Ancient Words Ever True

In trying to apply "The Ancient Word" to modern life issues, most of us just resort to Authorities (as in, people we feel have wealth of spiritual knowledge and experience). Now, while Authority is a well recognized source of knowledge, we hereby advocate for a more scientific approach as this has proven to guarantee better outcomes. Just to clarify, Science is the systematic study of empirical phenomena. The Scientific Method we recommend is nothing more complicated than what you learnt in your Integrated Science class in Junior Secondary School (for those that schooled in Nigeria). It's simply a process of: Observations‬  Hypotheses‬ ‎Experiments‬  Theory‬  Law‬ So, for instance, when you make observations in life or think about issues, come up with possible Biblical explanations for, or answers to them. Thereafter, subject your best explanations or answers to experiments. Experimenting is usually about manipulating one or more variables while keeping the rest ...

Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:5, TNIV) Among many scriptures that have caught my  attention in the past, the one above stands out as very instructive, and I now wish to dwell on it a little longer. The Lord first brought this scripture as quoted to my attention sometime in 2012, when I was serving in Ebonyi state. I had gone upstairs to the (then) decking to pray sometime in the night with Isaiah Sabitu, close to the end of my service year in Ebonyi, and the Lord quickened this particular scripture in my heart as we prayed and cried out our hearts to God together. And the way it is quoted above is the way it reads in the Today’s New International Version of the Bible which I was using then, and which I had bought along with Bolutife Ogunsola at a book fair back in UNILAG, in 2009. The scripture above takes on more meaning when you read the first four verses of the tenth chapter of First Corinthian...

I wish to go out of my way this Christmas season to celebrate Mary the mother of Jesus. Mary became to us the Second Eve in a similar way that Jesus became the Second Adam ; for whereas through Eve Sin came into the world of humans, through Mary the Permanent Cure for Sin was delivered to us. Mary represents the rediscovery / restoration of the esteemed value of women; for whereas Eve brought shame to womanhood, Mary wiped off that shame. Apostle Paul would not even let women teach or assume authority. Why? Because it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. However, Mary represents the total removal of that stigma. "For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed; for he that is mighty hath magnified me and holy is his Name. " (Magnificat) Mary represents the importance of spiritual receptivity. In Mary, we discover what we really are: simple humans called upon by God to bear Christ in our bodies, through our lives, to our world. All who...

There are two prayers that many people here will have prayed. Anyone who’s lost someone in an untimely way, particularly perhaps a child, sibling or parent, a very close friend…. one is, ‘Make them better. Lord, make them better. Get them out of this. May they recover and be healed.’ The other is when that prayer has passed. A lot of people pray, ‘Lord, let me join them. Take me as well.’ The fact that we’re all sitting here today is because, for many of us, neither of those prayers were answered in the way we hoped. But time goes by and we begin to rebuild our lives. We never “get over it” — that’s such an atrocious expression — but we do begin to rebuild. You live with this gap, as Caroline and I did more than 30 years ago when our eldest daughter died, and you begin to rebuild. In those days Child Bereavement UK was not around, or if it was we didn’t know about it. Our daughter died five days after a car crash on the way back from France. We were moving back to the UK after s...

If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it. - Lord Kelvin If you do a simple reading of the book of First John*, you will see the phrase "By this we know..." (or something similar) appearing over and over again. What can we learn from this? GOD has not given us commands without putting measures by which we can measure how well we are doing in our obedience to Him. So, child of GOD, you will do well to take some assessment of yourself with regards to your walk with GOD based on the guideposts GOD has provided. If we are sincere with ourselves, then... We can actually know whether or not we know GOD. We can actually know how much we know GOD. We can actually know whether or not we love GOD. We can actually know how much we love GOD. We can actually know whether or not we are walking in error. We can actually know whether or not we dwell in Him. We can actually know whether or not He abides in us. We can actually know whether or not GOD ...

Although we have several Christians interested in, speaking about, and actively involved in politics and governance of their nation, the number is very minuscule when compared to the critical mass of people required to deliver sustainable development, best practices in industries and the society, and grow or nurture great citizens though schools and families. In the context of this piece, the term “Christian” refer only to those who “…repent truly of their former sins, steadfastly purposing to lead a new life; have a lively faith in God’s mercy through Christ, with a thankful remembrance of his death; and be in charity with all men.” (Catechism, BCP 1928) Nathan the Prophet Nathan as a prophet of God is quite popular in scripture especially for courageously speaking truth to power. His beautiful allegory of a rich man and a poor man's little lamb shocked the king when he declared "Thou art the man". As if that wasn’t enough, he went on to declare the a...

Now, I've been thinking lately about that interesting conversation Jesus had with His disciples after His resurrection (Acts 1:6-8). While it appears Jesus downplayed their question and changed topic, what we have there as Jesus’ response is actually the divine strategy for restoring the kingdom. I could hear Jesus saying to them (and us now), “The restoration of the kingdom is not My business exclusively; I’ll need you to be my witnesses. And when this gospel of the kingdom is preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, then the end will come; ushering in the New Jerusalem!” The role of a witness is to give a testimony of what s/he knows about an issue under contention with the hope of getting his/her audience to believe him/her, and judge the issue according to his/her testimony. To be highly successful in witnessing, you need two things: Credibility and Platform. Platform, because you need people to hear you; and Credibility, because you need them to believe you...