Shocking Message-Part 2

I want you to know that the greatest heresy in the American evangelical and protestant church is
that, if you pray and ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart, He will definitely come in. You
will not find that in any place in Scripture. You will not find that anywhere in Baptist history
until about 50 years ago. What you need to know is that salvation is by faith and faith alone in
Jesus Christ. And faith alone in Jesus Christ is preceded and followed by repentance . . . a
turning away from sin, a hatred for the things that God hates and a love for the things that God
loves, a growing in holiness and a desire not to be like Britney Spears, not to be like the world,
and not to be like the great majority of American Christians, but to be like Jesus Christ!

[The audience then erupts in applause].

I don’t know why you’re clapping. I’m talking about you. I didn’t come here to get amens. I didn’t come here to be applauded. I’m talking about you.

People so many times come up to me and say, “Oh, I’d love to follow you into Romania”; “I’d love to follow you into the Ukraine”; “I’d love to preach where you preached and planted churches in Peru in the jungle.”

And I tell them, “No, you wouldn’t.”

They say, “Yes, I would.”

I say, “No, you wouldn’t.”

“Why?”

“Because you’d be excommunicated from the church down there.”

What we need to see . . . I’m not trying to be hard for the sake of being hard. Do you realize how much love it takes to stand before 5,000 people and tell them that American Christianity is almost totally wrong? Do you know what it’s going to cost me to never be asked back again to something like this? To be unpopular? Do you know why you do it? You don’t do it because you get paid well. You don’t do it because men love you. You do it because you love men and because, more than that, you want to honor God.

I want to tell you something. We’re going to go into Scripture, and I want you to look at it as it really is. It’s not comparing yourself with others who call themselves Christians. Compare yourself to the Scripture. When someone, a young person, comes to a pastor or a youth minister and says, “I’m not sure whether or not I’m saved,” the youth minister will usually throw out a cliché: “Well, was there ever a time in your life when you prayed and asked Jesus to come into your heart?”

“Well, yes.”

“Were you sincere?”

“Well, I don’t know, but I think so.”

“Well, you need to tell Satan to stop bothering you. Did you write it in the back of your book . . . the back of your Bible like the evangelist told you when you got saved, write down the date so that any time you doubted you could point him to the Bible?”

What superstition has overcome our denomination? Do you know what the Bible tells Christians to do? Examine yourself. Test yourself in light of Scripture to see if you are in the faith. Test yourself to see if you’re a Christian.

Do you realize if I dismissed us right now and told everyone to go knock on every door in this city, do you know what we would find out? Ninety-nine percent of the people, at least, in this city believe themselves to be believers. If you go back to your hometown and knock on every door . . . because I went back to my hometown after I got saved and knocked on every door, and you know what I found out? Everyone in my town is a Christian. Eighty-five percent of them do not go to church, and those who do go to church are not concerned about holiness. They’re not concerned about serving. They’re not concerned about being separate from the world. They’re not concerned about the Gospel being preached among the nations. But, bless God, they’re saved.

Why are they saved? Because some evangelist who should have spent less time preaching and
more time studying his Bible told them they were saved, and he did it so he could brag about
how many came forward in his next revival.

I love you, and there are men here who love you. And I want to go into Scripture now, now that
I’ve shocked you into light. I want you to listen to me. Listen to the Word of God and begin to
ask yourself some questions. First of all, Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and
the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. There is a
narrow gate.

Shocking Message-Part 1

Paul Washer

It’s a tremendous privilege for me to be here this afternoon with you. Before we begin with any further speaking, I would also like to go to the Lord in prayer. I would ask you to pray. There is so much going on here this afternoon, so much that you don’t understand, but I’ll tell you where I’m coming from. I’ll preach as a dying man to dying men and women and youth. I’ll preach as though I will never preach again, and I will tell you things that you will misunderstand. I will tell you things that make you so angry with me, and I’ll tell you things that you will deny. And I will tell you things and you will say I have no right to tell you what I’m telling you. But before you come to any conclusion about what is being said here this afternoon, you ask yourself one question.

You see, preaching is a very dangerous thing. It’s dangerous for me because the Bible says that
false teachers will undergo greater condemnation. If what I tell you today is not true, I’m in a great deal of trouble and have every right to do this with fear and trembling, because I will stand condemned before God. But if what I tell you today is true, then you’re the one with cause for fear and trembling, because if I correctly interpret this passage of Scripture that I’m going to give you, it is as though God was speaking through a man. Your problem will not be with me; it will be with God and His Word. So, the only question that has to be decided here this afternoon is––Is this man before us a false prophet? Or is he telling us the truth? And if he is telling us the truth, then nothing else matters except conforming our lives to that truth.

Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.

Father . . .Father, I am so small and so pitiful, Father, in so many ways. You know, Lord, You know, though dear God, should false fire be the only thing ever placed on Your altar, or could fire come down from Heaven amidst all the noise and the clamor and the activities . . . could fire come down from Heaven and these dead bones live, You know me. In Your sovereignty, I pray and I beg before the throne of God that You would be gracious to us, that You would open up hearts and minds. Lord, we can’t wait for them to open theirs; they never will. Open up their hearts and minds and cause them to see biblical truth. Breathe on them. Grant them repentance.
Grant them faith. Bring them into Your Kingdom, Lord, for Your own glory, for the sake of Your own great name, do this thing, Lord. As the brother said, let it be so, Lord, so that no man will take credit for it, so that no man will lay his hand to the ark of God and, if he did, that You would strike him down dead, Lord. Oh, God, move among us, please, because we have no other hope. We have no other hope. These children have no other hope except that You move.

Amen.

I’ll be teaching from Matthew chapter 7. If you have your Bibles, follow with me. In Matthew
chapter 7, verse 13, Jesus said:

Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad
that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the
gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who
find it.
Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but
inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes
are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? So every
good tree bears good fruit, but every bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree
cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree
that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then,
you will know them by their fruits.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.
Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your
name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many
miracles. Then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you
who practice lawlessness. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of
mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise man who builds his
house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew
and slammed against that house and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded
upon the rock.
Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be
like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand. The rain fell and the
floods came and winds blew and slammed against the house and it fell, and
great was its fall.

I stand here today . . . I’m not troubled in my heart about your self-esteem. I’m not troubled in my heart about whether or not you feel good about yourself, whether or not life is turning out like you want it to turn out, or whether or not your checkbook is balanced. There’s only one thing that gave me a sleepless night. There’s only one thing that troubled me all throughout the morning, and this is this. Within a hundred years, a great majority of people in this building will possibly be in hell. And many who even profess Jesus Christ as Lord will spend an eternity in hell.

You say, Pastor, how can you say such a thing? I can say such a thing because I don’t do my Christian work in America. I spend most of my time preaching in South America, in Africa, and Eastern Europe. And I want you to know that, when you take a look at American Christianity, it is based more upon a godless culture than it is upon the Word of God. And so many people are deceived, and so many youth are deceived, and so many adults are deceived into believing that, because they prayed a prayer one time in their life, they’re going to Heaven. And then, when they look around at others who profess to know Christ and see those people also just as worldly as the world, and they compare themselves by themselves, nothing troubles their heart. They think, well, I’m the same as most in my youth group. I watch things I shouldn’t watch on television and laugh about the very things that God hates. I wear clothing that is sensual. I talk like the world. I walk like the world. I love the music of the world. I love so much that’s in the world, but bless God, I am a Christian. Why am I a Christian? I don’t look any different than most of the other people in my church. Why am I a Christian? Because there was a time in my life when I prayed and asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart.

Every messed family!!

This article was inspired by Cheri's piece about her cousin; my mind ran back to a couple of years ago!

Wait, let me allow Cheri to finish clapping for herself!!

The story is about a cousin. Yeah, it is always about cousins. Actually he is an uncle, because he is my mum's cousin. But since he is relatively younger, I prefer to call him cousin...you know, Ugandan style! In Uganda everyone is a cousin.

I remember this dude, a buddy of mine back then in secondary school...we were in a boy's school. And then there was this girl's school not too far from her...that girls' school was the place every guy wanted to date a girl from. Actually, it was generally referred to as ZOO...or sometimes Zoo-zone

This buddy of mine, Vincent, then we were in Form 1 knew some many girls, all the way from Form 1 to Form 6,and he just used to say they are his cousins! Of course he wasn’t going out with them, a young tiny Form 1 kid, with like over 15 cousins in one school. Unbelievable. But anyhow, he was never bullied at school. Older boys needed him to get through to his 'cousins'!

Anyway, back to my own 'cousin' story. You know, after reading a lot of books on globalisation, rise of China, India....global market forces blah blah, I used to religiously tell all my relatives that in a globalised world, competition is always tight, always keep ahead of the pack!

One of own cuzo took my advice too seriously...he became a dad at 16.

Was beaten at my own game! I have vowed never again to pass certain useful pieces of advice anyhow. I now have to carefully decide how I want to tell what to whomever.

PS:By the title, I meant to say every family has a mess somewhere! Perfectionis very elusive.

Rainy days...

I hate England. Not hate, as in hate hate..but i just hate England! You know what i mean? It has the most horrible weather on the face of the earth!
Not only is the wather the most horrible, but it also seems to be quite clever. Theweather actually knows the dates!

Sit tight, let me explain what i mean!!

I was too busy (I still am), working hard, making ends meet as regards my dissertation! Infact too busy to enjoy the summer! Apparently, British summer is the nest time of the year, but I was too busy to notice.....and i will forever rue the missed opportunity!

So, i wake up one morning,some days ago, and a few classmates tell me:

"..summer is officially over! Y'de was the last day of summer"

Iam like "What??!! What d'ya mean?"

"Because its already Sep31st, and according to the calendar, that is he official end of summer"
So i was like, should i agree with these guys, or not!! I walked out of the computercluster, and everything seemed bright! The sun was up. What were these guyst alkingabout? Thye do not know a thing! Do they think they are weather menor something. For God's sakes, they are all a bunchof Chemical engineers..and all they do is.....

Fast forward! Two days later. I wake up in a good mood. Dress up for the summer, t-shirt,sandals and all! Grab my bag, heading for thecomputer cluster! I never even bothered to look through the window of my 7th floor Silver Core apartment!

No sooner, did i step out than I amlost began freezing! Temperatures had dropped by over 15 degrees in two days! I coudnt beleive it.

As i looked through my window now, it seems to be sunny..so deceptively sunner! But other than a few other things in life,never trust the weather in this city! It rans anytime...paka even a guy likeme is learning how to carry an umbrella with me! Well,the proof is that I have now lost a few..left them wherever i went!

Perhaps the most exciting thing thing to ever happen in this city in the last couple of days are the arrival of 1) Berbs..last minute swoop!! 2)The new British record in theform of the baby faced,finger sucking Robinho 3)the money bags ADUG!

Unfortunately(or fourtunately),am a true loyalist, my heart lies in the Emirates!! I gotta get back to work..

During Final year presentations....

The following happens at various times between 9:30am and 1pm.The venue is a lecture hall. The names may (or may not) have been changed, but the occasion is MSc Project Presentations. The conversions are mainly hand scribbled, on pieces of paper.

Indian guy A: After finishing his presentations, “I am screwed”!!! Will I pass?

African guy: Like I was saying yesterday, you need to convince them about the steps- I think you were not clear on the....

Indian guy A: Will I pass?

African guy: Yeah

Indian guy A: Was I aggressive?

Indian guy A: They asked too many questions!!!

Indian guy A: The reason why they asked you a lot of questions is because you were
not very clear with the multi-period!!

African guy: You answered most of them.

African guy: That is why I did not provide them with handouts. Go to page...blah blah...!!

Indian guy A: Commenting on another guy presenting “He‘s screwed”

Indian guy B: Miriam (not real name) likes bananas!

Indian guy A: Yeah

African guy: So what are you saying? I think everybody likes bananas!!

Indian guy B: I don’t!

Indian guy B: So do you like Frenchy?

African guy: What the hell is that?

African guy: We need to get each others dissertation. Because we might need it in industry.

Thai guy: Fermentation?

African guy: You never know where we will work 5years from now.

African guy: She is preparing her presentation.

After African guy’s presentation....

African guy: I didn’t know JKK would bring up Bhari’s work!

African guy: I actually thought about whether I should include it or not.

During Indian guy D’s presentation

African guy: This dude is taking something from Fang as well.

African guy: Just like a typical Indian, “how much money are we saving?” This guy is screwed!!! Wait for the questions.

African guy: He always interrupts the lecturer. You need to talk to him. It happened during MWK as well.

After Indian guy D’s his presentation

African guy: You should not interrupt the lecturer when he asks you. You wait for him to finish

African guy to Girl A: Too many slides (23), you will need at least 20 minutes.

Indian guy: You need an average of 10 slides

African guy:”Skip the first few. Go straight to Project objectives. “He looks through a certain slide, with a few graphs plotted. “Is this your own results?”

Girl A: Yes

African guy:” You have too many slides, so if they ask you to go to a certain slide, it will take you a very long time to get there.

African guy: Explain why the results are like this. Insert----Slide number.

Thai guy: Spots the list of names in their order of presentation, then writes besides a certain Ahmad.”Who is he?

Indian guy A: Write besides two names.”Distinction!! “”Distinction!!” Then scribbles
besides his name...”Fail”

Disclaimer: Due to the manner in which they were scribbled on paper, the conversation may or may not be in the original order in which they occurred. The reader has the freedom to decipher anything that doesn’t make sense, but the author is not responsible for the meanings that the reader may decipher from this.
PS: As you can see, I had to use the word decipher!! I love English!!

Those dimes.....

Since everyone has been writting stuff, trying to outdo each other in a bid to meet Denis Muhumuza's criteria of a "serious blogger", let me take this opportunity to get my entry in!

This i hope will go along way to set teh agenda for the next level fo interekcho discussions! I hope and beleive, that my post, this post, ladies and gentlemen will fie up your imagination, gain your interest into the things that are happening in this your country, Uganda, which was aptly named " The pearl of Africa" by one Winston Churchill".

For those who do not know him, he was one of the first Prime Minsiters of Britain... er...I do not know exactly whether he was the first, second or third..but he was somewhere there....up there, maybe just in fame..rather than numerical position!
Ok, spare me some slack, i did PCM in high school!

uganda was also badly commercialised in the famous CNN advert as "Gifted by nature!! But they did not go as far to elaborate what this dear country is gufted in!

Therefore let me tajke this opportunity to elucidate, what they could have meant! I might be wrong. But read this....

Where is the Shs11 billion Temangalo land cash going? What about the Shs31 billion NSSF-Alcon International dime flowing? And did i hear someone mention the whooping out Shs 84 billion..for those who do not know maths, that is 120 billion minus 36billions!!!

Conspiracy theorists suggest that, we might see the dimes resurrect in 2011. I hope to be older and wiser then...perhaps maybe to allow my stomach to be played with, but not my head..if am still alive my dear friends!!

When I go crazy...right here!

Damn!
i beleive we can use our blogs to air out our innermost thoguths. To some extent,use it almost diary-of-sorts. Which is true!

And then I came across this aticle by Denis Muhumza which challenged the hell out of me!!

The dude was onto to something when he said this!

He was actually correct to a greater extent. I agree with him when he says that we should use blogs could be sued to dicuss "serious issues", stuff that can change the country and the world we live.
Look at the issues affecting out society..the corruption at every level, the suffering in the North of the country no one has ever mentioned, the "deals" peole are cutting at the highest levels in office. We coudl do something to expose these things! Expose them to the world.

Am I sounding angry? Yeah, thats because i just ventured into the area of holy anger..angry because we see thinsg happening and we say nothing. Some one once said, bad things happen because good men do nothing, they cant even speak about them! We maintain a level of indifference. I am not advocatng for some sort of revolutuon.

Am just saying....uhmmm, do something!!!!!!!!!! I almost said follow your heart or even your conscience, the i aksed myself..of teh two, which one is less darkened!!