NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR FAMILY. JESUS LOVES THEM JUST AS MUCH AS YOU.
NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR FAMILY. JESUS
LOVES THEM JUST AS MUCH AS YOU.
By Elia
Vesikula.
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I thank the
Lord Jesus who is the Way. The Truth and The Life.
For a long
time over 10 years of waiting before the Lord I witnessed my family saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. This
means to have brothers and sisters accept our saviour the Lord Jesus Christ in their
lives.
It took many
years of praying and waiting for the Lord to be able to reach my brothers,
sisters, nephews and aunts and uncles to come to the Lord. To make the decision
to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. I was overjoyed and glorified God. It was
something I thought was going to be impossible.
As in Psalms
40:1-2 I waited patiently for the LORD
to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit
of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and
steadied me as I walked along. (Psalms 40:1-2
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| Elia Vesikula at the service in Naduru in Kuku |
As a family
we faced difficulties and problems and
was sure that Jesus was the only solution and salvation for us.
Like most I Taukei
families there was educational problems with our children dropping out and
dropping in. They were not successful with high marks to move on to university
or be able to secure top jobs.
We have land
but it is not utilized well to yield good returns to take us away from poverty.
The land seems infertile. We were not utilising the land well. This was due to
a lot of reasons. Laziness and ignorance being two of them. My family were true
vanua people committed to the ideology of vanua a word meaning, people,
traditions, culture, customs, land and the institutions of the land. We spend
so much effort and resources on the “vanua” In a way it impoverished us.
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| Family members who gave their lives to Christ. |
Family
relationships broke down and family and husband and wives splitting was common
and was embarrassing to the family and
the villagers. We were engaged in adultery and was a breach of Matthew 5: 27.
You have
heard that it was said , “ Do not commit adultery.” But I tell you that anyone
who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his
heart. The family’s reputation was trodden in the mud.
Excessive
alcohol and kava drinking was rife and took us way from the Lord Jesus. We were
blinded by worldly lusts.
Isaiah 28:7
But they
have also erred through wine and through strong drink and out of the way:
through strong drink they erred in vision the priest and the prophet have erred
through strong drink, they stumble in judgement. For all the tables are full of
vomit and filthiness so there is no place clean whom shall he teach knowledge.
We thought
what we did was normal life and we did not think that all these was wrong and
it was the devils doing and we allowed it. We went to church but it was all
superficial as we did not know the truth. We were not happy as a family. We
could not unite. We could not work together. Things just went wrong. But the
solutions was in the bible in Psalms 34:12-14. “Do you want to enjoy life? Do you want to have many
happy days? Then avoid saying anything hurtful, and never let a lie come out of
your mouth. Stop doing anything evil, and do good. Look for peace, and do all
you can to help people live peacefully.” Psalm:34:12-14.
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| Elia and Samu Vesikula, Amelia Vesikula laying hands on family member Mareca Nasi Vesikula. |
I and my
family slowly pulled out from my big family to seek the Lord Jesus Christ in
2004.
My family is
a normal big Fiji family of 13 siblings with different viewpoints and ideas.
Most of my family members are Methodists.
However for
me and my immediate family, we had joined another denomination for the last 15
years. We have always prayed hard and earnestly for our family members to be
saved by the Lord Jesus Christ.
However we
were treated like outcasts some times because of our new found faith in Christ.
These did not discourage us as we continue to remain loyal with the Lord Jesus
in our new church.
There was a
lot of difference in opinion and the family tried to remain united in
tradition, customs and respect for one another, a legacy left behind by our
Christian and teaching parents. Like most Fijian family our vanua, tradition
and culture was very important living very little room for the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our culture and tradition was holding us back from truly worshiping the
Lord Jesus Christ and our walk with the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:6 rings true for
us. We were earthly minded.
For to be
carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace,
Because the carnal minded is an enmity against God for it is not subject to the
law of God and nether indeed can be so . So then they that are in the flesh cannot
please God.(Romans 8:6,
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| Female members of the family after the church in Naduru in Kuku, |
Although we
were going to church on Sundays in our villages our relationship with the Lord
Jesus Christ was superficial and the message from the pulpits did not help much.
We did not know the truth. We were all in religion. While the family had a lot
of land belonging to them in the village, very little was earned from as most
of my family members were still subsistence farmers and very little finance to
show for the large land that belong to the family.
We always
sense that something was lacking. poverty was upon us and we could not work
together on development projects to lift our family standard of living.
Our children
had a very high dropout rate from school and were not getting good job
opportunities.
While we
tried to be faithful to our vanua and try and maintain good relationship with
our relatives, the hard times did not spare us.
About a year
ago my family in the village started to have Saturday church service,
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| Pastor Samuela Vesikula |
We had all
night prayers and had devotion in the mornings and evenings and on every
occasion.
I had been
working with some church groups and ministries across denomination to deepen my
walk with God and help spread the word about the Lord Jesus. I had some
commitments with Capitol Ministry, Mountain Movers prayer group, World Healing
Church, and Christian Kingdom Leadership Church. I am so thankful for their
support. I have been very busy and had no time to visit my family in the
village. I was discouraged by their lax attitude about God and the Holy Spirit
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| Tala Elia and SAmuela Vesikula laying hands on Inisa Vesikula |
Then God
answered our prayers. I was a sleep one night and saw a vision of me standing
in front of my brothers and preaching to them and issued them a warning. The
warning was if they did not listen or obey Gods word and what I said, God will
start to destroy and kill. I was shocked by these words. My wife heard me uttering
these words loudly in my sleep but she said that what she heard was not my
normal voice but an authoritative heavy voice. I could also hear that voice. It
was three days later that my wife asked me about the voice and what I said. She
repeated what I said and I confirmed that I also heard the voice coming from me
although I was asleep which means I was a wake. Glory to God.
The same
week, I attended a bible study and the pastor that prayed prophesied in prayer
and said that I should go to my family and take the word of God to them. I was surprised
as I did not tell him about my vision. However I was obedient and went to my
family to tell them about the vision and also to warn them. I was amazed and
glory to the Holy Spirit that many of my family members came to the service and
gave their life to the Lord Jesus Christ
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| Elia Vesikula at Toga service in Tailevu |
This story taught me never to give up
praying for your family and to always be obedient to God. I pray to the Lord
Jesus for this to happen to all families in Fiji. We elders have a role to play
for Gods purpose in our families. Those that are yet to be saved. If it happens
to my family it can also happen to yours. We wish you blessings from Gods
family to mine and to yours Give your
life to the Lord Jesus Christ and let the Holy Spirit lead your life today.
JESUS CHRIST WILL RECEIVE YOU IF YOU COME TO HIM.
Jesus said,
Whoever comes to me I will never cast him out (John 6:37). This was why He came
to earth—to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). It does not matter what you
have done, Jesus still wants you to come to Him. He said, I have not come to
call the righteous but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32).
END OF STORY
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