Hagar 2

And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him. (1Samuel 31:5)

As we continue looking at servants who become friends, as well as the breach of trust its abuse invites, I feel it is important for us to look at a few exceptional characters who took that trust to its uttermost.

But before I do that, let me bring us to the ultimate.

Ahithophel was David’s counsellor, so trusted was he that his counsel was treated as God’s.

In short, this character was exceptional in reading and interpreting issues and events and analysing situations that he was always on point in his diagnosis and prescriptions.

We are not told what put him so off from David that he joined his son in plotting and executing his overthrow.

Can you imagine how David felt when he learnt that his most trusted confidant and counsellor had become his enemy?

David prayed a painful prayer, and God heard him.

When Ahithophel’s counsel was not followed, incidentally because David planted another trusted confidant to counter it, this wisdom guru realised that he had nowhere to run to and resorted to suicide.

You may realise that the same happened with Judas.

Do you realise that this is exactly what happened with the devil? He simply betrayed the trust God had placed on him.

Incidentally, that is what happens with us when we take God’s release on us for personal gain.

And on this Haman is the best example.

He took a personal tiff to exceptional heights, resorting to turn a personal issue into a kingdom one.

Mordecai so riled him that he decided to turn it into a kingdom crisis, even investing his treasure into its execution.

As such matters end, he realised too late that his enemy (who did not view him as an enemy), was probably the one who ought to have occupied his position had his earlier deed not been overlooked.

When our Lord makes us His friends, it never means that we become His equals, or even approach his stature.

He calls us friends because He knows that we are completely sold out to His agenda that we will completely abandon ours should it counter it.

But we are looking at friends who exemplify that trust today.

And we will start with Saul’s bodyguard.

He knew everything about his master, from his rejection to his visiting a witch.

When his master committed suicide, he was best placed to reap big from that wherever he had gone. And he would not need to lie like the Amalekite who had sought to benefit from Saul’s death.

David couldn’t have killed him. Chances are that he would have created some space for him in his scheme of things due to his loyalty.

Even the Philistines could have loved to have him on their side since he possessed all his master’s secrets.

But for him, living without his master was unimaginable. That is why he committed suicide by his master’s side.

Have you like me wondered why Deborah’s death is recorded in the scriptures while her mistress (Rebecca) is not?

She exemplifies the loyalty we are looking at.

When her mistress dies, she goes to the son she had loved instead of looking for greener pastures elsewhere. She was content serving her mistress even in death.

Risper, Saul’s concubine was another one.

When God is avenging his foolish breach of an ancient covenant, she decides to stand by the corpses of his descendants by day and by night, protecting them from scavengers until her loyalty gets to the king’s ears. And that was lo o o ng after her master was gone.

Your wish is my command is the guiding principle of slaves who are made friends.

As we have seen with these, death is not an excuse to abandon cause. They simply continued serving their masters even in death. They continued honouring their master’s wishes even when the master was not there.

Ruth is another exceptional case.

She willingly put paid her ambitions, her familiarities, her community, her security, her choices, her faith, to be loyal to a grieving mother-in-law.

No wonder their relatives opined that she was better than ten sons.

A person is not therefore called a friend because they have been long with a master.

They are called so because they have simply abandoned everything, even their life, to serve their master.

And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. (Acts 5:41)

And some of us still wonder why Christ does not treat us as friends!

Imagine treating shame, pain and torture as a pleasure because it is for the master’s pleasure?

The question I will ask us is this

How close are we to the few examples we have seen here?

Are we like Saul’s armour bearer?

Are we like Deborah?

Are we like Risper?

Are we like Ruth?

Are we like the disciples under the Roman persecution?

Do we have an agenda or is our agenda completely swallowed by our master’s?

Hagar

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. (John 15: 13 – 15)

Imagine that you have a great relationship with your employer, to the point that you are on first name terms.

Even your families connect seamlessly so that many people mistake you for family.

Do you think that this relationship is comparable to the one you have with a brother or even neighbour?

Of course not.

A slight slip and you will be jobless.

That relationship is dictated by your working relationship.

You lose it immediately you move to a new employer, or lag in your performance.

Or imagine this young man who shares a football passion with his father.

Then they start an argument over one or the other of their favourite team or player.

Then, in the heat of the moment, this young expert who spends more time in his passion forgets who he is arguing with and shouts

Stop being stupid and grow up

Do you think things will proceed as they had always done?

Again, we need to realise that their common passion has no bearing on their filial relationship.

I have, like most of us, always taken the verses above at their face value; that Christ is our bestie at all times irrespective of anything else.

But that is a fallacy.

Christ never calls every believer a friend.

We need to look at lordship to understand what this verse is teaching.

We start as His slaves and through faithful performance and transformation become friends.

And it is something that flows throughout the scriptures.

That is why I want us to start with Genesis.

I will start with the wrong example since that is what many of us are like.

Hagar was given an assignment by her mistress, bear a child for me because I appear to be barren.

That was a trust, an immense one. It was a huge promotion on her part since she was raised from a slave to being a partner in Abraham’s vision.

That is what got into her mind once she conceived.

She forgot what got her to that point in the first place

That mistake cost her everything. And her descendants are still fighting over it.

Her assumption lost her son the connection to the promise.

Compare that with Zilpah and Bilhah

They were given the same assignment and did it properly.

They did not fight for positions or recognition.

Yet what happened?

Their sons automatically became Israel’s sons without distinction.

And they were elevated to concubines, then wives.

That is what I am talking about.

Eleazar, Abraham’s slave, is another clear example. We know he was a foreigner who had risen through the ranks of his slavery that Abraham had considered him as the heir had Isaac not arrived.

Can you imagine Abraham entrusting him with the responsibility of looking for a wife for the son of the promise?

He was in charge of all the other slaves, and of all the wealth.

He therefore took everything and everyone he needed because it was all at his disposal

Another person to look at is Joseph and his progression

He serves with distinction as a slave that he is made the lord of the household.

Then he does the same in prison that he is again made the master of other prisoners.

No wonder he could be entrusted with running Egypt.

And even then, we do not see him getting above his position since he still requests the king’s permission even on things his position was legally allowed to do because they were personal just as he had earlier refused the attentions of Potipher’s wife.

Probably the best example of this is Moses.

He was so close to God that Israel did not know the difference between sinning against Moses and sinning against God.

He was so close to God that he would know when judgment had broken out even before God proclaimed it.

God Himself spoke out for Moses and their relationship when it was questioned, to the point of knocking out anyone talking or acting against His servant.

But Moses was the meekest person who ever lived.

He was totally submitted to God’s Lordship and that is clearest when we see him pleading with God to pardon Israel again and again.

God is the one who called Abraham His friend.

And we are able to see their relationship when he is pleading for Sodom, until God has mercy on Lot.

I hope you are getting the drift.

We do not graduate from slaves to friends by any fluke. We do not do it automatically.

In fact, not everybody gets there.

We gradually grow through it through our faithfulness, obedience, trust and submission.

Only a slave can transition through that process.

Any entitlement along the way will automatically disconnect us from our Lord as we have seen with Hagar and many others.

We do not deserve being friends. That is an element of grace we receive from the lord we serve.

Look also at the context of the verse.

The twelve had walked with Jesus, followed Him, run errands for Him and did everything He commanded without even seeking explanations.

That is what Jesus is saying in these verses.

You have demonstrated the fact that you can be My friends from our walk over these years.

But He says something else.

That does not close the case.

You must continue doing the same to continue being friends

Or what is the meaning of this?

Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. (John 15:14)

That position is an active position. It is a verb position.

Our justification is positional. Being called Christ’s friends is conditional.

This means that it is a temporal position that can be lost.

And it explains some passages we struggle with because they seem illogical when we look at our positional promises.

Marriages do not break because of infidelity or the amount of sin involved. Otherwise, we could not be having what are today called as open marriages.

Marriages collapse because of the Hagar syndrome, a breach of trust.

And an example is useful here

Imagine this couple that started their relationship as children, or as what is called childhood sweethearts.

When they get married, they decide to share everything in common; ATM PINs, internet and social media passwords, even confidential official secrets.

Now imagine with me that one morning the husband, who is the breadwinner, notices that his pen is missing.

He asks his wife whether she has seen it and she responds that he probably left it in the office.

He of course has many pens but she knows the pen he was asking about.

Later in the evening, he meets her brother with that same pen and of course is inquisitive about where he got it from.

Your wife gave me yesterday when I passed by your place.

That dollar item will have just broken that marriage.

If he does not love drama, he will take it like Joseph (Mary’s husband) had tried to do.

He will change the PINs and passwords. He will start hiding his documents.

In short, he will slowly lock her out of his life.

Is it because of that dollar item?

Of course not.

It is because of the level of the breach it demonstrated.

That is what Hagar demonstrates.

And that is why this lesson is so important for us today.

Becoming Christ’s friends demands continued diligence.

But it requires much more once we have been admitted into that prestigious position.

Once Hagar lost Sarah’s trust (the same trust that had got her into that position), she lost even her position as a servant.

Lest you think that the Bible is removed from common practice, I want to take us to African culture with the few or many communities I have been involved with.

A woman would realise that she was barren (like Sarah or Rachael) or had stopped bearing after one or two children.

She would then approach a girl to bear children for her

That girl’s position in the family would be prestigious because of the sacrifice involved.

She might later be allowed to become a legal wife and bear her own children.

That is a position that required immense trust as nobody but the closest family would associate her with the children she bore for her mistress.

And the same played out when it was the man who was impotent.

Breaching that confidence made someone the most worthless person in the community.

And that is where I want us to go.

Of course I must create the space for my most quoted verses. And I quote them because they have always been a dilemma for me

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)

From what we have seen, these ministers were rightly in ministry but breached the trust bestowed on them.

Like Hagar, they were handed a trust but chose to abuse it in the course of carrying it out.

They were handed the friend badge but chose to use it for purposes other than what it was meant for.

And entitlement is many times at the fore of that breach

I deserve better for the sacrifices I have made.

Think of it this way

I left a good job in response to God’s call.

Then I think of the trajectory my life could have taken had God not ordered me out of that employment and its privileges.

Then I see my former colleagues driving good cars, owning their own property and basically living the good life when I am still living by faith, not knowing where my next meal is coming from.

Then I see my pastor friends, also living large through playing games of manipulation on their congregations to get anything they want.

I think that this is probably what Christ was calling me to and start playing games with my calling.

I will trash everything I had invested in in God’s eyes. And Christ will also trash me for the breach of the trust He had placed on me.

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (Hebrews 6: 4 – 6)

That explains why repentance at that point is impossible.

Once I had been elevated to the point of friend, I am not just unfriended for that breach, I will lose even the servant position. Or do we not remember that Hagar was banished?

Remember Vashti? She did not just lose her queen position; she completely lost any contact with the king whose trust she had breached.

Or Haman in the same book. He also was not just demoted; he lost his life and posterity for that breach.

Saul lost everything, even posterity. It was only because of Jonathan’s spiritual connections that anyone in his posterity remained.

Jeroboam was wiped clean from the earth because he breached his assignment.

It is important that ministers consider this prayerfully because a breach of that friendship is fatal even beyond the grave, especially beyond the grave.

One indication that we are friends is the spiritual authority we wield and the favour we attract.

It is indicated by the fact that our word packs immense influence and has great impact.

You will know you have that badge when even your opponents and enemies must know your opinion on things and react very strongly even when that opinion was not directed to them.

A slip at that level is beyond catastrophic.

No wonder Jesus said of Judas that it had better for him that he was never born.

In closing allow me to state the fact that being friend does not vacate the slave position. It just adds prestige to it.

Forgetting that single fact is dangerous, too dangerous to imagine

Yet we always forget it

Eleazar was the boss according to Rebecca. But look at what he tells he when Isaac is spotted?

That is my lord.

In short, everything that gave me esteem was due to his trusting and sending me (even though it was not Isaac who had sent him).

Again, look at the apostles and you will see the same proclamation.

It is not us performing the miracles. It is not us sending ourselves.

We are just slaves.

You see the same when heaven is opened and John sees the glory the angels radiate and of course wants to pay reverence to

Don’t do that. I am just a servant like you

You may also remember that it is at that point that Lucifer fell.

He allowed his exalted position to get to his head (or is it heart?)

That is what we become when we allow that friend position get into our heads too.

When your prayers are so powerful that you must pray before anything serious is started and you start revelling in the bounty that accompanies it to the point that you think it is disrespect when somebody forgets or overlooks that largesse.

When you preach so well that a special seat must be made before you are invited to preach.

When your hand releases miracles that you must be flown by private jet so that it is not defiled or touched by the unworthy.

When your word is so powerful in fundraising that a percentage of the money must be yours even when it was meant to feed the hungry.

When your pen is so powerful that a forward to a book is more than the printing cost.

In short, when the focus of the ministry you are performing shifts even so slightly from the One who has called and equipped you, you have overstepped the friend position and become a Hagar of today.

And there is absolutely no repentance for that breach.

Let me summarise by saying this.

A slave is given orders.

A servant is given instructions.

A friend is given an assignment or vision.

And all are done by the same lord.

A slave has no voice.

A servant can ask for clarification.

A friend converses with the master.

The master barks at the slave.

He may at times shout to the servant.

But you may never hear his voice when he talks to the friend.

The slave and servant are many times ordered by other servants (the friends)

Only the master speaks to the friends.

I write all this to help us appreciate the immense privilege it is to be a friend to one’s master.

This is to make us understand why a breach at this point is irredeemable.

Even a slight slip can be dangerous as demonstrated by Moses when he was denied entry into the land of promise for something he did under intense pressure yet he had been consistently faithful for forty years

 

Our Abimelech

If ye then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you: But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech. (Judges 9: 19, 20)

I had a dream that seemed to lend come clarity to the situation in our country.

Gideon had seventy legal sons.

He also had a side chick, a ‘clande’, who also bore him a son.

Israel had asked Gideon to reign over them after he led them to resounding victories over their enemies. They had even asked him to establish a dynasty.

But Gideon refused, arguing that neither he or any of his sons would be kings since Israel already had a king, God.

But the side kick had ideas, lofty ones.

That is why she named her son Abimelech, my father is a king (or father of a king).

I am sure she groomed him into that ambition.

But not only had Gideon refused to be king or establish a dynasty, her son was illegitimate, a bastard, and so disqualified even if Gideon had accepted the offer.

Abimelech therefore knew that there was no way he could have accomplished his ambitions legitimately.

That is why he went to his people, his mother’s buddies, calling on them to assist him ascend his father’s throne by dealing with legitimate heirs.

I am your brother, was his pitch.

And they bought it.

It was with their assistance that he killed the threat to his ambition, seventy brothers, on one stone.

The youngest, probably a teenager or younger, sneaked away probably because he was too small to notice.

It was he who gave the prophecy that has the verses above.

Simply said, he told his illegitimate brother and supporters that they would reap the fruit of their actions.

And it happened just as he had said.

What am I saying?

Brotherhood can be stretched to damaging proportions as had happened with Abimelech.

During the last elections, church leaders became the focus of the elections.

And why?

Because he is our brother

A Pentecostal, speaking in tongues, brimming with verses, builder of churches and all that good stuff.

They forgot their flocks. They forgot to rebuke. They neglected the closet.

To be with their brother.

I do not know what the brother sacrificed. But I know that his clerical brothers sacrificed.

And when he won?

He responded in kind.

They had lunches with them in the big house. Prophets were always welcome. Money was pouring into churches. Brothers were feted by the state.

Things went on very well as brothers swam in camaraderie

But as happened with our story, God was not pleased.

He therefore sent an evil spirit between the brothers for the treachery they had practiced and the erstwhile blood brotherhood was shaken to its roots.

They therefore started scheming one against the other.

I have friends on both sides of that divide and can confidently tell you that things are thick

Each side is obstinately right even as it sees the brother’s side absolutely wrong.

Even the common enemy they had has also been divided to support one or the other brother.

I do not want to go into politics.

I am just sharing a parallel as I see it in the Bible and trying to relate it to the state of our nation.

I could be wrong. I pray that I am wrong.

But I fear I could be right.

And if I am right, we have a very rough ride ahead because a feud between brothers is bloody, especially one that is the product of God’s displeasure.

What do we pray?

That God will protect the grass as the bulls are fighting, especially because the same grass had been incorporated into that brotherhood.

But the grass is also not innocent.

Believers opposed to him had one reason.

He is an imposter. He is not a brother.

But like Shechem where the brothers sanitised his illegitimacy, brothers blocked their eyes to an alternative argument because he is our brother, especially because he was running against a wizard.

We trashed issues and argued on non issues, since brotherhood and performance cannot be weighed using one yardstick. Meaning that we completely forgot why we have elections in the first place.

But worse is that we forgot Christ’s standard for gauging brotherhood, fruit.

That is even worse because he started that brother act two decades into his political life.

We forgot to ask about the blank two decades and beyond. We forgot to look at what fruit he had been bearing even after that brother act commenced.

All of us are therefore under God’s judgment.

No wonder the rains have aborted. No wonder the weather is chaotic.

For once appearances are deceptive as you will be running from a shower of rain that never comes.

Amos 4 describes it.

I recently experienced verse 7.

We were at a neighbouring town when the heavens opened and there was such a downpour that even vehicles had to stop moving.

After it stopped, we left, only to go two kilometres or so and find it dry. Then another three kilometres or so and find it had rained. A kilometre farther and it was completely dry.

But as we know God does not judge as an end. He judges to bring us to repentance

That is what will temper His judgment with mercy. That is what will bring discipline instead of punishment.

But if we refuse to repent?

I do not want to even imagine that.

But I believe the judgment of Abimelech and Shechem has been determined.

It is the sheep (what I have called grass) that I am concerned about in this post.

Will we repent?

But judgment is coming, and soon. We may already be in it.

And we will need a country after the judgment has run its course.

Will we pray?

Prodigal Explanations

Controversial is a title many people associate with me and the teaching ministry God has called me to.

And it is not because I seek controversy anywhere.

I just seek to make us understand scripture in their natural context, not in our hyperpersonal context many seek to drive.

That is why I ask those ‘controversial’ questions that make many ‘successful’ ministers wince.

Let us look at Luke 15 for instance

The popular teaching (the only teaching I have heard) is that the shepherd left the ninety and nine to look for the one lost sheep.

The assumption driven is that he left them to themselves because the lost one was way more valuable than the ninety-nine.

To imagine such would be absurd.

How can a sane man, leave alone the owner of the sheep, desert the bulk of his flock to seek for the lost one that may already have been consumed by wild animals?

The shepherd did not leave the ninety-nine alone. He could not leave the ninety-nine alone.

The first reason being that sheep cannot survive without a shepherd.

If he left them without another shepherd, chances are that by the time he returned with that lone sheep he would find that ten have wandered away and become lost.

The second scenario is that wild animals would have enjoyed a feast because sheep not only do not know how to fight, they also do not know how to run.

The third scenario is that they would see an enemy, probably a simple dog, and scatter.

And Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. (Mark 14:27)

The shepherd therefore did not leave the ninety-nine alone. He either left them with hired shepherds.

Why did he not send the said shepherds to seek for the lone sheep? I know someone is wondering.

Sheep have a connection to their shepherd.

John 10 explains that.

They only know his voice and would therefore respond when he called.

Second is that he is the one who knew them each by name.

The hireling would know that he was in charge of a hundred sheep whereas the shepherd knew each of them by name.

The hiring would count, one, two, ... ninety-nine, one is missing. The shepherd would know the particular sheep that was missing

He also knew their bleat and so would be able to hear it when it responded to his calls or when it was screaming for attention or rescue.

Compare that with a nursery full of children yet a mother would without fail know when it was her child crying.

The hiring would be at a loss in his search because he did not possess the relationship required for that rescue. He wouldn’t have been able to know whether it had joined another flock because not only would he not have been able to identify it, the same sheep would not recognise him or his intentions.

The shepherd would be on his seeking sing the sheep’s favourite songs and call out nicely to the lost sheep by name.

That would have made it possible for it to extricate itself from a new flock it had joined because of the shepherd’s appeals. It could also have bleated if it had been hidden or ensnared in a bush where the shepherd could not see.

The point of what I am saying is that the shepherd did not neglect the ninety-nine to seek the lost sheep.

Why is this important?

Elevating the one lost against the ninety-nine obedient sheep makes the shepherd stupid, to say the least.

He did not go to seek the lost sheep because it was better or of greater worth than the rest. He did not go to seek it because his sheep desperately needed the lost sheep, because I doubt that they had even noticed the lost.

He sought the lost sheep because it was a member of his flock. He sought it because his flock was incomplete without that one sheep.

Taking a coin from a million makes it stop being a million. And nobody would feel that void more than a shepherd who knew each one of them by name.

The parable’s focus was more on the shepherd than it was for the sheep.

It was about the love a shepherd has for each and every one of his sheep.

Look also at the parable of the prodigal son.

I have never heard any preaching saying anything positive about the son who stayed (though I have preached). Many seek to paint him very stupid.

To all the preachers I have heard preaching on this, it is the prodigal son who knew the way, chose right, etc.

But the father is very categorical about the value of his elder son, the one who stayed. I have never heard any preacher mentioning the fact, leave alone explaining why the father was pleading with the elder son

You are always with me. everything I have is yours.

The father was not rebuking his faithful son.

When the prodigal took his inheritance, everything else belonged to the son, even the fatted calf that was slaughtered for the prodigal.

The father was explaining grace and mercy to his faithful son.

The prodigal was not the show stopper. He was someone needing forgiveness and mercy.

But is that the way it is preached?

Yet the problem goes beyond preaching.

That error in understanding; that doctrinal error, has huge implications on how we do religion; on how we practice ministry.

A gangster becomes a believer. A wizard becomes a believer. A Muslim or Hindu becomes a believer. A fraudster becomes a believer.

His testimony is so flowery that before a year is over he becomes a pastor.

This despite the fact that there are many in the congregation who have faithfully served that congregation for decades, some who have even executed the role of pastor over the years and whose pastoral calling is not in question.

Yet they are overlooked when the church needs to employ a pastor just because the prodigal has come back home.

All the rules are broken to accommodate the prodigal son.

In short, the prodigal is given the inheritance the elder son had painstakingly maintained and which legally belonged to him and the elder son is kicked out of his inheritance.

On coming back, the prodigal owned nothing, deserved nothing.

He was clothed with his elder brother’s clothes and fed with his elder brother’s fatted calf.

The father’s concern was that the elder son extends grace to his brother and not to share his inheritance with him.

The prodigal had recovered his sonship. But he did not have any inheritance since he had wasted his.

Only his brother’s grace and mercy could have made that possible.

And even then, it could not have been restoration but mercy because he left nothing.

The reversal of that is the reason there is so much disillusionment in many churches.

A congregation has been giving faithfully for the longest time, running the church’s programs without complaining.

Yet a newbie comes with a single cheque and he suddenly becomes the only example worth emulating, even being entrusted with the finances of the church.

A songster who has sung for the devil all their life joins the church and all of a sudden he becomes the portrait of the church’s ‘praise and worship’ even before being discipled or taking membership.

It appears as if the church had never sung before that moment.

I hope you understand me. 

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.