Keeping Record Of Evil

Recording Of Offences Breaths Hatred

“…it keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:1).

A few months ago, a mechanic and his assistant (they were both familiar with the gentleman) who worked on our vehicle (Van) shared with us an experience they had with someone who literally kept a record of evil. In other words, this particular person recorded in a book every kind of wrongs. Without exhausting his lists but such wrongs included if you failed to greet him you will be remembered for that and if you made a promise or owe him you will be remembered for that.

Additionally, the gentleman’s hatred continues even if the person who offended him has died. It is believed he was in the habit of telling those close to him that person died without making right with him. According to those close to him, it was even an offence to him if you greet being a stranger to him. Now, without elaborating further he was barely 50 years old when he died in great suffering and his death wish was that those who owed and offended him were not to attend his funeral. Accordingly, the pastor who presided over his funeral after reading some excerpts from his book threw it into his grave saying ‘may this book of evil follow its owner’.

Hopeless Salvation If Being Unforgiving

As it was, not even his friends escaped being recorded in his book, at first I thought this sounded unbelievably evil and untrue but those familiar with the gentleman confirmed that was how everybody knew him.

It is true; there are Christians who simply cannot forgive others they often repeat the wrong they suffered. Indeed, evil as the offence was “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly. Father will also forgive you. But if you don't forgive men their. trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15 NIV).

How often did you ever hear someone professing to be a Christian saying, ‘I have forgiven you’ but they repeat the wrong one did. Why? Because the spirit of unforgiveness has expanded into hatefulness, therefore you cannot forgive a person if you harbour hatred towards that person (1 John 2:9-11). This is a fact, there are truly born-again men and women who struggle to forgive their current or ex-spouses and they expect to be forgiven by the Lord because the offender does not deserve to be forgiven. If that is you my brother or sister you may as well forfeit following the Lord because He alone has the authority to condemn, forgive and vindicate (Romans 12:19).

A few years ago, the Lord rebuked a member of our ministry who was in the habit of reminding people about the wrong they committed against her and the Lord said she should learn to forgive and not to repeat the offence. Being a former offender myself, I have experienced the true rehabilitating and transforming power of forgiveness (1 Timothy 1:15-16). That is, if we forgive we allow the person to make amends even if they are habitual offenders, the Lord through scripture have made provision for unconditional and repeated forgiveness (Mathew 18:22) by that we allow patience and love to manifest into amazing grace (Romans 5:20).

Not To Love Is A Choice

In conclusion, being a minster of the gospel, I have heard many people saying I can’t live with this or that person (either their spouses or some friend(s) or family members) and you know why? It is because their own hateful prejudices have blinded them and they simply have no patience or love to give. Let us therefore be reminded that “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres and love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 NIV) and that is the gift Christians received when we received the Lord Jesus as Saviour (Romans 5:5). If we therefore fail to love we have allowed evil to master us which deny us the opportunity of what we ought to be.

If we have lost our love for others we still have an opportunity to repent and plead with the Lord to help us listen and obey His Spirit's guidance.

Blessed Love

Brother Glenn

Fulfilling Hope

Hope In God Does Not Fail

After our Lord ascended to Heaven He told us, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you "...the world will not see Me, but you will see Me..." (John 14:18-19 NKJV). In this instance, the Lord gave us hope of His indwelling Holy Spirit and the Hope of such a promise.

Furthermore, in Romans we read "For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it patience" (Romans 8:24-25). In another Scripture, we are encouraged that "...according to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3).

Brethren, this kind of article is needed Christ our hope needs our attention daily! Let's hope in Him and not just in the advancement of our earthly careers. When our years wind down and our bodies become weary, when our careers start or end, and when the Lord comes or death catches up with us, hope will be there as security to our futures. Let us continue to hope in Christ His precious promises are unshakable. Now, the above Scriptures remind us of God's eternal promises. There is no good promise of God that ever failed. Throughout the history of Israel, the Lord gave them many promises which served as hope that carried them and their descendants well into the future (Isaiah 43:1-13). The Lord Almighty created hope through His promises, which are vested in His faithfulness and holiness. This is a hope based on genuine faith. It is not just a mere wish for something, but in essence, it is placing a strong confidence in God's abilities to fulfill our hopes and expectations (Psalm 42:5; 71:5; Romans 4:18; Hebrews 11:1). Eternal Glory be to Yahweh!

Given our ever-changing environment politically and otherwise, it is always so tempting for us as people to put our hope in other things than the Lord, and this results in us moving subtly away from the Lord. In addition, while we are writing about hope, there is a need to mention faith as a co-pillar of our Christian belief in this article. Faith and hope are inseparable (Romans 5: 1-5; Galatians 5:5; 1 Peter 1:21). Therefore, those without God have no faith nor any hope in the promises God has for "...those who through faith and patience inherit the promises" (Hebrews 6:11-12 NKJV).

What is Our Greatest Hope as Christians?

Kindly allow me to share a personal testimony, some 22 years ago, I was living in an apartment in Johannesburg city center. Due to economic conditions, I lost my first job through retrenchment. I got my last pay cheque and paid my rent, and I used some of the money to buy myself a bed. I did not panic about losing my apartment; I hoped the Lord to bless me with a new job and after prayer and fasting, my hope was met and I got blessed with a new and better-paying job. Naturally, people with no faith run to man for help and not to the Lord; this is their greatest loss.  Unfavorable circumstances should require us to act by faith, hoping for God's flawless promises. I don't want to sound like a prosperity teacher; however, the Lord promised to supply our needs (Matthew 7:7; Philippians 4:19), to heal us (Isaiah 53:5-6), and He also promised us Heaven and eternal life (John 3:16; 14:2-4). The only condition is obedience (John 15:7).

Moreover, our greatest hope is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, when we will experience the fullness of our salvation and enter with the Lord into the glory of the new age (1 Corinthians 15:19-23; Ephesians 1:18; Colossians 1:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:8). As it is, for the Christian to have the hope of the Lord's return means to eagerly look forward into the future, and the basis of such hope is our Lord's atoning death and His glorious resurrection. Therefore, our Lord's entrance into His glory guarantees our entrance and glory (Colossians 1:5; Hebrews 6:19; 1 Peter 1:18-21).

I would like to add this: "By its very nature, hope means that the thing hoped for has not yet arrived. Christ has not yet returned, so Christians must have patience as we wait for our final salvation. We have received God's promises and the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 11:1, 39-40; Romans 8:23-25). This patience, therefore, has no element of doubt, for our hope is the anticipation of something that is absolutely certain. As I alluded elsewhere, God confirms the hope of salvation by giving us His Holy Spirit. We have a living hope within us until the day our hope is fulfilled. The Holy Spirit is God's mark of permanent ownership upon our lives (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30).

Finally, the hope we have received from the Lord gives our lives purpose and stability (Romans 15:13; Colossians 3:1-4; 1 Thessalonians 1:3). Having said that, we should work hard through prayer and obedience to keep ourselves free from sin because our day of salvation is also our day of reckoning (1 John 3:2-3; Matthew 24:45-46; 2 Corinthians 5:10).

In closing, may the word of the Lord through these short, weekly articles increase your faith and hope in Christ Jesus our Lord. Remember, He is the One who commands what we should write and He knows about you. Take heart, the Lord is near!

If you are not yet born again, here is a Prayer of Sincere Repentance to get you started in this great journey of hope. For any questions or comments on this article or our ministry, please contact us.

Blessed Hope,

Brother Glenn.

Stumbling Blocks

“Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea that that he should cause one of these little ones to sin” (Luke 17:1-2 ESV).

Also, “But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak” (1 Corinthians 8:9 ESV).

Biblically, the term stumbling block literally is a “behaviour or attitude that leads another to sin.” Our Lord calls it “temptation.” Temptation gets its sting from the sinful nature, and the sinful nature has an appetite for unwanted needs. These needs are unwanted because we have enough, but desire more through greed and selfishness. The Word of God categorically admonishes us “… and be content with what you have…” (Hebrews: 13:5 NRSV). As it is, there are stumbling blocks we create through selfish desires (James 4:2-3) and there are stumbling blocks coming from outside as our Lord pointed out above. Therefore, if we make ourselves unhappy by desiring things that are not really needed, we are being a stumbling block to ourselves.

What is the Purpose, and What are the Consequences of Stumbling Blocks?

For Christians, we know the drive behind a stumbling block is to hinder our walk with God. These hindrances can have a three-way effect: to derail our relationship with the Lord; or if we are vigilant we will use Satan’s plan of destroying us as an opportunity to glorify the Lord through our obedience; and this obedience leads to growth in our faith and in the Lord (1 Corinthians 16:13).

Therefore, every opportunity to do right or wrong-doing is dependent on our choice to obey or disobey the word of God. Like we mentioned in some of our past articles, the Word of God acts as a custodian to our conscience. The Bible addresses and lists the various stumbling blocks and in this way our conscience has a guide, and when we have a guide we must accept accountability too.

In the account of the fall of man, Adam and Eve were given the command to obey [The Word](Genesis 2:16-17), but the spirit of desire entered Eve, leading to the temptation (Genesis 3:6). Consequently, this led to the judgement of man and the tempter (Genesis 3:14-19). If they had obeyed, this would have resulted in a struggle-free life. The judgment handed down by God, as is evident from the above Scripture, was added to make us earn our living after we rejected through disobedience the free offer of eternal life. While the man and his wife offered excuses, this did not deter the Lord from executing His Judgements. This leads me to ask this question: Do we allow others to make wrong choices on our behalf that lead to bad consequences? The serpent acted as a stumbling block to Eve, and in turn, she became a stumbling block to her husband; is this how we allow others to deceive us? This could be our wives, husbands, friends, pastors, or close family members; the consequences will be borne by us. With the rapid expansion of social media platforms, we make friends with just about anybody while expressing and sharing our experiences with strangers we have never met. This, too, is a grievous stumbling block. As it is, God's opinion about us matters because it is anchored in truth, faithfulness and unfettered grace.

Furthermore, in our article titled Ignorant People, we alluded to the fact that when we are brought to account for wrong behaviour we often plead ignorance and as the Scripture says we cannot cheat God in this way (Galatians 6:7). I have another question: do we use ignorance as a stumbling block to our salvation? What a costly consequence! Remember, brethren, we must use stumbling blocks as an occasion to glorify God and to display the fruit of obedience.

The Lord Protects the Little Ones

I will share two short visions the Lord gave Charis recently and this morning (September 16, 2013) as warnings. These visions relate to temptations used by the devil as stumbling blocks. The Bible says, “Be sober! Be on the alert! Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone he can devour. Resist him…” (1 Peter 5:8-9).

Kindly allow me to share a testimony with you: A few years ago, the Lord gave us the names of people to pray for. As a family, we have been praying diligently every day for these people. A week ago, one of these people, a young man, came to us saying he would like to make it right with God, and he asked us if we could pray for him. Glory to God! We prayed for him and led him to the Lord, and he instantly received deliverance from destructive habits. He immediately joined our group for fellowship and service in our ministry. This young man, Basil (not a real name), went about sharing his joy with his former friends and many other people by handing out salvation tracts. The devil assigned one young lady to be a stumbling block to him. This is how The Lord exposed the devil and this young woman through this short vision by Charis:

“I was shown in a vision this morning (September 15, 2013) and saw Jenny (not real name) talking to Basil as they were standing on our kitchen stoop. In the vision, I perceived the Lord was angry with one of our ministry members, so I asked the Lord who that was, and He said, “This is just a warning for My son Basil from temptation”. The scene changed, and I saw them both standing outside our gate leading to the street, talking and smiling. I then saw a HAND; the Lord’s hand was pointing at Jenny repeatedly. They did not see or notice the HAND pointing and the vision ended”.

This was an actual incident witnessed by people, and the Lord replayed it as evidence to show the young man, Basil, and this young woman that He is all-seeing. This was a warning to Basil against temptation and to Jenny of the consequences if she causes someone to stumble in the Lord. Do you know of Christians causing others to stumble in their faith? Do they know their actions hurt the Lord by leading others into disobedience? Well, the Lord’s finger is pointing at them in judgment!

Before I share the follow-up vision, Jenny responded to our message and accepted the Lord about two years ago; she attended our services and the Lord started giving her messages of rebuke and correction through Charis. After a few attendances,she joined another group and bad-mouthed our ministry, and doubted saying the Lord was not speaking to Charis. Without us knowing of her malice and slander, the Lord gave her a message with a stunning rebuke exposing her wrong doings, yet calling her back to Him in love. This past Saturday, she called my wife asking if she may come to pray with us. Although she could not come due to some commitment on her side, the Lord knew her motive was not to come and pray but to serve as a snare to Basil. The Lord revealed in a short vision this morning to Charis (September 16, 2013) her motives:

“In a vision this morning, I saw the Lord Jesus in His usual attire and Brightness, sitting on a chair in our living room. I heard Him weeping, and I asked the Lord Jesus, “Why is the Lord crying?” He spoke up and said, “My daughter Jenny did not actually want to come and pray on Saturday; she wanted to come for wrong things.” After the Lord said this, He disappeared, and the vision ended.

In conclusion, the Lord protects all His children from the vicious attack of the enemy who preys on our ignorance of his schemes and our desire for pleasure. Also, when we associate with worldly friends, against the counsel of the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:33; 2 Corinthians 6:14), are we not setting up a stumbling block for ourselves?

Let us build up one another in love and out of obedience to Christ, so that we may be found worthy to inherit eternal life in God’s Kingdom.

Your brother in Christ, Glenn K Van Rooyen.