I share similar convictions with the great patriarch, Paul, who says “For I am not ashamed of this good news about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes – the Jews first and also the Greeks.” That is the reason why once in a while, I share those thoughts that have really shaped my thinking and my pattern of information processing. I enjoy extraordinary insight and understanding of difficult sentences because of this conviction, one I humble share with one of the greatest lawyers ...

Father Benedict Grimm pulled aside the embroidered scarlet curtain, and stepped into Umuofia’s atmospheric weave of dust and gentle breeze – sighing as he closed the door of the confessional. His heart was weary from the weight of hearing too many of fallen man’s numerous foibles. Only midday, he was drained – cursing the day God had created the pitiful tyranny of sweat and bones he called man. Only that day, he had listened through the latticed grating to a husky man grouchily tell of how he slaughtered his wife for smiling with a younger lad, who wooingly told her jokes.
'I did it', he had said in Igbo, 'with my dinner spoon'.
Father Ben, seventy-one, could see his bloodshot eyes seething with canine rage like a Freudian cauldron of mysteries. Another woman jealously stuffed the toddling son of her husband’s senior wife with pap, triggering a deathly convulsion. The other day, in a feyly sordid re-enactment of the biblical story of vengeance, a prostitute was stoned with rocks, and left to die at the town cemetery. Why? Why this bloody coup on the conscience? Why create raging emotions in the breast of fallen angels with clipped wings? Why suffer this wretchedness? His questions weren’t rhetorical. If a God surfing in the seventh heaven did not hear him, his fading mortality did; and every day, for 24 years in the Nigerian village he made his home – far away from the port of Leith in Scotland, when he asked these questions with richer, perplexing intensity, his body ached. He was dying – with every pain in his chest, with every Trojan vein that was not there before on his trembling hands...

Another way to say this is that weak minds don’t retain big thoughts. A mind is weak when that mind is left undeveloped. My focus in this chapter is on the potency of reading as it pertains to developing the mind and ultimately, the worth of an individual.
Heavy Weights Imagine for a moment that you are watching a game of ‘throw and catch’ between a grown man and a four year old and the object they are throwing happens to be a bag of cement. For the grown man, catching the bag of cement will be possible because he can handle the weight of the bag. However, for the four year old, it will be a different story because he cannot handle the weight of the bag of cement. If the four year old in his naivety tries to catch the bag of cement, he is most likely to get injured in the process.
Relating this to thoughts, ideas and the mind, the adult player is the person with a strong developed mind while the four year old is the person with a weak undeveloped mind and the bag of cement represents ideas. Grand ideas are everywhere. The only reason why they appear to be in short supply is because weak minds cannot retain grand ideas/thoughts. When great ideas breeze into the thoughts of people with weak undeveloped minds, it flows right through because they don’t have the capacity to retain such thoughts for their lives. This is a reason why people settle for less than they should.

As you read this, my earnest desire is that you long in the innermost parts to have the most valuable relationship possible on earth.
Thinking about the story of a man who gave his life for his friends, I'm amazed, and all I can say is what manner of love is this? In my thoughts I consider, there must be something more to this, than just love as we are made to understand by the holy scriptures, i search deep to consider why a man should give his life for his friends; and I wonder in amazement, because no man has ever given that much for any one, and I'm doubt any man would be able to give his life for his friend today.
So he gave himself, for something no other person can give himself to or would give himself to; I believe he saw something he did not want his friends to see, I'm sure he's sacrifice was not just for the pleasure of love, but for the pain of separation - something his not willing to accept; not just for the fun of it, but for the pain of suffering; no wonder he asked the father, if the cup could pass over him, but the father I believe would have answered, "if you don't pay this sacrifice who would, let's do this once and for all and have all we have desired to have - a relationship with man (the creator's most valuable asset)."

It is a common fact that everybody goes through challenges and tough times. There are periods however when one would wish with great eagerness to throw in the towel and just walk away, with our heads hanging in defeat. On several occasions, I have also experienced such “heavy weight” situations. However, my only source of strength and fortitude at such times is the Word of God. I would thus like to share with you in this brief message, a passage of scripture that reassures of God’s promises and assures of his deliverance in such trying times. It is important to mention here that these scriptures when combined with your faith are just as potent regardless of what situation you are facing; a minor headache or a terminal disease, a little financial stress to a major financial setback, a little disagreement with your spouse to divorce. Paul explained this beautifully when he wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:6:
“…for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”
This means that it is when we allow the Holy Spirit to infuse life into the words of the bible through our faith in him that the words become life giving. That is why some people can read the Word without any change or meaning imparted to their lives; because the Spirit is not involved. I have no doubt however, that the words you are about to read will transform you and inspire hope in you.

We see that after the much drama that took place in Egypt, Pharaoh eventually released the Israelites to begin their uncertain journey, of which even Moses did not know the route. He kept on telling Pharaoh that God wanted His children to go and sacrifice to Him in the wilderness, a case that the Bible didn’t mention in Moses’ several conversations with God. Moses got a release order with a cloud of uncertainty as to the real direction he was to lead the multitude through. However, he didn’t have much to worry about, as the one who had performed extreme signs was capable of leading them out and taking them into their promised land. I can imagine the air of discomfort that hovered over Moses every time he went to his kinsmen and boasted that there was a promised land which would be their final destination. Did someone ever ask him for a map of the route they were going to take? Did people ever wonder where he appeared from forty years after he disappeared from Egypt with no clues to his whereabouts? Let’s face it! It surely was not that easy for Moses to wake up and stand before a people who had known no other place other than Egypt for over 400 hundred years. To convince them that they would have to leave their present zone, no matter how uncomfortable it was, to move to a location he called the Promised Land was a tough task. Moses Himself had never been to the place, neither anyone he was leading. So he not only had to lead the people, he had to lead himself.
Fast forward. They are now exited from bondage and breathe the air of freedom. They are not just laden with their properties, but with much wealth as God had promised. Now was the important task of where to go and what direction was the course. The story clearly tells us that God did not lead them through the shortest distance to the Promised Land; a route that ran through the territory of the Philistines, a belligerent people. He directs them instead towards the Red Sea.

There are probably some three kinds of challenges you will face as you journey through your life; the challenges that prove your abilities, those that come to swallow you up, and those that come to oppose you from moving forward. I have always tried to see how I could group the nature of my tribulations so that I can easily identify as I meet them. It was until of late when I decided to study the book of Exodus that I entered into some understanding of how I could assess the character and peculiarity of the situations which we like face all the time. These are the situations I refer to as Sheep, Snakes, and the Sea; the three great S’s which some of us will have to confront at one time or the other.
Before I make an attempt at breaking these down, it would be proper to evoke the context of the story that equips my muse on this issue. Exodus introduces the man Moses to us all, and tells us of his rather strange upbringing and how he was like nothing short of a drama from beginning to the end. But from the whole, nothing struck me as much as the opening chapters of Exodus which tells of his unfortunate attempt at leadership, which led to his ultimate escape from the palace into the wilderness. He became a Shepherd, then a deliverer sent by God, then a way maker. Through this process, one thing was central in the scheme of things, and that was the Rod in his hands. Herein lays the convergence of three separate issues: Sheep, Snakes, and the Sea. With that Rod, he tended to the Sheep, swallowed up Snakes, and parted the Sea.
This is what forms the central argument of my discourse, on how one thing; the Rod in Moses’ hand was what really mattered in the three kinds of circumstances he found himself at the start of his career, or profession if I may say that. Unknowingly he had picked up a rod like any Shepherd would do in order to guide and guard his Sheep, but it went beyond its primary assignment and was transformed into a life saver and a way maker for Moses. The gist is that as I traveled through this story, I found some parallels in my life and thought to highlight that for others to glean from. It is very easy to ignore the things that we already have and look out for other things, which we assume will be what we need for the kinds of difficulties we face. Well I want to take out time now to share how the Rod in your hand is sufficient for your ‘Sheep’, your ‘Snakes’, and you ‘Sea’.

Over the last few weeks, we have studied the life of the bible Prophet Jonah and God’s dealings with him as recorded in the biblical account of his life. We were able to determine in the first and second parts of this message series that God IS merciful, that man was given freedom of choice by God and is not forced to obey God no matter how great the assignment he is given by the Lord or the mode by which the message was given i.e. how spectacular the mode was. Also, we were able to see from scriptures that even though man has been given free will and freedom of choice, it does not deny God the right to act in response to man’s choices; whether good or bad. God gave man freedom of choice but has put in place consequences or blessings (depending on whether the act is one of disobedience or obedience) that become man’s lot when he makes a choice. However, God also gave man the bible in order for man to learn what actions bring his judgment and those that bring his blessings. Thus, man literally determines the course of his life by the actions and decisions he makes. The more often he makes choices in line with the dictates of the bible; the Word of God, the better his life becomes.
In this last part of the message, we will go on to consider and establish some more lessons in regards to how God deals with man.

As I faced my maker at the last judgment, I knelt before the lord along with all the other souls, before each of us laid our lives like the squares of a quilt in many piles. An Angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt squares together into a tapestry that is our life. But as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares was. They were filled with giant holes, each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations I was faced with in everyday life. I saw hardship that I endured, which were the largest holes of all. I glanced around me, nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, the other tapestries were filled with rich color and the bright hues of worldly fortune. I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened. My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty, like binding air. Finally the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light, the scrutiny of truth. The others rose, each in turn, holding up their tapestries. So filled their lives had been. My angel looked upon me, and nodded for me to rise. My gaze dropped to the ground in shame. I hadn’t had all the earthly fortunes. I had love in my life, and laughter, but there had also been trials of illness, and death, and false accusations that took from me my world, as I knew it.

THE CHURCHED Have you ever sat in an argument with someone who tries to defend the practices of his church? To such people, you find that there really is nothing you can say to help them see the light, except such is open to the truth for what it is. Sometime ago, I engaged a close family member in a discussion on some of the practices of her church. I did this not with the mind of spiting what was going on, but because I knew that such was a form of hindrance to true worship. I asked what was the basis for such practice, and how scriptural is praying to saints to intercede or intervene on our behalf. She went on a journey of explaining the long held traditions of the church and how this is an ancient practice. I asked again, if the man whom we all serve, Jesus, gave us such an example to follow. I know there is only one mediator between man and God, Christ Jesus. All I could see was this dear family member had really been ‘churched’. This also gave me occasion to look back at my life and realize that I too had been seriously churched and cannot exonerate myself from the stronghold of church captivity. Using my life as an example, some years back as a church musician, I held on strongly to the idea that praise music should be fast paced, while worship music should be slow. So every time I hear singers trying to increase the tempo of a worship song, I get upset. The truth is simply that I just cannot recall where I got that idea from. It was simply just a church practice that had become a dominant and an acceptable idea in my head and I taught others this as well. The words are what matters and not the tempo. I had to learn to deemphasize the style and concentrate on the content. Also I couldn’t understand why in some churches the communion was taken under very hype circumstances. I had always believed that it should be a sober celebration of life, where we remember what Jesus had done for us all. I went into a church where when the communion is being served, praise and worship is going on and people are dancing. I churned within to face this new style. The problem is I was simply very churched and was held on to by the strings of religious traditions. God deliver me.