ARE YOU A SUNDAY CHRISTIAN?

Here is a simple guide to knowing if you are a Sunday Christian or not: -

1. You are a sheep in wolves clothing.  
Do you spend your time gossiping, the hate, they fight, they tear each other down. Hardly do they stand with the widow, or the orphan that needs them.

Then on Sunday, you will find them acting like they the holiest people on earth.




4. They know how to smile when they do not mean it. 
That moment when the pastor says turn to your neighbor and ask them how their week was. They turn, they do not really mean it and then unscrew their smiles as quickly as they turn away.


If you are unfortunate to meet them during the week, they will act like they do not know you or cross the road to avoid you.


Or act like your presence is causing them discomfort.


5. They pretend their lives are better than anyone else. 
So they band in cliques and start gossiping about the less fortunate.


In fact, a typical Sunday service for them is about showing off and bragging about how perfect their blessings are.

6. They are all about the money.


7. They defend wrong leaders.
See how Christians are quick to defend their wrong choices of presidents and other political leaders. See how quickly they are at pointing out what is wrong with the world but never what is wrong with Christianity. In Kenya, leaders that have killed are consecrated in church, in America a man in unscrupulous, sleeps around and has no moral standing is supported by Christians. All he has to do is throw a few Christian phrases around.


8. They give wrong advise.
They will ask the abused woman to stay with an abusive husband who will ultimately kill her. And loudly condemn those who dare do the right thing.


9. They preach water and drink wine.


Sunday Christians are brutal, uncaring and will tear down everyone in their way. They are like modern day Pharisees. They are there to implement laws and make everyone miserable.

THERE ARE MOUNTAINS THAT ARE NOT MOVABLE

It easy to sing when there is no storm, mountains or anything testing your soul and faith. I imagine when you are 20 and single and saved. You stand on the road and shout:

I WILL WAIT FOR THE RIGHT MAN

I WILL NOT COMPROMISE

I WILL WAIT UNTIL I AM MARRIED SO THAT I CAN ENJOY SEX

When you are in good health, how easy it to trust in Jesus. It easy to say to others and scream at them

I WILL TRUST IN GOD

Nothing can shake your faith when everything is going okay. 

Fast forward: -

You are 36 and single, all your friends have been married for over ten years and are done giving birth. There is no man in sight. People keep telling you are were too choosy but you know too well, there was no one and there is still no one.

Then you are not screaming.

fast forward

The cancer is not going away, you have held on and you cannot hold on anymore. the doctors and God seem to be reading from the same page.

Let's be honest, would you sing the following songs: -

1. It's easy to sing

When there's nothing to bring me down

2. I still believe in Your holy word

even when I don't see, I still believe

3. I was sure by now

God You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away
Stepped in and saved the day
But once again, I say "Amen", and it's still raining

4. I know You're able and I know You can
Save through the fire with Your mighty hand
But even if You don't
My hope is You alone

5. But God, when You choose

To leave mountains unmovable

I am not going to say I can. I do not know. Because I have been down with a cold and I questioned God. How would I cope with such situations when I know that the voice of truth does not want me to fight but to let go and accept a truth my heart is not willing to accept. I would struggle.

When the voice of truth seems to be saying you are better off on your own. Then settling for the next single guy does not seem that bad.

Hey, when you feel like you have all the time in the world, it easy to be confident, but when the odds are stacked against you, you will want to scream in anguish and cry out loud.

Here are some songs to encourage you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6fA35Ved-Y

NOBODY TOLD YOU THE ROAD WOULD BE EASY

Romans 5:8

At times I fall so deep and I wonder where would God take me back. You know when you are young Christianity it is so easy. Then you grow up and the temptations line up, waiting to have a go at you. At times you feel like the world is shouting and laughing at you. 'You are no better.'

'You failed.'


The world has used you and made a mockery of all you believe in. At that moment its so hard to pray because God feels so far away. Because you feel like people like you should not be Christian.  My favourite songs says: -


In those moments of torment, you cannot stand, all you can do is crawl weakly to the throne of God.
They are moments of utter despair and loneliness. David said: -

As a deer pants for water
So my souls thirsts for you o God
My soul thirsts for God for the living God
When can I come and behold the face of God
My tears have been my food
While men say to me all day long
Where is your God...
Why are you downcast oh my soul?
Why so disturbed within me
Put your hope in God for I will yet praise Him
MY saviour and my God
My soul is downcast within me
and so I will remember you
From the heights of Hermon
to Mt. Mizar
Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls
All your waves and breakers have swept over me
At night the Lord commands His love...
I say to the Lord my God
Why have you forsaken me
Why must I go about mourning
Oppressed by the enemy
My bones suffer mortal agony
As my foes say to me all day long
Where is your God?

Often this is the prayer after you fall away from God and you realise that you love God but you are not sure you should be a Christian.



When you are put in compromising situations at work and if you feel like if you do not do it, then you will lose your job.


I realise that no matter how far you fall or the tempations that you find yourself in. You must always remember that God says: -


You know you are loved when you are loved at your worst. Yes you will fall and you will feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders but you can always pray to God to move from places that compromise your faith. You can also pray that the Lord makes you restless when you are in sin. I discovered that in God there is no fear. You can be a little afraid but when God gives you the courage to walk away from situations in this life. It will be the most amazing thing in your life.

The song love me anyway by Sidewalk Prophets reminds me that Jesus loves me anyway.




Let go of that job! The one that makes you corrupt

Let go of that relationship! The one that is not of God

Let go of those friends! Who are leading you astray

Let God restore you to the place where you were.

Photos: courtesy

DON’T LET ME LOSE MY WAY LORD! THE ULTIMATE CHRISTIAN PRAYER

 

 One of my greatest fears has been that I will lose my way as a Christian and that I will not be able to get out of that bottomless pit that I will have single-handedly put myself in. See my favourite scripture has always been: -

 'Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver usc from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18 (NIV)

 

 Also I love this song: -  

 Also Jeremy Camp sang: -  

 Then life happens and the challenges come, you are fresh out of campus with no job prospects, you are that girl, virgin, loves the Lord and no husband prospects, sickness comes, challenges in the work place, you are in a situation where you really cannot see and even Hebrews chapter one makes no sense, you know ‘Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.’ Then applying the Bible and reality takes different sides and you are caught in the middle. What if doing the right thing means going to bed hungry. What if that husband or wife does not come up? What if we are not rescued and we are reduced to tears and suffering. When hopeless and desperation sets in and you really cannot see. What if you fail in your exams despite really studying hard. Then, the giant and the waves that Casting Crowns sing about becomes real and they keep reminding you of the times you have tried and failed and all the times God did not come through for you and it breaks your heart in pieces.

A couple of years ago I wrote this in my journal: - 

' But I thought He did not care, I was suffering, my heart was in shreds, and I was disappointed in God and I wanted to walk away. Did He enjoy seeing me suffering.' 

 Also I wrote:-

 '..., I was dismayed, I was disappointed because I loved Him so much and I thought He had failed me. When I failed to get that ‘A’ in my KCSE, my heart was quiet in disbelief, my heart was downcast, I didn’t even pray or say thank you.' 

 The before I got a job I wrote: - 

 Days when I feel this Finally the fact that I am home is sinking really deeply and the fact that I have no job my dreams still are still where they were, unaccomplished. It’s painful, at times I do wish I wasn’t a dreamer...

 And you wonder what the Bible meant when it says 'no temptation that comes your way, that is not common to man', because you feel like you have been tempted beyond your strength and it is more than you can endure. Then you find yourself slipping and going further and further from the truth and God, and not because you do not love God but because you do not trust His will for your life and there are things that you want to accomplish. 

I have had those dark moments when I feel like I am deliberately choose to find my own path and then I get to that point when my heart sings out to God: - 

 'Hold on to me, 

take all of me 

Don't let me lose my way, 

hold on to me.' 

 For KING & COUNTRY - Busted Heart (Hold On To Me) Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

Because: - 

I'm screaming out Your name 

Don't let me fall on my face 

I've got a busted heart I'm in need of a change, yeah,

 I'm desperate for grace.' 

For KING & COUNTRY - Busted Heart (Hold On To Me) Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

 At this point I wonder if God will really find me through the thick smoke.   

Then:-

  

 And I know I wander a lot and I am prone to leave this Lord that I really love because I am caught up in my own evil ways. And then the most beautiful thing happens and I realize that its only in brokenness I can see that all that I have been going through is God’s will for me and that is the only place I can go and throw my feeble prayers and that He loves me at my worse and that He loves me anyway and its like nothing in life that I have ever known and at that point, my relationship with the Lord that I love is restored and I am back to being in love, only this time, the love burns stronger. 

 See I wrote this in late March 2011: - “I feel the hate is spitting vapours on my dream but I still believe.” But I know I will get there. But I need to relax so badly and stop worrying. It STRESSING ME OUT SO BADLY. But I believe. I plan to have a job within the next two weeks. Watch this space."

 A couple of weeks later I was on a contract job in the Museum, later on I was a graduate attachee that was in May, in June I was working for government. Funny thing when I wrote those words, I did not fully mean what I was writing. 

 At times these challenges have been for my glory, the reason God did not want me to date those guys is because He knew I would be miserable, or he knew that man did not love me and that is why he allowed him walked away. Though I did wish I could have believed without seeing because its amazing and its at that point when you experience peace that surpasses all understanding. Still when I am in the presence of God, I get the power to let go of everything and everyone that does not add value to my life and I am happy and at peace and stand for everything that I believe in. That restoration of faith makes me feel high like I can fly and I feel loved by God.

 Still my prayer is ‘hold on to me Lord, please don’t let me lose my way.’ Because along the way, I know I will still need it. 

Images: Google

IN THE 21ST CENTURY, HOW WILL THEY KNOW CHRIST?

Young believers into Christianity are in for a tough ride. How will they find Christ in all the prosperity gospel and individuality in church. A young woman walks into church, she is nervous. Its her first time in church after many years of not going to church. She looks around, no one notices she is new, including the ushers. She is desperate for Christ, she is at the end of the rope, if she does not find Christ, that’s it. There is nothing left to live for. 

Her husband does not love her. He is sleeping around, in fact he has children with several different women. Her dreams are dead, not that she ever would have made it. See, she dropped out of school at 16 years and got married, but the man who promised her heaven and earth gave her hell instead. She needs meaning in her life. Perfect definition of desperation.

When the visitors are asked to stand, she summons her strengths gets up and declares ‘I want to get saved.’ The pastor, one of those ‘Armani suit’ kind of pastor’s in a poor village where the church is one of the few buildings with electricity beckons her forward, her heart pounds, everyone is ululating, heaven is welcoming a new angel. She cries tears of joy and relief, is she finally home? The pastor prays fervently for the lost soul now found, before pushing her violently to the ground as he begins to pray in tongues. She starts crying, not from the pain of her head but of finding hope at last, finally she feels peace. She gets up. She feels different as she manages to smile, the first in ten years.

 ‘Now God has saved you, you must offer an offering, pleasant to the Lord.’ The smiles disappears, she has no money apart from the one thousand five hundred shillings her husband gave her for rent, she smiles when she remembers the fifty shillings  for the children's supper, as she takes it out and usher holds her hand to stop her as the mighty man of God continues.

‘The Bible says David offered a burnt sacrifice to the Lord and it was pleasant to him.’ He turns and looks at her in the eye. ‘Woman thou art loosed! Your husband will call you blessed, the Lord will multiply the works of your hands. Give and it will come back to you!’ he roared to her face. Her heart pumping harder than usual, she dug deeper and took out the one thousand five hundred shillings. The congregants start shouting and praising as the pastor shouts ‘more! More!’ She gives him all the money that she has,  when she gets home her husband rains blows on her, her children sleep hungry that night

 while the pastor rides home in his 4 wheel drive carrying the one kg of meat he has just bought for his family. In the midst of the tears she smiles, the man of God assured her that the curse had been lifted, she is hopeful. But she will never know Christ, will she? She would know the Pastor better when he touched her breasts, or when he slept with her to cleanse, but would she know Christ?

Presently it is never about Christ or the power of His cross, it about how some people can make money quickly at the expense of the man hoping to feed his family, or the young unmarried woman who the pastor has led to believe that she is cursed and that is why she is not married. Even in the mainstream churches, its about powerful cliques of men and women, who will tolerate their own sins and that of their children while strongly condemning others. These church men and women will kill not for Jesus but for their own beliefs, they visit witch doctors to be assured of success. They will stand for what is wrong because they have the power. Yet they pray the loudest any given Sunday.

Any given Sunday, it’s never about Christ it’s about the number church projects that you need to contribute to, not that anyone will ever account for the millions raised every month. There are people who need to know Christ, they are desperate to know Him, they are ready to sell their souls to know Him. Sadly they are the perfect victims for prosperity gospel. The gospel nowadays is about giving and waiting to receive back. Its not about that! The many times God really blesses us is when we are at our worst, when we have nothing to give back. If we are able to repay God for His many blessings, that would make us equal to God, and that would mean this gospel is not for the poor but for those able to buy the blessings of God. Romans says that God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We forget to be like the Bereans, they studied scripture daily to see if what was preached to them was true. If we did, we would know that offerings and tithes were meant yes for the priest but also for the poor. 

If only the scales could be lifted from our eyes just like Paul says in 2nd Corinthians that with unveiled faces..., then we would know that there is more to Christianity than prosperity. Let’s not be foolish like the Galatians and not fail to question what is wrong. I am glad I became a Christian a long time ago, otherwise if I did not know God then, I do not know how I would know Him at all.