EXHORTATION TO THE HOUSEHOLD OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

From time immemorial the Church of Jesus Christ, i.e. the saints, the blood washed, the born again and the saved ones of God, have been attacked left, right and centre by satan, the Archenemy of God and Christians.
The Scriptures have clearly stated: “But mark this, there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, unforgiving, unholy, profane (nalabahlazisanako), - II Tim. 3:1ff. 
The reader may take his/her time to read this passage of scripture and he/she will be convinced that the Devil is working overtime in every aspect of life to sabotage the Christian faith. It is the Devil and his emissaries’ cunning strategy to traumatise and fiercely attack the Church insistently in order to completely annihilate her influence in the world with the hope of pushing her to the point of extinction. 
But thanks be to the everlasting and invisible God our Father, for affording us the most unique, all-knowing and omnipotent Builder of the Church, Jesus Christ, the Rock of ages, who provided an eternal security for His Church even before She came into existence. Hear him say, “I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it”, Matthew 16:18. If there is the strongest faith of all faiths that has stood the test of time and prevailed, it is the Christian faith. The first three centuries, a period referred to as the heroic age of the Church, Christians were objects of hatred and contempt, and many suffered martyrdom for refusing to recant their faith. The Gospel of Christ survived, and it spread even further; hence Tertullian’s remark: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church”. 
Even the Diocletianic persecution which was the Roman Empire’s last, largest and bloodiest official persecution of Christianity, could not exterminate the Christian faith. Through his edicts, Diocletian ordered the destruction of Christian scriptures and places of worship across the Empire, and prohibited Christians from assembling for worship. Many Christians chose to suffer or even to die than to obey orders that challenged their convictions.
The martyrs’ suffering strengthened the resolve of their fellow Christians and the gospel continued to spread. 
The Holy Book, the Bible, which contains the forever sound and unchanging doctrines on the Christian faith was burnt up in some parts of the Pagan Europe; but we still have it today and it is alive and well. Fires, Flames and trying times of the heroic age could not succeed in burning it to ashes; it survived the fury furnaces of fire. Not only did the Book survive during those trying times, but also its adherents and propagators quenched the fury of flames of fires (Hebrews 11:34). We have it on indelible records that in 606BCE in Babylon, three saints were hurled into the burning furnace, but Jesus the Logos, who is the same yesterday, today and forever, unceremoniously theophanated right into the fire before those saints were thrown into it. He did that in order to disarm the fire off its destructive and deadly power so that by the time His children were thrown in, the flames, the burning coal and smoke could do them no harm. We do not have the time to talk about the martyrs of the Christian faith, in the medieval church, who were burnt at stake for their faith but nevertheless the gospel still continues to march on.  
It is in the strength of these impeccable historic records that I would pen down below the exhortation directed to my fellow Christian leaders and the entire body of Jesus Christ.
As alluded above, Satan is using many strategies to de-motivate and de-spirit Christians by generating atrocities that are re-corded in the second book of Timothy Chapter Three. He is probably using almost all those evil practices stated in this Book to debilitate Christian leaders and their flocks. The missile he is currently using in this country to hit back at Christians is sin of shamefulness (kuhlazisana). Some Christian leaders are at variance against each other and they have taken delight in spreading each others’ dirty linen. Thus causing them to abuse the media – television, radio, national periodicals etc. This is not the first time such war has occurred in the Church. It once happened in the Galatian Church, consequently Paul exhorted the then members of the Church saying, “If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other”.  Gal 5:15. 
Here I wish to lift up a few other current missiles that the evil One is using to aggressively divide us, especially Christian leaders who know better than the flock. He knows full well that leadership is one of the most crucial aspects of human life; be it in politics, religion, social strata, economic realm, etc. it plays quite a vital role in its core and viability. John Maxwell, one of the most celebrated leaders of our time, observed, “leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less ...., if you cannot influence others, they will not follow you ....., Things rise and fall on a leader”.
So, what we are experiencing and watching on television screens, what we hear over the radios, and read about in our daily periodicals, is what the Devil wants to do with us. He is targeting us Christian leaders so that He would eventually destroy our influence in leading the flock of the Almighty God. How does He do it? He triggers up and generates uprisings among ourselves. Instead of going to the person who has offended and provoked you, in order to iron out your differences and hurts, or even ask for your Christian brothers’ forgiveness, you go to the gallery, to the media and tell the whole world about your brother’s shortcomings or sin. Brothers, this is not right; it is not what Jesus Christ instructed us to do.  We have a crystal clear blue print on how we ought to treat each others’ shortcomings. In Matthew 18:7, Jesus said, “Woe to the world for such temptations to sin and influences to do wrong”.  It is necessary that temptations come; but woe unto the person on whose account or by whom the temptations come”.
 In verse 15, he continued to say, “If your brother wrongs you, go and show his fault, between you and him privately”. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother. But if he does not listen, take along with you one or two others (in the house of faith) so that every word may be confirmed and upheld by the testimony of two or three witnesses. There is no mention of public hearing or spectacle. 
If he pays no attention to them (refusing to listen and obey), tell it “not to the media”, but to the Church. Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, echoed his Master’s words when he said, in I Corinthians 6:1-3, “Does any of you dare when he has a matter of complaint against another (brother/sister) wants to go to law before unrighteous men (men neither upright nor right with God, laying it before them) instead of before the saints (the people of God)?  Do you not know also that we (Christians) are to judge the very angels and pronounce opinion between right and wrong (for them)? How much more then (as to) matters pertaining to this world and of this life only?”
Jesus and Paul were saying, Christians and their leaders are not immune against sin; therefore if wrongness or even sin is discovered in a fellow Christian’s life, it should not be an issue of public spectacle and television show or radio coverage; but it should be an exercise of reconciliation and spiritual development of that brother or sister.
I must bravely admit that we Christian leaders have not arrived yet to a sinless perfection; we still have sinful propensities that are more often than not found in our own lives; a thing which is sometimes too difficult to admit. Hence the author of the book of Hebrew 12:4 asserts that we sometimes become casual with sin, “You have not yet struggled and fought agonisingly against sin, nor have you yet resisted and withstood it to the point of shading your (own) blood”.
Paul though gives us an assurance of Christ’s unfailing support during the time of temptations, he says, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it”-  II Cor. 10:13.
As long as we Christians have not arrived in heaven to receive new, sinless, glorified bodies, faults, shortcomings even sin will remain a reality of struggle to us. This is the truth; we are often not readily willing to admit. Solomon the wisest man who ever lived said, in his prayer to God, that the Almighty God should please forgive the sins of his people when they prayed in the Temple he had built because, although they were a chosen people of God, they experienced sinful tendencies in their lives; therefore, he said, “If they sin against you, for there is no man who does not sin....” I Kings 8:46.
And Apostle John said about sinful tendencies, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins (including the Apostle John himself), He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives”.  I John 1:8-9.
The Apostle continues to exhort us Christians by saying, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin (wilfully). But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence – Jesus Christ, the righteous One. He is the atoning Sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world”- II John 2:1-2.
However, a genuinely born again Christian cannot and must not say, “Since it is possible to sin and thereafter confess my sin, thus get restored to fellowship with God, I will sin on bravely and trust God’s forgiveness and His grace to be sufficient for me”. The one who upholds this philosophy of life is not genuinely saved. A Christian’s daily aim is to please the Lord who died for us on the cross at Calvary.
We know better as Christians that Jesus gave to us a clear instruction about our everyday life’s walk; he said, “Be ye holy for I am holy, without holiness no one will see God the Father”. So we are instructed to purify ourselves daily, making Jesus Lord and Saviour of our lives. This is by no means “easy believism”. We are called upon by the Builder of the Church to lead victorious lives as He leads us in triumph (II Cor. 2:14-15). Hence he said to the Apostle John, in the Island of Patmos, “Him who overcomes I will give the right to sit beside me on my throne, as I myself overcame (was victorious) and sat down beside my Father on His throne”.  (Revelation 3:21).

ISSUES CURRENTLY AT STAKE
Unholy  humiliation (Kuhlazisana-Zulu version)
A while ago, I watched television and listened to a certain radio programme with deep sadness whereat Christian leaders were cutting each other down publicly, literally abusing the media which is a useful technological commodity to build up the nation by broadcasting constructive pieces of information. Yes, we know that it is a bad dog that makes history and news; a good dog’s deeds and behaviour will forever remain in oblivion.
The world takes an exceeding delight in relegating Christians to a humiliating shamefulness. Therefore, let us not please the world by giving it what it wants to hear or see of us. If we rub each other the wrong way, we have been given a way by which we could reconcile. James, the brother of our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” – James 5:16.  The Apostle Paul also implored Christians to get reconciled in the event they wronged one another; he said, “We (Christians) are therefore Christ’s ambassadors as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf; be reconciled to God-. II Cor. 5:20. Christians are given the Ministry of reconciliation, not of displaying each others’ bare buttocks (kugwabulana tibunu) thus putting your fellow Christians to shame. I am by no means, and by any stretch of imagination suggesting that we should condone sin; but sin should be confronted, with love. We serve a holy God and God of judgment. We should find out those who are victims and culprits of evil and seek to get them restored to the living faith. May all Christians and their leaders in this country refrain from abusing the media the way we are doing it these days. We are charged with the responsibility of spreading good news not bad news.

Sexual purity

Firstly, I would like to appeal to my fellow servants in His vineyard, as I appeal to myself also, to be self-determined to exercise the self control God has endowed us with by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. Paul exhorted the young preacher, Timothy to “flee youthful lust”, II Timothy 2:22, so that his ministry would continue with power to bear the good fruit it was intended for.
Yes, the lust of the last days is here to stay; hence the Devil wants to get us into this spider web so that our Gospel would lose its sting and spiritual impact. Let us prayerfully try to be useful and usable vessels of honour that God would continue to use in calling people unto Himself. We have a high calling, we cannot afford to waste time and be wearing masks around because time is short, our final accounting time is fast drawing near and nearer all the time.
Nobody else can help us change, but ourselves; even bad publicity will not be able to enforce change within us; instead it causes us to shift away from the known evil spots and settle to new ones. Let us remember that the judgement day will reveal all things, the bad and the good practices that were done whilst in this body (II Cor. 5:10). 
May the God Almighty bring back to us a fresh understanding that the Church represents Christ’s holy body wherever She is found; no badge or label marks the real Church. No tight group, system or organisation monopolises the truth, for all truth is God’s truth, therefore, let us practise it; for “truth unpracticed is truth unlearned”. We as leaders know better that the flock we lead is likely to be tempted to follow us even when we take a wrong track - James 3:1. The Church’s universal uniform is love.  Jesus said, if we love one another the world would know that we are His disciples (John 13:34-35).
Let us not rejoice at the fall of our fellow Christian soldiers, but we should be instruments of restoration in God’s hand. King David said, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, though he falls he will not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholds him with his hand” Ps. 37:23-24.
Secondly, there is a witty, yet so subtle underground movement/network that is all out to imprecate character assassination of many born again Christian leaders.  So, we got to be as wise as serpents and be prayerfully vigilant in our dealings with each other, particularly in counselling and praying for the people of the opposite sex.  May God help us not to find ourselves in compromising situations with those of the opposite sex.  Thanks be to God for the Holy spirit who is actively involved in ministering to us at all times.  He does a fantastic job in warning us when we are about to tread where angels fear to tread.  Unselective obedience will make a difference in our Christian life; so let’s practise absolute obedience when He leads us.  Nobody else can help us against such attacks, but ourselves.  Sometimes God uses our husbands/wives/relatives to save us from otherwise embarrassing and sinful situations.  Let us give them an ear when they advise or talk to us.  May I encourage my colleagues and the Christian fraternity to hold on tenaciously to our Christian faith because Jesus is on high, in the heavenly Tabernacle, praying for us.  He said, to one Christian leader, when he was still here on earth, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.  And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” - Luke 22:31.
 
Popularity and fame

I would like to warn ourselves against aggressive pursuit of fame and popularity. It is human to want to be a celebrity even by hooks or crooks. But let us remember that God’s work is not about us; its  about Him and His Kingdom. We may gain favour and fame with people but disappointingly lose the heavenly recognition.
It has been claimed that some pastors go to the witchdoctors and sorcerers to obtain evil powers by which to perform pseudo-miracles.  They do that in order to attract many people into their Churches.
This is not the first time such practices occured in the history of the Christiandom.  Jesus warned His disciples against putting on a facade and deceiving innocent people.  He is on record in Matthew 7:21-23 saying, “Not everyone who says to me Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that accounting  day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you.  Away from me, you evil doers”.  He also echoed the same truth to the 70 disciples to whom He had given power to drive out demons. 
After they had successfully cast out demons, they came back walking tall, basking in the beams of their exhilarating experience, that demons had obeyed them and marched out of those who were demon possessed.  He said the following to them, not really wanting to deflate their ego, but to set them straight on heaven’s priority and their ministry; “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven”.  Luke 10:20.
The question here is, what good is there for us, if after impressing people with our ungodly powers, at the end He disowns us.  It is true; our congregants may not quite know the source of our powers by which we do all those miracles; but God keeps the score and He knows the details.  Infact, we need to humbly do an honest introspection on ourselves to see if we are still in true Christian faith “What will it profit a man to gain the whole world and at the end lose his eternal life” – Mathew 16:26.  It is God who performs miracles to attract people into His kingdom.  In fact, it is interesting to note that Jesus never performed miracles everyday in His ministry.  Whenever He performed a miracle, it was for a specific devine purpose.  I am one who believes that God still performs miracles according to His will. But if God performs miracles everyday in your Church and many people are attracted by them, that is God’s business not yours. Since He knows the score, let us examine our motives and practices in our ministries before it is too late.

Spirit of control and rulership

We are living in the days where there is a serious scramble for top life and positions in many areas of social strata.  We see this in the political realm, church leadership and traditional leadership, to mention but a few.  There is nothing wrong with aiming the sun in life because assertiveness and clean ambition are by no means sinful.  Those who aim the sun are most likely to fall on the moon.  But the bad part of the scramble for top life is that it invokes the spirit of  competition.
Competition itself is not sinful either but when competition causes us to put each other down, it then becomes sinful.  The truth of the matter is, no one wants to stand under someone else’s shadow.  We all want to be in the limelight. This is a hidden trap and danger that we Christian leaders should avoid like a plague.  We know better that when a leader uses his/her position to control others it is the epidemy of spiritual abuse.  In God’s kingdom it is not about us in control but God and His sake.
The spirit of control originated with Satan, who wanted to take over the leadership of creation, worse still, he wanted to control his Creator, God.  And because he was overly obsessed with power, God had delegated to him, He humbled him by pulling him down to earth from that lofty attitude.  If we humble ourselves before God and display a servant spirit in our leadership, He will lift us up in his own time.  We must avoid the spirit of unhealthy competition.  Infact, we should not compete against one another because we are not the same; of 6.5 billion people in the whole world, no two people are the same.   Even siamese twins are not the same; they may look alike but certainly they are not the same. 
Therefore, let us use our spiritual gifts according to the measure of faith God has given to us.  Let us not control people either by deception or evil charms.  People may not know the details about us and our obscure practices; but God is the only one who keeps impeccable records of our motives, and on the judgement day He will do what He knows best; to separate the truth from a lie, fake from reality, saints from sinners.  I encourage us to work in the light of God; for it is unto Him to whom we shall give an account. 
The masses we impress today will not be there to cover us up on that day.  Let us not be envious of each other’s gifts and talents, lest we find ourselves stepping into another athlete’s lane as we run the race that is set before us.  No one wins the race unless he/she runs according to the rules of the game.

The love of money

As the economy of the world is going down a toboggan slide, many people will find themselves out of a job; yet we need money desperately.  Solomon of old says, “Money is the answer for everything”-  Eccl.10:19c.  Then if money is a necessary commodity, we Christian leaders must make sure we get it in a clean and holistic way.  We should not manipulate our congregants by “false” theology which says if they give sacrificially by loaning money from the Bank and bring it to God or His servants, they will be bountifully blessed and He will pay them back accordingly.
While it is true that God will bless us according to what we have given, we must not teach our flock to bribe God in order for him to bless them.
God blesses us because of our obedience.  If we lead our congregants to spiritual blessings, the monetary blessings, will automatically follow.  Jesus said, “Seek yea first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you”.  Our people will experience God’s blessings if we teach them the “sola scriptura”.  Paul said, to Timothy, “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth” II Tim. 2:15.  He also said,  “The love of money is the root of all evil”.  May God help us to create money in a clean and Godly way because we need it for our earthly existence. 
   
CONCLUSION
Once again I would like to appeal to all Christian leaders and the entire Christian fratenity in this country not to abuse media by fighting our personal wars publicly.  This does not help us either, nor does it help the unsaved.  We were called by God to spread the good news of the saving power of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We have been given the ministry of reconciliation, not of fighting or putting each other down to shameful embarrassment.
By all means, we should not condone sin.  But if we meet a brother or sister who is erring, let those of the household of faith bring such a one into the right track with great humility and trepidation, and certainly not with a “holier than thou” attitude.  “To err is human but to forgive divine;” we are not home yet.  Therefore, error is more likely to show its ugly head in our lives.  But thanks be to God who leads us in a victorious path for His name sake, He will lead us safely to our heavenly home after fighting uncountable wars in this life. 
It is true, God is not finished with us yet; He is still engaged in cheaping away the rough edges of our lives so that at the end, we will reflect the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.  Let us also remember that sexual sins assault the Lord Jesus who dwells in us by the Holy Spirit. We need to revere Him.  Let us be genuine, honest, humble and trustworthy so that God’s name will not be put to shame; but instead it will be glorified and hallowed through us.
AMEN!!