Revelation 7 (Part VI) Zebulun

 By Odon Bulamba (3rd June 2005)

 Revelations 7:7-8

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

Zebulan

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

His name means “dwelling” or “honor”.

  

His blessing in Genesis 49: 13

“Zebulun will dwell at the seashore;

and he shall be a haven for ships,

and his flank shall be toward Sidon”

GOD GAVE BUT THEY FORGOT HIM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GOD CARES, PROVIDES AND LOOKS AT OUR ACTIONS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 PUT YOUR PROBLEMS ASIDE AND ATTRACT PEOPLE BY YOUR GOOD ATTITUDE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DOING GOOD!

By Hayley Boud

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Revelation 7 (Part V) Judah

By Odon Bulamba (Friday 27th May 2005)

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

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

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

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

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

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

WHERE ARE WE AMONG THESE FOUR SONS? 

(Reuben, Simeon, Levi & Judah)

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

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

Have you ever seen a pastor repenting?

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

  

Can you project Simeon’s picture in the church?

            People gossip in the church and we all practise anger.

SOLUTION TO OVERCOME ANGER IN ALL SITUATIONS

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

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

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

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

This verse comes from Psalm 4:4.

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

Revelations 7 (Part IV) Simeon & Levi

 By Odon Bulamba ( 27th May 2005) 

Simeon and Levi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time to Wake Up!

 By Odon Bulamba (25th January 2011)


Matthew 26 : 36 -46
Then Jesus went with his followers to a place called Gethsemane. Jesus said to his followers, "Sit here while I go there and pray."
 (God gave us a place to sit....do we really sit there, or are we sitting somewhere else?)


Jesus told Peter and the two sons of Zebedee to come with him. Then Jesus began to be very sad and troubled. Jesus said to Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, "My soul is full of sorrow. My heart is breaking with sadness. Stay awake here with me and wait." (Do we respect this recommendation of staying awake?)


Then Jesus walked a little farther away from them. Jesus fell to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, don't give me this cup {of suffering}. But do what you want, not what I want." Then Jesus went back to his followers. Jesus found his followers sleeping.(Imagine Jesus coming back and finding you asleep... Who are you going to blame?)


Jesus said to Peter, "You men could not stay awake with me for one hour? Stay awake and pray for strength against temptation. Your spirit wants to do what is right. But your body is weak." (For how long do I stay awake with Christ, per day, per week, may be per month? Jesus is upset with us, because we don't stay awake with Him. We all know that our bodies are weak. This information has been given to us since the day of our salvation. So, what do we do about our weaknesses? What do we do to change that weakness of our bodies to a divine strength? Do you push yourself? On several occasions, we fight against the sleep because we want to be somewhere or we need to do something. Staying awake is a matter of personal decision. Sometimes we don't want to play our roles and wait for God to do it all for us).


Then Jesus went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this {painful} thing to be taken from me, and if I must do it, then I pray that what you want will be done." Then Jesus went back to the followers. Again Jesus found them sleeping. Their eyes were very tired. (How many times does he come back to check on us and find us not only sleeping but also with tired eyes? - Meaning that we have eyes but cannot see clearly. You know what I mean... think about having tired eyes. Oh Lord, teach us).


So Jesus left them and went away one more time and prayed. This third time he prayed, he said the same thing. Then Jesus went back to the followers and said, "You are still sleeping and resting? The time has come for the Son of Man to be given to sinful people. Stand up! We must go. Here comes the man that is giving me {to my enemies}." (Time has arrived. Stand up! We must go. What a powerful message from God? Are you ready to go? Are you ready to make the first step to His call? Are you ready to follow Him? Or do you want to continue to sleep and rest. Or do you want to be the one who is giving Him to His enemies?)

GIVE TO GOD WHAT BELONGS TO GOD

By Odon Bulamba (16th January 2011 - summary only)


I praise God because this morning we have been able to meet together this morning and it’s a grace to meet together like this to read the Word of God. Some are not able to meet this morning because maybe they are sick, maybe they had a car accident or maybe they died during the night but we are here together and we can praise God for that.


Mark 12:16,17


“And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's. And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marvelled at him”.

 Jesus told these people, “I don’t need 100% from you, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give me what belongs to God”. It was a way of bringing peace between the two parties. One side wanted to say that everything belonged to Caesar while the other wanted to say that everything belonged to God. Jesus found a way to bring peace between both sides by what he said.


The picture on our coins is the image of the queen and it is this image that makes the coin valuable. Without the image of the queen, the coin will be fake and unusable.


Caesar represents man, Caesar also represents our nation and also our government. Every day we owe something to someone. For example, if you use electricity, you will owe the power company. If you make a phone call, you will owe Telecom/Telstra Clear. If drive in your car, you will need petrol, WOF, registration etc. If you don’t pay, you will receive a reminder with the due date. If you don’t pay within the due date, you will be given a penalty. If you continue not to pay, you will be taken to court until you do pay. Sometimes we have to take finance in order to pay off what we need, and we accept to pay interest.


We accept to pay because we know that it belongs to Caesar and we have to pay or we will be in trouble. If you are late for work, you will get a warning and if you continue to be late every day, it will become a serious issue. Most people work because they have to, not very many people work because they enjoy it. Then the IRD asked for their portion and if you refuse to pay tax, you will see yourself going to court and you will pay the price for that.


If you don’t send your kids to school, you will see the government intervening and pushing you to send them to school. Even to get food requires money. Today we need to buy a house and before to build, we need permission to buy the land.


God says, ‘yes you have to pay for all these things’. We spend our money and our time and effort to please the government and ourselves. We fear the government so we pay in order to avoid trouble but for God, we don’t care, we sometimes even forget He exists.


God also has a coin. He said, ‘let Us create human being in Our image’. You are this coin. Think of your value – the image of God. When people see you, they should notice you belong to God. God created you to be seen by everybody unlike the Caesar’s coin which can be hidden in your pocket. Whenever someone goes missing, the police put their image on the television, and people will search for them but if I lose a simple coin and tell the police, they will sent be away and say I’m wasting their time.


The police respect the lives of human beings more than money. You are very important and if God can make the government and the entire country care for you, why can’t you also care for people instead of money?


If what happened in Queensland (flooding) could be here today, then you would seek God because we only seek Him when we are in trouble and then we say, ‘thank you and goodbye’ to God because we got what we needed.


John 1:12, “But as many as received him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name”.


We have the power to become children of God.



To be a parent is to educate your child and most of the time, God tells us (as His children) things we don’t want to hear. We have to pay back to God because we owe Him so much. How many promises did I give to God? How many things did I say I would do for God this week?


When we have a birthday party to go to, we have time to prepare….we prepare the gift, we prepare ourselves (what we will wear), we might even prepare food but when we are going to the House of the Lord, we don’t have time to prepare (spiritually). There is joy for a birthday party and we are there on time but for church, there is no joy and we are usually late, sometimes the preacher has a whole month to prepare his message but only takes ten minutes before the service to get it ready.



When it’s God’s time, we try to remove our responsibilities and try our best not to be committed. Our churches need our offerings but we prefer to buy something else that pleases us.

 Malachi 3:8, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.”

 When God gives you a ministry, you think it’s too hard and too difficult. It’s like me wearing this suit, I start to think it’s too hot, so I take off the jacket, and then I take off the tie and then my shoes and eventually, I stand in front of God completely naked because I have removed every ministry until there is nothing left.


God created us and therefore we already belong to Him but then He also brought us with the blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore, He owns us twice but why don’t we accept to belong to Him. You owe Him a lot so why don’t you give Him at least the minimum? To find people who tithe is a problem, to find a preacher is a problem, to find anyone who will work for God is a problem.


II Timothy 3:1-5, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away”.


These are the gifts most Christians have today rather than gifts from God. This verse is a warning from God ‘cos the time we are living is very dangerous. Many Christians love themselves, many are selfish and don’t love others or God. Many Christians love money more than people and many are proud and many boast. Many Christians are disobedient to parents (God is our Father).

 How often do we obey God? We listen to God but we put it aside and we don’t care because we are careless. Why don’t we take God seriously? Why don’t we want to listen and obey God?

 We are unthankful. When we tell others the great things God has done, many others might also come to God. Whenever you give something to God, you are not giving in vain, you are collecting for God and He will bless you.


Many Christians slander but we need to avoid slander and we need to be self-controlled. Self-control is when you want to sin and you control yourself to not sin. Satan doesn’t have the power to force you so if you say, ‘no’, he’ll leave you. Control your actions, control your attitude, control your good relationship with God. We mustn’t love pleasures more than God. We need limits and we need self-control. Many things pull us to make us addicted to them (eg. Television) but we have to control ourselves.


SUMMARY

- Give to Caesar (government, man, nation) what belongs to Caesar
- Give to God what belongs to God
- We owe God a lot
- God created us and bought us (we belong to Him 2x)
- We are the image of God (people should recognise that)
- Give to God our time, our money and our effort
- Be self-controlled

Revelation 7 (Part III) Tribe of Reuben

By Odon Bulamba (Friday 27th May 2005)


The book of Revelation is clear if you take the explanation from the Bible.


Israel means: someone who stands up and fights against God. The first time this name is used is when Jacob fought.


If the church today is called Israel, it’s not because we’re fighting God in every decision but because God chose us as his people. If God chooses you, you are Israel.


Jacob had twelve sons and Reuben was the first one.


Today we’ll try to marry some of these names with what the Word of God teaches us about them.


Romans 14:12.


So then, each of us will be accountable to God.


On that day, each person will stand in front of God and give Him a “feedback”. No matter who you are, a scientist, someone who is depressed, sick or what you look like, tall or short, young or old, you will stand in front of the Lord and tell Him about what you did under the sun. The Lord Jesus will also tell you all the good and the bad you’ve done. There will be no room for discussion or justification, He will be the only One to judge and His sentence will have supreme authority.


God gave us that picture in Genesis 49, as a picture of judgement of the end of time. We will be called one after another and on that day, we’ll specially talk about what didn’t please God in our lifes.


REUBEN

In Genesis 49, Reuben was alone with his father and when Jacob started: “You are my first-born”, Reuben was expecting a blessing. “You are full of strength and above your brothers” Reuben felt encouraged by his Dad and how he saw him above his brothers but this was just the beginning


Jacob carried on saying: “unstable as water, you shall not excel”, comparing him with wavy, turbulent water. When Reuben heard that change, he suddenly wandered if his Dad was attacking him. Imagine how he felt! He kept quiet, though. Jacob said this because his son dishonoured him by his behaviour. Jacob was referring to something that happened 40 years ago with Bilhah. At that time, Bilhah accepted and opened the door, things appeared to be done secretly but Jacob came to know it and waited until Genesis 49 to talk about it. Jacob was against his son’s actions, and in 40 years, Reuben hadn’t repented, so because of a lack of repentance, Jacob removed his first son’s birthright and told him he will never succeed.


Today, in our churches, we can easily forget to repent. Christians speak easily about love, the gifts of the Holy Spirit or Scriptures but never about repentance. Some people talk about it only when they exhort others. If we exhort others and don’t practice repentance ourselves, our faith is just a dead faith and if the Christians chosen by God in the earlier time think they are the first-born, they know everything and are above others but actually carry on with their old sins in their hearts, hiding them without repenting, they’ll be put aside. On the Day of Judgment, many will say: “We have served you and done this and that”, He’ll answer: “Go away!” Just because of repentance.


A clever Christian will repent every second and every minute, he’ll remember the Son of Man might be back at any minute or he might die and go back to his creator at any minute. He realises he must be ready, so he’ll ask for forgiveness to people, to God and he will forgive others too. A Christian must not wait for the offender to come to him and ask for forgiveness to forgive.


Mark 11:25 commands us to forgive others so that our Father in heaven may also forgive us. If we don’t forgive others, our sins will never be forgiven too. Don’t hide things in your heart and keep others’ wrong doings as a reference, this would be a sin.


A good Christian tries to put aside yesterday and live a new life today. I personally say every morning when I see the sun: “This is a new day, it has 24 hours like yesterday’s. Things will be different today”. You might feel life is the same everyday for you, Christian, but things are different in your journey. Today you are happy, tomorrow you’ll feel sad when the day starts, and the following day you might be angry. Know how to control yourself and try to make things better so that you can please your Creator and from that category of Christians, God will choose only 12,000 people. Will you be chosen?

Try not to be in that category of people, the first-born of Jesus-Christ whose life didn’t please the Lord. You might forget what you do, you might not be willing to fix things and not practise repentance but remember God doesn’t forget.

The Souls Under the Alter (Summary)

Revelations 6:9-1 (the fifth seal)


By Odon Bulamba (20th May 2005)

There are three types of alters but here it doesn’t specify which one it is:



1. Alter that burns the offering (Ex27:1), used only to burn or sacrifice to make God happy or glorified. The souls were not on the alter but under, those people have already finished their journey and don’t have the right to be sacrificed again. They went under the alter to be hidden so no one can touch them, to keep themselves safe from sin.

 2. Alter that burns incense or perfume (Ex 30)


Romans 12:1, better to offer body, soul and heart to God so God can continue to protect you, if you only offer your soul and keep your heart and body, satan can continue to fight against you (like someone who offers incense but not sacrifice). Remember your life doesn’t belong to you, if you borrow something from someone else you will use it wisely and be careful. Our bodies don’t have to accept to sin or do the will of satan, if not we will enter serious persecution and we have three different types of persecution:


1. Spiritual
2. Physical
3. Moral/Psychological


The church of God doesn’t normally go through physical persecution (only in some countries) but normally (and here) the church goes through spiritual persecution where they can cry day after day to God; ‘God I want to be strong in my prayers’, ‘God I want to be strong in fasting, but I can’t’, ‘Lord until when will this finish’. God will tell them to wait and when the time will be there, He’ll intervene.


The first person to persecute our internal lives is ourselves, satan brings temptation but it’s up to you to decide, He’ll never push you or force you, unless you are possessed by evil spirits but usually in church, God gives the privilege of deciding.


Under the alter the souls were slain because of the Word of God which is the truth (John 17:17). You can read a story in the Bible but behind that story is a power to save, a power that can modify or transform a human being and that power is called the Word of God because that is the truth. When you read scripture it doesn’t mean anything unless you can discover life in them. The Word of God has body, soul and heart:


Body – the physical book with stories etc


Soul – When your soul leaves your body you die which means your soul is what gives you life and the Word of God has that power to give life also.


Heart – The heart pumps the blood (life) around the body and the Holy Spirit is what transforms our lives.


Whenever the Word of God doesn’t have God’s power leading it, that Word of God becomes powerless, that is why whenever we are called to read the Word of God we have to prepare ourselves, ask God for anointment and His power will be upon whatever we share so that the Word can convince, change and transform and show the way to live. If not the person will forget the message easily but if it penetrates your heart you can remember easily. Souls that are ready to work together with the heart and the body can easily receive the message and keep it.


The justice of God (righteousness) is where we can walk together with God and God is satisfied with our lives and we are also satisfied with His life in us. When someone is wrong and you can see it, if you don’t warn that person you don’t practice justice.

They put on white robes; in the purity of God, whoever is not in uniform will be thrown outside but those wearing the uniform will have assurance they will get into the Kingdom of God.

 The sixth to the seventh seal is explained clearly in Mathew 24 and will happen on the day of the coming of the Son of Man. We don’t know the right time when Jesus will come back and it will only take a second.


SUMMARY


- We have to offer our body, soul and heart not just one or two
- When we accept to sin we enter serious persecution
- There are three persecutions (spiritual, physical & moral)
- The church of God usually goes through spiritual persecution
- The Word of God is truth
- The Word of God has body, heart and soul
- Before to read the Word of God, pray for God’s anointment