“Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’? Isaiah 45:9.
Life is an irony; nobody but God can fathom it. He gave it to us as a trust but we are inclined to shut him out of His creation. How foolish could that be?
Nevertheless, God chose to allow us to run the life He gave us as we please, but not without instruction.
The Bible tells us in Joshua 24:15: “Choose you this day whom ye will serve; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Perhaps, that is the foundation of our foolhardiness. We thought we had it all and rode roughshod, even over God Himself regardless of what Isaiah says above.
Of course, that is our right on display. We are free to do whatever we like. We can kill and maim. We can instigate a crisis where there is none. We can worship mammon irrespective of the consequences. We can even chop off the body parts of a living septuagenarian for onward transmission to the voodoo priest to turn her agony into our gain. We can hate and incite similar sentiments against those we feel inferior to. We can rewrite electoral results and hell will not happen. Well, yes we can but that is most unwise.
Joshua was faced with a choice, just like we. I love the choice he made; he chose to serve the Lord with his household. A choice for honour and dignity. A choice to serve the Lord and be true to Him. A choice to be fair and just. A choice to be a man and not cannon fodder thieving politicians.
So, what is your choice? Carousing and debauched lifestyle? A witch doctor in cassock, even if in church or mosque, luring people to hell? Two-faced, not necessarily singing African Queen but covering the truth, because ‘anywhere belle face na gain’?
We have just concluded a fractious election. Claims and counter-claims, with real and manipulated sordid evidence everywhere. The matter is now before the courts to decide the true winner. This, for me, is a no-brainer. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu would have done similarly if someone else but he was declared the winner. Why cannot these politicians play by the rules? Why would the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, give us such painful neck pain? Why did he deliberately throw the country under the bus? We thought it was an electoral commission but many now think he muddled up the show and turned it into a ‘selectoral’ commission.
I’m not so much sold on the anti-Muslim-Muslim pairing of BAT and Shettima; neither am I fazed by the references to hitherto Christian cities that have become bastions of Islam. We need to find out why those cities morphed into Islamic states and avoid recurrence here.
The problem was not so much in what they did as to what Christians themselves did to Christianity. People make so much noise about the Christian faith without ‘experiencing’ Christ. Yes, Christianity is about the encounter with Jesus Christ and having a personal confession and experience of him as the Lord and Saviour. You cannot sow cassava and reap cocoyam.
I have also heard it said that Tinubu is not God’s will for Nigeria. This may be true but until I’m provided with hard evidence, I may remain unconvinced. We lead our heady lifestyle and only mouth Christianity when we come unstuck. Nevertheless, God uses the unusual to do His will, as in the recent past. Nebuchadnezzer was an instrument in the hand of God to jolt backslidden Israelites to their senses though He also later punished Nebuchadnezzer. We have pulled too far away from God, and He has backed us too. We have more need of Him than He of us. ‘If my people who are called by my name…’ (2Chro. 7:37). If we are truly called by His name, let us humble ourselves in repentance and prayer and watch Him deal with our oppressors like He did to Sennacherib (2 Kings 18-19).
I’m not moved by all the nonsense going on because the son shall surely triumph ultimately. The problem is when would we be ready for this great encounter?
Our sons have made us victims of politicians, who pretend to love but hate more than hatred. They mount the soapbox but mouth falsehood and deceit. We trust them more than our God but they pillage our hope and put our destinies in subjugation. But their time is shorter than their purpose and soon they shall disgorge all that they have stolen and pay the mandatory fines before the heavens.
Ask the rich man that despised poor Lazarus (Luke 16). Ask the rich young fool that had no time for God but his wealth (Luke 12:16-20).
Nonetheless, you can do like Nicodemus, who stole to Jesus at night, hungry for the Word of Truth. Being a top shot in society, he didn’t want fellow big men to mock him.
Oh, is that why you are running away from God? Your varnished, vanishing title; your wealth, your social status…? All these shall fail you on the day of reckoning when you become ‘shawarma’ for writhing worms.
The good news is that there is still hope for you if you do like Nicodemus; even in this nighttime. God is waiting to purge you of political brigandage. The church, even the mosque, is not a place for saints but a place of sinners, becoming saints. So, don’t be inhibited by your sins.
Zacchaeus was a fraudulent taxman; Paul too was once a murderer and persecutor of the church. Mary Magdalene was demon-possessed and purportedly a prostitute but all that changed when the blood of Jesus cleansed them of their filth.
Jesus is asking if you would like to be made whole from your leprous lifestyle. Would you drop the unfitting robe of sleaze and deceit? Have you ever thought of the unquenchable lake of fire whose fiery tongues shall lick your unrepentant soul yonder forever?
This write-up offers you new hope and an eraser from God to wipe off the ‘jagajaga’ you have been writing on your script. Yes, you have stolen too much; killed and maimed, and blighted the hope of women and children whom you have made widows and orphans. Your dirty politics shall cease someday soon; where would you be hereafter when fame and fortune mean nothing?
However, you can begin afresh; God is interested in you. Jesus is present at your heart’s doorway, knocking. Please, open to Him and sup with Him. He wants to hear you welcome him so that he can accept and comfort you.
‘‘For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.’’ 2 Corinthians 6:2.
So, do it NOW; before your script is called. The Chief Examiner approaches fast and vengefully; don’t delay for even another second. When this life ends and you wake up on the other side, what life awaits you there? It is yours to choose, and I wish you chose wisely. Shalom!