Proximity to Fire

My last post looked at the danger fire poses on those closest to it by looking at ministry.

Today I want us to examine examples from the scriptures to enable us understand what it means to be close to fire.

Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment. (James 3:1)

Why was Moses unable to cross over to the Promised Land?

Do you realize that it could have been a very flimsy reason had it been somebody else?

He was angry, justifiably so. He was also under extreme pressure as the people wanted to stone him. How does someone remain sober amid noise from two million disgruntled ‘children’?

Yet it is important to understand why God could not overlook Moses’ mistake.

He was too close to God to be excused for anything. He knew God too well to make the mistake he did irrespective of the pressure. Simply speaking he was too close to God’s fire to escape the scalding from the same.

There was simply no excuse for Moses to do what he did considering his closeness with God and the assignment God had given him.

Aaron made the golden calf and escaped with a rebuke, amongst many other errors in judgment. Remember he even joined ranks with Miriam to question Moses’ authority?

Look also at David. His single error of adultery opened judgment on his whole lineage. Yet we have Joab who killed for envy in a cold blooded manner not being judged thus.

What am I talking about?

In a forest are many trees of different sizes.

What happens when a very huge tree falls (or is felled)?

It never goes alone. It will fell many other trees. In fact it will kill any tree that lies on its fall.

I hope you realize that ministry is many times exactly like that?

A minister is most times like that tree. And his prominence is always tied to his closeness to God, real or imagined.

That is why someone is not ashamed of seeking counsel from a person of his grandchildren’s age, just because he is a minister. That is why someone can take rebuke from his children for the same reason.

The minister represents God. You remember that Israel would repent for speaking against Moses as well as speaking against God?

That is where fire comes from. God knows the vantage point we occupy in people’s hearts and minds and so will not excuse any fall on our side. He would therefore rather burn us than allow us to burn others with the power He has entrusted us with. Again it is irrespective of whether we have been called or called ourselves since the ‘sheep’ may not be so discriminating.

That is why I always insist that one must have a very clear call to respond to.

I might love people to the extent that I interpret that concern for ministry calling (or they mistake it). I then become a pastor, evangelist, prophet, on that basis. I really have no muscle for that and could very easily crumble when the stresses of actual ministry pound on me yet I have hordes looking up to me to understand God.

My fall, discouragement, despair, depression, will not stop with me but affect all who are looking up to me or are under my watch. It means that it will affect them far more than it affects since it will have a ripple effect on them.

God will therefore burn us before we burn His people, or because we burn them.

I hope you understand.

Are you called? Are you ready for that fire? 

Approaching Fire

I thought to share this brief message to not only encourage us to aim at drawing close to God but especially to let us know the requirements of that closeness.

 Do you remember that the strongest soldiers who were sent to throw the three Hebrews to the furnace were consumed by the fire that did not harm the youth?

And why? They were not prepared to handle the accelerated and amplified heat.

Do you realize that the Levites had conditions for entering the ministry? Yet what were they warned against? Defilement. In short the danger they were warned against was becoming unclean.

What about the priests?

‘Lest you die’, was the warning.

Why?

They would be approaching God’s ‘presence’.

And we have examples.

Aaron’s sons had been confirmed priests and had even served one week of their commissioning.

Then in their excitement and zeal make use of their new status to offer strange fire and God kills them immediately.

Uzzah is enjoying great worship escorting the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem when the oxen stumble and he instinctively reaches out to steady the precious load and God also strikes him dead. And I hope you remember long before that when over fifty thousand died when they looked (probably came too close) at the ark when it came from the Philistines after they sent it back for wrecking havoc on their cities and gods.

What am I saying?

God’s presence is precious. But it is also dangerous if one is not ready for it.

The person who should come to that presence needs adequate preparation to handle the fire. Or don’t you know that our God is a consuming fire?

In short I am saying that before you take a spiritual responsibility it is essential to evaluate whether you have adequate skin to handle the fire the positions brings you to.

Though pastor and bishop are nice titles to be called, they are spiritual positions bringing the holder into the proximity of God. And that is whether they are qualified, called or not.

Know that that position you crave has a capacity of taking you so close to the fire before you are ready to handle it. And that fire has a capacity of destroying you in more ways than one.

Burnout, propensity to sin, curse on you and yours, broken and unworkable marriages and child raising, etc. are some of the fires that can destroy you.

No wonder warned against taking spiritual positions just because they offer themselves.

Listen to God very closely to know whether He has adequately prepared you to handle that fire contained in the responsibility (a title is worse) you are being offered.

Otherwise why did Joseph stay for thirteen years before seeing the fulfillment of the dream God gave him. Why did David stay for close to twenty years before taking the position he was anointed for? And why did Moses rot in the wilderness before taking the position God had set up for him before he was born?

Let God Himself tell you when you are ready. Then the fire will not consume you

Ezra

I weighed into their hand six hundred fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels one hundred talents; of gold one hundred talents; and twenty bowls of gold, of one thousand darics; and two vessels of fine bright brass, precious as gold. (Ezra 8: 26, 27)

I recently posted about Nehemiah and Ezra and their responses to situations. I used statements that probably left some in the wilderness, especially concerning the treasure Ezra was ferrying.

Let me try to break it down in smaller pieces.

Let us take the talent.

According to books, the talent weighed between 50 and 60 kg.

This tells us that at the very least they were ferrying 32 tonnes of silver and 3 tonnes of gold.

Due to the state of the roads and means of transport, it must have been a very large caravan, visible from very far.

A talent of gold was worth 10 000 shekels, a shekel being the daily wage for a laborer. That of silver weighed at half of that of gold. You can localize that to get the worth of that gold and silver. Of course the vessels would cost more due to the labor involved.

It is worth noting that the journey took almost four months, of course through enemy territory.

Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth [day] of the first month, to go to Jerusalem: and the hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the bandit by the way. (Ezra 8:31)

It was evident to all that God must have protected them from enemies and any other thieves and bandits along the way. Chance was ruled out as they were completely exposed and vulnerable without an army.

I hope you can see why Ezra proclaimed a fast.

I am sure that as Darius prayed for Daniel in the lions’ den, the king must have prayed that the God of Ezra protects all that treasure from enemies as it was mind boggling even thinking about the loss of all that treasure. And like with Darius the king must have started believing in Him since there was no logical explanation for that protection.

Yet do you know it is the same with our frail efforts at living our faith ‘dangerously’ in these times?

Do you know that we have the same impact on our friends, neighbors and relatives when we decide that radical faith is not only practical but is the choice for us?

Will you make a decision to jump into the deep end of your faith?

The Jonah in Us

The Bible says that Elijah was a man like us.

Do you realize that Jonah also was a man like us? Allow me to contextualize him. Imagine being in these situations.

You have finally decided to settle down with the love of your life after a number of years in a relationship. The engagement went on very well and all that is remaining is the wedding of your dreams. 

You therefore approach your best friend to walk you through that home stretch.

Before you know it, he marries your fiancé in a secret wedding and she does not even remove your engagement ring.

In a daze, you seek to understand what has happened. Then you get to know that that was the nature of your friend, leaving bleeding hearts wherever he passes. 

Then God sends you to give him a message that he has a week to change or he will come under judgment. Will you go or wait for the ultimatum to expire?

You have a vibrant business. There is this brother (or sister) who has seemingly tried everything without success.

Since you really gel in fellowship, you decide to co-opt him in your business. At the back of your mind you want him to learn the ropes of business so that you can fund him into opening his in a way that it won’t fail as had been happening. 

He therefore gets into the nerve centre of your business because you trust him. 

Before you realize it, he has changed the business to become his and kicked you out. You have to beg to start from scratch again because he has taken everything you slaved to build. 

After some time, you get to a leak of some error in his books with a capacity of completely destroying him and the company. What will you do?

Or you were sitting your final exams in college and the guy next to you copied your answers. When questioned, he was somehow able to convince the lecturer that you were the one who copied though even that lecturer knew the truth. You were referred, making you miss the graduation as well as a whole year of your life. 

Then God sends you to them with a message, repent or …. Will you go?

Imagine you have been married for decades with mature children. Your marriage is the model for all since you seem to gel effortlessly. You have no complaint concerning your marriage and therefore are not putting any front to impress anybody. You know God has granted you a perfect marriage.

Then you come from work one day and discover that some photos are missing from the wall. You assume the house girl has removed to clean them. 

Then you see your husband’s corner where he keeps his stuff like books is empty and are puzzled.

You then go to the bedroom and discover that all your husband’s clothes are missing. 

You now feel like you could eat the house girl alive. How could she allow somebody to steal your husband’s stuff? You must call him to inform him about the theft of his things. But in your confusion you do not remember where you left the phone.

You get back to the living room and just as you see your phone, you also see a letter.

Your husband is saying that he has decided to leave the marriage as it had become a prison to him. He is not coming back as he has got somebody that has freed him from the prison. 

He says you do not look for him. Just move on as he has.

And who has captured his heart? The house girl!

Maybe you are the man in such a marriage.

Before you leave work in the evening your boss calls you and informs you that you have been transferred to a distant town immediately. Due to that, you are not expected in the office since you have one week to report to your new station. All your dues have been worked out leaving you with a free week to move.

Since you love new things, you are excited but anxious about your wife since you know she must get a transfer first and the logistics will be tenuous. 

That is what you are thinking when you get to your house. You then open it and find it as clean as an empty stadium. You think it is the wrong house and go out to get into the right one. Then you find it is actually your house that is empty. 

You move to the bedroom and find that your clothes are all over the floor as anything movable has been removed from the house. 

You decide to call your wife to ask whether she knows that things have been stolen from your house. 

She laughs and tells you that she has left with her severance package and please do not ever look for her. 

As you are preparing to move to your new station, you find out that your wife moved with the boss that gave you the transfer.

Ten years down the line you hear they have a major crisis that only you can resolve. What will you do?

These are things that happen around us all the time.

We love theoretical theology just like we love bashing those spiritual failures we see in the Bible. 

I just hope we look at them like we would like to be looked at. I hope we have some grace as we examine some of those stories for our instruction. And it is because the stories are just like our stories.

I fact many of us are worse that Jonah. How many times do you hear believers saying ‘return to sender’ in prayer? How many are experts in binding and loosing and releasing? How many are so vengeful on enemies when they are praying? How many are claiming and reclaiming and at whose expense?

Aren’t we going farther than Nineveh?

You see, Jonah wanted God to judge Nineveh for their sins because they were the enemy. They deserved it. He just didn’t want grace to be extended to them. But he was not praying judgment to them. He just wanted them to get what they deserved.

But it is important that we get the central teaching in this book. And it is that Jonah was an Old Testament character God privileged to experience New Testament realities.

You see, Jonah was in tune with God’s revelation to Israel during his time. Ever read these verses?

Yahweh, don't I hate those who hate you? Am I not grieved with those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred. They have become my enemies. (Psalm 139: 21, 22) 

Enemies were to be hated 

God was therefore releasing a new paradigm. The other character who was introduced to the same reality is Hosea. 

Compare those verses with what Jesus said. 

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; (Matthew 5:44) 

Isn’t this what God was introducing to His servant Jonah? No wonder He was so patient with him. 

Will we apply God’s message of love to Jonah to help us excitedly live out the New Testament realities? Will we love those we do not like? Will we love like Christ loved?

Otherwise Jonah will continue being a textbook topic with no didactic value to us.

Jonah changed because we couldn’t otherwise have been reading his story. Sadly, he left many of us where he started at as concerns enemies, some of who are conceived in our minds.

Imagine we can even hate our fellow believers! And that because we differ in the way we interpret a portion of scripture!

 I have said elsewhere that I was kicked out of leadership because I sought to privately correct a false teacher. At another time I was declared backslidden because I had obeyed God and went to minister to a ‘sinning’ church that I had really battled with God to go. My ministry support was withdrawn without notice and my family left ‘hanging’ in the great city because we disagreed on the modalities of doing ministry that I had been called to start and which was already having a great impact with the ministry later being killed.

There is a Jonah in each of us. What we need to decide is which of them we will be. 

We can be the former Jonah who ran away from the commission because he could not bear to see grace being poured on the enemy or the one who received the New Testament reality that God loves even our enemies and is therefore not bound by our bias from reaching out to them. 

Will we bless those who curse us like Christ commanded?

 

To Spiritual Prefects

Ezra and Nehemiah were contemporaries, meaning they lived at the same time. In fact we see Nehemiah talking about Ezra’s ministry.

This means that their circumstances were more or less similar.

Yet I want us to see something strikingly different in the way they reacted to situations to get us appreciate that who we are determines how we respond to situations. It explains why some will call others insane just because their reaction to the same situation is so different.

Nehemiah was raised in the palace while Ezra was raised as a priest, a minister.

Each of them is given a blank cheque by the king to return to Judah. But above that Ezra is given immense treasure to carry back to the temple.

Nehemiah is all logistics; letters and more letters. He met challenges with clear logistical excellence.

Ezra sees a serious security challenge. Imagine ferrying billions through enemy territory!

Of course he could have like Nehemiah requested for an army to escort them. But what does he do?

He calls for a fast. Requesting for protection to him was akin to compromising his witness to the king.

Why the difference? I dare say that the difference is that between a believer and a minister. Though both are believers, one has a higher threshold of faith than the other.

Yet what is even more striking comes later.

Judah has compromised the marriage institution by marrying into tribes God had forbidden.

The logistician does what they always do; call them, scold and shame them, pull out their hair, etc.

What does the minister do? He goes into prayer and repentance.

Nehemiah shows them how bad their situation is. Ezra prays them into repentance.

I am not saying that one is better than the other, unless we are like many who create a caste system in ministry, where an evangelist is the most junior and an archbishop or apostle is at the pinnacle.

Nehemiah was as called as Ezra. It was their calls that operated differently, as all calls do.

When Peter talked about deacons, he was not saying that serving widows (tables as he said) was beneath his calling. He was simply stating that there were others in the church that had been called and equipped for that ministry.

That is why the bar placed on them was as high as the apostolic one. No wonder the eloquence of one of them astounded the Jewish leadership as to scheme for his stoning! We also see Philip running a revival in Samaria and later sharing the Gospel to an African. The deacons were as good as the apostles with the difference that they had been equipped for the ministry of tables.

God will equip one according to the calling He places on him.

Nehemiah did not have less faith than Ezra. It is the equipping and enablement of that faith that differed from that of Ezra.

Why is this important?

Have you ever scolded or rebuked (probably in your heart) someone for the folly that they were saying is faith?

I once overheard my friends talking about their friend who had many children and I was disgusted. I am sure they talk the same about me because I also have many children. And to imagine it was their friend!

How does someone call someone an idiot because he has children?

Have you ever judged (again probably in your heart) someone who decided to leave a very good and well paying job or business to join a ministry that had no potential to compensate them? Did you wonder what drug they had ingested to get into such folly?

Yet it is in the specifics of ministry that things become weird.

People have approached me to equip them for ministry whose calling in my view never existed or was fabricated. I equipped them nonetheless and God has proved my opinion wrong again and again.

Like I always say, God will never consult you before He calls anybody. Neither does He inform us the kind of ministry He calls one into.

God calls us to be the best as per our calling.

I suspect that if Nehemiah had had a meeting with Ezra and learnt of the fasting he could have thought it as insane especially as the king had no issues with sending an army to accompany Ezra’s team. Why bring God into simple security matters? Would it not be akin to tempting God?

Fortunately it never happened and so we have both stories to benefit from.

What am I driving at?

Probably you have been an expert at demonstrating who is called and how according to your understanding. Probably you are very hard on those fools who argue for faith against your logic. Probably you have no room for those pretenders to a calling when they approach you for support.

You might be one person who is known far and wide as the expert in all things ministry and calling because you are called and use that calling as the yardstick for any other calling. You have no room for the fools who use their faith to argue straightforward and logical issues.

I want to free you from that prison. God does not and will not consult you when He is dealing with His children. What is folly to you may be what gives them approval in God’s sight.

Allow God to deal with His children whether you understand or not, and especially when you don’t understand. 

Durable Content

Have you like me noticed that bestselling and trending stuff are so seasonal, actually temporal?

 

What makes this sad is that it is the same even in the ‘spiritual’ realm.

 

How can a song that hit so heavily just a few months ago disappear from people’s memory as if it had never existed? How can a book that was a must read a year or two ago disappear from the radar just like that? How can an album that defined ‘worship’ the other day become irrelevant so quickly?

 

I read books, loads of them, all the time. I developed my love for books in my early primary years when I could only read vernacular books before I could read English. By the time I cleared primary school I had read all novels from two secondary schools. And it happened because my sister in law taught in both schools and so would get the books for me.

 

I went to three high schools and read all their novels. And it went on and on wherever I went.

 

What am I driving at?

 

A novel is a creative work of art. When people were celebrating James Hardly Chase and Hardy Boys books, I would just read one and see the shallowness of their plots because I had read many good books. In fact the ‘African Writers Series’ have among the best plots one could find in literature for creativity and reader satisfaction. Plus of course some old books from the western world.

 

A good book tells its story for a very long time and the story never becomes boring.

 

I had heard of a seventeenth century book and bought it not long ago. The book is more engrossing and its suspense something I had not read for a long time. Its message was more current that tomorrow’s news. And I have several such books.

 

Why does such an old book never lose currency while a current bestseller rusts so quickly?

 

That is the thrust of my message today.

 

People then did not write with money as the driving force. They did not write to become popular. And they did not write for their books to open doors for them.

 

They wrote because they had a compelling message to share and so spent their time and resources putting the message together.

 

And it is the same with musicians of yore. The message was more important than the returns they may have received for it. None did it for self interest reasons.

 

But I want to say something else. A lasting message must be hinged on eternity.

 

Like in my last post, the only thing with any capacity to change a person’s life is found in the scriptures. No other narrative can do that, however well packaged it may be. And of course I know you know that is where I was heading.

 

Gospel songs of the past were based sorely on scriptures. Christian books, whether fiction or otherwise were also based on the scriptures. Sermons and songs of the past were not the demonstration of the preacher’s excellent play of words and rhymes, though they didn’t lack them.

 

It is no wonder that we are still profiting from them centuries after they were first released.

 

Your genius interplay of words and phrases will never last if that is the only thing you are focusing on.

 

I have been listening to some very old songs (60s, 70s and 80s) in the local scene. They are as fresh as they were when they were released.

 

As a musician, I can fault many of them on the musical and instrumental aspects. But that does not in any way reduce their impact and appeal. And do you know why?

 

They were all based on the scriptures. They used the Bible as their source.

 

I have also resorted to listening to hymns a lot lately. Of course you know I love hymns as I was raised on them. Again their lasting power is due to their fidelity to the scriptures. This is why a 600 year old song is still as fresh as it was then.

 

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. (Isaiah 40: 7, 8)

 

In short, the durability of your production is dependent on the product it is carrying. Creativity on its own is a poor substitute for the everlasting word of God.

 

Incidentally that is what determines the longevity of one’s creativity.

 

Books based on the word last long. Songs based on the word never grow old.

 

Or have you never wondered why a book as old as the Bible is still the best read and quoted book in the world. And it is not only read by believers. You might be surprised to learn that its critics read and quote it more than very many believers.

 

The simple reason is that it is the word of God, God who is timeless.

 

Will we commit our creativity to the Lordship of Christ? Will we allow it to submit under the word of God?

 

Otherwise we will be producing works that will not last. We will be blazing for a moment instead of providing light long after we die.

 

You see, a shooting star can be very bright, but only for a second or two. Those twinkling stars may be dim, but they have been at it long before man was created. They have been used to guide travelers long before google maps were created, even before the compass and other navigational aids came about. Remember they were the ones who guided the magi to the Savior?

 

Blazing is not wrong. But a consistent twinkle is more profitable than that short blaze.

 

Do you want your book to minister after you die? Do you want your songs to draw people to Christ beyond your grandchildren?

 

Then use the scriptures. They are the only raw material for lasting impact whether they have any likes on social media or not.

 

But you must read and obey the scriptures to be able to do that. You cannot casually be looking at the Bible and expect to come up with Biblically relevant material.

 

Part of the ministry we will be involved in is raising Gospel musicians in the centre God is putting up for us, from instrumentalists to composers to singers.

 

Then we will have wholesome Bible centred music ministers for this generation.

 

You see, it does not really matter whether you will wow your audience with that mastery of your spin of words or instruments, or even slick dance moves (where did that come from?) if nothing of eternal value is produced from the same.

 

Jesus said we shall be known by our fruit, fruit that is never produced in an instant. Our heavenly assessment is therefore not done when we are performing (preaching, singing, writing, etc.) but long after we have left the scene to give the seed time to sprout and grow until it produces fruit after the seed we sowed in that instant.

 

Will your ministry outlast you?

 

Of Horses and Carts

And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. (Luke 16:31)

I am amazed at those preachers who specialize on the miraculous for publicity; from exorcists to seers and everything in between.

They have one thing in common. They think that people will flock to Christ after seeing those superhuman feats.

And people will flock, but only as they flock to see a magician and acrobat to be wowed, and nothing else.

Is there a place for miracles then in the believer’s life? I know someone is asking.

Of course there is, and plenty in fact.

But the reality is that only the believer can benefit from a miracle.

A miracle is a confirmation that what he has believed is legit. It is God’s substantiation of what He has spoken to the ones who have believed it.

And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. (Mark 16:20)

I do not know whether you realize that the same miracle that evokes worship in one is treated as a stunt by another.

I am not talking about disputable things that can be argued or explained away. We are dealing with things that can only be explained by acknowledging God’s touch or intervention. Things like a cancer being dissolved, a completely insane fellow becoming normal, someone who was on the verge of death regaining immediate health, etc.

My point is this, miracles are for believers. They are acts of God to accompany our faith in His word.

The only thing we are called on to believe is God’s word. Faith is the product of that. That faith then opens us to access His creative and intervening power so that we can obey His word even further.

The sad reality is that we love drama and stunts until we convince ourselves that a miracle is what we need to believe. But Christ is saying that we must believe His word to see those miracles.

Remember the resurrection?

The soldiers made a honest report to the leaders about what they saw and heard.

Did the leaders believe? Of course they didn’t, however indisputable and compelling the evidence was.

They bribed the witnesses and their boss to falsify the facts.

Why did they not believe?

They had a problem with the scriptures and the originator of the same. It meant that they had to look for a way to falsify the facts to agree with their narrative.

Our faith is as valid as the word we believe. And it is no wonder that many people who follow the miracle and wonder workers have issues with obedience to Christ. That is why there is a lot of abuse from the ‘anointed’ and his clique since he then becomes the source of words to obey. It is also because he also does not follow the scriptures that he pays lip service to.

The only foundation of our faith is the word of God. Miracles must be a product of our fidelity to that word. Otherwise they will never lead to Christ.

Otherwise explain to me why most of the people Jesus walked among did not believe in Him since He was the embodiment of a miracle. Why did the people of Elijah’s time not completely turn to God after their idols were trumped and God demonstrated His power over everything?

Why did people follow John the Baptist yet he had no miracle accompanying his ministry?

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)

God’s miracles are the product of that faith, and nothing else.

It is our fidelity to that word that will lead people to believing in God who will then release His power over situations (which is what a miracle is) to the one who believes.

Our main job then as ministers and believers is to commit to the word of God since it is the only one that has the capacity to draw people to God.

Focusing elsewhere is counterproductive and misleading as it will be operating on the misleading theology the rich man in hell held, that a miracle was what his brothers needed to escape hell.

Isn’t this then a rebuke to so many preachers who gather their facts from all over to make their sermons juicier and more palatable to their parishioners? Isn’t it a rebuke to evangelists who spend years to work on their stage presence so that they can have more fire to move crowds? Isn’t it a rebuke to singers who think that being contemporal in their songs can reach the lost?

We have chosen to forget that our history as the church of Christ was built on the Bible and nothing else. Even the battles that were fought revolved around the word with believers committed to the word while the others (many times religious and political leaders) were fighting to remove it from running the lives of believers. The focus of persecution to this day is removing the word of God from running the lives of believers.

Will we commit to the only thing that can lead people to our Savior, His word?

Otherwise we could as well be wasting our lives and resources on things with absolutely nil value in eternity.

The seed is the word of the Kingdom. That is what Christ said.