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1 For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;
But we have been discussing the issue of walking the talk. We said in order to walk your talk, you must talk your real beliefs, because the way we are made up, we act on the basis of our core beliefs, not on the basis of what we say are our beliefs but the real ones. And there is a whole difference between our beliefs and what we claim as our beliefs.
We are learning that we need to be very carefully checking our behavior. Work backwards to find out what are your true beliefs, because if we behave like this,behaviour tells us exactly what your belief system is.
I find the book of James a practical book because the emphasis of James is for you to walk your talk. We must be able to see that you are a Christian by the way you walk. Paul is also emphasizing grace. Because you cannot truly walk right if it were not for the help you get because of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you truly are a Christian you will need to live according to your belief system. If you truly believe in God, believe that God loves you, believe that your life is totally under his control, and then whatever happens in your life, you understand the situation is still under Gods control. You can be going through a very difficult situation, but once you sense God is in control, you will be at peace. Have you seen a three year old, the father takes him, throws him up, and received him as he comes down. The boy believes the father cannot let him crush down. Can you imagine what will happen if the father says, I will let him crush? That child will be destroyed because he believed the father who was not trustworthy.The boy knew three things about the father: my father loves me, my father is capable and I am not , my father can be trusted.
If you can trust your earthly father, who might even forget you, can’t you trust your God? Because if you believe … you will never sleep without any peace. Why? Even when the situation is terrible and getting worse, you know that God is still in control.
Day 2
2 cor 1
5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. 6 And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
I have seen God taking me through such things.I still remember in the eighties I used to stay in Kisumu and I had a road accident
And I sensed the presence of God. That if you, it doesn’t matter how bad the situation is, when you have the presence of God, things are under control. That was February. In July of same year, I flew from Kisumu, through Nairobi to Mombasa on duty. Later I was flying back to Kisumu after stopping over in Nairobi. I had taken a very early flight because I wanted to go with my family for the Sunday service on that Sunday morning. So I took the Kenya Airways flight at JKIA. I met a lady who had been with me way back in high school. She was the chairperson of her CU. But after campus we did not see each other for a long time. So we now sat together and are catching up at JKIA. So when we were coming down, we were going straight for the landing without wheels. BY God’s grace the aircraft crushed but we came out alive.
Soon after that around October, … our children were playing in the spots club as my wife and I watched. This game they go like monkeys, another child came and when my daughter was going to hold the next hold , she mised and crushed down head first as we looked. We ran as we did not know whether alive or dead. When we reached there, it turned out she was alive but the hand was twisted. At the hospital they took her to theatre and corrected the hand twist.
After that a friend of mine, a non-Christian, came to see me he said, you know Mr. Ng’ang’a, I know you are saved but you need to think. You came in a car you crashed, then you came by air you crashed, now your child has also crashed? You need to see someone who can give you protection. You must do what needs to be done.
Now, I was in shock. Why? When I crashed in the car and saw where God has saved me from, I very excited about Gods protection. Then comes the air crash. This one, there was no possibility of contributory negligence. How many people alive today have crashed and lived to tell the story? Very few people that have crushed. You know it is not crash landing. Crash landing is when you know you don’t have wheels, and you look for a way of landing. Here we simply crashed. I asked the pilot later, when did you know we were crashing? He looked at me and said, ‘when you knew’. The pilot had no idea that there were had no wheels. Remember the wheels are the ones used for braking. So he was coming straight for the landing believing there were wheels. Then we just crashed. My young daughter asked me, how did you come down? How did it happen? Was it like a stone? I realized she had helped me answer her. Yes, we fell like a stone.
Day 3
1 peter 2
19 For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. 20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. 21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed
How many people have crashed and lived to tell the story? Can you see how much God loves me? Then I see my daughter landing on her head … and somehow she just turned last minute and landed on her arms. And within weeks you could ask her which hand, she couldn’t remember the sick hand. It was totally healed. Can you see the hand of God in this?
Then my non christian friend tells me, eeeh, you must be cursed ,start thinking. Of course you understand what he is talking about if you are an African. He is saying, ‘you need to see somebody. There must be some witchcraft. It cannot just happen like that. Thus fear what is going to happen next. You better see someone’
. I told him, my friend I don’t understand what you are talking about. God is very good to me. That’s when I realized the songwriter was right; count your blessings, name them one by one. It will surprise what God has done. But this man was telling me,’Count your curses, naming them one by one. It will surprise you how powerful the devil is’.The choice is yours will you count curses or blessings? I was counting blessings, he was counting curses.
My belief system is that God protects me. So I am at peace not because the things that are happening are good, but because the things are under Gods control. So you need to understand that your life is in God’s hands if you put your trust in him. That’s what we are reading in James .
You then can consider the trials pure joy. That’s what James is saying can tell whether your belief system is okay by how you interpret the happenings in your life. You fail an exam, and you feel like life has come to an end. Remember your life is not tied up to an exam. That the Lord can take the failure and turn it to a success.
Day 4
Romans 8
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose
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Isn’t that the message of Romans 8:28? All things work good for those that love the Lord. Is that what your Bible says? Yes your Bible says that.
It does not say .All things work good for those who love the Lord. You are leaving a very important word called for. And it changes the whole meaning. Yes all things work for good. What does that mean? Some things will work bad for good, but some things will work good for good.
Thus God is not promising you that all things will work good. Some work so bad that, you can’t imagine how bad they will be. But ultimately God will use them and turn them to work for your good.
May be your girlfriend has dropped you. Of course it is not very good to be dropped. You are likely to start wondering, what is wrong with you. And that can be quite a big issue that leads to depression. Let us agree with each other, that to be dropped is bad. But the Lord could use the dropology to work for your good.
In my life many things have gone wrong and later worked for my good, and that helps me to know ,’…even this one will turn out for my good. I don’t understand it right now, but somewhere ahead it will turn out for my good.
That’s why James is saying, ….’my brothers count it pure joy when you go through trials’. So we are not suggesting bad things are good. We admit they are bad, but wipe your tears and say, ‘God I have no idea why I failed like this. Others passed with flying colours, I failed with crawling ones. How do I take the crawling colours for good? But I am waiting on you to see how you will take my creeping colours and make them work for good. This will give you peace as you wait.
That is why you shoulddl have a proper belief system about who God is, who you are and what he intends for your life. That’s how you can count it pure joy. That’s the message of in verse two of the book of James chapter one.
It is not that what has happened is joyful; it is only that you are counting it to be joyful. The meaning of the verse, is not that it is joyful, it is that you count it as joyful. To count it means it is not actually joyful, but you are counting it as joyful. The Bible does not tell you to cheat. When you are in a pain do not start pretending that you are not in pain. You are actually in pain but you are counting the pain as a joy because you believe God is still in control. You are in a hospital bed and you don’t understand why you are there, but you are aware that even in the hospital, God is there. Or you think the hospitals are out of bounds for God? You start understanding God is omnipresent. Lying there in hospital, you start suspecting God will use this one for good also. Once you know that the pain you have is just a trial that is proving to the devil that you do not belong to him, it will help you to cope with the pain.
Day 5
2 cor 11
24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? 30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. 31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. 32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me: 33 And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands
When you start understanding that the pain has a reason, it is only you don’t know the reason yet, then the pain is no longer that frustrating. like for example, they want to observe you for a disease. It will be painful but then you realize after the observation, it will stop,. but you are ready for the pain. Why? You understand the purpose of the pain. And when you start understanding that God never takes you through anything without purpose, it is only that He does not give you the reason early , then you get peace in pain.
So you need to start facing life with the realization that God is in control. You know, James says that there are several things, as to why you should count whatever trial you are going through as joyful. First, because they purify your faith. If you just get saved and never go through any challenges, you will still be a Christian but there is a depth of Christianity you don’t get until things go through trails.
By the way, you don’t look for pain, it will come on its own. So don’t go and look for it. So when you have a chance to go through pain, when it finally comes, it means there is something God wants you to know or be.
Thus one of the purpose of pain is, to purify you. And I used to have a customer in Tanzania who was mining gold. I was told it was the second largest gold mine in Africa. And I would go there to see the fueling operations by our staff. You look at a rock and you wonder where is gold here. They work on the rock, something comes out, and they tell you that is gold. Out of a big rock, just a small powder of gold finally comes out. That’s how God does it. He wants you to be his gold. But to become gold He has to remove the rocks out of you. How does He remove the rocks? By putting you into trials. So the reason why you are going to count it as joy is when you realize that He is using it to purify you, get a better you. Your life is like gold which has impurities. And you do not want to go to God finally with the same impurities. Trials will remove it. So aren’t you glad that God has brought the fire that is removing the dross so that by the time He comes for you, you are going to be pure gold?
Day 6
James 1
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
The second reason why when you go through trial you should count it as joy is because it is helping you to produce patience. It makes you steadfast, gives you endurance, gives you staying power as you face future challenges. God allows trials when He wants to make sure that your faith can endure the challenges of tomorrow, when He wants to produce patience out of you and make you steadfast in your faith.
But He is not just purifying you; He is also making you hardened in order to be able to face the devil and all his tricks tomorrow. So I now can go through some of the things, because I have seen other things work for my good in the past.
There is a time some years back in the nineties when I went to the doctor and the doctor said, eeeh this is quite serious and could be terminal. This can kill you. You know if the doctor says that it leaves one feeling dizzy? Because if the doctor who knows is almost giving up, who else will you run to? Then I remember the God of the road accident at Stem Hotel , the God of aircrash in Kisumu, the God of Nyanza Sports Club accident of my daughter and am able to trust him for this also.
One realizes that God can handle a death threat also and he did. The more you go through a trial, the more you hold on your belief in God. And so it hardens you up for a challenge of tomorrow so that as you grow older you are able to trust God even more.
Yes a human baby becomes less and less dependent on the mother as it grows. But spiritually you become more dependent on God as you mature. Can you see the difference? When you become a Christian, growth is indicated by how much you are depending on God. When you are a human baby growth is indicated by how less you are depending on your mother. You need to understand that He needs to take you through fire, then you realize, haiya, unless God helps me out of this, I don’t know how to face it. Then He helps you and you realize, haiya, this God can be trusted I better depend on Him even more. And that grows your faith.
That’s why when you have an opportunity to trust God, like when you lose everything and you realize you can’t trust yourself at all, and there is nobody else to trust, when there is nothing else to trust, it must be your time to trust in God and it grows your faith. Would you agree with me?
Day 7
James 1
5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him
Remember we are still going through the verse,and asking how can you count the challenges of your life as joy? The answer is by having the right biblical understanding. And it will be very important that you understand that as you face trials .
The third purse of trials , it improves your Christian character. You no longer just have a verbal testimony, your life becomes a testimony. The test gives you a testimony .You walk your talk because you walk your beliefs. The world wants not only to hear that you are saved, they actually want to see it in your life. And trials helps them to see that reality. Trials is what is going to mold your character.
If you have seen a potter,making a pot, you must not hand it over to the selling unit to sell it before you burn it. I don’t know if you have visited a pot maker. After they have made it, it is a nice looking thing, but they then take it through fire to actually harden it. You put it in fire so that you can harden it so that it makes the maize meal later.
If you sell the pot without burning it first, it will break with your Maize meal on the fire. It is important to understand God is also doing the same with us. He wants a character that He can use. If you will not pass through the fire there will be trouble when God wants to use you in a certain way in ministry.
So I want to ask you, do you have that strong believe that you are never alone, God is with you through anything you face. He intends to be with you all along the way.
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