Daily Meditations from John N N Ng'ang'a: Week of Dec 13-19th – God’s grace qualifies you to serve him
Day 1
Titus 1:1-2
2 a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time
NIV
Superstation is opposite of knowledge.
……you act on things not based on information but on fear of the unknown.
You need both faith and knowledge to do ministry. Faith should not be blind ….. your faith must be based on knowledge…. not based on superstition.
It is very easy to become superstitious, especially among us Africans. You become a Christian, within no time the things you are doing are merely superstitious. Superstition is when there are things you do which you cannot give a reason for. If you cannot show it in the Bible and you cannot show where you got the information from , that is called superstition. Some of the things we are doing even in church are simple superstition. So it is a pity if you are a missionary and you go to a people that are already superstitious, then you add now your church superstition, they will definitely accept it and become more superstitious.
it is important to ask yourself, even as you develop people’s faith, are you basing it on knowledge or superstition. How many are the things you are doing where you cannot really say God’s Word gives you support. Then basically the reason you are doing it is because of superstition. May be the sun comes from the west and there is a small cloud forming. Then you start behaving like there is a problem because of the cloud. What’s the reasoning behind it? Because the Luhyas believe like that?. Now, that is called superstition. So we are saying we need faith, but your faith must be based on knowledge.
Day 2
Titus 1:1-2
2 a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time
NIV
Another thing a Christian needs to have useful in ministry is hope
it is important to be a man of hope. Because this knowledge is based on the hope of eternal life then you Live today in the light of eternity. That is Christian hope . you need to See today’s issues things in the right perspective. If you are a man of God, you must always live today in the light of tomorrow. sometimes the thing you are facing now is bad but it easy to live with it however painful it is currently ,if you see it in the light of tomorrow. It is only bad because you are not seeing it in the light of tomorrow.
It is very interesting how when you see something in its right perspective it becomes ok. I still remember when we were young men in the seventies and really praying the Lord to lead one to a girl of his choice for marriage . Then you feel like the Lord is leading you to this girl .then you propose and she drops you like a hot potato. You feel like the whole world has come to an end. If only you knew you would meet many others even better after that..it would not feel so bad.
In my case I was in the University of Nairobi, the person I was going to marry was in Makerere, Uganda . it would be wasting my time looking around here in Kenya . …she was not here.. it took God to relocate her from Makerere to Nairobi for me to see her. What about if I knew all the while that she was not around in Kenya? I would have been more peaceful. So it is important to understand when you start seeing things in the light of tomorrow , in the light of eternity, they are still challenging but you are more at peace …
For example you may be going through a current big problem …..how is that problem if you see in the light of eternity? However ,your knowledge must be resting on the hope of eternal life. The issues facing even us Christians include , how will my retirement be? how will I educate my children ?You know, especially when you hit forty five….all over a sudden… everything is seen in the light of retirement. So ministry disappears even among pastors….. you start making funny decisions because issues are not seen in light of eternity, they are seen in light of retirement.
I went through that after I hit mid forties. Everybody in my age group seemed to be beginning business in preparation for retirement , but I am so involved in ministry in addition to my employment ,I cannot add anything else to my diary.. So people said, Ng’ang’a, surely you are funny. What do you think will happen when you retire? Many years later ,I have now been retired one year, I have not failed to get something to eat.
I did not see my life in terms of retirement, I saw it in the light of eternity. And the God of eternity is capable of looking after me when I am a small boy and when I am an old man. It doesn’t mean I don’t plan. But I do what is within my ability and as God leads me, without being frightened and changing my mission or call.. In other words, I will continue doing what God has called me to do. I will do my investments where I can, but I will not let my investment take me away from ministry in order for me to look after my old age.
So I am not suggesting that you don’t plan properly. I am not suggesting that you don’t invest. But don’t let your worries about your children education derail you.. and you start saying… how will she be in the university given my financial fears ?. In fact the fees are now over ksh 300,000. By the time your daughter is in the university, you fear you will not aford? Although child is small now , but you can’t sleep at night. Not because of a problem now, but of a problem of twenty years from now. What about if you go beyond that and you see eternity? And you start seeing that the God of eternity who will look after this baby when the baby is small, will look after the baby when the baby is in the twenties.
what Paul is saying. ….if you really want to serve the Lord, it will be important that you have knowledge but your knowledge must rest on eternal life. And you need to see those things that you face in the light of eternity
Day 3
Titus 1:3
3 and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,
NIV
Here he emphasizes the issue of the fact that you are appointed for a season.
And at his appointed season, He brought his Word to life through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our saviour. God has seasons for particular areas, or people. we are in a place …like Queen Esther ….for such a time like this. it is important to understand that you are appointed for a season. There is something for this season. You culd say ….. surely I am not to be here for more than three years. So what do I do? You need to understand that it does not matter what happened to the place before you went there It does not matter what happens to it after you leave. What matters :When you are there are you going to be faithful to your mission ?
God will not hold you responsible for future. He holds you responsible for now. And the period you are there, it is important to understand you are appointed for a reason, during the appointed season.
You needed to stay in the previous post long enough before God relocates you , so there is a season. I can look at my life in the last fourty years I have been a Christian and see there are things that happened certain times.
You know, one of the things I laugh about, is invitation to speak in certain places. I still remember my wedding in 1979 and the many young people I was ministering to who participated in my wedding.. One of the churches that even brought me a gift was a church we call Riruta Baptist Church.. I was very involved in their ministry. I was there regularly so that in my wedding they felt like part of it. Do you know something interesting? I have not spoken there in the eighties, nineties and I don’t even know whether the church exists now. I have not been there for the last thirty years. Somehow God opens a chance for a certain period, then it closes and you don’t know how it got closed. In the meanwhile so are so busy with new ones you do not even realize you no longer go to the older places
Day 4
Titus 1:3
3 and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,
NIV
There are many things that you have to enjoy now, and don’t assume they will be there in the future. There is a season. And do not say , aahh I can do it tomorrow. Who told you there is a tomorrow? You have to do what needs to be done today without procrastination. What is procrastinating? …Putting to tomorrow what should be done today. An English man said procrastination is the thief of time.
So it is important to understand these seasons. For example when your children are small. There are things you must do because that’s the season for small children. Your children , like mine will become big and your influence reduces with time….now you tell them and they also tell you. So it is important to understand that there are things you must reorganize in your ministry to fit your family age because of the timing. And you cannot change it. There is a period. Don’t do what Ng’ang’a is doing if you are not in Ng’ang’a’s season. So you must ask yourself, what is your season? Because God wants certain things to happen because of the season.
Day 5
Titus 1:2-3
3 and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,
NIV
Yes,God wants certain things to happen because of the season.. My wife has been involved in children ministry for many years . Every time you went to our house over the weekend , there was always a group of children . The other day we went to see somebody in Kijabe Hospital and my wife was very happy to see one of the doctors is one of those children from her bible club in Plainview of early 1990s.. She had a lot of children and two of her Bible club children were Christian doctors in Kijabe Hospital. Very exciting to see the impact of her ministry .
And you can ask her, how come now you have no bible club children in your house ? Do you know something? The reason the parents could find it very easy to send the neighbouring children to our house is gone. The neighbors were not Christians, they are just neighbours. It is easy to get their children because if you say you are going to the house of mama Wambui, who is the same age with thir children they find it easy to release them.. As soon as our children became grown ups, if you ask for a child, they ask what does she want with our children ? Does she have small children?
Do you realize the ministry to the children was tied to the age of our children. In fact when we changed location somehow our children were able to begin a youth Club now for older children. But after sometime they finished university and left. That group also momentarily died. So there sounds that there is something you can do because of the age of your family.
I hope you are getting the point…..that there is something you have to do now that cannot be done later.. look at the circumstances that are there that may not be there later..
Day 6
Titus 1:3
3 and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,
NIV
The next thing, Paul says …he brought his word to light through preaching.
What is this messenger of God, Titus being told? That there are many styles of ministry but there is a style that never dies. What is that style Preaching. A lot of people are now starting to do ministry in other ways…... In different ways. But it sounds like the Bible emphasizes preaching. And it will be important as a man of God to ask: what’s the place of preaching in my ministry .
It has no replacement. Okay, some people say actions speak louder than words. But they only speak louder because they amplify words. So it is important that you come to where, if you are going to have an impact among the Boranas, it will be important that you preach and there is no alternative to preaching. Do all those other things, but don’t exclude preaching. Of course we are going to give them a clinic or a bole hole . Yeah, we will give them a clinic but the clinic will not replace preaching. We are going to give relief food but relief food will not replace preaching.
So we are not suggesting that those other things are not done, but we are saying, preach just as Paul brought God’s Word. How does he bring the Word? Through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our savior. The word is not personal property, it is actually God’s Word. We are saying, just as we are stewards of other things ,the Word of God is entrusted to you and me to share it with the world..
Day 7
Titus 1:4
to Titus my true son in our common grace, faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our savior.
The word grace is very important, the word peace is also important. They are critical things for a man of God.
If you don’t know God’s grace it will be very difficult to do ministry on the longer term . Grace is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Because sometimes you are doing ministry when you realize what you were doing last night was not honoring to God and your worry, even as you go to preach, you then have no power to preach. Why? You realize you don’t deserve to be a preacher. You have failed God. You have really been disappointing to God and feel like not preaching ..but then you remember the word grace.
You remember that the reason you serve the Lord is because of his grace. There is no time you will be qualified to be a preacher. You will have to know God has his mercy on you to allow you to preach . Recently I was invited to Nakuru. When I told my wife where I have been invited…she said, what? Because it was the Anglican diocese of Nakuru, retired clergy fellowship. Remember the Anglican retire at sixty five. So the youngest person in the congregation will be sixty five. So the average is over 70… So she asked me, surely what do you expect to tell them. In fact when my daughter heard, she even burst into laughter.
And actually I kept wondering , do I refuse to go? What do I actually tell them? Because they want to be encouraged during their retirement. And although I am claiming to be retired, I retired at fifty five, I am still a small child in their presence. So you have to come to where you say, for sure the only reason God wants me to go there is by his grace. I am enjoying the privilege of talking to people I don’t deserve to preach because God has appointed me. I don’t qualify. So even as I went I began by apologizing…. you see they are so old, you know, they look at me and already, they can close their ears.
. They were being given Holy Communion by the administrative officer from the diocesan office who is a young man. He said he wants to go, the old men said, no, we have a full day. When I started speaking, I pleaded with them to allow the young man to go. But you see at their age, when somebody is eighty, he sees you as a small boy in your forties. . How would you be leaving before the end of the meeting? But he was saying, you know I have something to do in the office. So when I started speaking I pleaded with them that he can go without listening to my talk now that he had finished his work. That’s the kind of group I am talking about. And you start understanding, the only way I am able to minister to them is when I realize it is by grace. That I am doing what I am doing by God’s grace not because I deserve it, not because I am capable, but because of God’s grace.
I had the same experience when I was invited by some rich men to give a talk in a 5 star hotel... And you sit there, you are with your wife, then the one says, what did you buy for me in London? The other one says, oh no, you know me I did my shopping in Switzerland. Now, this is the kind of talk of the wives of the rich men when you realize you haven’t even taken your wife to Mombasa. And remember this is going on as we are eating. Finally I must give a talk. You continue to hear the things they are talking about, a kahouse they have put on top of one of the buildings in Nairobi, at the top. So that when their wives do shopping, they can actually go to rest there before they go home. It is a group of very rich Africans.
Some of them are cabinet ministers for you see their pictures in the newspapers. But they just wanted a motivational talk….because I think some of the wives were born again and they must have heard me somewhere. So how do you talk?But when you realize it is you are only here by God’s grace, you are able to stand and talk..
By grace you can do ministry you feel unqualified for just like Moses or Isaiah