THE LIES YOU TELL YOURSELF ABOUT YOUR SIN

 

By Nyakuni Solomon

When I look at the rate at which familes are being destroyed by adulterous sexual relationships, wild lifestyle  of alcoholism, night clubbing, shisha smoking, drug abuses, thuggery, violences against women and children, laziness, idleness and godlessness, my heart goes out to men. My own story of failure in this area of moral integrity, responsible exemplery parenting and faithful husbanding deepens my desire and hunger for men to rise above the tide to stand counted as men of God, fully committed in their calling into priestly leadership, protection, provision and care for families.

I could say men world over need this reminder, but if my voice could be any louder, I would love to see this revival in my region of this Country. As one who comes from West Nile, I see the moral degradations, the abundonment issues, the savage lifestyles among the younger generation of men and all percieve is doom for the future families in my region. Before you think I am making an exergerated claim; the independence reported that "Over 3000 girls got pregnant during the lockdown in 2021" . Teenage pregnancy rate in  West Nile alone stands at 37%. More than 70% of criminal offences according to the UBS are committed by youth.

 

These are just but the tip of the iceburg for the reality of issues this brings to households generationally. My pain goes to these girls because they will be abandoned with their children, whose life in misserable beginning will continue to be second to best as they struggle to find their identities in the already flawed culturally entrenched problems of broken families, poverty stricken households, and generally averagely exposed society.

Needless to say, this is a widespread problem in different parts of this Country. The perpetrators of these vices are the men who themselves have never experienced the level of parenting, mentorship, training and exposure it takes to make responsible and godly men. Consequently, the social let alone the emotional, ecomonical and spiritual implications of these reckless behaviours live long after many such men are gone, for they can't live long since their lifestyle alone ends their lives early. It begs the question, why could such behavoural patterns survive for so long without crying out for help? What are we doing wrong as men amidst all the Christianity and faith talk we have been exposed to? How come our Christianity has not influenced our behaviours, let alone strenghened our resolves to resist sin? In the diagnosis of these problems I propose satan has disguised sin in our conscience to keep us from responding to the warnings of Scripture.  It is the failure of our faith to influence our cultural life that we see these decays. It is these lies about our sins that we have long told ourselves which have covered the naked truths behind our sinful behavioural patterns and their enduring consequences. What are these lies? 

FAITH BUILT ON EMULATING CHRIST

It is sobering to know that our Christianity continues on an increasing evolution with different versions of beliefs and practices with much departure from the faith of those of our forerunners. This evolution has seen many differences in expressions of faith to a point of confusion for so many people who have not come to a grasp of what truly being a faithful follower of Christ is all about.

Picture Credit: churchplanting.com

Stating the obvious, it is as though within the movement, some people are proclaiming Christ as their servant as opposed to being His bond servants. For many, Christ  today is a problem fixer, a dispenser of blessings, destiny accomplisher, debt payer, disease healer, difference maker, match maker to mention but a few. And so it is as though those who keep their spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, giving and tithing, bible study and so forth are very important persons in the first class of Christ’s priority seats. Many have also embraced the glory of Christ minus the Cross of following Him. They have been given a faith that runs on the fuel of overnight prayers, prolonged dry fasting, sacrificial seed sowing and glued commitments to the teachings of their ‘spiritual father’. Whereas it may be an overstatement to generalize on this matter, it is still a persisting fact that many are building faiths on shaky foundations. A clear evidence for this shakiness is in the walk of faith of some in good and bad times especially in the times of testing and temptation. Close glance at the walk of faith of many people indicate desperate need for reforms and redemption, healing and restoration. It is not uncommon today to see believers living in complacency, tolerance to evil, syncretistic, always unashamed to trade positions for convenience as opposed to the glory of Christ their Lord.  

FAITH LADDERS ON THE WRONG WALLS

 

If I could put words to the pain in feeling confused and tossed to and fro by every wave of doctrines , it would be; ”Faith ladders on the wrong walls”. One man rises up and acclaims authenticity and valiancy prompted by a personal encounter with God and births a ministry in God’s name and off we go singing the praises of the latest ‘man of God’ in town. Another man rises with an even stronger tenacity and valor, more eloquent than the first, richer, more flamboyant and seemingly more powerful than the first and off we go again joining the band wagon praising the most latest ‘man of God’ in town. Even more so another man rises claiming a personal day to day buddie- buddie kind of relationship with the person of the glorified Christ, proclaiming prophetic fulfilments of uncontested records, and promising instant on record answers to prayers,  demon chasing and healing, giving the most accurate interpretations of dreams and visions, and even more so is the latest ‘version of Jesus Christ’ holding equal deity with him and off we go again praising the most mightiest, latest and most powerful prophet of God in the land.  Such is the sad reality of the times we live in when everything goes just because it works. Could this not be the most dangerous pandemic we all people need to protect ourselves from?

 What really makes this plight of false teaching, and the consequent misleading practices that ensue a worst kind of deception is the fact that we have been able to build a Bibleless and Cross-less Christianity that like a boundless river is sweeping millions in its path to a Christ-less eternity.  In the name of the dispensation of the Spirit, we have replaced Biblical qualities for qualification of servants of God with trendy, man-generated ones like; ‘Apostolic and prophetic anointing’, manifestation of spiritual experiences and power, proclaimer of accurate todate and frequent prophetic utterances, mega voice and cool accent, demon chaser among many other qualities perceived over time by the following crowd and sometimes to unhealthy interpretation and application of Scripture itself. The seemingly working ministries marked by prophecies, healings, riches, fame, and comfortable life and all in the name of displaying the glory of God are the very things that have become the means and essence of the belief and practices of such faithful followers.

"We have been able to build a Bibleless and Cross-less Christianity that like a boundless river is sweeping millions in its path to a Christ-less eternity"

 It is common in Ugandan Christianity today to hear the phrase; “the word is working”. A statement percieved to be founded on a belief or faith that leans towards manifestation of signs and wonders as evidence of the presence of God or authentic faith! So then the word must be a working one or otherwise, it is not God’s word. And so the proclaimer of the word must be one for whom the word is working wondous or otherwise he doesn't qualify.    I strongly, believe that, the questions to consider for beginning to resolve some of these matters may include but not limited to; what the Gospel is? Or what the finished work of Christ on the cross achieved on our behalf entails? Or what Christ’s death and resurrection means for God’s Kingdom and redemptive program for his world?  Or In the everyday experience of a Christian; how faithful handling of the Bible should affect our devotional life and the sermons we preach or listen to? Or how the Holy Spirit’s ultimate purpose and mission in affirming the work of the Lord Jesus can be evidenced in our beliefs and practices?  Or and how all these can and should conform to the authoritative word of God, the Scriptures, the only sword of the Spirit.

It is true we all hold the same Bible, claim to confess the same Christ. But how come we are arriving at different conclusions? Well, this is where the call to examine the ladder of faith we are climbing on becomes important  and more so the walls we are leaning the ladders on. Let's just day that by 'faith ladders' we mean our doctrinal beliefs and practices that shape our faith and by 'wrong walls' we mean the objects of our faith that our doctrinal premises are leaning on. Of all the challenges to believing as a Christian in our generation is the ‘nurturing of sign based faith’. This is the wrong ladder of faith millions are happily climbing. I have Christians in my experience who cannot tell what the gospel is all about or why they are Christians and sadly many are coming to the end of their lives without knowling their Saviour. But they follow miracle workers and powerful men of God for signs, healings and prosperity. They have been told to only come to Church with a ‘seed of faith gift’ which is usually some money given for the man of God to pray for them. Believe me I believe in healing miracles and asking for prayers from servants of God. But how many know that that alone has become the ladder of faith for millions of Christians.

"Of all the challenges to believing as a Christian in our generation is the ‘nurturing of sign based faith’. This is the wrong ladder of faith millions are happily climbing"

 How many know that many Christians today, go to Church because of desire to receive signs from God? How many know that many have turned the spiritual disciplines into means of arm twisting God to pursue their selfish gains? No wonder, the lack of fruits of true spiritual transformation in our lives or in our Churches and societies does not bother us anymore . No wonder, we are failing terribly in truly being  the light and salt of the earth as the Lord demanded  (Matthew 5:13-16). We have become like the disciples John wrote about in John 2:23-25, who after seeing the signs Jesus performed ‘believed’ but yet had deep seated unbelief. They had the wrong kind of belief; the kind that followed after miracles, signs, and wonders. The kind that was not ready to die to self on the Calvary road of living for God in this perverse world. The Kind the Lord Jesus would not surely entrust himself to because he knew exactly what lied in the hearts of them all. Like Nichodemus, a Pharisee eloquent with the Law  in the same context of this story  they all needed 'to be born again to be able to see the Kingdom of God’ since they are leaning on the wrong ladder of sign driven faith. (John 3:2-3). That same problem is what really is wrong with us even today. In the names of faith, we are seeking the wonders of God without submitting to the Word of God. We are reaping the fruits of Christ’s finished work without receiving first the eternal life that comes from spiritual rebirth authentic faith gives. As John Piper puts it; “We love the glory of Christ without, his Cross”. Where in at the cross is the symbol of suffering and shame, redemption and glory in a mysterious mixture that only causes us to glorify the living God our redeemer.

"In the names of faith, we are seeking the wonders of God without submitting to the Word of God"

We must ask then if some of us are honestly following ignorantly. Many of us by nurture have inherited beliefs and practices as has been handed over to us by those we believed to be climbing on the faith ladders leaning on the right walls.  I have a share of my own experience in this matter. I remembered sitting for hours  listening to a relative telling me stories of a powerful man of God in the city they visited for prayers,  who dispensed ‘holy water’ for sprinkling in seemingly enemy possessed areas in houses, cars and for smearing to effect the healing act of God in their physical bodies. Just you know, I speak as a believer in God’s supernatural healing and deliverance from demonic possessions and sicknesses. I am a firm believer in charismatic gifts and outworkings of the Holy Spirit in the present day to dayness of a believer.  But to relegate us Christians to a dependence syndrome on the men of God, let alone prescriptive faith in ‘elements of faith’ such as ‘holy water’ or ‘holy rice ‘or handkerchief  is but a total mess that needs redemption in the belief and practices of our Christianity today. Our doctrines and faith practices all need redemption if they are leaning on themselves without the redemptive work of Christ centered and climaxed by the true meaning of the Cross. The true gospel is enough and we should be bold and unashamed to standup for it, rest our faith on it and entrust our lives and eternity on it.

"Our doctrines and faith practices all need redemption if they are leaning on themselves without the redemptive work of Christ centered and climaxed by the true meaning of the Cross"

 The only thing greater than the gospel is the gospel itself because, the only good news that is truly good news is the good news of the gospel itself. Someone may already be asking at this point what the gospel is really all about? Let me just give us a snap shot of Romans 1:16-17 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.". From a text like this, you could answer the question this way that, the gospel is the power of God for salvation in which the rightousness of God is revealed in those who believe by faith in the finished work of Christ on  the Cross. God has offered a free gift of righteousness in Christ, by His powerful working in his death and ressurection and it is received by faith alone. This righteousness had to be received because we couldnot possess any. In Christ, the condemning power of sin has been canceled and God did this all to the praise of his glorious grace(Romans 5:6-8, 8:1-5). In Christ we have recieved from his fulness grace upon grace(John 1:16).  In fact Paul builds the entire book of Romans on this foundational understanding of the revealed righteousness of God received by grace. 

What then do we need to do to lean our faith ladders on the right wall of the one and only true gospel? 

 My call is first to us who are faithfully trying to know God through these experiences that have become our primary source of faith. May we examine ourselves to be certain that we have received of the spiritual rebirth that Christ offers all who truly believe before getting lost in the search of signs and wonders? May we stop working hard to fix the outward man which is bound to perish at the forfeit of our souls from the truest source of salvation (Mark 8:36, 2Corinthians 4:16). May we be certain that our faith is grounded on the Word of God in the Scriptures faithfully read, understood and taught because they are the surely trusted and inspired word of God (John 1:1-3, 2Timothy 3:16-17, Psalms 119:9-11,105, 138). May we as well also be conscious and guard against the Pharisaic reading of Scriptures that subtracts Christ from the equation of faith and emphasizes and exalts religion and tradition? (John 5:39). May we come to the true realization of the Holy Spirit's availability in us from the very time of our spiritual rebirth todate so that we may not be deceaved in the names of another supernatural experinece before the Spirit becoming operational in our lives (Romans 8:9-11, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19-20, 2Timothy 1:14) 

"The only thing greater than the gospel is the gospel itself because, the only good news that is truly good news is the good news of the gospel itself"

Seondly, however this issue is not sorted until we deal with the sources of these beliefs and practices which I believe is rooted in the teachings  of leaders who as servants of God needs to take note on this matter seriously. I am not all out to blow smoke on our calling but to stir us up to wholesome thinking (2Peter 3:1-3). My plea to us who are called by God to shepherd his flock is the need to revisit our practices and beliefs and examine the fruits in the faith and practices of our followers. May we exalt to its rightful place the authoritative word of God, the Bible and honor its first place in informing our beliefs and practices and this by emphasizing the Bibles’ necessity for everyday life of faith in Christ. We need to embrace a sound balance between the sovereignty of God in all matters and the wisdom needed to discern the Holy Spirit’s guidance in all matters. Especially when ministering to peoples’ physical and spiritual needs otherwise, we will continue to see an increasingly sign based believers who as far as Jesus is concerned need to be born gain. May we be champions of the faith that aims at the spiritual rebirth Christ offers to all who come to him by faith as it profits in the free gift of righteousness, the power of God for victorious living in this life and in eternal security and salvation in the life to come. Paul’s warning to Corinthians was simple “Be careful if you think you are standing firm” (1Corinthians 10:12). I would conclusively challenge us to be careful to examine our doctrinal stands and teachings since they hold dear place in the beliefs and practices of those daring to follow Christ through our ministries.  

"We need to embrace a sound balance between the sovereignty of God in all matters and the wisdom needed to discern the Holy Spirit’s guidance in all matters"

How bad will it be for us and millions following in our footsteps, if the ladders of faith we are zealously climbing are but leaning against the wrong walls?  How bad will it be to invest ourselves ignorantly in a cause only to realize they are a spiritual detriment in the waiting? To this plea I write to all my friends and family and to you who desire a biblical faith and ministry. Let us examine the leanings of our ladders!!

Nyakuni Solomon
A student of Bachelors of Theology in Pastoral Ministry

 

DOING THE JOB WELL

Cross cultural sensitivity demonstrated by Senior staff of GLA

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” 

John 10:10. 

The first week of September this year, gave me an opportunity to attend the sixth Global Missions Health Conference held in Africa, organized by Living in Abundance (LIA) International in Nairobi. Sharing from the theme of; “Pursuing Wholistic impact” in a key note address was the Retired Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya Rt. Rev. Benjamin Nzimbi who opened the conference with the message in the text above.

I thought for while about how the verse of choice would speak to the theme of Pursuing Wholistic impact, and aware quite frankly of how the emphasis on abundant life by many prosperity gospel preachers can end up sounding like a super impressive life in the bliss, of complete enjoyment and honey moon in the here and now forever and Amen; a life portrayed mostly of no pain, no suffering, no frustrations or disappointments but a complete fanfare of abundance of material possessions. I thought about how this abundance mentality is presumed to be a benefit of higher faith, sustained by a positive mindset, both in utterance and deeds even if it meant disguising pain, suffering and present state of reality with the frustrations in the world.

To my amazement, the Archbishop went on to invite the participants to consider several calls within the theme among which he mentioned; the call to Obedience, Holiness, forgiveness,  unity, service and preaching the Gospel so that men are called to salvation.  Later that evening, I spent quite some time reflecting about the Words of Jesus in John 10:10 and thought about the exhortations implicated in the text for missionaries at the Missions frontline.  

A call to Gospel proclamation

Firstly, Jesus declared himself as the giver of abundant life and any other means His hearers would trust as leading to loss or taking away of life. In contrasting to the thief who comes only to steal and take away, Christ came to give a rich and satisfying life. This life in Him is eternal (John 3:16, 36), and overflows from the renewed relationship with God through receiving forgiveness of sins, and embracing His Son Jesus Christ who is the gift of love for all who believe, and which grows through the abundant deposit of the Holy Spirit to blossom to bear fruit of righteousness (Galatians 6:22-23) and remains expectant in assurance at the full reality of this abundant life when Christ returns.

 "In giving the people we serve less than the Gospel is participating in the mandate of the adversary"

I believe the description above, causes us to emphasize the priority of Gospel proclamation as the primary tool for pursuing Wholistic impact. In proclaiming and challenging men to respond to the good news of the Life Christ offers they can be truly considered to have received the seed for Wholistic impact. It is an error to entirely hid to the words of St. Francis of Asis that; “Preach the word if necessary use words”. This phrase shouldn’t cripple us from keeping the main thing the main thing. Christ commanded preaching the Gospel; making Disciples, and teaching them to obey all His commands (Matthew 28:16-20).

  As such the kind of abundant life that is described in terms of monetary and material state of wellness is but a robbery of the life from those we serve. In giving the people we serve less than the Gospel is participating in the mandate of the adversary, whose only interest is stealing humanity’s only hope of salvation, killing the hopes of men being saved and eventually condemning them eternally.

It is rightly stated by many that wholistic impact is achieved when the people’s knowledge of God and themselves (Head), their affections, convictions, emotions and attitudes (Heart), and their skills, creativity and art of work (Hand) are set free to a full potential of impact by the Gospel of Christ for the Glory of God. Transformation begins to truly be seen in families, communities and nations when the Gospel has influenced those aspects of a believer.

  I am convinced that, we will see little to no impact of Wholistic impact at the missions’ front line if we pay no attention to preaching the Gospel of Christ, discipleship and multiplying by conversion into the faith those who have not confessed Jesus as Lord. The Gospel is the only power of God for salvation of all who believe (Romans 1:16-17). We are challenged to not settle for less than this task of sharing Christ with the people our moneys, professional services and acts of charity and care are impacting.  It will be a job well done, if the best good we can be to people, whether sick, poor or deprived or physically incapacitated or a minor is giving them the abundant life that is only found in Christ.

"The Gospel is the heart of Wholistic impact"

THE QUEST FOR PROFESSIONALS AT THE MISSIONS FRONTLINE

THE QUEST FOR PROFESSIONALS AT THE MISSIONS' FRONT LINE

Someone must simply go!

This was a strong line of words that echoed through the quiet airs of the three halls packed with hundreds of rapt students during the Professionals in Missions seminars we ran in West Nile, Northern and Central regions of Uganda this year. The Seminars are some of our platforms for mobilizing students and Christian professionals for missions’ involvement and support.

My favorite period is during the mobilization stages when we get to interact with vast number of student leaders who hold very influential positions in their campuses. We get to encounter the burning passion for God among them and work with student organizations like FOCUS Uganda and Scripture Union and independent Christian unions that are doing commendable jobs in ensuring these institutions have Christian presence and viable discipleship and mentor-ship.

Little exposure to missions

Despite the great Christian presence, there is clearly lack of adequate exposure to Missions in a broader aspect among the students. We are encountered with the narrow view of Mission as only evangelism, the sad reality of the nearsightedness among some of the preachers who regularly occupy the pulpits of these Christian Unions, and the growing influence of the wealth, health and prosperity gospel and teachings which has widely spread like Gangrene.

I remember attending an evening fellowship with one of the Christian Unions where the preacher continuously emphasized on the need to operate in ‘Spirit and freedom’. He went on and on and on about prospering in acquisition of wealth, being sickness free and as expected even to declare on the basis of Psalms 82:6 that the members were gods and sons of the Most High God.  I was then to come and pass the announcement and invite them to come for a one day seminar which has a small fee they will pay. I seriously wondered if I should borrow the preachers’ powerful tones or simply go gently and say what I came to say then just leave. Realistically speaking, from the looks on the audience’s faces, I was not welcome. Gathering courage I went on to say there are two commands I want to share with you all today. First, the Greatest Command to love our neighbors as ourselves and second, the Great Commission to Go make disciples of all nations! One guy at the front row immediately exclaimed “The Great what?”  

I quickly realized I was dealing with a fresh knowledge to some of the students. So I had to mention in quick sentence those passages where our Lord Jesus explicitly or implicitly commanded the disciples to go and proclaim the good news. I was like, “you guys should know Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15, or Luke 24:44-48, John 20:21 and Acts 1:8 by heart. Of course I was enjoying the silence; yes it was time for the missionary God to roar.

My point is that little is being said in the pulpits about responding to the great commission and the quest to forsake the world for the sake of the Gospel, follow Christ and participate in His passion for World evangelization. A lot of sermon is aimed at keeping the congregant comfortable, secure, uninterrupted, and thriving in disobedience to the commands of the Savior we claim to proclaim and believe. Such sermons seem to just reinforce the already selfish contemporary dreams of working hard be all those people we dream to be, get those things we dream to own but not what God is calling us to be, not what He is calling us to treasure most.  

Call for radical obedience

So then, the quest for someone to simply go in all sense becomes revolutionizing call to radical choice to obey Christ and live for His glory at any cost. Someone must simply Go! I first heard of this call in the very first seminar held in Kampala on April 2012. I was still a student Nurse at a college in West Nile. I remembered traveling for this seminar with a colleague friend with whom we both ended up signing up to serve in the mission’s field under Global Link Afrika. The call to go came very clearly to me that only sheer stubbornness could define any negative response to the message. I remembered just picking the commitment form and ticking the part for long term missions only. It is today that whenever I look at the files, I am reminded that it was all about saying Yes to the Lord of the harvest. It was obedience, in simple sense, and that is what’s kept me serving for the last three years. Indeed quoting Kevin Ombima a GLA missionary from iServe Africa, in a sermon during the Bible exposition for this year’s seminars teaching from Romans 10:14-15; He said; “Until the gospel of Christ penetrates into our hearts that the authoritative commission of Christ will become our consuming ambition; and it is until then that we will realize that the great commission is not a choice for us to consider but a command for us to obey”.

Many times we do not obey because we don’t hear the command clearly enough. But most of the time it is because we don’t want to hear the call to go. As someone said, we would respond by saying, ‘Here I am Lord, send someone else! I have discovered that the enormous pressures of this life have kept many of us from really stepping out of our comfort zones, and getting out of the salt shakers to be at our very best for the Lord our Savior. It is time, we wake up from our long sleep and take up our crosses and follow the Son.

But really, why don’t we go? I couldn’t give any better answer than Kevin, in the same sermon He said; “Friends, many times we don’t go because we don’t want to get out of our comfort zones, we don’t want to alter our priorities, we don’t want to sacrifice our possessions, we don’t want to risk our reputations and we don’t want to potentially lose our lives; yet these are what we are called to”.

The convictions for going!

Why does someone really have to Go? What is it about going that makes this emphasis relevant? Why do we take this message to the professionals?

First, why does someone have to Go?

Need for worshipers: John Piper, the Director and founder of Desiring God in an article on Mission said; ‘Mission exists because worship doesn’t’. Mission is a call to declare and proclaim God’s glory in all the earth. It’s joining God in the call to declare His fame and glory and love in the world. 1Peter 4:11

Redemption cry; The words of our Lord Jesus and Master; “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (Matthew 9:37-38, Luke 10:2). The Lord’s Assessment report for the harvest field says that, the harvest is plentiful and ripe but the laborers are few. The Lord, had come down from the Father (John 16:28) into the world that needed deliverance (Romans 28:22-24) and a shepherd (Matthew 9:36). But He only had to inaugurate His Kingdom and introduce a movement that would outlast any empires in the world history and establish a Kingdom that would last for eternity (Isaiah 9:7, 2Samuel 7:16, 1Chronicles 22:10, 2Peter 1:11, Revelations 1:6. This He could simply have done the easy way, but He entrusted us with this task of making the good news of this Kingdom known. He saw the enormous need and the loud cry of the whole world for a redeemer from the frustration and oppression it has been subjected to and decided it would have to be done by those He has called to be with Him whom He has discipled, and sent into the world.(Mark 3:13-14).

How do we respond to such a noble and enormous task? When we read about the ratio of the unreached population to the reached across the globe, how do we feel about them? When we watch in the news the sufferings and atrocities evil is causing this world, how quickly do we arrive at a humanly possible solution.; “The Harvest remains plentiful” and if knowing these figures is not compelling enough to cause a flame inside a Christian to stand to be counted for frontline missions, then I don’t know what possibly can.

Obedience to the Lord’s Command; These passages (Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:44-48, Acts 1:8, Romans 10:14-15), clearly reveal a command to go! We can therefore either assume we never read them and so stubbornly ignore them or twist them to excuse ourselves from obeying the words of our Lord. If we are to be called servants then, we are going to have to obey, submit, surrender and allow for our Master to interrupt us in our busy schedules and lives and willingly lay down our goals to pick up His, and to let go of our own purposes to pick up His and to do so with joy and pleasure knowing He is a good Master.

But how do we go? Why Christian professionals? We have insisted on recruiting young Christian professionals in our one year missions’ exposure program and will continue to do so for some of the reasons I will share with you.

The unique privilege of easy entry: The professionals have this unique privilege of easy access to local communities and people groups simply because of the abilities and the services they provide. I believe this concept of using our professions as entry point or vehicles for the Gospel is something that has proven viable in reaching the difficult and hard to reach places with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have had missionaries who stayed among the Aringa community in Yumbe District and have made families and friends with the Muslims because they were appreciated for their professional services.

Exceptional witnesses for Christ; Well learned Christians with Gospel-centered motivations and a cross driven lifestyles are an enormous source of attentions and admiration by the growing generation of youth today and how badly we need such men and women in our justice systems, academic and financial institutions, Churches and government offices in Uganda. If our generation of Christians could pick up this challenge and get to live out their faith within their professional spheres of influence, they surely would shine like stars(Phil 2:14-15). And proclaim the glories and excellences of Christ their Savior to this dark world without anyone questioning them (1Peter 2:9).

Enormous opportunities; The current refugee crisis in the world is quite alarming and I feel sorry for these people who have lost families and relatives and now are in foreign Countries, that are either receiving them or denying entry for them into their boarders. But, Uganda is privileged to be a hospitable Country and we are hosting over 1 million refugees from South Sudan and other Countries like DR.Congo and Burundi. These people are primarily and 24/7 accessible to the professionals like; Doctors, Nurses, social workers and government aid workers. The protocol to access them is tight, for the unauthorized greater majority of Christians except for the professionals who have such an enormous opportunity of access, witness and interaction that could mean a lot in spreading the Good news. But to see these opportunities one has to have been obsessed, consumed and overwhelmed with the passion to live for the glory of God. Of course there are ethical barriers to consider especially for the professionals but we have little excuse for not being good witnesses in the way we handle the resources distributions, showing love, creating rapport, and genuinely caring for these people.

The question remains if we are willing to hear the Master’s commands afresh like the ringing tones of our cell phones and respond with resounding yes to Go to the missions’ frontline and make disciples of nations for His Kingdom.

Nyakuni Solomon
A Student of Bachelors of Theology in Pastoral Ministry