A Grateful Heart

The second half of my family is all transitioning.

Allow me to explain.

My last born is transitioning to junior school.

My second last is transitioning to high school

And my fourth born is transitioning from high school.

In short, I had three candidates in my house this year just as I had three children in high school during that terrible corona time with very brief terms and compulsory midterms; and all of them were in distant schools.

And of course, the youngest of my first half transitioned into university not so long ago.

That fills my heart with immense gratitude to God who has not only made it possible, but has done a very good job of holding it all together.

I therefore want to call on you to join me in this gratitude wherever you are.

Just thank God for and with me for what He has done and continues to do.

Also, for a long time, I have resisted many calls to use video in my teaching ministry.

But I now feel that the time has come for me to venture into that direction as I have finally sensed the release toward the same. But I will start it with very rudimental equipment, the phone and its camera.

Pray also for that.

Another request with respect with my children transitioning is that I will be picking my daughter from Muthetheni Girls’ on Friday after she sits her last paper.

I will need a car and fuel for that.

I also want to bring my whole family together for a time of thanksgiving after picking her up, preferably that evening and night.

This means we will need some bites since thanksgiving is a time of celebration.

Pray for all that provision.

Pray as God leads. Respond as God directs.

But nothing can stifle the gratitude overflowing in my heart.

God bless you

Childish Fun 2

We were looking at children and their almost magnetic attraction to danger.

We saw that as the product of their lack of vision guided by their lack of experience.

Or do you not wonder why a child must throw everything they get to their mouth? Why do they judge beauty using their tongue?

Their tongue happens to be their most dependable organ, their connection to their narrow worldview.

But a child will most certainly jump to catch the flame of a candle for its beauty for the same reason and burn their fingers in the process.

It is through those experiences that he learns that fire is hot and dangerous; that beauty can burn.

A wise parent does not hide candles from children. He makes sure that he is around when they are holding that flame so that the danger the child is exposed to is minimised.

Many parents have over the years learnt that their screening of their children from danger makes that danger even more attractive.

The child will therefore hide from his parents when he dabbles in that danger that he interprets as unbridled fun. This will many times result in a disaster.

Guarding feeds a child’s curiosity whereas instructing shows them the dangers in whatever they are being warned against.

Telling your daughter that boys are dangerous draws them there almost instinctively. Telling children that alcohol and tobacco are poison is never a deterrent.

Showing them, most effectively by example, is the best way to guide them to avoid those and many other dangers.

Children catch what we do faster and better than what we teach.

At teenage, most, probably all, children will question everything, including their parents’ wisdom and authority.

That is the point at which our lessons in their earlier years will bear their most fruit.

A ‘do not’ parent will most probably have the child doing everything in their power to do exactly what is forbidden.

A ‘watch me’ parent will have developed a more secure teenager who, though they may question the wisdom of their parents, will most likely be more careful in their rebellion because they have explanations and demonstrations why they were told to avoid things their hormones are crying out to experiment.

That is the point at which their greatest and most dangerous experiments are carried out

They will try drugs and sex and crime and lawlessness.

And that simply because they have no concept of danger or consequences. They have no fear of death as to them it is a simple chapter in their lives. Injury is an adventure since there will be somebody to carry the weight of their recovery

Young people have recently overthrown entrenched dictatorships because they do not fear guns. And nobody can kill all of them even if they tried.

No wonder the dictators flee, and will continue fleeing.

Give them a reason to support you and they will do the same without reservations.

Disappoint them and they will stop at nothing to make you pay.

And they have tools and weapons that other generations never had; information, communication, rapport.

What am I saying?

Let us instruct our children in the ways of God. Let us demonstrate to them that our faith reaps better rewards than any adrenaline rush experimentation promises.

And let us pray for them that they will experience our faith and make it their own very early because then they will be in contact with an eternal vision before any other pull is exerted on their choices.

Progress

To say that we love progress might be an understatement.

But not everyone loves it immediately because of the disruptions it causes to the existing structures.

What happened to horses and horse drawn carriages when the cars became widespread? What happened to the vinyl record infrastructure when the cassette tape arrived? What happened to the cassette tape when the CD arrived? And what happened to the CD when music was condensed to small MP3 that could fit thousands of songs in a phone? What happened to the AM broadcasting infrastructure when FM gained ascendence? What happened to the film camera infrastructure when the digital camera arrived?

Successful and thriving businesses became bankrupt overnight.

But many times, that progress may happen to bring some very negative social implications.

Look at the cellular phone for instance.

Though it appears to have broken much ground in accessibility; though it has opened grounds for unfettered access; though it has made shopping and banking easy; though it has made the pursuit of knowledge easy and affordable, it has one the same vein introduced some unforeseen dangers to the social and filial structures.

People who can have conversations with others across the globe are unable to have any meaningful conversation at the dinner table.

People who can access money easily have become unable to plan though their gadgets have all the tools for the same.

People who can spot a lie on the other side of the globe are unable to accurately express themselves because they want to be seen ‘properly’.

People have become false, even to themselves, meaning that community has died as we have all become actors at the game of life.

But this is not the message I am sharing. This is just a wakeup message.

Because God knew about this when He was creating the world. Meaning that the Gospel addresses that aspect of our lives and communities as well.

But allow me to delve into the new thing; Artificial Intelligence, or AI.

And you will allow me to look at just one aspect to get my point across.

In the past, clever characters were able to ‘hack’ into betting platforms and obtain win after win before the gamers realised that they had become the game. And that was before computers, leave alone internet.

Someone would take their time to understand the numbers, programs, procedures to be able to accurately predict the winning tickets and where they could be bought.

And since betting is a science, they would be able to hit the jackpot again and again because they were ready and willing their brains toward that end.

You see, algorithms did not start with the digital age as many think.

These characters would almost fleece the gamers since they would always win big as they would get the jackpot and several other big consolation prizes.

Now imagine with me that a few gamblers go the AI way with their predictions. And we know that gamblers will stop at nothing to win.

Which algorithm will win since we are pitting AI against AI?

Who will clean up the mess?

Internet and social media have killed community for the large part

AI could kill humanity for all it is worth.

You see, social media has taught us to create a false front that our community will love.

AI will stop us from thinking. It will stop us from problem solving.

Now imagine what that will do to an already fractured community!

I might be looking like an alarmist, and probably I am.

But as always, I seek to operate outside boxes. And I also want people to think beyond what they can see.

But probably I am not talking about you.

If so, forget everything I have said.

Childish Fun

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. {perish: or, is made naked} (Proverbs 29:18)

I was thinking about children and fun. And about youth and danger.

A child has no concept of repercussions. A youth has no clear concept of responsibility.

That, incidentally, is not because they are foolish or wicked.

Those things come with experience. They come from burning one’s fingers (or seeing them burnt) many times.

A child will throw a stone to a crowd to observe the resulting chaos.

A child could easily set a bush alight to observe its ‘blaze’. A child can break a chicken’s leg to learn to be a surgeon.

That is why no parent will buy their child a single toy. Because it will be in pieces in a very short time, however expensive it was.

Those risks and dangers are the way a child learns.

The wise parent is the one who will guide his children to avoid danger in their experimentation, since that is what their adventures simply are.

An adult has seen and experienced enough hurt and damage as to be in a position to know how to avoid it again.

That is the meaning of that verse.

But it is not about age and experience that the verse is talking about.

It is speaking about spiritual vision.

How far can you see in the spiritual?

A radar depends on the reflection of the signals it sends all around and their interpretation.

If one can diffuse instead of reflect those signals, that radar would be completely blind. If someone could be stationary or move in very low speeds, the radar would also be completely blind since it is only trained to see an object moving beyond a particular speed.

Why do we not place metal containers in microwave ovens?

They will disperse instead of absolve the energy. Meaning that whatever will be in that container will never benefit from the radiation.

Before I went off grid, I loved using the induction cooker since its energy consumption was very good despite its other challenges.

But it never recognised anything that was not magnetic, even some steel.

I used to carry a magnet when I would look for sufurias and pans for that reason.

Of course, you know that a bat can comfortably speed through the night in total darkness because it was created to use something other than eyes to see.

I am sure some are getting confused

You can only see what you have been trained to see. You can only use the tools you have to accomplish your assignment.

Though a radar can see something very far very accurately, it will be completely blind to something next to it if it is not moving the way radar has been trained to see.

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. (Psalm119:18)

That is the vision I am talking about.

Lack of that vision is the reason people perish.

On the natural, you can only use the lens of your experience. Meaning that you have nothing beyond your experience to guide you.

As you grow, however, you are able to access some other experience apart from yours to guide you.

Being called a village bumpkin is an insult because of what it implies; you have never ventured beyond your village.

But it farther implies that you have no other interaction with anybody or anything outside your village; meaning that your experience is very narrow indeed.

Though you may be an expert in village affairs, you will be completely at a loss if something different from that experience is introduced.

We love and laugh at children because we appreciate their limited experience.

We fear for and stress about our youth because we not only know the power they possess, but because we know the dangers they are plunging themselves into through their ignorance.

Allow me, however, to get us to another dimension.

It is important for us to realise that there is another dimension that we are always wont to overlook.

It is the spiritual dimension.

A wizened old man well versed in the world is a complete village bumpkin in the spiritual.

And it is because he is completely blind to spiritual things.

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1Corinthians 2:14)

He can only see things from the earthly perspective. No wonder he calls spiritual things foolish. They are simply out of his vision.

But the spiritual man has a wider vision because he can see the natural with a spiritual lens.

He not only can accurately see the natural with that eye, he can see it better because he can place it in the frame of an eternal perspective.

We talk about winning a battle and losing a war. What does it mean?

It simply means that the overall winner will allow the loser to gain a few wins so that he can then open himself up to a complete rout.

A board game master (checkers, chess) will consistently offer trophies as baits so that the competitor, in devouring those trophies, will forget to cover his bases.

By the time he realises, or even as he is celebrating all that victory, the master may just need a single move to completely take the game.

Remember the Ai and Benjamite war scenarios?

That is exactly what happened.

They were deceived by their victories that they left their cities completely exposed.

By the time they realised what had happened, they had nowhere to run.

My grandmother told me of a similar battle in the distant past when the only sport that pitted a tribe against another was taking flocks and herds from each other.

An opposing army was seen approaching from very far because this other one was on a hill.

They therefore quickly slaughtered a bull or two and started roasting them.

By the time the opposing army had approached, the meat was ready to eat.

Then the resident army hid around the grounds.

The invading army was perplexed. Yet they could not resist the aroma of such a feast.

Since they could not see anybody around, they concluded that the army had seen them and scattered.

They therefore sat down to the feast of their lives, of course separating with their weapons.

It was at that time that the resident army appeared, completely obliterating them.

Natural sight is limited to the here and now because it has no view of anything beyond death.

That is why this life so encompasses us to the point that we are devastated should anything threaten this life.

That is why people commit suicide when there is a huge fall in their fortunes.

Then you hear someone laughing at a teenager committing suicide because their crush broke their heart or their failing their exams!

But that is the far they can see.

How different is that youth to a magnate taking his life because his investments have evaporated after an economic bubble bursts?

Spiritual vision sees beyond this life. It is an eternal vision.

Only spiritual vision understands sin and can accurately see the cancer it is to our eternity.

Only spiritual vision appreciates persecution and its benefits to the world.

Without spiritual vision, this world is all there is. Without spiritual vision, the grave is the conclusion of the matter.

Only spiritual vision can place restraints on this life. Only spiritual vision can show me the boundaries God has placed on my life.

Otherwise, pleasure is the ultimate pursuit.

But it is a spiritual vision guided by the author of eternity.

It is a spiritual vision guided by His revelation.

This is because there is a counter spiritual vision guided by counterfeit spirituality.

This is where taboos and curses find their power.

They thrive in fear and not obedience. They are driven by ignorance instead of revelation.

True spiritual vision is guided by the word of God, the Bible.

Yet people would rather avoid the Bible than seek to get that vision.

Lack of that vision makes us do some very illogical things.

Allow me to get into current affairs to demonstrate it.

Some twenty odd years ago, no American could have imagined a Muslim holding a position in a kindergarten after they had brought down the twin towers among other terror.

Yet they have just elected a Muslim to be the mayor of the epicentre of that atrocity. And that Muslim is also a recent immigrant as those terrorists were.

It is an earthly vision that will disconnect someone’s faith from their conduct.

I don’t care what you believe as long as you can soothe my ego, seems to be the guiding principle.

I do not know this mayor and so have nothing against him.

I just want us to appreciate the fact that the lack of a spiritual/ eternal vision amkes one lead a very fluid life.

You just need to create an enemy to have a murderer leading you since he is the most brutal.

I was recently listening to an article about Clinton’s impeachment debacle and this came out clearly

He was able to ‘overcome’ because many people did not care what he did in private, even if that private happened in the white house.

But a spiritual and eternal vision operates differently.

That is why the qualifications for a church elder are very high though for most it is a very humdrum position.

I am simply saying that the lack of spiritual vision is childish because it is very short term, the farthest it can go being the grave.

Yet there is an eternity to deal with, an eternity whose rules and rewards are determined by God. The same God who issued the rules to live by.

Will we choose to operate by God’s vision or are we content to live for the here and now?

Generational Baggage

And he said unto him, Fear not: for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth. (1Samuel 23:17)

Have you, like me, wondered why Jonathan’s prophecy here excluded him?

Why did he die before his vision and revelation was actualised?

What we do with the revelations we receive is the purpose of this post.

Jonathan was positive that David would be king. He had even pledged his royalty to that reality.

Incidentally, apart from Jonathan, Saul himself confessed that he was positive that David would become king even as he was pleading for mercy once that happened, incidentally when he himself was seeking to kill the same David.

It goes to say that revelation is not enough motivation or drive for action. A confession, however inspired, is also not adequate to drive one to action.

Nobody will go to hell because of their ignorance. It will be because of their rebellion.

Allow me to look at Jonathan for a moment

Jonathan was Saul’s crown prince, meaning that he was the one waiting to take over the kingdom from his father, either through death, abdication or even wilful surrender.

But he knew that it was a gone kingdom anyway, because of his father’s rebellion.

But David’s was a future kingdom, however solid it looked. It was a vision, however clear it may have appeared.

Jonathan was therefore torn between an actual kingdom and a promised kingdom. He was torn between sight and faith.

He was torn between a bosom friend he could do everything for and a father who was counting on him to govern.

The fallacies and errors inherent in his father’s leadership may have surely required the steady hand of a supportive crown prince.

He knew that his father was rejected. However, this blundering father needed him as a faithful son. Meaning that however rejected he may have been, he still needed the support of his crown prince because he counted on him to perpetuate his rejected kingdom.

For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom. (1Samuel 20:31)

Jonathan was thus torn between God’s revelation and a father’s expectation.

He simply could not make a clean break between one or the other.

On the one hand, he defended and protected and encouraged David with everything he had while on the other hand still followed his father in his mission of killing the same David.

However, by sticking with his father, he was delaying what he knew was surely going to happen, since he knew that it came from God

I hope you are getting something here.

That was the cause of his death.

And that is why he was not able to accomplish his greatest dream of serving under God’s appointed king.

He was overtaken by events that he had prior knowledge of because he was not willing to take the plunge and walk with the revelation he had.

Do we do that?

All the time.

We are always faced with choices between God’s revelation and filial responsibilities.

This is because the same God who ordered us to honour our father and mother said that to follow Him we must hate them.

That balance between honour and hate is what caused Jonathan his life.

I do not mean that he ought to have hated on his father because even David, whose life Saul sought, never also hated him.

When loyalty to father conflicts with God’s revelation however, there is not much of a choice.

Of course it will be treated as betrayal. As if his relationship with David was not treated thus.

The lack of that clean break was the cause of Jonathan’s dilemma.

This is because he was already being treated as a saboteur by his father due to his relationship with David, at one time missing death by a whisker from his father for it.

Though defecting to David could have clearly indicated that he was taking sides, staying with his father yet maintaining a working contact with him was not any different.

Suppose he had defected to David?

Chances are that his father could have stopped looking to kill David because he couldn’t have risked killing his son in the process.

Reminds me of my father.

He was in the colonialist’s army, secretly serving the Mau Mau.

Until his only brother, and a younger brother at that, went to the forest.

The war then became personal because two brothers are on opposite sides of a single gun.

He simply couldn’t risk even accidentally killing his younger brother for the whole world and therefore joined him in the forest.

His defection may have even led Saul to repent because his rejection could then not be denied.

Jonathan therefore denied his father the chance to repent by supporting him in his rebellion.

But again, suppose that his father had died and left the crown prince alive.

How easy do you think it might have been for the army to allow him as the new king to submit to this imaginary anointed king that revelation had showed Jonathan? How easy could it have been for them to play second fiddle to these upstarts just because their new king said so?

If Abner, the general, raised someone so low in the line to be king instead of allowing David, yet he, like Jonathan, knew that David was God’s choice for king, do you think he could have allowed the crown prince to abdicate to an outsider, however revelational his anointing was?

It is possible that the army could have simply killed him before allowing the kingdom to go outside their tribe since that could have automatically lowered their positions as the new king would have to raise his own command.

The wisest and godly choice for Jonathan was to join the king he was convinced had been raised by God since it could have avoided so much pain and probably save so much time.

And we face those choices all the time.

How many believers stick with a fallen and unrepentant ‘father’ because of what they had done for them when they were living right? And in their folly, they are convinced they are doing God’s will.

How many believers are stuck in a church that abandoned the faith ages ago because of their fire generations ago?

How many stick to spiritual hearths that are devoid, not only of any coals, but even of ash that indicates a past presence of fire because that is their family culture?

How many believers stick to doctrines and practices they clearly know are unscriptural because they do not want to rock the boat that is their history?

How many know their Bibles enough to know that the way they pray and do religion is unscriptural yet cannot change it because past revivals did it?

How many stick to pretentious traditions that are clearly unscriptural because that the way things have been done?

You will wonder why someone should believe and presume to follow Christ yet refuse to leave their traditions, even ecclesiastical ones.

Jonathan died because he was not willing to make a clean break with what was blocking God’s king from reigning. We will die, and we are dying, because we are not willing to leave everything the word of God says we should leave. Or, we are not going the whole hog into where God calls on us to go.

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 28:20)

99% is not all.

Will we walk with all the revelation God releases to us? 

Morgue Doctrines

And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons, Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people: but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the LORD hath kindled. And ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: for the anointing oil of the LORD is upon you. And they did according to the word of Moses. (Leviticus 10: 6, 7)

I posted on Facebook about our country being a humongous morgue due to my observations after the death of a politician.

Incidentally, there was no difference between believers and non believers in their response.

Imagine Christian stations blocking the Gospel to broadcast a burial!

And it is the burial of someone who for the longest time has been openly against believers and their practices, especially prayer.

That is the reason I am convinced we are a dead church.

The only reason a Gospel show can be stopped is because there is a higher Gospel cause being pursued.

That is why I want us to get the message from the Old Testament.

Aaron had lost his two eldest sons, probably because they became overexcited after being commissioned as priests.

We know that it is God who struck them.

Their father and younger brothers saw it when it happened.

Was there trauma? Was there shock?

I am sure there were.

But look at what God says.

You belong to Me. The dead belong to the community.

Let the community mourn and bury them.

You may remember that they were not even allowed to touch their dead bodies.

In our language, they were denied the chance to pay their last respects. And it is God who did the denying.

Where am I taking us? You may be wondering.

Jesus said that it is the responsibility of the dead to bury their own dead.

God’s assignment nullifies everything else, even responsibility to family and friends.

Remember the reason Christ gave for letting the dead to bury their own dead?

Ther was a ministry to be done; that of preaching about the kingdom of God.

And this guy was being denied the responsibility of burying his father, to say the least.

You see, the Gospel takes precedence over any other responsibility as Aaron learnt painfully.

Remember the same happened to Ezekiel when God told him that He was going to take his wife (darling wife is close to what God called her) because there was a message to be shared

We love boasting that we are priests because of what Christ did.

Do we care to know the priestly responsibilities and caveats?

Priests did not deal with death, whether human or animal.

Celebrating death as we like to say nowadays is as unpriestly as a Jew eating pork.

The only time a priest was allowed to participate in death is when it involved his very immediate family. And even then his married sisters were not part of that family involvement. Even a divorced sister was outside that circle unless she did not have any children.

And there were times as we have seen with Aaron that even that was denied.

That is how stringent God was to the priests, among other rules.

Even Jesus, our High Priest, was not involved with death and funerals. The only two times we see Him involved is breaking them up by raising those dead. And I wouldn’t mind if we attended funerals for that purpose.

Christ never talked about any ministry to the dead. And nowhere in the scriptures do we see such ministry.

Our ministry is to the living, preferably after the dead have done their burying.

Stumbling Blocks

And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. (Mark 9:42)

I want us to look at this topic in a slightly different, though still scriptural, way.

The common understanding of a stumbling block is something that causes someone to fall (into sin)

Treat that is a narrow way of looking at it.

Shifting attention is as powerful, if not more powerful, than an actual stumbling block.

Weakening of resolve also falls in that category.

Let us look at long distance races to get a grip of what I mean.

Teams have pacers whose main purpose is to weary competing teams so that the designated winner will not have much competition at the home stretch.

This happens because only the team knows who the winner is, keeping competitors running after whoever appears like a winner even as the winner is taking it easy behind the leading pack, just to burst through the weary competitors at the last minute.

The pacers did not stumble the competitors in the typical way.

They simply confuse their competitors into competing with shadows by hiding the real competitor.

They therefore expended their energy in the wrong competition.

Incidentally, that happens with our faith and ministry.

Have you seen those always needy, always searching individuals.

They are always asking for support and prayers at every situation, never getting beyond that initial stage. They are always asking for direction and counsel when they see you. They are always seeking this and the other fellowship.

They are like the leech in Proverbs. Allow me to call them dead weights

Those are stumbling blocks. And unless you have a way of dispensing with them you will never advance in ministry beyond their narrow needs since they will always keep you busy responding to their childish and unending calls.

Then there is the pick pocket and the cell phone snatcher.

When I was in the city, I used to observe them in operation.

Their greatest ally is diversion

They will have partners whose main role is to create any sort of diversion, from feigned fights to rowdy arguments to entertainment.

That drama will draw people like a magnet.

Then the pickpockets will just flow into the crowds picking pockets at ease because the crowds’ attention is elsewhere.

I was able to see that most clearly in traffic jams.

Drama will start on the side of the road and the thieves will have an easy time taking phones from eager hands and walk comfortably away since someone won’t be able to get out of the vehicle.

The same would happen when there is a shortage of transport, either when it rains or there is a crisis on the roads.

In the rush of securing a seat when a vehicle arrives, the pickpockets would have one of them block the door of the vehicle so that there is very limited space for someone to get through.

That intense concentration and push for space will then give his accomplices adequate time to take whatever they want from anybody without them noticing.

Does that happen in our faith and ministry?

There are people and ministries whose major preoccupation is looking for people who have responded to the call of God, offering them opportunities in their ministry, even giving huge incentives to draw them from their calling.

They will be minding their own business until they find somebody whose call to ministry is clear. Then they will spare no effort to convince them to join them.

They will create a missions’ pastor position to get a person out of the mission field. They will create a students’ pastor position for a person who ministers in campuses. They will even create an entrepreneurship pastor position for someone creating spiritual waves in the business community.

They are simply snatching soldiers from the trenches and posting them to comfortable desks

There are discipleship ministries (I call it an abuse of the term) whose focus is people who are being discipled by others.

That is the greatest obstacle to true discipleship.

I remember a unique discipleship journey I had with a young man who had been unmanageable even in Sunday school since not only couldn’t he sit still, but even at that young age was unteachable according to his teachers and other children.

But God connected him to me through books and so I was able to in a short while start a very healthy discipleship journey with him.

Before long, the fruits of that discipleship started becoming visible.

In a flash he was snatched from me and offered opportunities my ‘dull’ discipleship did not have. He started being offered responsibilities way above the level of his growth.

It is sad that he died rushing through those ministry openings I knew he was not ready for.

And it is even worse that none of those people offering him those responsibilities ever sought my input concerning his growth path.

I mention this, not because it is the most prominent but because it ended so tragically.

And any discipler will have many such cases in their ministry ‘files’.

Remember the old prophet in Samaria?

Distractions seek to force us to expend our spiritual energy on things that are outside our core calling. They seek to detract our focus from our calling.

And as happened to the young prophet it could end up tragically.

You do not have to attend that prayer meeting. You do not have to attend that fellowship. You do not have to give to that ministry or cause. You do not have to go for that mission.

You are only accountable to God for the orders He has issued to you and not to others, whether they are your spiritual seniors, mentors, bishops.

I was kicked out of ministry because the big man did not agree with God’s orders for me though they fitted in the job description they had given when they called me.

I was thrown out to the streets, not because I had done something wrong, but because I refused to be distracted by orders that did not agree with God’s orders.

That, incidentally, happens all the time when the ministry boss insists that God’s orders must be subject to his office or position.

You wonder why they do not raise their own people who will not have any issues with their orders!

A distraction is clearly a stumbling block, more so because it may introduce rebellion in the mix.

Resources are another distraction with a powerful pull backwards.

It happens many times because of the way we have been taught about ministry and its support.

As an example, have you realised that probably everybody considering reaching a new place or planting a new church will start raising resources for instruments and a sound system before anything else?

Why not start with raising an evangelistic team?

Someone will therefore spend all their time and resources on the non-essentials so that by the time they get to the essentials they are completely wasted.

But it might become worse because they may have already been corrupted by givers with ulterior motives as I wrote on the posts about common purses (Toxic Friendships).

Imagine God calling you to reach the slums or some other impoverished neighbourhoods. Then a partner gifts you a top of the range SUV to pursue that ministry with.

How effective will you be in your ministry when the fuel your locomotion uses in a day is way above a family’s weekly budget?

That gift may offer you prestige, but it is a stumbling block to your ministry.

An inappropriate gift is a stumbling block when it is kept

Let us also deal with dress that is many times treated as the ultimate stumbling block.

Do you realise that a sharp suit could be a stumbling block?

Think about a farmer or technician who is most comfortable in an overall or other work clothes.

Wearing a suit for the simple reason of preaching or giving a testimony could make him so self conscious as to be completely ineffective in that assignment that suit was meant to make him excel in. It can be compared to asking a fish to function outside water.

How do I know inappropriate dress?

A normal woman or girl wearing inappropriate dress will be overly conscious. You will see her stretching and pulling and many other acrobatic moves so that their dressing appears normal because in her spirit she knows that she is not in her element

A harlot wearing something even more damning and revealing will be comfortable since she is advertising her wares. She is in her element

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:2)

Forcing our interpretations and traditions on God’s people is actually being a stumbling block to them.

Connect to people where they are and help them connect with God in their context.

As Paul said, the Gospel did not start with you. Stop acting like it did.

On the same vein, callings did not start with yours

And like I always say, God never consults you when He calls anybody, even your children.

Your role is to raise them to respond to Him when He calls, however and wherever he calls.

Making yourself a reference is therefore being a stumbling block to people’s callings.

Do you realise that agreement can also be a stumbling block?

How? You may ask.

Who between Paul and Barnabas was wrong when they parted over Mark?

Each was pursuing his calling. And the callings clashed.

Barnabas nurtured and so had more grace for failure and discouragement. Remember he was the person who introduced the same Paul to the Jerusalem church after they had rejected him?

Paul was a workhorse who had no place for dead weight.

And both succeeded in their ministries.

Paul’s success is all over Acts.

Barnabas’ success is evident because we read Mark’s book and have enough commendation from the same Paul, and even Peter.

Had they come to an agreement, either way, it could have been a stumbling block to one or the other. Simply because it would have been a forced truce.

The only place where there should be agreement is our commitment to God and our response to sin.

Like a pastor friend always says, the veil was torn so that we can relate to God at a personal level without intermediaries. We should never water down that reality.

That title can be a stumbling block, to you or other people

That clerical garb can also be a stumbling block.

Your boasting of your clerical and ministerial credentials can be a stumbling block.

Allow me to give an illustration.

Suppose you are invited to speak to a forum.

You are very good at what you do but have a modest education with nothing following your name.

The organisers decide to introduce all the speakers in that conference.

Prof A, PhD in aeronautics, Dr B, PhD in neurology, Eng C, PhD in synthetic (you do not get the other word), etc.

You are number 10 on the list, and the only person with nothing following your name.

I am sure that long before they get to you, you will be completely deflated and feeling like a buffoon. You are completely intimidated

You interpret their invitation as a design to humiliate you.

And that is long before you have the chance to demonstrate what qualified you to be invited to that forum.

I am sure you will not have a satisfactory delivery when your time comes.

Even that stringing together of scriptural quote reference (something I loved to do) and ancient Bible language explanations might end up being stumbling blocks as they could very easily intimidate or even stop a brother with a message from sharing as it makes them feel inadequate.

I will allow you to fill the gaps.

The only way I can avoid the trap of stumbling God’s people is being the person and minister God has called me to be.

Then I will be able to be a competent minister wherever God sends me without being a drag on the church of Christ.

And I am sure that is why God overlooked the eleven when choosing an apostle to the gentiles since, not only did he understand them, he did not have the biases and prejudices the others had, having been raised amongst them.

Remember the struggle Peter had when he was sent to Cornelius? And the complaint the others had against that ministry?

I believe I have helped somebody look at his ministry in a slightly different way.

For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. (1Corinthians 9: 19 – 22)