June 1, 2016 by Jide Ajayi • Life, Thoughts • Tags: God, Grace of God •
How great are your works, O LORD!
Your thoughts are very deep!
The stupid man cannot know;
the fool cannot understand this:
that though the wicked sprout like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they are doomed to destruction forever
Ps 92:5–7.
May 31, 2016 by Jide Ajayi • Issues, Life, Thoughts • Tags: church, faithfulness, life •
We all love success. It is one trait in us that makes us feel complete and allows us to express our desires, purpose and expectation. The world around us says only successful people deserve to be heard and have the platform to live their lives before others as they wish and we should not have a contrary opinion because they have something we don’t have just as they have achieved things we have not and so we need to let them talk and tell us how they became so successful so we can add them to the list of other achievers we are currently trying to emulate.
This is a pattern that works. This is why footballers and musicians and actors and businessmen and entrepreneurs are idolized. They have attained that which we wish and hope for and have not attained and we can only hope to meet it by emulating them. It works in businesses, schools, hospitals and everywhere you have humans.
Everywhere you have humans this works and that is including the Church. What is special about the church that it should not work there one might ask. There is a lot about the church that makes it a unique organization, that exempts its from certain things that are acceptable or commonplace in most areas of life but has no place in the church. The reasons are stated below.
The church is one with divine ordination.
The church does not exist to fulfill the personal desire of any of us. It is an institution that God created by his own means and ways, sustained and kept alive throughout the ages according to his divine will. The is the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, bought by the precious blood of Christ. Until God created it, there was none other like it. From its beginning, the church has been designed to break all barriers that affect human designs and to make the brotherhood of all believers across race, social status and time such that God alone is worshipped and glorified.
The church is not your typical organization.
The church does not exist so that it can operate like your typical organization. It’s leaders are not CEOs just as their visions and their goals are not about increasing profitability, rather, they to lead the people as shepherds and fellow heirs. While in dealing with a lot of people at the same time and in the same place and within the confines of a local church can bring up its own challenge, the means and the methods are to glorify God according to his revelation in the bible.
The church is called to faithfulness not success.
The Bible was written over many centuries but speaks of the things revealed by God himself in the written form. In it we learn of his mercy and grace and interaction with man. In it we learn of the rule of faith and practice. It is the word of God that can be verified by all and not subject to private interpretation. In the bible, the church gets its guidance on how to order its business in line with the desire of her Lord and Savior. Therefore the measure of progress is not the typical signs of success like increased sales, increased popularity but obedience to God and faithfulness to his means and ways. This is the success that counts.
March 30, 2016 by Jide Ajayi • Issues, Life, Thoughts, Word • Tags: bible, bible reading, Bible Study, Christ, God, Son of God, Theology •
John 19:7
The purpose of John's gospel is unambiguous. It is to show that Jesus is the Son of God. This he took the opportunity to impress upon his readers every time he had the opportunity. As we see in verse 7 here, the leaders of the people had handed him to Pilate and on his part, Pilate after scourging him, brought him back the leaders hoping that the disfigured and bleeding body of Christ after the punishment would change their minds. He was shocked by what he heard, that Jesus made himself the Son of God. Pilate understood the statement very well just like the leaders of the people, they understood that Jesus was making himself to be equal with God. His query of Jesus after the incidence with the leaders made his issue worse, this was not what he bargained for. This testimony about the deity of Jesus is found in other places in the gospel according to John. The testimony of the actors in the text within the context of their time and culture shows that they understood that Jesus was not just talking about being a son in the sense that a male child is the progeny of his father, he was talking about something deeper and higher than that. That in a unique way he was unlike other sons but the son, He is God.
May God Forgive You
July 24, 2016 by Jide Ajayi • Issues, Life • Tags: The Things We Say •
There was a situation in which a passenger on a motorcycle felt that the driver of the car behind them put them at risk because there was an overtake attempt that was aborted. When the driver of the car finally drove up to and along side the motorcycle as it turned off to another part of the road, the passenger screamed out “may god forgive you”.
This is a very common saying in this society and context. It is a response to a perceived offense by someone who sees themselves as sincere and above spilling or spitting abuses. It is not uncommon for people who see themselves as godly and religious speaking this out whenever they feel they need to voice their discontent without being seen as vulgar or as sinners. To the offended, the action that has just taken place is something grave that has disturbed the receiver and God, and without reeling out abuses and curses as “sinners” would naturally do, it is then up to God to forgive the people.
The unspoken part of the message is “as I cannot forgive you”. It is then up to God to forgive you though it is me that has been offended, I see it that it is up to God to do the forgiving and not me.
In all honesty, it does not place the person in a better place. It actually accentuates the sinful nature of the speaker. The Lord spoke about forgiving one another when he taught the disciples that when they pray, they should ask for forgiveness from the father as they forgive those who trespass against them (Matt 6:12). If we feel we have been offended, we have the power to forgive and be done with it and understand that we have been forgiven much ourselves. This is what the parable of the unforgiving servant emphasizes.
We all have artifacts of legalism in us but while some are trying to move away from their legalism of “I behave therefore I am accepted” others dig deeper holes and secure themselves more and more in the mire of religiosity by manufacturing means and slangs and statements that on the face value without putting much attention sounds good until the statement is put before the mirror of the word and then its falsehood comes to light.
When next the temptation comes to us to say may God forgive you, let us train ourselves to truly forgive and say I forgive you except of course we have no desire to forgive but then, why involve God as he has already told us to forgive seventy times seven times.