Tag: Church
Cogitation XIII: What Really Goes On In Church On Sunday?
It’s so easy to attend church on Sundays without giving a thought to the concept of church. What exactly is a church service? We can of course define church service as a worship session, but then we must ask the logical question, why do we worship God? An answer like, “We worship God because we love God” won’t suffice. John 14:15 says, obedience is the metric of love of God not worship. […]
Cogitation II: This Is My Worship
I had the privilege of attending a very small church on Sunday. The church meets in a lovely space in a five star hotel in the metropolis. It’s as cute as church can be. The congregation numbered about a hundred. It was a new church. The pastor of the church was known to my wife and I. I had had this persistent recall of the ministry the week before our attendance. Decoded, I understood that to mean a supply of intelligence to visit the church. On a human level, it was our little way of giving some encouragement to the pastor. It’s never easy starting a ministry.
The Political Mission of Jesus
Religiosity is an amazing thing. It locks us into a mind-set, blinds us to the patently blatant. It is religiosity that blinds us from seeing Jesus as a political figure, even when almost every page in the Bible screams the fact. “Messiah” is a political figure not a religious figure. “Messiah” means “anointed one.” Anointing is political investiture of power and authority, it is not a cold feeling coursing through your veins reminiscent of the downing of a very cold bottle of Coke.
The Church And Poverty
The poverty statistics coming out of Africa has to be scary. Especially when you realise those numbers are people, real people. Nigeria’s population is 195M and we have 116M people living in poverty. Democratic Republic of Congo’s population is 84M. She has 60.9M living in poverty, Kenya’s population is 60M. She has 14.7M living in poverty. Ethiopia’s population is 107M. She has 23.9M living in poverty.
Outsourcing Christianity
The corporate world is enamoured with the concept of “outsourcing.” Though it transcended into de rigueur management principle about a decade or two ago, it’s not exactly new. Outsourcing is the contracting of certain functions in an organisation to independent contractors. The independent contractor manages her staff in the delivery of those services, they’re not the staff of the client corporation. But those contracted operations are so integrated into the structure of the client corporation that an outsider will be hard-pressed to note a gap. There’s a fluidity. […]
Photizo
There is a very curious piece of scripture you’ve probably read several times but probably not paid much attention to. It has a depth of meaning unimaginable, and it helps us to understand the world. It is John 1:1-9.
John 1:1-9 NLT: “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. The one who is the true light, WHO GIVES LIGHT TO EVERYONE, was coming into the world.” John 1:1-9 NLT. […]
The Church and Politics (Part 15): Another Trinity
We continue the series, The Church and Politics. If you’ve not been following the series please go to www.myilluminare.com/the-church-and-politics/ to read the last fourteen instalments.
As we noted in the 11th instalment of this series, God IS government. He’s government because he regulates creation, he’s government because ALL power is resident in him. He is all powerful. The Psalmist put it succinctly: “God has spoken plainly, and I have heard it many times: Power, O God, belongs to you.” Psalms 62:11 NLT. God is a power native. […]
The Church and Politics (Part 14): The Four Freedoms
We continue the series, The Church and Politics. If you’ve not been following the series please go to www.myilluminare.com/the-church-and-politics/ to read the last thirteen instalments.
The paradox of Christianity is that it is at once an inclusive and exclusive concept. The inclusivity of the Christian worldview lies in the fact that God threw an open invitation for salvation to the whole world: “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that NO ONE need be destroyed; by believing in him, ANYONE can have a whole and lasting life.” John 3:16 MSG. And he backed that initial invite up with yet another invite, like some sort of confirmation: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 NLT And so in Christianity everyone is welcome – the rich, the poor, the tired, the weary, the socially disadvantaged, the intellectual, the simple, the troubled, the depressed, the messed up… everyone is welcome! […]
The Church and Politics (Part 13): The Money Factor
Welcome to this instalment of the series, The Church and Politics. If you’ve not been following the series please go to www.myilluminare.com/the-church-and-politics/ to read the last twelve instalments.
However much we hate the fact, money is the lubricant of politics. Money gives you a seat at the table. There’s an economic cost attached to changing people’s perspective. If you want to change a point of view, or cause people to switch allegiance in a democracy, there’s required spending. Man responds to his material makeup. He responds to images because he’s made from an image. He responds to words because he’s made from words. Genesis 1:26-27. Imagery and words are tools of political persuasion. They cost money, a lot of money. Media costs money. The richer the country the more expensive media is. But the poorer the people the cheaper it is to persuade them to vote a particular candidate. They’re focused on survival. They’re desperate. Third world politicians know how to exploit this factor. And so the people cast their vote in a particular direction in exchange for something as basic as a loaf of bread. It’s Esau Syndrome – the trading of birth right. The Bible calls such foreign exchange transaction profanity. Hebrews 12:16 KJV. Some ingeniously label this “stomach infrastructure.” It’s essentially vote in exchange for food – an intestinal affidavit of poverty.
The Church and Politics (Part 10): Extant Imperatives
Welcome to this instalment of the series, The Church and Politics. If you’ve not been following the series, please go to www.myilluminare.com/the-church-and-politics/ to read the last nine instalments.
One of the arguments advanced against Christians participating in politics is the fact the apostles never did. That is a curious argument considering the Roman authority regarded Christians as the radical opposition. Christians were a political threat to Rome. It’s why Rome went after them, viciously. That was the whole purport of the latter part of Hebrews 11, the part we choose to ignore in our definition of faith. Many were slaughtered on political calculation. They “were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.” (Hebrews 11:35-38 NLT) They were victims of political persecution.
The Church and Politics (Part 9): Salting the Earth
Welcome to this instalment of the series, The Church and Politics. If you’ve not been following the series, please go to www.myilluminare.com/the-church-and-politics/ to read the last eight instalments.
If you’re an amateur dabbler in watercolour painting you might have come across the term, “painting by numbers”. It is the application of a specified paint colour to a specified area on a canvass. What is curious is that the life of Jesus was like painting by numbers. His was “living by numbers” or “living by prophecy.” He lived to fulfil particular prophecies. Everything he did was motivated by prophecy. As it is written, “You were not pleased with burnt offerings or other offerings for sin. Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do your will, O God— as is written about me in the Scriptures.’” (Hebrews 10:5-7 NLT)