₦airaland Forum

Lizzyolatunjs:
Hello my fellow nairalander family and friends. A silent member, please help me all. I always saw people bringing family issues here until I personally fell into same trap today.

Please my people am at crossroads and I need advice, bring it all on pls. I would like to know why my husband of 10years would save chats , screenshots of our whatsapp messages when we quarrel and I mouth off to him. I mostly dont even go back nor remember such episodes. However I just said let me check his pictures randomly and lo and behold screenshots of all our personal messages? We have kids together and there has been cheating on his part in the past. I have forgiven and forgiven but seeing my messages saved as screenshots broke me.

We have good chats too but I didnt see any of that so it was specifically done. Elders and colleagues please help me out. Thank you all

Ask him... right?!

[quote author=Wawelexy post=111507842][/quote]Lobatan

Ghandi Olaoye: Why Pastors Should Not Become Kings

By: Deji Yesufu

There is the possibility that everything I will be writing in this essay will be a rehearsing of things I have written before. I am however encouraged to venture into this subject because it is possible that some who will read this article, have not read anything else I have written. For these ones, my argument will be new and it will not be a waste of effort after all. Secondly, the subject matter that has triggered this essay is a new one. So, I will basically be employing old thoughts and making them relevant to a new subject. In this essay I want to explain why it is incongruous with sound and practical Christianity for a Christian minister to leave his calling and seek to become a king. It is even more distasteful to learn that a supposed born again Christian, filled with the Holy Spirit, will seek to become a traditional ruler – a king in a Yoruba city.

It has been reported in numerous online and print media that one Pastor Afolabi Ghandi Olaoye, a Pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), is vying for the position of Soun of Ogbomoso – a grade A traditional position in Oyo State. Ghandi Olaoye is the Senior Pastor of Jesus House, RCCG, in Washington DC, a church that is touted as the biggest and most successful Redeemed Church outside Nigeria. Olaoye has been a pastor with the RCCG since 1992, thirty years now, having pastored branches of the church in Nigeria, Germany and then the United States of America. Olaoye is said to be a Crown Prince to the Ogbomoso traditional stool and with the passing of the 20thSoun of Ogbomoso last year, the traditional seat of power in the town was vacated and a number of illustrious sons of Ogbomoso are already vying for the coveted chair. Ghandi Olaoye has also thrown in a bid to be Soun. In fact a few days ago, it was rumored that Ghandi had actually resigned his pastorate in the USA to contest for the seat. The revered Pastor has however refuted this claim, saying it is not true. What is not controvertible is that he as a pastor is vying for the stool of the Soun of Ogbomoso, and it is this matter I wish to write on.

I am thoroughly convinced that a Pastor should not be vying for the seat of a traditional ruler, nor should he be involved with politics – running for the seat of Governor, President or any other political office for that matter. I make this argument because I am convinced that there is no higher calling than the call to serve Jesus Christ in Christian ministry. There is no nobler vocation than those of looking after the souls of human beings and preparing them for the life to come. Those who relinquish the office of a pastor to serve in political office or as traditional rulers have not been genuinely called by God. If they have been, I am convinced that the weight of the call on them will constrain them in the path of ministry, and there will be very little allowance to serve anywhere else. Once upon a time, an apostle of Jesus wrote this: “For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” – 1 Corinthians 9:16. Those are the words of Apostle Paul, a man who felt constrained to do nothing else than serve Christ in ministry. If one is already serving the God of the universe and preparing souls for eternity with him, it will be plain relegation to go and serve mere men.

The trouble however with pastors seeking to be kings or traditional rulers is even a lot more worse than I have already stated. At the root of it all is a faulty theology; a false conception of God; and the pursuit of worldly gains and human approbation. Long before we began to have pastors leave the high calling of ministry to serve as earthly kings, Christendom was replete with men and women who entered Christian ministry with the mindset of sacrifice. Because Jesus Christ died and redeemed them from their sins, these men and women were committed to dying to help others come to saving faith in Christ Jesus. The word “minister” in the New Testament connotes servanthood, not the lofty position of a “man of God” like we know it today in our churches. In his book, Pastors and Teachers, Derek Prime writes: “Contemporary use has given the word ‘minister’ a rather respectable sound, so that it implies station and office. But not so in the New Testament, for it properly implies lowly service – in fact, like that of a table waiter!” A Christian minister is a servant. When ministers begin to seek to be king, something is desperately wrong somewhere.

Ghandi Olaoye, as a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, espouses the Pentecostal religion. While there might be a lot of things wrong with Pentecostalism itself – the real challenge of modern Pentecostalism is its espousal of the Word of Faith gospel. This is what Gotquestion.com, a reputable online theological medium, says about the Word of Faith theology: the “Word of Faith teaching is decidedly unbiblical…” The Word of Faith theology espouses what has come to be known as the prosperity gospel. It is a message that teaches that Jesus Christ died and rose again to make Christians healthy and wealthy. The Word of Faith theology is another gospel – it is plain heresy. It has however taken advantage of a wide acceptance among many professing Christians in Nigeria to today become the standard of orthodoxy among Christians in our nation. Ghandi Olaoye espouses a Word of Faith theology and in keeping with this theology’s quest for the better life and higher positions that comes with more wealth, he would see no reason to jettison the high calling of a pastor to sit on the vain stool of a town’s traditional ruler.

I understand that when the recent Olu of Warri was installed as king of that town, the man dedicated his coronation to “my Lord and my Savior, Jesus Christ.” I’m also told that Ghandi will not be the first pastor to leave the church to be installed Oba in Nigeria. All these, however, only lend credence to an oft made remark that Christianity in our day has become increasingly worldly, while the world has become increasingly churchy. Our Lord Jesus himself said that many on the last day will say to him “Lord, Lord…” but he will say to them: I do not know you; depart from me because you are workers of iniquity (Matthew 7:22-23). It has always been the modus operandi of the devil to make Christianity popular so that it can infiltrate its ranks with false confessors.

Ghandi may also wish to hide behind a plethora of Nigerian Pastors who are seeking political office. The nation’s number two man, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, himself is a pastor also with the Redeemed Church. Pastors like Tunde Bakare and Chris Okotie have never hidden their hopes of one day ruling Nigeria. The only problem is that a case could be made for these pastors running to lead a country purely on a secular basis. The trouble is that traditional seats in the country are known for their meddling with diabolical means. Most times, Christians have sought to pay their way through these traditional rites but they forget that whether they are directly involved in the rites or they are paying for it, they are still very much part of it. While pastors running for political offices do not engage in diabolical rites, the same case can be made against them: anyone called into the Christian ministry should never leave it for the kingly stool.

What the Christian Church needs today are genuine pastors and teachers. Christianity is in crisis because many professing Christians do not have worthy examples to follow. The gospel need of our day is immense: there is a world out there perishing without God and his Christ. The gospel needs to be taught and lived out in full. Sinners need to comprehend the gospel and be saved. Many institutions are suffering because Christians are not shining their light on them. Marriages are folding up; homes are breaking; children are being raised by single parents; violence is on our streets and insecurity abounds. This is besides the proliferation of cults in our day. The last thing we need are men who claim to serve God and are merely serving their bellies.

Postscript:

In the process of writing this essay, I came across new reports that indicate that Ghandi Olaoye has actually been appointed Soun of Ogbomoso and is only awaiting coronation. Another report from Punch newspapers states that Ghandi had initially not been interested in the position of king but he was encouraged by Pastor E. A. Adeboye to pray about it. Ghandi claims in the interview that God told him that this was the reason he was born: to become Soun of Ogbomoso. It is impossible for me to include in this essay reasons why I am convinced that it is not God that has spoken to Ghandi to pursue this line of action but since it is far too common for Pentecostals to legitimize every vain desire of their hearts with “God told me”, we will just as well have to accept his position. Suffice to say that some of us know well enough that the words of God are stated in the Bible and by direct or meaningful deduction, we can come to know what God might be saying to us today. I am thoroughly convinced that God has not asked Olaoye to be Soun of Ogbomoso. The witness of scripture is clear enough: you cannot be servant to God and be servant of mammon at the same time.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/ghandi-olaoye-why-pastors-should-not-become-kings/

You are the lord of your home.

Whatever you permit, stays.

Whatever you disallow, leaves.

I'll say you talk to your Mother in law and tell her it your house and thus your rules, respectfully.

If she still insist on no sex, tell her to leave

ProphetofOdin:
Hi,
Please I will try to be brief as possible as i can.
I work with a firm that sells construction equipment, and head the logistics and warehouse department. I have this junior colleague that has been with the company for 8years(long before i joined cos i have only been there for 2+ years), he is experienced and good at his job.
But yesterday i caught this guy trying to steal two pieces of 70ah batteries, it really broke my heart because he can not even sell this things for up to 100k. I have tried everything in my capacity to make sure those working under my dept enjoy every benefits that are due to them; from hazard allowance, overtime, and so on. I sign all this allowance without asking questions even when sometimes some of them are questionable. I was doing all this so that nobody has any reason to steal and they have small change to augment their salary.
Personally i hate theft and frown at it and they all know it cos i keep preaching against this at every meeting, and if i escalate this to the management at the HQ in Lagos, he might be sack without benefits after 8 long years and he is a family man.

Though I have scold him and told him he would hear from me by Monday morning, the truth is given the situation I don't know what to do with this guy.

I am really confuse cos i don't even know how long he has been doing this shit.

Tell management the same thing you told us, of course in a professional manner. Let them make the final decision. It will curtail future happenings with both him and others.

BIANCA POTENTIAL

By: Deji Yesufu

During my days in Ahmadu Bello University, there was a lady who had come to my school for her undergraduate studies at about the same time. My family and hers remain family friends till this day. This young woman went to school at a Federal Government Girls’ College (FGGC) in Eastern Nigeria and because of her exposure and travels, I was always intrigued by stories she told us. One of such stories was about how Bianca Ojukwu, wife of the late Biafran warlord, Odumegwu Ojukwu, had visited her school and spent some time talking with her and her friends. Bianca had just won the beauty pageant that launched her into fame and I doubt she was even married to Ojukwu as of this time.

My friend told me that quite naturally all the girls in the school flocked out to see Bianca and the beauty queen took her time to interact with them. At some point she began to ask them what they wanted to become in life. Everyone had one thing or the other to say. One of the girls told Bianca that she wanted to become a beauty queen like herself. At that point all the girls let out shrills – of course doubting the young girl. Bianca quieted the girls and told them that this girl had potentials. As if to shut off their disbelief, Bianca pointed at the girl’s fair skin and her particularly slim and long legs as marks that could stand her out in a beauty contest.

Incidentally I knew this girl because she happened to have schooled in ABU too. Long story short, this girl, Nkem, soon bagged the nick-name: “Bianca Potential”. The story of Bianca Potential did not go on to become the fairy tale many of her mates had envisioned for her. Nkem married a wealthy Igbo man. Her husband restrained her from pursuing any other career and thus became a full time house wife. Nkem lost all her potentials to child bearing and overweight and soon died a little more than a decade after we all left school. She never fulfilled her potentials. When the story of the slap-fest between Bianca Ojukwu and Willie Obiano’s wife broke yesterday, I sent a text to my friend saying that I didn’t know that Bianca had potentials for slapping too. My friend replied that she was just learning the same.

This article is not meant to examine the propriety of the actions of the two high class ladies at the inaugural ceremony of Prof. Charles Soludo as Governor of Anambra State yesterday. It is impossible to do justice to the subject because whatever will make a human being resort to diatribes in the manner that Mrs. Obiano did yesterday and which also brought fort the violence in Mrs. Ojukwu – no one can say for certainty. Clearly the two ladies were once allies who have now become arc enemies.

It is however safe to state two things: first, like the story of Bianca which I just relayed, especially the Bianca before becoming Biafra’s matriarch, shows that Ojukwu’s wife can be humane. While others felt Nkem had no potential, Bianca could see one. She encouraged Nkem with her words such that by the time I will see her at ABU, she had clearly become a beauty to behold. And save for bad judgement from a husband and death, Nkem might indeed have gone on to become Ms. Nigeria – all thanks to Bianca. In other words, the ladies who turned to fist cuffs yesterday are normal human beings and yesterday may just have been a particularly low point for them. And thus they should not be defined by it.

Secondly, and more importantly, the story of the relationship between Nigerian politicians – including the relationship between their wives is a tragic one to behold. I understand that historically the Western Region that degenerated to violence in the early 1960s, was actually the outplay of a feudal war between Chief Awolowo wife and the wife of Chief Akintola who was the sitting Premier of that region at that time. Awolowo’s wife was the sole distributor of Coca-cola in Nigeria then. After her husband had left office, Akintola’s wife felt she should also have a slice in that pie too. Their disagreement led to the South West boiling and the sacking of the democratic government of that day by the military.

I am saying that if left unchecked, disagreement between two ladies could lead to a tragic end. It is not likely that Bianca’s feud with Mrs. Obiano will extend any further though because the former Governor has other fish to fry as he must now explain himself to the EFCC, who arrested him at MMA yesterday as he sought to leave the country for the USA, following the end of his tenure as Governor. Willie Obiano will very likely elude the Nigerian ant graft agency in another few years, after he would have settled himself out of court with some plea bargaining.

It is all a summary of the tragic situation we have found ourselves in as a people in Nigeria. Tragedy just as it happened in the life of a young woman I didn’t know too well but who was called “Bianca Potential” because she had potentials to be great but perished before her days even begun

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/bianca-potential/

Seun, lalasticlala

Visiting Enugu: How IPOB is Destroying Eastern Nigeria

By: Deji Yesufu

October 2018 I was in Enugu to promote my book, VICTOR BANJO. I used the trip to also familiarize myself with Eastern Nigeria – since I had never been to that region of Nigeria before. My friends who hosted me ensured that I had the best time ever and when I returned, I wrote a glowing article – particularly extolling the efforts of the State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, in his efforts to fix the old capital of Eastern Nigeria. That article was my honest observation of Eastern Nigeria. Four years down the line, all of that has changed.

I was in Enugu this week on official duties and the city I met was a far cry from the promising situation of 2018. I stayed on the outskirt of the town this time and as we drove to the hotel, our driver informed me that just last week there had been some killings on that very road. Unknown gunmen had attacked a detachment of security operative and opened fire on them. Four persons were killed. The situation had become so common that the person telling the story relayed it without any sympathy for the dead. We arrived the State on a Sunday. Our work was to commence the following day, a Monday, but we were told that there was a sit-at-home. When I enquired as to who is enforcing this, I was informed that it was the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) – a separatist group protesting the continual detention and prosecution of their leader, Nnamdi Kanu. Kanu had been kidnapped by the Nigerian government outside the country and brought into the country to answer to charges brought against him years back – which he had avoided answering to, after he escaped from Nigeria. IPOB insist Kanu must be released or else the country will know no peace.

A friend told me that usually many parts of Enugu refuse to heed the sit-at-home order. After a few weeks of observing it, children soon returned to school on Mondays. But to remind the people and cower them into obedience, unknown gunmen suddenly emerge and kill people. People get scared and they return to observing the sit-at-home again. At the hotel, I was told that one day a man had just finished an early morning duty and was returning to his home this early Monday morning. He was met by gunmen and shot dead. People heard of his killing and retreated to their homes once again. IPOB insist Kanu must be released or else the country will know no peace.

When I pointed out to a driver of a car that conveyed me in one of my trips, that the killings were obviously being carried out by IPOB folks to enforce the sit-at-home order, he asked me how do I know this for sure. He said he was an IPOB person because he has sympathy for the course of Biafra. He explained that even though he was IPOB, he was not given to violence neither does he support the killing of innocent people. Since he was driving me and I couldn’t tell what his temperament was, I said to myself: obviously IPOB people have different modus operandi. There are those who carry arms to enforce their beliefs and there are those who are pacifist.

When I asked to know what the State Government is doing to ensure security in the state, I was told that Ugwuanyi has entered into the second term curse that usually befalls many Nigerian governors. In the first term, they sell themselves to the people with their good works. In their second term, they have no one to please so they begin to plan for retirement into the Senate. The insecurity in Eastern Nigeria has also worsened situation and since the support that IPOB has emerges from the grassroots, the state government is careful not to loose popularity with the people. The governor finds himself in the unenviable middle of pleasing IPOB and also obeying the Federal Govt under whom they receive their monthly allocations.

Despite the lockdown on Monday, I was able to make it to work but the whole place was deserted. However I had with me a young man, who had defied the lockdown to be at the office. I asked him why he had not joined others and stayed at home – why was he risking his life. The young man explained that most of the people staying at home were government workers. He said because he works for himself, he must go out and work or else he will not eat. He even told me that he had been at the spare part market that morning and was able to get the item he sought. “And the boys opened their shop?” “Sure”, he replied. In other words, to remain at home on a Monday morning was to court hunger. That sums up the varied reactions I got from the Monday lockdowns.

I titled the final chapter of VICTOR BANJO “Can This Happen Again?” That is: can Nigeria witness a civil war again and the overarching response is “yes”. Then I counselled young Igbo men to try and demystify Nnamdi Kanu. Right now he has become a cult like figure among them but a few things will demystify him. Nnamdi Kanu should articulate his arguments in a book. Let him convince the world that his sessationist agenda is worth pursuing. If he is able to bring his ideas to the world of academia and they are accepted, perhaps his following will grow beyond motor park touts. I say this because most of those who know this man and have listened to him know that he doesn’t have a solid argument for his ideas. He has simply keyed into the discontent of a region to sell his agenda. And he’s doing well at it.

As the Igbos seek to demystify Kanu, they should also consider honestly the positives in their remaining in Nigeria. As it remains, what is truly Biafran in geography is a landlocked area of Nigeria with no access to the sea and that has almost no natural resources. Second, the Nigerian nation has heard the cry of the Igbos on marginalization long enough and I’m positive that if they put forward a worthy candidate today, Nigerians will vote for him. They could start with putting a formidable party behind Kingsley Morghalu and the rest will be history.

Lastly, Igbo land must appreciate the fact that their greatest enemy are not the rest of Nigeria but themselves. Because except a people hate themselves, they will not reduce their work days to four while the rest of the country has five. Igbo land is the worst for it in the face of all these lockdowns.

I left Enugu a sad man. There is deep fear in the hearts of people in that city. You don’t know when next unknown gunmen will strike. You don’t know who’s next. And where there is insecurity, there can be no growth; no development. The Igbo people will need to identify who their friends and who their enemies really are. IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu mean no good for Eastern Nigeria except retrogression.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/visiting-enugu-how-ipob-is-destroying-eastern-nigeria/

The War Between Russia and Ukraine

By: Deji Yesufu

I have just read Sunday Adelaja’s Facebook post. He says all out war has broken out between Ukraine and Russia. Adelaja is a Nigerian pastor living in Kiev, Ukraine. He says from his home, he can hear shelling and bombs going off some distance away. Welcome to war, friends. But as we watch thing work out in Eastern Europe, here are my thoughts on the situation.

Foreign policy among countries has always been one of dominance. The more you bring people under your sovereign, the stronger you are as a country. The Greek and Roman empires expanded through military conquering and dominance. Napoleon Bonaparte was the last world leader that sought a similar domination but failed ultimately. After Bonaparte, the world began to look away from domination to association. Rather than a country ruling other countries, what we now have are union of countries.

The idea of union of nations is actually one of the fruit of the democratic experiment of the United States. America is a conglomerate of 50 nation states. So that after World War 2, which America played a major role in quelling, the USA brought her democratic experiment on nations by introducing the concept of United Nations. Sine then, different countries have sought different association between themselves. The USA also forced many European nations, like Britain and France, to follow up their commitment to these new world principles by granting African countries independence from colonial rule. So that the end of WW2 also sparked the beginning of the end of colonial rule in Africa and Asia.

America and Russia fought on the same side in WW2 and defeated Germany. Though they had a common enemy, they possessed varied ideologies. America was capitalist; Russia – communist. Their differences sparked the cold war. The Cold War ended with the disbanding of the nations under the USSR in 1989. The USSR were countries, like the USA, banded together for a common good. America instigated the end of the USSR, leaving her as sole super power in the world. Russia despised this and Putin regarded it as the biggest failure of his country. With his rise to power, Putin has seen the return of the USSR as his sole ambition. Ukraine was formerly in the USSR. Then the impossible began to happen.

Ukraine, now an independent country, in the past few years has been hobnobbing with the NATO. NATO is a conglomerate of European countries and the USA. The association seeks mutual economic and military ties. As Ukraine sought to join NATO, Putin sent out a strong warning: He would be caught dead if Ukraine, a former USSR nation, a nation with people possessing close ties with Russia, joins NATO. Rather than Ukraine going, he will invade that country and bring her back under the rule of Russia.

You may think this is wrong but looking at things from the perspective of Russia and Putin, you cannot blame Putin too much. Truth is that countries ought to respect each other. America knows about Putin’s ambition, yet they take steps at bringing a former USSR country under them. America knows that Russia is a country that can call their bluff and enter into full blown war and thus, now that Ukraine is invaded, the best the USA can do is impose sanctions, and cry diplomatic wolf. Russia will invade Ukraine and bring her under their rule and the world will do nothing.

The other option is that NATO may launch an attack on Russia. If that happens, welcome to Third World War.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/the-war-between-russia-and-ukraine/

Guns and Blood in Ibadan

Yesterday, there were guns blazing in Ibadan and there was blood everywhere. It is no longer news that a bullion van was attacked by armed robbers in the early afternoon yesterday at the Idi-ape junction connecting major parts of Ibadan, including Agodi-Gate, with other parts of Ibadan, like Iwo road and Basorun. What might be news to you is how it all happened.

The Seyi Makinde-led government of Oyo State has, since inception, embarked on a rapid completion of major road construction in Ibadan that were commenced by the outgoing Abiola Ajimobi government. The most prominent of these roads has been the Basorun-Akobo road. Akobo is a residential area of Ibadan and might be the most inhabited parts of the town – at least for middle income earners. The state government therefore provided a double carriage way through that part of the town, which still leads to other fast developing parts of the town and has made transportation quite easy for the people living on those axis. To curb the excessive speeding of motorist, particularly the ever-present Micra drivers, the state government only recently provided traffic lights to major junctions in Ibadan. It is those traffic lights that turned out to be the waterloo of the drivers of the bullion van that was attacked yesterday.

Eye witness accounts has it that it all begun around 1pm in the hot afternoon. The bullion van conveying money to a nearby bank, had pulled up to the traffic light and was forced to wait because a few vehicles in front of them had stopped. A few seconds to the light glowing green, armed men wearing police uniform and having their faces masked, emerged from a Sienna vehicle, and opened fire on the bullion van. At first they shot into the air to scare away people but subsequently they began to shoot at occupants of the van. After this, they moved towards the bullion van, broke open its safe and carted away the money that was being conveyed.

In the wake of the attack, Vanguard reports that three policemen and four other persons were killed. Because quite a number of people were stationed around the bullion van, inside the traffic, it was easy for stray bullets to hit them. It is not known how many people were injured but quite a number of them were subsequently taken to the University College Hospital (UCH) for treatment.

Ibadan is a sleepy civil-servant town in South-west, Nigeria. It is generally believed that there is no money here. The last time we had this type of gangster-type robbery must have been no less than ten years ago and it was almost at the same spot: when the Intercontinental Bank, situated at Idi-ape junction, was robbed. Many people have complained about the inability of law enforcement agents to curb these kinds of robberies. Just about two hundred meters from Idi-ape, there is the Testing Ground, where a central police station is located. The place is also a residential quarters for the police. A few meters away from the point where the bullion van was robbed, is the officer’s mess for the Nigerian army. In the space of about half an hour when this robbery was ongoing, there was practically no resistance from any law enforcement personal in that area.

Ibadan saw guns yesterday and the streets of the town was littered with the blood and bodies of the innocent. The people who witnessed the carnage saw nothing less than a war situation. Some of us resident here are thankful to mark ourselves safe from the attack; unfortunately, a number of other people were not so lucky.

https://textandpublishing.com/guns-and-blood-in-ibadan/

© Deji Yesufu

RealityGod:
How interesting that men have become the judge of others putting on standards that are not biblical to continually serve the purpose of the devil, which is to keep you in perpetual condemnation.

I do not know him and I do not want to know him but his restoration is to Christ and so is his assignment.

Run your race…The owner of the church is still handling the affairs of the church. Raising genuine men and revealing the darkness in everyone that name his name. So that his name will be glorified and all may come to the knowledge of the truth.

The way the Owner of the Church does this is to remove not just erring ministers but such as are disqualified from ministry.

Do you understand that in the same way men are qualified for ministry is the same way they can be disqualified?

AntiChristian:
This is three much!

Yeah

Timi Adigun: When “Sorry” is not Enough

(This article was written almost two years ago when Timilehin Adigun was first accused of indiscretion in ministry. Today, Juliana Olayode, Toyo, is again accusing this guy of sexually abusing her younger sister. I had said if he is not removed from ministry, he will do it again. Like a prophet, my words have come to pass)

I only learnt of whom Timi Adigun is when the scandal around him broke into open. A few days ago, social media began to buzz with the story of a Lagos Pastor who had gotten into another sex scandal and is at this time under discipline. Timi Adigun’s case is a little different because his ministry centers on the matter of sexual purity among teens. Pentecostal churches have this thing for “specialties”: so you have this minister who has the “anointing” for marriage, another for prosperity, another for praying for barren women to get pregnant; then you have those who have the knack for motivational speaking; there is one whose prophecies focus at bringing about a better Nigeria, and so on. Timi Adigun, on his part, teaches young people sexual purity. Unfortunately he failed in carrying out his own counsel and fell. He has published an apology note to the public where he wrote:

“I want to say I AM DEEPLY SORRY to everyone my actions and inactions have hurt at this time. The truth is, I was involved in inappropriate behavior with females over a couple of years. I went against the sexual purity message I preach and I believe in and I AM SO SO SORRY. I failed those of you who look up to me. Please find a place in your hearts to forgive me…”


Timi Adigun did not shed light on the nature of the “inappropriate behavior” he had with the young females over a number of years but he was quick to state in a latter part of the letter that “there was no sexual intercourse with any…” And for this reason, Timi believes that he has not sinned enough and is still at the point where he can still return to ministry and continue to preach. Dear Brother Timi Adigun, accept this as my counsel to you: you are forgiven but you will need to see a truth in scripture about sexual sin so that you might appreciate the depth to which you have fallen. Jesus Christ said: “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28).

At what point does “lustful intent” translate to sin? Let us read James: “But each person is tempted when he is lured away and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14-15). Let us talk man to man here: it is not every look or desire that exhumes from a man towards a woman that is sin. But there is a point where mere looks or even desire become sinful lust; it is at that point where one’s temptation becomes enticement and eventually sin. Notice that in our Lord’s admonition to us, sexual intercourse does not need to happen before sexual sin is conceived. My dear sir I wish to state to you that what you did with those girls is as sinful as committing sexual intercourse with them; the caveat “… there was no sexual intercourse with any…” which you put in your letter was not necessary. There indeed was sexual intercourse, albeit it was in the heart and it is just as sinful as the very act.

The implication of Mr. Timi Adigun’s actions is simply this: he betrayed the trust given to him by a cross section of his congregation; he abused his authority as a spiritual leader; he broke his marriage vows with his wife; and at the moment Mr. Adigun stands disqualified from ministry. He would do well to step down from the pulpit, join the congregation in the pew and never to return to the sacred duties of ministering the word of God to people again. Timi Adigun’s letter of “sorry” is not enough; he would need to leave ministry completely and find something else to do in life. This is the only way one can say that Timi has genuinely repented of his sin and the only way he would never be in a position to abuse the trust put on him as a spiritual leader.


Some months ago, I wrote an essay along this same line of ministers being disqualified from ministry when they fall into sin. A lady reached me privately and went on about how it was practically impossible for men, including pastors, to be chaste in our time. She explained that sin was everywhere and everyone would have fallen at one point or the other. If we were to go by my standard, she argued, no one will be in ministry. I responded that perhaps no one should be in ministry then. But the truth is that there are still a few who are still chaste and this is the more reason why not too many should be found in Christian ministry. Pastor John MacArthur says that a minister is a “one woman’s man”.

What that means that a minister of God is permitted to know only one woman sexually in his lifetime (as long as his mate is alive). When Paul gave the list of qualifications for a minister he said that such a man must be above reproach and that he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. Sexual sin, the type that Adigun got himself entangled with, is reproachful and it would forever dent his name and image in the public. He would forever be known as the man who sexually abused young ladies in his ministry. For this reason he is disqualified from the pastorate and should not be in ministry. Those who forgive him to the extent of returning him back to preaching are the ones lowering the high standard of Christian ministry and thus making the pastorate a common thing. In an environment like this, you can only await the next “fall” from grace with a lot of certainty.

Another reason why Timi might regard his “sorry” letter sufficient to restore him back to the pulpit is because of the nature of the gospel he preaches. Timi preaches sexual purity; a message that exhumes from the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement that has a tendency to produce all kind of ministry specialties. Where men specialize in everything but true righteousness and holiness. Those who read my essay know how much I bemoan the gospel of Prosperity that has taken over the heart of gospel preaching in our country, Nigeria.

The result is that there is great emphasis on wealth and little emphasis on holiness and righteousness. It is a gospel that exhumes from the Word of Faith message where Christ’s death is seen as a means to resolve men’s troubles on this earth; while they ignore the more salient part of Christ saving men from their sin and leading them on the path of holiness. The result is usually that unconverted men take the reins of ministry and then preach messages that sooth the consciences of other unconverted persons.

The other implication is that once in a while the true nature of these wolves shows forth in scandals like the one that Timi Adigun has fallen into. If Timi will hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, he would need to leave the ministry completely and embark on a journey of soul searching to find the gospel and the Christ that died and rose to save sinners. It is only in this manner he would truly find forgiveness with God and then show forth fruits in keeping with genuine repentance. Until then, all these “sorrys” is a waste of both his time and ours.


On a final note, those of us in ministry must take heed to ourselves. I recommend this book: God’s Rules for Holiness by Peter Masters to every person who is serious about keeping the laws of God. The author does an exposition of the Ten Commandments in each chapter. At the point of “thou shall not commit adultery”, the author states some formulas for which all men (and women) can abide at to keep themselves above board when it comes to sexual immorality.

We are all bombarded with darts of temptation everyday but the Christian man is that man that knows how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor (1 Thessalonians 4:4). It is even doubly so for the man who is called to minister the gospel of Christ. As I write this piece, I am receiving information of some of our brothers who espouse reformed theology but who are throwing their consecration to the wind. In the name of Christian liberty they are doing things they ought not to do.

I remind them of the high standard of both God’s word and the reformed tradition: if you are found wanting, you will lose your position and never return to ministry again. The Pentecostal/Charismatics may “forgive” their own in whichever way they wish; we do not have such traditions in our movement. Most men have a slim chance to serve Jesus in ministry; if they allow themselves to crash on the laps of Delilah, they will never recover from it.

Those of you who accept Timi Adigun’s “sorry” and return him to ministry, I feel sorry for you. You do not know the high standard that Christian ministry demands and it is for folks like you that ministry has largely gone to the dogs in our time and remains largely ineffective among the heathens.

© Deji Yesufu

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/timi-adigun-when-sorry-is-not-enough/

Tired 2022

You are in a very bad situation and if you do not handle it well, you will soon kill yourself. Either you die of some disease or you take your own life out of depression. I'll make my suggestion thus:

Understand that sex is a mind thing and what takes hold of your mind, takes of you. Somebody once suggested to me that the same effort you put in creativity is the same you put into sex. Many years ago when my wife deprived me of sex, I channeled the energy into writing a book. I'm still earning money from that publication till date.

So, engage your mind. Learn a new sport. Learn a trade. Do something with your mind that will interest you. This far is the physical level.

Let me introduce you to the spiritual. I am a Pastor with a Christian denomination called Reformed Baptist. In this denomination, we engage people's minds. We help you to comprehend the Bible. We give you hundreds of books to read.

At the end, your mind is renewed and you will be delivered of your addiction.

Your predicament is serious and it will take years to be rid of it. The first step however is to start.

Reach me on newdejix@gmail.com for more counsel.

All the best

tesseract:
Crap...

babasolution:
This is apt.This is the pure truth.A great article with tremendous insight

Why You Should Remain in Nigeria

Let me begin this article by accepting the reality that some people are destined to leave Nigeria. The truth is that some professionals will thrive better outside this country and they will add more to society while they are overseas and probably help support the Nigerian economy with whatever monies they send back into the system. This is a fact. In spite of this reality, I am convinced that the majority of those leaving the shores of this country are never meant to go. Such individuals may travel out of the country, make a lot of money and probably reach their zenith in life. But such people will still come to their grave without a sense of having accomplished what they were sent into this world to do. This is simply because they left the nation of their birth and moved away from it.

A lawyer shared a question on social media recently. He asked his readers what they will counsel him to do: many people think that he will thrive better overseas. They feel that he can make better use of his gifts outside Nigeria and that he is likely to earn more from legal practice overseas than in Nigeria. I was very glad to see many people come to that thread and advise him against leaving the country. He later posted that he had decided to stay and slug it out in Lagos.

In a related manner, a medical practitioner was lamenting why none of his students were even considering remaining in Nigeria to work. Every single one of these young doctors have already planned how they will begin studying for foreign exams and the moment they pass; it is bye-bye to Nigeria. The most alarming part was that when he asked a class of prospective young doctors if anyone among them was even considering living and practicing in Nigeria, no one supported the idea. In fact, they regarded it as a taboo or a curse. In this essay I want to enumerate a few reasons why you should remain in Nigeria – work and live here.

Many Nigerians, regardless of religious views, do not have a healthy grasp of their end – I mean the subject of death. In foreign lands, this same place many of young people are fleeing to, people have witnessed generation after generations come and go. There are properly documented accounts of the lives of people’s parents, grandparents and forefathers. In short, white people know that a day will come when all that is going to be told about you is not how much money you possessed; or how many cars you drove; or how many houses you built. They understand something called legacy and the fact that a person’s name can be traced to something virtuous. Because of this, oyinbo people think fundamentally about humanity. They look at leaving their world better than they met it. It is thinking like these that makes a man spend all his life in a laboratory looking for a solution to a certain life problem and having found it, he documents it in a book and pass on his knowledge to his students. White people end their lives with a sense of fulfilment of having added to humanity.

Now, because many of us have grown up either in abject poverty or have lived our lives with poverty either staring at us daily or threatening us, survival is the motivating factor in our worldview. The average Nigerian is hoping to secure food in his home first. After that he hopes to build a house, buy a good car, and maybe get his children through school and make them independent. This survival mentality has made us to see life from a very narrow perspective of self. Many Nigerians do not think of others. Most of all we think about is ourselves, our children and then our wives (in that order). No one is concerned with what happens to our unborn children. The other day I was lamenting the felling of trees in South-west Nigeria. Trees are being used up in our forests for building houses and no one is planting new trees to take the place of the felled ones. We build houses and everyone use up the space in their compounds. There are hardly any grasses planted; the whole place is cemented; and there are no trees around. We uproot the trees to build our houses. Yet we complain about erosion and the adverse effect of the wind when it rains. This survival mentality is what is pushing our young people abroad. If they realize that life is more about giving back and leaving a legacy, perhaps they will stay.

The life of Christian missionaries that helped to bring education to Nigeria is worth studying. Two of them are worth mentioning here. They are Mary Slessor and S. G. Elton. Slessor worked in Nigeria from the late nineteen century until the 1915. Her missions were mostly in the Calabar area of today Cross River State. Sidney Elton worked in South-west Nigeria from 1937 until 1987 when he died. Slessor is known for her social reforms in Calabar, particularly ending the killing of twins. What is little known about her was how she came to the decision of remaining and dying in Nigeria. Like many white missionaries of those days, after serving on the mission field for a while, they return to their country for a holiday. They use the period to catch up on family matters, check up on their health, rest, raise money for missions and return to the mission field after a while. One day, while working in her mission field in Calabar, Slessor received news that her mother and her sister had passed away. She told those who cared to hear that there was nothing to return to the UK for anymore. She continued to work in Nigeria until her health succumbed to the incessant malaria attacks that killed many missionaries of her day.

Elton, on the other hand, had served in Ilesha for quite a while. Besides helping to establish Pentecostal missions around the country, he also helped the fledgling Western government of Awolowo to develop curriculums to train teachers for schools in South-west Nigeria. One day, he got wind of an information: some mischievous element in the Nigerian government had promised to ensure that the next time Elton travelled out of Nigeria to visit home, he would not be allowed entry back into the country. Because of this S. G. Elton put an end to visiting his home country and made Nigeria his home. He never travelled out of Nigeria from the early 1970s until his death in 1987. His daughter is still working at her father’s mission house in Ilesha till this day.

When you look at stories like these, you begin to ask: when white people are making Nigeria their home so that they can help impact humanity, what exactly are Nigerians going outside the country to do? Someone will say they are going to make the almighty dollar. I will ask at what expense? The answer: at the expense of family life. Someone told me that he was convinced that many Nigerian couples will still be together if they had only remained in Nigeria. They travel abroad and little domestic problems that will quite easily be solved in Nigeria, are blown out of proportion by foreign authorities who have no idea what genuine family life is all about. Besides that, how many Nigerian couples are mourning over what has become of their children. They send children abroad to school and the children return home with some education and a lot of godlessness. The other day it was Doyin Okupe’s son that had become gay. The list is endless. If such people had remained in Nigeria, many of the things happening to them will not be happening.

Finally, and I think most importantly, still in keeping with the sense of adding to society and humanity, our young people need to realize that we are the ones that will fix this country and not anyone else. Except we want white people to return to colonize us again, we had better get to work. Some colleagues in my office went to India to train. They said one of the things they noticed about that country was that it was not popular for Indians to leave their country and go to another country to live. They said that many Indians are well trained and many of them have certification in various fields that could help get them mouthwatering jobs abroad, but there is an unspoken sense of nationalism that tells them to remain in their country. They earn a lot less in the process, but help to build their country as a result.

The whole concept of a developing country is not meant to be derogatory. It is simply a verdict on where we are in our national life. “Developing” is a pointer to the fact that something has a lot of room for improvement. In fact, the countries that call themselves developed are the ones that should be most pitied because there is little or nothing to add to them – everything about them is formed. A developing country like Nigeria offers up many opportunities that developed countries do not have. There are a lot of things that can be done in our national space. Perhaps one of the greatest blessings that could come the way of our young graduating people today is that there are simply no white-collar jobs for them. Universities are now being forced to in-cooperate entrepreneurial skills into whatever course of learning our students are embarking on. In the process, our young people are branching out into all kinds of fields and they are excelling in them. This is how this country will be saved: our young people will simply dig into themselves and out of sheer survival bring out workable formulas for national development. And this country will be saved at the end.

Again, not everyone is meant to live within the national space he was born in. A few people will find themselves outside the shores of their motherland and some might even make such places their home. But there is clearly something very wrong with this mass exodus of young people from our country. There is something inherently wrong with every young nurse nursing the ambition of going to the US or UK to work. There is something incongruent with common sense when every young graduating doctor is planning to write PLAB or one of such foreign exams for doctors. It does not matter what they may be earning over there, most of these people are not meant to be outside this country. They may succeed at surviving for now but a day will come when they will realize, as in the words of Jesus Christ, man shall not live by bread alone. Life is a lot more than food and drink.

So, my dear young person, remain in Nigeria.

https://textandpublishing.com/why-you-should-remain-in-nigeria/

© Deji Yesufu

oldienavie:
So I am 36 years and looking to settle down.
I have a lady friend who I have know for a while and is a really decent lady.
She is the type of person I would like to marry (I like conservative ladies and she is the conservative type no makeup which is what I want).
She is 32 years old.

A part of me feels it is better to wait for a while and try and get a younger "god fearing" lady.

To the men, what would you advise ?

I am kinda traditional and feel like a man should avoid marrying a lady in her 30s and also have a gap of atleast 7 years with the wife but I think I love her, I have been thinking about her lately.

Edited: A lot of people asking why I am not married at 36 years old, I was studying abroad, I just got back to naija to try and marry.

Marry her.

The grass is always greener at the other side.

Ammishaddai:
Nice

Why Does God Allow Suffering?

There is this man who lost his faith in God as he beheld his youngest daughter undergo numerous surgeries to correct a birth deformity. He asked the question: why does God allow the innocent to suffer? No one could offer answers to his questions and ultimately he became agnostic. There is also the famous story of how Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, became an atheist. He had visited his pastor in the late 1960s and saw pictures of Biafran children with protruded bellies – suffering from malnutrition and in some cases dying of starvation. Jobs asked the same question and when he could not find answers, he ceased to believe in God.

To be sincere, there are no easy answers to the question of suffering and humanity. I personally believe that to understand, in entirety, why God permits suffering is to ourselves become like God. So because we are not God, we must be content with some feeble attempts at answering this grave question.

Do We Deserve Any Better?

When we ask the question “Why Does God Allow Suffering”, we totally underestimate the goodness of God, the evil in man and their natural consequences. The question is a good question because it presupposes, atleast, the existence of God. This is a good place to start because it will compel us to look at God’s own account of the origin of evil and suffering as recorded in the Bible.
The book of Genesis tells us that God made a good world. In Genesis 3, we see man disobey God in the garden of Eden and we see humanity fall into sin. As this happens, God told our first parent the consequences of their sin: suffering. But this very chapter records another account that is often overlooked. After man fell, God took the initiative of killing an animal and clothing fallen humanity. This chapter records for us a simple fact of our existence on earth: there is sin in all humanity; we suffer the consequences of this sin but in the midst of it all, God still manifest his gracious goodness to us.

So when suffering comes, we should remember that we as humans are fallen and will suffer the consequences for our sins. We actually deserve worse in relation to our sins. But even in the midst of such deep suffering, we must never forget that God has also been very gracious to us. Those who suffer the pain of bereavement should remember the goodness of God that gave them the gift of a child, a spouse or a parent. There are million other people on earth who don’t have children, spouses or who never grew up under the warmth of a parent. That God very graciously gave you and I a few years to enjoy these mercies, is every reason to be thankful. In other words, our questions and anguish are mollified when we consider the goodness and mercies of God even within our suffering.

The Suffering God

There is the story that is told of an incident that occurred during the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. The murderous Hutu ethnic group invaded a Catholic missions but because the UN soldiers had come to evacuate the foreigners in that mission field, they waited outside – patiently. One of the parishioners approached the white Rev. father and asked “father, where is God in all these?” The man of God said he didn’t know. A few hours later, the UN soldiers left with the foreigners. The Rev. Father refused to go with them. When the locals asked why he remained, he said he finally understood where God was in all the violence: God was with the suffering people of Rwanda and that he had chosen to remain where God was. The Hutu militias came into the missions and hacked them all to death.

Hebrew 4:15 says we serve a God who knows our infirmities; he feels our pain because he is with us in our pain. Suffering causes humanity to consider, with God, the most important things of life. The most pitiable people on earth are people who have everything going for them and have no care in the world. Suffering makes us seek a higher power; suffering causes men to seek God. It is the reason the Bible says God has made the poor to be rich in faith. The one who suffers, learns to trust God. In the process his faith is built up in God.

Have we considered why Jesus was born to a peasant family and not in a palace? Do we understand why Christ said he had nowhere to lay his head? Do we realize that if women were Jesus ministry financiers, then he must have been earning very little in ministry? And, most importantly, why did Jesus have to undergo excruciating suffering when he died? Answers to these questions and most importantly to the last question, will draw us nearer to understanding why God allows suffering in our world.

So I began to attempt to answer this question of suffering by positing the story of the beginning. In Genesis 3, God said that the Seed of the Woman, Jesus, will crush the head of the serpent. But the serpent will bruise his heel. God was giving us a picture of what will happen in the story of Christ bringing redemption to the earth. In one hand, sin, death and suffering came to humanity through the first Adam. By necessity, redemption was to come through the second Adam, Christ. And the means of redeeming man from sin was Christ identifying with men in their humanity – he took on flesh. Then he identified with us in our sin – the sins of whole world was put on him. Then he died a most ignoble, shameful and painful death. Jesus’ death in bringing redemption to humanity was also God identifying with humanity in her falleness and suffering. In other words: the biggest Sufferer is not man but God.

Conclusion

When men suffer, the question of God, sin and redemption comes before our eyes. The sun that hardens clay is the same that brings growth and vitality to plant. Our sufferings may leave us hardened or better persons. Our sufferings may make us lovers or haters of God. The options are left to us to choose.

As we consider our options, however, permit me to reiterate the major points in my essay. Sin is the root of all suffering. Jesus Christ came into the world to redeem you and I from our sins. In the process of doing this, the God-man underwent great suffering – such suffering that no man has ever and will ever endure. With Christ’s suffering also came redemption. When our sufferings are seen in the light of Christ’s work, they take up new meaning. They bring us to a new perspective of God. We realize that we are sinners, deserving nothing but having received much – we are thankful.

Then when our sufferings come, whichever way God permits them, we do not necessarily ask why God allows suffering; rather, we worship God who knows all things. As we do this, our suffering brings redemption to the world all around us and it makes us better people. We will be never know in entirety why God permits suffering. We can however worship God in faith, knowing that the day we see him face to face, we will find more than enough answers to our questions. Whatever those answers will be, I’m certain, will reflect the nature of God – the goodness of God. Because God is good and all knowing, then permits suffering, we are certain that our suffering has a positive end. And such end that will warrant the saints to worship God right now – whether or not they know why God allows suffering in their lives.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/why-does-god-allow-suffering/

© Deji Yesufu

What God Has Done: Birthing A Reformed Church in Ibadan

On the 10th of October, 2021, a group of us, who have been meeting monthly on Saturdays, decided to commence a Lord’s Day service in the city of Ibadan. This meeting will be a culmination of an eight year effort to plant a reformed assembly in this city. In 2019, a number of us started to meet every Saturday to study the book of Ephesians. It is this same group that trasnformed to the Sunday morning gathering that we now have. Yesterday was our tenth meeting together and I felt that it was time to talk about what we are doing on my blog.

The Coronavirus pandemic truncated the 2019 meetings, so that throughout 2020 we did not meet at all (on Saturdays) but the group persisted because we understood the pertinent need for a gospel church in a city like this. Rather than continue with where we stopped in our study of Ephesians, I redirected the church to Paul’s missions to the city of Ephesus as they are recorded in Acts 18 to 20. In our study of these texts so far, we have seen the apologetics drive in Paul’s missions (Acts 18); we saw the true place of “speaking in tongues” in a Christian gathering (Acts 19:1-7); We saw how God uses miracles as signs for a community (Acts 19:8-20; 20:1-12) we understood why a church should be confessional (Acts 19:21-41); and we saw three vital items in a Christian gathering: the men in the Church, the methods employed in a Church, and the message of the Church (Acts 20:13-24). When Paul said to the Ephesian elders: “…to testify to the gospel of the grace of God…” (Acts 20:24b), we understood this as the overarching message that a church should believe and proclaim. After the teaching yesterday, I came to the conclusion that every Monday I will publish a blog on the sermon I preached the previous Sunday. I trust God that you will be blessed as you read this.

In Acts 13, we see the commencement of the missionary efforts of Paul the apostle. In the same chapter, Luke (the writer of Acts) records almost verbatim one of the messages that Paul preached. In that message I figured that we would be able to have a gleams into what Paul meant as “the gospel of the grace of God”. From verse 13 to 39, Paul begins to address the people of Antioch of Pisidia in a Synagogue. In that address, Paul lays certain emphasis and I would simply surmarise them thus:

verse 17: God chose the fathers and made Isreal great.
verse 18: God bore with the sins of Israel.
verse 19: God destroyed seven nations and gave Israel an inheritance.
verse 20 -22: God gave Israel leaders, including David.
verses 23: God gave Israel a Savior.
verse 26: God sent a message of salvation.
verse 30: God raised Christ from the dead.

In the strength of all that God has done above, “therefore”, forgiveness of sin is proclaimed to sinners and justification from all things is given to the believer (verse 38-39). In other words, the gospel of the grace of God is a message of God showing mercy to sinners in the light of what he, the Lord, has done. The Christian overarching message is about God and his works. Humanity is only a beneficiary of these and this is shown by God showing sinners mercy and bringing justification to them.

This message is important in the light of a man-centered Christianity that we find in our world today. Messages in churches center on what man must do to be right with God. We are told how to “give your life to Christ”; we are taught how to live holy; we are given a list of commandments to meet; we are told that morality is all that matters; and in some cases, we are pressed down with the need to make heaven. Fortunately, all of these items were missing in Paul’s proclamation of the gospel of grace. When Paul will bring a people to understand the gospel, he centered his message essentially on what God has done and not what man should do.

It is also interesting to note that the very first point of his message was the doctrine of election. Paul reminded his listeners that when God was to bring redemption to Israel, the first thing he did was that he chose the fathers. The same point is reiterated concerning the Church in Ephesians 1:4, where Paul writes: “…even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the earth…” Unfortunately when the doctrine of election is taught in churches today, it is disputed and called a doctrine of demons. Others who may agree to it, will say that it is a difficult doctrine and should be left for matured believers. But Paul does not agree; Paul will rather make the doctrine of election the beginning point of his evangelism. It was the starting point of his debate with the Jews. The reason is because there is no other doctrine that tells us of what God has done, with no contribution from any man, than the doctrine of election. Election tells us that God’s dealings with sinners in a redemptive manner is an act of his grace; it is what he has chosen to do and the actions and inactions of men could not in any way influence it. And because reformed theology espouses the doctrine of election, reformed theology joins Paul in proclaiming the gospel of the grace of God. It is called “grace” because it is a gift of God to an underserving humanity who could never work to earn God’s approbation.

So after ten Sundays, we encounter this mighty doctrine of the gospel of the grace of God and we see its application also: the fact that through it God offer forgiveness of sin to a sinful humanity and through it we find justification before God; something we could never earn either by our religious efforts or by keeping all the laws of Moses. Grace is indeed beautiful and this is God’s good news to counter the bad news of sure damnation that our sins bring. For sinners, all you need to do is believe this message; for believers, all you should be doing is worship and celebrating the name of Christ. Amen.

Next Sunday we would continue to observe other themes in Paul’s admonition to the Ephesian elders as it is recorded in Acts 20. Soon we would conclude that chapter and begin to examine Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. This epistle of Paul is regarded as one of the most rounded texts that the apostle wrote and it is a text that is relevant for the church; especially a beginning church like ours.

If you are out there and you are not committed to a Christian assembly in the city of Ibadan, we will like to invite you to be part of our church plant. We are in the process of building a work that will glorify God on earth. We are trusting God to plant a Christian church that makes the Bible central and that is faithful to the historic Christian faith – as had been believed by Christians from the first century. You may reach me on newdejix@gmail.com for directions to where we meet. May God’s grace, mercy and peace be extended to you and yours as you make the decision to be part of this gathering.

The gospel of the grace of God is the good news of what God has done for undeserving sinners. We are also blessed to have God, through many providential means, birth a reformed gathering of Christians in Ibadan. It is the doing of the Lord and it is marvelous in our sight.

© Deji Yesufu

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/what-god-has-done-birthing-a-reformed-church-in-ibadan/

helinues:
Toh

Word

“Unknown Soldier – na ‘im do am”

by: Deji Yesufu

Three individuals were the primary planners of the Janaury 15th, 1966 coup. They were Kaduna Nzeogwu, Ifeanyi Ifeajuna and Adewale Ademoyega. Of these three only one survived the upheaveals that the military coup plunged Nigeria into and that person was Ademoyega. Besides a lot of conjectures, no one could tell what were the driving forces in the minds of these young men that led them to do what they did in those days but since Ademoyega survived, he documented his thoughts in his provocative book “Why We Struck” – published in 1981. According to Ademoyega, a lot of things triggered the 1966 coup but the final straw that broke the carmel’s back were the incidence around the Tiv riots of 1964.

After the British left Nigeria, crisis broke out in Tiv land when the natives refused the political dominance of the ruling National People’s Congress (NPC). The Tiv people sought separation from the overbearing political presence of the Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, on them. They will eventually get their freedom with the creation of the Plateau-Benue axis in 1976. But initially, the Tiv resented the Sarduana because Tiv land was never conquered by the Fulani and now they saw themselves under the dominance of the North in the abscence of the British. With time riots broke out all over Tiv land. The police were unable to curb the violence and so the military was employed. Adewale Ademoyega was one of the officers sent to Tiv land to help restore sanity. While under the orders of his masters the government, he also understood the argument of the Tiv people – who were seeking independence from the North. At the same time Ademoyega was never comfortable with the extreme force that was employed to squash the riots. For Ademoyega, it was this singular event that convinced him that the rule of the NPC should be ended. Ademoyega, in 1964, was an unknown soldier whose actions in latter years will soon become well known all around the world.

It is no longer news that the report of a panel set up by the Lagos State government to investigate the shooting of young Nigerians on October, 20, 2020, has now been made public. I understand that the report was leaked to the public the very day a copy was handed over to the Lagos State government. We are being told that reports like that should never have made it to the public. What should have happened was that Lagos State should have considered the findings of this report and then they will issue a “white paper”, which will be the official government position on the matter. Unfortunately, the report is in the open and a government white paper is almost unnecessary now because the matter is already in the court of public opinion. Whoever leaked that report must have suspected that, like many other governmental reviews of issues in our national life, government has a way of making nonsense of reports by committees and panels they themselves constitute. Most recommendations made by such committees are pushed under the cabinet and filed away forever. These people must have reasoned that if the report is in the public, government will have no other choice than to take seriously the matter of implementing the recommendations made by the panel.

Government has every reason to be concerned about the report on the killings at Lekki Toll Gate last year because the report gave some damning verdicts on the government, the police and the army. The report states in part: “…at the Lekki Toll Gate, officers of the Nigerian Army shot, injured and killed unarmed helpless and defenseless protesters, without provocation or justification, while they were waving the Nigerian flag and singing the National Anthem and the manner of assault and killing could, in context, be described as a massacre…” The report went on to say that at least 11 persons were killed, 37 persons sustained varying degrees of injury; while another 96 dead bodies were found all around mortuaries in Lagos State with considerable numbers of these bodies coming from the incident at the Lekki Toll Gate.

Since the unofficial publishing of this report, government at both state and federal levels have remained mute. It is clear to everyone that a case of injustice has occurred in the country’s national life and where justice is not seen to be clearly carried out in a body polity, you leave the people with the possibility of taking the laws into their hands. A country’s democracy itself is put in jeopardy when a people are continually denied justice. They reach a point when they take matters into their hands and those who are most prone to do this are young military officers who are armed with weopon and who realize that if they are lucky enough, they can steal into government, kill those who are in power and take over power. This is what has leads to coups in African countries – the most recent being the forceful take over of power in Sudan. The soldier who was relatively unknown, comes to political prominence via the barrel of the gun because those who were entrusted with political power used it in an irresponsible manner.

Nothing short of justice will pacify the cries all around the country over the killing of those young Nigerians in Lekki, Lagos. The panel has recommended the dismissal of Maj. Gen. Godwin Umelo and Lt. Col. S. O. Bello, who refused to honor the invitation of the panel, and whose names where mentioned numerously as being the officers in charge of the soldiers that shot at the protesters. All officers and soldiers involved in the Lekki incident have also been recommended for dismissal.

Maj. Gen. Omata was said to be excluded from these officers because although he was on ground that night, he it was that ensured that many more protesters were not killed. The moment he got wind of the information that soldiers were shooting at protesters, he drove to the Toll Gate and ordered those men to stop the shooting. It was after the soldiers had gone, that policemen from the Maroko Police station came and began another round of shooting. The panel recommended the dismissal of these policemen also. It should however be noted here that while the report recommended the prosecution of the police officers, they said nothing about prosecuting the soldiers. I would add that if justice will be seen to be done, all the soldiers involved should also be prosecuted for these dastard acts.

In 1977 Nigeria hosted the Festival of Black Arts and Culture (FESTAC). A number of people criticized the Nigerian government for wasting public funds on it. One other critic, Fela Anikulapo-kuti, was a little more virulent than others. In reaction to this, soldiers were deployed to the Kalakuta Republic home of the late Afrobeat crooner. He and members of his family were brutalized and subsequently arrested and detained. Fela’s mother, Funmilayo Ransome-kuti, a major influence in Nigeria obtaining her independence from the British, was beaten and thrown out of the window of a high rising house in Fela’s compound. She was hospitalized but subsequently died from the injuries she sustained in that fall. Mrs. Ransome-kuti was effectively killed by faceless soldiers in the Nigerian army. In response, Fela waxed his immmortal “Unknown Soldier” track to shed light on the injustice that was meted on his family: “Uknown soldier… na ‘im do am…” he sang.

One will never know when the Nigerian government will realize that might is not right in the civilized world. Not everything must be crushed by the force of arms. The very situation that we have today, with the bludgeoning terrorist activities of Boko Haram, was exacerbated by the extra-judicial killing of Mohammed Yusuf, the founder of the sect. It is very possible that if Yusuf was brought to justice through the law, his followers will not have needed to take up arms against the state. Similarly, the very situation the country is witnessing in South-East Nigeria has reached this point because government continues to use force to quell the demands of members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Now these guys have taken up arms against government and plunging another region of the country into violence.

My argument in this essay is simply this: the unknown soldier in the Nigerian polity is an individual with a mind and with emotions. When they are used by the state to crush both lawful and unlawful dissent in society, the Nigerian state is further equipping them for a similar situation when these soldiers could take up arms against the government itself. The solution is for government to realize that force should never be the first response to dissent in society; rather, it should be the last. And if government will pursue viable options at curbing dissent in society, we might never ever need to employ force – talk less of having a detachment of armed faceless soldiers opening fire on defenseless citizens of the country.

The unknown soldiers who killed countless number of youths at the Lekki Toll Gate last year must be found out and punished this time around. The ball is in the court of the Nigerian government right now.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/unknown-soldier-na-im-do-am/

abdelrahman:
Shuke!

The Daniel Kolenda Ibadan Crusade

by: Deji Yesufu

This morning I prayed for Daniel Kolenda. I asked that God will bless the efforts of this man and his team as they reach the city of Ibadan with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I prayed that as the gospel is preached, the Holy Spirit will take the preached word and cause for conversion to take place in the heart of sinners. The Bible says “…faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God…” This means that saving faith, the faith that converts a sinner, can only come as sinners hear the gospel preached and Christ takes the preached word and causes for regeneration to take place in the heart of the listener.

The only way anyone will be converted is when they hear the gospel preached, they understand that Christ died for them and they are brought to a place of repentance and faith. This is what I hope the Daniel Kolenda crusade will do to the people of Ibadan as they go to hear him preach. Unfortunately this is about all the hope I have in this crusade that is billed to begin tomorrow and conclude on Sunday. In this essay, I want to share a few reservations I have about a crusade like this and I will also be explaining why, although I wish the best for this mission, I will not be joining in the crusade efforts; nor will I be visiting the crusade ground.

Who is Daniel Kolenda? The Christ for All Nations website (cfan.org) describes Kolenda as an evangelist, a pastor, author and teacher. He is said to have led 22 million people to Jesus Christ. He is the successor of the late but very famous evangelist, Reinhard Bonnke. Kolenda lives in Orlando, Florida, where he pastors a church called Nations Church. Kolenda is married to one wife, Rebekah, and they are blessed with five children.

From this very short biography of Kolenda one can already spot a fundamental problem with crusade-like evangelism. This problem is the ability of evangelists and their organization to tell, with almost rock solid certainty, the number of people that have been converted as a result of their mission works. They are able to do this because crusades like these require people who have heard the word preached to them and who desire to be converted to “come forward”. In the process, they are led in a “sinners’ prayer” and they are declared converted. What follows is that some individual then writes down the names of these “converted” persons and they are listed. At the end of the crusade, the number of persons converted are counted and we have the millions on the list. The problem with this method of conversion is this: while the evangelist and his people rejoice over the numbers saved, heaven might not be rejoicing with them.

In my estimation, nineteen out of twenty people who go forward in a crusade, to receive Christ have not been converted at all (even this number is a very generous estimation). The reason is because Christian conversion is not as easy as it is suggested by many evangelists. The most difficult part of conversion is simply this: it is God that saves sinners – not the evangelist. The word that is preached on the crusade ground is only a means to an end. The real conversion happens when the Holy Spirit takes the preached word and uses it to birth understanding in the mind of the hearer. No one can tell when genuine conversion occurs; the only thing we see is that the converted person will have remorse for sin.

They will often find themselves seeking God in prayer and in his word, and someday such an individual will come to a settled conviction of their being forgiven. I am stating that genuine conversion is a process that often takes days, weeks, months and sometimes years. Finally, the person can say with confidence that he knows his sins has been forgiven and he is now a child of God. The problem with crusades like these is that they often do not give allowance for these long process of God working on the heart of the sinner. So that they will soon declare converted one who has not even understood the Christian gospel and they will confer a false sense of conversion on such an individual. This is one reason many so called converts to Christianity lack genuine fruits of conversion.

Incidentally, historically crusade-like missions started with the ministry of a man called George Whitefield. Whitefield was a Calvinist who lived in the 18th century. He was an ordained Anglican Priest but because of his unique preaching ability, he enjoined invitations to many churches in England and the new colonies of the United States of America. Soon, and out of sheer jealousy and misunderstanding of his doctrines, many churches closed their doors to Mr. Whitefield. In holy vengeance, Whitefield declared that if the organized churches will not invite him to preach, he will preach to people in the open fields.

Whitefield did as he threatened and soon the open fields of London were filled with the locals, many of them farmers and miners, as they heard Mr. Whitefield preach. Unlike the evangelists of today, Whitefield did not give an altar call but it is on record that thousands testified to having been converted as they listened to Whitefield preach. George Whitefield soon co-opted his friend, John Wesley, into this style of preaching and because Wesley lived much longer than Whitefield, Wesley instituted this style of preaching into his burgeoning Methodist movement.

In the 19th century, a man called Charles Finney took crusade like preaching to the point that we have it today. Finney invented the altar call and often invited his listeners to the altar to seek God for conversion. Finney popularized modern crusades and it was further entrenched in Christian circles by the ministry of Billy Graham. When Graham went to London in the early 1960s to preach, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the minister at the Westminster Chapel, told him that he will not be working with him at those missions. Besides Graham’s aberrant ecumenism, he had also taken the practice of altar calls to a height that even Finney would have been ashamed of.

There is no doubt that some people were converted at Graham’s preaching, the trouble was that many more possessed a false sense of their conversion there. Lloyd-Jones’ argument was that the Holy Spirit did not need an individual to “come forward” before he converts them. He rightly pointed out that faithful preaching of the word, repentance and faith will do the magic. Lloyed-Jones, like many Christians before him, advocated pastoral evangelism. A system of outreach to the unconverted that required painstaking and long term preaching to the sinner, either through the ministry of the church or through personal interaction. The easy believism that crusade-like evangelism births in many has done more harm to the Christian witness than good.

There is a lot I could say about the problems with the Daniel Kolenda crusade but for the sake of brevity, I will just mention one more. There is also the challenge of insecurity in our land. Since the advent of the Boko Haram in Nigeria in 2009 and its many variants in the name of Fulani Herdsmen and Bandits, life has not been the same for Nigerians any more. In my recollection, this might the first major crusade in any city in Nigeria since the advent of Boko Haram. With the media flooded with news of the coming Kolenda, I envision that a mass gathering of Christians will be an easy target for terrorists. While we should never curtail the preaching of the word because of dangers to our lives, we also want to be security conscious.

Let me end on a positive note: Paul in Philippians chapter 1 told the story of how different individuals were preaching the word of God with different motives. The apostle of Christ said that he rejoiced over the fact that the gospel was preached – regardless of the motive with which it is preached. This is another reason why I prayed for Daniel Kolenda this morning. I do not know the motive that propels Kolenda and his team to Ibadan. It is possible that many of the reservations, regarding outreach styles that I have listed above have been reformed by them; etc. Whatever the case is, I rejoice that the name of Christ will be preached in this gathering and I am hopeful that at least one person will be brought to genuine conversion in all of these. If this happens, all the monies and effort put into making the crusade possible would have been worth the while after all.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/the-daniel-kolenda-ibadan-crusade/

Perfectman91:
What about high radiation phones like techno & infinix (just like someone said above) do they cause cancer?

Radiation from phones are equally non ionizing.

There are no confirmed reports from any sound educational institution that radiation from phones or mast can cause cancer. Much of what we hear are just hear-say.

Nonetheless, we have a duty to use our phones responsibly.

Fahdiga:
We aren't suprised. Buhari's infamous decree 4 is being used on Nigerians despite the claim that we are in a democracy

Military men have no boundaries �

Beware of Government Overreach

I saw an article online a few days ago where a man was lamenting the dressing of a young woman on the street of Lagos. This person then suggested that the government of Lagos State steps into the matter and proffer dress codes to people. He was of the opinion that just as government regulates a number of things in society, government should also legislate on how people dress.

I am not sure I have ever been more aghast as to what I read online. The internet throws up a lot of rubbish but nothing ranks in plain foolishness as to a grown, educated man suggesting government regulations on dressing. But one should no longer be surprised at people thinking like this: it is the outcome of a society that has wholly become dependent on government. In this article, I want to warn against the dangers of government overreach and I want to suggest to my readers the true place of government in a society and how citizens can develop a sense of responsibility at building up a society without becoming overly dependent on government.

It is interesting to note that the concept of a democratic government is a very recent development in human experience. Prior to democracy becoming the much accepted governmental norm, most societies have been run on a monarchical system. A monarchy is the government of one person – or a family – over the rest of society. The concept is derived from an antediluvian worldview that some human beings are born better than others. So in a given society, Family A may be regarded as one that is so highly exalted and they are regarded as being born with royal blood. In fact in the days of yore, an ordinary peasant could not marry into royalty because their blood will be seen as mixing with royal blood and thus perverting it. This is why royalty mostly married royalty in those days.

It was the Christian worldview, that teaches that every man is equal in the sight of God because every man is created in the image of God, that began to eat at the root of fascist worldview. The American founding fathers built upon this Christian worldview and added to their system of government the Greek concept of democracy. The Greeks invented democracy and they use to allow ordinary people to elect men into their government in a people’s senate. The men in the senate then went on to elect a supreme leader – sometimes called the Caesar.

After the American revolution of the 18th century, the founding fathers of that great country renounced the concept of the governing of a people by only one family – the English crown. Rather they adopted democratic principles and began to elect leaders over themselves. Europe, a little afterwards, particularly following the French revolution, will soon renounce most of its monarchical systems and adopt democratic principles as their system of government. In places, like England, where the monarchy still existed, it was very much a ceremonial title and not a government that possessed unending powers.

The number one reason why the Americans removed themselves from the monarchical system of government under the rule of England, was because the government of one person leads ultimately to autocracy. In the same vein, the government of one group of persons will lead to autocracy too. So, while the Americans brought democracy into modern times, they also retained certain principles in their constitution that will discourage the tendency of government to become tyrannical.

In the sense that they gave powers to government, but they also gave some powers to the people – especially powers that guaranteed personal liberties. Certain structures were put in place to guard against autocratic tendencies in government. So that in America today, there is freedom to practice one’s religion. Government cannot legislate against the faith that anyone practices. The good thing about this is that people have freedom to practice their religion; the downside is that America has more cults in its society than any other country in the world. But I digress.

While the United States was ensuring democratic ethos in its system of government, most of Europe was falling to the rising socialist mentality of the 19th century. With the rise of the doctrines that Karl Max taught, Europe began to buy into the idea that society must be ruled by, yes, elected officials. But because Marx doctrines were anti-Christian at heart, they did not include in their governmental principles the idea of the liberty of conscience or the necessary freedom that every man must have – while at the same time having a government over them.

So that Marx’ socialism taught that society should be governed by elected men but it denied the people freedom under this type of government. The number one reason why the American founding fathers gave freedom to her people within their constitution was because they realized that there was no such thing as a human being without flaws. They understood that the underlying principles of men’s heart is a certain depravity, which if left unchecked can produce the worst of wickedness. So, society, while governed by elected men, should also give freedom to people to speak. In the days when the American constitution was made, a certain doctrine pervaded the American society. It was the Christian worldview.

Most of the people who fought in the American revolution and help birth their new society, free from British imperial rule, were Christians. In fact, some of them were ministers in churches. So that while the American people had an elected number of persons to lead society, and they had their constitution, they also had a Christian minister teaching the people the way of godliness each Sunday. At the same time paying attention to how the nation is being governed by their elected officials. So that speaking truth to power was a common thing and the people often followed their godly pastors in choosing persons to elected offices. Gradually, however, things began to change.

The first spanner that was thrown into the wheel of the system of government was the coming of socialism. While socialism also advocated the running of government by elected persons, it did not have the Christian worldview of freedom and thus it tended to instill all powers (not some powers) in government. Socialism held the view that the moment a people elect a number of person into government, these persons can inaugurate any policy. And socialism came in the garb of welfarism. It was the idea that government will oversee the production processes of society and equitably distribute the profit from these proceeds.

This is where the whole idea of government providing for the poor in society comes into play – and which allows for many people to be lazy, because all they need to do is to sit at home; obey government and earn a stipend to wade through life. This is however against the more capitalist foundation of the American society that was founded on the Christian principle that “the man that does not work, should not eat”. The Calvinist-Puritan work ethics of the American founding fathers propelled them to work and to earn a lot, with which the great American society, that is much envied by most of the world, was birth.

Many people have warned against the rising challenge of government overreach in Western nations but it has all gotten to head with the coming of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has revealed not just the challenge of the frailty of men’s lives but also the extent to which people will relinquish all powers to government without restraint. At the moment, in many Western countries, government has made it mandatory for people to take the Coronavirus vaccines. Those who have refused to take it are being restricted in society and a lot of them are loosing their jobs and unable to provide for their families.

The “anti-vaccs” as they have been labelled, are arguing that there are many scientific findings that are reveal the dangers of taking the Coronavirus vaccines. This is the first time in the history of the development of vaccines that vaccines have been plunged into world market without the necessary time testing that will reveal whether or not the vaccines carry long term side effects. Many countries are reporting deaths as a result of people taking some kinds of vaccines and many of these vaccines are being withdrawn from circulation in those countries. This is besides the proven fact that the greatest vaccination that anyone can have is the naturally generated anti-body that comes with recovering from the Coronavirus disease itself.

The reality is that our world has come face to face with another wave of respiratory illness and the same way we beat the last ones – with antibodies – is the only way we will beat this one. But government tyrannical hold on people has made it practically impossible for the debate to be had in public. This is one example of giving unlimited powers to government. The people in government are not divine; they don’t know all things and, yes, they can be very wrong on issues. When public debate is restricted to views that support only what government approves, we are moving into a realm of life that will not augur well for us and our children in future.

If Western nations do not know what tyranny looks like, those of us who grew up with military governments know very well what it looks like. A group of men, whom society have entrusted with weapons to protect them, suddenly cease power from those who were elected into public office with these same weapons, and then begin to issues decrees on how society should be run. Even though Nigeria has returned to civil rule since 1999, we are yet to be delivered from these military rule mentality. Most of our leaders are either former military men themselves or government is still run in this country with the same repressive autocratic mentality that the military people have. When force becomes right in society, those who can build society through intellectual discuss are denied the opportunity to do so and society can only witness degeneration from then on.

I am saying essentially that there are dangers with giving government all powers in society. Government consist of ordinary men and women. These people are human beings with flaws and these flaws can be manifested in various forms if they are left unchecked. The best way to lead society is, while allowing for elected leaders, you also empower citizens with rights and freedom.

Of course this freedom cannot include a freedom to impugn on the rights of another person. But it certainly should have nothing to do with the personal right that one has, like those of what one should wear, eat or people one chooses to associate with. When government begins to legislate how we must live, move and have our being, government is taking the place of God and that is not only morally wrong but it also has the tendency for bringing an autocratic fellow into government – who may choose, one day, to change all the laws of society to fit his own perverted mindset. Case in point: the Kim dynasty of North Korea.

Friends, I beseech thee, beware of government overreach.

© Deji Yesufu

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/beware-of-government-overreach/