“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,” Eph. 3:20

Man may get drowned in his troubles, whichever they may be, but let him hear that there is a God who is able, he will lift his drowsy and pain-laded eyes heavenward, and his spirit will experience amazing resurgence.

Our hearts have heard the good tidings, O God, concerning your omnipotent power, and our downcast faces have been renewed with hope and joy unspeakable. For who is like unto the Lord, mighty to save, working wonders?

THE LORD’S LONG WAIT

BY SIMON NDOO

Or despise you the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Rom. 2:4

The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. Ps. 145:8-9.

Why has not God dealt with you up to date according to your sins?

Because He is gracious, full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy.

Why does He wait for so long before executing judgment?

1. Because He doesn’t desire any to perish: 2 Pet. 3:19 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

2. Because He doesn’t delight in the death of a sinner: Eze. 18:23 “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? says the Lord GOD: and not that he should turn from his ways, and live?”

3. Because He loves the lost, John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

Therefore in His goodness and mercy, God bears with you, blesses you, spares your life, and gives you opportunities to hear the gospel. He doesn’t terminate your life or deprive you of blessing – he doesn’t deal with you according to your sins.

Wrong conclusions you can come to with respect to the Lord’s long wait.

1. That God does not exist

2. That God is a weakling

3. That God permits sin and evil

This is not so.

What the Lord requires: 1 John 3:23 “And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.”

Therefore God waits on you to turn to Him, and shall wait on you for your entire lifetime. But not any longer after you have crossed over from this life to the other.

Therefore, do not despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering; for the goodness of God leads you to repentance.

FAITH – THE EYE THAT SEES

AUTHORED BY: SIMON NDOO

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” Hebews 11: 13

We shall hereby attempt and labor to express the necessity of spiritual sight. Believers are called to persevere to the end – the end being not necessarily death, but the ultimate attainment of the goal, to win Christ, to enter into the eternal presence of God in heaven, attaining the glories thereof.

The spiritual affairs of eternity are invisible to the carnal eye; they elude even the faculties of the mind. They are realities and truths that we have not beheld or experienced the way we experience the world in which we live.

Being pilgrims in this world, believers move on by faith. Faith is the eye which sees the ultimate end, and that sight propels them to move on towards the goal.

We may stop and wonder, “what is it the men and women in the hall of faith saw that made them to face many a great trials, conflicts, sufferings and death in their quest to attain the goal?” The answer lies in what they saw.

They “saw the promises”. Which promises? These were promises of God pertaining to Messiah who is called the Christ.

Proper sight produces certainty of what is seen. And that is what faith is all about: “The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. Faith entails seeing things not seen, thereby producing the effect as of one who has seen. We have not physically seen Jesus Christ in His life, death and resurrection, yet we believe Him as if we have seen Him. We have not seen heaven, but we have faith that heaven exists as if we have seen it. It is such faith, such sight, such hope, such conviction that gives us the motive or motivation to pilgrimage with trust and surety, otherwise our walk is sure to slack and die off.

The principle of sight applies in ordinary affairs of men. We are most motivated to act or move when we are sure of what we involved with. This “being sure” is produced by mental perception, of seeing the end result of what we desire; hence we get inspired to do what needs to be done to apprehend such ends.

Men and women of faith knew their God, as such they did exploits; they knew where they are going, as such they were steadfast in their way.

It is important, therefore, that we get to see alright, and see what is right. We know that we have seen alright when we defy and resist whatever comes our way in pursuit of what we have seen; the men and women of faith did not lose sight of the promises despite the overwhelming pressure of trials and persecution. A pretender will sooner bend like willows than die for what he is not convinced of or stand for.

Faith sees best when it sees Christ. Of all the men and women of faith desired to see, it was Christ. All the promises and prophecies pointed to Christ, and they understood Christ to mean salvation and redemption, and the giver of a life better and eternal than the one they lost through the cruel deaths they had to face.

That is a life-changing moment when a person sees Christ; the men and women of faith saw Christ. Having sinned, they saw Christ as the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world; being aliens and sojourners in this world, they saw Christ as the one who prepares a better country for them.

They knew too well that if Christ does not die for their sins, they are lost forever. They did not just see the kingdom of God being established as the majority of saw, as it were by political takeover; but that Christ shall come to deal with sin, and set forth the everlasting kingdom of peace and righteousness.

Those who have seen Christ testify that He is real and true. “Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” 1 Pet. 1:8. The phrase, “yet believing” (which is spiritual sight) is here inserted to counter “who having not seen” (which is physical sight) to differentiate between the two. Though having been denied the opportunity to see Him in flesh, yet through faith we see Him in spirit.

It is possible to hold onto what is physically seen too much at the expense of what is not physically seen. This was not the case with men and women of faith. For “…truly, if they had been mindful of that country from which they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he has prepared for them a city.” Heb. 11:15-16.

They regarded they world which they had never seen by physical eyes (yet seen by faith) better than the world in which they were born. They denied the pleasures and amusements of this life for a better life of pleasing God.

Self, perhaps, is the country from which we are being called out of. When the men and women of faith were called to pursue God’s will, they denied their selves. As such Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross {Greek. Stauros, stake} and follow me.” Matt. 6:24.

They did not get stuck to their possessions, careers, families, or even to their lives. They were willing to lose it all in order to gain the promise of God.

We are called upon to build our most holy faith (Jude 1:20) which “was once delivered unto the saints.” Jude 1:3. “O ye of little faith”, wake up and build, nurture the mustard seed like faith, and make it grow. He who opened the eyes of the bind can open the spiritual eyes and give you light beyond the stellar sky, and bid you to see the invisible. Christ, the desire of the ages is that promise which the saints of old looked on to see, and though they died without seeing Him, yet by faith they saw Him, and their souls departed in peace, for they were able to see the salvation of the LORD (Lk 2:29).

Jesus says, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” Is. 45:22. May for the grace we look unto Him and be healed, saved, and have our sight of Him strengthened, for His name’s sake. Amen.

COMPREHENDING GRACE

Pride is a natural resident in the human heart. Its manifesto is, “It’s all about me”. Whether in obvious or in sublime ways, pride draws attention to itself, takes credit and glory to itself. The subtlety of pride is its ability to convince men to think that they are always right, self-sufficient, better than others, and wiser than God. Pride seeks its own terms, and would rather reject truth and goodness if they do not come by its terms. But “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” James 4:6.

Humility, on the other hand, is a rare gem in the human heart. It is considered a weakness. But it is not. Humility is the understanding of who we are not, and who Christ is, and this understanding leads us to comprehending the sin that is in us and the grace that is in Jesus Christ.

There is only one way to fight pride in us, and that is to examine ourselves, our motives, and to realize that it is not about us. Realizing that will steer our souls to the way of peace with God and with people.

Grace requires you to realize it is not about you. For you to be saved, grace requires you to recognize the Author of salvation. Unto Christ you must incline your eyes, and not look to yourself. “Look unto me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isa. 45:22). In Him you must put you confidence and trust, and not in yourself. In Him you must believe, and not believe in yourself.

It is about His terms. For you to be saved, you must cast aside your terms and take up His. Unto Him you must come the sinner you are, and not one who is righteous. Unto Him you must come in faith, and not in the power of your works. In His name you must believe, and not in any other name.

Grace leads us to understand that is not about us. It moves the focus from us to Jesus Christ. It makes us to see how undeserving we are, and how God is justified to condemn us for our sins, and that if we must be saved, it must be by His free, undeserved grace.

Jesus died on the cross and accomplished something we couldn’t. He stepped into the sinner’s stead, took on his sin, guilt, curse, condemnation and death. He did this because He was “full of grace and truth” Jn. 1:14.

We were unable to satisfy God’s requirements of the Law. In our depravity, divine perfection was beyond our apprehension. We were unable to come unto Jesus, except the Father drew us (John 6:44); and yes by His grace He drew us, and we most willingly ran after Him (Song of Solomon 1:4). Indeed, we are who we are because of His grace (1 Cor. 15:10).

God’s grace is extended to the penitent. God has mercy on sinners, and resists those who justify themselves before men, the self-righteous (Luke 18: 11-12). The prayer of a sinner, “God have mercy on me, a sinner” will never go answered. His grace compels Him never to cast out anyone who comes to Him with a repentant, broken heart and contrite spirit. He is gracious and very approachable, even by the chief of sinners. To Him there is no person too evil who is not worth saving, or beyond redemption. In His grace He calls out, “Come unto Me all that labor, and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” Matt. 11:28-30. “Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” Isa. 1:18

Grace appeals to the justice of God on our account at the throne of judgment. In front of Him we stood dressed in filthy rags, ready for judgment; beside us stood Satan, with scores of accusation rightfully directed against us, yet the Judge and the Lord of grace came to our side, took away our filthy rags and dressed us in His majestic robes of His own righteousness (cf. Zech. 3:1-5).

Grace goes to seek the prodigals, who stray in pursuit of pleasure. He seeks them out from the pigs’ den of sins and brings them back to their senses, reminds them of their beloved Father to whom they owe their very existence, and guides them safely back as a shepherd guides his stray sheep back home.

Grace reaches out to the present sufferings of His people. In our fires the Lord came to us, like the fourth man in the fires of Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego. The Lord Jesus resides in the fires of His people. He is one with His people. Whatever condition we pass through, yea, even if we pass through the shadow of death, He is with us, to provide grace and strength, comfort and deliverance from our fiery circumstances. His grace is always sufficient to make go through any tough situation, to make us bear any thorns in the flesh which He sets in our bodies for the demonstration of His strength, excellence and glory.

Grace bestows the underserved love which moves the weak in faith to trust in Christ. “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you” (Jn. 15:6); “We love him, because he first loved us” (1Jn.4:19). “…as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name: Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” Jn. 1:12-13.

One of the barriers to those who wish to be saved is the feeling that they do not have strength to make the choice to be saved, and if they do, they cannot last long in it. They sense in themselves a lack of power to come to Christ and to be sustained in the new life. It is with this in mind that Jesus spoke to encourage such people, telling them that their choice of Him, weak as they may be, is not anchored on their will-power, but on His will-power and choice of them, that their love of Him proceeds out of His love for them. With this knowledge, they can stop looking to themselves, and look upon Jesus in whose power their salvation comes.

The purpose of the gospel preaching, therefore, is to let people know that God chose and loved them first, and proved that by sending His only begotten Son Jesus to die for their sins, and prepared a way to the Father, so that upon realization of that they may be inspired to choose and love Him too.

Unto the person who comes to Jesus with weakness of faith, with a shaky will-power, nothing can drive him to Christ faster, and to keep him there forever, than the realization that Christ chose him before the foundations of the world, and loved him first, yea, even before he was born. This is the message that was spoken to the timid Jeremiah to encourage him (Jer. 1:5), and the same message Christ speaks to us today in His Word.

Salvation and power is of the Lord; let us then be not afraid, for Jesus is able and willing to save us from our sins. His blood is powerful to cleanse us. Let us then dive in His crimson flow and come out of it as white as snow, and walk in His light, with pure hearts, pleasing to God, praising Him for His glorious grace.

It is grace that saved us, grace that sustains us, and that grace will lead us safely home. It is all of grace; our salvation from first to last, is all of His free grace.

With hearts changed, with joy pulsating within, let us praise Jesus our savior for His unending grace and with all humility of heart sing with the angels, “Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God” “Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever. Amen”

PART 3: JESUS THE LIFE-GIVING MEDIATOR

AUTHORED BY: SIMON NDOO

John 14:6 “I am …the life; No man comes unto the Father but by Me”.

1 Cor. 15:45 “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a life-giving spirit.”

Romans 5:15-19 “But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!