REDISCOVERING MANHOOD (1)

Creation  by Michelangelo

"A close look at these verses of Scripture,

thirteen in all, is very revealing. They reveal

 the heart of God concerning the first man

that he made, why he made him and

his place in the scheme of things

on the earth that he had just created."

Men are VERY IMPORTANT to God. They are the very centre of His divine plan. And I am not talking about mankind here, as in men and women. I am talking about those you would otherwise call male; the ones with the ‘Y’ chromosome. 

They are so important to God that they were the first being He created in His image and after His likeness; the ones whose forebear, Adam, who became the ancestor of all, was chosen to partner in defining the identity of virtually the rest of creation. He is so important that the other half of mankind, woman, was created only because God saw that man would need help.

Chauvinistic and therefore offensive to the sensibilities of the western-educated, modern mind, as all of that might sound, it is true; as true as the Bible is the word of God.

In Genesis Chapter 2, we read the following account of creation:

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul… And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it…And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man (Genesis 2:4-7,15,18-23).

 A close look at these verses of Scripture, thirteen in all, is very revealing. They reveal the heart of God concerning the first man that he made, why he made him and his place in the scheme of things on the earth that he had just created.

Verses 4 & 5 identified a problem or challenge, depending on who is looking at it. And it is this: Everything else was in place, but there was nobody in charge! It says: “And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew… and there was not a man to till the ground.” Picture a well laid out estate with everything in place, sturdy structures, fine finishes, running water, breath-taking landscape, shopping arcade, recreational facilities and all, but no estate manager. That was the state of creation at that point.

Then in verse 7, God came up with the solution; he created man, a male: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” In other words, God created the man as his choice to fill the vacuum that existed. Man was his manager of choice, his preferred partner in the emerging enterprise. God’s immediate directive to the man he had just created clearly reveals his mind. In verse 15, the Bible records that “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” Put another way, God placed the man in charge. He assigned him to mind the store, as it were.

What happened next is also very revealing. In verse 8, the Bible recorded: “And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” Got the picture? God had created somebody and assigned him to the job, but he took one look at him and decided that, for this wonderful creation of his to succeed in the assignment that he had just given him and others that were to follow, he would need help. And he proceeded to find help for him

How God went about this phase of creation is quite instructive. He knew that his man needed help, and that he could give him one. But he wasn’t going any further without involving him! He could have imposed a companion on him; he could have done it any other way he chose, but he didn’t. He chose to bring his new creature that he had made in his image and after his likeness into the creative process. He chose to give him a choice of who his help-meet would be.

 Verses 19 & 20 continues the story this way: “And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.  And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.”

Interesting, isn’t it? God was looking for a help-meet for his man. So, he made every beast of the field and every fowl of the air. He brought them to Adam, hoping that he might find one or the other of them suitable. But Adam did not find any. He gave them names reflecting his perception of each one, but found none he could call companion. This is noteworthy because had he found one amongst them, the cause of history might have been different. The other half of mankind today, known as woman, might never have been created! (TO BE CONTINUED)

WHY DID WHITNEY HOUSTON DIE (4)

'This brings me to what I consider the most puzzling issue in the Whitney case. She had such spiritual heavyweights in her orbit. ... Why were they unable to help her? Did they, like many are wont to do, put her plight down to her failure to manage fame and fortune; and therefore failed to perceive the hand of the enemy in it? If this was the case, whatever happened to the spirit of discernment…If they did discern it, were they unable to cast out the demon, as Jesus said all those who believe have been equipped to do… This, I believe, is the core issue. Are the gifts still in evidence in the Church?'

“Now what? Is drug addiction demonic? Is involvement of the occult in the entertainment industry the trigger? Or is it a pathological or psychological problem resulting from inability to handle the fame that comes with success; which then results in its victims, in hallucination, seeing demons where there is none?” 

Those were the concluding words of last week’s piece in this serial. They mirror my seeming confusion on the subject of why a young lady brought up in a godly environment; by a gospel singer mother with a heart for God; who, in spite of becoming a world renowned pop singer, continued to sing for the Lord as often as she could; became entangled with drugs, went in and out of rehab and then died at a mere 48 with drugs fingered at the cause.

Testimonies like that given on her to Christianity Today magazine’s Mark Moring by Jetro Da Silva, a friend of 12 years described as a veteran musician who played in the late superstar singer's band, and a professor at Berklee College of Music, makes things all the more complex.

Jethro, also said to have led Bible studies with Houston while on her world tour, remembered her in 1999 as “a loyal wife who was doing her best to please her husband and take a great care of her daughter, even with the challenges of having the fulfil her professional obligations and demands. She included her family in everything.”

On her growth in the faith, he said: “She grew in her desire and hunger for God. There were people in her life who played a great role in that, including Patrice Houston, the wife of Gary Houston, Whitney's elder brother. Pat is a God-fearing woman and a prayer warrior. When she came on board as Whitney's personal manager, she would not make a decision without prayer. She and others covered Whitney with prayers…Like all the Christians who seek the Lord, she was growing and learning. Whitney was always a spiritual woman. She enjoyed praying and reading the Bible.

Life's struggles led her to know and understand grace and mercy on a deeper level. Nippy (Whitney’s pet name) was real about her challenges, but she also knew the Lord in a personal level. She was not a hypocrite. I often witnessed Whitney praying for a lot people. When one of her friends was seek, and she asked the whole band to join her in her dressing room, and she began crying out to the Lord, asking for healing. Nippy was a woman of prayer. I believe that she was in peace with the Lord when she died.”

Now, let’s attempt some answers. First, I must state that I am fully persuaded that there is considerable demonic interest in music and other forms of entertainment. This is simply because entertainment generally set out to appeal to the flesh and whatever is of the flesh is has all the potentials of becoming anti-Spirit. The massive appeal that things of the flesh attract makes successful entertainers very rich and influential. They are therefore very good tools for drawing people into darkness. The devil knows this better than most people because he has been there. As Lucifer, he was the diva of heaven who became so influential that when his fame led him to rebellion against God, he had a horde of followers, who were eventually expelled along with him.   

The extent of this incursion into the industry at an institutional level in the United States has been widely highlighted, discussed and debated. The so-called Illuminati cult remains, at least, an ever present myth in that country. With names, dates, events etc listed in a video documentary still in wide, global circulation, it is a myth uncannily close to reality. But even here in Nigeria, Shina Peters, a veteran musician, recently told an interviewer in passing that entertainers were constantly under spiritual pressures their fans no nothing about.

I am also convinced that if there is demonic interest and therefore a certain level of demonic influence, the character alteration that we see in children of God who go into secular entertainment, can only be spiritually induced. In other words, whether the problem is drug abuse or sex including homosexuality and lesbianism; whether it be child molestation or some other weirdness, the source is the same – satan.

Now then, if the source of the problem is spiritual, doesn’t it follow that the solution must be spiritual? Any wonder, then, that campaigns to “just say no” and sojourns in rehabs don’t cut it?

It can be argued, correctly, that in the case of Whitney attempts were made at finding a spiritual solution because as J Lee Grady wrote in his article quoted substantially earlier, “Christians in the music industry reached out to…and prayed with her during her up-and-down battle with addictions”

This brings me to what I consider the most puzzling issue in the Whitney case. She had such spiritual heavyweights in her orbit. They include Cissy, her mother, Pastor Mavin Winan and the rest of the Winnan family, and even T. D Jakes, with whom she co-produced her film that will be post-humously released in a few months. Why were they unable to help her?

Did they, like many are wont to do, put her plight down to her failure to manage fame and fortune; and therefore failed to perceive the hand of the enemy in it? If this was the case, whatever happened to the spirit of discernment which is one of the gifts apostle Paul told us belongs to the church (see 1Corinthians 12:10)? If they did discern it, were they unable to cast out the demon, as Jesus said all those who believe have been equipped to do in Mark 16:17?

This, I believe, is the core issue. Are the gifts still in evidence in the Church? Consider for a moment what great evangelical value, a Whitney from whom a demon has been exorcised, would have been? Satan successfully robbed us of that! And I am reminded of one of the questions the Lord Jesus asked during His earthly ministry: “…when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth (Luke 18:8)? This is food for thought for all of us, this writer not excluded. (CONCLUDED)

WHY DID WHITNEY HOUSTON DIE? (3)

'Now what? Is drug addiction demonic? Is involvement of the occult in the entertainment industry the trigger? Or is it a pathological or psychological problem resulting from inability to handle the fame that comes with success; which then results in its victims, in hallucination, seeing demons where there is none?'

Her funeral was styled “Celebrating the life of Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 - February 11, 2012) – A Child of God.”

She was born and largely raised by Cissy Houston, a gospel singer with a heart for God. We have quoted one Ra Imhotep in of the many writings, by many people about her as recalling, how “she started out in the choir, had the song ‘Guide Me O Jehova’ as her first solo performance, became ‘one of the few entertainers who got a record deal, because of her true talent and not because of connections and affiliations that she had’ and thus ‘paved the way, with her voice and image, for many diva’s that would come after her…”

We have read former Charisma editor, J Lee Grady’s assertion that: ”Anyone who has listened to Whitney Houston’s rendition of ‘I Love the Lord’—or who saw her perform with CeCe Winans and Shirley Caesar at the 1996 Grammy Awards—knows she had an incomparable voice best suited for gospel music.”

It is incontrovertible, then, that Whitney started out and, for the most part, lived her life, as a child of God. But did she end up as one? We may never know for sure while the Lord still tarries, but I personally take comfort in a statement by Lee Grady quoted last time from his Fire In My Bones column of Wednesday, February 15 titled, “Whitney Houston and the Silent Shame of Addiction.” He wrote that Whitney died “… just two days after she sang an impromptu version of ‘Jesus Loves Me’ at a Hollywood nightclub. I’d like to believe it was a feeble cry to the God of her childhood.”

As we have been saying these past two weeks, however, many more questions remained “un-interred with her body”. They include, “why she had to die at a mere 48…why her life took a sudden dive for the worse right at the peak of her career…why she became associated with crack, cocaine and prescription drugs, such that all speculations about her death hover around drugs...?”

In finding answers, we have seen that there is a school of thought which holds that she was a victim of witchcraft, because, the entertainment industry in the United States is in the vice-grip of satan. Imhotep’s in his article referred to earlier was emphatic that “the music industry is a cult and once one gets a record deal they are now an initiate and are a part of the cult for life. Whitney Houston was no exception to this rule and she took the oath back in the 70’s. Once the oath is pledged you become the property of the record labels and the machines and you can NEVER retire. The only way out of the game is death…”

On the other hand, there was Lee Grady, who fingered addiction to hard drugs, which he described as her ‘personal demon’, as the problem. He implied that this might have resulted from her choice of a “broader path” rather than stay with gospel music, which, according to him her “incomparable voice (was) best suited for”, may not have helped matters.   

That broader path led her to make a pop album, which became the all-time best-selling debut album by a female in the 1980s and made her America’s diva, says Grady. That worldly success, however, did nothing, in Grady’s words to “help her overcome her personal demons.” The result was that by the 1990s, she had become so addicted to cocaine that she took it everyday! According to Grady, three stints in drug rehab over a period of eight years did not help Whitney. Neither did the prayer of “Christians in the music industry.”  

Grady lifted the discussion somewhat, when he pointedly wrote: “Let’s not kid ourselves. Whitney Houston was not the only person who talked about Jesus yet struggled privately with illegal drugs. I frequently meet men and women at church altars who have never found the strength to kick their habit. I even know of pastors, youth leaders and worship leaders who live double lives—hiding their addiction under the cloak of Sunday morning religion. They hide because they’re afraid they’ll be shunned or shamed if they ever admit their problem to anybody.”

He continued: “What we need is less judgment and more transparency about this problem. Drugs, including alcohol, are harsh taskmasters. Crack and crystal meth are impossible to overcome apart from serious intervention. Once a person’s brain is altered by these substances, he or she needs a miracle. Telling them to ‘Just say no’ is not going to cut it. But we can’t pretend people are OK when they are hooked on drugs. If the addiction continues, they are likely to end up dead”

 If all of these makes Grady’s diagnosis of the problem seems psychological, as in choice of a broader path; using her gospel music suited voice for pop, and not being able to handle the fame that accompanied her success, he went a bit further: “I agree with Cissy Houston that Satan was involved in Whitney’s sad journey. Hell is directly connected to every crack deal ever made.”

Juxtapose that last bit against Imhotep’s recollection of Tina, Bobby Brown’s sister’s statement about Whitney. She was quoted as saying: “Whitney hallucinates and sees demons when she’s high; she bites and beats herself black-and-blue but blames the devil for the injuries.” According to Imhotep, Tina goes on to say that,  Houston sees ‘demons’ everywhere she goes, and beats herself up while saying “The Devil be hitting me.” Tina claimed that drugs have made Whitney so paranoid she sees evil apparitions and once drilled a spy-hole in her bathroom to look for “demons.” She said: “She’ll point to the floor and say, ‘See that demon. I’m telling you somebody’s messing with Bobby.’ She always thinks it’s something to do with Bobby.” She added: “She breaks everything – mirrors, phones, cabinets, appliances.” 

Now what? Is drug addiction demonic? Is involvement of the occult in the entertainment industry the trigger? Or is it a pathological or psychological problem resulting from inability to handle the fame that comes with success; which then results in its victims, in hallucination, seeing demons where there is none?  (TO BE CONCLUDED)

WHY DID WHITNEY HOUSTON DIE? (2)

Her worldly success didn’t help her overcome her personal demons? Demons? Was addiction to cocaine a demon? Or was it the worldly success or both? If so, apparently not even the prayers of Christians in the music industry succeeded in casting out that demon or demons? For as Grady chronicled, “Christians in the music industry reached out to Whitney and prayed with her during her up-and-down battle with addictions. But the drugs had a powerful pull. In 2006, a photo was released of her bathroom sink in Atlanta filled with crack pipes, drug paraphernalia, cigarettes and beer cans. Even after she divorced Bobby Brown in 2007, the downward spiral continued”.

Whitney Houston was sent off with dignity, as planned, last Saturday. Her body was interred on Sunday leaving the world the poorer for it. She certainly would be sorely missed. But, as I pointed out the last time, “the questions remain, un-interred with her body.”  Such questions as: why she had to die at a mere 48…why her life took a sudden dive for the worse right at the peak of her career…why she became associated with crack, cocaine and prescription drugs, such that all speculations about her death hover around drugs and it would take the outcome of toxicology tests still being awaited, to dispel it?”

In trying to find some form of answer or the other to these and many other questions, I spoke about two of the avalanche of writings about her life and times, her place in the entertainment industry and her life as a Christian that caught my attention.

The first, from which I quoted quite bit, was an online piece titled “Whitney Houston’s Death and the Secret-Society Called the Music Industry,” which I erroneously attributed to A. J. Ramsey. It has since dawned on me that the piece was written by Ra Imhotep, while Ramsey’s every1letstalk.com website was simply one of the many that carried the article? Apologies to all.

The essence of the article, which has since gone viral in cyberspace, was that Whitney was a victim of witchcraft. He recalled how she started out in the choir, had the song “Guide Me O Jehova” as her first solo performance, became “one of the few entertainers who got a record deal, because of her true talent and not because of connections and affiliations that she had” and thus “paved the way, with her voice and image, for many diva’s that would come after her…”

Relying heavily on the words of one John Todd, whom he described as “a so called ex-member of the Illuminati, who was a music executive in the 70’s”, Imhotep went on to posit that Whitney must have been initiated into witchcraft at the onset of or at some point in her rise to fame and fortune. He quoted Todd as stating that “every musician and entertainer in the music industry and Hollywood, has to be a initiated wizard or witch before they are offered a recording contract” and that after a “record is cut and the master is finished, it is then given to a coven of witches and wizards who conjure up a demon. Once the demon is conjured the witches and wizards ask the entity to attach itself to every copy or duplicate that is sold to the public, which guarantees the success of the record and also takes control of the listener.”  

Imhotep declared: “the music industry is a cult and once one gets a record deal they are now an initiate and are a part of the cult for life. Whitney Houston was no exception to this rule and she took the oath back in the 70’s. Once the oath is pledged you become the property of the record labels and the machines and you can NEVER retire. The only way out of the game is death…”  

He went on to make a number of claims and drew links between events and personalities in the entertainment industry that neither space nor the nature of this forum, would permit me to go into here.

The second of the articles addressed a different angle to the issue: Whitney’s spiritual life as a Christian. Written by one of my favourite columnists, J. Lee Grady, in his Fire In My Bones column in Charisma online of Wednesday of February 15, 2012, he addressed what he called “the silent shame of addiction”.

In his inimitable style, Grady, a former editor of Charisma magazine, raised a number of fundamental issues that I know the body of Christ must address urgently. One or two of those points have agitated my mind since then.

First, he asserted that “anyone who has listened to Whitney Houston’s rendition of ‘I Love the Lord’—or who saw her perform with CeCe Winans and Shirley Caesar at the 1996 Grammy Awards—knows she had an incomparable voice best suited for gospel music.”  Note this please: an incomparable voice best suited for gospel music.

Grady continued: “But Whitney chose a broader path: When the doors opened for her to make a pop album in the 1980s, it became the all-time best-selling debut album by a female artist. She became America’s diva.” Was that the fundamental problem then? A “broader path”; a voice best suited for the gospel, but applied more to pop music?

Let’s continue with Grady’s perspective: “But all her worldly success didn’t help her overcome her personal demons. Her stormy marriage was marred by domestic violence. She admitted in the 1990s that she took cocaine every day. She tried rehab three times over the course of eight years. Her voice was so damaged by her drug habit that people walked out of her comeback concert in London in 2010. She became a pathetic shell of her former self…”

Her worldly success didn’t help her overcome her personal demons? Demons? Was addiction to cocaine a demon? Or was it the worldly success or both? If so, apparently not even the prayers of Christians in the music industry succeeded in casting out that demon or demons? For as Grady chronicled, “Christians in the music industry reached out to Whitney and prayed with her during her up-and-down battle with addictions. But the drugs had a powerful pull. In 2006, a photo was released of her bathroom sink in Atlanta filled with crack pipes, drug paraphernalia, cigarettes and beer cans. Even after she divorced Bobby Brown in 2007, the downward spiral continued”.

As this perceptive writer was wont to do, Grady dropped an important hint when he noted that Whitney passed on “just two days after she sang an impromptu version of “Jesus Loves Me” at a Hollywood nightclub”, and added: “I’d like to believe it was a feeble cry to the God of her childhood…” (CONTINUES)

WHY DID WHITNEY HOUSTON DIE? (1)

"First he gave his evaluation of the young Whitney at the onset of her career: “She started out in the Choir and her first solo performance was ‘Guide Me O Thou Jehova’ Whitney was one of the few entertainers who got a record deal, because of her true talent and not because of connections and affiliations that she had. She paved the way, with her voice and image, for many diva’s that would come after her…”

Barring any last minute change of plans, by the time you read this, Whitney Houston would have been laid to rest, at Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey.

The home going services would have held at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, a venue, which one reporter has described as “a much smaller, more intimate setting than the concert halls and arenas Houston packed during her heyday” Yet it would have been a befitting last curtain call for the legendary singer who was found dead in the bathtub of her Beverly Hilton suite, a week earlier, some hours before she was billed to attend a pre-Grammys bash at the same hotel.

Yes, it would have been a relatively small event for the 48-year-old mother of one daughter, Bobbi Christina Brown, 18, but there would be no room for small fries. Each of the 1,500 seats would have had a celebrity in it!

Among those you would have sighted at the event, as you watched on a variety of television stations or via live streams on the worldwide web, would be megastars like Chaka Khan, a close friend of Whitney and Bebe & CeCe Winans of the famous Winans music family, who have been very close family friends of the Houstons.

Conspicuous, almost certainly would be the Rev Jesse Jackson, another close family friend and Bishop T.D. Jakes, who was listed with Whitney as producers of “Sparkles”, her last film scheduled for release this summer.

If you paid attention, you would also have seen songwriter Diane Warren, pop singer Darlene Love, producer Antonio Reid, who produced many of Houston's songs   Ray J, a hip-hop artist whom Houston dated on and off after her divorce from husband Bobby Brown. Singer and songwriter, Valerie Simpson of the famous Ashford & Simpson duo would also have joined in paying her last respect to the departed singer of whom she told the media; “She was like family…somebody who I watched from the time she was young."

Taking her place in the thick of it all would have been Houston's cousin, singer Dionne Warwick, and then of course there would have been Whitney’s godmother, no less a person than Aretha Franklin, who would have etched her sorrow on the souls of all with a song.

And the eulogy would have been powerfully delivered by another very close friend of the Houston Family, Gospel singer and pastor Marvin L. Winans. He, it was who, officiated at Whitney’s marriage to R&B singer Bobby Brown in 1992, a marriage many now see as contributory to the decline and fall of her singing career.

Yes, yesterday the celebrities joined the family to celebrate one of their own, without a parade as Pastor Winans expressed it to CNN’s Andy Cooper. True, for the family, “it was this is my daughter, this is my sister, this is my mother, this is my friend and we want to do this with dignity."  But even as Whitney lay dead, irreversibly, the questions remain, un-interred with her body. Why did she have to die at a mere 48? Why did her life take a sudden dive for the worse right at the peak of her career? Why did she become associated with crack, cocaine and prescription drugs, such that such that all speculations about her death hover around it and only the outcome of toxicology tests still weeks away can dispel it?

Two of the avalanche of writings about Whitney’s life and times, her place in the entertainment industry and her life as a Christian caught my attention and led me to this exercise.

First was a February 15 online piece titled “Whitney Houston’s Death and the Secret-Society Called the Music Industry,” by one A J Ramsey. The essence of the article was that Whitney was a victim of witchcraft. Let’s read a few excerpts. First he gave his evaluation of the young Whitney at the onset of her career: “She started out in the Choir and her first solo performance was ‘Guide Me O Thou Jehova’ Whitney was one of the few entertainers who got a record deal, because of her true talent and not because of connections and affiliations that she had. She paved the way, with her voice and image, for many diva’s that would come after her…”

To explain how the young squeaky clean Jehova’s guidance seeking Whitney began her transition to the woman she was when she died, Ramsey quoted John Todd, whom he described as “a so called ex-member of the Illuminati, who was a music executive in the 70’s”. He quoted Todd as stating publicly that “every musician and entertainer in the music industry and Hollywood, has to be a initiated wizard or witch before they are offered a recording contract”. This, Ramsey explained “is what some writers have called the selling of the soul or light to Lucifer”.  Continuing, Ramsey wrote; “In his speeches John Todd further demonstrates that after the record is cut and the master is finished, it is then given to a coven of witches and wizards who conjure up a demon. Once the demon is conjured the witches and wizards ask the entity to attach itself to every copy or duplicate that is sold to the public, which guarantees the success of the record and also takes control of the listener.”  

Ramsey then declared: “The point I am making above is that the music industry is a cult and once one gets a record deal they are now an initiate and are a part of the cult for life. Whitney Houston was no exception to this rule and she took the oath back in the 70’s. Once the oath is pledged you become the property of the record labels and the machines and you can NEVER retire. The only way out of the game is death…” (CONTINUES)

LOVING THOUGHTS ON GOD, THE ALMIGHTY…

The young man took the key, walked to the vehicle and began to pray ...Then he started the engine and parked the jeep to the place PERFECTLY well as the captain wanted. The young man came out of the Jeep and saw them all crying. They all said together: "We want to serve your God!" The young soldier was astonished, and asked what was going on? The CAPTAIN now crying uncontrollably opened the hood of the jeep revealing that the car had no engine!

What a wonderful week this last one turned out to be! In the midst of thoughts about Nigeria, Boko Haram, the threat of resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta and how a Sovereign National Conference might help or hurt the solution-finding process, three of my sisters, one, very distant, chose to redirect my focus. They refocused me from those challenges to the One who is able to solve them. They refocused me to God, by reminding me of some of His many great attributes; and in the process reinforced my peace.

Here are the thoughts they shared, one in a daily devotional, the others, on Facebook. With them, I usher you into this wonderful week when love is celebrated worldwide.  

…HE'S GOOD

Joel and Lauren decided to move from Washington State back home to Michigan. Wanting to make one last special memory, they bought coffee from their favourite cafe and then stopped at their favourite bookstore. There they picked up two bumper stickers with a favourite motto of the town they were saying goodbye to: “It’s an Edmonds kind of day.”

After 2 weeks and a 3,000-mile drive, they entered Michigan. Hungry and wanting to celebrate their arrival, they stopped and asked about where to find a restaurant. Although they had to backtrack a few miles, they found a quaint little cafe. Emma, their waitress, excited to learn they were from her home state of Washington, asked, “What city?” “Edmonds,” they replied. “That’s where I’m from!” she said. Wanting to share the joy, Joel got their extra bumper sticker from the car and handed it to her. Amazingly, the sticker was from her mother’s store! It had gone from her mom’s hands to theirs, across 3,000 miles, to her hands.

Mere coincidence? Or were these experiences good gifts orchestrated by a good God who loves to encourage His children? Proverbs tells us, “A man’s steps are directed by the Lord” (20:24 NIV). In response, let’s “bless His name. For the Lord is good” (Psalm 100:4-5) - (Anne Cetas in Our Daily Bread).

 …DOES THE IMPOSSIBLE…

A young man working in the army was constantly humiliated because he believed in God. One day the captain wanted to humiliate him before the troops. He called the young man and said: "Young man, come here! Take the key and go and park the

Jeep in front."

The young man replied: "I can not drive, sir!" The captain said: "Ask for assistance from your God, then! Show us that he exists!"

The young man took the key, walked to the vehicle and began to pray ...Then he started the engine and parked the jeep to the place PERFECTLY well as the captain wanted.

The young man came out of the Jeep and saw them all crying. They all said together:

"We want to serve your God!"

The young soldier was astonished, and asked what was going on? The CAPTAIN now crying uncontrollably opened the hood of the jeep revealing that the car had no engine!

Then the boy said: "See? This is the God I serve, THE GOD OF ALL POSSIBILITY, the God who gives life to what does not exist."

You may think there are things still impossible in your life, but WITH GOD EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE. Believe for the IMPOSSIBLE TODAY AND ALWAYS and IT WILL HAPPEN FOR YOU. I AM! ((Posted by Rev Mrs Nkoyo Eromosele)

…HE’S LOOKING OUT FOR YOU

Me: God, can I ask You a question?

God: Sure

Me: Promise You won't get mad

God: I promise

Me: Why did You let so much stuff happen to me today?

God: What do u mean?

Me: Well, I woke up late

God: Yes

Me: My car took forever to start

God: Okay

Me: at lunch they made my sandwich wrong & I had to wait

God: Huummm

Me: On the way home, my phone went DEAD, just as I picked up a call

God: All right

Me: And on top of it all off, when I got home ~I just want to soak my feet in my new foot massager and relax. BUT it wouldn't work!!! Nothing went right today! Why did You do that?

God: Let me see, the death angel was at your bed this morning & I had to send one of My Angels to battle him for your life. I let you sleep through that

Me (humbled): OH

GOD: I didn't let your car start because there was a drunk driver on your route that would have hit you if you were on the road.

Me: (ashamed)

God: The first person who made your sandwich today was sick & I didn't want you to catch what they have, I knew you couldn't afford to miss work.

Me (embarrassed):Okay

God: Your phone went dead because the person that was calling was going to give false witness about what you said on that call, I didn't even let you talk to them so you would be covered.

Me: (softly): I see God

God: Oh and that foot massager, it had a shortage that was going to electrocute you, So I stopped it from coming on.

Me: I'm Sorry God

God: Don't be sorry, just learn to Trust Me.... in All things , the Good & the bad.

Me: I will trust You.

God: And don't doubt that My plan for your day is Always Better than your plan.

Me: I won't God. And let me just tell you God, Thank You for Everything today.

God: You're welcome child. It was just another day being your God and I Love looking after My Children... (Posted by Rev Mrs Kenny Osoba).

Thanks a million, my sisters for giving me a week filled with meditations on the love nature of God. Thank you, Father for helping me to share. Happy Valentines, all. 

DRESSING BOKO HARAM IN BORROWED GARB

CBN Governor Sanusi

Fantastic thesis; balanced, on the face of it. But how does poverty explain the well publicised desire of the Boko Haramists to impose radical Islam upon the North, if not the whole of Nigeria. How does it explain the attack on churches? Why have non-Moslems failed to manifest this so-called radicalisation; or have they been insulated from poverty and marginalisation?

It has gained considerable momentum, to the point that it is beginning to shape government policy. I am talking about the idea that the Boko Haram madness somehow has its roots in poverty.

The latest person to propagate the idea was the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, no less. Armed with statistics, he told London’s Financial Times that the current revenue allocation formula, based marginally as it is on the derivation principle, is impoverishing the north of Nigeria. This therefore provides explanation (or did he mean to say, justification?), for the mindless killing that has become a daily fare in our nation.

When his friends at ThisDay newspaper blew the story open last week in a report written by Yemi Adebowale, he was quick to debunk it as out of context. And urged those interested to read the source story, “Nigerian Central Banker Calls for End to Imbalances” by FT’s William Wallis. Here is that report in full:

“Attempts to redress historic grievances in Nigeria’s oil-rich south may inadvertently have helped create the conditions for the Islamic insurgency spreading from the impoverished north-east of the country, says Lamido Sanusi, Nigeria’s central bank governor.

“In the past year, the Boko Haram sect has been responsible for proliferating attacks on churches, police stations and other state targets. Last week, it claimed responsibility for multiple bomb blasts which claimed nearly 200 lives in the northern city of Kano. The size and sophistication of the attacks underlined fears that the conflict is spiralling out of control.

 “’There is clearly a direct link between the very uneven nature of distribution of resources and the rising level of violence,’ Mr Sanusi told the Financial Times in an interview, arguing that it was now necessary to focus funds on regenerating other regions if Nigeria wants to secure long-term stability.

“Oil-producing areas in the predominantly Christian south benefit from 13 per cent of the revenues generated from oil in their area, on top of the federal allocations they and other states receive. As world oil prices have risen over the past decade, this has led to a widening gulf in income between oil-producing states and those without oil. The commercial capital Lagos, which raises 75 per cent of its own revenue from taxes, is the exception.

“This formula was introduced after the military relinquished power in 1999 among a series of measures aimed at redressing historic grievances among those living closest to the oil and quelling a conflict that was jeopardising output. But by seeking to address one problem, Nigeria may have created another, weakening other states in the federation and fostering resentment in the poorest region which has spawned the Boko Haram sect.

“’When you look at the figures and look at the size of the population in the north you can see there is a structural imbalance of enormous proportions,’ Mr Sanusi said. ‘Those states simply do not have enough money to meet basic needs while some states have too much money.’

“According to official figures, the leading oil producing state, Rivers, received N1,053bn between 1999 and 2008 in federal allocations. By contrast the north-eastern states of Yobe and Borno, where the Boko Haram sect was created, received N175bn and N213bn respectively. Broken down on a per capita basis, the contrast is even starker. In 2008 the 18.97m people who lived in the six states in the north-east received on average N1,156 per person.

“By contrast Rivers state was allocated N3,965 per capita, and on average the oil producing South- South region received on average N3,332 per capita.  This imbalance is compounded when the cost of an amnesty programme for militants in the delta is included together with an additional 1 per cent for a special development body for the Niger delta. To boot, the theft of oil by profiteers in the region diverts tens of millions more weekly from federal coffers. 

“The imbalance is so stark, he added, because the state still depends on oil for more than 80 per cent of its revenues. Nigeria has made little headway raising taxes for example from agriculture, which accounts for 42 per cent of GDP.

“Inhabitants of the delta tend to have little sympathy with complaints about the revenue formula, given that Nigeria was ruled and at times plundered for much of the four decades after independence by northern leaders. Indeed, state governors from the region are now lobbying for an even greater share of oil revenues – in some cases they believe it should be as high as 50 per cent.

“Northern Nigeria’s economy has traditionally depended on the government more than the south. Many of the industries set up as part of earlier efforts to promote national balance have gone bust or been sold off during a decade of liberal market reforms, power shortages and infrastructure collapse. The north’s inhabitants, although more numerous, are also among the poorest in Africa, and therefore represent a less attractive market for the banks, telecoms and retail companies booming in pockets of comparative affluence in Nigeria’s south. ‘We now need some sort of Marshall plan for these areas so we can begin to regenerate industrialisation,’ Mr Sanusi argued.”

Sanusi, in his rebuttal summarised his thesis this way: “that poverty and marginalisation create conditions of the possibility of radicalisation” He then proceeded to equate the erstwhile militancy in the Niger Delta with the current Boko Haram insurgency. His words: “I have long held the view that ethnic and religious violence in Nigeria has its roots in poverty and deprivation and perceived marginalisation. I always said this about the militancy in the delta while fully condemning it, the truth remains that militants tapped into a groundswell of frustration. In addressing that problem we have gone to an extreme now where the levels of poverty in the north are recreating the same conditions and results we saw in the delta.”

Fantastic thesis; balanced, on the face of it. But how does poverty explain the well publicised desire of the Boko Haramists to impose radical Islam upon the North, if not the whole of Nigeria. How does it explain the attack on churches? Why have non-Moslems failed to manifest this so-called radicalisation; or have they been insulated from poverty and marginalisation? No, Sanusi, sophistry has its limits.