Highest Bidder Truth

Recently, there was a story on TV that amplifies this point.

An incident occurred close to my place.

I was able to talk to several (not one or two) eye witnesses to it.

One of them told me to expect a surprise when I watch the news, though I do not watch any news.

The reason he said that is because stories involving those criminals have always been doctored to paint a sanitising narrative on the villains.

And that is exactly what happened.

Friends who watched that news were enraged to see truth butchered so mercilessly.

The evidence was conveniently shifted so that the story could go according to plan.

In one short swoop, the villain is made the innocent victim and vice versa.

The one who was doing his job has to apologise and compensate the offender.

I am reminded of an incident a dozen or so years ago when an estate demonstrated a whole week, even blocking a key road, so that a particular police officer is released.

Since that is so uncharacteristic of Kenyans, I sought to understand why that had happened.

The officer had done a proper job of ridding the estate of pests that had become such a nuisance because they were untouchable, coming from great wealth.

Incidentally, nothing was able to save the officer from jail because the of the influence money had on the case.

What am I saying?

We live at a time when it is critically important to verify what we call truth.

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:17)

This is because it could well be that what you call truth has been auctioned to the highest bidder. That the narrative you imbibe is the product of some auctioning process.

You could be fighting for a truth that has gone through boardrooms and marketplaces to be acceptable.

It could be that ‘unbiased’ reporting is the product of a purchase.

And being the product of a media school and media, I can confidently confirm that any news we read, listen to or watch goes through the filter called editorial policy that is the preserve of the owner of the media house.

That is why you will read or watch a news item and wonder why the same story has so many variations to the point that some appear completely different stories.

That is why you might follow a news item covering an incident you were part of or witnessed being so different from what you saw happening.

What am I saying?

We need to be very careful with what we follow.

Because what we follow has a way of shaping not only how we interpret issues, but also to shape what we ultimately become.

Truth is not relative, however much we may seek to demonstrate it.

As such, what we may call relative truth is actually auctioned truth, which is carefully packaged lies.

I have started at the marketplace. But my focus is not there.

I want us to look at Biblical truth.

And I do this because a vast majority of believers in our times place a greater premium on proclaimers, teachers, professors of the scriptures instead of the scriptures on their own.

Most are more comfortable quoting their favourite preacher (whatever title he may hold) than they are quoting what the Bible on its own says.

Others even quote women teachers even when the same Bible prohibits them to teach in church.

Do not get angry at me. I am not the one who wrote the Bible. I am just quoting it as you should.

Many believers are consistently reading the trash released by their spiritual brokers even as they neglect the Bible from where those conmen pretend to get their messages from.

The only time some will open their Bibles is to read the verses quoted by such brokers.

I intentionally use very strong words because of the danger following those characters are exposing their followers to.

I am also a teacher and also write books. And I of course write them to be read though I do not sell mine as per my orders.

But my books point to the scriptures and not me. they direct the readers to Christ and not my next release. They seek to build their faith in Christ and not draw them to my conferences and anointed events.

I want to help and guide people to read the Bible for themselves. That is why I include a Bible Reading Plan on the inside cover to challenge them to consider starting to read the Bible for themselves.

And it is the same with my blog.

You see, God has called me to guide people to Him. Like John the Baptist I should decrease even as He increases.

I am the most effective in my ministry when I am most decreased and He is most increased; when I am most invisible and He is most visible.

Jesus is the Truth; not me, not you, not anybody or anything else.

This means that any truth that does not have Christ at its helm is auctioned truth.

Truth with a man of God at its helm is unfortunately the best image I can conjure of that.

And it is because at its best, it is idolatry and at its worst, it is spiritual terrorism.

It is not different if we replaced the man of God with a spiritual structure, however spiritual its foundations may have been.

Only Christ is the truth, unadulterated truth.

He is the truth all other ‘truths’ find their validity.

No wonder even the enemies of the cross extensively quote Christ and the Bible to get any grounds for their opposition.

That is why faith in Christ and obedience to His revelation is the common ground for persecution.

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. (Psalm 2: 1 – 3)

That is why governments refuse to tackle conmen in clerical garb and use their conmanship as their ground for attacking the church of Christ.

Reminds me of a recent happening in Kenya when the government, instead of reining on the conmen using the church to enrich themselves as they preyed on the ignorant chose to block the registration of the churches for a decade or more.

You wonder which is easier between deregistering the openly crooked churches and blocking genuine churches from existing.

You wonder which is easier between prosecuting those endangering their flock through manufactured miracles on TV and blocking the move of God through declaring all churches conmen.

That is auctioned truth for you.

Any truth that does not have Christ at its apex is auctioned truth.

And in the simplest terms it is a lie.

What has Changed?

There is an interesting comedy on the world stage.

Roles have changed. Shoes have changed feet.

I have over the years said that the most judgmental people are the ones who shout the loudest about the most misquoted two words in the scriptures, ‘judge not’

Looking at the USA today exemplifies this.

Not so long ago, the abominable (and I call them so because that is how God calls them in His word) never stopped reminding believers to stop judging their abominable choices, reminding them that we are told not to judge. Yet the same people were doing everything possible, even changing laws, to criminalise the believers’ choices when they were in power.

Some were sacked and others lost their businesses for daring to live by what they believed. Simply said, they were judged very harshly for judging by the ones who were shouting the loudest not to judge.

The other day the dynamic changed and people who practice Biblical truth took power and decided to reverse those ‘gains’.

The same people who were judging believers for ‘judging’ them are again shouting loudest that the believers are not believers because they are not loving them.

What type of Christians are you if you are not full of love for our choices? How can your choice kill my choice?

They are now judging the believers for not loving them as they think the Bible teaches.

All the time forgetting that they were doing worse when they were in power.

If that is not comedy, then tell me what is

It is comedy because I am outside the drama.

And that is not the only incident where truth depends on who is sharing it.

Look at wars, terrorism, crime.

My side must be right because I am the one holding the microphone. My side must be right because I have the News outlet. My side must be right because I have the power.

All the time demonising any other alternative source of truth and shouting do not judge when the reality cannot be hidden.

It is absolutely wrong to trash any narrative you do not agree with.

It is wrong to call others idiots simply because they do not agree with whatever you call your values.

And it is wicked to force everybody to agree with your narrow interpretations of whatever you want people to believe as truth, especially if it differs with the revelation of God’s word.

Do unto others what you would have done unto you is valid whichever end of the stick I am.

I must be gracious in my judging if I should expect grace when I am the one being judged, simply because we reap what we sowed.

I should respect others’ opinions as I report their stories if I should expect respect when they are the ones doing the reporting.

Life is a mirror that reflects what is in front of it.

This means I should judge myself more harshly than I judge others because no other judgement can be harsher than truthful self judgment.

Nobody is an idiot. Nobody does not have an opinion. Nobody cannot be hurt or injured.

And people will reflect how you treated others as they treat you when you are on the receiving end.

Prepare for a nice and comfortable receiving end by extending grace when you are the one holding the stick.

Let me close this by simply stating the obvious; there is really one truth, God’s truth through His revelation in His word, the Bible.

Any truth that differs with it is trash, however trendy it looks.

It is trash however huge its support base is since a majority opinion can never be equated with God’s truth. Quite the contrary.

Foundation?

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5: 17 – 19)

We have been taught, and even I have taught, that the Old Testament is the foundation of our faith.

This implies that the New Testament is the only visible part of the building.

That is what I want to shatter today though I am open to correction.

And I will start by asking a simple question.

For builders, what is the percentage in cost, material, time, workmanship of a foundation vis a vis the completed building?

However demanding that foundation is, I doubt it would go beyond a quarter of the building’s total cost.

That is what I want us to examine as we look at the Bible.

Allow me to use some percentages I took as I went through the Bible. And they are rough estimates with some margin of error that statisticians might find fault with.

But I teach the Bible, not statistics.

·       Pentateuch 20%

·       History 25%

·       Poetry 12%

·       Major Prophets 18%

·       Minor Prophets 5%

·       New Testament 20%

How can 80% be the foundation?

And why did Jesus not say He was coming to start building but to complete?

The truth of the matter is that the Old Testament was not the foundation but the building itself

The New Testament came to complete and beautify the building that had been in process through the times.

What am I trying to say?

The Pentateuch is the foundation with the first eleven chapters being the preparation for that foundation.

From that point, the building started in earnest.

No wonder everything in the New Testament points to the Old Testament

It is written, haven’t you read?, etc.

Jesus was the crowning act of the whole drama, the beautifying part in the building.

That is why Apollos could accurately share the Gospel without encountering Christ or even the visible church members.

That is why the Gospel spread fastest among those with prior knowledge and exposure to the Old Testament.

We therefore err when we equate the Old Testament with a foundation, basically because it creates the assumption that it is not as essential for the day to day running of our faith.

Or whoever made any reference to the foundation when they are looking for some rentals? Whoever sought to see the depth of the foundation before moving into a house?

The only person who may be interested in knowing the condition of a foundation is the one seeking to install heavy machinery because of their impact on any building they occupy. Simply because they require solidity as their foundation.

No wonder many believers associate the Old Testament with expired instruction and obsolete theology.

What then, according to me, is the New Testament? Where does it lie?

Jesus is the door as He said in John.

And that is where the New Testament starts.

The New Testament is what is done to a house after the door is installed.

Allow me to describe a door.

A door stands for security and warmth.

A door is the testimony that the house is habitable.

You can move into a house without plaster, without furniture, without a floor.

But people will doubt your sanity and sense of security if you moved into a house without a door.

A door also represents a boundary. That is why people will question your sanity if you moved into a house without a door because it is open to all. It is simply a shelter from the elements and nothing else since there is no way you can stop anything from getting in.

It is impossible to count on a house without a door. Simply because you must be there for that to be a reality.

I will be building on this on (a) later post(s).

 

Staged Generosity

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. (Hebrews 13:2)

I want us to look at this verse in the context of Matthew 25 about the sheep and goats.

The primary reason I do it is because in the course of ministry I have severally encountered people who are always on the lookout for those angels to the point that it more or less becomes a passion.

But is that what the writer of Hebrews was teaching?

Of course not.

And this is why I want us to look at the Matthew discourse.

While the sheep were wondering when and how it was that they had ministered to Christ, the goats were wondering why it was that they didn’t see Him to minister to Him.

Reminds me of a story that was doing the rounds in my childhood in church.

You will allow me to paraphrase it to illustrate this point.

Jesus told someone that He would be visiting.

Of course, the person in question laid the red carpet in anticipation and went all the way to prepare for this very important guest. They even prepared a sumptuous meal for Him.

Then a tramp passed by looking for food.

Giving him food would mean dirtying everything, from the carpet to the utensils. And he couldn’t risk doing it because Jesus could be coming at any time. What would He feel seeing a stained carpet?

So, he chased him with a heavy heart.

Then a child came passed by for something or the other.

Again, he couldn’t risk his preparedness for the Saviour and therefore chased him.

A weary passerby came across looking for water to quench his thirst and he was also chased for the same reason.

Evening came and still no Jesus.

He therefore called Jesus, complaining because he had waited for Him the whole day and He had refused to honour His word.

‘But I came three times and you chased Me’, was Jesus’ reply

Our friend was perplexed, thinking that Jesus was pulling his leg or something.

Being on the lookout for angels produces the same results.

They will come and leave and you will be none the wiser because you were looking at the wrong signs.

Abraham was not looking for any angel when they appeared.

Moses was not looking for an angel when He appeared.

Jacob was minding his business when the angel appeared.

The disciples were not looking out for Jesus when He called them.

In short, angels do not visit the expectant. They visit the ready.

And I must explain what I mean by this.

Spontaneity is what produces results.

The nature of the giver is in its packaging.

Lest I confuse you more (or probably confuse you more), I think it is also wise for me to lay down some ground rules for what I am saying.

Jesus said that we will be known by our fruit.

A tree does not struggle to produce fruit.

A mango tree does not produce mangoes because it works really hard.

It does it because that is what it was created to do.

It just needs to live to produce.

Give it water and nutrients and it will produce mangoes.

We are like that mango tree.

We will produce after our kind by simply being us and not by striving to produce.

We will need water and nutrients to produce after ourselves.

But I also need to add that we are also fruit from elsewhere and not in any way autonomous beings.

The One who produced us will determine what we will in turn produce.

The quality of our produce is determined by the kind of nurture we are fed on.

In short, a mango must produce mangoes. But a well-fed mango will produce bigger and better mangoes.

What am I saying?

Hospitality is the fruit of a life lived on God’s terms. It is the product of a person who is born of God.

The relationship the person has with God (nurture) determines how good that hospitality is produced.

But as always, there is a counterfeit hospitality, originating from a counterfeit deity. But this is man-made and not spontaneous as it requires effort and external stimuli.

This kind leaves out everybody to be able to exclusively serve ‘Jesus’.

It does it because it cannot afford to waste resources on those without requisite resources for paying back, at least in kind.

One is a well that produces without asking where its water goes.

The other is a tank that needs the assurance that it will be refilled before considering whether to release its water.

I hope all these words are not confusing you.

The essence of Matthew 25 is the hearts of those two teams.

Though one team unconsciously did the right thing, the other team was simply unable to find the right thing to do.

It is impossible to think of them as being lazy or stingy. Because then they could not have asked the questions they did.

For our purpose allow me to ask what I think their question was.

Where were you when we were giving? How come we bypassed you in all our giving?

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. (Matthew 6:1 - 4)

That is the spirit by which Christ is ministered to.

Giving is not acceptable to God when or if it is done for show. Meaning, I am not serving Christ when I am doing it with a camera, however noble the cause may be. And I am sure that was the way the goats did it.

Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. (Luke 14: 12 -14)

And that is how the sheep did it.

No wonder none of the teams recognised Jesus in their service or non service.

What is your motivation for giving?

The long and short of what I am saying is the God judges the nature of the giver and not the substance of the absence of the same.

No wonder the poor widow who gave the least outgave the abundance of all the mega givers combined.

The question we need to ask ourselves, however, is, who am I? What am I composed of?

What overflows when I get full?

That is what God is looking at.

That is what Jesus will use when judging us.

 

Dry Bones 3

You will allow me to close this call for prayer with the source of that fire.

And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? (Genesis 41:38)

That fire is not the product of our effort.

I am not therefore asking you to pray for me for more power to perform.

It is a prayer for the release of God’s Holy Spirit in His fulness in my life.

That is what is consistent with everybody in the scriptures walking in power.

The Holy Spirit is the fire that can never be ignored.

He is the fire that contains the power to transform.

He is the fire that convicts.

I am therefore praying for the fulness of the Holy Spirit in my life.

Do not for a moment think I am talking about the drama that charismatics have made of it.

Being Spirit Filled is all about being completely under His control and Lordship.

He is the One holding my reins, so to speak.

We see that when we read the Bible.

It has nothing to do with emotional highs or strange tongues but everything to do with His Lordship over every detail of my life.

It has little to do with the gifts and their exercise but everything to do with the reproduction of His character and nature in my life.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (Galatians 5: 22, 23)

This is what Jesus meant when He said that we will be known by our fruit. The same reason He did not mention our gifts.

The problem with my spiritual life now is familiarity or something like that.

After being in Christ and His ministry for long, that fruit of the Spirit can very easily become the fruit of my experience because it has become habit.

I have overcome temptation for so long that I do not even think about it and it stops featuring in my experience.

It means I could effortlessly overcome temptation in my backslidden state.

My passion for ministry could be so ingrained that it becomes automatic and not dependent on a vibrant relationship with Christ.

My indignation against sin and evil has become part of me to an extent that I will fight spiritual battles in the flesh and not even realise it.

That is the danger Christ was warning us against when He addressed the churches of Ephesus and Sardis in Revelation 2 and 3.

I am praying against a habit led obedience and a momentum fuelled ministry.

And I must create the space for my most quoted verses

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 21 – 23)

That is the possibility I am seeing in my life.

And that is what I am inviting you to pray against.

I want us to pray against the beaten path that removes our focus on Christ’s Lordship.

There is something called driver’s fatigue or something like that.

This is when a driver falls asleep on the wheel yet drives for hundreds of miles without a single mistake though his mind is completely switched off to the point that he will not remember a single thing about that trip.

This happens because he has been driving for so long that it becomes instinctive.

He will brake when required, give way to others as required and follow lanes as required.

At that time, his eyes become sensers to guide his other body organs to automatically do what is required.

That is what I fear my ministry has been leaning toward.

The reality is that our enemy can see our autopilot ministry for what it is.

No wonder we stop causing offense because we lack the spiritual fire that comes from wakefulness that is the product of a vibrant relationship with Christ. Our enemy stops fighting us because we are on his side when he looks at our spirits.

Nobody can get scared of losing to a vehicle using momentum because sooner or later that slope offering gravity will end.

He will just give us space to flow then speed off before we realise that our engine was off.

Is this not what has opened my eyes to the state of my spiritual life?

Allow me to quote the message to the church of Ephesus to get my point

I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. (Revelation 2: 2 – 6)

There is not a single complaint about their character, ministry, doctrine.

They are scoring plain As for who they are and what they stood for.

They are doing the same for their relationships and witness.

But their spiritual engine is off. They are simply coasting on neutral. They are running on momentum.

Though to us it appears energy saving, simply because it is effective, to Christ it offers great offense because it takes the focus off Him to our effort. They are bearing spiritual fruit using tools of flesh.

That is why they were being called upon to repent.

And I believe that is the same call God has for us today.

And I have seen it in myself.

As you pray with me, please remember to pray that God also points that beam of truth on you so that you are able to see whether it also applies to you.

Otherwise, you may pray me get out of the darkness you are in.

But please pray for me.

Dry Bones 2

You will allow me to further explain why I am praying that God rekindles my fire; that He revives my dead spiritual life, by using scriptural examples.

Fire can never be ignored just as it can never be constrained, spiritual fire, that is.

You can never be neutral around that fire.

And we will look at several examples in the scriptures to understand what I am saying.

Remember Joseph?

His brothers did not hate him because his father loved him.

They hated him because of the fire burning within him.

They got rid of him because they could not endure his continued presence because there was a spiritual deposit in his life that they could not manage.

That is the fire that made Potiphar trust him, the fire his wife wanted to possess.

It was the fire that made them hate him because they finally realised that there was no way they could control it.

It is that same fire that made him take an oath from Israel to ensure that he was not buried in Egypt though he had been a national hero and treasure.

We see a similar thing with David

People either loved him or hated him.

The prophet of fire was not any different

People looked for Elijah either to kill him or benefit from his ministry.

Probably the most sobering case in the Old Testament is Jeremiah’s where the whole book is more of a study of the relationship of spiritual fire has with the world.

While some are unable to bear him, others are drawn to him like a magnet.

Look at Daniel and you will see the same reality.

The New Testament is even more glaring because we can identify the source of the fire.

Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, (Acts 7:57)

This is the crowd’s response to Stephen’s defence to the accusations levelled against him.

That fire held them through his lengthy exposition and witness. Then they exploded.

John the Baptist was the same way.

Herod hated him and wanted to kill him. Yet he was scared of doing it even when the occasion availed itself.

We see the same with the apostles in their ministry.

Nobody could be neutral to their witness or presence. A fire experience is a convicting presence.

We see Jesus, our Captain, on another level altogether.

His experience magnifies this truth.

Enemies became friends in their fight with His fire.

Pharisees and Sadducees, who never saw eye to eye on almost everything became a team and were joined by Herodians who were way too far down their faith trajectory.

The same people who were tempting Him using loyalty to Caesar were obstinately proclaiming that they had no king but Caesar.

And He said that our likeliness with Him would attract the same responses from those around us.

I am not therefore talking about losing my fire in a vacuum.

I have experienced such as I served God, though not as powerfully as I would have desired.

Spiritual fire makes everybody uncomfortable positively or negatively and leaves nobody on the fence in neutrality.

And that is what is lacking in my life and ministry though for the most part ministry progresses fairly well according to normal standards.

But I seek the fire standard back in a more explosive way than those past experiences.

I need that fire to give my finishing kick its greatest impact.

But I essentially need that power so that God will manifest in my life in such a way that many will be drawn to Him and respond to His invitation.

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. (John 12:32)

That is my cry

Will you pray for me?

Pastoral Marriage Killers 3

If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: (Deuteronomy 13: 6 – 8)

I want to close this topic by asking some questions.

Why is a wife included in this passage that talks about enticement to idolatry?

Could she have been included if she was treated the way the Eurocentric church that we inherited treat their wives?

Does it mean that Israeli wives were more wicked than women from other nations?

On the same vein, who misled the wisest man on earth?

Women are women, wherever they come from.

A European woman is no more different than an Arab woman than an educated woman is to an illiterate one.

They were all made of the same material and so possess the same basic inclinations.

Upbringing and culture will predispose one to more vice than another. One will predispose one to submission even as another will lead towards feminism.

It is on that basis that the Bible is universal because it comes from the One who created all things.

Trashing things by branding them Old Testament therefore makes us prone to error and intense disappointment. Because nothing in nature veers so off the beaten path.

Let us go to the New Testament to ask a few other questions.

Peter had a wife before Jesus called him.

What was her name?

What was her ministry?

Where do we see her in his ministry?

Except for Paul, and probably Barnabas, all the other apostles had wives.

Where do we see them in the book of Acts?

Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? (1Corinthians 9:5)

If as we read, they were leading their wives, could they have been leading them as we do if none of them is visible in the scriptures?

Could those wives whose names we do not know have had as much influence and visibility as we have allowed the modern wife to have? Could they have been validating the calls of their husbands?

That is what I want to leave you meditating on.