SALVATION

This is perhaps the most misunderstood subject in the church today as many have debated this topic over many years and I remember we had the same debate in our local bible study here in Rwanda Kigali on last Friday of March 18th 2016. One reason I think this topic is such a debatable issue is that we think that salvation is something that man gets from God in exchange for something a.k.a barter trade whereby if a sinner repents of all his/her sins or ask Jesus to come into his life or heart or "make" Jesus to be his personal lord and savior or perhaps all of the above, then he or she will be born again/saved and destined for heaven, this is what is taught by many churches around the world and many of them have filled their pews with converts and the trend of the megachurch where a single church sitting up to 100,000 people has become a reality in some parts of the world all this made possible by the "marketing" of the gospel to the masses where we are the prospective clients or the market and the church which is now more of a business entity has made millions and even billions selling the gospel message and the payment has been in the form of tithes (which is illegal in my view) and offerings. So with that being said, what exactly is salvation and is it something that can be earned or purchased like in a market place or rather is salvation found ONLY in a Person? let us see; Matthew 1:23 "behold the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel", which is translated, "GOD WITH US". There you have it salvation simply means that God Himself is with you and what is the reason for Him being with you? John 1:3 "All things were made through Him and WITHOUT Him , NOTHING was made that was made. Jesus Christ who is God in the flesh is the Word who through the authority of the Father and by the power of the Holy Spirit fashioned the universe and everything that is in it to existence including humanity and the next verse in John 1:4 says that "In Him, was life, and the life was the light of men". this corresponds with the verse in 1 Corinthians 11 "but i want you to know that the head of EVERY man is Christ", meaning that no person either dead or alive is estranged from or separated from God as far as He is concerned since our very existence is in Him and without Him we can't exist, this should bury the doctrine of eternal separation from God forever. Salvation is NOT what we do or believe but rather salvation is the Lord Himself, salvation is our life, our identity in Christ 1 Corinthians 15:22 affirms this, all men have been saved why' because Christ came to give them life but how many know this, very few which explains all the religions including Christianity that have sprung up over the centuries and held man in bondage when he has been set free by the cross and this religious system is the great whore Babylon in the book of revelation who has fattened herself on the flesh and blood of the masses and continues to fatten herself through various Antichrist doctrines designed to deceive and blind the hearts of many as to their true identity in Christ. when I hear that the world has around 6 billion people who subscribe to one religion or the other, I do not rejoice and neither should you since this is only Satan who has been transforming himself into an angel of light and his ministers many of whom are not even aware, have been preaching the "depths of Satan" Rev 2:24. The book of revelation contains many deep truths that explain many of the happenings of humanity and the cosmos from time past and even future events and it deserves deep study and prayer for the power of the Holy Spirit to teach us. Speaking of the Holy Spirit, it has to be said that nothing that God is or does would be possible without the Holy Spirit; we read in genesis 1:2 "The earth was without form,and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters". then in verse 3, God commands "let there be light", and there was light. this verse corresponds with John 1:4 which speaks of Jesus being the light of men, we read in genesis of the state of humanity in verse 2 which has been bound in darkness for so many eons, a darkness brought about by the harlot Babylonian system riding on the back of Satan that has wrecked lives and destroyed peace so that there is only competition and discord with "man eating man" for his success or survival or both and this has been propagated by the "institutionalized church" (the harlot woman who rides the beast) who has robbed the poor and given to the rich, who has put humanity under Adam again and told me and you that if we do certain things and believe in the right things, then "it" "she" with the wave of a "wand" declare us "Christian" thus counting the blood of the covenant an unworthy thing. But God who is our salvation declares "let there be light" after the Spirit has been hovering over the waters, the waters spiritually means the peoples or nations of the world which shows that while the world has not yet been freed from its darkness, the Spirit is still in control and He commanded forth Light and the Light who is Jesus will come and put an end to all power and authority that has kept men in darkness and the knowledge of God shall be made manifest to ALL men that's why God in verse 4 of genesis 1 saw that it was good. believers in Christ are called the light of the world because we are the hands and feet of Jesus who are supposed to go out and make disciples of all men, notice I have said ALL MEN and not SOME men proving that Christ died for ALL and not just some as our Calvinist brethren would have us believe thus indicating that God has a plan of salvation that includes all of humanity and not a part of it and that our salvation is already a done deal secured for us by the God-Man Jesus Christ in a covenant made by His Father and sealed by the Holy Spirit. therefore let us proclaim the good news of our Lord that He has made all things new despite the happenings of the present world, God In His foreknowledge and omnipresence being able to occupy past, present and future at the same time has made us in His Image Gen 1:26-27 and 1 cor 15:49, these verses show that the Image of God is none other than Christ for He is the One who has declared the Father and made known His name for it is the Father who breathed in us His Spirit gen 2:7 making us living beings. Every person who is breathing has been included in the plan of God's saving grace because God breathed in him/her; 1 Corinthians 15:22, the gospel is simply to declare the truth that man has always been in Christ John 1:3,4 but because man has been blinded; John 1:5, then God sent His Son to take on our likeness so that He could identify with us in our lowly state and exalt us to where His Father is so that we could experience the love and fellowship of the God-Head, this is indeed the good news and it is our salvation, it means to be freed from the darkness of our minds and be lit by the love of the Father so that we can be His hands and feet and reach out to the outcasts, notice that when we do this, we are actually acting with God or if I can paraphrase it, acting as God in saving people from the darkness of their circumstances and we clearly have a long way to go if the church repents and returns to its "first love", I trust we will. God bless you.

HE WILL MAKE ALL THINGS NEW

Haven't you ever wondered whether the seemingly unending madness and violence in this world will ever end, it seems the world has grown cold and unloving as more innocent men, women and children are dying and suffering in unnecessary wars caused by human greed and selfishness and the current immigrant crisis in Europe is a testimony to this as thousands upon thousands of immigrants from war torn countries are seeking refuge but being turned away or forced to live in overcrowded camps.

How can one then believe that there is a God who is love and allows all these bad things to happen to innocent children whom He said He loves, well it's kind of hard to reconcile the two; a God of love and a world of suffering, but the truth is we don't have to despair and wonder whether we are alone in this universe left at the mercy of nature and whatever circumstances can throw at us; we have hope in His promise where He said He will neither leave us nor forsake us Deut 31;6, the truth is that God has never been far from the suffering people of this world, He has always been close to the broken hearted and the rejected of this world' He actually identifies with them, remember that Christ always helped those who were outcasts and He himself was rejected and even crucified.

Revelation 21;5 says that He the Christ will make all things new infact He says He is MAKING all things new signifying that He has began and has finished sanctifying His creation through His shed blood on the cross, Colossians 1;20 states that Christ reconciled ALL things in heaven and earth yes including all those who are behind the suffering of the innocent in this world back to God and yes there will be a day of reckoning when Christ returns but His purpose which was set before the foundation of the world will be done.

So then we should not lose hope in God whose mercies endures forever for He has set aside a Day in which His holy consuming fire will burn out all the dross and impure things in His creation so that no evil will exist anymore in His presence.Amen.

THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION

This is to follow up on the earlier blog post made a couple of weeks ago about the lost in Luke 15 where Jesus Christ says using a parable that He will seek those who are lost because they BELONG to Him; remember I said that something cannot be lost unless it belongs, we say a child is lost when reported missing because that child belongs to his or her parents and if he or she is not home when expected then the parents will go out to find him/her.

Consider the parable of the lost sheep- Isaiah 53;6 says ALL we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.this off-course refers to Christ who bore all our iniquity on the cross thus cancelling out what Adam did in the garden of Eden and therefore making all of humanity righteous 1 cor 15:22 states that as all people were made dead by Adam even so all people will be made alive in Christ, some Christians apparently do not believe this as evidenced by much of what is taught from our pulpits whereby one is taught that if he/she does the right things or believes in the right things then he/she will have eternal life, well that is not true; the verse in Corinthians states that because of ONE MAN all were dead and now because of ONE MAN all have been given life, notice that you and I were not involved in any of this, we did not do bad works to become sinners, instead we became sinners because of Adam and neither did we do good works to become righteous but instead we became righteous because of Christ and now what we believers who are ambassadors of the Lord should do is to proclaim this glorious truth that Christ is victorious over Adam and that He has become the NEW ADAM in which all of humanity has its identity in Him.

Let this glorious gospel sink in us and manifest itself in our lives through love for others for the Holy Spirit came to reveal Jesus who is the love of the Father, all of us have the heavenly Father who loves us through His Son, why? because we are now the body of His Son and this is the core message of the gospel of inclusion since all have been included, all have been found, NO ONE is lost anymore since Christ has redeemed us through His shed blood and reconciled everything to the Father. Amen.