Living Message by Pastor (Retd.) V Songkhothang
Revision of July Theme. July Theme can be fractioned into four parts mainly:
- Those who does not want to be a follower of Christ
- The consequences of not being a follower of Christ
- Follower of Christ
- The rewards of being a follower of Christ.
Those who does not want to be a follower of Christ
This can be sub-categorised into two parts
People who accepted Christ but did not bear any fruit of being a Christian, citing an example of Felix from the book of Acts Chapter 24. People who did not want accept Christ at all, this category of people are the ones who did not accept Jesus Christ and their reward after life will be to burn in hell.
If you read the book of Matthew chapter 27 you will find Judas who betrayed Jesus Christ and sold Jesus to the Romans for thirty pieces of silver. When he knew and saw that Jesus was condemned he repented and brought the thirty pieces of silver and donate to the Church. He went away and hanged himself. There are people like Judas who followed Jesus but not a born again.
The speaker gave an example from “Khristian Thu ki Zakna” an article written by Rev. L Khamkholun of Elvis Priestley who is a well known pop singer. The priest of AG invited him to be a member of the worship team in the church but Elvis Priestley did not want to be a member of the worship team and said that he has a good and bright future with pop music and he chooses to be a pop star rather than a member of the worship team. Time goes on and Elvis was involved with drugs then when his death is near the AG priest went and gave him a visit. Elvis told the priest that he is the poorest of the poor and how he repents not choosing to serve the Lord. How dangerous it is not to choose Jesus Christ.
The consequences of not being a follower of Christ
We can get an example from the life of Lot. He chooses his own pleasure rather than serving God and we see the consequences of it, him losing his wealth, his wife and how he makes a family with his own daughters. These were all because of him denying to be a follower of God. Abraham also did not follow God’s order and the consequence is 20 years suffering of his people. We can also get a good example of Joanna. It is also fearful to do what God forbids us to do being a follower of Him as the consequences can last generation to generation. Example of a man who resides in Sinjawl, though his wife and children loves the gospel and were active member of the church the man is not that much active and once the village elected him to be an Upa of church he did not want to accept it and denied it. Then slowly he became ill and after a short period of time died. How dangerous it is to deny to serve God.
Follower of Christ
Meaning repenting from the sin you have done and accepting Jesus Christ as the saviour. Without any change in you it is very difficult to follow Jesus Christ. The soul of Prophet Paul have been changed, he changed his ways and he even changed his name once he becomes the follower of God.
In short we can say to be a follower of Christ you need to change your soul. It is a complete transformation.
Let us ask ourselves whether we are a true follower of Jesus Christ.
The speaker gave an example of his own life, how he accepted God, he is not an educated person but God gave him the position of a mission teacher and then a Pastor. If you surrender to God and accept him he will always guide you.
The rewards of being a follower of Christ
If you are a follower of Christ there will be lots of hurdles and difficulties coming your way but you need to be strong and seek God’s guidance during those times of hurdles. But there are also blessings from God like we can see from Job’s story at first God allowed Setan to test Job’s honesty to Him and then when Job lost everything God again blessed him with two folds of what he has in the past. Examples can be seen from the life of Daniel and Sadrak Mesak Abednego. If we honestly follow God He will protect us from all hurdles which comes our way. The speaker cites an example of a man called Ginkhai, this man once lost his horse and he said he forgive those who stole his horse in the name of God. One day the people from his village saw some people along with his horse and they went and informed him what they saw and he said he has already forgiven them in the name of God and he is not going to catch the thieves. “And not be conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2) We must be brave enough to leave all worldly pleasures and follow Jesus Christ to be a good follower.
Benediction by Local Pastor
by Mary C Hangzo
Media Team
