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Civilization has evolved to such a sophisticated level nowadays that we are only able to process byte-size information, preferably 150 words or thereabouts, as evidenced by President Donald Trump and his twitter account and followers. Some people independently said to me that reading anything the length of a decent sized paragraph is a chore for them, and more than a paragraph, is an impossibility with regards to the processing of the information embedded therein. The same phenomenon is observable in places of worship where audiences fall asleep when sermons are longer than 5 minutes. Which in turn makes worship organizers turn their worship into entertainment showpieces, with as purpose, satisfying the audience, so that the consumer might make a repeat purchase.

‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus’ (Romans 3 vs 23-24)

 

The fall of man necessitates his redemption from the consequences of the fall because God created man for his glory and praise. The fall of man originated from the disobedience of Adam, the first human creation of God, and Eve, his wife to strictly adhere to the instruction of God. God specifically instructed Adam, saying ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die’ (Genesis 2 vs18). And Adam must have told his wife the commandment of God regarding the consumption of anything that springs from the forbidden tree, because when the crafty serpent came to ask her: Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’ ‘The woman said to the serpent, We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ The serpent replied: ‘You will not certainly die. For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’ (Genesis 3 vs 1-5).

The account of the fall of man is either literal or metaphoric, for it to be taken literally, let us consider the text in Genesis 3:6-7;”When the woman SAW that the fruit of the tree was good for food and PLEASING TO THE EYE, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ THEN the EYES of both of them were OPENED, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves”, obviously this account can not be taken literally due to the fact that in verse 6, Eve saw (with her eyes, which must be opened), plus the account stated that it was pleasing to her eyes, and this was before EATING the fruit. Furthermore in verse 7, covering themselves with fig leaves; was it a coincidence that in the gospel of Mark chapter 11:12-25; Jesus Christ curses the Fig tree and clears the Temple of those who turn it into a den of thieves and robbers, taking into consideration that after the (2^nd and Herod the Great’s refurbished)Temple was knocked down and built in 3 days by Jesus Christ (after Redemption, our bodies became the “Temple”)? If the account in Genesis 3:6-7 was literal, how is possible for somebody whose eyes were not open to see “the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye”?

Eve fell for the trick or the mind games of the devil ‘When’ she ‘saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it’ (Gen 3 vs 6). Their succumbing to the word of the devil is a direct disobedience to God’s word. Their disobedience was they allowed the lust of the eye (‘…pleasing to the eye…’), lust of the flesh (‘…saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food..’) and the pride of life (‘…for gaining wisdom…’) to override their obedience to the word of God. When the serpent said in Genesis 3:5; that man would be like God, knowing good from evil, by eating the fruit – Wasn’t man already like God? Since the account of creation in Genesis 1:26 stated; Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So why does man need to eat the forbidden fruit to be like God? When he was already created in the image of God.

Parallel to this was the temptation of Christ by the Devil when Satan took Christ to a vantage point and promised to give Christ everything as far as the eyes can see, in Mathew 4:9; “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” How can Satan give Christ, who according to the gospel of John 1:1-3; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. Meaning, even angels and demons such as Lucifer were made by Him through Him, so how can Satan give his maker what belongs to his Maker? This can be referred to as mind games. In any case, little did Adam and Eve know that their disobedience has not only separated them from God, but has resulted in their spiritual death, due to the sin of disobedience (Romans 6:23; the wages of sin is death). They lost their glory, power, value and right standing with God; they could no longer fellowship with God through their spirit because their disobedient acts made their bodies and minds to deaden their spirit. Their spirit-man could no longer function in the likeness of the living God: they suddenly acquired a new state of body and mind. Their act of disobedience has translated them into the kingdom of darkness, they were not able to fulfill God’s purpose to live on earth to fellowship with God and to return to heaven after their earthly stay. As God the Holy Spirit stated through Prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 15:22; To obey is better than sacrifice. With disobedience, this necessitate sacrifice, in order to bring life from death.

God, being a merciful God had to put a plan of redemption in place in order to ensure the fulfilment of his initial plan for man which is written in the book of Jeremiah 29 vs 11: ‘For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and future…’ Although it was Adam that sinned, but ‘Nevertheless death reigned from the time Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come’ (Romans 5 vs 14). This is because Adam, being the first creature of God on earth had everyone in the whole universe in his loins. And that is why, Rom 3 vs 23 clearly states that ‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’  Consequently, in order to deliver man from sin and damnation, God, Himself had to come down, see Luke 1:35;’ “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[b] the Son of God’, and be born as man (Son of Man) Jesus Christ, to remit our sins, deliver us from the power of sin and the grip of the devil by dying in our place, the ultimate sacrifice: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’ and that is why we ‘all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus’ (Romans 3 vs 24). ‘For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive’ (1 Cori 15 vs 22).

We are expected to learn lessons from the experience of Adam and Eve. The crux of their sin that led to the fall of man is disobedience. They failed to abide by the commandment of God because of the lust of the eye, flesh and pride. Though Adam and Eve were man and wife, Adam probably was not aware that fellowship with God is a personal thing: personal relationship with God. Secondly, rather than caution and deter his wife from listening to the tricky enquiry of the serpent, he kept quiet, for the Bible tells us that: ‘She also gave some to her husband, who was with her’, so this information tells us that Adam was with Eve when the devil was luring her to disobey God. Husbands should be courageous enough to advice their wives when they are engaging in wrong act, and not keep quiet. After disobeying God, Eve lured her husband into committing the same sin because she knew that Adam loved her; and unfortunately, he fell because of his love for her. Another lesson is that women should not take their husbands’ love for granted and lure them into going against the precepts of God. True love between couples edifies and emancipates not enslaves and enchain. In everything we do and say we should always bear in mind that ‘Jesus said… ‘Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little one to stumble. So watch yourselves’ (Luke vs 17:1-3).

In order to maintain a good relationship with God and not fall into sin, we should surrender to Him in every way, according to Proverbs 3:5-6; Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. How do we submit to God? Here are some relevant tips:

We must be obedient to God’s precepts: True love for our God is obedience to his word, for obedience is better than sacrifice. 1 Samuel 15:22 asks: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. We are all familiar with the story of Saul, the first King in Israel, his disobedience made God to reject him as the king and his posterity, the spirit of God left him, afterwards he was tormented by an evil spirit, and eventually he died. For ‘We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, ‘I know him’, but does not do what he commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him. Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did’ (1 John 2 vs 3-6). As such, for our own good, we are obligated to emulate Jesus according to Philippians 2:8, who ‘…being found in appearance as a man, humbled himself by becoming obedient to death-even death on a cross!’; For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy’ (Hebrews 10:14).

 

We must live by faith: We surrender our lives to God through actual acts of faith. It is significant to note that in several places in the Bible, Holy Spirit tells us that the just shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2 vs 4; the righteous person will live by his faithfulness. Romans 1 vs17; Galatians 3 vs 11 and Hebrews 10 vs 38). The just are those who have been freely justified by the redeeming blood of Jesus; however, despite the fact that we have experienced a spiritual rebirth,  ‘…without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and he rewards those who earnestly seeks him’ (Hebrews 11 vs 6). This is because faith evidenced our complete submission to God’s will. When we live according to the instruction given in Proverbs 3:5-6, then our faith is in action. It reads: ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight’. So, you are living by faith ‘If you would direct your heart right and spread your hand to Him’ in anticipation of his guidance in regarding every issue of your life (Job 11 vs 13). ‘For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it (Mark 8 vs 35). We can see that it is always better to ‘Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes’ (Ps 37 vs 7); for ‘…though the wicked spring up like grass and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever’ but ‘The righteous’ in faith ‘will flourish like the palm tree, they will grow like a cedar in Lebanon’ (Psalm 92 vs 7 and 12). Faith in God made the disciples to leave everything and follow God, and this is a good illustration of surrender to God’s will: Peter told Jesus in Mark 10 vs 28, ‘Behold we have left everything and followed you’.

We should not murmur against God: This is a sequel to living by faith, for when we have a resolute and unshakeable faith in God, then we will not murmur against him. Anxiety about providence, about the world, fears about what the world can do to us, grumbling and complains are tokens that we have not actually surrendered to God. When we murmur against our God, and Father, be it hard out or in our hearts because ‘Before a word is on’ our ‘tongue’ the ‘LORD’, knows ‘it completely’ (Psalm 139 vs 4). When we murmur, we are either directly or indirectly judging or quarrelling with God. God knows this, and that is why in Isaiah 45:9, God says: “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker– An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands‘? Our confession should be ‘But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand’ (Isaiah 64:8). Thus. Jesus taught us to pray saying: ‘May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ (Luke 11 vs 2).

We should dedicate our lives and body to God: When we live in surrender to God indeed, then our dedication manifests through the demonstration of fruitful spiritual acts. Our daily living demonstrates love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5 vs 22-23). On the contrary, a life that is ladened with disobedience cascades sexual immorality, impurity, and wickedness, idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, disagreement/rebellion, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like, I warn you,… that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal 5 vs 19-21).     ‘Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship’ (Romans 12:1) ‘and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God’ (Romans 6:13). So as Paul rightly testifies in Galatians 2:20: ‘I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me’, and that should be our believers’ motto that will enable us to maintain our obedience to God and his word.

We should be guided by the Holy Spirit: When a believer has been baptized by the Holy Spirit, he/she is guided by Him; hence the believer is enabled through the Spirit’s guidance to be obedient to God. Romans 8 vs 14 tells us that ‘For those who are led by the Spirit of God (and are obedient to his leading) are the children of God.’ In our successful walk and work with God, Paul recognises the significance of being led by the Spirit, hence, he says:  ‘For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding…’ (Colossians 1:9), ‘And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation (profitless), but be filled with the Spirit’ (Ephesians 5:18).

 

The summary of this exhortation on obedience is to listen to Jesus and do accordingly in Matthew 16:24-25; Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.  Disobedience is a sin, and as Rom 2 vs12-13 states: ‘All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight but those who obey the law who will be declared righteous’. When you have been baptized by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit Himself enables you to obey the Law and most important of all, love God and man, for there is no law against love, and acts of obedience to God are done out of love, for obedience, even unto death, is better than sacrifice.

 

We pray that God will give us the grace to be obedient to him always in Jesus’ name. Amen.

It is a universal reasoning that any person that is described as a fox is skilled in deception. Deception is like an orange fruit which has many seeds. We believe that you know that there are different breeds of foxes. For instance, there are red foxes, white foxes, blue foxes, to mention just these. In the same vein, there are numerous breeds of human foxes which I will not be able to exhaust in this write-up.

Foxes are predators that do not hunt in packs. Each believes in its ability to successful prey on its prey that it does not need the support of others to hunt successfully. Let us examine the different breeds of the human foxes.

A person that makes others believe what is untrue is a fox; he is a deceiver, a trickster. An example from the Bible is King Herod who wanted the three wise men to believe that he was happy to hear about the birth of Jesus. Meanwhile he was so troubled when they did not return to tell him about the whereabout of Jesus, ‘…he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under’ (Matthew 2 vs 16).

Another breed of human fox are the false prophets. This is seen in Ezekiel 13 vs 3-9. They are false prophets, who profess to speak the message from God but are not; rather they speak according to their whims. God said, ‘Woe unto the foolish… that follow their own spirit… they have seen vanity and lying divination …and the LORD has not sent them. They are like foxes in the deserts.’ They are deceptive and liars too.

The third set are the destroyers of good things, especially godly ventures. The Bible recorded in Nehemiah 4 vs 3 that while Nehemiah and the people of Israel were busy building the temple of God, Tobias the Ammonite said, ‘What are they building- even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!’ Unfortunately, we have a lot of Tobias in the church today.

The fourth breed of human fox are the image breakers. When Naboth, the Jezrealite refused to sell his vineyard to King Ahab, Jezebel his wife wrote a letter to the elders in the city to ‘set two men to bear witness against Naboth’ (1 Kings 21 vs 5-11). This breed actually exists in church today; they have forgotten that ‘God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil’ (Ecclesiastes 12 vs 14).

Closely related to image breakers are the iconoclasts. Iconoclasts attack beautiful ideas and destinies. They deceive others into believing that their talents and ministries are not relevant to the building of God’s kingdom. Jesus referred to them as pigs that you cannot afford to give your pearls to, else they destroy them, and then turn around to destroy you as well (Matthew 7 vs. 6).

Murderers are a breed of human foxes. They kill their victims with the words they speak and the prideful attitude they put up. They hinder their victims from using their God-given gifts from blessing others. A Pharisee once told Jesus, ‘Leave this place and go somewhere else, Herod wants to kill you’. But Jesus replied, ‘Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons  and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal’ (Luke 13 vs 31-32).

This piece concludes that every person who transgress moral or civil law backslides into a decadent state, and can be rightly described as a fox. We pray that the Lord will ‘take away from us the foxes, the little (tricky) foxes that spoils the vines (our lives/destinies); for our vines have tender grapes’ (Songs of Solomon 2 vs 15). As children of God that have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into light, we should endeavour to do only those things that will glorify God, and not things that will make even the heathen to doubt our relationship with God.

Author: TM Odion

Wonders, they say will never end. What you are about to read is the naked truth of what happened to a man who paid dearly for comparing his wife to another woman. Being genuine believers, they were given all the necessary counselling on the rudiments of marriage before they eventually got married after three years of well monitored courtship. Their marriage was heaven on earth. Friends called them lovebirds because they were so much in love that they were always together.

After their third child, Mr Akin (a fictional name) got a job as a senior manager in a very good company, with an accompanying matching salary. He was given a well-equipped executive office, a posh car and unfortunately a very seductive and dress to kill secretary. The smell of her perfume will linger in his office even after she had departed for hours. There was no problem as long as Mr Akin did not allow his gaze to dwell unnecessarily on his secretary’s face or her well structured physique. But on this fateful day he could not help feasting his eyes on the secretary’s alluring face and physique, because according to her she has received a phone call from her fiancé that they should halt their journey of love; so, when she came to give her boss a typed document, he instantly noticed her swollen red face. He had to ask her what was wrong, not knowing that, that would herald the beginning of his doom.

In his bid to console his secretary he took her out for lunch. Before long, their relationship had blossomed from a casual one to an intensely close one. No sooner than the relationship assumed a new colour that he started comparing his wife’s beauty and physique to his secretary’s. Since the secretary was not a born-again Christian, she saw nothing wrong in dating her married boss. She so much relished the idea that she would bring food from home which they both shared. And that was when Mr Akin noticed again that she was a better cook than his wife of fifteen years. He also observed that his wife is always mindful of the way he dressed to work, especially when they were going out on a date. Aside all those comparisons, he found that he was more comfortable in company of his secretary who he believed was very intelligent and knowledgeable about a lot of things, unlike his wife whose conversation is not witty because everything she said revolved round God, according to him. He finally concluded that his wife was a bore, and as a result he started spending all his spare time with his alluring secretary.

As you know what is bred in the bone will eventually come out in the flesh. One day his wife saw a  .lipstick on his shirt and enquired how he got it since he didn’t not patronise public transport. Mr Akin flared up! His wife however was not intimidated by his outburst of anger. She accused him of cheating on her, which was true because his relationship with his secretary had already blossomed into a sleazy love affair. He slapped his wife and eventually beat her up. Nonetheless, in spite of Mr Akin’s response, his wife stood her ground. She stated some fact which her husband failed to perceive in his bizarre world. She accused him of keeping late nights, rarely eating at home, his disdained look and actions towards her, and that he had become a total stranger to their children because they hardly saw him.

Do you know there is no fool like an old fool? After that confrontation, rather than repent and put a check on such sinful acts, particularly the root of all his sinful acts, which was adultery, Mr Akin threw all caution to the winds. He resolved to teach his wife a lesson on respect. He had forgotten that respect begets respect. He trampled upon the marriage covenant he made with his wife. If he had known that he that lies down with dogs will get up with fleas, he would not have paid deaf hears to his wife’s warning because nemesis soon caught up with him.

Sometime later, Mr Akin noticed that he had a persistent stomach cramp that defied every medication he applied. His doctor had to tell him to go for a scan, and it was discovered that his liver had been badly damaged beyond recovery. The unexpected disease jolted him back to reality. He later admitted his folly; he compared his wife’s look, cooking, dressing and intellect to another woman’s. Nevertheless, he couldn’t turn back the clock. The terrible deed had been done and could not be undone. He kept muttering, ‘Had I known! Had I known!. Will he survive the deadly disease? Only time will tell, because he was so weak, that he could barely speak.

He gave room to the devil to have a field day in his life. He did not only break the sacred marriage covenant between him and his wife, but also dishonoured God’s instructions: ‘You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart’ (Matthew 5 vs 27-28). Likewise, Romans 12 vs 1-2 says: ‘Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good pleasing and perfect will.’

When did Mr Akin miss it? He missed it the day he started taking his wife’s love and efforts to build their homes for granted. How did he miss it? He did so by comparing his wife’s attributes to another woman’s, as well as not letting her know his likes and dislikes. He failed to guard his heart, for out of his heart came issues that controlled his life. He was bitten by the serpent, for whoso breaks an edge, a serpent shall bite (Eccl 10 vs 8). Besides, ‘Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? So is he who’ commits the sin of adultery (Proverbs 6 vs 27-28). We pray that the Lord will enable us through his Spirit to walk according to his precept, for what will it profit a man/woman to gain the whole world but lose his/her soul.

Author: TM Odion