It shall find you Week 30, 2015

One of the most sobering thoughts I know is found in Num 32:23(KJV): But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out. Please take note that it is not “may find you out” or “can find you out”, but “your sin will find you out”. Make no mistake about that.

No matter how well we hide them; sins inevitably find us out. In the news is the story of a man in his 70’s. Having had decades of acclaim as a comedian he is faced with accusations of sexual harassment; and he has admitted in a previous court case his failings. Honour is stripped, shows are cancelled. What of the previous world number 1? The world was his stage; at least until serial mistress keeping was discovered. Now he has plummeted from heights, unable so far even to re-enter his game as before. Do we cross the oceans to DSK, shall we tell of several banking scandals rocking FIFA and the banking industry? The examples are too numerous to exhaust. Sin is more than an event; it is a seed whose harvest is certain: we are tempted when we are drawn away and trapped by our own evil desires. Then our evil desires conceive and give birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Do not be deceived, my dear friends! Jas 1:14-16(GNB).  The amazing thing is not the overwhelming evidence that sin has consequences but the overwhelming evidence that multitudes continue to be deceived to sin nonetheless; woefully thinking “I’ll handle it”.

There is the argument that some get away with it in this life, they are never exposed publicly. They retain their honour and respect by society... What a pity, to retain honour in society and be rejected by God! Was not this the error of Saul? Seeking honour before men whilst unrepentant of sin? "I've sinned," Saul said. "But please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel…”1Sam 15:30(ISV).  God forbid the very thought. Yet be sure no one escapes being found out by sin as it is written: The sins of some people are obvious, leading them to judgment. The sins of others follow them there 1Tim 5:24(ISV)  Have thoughts of craftily sinning been presented to your mind? Has the enemy whispered “Think of the pleasure you will enjoy. No one will ever know!” to you? Believe it not; it is a lie. In every life, in all the world, be sure your sin shall find you out. Therefore if next the evil one passes imaginations of sinning without ever being caught let you mind also dwell on how you will face the consequences of the sin. What a fearful place the judgement seat of God for he will bring to light what is now hidden in darkness and reveal the motives of our hearts. Then each person will receive his praise from God1Cor 4:5(ISV) 

Since we have these as certainty brethren, what shall we do? You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins. Confess them and give them up; then God will show mercy to you Prov 28:13(GNB).Let us humble ourselves and confess before our maker seeking His mercy through Jesus.

Until the final day week 29, 2015

I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven Acts 1:1-2 (NIV). Until the day He was taken up. He was doing and teaching and He died. Yet He did not stop. The pain and shame did not cause Him to stop. And then He rose again; yet the victory from the resurrection did not make Him stop and rest from doing and teaching right up till the final moment of being taken up.  Joash sought the Lord and served him wholeheartedly, until his mentor Jehoiada died. After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them. They abandoned the temple of the Lord... 2 Chron 24:17-18(NIV). When far from your mentors, “discipler”, or watcher because of transfer, Youth Service or their death do you begin to listen to other things, or do you remain steadfast? God commended the steadfastness of the Rechabites years after their father’s death despite the prophet urging them to change. Jer35:4-14

Uzziah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord (2Chron26:4). But when he prospered greatly and was strong and famous he left. But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God 2 Chron 26:16(NIV).  Will wealth and fame knock you off?  Gideon did so well until the Midianites were subdued. Thereafter a gold ephod ensnared him. Gideon made the gold into an ephod ... and it became a snare to Gideon and his family. Jgs 8:27(NIV). After your “life mission” is done will you still be doing and teaching? Solomon loved the Lord and walked in His ways until his old age. He had completed the temple asked of him by his father. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done. 1 Kgs 11:4, 6(NIV)  When you have married, when you have borne children and they have all grown up and married in the faith will that be the opportunity to say “I can leave God and strict holiness now. I have completed my mission in life”? Not so with Enoch: after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Gen 5:22-23(NIV). Beloved you must be wise; we must be as the wise servant. The wise servant is that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Mt 24:46(NIV) “So doing”: that phrase is in the present continuous tense. Living the life and doing the job right up to the call-up of the Lord. When the Lord comes for you as he appears in the sky, or he sends for you by the cold hands of death will you (will I) be found so doing? Right up to the moment? Like Paul we shall testify the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 2 Tim 4:6-8(NIV)  “My flesh is tired of pleasing God, but on my knees I’ll stay. I want to be a pleasing child until that final day” Keith Green

To do and to teach Week 28, 2015

That is the order in scripture. To do then teach; not the other way around.

“Are you really sure about that?”

Yes of course. Have you not noticed Act 1:1(KJV) says: The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach?

“You this KJV enthusiast! Are you sure it is like that in other versions?”

Definitely. Have a look yourself. I have looked up 14 different translations of the bible and all of them put it that way. It is the order in scripture.

“Well I can agree it is the order for Acts1:1...”

And for Jesus.

“Well, yes. I now see it is the order in Acts1:1; but not in all scripture surely.”

Ah, have you noticed Ezr 7:10(KJV) also reads: Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments? And the order is so in over 14 translations not just KJV.

“I trust you. I’m sure it says that.”  

Yes. In fact for every successful minister of the word this is the order. Notice the promise in 1Tim 4:16(ISV): Pay close attention to your life and your teaching. Persevere in these things, because if you do so, you will save both yourself and those who listen to you. The order of the lifestyle coming before the teaching is clearly seen here as well. It was Paul’s admonition to the Ephesian leadership in Acts 20:28(KJV): Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

“I see. How then would you explain Act 7:22(KJV)?  And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. I assure you other translations also have it in that reverse order – words before deeds. Was Moses not a successful minister then?”

You think this represents a deviation from the order, or disproves what I am telling you? By no means! This is a commentary made by Steven under the unction of the Holy Spirit on the life and ministry of Moses. It is the wisdom of Egypt to reverse the order, not the pattern of the Spirit. Might I say to you that at that time of Moses’ life and ministry - at 40 years of age he missed it - not only did he rely on the arm of flesh in striking with his fists (God saved them from Egypt without any human being lifting a sword or fighting a war), he also had to flee for 40 years before God called him at the burning bush. It was then he was successful. I believe this reverse order probably gives insight to the life of Moses at that time, and why he failed then. Instead of disproving the message of doing before teaching I believe it actually strengthens it.

“Well I have nothing more to say then.”

Bless you. Let us live by this order whether as ministers or lay people. But there is much more to this...

Anatomy of a fall Week 27, 2015

“I feel you think this baby is mine” the pastor said to me. “Actually it is Daniel’s” (not his real name). Daniel was a policeman and a believer working in Delta State. I met him in the riverine community I worked in as the only doctor in the only hospital there. It took 45 minutes on the boat to get to that community, and no road existed there. It is not that there were bad or narrow roads. No road existed and transport was by boat on the River Niger. Transport, feeding (by fishing), and business (alcohol trade) were assured by the river in a community further blessed as being oil producing. There was a lot of fish.  Alcohol, women, and (inevitably) police cases were rife in such communities. I had been warned in the Corper s’ Christian fellowship such were reputed for ear-tingling immorality. Look! This was the sin of your sister Sodom and her daughters: Pride, too much food, undisturbed peace, and failure to help the poor and needy Eze 16:49 (ISV). Daniel had been posted there on occasion and went without his family (as did most workers on posting there). He knew the Lord but did not join the Church of God Mission there. There was no orthodox or any other Pentecostal church in that community. Perhaps because his denomination or group was not there he declined joining them. Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more Heb 10:25(GNB). But he was a believer and made that known. In the course of his stay a woman in the community took a liking to him and would help him out with household chores and cooking. Whenever he came around she would help him out. She openly declared her liking for him. One thing led to another however and she exposed her nakedness to him. Being a Christian and a married man he turned her down, but their association continued. “On 3 separate occasions she was naked before him but he turned her away. She wondered if he was actually a man” continued the pastor. He was; and he lay with her thereafter. When she became pregnant by him Daniel made another painful discovery – she was a married woman. Her husband waded in and demanded the customary penalty for adultery from him. “He cried like a baby when it happened”. Here he was, a believer not only having soiled his garments, but also publicly humiliated. Can you carry fire against your chest without burning your clothes? Can you walk on hot coals without burning your feet? It is just as dangerous to sleep with another man's wife. Whoever does it will suffer. Prov 6:27-29(GNB) 

I was there when the baby was born, and noted the pastor’s concern for the baby. He took Daniel in; and helped rehabilitate him spiritually. Daniel went on to participate actively in the church there, and brought his wife and family with him on his subsequent postings. So be happy with your wife and find your joy with the woman you married--- pretty and graceful as a deer. Let her charms keep you happy; let her surround you with her love. Prov 5:18-19(GNB). Mercifully she forgave him, and they had twins after. I took the delivery.