Think of the contrast that exist between the people of God and people of the world. The people’s standard Vs God’s Standard.

Deut 6 (God’s Standard)
6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

Ezek 36 (Empowered by the Redemptive work of Christ Rom5:17)
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you. 30 I will increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field, so that you will no longer suffer disgrace among the nations because of famine. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices.

Rev13 (The people’s standard, there’s no two ways about it… Satanic deception)
16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

When you think of piracy, pornography, fornication and abortion, why is this all ok today with the people? I shall tell you why, that is because… “everybody is doing it”. What a nice way to licence sin with the famous excuse… Oh, why catch me when everybody is doing it? This also shows where democracy has its limitations in people governance because the individual excuses his/her sin in living according to the peoples’ standard.

Psalm 14:1
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.

1John 5
19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

But guess what, what “everybody is doing” is going to change because this world is not overwhelmed/overruled by evil, as you have been deceived to believe (1Cor1:25). God who is Almighty, exists and is Sovereign over all creation, even over Satan, to the extent, that Satan is merely a chastening rod, sanctifying God’s people. This world, God is reconciling to Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ (Col1:19-20) and whether you and I, choose to be a part of this beautiful plan, matters only as far as our own eternal destiny is concerned.

Col 1
16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

So won’t you turn to God, repent in spiritual submission unto the Lord Jesus Christ (John12:24-26), that you may yield unto the transformation God is bringing in this world, for God delights in those who glorify His mercy unto Salvation (Ps147:11/Ezek18:23) as over those who glorify his good justice unto eternal damnation!

Rom9
22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

So dear friend, won’t you please make that New Year’s resolution to turn from the lust of all things ungodly (1Jn2:16), unto unmitigated love of God in Jesus Christ.

Let us read some scripture to get a glimpse of what Jesus birth signifies:

Isaiah 7
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Mat1
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Phil2
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Talk about a One Man Show! Jesus is the only man in History to every be born of a virgin. He is the Son of God (Ps2:7), who added to Himself the complete nature of man to be that spotless sacrifice that would appease the wrath God (Phil2:7-8), poured out on Him in full measure as a substitutionary sacrifice, for all of God’s people for all time (Is53:7-12). The virgin birth also answers apostate Islam, which asks where is there a wife for God to have a Son, as though God needed to have sex to have a son, when He Himself is the wellspring of all life. The Virgin Birth is also telling of Jesus being free from Original Sin, which was passed from Adam to all his posterity.

Rom5
17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

To learn the significance of Jesus and His redemptive work in our lives, one must understand what is sin, which is prevalent among people to an extent that it is considered natural to sin and natural to want to sin. From Gen3:1-6 we learn what Adam received in His disobedience, a standard of righteousness that was separate from God. Today we see that in people who lay their own emphasis on what is right and wrong, which is drastically different from what God morally requires of people, in the Bible. This by itself reflects not merely peoples broken communion with God but also Satan’s deception that was passed from fallen Adam to all men.

Rom3
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

In this world therefore what prevailed from Adam was death, which fed off the lies of Satan concerning the nature a man requires to survive in this world (Rev12:9/Rev13:16-18). The antichrist, is a spirit that rules in these fallen sons of Adam, however among those who are God’s elect, with these Jesus has taken off the blindfolds, restoring their communion with God. Thus leaving Satan to consume only those whom he has deceived, enacting God’s good justice on his (Satan’s) own bastardised kin.

Lk17
37 “Where, Lord?” they asked.
He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”

1Pet5
8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

1Jn5
18We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. 19We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

Celebrating Christmas therefore is celebrating the birth of a living spirit in a person from the Holy Spirit who gives life (Jn6:63/Heb4:12/2Tim3:16-20), making that individual a new creation in Christ. This new birth gives the individual or the household (if the individual is the head of the house) a desire to live righteously unto the glory of God.

Jn3
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.

2Cor5
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

This act of King Jesus Christ propitiating us sinners unto the righteousness of God (1Jn2:2), is the undoing counterfeit law which Adam received in his disobedience, which Christ remedies for all of God’s people.

Deut6
5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.
…
8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

I don’t how many of you have seen the movie BenHur starring Charlton Heston. If you have noticed his house, it has the Law by the doorframe, which He kisses every time He enters or leaves his house. This is equivalent today of a house, which says at its door, Jesus is the Lord of this house!

John14
15 “If you love me, keep my commands.

As I share this Song with you that befits Christmas, I would like to conclude saying, Christmas celebrates God bringing us back to life in the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we are given stewardship over this world (Gen1:28), picking up from where Adam failed to glorify God with his life.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2016!

For those of you who don’t know what “tithing” is, it is giving 10% of your income or support which comes in, to the Lord. It is not like God needs the money but it is merely acknowledging God for the sustenance He provides. The earliest record of tithing was when Abraham gave a tenth of his spoils of war to the ‘Priest of the Most High God’, Melchizedeck (Gen14:17-20) and later Jacob promises to give God a tenth of his income.

Gen 28
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear,
21 and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the LORD will be my God.
22 “This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

Tithe (as per the Google dictionary) is: one tenth of annual produce or earnings, formerly taken as a tax for the support of the church and clergy.

I have noticed that there are Christians who believe that tithing is nothing but a free will offering of one’s choice. However, tithe by its very definition as indicated above is 1/10^th of ones earning. As much as one who graduates cannot claim he is first class graduate unless he secures a minimum 60% in his exams, so too one cannot claim to have paid their tithe unless they have paid 1/10^th of the income towards a cause that progresses the Gospel or to their Church. Biblically, an offering is only considered as a free will offering after one has paid their tithe, else the Bible teaches that disposition as equivalent to robing God.

Malachi 3
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.
9 “You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you!
10 “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.

While writing this particular blog post, I must add that my writing ministry is self-sustained and I do not receive any foreign funding to this end. Tithing is for Christians, not for the unbeliever who does not trust his sustenance to God. As A. W. Pink aptly puts it in his booklet on Tithing, God’s promise for those who tithe is one which is temporal, meaning those blessings that have to do with our necessities of food, clothing and shelter.

Mat6
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

I understand that 10% would make any Christian feel the pinch but that is precisely how God intends it to be because, as over we relying on money to sustain us, He prefers to leave a little pebble in our shoe that we may always know that it is God who sustains and provides for us.

In a Theocratic nation, which is nation governed under Biblical Law, no state is allowed to collects taxes from the people, except for the tithe, which went towards the Church. You see it is the duty of the Church, not the State to run schools, hospitals and build on national infrastructure. You might question then saying, that would be too much power given the Church. However, throughout history it has always been that when the Church fell slack under corruption, it did not gain power but rather lost power, such is God’s design who reigns in His righteousness through Christ (Col1:16-20).

Today with State playing Church, we have people looking to the government for succour as over, looking to God. A Christian paying his tithe under these conditions needs to understand that the 10% he calculates to give God should be calculated on the whole (Gross) counting even what the apostate state has usurped as its own tax. This is done so that the believer realizes God presides over him/her even as over the state presides over the believer.

In the context of tithing, I must warn you also of preachers who misrepresent scripture to suit their own vested and greedy motives. There is nothing wrong with being rich but as a believer you ought to let Christ dictate His terms to your conscience as your Lord and Saviour (Jn14:15), which means you must be prudent enough to know how your money is being used to progress the Gospel. Many a times preachers misquote Mk10:21 and rob people’s livelihood. However, the same scripture must be understood along the lines of Jesus testing the person in question on the very first commandment, which caution every believer against idolatry.

Exodus20
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.

Mark10
18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments, ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” 20 And he said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.” 21 Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 22 But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.

When a person is moved by the Gospel, there is a transformation which takes place in that person’s heart, where by delighting in God, the individual is moved to give cheerfully to see the Good News of the Gospel progress and reach many people as it has done with themselves (Rev22:17).

2Cor9:7
Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Mat 6
31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

I must reassert the fact that tithing is for the Christian, who is given to trust God concerning his sustenance and though Christians may have other ideas for their tithe, we should all know that we are all called to live out the Gospel and if that means putting our money where our month is then so be it.

Mark 12
41 And Jesus sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. 42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. 43 Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; 44 for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.”

In concluding with the widow’s story, we learn about how when one is born from above (Jn3:3), the individual holds nothing dearer to self as he/she does hold on to God in faith. Trusting our sustenance to Him as over relying on our own understanding (Prov3:5) outside the good pleasure of God.

The Bible teaches us that the Christian code is moral code, it is not one of outward religiosity but it is one where thoughts are judged as leading to actions which are condemnable before God.

Mat 19:3-12
3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” 4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” 7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

10 The disciples said to Him, “If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.” 11 But He said to them, “Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it.”

1Cor7:3-9 (Apostle Paul)
2 Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. 3 The husband must fulfil his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6 But this I say by way of concession, not of command. 7 Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that.

8 But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I. 9 But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

I need to state, that one of the reasons the Bible, though written by different people conveys the same truth about God is because the apostles and writers were moved by God the Holy Spirit to express the same truth in harmony as coming from the same source, which is God (Jn4:24/2Pet1:20-21). To explain this in real world terms, if an evil spirit consequently in time, possessed two different people, though those two individuals may be different, that wicked spirit would influence them to act and even think in the same manner. Similarly, it is God who is Good, who works in the lives of all His people whom He has called in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Coming back to the subject of our topic, we are given to understand that sex is given us by God to be enjoyed in the confines of marriage between one man and one woman. Imagine the hardness of the people’s heart that when Jesus emphasises the commitment one must have in marriage (Mt19:4-9), the disciples reply saying: then it is better not to marry!

I don’t know for how long this has been but today fornication reflects a person’s social standing in this world. However, just like not everyone is a glutton or a drunkard, so too not all find sex as something that critically defines their lives. These are eunuchs so to speak, which the gay community seek out to destroy from their godless ignorance that forcefully counts these as their own. Also its flabbergasting that these diseased homosexual fools, first hijacked the term ‘gay’ and then the rainbow for their flag to add some cheer to their utter depravity that they may delightfully identify with it and still be accepted in society.

Job31:1
“I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.

Mt5:27-28
27 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Coming back to our topic, eunuchs need not necessarily be those who are castrated but those whose lives are not enslaved to their sexual instincts. Back in the old days, men were castrated and put in very high positions in heathen courts. These individuals, having no family or posterity to look forward to, dedicated their lives to their king. Also, since they were castrated, there was no production or secretion of testosterone in their body, to make them susceptible to seduction, with the fall out of influencing their decisions. Castrating these officials also safeguarded the king’s interests/affections concerning his queen.

Rom2:29
But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

Acts18:3
Paul went to see them, 3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.

Celibacy therefore is gift of God to certain individuals, who dedicate their lives to serve the Lord, these are eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven (Mt19:12), they aren’t castrated but they bear what circumcision symbolically represented in the Old Testament, which metaphorically is a circumcision of the heart unto God (Rom2:29). Unlike Roman Catholicism, where priest live a life away from life in practicing celibacy, the Bible teaches that believers live and bear witness for the Lord Jesus Christ, while participating in the same manner of the people’s lifestyle (Acts18:3).

Gen1:28
28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Eph5:25
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,

Josh24:15
15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

All Christians need not necessarily identify with celibacy because marriage too is a gift of God like celibacy, given to certain individuals, that from their circumcision on the heart, these too may abstain from fornication by being absolutely committed to their spouses (Eph5:25) and unlike this ungodly world, raise a household that lives to serve the Lord (Josh24:15), just as the God commanded from the very beginning (Gen1:28).

Jn1:12-13
12But as many as received Him (Jesus), to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

1Cor1:2
To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

Phil4:13
13I can do all this through Him (Jesus) who gives me strength.

To conclude, the gift of marriage or celibacy reflects what every practising Christian is i.e. a Saint and a Priest in service of the Lord (1Cor1:2), not according to the calling of any religious authority here on earth but by God’s calling unto Himself (Jn1:12-13). For the Almighty nature of God, propitiates the rebellious and sinful will of men, unto His own righteousness by the power of Jesus’ atoning blood.