A friend is unconditionally for you. An ally supports what you support. A comrade is against what you are against. A fool confuses one for the other. “One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother”-Proverbs 18:24
The Bill of Rights in many a nation’s constitution guarantees citizens a Right to Life, but in truth no government can guarantee such a right. Which government on earth can give you a written guarantee that you will be alive tomorrow? Not one. This makes it self evident that we have a Gift of Life not a Right of Life. Life is a privilege not a right. The fact that life is a gift means that there must be a Giver. Can your government give you life? No. They can take it away, but they cannot give it to you or anyone. Thus the Giver is not a government or a human institution. The gift of life is given by God. Therefore, don’t look for a human constitution to tell you what you should do with your life. Look to the Basic Instructions Before Living Earth (BIBLE for short) for instructions on what to do with your life. And what does The Holy Bible say about how we should utilize the gift of life given us by God? According to Solomon “here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil”-Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.
The tragedy of life is mistaking cynicism for wisdom and getting to the end of your days believing in nothing and therefore achieving nothing. It is even better to believe in the wrong things because they will fail and that failure will let you know what doesn’t work so you can believe in something else. But to live a life without believing in something is to have no life for as the bible says “without faith (belief) it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”-Hebrews 11:6. In fact, belief is the greatest factor the Salvation process-“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”-John 3:16.
In John 14:6 Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me”. Yesterday, a beloved Indian friend asked me why I believed that statement by Jesus giving that there are many religions that offer a way to God. I share my response to him with you. I got up and the light from the sun fell in me and multiple shadows appeared around me. I asked him if the fact that there were multiple shadows of me meant that there were multiple versions of me. He responded thus “no”. There is only one me, and one you. But when you come out under the light, there are multiple shadows of yourself. Religions of the world are that way. There are multiple religions in this world, just as there are multiple shadows. But there is only One Way to God. He is original known as Yesh’ua though modern day Christians call Him Jesus and Muslims call Him Prophet Isa while some in the Orient call Him Krishna. Even . Let it offend whoever it will offend, but only Jesus can make the boast that EVERY religion on earth acknowledges Him. That ought to tell you something. Jesus is the Substance, ALL Others are Shadows.
I meet otherwise intelligent people and they tell me they don’t believe in God because the whole ‘God thing’ does not make sense. When they say this, I go and stay behind them and begin to watch them from afar, all of a sudden they turn around. Then I go back to them and say, ‘why did you turn’? And if they are honest they always tell me that ‘I sensed someone watching me’. My question to them to which they are never able to answer is, what logical explanation can they give for sensing that someone is watching them when they don’t have eyes at the back of their heads? They often start to explain and then are at a loss for words because none of the five physical senses can explain a human’s ability to sense when someone outside his line of sight is watching him. The only logical reason is that there are senses that a human possesses which are beyond the five physical senses. Acknowledging that you have those senses is acknowledging that you have a spirit and acknowledging that you have a spirit is acknowledging that God exists. “But it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding”-Job 32:8.
In Galatians 6:2, Paul asks believers to “bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ”. But what is this law of Christ’s? It is different from the 10 Commandments. When Jesus was asked what the greatest law is He said “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind….. You shall love your neighbor as yourself”-Matthew 22:37-39. Jesus was quoting the Law when He said that. But when He was about departing earth, He told His disciples “a new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another”-John 14:34. Believers are NOT meant to love others as themselves. They are meant to love others as Jesus loved. Jesus knew and the law proved that people do not know how to love themselves and expecting them to love others as theirselves would be to put those others at risk. So He gave what you might call a constitutional amendment to the 10 commandments using Himself as a measure of love. He says to you and I who have experienced heartbreak and heartache which caused us to have a distorted image of ourselves-It is okay if you do not know how to love others. Just look at the way I treated people and then treat your neighbour like that.
There are things weightier than miracles and financial breakthroughs in the Christian faith. The Pilgrim can actually be distracted from his pilgrimage on earth by them. In 2 Timothy 2:20-21, Paul wrote “In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work”. Of greater import on our pilgrimage on earth is the pursuit of holiness for “without holiness no one will see the Lord”-Hebrews 12:14. The reason why God does not call us home as soon as we become Christians is because He wants us to cleanse yourself by being “transformed by the renewing of your mind”-Romans 12:2. Character is the ONLY thing we will take with us to The Kingdom of God. So answer this question-have you got character or have you got miracles? It is best to have both. But if you cannot have both and must have one, then character is the preferred choice because Jesus said “by their fruits ye shall know them”-Matthew 7:20.
Luke 4:13 says “when the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time”. From this verse we understand that the devil and his demons tempt us when they see an opportunity. It is said that if you travel to any place and don’t find a Chinese person there you should leave because there are no opportunities in the land. This is a joke of course, but there is a lesson to be learnt in it. People go where there are opportunities and people flee places without opportunities. Demons are that way too. If we give them an opportunity they will tempt us that’s why Ephesians 4:27 says “give no opportunity to the devil”. The only way we can block the opportunity available to demons is if we stay connected to God by daily Bible reading to practice what we read. Reading The Bible is like mowing your lawn. If you mow your lawn regularly, it will be well kept and there will be no weeds. But if you don’t mow it regularly, your lawn will be overgrown and soon weeds will appear. The Word of God is the lawn mower and God’s Holy Spirit is the man operating the lawn mower your mind is the lawn and weeds are opportunities for demons to operate in your life.
2 Corinthians 11:14-15 says “and no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works”. The key things to note is that a. Satan has “transformed” into an angel of light; b. that he has his “ministers” who have likewise “transformed as the ministers of righteousness”. When we were growing up there were magicians, palm readers and soothsayers. Today, you hardly see them. Maybe a few have repented from their evil ways. But the majority have seen that if they call their craft witchcraft or soothsaying, people find them repulsive. So, they watched ministers of God and “transformed” by copying them such that they still perform wonders, tell you about your past and present with help from familiar spirits, but they do it masquerading as men of God. The Bible warned us of this day. A man IS NOT of God because he can perform wonders. Jesus said “by their fruits you shall know them”. What are these fruits? “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, self-control”-Galatians 5:22.
One of the traditions the enemy has brought into the church is that pastors and priests are not meant to dress in stylish and tasteful clothes. Actually, according to the bible, Men of God are to be modest in character but in appearance they should radiate the glory of God. When God was giving instructions to Moses as to how Aaron should be clothed he said “And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty”-Exodus 28:2. God went further to say “Have them use gold, and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and fine linen”-Exodus 28:5. It is also evident that Jesus dressed in such a manner as we see that “when the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it”-John 19:23-24. As a child of God, don’t dress indecently and don’t dress shabbily. Satan doesn’t care which extreme you choose as long as you do not obey God. How should we dress? In clothes that are “for glory and for beauty”!