@AirtelNigeria , please I have a complaint regarding your service; a mifi i purchased some days ago. For the past 3 days all efforts to subscribe it has been futile.
On the matter of original sin and guilt allow me to explain something some of our brethren don't realise yet. I didn't realise it for a while too but I'm beginning to get it.
Theology is not hard in the sense that it requires rare aptitude and intelligence to do. But it's hard in the sense that the right heart for God, patience and discipline required is scarce. Most people on social media never give more than a glance to something and assume they're experts already. I've done it before so I know.
When you understand sin and guilt it really makes you understand God's mercy. It makes you rate God highly and makes you very aware of your tendency.
In English we call people guilty when they have done something wrong and we judge them for it. But there is something else we judge people for even though they have not actually done something wrong. In English we don't have another word for it apart from "guilt".
Maybe when I explain you can give me a better word for it.
What do we call the judgement that a snake suffers when we kill it even though it has not bitten anyone yet in our house? We just see it and kill even if it has never bitten anyone.
What word do we use to to describe the blameworthiness of a scorpion that makes us kill it once we see it even though it has not stung us yet? Is it guilty?
Let's use humans.
If we are able to read minds and we find that a particular man has a strong desire to rape children but he has never done it before, what do we call how we will treat the man? We will never allow him near children. We will consider castrating him for prevention. But he has never sinned before. Is he guilty?
OK. Here's another.
If a man carries a contagious disease like leprosy and we find out but the man has never actually infected anyone yet, how do we describe the man's condition? We won't allow him into our homes. We won't touch him though he has never infected anyone, not yet.
If you are able to read minds and you see someone that has a severe addiction to lying and stealing, what will you do? Will you give him the job he applied for in your company? Why? He has not stolen your stuff before.
What if you have a taste of God's power and you see the minds of someone who fantasises about killing women after raping them? What will you do to the person knowing that it's just a matter of time though the person has not YET done anything?
What is the word you will use to describe this?
What word do you think a Jew would use to describe baby Hitler?
This thing is actually how we look compared to God. When you compare a perfect God of Ineffable Holiness to all Adam's children, the moral difference you see is far far more than the difference between you and a serial killer who has not YET killed.
Yet you judge the POTENTIAL serial killer. We will take steps against the POTENTIAL mass murderer.
The Bible uses all kinds of colourful words to describe us. We are bound to sin and our hearts are deceitful. It says All our thoughts are evil from our youth. Our hearts are wicked and hard like stone. And this thing, this tendency, this wicked nature, this addiction to evil, this compulsion to sin, desire to consume our pleasures, whatever you call it, is in all of us and we are born with it. It just takes time to show.
That is why our world is so wicked and nasty. It's why we start lying and stealing from when we are children. It's why all cultures in all times have always had oppressors and oppressed just waiting for their turn. Nobody teaches us. It's our broken nature. It's actually common grace that keeps this world from becoming hell.
God is Holy. God cannot hang out with people with wickedness in their heart. God is too Holy. If we go near Him with such blackness of heart, we would be destroyed. -
Northern Nigeria: PRAYER ALERT - Pray for the safety and protection of Musa Bello, along with his family.
Yet another attempt on Musa's life was just carried out.
Praise God, Musa is okay - but the situation is serious.
Musa is a local evangelist to the Fulani people, most of whom are Muslim.
We were asked to issue this alert to marshal prayer over the situation.
We will refrain from sharing additional details at this time.
Please pause right now and pray for God's protection over Musa and his precious family.
I started ministry at the age of 16. I had heard the gospel in a meeting hosted by a man I will always credit for being the first place I truly saw Jesus, @pst_oge.
When the gospel came to me, I could not keep it to myself. I started texting friends and sharing the little I knew. It was a small quiet work filled with passion, prayer, arguments, victory and the hand of God. Teaching friends became hosting Bible studies, Bible studies became meetings with 250 participants in 2020.
Yesterday, I watched 1,000 believers register for a faith course in only 24 hours.
1,000 believers. 42 countries. 24 hours.
People may wonder why I am audacious, but I don't know another way. I don't know how to see truth and not tell it. Jesus is risen. And for ten days next month, He will be revealed to as many as will come. Tell your friends if you have not told them; Themelion will change their walk with the Lord.
A thousand down, 9 more to go; Jesus has given me the world.