Reflections on Independence Day

Today, we celebrate 48 years of independence in Malawi. As we celebrate this day, I am also reflecting on ‘spiritual independence.’ It has dawn on me that, spiritually, independence from God is not the best thing because the Bible encourages us to lean more and more on God than on our own.

God in Proverbs 3:5, 6 puts it: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.”

Christ also says: “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me,” (John 15:4).

Therefore, while in other areas of our lives independence is encouraged, in our spiritual life, it is otherwise. Whilst in other areas of life independence is a sign of progress, in spiritual life, independence from God is a sign of troubled and miserable life.

So, as we celebrate that Mother Malawi has been independent of its former colonial masters for 48 years, as individuals let’s ensure that we are not independent of Christ but that we are leaning more and more on him . Only then can we count ourselves as wise and successful people indeed. God bless Malawi. Long Live Mother Malawi!

The Fifth Chosen Generation Missions Conference 2012

It is that time of the year again, when Joy to the World Ministries organizes missions conference with speakers from all over the world. This year’s conference begins on Wednesday, July 4 and ends on Sunday, July 8, 2012 and under the theme: “Give Us Our Daily Bread”

God has been gracious to me and I will be one of the speakers to this conference. I have been given two sessions. In the first session I have been asked to speak on the topic: “The Sufficiency of God’s Provision Through His Word” taken from Deuteronomy 8:1-20 while “The Sufficiency of God Provision Through His Church” taken from Acts 4:32-37 will be the next topic I will tackle in my second session.

Others speakers to this conference are: Rev. Fletcher Matandika, Founder of Joy to the World Ministries, Dr. Charles Morris, Dr. David Reimer and Rev. Stephen Roberts from USA, Mr. Hussen Latif, Mr. Elliot Khembo and Mr. Joseph Matandika from Malawi.

I pray that you will join and remember me in your prayers and not only me but also all the speakers to this year’s conference. Most of the attendants to the conference are usually students from various colleges and secondary schools in Malawi.

Let’s pray that there will be faithful proclamation of God’s Word and that God in His grace will use the conference to teach, rebuke, correct and train in righteous all the attendees as well as the speakers.

Also join me and pray for those who will come to the conference but have not received the True Bread of Life, Jesus Christ in their lives. Let’s pray that if it pleases Him, God will use the conference through the work of the Holy Spirit to reach out to these friends.

For more details about the conference please visit this link: 2012_Chosen_Generation_Conference_Bulletin-A4

Indeed, All men are like grass and their glory like the flowers of the field. The grass withers, the flowers fall but the Word of God shall stand forever. Amen!

Soli Deo Gloria! To God alone be the glory forever and ever!

Great Lesson from the Life of Apostle Andrew

How should we react to our fellow Christians who are more gifted and God, out of his grace, chooses to use them more than us? This question lingered in my mind as I reflected on the life of Andrew one of the twelve apostles of Jesus.

According to the Gospel by John, Andrew and John were the first people to join Jesus’ ministry. Later on Andrew brought his elder brother, Peter to join the ministry too (1:35-42). In no time, Peter acquired a leading role among the apostles of Christ. When Jesus decided to form his inner circle, he opted for Peter John and James leaving Andrew out.

Apostle Andrew could have been bitter and developed resentment toward the chosen three. He would have even also challenged Jesus: “What’s wrong with you Master? Why leaving an old-timer like me and picking up younger James who has just joined the ministry recently to be in your inner circle?”

Surprisingly, however, Andrew was content to serve Christ in whatever capacity despite being the first person to join Jesus’ ministry. We don’t even read a lot about Andrew in the Bible. It seems that what mattered most to Apostle Andrew was serving God faithfully. He cared little who got the credit or prominence.

This is what we need in the Church today. Sometimes, we fight for positions and roles of influence forgetting that it is not the positions that matter most rather it is our faithful service to Christ that pleases God most.

We also learn from Andrew that when people more gifted than us come from behind and acquire leading roles, we ought not to fuss about it. As long as Christ gets the glory, all is well.

Wonders alone not enough

How do you define true servants of God? There is one thing that I would like to warn us not to use as a sole basis for determining true servants of God namely wonders.

Sometimes, we judge true servants of God by wonders. If they perform some wonders, we conclude they are true ‘men of God.’ We then drop our guard and stop examining the spirits as advised in 1 John 4:1.

I know that we cannot put God in a box, but I also know, basing on Scripture, that wonders and signs alone are not enough to guarantee that one is a true servant of God.

Please consider these two statements from Christ. The first statement He made referring to our time today. The other one, He made to refer to what will happen on the Day of Judgment.

“For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand” (Matthew 24:24, 25).

“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many might works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

Jesus already warned us. We need not to drop our guard and by His grace we ought to stay watchful.

When Christians disagree…

Some people find it strange when Christians disagree. However, I tend to differ. Honestly, most of the times, I am not taken aback to see or hear Christians disagreeing except in a few cases when one clearly sees that God has been completely thrown out of the whole issue.

Christian squabbles don’t surprise me much because although Christians are saved and forgiven there are not perfect and there shall never be in this world. This is in no way condoning sin. God hates sin and we ought to hate it too. I strongly believe that Christians should always live a godly life. Nevertheless, it is a fact that sometimes we don’t. Let me not digress too much. The main issue here is about disagreements among or between Christians.

The story of Apostle Paul and Barnabas will help deliver my point home. These two Christians were greatly used by God. They first met in Jerusalem when Paul had just become a Christian. While some were running away whenever they saw Paul because they could not believe that Paul had really changed, Barnabas accepted him and brought Paul before the Apostles and assured them that Paul was indeed a new creature in Christ.

The bond of friendship between the two grew stronger and even God was happy. No wonder the Holy Spirit chose the two to go and preach the gospel together in various countries outside Jerusalem (Acts 13:2). During their first trip on this mission, Barnabas took his cousin, John Mark along. As they continued to preach Christ in various countries, John Mark decided to return home before the trip had finished. Probably, John Mark could not stand the challenges that were being met in preaching Christ like being stoned or ridiculed or imprisoned. This act of young Mark did not go well with Paul.

Later on, when they decided to go back and revisit the churches they had planted in their first missionary trip, Paul advised Barnabas not to take John Mark with them again. But Barnabas insisted. This created a disagreement between the two. The Bible puts it that the two had “a sharp disagreement” (Acts 15:39) hence they parted ways. Not good for Christians, uh?

I am sure the people who witnessed or heard about this commented like: “How can Christians disagree?” It is indeed sad that the two Christians failed to agree. But wait a minute! This is not the end of the story.

In 2 Timothy 4:11, Paul writes, “Get John Mark and bring him…because he is very helpful to my ministry.”

Can you please come again, Paul. Have I heard you right? I thought you disagreed and parted ways with Barnabas because you didn’t like John Mark. Why this change of heart?

Of course, we don’t have a record of the reconciliation between Paul and Barnabas anywhere in the Bible, but I have no doubts that the two reconciled and buried their differences. I hope you have now got my point. Christians are not perfect but when they disagree, you can be assured that reconciliation is inevitable. Ask Barnabas Paul, and John Mark.

A word for our president

Today, I would like to write our president Mrs. Joyce Banda. First, I would like to congratulate her for becoming the fourth president of Republic of Malawi.

Perhaps, the president will read this blog. I would like also to share with her one thing that has bothered me over the years in regards to how we treat our presidents. We, sometimes, tend to exalt them to the level of God.

I have seen and heard the previous presidents been given names which belong to God alone. We have equated them with Jesus by referring to them as Messiah or Savior or Mose wa Lero. Biblically and theologically, Moses was a shadow or pro-type of Jesus Christ hence ‘today’s Moses’ is Christ.

I would like to ask our president to refuse such titles if any of us will give her one. It’s sad that often it’s Christians who give such names to the president. I appeal to my fellow Christians to give to God what belongs to God and to Caeser what belongs to Caesar. Never take what is God’s and give it to man.

God can never share his glory with mortal man for he says, “My glory I will not give to another” (Isaiah 48:11). Scripture also says “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever! Amen (Rev. 7:12).

The Noble Character

This other day, I was attending a certain Christian gathering and one of the speakers at the meeting made a remark that ended up being my food for thought. The speaker said that one of the major challenges facing Christianity today is that Christians don’t want to critically examine various messages that are being preached in the name of Christ. It is true, is it not?

It seems very few Christian today bother to scrutinize various messages we listen to or read. As long as the speaker or the author is mentioning God or Jesus that’s fine. However, this tendency renders us susceptible to error that has serious consequences to both our spiritual and physical life.

We ought to be challenged by Bereans of Acts 17:11. Apostle Paul was a great man of God. Almost half of New Testament books were written by him. Yet when he went to preach in Berea, the Christians there never ceased to critically examine Paul’s message in the light of Scripture. This was not disrespect but maturity and the Bible strongly recommends the Bereans for this.

“Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11).

Christians today ought to be like Bereans by receiving the messages that are being preached with eagerness but we should not stop there. We should go further to examine if the messages being preached are true according to the Bible. This is a noble character.

And may add that you even examine the contents of this blog in the light of Scripture. That too is a noble character.

THE INK SLINGER

Sam Harris:

Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes, or He doesn’t care to, or He doesn’t exist. God is either impotent, evil or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely.

Or maybe there’s a fourth option, Mr. Harris.

Maybe God is neither impotent, nor evil, nor non-existant. Maybe He is, in fact, GOD: wholly sovereign, wholly wise, wholly good. Not subject to your whims and wishes. Not dangling on a string from your finger. Not concerned with what you think is “fair” or “unfair,” “right” or “wrong.”

Maybe He is, in fact, working all things (yes, Mr. Harris, even catastrophes) for His glory. Maybe He moves as He pleases and does what He pleases because He is the infallible architect of a Greater Good which you, in all your fallible human wisdom, cannot see or understand.

Maybe. Just maybe. And if so…

Who are you, Sam Harris, to reply against God? Who are…

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