Spiritual Growth

    The Bible says that if you are with God, He will first give you peace even among your enemies — He can prepare a table for you in the midst of them. But when there are those not meant for peace, God will allow them to come as one, yet they will scatter in seven directions. For it is God who fights for you; it is not you who fight for yourself. But if you rise against God and His will, the very staff that once shielded you will turn against you — until you return to Him.   This is not only true in the physical world but also in the spiritual. Jesus came to give sight to the blind — and to blind those who claim they see. The devils played humanity like puppets, driving us through the rat race of life while they schemed in the unseen. They divide us, make us fight, stir our flesh, and draw out our animal instincts. They turn us against God and His commandments. As the gates of hell, they send us toward hell — because we are blind in spirit and live by the flesh, wh...

    When Jesus came as the one and only Christ, the people had one expectation while God had another plan. What God had planned was confusing not only to the people but even to Peter, who tried to advise the Lord, and to John the Baptist, who ended up in doubt. Scripture makes it clear that the Christ would come to free God’s people from their enemies and save the world — yet how that salvation unfolded revealed that, as heaven is distant from earth, the ways of God are far removed from the ways of man. We are playing checkers while God is playing chess — that is why we don’t know it all.   Since we cannot merge all biblical truths into one perfect theology, and because some verses revealing the mystery of Christ’s death can easily be overlooked, we must learn the wisdom of informed ignorance . We may grasp the general picture, but in many details, we should not be too certain. Wisdom demands we leave room for error. Does that mean accepting another gospel? No. But ...

    There is every kind of problem among the born-again, living, and Holy Spirit–guided children of God — it is important to rightly identify the truly faithful, for many counterfeits exist everywhere. Yet the essence and foundation of all these problems is the same: an earthly gospel. In other words, the root of all heresies among the born-again faithful is preaching an earthly gospel.   The Birth of an Earthly Gospel   Why do we have gospels of ethnic groups, social classes, ideologies, nationalism, and every kind of “ism”? It is because we are still flesh and blood, infants in spirit. The welfare and dignity of every believer are important, but our gospel is not about this earth. Ensuring welfare and dignity is an expression of faith, not the essence of faith. In fact, we must be ready to sacrifice our welfare and dignity for the gospel, that our treasure may be stored in heaven.   The Gospel of Letting Go   If you love your family, let t...

    I have watched a few atheist kids saying, “I know what Christianity is, because I was Catholic,” and then they go on to rebuke a faith they never knew. In their fuzzy imagination, they think Christianity has anything to do with Catholicism. Christianity is faith, not religion — and faith is life. Life, in the sense that your identity, manner, behavior, outlook, word, speech, and faith are transformed from you toward Jesus.   It is not God you find in the Vatican or in a church — it is God who transforms you into the likeness of Jesus from within you. With this experience, there is no way you can deny Jesus. You cannot see Jesus, but His work is visible in you, and you cannot deny yourself to deny Jesus. This is why if you truly go to Jesus, there is no way you can turn back — unless your faith is questionable. That means either you were never born again, or you are not obedient to the will of God. If you pass the test of faith and obedience, however, you will kn...

    Imagine a theoretical physicist who claims that the core facts of physics are wrong, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Would you take him seriously? It would be absurd to do so — unless you were studying the history of scientific thought.   Jesus is God, the entire Bible is about Jesus, salvation is only through Jesus, and we are commanded not to bow to idols, “angels,” “saints,” or even our good mother. These are the core and undeniable facts of Scripture. So should we take seriously anyone who rejects these basic truths of the faith?   If a Muslim wrote a biblical commentary or a book explaining why Jesus is not God, would you take him as having any value for biblical knowledge? If a Jew who does not see Jesus in the Bible wrote a book about the Bible, would you take him seriously — let alone as a top biblical scholar? Unless that Jew is born again, his ideas are nothing but worthless nonsense. A person who cannot see the camel in the Bib...

    The faithful — born-again believers who confess Jesus as Lord and are baptized in the Holy Spirit with full obedience to Him — are in both a civil war and a war to defend the faith against the devil. The external war is clearly defined and easier to confront, but clarity about the source of the civil war is critical. The source of all our differences directly emanates from our destination. Moreover, our misreading of the status quo is a serious bias that creates numerous denominations and theological baggage in this age.   Our differences mainly arise from our vision of the ideal state — what we are trying to build in the end. In the Ethiopian context, most faithful are preoccupied with national development and desire to have an impact on the political and social life of society. They cry for power and prosperity. That is where they are going — but it is not where I am going. My problem is that people do not know the real Jesus — 100% Jesus — and as a result, th...

  Gospel: The Good News   Even within the “Christian” religion, there are different gospels being preached. Many dead religions like Catholic and Orthodox are not preaching the gospel of the Lord , but what they call “good tradition” — worship of saints, angels, and our “good mother.” And just to keep it Christian, they add God here and there.   The Gospel of the Devil   The progressive catacombs who call themselves Christians but are disciples of the devil himself are preaching abominations that can only be spoken by the devil. As one wise apologist said: “In order for every sinner and devil to be truthful, they make God a liar.”   They actually preach the gospel of the devil, not of Jesus Christ. Their theology is simple: all human absurdity is divine; human is divine, but God is an incompetent liar discovering truth with everyone else. Why? Because everyone has to be right — even if that means making God the devil.   The Gospe...