Maybe you have become a Somali Christian and you are still living at home with your family. Maybe you are still living in a building where most of the people are Somalis. And you feel weird because you are a Christian, and they are not. Maybe it feels like you are living with a bunch of crocodiles.
Maybe you have been walking out of your apartment on a Sunday morning trying to sneak away to church, and a Somali appears out of nowhere to say: “Where are you going this morning?” or in Somali “xagee u socotaa”?
Just like a crocodile they jump out of nowhere to attack you.
No matter where you go you can’t see to find any peace and that’s because you are living with the crocodiles. Crocodiles love to eat whatever comes close to the water to get a drink. Here you are, minding your own business and you walk out of your apartment to go to the elevator to go to a Bible study, and surprise, a Somali stand there in front of you asking you where you are going.
What is worse, you have never met this person before. You don’t even know who they are. And yet they get right in front of your face and demand to know where you are going. Just like a crocodile ready to eat you.
Jesus said, ““Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves.” Jesus didn’t say He was sending us out among the crocodiles, but you know what I mean.
Jesus said that we are like sheep. We believe in peace, and love, forgiveness and joy. And this is why they killed Jesus. He believed and preached forgiveness of sins by believing in God. Jesus cut out the religious middle man. Jesus said that you don’t need a religious middle man to get to God. You don’t need a priest, you don’t need a rabbi, you don’t need an imam – all you need to do is to cry out to God directly and God will forgive your sins.
God used Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins so that we could be forgiven and we could have a relationship with the Father in heaven, our God. Our Saviour. So when we put our faith in God, and believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, then we are saved. We are set free from our sins, and the punishment of God that we were supposed to get, and we are forgiven.
Then Jesus said, “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves.” So if you are a Somali Christiana and you are living in a wolf pack, and you are a sheep, I don’t think you are going to last very long. You will either get eaten or you will go back to becoming a sheep.
Many Somalis have become Christians but they never left the pond of crocodiles. They stayed in the pond and lived with the crocodiles. But they are now sheep. They are not crocodiles. How can a sheep survive living with the crocodiles?
Or how can a sheep survive living with the wolves? If you are a Somali and you have become a Christian you cannot stay living with the wolves. You might run into a wolf sometimes, or you may be someone who is reaching out and evangelizing to Somalis and there you are one of those whom Jesus said I am sending you out among the wolves, but you would be wise not to live with the wolves.
What does light have to do with the darkness? Why should someone who is a child of the light live with those who are children who live in the darkness? Am I getting through to you? Are you hearing me? Or are you like a cobra who has shut its ears?
That Bible says, let those who have ears hear what the Spirit is saying. If you are a Somali Christian then you belong to live with your Christian brothers and sisters. You belong in a church. You belong in a prayer meeting. You belong in the nursery helping out the children. You belong in the church teaching the Bible. You belong in a Salvation Army Temple feeding the hungry. You are now a new creation in Christ so your lifestyle has to change, otherwise you will go back to the way you used to live.
You need to change your environment. You need to get out of where you are and live for Christ.
The Bible says: “Then I heard another voice calling from heaven,
“Come away from her, my people.
Do not take part in her sins,
or you will be punished with her.”