Article by Joseph Masunga, pastor Injili Bible church-Nairobi

HOW TO READ YOUR BIBLE.

In the year 2003, the Christian community worldwide was shocked to hear of the ordination of a gay (homosexual) bishop, Mr. Robinson in America.  A gay is a man who “marries” another man, something condemned by the Bible.  Among those who will not inherit the kingdom of God the list in 1 Cor. 6:9 includes male prostitutes and homosexual offenders.  It is also condemned as a shameful act for which God visits with great punishment and abandons such offenders (Rom. 1:27).  And yet Mr. Robinson had the courage to announce that God has called him to be a gay preacher.  It is true to say that errors are brought into the church because people do not read the Bible with a sincere desire to know what God says and obey.  It may also be that some who read the Bible are not saved and therefore cannot obey what it says.

In this article I intend to give you biblical advice on how to read your Bible in a way that will bring God's blessing in your life.  It is normally alleged that Kenyans do not read except when they are preparing for an examination.  This non-reading culture may easily affect genuine believers to the extent that they fail to read their Bibles daily.  To read the Bible daily, you require self-discipline.  It is like a person who wants to lose weight but only talks about it until his doctor tells him that his blood pressure is high because of his weight.  On hearing this he goes on a strict diet and vigorous exercise to keep his health.  In the same way reading the Bible daily will result from the realization that your spiritual well being depends on knowing and doing the will of God as it is revealed in the Bible.  As soon as you realize that you will start reading your Bible with a determination to know God’s will.

Now, let me draw your attention to three things you ought to know as you read the Bible.  I am assuming that you are already reading your Bible everyday because God creates interest in you to read the Bible when He saves you.  If you do not read the Bible at all and have no interest at all in the Bible it may be that you are not saved. Seek salvation in Jesus Christ even through reading it.

Firstly, you must know that all Scripture (written word of God) is given by inspiration of God and it is profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting and instruction in righteousness (2 Tim3: 16).  The Bible is a Holy Book as it is the word of the living God.  Therefore it must be held with utmost affection by all Christians and much time must be given to reading it daily.  It is in the Holy Bible that God speaks directly to us. What the Bible says God says.  Practically, it means that you must create time, choose a quiet place, make a plan to read the whole Bible (66 books) and cultivate a proper attitude towards it.  You must ask yourself whether the knowledge of the scriptures brings from you greater devotion to Christ who is contained in every chapter (there are 1,189 chapters, 31,173 verses in the Bible).

Secondly, you must know the message of the Bible. The Bible is the only means through which God communicates eternal life and this life is in His Son, Jesus Christ (1Jn. 5:11). You must therefore believe in the Son of God in order to receive eternal life.  But how can people believe in someone of whom they have not heard?  They

must know the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is the Bible that reveals Jesus Christ to us and works faith in us because faith comes from hearing the word of God in the Bible (Rom 10:17).  We are all dying men and women in a dying world and the Bible alone tells us the way of salvation.  After salvation, the continuous change that takes place in the life of those saved in order for them to be like Christ can only be accomplished by a constant and conscious exposure to the word of God:  “Desire the sincere milk of the word so that you may grow” (1Pet. 2:2).

Thirdly, you must know the testimony of the Bible. The Bible bears witness to the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the theme of the whole Bible.  The Old Testament points forward to the coming of Jesus Christ while the New Testament points back to him. Jesus told the unbelieving Jews to search the Scriptures for they testify about Him (John 5:39).  As Jesus walked on the road to Emmaus with the two bewildered disciples because of His death, He explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27).  Simply stated the whole Bible is a revelation of what God in Christ has done, what promises He has made and what He requires from us for His glory and our good.

With these encouragements, I plead with you to start reading your Bible with a renewed devotion in order to know the Saviour Jesus Christ, and to make Him known to all as He is revealed in the Bible.

Dancing for the Lord?

Is it in the way I want and I feel  that I should worship God?

A lot has been said and written on the subject of public worship in relation to regulative principles of worship. Here, I will not go in to that but will simply strive to apply these principles that greatly affect our true worship of God, especially with regard to music and dances that prevail in Africa today.

Moses warns Israel: ‘When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?-that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.’ (Deuteronomy 12: 29-31, ESV).

Before I delve in to this, let us take note of the following five important facts on worship for now:

1.      God wants us to worship Him at his own terms and conditions whether revealed or implied by the Scriptures.

2.      Man cannot and should not set these standards for God. He is Holy and we are not.

3.      Worship offered by one’s whole heart and feelings to God can still be rejected by God. Our feelings therefore  can be misleading gauge of whether our worship pleased God or not.

4.      What pleases man in our worship does not necessarily please God. You may end up entertaining men and not God.

5.      Music for God is NEVER for peddling.

A common scene in many cities today is like this: Take a walk down the street, probably on a market day. It is busy!  Every trader is blaring on his PA system calling customers to buy. A company at the corner is promoting its product with a deafeningly loud music on a mobile platform. Look keenly on that platform. What do you see but scantily dressed dancing girls wriggling their waists to the beat of the music. The following day, you take a walk down another street in town. Another loud music with dancing girls wriggling their waists invitingly but the irony is that they are alerting people about the deadly disease HIV Aids and how to avoid it!  Farther down, is another music with dancing girls again wriggling their waists, but now, this one has been baptised a ‘holy dance unto the Lord.’ ‘Ndobolo ya yesu.’  You enquire with confused face what is happening. Why would ‘Christians’ dance so invitingly like the heathens?  The pastor you ask has a ready answer as usual:

1.      ‘Oh you know, music and dancing was for us Christians but the devil stole it from heaven so we are reclaiming it.’ What this pastor means to tell you in words he himself may not understand is unimaginable thing. That before Satan was cast out of heaven, angels used to dance to the God wriggling their waists until he stole that dance style which now is being reclaimed to the Kingdom of God!  Oh! No, that’s not heaven.

2.      ‘Oh you know man, even king David danced to the Lord on the day the Ark was brought in to Jerusalem and his wife despised him for that, moreover, dance does not have a formula, it can take any style and form.’

3.       ‘Oh you know, this is the way we will win the world to Christ when we accept their ways.’

Objection, to these notions:

1.      As already said above, one cannot imagine that the dance in heaven at pre-satanic fall was this ‘waisty.’ Neither can one say that this is what John saw in heaven when he had a vision of the angels singing in heaven. One of the songs given in Revelation 4:8 goes like this: ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’ (Sang day and night). How can such a song be accompanied with the so called dance that Satan ‘stole’? In short waist ‘gospel’ dance is an invention of Satan himself after the fall. Remember he is our adversary, works against the very gospel we are called to uphold.

2.      Davidic dance? I am convinced that there are books in the Scripture that are meant to clearly teach Christian doctrines to be followed and to be upheld to the point of shedding blood. These are called didactic passages (Epistles and pastoral letters are full of this). Much of Old Testament passages are majorly narratives. Building a doctrine from narratives can mislead one just as it is in 2 Samuel 6:16. It is important here that didactic (doctrinal) passages be separated from narratives.

Secondly, it is true that dances can take any form. The way one tribe dances can be very different from the way another tribe or culture does. I am aware that waist dance in Africa has its origin from tribal dances in many countries falling within the central/middle part of Africa- Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) included. I am an African living in one of these countries and I know that some of our dance styles are attributed to gods. The kind of dance style varies according to the god and the need at hand. This is what Moses warns against in Deut above that ‘do not even enquire: How did these nations serve their gods?-that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods.’  I am here reminded of Moses himself when he came down from the mountain and found the Israelites singing and dancing to the calf that they had made (a god of Egypt). The Bible records:  ‘And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot...’(Exodus 32: 19). The dance was not Israel dance but Egyptian dance to the idol calf-which shocked Moses and made him burn with anger. He quickly picked their dance style as strange and unusual.

3.      I find argument number three above in defence of waist dance disturbing and having no biblical defence. Such careless attitude towards the gospel of Christ is what has ended up filling churches with unconverted souls perpetuating the world in the church. Even Apostle Paul’s principle of being a Jew to the Jews and a Gentile to the Gentiles to win them to Christ does not work this way. We do not win the world by being like the world but by being separate yet in the world. The gospel of Jesus is a hard thing. There are those who will reject it because it comes against their ungodly ways and there are those that the gospel will win and change their ungodly ways. Counting the cost is a must if one wants to get saved.

The truth of the matter:

I see all the worldly approach to propagating the gospel of Jesus Christ as a man-made attempt to fill the pews of our churches through all possible means. It is a salesman mentality: ‘What do they want out there? Give them and you will make money.’  Let us serve God with reverence and fear and in holiness.  Avoid focussing on man and what pleases man but focus on God and what pleases God. Think and think and think biblically before you introduce any practise into the church of Christ which He bought by his own blood. It is not our church where we can be free to decide what to do in it including weird dances that entertain and feed sinfulness of men. We kill sin by not feeding it. We do not win sinners to Christ by feeding them with sin.

By Pastor Sam Oluoch.