The Lioness of Judah

The Misfit. Unashamed. Autographed by God. The Master's Piece. The Masterpiece. Priceless. Flawless. God's Poetry. Carefully Selected. Dangerously Placed.

[The Lioness of Judah @shofarr]

I've RTed, QTed, shared, liked, bookmarked, and screenshot. Wetin remain na for me to marry this thread and to have its kids to underscore how much I agree with it.

It's unsettling and thought-provoking, and uncomfortable, as truth often is.

Thank you.

[JJ @Jomilojju]

I will be 44 this year.

For every single one of those years, Nigeria has been in a prayer meeting.

Not metaphorically. Literally.

January fasts. Mountain vigils. Stadium crusades. Begin the Month with the Lord. Revivals that stretched through the night. Shiloh programs. 7 days, 21 days, 30 days. Denominations that disagree on everything else agree on this one thing. Nigeria needs prayer. The prayer points have been the same for four decades. Poverty. Corruption. Bad leadership. Insecurity.

I was born into this. Grew up inside it. Wore white for it. Went without food for it. Sat in those grounds. Sang those songs. Believed those promises with everything I had.

I am not writing as someone who stood outside and watched.

I am writing as someone who knelt on the same floors, waited for the same breakthrough, and is now 44 years old in the same country that was being prayed for before I took my first breath.

We are told to keep praying. That prayer is the answer. That if we cry out long enough and hard enough God will turn this nation around.

And I believe that. I have always believed that.

But I am 44. And I am still waiting for the country the prayers promised.

Because I do not believe prayer is the problem.

I believe something has been done to prayer. Something subtle. Something that has slowly converted one of the most powerful forces available to a people into a reason to stay still. Spiritual energy that could have become civic pressure became a substitute for it instead. Fervour that could have filled town halls filled altars. Voices that could have demanded accountability learned to direct every frustration upward and only upward.

And the people who benefit most from a population permanently looking to heaven are the ones with both hands in the treasury.

Prayer was never meant to replace action. It was meant to resource it. To steel the nerve. To clarify the assignment. To send the prophet out of the prayer room and into the palace with something to say.

James 2 vs 17 does not say faith is insufficient. It says faith without works is dead. Not sleeping. Not resting. Not waiting for the right season.

Dead.

Nigeria does not have a prayer problem. Nigeria has a problem with what prayer has been quietly redefined to mean.

Thread 2 coming. Because the Bible we carry into these meetings has never once shown us a prophet who prayed and then sat down.

[JJ @Jomilojju]

I will be 44 this year.

For every single one of those years, Nigeria has been in a prayer meeting.

Not metaphorically. Literally.

January fasts. Mountain vigils. Stadium crusades. Begin the Month with the Lord. Revivals that stretched through the night. Shiloh programs. 7 days, 21 days, 30 days. Denominations that disagree on everything else agree on this one thing. Nigeria needs prayer. The prayer points have been the same for four decades. Poverty. Corruption. Bad leadership. Insecurity.

I was born into this. Grew up inside it. Wore white for it. Went without food for it. Sat in those grounds. Sang those songs. Believed those promises with everything I had.

I am not writing as someone who stood outside and watched.

I am writing as someone who knelt on the same floors, waited for the same breakthrough, and is now 44 years old in the same country that was being prayed for before I took my first breath.

We are told to keep praying. That prayer is the answer. That if we cry out long enough and hard enough God will turn this nation around.

And I believe that. I have always believed that.

But I am 44. And I am still waiting for the country the prayers promised.

Because I do not believe prayer is the problem.

I believe something has been done to prayer. Something subtle. Something that has slowly converted one of the most powerful forces available to a people into a reason to stay still. Spiritual energy that could have become civic pressure became a substitute for it instead. Fervour that could have filled town halls filled altars. Voices that could have demanded accountability learned to direct every frustration upward and only upward.

And the people who benefit most from a population permanently looking to heaven are the ones with both hands in the treasury.

Prayer was never meant to replace action. It was meant to resource it. To steel the nerve. To clarify the assignment. To send the prophet out of the prayer room and into the palace with something to say.

James 2 vs 17 does not say faith is insufficient. It says faith without works is dead. Not sleeping. Not resting. Not waiting for the right season.

Dead.

Nigeria does not have a prayer problem. Nigeria has a problem with what prayer has been quietly redefined to mean.

Thread 2 coming. Because the Bible we carry into these meetings has never once shown us a prophet who prayed and then sat down.

[The Lioness of Judah @shofarr]

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens.

Psalm 8:1 ESV

#VOTD

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

The Son of God, through whom all things were created, was not welcomed, and a poor manger for animals was his crib. The eternal Word of the Father whom the heavens cannot contain chose to come into the world in this way. Out of love, he accepted poverty and rejection, identifying himself with those who are discarded and excluded. #Christmas

[Ben Sasse @BenSasse]

Friends-

This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.

Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.

I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.

Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints.

There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.

Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.

A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.

Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.

Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective:
“When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.”

I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).

With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices,
Ben — and the Sasses

[The Lioness of Judah @shofarr]

@Towotoma 😂😂 Nevurrr

[The Lioness of Judah @shofarr]

Sleep is sweet o, but have you tried reading the Book of Matthew right after the Book of Chronicles?

[The Lioness of Judah @shofarr]

#VOTD

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock.

You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.

Psalm 80:1 ESV

[The Lioness of Judah @shofarr]

#VOTD

Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

Ecclesiastes 10:1 ESV

[The Lioness of Judah @shofarr]

#VOTD

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable.

Psalm 145:3 ESV

[The Lioness of Judah @shofarr]

#VOTD

Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.”

And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.”

But they went away and spread His fame through all that district.

Matthew 9:29-31 ESV

[The Lioness of Judah @shofarr]

Then hit it with the YANA NAAAAA

OH GOD 🪇🪘

[The Lioness of Judah @shofarr]

And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed...

And SUDDENLY, somebody say SUDDENLY! SUDDENLY!!

...will never not be epic. 🪇🪘

[The Lioness of Judah @shofarr]

And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed...

And SUDDENLY, somebody say SUDDENLY! SUDDENLY!!

...will never not be epic. 🪇🪘

[The Lioness of Judah @shofarr]

You are good, You are kind
I have never seen Your type
I'm devoted to Your praise
And forever to Your name

You are love, You are light
You make everything alright
I'm devoted to Your praise
And forever to Your name.

[The Lioness of Judah @shofarr]

#VOTD

When He entered the house, the blind men came to Him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”

They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”

Matthew 9:28 ESV

[Bọrọkini Rogers 🇳🇬 @Femi_OfMainland]

Not true, we just happen to judge religious people by the worst of them (us) and judge non-religious people by the best of them.

[Sisi Amàh💫 @ella_innoh]

They are in totally different and very unrelated fields but you can tell they genuinely learnt about it regardless. This is the style that'll have you bouncing your head every Sunday morning 💕

[The Lioness of Judah @shofarr]

The judge asked her to not use the word "sex scene" instead of rape? Sex scene?

I need to wash my eyes.

[Róisín Michaux @RoisinMichaux]

A man who is HIV positive raped her six times without a condom.

[The Lioness of Judah @shofarr]

@gbengaosowe2 @SimiOlusola Please accept my condolences. I'm so sorry and I pray that the Lord will grant you strength to bear this unimaginable loss and comfort you in your grief.

[The Lioness of Judah @shofarr]

He buried Christianah in his father's compound.

I wonder how many times he's done it in the past to achieve this level of comfort and automation.

I wonder how many more bodies he's buried in his father's compound.

And I'll wager more than 3.

#JusticeForChristianah

[Top Naija Life @TopNaijaLife]

They were friends, attended same church, and grew up together. Yet, he k*lled and secretly buried her.

Ayomide Adeleye, the 23-year-old Nigerian Psychopath behind #JusticeForChristianah has been arrested by the Nigerian Forces today. FULL DETAILS in Thread 👇