By Odon Bulamba (summary only)
What we must do is to show that we are willing to serve God. Whoever we are, if God has chosen us nobody can oppose us.
Gal 6:7, we cannot mock God. We must respect the gift that God has given us and we must respect all the steps. If we try to mock God; woe to us. So the commitment we have is tough. When we first came here to NZ, Hayley said “I want to work for God”, Ange also said it, Michelle, Peter all of us. God was quiet and we went to Him and said, “wake up God we want to work for you”, and God said o.k you want to work so I have given you all gifts and now He is waking us up. He says, “lets’ go it’s time to wake up, You woke Me up and I accepted, now it’s My turn and I will wake you up”. You must go and if you don’t go that will cost you your life. We will be judged more harshly than others.
Hell has 3 dimensions. Rev 20, the 1st dimension is when hell will be open and Satan with all his angels will be thrown into that. The 2nd one is those who said they were Christians but they have hardened their hearts, they didn’t want to serve God and accept Him for who He is, they will say I did this and this in your name but God will say no I don’t know you. The 3rd dimension will be for the pagans.
What about you who committed yourself to God. The Bible says it is better not to commit yourself to God because when you commit yourself to God you swear and God hears that and God never comes back and changes His decisions. If you say, “I am a servant of God, I belong to God and I want to serve you”, when you say, “God I belong to You”, God will do with you everything He wants. For instance if this book was mine I could tear the pages, nobody can ask me why I did that but if you ask me I will say, “it’s my book, what’s your problem, that’s my business it’s my book”. That’s what it is to be with God. We say, “God I want to serve You, make me your child”, and God says, “thank you very much, come closer to Me because there are many souls that are waiting who want to be saved so now you must go”. If you don’t go, God can do whatever He wants to you. Be careful with what we call blasphemy, that is where it starts. You commit yourself to God and then you say no I am not ready to do that.
There is another example in the Bible, Jonah, he committed himself to serve God and one day God sent him on a difficult task but he said, “no I don’t want to go” but God said, “whether you want it or not you must go”. The Bible also talks about the rainbow which was the sign of a covenant, God did that in Noah’s time, and even today we can still see the rainbow. It means that all of God’s covenants are eternal. With God you cannot sign a six month contract, with God you cannot say it’s just for a time, with God there is no allowance, with God you can never say I am already old, remember Joshua, he was 80 yrs old and he said to God I am old now I can’t go, God said stand up and get up you must go, it means that what is spiritual never gets old, so we will never have good reasons to flee.
What are you going to say to God when God will say, “why didn’t you fulfill what I have given you?” Will you say, “sorry God I was tired because I worked hard”? God will say I don’t know anything about physical because I said first seek the kingdom of God, He always takes into account the spiritual needs first.
With God it is not your choice, it’s God’s. His choice has been made quite a while ago and each one of us has gifts. So what we are going to do is see how we can help those gifts be put into practice. Remember, if your faith is little it is time to make your faith grow. It is time to listen to God’s word and meditate on it, there is no other way. You are going to go to work or school, you will be tired and you will say, “no, let me read the Bible tomorrow”, and tomorrow morning you’ll wake up and say, “sorry I’m late I must go to work”, then this becomes a habit and God starts counting. When we say we will read the Bible tomorrow and we don’t do it, we lie and it is a sin. When we promise to pray at 11am and don’t, it is a sin. When we say we will pray for 20 minutes but the phone rings and we answer it and only pray for 10 minutes and don’t catch up, we sin because we have stolen God’s time.
The more you grow spiritually the more spiritual life becomes hard. We are not in control of our lives someone else is. If you have accepted to spread the gospel but stay where you are, you are like stale water.
In certain places in the hills, valleys and mountains there are holes and when it rains, water goes into the ground and some stays on the earth. After 2 days this water will start changing colour, after 4 days this water will stink, after 7 days the mosquitoes will come and when they are there the population will suffer from malaria and nobody can go there because it’s too muddy so will try to find a detour. Why is that? When God uses us and we are in this situation among this water we risk to become a pain for God’s people, we might harm the church of God, people will see us and think it is better to be a sinner like me than to be like him, have you ever learnt something like that? “This one is a Christian, oh it’s 5 times better to be the way I am than to be like him.” This is very serious.
Start asking God to give you a perfect and strong faith, to help you so that your faith can grow, always say to God, “You accepted me with my weaknesses, I admit that I don’t have a strong faith, this is also a weakness in me, help me”.
SUMMARY
- Remember your life belongs to God
- Put spiritual matters first
- Keep your promises with God
- Live in a way that will attract people to you and God
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Preparation for Gifts (part V)
By Odon Bulamba (summary only)
Moses was given everything he needed in order to fulfil the plan God had for his life. He was trained in the Egyptian army and was being prepared as a king of Egypt.
The gifts we have are there God has already sown them in us, but who will reap them and when? There is an example in the Bible; there was a vineyard keeper who had built something and he put everything in it, all the harvest was there and he said everything is full now I can rejoice. But Jesus said “who said that you will live, actually tonight you will die”. It is the same thing with us, God gives us spiritual gifts and we keep those gifts somewhere and we think maybe when I am 50 I will start using them, I cannot start using them yet, the gifts are there waiting but we stop them. Our time is short on this earth and we can die at any time. God will say, who told you that you have to wait for tomorrow before you start.
Most Christians don’t want to use their spiritual gifts because they are lazy. They don’t want to seek the faith but without faith gifts cannot work and faith comes from what we hear from the Word of God. Today’s Christians don’t take time to check the Word of God, they don’t take time to listen or meditate on His word, but they want the gifts to be there, they want to perform miracles, but how can you build a house without foundations? Is my faith sufficient? You must know and if you think that it is not sufficient Jesus has given us a solution where we can find faith, it is not 5 or 10 dollars, it is not something from your wallet, it is something that is freely given.
Have you ever seen a blind person recover sight after prayer? Have you ever seen someone who was crippled and was prayed for and was healed? Have you ever seen someone dead who was prayed for and came back to life? All those gifts we have them but NZ is behind with God’s wonders. If we hold each other’s hands and turn our eyes to God we can be the first people to do that here in NZ. So what are the others lacking to do it? Has God given only gifts to Africa and not to NZ? No, those gifts are there but Christians are lazy, they don’t want to build their faith. This is the problem; some Christians don’t even recognise their gifts. You can see an Evangelist or a Pastor and you will ask him why are you a Pastor, he will find it hard to answer you, he will say I was elected, people voted for me, you will say who voted for you, he will say people found that I behave well so they chose me.
Saul was also chosen to be king for Israel and the Israelites chose him because he was handsome, strong physically and tall, but it wasn’t a gift from God. This means that those who have a gift from God are privileged, God gives them the first place in everything, but we don’t want it. Some people go to university to learn theology and they play with the Word of God. In Africa God’s servants go to hospital and when they know they have the gift of healing and miracles because the Bible says go everywhere and pray for the sick and they will see the blind and sick and they will be healed. But here in New Zealand, if Michael has this gift, he just sits back and watches t.v. Get up and go to hospital and pray for those who need healing and after physical healing those people will see that God is there.
That’s what the Israelites was doing on mount Sinai, they knew that at that month God’s presence was there, that was where they could meet God. We are the meeting point between God and man. For example; Sylvie has the gift of prophecy and she knows that her neighbours are there, she will tell them yesterday I prayed and God revealed to me that tomorrow you will have an accident, if you are not careful in this accident you will die but God will not let you die because He wants your soul so please pray to God and believe in Jesus Christ. So what will happen to this neighbour, first of all he will be afraid, he will say where did you get that from, he will be frightened even though he hasn’t checked anything, he will lose control and maybe he won’t sleep and he will try to protect himself so that he won’t have an accident, but when the accident will happen he will remember that someone talked to him about it, so I want to know what is in Sylvie and where she found that. You will see this person come to Sylvie and be saved. The first person might tell you that you are a magician the second person might say you are a sorcerer but after that God will say, I am God
SUMMARY
God has given you gifts; now you must use them
Through using your gifts people will come to know Jesus Christ as their savior
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Moses was given everything he needed in order to fulfil the plan God had for his life. He was trained in the Egyptian army and was being prepared as a king of Egypt.
The gifts we have are there God has already sown them in us, but who will reap them and when? There is an example in the Bible; there was a vineyard keeper who had built something and he put everything in it, all the harvest was there and he said everything is full now I can rejoice. But Jesus said “who said that you will live, actually tonight you will die”. It is the same thing with us, God gives us spiritual gifts and we keep those gifts somewhere and we think maybe when I am 50 I will start using them, I cannot start using them yet, the gifts are there waiting but we stop them. Our time is short on this earth and we can die at any time. God will say, who told you that you have to wait for tomorrow before you start.
Most Christians don’t want to use their spiritual gifts because they are lazy. They don’t want to seek the faith but without faith gifts cannot work and faith comes from what we hear from the Word of God. Today’s Christians don’t take time to check the Word of God, they don’t take time to listen or meditate on His word, but they want the gifts to be there, they want to perform miracles, but how can you build a house without foundations? Is my faith sufficient? You must know and if you think that it is not sufficient Jesus has given us a solution where we can find faith, it is not 5 or 10 dollars, it is not something from your wallet, it is something that is freely given.
Have you ever seen a blind person recover sight after prayer? Have you ever seen someone who was crippled and was prayed for and was healed? Have you ever seen someone dead who was prayed for and came back to life? All those gifts we have them but NZ is behind with God’s wonders. If we hold each other’s hands and turn our eyes to God we can be the first people to do that here in NZ. So what are the others lacking to do it? Has God given only gifts to Africa and not to NZ? No, those gifts are there but Christians are lazy, they don’t want to build their faith. This is the problem; some Christians don’t even recognise their gifts. You can see an Evangelist or a Pastor and you will ask him why are you a Pastor, he will find it hard to answer you, he will say I was elected, people voted for me, you will say who voted for you, he will say people found that I behave well so they chose me.
Saul was also chosen to be king for Israel and the Israelites chose him because he was handsome, strong physically and tall, but it wasn’t a gift from God. This means that those who have a gift from God are privileged, God gives them the first place in everything, but we don’t want it. Some people go to university to learn theology and they play with the Word of God. In Africa God’s servants go to hospital and when they know they have the gift of healing and miracles because the Bible says go everywhere and pray for the sick and they will see the blind and sick and they will be healed. But here in New Zealand, if Michael has this gift, he just sits back and watches t.v. Get up and go to hospital and pray for those who need healing and after physical healing those people will see that God is there.
That’s what the Israelites was doing on mount Sinai, they knew that at that month God’s presence was there, that was where they could meet God. We are the meeting point between God and man. For example; Sylvie has the gift of prophecy and she knows that her neighbours are there, she will tell them yesterday I prayed and God revealed to me that tomorrow you will have an accident, if you are not careful in this accident you will die but God will not let you die because He wants your soul so please pray to God and believe in Jesus Christ. So what will happen to this neighbour, first of all he will be afraid, he will say where did you get that from, he will be frightened even though he hasn’t checked anything, he will lose control and maybe he won’t sleep and he will try to protect himself so that he won’t have an accident, but when the accident will happen he will remember that someone talked to him about it, so I want to know what is in Sylvie and where she found that. You will see this person come to Sylvie and be saved. The first person might tell you that you are a magician the second person might say you are a sorcerer but after that God will say, I am God
SUMMARY
God has given you gifts; now you must use them
Through using your gifts people will come to know Jesus Christ as their savior
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Preparation for Gifts (part IV)
By Odon Bulamba (summary only)
Most servants of God have gifts but they don’t work. Why is that? It is because they lack faith. For instance, if someone has the gift of healing and someone is sick, first you must be in good contact with your God, you must ask God, “am I ready to do that or not?” If God allows you, do it and if he doesn’t allow you, don’t do it. Also, don’t be influenced by anyone, if you are influenced by this world, the Spirit cannot work in you because the Spirit needs to rule everything in your life. God told us that those who want to follow Me must bear their cross, it’s not about other people’s crosses it’s about yourself, you must know yourself, you must know who you really are and admit your spiritual weaknesses. Ask yourself, “Do I have faith so that my gift can work? When I pray am I influenced by someone else?”
Many Christians when they gather together to pray, they want to show others how good they are in praying. If you have the gift of prayer it will not work if you want to show men that you can pray. Sometimes Christians when they pray in front of others they are very careful with the words they choose and try to show everyone they are grammatically perfect. This is zero for God. You will find that some people preach and they will say this is written this and that and this man says that but after the preaching you will find emptiness. When we want to show people that we have something special and we are able to pray or preach, the Spirit of God will leave us.
Jesus gave us a good example to follow, after His baptism He went to the desert for 40 days and Satan came to Him. Satan knew that he was the Son of God but Satan said to Him if, if you are the Son of God change those stones so you can eat bread because you are hungry. Can you see how Satan wants us to be proud? There was nobody else other than Satan and Jesus there but Jesus answered and said no. Satan did not give up, he knows that God created the earth and everything on the earth belongs to God, but Satan said to Jesus, “I will give you all this if you accept to do whatever I ask you”. Satan knew that this didn’t belong to him but he still wanted to give it to someone else. For us Christians, when we have the gift of the Spirit we can be sure that we will be invited by servants of God, by churches, by families and by groups of people, they will respect us and give us the first place in everything. But when we pray and speak in front of them we must ask God’s opinion first, if you don’t ask God’s opinion the gift you have in you won’t work.
The first thing in preparing to use your gifts, is that you must know the gifts that are in you. “Do I have the gift of hearing or not? Do I have the gift of vision or not?” When you know that you have spiritual eyes or ears you will know that God will answer you and talk to you through that.
One time in Kenya a young man took a blind person to the cinema. Try to imagine the situation, the blind knew he was in the cinema so he still saw something but he had to ask the others what was happening. Although the screen was in front of him, he still couldn’t see. But because someone was beside him and could tell him what was going on he could still follow what was happening. It is the same thing between us and God. When you don’t have the gift of prophesy it will be difficult for God to tell you what is going to happen in 5 days or 1 month and maybe that will be difficult to know the future because prophesy doesn’t work for the present, prophesy is there to help the church for tomorrow, to warn Christians what is ahead of them. If God knows that you don’t have spiritual eyes He will try to see if you have spiritual ears and if you don’t have them God will see that because you have other gifts that He will.
The gifts of God also depend on how we ask God and they also depend on how we behave before God. For example, I am lazy and God finds that this person is really lazy, if I give this person the gift of prayer it will never work because when you have the gift of prayer you must pray all the time, you are ready to fast everyday and you will be ready to stay up all night praying (“watch”) 2 or 3 times a week. Most people sleep for 8 hrs every night but the one who has the gift of praying will never sleep for 8 hrs, it is always in the night that God wakes you up and says wake up and pray, so you pray and then you fall asleep and 2mins later He will wake you up again and say pray, but if you are lazy you will say to God, “oh it’s too hard change my gift.”
In another example, other Christians have anger in them and they are bad tempered, they don’t know how to wait and handle situations and when situations come up this person is the first one to lose control. They are always the first to say, “do you want to do that because I can just put my Bible aside and react like anyone else”. How can God give a gift to this person and what kind of gift can He give? So how we react and who we are will also depend on the way God gives us gifts, that is why Paul said first seek the gifts that are necessary. God also said ask what you want and I will give that to you and if you ask me for a fish I will never give you a snake, but you must know yourself first, you must know your weaknesses and ask God to help you reach perfection, “God change and transform me so that I will be ready to receive the gifts”.
SUMMARY
- Before to use our gifts we have to first know what they are
- If you want to receive gifts from God, first prove to Him that you are ready to work
- Don't be lazy
- Reach for perfection (resist temptation)
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Most servants of God have gifts but they don’t work. Why is that? It is because they lack faith. For instance, if someone has the gift of healing and someone is sick, first you must be in good contact with your God, you must ask God, “am I ready to do that or not?” If God allows you, do it and if he doesn’t allow you, don’t do it. Also, don’t be influenced by anyone, if you are influenced by this world, the Spirit cannot work in you because the Spirit needs to rule everything in your life. God told us that those who want to follow Me must bear their cross, it’s not about other people’s crosses it’s about yourself, you must know yourself, you must know who you really are and admit your spiritual weaknesses. Ask yourself, “Do I have faith so that my gift can work? When I pray am I influenced by someone else?”
Many Christians when they gather together to pray, they want to show others how good they are in praying. If you have the gift of prayer it will not work if you want to show men that you can pray. Sometimes Christians when they pray in front of others they are very careful with the words they choose and try to show everyone they are grammatically perfect. This is zero for God. You will find that some people preach and they will say this is written this and that and this man says that but after the preaching you will find emptiness. When we want to show people that we have something special and we are able to pray or preach, the Spirit of God will leave us.
Jesus gave us a good example to follow, after His baptism He went to the desert for 40 days and Satan came to Him. Satan knew that he was the Son of God but Satan said to Him if, if you are the Son of God change those stones so you can eat bread because you are hungry. Can you see how Satan wants us to be proud? There was nobody else other than Satan and Jesus there but Jesus answered and said no. Satan did not give up, he knows that God created the earth and everything on the earth belongs to God, but Satan said to Jesus, “I will give you all this if you accept to do whatever I ask you”. Satan knew that this didn’t belong to him but he still wanted to give it to someone else. For us Christians, when we have the gift of the Spirit we can be sure that we will be invited by servants of God, by churches, by families and by groups of people, they will respect us and give us the first place in everything. But when we pray and speak in front of them we must ask God’s opinion first, if you don’t ask God’s opinion the gift you have in you won’t work.
The first thing in preparing to use your gifts, is that you must know the gifts that are in you. “Do I have the gift of hearing or not? Do I have the gift of vision or not?” When you know that you have spiritual eyes or ears you will know that God will answer you and talk to you through that.
One time in Kenya a young man took a blind person to the cinema. Try to imagine the situation, the blind knew he was in the cinema so he still saw something but he had to ask the others what was happening. Although the screen was in front of him, he still couldn’t see. But because someone was beside him and could tell him what was going on he could still follow what was happening. It is the same thing between us and God. When you don’t have the gift of prophesy it will be difficult for God to tell you what is going to happen in 5 days or 1 month and maybe that will be difficult to know the future because prophesy doesn’t work for the present, prophesy is there to help the church for tomorrow, to warn Christians what is ahead of them. If God knows that you don’t have spiritual eyes He will try to see if you have spiritual ears and if you don’t have them God will see that because you have other gifts that He will.
The gifts of God also depend on how we ask God and they also depend on how we behave before God. For example, I am lazy and God finds that this person is really lazy, if I give this person the gift of prayer it will never work because when you have the gift of prayer you must pray all the time, you are ready to fast everyday and you will be ready to stay up all night praying (“watch”) 2 or 3 times a week. Most people sleep for 8 hrs every night but the one who has the gift of praying will never sleep for 8 hrs, it is always in the night that God wakes you up and says wake up and pray, so you pray and then you fall asleep and 2mins later He will wake you up again and say pray, but if you are lazy you will say to God, “oh it’s too hard change my gift.”
In another example, other Christians have anger in them and they are bad tempered, they don’t know how to wait and handle situations and when situations come up this person is the first one to lose control. They are always the first to say, “do you want to do that because I can just put my Bible aside and react like anyone else”. How can God give a gift to this person and what kind of gift can He give? So how we react and who we are will also depend on the way God gives us gifts, that is why Paul said first seek the gifts that are necessary. God also said ask what you want and I will give that to you and if you ask me for a fish I will never give you a snake, but you must know yourself first, you must know your weaknesses and ask God to help you reach perfection, “God change and transform me so that I will be ready to receive the gifts”.
SUMMARY
- Before to use our gifts we have to first know what they are
- If you want to receive gifts from God, first prove to Him that you are ready to work
- Don't be lazy
- Reach for perfection (resist temptation)
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Monday, June 22, 2009
Nimrod, the first tyrant
By Michael Bahjejian
Gen 10:9
Let’s talk about Noah’s family. Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth who went through the flood. After the flood, Noah planted a vineyard, drunk the wine and got drunk. While he was drunk, he got undressed in his tent and accidentally one of his sons, Ham saw him. He told his brothers who made sure they wouldn’t see there father naked, so they brought him some cloth while walking backward. When Noah learnt what had happened, he cursed his son Ham with a curse of submission of his offspring to his brothers.
Gen 9:25-27
5 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
As a result of this curse came Nimrod. He was the son of Cush, one of Ham’s sons. Nimrod became a strong, powerful and charismatic leader whose influence led many people away from worshiping the true God. Our brother Odon gave us a message on the Tower of Babel in 2000. He told us that Nimrod left the East, the mountainous area to go to the plain in the West, away from where the morning light rises, where the morning light in a picture of the spiritual light of God. According to the historian Josephus, Nimrod is alleged to have pushed people to trust themselves and attribute their happiness to their own merit instead of praising God for their lives. It is said that people were quite happy to follow that path. Then it is said that Nimrod became progressively a tyrant, not only a hunter of animals but also a hunter of man. Likewise, it is understood that the term ‘before God’ in the expression ‘a mighty hunter before the Lord’ (Gen 10:9) literally means ‘in the face of God’ to suggest a certain rebelliousness in the establishment of a human government. In both Jewish and Islamic tradition, Nimrod remains an emblematic evil person, an archetype of an idolater and a tyrannical king (Nimrod the Evil and the Tyrant or Thug). He established his kingdom in Babel and built a few cities such as Nineveh that is the best known of all the big cities he built. Also, he might have been at the origin of the construction of the Babel Tower, symbol of people’s rebellion against God’s order to go and disperse around the world. His cities were fortified, surrounded with walls. This protection against the danger of this time, one of them being the wild beasts made it very attractive for people to live inside these cities. The cost to pay was to be submitted to a tyrant that was leading them astray.
While still alive, Nimrod and his wife Semiramis organised a cult to themselves, with one representation of them is the mother and child where the mother is Semiramis and the child is Nimrod. It is then alleged that Semiramis killed her husband and then the cult was mostly devoted to Semiramis who reigned over Babylon for over 100 years. She was eventually called the Queen of heaven, one of the titles officially given today to Mary, the mother of God by the Roman Catholic church.
(Today’s worship of Kim il-sung, the Eternal president and of his son, Kim Jong-Il Chairman of the National Defence Commission, is an example of humans worshipped as gods. And many other presidents and kings elsewhere give themselves or have given themselves the title of god through the age.)
Government
Juche socialist republic,Single-party communist state
-
Eternal President of the Republic
Kim Il-sung(deceased) a
-
Chairman of the National Defence Commission
Kim Jong-ilb
-
President of the Supreme People's Assembly
Kim Yong-namc
-
Premier
Kim Yong-il
Although the Bible doesn’t give us too many details about Nimrod’s life, historians have identified Nimrod with a complex of Mediterranean deities thanks to some similarities between some characteristics such as being a good hunter, building cities or closeness in the name. Eventually, the worship of Nimrod but especially the worship of Semiramis is at the origin of many of the Eastern religions that will be a permanent temptation for the people of Israel, and we remember that even Solomon who had so much wisdom and knowledge fell into that trap with serious consequences such as the creation of the kingdom of Judas and the kingdom of Israel that will fight for centuries against one another and have for most of the time evil king worshipping evil spirits until their complete destruction.
It is worth mentioning too that Abram’s genealogy goes back to Shem.
To come back to the flood, it is worth noting that the end of the flood is the beginning of the covenant of human government by which a human government is given by God the responsibility to restrain evil actions by punishing evil people even with the death penalty if a murder has been committed. Before this covenant, men were restrained by their conscience only.
A dispensation is a period of time under which mankind is answerable to God for how it has obeyed the revelation of God which it has received. These dispensations are commonly identified as Innocence that was the governing of the earth in worshipful submission to God, from Creation to the fall of man and God sending them out of the Garden of Eden, Conscience, the covenant with Adam, ending with the judgement and the flood where people were asked to walk before God with a clear conscience, Human government, the covenant with Noah, extending to the time of Abraham, and the Promise given to the patriarchs, from Abraham’s call to Moses. Some covenants finish with the next covenant but others are everlasting and overlap with the next ones, like the Promise that is still true today. Actually, some of the old covenants are still held in higher esteem by God than the new ones, even if they replace the old ones, as it is shown in Mat 19:8 when Jesus refers to the book of Genesis and says “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.” The name ‘Moses’ refers to the Law that is the fifth dispensation or covenant and ‘the beginning’ refers to the previous covenants.
Now, 3 generations after the flood, that can be up to 1000 years given the long age of people of that time, we face a situation of rebellion against God that is similar in many respects with the pre-flood situation. However, there are a few differences.
God has promised that He wouldn’t destroy the earth by flood, so instead of destruction, He sent the confusion of languages to stop people in their evil plans of disobedience.
Demons who did not keep their first estate as it is said in Jude but left their own habitation were already in chains until the great day of judgment. The flood destroyed the hybrid people, half human, half demon, who were the giants of old that couldn’t be redeemed by Jesus’ death, given that Jesus could not come on earth as a demon, or half demon.
Human government had begun. People were not committing evil actions on their own but it was guided by a human government that they were lead astray. It doesn’t mean that people are not able to commit bad things on their own since as I said before, previous covenants such as Conscience are still valid today, but the worst evil were to be committed by human governments. The 20th century, starting with World War 1 and ending with the war in Congo has certainly shown how governments could kill and destroy with an exponential efficiency made possible by the incredible technical improvement of the power and capacity of production of armaments and ammunition since the Industrial Revolution up to this day.
It is not made mention of foreign worship in the time of Noah. People’s minds were just focussed on evil and that was it. In Nimrod time and from this time on, the religious component is associated to the practice of evil. For example, the Nazis adopted the swastika as a symbol or logo but the history of the swastika spans 3000 years and is still in use in many countries and religions of the East. They associated it to dark rites of the Mystic Order. Any religion with mystery is associated to the Mystery Babylon quoted in Revelation. In today’s catechism of the Catholic church, anyone can read paragraph 963 that begins with Since the Virgin Mary’s role in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is fitting now to consider her place in the mystery of the Church… and paragraph 966 reads “Finally the immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation to her Son’s resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians. This is just one paragraph but it goes on like that for 12 that are more or less similar in idolatry.
Our Lord Jesus brought us back to His simplicity in the Gospels of marc, Luke and Matthew 20:25-28. There are no mysteries there. It is dead simple and straightforward although not that easy:
25 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.
26 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
To conclude, I would like to give homage to the Book of Genesis. With 50 chapters only, it includes the story of a few thousand years on earth, not less than 3.5 dispensations, and the germ of all the ages and countries history. God blessed His creation with Adam and Eve. They sinned by eating the forbidden fruit and as a result, Satan and the earth were cursed and Adam and Eve punished. When Noah came out of the arch, he was blessed by God with his family, given the same blessing to multiply given to Adam and Eve. Then he sinned by drinking the product of another tree that was not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and as a result, he cursed Ham or Canaan. Why did he do it? I still don’t know. Maybe it was necessary that the spirit fights against the flesh in the world and in each individual and the promises is the victory of the Spirit. But today, as a result of it, we are surrounded with conflicts between brothers of the same race and all kind of false religions are flourishing. The time of the giants is back, all these batmen, supermen, superwomen etc, more seriously the giants of ignorance, laziness and spiritual blindness…but as for us, we are longing for the next dispensation that is not fare from coming that is the Kingdom of our Lord.
May God bless you
Gen 10:9
Let’s talk about Noah’s family. Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth who went through the flood. After the flood, Noah planted a vineyard, drunk the wine and got drunk. While he was drunk, he got undressed in his tent and accidentally one of his sons, Ham saw him. He told his brothers who made sure they wouldn’t see there father naked, so they brought him some cloth while walking backward. When Noah learnt what had happened, he cursed his son Ham with a curse of submission of his offspring to his brothers.
Gen 9:25-27
5 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
As a result of this curse came Nimrod. He was the son of Cush, one of Ham’s sons. Nimrod became a strong, powerful and charismatic leader whose influence led many people away from worshiping the true God. Our brother Odon gave us a message on the Tower of Babel in 2000. He told us that Nimrod left the East, the mountainous area to go to the plain in the West, away from where the morning light rises, where the morning light in a picture of the spiritual light of God. According to the historian Josephus, Nimrod is alleged to have pushed people to trust themselves and attribute their happiness to their own merit instead of praising God for their lives. It is said that people were quite happy to follow that path. Then it is said that Nimrod became progressively a tyrant, not only a hunter of animals but also a hunter of man. Likewise, it is understood that the term ‘before God’ in the expression ‘a mighty hunter before the Lord’ (Gen 10:9) literally means ‘in the face of God’ to suggest a certain rebelliousness in the establishment of a human government. In both Jewish and Islamic tradition, Nimrod remains an emblematic evil person, an archetype of an idolater and a tyrannical king (Nimrod the Evil and the Tyrant or Thug). He established his kingdom in Babel and built a few cities such as Nineveh that is the best known of all the big cities he built. Also, he might have been at the origin of the construction of the Babel Tower, symbol of people’s rebellion against God’s order to go and disperse around the world. His cities were fortified, surrounded with walls. This protection against the danger of this time, one of them being the wild beasts made it very attractive for people to live inside these cities. The cost to pay was to be submitted to a tyrant that was leading them astray.
While still alive, Nimrod and his wife Semiramis organised a cult to themselves, with one representation of them is the mother and child where the mother is Semiramis and the child is Nimrod. It is then alleged that Semiramis killed her husband and then the cult was mostly devoted to Semiramis who reigned over Babylon for over 100 years. She was eventually called the Queen of heaven, one of the titles officially given today to Mary, the mother of God by the Roman Catholic church.
(Today’s worship of Kim il-sung, the Eternal president and of his son, Kim Jong-Il Chairman of the National Defence Commission, is an example of humans worshipped as gods. And many other presidents and kings elsewhere give themselves or have given themselves the title of god through the age.)
Government
Juche socialist republic,Single-party communist state
-
Eternal President of the Republic
Kim Il-sung(deceased) a
-
Chairman of the National Defence Commission
Kim Jong-ilb
-
President of the Supreme People's Assembly
Kim Yong-namc
-
Premier
Kim Yong-il
Although the Bible doesn’t give us too many details about Nimrod’s life, historians have identified Nimrod with a complex of Mediterranean deities thanks to some similarities between some characteristics such as being a good hunter, building cities or closeness in the name. Eventually, the worship of Nimrod but especially the worship of Semiramis is at the origin of many of the Eastern religions that will be a permanent temptation for the people of Israel, and we remember that even Solomon who had so much wisdom and knowledge fell into that trap with serious consequences such as the creation of the kingdom of Judas and the kingdom of Israel that will fight for centuries against one another and have for most of the time evil king worshipping evil spirits until their complete destruction.
It is worth mentioning too that Abram’s genealogy goes back to Shem.
To come back to the flood, it is worth noting that the end of the flood is the beginning of the covenant of human government by which a human government is given by God the responsibility to restrain evil actions by punishing evil people even with the death penalty if a murder has been committed. Before this covenant, men were restrained by their conscience only.
A dispensation is a period of time under which mankind is answerable to God for how it has obeyed the revelation of God which it has received. These dispensations are commonly identified as Innocence that was the governing of the earth in worshipful submission to God, from Creation to the fall of man and God sending them out of the Garden of Eden, Conscience, the covenant with Adam, ending with the judgement and the flood where people were asked to walk before God with a clear conscience, Human government, the covenant with Noah, extending to the time of Abraham, and the Promise given to the patriarchs, from Abraham’s call to Moses. Some covenants finish with the next covenant but others are everlasting and overlap with the next ones, like the Promise that is still true today. Actually, some of the old covenants are still held in higher esteem by God than the new ones, even if they replace the old ones, as it is shown in Mat 19:8 when Jesus refers to the book of Genesis and says “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.” The name ‘Moses’ refers to the Law that is the fifth dispensation or covenant and ‘the beginning’ refers to the previous covenants.
Now, 3 generations after the flood, that can be up to 1000 years given the long age of people of that time, we face a situation of rebellion against God that is similar in many respects with the pre-flood situation. However, there are a few differences.
God has promised that He wouldn’t destroy the earth by flood, so instead of destruction, He sent the confusion of languages to stop people in their evil plans of disobedience.
Demons who did not keep their first estate as it is said in Jude but left their own habitation were already in chains until the great day of judgment. The flood destroyed the hybrid people, half human, half demon, who were the giants of old that couldn’t be redeemed by Jesus’ death, given that Jesus could not come on earth as a demon, or half demon.
Human government had begun. People were not committing evil actions on their own but it was guided by a human government that they were lead astray. It doesn’t mean that people are not able to commit bad things on their own since as I said before, previous covenants such as Conscience are still valid today, but the worst evil were to be committed by human governments. The 20th century, starting with World War 1 and ending with the war in Congo has certainly shown how governments could kill and destroy with an exponential efficiency made possible by the incredible technical improvement of the power and capacity of production of armaments and ammunition since the Industrial Revolution up to this day.
It is not made mention of foreign worship in the time of Noah. People’s minds were just focussed on evil and that was it. In Nimrod time and from this time on, the religious component is associated to the practice of evil. For example, the Nazis adopted the swastika as a symbol or logo but the history of the swastika spans 3000 years and is still in use in many countries and religions of the East. They associated it to dark rites of the Mystic Order. Any religion with mystery is associated to the Mystery Babylon quoted in Revelation. In today’s catechism of the Catholic church, anyone can read paragraph 963 that begins with Since the Virgin Mary’s role in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is fitting now to consider her place in the mystery of the Church… and paragraph 966 reads “Finally the immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation to her Son’s resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians. This is just one paragraph but it goes on like that for 12 that are more or less similar in idolatry.
Our Lord Jesus brought us back to His simplicity in the Gospels of marc, Luke and Matthew 20:25-28. There are no mysteries there. It is dead simple and straightforward although not that easy:
25 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.
26 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
To conclude, I would like to give homage to the Book of Genesis. With 50 chapters only, it includes the story of a few thousand years on earth, not less than 3.5 dispensations, and the germ of all the ages and countries history. God blessed His creation with Adam and Eve. They sinned by eating the forbidden fruit and as a result, Satan and the earth were cursed and Adam and Eve punished. When Noah came out of the arch, he was blessed by God with his family, given the same blessing to multiply given to Adam and Eve. Then he sinned by drinking the product of another tree that was not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and as a result, he cursed Ham or Canaan. Why did he do it? I still don’t know. Maybe it was necessary that the spirit fights against the flesh in the world and in each individual and the promises is the victory of the Spirit. But today, as a result of it, we are surrounded with conflicts between brothers of the same race and all kind of false religions are flourishing. The time of the giants is back, all these batmen, supermen, superwomen etc, more seriously the giants of ignorance, laziness and spiritual blindness…but as for us, we are longing for the next dispensation that is not fare from coming that is the Kingdom of our Lord.
May God bless you
Friday, June 19, 2009
Preparation for Gifts (part III)
By Odon Bulamba (summary only)
Most servants of God have gifts but they don’t work. Why is that? It is because they lack faith. For instance, if someone has the gift of healing and someone is sick, first you must be in good contact with your God, you must ask God, “am I ready to do that or not?” If God allows you, do it and if he doesn’t allow you, don’t do it. Also, don’t be influenced by anyone, if you are influenced by this world, the Spirit cannot work in you because the Spirit needs to rule everything in your life. God told us that those who want to follow Me must bear their cross, it’s not about other people’s crosses it’s about yourself, you must know yourself, you must know who you really are and admit your spiritual weaknesses. Ask yourself, “Do I have faith so that my gift can work? When I pray am I influenced by someone else?”
Many Christians when they gather together to pray, they want to show others how good they are in praying. If you have the gift of prayer it will not work if you want to show men that you can pray. Sometimes Christians when they pray in front of others they are very careful with the words they choose and try to show everyone they are grammatically perfect. This is zero for God. You will find that some people preach and they will say this is written this and that and this man says that but after the preaching you will find emptiness. When we want to show people that we have something special and we are able to pray or preach, the Spirit of God will leave us.
Jesus gave us a good example to follow, after His baptism He went to the desert for 40 days and Satan came to Him. Satan knew that he was the Son of God but Satan said to Him if, if you are the Son of God change those stones so you can eat bread because you are hungry. Can you see how Satan wants us to be proud? There was nobody else other than Satan and Jesus there but Jesus answered and said no. Satan did not give up, he knows that God created the earth and everything on the earth belongs to God, but Satan said to Jesus, “I will give you all this if you accept to do whatever I ask you”. Satan knew that this didn’t belong to him but he still wanted to give it to someone else. For us Christians, when we have the gift of the Spirit we can be sure that we will be invited by servants of God, by churches, by families and by groups of people, they will respect us and give us the first place in everything. But when we pray and speak in front of them we must ask God’s opinion first, if you don’t ask God’s opinion the gift you have in you won’t work.
SUMMARY
- For our gifts to work we must have faith
- We must not be influenced by others
- The Holy Spirit must rule everything in our lives
- We must be humble
- We must ask God first before doing anything
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Most servants of God have gifts but they don’t work. Why is that? It is because they lack faith. For instance, if someone has the gift of healing and someone is sick, first you must be in good contact with your God, you must ask God, “am I ready to do that or not?” If God allows you, do it and if he doesn’t allow you, don’t do it. Also, don’t be influenced by anyone, if you are influenced by this world, the Spirit cannot work in you because the Spirit needs to rule everything in your life. God told us that those who want to follow Me must bear their cross, it’s not about other people’s crosses it’s about yourself, you must know yourself, you must know who you really are and admit your spiritual weaknesses. Ask yourself, “Do I have faith so that my gift can work? When I pray am I influenced by someone else?”
Many Christians when they gather together to pray, they want to show others how good they are in praying. If you have the gift of prayer it will not work if you want to show men that you can pray. Sometimes Christians when they pray in front of others they are very careful with the words they choose and try to show everyone they are grammatically perfect. This is zero for God. You will find that some people preach and they will say this is written this and that and this man says that but after the preaching you will find emptiness. When we want to show people that we have something special and we are able to pray or preach, the Spirit of God will leave us.
Jesus gave us a good example to follow, after His baptism He went to the desert for 40 days and Satan came to Him. Satan knew that he was the Son of God but Satan said to Him if, if you are the Son of God change those stones so you can eat bread because you are hungry. Can you see how Satan wants us to be proud? There was nobody else other than Satan and Jesus there but Jesus answered and said no. Satan did not give up, he knows that God created the earth and everything on the earth belongs to God, but Satan said to Jesus, “I will give you all this if you accept to do whatever I ask you”. Satan knew that this didn’t belong to him but he still wanted to give it to someone else. For us Christians, when we have the gift of the Spirit we can be sure that we will be invited by servants of God, by churches, by families and by groups of people, they will respect us and give us the first place in everything. But when we pray and speak in front of them we must ask God’s opinion first, if you don’t ask God’s opinion the gift you have in you won’t work.
SUMMARY
- For our gifts to work we must have faith
- We must not be influenced by others
- The Holy Spirit must rule everything in our lives
- We must be humble
- We must ask God first before doing anything
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Gifts and Ministries
By Tyrone Garratt (10/6/09)
Romans 12: 3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
Whatever we do for God, we have no reason to be proud of the ministries we have, because GOD HAS CHOSEN them and given us the MEASURE OF FAITH to fulfil them. We didn’t choose them but He gave us GIFTS to fit the MINISTRIES He has given us.
This ‘measure’ is, for example, like a circle that has been cut into thirds. Each third is a ‘measure’ only, it is not the complete circle.
If we think about the parable of the Sower, we see that the seed which is the Word of God sown into the soil of our hearts and we are born again. This seed is incorruptible and is planted in us. Within this seed is the blueprint for our lives and ministries.
What can stop this seed from growing and producing a harvest?
1 Cares of this world
2 Deceitfulness of riches
3 Lust of the flesh
4 Being around thorny people, stony, hard people
But we must protect and nurture the seed in us, so that it will grow into a fruitful tree and we will be transformed into the image of Christ.
Consider the gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit. 1Cor 12:8 lists 9 GIFTS that are for the empowering of 8 MINISTRIES OF GOD (1Cor 12:28). It is important that each gift is allowed to work because together the ministries are essential for the body of Christ to work effectively.
Romans 12 v 1-3
Romans 12: 3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
Whatever we do for God, we have no reason to be proud of the ministries we have, because GOD HAS CHOSEN them and given us the MEASURE OF FAITH to fulfil them. We didn’t choose them but He gave us GIFTS to fit the MINISTRIES He has given us.
This ‘measure’ is, for example, like a circle that has been cut into thirds. Each third is a ‘measure’ only, it is not the complete circle.
If we think about the parable of the Sower, we see that the seed which is the Word of God sown into the soil of our hearts and we are born again. This seed is incorruptible and is planted in us. Within this seed is the blueprint for our lives and ministries.
What can stop this seed from growing and producing a harvest?
1 Cares of this world
2 Deceitfulness of riches
3 Lust of the flesh
4 Being around thorny people, stony, hard people
But we must protect and nurture the seed in us, so that it will grow into a fruitful tree and we will be transformed into the image of Christ.
Consider the gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit. 1Cor 12:8 lists 9 GIFTS that are for the empowering of 8 MINISTRIES OF GOD (1Cor 12:28). It is important that each gift is allowed to work because together the ministries are essential for the body of Christ to work effectively.
Romans 12 v 1-3
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Preparation for gifts (part II)
By Odon Bulamba (summary only)
Acts 7:20, here the Bible talks about Moses, it says that Moses was a handsome child and he also pleased God. God chose him right from his mother’s womb, he was still a child but God loved him. He was still a baby but God found that he was good and he pleased God, which means that God has a plan for everybody’s life even before we are born.
When Moses was born God revealed to the midwives they must let the child live. Moses was chosen by God over his sister and brother to lead the Israelites and belonged to the tribe of Levi who God had chosen to carry the ark.
Moses’ mum hid him for 3 month but after 3 months she found she couldn’t carry on hiding him (maybe he cried a lot). She decided to put the child somewhere, Ex 2:3, the mum took Moses and hid him in a basket. This basket didn’t come from heaven, she made it herself and that was like a sacrifice because she didn’t think about the crocodiles or the animals that could hurt the child. Instead of the mum keeping the child she let her daughter take care of him. We are called children of God today and Jesus Christ has already the basket for us and has put us in it, there is the wind and crocodiles, the devil is around us but Jesus said you are in this world and people will fight you but stay there, the Holy Spirit will be there to keep you and when you cry the Holy Spirit will make a sign and I will know it.
That is what Miriam used to do, when the child cried she used to go home and tell her mum. Jesus gave us the Spirit to pray for us and to bring all our requests to Him but how will the Holy Spirit pray for us if we don’t respect the gifts we have? How will the Holy Spirit pray for us if we don’t please God? Are we still going to be dependent on people or other’s teaching or will we be able to leave this and go to another dimension?
2 Tim 3:7, some people are there to always learn, they keep learning but cannot find the truth. They can know that the Spirit of God works and they might know that there are gifts of the Spirit but they don’t know the truth, why is that? It’s because we don’t please God. What can we do to please God, do I have to fast and pray a lot? No, because God said I have accepted you with your weaknesses and Jesus said nobody is perfect here on this earth but we must seek spiritual perfection, as well as the knowledge that is necessary, and with those two together God can help us grow and the Spirit in us will act.
The Word of God will help us comfort our faith. We don’t read the word of God to have a better knowledge but it is to have a basis of a good faith. So faith goes with the gift of the Spirit. For instance, if you pray with the Holy Spirit but you doubt, the prayer will not be successful. Once you doubt, it is finished. Anotheror example, you might pray for someone who is sick and you feel a strength coming inside and instead of carrying on praying you feel a joy and you will make this joy come out instead of praying for the sick. This is what happens when we don’t adjust our prayers.
An example; someone is praying for their studies and when they kneel down to pray the Spirit of God comes and touches that person and this person feels a great joy and thinks oh! this is a great opportunity to pray for all of my needs because I have a good contact with God right now and maybe tomorrow it won’t be the same so God I need this and this and I have a whole list. However the purpose of this prayer was not that, after the prayer he will say as I was praying I felt a great strength in me. But if you ask this person what did you realise as an answer to your prayer they will say, “I don’t know.”
If you pray to God without doubt you will receive the answer and if you don’t receive an answer you must look inside yourself to see where the problem is. That is how the gift of God works. Gifts start working according to the faith that you have.
Acts 7:20, here the Bible talks about Moses, it says that Moses was a handsome child and he also pleased God. God chose him right from his mother’s womb, he was still a child but God loved him. He was still a baby but God found that he was good and he pleased God, which means that God has a plan for everybody’s life even before we are born.
When Moses was born God revealed to the midwives they must let the child live. Moses was chosen by God over his sister and brother to lead the Israelites and belonged to the tribe of Levi who God had chosen to carry the ark.
Moses’ mum hid him for 3 month but after 3 months she found she couldn’t carry on hiding him (maybe he cried a lot). She decided to put the child somewhere, Ex 2:3, the mum took Moses and hid him in a basket. This basket didn’t come from heaven, she made it herself and that was like a sacrifice because she didn’t think about the crocodiles or the animals that could hurt the child. Instead of the mum keeping the child she let her daughter take care of him. We are called children of God today and Jesus Christ has already the basket for us and has put us in it, there is the wind and crocodiles, the devil is around us but Jesus said you are in this world and people will fight you but stay there, the Holy Spirit will be there to keep you and when you cry the Holy Spirit will make a sign and I will know it.
That is what Miriam used to do, when the child cried she used to go home and tell her mum. Jesus gave us the Spirit to pray for us and to bring all our requests to Him but how will the Holy Spirit pray for us if we don’t respect the gifts we have? How will the Holy Spirit pray for us if we don’t please God? Are we still going to be dependent on people or other’s teaching or will we be able to leave this and go to another dimension?
2 Tim 3:7, some people are there to always learn, they keep learning but cannot find the truth. They can know that the Spirit of God works and they might know that there are gifts of the Spirit but they don’t know the truth, why is that? It’s because we don’t please God. What can we do to please God, do I have to fast and pray a lot? No, because God said I have accepted you with your weaknesses and Jesus said nobody is perfect here on this earth but we must seek spiritual perfection, as well as the knowledge that is necessary, and with those two together God can help us grow and the Spirit in us will act.
The Word of God will help us comfort our faith. We don’t read the word of God to have a better knowledge but it is to have a basis of a good faith. So faith goes with the gift of the Spirit. For instance, if you pray with the Holy Spirit but you doubt, the prayer will not be successful. Once you doubt, it is finished. Anotheror example, you might pray for someone who is sick and you feel a strength coming inside and instead of carrying on praying you feel a joy and you will make this joy come out instead of praying for the sick. This is what happens when we don’t adjust our prayers.
An example; someone is praying for their studies and when they kneel down to pray the Spirit of God comes and touches that person and this person feels a great joy and thinks oh! this is a great opportunity to pray for all of my needs because I have a good contact with God right now and maybe tomorrow it won’t be the same so God I need this and this and I have a whole list. However the purpose of this prayer was not that, after the prayer he will say as I was praying I felt a great strength in me. But if you ask this person what did you realise as an answer to your prayer they will say, “I don’t know.”
If you pray to God without doubt you will receive the answer and if you don’t receive an answer you must look inside yourself to see where the problem is. That is how the gift of God works. Gifts start working according to the faith that you have.
Monday, June 15, 2009
PREPARATION FOR GIFTS
By Odon Bulamba (summary only - 11th August, 00)
The Bible says in Gal 6:7 that man will reap what he sows. Nobody will reap what they haven’t sown, v8 says for he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption and he who sows to the spirit will sow everlasting life. So the one who sows in the spirit will have eternal life.
What does it mean to sow in spirit? Because we are Christians we must sow something in the spirit so we can reap eternal life. People in this world sow money, they invest, they have shares and they know they are sowing because they have interest but for us Christians what do we sow? We must have a spiritual bank so that we can put everything in this bank that we want and later we will have a treasure. It’s written in the Bible, put your treasure in heaven where rust cannot get at it, it means that everything we sow must be placed in heaven where there is no distraction.
How can we invest in heaven? The only path to heaven is through the spirit. What is it to sow in the spirit? To have a spiritual gift that you will put into practice which will give you something here on this earth. Gifts you have in you, you will put that into practice and you will bear fruit and this fruit will be seen before man and God.
Let me give you an example; you all know Benny Hinn, I don’t know what power he has but when he prays for the sick they are healed. He has something in him, he has something that he has invested in him and when this thing is put into practice there is something that happens. The person is healed. God loves us so much and because God loves us God has planned something for us. What is this plan? God has planned something wonderful for your life by giving you gifts or a ministry in your life and that plan is fulfilled when you practice them. When God talks about His great plan for your life, He is not talking about material things like money but about spiritual things. That is why He says to seek God first and the rest will come.
Rom 8:26, right from the beginning we are weak and God has decided to accept us as we are with our weaknesses. It doesn’t mean that because we are weak we are not loved by God, you just have to admit you are weak. We also must know that we are not more in God’s eyes than any other person and God will give to each one of us as He wants.
Why did I say that? Maybe you will think that this person has known God before me so why did God give me this and that person doesn’t have it? Why is Michael like that but Michelle is not like that? God has accepted Michael with his weaknesses and Michelle He has also accepted in another way. When He will give gifts, those gifts will be given differently. First of all the master is greater than the servant but to be the leader in front of others you must first be a servant, this is the first point to start God’s plan in your life. If you want to know how the Spirit of God works, if you want to live by the Holy Spirit, if you really want to discover what is in you, you must first humiliate yourself and know that you are nothing before others. But nobody must despise you because what is in you is of great value. But for yourself, you must humiliate yourself and say, “Spirit of God you are here for me, you know I am weak that’s why you pray for me because I don’t know how to pray, so help me, I need you in my life”.
SUMMARY
- Accept you are weak and acknowledge your need for Jesus Christ
- Humble yourself and know you are not better than others
- Practise the gifts God has given you
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
The Bible says in Gal 6:7 that man will reap what he sows. Nobody will reap what they haven’t sown, v8 says for he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption and he who sows to the spirit will sow everlasting life. So the one who sows in the spirit will have eternal life.
What does it mean to sow in spirit? Because we are Christians we must sow something in the spirit so we can reap eternal life. People in this world sow money, they invest, they have shares and they know they are sowing because they have interest but for us Christians what do we sow? We must have a spiritual bank so that we can put everything in this bank that we want and later we will have a treasure. It’s written in the Bible, put your treasure in heaven where rust cannot get at it, it means that everything we sow must be placed in heaven where there is no distraction.
How can we invest in heaven? The only path to heaven is through the spirit. What is it to sow in the spirit? To have a spiritual gift that you will put into practice which will give you something here on this earth. Gifts you have in you, you will put that into practice and you will bear fruit and this fruit will be seen before man and God.
Let me give you an example; you all know Benny Hinn, I don’t know what power he has but when he prays for the sick they are healed. He has something in him, he has something that he has invested in him and when this thing is put into practice there is something that happens. The person is healed. God loves us so much and because God loves us God has planned something for us. What is this plan? God has planned something wonderful for your life by giving you gifts or a ministry in your life and that plan is fulfilled when you practice them. When God talks about His great plan for your life, He is not talking about material things like money but about spiritual things. That is why He says to seek God first and the rest will come.
Rom 8:26, right from the beginning we are weak and God has decided to accept us as we are with our weaknesses. It doesn’t mean that because we are weak we are not loved by God, you just have to admit you are weak. We also must know that we are not more in God’s eyes than any other person and God will give to each one of us as He wants.
Why did I say that? Maybe you will think that this person has known God before me so why did God give me this and that person doesn’t have it? Why is Michael like that but Michelle is not like that? God has accepted Michael with his weaknesses and Michelle He has also accepted in another way. When He will give gifts, those gifts will be given differently. First of all the master is greater than the servant but to be the leader in front of others you must first be a servant, this is the first point to start God’s plan in your life. If you want to know how the Spirit of God works, if you want to live by the Holy Spirit, if you really want to discover what is in you, you must first humiliate yourself and know that you are nothing before others. But nobody must despise you because what is in you is of great value. But for yourself, you must humiliate yourself and say, “Spirit of God you are here for me, you know I am weak that’s why you pray for me because I don’t know how to pray, so help me, I need you in my life”.
SUMMARY
- Accept you are weak and acknowledge your need for Jesus Christ
- Humble yourself and know you are not better than others
- Practise the gifts God has given you
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Prisoner of God (part III)
By Odon Bulamba (summary only)
We have to humble ourselves to obey God’s rules.
WHAT IS A PRISONER OF CHRIST LIKE?
A. RESPECT THOSE WHO WORK AMONG YOU
1 Thessalonians 5:12
And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;
This is the first condition to be called a prisoner of Christ: respect those who work among you, those given by the Lord the charge of teaching and leading you.
Wherever you go in the world, you must absolutely obey the people God has placed on your path to build you up spiritually. Watch out: to obey them is different from becoming their slaves. You must obey and respect them for God’ glory.
B. ESTEEM AND LOVE THOSE WHO WORK AMONG YOU
1 Thessalonians 5:13
And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake.
And be at peace among yourselves.
It is telling us here about “esteem and love” them. We must love each other and esteem each other for the Lord’s glory and also appreciate the work each one is doing.
And what is love?
The Bible tells us that love is not something just limited to our lips.
1 John 3:16-18
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
Amen! I insist on verse 18. Love is not a speech of nice words, but our actions will speak for themselves. When I see Ange, my actions towards her will testify whether I truly love her or not, and this must be without hypocrisy. Some people are expert in hypocrisy: they can talk to you nicely and as soon as you turn your back, they threaten you. Christians must have perfect love. People in the world love each other with such a great love, but among us Christians, there is always division.
Is there a Christian somewhere who claims he is one and doesn’t know about love?
The Bible says in Hebrews that you can’t love God if you can’t love your neighbour. How will you say…?
- I love God,
When at the same time you say:
- When I see Brenda… No, Brenda… talk about someone else but not her. I can’t forget what she did to me 3 years ago. I don’t like her because she did this or that.
- Are you sure you are a Christian? The Bible commands you to love and love forgives, love is patient and love forgets everything that happened.
And this is another rule God gives us: as His prisoner we must have love.
C. BE GRATEFUL
There are ungrateful people in this world: you can serve them all their life but they will never acknowledge the fruit of your work. They will never say:
- I got something so good from that person!
They will just take everything for granted, they think it’s their right to get it.
D. LIVE AT PEACE WITH EVERYONE
The Bible also says we must live at peace with everyone. If you don’t have peace in your house, this is time to find it. If you have a problem with your husband, child or brother, it is time to sort it out.
Christians must enlighten the world and this comes from our tongue, what we say and the way we say it. Try to choose your words carefully, and find the right time to speak to the person. Don’t speak just to speak because God Himself is against rebellion. You can’t fight at home and then go and pray to God. It’s impossible. God will tell you to go back home and fix your problem first.
There is an example in the Bible: someone wanted to give God their offering and Jesus told them:
- Leave your offering here. Go back home to fix your problem and then, come back here.
So God will reject even an offering if you have not fixed up your problem. So we must know how to live at peace with everyone. And peace comes from our mouth.
E. ABOUT LAZINESS
1 Thessalonians 5:14
Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
Verse 14 says that we must warn lazy people. Some brothers or sisters are lazy. The verse 14 is not telling us about not doing our regular work. Here it’s talking about someone who does not have time to meditate the Word of God, pray to God or concentrate to keep in touch with their God. We must visit those people and help them. And how can we help? Never say: “You, lazy person!” otherwise you are judging them, as if you poked your finger in their eye, the person will hate you. Although it is the truth, you can be sure that the person will hate you. So, try to find a way to talk to this person: “Brother or sister, could we make a time to read the Bible together once or twice a week to share together?” They will find it’s a good idea. In that way, you have helped them without telling them they were lazy.
We have to humble ourselves to obey God’s rules.
WHAT IS A PRISONER OF CHRIST LIKE?
A. RESPECT THOSE WHO WORK AMONG YOU
1 Thessalonians 5:12
And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;
This is the first condition to be called a prisoner of Christ: respect those who work among you, those given by the Lord the charge of teaching and leading you.
Wherever you go in the world, you must absolutely obey the people God has placed on your path to build you up spiritually. Watch out: to obey them is different from becoming their slaves. You must obey and respect them for God’ glory.
B. ESTEEM AND LOVE THOSE WHO WORK AMONG YOU
1 Thessalonians 5:13
And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake.
And be at peace among yourselves.
It is telling us here about “esteem and love” them. We must love each other and esteem each other for the Lord’s glory and also appreciate the work each one is doing.
And what is love?
The Bible tells us that love is not something just limited to our lips.
1 John 3:16-18
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
Amen! I insist on verse 18. Love is not a speech of nice words, but our actions will speak for themselves. When I see Ange, my actions towards her will testify whether I truly love her or not, and this must be without hypocrisy. Some people are expert in hypocrisy: they can talk to you nicely and as soon as you turn your back, they threaten you. Christians must have perfect love. People in the world love each other with such a great love, but among us Christians, there is always division.
Is there a Christian somewhere who claims he is one and doesn’t know about love?
The Bible says in Hebrews that you can’t love God if you can’t love your neighbour. How will you say…?
- I love God,
When at the same time you say:
- When I see Brenda… No, Brenda… talk about someone else but not her. I can’t forget what she did to me 3 years ago. I don’t like her because she did this or that.
- Are you sure you are a Christian? The Bible commands you to love and love forgives, love is patient and love forgets everything that happened.
And this is another rule God gives us: as His prisoner we must have love.
C. BE GRATEFUL
There are ungrateful people in this world: you can serve them all their life but they will never acknowledge the fruit of your work. They will never say:
- I got something so good from that person!
They will just take everything for granted, they think it’s their right to get it.
D. LIVE AT PEACE WITH EVERYONE
The Bible also says we must live at peace with everyone. If you don’t have peace in your house, this is time to find it. If you have a problem with your husband, child or brother, it is time to sort it out.
Christians must enlighten the world and this comes from our tongue, what we say and the way we say it. Try to choose your words carefully, and find the right time to speak to the person. Don’t speak just to speak because God Himself is against rebellion. You can’t fight at home and then go and pray to God. It’s impossible. God will tell you to go back home and fix your problem first.
There is an example in the Bible: someone wanted to give God their offering and Jesus told them:
- Leave your offering here. Go back home to fix your problem and then, come back here.
So God will reject even an offering if you have not fixed up your problem. So we must know how to live at peace with everyone. And peace comes from our mouth.
E. ABOUT LAZINESS
1 Thessalonians 5:14
Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
Verse 14 says that we must warn lazy people. Some brothers or sisters are lazy. The verse 14 is not telling us about not doing our regular work. Here it’s talking about someone who does not have time to meditate the Word of God, pray to God or concentrate to keep in touch with their God. We must visit those people and help them. And how can we help? Never say: “You, lazy person!” otherwise you are judging them, as if you poked your finger in their eye, the person will hate you. Although it is the truth, you can be sure that the person will hate you. So, try to find a way to talk to this person: “Brother or sister, could we make a time to read the Bible together once or twice a week to share together?” They will find it’s a good idea. In that way, you have helped them without telling them they were lazy.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
The Lord's Prisoner (part II)
By Odon Bulamba (summary only)
TWO PRISONS: THE DEVIL’S AND GOD’S
Most people today are in the devil’s prison. This includes ¾ of Christians: they have one foot in Christianity and one foot in the world and through their actions we know in which one they are. But YOU Christians what are you doing there? There is no room for you there! Your place is in the Lord’s prison and not in the devil’s prison.
Those in the devil’s prison obey him without discussion.
- Oscar, time to drink beer. Let’s get drunk!
- Yes, that’s right. I am thirsty, time to have a break, enough studying. Let’s go.
No discussion. But imagine God saying to Oscar:
- Oscar, stop drinking.
- I can’t bear 2 days without drinking. It’s not possible.
He will check right and left and if no one is around he will say to himself,
- Let me just have one glass, only one for today.
And after one glass, he will take another one.
So you will see that we easily respect the devil’s commands, but not what God asks us to do.
The Bible tells us not to lie. And a situation comes up:
- Ah, to keep this, I must lie. God will understand because this is a tough situation. God will understand.
And the person lies. But ask the same person to come back and confess their lie, there will be a problem.
In His prison, God gets tough with us, He will push, urge you to confess.
I remember the story of a murderer, somewhere. After the crime, his life turned ugly, tough and deep in his heart, his conscience was urging him to confess. He went to God and cried before God and God told him this crime hadn’t been done against Him:
- Go and tell the person you have murdered.
- How can I go and tell someone from that family? It’s impossible.
And he was in a problem. When he killed, it was not difficult; he had just done it for money but now, confessing was impossible.
It’s like lighting a match to burn a house, it just takes 1 minute to start the fire, but putting it out when the whole house is on fire is a serious problem. Although men know that confessing a crime is like paying something dear, they still do the wrong thing. And God calls it pride. We do know God’s laws, He has told us clearly what to do and what not to do and because we are His prisoners we must respect all His laws.
What is this prisoner who will say no to the prison’s rules?
What is this prisoner who will say even though I was condemned I reject my condemnation?
What is this prisoner who will be stubborn to resist the law?
So why don’t we respect the Law God gave us?
TWO PRISONS: THE DEVIL’S AND GOD’S
Most people today are in the devil’s prison. This includes ¾ of Christians: they have one foot in Christianity and one foot in the world and through their actions we know in which one they are. But YOU Christians what are you doing there? There is no room for you there! Your place is in the Lord’s prison and not in the devil’s prison.
Those in the devil’s prison obey him without discussion.
- Oscar, time to drink beer. Let’s get drunk!
- Yes, that’s right. I am thirsty, time to have a break, enough studying. Let’s go.
No discussion. But imagine God saying to Oscar:
- Oscar, stop drinking.
- I can’t bear 2 days without drinking. It’s not possible.
He will check right and left and if no one is around he will say to himself,
- Let me just have one glass, only one for today.
And after one glass, he will take another one.
So you will see that we easily respect the devil’s commands, but not what God asks us to do.
The Bible tells us not to lie. And a situation comes up:
- Ah, to keep this, I must lie. God will understand because this is a tough situation. God will understand.
And the person lies. But ask the same person to come back and confess their lie, there will be a problem.
In His prison, God gets tough with us, He will push, urge you to confess.
I remember the story of a murderer, somewhere. After the crime, his life turned ugly, tough and deep in his heart, his conscience was urging him to confess. He went to God and cried before God and God told him this crime hadn’t been done against Him:
- Go and tell the person you have murdered.
- How can I go and tell someone from that family? It’s impossible.
And he was in a problem. When he killed, it was not difficult; he had just done it for money but now, confessing was impossible.
It’s like lighting a match to burn a house, it just takes 1 minute to start the fire, but putting it out when the whole house is on fire is a serious problem. Although men know that confessing a crime is like paying something dear, they still do the wrong thing. And God calls it pride. We do know God’s laws, He has told us clearly what to do and what not to do and because we are His prisoners we must respect all His laws.
What is this prisoner who will say no to the prison’s rules?
What is this prisoner who will say even though I was condemned I reject my condemnation?
What is this prisoner who will be stubborn to resist the law?
So why don’t we respect the Law God gave us?
Monday, June 8, 2009
THE LORD’S PRISONER
By Odon Bulamba (summary only - 17th Nove, 00)
Philemon verse 1. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellow labourer,
Today, we are going to talk about “Paul, prisoner of Jesus Christ” and we will replace ‘Paul’ by my name, or your name. Each one of us must ask themselves: “Am I a prisoner of Christ or not?”
1. WHO IS A PRISONER?
In the world, a prisoner is a normal person like you and me, they can be educated or not educated, of any race, with or without disability, and who is arrested and put in jail. There are reasons why this person is jailed. Often, a judgment comes first and after they are given their sentence, they are sent to jail for a specific period of time.
2. LIFE IN PRISON
Life in prison is really tough. It’s nothing like prisons here in NZ: they are good places to be where you can relax. If you tell me that I am a prisoner here in NZ I will be happy; I will have a bed, a TV, and I can even study. But if you want to know what a prison is ask Asians, a South Americans, people from some countries in Africa or Europe.
When someone is arrested, the very first thing they do is to remove their clothes and put on a uniform. Whether you like it or not, you must wear that, and in Africa for example they make sure there are lice in them. Prisoners are not allowed to kill them; they will bite your body everywhere. This is just the beginning, a little taste of what is to come. These uniforms are filthy and you might spew up just looking at them. But prisoners have no choice, they must wear them.
Sometimes, people with long hair are shaved with a piece of glass, it’s not a blade or scissors, and you will feel how sore it is. If you wear a beard, they will pull it and you will feel how painful it is.
Afterwards you will enter a house where the conditions of life are extremely bad, depending of your file. Some prisoners have committed a small offence, but others are serious offenders, like murderers, and they will be taken to a place without light, toilet, food, get 10 lashes each morning and each night and do hard labours.
I remember once, the toilets were blocked in a prison somewhere, and this prisoner was asked to unblock them, without any tools. He was told: “You have hands to help you.” He started his work, and although he was absolutely disgusted, he had no choice just because he was a prisoner. After finishing, they brought him eggs for dinner: these eggs hadn’t hatched after the hen sat on them because they were rotten. The smell of these eggs added to the repulsive smell of his job and a filthy body made it impossible to eat. But he was forced to eat them anyway.
Also, you know that a prison is a locked place, so prisoners can get out. You are not allowed to move around, or to buy or sell as you please.
In Kenya, where we were, in a semi-desert area, they would give prisoners 500 ml of water to bath, once a month. But because the sun was so heavy, people would lose weight at high speed and some would die due to very hard work and the appalling conditions of life.
Why do I say that? Because some people forget that a prison is a place of suffering. If you were a general in the army, you would be stripped of your honour once jail, and someone of less rank might do it to humiliate you.
3. PRISON OF GOD
For us, Christians, God has prepared a prison. God said He gave us freedom so that we will be free forever. We are free not to sin, and when we have this freedom from sin we enter the Lord’s prison. In that place, every morning at 4:00am He will knock at your door and tell you:
- Wake up! Prisoner! Time to exercise. Time to work hard.
And if the prisoner falls asleep, be sure you will be whipped, no matter your body’s condition, sick or healthy, you must do it. Things are starting to get hard. When someone is saved and starts a new life, God tries to change this person’s life and teach them how He is the Master, the Lord.
In God’s prison, if God says not to steal, you MUST not steal. You must know your limits and if God says so, I don’t have the right to touch what is there, I must not do it. And if I do it, I will be in trouble with God.
In a country somewhere, prisoners pay their rent. If you are arrested today and your sentence is 5 years, every month you will pay $20 for example. How much does that add up after 5 years? And if you don’t pay, you will be added further time for that.
I’ve thought about the meaning of it with God’s prison. When God puts you in His jail, you MUST not sin anymore, if you do, you will be punished one way or another and you will pay dearly.
SUMMARY
-We are prisoners of God
-We must follow God's rules and obey Him
-We must not sin anymore
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Philemon verse 1. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellow labourer,
Today, we are going to talk about “Paul, prisoner of Jesus Christ” and we will replace ‘Paul’ by my name, or your name. Each one of us must ask themselves: “Am I a prisoner of Christ or not?”
1. WHO IS A PRISONER?
In the world, a prisoner is a normal person like you and me, they can be educated or not educated, of any race, with or without disability, and who is arrested and put in jail. There are reasons why this person is jailed. Often, a judgment comes first and after they are given their sentence, they are sent to jail for a specific period of time.
2. LIFE IN PRISON
Life in prison is really tough. It’s nothing like prisons here in NZ: they are good places to be where you can relax. If you tell me that I am a prisoner here in NZ I will be happy; I will have a bed, a TV, and I can even study. But if you want to know what a prison is ask Asians, a South Americans, people from some countries in Africa or Europe.
When someone is arrested, the very first thing they do is to remove their clothes and put on a uniform. Whether you like it or not, you must wear that, and in Africa for example they make sure there are lice in them. Prisoners are not allowed to kill them; they will bite your body everywhere. This is just the beginning, a little taste of what is to come. These uniforms are filthy and you might spew up just looking at them. But prisoners have no choice, they must wear them.
Sometimes, people with long hair are shaved with a piece of glass, it’s not a blade or scissors, and you will feel how sore it is. If you wear a beard, they will pull it and you will feel how painful it is.
Afterwards you will enter a house where the conditions of life are extremely bad, depending of your file. Some prisoners have committed a small offence, but others are serious offenders, like murderers, and they will be taken to a place without light, toilet, food, get 10 lashes each morning and each night and do hard labours.
I remember once, the toilets were blocked in a prison somewhere, and this prisoner was asked to unblock them, without any tools. He was told: “You have hands to help you.” He started his work, and although he was absolutely disgusted, he had no choice just because he was a prisoner. After finishing, they brought him eggs for dinner: these eggs hadn’t hatched after the hen sat on them because they were rotten. The smell of these eggs added to the repulsive smell of his job and a filthy body made it impossible to eat. But he was forced to eat them anyway.
Also, you know that a prison is a locked place, so prisoners can get out. You are not allowed to move around, or to buy or sell as you please.
In Kenya, where we were, in a semi-desert area, they would give prisoners 500 ml of water to bath, once a month. But because the sun was so heavy, people would lose weight at high speed and some would die due to very hard work and the appalling conditions of life.
Why do I say that? Because some people forget that a prison is a place of suffering. If you were a general in the army, you would be stripped of your honour once jail, and someone of less rank might do it to humiliate you.
3. PRISON OF GOD
For us, Christians, God has prepared a prison. God said He gave us freedom so that we will be free forever. We are free not to sin, and when we have this freedom from sin we enter the Lord’s prison. In that place, every morning at 4:00am He will knock at your door and tell you:
- Wake up! Prisoner! Time to exercise. Time to work hard.
And if the prisoner falls asleep, be sure you will be whipped, no matter your body’s condition, sick or healthy, you must do it. Things are starting to get hard. When someone is saved and starts a new life, God tries to change this person’s life and teach them how He is the Master, the Lord.
In God’s prison, if God says not to steal, you MUST not steal. You must know your limits and if God says so, I don’t have the right to touch what is there, I must not do it. And if I do it, I will be in trouble with God.
In a country somewhere, prisoners pay their rent. If you are arrested today and your sentence is 5 years, every month you will pay $20 for example. How much does that add up after 5 years? And if you don’t pay, you will be added further time for that.
I’ve thought about the meaning of it with God’s prison. When God puts you in His jail, you MUST not sin anymore, if you do, you will be punished one way or another and you will pay dearly.
SUMMARY
-We are prisoners of God
-We must follow God's rules and obey Him
-We must not sin anymore
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Saturday, June 6, 2009
It's Time to Move On
By Odon Bulamba (summary only - 10 Aug, 02)
We are called to change and if God has chosen us, it’s because He wants us to change completely. Each time we learn something, we have to remember it and practise it. Because the more we learn, the more we will have to face difficulties and satanic attacks and if you are not getting ready by reading the Word of God, how will you survive?
If a child is on a springboard and the child is not moving, he’ll stay there. But if he tries to jump a little, the springboard will help him bounce higher.
We understand the Word but we don’t practise it, we don’t really believe it. We have to know that time is moving on and if we don’t care about the foundation, the end will be zero. We as Christians have to take care of time because time on earth is limited and woe to the one who neglects the Word.
Joshua 1:8, if you want success and prosperity, you need to meditate on the Word of God. Before praying for someone, you need to have a good foundation in the Word. Whatever you learn, write it on your heart, and try to use it when you are tempted. Psalm 119:11.
We have to make an effort. Take off laziness, distraction and think about the time.
All of us need miracles, ministries and to please God, but we are not convinced enough to do it. We have ideas but we don’t make any effort. If there is something on TV after the prayer meeting tonight, everybody will concentrate and watch the movie and forget sleepiness and there will be no tiredness anymore. But when it’s about the Word of God, that’s the time tiredness comes, everybody yawns and is ready for the meeting to stop. For how long will this be the case? What are you waiting for to make up your mind and take things seriously?
We behave like this because we don’t care. But if you don’t even care about your own soul, how will you care about your friend’s soul? It’s time to wake up!
If you haven’t written the Word in your heart; woe to you. One day the Bible will be gone when Jesus takes His church and those left on earth will look for the gospel and not find it. But we have grace today and we don’t even care about it. God gives us the Word in abundance today but tomorrow you will say, “Oh, I can’t remember”.
By God’s grace, we are going to take off. Like a plane staying on the ground, the speed has gone up and up and now it’s time to take off. The wheels don’t stay outside, but go inside. The basics we have received have to stay deep in our heart so we will stay on our travel comfortably.
There is an advertisement in Congo that shows a man late for his flight, running after the plane saying, “You’re too strict with time” to the pilot. We don’t have the right to run after the Word of God, but we must walk together. No one should be left behind.
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
We are called to change and if God has chosen us, it’s because He wants us to change completely. Each time we learn something, we have to remember it and practise it. Because the more we learn, the more we will have to face difficulties and satanic attacks and if you are not getting ready by reading the Word of God, how will you survive?
If a child is on a springboard and the child is not moving, he’ll stay there. But if he tries to jump a little, the springboard will help him bounce higher.
We understand the Word but we don’t practise it, we don’t really believe it. We have to know that time is moving on and if we don’t care about the foundation, the end will be zero. We as Christians have to take care of time because time on earth is limited and woe to the one who neglects the Word.
Joshua 1:8, if you want success and prosperity, you need to meditate on the Word of God. Before praying for someone, you need to have a good foundation in the Word. Whatever you learn, write it on your heart, and try to use it when you are tempted. Psalm 119:11.
We have to make an effort. Take off laziness, distraction and think about the time.
All of us need miracles, ministries and to please God, but we are not convinced enough to do it. We have ideas but we don’t make any effort. If there is something on TV after the prayer meeting tonight, everybody will concentrate and watch the movie and forget sleepiness and there will be no tiredness anymore. But when it’s about the Word of God, that’s the time tiredness comes, everybody yawns and is ready for the meeting to stop. For how long will this be the case? What are you waiting for to make up your mind and take things seriously?
We behave like this because we don’t care. But if you don’t even care about your own soul, how will you care about your friend’s soul? It’s time to wake up!
If you haven’t written the Word in your heart; woe to you. One day the Bible will be gone when Jesus takes His church and those left on earth will look for the gospel and not find it. But we have grace today and we don’t even care about it. God gives us the Word in abundance today but tomorrow you will say, “Oh, I can’t remember”.
By God’s grace, we are going to take off. Like a plane staying on the ground, the speed has gone up and up and now it’s time to take off. The wheels don’t stay outside, but go inside. The basics we have received have to stay deep in our heart so we will stay on our travel comfortably.
There is an advertisement in Congo that shows a man late for his flight, running after the plane saying, “You’re too strict with time” to the pilot. We don’t have the right to run after the Word of God, but we must walk together. No one should be left behind.
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Tithes and Offerings (part II)
By Odon Bulamba (summary only)
Lev 27:30
The fruit mentioned here is the fruit of Spirit which is in Gal 5:22 which is also a part of the tithe. Someone asked a question about the tithe in the New Testament, I found something in the book of Luke 18:12, we can find that the Pharisees and Sadducees in the new testament knew about fasting and tithing. So why did they talk about it in the New Testament? It means that the foundation that God has laid can never be moved by people. People try to interpret things to change the meaning but God’s word will never change. Many people try to say we no longer live in the Old Testament but this is not true because God is the beginning and the end, He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He said that everything can pass away but His Word will not. When the Pharisees asked Jesus questions they always referred to Moses’ law to show Jesus that what He was doing was different from law of Moses. Jesus wanted to show them that I am the Lord and I prefer spiritual things over physical things, but they couldn’t grasp that.
You must know that the tithe still exists today. Heb 7:5,8,9 those Levites who were working for God would get 10% from the other people. The Bible says that the Levites were men and they would die which is different from Melchizedek. We know that Melchizedek didn’t have a mother or father, He is the living God, He the one who met Abraham for the first time in Genesis. The God without generation, meaning that tithing also doesn’t have a generation, it means that it didn’t just belong to the generation that is past but it still carries on.
We are going to read the last point in Matt 23:19,23, in v23 Jesus was threatening the Pharisees. They would tithe and the Bible says that these tithes were like thyme and all the plants. I tried to analyse all those herbs and found that they are useful for cooking, they smell nice, they are attractive and just looking at the leaves we can see something of the old world, it means that when you come with your tithe before God it is something precious for God. When the world saw what they gave to God it pleased everybody but God wasn’t pleased with it because in everything they did they forgot the law. Although they were giving they didn’t care about God’s Word, they didn’t care about justice. Justice means to live with a good mind. They were also not kind and faithful.
When we tithe there must be those 3 things, justice, kindness and faithfulness. If you don’t live in justice and you offer God millions it doesn’t make sense. If you are not kind and you give money to God, God cannot see anything special in it. God cares more about the spiritual than the physical. However, I am not telling you not to give physically. That’s why Jesus said you give and that’s good but you lack something- justice, kindness and faithfulness.
Jesus said in v19 that they were blind. How do you understand that the offering has more worth than the altar because without the altar we cannot offer. It is the same thing with us Christians, without the spiritual foundation we cannot do anything that pleases God.
We must give 10% of everything that God has given us. So you can give 10% your voice because God gave you a voice. For example, from morning to night, do you give 10% to God when you sing, do you share the Word of God 10% of your time with others, when you think is 10% of it about God or not? When you sleep or have a rest do you have 10% of your spiritual rest in God? When you have physical peace do you have 10% of spiritual peace?
Often we say, “God I give my life to you completely” but do we really give 10% of our lives to God because if we cannot give 10%, how can we give our whole life? We might be found liars before God and that would be sin. We say before man that I have given my life to God but when others look at us, we don’t prove it.
One day has 24hrs, you have planned for your day, you sleep for 8 hrs, you study for 6 hrs, you go and visit your friends and so on. You have a whole plan, but during your 24hrs you must know that 2.4 hours don’t belong to you. Do you pray, sing and give glory to God during that time? If you don’t do it, you must know that you are stealing from God and you are a theif. There is no difference between you and someone who robs a bank.
Mal 3, “you steal my share” doesn’t only mean money, we steal many other things from God. For instance when you take care of your body, you wear make-up to go somewhere, but God is watching and He says I gave you this body, I gave you also the money to buy your cosmetics, so where is My share for the spiritual beauty? You will see that people forget completely about God’s share. When we eat and drink we must know where is God’s share because in the end God will say I was hungry but you didn’t give me any food to eat.
This issue of 10% will make many Christians not earn what they should have deserved, we will be found as thieves. Although they will say to God, no I haven’t stolen, God will call them thieves and they won’t inherit God’s kingdom.
When you eat you must know that some people don’t eat and you must know how you can help them and give them something to eat. They don’t ask you for 90% of your food but only 10%. Sometimes we have food that we can’t eat and sometimes we can even throw food away. How can we throw away food knowing that others suffer? This is the physical, what about the spiritual? We always share God’s Word here at church, we always eat God’s Word, but in everything you have learnt here, have you shared 10% with others? It means that we are sometimes selfish and if we are selfish we neglect and selfish people will not inherit the kingdom of God, that’s how important it is.
SUMMARY
- We have to give God 10% of everything He has given us (time, money, thoughts, our voices...)
- Tithes and Offerings is important for today
- We must have justice, kindness and faithfulness for our tithes to be acceptable to God
- God cares more about spiritual things than physical things
- Whatever spiritually your receive from God give 10% to others (share Word of God)
- If you don't give 10% you are stealing and thieves will not enter the Kingdom of God
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Lev 27:30
The fruit mentioned here is the fruit of Spirit which is in Gal 5:22 which is also a part of the tithe. Someone asked a question about the tithe in the New Testament, I found something in the book of Luke 18:12, we can find that the Pharisees and Sadducees in the new testament knew about fasting and tithing. So why did they talk about it in the New Testament? It means that the foundation that God has laid can never be moved by people. People try to interpret things to change the meaning but God’s word will never change. Many people try to say we no longer live in the Old Testament but this is not true because God is the beginning and the end, He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He said that everything can pass away but His Word will not. When the Pharisees asked Jesus questions they always referred to Moses’ law to show Jesus that what He was doing was different from law of Moses. Jesus wanted to show them that I am the Lord and I prefer spiritual things over physical things, but they couldn’t grasp that.
You must know that the tithe still exists today. Heb 7:5,8,9 those Levites who were working for God would get 10% from the other people. The Bible says that the Levites were men and they would die which is different from Melchizedek. We know that Melchizedek didn’t have a mother or father, He is the living God, He the one who met Abraham for the first time in Genesis. The God without generation, meaning that tithing also doesn’t have a generation, it means that it didn’t just belong to the generation that is past but it still carries on.
We are going to read the last point in Matt 23:19,23, in v23 Jesus was threatening the Pharisees. They would tithe and the Bible says that these tithes were like thyme and all the plants. I tried to analyse all those herbs and found that they are useful for cooking, they smell nice, they are attractive and just looking at the leaves we can see something of the old world, it means that when you come with your tithe before God it is something precious for God. When the world saw what they gave to God it pleased everybody but God wasn’t pleased with it because in everything they did they forgot the law. Although they were giving they didn’t care about God’s Word, they didn’t care about justice. Justice means to live with a good mind. They were also not kind and faithful.
When we tithe there must be those 3 things, justice, kindness and faithfulness. If you don’t live in justice and you offer God millions it doesn’t make sense. If you are not kind and you give money to God, God cannot see anything special in it. God cares more about the spiritual than the physical. However, I am not telling you not to give physically. That’s why Jesus said you give and that’s good but you lack something- justice, kindness and faithfulness.
Jesus said in v19 that they were blind. How do you understand that the offering has more worth than the altar because without the altar we cannot offer. It is the same thing with us Christians, without the spiritual foundation we cannot do anything that pleases God.
We must give 10% of everything that God has given us. So you can give 10% your voice because God gave you a voice. For example, from morning to night, do you give 10% to God when you sing, do you share the Word of God 10% of your time with others, when you think is 10% of it about God or not? When you sleep or have a rest do you have 10% of your spiritual rest in God? When you have physical peace do you have 10% of spiritual peace?
Often we say, “God I give my life to you completely” but do we really give 10% of our lives to God because if we cannot give 10%, how can we give our whole life? We might be found liars before God and that would be sin. We say before man that I have given my life to God but when others look at us, we don’t prove it.
One day has 24hrs, you have planned for your day, you sleep for 8 hrs, you study for 6 hrs, you go and visit your friends and so on. You have a whole plan, but during your 24hrs you must know that 2.4 hours don’t belong to you. Do you pray, sing and give glory to God during that time? If you don’t do it, you must know that you are stealing from God and you are a theif. There is no difference between you and someone who robs a bank.
Mal 3, “you steal my share” doesn’t only mean money, we steal many other things from God. For instance when you take care of your body, you wear make-up to go somewhere, but God is watching and He says I gave you this body, I gave you also the money to buy your cosmetics, so where is My share for the spiritual beauty? You will see that people forget completely about God’s share. When we eat and drink we must know where is God’s share because in the end God will say I was hungry but you didn’t give me any food to eat.
This issue of 10% will make many Christians not earn what they should have deserved, we will be found as thieves. Although they will say to God, no I haven’t stolen, God will call them thieves and they won’t inherit God’s kingdom.
When you eat you must know that some people don’t eat and you must know how you can help them and give them something to eat. They don’t ask you for 90% of your food but only 10%. Sometimes we have food that we can’t eat and sometimes we can even throw food away. How can we throw away food knowing that others suffer? This is the physical, what about the spiritual? We always share God’s Word here at church, we always eat God’s Word, but in everything you have learnt here, have you shared 10% with others? It means that we are sometimes selfish and if we are selfish we neglect and selfish people will not inherit the kingdom of God, that’s how important it is.
SUMMARY
- We have to give God 10% of everything He has given us (time, money, thoughts, our voices...)
- Tithes and Offerings is important for today
- We must have justice, kindness and faithfulness for our tithes to be acceptable to God
- God cares more about spiritual things than physical things
- Whatever spiritually your receive from God give 10% to others (share Word of God)
- If you don't give 10% you are stealing and thieves will not enter the Kingdom of God
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
OFFERINGS & TITHES (part I)
By Odon Bulamba (summary only 8th Sept, 00)
When we talk about offerings it means that we give something without having it back. It means that you give and then you completely forget about it. You put aside any ideas that you will get something back. This is very different from bargaining or trading or when you buy something with money. Giving an offering is not for investing. You also should not give to someone to please them so that they can be grateful.
The tithe is about taking from what you have and sacrificing it. You give it completely and then forget and you remember that what you have given does not belong to you anymore. When you earn your salary you know that you have made the effort to work, however you know that 10% is not yours. You might ask yourself, why does 10% not belong to me? I worked for it. That 10% doesn’t belong to you because it is an offering of thanksgiving and gratefulness.
A tithe means to offer to God because I am grateful for what God has given me. Let’s take an example; Michael who is a dentist. Where did he find the experience that he has? You might think that it was at university, someone else might think that it is because he has worked for 5 or 10 yrs. But before learning his job he needed to have the capacity to think and before being a dentist Michael had to come to life. We will find that the source of everything is God himself, because it is God who gives him life, wisdom, experience etc. Now God asks for 10% of all of this and He lets us have 90%.
Another example: Sylvie has a piece of bread and she gives this bread to Nathanael and afterwards she asks Nathanael to give her a piece of bread. Some children will say no, especially those who are between ages 1 – 4. They’ll say, “no I don’t want to give you” forgetting that just 5 minutes ago they had been given some bread. This is the same thing between God and us.
When God gives to us we forget to give back to Him what He asks us. Lev 27:30, here God says, you must consecrate something to Me, He doesn’t ask for 20%, if you want to give 20% you can but He doesn’t ask you to. You must know that the 10% you give to God is His. If you think that 10% is not enough for God, you can say, I can add some more to that.
As we know the 10% is not only about money, in Lev 27:30 it’s talking about the fruit of the trees and the produce of the earth. God produced something from the earth (dirt) which is our body. The Bible says that God took some mud and put life into it. This means that the body that I have is just something from the ground, so that must be a share for God. That’s what is written in 1 Cor, our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, meaning it is something that is kept for God.
SUMMARY
- Offer without expecting anything in return
- Give 10% of everything (not only money)
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
When we talk about offerings it means that we give something without having it back. It means that you give and then you completely forget about it. You put aside any ideas that you will get something back. This is very different from bargaining or trading or when you buy something with money. Giving an offering is not for investing. You also should not give to someone to please them so that they can be grateful.
The tithe is about taking from what you have and sacrificing it. You give it completely and then forget and you remember that what you have given does not belong to you anymore. When you earn your salary you know that you have made the effort to work, however you know that 10% is not yours. You might ask yourself, why does 10% not belong to me? I worked for it. That 10% doesn’t belong to you because it is an offering of thanksgiving and gratefulness.
A tithe means to offer to God because I am grateful for what God has given me. Let’s take an example; Michael who is a dentist. Where did he find the experience that he has? You might think that it was at university, someone else might think that it is because he has worked for 5 or 10 yrs. But before learning his job he needed to have the capacity to think and before being a dentist Michael had to come to life. We will find that the source of everything is God himself, because it is God who gives him life, wisdom, experience etc. Now God asks for 10% of all of this and He lets us have 90%.
Another example: Sylvie has a piece of bread and she gives this bread to Nathanael and afterwards she asks Nathanael to give her a piece of bread. Some children will say no, especially those who are between ages 1 – 4. They’ll say, “no I don’t want to give you” forgetting that just 5 minutes ago they had been given some bread. This is the same thing between God and us.
When God gives to us we forget to give back to Him what He asks us. Lev 27:30, here God says, you must consecrate something to Me, He doesn’t ask for 20%, if you want to give 20% you can but He doesn’t ask you to. You must know that the 10% you give to God is His. If you think that 10% is not enough for God, you can say, I can add some more to that.
As we know the 10% is not only about money, in Lev 27:30 it’s talking about the fruit of the trees and the produce of the earth. God produced something from the earth (dirt) which is our body. The Bible says that God took some mud and put life into it. This means that the body that I have is just something from the ground, so that must be a share for God. That’s what is written in 1 Cor, our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, meaning it is something that is kept for God.
SUMMARY
- Offer without expecting anything in return
- Give 10% of everything (not only money)
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Unity (part II)
By Odon Bulamba (summary only)
Acts 2:44-46, all the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Everyday they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.
The Bible doesn’t say that these Christians shared negative things. They shared good things among themselves. Sharing doesn’t mean to collect information like a journalist does, that’s to inform. When you have something in your heart or a problem that is important for the glory of God, you have to show it to others. A man shared with me that he had been married for seven years, and only once was his wife satisfied. Personally I thought it was useless for me to know that, but he thought it was good.
If Michael tells me he has a problem and needs God in his life, I’ll go to others and ask them to pray for Michael, this is what the Bible says about sharing. Sharing is not about telling Michael that you saw Oscar with a girl in town, the glory of God is not in this, sharing means to glorify God with a situation.
Another way of destroying unity is through pride, if you minimise anybody and think you have more knowledge then others, woe to you. If you can recognise that your primary school teacher contributed to you becoming a minister or doctor, this thought will help you to respect others and not despise them, this is an example of unity.
Example: Michelle came to Jesus through Michael and Sylvie, and lets say that Michelle became more powerful than them, Michelle cannot minimise them because she may have a gift, which is higher. Why do we respect Jesus when we are doing greater things than He? Although Michelle can be more powerful than Michael and Sylvie, she has to recognise that they contributed to her spiritual life.
The Bible says that the first church use to meet and eat together in the temple with joy, so do we have joy among us or is it just flattery? Flattery is not from God. If we are not able to have that joy among us it will be hard for God to work among us. If something is wrong go to your brother and find a solution, don’t complain to others about Peter. Even though Peter maybe nasty, he will not beat you. Accept it when someone comes to you with a problem, it may be right, it may be wrong, but whatever it is accept it. It is a grace when people advise you. If someone says you are a liar and you can’t accept it, we will never build unity.
God has called us to repentance; if someone advises you to change your ways don’t justify yourself, just accept it and repent. If you have a problem with your brother, deal with it so you can be free, because if you keep it in your heart you will run away, and God never works with sinners.
Galatians 4:1-4. If someone is in a sin you have to help that person, it is not a time to criticise or judge them or show them they are less holy then you. We must help them with kindness. What is a burden? A burden can be a spiritual problem that you may have, and sometimes it can be transformed into a physical problem. It can be a sin, it can be a blessing or curse; this is a burden. If people refuse your correction after so many attempts, leave that person and wipe the dust off your feet. If there is no love among the brothers you cannot love God, you can pretend to love but when there is no joy we are wasting our time, because we will never grow.
SUMMARY
- In order to be in unity we must remove pride
- We must accept the advice of others
- We must remember what others have done for us
- We must share only information that will glorify God
- We must not judge or complain about others but talk to them in private and help them
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Acts 2:44-46, all the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Everyday they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.
The Bible doesn’t say that these Christians shared negative things. They shared good things among themselves. Sharing doesn’t mean to collect information like a journalist does, that’s to inform. When you have something in your heart or a problem that is important for the glory of God, you have to show it to others. A man shared with me that he had been married for seven years, and only once was his wife satisfied. Personally I thought it was useless for me to know that, but he thought it was good.
If Michael tells me he has a problem and needs God in his life, I’ll go to others and ask them to pray for Michael, this is what the Bible says about sharing. Sharing is not about telling Michael that you saw Oscar with a girl in town, the glory of God is not in this, sharing means to glorify God with a situation.
Another way of destroying unity is through pride, if you minimise anybody and think you have more knowledge then others, woe to you. If you can recognise that your primary school teacher contributed to you becoming a minister or doctor, this thought will help you to respect others and not despise them, this is an example of unity.
Example: Michelle came to Jesus through Michael and Sylvie, and lets say that Michelle became more powerful than them, Michelle cannot minimise them because she may have a gift, which is higher. Why do we respect Jesus when we are doing greater things than He? Although Michelle can be more powerful than Michael and Sylvie, she has to recognise that they contributed to her spiritual life.
The Bible says that the first church use to meet and eat together in the temple with joy, so do we have joy among us or is it just flattery? Flattery is not from God. If we are not able to have that joy among us it will be hard for God to work among us. If something is wrong go to your brother and find a solution, don’t complain to others about Peter. Even though Peter maybe nasty, he will not beat you. Accept it when someone comes to you with a problem, it may be right, it may be wrong, but whatever it is accept it. It is a grace when people advise you. If someone says you are a liar and you can’t accept it, we will never build unity.
God has called us to repentance; if someone advises you to change your ways don’t justify yourself, just accept it and repent. If you have a problem with your brother, deal with it so you can be free, because if you keep it in your heart you will run away, and God never works with sinners.
Galatians 4:1-4. If someone is in a sin you have to help that person, it is not a time to criticise or judge them or show them they are less holy then you. We must help them with kindness. What is a burden? A burden can be a spiritual problem that you may have, and sometimes it can be transformed into a physical problem. It can be a sin, it can be a blessing or curse; this is a burden. If people refuse your correction after so many attempts, leave that person and wipe the dust off your feet. If there is no love among the brothers you cannot love God, you can pretend to love but when there is no joy we are wasting our time, because we will never grow.
SUMMARY
- In order to be in unity we must remove pride
- We must accept the advice of others
- We must remember what others have done for us
- We must share only information that will glorify God
- We must not judge or complain about others but talk to them in private and help them
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
Monday, June 1, 2009
Unity (part I)
By Odon Bulamba (summary only - 30 Oct, 01)
The prayer that Jesus prayed before He left this world was a prayer of unity, not just for His disciples but for the whole world (John). As descendants of Jesus Christ we must live in unity because when we do - God is present.
1 Samuel 4:21, She named the boy Icabod saying, the glory has departed from Israel because of the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband.
The name of Icabod is to signify the removal of God’s presence among the people. If we don’t pay attention to what we are crossing, God will leave us. Israel found that they weren’t strong enough to fight against the Philistines, so they decided to call for the ark of God, but when the ark was with them they were still losing the battle, and this puzzled the Israelites.
Today, we are crossing a fight against our thoughts, body, actions and activities among the church, and if we are not serious, God’s presence will be taken away from us. Maybe through Michael 5000 people will be saved, but through one bad action these souls can be destroyed and he has to give an account to God for them.
God says we must live in unity. Unity is important for our spiritual life. It is like our body parts, every part has its own function. However when these parts don’t do their job, confusion comes. A leg cannot do the role of an arm and so on, and it means we must respect our responsibilities and accept the tasks given to us.
God calls all of us, Michael is from France, Oscar is from Congo, and Peter came from Australia, so why would God gather us together to meet and share His Word in New Zealand? You must be prepared to preach the Word anywhere. God has to send us to tell people the truth about His Word in the church today because Christians need to understand the real meaning of God’s Word. We are not there to criticise or judge people, but we are there to tell them the truth.
When Jesus was on this earth many people didn’t like Him, but He never had problems among His disciples because they knew their role and respected each other. This is one of the commandants we must have. We must have obedience towards God and each other. Michelle has to obey Michael, and Michael has to obey Angela. When this happens you will respect each other and talk to one another in a good way. Before we speak to others, we have to think about the kind of reaction that person will have; will it help Angela or will it lead her to sin?
Most people in this world like to use imperative words, “do this or do that”, and it becomes like an army. To live as children of God we must be friends first, and when friendship is achieved obedience will come. But when there is no friendship in our relationship obedience will never exist.
So how do we obey others? Luke 14: 28-31. Before we do anything we must sit down and calculate it. Who is Michelle for me? Who is she spiritually? How can I know who she really is? When Jesus left this earth His disciples didn’t know what to do, so they prayed. But one day the Spirit of God was upon Peter and people started respecting him, and so on with Paul. We have to discover each other, you know Angela physically but who is she spiritually?
Eli the prophet respected Samuel even though he was a boy and Samuel also respected Eli, but do you think Samuel would have received from God if he didn’t respect Eli? In order to respect each other we have to know what level we are on, it is like the ranking system in an army. Even though you wear the same uniform you’ll know their level of ability by looking at their emblems. If you don’t see the emblems on each other’s shoulders and don’t give the respect according to their rank, it will be hard for you to give the respect that person deserves. This is the basic principal for unity. If we don’t get that opportunity to discover each other it will be just like Icabod, the presence of God will disappear.
SUMMARY
- If want God's presence, we must be in unity with one another
- We must respect each other
- We must become friends and not give orders
- We must know our own level and ability and that of others
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
The prayer that Jesus prayed before He left this world was a prayer of unity, not just for His disciples but for the whole world (John). As descendants of Jesus Christ we must live in unity because when we do - God is present.
1 Samuel 4:21, She named the boy Icabod saying, the glory has departed from Israel because of the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband.
The name of Icabod is to signify the removal of God’s presence among the people. If we don’t pay attention to what we are crossing, God will leave us. Israel found that they weren’t strong enough to fight against the Philistines, so they decided to call for the ark of God, but when the ark was with them they were still losing the battle, and this puzzled the Israelites.
Today, we are crossing a fight against our thoughts, body, actions and activities among the church, and if we are not serious, God’s presence will be taken away from us. Maybe through Michael 5000 people will be saved, but through one bad action these souls can be destroyed and he has to give an account to God for them.
God says we must live in unity. Unity is important for our spiritual life. It is like our body parts, every part has its own function. However when these parts don’t do their job, confusion comes. A leg cannot do the role of an arm and so on, and it means we must respect our responsibilities and accept the tasks given to us.
God calls all of us, Michael is from France, Oscar is from Congo, and Peter came from Australia, so why would God gather us together to meet and share His Word in New Zealand? You must be prepared to preach the Word anywhere. God has to send us to tell people the truth about His Word in the church today because Christians need to understand the real meaning of God’s Word. We are not there to criticise or judge people, but we are there to tell them the truth.
When Jesus was on this earth many people didn’t like Him, but He never had problems among His disciples because they knew their role and respected each other. This is one of the commandants we must have. We must have obedience towards God and each other. Michelle has to obey Michael, and Michael has to obey Angela. When this happens you will respect each other and talk to one another in a good way. Before we speak to others, we have to think about the kind of reaction that person will have; will it help Angela or will it lead her to sin?
Most people in this world like to use imperative words, “do this or do that”, and it becomes like an army. To live as children of God we must be friends first, and when friendship is achieved obedience will come. But when there is no friendship in our relationship obedience will never exist.
So how do we obey others? Luke 14: 28-31. Before we do anything we must sit down and calculate it. Who is Michelle for me? Who is she spiritually? How can I know who she really is? When Jesus left this earth His disciples didn’t know what to do, so they prayed. But one day the Spirit of God was upon Peter and people started respecting him, and so on with Paul. We have to discover each other, you know Angela physically but who is she spiritually?
Eli the prophet respected Samuel even though he was a boy and Samuel also respected Eli, but do you think Samuel would have received from God if he didn’t respect Eli? In order to respect each other we have to know what level we are on, it is like the ranking system in an army. Even though you wear the same uniform you’ll know their level of ability by looking at their emblems. If you don’t see the emblems on each other’s shoulders and don’t give the respect according to their rank, it will be hard for you to give the respect that person deserves. This is the basic principal for unity. If we don’t get that opportunity to discover each other it will be just like Icabod, the presence of God will disappear.
SUMMARY
- If want God's presence, we must be in unity with one another
- We must respect each other
- We must become friends and not give orders
- We must know our own level and ability and that of others
For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com
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