JOS CRISIS: A “CROSS” VIEW

Last week a cousin of mine looked me in the eyes and asked me if there was a meter for pain, if there is an apparatus to measure the level of pain he was going through. He was quite serious so I did my best to hide the tears that were coming; at that level words become so inefficient.
One doesn’t need to be a mother, a loved one or a friend to feel the loss. One doesn’t need to see the corpses or hear the grimy details to appreciate the level of pain that is currently in the hearts of many, and one wouldn’t need a meter to read it. Like my cousin someone in Jos right now, an affected individual or a concerned citizen is feeling the pain of Sunday morning incidence right now. As I write this my heart is bleeding and I lack words to fully express the thoughts except that evil has triumphed here.
I dare say that the figures are not important, as someone aptly said; “kill one individual and I will call it murder, kill a million and I will call that statistics”. None the less an individual’s death is enough to warrant this article.
Where is the explanation for this madness? When will it stop? What does God say in the face of this tragedy? Where is Jesus in this crisis?
Where is Christ in the face of this wanton destruction?
Answer: On the cross, weeping. His heart bled not only for those that were martyred last Sunday morning but more so for those who committed the detestable act. He shed His precious blood for them all and lest we should forget He made a profound statement: “Father forgive them for they do not know what they do!”
But then what are they doing?
They flared the church and killed individuals known to be Christians, Christ in His words acknowledged that yes they have done a very evil act (he prayed for their forgiveness) but in reality they do not know what they are doing. They did theirs out of religious zeal; Christ too was crucified out of religious zeal. Man has been a religious zealot for ages, trying to please God! Someone might suggest that the acts were politically motivated but then the individuals that executed the acts weren’t.
God cannot be pleased by the efforts of sinful man; I repeat, a Holy Righteous God cannot be pleased or appeased by the mere efforts of sinful man, efforts conceived by a heart God himself described as “desperately wicked”. Man’s problem is not that he is unethical it is that his very heart is lost in sin. God’s Holiness unlike our “righteousness” is not due to the absence of sin but due to the presence of something. Christ on that Cross has paid a price man for centuries have tried to negotiate and man’s righteousness before God can only be inputted.
At the heart of every religious view is man’s desire to please God and Man is so aware of his sinful state. The individuals that murdered these citizens in Jos cannot be celebrated as saints even by an atheist. Christ came and made a statement, a very simple one; “Man He said, Man, your sins are forgiven. I am the lamb for the sacrifice, the only qualified sacrificed. Just believe in me”. Many a men have heard that statement and had said “No sir, I want to do something”.
It is only a heart that has accepted His Love that can love and this is another ultimate test for Christians for Christ also said “Love your enemies, pray for those who spitefully use you”.
So I pray for the individuals that murdered potentialities on Sunday morning, individuals that have “pleased” God yesterday. I pray for the family members and individuals that encouraged them on this act. I pray for their children, as they recount their ordeal to their sponsors, I pray for them. I pray for them at those nights when the seed of God inside them will remind them that those individuals were also made by the same God they worship, I pray for them on the day they will lose loved ones and remember the pain they have caused others, I pray that as they discover that we mourn at the loss of loved ones because our spirit realize the eternality of that event, I pray that God will indeed forgive them for truly they do not know what they are doing.
It is not time for hate. If a child should mistakenly place a hot coal in my eye in a domestic accident I would not like it, I would be very sad at it, I would have done my best to prevent it if I could, but I won’t hate him for that incident even if my loss were for life.
In Christ we find meaning to every expression; everything that is happening in the world today is a fulfillment of His Word, from Jos to Haiti. The details are all there in red ink and that brings a certain assurance that a knowing God loved me, sent His son to die for my sins, gave me His Word to explain and instruct me on my pilgrimage on this earth and reminds me that it is His will that none should perish especially the murdering hoard at Jos. He reminds me to tell them that more than half the written testament was written by a man who was known to be the terror of the Christian faith and I pray they meet the Lord. Hear Mr. Paul, ex-religious zealot, fanatic and self acclaimed righteous man, well trained on the facts of the law, a lawyer by training, award winning persecutor:
“even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God's law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting Christians; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God's law Book. The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash--along with everything else I used to take credit for; and why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant--dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ--God's righteousness.
I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. “
Mr. Paul of Tarsus in his letter to the children of God at Philippi, the 3rd chapter

From this view I am apt to allow Christ to bring His comfort to my bleeding heart and not make room for bitterness for the Love of Christ compels me.
Okwonna Nelson

Business Series 2

Hello Friend, this piece is written for all those with the dream of making significant contribution to the development of the economy of Nigeria, this is to remind you that what is inside of you has corporate sense and to provide a blueprint for entering into the city. My mouth is like the pen of a ready writer. It is my responsibility to communicate this timely truth to you (all timeless truths are timely).

Before I continue, I suggest you relax and prepare to ponder on these truths for yourself as their implication can mean a life adjustment for you (A wise man will hear and increase wisdom).
I owe my inspiration to the teachings of my mentors (Pastor Dele Osunmakinde in particular)and my own personal interaction with the Word of faith.

THE BEGINNING: ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT
I made some statements in an earlier note on this issue (you can check my previous notes) and this will build on it.

These are changing times, layoffs are rampant and it is pertinent that you and I find an answer that can be trusted and this can be found in the timeless book called the Bible, it is with pleasure that I try to communicate that answer. (you will be amazed for sure)

One, famines are not new, in fact it is in our heritage. From Abraham (the father of faith) to Isaac, and to Jacob. Men by whom God our God is called (the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob).


So relax, the economic situation is not the issue. The issue is knowing what to do, the answer is not out there or the Harvard professors would have saved America and General Motors from the economic crunch. What then is the answer/blueprint.
If this is was a lecture (which it is, a suggested reading would be “The Blueprint” By Dele Osunmakinde.

We would take a comprehensive view of what to do in four main Chapters:

YOU
The Thing You Carry
The mannerism of Faith
YOU

From where you are;

in enterprise development, the first thing you must come to terms with is than in relation to your present circumstance God is Faithful. Any time you blame your lack of connection, finances, parents or anything at all you are simply saying that God has dealt you a bad hand (you get what I mean?). it would be like Joseph in Prison or at Potiphar’s house grumbling that a man with mega dreams is a mere slave in a foreign land. Or Daniel at Babylon murmuring for being made an Eunuch. Or David with the sheep complaining that He had to deal with smelly sheep.

You must, I repeat must judge God Faithful at your present disposition (no matter how ugly it is) or you will never conceive seed. To do that you will need to take ownership of your Life, acknowledge that God knows what He is about (……..and sarah received Strength to conceive seed because He judged Him Faithful who Promised.) Note that God himself is the one who ministers seed to the sower and that in the parable of the talents, the young man who received one talent did nothing because of His disposition to the master (“………..you are a hard man).

He literally said that God is not fair, that he is in fact Mean. So number one step in enterprise development is regarding your present situation take God to your court room of your heart, place Him at the dock, climb up your judgement seat adorned in full regalia and give the verdict. If your verdict is Faithful, then you’ve qualified to conceive seed.

David qualified with the sheep (He could have left the bear take them). Daniel did (they were in captivity and to be castrated to serve a foreign ruler yet he maintained allegiance to a seemingly forgetful God) Joseph at Potiphar’s house proved that He trusted God knew what He was about and greatest of All Abraham even after receiving the Promise (Isaac) wavered not when God asked Him to bring Him up for slaughter. Why? Because these men (our Fathers) looked at God and said; though I may not understand it right now, though it is not easy, though I dislike this present Job, I believe God knows what He is about.

This attitude is the critical requirement one must attain before He can conceive seed. Remember “He who comes to God must believe that He is, and is a rewarder of they that seek Him.
I will end this edition in the words of Dr. Ravi Zacharias


“When God wants to drill a man, thrill a man and skill a man
When God wants to mould a man to play the noblest parts
When he yearns with all His heart to create so bold and great a man
That all the world shall be amazed
Watch His methods, watch His ways
How He ruthlessly perfects whom He royally elects
How He hammers Him and hurts him and with Mighty blows converts him
Into the tried shapes of clay that God only understands
While his tortured heart is pleading and he lifts beseeching hands
How He bends but never breaks when His pudding He undertakes
How He uses whom He chooses and with every purpose fuses him
By every act induces Him
To prove His splendor out
God knows what He is about
God knows what He is about



Pls share this with friends and loved ones