MISSING THE BOAT I celebrated my fiftieth birthday in the third week of April this year and it was like none other I have ever had. My friends were not there! My fathers were not there! My foes were absent! But my family of sons filled the auditorium. There were those from my ministry in the Gospel Youth Ministries Int’l. Others came from my ministry in the Young Anglican crusaders and the Anglican Students’ Fellowship. Then of course, my present congregation of sons and daughters were there. I discovered that things went well, beyond my expectations and I had no grudges or regrets about those who did not or could not come. I also heard God speaking to me through this circumstance and what was it He was saying? I perceived Him telling me to give my life more if not fully to the raising of sons and daughter of the kingdom. Consequently, I made up my mind to build slowly but steadily in my remaining days in Christian ministry. I therefore set a target of well tutored and disciplined DISCIPLES OF THE KINGDOM who will be qualified and zealous to disciple others. It thus became my constant prayer request: “Oh God send into my life, those who are hungry and thirsty for the truth and willing, ready and made able to pay the prize for both the quenching their thirst and those of other hungry generations.” I am glad that I have one today. In all my years of discipling people, I haven’t met one with such a dose of hunger for truth. She has the hunger of twelve disciples in her alone! Recently, in one of our contacts which is usually on Tuesdays, I was sharing with her on the “Mysteries of the kingdom.” When we got to the parable of the Dragnet contained in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, she was rattled by a truth that sprang out of that passage as I was sharing. (Mat 13:47) The kingdom of heaven is like what happens when a net is thrown into a lake and catches all kinds of fish. (Mat 13:48) When the net is full, it is dragged to the shore, and the fishermen sit down to separate the fish. They keep the good ones, but throw the bad ones away. (Mat 13:49) Thats how it will be at the end of time. Angels will come and separate the evil people from the ones who have done right. The fact that was the gospel net caught many fishes of different kinds. Everyone was happy with the success of the catch. It was a full net but when the net was brought ashore, it was discovered that there were bad fishes in the net and they were thrown away. Jesus said, this is what will happen at the end of this age. Divine agents, angels, not pastors will do the separation according to divine standards. The bad fishes were rejected because of quality and not size. There were small but good fishes as well as big but bad fishes. The big sizes of the fishes did not make the angels keep them neither the did the small sizes hinder the keeping of the good fishes. Amazing truth form the lips of Jesus. Then I said to her, “Can you imagine how the rejected fishes felt? Their responses are summarized in the sermon on the Mount. Let me reproduce it here as recorded in the Message Bible, I can see it now -- at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourself important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here. Then she asked me, “That went wrong? If they were protesting their rejection, it means that all the while they did not know they were doing the wrong things!” Then I said, “Yes! They did not know that their priorities were wrong! WHAT OF YOURS? They prioritized preaching over practice of the message. They dealt with demons rather than the flesh. They worked miracles rather than holiness! Again, let me ask you, “What are your priorities? How right are they?” Look at the Lord’s response again, “YOU MISSED THE BOAT...” What a terrible thing to hear! What a terrible time to hear it! Whenever I write like this, men of God insist I should stop criticizing other men of God. I am not criticizing them but their messages. These have the capacity to derail the eternal destinies of men. Daily I am worried that all that ministers spend their pulpits doing is casting out demons, decreeing and declaring blessings that hardly come to be. Someone will say, “But there are testimonies?” My answer is “Those in this place hard them too and Jesus did not tell them they were lying.” The gospel net will be cast into the sea of humanity this Sunday. It will catch many fishes in its altar calls. BE SURE NOT TO MISS THE BOAT!!! Do have a blessed Sunday this day! May the God of Peace crush Satan under His feet. An to Him that is able to keep you from stumbling and falling be glory in the Church. Amen!!
Posted on: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 02:30:02 +0000
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