10
Making Your Ecclesia What It Should Be (Galatians 3:28) ... continued ~
this ecclesia. Their loyalty to him must exceed
their allegiance to any other organisation yet,
within boundaries, they manifest such love
that those who come into contact with it may
be drawn memorably to the Lord of the
church. Through the love manifested by local
ecclesias, many other men and women may
wish to come to fellowship with Jesus.
Make your ecclesia a place where the warmth
of Christ’s love is felt. This can only be
possible when each ecclesia member radiates
Christ’s care through all their actions.
I want to thank the Almighty who gave me this
opportunity of sharing the word of love with
you all. How are you, brothers and sisters,
including your Sunday Schools?
“The Lord is near all who call upon Him, to all
who call upon Him in truth.” One day He will
fulfil the desire of those who fear Him. He will
also hear their cry and save them, that is if we
remain faithful to Him like Abraham, Noah,
David and others in the Bible who remained
humble before Him. These were His good
faithful friends who feared Him. So let us be
like them. Read Psalm 18:18-21.
We are naturally sinful, brothers and sisters.
Why do we break God’s law? Breaking the law
means we are living in sin. If we can shun sin,
then we can keep God’s law of love and we
will have grace and mercy so as to live as Jesus
Christ did. Jesus was tempted and yet did not
sin, so he kept God’s law. He then received
grace and is now living in God’s presence.
Why not us? Although we are of sinful nature,
let us conquer it by keeping God’s law and
praying for strength to do so, and for forgive-
ness when we fail.
May God guide us not into temptation. Amen.
Christ: The Promised Seed of Abraham
| Bro David and Sis Jacklyne Wangala (Chwele, Kenya)
I
n the beginning, when the first man had
been formed in the image and likeness of
God, and Eve had been taken out of the man’s
side to be a helpmeet for him, God made the
choice of habitation for them. No big houses,
just a garden was provided, planted by the
Lord eastward in Eden. “Out of the ground
made the Lord God to grow every tree that is
pleasant to the sight and good for food: The
tree of life in the midst of the garden and the
tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a
river went out of Eden to water the garden”
(Genesis 2:8-10). This, then, was God’s choice
of a suitable home and occupation for the man
whom he had made to have dominion over the
work of his hands. We greatly admire this
beautiful handiwork of angels on behalf of the
Lord God.
And God saw that all His work was “very
good”. The sad story is of broken law and
expulsion from this Garden of Eden. The hope
of the promised redemption was made, and
this leads us to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to
whom the promises were given of the kingdom
to come and a righteous seed. “Come into a
land which I shall show you” was a command
to Abraham. He was obedient and departed,
even though he did not know where he went
(Hebrews 2:8). But under guidance he, with
his wife Sarai and Lot his nephew, came into
the land of Canaan entering it from the north.
Passing southwards, he pitched his tent at a
spot between Bethel and Ai, and there built an
altar unto the Lord. Though compelled by
famine to go to Egypt for a while, he soon
returned to this place where his tent had been
at the beginning, where the altar was first
(Genesis 13:4). When Abraham turned round,
he viewed the south where he would see hills
around Jerusalem. Among these was Mount
Moriah where afterwards his faith was so
severely tested in the offering up of Isaac.
Now it came to pass that Lot decided to move
down into the valley. After he had gone, the
Lord said to Abraham, “Lift up your eyes and
look from the place where you are northward