Category: Sunday magazine

When things are good, prosperous and promising, friends abound but when things get unfavourable, either through false cum malicious accusations, paucity of funds at one’s disposal, reducing influences, very serious illness etc., friends either stand aloof, malign, castigate or turn their backs. Human beings, in the words of the elders, enjoy the sweet taste of hands soiled with palm oil soup but detest the sight of blood-stained fingers. When Jesus Christ knew that His time was at hand, He opted to pray with His trusted allies (Mark 3:16). He consequently took them to Gethsemane to intercede for Him. While Jesus Christ was busy praying, His trusted ‘friends’ were, very unfortunately, sleeping. All the entreaties of Jesus Christ to them to lift Him up in prayers failed. It was this incident at Gethsemane that opened the gateway to series of betrayals from His closest allies. The betrayal was flagged off by Judas Iscariot who gave Him up for few pieces of silver (Luke 22:47), to His most trusted ally, Simon Peter, who had vowed to die with Him if the need arose denied very bluntly on three occasions that he ever knew Him (Matthew 26:59-75).

The only companion that Jesus Christ had for strength in His moment of agony and pain was not any of the Boarneges but the angel who appeared to Him “…from heaven, strengthening him” (Luke 22:43). Gethsemane, besides being a real place today, will forever remain as a metaphor. The garden represents the limitedness of human beings and the disappointments that follow whenever things get awry. It also depicts God’s unfailing support to His children, even when all have forsaken and abandoned (Isaiah 49:15-16). Gethsemane is a place where close friends deny knowing one; it is a place where a person you have assisted in times past turns his back on you. It is a place where people that spoke nicely about you yesterday, have unprintable words for you today. Gethsemane is a pavilion of betrayal of trust and a citadel of evil gang-ups. It is a place where vociferous and easily believable sons of Belial bear false witness against the innocent (Matt 26:60; 1Kings 2:10 cf 1Kings 21:8-13).

On the other flip of the coin, Gethsemane is the lowest point one can get to before a rise up ( John 12:24; Psalm 27:10); it is that disappointment that leads to His appointment. It is the breaking pointing that heralds a divine rising and it is the seemingly ugly bridge that connects a person on a lower spot to the place of destiny. Gethsemane is an unavoidable life situation that great men of faith had to ascend for divine lift up. Abram encountered his with Lot (Genesis 14), Daniel faced his with the other Presidents of Babylon (Daniel 6), Shadrack and his friends were conspired against by rulers in Babylon (Daniel 3), Joseph was betrayed and sold by his brothers (Genesis 37) and Mordecai had issues that were predicated on envy from Haman (Esther 3:6; 5:9-14) etc. The good news however is that their Garden of Gethsemane was the ingress that took all of them to their places of destiny.

For Jesus Christ, Gethsemane was the needed step to the right hand of God and a name with eternal supremacy over whatever is in heaven, on earth and below the earth (Philp 2:8-11), and the handover of the keys of hell and of death ( Revelations 1:18). After His betrayal and death on Good Friday, which was a time of Suffering of the Son was Easter Sunday which marked the supernatural intervention of the Father (Matthew 2:6; 1 Corinthians 15:4).

Beloved, are you facing hard times at home, work or church? Are people ganging up against you in your family, among your friends or in your commission? Are your close friends turning their back at you at your moment of needs? Are you being maligned in the social media because of a slip? Is it that people you are to lean on have laced their palms with thorns? Is it that close friends that are supposed to assist blow off specks from your eye have pepper in their mouths to inflict damaging harm? Brethren, don’t lose hope. You are already in your Gethsemane. I congratulate you because weeping may endure for a night but your joy is coming ( Psalm 30:5).

Beloved in Christ, do you have people hovering around you and singing your praises today? Are you enjoying the attention of myriads of people around you at work, place of commission or the society? Do you feel that you are appreciated, loved and celebrated? I have news for you, you are yet to get to Gethsemane. The Gethsemane experience is an unavoidable situation of life that you must get to before you can access where God had destined for you and enjoy Divine Satisfaction. Dear brothers and sisters, please note that whenever the betrayals, disappointments, evil words and gang-up come from ‘friends’, don’t feel bad or be disappointed you should just rejoice in all because “better is the end of a thing than the beginning” (Eccl. 7:8).

As we continue the Passion week and we are on the verge of ending this year’s Lent, please be assured that no matter what you may be passing through now, every problem has an expiry date. After the suffering of Good Friday is the supernatural intervention of the Father on Easter Sunday. What you need to do is to put your trust in God, He would intervene in your circumstances, grant you Divine satisfaction and give you reasons to celebrate and be celebrated in Jesus’ name.

Prayer: Lord, I thank you for this Lenten season, give me grace to remain in you forever and always stand by me in my moments in Gethsemane, in Jesus’ name,

“Trust’, according to Stephen Covey, ‘is the glue of life”. What Covey said in essence is that trust holds relationships. Where there is no trust, there is no life. Few years ago, there was a woman who had an excellent marriage but never knew the true personality of her husband until he died. At the funeral service for the deceased, a woman walked inside the church and took her sit beside the widow, and positioned herself as the man’s second wife alongside two young men who were obvious carbon copies of the deceased – what a terrible act of trust betrayal! The widow was terribly shocked and disappointed that her deceased husband could do such to her. In same way was a couple whose economy was quite harsh and they lived managing the meagre resources of the man. It was after the woman passed on that the man discovered that his deceased wife had a house from where she was collecting monthly rents, had vehicles which she was using for commercial purposes and bank accounts that were loaded with huge sums of money – what a betrayal of trust!

Judas Iscariot, from our text, was a man who betrayed divine trust and died like a fowl. Judas was the only disciple that Jesus entrusted with a department of trust in His hallowed earthly commission – he was the Treasurer of the ministry. Besides that, he was privileged to see Jesus raised the dead, he was in attendance when the storm was stilled and experienced great miracles through Jesus Christ. He was also a part of the commissioning to go and heal the sick and had a part in the testimonies that followed that great commission. Unfortunately for him, he started life very promisingly, he betrayed divine trust and had a disastrous end.

What separated Judas from the other disciples was that firstly he was not only dishonest but was deceitful and had a penchant for stealing from the ministry’s purse (John 12:4-6). The other aspect of his life that eventually led to his dastardly end was that, for self-serving purposes, he “……went unto the Chief priests, And said unto them, What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him” (Matthew 26:14-16). Judas Iscariot collected money from the Chief priests and saw to it that Jesus Christ was handed over to them and killed (Luke 22:47-48) – he betrayed the Son of man with a kiss – a kiss! He cared not what will happen to the king of kings; and, for temporary pecuniary benefits, Judas Iscariot mortgaged his today and destroyed his glorious tomorrow – what a great pity!

Judas Iscariot apparently didn’t learn from his forbearers like Gehazi who could have been one of the greatest prophets in history, if not for betrayal of trust – he ended what could have been a glorious ministry abruptly and inherited the leprosy of Naaman. What happened to both Gehazi and Judas Iscariot gives credence to God’s word in Jeremiah 17:11 that, “As the partridge sits on eggs, and hatchets them not; so is he that gets riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool”. Beloved in Christ, The Almighty God is a God of reward for whatever one does or is doing either overtly or covert, righteously or wickedly (Rev. 22:12; Eccl. 11:1, 12:13-14 cf Galatians 6:8). This is to say that no person will escape God’s judgment for whatever is done here, either good or bad, deceitfully or plainly, known to man or hidden from human eyes.

God is therefore drawing your attention during this Passion week to the fact that nothing lasts forever. The trust which you are betraying today shall be revealed and compensated one day and need be added, it can be earlier than you imagine. As a political office holder, are you living selfishly for yourself and not the citizenry? As an employee, are you having honest dealings with your employers – remember Judas Iscariot! As a married person, does your spouse know you or will he/she discover you after death has come for you? – remember Judas Iscariot! As a friend, are you relating honestly with your friends or ready to sell them for pieces of silver? – remember Judas Iscariot – he betrayed Jesus with a kiss and died ignominiously. Kindly take note that every act of dishonesty, betrayal, backstabbing and deception will end in calamity!

Beloved in Christ, you have an opportunity again today to reconsider your ways and change before it is too late. Jesus is enjoining you to amend your ways during this Passion week, make a firm commitment to begin to live honestly and righteously, and ensure that moving forward, you don’t live in treachery. You have a great opportunity to restart life today and begin to live honestly with all men (Hebrews 12:14; Romans 12:18). As children of God, you must also maintain your integrity and “…….. let your yes be yes; and your no, no; lest you fall into condemnation” (James 5:12). It is only when you do this that you can enjoy the peace of God that passes human comprehension, that your glory can be risen, that you can be a candidate of the promised Divine Satisfaction and your life is exposed to an unfettered access to anything and everything from Him; and at the end of your sojourn here, you can receive your crown of glory in the name of Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Lord, help me never to betray your trust because of things that shall expire in the name of Jesus

When people that are either ignorant of the doctrine of times and seasons or are mere product of questionable parental trainings cum jaundiced parental upbringing get to positions of influence, authority and relevance in the society, they most times, and very ignorantly, feel that they are above board and they consequently arrogate to themselves power and authority – they become haughty, uncontrollable, unapproachable and wicked. They are often very quick to look at the less fortunate than them in the society and declare that, “Do you know who I am?” They forget so easily that they are nothing but dust with definite life, time and term tenor.

The truth of the matter is that God is the only Eternal Father and the Ancient of days (Daniel 7:9,13,22).  He said that, “By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth” (Proverbs 8:15-16; cf 1Samuel 2:6-8).  He is the Almighty God (Gen. 17:1), He has all powers at His command (Psalm 62:11) and gives it to whosoever He wills (Romans 13:1). More importantly, He has power to install whosoever He wills as king; and, at His prerogative, He can remove installed kings.

When the Israelites demanded for a king, He was the One that gave them Saul the son of Kish, but when Saul went against His command, He didn’t look at Samuel’s penitent outlook and repentant heart to give Saul another chance; He removed and replaced him in a jiffy (1Samuel 15). He is the Brightness of God’s glory, the Buckler to the upright, the Captain of our salvation, the Breastplate of our righteousness, the Chief Cornerstone and the Jehovah Elohim.

King Nebuchadnezzar was a very powerful King over Babylon, a king who had God’s delegated powers and authorities “… over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:10). One day however, King Nebuchadnezzar became so self-conceited about all that God had blessed his life with and appropriated all the blessings to himself – he became so garrulous and egocentric like lots of leaders in our official spaces (Daniel 4:29-31). “…….But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him” (Daniel 5:19-29) King Nebuchadnezzar was chased out of the palace like an animal because of pride but when his sense was restored, he begged God for forgiveness and was restored after many years in the forest as an animal (Daniel 4:34-37).

It was the same with King Herod when one day, he adorned himself in royal apparel, gave an oration that made the people answer him that, “…… It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost” (Acts 12:22-23). He died like a flower that was plucked in its bloom!

Beloved, whatever you are, who you are, where you are and the position you occupy, they are all products of God’s grace, and surely not predicated on your works (Ephesians 2:8-9; cf 1 Corinthians 4:7). The only sustaining grace that is available to lift you up, keep you standing and never allow you go down in relevance, influence and power is humility. Jesus Christ was an example of humility. Despite being God, He humbled Himself to the gruesome end on the Cross of Calvary. On the third day, God raised Him from the dead and rewarded Him with a name that is above every other names and that at the mention of His name every knee shall surrender – Hallelujah! (Phil. 2:6-11). It is based on this backdrop that Paul the Apostle admonished in Philippians 2:5 of the indispensability of having the same mind of humility like Jesus Christ.

Brethren, humility is one of the hallmarks of Christianity and if you don’t want the hand of God to be against you and beginning from today, kindly ascribe all glory and honour to whom it is due (God Almighty) and take off that toga of pride because it will only lead to shame (Proverbs 11:2), bring quarrels (Proverbs 13:-10), lead to destruction (Proverbs 16:18) and bring down from the lofty height like King Nebuchadnezzar (Proverbs 29:23).

During this time of Lent brethren, take stock of areas where you have been exhibiting pride, appreciate God for bringing you this and thus far, ask Him to forgive your sins, pray for the spirit of humility, ask for grace to accommodate others and their weaknesses, extend your hand of love to all around you, live in love with everyone and pray for grace of lift up. As Jesus Christ lives, you shall be located with a testimony that will shock you and astound the world; instead of going down, you shall continue to be lifted in Jesus’ name

• Prayers: Father, deliver me from pride and clothe me with the garment of humility all the days of my life, in Jesus’ name.

Apostle Paul echoed it to the Romans from our text, that, having been won to victory, his greatest desire, his goal and his passion was for Israel to be saved –  that the people who were in the dark should come to the light of God. Kindly note beloved in Christ that the matter of Winning others to Christ is the heartbeat of Jesus Christ, and there is no time that this is very important than now. The principal reason why God created human beings when the world was created was to be fruitful. The first command He gave man after creation in Genesis 1:26,28 was to be fruitful; it therefore behoves us as Christians, if indeed we are serious with our life hereafter, to hold the matter of fruitfulness very seriously because when He returns, He would surely ask us questions about how many people we have won to victory, and need be added that the time of His coming is tinkling.

With the prophesied end of the world happenstances that are now staring us in the face globally, it is evident that the much talked about last day is here (2 Timothy 3:1-5). Winning others to the knowledge of Christ is a task that all children of God must take on board, and very seriously too. All believers in Christ Jesus have an obligation to deliver others from the grips of the devil and hell; we are obligated to enlarge the kingdom of victorious people, we werecalled to influence others to the kingdom of God and to be actively involved in the ministry of fruitfulness and discipleship.

All through the ministry of Jesus Christ, what was in His plate and on His lips were the urgent matter of winning others to victory (John 15:8,16). Beloved in Christ, kindly note this, and very deliberately too, that your Christian faith confers and imposes responsibilities on you – Christianity is not about the glamour of your title, it is rather about the responsibilities of your title. God is not looking at your church position, He is looking for the fruits from your position in the church. The essence of your existence as a child of God is to bear fruit; anything out of winning others to victory is a sheer waste of divine investment. In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus said you should go out and make disciples of all nations. This is suffice to say that you were called to the commission of winning others to victory of the Cross.

In John 22, after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ,  Bro. Peter decided to return to his fishing business and six of the disciples of Jesus Christ went with him – they abandoned their heavenly commission of winning others to Victory for the service of tables. Jesus met them there and asked Brother Peter thrice: Simon son of Jonah, do you love me more than food? That is, do you love me more than the pleasures of this temporal life and do you love me more than your work? On the three occasions, Peter answered Him and said Yes, I do. Jesus told him that if indeed he loved Him, he should feed His sheep.

Dear beloved in Christ, you have a charge to be Christ’s ambassadors. God desires that you must be an example of Him wherever you are located and at your places of posting (2 Corinthians 5:20). Your faith must be established through your walk, your talk and your conduct. Your Christianity must not be by the hordes of stickers of I AM BORN AGAIN on your cars or the bigness of your Bible or your loud tongue-speaking, it must be through your character and your desire to expand His kingdom; you are called to illuminate the path of others in darkness to His marvellous light ( Matthew 5:14-15). You have a duty to shine the light of God and extinguish darkness. As the salt of the earth, you are also called to the ministry of healing and reconciliation, you are to bring sweetness, purification, healing and not disintegration and destruction among the elects of God (Matthew 5:13).

Please be informed dear brothers and sisters, thatyou were called majorly to bear fruits. You were not called out to yourself but God called you out for the world. You were called to better the world and not essentially to better your own lots (1 Peter 2:9-10). Beloved, let me remind you that when your time is up here, you shall stand before the judgment throne of God to give account of all that you did in the body (2 Corinthians 5:10), you shall give report of every idle word (Matt. 12:36) and you shall give statement for all the souls that were committed to you and all the people you encountered beginning from the neighbours who were placed around you for a purpose, to your housemaid to your driver, to your children, your family members and your colleagues at work. I pray that you will not miss heaven at the end in the name of Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Father, help me in this Christian journey to redirect my thoughts and steps towards winning souls to your kingdom in the name of Jesus