With Elder Elico Manenji
✝️God’s true servants do not avoid their responsibilities or use dishonest methods to gain.
They do not change the plain meaning of God’s Word to suit themselves but teach that Word faithfully and directly.
If the gospel is unprofitable, it is to those who are perishing because their unbelieving hearts are blinded. But true preachers know that the message they preach is of Christ not their own.
So, the light of the gospel will shine in the hearts of men as they see Christ as Lord and God. True preachers know that the priceless treasure of knowing Christ should be given to ordinary human beings, people beset by troubles and imperfections. So, the preaching of the gospel is like putting costly jewellery into an earthenware vessels but the excellency is God. So faith in God should keep us forecasted and confident amidst all afflictions, sufferings or death. Though we may suffer or die yet we are not defeated because death itself will be conquered by Jesus Christ. The only thing we need is to build more and more people in the knowledge of God so that the glory may be of God and not man.
*1️⃣2 Corinthians 4:1-7: The preaching of the gospel message is treasure in earthenware vessels.*
⏹️The gospel is both a light and revelation. To live in sin is to live in darkness and to live contrary to the gospel is blindness. Jesus said, *"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven"(Matthew 5:16).*
⏭️ Light of the gospel is given to mankind that they may spread it. If God has illuminated us, then we are His servants to illuminate the world.The evidence of the radiance of the sun is its light, so Christian light should shine on all who have not deadened their spiritual senses. Jesus said, *" No man, when he has lighted a candle, puts it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light"(Luke 11:33).*
⏹️The gospel is God's good news of salvation to sinners, so if its power and efficacy is hidden, it is hidden to those who are lost. The Apostle says, *"For we are to God a sweet smell of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the smell of death to death; and to the other the smell of life to life. And who is sufficient for these things?"(2 Corinthians 2:15-16).*
⏭️We should preach Christ as Lord, Saviour, Redeemer and Messiah, He is Lord over our body and soul, as Lord over our conscience, Lord over our property, Lord of our hopes, Lord of our love and desires, Lord of our future in whom we have our confidence. The Apostle says, *"But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end...For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end"(Hebrews 3:6, 14).*
⏭️ This is the treasure we have in earthenware vessels so that the excellency may be of God and not of men. The gospel is treasure in human weaknesses so that the power and immortality of the body will be revealed at the end of time when Christ will call His saints home. The Apostle says, *"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens"(2 Corinthians 5:1).*
*2️⃣2 Corinthians 4:8-18: Preaching of the gospel should be in all sincerity and faithfulness despite challenges or persecutions.*
⏹️The trials encountered in the cause of Christ are sometimes very great, but we are not distressed or perplexed, or bewildered, or benighted. The Apostle says, *" It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us"(2 Timothy 2:11-12).*
⏭️Though we may be persecuted, or pursued, we are not forsaken, or abandoned, though we may be cast down, or stricken down with a blow, yet we not perishing. The Apostle Peter says, *"But rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy"(1 Peter 4:13).*
⏭️The true labourer of Christ will have many great trials but will stay confident and supported by the approbation of our own conscience. The Apostle Peter says, *"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found to praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ"(1 Peter 1:7).*
⏹️We live, we know by faith that the truth taught by the Word of God gives us confidence that if Christ was raised, so we too shall be raised to life, so for this reason, we faint not, either are we despaired. For our focus is not on things we see but on things which we don't see which God prepared for the righteous. The Apostle says, *"Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life"(Romans 6:4)*
*🅰️Appeal*
As Christians, we are soldiers of God, we may sometimes dejected, or cast down, the enemy may in a great measure prevail and our spirits begin to fail us. There may be fears within as well as fightings without yet we are not destroyed, all we need to know and accept is that the sufferings of Christ must be manifested in us so that the life of Jesus might also be perfected in us. The Apostle John says, *"(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show to you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us;)"( 1John 1:2).* Amen!!!
Elico Manenji
(+263712952704)
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