Grow In Faith

How will your name and my name be written in the book of life? One way, when you start living the Lord Jesus. When will you live with a person, when you truly love the person? It is impossible to live with someone you do not love. It is impossible.

And if you even try to live with a person you do not love, that is what hell is all about. If you don't know what hell is, living in a place where there is no love, that is hell. So you don't need to wait to make it to hell, God forbids.

You can live hell on earth when you live in a place, in a house, in a situation, in a relationship where there is no love, that is hell. So the only way to live with a person is when there is genuine true love between the two. Genuine true love.

The only way for our names to be written in the book of life, we need to love the Lord. You see, so many young, especially young people, they ask me this question. It is a very reoccurring question.

It gets asked quite often. Bishop, do I really have to go to church? Do I really have to pray? Do I really have to read the holy bible? And when I prayed, is it okay if I pray while I am sleeping in my bed? Or do I have to be standing? Or do I have to be kneeling? Or do I have to be, what are you taking a photo or something? Like do I really have to, Bishop? No, my son, my daughter, you don't have to. Really? Yeah, really, you don't have to.

Oh wow, what a relief. No, but I'll ask you this, my son and daughter. Do you love the Lord? Do you love the Lord Jesus? If you say yes, then if you love the Lord, you have to go to church.

And if you love the Lord, you have to pray. And if you love the Lord, you have to read the holy bible. And if you love the Lord, you have to fast.

And if you love the Lord, you have to do good. Because you cannot love someone and do everything against them. When you love a person, in fact, you will go out of your comfort zone to please them.

I'll give you an example and I've mentioned it so many times in our talks. A mother raises her child, a son more so than a daughter. But a son or a daughter.

They raise their child. They sacrifice their life. Hard-working mom, hard-working dad.

Raise this child till they become 20, 25, maybe 30 years of age. And that child throughout those long 20-30 years, the parents struggled with them to get them to do one thing for their mom or dad. A stranger comes along and he sees this gazelle coming from afar.

And the heart starts going, you know, falls in love. And then she comes and snatches his heart away from him. He falls in love with this girl.

The first day, he washes the dishes, vacuums the house, mows the lawn, does everything. He takes her shopping for hours on end. The mother looks, for 30 years my son, I struggled for you to wash your plate when you finished eating.

Well mom, because I'm in love. I love you mom, but I'm not in love only with this girl. When you love the person, you will do crazy things.

You will do things that will shock you. After you do them, you say, was that really me? Man, like I have all muscles and tattoos and like this girl is making me vacuum. Like when I show up, all the boys run away from me.

I can punch my fist through a concrete wall and this girl is making me a slave at home. But I'm enjoying it. I'm loving it because I love her.

I'll do weird things. This is how your name gets written in the book of life. When you fall in love with Christ and I'm talking about holy love, holy companionship, pure heavenly elevated spiritual love, not that dirty muddy earthly love.

No, this is holy heavenly love. When you fall in love with Christ, you will do crazy things for him. You will not even think about doing it.

You just do it naturally. You don't have that long shopping list and you tick it. Did I do it? Did I not? Did I do it? Did I not? No, you just do it naturally.

This monk went into a monastery to start his monastic life. The first day ever, he says, I need to start right. So I will see, I'll find the oldest monk in that monastery because he must be a wise person.

I want to ask for his advice. What shall I do to begin my journey in the monastic life? He enters the monastery. He finds an old man with a white long bead and white hair.

He runs to him. He says, father, tell me what shall I do to start my monastic life correctly? He says, my son, do you know such and such place? He says, yes, father. That place happens to be a graveyard.

He says, my son, I want you to go to that graveyard and stand on top of all of those who are in that graveyard and tell them every nice word you could ever think of. Say it to them and come back and tell me what did they say to you? So he goes and he stands there. You are saints.

You are the holy children of God. You are the most wonderful, peaceful, beautiful. He said every beautiful thing he could ever think of to those people in the graveyard.

He goes back to the father. He said, Hassan, did you do it? Yes, father. What did they say to you? Nothing, father.

He says, well now, pick yourself up and go back to the same place and tell them every nasty, ugly word you could ever imagine to them and come back and tell me what did they say to you? So he goes. He says, you are sinners. You are filthy.

You are dirty. You're ugly. You are the sons of the snake.

Satan is your father. And then he comes back. Did you do it, son? Yes.

What did they say to you? Nothing, father. He said, son, you want to start your monastic life? Be like them. I hear nothing.

I see nothing. I am dead to the world and I'm living to Christ. I am dead to the world and I'm all alive for my Jesus, the love of my life.

Who cares what this person said about me? And who cares what that person is saying about me? What matters is what Christ says about me. When Christ says, this is my son, let the whole world persecute me. They can't do nothing to me.

I'm his son. What are you going to do when my Christ comes after you? What are you going to do? Love the Lord. Don't be a Christian where you live the Lord in obligations and duties.

Don't say, yes, I went to church this Sunday. Next one, I don't have to. You live him.

And I ask you, do you count how many times you breathe in and how many times you breathe out? No. Why? Because it's life. Nobody teaches you about life.

You just live the moment you embrace it. A baby that is just born does not know anything how to live, but they can breathe. Because life must be lived, not spoken of, not taught.

It has to be lived. Christ has to be lived. He is not a topic we talk about.

He is life and we need to live him. And when you live Christ, that means I'm no longer in existence. It's him because I'm living for him.

You see, for marriage to be successful is when both parties live for one another, not for themselves. The day that comes, the man lives for himself. Unity is divided.

It's broken. The day that comes, the wife lives for herself. They go their own ways.

But when the husband lives for his wife, and when the wife lives for her husband, the family is intact. The marital union is strong. And this is the Lord Jesus.

The Lord says, I did not live for myself. I lived for my father. I did not do anything for myself.

Everything I said and everything I did was to glorify my dad who art in heaven. See, this is the true love. When you live for the one you love, the moment you live for yourself, it's a selfish love, ugly as.

Ugly as. And how can you live for another person? You can only do that when you deny yourself. Because you will start doing things you don't like, you don't want.

But when you love them, you have to do it to please them. When each party does the same thing, the house is intact. It's built on the rock because the foundation of that house is Christ the King.

Christ the King. So my son, when Sunday is coming, you get ready brother. Dress up beautifully with a nice suit and look gorgeous, handsome.

Right? And then you look forward to coming to church. Run! Be like King David. I was glad when they said to me, to the house of the Lord we shall go.

I was glad. Not upset, not angry, not huffing and puffing, not arguing. I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord.

I was glad. Why? Because I'm going to meet my sweetheart. And when you are with your sweetheart, time seizes.

It does not exist. Let me say this to you my son. When you're sitting with your fiancee, whom you are about to get married to, you love her so much you can't wait for the big wedding day.

You're sitting in a cafe having a coffee. Do you look at the watch every five minutes and say, come on man, I need to go, I need to go. When you are with the love of your life, you never look at the time because the time seizes when love is in existence.