Christianity is the bed rock of human existence. Christianity is not just a religion; it’s a way of life and this is what separates a Christian from a churchgoer.
The stories in the bible are not mare stories, they are series of historical events; events of the past and that of the future. Talking about the future, Christians now and the Christians we read about in the bible, who are more sincere?
The devil and Christianity
Christianity has the largest number of branches, therefore, a lot of divisions. You have people say, am for the Pope or for the Arch Bishop or for the Pastor of my church. We have all forgotten the word of Paul in 1Cor1:10-16 which states……..13is Christ divided or have I, Paul, been crucified for you?
Who are you kidding; this division is the work of the devil. He knows the battle will be lost if all the Christians should come together and profess their faith as one. It‘s written when two or three are gathered I will be present, imagine when millions gather expressing one faith or asking for a favor or better still asking for peace and unity in there various countries, imagine the power of God that will be felt. The devil knows this and the only way to distract the people of God is to cause divisions.
Africa is one continent with the largest number of churches, how come we are still underdeveloped than our other counterparts. It’s written that when God is present in a place, the people are said to be blessed, just like Obededom, 2Sam6:11 which states, Yahweh’s ark remained there for three months and Yahweh blessed Obededom and his entire household. The question is what is the problem?
The answer is very simple; most of us are church goers and not Christians. We are concerned on how to make fast money without thinking of our fellow brothers. People kidnap their relatives just to make money and on Sunday they go to church wearing one of their best regalia, singing on top of their voice, speaking in tongues and giving testimonies while they are holding someone hostage. The name of God has been bastardized by a lot of people. People get so familiar with the name that they forget who they are calling on to.
One day a boy was trying to convince a girl why having unlawful sex is biblically right. He said some quotes trying to back up his intentions; how disgraceful.
People open churches just to make money. In some countries, church is good business. Preachers depend on their congregation for money, they refuse to work, and they say they are doing God’s work which is enough to keep them busy for the whole day.
Paul stated clearly in 2Thess 3:6-9, which says 6we command you, beloved to stay away from believers who are living in idleness contrary to the traditions we passed on to you.., 7b we worked while we were with you, 8 Day and night we labored and toiled so as not to be a burden to any of you….’ My question is, how many of our preachers now work for a living i.e. have jobs outside the church? A lot of them are living off from their congregation. There are a lot of things that is in the bible that we are not abiding to because they don’t favor us.
Human beings as we all know are self centered, we only engage in things we know we can gain from. A lot of people go to church whenever they have challenges, immediately the problem is solved by God, the person disappears and reappears when things go bad again. Do not be deceived God is not mocked. The wonderful thing about the words written in the bible is that there is always a verse that can back up what ever we do or say.
During the time of Christ, He had issues with the Pharisees because they did not practice what they preached and many of us are just like them.
People come to the pulpit and start judging, saying things about their neighbors like how they have wronged God or soiled the image of the church but when you look closely into the life of the person that is been judged you will find out that the person is closer to God than the judge. Remove the log in your eye before you remove that of your neighbor.
No one is perfect, we are all striving for perfection and it will be nice if we are helped along the way instead of been condemned by others.
One verse in the bible that a lot of born again people have abound in is do not be unequally yoked with an unbeliever, the irony is, the people who are been called unbelievers are better than them.
Scandals in churches
I attended a church service and I noticed that most of the members ignorantly worshipped the preacher. They were told to clap for Jesus; they did that with a little enthusiasm but when the moderator said that they should clap for the preacher, a loud applause was heard, to make things worse, some people lifted up their chair. What will you say to this? The servant is been given more recognition than the King, unbelievable.
Rate of sex scandals that occur in churches are increasing in an alarming rate. The Church preaches that the body is the temple of God which is gotten from 1Cor 6: 15-19. It’s appalling to hear such behavior been practiced by Church members.
An incident happened, a man saw his fellow man and decided that it was his duty as a Christian to lead the fellow towards the path of light so he invited him to his church, the fellow attended; he enjoyed the service, keyed into the Word of the day and decided to start attending service in that church, both men became friends. Four months later the converter had a problem and needed advice, he told the new convert that he and his lover have been having sexual intercourse without using contraceptives and now his girlfriend is pregnant, the bone of contention between him and his girlfriend was to either abort the baby or not, when the fellow heard this, he left the fold.
The stories about money laundry is something else, the stories are disheartening. Most preachers preach about prosperity, which is not bad at all but when the words backing prosperity becomes the other of the day and words on morals become far forgotten then what do you expect to have? The congregation watches the preachers drive the best cars while they walk on foot; they see them eat the best of meals while they struggle to eat a squared meal, why won’t they steal to be like their mentors.
What are preachers doing for the poor ones in their country? Jesus fed five thousand people, how many poor people have these recent preachers fed? Many of them drive the best cars and have private jets, how many own an orphanage home to help the motherless? Or give scholarships to help send the poor kids to school? There are a lot of things to be done but how many are helping the society; they are all waiting for the government to do.
A boy needs 5 million naira to go to India for a kidney transplant, this amount of money can be raised in a day for a church function but it cannot be raised to help a poor soul. Why can’t we practice what we preach?
The apostles were first called Christians in Antioch because the people of Antioch saw that they lived like Christ. Do we deserve to be called Christians?
There are true Christians out there but there are still a lot of us who are struggling, trying to make heaven, all we are saying is please make things a little easier for us, lead us the way Paul and Peter led the people when they lived.
Christ is our example and He was a terrific leader and He still is, he raised his apostle’s right and they made a lot of people aware of the Truth and led them to Christ.
We have preachers who are leading people to Christ but the question is how many of them are true?
The book of Timothy, he said in Tim1:9-10, The Law is not for the righteous, but for the lawless and for the wicked and sinful, for those who do not respect God and religion, for those who kill their parents, for murderers, for those who indulge in unlawful sex and homosexuality, for kidnappers and exploiters, for liars and perjurers and for all that is contrary to sound doctrine. With this verse the question that comes to minds is are we Christians or Law abiding citizens?
Come lets us worship this Great God whose grace is more than abundant, and who loves us more than anyone in this world.
Whatever problem you have put it before God in prayer and you shall see how your world will change from worse to better.
