Grace versus Commerce

I want us to compare giving and selling with the eyes of the entrepreneur. This is so that we can appreciate the fact that God’s folly is ALWAYS wiser than man’s wisdom.

Let us assume you have a hundred acres of land and that you are growing too old to farm it.

There are two options. You could sell it to your neighbors or be ‘foolish enough’ to give them.

What happens if you sell?

You close accounts with your neighbors as they will owe you nothing.

Of course you will use that money to buy the conveniences your old age attracts.

What happens when you need company? What will happen when your spouse is sick or dies? What happens when you need to see children playing in your compound? What happens when your worker doesn’t come to work? What do you do when you still miss farming?

You see, your neighbors have the right to fence up their farms and lock you out of their lives. In fact your old age becomes a bother to them, a bother you qualified them to block.

Now suppose you had subdivided the land and shared it with them? You still have your land and your neighbors are indebted to you.

They will therefore widely open their homes unreservedly to you and take you as family.

In fact they will spare no effort to ensure you are most comfortable.

Like Jesus said, you have used earthly mammon to open doors to your neighbors’ homes.

Incidentally, that goodwill never expires and will be taken from father to children and even grandchildren, meaning that your posterity will benefit from your generosity. And it won’t matter whether you gave the land for a time or completely. Grace redounds.

Two verses.

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. (Luke 6:38)

Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. (Ecclesiastes 11: 1, 2)

Plus a story that stopped being one once I gave it but was given the personification of the same. I am therefore telling you about something that happened.

This lady had everything but only one son. She was therefore well kept, if I may use that term.

Of course you know from interacting with me that I come from an area that was involved in the freedom struggle (which was actually a struggle for the lands that were stolen by the colonizer)

The problem was that the fighters (history calls them freedom fighters) eventually became the real losers as the collaborators were the ones given the power to share out the land. They therefore were even deprived of even the little lands they owned before the war. I have said elsewhere that we were evicted from my father’s land because it was subdivided and dished out to others.

The bulk of the community therefore had very few options; no land, no education etc.

Add to that the fact that many had quite a few children and you have a really sad mix.

Yet the community thrived by knowing the need of working together. They would educate the bright child corporately since no parent could do it alone.

That is the context of my story.

Social events brought the whole village together. I remember in my childhood roles being shared out, especially in weddings, so that each villager does what they are best at, from splitting wood to washing dishes. Even the utensils were a united effort where everybody brought what they had for the function. Then they would be labeled (using paint) to avoid (more of reduce) mix up.

But our lady was too clean to do those dirty jobs. And she had the money to compensate (or so she thought).

She therefore would go to a function dressed too cleanly to take chores and then sit at a nice place, knitting. Of course she would give the money others would not.

The other ladies would not complain. But they did not feel nice, at all.

Then her only son’s time comes and she invites the villagers.

They hold a meeting before then and make a resolution.

Every lady would come with a ladies’ bag like her plus knitting needles. Those who did not know to knit wouldl be taught that day. And they will all carry money and will contribute to the one without. So that they will all come to her function the way she does theirs. And that is what they did.

Of course she was thoroughly rebuked and changed completely.

That is what commerce turns one into. They think that money is the answer to everything like a verse says, without realizing that the statement in itself was not absolute as you continue reading the rest of Solomon’s sad commentary on his life.

Like they say, money can buy you the most expensive bed, but it can’t buy you sleep. Yet commerce wants to reduce everything and everybody into money. Remember the statement, ‘everybody has his price’?  That is the reasoning of commerce.

That is why a generous man is thought as either foolish or scheming because a commerce mindset has no explanation for generosity, or, worse still, grace.

Commerce is at its base a selfish and self-seeking enterprise. Grace is at its base for the common good. Enterprise looks inward while grace looks outward. Enterprise is of the earth whereas grace originates from heaven. Remember this?

No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Luke 16:13)

We see from here that commerce and grace are simply indications of a lord, master if I need to make it clearer. At their base they have a ruling spirit who not only determines the outcome but ensures the outcome by the orders he issues to the servant. Look at this also.

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. (Mark 10:25)

This is what brings out the lordship very clearly. Since things are neither righteous nor evil, why does Christ put them as a determinant of one’s eternal destination?

The Pastor as an Abortionist

I continue with the last week’s post by making this clearly noticeable observation. Pastor is a function as opposed to a title or position.

The past one year has had pastors taking in a lot of flak.

Pastors in depression is among the things that have painted a sad narrative on pastors.

Yet I find it simplistic to connect pastors to depression, unless we are taking pastoring as a job. Sadly it is so to many.

I repeat, a pastor is a function according to the Bible.

That means a pastor has the requisite gifts to handle the function. God has equipped him to handle the pressures his office (another word for function in the Bible) brings up.

No other person in the body of Christ is as equipped to handle that office.

It therefore goes without say that nobody in the body of Christ can handle that office properly, especially the way God would have it handled.

Anyone holding that office without the equipping and gifting is therefore endangering his spiritual life. But it goes even farther to the fact that he endangers his spiritual destination as God holds one accountable only to what He has called him into. Doing an excellent job in the wrong office is therefore rebellion. Look at these verses I am always quoting.

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

It is inconceivable for God to equip me for an office and commend me for executing another one, however well I do it. And it is because He knew what He was doing when giving those gifts.

It is therefore wicked to have an evangelist occupying the pastoral office. In fact it is wicked for any other person to occupy it. It is an office reserved for the pastor from the throne of God.

Another interesting verse for our observation is the one about the narrow (strait) gate and road.

Again, common sense dictates that that road is not common or even popular. The fact that very few find it removes it from the normal.

That simply means that pleasing God, or in other words, walking according to His revelation does not fall in the common sense spectrum. The good thing about it is that it is not a mystery to the seeker of God’s truth. We will know it when we determine to seek it.

What happens when the wrong person occupies the pastoral office?

He becomes discordant as his gifting and skills do not fit in the demands of the office. He therefore will be swimming against the flow of the Spirit in that office, simply because he was not spiritually wired thus.

Let me use an analogy. A pastor is rightly called a shepherd just like Christ is the Chief Shepherd. I want to use the shepherd to get this point across.

A shepherd herds sheep. It means that the sheep are totally dependent on the shepherd for everything from provision and protection to guidance.

Now take a veterinary doctor and make him a shepherd.

His training and experience has to do with sickness. How do you expect him to deal with the sheep?

Chances are that he will spend most of his time looking for sicknesses and the sick. It is very possible that the sheep could starve in the best health as his forte is in the sheep’s health.

After he fails, as he most likely will do, take a butcher and make him the shepherd. Chances are that he will spend all his time assisting the ones best placed for the knife.

Making a livestock trader a shepherd will mean that the not so attractive (sellable) will be neglected as they serve no useful purpose for him.

The shepherd is the only one with the right connection with the sheep to offer them everything they need. He takes care of the sheep because he loves them and has a right and healthy relationship with them. He is the one who will spend enough time with the weak without neglecting the fat because they are all of great value to him.

The church replicates these scenarios all the time because we have pastors who are not pastors pastoring God’s sheep. Sadly, they are even proud of being pastors without caring to know what pastoring involves.

Two things are bound to happen. The first one being the pastor focuses on a section of the pastorate. Pastors who love the rich and able, one who draws the broken though not much healing happens as he is just drawn to them, some attract only the demon possessed so that they are always chasing demons. Others are entertainers whose forte is making people feel good.

It means they will leave the rest feeling out of place as they are not ministered to.

Interesting enough, in all my years in church I do not remember hearing prayer that mentions ministers and their success though pastors are always praying for breakthroughs in everything from studies to business to visas. You see, a minister is outside the radar of these pastors.

The second thing that happens is frustration. His circle is very small compared to the rest of the congregation. And the majority also demands being shepherded. To this pastor they become trouble makers as they are demanding or expecting something he has no capacity of giving.

This releases a frustration that nothing in this world can offset. And the same frustration is on the neglected sheep he is supposed to be shepherding.

When Fathers Kill their Children (The Pastor as an Abortionist)

I want to start this very ‘controversial’ post by asking very straightforward questions. Why do we have pastors? What is their role in the church? Where are they taken from? What are their spiritual qualifications?

This is because over the years I have been in ministry I have seen strange things. In fact, from my childhood I have also seen strange things as I grew up in church.

Why is it that a person who was red hot with missions before becoming a pastor starts killing missions when he becomes one? Why is it that a person who found fulfillment in discipleship starts fighting it when he becomes a pastor?

What is in the pastoral office that ‘transforms’ these solid characters to start subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, fight what led people to make them pastors in the first place?

I won’t have minded or even posted if this was a scattered observation here and there. But it is sad to notice that it is so common that it actually appears as the norm instead of the exception.

Let me give my first example. In my childhood I read a lot. And there was this magazine my sister used to bring home written by the Regions Beyond Ministry.

Talk of a passion for missions, and especially to the unreached! It is very possible that I picked my passion for missions from that magazine. I knew the champions by heart and of course had even memorized their pictures.

Then those central figures became pastors (and later bishops) and that became the end of all that fire. None of them became missionaries. I have even visited the ministry and it is just another denomination.

How many pastors do you know who were called (by God) from occupations or even studies to minister to students in schools? Then because of the impact of their ministry they were made pastors. Now their only connection to schools is being invited to pray for candidates.

How many were made pastors because of their impact in making disciples who now see discipleship as a bother, especially the kind that elevated them?

There is a friend who was great in empowering missions and missionaries that he could leave home in the dead of the night to receive or send a missions team. Incidentally he would commute to get there. Then he was made a pastor and the missionaries started groaning. The missionaries who loved him before he became a pastor started hoping that God removes him.

There are bishops who are products of deep discipleship movements whose sermons you are unable to even remotely associate with discipleship. There are others who started by ministry to the destitute yet forgot all about them when they got the position. Yet others were noticed as they ministered to the untouchables yet they became even more untouchable to them when they got the position.

A young man is so committed to encouragement that it seems any spare minute is spent either visiting or at least touching base with someone. The church then thinks, ‘if the two or so hours he has he can make such an impact, what would happen when he has 24 hours for the same?’ They therefore ask him to resign and hire him as a pastor. Then they wonder why now he doesn’t take their calls!

Or take this man who was bringing hordes of business people to Christ and to church. He is made a pastor and now the church seems to repel business people.

One is very effective running singing programs in church. Then he is made a pastor and the other singers start disconnecting.

What is the problem? I know many are wondering.

I strongly feel that we have started using sight to run our faith. We have decided to abandon the secret place with God and starteded using flesh.

You see, the title pastor is not a feather to cap one’s achievement. One does not achieve that title after being effective in any other endeavor.

Pastor is a calling with its unique gifting and not a one size fits all.

You kill an evangelist when you make him a pastor however well-intentioned you are. And I know that there are doors that title pastor closes that only the marketplace minister can access. Making him a pastor therefore closes doors that were wide open when he was serving God in the marketplace.

Now suppose the church had asked to partner with him, probably by hiring a hall for him to run programs or hold meetings with those business people where a pastor would be invited to give a word? Those business people would have been seamlessly brought to church instead of being alienated by disqualifying the only person who was qualified to reach them.

Again I will ask a question that offends most, was prayer involved when those people were made pastors? Was God’s order pursued before then?

You see, God follows His word to fulfill it. It would therefore be insane to expect God’s call to make someone a pastor could emasculate the ministry he was so effective in before becoming one.

There are pastors who are very effective as pastors. And it is simply because that is their call. It is not a graduation from something or to something. God called them to a function He had equipped them for.

Those are the pastors who enjoy their ministry without comparing themselves with the misfits who have to justify their ‘pastor’ tag because they were poached from places of their spiritual strength and effectiveness to get a position with emoluments to blind their backsliding.

Jesus talked about the shepherd and the hireling. Incidentally both are pastors, even with requisite titles and training.

But one is walking in his strengths and spiritual equipping while the other is following his fleshy, though apparently ‘spiritual’ qualifications. You see, a degree in Theology is really a fleshy qualification outside a clear call to the particular ministry God has for you. All those papers and training serves no purpose if you are not pursuing God’s clear call for your life.

That is the reason we are seeing such disconnect in ministry. We have people who are adequately trained but outside what God wanted them to be doing. And like Jesus said many are sadly heading to hell as the only qualification for heaven is doing God’s will, not man’s job. Or what do my favorite verses say?

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

Are you flowing with God’s anointing and leading or are you struggling through the resistance your job attracts? Do you have enemies that must know who you are or are they just difficult partners who need your ministry to thrive in God’s vineyard?

I suspect that if most of the church leadership would withdraw to the secret place for an accurate word from the throne in heaven the first word would be ‘GET OUT’ of that leadership, and they suspect it.

I suspect that most, if not all of these spiritual superstars giving a release for the year would also withdraw to the same secret place where God alone reigns the word would be, ‘STEP ASIDE’ and give me a chance to speak to My church. Sadly, I suspect they know that and therefore make a pretense of withdrawing.

That could be the first step of obedience for them for a very long time. And it could drastically, though positively alter their standing before God because they would know where they started drifting from His Lordship.

Will we go back to that closet?

I know there are some pastors who have made that discovery and decided that being right with God is better than those insane packages they enjoy and stepped aside. But they are still too few to notice.

It is so sad to be giving a word from God knowing that it is repackaged, even exhumed from past words when you had the connection. As if God stopped speaking!

Will we go back to the secret place?

Vernacular Audio Bibles

Fellowshipping with my friend David, we realized that the Audio Bible is not such a complicated thing to produce.

Did you know that the complete Bible on audio is about ninety hours long?

What does this tell us? That we really may not need as much time to produce it as we think.

I know some are thinking about quality, whatever they mean. But I want to let you know that quality comes about when there is already something being consumed and therefore some comparison.

Ever noticed when you are starved that you will realize that food is not as good after dealing with the biting hunger? To the hungry every bitter thing is sweet is not only scriptural but is the reality.

I produce materials for people in dire need of the same and can confirm this.

Sometimes I will produce in a language I am not conversant with and so can really not do anything to improve or even know its accuracy, especially in translation.

I would therefore send a sample and ask for comments. And I have never received any to date. I would be forced to produce without their input because it wouldn’t come. I would later learn that they produced copies and started using it. Looking for problems or inaccuracies was a waste of time for them.

That is what I think about Audio Bibles. We should produce them and work on improving when it is already available and being used and ministering.

Think of the person who can’t read for whatever reason. Would they care whether it is studio quality or has the right background sounds or has the perfect voice recorder and reader?

Let me tell you what we discussed. And it became a burden that I barely slept.

We have Bible reading marathons or something like that. There are churches and Bible societies who regularly sponsor them. I say this because they are even advertised on media.

Suppose we used such for recording instead of just reading?

We can even do it differently.

Suppose we broke the Bible into five portions and have five teams reading through their portion for a week? I actually think that three days would suffice for the reading.

We would need five computers with microphones (and mixers if possible, though not a essential for our purpose). We would need about twenty readers conversant with the vernacular we want to produce. This would give one time to read a portion and get some rest as others are reading through another.

We will need a spacious venue, probably a church with several rooms for each team to be reading from. They can even be accommodated in a retreat centre where interruptions will be at a minimum.

Take the ninety hours (we can make them a hundred for ease of computation and to take care of transitions and logistics).

The five teams have twenty hours each to record.

Since they are people who are zealous to make the Bible come alive to those who cannot access it otherwise, their commitment will not be in question.

Give them a day to bond and go through the training required. The next two days will be more than adequate to record the whole Bible. Then it will be taken to the editor to make it easy to navigate though each should leave with his own raw copy.

It is as the community is enjoying this that they will have the luxury of looking for the best voice and studio to improve on what is available, and not earlier. Otherwise all nations with a Bible ought to be having an Audio Bible.

Incidentally this is a burden I have had for a long time as I have ministered to people who cannot read especially as I know what difference the Bible makes on the one who can access it, starting with me.

But I was thinking of those long routes of a reader who has to take leave for months and buy equipment and rent space for that long to produce. Incidentally we had even identified a reader but he died before we had even approached him on this.

And I have wasted those years even as the need grows. All because I was thinking of a studio and person being engaged for months on end to read!

I believe I have overgrown that desire for ‘quality’ even as people are dying without being to hear the Bible in a language they can understand.

We have scanned two vernacular Bibles (Meru and Borana) and have them on PDF.

We converted to a different format to make them easy to make a mobile app but the errors were enormous. And none of us had adequate time to devote to the correcting of those errors. Anyone who can use such is welcome. The readers of those languages can use those soft copies to read at a font size most convenient for them.

But for now I am challenging believers to take the challenge of making Audio Bibles for our vernaculars.

Who will stand with me? When will we start?

God bless you.

Master’s Likeliness

It is very easy to know the kind of school one attended, especially when particular behavior patterns are observed.

And it is not much different when we look at the schools of thought one subscribes to.

One clear thing I have observed is that a disciple copies his discipler in more ways than the Bible verses he memorises and kind of company he keeps.

They will take the mannerisms and preferences of their master. They will take his thought patterns. They will eventually become clones of their master, to use a term most of us understand, though for the most part it is used negatively.

Why do people who have been married for a long time look like they are from the same parents? They have spent so much time together that from their miniscule gestures they start resembling.

What am I driving at?

We will automatically resemble the master we spend our time with. We will resemble the master we are constantly in communication with.

Christ said that we will be known by our fruit. And that fruit will be consistent with the kind of master we represent.

I therefore want us to look at a few traits of the One we call Master and some of the traits we display that may be a clear demonstration that we probably are serving another master.

Jesus performed His miracles outside the limelight. A case in point is in John 5 where the one He healed had no idea who had healed him. Many times He ordered those He healed not to tell anyone else about the healing. He hid when publicity became too much, even rebuking those who were following Him concerning their motives for searching or pursuing Him.

Why do we see displays of miracles on TV? Why do we call people through advertisements to come to be healed? Why do we invite people so that we can pray for them?

On the other side we know that the devil simply loves visibility. He feeds on the star status. He loves those displays and the attention he derives from them.

Christ never shone any light on His performance and ministry. He was content to be called a copier of what His Father was doing. He always pointed to His Father whether He was arguing with His detractors or teaching or performing miracles.

Why do we see church billboards that must have the names, and even pictures of the ‘man of God’, some even with their spouse? Why must crusades indicate the performers in their invitations and advertisements? Why must we know the performers before we attend a ‘worship’ concert or event?

Christ said that He did not come to be served (though He is the King of kings and Lord of Lords) but to serve and give His life a ransom for us.

Why then are pastors and other ministers the focal point of the resources available in the church? Why are they among the most highly paid class of persons in society? Why do most churches seem to revolve around their pastors? Why is it a greater sin to offend a pastor than to offend Christ?

Christ said that He had no place to lay His head (though we know that He created all things).

How comes that pastors are amassing wealth from all fronts? Why is buying a pastor this or the other toy (car, house, scholarship, holiday trip) such a priority in churches? Why are those more pressing needs than fighting poverty in the congregation? Why is it a more pressing need than missions?

Could we be feeding off another master’s trough? Could we be in fellowship with another master? Could we be subject to another king? Could we be serving another Christ?

Let us examine ourselves. Like Paul admonished let us examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith.

God bless you