The Tyranny of the World and the Salvation of the Individual

If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Joh 15:19  

The Death and Resurrection Life

The one chief beneficiary of Christ’s redemption work is the individual. It is not the world. ‘For God so loved the world…’ but the world rejected him and killed him – ‘that whosoever believeth in him [counting from one individual] should not perish, but have everlasting life.’

It is for the one dejected individual of this world that Christ died, for the blind Bartimaeus who cries that ‘Lord I might see.’ The world wanted Bartimaeus to shut up. But Bartimaeus persisted until Christ said, ‘Don’t stop him. Let him come.’

There are individuals in the world who are burning to see Jesus. But the world tells them to shut up and they obey. And the world is a peremptory master. It demands instant obedience. And so they shut up, but they shrink from inside, and their lives never ‘grow to the height of a man.’

They are lonely. They feel fake. Worse they feel they are wronging God himself but again the world will crucify them if they dare change or preach. They are told not to judge and not to be negative and not this and not that. And daily they watch their hearts go up in flames but they can’t say anything. Years later they are completely consumed in the inferno. And cemeteries are full of such people. The world killed them.

But Christ is risen. They killed him but on the third day he rose again. You too can arise. Do you believe that?

Beauty from Ashes

Life is a calling. God made you for a purpose and that’s why you burn. You are unique but the world wants everyone to sleep in its bed. It will deride you if you don’t. It will crucify you.

If it has done that to you remember it did the same to Christ. It killed him but on the third day he rose again. You can rise again too!

It grieved the Lord to see you so lonely and dejected in the world. That is why he came down especially to save you. Is today your third day? I pray that it is!

So the world ordered Bartimeaus to shut up. If he had heeded that call he would have died blind. He would have been another stone in the cemetery.

Who is ordering your life, God or the world?

You are Different Because God Made You Different

You have been different since childhood. You see things differently. That is because it is God who made you that way, for his own glory. Grow to your full height because God has promised that you will not be alone. He will be with you up to the end. Please believe that.

If you hate yourself it is probably because you hate God. If you love him you wouldn’t mind how you look.

God chose you from before the world began. That’s how deep his love for you is. That’s how far you have come. Your beginning is out of this world, and so will your end be.

Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit. Joh 15:16a 

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. Eph 1:4-5 

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1Pe 2:9  

And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. 1Jn 5:19  

And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. 1Jn 5:20  

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Joh 8:36  

Life is a Battle. Get Ready for War!

Change is not easy. You have to fight for your freedom. The calling and salvation of God is free, but you still have to make the decision yourself. Yes, you will feel the heat for a while, the pressure and the wrestling in your own heart because Satan doesn’t let go easily. He fights back but Christ exhorts us to cheer because he has overcome the world. Now arm yourself and get ready for that war because it is coming (Eph 6:10-18)!

But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. Heb 10:32-33  

And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. Heb 11:15-16  

Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. Heb 11:25-26  

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 1Jn 4:4  

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 1Jn 5:4  

 

The World and the Fear of Humiliation: And why Humiliation Helps Us Come to Ourselves

And when he came to himself - Luk 15:17a 

It Takes a Man to Accept He is Defeated

The world is a hostile place. And none found this truer than the prodigal son. He left his father and threw himself at the world. But the world vomited him out. He left in suits but he returned in rags. He left in style but he returned in humiliation.

But it was humiliation which made the psalmist wiser.

It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. Psa 119:71

Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. 119:67

To be Humiliated is to be Made Stronger

Humiliation is a powerful redemptive tool which God employs many times. Believers should not fear it. In fact they should pray for it more! Humiliation opens the eyes and gives people a new strength which they never thought they had before. When I lost a sister my late dad cried like a baby. And I suffered a serious roller coaster of emotions as a result. He had been the typical African man. But he cried like a baby. The next shock was to see my mom calmly comforting him and everyone present. But she never shed a single tear. It’s as if she stared humiliation in the face and said ‘Come!’ She then prayed like I had never seen her pray before.

Yet a non-believer burdened with the whole earth would never do something like that. He would harden his face. But he would never be free. Probably men should begin to pray for humiliation more. It will certainly make them very strong and very true men.

Paul prayed that he might know the true suffering of Christ. And God gave him a lot of humiliation. He also gave him a nugget (among many) which rings true to this day: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.’

At Gethsemane Jesus prayed that the will of God be done. And the will of God was to humiliate him. And today many in the world are strong because of that humiliation. Many who were on the brink of death have got healed because of that humiliation.

Take Heart, This World is Passing By

In the world you will be rejected, abused, lied, ripped off, hated and even killed. Even the testimony of the secular News Channels attest to the fact that the world is a sick place. How can one possibly be in love with such a place?

‘Therefore I hated life,’ Solomon groaned. And it is a groan which resounds in many homes up to this day. It took great humility for a king to make such an admission. Can you face God like that too, in your utter ‘nakedness’?

And this is the will of God that in everything we give him thanks - including humiliation. ‘And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God…’

I believe that should be our attitude towards this world as believers. It should be an attitude of love, even where that love is clothed with tears.

‘And rend your heart, and not your garments,’ screams Scripture. It is in the closet that we mourn, grunt, cry and even prostrate. That is because we know prayer is power and humiliation is nothing. It is because we ask that we receive. He who does not ask receives nothing.

Loving the World Carefully

Our love of the world as believers should therefore be sober and cautious. Not the secular love of the world which is reckless, energy sapping and mind vitiating. And in the end it leaves a man angry, sad and broke. Like the prodigal.

In conclusion, it is obvious that we as believers will suffer great humiliation while here on earth, as it is written, ‘In the world ye shall have tribulation’. But take consolation: if we endure up to the end we shall be clothed with white garments. We shall wear the crown, and finally, we shall be adorned with beauty for our ashes forever.

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Rom 8:22-23  

For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. 2Co 5:2-4

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Php 2:5-8  

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2Co 4:17-18  

 

 

 

The Lure of the World and its Peril

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1Jn 2:15-17  

But what is Worldliness?

Beginning today I will be doing a series on the meaning of worldliness and why Christianity talks so strongly against it.

Worldliness is a human system or lifestyle. We may be different from the Dark Ages people but that is only in development or civilization. But the heart is basically the same since Cain killed his brother Abel because of jealousy.

After the fall we lost not just Eden but also our relationship with God. We became enemies. And Satan became the ‘prince of this world’. That is why we are still surrounded by darkness. 

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 2Co 4:4  

He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. Joh 12:40       

In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. Joh 1:4-5  

In the Old Testament God told the children of Israel to separate themselves from the Canaanites peoples because they would draw them from God. But they refused to hear. In the end they forgot their God and embraced the religions and traditions of the Canaanites. That desertion of God life is what is called apostasy. And this is what the love of the world can do to a Christian.

Thus Egypt is a type of the world in the Bible. It is a place of bondage. This is where the alcoholic can be found today, and the drug taker, and the lover of pleasure. For pleasure too can be a form of a drug.  

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Joh 3:19  

No One Knows He is in Prison until the Day He is Set Free

Education may have freed the modern man or woman in a big way. But only Christianity has redeemed the individual from the tyranny of the world, self and the devil.

From Prison House to Freedom

Hence the world will always be antagonistic towards the Christian. As Christ has said: ‘If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you’ (Joh 15:19).  

So do you feel you are hated for being a Christian? Remember the world hated Christ too. Do you feel as if you are in bondage here? Christ has come to set us free.

It will be a new life and initially it will scary. Your loneliness might be magnified. You will be ridiculed and hated. But don’t worry. God gives the power to finish what he has started. And ‘leaving’ the world for God is a decision you will never regret. Christ died for you. Believe him that he will never leave you nor forsake you.

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; Isa 61:1  

To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. Isa 42:7  

And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them. Isa 42:16  

And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. Isa 29:18  

But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore. Isa 42:22  

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. Isa 61:3  

 

 

 Covid 19 And the Valley of the Shadow of Death

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. Psa 91:5-6 

 

Last Wednesday my Mom got discharged. She is now recuperating at a sibling’s home in Nairobi. She had quietly braved a third wave complication of Covid. People prayed. And God is faithful. We called and he answered. May his name be praised forever and forever more!

And Then It Strikes So Stealthily You Can Hardly Hear It!

It was on Sunday 14^th, a very normal Sunday, except Mom woke up with a severe headache. I had encountered such things before, so I wasn’t alarmed. I checked her Blood sugar and BP and both were ok. So I gave her her usual regimen of drugs plus Panadol Extra for her headache.

I then left for church. But when I came back later that afternoon I found her looking even worse. She had been lying on the same seat I left her. I asked to transport her to Nakuru to see her doctor but she refused. She said it was Sunday. So I called a local private clinician to come and give her a painkiller injection. He came and left. He wasn’t even wearing a mask! And of course none of us at home did. We had never seen Covid face to face. We knew one usually had a cold and a cough. Mom didn’t experience any of those things. She had been given the injection and things had cooled. But she still felt feverish. Then at 2.30am she woke me up again. It was the headache and it was tearing her up. I gave her more Panadol Extra.

Even now I didn’t worry about not wearing a mask. I mean who does it in their own home and in the middle of the night?

But if I had been careful I should have noticed one anomaly. Between 7pm and 7am I myself had taken six Panadol Extras! For the first time I started to worry.

I took Mom to Nakuru the following day. It is a thirty minute drive. But on arrival at the hospital we were immediately put on drip. Both our temperatures were soaring above 39 degrees centigrade.

The doctor recommended admission for both of us. But I rejected mine outright. Mom got admitted. But she slept badly, being disoriented, and ripping off the drips from her body. She would then walk along the corridors knocking on doors at night. The following day saw more tests being done on her - a chest x-ray, a headscan and a Covid test. The Covid test came out positive on the third day. After that her room was shut from visitors except her family. After a week she got transferred to Nairobi.

And then it hit me proper after two weeks. I felt nauseous, I raised a fever, and my appetite escaped through the window. For one week I did with one meal per day – and it usually took about three hours to clear.

For one week I lived in bed. I prayed, and prayed and prayed. The prayer wasn’t even long. I simply prayed Nehemiah’s prayer over and over: ‘Remember me, O my God’!

There was a time I got a bit disoriented and I stared at the Bible as if it was a strange book. But I forced myself to. Later however the concentration returned – and the appetite - and a lot of thanks to God! ‘Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? who can shew forth all his praise?’ (Psa 106:1-2).

So when is The Last Wave Going to Be the Last?

Christ is coming soon. That is the meaning of Covid. ‘Watch and pray.’ ‘Make your calling and election sure.’ ‘And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed’ (Rom 13:11). 

If you don’t know Christ time is ticking away. Now is the time for salvation.  

For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness. Psa 95:7-8 

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 1Co 10:11  

We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) 2Co 6:1-2 

Not tomorrow. Tomorrow may be too late. Decide and decide today. Some things mean nothing if they are lost. Not a lost life though. That is eternal. ‘For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’ (Mat 16:26). 

God help us to reflect deeply on these things, especially on this day we celebrate Jesus death and resurrection. Life is about sacrifice. Christ paid the ultimate price. What can’t you sacrifice for him?

Life is very short. That is the ultimate lesson of Covid. Today a man is here and tomorrow he is gone. Who will be next?

The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. Isa 40:6-8 

And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure. Isa 33:6  

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2Pe 3:8-9