Category: Gospel

Teach me the Gospel everyday

Lord forbid that I should lose the wonder of the Gospel
To see a sinner so wretched forgiven and loved so dearly
A self righteous man made aware of his filthy rags
Teach me this Gospel everyday for I forget it daily

When the Word falls from my heart
The comfort of this globe sets in so quickly
When my eyes forget to look to you daily
My ears are drawn to the noise around me easily

When daily devotion is not my normal habit
The old man of sin sanitized in Christian activity takes control
I become a very sick sinner who looks okay
I say the right words but murmur inside

Forbid that in the frontline of ministry I should forget what I need
That I should teach others the Gospel but forget my need of it
Help me to kill the man of sin, the proud man within
Give me the humility to see my great need of you daily

Teach me the wretchedness of sin even of my little sins
Give me the gratitude of the Gospel to stand amazed daily
Forbid that I should make my good works my hope
Give me the assurance of the blood that paid fully my debt

Take back this life you gave and conform it to my saviour
Though my will and desire fight you yet I know your will is best
Teach me to kill sin daily and to abound in your good works
Forbid that the comfort of this life would rob me the joy of service

Teach me the Gospel everyday for I need it like the first day
Remind me daily of my great sin even as I grow older in salvation
Forbid that a day will come to think I’ve graduated from this need
Peg my heart to your Word to see my great Saviour everyday

Knowing the Man Inside

There’s nothing more beautiful than truly knowing yourself

Knowing the person who rents the house within

The world can see his abilities and potential

But knowing his weakness and flaws is powerful

Yes you may hide them and pretend but you need to know

I say you’re never more alive, never free to live

Never breathing than when you know the man inside

When I lived in the pretense of my goodness

In the slavery of my self-righteousness

And the idolatry of my potential and ability

I thought highly of myself but was always guilty of something

I enjoyed when my ego was caressed

But was in tears whenever I went unrecognized

I thought I was free but that was another lie I told myself

I thought I was good and mostly better than most

I thought people were privileged to know me and be around me

What a once in a generation kind of man I thought myself

Then in my bed at night I tossed when I did something bad

I had lied to myself and thought of me righteous and beyond failure

Oh, the agony of keeping up with my own set expectations!

I was a slave handcuffed by my own hands in my own dungeon

But every morning I woke up and went back to my lies

I thought today I’ll do better than yesterday

I’m able to do far much more than people think

My slave heart told me I’ve such power within me

And so I went on trying to prove my goodness

I walked around my own dungeon and thought myself free

Someone complimented me and I thought yes that’s me

I was wounded by those who saw my flaws

I tried to argue out why that wasn’t actually me

I worked hard to show them to be wrong about me

The slave within me didn’t want to accept the obvious

It was a hopeless situation that none could save me from

I was lying to others about me and to myself

But one day the truth hit me like a quick bullet

I was introduced for the first time to the true man inside

I saw him as he was with his abilities yes

But for the first time, I saw his deep wretchedness

The man I tried to defend was rotten and dying

He needed someone to heal his wounds

He needed a Saviour not a lawyer to defend him

I’ve honestly never been more liberated

My eureka moment happened when the Gospel lit inside

When I truly understood its claim that I’m a sinner

I couldn’t truly comprehend salvation before

Because I didn’t truly think myself to be deeply sinful

Yes I knew I wasn’t perfect but always thought myself better

The Gospel told me who I really was

And I was liberated for the first time from my own shackles

These days I don’t think too highly about this man

If people happen to notice my weakness I’m not surprised

Not that I no longer care about my reputation but I know this guy

I have nothing of my own apart from that which I was given

Everything I am and own and claim as mine isn’t mine

It’s the Lord’s who gave me when he saved me from my shackles

When he made this son his own son by the blood of his Son.

When men are blind to the obvious!

I’m always amazed how easily we can miss things that are right infront of us. When something is so obvious to everyone else except us. Later on you hear friends say they can’t believe you didn’t see that. It was so obvious, how could you not see it. Many times we miss details about ourselves and it takes someone else to show us what should be plain to us. How is that possible? Are we just bad at reading ourselves and situations around us? Is there something wrong with our eyes.

I want to suggest there’s something else at play here, that the eyes of our hearts dictate what we see and sometimes undermine what should be plain to all. That we tend to see what our minds tells us and our hearts can blind us to the reality infront of us. Our eyes zoom on what our heart dictates and we miss what we don’t want to see. It’s no suprise that two people looking at the same situation can come out with different and sometimes contradicting interpretations. So if you go through life informed only by the desires of your heart you’ll be as blind as a bat. You’ll only see what your heart craves and undermine what challenges your lifestyle.

When it comes to the question of faith this is what we forget. That it’s really not a just question of evidence infront of us. It’s more a problem of the eyes within, it’s the inner man that calls the shots here. A man born blind and the one who enjoys the light of day are no different in this. They are both slaves to their heart desires until the strong light of the Gospel shines through. You listen to them argue vehemently like passionate intelligent men but it’s just the heart fighting to keep the status quo. They don’t want to change and therefore they aim at anyone and anything that challeges this. You see if the question of faith was merely a matter of evidence no one who’s ever looked at the sun would be a non believer.

Paul speaking to the Romans says creation testifies loudly about the creator. The morning breeze whispers his breath. The high mountains scream of his power. And from the lips of children comes his praise. Our eyes and ears testify against us because we see and hear the testimony of our maker every second we breath. And yet we remain so blind to not only ignore him but undermine this testimony. We overturn every pointer to him and live like it wasn’t there to our condemnation. The Bible says:

19 …what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Romans 1 NIV

The desires of our hearts overcome our eyes and we declare God has no say in our sphere. Our hearts wage war against his plain testimony. We see the wonder of creation but nothing about the creator. We feel the breeze but our conscience stops at the mere enjoyment. We enjoy the masterpiece of creation but either stop at that or go as far as saying it’s all an accident. Our eyes stop where our hearts decree and it doesn’t matter what reality dictates. It sounds outrageous but when you realise it’s the heart that sees it makes a lot of sense.

So we ask, is there a way out? We surely don’t want to go through life unaware of what should be obvious to us do we? I mean how can we call ourselves men of science and technology when we can’t trust our own eyes? How can we claim to be in control of our lives when we miss what should be obvious to us? And what’s to protect us from danger if we won’t even see it coming? And if the Bible is right, danger coming like a thief in the night. We might be meeting our maker tonight with nothing to defend us from his just wrath.

But the Bible says there’s a way out through the Gospel. And what I love about the Gospel is that the same God before whom we stand condemned, the one we’ve been denying and undermining all these years is the same that rescues us. There’s a way out if we’ll stop ignoring what God says and hiding our heads in the sand. It’ll start with confronting the eyes of our heart with the truth of the Gospel. For once we need to come out of hiding, to stop the blame game and be men enough to accept our guilt so we can seek his salvation. We need to be saved from the lies of our hearts so we can see life and this world plainly from the eyes of God as his Word shows us.

Many have come before us and left blinded by the eyes of their heart. Hell is full of people who cannot raise a finger against God that he didn’t make himself known. Sure we don’t get to see everything perfectly not but from his viewpoint we’ll see everything as we should. Don’t wait until it’s too late to see what should be plain to all. Don’t wait for fate to tell you how could you not see what was so obvious. Don’t be like the Pharisees who saw Jesus and his works but refused to see the truth that pointed to him as the Saviour they were waiting for. Come to him today for the salvation that only he can give. To receive new sight and a new identity.

11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

JOHN 1 NIV

The Gospel for a Hustler Nation

One of the fears we have as a people is to imagine that either our leaders don’t know our situation or they simply don’t care. It’s double tragedy to imagine they’d careless about our fate and instead only favour their peers. It’s painful, it makes us angry knowing we put them there but hopeless when we realize we can’t change things.

So when one finally walks down our path and says I know what you are facing that in itself is great news. It says they see our plight and all they need is to show they are genuine. To make us believe the era of the Messiah has come with them. That with them in office our pain will be a sad history. That finally something will change and however big or small a change we all want it.

To know we are known and someone cares is the greatest asset for a human heart. To know our leaders knows our plight and will do something about it sells us hope and what’s more precious than hope? But critics will ask, how many times have we had this narrative before? And what makes us think this time it will be any different? Was there a politician who didn’t seem to share our plight and promise change?

Now here is where things get tricky. You see a good portion of us will lean on hope no matter what history says. It’s the last coin in our pockets and we have to treasure it. If we lose it we’d have to kill ourselves. The instict of survival in us holds on to hope when everything else fails. And if the other side isn’t selling a better deal to us then we have no other choice.

Unfortunately if we looked back we’d know better and that more blown out promises have been made by many politicians before. That a man who wants an office and desperately so will say anything our ears want to hear. A man who wants a girl has no problem going down their knee. And our history is full of the promises of politicians both those in government and in opposition.

I’m not trying to use this post to discredit a certain party or favour another candidate. I don’t want to make us feel hopeless if anything I hold to hope like there’s nothing better. But I would always say be suspicious of politicians because in truth all of them actually do know our plight. Don’t be deceived they don’t know what’s happening perhaps they may not be as invested but they all know. They’ve got foot soldiers on the ground and honestly it doesn’t take a genius to know our suffering. You just need to turn on the news. The question is how genuine is their proposal?

Unfortunately I don’t trust the ruling class or even the opposition blindly because I wouldn’t trust any man blindly not even myself. I want to look back and see consistency of care and concern. I want to see there’s some shred of honesty in a manifesto not merely inflated promises. Sometimes I think going against the grain and playing the long game instead of blindly replacing the status quo might be the key to change.

But there’s always a risk in politics that any one leader however well measured will ultimately fail us. Power has a way to blind and change people and man is not that trustworthy either. In the end we need more than someone who seems to identify with us and appears genuine. We need someone without the disease of all men that in the end cares for their own welfare. Here’s where democracy fails us because we need more than one of us for a better leader.

It’s the one who came down to face our plight with us that can truly say they know us. But it’s the one who is unlike us in our selfishness who can actually help us. One who sees our plight, puts down his pride and washes our feet. We need one like us but better than us. One who sympathises with our weaknesses but can truly help us. One who’s proved genuine and trustworthy.

Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll find him in the next election but it means our future is guaranteed either way. It means we can still lean on hope though our choices down here are likely to fail us. We have true hope in him not in the lies from every election year. In him there’s no risk of corrupting power. We have hope in one who walked the earth and rose to rule in the heavens. One who truly saw and acted for the plight of the oppressed and is concerned with the least of us. We have Jesus who is God and man, a leader we can truly trust in. He says,

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

John 10 NIV.

Song of Longing

I heard a voice walking down the planet
A tune that drew me close to listen
It felt like a cheer but also like crying
I think it was both,the echo of distant voices
Some wailed while others rejoiced greatly
It was like the noise of battle won and lost
But both camps took turn to rejoice and mourn

I turned aside and heard a beautiful voice
It resounded across the globe
It spoke of beauty, love and celebration
It preached about hope, peace and joy
But then it stopped and it burst into wailing
It cried of loss, danger and death
I couldn’t understand this place

I listened to their music and it was amazing
It told of the wonder of man and his beauty
The songs of men addressed to their daughters
They had the sweetest words of the world
But on the other side a father cursed his son
A mother was troubled by his daughters
There was sadness, rage and despair

What’s wrong with this place I wondered
One time I’m loving it then I’m dreading it
One sings of joy the other of pain
I longed that the echo of sadness would end
That for once the music of joy would last
I wanted a good song to play until the end
But every time it was interrupted by sad news

It was a longing shared across the planet
People wished for once wars would cease
That pain and suffering would end
And joy be the music of our days
But the dream was always cut short
Someone was too greedy
Someone always put themselves first

So these days I dream of another world
My eyes close and the cries cease
I’m taken to a distant land where peace prevails
I sit quietly and listen to a good song end
When all the reality of sin fades music lasts
Not a cry of a child abandoned or a people lost
I listen to the end of beauty and celebration

I long for this land and country
I dream of walking down it’s streets
To be called a citizen of the land of peace
Take me away from this corrupt nation
Give me the joy of everlasting peace
Oh! How I rejoice knowing it’ll be mine one day
I dream of a better country, I long for heaven

Sunday Morning Junkies

Many times when we criticize preaching and call out false teaching we have the preachers in mind. We think if we rid the country of false teachers our churches will be sound and our theology right. But there’s a great contibutor to false doctrine that we let go easy. We forget the supply is only available because the market demands it. Our minds don’t pause to imagine that the people on the pews are shaping the man infront as much as he purports to. We think the direction of flow is God to his servant and from pulpit to the congregation. In truth it works both ways and sometimes it’s what the preacher thinks the congregation wants that dictates the Sunday sermon. It’s the congregation to the pulpit and back without God in the picture. Paul warns of this in 2 Timothy 4:3

3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 

2 Timothy 4 NIV

People will come to the preaching hour with a craving not to hear from God necessarily but to hear what their minds desperately crave. They come with an urge not always for false hope but whatever makes their hearts skip a bit. Some want to hear mind blowing mysteries and conspiracy theories. A great service for them takes them around fantasy kingdom where they wrestle with demons and leave with secrets only they know. Others want to be blown away by the genius of the man of God. These might fool you with a love of the Word but they are mere intellectuals in a lecture hall. For some it’s another Churchill show and they want to laugh their lungs out. They want a sense of emotion, someone who gives them the feelings. The man of God is easily deceived by these as they seem to flow with him. In truth they are all junkies thirsty for one more jab.

But even when we value God’s Word and want the preacher to point us to the text and context we can also have unrealistic views about preaching. If we expect every sermon will be top notch however we define it, we are no different from these guys. We are still driven by the itch of our ears not what and how God wants us to leave church that day. Yes we should celebrate great preaching that points us to Jesus and keeps our nose on the text of God’s Word. But if we expect it every Sunday we demand a standard the man of God can’t meet and it says much about us not him. In truth, it’s not the best sermon every Sunday that is the mark of a faithful ministry. It’s not the best meal in a great restaurant that keeps us growing and healthy. Sometimes we need some ugali, some omena and once in a while some veggies. It’s a people committed to God and his Word even when the church next door sounds like the Spirit has come in person. It’s when we choose to wrestle with the word and sometimes get it wrong and don’t deliver the best talks that we show we are truly committed to it.

I don’t want to say we should excuse boring preaching. I don’t say we put up with mediocre preachers as long as they quote the Bible. And we shouldn’t think a church can’t be faithful if it’s lively and growing rapidly. But we need to be careful we don’t set a standard for preachers that makes them aim at pleasing us more than God. If we do that we risk the man of God answering to our itching ears and that is neither right nor healthy. Preachers on the other hand shouldn’t be removed from the congregation or merely sing by their tune. Paul advice to Timothy is to both preach the Word all the times whether people like it or not, even when it leads to persecution but also to be invoved in the life of his congregants. To know when they need encouragement or rebuke.

2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 

…5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

2 Timothy 4 NIV

The mandate comes from above but it has in mind a people easily tempted, easily discouraged, oftenly forgetful and who mostly prefer the world around them. The preacher needs to remember the medicine of the Word is what they need but careful also to make the right diagnosis. But the congregation needs to be careful lest they make the Lord’s servant doubt his tools of trade. We need to ask ourselves, if the sermon was not what we expected, is it possible we had the wrong expectations? Is it possible we have a wrong view of preaching and we expect it to be a daily meal outside? But when a preacher does his job well it won’t kill us to appreciate him as much as it is his job. That man is a man like any other and there is a lot that would easily discourage and deceive him to follow in the world’s steps like everybody else. Believe you me he’s no different from you. And if you are the kind that easily falls for one criticism imagine how he’d crumble with a thousand. For faithful preaching to work the congregation needs to be on board in the good and the not so good Sundays.

Life and Death

Death has a way of reminding and awaking us to the reality of this life. That any of us and every one of us whether big or small, rich or poor, famous or infamous has a date with the small box. Death meets us all and most of the times it’s not well mannered to book an appointment. The man of God, the good statesman, the witchdoctor and the rebel all have one sure destiny under the sun. They will die. Sure their deeds will make that a day of mourning or celebration depending on who you ask but in the end they’ll be dead. It’s the thing that reminds you that men however powerful and influential are mere mortals. Death sets apart the creator from creation; the clock of life unravels man’s weakness.

We can all agree death is brutal, a ferocious enemy that attacks without warning. It leaves rampage, distress and broken lives behind. But it also tells us that how we live matters because we are not here for as long as we imagine. We need back that Gospel message that said tonight could be it for you because many have been caught unaware without it. As much as we don’t like negative vibes I think we might do with a dose of reality in our modern day. As we motivate people to live their fullest, exploit hidden potential, walk like the boss let’s remember we are here only for a while. Actually the Gospel tells us our best life, our longest life is in the future beyond the grave.

Order your house today by ordering your heart. The Bible says only those who die in the Lord are blessed that is happy and safe. For them it’s more like retirement as they finally rest from their labours. Those who lived in rebellion on the other hand, those driven by human sin, the grave is the beginning of their troubles. I know this is uncomfortable, old fashioned and you’d rather we do a better and more appealing Gospel message. Meet people where they are, pick what they love and entice them in to buy the Gospel message. But if talk of death is not relevant to us perhaps it’s because we’ve slept in for too long. In this country you can’t go past a news bulletin without it. So we may as well look into the Gospel’s verdict on the matter and do so more oftenly.

13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”

“Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”

Revelation 14 NIV.

The Gospel strategy picked up by Coca-Cola

The greatest and most well known companies of the world still spend so much on advertising and they do that in the most prime hour. You won’t watch the news to the end before seeing an Ad from Coca-Cola even though when we say soft drink in any event that’s all anyone thinks. Why? Because even if the whole world knows they exist, even if you’ll find their bottles across the globe from Kalahari to Kazakhstan, they believe still more people would do with an extra soda. It’s not a question of how well known but how much more they can sell and remain relevant. They understand something that we don’t seem to get clearly within the church business. That what gets you in is what keeps you on and you don’t need to change the product only the marketing strategy. Believe in your product and speak of it like your believe it at every opportunity is the old skill in the book.

More than Coca-cola though Christianity has indeed gone out to the whole world with an even longer history. But our problem is we get easily comfortable whenever our small local community seems to believe in our product. For the most part we think all they need is some sense of association like going to church and we can take a back seat in the marketing business. So for the prime hour we let others have a say or get ourselves something new, something seemingly appealing, something we think the people need. But we all know if Coca-Cola did that they’d be dead within a generation.

But Coca-cola doesn’t let the change in the market deter them from their business and belief that more people should purchase their product. Instead they approach that culture, the new trends and preferences and show them why Coca-cola is the answer. They know something else we don’t seem to get, that though brands change and culture moves the needs are fundamentally the same. You’ve just got to reach the people where they are at and show them why they need your product. Same old Coca-cola, might take a new bottle and a more niche marketing strategy but the product remains the same.

Why is it that we let competitors convince us that our product is old news and irrelevant? Why would we give up our prime hour for something else other than the Gospel? We’ve got a product far better and more promising than Coca-Cola. For nothing changes people and offers what we truly crave than the Gospel. We’ve got a free audience every Sunday infront of our pulpits. A people hungry for the hope of the Gospel. If Coca-Cola ran a weekly church you can bet what their weekly message would be. Why do we deviate from ours?

I know there’s a lot more that fights the spread of the Gospel and things are not as easy as advertising. I know more forces visible and invisible are at play here. And there’s an offence the Gospel draws unlike Coca-cola. But still there are three things we can drawn from the world of advertising. One, we’ve got to believe in our product and say it like we believe it. Second, however relevant and widely accepted it is still we must keep sharing about our product to those who know and the many who don’t. Third, change in the market doesn’t mean we have to dump or change our product, we just need to reach the market where they are at. Coca-cola reaps as much as it gives to the marketing industry. Christianity would reap a great more if we invested everything we’ve got to the tested and proven product that is the Gospel. And especially if we valued the prime Sunday hour and reserved it for nothing else but the Gospel by teaching though the Bible story and pointing people to Jesus.

Now, in Gospel sharing there’s weakness with every illustration we pick and this is no exception. But I do honestly believe we do a great deservice to ourselves, our generation and our future when we hold loosely to the teaching and practice of the Gospel within our churches and Christian communities. If we believed half as much as Coca-Cola believes in their product and what they think of the market, we would never depart from the teaching of the Gospel even for a single Sunday. We would test and ascertain everything we preach and commit to by the Gospel litmus test.

You know what blows my mind away is that the Gospel product is not only what every man needs to hear. We are told it’s the very manifold wisdom of God that even the angels tap into to know our God. Imagine that! For you guys that love mysteries and big revelations the Gospel should be what you are all about.

12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. 1 Peter.

See also Ephesians 3:10.

In other words the Gospel of Jesus is so powerful, so relevant, so central that the universe revolves around it. If angels were on earth they’d be all about the Gospel. They would sit as many times to learn from the Gospel as told in the story of the Bible. Why do we substitute it for something else? The world of yesterday, today and tomorrow is united by this central message. That man is desperately sinful and hopelessly guilty and ripe for God’s wrath. But that by the Gospel of Jesus wretched man has a place in the holy kingdom of God. By faith in Jesus man who is born dead in sin is rescued to be a saint and a son in God’s kingdom. The enemy of God is brought home and made a son of the family of God by faith in Jesus. That’s the product the world needs. There’s the hope for humanity. And it never gets old or irrelevant.

That message is what we need here and now. It’s what gets us in through the door of faith and what we need for the journey. Yes we can’t teach through Gospel tracts every Sunday that would be boring. Yes we must think about what our congregation face everyday and rightly apply this Gospel, faithful preaching demands this. Yes we cannot ignore the needs and the culture around us, we are here for a reason. But like Coca-cola and better we’ve got one product that has proved to work, the Gospel, and it’s what people need more than anything.

We have one arrow in our quiver but the only one we need for all the wars of this life. For all arrays of our needs, wants and preferences only the Gospel has the cure. Everything else only calms the symptoms but the Gospel truly heals. We must believe this like Coca-cola believes in their product. We must say this like we believe it. We must share it regardless of how many associate with it. And even within our camps we must still teach and hold to it by teaching the Bible that teaches the Gospel as oftenly as is possible. Forget all those new trendy topics, if you want lasting relevance land with the Gospel. Give me the old Gospel message as taught in the Bible applied to life here and now.

There can never be enough talk of the Gospel within our churches and Christian communities. We may not call every sermon, every fellowship and mission trip a Gospel crusade but that’s what they should be. We should be known if ever for anything that we were a people drunk of the Gospel. We fail many times but we should rejoice whenever rebuked by the Gospel. Yes we enjoy all kinds of talks and humor goes a long way but without the Gospel we always leave empty. May the Lord help me never to tire, never to get familiar or presume I need anything more than the unadulterated preaching of the Gospel. The Gospel according to Coca-Cola is here’s more Coke for you. And our Gospel is that we need more Gospel teaching.

Local Church in a Virtual World

COVID has sent us through a roller coaster of restrictions in the last couple of months. One day you are struggling to get to church because you allowed yourself to watch a series late into Saturday night. Next day you have to stay indoors and stream through online Sunday service. Sometimes you hope they could cut down on some church events but you enjoy the freedom to be there. You go back to physical meeting before the next spike of infections hits and you are back to your Sunday sofa. I must say it’s quite a drain when everything else is also online.

But now we are in that phase where we can actually go back to the church building. There’s something with freedom that excites all of us even when we might not pursue it. We all want freedom to go anywhere any time even when we might not really be interested to. But for a country with a Christian majority who cherish the place of church community this is good news to many. So I’m quite eager to go back to the church building and meet up with the church family this Sunday. But I was just wondering whether this is a shared desire across the board. What’s the place of a local physical church in this virtual world?

The virtual world has brought the church into our living rooms. You’ve got access to some of the best preaching in the world and the license to lazy indoors on Sunday morning as we try to fight COVID. It’s really a dream come true for many for all kind of reasons, good and bad. You could say evangelistically this is a good thing as churches now must compete for the virtual space. But what becomes of the local physical church when the Global church is a switch away. What will motivate us to leave our homes, sometimes having to travel miles away to access a church with far less polished preaching and classy music?

If church is purely a preaching podium we really have no reason to leave the comfort of the sofa. Perhaps for us who think so highly of good Gospel preaching this is a reminder about the value of the church community. But if church was merely a community of like minded fellows with a performance in front then still that won’t get me off the couch. It’s easier to work that around my comfort. We can go mountain climbing in the afternoon, do Sunday lunch or better still do all that on Saturday for a lazy Sunday. That should challenge those of us for whom church is more of a social community club.

There’s a third category we easily forget, those who attend to serve for good or bad motivations. I’m an usher at church and I’ve got to say there’s a fulfilment that comes with seeing people welcomed well and everything flowing smoothly. So I don’t want to be hard on these guys. Actually statistics in this country will tell you volunteer members not preachers run churches. But without a community centered and influenced by faithful Gospel preaching there’s no life-changing basis for service. We may as well volunteer to serve in community humanitarian project.

For this reason I think these three arms must converge to get me out of the house. There’s a desire to hear from God as the Gospel is taught from the Bible. To sit and serve in a community lead and informed by the Gospel. The church community unlike a social club is not based merely on shared ideals and ambitions but a people built and informed by the Gospel. Service is not just for fulfilment or to earn points with God but an overflow of the Gospel teaching. And the sermon isn’t just a presentation or entertainment slot but a meal time for the Gospel community.

If we idolize any of these the local church will be in serious danger in our virtual world. Where preaching is all that matters then I won’t feel the need to bear with unclear and unpolished preachers when I could easily turn on the TV. And I will detest the local church even more when I have to serve and live among difficult sinful people. On the other hand, if community is all I want then soon I’ll find people who fit my ideology and they don’t have to call themselves a church. In any case I can stream services and catch up with friends later. And serving where the church isn’t built on Gospel preaching in a Gospel community makes no lasting difference. You might do more helping in an orphanage.

I would like to confess that I’m in the category that is prone to sometimes value good faithful preaching far and above Gospel community. Maybe serving comes second as a response to the Gospel. But such a view sees a Jesus who only made sermons and went home. It misses all the time spent with hard hearted disciples who would later desert, betray and deny him. And yet he died for them and went after them first thing after his resurrection.

I’m preparing to teach Exodus in the coming weeks and you can’t read Old Testament and miss how God values community. God’s people cannot merely be defined by preaching good sermons. God’s people are called into a Gospel community, to be a community set apart for God. The two go together.

5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

Exodus 19

The church is not a preaching class but a Gospel community set apart for God. But those who sacrifice good Gospel preaching for community need to be warned of another community that sacrificed the Saviour to keep the peace of the community. The value of community and unity though priceless for God’s people can also become a snare where Gospel Truth is not the foundation. And we cannot afford to sacrifice faithful Gospel preaching for a get-along society otherwise we miss why we exist in the first place. If we tread on that path then our high priests will soon crucify the Gospel to keep their positions.

49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

John 11

As we walk back to church my prayer is that we’ll go back joyous and thankful for this freedom. But also with a renewed commitment to Gospel preaching, the Gospel community and ready to roll our sleeves to serve the church family wholeheartedly. To be quick to listen and built up by God’s Word through the preaching and ministry of the church family. But also ready to be corrected and rebuked from the Gospel by the church community. We need the church family for our growth and sanctification more than we realize. And after spending a lot of time without meeting physically you can be sure we’ve picked up bad habits for our soul that need a gentle rebuke.

I pray the Lord will help us whatever our blind spots are when it comes to our view of the local church. That God’s Word will capture our hearts, minds and hands to serve God and his people without hesitation. I pray we’ll quickly move past bad habits picked up from the Livestream couch. To not expect to be served but to delight in serving others. To not only feed but also be a blessing to the church family. To not only complain but participate. To be quick to receive rebuke from our brothers and sisters in Christ and slow to take offence. That’s what makes the local church different in a consumerist world especially when we can get everything we want virtually.

Truth and Justice with False Freedom

The price of undermining truth is paid by the miscarriage of justice. It’s negotiated in the ordinary day to day and only in a crisis do we realize just what we traded off. It’s a bribe here, a small token or threat, a small white lie that harms no one. It’s the day to day lies that give birth to the greatest scams and bloodshed the world has ever known. They say the devil is in the details. And whenever we see justice denied the details show truth was undermined ages before sometimes even from both sides of the court room.

Problem is we always tend to focus on the big revelation, the latest scandal. We are wowed how they could pull it off. Our minds are focused on the blast above the surface not the bomb that caused it. We must realise that justice cannot be attained without truth having its day. And we can’t fix the building up if the foundation is shaky. We must realize how crucial the foundation of truth is not just among the political class but among us all in our day to day ordinary life.

You see our world cares less of truth but wails at all the injustice we face. We detest discrimination, unless we are the ones it favours. We get furious when others are picked ahead of us. But nothing brings us to agreement than our selfish pursuit. We cry of injustice while we demand we should have the first right. Justice will never prevail until the day we realise we are all the accused and have been found guilty of not only neglecting justice but undermining truth.

To most people truth doesn’t matter as long as there’s fairness and justice. But that’s a mad conclusion same as saying you can have milk without feeding the cow. Fairness and justice is the fruit of a society built on truth. It’s where men and women are governed by the teaching and practice of the truth in the day to day that the society can enjoy the milk of justice. Where certain men don’t decided on what works for them but everyone is a slave to the Truth.

It’s worse in our world where everyone lives by their own code. I mean how do you even measure what amounts to injustice if we don’t even agree on absolute truth. Someone robs from the government believing that money belongs to no one. In his mind and by his own judgement he has not sinned against anyone. Actually he lives in a culture that tells him he should take advantage of the opportunity he has to accumulate as much as he can for himself and those close to him.

Without a guiding principle beyond our own desires and self interest truth is undermined and justice is ultimately denied. At first it seems like nothing. The price too cheap for the personal and even the seemingly corporate gains but with time we all come to realise how wrong we were. When it’s said and done our problem is we would rather trade off truth in the name of freedom for the pursuit of our self interest. And if that’s our choice then injustice shouldn’t surprise us because that’s what we’ll get in the end.

In all my wildest dreams and craving for freedom, freedom to do whatever I want whenever I want with whomever I want without a bother on whomever it affects I must consider the price I must pay in the long run. That in the meantime I might get the rush to be on top of the world but when chicken come home to roost I will pay dearly for my choice. If everyone else lives by this code it won’t be long before we all have to pay the price. And you know what, however much we try to cheat the system we or our children will surely pay for it. Truth and justice is sacrificed on the altar of our false freedom.

It seems to me that’s it’s only reasonable to abide and be a custodian of truth because only he can shield us from the evil of everyone else’s pursuit of uncaring self interest. Sure that means I won’t get everything I want here and now but I will get a fair and righteous society that safeguards the weak and vulnerable. Where truth is the the guiding principle justice for all will flourish.

What’s interesting is that it’s actually the pursuit of truth that delivers not only justice but freedom. Jesus taught that believing and holding to his Gospel teaching is actually what would ultimately free us. Truth delivers justice with true freedom.

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8.

Imagine that! We run away from God and his message because we want to be free of him to do whatever we want. We try that for this world and we lose not just truth but all it’s fruits including justice and what’s worse, we lose freedom too. For every false reward the world gives you it takes everything that really matters as the price. Our world is a living testament of that. We are better off with the shackles of truth than we are left on our devices. Pursuit of Gospel truth in place of self interest delivers the justice we crave for all and the true freedom we yearn for so much now and fully in eternity.