Monday, 06 Feb, 2012
Steve Popoola is the editor of Biblepraise Newsletter and The founder of Biblepraise Fellowship Online. He lives in London where he works in the IT industry as a software developer. He has served in various capacities as Teacher, singer and writer in the body of Christ. He currently serves as assisting minister in his local church as well as helping out in the Music Ministry. He also speaks at invited chrurches/forums.
A couple of years ago, I was watching Christian Broadcasting Network’s Turning Point program, transmitted on one of the local television stations in Nigeria. There was a feature story on one of CBN’s roving reporters.
When asked about one of his remarkable assignments, he referred to one in which he had asked people on the streets of New York the fundamental question, “Who is Jesus Christ?”
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“Why is that man so ugly, and the mommy so pretty?” Five-year-old Nancy tugged on her mother’s arm, and pointed.
“Sh! Sh!” said her mother. “You wouldn’t want them to hear, would you?”
“But Mommy, he’s ugly! How can that pretty lady stand to look at him?”
The mother glanced toward the couple her daughter was pointing at, quickly taking her child away. But every day during the sea cruise, they saw the couple. Whenever they did, Nancy buried her face in her mother’s clothes. “Mommy, I just can’t stand to look at him. He is so ugly,” she would say.
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How many times have you heard people say the words, ‘Let me tell you the gospel truth?’
Quite a number of people who use this figure of speech don’t even know what the gospel is all about but use this phrase to emphasize the fact in what they are trying to pass across.
The gospel means ‘good news’ and the good news is that though we deserved God’s justice through disobedience to his laws, God Himself decided to pay the full price, to satisfy the demands of His own justice, by surrendering Jesus to die for the sins of humankind.
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Making and keeping promises is one of the things that distinguishes humans from animals. It is also what separates good people from bad ones.
Yes, I can imagine some promises that should be broken. What if I am a junior-high kid who promises his buddy to help get even with somebody who hurt his friend’s feelings by trashing his bike or computer? Then I realize that I’ve promised to do something wrong. Break the promise! You had no right to make it. Adults sometimes get in those situations as well. Think first. Then speak.
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I still remember where I was when it happened. I was in my small IT support office in the bank where I worked. I was sitting before my console, ensuring that the branch users where working without problems when my yahoo messenger client began blinking. ‘Who could do that be?’ I wondered, a bit annoyed that I was being distracted from my work. Then I noticed that it was not just one window blinking, then I opened the first one and my blood ran cold. ‘Terrorist attack on America, plane hits World Trade Centre!”
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Jesus had just cast out a demon from a man possessed (Luke 11:14). As usual, two classes of people reacted to this event. The first were the skeptics. They just did not want to believe that someone would speak to demons and they would simple obey.
They had seen many people possessed and had been helpless to offer any solution whatsoever to the plight of these people. They probably blamed the sufferers for their state and only God knows what exercise in futility they must have subjected those unfortunate people to, in the bid to exorcise the demons oppressing them.
July 22, 2011. A man named Anders Breivik woke up that day knowing he was going to commit what is probably the worst terrorist atrocity in Europe since World War II. He first set out to plant explosives in Oslo which destroyed government buildings and resulted in the deaths of some people, and then he proceeded to the Utoya, an island where a youth camp was being held. He opened fire on the young people, killing 68 of them. The final death toll from his action was 77.
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“Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praise unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.” (Ps 147:1)
God created us for a purpose. We did not just evolve as the proponents of evolution would have us believe. God is a God of purpose and everything He created was carefully thought out in His infinite wisdom.
Again and again, we are called to praise the Lord. This is not because God is lacking of praise – scripture tells us that billions of angels in the heavenlies continually praise the Lord day and night. However, it means that man can never be fulfilled until he enters the place of praise.
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“Why Me?” This is a question people ask when adversity comes calling at a time they do not expect. We seek answers, wondering why others seem to have the best of life and we seem to be enduring the bitter end.
There was a man who was born blind. He grew up not knowing what the sun looked like, though he felt its heat on his body. He never saw the moon nor did he know how the twinkling stars looked like. He must have asked many times over, ‘why me?’ The disciples of Jesus echoed this man’s question when they asked him ‘Who sinned, this man or his parents?’ (John 9:2) Don’t we all ask the same questions today?
As a child, I used to be fascinated with the old art pieces and Bible pictures that showed the saints, Jesus, and disciples with halos and a radiant glow. I did not really understand the concept of spiritual light or the inner light of goodness shining forth, but I did study these pictures carefully hoping for understanding.
Just recently, I have been re-reading the creation story in Genesis, and I was once again reminded that God created light first, separating it from darkness. There was light before sun or moon were created (Genesis 1:1-5). It is difficult to understand the nature and source of that light, but we know that it comes from God.
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