End Times - Mathew 24:22 - The Elect

 
By Odon Bulamba


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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