HAS THE CHURCH LOST THE FEAR OF GOD?

The once saved always saved debate, is what led me down a winding road, that took me on a journey that kept leading me back to this question, have we, the church, lost the fear of God? After a recent trip to visit my family in the USA, my aunt who I vividly remembered being a christian all her life surprised me when I witnessed certain behaviour and speech from her, far removed from what Jesus requires from us as his followers. It’s funny because the last time I saw her, which was before the dreaded pandemic, I was not a believer. I remember her calling me to her bedroom and asking me to get on my knees and pray with her and a friend who was on the phone. I will never forget how awkward I felt bowing my head. And as I listened to their feverent prayers to God, I kept thinking, when would this be over! Although I obliged my aunt out of respect, that memory never left me, and I can’t help but feel it was a seed that had been planted. That was the last memory of my aunt, a memory that built her up in my mind as a prayer warrior, a woman of God who had an unshakable faith. So, in my excitement to come back 5 years later, now a woman of God myself, I couldn’t wait to connect with my aunt in a way that I had never before!

We did connect in a new way, but it was just not how I envisioned it would be. I spent the first few days “correcting” her (her words), reminding her of what it meant to be a follower of Christ. But in me doing that, it brought us closer than ever, and we had long conversations about faith and her understanding. God used me to remind my aunt that He should be feared and his grace not taken for granted. Because of my own reverence for Him, it ignited her fire for the Lord, which had been smouldering for years. That was when the first thought about the lack of reverance for God came to mind. I know there are plenty of people like my aunt who have been believers for years, and for whatever reason, their faith has become habitual, instead of something you live for daily. People claim to know God, but they don’t exhibit His nature, for the bible says we should be holy because our father in heaven is holy! But how can you fear the Lord if you don’t even know Him? My aunt didn’t read the word like she should, and she could only digest a verse, never a whole chapter. This explained why she misused and misunderstood scripture. It’s hard to understand the word without any context. If you can’t understand scripture, I would think it would be hard to understand who God truly is, His nature, and His love for us! Of course, without that important information, it would be hard to revere Him.

PROVERBS 9:10 “THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM, AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY ONE IS UNDERSTANDING.” When I think of having fear of the Lord, I don’t see it like the fear of an abusive partner. It’s like the fear and respect you have for your parents. When you respect and fear your parents, you watch what you do, you stay away from doing things they prohibit you from doing, because you know that there will be serious consequences if you are not obedient. You respect them so much that the thought of disappointing them would break your heart. But the most important part about that relationship is knowing that they truly love you and want the best for you. They are your safe place! To me, that is the fear of the Lord! Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom because when you fear Him, you abide in Him, and when we are obedient, all things work in our favour! To know Him is to understand life!

I had been reading the book of Acts, and there seemed to be this theme of fearing God that kept jumping out at me. First, it was in chapter 9 verse 31, when it said the church became stronger as the believers lived in fear of the Lord. I started to think about the churches in the west and how lukewarm some (not all) appear to be. I started to think about self professing christians who didn’t even think church was necessary, how they lived like non believers, like the God of the bible was just a fable. I even thought about my church, how not every member was truly submitted to God. This is not me casting judgement, but me pointing out what is just a fact, not every believer fears God! Without fear, it’s hard to be an effective Christian. How do we successfully carry out the great commission in Matthew 28 without the fear of God? When our life is on the line, it’s only then we seem to remember that God is real and not to be played with. It’s in those times we promise God that we will be better if He would only give us more time! Why do we need to be brought to our knees for us to start taking God seriously? How do we translate that moment into our lives daily? I will never forget watching an old sermon with this Ugandan preacher sharing his encounter with God. I spoke about it before, but it convicted me in a way I had not experienced before. It was watching that sermon that brought me the fear of God. The way I crumbled and cried out to God for forgiveness, knowing how unworthy I was! I feared that He would not be pleased with me when I stood before Him, and the thought of eternal separation left me feeling fear like I had never known before. I bottled that fear, and every so often, I like to remind myself of it.

I started writing this post at the end of May so I could be on time to post in June, but God has been giving me nuggets of information and I have felt the need to take my time and listen to what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell me. It’s been clear that He has been trying to teach me the importance of fearing God. Sunday, I sat in my church and listened to one of my pastors give a great message, which seemed to lead back to fearing God. God is so intentional and has a way of affirming His message. We visited the book of Haggai, who was a prophet. I know I haven’t studied this book before, so I wasn’t that familiar with it, but oh, how it spoke to me as clear as day! In a time where God resided in a holy temple, His temple was lying in ruins and had not yet been rebuilt, for the people kept saying that the time had not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. So God gave a message through the prophet Haggai to the govenor of Judah and the high priest HAGGAI 1:4-6 “WHY ARE YOU LIVING IN LUXURIOUS HOUSES WHILE MY HOUSE LIES IN RUINS? THIS IS WHAT THE LORD OF HEAVENS ARMIES SAYS: LOOK AT WHAT’S HAPPENING TO YOU! YOU HAVE PLANTED MUCH BUT HARVEST LITTLE. YOU EAT BUT ARE NOT SATISFIED. YOU DRINK BUT ARE STILL THIRSTY. YOU PUT ON CLOTHES BUT CANNOT KEEP WARM. YOUR WAGES DISAPPEAR AS THOUGH YOU WERE PUTTING THEM IN POCKETS FILLED WITH HOLES!” He then tells them to go to the hills to bring timber so they can rebuild His house because the Lord wants to take pleasure in it and be honoured.

HAGGAI 1:9 “YOU HOPED FOR RICH HARVESTS, BUT THEY WERE POOR. AND WHEN YOU BROUGHT YOUR HARVEST HOME, I BLEW IT AWAY. WHY? BECAUSE MY HOUSE LIES IN RUINS, SAYS THE LORD OF HEAVEN’S ARMIES, WHILE ALL OF YOU ARE BUSY BUILDING YOUR OWN FINE HOUSES.” When you continue reading, it goes on to say that the people FEARED the Lord when they heard His message. It was fear that brought them into obedience. And when they feared God, He said, “I AM WITH YOU.” We no longer have temples where God resides because we have become the living temples. God resides in us! So when I read that scripture that morning, it hit different. Why is His house in ruins while we worry about our life and what we have? We need to make ourselves right with God. We have been spending time worrying about the wrong things. We neglect Him, like He isn’t the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! That’s why we are not satisfied. That is why we don’t reap what we harvest. That is why we don’t see growth the way we should. We are too focused on ourselves and have neglected to give God the honour He deserves! We have lost the fear of God! I think that’s why God is so intentional by repeatedly referring to Himself as The Lord of Heaven’s Armies. Someone who holds such a title deserves all the respect and fear we can muster!

It’s time to start living like we believe what we read in the bible, instead of using it as a motivational tool when we need a pick me up. When we start to live like God is real, we start to rebuild His temple. We have His Spirit that resides in us, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the grave! And He deserves to live in a home that is fit for a King, He deserves the best! And when we give Him what He deserves, God is honoured! Look at Cornelius, the Roman army officer in the book of Acts chapter 10. He was a devout God-fearing man, and He lived that way by giving generously to the poor, praying regularly to God. He didn’t know the Gospel and didn’t know of Jesus, but God received his prayers and gifts to the poor as offerings. Because of this, God saw that He would receive the Gospel through Peter because you can’t have the Father without the Son. ACTS 10:34 THEN PETER REPLIED, “I SEE VERY CLEARLY THAT GOD SHOWS NO FAVORITISM. IN EVERY NATION HE ACCEPTS THOSE WHO FEAR HIM AND DO WHAT IS RIGHT.”

We know Jesus, but can we say we are devout God-fearing believers? Do we live doing what is right in the eyes of God? These are hard questions that I have to ask myself. I so desperately want to be accepted by God. People strive to be accepted by man, but that is a waste of time. This is why the bible says we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling, because the day when you become sure of yourself and your standing with God, is the day when the enemy enters your gate. PROVERBS 28:14 “BLESSED IS THE ONE WHO FEARS THE LORD ALWAYS, BUT WHOEVER HARDENS HIS HEART WILL FALL INTO CALAMITY.”

HEALING VS GOD’S PLAN.

Is it me, or are the months flying by before our eyes? May has been such a busy month. Most of it was spent in the USA with family, so this post is coming in just in the nick of time! The topic of conversation is something that I have been wanting to talk about on this blog ever since I heard the news of a beauty influencer, by the name of Jessica Pettway who passed away in March due to a misdiagnosis of fibroids. She was someone I had watched and followed over the years, but ever since I went on a somewhat permanent social media hiatus, I had been out of the loop and missed that she was even sick. So when I saw the news that this 36 year old had passed away leaving behind her husband and two young children, my spirit was disturbed, and I couldn’t shake this sadness. I learned that she was a Christian, and during her cervical cancer diagnosis, she had made public videos declaring that she believed that God would heal her and this would be part of her testimony. Sadly to say that wasn’t the case. The more I thought about it, the more disturbed I became. I thought to myself, what does something like this do to someone’s faith? I have no doubt she prayed with her family for healing, and others prayed for her. The bible says that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Jesus even said that if we pray for anything and believe we’ve received it, it will be ours!(Mark 11:24)

So if we pray for healing and don’t receive it, what does that mean? I thought about non-believers who would have followed her and seen her faith despite her diagnosis. I am sure they would have been inspired by her courage, maybe even pursuaded to believe in her God. What would they think about God now that she was gone? I struggled to make it make sense as a believer! But even in my disappointment and sadness for her and her family, I was 100% certain that God was still good! I just didn’t know how to explain it to someone, and that bothered me. Nobody even asked me or challenged me about it, but I knew that if I was ever in a situation where I still had to explain the goodness of God through tragedy, I would have found it hard to, and I am always reminded of the need to be able to explain the reason for the hope that I have.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

I was then reminded of my mum, who has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis which is a long-term condition that causes pain, swelling, and stiffness in the joints. As she gets older, the pain seems to be more intense, leaving her at times unable to attend to herself without assistance. I remember when she first became a Christian. I think she thought that she would not suffer and God would heal her. But as time went on and her pain intensified, she began to question God’s goodness. She didn’t even have to say it, I knew she felt it. It was almost as if she believed that God was punishing her, or worse, that God didn’t care for her like He did for others. I didn’t blame her for thinking that. If you don’t understand who God is, you won’t see Him as a good God when you go through your trials. The bible doesn’t say that life will be perfect when you accept Jesus into your heart. We live in a fallen world under the influence of the evil one. All you have to do is turn on the news or scroll social media to see the injustice in this world. But what the bible does promise is eternal life and peace. A peace unlike the peace given from the world. This peace that comes from Jesus is the peace that keeps us afloat in a turbulent sea. JOHN 14:27 “PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU; MY PEACE I GIVE TO YOU. NOT AS THE WORLD GIVES DO I GIVE TO YOU. LET NOT YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED, NEITHER LET THEM BE AFRAID.”

I asked my pastor what he thought about it, and he directed me to Job from the bible. Job was a man said to be blameless in the eyes of God, a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. God had blessed him with a large family. He was the richest man in his entire area, yet he still gave offerings to God. He never let money corrupt his heart. Then, one day, Satan came before God and challenged Jobs character, claiming the only reason why he feared God was because of all that he had. If God took it away, then Job would curse God. So God allowed Satan to test him, with only one condition, that Satan was not allowed to harm him physically, but he had free reign to do whatever he wanted with whatever he possessed. Of course, Satan did his worst to Job, killing all his children and taking away his riches by killing his livestock, farmhands, and servants. In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God, instead he fell to the ground in worship and said JOB 1:21 HE SAID, “I CAME NAKED FROM MY MOTHER’S WOMB, AND I WILL BE NAKED WHEN I LEAVE. THE LORD GAVE ME WHAT I HAD, AND THE LORD HAS TAKEN IT AWAY. PRAISE THE NAME OF THE LORD!” It was clear that Job understood who God was. Then I started to think about if I understood who God was, could I have that same conviction as Job?

I’ve always heard that it’s never good to plan too far ahead because God might suprise you. God’s plan for your life might not always be in line with what you plan for your life. We can pray for a long, fruitful life here on earth, but that is not guaranteed. Sometimes we forget that we are here for a short time, this world is not our home. Our assurance comes from knowing Jesus and the promise of eternal life for all who believe. If God takes us back to Him early, could that mean that our work here on earth is finished, or are we to take it as punishment? Job remembered that everything he had, God had given him. Even in his grief, he still knew the goodness of God. Ultimately, as a believer, we want to submit to our Fathers will. His way is always better, even if we can not see it at the time.

I started to think about what life actually meant to me. How attached I was to the things I knew and the routine of my life. If I got sick and God didn’t heal me, would I curse God or praise Him anyway? Then I started to think about my life before I knew Jesus. How everything was dark and meaningless. If I had been sick then. Never knowing Jesus. Dying in my sin. Forever separated from the Father! I felt a wave of fear and dread come over me. I realised that God will always be good because He called me to Him, and He chose me. He saved me from death. Jesus paid the price I couldn’t by shedding His blood for me. He has given me more than I could have ever dreamed of by that one act alone! For that reason, God will always be good! If I get sick tomorrow, God is good. If I lose a loved one, God is good. If I lose my job, God is good. If I lose my home, God is good. GOD. IS. GOOD. PSALMS 34:8″OH, TASTE AND SEE THAT THE LORD IS GOOD; BLESSED IS THE MAN WHO TRUSTS IN HIM!”

If you are a believer, death is not bad. It’s the people that you leave behind that suffer the most. But the comfort we have is knowing that we will not be separated from them forever. It is just a short time. If we are still here on this earth, that means that we have an assignment to complete, and we have a purpose. Going home to be with the Lord is exactly that; going home to a place that Jesus prepared for you. How beautiful to know that is what awaits you. How comforting for a family like The Pettways who are left behind. Maybe they might not see it now because the grief is still raw, and we that are left behind have to sort through life and find a new normal without the ones we’ve lost. But I pray that they find the peace that surpasses all understanding. I pray that they draw closer to God PSALMS 34:18 “THE LORD IS CLOSE TO THE BROKENHEARTED AND HE SAVES THOSE CRUSHED IN SPIRIT.”

Through the good times and the bad times, God will forever remain good. Whatever you suffer through now, whether it’s sickness or struggling financially, whatever your trial is, just know that it will not be forever. When we enter into heaven, there will be no sickness, no tears, no pain, just joy! Our riches await us in heaven, so keep your eyes focused on things from above! My wish is to be like Job. Someone who, when grief, knocks at my door, I will fall to my face and declare through tears, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away. PRAISE THE NAME OF THE LORD!”

GRATITUDE.

It feels like we are flying through the year. It’s March already! This is the month where we celebrate what Jesus did on the cross for us. I chose to call this months post “gratitude” because sometimes I think we can easily forget the magnitude of the cross and what it meant to have Jesus defeat death. As followers of Christ, we sometimes get caught up in the cycle of life; looking after the family, working but never feeling like it’s enough, making sure the kids get to school on time, wondering why the cost of groceries keep going up but your money stays the same. So many things can weigh us down, and we forget about the power of the cross! We start to complain about life being hard, how everything is bad, bad, bad! We come to church on Sunday feeling the stress of the week, singing the worship songs on auto pilot, and trying hard to listen to the message given and resonate with the words spoken. We stop living like we believe God because life is just too hard!

Well, I am here to tell you that life is hard! In fact, Jesus never said following Him would be easy. The bible tells us that there will be trials and tribulations that we must endure to the end! Even Psalms 23 tells us that we will walk through the valley of the shadow of death! What sets us apart from the rest of the world is that we don’t walk through times of danger, scarcity, and the unknown alone, for God is with us! He is the cloud by day and the fire by night, and He goes before us and follows us. Because of God’s love for us, we don’t need to fear or be weighed down with anxiety because life is hard. Our strength to endure comes from the Lord.

Sometimes, we can be guilty of thinking too much about what we don’t have, feeling like we are being punished because the desires of our hearts have not been met. We complain, and we obsess about what we feel we lack, and we forget about what we already have, the best gift of all; salvation! We complain so much that we become ungrateful. We act like spoilt kids when we don’t get our way. What saddens me is that we have become entitled when we don’t even deserve all that God has sacrificed for us! God gave us His one and only begotten son as payment for our sins. Jesus knowingly gave His life as a ransom for us. He chose to die a horrific death because He knew that was the only way we could ever have a relationship with God. God gave us the ultimate sacrifice, and here we moan when we don’t get what we want! God doesn’t have to do another thing for us! He has done enough already, but he still blesses us, even though we are ungrateful, because we serve a good God who loves us like no other!

Often, we find ourselves walking a thin line between the standards of the world and the standards of God. We live in a world opposed to the message of the Gospel, and we can sometimes get drawn into what the culture tells us we should have, instead of what God wants us to have, the two can often be very different! PSALMS 37:25 “ONCE I WAS YOUNG, AND NOW I AM OLD. YET I HAVE NEVER SEEN THE GODLY ABANDONED OR THEIR CHILDREN BEGGING FOR BREAD.” This verse has stuck in my head of late, and I think it has been a powerful reminder that I have everything I need. I haven’t been anxious about anything in particular, but I think it’s verses like this that keep me humble and thankful. They remind me of how blessed I am! There was a point where the things I didn’t have became almost like an idol in my life. One of my desires was to have my own house, the idea of living alone became the most important thing, so important that I became sad when I saw others living the life I wanted, what I thought I deserved. I almost started to think that maybe God was punishing me because my dream felt unattainable. It made me ungrateful, and I stopped noticing all the ways God was blessing me in my life, I just took everything I had for granted. Then, one day, God revealed my heart to me, and I was repentant! Every morning, I opened my eyes to see a new day, and I was grateful. Every day, my body didn’t fail me in some way. I was grateful. Every day, I never had to worry about what I was gonna eat, I was grateful. Every time I never had to stress about my bills, I was grateful. Every night I went to bed, I knew I had a roof over my head, and I was grateful. All the things that seemed so small and insignificant, I knew somewhere out there someone else was not so blessed. When I realised what I had made an idol of, only served me, I felt selfish. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying it’s bad to ask God to fulfil the desires of your heart, He pretty much tells us to ask, and we shall receive. But it becomes an issue when our hearts desires become a stumbling block for us. MATTHEW 6:33 “SEEK THE KINGDOM OF GOD ABOVE ALL ELSE, AND LIVE RIGHTEOUSLY, AND HE WILL GIVE YOU EVERYTHING YOU NEED.” Notice it say’s NEED, not want!

Since the begining of man we have been ungrateful, and it all started on that fateful day when Eve convinced her husband Adam to consume the only fruit forbidden to them, because she was conviced by the serpant that God was holding out on them, when the reality was God had given them Eden, He had given them everything! It really is in our nature to question the goodness of God, to be unsatisfied. But yet God still overlooks that part of us because of the depths of His love for us we will never comprehend! So He hatched a plan, a plan He already had in motion before the fruit was consumed by the man and woman in the garden. He knew the nature of man who He created, a flaw you may say, but it was the only way He could create us to exprience love, love that came from having the freedom to choose. So He honoured their choice to be separated from Him and banished Adam and Eve from Eden, cursing the land as punishment. From that point on, men grew evil and cold, murder tainted the land. But God watched on reaching out to those who still called on Him. Until the only God fearing man remained, and God instructed Noah to build an ark because the evilness that grew angered Him, and He saw that nobody but Noah and His family were righteous enough, so he plunged the earth back into the depths of the water He seperated it from. Starting again, the great reset.

As the land became dry and life began to spring from the ground, God made a promise with a rainbow to Noah, never to flood the earth again. As man once again populated the earth, so did evil. But God still remained faithful to those who were faithful to him, His chosen people Israel. But even Israel would fall into temptation time and time again, so God would choose people and raise them up to prophesy on His behalf. But still, Israel were hard headed and refused to listen. Then He sent them the law through Moses, a law that was meant to show them their sin, a law that they could never follow because of their nature, a law that was meant to bring them to repentance, but never did. All this setting the stage for His plan to save us from our sin, the plan from the beginning. Then, one day, a child was born, a virgin birth, concieved by the Spirit of God. Gods plan wrapped in flesh, His promise now a reality. The child named Jesus full of wisdom grew into a man, and this man filled with the Holy Spirit preached a message of repentence. He called on all who knew they were sinners, and He taught them about the Kingdom of God, about faith, hope, and love. He healed the sick, raised the dead, and freed the demon possessed. He was God incarnate. Come down from His mighty thrown to be a lowly servant to an ungrateful nation. He was the plan from the very beginning. He knew we would never be able to make ourselves right. We failed every test given, and we could never pay what was owed. So He chose to pay our debt for us. Jesus drank the cup that was given, and He gave His life on the cross, beaten, humiliated, disgraced, nailed to the wood born of a tree, a reminder of a tree that once produced fruit forbidden to man.

But death was not the end, Jesus defeated death, and on the third day, the tomb He was buried in was now empty! Jesus is alive! Sending out His disciples to spread the good news to all nations, He left us with the gift of the Holy Spirit in His absence, promising to return for His final judgement. Now that He paid our debt, we all recieve the free gift of God’s grace, and all we have to do is repent and accept Jesus Christ into our hearts as Lord and saviour, believing in the finished work of the cross. This is what reconciles us back to our father in heaven, and that is all He ever wanted, not to have us separated from Him. It’s the greatest love story ever told! And because I accepted Jesus, I get to be a part of that love story. Eternal life is something that I find hard to fathom, but it is mine, and it is worth more than gold! Salvation means we are being saved from something and that something is judgement, the wrath of God when Jesus returns. God never breaks a promise, so rest assured, judgement will come. The question is, where will you find yourself?

PHILIPPIANS 2:10-11 “SO THAT AT THE NAME OF JESUS EVERY KNEE WILL BOW- IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH AND UNDER THE EARTH- AND EVERY TONGUE WILL CONFESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, TO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER.”

So this is a friendly reminder that God has given you everything, He has given you Jesus! He has given you everything you need, and your treasures await you in heaven. So keep your eyes focused on things from above. Everything else is just noise. Tune it out. It will give you contentment when you have abundance and contentment when you lack. Be grateful because you are saved! And that is more important than anything on this earth. God bless you all, and Happy Ressurection Sunday.

THE CULTURE VS THE WORD.

Is it still acceptable to say Happy New Year? 2024 is only nine days old, and it has gotten off to a wild start in terms of the Church and what I have been seeing in the media. God is definitely not playing with His Church! Jesus is coming for His bride, and He requires her to be spotless! As saddening as it has been to see leaders fall off, in one way, I’m happy because I want false teachers to be exposed and their minsitries to be put to an end. I’m sad because the number of people whose faith will be scattered because of these accusations. It reminds me of the parable that Jesus gives in Matthew, about how the servants eager to pull up weeds, were warned that in doing so would result in rooting out the wheat as well, and because of this they should let them grow together until the harvest.

Now, we see churches with no reverence for God, treating places of worship like the club. It is getting out of hand, and honestly, I am upset! Instead of the pursuit to please God, it has now turned into the pursuit to please the culture. I hate the word “culture” because, to me, it means the world. The culture will be the death of you! The culture tells you that God’s way is wrong, the culture tells you to live by your flesh! So, in order to please the culture, now, we have to change the Word of God to fit the way of the culture. Now, we say the Word of God is outdated, and we have to speak in the way of culture so that we can draw the culture in. Remember, we live in an inclusive world, so not only are we changing the standards of God to fit the culture, we are affirming what God says is sin to be inclusive of the culture. Now, the Church looks just like the world. Again, I say the culture will be the death of you!

JAMES 4:4-5 “YOU ADULTERERS! DON’T YOU REALIZE THAT FRIENDSHIP WITH THE WORLD MAKES YOU AN ENEMY OF GOD? I SAY IT AGAIN: IF YOU WANT TO BE A FRIEND OF THE WORLD, YOU MAKE YOURSELF AN ENEMY OF GOD. DO YOU THINK THE SCRIPTURES HAVE NO MEANING? THEY SAY THAT GOD IS PASSIONATE THAT THE SPIRIT HE HAS PLACED WITHIN US SHOULD BE FAITHFUL TO HIM.”

God is so clear in His Word, and the fact that people twist it to fit their evil desires makes me sick. We are in the time when people have itching ears, and instead of humbling themselves before God, they instead search for “teachers” who speak to the desires of their flesh. There is no fear of God. Instead, they fear the loss of popularity or the riches that aligning with the culture brings. They sing praises with their lips, but their hearts are far from God! Because we live in a world that esteems man higher than God, this mindset trickles into our churches, and now these leaders have gone from being the mouth peice of God to God themselves! Now, bibles remain unopened, and people carry it as a prop to Church, and instead, whatever is preached at the front of the Church becomes the Word of God. Without the knowledge of God’s Word, we perish! The bible talks about a great falling away, and it’s honestly not hard to see! With people deconstructing every week (it seems), it is clear that the heart issue behind it all is evil. People no longer want to be Holy. They no longer want to be righteous. They just want to be happy and do what feels good! The bible warns us of our evil hearts and how our desires can not be trusted. But because the people don’t open their bibles, they think God is leading them and can no longer discern the voice of God. They say, loosen up, don’t be so serious, stop being a judgemental Christian! Well, I say judgement starts in the house of the Lord! We are called to give righteous judgement. Yes, there are ways to do it, but we must do it all the same.

God tells us to live decent lives for all to see because we belong to the day, He also tells us to not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness but rather expose them! So why participate in things that look evil? All to draw people to your church? How about we draw people to Jesus? What we have to do to get people into our churches is what we will have to continue to do to keep them! If Jesus is not what is pulling people into your church, He definitely won’t keep them! So you can’t boast about your numbers of Church antendees if Jesus is not even invited to the meetings!

God set us apart for a reason! We are the salt of the earth, the light of the world! We are different! Why would you want to look like the world? People of the world should look at Christians and see Jesus. If we look like the world, we have now lost our taste, and as the Word says, if salt loses it’s taste it is useless. The time of persecution draws near, and the real chosen ones of God will be left standing! The culture will ask us to choose. We can’t serve two masters. Some people think they can have the culture and have God, but we serve a jealous God who wants an exclusive relationship with us. MATTHEW 6:24-26 “NO ONE CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS, FOR EITHER HE WILL HATE THE ONE AND LOVE THE OTHER, OR HE WILL BE DEVOTED TO THE ONE AND DESPISE THE OTHER. YOU CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MONEY.”

If you are a part of a church that looks to the culture instead of Jesus, run for your life! Your very soul depends on it! If the message preached at your church doesn’t direct you to Jesus, run for your life! It’s time to find a new church. God left us His word for correction, for instruction, to teach us, and to equip us to do every good work. It’s not an outdated book that needs a refresh to make it applicable for 2024. It is truth, and it is unchanging like the mighty God we serve! 2 TIMOTHY 3:16-17 “ALL SCRIPTURE IS INSPIRED BY GOD AND IS USEFUL TO TEACH US WHAT IS TRUE AND TO MAKE US REALIZE WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR LIVES. IT CORRECTS US WHEN WE ARE WRONG AND TEACHES US TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT. GOD USES IT TO PREPARE AND EQUIP HIS PEOPLE TO DO EVERY GOOD WORK.”

I’m very passionate about the Word of God if you can’t tell. My fear, when I became a Christian, was being led astray. I believe the Holy Spirit revealed the need to know the Word when I became a believer, so I immersed myself in the Word, and because of the renewing of the mind, my faith became unshakeable! I was all in as soon as I accepted Jesus into my life, and I have never regretted that decision. The enemy has never been able to lure me away. With new years, come new year resolutions. I decided not to do any, I just want to be open to whatever God has for me this year. But a suggestion to you reading this little blog is to open up that bible collecting dust that every year you keep promising to read more. If you are a believer and you read your bible regularly, may God continue to burn that fire within and keep you hungry for His Word! If you are unsure of what you believe, and you stumbled onto this post by God’s divine appointment, this is your calling to go and read one. I know you see what is going on in the world, I know you have questions, I know things don’t make sense. Trust and believe what will make sense is the God breathed words written in that ancient book that people have told you is irrelevant!

I don’t know where 2024 is going to lead us, but wherever it leads us, stay true to God and know that He will keep us safe and hide us from whatever scheme the enemy has for us. Stay prayerful because I believe this year will require it more than ever. Let’s await with eager anticipation for all that Jesus has for us this year. We got work to do!

1 THESSALONIANS 5:19-23 “DO NOT STIFLE THE HOLY SPIRIT. DO NOT SCOFF AT PROPHECIES, BUT TEST EVERYTHING THAT IS SAID. HOLD ON TO WHAT IS GOOD. STAY AWAY FROM EVERY KIND OF EVIL. NOW MAY THE GOD OF PEACE MAKE YOU HOLY IN EVERY WAY, AND MAY YOUR WHOLE SPIRIT AND SOUL AND BODY BE KEPT BLAMELESS UNTIL OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST COMES AGAIN.” Amen.

BE GOOD SOIL.

We made it to the end of the year! And what a year it’s been. I hope 2023 has been good to you. As we approach the last weeks of the year, it got me thinking about growth and the kind of Christian I want to be, going into 2024. I think it’s something we should always be asking ourselves! The bible tells us that we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling. To me, that means I need to constantly check myself and my faith because faith without works is dead. We have to become doers of the Word, not just hearers! When we first hear the good news of Jesus, we all experience something that seems to take root in us, a hope that we never knew before. Initially, we feel this change that takes place, and we desire to be the person that we were created to be. But what happens after the Word is planted within us? Do we just go back to life as we know it? Do we let the world continue to consume us?

The bible says that if we love God, we must obey his commandments. Obedience is very important in our relationship with God. Our relationship with God is much more than just turning up to church on a Sunday. We can’t treat God casually and think that our relationship with Him will grow with minimal effort on our part. The closer we draw to Him is, the closer He will draw to us. Honestly, it’s the same with any relationship we have. What we put in is what we get back. If we don’t tend to the people in our lives, our relatonships with them would never grow deep. So why do we struggle to tend to our relationship with God like we do with our friends or our partners? The parable of the sower has been on my mind of recent. I think I have firsthand seen different examples of this parable this year, and it really resonated with me. It can be so easy for the enemy to come in and snatch away God’s Word, for many are called, but few are chosen. The parable talks about four different kinds of people who hear the Word. This post, I hope, is to help you figure out what person you are! And if you are really looking to see growth in 2024, I pray that this will help you to tend to your relationship and grow closer to God!

MATTHEW 13:3-4 HE TOLD MANY STORIES IN THE FORM OF PARABLES SUCH AS THIS ONE: “LISTEN! A FARMER WENT OUT TO PLANT SOME SEEDS. AS HE SCATTERED THEM ACROSS HIS FIELD, SOME SEEDS FELL ON A FOOTPATH, AND THE BIRDS CAME AND ATE THEM.” The first person who hears the Word is like a footpath. The Word can not take root because there is no soil. This means that this person lacks understanding when they hear the message of the Kingdom of God. Because of this, the evil one comes and snatches away the Word from that person.

MATTHEW 13:5-6 “OTHER SEEDS FELL ON SHALLOW SOIL WITH UNDERLYING ROCK. THE SEEDS SPROUTED QUICKLY BECAUSE THE SOIL WAS SHALLOW. BUT THE PLANTS SOON WILTED UNDER THE HOT SUN, AND SINCE THEY DIDN’T HAVE DEEP ROOTS, THEY DIED.” The second person who hears the Word is like shallow soil. This person immediately recieves the Word with joy and for a short time will seem like there is potential for growth in their walk with God, but because they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for being believers.

MATTHEW 13:7 “OTHER SEEDS FELL AMONG THORNS THAT GREW UP AND CHOKED OUT THE TENDER PLANTS.” The third person who hears the Word is like a bed of thorns. This person hears the Word, but very quickly, the message is crowed out by the worries of this life and lure of wealth, the wanting of everything under the sun. Because of this, the Word is unfruitful.

MATTHEW 13:8 “STILL OTHER SEEDS FELL ON FERTILE SOIL, AND THEY PRODUCED A CROP THAT WAS THIRTY, SIXTY, AND EVEN A HUNDRED TIMES AS MUCH AS HAD BEEN PLANTED!” The fourth person who hears the Word is like good soil. This person hears the Word and understands it. The Word becomes deep rooted within them, and they bear the fruit that produces a harvest that is beyond their wildest dreams.

Now we have gone through the different kinds of people who receive the message of the Kingdom, which one are you?

I can not stress how important it is to tend to your “Garden”, make sure you are good soil. Make sure there is nothing that is gonna uproot what has been planted. Being a believer makes you fruitful. There is an expectation for growth to see a harvest! We can not be believers who are unfruitful. The message of Jesus is meant to change us from the inside out. The Word of God renews our minds. It causes us to want to live a Holy and righteous life, it changes our hearts and our desires. When we are truly changed, we work for God’s kingdom, not because we have to; because our works don’t save us, but because it is a result of our faith, our faith produces good works.

This world is a trap. It promises us so much but really has nothing to offer us. The bible promises us that if we seek the kingdom first, everything else will be added to us. More than our minds could ever comprehend. Knowing that God doesn’t lie, we can trust that His Word is true, He will do what He says!

Put God first in 2024. I promise you that you won’t regret it. Get rid of whoever, or whatever, is holding you back from drawing closer to Him. Think about the things that have happened in your life since first hearing the Word. The fire that was set a blaze when you first discovered who God was and what that truly meant to you. Now, see all the birds that have been devouring your seeds. Whether it’s dressed up as a new job opportunity, or a new relationship, something that on the surface can seem like a God send, is usually a distraction from the enemy to take up more time, the time you planned to use to initially spend time with God in your secret place or to attend that bible study you promised yourself. I promise you, God wouldn’t bring something into your life that takes you away from Him. MATTHEW 6:24 “NO ONE CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS. EITHER YOU WILL HATE ONE AND LOVE THE OTHER, OR YOU WILL BE DEVOTED TO THE ONE AND DESPISE THE OTHER. YOU CANNOT SERVE BOTH GOD AND MONEY.” This world is always pushing us to want more, to see the having of things as what makes us worthy. But the more we have is, the more we desire. It’s this endless cycle and pursuit of happiness that causes us to turn away from our creator. But remember, all these things we chase are temporary, but what God offers us is eternal!

As we prepare for the obligatory New years resolution, I encourage you to add God to your list. God has a plan for all of us. Some of us are walking in His plan already, and the fruit is plentiful. God bless you if you are good soil! May your crops continue to multiply. If you recognise that your soil needs some help, then seek out the farmer, seek out God, and ask for His help! Spend time with Him in His Word, He will water you. Ask your community of believers for help and advice. Make a conscious effort to remove a distraction and replace it with God. Create the habits that draw you close, and He will draw close to you!

Thank you for reading and journeying with me this year. I pray that this blog has blessed you as much as writing it has blessed me. May the good Lord continue to bless you, and may you always remain hungry for Him! As we prepare for the festivities of Christmas, let’s never forget the reason for the season, JESUS! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2024.