All posts by : Simbo Odunaiya

There is a phenomenon in this modern day that has continued to amaze me.  Go to any of the social media outlets and you find on the average, that a high number of people who engage in name-calling also have large followership.  Many folks love the former President because he does not hesitate to call names whenever he feels like it.  In fact, the trend seems to suggest that name-calling is a virtue.  In fact, what I have noticed is that one’s religious orientation is not a barrier to name-calling.  I have seen several arguments by Christian leaders that suggest that nothing is wrong with calling people names, after all, they argue, Jesus did it and John the Baptist did it.  If it is that bad, then our Lord Jesus would not have done it.  The argument is that those who engage in name-calling are those who do not mind calling a spade, a spade.  They claim they are the harbinger of truth just as our Lord Jesus Christ is truth personified.

The folks who argue that name-calling is a virtue rest their argument on the actions of our Lord Jesus Christ recorded in Matthew 23.  In that chapter alone Christ had called the scribes and Pharisees many names including hypocrites (vs 13, 14), child of hell (vs 15), blind guides (vs 16), blind fools (17), snakes, brood of vipers (vs 33), whited sepulchers (27).   Jesus Christ called the religious leaders of the day these names because indeed that was what they were.  The point that should made be however is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who knows all and can do all.  He is Holy, He is perfect.  The word of God tells us that He now sits on the right-hand side of God where He will judge the living and the dead.  He has every authority on earth and in heaven.  How about us? We do not know all, we are not perfect, and we have only limited authority.  So where do we get the authority to call people broods of vipers or hypocrites the way He did?

When we call people names, most of the time it is the pot calling the kettle black.  We tend to justify a lot of things we do by saying Jesus Christ did the same thing.  Are we Jesus?  Jesus turned over the tables of the money changers in the temple and chased them out with a whip.  While we can point out things we believe are not being done the right way, we do not have the authority to act in such authoritatively judgmental ways when we are not much better than the folks our actions are directed at.  The crust of the Word of our Lord Jesus Christ to us is that we should be more concerned about our own fallen, broken, and sinful states; and get ourselves fixed first before we make attempts at fixing other people. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ was very clear about things we are to and things we should not do.  Matthew 7:1-2 says we should not judge, otherwise we will be judged the same way we judge others.  Simply translated, if we call people names, then we will be called names too.  The Word of our Lord Jesus Christ rings loud and clear in Matthew 5:22, ^“But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell”.  Christ is expressly forbidding His followers here from calling names.  Saying “Raca” to someone is akin to calling the person an “idiot” or “fool” or “empty head”.  Where do we then find the idea that calling names is a virtue?  “Jesus did it” is not a good enough argument because Jesus is God, and we are not. He has given us His instructions on how we are to act, our responsibilities as His followers are to obey His commands. His words to us are to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:31) and to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44).  When we try to justify our own actions by alluding that Jesus did the same, it is the height of mischief. 

Is name-calling a virtue?  I believe not. Our virtue should be living according to the revealed Word of God as recorded in the Holy Book.  God’s words to us are “to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone” – Titus 3:2.  May the Lord help us to obey His words.

One thing we are very good at doing is making plans.  Some folks are quite effective at implementing their plans while others suck at it.  There is really nothing wrong with making plans.  The Word of God says “write down this vision and clearly inscribe it on tablets, so that a herald may run with it” – Habakkuk 2:2.  To run with a vision we need a plan.  The tragedy of a plan is the one that is done without the preeminence of God.  God must always be in our plans.  Another downside of plans is when they are made without regard to time.  Our time is not ours. We do not own our time.  In fact, we do not have any time.  There is no time.  “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” -Ephesians 5:15-16.

We are asked to redeem the time because the days are evil.  Whatever time we think we have is time given to us as gift from God.  It must be used wisely because it is not under our own control.  My wife celebrated another birthday this week.  Initially we were all happy and looking for ways we can celebrate the goodness of God that has kept her alive for us to enjoy more of her presence with us.  Anyone that lives to see another birthday in this covid era must be appreciative of the special gift of life.  She was happy, until night fall when I noticed she was in a pensive mood.  I asked what the problem was. Her answer was that she just realized she is getting old, and it has gotten her thinking about how fast the time is running.  I told her to ask God to slow the hands of time.  A naked truth hit both of us in the face.  We do not control time.  If only we did, we could ask it to hold on a bit so we can do some of those things we want to do. 

There is no time, so it is time for us to redeem the time.  It is time for us to take stock of how we live.  This time is the time to take advantage of every opportunity we have, to live a purposeful life.  The time right here is the time to stop being foolish and to live wisely.  This is the time to stop holding grudges and start walking in love, walking in the light of God, and walking in the wisdom of God.  This is precisely what Apostle Paul was telling us in Ephesians 5.  We are children of light, and we must live as such.

Many of us think we have time.  Many of us have the right heart, we know Jesus, we know God, but we do not have faith in Him.  Our faithlessness drives us into a lot of sins.  We know Jesus died on the cross for our sins.  We know that His death is the ultimate of grace for us.  So, we know we have a lot of grace, but we make a big mistake as we believe that the grace will continue to abound even as we continue to sin.  The time is now, as Paul clearly spelt out in 2 Corinthians 6:2 – “now is the time of favor, now is the day of salvation”.  Postponing the day of our reconciliation will cost us.  Many will lose their souls and will never be able to find it. We have an opportunity now to be reconciled to God, and we must take it now, else we miss it.  This is the time we “must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work” – John 9:4.

A big tragedy happened in Nigeria this week.  A 21-story building which was still under construction collapsed with many workers buried in the rubble.  Amongst those whose bodies have been retrieved, more than 40 so far, from the rubble is the developer of the building.  A man that was at the pinnacle of his carrier.  He has built many apartments in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Nigeria.  He was building three towers at the same time in the same area in Nigeria: 14, 16, and 21 floors.  He had plans, many plans, but unknown to him was that, on that fateful day his life would be asked of him.  Another real estate developer was buried in that rubble.  He was based in the United States and planned to return to the USA that day, but it was not to be.  His momentous trip to the site of the 21-story building ended in the collapse of the building and the loss of his life.

The Word of God says “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare” – 2 Peter 3:10.  When that time comes, it will be too late to right wrongs and too late to do good.  We must get to work now.  This is the time of God’s favor, and this is the day of salvation. Let us seize this moment to walk in love, light, and wisdom.  Time is of the essence because there is no time.

Still on the issue of identity and the power that resides therein.  Knowing that I am a child of God, and I am loved by Him is the bedrock of my faith.  Knowing that I am loved by God, not because of what I have done, but because of who I am, because I am His child is the substance that living faith is made of.  The Bible tells us in John 1:12 that “to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”.  Ephesians 1:5 says, “he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.” So, I know I am a child of God.  As a child of God, the most high, I have some authority because I am heir to the kingdom. When we don’t realize who we are in Christ, our faith is not standing on two legs, in short, our faith is crippled.  We need to know who we are for our faith to be properly and deeply rooted.  If you don’t feel worthy to exercise your authority in Christ, then you won’t be doing it in the fullness of faith and will lack assurance.

Satan works diligently to program people’s minds to feel unworthy and unable to walk in the power and authority of God here on earth. Not knowing and not walking in the power that is available to us as children of God is one of the most popular strongholds that plague us today.  That song by Sinach says, “I am walking in Power, I am walking in miracles”, and we all love the song, but, if we want to be able to walk in the power and miracle and favor of God, we will need to know exactly who you are.  The Bible makes several declarations about who we are and it is a good starting point for us.  As our relationship with God also improves, the Spirit of God will also begin to bear testimony of who we are.

I believe my Bible when it tells me that I am God’s child (John 1:12), a child of the light and a child of the day, I neither belong to the night or to the darkness (1 Thessalonians 5:5), I am the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13), and I have been justified by faith (Romans 5:1).  I belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:20), I have been established, anointed and sealed by God (2 Corinthians 1:21-22), I possess the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16), and my heart and mind is protected with God’s peace (Philippians 4:7).  My Bible also tells me that I am victorious (I John 5:4), I am set free (Romans 8:2; John 8:32), I am born of God and the evil one cannot touch me (1 John 5:18), I am more than a conqueror (Romans 8:37) and I am delivered (Colossians 1:13).  My God knows my end from my beginning and that is why I am chosen and dearly loved (Colossians 3:12), I am chosen before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4, 11), I am a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20), I am hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3), and I am in Him (Ephesians 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:30).  These are the strengths of my identity in Christ.

I also know that I have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7), that I am forgiven (Ephesians 1:8; Colossians 1:14), that I am healed from sin (1 Peter 2:24),that  I am born again (1 Peter 1:23), and therefore I am a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), I am no longer condemned (Romans 8:1, 2), I am redeemed from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13), I am holy and blameless (Ephesians 1:4), a holy temple (Ephesians 2:21; 1 Corinthians 6:19), I have redemption (Ephesians 1:8), and I am therefore qualified to share in His inheritance (Colossians 1:12).  I am confident that God will perfect the work He has begun in me (Philippians 1:6), because I have purpose (Ephesians 1:9 & 3:11), as a part of God’s kingdom (Revelation 1:6) and have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3). There is strength in my identity.

This is my confession.  Now, I urge you to speak these declarations out loud to yourself too. The power of life and death is in the tongue, so it is important that you confess the truth with your tongue.  It can make the difference in whether you are walking in the light of His power or in the ignorance of His saving grace.  When we know who we are, we know the power we carry.

Someone sent me a video this week of a well-known motivational speaker who was talking to an audience about friendships and relationships. I called her a motivational speaker because very often her talks are not based on the Word of God.  I must confess though that I find a lot of her talks very interesting.  In this one she was talking about how one needs to move on and find other friends the moment you become the most successful among your friends. It was a profound statement and the applause from her audience was a testament to the profundity of the statement.  But then I found myself questioning whether this is in fact in alignment with the Word of God.  If I am the most successful amongst my group of friends and at that time I decided to move on and leave my friends behind to find other friends that are more successful or just as successful as I am, then who will help my friends?  By the way, what is the nature of this friendship?  Does it mean that the friendship is totally based on what I can gain from my friends?  How is leaving my “not quite as successful” friends behind in alignment with loving my neighbors as myself?

Now, one underlying assumption here, which really bothers me, is that when I leave my friends behind because they are not as successful as I am, I have concluded that I do not need them any longer.  I have concluded that I do not need them spiritually, financially, emotionally, physically or any other way you might think about it.  The one who makes a conclusion like this forgets that “who needs who” is only determined by God and that needs are not measured by financial success only. Our emotions, finances, spirit, and bodies are all areas of our lives where our needs are usually amplified, but pick any area of life that you wish, and the conclusions are the same: we are weak, vulnerable, and needy. Emotionally, maybe you’re doing great today, but tomorrow a series of tragedies could hit you as they hit Job, and you would be shattered, then you will need someone who may not be quite as successful as you are to give you strength. Nothing in this life is a sure basis for security – except for God! He designed it that way so that we would be driven to trust in Him for every need. But despite the obvious truth of this, we make all kind of efforts to find our security in other things, especially in our financial success and once we find that we believe we have “arrived”.

This is a stark reminder about the Church of Laodicea, which thought that they had it together. They said, “I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing.” But God had a slightly different opinion: “you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (Rev. 3:17). There could hardly be a greater contrast! How could a Church think that they were rich, wealthy, and in need of nothing, and yet God sees them as wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked?  How could a friend think, “I am too successful to continue associating with my friend”?  We all need help at one time or the other.  God places us wherever He does because He needs us to do something there.  We also cannot base our friendships on what we need from our friends or what they need from us.  Only one thing is sure, we all need God. And God has made it such that we are needy in that way so that we can all always put our trust in Him.

The reality is that when we see ourselves as God sees us, recognizing our desperate need for Him, and cry to Him, He is ready to flood us with His abundant blessings.  Mary acknowledged in Luke 1:53 that our Lord “has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands”.  When we come hungry to God, He fills us. When we think we’re rich and don’t need God or each other, He sends us away empty-handed. He delights to provide for those who rely on Him. We only need to recognize our powerlessness and completely rely on him for all our needs.  We should work hard, but we should also realize that the provision is in the hands of the Lord.  God, who has provided everything for our salvation through Jesus Christ, will also through Him provide all that we need to live for His glory.  Believing that my needs are in your hands or that your needs are in someone else’s hands, is trading your reliance on God with reliance on people.  God’s promise is to provide all our needs and He will. He is our God the Provider; He is Jehovah Jireh! He will provide wherever we are and only Him can decide when it is time to change our location in life.

This week, Pastors in many churches are being appreciated by their congregants.  Most will be appreciated with money or material gifts, which is awesome.  We show our appreciations of people and situations mostly by giving material gifts.  Pastors could however use a lot more than material gifts.  Pastoring a Church or Ministry in general is never easy.  If it were just about writing and delivering sermons, gifted writers and orators will make Pastoring a stroll in the park.  It however includes funerals, counseling couples who do not see each other in the right light anymore, chastising, disciplining a backslider, praying for a mother diagnosed with cancer, talking to someone who just lost a father or mother.  Pastoring is hard work, and it is a difficult job too.  Don’t get me wrong, Pastoring is a highly rewarding job, but there are parts of it that can easily wear a man down.  Therefore, it is a job reserved for those who are called by God.  While we are assured of the power and grace of God to carry the heavy load of Pastoring, there are times when a Pastor can succumb to the heaviness of the load.

In order not to be overwhelmed or get life sucked out of them, Pastors need the help of their congregation.  Words of encouragement can help give life to a Pastor who is cracking under the weight of the serious responsibilities of a Pastor.  Starting from the mundane to the magnificent, like, “Pastor, you are looking sharp today”, or, “Pastor, I am praying for you”.  Let your words encourage your Pastor.  Most often the words that get back to the Pastor are about things that are not done well.  We hear about sermons that are too long.  We hear about the Pastor who has not visited the congregants often enough.  We hear complaints of not praying enough on a congregant’s matter.  There is no doubt that the Pastor needs to hear all these things but let us not limit our feedback to the Pastor to these issues alone because the human brain has a way of prioritizing criticism over encouragement, because we are wired to recognize and be sensitive to threats.  Let the Pastor hear it when you get the sermon.  Let the Pastor hear it when you are encouraged by activities in the Church. 

Speak life into your Pastor.  An encouraged Pastor leads the congregation with joy and purpose.  A discouraged Pastor leads a gloomy congregation.  We look at Pastors often as superpower people in spiritual matters.  The truth however is that while they may appear as very strong on the outside, usually for the congregant’s encouragement, they are hurting badly inside.  And the thing is that when the Pastor’s spirit is lifted, the spirit of the Church is lifted.  When the Pastor’s spirit is down, the Church loses her spirit completely.  Let us all make it our responsibility to lift our Ministers up.  And this is not limited to Pastors only but everyone who ministers in the house of God.  A Worship leader comes up and sings powerful songs to lead the congregation to the throne of grace but is hurting deeply inside and no one recognizes this.

The best appreciation a Minister of God can receive is to be built up.  No, not the flattery kind, but words that edify.  You can build them up when you pray for them.  The prayers of a congregation will lift their Pastor up.  What kind of prayer will you pray?  How about that prayer that Apostle Paul requested of the Romans in Romans 15:20-32? “Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, that I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you.”  Praying that a Pastor’s service be acceptable and that your fellowship with your Pastor is filled with joy and fresh anointing, is the best appreciation a Pastor can receive from his congregation.

Don’t get me wrong.  I am not saying the giving of material gifts is not a way to appreciate.  I am saying that words of encouragement show appreciation in a way that we may not be able to see, but the impact is so powerful, and it helps your Pastor serve you better. It is never too late to begin to appreciate your Ministers.  It is Pastors’ Appreciation Day, say a prayer for them today. They will be happy and God will be pleased. 

When my son was born, it was a brand-new experience for us.  My wife then and I had never experienced anything like that.  So, we did not know what to do as we were, so to say, novices in this wonderful life experience.  We were also many thousand miles away from home, so the usual mother-in-law coming to help was not available for us.  We had Lamaze class, but that was just to take us through the birth itself.  We were basically on our own after the birth.  So, we resigned ourselves to faith and realized we were in the hands of the Lord.  This feeling was very much alive in my mind when it was time to give the baby a name.  So, I named him “Mofoluwaso”, meaning I have asked God to watch over him.  I have asked God to watch over him because I know that I would need God, and his mother would need God, for us to successfully take care of him.  This is very much in line with what we do when we name children in my culture.  You look at the circumstances of the birth and you name the child.  So, for us names are very important because when you hear people’s name you get an idea of the story they are trying to tell. But it is our story and not necessarily God’s story.

Often, when we meet people the first time, the piece of information we first share with them is our name.  Many times, we follow up with a description of who we are and what we do.  In situations where the name carries a meaning we go ahead and form judgments about those people like where they are from.  Are they Christians Are they Moslems etc.?  These first impressions can also set the stage for future interactions.  So, names are powerful, names are important, and names are revealing.  As important and useful as names are, our names are not us, they are only what we are called.  What we are and what we are called are different from each other, except when it is a name that is directly given by God.  We all have names and people know us by those names. Some of us are not seen in the light of our names, only God sees who we truly are. Therefore, God calls us by our names, not as people or as the world calls us.

Our names here are given to us usually after we are born, so that the world may know us and differentiate us, but the word of God in Jeremiah 1:5a says “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart”.  He has already differentiated us before we were born.  We do not need our world given names to be set apart, God has already done that from our mother’s womb.  In Isaiah 49:1b, the Prophet proclaimed, “Before I was born the Lord called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.”  We already have a God given name even before we were born.  So, while we all need the names we are called here, they are not the same as our God-given names.  While we may be called different kinds of things here, they are not the same as our God-given names.

Sometimes we are not happy with our names or what we are called because we do not believe it is a good name.  So, people change their names.  There is nothing wrong with the changing of names, we are only changing what we are called from something we are uncomfortable with to another one we are more comfortable with.  Only God knows our names.  Sometimes He reveals them and many times He does not.  Remember the case of Jabez. Not much is known about him in the Bible but the little we know teaches us a lot about him.  He was named Jabez because his mother said she bore him in pains. Regardless of the circumstances of his birth or the name he was given, the Bible tells us that “Jabez was more honorable than his brothers” – 1Chronicles 4:9a.  He prayed to the Lord to change his lot and God obliged him.  All these were despite the name he was called.  Sometimes God will change what we are called, as He did with Abram to Abraham and Jacob to Israel, but it is usually His prerogative.  When this is done, the new names reveal the new divine mission and an assurance that the new mission will be fulfilled.  Only God however decides whose name is changed and when they are changed.

Know this, whatever you are called, always know that God knows your name.  He knew it even before you were in your mother’s womb.  God calls us by name to be part of his family forever.  And always remember this, that the Lord who created us and who formed us, says “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” – Isaiah 43:1b.  Whatever we are called, what matters is that we belong to the Lord, and we belong to Him forever.

Several years ago, a group of college boys showed up at the door of our Church.  They had been invited by a young lady from their college to come and worship with her at her Church.  So, they showed up and it was obvious that coming to Church was not their forte.  Many of them had tattoos on their bodies and the typical Christian would have written them off as non-starters.  Fast forward to the end of the Service, some of them had already given their lives to God and were open enough for a deliverance prayer to be performed on them.  Fast forward yet again many years down the line, at least two, and I believe three, have become ministers of the Gospel.  One of them became an Associate Pastor in our Church, the same Church where he gave his life to Christ.  God has marked us for His service. We may not know it, but God knows and at the appropriate time He will recruit us into that service.  When that time comes, we want to be ready by eschewing all traits of fear, selfishness, and mindlessness. When God calls, He does not call the prepared, but He prepares those He calls.  Today we say farewell to Pastor Farooq Busari and his family as they go to take on the world after many years of service to our Church. Pastor Farooq came here seemingly unprepared, but the Lord who calls, found him ready and prepared him. He also provided a mate, Nana Esi, who is a perfect match for him.

Pastor Farooq has been a delight to work with and I have decided to write this piece here not only to honor him, but to put on record my feelings about his service here at CICC.  Pastor Farooq came to CICC as a happenstance, at least as far as we are concerned. Today as he prepares to leave, I see God’s plan perfectly orchestrated. He came as one searching for God, but He is leaving after not only having found God, a wife (Nana Esi was raised in this Church), and three children here, but has also been recruited into God’s service.  He came to CICC not knowing the strength he has in Christ having come from a Moslem background, but is leaving CICC today, just like Gideon of the Judges, as a mighty warrior for Christ. He is leaving after having been selected for service by the Lord himself.  Throughout this period, I have observed his fearlessness in the things of God, I have observed his selflessness, and I have observed his alertness and agility when it comes to the things of God.  These are qualities that the Lord Himself holds very dear.

In Judges 7:1-8, we read about how God chose the soldiers that went to war against the Midianites with Joshua.  God employed a defined process to choose the few that He needs to get the job done.  I think we can learn a lesson in the way this selection was made when it comes to being selected for God’s service.  The first thing we learn is that God wants us to be fearless in doing His work.  In verse 3, God asked that Gideon should dismiss all those who were afraid to take on the task ahead.  Out of the 32,000 soldiers that Gideon had amassed, 22,000 left the camp.  Several things will lead to being fearful when God calls.  Feelings of inadequacy, financial commitments, peer pressures, and the fear of the things we will need to forgo are real sources of fear when we are called for service.  So, when God calls, He needs us to leave all fears behind.  He is God and He is able to take care of all our needs and inadequacies. 

We also find that as much as God desires that we be fearless, He also wants us to be selfless.  God instituted a unique test by asking the remaining 10,000 to drink water from a water source. Here, he disqualified those who knelt to drink the water and retained those who bent down to lap the water like a dog will do.  The idea is that those who knelt to drink the water are too taken by their own desire to drink that they forgot about the needs of those around them.  When we go to service for God a big part of our service is to look out for the poor, the downtrodden, and the lost.  When we are too taken by our own needs and desires, we lose sight of the people that the Lord wants us to pay attention to.  In this same drinking test, the drinker’s stance also seems to suggest how alert they are.  Those who knelt down may not be as alert as those who just lapped the water.  God wants us to be alert and agile with things of God.  The devil is always prowling looking for who to devour.

As you leave CICC Ohio today, Pastor Farooq and Sister Nana Esi, we urge that you always remember you have been marked for service and as such always remain fearless in that call, remain selfless in that call, and always be on guard.  May the Lord expand your coast and increase your Ministry in Jesus’ name.

At our Bible fellowship last week, we watched this movie titled “The Good Lie”, an American Drama written by Margaret Nagle.  It was a captivating story of how five orphans along with other children embarked on a difficult journey to Kenya and ultimately to the United States.  One thing very obvious in the movies is the brotherhood, sisterhood, and sense of camaraderie that existed among all the children who embarked on this journey.  The sacrificial love that these children were able to show each other without any inhibition was very inspiring.  It must also be noted that when they finally got to the United States, their ability to make friends very easily endeared them to the people they met and opened doors for them.  One could say they were children of grace.  It was also obvious that much of their grace came through friendship from people they met and also shared amongst themselves.  God extends His grace to us many times through the friendships we cultivate.  The thought of how much I have been blessed by my friends sometimes overwhelms me.  I do not believe that this happens to me alone.  Often times we talk about the grace of God in our lives and how but for the grace of God our situations or circumstances would have been markedly different.  On deeper reflections we will realize that much of God’s grace in our lives have been manifested through our friends.

God’s grace sweetens friendship, but friendships marked with grace are rare, and when they come into our lives, they remind us of the goodness of Christ. They remind us that we are not alone. They remind us that we are loved and cherished and blessed.  Of all the paths to grace, perhaps none is as easy as enjoying a good godly friendship. A godly friend reminds us that love is the essential nature of being. A godly true friend can be more loving than the most romantic partner. Everyone needs a friend sometimes.  The values of true friendships come to light in very difficult times.  This was manifested ever so clearly in the movie, “The Good Lie”.  During the difficult time that Apostle Paul went through while imprisoned in Rome, there is no doubt he enjoyed the grace of God, not only through the strength to persevere, but also in his continued impact on the people of God.  Many of these were done through the grace in friendship that he enjoyed.  In his closing letter to the Philippians we read that Apostle Paul enjoyed the friendships of the Church in Philippi and he also enjoyed the friendship of those in the palace of Caesar.  He traveled with friends, stayed with them, visited with them, worked with them, preached with them, beaten with them, sang in prison with them and, he encouraged and was encouraged by them. Mostly he enjoyed their company.  God created us to enjoy one another. He never intended for any of us to live isolated lonely lives. God created us to be joyful and one of the instruments is through the rare grace of friendship.

I always like to tell the old story about the happenings around the passing of my late wife, Iyabo. She passed in 1998 after six short months of battling cancer. It took but the grace of God and my many friends who rallied round me in a most unexpected way for me to pull through. Raising a four-month-old baby and at the same time going through Chemotherapy and radiation therapy and all the rest was not easy to manage.  The grace of God was however manifested in my friendships.  Friends will bring food to us, help us clean our house, and come to just encourage us and lift our spirits.  Eventually when Iyabo passed, these same friends continued to stand by us.  One notable attribute of most of my friends was also the fact that they were members of my Church.

People of God, no matter what we do in the House of God, we must strive to cultivate friendships.  Be a friend to someone.  We all need friends too, but I also say, if you need a friend, then, be a friend.  Those who cultivate friendships will have friends, those who seek to be alone will lack friends.  Let us copy Apostle Paul, everywhere he went he made friends. These friends became a source of joy to him.  In the Church of God making friends helps you feel so connected to yourself, to your community, and to the divine, that paradoxically, you no longer need a friend but, instead, you become a friend. And in doing this you extend the grace of friendship to the brethren.  We can bless a lot of the brethren by sharing the grace of God through being a friend. Take time to be a friend today.

Many of us are highly privileged, although we seldom accept that we are.  Privileges can often lead one to become dispassionate about the social issues that are going on around us.  In fact, privileges are quick to become instruments of oppression.  A person who grew up in an affluent family is quick to look down on those from modest backgrounds and call them lazy.  Folks from privileged backgrounds often blame people stricken with poverty for their own misfortune.  We tend to get logical and analytical about emotional things when we do not suffer the same fate as those going through the raw emotion.  When one has witnessed how privileged people use their privileges to oppress their fellow men, it is easy to categorize privilege as a negative thing.  However, privilege can be used for good.  If a privileged person allows the spirit of God to lead, privilege can be a force for good.  Being privileged is a blessing.  In fact, one can surmise that we are privileged so that we can use our privileges to do good. Yes, we are blessed to be a blessing.  We are privileged to bless. The case of Esther in the Bible readily comes to mind about how she used her privilege to bless her own people.

We read in the book of Esther how young Esther became aware through her cousin, Mordecai, that there is a plot to destroy the Jews.  Being a Jew herself, she is in the position to use her influence as the Queen to deliver her people from the evil plan.  Many times, when we find ourselves in privileged positions, we become unmoved or unconcerned by the issues that unprivileged people must deal with.  “I live in the United States, so it is not my problem whatever is happening in Sierra Leone.”  “I am from Southern Nigeria so, I do not care what happens in the Boko Haram battle-ground of North-Eastern Nigeria”, or “thank God I live in Ohio where we do not have hurricanes, folks in Florida and Louisiana can deal with their problems.”  We become dispassionate about these issues because we believe they do not concern us.  For Esther, acting has some inherent danger for her, so her initial reaction was why endanger my life for something that does not directly affect me?  Mordecai’s word for her was “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape.  For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” – Esther 4:13-14.  This is something we must all make a point to remember.  Whatever privileged position we find ourselves in is so that we can use it for justice and healing through the instrumentality of love.

Mordecai has thrown a challenge at Esther.  He has basically reminded Esther that you did not put yourself in this position of privilege.  The one who put you there put you there for a reason and the time has come to fulfill that purpose.  Every privilege we have comes with immense responsibility.  Some folks misuse it because of the power that comes with privilege and people can get drunk with power sometimes and use it irresponsibly. Esther ended up using her privilege well. She was able to convince the King to save her people. 

People of God, having a roof over our heads is a privilege.  Having a car to run our errands with is a privilege.  Having enough money to get all our needs, with leftover that we save for the future is a privilege.  Being in a position of authority is a privilege.  Knowing Christ is a privilege.  Every one of these privileges comes with power that can be used to save some other folks who are struggling and who need a helping hand.  When we use these privileges well, we can help heal and transform lives for the better.  Being privileged is being a light in the dark, we must shine our light for those who are lost to find their way home.  Of course, the devil never fails to keep trying to make us go the opposite way.  This is the challenge of our faith, that as children of God we must refuse to hearken to the bidding of the devil and allow the spirit of God to take absolute control of our lives so we can use our privileges to bless and not to oppress.  May God give us a compassionate spirit, reveal our privileges to us, and help us to use them with compassion in Jesus’ name.

There is a great revelation for us when we are able to see spiritually.  We can finally see ourselves the way God sees us.  How do we see ourselves the way God sees us?   This kind of vision involves a change in our mindset that only the spirit of God can help us achieve.  Many times, we tend to see ourselves from the mirrors that the world hands to us rather than the one the Lord has given us through the Spirit.  The Word of God teaches in James 1:23-24 that “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”  In essence the Word of God plays a big role in helping us to see ourselves as God sees us.  When we read the Word, we do not read it just for the sake of it, but we must read to understand and then use the wisdom of God to apply it.  The Spirit of God helps with understanding and application of the Word of God.

Often, we tend to see ourselves based on the kind of job we do, our appearance, our financial successes and even the type of church we attend and of course what other folks say about us.  What happens then is when bad things are said about us, we see ourselves as bad, when our jobs or finances fail, we see ourselves as failures. But we are not our jobs, and we are not whatever anyone may say about us.  We only know this fact when we see ourselves the way God sees us.  Some people have been called poor, some folks have been labeled barren, and many have been labeled useless, hopeless, and all kind of unedifying names.  This is not how God sees us.  When we see ourselves the way the world wants us to see ourselves, feelings of inferiority, insecurity, hopelessness, and all other kinds of unhelpful feelings set in.  There are also people who see themselves in ways that result in pride, arrogance, feelings of superiority and other kinds of harmful feelings.

Each one of us are part of God’s creation and when we read the Word of God in Psalms 139:14 which says, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” That is what the Word of God says about me and about you.  We lose sight of this when we are not familiar with the Word of God.  We must study the Word often so it can help us to see ourselves through the lens of the scripture and not through the distorted mirrors that the world offers us. Our identity is defined by our faith in Christ Jesus and not by anything else.  We must therefore reject any other mirror that only emphasizes our imperfections or exaggerates our past mistakes.  We must reject every mirror that causes us to feel we are less or more than we are.  We must reject every mirror that overwhelms us with shame, fear, and feelings of inadequacy  

How does God see us?  Ephesians 1:3-7 gives us a glimpse, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.”  We are a blessed people, and God has given us every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.  We are a Holy people, and we are blameless in God’s sight.  Every one of our sins has been forgiven through Christ Jesus.  This is how God sees us, me must begin to see ourselves like that.  We walk in power, we walk in miracles, temporary afflictions are only meant to strengthen us, and we are never failures.  We must see ourselves like that.  May God continue to sharpen our vision and cause us to see ourselves in the right light. Amen.