Coping with stress Week 22, 2015

 I believe Christians are in for a time of hardship; persecution if you like. Lately the matter has been turning up repeatedly as one goes to the word. I believe it not just because the scriptures say “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in union with Christ Jesus will be persecuted” 2Tm 3:12(GNB). If I see well enough a phase of national and international hard times await the genuine disciples who would follow Jesus and not deviate to the left or the right. This write-up is not to debate that but to give you tools (a tool specifically) to stand firm throughout. In His race on earth Jesus used this tool Himself, and it is on record that using it through God’s help He victoriously passed through the worst suffering victoriously. If Jesus needed tools to get through inescapable difficulty, hardship and trial you need tools too. Since Jesus used this and succeeded I commend it to you. We must never stop looking to Jesus. He is the leader of our faith, and he is the one who makes our faith complete. He suffered death on a cross. But he accepted the shame of the cross as if it were nothing because of the joy he could see waiting for him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God's throne Heb 12:2(ERV). Look beyond the shame and disgrace your uncompromising stand is giving you. See beyond the pain and anguish you are called to endure: set your eyes beyond what is seen to what is unseen. Paul the apostle used the same tool: This light, temporary nature of our suffering is producing for us an everlasting weight of glory, far beyond any comparison, because we do not look for things that can be seen but for things that cannot be seen. For things that can be seen are temporary, but things that cannot be seen are eternal 2Cor 4:17, 18(ISV).  

Saint of God what God will give you is not worth comparing with whatever grief, deprivation, suffering and pain you have to put up with. Remember this. The time of glory and reward from His hand is by far longer than the time of pain and confusion; by far longer as eternity is longer than the longest lifespan.

What are you seeing beloved? An athlete’s eyes are set to the finish line. In a race Hussein Bolt ran he looked up at the clock and slowed down. It is said he saw he was not about to break the world record then. In endurance what your mind meditates on is critical to the outcome. Critical I say since the word “because” is there: because we do not… So long as the eyes are on the present the afflictions won’t work it out. The working out occurs while, and because, we are looking for eternal things. The Israelites on their wilderness journey went through hardships allowed (even designed) of God. Those whose minds were not looking into the land of promise, who saw only the present sufferings and the “good things they left behind” and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt Act 7:39(KJV)  (Ever heard it said “If I were not a Christian I would have…”) had nothing worked out for them. They went through the hardship and fell in the wilderness. Get set for action.

Disguised by praise Week 21, 2015

Now there was a man from the Pharisees, a leader of the Jews, whose name was Nicodemus. He came to Jesus at night… Jn 3:1-2(ISV).  It was a high level visitation. I suppose today it would be as if a member of the Federal Executive Council paid a visit. No, more than that for Nicodemus was more than a political figure; he was a religious one too. The visit would perhaps be likened to having one of the top pastors/ priests come to you. He praised Him saying "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent by God. No one could perform the miracles you are doing unless God were with him." Jn 3:2(GNB).  I would have said “What recognition! So now they know my importance. They realise my worth and place in the scheme of things” and say to the visitor “Thank you very much sir. You see this ministry has been set up by God and appreciates such a visit as yours.” And then probably publicise the visit on our website, announce it in the news and to members so they can be encouraged. In short get the maximum benefit. But no.  Jesus recognised a need was disguised in the praise. Jesus answered, "I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again." Jn 3:3(GNB).  Would some have hinted at Nicodemus making a donation or supporting their ministry financially? “What is wrong with that?” you say. That’s just the point. Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself Gen 14:21(KJV) is what Satan says yet to you today. It’s so sad when we miss the real need and poach on crumbs. Sometimes we have even given back the glory to God for such praise as we prayed in the night only to hear God say “I did not send him/her to you for that but for you to fish a soul into my kingdom!” Have you missed it before too? Did you accept praise and fail to see and respond to the disguised need? Repent.

Praise coming from another can deflect the deepest need of the individual sometimes. Do you realise when someone says “Ah we thank God for you O!” the appropriate response is not necessarily “Thank you and God bless you”? Consider also the spontaneous outburst of praise by another. A woman. As Jesus was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and told him, "How blessed is the womb that gave birth to you and the breasts that nursed you!" Lk 11:27(ISV)  I don’t know about you but praise from the opposite sex can be very intoxicating. Remember its effect in Saul’s times? Well at this time with Jesus He recognised the need disguised by the praise. But he said, "Rather, how blessed are those who hear God's word and obey it!" Lk 11:28(ISV)  She needed to be told to heed the words she heard. Yet at the appropriate time and setting Jesus receives praise. Lk 19:35-40.    

O man of God, o woman of virtue; be sensitive. The praise that comes to you from men saying “That was a powerful message! Thank God for you.” may need a response of “Whatever you think you see in me God can do far more in you when you fully release yourself to Him.” and “Have you repented?”

Released from detention Week 20, 2015

Why would God ever allow the righteous to suffer? How could the Almighty stand by and watch the innocent maltreated and betrayed? What good could ever come from injustice? Hard questions. Have you ever considered how God planned to save the Philippian jailer and his entire household and so allowed Paul and Silas to be brutally whipped and thrown into the inmost prison? It is hoped this true account will provide some insight. It happened in 2006 in Enugu state CID.

I just could not bear to see the old man put on detention that night with the other builders. They had no fault of theirs; simply working as instructed when they were wrongly accused and whisked off to the station.  I had repeatedly called our lawyer to intervene, and he requested I speak with wisdom to the police officer in charge. But after so many hours it was clear he was unable to show up on time to bail them, and now all were to pass the night in police detention. “Allow me to take the place of that man.” I requested of the police officer. “Is that so?” he responded; and put me in detention with one of the workers. To my chagrin he also put the old man in detention too, only the cell he was put in with others was less notorious. I still recall the officers - Seageants Jara and Omeke.

In my cell we were 23 persons crammed into a small space with a horrible stench. Our entire toilet was in the same cell and we just had our singlets on top.  One of the inmates forced me to my knees and approached with a broom to whip me (a customary abuse in there) when boldness loomed inside me and I cried out “Don’t hit me I am a pastor!” Amazingly, and to my relief, he paused and inquired why I was there. As part of the welcome a new inmate was required to pull himself up towards the ceiling, call his girlfriend and remain in that position indefinitely (until she came – something that was not going to be). My assigned punishment that night was to pray until all were released from the cell. In the morning I was mandated to handle morning devotion. Everyone there had to say what brought him there, and the stories were nasty. Eighteen armed robbers, two murderers, and one rapist. I was in a cell with violent criminal men. To the glory of God during the devotion these hardened men were melted by God’s spirit to tears and every single one of them made a commitment to Jesus. God had answered the prayer: everyone was now free from a deeper dungeon of sin and Satan. As far as you're concerned, you were planning evil against me, but God intended it for good, planning to bring about the present result so that many people would be preserved alive Gen 50:20(ISV). I believe the purpose of God in allowing all these to happen was to win these souls to Jesus.

What became of those souls? Well the one who was detained along with me went to theological school and is an ordained minister today. And so I am sure that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it on until it is finished on the Day of Christ Jesus Phil 1:6(GNB).

When He allows you to suffer beloved there are sinful ones to save from hell.

Okochaeze is an Artist in Enugu

The waiting harvest Week 19, 2015

I was in a hurry. I seem to be in a hurry these days. My well planned and very tight schedule was coming apart. There was an operation to perform, a burial to attend, a clinic to run, banking and other transactions to make within a time limit, and the vehicle repair was not meeting up with time. Even though the baby for surgery was there on time (something that had not happened in a long time) the anaesthetist was not going to be available for another hour and half or so. “Perhaps I should just find my way to the clinic and save time” I thought as I sat on the chair changing into my outdoor footwear close to the patient’s mother who was waiting patiently.

Suddenly I remembered it had been said sometime by someone “when there is a delay in surgery it is an opportunity to bring the good news to the patient relation”. So be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Eph 5:15-18(NLT). For a moment I hesitated, considering putting it off. Thankfully I approached her with my socks in hand and struck a conversation. Her child was born with a hole in the lip and roof of the mouth – a cleft of the lip and palate. It was easy to draw the similarity between that and our condition as sinners. For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. Ps 51:5(NLT). A charitable group was sponsoring the surgery with money; but Jesus paid for our own treatment with His lifeblood. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in.  He paid with Christ's sacred blood, you know... 1 Peter 1:18-19(message). I told her the baby was not meant to be like this, just as we were not designed to be sinners. God would work on us by what Jesus had done to make us what we should really be. Just as she had brought this child for surgery, had she ever come to God specifically to have Him wash her of sin and do His work in her? I actually anticipated an answer in the affirmative. Instead she was silent, as though she struggled with something. “Would you like to ask Jesus now to come into your heart?” was the natural question. With tears rolling down her cheeks we prayed together, she first silently and then both of us. After the prayer I noticed the prayer chaplet on her hands; she must have been religious. I put on the remaining shoe on my foot and went instead to get some follow up literature for her which she readily received. I learned a resident was already covering the clinic for me, and alternative arrangements were on hand for the burial. I then remembered in my (rather hurried) morning devotion I had prayed for souls in the hospital to be saved. What would it have been like if I insisted on running after my programme and missed the golden opportunity laid out for me? There was no voice, nothing felt like a burden, just a silent reminder and yet God had prepared a harvest waiting to be plucked. You say, don't you, 'In four more months the harvest will begin?' Look, I tell you, open your eyes and observe that the fields are ready for harvesting now! I have sent you to harvest what you have not worked for. " Jn 4:35(ISV)