₦airaland Forum

Physical death isn't the worst thing that can happen to a human being. A spiritually death person is far worse than a born again Christian facing physical death.

Thank you

I hope the Ishmaelites won't call for your head before reading this piece

Darevofpeace:
Asides the "money part" what about the economy improvement that the church had contributed to.Canaan land has a labour force of 2500 workers,talk about this.

I'm more interested about saving souls for God's kingdom which the church in Nigeria has taken to the back seat and preaching wealth and prosperity instead. How many of those 2500 people are saved? What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his soul.

My brother, there is so much darkness ravaging the country and the church in Nigeria is doing nothing to savage the situation. Young people(mostly church going christians) looking for money by any means, increasing sexual immorality even within the church, postmodern ethos (feminism, homosexuality, immoral music, etc) gaining grounds even in the church, politicians plundering the nation's resources and even using religion as a tool to win elections, etc.

How many "men of God" speak against the big brother Nigeria or other vices increasingly destroying the future of Nigeria, how many of them vehemently speak against the bad examples being potrayed by politicians on the younger generation. But most "men of God" are quick to shoe support for these politicians and even align with them. The history of the Church all over the world has always seen her at the forefront of fight against the dark forces and evil but same can't be said of the church in Nigeria.

Darevofpeace:
But Jesus did ride on a "new Colt" that's show's class,he also used the upper room for the last supper (that's a pent house) he also slept in the lower deck of a ship on a cushion(that's a VIP section)
My point is that "anything that would make the gospel more easier,faster and more impactful" is a welcome development.
Do you still remember the old saying "as poor as a church rat" do people still say such now. @ private jet's do you know the hour's it takes at the international airport to clear your luggage's and all the check in,I had waited for about 4hrs before we boarded a flight another one was about 6hrs before the flight was canceled and another was been rescheduled,most of these "men of God" have busy flying schedules and the long wait at the airport could be killing.
Undisputed we have many fake pastor's whose member's are living in abject poverty, but I have been following Bishop Oyedepo's teaching since 2006,my destiny had picked up, why ? I discovered my gift's, talent's and passions, his teachings brought "divine healings" to my mind and made "Christian life" so beautiful to live.
Must the "church of christ" be identified with "poverty" are the Nigerian government living up to their own task.Most University in America were all founded by Churches, the one that took me by surprise was "Harvard" University.It was founded by the American Methodist as a "theology school" before it became a full blown University, check out Yale University.
The church of Christ is lifting the government up where they had failed towards it citizenry. Yet people hardly appreciate it efforts.Every year in Nigeria,about #1.5m students do write Jamb and the admission slot despite the numerous state, federal and private universities would only accommodate just about 600,000 students.
An excess spill of about #1million happens every year.Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5 "Ye are the light of the world,a city set on a hill can not be hidden" we are to shine and be a "light house" to the failed economy.He also Say's "Ye are the salt of the earth,if the salt looses it tastes,how can it be restored" you might not notice the presence of "salt" in a meal but it absence will make people cry foul.
Unlike what most naija churches teaches "Christianity is based on love for God and love for humanity" as the expense of "compassion" for the downtrodden.Any Christian who does anything outside all these is just "religious" not been godly. I rise !

Jesus never lived an earthly life of opulence like Oyedepo lives and preaches. Although, Jesus is the King of kings and Creator of heaven and earth, He lived an exemplary and simple life so that everyone who follows Him would know that the Kingdom of God and eternal life is not about amassing earthly wealth but saving souls for the Kingdom.

A Christian can never be uncomfortable even in financial lack (which is common to most Christians) because having Christ means having all. Oyedepo lives and preaches money and earthly wealth as if that is all the Christian life is about. That's why many Christians (especially people from his church) keep pursuing money as if it will take them to heaven instead of seeking the Kingdom of God.

Generalnomercy:
Evil spirits will start writing evil things against pastor oyedepo.

God bless you sir for doing what the useless president Buhari could not do.

No matter how you try to defend him, he still doesn't potray Christ in good lights. Would Jesus be doing what he does if He(Jesus) is physically present today?
Remember all those jets, big church buildings and houses cannot take anyone an inch closer to God's Kingdom.

LordReed:
How do you know this is an illumination and that it is from the god?

because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God....the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children
Romans 8 : 14, 16

I don't expect you to understand unless you've been regenerated spiritually. Only those who have been born by the Spirit of God would know His illumination when they experience it.

What about Frank Edwards who usually sings in his native Igbo language, isn't he bigger than Sinach?

Is all about Grace, NOT your exploration

ElsonMorali:
Uhmmm... What is "yogasm"?

A supernatural experience while performing yoga

LordReed:
If it is beyond your comprehension then how do you know what it is?

Because my mind is spiritually renewed. When the mind is illuminated by the Divine Spirit of God, comprehension becomes possible. That's why it's only through FAITH we can acknowledge the inexpressible reality of the living God.

Helpful writeup
But you didn't emphasize on the power of the Holy Spirit in the battle against the flesh (masturbation) as written in Romans 8:2 and Romans 6:14

It's only the Holy Spirit within a believer that can help him do all you've written. Without the Holy Spirit, the flesh will continue to dominate the believer.

Any Spirit-filled Christian would understand how satanic spirits posses humans. An empty mind, a passive emotion and an inactive will always yield a foothold for evil spirits - beware of esoteric practices and yogasm!

When man follows his own instincts, his own inclinations, it leads to ruin. We need to follow only God’s way, not our own.

johnydon22:
If it is faith, how can proof be part of it my guy?

Simply FAITH before seeing PROOF. That's how it works.
Faith is a spiritual function that's beyond our human comprehension and it's just impossible to see or experience spiritual realities without FAITH.

johnydon22:
You can bring forth the proof though

If I point you the proof a million times, you'll still not see it because you don't have the eyes to see it.

The eyes is called FAITH

Misleading headline

Na borrow him borrow U23 no be downgrade

U23 team needs dem more at this time. Naija na wuruwuru we go use win dis match, na our way

God bless you for this, I can verily attest to everything you posted.

But to be honest, it takes God's special Grace to be a volcel in this postmodern generation.

Fortunately, that Grace is available to everyone who needs Him, it's the Holy Spirit.

Imagine young people on Nairaland blaming APC as if PDP or any other major party is any better

Politicians in Nigeria are all the same across parties, tribes and religion. The only ideology they have is to be in or close to power and loot no matter what it takes to get there.

These sort of rubbish will continue in 2023 if not worse until Nigerians start to think seriously about people they elect into political offices

Just like God didn't approve polygamy, God didn't approve slavery even if He allowed it then.

Because you're blind to the proof doesn't mean there is no proof.

The blindness is your choice

Young women being deceived by the devil
She's only a tool in the hands of the evil one just like her predecessors

The one and only reason for one man, one woman is because God made it so from the beginning - Matthew 19:5

Lukuluku69:
Oga Ade, please stay clear of those American Evangelists, they will make you paranoid with their baseless and meaningless interpretation of

the Bible. When you post stuff like this online, it makes you look ridiculous. Stay away from them.

You always sound scared of the Truth. How would you know the true bible interpretation when you vehemently reject the Spirit of Truth. When you have this Spirit of Truth in your spirit, you can never be paranoid even when faced with the vilest falsehood.

For those of us that have been graciously blessed with the presence of the Holy Spirit, we understand everything written here, so keep it up solite3 and God bless you.

These ones too call themselves leaders

Ohibenemma:
Another example of the fake adulterating the real. Why must Islam concoct another story from the second coming of Jesus Christ, and seek to validate theirs by associating their Mahdi with Jesus Christ

That's the work of satan himself. The devil has been a liar and mimicker of the Truth from the beginning.

That's why I said Islam is a religion from the pit of hell purposely to refute the Truth (that JESUS CHRIST is the Son of God, He is the Way, Truth and Life)

Good message!

The Holy Spirit never forces Himself on anyone but demonic spirits are always on the look out for empty souls to force themselves on.

That is why we Christians should beware of yogasm - an empty mind, a passive emotion and an inactive will, soon yield a foothold for evil spirits.

paxonel:
if this is what you think Jesus meant by woe unto pregnant women in those days, then you are absolutely wrong.

You have a good message telling people not to keep grudges but your message is based on wrong interpretation of that scripture.
By so doing, you have ended up defeating what jesus was trying to say

OP did take the scriptural reference out of context but the message is worth it

Are you a born again Christian?

No doubt the Christian faith has been a tool in the hands of fraudsters marauding as "men of God" in Nigeria and their targets are the financially vulnerable people with little or no spiritual knowledge or affection for God but think being religious makes a way out of financial poverty.

There's no romance between Christianity and financial poverty but there's a relationship between them. It's harder for a rich man to be spiritually poor and it's harder for a spiritual man to be rich unless he has that special Grace.

Financial buoyancy always poses a big temptation to many Christians, that's why Jesus warned against the love of money. Poverty atimes tend to draw someone closer to Christ but it's the Holy Spirit who works in the heart of such person to truly follow Christ.

MuttleyLaff:
I already have this book and I doubt you've read it at all, because if you did or have, you would have noticed on page 42, that the authors support home leadership in women.

If you have the book then I suppose you must have read it and we shouldn't have much argument on this issue.

Women aren't forbidden from taking up leadership roles in the church but such roles are limited. A woman taking overall headship in a congregation that includes men isn't allowed Biblically (1Timothy 2:11-15 and 1 Timothy 3:1-12)

MuttleyLaff:
You might be right, but I still do not believe VBCampaign has a problem with Theresa or Angela and let me veer off topic and push the envelope a bit, neither with Leo Varadkar either

Now, I wonder what VBCampaign thinks, if the husband through some cruelty of life and/or accident became an invalid, should the wife shun leadership decision making, role and/or position?

I am quite sure that VBCampaign agrees and accept that before Genesis 3:16, the woman was not a subordinate but according to Genesis 1:26-28, leadership was paired.

Spot a complementarian season has begun.

VBCampaign, it's true that the quest to be pastors today is not unconnected with the vain glory that pastoral ministry comes with in our day, and that is why we have hired hand women and men, that run away when they see the wolf coming because they truly arent what they claim in the first place to be

If really keeping to the Word for direction, like UceeGod put it and VBCampaign thanked him for that comment, then, I will gladly accept to be educated, if and/or when VBCampaign can show in the scripture, where it, in black and white, categorically, specifically and outrightly says women, should not be pastors and/or more appropiately, says, do not permit women to be elders and so thereby barring them from leadership

Look for this book online, download and read

RECOVERING BIBLICAL MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD by John Piper and Wayne Grudem

It'll help answer your question

solite3:
yea Jesus is the Almighty God.
who taught me all these? I learnt it from the bible through the Holy Ghost

Matthew 7 : 6 - Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is sacred, not everyone desires it, especially those with pride of knowledge of spiritual truths.

The metaphor of “dogs” and “pigs” stands for those who vigorously reject the Truth of the gospel. We (Spirit filled Christians) must learn to distinguish between those who need the Truth and those who defiantly reject it.

As I discovered when I set out as a young man to refute Christianity and the Bible, those facts can be investigated—and verified. And those facts, those objective criteria, represent our best hope for coming to a meaningful conclusion about right and wrong, good and evil, as they point us to God and his Son, Jesus, whose nature and character define truth. Thomas Aquinas wrote, “There is within every soul a thirst for happiness and meaning.” As a teenager, I exemplified that statement. I wanted to be happy and to find meaning for my life. I wanted the answers to three basic questions: Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? These are life’s tough questions. I would estimate that 90 percent of people age forty and younger cannot answer those three questions. But I was thirsty to know what life was about. So as a young student, I started looking for answers. Where I was brought up, everyone seemed to be religious. I thought maybe I would find my answers in being religious, so I started attending church. I got into it 150 percent. I went to church morning, afternoon, and evening. But I guess I got into the wrong one because I felt worse inside church than I did outside. About the only thing I got out of my religious experience was seventy-five cents a week. I would put a quarter into the offering plate and take out a dollar so I could buy a milkshake! I was brought up on a farm in Michigan, and most farmers are very practical. My dad, who was a farmer, taught me, “If something doesn’t work, chuck it.” So I chucked religion. Then I thought that education might have the answers to my quest for happiness and meaning. So I enrolled in the university. What a disappointment! You can find a lot of things in the university, but enrolling there to find truth and meaning in life is virtually a lost cause. I was by far the most unpopular student among the faculty of the first university I attended. I used to buttonhole professors in their offices, seeking the answers to my questions. When they saw me coming, they would turn out the lights, pull down the shades, and lock the door so they wouldn’t have to talk to me. I soon realized that the university didn’t have the answers I was seeking. Faculty members and my fellow students had just as many problems, frustrations, and unanswered questions about life as I did. A few years ago I saw a student walking around campus with a sign on his back: “Don’t follow me, I’m lost.” That was how everyone in the university seemed to me. Education was not the answer. Prestige must be the way to go, I decided. It just seemed right to find a noble cause, give yourself to it, and become well known. The people with the most prestige in the university were the student leaders, who also controlled the purse strings. So I ran for various student offices and got elected. It was great to know everyone on campus, make important decisions, and spend the university’s money doing what I wanted to do. But the thrill soon wore off like everything else I had tried. Every Monday morning I woke with a headache because of the night before. My attitude was, Here we go again, another five boring days. Happiness for me revolved around my three party nights: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then the whole boring cycle started over again. I felt so frustrated, even desperate. My goal was to find my identity and purpose in life. But everything I tried left me empty, without answers. About that time I noticed a small group of people on campus— eight students and two faculty members—and there was something different about them. They seemed to know where they were going in life. And they had a quality I deeply admire in people: conviction. There is a certain dynamic in the lives of people with deep convictions, and I enjoy that dynamic. But there was something more about this group that caught my attention. It was love. These students and professors not only loved each other, they also loved and cared for people outside their group. They didn’t just talk about love; they got involved in loving others. It was something totally foreign to me, and I wanted it. So I decided to make friends with this group of people. About two weeks later I was sitting at a table in the student union, talking with some members of this group. Soon the conversation got around to the topic of God. I was pretty insecure about this subject, so I put on a big front to cover it up. I leaned back in my chair, acting as if I couldn’t care less. “Christianity, ha!” I blustered. “That’s for the weaklings, not the intellectuals.” Down deep, I really wanted what they had. But with my pride and my position in the university, I didn’t want them to know that I wanted what they had. Then I turned to one of the young women in the group and said, “Tell me, what changed your lives? Why are you so different from the other students and faculty?” She looked me straight in the eye and said two words I never expected to hear in an intelligent discussion on a university campus: “Jesus Christ.”

“Jesus Christ?” I snapped. “Don’t give me that kind of garbage. I’m fed up with religion, the Bible, and the church.” She quickly shot back, “Mister, I didn’t say ‘religion.’ I said ‘Jesus Christ.’” Taken aback by the woman’s courage, conviction, and forthrightness, I apologized for my attitude. “But I’m sick and tired of religion and religious people,” I added. “I don’t want anything to do with it.” Then my new friends issued a challenge I couldn’t believe. They challenged me, a pre-law student, to examine intellectually the truth claim that Jesus Christ is God’s Son. I thought it was a joke. These Christians were so dumb. How could something as flimsy as Christianity stand up to an intellectual examination? So I scoffed at their challenge. But they didn’t let up. They kept challenging me day after day, and finally they backed me into the corner. I became so irritated at their insistence that I finally accepted their challenge, not to prove anything, but to refute them. I decided to write a book that would make an intellectual joke of Christianity. So I left the university and traveled throughout the United States and Europe to seek the evidence that Christianity was a sham. One day I was sitting in a library in London, England, and I sensed a voice within me say, “Josh, you don’t have a leg to stand on.” I immediately suppressed it. But just about every day after that I heard that inner voice. The more I researched, the more I heard that voice. I returned to the United States and to the university, but I couldn’t sleep at night. I would go to bed at ten o’clock and lie awake until four in the morning trying to refute the overwhelming evidence of the three pillars of the Christian faith:

1. Jesus Christ is God’s Son.
2. The Bible is God’s personal revelation and is accurate and trustworthy.
3. The resurrection of Christ on the third day was a true historic fact.

I began to realize that I was being intellectually dishonest. My mind told me that the claims about Christ, the Bible and the Resurrection were indeed true, but my will was being pulled another direction. I had placed so much emphasis on finding the truth that I wasn’t willing to follow it once I saw it. I had sensed Christ’s personal challenge to me in Revelation 3:20: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (NIV). But becoming a Christian seemed so ego-shattering to me. I couldn’t think of a faster way to ruin all my good times. I knew I had to resolve this inner conflict because it was driving me crazy. I had always considered myself an open-minded person, so I decided to put Christ’s claims to the supreme test. One night at home in Union City, Michigan, at the end of my second year at the university, I became a Christian. Someone may say, “How do you know you became a Christian?” I was there! I got alone with a Christian friend, and I prayed four things in response to God’s invitation for me to trust him. In doing that, I established my relationship with God. First, I said, “Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for me.” I realized that if I were the only person on earth, Christ would have still died for me. You may think it was the irrefutable intellectual evidence that brought me to Christ. No, the evidence was only God’s way of getting his foot in the door of my life, of getting my attention. After being convinced that Jesus is God’s Son, that the Bible is true and trustworthy, and that the Resurrection actually happened, what brought me to Christ was the realization that he loved me enough to die for me. Second, I said, “I confess that I am a sinner.” No one had to tell me that. I knew I was doing things that were incompatible with a holy, just, righteous God. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, NIV). So I said, “Lord, forgive me.” Third, I said, “Right now, in the best way I know how, I open the door of my life, and I place my trust in you as Savior and Lord. Take over the control of my life. Change me from the inside out. Make me the type of person you created me to be.” The last thing I prayed was, “Thank you for coming into my life.” After I prayed, nothing happened. There was no bolt of lightning. I didn’t sprout angel’s wings. If anything, I actually felt worse after I prayed, almost physically sick. I was afraid I had made an emotional decision I would later regret intellectually. But more than that, I was afraid of what my friends would say when they found out. I really felt I had gone off the deep end. But over the next eighteen months, my entire life changed. One of the biggest changes occurred in how I viewed people. At the university I had mapped out the next twenty-five years of my life. My ultimate goal was to become governor of Michigan. I planned to accomplish my goal by using people in order to climb the ladder of political success because I figured people were to be used. But after I placed my trust in Christ, my thinking changed. Instead of using others to serve me, I wanted to be used to serve others. Becoming other-centered instead of self-centered was a dramatic change in my life. Another area that started to change was my bad temper. I used to blow my stack if somebody just looked at me wrong. I still have the scars from almost killing a man during my first year in the university. My bad temper was so ingrained that I didn’t consciously seek to change it. Then one day I was faced with a crisis that ordinarily would have set me off, but my bad temper was gone. I’m not perfect in this area, but the change in my life has been significant and dramatic. Perhaps the most significant change has been in the area of hatred and bitterness. I grew up filled with hatred, primarily aimed at one man whom I hated more than anyone else on the face of the earth. I despised everything that this man stood for. I can remember as a young boy lying in bed at night plotting how I could kill this man without being caught by the police. That man was my father. When I was growing up, my father was the town drunk. I hardly ever knew him sober. My friends at school joked about my dad’s lying in the gutter downtown, making a fool of himself. Their jokes hurt me deeply, but I never let anyone know. I laughed along with them. It was a very secret pain. I would sometimes find my mother in the barn, lying in the manure behind the cows, where my dad had beaten her with a hose until she couldn’t get up. My hatred seethed as I vowed to myself, “When I am strong enough, I’m going to kill him.” When Dad was drunk and visitors were coming over, I would grab him around the neck, pull him out to the barn, and tie him up. Then I would park his truck behind the silo and tell everyone he had gone to a meeting so we wouldn’t be embarrassed as a family. When I tied up his hands and feet, I looped part of the rope around his neck. I just hoped he would try to get away and choke himself. Two months before I graduated from high school, I walked into the house after a date to hear my mother sobbing. I ran into her room, and she sat up in bed. “Son, your father has broken my heart,” she said. Then she put her arms around me and pulled me close. “I have lost the will to live. All I want to do is live until you graduate, then I want to die.” I graduated two months later, and the next Friday my mother died. I believe she died of a broken heart. I hated my father for that. Had I not left home a few months after the funeral to attend college, I might have killed him. But after I made a decision to place my trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord, the love of God inundated my life. God took my hatred for my father and turned it upside down. Five months after becoming a Christian, I found myself looking my dad right in the eye and saying, “Dad, I love you.” I did not want to love that man, but I did. God’s love had changed my heart. After I transferred to Wheaton College, I was in a serious car accident, the victim of a drunk driver. I was moved home from the hospital to recover, and my father came to see me. Remarkably, he was sober that day. He seemed uneasy, pacing in my room. Then he blurted out, “How can you love a father like me?” I said, “Dad, six months ago I hated you; I despised you. But I have put my trust in Jesus Christ, received God’s forgiveness, and he has changed my life. I can’t explain it all, Dad, but God has taken away my hatred for you and replaced it with love.”

We talked for nearly an hour, then he said, “Son, if God can do in my life what I’ve seen him do in yours, then I want to give him the opportunity.” He prayed, “God, if you’re really God and Jesus died on the cross to forgive me for what I’ve done to my family, I need you. If Jesus can do in my life what I’ve seen him do in the life of my son, then I want to trust him as Savior and Lord.” Hearing my dad pray that prayer from his heart was one of the greatest joys of my life. After I trusted Christ, my life was basically changed in six to eighteen months. But my father’s life was changed right before my eyes. It was as if someone reached down and switched on a light inside him. He touched alcohol only once after that. He got the drink as far as his lips, and that was it—after forty years of drinking! He didn’t need it anymore. Fourteen months later, he died from complications of his alcoholism. But in that fourteenmonth period, more than a hundred people in the area around my tiny hometown committed their lives to Jesus Christ because of the change they saw in the town drunk, my dad. You can laugh at Christianity. You can mock and ridicule it. But it works. If you personally trust Christ, start watching your attitudes and actions because Jesus Christ is in the business of changing lives. But Christianity is not something to be shoved down your throat or forced on you. You have your life to live, and I have mine. All I can do is tell you what I have learned and experienced. After that, what you do with Christ is your decision.

The man or woman who personally receives Christ as Savior and Lord is assured of everlasting life with him in heaven. And he or she will also discover that a relationship with Jesus Christ gives life purpose and meaning. For years I searched for the answer to the question, What will bring happiness and meaning to my life? Who or what can answer my questions about truth? Is there a God? Is he personal? Can I know him? How can I know right from wrong, good from evil? I thought I would find the answer in organized religion, education, and prestige, but I always ended up disappointed and unfulfilled. Ultimately, I discovered that the answer could only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. I trust that you will begin the journey to make this discovery of truth in your own life. And if today the truth became clear to you and you made the decision to trust Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, let me be the first to welcome you into the family of God! I heartily encourage you to attend and participate in a church where the Lord Jesus Christ is glorified, where the Holy Bible is honored and taught in a practical way, and where believers love, encourage, and pray for one another. Study God’s Word regularly, and apply it to your daily life. Share his love with your family, friends, and neighbors.

Culled from "Knowing Good from Evil" by Josh McDowell

Postmodernism has creeped into the Church. Christians no longer keep to the Word for direction. It's even evident from the responses here.