BUMPY ACCUSATION: When your reputation is on the line

I was accosted by a woman who happened to be an usher in the assembly that hosted our last combined service.

 Some things went wrong in the combined service, part of which was the boycott of duty by the district (combined) ushers. It was at the ministers' meeting that followed that many of us got to know the reason for such action. They were protesting the lassitude of the ushers from that assembly towards district functions. I got to know of it, like many other ministers, at that ministers' meeting.

But this is how the woman accused me:

‘I heard you were the one who raised it at the ministers' meeting that the district ushers chose not to support us at the combined service because we don’t participate in activities that combine the ushers in the district.’

You can imagine my anger! I was literally boiling.

 But do I really need it? 

When we are wrongly accused, what should be our reaction and action? Just before that…

GOD'S STAND

God reckons that man possesses essentially four things: his life, his home, his properties (which are basically food, clothing and shelter) and his name. He therefore promulgated laws to protect them in the Ten Commandments,

Commandment 6 – Thou shall not kill – to protect the sanctity of life

Commandment 7 – Thou shall not commit adultery – to protect the sanctity of home

Commandment 8 – Thou shall not steal – to protect the sanctity of property

Commandment 9 – Thou shall not bear false witness – to protect the sanctity of reputation (or name)

And anything that will rob man of any of these, God takes very seriously and will punish – 1 Pet.4:15. 

False accusation damages a person’s name. And God hates it with passion. If man can punish it under laws such as libel and defamation, God will do much more. So, God charges us to always prove all things - 1 Thess. 5:21

NOW TO YOUR ACTION AND REACTION

Your reputation has been having a very smooth ride all around town. So, you feel you are a good driver. 

Suddenly, a bump comes into view. That is when your driving skill is put to the real test. That false accusation is the bump. And here are a few tips on how to go over it:

1. Apply the break – we will always overreact when we act on first impulse. Yoruba have an adage: you don’t row your boat violently because the waves of the sea are breaking violently.

They mounted pressure on Jesus to speak at once but He didn’t allow them to rush Him into it, John 8:3-6. When He eventually spoke, everyone spoiling for a fight instantly ran out of steam, John 8:7-9. 

When we calm it, we are better collected and our words or deeds will be better convincing. Steam burns and hurts but when it is calmed and collected, it becomes the purest form of water for drinking.

2. Match the clutch – it is always necessary to do some soul-searching before firing any salvo. In fact, that is what the foregoing step should prepare you to do. 

There can be no smoke without fire. As much as possible, trace the fire, then you will be able to know whether it is a misrepresentation, misinterpretation or quoting out of context that is responsible for the smoke.

I discovered mine almost a bit too late. It was because I spoke in defence of the ushers at a point in the heat of the minister’s meeting debate.

Such verification of the facts in your heart will help you to decide what to do with the accuser and the accusation.

3. Select the gear – this is the action-end. This should happen when the eventual products of your thoughts have been made to pass through the scrutiny of the Holy Spirit, your greatest counsellor in this matter. 

So, depending on the Holy Spirit, you might just have to educate the accuser or debunk the accusation as a rumour in its entirety. But one thing I’m sure of is He will never send you to fight anyone. 

What of false accusation that has spread like wildfire? Tell everyone who cares to know the truth and leave the rest to God.

The Pharisees paid and supported the soldiers to peddle the rumour that Jesus was stolen from the grave by his disciples (Matt. 28:11-15) but today, millions of people know the truth. 

The God who has always been protecting your life when you cannot is always at work to preserve your name and will handle those trying to drag your name in the mud Himself.

A CASE FOR THE TALENT-BURYING SERVANT (JESUSTOONS SERIES 5)

TONGUE-TIED: A Dumb Preacher

The journey was from Sagamu to Abeokuta in a commercial bus.

I had the nudge, nay the pressing, to preach the Gospel to the passengers. I made a mess of it. No thanks to Mr. Inertia.

I would want to open my mouth, but fear would almost immediately slap it shut.

Fear of what? That the passengers would beat me up or shout me down? That they would not listen to me or give their life to Jesus? That the message may not be interesting or I may get stuck midway not knowing what more to say? That the driver may start the car tape or some passengers may start some annoying conversation to antagonise or distract me? I don't know.

I don’t know what I was afraid of. Simply, it was fear of the unknown. And that was the tool inertia used to hold me dumb when I should be found speaking for my Lord.

It was getting more and more embarrassing. I was feeling more and more guilty. Minutes ticked further and further away. And the bus covered more and more distance.

I needed to act fast. I devised a method.

I sighted one of the roadside palm trees afar off and decided that immediately the bus got to that part of the road I would suddenly open my mouth and speak, damning fear and all its siblings.

Perfect plan. Well laid out.

In no time the bus got there. Quickly, I opened my mouth. Alas, no voice came out. Fear was faster, it had caught up with me again.

No problem, I would be faster this time around.

I picked another palm tree target. Now better prepared to open my mouth immediately we touched the finish line of my target.

We breasted the tape as expected, I more quickly opened my mouth! Yes, the voice was coming, from the inside! Hallelujah! It would soon come out:

‘I'

That was all I could say, nay, utter, and my mouth immediately stopped and shuttered its intention.

This fear was a good sprinter. It had outrun and overrun me again.

I tried again and again but it never got better than that. I watched with a heavy heart as passengers disembarked at Abeokuta deprived of the message I had been sent to deliver to them.

Blood, pints of blood on my neck! Lord, have mercy.

(Culled from This Christian Race by Abiodun J. Soretire)

BEWARE OF THE PROPHET’S INTERPRETATION: What to Know Just Before You Visit That Prophet

#biodunsoretire

Today, many people run to prophets to see a vision for them. But just before you do that please read this:

And now I [Paul] am going to Jerusalem, drawn there irresistibly by the Holy Spirit, not knowing what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit has told me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead – Acts 20:22,23 (TLB)

Now let’s move to the next chapter,

These disciples [Tyre local believers] warned Paul – the Holy Spirit prophesying through them – not to go to Jerusalem – Acts 21:4 (TLB)

Contradictions! How can the Holy Spirit draw him irresistibly to Jerusalem in one chapter and in the next He is telling him not to go! Is the Spirit contradicting Himself? No, God forbid! It is those who are interpreting His message that are contradicting one another. And that is what those who run from one prophet to another get – contradictions of interpretation. That is even if the prophets are genuine ones. Fake ones will give an entirely different one.

The number one discipline a Christian should learn to cultivate is the discipline of knowing how God speaks to him regularly. It can be as profound as an audible voice or as commonplace as an inner witness in the spirit. Whatever it is, know that God always want to speak to you personally.

And once that is settled then the ministry of the prophets becomes clearer – they confirm what God has communicated.

Paul could not be confused because God has personally communicated to him His mind. So, when the prophecy came, though wrongly interpreted, the prophets could not convince him to do otherwise.

That the prophet sees danger on your way does not automatically mean God does not want you to embark on the journey. He might just want you to be a bit more careful or prayerful. So, you must know the mind of God for your life yourself.

Note, Paul went to Jerusalem indeed and was almost lynched but God delivered him [and even assured him He was with him], Acts 21: 30-33; 23:10-11. Eventually, the ordeals that followed led to Paul's ministry being expanded to Rome and beyond. Indeed, all things work together for good to them that love God, who are called according to His purpose.

- TLB – The Living Bible

3 WRAPS OF EBA: A Short Prose Narrative on Communication Gap in Marriage

Segun was in the sitting room overcome in two parts. 

The physical and mental exhaustion induced by the rigors of maintaining two jobs a day was the first part. He was a teacher at both a public secondary school and an evening private coaching centre. His work schedule was usually rounded off by six o' clock.

The other part of the exhaustion was emotional. He was fuming at the reception his wife threw at him. 

It was his first day out to work after their wedding. AY had answered his homecoming compliments from the bedroom. She would not bother coming out. And when he endured it and composed himself to demand his right of food, the mistress's response shocked him the more. Without apology she threw instructions at him,

‘Get to the kitchen and check the blue warmer, the wraps of Eba are there. Help yourself to the soup. I really need this sleep so badly.'

His little remaining strength drained from him instantly. He dropped into one of the three armchairs – the one closest to the main door. With head lolled forward and propped on the arms, he fumed in silence like a bottled acid. 

'I have a wife, home since morning. Thanks to her leave. Yet no set table. Not even a warm welcome to rub off the day's demand. Sleep has engaged her in a more important assignment. Imagine! I should go to the kitchen and dish out my food myself! My own self! What does she take me for? Her child? Naughty girl. 

The devastation had taken a toll on him for two hours already. Lassitude now drowned him in the sofa anger had floored. 

It was a quarter past eight. AY was having a sweet sleep on her matrimonial bed. She turned her side unconsciously. Her sleeping lips moved and muttered some undecipherable words for a long second before they were sealed again – a strange reflex for an adult, much less a female adult. Certainly, she was in the middle of some dream.

Back in the sitting room, Segun was still lying on the couch. He was lost in thought, oblivious of the darkness that had crept into the room. Visibility was difficult but then his sight was not here but there, in the mind. The silhouette of shapes and figures in the room, imposed by the protracted power cut of Power Holdings, the Nigerian electricity authority, cried for illumination from a lantern at the very least. Segun's mind was too preoccupied. Out of mind. Out of sight.

‘Tolu was right.’

He was thinking about the torrents of thoughts that always bedevilled him and sapped his strength dry whenever he was in a sulk. 

Just then AY walked into the sitting room quietly and carefully. With her right hand she scrambled for the way until the hand came to rest on the arched back of the two-seater. Her hands ran the arch through its length until she got to the far end of the sofa, opposite the kitchen door. She did not bother to call out to her husband. The absence of the lantern light had its usual conclusion; her man had either slept off on the rug or in one of the sofas.

In the kitchen, she located a box of matches and the lantern. She struck four sticks successively and failed. Each time, the reddish brown spark substance produced flame but the attached uncooperative stem stifled it almost immediately.

‘Ah! Niger! Nothing is of quality again. Gone are the days of the popular and effective triple-picture match boxes,' she breathed her frustration. 

She was lucky on the fifth attempt. Quickly she suspended the transparent glass globe with the side-lever and torched the lantern's wick with the flame. The globe released. The flame regulated. Something told her to check the blue polystyrene food container. Her eyes popped when she saw the three wraps of eba, a food made from boiled and creamed grains of cassava, intact. 

She instantly knew she was in for trouble. What has she done wrong. She started some self-probe. 

For some five minutes, her legs would not agree with her heart on presenting herself at the sitting room for the obvious subpoena. Her eyes surveyed the kitchen aimlessly but vigorously, like the proverbial ear-cut thief. At last she summoned up the courage and advanced towards the sofa-and-electronic-gadgetry room, albeit slowly. 

The light led the way she sluggishly followed. Then she lowered her eyes on the sofa for three. There lay her beloved. He turned in a reflex towards the infiltrating light and his eyes looked horrible when AY zoomed in on them. She has jumped into the river already, fearing the cold now is useless. Though the grim face was highly repellent she drew closer and closer to it. Then she did what she never in her wildest dream thought she would do: she sank to her knees before her cross partner. Her tender hands seduced him to forgive while her mouth quickly laid out her reason.

‘Sweetheart, I'm very sorry. It was not intentional. I was having some headache. So, I took Panadol and a nap to help me up.'

Segun was floored. His seething was stilled instantly, like the soup in an aluminium pot. One pleasant thought made a mockery of him.

‘Women, so powerful! What is it they want they won't get!'

He got up, sat up, helped her up and tendered a complementary apology.

‘I'm sorry too. We are still learning to understand each other. But it cannot go without saying that communication builds a strong home. I wouldn't have felt offended if you had included a sentence or two about your headache in your welcoming words. I would have even forgotten about the food, come around to the bedroom and stroke your hair. And the anointing in my hand would have cast off the intruding headache.'

She beamed. ‘I'm sorry sweetheart. I will take note. But it's not too late for the stroking.' She feigned an headache, ‘I'm still feeling the headache.'

The now love-drunken husband readjusted his posture, like a pastor swinging his shoulders to feel a newly-given designer suit.

‘Makaru ma tarasmiku!' the man of God was in the spirit as his hands descended on the pick-and-drop braids.

AY responded promptly like one being delivered; she wriggled and jerked from head to waist.

‘Ah! Man of God, I feel like falling!.'

‘Maskarururi! Fall! Fall! Fall!'

He tipped her head and she fell, like a pack of Whot cards, on his lap.

‘You are an unusual deliveree; you should fall on your back and not forwards. The presence of your head on my lap is tempting. Get up and let me re-deliver you! Looska!'

How they both laughed at the well-acted home-grown drama. 

AY eventually served the eba with okra soup. They ate their fill amidst teasing and pulling of legs. The drama then proceeded to the bedroom. It was a night to remember.

TAKING STEPS: Things You Must Know to Achieve Your Goals

Life's First Steps

Intense pleasure perfumes the robust mother’s face as she eagerly encourages her son with her beckoning hands. The 100cm-space between the mother and her son was premeditated; just enough for the kid to bridge in the first real assignment for his feet.

‘Will he, will he not?’ the question pounds the mother’s heart.

A minute and a half of beckoning, and plenty ‘Come to mummy,’ then it happens. With outstretched arms like a tightrope walker, the son takes his first shaky step. In the recent past, he had taken such first steps only to return to the lotus position on the ground. The second stride is what counts.

‘Will he weather the storm this time around?’ the Mama looks on with the keenest of interest.

Presently, he struggles with balance and after a while he finds his feet. His right leg rises in the air and lands, the second step. The mother’s heart pumps blood in pints. She unconsciously etches the finish line by an inch or two in exultant restlessness. The other steps follow in quick succession and then he falls but into his mother’s waiting arms.

The overjoyed Mama instantly lifts her baby high into the air in a motherly pride. The victorious son, on top of the world, must be feeling in his little brain:

‘Yes, I made it.’

Really, how many of us do often give our heavenly Father cause for such joy and pride? It is not just about great leaps but goal-getting strides.

Introduction

Goals, long or short-termed, are achieved only when the goal-setter becomes a goal-getter. And the distance between goal-setting and goal-getting can be covered in steps - movement. Not just movement, but appropriate, timely and goal-driven movement. Such movement must have the following characteristics:

Precision

Importunity

Purposefulness

God-factor

Precision

Hear the Living Bible rendition of the eleventh verse of chapter nine of the book of Ecclesiastes,

Again I looked throughout the earth and saw that the swiftest person does not always win the race, nor the strongest man the battle, and that wise men are often poor, and skilful men are not necessarily famous; but it is all by chance, by happening to be at the right glace at the right time.

Whaoh! That is a powerful revelation. You must happen to be at the right place at the right time. Some blessings are just on time bomb; you miss the timing, you miss the blessing. Have you ever heard remarks like,

‘Oh! Sorry, if you had been here five minutes earlier you would have gotten it. I just gave it to that man that just left when you entered now.’

Meanwhile you remembered you stopped somewhere along the way to exchange pleasantries with someone for about ten minutes. How would you feel? Terrible! The time bomb had exploded and the blessing is gone, an event overtaken by time. Just because you stopped to greet elaborately!

Brethren, there are some times we will not need to greet in the pursuit of our goal for it might constitute a distraction,

 ...and salute no man by the way Luke 10:4

This is Jesus giving instruction to his disciples. What a deep sense of urgency this depicts. Time is life. I read an article many years ago and it says, ‘Time is life and you can’t waste one without wasting the other.’

Importunity

Keep moving. Yes? Don’t stop moving. Martin Luther King Jnr, said, ‘Fly if you can, but if you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. And if you can’t walk, crawl. Whatever it is, just make sure you are moving.’ There is an adage in my language: the snail insisted on climbing a tree and it did, because its tongue was stuck to it.

A popular songwriter said: if you are going through hell, don’t stop. He is very correct. There is no bus stop in hell. If you stop there you are stopping at obstruction; you may get hit, charged or kidnapped. Yes, get help if you need to, but never stop. Keep making headway.

A man of God wanted to quit ministry out of frustration. That same night he slept and had a dream. He saw himself attempting to break down a rock with a sledge hammer. After several attempts with no single sign of a crack in the rock, he wanted to quit. Just then a strange fellow appeared to him and told him to try one more time. He reluctantly heeded and hit the rock one more time. Voilà! The rock came crumbling down. He would have missed it at the nick of breakthrough. Remember the cliché: winners never quit, and quitters never win.

I heard of a notable global businessman who said every failure edges them closer to success by helping them discover another way they ought not to do it. Learn from failure to forge ahead, don’t lean on it to hang your head.

Purposefulness

Keep moving I say, but make every step meaningful. Let every stride be a move in the positive direction. No beating about the bush. Remember you are not going to be here all day long. As your hairs are numbered so are your days. Therefore make every step count. Do what you can do while you can still do it but ensure you are doing it right.

And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Luke10v41,42

God-Factor

That brings us to the most salient point here, the God-factor. This journey through life is so complex and everything looks so muddled up that it takes God to separate the right from the good and the needful from the useful.

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient; all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. I Cor. 10:23

So, what is the way out of the world-sized maze then?

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Ps. 37:23

That is it! Allowing God to lead the way is the way to go. Like David (I Sam.23:1-14), you must be an ardent inquisitor from the Lord, taking direction from Him on “per-second” billing. If He orders the steps, he will take delight in the way the steps are leading. And this is the ultimate result:

When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Prov.16:7

The enemy is easily taken out of the way for one’s efforts to be abundantly fruitful and one’s goal to the easily achieved. In short, all your brilliant steps and wonderful efforts can go down the drain in a moment of opposition, if this God-factor is taken for granted. Have your forgotten the cliché: man proposes, but God disposes. So, I submit, we must put God first, else we stand the risk of losing all.

SAY IT: That Little Word of Appreciation Can Go A Long Way

I myself appreciated the tie when it was extended to me by my sister-in-law. She and her husband had gone overseas and had bought this seven-pound-something-shilling neck ornament. It has glistering sky blue woolly squares on deep blue background. I carried my neck with grace on the two occasions I had worn it. This is its third outing.

I had had a mild running stomach. I had met a dead ATM on my attempt to withdraw money. And on top of it all, I had had to frantically struggle to maintain my calm at the roadside for twenty minutes or thereabout waving and barking down the taxi that would go my route. Now in the front seat of the destined cab cooling off, I got stuck in a traffic jam.

“Haven’t I had enough troubles,” I thought.

Then an extrovertish man, just coming down from his parked car, looked over the cab’s window at my treasured tie,

“I like your tie. It’s beautiful!” he opined.

“Thank you every much. Thank you very much.” I was all smiles.

And the aftereffect of the timely comment, which had evaded the attention of my family, friends and colleagues that had seen the tie on me, was very pleasant. It permeated every of my cells and defused all the troubles.

Never can tell the effect of a little act of appreciation you show or the small seed of joy you sow.

You need not be a crack comedian to crush frown; one simple or single compliment might just do.

#pastorbiodunsoretire

THE DAY I ALMOST DIED: my main concerns in the fleeting moment

#pastorbiodunsoretire

…Then, a shout of wailing

Now, an eternal serenity

For man forgets too soon

The memory of the late…

The date was 25th of July, 2015. That date was remarkable too. It was the eve of the first birthday of my long-awaited son – our marriage waited without child seven years. I had boarded a car conveying me to my Ijebu-Ode base from work. A light shower had covered up a pothole at the foot of the sloppy section of the Sagamu-Ijebu-Ode Expressway near Babcock. Our cab fell into it and the ignition went off. Before the driver could struggle it out we got hit from behind by a galloping articulated truck. Viola! Our car got on the run, out of control of the driver, heading for disaster. We all in stunned silence sorrowfully waited where this evil momentum would land us.

At that moment I was not thinking of my wife or my son’s approaching birthday. I was not thinking of my church members or my work colleagues. I was not thinking of my relatives or fond friends. As the car conveyed us in fearful suspense to an uncertain end, only two things preoccupied my thought: "Is that all?" and "Will I make it?"

My concerns in the valley of shadow of death have two faces: what is behind me and what lies ahead of me.

Is that all - What is behind me!

No matter what you do or don’t do in life, you will have at least one or more persons to celebrate you when you are gone. But, what is more important is that who are those celebrating you and why are they celebrating you –  even the most wicked person will have sympathiser(s) or rather “praiser(s)” at his eulogy.

Who will miss you? That is the question. The society or your evil-wreaking accomplices, the church or your fornicating gang, your family or your concubines. It is about the “whos” and the “whys”. It is a serious matter. In fact, I tell you, the church, a right set of people, may hail a pastor at his death while his home, his immediate and most important constituency, will be hurling insults and abuses at him.

Life should be more than just numerical years and biological yields, but correct and long-lasting impacts.

Someone died and the local church had to arrange for Peter to come and try to raise her up. Whereas, someone else died and the church breathed a sigh of relief. Indeed, life is about making positive influence and impact on the right set of people.

Will I make it - What lies ahead of me!

Since 1994, I have shunned many vices and evil. I waste no time to repent, confess and forsake once the Holy Spirit brings any wrongdoing to my consciousness. Can I count the many worship services, bible studies, prayer meetings, fellowships, vigils, workers’ meetings, ministers’ meetings, EXCO meetings, seminars and workshops I have attended, and the tons of messages I have heard? I doubt. There is something at the back of mind for doing all of these. Definitely it cannot be something having to do with the life here. I have a mission. I have a goal. I have a target. It is to make heaven. I want to make heaven. So, when death came knocking, the question I found myself asking myself was: will I make it?

My concern is not only about my being celebrated here by the right set of people. I want heaven to celebrate me as well. They rejoiced when I was born-again. They should rejoice the more at my death when they fully receive me unto themselves as a saint triumphant.

This celestial celebration of life is about which of the spiritual realms will celebrate you at your death. Will it be the host of heaven or the host of hell? Will it be a triumphant entry into the heavenly Jerusalem or hell’s grand reception of another eternally lost soul into their fold? The choice is yours. And you can make the right decision right away and be sure you are on the path to heaven. The only way to be sure is the biblical way:

For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.

Won’t you rather give your life to Jesus?

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THE LAST EMPIRE DAY: When The Swift Almost Lost Out

#pastorbiodunsoretire

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Concerning athletics, I was an all-rounder. Track or field event, I traversed all like the great Colossus of Rhodes. Not only that, when the events were eight, my own would be sixteen because I would run for both the junior and senior categories. I had one nickname that time – “Ehoro!” (Hare).

It was during 1957’s Empire Day. We were about to start the 400-yard race.

“On your mark!”

We crouched behind our lines.

“Agbeke...”

My name filtered from the crowd behind. There must be something sinister about this.

At the annual inter-school Empire Day, the competition was always intense, both on and outside the field. Teachers from other village schools would often call to the officials to have my favoured height checked, cross-checked and double-checked. And the result was always the same:

“She could run in both categories”.

 And pupils of these other schools were not left out of the fierce battle as well; our teachers would have to guide me here and there because of some of them who often came to the field with charms.

“Get set!” the starter bellowed.

Hips were raised spoiling for action. But this fishy name-calling did not abate. Mysteriously, my body started reacting to it. I managed to look back. And there he was at a corner: the culprit was just in time ramming down the head of a padlock. No wonder my heavy body.

“Go!”

All the sprinters headed for the finish line. Not me. That would be a futile effort, I already knew. Instead, I dived for the boy. I held him tightly.

Immediately, the policemen surrounded us with the officials and the teachers. They ordered him to open the lock, collected the key from him and got him locked up in the station till we finished proceedings that day.

The officials cancelled the 400-yard event. We had a fresh race and I came first as usual.

I don't know how the news got to my grandmother at home. In no time she was on the field demanding I run no longer. It took the intervention of the teachers for her to let go. They had to assure her no harm would come my way, using Jesus' name as a surety. They begged her to go home but she insisted on staying on till the end.

Thank God it was our final year in school and invariably the last Empire Day I would partake in. All Saints' School, as usual, came first at the end of the day.

(Extracted from the memoirs of my mother, Mrs. Christianah Agbeke Soretire)

*Like that boy in one corner calling out Agbeke's name, the enemy is calling out our WEIGHTS and our SINS to ram us down, can we first settle these two matters before we settle for the race?*

FIRST...

(NLT) let us strip off every WEIGHT that slows us down, especially the SIN that so easily trips us up...  OR

(GNB) let us rid ourselves of EVERYTHING THAT GETS IN THE WAY, and of the SIN which holds on to us so tightly...  OR

(MSG) No EXTRA SPIRITUAL FAT, no PARASITIC SINS...

THEN...

...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (NKJV)

FOR...

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the RACE IS NOT TO THE SWIFT... but time and chance happeneth to them all.

THEREFORE,

BE SOBER, BE VIGILANT; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.

#pastorbiodunsoretire

THE STOLEN GODS: Roaming Greed Amongst God's Saints

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Honourable Laban barged into the church. He had dusted the combined team of ushers and protocols outside. But this lanky usher at the entrance knew his onions; he could not be cracked. He deftly calmed down the boiling honourable.

All the while, Pastor Jacob hugged the pulpit in front giving a powerful charge.

Now that he has been calmed, Laban accepted to be led up the aisle to the special visitor’s seat and absent-mindedly waited for the service to close.

“Jacob, I’ve been looking for some stuff since you and your wife last visited?” Laban said, seated before Jacob who was sprawling behind his table.

Jacob was stung up. His oblong face was shock-stricken, “Sir, stuff? What stuff?”

“My gods.”

“Sir, I don’t get you sir?” Jacob queried.

“I said it was the time you and your wife visited that my gods went missing!”

“Maske-te-bu-ka-sa-ru-me-so-to! What!”

The walls sent back the echo for effect. The door flung open and the secretary rushed in.

“Hope no problem sir,” asked the black-suited lady in words and gesture.

Jacob adjusted his countenance and posture at once.

“No problem, Joy. Thank you.”

No further instruction, Joy exited. The somberness returned.

“Sir, are you insinuating that I, a servant of God, stole your heathen gods?”

“Insinuation is not my concern; all I want is my gods. Your wife could have taken it, you know.” Laban cranked a detour.

“You mean you don’t trust your own daughter too?” Jacob’s fit of surprise festered.

“This is not about trust! She knows the worth of the gods! Don’t you get me, Jacob?”

Jacob sighed audibly.

“I think at this point sir, we need to get home.”

Jacob and Rachael endured Laban’s thorough scrutiny of their apartment. After what looked like a decade Laban appeared shamefacedly from a corner.

“I think I’m done.”

“And what did you find sir?”

Dejectedly, “Nothing really. But, I’m still…”

“I think you owe me an apology sir” Jacob cut in.

“I…,” Laban held back, “Ok, I’m sorry.”

Just before the couple retired to bed, Rachael owned up to the crime. Jacob was about to explode. Rachael saw it coming and quickly played her trump card:

Mammon was the name of her father’s fetish and the house it abides riches must reside. So, the crime was on their behalf.

Expectantly, Laban handed off the grenade pin immediately.   This Adam loved his woman, nay, his greed, too much; he gulped down the whole forbidden apple.

Few days after, Mammon was larger than life in Jacob’s church. He was too sanguineous, having his fingers in all pies.

The testimonies before the congregation and the acrimony among them were about him. The messages from the pulpit and the mess behind it were about him. The flee from righteousness and the fight against it were about him.

All hell broke loose because of stolen gods!

Oh Lord, save your supposedly holy generation from this mammoth corruption from MAMMON infiltration.

1 Timothy 6:10 KJV

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

#pastorbiodunsoretire

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TWO WHISKY BOTTLES IN PASTOR'S HAND: A Lesson in Benefit of the Doubt

#pastorbiodunsoretire

We have just dispersed the congregation. As usual, we sat in a ringed cluster to throw the fellowship-after-fellowship banters. We played freely.

Just then a gift of two whisky bottles was presented to us. We emptied them in no time and threw the bottles down carelessly on the un-cemented floor of our fellowship centre...

Then it dawned on me as I looked towards the main entrance.

What if someone just happened on us! What would run through his mind. A group of gospel ministers chatting and joking vigorously with two empty whisky bottles lying by their side...

“Ewo bi wọn ṣe n rẹrin. Wọn ti gba yo. Ha! Awọn pastors náà n ṣego!” (See them laughing as if there is no tomorrow. They are high. Ha! Even pastors too booze!)

And he would have been right on the surface assessment of things.

Lest I forget, a good member of the fellowship brought those two whiskey bottles of groundnut as a gift to us.

Oh! Wait! You too thought..I can't believe that. You mean you too thought we... O my God! How can you ever think like that?

But you should have given us the benefit of the doubt now, as pastors!

No problem, I think it is high time I practically addressed this issue of damning conclusions:

Challenge

How can I handle evidences that look so real as to putting pressure on me to make damning conclusions about people’s actions?

Introduction

I was in my car driving to a ministration when God dropped this burden on me. It started with a practical illustration and a personal example. I began imagining what would be going through the mind of someone who entered my car and saw the jacket of the CD selection I was playing.

The music was gospel. But the jacket was an antithesis. A half-nude singer and some faces that are anything but gospel artistes completed the jacket graphics. In fact the vendor had to thoroughly convince me that what was inside was gospel music before I could pick it up; many potential Christian buyers who had come before me could not be convinced because of the jacket. I needed the music selection badly, coupled with the fact that the gospel lyrics could be seen on the inside of the jacket, so I bought the CD.

I may not be right in buying it. But someone who enters my car, sees the jacket and concludes that I listen to unchristian music will definitely not be right as well.

That is what we are saying: many times, false evidences appear real. So, we need to watch our steps before jumping to conclusion.

Yes, the person may not be acting right in coming near the appearance of evil (I Thess.5:22), but two wrongs can never make a right – our wrong judgment can never right the wrong.

Benefit of the Doubt

Here are few things to ponder on before we make the vital conclusion:

1. Tract Record of the Person – sometimes, it will do a lot of good to consider the antecedent of the person in question. What has been the testimony of this ‘potential offender’? Then, you will be able to decide whether this singular act, of which even the details are sketchy, is strong enough to perish the track record.

Consider Jesus! How would you feel, someone you know to be a prostitute rubbing Jesus’ feet with perfume? I know you won’t feel anything untoward because you know Jesus too well; not even a scruple of such feeling will cross your mind. But the Pharisee that hosted him when it happened did not have such knowledge, so he judged Jesus wrongly (Luke 7:34 – 39).

When not certain, the first impulse should be, ‘What is his track record?’

2. Abnormal Use of an Object – someone says, abuse is a contraption for ‘abnormal use’.

Wrong conclusions, many times, emanate from putting articles to a use different from what they are meant for. A good example is using a beer bottle to store kerosene or selling groundnut in whisky bottle. One question that anyone who wants to be certain must ask himself: ‘Is there any other use this object can be put to, or is known to be put to, in this environment other than its original purpose?’

That you see an empty whisky bottle in a brother’s house therefore should not make you jump on the next cab to go and tell pastor that he is taking alcohol. Giving him a benefit of the doubt requires you asking yourself question like, ‘Could it be the whisky bottle he bought groundnut in?’

Imagine you passed through the field and saw Shamgar holding an ox-goad. What would you tell the people at home? That Shamgar was ploughing with the oxen. Wrong! Rather, he was making war with the ox-goad. It was an abnormal use but that is the truth – Judges 3:31.

3. Sincere Oversight – I read a weird case study over the internet. Let me render my own version of it for the purpose of this discourse.

A pastor was undressing in his room when he heard the sudden scream of the house-help. Without thinking he rushed out to help. The house-help’s wrapper was in flame. The pastor immediately yanked off the wrapper from her as she fell to the ground with a sharp thud. After putting the fire out of the wrapper, he drew near to help up the house-help who by now has been further weakened by the fall. Just then, the kitchen door opened, and standing at the door was…the wife. Alas, the pastor and the house-help were both naked!

Many interesting comments will pour in if this were to be a post on Facebook. That I know. But let us save that for another day and let me quickly pinpoint a gross oversight on the part of the two persons involved.

The pastor should have had at least something in the name of a cloth on before rushing out. And the house-help erred by having only wrapper on, without any underwear, in another person’s matrimonial home.

Some little things we overlook can cause us a big headache – little foxes destroy the vine. But the oversight notwithstanding, the wife would still have been wrong concluding that her husband is having an affair with the house-help.

So, next time someone displays an annoying oversight, don’t be too harsh, we are all prone to overlooking some things; although there are things we must never overlook...

4. Cultivating A Loving Spirit – So far, we have proved that people can be so sincere in what they do. They may not know or notice that, though sincere, they are sincerely wrong. So, after all said and done, people can be wrong or do wrong things.

But what we are imbuing in us is learning to disabuse our mind from casting a suspicious glance on everything and everyone. We must not always be on the lookout for someone to crucify. It is an attitude deeply rooted in judgmental spirit.

And the scripture says,

Judge not…Matt. 7:1

We must endeavour to confirm all the details, if need be, before drawing any conclusion,

But test and prove all things [until you can recognize] what is good; [to that] hold fast -1Th 5:21 AMP

The proving is not for the purpose of crucifying the person as I earlier said but with the purpose of correcting him in love. Love will only make a cane out of the fault to correct and not a cross out of it to crucify.

Don’t hold on to the fault as a constant weapon for cheap blackmail or a perpetual tool to display superiority complex.

This is one of the practical meanings of the scriptural saying, “Love covers multitude of sins”.

Even God will chastise us mainly with the purpose of correcting us in love. Shalom!

Thank you for your attention.

#pastorbiodunsoretire

BABY COMETH! Doctor Condemned Us to IVF; We Condemned Ourselves to God

I was 29. She was 28. We were both virgins on our wedding night. Equipped with tornadoes of blessings at our wedding, we strolled towards the easy-looking journey of making baby.

Months piled and it seemed it was not as easy as it seemed. Asake mi shed blood every month without let. A mountain is gradually rearing out of an anthill. Her mood got corrupted and worsened by the day. We didn't bargain for this, Lord. Though she confessed she had feared this most. Like Job, the thing she feared has dawned on us. In a year's time, we became hospital definition of infertility. No, babies weren't coming at all. Miscarriages would have been a better deal - at least our joy would have gone up some scales. This is no carriage at all.

I knew her to be in the choir before our union but I put her in the children department instead, from the outset of our union in our new church. That helped a bit. More so, one of the church sisters submitted her two sons to easily associate with Asake mi. In fact, the people in our neighbourhood took them for her children. But, what is yours is yours, which makes the dunghill to gladly hug the rag. We were not counting in months again but in years.

But, we were led to each other through prayer. And having been put in a courtship that traversed my church scrutiny, her church scrutiny and her mother's church scrutiny, we related six unblemished years before going down the aisle. What is our fault? Where did we go wrong? Asake mi was becoming an emotional wreck and she often took it out on those who came to live with us from time to time.

Medically, we tried. My sister recommended a gynaecologist in the township where she lived. That is a hundred kilometre from us. We had no option. Many sessions followed and I was brought into the picture. My semen analysis needed to be done. And that seemed to be it.

It was suboptimal and subsequent results showed it was even depreciating the more. I was placed on a drug to boost it while we were placed on sex timetable that would create enough space between each session and that would cumulatively come up in her most productive period of the month. I never appreciated the permutation and combination I did in my secondary school maths until then. Some times we were not feeling like it, but we must force it because we were now trying to make baby, not love. Observance followed observance but it all went flat just like the machete will always land on its flat side even if you throw it up a thousand times. After a while, our patronage waned till it grinded to a halt.

But people around us would not let us be. My wife's boss got so much concerned and coughed out a hundred thousand naira for us to visit one of the best fertility specialists in Lagos. The money 'entered' my eyes but how can somebody love you and you can't even manage to feign that you love yourself. We played along and went to the infertility clinic in one of the highbrow areas of Lagos. All the money was the consultation fee.

N100,000 just like that, in 2011! It is well o.

They ran some tests on us and after that it was face-to-face with the medical director. He analytically broke the good news of our results to us. My sperm count was so low and male hormones in my wife so high that if we ever hoped to have children in our life, it must be through IVF.

IVF is in-vitro fertilisation. Let me explain using my elementary knowledge of college biology. When the male sperm fertilises the female egg inside the body of the woman, that is in-vivo fertilisation. And that is the normal course of nature for humans being a mammal. Since, we have been declared incapable of achieving that, they will have to take my wife's egg and my sperm outside our body and fertilise them in the laboratory. And when the tiny baby has started growing, they will send it back to Asake mi's womb to complete the process therein. See medical wonder.

Stories over, now let's get down to business. How much?

N500,000 only.

So, I have only heard 'kesekese' of N100,000 and I was ranting and raving. Now see 'kasakasa', 'kesekese's bullying father. Hold on! More is still to come. Indeed what is behind six is more than seven.

 N500,000 is only for one shot. You will need two shots to boost your chance of success.

N500,000 × 2 = N1,000,000. Jesus of Nazareth!

This is a million-naira baby! Not when my N35,000 monthly salary in my private employment has been fixed in formalin for the last five years. Wait! It seemed the lips of the doctor was still moving:

"The success rate is 50/50."

What! After a million naira. "Ile-ya, odun Imale," (It's time to go home) I told my wife, like Abraham would have told Isaac when Moriah show was over.

We got home and the atmosphere changed. All emotional agitation of Asake mi stopped. My spiritual undulation around God's firm promise of a baby boy to me stopped. We jettisoned all medical permutation and medication. We even ignored the mounting messages and calls from the fertility centre's marketer attached to us reminding us to come and do the IVF like plague.

We chose to hit the restore-to-default button of our spiritual settings and it worked like magic. Asake mi and I began living and loving like the companions God has made us to be. We were enjoying our lives - strong communion with God and with each other. Two more years passed. The two halves are now equal. Six years before marriage we courted and six years after marriage we waited.

Then it happened.

One fateful day in September, it dawned on us that Asake mi had been about eight days up. No single drop of blood in her pants. I was a medical laboratory scientist. I brought the test strip home the following day. I collected her blood and allowed it to settle in the sample bottle. I didn't have the luxury of time to wait for detection through early morning urine. I dipped the strip in the supernatant plasma. And we waited with bated breath. This was not our first time. Menstrual delays had varied between five to even ten days in the past only for our tests to end in one line and the menses to turbulently come many days after. Will this be another one line? All our attention was on it.

Oh my God, two lines for the first time in history!

Asake mi is pregnant. No sperm-boosting drug, no IVF. Asake is pregnant.

I have a Father that will never never fail me
I have a Father that will never never fail me
Jesus is my Father, he will never never fail me
Rock of ages never never fail

We couldn't contain our joy as we hugged, sang, laughed, danced and thanked God. It was a night to remember. And God is good. He kept the pregnancy till it came to full term and at exactly 10 months, a bouncing baby boy was born unto us.

And what other name could we give him. We named him IniOluwanimi - God's property!

THOUGH IT TARRY, WAIT FOR IT; FOR IT WILL SURELY COME. AT THE END, IT SHALL SPEAK!

TO DANCE OR NOT TO DANCE: Consider This Before Making That Trending Dance Move in Church!

Fred Luter, Pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church

Dance is more than a physical thing. When you are dancing, God is looking at your heart. Are you dancing to show off that you know how to dance the new dance in town? Or you are purely praising God and your dance steps are just flowing out spontaneously from that heart of praise. (The only manifestly wrong dance steps are the ones that mimick sexual movements or danced erotically.)

But then, there is a principle Paul called expediency principle.

All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not EXPEDIENT: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any (1 Corinthians 6:12 KJV)

 It is for mature minds in Christ - those who by reason of use have exercised their mind to discern between right and wrong. So, he says eating food is nothing to him but if it will cause his weak brother to stumble, he will not eat it. What is the import of that?

Gbeseing or not gbeseing may mean nothing to me. If I dance it, it doesn't add to me. If I don't dance it, it doesn't remove from me. So I can consciously make myself not to dance it because of the negativity many of the young minds around me might have attached to it due to the current trend of things in the world; my dancing it would have done only one thing for them - they get emboldened to dance it though they were initially secretly feeling guilty about it.

But that is not even the main issue. By my action, I'm helping them to kill their conscience which I ought to have helped them to gradually build. In the end, their conscience gets thwarted to do even other manifestly wrong things their conscience was not bold enough to do earlier. So, my liberty I have used as an occasion for offence in others. And the Bible says woe unto him through whom offence comes.

Every language is arbitrary. That is, nothing has meaning until language attaches a meaning to it. So, we call it stone because language attaches the name stone to that object.

This applies to everything in life. A dance has no meaning until culture or trend attaches meaning to it. Though you are not bound by that meaning, yet, you are bound by love to help many who are still bound to such meaning since your not dancing it will not in anyway remove from you. And more so, you have many other dancing steps as options.

Many of these invented dances I'm sure I must have spontenously danced them many years ago because I was very creative in spontenously inventing dance steps while praising God then. But whenever the world trending system invents a dance step or attaches a corrupting signification to a dance step, I consciously steer clear of it to help many young ones whose destinies are tied to mine.

We must learn to bear other's burden as a child of God; that is how to lay down our lives for others like Jesus.

Thank you for your audience.

Pastor A.J. Soretire