Today I want to chat with you about a caring God. Many of us think that the only thing about us that God cares about is our spirits. But that is not true because God cares about our bodies, our food, our careers and our finances. He created our bodies, and He created every good thing so that we can enjoy life. Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly”. He is a loving God and a caring Father. He doesn’t want us to worry about anything because it is His responsibility to see to it that we are provided for. I don’t mean we should sit down and do nothing. I know it is very difficult for people who spent most part of their years doing things for themselves. I mean as a grown-up you are no longer under the care of your parents. So we think we can do everything for ourselves and if we struggle we tend to worry, but things have changed my friend. You now have a Father who owns everything. One of the great things that the Lord Jesus did for us was to introduce Him to us as our Father.

Mat 6:25-26 “This is why I tell you: do not be worried about the food and drink you need in order to stay alive, or about clothes for your body. After all, isn’t life worth more than food? And isn’t the body worth more than clothes? Look at the birds: they do not plant seeds, gather a harvest and put it in barns; yet your Father in heaven takes care of them! Aren’t you worth much more than birds?

Let us draw nearer to God and begin to know Him for who He really is. Remember God cares.

Shalom

I am excited to be back again and thank you for your prayers. God is merciful and faithful.

Today I want to talk about humility. Let us first read from the word of God.

Phil 2:1-3 So then, if there is any comfort in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tenderness’s and compassions, fulfill my joy, that you think the same, having the same love, one in soul, minding the one thing, doing nothing according to party spirit or self-glory, but in humility, esteeming one another as surpassing themselves.

I think we are behind schedule when it comes to scriptural teachings. What do I mean by this? There are certain things in the body of Christ that are not taught that should contribute to our growth. I think this problem comes in many ways e.g. there are people who over emphasize certain issues over others. What I think we should do is we need to balance things. And there are other people that never teach, but evangelize all the time. We need teachings that will address us as Christians so that we should know how to be Christ like. The issue of humility affects our everyday lives. We need to hear more about it and live it out because our lives rest on it, our relationship with God rests on it.

Prov 18:12 Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.

I think we have seen how important humility is. It is like a secret to promotion and honour. If you need God to honor you humble yourself. Humble yourself in the eyes of the Lord and he will lift you up. Others put it like this; the way up is the way down. Let us look at the following verses and let the Word speak for itself.

Phil 2:4-8  Each not looking at the things of themselves, but each also the things of others. For think this within you, which mind was also in Christ Jesus, who subsisting in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, having become in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, having become obedient until death, even the death of a cross.

The bible tells us that we must have the mind of Christ. What is the mind of Christ like? He was humble. He had all the powers, He is in fact God, but He did not go around with a halo on His head. No. he was like any other person to the extent that even the Pharisees, Sadducees did not see anything like God with Him. The Samaritan woman saw an ordinary Jew. He did not go around trying to prove a point to anyone. He did not complain when people called Him by his first name, He did not make that an issue. He did not go around prophesying to everyone He came across even though He knew everything about all the people. He could even read their minds. There are so many things that we can learn about the Lord regarding Humility. To me humility means taking all the powers, the knowledge, the status, the abilities and so forth and put them aside and say Lord, I will depend on your wisdom, strength, ability. I will simply rely on you.

Phil 2:9-11  Because of this also God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus “every knee should bow,” of heavenly ones, and earthly ones, and ones under the earth, and “every tongue should confess” that Jesus Christ is “Lord,” to the glory of God the Father.

Wow what a powerful statement. My friend, there is humility before honour. May the good Lord help us.

Shalom

Godfrey Moabi

Thank you once again for edifying me with your comments and God bless you for praying for us. I must say that we need that and we appreciate you for that.

You see the issue of the cross is something that we must learn to embrace on daily basis. We cannot preach the gospel without the cross. The Lord said this in Mar 8:34,  “And calling near the crowd with His disciples, He said to them, Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take his cross, and let him follow Me.”

We need to live such a life of denying self, crucifying the flesh or our human nature. There is a lot of pain involved though, but we need to embrace it with Christ’s mentality, (Heb 12:2) looking to the Author and Finisher of our faith, Jesus, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, “and sat down at the right” of the throne of God. (Ps 110:1)

We need to understand that there is glory awaiting us after the resurrection of a new man in us. We need to show Christ to the world, Christ who dwells in us. But that can only happen once we learn to crucify the old nature. Paul puts it this way, (Gal 2:20) “I have been crucified with Christ, and I live; yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith toward the Son of God”, the One loving me and giving Himself over on my behalf. I believe it simply says I don’t live for me, myself and I anymore. No, I live for Christ. He comes first. I should be able to control myself and let Christ take over. Have you heard some of us when we are put under pressure? I mean many of us are good Christians when things are running smoothly, but wait until someone steps on our toes. Some say, I will put my Christianity aside and will show you who I really am. We need to go back to the cross, guys.

In closing, I realized that if there is an area that displeases God in our lives, He will put us around the people who bring the worst out of us, so to speak. We can pray that God should remove them and throw them in the sea. I mean that is how we pray in our closet, right? But that won’t happen. Let me share with you my little secret. If you find yourself under such circumstances, just pray this powerful prayer. Lord, please change me, I choose to unconditionally forgive Mr/Mrs so and so but please change my heart.

Shalom

Godfrey Moabi

Last week I talked about The Lordship of Jesus Christ and God willing I will continue to look at some points that I believe the body of Christ needs to know. Today I want to talk about His Lordship as we are celebrating His death and His resurrection. I believe He did not get that title of being called Lord for free, He paid with His life. (Phil 2:8-11) He humbled Himself, having become obedient until death, even the death of a cross.  Because of this also God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus “every knee should bow,” of heavenly ones, and earthly ones, and ones under the earth, and “every tongue should confess” that Jesus Christ is “Lord,” to the glory of God the Father. Isa 45:23

May we remember that He was crucified so that every tongue should declare that He is Lord as we celebrate Easter? I want to share with you some other verses which can help us a lot. I believe that we really need to check the scriptures and find out for ourselves in terms of why was Christ born, crucified and the like. He did, many of us will be shocked to realize that His aim was not for people to remember Him, follow Him or teach about Him. No friend, His purpose is deeper than that. He wants all human beings to surrender their lives to Him. Yes, you heard me well. CHRIST WANTS YOUR LIFE. Not just your time when you have it, for you to just remember going to Church during Easter. Or your money, He wants you to give Him your life. May those who have accepted Him remember that they were being bought during His Crucifixion?

1Cor 6:20 You were bought with a price; then glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are of God.

1Pet 1:18-19 Inasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. So you have Christ name on you, you are His property.

Another point I would like us to consider is He has reconciled us with God; He reconciled our souls with our spirits bringing about unity and peace. He again made us one in Him.

Eph 2:13 -16 You were far from God. But Christ offered his life’s blood as a sacrifice and brought you near God. Christ has made peace between Jews and Gentiles, and he has united us by breaking down the wall of hatred that separated us. Christ gave his own body to destroy the Law of Moses with all its rules and commands. He even brought Jews and Gentiles together as though we were only one person, when he united us in peace.   On the cross Christ did away with our hatred for each other. He also made peace between us and God by uniting Jews and Gentiles in one body. Christ came and preached peace to you Gentiles, who were far from God, and peace to us Jews, who were near God. My friend the only thing that can bring reconciliation and get rid of hatred among us is the Cross.

Shalom

Godfrey Moabi

I thank God once again for the grace He has given me to write this blog. I want to thank you for your contribution, it means a lot to me and I would like to hear from you on every article I write – that helps me to grow. I would like us to talk about the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I believe the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is not weak, defeated or a coward as the devil would like us to believe.

Mat 16:15-19 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.  I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will be released in heaven.”

The reason why the church looks weak today is because we don’t have a revelation of who Jesus Christ is. The knowledge some of us have about Christ is based on what people are saying about Him. But that is not the knowledge that can make us be what the Word says we are.  We need to go deeper than that. You see Christ mentioned something remarkable there to Peter and I believe He is saying the same thing to us too. He is building His Church on an unshakable foundation. I would like us to listen carefully to what He is saying there. He says I will build MY Church. The word church in Greek is Ekklesia which means the called-out ones, His assembly. Jesus knew that there will be a lot of men’s churches today. That is why He was specific about that. I will build MY church. My, speaks of ownership. When you say MY computer it means you own it. Isn’t it? When the Lord says My Church He simply means I AM THE LORD of My Church. He rules, He owns, His word is final, He needs total submission, and it is all or nothing.

Rom 10:9  Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believes (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

The word ‘Lord’ used here is Kurios and it means supremacy; supreme in authority, and controller. The Lord says to those people the gates of Hades or hell will not overpower them. Yes they will encounter problems, but they will come out victorious. And He further said this: I will give them authority.

Mat 16:19 I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will be released in heaven.

It sounds like authority comes from us, but wait until you read the Amplified translation:

Mat 16:19  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind (declare to be improper and unlawful) on earth must be what is already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose (declare lawful) on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven.

I would like to make this statement in closing: Jesus must be the Lord in all areas of our lives. We need to take His instructions and seek His face daily.

Shalom

Godfrey Moabi