This is a very broad topic, and this one post cannot entirely deal with it. I have three points in this write-up: What are spiritual disciplines? Why spiritual disciplines? How can I develop spiritual discipline? Before I go on, I will mention some books that will do you much good, should you decide to study this subject further. These books are the foundation for all I will discuss in this post...
God has given us many gifts and we are called to manage these gifts well for the sake of the one who has given them to us. We will be looking at three of these gifts – money, time and family – and how we should manage them. The biblical word for managing God’s gifts to us is called stewardship. A steward in the ancient world was a person who was given the responsibility and authority to rule over...
My observation of you and conversations with you the last time we were together have prompted me to write you this letter. Before I go on, I need you to know that my aim is not to be judgmental; I am writing this because of the love I have for you and the fear and sadness that your ignorance of these things causes me. As a professing Christian, you should know: Christian worship is different from...
Growing in Christian maturity is an important goal for the Christian life. The passage in 1 Timothy 3 is usually emphasised as teaching the qualifications for pastors. However, understanding the context of the letter helps us to understand why Paul gave those qualifications to Timothy, which was that much of the current leadership of the Ephesian church had gone astray and Paul had sent Timothy...
When a child is growing up in this part of the world, one of the first things that the parents teach him or her is to say “Thank you” for every gift or service offered to them. If a family member gives them a shirt as a gift, the parents go on to ask the child, “What are you supposed to say?”. If the child does not know, they will teach him or her by telling them, “Say, thank you”-then, the child...
Hymns have always been commonplace in Nigerian Christian circles, and they still are. Even with the continuous shift of Christian culture from holiness toward worldliness, there are still some things professing Christians have in common, hymns are one of them. This is largely because a lot of us grew up singing these hymns in Sunday School and church service, so they have been a part of us ever...
The Great “battle” between Christians of opposing views with regard to the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit has raged on since Lord knows when exactly. The gifts in question include miracles, healings, prophecy (bringing new revelations, not proclaiming already revealed ones), speaking in tongues unlearned foreign languages, the interpretation of tongues unlearned foreign languages, and the...
In many Christian churches in Nigeria today, the sad reality is that the gospel–the good news that is central to the Christian faith–is not being preached. From my observation, the biggest reason is the assumption that everyone who comes to church already knows what the gospel is. While it is true that church goers have a general idea of what the gospel is about i.e. believing in Jesus Christ as...
In less than a month, Nigerians will be voting to elect five sets of new representatives that would serve as our leaders for the next four years. As we think about our voting options, it is important to remind the injunction of Paul that we as Christians must try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord (Eph 5:10) in every area of our lives including in how we approach the elections...
Growing up, it appeared to me like there were so many different, can’t-be-merged-together stories about the birth of Jesus. But after I was able to make sense of all the stories reported in Mathew and Luke, it has been my desire to share with anyone as confused as I was growing up. Here is my attempt to help you make sense of all the many stories surrounding the birth of Jesus as revealed in...