Encounter with the police Week 24, 2017

I am uncomfortable with the police, any police at all, because of the experiences I have had with them. I frequently pray against disturbance when embarking on a journey. I ask for deliverance from accidents, breakdowns and unreasonable wicked men (in and out of uniform). But over ten years ago we had an encounter that changed my perception. We were returning from Gboko to Enugu on a Saturday evening when our red Datsun bluebird stopped us on the road. I managed to park the car off the road and we prayed for mercy. We were around Ugbokolo and the road was lonely. So whenever we are in need, we should come bravely before the throne of our merciful God. There we will be treated with undeserved kindness, and we will find help Heb 4:16(CEV). A police vehicle approached us from the opposite side and one of them inquired why we had stopped. Upon hearing our plight and seeing it was an electrical problem they offered to take my wife into town to find an electrician while I waited. Police!

Whilst they were gone I waited by the car and after a while a trailer driver stopped by to find out what the matter was. I told him and he inspected the car. There were other trailers coming behind him (they appeared to be in a convoy). Having identified the alternator rod that was faulty he checked with the other drivers and as God arranged it, found the right rod and proceeded to replace it. Before he finished the police returned with my wife – and an electrician bearing a charged battery! Not only had they taken her to town, when she was to get the electrician they offered to pay her motorcycle fare. Police – Nigerian police! Having assisted her locate an electrician they reasoned darkness would soon fall and took her in their vehicle back to our car, along with the electrician.

When in the vehicle they were singing in another language, my wife inquired of its meaning. Having told her she asked if they were Christians, born again Christians, and they smiled. “We are disciples” she was told. Their leader was in charge of the bomb squad in Enugu. My wife joyfully let them know we were also born again. They exhorted us to hold firm to Jesus, not to waste the love of Christ which made God move strangers to help us on such a lonely road, and left on their way. The trailer man refused to collect any payment on completing the repairs and left. We took back the electrician after our car started, dropped him off at Ugbokolo, paid him and drove to Enugu without further incident. A light shines in the darkness for the upright, for the one who is gracious, compassionate, and justPs 112:4(ISV).

In the course of time this saint of a policeman had need to come to UNTH for some investigations regarding his blood sugar and met with my wife again. He was a real flesh and blood human being and not an angelic visitor! Having completed his course and run his race he has since gone home to his reward at the feet of Jesus.

But what is God's reply to him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace Rom 11:4-5(ESV).

The stolen generator Week 23, 2017

“That generator is stolen, and you can recover it” was impressed on the police man as he saw a tricycle speeding by 7.ooam of 22^nd May on the opposite side of the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway. “If it is so then God slow them down” he prayed as he turned the car around to pursue. The LORD told David, "Pursue them! You will definitely overtake them and rescue the captives." 1Sam 30:8 (ISV).  Upon reaching and blocking them, 2 occupants fled. Very suspicious, the policeman immediately called for backup. Not knowing I had been robbed at night, I left in the morning as usual. Our children had woken up crying at night but we calmed them. I didn’t realise robbers were in the compound. I lie down and sleep, I wake up, because the LORD sustains me. I will not fear multitudes of people, who set themselves against me on every side. Ps 3:5, 6(ISV) 

The driver claimed total ignorance, and the one with the generator claimed to be authorised to repair it. He called the supposed owner on phone who said to the policeman “I am the owner and gave him to repair it so I can watch a match at night. Mind your own business” but refused to give his location. So an arrest was made and the suspect came to my street to identify the owner, and pointed to a different house. When the guard of that house spoke over the phone in Hausa warning his listeners not to show up, that 2 had fled and the police were around, he was also arrested. The policeman was multilingual and overheard it. He had the guard call the mistress of the house (who incidentally is a member of my church) to inform her of his arrest for complicity in suspected theft. The guard was sent on a tricycle to meet with those he had spoken with, that he was bringing their stuff for them. The police overtook him on the way and waited near the rendezvous.  “Why did you bring the police for us? Tell them we are not coming. We could’ve shot you, we are seeing you” the unseen said to the guard on the phone. So the police asked him to go back, and left after about an hour of unfruitful vigil.

About 6pm I got back into the house and went to put on my generator. Lo! I could find it nowhere. So I got a torch from my wife as I informed her what I noticed. Some blocks had been placed on the ground next to the wall to enable them escape. I wondered how the thieves lifted the generator out. I then went to inform my neighbour about the loss. “Is the generator yours?” he asked “No other neighbour has been able to identify the generator. Come to the police station and claim it.” And so I went to the station where I was told “Are you the one? It is your ‘man of God’ type that is genuine.” It was there the whole story was told me. God has been at work on our behalf and I never knew what was going on. I identified the generator as mine indeed, made the relevant statements and collected it and took it back home.

Indeed “no weapon that is forged against you will be effective. This is the heritage of the LORD's servants, and their righteousness from me," says the LORD Is 54:17(ISV).                                                                                                                             Chukwudi Chukwubuihem is a canon in Enugu diocese, Anglican communion

The price of truth Week 22, 2017

It was becoming too much – this sycophancy. God would not be pleased at all. I was privileged to pastor the wife of the military administrator back in the early 1990s.  We had a fellowship group there in the government house meeting on Thursdays. I would bring many a Pentecostal minister to come and preach the word and participate in fellowship. To my amazement, even though there was much suffering of the populace under the army, they would all praise her husband and tell her he was the best thing that happened to the State. These people are complainers and faultfinders, following their own desires. They say arrogant things and flatter people in order to take advantage of them Jud 1:16(ISV). They made a lot of money out of her. A lot.

I was careful not to take anything from her. What I may say I gained from there financially is that when I wedded I was helped with transport during the traditional rites and assisted also for the white wedding. Yes her tithes were in thousands, which was a lot of money in those days, yet I was particularly careful to maintain integrity. None of the tithes ever went home with me; they were duly submitted to my General overseer. That did not seem to be the same with the ministers of the gospel around me. Once when I invited her over to my church during the program my general overseer praised her husband so much. My eyes met with hers in the midst of it all: we both knew it was insincere.

Her husband never joined us in the fellowship. He would pass us by the corridor and laugh mockingly at us. I never had audience with him until 6 months after the fellowship started. Their only son took ill with a high fever and very late at night an official vehicle was sent to bring me to Government House. I stood in his presence in the bedroom and he asked me, “Man of God what do we do?” The boy was whisked out of the country the next day.

When I couldn’t take the hypocrisy again I openly told her in the fellowship “Please ma if you can talk to your husband do. The people are suffering, salaries have not been paid. This government is the worst!” That was the last fellowship I ever attended. I waited in vain for the official vehicle to pick me the next Thursday and none came. I had a pass to the government house, the one with which I had been entering all this while. I went with it on my own and presented it at the gate. I was informed, “This pass is no longer valid sir”. I could not enter. Others went for the fellowship and that is how it all ended, but I give God glory as I left the government house with virtually nothing. Our appeal to you is not based on error or impure motives, nor do we try to trick anyone. Instead, we always speak as God wants us to, because he has judged us worthy to be entrusted with the Good News. We do not try to please people, but to please God, who tests our motives1Thess 2:3, 4(GNB).

What price are you willing to pay to speak the truth? What risks are you ready to take as a minister to preserve your position or be true to your calling?                    Victor is a missionary in the southeast

That which is born of flesh week 21, 2017

When making clear to Nicodemus the unchanging law of becoming part of God’s kingdom Jesus said “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” Jn 3:6(ESV) . Now whilst it means a person is born physically of human parents, but is born spiritually of the Spirit Jn 3:6(GNB), there are deeper meanings, and several messages God conveys by that statement. One of them makes me tremble. Each time it comes to me I fear. That which is born of the flesh is flesh: any action, any activity, any service born of the flesh, is flesh. It won’t get into the kingdom of God. Its fate is to be burned by fire. That which is born of the spirit is spirit: all activity and inactivity, all service and worship springing from and motivated by the spirit is spirit. It will get into the kingdom of God and be rewarded. What does born of the flesh signify but born of the sinful nature? Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God Gal 5:19—21(ESV).

Consider such activity as giving to the poor, prayer, and fasting. Jesus clearly indicates they may be born of the flesh or of the spirit. "Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of people in order to be noticed by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” Mt 6:1(ISV). Do you recall when Jesus said not all who call me “Lord, Lord” will enter into the kingdom? They were workers of iniquity. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name, drove out demons in your name, and performed many miracles in your name, didn't we?'  Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Get away from me, you who practice evil!'" Mat 7:22, 23(ISV).  Their works sprang from the flesh. Therefore, stop judging prematurely, before the Lord comes, for he will bring to light what is now hidden in darkness and reveal the motives of our hearts. Then each person will receive his praise from God 1Cor 4:5(ISV).

Even such tasks as preaching are not spared. Listen to this: Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment Phlp 1:15, 17(ESV). Yet we are warned in Phlp 2:3(ESV)  Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. Nothing. I would like to ask you beloved, “What prompts your activities”?

Each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward1Cor 3:13, 14