The Faithfulness of God

"The Lord is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made. The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down." Psalm 145:13b-14
Have you ever had a relationship with someone who was faithful? You knew you could depend on that person to do what he said. You learned that his word was completely trustworthy. If he said he would call you, he would. If he said he'd be somewhere at a certain time, he'd be there. In fact, if he was late, you began to wonder if he had an accident because it was so contrary to his nature. It's great to have friends who are faithful.

God is faithful. He is faithful to fulfill every promise in His Word. Sometimes we think God isn't faithful because it appears He has not fulfilled a desire that we have. Sometimes we think He is not faithful because of a crisis event that seems to say God isn't faithful. We must remember that God is more concerned about accomplishing His ultimate purpose in the life of every believer than giving us the desires of our heart. Sometimes this results in hardship.

The Bible is full of accounts of God's faithfulness that was often accompanied by hardship. He brought Joseph out of slavery to be greatly used in a nation. He delivered the people from Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land. He gave Abraham the son of promise late in his life. He delivered David from his enemies and made him a king. In story upon story, we learn of God's faithfulness. Are you a faithful man or woman? The workplace needs faithful men and women. Take an inventory of your life today and ask God if you have been faithful with what He has entrusted to you.

Being fully Persuaded

Being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. - Romans 4:21

Why did God consider Abraham a righteous man? It was because Abraham looked beyond his own limitations of age and strength and considered God as the one who could accomplish His own goals. Abraham came to a place in his life where he realized it had little to do with him and all to do with God. His part was initiating the faith within himself.

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead-since he was about a hundred years old-and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God (Romans 4:18-20).

What are the things in your life that are mere impossibilities? What are the mountains in your life? Are these there in order to build your faith in the one who can enable you to ascend to the peak? Once you know that it is His will for you to pursue, do it with faith. Faith requires action when we know it is He who is leading. It may require risk. Faith is sometimes spelled R-I-S-K. Abraham did not limit God. It is this confidence in God that God honored and rewarded. He wants to do the same with you and me.

The Strength of Brokenness

The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength. - 1 Samuel 2:4

There is an oxymoron throughout the Bible. It says that brokenness is strength. How can this be? How can brokenness be strength? In order to use men and women to their fullest extent, the Lord has to break His servants so that they might have a new kind of strength that is not human in origin. It is strength in spirit that is born only through brokenness.

Paul was broken on the Damascus road. Peter was broken after Jesus was taken prisoner. Jacob was broken at Peniel. David was broken after his sin with Bathsheba. The list could go on of those the Lord had to break in different ways before they could be used in the Kingdom.

When we are broken, we see the frailty of human strength and come to grips with the reality that we can do nothing in our own strength. Then, new strength emerges that God uses mightily. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Do not fear brokenness, for it may be the missing ingredient to a life that emerges with a new kind of strength and experience not known before. Pray for a broken and contrite heart that God can bless

My God Shall Provide

"And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19
Have you ever gone through a time of complete dependence on God for your material needs? Perhaps you lost a job and could not generate income on your own. Perhaps you got sick and could not work. There are circumstances in our lives that can put us in this place.
When God brought the people of Israel out of Egypt through the desolate desert, they had no ability to provide for themselves. God met their needs supernaturally each day by providing manna from Heaven. Each day they would awake to one day's portion of what they needed. This was a season in their lives to learn dependence and the faithfulness of God as provider. By and by, they entered the Promised Land. When they did, God's "supernatural provision" was no longer required. "The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan" (Josh. 5:12). In both cases God was the provider of the need.
For most of us, we derive our necessities of life through our work. Like the birds of the fields we are commanded to go out and gather what God has already provided. It is a process of participation in what God has already provided. Sometimes it appears it is all up to us; sometimes it appears it is all up to God. In either case we must realize that the Lord is our provider; the job is only an instrument of His provision. He requires our involvement in either case.
"You may say to yourself, 'My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.' But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your forefathers, as it is today" (Deuteronomy 8:17-18).
Acknowledge the Lord as the provider of every need you have today. He is a faithful provider.
With God’s Richest Blessings
Salim Mayeki Shaban
Pastor CTK Bungoma

Gen 32:30

"So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, 'It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared'" (Gen 32:30).
Every believer in Jesus Christ must have a defining moment in their lives. Jacob is about to meet his brother Esau in the desert after years of separation. The last time he saw him was when he manipulated the birthright from him years ago. He assumes Esau is going to try to kill him. He sends gifts ahead as a peace offering. And he spends a restless night in prayer asking God to spare his and his family's life.
Jacob has lived a life of control and manipulation. Yet, there is something in Jacob God finds worthy of redemption. He has a heart that genuinely wants to serve and be used of God. But God must do something in him to chisel away the bad traits in his life.
He sends an angel in the form of a man to wrestle away the striving in Jacob. The only way to remove the striving in Jacob is to injure his physical abilities. "When the angel saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man'" (Gen 32:25-26). Jacob's natural abilities were so great that God literally had to make Jacob a weaker man physically in order for God's power to be manifested in his life. When this happened a turning point took place in Jacob. A new nature was birthed in him that required a total trust in God. His name was changed in recognition of this defining moment. "Then the man said, 'Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome'" (Gen 32:28).
My friend Bob Mumford once said, "Beware of any Christian leader who does not walk with a limp." If a leader has not wrestled with God over their natural abilities and come to a place of total dependence on God, that leader will live a life of striving and manipulation.
Let go and let God do the work needed in you. When this happens even your enemies will be a peace with you.
With God’s Richest Blessings
Salim Mayeki Shaban
Pastor CTK Bungoma

Remember the Lord your God

"But remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your forefathers, as it is today" (Deut. 8:18).
Muhammad Ali is considered the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. He won 56 of his 61 professional fights and knocked out 37 opponents. His most famous catchphrase was, "I am the greatest!"
One day, Ali was seated in an airplane when the flight attendant came up the aisle to make sure that all the passengers had their seatbelts fastened. Reaching Ali's seat, she asked him to buckle up.
"Hmph!" the champ sneered. "Superman don't need no seatbelt!"
The flight attendant smiled sweetly and replied, "Superman don't need no airplane, either." Ali fastened his seatbelt.
The greater our success, the greater the risk of us thinking too highly of ourselves. Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle observed, "Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity there are a hundred that will stand adversity." And Oswald Chambers wrote, "Sudden elevation frequently leads to pride and a fall. The most exacting test of all to survive is prosperity."
Each of us must view success as a gift from God. We must learn to see all of our successes as a gift from God, not our own achievement. The Lord is the source of all success, all elevation, all blessing. If you have a good mind and a healthy body, if you live in a land of opportunity, if you have a good education, if you've had a few breaks go your way, then you have much to be grateful for - and no cause for arrogance. You didn't achieve success; you received it as a gift. Each of us must voluntarily humble ourselves before God - or God will have to humble us Himself. I have learned it is better to learn humility voluntarily, than involuntarily! Paul tells us: "For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you" (Rom. 12:3).
With God’s Richest Blessings
Salim Mayeki Shaban
Pastor CTK Bungoma

My Story

Personal
• Name: Salim Mayeki Shaban
• Email: ctkbungoma@gmail.com
• Education: Higher National Diploma
• Family: Wife Everlyne Otunga, 2 children, Abraham Wandera and Michael Wawire
• Business: African Christians Organization Network
• Hobbies: Family, traveling, speaking
• Home church: CTK Bungoma
How it started: Salim grew up in a Muslim home and was saved at the age of sixteen. Aggrey came to Musamba and a member of his staff, Simiyu, made a habit of personally mentoring two people from each community they visited. Salim’s Mother was mentored by Simiyu through most of Salim's teenage years and it left a great sense of being called to God's purposes in Salim.
After high school Salim attended Egerton University, graduated with a higher national diploma in Project Management, Diploma in General Agriculture, Diploma in Project Cycle Management, and Diploma in Strategic Development and Planning.

Personal Passion: Salim's personal passion is affirming and equipping leaders. He loves to study the Bible and teach from a life time of marketplace ministry experiences. Salim experienced personal ministry from the time he observed his Mother's relationship with Aggrey and other mentors. Salim was greatly impacted by about 20 different men through the course of his life. He still maintains those kinds of relationships and now mentors a number of younger business leaders.

Although he loves to teach in large groups, he understands that life change occurs in groups of 5-10, 3 and 1. Salim's purpose is to leave leaders with a means of life style change in a small group of their own peers. Storms come to everyone; those that survive storms have two or three friends that throw them lifelines. Salim has captured the importance of those relationships

Personal Benefit: Most people and ministries are clueless about how life change really happens. Salim has had the privilege of seeing lives change through relationships in his business and ministry for five years. His ministry message of change through small groups is really an extension of his own family relationships. He was wise enough to make his business feel like a family.

Value to others: Salim's message changes the world one person, one company and one community at a time. He's developed a host of resources that points to peer interaction as the key to sustainable ministry. The marketplace is full of temptations for wealth, spiritual pride, and sex. Yet when businessmen put the Kingdom first, God actually meets all those needs in abundance.

When Salim has conversations he listens for four things.
#1 Kingdom - vs. the importance of just your own church or business
#2 Relationships - vs. institutions, systems, and procedures
#3 Community - vs. loners that have not experienced brokenness
#4 Transformation - vs. hiddenness (transparency among peers)

Business Potential (upside): Salim is still involved in a manufacturing business as a consultant and part owner. He helped turn around the business that was near bankruptcy to profitability over the course of several years. Businesses, by their nature, can impact thousands of lives by the people they touch; employees, customers, suppliers, etc. Businesses are intended by God to have a ministry and specific calling. Their leaders are ministers.

Complexities, failures (downside): Salim's distribution business lost 15% of its customers every year for 3 years. In 9 months God showed them how to replace the lost accounts and make the business stronger. Salim learned to trust God and prosper in the fire of the marketplace.

Vision for the Kingdom: What God is doing in Western Kenya right now is amazing. Nearly everything is happening through commerce; doors are open for marketplace ministry, but closed to traditional missionaries. The emphasis is more on the Kingdom of God and bringing Christ through the marketplace than through our traditional concept of Church.
How Can Salim Help You: Salim would love to serve you through Christ the King Community Church Bungoma and African Christians Organization Network.

CTK Bungoma Core Values

• The word of God
• Prayer and Worship
• Community of small groups
• Empowering leaders with integrity
• Need Oriented Evangelism
• Excellence
• Telling, Teaching, Training ,Equipping, Modeling and Mentoring

CTK Bungoma Projects and Programmes

projects and programmes in

1. Sunday Morning Worship

2. New Christians Class

3. Small Groups

4. Recovery Programs

5. Sunday School

6. Women Bible Studies

7. Men and Women Retreats

8. Membership Class

9. Training

10. Teaching

11. Discipleship

12. Deployment

Relationship Building

Relationships are the key to building CTK Church. The leader sets the tone for the Movement’s culture. That culture is the basis for the long term success of CTK Movement. Whether you are the Church Planter, the Pastor, Church Director, or just a believer, you as an individual can build relationships regardless of the culture. The key to building relationships is the heart – one of the most popular topics in the Bible and one that Jesus repeatedly talked about. People want to know that you love them and have their best interests at heart. That love can only flow through us as the Holy Spirit helps us to put our own selfish interests behind those of the people around us. The long-term success will not be primarily determined by anyone’s talent and ability, but instead by the relationships within it. Jesus said-“I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you. And here is how to measure it — the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends.” John 15:12-14.
How do we learn to do this? Jesus is the best model for relationships; He uses the example of others, stories from the Bible, and His life. These relationships are the basis for sharing a common vision, valuing people and their gifts, team building, and holding people accountable