21st  December, 2007

I greet you and wish you, my dear brothers and sisters, compliments of the season as the year comes to an end. With the coming of our dear Chief Apostle to our district in March and December next year, it is important that we prepare our hearts for these blissful visits.

Let it be always our desire to do that which the Lord wants - The will of God, with thankfulness because the Lord gives us much blessings and grace. It is that purpose that Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians for in chapter 5 verse 10:

"Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord"

People can advise you how to live your life today and you may take a different way but the most important thing is that you must find out what is acceptable to the Lord and what the Lord wants. This, we can do by always praying, by attending services and following divine guidance.

We can learn something from the past – in the Garden of Eden. The Lord told Adam and Eve what to do, but the devil came and told them something different. They chose to do something different from what the Lord had told them. We all know the consequences that befell them. Let us be mindful of how we choose that which comes our way.

Let us be able to recognize when the Lord intervenes in our lives, where appropriate, let us amend and change the course.

In the books of Apocrypha – in Ecclesiasticus 25:1, we can also find out what is given as that which is acceptable to God:

"In three things, I was beautiful and stood up beautiful both before God and men; the unity of brethren, the love of neighbours, a man and his wife that agree together."

Sometimes you stand beautiful before God but not before man. It is rare that we can find ourselves beautiful before God and before man.

What is beautiful before God?  Firstly, it is unity of the brethren, which is unity in the congregation. When there is oneness in the congregation, there is much peace, much joy and much fruits of the spirit.

The second one is the love of neighbours; we must be able to understand the environment we live in and those we live with. We must be able to accept and value the opinions of others. There must be unconditional love to our neighbours and we must be prepared to forgive others.

The next one is the man and wife that agree together, that makes one beautiful before God and man. This means there is oneness in the family, that one can show their faith within the family, that they understand one another; it beautifies one before God and man. Oneness leads to concentration on issues of value to the faith and the work of God upon our souls.

So let it be our striving to find out what is acceptable to God. There are many things that may be acceptable to God and to man, but let us seek that which is acceptable to God, it will lead us to everlasting life.

I wish you much joy and peace for Christmas and richest blessings from our Heavenly Father to accompany you in the New Year 2008 and always.

Hearty greetings of Love

Charles S Ndandula

(from a divine service by the District Apostle)