Spiritual Growth

  I often sing a gospel song that declares, “Who can stand against me, as I am God’s own?” —and I believe it with all my heart. I know I belong to a superior power and government: the government of heaven, the highest mountain over all mountains. I even pray that the Lord will make me the head in areas where I have been the tail. When I need financial provision, I simply remind God to find the river that will flow in my desert.   I do not cry for hours about such things, like those enslaved by prosperity teachings in the house of the Lord. I do not wander from church to church with my checkbook in search of prophets. I just ask, like a beloved child, trusting that my Father hears me — just as my own boys and girls demand clothes or toys. If my kids say, “I need a bike,” they just say it plainly. That is how I speak to God. I know He listens, and I do not have to shout for hours to form a performance of prayer or appear especially pious. Yet still, the prosperity gospel is ...

Religion is routine and law, while faith is life. Religion gives people ethics, morality, a pious way of life, and the right form of worship — simply put, a law of the religion — backed by supernatural powers and divine mandates. That is why all religions focus on rules and routines. You have to attend Sunday church or Friday prayers, fast on certain days and months, chant specific words, and follow common norms. Yet, you are not necessarily expected to be perfectly pious by those religious standards.   Faith, however, is life. It is not about how many days you show up to church; it is about how much of your life is surrendered to God. It is not about how many hours you pray, but how truly and rightly you pray. It is not about the quality of the hymn, but the depth and sincerity of the worship. Religious people often cannot understand the lack of orchestration or synchronization in the worship, prayer, and service of the faithful. Meanwhile, the faithful struggle to grasp how other...

  One of the most widely written graffiti on the Addis Ababa University main campus used to state, “Jesus is Lord.” Side by side, however, people also used to write, “Milk is white” in response. Their reply implied: “Why are you stating the most obvious fact—which is believed to be true by all ‘Christians’—as if it’s breaking news or Good News?” I used to think this was the most logical response to the “absurd” proclamation of what seemed to be common knowledge by those “fools.”   Did I believe that Jesus is God? Yes, I used to believe Jesus is God. Did I believe He was born as a man, taught us truth, died for us on the cross, and rose from the dead to save us? Yes, I believed all those faithful facts. That is why, when the faithful said “Jesus is Lord,” it puzzled me—they were stating something so obvious and calling it Gospel or Good News. Imagine someone shouting loudly and proclaiming, “An African is black.” What surprises you is not the fact—which is visibly true for almo...

  The first law given to human beings was given to Adam when God commanded him, “From any tree of the garden you may surely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16–17, NASB). This is the first law, and when Adam broke it, he committed the first human sin (Romans 5:12).   So when Paul says, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law” (Romans 5:12–13, ESV), he is not referring to the Law of Moses. This is because even before the Law of Moses, sin existed and was counted as sin (Deuteronomy 9:4–5; Leviticus 18:25).   Counting of sin did not begin with the Law of Moses. After all, it is written that even those without the law are judged without the law, as the law is written on th...

  Imagine human beings are like angels in heaven, and they are in the new earth and new heaven after the defeat of death, sin, and the devil. The downfall of creation that was instigated by Lucifer and his demons and which is sustained by the fall of Adam and his children is undone as all goats and devils are cast into everlasting hell. Now the peace of God, the life of God, and the happiness of God are given to all children of God, both angels and human beings. This is so because all children of God will be fully immersed in the Holy Spirit, which is the source of real happiness, peace, and life.   Now, imagine for some reason some human children of God start to rebel against God, saying they miss the onion and garlic of Egypt, and they are unhappy about the kingdom of God in heaven. What will happen? Many born-again faithful would love to believe that those people are saved forever by the blood of the lord and no sin can make them lose their child of God status forever. But ...