Spiritual Conquest

I used to wonder why in Bible times every victory over a rival kingdom ended with taking away the gods they worshipped.

Was it because they wanted to stop the vanquished nation to forget the gods they worshipped? Was it that they wanted to get the silver and gold from the idols? Was it only to make it abundantly clear that they were now the undisputed rulers in the realm?

Why is it that God demanded that all the idols Israel captured were to be destroyed? Was it that God was scared of their influence in His people’s presence?

I dare say that the capture of the gods of a competing nation was an affront to the gods themselves. The conquering nation was simply shaking its fists at the vanquished god. It was a war of the gods, with the human instruments being the ones to carry out the battle.

And that is where the God of Israel was different. He could not be carried about as the rest. His rules were so clear that it took folly and complete presumption to fit Him in that bill. No wonder the sons of Eli failed when they brought His ark to tilt the tide against the Philistines. No wonder Uzzah died for trying to prevent the cattle carrying the ark from dropping it. Even king Uzziah contracted instant leprosy for going beyond limits. Even His presence has conditions. The other gods are demonic creations of the nations that worship them thus have a similarity to the people who worship them. They are also in a way subject to their worshippers.

That explains the reason why to the other nations the capture of gods represented complete conquest. This is because even the gods could not stand in their way.

Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand? Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand? (2 Kings 18:33 – 35)

We can clearly see that the Assyrians knew and confessed that their main battles were not against people but against their gods. This was because the gods were the guardians of their people. They represented the security of the nations. The security of the nations therefore was a representation of the pride of their gods.

Ever noticed that God’s dealings with nations were many times confrontations with the nations’ gods?

For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. (Exodus 12:12)

The ten plagues were confrontations with the gods Egypt worshipped.

 We are therefore not just talking about things that are the preserve of the gods of the nations. Any god worth his salt must seek to expand his influence and that is why one clear indicator of that influence is the capture of opposing gods.

We must however distinguish between all these gods and the one true God. The creator God is not under any threat and therefore is not threatened by the presence of all these gods as He rules over all that He made, including these gods. He therefore does not panic because these gods have any influence. He is concerned because they have a sway over men that He created to be reigning over them. He feels something like we feel when we see someone worshipping a technological marvel because he doesn’t understand how it works.

The devil is supposed to be under our feet at all times. It therefore pains God when we submit to him, whichever ruse we use. Be it witchcraft or materialism. Be it Pharmacia or IT. Be it family or a job. Nothing should occupy a position above us. None of them is big enough to bow down under. Ever wondered that even archangels refused any sort of worship yet they have higher spiritual authority than Satan? Remember Jesus saying that man was the reason the Sabbath was created and not vice versa.

Only God deserves our worship. And this is where these idols come in.

The devil craves that worship. In fact that was the reason he fell.

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. (Isaiah 14:13 - 15)

I will also mention that the same craving for worship is the reason man fell after agreeing with the devil and falling for a lust for godhood.

For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:5)

It is therefore not only the devil who craves worship. He was able to infect man with it. It is only that to man it is not as straightforward. Many times it is veiled and has many fronts. The primary one especially for this generation is independence and control. We see the same even at the tower of Babel and many other places in the Bible.

Since the devil craves what is not legitimately his, he must necessarily work very hard to even get a sniff of it. I will compare him with a thief who will slit your throat to get a few coins or notes from your pockets, destroying a priceless thing to gain a pittance. No wonder he is called a thief, killer and destroyer. He will stop at nothing to get a person to bow to him, be it intentional or not. He will even use deception to get it and no wonder he is called a liar and the father of lies.

What the devil succeeds in capturing gods of vanquished people is raising the fervor of the conquered to new heights as they will believe that it was their worship that was wanting. At the same time he does the same with the victors so that they can maintain their winning ways. You see both of them worship him but they do not know it as the devil will not let them into the secret as the knowledge of the same would eliminate the animosity which would be a liability to the destroyer.

Remember Baal and Ashtoreth worshippers in the confrontation on Mt Carmel (1 Kings 18)? Their increased fervor meant destroying their own bodies to make him ‘hear’. What they didn’t know is that there is no contest between their god and God.

One very interesting thing history teaches us is that there is really nothing new in the world. What we are seeing is actually something that was being done long ago, only that we are using other words to explain the same thing.

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us. (Ecclesiastes 1: 9, 10)

Do we have the acts of those ancient conquests being repeated today?

Last century we had a great conflict between two gods. Of course they were not so open because we are ‘advanced’. We had two opposing economic systems, one openly anti God and the other cleverly camouflaged as Christian. Yet both were as demonic as can be.

Communism was atheistic and was therefore against God and all that God represented. They therefore sought to rid the nations they ruled of His worship and if possible His awareness. The result was the opposite of what the devil had planned because he probably forgot to learn from history. I suspect he did not have any other option. Persecution is the great motivator of quality Christian living. As a result of the persecution the church grew in leaps and bounds in those territories. I suspect that it was the devil himself who pulled the plug on communism as all his gains and intents were being reversed before his eyes.

But he had another system, capitalism. This was apparently ‘Christian’ and ‘espoused’ Christian values. That was the lie the devil used to promote it. Well, what communism could not do to kill the church capitalism was able to do by infiltrating the church and taking whatever position they wanted. Capitalism for those who do not know it is the worship of mammon.

Not very long ago the Lord impressed on me to research on Protestant work ethic and I was shocked that it is neither protestant nor even Christian. It is a demonic system that promotes the worship of devil through raising our craving for materialism.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union which was the lead agent of communism their god was floored. What happened is what happened in ancient times. Nations switched allegiance from one god to the other or simply from communism to capitalism.

Capitalism, being ‘friendly and accommodating’ to the church, thrived with the full support of the church. But after successful taking over key positions in the leadership of the church and ‘Christian’ nations, they started executing their agenda against the God of the Bible. They gradually started throwing out by legislation or the courts one Biblical value or the other to the extent that the church and the Bible are a short distance from being proscribed. In fact it may be more difficult to practice your faith in those citadels of capitalism than in openly antichristian nations.

Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is "finding his place in it", while really it is finding its place in him. (The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis)

The devil, being who we know he is, has no capacity to sustain. The capitalist empire is now dying, partly because it has now shed off the hypocrisy of being a Christian system. I was shocked that there are over 15 nations in the west who have legalized gay marriage, the latest probably being the USA, the leader of the capitalist west, the high priest of that demonic system. We also know that it is now legal to kill a baby who has come to full term (partial birth abortion) and many other abominations.

We also know that the devil is in the business of using and dumping and therefore has no interest at all in promoting the west. He has successfully taken them to the threshold of judgment. It is therefore a matter of time before he raises another god to take over where capitalism has left. And this before we are able to understand his workings. You see nations were defecting from one aspect of mammon worship to another thinking it was simply economics.

Very soon another power will rise. I believe the cards are already drawn. It may be China with her myriad of gods or the Muslim world with its militant antichristian agenda. It may be a resurgent Russia or even Africa. The whole idea is to confuse us to think economics instead of worship because it is in such confusion that the enemy thrives. Whoever he chooses is of no consequence provided he will provide fodder to his flame.

But I think we do not need all those high ideas to live our Christian lives. What we need is the information that will make us effective and relevant to our generation.

The devil is a master of sabotage. Since creation all he has been trying to do is sabotage God’s creation. In fact Satan’s meaning is adversary meaning that is more or less the job description he gave himself when he was thrown from heaven. He therefore works to hit at the most vulnerable position, a place where he can get the greatest impact.

One place I want us to focus on is the family and especially the marriage. He has never at any one time liked that institution because it is from it that any battle he has lost started. But it is also true that any success he has ever had was gotten there.

Adam was very clear about what God had told him. But the devil does not approach him. He simply muddies the emotions of the wife because he knew that marriage brings people together. It was a matter of time before Adam also sinned.

Abraham was clear about his call and especially the promise. It was Sarah who was infiltrated to bring a compromise to try to dilute the promise.

David knew God. Probably Merab was God’s choice for him as it was the promise he was given. But Satan intervened by bringing about some political play. As a result the wife she was given, however much he loved her, became a problem all his life.

You can see Ahab at one time almost shocking God with his repentance. It was Jezebel who was his death.

Time after time you are able to see a man with a clear vision of God being led astray by a woman that was attached to him. That is infiltration. The enemy looks for the weakest point to attack. However he does not meet you directly but uses sabotage to derail your purpose. It is similar to going behind the lines and disabling the equipment so that the opponent is unable to fight your army. And no wonder that saboteurs and traitors are so feared and hated! They tilt the battle in the enemy’s favor yet all appearances show them as friends of your cause.

The marriage institution is under threat from all fronts. Even forgetting homosexuality, whose main purpose for the devil is to bring unblinking judgment from God, there are enough attacks on the marriage institution. Why is the devil so focused on this single institution? It is the initial plank in building of any society.

And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. (Malachi 2:15)

Messing the institution therefore serves the devil well enough.

Though I may go on and on about the marriage institution, I think the message God has put in my heart is more on establishing our connection with what God intends for us to be. That is what the devil is up against and will not relent until the final battle is concluded.

I want us to look at the whole purpose of this great assault on this divine institution which is really not just against the institution. The main purpose is aborting God’s purpose for the nations. This the devil will do by making the individuals in it to lose their focus. As long as each person in the union does not know themselves well in that respect it will be impossible to accomplish what God has purposed for the union.

The man is the head in that union. By this it means he is the one in charge of the vision and direction for it. If the man lacks that vision, however well he is equipped in worldly terms, the result is chaos. He might have all the money, all the connections, all the investments. But unless he has the divine vision the result is chaos. He might appear as successful as success itself but is an absolute failure if he does not connect with what God has wired him for.

The man’s headship is primarily spiritual. His headship therefore presupposes a submission of the King of kings. Lack of that connection means that not only does he not submit to the Headship but also that he does not even understand it. That is why such a man will be completely materialistic whatever direction he takes. And that is the reason there are pastors and other ministers who equate ministry with material acquisitions. They might think they are spiritual but it is sad that they do not realize that their spirituality does not go deeper than the stomach. A man like that can never lead his wife and family in God’s direction.

But that man does not really disturb the devil as he represents abortion of God’s purpose. The reason the devil might appear to fight him is so that he is deceived into believing that he is on God’s side and not see reality as God sees it. Instead of infiltrating with the purpose of sabotage, the devil will simply hook him with a soul mate, a Jezebel of sorts who is as materialistic as he is or even more.

The man who knows who he is in God is the problem. He does not negotiate his position as he knows he is ultimately responsible for any false moves his family might take. That is the man the devil targets with all the weapons in his arsenal. That is the man he will never stop infiltrating to at least find a gap in his armour. And this is the man I am writing to. And also the woman married to this man as many times she will be the primary agent the devil will use to derail God’s purpose in the family institution due to her constitution.

Yet I am also writing to the woman who has a good connection with God that she is also feeling ostracized because what the world wants her to be is diametrically opposed to her revelation of God. Maybe the single reason she is not married is because there are no men who have the spiritual stature to lead her. Do not compromise my sister. I am convinced that God has one such man for you. But like diamond he is so rare that He must lead him to you. He might be unpolished in worldly terms but your connection with God will lead you just there. Do not compromise, I repeat. Do not fall for the reasoning of the world. If a man is not spiritual enough for you to willingly submit to his leadership he certainly is not the right man for you, however romantic he might be treating you. If his prayer life does not challenge you I doubt he is the right man. If you are the one who teaches him the Bible you can be sure you are hunting for a husband in the flesh. Let spiritual connectedness be what will lead that man to you and nothing else.

One thing the devil does is connect spiritual misfits. This is different from complementally partnerships. This is what happened to David, and Solomon, and Ahab etc. But even with a good marriage connection he does not give up as we see in Adam, and Abraham, and Jacob. He will use the constitution of the woman to place great obstacles in the way of the man.

What does the man do? Simply what Jesus advised? Look at the priorities. Look at the options. Look at the consequences. You are the one ultimately accountable.

And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. (Matthew 19:29)

Knowing the stakes will make you able to make the right choices. When you realize that except for Jezebel no woman was judged for leading a man astray you will take your spiritual responsibility more seriously.

Of course the devil will try to bring adultery on like he did to David and many other sins. All that will be to try as much as he could if not to abort the purposes at least to put a dent in them through our sin. Just keep connected to God. Listen to Him and you will never go astray.

Women have an uncanny ability to see unrealized potential. That is why you will see a man with an explosive spiritual gift being hooked to a woman who may leave her husband and have the man leave his wife so that together they can exploit the gift she sees in the man. There are enough examples around of men in ministry whose driving force is the woman and not God or the call. Man, however much God has gifted and talented you do not allow anything or anything drive that apart from God and His call on your life. It is not worth it.

(I have just scratched the surface on marriage because in my blog you will find a few more posts on the same. I have posted on women empowerment and emasculation of the boy child).

Complete Repentance

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:12)

I know we love that verse to bits. But do we realize that God does not excise the sins from us? Do we realize that He does not forcefully take them from us? He removes what we have released to Him.

We have a responsibility to release our sins for Him to take them so far from us. We must be willing to forsake them for this verse to have any significance to us. We might sing it all we can but He will NEVER take any sins that we have not forsaken anywhere leave alone that far.

I am reminded of this lady who was given a lift in a pickup. She was very grateful as she was going some distance and her load was heavy. She boarded but didn’t remove the load from her back or sit. When the driver asked why she was not putting her burden down she countered that she was grateful that the vehicle had agreed to carry her. But she didn’t want to burden it further with her load.

Many times we are like that lady. We want to enjoy the rewards of forgiveness without releasing the clingings of the sin.

We are happy when we are taught that grace is free. What we do not want to accept is that it is not cheap. It cost Christ so much suffering and death. I will equate this with people who when invited for a meal they are not paying for will stuff themselves to indigestion without realizing that while it was free to them it cost the host much.

As ministers we are supported by God’s people yet I see ministers living their lives as if the support they receive was spilled on the ground for them to waste or was worthless to the supporter. Free does not mean worthless. It just means that the cost was borne by somebody else.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: (Psalm 66:18)

How willing am I to make a clean break from my sins? What do I think about my pet sins?

On my blog I have a post about the cost of disobedience. One person asked me to give my take on delayed obedience and I reflected on that for some time. Delayed obedience is the rebellion of a coward. You see a coward is scared of punishment and will do anything to escape it. A coward will do whatever it takes, including another sin to avoid being punished for the first sin.

The coward is as obedient as will defer punishment. A coward will never have a change of heart, unless to make people think it is so for a particular purpose. And no wonder God is also fed up with them.

So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:16)

There is more hope for the openly rebellious than for the coward because the coward shifts like the desert sands to avoid what may inflict pain, and repentance inflicts pain.

And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD. And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah. (Jeremiah 3: 10, 11)

Note this also.

But the fearful (cowards), and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8)

That is how God feels about cowards. They begin the list of those headed to hell.

What does that have to do with transgressions? Many times we want to appear repentant when we have not faced our sins squarely especially with the purpose of forsaking them. We may be in a continual state of repentance, even living a life so full of tears that we may appear saintly when people look at us. Yet that may be a consequence of being afraid to face the consequences of our sins. That is the running theme of the book ‘The Scarlet Letter’. Look at David.

When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring (groaning) all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. (Psalm 32: 3 - 5)

I tend to think that between the time David sinned and was confronted there was so much repentance. He may have appeared the epitome of righteousness, even holiness but he was the opposite. If David was anything similar to me he spent days and months repenting and repenting and repenting, yet he was not willing to forsake the sin. You see he was living with Uriah’s wife. However religiously legal it was, he knew that it was sin before God. Yet he was not willing to let go of the sweet enjoyments that proceeded from the sin. His must have been a perpetual cry of repentance from dawn to dusk. I am sure that even sleeping was a pain as he slept beside the ‘sin’ night after night.

His bones waxed old because he was being torn between confessing his sins and forsaking them. He wanted to be forgiven yet he was not willing to let the sin go. He was like this lady on a lift.

When he was finally able to face the sin it became very easy to find his release as God was ready to forgive. Even the relationship that was the cause of the struggle was dealt with quite easily. And that is what God is telling us this day.

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. (Isaiah 1: 18 – 20)

The main issue is not our sin. It is the forgiveness. Though God is ready to forgive, He can only forgive what we have forsaken. We can’t tell Him to take the sins from us when we have a thread connecting us to them unless we want him to tear us apart like was happening to David. He delights to forgive. He is ready to forgive. BUT HE WILL FORGIVE US ON HIS TERMS. He will not forgive us to make us feel good. He will not forgive us to make us feel free. Though forgiveness releases good things to us, we should treat them as the fruit of the forgiveness instead of the goal. We are forgiven because we have sinned, not so that we can receive peace. It is forgiveness after complete repentance that releases peace.

Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: {meet...: or, answerable to amendment of life} (Matthew 3:8)

Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. (Luke 3:8)

Repentance that does not go that far is a joke to God. We may pride ourselves of being so devoted to God yet demonstrate a different thing in our hearts.

Do you still take money from the adulterous spouse you have been sleeping around with even after repenting? You may be using one excuse or the other to refuse to have sex with them but as long as you have not conclusively let them go you are still tied to the sin. David was legally married to Bathsheba but that did not deal with the sin. You might start lying that today you have periods, the next you have assignments, the other that you must visit your parents. But it all boils down to this. You are not willing to cut the tree that provides the forbidden fruit. You might weep all you can. You might go to prayer centres for weeks. You may fast for months. But as long as you are not letting go of the sin you can never expect God to separate it from you. And nowadays it is not only women who do that. I was told these days there are male prostitutes.

What do you about the rent and other expenses that have been coming from that source? Tell me whether the fruits of wickedness are worth all the pain you are going through. Is that car you are driving because you slept with your boss worth the condemnation you are living with? Is that house you acquired fraudulently worth the guilt that plagues you?

Maybe you experience some thrill when your flimsy dressing leaves men ogling after you. You know it is fodder for lust and you feel great when all men and even women turn their eyes in your direction as you pass. God has convicted you of being the pathway of sin and you are feeling so sorry for your sin. Crying night after night will not provide the release from God. Even going along pulling the dresses down to cover the essentials and up to cover the breasts will not deal with your sin.

I know some are saying that those are the only clothes they have and I agree with you. But do you think it is repentance when you are a walking temptation everywhere you go? Is that reason enough to refuse to deal with it?

And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.  And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: (Mark 9: 42, 43)

It is better to have one or two appropriate dresses than to have a full wardrobe that drives you to hell because you are causing God’s people to stumble.

Maybe you bribed to get the job and are wondering why no amount of repentance is giving you peace. Face the music. It might mean going to jail for that release. But I am sure God will give you the right cause of action when you agree that you will do what it takes to get rid of that sin.

Balaam (Numbers 23 – 25) for me is the epitome of the kind of repentance we should cringe from. At least three times we see him being refused permission to curse Israel. Yet he remains focused on the reward he was promised. Even the talking donkey was not sufficient enough to turn him from his folly. We see him dying the death of the ungodly just because his repentance did not go far enough. I have addressed his case on my blog (Balaam and Politically Correct Answers)

What is it has God been speaking to you about? What has taken peace from you yet you remain in a constant state of repentance? Could it be that your repentance is only mouth deep? Is there something you are refusing to do because you feel the price might be too high? Are you wondering why repentance is not giving you the release you hear and read about? Could it be that there is some drastic action you have been deferring because you feel God should understand the genuineness of your heart?

Well, now is the time to face it. God will never forgive a sin that has not been repented and forsaken. Those sins will continue to cling to your person and may eventually take you to your grave and eventually hell.

Do a radical thing. Cut them off. Face the music. Pay the cost.

Maybe you are a preacher who is tired of his sermons because they have stopped challenging people towards godliness. People have stopped being convicted of their sins, even ones who are openly living in sin. However hard you try you can’t see any change in your congregation in God’s direction. You wonder why you are experiencing frustration instead of fatigue that you dealt with when your ministry was bearing fruit.

At the back of your mind you know that you have friends that have contributed to that. You know that you have supporters that have taken your ministry to such great heights who have slowly and surely taken your sermons from what they should be to what these friends and supporters feel comfortable with. Probably it is none of that but you have defenders who have fought for you even when the whole church leadership was against you. You know you remain there because of the sacrifice of these fighters who could even sin to protect you.

Maybe it is friends who have made the church get you things even against its structures. They wield such great influence that you know they have even twisted scripture to get you what you have from the congregation. They have made you the absolute ruler of the institution though you wisely say it belongs to Christ. How can you offend them?

You have also been in deep reflection, even weeping night and day to see the light in your pastoral/ ministerial tunnel. You have repented about your worthless sermons that are more entertaining than life changing. You feel pain when people applaud you because you know that God is angry with those sermons because they do not lead people to Him. You have tried all you could to change but all in vain because you are indebted to these people who have sacrificed so much to keep you in comfort.

Complete your repentance. Cut all those links off. It might cost you that car you are driving but it will take the sins far from you. It might even cost the house your family is staying in but it is better to live in the slums with God’s favor than in a palace without. It might mean taking your children out of those schools to cheaper ones. It might cause great fights with your wife and she might even opt off your life because she had adjusted well with that lifestyle.

And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. (Matthew 19:29)

Take your pick. Choose between being right with God and being at peace with everybody and everything else. But it is not repentance if it stops short of cutting links with everything that has contributed to the sin. No wonder Christ talks about plucking off the eye, chopping off the hand and leg, etc. Nothing is worth my losing God’s acceptance. Nothing should delay God taking my sins as far as the west is to the east from me.

Probably it is in marriage or relationships. You found grass a little too green on the other side to leave alone.  Or you found your biological calendar going too fast for your comfort and decided that a bird in hand is worth the two in the promise. Now you are stuck in a relationship that is spiritually too stale for your liking. No crying in repentance is doing anything to spice your spiritual appetite. Outwardly you have more than anyone would need. You have good spouse, adorable children, great job, great connections and excellent returns for your investments. Yet you feel as empty as an unoccupied grave and just as dead.  You wonder how foolish you could have been to take a short cut to access what God had promised.

In the past you used to wonder as you read Ezra 10 how Judah could have been so callous to rid themselves of wives and their children. But now you examine your life and can understand from your own experience why that was essential. You have already paid a huge price for that short cut. What to do? Surely you can’t go the Ezra way? Surely you can’t cut all those beneficial connections as they are not really sin? What about the marriage that is outwardly a model for most that at times you are the subject in sermons on good marriages?

Deep down you know that you are like the church in Sardis (Revelation 3:1). Everybody sees you as full of life yet you know you are as dead as death itself. That is tearing your spirit apart. You weep and repent day and night but are not feeling anywhere close to your breakthrough.

Which eye needs to be plucked out? Which hand or leg needs to be chopped off? You must realize that there are no short cuts as far as God’s standards are concerned. There are no short cuts where repentance is concerned.

Will you take the plunge?

God bless you.

(These are just a few scenarios we go through. Seek God’s take as it concerns your life. Pray like David)

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:  And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23, 24)

Plastic Surgery and the Church

I was thinking of the church the way I see it and the way it was when I got saved as a child. I think it is not inaccurate if I said that the present church has almost no similarities to the church less than a generation ago. Things that were anathema then are fashion trends today. I want us to examine the progression to the transformation we see.

Let me highlight a few changes. Less than twenty short years ago, only drug addicts and Rastafarians (who were almost synonymous) wore dreadlocks. Today we can see pastors and all sorts of ministers sporting them. I remember that the same case was with the shades, especially dark ones. It was said that drug abusers wore them to hide their blood-shot eyes from the public.

A Christian applying make-up was nowhere. But today you will see a minister from a paint factory proudly showing off her different coats of makeup, many times instead of preaching. In fact there are Christian ministries dedicated to the same to make our girls learn how to look (be painted) good. Most churches will call an expert to run such a program for their ladies. In it they will be taught everything from undercoats to pencils. I have never heard any training on ladies to be godly women, committed to their families and submitted to their husbands as the scriptures ordain.

Twenty years ago it was inappropriate to hold hands with a person of the opposite sex in public even when you were planning to get married. Now it appears as if the only thing a Christian can’t do in church openly is having sex. I remember a pastor friend challenging the youth when hugging started twenty plus years ago. He told them (us) that if you must hug something, then hug a tree (instead of someone of the opposite sex).

A few short years ago the terms my dear, sweetheart, darling etc were terms strictly meant for people in love and in romantic surroundings and where there was no other company. Today everybody seems to be a darling of everybody else, even total strangers. Makes one wonder whether it is English that has changed!

No self respecting woman or girl let anyone see her chest, leave alone the cleavage. The only time you saw a breast was when a mother was suckling. Today, however, it appears as if the breasts have replaced or are an extension of the face even in church. The calf was the closest one got to a woman’s private parts. Now it appears as if one is walking in sin if a piece of the thigh cannot be seen.

The only place women held leadership positions were in the women’s fellowship and probably the Sunday school. Now they run churches, holding virtually all positions in some churches. Even churches that held the Bible as supreme in that respect have had to bend their theology to give women any position they want as they are a substantial constituency (as if the church is a political party).

As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths. (Isaiah 3:12)

Deception is when we think this is a sign of progress whereas God is talking of it as judgment. What we are thinking as being accommodating God is calling compromise or even worse, rebellion.

What happened? How did it happen?

When I did engines in school, it was a rule that when overhauling an engine you must be the one to put it together again. This was because with the so many parts which are identical, yet slightly different due to their individual wear, you were the one who knew how you arranged them and so would be best placed to return each part where you took it from. You can’t change engine parts at will because different manufacturers make their parts differently. That is how many view the church, so standardized that no change can be applied to the structure. Incidentally I wish that would be the church because it would be impossible to change what the manufacturer (God, the creator) intended.

But the church is a body, a living, growing organism. It appears as if it is more difficult to introduce corruption there than in a purely solid mechanism, until we think of cosmetology, the science of manipulating living organisms so that you can change their appearance or function. I am speaking here as a layman as I did not even study Biology in school.

Plastic surgery was initially used for restorative purposes. For example someone receives severe burns that skin in places cannot grow back normally due to the severity of the burns. The doctor would cut a piece of skin from a healthy part of the body and engraft it to the burnt place. The same thing was done when a person was in an accident at which he lost a part of their body.

But we have gone farther. We have taken plastic surgery to greater heights and created other purposes for the same. Today plastic surgery is associated more with modifying the way our body looks like than restoration. That is why we are seeing people adding their behinds to become more appealing, increasing or decreasing the size of one’s breasts and lips and even removing aging evidence on our faces. Thus it is now possible to look 25 when you are fifty or more.

Many of us know of this musician who hated being negroid to the extent that he literally changed the way he looked. It was impossible to connect his pictures when he was a boy to his later appearances. I can’t vouch for the truth of stories that his nose, which had literally been replaced with a more ‘acceptable’ one, had a habit of falling off once in a while.

I also remember reading this recent story of a man who accused his wife and was awarded damages because what he married is not what he got. Incidentally the wife had gone to another country to change her appearance because she ‘realized’ that she was not attractive enough. She was then able to meet this man who married her. But her plastic surgery did not go to her genes. When she got a child, the man saw that it couldn’t have been the product of them both but DNA results showed otherwise. That was when he realized that his wife had altered the way she looked and sued her for deception and false pretenses. It is interesting that they have put the two photos of the same woman and it is so stark that it is easy to feel for this man.

Is this what has happened to the church? How has it been possible?

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:1, 2)

I suggest that cosmetology has entered in the mind of the church. We have started to be excited by what the world thinks about us more than God has revealed to us. When we think that relevance to the world is of more worth than what God says we will of necessity start modeling ourselves to be more attractive to the world. When we look to the world and its systems with admiration instead of pity for what it needs, we simply abort the purpose of our being.

The reason a person undergoes plastic surgery is that they are not content with what they look like because they think the world looks down on them. They will therefore start altering what they think will improve their attractiveness. That is why a girl will starve herself to be able to be slim like a model because she thinks a model is admired by all without realizing that models are many times exploited to their bones.

As I write I remember one time ministering in a high school. A very pretty girl came and greeted me in a very familiar way. I was shocked because I had never seen her. Until she told me who she was! She was from my village and in fact we had more or less grown up together. But she was changed! She was originally a very beautiful black. What had happened is that she had bleached her face to look very light. To me she was more beautiful when she was black. But somehow she was deceived or deceived herself into thinking that being black decreased her beauty. I don’t know what happened to her later as our paths have never crossed since but I would imagine something similar to the girl who was sued by her husband after she got children.

Psalm 73 also tells of someone who had the same struggle the church is going through as he looked at the wicked in the eyes of the world. He became very frustrated and was inches from backsliding, until he got God’s view of things. Then He is able to really see people in the light of a God who has a complete hold of things. He sees that he, instead of needing the worldlings, is supposed to minister to them by opening their eyes to the reality of God’s word.

What is success? Your definition will define whether you are a plasticized model of the original you. This is because the world has its own definition of success while God has His. When God created man, He sought to give man His kind of success. Man’s fall brought another standard, a lower standard. The problem is that this standard, though clearly lower and temporal, is visible as it has a habit of parading itself.

Where does the world market itself? Of course the most visible is the media. We have newspapers, radio, TV and of course the Hollywood. Who rules that realm?

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (Ephesians 2:2)

We may argue all we want but we ought to realize that the devil has a hold on the media. How does he do it? He draws our attention to the visible. Then he is able to make it tantalizingly attractive that we feel that we may die if we can’t access it. The media is the number one feeder of greed and covetousness. And many other sins too.

Most of the corruptions I have mentioned started growing exponentially when we started having 24 hour TV channels that for lack of sufficient content to fill time started showing movies a lot of the time. I was in the media around that time and am therefore talking from the pot.

About that same time the TV became affordable. Before then only the rich could afford even a black and white tube. Then came Greatwall, the TV for the masses. Now almost anybody could afford a TV without taking a loan or needing to be creditworthy, though for most they had to sacrifice a lot to be able to buy it.

After that was the VCRs which were inaccessible because people had no TVs. But now people could watch movies whenever they wanted if they had a VCR, which also became affordable though for most they had to either take a loan or visit credit traders who could mortgage your salary for the same. But it was a craze then.

After that it was all downward. The media started ruling the masses. What with all the movies being spewed from the TV and being watched on the VCRs? We started being flooded with the world on the world’s terms. There were movies and talk shows and news and debates. All of a sudden people couldn’t do without something they had just started having. In the past, apart from cinemas which were a preserve of the rich, it was the government that took movies to the populace in open grounds once or twice a month. Now you could watch any movie without going through the government censorship process.

Of course all that was not for nothing. The prince of the power of the air was not after giving people options but limiting them. People started talking like the movie and TV stars. People started dressing what they were seeing. People started behaving like their heroes. Eventually people started thinking like the media was programming them to.

All of a sudden flimsy dressing became acceptable since that was how the stars dressed. Makeup became commonplace because we had to look like the stars. Our language became as affectionate as the stars. Even our values had to change to bring us closer to the stars.

But it went deeper. Cosmetology went beyond the outward. We started thinking like the stars. With all the soap operas we were watching, we had to really justify our heroes. And knowing Hollywood, virtue is not of great value there. A stable marriage has never created any story line just as good news has never made any headline. Our heroes are many times habitual adulterers. But they are so nice even then! We therefore look for justification for their foibles. Adultery and fornication are sin yet they look so nice when our star is doing it. We therefore turn our face the other way so that we do not judge them so ‘unfairly’.

Ultimately, not only do we need plastic surgery on our outside. We will need to have our kidneys changed. Our old kidney is so stringent and does not allow for ‘progress’. We must have a more permissive purifier that can let us enjoy our stars without judging them.

With a kidney that allows for some impurities without making our system sick, we will realize that our heart also has a problem with all these impurities. It is threatening to go on strike because the blood vessels cannot handle all this solid waste the new kidney is allowing into the blood. What do we do now?

That is simple. Change the heart. Bring a heart that does not care what passes through provided it looks like blood. Get a heart that can pump without even assessing what it is pumping. Even better, why not get a mechanical heart that does not need the rest of the body to pump. Then you won’t have to worry whether you are pumping poison or blood into the body.

I believe this is what has happened to the church over a few years. The place of the Bible and Biblical values has been taken from the prominence we know it should be accorded to the gutters as far as our values are concerned. The more TV and movies we watch, the less Bible controls us.

Let me give an illustration. To read the Bible through (from Genesis to Revelation) in one year, you will read for about 15 to 20 minutes per day. Yet I am always trying to challenge Christians to attempt that as most people treat it as an impossibility. It is treated as the trophy for the spiritual giants.

Yet most people read at least a newspaper a day which will take an hour. Some even read more papers to get a better balance of news (which are bad news anyway). Most people keep abreast with the news, watching at least one prime bulletin a day. This is about an hour.

Assuming this spiritual giant does not spend any other time on the media but the two hours, what do you think will control his thoughts, 15 minutes in the word or two hours in hell (that is basically what news give)? We have assumed that they do not even watch a ‘good’ movie or a talk show hosted by a virtually naked woman. How spiritual can you be to counter all that negative exposure and still remain focused on heaven? And here we are talking about a person who reads through the Bible yearly. What about the spiritual minnows?

Another thing I will mention is that we imitate what we admire. In the past we admired our leaders because of what they did. They were also the ones who interpreted our world to us. We did not have many people who went places. We also did not have newspapers or radio to give us information beyond what was around us.

The other day a radio pastor was explaining what it took to make a phone call. It took more than the telephone. Since they were only in major towns one had to raise money to travel there. Due to the distances involved it required not only fare but even lunch and sometimes supper and someplace to spend the night. And that to make a call that many times would be to an office near to the person you are interested in so that they are given the message or they know you will call so will hover around until you do so.

With the advancement of communication I now can be able to reach anyone on their own line anywhere in the world. In fact I can have financial transactions without visiting the banks. To the extent that banks are becoming more and more unnecessary to most. Even people using banks will do most of their transactions online or using their cell phones.

But I digress though this is also part of what has plasticized the church.

We have an avalanche of information and entertainment. This gives us role models whose only qualification is visibility. We admire sports personalities but we know that we cannot attain their discipline and therefore prowess. They thus can’t be effective role models. We have actors whose only qualification is their plastic lifestyles. Though we know it is not easy to attain what they have, they look more or less like us, making their lifestyles attainable. We are wowed by their boldness, their fluency, their ‘genuineness’, their act. We therefore seek to imitate them.

And that is the bane of the church today. We are watching too much of a rotten thing.

Since we are imitators, we will find ourselves dropping our guard even in things that are anathema to us. It is interesting that brewers look for worship leaders to promote as if there are no secular musicians needing it. How can drunkenness promote worship? Incidentally even the trainers and judges are worship leaders. What is shocking is that I am yet to hear a pastor preaching against this adulteration of worship. In fact I have seen a few congratulating the winners who literally die spiritual deaths as the devil can never promote righteousness. How can a bar sponsor an evangelistic outreach whose impact will be felt by the closing of bars? In other words the church is so deceived that they have stopped seeing, leave alone seeing straight.

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6: 22, 23)

Christ called the world darkness. It is therefore apparent that looking to the world for affirmation is swimming in darkness. Yet that is what we are doing.

Yet the sadder picture is the ‘believers’ whose eyes are glued to their TVs for the entire season of the search, even without a hint of guilt. I have seen even pastors commenting on the program until I wonder whether they know who they are serving. They do not know that it is their viewership that makes the millions to the brewer so that he will share the spillover to the ‘worship leader talent’ in the show. But do they also pray? Do they care to know how God feels about their entertainment?

Some radio programs make me wish very bad things for their sponsors and presenters. All they parade is infidelity, cruelty and a combination of the worst of human society. You are tempted to think that marriage is a fraud at all times and a stable marriage has never existed. Yet the programs are very popular. I cannot envision a fan of that program expecting honesty from their spouse at any time. Incidentally some of the presenters (probably most) are devout church people. I wonder whether they ever care to know God’s take on the rottenness they parade, leave alone reading the Bible for themselves. A constant dose of such programs will pave your road to hell faster than the devil himself would.

But it is sad that we listen to that trash, attractive as it may be. We think that knowing how the other side operates will make us better ministers which is a lie straight from hell. We never see Jesus caring to know what the devil was planning. We always see Him seeking to know how heaven operated.

We pray that what is being done in heaven happens here on earth, yet our eyes are on hell and what is happening there. How will we even know when God is releasing a breakthrough our way when all we are looking is hell’s roadblocks? We are to be so focused on heaven that like Jesus the only time we will encounter the devil is when he stands in our way, and then we shove him aside and continue in our journey. The media is so packed with hell’s agenda that it is no surprise that homosexuality marriages are being legalized and we don’t experience any shock as we expected it anyway since that is what we watch.

What about Christian media? Many of them are not much different from the secular anyway. In any case my point is that we should take a more active interest in our spiritual growth. There is this pastor I switch of the radio when he comes on because Jesus is as hidden in the program as the popular pin in a haystack. The 30 minutes are all about him. Yet this is a Christian program in a Christian radio station. And many of them are like that.

It is sad that you will see gambling being promoted in one way or the other in a Christian program. Witchcraft is being promoted and practiced by pastors in Christian programs.

There are some good programs but it is important to know that the radio or TV program will never take the place of your personal discipline to learn and practice God’s word. If it is not pushing you into getting your hands dirty in your pursuit of holiness it is not good. If it does not drive you to pray more or better then it has to be negative. If it does not lead me to agonise over the lost world then it does not serve God’s interests.

The internet is the same, even worse. More people are sunk to pornography through the net than all other avenues combined. We need to realize who rules that ‘air’ too. Then we will know that we are not kings but subversives in the system. Some Christians have been swallowed by the net to the extent that they do not know life outside it. And it is worse because it is able to get to you 24 hours a day.

We should take the internet as a tool that is a good slave but a terrible master. Many started using it until it took control of their lives. How many relationships and marriages are being broken by the internet?

I try to be careful as I use the internet, knowing that the boss still remains the prince of the power of the air and that God is giving me an opportunity to make a difference there. I am however conscious that I do not end up like Lot. He may have gone to Sodom as a minister, probably trying to ‘reach’ them with the gospel. But they were too many and too numerous to change. Eventually they changed him and all he had.

Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. (Jude 1:21- 23)

These verses guide me as I venture here. But I know it is risky business