In the market culture of Nigeria and certain parts of Africa, a buyer usually receives a bonus, commensurate to the amount of purchase. Retailed foodstuff, particularly grains such as rice, salt, groundnut, and beans, are usually sold in standard measures of “cups,” “bowls,” “basins” and “bags,” described by different terminologies in the different language cultures. In certain parts of Nigeria, the term for describing that bonus is jara. For example, if you bought a standard “bowl” of rice, the seller could scoop you an extra handful of rice as jara. If you bought two or three “bowls” of rice, you could get two handfuls. It was not a compulsory part of the bargain, but it was the expectation of every buyer and the responsibility of every seller to give good jara. Besides, it was an important incentive for retaining customers.
The Preacher's Diary
The Promise and the Season
And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.
Luke 1:20.
Twice in this message of the angel to Zacharias the priest, the angel makes it clear that receiving a promise is not the same thing as the fulfilment of it, even when the promise is as authentic as one from God and as credible as one delivered by no less an angel than Gabriel who stands in the very “presence of God,” the unapproachable presence of Light (Luke 1:19). First, the angel states that the promise would be “until the day” of performance. So, there was an “until” and a marked “day” for fulfilment. It didn’t matter how much in a hurry the priest was. He had to wait for “the day”; wait “until …”; and waiting can be tough, if you have ever been there. Next, the angel reiterated that the good promise had a “season” about it. In other words, it had a clearing date. The point was thus made in two quick and consecutive times in the same sentence, and the beneficiary was not to miss it.
The Power of a Transit Blessing
Sometimes a blessing on its way to a specified address has been beneficial in transit to an unplanned person somewhere else. Jesus was on His way to heal the dying daughter of Jairus when a sick woman jumped in the way to get her healing. She was not His destination, but she got what she needed. It was so remarkable that Jesus noted it, realising that something He had been carrying to ‘deliver’ somewhere else had just been collected in part by someone else – without her name being on the parcel.
The Multiple Power of Obedience
All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers.
Deuteronomy 8:1.
Obedience has benefits, just as the opposite has consequences. In this passage, God Himself announces four blessings that should come to His people IF they obeyed “All” (rather than a convenient selection of some of) “the commandments” that He had given them. The potential benefits of that obedience are listed as follows:
Beyond Holiness (Part 5 of 6)
- Baseless Blames
Everybody will not sing your praise, but it should also be a cause for concern if everybody inputs to you a blame. Woe unto those whom all men praise, Jesus said (Luke 6:26), but woe unto those also whom all men blame. It does not matter what you do, some folks will still find a fault. Some blames are baseless, true, but never give occasion for them. Miriam and Aaron (the ‘church board’) blamed Moses for marrying whom he did, but God defended him. Why? They were imputing to him a false and malicious blame borne out of their personal pride and jealousy.
Beyond Holiness (Part 6 of 6)
- My Story
Have you ever been severely blamed for what you never did? Put on your seat belt. I have had my share of bad names, very bad names at that, and they came from such unctuous lips that you were bound to believe. I was called an adulterer, a wicked man, an idol worshipper, a pornographer, a violent person, and everything that should make you pluck a holy microphone from my filthy hands. Some actually did, lest I should stain them with my unholy names. The names went far and wide, sometimes ahead of me on an international or local trip.
Beyond Holiness (Part 4 of 6)
- Besetting Excuses
We bother often about being holy but do not give as much attention to being blameless, to say nothing of being righteous. The Chosen of the Lord cannot carry the name of Wickedness. In Hebrews 12:1, Paul makes a distinction between “the sin” which everybody knows is S-I-N; sin which “doth so easily beset,” and the “weight” which is no sin but slows down the runner on the heavenly highway. The weight is no sin per se. It could pass as that ‘little’ weakness of character for which we often find excuses. To bother only about The Sin but ignore The Weight is risky on the way.
Beyond Holiness (Part 3 of 6)
- Righteousness and Wickedness
Holiness has a cousin called Righteousness which, on the horizontal axis, describes a just relationship between humans; that is, how rightly and kindly we treat one another, rather than how purely we relate to God vertically – without idolatry, honouring His name, honouring His Day. The opposite of righteousness, as commonly seen in scriptures, is wickedness, describing cruelness in relating with other humans.
Beyond Holiness (Part 2 of 6)
- Holy and Blameless
Writing to the Ephesians, Paul noted that we were “chosen … before the foundation of the world” for two purposes: to “be holy and without blame before him in love” (Ephesians 1:4). According to Paul in that passage, two important qualities should mark the life of the Christian, especially the chosen: holiness and blamelessness. Holiness is something that every godly person seeks, but not so has everyone also pursued blamelessness. But what do those words mean?
Beyond Holiness (Part 1 of 6)
- This Might Shock You
I am about to say something that you probably have never heard; something apparently contradictory to common theology; but something you might remember ever that this preacher said once upon a time. Put on your seat belt for the ride.
