Heaven Is Real … Just A reminder

Mark 8: 36 “and what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?”

I haven’t just had a dream about heaven nor did I visit, like some have, but I know from the Word of God that heaven is real; also, that it is a place where only true believers will be. I am reminded of this in these times when we, believers, seem to have lost focus and no longer remember that there is an ultimate goal for every believer – dwelling in heaven for eternity. In my church, heaven is often mentioned but these past few days have been intense because it has been a major focus and we even watched the movie “Left behind” this past Saturday. Despite all the popcorn, drink and food that were making the rounds, a lot of people were captivated by the movie and some souls were won. One major thought on my mind is – am I heaven ready if the rapture takes place today? Are members of my family ready? Then I paused; because my immediate concern when it comes to heaven related matters, is those closest to me; of course I immediately curbed my selfishness, and asked myself - Is the church of Christ (members of my local assembly) ready and if anyone isn’t, have I done all I can or know to do to help them? Then the big question – have I done all I can or know to do to help everyone under my sphere of influence to be ready?

Galatians 6: 7 “Don’t be misled-you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.”

Unfortunately, the existence of heaven is unchanging truth because it is the Word of God. So heaven and hell are real and where we end up are a direct consequence of the choices we make in the course of our lifetime on earth. I know we often associate the scripture with our existence on earth only. When we think of sowing and reaping, we often think only in the context of what we gain on earth but the truth is whatsoever we sow here on earth will impact on where we spend eternity. The only way our bad seeds are prevented from impacting our eternity is when they are bloated out by the blood of Jesus, which does not happen because we shout “blood of Jesus” several times but because we repent and are converted. There is a turnaround required for the blood to go to work blotting out our sin. Anyone who has been cleansed by the blood enjoys times of refreshing so that they have peace despite all they may be going through; peace that is indescribable. The cleansing by the blood facilitates the presence of the Prince of Peace in a life. We have to be very careful what seeds we sow on earth because they have a way of finding their way into our future. 

Acts 3: 19amp “So repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and return (to God), that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that times of refreshing (of recovering from the effects of heat, of reviving with fresh air) may come from the presence of the Lord”

Much as we would rather not think of dying, it is a reality; a truth that is also unchanging.  Though we have been assured that the sting of death is gone, we would rather not die: but the truth is, death for every believer, could be likened to closing one’s eyes and finding one’s self in another world more beautiful than one ever imagined. It is like having one of those dreams we don’t ever want to wake up from. God will not come to earth to convert us but He has sent His son who also has left us with the Holy Spirit and revealed Himself through His word. It’s our decision whether or not we are guided by His word. 

We have more than we will ever need to ensure that we sow the seeds that ensure we live in heaven for eternity. As we sow these seeds it is incumbent upon us to ensure that all those we love come with us. Unfortunately, if we wait till we die, then it is too late to do anything to facilitate their making heaven and if we wait till they die, it is also too late and all the many prayers we make for them to be received in heaven will not change the course of their journey into eternity. All the deciding factors take place whilst we are yet here on earth. Please let us be wise in the decisions we make beginning with that decision to Christ, our Saviour and Lord in our lives. If you love comfort on earth, then please choose comfort for eternity. It really is our decision.

My Father Works… So I Work

The reality is that worldwide, life is not as easy as it used to be and those in my Country will admit that it has not been this bad in a long time. So many businesses are crashing, people are losing their jobs and young people are finding it even more difficult to get jobs now. Unfortunately, some are failing, not necessarily because the times are bad, but by their own doing (actions or inactions); these people will not change who they are or anything they do to cause an improvement in their lives. I admit, albeit sorrowfully, that some of these are believers. They also don’t want to fail alone so they ensure that they “go down” pulling at least one other person with them and it is usually by their counsel or whining. They just hate to “go down” alone and would very often take innocent people along with them. These believers never see that they are the problems of themselves so that whatever they are going through is always someone else’s fault and when they can’t find anyone to blame, then it is God’s fault. They often are convinced that other people have some ungodly secrets to their success which they have kept to themselves. They refuse to accept the fact that though God is the source of blessing, we have to partner with Him to be successful.

 

Deuteronomy 8: 18 “Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful.”

The thing about God is that He has done and spoken all He would ever do or say, for us to succeed; yet He also equips us with the power we need to not only work but be fruitful at it.  He has done it all but we have a part to play which we must play to enjoy good success but these believers prefer to wait for God; they seem to think He would create the money and then throw it all down from heaven or send someone to them, whose job it is to ensure that he provides for all their comfort. They are mentally and physically lazy and would rather live in yesterday or tomorrow but never today. It is truly sad to note that this correctly describes some believers. The ones who live in "yesterday" are those who keep talking about how successful they were yet they are not making any reasonable effort to get out of where they have fallen to and go forward whilst the ones that live in tomorrow are those who dream about what would happen when they make money but do nothing to make the money and claim to trust God for it. They always say “they are waiting on God” but God is waiting on them. It is true that there are people who work hard and don't succeed but thanks be to God that this is not the position with spirit filled and led believers. God blesses the work of our hands.

Deuteronomy 30: 9 “The Lord your God will then make you successful in everything you do.”
Psalm 1: 1a &2 - 3 “Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked …but they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted by the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.”

According to the scriptures, there is a doing required to prosper. How then does one prosper the way of God doing nothing? Also we can’t blame anyone if we fail consistently especially not God. It is wiser to spend that time we spend on the blame game, trying to figure out the path God has created to bring us out of that bad situation instead. God does not need our background to lift us up because He can take a beggar from the trash and cause him to sit with princes. That is why He is God. He knows that we don't choose your family so He ensures that we have the right to and provides all we need to succeed despite our families so that won’t be our hindrance if we know who we are and do what we should. It is not enough to desire success or to pray consistently and continuously for it; or even go from church to church seeking the “anointing” to be successful. We just need to be ready to do whatever we are required to do when God makes a way. We must do it and do it well which takes work. You can’t want to do it in the most convenient way and yet enjoy all the benefits. Jesus worked and obviously God works.

John 5: 17 “But Jesus replied, My Father is always working, and so am I.”

John 2: 4 “But his mother told the servants, ‘do whatever he tells you.”

The more troubling believers are those who think they will move forward by hanging around 'the boys' so they build their lives around “these boys” and get nothing or get a little for a while and then it stops forever. They spend all their time hanging around “the boys” and have little or no time left for hanging around God. They don't realize that 'the boys' have become their God instead of Jehovah the Most High God. Unfortunately, the boys are mere mortals whom you have chosen to look up to with a view to getting them to meet your needs. The truth is, they will fail at one point or the other and then you dislike the person for something they cannot give; the arm of flesh is bound to fail if you rely on it. If we can rely on a man forever and he truly provides well for us through our life time then he is either a super- man or God. With all the best intentions in the world, no man will be able to meet all of anyone’s needs. If however, one relies on God, He will send a man who will not fail because it is God working through the man to meet your need. It is tough yet easy; but we must trust the God we claim we love.

Cain & Abel – Life’s Lessons

Only recently I realized that there is a lot more wisdom than I thought hidden away in the story of Cain and Abel. Who would have thought a brother would kill his brother so easily and remain unrepentant? The story also reveals the extent of God’s love for man. God’s love for us is truly immeasurable; it is so much that even when Cain had disobeyed Him, God whose nature makes disobedience intolerable to Him because it is sin, still went on to talk to Cain giving Him an opportunity to make good His wrong but Cain would not. God even knowing that Cain was sulking ignored all his bad behavior to provide him with the help he needed to come to repentance revealing His longsuffering nature. God endures so long with man, that we take Him for granted and deceive ourselves that sin has no consequence. 

Romans 6: 23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Unfortunately, great as His love is for us, He would not accept us without repentance. God is definitely not interested in our wrong, neither does He desire to build a case around it; but He is interested in us making right our wrongs. His entire discussion with Cain was about making right his wrong. He was reminding him that He still had an opportunity to make things right and all his wrong would be forgotten. God does not use emotional blackmail either. He did not try to lure Cain into doing what He wanted but let Cain make the decision which is the same way He deals with us. He never forces anyone to repentance. It is always our decision. The devil tries to lure us working on our emotions but it is not so with God. God gave us a brain and wants us to use it so He works with truth which He puts before us that we may then make the right decision. Decisions made on His truth are enduring for they will stand the test of time because they are based on God’s truth which is unchanging reality.  

Hebrews 12: 5b – 6 “My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”

Another lesson is that a bad attitude can ruin a life. When Cain was corrected, if he had a good attitude and was humble, he would have accepted correction and his life would have ended differently. His bad attitude finally made him bitter and envious of his brother; for such is the power of bitterness and envy to ruin the life of a person. The envious or bitter person begins to feel and act like all their life's problems is caused by the person they envy. They tell themselves that if that person did not exist they won't have challenges which is all not true. They forget that God made different paths to success for each person and that their own very negative emotion is what hinders them from going forward. The ill feeling makes them wish that the person they envy does not exist and unfortunately, like Cain, some actually go out of their way to ensure the person ceases to exist and then find that their problem remains unresolved.

John 12: 24 “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels – a plentiful harvest of new lives.”

The falling to the ground and death of seed speaks of humility. The seed falls and is buried in earth, hidden from all eyes and in that dirt, it begins to increase and to expand until its expansion can no longer be hidden. You don't need to announce your blessings; when it can no longer be hidden, it will be seen. If you have to tell them for them to see it, then you are moving ahead of your time. Pride finally led Cain to kill Abel rewriting his own destiny; he became a fugitive. His attitude was so bad that even when he realized that in the course of wandering on earth he might be killed, he did not repent; instead he lamented to God who then put a mark on him so that no one would kill him so he could wander – what a terrible destiny. He ended up worse than Abel whom he thought he had shut out of his life forever so that he could no longer be compared with him but till this very day Abel is still remembered and worse still, he is still described as the better brother. It is best to deal with ourselves. In dealing with ourselves, we give God room to make the changes that will facilitate our going forward into God's plan for our lives. Destroying some other person, whether physically or with the words would not bring the much needed change we need to go forward. It sometimes takes dying to one’s self to enter into one’s fullness.

The Best Place To Be - Where God Is

Pain does not look worse than when it is in the eyes of a mother who believes that she and her husband have ruined the life of their daughter by a decision they thought was wonderful at the time they made it. It is a decision that any other Nigerian parent who was financially comfortable would make concerning their child's education but she is so sad today because it appears to have boomeranged and she feels even worse because they did not involve God in making the decision though they are believers, they just did what other parents did and they did it with all the best intention in the world. I definitely think she was being too hard on herself but such is the bane of parents who do not know who they are as a result of which they do what every other parent is doing. Unfortunately, the consequences may be grievous both to the children and the parents who will as of a must, feel the pain of their children. The time has come for believers to prove that Jesus is truly Lord in our lives as we make Him a part of every decision we make with the awareness that He made each person different and to fulfil a different purpose.

 

Romans 12: 2 “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of the world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think”

 

Making Him a part of our decision making is not just noting His opinion but actually giving consideration to it; we must give consideration to it such that it becomes a major deciding factor for what we finally elect to do. There is no doubt that we do not exist in a vacuum so that one would always note what is going on around us and the truth is they are not all bad. Sometimes some of the things happening are great things we can also learn from but we must take advantage of the great privilege we enjoy as children of the most High God who have the right to tap into the wisdom of God. This is a privilege that the world would not readily have and so it is understandable that they often feel the need to do what others are doing. God made us all differently and uses all of our differences for His purpose and if we would turn to Him to guide us as we make these decisions that can steer the course of our lives, then we would truly blossom as the people that He ordained for us to be. We can only truly be the blessing that we were made to be, when we are who we have been made to be.

Romans 12: 4 – 6 “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. In His grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.”

Just being who God made one to be goes a long way to determining whether or not one will fulfill destiny or live a fulfilled life. To a large extent, it could also affect the lives of those you make decisions for. It is indeed, very liberating to discover and be that person that God made you to be. That is true success. Some people even insist that it is the sure way to make a lot of money because you will then do what makes you happy. The power to live a fulfilled life is therefore, something God puts in your hands; if you choose not to exercise it, it will be your fault.  The reality is that we can also not be that person until we make God a major player in our decision making. This is not as complicated as it may sound. Making Him a major player in our decision making is being fully guided by His word wherein His mind is revealed.

Romans 12: 3b “Don’t think you are better than who you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves by the faith God has given us.

The challenge though is the fact that His word remains a mystery to everyone that is not saved so that they do not understand it and one cannot be guided by what they do not understand. Meanwhile, they seem to make most of the decisions in this world we live in so that all around us are expressions of their decisions which one can easily get attracted to. However, as believers we are allowed to understand the wisdom of God and empowered to yield to it. The word of God has transforming power and is able to shape and re-shape anyone that yields to it. A believer that allows God to be revealed in and through them will be shocked at who they become which is actually who you were born to be. Salvation gives us the right to fully unfold. It is a journey, this walk with Christ; a journey that transforms one as they build on their relationship with Christ. It is our journey to fulfilment of purpose. Many of us live a lie. We are not who God made us to be which makes us susceptible to the constantly changing life the unbelievers live. This is not who we are. God is looking for a people through whom He will display His manifold wisdom.

Which Jesus Have You Received?

I have heard that Jesus is a common name amongst the Jews. So anyone could choose that name and yet not be Jesus Christ the Son of God who alone is the “The anointed one.”  Only He has the power and authority to save man and for which reason He came down to earth to ultimately lay down His life after living an exemplary life for us to follow. He is whom we have to receive to receive the power to become sons of God. Jesus could not have been more straightforward in His speech. He clearly declared that He is the way the truth and the life and if anyone wants to go to the Father, it had to be through Him. He declared that there is no other way but Him. There is however, a problem in the church today. The Jesus that is often preached from our pulpits appears to be different from He that is revealed in the Bible as the Son Of God so that the Christ a lot of people receive is not the Christ of God. This seems to be the root of major confusion amongst believers today – unfortunately, we have not all receive the same Jesus. So when we talk about God or Christ, we seem to be talking about very different personalities; not even almost describing our many-sided God that we worship. This is one of the reasons the body of Christ is right now so disunited and disjointed that nothing inside us connects us anymore. We have no tie in the Spirit that connects us and we hardly ever agree on anything not even matters of the faith we profess of the God we received and worship.

 

1 Corinthians 8: 6 “But for us, there is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live.”

I do know for certain that God made us all very different and I believe very much that all the differences add to make life more beautiful. I can imagine how boring life would be if we were all the same; this is one of the things people have against the Amish people. They don't only strive to keep their faith but it would sometimes appear like they want everyone to look, act and think alike which isn’t right and this is the reason, we must work to ensure that everyone leans on the leading of the Holy Spirit who knows best the mind of God concerning each individual and is equipped to help us give full expression to who we are. So God made us different and we must respect all our differences and ensure that we allow people express themselves albeit within the confines or limits of the word of God so that only God working in them, will perfect them making them even more beautiful than they ever imagined. The one unchanging personality in life, is God; so that every believer has something in common with every other believer and that is our faith. We have the same God who never changes so that from person to person, there is something common to all believers and that is the beauty of Christian fellowship.

Hebrews 13: 7 – 8 “Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Our truth as believers should be the same even where the expression of it is different. It is sad that we now have variations of The Truth. Jesus now seems different one believer to the other and that is not true. This is not only affecting the impact of Christianity today, it is affecting generations coming after us and we are almost giving them a strange God. Our perception of God is so colored by our selfishness that God is almost taking on the nature of man. Also, our senses have been so dulled that we can hardly even perceive Him right. The truth is, we are unable to. The God we now describe is like any one of us and that is not true; our God is not a man. In our usual self-absorbed way, every believer makes up their mind who they want God to be and insist that He is that. Then they resist any effort to make them understand the God revealed in the scriptures. We insist on our perception of Him, not caring whether it is right or wrong as long as it makes worshipping God more convenient for us and we worship the strange God we create. We obviously have a major problem.

Luke 21: 34 – 36 “Watch out! D Don’t let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this life. Don’t let that day catch you unaware, like a trap. For that day will come upon everyone living on the earth. Keep alert at all times. And pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man.”

This confusion is giving satan room in our midst. This is not about different denominations; it is about having different descriptions for a God who describes Himself very simply in the bible and reveals Himself, to everyone who receives Him. If we have therefore embraced Him who presents Himself to us so simply, why then do we struggle with understanding Him? The reality is that we more and more are interpreting God from hearts and the Christ/God we now preach is based on our interpretation; unfortunately that is the God people that hear us then are drawn to. No wonder our God appears to be getting less powerful from generation to generation as the world gets crazier and crazier. There is a need to examine one’s heart from time to time to ensure that one is worshipping the God revealed in the scriptures and has not been lured away from Him? It is time to seek God with all our hearts again otherwise the true faith will become extinct. We cannot afford to do all we do for our children and then jeopardize their destiny and where they end up after life on earth. We cannot ourselves start well and then end up in the wrong place. We must finish this Christian race well.