You have heard so much terrible news about the Assemblies of God Nigeria; haven’t you? So terrible has it been that you wonder how the once ‘proud’ first Pentecostal Church in Nigeria has become a byword of disgrace and ridicule among both the saved and the unsaved in the land.
Here, I will not offer excuses for the Church. I am not made of that type of stuff. I only wish to ask you one or two questions.
Have you ever seen a married born-again Christian couple quarrel, fight, separate and even divorce? If you trace the roots, you might find that either both of them have not really met the Lord or that one of them has never met the Lord or had backslidden along the line.
Have you ever seen two professing Christians quarrel? Their brethren intervene, the fellowship intercedes and close friends mediate, all to no avail. Go check; either both have fundamental spiritual problem or one of them has. In some cases, one is willing for peace but the other is not and vows a fight to finish.
Have you ever seen a believing family that has an unbelieving child or godless children? Have you ever seen pastors’ children that become prostitutes, cultists, drunkards, drug addicts or armed robbers? When you see an ungodly seed in the midst of goodly children of the same family, you know that the family has a big problem. If the ungodly seed is bent on controlling everyone and everything to the point of destroying the family, you have a big big issue in your hands. Should you resist him or should you let him have his way in destroying all the legacy of the past generations?
So, let’s leave analysis and go to the lessons.
Lesson No. 1: Root out an evil plant (if you can identify it) before it becomes a tree. Once it becomes a tree, its fall will lead to the fall of many, shake the ground and alter the landscape.
Lesson No. 2: Pray, again, I say, pray, that you do not have a bad child, a bad marriage partner, a bad brother or a bad business partner…. or a bad co-leader in your church or fellowship.
Lesson No.3: Once you confirm that you have a bad partner, brother, sister, child or business partner, prepare yourself for the worst. Bad people are not called bad for nothing. They will go to any length. Having defended divorce cases, I know how far couple, even so-called believing couple can go to rubbish each other especially when the fight moves to the custody of children.
Lesson No. 4: When you have a bad marriage partner, business partner, child or brother or sister, do not cease being a Christian in order to contend with him. If you must contend, do so in righteousness and fear of God.
Lesson No. 5: Be assured that Absalom will expire one day even if his father wants him to live. Ahab will die and Jezebel will die. There will be an end to every trouble and if the saints remain faithful to the end, they will have a testimony. If they compromise, they too will inherit shame.
I have spoken.
