Posts with Tag: faith
I once went on a trip with some of my colleagues at work. Usually when I travel, I would call my wife at intervals just to touch base, to let her know how my journey was progressing and to put her mind at ease about my safety.Somewhere along the journey however, I was not able to place any calls because we were travelling through a route outside of the mobile phone operator’s coverage area. At intervals, I would check the screen of my mobile phone and it would show up blank. It was usually at times like this that I would have an urgent need to call my wife, possibly to pass on some information I didn’t remember earlier. I would stare at the screen of my phone willing the logo of the mobile operator to show.As the journey progressed without gettin...
2 Peter was written at about AD60. As the name of the letter implies, the authorship was credited to Simon Peter, one of the disciples appointed by the Jesus at the beginning of His earthly ministry. The primary audience of the letter was the persecuted church in Asia Minor. Peter knew that the time of his death was imminent and that he needed to get a very important message out to the church. In 2 Peter 3:1, we read that God’s divine power has given us everything we need to live godly lives. As a result of this, Peter says, we need to make every effort to progress in our faith. How do we do this? By adding some elements to our faith. Although these things require human effort, the results are obtained through the grace of God.
Organisations tend to go through a process called rebranding for various reasons. The decision is often based on changing the perception of their customers, especially where their products or services have been the subject of negative publicity. Some rebrand because they have been bought over by other organisations and the new owners have decided to change the branding in line with their own brand.Recently, the popular social media company, Facebook, announced that it had changed it’s company name to Meta. Although they gave reasons for this name change as a reflection of the company’s growing ambitions beyond social media, the fact that this decision was made following a series of negative stories based on documents leaked by an ex-employee has raised eyebrows.
When we are communicating with people we love, we often ask them, “how are you doing?” I hope when we ask that question, we really are interesting in knowing how they are doing and if we are willing to provide support and assistance where it might be needed.This piece is actually my personal letter to you dear reader, how are you? I mean how are you, really? We are no doubt living in unprecedented times with the impact of the Covid pandemic changing the way we have lived in the last one year.Prior to the covid pandemic, the issue of social isolation and loneliness had been on the rise in the UK and elsewhere in the world. This was made worse by the pandemic which forced even the most social of people to restrict their movements. This ha...
Sometimes we pray like pagans and barter with God. "God, if you will do this or that," we beg, "then I will stop what I've been doing and start doing something else!" Pagan prayer - and much that passes for Christian, I fear - is like a giant roulette wheel at a gambling casino. You want to get well. Or you are desperate to pay bills. Or you are scared you are going to die. So you wish hard, close your eyes, and spin the wheel. If you are lucky, you get what you want!Authentic prayers of faith are different. We go to the Lord and do what is normal and right. We ask his help. We throw ourselves on his mercy. But we do so with the caveat, "Not my will, but yours, be done!"That is terribly risky, for we sometimes discover that God doesn't want the things...
Let’s face it, if life was hard before 2020, it became harder in 2020 and we are not even out of the woods yet in 2021. One thing I love about the Bible is that it is not just a Book of instructions and commands, it is also a story of God’s love for man woven through the lives of men and women who who lived for God and taught us what it means to experience God’s faithfulness even in the midst of trouble and uncertainty. No doubt we live in uncertain times. The impact of COVID on the economy of nations as well as families and individuals will be felt for years to come. It is important that we in times like this, we keep the faith. In order to understand what it means to keep the faith, we need to understand what faith is in the Christian context. The scriptur...
In an earlier article, I shared my thoughts on the God who sees. In this piece, I will like to draw your attention to the God who knows.Being human, we are limited by the things we know. There is so much about the universe we live in that we don’t know. Netflix recently released a TV show titled, Surviving Death. I only watched the 1st episode because the other episodes seem to focus more about mediums which I don’t care about. The question scientists were asking was, ‘What happens after death? There was also the question of how people who had been certified dead were able to use their senses when science says, the brain stops functioning after death. I believe that science is only asking the question that scripture already answers for us.Not knowing...
No doubt, 2020 has been a year many around the world couldn’t wait to see the end of. So many things happened in that year that a lot of us have never experienced before. If not anything, the sheer number of people who have died and are still dying directly or indirectly from being infected with COVID has been staggering and unfortunately, this has dovetailed into the beginning of 2021.I have personally not experienced any year since I was born, when Church buildings were closed for services for months on end. I currently live in a part of England which is in the highest tier of COVID restrictions, preventing my Church from opening our doors for services. At this time, there is speculation that restrictions will be tightened up nationwide in order to curb the rate of i...
As a growing Christian, I heard many versions of what it meant to be a Christian. While in come cases, it was presented as a new way of life with its many blessings and sacrifices, in other cases, the Christian faith was presented as the gateway to a life of bliss and nothing to worry about. I also had to deal with different opinions on how a Christian should live and this ranged from austere to very liberal.One of the things that has helped me deal with the various and differing points of view is to not only examine what Jesus said but to also examine what He did not say. So what are the things that Jesus didn’t say? There are quite a lot but I would like to focus on a few things that people seem to believe He said which He didn’t.
Presumption, perception, assumption. These are human traits which attempts to explain circumstances that are not easy to understand with rational thinking. This was exactly what Jesus’ disciples did when they came across a blind man while they were passing through Jerusalem. (John 9:1-3) They initially rationalised that the man’s condition had to be as a result of sin. This can be deduced from the question they asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2) Jesus’ response blew their assumptions out of the water. “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Even Jesus Himself was at the receiving...
As many countries implement various measures to tackle the spread of Coronavirus, I couldn’t help but think of the role that the Church should be playing at this critical time.A few days ago, I was sharing with my wife my thoughts on the effect of the coronavirus lockdown on many churches which meant they could not open their doors to the public. It dawned on me that it didn’t matter whether the church building was a small community hall sitting 20 people or a mega church sitting 50,000 - they were all empty. One fact emerges from this thought, the Church is not made of buildings. No matter how wonderful and lovely they are, how big or small they are, how organised or structured they are, at this time in history, they have become unus...
Life is all about stories and these stories are woven into a complex tapestry revealing the journey of a man or woman through life. From the moment a baby is born, a story begins. Some of these stories are made made up of other stories, while others are seemingly stand-alone stories with a start and an end. Stories are very important. Stories need to be told in order to convey facts that may be required to save a life out to establish the truth. When you are ill and visit a Doctor, the first thing he or she asks you is, ‘Can you tell me what the problem is?’ Most often than not, the patient begins to tell his story. The Doctor, seeking further information will often ask more questions which in turn will generate another set of stories. Analysing those stories co...
I have recently been spending some time on a chapter in the Bible - Hebrews 11. This chapter is often referred to as the Hall of faith due mainly to the fact that it lists the men and women who lived exemplary lives of faith.One thing I noticed about these people was that there was nothing superhuman about them. They were men and women just like you and I. What set them apart was that they decided on a course of action which changed not only their lives but also the destiny of nations.The chapter starts with a definition of faith “as the confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see”. It goes further to say, “This is what the ancients were commended for” (Hebrews 11: 1- 2) One thing that strikes me abou...
In the last couple of days, I have been reading scriptures and devotionals on prayer and I dare say that it has increased my desire and passion towards prayer. It also gave me the opportunity to understand the power that prayer can unleash if we only understand the gift and power that has been placed into our hands as believers. I ask the question, ‘Why Pray?’ because I have found out that in life, if you do not understand the ‘why’ then you will not value the ‘what’. There are various references in scripture which you may have become quite familiar with; “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Watch and pray s...
Are you encountering or have you encountered situations in life where you wonder where God is? Good news! You are not alone. I have been there and done that and so have notable characters in the Bible.The man Gideon was introduced to us at a time when Israel was being constantly raided by the Midianites. He was threshing wheat in a winepress in order to hide it from their enemies who came in at will and carted away all the crops that the people had harvested, thereby impoverishing them.The threshing floor is a stone platform, usually located at the outskirts of the village so that the wind can blow the useless chaff away after the grain has been extracted. This makes it an easy target for the enemy who can see the chaff from afar off and carry out the...
I recently received some good news which made me so joyful and for days, I revelled in God's faithfulness for doing in my life something anyone would have felt was no longer feasible at my age. I shouldn't have been surprised really because it was not the first time that God had come through for me in ways that even I could not explain.A few days later, still basking in the euphoria of what God had done, I received an email which shattered my peace. As much as I tried, my emotions wouldn't let me. They were all over the place and before long, my physical health began to suffer.It was at this point that I decided I could not continue like this. I always thought that there was nothing I could not face with God by my side but all of a sudden, all kinds o...
For the Christian, prayer is simply our direct line to God and it is always on 24/7. My children know how frustrated I get whenever I call them and I get sent to voicemail either because they exhausted their phone batteries and didn't recharge or they placed their phones somewhere while they were elsewhere. When praying to God, you can be sure that there is no point of failure. When we pray in Jesus name, heaven hears us instantly. There is no linking from one communication tower or network to another. It is instant and immediate!Having defined what prayer is, the next logical question is, "Who is qualified to pray?" The only qualification for prayer is having a right standing with God. Without this, prayer is more of a wish list and a gamble. Naturally, the follo...
A commentary on Acts 3: 1-10.As a child, I learnt the art of understand certain 'looks' my mum gave my brothers and I when we were in public and she did not want to voice out her reaction.The looks varied, depending on the severity of our behaviour. Sometimes, you could sense that she was annoyed and other times, you could tell that you were in trouble whenever we got back home.When people look at you, what do they see? Do they see a person who cares for them or do they see someone who is focused on self?One day, Peter and John were on their way to the temple to pray. As they got the the template gate called beautiful, they saw a man who was lame from birth. Every day, he would be carried by others to thi...
I was recently chatting with one of my brothers in Church before Sunday service. We were talking about the impact of the Church should have in the society. He mentioned something that caught my attention. He had come across someone in a town where he had gone on holiday. As he chatted with her, the discussion moved to belief in God. At this point, the woman commented, “I don’t really care about God”. He then asked her whether she knew what the Bible stood for. She said no. Then he told her, “The Bible stands for ’Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth’”, That got the woman’s attention! She had never heard that phrase before and to be honest, neither had I until that moment. Since that chat, I have been thinking about that phrase and the more I thought about...
It had taken many months of preparation, mobilising, praying and fund-raising. June 9, 2018 was the day set for the JustOne event which took place at Priestfield Stadium in Gilingham, Kent, South East of England.I arrived early since I was part of the almost 100-strong JustOne Choir perfoming on that day. As we walked to our reserved seats, I felt the presence and the peace of God in that Stadium as people trooped in from the various entrances and making their way to their seats in orderly manner.As you read this, you must be wondering, what is JustOne? JustOne is a vision by Canon J John to preach God's word in large venues all over England to give people of faith and no faith the opportunity to understand and explore the relevance of Christianity.
