April 21, 2013 · 8:38 pm

SEMPER FIDELIS

Recently, I was reading a book; Point Man by Steve Farrar and I came across the term Semper Fidelis. It is the motto of the United States Marine Corps and it just means ALWAYS FAITHFUL. The keyword in the two-word motto is ALWAYS.

Always actually means always. It reminds me of some lines in the anthem of the Nigerian National Youth Service Corps (NYSC):

…Let us lift our nation high                                                                                                               Under the sun or in the rain                                                                                                    With dedication and selflessness…

Semper Fidelis means that your faithfulness should be unconditional and unwavering. It means faithful to the very end. Faithful to God in good times and in bad times. Faithful to God when it is convenient and faithful when it is not. Faithful to God when there is a profit to be made and when there is a loss to bear and I dare say, faithful to God when all you have laboured for is on the line.

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You can say that this is the message that King David wanted to pass across when he wrote in the second part Psalms 15: 4

          He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.(KJV)

          who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind;(NIV)

          Keep your word even when it costs you (MSG)

 No matter the pain or the cost, I believe that God wants us to stay faithful to the truth even when lies have become the norm and everybody is falling in line. Faithful to the principles in the word of God, bearing in mind that the word of God does not change with the times. God does not abhor vices like adultery any less today than how he abhorred them in the days of Noah, just because it’s the ‘way to go’ now. If He is still the same God, then His likes and dislikes are still the same.

Granted, there may be more challenges in our days than there were in the early days, but God still promised us that He will make a way with each of those new challenges. This commitment for the Marines does not come naturally and painlessly. They have to make some heavy sacrifices to live it out. If you really want to remain committed and faithful to God, it is not going to be a stroll in the park. You can be sure that the enemy will try to hit you with his best shot. You can also be sure that God is standing by you to help you remain always faithful. Put your hands in His hands, move from just knowing what the Word says to obeying what the Word says. Remain Semper Fidelis!

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April 14, 2013 · 3:57 pm

Eat And Be Merry!

If you were around in Nigeria about 20 years ago, there were no 24-hour satellite TV channels, no mobile phones, no internet, no social networks and very few families owned cars. Also, a greater percentage of the population occupied the lower class.

Things have changed these days; even small kids pull smart mobile phones around. I’ve seen kids trying to swipe laptop screens because they believe that everything with a screen must be ‘touch screen’. If you are always on the go, you can even afford to carry your 24-hour satellite TV with you everywhere you go – in your pocket; internet and social networking have become our way of life. Similarly, many more people have graduated into the middle class. Life is seemingly much better for many people.

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Of course there’s absolutely nothing wrong with these things, but only if you have them under control. I believe the warning in Deuteronomy 6: 10 – 12 will be very appropriate at this time:

10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

In other words, don’t just eat and be merry and forget the Lord your God. There is nothing that we have that God has not given us. Be careful not to let the gifts turn you away from the source. Consciously lead yourself into a deeper relationship with God. You can even use these ‘things’ to aid you on your journey. Stay in control!

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April 5, 2013 · 11:19 am

Rock Crushers

If you have ever spent enough time in the not so developed parts of the world, you must be familiar with those ROCK CRUSHERS. I’m not talking about the heavy duty machines that practically masticate the large chunks of rocks and spit them out as small pieces. I actually mean those men and even women, who sit under the sun and patiently hammer away at the boulders, until they are reduced to small sized chippings.

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Just watching them is a great lesson in patience and perseverance. Without these virtues, they will live their lives in perpetual frustration.  The need for these great virtues comes from the fact that they can hammer continuously without any sign of progress, until they strike the decisive blow that literarily breaks the camel’s back. I was actually stunned and also impressed to see some women engaged in this ‘trade’. They even do it with a smile on their sweat soaked faces.

You know it’s possible that you have been making supplications unto God concerning a particular issue. You have exercised and expended your faith; you have found scriptural promises to back up your request; you have met all the pre-requisites, yet no sign that the answer is on its way.  You are getting worn out at the place of prayer.

The widow in the importunity parable in Luke 18 must have felt this same way, when the judge that feared neither God nor man did not even as bother to listen to her request. She did not give up, in spite of this condescending treatment. In the end, she got what she wanted. Even Abraham heard God clearly, he was sure that it was God that promised him a son, yet he had to wait for God’s appointed time.

The God we serve is not a joker and He cannot lie or change His mind for lack of ability to perform. Whatever He has promised, shall come to pass in HIS OWN time. Our own part is to keep exercising our faith, persevere and remain patient. As long as you are sure that you are praying in line with God’s will, you can count on God to keep His Word. Keep striking like those rock crushers. It won’t be long.

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March 25, 2013 · 3:37 pm

Talk is Cheap!

‘Talk is cheap!’

I’ve heard this cliché used in several places and I’m sure I’ve used it more than once too. I was in a meeting recently and the speaker made some comments that painted a picture of this cliché in the church. He said that the easiest thing we do when one of us falls into sin is to spread the news, pass judgment and cast aspersion.

This is so true, especially in our social network generation, ‘gist’ travels faster than the speed of light. You will hear comments like: “How could he stoop so low to do that?”, “He is a disgrace to the Kingdom of God”, “I thought as much! I have been suspecting him since.” These comments come out easily from us and they do more harm than good, both to the person involved and to the church.

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More often than not, the ‘accused’ persons end up spiritually lost. The world does not accept them and the church treats them as lepers, depression sets in and they go on a downward spiral. The outcome would be the opposite if we could decide to follow the advice of Paul in Galatians 6: 1-3

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves.

If we actually sit back and think about how God forgives us each time we fall into sin; how He welcomes us back with open arms like the father of the prodigal son, we would realize that we owe it as a debt to help restore anyone that missteps. The least we can do is to pray for the person and not help in spreading the story of the ‘fall’. If we stand, we only stand by God’s grace.

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March 17, 2013 · 3:12 pm

Device or Creed

Recently, I was snooping around Youtube for worship videos and I stumbled upon a hymn that I had not heard in a long while. I got stuck and ended up listening to different versions of the same song. I have placed the first verse and the chorus below:

My faith has found a resting place,
  Not in device nor creed;
I trust the Ever-living One,
  His wounds for me shall plead.

I need no other argument,
  I need no other plea;
It is enough that Jesus died,
    And that He died for me.

As I kept replaying the song, it got me thinking about what it meant to trust in device or creed. One of the versions I listened to has that second line as:

 Not in a man-made creed

 I arrived at the conclusion that it means moving our trust from the ever living God to man-made doctrines, principles or beliefs that have no foundation in the word of God. It is very easy to put high sounding words together and appear convincing. This is the case especially in our generation, where personal bible study is not very popular and we don’t make any effort to verify the correctness of all that we hear from the ‘alter’.

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You have the personal responsibility to ensure that you are not led astray. If you are reading this, it means that you are literate and can read the bible for yourself. Go ahead and maximize that potential. The Holy Spirit has been given to us all to guide us into all truth, to teach us everything that we need to know in the Word.

 It will be profitable if we heed the warning in 1John 4:1 “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” God’s grace is available to you.

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March 10, 2013 · 4:14 pm

The Father’s Business

Can you picture a scenario, where you go to work every day and all you end up doing is chatting or daydreaming? You roll up your sleeves; place your legs on the table and just talk, talk and more talk. You talk about football, fashion, gadgets and politics. You can imagine how productive you’ll be at the end of each day. If that business depended solely on your output, you can bet it won’t exist for much longer. I believe it will actually be very difficult to find people that fit into this picture because many people exert themselves at work in order to at least keep themselves afloat, even if they don’t enjoy the job.

Look at the two scriptures below:

Romans 12:11                                                                                                                                                      Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord

Luke 2:49                                                                                                                                                             And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”

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Our Father wants us to view our relationship with Him and our spiritual assignment as business. It is only then that we will be able to bear fruits commensurate with the potentials that God has deposited in us. Remember the parable of the talents. If you picture yourself as one of the actors in that parable, which one best describes what you are doing now? Are you being the best that you can be? Selah!

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March 3, 2013 · 12:48 pm

Because I Did Not Know

I always laugh at myself whenever I remember an incident that occurred on my first ever trip outside my home country- Nigeria. I had finished picking the items I wanted to buy at a large shopping mall and headed to the checkout counter. The cashier was attending to one person, while the rest of the people stood behind the waiting line. I wasn’t used to this and I just felt the people were not done with their shopping. I thought to myself; “if they wanted to pay, they’ll be in line in front of the cashier”. In my ignorance, I walked past all the people on the queue and stood behind the person at the till. Nobody said a word to me including the cashier, who was kind enough to attend to me and I left the shop afterwards, without an inkling that I had made a fool of myself. Sometimes, I still wonder what was going on in the minds of those people then.

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At that time, I didn’t know any better, so I did not really know that I was completely out of order. I can’t quite remember how I learnt my lesson, but I know I did not make the mistake again. I am sure that at least one of those people must have judged me for my wrong doing, without thinking that I might have been acting in ignorance. It might have been helpful if any of them had corrected me nicely. There are actually many people making similar mistakes in various facets of life and they are completely ignorant of a better way. That was why Paul said in Romans 10:14

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”

While I agree that there are many people today, who are willingly living in the wrong, you may not have the right to judge them until you have at least tried to direct them to the right direction. So next time you think of placing the SINNER tag on someone and judging them, ask yourself what you have done about it and plan to do something about it. I believe that is our primary assignment as God’s children.

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February 24, 2013 · 5:25 pm

Fear Of The Unknown

Something that God kept from us at creation is the ability to know how everything will eventually turn out. No matter how hard you try, this is not one of those things that you can learn or develop. This leaves us with loads of unknowns in our lives.

Our lives will always be coloured by myriads of these unknowns and our approach to them may end up shaping our lives. With respect to our walk with God, 2 questions always come to our minds when we are at cross roads:
1. “What if God answers the way I expect?

2. “What if God does not answer the way I expect?

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Coming closer home, if you want to preach the salvation message to someone, you think to yourself: “what if he does not accept my message?” Or if you want to pray for a sick person, you may think: “What I he does not get healed after I pray?” The easiest thing to do is to shrink back and just keep to yourself and not get ‘embarrassed’.

In the early days of his healing ministry, Oral Roberts had to deal with these thoughts, when he had people on the prayer line. When someone was coming with ailments that had no physical presentation, it was easy for him to pray for the person, after all, no one will know if the person got healed or not. However if the people came with ailments that had physical presentations like a limp or a growth, he got scared. He would think: “What if I pray and God doesn’t heal them?” His way of dealing with such situations was to send another question back to the source of the original question “What if I pray and God heals them?” He gradually built up his faith and forever silenced that voice.

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You too can silence that voice of doubt and with the reverse question. Just do your own part boldly because God is too faithful to fail you. Failure is not one of His attributes and it is not going to start with you. Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego had their own ‘unknown’ moment, Daniel had his own, even Joseph had his own. There are countless others who also had their own moments and they all emerged victorious. You too can join them. Just take God at His Word ‘cos it is sure and steadfast.

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February 17, 2013 · 1:24 pm

The Art of Forgiveness

Fresh from multiple splashes of unprecedented miracles, they had seen the side of God that no one else ever saw. They had experienced the mighty acts of God and they even saw a glimpse of the glory of God. There was nothing that they needed that God had not brought their way as they journeyed from Egypt to the Promised Land. You naturally expect them to be grateful to this great God. What did God get in return? COMPLAINTS!

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Ah! If I were God…In fact, thank God that I’m not God. I may have become so angry with the people and then with a wave of hand destroy them, sparing only people like Moses and his assistants. Not even Aaron would have survived my wrath as I would have remembered when he made a golden calf for the people. However, God in His unfailing love always forgave them and kept on working with them. The amazing thing is that most times, God forgave them because of the intercession of Moses and not even because of their repentance. How merciful and loving our God is.

As long as we are still on this side of eternity, offence will always come in different forms and from different people, including people that you have shown love to. It will also come from people that you have made sacrifices for. The natural thing to do is to hold it against them, but we have the grace to live like Christ did. He forgave the very people that crucified Him. As His disciples, He expects us to walk in His footsteps. In that way, we will also be forgiven when we err, as we often do.

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Stephen also demonstrated this great spirit of forgiveness, when he prayed for the people that were stoning him, asking God not to hold them responsible for his death. Paul, the great apostle was in that company that stoned him to death. Who knows what would have happened to the souls that got saved through Paul’s ministry, if Stephen called down the judgement of God on that day.

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As we continue in our Christian walk, becoming more and more like Christ, we can seek the help of the Holy Spirit in this area. Forgiveness can become natural to us. It may take some time, but if we continue working at it and engaging the help of the Holy Spirit, we’ll surely get there in Jesus’ name.

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February 10, 2013 · 4:11 pm

GOLD MEDALS

RACEWALKING! I recently learnt that word. I knew the sport, but I never really knew the name. It’s actually one of the long distance athletic events at the Olympics. It’s that sport, in which the people walk in a rather comical manner. The winner of the race gets a gold medal, which has the same value as the gold medal won by the winner of the 100m race. Very few people actually know anything about the sport and an even less number of people would actually aspire to become racewalkers.

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This same scenario plays out in the church today, where more people aspire to be engaged in the more ‘visible’ services and possess the spiritual gifts that place them in public view. The erroneous belief is that the more visible or seemingly impactful you are, the more valuable you are to God and the more important you are to the church. In fact, this is not a problem that started with the new generation Christians. Paul saw it in the Corinthian church and he wrote in 1Corinthians 12:

 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body…17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? … 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

 As small as the toe nail of the smallest toe is, if it is hurting, the whole body will not operate optimally. Every gift and ministry is essential for the wellbeing of the body of Christ. I believe that if you have been called to be a toilet cleaner in the church and you do it effectively, you are fulfilling your ministry. The same way the pastor who preaches every Sunday and during the mid-week service is fulfilling his own ministry. Can you imagine how wonderful the service would be if the toilets are running over, the seats are dirty and the whole auditorium is decorated with different grades of dirt.

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 I remember the name Hur being mentioned in the Bible only once, when he held up the hand of Moses with Aaron. He fulfilled his ministry, because by his service the people of Israel won the battle. Whatever God has called you to do, Occupy Till He Comes. People don’t have to notice you for God to notice you. He sees you even when you are fulfilling that ‘lowly’ service. Your reward surely awaits you.

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