EVANGEL AFRICA

Everyone agrees that a believer must live a "holy life". But what does that even mean? Practically, and realistically, a person who is living in holiness is a person who is doing what? I know a certain so-called preacher who used to teach his followers that they were not allowed to wear makeup, earrings, short-sleeve shirts and even watching TV was forbidden. Any Christian who does these things, he said, would not enter heaven because God demands 100% holiness.  Because of such wrong teachings, many of us now shy away from the "holiness talk" because that is what we imagine Christian holiness to be. That, my friends, is not holiness —far from it. In fact, it is the purest definition of legalism. A belief that by outward observance, one can please God. "Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?", asked the Apostle ( Gal 3:3 ). Believe it or not, that is the kind of "holiness" that Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for. There ...

On 7 February 2013, Zambian News outlets were flooded with the report that 53 people had lost their lives after a high-speed collision between a bus and a truck in the northern part of Lusaka. Just months ago, gunmen stormed a tavern and shot dead 11 humans in Sausville, South Africa. All those lost lives were real people who had families and future plans and bank accounts and phone passwords. They vanished from this earth with one moment of brutal madness. If, perhaps, you have attended the funeral service of a similar tragic event, what questions would you have in your mind? How about, "Where was God when it happened?" If God is All-loving and All-powerful, then why doesn't He stop all this evil and suffering? We can rightly blame Satan for all these bad things, but who created him? If the Almighty knew that Lucifer would become the devil and end up deceiving millions into suffering and death, why was he made in the first place? Think of it another way: suppose you kno...

It's not a pious statement for me to say that the greatest trouble of my Christian life is sin. And the fact that “ I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing .” I am also comforted by the promise, “ if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us for our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness .” Furthermore, the Christian life is not lived alone. There is a community of other saints that you share your faith with. That brings the issue of transparency before them, or as the good Apostle says, “ You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone ” ( 2 Cor 3:2 ). Another verse that is in my mind goes like this: “ Confess your sins to one another , and pray for one another, that you may be healed... ”( Jam 5:16 ). Okay, here is the big question: how open must you be before your fellow brethren? Do they have the rig...