I Was Just Thinking

By Pastor Vincent Imwensi

God does not accept the excuse of unbelief from any man. Every man has the ability to believe or not believe. Believing is a choice that men make consciously or unconsciously. If men did not have the ability to believe and a prerogative of choice where unbelief is concerned, it would have been unjust for God to judge unbelievers who turn down His word. So in the eyes of God, unbelief is an act of wilful rebellion against Him and that is why He judges (and will judge) it.

Deception Is Not An Allowable Excuse Either
It is also the reason God in His righteousness will judge the deceived because they embraced a lie instead of the truth. Deception is not a tenable excuse before God for sin or disobedience to His word. If men did not have a choice to accept or reject a deception, then that could have been a valid ground before God for their ungodliness and it would have been unfair to judge them. But God does not accept deception as an excuse to justify any man’s ungodliness or rebellion against Him.

Even Though Eve Was Deceived, Man Still Paid The Price
When Eve gave in to Satan’s deception, humanity fell and that was what brought us into the mess that we are in. But thank God who in His love sent us a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for our sin.
Once again, a choice has been presented before every man to believe the truth of the gospel or give in to the several deceptions that abound to turn men away from the Saviour. Those who reject the gospel and die in their sins will face eternal judgment even if they were deceived because in the light of the truth, yielding to deception is a choice.

According to God’s Word, Men Are Without Excuse
God has packaged into every man, a certain degree of the knowledge about Himself. Hence the Bible tells us that it is only the fool who says there is no God. That position is a choice for which God will judge the fool if he does not repent.

God is not confused – He knows the capabilities and the abilities He has put in us and when we embrace a lie and deny the truth, it is at our own very expense.

See what the scripture says in Romans 1:18-21:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”  

Avoid Wilful Pretensions
One strange phenomenon amongst men is that sometimes, people do not want to admit that they know what they know; or that they can do what they can. There is often a tendency to yield to the line of least resistance or to what is deemed more advantageous/profitable in a given situation.
For instance, this is the reason you sometimes find people who claim they are so weak they can’t do certain things for themselves but when there is no one around to help them and they are hard pressed, they will rise up and do what they claim they couldn’t do.

When it comes to believing the truth, God knows we can believe and that is why He said to preach the gospel to everyone. Those who believe will be saved while those who choose not to believe will be damned.

It’s Time To Believe The Gospel And Be Saved Before It Is Forever Too Late!
Some people tend to think that if they don’t believe the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ because they are atheists, agnostics, skeptics, freethinkers, or belong to other religions, then they are covered. But they are wrong! As long as the Bible is the true word of God and Jesus Christ is our Saviour, none of that is tenable before God.

And here is something never to forget: refusing to believe or accept the truth does not invalidate it – the truth remains the truth.

In Acts 4:12, we are clearly told: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

Also Jesus Himself told us in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (NKJV)

Many people will die, leave this world, and stand before God only to find that their arguments, beliefs, debates, and philosophical/religious stance that contradicted the Bible are untenable before their Maker. Then it will be too late to make amends.

Dear friend, you are not reading this by chance, God in His love is reaching out to you. If you are not yet saved (or born again), this is the time to believe the gospel and receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour. Don’t postpone this any longer. Want to know how? Click here.

By Pastor Vincent Imwensi

Part of my growing up years was in the village before I moved to the city. Life in the village was sometimes hard but there was a lot of fun too. Farm work was never easy but that was not all there was to it. We kids used to play around and have a lot of exciting things to do when we were not busy.

There is fun in village life too
I know that the moment those who grew up in the cities hear of the dirty looking children in the villages, they feel very fortunate and think everyone over there is suffering and about to die. But that is not always correct! Of course there is poverty in the villages and a lot of people live in utter depravity of basic needs.

Those who are better furnished should always think of helping those in the villages who are suffering and dying needlessly. But believe me, there is life in the village too. I mean people over there do have ways of enjoying their lives way beyond what those in the cities can imagine. At least, that was my experience.

I won’t ever forget this!
I remember this day, I and my friends (all of us in our early teens) were out playing in the moon light. At that point in time, the moon was yet to come to its full brightness so it was little dark but it was bright enough for us to play around.

Then not too far away from where we were playing, someone pointed his touch light at one of us. The touch light was so bright it was blinding to look straight into it. He focussed the touch light right onto the face of one of our playmates.

This colleague of mine started to rail abuses on the one pointing the light at him.
He said “Who do you think you are? You are stupid; you are an idiot, just wait for me, I am going to deal with you today, I am going to finish you …..” etc.

And he matched forward like an angry soldier straight towards the one pointing the light at him. And when he got very close to him, the person switched off his touch light and lo and behold, it was his father!

My friend screamed and ran away as fast as his legs could carry him!

We did not have the confusion of “Social Correctness” then
You’ve got to understand, at that time, children were raised to honour and respect their parents.

When your father is correcting or rebuking you, you bow your head in humble submission and take correction.You don’t answer back talk less of insulting your father like it is these days especially in the so called “civilized world”!

Oh well, at that time, nobody had corrupted us with the philosophy of “social correctness” whereby correcting your child is now called child abuse.

So my friend screamed and ran because he couldn’t imagine speaking to his father that way even though he was totally unaware that the light pointer was his father.

When I see the way some people cast the things relating to God behind their backs, I often think of that incidence. Do they realize whom they are snubbing, rejecting, insulting, blaspheming and ridiculing?

Have you ever thought of this?
For multitudes of people, as long as they can get on with their lives, God is totally irrelevant and their godless life styles bear witness to that.

At least, that is the way the majority here in London live and a lot of Americans and several millions around the world are also catching up on that too.

What will such people do the day they find out that the One they scorned and rejected; blasphemed and abused and did not want to associate with all their lifetime, is actually the originator and the owner of the life in them and the very breath in their nostrils?
And believe me, a day like that is coming.

Who told you there is no God?
A lot of people these days have convinced themselves that there is no God and for many others, they don’t want to even think about Him or have anything to do with Him, if at all He exists.

Thanks to Mr Charles Darwin and his cohorts, many of them do not believe they were created by God. As far as they are concerned, they are the product of evolution, which was a product of the big bang, which was a product of the fusion of some particles and atoms, which came out of nowhere!

And many find that more believable and acceptable than what the Bible has to say about the One who created all things! My friend, don’t let anyone deceive you, this world did not just happen and neither did you or your ancestors. God made all things.

Do you realize that the “Light Pointer” is your heavenly Father?
God in His love has been pointing His light at many people by sending their way the preaching of the saving gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But instead of accepting this wonderful gospel of God’s love and receiving the benefit of salvation, many are turning it down and turning against the Light Pointer. There are many people around the world today who get offended at the mere mention of God.

The gospel of Christ is clearly an offence to a lot of people; it irritates them and they do not hide their utter contempt and disregard for it.

I remember someone telling me some time ago that I was insulting his intelligence because I preached the gospel to him. Are you one of such people?

There will be nowhere to run or hide.
My friend could run away when he realized his error. Like I said, he screamed in horror and ran as fast as his legs could carry him when he discovered that the one he had insulted was his father.

But when we come face to face with God, there will be nowhere to run.
Also, he did not know that it was his father that was pointing the light at him. If someone had told him who the light pointer was, he would never had behaved that way – so his misdemeanour in this case is very excusable.

But what excuse will those who turn down God’s love have? They cannot say they did not know because faithful preachers of the gospel leave no one in doubt that what they are preaching is God’s message based on His word.

Having turned down God’s love on purpose, I wonder what case anyone will have in his/her defence the day he or she stands before God.

Don’t make that mistake:
Choose God’s love, not His judgment
Yes dear friend, don’t make the mistake of rejecting the light of God’s word and His love for you. Reading this blog is part of God’s effort to reach you with His light.

God loves you and He wants you to spend eternity with Him in glory when you leave this world. But for that to happen, your sins need to be forgiven while you are still alive and your soul needs to be saved.

God sent us a Saviour in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who came to this world and died to pay for our sins. Each one of us has to decide whether to accept Him as our Saviour and receive God’s salvation or reject Him and die in our sins.

Those who reject God’s love and live as though He is irrelevant will stand before Him face to face one day and you can be sure of one thing – it is not going to be funny.

Why not turn your life over to the Lord Jesus Christ today? If you’d like to do so, click here for help.