MINISTER

ABUNDANCE OF GGGRRRAAACCCEEE

I can’t help but shout grace sometimes. Paul knew what that meant for a man who was a mass murderer, not only that but thinking that he was doing the Lord a favour. He received orders from the high priest and religious leaders. They knew him, he was popular but after he came to Christ, the struggle started. He isolated himself, went to Arabia, did not consult with flesh and blood. I am not sure if we appreciate the fact that having known Christ and realising that all the mass murdering was not in line with the will of God and Christ’s sacrifice and not God’s perfect will for him. He has killed innocent souls including women and children, genocide, total wipe out and cleansing. Do we think for once that those things did not hunt him? Of course they did more seriously so after he gave his life to Christ. Before he gave his life to Christ, he may have had a bit of “peace” for killing people who did not walk according to Mosaic laws but followed the new way of Christ. He must have had peace and zeal to carry on because he thought he was doing God a favour more so with the affirmation of religious leaders. However when he now knew the way, JESUS, he was more hunted by his gruesome past, but then he stumbled on GRACE which was the only thing that freed him despite all the hardship he went through which made even some righteous Christians disown and abandoned him. One of the ruler of his days looked at him, shook his head and said “Paul, much learning has made you mad. Here is a man, who was fervent in religion, obeyed the law to the letter, coming back to say that men are free from the law and only justified by faith in the Grace of God by the sacrifice of one man JESUS. In his struggle he realised that the only thing or person that can rescue him from what he called “this body of death” is JESUS. When we come to the point that all saints begin to exalt the grace of God not only over the church but even those that do not believe now, you will find that salvation will become easy, conviction will be more intense and stronger but condemnation will peter out. Unity will abound. I am not sure how many of us shout grace daily or frequently. Paul knew that it is only by receiving abundance of grace that you can truly live a real Christian life. The way man’s mind and society is programmed is such that one mistake spoils multitude of good, but God’s grace and salvation is different, it is of many offences unto justification by the blood. It does not only cover but clean out a multitude of sins. When you talk like this, it can make the legalist twitch, and the “Pharisees” who see very far to cringe. We should get one thing clear. As much as you desire to see everyone do right or live right according to your standard, Jesus did not come to condemn the sinner or the wrong doers. He came to convict by the Holy Spirit so that people can come to repentance.

People will judge you by what you did or did not do but God will judge us more by what we say. If you confess Jesus (ie say that He is Lord and your saviour) you will be saved. If you do not confess Him, you will be damned. If you did not confess Jesus and you did good all your life from the day you were born to the day you die, and you did charity work being kind, nice to people etc you will not make heaven. You make heaven not by what you do but who you confess as Lord ie Jesus. Any good work counts after that. I know the good Samaritan story has confused many which I will expound on later by the grace of God, but if you look at that story, it was a response to a lawyer who came to tempt Jesus “what must I do to inherit eternal life”. So Jesus gave him the story that epitomise all goodness or kindness even from someone like the Samaritan who did not know the law of God like the priest or the Levite. There is nothing you can do to inherit eternal life. In the final analysis of that story, neither the priest, nor the levite or the Samaritan have eternal life because they have not yet confessed Jesus as Lord and Saviour. No good work will be reckoned to you without first accepting Jesus. Simply, you have eternal life by receiving Jesus as Lord and saviour. It may be recorded by men or society but not before God. The only criterion before God is Jesus, the blood of Jesus is the only thing that satisfies God. Before the Lord helped me to appreciate grace, I would reflect on all my dealings with people, which is good but they brought, guilt, self condemnation etc. With grace, you take stock alright but it is for you to see how you can improve on it rather than wallow in pity or throw pity party. So with grace you are free to continue doing good as the opportunity arises. Like Peter Tosh the popular reggae star said, we are not in this world to live to others expectations, if you live like that you will fall flat because, one mistake or anything less than what people expect will result in enmity or hatred or division. We are in this world to fulfil God’s purpose and His good plan. Even if you live a thousand years, that is still too short on earth here, so on a daily basis we should desire to do God’s will which is more than good boy bad boy or girl mentality. For instance men will hail you when you give thousands of pounds to good course but Jesus singled out a widow who gave from her heart out of love. So when you consider your short comings in honesty, you will see that you cannot attain to God’s holiness or standard by your own criteria of how many steps or ways. When you do that, you put yourself right back under law again. We all need to receive and thank God for His grace which we have to receive abundantly and you will find out that the shout of GGRRAACCEE will spontaneously flow out of your mouth like Zerubbabel in the book of Zechariah when you start to appraise your own life. ALL HAVE SINNED AND FALLEN SHORT ……. hence salvation is a totally free gift.  If you are saved shout GRACE and arise from any corner or limit Satan has placed on you and arise for the course of Christ. We have our limitations but the word of God can never be bound. If you are not saved or born again, go to the article that says “Salvation a simple mystery”

Zechariah 4:7:

   ⁷Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.

1 Corinthians 15:10:

   ¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Romans 5

   ¹⁶And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.

   ¹⁷For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

Pls when it blesses you pass it on for others to subscribe. Freely we have received, freely give.

Comments, questions, love motivated corrections.

We will preach to the world free of charge but we welcome generous donations.

For Counselling and prayer, call the minister

Sam-Best Ewruje – 07957708126. Invitations are welcome apart from Sundays except local around the North East of England

Email: sambestewruje@hotmail.com

MINISTER

LEADERSHIP – LOOKING UNTO JESUS FOR LEADERSHIP QUALITIES

Definition of Leadership: RC – Rochester: “The process of influencing the behaviour of other people toward group goals in a way that fully respects their freedom.” Respecting others freedom is vital, the hallmark of Christian leadership. Jesus influenced many but compelled no-one to follow Him. Almost all left Him due to His “hard” teachings and none was with Him at the cross. Paul experienced same.

My definition: A leader is one who is led by the Spirit of God. A good leader is one who chooses leaders by the Holy Spirit. Hence effective leadership starts with prayer. We must know that the leader of the Church today is the Holy Spirit, not man. We need to pray for the Spirit to be on us. Leaders need to seek God together so we do not make Samuels mistake. God looks at hearts. God raises leaders, man can be there to affirm. Simply, a leader follows Jesus. 1 Cor 11:1, 1 Pet 2:21, Rev 14:4. Jesus said follow me!

Quality 1: The first thing was the Holy Spirit (2nd anointing, He was born anointed by the Spirit of God). Note that Jesus was always walking with God, knowing Him, acquiring wisdom, stature and character etc, but I am focussing on when His ministry started.

Quality 2: Preaching and Teaching: – Matthew 4 vs 17. This is where we have missed it big time. Now we keep people in church looking for how to keep them by doing programmes and many self preserving principles and projects. He preached to rich, poor, politicians, soldiers, everyone.

Quality 3: Imparted Vision – Same God given vision, nothing new – make disciples, be my witnesses, preach the Gospel of KOG, take the land etc Mark 16:14-20 – the same one He received from the Father – to preach and teach. I am not sure why this simplicity has been so complicated. As he preached, things happen, no special meetings. Luke 5:17. Not gentile authority or leadership. Matthew 20:24-28

Quality 4: Encouraged disciples to wait on the Lord patiently in prayer not arguing with God about timings and seasons –Acts 1:7-8. Leaders are not go-between, allow direct access to Jesus.

Quality 5: Election or choosing – He chose by the Holy Spirit not based on good credentials but looking ahead at what He can do with them rather than what they have achieved or can achieve. In order words, He was moved by the Holy Ghost not man’s philosophy or society thinking or rat race syndrome no matter how successful they sound eg Bill Gates or Branson just because they are successful in the eyes of the world. The disciple learned that also eg they casted lot to replace Judas not CV, when they had crisis with ethnic favouritism, they said look for men full of the Holy Ghost (no other credentials as we use today eg he has been a pastor or evangelist or theologian etc) Acts 1:22-26, Acts 6:1-4

Quality 6: He proclaimed and declared the Word of God, the Gospel which is still the power of God to Salvation. That has not changed. God’s word is for declaration, not for analysis. You have to declare the word as the Holy Spirit reveals it to you not to please men or society etc. That is why we have the Holy Spirit, so that we can preach boldly in spite of our weaknesses. He that believeth shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned. Mark 16:16. He is building His church, but we have assumed this role.

Quality 7: Conflict Resolution: Jesus always dealt with individual who brought complaints because He knows that forgiveness and personal salvation is more than the world. So He restores peace to the one who complains. Jesus did not say what Martha was doing was wrong, it was only when Martha complained of Mary that Jesus rebuked her. Only the Holy Spirit can change others.

Quality 8: Confrontation: He confronted those selling in the temple. Confronted His disciples but not like the Pharisees or Sadducees holier than thou lots, but He rebuked believers most times for their little faith in Him. All our faith should be in Christ’s finished work as leaders.

Quality 9: Prayer life – He did not do or say anything except what the Father says or do. So He sought the Father continually. The same way we should seek God always to know Him and His ways. Even the Holy Spirit does not speak of Himself, He takes from what is of Jesus Christ and makes it known unto us. This is to build in us lifestyle of communing with the Lord continually Acts 6:1-4

Others: feeding multitude, patience in teaching, always had time for people even when tired.

Pls when it blesses you pass it on for others to subscribe. Freely we have received, freely give.

Comments, questions, love motivated corrections.

We will preach to the world free of charge but we welcome generous donations.

For Counselling and prayer, call the minister

Sam-Best Ewruje – 07957708126. Invitations are welcome apart from Sundays except local around the North East of England

Email: sambestewruje@hotmail.com