Judges 6: 14Go with the strength you have … I will be with you…

Many of us can identify with Gideon who said he came from the smallest tribe and he was the least among his own tribe. Gideon had a low self-esteem and he saw himself as a nobody when the Lord came to him and called him to rise up and go and destroy the Midianites.

Not everyone inherits a noble and high position. In fact whenever God wants to use certain people, he did not go among the nobles are privileged group. God always go to those who are lowly, humble and simple and God makes leaders and kings out of them.

Joseph was a slave and a prisoner before he became a prime minister and the ruler of Egypt and surrounding areas. He was next to pharaoh and he yielded absolute power which was given to him by pharaoh.

Daniel was also a slave boy and he was chosen by God and put in a position of favour and he too became a prime minister of a powerful nation.

God had called Gideon who was a very timid man; in fact he was threshing his grain inside a wine-press hidden from sight because he did not want his enemies to see that he was threshing grain. He was afraid that the enemies would come and rob him of his harvest. Then the Lord came and addressed him as a man of valour when he was actually so timid.

We also read of how insecure he was when he put the Lord to the test by putting out the fleece to seek God’s confirmation.

Today God is still in the business of making successful men from the poor and simple people. God delights to make success out of failure and we have seen how God had also raised successful business men and helped to build empires for them.

In the ministry side, God has also raised many successful spiritual leaders from nothing. I have seen that there were many who were simple and foolish looking but after God had His hand on these ministers, He literally lifted them up from the mire and planted them on to high places where they were equipped and trained as successful ministers.

Some have even become global leaders when they actually started off by being house church leaders. This is the way God equip and bless His people. He sees our hearts and our faith. We can be nobodies, we can even be discarded by others but God can pick is up and transform us into His might vessels like Gideon and many other mighty men of God.

Today if we remain humble and committed to God, His eyes will still be upon us. We may be hidden in our own wine press but God will know where we are and he will call us out to be equipped and used by Him. The only thing we need to do is to trust and obey as He call us. When He calls He will also equip and promote. 

Psalm 4:3

Know that the Lord has set apart his faithful servant for himself.

David wrote this psalm while he was going through so much of persecution in his life. He was mistreated by family and friends. His life was even threatened on many occasions but all this while he remained faithful to God and never wavering in his trust in the Almighty.

It is only when one has built and developed such am intimate relationship with God that David can confidently say ‘that the Lord has set apart his faithful servant for himself.’ Some versions translated “faithful servant” with “godly” servant.

Whichever way we look at it, it denotes the interpretation of those who God loves forever and ever. In this case, David had such a privileged position that his name and life has been documented for all history to remember and learn from.

Learning from this, it is an endearing thought that it is an honour to be loved and set apart in a special way by God. We are no longer strangers but we are now beloved children of His. As children, He will love and care for us all our lives and He will teach us His way to inherit His kingdom in heaven.

With this assurance, we can now help and assure others as David assures us so that we can also help others to know our Father in heaven more and in turn receive His love and blessing.

This is what we live for as believers of Jesus Christ and as children of the heavenly Father. Our hope and future lies in our position as faithful and godly children of God.

Heb 11: 1

Now faith is confident in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

This chapter of Hebrews brings out the faith of the saints of God. Among these two stood out as men of extraordinary faith. Abraham was called to leave his homeland and to move over to an unknown place far away where god had promised to make him into a great nation and where he would be given the Promise Land.

Abraham did not waver but immediately responded in complete faith. He took along all his possessions and also the family of his nephew Lot. Abraham did not doubt and did not try to reason it out with God the instruction that he had received. He just trusted God in complete faith and went ahead in total obedience.

Another might man of faith was Noah who heard from God to build an arch on top of high ground. He was away from the sea and river and he just obeyed in total obedience. Noah just went ahead and started to build according to the plan and instructions that God had given to him. While the people laughed and ridiculed him, Noah and his sons laboured in building the Arch which took a very long time to complete.

All this while Noah just focused on his task in obedience, he did not turned to the left or right. Never in a day did he waver even in the face of such ridicule and insults from the people.

These two mighty men of God and also the others who had trusted God in their lives and calling have all came through with God. The scriptures have recorded all their exploits for us to learn from.

Then we are also reminded of Enoch, who has lived a life of holiness and total obedience, he was so pleasing to God that he was taken straight up to heaven without death.

Let us look at all these accounts of mighty men and women of faith. They were just like us, ordinary men of flesh and blood. They knew their God and trusted in Him thereby earning all the blessings from God.

This is a reminder that we too can live this life of faith and begin to take a closer walk with God even when the path is difficult and life is challenging and uncertain. Let us also turn our eyes upon Jesus and let Him have control over our lives.

Prov 20: 3It is to one’s honor to avoid strife.

We are told in the scriptures that we ought to be slow to anger. It did not say that we cannot become angry. It is a fact that in this world there will be strife and differences which is why there are so many personal, corporate, national and international conflicts.

With all the conflicts that are going on, some will ultimately affect us and here king Solomon wisely tell us that ‘It is to one’s honor to avoid strife.’ Strife is when the differences become more intense and it begins to cause friction. The temptation to get angry is always with us and Paul reminded in Eph 4: 26 ‘Don’t get so angry that you sin. Don’t go to bed angry and don’t give the devil a chance.’

Being angry is not a sin but if it is not dealt with it will lead to sinful thoughts and then sinful deeds which we will regret later on. This can be angry words that hurt which we do not mean or it could be actions in other ways that cause hurt.  In this verse Paul tells us that if we succumb to the anger, then the devil will manipulate that and cause us to fall into sin.

We have the Holy Spirit who is with us and enables us to overcome the temptation to sin. Peter also wrote in 1 Peter 2:23 although he was abused, he never tried to get even. And when he suffered, he made no threats; instead he had faith in God who judges fairly. This is the help of the Holy Spirit to keep us from sinning.

This is the character of our Holy God, He is merciful. In Psalm 86:15 But you, the Lord God, are kind and merciful. You don’t easily get angry, and your love can always be trusted.

This is the promise of God, that He is always kind and merciful and He is not easily angered. It does not mean that God never gets angry, there were many occasions that God was very angry with the Israelites because they had deliberately sinned against God who had given them many opportunities to repent but they are so stiff necked and they refused.

Let us seek God daily and ask that He will help us to control our anger so that we will not be entrapped by the devil.

Acts 17: 23As I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god.

Paul comments here tell us that he was a diligent man who made the effort to know his target audience. Before he started to share the gospel with the Athenians, he first walked around to study their culture, their social values and beliefs. This is prudent as it would enable the evangelist to speak to the heart of the people.

In this instance, Paul first commended them of their religiosity and also their desire to want to know all their gods and he pointed out that they even had an altar to an unknown god. This became the entry point for Paul to catch their interest. The Athenians were immediately attracted to what Paul had to say to them about their beliefs and practices.

Literally it opened a door for Paul to speak to their hearts as that was something that they had been seeking and to establish. They knew that there is a supreme being but yet they do not know who he is and how to get to know Him. Paul then explained to them all about the supreme God who had created the whole universe and all living things on earth.

Then Paul began to share the gospel of salvation with them and a good number responded positively.

In my mission trips, I was at a church which had experienced a tremendous move of God some decades ago and the people who were part of the revival back then are still around though they are senior citizens now.

When I came to them, I reminded them of their legacy when there was a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon them for a period of time. Their faith was rekindled and the lukewarmness that they were in was transformed. They began to remember all the miracles that had taken place and how they had lived through those wonderful days.

Then I began to encourage them to seek again this revival that should come into their Church and their village. By the time I finished the message for the meeting all the people were just waiting to rush forward to rededicate their lives to the Lord.

God knows all about our lives, He cares for us and He will always be there for us when we call and draw near to Him.

All that God is waiting for is for those who have not known Him or those who have grown cold to turn to Him and He will respond to them in His love. If we are lukewarm, it is time for us to rekindle the fire in our spirit so that we can rise up and run back towards God.

Luke 5: 13Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.

Here is the account of a leper coming to Jesus for help. Leprosy in the first century was an incurable disease and it would have been a very painful life for the leper. For one there was no cure and the leper would experience the eating away of all the flesh and the bones. The fingers and toes will drop off and even the nose and ears would drop off.

On top of that the leper has to suffer rejection from the community and separation from the family. Leprosy in the first century was considered as a disease of sin. It was believed that when a person had committed grievous sins, he would be afflicted with leprosy.

When lepers are around, the people would keep far away from them and even the priests in those days keep away from the lepers. However in this passage we see the leper crying out to Jesus for His help and Jesus did not turn away from him because Jesus felt the pain and rejection that the leper had experienced. So in response Jesus reached out and touched the leper.

The leper was healed instantly and Jesus asked the leper to show himself to the priests so that they can declare the leper as healed and clean and can be accepted back into the community as well as his family.

Jesus came to heal and restore. He healed the sick and he restored the confidence, the healing that the people needed. Today there are many in the churches who are hurting because some of the other believers have judged their brothers and sisters and have rejected them and removed them from the fellowship. These are hurting as a result of the rejection and separation. They have lost their confidence in the Church as well as with their God.

These too need to be restored and healed so that they can become useful again in the church. Looking for the unsaved in the community is great but there is also a need to forgive and restore some of the brethren in the Church. We know that not everyone is lovable, there are some who are like thorns in our side. They may be like that because they have suffered first through the rejection they had received.

They need to be reached out to and loved back into the body of believers.

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

Paul reminds that the work of the gospel involves reaching out to those who have not heard nor experienced the goodness of the gospel. Paul is saying that to share the gospel it involves not only preaching but also working as in doing good works.

Paul had in his letters to the churches also mentioned that faith must be accompanied by works. When good works are demonstrated, it shows the non-believers the value system of the church or the body of Christ. Those who receive the good works will see the love of God flowing through us.

This is most effective when others see our good deeds performed willingly and out of love. I remembered that some years ago when our state was inundated with severe flooding and the people who were in the rural areas where washed out of their homes, they had no time to remove their belongings and everything that came under the flood water were destroyed.

All the furniture, electrical appliances, clothing, personal belonging and even their vehicles that went under water were a write off. Nothing could be salvaged and literally the poor people lost everything. The help from the government was limited and was slow in coming.

Then our church and some of the other churches began to mobilise our resources of man power and contacts to raise donations for relief for the poor flooded out families. We were able to come out with new cooking utensils, cookers and food which at least the families could have something to live once the flood subsided. This would have been a problem to the families as they are poor and could not come up with cash to restart immediately.

Their crops too were all washed away and the palm trees also died together with all other agricultural products. The church members also volunteered to help the people to wash their homes where mud had been deposited after the flood water subsided.

All these were done without the people even asking, the Christians immediately went out to help. They went to the flooded villages and did what they needed to do to help the poor people.

This was a good testimony for the body of Christ as the villages saw the love of God and the Church in action. As a result many of the villagers were touched and some gave their lives to the Lord.

This is another powerful way of demonstrating the love of God to the unsaved world. Our lives and actions are the living proof of the gospel. The actions and words that we speak confirm the gospel of God to be the salvation plan of God to the world.

Let us not be weary of doing good whenever the opportunity arise and let us be proof producers for the gospel of love of Jesus Christ.

James 1: 17Every good and perfect gift is from above.

Sometimes there is too much emphasis on just the spiritual things. These are very important and nobody can deny this. Recently we were reminded that God also is interested in our lives, this means our day to day living, our families, or relationship with one another and also the body of Christ.

Among these, we tend to overlook the need to ask God for grace and mercies for the Church. We need to thank Him for bringing us into the family and giving us the opportunity to belong and to be cared for by others in the family. Love and compassion from the brethren is a strong bond that traverses through international boundaries.

For those of us who have experienced this bond with people we have never met before and who are in different cultures and nationalities but when they come into their church or home, we are warmly welcomed and treated as long lost relatives. Our brethren will go out of their way to provide for our needs and they would offer the best that they can afford.

This gift of hospitality which is among the church family is something that the world does not know nor do they understand. We are bound together in the bond of love from God; this love is a gift that God has put in us. It never fades but grow stronger as we mature in our spirituality. This is one of the perfect gifts that God has given to us which are the love of the Father which He has translated to us.

However the main perfect gift that God has given to us is His personal love, He loves each and every one of us unconditionally as well as individually. He hears and answers our cries irrespective of who we are, what we are, where we are.

Today I read of a testimony that came out of Africa. This is a testimony of a pastor and his church that was attacked by some radical terrorists, they escapes and ran to the Church where there locked themselves up. They went into fervent prayer seeking God’s help.

Moments later the terrorists came and knocked down the Church door and they began to drag the Christians out of the Church. The pastor thought that his time to go to heaven has come. However suddenly a ferocious lion came out and leap at the terrorists. It grabbed hold of one of the terrorists neck.

The other terrorists tried to attack the lion and suddenly tow more lions jumped upon them. The terrorists ran and escaped but the lions did not touch the Christians. God has send the lions to protect His children. Soon after the lions disappeared.

This is not a wonder! The wonder is that in that village there have never been any reports of lions nearby. The villagers have been there for many years but they have never been troubled by lions nor were there any know lions prowling round that area. God truly bless his people as long as they are calling on Him in times of blessings as well as in times of needs.

Let us learn from the saints that we must continue to pray fervently and unceasingly.

Phipp 1: 6He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Yesterday in a Church I attended the speaker share a message on doing the works of the spirit. He took the opportunity to show a video clip depicting a pastor visiting Jerusalem from the States and this pastor had a healing ministry and operates in the word of knowledge. On the video we could see him operating effectively in these gifts.

At the end of his message, he challenged the congregation to seek toward spiritual maturity and gifting and to seek the gifts of the Holy Spirit so as to be effective in their ministry.

This is exactly what Paul meant when he wrote the scripture above that ‘He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.’ God’s intention and purpose for each of us is that we must grow in spiritual stature so that we can do the works of God.

Paul is saying that our lives calling is for this purpose only and we should be laser targeting this calling and serving Christ until the day He returns. We are all expecting and looking towards this coming revival that the Holy Spirit has been speaking through His prophets. There is going to be a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in this last days and we the servants of God are going to be mobilized and energized into God’s end times army and we will carry out great exploits for God.

The prophecy is that the outpouring of the Holy spirit during this End Times will be so powerful that it will be something that the world has not seen before. This will be the time which Jesus Christ has prophesied that the works that He has done, greater works than that shall we do in His name.

We the end times servants of God must be ready and prepared for this call up by God, we need to keep ourselves pure and holy so that we can be clean vessels for the Lord’s use. God is preparing His End Times army, we all have a calling in this and therefore we need to equip ourselves so that the work that Jesus Christ has started in us will be complete in us when the new revival of the world comes.

Let us get ready and keep the oil in our lamps.

Psalm 145:18The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

This is one of the psalms of David where he has been continuously praising and exalting the name of God. David has never ceased to worship God, this is his first nature and before he does anything else it was his normal practice to worship God.

As such he has an intimate relationship with God; he was able to tap on to God at all times. Here he declares his experience of receiving the closeness of God and he encourages other to emulate what he does habitually. He can only teach what he has experienced and know. Every teacher must be an expert in what he teaches.

In David’s case he has developed his relationship to such a high level that he could experience a one on one conversation with God. Yesterday I was watching a video of an autistic boy of seven years and he cannot speak well but he communicates with his parents by typing on an iPad.

For about 2 years now this boy has been experiencing receiving prophetic words about people and events. He was able to operate in prophecy and the world of knowledge as he could hear from God and some ministering angels. Recently he is saying that every night he is being translated to heaven where he attends lessons taught by angels. He receives understanding and truth and explanation of scriptures that are very difficult to interpret.

This was like the apostle Paul who received the revelation of the Doctrines that were given to him and in turn he taught it to the NT believers. When this boy is with his parents he could write down these teaching and shared them with his parents. In turn the parents shared them with the Church.

Now this is because the boy is pure and innocent, God delights in his heart and chose to treat him specially and begin to impart knowledge that even highly trained theologians don’t know.

This is the living God whom we worship. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is the God of David and he is also our God today. What he had done for them in days past, He is still able to do today.  All that he desires from us is that we be really close to Him and interact with Him and He will interact with us. 

2 Cor 9:7Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion.

Many lessons have been taught in Church about giving to the Church. Of course this is true as the Church and workers need to be paid and cost of running a Church needs to be met. Giving our tithes is fundamental to Church ministry as well as for us individually.

In psalm 72: 13 “He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death.” God knows the need of those who are in lack and He instructs that we who can must look after them. Jesus too taught on looking after widows and orphans. We also need to look at those who have retired and are jobless and not having any financial means.

In this area, there are many ministers who are not receiving support after they have retired. They have served faithfully the Church and the congregation and after they have retired, their financial support has been cut. This is a sad thing but many Churches fail to look after their former pastors/workers. This is a failure on their responsibilities.

In the letters of Paul he also mentioned the need to support the widows, orphans and the retired servants of God. Paul know poverty as he too went on faith, not receiving any salary from any Church but relying totally on God’s providence.

This is a reminder to those who are blessed that they would need to give generously as God has blessed them generously.

Gen 12: 1The Lord had said to Abram, “go… to the land I will show you.”

Obedience is something that is inculcated in children to be a virtue. Every child is taught to obey his/her parents and those in authority because the child knows that the parent or person who is in authority over them does not mean harm to them. The child will trust that the order or instruction from the parent is meant to do them good.

For us parents who have gone through child raising, we are familiar with our duty to bring up disciplined and honest children. Going beyond that when the young child start school, he/she would also begin to learn from the teachers and they are also taught to submit and obey the teachers as they are there to guide and teach them to become men and women of success.

Likewise in Church the pastors/leaders are also people of great responsibilities to teach and disciple the believers. It is a fact that no pastor/leader would want to mislead the believers in their faith. Again their task is to build and equip the believers who are under their leadership. In this sense, believers must submit and learn to be taught and equipped by the leaders.

Just as Abraham became totally submissive to God when he received the call to come out of his former country and to move to the Promised Land. We too have our Promised Land that Jesus Christ had revealed. 

Abraham received a temporal inheritance in the land of Israel when he obeyed God but we have the promise that we will inherit the eternal Promised Land which is heaven where the Trinity is and where all the angels and saints live as well.

The scriptures remind us that we are on a short sojourn on this earth, it may be 70 years or maybe 80 or even 90 years. Some friends have even lived shorter but no matter what span of time we are here, our destiny is our home in heaven. God has instructed us that this is our Promised Land and we must not lose focus of it.

The end times are upon us and we will never know when we will be caught up to our home. Today I read an article by a military analyst who said that we are perilously near to WW III and when it breaks out, it would be a nuclear war.

Then he said that when the super powers start dropping nuclear bombs, the whole earth will be affected and life over most part of the earth will be destroyed.

This is alarming but for those of us who are prepared and obedient to God, we must not be worried because we know where we are going. God has promised us that we will inherit our heavenly Promised Land just as Abraham was lead to the earthly Promised Land.

On Palm Sunday two Coptic Churches in Egypt was bombed by radical terrorists and what surprised the terrorist group is that the Coptic Church on Easter Sunday publicly forgave all the acts of the terrorists. The response from the terrorists was that the Coptic Christians are made of steel.

The terrorists don’t understand that the Coptic Christians have always been teaching their members to be ready for martyrdom and they rejoice that those who were martyred have received their Promised Land in heaven. This is their eternal hope and joy when they are persecuted. Just like the early Christians who rejoiced in the Roman arena when they were martyred we too must be ready and obedient unto death. To die for Christ is to gain our Promised Land, we must be ready and prepared.

2 Cor 2: 14Thanks be to God, who ….uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.

For some of us who have spent intimate times with God, we would have one time or another felt His presence in the sweet fragrance that permeate our gathering especially during times of worship and prayer. Personally I had the privilege of experiencing this in Chirch as well as on many occasions while I was ministering to some people at different times.

It is at such time when we are in ministry and when the sweet aroma of God filled the room that other non-believers in our midst can also experience a small tangible presence of God.

The fragrance of godliness and holiness is always a sweet and mild fragrance, it is like a very mild perfume but is never repulsive but which is soothing. On the opposite whenever evil is present, then there would be a coldness and pungent odour around the room. If I am not mistaken, this kind of odour can be found in many places of worship in temples etc.

I have also been in warfare ministry for some time in the past and this is also a very real experience especially when the demons start coming out from the victims in shrieks and loud screams. As they do that, there is a release of that foul smell of evil. That is why Jesus called these demons foul spirits as that is their characteristics.

Now coming back to today’s scriptures, Paul wrote that we must be the bearers of the sweet aroma of God. If evil people can be the bearers of foul odour then we who spend time in the presence of God should carry with us the sweet aroma of God and we must be the bearers of the good news as well as the sweet fragrance of God. When others can experience this, then they would be encouraged and will be drawn towards Our God.

In the Middle East where the radical terrorists are carrying out all their atrocious and evil work, we learn that many of these people are coming to Jesus Christ in their thousands even though their culture and religion reject and persecute Christians. What actually make them turn to Christ? It is because of the experience they have with the believers which opened their eyes.

In the last week, we read of the Egyptian Churches which were bombed on Palm Sunday and nearly 50 people died and hundred over are injured. On Easter weekend, the bishop and the Churches pronounced love and forgiveness to those who came against them.

They poured out love to the enemies of Christ, this way they became the sweet testimonies for Jesus Christ and won many of the enemies to Christ. Let us also be winners of souls for Christ by bringing the sweet aroma of Christ to the world.

Psalm 148: 3Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars.

The scriptures tell us that God created the heavens and the universe for His glory and they praise Him continuously. Scientists have also discovered that there are sounds in the universe that are not audible to human ears but these sounds are giving praises to God unceasingly.

God has given revelations to the saints of old and here we read what the psalmist says, Praise him, sun and moon, praise him all you shining starts. This is exactly what we now know through the discovery made by science. Scientists have confirmed that the universe was created to praise God.

Not only the planets praise God but even the atmosphere does that. Each day at dawn and sunset when the sun rises to drive away the darkness or each evening when the sun sets over the horizon and darkness slowly creep in, the sky is filled with the beauty of the bright and colourful skies with all its images formed by the cloud and the red lights. It is as though it is making aa loud proclamation from God.

In the northern hemisphere near the North Pole, there is the awesome beauty of the aurora which is the display of colourful lights that shoot up to the sky in rays that are indescribable. Such is the beauty of this phenomenon and they too declare the glory of the creator.

That’s why the scriptures tell us that if men do not glorify God, then nature will do it. The plants and even the rocks will sing glory to God. We may not be able to hear them but again scientists have been able to record these sounds.

Knowing this, we the creation and children of God whom He loves, we must never forsake giving our praises to Him all the time just like the universe praise God all the time.

Like the psalmist we should never be weary or tired of praising God. When we do that The scriptures tell us that God will come and inhabit our praises and he will come and fellowship with us. This is our privilege that we can have the personal fellowship with our Father in heaven. Treasure this and practise it daily.

John 14: 3I go and prepare a place for you.

When Jesus resurrected and He appeared to the disciples for 40 days and during this time He revealed to them that He is going to prepare a place for all of His believers in heaven. Jesus is our Saviour and brother, He promised that He has gone before us o that He can prepare a place for us.

Jesus had also taught and revealed this to us through the scriptures and He also said that in the last days, there will be signs in the heavens above. In the recent times, we have been hearing trumpet sounds coming from heaven and these was heard around the earth.

Similarly there have also been many sightings in the sky of images of tall buildings which were captured on camera. There were sightings in Africa, China, Malaysia, Europe of images of big tower blocks in the sky. There was also a very clear picture that was taken by a NASA satellite somewhere over the skies in Africa which showed very clearly tower blocks glittering in the sun.

When this image appeared the NASA satellite was cruising by and it took many pictures of this strange vision.

This is the promise of Jesus that He has actually gone to prepare a physical place for us in heaven where we can call home. In the book of Revelation we also ready that this Heavenly Jerusalem will come down from heaven and will be hovering above the worldly Jerusalem. From all these we now can be assured that Heaven is real and is a physical place. Heaven is our home and we all need to ensure that we do not lose it. 

Isaiah 53: 4Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering

This prophecy that Isaiah gave surmised the mission of Jesus Christ in fulfilling the Gospel of Salvation. Isaiah spoke about the oppression and affliction that Jesus had to suffer for the world. This suffering was according to the divine plan of God that the price for the redemption of our sins must be borne by another who is pure and sinless.

That punishment was originally meant for us the sinners to suffer but God sends Jesus who is pure and sinless to take our place and bor our punishment. This was the plan of the Father and Jesus understood the need for Him to fulfil it without which the full price for our sins would not have been paid. This perfect sacrifice satisfied the Father and He declared that there is no further need to have another sacrifice of all men.

That plan was finished at the Cross when Jesus had been faithful and obeyed the Father till the end when He cried out ‘It is finished’. The salvation plan of God has been completed and fulfilled. Throughout the trial and persecution Jesus offered Himself willingly and never rejected it but He was in obedient to the point of enduring all suffering and dying on the Cross.

Then on the third day He resurrected and is alive even today and having gone through all the suffering, Jesus knows and understands our circumstances and He cares for us. He is compassionate and merciful. All that Jesus wants from us is that we be faithful to Him and walk with Him and live our lives for Him.

Isaiah 53: 12He poured out his life unto death.

Over 700 years before the first coming of Jesus Christ, Isaiah had already given a full prophecy for the coming and life of the Messiah. In this verse Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would pour out his life unto death which meant that Jesus would give up His life for the sake of redeeming all sinners in the world.

When Jesus came, he came as a little baby born by a virgin mother. He was meek when he came; He received the insults and abuse of the teachers of the law. He was ill treated by the soldiers and also the insults of the crowd.

Today I was walking along the pedestrian mall in the city and I was surprised to see a life performance of the tortured and crucifixion of Jesus complete with a unruly crowd shouting ‘crucify him, crucify him’. This was put up by a local church and the pastor gave a running proclamation of the gospel to the spectators who were out at the mall.

Immediately after that, there were several personal testimonies of men and women who were once living wretched lives but they had heard the gospel and had given their lives to Jesus and now they are completely changed. They testified to the miracles that Jesus had done in their lives.

They shared that Jesus had taken away their sins and had shown mercy to be upon them. It was this love and mercy that brought them out of the darkness of sin and into the wonderful light of life in Jesus Christ.

Then one by one they challenged the crowd to respond to the invitation of the gospel. This is what the holidays is about, the death and redemption that Christ had come to fulfil for the sake of all sinners. This is the bedrock of Christianity and if not for this, then as Christians our faith would be in vain.

The resurrection is not about Easter eggs, bunnies, and chocolates. Satan had sown his lies and deceived the world about the true meaning of Passover and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This deception has overtaken the world and has even crept into the Churches and led many astray. The truth of the gospel which is the death and resurrection of Jesus which grant all men salvation has been changed.

As believers we need to share this true message of the Resurrection.  It is all about the Son of God and not about the nonsense of Easter bunnies, Easter Eggs hunt etc. let us look to Jesus the Son of God at this season. 

Mark 15:39Surely this man was the Son of God.

We are familiar with the accounts in the four gospels about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Each had recorded in detail the series of events that took place. The exclamation of the Centurion when he saw the sky darkened and the thunder and lightning, he said ‘surely this man was the Son of God.’

Never has there been such natural phenomenon that has happened at the time of death of any man before. It was indeed a frightening time for those who were present as they realized that the events were supernatural. There was no other explanation except what the Centurion declared.

In recent times, God had also manifested His power and glory in the nation of Israel. When Israel came under the attacks of the radical terrorists when thousands of rockets were fired into Israel, miraculously those rockets which were aimed at populated were diverted to open spaces where they would be harmless. Other rockets which were aimed straight into the city were diverted in the sea and again without causing any damage to lives and properties.

There are also reports that God had also send columns of dark clouds to obstruct the view of the terrorists just like when the column of cloud protected the Jews from Pharaoh’s army during the time of the Exodus.

What we know is that our God is the God over the forces of nature as He created all nature and all things in the universe. Our God is still keeping an eye over His people; He is still protecting us and blessing us on a daily basis. This is the time that we need to focus upon Him and walk a close walk with Jesus.

Devotions 13th April 2017

Hebrews 13: 5God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

All of us have experienced pain and rejections at one time or another, it is indeed very painful when we are in a position where everyone has turned away and forsaken us.

Jesus, though the Son of God and Himself being both man and God also experienced this pain and rejection. Jesus knew what would happen to Him just after the Passover meal, and He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew He was about to face betrayal, arrest and death. He asked His closest companions to keep Him company and to pray with Him. In fact He revealed to them that He was overwhelmed with sorrow.

All his companions just went to sleep and left Him alone. Jesus had to face all the agony of loneliness as He prayed and waited for the coming of the temple leaders and soldiers.

Because Jesus had experienced this same loneliness and rejection, God therefore gave us this promise “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” God’s words and promises never fail, though there may be times when we feel the whole world has deserted us and everything is crumbling around us, we only need to look to God and claim His promise that He will not forsake us.

Let us draw near to Him and He will draw near to us. Call unto Him and He will hear and answer us.

John 12: 3Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair.

In the hours before Jesus was  betrayed by Judas, Jesus and His disciples were being entertained to dinner and Mary who was rescued from being stoned to death by Jesus for committing adultery came and poured a whole bottle of expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus.

Mary had fully been reborn, she had left her old profession in the sex trade and now she is a true believer and follower of Jesus. She was so much committed to her faith that she made a huge sacrifice of buying a bottle of perfume which would have cost a year’s wages. It was a big sacrifice of love on her part. This would most probably cost her of her life savings.

Mary also was willing to be thought as being immodest as in those days, the women must cover their head. Here Mary did not wear a head cover but she removed it and exposed her hair and not only that, she bend down to the ground level in humility and used her hair to clean Jesus’ feet.

In contrast, we see that many Christians in Church today want to be esteemed by others, they want others to look up to them, have positions of leadership and they even demand honour and respect from the people. Such attitude is pride which is the mother of all sins which caused Lucifer to fall from heaven and he became Satan.

If Christian leaders and believers are proud and arrogant, then they have become children of Satan. To be worthy children of God,  we can look at Mary who humbled herself to the level of washing and cleaning the feet of Jesus, she even kissed the feet of Jesus. Such was her humility and this is what earned her a place in heaven. This is a thought that we must not forget, God loves and honour the humble and He rejects the proud.

Let us continue to worship God in humility and love as Mary did.

Devotions 11 April 2017

Luke 23: 34Jesus said, ‘Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

Forgiveness is the cornerstone of Christianity and Jesus demonstrated and instilled this while he was on the cross. He came not to condemn but to save all sinners and in His dying breath He cried out to the Father to forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Such is the merciful heart of God as demonstrated through His son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus had no bitterness and anger in Him as He suffered on the cross, He showed grace and love to all those who had done Him wrong on that day.

Interestingly, on Palm Sunday the radical terrorists bombed two Coptic Churches in Egypt killing over 50 people and injuring hundreds of worshippers in Church. Ordinarily if this was to have happened to other non-Christians, there would have been the war cry to avenge the death and injury of so many. There would be the cry for blood from the non-Christians.

However we see that in the days that followed, the Bishop of the Coptic Church came out publicly to extend love and forgiveness to all the terrorists who attacked the Churches. He did what Jesus did to forgive all who had come against the Churches. In addition he poured out more love upon the heads of those terrorists. He even said ‘thank you’ to them for giving the believers the opportunity to suffer just like Jesus did and also to quicken their journey to the kingdom of heaven.

Such is the love that was displayed by the Bishop and Church members; they literally lived the lives of lambs that were led to be slain. They had no weapons, they had no thoughts of vengeance, and they only had love and forgiveness.

This is true Christian value as the Church has been instructed by Jesus Christ and the apostles to love and forgive. We can start by loving and forgiving those in the Church who have wrong and slandered us.

Devotions 10 April 2017

John 1: 12

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

John had made the revelation that as believers who believed in Jesus Christ we have become children of God and we are also joint heirs with Him to the kingdom of heaven.

These are turbulent times; we read that yesterday two Churches in Egypt were bombed by jihadists. Why did it happen? What did the believers do wrong? Why do they deserve to die and be wounded.

Jesus warned us that there will be dangers for believers in these last days. The enemies of the cross are getting bolder each day. They do not hide their intentions anymore; they boldly proclaim that they want to destroy the believers of Jesus Christ for they belong to the adversary of the cross. Near to 50 people has died and hundreds are wounded.

Nearer to home another brother in Christ have been abducted by unknown persons at large. This makes a total of six people who are walking in the steps of Jesus and also doing His work to have been kidnapped mysteriously. What have they done wrong? Instead these are people who have been doing good and they bring the peace of the gospel to the lost.

Whatever may have happened to them, we know that they true children of God and His hand is over them. No matter what has happened, God sees from heaven and He keeps His own safe. If they are not safe in this world, then they are safe in His kingdom above.

What we have been taught from the scriptures is that the days of tribulation will come and the Church will be tested. Even the early Church was birth in tribulation, and all through history the church has experienced tribulation. Jesus is telling us that the end time Church will also have to go through tribulation and the church must stand strong.

Let us build out foundation strong and be firmly rooted in the scriptures.