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Tag: Understanding

  • Do not lean on your own understanding – By Femi Aribisala

    Do not lean on your own understanding – By Femi Aribisala

    “God is not just the God of the possible: He is more pre-eminently the God of the impossible”.

    Jesus used five loaves of bread to feed 5,000 people. He then used seven loaves to feed 4,000. Nevertheless, instead of reaching the conclusion that because of Him they would never again have to worry about bread, His disciples were still concerned when they forgot to bring bread with them on a trip.

    He rebuked them, saying: “Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?” (Mark 8:17-18).

    From Jesus’ questions, we can extract certain principles about trusting God.

    Unreasonable trust

    Jesus asks: “Why do you reason because you have no bread?”

    You don’t need to trust God just for what is reasonable. What is reasonable will come to pass because it is reasonable. But you need to trust God for what is unreasonable. Solomon says: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5).

    God is not just the God of the possible: He is more pre-eminently the God of the impossible. Jesus says: “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” (Luke 18:27). God does not receive as much glory for the reasonable as He does for the unreasonable. Therefore, the more unreasonable the situation, the better it is to trust in God’s intervention.

    This was the case with Abraham. God promised him an heir. However, he delayed fulfilling the promise until it was impossible. He waited until Abraham was 100 years old and, presumably, sexually inactive, and his wife, Sarah, had long reached her menopause. Then He renewed their bodies and gave them Isaac.

    So doing, He stretched the faith of Abraham. “Against hope (Abraham) believed in hope.” (Romans 4:18). Thereby God was glorified.

    Spiritual understanding

    Jesus asks: “Do you not yet perceive nor understand?”

    How do you know anything?  Do you know it by what someone tells you; by the books you read, or by what you see?  That is not the source of true knowledge.

    True knowledge comes by faith. It is by faith that we come to the knowledge of the impossible. It is by faith we are brought to the understanding of what God can do. What does it mean to know something by faith?  “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17). This means true knowledge comes from what God tells us.

    Peter did not know he could walk on water until Jesus told him to do so. He believed Jesus, got out of the boat and walked on water. But even as faith comes by hearing, even so, faith goes by not believing what we hear. When Peter took his eyes off Jesus and looked instead at the waves, he started to drown. He started drowning because he believed his lying eyes and stopped believing the truth of God’s word.

    Fake news

    Do you believe the truth, or are you a captive of CNN, BBC, Sky News, and Al Jazeera?

    It was carried in the news that Jesus had been defeated by His adversaries. They had arrested Him and killed Him by nailing Him to a tree. This dashed the hope of those in Israel who thought He is the Messiah. Except that this factual report of His defeat was in actual fact a lie.

    Isaiah asks: “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (Isaiah 53:1). The arm of the Lord is revealed to those who believe the report of the Lord.

    Jesus rebuked His disciples for failing to believe the report of His resurrection. He was angry because they believed the report of the “BBC” and not the report of the prophets. He said to them: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:25-26).

    He was angry because He had told them beforehand that He would be killed but would rise from the dead on the third day. (Luke 18:31-33). Nevertheless, they still did not believe when what He predicted came to pass. Natural men say: “Seeing is believing.”  But Jesus stands this on its head by telling doubting Thomas: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29).

    Hardened heart

    Jesus asks: “Is your heart still hardened? Having eyes, do you not see?”

    What do you see?  Do you see God at work, or do you see the devil at work?  Can you see what God is doing in spite of the hullabaloo around you?  The hardened heart refuses to accept the truth of God. God’s truth does not change his philosophy.

    Jesus says: “The miracles I do in My Father’s name speak for Me, but you do not believe because you are not My sheep.” (John 10:25-26). The hardened heart sees a miracle denies it, rationalizes it, or explains it away. The reason is simple, the human heart is not fashioned to receive the truth. It can only receive lies.

    Jesus says: “This people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” (Matthew 13:15).

    Therefore, in order to trust God we need a new heart. God says: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26).

    Forgetful hearers

    Jesus asks: “Having ears, do you not hear? Do you not remember?”

    Do you know when it is God who is talking to you even though he might be using the mouth of a friend to do so?  Do you ask God a question and expect Him to answer?  Jesus says: “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10: 27).

    Do you remember what God has done?  If He has done it before, He will do it again. He says: “I the Lord do not change.” (Malachi 3:6). Do you remember what God has said?  If He said it, He will do it. “God is not a son of man, that he should change his mind.” (Number 23:19).

    God is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the beginning as well as the ending. That means He will never begin what He does not intend to bring to completion. If you ever see Him move in your project, it means He is committed. “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6).

    The enemy is a thief. Do not allow him to steal your dreams. Do not allow him to steal your testimonies. “He who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:25).

  • Understanding kingdom dynamics – By Femi Aribisala

    Understanding kingdom dynamics – By Femi Aribisala

    By Femi Aribisala

    “The things of men are the things of Satan”.

    Christians do not love God. We are not interested in the kingdom of God. Instead, we love life. We love this world. We are lovers of pleasure. We do not want to suffer for Christ’s sake and for the sake of the kingdom of God.

    We love money, worship money, and serve money. We have idols in our hearts. We want to gain this world and the world to come. We want to have our cake and eat it too.

    Making godly choices

    But choices must be made. We either choose life and live, or we choose death and die. We either hate this life and live, or we love this life and die. Do we want this life, or do we want the life to come? We cannot have both.

    Are we living for this world, or are we living for the world to come? Are we living for man, or are we living for God? Are we living for the flesh, or are we living for the Spirit? Are our treasures on earth, or are they in heaven? Do we want the life we have, or do we want the life Jesus wants to give us?

    God kills before he makes alive. He does not put new wine in old bottles. The spiritual man is not a reformed man. The spiritual man is a completely new creation. He is the man birthed by the Spirit of God. Jesus says: “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” (John 3:3).

    Carnal Christians

    Paul berated the Corinthian church: “I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?” (1 Corinthians 3:1-3).

    They were supposed to be spiritual but were carnal. They were behaving like natural men when they were supposed to be spiritual men. Paul says: “You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” (Romans 8:9).

    Carnality involves the preoccupation with things of the flesh and those pertaining to the material world. Spirituality involves the concern for heavenly things of the spirit or the soul.

    Man is flesh and blood, but God is a spirit. Jesus says: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6). The two are immiscible: worlds apart. Jesus says: “What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15).

    Man is natural, but God is spiritual. “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

    Man is flesh and blood, but God is spirit. Nothing good comes from the flesh. (Romans 7:18). The flesh is human nature. It is sinful nature. It is the body of death. It is the body of sin. It is that part of man that is always in opposition to God. It is the part that causes us to sin.

    “The works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like.” (Galatians 5:19-21).

    Those who are controlled by the flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God. But those who are ruled by the Holy Spirit are heirs of eternal life: “God’s Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. There is no law against behaving in any of these ways.” (Galatians 5:22-23).

    Walking in the flesh

    God did not redeem the flesh. Instead, He condemned sin in the flesh. Accordingly, “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:5-8).

    Nevertheless, Christians continue to walk according to the flesh. We continue to talk like mere men. Even those who are born again are still carnal. The conundrum is that when we look in the mirror, we discover that we are looking the same after we receive Christ into our lives.

    After the advent of the Holy Spirit, we are still doing the same things. We are still eating and drinking. We are still struggling to make ends meet. We are still going to the hairdressers, going to the barber, buying and wearing new clothes and shoes.

    However, we ignore one simple injunction:

    “From now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:15-17).

    We must not know ourselves again according to the flesh. How we look on the outside no longer matters. The issue now is how we look on the inside. “For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7).

    As a result, we are still mindful of the things of men and not of the things of God. Jesus says by their fruits you shall know them (fruit of the Holy Spirit). But we still know people by their outward appearance. We know them by how rich or influential they are. We know them by how beautiful, handsome, or well-dressed they are. We know them by what brand of car they drive, or what make of cell phone they use.

    Man-made things

    When Peter tried to dissuade Jesus from going to the cross, Jesus rebuked him. He said to him: “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:23).

    This means, from God’s point of view, the things of men are the things of Satan. All the products of this world are man-made and not God-made. They all come from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This ensures that everything man-made is evil. No matter how “good.” Everything man-made has evil in it.

    However, everything God-made is good. Nothing God-made has evil in it. Everything God-made is a blessing: “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.” (Proverbs 10:22).

  • Understanding our spiritual distractions, By Stephen Ojapah

    Understanding our spiritual distractions, By Stephen Ojapah

    ​Stephen Ojapah MSP

     

    Be sober; be vigilant, because your enemy the devil is prowling round like a roaring lion, looking for someone to eat. Stand up to him strong in faith (1 Peter 5: 8-9). This text is preceded by the words of Saint Peter in verse 7, when he said, ‘cast all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you’. There is a lawSaint Peter is trying to establish here, and that is the law of Christian effort and the law of Christian vigilance. He said we must be sober and watchful. The fact that we cast everything upon God does not give us the right to sit back and do nothing. The advice of the Lord Protector of England, Oliver Cromwell, to his troops was: ‘Trust in God, and keep your powder dry, ‘ Peter knew how hard this vigilance was, for he remembered how in Gethsemane he and his fellow disciples had slept when they should have been watching with Christ (Matthew 26:38-46).

    Christians are men and women who trust but at the same time put all their effort and their vigilance into the business of living for Christ. Another important law proposed by Saint Peter is the Law of Christian resistance. The devil is always out to see whom he can ruin. Again, Saint Peter must have been remembering how the devil had overcome him and he denied his Lord. Our faith must be like a solid wall against which the attacks of the devil exhaust themselves in vain. The devil is like any bully, and retreats when he is bravely resisted in the strength of Jesus Christ.

    The spiritual distractions around us are numerous and often we are not able to name and get hold of them. Saint Peter has offered us some laws to get hold of what we go through daily in life, namely; being sober, vigilant, and having a strong faith. Dom Lorenzo Scupoli in his book The Spiritual Combat, said: “All earthly things, except those absolutely necessary, must die through our complete disregard for them, even though they are not wrong in themselves. We must control our minds and not permit them to wander aimlessly about. Our minds must become insensible to mundane projects, to gossip to the feverish search for news. Our indifference to the affairs of this world must give them a dream-like quality.

    But how ‘impossible’ to live in the 21st century without thinking of mundane projects which is one of the major causes of spiritual distractions. Sadly, Technology has taken mundane projects to high seat of ‘honor’ and ‘prestige’, that many people are eager to associate with it, a clear mark of progress and achievement is to be associated with such mundane projects.Nigeria just wrapped up the airing of big brother NIJA: A reality TV show that kept house mates in one house for weeks. A live broadcast that kept the house mates in the public eye, with all the decent and indecent scenes. These men and women are seen by so many companies and young stars as role models. And they are accorded the honor and title of a celebrity, a public ambassador for so many advertisement. I don’t want to go into the deeper analysis of the time wastage and resources for want of time, but this is why I feel it’s one of the spiritual distractions of our time and a mundane project: There are so many deceases and sicknesses that have ravage our country and our world. Imagine if young brilliant Nigerians were assembled with such resources and given the task of thinking through the problems and coming up with solutions. That would have been a project that will edify the mind and give glory to God.

    Gossip is another spiritual distraction of our generation. In Nigeria, women are often referred to as gossips, majorly because of those who are idle or fulltime housewives. It is almost presumed that their joblessness, will naturally elicit idle talk and vain chatter. But experience has shown that reverse is the case, men do more of the gossips and vain chatter even with their so called busy schedules. Gossips are not about men or women. Thousands of men and women engage in it at the expense of their spiritual lives. And sometimes even when it means spreading fake rumors about a brother or a sister.

    Fake news has gained international status, there are untrue stories of people and events spreading like wildfire every day and everywhere. The CEOs of Facebook, Twitter, and Whatsapp have had to testify before so many Country’s Houses of Assembly and the US Congress as a result of fake news that is been propagated using their applications . Very often at the end of the fake rumor or news, the destroyed persons never get back the lives again. So many funding agencies have committed millions of dollars to fighting fake news. For me as Christian and a priest, understanding fake rumor as spiritual distraction, is a big step in fighting the scourge.

    Feverish search for news is one big spiritual distraction also. It is almost in the same category with fake news. While feverish search for news acts like a subject, gossips acts like an object. In feverish search for news, the individual engages in what SaintPaul refers to as busy bodies (2 Thessalonian 3:11). We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Going about in search of what to report by all means. St Paul will say these people are “interfering with everyone else’s’. And doing no work themselves. Such persons are everywhere in our systems.

    Finally, it’s difficult to always understand spiritual things, as they are not sensible to our biological sensors. All of our physical actions have spiritual benefits or defects. To understand them well we must be men and women who pay less attention to the material and mundane things which only weigh down the soul.

    Fr Stephen Ojapah is a priest of the Missionary Society of St Paul. He is the director for Interreligious Dialogue and Ecumenism for the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto. A member of the Inter-Faith Dialogue Forum for Peace (IDFP). And a Fellow with the International Dialogue Center (KAICIID) .(omeizaojapah85@gmail.com)

  • A plea for understanding in Zamfara tech shutdown – Okoh Aihe

    A plea for understanding in Zamfara tech shutdown – Okoh Aihe

    By Okoh Aihe

    I begin this material with a solicitation that you join me in prayers for a dear friend, Ahmed Abudulkadir who was kidnapped on Monday along with his daughter in Bakori, near Funtua in Katsina State. Ahmed is a nice fellow, a genuine go-happy gentleman who has no time for misery and regrets.

    Ahmed has served his people without holding anything back. He was General Manager, Katsina State Television, before joining the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) where he retired as the Zonal Director in Maiduguri. The Maiduguri Zone also includes: Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi and Yobe. Before the Maiduguri posting, Ahmed was Head, Public Affairs of the Commission. It will be pertinent to observe here that with all the dangers in the Zone which includes the dreaded Sambisa forest, Ahmed traversed the whole of the area before retiring into farming in his native Katsina State.

    Ahmed is a good man. Go to his Facebook posts and you will be overwhelmed with the love of one man for his family. Those who took him should look at the face of one gentleman that has given his best to his people and country and, please, release him to continue with his simple life. Let those who know how to pray, pray that God should come through for Ahmed and bring him and his daughter home safely.

    Without a doubt things are spinning out of control in the country, demanding of all of us to encourage and support government in its actions to deal a lasting blow on the enemies of the land before the situation festers beyond redemption.

    The nation is not at war but some people are going through war daily. They say there is peace and some unsavory developments are exaggerated; the peace is as good as a man and the young daughter being kidnapped and that man, who is a father, is unable to play the role of a father and defend his family. Villages are attacked for hours and nearly obliterated but help does not come. The attackers choose very soft targets where they can engage in looting and in the dance of death unhindered and people are wondering what is going on in the land. Something has to give. And that came last week.

    For the first time government took a decision to shut down telecommunications operations in Zamfara State to enable the gallant Nigerian forces intensify their operations in that part of the country, and the document which is top secret found its way to the public space and it has been trending ever since. I have asked myself severally, how did this happen? Who released this document without even contemplating the implications?

    “The second paragraph of the letter dated September 3, 2021, reads: “The prevailing security situation in Zamfara State, has necessitated an immediate shutdown of all telecommunications services in the State from today September 03, 2021. This is to enable relevant security agencies carry out required activities towards addressing the security challenge in the State,” the letter said.

    I have looked at this material I couldn’t find anywhere it is marked ‘Top Secret.’ How could somebody make that type of puerile mistake where lives are concerned?

    Be that as it may, I have also tried to assess the behavior of whoever leaked the letter, there is no justification whatsoever. I admit that this government may have engaged in some actions that were unwarranted and really irritating sometimes, making the citizenry to hold some of its actions in suspect, but that should not make anybody in the country to underestimate the danger staring us in the face.

    I have been reliably informed that the letter was not intended for the public because of the security implications but the public got it, and I am suggesting that the public also get the more sobering message, which is to the effect that the situation in the land is no more a handshake between friends. It has never been. The hold has gone beyond the elbow and only this government enjoys the reason why it cannot declare these bandits terrorists.

    Some guy spoke to me on Monday morning and painted a grim picture of what is happening in some of these States where the war on terror has been raging. The source explained that for whatever reason the bandits have taken arms against the nation, the acquiescing conspiracy of the locals, among them informants, is even more dangerous and damaging. Among the locals are the agents who the bandits pay heavily; they include suppliers of food, diesel, fuel, and other necessities. My source lamented that it is worse when the security forces believe they are fighting for the people only for a tiny few among these people to betray their commitment and sacrifice with results that can be very discouraging, damaging and even deadly.

    “They have informants all over the place and they are paying those people heavily. The people are doing it as a means of livelihood without knowing the dangers their actions constitute to the nation,” the source said.

    From all indications, what is being done is so technical that the ordinary folks were not supposed to be in the loop. There is a way the neighbouring States are affected causing some parts of Sokoto, Katsina, Kebbi, Kaduna and Niger to suffer some collateral damage by propinquity. The technicality or those involved in the chain of implementation of the government’s directive shouldn’t be our concern but the results. I remain miffed by the fact that a communication was even released to this effect, which nearly jeopardized the entire process. My source is however encouraged by the results coming to them from the field of operations.

    Here is my appeal. The situation in the land is so dire and so potentially explosive that we need, as a people, to escalate our thinking process and be able to squeeze reason out of irrationality. In the war against terror, government needs help and Nigerians should give it even at a cost.

    For instance, the people of Zamfara are under a very terrible situation at the moment. That is a grave cut. The security forces are ready to pay with their lives by paying the ultimate price. How do we ever pay them back? The operators and their contractors with total service shutdown have taken their own cut. The rest of us should be ready to take a cut and support government’s actions towards bringing this nightmare to an end. This tech disruption in Zamfara is only but a phase that will soon pass.

    Final take. Please remember Ahmed and his little daughter in your orison.

     

  • Eid-el-Maulud: Buhari preaches love, understanding

    Eid-el-Maulud: Buhari preaches love, understanding

    President Muhammadu Buhari has urged Nigerians to use the occasion of this year’s Eid-el-Maulud to reflect on the virtues of the Holy Prophet by demonstrating love and understanding for fellow citizens.

    The president gave the charge in a Maulud message released by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, on Wednesday in Abuja.

    Muslims all over the world celebrate the day to mark the birth of Prophet Mohammed (SAW).

    He enjoined the Muslim Ummah and other citizens to always exhibit the virtues of patience, honesty, sincerity, kindness and generosity in all their undertakings.

    The president urged all citizens, and the youth, in particular, to shun all negative tendencies as manifested in the recent hijacking of peaceful protests to loot and destroy public and private property.

    He also reiterated his earlier promise to bring Police officers responsible for misconduct, as well as looters of the nation’s treasury, to justice.

    On the COVID-19 pandemic, Buhari said that the country had so far managed the problem successfully by keeping the numbers as low as possible.

    He, however, cautioned that Nigerians must not stretch their luck too far.

    “Looking at the trends in the other countries, we must do all we can to avert the second wave of the pandemic. We must make sure that our cases, which have gone down, do not rise again.

    ”Our economy is too fragile to bear another round of lockdown.”

    The president, therefore, advised Nigerians to continue to observe the COVID-19 protocols of social distancing, wearing of face masks and washing of hands.