COSTLY LUXURY!

Dear Christ Ambassador and gospel Minister, while you're enjoying that luxury cruise across the pacific on your private yacht, 963 million people are hungry. More than one billion people earn less than One Hundred and Sixty Naira (N160.00) per day. Thirty thousand children will die today because of  poverty. They die in some of the poorest villages on the earth - far removed from the conscience of the world. Some even happen right before your very eyes. It therefore mean that 210,000 die each week - 11 million each year - and most of them are under five years old.

Of the 2.2 billion children in the world, 640 million are without adequate shelter, 400 million without safe drinking water, and 270 million without access to any medical services whatsoever.

 66 million primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world with 23 million in Africa alone. 2.6 million children die as a result of hunger-related causes. Hunger kills more people every year than Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis combined.

According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. Based on enrollment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005. This figure may have quadrupled with recent world realities.

As a Christian, would you after reading this staggering statistics prefer to live a lavish and extravagant lifestyle? If your answer is in the affirmative, then I tell you most assuredly that if you were in Jesus' shoes, you would not have left all the glory, majesty and grandeur in heaven to condescend to becoming the son of an ordinary carpenter, just to die for a sinful world. Per adventure, you are saying in your mind that Jesus was divinity and that in God's plan of events, it was His (Jesus') destiny to die for the world, how about the early missionaries who left the comfort and civilization of their days to come to dark Africa? A lot of them paid with their very lives, as malaria and other diseases ravaged them. All these are efforts and sacrifices made by fellow humans towards making us the people God intended us to be.

The holy Bible calls us the salt and light of the world. Can you pause for a minute or two to ponder on why God chose this two elements in His description of you as a Christian? Here's my own observation and findings; salt adds taste to food. It is a preserver, it has therapeutic properties, etc. Can you imagine a world without light? Just close your eyes right now and try to find your way to the toilet. Was it such an easy task? Think of a world without electricity. Think about all the beauty that came with electricity, all the things we do with electricity. A world without electricity is unthinkable. I bet, life would have been unbearable.

 Now, how many of these qualities do you possess? Has someone called you a life-saver? Have you enhanced anyone's life? I mean how many people have you left better than you met them? No wonder the world is in such a bad shape. We all including my very self are a bunch of selfish people. Any other person can rot provided we're in good shape, including our loved ones.

Once salt loses its saltiness, it becomes useless. Maybe, who knows, the reason why you've failed that examination or interview severally may just be because of your wrong intentions. The saltiness has left your life a long time ago. I know a story, a real life story of a young man. He was fighting to gain admission into the university to study law. While he was applying, we went about boasting that once he graduated and successfully became a lawyer, anyone that messed up around him, he'd have them locked up. He ended up studying English language. The dream of  becoming a mean and terrorizing lawyer never saw the day light. Who knows, it might just be that he did not get the opportunity to become a lawyer because his motives were just not right?

Salt loses its saltiness when it  becomes impure and the light becomes useless once obstructed. The question then is; as the  salt and light of the world, what are those things that have the capacity to make us impure or have the ability to obstruct the light we radiate? A lot of factors are responsible, but I shall restrict myself to the craze for material possessions. The lust of the eyes and the pride of life can be classified to mean the unhealthy desire to acquire wealth and material possessions at all cost. No one is spared in this disease that has eaten us so deeply. It is this quest for material possessions that drives the pastor to meet a witch doctor for charms to attract members. As we know, many members equal so much money entering the treasury of the church. If not, why would I go to lengths to make sure that my church is filled to the brim? If am doing the right things and preaching the right words, I think it's God's business to bring the people. We must learn to allow God fix His own problems. No man can ever help God. In the same vein, it is our insatiable quest for materialism also that still inspires Pastors to always hammer on giving in every of their teachings. "SOW SEED MINISTRY"! At the expense of the soul of the giver, nor are they interested in the source of the seed being given. The quest for materialism has caused us to turn blind eyes on all the evils happening around us. We are a generation of 'Ajebota Christianity'; Pamper me Christians. God will judge us all. Amen!

Nigeria is home to many Big-name Pastors with very large congregation and  followership. Adored by many, but the sad truth is that many of them do not find role models in Christ. When a man loses sight of his primary purpose, he become lost in destiny. Yes, they speak with the tongues of angels, they have faith that moves mountain, in fact, they have even raised the dead in several occasions, but the hash truth is, none of these will take you to heaven. God says that you're like a noise-making container. Truth is, you can have the gifts of the spirit and still go to hell in a very grand style, but you can't posses the fruit of the holy spirit and miss heaven. Hmmmmm! Deep, yea?

As a minister of God's word and an Ambassador of heaven, you can only maintain spiritual relevance when you learn to live for posterity rather than for prosperity. Don't get it twisted, am not anti-prosperity. No! That is far from what am saying here. I love to live the  good life. In fact, the Bible said that Money answers all things. And mind you, Money on its own isn't the root of all evil like so any people believe, regrettably. The Bible stated it clearly without mincing words that it is the LOVE of money that is the root of all evil. It is my position with respect that it is in the love for money that materialism and other evils associated with money thrive. Wealth isn't sinful, for it is God that gives us the power to make wealth. Am talking about the wealth that was made in honest and decent way. Let me state it here in the same breadth, that wealth gotten through evil means cannot subsequently be converted to good wealth simply because you paid tithe on it or because  you engaged in some sort of charity work. God cannot be bribed.  Such offerings and tithes are strange fire on God's alter. They will rather bring you curse instead of a blessing. You will not hear this in many congregation because of the effect it will have on the church's finances. In these days that the true and undiluted word of God is scarce, I have volunteered to deal in that scarce commodity. The wealth that God cannot give me, I don't want to have. The bottom line is, use all you've got to the glory of God and for the good of humanity.

Sometimes, I wonder, and in fact, it amazes me and I end up wondering where I'll hide my conscience, if after all the problems ravaging the society where I reside,  I just turn blind eyes and go ahead living life to the fullest, driving the sleekest of cars when those under my employ barely feed well. Or go ahead and buy my private Jet, own a luxury yacht and even acquire for myself a private island somewhere in the Pacific or Caribbean, with properties spread across the world at different exotic place as a Christian Businessman, talk more, a Pastor? Yet members of my congregation sleep in their offices because they can't afford a decent accommodation here in Abuja for example! The big question then would be: where then is the love of God in my heart? I just wonder!!! The wealth that will not be a blessing to others, I don't want to have.

We must stop thinking that taking God's message of love to the people everywhere only starts and end at; 'Jesus loves you, repent and be saved.' We must show them by our actions that they are indeed loved. There's no better way to say this than the way Joyce Meyer succinctly puts it. She says; "Of course, we share the love of Jesus with them, but we don't merely tell them they are loved, we show them by meeting practical needs in their lives."  She went further in stating thus: "We must beware of thinking that  words are enough. Jesus certainly preached the good news, but He also went about doing."  Talking according to her is not expensive, nor does it require much effort, but real love is costly. It cost God His only Son, and allowing real love to flow through us will also cost us. Perhaps we will have to invest some time, money, effort, or possessions-but just bear it in mind that it will cost you! Love is the most expensive commodity ever sold! If you doubt this, ask God. The lyrics of the song bellow by Cece Winans will drive this point home:

"IT WASN'T EASY"

Don't think for a moment

I never felt the pain

You can't imagine

The hurt and the shame

They put the nails through my hands

Pierced my side, please understand

It wasn't easy, but it was worth it

I didn't have to do it

But I did it anyway

'cause I really love you

So much I took your place

I died for your sins

Yes I'm the one

Don't take it lightly

What I've done

It wasn't easy, but it was worth it

I left my throne

My purpose was the cross

Shed innocent blood

I paid all cost

When as a Pastor, you often quote 'bring ye all the tithes in my store house that there may be meat in my house...', after your congregation must have responded by paying their tithes and giving their offerings. Why do you still have the hungry in your midst? Have you fulfilled the scriptures? Or is the meat in the house not for all and sundry? Is it the exclusive reserve of the Pastor and his dear family? What exactly are you doing with all those cars in your garage? In case you don't know, you won't be buried with any of your possessions. If at all you were to be  buried with all the gold and precious stones available, give it time, grave robbers will come for it. There are instances where very wealthy people died, and were buried in a gold casket, Grave-robbers came, emptied the casket and carted it way. That incidence to me is one of life's subtle reminders. The Bible says that you will only be remembered by what you've done here on earth. Not the  amount of money in your account or the magnitude of your material possessions.

I have another group of men of God (MOGs) that I want to address here. If you fall within this category, you need deliverance. A member of your congregation is sick, he has a medical condition. Perhaps, corrective surgery is all that is needed to rescue the situation. He doesn't have the means to undergo that procedure individually. As his pastor, all you did was to pray for him and then authenticate the prayer with 30 minutes of speaking in tongues. Then you spiced it up with faith talks and this person continues living in pain and sometimes even dies. But once you have a slight headache, you fly yourself abroad for medical attention on the pretext that you're going to minister in the foreign land (It's the work of ministry, Hallelujah! Glory!!) Who really is deceiving who? There is God in everything we're doing! God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows, he will reap. So says the scriptures. They're not my words. No wonder the Bible says that judgment will start from the altar. It also stated that on the last day, there will be great surprises for God will tell many 'men of God' to depart from me I know you not. Friends, if it is only in this world that we have hope, then we are of all men most miserable.

Personally, I know beyond every shadow of doubt that I'll be mega rich. I'll live the good life. But friends, I will not own a private jet and yacht, nor will I own properties in exotic locations in the world unless I am convinced that no where around the world does a child have to go to bed with an empty stomach. Am making this solemn vow and I ask you to call my attention to it in the future when you feel  am derailing. I know what it feels like going to bed with an empty stomach. I've been there before and the experience isn't funny. Those nights are usually very long. Talk more of its effect on little, weak and defenseless children! For me, I consider it outright wickedness on my part to enjoy all the unnecessary luxuries, when the greater percent of world's population live in abject poverty and misery.

I have no doubt that Jesus would think and act the same way if He was a 21st Century Messiah. Don't you agree? I dare to be the change that I need to see!

[Some facts and figures in this article are as contained in Joyce Meyer's 'The Love Revolution' and World Food Organization's Website]

***Find bellow some pictures depicting the state of the African Children......

One of our outreaches; FEED THE HUNGRY PROJECT. 

A girl-child on a lonely bush path. She is a child at risk. Any thing could happen to her. She will walk miles in search of water for the family. Isn't she rather to young? And what do you think about the over-sized bowel on her head?

They walk miles to accomplish daily assigned chores. 

The People of Kigbe community (in Kwali Area Council, Abuja, Nigeria) do not have access to portable water. They drink from this stream.

These children are meant to be in their classes learning, not somewhere in a deserted bush doing laundry.