Interviewer: What does it mean when Jesus said you must lose your life to find it?
Christian: He meant you need to lose this life you have completely and take up His own life
Interviewer: Wow, is that possible?
Christian: Yes, that’s how we should live. It requires faith.
Interviewer: So you give up your life for the life of Christ by faith?
Christian: Yes, this is how to be saved.
Interviewer: Did you surrender your life to Christ?
Christian: Yes!
Interviewer: All of your life or some of your life?
Christian: All of my life! Of course.
Interviewer: So Christ owns you? Is that what you mean when you call him Lord?
Christian: Yes, exactly.
Interviewer: Wow, do you trust him that much?
Christian: Absolutely!
Interviewer: You mean Jesus owns you? All of you?
Christian: All of me, every past, present, future, resources, all!
Interviewer: What of your Children, do they belong to you?
Christian: No, they belong to God, I am a steward.
Interviewer: This is scary. What about your wife?
Christian: She belongs to God, she is God sent to help me accomplish what God wants us to achieve.
Interviewer: What of your Money, does that belong to God too?
Christian: Yes, that too. All of it, I’m only a steward.
Interviewer: What does all these mean practically?
Christian: It means I must communicate with God, and get his direction on training my children, on leading my wife, and on spending every penny.
Interviewer: Forreal?
Christian: Yes for real.
Interviewer: Does God have time like that?
Christian: Yes He does. He’s a loving father. He speaks to us, more than we care to even listen. We need to read the Bible to decode His language.
Interviewer: So God really wants to have a relationship with human beings, he wants to commune with them like everyday?
Christian: Yes, exactly. That’s the main difference between the law and grace. With the law, you don’t need to talk to God, just look at what he wrote as commandments and tick them off. But with grace, you allow Him to lead you.
Interviewer: Wow, so you are free from Law based on grace?
Christian: Yes! But it doesn’t mean you won’t be law abiding though, as most of the law that is not cultural is actually common sense. So you’ll find yourself still living based on God’s moral standards of you allow Him to live out through you.
Interviewer: How do you mean the law that is not cultural is common sense?
Christian: Thou shall not murder for example. If we don’t have that commandment, we’ll self destruct. The moral codes actually make our lives on earth more sustainable. God however is not impressed by your good works, He wants you to have a relationship with Him so that Christ can live out his life and do the works though you.
Interviewer: Profound! So back to the matter, God wants you to communicate with him regularly and get his direction on all His goods that are in your care?
Christian: Absolutely! They are all His, I am only a steward of all things.
Interviewer: Is there anything wrong though with obeying the Law rather than living by Grace?
Christian: Yes, everthing is wrong with it. By obeying the Law you never mature beyond a child – It’s children that need dos and don’ts. With the law your relationship with God will not develop, you’ll not need to ask God for anything. Then you can’t obey the law 100% all the time, and God says if you fail in one, you have failed in all. So the law puts you in more condemnation. The law couldn’t save us, that’s why Christ came!
Interviewer: Wow, I now understand it!
Christian: It’s really simple if your heart is right and you are not looking at God based on what you can get, but based on who he is and what he wants.
Interviewer: So if all you own is God’s All, how do you then pay tithes and offering?
Christian: It doesn’t make sense does it? If I already surrendered 100% how can I give him 10% of what he already owns? Tithe is like circumcision and Sabbath, all existed before the Law, but were drafted into the law. God wants 100% from the seed of Christ. If our lives are truly sold out to God, we will get his direction for what to give and where to give.
Interviewer: Why do pastors then demand for 10%
Christian: Well, some of them think that God has provided that as the means of funding church work. I really can’t blame them much, I didn’t understand it well before as well.
Interviewer: How practical is 100% though? How does that work really?
Christian: It’s simple. If I belong to God, and the money belongs to God, using the money to buy food that I’ll eat based on God’s leading still means the money is still with God! He can instruct me to give someone, he can lead me to give it to church. It has to be His leading as it’s His resources.
Interviewer: Wow! It sounds like the Goat of the King that ate the Yam of the King.
Christian: Yes, so far it’s the King that gave the goat the Yam. Whenever we step into personal agenda, we leave God’s ownership. It has to be centered around God.
Interviewer: What then should believers give to Church?
Christian: Whatever they have purposed in their heart, with God’s leading to give. I truly feel that if people are led by God, many churches would starve of funds. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not really being funded, just empires.
Interviewer: If I give to Church, will it multiply? I hear I can sow my money and reap a bumper harvest.
Christian: Many rich people have multiplied their money by doing business. I know no scripture to support that type of nonsense. From my understanding of Jesus’ teaching, the seed is the word of God, which became the son of God and birthed the sons of the kingdom.
Interviewer: Wow… what can I do to be saved?
Christian: Repent!
Interviewer: You mean say a sinners prayer?
Christian: No! saying a sinners prayer doesn’t mean you are saved, there is what you need to do first… to be continued.
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Kind Regards
Adeolu Akinyemi
