Day 1

Leviticus 18:30

Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the Lord your God.’’

 

One of the ways traditional culture believers are seedling to Christians is that even the Bishop are in both church and council of elders.

We can have a modern culture where  leaders are not questioned even if wrong or says two beliefs are both ok. What is confusing is why people with differing beliefs think they are ok with both beliefs. They will ask you, your Bishop is with us so who are you to refuse? But cult leaders are made from normal church leaders

That is why it is important to know the way you know the difference between a cult and a church, there are many differences, but one major difference is that in a cult the Bishop or the pastor has become a god who cannot be questioned. He is the only one who determines what is right and wrong. Even the elders cannot correct him because he is an infallible Pope. You know some people think only the Catholic Church has a pope. Many Pentecostal churches have popes. If you are following somebody who has no elders board, or so called elders are like his boys, (they call him father), he can order them, you are not in a church, you are in a cult for that is the culture of a cult.

So when he decides this is the way we are going, even if some people feel it is not biblical, the whole church follows him. However, such a leader seem to be holier than Paul. Paul said, follow me only as I follow Christ. That is what Christianity is all about. Nobody on earth, is infallible. Romans 3:23 says, all of us have fallen short of the glory of God.

If I start a new teaching that is not quite right, please allow me to go to hell alone. Do not go with me. You are only supposed to follow me when I am following Christ. How do you know I am following Christ? The Bible. Thus as soon as the pastor is not following the Bible, the pastor himself should be the first to tell you, do not follow me as I stop following Christ.

So, when traditional culture believers say, but your Bishop has already given the goat, why not you? Tell them, but I do not do what the Bishop does, I do what the Bible says. Please show me where in the Bible we are told that to be an adult you require to kill a goat. Which chapter, which verse? So if my Bishop has done it, it is of no consequence. There was no time I was following him. We were both following Christ, and he has moved aside, I will continue following Christ’

Isn’t that the scripture response of leaders who are leading the sheep into syncretism? The scripture discourages you following blindly. Leaders must tell followers, Follow me only as I follow Christ. And that is a very important thing to understand because a lot of people tell themselves that they will not be to blame, after all they were following the pastor. You will still go to hell my friend for decided not to obey the Bible.

 

What happens to those who have already found themselves in syncretism – they are in church and in the ancestral worship?

That is now a different question. The blood was already shed for the goat is already dead, earlier we were discussing how we are preventing them from going in there. But then some have already gone into it. We are coming too late.

 

Day 2

 

2 Kings 17:33

 

They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.

 

In another church meeting I was dealing with the same issue where all the leaders of the denomination were together. I was talking to both pastors and the elders. And they were saying, if it has already happened what do we now do?

The answer is simple: every sin was covered by the blood of Jesus on the cross. And to sacrifice a goat after Christ died is a sin but it is a forgivable sin. The critical action plan is threefold.

Number one, to admit what you did is evil. There is no forgiveness for people who think it was just playing. It was just a slip, they say and to err is human ( kuteleza). No. It is sin. Because the book of Hebrews keeps talking about it as sin. There is no other blood allowed after the blood of Jesus.

Oh, the book of Hebrews is talking about the blood of Jesus that is of a much higher standard than that of goats. So it is very important to understand that you must call it by its right name; you have sinned.

Number two, accept that Christ’s death on the cross was for you. That he died that those of us who fall into sin can be forgiven. And here 1 John 1:8-9 is relevant.

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

 

If we say we have not sinned we are making him a liar, but if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, including that of kiama ancestral worship. And so the second thing is, understand what Christ accomplished for you and plead it.

Thirdly and importantly is to go to the people you participated with and give them a testimony. You should not condemn them… me I am going to heaven, you people continue going to hell. You need to tell them, what I did is wrong, and even you if you continue doing it, you are doing wrong but God can forgive you the same way he has forgiven me.

Then you no longer go to their meetings but stick in the church of Jesus Christ. It is a critical thing for us to deal with for those to whom it has already happened.

Another thing it avoid doing the things whose meaning you do not understand. Obviously you should never do anything whose meaning you do not understand. So the first thing is to ask, if I do not do it what suffers?

For example you are taught a culture of sitting on your father although you are an adult. It is to get a blessing. And once you learn that there is blessing out of sitting on him, you stop sitting on him. Because you do not want blessings from him, you want blessings from God. If you learn not sitting on him  will not kill you, you stop sitting on him so that he can see you will not die because Christ protects you.

Christians we are not supposed to do these African religious practices, and when we do not do them we are told we are outcasts and we are cursed. Please understand, and I am repeating what I said earlier, when you see some people doing strange things, it is not voluntary, it is a belief, it is a religion. They fear and their son or their cousin might die if you do not give into sin. Thahu will come to you and then you get curses ( kirumi) follow. Thahu means a sin, kirumi means a curse.

So they love you enough not to want you to get Thahu wa kirumi. Now, understand that is where the relatives are operating from. Once you understand they are doing it out of love, you will not get bitter with them, and you will love them. Now, that is the first thing.

Number two, you understand very clearly they are lost in ancestral worship, on their way to hell. So you need to think of helping them out of it to see why what they are doing will send them to hell. And because they love you, you also love them, you need to share with them the freedom we have in the gospel. They may not agree with you but they need to understand why because some of them actually do not.

I have seen on vernacular TV saying, me I am an elder in the church and I am a Kikuyu. These things you must do. Even in the Old Testament they also did them. Have you heard that? He has completely convinced himself that he cannot be blessed unless he does them. So the second thing is you must help them instead of just condemning them.

Thirdly, you need to understand the Word of God. It says, when Christ comes He will put an enmity between a mother and a son, between a mother and a mother-in-law. Have you read that one? You think it was just for then, it will not happen now? Time has come for it. When you make a stand, the whole of your clan will send you out. I was just telling pastor how the other day I was in a pastor’s fellowship, and it was actually just talking about leadership. And I do not know how, during question time, instead of asking on what I was discussing, they said, what do we do about this elders demands? They are calling it true council you know that is what they are calling it. Kiama kia ma. In other words you are not a proper Kikuyu unless you have joined the kiama, the council of elders. And I said, so I started explaining what I am explaining to you. It should not surprise you when your relatives disown you.

Day 3

Esther 3:8

Then Haman said to King Xerxes, “There is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them.

Then another pastor put up their hand and said, now, you are telling us how to stop our members, some of us have pastors already joined. That is the pastor. I was in shock because I did not know it had gone that far. I said, you pastors have joined? Yes. But that pastor, because they could see I am in shock, another pastor said, you know mwalimu, it is not that we wanted to. I told my father I do not want ... He told me, if you have no goat, I will produce it for you. You cannot stay like a boy; you must become an adult. Next time there is a ceremony in my house, I do not want sin-..Thahu. So I will not allow you to eat meat with us adults. You will join the boys…ihii including your son. I realized the father was serious, that when there is a ceremony he will throw me out.

First of all, even if it is your own daughter getting married, if you are not a member of a kiama you are not allowed to that meeting discussing the marriage of your daughter because you are a child, and children do not come to the wedding negotiations.

In joining the council of elders in kikuyu land there are stages, and the highest is the one who prays to God on behalf of the nation. So you need to understand the Kikuyu religion. And you are not understanding it so that you copy it, you are understanding it so that you do not follow it. So you will be able to differentiate Kikuyu customs and Kikuyu religion. Witikio wa Agikuyu na mikiire ya Agikuyu ti undu umwe.

The customs of the Kikuyu, nothing wrong with, you can follow it if you want. So, if you want to go to heaven, it is important that you stop being a Kikuyu believer because in heaven not a single Kikuyu believer will go to heaven, not a single Mkamba believer either will go to heaven. The Bible says for you to go to heaven you must be born again. The first time I was born a Kikuyu, then later I got born again. I am no longer just a Kikuyu.

He says in 1 Corinthians 5:17,

¹7 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!

I have become a new creation.

So I am no longer a Kikuyu Christian, I am a Christian Kikuyu. Are you getting the difference? Most people joining kiama are insisting I am a Kikuyu Christian. You can’t go to heaven if you are a Kikuyu Christian meaning the ruling believe is kikuyu because when you say Kikuyu Christian it means you are a Kikuyu first, Christian second. I repeat to you, God says I am a jealous God. You have surrendered your natural so that you are born again, so you become a Christian Kikuyu. It means first of all you are a Christian, nothing the Kikuyu require you to do will be done, except what does not affect your faith.

So I told him what I have just told you above. Did you think that you can be a Christian and you will not have difficulty with non-Christians? Do you believe there is devil or you believe there is no devil? You need to understand he is fighting you. Your parents are not fighting you, the devil is the one fighting you using them. So you needed to stand the meat it will still go to the stomach when you eat it outside.

Number two, do you know if you do that, everybody will ask questions. Why is he doing that? It is his foolish Christianity. What do you think your cousins and nephews are going to say? Eeeh, you mean Christianity is this serious? My uncle has joined us rather break his belief in God. Do you know you are preaching to the whole clan? Because they actually know you are not a fool, they know you think properly and yet you agree to eat with the boys. It will communicate a powerful message and it will bring a revival in your clan. But if you give in you have just led them to sin.

Because they will say, haiya, even pastor has given in, who among us cannot give in. And your cousin will be told, you have not given in? But your cousin is a pastor, he is also gave, who are you to refuse to give in? So the second thing is to understand that when you do not, you are giving a testimony.

Day 4

Psalm 106:35

but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.

 

Thirdly and importantly, the moment you make such a stand in the clan, the Spirit of God himself sides with you, you become spiritually stronger even in the other areas. Because you are not doing it in your strength. You are trusting him. Once you have sacrificed like that, and you are being oppressed like that, you now do not play with Christianity. You will put yourself into God’s hands even more.

And that is why you need to make a stand for their sake even more than for your sake but chiefly for the glory of God. You go to a home and there is a ceremony, once they start doing those things you are expected to join them. And you know what happens in most families? When you make that kind of a stand, whenever they are trying to do those things they might never invite you again. The reason they keep inviting you is because they know your Christianity is useless. They are aware it is just drama for you fear what they fear. That is why they have always come for you to join them in those ancestral worship things.

But when you are serious, they will not allow you in because they know you are serious with your beliefs. So when you see yourself being invited in those things and people are going with you, know they do not respect your faith. Like if you want go for itega and they are going to have njohi, will they carry a Christian woman with them? – No. You will just discover what they want as they look for an excuse why they left you, after all you were not even invited. When you ask, why did you leave me? You know you would spoil it for us.

We have a new Christianity where people are not willing to suffer for their faith. They do not want to be separated. We want to be politically correct. And that is not true Christianity. In the Christianity of the New Testament, people suffered. After they had been beaten, they went rejoicing, counting it a privilege to suffer for the Lord. But now we do not want to suffer. That is why the kiama thing has come with a force because nobody wants to suffer.

But what is culture?

Culture is a manifestation of human intellectual achievement, regarded collectively as intellectual activities. It can be seen in literature, in music, in painting, in philosophy. That is what we call culture. The ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular people or a society are all called culture.

So sometimes we talk about Afro-Caribbean culture, Kikuyu culture or civilization, etc. And you know something? Culture has our mind, and whatever has our mind defines your culture. A young man wrote to me not too long ago and he says, you know what you said has hit me. You said, I had said something in my writings of daily meditation where I had said something about Christianity having been preached in Africa but has not caught the African mind. In other words we have had a hundred and fifty years of Christianity in Kenya but the average Kenyan still sees a witchdoctor as reliable yet the Bible tells to avoid him.

Have you heard of that? How, after a hundred and fifty years of Christianity we still see a witchdoctor? Because the truth is, Christianity is more of a club. It has not caught our mind. Our mind is still in the hands of our African beliefs. It is possible for millions of people to be saved, quote and quote, but you only changed some of their practices but you do not have their mind.

So they get baptized, they get confirmed, they get married in church but their mind is still in their African beliefs. Please note that even if somebody behaved like a Christian, if his mind is not taken by Christ at the time of any testing, he will always revert, move towards, his cultural beliefs.

Day 5

Psalm 106:35

but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.

 

You know, there are several things that define this mix of culture and Christianity. There is one we call obscurantism. This is where there is obscuring of the gospel by emphasizing things that are actually external to the gospel as being central to it. That, is what theologians call obscurantism. In other words there is Christianity but it is being covered by something else that is Christian. The end result is a false gospel that becomes a stumbling block to the real Christianity which the churches are trying to preach.

So you find the church full but there is something that is not allowing the mind to be taken up by Christ. Have you ever heard of something called decaffeinated coffee? The first time I was in the US I think it was in 1997, And I was being asked, what will you have? Would you like caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee? I said, what is decaffeinated coffee? They told me decaffeinated coffee is coffee minus caffeine. I said, I come from a country where we grow coffee. You bring it all the way then you remove its core?

Now, there are dechristianized Christians, where they are following Christianity but they have no Christ in them. They have been dechristianized. Like you are taking coffee without coffee. And that is what we are having. Christians, who will be baptized, they will be in church, they will give a lot of offerings, but where it matters most is the lordship of Christ in critical times.,

The way you understand fully people’s beliefs, it is like when a child is born. The ceremonies that are done at the birth of the child, will, in line point to their beliefs. That is a critical time in most cultures. They dare not risk a curse on their baby. What a new mother and a new father do will tell you who has their mind.

In some cultures, they can’t name the baby until the child is called several names of dead people, and the name that makes them stop crying, it is the name the child will be called. Now, if you do that, we now know your true belief despite speaking in many tongues in church. We know the belief system.

So there are a lot of customs in the birth of the child that can help you to know whether somebody’s mind has been taken by Christ or rather if they only trust Christ, nothing else is required by the Bible.

Another one is our rites of passage. How do you become an adult? Because you see, nobody wants to be thought a child with big body. I some time back read the biography of Muthoni Likimani who talk about the beginning of church in Muranga. Before then I had also just finished reading the biography of Gatu, because I like understanding the development of Christianity.

And they are talking about the 1920s and 1930s, when many African Christians said; the big issue was we want Christianity but our girls must be circumcised. Because how can a girl be a woman without the knife? And so they started African Christian churches in opposition to missionary churches. They wanted Christianity, but their girls must still go through the knife into adulthood.

Their belief was If a girl is not circumcised, even when she was a mother she will be behaving like a child. They believed the surgical operation is what makes you an adult. .is a belief system, not just a custom, it is a belief system.

The third one is burial. The death of a person. It is such a serious thing, because of the belief about what happens to one after they die. My mother died not too long ago. It is such a serious thing that it shakes you up to the core. And so you start seeing a lot of things that you never imagined people could do, being done. They start doing things including the one we have just talked about talking to the dead. And yet the scriptures are clear Deuteronomy chapter eighteen. The Bible tells them clearly, that God will curse anybody who consults the dead. You are not allowed to do it.

Yet you find even Christians have started to do it because of traditional belief. That is why they are copying something that is done in Luoland and Luhyaland, but has nothing to do with Christianity. One year later you are supposed to go to where somebody died, carry the ‘shadow’ back so that the spirit and the body can join together at the grave, and then you kill a chicken or something else. But some have the same tradition but they have removed the chicken, they are putting the sign of a cross to be done one year later.

However even if you put a cross, the local people understand you are returning the shadow. So crisis helps you to see what your belief system really is. But you know this Africanized or dechristianized Christianity is not just with us. The other day I was driving and I listened to a program on BBC report on a Canadian church where the pastor says, I do not believe in God. Now, I can’t understand how you would have a church, and it is formerly an Anglican Church, broken away from the Church of England, because they say they like the teachings of Christianity but this thing about belief in God is not necessary. We can learn the teachings, principles of Jesus without belief in God. They are saying it is not necessary to believe in God to be a Christian. Just take the Bible and its advice, but the God of the Bible, doesn’t exist. Why bother with him?

You know I couldn’t believe what is was hearing. You almost feel like stopping the car to listen again because you do not understand. And this pastor has gone through a Bible School. They went through a theological school, became a pastor, then after sometime they changed the church. They slowed preaching until the whole church agreed to pull away from the church of England, to the Anglican church. And we are starting to have churches where Christ is not taught, and yet they do not want to stop calling themselves a church.

Day 6

John 19:40

Taking Jesus’’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.

 

When to beliefs are mixed it is called syncretism. This what we are doing when we claim to be Christians yet act on non-Christian beliefs. This is the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures or schools of thought so that you are fully in Christianity and fully Kikuyu religion all at the same time. It is a mixture of them. And of course that can’t happen in true Christianity. God is saying I am a jealous God, my glory I will share with no one. Any interfaith dialogue easily slips into syncretism. And you know even in Kenya we are becoming like that. In our national days, diviners …mundu mugo …prays, then a protestant prays, then a Hindu prays, then a Catholic prays...

You know after sometime it will become something accepted. In other words churches reach the same apex…kanitha ni miitiriro, ciothe irathii kwa Ngai. In other words churches are like roof trusses, they all meet at the apex. I mean an African hut where the roof timber all meet at the same point. That idea is not biblical. Why? Acts 4:12, says

There is no other name given among men through which we get salvation.

Yes, No other name. So as you listen to that mundu mugo praying, you know he needs Christ. As you listen to that Hindu you know he needs Christ. You cannot become politically correct in order not to hurt them. You know, these days when you give a testimony it is regarded as hate speech because they accuse you that you are trying to make yourself the benchmark.

The Bible is the one that says there is no mix up. You cannot believe the Bible and something else. In fact the book of Revelation says anybody who adds or subtracts, curses will be added to him. Have you read that in Revelation? So it means if somebody does not become a Christian, it does not matter that they are wonderful personalities, it does not matter that their behaviour is better than Christian behaviour. Remember our behaviour cannot get us to heaven, for we are saved by grace through faith.

So if you are a Christian and there are some cultural beliefs which you are following, there is a problem because you are supposed to only follow the scriptures. So what are belief systems you follow that you cannot trace in the Bible? Is there something you believe and you cannot trace in the Bible? You need to say no to it.

Find out what it is you believe. You watch Christians… the way they treat their wives based on their belief about women and you can tell clearly this is not a Christian husband, because he believes the same way Kikuyus believe about women

So in their own mind, the wife is not quite mature yet. You know, what they say is like what children say. Give it time before believing it…gia atumia na ihii giitikagio kiarara. Now, you need to understand that when you believe something like that, that women and children have equal brains, it is not a biblical belief. That is not a custom, it is a belief. And it means you are not following Christ, you have another religion, Kikuyu religion.

 

Day 7

Galatians 2:14

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs

 

Remember; there are Kikuyu customs and Kikuyu religion. There is nothing wrong with practicing Kikuyu customs, there is something wrong with following Kikuyu religion. For example, we have just given an example of itega. What is wrong with meeting together to thank God for the birth of a baby? Although it is not in the Bible, the Bible is not against it. Another one. We eat something called mukimo which non-kikuyus find very strange. You get good food then you spoil it by mixing it up and mashing it. Non kikuyus wonder, surely, how can you spoil food? But to a Kikuyu, mukimo is wonderful? Yeah. Because we were brought up with it, we like it, if your wife has not cooked mukimo for a while you remind her, eehe, Now, you need to understand that is a custom. How do you know it is not a religion? Because you have never heard your grandfather saying, if you eat mukimo you will be blessed. Or you have never heard him, if you stop eating mukimo you will die. Ever heard? It is just a custom.

And even wazungus, when the missionaries came, they sometimes brought us customs that are white, nothing to do with Christianity. For example, wearing a white dress on a wedding, it is not in scripture, it is their culture. If you wear a red dress in your wedding, will you still be properly married? There is nothing it adds. So you need to differentiate culture, that is belief and what is just preferred way. And some of the white things we have taken are not Bible.

So it needs to be understood, we are not suggesting that Africans stop following their culture, but once Christians we mean Africans stop following their beliefs. You stop following Kikuyu beliefs but you continue following Kikuyu customs when the custom has nothing to do with the belief system.

In fact whenever there is something your family does, ask them, cucu, if I do this, what will happen to me? He tells you, eeh, it will get you blessings …! That means that is a religion, if she tells you, you will be blessed. The earlier you stop the better so that she can see you are still blessed yet you never did it. Then they start realizing your blessings do not come from those things, they come from God.

Whenever the Kikuyus wanted to curse, they took the pot.-.nyungu. and broke it. Then that way you are cursed. That is a belief system, it is not a custom. If you really quarrel with your husband and you break the pot, it means you are leaving him a curse. Similarly is just like if you are really annoyed and you are an old woman, and you remove your clothes, all the people that have seen your nakedness will be cursed. Those are not customs, they are beliefs, because you believe what you have done will have repercussions.

Customs have no repercussions. Customs are just the way we enjoy doing things. They have no spiritual repercussions. So anything with a spiritual repercussion is religion. So that is the way to measure whether it is something you can do or not.

For example, if they told me that if I name the spirit of my father will enter into him, I would never name him because I do not want the spirit of the dead in my child. But the same Kikuyus, who have the customs of naming children, also say name has no Impact on the named…ritwa ni mbukio. That is normally what your mother tells you when they are beating you. I know you are named after my father, no ritwa ni mbukio. ‘You will be beaten! Because she is saying, I am not beating my father, I am beating you. You are not my father. Just that you have his name. A child is named in respect of your father but has nothing to do with your father’s character. If you find there is a belief that if you name somebody they will be like the other person, that is now not a custom it is a belief.

I really recommend those of you who are Kikuyus to buy Jomo Kenyatta book Facing Mount Kenya. He wrote it in the 1930s, so that what he was writing was not necessarily researched, it was exactly what was happening in Kikuyu land. Why was the book written? To show the missionaries, instead of pushing your religion on us, know we also have our own religion.

Let us pray. Lord Jesus, how we pray that as we discuss these things, which we are tackling every day, the Spirit of God will give us wisdom, number one so that we ourselves do not get entangled. Number two that those of us who are entangled already would repent and start living in a different way. But thirdly, that we may help those who are living around us to show them what is wrong with following beliefs for which Christ died so that they can accept the teachings of Christ. In Jesus’ name we pray – Amen

 

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