Click here to watch Pastor Sime Tadesse comments on Adiamseged

Next, our brother Pastor Sime Tadesse is in our midst to share the word of God with us. He has been willing to come here. I leave the stage to him and to the Spirit of God. Sime Tadesse: I greet you all. I must begin by thanking the man who makes me say, “It’s good to be here”. And that is Temesgen Sahle. If the director of communication and literature of Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church had not invited me, I would not have been here. When I see Temesegen, he reminds me of his father, Sahle Tilahun. He was the only man who made works of Amharic literature available on the market in our country over forty-five years ago. I praise God and am glad to see his son and his father in this hall. Just as he wrote Ababa Kedamo’s story, I hope he will also write the story of his father and mother. I know I am too old and you will not let me join your choire. Mehanaym Choire, your songs have captivated my heart. May God preserve you love and unity. It pleases me to sing with you. Eyerusalem Negia, too, may God bless you abundantly. Let me go straight to today’s issue. I would like to speak about Adiamseged Woldemariam. But before speaking about Adiamseged, I believe I should first speak about his wife Yodit Alemu. If it had not been for Yodit Alem who stood by him, Adiamseged could not have produced such great books. So, Yodit Alemu, may God bless you for standing by your husband. I speak a lot about literature but I have never attempted to write such big books like Adiamseged has written. But you [Adiamseged] have attempted it and this is the beginning of your work. May God help you to persevere in this work. My message today is from Ephesians and John, the same books on which Adiamseged wrote his book. I have not gone through the books but I trust what I will present now is related to the books. My brother Yared has done the opening prayer and I agree with his prayer. Therefore do not take it that I started my message without praying. The topic of my message is “The Prince of Peace and the Ministry of Peace in Ethiopia”. I am compelled to give this message because I believe it is timely. It has been quite a few months since the Ministry of Peace was established in Ethiopia with the mandate of building one political community founded on the will of the people. This is not news to you. I speak today on the birth of the Lord with emphasis on the Lord who was baptized on this day. I would like to speak in relation to the birth of the Lord on what the prophet Isaiah had said seven hundred years before His birth. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” In this word of prophecy, I would like to emphasize the words, The Prince of Peace. When Jesus Christ was born seven hundred years after this prophecy, it is written in the New Testament that a multitude of the heavenly host suddenly appeared with the angel. And praising God they said, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men”. You will find this in the Gospel of Luke chapter two. To the human race, these two scriptures are good news of incomparable joy. Two thousand years after this good news was proclaimed, the Ministry of Peace was established in Ethiopia in the year 2011 (2019 GC). The minister of this ministry is Mrs. Mufarit Kamil. When the ministry had started operations, a certain thinker posed a question for all the people. I don’t know who the man is but I remember his question. He asked: Was the Ministry of Peace established because the church has given up her license? This question should be our question this afternoon. I will quickly try to share my reasons for saying so. I cannot help harboring the idea that the Ministry of Peace was established in Ethiopia because the churches in the country have surrendered their license. Let me briefly remind you of what the Lord Jesus Christ said two thousand years ago and what happened then. When the Lord Jesus Christ was on earth, He said, “Peace I leave with you,” and He went back to heaven. And this Ministry of Peace in Ethiopia was established after the Lord had said those words. The fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John gives us a great message. Those words are from our Lord Jesus Christ. The same Lord for whom we sang, and whom we just worshiped had said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you”. That was Christ’s last word. But before He said these words, the Lord Jesus called His disciples to Him and gave them a principle of life. He said to them: Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the children of God. That is what the Jesus Christ said. Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the children of God. This is written in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5, verse 9. While there is a people of whom such words had been said, now a Ministry of Peace has been established in Ethiopia. Without counting the followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and without counting the followers of the Catholic Church in Ethiopia, according to the most recent statistics by Tsadiku Abdo, head of the Evangelical Churches Fellowship, the number of Evangelical Christians in Ethiopia is well over 28 million. Catholics and the Orthodox are added to that number, we can see that the number of Christians is really great. So considering our great number, is it really because the church has given up her license that the Ministry of Peace was recently established in Ethiopia? That is the question I want to ask you this afternoon. The second scripture on peace is found in the letter to the Ephesians. The central message in the letter to the Ephesians is peace. I would like you to listen carefully. Peace has the Prince of Peace who is Jesus Christ. Jesus was born so that peace would settle on earth. Peace belongs to Jesus and He has given peace to those who belong to Him. The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus has given His own peace to each of us. He has left His peace with us so that we may take advantage of it. We have a mandate from the Lord to be men and women of peace and to spread peace among people. This is written in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5, verse 9. What is peace? To my understanding, peace has to do with order in all areas of life. Peace is the life that man lives knowing that he has been created in the image of God and endowed with the privilege of ruling the earth. Peace is a state in which the well being of man and all animals on earth is ensured. I was present last week at the conference when the Ministry of Peace was established. A researcher said during the conference: Let us do our duty and Ethiopia will not be destroyed. The following day another researcher came who said that Ethiopia was on the verge of disintegration. But he also said that if every Christian did his duty, the threat would remain only a threat. I pondered what those two researchers said during the two-day seminar. They spoke based on evidences and they were right. You brothers and sisters, who have been invited to the launch of the books, I trust you are all paying attention to what we hear together now. What the Lord has given us is the grace of making peace. Has the license to make peace been snatched from our hand? Has our license been revoked? I want to challenge both myself and you this afternoon. After the Prince of Peace was born and left His peace with us, and given us to make peace among people, after He has made us ambassadors of peace, if a Ministry of Peace has to be established in Ethiopia, we have to sit down and think seriously. Conflicts may arise between people. Conflicts may arise between husband and wife, between parents and children, between students and teachers, between clergy and laity, between people and government. Conflict is not new. Conflict has always been and it will always be because all people have the fallen nature of sin. However, Christians ought to resolve conflicts. Changing conflicts to peace should be a daily task of Christians. But why is it not so? I will say a few words on that and conclude my message. The reason that resolving conflicts has not become the task of every Christians is that conflict is new to them. It is new to evangelical believers. I said earlier that conflict was not new, but now I am saying conflict might be new. When new believers join the congregation of evangelical Christians, they feel as if they have joined a company of angels. They come with the assumption that every member is blessed with the same capacity that Jesus Christ had. When they come out of darkness into the marvelous light, they come believing with all their heart that there is peace, rest, and love. So when they see some people fighting, they turn tail and run away with shock. For most of them, conflict is not normal. When this condition persists, people organize themselves in groups and begin pulling the church to pieces. For some doctrinal issues for others administrative issues can cause conflict where conflict is new for the people. My friends, conflict is not new. To a community that has learned to control emotions and listening to one another, and live by the principles God has given to His people, conflict should not be new. Therefore, for us evangelicals who are great in number, self-control should be the norm. As we listen to God’s teaching, we must prepare ourselves to know that the responsibility of making peace has been laid on us. This is one of the solutions. The other solution is to know with certainty that the Prince of Peace has been born. And we must understand that we have been entrusted with the mission of making peace on earth. We must discharge this responsibility not when we go to be with the Lord but while we are still on earth. I want to mention a Ugandan heroine. This year, that Rwandan woman married the man who killed her husband and her father. International media were both shocked and impressed. Therefore they asked her a question and her answer was surprising. She said: In this world where Satan holds sway, I cannot believe the man who is my husband today did those things of his own will and motivated by his own hatred. That is a strong woman who understood there was a devil on earth. But that was not all she said. She also said that Christ is love and He wants to know to what extent His love has been realized in our heart, and I want to be a demonstration of His love. The man who is my husband today knows that I have lost my father, and he will be my father. He will be my husband so that I will not be suffer the pain of loss because of my husband who died; he will discharge the responsibility of a husband too. Through our relationship, many platforms of peace will be created with me as a living witness. May God give the understanding of this woman to each of us. While we are Christians and have received a mandate, I invite you to believe that we were not called to sow seeds of hate. Do not think that I have become a politician today. Christianity is life. The issue of peace concerns all of us. We have been given a daily assignment that all human beings may live in peace. Each of us is responsible for this task. We must work so that peace and reconciliation may be realized among all people. There is no time to waste. Many evangelicals would rather show that they are citizens of heaven, not believing that it is God’s will for them to live on this earth. We see things going on and peace being disrupted but keep on preaching and singing as if nothing is wrong. And our songs say that we are strangers and sojourners while we live on this earth; our treasure is in heaven and we have nothing on earth. This is not the only song we sing. At the beginning of the 70s, while Dereje Kebede was ministering, there was a song which I heard sitting next to him. He was singing: Jesus, please, please, please come soon; I have missed you so much. If all our songs and sermons are confined to these themes, our sanity should be called into question. Brothers and sisters, I am not against the coming of Jesus. I am not denying that we are strangers either. The number of evangelicals who say that they are not citizens of this earth but of heaven is on the rise. My friends, that which is not sown and grown on earth will not get to heaven. Hoping to get in heaven what one has not sown on earth is just an illusion. I would like you to ponder this and believe it. The singer or preacher might have suffered much hardship and wanted relief from it. But relief from the troubles of this earth can be attained in death. He will die in due time. The song will not be a prayer. My brothers and sisters, we must face reality while we live on this earth. The Lord has made us ambassadors on earth so that we will carry out our mission while we are on earth. I would like you to take home the advice Jesus Christ has given us in John chapter 14 and 17 before His crucifixion and death. In verse four He said, “I have glorified You on the earth: I have finished the work which You gave me to do”. He finished on earth the work that was given to Him. When He finished the work that was given Him of the Father, He said, “I have glorified You”. May God help all of us who have gathered at this book launching ceremony that our last prayer may be like that of Jesus Christ: I have glorified You on the earth. If we have neglected our mission of making peace on earth, may God forgive us and help us recommit ourselves to it. Here is my conclusion. If we think as Christians that we have worked hard to realize peace in Ethiopia, let me remind you that we have not done anything at all. I say so considering the last fifty years, when it was declared that it was the season of the Holy Spirit, in contrast with what had been accomplished a hundred and a hundred fifty years ago by evangelical churches in Ethiopia. If the Lord wills and we live, the book I would like to publish this year is about Charismatic Change and Crisis in Ethiopia. The charismatic movement in Ethiopia has yielded many blessings and I praise God for that. Ethiopia has suffered many problems as a result of not knowing how to handle the blessings and due to ignorance of the ways of the Holy Spirit. My friends, I would like you not to forget the great things God did in this country about fifty years ago. A hundred years ago, evangelists were not sleeping in Ethiopia. They had accomplished great results in their days. Through their evangelism, the number of prostitutes had decreased. Marriages flourished. In their days, gangs had disappeared from neighborhoods. In their days, Jesus was proven to be the Prince of Peace. There were evangelists in Ethiopia who did these things and whom we can mention by name today. Fullat in the presence of Emperor Tewodros. Fullat had made Tewodros say, “I would have liked to follow your faith”. Sheh Zekarias and Anasimos Nesib in the presence of Menelik to whom the Emperor Menelik said, “I have named you Treasure of Christ”. Amanuel Abraham and Aleka Taye in the days of Haileselasie I preached the gospel in the presence of the king whose response was to let them. Yes we are over 28 million. But our work should be manifested. This is the core of the two books which are being launched today. If our work were manifested, a Ministry of Peace would not have been established in Ethiopia. I am happy about its establishment, praise God. However, I want each of us children of God to discharge our responsibility. When we understand this, my friends, Ethiopian will not be destroyed. When we understand this and renew ourselves in repentance, and when our local churches discharge their mandate, Ethiopia will not be disintegrated. Let us see that the issue is serious. I am glad to be born in Ethiopia. If I am born in Ethiopia, may God help me to finish my work here. May God help me live as a man of peace. Today is August 19, 2019. Today is a memorial of the day our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized in the river Jordan. Two thousand years ago, this is how the word testified about Him: as He was baptized and came up out of the water, the heaven was opened and the Spirit came as a dove and lighted on Him. And behold a voice came from heaven which said: This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. I, your little brother, invite you today during the launch of these two books to learn the word of the Son who was loved of God the Father and to live the life that the Son lived. Our brother Adiamseged has started the work that God is pleased with. He and his wife have started the work. It is a visible, tangible, readable work. It is a work that will go down the generations. My brothers, think very calmly upon the word in the Gospel of John: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Get the books and find this theme in them. The greatest verse I love in the letter to the Ephesians is this: Even when we were dead in sins, [God] has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved). Show me your hands those of you who say you were saved by grace. Let us clap our hands. Praise God. May God bless the work of this brother and of his wife. Notice the theme of the great ministry they have started, “Global Healing,” the idea they embraced long before our Prime Minister Dr. Abiy said it. Adiamseged is not talking about the ministry of healing, but about global healing, which will be attained in love and in unity. May the Lord Jesus Christ reign on us. Thank you.