Sunday is Coming; Sunday Has Come by Ifeoluwa Olawole.

When I am afraid, worried, unsure, I like to think, Sunday is Coming.  I first learnt of this term after Hilary Clinton lost the election in 2016, in the email her pastor sent to her a day after she lost the elector. Let me explain. I think about how Jesus's disciples and friends must have felt the day (Friday) he passed away. The shame, the anger, the loneliness, the humiliation, the worry, the depth of the loss, the confusion. They had been following this man around for so long, proclaiming his royalty and sovereignty, proclaiming that he was King. Then, just like that he died, in what was a drawn out, humiliating, painful process. And apart from dealing with the loss of their leader and friend, they had to deal with the aftermath. In this kind of context, hope is lost. With this in mind, that day must have been a disaster.

Even though Jesus had told them beforehand that three days later all would be restored, in all the chaos they either forgot or just could not see a possibility of it.

If only they knew Sunday was coming. If only they knew life, redemption, joy, celebration were on the way,  then perhaps they would have gotten through Friday with just a little more peace. Because like he had said, indeed on Sunday he rose.

Amazing Grace
how sweet that sound
that saved a wretch like me
I was once lost
but now I am found
was blind...
but now... I see

Friday can literally be anything. Friday can be that depression that just would not leave you. It could be a cancer diagnosis. Friday could be job loss. Or, Friday, most notably, could be a deadly, highly infectious novel virus that we don't understand, but that has brought the world to its knees. Yet,

Sunday is Coming.

I like to take that approach towards life. The idea that though now it looks and feels bleak, laughter is coming. Joy is coming. Celebration is coming. Freedom is coming. And there is no better time to share this than now. So while it may be Friday now, Sunday is coming.

Sunday has come.

Please note that this is metaphorical, I don't know the exact day Jesus died but Friday represents whatever that exact day was, okay sweeeties? Okay. Let's continue. As the above email mentions, life is filled with so many Fridays. I am certain we can get through those Fridays if  we keep in mind that Sunday is on the way.

Some people noted there is no point to Easter because the Bible does not mention it or celebrate it or something. But the Bible also doesn't mention birthdays and wedding anniversaries, but we celebrate them anyway, so what really is your point?

Anyway, as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and the redemption it brought, it should empower us with hope and refocus our gaze on the fact that just as Sunday came for the disciples, Sunday is coming for us too.

I will leave you with this powerful rendition of Amazing Grace by Andrea Bocelli earlier today in Duomo di Milano.

Happy Easter, people!

Love,

I

Thanking God for Jesus.

I woke up this morning thanking God for Jesus.

 

And why not? The whole world would have been a terrorized zone. Today, people with characteristics that were similar to those of the biblical Zachaeus, Mary Magdalen and others would have become outcasts, if not daily stoned to death on the orders of some "righteous" few. If not for Jesus, merry-making, all forms of drinks and the mere act of looking good would have been forbidden or totally decreed into nonexistence by the "holy" individuals among us.

 

Let's thank God for Jesus. He preached love and tolerance. He taught us to always "remove the logs of wood in our eyes before seeing the little specs in other people's eyes". He also  admonished "those of you who have 'never sinned' to cast the first stone" when sitting in judgement over other persons.

 

In essence, Jesus spent His lifetime preaching that we should let our individual consciences be our chambers of justice. He never wasted time or energy on outward appearances because His objective was to save our souls, not our bodies or adornments. And this is why the contents of our hearts are more important to Him than our bodies.

 

Yes, some Christians are into a life of miserable, dreadful and pathetic existence as proofs of their holiness...even though their hearts are filled with hatred, envy and all forms of negativity. But in all sincerity, Christianity doesn't have to be such a pain and neither does it have to be so suffocating. All thanks to Jesus.

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.

The Myth of Christian Persecution.

Christians of all denominations maintain that the Early Church was widely persecuted. They state that in the first few centuries after the death of the Messiah, Christians were hunted, tortured and killed just for following Christ. This persecution is believed to have begun with the deaths of Stephen, the Apostles, and then the Christians persecuted under a long succession of cruel and vindictive Roman emperors.  

This history of early Christianity establishes Christianity as a religion of innocent sufferers; as a church beleaguered and under attack. In periods of crisis or perceived crisis Christians of all stripes have returned to this stereotype of the early church in order to find themselves and understand their experiences. This is true even today: during the debate over the HHS mandate last year, a Catholic Bishop said that President Obama was attacking Christians just like the Roman emperors, Hitler and Stalin had. In August 2011 Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum publicly complained that the “gay community ... had gone out on a jihad” against him. In the course of the last election, similar statements were made by Mitt Romney, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly, to name but a few. 

This is not just a case of election-day banter or political nastiness. Just recently, Fox News host Todd Starnes accused NBC of persecuting Christians because of a skit that aired on Saturday Night Live. The accusation may appear flimsy, but the advertising boycott of NBC that resulted was not. The rhetorical power of persecution language is very real.

These evaluations of modern society and Christianity’s place in it trace themselves back to the early Church. Christianity is responsible for changing the way that we think about persecution. Were it not for the belief that early Christians were persecuted, Christian identity would not be so intimately linked to the experience of persecution. It is precisely for this reason that understanding the history is so important. 

 Intriguingly, when we look at the ancient evidence for the treatment of early Christians a very different picture emerges. The vast majority of our ancient sources for persecution in the first century were written in the second century and beyond. The stories about the deaths of the apostles, for instance, were written as late as a hundred years later and modeled on the fanciful genre of ancient romance novels.  

Even the earliest, most ostensibly trustworthy martyrdom stories have been edited and reworked. The authors of these accounts borrowed from ancient mythology, changed the details of events to make the martyrs appear more like Jesus, and made the Roman antagonists increasingly venomous. The motivations of these later authors and editors, who have gone unheralded by history but who shaped our understanding of the world, are arguably more fascinating than the martyrdom stories themselves. No doubt there are kernels of truth at the heart of some of some of the stories, but we do not have evidence of persecution. 

The Roman evidence is also ambiguous. If Nero did target Christians after the great fire of Rome in 64 C.E. — and the are good reasons for thinking he did not — his treatment of them stemmed less from a desire to harm Christians than it did from his need to deflect blame from himself. Ancient Romans who spread the story about Nero saw his actions as contemptible and unjust.

Archeological evidence reveals that on those occasions when Christians did die en masse it was the result of general legislation intended to defend and fortify the empire. Christians were not named directly in imperial legislation until the second half of the third century, and it was only from 303-305 C.E., in the reign of the Emperor Diocletian, that we see anything resembling the brutal persecution of popular imagination. Christians did die. And Christians were occasionally persecuted, but should two years of persecution under Diocletian lead to nearly 2,000 years of Christian persecution complex?  

The idea that Christianity is persecuted and needs to defend itself from external and internal attack comes from the victorious Church of the fourth and fifth centuries and beyond. It is a story that has brought comfort to the suffering, sick and oppressed, but it is a story that was used — expanded, exaggerated and even invented — to exclude heretics, that legitimized great violence and that continues to disrupt civil discourse. And it precisely this — the effect that this inflated myth of persecution has had on modern politics and discourse — that makes it imperative that we get our facts straight. 

When disagreement and dissent are conflated with persecution, dialogue, collaboration and even compassion become impossible. You cannot reason with your persecutors, you have to fight them. If persecution becomes a badge of honor and a sign of moral superiority then what reason is there to try and persuade others of one’s arguments? Framed by the myth that we are persecuted, dialogue is not only impossible; it is undesirable. Moreover, it overshadows actual persecution. Christians around the world endure violence and oppression today. But those experiences are overshadowed by complaints that conflate disputes over lawmaking with persecution. If persecution language is not reserved for situations of actual persecution, then unspeakable violence becomes indescribable. Disagreement becomes martyrdom and martyrdom becomes disagreement.

Courtesy: Candida Moss (Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame and the author of ‘The Myth of Persecution’).

On Justice and 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. 

Courtesy: Ifeoluwa Olawole.

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. 

Mary Magdalene, the Apostle of Apostles.

The traditional Church has marginalized the role of Mary Magdalene and prohibited the gospels in which Mary Magdalene played an important role and which portray her as close to Jesus. These gospels, such as “The Gospel of Philip”,  “The Dialogue of the Savior” and “The Gospel of Mary (Magdalene)” have been found in the Nag Hammadi texts and throw an entirely different light on the position of Mary Magdalene. In these gospels, she is the most beloved disciple of Jesus Christ.

Mary Magdalene had a prominent position among the apostles. She is called the “apostola apostolorum”, the “apostle of apostles”. She was an initiate of the seventh stage of the Mithras mysteries, which is the highest stage in the process of initiation. She had already acquired Christ Consciousness; she knew the “All” and was therefore “all-knowing” as far as this was possible on Earth.

In the Pistis Sophia it says: “And Jesus, the compassionate, answered and said unto Mary: ‘Mary, thou blessed one, whom I will perfect in all mysteries of those of the height, discourse in openness, thou, whose heart is raised to the kingdom of heaven more than all thy brethren”. 

And a little bit further down: “It came to pass then, when Mary had finished saying these words that he said: “Well said, Mary, for thou art blessed before all women on the earth, because thou shalt be the fullness of all fullness and the perfection of all perfections”. 

The phrase “the fullness of all fullness” refers to the highest stage of initiation: He or she who knows the “All”.

Sharing Wise Thoughts in the Christmas Season.

“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.” – Hamilton Wright Mabie.

“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.” - Calvin Coolidge. 

“When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?” - Gilbert K. Chesterton. 

WISHING EVERYONE A MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR in advance!!!

God's Magnanimous Kindness.

God, I want to thank you for your many blessings upon my life…because you often bless me publicly. Most times, I am baffled by the wonders you’re performing in my life, the same way I was baffled way back then when my high school principal gave me an “award” for doing some bull-sh***—his way of teaching me a "lesson".





Anyway, thanks for your patience, mercy and magnanimous kindness. If you were to consider my sins, I would have been in serious trouble. Fortunately, you don’t want the death of sinners but only for us to repent. And I thank you Lord for recognizing that some of us are “Work-In-Progress”…even though some people think mine is taking too long to “complete”.

The great thing is that your ways are different from that of Man. You’re never tired of my asking for forgiveness, knowing fully well that I don’t take your mercy for granted. In my total submission and gratitude to you therefore, I give you Lord all the praises, glories and adorations In Jesus name. Amen!

How Easy is it to Forgive and Forget?

Of all the many admonitions of Jesus, the one I consider to be the toughest is when He said we should forgive, forget and pray for our enemies...for as many times as they offend us. Personally, I can try to forgive but it's difficult for me to forget...not to talk of praying for someone that is an enemy.

In fact, it's not easy to be a good Christian...except in Nigeria where religious rules are being "modified" every now and then.  Over there, in many churches, fellowships and individual homes, most Christians don't pray for their enemies. Even in the midst of fasting and prayers, they spend hours cursing and invoking the spirits of fire and brimstones upon their real or imaginary enemies.

God's Magnanimous Kindness.

On this glorious Sunday, I want to thank you God publicly for your many blessings upon my life…because you often bless me publicly. Most times, I am baffled by the wonders you’re performing in my life, the same way I was baffled way back then when my high school principal gave me an “award” for doing some bull-sh***—it was the man's way of teaching me a "lesson". Anyway, I'm thanking for your patience, mercy and magnanimous kindness. If you were to consider my sins, I would have been in serious trouble. Fortunately, you don’t want the death of sinners but only for us to repent. And I thank you Lord for recognizing that some of us are “Work-In-Progress”…even though some people think mine is taking too long to “complete”. The great thing is that your ways are different from that of Man. You’re never tired of my asking for forgiveness, knowing fully well that I don’t take your mercy for granted. In my total submission and gratitude to you therefore, I give you Lord all the praises, glories and adorations In Jesus name. Amen!

The Real Face of Jesus.

Wow! Too many people across the world (including Africa) will be grossly disappointed to learn that the real Jesus did NOT look like the usual image of a tall, White Hollywood lead actor (with long hair) that has been depicted for many years. This was the same way they were disappointed about a decade ago when the true image of Moses was researched and published by the Newsweek magazine.  

According to  the Esquire Magazine, forensic Science has revealed the true, most likely image of Jesus Christ (as shown above). This image "emerged from an exciting new field of science: forensic anthropology. Using methods similar to those police have developed to solve crimes, British scientists, assisted by Israeli archaeologists, have re-created what they believe is the most accurate image of the most famous face in human history."

In a published research, the Esquire Magazine stated further "While forensic anthropology is usually used to solve crimes, Richard Neave, a medical artist retired from The University of Manchester in England, realized it also could shed light on the appearance of Jesus. The co-author of Making Faces: Using Forensic And Archaeological Evidence, Neave had ventured in controversial areas before. Over the past two decades, he had reconstructed dozens of famous faces, including Philip II of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great, and King Midas of Phrygia. If anyone could create an accurate portrait of Jesus, it would be Neave."

You are Worthy to be Adored, O Lord.

“Help me to understand that only a few things really are necessary in life. And when you get right down to it, only one: to sit at your feet…listening…looking into your eyes…and loving you.

Thank you for the privilege of sitting at those nail-scarred feet. Grant me the grace never to regard that privilege casually, nor to neglect it, but to come there humbly, and to come there often…because you are worthy to be adored O beautiful Savior…because you are worthy to be adored.” 

– Ken Gire.