waste of time. How can you say that as a Christian? The Bible says that Elijah's knees were raw from praying non-stop. Daniel also prayed five times a day. It is not easy. Some servants of God have dry prayers and they struggle for words. There is no power in their prayers; for example, “thank you Jesus...ah... because everybody is here...yes thank you for today...ah...yes thank you for all the Christians in the world and also for this house. Amen!” Did the brother pray for the food? Please observe that even God's servants aren't able to pray for the little things. If you are my leader and you don't know how to pray, how can you teach me to pray? It means you will never know how to pray and you will lead me to death, like the 400 prophets lead Ahab to his death.
The Samaritan woman asked Jesus, "What can I do for you”? Jesus said, "Give me some water", "I am a Samaritan woman and you are a Jew, I cannot do such a thing”.
Who told this woman that Jesus was a Jew? Jesus was not a Jew. How many times are we confused with God's Word when we read it and interpret it the wrong way? Just because Odon is black how do you know he is from Africa? When you assume it can lead you into confusion. Christianity cannot assume things. The Bible says let your yes be yes and your no, no! You cannot say I think Jesus was a Jew. While talking with Jesus the woman said, "I think that the Christ will come and I think you are a prophet”. Jesus responded, "I am the Messiah”. This was exactly the right time for her to know this, she then forgot she was a Samaritan woman and her eyes were on Christ and her heart was open for the Messiah, and she went to invite others.
As for us, when we meet Jesus or the Word of God, instead of inviting others we think we are wasting our time. Job discovered that there is a time for life to come back. As for us Christians we must recognize that after this life in our flesh there is another life and that life surpasses the life we live today. The Bible says that each one must carry his own cross. We must be careful; we must look after your soul because on judgement day you cannot blame the Pastor for fooling you.
When Ahab died the 400 prophets kept on living, so could these prophets save Ahab who is dead? Never. We must look after our souls. As Paul wrote, "In the last days there will be many false prophets and apostles. But as for you, keep what you have learnt. Noah said to the people, get ready for soon a great flood will destroy the earth. Men who had knowledge in science mocked Noah and said, according to our instruments there will be no rain. They compared the weather forecast to the will of God. People take science and mix it with the Word of God and that is what we call today the fruit of theology. With all this Noah said to the people there will be rain, and they laughed, “this old farmer is a fool he just wants to deceive us”. The Bible says at that time people just ate, drank, brought and sold. "How can Noah stand up and say this is the end, maybe he is crazy or too old for we have many prophets where we live so why is Noah the only one saying this? He is sick, leave him alone”. Others will say, "Bring the chains for this is not normal what he is saying”.
Noah told the people to enter the ark but they refused. However the cat and the insect wanted to go with Noah because they took heed of his words. Noah even waited for the slowest of animals to come from the forest into the ark. Noah gave them a lot of time to enter the ark but people were too proud because of their knowledge. In the end people were knocking at the door and saying, "Open the door!" but Noah said, "I left the door open for a long time but now God has shut it because you refused to take heed of my words”. When we are preached to practice kindness we shut off and think the message is for others. God needs us to practice kindness.
3Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4Who opposes and exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Amen! The Devil will make himself like God setting his place in God’s church. So if you are waiting for him to come with horns and a tail you’ll be waiting a long time because he’ll come in this image. Satan will come and talk to God's people in the church and because they are confused they will accept anything. Satan today teaches us that the gifts of the Holy Spirit don’t exist today. Prophecy stopped 2000 years ago and Apostles died out years ago. So the devil limits God's will by confusing people in the church
Moses came closer to God and started talking with Him. How many times do we talk with God? How many times do we get closer to Him to talk with Him? We must think about it. It is now time for God’s people to be released (as the Israelites were released from Pharoah). In churches today we hear that the end of times is near, but they don't make any effort to prepare themselves and other Christians for Jesus. All the signs that Jesus gave us have been fulfilled but who sees those signs? The blind cannot lead the blind.
At the right time the Samaritan woman met Jesus. She didn't go to the market place but went to the well, and where she went for natural water she found eternal water. When she met Jesus it was the exact time because Jesus had sent His disciples away and was alone. It means that as Christians we need time to be alone with God. Some Christians only pray on Sundays, and when a brother asks them to pray for him they just close their eyes and pray. When they are told to turn to the book of Matthew they start reading Revelation because they don't know where in the Bible it is, and yet some can confess they have been Christians for 20 years. These people forget to give time to their Lord.
Today many Christians make appointments with doctors but never with their God. It is nearly impossible to find a Christian who says, I am going now to God's office to talk with Him. According to some people time is money and to be with God is just a waste of time. How can you say that as a Christian? The Bible says that Elijah's knees were raw from praying non-stop. Daniel also prayed five times a day. It is not easy. Some servants of God have dry prayers and they struggle for words. There is no power in their prayers; for example, “thank you Jesus...ah... because everybody is here...yes thank you for today...ah...yes thank you for all the Christians in the world and also for this house. Amen!” Did the brother pray for the food? Please observe that even God's servants aren't able to pray for the little things. If you are my leader and you don't know how to pray, how can you teach me to pray? It means you will never know how to pray and you will lead me to death, like the 400 prophets lead Ahab to his death.
The Samaritan woman asked Jesus, "What can I do for you”? Jesus said, "Give me some water", "I am a Samaritan woman and you are a Jew, I cannot do such a thing”.
Who told this woman that Jesus was a Jew? Jesus was not a Jew. How many times are we confused with God's Word when we read it and interpret it the wrong way? Just because Odon is black how do you know he is from Africa? When you assume it can lead you into confusion. Christianity cannot assume things. The Bible says let your yes be yes and your no, no! You cannot say I think Jesus was a Jew. While talking with Jesus the woman said, "I think that the Christ will come and I think you are a prophet”. Jesus responded, "I am the Messiah”. This was exactly the right time for her to know this, she then forgot she was a Samaritan woman and her eyes were on Christ and her heart was open for the Messiah, and she went to invite others.
As for us, when we meet Jesus or the Word of God, instead of inviting others we think we are wasting our time. Job discovered that there is a time for life to come back. As for us Christians we must recognize that after this life in our flesh there is another life and that life surpasses the life we live today. The Bible says that each one must carry his own cross. We must be careful; we must look after your soul because on judgement day you cannot blame the Pastor for fooling you.
When Ahab died the 400 prophets kept on living, so could these prophets save Ahab who is dead? Never. We must look after our souls. As Paul wrote, "In the last days there will be many false prophets and apostles. But as for you, keep what you have learnt. Noah said to the people, get ready for soon a great flood will destroy the earth. Men who had knowledge in science mocked Noah and said, according to our instruments there will be no rain. They compared the weather forecast to the will of God. People take science and mix it with the Word of God and that is what we call today the fruit of theology. With all this Noah said to the people there will be rain, and they laughed, “this old farmer is a fool he just wants to deceive us”. The Bible says at that time people just ate, drank, brought and sold. "How can Noah stand up and say this is the end, maybe he is crazy or too old for we have many prophets where we live so why is Noah the only one saying this? He is sick, leave him alone”. Others will say, "Bring the chains for this is not normal what he is saying”.
Noah told the people to enter the ark but they refused. However the cat and the insect wanted to go with Noah because they took heed of his words. Noah even waited for the slowest of animals to come from the forest into the ark. Noah gave them a lot of time to enter the ark but people were too proud because of their knowledge. In the end people were knocking at the door and saying, "Open the door!" but Noah said, "I left the door open for a long time but now God has shut it because you refused to take heed of my words”. When we are preached to practice kindness we shut off and think the message is for others. God needs us to practice kindness.
3Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4Who opposes and exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Amen! The Devil will make himself like God setting his place in God’s church. So if you are waiting for him to come with horns and a tail you’ll be waiting a long time because he’ll come in this image. Satan will come and talk to God's people in the church and because they are confused they will accept anything. Satan today teaches us that the gifts of the Holy Spirit don’t exist today. Prophecy stopped 2000 years ago and Apostles died out years ago. So the devil limits God's will by confusing people in the church
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Revelations Introduction (Part II)
By Odon Bulamba (2nd Feb 2001)
King Ahab was a King in the Bible (1 Kings 22). Jehoshaphat came to see King Ahab because they thought it was the right time to fight. Ahab then gathered 400 prophets and said to them, "We must go to war, what do you think?" The false prophets said, "King, you already have the victory!" If you read this well you will see that these 400 prophets where trained very well by Ahab's government. They were not trained by the spirit of God but by Ahab's government, and they were there only to give glory to Ahab. If Ahab knew God’s time it would have been good, unfortunately he was blind being lead by other blind people. So how can a blind man lead another blind man? You know the consequences. Ahab said, "My 400 prophets prophesied that I would win, so I must go”. Jehoshaphat said to him, "Be careful for I can see danger, have you not another prophet apart from the 400”? Ahab said, "There is one man but he always says bad things against me and is forever condemning me, he is not a good man and I hate him”. But that was not to be true. Micaiah was there to say the truth, but Ahab found that the truth always hurt him so he went against the truth.
This is happening today in Christian life, when you speak about the truth people say, "You are just here to judge me, go away”. In God's family there are no enemies. Ahab accepted to listen to Jehoshaphat but refused what Micaiah had to say. Jehoshaphat said, "Because you are a friend, get another prophet if there is one”. How often do we invite our brothers and sisters to come and be with God in Spirit and in truth? Do we just stick to what we have read in books or what we have learnt at university? Do you know anyone who has a diploma in the Holy Spirit? Do you know anyone who has a diploma in healing? Do you know anyone who has a doctrine in the gift of miracles? Do you know of any university that teaches the gift of the Holy Spirit? Remember the young man who met Paul; do you remember this young man who met Peter? He said to Peter, "I will give you some money so you may give me the gift miracles”. You know what happened. You can't buy it.
Jehoshaphat said to Ahab, "Call Micaiah the prophet we must talk with him”. Ahab said, "We have 400 prophets and you want him”? “Yes I want Micaiah because he too is a prophet and also has the right to speak”. Prophecies are not to comfort Christians but prophecies are to awaken Christians. So they called Micaiah and Ahab started shivering, “not him again I know he'll say something against me”. And deep in his heart something was eating away at him. The devil was there also because Ahab forgot what Elijah prophesied nearly 200 years before and said that the dogs would lick Ahab’s blood. Because Elijah spoke of this disturbing news about Ahab, Ahab refused to hear the truth. So that is why Ahab didn’t like Micaiah because Micaiah spoke the truth.
1 Kings 22:37 37So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria. 38And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood; and they washed his armour; according unto the word of the LORD which he spoke.
Be careful when God speaks about time, you must understand the message. We all wear watches to know the exact time and have clocks in our homes. This tells us that time is very important to every human being. For example winter days are short. If you don't look at your watch time will fly by and before you know it time has passed, so if you don't have a watch it will be difficult to fulfill what you have to do.
That’s why God wants us to recognize the time. When the trees blossom we know that the fruit will come and when there is less rain you know that the production of milk will decrease in New Zealand. We must get closer to God so He can tell us the exact time. When God told Moses to come closer to the burning bush Moses left everything to observe what was happening. The flock continued eating grass while Moses came closer to the burning bush and then he heard a voice saying, "Take off your shoes”. Moses didn't discuss, he just took off his sandals and came closer. "Moses stop here!" And he did. Try to understand what we have today. How many of God's servants are called today to leave their flock and to confess their sins? How can you go before God with your sandals to lead a flock? We must take off our sandals and before that we must see the burning bush first.
Many servants have not seen the eternal fire or God's fire yet. They haven't discovered the power of God in their lives yet. So what do you want to witness if you don't even know the power of God? If I come to you and say, explain this to me please I don't understand, what are you going to say? This is the consequence of the diploma we buy in the shops. We don't have on earth a school that trains in the Holy Spirit. Evangelisation is a gift from the Spirit, so an evangelist must know about the Holy Spirit more than what books teach us, because a book always has an author and authors sometimes contradict themselves, but the Bible never contradicts itself
King Ahab was a King in the Bible (1 Kings 22). Jehoshaphat came to see King Ahab because they thought it was the right time to fight. Ahab then gathered 400 prophets and said to them, "We must go to war, what do you think?" The false prophets said, "King, you already have the victory!" If you read this well you will see that these 400 prophets where trained very well by Ahab's government. They were not trained by the spirit of God but by Ahab's government, and they were there only to give glory to Ahab. If Ahab knew God’s time it would have been good, unfortunately he was blind being lead by other blind people. So how can a blind man lead another blind man? You know the consequences. Ahab said, "My 400 prophets prophesied that I would win, so I must go”. Jehoshaphat said to him, "Be careful for I can see danger, have you not another prophet apart from the 400”? Ahab said, "There is one man but he always says bad things against me and is forever condemning me, he is not a good man and I hate him”. But that was not to be true. Micaiah was there to say the truth, but Ahab found that the truth always hurt him so he went against the truth.
This is happening today in Christian life, when you speak about the truth people say, "You are just here to judge me, go away”. In God's family there are no enemies. Ahab accepted to listen to Jehoshaphat but refused what Micaiah had to say. Jehoshaphat said, "Because you are a friend, get another prophet if there is one”. How often do we invite our brothers and sisters to come and be with God in Spirit and in truth? Do we just stick to what we have read in books or what we have learnt at university? Do you know anyone who has a diploma in the Holy Spirit? Do you know anyone who has a diploma in healing? Do you know anyone who has a doctrine in the gift of miracles? Do you know of any university that teaches the gift of the Holy Spirit? Remember the young man who met Paul; do you remember this young man who met Peter? He said to Peter, "I will give you some money so you may give me the gift miracles”. You know what happened. You can't buy it.
Jehoshaphat said to Ahab, "Call Micaiah the prophet we must talk with him”. Ahab said, "We have 400 prophets and you want him”? “Yes I want Micaiah because he too is a prophet and also has the right to speak”. Prophecies are not to comfort Christians but prophecies are to awaken Christians. So they called Micaiah and Ahab started shivering, “not him again I know he'll say something against me”. And deep in his heart something was eating away at him. The devil was there also because Ahab forgot what Elijah prophesied nearly 200 years before and said that the dogs would lick Ahab’s blood. Because Elijah spoke of this disturbing news about Ahab, Ahab refused to hear the truth. So that is why Ahab didn’t like Micaiah because Micaiah spoke the truth.
1 Kings 22:37 37So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria. 38And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood; and they washed his armour; according unto the word of the LORD which he spoke.
Be careful when God speaks about time, you must understand the message. We all wear watches to know the exact time and have clocks in our homes. This tells us that time is very important to every human being. For example winter days are short. If you don't look at your watch time will fly by and before you know it time has passed, so if you don't have a watch it will be difficult to fulfill what you have to do.
That’s why God wants us to recognize the time. When the trees blossom we know that the fruit will come and when there is less rain you know that the production of milk will decrease in New Zealand. We must get closer to God so He can tell us the exact time. When God told Moses to come closer to the burning bush Moses left everything to observe what was happening. The flock continued eating grass while Moses came closer to the burning bush and then he heard a voice saying, "Take off your shoes”. Moses didn't discuss, he just took off his sandals and came closer. "Moses stop here!" And he did. Try to understand what we have today. How many of God's servants are called today to leave their flock and to confess their sins? How can you go before God with your sandals to lead a flock? We must take off our sandals and before that we must see the burning bush first.
Many servants have not seen the eternal fire or God's fire yet. They haven't discovered the power of God in their lives yet. So what do you want to witness if you don't even know the power of God? If I come to you and say, explain this to me please I don't understand, what are you going to say? This is the consequence of the diploma we buy in the shops. We don't have on earth a school that trains in the Holy Spirit. Evangelisation is a gift from the Spirit, so an evangelist must know about the Holy Spirit more than what books teach us, because a book always has an author and authors sometimes contradict themselves, but the Bible never contradicts itself
Friday, December 25, 2009
Revelations Introduction (Part I)
By Odon Bulamba (2 February 2001)
I really thank God for each one of you tonight. It is a grace we have because people try to find what we have but look in vain. Go to a hospital and you'll see that people want to pray, but because their bodies are so weak it limits them. They really want to seek God's face but don't have the opportunity. In some Arabic countries, people try to find God's Word but struggle to find it. But here in New Zealand you can get a Bible freely. It's a grace. Because we also come together and meet to share the Word of God that also is a grace. Most people want to find this opportunity but can't. In order to get this knowledge we share one might have to go to university and will buy this knowledge with money, and when they have finished their studies they say there are some things they still don't understand. God's grace is with us because God loves us very much. We are going to speak about the sign of the times and recognize in which days we are living.
Hosea 6:1-11
1 "Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn, that he may heal us; he has stricken, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
3 Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD; his going forth is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth."
4 ¶ What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away.
5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light.
6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings. 7 But at Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood.
9 As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests are banded together; they murder on the way to Shechem, yea, they commit villainy.
10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim's harlotry is there, Israel is defiled.
11 For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed. When I would restore the fortunes of my people.
We can see the prophet wrote something about God's people, and as we know the Word of God is the same yesterday, today and forever. It does not mean that this passage is for just the Israelites, it does not mean it was for the tribe of Judah, or the people from Gilead, but it is for us Christians today. It is now time that God wants His people to come back to Him, it's now time that God wants them to think about what they are doing with their time. God wants His people to think about what time they are passing through on this earth. A time of wounds has been but now it is a time of healing. It is time that God will call His own for healing.
Remember what happened with Moses and the bronze serpent? Moses raised a stick on which he put a bronze serpent and said that if anyone looks at this serpent he will be healed. So whoever had been bitten by the snake and looked at this bronze serpent would be healed. Today God always invites us to look at this snake but we don't want to. People of God today refuse the total healing of God, they look for other things where there is death, they look at things that are very dirty to God, and they forget that the cross is there to find salvation. Remember what happened in Moses’ life? Moses was someone like you and me. God chose him to release his people from Egypt, and God said to Moses, "It is now time to leave pharaoh’s house, forget about royalty and forget your power, you must leave all that you have”.
If I was Moses I would have said, "Who am I going to give all these treasures to follow a God I don't know, how can I abandon all this success and loyalty from the people to follow a God I have never seen?" That is exactly what the church lives today: "Because I am a pastor, I don't have to confess my sins, people must think that I am above the rest, and if I kneel down before the church I will lose my success and glory”. The glory doesn’t belong to us but God. So God said to Moses, "Moses because you are my son, listen to me, you must leave”. God did not come down from heaven to speak with him, but because of the way Moses’ mum looked after him, she taught him everything. Moses knew who God was right from his childhood. He learnt the Hebrew language from childhood even though he was working for the Egyptians.
The time came for Moses to leave Egypt. What did he do? He came and took a stand against injustice. That's what the church today doesn't want. If you fight against injustice you are unjust. If you want to show that Satan is unjust, Satan will fight you through other Christians. If you want to show the world that it is not fair or unjust, you will be fought in many ways. Moses left Egypt and did not take anything with him only the breath of life.
So what would Pharaoh think or do? Pharaoh was wasting his time trying to make his city beautiful. He made the slaves work over time and beat them seriously, for what? To make Egypt more magnificent on the outside? Pharaoh forgot to make his heart more beautiful and forgot to work over time for his spirit. This is what we live today in many churches and in Christian life. People work hard all their life to own a house, have flash cars and do their best to have nice skin, but they forget to make their hearts more beautiful. This worldly sickness has come into the church and Christians don't want to take care of their souls. They just live like Pharaoh. They are authoritarian, they are the leaders, and they are kings, but they forget where this authority comes from.
God said to Moses, "You must go back to Egypt”. Moses knew it was the right time because God said that after 400 years He would release His people from slavery. Pharaoh didn't know that is was time for God to free up His people. This is what we are living today on this earth. Jesus is knocking on the door of our hearts and He is saying, "Leave Egypt for now is the time to start your journey and go to Canaan”. What are we waiting for? Some Egyptians who followed the Israelites understood the strength of God, and those who had the spirit of discernment followed. Pharaoh knew that he had lost everything and instead of 1000 bricks per day the production would be only five bricks per day. So who will whip the people now? For if they are not whipped how will they work towards a more beautiful Egypt. Pharaoh forgot that these people needed freedom.
I really thank God for each one of you tonight. It is a grace we have because people try to find what we have but look in vain. Go to a hospital and you'll see that people want to pray, but because their bodies are so weak it limits them. They really want to seek God's face but don't have the opportunity. In some Arabic countries, people try to find God's Word but struggle to find it. But here in New Zealand you can get a Bible freely. It's a grace. Because we also come together and meet to share the Word of God that also is a grace. Most people want to find this opportunity but can't. In order to get this knowledge we share one might have to go to university and will buy this knowledge with money, and when they have finished their studies they say there are some things they still don't understand. God's grace is with us because God loves us very much. We are going to speak about the sign of the times and recognize in which days we are living.
Hosea 6:1-11
1 "Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn, that he may heal us; he has stricken, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
3 Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD; his going forth is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth."
4 ¶ What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away.
5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light.
6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings. 7 But at Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood.
9 As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests are banded together; they murder on the way to Shechem, yea, they commit villainy.
10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim's harlotry is there, Israel is defiled.
11 For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed. When I would restore the fortunes of my people.
We can see the prophet wrote something about God's people, and as we know the Word of God is the same yesterday, today and forever. It does not mean that this passage is for just the Israelites, it does not mean it was for the tribe of Judah, or the people from Gilead, but it is for us Christians today. It is now time that God wants His people to come back to Him, it's now time that God wants them to think about what they are doing with their time. God wants His people to think about what time they are passing through on this earth. A time of wounds has been but now it is a time of healing. It is time that God will call His own for healing.
Remember what happened with Moses and the bronze serpent? Moses raised a stick on which he put a bronze serpent and said that if anyone looks at this serpent he will be healed. So whoever had been bitten by the snake and looked at this bronze serpent would be healed. Today God always invites us to look at this snake but we don't want to. People of God today refuse the total healing of God, they look for other things where there is death, they look at things that are very dirty to God, and they forget that the cross is there to find salvation. Remember what happened in Moses’ life? Moses was someone like you and me. God chose him to release his people from Egypt, and God said to Moses, "It is now time to leave pharaoh’s house, forget about royalty and forget your power, you must leave all that you have”.
If I was Moses I would have said, "Who am I going to give all these treasures to follow a God I don't know, how can I abandon all this success and loyalty from the people to follow a God I have never seen?" That is exactly what the church lives today: "Because I am a pastor, I don't have to confess my sins, people must think that I am above the rest, and if I kneel down before the church I will lose my success and glory”. The glory doesn’t belong to us but God. So God said to Moses, "Moses because you are my son, listen to me, you must leave”. God did not come down from heaven to speak with him, but because of the way Moses’ mum looked after him, she taught him everything. Moses knew who God was right from his childhood. He learnt the Hebrew language from childhood even though he was working for the Egyptians.
The time came for Moses to leave Egypt. What did he do? He came and took a stand against injustice. That's what the church today doesn't want. If you fight against injustice you are unjust. If you want to show that Satan is unjust, Satan will fight you through other Christians. If you want to show the world that it is not fair or unjust, you will be fought in many ways. Moses left Egypt and did not take anything with him only the breath of life.
So what would Pharaoh think or do? Pharaoh was wasting his time trying to make his city beautiful. He made the slaves work over time and beat them seriously, for what? To make Egypt more magnificent on the outside? Pharaoh forgot to make his heart more beautiful and forgot to work over time for his spirit. This is what we live today in many churches and in Christian life. People work hard all their life to own a house, have flash cars and do their best to have nice skin, but they forget to make their hearts more beautiful. This worldly sickness has come into the church and Christians don't want to take care of their souls. They just live like Pharaoh. They are authoritarian, they are the leaders, and they are kings, but they forget where this authority comes from.
God said to Moses, "You must go back to Egypt”. Moses knew it was the right time because God said that after 400 years He would release His people from slavery. Pharaoh didn't know that is was time for God to free up His people. This is what we are living today on this earth. Jesus is knocking on the door of our hearts and He is saying, "Leave Egypt for now is the time to start your journey and go to Canaan”. What are we waiting for? Some Egyptians who followed the Israelites understood the strength of God, and those who had the spirit of discernment followed. Pharaoh knew that he had lost everything and instead of 1000 bricks per day the production would be only five bricks per day. So who will whip the people now? For if they are not whipped how will they work towards a more beautiful Egypt. Pharaoh forgot that these people needed freedom.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
WOMEN - THE HOLY SPIRIT
Women were created for Adam as a "helper". The Holy Spirit is also called a "helper".
Genesis 2:18, "Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good for man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."
John 14:16, "And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He might be with you forever."
The Holy Spirit was given to us, so was Eve given to Adam.
Romans 5:5, "God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
Wives cannot carry prayers of the husband directly to God, and they cannot give gifts. Only the Holy Spirit can do that.
But the wife can be like the Holy Spirit in many ways.
John 16:13, "But when the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose it to you what is to come."
John 16:14, "He will take of Mine and disclose it to you."
Mathew 27:19, "While sitting on the judgement seat, his wife sent to him saying, 'have nothing to do with that righteous man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him."
The role of the wife is to "help" the husband to see spiritual truths that he may not have otherwise seen.
John 16:8, "And when He comes, he will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness and judgment."
Psalm 119:75, "I know O Lord that Thy judgments are righteous."
Galations 6:1, "Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness."
The role of the wife is to "help" her husband to see where he must change. He must be humble enough to listen, accept and then change. Obviously she must also be humble and ready to hear where she should also change. The wife will be more "helpful" if she listens to her husband and changes accordingly.
The Holy Spirit never argues with the Father and the wife must never argue with her husband.
1 John 1:7, "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin."
Ephesians 5:8-10, "Now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead expose them."
The role of the wife is to "help" her husband by being the light in his life. Being humble enough to expose herself and being brave enough to expose him.
Galations 5:22-23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control."
I Corinthians 13:4, "Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous, love does not brag, and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things. Love never fails."
DOES NOT BRAG - the Holy Spirit never talks about Himself
LOVE IS NOT ARROGANT - the Holy Spirit knows His role
James 4:16, "As it is, you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil."
LOVE DOES NOT ACT UNBECOMINGLY - the Holy Spirit came as a dove
1 Peter 3:1-4, "In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. And let not your adornment be merely external - braiding of the hair, wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God."
Judges 14, "Get her for me, she looks good to me."
I believe she looked good not physically but because she had a gentle and quiet spirit.
DOES NOT SEEK ITS OWN - the Holy Spirit seeks to do the will of Jesus
I Corinthians 10:24, "Let no one seek his own will but that of his neighbor."
I Corinthians 10:33, "I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, that they may be saved."
Ephesians 5:22,23, "Wives be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He himself being the Savior of the the Body."
The role of a wife to "help" her husband is to submit in humility.
There cannot be two heads in a family. This will be like a siamese twin with two heads. Which direction will the body take if two heads are deciding? There will be confusion!
LOVE NEVER FAILS - the Father has sealed us with the Holy Spirit.
PATIENCE - the Holy Spirit is patient with us and is not discouraged. The Holy Spirit doesn't become angry over small issues (who cares if your husband leaves the dirty towel on the bathroom floor).
KINDNESS - He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men (Lk 6:35). A wife needs to show kindness at all times to her husband even if she doen't think he deserves it. She should welcome him home every time with joy and kindness.
GOODNESS - everything God does is for our good. Everything a wife does should be for the good of her husband and others.
FAITHFULNESS - God always keeps His promises. A wife should always tell her husband the truth and should always keep her promises.
SELF-CONTROLLED - God cannot contradict the Truth. A wife must be able to control her emotions and her way of speaking so that she continue always to be a helpful to her husband and not make his life more difficult.
JEALOUS - God is jealous in a good way. A wife should not be jealous.
Women must be helpful according to the Word of God!
Genesis 2:18, "Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good for man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."
John 14:16, "And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He might be with you forever."
The Holy Spirit was given to us, so was Eve given to Adam.
Romans 5:5, "God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
Wives cannot carry prayers of the husband directly to God, and they cannot give gifts. Only the Holy Spirit can do that.
But the wife can be like the Holy Spirit in many ways.
John 16:13, "But when the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose it to you what is to come."
John 16:14, "He will take of Mine and disclose it to you."
Mathew 27:19, "While sitting on the judgement seat, his wife sent to him saying, 'have nothing to do with that righteous man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him."
The role of the wife is to "help" the husband to see spiritual truths that he may not have otherwise seen.
John 16:8, "And when He comes, he will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness and judgment."
Psalm 119:75, "I know O Lord that Thy judgments are righteous."
Galations 6:1, "Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness."
The role of the wife is to "help" her husband to see where he must change. He must be humble enough to listen, accept and then change. Obviously she must also be humble and ready to hear where she should also change. The wife will be more "helpful" if she listens to her husband and changes accordingly.
The Holy Spirit never argues with the Father and the wife must never argue with her husband.
1 John 1:7, "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin."
Ephesians 5:8-10, "Now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead expose them."
The role of the wife is to "help" her husband by being the light in his life. Being humble enough to expose herself and being brave enough to expose him.
Galations 5:22-23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control."
I Corinthians 13:4, "Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous, love does not brag, and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things. Love never fails."
DOES NOT BRAG - the Holy Spirit never talks about Himself
LOVE IS NOT ARROGANT - the Holy Spirit knows His role
James 4:16, "As it is, you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil."
LOVE DOES NOT ACT UNBECOMINGLY - the Holy Spirit came as a dove
1 Peter 3:1-4, "In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. And let not your adornment be merely external - braiding of the hair, wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God."
Judges 14, "Get her for me, she looks good to me."
I believe she looked good not physically but because she had a gentle and quiet spirit.
DOES NOT SEEK ITS OWN - the Holy Spirit seeks to do the will of Jesus
I Corinthians 10:24, "Let no one seek his own will but that of his neighbor."
I Corinthians 10:33, "I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, that they may be saved."
Ephesians 5:22,23, "Wives be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He himself being the Savior of the the Body."
The role of a wife to "help" her husband is to submit in humility.
There cannot be two heads in a family. This will be like a siamese twin with two heads. Which direction will the body take if two heads are deciding? There will be confusion!
LOVE NEVER FAILS - the Father has sealed us with the Holy Spirit.
PATIENCE - the Holy Spirit is patient with us and is not discouraged. The Holy Spirit doesn't become angry over small issues (who cares if your husband leaves the dirty towel on the bathroom floor).
KINDNESS - He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men (Lk 6:35). A wife needs to show kindness at all times to her husband even if she doen't think he deserves it. She should welcome him home every time with joy and kindness.
GOODNESS - everything God does is for our good. Everything a wife does should be for the good of her husband and others.
FAITHFULNESS - God always keeps His promises. A wife should always tell her husband the truth and should always keep her promises.
SELF-CONTROLLED - God cannot contradict the Truth. A wife must be able to control her emotions and her way of speaking so that she continue always to be a helpful to her husband and not make his life more difficult.
JEALOUS - God is jealous in a good way. A wife should not be jealous.
Women must be helpful according to the Word of God!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
REVIVAL (Part III)
In the book of Ezekiel chapter 37 God showed the prophet Ezekiel something. In the valley there were bones and they were dry. The Lord showed Ezekiel these facts. Later there was a wind coming, this wind made the bones come together to become a whole army. I won’t talk about that because we talked about it 2 years ago. This whole army was strong and it was in front of Ezekiel. Ezekiel saw it and believed it, although no one else could see it. This wind is what we call the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit that gives revival. If the Holy Spirit doesn’t revive you you’ll never live in peace. After receiving the truth you must make an effort. Suppose I tell you I will run for 5 minutes and after 40 metres I start to breathe quickly because I’m not used to it, but if you ask Peter who does sport everyday to run, 40 metres for him it is nothing. Why is that? Because he practises it everyday to the point where he becomes strong; he is able to do the impossible.
In my country there is a tribe, they see who can go underwater and stay there for 3 hours. For example if a boat sinks, he can plunge and go into the boat and gather things or people and take them back. When a submarine flees they can go under and they wear no oxygen, nothing. I thought it might be because of sorcery, but I was told it was not that. From an early age they train the children, for example they put water in a tank and put the head of a child in it and start counting the seconds, after a certain time they pull it out. When a child grows up it can go easily underwater. As for me who has never swum, even if you put 10 kilos of gold 2 metres deep and you tell me, “take this it is yours”; I will never risk my life and I’ll say, “you can keep it”.
I remember one day when I was swimming I drank the water and I nearly died and so I said goodbye to swimming. So for those who train all the time they will easily go under 2 metres and get the gold. So what does this teach us? It teaches us that we have to practise the Word of God all the time. If I pull a 40-kilo load and I’m not ready to lift this, but I train everyday with weights, after a certain time I will be able to lift 40 kilos of weight. If I keep training I will be able to lift 80 kilos. Participation and practise make people perfect. Unfortunately for us Christians we never participate in the Word of God and never put it into practise. We say God give us strength, we want to be strong so when we pray for the sick people they may be healed, or when we pray for the dead they might find back their life. Put the gospel into practise first and then strength will come.
God is there and it’s your part to make an effort to accept what God gives you. Unfortunately we don’t do it.
The army that Ezekiel saw was a big army. God is able to change the life we have, from bones only he can make bodies that are strong, and the flesh and the eyes and the skin will be there. Everything is possible for the one who believes. Everything is possible for God. God is able to do anything. You may say, “I can’t I can’t”. Who told you that you can’t? Ask God and he will give you an answer. There are many servants of God in this world who wouldn’t even dream that one day they would serve God and live a normal life as before. But the day they made up their minds God used them, and why not us?
In a place where I used to live in Kenya there were birds called Ostriches. We know what an Ostrich is, they are big birds with a long neck and are very strong. When they run you can hear a noise, when they make steps it is not easy to catch them. All the other birds respect this bird, even the eagle would not easily attack an ostrich; they respect them.
When an ostrich is walking, small animals like dogs flee. If you go hunting with a dog and they see an ostrich the dog will curve his tail and put it in between his legs to say I’m not going after that. You will tell your dog, go attack and the dog will come behind you. Why is that? It is because the dog fears the bird. The bird is strong, but there is something, when this bird sees a man coming it starts running. After 2 metres it stops to look at you and tilts it head, it says if you’re strong follow me. It starts running and after 20 metres looks at you as if to say come on and after 2 kilometres you’ll be tired. The bird will try to take you far away. When this bird is tired, what does it do? It runs to find a small hole somewhere and puts its head in the hole. The bird thinks it is hiding his whole body, but the bird only hides its head in the hole. Man can come closer to the bird and say it is not very clever; I will take the machete and cut its head, the body will keep moving but life is not there anymore, life will be gone.
Why is that? Because the bird made a mistake, although the bird knows he is strong, he knows he can run well, but he forgot where he could hide. As for us who are in Christ we have to hide under the rock who is Jesus Christ. We cannot hide behind Michael or Sylvie’s back or anyone else, but we have to hide under Jesus Christ the rock. An arrow will never pierce this shield; no man or even the forces of darkness will ever be able to catch us. We have this opportunity only if we believe that we have revival.
One day there were four hens, and these hens were together. They would eat maize, one of these hens looked at the other and said how good it is to eat together, but the other one said that’s good but who knows what is going to happen soon. The other one said of course, that is why I said it is good that we eat together. A lady who was beside them said cast them away from the maize, because they are eating my maize. A child shooed the hens away. The hens said, “you see, man never allow us to eat together”. Another one answered, “it is because we are weak, if we were as strong as the wind we could change everything, maybe we could declare our rights. Men fear the wind, it takes off rooftops and people tremble in front of the wind”. You see, even the birds need strength.
So what is your strength in the Lord? Maybe you are strong at maths, or English, or sport but what is your strength in the Lord? Is it only to carry your Bible?
One day I asked a group of people, tell me after the book of Nahum what is the next book? Everybody looked at me, Nahum? Umm…Joshua. No. Umm Psalm. NO. Micah, people would start giving any sort of names from the books. Then I asked who is the 3rd child in the royal family of England? Everybody knew. Then I said who are Diana’s children and everybody knew they would even give their date of birth. But when it’s the Word of God things become more and more heavy. So who is going to help us to carry it? We are called to live in the truth and the spirit and without the truth the spirit will not be able to work and without the spirit, truth doesn’t have any value. That’s why Jesus gave us an example; one day while he was walking he saw a tree without fruit and he wanted to eat the fruit but unfortunately there was none on the tree, this tree was cursed and the next day it was dry. You and I today might know the Word of God, we might recite the verses, and we might associate them to other people’s lives.
If people say I’m really hungry; man won’t live only by bread but by the Word of God. If he will say I’m sick, by the name of Jesus Christ we put our hands on all the sick people and find healing and find all the possible references for people’s lives. But when it’s about me I don’t even know what reference I can find for myself in the Bible. Between us lets be sincere, we have a disease us Christians. When you tell a Christian, my brother you are a thief, it will be better to stop what you do. Automatically this Christian becomes angry. If you were friends you become enemies. Although you talk to him in truth because you live in the truth, he will find it’s something that goes against his will. He will always say, this man is not good, always he thinks he is someone while he is nothing, so he gets more further away from the Word of God.
So this was the introduction to Revival. If you want to know more on revival read Ezekiel 37, read John 3 and 5:2 and Ephesians 2 can help. I believe I soon will touch these verses more. So you know how to glorify God, you know what the truth is, you know what to practise the truth means. So today we see how revival will be something important in our lives. If you want to get anything, respect the Word of God and everything will be better. If you don’t respect the Word of God be sure that God won’t respect you either. Whoever comes to Him, he will accept easily, but if you reject Him you’ll be lost. So we are going to pray altogether and everyone has to pray for his own personal life. Ask God to help you to find strength that is revival, strength that will help you to progress in the Bible.
In my country there is a tribe, they see who can go underwater and stay there for 3 hours. For example if a boat sinks, he can plunge and go into the boat and gather things or people and take them back. When a submarine flees they can go under and they wear no oxygen, nothing. I thought it might be because of sorcery, but I was told it was not that. From an early age they train the children, for example they put water in a tank and put the head of a child in it and start counting the seconds, after a certain time they pull it out. When a child grows up it can go easily underwater. As for me who has never swum, even if you put 10 kilos of gold 2 metres deep and you tell me, “take this it is yours”; I will never risk my life and I’ll say, “you can keep it”.
I remember one day when I was swimming I drank the water and I nearly died and so I said goodbye to swimming. So for those who train all the time they will easily go under 2 metres and get the gold. So what does this teach us? It teaches us that we have to practise the Word of God all the time. If I pull a 40-kilo load and I’m not ready to lift this, but I train everyday with weights, after a certain time I will be able to lift 40 kilos of weight. If I keep training I will be able to lift 80 kilos. Participation and practise make people perfect. Unfortunately for us Christians we never participate in the Word of God and never put it into practise. We say God give us strength, we want to be strong so when we pray for the sick people they may be healed, or when we pray for the dead they might find back their life. Put the gospel into practise first and then strength will come.
God is there and it’s your part to make an effort to accept what God gives you. Unfortunately we don’t do it.
The army that Ezekiel saw was a big army. God is able to change the life we have, from bones only he can make bodies that are strong, and the flesh and the eyes and the skin will be there. Everything is possible for the one who believes. Everything is possible for God. God is able to do anything. You may say, “I can’t I can’t”. Who told you that you can’t? Ask God and he will give you an answer. There are many servants of God in this world who wouldn’t even dream that one day they would serve God and live a normal life as before. But the day they made up their minds God used them, and why not us?
In a place where I used to live in Kenya there were birds called Ostriches. We know what an Ostrich is, they are big birds with a long neck and are very strong. When they run you can hear a noise, when they make steps it is not easy to catch them. All the other birds respect this bird, even the eagle would not easily attack an ostrich; they respect them.
When an ostrich is walking, small animals like dogs flee. If you go hunting with a dog and they see an ostrich the dog will curve his tail and put it in between his legs to say I’m not going after that. You will tell your dog, go attack and the dog will come behind you. Why is that? It is because the dog fears the bird. The bird is strong, but there is something, when this bird sees a man coming it starts running. After 2 metres it stops to look at you and tilts it head, it says if you’re strong follow me. It starts running and after 20 metres looks at you as if to say come on and after 2 kilometres you’ll be tired. The bird will try to take you far away. When this bird is tired, what does it do? It runs to find a small hole somewhere and puts its head in the hole. The bird thinks it is hiding his whole body, but the bird only hides its head in the hole. Man can come closer to the bird and say it is not very clever; I will take the machete and cut its head, the body will keep moving but life is not there anymore, life will be gone.
Why is that? Because the bird made a mistake, although the bird knows he is strong, he knows he can run well, but he forgot where he could hide. As for us who are in Christ we have to hide under the rock who is Jesus Christ. We cannot hide behind Michael or Sylvie’s back or anyone else, but we have to hide under Jesus Christ the rock. An arrow will never pierce this shield; no man or even the forces of darkness will ever be able to catch us. We have this opportunity only if we believe that we have revival.
One day there were four hens, and these hens were together. They would eat maize, one of these hens looked at the other and said how good it is to eat together, but the other one said that’s good but who knows what is going to happen soon. The other one said of course, that is why I said it is good that we eat together. A lady who was beside them said cast them away from the maize, because they are eating my maize. A child shooed the hens away. The hens said, “you see, man never allow us to eat together”. Another one answered, “it is because we are weak, if we were as strong as the wind we could change everything, maybe we could declare our rights. Men fear the wind, it takes off rooftops and people tremble in front of the wind”. You see, even the birds need strength.
So what is your strength in the Lord? Maybe you are strong at maths, or English, or sport but what is your strength in the Lord? Is it only to carry your Bible?
One day I asked a group of people, tell me after the book of Nahum what is the next book? Everybody looked at me, Nahum? Umm…Joshua. No. Umm Psalm. NO. Micah, people would start giving any sort of names from the books. Then I asked who is the 3rd child in the royal family of England? Everybody knew. Then I said who are Diana’s children and everybody knew they would even give their date of birth. But when it’s the Word of God things become more and more heavy. So who is going to help us to carry it? We are called to live in the truth and the spirit and without the truth the spirit will not be able to work and without the spirit, truth doesn’t have any value. That’s why Jesus gave us an example; one day while he was walking he saw a tree without fruit and he wanted to eat the fruit but unfortunately there was none on the tree, this tree was cursed and the next day it was dry. You and I today might know the Word of God, we might recite the verses, and we might associate them to other people’s lives.
If people say I’m really hungry; man won’t live only by bread but by the Word of God. If he will say I’m sick, by the name of Jesus Christ we put our hands on all the sick people and find healing and find all the possible references for people’s lives. But when it’s about me I don’t even know what reference I can find for myself in the Bible. Between us lets be sincere, we have a disease us Christians. When you tell a Christian, my brother you are a thief, it will be better to stop what you do. Automatically this Christian becomes angry. If you were friends you become enemies. Although you talk to him in truth because you live in the truth, he will find it’s something that goes against his will. He will always say, this man is not good, always he thinks he is someone while he is nothing, so he gets more further away from the Word of God.
So this was the introduction to Revival. If you want to know more on revival read Ezekiel 37, read John 3 and 5:2 and Ephesians 2 can help. I believe I soon will touch these verses more. So you know how to glorify God, you know what the truth is, you know what to practise the truth means. So today we see how revival will be something important in our lives. If you want to get anything, respect the Word of God and everything will be better. If you don’t respect the Word of God be sure that God won’t respect you either. Whoever comes to Him, he will accept easily, but if you reject Him you’ll be lost. So we are going to pray altogether and everyone has to pray for his own personal life. Ask God to help you to find strength that is revival, strength that will help you to progress in the Bible.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Purity: the seemingly impossible target
By Michael Bahjejian
Mat 8:2-3
1. Introduction
1.1 Uniqueness of the Bible
Before starting my message, I’d like to make a few comments about the Bible:
I believe it is the word of God, the revealed and uncorrupted word of God to humankind. Islam says the Bible has been corrupted, but no trace of these so called ‘uncorrupted version(s)’ has ever been found.
It is the only Holy Book. No other so called ‘holy book’ exist as there is only one God and He cannot contradict himself. Our Bible does not accept that a single word or even a comma might be added to or removed from it.
In our Bible, there are the New and the Old Testaments. The New Testament does not contradict the Old one but fulfils it. It reveals the spiritual reality of practices and symbols, like the practice of sacrifices that were given to humankind before the coming of Christ. Paul says it was the mere shadow of what was to come or the good things to come with the substance belonging to Christ (Col 2:17; Heb 10:1). But even a ‘biblical shadow’ is not to be despised, since the shadow of Peter the Apostle could heal sick people that were placed on its path (Act 5:15).
The New Testament itself reveals our Lord Jesus, who is among other things, God among us, the testimony of God’s love and the fulfilment of God’s plan of salvation for humankind. Even if we still see spiritual things in a mirror dimly (1Cor 13:12a), what is behind this blurry glass is the right thing and one day at last, we will be able to see God face to face and know Him as well as He knows us.
1.2 Availability of the Bible
For centuries, it has been very difficult or even impossible to read the Bible. One of the reasons was that most people could not read. It is still partially true today, especially in India and in Africa. Also, it was impossible to read it because it was only written in a language that was different from the one people used everyday. Only religious people of the time knew Latin and that was the only language used to read the Bible and talk about it in most of the developed world of that time. It was then forbidden to translate the Bible in everyday language and those who braved the interdiction faced death and many died on the stake, burnt alive. Now that by God’s grace, the Bible has become available in many languages, many countries have forbidden its production, distribution and possession. When you think that just over a century ago, it was still impossible for a Catholic nun to read the full Bible, you realise that we are living in a changing time. Today, the Bible is available online in many languages and this is a great opportunity for many to have access to the word of God and praise God for those who work in that field.
1.3 Satan is still at work
As we know that the devil does not give up easily, he has started poisoning the very Bible we use. In the Left Behind 3 movie, that is the physical way the New World Order leader tries to kill Christians. Be aware, dear brothers and sisters of the bad translations of the Bible that cannot feed your souls spiritually properly. Key passages are removed, key words are replaced and the very dynamic of the Scripture is changed. Nowadays, everyone has to do his homework and decide by themselves which Bible they want to be fed with. May God bless you in this sometimes hard work.
One of the strategies of the devil is to paraphrase the scripture and present it as a authentic Bible. The ‘Message’ version, for example, introduces itself as a reading Bible and not as a study Bible. The website introducing ‘The Message’ reads:
“The goal of The Message is to engage people in the reading process and help them understand what they read. This is not a study Bible, but rather "a reading Bible." The verse numbers, which are not in the original documents, have been left out of the print version to facilitate easy and enjoyable reading.”
Although it is true that Jesus did not quote the verses he rebuked Satan with, it is nevertheless a help that has been useful for centuries. Also it reads:
“When we hear something over and over again in the same way, we can become so familiar with it that the text loses its impact. The Message strives to help readers hear the living Word of God—the Bible—in a way that engages and intrigues us right where we are.”
In this, it contradicts Joshua 1:8
“This Book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”
I personally do not think that God agrees with making a difference between reading and studying his word. As for the ‘artificial’ way of making the Bible attractive and easier to read, it is most likely to make the reader lazy in his mind by selecting for them a single interpretation where God had willingly left it open to discussion on purpose. ‘The Message’ and other similar ‘successful new versions’ of the Bible try to do what the work of the Holy Spirit is, that is to make the Scriptures alive in our hearts. I think it is a short-sighted view to make something new for the sake of it, since ‘The Message’ itself will grow older too with time and what will refresh it then? On top of that, who would go back to a ‘study Bible version’ when they have been used to reading a type of ‘easy listening’ one. For those who like children movies, do you remember how hard it was for the edge hook from the “Over the Edge” movie to go back to the healthy bark, after having tasted chips and other junk food.
So today, it is our privilege to have in our hands a Bible where the key words have not been ‘tempered with’, to be able to read and study it, to have the time and the motivation to do it and to be able to listen to messages about it. Praise God for that. Amen.
The Bible is unique as it is self explanatory. It is like these fruit trees that are auto fertile. With the Bible only, and the help of the Holy Spirit, you can understand the Bible and live it. Many commentaries and preaching, although not all of them, are often a distraction and a waste of time. The Bible explains the Bible. That is the reason why you need a good version. At the end of many Bibles, you can find what is called a Concordance. Each translation has his own one and you can also find entire book that are the Concordance of a specific version and they can be quite exhaustive. They are very useful to find passages you sometimes know, but are unable to find otherwise.
After this lengthily but hopefully useful introduction, it is time to go to today’s message:
2. Our message: Purity: the seemingly impossible target
2.1 Three passages among others mention purity
1 Pet 1:22
22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit[a] in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
James 4:8
8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Phil 1:22
8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
Peter asks us to purify our souls, James asks us to purify our hearts and Paul asks us to meditate on whatever things are pure. What does that mean? There, we are the ones who are asked to do the purification. Furthermore, we are told how to do it:
Our souls are purified through obedience to the truth through the Holy Spirit
Our hearts are purified by coming closer to God and being single-minded
We are to assess whatever things are pure to meditate on them.
2.2 Obedience
1 Pet 1:22
22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit[a] in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
Obedience is central to our Christian walk. In people’s life, the Holy Spirit is revealing progressively how to obey God’s commandments then it becomes a dialogue about what to do and not what to be, who to be and not to be. Jesus himself showed us the way: He was obedient unto death (Ph 2:8), he accepted the truth that was revealed by the prophets in the Scripture that he had to die (Luc 24:25-27)
8And being found in the fashion of a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death--even the death of the cross.
As Christians, we are everyday asked to choose between two masters who require our obedience. Matthew 6:24 (21st Century King James Version)
24"No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
This obedience leads to righteousness, one of God principles as it is written in:
Rom 6:16
16Do you not know that if you present yourselves(A) to anyone as obedient slaves,[a] you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
This does not mean, as the devil would like us to believe, that if we sin, we become his slaves as long as it is not our choice to live in sin. We have to constantly throw our sins at the foot of the cross, as our sins belong to Christ who bore all of them and use the gift of repentance to come right before God one more time.
According to 1Peter 1:22, the purification of our souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit will lead us to love one another more fervently, with a pure heart. Obedience dissipates the risk of being hypocrites in our mutual love. Alleluia for that!
2.3 Being single-minded
James 4:8
8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Being single minded is certainly a key to holiness as it is so hard to be. Single minded means:
1. Having one overriding purpose or goal
2. Steadfast; resolute:
A quotation from WikiHow reads: "single-minded" has to do with the power of focus. Your ability to focus is ultimately your biggest ally in accomplishing tasks and projects. With practice, this is an ability one can develop. Your level of achievement and success depends upon it. The good form of "single-minded" is the ability to block out distractions and erroneous thoughts in order to concentrate better. Your desire to become more single-minded will enable you to finish projects with more efficiency in less time.
To purify our heart is to constantly remove from it any ideas, thoughts and desires that are not in agreement with the Holy Spirit who lives in us. This is an active process that never ends, and that is not related to our growth in the Christian faith as the devil attacks with more determination those who are a danger for him and his kingdom of darkness. He is single minded too in his determination to destroy God’s plan.
2.4 The things that are pure
The world is obsessed with what is pure. Pure water, pure gold, 100% pure NZ. ‘Pure’ is a very attractive word. However, it brings many people under the slavery of what to do and what not to do, especially about food. Halal for Muslims, Kosher for Jewish, Vegan for animal lovers. Although God himself, in the Old testament, gave a lot of commands concerning many aspects of life, this has been replaced now by the rule of our conciences enlightened by the Holy Spirit. This rule is not accepted by other religions like Islam. They think that only the threat of a harsh punishment can prevent them from immorality.
In Arabic-speaking countries, the term is used to describe anything permissible under Islamic law, in contrast to haraam, that which is forbidden. This includes human behavior, speech communication, clothing, conduct, manner and dietary laws.In non-Arabic-speaking countries, the term is most commonly used in the narrower context of just Muslim dietary laws, especially where meat and poultry are concerned, though it can be used for the more general meaning, as well.Veganism is a diet and lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose.[1][2] Vegans endeavor not to use or consume animal products of any kind.[3] The most common reasons for becoming a vegan are ethical commitment or moral conviction concerning animal rights, the environment, human health, and spiritual or religious concerns.[2][4][5]Of particular concern to many vegans are the practices involved in factory farming and animal testing, and the intensive use of land and other resources for animal farming.Vegan diets (sometimes called strict or pure vegetarian diets) are a subset of vegetarian diets.
All these concerns keep many people busy, others obsessed and others rich but it is in God’s eyes a distraction from what he calls pure. To mention only a few, here are some things that the Bible considers pure:
The fear of God Ps 19:10
The fruit of wisdom Pr 8:19
The commands of the Lord Ps 19:9
The wisdom from on high James 3:17
The New Jerusalem made of pure gold Rev21:18
What God declares pure Act 11:19
3. Conclusion
Mat 8:2-3
And behold, a leper[a] came to him and(B) knelt before him, saying, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean." 3And Jesus[b] stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Leprosy in the Bible represents sin and its result on the skin. I believe that God wants us to be pure and clean. And what seems impossible to us because we are so weak, our God will do it, because He is strong. However, He requires from us to persevere and keep his words alive in our hearts and keep the faith.May God bless you in this walk in and towards purity. Amen
Mat 8:2-3
1. Introduction
1.1 Uniqueness of the Bible
Before starting my message, I’d like to make a few comments about the Bible:
I believe it is the word of God, the revealed and uncorrupted word of God to humankind. Islam says the Bible has been corrupted, but no trace of these so called ‘uncorrupted version(s)’ has ever been found.
It is the only Holy Book. No other so called ‘holy book’ exist as there is only one God and He cannot contradict himself. Our Bible does not accept that a single word or even a comma might be added to or removed from it.
In our Bible, there are the New and the Old Testaments. The New Testament does not contradict the Old one but fulfils it. It reveals the spiritual reality of practices and symbols, like the practice of sacrifices that were given to humankind before the coming of Christ. Paul says it was the mere shadow of what was to come or the good things to come with the substance belonging to Christ (Col 2:17; Heb 10:1). But even a ‘biblical shadow’ is not to be despised, since the shadow of Peter the Apostle could heal sick people that were placed on its path (Act 5:15).
The New Testament itself reveals our Lord Jesus, who is among other things, God among us, the testimony of God’s love and the fulfilment of God’s plan of salvation for humankind. Even if we still see spiritual things in a mirror dimly (1Cor 13:12a), what is behind this blurry glass is the right thing and one day at last, we will be able to see God face to face and know Him as well as He knows us.
1.2 Availability of the Bible
For centuries, it has been very difficult or even impossible to read the Bible. One of the reasons was that most people could not read. It is still partially true today, especially in India and in Africa. Also, it was impossible to read it because it was only written in a language that was different from the one people used everyday. Only religious people of the time knew Latin and that was the only language used to read the Bible and talk about it in most of the developed world of that time. It was then forbidden to translate the Bible in everyday language and those who braved the interdiction faced death and many died on the stake, burnt alive. Now that by God’s grace, the Bible has become available in many languages, many countries have forbidden its production, distribution and possession. When you think that just over a century ago, it was still impossible for a Catholic nun to read the full Bible, you realise that we are living in a changing time. Today, the Bible is available online in many languages and this is a great opportunity for many to have access to the word of God and praise God for those who work in that field.
1.3 Satan is still at work
As we know that the devil does not give up easily, he has started poisoning the very Bible we use. In the Left Behind 3 movie, that is the physical way the New World Order leader tries to kill Christians. Be aware, dear brothers and sisters of the bad translations of the Bible that cannot feed your souls spiritually properly. Key passages are removed, key words are replaced and the very dynamic of the Scripture is changed. Nowadays, everyone has to do his homework and decide by themselves which Bible they want to be fed with. May God bless you in this sometimes hard work.
One of the strategies of the devil is to paraphrase the scripture and present it as a authentic Bible. The ‘Message’ version, for example, introduces itself as a reading Bible and not as a study Bible. The website introducing ‘The Message’ reads:
“The goal of The Message is to engage people in the reading process and help them understand what they read. This is not a study Bible, but rather "a reading Bible." The verse numbers, which are not in the original documents, have been left out of the print version to facilitate easy and enjoyable reading.”
Although it is true that Jesus did not quote the verses he rebuked Satan with, it is nevertheless a help that has been useful for centuries. Also it reads:
“When we hear something over and over again in the same way, we can become so familiar with it that the text loses its impact. The Message strives to help readers hear the living Word of God—the Bible—in a way that engages and intrigues us right where we are.”
In this, it contradicts Joshua 1:8
“This Book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”
I personally do not think that God agrees with making a difference between reading and studying his word. As for the ‘artificial’ way of making the Bible attractive and easier to read, it is most likely to make the reader lazy in his mind by selecting for them a single interpretation where God had willingly left it open to discussion on purpose. ‘The Message’ and other similar ‘successful new versions’ of the Bible try to do what the work of the Holy Spirit is, that is to make the Scriptures alive in our hearts. I think it is a short-sighted view to make something new for the sake of it, since ‘The Message’ itself will grow older too with time and what will refresh it then? On top of that, who would go back to a ‘study Bible version’ when they have been used to reading a type of ‘easy listening’ one. For those who like children movies, do you remember how hard it was for the edge hook from the “Over the Edge” movie to go back to the healthy bark, after having tasted chips and other junk food.
So today, it is our privilege to have in our hands a Bible where the key words have not been ‘tempered with’, to be able to read and study it, to have the time and the motivation to do it and to be able to listen to messages about it. Praise God for that. Amen.
The Bible is unique as it is self explanatory. It is like these fruit trees that are auto fertile. With the Bible only, and the help of the Holy Spirit, you can understand the Bible and live it. Many commentaries and preaching, although not all of them, are often a distraction and a waste of time. The Bible explains the Bible. That is the reason why you need a good version. At the end of many Bibles, you can find what is called a Concordance. Each translation has his own one and you can also find entire book that are the Concordance of a specific version and they can be quite exhaustive. They are very useful to find passages you sometimes know, but are unable to find otherwise.
After this lengthily but hopefully useful introduction, it is time to go to today’s message:
2. Our message: Purity: the seemingly impossible target
2.1 Three passages among others mention purity
1 Pet 1:22
22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit[a] in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
James 4:8
8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Phil 1:22
8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
Peter asks us to purify our souls, James asks us to purify our hearts and Paul asks us to meditate on whatever things are pure. What does that mean? There, we are the ones who are asked to do the purification. Furthermore, we are told how to do it:
Our souls are purified through obedience to the truth through the Holy Spirit
Our hearts are purified by coming closer to God and being single-minded
We are to assess whatever things are pure to meditate on them.
2.2 Obedience
1 Pet 1:22
22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit[a] in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
Obedience is central to our Christian walk. In people’s life, the Holy Spirit is revealing progressively how to obey God’s commandments then it becomes a dialogue about what to do and not what to be, who to be and not to be. Jesus himself showed us the way: He was obedient unto death (Ph 2:8), he accepted the truth that was revealed by the prophets in the Scripture that he had to die (Luc 24:25-27)
8And being found in the fashion of a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death--even the death of the cross.
As Christians, we are everyday asked to choose between two masters who require our obedience. Matthew 6:24 (21st Century King James Version)
24"No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
This obedience leads to righteousness, one of God principles as it is written in:
Rom 6:16
16Do you not know that if you present yourselves(A) to anyone as obedient slaves,[a] you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
This does not mean, as the devil would like us to believe, that if we sin, we become his slaves as long as it is not our choice to live in sin. We have to constantly throw our sins at the foot of the cross, as our sins belong to Christ who bore all of them and use the gift of repentance to come right before God one more time.
According to 1Peter 1:22, the purification of our souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit will lead us to love one another more fervently, with a pure heart. Obedience dissipates the risk of being hypocrites in our mutual love. Alleluia for that!
2.3 Being single-minded
James 4:8
8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Being single minded is certainly a key to holiness as it is so hard to be. Single minded means:
1. Having one overriding purpose or goal
2. Steadfast; resolute:
A quotation from WikiHow reads: "single-minded" has to do with the power of focus. Your ability to focus is ultimately your biggest ally in accomplishing tasks and projects. With practice, this is an ability one can develop. Your level of achievement and success depends upon it. The good form of "single-minded" is the ability to block out distractions and erroneous thoughts in order to concentrate better. Your desire to become more single-minded will enable you to finish projects with more efficiency in less time.
To purify our heart is to constantly remove from it any ideas, thoughts and desires that are not in agreement with the Holy Spirit who lives in us. This is an active process that never ends, and that is not related to our growth in the Christian faith as the devil attacks with more determination those who are a danger for him and his kingdom of darkness. He is single minded too in his determination to destroy God’s plan.
2.4 The things that are pure
The world is obsessed with what is pure. Pure water, pure gold, 100% pure NZ. ‘Pure’ is a very attractive word. However, it brings many people under the slavery of what to do and what not to do, especially about food. Halal for Muslims, Kosher for Jewish, Vegan for animal lovers. Although God himself, in the Old testament, gave a lot of commands concerning many aspects of life, this has been replaced now by the rule of our conciences enlightened by the Holy Spirit. This rule is not accepted by other religions like Islam. They think that only the threat of a harsh punishment can prevent them from immorality.
In Arabic-speaking countries, the term is used to describe anything permissible under Islamic law, in contrast to haraam, that which is forbidden. This includes human behavior, speech communication, clothing, conduct, manner and dietary laws.In non-Arabic-speaking countries, the term is most commonly used in the narrower context of just Muslim dietary laws, especially where meat and poultry are concerned, though it can be used for the more general meaning, as well.Veganism is a diet and lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose.[1][2] Vegans endeavor not to use or consume animal products of any kind.[3] The most common reasons for becoming a vegan are ethical commitment or moral conviction concerning animal rights, the environment, human health, and spiritual or religious concerns.[2][4][5]Of particular concern to many vegans are the practices involved in factory farming and animal testing, and the intensive use of land and other resources for animal farming.Vegan diets (sometimes called strict or pure vegetarian diets) are a subset of vegetarian diets.
All these concerns keep many people busy, others obsessed and others rich but it is in God’s eyes a distraction from what he calls pure. To mention only a few, here are some things that the Bible considers pure:
The fear of God Ps 19:10
The fruit of wisdom Pr 8:19
The commands of the Lord Ps 19:9
The wisdom from on high James 3:17
The New Jerusalem made of pure gold Rev21:18
What God declares pure Act 11:19
3. Conclusion
Mat 8:2-3
And behold, a leper[a] came to him and(B) knelt before him, saying, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean." 3And Jesus[b] stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Leprosy in the Bible represents sin and its result on the skin. I believe that God wants us to be pure and clean. And what seems impossible to us because we are so weak, our God will do it, because He is strong. However, He requires from us to persevere and keep his words alive in our hearts and keep the faith.May God bless you in this walk in and towards purity. Amen
Monday, December 21, 2009
REVIVAL (Part II)
Truth is something very simple in man’s life, if you really want to use it.
For example; a man had stolen money and was arrested. He said, “I didn’t steal it, prove that I stole it”. There was no proof.
His wife came to him and said my husband you really made me ashamed. He said, “my wife I tell you the truth, you know, I took this money, it will help us for our future life. If I tell these stupid people we will be poor forever, so keep this secret and we will be rich, half of this money will go in your bank account”. The wife just rubbed her hands and when people would come she would say my husband never stole and I will never accept it. This family were Christians and they would always hold their Bible’s to go to church on Sunday. On Sunday they would say, thank you God because you kept us. God visited them and said what you did is not right. The conscience of the husband woke up and he said, “yes I stole”. The wife looked at him and only her eyes talked to say, “what are you saying?” The husband said, “yes I really stole and my wife kept half of the money”. The wife said, “look at this man he is mad, I think you must first check his mental health because he has got a mental problem”.
You see because of money, only paper, people put truth aside and sacrifice their souls to sin. So as for us, if we don’t walk with the truth; there will never be good fruit. You
might know the Word of God by heart or you might know all the important passages but if you don’t put this passage into practise, people won’t see the proof of your faith.
Fourteen years ago there was a man who was very rich. His son finished secondary school and he said when you get your results I will buy you something. The son said there were motorbikes, Suzuki 100cc that were very trendy. I want that because all the young people have them. The father asked, “Is that all that you want? Well I will get it for you, but there is something, I will change your identity, your name will be changed, and you will be called something else”. ‘By your wounds you have been healed’; this is the name the father gave his son. One-day the son’s results came and his father said I am very happy and proud of you. I have never known a son like you. You work very well.
He took a passport and gave it to his son. This passport bore the name ‘by your wound you have been healed’ the son put it in his pocket and said, “I am still waiting”. The father said, “you can go”. “No dad, what about your promise?” The father said, “yes I remember. To ride a bike you have to learn first. Did you learn how to ride a bike?” “Dad it’s not a problem, in 2 days I will be ready”. “Okay my son because you say that I will give it to you”. He took a New Testament and gave it to his son. The child looked at his father and changed his attitude. He took his passport and chucked it on the floor. “What’s that? Lying dad!” He left and slammed the door behind him. His dad let him go. Twenty years later his son got married and had a family. He learnt on the radio that his dad had died. He thought because his dad had died it’s time to go back and get an inheritance. His wife said, “be quick you have to go there, before people start sharing your father’s things, you have to be there”.
When he went home he didn’t go to see the body of his father, all he wanted was the inheritance. When he got there everybody was crying and he said, “where are the documents that he left?” People asked him, “what documents?” He said, “the will”. His mum said if you need a Testament there are two, the Old Testament and the New Testament, which one do you want? He said, “No, the will that my father wrote that is all that I want”.
After the burial the lawyer came. He told the son he could leave the house for it has been given to someone. The son asked, “how could that be, let me go to the bank”. The bank told him his father had 15 million dollars but he had given it to someone else. “But it is me who has to inherit it”. The lawyer asked for his passport. He showed him the passport with his original name of Floyd on it. He said it is not you so you can leave. The son remembered, my father said that my name had changed, I have another name, ‘By your wound you have been healed.’ “Well where is the proof, this is the true name but where is the proof?” Twenty years ago he had thrown away the passport that his father had given him. Where could he find it? He came back home and tried to find it and by chance he found the New Testament and the passport. He started crying. “What did I do against my father?” When he opened the New Testament he saw a key. It was the key to the ignition of the bike that had been bought twenty years ago. But because he had rejected the New Testament he also rejected the bike. It was written clearly that everything had been paid for. He went to the bike company but the company had already closed its doors. He went to the bank with this passport and he was given the money.
That is the way us Christians live today. We always call ourselves Children of God but the name and identity our Lord gave us, do we keep burying it or do we throw it away in front of His eyes? If you are a Christian do you carry the Christian identity with you?
Or do you have the Congolese or French identity? What is your identity? Your identity must always have facts that come with it
For example; a man had stolen money and was arrested. He said, “I didn’t steal it, prove that I stole it”. There was no proof.
His wife came to him and said my husband you really made me ashamed. He said, “my wife I tell you the truth, you know, I took this money, it will help us for our future life. If I tell these stupid people we will be poor forever, so keep this secret and we will be rich, half of this money will go in your bank account”. The wife just rubbed her hands and when people would come she would say my husband never stole and I will never accept it. This family were Christians and they would always hold their Bible’s to go to church on Sunday. On Sunday they would say, thank you God because you kept us. God visited them and said what you did is not right. The conscience of the husband woke up and he said, “yes I stole”. The wife looked at him and only her eyes talked to say, “what are you saying?” The husband said, “yes I really stole and my wife kept half of the money”. The wife said, “look at this man he is mad, I think you must first check his mental health because he has got a mental problem”.
You see because of money, only paper, people put truth aside and sacrifice their souls to sin. So as for us, if we don’t walk with the truth; there will never be good fruit. You
might know the Word of God by heart or you might know all the important passages but if you don’t put this passage into practise, people won’t see the proof of your faith.
Fourteen years ago there was a man who was very rich. His son finished secondary school and he said when you get your results I will buy you something. The son said there were motorbikes, Suzuki 100cc that were very trendy. I want that because all the young people have them. The father asked, “Is that all that you want? Well I will get it for you, but there is something, I will change your identity, your name will be changed, and you will be called something else”. ‘By your wounds you have been healed’; this is the name the father gave his son. One-day the son’s results came and his father said I am very happy and proud of you. I have never known a son like you. You work very well.
He took a passport and gave it to his son. This passport bore the name ‘by your wound you have been healed’ the son put it in his pocket and said, “I am still waiting”. The father said, “you can go”. “No dad, what about your promise?” The father said, “yes I remember. To ride a bike you have to learn first. Did you learn how to ride a bike?” “Dad it’s not a problem, in 2 days I will be ready”. “Okay my son because you say that I will give it to you”. He took a New Testament and gave it to his son. The child looked at his father and changed his attitude. He took his passport and chucked it on the floor. “What’s that? Lying dad!” He left and slammed the door behind him. His dad let him go. Twenty years later his son got married and had a family. He learnt on the radio that his dad had died. He thought because his dad had died it’s time to go back and get an inheritance. His wife said, “be quick you have to go there, before people start sharing your father’s things, you have to be there”.
When he went home he didn’t go to see the body of his father, all he wanted was the inheritance. When he got there everybody was crying and he said, “where are the documents that he left?” People asked him, “what documents?” He said, “the will”. His mum said if you need a Testament there are two, the Old Testament and the New Testament, which one do you want? He said, “No, the will that my father wrote that is all that I want”.
After the burial the lawyer came. He told the son he could leave the house for it has been given to someone. The son asked, “how could that be, let me go to the bank”. The bank told him his father had 15 million dollars but he had given it to someone else. “But it is me who has to inherit it”. The lawyer asked for his passport. He showed him the passport with his original name of Floyd on it. He said it is not you so you can leave. The son remembered, my father said that my name had changed, I have another name, ‘By your wound you have been healed.’ “Well where is the proof, this is the true name but where is the proof?” Twenty years ago he had thrown away the passport that his father had given him. Where could he find it? He came back home and tried to find it and by chance he found the New Testament and the passport. He started crying. “What did I do against my father?” When he opened the New Testament he saw a key. It was the key to the ignition of the bike that had been bought twenty years ago. But because he had rejected the New Testament he also rejected the bike. It was written clearly that everything had been paid for. He went to the bike company but the company had already closed its doors. He went to the bank with this passport and he was given the money.
That is the way us Christians live today. We always call ourselves Children of God but the name and identity our Lord gave us, do we keep burying it or do we throw it away in front of His eyes? If you are a Christian do you carry the Christian identity with you?
Or do you have the Congolese or French identity? What is your identity? Your identity must always have facts that come with it
Sunday, December 20, 2009
REVIVAL
By Odon Bulamba (16 MAY 2003)
It’s a joy to meet again tonight. It’s a grace that we have that we might be together.
I thought about what happened in my life these last 10 years. One day like this one, my life changed, my life became something new. This day reminds me of something important in my life.
In our everyday life we remember about things that happened, we remember what happened 2 or 3 years ago, so sometimes we have memories. But sometimes we forget the big memories of God, for example if someone shared the gospel with you 2 years ago it’s very easy to forget. But if someone gave you a pair of shoes 2 years ago you remember who gave you these shoes. Why is this? Because sometimes we don’t give God the importance that He has, sometimes we forget that God exists. When we plan our day, every morning we think about what our children will eat and what they are going to do. It’s very easy to say at 9 o’clock I’ll take my son to school and at 3 o’clock I have to pick him up. This is a duty. But when it’s about God it’s rare to say everyday at 8 o’clock I have to pray, although the Bible says pray without ceasing. We remember sometimes to meet God. For us as Christians we are called to live according to the truth and the truth is the Word of God. The truth is Jesus Christ himself, He said I am the way the truth and the life. He also said the Word that you have is the truth, it is John 17:17. Because of that, truth is important in our life.
I meditated a little bit on my life; when you have to go to a court trial, for example, you find a witness who will give an oath to say; I give you the truth and only the truth. When you leave there you go to Christian people and they say only the truth will set you free. If you leave the Christians and go to the politicians they will say I will tell you the truth, the truth is this. When a parent corrects his child he will say; tell me the truth. Because everybody needs truth in his life. When the truth is there, there’s nothing to add to it.
When scientists do research and they find the truth, the research is over. The truth is the last thing of everything. When a journalist interviews someone he says I’m going to go in depth to find the truth. Even people when they argue together they say; what I say is the truth. They are eager to convince people what they think because they think it is the truth. Truth is truth only if it can be proven with facts. If there are no facts coming with this truth then this truth is vain. Why do I say that? Facts are very necessary in Christian life. Suppose I say today that I’m a Christian and the Word of God says Christians must live this way and if for example there are no facts proving that I’m a Christian will I keep saying that I’m a Christian? Suppose a child will say, “I can play a piano”, it’s true his talent won’t be visible on his fingers, but show him a piano and you’ll see.
When Lebon first came here to New Zealand he was only 7 years old but in everything he would say, “I know”. So we had to say prove it. Then he would say, “um, um, um…” We would tell him that if he doesn’t know then he has to learn and that’s the same thing in Christian life. When we say we belong to the truth there will be facts to go with this truth. If your truth were not facts it would be better to stop and see where it’s wrong.
Today we are talking about Revival. Revival is a very important step in Christian life. It works with the truth and the facts that go with the truth. Revival means strength or to find strength or to give strength. The facts around us give strength to our belief. One day when Jesus will be back, our actions will be there to be with us, and each Christian will be there with his acts. That will be the acts that will come with this faith.
If these facts prove that really you didn’t believe you would be one of those that say in the Bible, “Lord, Lord I walked with you”, but are not acknowledged as such. After having learned to glorify God we are going to learn a little bit about the truth and the facts that come with truth, to have a solid basis on revival. Who is a parent or a person who wouldn’t like the truth in their lives? When your child tells a lie, what do you feel in your heart? Do you feel joy or sadness? Sometimes you even feel you might punish this child, because the child has to change and walk in the truth. In front of God we live in the same situation. When for example we lie and say I am a Christian it’s not good for God because your actions don’t prove you are telling the truth when you say you are a Chrisitian. God feels uneasy in his heart and he sends people to teach you how to change your behaviour.
The Bible says a light will never be put under a table. If you want your lamp to lighten the house you have to put it on the table. If you hide this lamp underneath something it is covered. Many Christian’s have known the truth but they prefer to put the truth under the carpet. On Sundays they lift up the carpet and say, “I’m here, Praise the Lord Pastor, God bless you Pastor”. Only on Sundays you will hear their voice. Find them on the road on Mondays and you will see even the way they talk changes. They are evil, but on Sundays they are the first one to praise God.
This week I went to the IRD office in town and I found someone who works there and told him “I have a letter from you”. Because he saw me, maybe my race, I don’t know, he started talking in English I have never heard in my life. When I told him, “what do you say?” He said, “come on!” So I said, “but I have the right to understand what you say, could you at least speak slower and nicer please, because English is my sixth language, so if I talk to you in my 1st language you won’t understand, so please try to be considerate”.
Thank God another man came. He said, “how are you my friend?” I said, “I am all right”. I saw you somewhere, you were talking with other servants of God and I was happy with what you said. The man who first dealt with me looked at me and said, “are you a Christian?” I said, “yes I am”. He said, “oh, ok maybe we’ll talk later”. When this second man left, the 1st man said, “I am a Christian too”. His way of talking changed, he remembered there is a gift of the Holy Spirit that is kindness. He spoke with kindness and I started thinking if this is Christian life, when Jesus will be here nobody will know if it’s Jesus or not because I don’t know what Jesus’ face looks like. So we must put the truth on the table and practise it.
It’s a joy to meet again tonight. It’s a grace that we have that we might be together.
I thought about what happened in my life these last 10 years. One day like this one, my life changed, my life became something new. This day reminds me of something important in my life.
In our everyday life we remember about things that happened, we remember what happened 2 or 3 years ago, so sometimes we have memories. But sometimes we forget the big memories of God, for example if someone shared the gospel with you 2 years ago it’s very easy to forget. But if someone gave you a pair of shoes 2 years ago you remember who gave you these shoes. Why is this? Because sometimes we don’t give God the importance that He has, sometimes we forget that God exists. When we plan our day, every morning we think about what our children will eat and what they are going to do. It’s very easy to say at 9 o’clock I’ll take my son to school and at 3 o’clock I have to pick him up. This is a duty. But when it’s about God it’s rare to say everyday at 8 o’clock I have to pray, although the Bible says pray without ceasing. We remember sometimes to meet God. For us as Christians we are called to live according to the truth and the truth is the Word of God. The truth is Jesus Christ himself, He said I am the way the truth and the life. He also said the Word that you have is the truth, it is John 17:17. Because of that, truth is important in our life.
I meditated a little bit on my life; when you have to go to a court trial, for example, you find a witness who will give an oath to say; I give you the truth and only the truth. When you leave there you go to Christian people and they say only the truth will set you free. If you leave the Christians and go to the politicians they will say I will tell you the truth, the truth is this. When a parent corrects his child he will say; tell me the truth. Because everybody needs truth in his life. When the truth is there, there’s nothing to add to it.
When scientists do research and they find the truth, the research is over. The truth is the last thing of everything. When a journalist interviews someone he says I’m going to go in depth to find the truth. Even people when they argue together they say; what I say is the truth. They are eager to convince people what they think because they think it is the truth. Truth is truth only if it can be proven with facts. If there are no facts coming with this truth then this truth is vain. Why do I say that? Facts are very necessary in Christian life. Suppose I say today that I’m a Christian and the Word of God says Christians must live this way and if for example there are no facts proving that I’m a Christian will I keep saying that I’m a Christian? Suppose a child will say, “I can play a piano”, it’s true his talent won’t be visible on his fingers, but show him a piano and you’ll see.
When Lebon first came here to New Zealand he was only 7 years old but in everything he would say, “I know”. So we had to say prove it. Then he would say, “um, um, um…” We would tell him that if he doesn’t know then he has to learn and that’s the same thing in Christian life. When we say we belong to the truth there will be facts to go with this truth. If your truth were not facts it would be better to stop and see where it’s wrong.
Today we are talking about Revival. Revival is a very important step in Christian life. It works with the truth and the facts that go with the truth. Revival means strength or to find strength or to give strength. The facts around us give strength to our belief. One day when Jesus will be back, our actions will be there to be with us, and each Christian will be there with his acts. That will be the acts that will come with this faith.
If these facts prove that really you didn’t believe you would be one of those that say in the Bible, “Lord, Lord I walked with you”, but are not acknowledged as such. After having learned to glorify God we are going to learn a little bit about the truth and the facts that come with truth, to have a solid basis on revival. Who is a parent or a person who wouldn’t like the truth in their lives? When your child tells a lie, what do you feel in your heart? Do you feel joy or sadness? Sometimes you even feel you might punish this child, because the child has to change and walk in the truth. In front of God we live in the same situation. When for example we lie and say I am a Christian it’s not good for God because your actions don’t prove you are telling the truth when you say you are a Chrisitian. God feels uneasy in his heart and he sends people to teach you how to change your behaviour.
The Bible says a light will never be put under a table. If you want your lamp to lighten the house you have to put it on the table. If you hide this lamp underneath something it is covered. Many Christian’s have known the truth but they prefer to put the truth under the carpet. On Sundays they lift up the carpet and say, “I’m here, Praise the Lord Pastor, God bless you Pastor”. Only on Sundays you will hear their voice. Find them on the road on Mondays and you will see even the way they talk changes. They are evil, but on Sundays they are the first one to praise God.
This week I went to the IRD office in town and I found someone who works there and told him “I have a letter from you”. Because he saw me, maybe my race, I don’t know, he started talking in English I have never heard in my life. When I told him, “what do you say?” He said, “come on!” So I said, “but I have the right to understand what you say, could you at least speak slower and nicer please, because English is my sixth language, so if I talk to you in my 1st language you won’t understand, so please try to be considerate”.
Thank God another man came. He said, “how are you my friend?” I said, “I am all right”. I saw you somewhere, you were talking with other servants of God and I was happy with what you said. The man who first dealt with me looked at me and said, “are you a Christian?” I said, “yes I am”. He said, “oh, ok maybe we’ll talk later”. When this second man left, the 1st man said, “I am a Christian too”. His way of talking changed, he remembered there is a gift of the Holy Spirit that is kindness. He spoke with kindness and I started thinking if this is Christian life, when Jesus will be here nobody will know if it’s Jesus or not because I don’t know what Jesus’ face looks like. So we must put the truth on the table and practise it.
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