Tag: christianity

Occupy till I come

Emmanuel Ebinyu3 Comments

Someday, you will read your Bible as you always mundanely do. It could be sunny outside or even murky; it does not matter. But that day, your heart will burn as you eat away the words of life. Then, as you go through the pages of scripture, something of an epiphany will happen. Like the sight of a red-dressed damsel across the street, your attention will be drawn to one particular utterance in scripture, like a beckoning of eternity, a call familiar to the sons of the kingdom. Just like Father Abraham had when he was still in Ur of the Chaldea’s (Genesis 12:1). That scripture will sink into your subconscious, resonating into the very essence of your being, as though it is your life’s purpose to give it expression. Then for a moment, as though Einstein’s inertial frames of reference all stopped at once, as though the scripture is the manifestation of a man, in whom your true essence lies and your predestined inheritance resides, the evidence of things unseen will find a place in your heart. Then perhaps John 1:14 will start to make sense, or perhaps you have not come to think of the Word putting on flesh yet.

Perhaps, lightly, you will dismiss the motion in your heart first. Then, you will read the scripture again, marking it in your Bible and proceeding to note it down in your notebook. It could be that you may go about your daily business, but a reverberation of that scripture will linger in your heart and mind. The phrases and lines of that scripture will pop up in your mind like a man being troubled by digestive heartburn. As I have come to find out, the Lord God has made provisions in His grace that as men seek Him, he may be found of them.

Isaiah 55:6
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.

If there was a single-entry verse into the mystery of God revealing himself to men in the Bible, then I yet have much work to do in understanding. For it is revealed that we are the members of one body (Romans 12:4), but we have different offices (which, being interpreted, means a doing, a mode of acting, a deal, a transaction, a thing to be done, a business). Therefore, every man will experience the same Spirit, submit themselves to the same Lord, and find the same God. But our transactions will differ, each according to the grace given (Ephesians 4:7), according to the measure of Christ.

In any case, the revelation of God is not for sport, that we may brag amongst colleagues or accrue mental acuities, but for the profit of the body and the exaltation of the Kingdom of God. “For whom much is given, much is expected (Luke 12:48)” remains a pillar of stewardship in all arenas of human endeavour, even so in the Kingdom of God.

Luke 19:12-13
And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.

In one of those sermons of the Lord, he made a statement that I have grown to endear. He said, “Occupy till I come.”
As I turn the pages of the Bible and walk about my personal life, he tells me that I have spaces – businesses, papers to author, audiences to address, souls to win, etc. – to walk into and utilise the “unrighteous mammon” to find a “home” according to Luke 16:9-11. Our entry into places of our occupation will always come by natural, worldly orderings. Perhaps it is a job, an assignment, a friendship, or a relationship. The Lord expects that we occupy. And as the proverbial “Trojan Horse”, the Lord will come to occupy that space if we stand strong in the grace that He gives.

Hebrews 10:37
For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

As sons of God, we have been given the Spirit of God and an assurance to cry to him, “Abba Father”. This same Spirit has been given to us, that we may have the earnest of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 5:5, Romans 8:23) in bringing forth salvation to creation. We possess a Kingdom mindset to occupy, that in there we may “groan, agitate, cry, workout, influence, possess” and that by us God may have a victory upon the earth.

For the Lord will show us the path of life; He will call us to deliver talents, businesses, and “pounds” into our stewardship, and it will be required of us to be found faithful (1 Corinthians 4:1-2).

As for me, the statement “Occupy till I come” became that lingering phrase by which I saw the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:8). I pray that today God will be found of you and that you will embrace his calling to occupy till he comes.

The journey of faith

Vivian Martha3 Comments

What I’ve learnt about faith over the years is that it sometimes portrays you as a liar or a fool who is denying reality. There are times where it feels like you are lying to yourself and to the world. We often say, “I want God to speak”, but, in my experience, when God speaks, the things he says are so far removed from the reality that you are living in. It’s understandable that people constantly ask themselves, “Did I hear correctly?”

How does this even make sense? Or, as we say these days, “make it make sense”. How do you get your mind to perceive the mysteries God is revealing? How do you explain to people the things that God is telling you? As one of our gospel artists, Bugembe, sang years ago, “Ebintu bye olumu bibuzabuza”. For those who don’t understand Luganda, the translation is “His things are sometimes confusing”.

I do not even know why I am surprised because, in describing faith, Jesus taught that even if it is as small as a mustard seed (arguably the smallest seed in the world), you can tell a mountain to move, and it can move and throw itself in the sea (Matthew 17:20). A mountain is something that doesn’t move, so why would Jesus use such an analogy? This illustrates that there are many aspects of faith that defy explanation.

I have seen in life that God can speak to a nation or a church, but many times he speaks to you alone, even in a sea of people. This is what makes it the hardest. If I’m in a church, why doesn’t God simply instruct the pastor to share the message with everyone present? Instead, he speaks to a heart. And now you have to explain to others what you have personally heard and interestingly, there is no way to verify what you are saying! When Saul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, the men accompanying him heard a voice but did not see because he revealed himself to Saul alone! Saul had to explain to the men who were with him that he had met Jesus, the one he was persecuting (Acts 9:1-9).

I think of Joseph. How could Joseph, in prison, explain to his fellow inmates that he once had a dream in which the sun and moon were bowing to him? Or even assert that he believed that dream – when he found himself, a slave serving an indefinite prison sentence (Genesis 39)? I think of David, whom Samuel anointed to be king but Israel already had a king and princes who were ready to take the throne. No wonder Samuel was afraid to go. And remember, David did not even have the stature of a king. His family limited his potential to only caring for sheep (1 Samuel 16).

I think of Mary telling Joseph she was expecting a child, but she was still a virgin! If she were in today’s generation, she would justify the statement “fear women”. How would she explain that she, out of all women, would give birth to Jesus? Shouldn’t Jesus have chosen a wealthier, more educated, or influential family? Afterall, nothing good came out of Nazareth in that time (Luke 1:26-38). And could it be that Mary, not being able to find the words to explain the happenings in her life, chose instead to keep and ponder those things in her heart (Luke 2:19)?

I think of God telling Moses to lead people out of Egypt, and yet the path he led him through ended in a sea! We expect that if he says move, there should be a path of dry land or even a mountain because they could climb that. But a body of water? I wonder what Moses was thinking when he told the people that God had sent him to deliver them, only to find themselves facing a sea (Exodus 14)! And I think of God telling Peter to cast his nets again, in the deep waters at that – and catch fish – but this man had tried all night and failed. What had changed (Luke 5:4-11)?

These and many other Bible characters demonstrate that the fathers of faith experienced moments that could have been perceived as dishonest. And I know we are not the first to face challenging situations, where everything else does not work and the only thing left is faith. David captured it well “I had fainted if I had not believed to see the goodness of God in the land of the living (Psalms 27:13)“. These witnesses remind us that faith may not always make sense, yet it remains effective. They believed God even though every time he spoke, there was nothing that seemed favorable about it. He only asked them to believe, and they heeded to him – in simple faith (Hebrews 11).

I have learnt that when God speaks, he doesn’t always provide all the details; in fact, he never does. Yet faith requires you to take him at his word. He did not tell David that it would take him more than10 years to become king, nor did he tell Joseph that he would face betrayal, slavery and prison before realizing his dream.

However, the best part about the Bible is that we know how the story ends: in one day, Joseph moved from a prisoner to a governor; he was the father of Pharaoh; Mary gave birth to the savior of the world; God split the Red Sea for Moses; and David became king. Therefore, we can confidently say “It will end in praise!” It may not make sense for us now because, as the Bible says, we see in part, and as it turns out, we always see the smallest part. God sees all, so faith in the end wins; it produces results (1 Corinthians 13:9-12).

I am discovering that the journey of faith is a challenging one; it necessitates me to step outside of my comfort zone and maintain faith even in the face of overwhelming evidence that it won’t happen. I’ve learned to cling to His word – as the surest evidence – that everything will indeed happen as he said (Hebrews 11:1, Matthew 28:6).

There are times you fail at something and God says try it again. You prayed for someone, but they didn’t heal; you preached, but people didn’t convert; you tried a job, but it didn’t work out, and God says, “Try again”. What guarantees that this time will be different when nothing has changed? The only guarantee you will get is that God can be trusted – so you put your faith in him. The just shall live by faith – is repeated 3 times in the Bible – for emphasis (Romans 1:17,Galatians 3:11,Hebrews 10:38).

Hebrews 11:1-2 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.”

God’s Promises

Vivian Martha2 Comments

Campaigning season was one of my favorite times at the university. I was always looking forward to the 2 or 3 weeks of intense campaigning. The noise, the rallies, the posters, the sweet bribes, and the occasional ice cream always made me happy. My favorite thing was listening to the candidates make their speeches and tell us about Makerere University’s problems and what they were proposing to do to fix them.

Whether it was at a campaign rally or one-on-one, I was a good listener. I attentively listened to a candidate who assured students that they would no longer be concerned about missing marks, another who addressed the safety of girls in the university. I always found it interesting when they made over-the-top claims, but they were bold and loud – almost believable. For example those who pledged to collaborate with as many alumni as possible to repair the damaged block C of Lumumba Hall. We all knew that was not happening soon but as I said they are believable in the heat of the moment.

Watching them for years helped me understand that one thing human beings love to do is make promises. Politicians, of course, make them more than anyone else because what stands between them and the coveted seat is the number of promises they make. 

I have spent many years observing men, and I am aware that many of them share this common characteristic. A man promises the woman he loves heaven on earth and promises to forsake all others. The woman, in turn, promises to submit and devote herself to him completely. When C.E.O.’s take the job, they promise to achieve the highest turnover the company has ever seen under their leadership, and the executive directors guarantee that no matter how high the target is, they will surpass it with hard work and determination. The parent promises the child that they will receive whatever they desire. And I do not want to get started with the businessmen and the promises they make to get us to buy from them instead of their competitors.

Some of these people make these promises with the intention of fulfilling them; they come from a good heart. Others, fully aware that they will never deliver on their promises, do so because they know it’s what their audience wants to hear. Whatever the case, many times people do not deliver on the promises they have made. As certain as it is that humans make promises, it is also certain that most promises unfortunately go unfulfilled. Sometimes it is beyond our human capacity to fulfil the promise, and no matter how hard someone tries, it is not enough. 

People often carry broken hearts and feel disappointed when someone they trusted to keep a promise fails to do so. As a result, people have learned to safeguard their hearts by not trusting those who make promises and rightly so; after all many in the past have made promises but failed to fulfil them.

Regrettably, the disappointment and frustration we have experienced with people affects our view of God. Somehow, we think that even God will disappoint us and fail to fulfil his promises. Maybe God will be like most of our politicians: excite us for a season, especially when we are in church, and then, in the end, not deliver. Many of us will not openly admit it maybe for fear of being judged as a faithless Christian but if we did open heart surgeries to see what is in the hearts of men, we would find the struggle men have and the question “Can God be trusted to keep his promises?” lingering somewhere.

So I started to search scripture looking for what it had to say about promises. It had quite alot to say; I will share a few of those verses. I read some verses from Joshua. Joshua 21:45 tells us, “Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; everyone was fulfilled”. Joshua 23:14 asserts this further, “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed”.

Joshua was about to die when he spoke these words to his people. They say to pay attention to the last words of a dying man. It was important to remind the Israelites of the nature of God; he is a promise-keeping God. Twice, Joshua tells the people that none of the promises God made failed to come to pass. Every promise he made, he fulfilled. This is God’s nature, and no one should be more sure of this than the children of God.

The best part is that Joshua testified that he fulfilled all, not just some, of his promises. Sometimes we ask God that “kale at least do ko for me this one”. You want at least one thing in your life to be working. But if he is God, he will not stop at one, but at everything that he promised. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). If he kept his promises to the Israelites, surely he has not changed, therefore we have this confidence that he will do the same for us.

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation” – Simeon attested in Luke 2:28–29. We do not know when this promise was given to Simeon but he patiently waited on God for it to come to pass. One day, stirred by the Spirit of God, he went to the temple and saw Jesus. God kept his promise to this old man. Simeon testified the same thing as Joshua had testified many years ago; God keeps his promises. Judith Babirye put it well in her song “Mukama Talimba”.

God isn’t in the business of breaking hearts; he’s in the business of mending them. Many things limit men, but they do not limit God. He reassures us of this in Matthew 19:26 –  Jesus looked at them and said, “With man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible”. He can fulfil all his promises. Therefore, it is up to us to search the Bible to see everything he has promised and believe him to fulfil it.

Even when life looks like it is so far from what God promised, the apostle Paul taught us something important in  2 Corinthians 4:18 – So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. God’s promises for us are eternal and everlasting, from generation to generation. One thing I have learnt in my Christian journey is that no matter what happens and no matter how long it takes, in the end God will keep his promises to us.

Dear young man…

Emmanuel Ebinyu1 Comment

Proverbs 20:29
The glory of young men is their strength, and the splendour of old men is their grey head.

Youth is beautiful – a time of strength, beauty, opportunity, and unending potential. However, many young people are simple-minded (Proverbs 1:4) and take occasion to indulge in expeditions that bear a cost far too great to bargain for, and soon they pay with the price of their souls (Matthew 16:26). It is an old English saying that reminds us that there is always payment for the piper.

Youth will simply take the path of adventure, wherein their strength and beauty are appreciated and they are given a place to try out many things. This is why they are always at the forefront of revolutions, innovations, “daredevil” adventures, and all manner of firebrand causes.

In Genesis, we see a man whose strength brought him trouble. Driven by lust, Reuben climbed into his father Jacob’s bed and slept with one of his father’s concubines (Genesis 35:22), an act that brought him trouble and the loss of his place as the firstborn, (the firstborn always took the double portion according to Deuteronomy 21:17), to Joseph (later Ephraim), and eventually to Judah (Psalms 78:67–68) in the blessing of Jacob upon his sons (Genesis 49).

Genesis 49:3-4
3 “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.
4 Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father’s bed; Then you defiled it – He went up to my couch.

In the examination of Reuben, who at the time of his error was a youth, we observe that strength is not always an advantage, for even the “battle is not to the strong” (Ecclesiastes 9:11).

Youth ministry, therefore, is a special place in the body of Christ, a time to build godly foundations for the young who will not depart from those ways when they grow old, because cycles of nature that result in age and physical growth are inevitable under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:4–7). A young man, above all, desires the instruction of his father, according to the book of Proverbs.

Proverbs 3:1-2
1My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands; 2 For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you.

In life, there is such a thing as a good foundation. The Lord Jesus teaches us in Matthew 7:24–27 about the two kinds of foundations: solid rock, which provides assurance when the vagaries of life eventually come around (and believe me, they do); and sand, which is the way to a quick fix and will fail in the evil day.

Initially in my journey of discipleship, I thought that as a young man, I needed the things that would entertain me, or even excite and appeal to the standard of the time. I hoped that Church would find a way to always throw one or two updates in their programme to accommodate my energy and the trends of the season that many may be drawn to. But this is the equivalent of asking God to “be flexible” in his commandment and law because a “new breed” is on the scene. It was when I read some scriptures that I invalidated my own views.

Jeremiah 6:16
16 Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

Job 8:8-10
8 “For inquire, please, of the former age, And consider the things discovered by their fathers; 9 For we were born yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow. 10 Will they not teach you and tell you, and utter words from their heart?

The old paths. The former age. The things discovered by the fathers. These things resounded deep in my heart and soul.

My professor has a saying, “A brilliant flash overview,” to refer to one who has finally come to knowledge already matured in the field. I believe that many young people, when met with their moments of a “brilliant flash overview,” assume that it is a new thing peculiar to their generation, though there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9–10), and would not believe that those gone ahead of them have passed through the same stages, albeit successfully, to lead good and fulfilled lives. This is why instruction is important for a young person. They need it more than food (Job 23:12).

Proverbs 2:10-12,16
10 When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, 11 Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you, 12 To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things….16 To deliver you from the immoral woman, From the seductress who flatters with her words.

When I first read the story of Reuben, I was saddened to know a man could lose his place because of the consequences of his error. But the Lord is gracious and merciful; when we repent and return to his ways, he will restore us. And I was delighted to read Deuteronomy 33:6, when Moses, in his kingly anointing over Israel, declared upon Reuben a blessing.

Deuteronomy 33:4-6
4 Moses commanded a law for us, A heritage of the congregation of Jacob. 5 And He was King in Jeshurun, When the leaders of the people were gathered, All the tribes of Israel together.
6 “Let Reuben live, and not die, Nor let his men be few.”

Wisdom inspired by God in scripture (2 Timothy 3:16) that provides knowledge, counsel, good judgement, discretion; and the Holy Spirit, who guides men in their walk, are important aspects that we must emphasise to the youth because soon they will have to ‘put away childhood and youth’ (Ecclesiastes 11:10). Like I once heard from a great man in a sermon, “Young people must be filled with the Word and Spirit of God, not festivities.”

Shalom