Sexual Purity, Truth

God is Faithful Forever!

Oh, how I missed each one of you😍😍😍😍! How I missed to be on social media just to benefit one person! God is my witness!

 
I was not forced to be away from social media. It’s been a while since my husband was asking me to take a break. But by God’s will and on Him time, I was able to take a long, well-deserved, fruitful and wonderful break. May the name of Jesus Christ be praised forever!
 
During my break, our little son, Biruk Banko, turned 20, 2nd year computer science student. That means it is not like we are getting old but we are SERIOUSLY GETTING OLD😅!
 
And our older son, Abel Banko and his beautiful bride, Honora Banko, celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary.
 
Happy Belated Anniversary to the cutest couple I knowđŸ„łđŸ€©đŸ˜đŸ„°đŸ˜˜!
 
Our middle child, our only daughter, Lydia Banko, is a senior in Chemical Engineering and God willing, getting ready to graduate in the coming May. We are very proud of her!
 
And during this break, the Love of my life, my husband, my Berhan and I had a wonderful and memorable getaway, without social media and my phone. Praise God!
 
And last but not least, for the past 8-years, since I began Appeal for Purity, I celebrated my birthday with all of you! But this time, my birthday fell on one of the weeks of my break (September 11, መሔኚሚም ፩ in Ethiopian calendar). So, I couldn’t celebrate it with you! But believe me, my husband and my beautiful children celebrated my birthday and they celebrated me too. Praise God!
 
I just turned 100 now😅😅😅😅.
 
Happy belated Ethiopian New Year’s Day to all of you! Happy 2015!
 
Thank you my beautiful friends for praying for me. I really and truly felt it! I am serious! I said to myself more than two times, “Some people must have prayed for me!” Why? The Holy Spirit was ministering to my spirit in the most special way. So, thank you for praying for me! I always prayed for you!
 
Throughout my break, I was able to pick up some of my “good-habits,” that I dropped without knowing it such as going to the library with a good spiritual book and be lost in the truth of God. Praise God! You know, in hustle and bustle of life, unless we are too careful, we lose our good habits and we need a break to first notice what we lost and to pick each one of them up. Praise God!
 
During my break, I did lots of reading, lots of praying, and repenting of many of my sins that I didn’t know of before, I did lots of meditating. In short, I am refreshed and rejuvenated by the mercy and grace of God! Praise God for me please!
 
Oh, my friends, I really recommend this kind of break to all of you. Mind you, I always try to take a vacation with my kind husband and all but my phone and social media had been going with me to the vacation. But this time, there was no such kind of thing.
 
While I was away, Appeal for Purity (A4P) didn’t go anywhere. A4P’s website, social media platforms didn’t go anywhere. When I come back, I found them all where I left them. Yes, I learned my lesson in a hard way. Taking a break hasn’t been part of my life and my husband had been trying to convince me to take a break. Did I listen to him? Nope!
 
My God, my Savior lovingly helped me to take the break and I am eternally thankful that I did! And I am thinking of taking this kind of break as often as I can. May God help me!
 
Today, I want to start my journey with you with this truth of God that carries me through this tough life: The faithfulness of God!
 
Yes, God is faithful! Did you hear me? God is faithful!
 
We all think that we understand this concept. Well, we can understand the meaning of the sentence but what does it really mean? We don’t know fully! We don’t understand it because none of us are faithful. I hope none of you will argue with me in that. Yes, we all struggle with unfaithfulness. And everywhere we turn, we see similar people, people just like us. So, unconsciously, not knowingly, we often see God just like us. Because of that we struggle with all kinds of fear and anxiety.
 
No, God is not man! He is not like us! God is Holy, Holy, Holy! He is separate and apart from His creations! He is different!
 
He is faithful means He is faithful! There is no “but” with His faithfulness.  
 
So, I want to encourage you all with four quick points around the faithfulness of God!
 
1. God is faithful in choosing us
 
Jesus said, “You did not choose Me but I chose you,” John 15:16a NASB
 
God chose us in Christ to be His adopted sons and daughters not because of anything on our part. All the reasons why God chose us are found in Him.
 
“He chose us in Him [in Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” Ephesians 1:4 NASB
 
Do you see that? He chose us in Christ before we were even born, before “the foundation of the world.”
 
That means, God cannot, I will say it again, God cannot “unchoose” us for reasons He finds in us. He is faithful in His choosing us.
 
Listen:
 
“If we endure, we will also reign with Him;
If we deny Him, He also will deny us;
If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” 2 Timothy 2:12-13 NASB
 
Praise God!
 
No one is found among God’s people who deny God! But if we stumble, stagger, struggle to stand faithfully and fall, HE REAMINS FAITHFUL! Why? How can He deny Himself? He cannot!
 
2. God is faithful in shepherding us, His sheep.
 
Yes, God chose us in Christ. Guess what? His choosing us gave us a new birth! Or, a second birth!
 
Listen:
 
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10 NASB
 
Did you see it? It says, He “created” us “in Christ.”
 
When we say, “born-again Christian,” some people think that we are making up terms and concepts to make our “religion” or “faith” unique and different. Nothing is further from the truth. Saying, we are “re-created in Christ” – we are “born-again in Christ” is a biblical truth.
 
Adam sinned against God and fell in sin. God said to Adam, “but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:17 NASB
 
So, Adam sinned against God, he ate the forbidden fruit and he died. So, all of us, without any exception,  who came after him, we came as dead people, dead spiritually, dead to the things of God, dead to know and love God.
 
God, with His mercy and grace, He chose us in Christ and He regenerated us, brought us back to life, He created us in Christ.
 
How does God call those who are born in Christ? He called them (us, followers of Jesus Christ) “My sheep.” Listen:
 
“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. . . The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10: 11, 24-30 NASB
 
The Jews thought if Jesus had explained to them His Sonship (God-Son), they would have known Him. They didn’t know that they were actually “dead!” Just like “Nicodemus.” Nicodemus thought he had recognized who Jesus was by his own intelligent mind but Jesus kindly and lovingly said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” John 3:5 NASB
 
In effect, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Nicodemus, unless you are born again, you cannot know who I truly am!”
 
And those who God called and created in Christ, He calls them “My sheep” and guess what? God is a faithful shepherd! He never lets any of His sheep get lost. He watches over them day and night. God knows how sheep are prone to go astray, to get lost. So, He faithfully watches over His prone to stray sheep 24/7.
 
You know how God expresses this relationship, God and His sheep? Like a mother and her child. Listen:
 
“Can a woman forget her nursing child
And have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.” Isaiah 49:15 NASB
 
You know what this verse is saying? It is saying, “It is eko impossible for a woman to forget the child of her womb.” I mean, let me speak like a mother here. Let me tell you something: My children are always with me. I carry them in heart and soul wherever I go. When am I going to forget them? The answer is never, unless I die or totally lose my mind.
 
The word of God says, “Yeah! That is impossible, right? Well, there can be a slight chance that that truth may not be true. A mother may forget her child.”
 
“HOWEVER, I, YOUR SHEPHERD, WILL NOT FORGET YOU.”
 
Why? Again, God is the faithful Shepherd!
 
Moses, after he sinned against God, striking the rock while God told him to speak to it, God said to Moses, You will not enter the Promised Land; you only see it from far off.
 
So, Moses knew that he was going to die. Before he departed from this life, he advised the people of Israel and one of his advices was:
 
“Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6 NASB
 
Did you see that? He pretty much said to them, “Listen, it is God who brought out of Egypt! And He is the One to take you to the Promise Land. So trust Him because He said, I will not fail you or forsake you. And since He is faithful, just put all your eggs in the basket of His promises/words!”
 
Praise God!
 
As God brought Israelites out of Egypt, He brought us from death to life (Ephesian 2). And the One who brought us to life will faithfully shepherd us!
 
God said to Joshua who took Moses’ place:
 
“No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.” Joshua 1:5 NASB
 
Again, God said to Joshua the same thing: “I will not fail you or forsake you.”
 
What does this tell us? What God said to Moses and Joshua, He is saying the same thing to us, to you and me, because faithfulness is who He is. God cannot change!
 
The writer of Hebrews writes this same concept in this way:
 
“Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”” Hebrews 13:5 NASB
 
Amen! God is a faithful Shepherd!
 
3. God is faithful to all His promises
 
God stands with all His words because God is His word and His word is God (John 1:1, 14). We cannot separate these two, God and His Word, because they are ONE.
 
My friends, the word of God is like a sea. No one can claim to know every word of God. That means, it is critical for us to read and study the word of God on a daily basis because reading the word of God for us is a life and death issue. If we ignore reading/studying/meditating on the word of God, our heart is “a perpetual idol factory” (John Calvin). Our heart can easily make its own idol and pray for its idol. That is why the word of God says, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4 NASB
 
When we eat the word of God as we eat our daily meals, God’s faithfulness, His nature, who He is will slowly become clear to us (not perfectly though). When we grasp this truth, we hold on to all God’s promises as if we held on to our life. Then little by little we come to know without any doubt that God is faithful to all His word/promises.
 
4. God is faithful to the end
 
God is not only faithful for today and tomorrow but He is also faithful to the end!
 
He is the One who chose us; He is the One who called us; He is the One who began this amazing faith in our hearts and guess what? He is the One who finishes what He started in us.
 
Paul writes: “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6 NASB
 
And Paul also writes this same concept to Corinth Christians like this:
 
“you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 1:17-18 ESV
 
Why?
 
Because “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13 ESV
 
Wow! I don’t know about you but for me, this truth of God gives me so much peace and comfort that I want to hold it close to my heart forever.
 
Paul writes to the Romans:
 
“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” Romans 8:29-30 NASB
 
Who is doing all the works of choosing, regenerating, justifying, sanctifying and glorifying us?
 
God alone!
 
And to whom do we offer all our prayers, worship, and praise then? To God only!
 
That is why eko at the end, when we stand at His throne and receive our crowns, we put them all our crows at His feet saying, “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.” Revelation 4:11 NASB
 
So, my friends, in these challenging, trying and in the most uncertain time, let’s encourage each other with this truth of God. Let’s remind one another the faithfulness of God because unless we fix our eyes on Him and who He is, it is a tough life to keep on keeping on. May God be with you all! ///