ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrew Abayomi Morgridge is a graduate of the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). He graduated in 1986 with a Masters Degree in International Relations He has written many books and tracts since he gave his life to Christ over 30 years ago. He has planted and nourished many churches in Nigeria and other countries across Africa. He anchors the Voice of Restoration Radio programme, an evangelical arm of The Christian Brethren Church, Lagos, Nigeria. He passes on his wealth of knowledge in Pastors/Workers’ Conferences across West Africa. He is also the Church Administrator of The Christian Brethren Church International. Andrew lives in Lagos, Nigeria, with his wife, Bunmi and their four daughters.
TO THE CITY OF GOD
There is a tomorrow, a tomorrow in Heaven which many will not partake of; not because God does not want them there, but because people would sadly choose to assume they were going to Heaven as they follow a route designed by them and their church leaders. But there is only one way to Heaven. It is found in John 14:6; Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. There is only ONE WAY – application of TRUTH – the word of God (John 17:17). And for those who say they can’t read Paul tells us in Romans 1:19 NLT, that you can see God and know what He wants as you observe nature. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. There is a streak in human beings that always want to do things the way he sees fit. Take the case of a young man who approached Jesus with a demand to follow Him. Jesus told him the conditions but he chose to turn back. He could not see the relationship between his wealth and his desire to follow Jesus. Funny enough Jesus did not make the same demand on His disciples – He knows everybody and what will be a stumbling block on the road to Heaven (Mark 10:17-30).
Christianity is a race that leads to Heaven, that is what Paul told Timothy and any one that wants to go to heaven. Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully (2 Timothy 2:1-5).
What you will note immediately is a calling and how to do it so that you can get to Heaven. It started with grace in verse 1 but did not stop there, he went on to talk about being a soldier, not entangling yourself with the affairs of this world – this is what he called striving lawfully. We are however more concerned that we have received grace for salvation and assume based on wrong teachings that, that is what will take us to Heaven. It will not, as the Bible tells us that to your holiness you need to master – control your tongue, master your emotions, master your appetite, learn to willingly give to the poor and the needy, work daily towards finishing your God-given assignments, as you remain intimate with God.
This is Christianity according to the Bible. It is even called elementary teaching in Hebrews 6:1-2 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. Did you see that the writer of Hebrews says that eternity is supposed to be elementary knowledge; what you teach primary school students and that is what pastors and Christians alike are grappling with. They live as if there is no tomorrow. He says the teaching of judgement, of tomorrow is supposed to be elementary. By dictionary definition, elementary constitute what is called the basic, the elemental or fundamental part of anything. It is so important that it is called the essential or fundamental part of something. Essential means something you can’t overlook or do without, fundamental means the same thing. It is fundamental to our growth that you eat. You don’t eat you don’t grow; you can’t circumvent it. It’s in that sense that God is saying that a teaching on judgement, living for tomorrow, you can’t dodge it. It is basic. You must know that there is judgement ahead, it will help you live for tomorrow.
1 Timothy 6:12, Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. Fight the good fight is the same as pressing towards the mark (Philippians 3:8-10, 13-14). It speaks of overcoming the things that will not make us to live the total Christian life. My responsibility is to overcome the world. Don’t live for today because God has placed this present world along with eternity in our hearts. We are the ones who will choose like Demas where to go. Demas followed Paul for a long time. When he was writing to Timothy he said, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world (2 Timothy 4:10).
In other words, Timothy also knew Demas. They were all workers in his vineyard. He did not overcome. He was unfaithful, he turned back. He, like many Christians lived only for today – he wasn’t thinking about the world to come. Paul’s mention of him “loving this present world is a pointer that there is a better world that we should live for. City of God will be explaining how “Giving your life a meaning is living for tomorrow”! Abraham, the father of faith lived looking for the city of God (Hebrews 11: 8-16).
Quite often Christians especially, see judgement only for the unbelievers but as I will show you, Christians will be in hell because they did not get home. The world captured them while they were in service.
The understanding of Rapture and what it takes to make the Rapture train will remain our central theme.
We look forward to meeting with you on our blog page, weekly.
Shallom!!!