A church bell hangs from a tree branch outside a church and a school in Odek village, Uganda. | REUTERS/JAMES AKENA

In this morning’s service, I heard from Luke 15 beginning at verse 11 (a very significant part of Scripture to me), as well as Colossians 3:21 (pertaining to Christian fathers in Christian homes, and this sermon will appear here on ACP at a later date).

And here we have a current news story about a father belonging to the supposed “religion of peace, people of peace” committing murder. A father murdering his own son. All because the son was a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ and would not renounce his faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. If not familiar I strongly urge you to read Luke 15 beginning at verse 11, as well as Colossians 3, and, well, all of the Holy Bible. To get your spiritual bearings. Your life bearings. The actual life-giving food needed for eternity. You may focus on what food to buy and nourish yourself and your family for this week. How about making sure you, and everyone in your family is fed and nourished on the food to sustain them through eternity?

Imagine providing that nourishment. Ahh, what a family that would be!

I also saw briefly on TV today while clicking through various stations a segment on a local program about getting children to read. And the father being interviewed said, “Well, there’s no owner’s manual for having and raising children.”

A man of the world? Most certainly. Which is an esteemed title — by people of the world as if that moniker is some award, prize, or something to aspire to and cherish. It is not.

I mention this because this is probably about the 9,876th time I’ve heard an adult utter, “Well, there’s no owner’s manual on raising children!”

Well, yes there is! And if a true Christian man the man on TV would know this, as I certainly pray you do if you are a true Christian man or woman, a mother or a father. The book providing everything needed — EVERYTHING NEEDED no others need apply or be applied — is called a Holy Bible. God’s inerrant infallible living and active Word. As relevant, as real, as viable, as living and perfect truth as it was when the 35 to 40 men (there is some debate as to the number since some of the books do not have named authors) put ink to papyrus over a period of about 1,500 years.

Do you know what is ancient and out of date? Outmoded? Anyone who mocks, scoffs, ridicules the Word of God as being out of touch, antiquated and irrelevant.

Nothing could be further from the truth — as the Word of God is not only true, but it is The Truth. Something no other book no other authors can claim.

An Islamist father murdering his Christian son. Imagine that?

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.”

Matthew 16:24-27 — English Standard Version

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

1 Timothy 6:12 — English Standard Version

“and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

Matthew 10:22 — English Standard Version

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

Matthew 5:10-12 — King James Version

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.”

Matthew 24:9 — English Standard Version

“And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.”

Luke 21:17 — King James Version

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

James 1:12 — English Standard Version

From my youth, in the 1960s, there was a very famous band by the name of Crosby, Stills, and Nash (Young joined later) and they had a very popular song titled “Teach Your Children.” It was a 100% Age of Aquarius, New Age, modern philosophy worldly song.

But all parents, mothers, and fathers, jointly — professed Christian homes — living and being according to the Word of God, be that light and example. To your children. To raise them as they need to be raised in the whole of the Word of God. Teaching your children well, the best way they could ever be taught. With you mom, you dad, as the example. Leading the way.

Let your children see the Light and Way. The Truth and how it brings Life.

Let your wife see this.

Let your husband see this.

Count your blessings. Hourly minute by minute if you must in order to get on the right path and to understand the importance of all these things.

It all begins in the individual heart, the individual soul, in the individual’s HOME. Home life. What is the home life like? What is believed and is what is professed to be believed truly lived out in actions and words. According to the Word of God.

Yes, there is a manual available. Been around for a long, long time and is invaluable. Life-saving. Sadly, ignored and demeaned by those walking in utter darkness, in the world, and by those professing to be of the Light yet they, too, are in utter darkness following, serving the world rather than taking up their cross, believing Jesus, believing God, trusting in the Holy Spirit, and being fluent in the Word to exhibit the Word being lived out in their daily lives in the home.

Expect to see more of this theme from this time onwards here on ACP.

Much more important than any election, politician, what some agency is doing.

It’s what is done in the home. With each other. With children. That matters most.

That’s where it all begins.

Everything else is just the ongoing results of what home life, beliefs, values, priorities were in the homes all these newsmakers, politicians, everyone making so much noise and getting noticed and taking up so much of people’s attention.

Murdering your own son because he is a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. A true child of God.

Imagine that…

Will you face contention, rebellion, difficulties in executing this teaching your children well, and having a godly, Bible-believing, Bible-centered family in these current times? Oh, most certainly! There is no perpetual picnic, and who wants a picnic anyway? Those that want a picnic have never had to prepare the food, the drink, everything required and then have to do the cleanup, have they? (Not to mention the insects, the sweating, the flies in the potato salad!) How about facing reality. There is sin, rebellion in every person. Look into the mirror first. That’s the starting place. And then go directly to God. To God’s Word. Then to your wife, or your husband, Prayerfully, Faithfully. And suit up and embark on the journey — which will be a battle at times. Where did this notion of everything being easy come from? Is anything truly easy? Really?

Learn well and true and diligently in the Lord, in the ways of the Lord.

Then teach your children well. According to the Word of God — not according to the world.

Tell them about hell. Stop all the coddling and shielding. They can handle it all better than perhaps you can. Reality, that is. Hearing, believing, and then following the Word of God will equip children much better for the reality of this world and indwell in them the knowledge there is a heaven, there is a hell, those realms are real. Eternity is real and is a long, long, long time. And just what it means, how vital it is to learn of, understand, believe upon, take as their Saviour the living Lord Jesus Christ.

They’re able to understand much better than adults imagine. Don’t you remember? Did you like being talked to and about and around adults who spoke to you as if you had a melon, a cabbage inside your head instead of a functioning brain?

Balance. Also don’t speak to them as if they are astral physicists either.

Go to the Lord. In prayer. Go to the Word of God. In prayer. And then in faith pursue it all.

And let the Spirit of God do the work. You plant the seeds. Let the Lord do the rest as you make sure to always tend that garden and do not neglect it.

In this evening’s prayer service I will be praying for people in Islamist lands and places that are in the Lord that they are strengthened, that they sustain the tribulations and persecutions they face. And that those in Islam, those who do not believe anything, those in utter darkness and bound by evil have their hearts cleansed, the scales from their eyes removed, and that the Spirit of God works mightily in those places and lands among those peoples. And that God’s will be done, on earth, everywhere on this earth, including those places, those homes, those folks saying they are Christians but not taking up their cross, not bearing fruit, living more of the world than the Word, as God’s will is done in heaven, and that His Kingdom come.

I hope you’ll be praying a lot more also. For others more than for yourself. And watch how that works and the changes it can bring.

Ken Pullen

Sunday, August 22nd, 2021

ACP — A Crooked Path 

Uganda: Father murders son for refusing to forsake his faith in Jesus

Friday, August 20, 2021

By Anugrah Kumar

Reprinted from The Christian Post

A 20-year-old man in Uganda who had converted from Islam to Christianity was tied up and murdered by his own father after he refused to forsake his faith in Jesus, according to a report.

The victim, identified as Tabiruka Tefiiro from Bupalama village in Kibuku district’s Buseta sub-county, was murdered by his Muslim father, Kasimu Kawona, on Sunday, Morning Star News reported.

Tefiiro had been living and working in Kampala since he put his faith in Christ in 2019. Amid pressure from family members to return to Islam, Tefiiro agreed to come back on Aug. 1 but continued to refuse to recant his faith in Christ.

His father, who was away, returned on Saturday and called a family meeting to question Tefiiro about whether he had come back to Islam.

“I am mature enough to join any religion that I feel like because I am above 18 years old,” Tefiiro told his father. I want to confirm that I am saved by the grace of God. I can’t renounce my Christian faith now or in the future,” the victim added, according to his aunt.

Kawona left home and returned on Sunday with a knife and hoe and struck Tefiiro, who managed to escape to a neighbor’s house.

“He followed Tefiiro and forcefully entered the house and forced him back to the homestead, where he tied him up and started beating him with the hoe,” the relative added. “He fell down unconscious. He then hanged him up.”

Kawona was not charged with murder but a lesser charge of manslaughter because he killed his son in anger for leaving Islam, sources told MSN.

Muslim neighbors and local leaders condemned the murder, however.

In June, 39-year-old Abudlawali Kijwalo from Kibuku District’s Nankodo area was attacked by his brother wielding a machete as punishment for putting his faith in Christ and listening to gospel music. Kijwalo survived but remained hospitalized for a long time.

While most people in Uganda are Christian, some eastern and central regions have higher concentrations of Muslims.

The Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project shows that about 11.5% of Uganda’s population is Muslim. Muslims in Uganda are primarily Sunni. Armed attacks and murders of converts are not uncommon in the region.

“Radical Islam’s influence has grown steadily, and many Christians within the majority-Muslim border regions are facing severe persecution, especially those who convert from Islam,” a Voice of the Martyrs factsheet explains.

“Despite the risks, evangelical churches in Uganda have responded by reaching out to their neighbors; many churches are training leaders how to share the Gospel with Muslims and care for those who are persecuted after they become Christians.”