On Justice & the Kind of Life God Wants.

I recently found this gem the other day and thought to share. While it's particularly important for Christians, I also think it's something everyone should consider. So it is from the book of Isaiah in the Bible. Basically, God told the prophet Isaiah to pass on a message to the Israelites. The Israelites always acted very pious, God said. They would go the Temple every day and even seem happy to learn about God. They carried themselves as though they would never abandon God and like they wanted to be near Him. And when there was silence from him, they would protest:
we have fasted!
we have been really hard on ourselves; denied ourselves of life's pleasures just to please you!
why are you NOT impressed, huh?!
why do you act like you don't notice?

Sounds familiar? I bet it does. You are fasting and praying. You serve in Church. You can quote the Bible from Genesis to Revelations. You can preach the devil back to hell. So what's up? Why does God not notice it?
Well that's because while you are fasting, you are exploiting and oppressing your workers. While you are fasting, you are fighting with the whole world, and keeping malice. So you do the rites, and fast for 150 of the 365 days in the year. But God is like, nah, that kind of fasting will get you nowhere. That kind of lifestyle really doesn't please him. What kind of fasting does he want, you ask.
"No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help." -  Isaiah 58: 6-7.
If you go on in that passage, it continues to say "THEN..." meaning after you do all of the above, will you experience true healing; will your godliness lead you forward; will the glory of God protect you. It is THEN that the Lord will quickly (it specifies) answer your call.  When you feed the hungry, and help those in trouble, your light will shine out.
In other words, less of you and more of others. We can see that justice, mercy, and compassion matter to God a lot. And again, we see that hypocrisy really irritates God. I'll give another instance; this time in the new testament. Jesus was dragging the Pharisees and calling them hypocrites and stuff. And then he mentioned how they do everything right, they were careful to tick all the boxes. They would even tithe the tiniest income they earned. BUT, they would ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. I'm not even kidding, Jesus called those the MORE IMPORTANT [THAN TITHE] aspects of the law. He then reiterated that while tithing was and would always be important, justice, mercy, and faith were more important.
Coincidentally, I was just joking with my dad and sister recently that while no one person can be angry about all injustices, it's important and dare I say, it's our responsibility to care about justice. There has to be something; one thing you care about. Pick that one thing and run with it, in whatever capacity you can. Is it giving the less privileged? Maybe this year instead of another useless birthday photo-shoot, you can instead ask your friends to give on your behalf? Someone on Twitter once suggested calling your local school (board) and asking to offset some lunch debt for kids. Maybe it's your time you can give: to your own family, your friends. Something...just remember God really cares about it.  Also remember you can't just consistently live for yourself and yourself alone.

Capitalism and the Church – The Way Forward.

There is a work side to prosperity. It is the works of your hand God blesses. People are in farms planting yams and you are busy sitting in church, when it is harvesting time; don't expect yams to fall from heaven. When it is eating time; people are eating and you are "believing" God for yams. Faith without work is dead. There should be a corresponding action in line of faith.

When the gospel came to Africa, the missionaries saw two vital areas of deficiencies; hospital and school. They filled these gaps. Today, directly or indirectly, we have all benefited from it. Today, we have a major problem; unemployment. Instead of filling this gap we are taking advantage of it.

We gather the unemployed and "prophesy" jobs to them. We give them stickers, sell "holy water", tell them to sow and expect harvest, convincing them to "work" for the Lord, that breakthrough is coming... All these we do to exploit and explore the vulnerable.

We travel abroad. We have gone to Isreal and see the agricultural exploits there. But we are not willing to bring them home. When we sow, instead of our money to be invested into ventures like agriculture that would alleviate the sufferings of the weak ones among us, we channel the money to an atheist in Germany who designed MOG's customized car. We channel the money to Buddhists in China where we bought our building materials. We channel the money to a gay in America who produces the sound system and lighting system.

We channel the money to a Muslim in Dubai who did the interior decoration of our " magnificent " building...what a Capital Flight! Why are we crying of poverty and for breakthrough? The God that I know respond to work wherever he sees man doing something to advance humanity, be it a Hindu, Gay, Buddhist, atheist etc. 

I don't want to start mentioning names, neither do I want to indict any person. But just imagine Living Faith going to rice production, RCCG going into Cassava production, Christ Embassy into Maize, God's Chosen into Yams, Catholics into millets etc. The land is there, the man power is there, the money is there, like the missionaries, who saw a problem and filled it, we can also fill this problem of unemployment and food security.

Just imagine a church sending hundreds of trailer-loads of food to evangelize the north. No man can resist love. Feed them in love and watch how their hearts change. That was how the missionaries changed the hearts of our forebears. The missionaries have tried for us, and instead of us to keep pressing northwards, we have resulted in building empires. We have commercialized the gospel. It is all about breakthrough, money and less Jesus, His Person, His Sacrifice and Finished works. 

We have the manpower to feed Nigeria and Africa, generate employment by adding values to farm produce and exporting them. We have traveled abroad and have seen great agricultural exploits, it is time to bring these inventions home. 

It is time we convert our exotic cars in our garages to tractors and other mechanised and modern agricultural tools. Doing what government cannot do, by do doing this; "THE GOVERNMENT SHALL BE UPON HIS SHOULDER ". When we roar, the government is supposed to quiver, not because of our large bank accounts, but because of our intimidating exploits.

It is time to wake-up... I see a day when we shall be holding our numerous church services in farms and factories. It is time to take the government upon His shoulder. It is action time!

Courtesy: Enenche, a Nigerian comedian.

When Religious Cliches or Platitudes Can be Annoying.

Last week, Pastor Charles Ezechila (with his family above) of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Nigeria, was among the multitudes that attended the church’s monthly "Holy Ghost" vigil along the Lagos-Ibadan highway. Each month, when the church holds this service, there is always a huge traffic logjam the next morning when the congregants decide to leave for home. As a result, motorists (who are not members of the church) coming from the Lagos end of the highway and those coming from the Ibadan end, will be held up for hours while motorists coming from the camp of the Redeemed Christian Church struggle for the possession of the highway. It is often in a bid to avoid this hardship that Pastor Charles Ezechila and some other church members often choose to leave for home very early or very late.  

That was the decision taken by Pastor Charles Ezechila on that morning when tragedy struck. A commercial cargo container on the back of a truck fell on the bus that was carrying the pastor and two of his sons. They were killed instantly.

Incidentally, the pastor's wife and the other children were home because they did not attend the vigil. But, with the sad news about the death of the pastor, they were emotionally devastated.

It was in the midst of this terrible grief that some members of the church paid the family a visit. The following is an excerpt of a newspaper interview granted by the pastor’s wife, Vivian: 

Newspaper reporter: “Have the authorities of the RCCG reached out to you?”–

Vivian: “Yes, they have. They came in large numbers, telling me not to be weary. They said he had finished his race. I asked them, ‘What about my two young children who died? Have they finished their race too just like that?”

My opinion: Poor woman! What a terrible loss! The last thing anyone would like to hear in such a moment of horrendous grief was some lame cliché or platitude. Only God and, Him alone, can adequately console the woman under the circumstance.

There is Honor in Humility.

Mega Church Pastor Fred Price Jr. Steps Down because of Personal Misjudgments?


Back in those days, even though I was considered an unbeliever by the "righteous" people all around me, a typical Sunday of mine was never completed until I watched a sermon of Dr. Fred Price (the senior) on TV. The man preferred to be addressed as a teacher and not a pastor. And he was a great preacher! But then, he retired and imposed his son on the church. I heard that some members disagreed with him and quit the church.

Now, I got two lessons from this story: 

1. It takes a huge courage to do what this young man did here. How I wish many pastors (especially those in Nigeria) would have the same courage and humility to accept that they are mere mortals and that whenever they mess up as this guy just did, it's important for them to own up instead of carrying on as if they can do no wrong.

2. Why do a lot of modern-day pastors turn their ministries into a dynasty? Just because a man is "called" does not necessarily mean he is called along with his wife or son or daughter! Or was it because prophets Lot, Elijah, Elisha, Samuels and the rest of them didn't set up churches? Do we even know if any of the apostles in the new testament passed down their anointing to sons or daughters as some sort of legacies?

Photo of father and son. 

Donald Trump and the American Women.

Donald Trump is the very first modern-day American presidential candidate to use profanity on national television without giving a damn. Yet, he got away with it because white American women formed a majority of those that voted for him. And this included those puritanical white women who would usually squirm if such a bad language was used by ordinary folks.  Therefore, the next time those so-called conservative pretenders cringe or cry blue murder whenever a profanity is used on national television or in a public place, they should be told, in no uncertain times, to shut the hell up! By casting their votes for Donald Trump, the multitude of white women had unwittingly given approval for the denigration of women by men. All kinds of ignorant men and especially, those rappers can now begin to have a field day with more misogynistic lyrics and negative attitudes toward women. Talk of sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind.

The so-called fundamental Christians were the biggest jokers all through the campaign. Trump practically "charmed" them with his famous pretenses. The extremists in the Christendom thought he was one of them. To the scammed people, Trump was an exemplary Christ-like "Christian" even in spite of his many ignorant and abusive speeches. How stupid! Were the fundamentalists implying that Jesus was a racist, a misogynist, a demagogue and a thug?

Tithing and Today’s Christendom.

I’m a Christian. I accept that tithing is encouraged by both the Old Testament and the New Testament in the Bible. And I believe in tithing. I however don’t believe in the interpretations given to tithing in today’s Christendom. It’s not written anywhere that tithing must be performed before God can answer prayers. And neither is it written anywhere that the only way to enter the kingdom of God is through tithing. It is an expression of gratitude to God but definitely not the only way to thank God for His blessings, protection and grace. Therefore, there is no reason for pastors to turn it into a decree that must be obeyed by their congregations. God actually prefers and indeed, encourages us to give whatever we can afford and, in a cheerful manner too. These days however, many of the so-called new generation pastors have turned tithing into a compulsion. They make it look like God has a bank account that must be filled with money at every turn. The fact however remains that the pastors are more interested in piling a lot of cash into their churches’ coffers for their own personal purposes.  

The urge to tithe needs to come from the heart of the giver, and not by coercion or some subtle emotional blackmail as is being practiced by many pastors in the modern-day Christendom. As if he already knew what those “Pentecostal” pastors would do after he must have departed the sinful earth, Jesus Christ is known to have denounced the Pharisees not really for tithing but for not observing and practicing the principle of justice, fairness and mercy while tithing. Jesus admonished them thus: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law; justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” Matthew 23:23 (ESV). 

These days, the scribes and Pharisees of old have been replaced by scam artists, corrupt politicians, drug dealers, thieves and sundry criminals whose sources of wealth are filled with dirt. And unlike Jesus, today’s “new generation” pastor is only interested in having his church’s bank account filled with money so that his personal desires can be taken care of with such money. They don’t care about the behaviors or the givers’ sources of money. The so-called men of God are always being presented with cash, expensive gifts of cars and air planes while turning a blind eye to the atrocities of the givers. And, in turn, the pastors pay and bless their benefactors unashamedly while completely ignoring the poor people who sincerely give their “widow’s mite”. Fortunately, it’s God that decides who gets blessed, not some mere mortals that parade themselves as “men of God”.

Religious Posturing.

"Not everyone who says, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father" (Matthew 7:21). 

When Pastors Get Personal in Their Sermons.

There is a big moral danger in the manners by which some pastors, especially those in "Pentecostal" or new generation churches make it their business to get personal in what they say on the pulpits. These pastors personalized their "interpretations” of the Holy Bible to suit their vain, selfish purposes.                                                                                                                  Their usual excuse is to “blame” it all on “divine inspirations”.  By so doing however, these “men of God” inadvertently leave several doors open for lazy, negative speculations within the ranks and files of their congregants. Among the consequences of these speculations is the avalanche of gossips that sooner or later consume the entire church. The worst aspect of it all is the resort of the same church members to link every subject of sermons to certain individuals and their private affairs.

Nigerians and Religious Posturings !!!

For God's sake, Nigerians!!! 

Is this the latest fad in the Christendom? Lately, I've been seeing pictures and videos of some Nigerians rolling on the ground while praying. In this picture is Pastor (or is he Bishop or Arch-Bishop?) Ayo Oritshejafor rolling on the floor during a prayer session in Abuja, Nigeria. 

I guess this new "style" has overtaken the usual act of "speaking in tongues" in religious posturing or playing to the gallery." This is very interesting. If we mortals are silly...definitely, God is not!