I WILL LIVE, I WILL NOT DIE by Kenneth Ivan Kwesiga Six years ago, I was a young, ambitious, workaholic at the top of my game in the casting business in Uganda, and hungry for more success, until that fateful day late October when death came knocking at my door. A peptic ulcer attack turned into kidney failure in a matter of days. The world practically came crashing down. In Mulago Hospital, Dr. Eyoku wore a calm disposition but was hiding anxiety about my situation (as he was to tell me later). My doctor friends, Joel and Emmanuel Okullo looked at the figures on my report and along with family and church, could only pray for my survival. And as a last ditch attempt, Dr. Eyoku sent me to dialysis - a process that is not a guaranteed success. But before he did, he asked me to open my bible (which until this moment had been read only occassionally), to read from 2Kings 20.1-11 - Hezekiahs Illness and recovery. He encouraged me that God would heal me. Well, Dialysis took 3 days and it was stopped. I was discharged 2 weeks later. Life took on a whole new meaning. All the money and success I was pursuing could never have saved me from death. I was awakened to the longing, the void that only God can fill. God gradually led me away from my selfish ambitions to focus on himself. I gave my life to Jesus 2 years later [yeah, very slow to respond. Isnt his grace amazing?] I did so after watching a sermon by Paul Washer on youtube: youtube/watch?v=kiuX0iVn1N4 People have said stuff like its the medicine that worked or you were just lucky or stop crediting everything you cannot explain with God. I wish I had all the time to explain it all to them. What I can only say is, scientific evidence pointed to my demise but I never died then. Can science explain miracles? No. Because science does not know everything. There is a God. One God. The very nature of things shows you how orderly he is, how loving he is. But we are messed up. Who taught a 2 year old to lie or to kick the visitor in the living room?There is nothing good in us. We are born with sin. We hate each other, hold grudges, envy, steal from each other, fornicate, gossip, slander, engage in witchcraft and all sorts of things which are against Him. But he does not kill you for that, because he waits for you to surrender to him, believe in him and allow him to show you what true life in him is all about. That life is in His son Jesus Christ. All efforts, good works, charity, niceness outside Jesus cannot be accepted by God. Why would you want to be accepted by God? Your life here is counted in numbers of years. That alone means there is an end to it. Then comes the moment when you will stand before the one who created you, and you will realise that all the pursuits here on earth, all the toys, or the holidays, and TV programs and fantasies and busyiness that engaged you here on earth was a distraction to keep you from believing in God and in his son Jesus Christ. Friend, reading this, ask yourself, is this all there is to life. We are born, learn to walk, walk to school, school to get a job, job to marry and build a house, have a car and then bring in other children who are going to go through the same cycle. Is this it? Have you considered the reality of the spiritual? the supernatural? And even if you dont believe in God, you have encountered our enemy, the devil and his works - they are all around us: from child sacrifices, the terrible war crimes and even crimes committed against us in the safety of our homes. Dont get lost in MTv, Warner Brothers and the Kadarshians, dont get lost in this culture of being too busy to seek God - sleeping late and waking up too early to even say hi to your family. Take a break today. Use your leave, or holiday or vacation to seek God. I dont want it to be said that you slept forever without ever knowing who God is, who Jesus is. Ask for leave, just to seek God. Switch off your phone, shut down your PC and tablet. Talk to him in your own way, nothing special. Ask Him, I have heard about you, I want to know you. Show me that this is real. He will visit you, and when he saves you, you will know. Oh yes you will know. You will have such great joy, peace in your heart. Love will flood you. Bitterness and all those horrible things will start to take flight. His spirit will fill you and start to guide you. As long as you listen and follow his guidance, you will continue on to meet the King of kings whether at your death bed or at the end of days. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. - John3.16-18
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 10:20:45 +0000