Posts in category: The Shepherd’s Blog

“And who is my neighbor?”  That was the question posed to our Lord Jesus Christ by an expert in the law.  His intention was to test the Lord.  We all know the answer the Lord gave him, the story of the good Samaritan (Luke 10: 30-37).  It was not a simple answer, but it is an answer that should cause us to think. It is an answer that should cause us to think about who we have made our neighbor.

The Lord’s command for us is to love our neighbors the same way we love ourselves.  It is therefore important for us to know who this neighbor is.  Many people have come to believe that their neighbors are the folks living next door.  Some others think only the Church members are their neighbors.  When we read Jesus’ answer, we find that our neighbors are way more than the folks next door or the brothers and sisters at Church.  The lawyer’s question “And who is my neighbor?” seems like a tongue-in-cheek way of belittling the idea of loving our neighbors.  It sounded almost like, is that all I needed to do?  However, our Lord’s answer, full of divine wisdom, rather than narrow the reach of those we need to love, does expand it. His answer showed that our neighbor does not have to be from the same tribe as us; our neighbor does not necessarily attend the same church we attend; and, our neighbor may not even share the same faith that we share.

While growing up, there was a song we used to sing which, translated, says “To whomever you have the ability to be of assistance, that person is your neighbor”.  This means that the neighbor we should love is not limited by our proximity or relationship.  Our Lord Jesus Christ was teaching us with that parable that loving a neighbor is much more than just showing compassion to the needy, which is part of it, but that who we do it to also matters.  In the Samaritan story, the one that showed love to his neighbor was the Samaritan.  The one at the receiving end of the love was a Jew.  In those days the Judeans did not think of the Samaritans as good people. They were a set of people that the Judeans looked upon with scorn.  They even considered them as foreigners. So, the example our Lord Jesus chose here uses the one that is despised and hated as an example of a neighbor and shows that kin or faith is not a delineator of good neighborliness. 

In the last Sunday sermon given by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King jr., in 1968, he alluded to how technology has changed the whole world and has turned the world into a neighborhood.  The world has even become more of a neighborhood today than it was in 1968.  Rev. King lamented in that sermon that as much as the world has become a neighborhood, those who live in it have not been able to make it a brotherhood.  This was referring to the fact that the world had become more of a physical neighborhood where we were not able to love the neighbors in the neighborhood the same way we loved ourselves.  We tend to give different kinds of reasons why we do not follow the Lord’s command about our neighbor, much like the Priest and the Levite in the story of the good Samaritan.  Rev. King in another of his last messages, talked about the reality of the Jericho road. He said “It’s a winding, meandering road. It’s really conducive for ambushing”.  He talked about the possibility that the Priest and the Levite may have been deterred because they wondered if the robbers were still around; or the possibility that the man may have been faking and was just acting like he had been robbed and hurt so as to lure them there for quick and easy seizure.  Rev. King concluded that the question in the mind of the priest and the Levite may have been – “”If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”’”

Let it be clear to us that there will be stumbling blocks along the way when we try to extend God’s love to our neighbors.  That road will sometimes be a winding and meandering road that is conducive for ambushing.  Sometimes your love will not be returned and many times it will be outrightly rejected.  The subjects of our love may not be cooperative, and quite often extending love to that neighbor may be at some cost to us. If me must be good neighbors, we must not allow the dangers of our Jericho road to deter us.  Always think, if I do not help this neighbor, what will happen to him?  May God give us the grace to be the good neighbor.

If we must understand God’s injunction to us about loving each other, then we must understand the various kinds of love that are out there and understand what love we must express to each other and our neighbors.  The word love is so overused in the society that it may have watered down its importance.  It is so easy to hear people just mouth the word at every instance, without thinking about the implications.  It turns out that the concept of love is very important for us Christians.  Equally important is the type of love we profess.  God expects us to exhibit Godly love but many times we mistake the other kinds of love for Godly love.  The highest levels of love mentioned in the Bible are phileo (brotherly) love and agape (selfless) love and both of these are important for the body of Christ.

The word love itself is an ambiguous word that can describe or be motivated by different kinds of feelings.  We can express love for each other because we are motivated by some pecuniary or emotional gains from the relationship.  This kind of love is selfish love.  There are many situations in life where we express selfish love. There are many friendships where the love expressed is based on the mutual gain that is inured to them. It is a tit for tat kind of love.  I love you and you love me back. In these mutual benefits kinds of love, the recipient of the love is seen as a means to an end.  The moment the expected end of the love is no longer there the love dissipates and ends abruptly.  So, the object of love in this situation is just a tool that is meant to be used. The humanity in the recipient has been removed and the person has been depersonalized.  This kind of love is not the love that Christians are encouraged to show.

Another thing that motivates us to love is romantic emotion.  We call this kind of love romantic love.  The romantic love is a little higher than the mutual benefit love in the sense that it can be altruistic in its most beautiful form.  At the highest level of romantic love, a person who loves can die for the object of his love. People will often go to great lengths to satisfy the object of that love.  Romantic love however still has a tinge of selfishness in it. We love romantically because there is something in the recipient of our love that attracts us.  It may be the beauty, the intelligence, the way the person speaks, or whatever.  The bottom line is that there is something that motivates us to extend our love to such a person.  The romantic love is also meant to be reciprocal.  Therefore, a lot of times people can easily fall out of romantic love because the attractiveness is no longer there, or the love is not returned.  We are called to express romantic love to our spouses, but it is obviously not the love we are called to express to our neighbors.

The brotherly love is a higher-level love not because it is less selfish than romantic or mutual benefit love, but because it can be more inclusive.  The romantic love is limited to two people who are attracted to each other, while the mutual benefit love is about two people whose love is motivated by what they can gain from each other.  On the other hand, the brotherly love is wider in scope and can be expressed with many people at the same time.  It is however still a selfish kind of love because it is usually motivated by friendship with those we profess to love.  This is the kind of love that we often profess to each other in our local churches.  So, I can be in a church and call all the men my brothers and all the women my sisters.  “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35).  This is brotherly love. The drawback, however, is that the moment someone does something against us, we tend to withdraw the brotherly love.  While this kind of love is good for us in our local churches, the fact that it can be motivated by how we feel towards the brother or sister makes it less than the ideal love God wants us to have towards each other.

The highest level of love we can profess is the selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional love.  This is what we usually refer to as the Godly love.  It is like the love that God has towards us which is much deeper than we can imagine. This love is expressed to someone even when there is no expectation of a reciprocal response.  This love is expressed without motivation.  This love is expressed without exception.  It is an all-inclusive kind of love.  It is love that must be expressed to both friends and enemies alike.  “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27).  This love is the love of God operating in the human heart.  This is the love we as Christians are called to profess.  If we fail to love our enemies there is no way for us to fit into this category of Christian love. When we love as Christians our love must be inclusive.  We need the help of God to do this right.  When we do it right, we should be able to profess romantic love to our spouse, brotherly love to our friends and neighbors and selfless, sacrificial, unmotivated love to all.

Welcome to the year 2021.  Let us make this year all about “Greater Love”.  Last year we were all looking for perfection in our circumstances, the sovereign Lord changed it to perfection in our relationship with Him. What happened in 2020 is the kind of stuff that moves people to seek God.  I trust that many who have genuinely sought God in this past year had found Him.  My prayer is that every relationship with God, no matter how shaky it is now, will be perfected by God’s grace in Jesus’ name.  Trials strengthen our faith, no doubt.  Mine has been strengthened in the past year, I pray yours have been too.  The struggle continues, but the Lord is still on His throne and His word tells us “without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” – Hebrews 11:6 (KJV).  He will take care of us; our role is to press on and do what He is calling us to do.  I am personally excited about where the Lord is taking us this year.  We need to move beyond our corner and extend our hands of fellowship and love to others.

One of the basics of Christianity taught by our Lord Jesus Christ is love.  A Pharisee had asked Him in Matthew 22:36 (NIV), “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” His answer in Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV) was “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”  The question here was about the greatest commandment, and the Lord just pointed out to everyone listening that, it is all about love. Love for God and love for others.  Then in John 15:13, our Lord added another caveat, Greater Love.  “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” – John 15:13 (KJV).  This verse suggests the idea of how much we love.  It tells us that some acts of love are greater than others.  So, there is the possibility that we believe that we love but may not be loving enough.  What yardstick do we use in measuring our love for God and for others?

I read about the story of a little boy who was so enamored with growing that he made his own special ruler with which he measured himself daily.  From his point of view and based on his measuring ruler, he believed he was getting bigger.  One day his father watched him doing his thing and asked him what was he doing? He responded that he was measuring himself so he can watch himself grow. His father looked at his measuring ruler, left and returned with a with a yardstick. He told his son to stand beside the yardstick and to the boy’s greatest disappointment, he discovered he had not grown much from what the doctor had told him a year before.  It revealed a big problem for the boy, he had been measuring himself with wrong yardstick. 

Brothers and sisters, we have the same problem.  One little act of love and we pat ourselves on the back and believe we have arrived.  Our Lord Jesus Christ has established a proper yardstick with which we can measure our love growth.  “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”  The idea of laying down our lives for our friends speaks to self-sacrifice. Are we willing to give up our sense of self, our sense of security, and our sense of self-sufficiency to engage in the life of another?  That is greater love. This is our ultimate goal as Christians; this is our perfect love.  Our challenge is to respond to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ to exhibit that greater love. We are called to a Greater Love and it is time for us in this new year to begin to make that move towards that greater love.  We must begin to move from our “no love” situation into a life filled with selfless love.  Let us move from our resting place of little love and move towards our calling of greater love.  We have not been called to love our family alone, we have not been called to love our friends alone, and we have not been called to love God alone.  Our calling is to love our enemies and bless them that curse us. Also, the Bible teaches us that “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” – 1 John 4:20 (KJV). Those of us whose lives have been transformed through being born again must have a new attitude toward other children of God. Having experienced Christ’s sacrifice first hand, we must be ready to live our lives sacrificially.

Are you ready this year to show greater love?  Start from your corner, but do not stay too long there.  Let us embark on this journey together.  I am called, you are called, we are all called to this noble idea.  Make up your minds today to live a life of greater love and you, surely, will never regret it.  Be blessed!

I have continued to reflect on the extreme strange circumstances that we have all had to face this year. I said strange, because for those of us in this age, it is quite strange.  But it was not quite strange for those who lived through the flu pandemic.  However, because they lived through that age, and the strange circumstances they experienced that time, we in this age are able to relatively live with the flu almost as a routine disease.  I can imagine that people who live 50 years from now will look back at the experience garnered from this troubled time as a blessing for them and the breakthrough on the current pandemic.  I have said all this to point to a fact that our present circumstances may be blessings in disguise.  This reminds me of an article I wrote a while ago which I revisit again below.

Many times, we experience blessings that are not disguised. This had caused me to meditate over the ratio of our blessings that are disguised and ones that are not and a picture formed in my mind.  The picture I am getting is that when I examine my life, I realize that I have had far more incidents of good things happening in my life than bad things. It is easy for me though to concede that the bad circumstances, when they happen seem to command more of my attention. Thinking again, I realize that the bad things seem to occur less frequently.  I have also noticed that my worst experiences have, by far, been the debilitating fear I have of bad things happening to me.  A loved one is sick, and I begin to fear that he/she might die.  I go for a job interview and for one reason or the other I begin to feel like I might not pass the interview or be accepted for the job, and so many other fears like these. The fear of getting into a bad circumstance is like torture and this is in spite of the knowledge that our Lord has not given us a Spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7).  Another thing that is noteworthy is the fact that, so far, I have managed to recover from whatever circumstances I have found myself in in the past.

These experiences tend to support the notion that there is more good than bad in life; the bad is not as bad as fearing the bad; and we can recover and live happily in spite of the bad circumstances. One can then surmise that our fear of bad circumstances may actually get in the way of enjoying the blessings of God which far out-number the circumstances. InRevelation 2:10 (KJV) the Bible says “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. So, our experiences in life may have more to do with where we focus our mind and our heart than the bad circumstances that happen in our lives. If we, however, orient our heart in the right direction, the joy of the blessings of God will definitely be our portion again.

I have heard many people say that being happy is a choice.  The revelations here do support that fact.  Focus on the good things God has blessed you with and you will have a far more exceeding joy than if you concentrate on the trying experiences you have. According to Elizabeth George, in her book “Loving God with all your mind”, we must train our thoughts to think the truth about our experiences and focus on living life one day at a time.  Our recollection of our bad experiences in the past should be for only two reasons.  Either because we want to thank God for having brought us through or because there were some lessons we learned from those experiences we need to put to use. Our experience of life usually has more to do with what we focus our attention on than it does with the events. One bad thing might happen, but ten good things are all around you. If you only see the one bad thing, then life is bad. When you are in the midst of a bad thing, you will experience pain and difficulty, but it won’t kill you. In fact, many great things come from bad times. Bad circumstances are often the precursor to positive change and personal growth.  There is a choice we always have to make in the course of our life journey and that choice is either to be a victim of our circumstances or to be victorious over our circumstances.  The choice to be victorious is the choice to be happy.  My brothers and sisters, let us choose to be happy despite our circumstances as we refuse to succumb to the fear of bad circumstances.

Christmas is here again and anywhere you turn the Christmas songs will be blaring once again.  My favorite of course is “’Tis the season to be jolly!”.  I love this song because it often describes my feelings at Christmas.  Every Christmas my joy index has this time-tested tradition of going through the roof.  It did not just start; it has always been so for me and I am guessing I am not alone.  All one needs to do is look around at Christmas and you can literally feel the joy in the air.  The source of the joy is not always the same for everyone because Christmas is one of those times of the year when America has successfully merged spiritual and material joy.  I am not quite sure that the extent of the joy is the same this year, especially if what we have been hearing about the impact of this Covid-19 pandemic is true.  This year had been that year when many have fallen sick with the mysterious Covid-19 virus, and at the last count before writing this blog, the number of deaths in the United States due to the pandemic had gone beyond 300,000 people.  So, I know that his year’s Christmas will be a mixed-feelings affair for a lot of families because over 300,000 seats will be permanently empty at the dinner table.  In addition to this, many who have the grace of still being alive will not have the pleasure of celebrating this “most wonderful time of the year” with their children or parents because of the rampaging pandemic.  Despite all this, I know it is still the season to be jolly.

Being jolly, or cheerful, or happy, or joyful, or merry at Christmas does not depend on our circumstances.  If we are in the true Christmas Spirit, we can be jolly despite the circumstances surrounding us.  What is the true Christmas spirit?  It turns out that we do not need to be spiritual to go along with the idea that the Christmas season is a time to be jolly or that it is the most wonderful time of the year.  Materially, the season is the most commercially viable time of the year.  For some folks, the material joy is a mirage because they are not able to engage in the commercial activities and will therefore not necessarily feel jolly or think that there is anything wonderful about the season.  So, when we talk about the Christmas Spirit it is different strokes for different people. For those who love to drink, the Christmas spirit comes in a bottle; for many folks, the Christmas spirit is the number of gifts they get; for the Scrooge, in the Scrooge movie, the Christmas spirit was a ghost; and for those who are well to do, it is about the money they have to spend.  The true Spirit of Christmas is not about any these things.

Those who do not know true story of Christmas can only have the joy of Christmas when their circumstances give them cause to.  If the circumstances are not favorable for them, these people will come very near the celebration, hear the songs, see the fanfare and yet never completely be in the Christmas Spirit.  They will experience the fun and the excitement, but never make the connection between their celebration and the event itself. These folks will be like people at a wedding who celebrate with more energy, laugh louder, and drink more wine than anyone else, and yet they have never met the bride or the groom. They have no real interest in the marriage. Their real and only interest is in the celebration. Take away the party from them and you remove the celebration. On the other hand, there are folks in the wedding who will remain joyful nonetheless even if there is no wedding celebration because the source of their joy is the marriage itself.  So when a pandemic like Covid-19 takes away the normal of our Christmas celebrations, what remains is the spiritual.

This is the main difference between those who have the real Christmas spirit and those who don’t. For those with the real Christmas spirit, if you removed their trees, and their lights, and the gifts, and the decorations, with the drinks, the food, and the music, the story will still be true and they will still be jolly.  So, it is another season to be jolly, but I also hope it is another opportunity to know the full story of Christmas and its importance for our lives.  Let us, amid all the hoopla, not forget about the baby in the manger. Let us not forget that this baby, Jesus, came into the world to redeem us and that He paid the supreme sacrifice for you and I.  Let us, in fact, remember that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  If we do remember these in all our merriments (or no merriments because of the circumstances), we will be in the true Christmas Spirit and it will indeed make us want to be jolly.  This season I urge you to make efforts to know and love our savior more, and if indeed this puts you in a jollification mood, so be it. Afterall, “’Tis the season to be jolly!”.

How does one accept something that is already regarded as unacceptable?  Ironically there are several things that happen in our life that are unacceptable.  Yet, many times we do not have any choice but to accept them even when they are deemed unacceptable.  Accepting the unacceptable is about accepting things that we have no power to change.  Refusing to accept them is a sure pathway to losing our peace.  We battle serious illnesses, and we find it difficult to accept them.  We lose loved ones and we cannot bring ourselves to accept it.  We fight, we kick, we complain and refuse to accept.  The idea here is not that we should not make efforts to change bad situations, but that we must recognize the truth of that situation. 

Our natural reaction to uncomfortable situations is to change the situation.  However there comes a time when despite our best efforts we are not able to change some situations.  This is when acceptance comes in.  No matter how much we try, we cannot change the weather.  We can do something about it, but we cannot change it. As a matter of fact, the sooner we accept that the weather will be what it will be, the earlier we are able to do something that helps us to deal with the harsh part of it.  We cannot change our past.  The more we think about the painful aspects of our past, the more difficult it becomes to move on.  So, acceptance not only gives us peace, it helps us to deal with our situation.

Accepting the unacceptable is about surrendering fully to the will of God.  Our Lord Jesus Christ in human flesh had to suffer.  It is not a path any human will love to take.  Jesus Christ had to accept to walk this path of suffering so that God’s plan for Him will be fulfilled.  The situations of life that come our way are many times not about us.  They are about God’s will.  Yes, they may be uncomfortable for us, but they are about God’s plan.  Refusing to accept these situations, as uncomfortable as they may be, is the same as rejecting the plans of God for us. Again, I should point out here that acceptance does not mean we will not pray, and acceptance does not mean we will not do anything about the situation.  Whatever we do will be to the extent that we are able to effect a change in the situation.  What we should not engage in is to worry and worry about situations we have no power over.  So, when we are sick, we go to the Doctor.  When we require help beyond our powers we go to God in prayer.  Going to God in prayer is a recognition of our own limitation and an acceptance of the fact that only God can effect a change in the situation.

The popular prayer of serenity is about recognizing the limitations of our power and ability.  “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference”. This here is what it means to accept the unacceptable.  We must seek the courage to change bad situations that comes into our lives, but we must understand that only the serenity of God can help to accept our limitations, and after we do, it again leads to the peace of God in our lives.

One of the reasons we fight accepting difficult situations is that we believe once we accept the situation, we may never be able to change it.  The truth however is that because we cannot change the situation, we need to accept it.  When we accept the unacceptable, it does not mean we are condoning it or embracing it.  It just means that we accept the fact that the situation is what it is.  Yes, we may wonder why it is happening or why it is happening to me, in particular?  That does not change the fact that it is happening.  I like the way Elizabeth George puts it.  “I don’t have to understand everything”; “I don’t need to understand everything”; and, “I can’t understand everything”.  There is no situation that comes to us that God does not know about.  His Word is good enough for me. The Word of God says “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13.  When it is happening it is difficult to believe, but once it is over we can always look back and see the hands of God in how we overcame.  We will only be able to look back when we do not allow worry to destroy our minds during our period of suffering.  Accepting the unacceptable is about allowing God to do with us what He desires.  It is about walking to our destiny and not away from it.  May God keep us in His will always.

This Covid-19 pandemic has acted to expose many government officials who never live according to the rules they themselves make.  The news media has been inundated this week with news of many leaders who ask people to stay home due to the Covid-19 but who themselves never follow the rules.  It is a common malady that people like “the do as I say” but not the “do as I do” kind of life.  Christians do not have this luxury because God has called us to live by His Words.  I believe the most important aspect of being a Christian is the idea of living by the Word of God.  It seems it is also the most difficult.  Quite often it is easy to live by the Word of God when that Word is advantageous to us.  It is not that easy when the Word requires us to go through actions that are difficult or painful.  Valley experiences seem to make us forget who we are.  We are children of God and “in Him we live and move and have our being” – Acts 17:28a(NKJV).  We live by the Word whether in the valley or on the mountain.  

Being followers of Christ, there is no better model for us Christians than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ Himself.  Right from the beginning, in His humanity, He was familiar with the written Word of God and was willing to abide by it. “It is written, ‘That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God’” – Luke 4:4.  Knowing the written Word of God and fully understanding the context in which they are used was obviously helpful in how Jesus Christ dealt with the machinations of the devil. Being familiar with God’s Word will help us, like our Lord Jesus Christ, not to fall into the fowler that Satan is always preparing for us.  “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.” – Psalm 119:11(NKJV).  The Word of God is our great protector.  It helps to insulate us from living the sinful life.  Therefore, one of the most important activities we should engage in as Christians is learning the Word of God.  We must make sure that we learn the Word of God, know its correct meaning, and be ready and willing to apply them whenever the situation arises. “Therefore, you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes” – Deuteronomy 11:18(NKJV).

Studying the Word of God is however of no use if we are not determined to live by what we learn from Scripture in all circumstances.  Learning the Word of God but being unable to put them into practice makes the study of the Word an exercise in futility.  We do not learn the Word of God just for the sake of learning; we learn so that we can put the Word into practice.  The idea of growth and maturity in Christendom is about putting into practice what we learn from the Word of God. 

The high point of living by the Word of God is that His Word comes to our aid in times of trouble.  Psalm 119 is full of several examples of the Psalmist calling on God to come to his aid in accordance with His Words.  During that time when we are in the valley of life, we are able to call on God to save us according to His Word; and only those who know the Word of God can make reference to it. When the times are hard and we are on our last strength, then it is time to call on God to strengthen us according to His divine power.  “I am afflicted very much; Revive me, O Lord, according to Your word” – Psalms 119:107; “My soul melts from heaviness; Strengthen me according to Your word” – Psalms 119:28.  In these times God’s Word can revive, God’s Word can strengthen, God’s Word can save; and only those who know about the efficacy of God’s Word can take advantage of it.

Every time we appeal to God’s grace, mercy, and power according to His Word, we are also saying that we have been living in line with God’s Word and living by the provisions of His Word.  We need the help of the Holy Spirit to accomplish this because it is through the Holy Spirit, that God works in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure – Phil. 2:13(NKJV).  There is nothing we can do on our own.  However, when we make our human efforts and ask the Lord to help us through the power of the Holy Spirit, God is gracious.  It is when we ourselves have all we can to live by His word that we can look back and say to God, like David who lived according to God’s word, “You have dealt well with Your servant, O LORD, according to Your word” – Psalm 119:65.  When we live by His Word, He deals with us according to His Word.  May God always deal with you according to His Word, in Jesus’ name.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all my brothers and sisters in the Lord.  As I often say, each time I think deep, I always end up feeling that my tank is full of God’s blessings and therefore have no other recourse but to be thankful.  I trust that especially in this year 2020, where many people have personally felt its ups and downs, you feel the need to be thankful.  It has been a very long year, although the Lord has not added a single minute to it.  It has however felt that way.  If we do the needful and think just a little deeper, we find that there is so much to thank God for.

Our God is awesome and deserves all our praise and gratitude.  Where and how do we start from, to measure the fullness of God’s blessings?  When we look back at our lives this year, despite the dark clouds that showed up once in a while, it has been God all along. When we look at how His Word has guided us, comforted us, and given us hope (Hebrews 4:12), being alive at this time is a testimony to how His grace has been sufficient for us and how His power is made perfect in our weaknesses.  For many of us who have had health challenges this year, especially the Covid-19 challenge, these challenges have helped us to build strength and character.  For those who have lost loved ones, we now know beyond any doubt that only He could have kept us standing.  What about the family He has given each of us, whether by blood or faith, they have always been there for us and made our lives quite meaningful.  We are surrounded by love and His peace, what else can one ask?

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, And Your faithfulness every night” (Psalm 92:1-2 – NKJV).  I pray that this will be your portion on this day of intentional thanksgiving. I know it is not the typical Thanksgiving this year because many of us are celebrating it without the kids at home as would usually be the case; another one of the curve balls the year 2020 threw at us.  I pray however that in spite of whatever you may have been through in this year 2020, that you are ultimately strengthened by God’s peace and that your hearts are renewed by His joy such that your focus will be turned away from whatever issues you have and back to God where it should be on a day like this. 

The Bible says “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord” – Psalm 150:6. We are not here by our own power and as long as we still have breath, we must continue to give Him thanks and praises. In this Thanksgiving season, we all must continue to reflect on our lives and know that we are still here because God still wants us around.  If He still wants us here, it must be because there are things we still need to accomplish.  There are plans He has for us that we must still get done.  Let us, on an opportune day like this, spend time reflecting on how we live our lives henceforth.  Knowing God has been good to us should engender from us a heart that is full of gratitude, but it should also cause us to reflect on our relationship with Him and why He is keeping us around. 

We must also do our part to stay around for the master’s service.  “Only the living can praise you as I do today.  Each generation tells of your faithfulness to the next” (Isaiah 38:19 – NLT).  Only the living will worship the Lord, so we must not only play our part in staying alive but make sure that others are also able to stay alive to worship God.  We are not here for ourselves. We are here to serve others and to worship our God most high.  This therefore brings to mind what is going on in our world today.  In this pandemic time, let us do our part to keep ourselves and our neighbors safe.  Very soon vaccines will be available for all of us, but before then, the next best thing is to make sure we wear our masks and maintain social distancing.  We must do our own part and not break these rules.  We must make our best efforts to follow them because it is in following these rules by our state and local governments that we play our roles in keeping our community safe and keeping God’s people alive to worship Him.  We must also minimize how we move around in the interim so that we can all join hands to reduce the rate of infection.

Once again, I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving season.  Remember also that we must keep thanking God in all our circumstances.  That is God’s desire for us.  May His praise never depart from our hearts and our mouths, in Jesus name.

How we approach our Christian journey ultimately depends on what we think really counts in matters of faith.  There is no doubt that very often we get it completely wrong and therefore approach our faith based on a wrong premise.  All of these are factors in how we worship God, and maybe even have their place in the outcomes of our worship.  The problem is that many of us have become experts in majoring in the minors.  We tend to focus our energy on the issues that concern us personally, instead of living God’s will for us. 

Majoring in the minors of our faith always looks like something other people do.  Unfortunately, it is one of those planks in our eyes that we never see even as we manage to see the speck in other people’s eyes.  If our faith is not about His word, or His truth, loving Him with all our minds and loving our neighbors as ourselves, then it is most likely that we are majoring in the minors of our faith.  It is not a new phenomenon.  Majoring in the minor has been with us since the days of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Recall what Jesus Christ said to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:23-24, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.  You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” Meaning in a hierarchy of important actions, the pharisees focused on the least important things while they neglected the most important.  In short, they majored in the minors and minored in the majors.

We must know that everyone majors in something.  This is not an issue in which we can be cold or lukewarm. The good things of life often cause us to lose focus on why we are here and for whose glory we are here.  We spend so much time in or efforts to acquire the good things of life that we forget what the purpose of those good things are.  So, we get into situations where we worship those things rather than serve God.  Many of us start well, but it does not take too long for the distractions to take hold of our focus and we find ourselves concentrating on the minors of our faith.

There are several things that can happen in our lives and cause us to loose focus or perspective.  Whenever we loose focus or perspective, we can end up being masters of the minors.  Our Christian lives are often burdened with personal challenges like illness, worries, worldly desires and other sinful activities that ends up pushing us towards the minors of our faith.  These events in our lives are often strong enough that the unwary can be influenced even when they do not plan to be.  In our walk here we must always remember that we do not live for ourselves.  Our lives must be fully dedicated to serve God and to serve mankind.  Any deviation from these ideals will ultimately push us towards the less important activities of our faith.

Majoring in the majors of our faith should always be about engaging in actions that result in the glory of God. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” -1 Corinthians 10:31.  Our actions will glorify God when we live the truth of His words.  We are made in the image of God, so, our actions should give people a glimpse into the character of God. If we engage in actions that detract from how people perceive God, then we are giving a false picture of God and have therefore forgotten the important things of our faith that we should be about.  Those who encounter us should experience the love of God.  They should experience firsthand what it means to love our neighbors like ourselves.

Our major in our Christian faith is aptly summarized in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, – “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”  His commandments have also been succinctly stated in Matthew 22:37-40 – “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  If our actions are not dictated by these commandments we are majoring in the minors. Let us learn to put first things first.  We covet His grace to be able to do so.

If there was ever a year in which it is difficult to praise God, it must be the year 2020, with all its attendant issues. However, praising God is something that God wishes us to do, and to do as naturally as we breathe. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord” – (Psalms 150:6). So, it is a great day to praise the Lord. Why? Because we still have breath to praise and glorify the most-high God. Only the living can praise Him. So, anyone with any intention to praise the almighty God better does it now because tomorrow is not promised to anyone. Let us lift our hands and give ourselves completely to praising the Lord! We can only praise who we honor and prize highly. If we hold the Lord in the highest state of respect and admiration, it will be easy to praise Him.
Several things can happen when God is praised from the heart. Some folks prefer the quiet solemn way to praise God, but there are others who, when they are praising God, do things that can get people wondering what is going on. They are all acceptable forms of praise. Yes, whatever fits your fancy when you are praising the Lord, just as long as you do it from the heart. There was the Bible story of when Jesus came near Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives in Luke 19:28-40. He had sent two of His disciples after a colt (a donkey). When they brought the colt to Jesus, they put garments on it and Jesus got on the donkey to ride. As Jesus was riding in, the whole multitude of the disciples began spontaneously to rejoice and praise God in a loud voice saying, “Blessed be the king that cometh.” They were praising God in a loud voice and some of the Pharisees were either embarrassed or felt like that was not the way to praise God because they told Jesus, “Master, rebuke your disciples.” Our Lord Jesus Christ however gave them an instructive response, He said “I tell you, …. if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” So, as we respond to God’s goodness and power in praise to Him, if you feel like doing it with a reckless abandon, go ahead. I am sure you do not want the objects to start praising God in your stead.
Sometimes we are going through some difficult times and we cannot even bring ourselves to praising God. Remember though that we can still praise God despite our circumstances. Recall when Paul and Silas were in jail – Acts 16:25-31, despite their circumstances they started singing hymns in the middle of the night. The Bible tells us that as they were singing there was a violent earthquake that shook the foundations of the prison and all the windows and doors of the prison flew open. You see it does not matter what our circumstances are, when we praise God chains are broken and burdens are lifted. You see, our trials and our problems are not bigger than God. So, get in the act of praising God and let God know that you know that he can take care of all of your problems.
There may yet be others who have felt the touch of His mighty hands. The Lord has just shown up mightily in your lives and you do not know what to do. Well, I want you to borrow a leaf from the lame man at the gate called “Beautiful”. Recall the man was begging for money from Peter and John. Peter told him that “Silver or gold I do not have” – Acts 3:6, then “Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong” – Acts 3:7. The Bible tells us that once this man received his healing “he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God” -Acts 3:8. When people saw him, they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. You see, when you praise God with all your heart, and all your being, it lets people recognize the grace of God that is working on your life.
Many of us feel ashamed to let ourselves go when we praise the Lord. Well, today is a great day to do it and not feel ashamed after all the Lord’s mercies are new every morning. We must get into the habit of praising God with reckless abandon for anything, at anytime and anywhere, because whatever we do, anyway, is for the glory of the Lord. I am not suggesting that you shout, I am saying do it with all your mind and all your soul and all your spirit. When we praise God, our joys will be full, our souls will be lifted up, and our faiths strengthened, to the glory of His name but only to the extent of our immersion in our praise. – Pastor Simbo Odunaiya