Calling on the name of the Lord!

In many scriptures and verses the Bible talks about "Calling on the name of the lord" The last verse on the second chapter of Joel the bible says shall be serve, For whosover shall call on the name of the lord. This is part of the long verse. Theologians from many instituions around the world do not agree on certain meanings and sayings of the Holy scriptures. They base they arguments on Language, pantuation, time and many other aspects of knowledge and understanding. In some cases they can agree on a topic or scripture and then differ in operation and practice. Some of this could even be the culture and traditional differences as well as beliefs. The reason why I am in pain trying to outline my perspective is because it is dangerous to assume that one own knowledge is the right one when it comes to the scriptures, hence the number of churches and religions.

Having said that I am of the opinon that The God of the Universe, The Almighty, The Supreme being, The Power that be, The Creator of human kind, The Master, The father of All Spirits. I could go on and on but its really difficult to talk of God in human words. God is a Spirit and resides above matter, form or shape, has no beginning nor end. Is the First and Last. The Great Being. In My language which also fall short like in terms of vocabulary we call him uNKULUNKULU which when translated means The One Above All Else. And also some would use uMVELINQABI which means THE ONE WHO WAS THERE BEFORE ANYTHING. Having language limitations I should have asked for help from others who are experts in both language and culture.

It seems to me that through out the scripture or history the relation between God and man has always been a unique one. According to the bible '' God made man for himself ''. In our African culture the concept of serving God is not knew, even though its been done in a different ways. I would not want to generalise the ways in African people serve or have always served their God. Him being a Spirit his charactor and qualities remains a mystery to us of flesh and blood. His ways are not our ways the bible say in Isaiah and neither are His thoughts. It seems that God has a way of hiding himself, and in the same way also can choose to reveal himself at his given time and place. This he can do to people of his choice in many forms and times.


The writer of Hebrews could not have said it better when he said God who in times past has revealed himself to our forefathers in many ways and different times has chosen to reveal himself through his son who he has appointed heir to all things .Then John refusing to be outdone says something like without him not one thing was made. Going on to say he is the first born of the living and the dead. Apostle Paul would say he is the" express image of his glory upholding all things by the power of his mighty." Time will not allow me to tracy Jesus from the beginning. This reminds me of the time when I used to preach back in the 90s. I do not preach much here because of working schedules. Through tradition, religion , culture, education and science we see and respond to God in many ways.

Given this background it is interesting to note what happens when we, "Call on the name of the lord" We all wish God was in our religion and l do not even know if GOD has a religion. This is not to suggest that God gets confused by our needs but rather our attitudes. There is a tedency for people to create a 'god 'in their minds and religion.This type of god can have his hand twisted to fit their cicurmstances. After all God uderstands us anywhere . It seems to me that sometimes we as people expect us to do things that God has given us power to do. Read Gen the first chapters again to see what I mean. There is a danger to which we can expect spiritual things to fullfil natural needs even though I know that the spiritual was first

One time when me and my grandfather [he is now late} were driving along a certain mountain Fambeki is the name of the mount, those who have been around this area know that there are people praying 24/7. Day and night. What my grandfather said to me that day stuck with me to this day. I would not have expected him to say that being a christian and a renowned preacher. he said bluntly, "Do you know that religion is the most dangerous thing? For a moment I was quiet and he continued , ''Instead of these people working they spend all the time praying.'' He was talking about balancing prayer and work time. I knew he would have been the last person to mock prayerfull related events. Our Lord Jesus put in this way render the things that belong to Ceaser to Ceaser and God,s to God.

I will continue tommorrow.