Hunger not and thirst not for bread and water but for the word of God- Amos 8.

Amos, a prophet of God, previously a farmer from Judah, was sent to minister to the hostile Northern Kingdom of Israel which was seriously deteriorating in their godliness and obedience to ‘Yahweh’.

In this passage, God takes note of the many ways in which the Israelites had rebelled against Him clearly demonstrating the fact that God only promises to forget sins of repentant person, but for the unrepentant, he keeps record of their sins. Some of the sins He counts against the Northern Kingdom are:

1)      Oppressing the needy. In the book of James 2:1-7 and 5:1-6, God through the Apostle clearly condemns the attitude of the affluent in amassing wealth at the expense of the disadvantaged in the society. Man is the same. In Amos’ time, they would not only use scrupulous means of doing business to take advantage of the poor and make more money, they in fact sold the poor for much more money (Verses5-6). In Deuteronomy 15:7-11, God had clearly commanded the Israelites to be mindful of the poor amongst them. This was long forgotten through the Israelites’ mentality of every one for himself. A poor man would borrow quite a paltry sum whose security value would be as cheap as a pair of sandals. When he could not pay due to poverty, the lender took the advantage of his inability and sold him in to slavery! God was not happy with this and condemned it here.

2)      They hated God and His laws.  Their hatred for the people of God, the poor, goes to prove that when our relationship with God is not right, there is no way we can have our relationship with one another right. Hate God and you will hate His people. Command number four in the Ten Commandments clearly stated that the people of God were to cease work and dedicate that day to the Lord. In the Israelites, we meet business men who found a day in the house of the Lord equivalent to a fish finding itself on the dry land. Verse 5 portrays complaining people; instead of ‘calling Sabbath a delight’ it is a burden to them because their mind is consumed with crafty business opportunities. They ask ‘when will the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?’ In fact, market wheat not only from a skimped measure but with its sweepings!

Such carelessness led God to declare “I will never forget anything they have done” (Verse 7). Yes, God keeps records of un-repented wrong. Judgment is therefore declared in the remaining part of Amos 8. May I focus on verses 11-12 in which judgment of famine of hearing the word of God is declared?

Casual look at this kind of punishment may lead one to say that this is easy and a judgment not commensurate with the heinous sins committed not only against God but also against the poor in the land. To appreciate this verdict from God, one has to see it in the light of Jesus’ words in Matt. 4:4. “Man does not live on the bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’. The church is the salt of the earth and light to the world. Wherever the church does not exist expect serious moral break down. It is the same case when a church exists yes, but has compromised faithful preaching of the word of God.  Remove the word of God in a community and get set for worse scenario.

I therefore ask, as much as they mean well. What is the role of NGO’s in a society without Christ? What is the role of UN and AU with many of their programmes in the world without Christ? Poverty that UN wants to eradicate and the many evil that go on in the world, like wars, famine, HIV Aids name them, their solution can only be found in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ-declaring the word of God to the world that is hungering for it. The cure is in the word of God when declared and obeyed. The greatest curse to a community is the withdrawal of God’s word from them.

The entire world today needs Jesus Christ not only to sort out the evil in the land but to make them right with God. Christ declares that he has come to give us life and give it in abundance (John 10:10). He also declared to the Samaritan woman that He is the real water that the world thirsts for without knowing, he who drinks from him will never thirst again (John 4:13-14). And to His disciples “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry again.” (John 6:35). So, when God threatens the Israelites with punishment of famine of his word they better begin to listen to Him while He can still be found. Unrestrained chaos is knocking at their door. That is what one expects when God has been thrown out.

This rings a warning bell to the present world.

1)      We need to seek God through Christ while He still offers the Gospel message to us. There will come a time when men will long for it but it will be too late. Some will in fact be bending their knees to declare that Christ is Lord on their way to hell when all preacher men’s voices will be shut. This is demonstrated in the story of the rich man and Lazarus which Jesus told in (Luke 16:19-31). Do not forget the lull of four hundred years Israelites went through between the testaments. Its effect has not been recovered in Israel until today. Real judgment it was!

2)      We need to preserve and keep faithful ministers of God who genuinely declare the whole oracle of God. Lack of them in a land is a true curse and judgment. Our hope is in hearing the voice of God through these men.

Ye men of the world, look to God, hear Him and obey Him and be saved.

False miracle workers, a study of 2 Peter Chapter 2.                     By Pastor Sam Oluoch (GBC-K)

In our country Kenya, we were recently treated to a drama of a ‘pastor miracle worker’ who claims that he has the power to pray away sickness of all kinds as well as the ability to sort out people’s problems whatever nature they may be. Well, the TV coverage he was given later revealed and broadcasted to the entire nation his tricks on the purported healings. In short, it was revealed by the news media that the pastor in question had in fact colluded with prostitutes who would fake and act deformity and receive the purported healings through his ministry of prayer. One of the deals went sour when he refused to pay a prostitute her cut of the deal and she decided to spill the beans to the entire nation through the media. Later the former wife to this pastor also came up on TV to affirm the claims of the prostitute against the pastor. This saga came hot in the heels of the infamous miracle babies from another Kenyan preacher who has purported to have the power to help barren women give birth miraculously. His wife was subsequently jailed for being an accomplice to the said crime while he himself is currently a fugitive in Britain.

Why do I take the trouble to bring this matter to our church blog? It is to warn and alert our readers that ‘certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.’ (Jude 4). Apostle Peter addresses the same matter in 2^nd Peter Chapter 2.

Christianity is the only religion in the world that is of a great threat to the Devil and he has sworn to fight it right from the day that our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ was born under the watch of Herod. After Christ’s work of saving mankind was done and He ascended to glory above, the church has continued to experience persecutions and heresies both designed by the devil to derail this glorious faith. These attacks on the church continue to this very day just as much as it was in the days of Jude and Peter. The duo did not just sit back and watch as the enemy was devouring this faith through its agents during their time. Rebuffing them was such an urgent matter to Jude that he had to change his mind from writing to his readers about ‘the salvation we share’ (Jude 3) to urging them to contend for the true faith that had been taught to them. Christian faith must be protected and preserved for it to remain as pure as the apostles passed it on to us. However, some elements will always be found amongst the faithful who claim to contend for the old faith but are surely wolves in sheep’s clothing. Apostle Peter and Jude give us some tips on finding them out. Here I list some which have caught my eye from reading both their letters (2Peter2 and Jude).

What characterises the false teachers. (2 Peter 2: 1)

a)      They love titles. They will quickly acquire titles for themselves and normally they are titles that have claim to higher offices. It does not matter to them that they are false holders of these offices. Simply put, self acquired titles and offices. God did not call them to such an office. Such titles include “Apostle”, “Prophet”, “Archbishop”, “Doctor”, and other such high sounding titles.

b)      Their modus operandi. They secretly move into unsuspecting congregation having begun as humble ‘men of God’. This makes it hard for the congregants to detect their schemes unless the congregation is extra vigilant. They love to trump up stories which cannot be verified and their life styles deny the very faith they purport to preach. Peter basically calls this ‘denying the Lord Jesus’. This they do by both what they preach and their life style (see 2 Peter 13ff).

c)       They clearly exhibit greed (Vs.3), arrogance (Vs. 10-12, 18) and despise and reject any authority over them. Normally they are an authority to themselves not only in their churches but at home as well. In fact their churches belong to them and not to Jesus Christ who died for His church (Acts 20:28).

Result of their evil ways. (2 Peter 2:2).

a)      Since people love to be cheated by fantasies, love not to engage their brains on issues that appear pleasing from the surface, these false miracle workers capitalise on this and generally end up with a large following. 2 Peter 2: 18ff nails it on the head by showing us how they take advantage of man’s already desperate state. They appear to be providing what the sinful desires in man look for but in real sense they provide nothing.

b)      Their ministry is empty and nourishes not spiritually (and even physically). They are described ‘as springs without water and mist driven by wind’ Verse 17-19. When these verses are interpreted spiritually they warn us that if one is after real spiritual nourishment, he /she should never step in to such a minister’s domain for one will come out with nothing and in the end be sent to hell together with the false teachers.

c)       Sadly, the result of these men’s evil work makes the genuine work of Christ suffer ridicule in the eyes of many people (Verse 2).

Their end.

As faithful Christians see these evil men carrying the day in Christianity, many have wondered and asked: ‘Where is God? Can’t he deal with such men straight on? My friends be consoled. God is not  asleep. His patience/long suffering gives abundant time for these men to repent. If they will not, God will definitely judge them. This is what is promised them in Verses 10-13. Throughout the history of the church God has consistently demonstrated that His eyes are not closed to these evils in the land. First, it was the rebellion of the angels and they were punished. Then when sin filled the earth during Noah’s time, judgment came in the form of floods. Not to mention Sodom and Gomorrah. These men will surely not escape the watchful eyes of God upon his beloved church (Verse 12). They will be judged and a warning here to their followers is that they will also be judged alongside their false prophets and teachers and ‘miracle workers’ whom they enthusiastically follow. God is not a respecter of persons-not even titles.

What should be a Christian’s response to this?

Fight back? Throw insults at them? No!

When Jude addressed a similar situation like did Peter, he says in verse 3 ‘I urge you to contend for the faith that was once and for all entrusted to the saints.’ See also 1Timothy 4:1-2, 11-16. The word is CONTEND. Fight for it, defend it, and uphold it even in the midst of these confusions.

In the world of today, people despise old things and are in earnest to develop new ideas that are quickly acceptable to the world. Vogue is the word. I here urge Christians not to be ashamed in following the old paths that the Apostles walked and faithful saints of the past walked. I remember one time when a friend challenged my wife on singing ‘old’ hymns like ‘On a hill far away stood an old rugged Cross’ saying that is an old, in fact out of place song for modern Christians. Aha, I wonder how old our Holy Book the Bible is, at this rate, it is not relevant to Christians of today. Perish the thought! Jude says, ‘contend for the faith that was once and for all entrusted to the saints’ this is the faith that Christian martyrs gave their lives for. Stand by it. It is the faith that upholds Christ Jesus and debases His ministers. This faith will never grow old nor run out of fashion for those who care.

It follows without saying that every Christian needs to take his faith seriously and get down and know the Bible well. Ignorance of the Bible has been the greatest undoing of many Christians today leaving them open to the tricks of ‘miracle workers.’ Know the claims of the Bible and its demands and be alert to the tricks of the devil. Equally get to know who is pastoring you well and follow not false prophets. Do not depend on euphoria, this is normally dangerous. Be wary of anything that by passes your brain faculty and appears ready to offer a quick fix to your troubles.

Secondly: In Verse 23 of Jude we are called upon not just to sit back and watch the people of God falling prey to the false teachers but to go out of our way to snatch them from such ministries. Stand for the truth and tell it openly and clearly to the victims of these men. Give them a clear biblical alternative. Be bold and snatch them from the burning house they are in.

Thirdly: We are to keep ourselves safe from such conman-ship, Jude points us to ‘Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his precious presence without fault and with great joy.’ (Verse 24). Look to God, serve him faithfully and render to Him His ‘glory, majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore.’(Verse 25). He is the best shepherd of your soul, look to Him alone and anything that does not glorify His holy name and uphold his majesty must be rejected. The centrality of our faith is Christ and he alone, not miracles. Finally, may I uphold the good shepherd here as Ezekiel sees him and rebukes false shepherds of his time.

‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will recue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them (Ezekiel 34:7-10).

Amen.

Must one have faith to be healed? - The place of Miracles Today                                by  Kennedy Owiti

Today there are many churches that preach the existence of instant healing and other miraculous signs and wonders. There are billboards that announce, every so often that a healing crusade will be held in this or that place. People are invited to bring their sick ones to be prayed for and healed. Indeed even the sick themselves are asked to attend that they may be prayed for to receive such healing.  The question one asks then is, do these healings really take place? Do miracles proclaimed in the name of Jesus still happen? And if they don’t, is it because the people being prayed for, the sick and crippled, do not have sufficient faith or at all, that they then cannot get the healing they desire?

The word of God is replete with instances of great miraculous signs and wonders right from the times of the Old Testament. In the book of Exodus, the great miraculous signs and wonders that preceded the exodus are told. The burning bush (Exodus 3) and the plagues that hit Egypt (Exodus 8-10) have never been repeated elsewhere! These were miracles performed by the Almighty God Himself! The Bible records various other miracles that He did. In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ also performed many miracles, signs and wonders. He healed the sick of various categories: getting the lame and crippled to walk (Luke 5:17-26), the blind to have sight (John 9:1-12), the deaf to have the ability to hear, the mute to speak, (Mark 7:31-37) the demon possessed to be free of demons (Luke 4:31-36). He walked on water (Mark 6:45-52), He fed five thousand people from just five loaves of bread and two fishes (Mark 6:30-44) and caused the dead to rise, only from their death beds? (Luke 7:11-17) Nay, from their graves too! Lazarus was a rotting corpse when the Savior called him back to life (John 11:38-44).  These are just a few of the ones He did and the Bible records many more.

In Acts of the Apostles, the twelve were filled with the Holy Spirit and they themselves performed great miracles, signs and wonders (Acts 2:43) in the name of our Savior as the Spirit of God enabled them, including healing the crippled beggar (Acts 3:1-10). The statement in Acts 5:12-16 clearly has the implication that the miracles, signs and wonders were performed as a means of getting the people to believe, more so as the Church of Christ was just being born. These were a people who were hearing of the gospel of grace for the first time. They were learning for the  very first time about the possibility of being right with God on account of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as opposed to being cleansed of sin on account of the offerings made by the high priests as was the custom and as had been the practice since Moses. But again the miracles were not just confined to healing the sick! The miraculous escape of Peter recorded in Acts 12 and even the earlier one recorded in Acts 5:17-26 also happened! There were recorded witnesses to these things. The people healed were often well known to the people in their various towns and villages.

Later, the writer to Hebrews (1:1-2) would say that the time for these miracles, visions, signs and wonders had ended and that now God only speaks to men through the Son who John explains is the very statement of the will of God (John 1:1-5), the Word of God Himself, which word has been written down to and for us in the name of a Bible. Salvation itself, which the Word of God equates with the raising of a dead person or soul back to life, is a miracle that continues to occur to this very day but all the other miracles signs and wonders no longer happen. We all live in this world; we know our neighbors and the people who live in and around our towns. Among these people are the sick, the blind the crippled, the deaf and mute, even those with mental problems. These people have variously been taken to the crusades where the so called ‘faith healers’ have promised miraculous healings but these never come to pass. Indeed these purported miracle workers are devoid of claims of any other signs and wonders except to allege the power to heal those who are sick! Why, for example, has none walked on water? Why has none walked into a morgue and in the name of the risen Christ, raised the dead back to life? How is it that we cannot find one ordinary man who from birth was blind but can now see? The healing which our Christ performed at the pool called Bethesda is remarkable. The modern equivalent to that pool is a medical ward in a modern 21st century hospital! This was a place where the sick congregated in their numbers that they may get healing. Christ went to that hospital and thereat healed a man well known to his neighbors! How come we have not had any of the so called miracle workers walk into any hospital and heal those that are sick there? Why have they not walked, driven, or flown to the northern parts of Kenya during those moments of biting famine and there preach the word of God and then miraculously feed the hundreds there with a few loaves of bread and fishes?

It is precisely because the time for miracles, signs and wonders is no more! We have the Word! We have the Son. We must believe only the Son that we may be saved.  We must not allow ourselves to be cheated that any other miracles other that the great miracle of a God willing to and indeed dying for us, will ever happen. What other miracle do we need? Surely none! For even the angles of God are baffled at this miraculous and wonderful plan of God,  where the person who has been wronged is the ones who gives up himself as an atonement for the sins of the wrong doer!

No! The time for miracle, signs and wonders is over. And let no one say to you, after a failed attempt at healing you miraculously, that it is because you have little or no faith and so you have not received your miracle! For this is often the fallback reason after failure! Why, when Jesus fed the five thousand He did not first require that they exhibit any specific amount of faith! When He turned water into wine He did not ask the host to have any specific type of faith. It is His mother who told the people there to do as they were told but have we not also been told, by the scripture, the Word of God, the Son, what to do? Yes, we have been advised to have faith and to pray.  We have been told to call our pastors and elders to pray for and with us when we are sick (James 5:13-16) and that such prayers, if offered in faith, will make the sick person well.

Brethren let us all then have faith in the Word, the Son, and our Christ through whom our God now speaks to us. Let us heed his voice and be obedient to Him. In this I do no limit the power of God to do anything, even miraculous, in our midst. Yet we must, as people wisened through the reading of God’s word and the clear preaching thereof not be led astray or be discouraged that we are not of sufficient faith as no miracles are happening among us.

Kennedy Owiti fellowships at Grace Baptist Church, Kisumu – a reformed church.