All Souls Are Mine

BEHOLD ALL SOULS ARE MINE …THE SOUL WHO SINS SHALL DIE. Ezekiel 18.4.

One Sunday morning, we went to church as usual. Ours is a big church with a crowd nearing 1,800 people at each service. It is a thrill to shake hands with many, knowing that we all belong to the people of God. There is a wonderful sense of joy to be in the midst of hundreds and thousands of people who are ‘saved’. They are all people who had been sinners – ‘small sinners and big sinners’, if there is anything like that! We were all destined to die in our sins for that is what God says in today’s text: “THE SOUL WHO SINS SHALL DIE”. We all have escaped ‘spiritual death or second death or separation from God eternally’ because God has graciously forgiven all our sins as we accepted Jesus as our Saviour.

We came out of our church and drove through the crowded streets passing along the jungle of tall apartment blocks where thousands upon thousands of our city people live. I felt sick in my soul when I thought that most of them do not know our Saviour and they are living in their sin. I felt sad and frustrated thinking of the verse, “THE SOUL WHO SINS SHALL DIE”.

Once, my wife and I attended the wedding reception of a friend. A couple with their two little children came and sat at our table. We made friends and during our conversation I noticed a little cross pendent on the wife’s neck. That provided an open door for witnessing. I asked her husband who was next to me, “Are you Christians?” He smiled and said, “My wife and children go to church but I don’t”. As we continued conversing, the lady said, “You should hear my little daughter and son pleading with their father to go to church with them”. They tell him, “If he doesn’t, they won’t be able to see him in heaven!’”

O! that the Lord would give you, who are saved, a passion for the souls of people around you – your relatives and friends! Friend, you will see them in hell tormented if you don’t pull them out from its gates. Jesus said it so believe it! (Lk 16.23), Listen to the apostle Paul, “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some (1 Cor 9.2). Go ahead and do it! Be it by your prayers, tears, actions and words too!

Pray and practise with me: Dear Lord, You came from heaven to seek and save me from my sin and the torment of hell. You gave Your life for me. Lord, help me to do everything possible to save others who are around me. Amen.

Before I Even Speak

BEFORE I EVEN SPEAK A WORD YOU KNOW WHAT I WILL SAY. Psalm 139.4. (CEV)

We had our evening prayer around our dinner table. I thanked God for many blessings including our creation – wonderful and mysterious. Later, as I was telling my wife that God has marvelously made us out of billions of different cells with all the complicated DNA etc. all functioning in precision, she said, “When God spoke, everything including man came into being!” Being a medical scientist, I remarked, “But He must have had the blue print in His mind!” She added, “Isn’t it hard to believe that Some One created it all?” I said, “To a scientist it must be harder to believe that nobody rather than Some One did it!”

Later as I sat reading today’s Bible text, it was a fascinating revelation of God which was both consoling and encouraging. “Before I even speak a word, He knows what I will say, but with His powerful arm He will protect me from every side”. Soon it was bed time. I cast all my anxious thoughts on my wonderful Creator God. Soon I was in deep slumber like a babe!

In today’s psalm, a song of King David, he lays down this great doctrine, ‘That the God with whom we have to do has a perfect knowledge of us, and that all the motions and actions both of our inward and of our outward man are naked and open before him’ (Mathew Henry). So often when you are faced with pressing problems of life and wonder ‘where God is or whether He knows our situation’, it is good to turn to this wonderful psalm and assure yourself of the “omniscience ” (all-knowing character) and the omnipotency (all-powerful character) of our God.

If this God created me in my mother’s womb ever so mysteriously that the scientists wonder at the marvel of my body and mind, why shouldn’t I trust Him to take care of me? The psalmist says, “God’s thoughts (about me) are far beyond my understanding, much more than I could ever imagine” (v.17). When you are going through trials and temptations, the revelations about God in this psalm may not make much sense. But keep believing it is true, for it is the Word of God! It has to be true! Listen to the apostle Paul’s argument, “What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar” (Rom 3.3,4).

Why don’t you make a strong commitment to trust God at all times, come what may!” He has promised “never to leave you or forsake you!”(Heb 13.5).

Pray and practise with me: Dear Lord, I trust in You and entrust all my cares to You. Keep me through all life’s temptations and trials. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Teaching Our Children

WHOEVER TRUSTS IN THE LORD SHALL BE SAFE. Proverbs 29.25

After the United States was attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001, President Bush called on Congress to create a Department for Homeland Security. The job of this agency was to do everything possible to keep its citizens safe.

Do you have an “internal security plan” for your household to keep others from endangering you and your children? Our world is full of easy access to harmful outside forces. You and your family are constantly bombarded by every kind of evil in the name of news, information and entertainment! How do you protect yourself and your family, especially the vulnerable children?

Apart from the evil influences affecting your character, today’s mass media is simply killing your precious time and stopping you from doing things useful and profitable. Lately, I heard the lament of some parents about how their brilliant boys who passed their school finals with all distinctions, did very badly in their college examinations. The reason, ‘the English Football League matches’ aired for the foolish world to sit up and watch day or night! Twenty-two white burly guys chasing after a ball and scoring a few goals! They make mega bucks while the rest of the world is becoming poorer in health and wealth! Parents should discipline themselves to shut their TVs off and take away their children’s hand phones while studying. Discipline them to concentrate on their studies!

Here are some suggestions for your spiritual safety and that of your children which I gathered some time ago:

1. Take charge of the media. Instead of allowing makers of TV programmes and movies to dictate what you watch and hear, use biblical guidelines to evaluate the language and morality of what you and your children see and listen to.

2. Check out their friends. The standards of your children's friends may not match yours. Make your home a haven where their friends are welcome. It'll help you get to know them.

3. Build shields. By teaching your children biblical principles and encouraging their faith, you'll help them to be discerning and to build inner shields that will protect them from the common dangers they face today.

Dear Christian parent, you have to take control of your life and that of your family, especially that of your growing children. ‘The parents know best’ is certainly true when your family is still young. You make the rules and let your children obey them. When children are still too young to know what is good or bad for them, it is only foolish to sit and discuss terms with them! The fundamental and basic rules for families are the same anywhere in the world. You won’t go very wrong in enforcing them in your household. I heard of a young lad who was busy negotiating with his parents about his future! What are parents for anyway? To take orders from kids? No! It is to train up a child in the way he should go so that he will not depart from it when old (Prov 22.6). May the Lord help you this new year and always.

Pray and practise with me: Dear Lord, when the popular trend today is not to discipline children at all so that they will not be ‘inhibited in life’, help me to discipline myself and my children according to the precepts of Your unchanging Word for the safety of our own souls. Amen.