THE JUMP

Here I am lost in the myriad of people in this valley - this valley of decision.I see frustration and lack of content on all their faces. A desire to be free, a desire for abundance, a desire to be in control but it appears there is no way of escape . Or is it that the demands of the freedom are too high? At the top of one of the hills around I see a sign "This way to freedom" it reads. My heart leaps for joy at the thought of a way out of this choking valley. I wonder how people have been able to feel comfortable in such uncomfortable surroundings. Even though there was a promise of freedom. I advance towards the sign and I feel a hand tug...

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The picture on the left is of my son on my knees, Olu-funsho (I love to call him Funshito). Whenever I return from work, and I'm welcomed by his toothless smile, my heart leaps for joy and every hard time I've had in the day just evaporates. Just today I listened to something a respected worship leader said. He said, and let me try and paraphrase, Help us Lord not to cringe away when You raise Your hand thinking You want to hit us but help us see that You want to put Your arms around us. When I heard this, my heart leaped in me because I have been meditating on the fatherhood of God.We are so quick to assume God is the strict disciplinarian who...

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NEGLIGENT DRIVER

August 3rd, 2007 began as it usually does for my family- wake up, bathe the baby, take our baths, get dressed and leave for church. The difference this time was that we would be going to church in our car, with me on the wheels (I'm grinning from ear to ear). We got ready and soon we were in the car, my (beautiful) wife Mojisola, our chubby baby boy, Olu-funsho and I. We had to buy fuel and pick a friend, who happens to be my instructor and a member of our church along the way, so the real test of my driving had not really started. When we had picked him and bought fuel, we started the next phase of our journey to Gbagada, where our church is located. Being very new at driving on the roads of Nigeria, I had to drive slowly and carefully so while other drivers are speeding off, I'm just crawling...

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Expand, Extend, Enlarge

On Wednesday, August 1st, I did something I had always dreamed of doing: I drove in Lagos traffic! For many of you reading this, you probably don't think its a big deal. But when you consider that I am close to thirty years old, own a car and haven't been able to put it on the road for more than two months now, simply because I don't know how to drive, then you may begin to appreciate my breakthrough.The question I asked myself, as I hit the Agege Motor Road was this, "Why has it taken me so long to do this?" It was a question that I knew the answers to even before I asked. I wasn't daring enough and I must say that it was not that I had not tried to learn to drive but I had received a lot of setbacks that have made that area of my life a no-go area. As I told one of my friends of this landmark...

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HOW HARD IS RESTING?

Its been quite a while since I have put anything here (against the decision to put between two and four posts up each week). I have gotten so bogged down, as much as I hate to admit it, with this pursuit for what to eat, drink, wear, etc That's what led me to this today's post.Have you ever tried falling asleep? I don't really know how to put it in a way that it would make sense to you but if you have ever experienced it before, you'll know what I mean. I remember sometime during my NYSC, after a very stressful day, completely tired out and needing to sleep, I entered my room in the family house, lay on the bed and struggled to fall asleep. I had a splitting headache and I literally struggled with sleep. After almost 10 minutes of this wrestling, I got up from the crumpled bedsheets and in...

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Let Us Pray

Lately I have gotten to more seriously praying for Nigeria. You know how much we talk about things and really don't do anything? Well I had gotten into this rut for a long while but I finally got the resolve to eat the frog(isn't that the proper expression?). After the experiences I have had in the area I live in (called the HQ of Area boys-to which I disagree, of course talkong from another perspective), I have concluded that intellect alone is weak in tackling the problems we have in this nation.When it comes to the issues that relate to this nation and our role as the agency of change, we need to access a dimension of power and wisdom that is way beyond this realm. It seems we don't want to agree that our ideologies, concepts and knowledge ALONE can't deal with the issues that we face in...

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STILL ON THE SPEAKING CHURCH

A look at the country and you can become so frustrated and most definitely voice your disgust at the system and also tear it down. I got into that position recently when I looked at the country particularly after some incidents took place in my area. Some boys just put the entire area in darkness just because they wanted to make a few bucks. I was really put off. What angered me most was that this problem is not of social infrastructure but one of wrong attitudes and mentalities.So how do we reconcile what we see in the nation with what our position should be when it comes to speaking?I read Ezekiel 37 recently ,and though we've usually seen it from a very selfish view, God showed me another perspective. Ezekiel said"God grabbed me. God's Spirit took me up and set me down in the middle of...

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WEALTH TRANSFER

"I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness—secret riches." Isaiah 45:3I've heard so much about the wealth transfer coming to the body of Christ and many times it seems like we should just sit down there, living our righteous lives, praying our nice little prayers while unbelievers just come to us to hand over all the cash they've used so many years to amass. That, to me, sounds like a load of rubbish. I don't think the devil would even allow it, knowing his nature and desire to rule mankind. So how is this wealth transfer going to happen?Lately, I got thinking after reading certain articles and it just came to me that the only way that this wealth transfer will happen is if we begin to get involved in the market place.His word tells us that He gives us POWER to get wealth. He gives...

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A SPEAKING CHURCH

In the past few days Nigerians have been really hurting and we all know why. I got involved in a discussion with my collegues recently and I could see the depth of pain and hurt Nigerians are going through. Its amazing that this feeling cuts across the entire strata of society.In the midst of all this we are tempted to show our anger and frustration at the government and any other person that gets in our way. A kind of transfer of agression right? And of course we can justify our actions, cant we? I feel differently though. As believers our perspective to all this should be different. And if you see differently, you should speak differently shouldn't you? So what's my point?This is the time for the church to arise and begin to speak! There's this song Israel Houghton wrote sometime in '99...

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RESTED!

Something happened to me recently that made me do a lot of thinking and less worrying. Friday last week ended with not a dime in my pocket and for a nursing father(abi?), that wasn't too good. I had racked my brain to think of possible sources of money but I came up blank. At that point I turned to the only person whom I knew was more concerned about my welfare than even me, my heavenly Father(its funnny we always remember Him last uhn?)Well I prayed and just left it there, knowing that somehow we'd get thru the weekend and I'd have money to get to the office on Monday, when my salary would be paid. I knew He was going to provide. It was how He would do it that I didn't know. Sunday morning came and I had to lend some money from someone to get to church. Interestingly, after service someone...

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WHERE IS THE CHURCH?

Events in the past few days have got me thinking more deeply than before particularly after the elections that took place in April. Recently a man of God died, after a respected Christian leader had pronounced that he wouldn't succumb to the sickness that eventually killed him. Then there's the silence of the church on our present national election drama. Almost like we don't know what's happening.I thought God said He wouldn't do anything without first telling His servants, the prophets? How come the events taking place in this country leaves the Church, His family of prophets and priests, dumbfounded? How come we are the ones to know what's going on last?(That's even if we get to know at all!)There's this story somewhere in the book of the kings of Israel where a prophet was telling of the...

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THE SOLUTION

If we look at Nigeria, we may be forced to agree with the circumstances around us. Area boys on the loose, traffic jams, unemployment, the list is almost endless but its in the midst of this gross darkness that light shines brightest.I don't know about you but I have wondered how God manages to handle this earth. Imagine the madness that the devil created in the beginning. Chaos is his stock-in-trade and he had a hey-day making, permit the use of the expression, nonsense out of God's beautiful work but it didn't even bother God.He simply stepped on the scene and, by His Spirit, put everything in order. What's my point? Well its really simple.Solomon had an insight into the things that happened when God was rebuilding the Earth at the beginning. He learnt, by divine inspiration, that Wisdom...

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