WHAT CAN WASH AWAY OUR SINS

THIS IS ONE OF THE MAIN STREETS OF ELDORET THE DAY BEFORE EASTER!   Yes you are right, the people ARE washing the streets - with OMO.   Later the Fire engine came and rinsed them all ready for the expected visit of 'The Holy Spirit' and the prophet 'Elijah' all in the person of Kenya's man of the moment - God's Mighty PROPHET

OWOUR.      He is himself a 'very humble man' they say, and indeed he preaches 'Repentance' and 'Restoration' without even taking up an offering.    Over Easter he conducted an extensive Crusade within one of the Sports Fields of Eldoret, with more, perhaps, than two million people attending.      There were manifold 'healings' and one or two 'prophetic' utterances.   And then he was gone, the people receding with him, and the now unwashed streets already back to their dusty and littered appearance.       Prophet Owour, with his 'Pirates of the Carribean' grubby beard, is a growing phenomenon.   BUT is he truly a prophet?      Many are asking the question, and probing this man's ministry.    The surprise is in the numbers of people flocking to hear him, touch him, or just see him.   He is already called 'Lord',   Holy Spirit,   The Mighty Prophet of God.........However, although WE did see a little of him on TV on Saturday, we were in no way disturbed by him, and enjoyed our own Easter just as we had planned, and we were Blessed.    Jesus was among us, and we KNEW once more, beyond all doubt, that HE did rise from the grave, and LIVES in us.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

THIS LITTLE BABY is ABIGAIL, our adopted daughter Helen's child.  She will be just six weeks only on this coming Monday.   She is a Sweetie - but not a 'Tweetie-Pie' like her Mother.     She has a loud voice!    She also suffers from Colic, and only yesterday did she seem, for the first TIME, to enjoy some measure of peace.     Every waking hour until then she had yelled the house down, and kept US very much AWAKE!

BUT how could we not love this little bundle?    Just look at that face --- those screwed up eyes, that dumpy little nose, and those pouty lips - aren't they all just so wonderful, so full of promise......?   Well yes, perhaps, but I seem to see a glint of determined steel within those little eyes.     She will need it.

'Daddy' ran out on them both, and that is why she here with her granpa and granma.    Pray for Helen and Abigail.   No mistakes with a Birth - God is the Giver of Life, and He always gives with a Plan and Purpose in mind.   

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

ON THURSDAY of this week a young man of 35, one Harrison Mumia, was reported in our Daily Nation newspaper as saying, among other things, that 

GOD does not solve any of our problems,

because He does not exist.

Harrison was brought up in a Christian family of Quaker persuasion.    One of his brothers is a Muslim!   Harrison works for the Central Bank of Kenya, and is currently President of 'Atheists in Kenya' with a membership of some 2000.      

I WAS SORRY TO READ ABOUT HIM.    Sorry also that the NATION gave an entire PAGE of their paper to Harrison's belief and testimony to godlessness.     Of course the Nation is not a Christian paper by any means, but it is owned by H.H. The Agha Khan, who is appointed to lead an Islamic sect, and one would expect his paper to at least uphold the 'idea' of God if nothing else      BUT who knows the mind of the Agha Khan?    Who knows ANYONE's mind in a real way - only God.    It is not for any of us to 'judge' another - but to forgive and to forbear, and to believe in God's ultimate Mercy and Grace toward them. It gave me pause, though, to come across two very different men, each propounding what I would consider erroneous views, in just a few days.     I could feel the bile begin to rise within me, to rebuke and judge them both.......YET these two did not need my wrath and condemnation, but instead they needed what I needed and need - the Mercy and Forgiveness of God procured for us all by Jesus Christ the Righteous.     Oh my, how VERY careful we all have to be in tune with what IS right -  As the Writer of Hebrews 12v15 says (Amplified Bible)  'Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look after one another, to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God's grace (His unmerited favour and spiritual blessing), in order that no root of resentment, rancour bitterness, or hatred shoots forth and causes trouble and bitter torment, and many be come contaminated and defiled by it...'

Unlike HARRISON'S confession I have always been somehow conscious of spiritual realities around me.    I was NOT brought up to be a Christian or any thing else.    BUT I was from a very early age quite AWARE of Goodness and Malice, and indeed, of Good and EVIL, and I tended to see and FEEL it in a general sense until in 1957 I cried out to GOD to rescue me - and He did.    He very instantly drew me back for my untimely death.    I knew nothing about God or Jesus in any way perfectly.   I was not a church goer at the time.     BUT having once experienced God's intervention in my life, I have never looked back with doubt about His very real existence.     YES, God was there me, when I needed Him,

I only had to SEE and believe.     No priest helped me BEFORE I came to that knowledge.    

IN ALL THE YEARS SINCE, and in all the ministry of Testimony Faith Homes in which I have been involved for 44 years, I have discovered nothing to encourage me to change my mind, or even question to Truth in relation to the Existence of God, or in His Justice, His Mercy, or Compassion.    I was born into International Conflict in the 2nd World War, and I have lived ever since in a progressively war torn world, spurred on by selfish greed, pride and determination to dismantle all knowledge and respect for GOD.  I have known the horror, the hunger, the violence of this world - but have never needed to blame God for it, or question His attitude to it.     He Created the Universe, this Galaxy and Solar System, and He Created Man with a free will to SERVE Him.      If things have gone astray for man it is because HE preferred his one way to God's Way.     The result Man brought and does bring upon himself.   I have had to SEE many times over that GOD made MAN -  It is not Man who made or makes himself, any more than he made the Earth he stands upon, the Galaxy that Earth is part of, or even the Universe beyond.     GOD is THERE.    Indeed He is HERE!!!     MY Testimony today is that BECAUSE God IS there, EXISTING, He is able to, and DOES, solve all my problems.

What a privilege it is to be ALIVE, and to be alive NOW.     So many to share the Light with, so many to reach out to in love and grace as the Darkness deepens.     Well my light might be small in contrast to the overwhelming depth of the Darkness, but little though it may be,  I'M GOING TO LET IT SHINE, AND SHINE, AND SHINE.      So help me Holy Spirit.  HELP US ALL!!

God our Father be with you all, to Strengthen and Inspire you to GIVE yourselves TO Him.

John and Esther /  Daryl and Carol