“Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’”
Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:1-8)
I was posted as a security officer to a company for two days. One of my assignments is to monitor six security system-monitoring screens. Each of the monitoring screens except one has 16 cameras attached to it. The remaining one screen is the central, which shows a close-up of all the cameras from any of the other 5 screens. There is a system controller, which connects to all the monitoring screens; it controls the whole security system.
The first day I worked at this company, the central monitor was working normally and was responding to the controller. Two hours after I had resumed for duty, I lost control of the security system; the central screen was not responding to the controller. I did not know what was wrong, whether I mistakenly press a wrong button, I cannot just figure out. I tried all could by pressing all the buttons on the controller, but there was no response.
At the end of my shift, my reliever who is a regular worker at that site took over from me. I reported the problem I encountered with the security system to him. Unfortunately, he has no knowledge of how to put the system in order. Two officers changed shift before I resume for duty the second day, still none of them was able to rectify the problem.
When I resume for duty the second day, I began to work on how to put this system to work. If there had been a manual for the system in the site, I would have been able to read through and probably get the solution to rectify the problem. After much trial, cracking my brain and putting ideas together, I was able to rectify the problem and got the system working normally.
The Bible says, “My people perish for lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4:6). The problem was caused by pressing a wrong button on the controller. The solution also came by pressing a button, which I have no clue to what button I pressed.
Lesson to learn
The whole idea thought me a lesson, ‘never to give up’. I did not give up in try to find a solution to a problem. The fact that those officer attached to that site, who worked every day at that site did not know how to rectify the problem with the system should not put me off.
The fact that many people are not successful in certain undertakings does not mean you will not make it in that same undertaking. The fact that not many people passed in an examination is not an indices that you will not pass it. The fact that something is hard does not mean you cannot have a breakthrough. It all depends on the individual to decide whether to say ‘I will make it’ or ‘I cannot make it’. Your choice will attract you.
What really matters as far as achieving something in life is concern is determination to embark, pursue and not giving up.
I was curious not only to rectify the problem, but also to know and gain more knowledge. I want to understand the system. Who knows, finding a solution to the problem might earn me a promotion.
It is not finish until it is finished
Do not give up when you are finding a solution to a problem until you think you have gotten to the end of the road. The Lord said to Joshua concern the Israelites, “there remained very much land yet to be possessed” (Jos. 13:1). What the Lord was telling Joshua here is that, you must keep on fighting and possess more land until you have finish conquering. It also means you should not assumed you have accomplished when there are still more areas to cover.
The Bible says we should keep asking until our joy is full. In the days of David, the Israelites warred against Benjamin and Gibeah. Israelites fell two times before Benjamin, despite the fact that they inquired of the Lord. However, they did not give up. They went the third time to enquire of the Lord and they defeated the Benjamites.
I attended a middle school function “Kids and Cadets” at Hubbard Middle School, Plainfield NJ. The function was packed with interesting activities, among which are, armed Trick Demonstration, Poetry recitation, Lift Ev’ry voice and sing, “Hip-Hop” dancing and among others.
However, the one which interest me most was a student who came to the stage to recite her poem. Her recitation was smooth and dramatic, which caught the attention of everybody. But before she finished, she forgot the last sentence of her poem and she became nervous. However, because of her early brilliant performance, there was a round of applause for her.
That applause does not go well with her teacher; she was not certified with that performance, so she told the student to recite her poem all over again. The student did not get it right until the fourth attempt when she cooled down and started all over again. Finally, she recited the poem smoothly like the first time she was on the stage.
Surprisingly, despite her mistake, her last performance was more impressing. She won the prize for that function. Don’t give up. Do it again until you get it right.
By Lawrence Abitogun
“So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife [see] that she reverence [her] husband” (Eph. 5:28-33).
According to Apostle Paul, marriage is a “great mystery”; a sacred secret, an institution instituted by God at creation; for the purpose of companionship and duplicate multiplication between a man and a woman. From the apostolic era to this day, Christian marriage has been and should continue to be parallel to the union that exists spiritually between Jesus Christ and His bride, the church.
What is the relationship between Christ and the church that ought to be a model to husband and the wife? How does it apply to modern day marriage? And what are the advantages of holding on to this relationship? Let’s take a moment to see what a good relationship should be.
What Christ is to the church
- Christ is the head of the church (Col. 1:18).
- Christ is the savior of the body, the church (Jews as well as Non-Jews)
- He loved the church, understanding and bearing with her.
- Christ laid Himself down for the church.
- Nourish and cherish the church with spiritual (word) and physical need (trust for provisions)
- In Christ the church is admonished to be one in unity – bearing in mind that there is one body, one spirit, one hope, one baptism, one faith, one Lord and one God the Father.
- The Lord recognizes the weakness of the church and bears with her. He recognizes three defects in her, spot, wrinkle and blemish. Therefore, He sanctified and edified the church by cleansing her with the word of God, and by getting rid of defilement out of the temple; thus making it holy.
- Jesus did not hate or bitter with the church for her shortcomings, but cleanse her to be one flesh (1Cor. 5:7) to fit His kingdom.
- The church is the “house of God” – dispute do not promote “house order” in the church
- Jesus is faithful to the church.
Parallel: Husband to the wife
- Husband is the head of the wife
- Husband is the savior of the house – the wife, the children and all that is in the house are in his care.
- husband is to love the wife as Christ loved the church
- Husband is to emulate Christ love, the kind that he must at all time ready to lay his life down for her. To lay his life down means to protect and ready to be there for her when needed. The warfare of the wife is his.
- Husband is to cherish the wife, nourishing and caring for her with spiritual and moral support; recognizing the wife as his half (part of his body)
- Husband and wife becomes a new home, independent of their parent’s influence (Gen. 2:2). They have become one flesh with the same mind, in love, togetherness, same goal and reverencing one another (Gen. 2:23; Phi. 2:1-4).
- The husband is to recognize the wife as not perfect; like the church, she may have spot, wrinkle or blemish. What this means is that no one is perfect; however, the husband has a duty to make her perfect.
- Every human being has his or her own weakness or shortcomings; however, the husband should love the wife for what she is. He should bear with her and make her to suit for him, not to hate her. (Eph. 5:26-27)
- There should be no lingering dispute between the husband and the wife; it does not promote “house order” and peace in the house. The husband has a higher responsibility to carry in all home affairs; especially, in the area of self control and tolerance. To avert dispute, he should accept blame where there is stalemate on issues: if he is right or not, future will tell because history will always repeat itself.
- Marriage relationship is a symbol of faithfulness; husband should be faithful to his wife. In as much as possible, believing we can do all things together through Christ who strengthens us.
As Christians, we should honor our bodies as created by God; therefore, it needs to be sanctified in order to keep it for holy purpose. Let there be no sexual activity outside the marriage; God hates idolatry: embrace self control for sexual purity to avoid worldly passion for sexual immorality.
In marriage, everything between spouse must be “we” not “me and you”; because you have become one flesh, even though, there are still two person (Eph. 5: 31), together, they are as one. With this concept in mind, it sets the foundation of a Christian view of a marriage (Matt. 19:5; 1 Cor. 6:16).
Therefore, spouse must be comfortable in their
- Physical bodies as regards to structure, strength, weakness and sexual relationship
- Spirituality as regards to moral capability because individual has his or her own defect/s
- Intellectual capacities as regards to knowledge, understanding and wisdom
- Relational in regards to loving, caring and bearing one another.
As Christ’s intention is that He might present the church to Himself a glorious church, likewise let the husband love his own wife as his own body that he might present her a glorious wife.
By Lawrence Abitogun
“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’? And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ “Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil”. (Gen. 3:1-5)
This short dialogue between Eve and the serpent (satan) in the Garden of Eden is however pregnant with an epistle of of what made Eve fell for such a devastating temptation. Is this a willful commission? Is it innocent ignorance? Is it carelessness or lust? Let us see if we can draw some reasons or at least learn a lesson from this accident.
Christians must always be careful on how they respond or give answer to questions. If not our answer may trigger or create an avenue for the enemy to take advantage of us. We need to understand a question before we respond or else our response may be wrong. Understanding that question will help us give correct or the right response to it.
There are questions which are straight forward and there are question which are tricky. There are generalized questions and there are specific questions. There are questions that tend to dig more into people’s confidentialities as a mean of entrapping or luring to commit someone. There are questions asked to find out confidential matters from those who are loose in talk.
Generalized vs. specific question
The question the serpent asked Eve was, “Has God indeed said, ‘you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? This is a generalize question and not specific. The answer could be “yes” or in a statement, “He did say we should not eat of every tree of the garden”. This should have been the end of the story or wait for the next question.
One fact in this story is that satan was not there when God instructed Adam that they should not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We can also say he did not know where in particular the location of the tree in the garden. There is the possibility that satan is aware of the tree, that was when he had not been driven away from heaven.
However, the answer Eve gave satan went too far beyond required and into the specific. She said “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden”, this should have been the end of the response. However she went further
1. “but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, (satan never asked for the location);
2. God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, (truth):
3. nor shall you touch it, (lie);
4. Lest you die”, (true).
Eve went too far, giving information beyond what was asked for. The response to the serpent’s question was made without thought, thus gave the opportunity for the serpent to steer the conversation to the direction he wanted – to cause man to disobey God.
Possible reasons why Eve fell for temptation
1. Eve was deceived – The serpent tricked Eve by throwing a statement question, which throws Eve off guard and without thinking, settled to engage in dialogue with the serpent. The Bible warns that “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity[a] that is in Christ” (2Cor.11:3).
2. Eve was ignorant of the devil’s devices – Eve did not recognize the serpent’s intention or his wiles, and the devil turned it as an occasion to beguile her. The Bible warns, “lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2Cor. 2:11)
3. Not all that glitters are gold – Eve was fascinated by the beauty of the serpent (Ezek. 28:12b-13), she did not see or recognize the danger of associating with him nor know the other side of him. Association with the devil corrupts ones mind and causes one to rebel against God.
4. Eve gave answer beyond required – Eve was carried away by the soothing words of a beautiful devil until she started giving answers or response beyond the necessary. King Hezekiah fell into this mistake when he receives the Babylonian envoys. Instead of welcoming them in his royal parlor, he showed them everything in his kingdom. The action brought punishment on his posterity. “At that time Merodach-Baladan[a] the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. 2 And Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his treasures—the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory—all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.
“Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?” So Hezekiah said, “They came to me from a far country, from Babylon.”
“And he said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”
“ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the LORD. ‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”
“So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good!” For he said, “At least there will be peace and truth in my days.” (Is. 39:1-8)
5. Eve listen to devil’s ministration. A simple answer “yes, God said so” was enough to shut up the serpent. Yes or No is enough answer to throw the devil off balance or shut anyone one who wants to trick or commit you into exposing your privacy. Many at times, whoever lacks discerning spirit is easily convinced with evil ministration. This is evident in the political gimmicks we hear every day. Politicians use sweet words to persuade and convince people to vote for them; only to find out later that they are liars and they fail to deliver their promises. The word of God admonishes us “Behold, believe not every spirit, but try the spirit whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone into the world” (1Jn. 4:1)
6. Eve did not know the truth from lie. If God had commanded Adam in the presence of Eve, would it have made a difference from the way she easily submitted to the serpent? May be, may be not. However, she failed to differentiate between truth and lie. In today’s system, ignorance in not an excuse in the court of law. Christians must be conversant the word of God and with what is happening around them. The Bible says “My people perish for lack of knowledge.
7. Eve was unwise and a talkative – she exposed what the serpent did not know. If the serpent had known, he would have asked “has God indeed say you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden?” The questions the serpent did not ask are
· Which fruit?
· Where is the location of the tree?
· Can you touch?
· Did God say you will die?
As it sounds, Eve out of much talk, she opened her mouth and speaks unabatedly like a busted water pipe which releases much uncontrolled water (Pro. 10:19). The Bible says “For we all stumble in many things, if anyone does not stumble in word, he or she is perfect, able to bridle the whole body (Jas. 3:2)
8. Fear and anxiety overwhelmed Eve. The serpent recognizes an element of fear in Eve, not wanting to disobey God’s instruction; therefore, he cools her down and removes that fear by speaking against God’s instruction, saying, “You will not die”, using lie to lure Eve to disobey God. The Bible says that satan is the father
of lies (Jn. 8:44). This is one of the major tools that the devil is using to derail and fall man.
Today, the devil still deceives believer and turn truth to be lie; especially when a believer is overwhelm with fear and anxiety. It is all over the world, mostly, among us Christians. If the word of God says something, we don’t believe or we want to know why God said it. Unbelief cost Israel many lives in the wilderness. The truth that Eve did not believe “…for the day that you eat of it you shall die” turned out to be what we inherited till today.
9. The serpent seduced Eve – satan seduced Eve because he sees anxiety and desperation written all over her; he notice that Eve would fall for anything that would take away any restriction and probably wants to what is in that fruit. The serpent lures her by arousing a desire for something against the will of God. Thus, Satan seized the opportunity and seduced Eve through false promise “you shall not die”
10. Eve yielded to the devil’s temptation and ate devil’s delicacy.
How should you respond to any question?
The Bible admonishes us, “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;” (Jas. 1:19). How does this apply to you as a christian?
* Listen – it is important to listen to all parts of a question before drawing premature conclusions about your best response. It is important to hear the content of the whole question and try to decode the questioner’s intention. There are some questions which tend to knowing more about a person, for the purpose of entrapping or ensnaring. It for you to know that private matter must be kept confidential; for your own consumption; do not share it, or else, you have set a stage for the enemy to go after you.
* Pause for thought – rather than try to answer the question straight away, pause for a moment; or for Eve, she should have told the serpent to wait or come back for an answer when my husband comes.
* Understand – if you don’t understand a question, clarify what the question is intended for before any response
* Response –
** Try to keep your response as focused as possible, this will help keep them brief.
** Avoid going into too much detail to avoid not going over the board except, if necessary.
** Sometimes, you can be put on the spot, remain calm and be in control, or else, you will give an opportunity for the devil to take advantage of you.
** If you are not sure of what to say or how to respond, ask for the question to be repeated for clarification: That will create room to think for your thought.
** Do not be over carried whereby shooting unnecessarily, but keeping your answers brief, precise and focused.
By Lawrence Abitogun