Religious Studies

The reason I have decided to follow Jesus Christ

The Last Supper of Jesus Christ

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Every believer in Jesus Christ, has a story to tell about how he or she came in contact with Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul had his experience (then Saul), while on his way to Damascus to persecute the Church.

“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus; and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do (Acts 9:3-6).

Many of us grew up in Christian homes, where the gospel was taught very early in our lives. Still, some of us grew up in homes where the gospel was never mentioned at all.

I grew up in what I would call; a semi-Christian home–Mom was a praying woman and Dad was a dreamer. I never saw my dad in church, but that did not stop Mom from indoctrinating me and my brother with the gospel of Jesus Christ. She made sure we knew all the popular church songs and Bible stories. Each week she would drilled the Sunday School Golden Text into our heads, and when called upon, the Golden text was to be recited without error.

Mom was truly fired up for Jesus, but she never allowed her children to know Jesus Christ for themselves. She completely ignored the simple fact about Christianity: To be a follower of Christ, everyone has to have an awakening and a personal contact with Christ. Each of us must have our own Damascus road experience. Without that experience, you are doomed to fail because the moment you decided to follow Christ your enemies increased a 100 fold.

I never had a personal contact with Jesus as a young child. I was merely following Mom’s orders. It was not until I was stricken with a very dangerous autoimmune disease called Guillain Barre Syndrome. I thought I was going to die. The enemy had me cornered and the doctors who were attending to me had never treated anyone for this disease before. I had no place to turn to, so I called upon the Church and Jesus Christ–Jehovah Rapha.

The church came and prayed, and prayed, and prayed, and prayed for my deliverance. Today I am rejoicing in the Lord, completely healed and delivered from Guillain Barre Syndrome: 

I can truthfully confess that prayer works. My God is ever faithful. Whatever he says, he will do.”Oh Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me” (“Psalms 30:2 ). I am now a new person and a true follower of Jesus Christ.

I lay my cares and expectations at the cross.

Jesus Christ Crucifix

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Lord, help me to be a good husband. I fully realize that I don’t have what it takes to be a good  husband without your help. Take my selfishness, impatience, and irritability and turn them into kindness, long-suffering, and the willingness to bear all things. Take my old emotional habits, mindset, automatic reactions, rude assumptions and self protective stance, and make me patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled. Take the hardness of my heart and break down the walls with your revelation. Give me a new heart and work in me your love, peace and joy (Galatians 5 : 22, 23). I am not able to rise above who I am at this moment . Only you can help me.

Show me where there is sin in my heart, especially with regard to my wife. I confess the times I’ve been unloving, critical, resentful, disrespectful, or unforgiving toward her. Help me to put aside any hurt, anger or disappointment I feel and forgive her the way you do–totally and completely, no looking back. Make me a tool of reconciliation, peace, and healing in this marriage, Enable us to communicate well and rescue us from the fangs of separation.

Make me my wife’s helpmate, companion, champion, friend, and support. Help me to create a peaceful, restful, safe place for her to come home to. Teach me how to take care of myself and stay attractive to her. Grow me into a creative and confident person who is rich in mind, soul and spirit. Make me the kind of man she can be proud to say is her husband.

I lay all my expectations at your cross. help me to accept her the way she is and not try to change her. I realize that in some ways she may never change, but at the same time, I release her to change in ways I never thought she could. I leave any changing that needs to be done in Your hands, fulling accepting that neither of us is perfect and never will be. Only you, Lord, are perfect and I look to you to perfect us

Teach me how to pray for my wife and make my prayers a true language of love. Where love has died, create new love between us. show me what unconditional love really is and how to communicate in a way she can clearly understand. Bring unity between us so that we can be in agreement about everything (Amos 3 : 3). May the God of patience and comfort grant us to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus (Romans 15: 5).

Daniel’s Amazing Dream. What Does it Means?

Daniel's vision of the four beasts (Daniel 7).

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One of the most mis-interpreted prophecies recorded in the Bible is Daniel’s amazing dream in Daniel 7.

The prophet woke up troubled, thinking about what he had dreamed. He recognized that his dream had great importance and significance. ‘In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and vision passed through his mind as he was lying on his bed. He wrote down  his dream” (Daniel 7:1). In his dream he saw four great beasts rise up out of the sea. The first seemed to be a lion and had eagle’s wings. A second beast resembled a bear raised on one side with three ribs in its mouth. the third was like a leopard with four heads and with four wing on its back.

“After that,” Daniel continued, “in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast, terrifying and frightening and very powerful. it had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all former beasts, and it had ten horns” (verse 7).

The earlier beasts had been strange enough, but the fourth one was indescribable–not like a lion, a leopard, a bear, or anything that Daniel had ever seen before! it was a dreadful, powerful creäture with iron teeth, bronze claws (verse 19), and ten horns.

Next among those ten horns, the prophet watched another horn come up. In Biblical symbolism horns represent power and those agencies that use it. this horn was little at first, but as the prophet watched, it became a great power: “This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully” (verse 8), And this little horn, tried to change the law of God. (It is said divine law could and should not be changed.

What could this prophecy mean? 

“Oh,” some might argue, “prophecy is just guesswork. We can only speculate about who the lion and the bear are, as well as what the other beasts emerging from the sea and the sea its represent,” but wait a moment, Who gave daniel the dream? God did. And if He sent the dream, wouldn’t  you think He would also provide us some way to interpret it? Do you think that when it comes to understanding prophecy, it’s every person for themselves? Peter reminds us: “No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation” (2 Peter 1:20, KJV). That means I shouldn’t have to depend on what I personally think the prophecy–the Word of God consistently explains.

Integrity is what you are in the dark

Integrity is not what you seem to be when all eyes are on you. It’s who you are when no one is looking. (character is what you are in the dark). It’s a level of morality below which you never fall, no matter what’s happening around you. It’s a high standard of honesty, truthfulness, decency, and honor that is never breached. It’s doing for others the way you would want them to do for you.

A man of integrity says something and means it. He doesn’t play verbal games so you never really know where he stands. He knows to let his “Yes” be “Yes” and his “No” be “No.” “For whatever is more than these is from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37). He will not play both sides of the fence to please everyone. his goal is to please God and do what is right. A man can be highly esteemed among men but an abomination to God (Luke 16:15).

A man of integrity “swears to his own hurt and does not change” (Psalm 15:4). He will keep his word even if it costs him something to do so. When placed in a possible compromising situation, he will continue to stand strong in what he believes. (The three Hebrew boys stood strong and never bow to the golden image or worship Nebuchadnezzar‘s god. They were later thrown into a fiery furnace). Above all, he is a man of truth; you can depend on his solid honesty. A man “who walks with integrity walks securely” (Proverbs 10:9), because his integrity guides him and bring him into the presence of God (Psalm 41:12).

Integrity happens in the heart. Therefore, being a man of integrity is something  a man must choose to do on his own. But loved ones can prayerfully help him fight the enemy that seeks to snare him, blind him, and keep him from making that decision. Even when he makes the right choice, there will be a negative reaction to it in the realm of evil. Your prayers can help shield him from anything that causes him to doubt and waver, and give him strength to do what’s right–even when no one is looking. The Bible says “The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him” (Proverbs 20:7).

God Cannot Lie, His Word is Truth

portrait of Matthew Evangelist and the first p...

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There is much talk and false prediction about when our Lord and Savior shall return for His people. But as Matthew 24:36 tells us, no man knows the hour. “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only (Matthew 24:36). God cannot lie. Therefore, those who pretend to know the hour the Son of Man shall appear are, in essence, challenging the validity of Scripture. “And The Lord said to me: The prophets are prophesying lies in My Name; I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds” (Jeremiah 14:14 RSV).

The Word of God consistently explains itself. Let us turn to Matthew 7 : 15-23 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits. Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and cast out demons in Your Name, and do many mighty works in Your Name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you evildoers.” (Matthew 7:15-23 RSV)

How do you know a false prophet? Anyone who twist, alter or distort the Word of God. For example, a couple of months ago, some professing prophet was on TV predicting the end of the world. That in itself is sacrilegious, and should have raised doubt in any true believer’s mind, because God cannot lie. He tells us in his Word that no man knows the hour when He shall return. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up’ (2 peter 3 : 10).