All Things Are Yours…

Let’s take a moment and ponder on what would happen if Someone walked up to you in the heat of the day. He’s immaculately dressed in a black tux, white shirt, black tie and matching shoes.

The Guy presents to you His Identification card. You blink your eyes in wonder. Why, you say, He’s from my bank! His face has a tender mix of compassion and concern. You look into His eyes and instantly know you can trust Him.

All is going according to the script, until He tells you that there’s £100 million lying fallow in your bank account.

The cautious part of you looks incredulously at the Man standing in front of you.

A hundred million pounds?!!

The Man from your bank then presents your statement of account to you. You stare at the sheet of paper, your mind trying to convince your heart that it’s all a hoax.

But, moments later, with your tear-stained eyes facing the Bank Manager seated opposite you, you find out that there was no scam in the first place.

It was all true!

In fact, the money had been lying dormant in your account right from the day you were born!

You hold back the well of tears threatening to flood your eyes, as you remember the days you forced yourself to fast, since there was no money to buy food.
You remember how you used to walk long distances to your destinations because you had no money for transport.
You remember how you wore one cloth for all your social functions.
You remember how you couldn’t pay your bills….

Just then, the Manager peers down a particular document on the table and tells you that there’s a clause attached to the money in your account.

When you ask what it is, The Manager tells you that after every withdrawal you make, not minding how frequent or how large it is, the account is replenished back to its original amount!

You’d probably have fainted at this point!

Nice story, you might say…

But to me, it’s more than just a ‘nice story’. It’s an analogy that clearly depicts how many pass through life, enduring it while we’ve been given ALL THINGS to enjoy.

You see, in real life, we are all given a BLANK CHEQUE to write out whatever we want. For some, they write exorbitantly; others write less impressive figures. Still, some others do not even know that such a cheque exists in the first place!

The key here is KNOWLEDGE. Because, unless one KNOWS that he/she has priviledges and perks, he/she would probably just get by with life.

But regardless of the presence/absence of the knowledge, the TRUTH remains that everything has been given to us to enjoy!!!

That’s what abundant life’s all about.

You don’t have to struggle with lack of money or the absence of good health. You don’t have to battle with anxiety or certainty over the future.

You don’t have to struggle anymore because you’ve been given ALL THINGS that pertain to life here on earth.

All you have to do is to go to your banker, withdraw from the ‘pool of unlimited resources’ that has been freely given to you and live your life to the FULLEST.

It’s the good life. No scam!

The Hedgehog And The Fox

Hello there!

I’ve been so busy over the past couple of weeks, and as such, I’ve not been able to post as frequently as I would have loved. Anyways, I was able to squeeze out some time today to churn out something for your reading pleasure. (N.B: I might sound a lil’ bit ‘rusty’. Please bear with me)

Okay, so I stumbled on an interesting story last year. It was about The Hedgehog and The Fox. A lot of you might even be familiar with the story. I hope you’d get a few deep insights from the short story I’m about to tell:

The fox is a very, very cunning creature. Very powerful. Sleek. And extremely fast-paced.

The hedgehog, on the other hand, is a very weak animal. It’s slow and sluggish. It seems to be content with foraging shrubs in search of sweet plants and maybe small insects.

Now, it must be noted that the fox is carnivorus (i.e, it feeds on other animals, e.g, hedgehogs!).

From the look of things, it seems that the fox has everything going for it.

So, the fox finds the gentle hedgehog searching for food. The hedgehog is totally oblivous to the danger posed by the fox. The fox carries out all its feasibility studies and raw data analysis and feels confident that THIS TIME, it would catch it’s prize.

The fox makes for the prey.

And again, as usual, the hedgehog senses the imminent danger. It shakes its head, wondering why the fox would never learn it’s lesson!

Nonchalantly, the hedgehog activates its defensive mechanism and curls itself into a ball of pins, just as the fox is about to pounce on it.

Needless to say, the fox is flabbergasted, to say the least. It shakes its head, licks its wounds and trots away to its den to restrategize!

THEN THE CYCLE REPEATS ITSELF….

The fox is good in so many things, yet it does not get its desired goal. The hedgehog on the other hand is only good in ONE THING. And that ‘one thing’ continually saves its life from the jaws of death.

You might be wondering how this applies to you.

The truth is that it concerns you, even more than you think.

It bores down to ONE word: PURPOSE!

How many foxes do you know? You don’t even have to look so far, because they are all around. They seem to have all the connections in the corridors of power. They might even have loads of money. But that extra ‘something’ is absent in their lives. They feel that they are nearly attaining what they want, but like the fox, they land on a ball of pins!

The hedgehog’s life is simple and uncomplicated. It is an expert in one thing: Forming balls of pins! People with a vision and a sense of purpose are like that too. They might not have connections or affluence, but they are fulfilled.

The question now is: Which would you rather be?

What He Did For You: A Physiologist’s Viewpoint

I felt the need to take some time out just to try and summarize the PHYSICAL implications of what Christ did for you and I over two millenia ago. This goal of this piece isn’t to undermine, but to make you all the more appreciate the spiritual significance of Christ’s death and resurrection.

At the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ’s sweats were as droplets of blood. This is medically referred to as HEMATIDROSIS. It occurs in instances of great emotional distresses, as a result of ruptures of the capillaries of the sweat glands. The condition usually makes the skin very tender, meaning that the physical assaults that Christ would later receive were going to be really painful for Him.

After Christ was arrested for a sham trial, He was smitten on behalf of the High Priest, by an officer. Though, we can’t determine the exact force of the blow, it’s easy to estimate that these early beatings were sufficient to induce MULTIPLE CONTUSION, especially because Christ had earlier gone through a phase of HEMATIDROSIS.

Between the Lord’s Supper and the end of the Roman trial, Christ endured great emotional stress compounded by His disciples absconding and a beating after the Jewish trial. He was forced to walk for almost 3 miles to the various trial sites. Besides, Christ must have slept little (if at all) and all these factors were going to make Him particularly vulnerable to the severe scourging He’d later receive.

The whips used by the Roman soldiers had thongs, to which small iron balls or sheep bones were tied at intervals. Though, Jewish law commanded that the highest strokes a man could receive was 39, the Romans had no limits. So, it’s save to say that Christ’s flogging could have been much worse.

Christ was whipped by two Roman soldiers referred to as LICTORS. He was whipped on His Chest, Back, Gluteus and Legs. The beatings tore His Skin and underlying subcutaneous tissues. Then the underlying muscles were tattered by the whippings. The ribs could have been fractured by repeated blows, leading to laceration of superficial blood vessels. At a point of the fierce whippings, blood would have spurted out of His deep wounds with each beat.

Blows to Christ’s back would have been excrutiatingly painful. Perforation of the back muscles by the whippings would send impulses that exceeded the pain threshold. The spinous processes of His vertebrae would have been cracked as a result of the beatings.

By the time the lictors were done, Christ had lost so much blood that He had a reduced blood pressure and blood flow. This would have led to a state of shock which would in turn lead to irreversible cell and organ damage.

A crown of thorns (which was most likely to be a helmet of thorns, rather than a carefully plaited crown) was placed on Christ’s head. With the crown on His head, He was also receiving blows to that same head. This would have driven the thorns deeper into the highly vascularized scalp and forehead. At this point, the pain could be best described as indescribable, because of the perforation of nerves, arteries and veins on His head.

Roman soldiers got Christ a royal robe which they consistently wore and took of Him. Each time this happened, the clotted blood on His wounds would reopen, bleed and cause more pain.

Weakened from His scourging, Christ was made to carry His Cross. He fell from the weight of the Cross. This could have led to a blunt chest trauma and a contused heart.

Christ was dehydrated and hypovolemic by the time He reached Golgotha. Nails of about 5 to 7 inches in length were driven into His hands and feet. The nails caused injuries to His median, peroneal and plantar nerves. Insects burrowed into open wounds and orifices in His battered body.

On the cross, Christ had difficulty in breathing. Maximum inhalation was only possible when His body weight was supported by His outstretched arms. But exhalation was impossible in this position, besides, the pain would be too much for His perforated arms to bear, so He had to shift His weight back to His lower extremeties. Christ had to alternate between the two positions just to keep breathing, yet He also had to be careful so as not to reopen clotted wounds. Eventually, fatigue would build up in His muscles and so, He was forced to support His weight on His lower extremeties. Not being able to breathe properly, Christ’s chest and respiratory muscles became paralyzed with increased strain and pain. The inevitable was only moments away…

To ascertain Christ’s clinical death, a random Roman soldier pierced Christ’s side at an angle that reached the base of His heart. The serous pericardial fluid, as well as blood from the heart, gushed out of Christ’s side.

Christ was buried and on the third day, He was resurrected and now is on the right side of power.

But what I continually see, is Christ, with His outstretched arms on the Cross, saying:

“I love you this much. I’d rather die, than live without you”

What would your response be ?!!

State Of The Mind: A Poem

Graves, white-washed graves; sickly beauty;
Full without…
Of loud mouthfuls of knowledge to passersby who care,
Full within…
Of decaying putrid flesh; skeletons no one wants to talk about

Hypochondria, an almost welcome relief, is let out of the backdoor,
While melancholia ‘reins’ with bits.

At the expense of real inspiration,
Self, condemned to daily denial,
Is motivated to maintain the perfect IMAGE…

IDOLATRY! Idolatry it is,
Poor substitute for Godly piety, unabashedly denying
The very Power that could have been its Backer.

The accolades and laurels pushing for significance,
Are rewards for the good performance given…
And all are taken,
Except the unfancied plaque labelled ‘HEED!’

“It’s under control!
it’s under control!!”, they say,
Till when the last grip on the truth
Quickly slips out of the brakeless vehicle
Speeding down the steep gradient

As Blindness sadly smites Realization across the face,
Whatever high shoulders left are shrunk
And locked up under custody of roaring rodents,
That only moments ago had no semblance of a chance

Targeting A Goal: A Poem By Alonge Adeyinka Joseph

Close to the pole of life, i set my ball
Aiming to get a goal.
But getting a goal
isn’t as easy as it seems

Through storms,
Through struggles

My life keeps abiding to those roles
I have to play
My mind keeps following the rhythm of success

My aim is to get a goal
My attention refuses to be diverted
along the slippery paths of life
’cause all I’m targeting is the goal.

Though I’m on the pitch,
pains will come
Through the fatigue that the game puts on me

But all I’m targeting is the pole,
And keep dancing to the to the tune of the game,
to get the goal and win the match

By perseverance, I bear the stress
’cause I say to myself
“Winners never quit,
Quitters never win”

The fear of failure makes
my heart to skip some beats
And at times, I get some sleepless nights

All these do to me
is just to keep me on my toes to get my goal

I’m so close to getting this goal,
I’m not done trying

Because, finally, in the end,
the stress would be worthwhile,
the trials would end,
and victory will be achieved!

P.S: Joe gave me this piece on the 5th day of February, 2013. So, this particular poem is almost a year old!
Well, Alonge Joseph Adeyinka can be reached via email on: cacprince03@yahoo.com.

Happy Sunday

Modern-Day Christianity

A couple of weeks ago, a trending topic on twitter was #LiberalismInFourWords. I responded by saying,

“Unguided Freedom Is Bondage”

This post explains why I said that:

Revolving altars; Synchronized fountains of water falling on tinted glass backdrops; Lightning effects with variant shades, themes and colours; Entertaining music by talented vocals; Charismatic preachers with tablets, immaculate dress sense and tongues…well-oiled eloquoent ones; Church audience in attendance with various versions of the Bible on their phones; Projectors working overtime to display the Bible verses being preached, as well as keypoints in the preacher’s message….

That about sums up the state of Christianity in this current dispensation.

Christianity, as a religion, has never had it this good!

Right from the days of the early church in the Old Roman Empire to the mid-1900s, Christians had endured diverse forms of persecutions:

Some were ostracized; others were maimed, or even crucified.

Many were fed to hungry beasts; some skinned alive.

Many more were burnt to stakes while numerous others were impaled!!!

Indeed, it took something more than raw guts to be a Christian in those days. It took a very deep conviction, as that decision was similar to a death sentence.

As it were, one of the mysteries of Christianity to the Gentile world was that it seemed to even wax stronger and spread wider with increasing adversity in the form of persecution.

Naturally, one would always expect a system that could thrive in the face of affliction to do the same, or even better under favourable conditions.

However, History has shown us that this isn’t always the case.

For example, in the early 1900s, majority of Eastern Europe was under a strict communist rule which saw all religions as the ‘opiate of the people’ and subsequently banned them. Defaulters were jailed, tortured and eventually liquidated. Yet, despite the high risks involved in being a Christian during this time, the Brethren in this region still met regularly in underground Churches and the Gospel was propagated massively. Against all odds!

However, when you fastforward a couple of decades after Communism’s demise, the percentage of Christians in these Eastern European countries have drastically dropped. Even the larger portion of the few Christians left are the nominal ones.

So, I ask: ‘What is going wrong?’

When I look at the state of the Body of Christ today, I cannot help but wonder,

“Is this the Body that Christ ransomed with His precious Blood?

“Is this the Bride that the Lamb is coming back to marry?”

Listen up: Though the devil isn’t wise, the guy remains an cunning schemer!

You’ve gotta give him that.

You see, when satan found that adversity was only aiding the propagation of the gospel, he decided to change his warfare tactics to a more subtle one.

LUXURY!!!

Yup. Luxury.

The devil and his cohorts are still on the offensive. However, the Church has assumed that the apparent absence of adversity implies that the devil is tired and no longer interested in attacking.

Be sober. Be vigilant. Be watchful.

That’s the only way we’d be able to thwart the devil’s incessant attacks.

Life’s never been this good!

Technological advancements and worldwide peace seems to have made modern-day Christianity to be a shadow of what it used to be.

Please note that these luxuries aren’t evil, but when they shift the focus from Christ, they become potent poisons that can weaken our stand in Christ.

Resist the devil and he would flee from you.

Put on the whole armour of God.

The funny thing about the armour is that there’s no cover for the back!

What does this imply?

There’s no room for running away from our battleground in life.

When you turn away from the battle all in the name of luxurious vanity, you leave your back exposed to the fiery darts of the enemy.

It’s either wholehearted commitment to God or total union with the evil world system. You can’t afford to be double-minded about Christ. There’s no middle ground!

Christ is coming back soon.

This isn’t the time to be slack or lax!
This isn’t the time to let the fire on the altars of our hearts to go out!

Whoever puts his hand to the plough but looks back isn’t fit for the king’s prize.

Duty calls!

It’s time to stand up strong as true soldiers of God’s own army!
It’s time to lay aside all fithiness and superfluity of naughtiness!
It’s time to come to terms with yourself and ask,

“After all these things; After enjoying all the aesthetic values and exquisiteness of my church building; After enjoying my preacher’s motivational psychology and philosophical teachings…WOULD I STILL MAKE IT TO HEAVEN?”

Human Relations 101

A couple of years ago, I stumbled across this uniquely simplified article on Human Relations. I believe it is an interesting read that could change a lot about how you relate with others:

¤¤ The LEAST important word: I

¤¤ The MOST important words: We

¤¤ The TWO MOST important words: Thank You

¤¤ The THREE MOST important words: All Is Forgiven

¤¤ The FOUR MOST important words: What Is Your Opinion?

¤¤ The FIVE MOST important words: You Did A Good Job

¤¤ The SIX MOST important words: I Want To Understand You Better

Now, I’m not going to expantiate on the aforementioned nuggets. Instead, I want you to ruminate on them and let the points get fully formed in you. Don’t be fooled by their simplicity. Therein lies their potency!

I’m serious.

You know what I feel?

Many of the world’s problems today arise from our propensity to complicate simple matters!!!

Just imagine what would happen if just 1 in every 10 individuals made it a point of duty to relate with everyone in his/her sphere of influence with this kind of simplicity.

Just picture the peaceful society that we all could have had the chance to exist in!

Yet, it’s so funny to see how something so simple could be so hard.

I guess it all bores down to our freewill.

Yea, our freedom of choice…

A Quickie: The Truth About Lies

Whatever the reason that prompted it, a lie would always be a lie. There are no black lies. Neither are there white lies. Anything you say with the intent of misleading or deceiving is a lie….

And here’s where Human nature completely baffles me:

We all lie!

Right from the point little children reach the age of knowledge, they have the ‘potential’ to lie.
No one teaches them about it!
And they themselves know that it’s bad!

So, I want to ask:

“Suppose 4 minutes were to be deducted from your life for every lie you tell, how many minutes (or days or months…..or EVEN YEARS :-O ) would you have subtracted from your God-given lifespan?”

Oh…and by the way, while you are still busy calculating, the truth is that LYING ACTUALLY SHORTENS ONE’S LIFESPAN!!!