Why Go To Church?

Have been doing some studies recently and the more I sit and meditate on these things, the more convinced I am of the need for us to re-evaluate the things that we have been taught in the times past. In the past few weeks, I have come across some insights that have shaken the very core of my belief system and I will be sharing some with you.

In this part of the world, majority of us are religious people. That is to say that we were brought up either in Christian homes, Muslim homes, pagan homes or homes where African Traditional Religion (ATR) was the way of life. Whichever it was, we have had it as part of our foundational belief that there is God and the things we have been taught has then informed the way that we relate to God even after we become born again.

Very recently, I began to question a lot of the religious processes that we have been taught to believe is the right thing on so many topics concerning God, our faith, mode of worship etc. And being that most of the people I look up to, also taught me some of the things I am (I still am processing my thoughts) querying, I decided to go to God Himself for answers. I have been so consumed by these thoughts and findings that the days just flew by very fast. My next few posts will be on my findings on some of those topics (though I am not allowed to share some of them yet) and your comments, contributions and arguments are very welcome.

When I speak with new converts about Jesus, I always recommend to them that they go and study the book of John. So when I started my inquiry, I was directed to go study the book of John.

John 4: 19-24… (NKJV) The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in sprit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

I read this converse and it sounded like two Christians of different denominations having a conversation on whose church was the better church to worship in. Or what do you think? But I love the way Christ closed out on the conversation which was what caught my eye; “But the hour is coming, and now is…” Selah!

Now is the time when God is not interested in your pettiness. Now is the time where the weightier matter of your motive is what the Father is interested in. When we gather in our various places of worship on Sundays or Tuesdays or Wednesdays or Thursdays or for vigils whichever your meeting times fall into or the various seminars that takes place virtually every weekend these days, why are we gathered? Are we truly gathered in spirit and in truth or are we gathered because you will not be allowed to minister if you do not come into church at a particular time? Are we gathered because it is thanksgiving Sunday and it will be a great opportunity to showcase the new outfit you just got? Are we gathered because we just have to share that testimony of the brand new acquisition you just acquired and let hatters know that we are moving forward despite all odds? Are we gathered to come and kill all our enemies that are not allowing us make progress? Are we gathered because it is compulsory for all ordained ministers to be in attendance? Are we gathered because it is another Sunday and we must gather? Are our gatherings to tick the box of a religious obligation, or are we gathered because we know that God is seeking for sincere worshipers?

Check your heart, Why exactly are we gathering?

Now is the time when “TRUE WORSHIPPERS” must worship God in spirit and in truth. Remember that God sees our heart and He knows why you are gathered so you better make sure that it is not just another religious exercise the next time you gather. Imagine how amazing the gathering will be if all participants are there to genuinely lift up their hearts in worship to the one true God. God said He is seeking for such fellows, are you one of them?

When next you are going for a gathering of believers, I want you to ask yourself this question; why am I attending this gathering?

Selah!

Grateful Heart

Gradually we approach the end of this amazing year 2014 and if you are like me, when you look back, you can recount so many reasons why you should be grateful to God. We may not have achieved all that we set out to achieve this year, but we are by no means anywhere near where we started at the beginning of the year.

First, there is the gift of life. That I am able to sit in front of this laptop and type without any aid or support is a unique testimony of its own.

In this year 2014 by divine arrangement, I walked into purpose and began to pastor the most amazing set of human beings anyone can find on the surface of the earth. I don’t see them as congregation; I call them family because that’s what Treasure Place is to me. It’s been 7 months of resounding testimonies and increased grace as God has kept ALL His promises to us as individuals and a church.

In this same year, I embarked on projects that seemed larger than life and I look back from where I am now and can’t even explain how we were able to complete each of those projects.

In this same year, my mum clocked 50 though she still looks 35 lol. God has been good to me and my family, He has shown up for us when we least expected Him to. He has been our strong tower, our shield, our buckler, our friend and indeed our Father. I am a living witness to the fact that God is indeed the father of the fatherless and the husband to the widow because He has indeed carried all our burdens.

I can go on and on about the things that God has done for me this year, all the sheets on this word document might not be enough to capture them all. But I felt a need to help someone recount all that God has done for them this year and find a reason to lift up their voices to the heavens in thanksgiving.

I cannot close out on this write up without mentioning the greatest of all the testimonies this year. In this year 2014, I got married to the most amazing woman on the surface of the earth. Words are never enough every time I try to describe her and if you know me well, that’s a rarity but Sunmi does that to me, she leaves me speechless ALWAYS. I can only but thank God for the gift of an amazing wife, a virtuous woman and most especially, my friend. And by virtue of this union, I have embraced a new family, outstanding in-laws. They are the best in-laws anyone could have asked for walai.

It has been a fruitful/productive year with a lot of high points. That doesn’t mean that the year didn’t come with its challenges. What life would it have been without the usual bumps on the way? However, despite the daunting challenges, God saw us through it all.

This is me saying; Father, I am grateful for all you have done, all you are doing and for all You will yet to. I do not take your tender mercies and your loving kindness for granted. I love you with all my heart, with all I have and with all that is within me. I will forever serve You and these are the declarations of my heart via my mouth (or my fingers as it where).

Is there anything you are grateful to God for this year? Why don’t you take a few minutes and let Him know how grateful you are of all that He has done.

I remain @IamOluwaObinna and I am committed to your Peak Performance.

Selah!

VOTER'S CARD PALAVA

If you are like me, Sunday is the most busy and productive day of the week and is usually packed full, with every meeting almost as important as the other and attendance mandatory. So I took out what I thought was going to be a few minutes from my very tight Sunday schedule to pick up my permanent voters card, all I can say is thank God for favour.

The first group of people I approached to enquire about what the process was, all had a look of agitation and pent up anger on their faces, so I threaded carefully as I approached them. “this thing is not rocket science” one of them kept repeating, “for crying out loud, I have been here since 11.30 and this people are making it seem like there is no better way to handle this voters card ****”.

In situations like this, I have learnt to step back, observe and respond only when comments are passed my way. But as I stood there and a few minutes turned into a couple of hours, I began to feel the frustration of the crowd, anger began to well up within me… I pause for a second and thought about it again, this nonsense is happening because people like you and I have refused to take responsibility for our governance and wellbeing. We have abdicated power to old greedy men that should be in retirement homes waiting for their great grand-children to come visiting and the few young ones that have been privileged to walk that corridor of power, have been blinded by the corruption of office and like he-cocks in pursuit of a hen, have lost all sense of direction and common sense with focus on only one thing; grab, grab and grab some more before the oil dries up.

I have a few questions:

1.      Why did it take FOUR years for a voter’s card that I registered for to be produced?

2.      After the eventual production of the card, why did INEC have to cut it so close to election-day to “eventually” share the voter’s card?

3.      The passport photograph that is being collected from people who registered for a card FOUR years ago, whose faces also appear on the permanent card, who have come in person to pick up their cards, what is it going to be used for?

4.      If you tell me it is for record purposes as I assume some of you might be thinking, what happened to the biometrics data that was obtained from me FOUR years ago? Or is that one history now?

5.      Why were those INEC officials taking records on sheets of paper in this 21^st century? Isn’t there a database with the information of everyone that registered for this exercise FOUR years ago that the officials could refer to online and verify the details of citizens?

6.      What stops us from doing like an online pre-verification exercise and make the collection process a walk-in exercise?

Okay, let me stop ranting and let’s talk solutions.

I think it is time we start taking actions, we need credible leaders, that fact is no longer up for debate. And like someone clearly pointed out yesterday, I don’t know how many of you reading this right now that know the name of their constituency councilor. Posters are already flying around of people we do not have a clue what their credibility is, some of these contestants don’t have a track record from anywhere be it private or public enterprise but their pictures keep popping up every other four years. We need to hold someone accountable for their words and take responsibility of following through to ensure that they meet their obligation to the populace.

I have decided that I will start with my constituency(I don't even have a clue yet which constituency I belong to lol, but I will find out), then move on to my local government. I will find out what the four year agenda of the contestants are, listen to their manifestos, make my choice and VOTE. After the elections, I will also follow up to ensure that the person in office (whether or not he/she is the individual I voted for) will keep to the dictates of his/her manifesto. We will use all legal means possible to follow through on our demands; it is high time we hold our office holders responsible for their actions.

You will hear more from me on this matter, trust me on that. But I implore you to take responsibility of the welfare of this nation, if not for yourself, for the sake of generation after you. Let us all go out and vote come 2015, and make our votes count.

I remain @IamOluwaObinna, I am committed to your Peak Performance.

PAUSE.... THEN RESPOND

It’s been a long while I posted a blog on this page and I sincerely apologize for that. between my last post and now, the “She” that I referred to in a few of my previous posts has become my wife *smiley* and God has given us the great task of leading an amazing set of people in Treasure Place. I can indeed say that out of the race of a group of believers, God has raised a group of men and women that the world will get to meet in no too distant a time. Needless to say that God has indeed been faithful.

As a preacher, I have over time, found out that it is easier to preach the word to others than to practice the contents of what we preach. I have had cause to counsel so many people on various life issues and when I find myself in that same place, I tend to forget the words from scriptures that I so easily shared with others.

This last week was one of the worst weeks I have had to endure in a very long time, a lot happened that had me angry and frustrated and just when I was about to lash out, a calm voice said ‘healer, heal thyself’.

That was what I needed to reset my brain. I began to drill down to the root cause of the anger and ask myself salient questions like; why are you angry? Is this anger directed at a person or a situation? What does scripture say about anger? How have you complied with what scripture says about anger? Based on the things you have told people in this situation before, how can you rate your response now compared to their response? Is there anything you can do to remedy the situation? When are you going to take action?

The moment I completed this self-evaluation, and began to take actions, it was like a burden lifted off my shoulders.

When scripture says that laughter does good like medicine, I can completely relate with that. I wear a smile all the time, it is not necessarily because all is well at all times, no. I smile because though all may not be well, the enemy is expecting me to wear a frown and it tickles me to know that my smile frustrates him.

Some events occur in our lives and we respond in certain ways to those events. Though we are Christians, it is understandable that we are first humans and most times our tendency is to respond to incidents in our human nature. However, the ultimate response to life’s events will be the “Christ-like” response and this requires some conscious effort on our own part as believers.

Decide today to respond to every matter in a way that is befitting a child of God. Like the popular saying goes, you can always ask yourself before responding to any matter; “What would Jesus do?” and if you are not so sure what Jesus would do or in doubt how He would have reacted, you can always tow my Pastor’s line and ask from scriptures; “What did Jesus Say?”

It’s a new month that the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in it, do have a great week ahead.

@IamOluwaObinna and I am committed to your Peak Performance

GRATITUDE

Good Morning my sweet friends and family, trust you all have been doing very well since the last time we interacted on this platform. I know it’s been a while and I apologize for the long silence, life has been happening lol.

Talking about life, I read something this morning that inspired me to write this.

I was driving to work this morning and for some reason I just began to thank God out loud for everything. For my family, my friends, colleagues, job, ministry, my Fiancée (soon to be wife #winks) for everything especially my family. Most of you don’t know this, but I lost my dad a little over 5 years ago and truth is, I am a witness to the fact that God is the Father of the fatherless and a Husband to the widow. My dad was one of those super dads that made sure you lacked nothing as in nothing. We had the best of everything life could offer and he ensured that that remained the standard despite the fact that he had to on so many occasions, go without some basics that was obvious to us that he needed. He was a super dad like that. There were the once in a while ups and down that is synonymous with life, but on a scale of 1 to 10, I had a 9.7 childhood, leaving the 0.3 for all the spanking that is forever engraved in my mind lol.

It got me thinking about those not so great times growing up, and how we would be at home with nothing to eat except pap and buns and someone would walk in with their problems and pour everything out on my dad expecting that they have come to the one man that could solve the problems of all his extended family members. I would scuff in my mind and walk away. But somehow, after he is done with them, they are all smiles and might even join in on the almost nothing that we had (that was very annoying, don’t know how my mum copped #I’mnotwicked #justsaying lol).

We read about the successes of people on the pages of newspapers, we see their glam pictures on glossy magazines and this leaves us wanting and desiring to be successful (which is a very good thing). When we get to church, the bombardment continues. Everyone or almost everyone looks so prim & proper, the car parks are a sight to behold, everything and everyone literarily glitters and you are left amazed. There is barely any channel of the television that you flip to that doesn’t throw glamorous, well photo-shopped & packaged people at us, but what those well groomed folks in church, pictures, magazines and channels don’t show us is the low moments that these people go through.

Let me ask you this question; does it ever cross your mind that everyone, I mean everybody has their low times?

We may not come out to broadcast it to the entire world, but everyone does have their low times. What do you think leads people to indulge in vices like drug abuse, domestic violence etc?

So as I thanked God this morning, it hit me real hard that I am not where I am today because I am the most priviledged or most endowed person. I have had my fair share of hardships and lives issues. My mum, my siblings and I have been through experiences that most families may not have been able to withstand and I have realized that it is only the grace and mercies of God that has brought us through it all.

We are where we are today, I am where I am today because I have God by my side in my ship with me all the way on this journey. Jesus said “I will never leave nor forsake you” and He sure has kept that promise to me and my family.

So I will like to ask you a simple, life changing question; Do you have Jesus as the captain of your ship? Have you made Him the Lord and Master of your life?

If you have, I want to congratulate you and encourage you to hold steadfastly to Him, He has never disappointed anyone that I know, He is not about to start with you.

If you haven’t, I would like you to take a step of faith today and invite Jesus into your life as your Lord and personal Saviour. Just say this short prayer with me; Lord Jesus, I come to you this day accepting that I am a sinner and that you died on the cross for me. I confess my sins to you and invite you into my heart today asking that you be the Lord and Master of my life. Thank you for accepting me Lord, in Jesus’ mighty name I pray, Amen!

I want to congratulate you for taking this step and I know your life will never remain the same. Kindly seek a bible believing church near you and actively participate in the church’s activities.

You can also follow me on twitter @IamOluwaObinna.

I am committed to your Peak Performance.

Have a Blessed day.

ISSUES...

A few days ago, I experienced a rush of emotions that was alien to me. Thinking about it now, I know what the root cause was, but I also think that I could have handled it better. Anyways, I learnt my lessons and I want to share that with you.

We are emotional beings and that means that once in a while, emotions kick in and we behave or respond in a manner that is not consistent with our character. I learnt this week that it is very important that you have a good grip of your emotions and don’t let them control you.

I have been very stressed for a few weeks now jostling a lot of things together at once and just when I thought I had everything under control, all hell broke loose and things went south all at once. Inside, I was a mess but outside, I maintained a calm exterior while trying to resolve the many issues that were arising almost on a per minute basis each of them requiring urgent attention.

I picked Madam up after work this faithful day to attend our counseling session which has been running every week for a while now, and I can’t remember for sure what triggered it, but I just sunk into a mood which gradually drained the smile from me and made me suddenly angry. Madam noticed and was trying to draw me out of it and instead of taking the outlet she was offering me, I allowed myself sink deeper into the bad mood. As if in response, my car started to misbehave in the middle of the road and that triggered more anger because the car just returned from servicing and should be in a great condition (I think that’s why we spend so much to service them so that they would serve us better right?) well, that wasn’t the case for me.

I was to host an online service on Twitter, and we had agreed that when it was time, Madam would drive so that I could tweet. She took the wheels and just at that very moment, my network provider that claims to be everywhere you go decided to depart from my car and my tweets weren’t going through. All that could go wrong was going wrong at the same time and somehow I knew I had the power to stop it all but I just couldn’t get myself to snap out of it.

I still can’t explain how Kamsi had the patience to just keep turning the ignition each time the car went off which was like every other minute and she just carried on as if it wasn’t a big deal. Bottom line, I was very vexed but also, I knew that my anger wasn’t towards any of the petty things that were going on; it was more deep seated than that so I just kept quiet and tried to blank out.

We got to my Pastor’s place, and while we were waiting, I heard that Still Small voice say to me; “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest”.

That was exactly what I needed cos I realized that I had been so pre-occupied trying to figure out how to resolve all the issues ahead of me and in front of me that I forgot to be grateful for ALL He has done and there I was making effort on my own, exerting energy, forming super-man when all I needed to do was go to Him in with all my worries.

Are you in that spot where nothing seems to be working? You don’t have a clue where your next help will come from? Are businesses that were doing exceptionally well all of a sudden disintegrating right before your eyes? The relationship that was rock solid, all of a sudden isn’t working out? I want to assure you that there is hope.

 I don’t know what the issue may be that has gotten you so down trodden and heavy hearted. Sleepless nights may have become a norm for you and maybe it has even made your blood pressure to shoot up, I have good news for you, Christ is calling you today to lay it all down at His feet and draw near unto Him. Believe in Him and trust Him enough to come through for you. My God will come through for you if you believe.

It may not make logical sense and trust me, most times it doesn’t. but all God is asking of you is to trust Him enough to hand over your worries to Him.

The moment I calmed down, handed everything over to Him in prayer and apologized to Madam, as we were leaving the venue of the meeting, the same car that was giving issues while we were coming, did not disturb me through that long journey. Network returned to the phone and all was well again.

I learnt the huge lesson never to let my emotions get the better of me rather in everything through prayers and supplications, I should make my worries known unto God and that is the model I have adopted.

What about you?

Remember how He asked if any of us by worrying have been able to add a cubic centimeter to our hair? Well, I am yet to meet a man who can say that worry did him/her good.

So like the saying goes; why worry when you can pray…

 

@IamOluwaObinna and I am committed to your Peak Performance.

 

Stay Strong

Recent weeks have been filled with numerous news of killings, bombings and kidnapping of innocent children, and all of a sudden social media and all other form of decimating information is agog with the lamentation of people bemoaning the sad occurrences.

In the same vein, there has been celebrations and marriages, men wining and dining with careless abandon, customized branded gadgets being doled out as if they were a penny per dozen (I’m not beefing #justsaying).

While some partake in the balling, others mourn their losses and a great number gist and complain about all the events going on, raining dozens and millions of abuses on government and public office holders. Put together, my country is in a state and no one seems to know where help would come from.

You would think the international community would have the response to the issues that seek to drown our leadership, but no, they solicit our support to help out with the situation in Ukraine. Which tells me that they perceive that even in our purported state of crisis, we are better than most.

I thought deeply about all these things going on, and the Holy Spirit led me to Matthew chapter 24 and I began to read from verse 3 all the way to verse 44.

So many of us have asked numerous questions with regards to the events in the country right now; what is the government doing? Why are the leaders so incompetent? Don’t they care about the killings going on? Are we such cowards that we can’t rebel and fight back or even protest? What is the church doing? Why are great men of God in this nation silent on this matter? The questions go on and on. But I will implore you to please read Matthew 24.

There are so many things that our Lord Jesus outlined as “The Signs of the Times and the End of the Age” and those are the things that are happening right now. My interest really isn’t in outlining what the signs He mentioned are, I am more interested in what He advised us to do during this time.

First in verse 4 of Matthew 24, He said; “Take heed that no one deceives you…” this is a call to seek caution and not be deceived by the many suggestions that people will make during this period. You will hear all sorts, verse 6 talks about wars and rumours of wars, but our Lord says that we should not be troubled. For me, this explained the silence of some renowned clerics on these matters arising.

Verse 12 talks about lawlessness abounding, I think this is prevalent in my country where traffic lights are for decoration and it is difficult to separate the law enforcement agencies from crime as both seem to be working hand-in-hand. It also says that the love of many will grow cold, which is why people can go about bombing and killing innocent human beings without any form of fear or recourse.

But verse 13 is where I am going to, it says “he who endures to the end shall be saved”. 

I have been asked what I think the church should do about all the violence going on in the country, as much as I would have loved us to take up arms and take this war to the enemies camp and show them that we are soldiers of the cross not just by mouth but also in deed lol, I would rather we adopt the guidelines as instructed us by our Lord Jesus Christ.

We need to be more observant and security conscious as Christians, verse 15-22 captures it for me. If you hear of these things, flee first and ask questions later, be reasonable and aware of your environment. You owe it to yourself and God to endure to the end.

Will the bad news stop, I don’t think so. Will they continue to fight and kill people (not only in Nigeria)? Yes, I believe so ‘cos if it were not be so, Christ wouldn’t have said so. I also think that these types of occurrences will get more severe as the years go by.

So my advice/opinion? Stay safe, be alert, do a lot of watching while you pray. Stay strong and endure to the end. Trust me, the gory sights and pictures are enough to push any man to his wits end and break even the strongest of emotionally stable men, but we need not relent on our faith and our stand in Christ.

For those of us that would have loved to push back and do something radical, remember Peter tried to push back when he pulled his sword and cut off the ear of one of the men that was harassing his master. It is important to note that Jesus did not support Peter even though Peter was fighting for Him in quote. It might seem like a docile position to take, but we have the privilege to have been fore warned about these occurrences. I don’t think God wants us to fight in arms; our battle is in the place of the spirit. Stay strong in your spirit man, do not relent in prayers for yourself, your loved ones and your beloved Nation, be observant of your immediate environment always, pay attention to that still small voice within you. Let our mantra be; “What doesn’t break us makes us stronger”.

My God will give us the grace to remain strong to the end.

I wish you a Happy Easter celebration in advance, let the reason for the season not be lost on you.

IamOluwaObinna, I remain committed to your Peak Performance.