Here Are Three Reasons You Must Pray For The Unsaved

I belong to a facebook group where different Christian thoughts are shared. Recently, a question was posted which inspired this post. "Will You Pray At All For Someone Who Is Not willing To Submit To Christ?" That's a good question, isn't it? I believe as Christians, we all have experiences of praying for  the salvation of a friend, family member, neighbour etc and it seems the more we pray, and tell them about their need of salvation, their rebellion towards God and Christianity grows. Now, it can indeed get frustrating. So the question whether to continue in prayer for an unwilling, unrepentant sinner is, to be frank, a relevant question. In this post, I seek to answer an emphatic Yes to the question "Will You Pray At All For Someone Who Is Not willing To Submit To Christ?"

Here are my reasons

1: Prayers For The Unsaved Is A Command

In a conversation with His disciples, Jesus commanded them to pray about salvation of souls. "Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest" (Matthew 9:37-38). In these words, we see embedded the necessity of prayer for souls. Why must we pray for labourers? Because "The harvest is plentiful". In other words, there are many people who have to be saved. In 1Timothy 2:1-4, Paul instructs we engage in prayers for the salvation of souls. We don't possess the ability to save anyone. Salvation is of the Lord therefore we must continually entreat Him in prayer to save sinners. Without prayer, our efforts at reaching people for the Lord will be in vain.

After planting and watering, God is the one who gives the increase. Now, if we look at the preceeding verses of Matthew 9, we will get a perfect picture of why Jesus asked for prayers for labourers to be sent: "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."(v36).

Herein is the sad state of the unbeliever; the multitudes-crowd without Christ. They are harassed and helpless under the bondage of sin. They are guilty under the wrath of God. They are without a shepherd.  They have no relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ..."Harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd"...that must break every believers' heart to say a word of prayer for the unsaved. They will not admit it; but our Lord's words are true; they are "Harassed and helpless, like sheep without shepherd". They are lost! Out of compassion, our Lord told His disciples; “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”(v37-38). Don't give up praying for the lost.

2: Only God Can Break The Unwilling Heart Of The Sinner

It must not be lost on us as believers, that our salvation is not a smart choice or good decision we made. We are not smarter than our neighbhour who hasn't yet submitted to the Lordship of Christ. The truth is, we are not Christians because we were willing to give our lives to Christ. Jesus said He chose us, not us (John 15:16). In John 6:44, we are also told "No one can come to [Jesus] unless the Father ... draws him. By our own will we cannot be saved (Ezekiel 36:26, John 1:12-13, Roman 9:18). We are Christians because of God's grace.

Before we came to Christ, we were all people who rebelled against God until grace found us. In Ephesians 2:1-3, Paul describes our spiritual deadness prior to coming to Christ. He compares us to that unwilling sinner we are getting tired praying for. He seems to say, "before you came to Christ, you were just like them"; "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."

That was our state. We were equally "following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience". We were no different from the unwilling unbeliever. The difference now is God's intervention. In verse 4 of Ephesians 2, after our former state has been described, we are told what God did with us: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—"

God showed us mercy. God stepped into out rebellion and broke our resistance. Knowing our former state and how merciful God has been to us, we must be patient and continue in prayer for those who seem unwilling to submit to Christ. Their unwillingness can only be broken by the Spirit of God. Don't give up. Keep praying for them. Their unwillingness is indeed a spiritual battle. Satan has blinded them to the truth. That is the more reason we must pray for them. Only God can rip off their spiritual blindness and shine lights into their hearts.

3: Someone Prayed For Your Salvation

You might not be directly aware. But I am confident your salvation is an answer to somebody's prayers. Your friend, your family member, a church in your community, a Pastor, your school chaplain, a missionary...somebody's prayer definitely has a hand in your salvation. An incident in the Bible readily comes to minpicture comes to mind. In Acts 7, Stephen's martydom by stoning is recorded:

Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen , he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord , do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.(vs58-60)

See two powerful phrases in the verses here. The first is the record that they laid Stephen's garment at the feet of Saul(v58) and secondly Stephen's prayer in v60, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them". Even at the brink of death Stephen still prays for his murderers. Immediately we step into Chapter 8, Saul's name is mentioned again. He has come into the picture. He must be important to the storyline: "And Saul approved of his execution."(v8). Fast foward to Chapter 9 we meet Saul and his encounter on the road to Damascus. He met the Lord and his life was changed. I am very convinced Paul's conversion has a relationship with Stephen's prayer; "Lord , do not hold this sin against them"

I pray you don't get tired praying for anyone's salvation. Continue in prayer and don't give up.

Salvation By Grace Alone Through Faith Alone.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians.2:8-9ESV).

In a secular state with about 71% professing Christianity; many grow up in Christian homes with Christian discipline. Raised and groomed "christianly"; the Christian faith appears normal to many. Nothing peculiar! Church attendance is a given. Talk of morality, philanthropy, fighting the social cause---you might be actively engaged. You probably  have grown up believing you are a Christian. But there's a danger here. Growing up in a Christian home, regular church attendance, morality and philanthropy without saving faith in Christ still leaves you in a sinful state separated from God: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"(Romans 3:23).

The whole world, without saving faith in Christ, lies dead in sin.(Eph 2). We are broken and sinful--totally depraved and needy of God's grace.The dispositions of our hearts are evil. We tend to believe we are good people. But no, Scripture describes us otherwise:  “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9).  If we are indeed dead in sins and our hearts desperately sick, how can we help ourselves? Human pride coupled with false religion suggests to us we can help ourselves. "We don't need God". Though many will not openly confess that, nonetheless they live that everyday. Truth is we can't help ourselves. But self-help sells. There are multitudes of them out there that promises you "your best life now".

However, salvation is strictly a work of God's grace in our hearts. Try as hard as we may, our best efforts in reforming ourselves will only produce "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). Our only hope of salvation is a divine work of grace that makes our hearts pliable to divine truth:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules".(Ezekiel 36:25-27).

Here we see the regenerating power of God's grace in our lives. He first removes our "heart of stone"; cold dead to divine truth, disobedient and unyeilding to Him and replaces it with a "heart of flesh"; alive to divine truth, obedient and yeilding to Him. This regenerating power of God's Spirit in our heart leads us to repentance from sin and saving faith in Jesus Christ for remission of sins unto salvation. It is only then you can call yourself a christian and a member of God's family. No one is deserving of God's grace. That's why it is in fact called grace--unmerited, undeserved favour. We contributed nothing to it. It is a gift and rightly so, a gift must be accepted and received.

Now, try answering these questions: Are you a Christian? Is your heart regenerated? Are you born again? Have you come to saving faith putting your trust in Christ for the remission of sins? Be certain with your answer. No self-deception, lest in eternity future you hear Jesus saying to you; "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’(Matthew 7:23).

Renewed By The Holy Spirit

Titus 3:5-6

The Christian life is a relationship between a Holy God and sinful humanity, who, God in Christ has reconciled unto Himself (2 Cor 5:19). The Bible describes all of us  as sinners separated from God by sin (Rom. 3:23). As Christians, we were once dead in sin, but God through the Holy Spirit quickened us. He gave us life. He changed the disposition of our sinful hearts and brought us to saving faith in Christ Jesus.

Coming to Christ in faith is the first work of renewal the Holy Spirit does in our hearts.
He produces faith in our hearts to believe in Christ for the remission of sins. Salvation is a work of God through the Holy Spirit. Our renewal starts from the day we believed in Christ and were given the right to become children of God.

Now that we are children of God, what is required of us by God?

God requires from us a life of holiness and separation from sin. It not just a requirement. It is what we were created to be: holy (Eph 1:4, 1 Pet 1:15-17). We are called out of the world not to be friends with the world--lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life. This, left on our own is a daunting task because as long as we live on this side of eternity, our struggles with the flesh and with sin will continue:

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.(Gal 5:17).

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak(Matt 26:41).

However, despite the struggle, we are not victims of our flesh. We are not left on our own  to suffer under bondage of sin. God works in us to will and do of His good pleasure, while we, with the help of the Holy Spirit also work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We need not be overcome by sin. The Holy Spirit renews and gives us strength to be victorious.

How can we access this strength to be victorious?

By submission to God through prayer and feeding on His word:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.(Rom 12:1-4).

Where Are You Going; Heaven or Hell?

Where are you going? ”Our destination is the place where we are going. In theology it refers to one of two places; either we are going to heaven or we are going to hell. In either case, we cannot cancel the trip. God gives us but two final options. One or the other is our final destination.¹

 When I was growing up, the phrase "Born Again" could be heard on the lips of every zealous young man/woman who had become associated with the charismatic movement. In evangelistic meetings, "Are you Born Again" is the most likely question you will hear. The likely question from proselytising friends was "Are You Born Again?". The expression was ubiquitous. Today, the story is different. The gospel--the preaching of the cross and of eternal life--has vanished into oblivion. In its stead, we have psychology, self-esteem, self-improvement, and prosperity masquerading as gospel on many  pulpits--big and small. Much of the content of our preaching lacks power to convict of sin.

Where are you going? Heaven or Hell? A friend describes it as "a sensitive subject".  Society today will not have anything to do with the idea of heaven or he'll. Did you read hell spelt as he'll? That's an autocorrection I allowed unedited. My smartphone doesn't recognise hell. I have to keep correcting it, anytime I typed it. To be sure what was going on, I typed some words(swear words) and in every instance I type a swear word, my phone autocorrects it. I realised my phone has been programmed to pick hell  as a swear word or so I thought. I think our society doesn't take hell serious. To us it is only a swear word, not a place where God wil punish sinners in eternity. Eternity; either eternal life or damnation cannot be glossed over, though a "sensitive" subject as described by my friend.

Where are you going? Heaven or Hell?  Let me rephrase the question because you might have been growing weary of it. Are you Born Again? In John 3:3, Jesus gave us the--sine qua non---prerequisite of entering the Kingdom of God:"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."

The necessity for being Born Again as a condition to enter God's kingdom---eternal life---can be seen from the use of the literal device of repitition: "Truly, Truly...". I believe Jesus meant to drive home clearly a non-negotiable: "You must be Born Again"

The starting point for all of us is to acknowledge we are sinners separated from God by sin brought upon the whole human race by the fall and disobedience of Adam. All, without Christ, are spiritually dead; a consequence of Adam's disobedience. So we all carry in our bloodline Original sin.(Romans 3:11-12, 23, 5:12).

If  we are spiritually dead(Ephesians 2:1)in sin and separated from God, the only way to be reconciled to Him is to pay and appease Him for His wrath. But by ourselves, we cannot make up and pay for our sins. So God the Father placed our sins upon Jesus as an atonement to save  His people from sin and reconcile us to God through faith. “For God so loved the world, [that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). "...he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."(2 Corinthians 5:21).

Now, the only way to be reconciled to God is to come to saving faith. We cannot save ourselves(Ephesians 2:8). The only hope for us is  God effecting a regenerating work in our hearts by His Spirit. To be Born Again therefore is a work of God and we have to cry out for mercy to be given a heart that believes (Ezekiel 36:25-27).

Would you acknowledge your need of a Saviour? Come just as you are. Forsake your sins. Repent and turn to the Saviour of your soul."But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.(John 1:12-13).

Notes:

1:R. C. Sproul, Chosen By God (1986 Tyndale House Publishers)

Called By God

Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours(1 Cor1:1-2).

From Paul's salutation to the church in Corinth, we learn a vital truth:  He was " called by the will of God"(vs1) and this is true of every believer; we are also "called by the will of God": "called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus"(vs 2 see also Rom 8:29-30, Joh 1:12-13 ).

Why are we called? We are called to be reconciled to God from sin. We are called to be transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God. We are called to become children of God (John 1:12-13), set apart for His use Holy use: "sanctified in Christ Jesus" God's call was made before the foundations of the earth and we contributed nothing to it. If you are a believer, you were set apart  as a chosen vessel to reveal His glory and be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29, 9:23).

Paul was called by the will of God to be an apostle. The believers in the church of Corinth were also called. God's calling is in no relation to any inherent good in us. Our calling is rooted in God's mercy and His grace (Eph. 2:1-10 ). Remember Paul was a persecutor of the church of His day, before his encounter with Jesus.

Like Paul and the Corinthian believers; every believer is called with an assignment to fulfill. We are not on a "self-sent" assignment on earth. Our lives, our breath, our purpose for existence all takes its source from God. "In Him we live, move and have our being"(Acts 17:28). We are all on God's assignment.  He brought us on earth for His purpose, His will, His plan and His agenda. Our life originates and evolves  around God and what He created us for.

If there is any truth that will sustain us, it is that we take our existence from God. We are, because He is: self-existent and all sufficient. We take our sufficiency from Him. We are complete in Him (Colossians 2:10 ) and without Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5 ). God Is Our source of Existence.  The Bible opens with the words "In the beginning God..."(Genesis 1:1).Our lives and the whole of the Universe takes its source from God(Rev. 4:11, John 1:3-4)

Christmas: The Unknown god To The Known God

A friend shared one of my blog articles Christmas: Love In Action, in a whats app group discussion and the first question to hit her was the basis for the celebration of Christmas in the Bible. Specifically, she was questioned on the date 25th December which has come to be widely accepted as the day to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ our saviour.

Now, Christmas, despite its significance, is one of the most attacked celebrations of Christianity. The most common charge against it is its pagan origins but this can be explained as well as the date for the celebration. The question is: "how did we settle on 25th December?"

There are two theories today: one extremely popular, the other less often heard outside scholarly circles (though far more ancient). The most loudly touted theory about the origins of the Christmas date(s) is that it was borrowed from pagan celebrations. The Romans had their mid-winter Saturnalia festival in late December; barbarian peoples of northern and western Europe kept holidays at similar times. To top it off, in 274 C.E., the Roman emperor Aurelian established a feast of the birth of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), on December 25. Christmas, the argument goes, is really a spin-off from these pagan solar festivals. (biblical archaeology .com)

The pagan origins of Christmas, from the above, is clearly a fact we cannot deny. However, this fact doesn't in anyway dent the significance of the event: The celebration of the birth of Christ-God incarnate. He was born, wasn't he? As believers, Scriptures admonishes us to be prepared to make a defense for what we believe. (1 Peter 3:15-16). To answer the pagan origins debate whenever I get the opportunity, I throw in a Scripture I have come to love. It gives us a very clear picture in the bible of pagan thoughts used as a basis to point people to the true and living God just as Christmas.

...Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man. nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘ In him we live and move and have our being’;  as even some of your own poets have said, “‘ For we are indeed his offspring.’ (Acts 17:22-28).

In this Scripture, we see Paul engaging His contemporaries on pagan worship. The Athenians--Greeks-- were religious and polytheistic and in their desire to not offend any god they have not yet discovered or created, they mounted an altar dedicated "TO THE UNKNOWN GOD". How pathetic! Worshiping what they do not know, when God, in His creation has revealed Himself plainly to all humanity. Instead of worshipping the Creator, "who made the world and everything in it" the Athenians rather "exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." (Romans 1:23).  Their pantheon of gods was not enough. They still had space for an "unknown god" "They became  futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts...darkened" (Romans 1:21).

Now, how does Paul help us here to answer or defend the pagan origins of Christmas and why we must celebrate it? If we revisit Acts 17, picking from the last paragraph of vs 23, we read: "What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you." There is no better analogy, in my opinion, to draw from Scriptures in defending the celebration of Christmas than this. Using the very object of pagan worship to proclaim the true living God. Paul used their "unknown god" to point them to "The God who made the heaven and everything in it". Paul turned their attention from their "unknown god", to the true living God. In the same text, there is a statement worth our attention: "In him we live and move and have our being;  as even some of your own poets have said, “‘ For we are indeed his offspring."  Note the words "some of your own poets" This means "In him we live and move and have our being" is a quote from Athenian pagan poets, who are believed to be Aratus and Epiminides. So in today's words, just as we argue the pagan origins of Christmas, we must then say that "In him we live and move and have our being" is unbiblical because it has no links even to the Old Testament Scriptures Paul quoted often.Paul quoted a line from the poem Phaenomena to make a case for the living God.

Whatever we have today as Christmas, as rightly said, is a "spinoff from pagan solar festivals" The question we must however answer for ourselves now is; "Is Christmas still pagan or it now directs us from the "unknown god" to "The God who made the heaven and the earth and everything in it" Was Christ born? Is His birth a historical event? "For God so loved the world, [9] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."(John 3:16).

Seeking For Truth: Lessons From John Chapter 3

God Loves You

Faith In Jesus For Eternal Life

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).

I have met humble, good and morally upright people who care less about Jesus. Is Jesus then saying, "No way" apart from faith in me? even for these good people? Yes, that's exactly what He is saying. Either it is true that Jesus is "...the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.(John 14:6) or it is not true.  I have said before in a post that beliefs--religious beliefs have dire eternal consequences and it is everyone's responsibility to have right beliefs. Your beliefs would either land you in hell or heaven. Well, you can also believe death ends it all...that also is nice. But it has its consequences.

In a democracy, we all have freedom of worship, but that democratic right doesn't change God's truth neither does God adjust His truth to accommodate our rights. Ignorance, legal language says is no excuse. Equally, Scriptures says for the lack of knowledge my people perish. This is no mere religious talk, this bothers on eternity; so seek for truth. If what you have is truth, great. If it is not, you might want to start considering your eternal destiny. For the believer in Christ and the unbeliever; we have all made a choice and our choice must necessarily be the truth NOW. You can't get to the other side of eternity and be shocked your beliefs were wrong.

One day, while interacting with the Jews, Jesus made some statements that ignited fury against Him. On this particular occasion, Jesus revealed His deity; "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). Such arrogance! Such blasphemy! Who is this insane person who claims to be God. They might have responded with fury. They picked up stones to finish Him there, but He calmed them and asked: "Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?" (John 10:32). The charge, they responded; "...For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God". (vs 33).

Clearly, in this conversation with the Jews, they understood "I and my Father are one" as a claim to be God. God manifested in the flesh...that is the greatest claim a mere man can make, and rightly so, if His claims were false, He deserved to be stoned! In another interaction, this time with His own disciples, Philip made a request; "Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us" (John 14:8). See through that question; it carries with it an element of doubt "ermmm...is He who He claims to be?"...Jesus' answer was equally like the one that nearly sparked a mob action from the Jews: "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?" (vs 9). C.S Lewis, in his great classic, Mere Christianity penned these words:

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God..."

Decide now...

Seeking For Truth: Lessons From The Gospel of John Chapter 3

Continued from Previous Post

The Relationship Between God and The World Part 2

For God so loved the world...(John 3:16)

When I sat down last night to write today's topic, I overheard my kids singing..Jesus Loves The Little Children/All the children of the world/Red, brown, yellow, black and white/They are precious in His sight/Jesus loves the little children of the world ....I listened to them and in the process, they interrupted my train of thoughts...I was going to talk about Agape, Storge, Philia, Eros...and other Greek meanings of the word Love.

Now, these kids, in their innocence and carefree life(what is life all about is not in their vocab) would never ask questions about the love of God. Jesus loves the little children; a child's world: No questions asked! It is us adults, grown up men and women, who  start asking questions when the love of God is mentioned. If you have been around for a considerable number of years, you would have had your fair share of the pains, hurts and disappointments in life.

The struggles, the dashed dreams, the broken hearts, finances that won't balance, wayward children, rejection, emotions that won't cooperate with your brains...It is rare to find a person who hasn't encountered any challenge of any sort in this life. One of the hardest hit man in human history, Job, aptly described the nature of life. He said: "...man is born unto trouble..." (Job 5:18).

In a space of twenty-four hours, he lost all he had; such a great contradiction in the life of a man who was "...perfect and upright...feared God, and eschewed evil" (job 1:1). His was not a twenty-four hour miracle. His was a twenty-four hour disaster.

The pains, hurts and disappointments of this life in themselves are not the real problem; they are just the symptoms of the real problem. Sin is the real problem, but unfortunately, we seem to focus on dealing with the symptom instead of the real ailment: sin. When sin was first introduced into God's creation, it came with its accompanying calamities worse of which was separation from God: When Adam and Eve fell, the whole human race plummeted with them and their judgement became humanity's judgement; death and toil:

"...I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." (Genesis 3:15-18).

After the pronouncement of judgement, man was driven away from the presence of God and that gulf of separation remains till today until one comes to God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Loves The Little Children/All the children of the world/Red, brown, yellow, black and white/They are precious in His sight/Jesus loves the little children of the world...is not only true in a child's world. It is equally true in an adult's life.

God created us and wants to reconcile us back unto Himself and to the uninterrupted relationship and fellowship he intended from the beginning. Nothing will satisfy our yearning souls until we direct it towards the very owner of that soul. He created us for Himself and knows the needs of our hearts. The emptiness cannot be filled with anything. Sex will not do. Drugs will not do. Alcohol will not do. Materialism will not do. Wealth and prosperity will not do. At best, they can only numb the pain; but "...what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36).

Seeking For Truth: Lessons From John Chapter 3

12: God Loves You(continued from previous post)

1: The Relationship Between God And The World Part One

For God so loved the world...( John 3:16).

The first introduction of God we see in the Bible is that of a Creator. The Architect of the whole universe. The universe, humans, animals and plants all take their origin from God: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). Psalms 24:1 further tells us "The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.(Psalms 24:1).

I recently read an article in the 21st-27th October, 2012 edition of the Catholic Standard which speaks volumes about the Creator and His relationship with His creation. In the article, the Cardinal of Washington, Donald W. Wuerl is quoted to have said:

[ a] tsunami of secularism” has washed across the world, leaving in its wake a tendency to deny God’s existence, or to deny that God’s existence is relevant to human thinking and action…. Without God the very understanding of what it means to be human is altered…. Human dignity and human rights flow from the fact that human beings are created in God’s image.

Those words, "Without God the very understanding of what it means to be human is altered….Human dignity and human rights flow from the fact that human beings are created in God’s image." leads  us into a magnificent truth: We are created in the image of God. That is not a thing to be taken frivolously. We, created in His image are the objects of His divine, unwavering love. The love He demonstrated in sending Jesus to the cross to die is directed towards us mere mortals: christian or non-christian, religious or non-religious. Moral or immoral; God loves you.

Even if you don't believe in the existence of God, you might want to pause and consider the complexity of the world including your very being.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.  O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!(Psalms 8:3-9).

Seeking For Truth: Lessons From John Chapter 3

12: God Loves You

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).

Imagine this:

A guest preacher is introduced in your church. He mounts the pulpit. He does all the usual pleasantries, announces his theme; then asks everyone to turn to John 3:16. Most probably, there would be three  responses: One group of  persons would not refer; because they are familiar with the text and can recite it from memory with ease.

Others, still with an attitude of familiarity, will develop apathy towards the preacher: "what has he got to say?". The third response, would be like the second; but apathy would be replaced with fervour: "what has he got to say?"

Again, still with familiarity to the text in mind, try hard to imagine how a child who has spent enough time in a Sunday school class would recite John 3:16. It might go like this(the breaks indicates the sloppiness of child-like speech): For---God--- so--- loved--- the world,--- that he gave--- his only begotten Son,---that whosoever--- believeth in him ---should not perish,--- but have everlasting life.

In its familiarity and imagined child-like reading lies what I will describe as the core and heart of Christian doctrine. In John 3:16, we find a breathtaking synopsis of the entire gospel. If we split these words of Jesus, we will be staring at a stockpile of biblical truth: "God"..."  "love" "the world"..."gave"..."only begotten son"..."believe"..."not perish"..."eternal life". In subsequent posts, I will attempt to tackle this text from a four point approach :

1: The relationship between God and the world
2: God's greatest gift
3: Faith
4: Eternal Life
         

Seeking For Truth: Lessons From The Gospel Of John 3

10: Christ Must Be Revealed In Our Message To The World.

And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:(vs 13-14).

In this conversation with Nicodemus, we see a familiar trait with Jesus when He engages in conversations.

Eventually, in many of his interactions, He ends up  talking about Himself. He begins with stories, parables, analogies...from the familiar to the unfamiliar; then plummets into His deity and identity as the long awaited Messiah. He refer people to Scriptures and what has been prophesied of Him. Read the gospels and you will notice. My favourite is in John 4: 25-26, Jesus' interaction with the Samaritan woman; "The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he."

"I that speak unto thee am he". In those  words, Jesus revealed Himself: "I am the Messiah"...In all our philosophising, in all our stories, in all our analogies; in all our preaching, sermons and any other way we spread the gospel, if Christ is not revealed, we have failed. Preacher, Christian Musician, Christian Author, Christian Minister in any capacity; may it not be said of us that we left the preaching of Christ and got preoccupied with other things.

Fellow Christian, are you happy when you hear a sermon for 45-60minutes and Christ is not mentioned? What an indictment on the gospel. Has Christ become archaic and irrelevant to our generation? Christian friends, are we truly fed and nourished by all the travesty parading as Christianity?

May God have mercy on us for believing lies caricatured in the name of Christianity. May Christ be revealed in all we do. May we see Christ revealed in Scriptures above all other things. Christ is pivotal in Scriptures; all other things are secondary.

Seeking For Truth: Lessons From John Chapter 3

9: The Natural World Conveys Spiritual Truth

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? (John 3:11-13).

Jesus, what a Master communicator He was. He told stories. He used parables. He drew analogies from the natural environment; all with one agenda: conveying spiritual and eternal Truth. From Childbirth, Death, Aquaculture, Agriculture, Meteorology, Parenting, Light, Darkness, Bakery and we can add on, He had something to say. In this interaction with Nicodemus, we see Jesus drawing an analogy from childbirth to explain spiritual birth---born again.

I said in a previous post that just as our natural birth gives us entrance into the human race, our spiritual birth also gives us entrance into God's Kingdom:

...Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (vs 3).

One fact of the spiritual birth we learn from our natural birth is that just as we don't determine our birth, the spiritual birth is also exclusively a work of God by His Spirit.

...as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13).

Jesus clearly illustrated this when He said in John 6:65, "...no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father."  To be born again is a work of God. We can't  save ourselves  unless the Spirit of God has worked on on our hearts; convicted us of sins and regenerated our dead spirits. This places a great demand on us to always pray the Lord convicts the hearts we minister to.

By our own efforts---preaching, writing, singing, choreography, drama and all other means by which we spread the gospel, we cannot save any soul until the Spirit convicts. We can have well laid out and planned sermons. We can have the best stories and analogies, but "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."(John 6:63)

Spiritual truth is not shrouded in total mystery. All around us, God's creation speaks. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork." (Psalms 19:1). Hear God and seek Him. His own creation speaks of Him(unless of course the world to you is an "accident"). "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead..." (Romans 1:20).

Seeking For Truth: Lessons From The Gospel of John 3

8: How Much Premium Do You Place on The Bible?

Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?(John 3:10).

You see, Jesus' question to Nicodemus indicated that everything He has been explaining to him about the new birth was right there in the Old Testament, and Nicodemus, a Pharisee ---scholar in the Old Testament--- should easily understand the new birth. That explains Jesus' shock. "Nicodemus, you should know these things?"( my own rendition).

Clearly, Jesus was saying, "Nicodemus, this born again I am telling you is nothing new. It is not a new idea. It is right there in Scriptures. Nicodemus, you should know these things". Being born again was not a new term Jesus invented. Rightly so, New Testament is a fulfilment of everything prophesied in the Old. See Born Again in Old Testament:

For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.(Ezekiel 36:24-27).

Too many of us are running around seeking for a sign, a revelation, a word etc etc when everything we need to live a fruitful and victorious life is right there in the Word of God. The much sought for will of God is right there in the Bible.

Veer away  from the Bible and you are veering away from the very  word of God that will give you the direction you need for your life:

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.(Psalms 113:105).

My passion as a believer is towards the word of God. Nothing gets my attention than a ''biblically accurate holy spirit inspired word.'' Preach the Word! Paul told Timothy.

There is too much Psychology and popular opinion amongst us; even on great pulpits. The children of God--people He has purchased with His own blood deserve better from preachers. We deserve better from the Word. We deserve to be fed the unadulterated Word. As in the days of Ezra, we need a revival of the word of God amongst us today. In a conversation with a friend, Daniel Zotoo, he made a statement that registered on my mind strongly. He said "This generation needs the unadulterated word of God. The raw word".

Would you be one of those in this generation who will place high premium on the Bible and its truth? I surely want to be.

The Funeral of An Icon---My Thoughts

My country Ghana, today buried one of the great sons of its soil, Komla Dumor; who before the time of his demise, worked with the BBC. While watching his funeral, which was aired live on national television, the lyrics of a local song resonated in my ears. The song directly translates to as “Let me mourn for myself. At another person‘s funeral, you observe your own funeral“  Many tributes were read celebrating the short but well lived life of Komla Dumor. Clearly, what will be said at our own funeral will be determined by how well we lived our life here on earth. Impact truly is not made by how long we live. Impact is made by how well we lived.

Admittedly, there are many profound mysteries of life. Things we just can't understand. Amongst which, two, makes the list: Birth and Death. We participate in the celebration of the birth of others, yet we can't participate in the celebration of our own birth. We participate in the funerals of others, but our own funeral, we can't participate in. Birth and death are two events in life we have no control over. Our birth signifies an entry into a fallen world of pain, hurts, disappointments and failure. The first cry of a newborn baby it's said signifies pain; the pain of separation from its comfort zone---the mother‘s umbilical cord and amniotic fluid--- into an unfriendly world of many uncertainties. “An unfriendly world of many uncertainties": That to me is an apt description of life: “many uncertainties“.

Life in its true sense is not predictable. We can propound philosophical thoughts and stimulating religious theories in an attempt to define life. But life in the short while I have been around I believe can't simply be reduced to theories. We don't know it all! Sadly my friends we don't know it all. That's how the creator has made it: 

The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.( Deut. 29:29).

Let us leave the secret things to God, but the things that He has revealed to us---gifts, talents, etc---let us make good use of them while we have time. Don't misunderstand me; the mysteries in no way make life gloomy. The mysteries and uncertainties are planted in our hearts to tease us on to aspire for greatness. That also is how the Creator has made it:

I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.“ (Ecclesiastes 3:10-11). 

“He makes all things beautiful in his time“: That presents us with one thoughtful insight that should unsettle our fears and struggles: God does reward hard work, but no matter how hard we try, success will only come to us at God's time. It's a burden. It's a mystery. Yet it's comforting that success will come when we try hard.

Now, in the midst of the mysteries; Life, when looked at from the perspective of the Creator, presents us an opportunity to participate in the divine plan and agenda of God for humanity. We play a part in the grand epic of God---the unfolding story which will be told to many yet unborn. Sometime in the future, it will be the story of your life, my life and the life of many people we have met on the journey of life. What will be said of you by those who will participate in your funeral? And most importantly, what will be said of you by your Creator? 

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them (Ecclesiastes 12:1).

Rest In Peace Komla.