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I have found many coming to the conclusion that it is best for serious Christians to go off Facebook and to create safer and more controlled and targeted enclaves on the social media for them. This is like running back again to the safety of our church while called to be relevant within and outside church walls. Many also have retreated from electronic media, having regretted the things they posted or have changed their minds or have directly or indirectly felt the unseen blows of unkind less forgiving critics … or having found themselves talking much more than they initially intended … only to earn a badge of foolishness. Others like Prophet Jeremiah are nicknamed the crazy weird alarmists always with bad news. The good thing from all this is that many are warned to be extra-cautious so as not to hurt the very interest they seek to support. Granted. blogging on spiritual insight is not the same as writing about new cookery recipes. Take some time to get it right. Have a break if you must. FULL POST

The times we are in now are in no way like what we expected or have ever seen. The issues at hand have progressed in so many complicated turns it is difficult to know where to start. The corruption of values and decay of family structures are producing strange results which are not easy to confront. Homes have been exposed to new dangers that old traditional admonitions can no more arrest. Marriages are being ravaged by strange modern monsters even as children turn to media for direction in the absence of parental maps. But the word of God, and Christ Jesus – the same, yesterday, today and forever must remain our light and salvation. Read article "An Open Letter to Michelle Obama: Beyonce is Not a Role Model" by Rakhi Kumar.

Naomi was a mother, who eventually woke up to correct her journey path … to return back to Bethlehem. She faces old family errors and mourns the loss of her husband and sons …she offers her daughters in law the opportunity to stay in Moab, but Ruth follows her to Bethlehem …only to find redemption, grace and favor that eventually wipes the tears from the face of Naomi and brings restoration and revival to all. Orpah remains in Moab no more to be heard of. FULL POST

The facts are too compelling. There seems to be no hope. It is over. But watch your tongue. The power of life and death lies therein. Jacob concludes before his children in an expression of great despair. His sorrow is so deep ... all hope is lost. The tongue of Jacob releases a wrong conclusion.

Gen 42:36 And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.

Jacob has not forgotten Joseph. How could he? He sums up the entire story of his life as a catalogue of losses. He wonders at God for rewarding Him with such pain. He recalls the manipulations he engineered in his own past. He focuses on Himself and again wrongly concludes this is all a reaping for his own wicked acts. Indeed, we reap what we sow, but we do not serve a wicked God. His ways are mysterious and past finding out in many ways. Jacob now projects the loss of Benjamin. FULL POST

There was a recent report “Who lives longest” by Kent Sepkowitz in Newsweek magazine April 26 of findings of an unusual research probing 999 consecutive published obituaries between 2009 and 2011 in the New York Times. The aim was to seek insights and patterns related to lifespan, occupation, gender, cause of death etc.

In summary, it discovered famous men and women outlived the normal by about a year – perhaps due to superior medical care. It was more unusual that an occupation in the military indicated the longest average age of 85 … public servants / politicians lived on average to be 82 and professionals and academics died at an average age of 80. The shortest life span at 77 was found with entertainers and athletes. The study showed most famous women in the category of singers, dancers and athletes fared the worst. Indeed the discipline and boring restraint of military life could add value to healthy living. The study is far from perfect ...the Bible has some insights too. FULL POST

At Lagos Airport, another delay to the flight to London was announced … I strolled down the various wings, bored of waiting at the lounge …then I noticed a passenger with a limp and I seemed to recognize him as he now sits calmly by his luggage waiting for his flight to the Far East. I had seen this popular evangelist at several crusade meetings ministering the word of God in great power … but never had the opportunity to meet him personally.

I approached him and introduced myself …he must have so many people seeking some counsel or the other and I could see he would prefer to be left alone. Still I pressed on and asked boldly only after a few introductory remarks …”What is the secret ? How are you able to continue so steadfastly over the years ministering … How do you do it?” He looked at me with a strange glance … as though I was some “Delilah” and then relaxed with a soft smile. “It would cost you much…so much more than you ever could bargain for …be ready to pay the price…” and he muttered a few words I did not quite hear …then looked as though he had already spoken too much …as he apologized and hurried off …the departure of his flight was announced. FULL POST

Life is precious and if there is any word that symbolizes all that is Godly - that word is life. The Bible is flooded with words of life and avenues to resuscitate the dying …and its pages are full of nuggets of hope. If you are reading this blog, it means you can change, your life can change and your circumstance can change. The living erring can find correction … the living prodigal can turn a different leaf … the living fallen can rise up … dreams on pause can still come true….sicknesses will be healed and roses will bloom again. Nothing is impossible with God …there are absolutely no incurable cases in the Bible. Unfortunately the value of life is dismissed by a wicked worldview that presents life as an experiment to be flushed down the laboratory drain if outcomes are unsatisfactory or we discern mistakes in procedure. The accuser and thief of joy finds expression in so many voices in the world view to bring about so much tensions and paths of depression that ultimately trivializes life … and in one of its most cruel deceptions, mankind is persuaded to take his or her own life. Never forget there is always hope …no matter how low you may have come. FULL POST

An article, surprisingly currently trending, is about Pat Robertson’s recent televised response to why more miracles are seen in Africa than in the United States … to which Pat alludes to the simple, ignorant faith prevalent in the poorer third world. Many are irritated that they will not have the best of both worlds … the best schools, hospitals and social safety nets and higher incidence of God’s miraculous intervention. Does faith flourish better in more difficult terrain? Most preachers have always agreed that it does and more than a few will point out … “woe to them that are at ease in Zion…”

Not surprisingly, in Africa, I also observe a much higher incidence of miracles with the less educated class of believers. Examine the scenario below and you will understand the link between hunger for God, despair with status quo, more common with the less advantaged and a faith that produces the miraculous. FULL POST

It is just over two years ago since I last blogged on Rob Bell in reaction to assertions flooding blogosphere denying or at least obscuring the existence of Hell. It is wise not to focus on people and this article is about perspectives and not persons. Still I recall just after the attention of the media was seized by his new book and heretic conclusions on Hell, God spoke in Japan through an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown that brought the economic giant flat on his knees. Bell is speaking again … many are listening and I am nervous. Read Blog “Bell denies Hell, Forbes celebrates the Richest, Earthquake and fears of Nuclear meltdown cripples Japan…”

There is (click for article )  the unfortunate view being advanced - that God is pulling some evangelicals ahead of others to affirm gay brothers, workers and pastors and that we are now only just discovering that some are made and think differently … thanks to the internet and global communications etc. ... so claims Rob Bell. FULL POST

Who is this man of Cyrene that was found to do what no one would do? How did they compel him … where were the other disciples? I find the verse below intriguing and troubling in that the Lord was tired and none would help him at his weakest, saddest and most painful moments. It seemed He would collapse and they observed He may not make it to Golgotha up the hill …and they started searching for someone to help. Surely a disciple would step out or at least one of the thousands that He healed or one of those He had raised from the dead would be grateful...

Mat 27:32  And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.

I see sympathizers vanishing and disciples fading into the distance as soldiers ferretted through the crowd…”your King needs someone to carry His cross” …no one to be found.

The battered body of Christ was visibly so weakened … it was evident that a lamb was being sacrificed. It would have been considered a curse …a detestable pollution to touch the cross of a man sentenced to be crucified …to find a helper for Jesus, a stranger would have to be found and forced to do so. Simon who may not have heard His sermons, would have normally thought this must be a robber … a thief, yet he watched wondering what He did? How is it that no one could help him? Why was he beaten so much that his entire body is lacerated with stripes and his frame seems about to fail … Mark 15:21 tells us he was coming in from a far country … a man of renown and means even as his parents are mentioned (God is not against wealth and fame). In Luke 23:26 we see that he was seized and forced to help Jesus. FULL POST

We often miss other events that happened on that day as Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem. Even as the children cried Hosanna and others gaped at the spectacle …the Bible tells us that Jesus heads for the temple and proceeds to scatter the tables of money changers and seats of other vendors.

Mat 21:12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, 13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. 14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them

A riot of sorts witnessed by blind and lame onlookers who must have wondered “what manner of man is this Jesus? …we thought here was a gentle saviour, a spiritual man …what then is this violent aggression to mean?” FULL POST