When Zeal Kills

When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken. (Deuteronomy 24:5)

I want to play the devil’s advocate today.

I have said that I suspect that Bathsheba set up David for that fling that brought so much pain on the man of God and his kingdom. And of course there are verses that demonstrate her complicity. But today I want to see whether she can be defended for doing so.

But we will first look at her husband. Who was Uriah?

He hailed from the Hittites, a heathen nation, one of the ones that were to be cleared for Israel to occupy the Promised Land.

How did he get a Hebrew name? He must have converted to the faith of Israel so completely that he wanted no trace of his past that would remind him of the gods he had served previously. He joined that faith alone as we are not told that he had siblings. Also according to the Bible David could not have married his wife after his death as his brother was the one permitted by law to take her.

How did he join Israel and David? Allow me poetic license as I recreate a scenario that may possibly have led to his conversion.

Let us imagine him with the Philistines as they were the most powerful army around. You know that armies and their generals ascribed their victories to their gods. It is possible in his spiritual pursuit he ended up in Gath, Goliath’s city. And it held him spellbound as it was a city of giants who could fight.

We therefore have him side by side with Goliath as the giant taunts Israel and their gods. And he is feeling the greatest thrill serving an unbeatable army especially when the Israeli army runs to hide after Goliath appears.

Then the other army sends a small boy to face his hero, the indomitable Goliath. He does not have armor or weapon. He joins his army at laughing at this folly.

Then Goliath speaks with a voice that shakes the hills, the same voice that had sent his army scampering, but the boy does not show any fright.

They keep quiet when they realize he has started to speak so as to catch his words. And what words he speaks!

You come with weapons, I come with a name. That catches every one’s attention.

Then he rushes toward Goliath with sling. Just like that and Goliath goes down, totally.

He decides he must have that God. As the rest of the army is fleeing he flees them to the direction of Israel with raised hands shouting that he wants that God. And they accept him. They do not even have a problem having him joining their army.

In a short while, David, his small hero is chased from the palace and he decides to follow him though he had no issues in the palace. He just decided he must be close to the one person who knew enough about his God to face a giant without weapons or armor. He even enjoys the adventure of fleeing and hiding that was their lot especially because he was able to see David’s faith even better.

When David becomes king, the wars reduce but do not end. Every so often they have an enemy or other to deal with.

It is in Jerusalem that his faith is confirmed when he is given a Hebrew girl to marry. But even then he is in and out due to the many wars David was involved in; especially that he had gone up in rank. He therefore does not get to spend as much time with his young wife as he may have wanted.

This is the situation the girl found herself in. She had a ‘tourist’ for a husband and so was thoroughly frustrated. She was all alone in a huge house with a husband who would come for a break and not even sleep in his house if the army was not also around.

Why did God issue that commandment? The army calls for sacrifice. Someone must therefore be ready to die at any time in the course of their service and had to consider his wife.

The one year was to give them enough time to bond as a couple. That bonding would also have produced a child who could have kept his wife busy in his absence as well as ensure the continuity of his name should he die. And Uriah had failed that test. Deuteronomy 20: 5 – 7 also deals with that.

Why did he fail? I believe he was not properly inducted into the faith of the Hebrews. He was not introduced to the scriptures. The only priest on their team had enough problems to think of teaching foreign converts religion.

He therefore changed gods but failed to know the dictates of his new God and thus dealt with Him as he had dealt with the gods he had served previously. And we know those gods do not have provisions for marriage and family. Their only interest is self-interest.

It is no wonder that he could come on an errand to the city and go back before seeing his wife as we saw when he was being set up by the king.

What does a young and attractive girl do under those circumstances?

Now assume that she went through as much religious instruction as her husband. Will she have the knowledge to resist the temptations and urges her body will place upon her? Will she be able to resist the pressure of her worldly wiser sisters who do not care what God demands? Will she be able to counter the suggestions and accusations her age mates will on her and her husband sleeping out in the cold whereas she was in his house, alone?

Does this mean I support her? Of course not. Sin is sin and the scriptures do not have any room or excuses for sin.

But I write this not just as a post mortem of sin. I write this to help us appreciate that similar things are happening in the church of Christ for the same reasons. We have neglected instruction on the scriptures. We have no place for the public reading of the Bible in our churches. But saddest of all we do not even think the Bible is pivotal to a healthy Christian life.

The successful pastor is not one who expounds scripture accurately but the one who gathers information from all over to expound on a single verse of the Bible. Worship is singing that makes us feel nice instead of challenging us to be holy.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28: 19, 20)

Where is the place for discipleship in our generation? What actually do we understand discipleship to mean?

A secular musician gets saved (we assume genuinely) and before we even understand where he comes from we get him singing in church, many times making him a key leader in the singing (many would call him a worship leader). All the worship he knows is in the other kingdom. Then we are hurt and even feel betrayed when he breaks down, gets into sin or even backslides.

A dreaded criminal, say a thief gets saved in prison. His testimony leaks even before he leaves prison. He comes back to society and he is received with open arms by a church that needs a pastor. And they hire him. And they will be shocked when hard times come that the offering starts disappearing!

You see, a conversion, however drastic it may be, has no capacity to build spiritual muscle instantly. That is the reason for this verse dealing with leadership.

Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. (1Timothy 3:6)

It is like planting a fruit tree and expecting to harvest the next day!

There must be adequate time between conversion and commissioning. And that duration should be infused with instruction to the faith. This is because I know enough believers who have been saved for decades yet are spiritual infants. You find them taking milk at fifty

What do I mean? There are many of you out there who have never noticed a preacher incorrectly quote or apply scripture as they hang on his every word. They do not countercheck those notes they take with the scriptures. They do not question the outrageous prophetic pronouncements even when they fall flat. They do not question the openly sinful tendencies some of those pastors and bishops do not even attempt to cover up. They think ‘touch not my anointed’ applies only to the big man/ woman. And only because they are deceived to think Martin Luther protested to replace the catholic pope with their bishop or pastor emeritus. Yet the foundation of that protest was to have every believer able to read and understand the scriptures without needing the clutches that are the clergy.

Don’t you know that the presence of the Holy Spirit in you makes you anointed too?

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: (1Peter 2:9)

A public anointing is not an introduction to anointing, just the confirmation of the same for public spiritual service.

But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. (1John 2:27)

And there are many verses proving that the believer has the anointing and does not need other anointings to be anointed of God. Sadly, some of those anointed are anointed with other oils just like Aaron’s sons presented a strange fire. That is why they display arrogance and pride. And we know Christ’s anointing produces humility and servant hood.

Yet this false display of anointing may be the clearest pointer of the fact that we do not properly prepare and equip those we put in spiritual positions. We do not prepare their spiritual muscle to handle the spiritual rigors of the exertions those positions require. Like with Uriah and Bathsheba we care only for the fact that they will fight our battles without caring that their world could be falling apart.

Just imagine with me that Uriah did not die and came to learn that the king whose God he had followed, had slept with his wife. What could have happened to his faith?

Do you know for a fact that many people have suffered the same, and worse, at the hands of those spiritual superstars they follow? I for one have had a few such experiences and so am not just writing. I understand the pain. Many people gave up on the faith because of what they went through those ‘giants’ of faith.

Yet do you know what the real problem is? The injured and the injurer have not had a real encounter with God. They therefore know God from a distance, what they hear or have read about God, and certainly not from the Bible. They landed to those positions and relationships without much spiritual effort on their side. They therefore have no one to take their pain to when their world crashes.

I could have crashed were it not for the fact that I had experienced God outside those people and structures. I therefore knew where to take my pain. And He was more than sufficient to bring healing. Many however do not have that option as they were thrust to the deep end of ministry without preparation. I have counseled with ministers who had given up, some who had even attempted suicide because the pressures of ministry were immense. This comes about many times because a youth pastor, missions’ pastor, house group leader, choir master/ worship leader gives responsibility and forgets that the same young person has other responsibilities at home or school/ college. And the mindset that church work is worthier than their ‘unspiritual’ responsibilities. They will therefore cave in when the parent or teacher rightly stands his ground.

Many very successful ministers (in the worldly sense) are spiritual toddlers yet they are treated as spiritual giants. They simply can’t handle the pressure their ministry exposure brings their way.

How many crybabies do we see when a cyber-bully trashes their testimony or even asks a very personal question on their page? How many think they are being persecuted when they are invited to a function to perform and something changes at the last minute? How many are unable to keep their word? How many have no private devotional life? And how many wrack their minds to remember the last time they read the Bible for its own sake?

It all boils down to foundations. Like with Uriah and Bathsheba, we become content with zeal and gifts and overlook character and its development. We are happy provided people are serving God and do not care the cost of that service to them.

We are not much different from the capitalist who revels at getting maximum output from minimum input as profit is the king of the enterprise. We forget that God operates on a completely different plane from that when we decide to seek the scriptures for direction. And it is that plane He expects us to operate ALL the time without any excuse.

Since creation, God develops someone before using him. He never calls someone He has not heavily invested in. That is His expectation for His people. It simply means that if you use readymade people you are not operating in His Spirit and leadership. And there is no short cut to this.

We therefore sow in the lives of people before reaping any spiritual harvest from them. We must invest heavily in their discipleship before commissioning them to join our program even if we will call it ministry. Otherwise we are spiritual thieves! And we must reap our spiritual thievery.

I am also talking about giving. Just because you excite the people who are under your voice any Sunday does not qualify you to eat any of their offering. You may discover that there are other people who have invested heavily in their spiritual stability before they came for your entertainment. There are some you trashed and others were not ashamed to lift them up, yet you still think they owe you that offering because they came to you after others were involved in their healing and lifting. Maybe that pastor who agonizes preaching and making a difference in the slums is the reason you are enjoying that success as very few raised in the slums ever want to be identified with them when they ‘succeed’. They therefore will leave their struggling church for your successful one especially because they have space to park their cars. You forget that there was a minister who invested in their spiritual formation when they were not visible in any radar, when they were being called nothings.

How many can you say are spiritually stable and bearing fruit because of your spiritual investment? And reading books you sold to them does not count. It is business. Seminars you taught may also not qualify as you knew you will be given honorarium. We are talking of parenting the way a parent takes care of an infant when it has no capacity to even manage its poop, let alone taking care of itself.

I long for the day when decisions will not be the only spoils of evangelism. I pray for the day when decisions will, instead of bringing celebrations, will raise a great cry and concern for follow up and discipleship to ensure that Christ’s army grows as we deal with spiritual infant mortality.

This is because it is impossible to have ten people getting saved in a village without a visible change everywhere. In the first century only a very small percentage of the world was saved, yet the few were able to turn the world upside down. And their strength was discipleship and instruction in the scriptures.

Let me mention something else that troubles me, especially because it is spiritual leaders who are involved in it. So much time is being wasted debating on the best and worse translation of the Bible. Are the people you want to impress read their Bible? Do they even see the Bible as instrumental in their spiritual life?

Could we be playing the devil’s game by giving believers a reason to stop reading the Bible since they do not know the best translation or the one with removed or added verses?

God inspires the scriptures when we are reading just as He inspired those who wrote them.

My conviction is that a believer who reads the Jehovah’s Witness Bible is way better than the one with the best translation on his shelf. In fact even the Muslim who reads his Quran might find Christ faster and easier than the believer with all the ancient manuscripts that he doesn’t read.

That is not to say there are no ‘bad’ translations. It does not mean that verses have not been removed in some. It simply means that God will use the Bible you read to bring His truth to you. He is the one who will inspire the scriptures as you read them.

I like it when someone approaches me after getting confused about a passage or words that do not connect as they read a particular Bible. That is the person I can engage about versions as he consistently reads, so much that he has been able to see some inconsistencies. Otherwise I just tell people to read the Bible they have.

Let me give an analogy. Who needs to learn nutrition? Is it people with food or those who are starving? Just imagine with me that you are taking relief food to a starving village. Before you leave you see them start to prepare food and you see them pick a jar of animal fat to fry food with.

That is bad cholesterol, you shout to them. It will clog your arteries and kill you with high blood pressure. Will they listen to you? Does it even make sense to them? Would you listen to yourself if you were in their situation? In fact they need that cholesterol to take care of their bodies when they do not have food.

That is how it is with the Bible. It is only the consistent readers of the Bible who should be speaking about translations, and not on social media but in the privacy of their studies. Otherwise you are helping the evil one dissuade believers from reading God’s word.

How central is the Bible to the Christian life Christian leader?

My greatest joy and fulfillment is when I meet a person I gave a Bible Reading Plan less than a week before proclaiming how they are enjoying reading the Bible and the kind of impact it is having on their life. I am excited when like yesterday I released a mission team going to a church outside the country to a church I had invited their leader to accompany me. Now he does not need my name or invitation to go. He just requires my blessing, a blessing I full heartedly release.

I rejoice when people I have discipled will invite me to see them ministering as appreciation for my ministry to them. And of course it gives me great delight to see people I have ministered to supporting ministry, some being pillars of ministries. No money can equate that. No windfall can compensate the feeling a parent has seeing his child making it in life.

Interestingly, that could be the reason we see believers, even pastors getting into gambling through what is called sport betting. They do not know how spiritual sweat is shed. It is the reason pastors are becoming sales people and executives, because they have never experienced the joy of raising spiritual children in the Bible way. They think of the spiritual life as a short cut.

And it is the main reason pastors are scared of preaching against sin, because they do not have their own children and so are scared of scaring them away. A person you disciple will take anything you dish out without running away to the neighbor because they know you have earned that position, just like a parent is not scared of his children running off to the neighbor if they punish or beat them.

Are you a parent to those you call spiritual children? Did you change their spiritual diapers and clean their spiritual poop? Did you teach them to spiritually walk and talk and manners?

If not, you are not their parent, however much you enjoy being called papa and mama. In fact you probably need to look for a papa or mama to start raising you even with your thousands of fake children. Get off that fake perch and ask God to lead you to a father in the faith to raise you properly in the faith. This is especially true if your church is composed of most that joined you from other congregations. Forget the programs you are creating to make you appear like a parent because you are not.

And of course if you are a spiritual pastoralist, running from this church to the other because you always find something wrong somewhere, also ask God to direct you to a parent who will raise you and will therefore qualify to rebuke you because he was involved in growing you. Run away from motivators as they will motivate you to hell since they fear to rebuke you so that you do not run away.

Pray. Let God confirm whether what I am sharing is from Him. Then act accordingly.

Counterfeit Breakthrough

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2Corinthians 11: 13 – 13)

Remember Jesus teaching about a farmer?

There was this farmer who sowed good seed. Then as they were asleep an enemy sowed tares. Who determined that the wrong seed had been sown? Of course the ones who had sowed the good seed.

We talk, proclaim, confess and fast for breakthrough. We are always being taught to expect breakthrough in almost every Christian gathering we attend these days.

Does it occur to us that the enemy of our souls knows what we are expecting? And could he like the enemy in the parable present us with a counterfeit breakthrough? Could he sow fake breakthroughs in our expectant lives?

We could then be giving testimonies of breakthroughs when all we have are tares. Our expectancy overrode our spiritual alertness.

How does a breakthrough kill prayer? How does breakthrough kill our witness? How does breakthrough kill ministry?

Growth from one degree of glory to another does not mean from riding a bike to driving a car. It simply means from one degree of spiritual potency to a higher or better one. It means from a place of ministry effectiveness to a better one.

You see, for the Christian, if it is not unto God it must be against God.

You have prayed and fasted for a dream job. Why is it that since you got it you have been unable to go to church? How come you support ministry less, if any, than the small job you were praying out of? Why do you not have enough time for private devotion? How come you have almost stopped reading the Bible and praying?

Will you be offended when I call it a counterfeit breakthrough?

You prayed for a breakthrough in your business and got it. Why is it that most of your meetings are in bars at night when you should be with your children? Why are you most prominent partners comfortable with dirty language and blasphemy even as they give you those millions? Why is it that you are now being tempted to experiment with a sip of liquor? Why has your spouse all of a sudden become so bad you wonder why you married them? And why do your children now have an absent parent?

Could that be a counterfeit breakthrough?

You got the girl or boy of your dreams after praying for a long time. Why do they always want to bring you temptations? Why do they want you to go with them to suspect places? Why do they have friends who do not share your values? Why do their conversations disturb you so? Why has prayer for guidance become so difficult?

Could it be that your answer to prayer was a counterfeit?

You got a child after praying for years. Why does that child seem to be taking you farther from the Lord? Why has this child brought all this tension in your marriage? Why is your marriage breaking because of this child?

Could it be a counterfeit breakthrough?

You prayed fervently for a car and got it. Do you wonder why you are rarely at home with your family because it is now safe to arrive after midnight? Why are you getting estranged from your wife and children yet you were praying for the car to save you commuting time to spend with your family. Why is it difficult to use the car with your family because you are too tired when they want to go out?

Could it be a counterfeit breakthrough?

You prayed for ministry expansion. And a big church employed you. Why can’t you hear God better than before you got there? Why can’t you share the messages God is giving you? Why do you have to preach messages you are given? Why are you finding prayer so hard? And why are you getting frustrated even with all those perks they are giving you?

Could that door have been opened by another than the one with the key of David?

I can share enough scenarios. I know you can relate to these or even your own experience. Let me give a verse to debunk the modern ministerial myth that success is equal to acquisitions and positions.

Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife. (Proverbs 17:1)

I think you can see the contrast here. But notice that the house with everything is in the worship mode (sacrifices). They have meat, lots of food, but they do not have peace. Or they are not experiencing contentment. They could be equated to members of a mega church with amazing ‘worship’ yet that worship leaves them empty as it does not transform anything beyond itself. One leaves that worship and goes back to their depression, their sinful lifestyle, their corruption, their hate, their need. In short, that worship feeds on itself.

The other is a small church with ‘poor’ people. They do not even know what worship is. They pray, sing off key without instruments, give unending testimonies and have a preacher who thinks Hezekiah is a book of the Bible. But none goes back home the same.

The one who had a spat with his children has mature members going to reconcile them. The one who has run out of food has someone with slightly more to give (not sell) him some. The one who was feeling neglected has the church taking a fellowship to his house and the church making a resolution to have someone daily visiting him. In short they belonged to each other at all times.

Now, if you had prayed for a breakthrough, which church would have represented your breakthrough? What about the breakthrough you are presently experiencing?

We need to know God beyond being our provider. We must have Him as our Father and guide before seeking to have Him as a way breaker. We must have Him as our Lord before seeking to have Him as our source of sustenance.

Why do I say so? A father has a relationship with his children. He therefore provides in the context of that relationship. That is why we have children being disinherited or disowned. They had wanted their father only for what he could offer. They therefore lost the plot as a father is much more than that. It is a relationship that opens the door to the inheritance.

Look at Israel for instance. They had been offered the Promised Land. And they really longed for it, so much that they were always complaining about the journey.

Yet the journey was part of that promise, just as slavery in Egypt had been.

We therefore see a whole generation losing out on the Promised Land due to their dissatisfaction with the journey. They had just wanted the land, without any issues. And they lost both.

A Lord has a relationship with his servants. And it is a relationship built by obedience to his orders. An obedient servant can access anything the master has because there is no doubt at all about his loyalty.

Remember Abraham concluding that his slave will be his heir as God’s promise had seemed impossible? Remember the same servant being tasked with looking for a wife for Isaac? And he is the one who chose what to take and how he will accomplish the task. Everything Abraham had was in his hands. That was simply because his submission to his master was not in question.

A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren. (Proverbs 17:2)

How do you know that your breakthrough has come?

Simply look at your relationship with God. How is your Quiet Time? How is your prayer time? How is your witness? How is your scripture intake?

These are indicators of the health of your relationship with God. You can’t get much from Him if you are not on talking terms.

It goes without say that if those indicators are unsatisfactory; any breakthrough you may experience is suspect. Go back to that relationship to have God Himself tell you whether it was from Him or otherwise.

The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. (Proverbs 10:22)

A blessing from God expands our ministry, our outreach, our prayer. It is counterfeit if it starts limiting them.

A lot of ministry breakthrough falls in that trap. In the zeal to maximize in the opening, many have killed the ministries that necessitated that breakthrough in the first place. In the desire and pursuit to remove or even reduce the hindrances that were limiting the ministry they killed the ministry.

For example, you were very deep in hospitality but your small house was severely limiting your overflow. You pray and are ‘given’ a huge house. But it is in a place that is totally inaccessible to your target community for one or the other reason.

Or maybe you ministered deep in the slums, places that limited your movement and meant that you ministered to too few people yet you had capacity to reach several times more. You pray for a vehicle to ease that ministry. Then you get these very expensive off roaders that will point you out as the system that has deprived them of decency. You realize that you have to look for somewhere else to minister. The vehicle might be a fuel guzzler that will severely limit your ministry as vast amounts of money must be required to run it. Conversely you might get one that is a mechanical nightmare that will need vast amounts of time and money to keep it running.

Maybe you were passionate for missions and was always enroute to one or the other. Then a church sees that passion and employs you as a missions’ pastor, making you a missions’ executive who might never go for another mission.

The long and short of what I am saying is the question, how is your relationship with God? Does He speak to you? Do you know what He is about in your life? And can you clearly know where any breakthrough is coming from?

Lack of that will land you in counterfeit breakthrough after another.

Let the whole Bible describe your breakthrough and not the one verse or two that spiritual conman always gives you. And I am saying conman because God has never said He will use people to speak to you. He seeks to connect with you at all times. Otherwise tell me this. Why does this verse appear in the Bible?

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (John 10:27)

And it is not the only one that says it.

Temporary Permanence

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. (Proverbs 11:30)

How permanent is our permanent when we look at it with an eternal perspective? What really is permanent?

I want us to scale it down even to earthly things. How long is your permanent? What do you interpret permanent to mean?

I was in a place and found it interesting that two houses that were excellent in their design and building have been demolished and other houses put up which appeared smaller at the exact place the others were. And I am talking about a span of less than twenty years and the land has not changed owners.

I was not able to talk to the owners so I do not have the real reasons the original structures were pulled down. But I can hazard a guess.

The owners live in a city far away. This means that the houses are for the most part unoccupied and unused. And there is nothing as bad as a house that is unoccupied for long in its disintegration. I am not talking about vandals.

That nature detests a vacuum is evident wherever you may look. I suspect the timber parts fell apart, though they were the smaller parts of the houses as they were aesthetic additions. Then of course the bricks lent their support in the protest. Eventually, a house that looked excellent from the outside decayed from within. Sample this

A successful patriarch builds a palace fit for a king in his hey days. But unfortunately he has no king to hand the palace to. He finds out later that none of his children have any interest in occupying that mammoth of a house. The sheer size, number of rooms and things are unimaginable to a normal mortal.

Though it can afford independent living for several families, none of his descendants want to live in that Stone Age relic as they call it. They insist on building their own.

The house becomes scary to the old couple after the children move out. They can’t live in it anymore and must move out to a more manageable size house. And they must employ servants to maintain their palace.

They think of selling the palace but nobody is interested in it. They are only interested in the land it is on. But they can’t stand seeing their palace going down as they are sure they would go into depression when they remember the fortune they spent putting it up. They think of giving it to someone to stay in but its size scares anybody who gets interested.

What am I trying to say?

Most of the things we value have an expiry date. Like the houses I have mentioned they will sooner or later become useless, perhaps even burdensome.

We are therefore not very wise when we turn our focus on things. They will expire.

The human soul, however, is eternal. It will outlive this dimension to the next, the eternal. That is something many people do not want to look at, sometimes until it is too late.

But that eternity has two parts; eternal life and eternal torment. Our destination is decided by the way we lived in this temporal life. Our eternal investment is decided by the kind of investments we made in this dimension.

Do we live with our eye on the eternal? Do we build our souls on the eternal dimension? Are we developing our minds to understand and interpret the eternal?

Are we investing in the eternal dimension? Are we using our temporal resources to build eternal structures? In other words are we investing in the souls of men?

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6: 19 – 21)

Investing is not sin. Building good houses is not sin. They are just too temporal in the light of eternity (or even a full life) to waste the much effort many are spending. Let me give an analogy.

How would you feel if you find children or their parents fighting to amass pampers (or nappies)? Of course you would not find it amusing, but rather disgusting. And that is not because they are useless. They are things the child will outgrow in a very short time.

Do you realize that we are worse off than them when we look at eternity?

Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. (James 5: 19, 20)

I am not just talking about evangelism. I am talking about living for people as opposed to living for yourself or things.

Do you realize that a house that is being lived in does not decay? Illogical as it might appear that is the reality. In the same place the houses were demolished and others built are shacks that have been there for ages and have not deteriorated because they have people living in them.

On the same plane do you realize that a person who invests in people never also falls apart? It would be very hard to see someone who enjoys being with people and helping out and developing people falling into depression. They will rarely run out of energy however old and wizened they might be. They will never die of bitterness or curse their offspring because life is enjoyable.

I remember my grandmother who died after having lived 120 or so years. She always cooked a lot of food though she ate very little. Though she had no teeth, she always included dry maize in her food as she envisioned others eating her food and very few people like eating mushy food without any exercise for their teeth. She had her garden from which she gave out most of what she produced. You come to visit and give her money she will almost always give it to the next person who comes visiting. There was an operation she did on children who had defied doctors yet she took nothing for it though people came ready to part with anything to have their children treated due to the level of desperation they had reached and many had travelled from very far. And even when they insisted she would do with those gifts as she did with every other gift.

I say that because, having been named after her son we were close and spent a lot of time together.

She didn’t die with anything people would call investment but I am sure her name is a blessing wherever her hand may have touched.

Compare her with this other man I know who, I was told, rotted and was eaten by worms even before he died because in his bitterness he was a threat even to people who sought to help him in his infirmity. He was in charge of land demarcation after independence and so decided who got land and who didn’t. He therefore gave himself lands and lands and lands even as he took land from their owners and gave it to others because of personal differences. His children however lost his acumen for wealth and acquisitions. As soon as he would give a child land, the child would sell it and waste on vain things. His permanent was too temporary that it killed him with bitterness and regret.

When God gives us children, we have the choice of raising brats or world class individuals and anything in between. Sadly, we will know the kind of citizens we raised at a time we have no other input to change the direction their lives have taken.

I look at a young man cutting the queue to board public transport, shamelessly overtaking women old enough to be his grandmother and wonder the state of his brain. But then I reflect on the kind of small children on the same vehicles and understand where the problem originated. The parents, (many times the mother), pampered the child and offered preferential treatment since they were very small. They therefore interpret the world as a system only meant to serve them. Pushing a grandmother out of the queue is therefore the smallest of bothers since when it was a small child the same grandmother would stand even as he occupied a seat too big for his small body as the mother (I have seen many) have paid for the seat and have no place for anybody else however desperate the situation is.

But many times the same parents will have to take the bitter taste of their own medicine as God has promised that we will reap what we sow.

Look at these parents who educated their children to the highest, many times taking them abroad. These children make it out there and see no need of returning home as their lives are full.

The parents age and of course require the presence of those children. The children have become so full of themselves that their parents become a bother. Some have properties and businesses to be managed that desperately need those children to take over. And of course at that age they really need the presence of those children even as they approach their deaths.

If as a young child and infant you showed them that they were the centre of the world, what makes you think that they will unlearn that to consider their aging parents, who to them have become a bother, even a nuisance for their insistence? If you rebuked and sometimes took his teacher to court for ‘molesting’ your angel when he shouted at him for disturbing the class, what makes you think that your insisting he comes to visit, leave alone stay, will not be treated as molestation from the old folk? You taught them not to take no for an answer and are surprised when they insist you give them their inheritance even if you are still young and they are just past teenage.

Maybe you demonstrated that things are of more value than people in your dealings. Remember when you boasted buying someone so much beer that he sold you his land for a song? Then you wonder that he bought you a TV covering one wall for a price higher than a piece of land when you wanted him to come live near you! Or he bought you the latest limousine and paid a chauffeur when you cried you needed company.

But the worst is not being able to introduce our children to the kind of life Christ has prepared for them. You see, children model their parents in more ways than the parents imagine. They will value God as they see you value Him.

Let me summarize what I have been saying. Investing in people is worthier by far than investing in real estate. Building people’s lives offers better dividends than building palaces. And appreciating people outweighs any and every investment portfolio.

And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. (Daniel 11: 32, 33)

Invest in people. Invest in ministries that are involved in people and not programs. Appreciate people who will not favor you just because you have money though they make you feel just normal, because your money does not make you otherwise.

Do not allow your money to deceive you to imagine that it is all you need, because it isn’t.

Like is said money can buy you the best bed but it cannot buy sleep. It can afford the best hospitals but it can’t be able to stop you from getting sick or dying. It can pay for the best holiday but can’t buy joy or even happiness and peace. It can afford the most exquisite wedding ceremony but can’t ensure a fulfilling marriage. In short, money is very limited because it is man’s creation.

On the other side do you realize that many times people reach their peak where they can afford anything and they realize they may have to live a very tasteless life? Do you know that many people who can afford anything eat food tasting like sawdust? Their doctors order them to stop enjoying food so as to live a bit longer. No salt, no meat, no fat, no eggs, no sugar, no milk, no spices, in short no tasty food. Yet that was one reason someone struggled to get all that money to eat life with a big spoon.

Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Luke 12: 32 – 34)

Though God is ready to freely offer His kingdom that is as permanent as eternity, we must realize that to be able to grasp it we must let go of the kingdoms we are holding. We must release to be able to receive.

But what He offers is way more precious than many of these kingdoms we are wasting our all to get, and even then just temporarily.

(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6: 32 - 34)

We will not stop living when we allow God’s kingdom control our life and decisions. That is in fact when we really start living because we will then start experiencing eternal (permanent, inexhaustible, undiminishing) life.

Have you wasted your life pursuing things instead of God’s life? Have you valued things above people? Have you wandered away from God’s life as you once knew it? Would you like to know and experience this eternal life?

Lift your heart to God, the creator of life and repent for seeking things He has promised to those who will seek His kingdom. Then pray that the sacrifice His Son gave for making it possible for man to reconnect to eternal life the way he was created to live. Then allow Him to change that twisted lifestyle you have created, a life doomed to fail. I will support you in prayer if you so request.

Finally get a Bible and start reading it as it is the only book that can tell you the dynamics of God’s kind of life and how to live it.

God bless you