Blessings through SMS?

One Thursday evening while home my mobile phone beeped indicating I had received a new message. I did not know the number of the sender but the message read:

“Jesus loves you. Send it to seven people. Believe me after seven days your wish will come true but if you ignore it. You will be on your own seven years. Please do it with faith because it works.”

At first the message seemed nice and spiritual but my theological antennas sensed something amiss. The message suggests that my wishes will be granted by forwarding the message to seven people.

This means that Jesus will answer my prayer because I have sent short message service (sms) to seven people. If I don’t, he will punish me with a lonely life for seven years.

I have also received similar messages in my email inbox. Usually, they are forwarded messages asking me to also forward them to at least seven people and then God will bless.

Do we have biblical backing for this? Doesn’t Scripture tell us to pray in Jesus name for our needs and wishes? Has prayer become less powerful that God is now in the business of blessing people through sms? These are some of the questions that sprout in my mind.

I also wonder if this is not another form of idolatry. It should be a different god (and not the Father of my Lord Jesus Christ) who blesses people only because they have forwarded an email or an sms. What about those who don’t have cell phones or computers. How will he bless them? This kind of God for sure in not the one we find in Scripture.

Any way, back to my story, I called the sender and told him that I don’t need to send sms to seven people for God to bless me and I can’t be on my own not even for a single second because God has promised in his Word never to forsake me (Hebrews 13:5).

God also promises: “Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving; present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6, 7).

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.

The Church Should Embrace Gays?

Recently, some people including some Christians have urged the Church in Malawi to embrace and tolerate gays. Even some church leaders have also added their voice to this call. Of course, in most cases this call has remained hazy to me in the sense that these people have not come out very clear on what they really mean by ‘the Church should embrace and tolerate gays’. Do they mean that the Church should extend the love of Christ to gays or that the Church should condone homosexuality and lesbianism under its roof?

If by ‘embracing gays’ they mean the former, then I don’t have any problem with that. Actually, that’s what the Church is there for namely to love the sinner and lead them to Christ the Savior who alone is able save from sin. Christ already made this clear. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest,” he calls in Matthew 11:28. Christ also says “I have come to seek and save the lost.” So, if by saying that church should embrace gays they mean leading them to Christ the Savior then this is already the core objective of the Church.

However, if by ‘embracing and tolerating gays’ they mean that the Church should welcome gays as they are and let them continue to practice homosexuality and lesbianism in Church, then I have a big problem with that. In fact, it is not really about me having a big problem with it, but Scripture has a big problem with it. Throughout Scripture, we find that the Church ought to be a haven where a sinner can run to for salvation but not a roof under which sin flourishes. Some examples in scripture come to mind right now.

First, in John 8:1-11, we read a story of a woman caught in adultery. Some scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus the woman and asked Christ to affirm the punishment of death by stoning. However, Jesus wisely protected the woman and later told her to go and sin no more. This is what Scripture says: “Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” (10, 11).

Jesus did not only tell the woman to go but also ordered her to sin no more. I believe that this is what the Church should do. The Church should not condemn gays just like Christ never condemned the woman caught in adultery; however, the Church should not just stop there. It should go further and help gays, thorough the saving power of Christ, to go and sin no more. The gays should also be willing to forsake their sin by the grace of Christ. If they, deliberately, refuse to go and sin no more, then they should not be in Church.

If one, willfully, refuses to allow Christ help them forsake their sin, then they should not be allowed in Church because to borrow the words of St. Augustine, “If Christ is not the Lord of all, He is not the Lord at all.” You cannot say that Jesus is your Lord yet you, intentionally, refuse to obey him in some areas of your life.

Secondly, the word of God in 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 warns the church of tolerating someone who says they are Christian but they openly and willfully live in sexual immorality. The Scripture goes further to tell us not to allow such people to come and fellowship in church. The word of God in this passage is very clear and it needs no further commentary.

“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people – not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of the brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler – not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. ‘Purge the evil person from among you.’” (1 Corinthians 5:9-13 – Underlining added)

Thirdly, the word of God does not leave Christians in the dark in regard to how we should treat those who are living in sin like gays. It clearly tells us:

“But you beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh,” (Jude 20-23).

God tells us to continue building ourselves in our faith by his grace and mercy. He then tells us that we should have mercy on those who live in sin, in this case, gays. And while showing them mercy, we should hate their sin and not tolerate it.

Homosexuality or lesbianism just like any other sin breaks the heart of God. God sent his beloved Son, Jesus Christ to the world to keep all the commandments of God on our behalf, pay the penalty of our sin on our behalf and completely defeat and destroy sin so that when we believe in him we should no longer live under the slavery of sin.

Therefore, if the Church allows sin to flourish under its roof yet the head of the Church, Jesus Christ came to destroy sin then the work of Christ is rendered useless. In the process, the Church loses its saltines and light. In the end, the Church is no longer a beacon of hope for those in darkness and are heavy laden with sin but just any other club where one can go and come back week after week while remaining enslaved to sin. That’s a pathetic ‘church’ which I pray that I should never belong to.

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 Beauty of Christianity

Recently, I was studying the lives of the twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. One thing that struck me in my study was the inclusion of Matthew also called Levi and Simon the Zealot in the apostolic band. How was it possible for these two gentlemen to come together like that?

In case you are wondering. Let me provide some important background. Matthew was a tax collector. The taxes he was collecting were remitted to the Romans who then had colonized the Jews.

The Jews never liked the colonization hence hated to pay taxes to Romans and any Jew who was a tax collector was regarded as an enemy by fellow Jews. The Zealots were Jews who openly showed their hatred for Romans and all those associating with Rome. The Zealots were willing and ready to kill Romans and any Jew connected to Rome in order to liberate Israel from the Roman bondage.

But, here we are! Matthew who was a tax collector is working hand in hand with Simon the Zealot in serving Jesus. What a scene!

Believe you me, had it not been that these men were transformed by the love of Christ, Simon would have killed Matthew right away. Is it not then amazing to see how the differences of the two evaporated into thin air because of their love for Christ?

“Here is one of the greatest of all examples of personal enmity destroyed by common love of Christ. If Matthew and Simon could live at peace within the apostolic band, then there is no breach between men which cannot be healed when men love Christ,” (William Barclay author of The Master’s Men).

Christianity is indeed beautiful! In Christ, we all come together as one irrespective of our differences in interests, tribes or races. For the love of Christ we are able to say as St. Augustine said “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, love.”

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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