Gospel News — Mar-May 2012

60

NEWS FROM BROTHERS & SISTERS

ESA-OKE

Know the type of friends you have. Many friends have led people to their death so if you are not careful friends can lead you astray. If you are lonely and in need of something, do not put God on one side, pray to Him and ask for advice before asking advice from someone else. If you put God aside and ask for advice from your friend, advice from your friend may lead you to commit sin against God and lead you to death.

You see, we, the brethren and sisters in the Lord ought to learn lessons from the people we read about in the Bible. It was a good friend of Amnon that led him to death through bad advice (2 Sam.13:3). Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab who was a very crafty man. We see the people of this world are wiser than the people of God. Jonadab advised Amnon to commit adultery with his sister Tamar. Little did Amnon know that he was kicking against his coffin. Any person needing advice, ought to speak to himself or herself; ponder here and there on whether what we want will please God or not before we act. You see, when Amnon was killed it was this man, his friend, that went to David to tell him the news of the death of Amnon (2 Sam. 13:32-33). Today around the world, bad advisors have led many friends to death and many countries have fallen due to bad advice. .

IKWUEKE

Will suffering never end? Yes, Suffering will end. God is the Architect of the universe. He has a Master Plan for mankind. God plans to cleanse the earth of sickness and sorrow, sin and suffering, disease and death. He will send Jesus back to the earth to make all things new. Rev.21:3-5. God plans to fill the earth with his glory. The Apostle Paul said that "the suffering of this present time is not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Rom.8:18. An understanding of suffering can help you towards God's Kingdom if you give your life now to

God. Truly, if we endure we shall also reign with him, 2 Tim 2:12. "Even so, come Lord Jesus".

I feel I am getting weaker because of age, but I feel some inner strength from knowing that the Kingdom shall soon come. It now takes me a long time just to walk as my right leg was seriously wounded.

MBALSE

I need large quantities of the leaflets and Bible Basics you send to share with other brothers and sisters and those who are non-Christadelphians. In Mbalse Ecclesia we are eight in number worshipping together in Amuzu Oke-Uvuru Aboh Mbaise. This is more than four miles from my home and I walk there on foot every Sunday at 6.a.m. and arrive before 8.50 a.m. I am the only brother to baptise and conduct the Sunday Memorial Service. I need you to send me a Bible, Old and New Testament please.

Let us study how Jesus taught his disciples to pray: "And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, "Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1). They were listening as Jesus prayed. What power there was in his words! Sometimes I feel like praying, "Teach me to preach" when I hear a spiritual exhortation

We can't pray like Jesus prayed, but we can be a disciple. Let's look at Matthew 6:5: "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward." Their reward was that someone saw them and heard them, so now they were known as someone who prayed. That is like doing a favour for someone and then talking about it, telling others what you have done. That is all the glory you will get. But if you do it as unto the Lord, not bragging about it or looking for men's applause, you will get your reward from God. You do it in secret and the Lord will reward you openly.