In the first part of the series, I wrote largely about Jesus’ healing ministry, the healing gift of God and sickness. This was done to set the tone for the subsequent parts of this series. I came to the realization that some believers, when faced with sickness, attribute it to the sovereignty of God alone. Hence, they see it as a thing to be endured and not to be prayed against. There is not a single time we see Jesus in the gospels encounter a sick person and tell him/her ‘this is the will of God for you’. There were times he healed every sick person in the crowds (Luke 6:19). There was a time when he couldn’t heal anybody at all because of their unbelief (Matthew 13:58). And there was also a time when the healing process was gradual; Jesus had to pray more than once (Mark 8:22-26). Bottomline is, Jesus was/is against sickness. 

I would like to briefly touch on the topic of the sovereignty of God and how some people like to contrast it with the faith a believer has in God’s healing power. To some, God’s sovereignty means, when evil happens to a believer it is always a result of God exercising his sovereign power. I have heard this idea expressed only when something evil happens in the life of a believer, like sickness. If the sickness of a believer is always as a result of the sovereignty of God, then how do we pray against it? 

First of all, the sovereignty of God is in reference to his supreme power and authority. It means, God answers to nobody and he has the right to exercise this authority he has over all creation and even in eternity without any interference from anybody. Basically, to wield this power is to do whatever pleases you without having to explain yourself to anybody. But you see, God is not only sovereign, he is also good. That means he can do whatever pleases him, but the point here is that what pleases him is goodness. Apart from God, there is nobody who can navigate the intersection between sovereignty and goodness. He alone has the capacity to do that because he is sovereign and absolutely good concurrently and in equal measure.

They say ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ but God cannot be corrupted by his own power. He is not a man. We need to understand that none of the attributes of God exceed any of his other attributes. So, we cannot say God is more omniscient than he is omnipotent. All of his attributes are whole and absolute in him and that is what makes him God. So my point is, God is as sovereign as he is good; he is not more sovereign than good and vice versa. Also, we cannot assume that anytime a believer is having a hard time then it means God is exercising his sovereign power alone. He is also good, and his goodness is expressed all over scripture. That is why the bible speaks of the healing power of God. It is a reference to the point that when we encounter sickness, God’s power is available to bring healing to the person because God is good too. When a believer is going through hard times, it is because God is so good that  he will use those hard times for the good of that person who is called according to his purpose. Whatever God says or does is in the power and authority of who he is and that is all his attributes combined. So there is nothing God does that is purely because of his  sovereignty without it being ultimately good. There is nothing God says that is solely because he is omniscient and not because he is a loving and good God. We see this convergence of God’s seemingly contrasting attributes especially at the cross. His attributes that seem contrasting only appear so from a human perspective, but in God they dwell amicably in perfect harmony. For example, the cross of Jesus meant justice for the sins of the world and it meant mercy and grace for sinners. God is just and he is merciful, nobody can marry justice and mercy in one act like God did. John Njoroge of RZIM puts it this way:

It was at the Cross of Jesus where God’s justice was perfectly administered and his eternal mercy publicly displayed when God took upon Himself the punishment meant for the guilty.

Read the full article here.

Let’s take for example, a person suffering from a disease for 16 years. What should be my words of encouragement to this person? I will remind the person that God is good and he is sovereign. He is so good that he can use sickness to bring glory to his holy name. God does this in 2 ways:

1. When he gives grace to the person to endure the sickness until the day they get healed or leave this earth.
2. When he heals the person.

I will also remind this individual of the sovereignty of God and how God can overturn any situation – including sickness –  without having to answer to anybody. In the face of a global pandemic that is taking thousands of lives, I will say the same thing. God is sovereign and good. Because I believe this, I will pray continually for him to heal our world. If I resign and say that ‘well, this may actually be an act of God’s sovereignty so what’s the point praying against it?’ I am not being a good Christian. 

God’s goodness makes him as mysterious as his sovereignty does. The Psalmist said that God forgives us so that he may be feared (Psalm 130:4). Which means the reverential fear we have for God is as a result of his mercies (his goodness). God is so sovereign he can allow evil to thrive and later use it all for his glory. These two attributes of God make him mysterious. When Jesus was informed about the ill health of Lazarus, these were his exact words ‘this illness does not lead to death’ which means some illnesses lead to death (most, actually). Jesus loved Lazarus, Mary and Martha, however, he delayed in responding to their distress call. He actually delayed so that they would see the glory of God. You know how the story goes (John 11:1-16). Christ shows up at the tomb of Lazarus and resurrects him from the dead. God is good and sovereign at the same time. He is so good he used Lazarus’ illness and death to illustrate the fact that the resurrection is not an event but a person. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He is so sovereign that he can even bring the dead back to life. Death isn’t sovereign. Death doesn’t wield ultimate power over us. This is what the resurrection of Lazarus meant, that there is one who doesn’t only bring the dead back to life but he is in himself the Resurrection and the Life. He is life: the direct opposite of death. 

God is sovereign. I couldn’t trust sovereignty in the hands of anybody apart from God. Because ‘there is none good but God’, as Jesus said. If anybody or anything apart from God was the sovereign authority in both eternity and time, since that person or entity isn’t ultimately good, we would have to expect an abuse of that power. But our God is sovereign and good at the same time. He doesn’t answer to the laws of nature. God doesn’t have to explain to us why he resurrected lazarus from the dead. He just did it for his glory and that’s that.

Job’s story typifies all that we have discussed to this point. He was a good man. If we go with the expectations of man then it means he wasn’t deserving of any evil. God himself describes Job as a ‘blameless and upright man’ and that ‘there is none like him on the earth’ (Job 1:8). The devil had no intention of attacking Job but God himself suggested it to him. God asked Satan, ‘have you considered my servant Job?’. Satan then argued that Job was only as devoted as he was to God because God had blessed him exceedingly and had mounted a hedge around him. He proceeded with his argument by stating that if God were to remove the hedge, Job would curse God to his face. Guess what God did? No, he didn’t rebuke Satan, he rather removed the hedge of protection he had put around Job and asked Satan to do whatever he wanted to do with Job but he shouldn’t touch his life. Satan inflicted all manner of evil on Job: Job lost his properties, he lost his children and he was later stricken with “loathsome sores from the soles of his foot to his crown of his head”. The question is, if God is good then why did he allow Satan to inflict so much pain on Job? God isn’t only good, he is also sovereign. This means that he still reserves the right to do what pleases him without owing anyone an explanation, including his children. So while it may not make sense to us why God would do such a thing to somebody who was blameless like Job, we have to understand that God is sovereign. In the end, this is what Job himself says about God:

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Job 42:2 ESV

There you have it, Job understood that God can do anything and his plans cannot be thwarted by anybody. God does what he does because he is sovereign and we know it will all turn out for the good of his children because he is good. In fact, he is absolutely good. He is so good anything or anybody we can describe as good is utterly evil in comparison to God. At the end of Job’s story, we see God bless Job with more than he had before:

And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters.

Job 42:12‭-‬13 ESV

This is the confident assurance I have in God, that he is sovereign and good at the same time. I may not like what I am going through right now, but so far as I remain submitted to his will, it will all work out beautifully for my good. My God is sovereign and good!

However, ‘women in ministry’ has always been a controversial subject that has divided the body of Christ to an extent. There are denominations that believe women are not allowed to stand in the pulpit to instruct men publicly. Others see no problem with that. I don’t seek to merely take sides (although my opening paragraph gives my position away). What I seek to do with this write-up is to point out what God’s word says on the matter and I hope I do just that and not let my personal opinions and preferences cloud my judgment.

First of all, this problem arose from the misinterpretation of some portions of the New Testament – specifically the writings of Paul. In two separate passages found in two of his epistles, Paul admonishes the recipients of his letter to make sure the women in the church keep quiet and learn in submission. These two passages can be found in 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Corinthians 14. Due to the instructions, Paul gave in these two passages, some believe that it isn’t scripturally correct for a woman to pastor a church. Before I proceed, I’d like to clarify a few things. The controversy is not necessarily about the prohibition of women from sharing the gospel with people – as that would have been an outright contradiction of the great commission Jesus gave to believers. I believe what is in contention here is whether women should be allowed to pastor a church thereby instructing men in scripture and exercising authority over them.

I will start with the easier of the two texts, 1^st Corinthians 14:33-36. In this passage, Paul states emphatically that women are not permitted to speak in church and that if they would want to learn anything they should ask their husbands at home. The second part of this instruction gives us a hint of the context of the events Paul was addressing. However, this isn’t clear to all so we would still have to delve deeper into the issue. So Paul prohibits women from speaking in church. How can we convince people that the gospel of grace is one built on the foundation of love if there is a verse that seeks to suggest that women as a sexually-defined group of people are not allowed to speak in the church simply because they are women? It is hard to reconcile this notion with the ethos of the New Testament. We don’t need to go far, let’s stay in the book of 1^st Corinthians. In the 11^th chapter of the same book, Paul admonishes women to pray and prophesy with their heads covered. Throughout the book of 1^st Corinthians, we see the apostle speak elaborately on the gifts of the spirit and how they should be administered in the church. The gift of prophecy being one of the most prominent of all the gifts was duly addressed by Paul. He stated that when one person is prophesying, there should be total silence in the church. Since it is already an established fact that women can prophesy in church just like their male counterparts, doesn’t this tell us that they are at liberty to speak in church?

Indeed women are permitted to speak in the church to the hearing of everyone. This doesn’t in any way render Paul’s instructions for women to keep quiet in the church void. What we should be asking ourselves is, what kind of ‘quiet’ was the apostle referring to? Analyzing the text soundly would reveal that the apostle gave the instructions amongst several other instructions that would promote orderliness in church. Hence it is safe to say that he instructed women to be quiet in the instance when their talking was distracting the flow of the church service. It is believed that during service some of the women were fond of asking their husbands questions, seeking further clarifications of what was being taught. Hence the apostle’s instruction that they should ask their husbands at home if they didn’t understand what was being taught. The same Paul who said women should prophesy with their heads covered couldn’t have said in the same book that they are not permitted to prophesy (or speak publicly) in the church. In his essay on ‘Women in Ministry’, Adoniram Judson states that ‘So it seems, at least, for this word “prophesy” in the New Testament “signifies not merely to foretell future events, but to communicate religious truth in general under a Divine inspiration” (vide Hackett on “Acts”, p.49)’. This tells us that women are very much allowed to instruct men in scripture – I will delve into this a little more later on.

The second passage that causes confusion about women in ministry is in 1^st Timothy 2. This is a far more difficult text because it introduces some historical events as the basis of the instructions given by the apostle. Here again, Paul instructs that women should not be allowed to teach nor usurp authority over men. Let’s look at the context in which he makes this statement. So Timothy was head of the church in Ephesus that is why this letter was being addressed to him. If you know anything about the ancient city of Ephesus, you would know that it was a city that was wholly given to idolatry. Specifically the worship of the goddess Artemis. The temple of Artemis was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. It is an edifice that took 120 years to build. The temple was supported by 127 columns, each being 65 feet high (roughly 7 stories). Inside the building stood the huge multiple-breasted statue of the goddess. The servants (temple functionaries) of Artemis were mostly women. The men who were allowed to serve in the temple had to be castrated first – basically stripped of their manhood. This gives a bit of a background to the text under consideration. Some of these women had been converted and brought into the church. They were exposed to a system of worship where women exercised undue authority over men. It is believed that it was this particular problem that the apostle sought to address when he said I do not permit a woman to exercise authority over a man. It is worthy of note however that the apostle began this particular passage by stating that ‘let the women LEARN in silence and with all subjection’ (v11). This indicates that he wasn’t against female education and that is very important to this topic. It may appear trivial to us today but we need to understand that in those days women were not allowed to study the word of God. Kenneth Bailey mentions that:

Judith Hauptmann, in her essay on “Images of Women in the Talmud,” notes Rabbi Eliezer’s view that it is better to burn the words of the Torah than to give them to women.

With the passage in 1Timothy 2, the main problem is the fact that Paul makes reference to historical data as the basis for his instructions. He states that the reason he prohibits women from teaching and exercising authority over men is that in the garden, it was the woman that was deceived and not the man. This is interesting. So our quest is to find out why the woman was first deceived and not the man in the garden. Now it was Eve who was deceived first. That is to say that Adam was deceived as well so let’s not get ahead of ourselves and assume that there is a device preinstalled in men that prevents them from falling prey to deception. As a matter of fact in the book of 2Timothy Paul states categorically that there were some men teaching false doctrines, entering into homes of women who were burdened by the guilt of their own sins hence these women fell for their lies (2 Timothy 3:6). We can see that all the Apostle is advocating for is the teaching of sound doctrine. This cannot happen when the one being taught is exhibiting a haughty attitude towards the teacher. That is why he admonishes women to learn in quietness and not usurp authority over their teachers – who were men. This looks very much like the event in the garden where a woman was instructed by her husband and it was her who FIRST sinned. Was Paul admonishing all women to submit to the authority of all men? I doubt that, that is an instruction meant for married people. Paul was admonishing the women in the church to submit to sound teaching by being silent while they learn and not fall prey to deception like Eve did. 2Timothy 3 actually proves that they had already started falling for the lies of heretic male teachers in the city.

The last verse of this chapter talks about women being saved in childbearing. This is a tough one too. If you are familiar with the writings of Paul, you would know that he was vehemently opposed to any teaching that suggested that anybody could be saved in another way other than confessing Jesus. So definitely, he wasn’t saying here that women will obtain salvation in the Lord through childbirth. The word translated as ‘saved’ is ‘sozo’ – which can also mean ‘prosper’, ‘to be in good health’, ‘blessed’ etc. Therefore, we can understand that portion of scripture as Paul saying women shall prosper in childbearing. Why would he say that? Because it is believed there was a false doctrine going around intending to prohibit women from having children or even getting married. Again, we see the apostle address doctrinal issues here.

This is the end of part one of this short series. Do look out for the continuation in the next blog post. Remember to make your contributions and ask your questions in the comment section below.

References:

Ken Bailey – “Women in Ministry – Woodstock Q and A”

Adoniram Judson – “Women in Ministry”

Hugenberger – “Women in ministry”

Kaiser – “Women in Ministry, commentary on text”

This issue comes up for discussion anytime a prominent person in pop culture or the entertainment industry, who doesn’t appear to be living a Christian life expresses a certain level of devotion or even gratitude to God. Some Christians descend on the person on social media with highly judgmental comments. I know it is hard to understand this, but the truth is, some people may not look it but they actually have a relationship with God. At several awards shows that I have watched, most of the winners of the night, during their acceptance speech, give glory to God. A few years ago I watched the BET awards where Lil Wayne took it a step further by saying ‘I would like to thank God and His son Jesus…’. A person can express his appreciation to God for doing something for him (and this could be any other god) but when he/she mentions Jesus, then we know who he is talking about. Quite recently, Chance the rapper has come under heavy criticism for releasing songs that have God as the central theme while he has profane songs on that same album. I believe other rappers have received this same level of flak too. Kendrick Lamar, DMX, Kanye West etc. This is the argument, that if these rappers are going to talk about God or express the minutest appreciation to him for something they believe he has done for them, they would have to stop cussing and composing songs that project a sinful lifestyle.

I don’t condone cussing or a sinful lifestyle. In fact, I wrote a blog on why Christian artists shouldn’t cuss in their songs. Cussing is one of the major reasons why I don’t listen to most secular songs because I wouldn’t want those words to find their way into my speech. The point I am trying to make is, no matter how dirty or filthy the person worshiping God appears to be, only God can measure the quality of their worship and determine whether or not it is acceptable. As a human being, you have no right at all to do that. The argument is ongoing I believe in people’s conversations about the rise of artists like Chance and Kendrick. Because they cuss in the rest of their songs and even sometimes in songs that are supposed to be purely dedicated to God. Other people have actually gone the extra mile to judge their intentions for doing what they do. The assumption is that these two rappers are probably strategically creating faith-based rap songs knowing very well that a huge percentage of their fans are Christians, hence, these songs may propel their albums to higher heights. To this I will say what Paul said in Philippians 1:18 (ESV):

What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

Before this verse, Paul outlined a couple of evil reasons why people were preaching the gospel in those days. He mentioned envy, rivalry, selfish ambition etc. before he proceeded to state that whether in pretense or truth, so far as the gospel is being proclaimed he rejoices. This indicates that we are to do same. Whether these rappers are doing it for the money or not, the mere fact that they are using their platforms to point people to God, we must rejoice. Did Paul in any way make light of rivalry, envy, and selfish ambition? Indeed when you think about it, the fact that he said he rejoices even if people have bad reasons for preaching the gospel, then it appears he doesn’t mind if people do ministry for the wrong reasons. But far from that, in the opening verses of the second chapter of Philippians, we see Paul condemning selfish ambition:

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3(ESV))

Therefore we can easily conclude that though Paul rejoices at the fact that the gospel is being preached by people who are doing it for selfish ambition, nevertheless, he doesn’t condone selfish ambition. In the case of the rappers, though we may not know their motives or even support their music, we should still rejoice that God is getting glory at their concerts. This, however, does not mean God approves of their lifestyle. But you see these are the kinds of people God actually wants to work on. Remember Jesus said “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17(ESV)).

One thing I have come to believe in the past few months is that God expects worship even from the worst of sinners. Case in point, the events leading to the death of King Herod. The entire story can be found in Acts 12. Herod killed James (the brother of John) and when he realized that it pleased the people he had Peter arrested too. Note: this shows that Herod was a showman or a people pleaser. Then in verse 21 of the same chapter, Herod delivered a speech to the people. The people being so amazed by it declared “The voice of a god, and not of a man!”. What happened immediately afterward is recorded in the verse below:

Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. Acts 12:23 (ESV)

Herod was killed because he didn’t give glory to God. This is the same Herod who killed James and had Peter arrested, why didn’t God kill him then? I can’t tell. The only reason given for Herod’s death was that he was killed by an angel because he didn’t give glory to GOD. No matter how sinful a person is, God expects worship (glory) from him/her. Worship is basically man giving glory to God. So anytime we see an unbeliever singing praises to God let us not be quick to judge the person but let us offer to disciple the person if we are in the position to do so. Let us learn to leave certain things to God. You are not the spirit that convicts the world of sin – that is the Holy Spirit’s ‘job description’. Your duty is to be a witness and a dispenser of love (which involves intercession). Let’s learn to pray for people. We must understand that we are on our way to one destination but some are way ahead of others and others are way behind. I feel embarrassed when I see the stuff I wrote a few years ago. I had the passion and the zeal but little understanding and knowledge. I didn’t do the things I did out of love either. I wrote to chastise people, period! I did that because that was where I had reached in my journey. I know better now and hope to know more as I grow. My hope is that these artists who have so much influence will also grow out of certain things. It is difficult to tell where people have reached in their journey of pursuing God just by observing from afar. Therefore the best thing to do is to demonstrate the love of God towards such people. There is rebuke in love by the way. We can do all of that but let us not take the Lord’s praise out of their lips. Let us not hinder them from coming into his presence. Let us not make them feel unworthy even to stand in the Lord’s congregation. If Jesus allowed Mary Magdalene, a prostitute, to wash and clean his feet, clearly he isn’t bothered when sinners worship him. If it bothers you, I’m sorry but you are the problem.

God can use anybody to get the glory. The stage set up for Kendrick’s performance at the BET awards in 2013 was a house. The rapper emerged from the house to perform that night. Anybody who looked closely at the wall of the house would have seen ‘Jesus is Lord…’ written boldly on it. Chance the rapper at this year’s Grammy’s decided to perform his song ‘How great is our God’ and he gave God glory every time he came up to receive an award. You might call them sinners but don’t discredit their worship. God accepts worship from sinners. Always remember God can use anybody he chooses to, especially when the person is willing to be used. I would like to end with a verse from Isaiah 45 which talks about how God desired to make Cyrus King over Israel though he didn’t know God.

For the sake of my servant Jacob,
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name,
I name you, though you do not know me. Isaiah 45:4

However, the church is not a charity; it is not an NGO either. It is way better than these. The church is actually the body of Christ. He is the head of the church. If we are to make any progress in influencing this generation as a body, we need to do what our head did that has made his body a global institution. Jesus’ ministry lasted for 3 years yet look at the impact he made. In those 3 years, Jesus fed a total of 9,000 men. He fed 5000 men with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes and then fed another 4,000 with 7 loaves of bread and ‘a few little fishes’. Your church celebrated its silver jubilee last month, we praise God. But Jesus fed 9000 men in 3 years, has your church done anything close to that yet?

The church in the book of Acts is the first church of the New Testament. Therefore if we are supposed to get our role as the church in this generation right, we need to be a carbon copy of that church. It is the ideal church. There was such a tremendous outflow of the Holy Spirit in the church that mighty miracles, signs and wonders were recorded in their meetings. But what strikes me most about them is their heart for the welfare and well-being of others. We in this generation, complain about how our pastors are ripping us off by collecting 10% of our monthly earnings as tithes. Shhhhhh … listen … do you hear it? … the roar of laughter lol … that’s the church in the book of Acts laughing at us. In that church they sold their properties and brought the monies to the Apostles. They sold houses, lands … (you name it) and set the monies at the feet of the Apostles. What blows my mind about them is that the bible says in Acts 4:35:

‘neither was there any among them that lacked…’.

Can you imagine? A church where nobody lacked anything. The guy who needed to pay his school fees was sorted out. The lady who needed to pay her rent was sorted out. The young boy who needed money for his medical bills was sorted out. NOBODY IN THE CHURCH HAD A NEED. 21st-century church, what y’all doing? The monies to do all these things didn’t fall from heaven onto the laps of the Apostles. They could take care of their own because people in the church were ferocious givers.

You may argue that the church gave because the Apostles were men of integrity and did with the money what they were intended for. And you are right. Giving to a supposed worthy cause becomes difficult when you know the money would be misappropriated. Maybe that is why you don’t give in your church. You need to change churches then. A church isn’t a place we go to, it is a bunch of people who believe in Jesus and understand that to love means to sacrifice for the well-being of others. So if anything prevents you from expressing your love by bearing the burdens of others in the church, then you need a change of heart or a new church. When you sow your seeds into the ground and the tree that sprouts out doesn’t produce the fruits you want, you must leave and sow your seeds elsewhere.

There is this popular assertion that churches have lost focus and are more concerned about putting up gargantuan edifices filled with congregants who can barely fend for themselves. It is true in some cases, though. Are churches supposed to stop building auditoriums and focus rather on offering welfare services to people in need? Are the two mutually exclusive?

Building a large auditorium, first and foremost, is to the honor of God. God told David (and it was recorded in 1 Kings 5:5) “…‘your son, whom I will place on your throne, will build the temple to honor my name’. So there it is, temples honor the name of the Lord. By the way, Solomon built the most magnificent temple to honor God. David, his father, had already procured materials for the building. Amongst the many materials he purchased were 3000 talents of Gold and 7000 talents of silver. The leadership of the tribes of Israel and some other leaders in Israel willingly offered 5000 talents and 10, 000 drams of gold. All of this to build a temple for God. Therefore when it was time for Solomon to build the temple, he overlaid a greater part of the interior with pure gold. He made chains of gold to protect the entrance of the Most Holy Place. Solomon overlaid the entire building with gold. Yes please, you heard me right. No acrylic paint, no emulsion paint, just pure gold. Oh did I mention that he imported cedar and cypress timber just for the temple? Well, he did. Ok so isn’t all this a waste of money? I mean, he could have easily used the money spent on the temple to cater for the needs of widows and orphans in Israel right?

Let’s study the economy of Israel during Solomon’s reign. The bible says in 2 Chronicles 1:15 ‘And the king (Solomon) made silver and gold at Jerusalem as plenteous as stones…’. That is to say that during Solomon’s reign, money lost one of its prominent qualities: scarcity. If gold and silver were as common as stones, one can only imagine the level of wealth of the Israelites during Solomon’s reign. Therefore, was there a need for him to forgo the construction of this magnificent edifice just to cater for the welfare of the people of Israel? Certainly not, because he had already catered for that by making gold and silver as plenteous as stones. Solomon is proof that having a magnificent temple is not mutually exclusive to providing for the needs of the needy in the society. We can and must do both. Both honor God. We need Solomon’s kind of wisdom – and even more – in the church today.

When people say the church must forgo its building projects and rather focus on charity I hope they realize how much they sound like Judas. He said a similar thing when the woman poured the alabaster box filled with expensive oil on Jesus’ feet. Also, it is quite erroneous for anybody to stand at a distance and point judgmental fingers at some churches for the lack of outward evidence for any charitable work they do. This is because the very bible that says we should give, says we shouldn’t announce our acts of righteousness with a trumpet like the hypocrites do. Therefore, a church that genuinely spends money making life comfortable for the less fortunate in our society, won’t go about shooting documentaries or holding press conferences to announce their charitable works.

I honestly think we give churches little credit for the good they do in the society. Yes, not all churches take charity seriously but it wouldn’t help if we bundled all churches up together and lambasted them for not catering to the needs of disadvantaged people in the society. Jesus said ‘I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’. This is a message to churches, know that the ultimate temple has been built already and it is not made up of blocks and cement. Therefore, if all you care about, as a church leader, is the size of your building and which cars are parked at the car park, you’ve missed the point. Solomon built a magnificent temple for God, he didn’t do it at the expense of the welfare of the people in his kingdom. We must ask God for wisdom to be able to honor God both by catering for the needy and by building him a beautiful house – the two are not mutually exclusive.

(The featured image is a picture of the New Creation Church in Singapore ‘pastored’ by Ps. Joseph Prince)

Therefore I sat before the vetting committee and timidly refused to take up the opportunity to serve God in a higher capacity. Very few things I have experienced in my entire life can be compared to the emotional roller coaster I went through afterward. I felt I had disappointed my superiors. I felt like a coward for choosing the easy way out. Most traumatizing of all, I felt I had disappointed my Maker. But hey, God makes all things beautiful in His own time, doesn’t he? All things work together for the good of those who love God, don’t they? Fast-forward, my roommates and I signed up to attend the Berea Bible Academy that semester. The meeting times of the Bible Academy would have clashed with the meeting times of the executives of my campus ministry. Basically, I couldn’t have attended classes at Berea (as we affectionately called it) had I accepted the nomination. The Berea Bible Academy was such a blessing to me that nobody can convince me God hadn’t purposed it for me at that point in my life. I owe so much of my knowledge of scripture to Berea. Anytime I look back, I think to myself, so what if I had accepted the nomination? Would I have pleased man, my ego, or my God? Was it my calling to be promoted to a higher position or to attend the Berea Bible Academy? Your guess is as good as mine.

Not all “God-sized” visions are from God. Many are from a god-sized ego, and have no claims on God’s provision.

— JR Vassar (@jrvassar) August 18, 2016

The conversation that ensued between Jesus and the woman at the well is one that has enormous relevance to various aspects of our walk with God. Jesus’ response to the woman’s question, for example, is one that carries so much weight. He told her there was a time coming when the true worshipers of God would worship God in SPIRIT and in TRUTH. Often we stress the part that requires us to worship God in spirit. This simply means nothing physical – geographical location, artifacts, paraphernalia, etc. – should determine the quality of our worship. I don’t have to travel from Ghana to Jerusalem to offer worship to God anymore. It used to be like that though. However, we mostly turn a blind eye to the second part that suggests we must worship God in TRUTH. To worship God in truth means to worship God in sincerity and in all honesty. Since worship and sacrifice are synonymous in Christianity, it means we must offer our acts of worship or sacrifice to God in sincerity. Therefore, do not sign up for a task that you cannot do and later resign.

No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God – Luke 9:62

Remember Ananias and Saphira? This is exactly what killed them. They pledged to offer God the full amount of the property they sold. So when they withheld a certain portion of the whole amount, it cost them their lives. What if they had pledged to give half of the amount they sold the property for and redeemed the pledge? Would they have died? Certainly not! All I am saying is, DO NOT BITE MORE THAN YOU CAN CHEW. I am in no way promoting sluggishness or laziness when it comes to working for the Lord. All I am saying is, in all sincerity, take up the tasks that you can do and trust in the Grace of God to empower you to do it. It is better this way than to opt to work for God in a certain capacity that your faith won’t allow you to trust God enough to see you through. Our walk with God is based on faith. The just shall live by faith and without faith, it is impossible to please God. We all don’t have the same level of faith. Therefore, if the complexity of the task you desire to do is too much for your faith in GOD to carry you through it, just let it go… maybe for a later time. 

I still have a feeling most people might misinterpret what I have said so far, so here is another reference. In Numbers 11, Moses encountered this very problem. He was leading a rebellious generation of 600,000+ men on foot. They murmured and challenged his leadership every chance they got. One man leading 600,000+ men was certainly more meat in his mouth than he could chew. After Moses complained bitterly, God instructed him to select 70 elders from the tribes of Israel and the Lord himself took of the spirit that was upon Moses and placed it on the 70 also. Imagine the relief that Moses felt. It means he was doing the work of 71 men all that while and didn’t even know it. The stress! 

Undue fame, exposure, and recognition can kill you. That is how David orchestrated the death of Uriah. He ordered that Uriah be positioned at the place where the battle was fiercest. Usually, the soldiers who fight in that position are the ones who come back home with ample stories to tell of their heroic deeds. Uriah wasn’t qualified to be fighting in that position. Nevertheless, it is sad that in his case he couldn’t have declined the order because it was a decree from the king. But here is a typical example of what I have been saying all along. He was killed because he got promoted. In fact, he was promoted to be killed. All was lost because the spotlight was placed on him. God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called. 

God cares for your soul as much as he cares for the souls he will save through you. This is why sometimes we see very anointed men and women of God serving in lower capacities (than WE would expect them to) or away from the public eye. Stephen is a typical example of this. He was chosen together with 6 others to serve food on tables to widows. He was assigned to serve food like a waiter. Meanwhile, the bible describes him as  “… a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit”. Yet he was ordered to serve food on tables. Stephen was the first martyr ever! The first person to be killed for his faith in God after the death of Christ. His knowledge of scripture was impeccable (Check out his speech to the Sanhedrin in Acts 7). He understood the things of God and operated in spiritual gifts. Still, he was assigned to serve food on tables.

If you’re desiring for God to grow your platform… just understand what you’re really asking is to increase your capacity to serve others.

— Ezekiel Azonwu (@wordsbyezekiel) August 16, 2016

Not every opportunity to minister in a certain capacity is the will of God for you. Sometimes we accept these opportunities to tickle our egos. We may have genuine reasons why we would want to serve God in a higher capacity, but we need to understand that a higher capacity is just more grounds to serve more people.

How will you know if an opportunity to serve God in a certain capacity comes from God himself? I believe one sure way to know this is when you don’t desire to get noticed, recognized, or rewarded by a man for your work in that capacity. In all this, it is imperative to trust that God can promote any and everyone and still work on them to fit into that position. Would you still do what you do if you wouldn’t get noticed by men? Knowing that your father who sees you in secret will reward you openly is enough motivation to serve God in any capacity. It is the motive of your actions that matter and not how visible they are to man.

References: Numbers 11, Acts 6 and 7 and John 4

We sound really petty anytime we want to figure how much attention God deserves. Some want to treat him like a personal property that they are unwilling to share with the world. Others think the big stages of this world are too sinful for God to feature on. *as if He didn’t know that*. If the volume of sin could deter God from showing up anywhere then he wouldn’t have appeared on earth to save humanity from sin. He could have stayed in heaven and basked in his own holy presence,  but he chose to do otherwise. There isn’t a place on this earth or in the universe that God doesn’t deserve to be present or displayed. God quizzes us in Jeremiah 23:24 ‘… do I not fill heaven and earth?’ Can anybody ever get any more mainstream  than that? So thanks … but no thanks for your help, God isn’t insecure about his place, he already knows it.

This issue remains a never-dying argument amongst Christians: whether God deserves recognition on the mainstream level or not. It isn’t ours to decide, but the verse quoted from Jeremiah above reveals to us that God isn’t one to fit into boxes. It is just not in him to do that. The last time I checked, even foxes refuse to go into boxes because they are too big, so why should God? Let’s not make the issue about whether or not God deserves to be in the spotlight on the big stages of this world. We must rather be concerned about how he is portrayed on those stages. Is he being depicted as the God he is? Are people misrepresenting him as Aladin’s genie who is simply there to satisfy human desires? Or is he being portrayed as sovereign, gracious, loving, just, holy etc.? These should be the crux of the discussions we have on this matter. The size of the stage God is put on doesn’t matter as compared to what he is doing there.

One thing we must always bear in mind is that, with God it is not a matter of being on the big stage but rather drawing small and big crowds to himself so he can save them. This is evident in the New Testament where we can see Jesus himself not forcing to be recognized as one of the elite in the society but rather mingling with the lowlifes in such a profound way that even the elite set out to meet and be with him. First of all, Jesus was born in a manger – this isn’t mainstream at all. He is the King whose birth had been prophesied centuries before it actually happened, so one would have expected a more royal entry into this world. Nope… none of that. He was born in a stinking manger. Here is the depiction of the assertion I made earlier. At his birth, shepherds came to worship him. When he was a little older, wise men (Kings) came all the way from the East to present gifts to him. God can transform a small stage into a big one. As I said, he doesn’t have to mingle with the elite to get their attention, but he knows how to pull a crowd to himself when he is allowed to. The same thing happened in John The Baptist’s ministry. He was described as ‘.. the voice of one crying out in the wilderness’. The headquarters of his ministry was in the wilderness yet people came from the city to be baptized by him. Even the Messiah went to the River Jordan and John baptized him too. It is not about being in the midst of the elite. It isn’t really about being in the capital. God will and can use you wherever you are; whether in the city or in a remote village. He really can use you if you give him pre-eminence on whatever stage you are on.

With that being said, one thing I have noticed is that Christians often criticize Men and Women of God who are in the mainstream for absolutely no reason. I find that particularly strange. It is as if once somebody’s ministry grows the person is assumed to have sold his soul to the devil. Or once a particular preacher is on TV, then it means he is doing it for the money. The most pathetic of all is the way people doubt the credibility of a man of God when an uncommon miracle is recorded in his ministry. That is actually blasphemous. You expect your God to be doing the normal things … like healing headache and flu? Not the God I know.

It appears you are spotless before God because you have a congregation of 50 people right? Wait till your congregation grows to just 1200. I was the head of a department in my Campus Ministry; a department of about 15 people. The long and short of the story is, managing people isn’t cool beans. Your ministry seems flawless because you are not on TV. Your voice seems amazing because your songs are not on radio yet. Wait till the critics hear you sing. Wait till the modern day Pharisees here you preach. Let us not merely tear people down because they are in the mainstream. Some are actually there because God has appointed them to influence the culture that way. When we do that, we sort of accredit every single ministry that isn’t big. As if having a small congregation is the indicator that your ministry is pleasing to God. When Jesus fed the 5000 men, it was because 5000 men had followed him to be blessed by his ministry. That is mainstream. At another place, he fed 4000 men – that is mainstream too. On the day of Pentecost, when Peter finished preaching 3000 people joined the church. Paul preached in the Synagogue in Antioch (Acts 13), the following Sabbath almost the whole city came to the synagogue to hear him preach. That is mainstream! Is there an auditorium that can accommodate half of the people in your city? These were the sizes of the crowds that Jesus and the Apostles pulled in their individual ministries. If you doubt the credibility of a man of God merely because he is on TV; Radio; at every crusade; on social media etc. you might as well doubt the credibility of Jesus and the Apostles. People hail Joshua as a better leader than Moses because he led the children of Israel into Canaan. They do this forgetting that Moses had a much bigger congregation. How can you manage a ministry of over 600,000 people? Moses deserves a lot more credit than we give him for his leadership skills and the anointing upon his life.

At a point in time, Paul was described in Acts 24:5 (ESV) as ‘a plague’ because of his zeal for the things of God. Can you imagine what Paul would have done if he had social media, TV, Radio etc.? He was called a plague just because he walked on foot spreading the word of God to the masses. I am sure Paul and the rest are looking down and shaking their heads at how Christians are not taking advantage of the new media available to us. Stop hating. Study the principles of the ones who have made it and follow suit. The reason you can spot their mistakes is because they are on TV. They are human; when your ministry reaches that level too people will look at you through the lenses of a microscope to point out the minutest errors in your ministry.

I won’t sit here and pretend every mainstream ministry is of God. There are wolf in sheep’s clothing on TV these days. We have seen gospel musicians who watered down their message to suit mainstream standards. All these are pathetic. I believe in a gracious God who is intolerant of sin and the misrepresentation of who He is. All these people shall be punished by God if they don’t repent – it is not in our place to do that. So instead of generalizing and making it look like the mainstream corrupts the gospel, let us pray for the ones doing it right so their lights will forever shine. Jesus and the apostles never made the mainstream corrupt their message, they stayed focused.

They weren’t moved by the crowds; they moved the crowds.

When Jesus saw the crowd he was driven by compassion because to him they were like sheep without a shepherd. He didn’t see the crowd as a money-making venture. His aim was to impart into their lives. I appreciate people in village evangelism and pastors who pastor small congregations because every soul is as precious as any other soul to God.

Let us see ourselves as co-labourers in the Lord’s vineyard. If we were in a literal vineyard, I doubt anybody would criticize the labourer who has the largest portion of land to work on. Many would rather offer to help him instead of point accusing fingers at him. The pastor with the biggest congregation is actually the labourer with the largest portion of land to work on. His task is enormous. He needs your prayers, encouragement, advice etc. Don’t tear him down and later go on your knees to pray for what he has. It is highly hypocritical to do that.

Christianity isn’t the only faith that believes Jesus Christ existed – even secular historians believe that He lived. Islam believes in Jesus Christ too; it professes that Jesus lived and died(I was recently corrected, Muslims believe Jesus was taken up, – He didn’t die). Muslims believe that Jesus was merely one of the prophets of God, thereby denying his deity. I would like to start by saying that WE DO NOT WORSHIP THE SAME GOD. I think people need to get this right. Many assume that by making this assertion, it will bring a certain level of religious tolerance in the world. The popular slogan people chant, ‘one God but multiple ways to get to him’ isn’t consistent with Christian doctrine. Yahweh, who is worshiped by Christians, has made Jesus the way to Him, period! I have heard a few Muslim scholars try to prove the fact that Jesus isn’t God but a mere prophet. Well, that’s an opinion well expressed, but is it true? Studying a character in a book involves taking into consideration what he/she says about himself, what he does, what his closest allies say about him, what the author says about him and what you, the discerning reader make of him. Therefore, we are going to use this format to some extent, to study the life of Christ to see whether or not He is indeed God.

First of all I would like to make two points briefly. 1. Jesus wouldn’t have been killed if he lived in our world today. 2. He wouldn’t have been killed if He didn’t say that He is God. The state of Israel in the days of Jesus had a very interesting political system. The political and legal systems were inseparably married to the religious system of the state. Hence, what we would regard merely as a sin in our world today could have been punishable by law in those days. This is why Jesus Christ was killed. He made some religious statements that offended the religious authorities of the land and they pressed legal charges against him. In John8, Jesus in a debate with the Jews said ‘… before Abraham was, I AM’. Let’s look pass the fact that ‘I AM’ is identical to the name God gave to Moses: I AM THAT I AM. Let’s ignore that for a minute. I trust the work of the linguists who put the English bibles together. Their attempt to translate from the Greek and Hebrew text to English is unmatched. Nevertheless, the quotation above is the only grammatical error in the bible, to the best of my knowledge. ‘Before Abraham was, I AM?’ That’s like saying ‘before Kwame came, I sweep’. It doesn’t make semantic and syntactic sense. It is either Jesus made this mistake or the translators did. In my view the translators did a good job in trying to capture the very sentiments of the Messiah. The point here is Jesus was trying to communicate the fact that He is God and the only way to do that was to break a grammatical law. He wanted to prove to the people that He existed before time and shall continue to exist long after time. He is eternal. What if he had said that ‘before Abraham was, I WAS’? This would have implied that he ceased to exist at a certain point in the past. But He wanted to express his transcendence: the fact that He came from another realm which isn’t governed by time. God is the only one who could make such a claim. Maybe I am being delusional, because here I am explaining the words of a man who died 2000 years ago. Right? We can’t understand the statement more than the people who were there. From their very reaction, I can conclude that I am not wrong in my assertion. The bible said, they took out stones to kill him but he hid himself. Really? Stones?  Well, throughout the bible, we can see that the most popular form of instant mob justice for any crime was stoning.  Apparently what Jesus said was a crime. Meaning, Jesus had committed a crime by implying that He is God. So there you have it.

Before Pilate, Jesus didn’t deny the fact that He is a king. Pilate desired to know whether Jesus claimed He was the king of the Jews. Jesus answered by saying ‘my kingdom is not of this world…’. So it isn’t really clear whether or not Jesus sees himself as the king of the Jews. Maybe this is why anytime they wanted to make him king he hid himself. But he makes a very cogent point here by saying ‘my kingdom is not of this world’. Then where is it? Apart from this life, theists all over the world believe in the existence of the spiritual world. That is probably where Jesus’ kingdom is. Need I remind you who the king of that world is? This compelled the renowned Christian apologist C.S Lewis to say that, ‘either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse’.

This goes to show the sort of ‘outrageous’ claims Jesus made about who he is. So saying that Jesus never said He is God only exposes one’s limited knowledge of the bible. The point I have made so far is that, Jesus wouldn’t have been killed as a criminal if He didn’t imply that He is GOD. And if He lived in today’s world, he wouldn’t have been killed at all because the political and legal systems have been divorced from religion. (Read John5:18).

‘But who do you say that I am’, Jesus asked. Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’. It is simple logic: like begets like. And let’s pay attention to the use of capital ‘s’  anytime the phrase is in reference to Jesus Christ. Even in the Old Testament, this is seen in prophetic verses that point to the arrival of Jesus Christ. For example, Psalm 2:7 says ‘I will tell of the decree: You are my Son…’. David recounts this encounter he had with God and clearly that quotation was made by the member of the Holy Trinity we have come to know as Jesus Christ. According to John1, ‘in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.’ Again, we see the capitalization of a common noun (word) to imply that it is a name of a being. It is believed that before his birth, Jesus was known in the Trinity as the Word. Since this is stated clearly in the bible, then it goes a long way to establish the deity of Jesus. In some places he is referred to as ‘the ONLY begotten of God’: because He is the only one who was directly begotten by God through the human process of procreation. The bible states it clearly that Jesus is God. The Qur’an states this about Allah:

   He is Allah; The One; Allah The Eternal and Absolute. He begets not nor was He begotten and there is none that is comparable to Him. Quran 112:1 – 4

Whether true or false, it doesn’t interfere with what the bible says. The Qur’an is the Islamic Holy scriptures and the bible is the Holy Scriptures of Christianity. Hence if our quest is to know the truth about Christianity, it is the bible we have to go to. The deity of Christ is the rock on which Christianity rests. There are many instances in the bible that prove this fact. Time and space won’t allow me to do justice to the subject. Whom do you seek? Jesus of Nazareth? Well I wish you well on this quest. It is a wonderful experience; the only thing is that your knees will hurt a little. For just like the soldiers who went to find and arrest him, the very moment you draw near to him and request to know him even more He will speak to you. He will say ‘I AM HE’, you will then involuntarily fall to your knees in total worship of Jesus who is God. He is God forever.

The bible makes mention of Nephilim in the Old Testament and also other Ancient books that are considered credible and true like the book of Enoch speak about their existence. In those days, there was a massive invasion of the earth by the Nephilim. This move, obviously orchestrated by Satan, is believed to have been his way of trying to corrupt the genome of the promised Messiah. Look at it this way; he knew God was going to send His son down through a virgin’s womb to save mankind from sin and damnation. Hence, he orchestrated this move in order to corrupt the genes of the entire human race, so that the savior would be born not fully God and fully man, but he would have a bit of the genes of fallen angels in him- thereby making his blood not qualified to atone for the sins of humanity. This necessitated the flood in Noah’s time. That was God’s solution to the whole problem: he had to wipe out all who had their genes corrupted by that of the Nephilim.

In Genesis 6:4 it says, ‘The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, AND ALSO AFTERWARD, when the ‘sons of God’ (Angels) came into the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the MIGHTY MEN who were of old, the men of renown. Verse5. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth…’. This is exactly the point I raised earlier. The Nephilim had filled the earth with so much evil and sin that it grieved God and he decided to save humanity and the bloodline of the savior hence the story of Noah’s ark. It is common knowledge that in those many years that the ark was under construction, Noah extended a hand of grace to the people. He told them of a pending disaster, yet they made fun of him and didn’t pay heed to his message. That is how gracious God is, for though he sought to preserve the bloodline of the savior, he still loved the evil and pervert generation so much that he offered them a second chance. In the verse above, you will realize that it says there were Nephilim in those days ‘…AND ALSO AFTERWARD’. This implies that after Noah’s ark, there was another eruption of Nephilim. This makes complete sense, when you think about the fact that the story of David killing Goliath happened many years after the flood. There was another eruption of Nephilim and those were dealt with accordingly by the Israelites. Remember when the spies Moses sent into Canaan came back saying that they were like grasshoppers in the sight of the indigenes of the land? Well there you have it; the Canaanites were known to be a Nephilim tribe, definitely made up of giants. In 2Samuel 21:15-22, we see how David and his men killed four of such creatures. This time God did not use a flood to destroy them, just as he promised Noah, but He used his own people.

(A Nephilim skull next to a human skull)
All of these things are facts in the bible or facts of the bible; but are they true? Did Nephilim really exist? The huge skull you see there, next to the human skull, is known to be the skull of one of these creatures. I know naysayers might just jump to the conclusion that it is a human skull. Because we all know people who have relatively big heads: therefore the hefty skull in there could belong to someone whose head was a burden for his neck. The human skull is known to be made up of 4 plates (bones); one at the front, another at the back and two in the middle. The two in the middle are known as the Parietal plates or bones. They form the area of your head from your ear to the top of your head on both sides. The issue is this, the Nephilim skulls do not have two parietal plates, they have just one! Meaning, the structural make-up of their skulls are not uniform with that of normal human beings. The reason why I am stressing this point is, if this is true (which I believe it is), then it means there was a certain generation of ‘human beings’ with distinct characteristics that the Darwinian Theory doesn’t make provision for. How do we explain the origin of such creatures? Will we say they also had a common ancestry with monkeys, ‘as humans do’? Clearly they were not humans or fully human. Some of the bones that were dug up were measured to be the skeletons of 9-15 footers. Creatures of that height are known to be giants. And the evidence is scattered all over the place. In Paracas Peru, there was a discovery of hundreds of such skulls.

There were Nephilim; there were Nephilim on this very earth. And if they existed, then it means there was a creation of a demonic hybrid by fallen angels and the daughters of men. Also, if this is true, it goes a long way to establish the existence of the spiritual realm, angels and most importantly the existence of God. Those who adhere to a Darwinian world view may debunk this fact, but the evidence is so glaring. There once were creatures on this earth that were mighty in stature and intellect and from the structure of their cranium, they couldn’t have been humans. God’s not dead; and the evidence is all around us.

Reference: L.A Marzulli’s interview on Sid Roth’s ‘It’s Supernatural’ show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0dOJB8A9SI[/embed]

Every morning on my way to work, I encounter so many scenes that put me in a pensive mood for the rest of the day. Indelible scenes line up on the pavements as I walk by. I see beggars in various conditions begging for alms in the most pathetic ways. I am usually filled with anger… at myself… then at them. At myself because I often do not have ‘more than enough money’ to give, and at them because, for some absurd reason I feel they are there mainly to expose my heart. I feel they are there to expose my heart to me: how I only feel like giving to them when I have more than enough. When I look at them, I am filled with compassion too. And I ask myself, ‘what did they do at all to be born lepers?’ The disciples were troubled by this too. When they asked Jesus, whose sin had caused the man to be blind Jesus was about to heal, he replied, ‘no one has sinned but it is so that the GLORY of the father will be seen’. I won’t sit here and pretend this statement solves it all. As though this  statement alone puts this huge monster of a problem to sleep in my mind.  I still think about it every time, ‘why should a  baby be born with a brain tumor? Why should a child be born and not grow to see his/her mother? Why should anyone die in a fatal accident? Why should anyone be denied the awesome sense of  sight? Why is there pain at all? Why?

Congenital Analgesia, is a medical condition where an individual is not able to feel pain. The amazing thing about this condition is, it is referred to as a DISEASE or DISORDER. Amazing, isn’t it? One would have expected scientists to run out of the bath tub, shouting eureka!! eureka!! on the streets for having discovered a state of complete painlessness. But no, it is called a disease or a disorder. To literally break the word down (dis-ease), it means a state of not being at ease or a state of discomfort. Can you imagine living with a relative who was suffering (yes, suffering) from this condition? That would be the most painful experience, forget about that nuisance of a roommate you had to cope with in the university. People like this REQUIRE  24-hour surveillance because they could be hurting and not know it. They could even step on a sharp object and bleed to death in their sleep. Due to the nature of this disease, patients need to be critically observed every minute of the day. Think about how discomforting this could be. You wouldn’t want to have a spouse who suffers from this disease, right? Well, this is the same way God wouldn’t want to be  God of a people who cannot feel pain. Pain sometimes teaches us lessons and is very necessary. No matter what we think, a painless life doesn’t bring ultimate pleasure. Nevertheless that is our aim as humans. Well no one said pain is pleasurable, it is certainly discomforting but very necessary. Dr. Ravi Zacharias says it more profoundly *paraphrasing*, ‘meaninglessness in life is not only present in excessive pain but more in excessive pleasure’. People tend to forget how meaningful and important life is when they are satisfying the lascivious desires of their heart. The most absurd experience is to attain a very important feat in life and realizing how empty you feel afterwards. Or how disappointed you become at being filled with lesser joy than you expected after attaining such heights. This is even evident in my own life. I had mapped out several events that would accompany the commemoration of the end of my university education. I planned on being excessively bubbly that day and probably have the biggest bowl of my favorite meal. Then go on to visit my friends and hang out with them the whole day. After writing my last paper, I saw my course mates heartily hugging each other, taking pictures and laughing loudly until they couldn’t catch their breaths. I walked away quietly, looked back at them and then went straight to my room. Wow! for some reason, completing my university education wasn’t that much of a  big deal after all. Many a rich man complains about feeling lonely. There are rich men who have been sent to their graves because of depression and one would wonder what at all could trouble a wealthy man.

Only corpses do not feel pain. That’s why they are corpses anyway. It is as if pain certifies your being alive. For when babies are born, it is an expression of pain (crying) that signals to the doctors that the baby is alive and well. From what I gather, the excruciating pain mothers go through in child birth is beyond comprehension. Do we blame God for this? Certainly not, for this wasn’t his original intent for man, pain totally defies the default intentions of God for man. God’s plan is fully seen in the garden: a blissful never ending joyous and painless life where man didn’t even have to work. It was sin that caused all of this. But then, how is God able to watch his children go through all this pain? Well, while we may want to think the pain we go through is the greatest injustice in the world, God thinks otherwise. And he is right too. The greatest injustice ever, is the death of Christ on the cross. This is because, not only was Christ innocent of all the charges leveled against him, he had never sinned. So he deserved no punishment at all. God placed him in the hands of sadistic individuals who had a field day being cruel to an innocent soul. My conclusion is based on God’s reaction to Jesus dying on the cross. From Jesus’ prayer on the cross, it appears God looked away, but allowed it anyway. So if God allowed ‘the greatest injustice’ ever recorded in human history (for your sake), then trust me he would allow us to go through those painful moments. Not meaningless pain, but pain that is for the greater good of humanity and yourself as well. It could be the mere fact that you will tell your story one day to encourage somebody else – your pain has served a humanitarian purpose. The amazing thing is God promises us, he will be there with us. He said. ‘WHEN you go through the fire… I will be with you’. The keyword there is ‘WHEN’. This gives me so much joy that though I might go through pain, God is with me.

The reaction to pain is sometimes amazing. I have been through pain in my life. I went through things at a young age that would rain misery and suffering on adults. I have also seen loved ones go through pain that seems unjustifiable. Yet I still hold on to my faith in God, rather than driving me away from God it rather pushes me in his direction. For if God can see Jesus through the crucifixion and then give him such a glorious reward, I believe he will do same for me, and for you too if only we allow him. O what peace we often forfeit, o what NEEDLESS PAIN WE BEAR, when we do not take all our cares and burdens to him in prayer.

For whatever my lot

Thou hast taught me to say

IT IS WELL, IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL.