Bishop Cyril Okorocha steps out of the Cathedral in style

I am thrilled seeing this symbolic action from the former Bishop of Owerri, Bishop Cyril Okorocha. If we are not careful, our hearts may be deceived and we forget that every power is transient.

Video provided by Ven. Echi Nwogu

One of His academic mentors, Prof. Andrew Walls, a renowned World Missiologist, Historian and Social Anthropologist, describes Dr. Cyril as 

“A meticulous Scholar of an extraordinary intellect, integrity and giftedness, very articulate and yet endowed with a down to earth and thoroughly humane pastoral heart which seems to exude with the loving presence of the spirit of the Living God which touches everyone around him with a graciousness which can only be described as coming from his Lord, Jesus Christ whom Cyril always says is everything to him”.

 When I gave my life Christ in the late eighties, it was the Follow-up Series developed by this Bishop, then a Reverend gentleman, that we used for our Young Believers' Class. He was then at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. Testimonies abound on how he served his people, making sacrifices and leading by example. There is a story of how he rejected monetary gift from the Governor Rochas Okorocha, who he asked to go and use the money to pay the Pensioners. Even as he is retiring, when some of the Bishops are squeezing their Dioceses dry using all kinds of means with the help of their yes-men, a send-forth colloquium was organized for Bishop Okorocha where some well-wishers gave him some gifts and he is grateful to God. I pray that God will take care of him even in this retirement. Please pray for him.

Reference

Brief profile of Bishop Cyril Chukwunonyerem Okorocha, Anglican Diocese of Owerri, Online: http://owerrianglican.blogspot.com/2016/08/brief-profile-of-bishop-cyril.html (Accessed 13/06/18)

Nigeria is boiling – Anglican Bishop, Vanguard Online:

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/06/nigeria-boiling-anglican-bishop/ (Accessed 13/06/18)

Life as a Nigerian Bishop, Jesse Zink, Online: https://jessezink.com/2011/06/11/life-as-a-nigerian-bishop/
(Accessed 13/06/18)

Church of Nigeria Consecrates three Bishops

On the 3rd of June 2018, the Primate of Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) and Bishop of Abuja Diocese, the Most Rev'd Nicholas Okoh consecrated four Bishops at the All Saints Cathedral Onitsha:

1. The Rt Rev’d Wisdom Ihunwo as the Bishop of Niger Delta North Diocese who will succeed The Most Rev'd ICO Kattey.
2. The Rt Rev’d Dr. Solomon Olusola Akanbi as the Bishop of Offa Diocese who will succeed Rt Rev’d Akintunde Popoola.
3. The Rt Rev’d Godwin Anyigor Awoke as the Bishop of Ngbo Diocese.
4. The Rt Rev’d Prosper Afam Amah as the Bishop of Ogbaru Diocese who will succeed Rt Rev’d Samuel Ezeofor.

Please pray for them for God's guidance and favour. Pray that they will follow Jesus and lead the flock of God to follow Him wherever He leads.

Men Without Chests

This title is borrowed from C.S Lewis book, The Abolition of Man. ¹. He argued that there must be a connect between our emotions and the intellect; a connect between what we teach people and what we expect from them. Our emotions need to be so trained and prepared that they become the foundation upon which healthy reason and logic grow. You cannot feel differently and think differently. “Without the aid of trained emotions the intellect is powerless against the animal organism” (p.9). The physical manifestation of ethical behavior in a man for example does not come because of knowledge of ethics, but because appropriate responses have been trained in the man. That is why we are different from animals. Emotions are trained with objective truth which guides the man in the knowing of right and wrong, hence he is expected to produce virtue. But when this training is lacking or deemed unimportant, we will not be surprised with the kind of people we produce with warped knowledge of right and wrong. In fact, Lewis said “I had sooner play cards against a man who was quite sceptical about ethics but bred to believe that 'a gentleman does not cheat', than against an irreproachable moral philosopher who had been brought up among sharpers.” (p.9). I agree. This is because, a man whose emotions have not been trained with objective values can be duping you and still be speaking in tongues.

When we look at issues, what do we think? What do we perceive? How do we feel? To think correctly about an issue, we must feel correctly about it.². We will respond based on how our emotions have been trained. We have to teach our children that it is ok to cry when we hurt and are in pains. It is ok to rejoice when good things happen to those around us. It is ok to stretch a hand of help to those who are in trouble. It is ok to look at nature and see the handiwork of God and with a heart of worship appreciate Him. It is ok to look at sin and revolt against it. It is ok to hold to virtue no matter what we may lose or gain. It is ok to behave or live differently based on our convictions without being afraid of any intimidation or persecutions. 

At the end, our perception, our responses, and what we become depends on how our emotions have been trained. But we must ensure that the instrument used for this training is objective value and truth and not any other thing outside of it. If it is human philosophy, tradition and rudiments of this world, the emotion so produced is bound to fail the test. We have been seduced with a lot of strange gospels and human philosophies. We have used these to build the lives of men, hence we see the perversions, pursuit of vanity and hero-worship rampant among us. Strange doctrines will produce strange thinking and feelings. 

We cannot define pride and greed anymore because it depends on how you are seeing it. We do not understand who a thief is anymore because nobody cares to ask anybody the source of his income. Everybody shirks from accountability. A leader presents financial report for example, and does not expect or want anybody to ask probing questions. If you do, you will be marked and punished. Many people are not able to make a distinction between the holy and the profane. Sin does not produce a revolt in our spirit because we are at home with it. We raise money in the name of missions and our leaders will use it to travel while the missionaries on ground are owed their allowances. The world around complains about our behavior but we do not find anything wrong with our behavior as long as our earthly happiness is guaranteed. We hear that churches are burnt down, people are in pains and innocent Christian girls are kidnapped, we only follow the motions the next Sunday without a mention or serious prayer. It does not touch us and we seem not to know what to do. Everything is ok and we seem to be in a new normal. We can go on and on to illustrate what will look like the status report of our situation because of our false assumptions.

How did we come to this point where nothing moves us? We see things and are not stirred up to action? We share pictures of violence in the social media carelessly without regard to sanctity of life. Every death is part of the statistics as long as it does not affect us. Is our current feeling or emotion not a product of our strange hedonistic gospels? Have we not become, as it were, men without chests?

C.S Lewis concludes his discuss this way: “we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” (p. 9). Again, has our earth-bound and self-satisfying gospel not produced men without chests?

May God deliver us from the seductions of this world. Amen.

References

1.      Lewis C.S, The Abolition of Man, The Augustine Club at Columbia University. March 2002. Online: http://www.basicincome.com/bp/files/The_Abolition_of_Man-C_S_Lewis.pdf. Accessed 18/05/18.

Lewis C.S, STUDY GUIDE to The Abolition of Man. C.S. Lewis Foundation, 2001 Online: http://www.cslewis.org/resources/studyguides/Study%20Guide%20-%20The%20Abolition%20of%20Man.pdf. Accessed 18/05/18.

Please pray for Leah Sherubu, one of the abducted girls who is still in captivity because she is a Christian

I read this report and feel pain in my heart that many people will just gloss over the story without taking note of Leah Sherubu.

Dapchi kidnap saga was a national disaster as the President put it sometime ago when it happened.  Today, the news is everywhere of the release of the girls. We thank God for this. However, we have to start praying for Leah. She is separated and held only because of her faith. Muslims see non Muslims as infidels who deserve no respect and mercy. Look at the report from Vanguard:

“One of the insurgents said they thought majority of the girls are infidels, hence the attack, but regretted their actions, and have no option than to return them back to their destinations without collecting a dime from any government. “Only one of the girls who refused to be converted to Islam, will not be freed as they will go back with her,” Ali quoted one of the insurgents who addressed some of the residents.
Also from The Nation:
"Khadija went on: “Five girls died while we were on the way to the bush; most of them died because they were trampled upon inside the vehicles. They freed all of us, except one girl who they said was a Christian and they held onto her.”
Khadija’s story on the Christian girl, Leah Sherubu,  was collaborated by  some residents who said she was brought to Dapchi along with the girls but was taken back because she refused to renounce Christianity as instructed by her abductors.
That story was, however, disputed by some of the girls who claimed that Leah was left behind for the journey because of her strong stand not to renounce her faith."

It is obvious that the behaviour of the abductors would have been different if a greater number of the students were Christians.

The father of the girl is happy that his daughter did not recant her faith, but that does not reduce the heartbreak and pain of a father.

Please let us spread this information about Leah Sherubu and keep it on the front burner until she is released.

Pray for strength for the parents. Pray that she will not be molested and will be returned to her family soon. Finally pray that the Lord Jesus Christ may encounter her abductors.

Prepare the way for the Lord

Prepare the way for the Lord

"A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God's salvation.'" Luke 3:4-6 NIV.

As the year 2018 starts this January, everybody is full of expectations. We all wish that good things happen in and around our lives and circumstances. This heart of expectation makes our eyes not to focus on what happened in the previous year, but to look ahead concentrating our attention on what lies ahead in the new year. Nobody wants bad things to happen. Everybody wants something good to happen. But also, this atmosphere of expectations equally makes us vulnerable to deceptions and lies. The temptations of many of God's servants increase as they are tempted to follow the trend in declaring "thus says the Lord" for the year. In the course, many will say both what God has told them and what He has not told them. It takes a lot of courage as a servant of God to stay faithful to Scriptures in the month of January of every year. Most people in our congregations have itching ears. They just want you to declare and prophesy good things to them, whether it is the mind of God for the hour or not is not their concern. They will not want you to pay any attention to their sins, instead they want to get what they want to get out of God  because they worship Him on their own terms. Indeed, the temptation can be very huge but every man has his choice to make.

What should be our attitude? Our attitude should be to look up to God to know what He wants to do in our lives, seeking Him and making efforts to live in ways that please Him. As we expect God to move in our lives, our responsibility should be like that of John the Baptist when he was sent as the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ. He prepared the way for the Lord. Through his preaching and activities, the hearts of the people were prepared to receive the Messiah. Expectations were very high. Many "were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem". As it were, John "watered the ground" for the introduction of Jesus. The manifestation of the Son of God has a direct link to the ministry of John the Baptist.

As the beginning of the year comes with great expectations, I will urge you to make a personal commitment to prepare the way for the Lord as concerns what He wants to do in your life, family, ministry, career etc. What God wants to do in your life is more important than what any man or woman may "prophesy" into your life. Do not be deceived by those who will want you to give money in the name of entering into any covenant with God. We dealt with this issue some years ago here. If you have committed your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, you have been brought into covenant with God through His blood and that covenant speaks for you every day of your life till your work is done. That is why you can pray and relate to God. Kindly note that the God that led you from January to December 2017 is still the same God that will lead you in this new year 2018. If you have been walking with Him all this while, the plans He has for you in this new year is a continuation of what He has been working in your life all these years. A life of disobedience and sin can hinder what God may want to do in your life this year. If you are doing fasting and prayer, let it be part of your preparation for what He may want to do in your life and ministry and not as a bargaining chip.

Do not just flow with the "prophecies" and declarations. Seek God and ask Him, "Lord what do you want to do in my life this 2018? What do you want me to do concerning what you want to do in my life?" He will lead and help you. What God wants to do is what really matters. In conclusion, I charge you with the same words from the Prophet Isaiah to prepare the way for the Lord to move in your life. Make straight paths for Him. Free yourself from every sin that entangles you. Set your mind on Him as every valley shall be filled; every mountain and hill shall be made low; crooked roads shall be made straight and rough ways shall be made smooth and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all mankind together will see it. Hallelujah! God bless you.

Nabeel Qureshi (1983-2017)

“Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;

Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;

Change and decay in all around I see—

O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;

Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;

Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?

I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.”

The lines above are part of the verses of the famous hymn “Abide with me…” written by Henry F. Lyte, in 1847. As I think about the life of Nabeel Qureshi who went to be with the Lord on the 16^th of September 2017 after fighting stomach cancer for a year plus, I cannot help but remember the words of that hymn writer “Change and decay in all around I see”.

He served the Lord only for eleven years and died at the age of thirty four. But those years were full of dedication and commitment to the Lord Jesus. As Dr. Ravi Zacharias wrote in Christianity Today, a day after his death, “Nabeel came like a streak of lightning, brightened the night sky, and has returned to the One who gave the power to do what he did.” He commented during his funeral service that Nabeel "… was like a racehorse. You couldn't stop him. Even in the thickness of his illness,".

As a lover of the works of Dr. Ravi, I got to know about Nabeel Qureshi through RZIM, since he worked with RZIM. I began to watch his programs and debates including his famous debate with the Islamic Scholar Dr. Shabir Ally on "Who Is The Real God? Allah or the Trinity?". I could not help but thanked God who I felt had given us one of the people to help in the work Dr. Ravi Zacharias is doing. How wrong I was. Apologetics is a side of the ministry that needs men in our time.

We cannot query God on why He has to take His child home but we indeed mourn.

We thank God for Nabeel’s testimony and believe that God will use it to touch more people, especially Muslims, to commit their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. May the scales that fell off Nabeel’s eyes continue to fall off the eyes of the spiritually blind in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Please pray for the family he left behind, Michelle and their daughter.

You can watch the whole eulogy here. 

God bless you all.