LORD OF THE RINGS

Austin woke up late the following morning, and saw that Sandra was not sleeping beside him. Angrily, he got up to look for her, thinking she had left him again. He got into the bathroom, freshened up, got dressed and picked up his keys.

“Jemima!” he called, as he walked into the children’s room.

“Yes, Daddy! Good morning, Dad,” Jemima answered, rushed out of her bed and knelt before him, quivering.

“Get up! I think you’ve knelt down enough. That will teach you not to misbehave, naughty girl,” he frowned at her.

“Thank you, daddy, I’m very sorry. It won’t happen again.” Crying and still shaking, she stood up before him.

“You’re sorry. It’s okay, you can go,” he dismissed her, and then, he called her back. “Come back here. Where is your mum?”

“I think she is in the laundry room. She was talking about doing our laundry, and had asked Jasmine and Dan to bring the laundry baskets to her.”
“So, she’s in this house?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“Then, why are you not with her?”
“I’m sorry, Daddy, but you told me to kneel since yesterday evening, and you had not asked me to get up. I… I…” she moved away from him, as she saw that dreadful look on his face, knowing he could pounce on her and beat her up. He looked at her in disgust awhile, and then he moved close to her and pushed her out of the room.

“Just get out of here. Go call your mum to me,” he yelled at her. With relief, she ran into the kitchen.

“Sandra!” he called impatiently, and Sandra came out of the kitchen into the sitting room to meet him.

“Austin, I’m here and I wish you’ll stop shouting before the neighbours think we are fighting again, and we shou…..”
“Shut up!” he interrupted her, angrily. “The neighbours don’t tell me how to run my home. So, how they feel or what they think doesn’t bother me in anyway. Now, why is my breakfast not ready?”
“I’m sorry. You know you don’t like cold food. Give me ten minutes, and it will be served,” she moved away from him, seeing he was in a foul mood.
“Ten minutes, else you’ll get it hot with me this morning,” he frowned at her. Just then, his phone rang, and he took it.

“Yes, Sir,” he sobered as he took the call, seeing it was Alhaji Al-Mustapha, his Capon.
“Austin, get to the club, immediately,” he said coldly and Austin nodded.

Alhaji Al-Mustapha was a very handsome, middle aged man, but looked like he was still in his thirties. Whenever he spoke, it was with an air of confidence, always collected and calm, like he had everything under his control.
“Yes, Sir.” Austin hung up and left the house without saying a word. The kids embraced Sandra, weeping in relief as they saw him go.

FOR WHO?

 

“Father, we are here…
Jesus, we are here…
Holy Ghost, we are here…
We are here FOR YOU…”

This song most often than not made the playlist in any Christian gathering I attended when I was growing up. Beautiful song, especially when there is a melodic syncopation between the vocals and the instruments.

I sang this song innocently and I want to believe that in the days of my ignorance, God overlooked. I have stopped singing this song because I have come to realize that my intent is not in tandem with the message portrayed by the lyrics.

In my little study of Parts of Speech in English language, I learnt that the preposition “FOR” finds functionality in variety of ways. In the context of the lyrics of this song, it is used as a function word to indicate the object or recipient of a perception, desire, or activity.

If that is true, it then means that our coming together will benefit God more than it will benefit us.

Hmmm, I want to think that I can hear what is going on in your head right now. It’s a hard pill to swallow but not to worry, I have a glass of juice to help you out.

God is all sufficient. He does not need our coming together to be any more or any less God than He is. Our gathering is not FOR him, it is for us.

We are the ones that need healing, breakthrough, provision, protection, elevation and all other things that will help us fulfill purpose.

This is the reason a lot of people develop an unruly attitude and sense of entitlement towards the gathering of brethren. They think they are doing God some favour. After all, it must be important to Him if He commands us never to neglect the gathering of believers.

Sorry to burst your bubble, your gathering is NOT FOR HIM, IT IS FOR YOU!

CHURCH SERVICE

 

I’m a Pastor’s Kid and boy have I seen and experienced a great deal of religion. Trust me, I have no qualms with it. Again, this is not an affront on Christianity, I’m a die-hard believer. However, there are times when I just bring some things I’ve held on to and beam lasers of relevance and time on them. I put them in what a friend of mine choose to call TRUTHOSCOPE.

One of such is the way I was taught to pray. I was taught that my voice must be really loud to show my seriousness with the prayer. My problem was not what it did for me, but what it did to me. It made me see anyone who does not shout while praying as not being serious with prayer. Growing up, I had to learn that my prayers are as effective in a shout as they are in a whisper. The common denominator for effectiveness is Faith in the one who hears my loud cries as well as my silent muses when the words are heavy to let out.

However, that is not the crux of my dilemma in this short series. I want to really address a matter that has given me concern, as well as a few believers out there. The matter is this; what really is church service?

This is going to be challenging, but some people will be delivered when we are done. I will try neither to be heretical nor defame theology. Also, the opinions I express here should not in anyway be misconstrued as absolute. I’m also in search of answers as you are.

Follow me patiently on this one, you’ll be glad you did.

Worse Than A Nightmare

“O, thank you, my Lord Jesus for, for saving me. So, this was all a very bad dream?” she said to herself. But why Austin? What sort of dream was that? She kept wondering.

Meanwhile, Austin was grunting at the other side of the wide bed. She needed to narrate the spooky dream to him, for his mature counseling, as a man of God.

“Austin, please, wake up.” she shove him gently on his shoulder. And he woke.
“What’s with you woman? And what’s the meaning of your waking me up like this?” He hollered, and sprang at her. He dragged her out of the bed, and pushed her towards the door.

“Get out of here, woman, if you don’t want to sleep. Go sleep with your children out there, please. Otherwise I’ll be forced to trash you again for waking me up like this. Would you want that?”

Sandra staggered out of the room in tears, while he went back to sleep, still growling like a badly injured wild animal.

 

***

SEASONED WITH SALT

“Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how you ought to answer every man” Col. 4:6 (KJV).

 

For better expounding, I’ll love to look at three (3) attributes of salt and we can draw analogies from them as regards the way our speeches should be.

First, salt adds a sweet taste to food.

In my experience hanging around soldiers, I observed that a good number of them derive pleasure in spilling curse words out of their mouths. In some other spaces, I’ve seen people who would not make one sentence without a touch of vulgarity.

This is not what is expected of a man who is desirous of manifesting all that God has domiciled in him. The things you say should be able to put smiles on the faces of other people. When you come into a bad situation, or in the midst of people throwing tantrums at each other, you should be able to say things that will turn the bad situation to good. Let your words add sweetness, and not bitterness to life.

Secondly, salt is indispensable.

I’m yet to see a cooked delicacy that comes out good without salt in it. A great Cook once told me that she can make a nice meal without any other seasoning apart from salt. That is how important it is to season with salt.

Have you ever been in a forum where no conclusion is made on any deliberation without hearing what a particular person or group of persons have to say? This is so because those people have so seasoned their words with salt that it becomes expedient to hear from them before drawing conclusions.

Thirdly, salt heals.

What do you say to a grieving soul? How do you talk to someone who is heartbroken? What words to you release to a depressed person? These are a few situations where your words can heal or make things worse.

Alongside washing and sanctification, God’s word heals. The manifestation that creation is waiting for is that of the Sons of God, I believe. A Son must therefore have some attributes of the Father. If your Father’s words heal, then yours should to.

 

***

 

We were designed for impact and the things we say has a role to play in actualizing that.

 

 

MANIFEST!

 

 

A MYSTERIOUS TEACHER

Efforts to obey the law, from the days of yore
This He saw, as we sinned so much the more
A system of relief came to the fore
Presenting a salvation scheme to the core

Some call her a living personality
Others say she’s a system of spiritual partiality
To the extreme though, she may be a worldly liberality
And a licence to practise sheer carnality

Your wild attempts to prove your mettle
Has only yielded but a miserable little
Nevertheless, Grace loses not one battle
If only given a chance to meddle

In her strengths, you never stagger
That leaves much to be desired by the feelers
When she becomes a choice feeder
Grace is one mysterious teacher

Teaching us on the right way to go
For which we need lay the enemies low
Lest we unknowingly steal the show
Feigning Masters of Grace, Oh no!

Come to Grace, for she willingly teaches
Wherein thou shalt truly learn
Like a vine that supplies the branches
Tis a replenishing source, ye mortal men

Grace beckons; oh, she doth speak
For all who must learn must be meek
Must be mortally keen to seek
She comes running when all are weak

Carefully enshrined in the Living Word
Is an eternal hope of seeing the Lord
Beholding Him face to face
Is enshrouded in the person of Grace

Stormy Nightmare

“O, What a storm!” Sandra muttered within. Right then, the night, with its gloom, was closing in on her, as if there was conspiracy of nature’s elements in the firmament. It had been stormy, and rainy, yet the cumulus cloud would not have their fill.

Mercifully, some half-hour later, the wind began to blow less tempesturously, and the heavy downpour reduced to tolerable drizzling, leaving the streets wet, empty and quiet, as only few road users dare the inclement weather.
“I must get home, to my kids,” she got firmly resolved. And suddenly she saw herself driving through an unfamiliar path. Panic-chills ran down her spine, as she took her lonely drive home through the dark and eerie road.
Shortly afterwards, just by a huge refuse dump a few yards away, she saw two armed men throwing a body hurriedly, and disappeared into the side brush.
“And what, what was that?” she spluttered, terrified to her marrows. Sensing great danger, she sped past the spot, prayed to God silently to take control, and to take her safely home. Soon after that, she saw through the side mirrors a Hilux van following her. Wherever street she turned into, they, too, turned into, and kept following her steadily. So, she drove at top speed, from street to street, taking advantage of the good layout of the area. And she managed to dust them out of sight, at last.
Well, that was what she thought, when she was no longer seeing them behind her through the mirrors. Meanwhile, she had kept her headlight on full beam, driving all the way in great panic, until she got home.
Thank God, the gate was left wide open. It is the bad habit of the gateman any time it rained, so he could avoid coming out in the rain to open the gate. Very bad security sense that was! But this time, his lousiness worked for her needs, and uninterrupted passage to her house.
So, she drove straight to the bungalow, parked and switched off the engine, and lights. She sat still in the car for a while, to be sure she was not being followed. Then she mustered courage, and rushed out into the house, only to discover that the front entrance wasn’t locked.
“What? Austin! Austin!” She called aloud, but her husband didn’t respond. His Hilux van was parked at its usual spot all right. Why was he not home yet? She wondered. She became very tensed even horrified. So, she quickly locked the entrance door, dashed to her children’s room, and was greatly relieved to see them sleeping soundly.
Then she entered her room, and heaved a sigh of relief from danger at last. She lay down on her bed a while, then sat up and looked around. Only to see right inside the room, two masked men in black, dashing at her: one from the bathroom and the other from the closet, holding sharp swords. Their heads were fully covered, but for the little openings at the region of their eyes for them to see. They looked like ninjas.
“Jesus! Jesus!” She shouted uncontrollably, and in great hysterics.
“You thought you could escape us? No way, woman… Now, we’ll finish you,” one of them said, sounding very much like her husband, Austin’s voice. Both of them burst into throaty, devilish laughter, and came dangerously close to her with their swords, to strike her. She screamed on top of her voice:
“Austin, no! No…nooooo…,” she struggled out of her sleep at that juncture. She was soaked with sweat and was gasping for breath.

LACED WITH GRACE

“Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how you ought to answer every man” Col. 4:6 (KJV).

 

I read an ancient myth of how archers lace their arrows with poisonous substances to ensure their victims stands no chance of survival. It got me wondering and I asked myself this question; the arrow with the projected momentum is lethal enough, while lace it with poison?

This actually took me back to something I read in Robert Green’s 48 Laws of Power. It reads and I quote, “if you want to kill an enemy, kill him well”. Whether or not I believe it is irrelevant to this discourse.

I quoted all of these to say that there are people whose words in the natural estate is like an arrow. However, when they shoot it at people, they still lace it with poison. They do not just hurt people with their words, they go further to kill them with the things that come out of their mouth.

 

Apostle Paul admonishes us to release our speeches with grace. What does that mean?

Out of many applications that I could find, one stood out for me in driving home my point. Grace is the ability God gives us to make positive impact. It then implies that the things we say should push someone to greater heights and to becoming better. Our words are meant to edify not defy others.

If you will become and manifest all that God has deposited in you, then you have to lace your words with grace to the end that someone is positively impacted by the things you say.

 

 

MANIFEST!

 

 

DEAD END

We toured through hospitals hoping mama will recover fast. Mama lost so much weight this one year but it has been so interesting.

We have seen a different daddy.

***

Mama was writhing in pain on her bed when I walked in.
“Bring me a bucket, I want to throw up,” mama said.
I brought her a small bucket. By the end of that day, she had thrown up three times. I was wondering what to do and how to help when daddy came in. I welcomed him and explained that mama had been throwing up all day.

 
We managed mama through the night. At 6:00 a.m. we were at Ledon Hospital but the doctors were not there. Daddy took Dr. Lekan’s phone number from mama and called him. Dr. Lekan was in the hospital thirty minutes later and mama was on admission at 7:00 a.m.
Everything was progressing well until the fifth day. Mama started complaining of pain in her lower abdomen. Dr. Lekan checked her and suggested an appendectomy. Mama and Daddy consented.
Monday came and mama was taken to the theatre. Post operation progressed well until Thursday morning – well, except that she had not passed gas.

 
Daddy prepared pap for mama to drink. Dr. Lekan suggested that we try the pap drink. She managed to take two spoons and couldn’t continue. Then her stomach began to distend. Daddy called the doctor in but he couldn’t explain the detention. He referred us to the teaching hospital where he was a consultant.

 

Dr. Eze sent mama to do a barium meal test. The result showed her intestine tied up in a knot which meant she needed another surgery to correct the anomaly.

 

 

Daddy barely traveled these days. He followed every procedure and prayed for his wife’s recovery. The day of the surgery came. Daddy signed the consent paper and the nurses took her into the operating room. The surgery lasted eight hours with a team of three doctors. Mama recovered consciousness three hours later.

 
We visited three other hospitals in referral to manage mama’s case. Every day came with it’s own challenge but having a patient and caring daddy eased the pressure.

 

***

 
Mama and I were pleasantly surprised at daddy. Mama wondered if he was the same man who married her, I wondered if he was the same daddy I’ve always known.
Then one night in Goshen Hospital, I went to the patients’ lounge to chat with the male nurse on duty. When I got back to the room, mama was unconscious. I waited patiently for her to come back. Three days later, we were driving her corpse to the mortuary.

STRIPPED AND REPLANTED

We have considered the need to strip him of his “object of completeness”, which makes him feel “one in all” and self –accomplished. This will make him see the need for a companion. Moving forward, we shall be exploring the personality of a companion.

A companion is simply a word conjugate of complex (company) + union. Adam was not just formed as a sole mortal entity, he was meant to associate with others, but the sad realisation of his exclusive embodiment as God’s image and complex nature precipitated God’s calculated search for a permanent companion: A wife.

A wife is a collected representation of several dimensions to her husband. God had something in mind prior to her making. Like other creatures, she was named by the man but She was not to be like other creatures littered around.

Adam was not aware that, that which makes him complete had been removed and replanted into his wife, but when he awoke, he made a satisfying statement …

“This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Gen 2:23).

This is the crux of companionship, He realised her role first (as a companion) and then her physiology (as a woman)…. It was at this juncture that Adam confessed that the woman was a part of him…

The jurisdiction of a wife as a companion is one to which the man is not ashamed or incomplete to stand before her naked, defeated, worn out and empty. She is one to whom he can comfortably share his secrets talk about his fears, challenges and woes. One to whom he can call his best friend.