To the church in Nigeria,

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

I sincerely hope that this greeting is as true in your hearts as it ought to be. For many have known the Saviour and yet not acknowledged Him as Lord. Many have known God but have not glorified Him as God? If God is our Father, where is His honour? If He is our Master, where is His fear? If we know that His eyes will not behold iniquity, why do we persist in wrong doing? Is our God not a consuming fire? Is this not the same God before whom the mountains skip?

Where is the light of God that shines in the darkness and the darkness comprehends it not? Doesn't this light shine as brightly, here and now as it has done through the ages? If we claim to be the light, why are we overwhelmed with much darkness? Jesus said 'let your light so shine that men may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.' If this light is indeed shining, why are the men around us not glorifying God? Why do men boldly continue in evil and endorse unrighteousness? Perhaps we have placed our light under the bushel of religion and legalism and so, it gives no light. Where is the fear of the Lord by which men depart from evil?

Is this the church by which God can show His manifold wisdom to the heavenly principalities and powers? Why are Christians no longer trustworthy? How has the church of Christ descended to this level of disrepute? Why are there so many churches - many believers thereby and yet very few Christ-like individuals? Who will believe our message now, when we lack credibility?

Are these not the last days of which we were warned and admonished by Jesus, Paul and the other Apostles? Aren't we inexcusable if we faint in these days of adversity? Weren't all the deceits and heresies that abound now, predicted? Why are we caught unawares, if indeed we dare claim thus? Jesus said 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man cometh to the Father but by me.'
Have we not erred? Have we not gone astray out of the Way, following cunningly devised fables and the philosophies of men in exchange for the Truth? Have we not abandoned the Life of God in Jesus and defined a life for ourselves by the standards of society, approving societal stereotypes?

Where is the accord that our forebears in the faith enjoyed? Where did the factions and denominations spring up from? How has the gathering of the brethren become a competitive event where the size of the congregation and the splendour of the place of meeting are the measures of the success of the 'church'? Where is the fellowship of the brethren by which believers received great boldness to speak the word of God without fear and encouraged each other to persevere in the onslaught against our ungodly world system? Are these not also of primary importance?

Jesus said that we would know the truth and it would make us free. Why then are many still bound with the chains of iniquity and godlessness and are unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus? Perhaps they have been fed with lies instead? Jesus also said that he who the Son of man set free is free indeed. Why then are there many unchanged lives who claim to have encountered the Son of man? Did they probably encounter the sons of men instead?

Why do many fall 'under the anointing' at every meeting and yet are unable to pursue peace at all cost with the careless driver who almost brushed their vehicles on the way home? Why haven't these wonderful experiences of the power of the 'spirit' made better, conscientious drivers of us, with strict adherence to traffic regulations, even when no one was watching and we could get away with a traffic misdemeanour? What sort of anointing then, is this?

Where and what is our confidence in the face of adversity? Now we panic and fret as the elections approach. We fear lest the nation be islamized. Why? Isn't He that is in us greater than he that is in the world? Why have we lost our peace? Did not Jesus say 'my peace I give to you, not as the world gives. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid'? Is this not the same peace that passes all understanding? The very type that Jesus had in the midst of a terrible storm on the sea of Galilee while others feared for their lives? Is this not the same peace that ought to flow through us even now and always?

Why then are we dismayed in the face of this threat, if it is indeed a threat and not political propaganda to advance the cause of some? Perhaps this is the same fear that caused Adam and Eve to hide from the Lord their God. For having disobeyed His commandment, their peace was lost and their confidence before their Maker was replaced with the guilty torment that comes of sin.

The psalmist said "he that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my strength. In Him will I trust.'" How does one get to a place when they don't know the way? The way of the Lord - the path of righteousness, is how we arrive in the secret place! o wonder we are afraid and shaken, for we cannot boldly assert like the psalmist, that we dwell in the secret place of the Lord and that He is our refuge and our strength. Our sins have separated us from Him and we have not walked in His way.

Has the wonder of technology today convinced us that we no longer need to walk in the way, but can now overfly it, with the crafts of philanthropy and faithful church attendance, in exclusion of a living, thriving relationship with the Father? No! Let us not disillusion ourselves. The saints of old and our Saviour himself, trode this path and we must as well. There are no shortcuts and there will never be.

Where are those who are called by the name of the Lord and have humbled themselves to pray and seek the face of the Lord and turned from their wicked ways, that He may hear us from on high and forgive our sins and heal our land?

Have we not been unfaithful to the Lover of our souls? Have we not committed whoredom with the false gods of fame and money and pierced ourselves through with many sorrows by the pursuit of deceitful riches? Have we not sought for ourselves, lovers of foreign origins and nations, and not of the Commonwealth of Israel? Haven't we become unequally yoked with unbelieving standards and practices? Have we not imported into the body of Christ blasphemous practices and strategies for 'church growth' that deny the Lordship of Jesus? Have we forgotten that though Paul planted and Apollo watered, it is God who ultimately gives the increase? Does the Lord not still add to His church as many as are being saved?

Have we contended for the faith that was delivered to us? Did Jude mean by this admonishment that we make enemies of our families or friends with the suspicion that they were making diabolic plots against our 'destiny'? Did he mean that we take up arms to defend ourselves against those who persecute us for our faith? Did Jesus not teach that we love our enemies and pray for those who despitefully use and persecute us? Would Jesus have so admonished us if he knew that it was impossible to live in this manner?

Didn't Paul in agreement with this, speak about the battle for the establishment of the Truth in our hearts and the deep rooting of everyone of us in love, by which means we would be steadfast, unmovable and always abounding in Jesus? Did he not share with us how the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself above the knowledge of God, and bringing to captivity every thought to the knowledge of Christ? How then has the random throwing of fire and brimstone at one's perceived 'enemies' become church culture?

Has the gospel of Christ become foolishness in its simplicity that we have to coat it with many more principles to make it appealing to the unbeliever? Like the 101 principles to financial prosperity and 7 ways to 'make it' in life? Is God's concern with the sinful nature of man and how He may conform us to the image of His son, no longer a valid concern, that we have now prioritized 'all other things' above the seeking of the kingdom of God and its righteousness?

Where are the elders who do not now lord it over the flock that has been committed to their hands? How have we in league with our church leaders, conspired against the sovereignty of our Master, by exalting these men above Christ? How have we abandoned the Shepherd of our souls to follow after hirelings? Do we not know the voice of the Shepherd anymore? It is no wonder that we want, for the Lord is not our Shepherd. We have instead let ourselves be exploited by false teachers and their damnable heresies.

Has the house of God not become a den of thieves and robbers rather than the house of prayer? Do we not make merchandise of and defraud one another? Where are the men with clean hands and a pure heart, who have not lifted up their soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully, that may ascend unto the hill of the Lord? Why is there a monetary value attached to every act of service or 'ministry' as is the more popular term? Where are the men who like Daniel, will refuse to bow to the gods of dishonest gain even though it is the norm in their places of employment? Men who will reject corrupt practices and the lure of the easy naira, even in their dire hour of financial need, choosing to trust God and to uphold the integrity of their hearts and like Job, to boldly say of the Lord 'though he slay me, yet will I trust Him'.

Is the name of the Lord not even now blasphemed among the Gentiles on our account? Hasn't the way of truth been brought into disrepute by our actions and inactions? How often are the tales of woe told of men who have called themselves by the name of God but have not departed from iniquity? How is it even mentioned among Christians that a 'christain' contractor does not deliver on a contract and absconds with the money? Or delivers a shoddy job to the utter disappointment of those who have trusted him to deliver excellence. Shall we not yet provide things honest in the sight of all men?

Why are men who desired and pursued the office of a Bishop, unable to manage their own families and now justify divorce? No! It was not so in the beginning. How is it that news of marital infidelity in their church is more rampant than the Good News of salvation through Jesus? Have we not allayed the fears of evildoers with false promises of peace and assured corrupt politicians that no evil would befall them? Have we not received offerings and gifts from the hands of wealthy sinners and put their minds at rest concerning the destruction that lies in the way they have chosen?

Where are the men whose word is their bond? Men who can swear to their own hurt and not change? Where are the ones for whom 'African/Nigeria time' is an insult? Those who redeem the time in these evil days even with their regard for other people's time and are punctual to meetings for the sake of God's name?

Shall we not now remember our first love and repent and do the first works of righteousness, justice and truth? Do we remember that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit? Shall we not beseech the Lord to show us the ancient paths that the saints of old, Jesus and the early church walked in. For I find little or no comparison between this fellowship of the present time and the one that sprang up in Jerusalem after the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the disciples.

Shall we continue in sin because grace abounds? Shall we remain unrepentant and recalcitrant in our old ways now, after we have been illuminated by the light of Jesus? Have we looked into the perfect law of liberty and yet forgotten what manner of men we ought to be? Shall we not take away the dross from the silver that the Finer may have what to work with? That once more and in all truth, the grace of Jesus that teaches us to deny ungodliness and to live soberly in these times; the love of God in which we ought to grow in knowledge of and be constrained by and the delightful fellowship of the Holy Spirit, by which we may be instructed in the paths of righteousness, may these indeed be with us now and always.

Let him that has an ear hear what the Spirit has been saying to this church.

©UprightMedia2015

Too long,u ask alot of question in ur post,so let me ask u my own question,why did u not summaries dis ur long post?

Unlike wat mandela said,he said many re schooling bt few re educating,same thing applied to church,many re Christian bt few re gettin inspired by God.

Do not forget wat Karl mars also said,he said religion is d opium of d masses.