Luke 1:5 - 2:15 - Christmas reminds us of God, the Father who lives in us

We are going to talk about Jesus and as the world is celebrating Christmas, for us Christians, it is a matter of remembering the birth not only of the child that is born but the birth of our saviour in our world.

Luke 1:5- 2:15

For Jesus to be born, for me personally and for the Christian community, it was a symbol of God’s love to send His only Son to come to earth to live among us and save us.  It was a way of teaching us human beings that we can’t complain because He knows what we live and has experienced what we go through and He understands pain, problems and challenges.  Therefore, all your problems will find a solution in Jesus

There are similarities in the birth of Jesus and John.  The parents of John were an old couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth, who had fought for years to have a child but couldn’t have one.  Then the angel Gabriel came to Zechariah, “Your wife will conceive and you will name the child John and this boy will bring Israelites to God but John should never drink alcohol or live this type of life”.

Gabriel was sent to Mary to bring the same message, “You will conceive and get pregnant and have a child and his name shall be Emmanuel”.  Mary was a virgin and was told she will conceive with the power of the Holy Spirit. They both gave birth to boys. 

If we look carefully, the Bible is trying to teach us the resemblance between the birth of these two.  They were both miraculous births but on one side, a human being as a servant of God was born and on the other side, God himself was born.

As we celebrate Christmas, many celebrate the birth of John the Baptist and not Jesus.  The angel Gabriel came to Zechariah, a servant of God who had worked for many years in the temple.  Zechariah couldn’t speak from that day on.  When Elizabeth became pregnant, the Holy Spirit was with Elizabeth and living with John.  When Mary and Elizabeth met, the power could be felt between the two babies. 

John came to preach the gospel to Israel and bring them to God while Jesus came to preach the gospel and bring the entire earth to God’s Kingdom.  Many people go to church and they experience the Word of God, they listen and they take it as physical only.  The message enters their lives but is limited to only what their ears and minds can receive and does not allow the Holy Spirit to act in them.  Therefore, they can also tell you, I have read the Bible and heard that message but they don’t change their lives. 

John was in the womb and connected to Jesus but he was not Jesus.  When you receive a message, do you connect that message to Jesus who lives in you?  When you read the Bible, do you understand that it is the Word of God and you respect it as the Word of Go?  Children respect the word of their parents.  We must respect our parents.

For John who was preaching the gospel, he reached a point where he said, “it is not me, follow Him”.  He told all them, “Don’t follow me, follow Him, he is the Lamb of God, go to Jesus”.  Many of us will stop where we are in our church, in our knowledge, and stories we hear and don’t have the courage to move forward to follow Jesus.

John was a good preacher and a good guy and was baptising people but he was sending them to Jesus.  Do you send yourself to Jesus sometimes?  When your thoughts go too far away, do you tell your mind, the solution is with Jesus.  “My thoughts, I cannot respond to that, Jesus is the answer”.  I try to do something, and I can’t do it, turn to Jesus, He is the answer.  Some on the earth will see servants of God when they have problems, “Support me, pray for me,” which is good but the last word is to go to Jesus.

When we celebrate Christmas, we remember the birth of Jesus.  What is a birthday?  Is it about their birth?  We can eat and drink or should we stop and praise God for having the privilege to have that child among us.  Usually when we celebrate birthdays, we have cake, food, singing, and we want to look nice.

How old were you last year Anna? 12 and now you are 13.  Can you go back to 12?  No, we must remember that Jesus was born in us last year and He should not be treated as a baby in our lives as we did yesterday.  We can’t say we are spiritual babies forever.  When we are 20 years living with Jesus in us, should we continue to treat Him as a child?

God has never been a child but people treat Him as one, “I don’t care what God thinks”.  We do what we want when and how we want, we don’t fear Him to be a father and because of lack of respect and fear we celebrate year after year that Jesus was born and is a child in us but we should celebrate the Father in us. 

Christmas should be the remembrance of God living in us (Emmanuel) rather than a baby born in Bethlehem.  We should think of him as Emmanuel in our lives.  Where is he living now?  If Bethlehem is my body, is Jesus really living in me? For the past 20 years, you have been experiencing living with Jesus. 

If you ask Colleen, who is Keith, she will know him very well. She know what he likes and doesn’t like, “Honey what do you want for dinner,” and it will be up to Colleen to cook for him.  Keith knows who is Colleen.  Jesus knows who we are and we know who Jesus is.  What is our duty to this God?  He gave us salvation and we have been living together for years but we still continue to act foolishly against God who gave His life for us.

When a husband and wife live together and there is a misunderstanding, they may end up deciding not to continue and to fix the problem but if one doesn’t want to fix the problem, there will not be stability in the family. 

Today Jesus is 2020 years old.  He is very old isn’t he.  We can glorify him on Christmas day but after the celebration we are mean to Jesus with our actions and words.  In the morning, “We love you Jesus,” and by the evening, do I even care.  I only care about my own life.  “I had a lot of problems today and God you did nothing”.

Keith can be there reading his book but Colleen knows what to do for her husband.  In his heart Keith is glorifying God for such a woman.  Jesus is the husband of the church.  When it is the birthday of a dad in the family, what happens?  The whole family will celebrate.  Who are we going to celebrate with this Christmas?  The angels came down when Jesus was born and celebrated and informed the shepherds.  Who are you going to inform about Emmanuel in your life?

One time in my dream, I became a santa and I had a big bag and I was going door after door and if you open, I give you something and I was giving small boxes with Bible verses.  They would open it and throw it away.  I’m giving those Bible verses but they don’t accept them.  Another santa was offering chocolates and everyone was receiving those chocolates with joy.

When it is time to inform the world about who Emmanuel is among us they do not want to receive it.  You can invite people for food and BBQ and they will come but they won’t want to listen to the Word of God. 

The angels celebrated but many people did not go to Bethlehem.  Don’t stop to remember that you have someone who was born several years ago.  When others are not singing, sing for your Lord, don’t be ashamed, He loves worship.  If you put all your mind in someone who can perform miracles or is anointed, you can learn from that person but if you want the true salvation, go to Jesus.  Don’t stick with John but move to follow Jesus and be his disciple.

Put all in Jesus not in your church or denomination.  Jesus only had 12 disciples.  Please come in and join those 12.  John will never say no to his disciples to move to Jesus.  Be with Jesus and be a disciple of Jesus and it is up to you to decide how to become one and when and what is your role as a disciple.

Christmas is not a word from the Bible but it encourages us to be near Jesus.  The wise men brought their gifts and no one else brought gifts.  The entire world was expecting the baby to be born, how many prepared gifts for Jesus?  When was the last time you gave to Jesus and what type of gift was it?

One gave perfume that smelt good and one gave gold which was full of value.  They tried to find something special to give to God. What is the most important and special thing in your life that you can offer to Jesus?  They didn’t fear the darkness (it was night time).  I have lots of problems and challenges, I can’t offer my life to Jesus.  Darkness can’t stop you from offering your life to Jesus.

After the wise men left, the angels told the parents of Jesus to leave.  They left for Egypt.  It might be late for you if you delay and you don’t offer your life and something special for Jesus, you might find He is gone.  Life is short.  If you want to enjoy life, don’t enjoy it here on earth but prepare to enjoy heaven which is eternity. 

I wish you all a wonderful, peaceful year and a year of change and things that didn’t work previously will work this year,  pray 2021 will be a year of victory as we prepare for Jesus coming back.

End Days - Mathew 24:45 - Feed the Hungry

By Odon Bulamba

Mathew 24:45, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?”

This is a small verse that puts together what Jesus came to do on the earth.  When Jesus came down, He said, “I am the bread of life”.  He came as food, presenting Himself like food.  Today we are called to think about food. 

I like food.  Do you?  It’s good, yummy and when you eat it, you feel a change in you.  I have a sister, even if she is angry, she will eat.  You can verbally abuse her but nothing will stop her appetite.  When we are eating sometimes, we lick our fingers because it tastes so good.  It can be chocolate, pie, whatever we enjoy.

The Sun of Man wanted to show us how important He is in our life.  Without food, you can’t survive.  Jesus, who is the bread of life was tempted by satan to change the stones to bread. 

How often would you like to eat per day?  Some we like to eat 6x/day.  Some diets encourage that.  Some people will eat once or twice because they don’t have enough food.  Even if you don’t have enough food, your body will tell you that you need to eat now.

If you are young, you will ask your mother if you can have something to eat and it is the responsibility of the mother to help.  Even the father can ask the mother what to eat.  Once our bodies need food, no matter who you are, you need to find a way to feed your body. 

Jesus has given us the task to go and feed others.  It is easy for me to eat but how often do I feed others?  When I am hungry I can fight for food for myself but how often do I fight for food for others?  When was the last time you fed a stranger?  Very often if you go to our garage, you will find in our rubbish bin of garbage that we throw away food while outside, there are people who need food.

We know Jesus and we eat the Word of Life but when it is time to give to others, we are selfish, we prefer to throw away Jesus in the rubbish than to share with other people who are in need.  We were just taking the bread during communion and Jesus said, “Remember me”.  How often do you remember Jesus in your life and share with others?  We share the bread in church, how often do you share with others? If you don’t share Jesus with others, what is your reason, is it because you are selfish? Is there any other reason to stop you?

Jesus said that when He comes back, blessed is the servant who had food and shared it with others.  It is not about money or clothes or wealth but a simple thing as food.  I will give you an example, I walked to Pak ‘n Save a time ago and I came across this little boy who wanted a muffin, and the lady said loudly, “I can’t afford that!”  “Mummy can I just have one?”  The mum wanted to punish the child.  I had $10 and the muffin was $1.50, and I thought that if I bought him a muffin, I might not be able to buy what I wanted. 

I said to the mum, I can buy the muffin for you.  I said, “Choose, a muffin”.  The boy chose a box of muffins which cost $9.50.  The boy wanted to share the muffins with his brothers and sisters who were not there.  I paid $10.  As I was about to leave, a man said, “I saw you pay.  Why did you do that while you are black and he is white”.  I answered, “It doesn’t matter, he needed a muffin”.  The man said, “Come,” and he withdrew $100 and gave it to me and said, “You can now buy what you needed”.  I could now buy 10x more than what I could before I gave away the $10.

When you share food, you will be blessed more.  Some people will share bread with birds and now those birds come close.  When it is time to share Jesus with people, it is a challenge

1 Samuel 17: 17-18, this is Jesse who is sending his son David to take food to his brothers in the same way Jesus is sending us to share the gospel (food of life) with others, your neighbours, brothers, bosses, everyone.  Jessie told David to wake up in the morning, and go, take 16kg of roasted grain and loaves of bread, “These are for your brothers.  10 cheeses don’t belong to your brothers but to the commanders because your brothers are in a battlefield”.  David was the weakest boy of the family and wasn’t strong physically to carry the heavy weapons but he could carry 16kg of grains, 10 cheeses and breads.

That morning, he was told to leave everything behind, including his flock and go to the battlefield.  Imagine, you are not a soldier, “Colleen, go to Iraq to deliver food to the soldiers”.  I will worry about my security and see death coming.  Maybe I will say, “Send someone else who is stronger and knows the battlefield”.  Most of the time in your life, God will send you to a battlefield where brothers are dying spiritually and being attacked by satan to take food.

Goliath was very tall (giant) to the point that when he stood up, people would run from him, even the king.  Have you come across something that will make you panic and run away.  In my country you can walk from here to the Base shopping mall with only trees and no light with a small path.  One day at 8pm, my mum told me to in the dark to get salt from a family that lived far from our house and I had to walk through the bush.  I answered, “But it is dark”.  She replied, “You have to go, you are a man,” meaning men should not fear.

My sisters refused to come with me.  When you fear, you walk like a cat.  Then this man came out with a white bed sheet and screamed.  There was nowhere to run.  I was so scared that I sat down and was shaking and then I ran faster than an owl.  I told that family and they didn’t believe me.  The said, “Here is the salt, you have to go back because your mum sent you.  No one here will take you back”. 

My heart was beating.  I wished I had 10 pairs of eyes to see all around.  I ran through the bush and mum said, you are full of fear.  David was like a little man who comes to the battlefield where everyone fears Goliath and David says, “Don’t fear”.  Have you been told don’t fear?  When a snake enters our houses in Africa, everyone will yell snake and call the man of the house to kill it no matter your age.

When David took the food to the brothers, there were grains and loaves without fat but the cheese that is full of fat was for the commander.  Those that have put on weight spiritually, they have many problems spiritually, we need to provide them the right food. e.g., what you are doing is not right, I advise you to do this.  I might attack the person with many verses to defend my weaknesses.

David who is weak is sent to take the food.  God will send a simple person who is not an expert in the field of the Bible to bring food to you but we prove to those people we know better than them.  Instead of accepting their offer, we tell them their own mistakes (just as David’s brothers did to him), “You did this last year”.  God will look at you, foolish child of mine, I have been sending this person to help you, the message comes from Me but you reject that message.

When David reached there, his brothers said, “Why are you here, go back and take care of the flock”.  You might have an important job to do, e.g I’m a shepherd but don’t be surprised when God asks you to leave your job behind and do this for Me.  Many people wait for others to preach, share Word of God and they are not ready to give the food to those in the battlefield saying, “I’m a singer, not evangelist”.  Have you said, the battle is hard?

Sometimes I have a big mouth when watching tv, I advise the actors on tv and when I watch rugby, I yell at the player, “How could you do that?”.  It is easy to judge and comment but I don’t even know how to throw a rugby ball yet my mouth can talk.  I wouldn’t say that I know better than those in the battlefield, talk to them nicely and share the message with joy, not harshly.

Last year I was in Dubai and I was hungry.  I was supposed to reach the hotel at 7am but the security people told me, “Who are you?  Why are you here?”  “I booked the room here at this hotel”.  “Can you prove it?”  I provided proof.  They brought me to the counter and the lady looked at me, “no, just be on that side and I will finish with others first”.  I was put to the side like a black tree and after 30 minutes watching others pass, I asked, “What is happening.  I gave my passport”.  “Are you from New Zealand?  Why are you here?”  I answered, “Does that mean people from New Zealand can’t come to Dubai?”  “No, but you”.

From 7am to 10:30am I was outside waiting for my room.  I was told, “You will have to go somewhere else to find another room”.  It was a 5 star hotel so black skin shouldn’t be there.  12pm, I went to the restaurant like anyone and as I passed everyone was looking at me.  When I entered the restaurant I said, “We are here but our lives on this earth are short and the judgement is coming.  The Bible says, men will harvest what they sow.  If you plant ignorance, you will harvest ignorance.  If you plant hatred, then you will reap hatred.

People were swearing.  A man stood up, “This brother is saying the truth.  I am a Christian and we are not acting good”.  The hotel was filled with Christians attending a Christian conference.  Where is love? This was the food I was sent to share with these people.  Some said sorry.

Sometimes you can face challenging situations, God will tell you at that time to give them the food.  Bread is nothing but it can help you to not die from hunger.  Bread is important for those starving.  Don’t be worried because they look stronger, more intelligent, or more rich than you. Tell them the truth and the truth will set you free.

Cheese is for commanders.  At that hotel I spoke to these men and I spoke to the manager of the hotel without knowing.  People were trying to stop me saying, “He is the boss”.  I came to him, ‘I have something for you, you have money but what do you do to prepare for your time after this life?  Have you invested in your after life?” He responded,  “I do good to people and I assist people with a lot of money”. 

I said, “Prophet Mohammed said to prepare your place in the kingdom.  Do you know the address of your property in the Kingdom of God?  Do you know how big is your land in the Kingdom of God? Have you built something in that kingdom?”  He was happy and said, “What you are saying is wise.  Usually people don’t speak to me because of fear”.

When God sends you to share food, don’t be afraid.  I once told Helen Clark, “Everyone knows you, I wish everyone would know Jesus as they know you.  Let people know that you are Helen Clark because God allowed it”.  What is your testimony today?  Some will testify, I went to a party, I went to Raglan, I went to visit a baby.  How often do you praise God for waking up?  God is so good to me.  We don’t testify all the great things that God has been doing for us.