HIS KINGDOM, HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, HIS MAN

Two Saturdays ago, about 100 men gathered at the auditorium of Christ Chapel International Churches (CCIC), Ikeja Centre recently located to Wempco Road, Ogba, The rain that began early that morning and continued intermittently till late afternoon, did not deter this men, many of them from several chapters of Christian Men’s Network Nigeria, and quite a number first-timers at CMNN events.

As indicated here two weeks back, the theme of the event, Men’s Breakfast Plus, was His Kingdom, His Righteousness and the Real Man. And the featured speakers,  who arrived the venue even before yours sincerely, were Rev Dr Ayo Ayodele, a teacher of English Language at the Lagos State University who pastors CCIC, Ojokoro Centre and teaches the word of faith with even greater passion, and Rev David Abraham, Managing Director, Managing Business for Christ (MBFC).

Both presentations were, to say the least, eye-opening and convicting. But, I chose to refrain from rehashing what was said by the two men. Instead, I chose to address an issue which featured prominently in one form or another in many of the questions asked during the interactive session. Those questions reveal a certain dichotomy in the lives of a lot of us. Dichotomies between our work and worship; between our choice and God’s plan for our lives; between who the Bible says we are and who we are in reality.

To address this issue, I feel an obligation to quote extensively from a four-part serial I wrote two years ago, titled “Open Letter to Kingdom Persons.”  I shall try to do so as briefly as possible. Here goes:

The first point to note is that the Kingdom of God is already here on earth; it is not a later reality. In the introductory part of the serial, I tried to define the Kingdom of God.

“…A kingdom is a territory ruled by a potentate by whatever name called. And wherever that territory may be, the will of that ruler prevails. The same applies to the Kingdom of God on earth. The simplest way to understand this is to refer to the prayer the Lord Jesus taught His disciples, famously called the Lord’s Prayer. Two lines of that prayer are relevant to the matter at hand and they read: Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done on earth; as it is in heaven (see Matthew 6:10). In other words, God already has a kingdom in heaven where his will is done, and if the Lord Jesus is asking that we pray that his will be done, it is easy to see that he implies that God desires a Kingdom on earth where his will prevails.

“…That kingdom is already in existence in the heart of millions of men and women who are living or are committed to living according to God’s will as expressed in his word, the Bible. The environment in which these kingdom persons operate and wield influence therefore represents and exemplifies the Kingdom of God on earth. The Church is the visible manifestation of that kingdom; it is the organism that works to keep the kingdom running and growing.”

Next, I pointed out that God’s kingdom on earth is a kingdom of sons:

“A major difference between this kingdom and other kingdoms is that whereas kingdoms of men normally consist of the king and his subjects. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of sons. That is to say, if you belong to the kingdom of God you are a son of God, not his subject or servant or slave. The Bible is clear about that. John 1:12 says: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name”. Romans 8:14 corroborates: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” 

“…When God decided to create his earthly kingdom, he began with a son, not a servant or slave. Proof of this is that God gave Adam dominion over all that he created, as in an inheritance. He did not ask him to keep and tend the garden as a condition for exercising dominion. Nor did he make his access to the things he had created commensurate to the quality or quantity of his garden-tending activities. Beyond that is the Bible’s express reference to Adam as the son of God in “Luke 3:38 – “Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God”. These should explain why Jesus’ work of redemption led inexorably to the restoration of man to sonship, not servanthood as indicated in the earlier quotes from the books of John and Romans. That should explain the designation of Jesus as “the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29); and the rest of us as: “…children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ…”(Romans 8:17).

I have said all of these, in order to say, or rather repeat something that I said in concluding the first part of that serial and which, some of the questions at Men’s Breakfast Plus reminded.“Now, many reading this already know and accept as true, the biblical assertion that we are sons of God. Many might even be walking in this truth in some areas of their life. But many of us are slaves masquerading as servants; some others are servants parading as sons, while some of the very best are merely living on the fringes of sonship. And it shows glaringly in everything. It shows in the way we pray and what we pray for. It shows in the way we praise and worship God whom we say we have accepted as our father.   It shows in our attitude to work; in how some of us have become slaves to work in the pursuit of what we call putting food on the table or providing for the family. It shows in how desperate we sometimes get in the pursuit of this all-important provision for the family, such that compromise has become the norm, even among Christians whether we are business persons, academics, politicians, civil servants or holders of high government posts”. (CONTINUES)

HELP, PRIDE IS MUTILATING THE BODY OF CHRIST!

Kunle Lagunju, Coordinator,
One Spirit Club

 "Now pause, dear reader and ponder that. Ever seen a mutilated body before? It’s the most helpless thing you can ever imagine. If you’ve never seen one, I pray you never have to, but can you please imagine it? No matter how much muscular an arm is, its useless severed from the body! Think of the head, which houses the brain and the tools for four of the five senses, sight, taste, sound and smell. Severed from the rest of the body, what can it do?"

Kunle Lagunju is a Spirit-filled businessman with current core focus in cleaning and property. I can boldly declare that he is one of the few, but growing number of Christian men and women doing exploit for God in their businesses.

But that is a story for another day. Apart from the cleaning and property businesses, Kunle coordinates a vibrant church unity ministry dominated by youths known as One Spirit Club. I am a member, (one who needs to get better!), and so I sometimes get to interface with the group both on facebook and via blackberry messenger. It is to materials posted on both sites that I owe the thoughts I am sharing here today.

First, let me state that I consider lack of unity as one of the greatest drawbacks to Christianity, its growth, it health, its relative strength and most importantly, the divine plan. That is why, apart from my calling to men’s ministry, I consider the pursuit of church unity as one of my life’s work. That’s why most everything I do is non-denominational or multi-denominational. That is why I have a mini-book in print titled One Church, the first 1,000copies of which was given out free and which is available free on-line at kpbooksnigeria.com/products/onechurch. That is why I am thankful to Pastor Paul Adams for involving me in his Sonship Unity Foundation, another church unity ministry. That is also why I have The One Church campaign as one of the outreach arms of KINGDOMPeople, the non-denominational magazine I serve as Editor-in-Chief.

So, you can therefore understand why the posts I am about to talk about had so much impact on me that I wish to share them.

The first reads: "You will not understand why Jesus prayed for the oneness of the Body until you see the helplessness of a mutilated human body."

Now pause, dear reader and ponder that. Ever seen a mutilated body before? It’s the most helpless thing you can ever imagine. If you’ve never seen one, I pray you never have to, but can you please imagine it? No matter how much muscular an arm is, its useless severed from the body! Think of the head, which houses the brain and the tools for four of the five senses, sight, taste, sound and smell. Severed from the rest of the body, what can it do?

Wisely, Jesus prayed to the Father in the book of John: “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are…That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (17:11, 21).

But, what do we have today, most of us are going about, as if determined that the Lord Jesus’ prayer must go unanswered. The question is why? Why do people who preach love and unity in their congregation work against it in the kingdom?

One of the answers, if not the answer can be found in the next post which reads:

“A young lady was waiting for her flight in the boarding room of a big airport. As she would need to wait many hours, she decided to buy a book to spend her time. She also bought a packet of cookies. She sat down in an armchair, in the VIP room of the airport, to rest and read in peace. Beside the armchair where the packet of cookies lay, a man sat down in the next seat, opened his magazine and started reading.  When she took out the first cookie, the man took one also.

"She felt irritated but said nothing. She just thought: “What a nerve! If I was in the mood I would punch him for daring!” For each cookie she took, the man took one too. This was infuriating her but she didn’t want to cause a scene. When only one cookie remained, she thought: “ah... What would this abusive man do now?” Then, the man, taking the last cookie, divided it into half, giving her one half. Ah! That was too much! She was much too angry now! In a huff, she insulted the man, took her book, her things and stormed out to the boarding place. When she sat down in her seat, inside the plane, she looked into her bag to take her eye glasses, and, to her surprise, her packet of cookies was there, untouched, unopened! She felt so ashamed!! She realized that she was wrong... She had forgotten that her cookies were kept in her bag. The man had divided his cookies with her, without feeling angered or bitter...while she had been very angry, thinking that she was dividing her cookies with him. And now there was no chance to explain herself...nor to apologize.”

Now, there are so many lessons to learn from the story, not least of which is kindness. But the one that struck me and has stayed with me all week is that of humility. The lady was so secure in her “knowledge” that she had her cookie right beside her, as she relaxed. She was convinced that the man, who was sharing the cookies was wrong and that she is right, after all she bought and owned the packet of cookies. Until she discovered she knew wrongly… that the man was right and she was wrong!

Like the lady, each wing of the church today seems very sure that our cookie pack is right beside us on the stool; that we have a right to the cookies in the packet; that the other party is wrong and we are right. Like the lady, we disdain those in “error”. We even do worse. Like Saul before his conversion, we “jail” and “maim” those in “error” from our pulpits at every opportunity. We warn our members not to have anything to do with them. And I thought the Bible says “we know in part…”(1 Corinthians 13:9). The word for what most of us, leaders and the led, are doing, is PRIDE, I think; it’s mutilating the Body of the Lord Jesus, and working against the divine plan. (You can subscribe to this weblog; enter your email address in the space "subscribe to" upper right side of the page. Comments also welcome).

AS REAL MEN BREAKFAST IN OGBA SATURDAY...

Rev David Abraham

Rev Dr Ayo Ayodele

"Organised by Christian Men’s Network Nigeria, Ikeja Chapter, one of the two Christian men’s ministries I am privileged to coordinate, the event is an outreach to all men seeking to become better men - as sons, brothers, husbands, leaders at every level; men seeking true fulfilment, which is attainable in not through bank account size, sexual exploits or political or corporate power. The theme, “His Kingdom, His Righteousness and the Real Man”, will be treated by two speakers who have the spiritual grounding and exposure to the world to be able to balance both, to point men forward in the journey to becoming real men – Rev David Abraham and Rev Dr Ayo Ayodele."

I have manhood on my mind. I always do. Understandably, because I am, thankfully, not just a man; I am a man, who, because God knows I need to consistently work at my manhood, he made a minister to men. It’s just like God to elect to work with the weak, that His strength might be perfected in them.

Events in our nation, of course, never cease to leave one wondering, what manner of men are leading us. We are a nation always dancing near the precipice and the music and dance is invariably orchestrated and choreographed by a band of men; hardly ever women. And I assure you, I have engaged with this conundrum long enough to know that it has little to do with statistics!  It’s just that we do not seem to have raised enough men of character, of courage of virtue; men who know that the destiny of our nation depends, not on their chauvinistic monopolisation of power and authority, but on the sense of responsibility that power demands.

It is for this reason that I wish dedicate this piece to preview an event holding Saturday, September 17, a few blocks away from the national headquarters of The Independent newspapers on Wempco Road, Ogba, on the outskirts of Ikeja, the Lagos state capital.

Organised by Christian Men’s Network Nigeria, Ikeja Chapter, one of the two Christian men’s ministries I am privileged to coordinate, the event is an outreach to all men seeking to become better men - as sons, brothers, husbands, leaders at every level; men seeking true fulfilment, which is attainable in not through bank account size, sexual exploits or political or corporate power.

The theme, “His Kingdom, His Righteousness and the Real Man”, will be treated by two speakers who have the spiritual grounding and exposure to the world to be able to balance both, to point men forward in the journey to becoming real men – Rev David Abraham and Rev Dr Ayo Ayodele.

Father Abraham, as the former is fondly styled by those who have benefited his gentle and fatherly style of dispensing godly counsel, is Managing Director, Managing Business for Christ (MBFC), a ministry founded and chaired by Dr Christopher Kolade, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, Pan African University, Nigeria. If you are a man out there, wise enough to want to get better at whatever you do, you need to hear this man. If you are a female and you have a man in your life, in any capacity and you desire growth for them, you should encourage them to hear this man of God. You are even welcome to accompany them.

Ayodele on the other hand is a teacher in two senses. When he is not teaching the Bible to the congregation at the Ojokoro centre of Christ Chapel International Churches where he is centre pastor, he is teaching English Language at Lagos state University. In other words, while Pastor Ayo’s day job is in the high pressure environment of a university campus, where sex-for-marks and all kinds of corrupt practices are fair game, his calling, as a pastor, demands that he be different. And I can boldly declare that he has been a worthy ambassador of his calling. Wouldn’t you want to hear how he does it? Wouldn’t you want your son, brother, husband, friend, work colleague or even boss come learn how he does it?

Men’s Breakfast Plus, which opens at 8:00am and closes before noon, to enable you go about your other “manly” responsibilities, holds at Christ chapel International Churches (CCIC), Rehabiah Centre Auditorium, opposite Metalum Industries/D’Ivy College, has as one of its highlights, an interactive session during which questions are asked and ideas shared.

Our nation needs men, real men; men like Daniel, Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego; men like  Joseph and David, men who fill their minds with, meditate on and stand for “things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious--the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse” (Philippians 4:8;Message).  I wish to be among them. What about you?

IN ALL OF THESE, I CHOSE HOPE

British PM, David Cameron at PAU, Lagos

"From Eko Atlantic and Balogun Street Market to the biggest port in the most populous country in Africa, you (Governor Raji Fashola of Lagos) are transforming your city. And your fellow Africans are doing the same all over the continent. Today there are unprecedented opportunities to trade and grow, raise living standards and lift billions from poverty. So I urge you: seize these opportunities, grab them, shape them.." 

These are not party times in our nation. There is the return of high profile abductions. Violence, resulting in maiming and deaths in Borno and Plateau states, has continued without ceasing. There is the bombing of the United Nations Building in Abuja, which has claimed 27 lives.  And there is the massive flooding of my home town, Ibadan and the unprecedented level of fatalities, put at 102 by the Nigeria Red Cross.

I commiserate with all who have been negatively affected by all of these and many more occurrences of the unhappy kind across the land. Lives have been lost, properties worth millions, may be even, billions have been lost and we are being treated to the same rhetoric by our leaders.  Experts are proffering all kind of solutions; Christian and Muslim leaders are calling for prayer and fasting – as usual.

In the event, gloom is in the air. Fear stalks the land. And doomsayers are having a field day, their rank swelling by the day. But in the midst of all that I dare to hope. I dare to join those, like British Prime Minister David Cameron who, on a recent visit described “Nigeria as a dream waiting to happen.”  

Cameron, who was guest speaker at the Pan African University, Ajah, Lagos, on Tuesday, July 19 was widely quoted as follows:

“Tell me this: which part of the world has seen its number of democracies increase nearly eight-fold in just two decades? Eastern Europe? No, it’s Africa. Which continent has six of the ten fastest growing economies in the world? Asia? No, it’s Africa. Which country is predicted by some to have the highest average GDP growth in the world over the next 40 years? You might think Brazil, Russia, India or China. No. Think Africa. Think Nigeria. 

“The point I want to make today, is this: This can be Africa’s moment. Africa is transforming in a way no-one thought possible 20 years ago, and suddenly a whole new future seems within reach. I have known for a long time about the tremendous energy and ingenuity of the Nigerian people. From the civil activism of the churches of South London to the contribution of Nigerians to British business, law, medicine, sport and music, I have seen the passion and enterprise of Nigerians changing my country for the better. But what I have seen in London I have seen a hundred-fold here today.

“From Eko Atlantic and Balogun Street Market to the biggest port in the most populous country in Africa, you (Governor Raji Fashola of Lagos) are transforming your city. And your fellow Africans are doing the same all over the continent. Today there are unprecedented opportunities to trade and grow, raise living standards and lift billions from poverty. So I urge you: seize these opportunities, grab them, shape them.”

He reminds me of that wonderful young lady, TY Bello and her inspirational song, “We Are the Future”, which I had quoted in full here  about two months ago. The first verse says:

“We are the future

We are the dream

We are the nation

We are part of this

“Yes, we are so amazing

That’s the least we shall be

At the heart of the nation changing history”

It’s followed by a bridge which goes like this:

“How can we say that we are finished

We have just begun

When we have nowhere else to run to

We have nowhere else to go…”

Yes, I chose to hope in the midst of all of the seeming doom and gloom, because, my God is capable of making all of these work together for our good. That is the import of the Scripture in Romans 8:28 which reads: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.  Our role, the leaders and the led, is therefore to love God, identify His purposes and pursue it. 

It is well with Nigeria, in the precious name of Jesus.

…TO MY TREASURE… 30 YEARS ON

"I didn’t think I was cut out for marriage. I was a journalist, married to my calling and all that went with it – the good, the bad and the ugly. But God mercifully brought a young lady, who fits the biblical description my way, and changed my life for ever and for the best. Thank you, Olufunmilayo Yinyinola Atoke for being God’s gift to me. Happy 30th anniversary, my Treasure."

There is this passage in the last chapter of the biblical book of Proverbs written with a rare breed of women in mind...the breed to which my wife belongs. It reads thus:

“A good woman is hard to find, and worth far more than diamonds. Her husband trusts her without reserve, and never has reason to regret it.  Never spiteful, she treats him generously all her life long. She shops around for the best yarns and cottons, and enjoys knitting and sewing. She's like a trading ship that sails to faraway places and brings back exotic surprises. She's up before dawn, preparing breakfast for her family and organizing her day.

“She looks over a field and buys it, then, with money she's put aside, plants a garden. First thing in the morning, she dresses for work, rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started. She senses the worth of her work, is in no hurry to call it quits for the day.

“She's skilled in the crafts of home and hearth, diligent in homemaking. She's quick to assist anyone in need, reaches out to help the poor. She doesn't worry about her family when it snows; their winter clothes are all mended and ready to wear.   She makes her own clothing, and dresses in colorful linens and silks.

“Her husband is greatly respected when he deliberates with the city fathers. She designs gowns and sells them, brings the sweaters she knits to the dress shops.  Her clothes are well-made and elegant, and she always faces tomorrow with a smile.  When she speaks she has something worthwhile to say, and she always says it kindly. She keeps an eye on everyone in her household, and keeps them all busy and productive. Her children respect and bless her; her husband joins in with words of praise:  Many women have done wonderful things, but you've outclassed them all  (Proverbs 31:10-30; MSG).

If the Lord tarries, tomorrow (September 5), I shall have been married for 30 years. I didn’t think I was cut out for marriage. I was a journalist, married to my calling and all that went with it – the good, the bad and the ugly. But God mercifully brought a young lady, who fits Proverbs 31's virtuous woman's description my way, and changed my life for ever - and for the best. Thank you, Olufunmilayo Yinyinola Atoke for being God’s gift to me. Happy 30th anniversary, my Treasure.