So, here’s how the faith thing works. It’s like a machine. Think of a car engine with three gears or cogs that are all held together by a fan belt. That’s what the machinery looks like. The first gear is the provisions made by God. The Bible says God has blessed us with EVERY SPIRITUAL Read more about On Faith Part 9: How Faith Works[…]
Humanly speaking, Jesus had to have been an extraordinary individual. There are no two ways about it. While his betrayal was in progress, and he knew what was going on, he instituted the rite of communion. 1 Corinthians 11:23 AMPC. He just carried on with the program. Communion was the dramatized pre-announcement of the program Read more about On Faith Part 7: The Agenda[…]
Many, many, many years ago I got a call from a church to design and produce invitational fliers. The church was new – it was a demographic outreach of a particular denomination. The church is located in the highbrow section of town. Successful people live in that part of town and certain pedigree of businesses occupy the real estate. It is an expensive locality, one of those areas rent is paid in dollars per square metre. The church comprised the affluent, the successful, the succeeding. They wanted to reach out to their kind – their business and professional colleagues. […]
Jesus liked to provoke the politicians of his day, especially those pesky Pharisees and Sadducees. They were insufferable! They controlled the levers of power in Jewish society, but they were caught in contradictions. They were vicious with power and yet claimed religious piety. There was all that hypocrisy as well. Pharisees specialised in religious showmanship – finding the best camera angle to display piety on TV… Well, they didn’t have TV in those days but you get the point. They prayed on street corners to get extra view. They staged prayers! […]
Going by banners and posters the city of Ibadan in western Nigeria has to be the most interesting political landscape in the run up to the 2019 gubernatorial election in that nation. The city has always had colourful politicians. There was Adegoke Adelabu of the “Penkelemes” fame in the First Republic. For the uninitiated, “penkelemes” Read more about What If Jesus Ran For Governor In Ibadan[…]
Mushin is a very high density area in Lagos, Nigeria. One thing generally acknowledged is that poverty is rife in Mushin. It has the typical challenge of very high density localities. Some neighbourhoods are rough. Perhaps if Jesus were alive today he’d have emerged from Mushin, or any other area not noted as zip code for people with affluence and wealth. […]
To see Hollywood portray Jesus, a character analyst will have to wonder which manuscript of the Bible they use. That’s not the Jesus in the Bible. They just put Bible text in his mouth. The movie version of Jesus seems to speak in monotonic cadence. And he looks like an ancient version of Rambo. There’s that stare! He just stares ahead, looks spaced out. […]
This is the continuation of our discourse on The Church and Politics. Last week we looked at how God allocates power. To read Parts 1-5 of The Church and Politics, please go to www.myilluminare.com/the -church-and-politics/
——-
The antecedent of Satan as someone who cannot be trusted with power is very well established in scriptures. He’s always abused trust and power. He instigated a rebellion in Heaven. (Revelation 12:7-9) Satan was corrupt – traded favour and access. He was the originator of what we now refer to as “pay for play” in political circles: “But sin after sin, by your corrupt ways of doing business, you defiled your holy places of worship.” (Ezekiel 28:15-16 MSG) Consequently, Satan was exiled from Heaven: “Through the abundance of your commerce you were internally filled with lawlessness and violence, and you sinned. Therefore I cast you out as a profane and unholy thing from the mountain of God.” (Ezekiel 28:16 AMP)
Since Satan ideologically positioned himself as God’s adversary, it is quite logical that his son, the Antichrist would function as the antithesis to the thesis, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God: “Let no one in any way deceive or entrap you, for that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction – the Antichrist who is destined to be destroyed, who opposes and exalts himself so proudly and insolently above every so-called god or object of worship so he takes his seat in the temple of God, publicly proclaiming that he is God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4) You need to understand that power to Satan is not just a means to an end, it is an end: “I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High,” he said. (Isaiah 14:14)
I present lessons from my teachings in 2017. I hope you keep them in heart as we approach 2018. There are two mystical orders in the Bible: they are the Levitical or Aaronic order and the Order of Melchizedek. The Melchizedek order is a religio-secular order. It is a hyphenated order – priest-king. Sometimes we Read more about The Parchment[…]
We all know Melchizedek, right? He’s become very popular of late over the issue of tithes though he had always been a celebrity. He was a king actually, the king of Salem, back in the days of Abraham. (Genesis 14:18) We really don’t know much about his background – his family, his kingdom, his accomplishments… Read more about The Order of Melchizedek[…]
This is the concluding part of the series, Understanding Tithing. We began the series three weeks ago to clear misconceptions about tithing. In Part 1, we looked at the historicity of tithing – how tithing began. It began with a gentleman named Abraham. We saw the two regimes of tithe in scriptures – elective and Read more about Understanding Tithing (Part 4)[…]