You see, growing up does something to us; we often come to points where we appreciate things more deeply or, in some unfortunate cases, grow to resent others. In this case, I appreciate my father even more.

My Father is a lovely man. Really, he is. He's the kind of man you'd consider a recluse; quiet and quite reserved. However, all the energy he had, he channeled it to his family and the things he considered important.

“eyin e walo o, Ilé ti mo o”1 was often the sound that woke me up on weekdays. It was my dad’s rallying cry to his troops; it was time to get up and prepare for the day. Many Sunday mornings, after ignoring his instruction to pick out my church clothes the previous day, I would wake up to find freshly ironed clothes on the door of the room2.

What of the times I disobeyed? One thing I appreciated most was that my dad preferred encouragement and correction to destroying me with canes. His main approach (at least with me) was to sit me down, speak some sense into my head, and open the Scriptures to show me why he believed what he was saying.

A story on this; My brother somehow found out that I had been sports betting, and he told my dad. The man sat me down and started talking to me. He said different things and opened the scriptures to that effect, But the crux of his message was this; Betting is making a prediction of the future and seeking to profit on that. This is very similar to divination, and of you know Yahweh, that is a no-no.

If you believe your life is in God’s hands and only He knows tomorrow, why are you seeking to profit on your own knowledge of tomorrow?

Whatever you think about this, first reason am.

This kids, is why you should not sports bet. I haven’t gone back since.

I see memes of parents helping their children with homework, and honestly, my dad did that for me and my siblings regularly. Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal reasoning and the likes were subjects I was automatic3 in because I had a lot of help.

I have a fun memory of when I was about to take WAEC and he was helping me work through past questions, especially English Language and then he asked me what the meaning of archaic was and I said some dumb stuff, haha! I was supposed to be ready for WAEC, yet I did not know what archaic meant.4

One thing about my dad is that he's a fun man. He did so many fun things with us. We'd watch TV together; a lot. We'd watch football together, listen to the radio with him, listen to music, and just talk and ask so many questions. Growing up, my dad would buy football magazines; Arsenal magazines, FourFourTwo Football magazines, and more. He also had a mountain of books to boot.

Many times, when I'd be bored at home, I'd simply go into his room looking for something to do5. I'd always find something: books, novels, Bibles, concordances...something, LMAO. My dad was literally surrounded by books. On the chair, on the table, on the bed, beside the bed, literally everywhere.

One thing my dad never jokes with is his faith and his commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. And boy, does he know the Scriptures. I have watched him faithfully serve the Lord for decades, and as long as we were his children, we were going to be involved too. Morning devotions, Bible studies, prayer meetings, vigils; we were always there. And it wasn't just about activity; my parents genuinely believe in Jesus. By the grace of God, I believe they successfully passed that on to me.

One of the best times of my life was the 2020 pandemic, where my family and I would have church at home on Sundays. It was glorious.

I could go on and on like an excited child, but the truth is, I just love my dad, man. He's an amazing man and one I consider a diamond. He shines every time and in everything. Growing up, I wanted to be like my daddy (I still do). Over the years, I've realised that in many ways, he imitates Christ.

As that philosopher quipped, “Diamonds no dey force e self to shine”.

Happy 60th my daddy.

Who is AEO?

AEO is AnEndlessOcean, a Nigerian musical maestro (that’s how I have decided to describe him). I do not have the time to put him and the entirety of his body of work (see discography) under the spotlight, but in due time I will. However, he is a talented musician who sits at the intersection of “gospel” and “love-themed” Afro music1. This article is a review of his latest album titled, Love is a Machinery.

Love is a Machinery

This album, his third studio album, was released on 12 June 2026, and it is heavily "love-coded". The songs are expressive of the nature of love and the subject’s willingness to give love and shower the object of his affections with it. It explores the intricacies of love and how he (the subject) navigates this terrain. On some level, the album is quite emotional.

This article cuts to the chase, and I decided to listen while writing this, so I’ll give my reviews of the songs as I listen.

P.S. I have listened thoroughly.

Chemicals of Love

On my first listen, about 20-30 seconds in, my first thought was, “This guy now has money”. Haha

The production sounded lush, and it’s the type of production that I am certain is costly. The production on this song is something else; punchy, catchy, groovy, you name it. On this song, AEO is trying to figure out why the chemical equation of “this” love is so potent; “ is it the words that you say or the actions you take when we love, no I can’t get enough”, he sings. It’s so potent that he’s certain she was made for him haha, the babe is a chemist.

Due to the thrill and beauty of the love he’s experiencing, he promises her everything: “I’d give you the world and the keys to my heart”. In fact, he found paradise in her eyes, not in the New Jerusalem.

I love his vocal range on this song, along with the call-and-response with the lady on the melodies. They were very complementary, and he just rode her background responses like a wave. He’s a great artist. That is attention to detail there.

A word on producers: I am not sure who produced this particular song, but they’re amazing. I know this album had AEO himself produce some songs, along with long-time collaborators; Outgun Onkar and St Oasis.2 Imagine that young man being such a good singer and then being a “Bad-boy producer” as well.

WOW. Further down the line, I’ll speak more on production.

Eden

Often, you can tell what a song will be like from the moment the beat drops, and from the moment the beat drops, you know it is going to be a smash. Now sometimes musicians waste beats, but not AEO; he’s a beast.3

This song is straight from the get-go, a stand out track. “It’s like you’re covered in gold” he sings to her. She’s precious, like my babe.

Nuff said, bro. The lyrics of the song are beautiful, and that is one thing I appreciate about AEO; his lyrics are always beautiful. I love this song.

Make You Feel My Love

St Oasis, you are a blessed man. The man on the guitar, you’re a blessed man. Whatever those horns underneath are, they are blessed. The shakers in the background; phew. This song is an instant, “this is going down on my wedding day”.

Beyond the production, the message of the song is the need for perseverance in a loving relationship or marriage.

That is AEO’s message to his muse in this song, and it’s beautifully delivered. However, translating the Yoruba into English is a bastardisation of the song.. It’s not as beautiful.

However, when he says, “Sho mo, Ifẹ́ l'á kọjá òfin,” it expresses such a profound theological truth, striking at the very heart of the salvation our glorious faith has wrought for us. No longer is law-keeping primary, since the love of God has overshadowed the necessity of law-keeping. You can tie that phrase to a lot of other truths in our faith.

Lastly, this man has mastered the art of short, punchy songs. This song is so good, yet so short.

Pretty Wings

This song confirmed to me that AEO is a certified musician.It saddens me that it will become one of the songs people will overlook, but it’s one of the album’s standouts.

I love the experiments AEO has made with his sound over the past few years. This song reminds me of System Euphoria, and I’d wager that if that song didn’t exist, Pretty Wings wouldn’t exist either. That experimentation has led to this point where he’s this comfortable on a reggae-sounding song. I love it so much!

Mind you, this is one of the best reggaeton songs a Nigerian has ever made. Fight me! To make it even funnier, he did not even speak patois; that's how comfortable he is on the song. Mind you, Braye (the featured artist on the song), you are musician. What a contribution to the song.

On the theme of confessing love, AEO’s lady has moved from the paradise lady to the Angel coming down in all of her glory with her pretty wings. This lady would eventually take over the universe, and AEO would make sure of it.

Honey, I Love You

This song is really lovely. But it is also hilarious. AEO is on here fulfilling prophecies, asking burdens to be cast on him. All of these for her to hold on to him, dream about him, focus on him and say the words to him, “Honey, I love you”.

On this song, he makes his case for why Love is a Machinery, it’s job is to hold together what has been built. You know what? I hear it.

It is a lover’s dream song.

Mind you, this is real Alternative Music.

Weirdly, it reminds me of a Mumford and Sons’s song, and I can’t quite place the reason why or the song itself.

Easy to Love

Just beautiful music. Simple as! Another one on the “going down on my wedding day” list.

Speaking of experimentation, I love this song for that. I am projecting here, but in the past this might have remained acapella, without instrumentation. But they decided to add some more to the song, and boom, we have a song that sounds like country. You know, like it was made on a ranch in Texas. I like!

Mr Lead guitarist, you are so easy to love.

As an aside, I am pretty sure I can hear Sinmidele in the background.

Love Linguistics

Outgun Onkar; you are so easy to love. This is what you call a banger.

Orlando

As a private A&R4, songs like this one that make me most proud of AEO’s growth as an Artiste. This song is outstanding, really and it is one of my favourites on here.

The song is named after Orlando Julius, a legendary Nigerian instrumentalist and musician, who was instrumental in the rise and refinement of Afrobeat music5. There’s a line on the song that line says, “Yé mạ kọ̀ mí bí Orlando Julius”.

Now, that is a double entendre. Let me explain.

He continues, “Gbọ́ tẹmi o, gbọ́ tẹmi o, Àyànfẹ́, Ayanfe, birds of a feather will stick together till the end, and this never has to end…”. Yeah boy, that is my favourite part of the song. You know, we’re love birds and we share the same feathers, why would you leave me?? It doesn't track.

Closely following is “ Push my buttons, oya te te te…” effect, haha. It’s brilliant because if you tap a button thrice, it’d have those exact effects.

The message in the music is beautiful too, I must say. AEO is basically asking the lady to hear him out and not dismiss him.6 Do not refuse me, rather hear me out.

On the instrumentation, the talking drums to start the beat, along with that thing7; it’s a thing of beauty. The lyrics are beautiful too, mayne. There’s a humble brag on here from him, “Nobody but me lo lè gbé ẹ doùn”, that is, I am the set man to take you where you find bliss.

I love it, I rock with this song heavy.

End of Day

Beautiful opening; that underlying soundtrack that recurs is brilliant. I love these songs from him because again, it shows me his growth as an Artiste. It’s experimental in pretty much every way. I won’t speak much on this one, but the second verse is beautiful.

He’s been down for some time (to be with her of course), and he doesn’t want to get up, haha.

It is a solid record.

Get You

Let me start by saying this is the best song on here. It is the stand out track on every level I think.

When I initially played this song, I caught on to something and I said to myself, “if you like play with my ears”, because I think I have amazing musical ears. What I caught was, I could hear Sinmidele on this song and I had a smug feeling about it, but alas I am no genius, not even better than the common man. She was on the tracklist; kmt.

The beat and instrumentals to start this song; phew. I listened to it in the car and it sounded like heaven.8 The layering of Sinmidele’s voice beneath AEO’s was a brilliant idea. What a song man.

This is an automatic “ going down heavy on my wedding day”. It’s such a wedding song too; hands on the Bible and hands on the chest. The disbelief that I finally got this babe; I will be there.

“When it comes to love don’t doubt my capabilities” he says, adding to that he says “born again, I feel like a child”. The love has overwhelmed this man, haha.

Amazing song, amazing lyrics, my absolute favourite.

Rebel

Lyrically, this is one of the best songs on here. The instrumentals basically set the tone, letting you know the song is different.

Guy said, “every rule I set, don’t you flout it… just be patient”. The babe has no chills haha!

On this song, AEO is stamping his feet on the ground, his lover seems a bit difficult tto deal with but his focus remains the same; I need to show you this love and I want you to cooperate with me.

It is so funny that love has this guy speaking Twi with Yoruba, haha.

What a way to end the album man, this is beautifully put together.

Final Words

AEO has mastered his music. He has figured out how to make short, punchy and memorable songs, while loading them with meaningful lyrics. Every song has something for you to hold on to. With the songs being so short, they have a higher replay value, because as you’re trying to enjoy one song, the next one comes up. This means you’d most likely replay it again.

Now to the burning question; Is Love really a Machinery?

Well, AEO thinks so, and he has spent this album using love as a machinery to woo his beloved9, in a bid to build something lasting with her.

I like the concept and this album is worth your time, at worst, you’d have a great time.

Fini, see you on the next one!

Picture this: A man is at a shooting range, and he’s picked out a lethal weapon to shoot some targets. However, the target he’s about to aim at is himself.

Pretty grim, eh? I am that man
What I described is what I am about to do in this piece. This is a wee bit personal to me, and the words in here are going to be bullets directed solely at myself and people like me.

My theory is simple; People pleasing is a drug and it is a killer drug. I see no upside or benefit to it.

People pleasers do everything, and nothing for others. They never really do anything out of love, they do it because they were afraid of being themselves.

You may ask why?

Well, this is because people pleasers do not necessarily do what they want, say what they think or express what they feel. They’re constantly running away from themselves while running towards others (to please them). What’s weird is, they sense the discomfort in doing this and they realize the absurdity of making this their default way of life.

What then is lacking? Courage.

LACK OF COURAGE

There is a lack of courage in such people. Courage to act, courage to speak, courage to be expressive. Always worried about everything.

This constant loop is to the soul like the juicing of fruits, slowly and carefully being pressed down into a pulp, after which it is then good for nothing and tossed away.

I reckon there is alliance between people pleasing and a lack of agency. Everything is situational, nothing is fixed, nothing is set in stone. Can you guess why?

It is because they can’t bear to “disappoint” another by saying no to them (or by expressing a contrary opinion). And unbeknownst to them, they gain nothing by doing this. They present a false version of themselves which no one including themselves likes. They gain no friends, while also losing themselves (since they would not uphold or share their true thoughts and heart).

The irony with this disposition is that, they wouldn’t mind disappointing someone else who they’re not trying to please. It is therefore a self-serving trait.

THE EROSION OF AGENCY

When you are bent on ignoring everything you think, your emotions, your thoughts and inclinations in a bid to accommodate every other person, you’re simply eroding away your agency like a landslide.

Why bother to think, since you’d follow what others say anyway? Why bother to talk, when you won’t say what you think or feel? Why bother act when it won’t be in tune with your conviction?

This is the danger of people pleasing. You realize the incongruence but you won’t do anything about it?
Why? Cos You’re too afraid

Humans are really an enigma, they always choose the opposite of what is good for them. Isn’t it easier to please God than to please men? Well, on the surface, it could seem like the harder thing is to please God, but fruits of this endeavour would reveal to you it is easier than pleasing men.

People pleasers will lose on both sides. They’d never be able to please men (for men are insatiable) and they'd never be able to please God (for God demands all of you). It is granted that they’d suffer loss; losing home and away like Chelsea.

I reckon People pleasers will not see God.

Why? They’d have spent their lives pleasing men.

Think of a house on a street, with people pleasing as one of the houses on that street. A few blocks away from that house is the grand mansion that’s in a state of decay and disarray called “Cowardice”.

This street has two entrances.

Yes, I am saying that people pleasing is just a few steps away from cowardice, or if you’re coming from the other way, a few blocks further down the path of cowardice. That is, people pleasers are often cowards and vice versa. The jury is out on this matter:

“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”1

It will kill you. For Real

Even within the largely capitalist contemporary world, if you’re unable to say what you think, be yourself, or communicate properly, how much different would you be from a rag?

Not much, cos you’d be walked over without pity.

They say “ Fortune favours the brave”. It basically means people pleasers will not make it, since they’re constantly trying to sabotage their own cultivation of bravery.

Long day for you Mayte (in John Obi Mikel’s Voice)

Let’s go off the rails a bit here:

I reckon the Galatians were a people like these. It appears to me that none of the other churches had these tendencies (at least corporately). There might have been people in them without such tendencies, but as a people they embody this “archetype” best, if you like.

There’s almost no other letter in the NT where Paul uses stronger words. “Who has bewitched you”, he asked them. He could not understand why after seeing and enjoying so much by faith, they were about to succumb to persuasions contrary to what they’d received.

Again, “Take notice: I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.”2

They succumbed to the pressures of the circumcision party, to the point where they were about to let themselves be circumcised. All these, after being aware of the real truth of salvation and the grace of God; yet, they still gave in to these false persuasions.

All these to say:

HOPE

What might be lacking in these people is a lack of rootedness, and satisfaction in who they are.3 This could be due to a variety of reasons4, but there is hope for such people. These people have the capacity to love and serve, it is simply inverted, directed outward toward others for validation.

What is missing is rootedness in who they are and have been made to be by the creator who’s made them good.

We all seek validation and approval, the difference is where we seek it from. If we seek from men, then the validation would last only as long as they find us “valid”. However, if we seek this validation from God, it lasts. He already called us good from the beginning.

To people pleasers: this validation from God culminates in Jesus, who found you good enough to lay down his life for5 you, even when you muddied the goodness God bestowed on you with sin. You don’t have to work to be validated and accepted by Him, he’s not like your ex, trust me.

Stop Pleasing Men, Come to Jesus.

“So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

That popular passage, picked out of Psalm 90 and quoted on birthdays. That passage, sandwiched between a load of verses we couldn’t be bothered to deal with. And, you know what? I understand. Those passages are sticky, but I love sticky; at least sometimes.

All this to say, I have chosen this beautiful day to do a mild exposition of Psalm 90. However, to get maximum value out of this piece, you’d need to follow along in your Bible.

Sidebar: Last year, I wrote a piece called “Like a Mist” that has echoes of this same idea. I read it earlier today, and you should too. It almost brought me to tears, for some reason.

Psalm 90 is a psalm that was said to be written by Moses, the Man of God, and is about the only psalm written by this same author. I take it to mean that it is the same man through whom the Law came.

This psalm opens with a declarative cry to God:

“Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.”1

Those verses speak to the eternal and unchanging nature of God. He has remained the same in all generations, from olamto olam. From the time of the forebears, God has remained the same; immutable.

Moses, the man of God, must be speaking here of the children of Israel2, for whom God had been a refuge from the time of the father Abraham; and then you can trace Abraham back to Adam. Really and truly, He had been a place of rest and safety in all generations. Furthermore, He existed even before the earth was made, and He has always been God.

The first two verses of Psalm 90 describe the immutability of God, and from verses 3–10, a contrast is made. The fragility of humans is front and centre. When compared with God’s eternity, the time of men is like a night’s watch that lasts three hours. Heck, a thousand years is compared to a day that has passed; it is probably worse than a drop of water in an ocean.

FYI: a thousand years ago from today, the Great Schism hadn’t even happened. Think about that.

They, men, are swept away like a dream: you wake up and forget about it. They are like grass that seemed vital one day and withered the next. That is the picture of the frailty of humans. The grass is green in the morning, and by evening it has turned grey; dead and gone.

Verse 7 makes the bold claim:

“For we are consumed by Your anger; by Your wrath we are overwhelmed.”

As if to say, this is the reason the lives of men seem so frail and unremarkable in the grand scheme. But you might ask: What anger? What wrath does he speak about? Isn’t God a God without all these dirty things? Well, this is not the piece for theodicy, but you must realise a truth:

“Sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned.3”

What I mean is this: the frailty of men is a direct fruit of the Fall of man, through which sin entered into the world. The toil that comes with being human, the sorrows and pain that litter the human condition, are all offshoots of this singular event; the Great Inversion, as I heard someone call it. So much so that the days of our lives are seventy years, or perhaps eighty if we are strong.

This is not to say some people do not live below these ages or above them. The point is the limited number of years, and how quickly it passes away. But the truth remains in it. Have you seen the pains people of these ages go through? All the days we spend in toil and hustle, scrambling around to do one thing or the other within a short period of time. Yet we get to those ages and are devoid of strength.

“Who considers the power of Your anger Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due to You.”

Ah! Again—do all these accurately qualify God? Well, your conception of wrath and anger might be the issue. As earlier said, this is not a piece on theodicy, so I won’t flog it. However, you must know this: this anger is not one of irritation, but a disposition of God against what is opposed to His will; and “wrath” is the response to acts against His will (whatever that meant at different times).

After examining the contrast between the eternity of God and the frailty of men, the request then comes:

“Teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart”4

As if to say, the realisation of the frailty of our lives as humans can enable one to live wisely. You see, the Apostle Paul speaks in a similar way when he says in Ephesians, “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.”5

HOPE

All this talk of God’s Wrath and Anger can leave one without hope, yet the same psalm ends on a very hopeful note. God’s anger against men was real and is real, and the wrath of God continues to be real. There is a hope, however, that addresses these issues of God’s judgment of men that brought about death and its attendant evils.

This hope is found in Jesus, who took upon Himself this anger and wrath, blotting out our “secret sins” and making us at peace with our Maker.

With this in mind, it follows when he says:

“Turn, O Lord! How long? Have compassion on your servants!”

Isn’t it the Spirit of prophecy speaking through this man? The Lord did turn toward men again and had compassion on His people through the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. But if you read carefully, you’d see that He has always had compassion on His people and never totally forsook them (I won’t delve into this today).

SATISFACTION

This is the part of the Psalm I had always been interested in. This particular piece was inspired by a song by Shane & Shane called Psalm 90. Probably my favourite verse in this Psalm is verse 14.

“Satisfy us in the morning with Your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all over our days”.

Yeah, bro! Yeah, that is what I want. All the reality of our frailty and former sins meets an end in Jesus, and on the other side, satisfaction. All the previous things are like the night, and now, in the morning, satisfy me with Your own Love, Oh Lord. This gives life a whole new rhythm, such that even with the limited number of days, they are spent in satisfaction.

ENJOYMENT

“Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil

God does one better: He has offered us gladness for all of eternity through Jesus Christ.
Bring joor. Give me. I need.

“Let Your work be manifest to Your servants, and for as many years as we have seen evil”

This is all I want this year. Satisfy me with Your Love, O Lord. Let Your Glorious Power be manifest to me, and let Your favour be upon me. This is the enjoyment I crave from You, O Lord.

I am Nigerian and if you do not know anything about Nigerians, one thing you must know is this: they plan incredible wedding parties. It is incredible stuff.

If Nigerians in general are great at throwing weddings, then the Yorubas are in a league of their own. The Yoruba are an ethnic group from the southwestern region of Nigeria. A Yoruba wedding isn’t simply a party; it’s theatre, comedy, music, and history performed live.

The clothing alone could dazzle an unsuspecting guest. Lace, gele, aso oke, Ankara; all in vibrant colours that fill the hall like a moving rainbow. Families turn up in their matching aso ebi, and suddenly the room looks like a cross between a fashion runway and a carnival. Even before the music starts, the clothing has already begun the celebration. The music is next level too. Oh the music.

The families dance in to their favourite tunes with the parents of the bride often coming through with a sonorous Sunny Ade or Ebenezer “Chief Commander” Obey track. Did I forget to mention the food? Forgive me.

Imagine going to a buffet where you have an assortment of food, that is not limited to “breakfast”, “lunch”, or “brunch” options. The food at these ceremonies are almost endless yet. There is a variety of food, and you get the very best of dishes like Jollof Rice, Pounded Yam and Egusi in settings like this.

And then, of course, there’s the groom for whom the traditional wedding parties are essentially a good-natured humiliation kink. The Alagas1 do their level best to strip you of every sense of ego and pride you might harbour. You may arrive feeling like a chief, decked out in starched agbada that could stand on its own. But, give it five minutes and you’ll be flat on the floor, prostrating like your entire future depends on it (and it does, lol). They will ensure you are well prepared to prostrate, and plead with every fibre of your being for a wife.

Before this, you would have paid bride prices and brought everything requested by the bride and her family, even if it is the fang of a viper. This is the peak of yearning.
Isn’t chivalry beautiful?

I sometimes enjoy watching wedding videos. When I do, I often live vicariously through the people getting married, putting myself in the scenarios the ceremonies have put them, and boy does it seem stressful. A lot of the time, I notice myself get secondhand embarrassment at certain things, it’s like I am shy on behalf of the person2. I put myself in the situations and I just cringe at times man, like, Why have my ancestors done this?

But as much as I cringe, I can’t help but admire it. Beneath all the brouhaha lies something deeply beautiful. The music, the laughter, the food, the dancing (more like choreography), they are more than a spectacle. They are the embodiment of community. A Yoruba wedding is chaotic, yes, but it’s also where families merge, where history is remembered, and where love is celebrated out loud.

But when my turn comes, I’d gladly take my place, prostrating like generations before me have, I’ll be whispering under my breath: “Oduduwa, you do this one”

If you aren’t Yoruba, I am sorry, and I love you.

However, this is something I have encountered and internalized to some degree at one point or the other. But a few days back, this whole topic hit me in a new way. That is why I am sharing this. If you think carefully about these ideas, I believe they will really help you.

Mic-Drops

A mic drop is exactly what the name implies.
Seriously though, it’s a moment where a microphone is dropped after a performance or a speech, signifying victory, triumph, or an unanswerable statement.

This happens after when someone makes a statement or does a thing so unbelievable, they drop the mic as if to say, “there is no coming back from this.” This has become part of popular culture.

This is how many people approach discussions today. I will particularly spotlight discussions on theological matters and the Christian Faith here.

To be clear, “theological matters” simply mean conversations about the Faith, the Bible, and the nuances of God, and His will. Sometimes, you observe the discourse between two people with differing opinions on a matter, and there often is a strange eagerness by both parties for a mic drop moment.

A “gotcha.”
A “you can’t answer that, can you?”
“Say Yes or No.”
If not, you are compromised.

LOL.

I have been that guy, and I am recovering.
But I do not think this is how theology or meaningful discourse works. Read the New Testament and study how questions and oppositions are answered by the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostles.

P.S. I am straight up assuming these discussions are between Christians who confess to be one.

What I Am Not Saying

I am not denying that there are certainties in theology or that we can know truth concretely. No, that is not what I mean.
Neither am I seeking to promote skepticism or the belief that all things are uncertain or unknown.

We do know truth, and it is Jesus Christ, and His word.

But, look at the state of discourse among Christians today, both online and offline.
Always Mic-Drops; Either by the instigator or the defendant. Does this mean we cannot be definite or give definite answers? By no means.

However, the spirit of discourse for Christians transcends Mic-drops.

I notice this tendency in myself, so it is fitting to write about it. There is a form of argument, a spirit of love and gentleness, an ability to answer questions carefully with all of their nuances.

This is what I am talking about.

Contra Mic-Drops

As a general principle I have observed, giving mic drop answers on everything, often reveals blind spots in one’s understanding of matters.

Read Paul’s letters in depth.
Read Romans; Examine the forms of arguments.
Read 1st and 2nd Corinthians and examine how he managed differing opinions.

The Apostle in these passages always focused on what the heart of things was, ensuring that love for the other was emphasized at every point, regardless of the difference in opinions. Passages like 1 Corinthians 6-14, Romans 9-15, Philippians 2, and more will give you more insight into this.

These letters are hard, particularly because they cannot be subjected to the limitations and blindspots of Mic-drop theology. That is why Peter says that people distort Paul’s letters to their detriment. It is always him answering questions and differing opinions, often pointing people beyond the differences themselves.

There is the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of the Age, and matters are rightly judged with the Spirit of Christ. With this Spirit, we best understand God’s heart, and are able to faithfully approach all matters, discussions and oppositions.

The God we worship is great, vast, more than anyone can imagine. Someone who is literally Three Persons in One Being. If you and I will adequately witness to Him, we must avoid Mic-drops.

This is why people with opposing views on certain matters are unable to fellowship together. The Spirit of the Mic-drop is totalizing, often unable to bend to the perceived weakness of engaging in the Spirit of love.

It also does not help that the basic definition of love is a mystery nowadays. If we will witness faithfully, we must avoid Mic-drops.

Engaging in Discussions

If we must engage in discussions, we must adopt this manner of engaging in them. I say this to myself as much as I say it to you: Avoid Mic-drops. Even when you are firmly correct and in the right, the telos is still to gain the other, not to alienate them.

Mic-Drops show themselves in a myriad of ways, but there is a consistent pattern to it, that desire for straight, clear-cut, already defined and mapped-out answers on every matter.

And for sure, there are a lot of matters that are clear cut and we must hold to.
However, in the context of discourse, even you and I must endure in laying out our stand on each matter. We lay it out not in the fashion of mic-drops, but to gain another to the truth. This is Good and Worthy of God our Saviour.

Life is more complex than Mic drops. How much more discourse about God, His Word, and His Will as it applies in our individual contexts and lives.

The Christian faith is like two people performing a salsa dance, holding hands and dancing carefully and nicely around the truth, while never leaving each other’s hands. Mic-drop Christianity will always lead to the cessation of this dance. No one holds hands anymore; thus no love. All we have left are mic drops and exclamation points.

We have not so learned Christ. God help us all!

This is uncharted territory now. I will be unloading on you my theories here, some of it I do not have data to directly back up.

Majorly, I have a running theory that the music scene has contributed to the increase of certain vices among young people:

• sexual immorality (fornication and adultery)

• avarice

• pride

As I already hinted, these are nothing but the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Added to this are the shadows of drug abuse, corruption, and even proximity to crimes. This is not just what the music communicates, it is the lifestyle of many artistes, and it is the society being shaped in their image. There’s therefore no suprises when these guys are embroiled in one scandal or the other. The pattern of music will inspire a pattern of life. It’s only normal.

There is a reason there continues to be echoes of cultism (ALLEGEDLY) among these artistes and in the industry.

Look around you. Chain smoking has become normal among young Nigerians. Again, this tracks in my mind, considering that the artistes who are now “our” role models are more or less, chimneys. “4/20” is now treated like a public holiday. At the break of everyday, wake and bake is what you see. Burna boy just sounds better with a jay in hand, doesn’t he? Doesn’t it hit harder to bump Mr Shalli Shalli with balloons in your hands, since we’re all going to Pluto, eh? Does the music not sound better when the loud hits?

Since this piece is about wild theories, let me add one more. In every music scene, the nightlife is usually an indicator of the vibrancy of the music scene.

Vibrant scene = vibrant nightlife, at least generally.

Now, in the previous editions, I referred to Lagos as the Spiritual HQ of this music scene, and since the music scene is vibrant, the nightlife also is. There’s a concept called “dorime” which is really the parade of splurging money in the clubs, on drinks and extravagant things after people got lit. Over the years, I’d noticed a change in the way dorime was done (it used to be just moving bottles with signages and whatever), but the theatrics seem to have increased. Now you see things like coffins, masquerades, ritual-like processions, things of that ilk. Harmless? Coincidence? Maybe. A hyper-spiritual guy cooking up weird theories? Maybe.

You can debate whether the industry itself is built on fraud money. But even if that is the case, it all still boils down to avarice. In all of these, I have not mentioned how the shape of the industry affects human relationships, and our love for others. Consider for a second the possible effects of the endless fan wars on X and other social media platform; proof that the music does not simply entertain, it also shapes how people relate, argue, and even divide.

Lastly, I have often said that the melodies are contagious and the beats are unreal, at times even seductive. The sound is incredible, no doubt. Yet knowing what it is really about helps you recognize both the message and the lessons being taught. It allows you to think more deeply about what you are listening to and to weigh it carefully. This is because, if you tune in to these songs religiously, you are getting an education, whether you realize it or not.

My point is that many things are being taught under those melodies. And finally, to draw the curtains on your already dim eyes, the artistes attribute everything to God: the success, the cars, the lifestyle, the money. Even they believe in election of grace, haha.

So, if you are waiting to ask; “Should I listen to Afrobeats music?” my answer is simple: think about what you’re listening to, and why. Start there, and discern from there.

A WORD ON AFROGOSPEL

Afrogospel is a genre of gospel music that adapts some of the Afrobeats sounds and influences to make music about Jesus and the Christian faith. I must say I enjoy Afrogospel music; a whole lot actually.

You might have heard people attribute Afrogospel music as worldly and unworthy of the name of Jesus. You can debate that, but this is not the place for that, I have my views on that. I’d just say, I sympathize with people who take such positions, not necessarily because of the verity of their claims, but I can see what they mean. Anyway, for Afrogospel, the same principle must apply, discern beyond the melodies and beats.

The music (Afrobeats and its derivates) like I have already outlined, suffers from being seemingly empty but extremely contagious. That is a double edge sword, and if the music is supposed to help point people towards Christ, caution needs to be exercised. Afrogospel artistes need to ensure that their songs have substance, and properly point people towards Christ Jesus.

P.S; In another universe, I am an Afrogospel artiste. I still nurse dreams of becoming one. Don’t laugh!

I’d leave you with these two verses for your consideration, and as a guide for you:

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.1

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.2

Whatever you do, do it all to the Glory of God; even when you listen to music. And while you do this, ensure to guard your hearts.

May the Lord give you understanding, God help us all and thank you for reading.

Fair warning: mildly crass language

Followers of Jesus should never admit to this, right? Well, I write this as someone who has consumed copious amounts of Afrobeats. I have listened since I was a young boy, and it was only a few years ago I refrained from actively listening. I am not an expert (this is me being humble, I think I am), but I am not a casual. I sabi this music, haha

On a more serious note, I am writing this because there are a few things I would like to point out, especially for Christian folk (see young people). I called Afrobeats music incredibly vibey and seductive, and it will forever be the case. The music is largely great, and that is true. But, music is more than vibes, it has always been more than the melodies, arrangements and instrumentation. Music often carries a message, and so whenever someone sings, it is sometimes (always) a means used to pass across a message. So it begs the question, what is the message in Afrobeats music?

THE MESSAGE

To refer you back to the introductory piece, I called the best afrobeats artistes “chameleons”. In a weird way, this applies to the songwriting also. The artistes are dynamic, and to be honest, there are actually artistes with good songwriting in the music scene but, a lot of these artistes are “hyper-dynamic” with their songwriting, and bother line polarizing. The same song could probably speak about opposites concepts (and ideals), neatly woven together by impeccable melodies and beats. I do not want to bother you with lyrics of songs, since that will exceed the scope of this piece.

SECULAR OR SACRED

Is this sort of music secular or sacred? Neither.

Wordly; I affirm.

The messaging, lifestyle and the after effects of the music is firmly rooted in what the Bible identifies as the lusts of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life. Consider this:

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.1

How do we ascertain if this is true? Well, if you are a christian, you can ask “Does the message passed across help me fulfill the will of God?” Some of you curious cats might ask; “What is the will of God?”. I prepared for you. It says here:

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God2

For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.3

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.4

So; the will of God:

• That we be sanctified, and be chaste.

• That we have self control

• That we live holy lives.

• That we do not walk according to the “philosophies” of the world, but by God’s word and dictate.

Will most Afrobeats songs inspire you in this direction? I beg to differ.

At this juncture, you could probably play your favourite tunes and use these parameters to help you assess the song.

Having established why the message in the music does not align with God’s will, one might ask; But why not secular? Well, I believe something is secular when it is a part of the general created order, and doesn’t strictly belong to the “religious/sacred order”. Thus, the “religious order” would have no issue adopting certain aspects of this order. Priests drive cars, do they not?

I guess someone could really debate me on these definitions but I believe the classifications are right, especially as it pertains to “the message in the music”

THE FOCUS OF THE MUSIC

In a strange way, much of the music seems centered on love and on the beauty of women’s appendages. Listen long enough and you might as well be a biology student; you will learn plenty about the curvature of women.

The female artistes sing about the freedom they have in their newly found identity, sometimes about delight of a man’s love, other times they mock certain men’s inability to “spend”, fully echoing the words of that poet, “if you nor get money, hide your face”. Some of the songs are often about the coldness of certain men anyway.

Some of it is outright funny. Some of it is genuinely uplifting. Other times it puts things into perspective. When the poet from Ikorodu sings, “Overthinking nor fit solve problems,” that is real common grace. That is wisdom.

And just like Paul once found wisdom in the words of the pagans5, you will sometimes catch flashes of truth here too. No jokes.

You will also hear in these songs some of the struggles the artistes face, their doubts, their pains. I particularly look forward, whenever I listen, to those moments when they share their hurts and emotional breakdowns. There is often a surprising vulnerability, especially when they release albums. I like that.

I will always acknowledge the beauty, the creativity, and the sheer genius of Afrobeats. It is art, and art often carries pieces of truth, pain, and joy, but the question however, is never about the art itself; it is about message. When the message of a song leads us away from holiness, self-control, and love for God, then we must ask: what is this teaching me? What am I becoming by listening?

I will leave you with these questions, ponder on them.

Thank you for reading, I’d see you on the next one. Look out for Part 3.

Whenever I go to my barber, we chat about different things. But a lot of times, what triggers the conversations is my reaction to the music that’s being played. I listen to what the guys are saying and a lot of times I burst out laughing. He joins me in laughing and he’ll sometimes admit the lyrics are wild, to say the least. He won’t stop listening though.

That’s Afrobeats for you. At its best, amazingly vibey and incredibly seductive, yet strangely empty.

WHAT IS AFROBEATS?

This is a genre of African music that is largely a fusion of Afrobeat and other genres like Jazz, highlife and reggae. Afrobeat was a form of African music that was pioneered by Fela Kuti between the 70s and the 80s, which was in itself a fusion of different musical genres but brimming with African elements. It is usually heavy on drums, percussions, shakers and these musical elements that gave a unique African feel to this musical arrangement. It thus follows that Afrobeats has these elements that were adopted from Fela’s music but now heavily infused with contemporary sounds and musical elements. This combination makes the music so rich and incredibly vibrant.

This is by no means an exhaustive explanation of the genre, but this should give you a rough idea of what Afrobeats is. I am giving this brief overview to help us understand what Afrobeats is, and how it applies to the meat of this piece.

ANATOMY OF AFROBEATS

Afrobeats largely hails from Nigeria, some Ghanians might dispute this with you but largely the roots of this genre of music come from these two countries. The masters of this genre are the Nigerians of course, take heart Chale.

If there’s a unique selling point to Afrobeats, it’s the ability of the music to be adaptive and innovative. The artistes and producers take elements of different musical genres and mash it up together (depending on the number of genres, or how prominent the influences are; some call this particular flavour “afro fusion”). I must say that although the artistes often get the praise for brilliance in this genre, the real heroes (often unsung) are the musical producers. They’re the real geniuses of the whole system.

The contemporary Afrobeats movement could probably be traced to the late 90s and it started to become fully formed towards the early to mid 2000s. Guys like Plantashun Boiz, 2face Idibia, Don Jazzy and D’banj(eventually Mo Hits and later on Mavins), Styl Plus and a host of others. If you have any idea who these early guys were, you’d see they were heavily influenced by RnB.

I say all these to emphasize that the artistes and producers are chameleons at heart, adapting and fusing sounds, and it’s impressive. The ones who stay at the highest levels are the ones who are masters at shedding skins and adapting. Top chameleons.

Due to the infrastructure deficits in Nigeria (and Ghana), the genre and its ‘industry’ is largely informal, even though there are key cogs and hubs. Speaking of the hubs; Lagos and London are the ‘Primary’ and “International” HQ of the Afrobeats scene respectively. I call Lagos the Spiritual HQ of this Genre; I’d hint at this later.

Towards the mid 2010s there was a movement monikered; Afrobeats to the World, basically a yearning for the music to be pushed beyond the borders of Africa and to the western world, with London serving as the base of this push partly due to the diaspora community in London, among other factors.

AFROBEATS TODAY

You see, Afrobeats to the world has largely been successful. The genre has actually seen significant success, the music is now global, the artistes are now bigger, the industry now has more reach, the streaming era has favoured the genre a great deal. Arenas are being sold out, Festivals are being organized everywhere, the boom is insane. This movement that was recognized only within the continent of Africa, predominantly in the Western parts, has now permeated the Western world.

Now, the Zoomers have not taken a back seat to this genre. In fact, they have pushed the boundaries of the music. But How?

Well, there’s a subgenre called Alté, that started as a huge underground scene (although it’s morphed). This is the subsection that has influenced Gen Z (the Zoomers) the most. This genre could trace its roots (on some level) to Asa, the iconic Nigerian singer and poet, but has been shaped majorly by the influences of guys like SDC(possibly the Godfathers) to Teezee, DRB Lagos, Boj, Santi, Odunsi the Engine, Tems (yes, Tems) and co. From fashion, to lifestyle, to taste in music, this subgenre has heavily influenced the Zoomers.

This subgenre is more psychedelic, with melancholic overtones and it could be quite emotional.

I wish I could flesh all these influences out but I just cannot, although some Alté purists might crucify me for saying it s a sub genre of Afrobeats.

Gen Z Afrobeats artists heavily infuse the Alte lifestyle into their music, fashion and lifestyle. A couple years ago, I put out a tweet saying something along the lines of, “Rema is the face of Gen Z hedonism”. He’s the poster boy and he’s the epitome of the best of this fusion I describe.

Then there’s guys on the amapiano end of things, again remember our chameleon talk? Asake seems the best in this regard. Insane melodies, wild fusion of sounds and elements, and an uncanny ability to connect with the streets. That’s just a quick and by no means exhaustive list of people who excel at this.

Quick segue: Amapiano is a sound that originates from South Africa and is very beautiful I must confess. Heavy log drums, beautiful keyboard chords and flutes/whistles. Incredible stuff.

CULTURAL IMPACTS

Let me first take a breath. The cultural impact of Afrobeats on Africans and now, Westerners is huge, and just thinking about it, it leaves you dumbfounded. The impact is tangible. From the hoods in Nigeria to the ends in London, from the Islands of Lagos to the streets of Tema, the streets of Nairobi and Tanzania. The impact culturally, spiritually are all deeply ingrained.

In 2019, Ghana had “The year of the Homecoming” to commemorate the 400th year anniversary of slaves moving to the USA, and to encourage African Americans to trace their roots. It’d be very naive to claim this was due to the success of Afrobeats, but it’d be very disingenuous to suggest it did not play a part. The global spread of Afrobeats with its infectious rhythms and deeply African aesthetic stirred a new cultural curiosity in the West. It helped people of African descent feel more connected to their ancestry and heritage and more interested in tracing their roots.

In 2016, a phrase was popularized by a musician named Mr Eazi, the phrase “Detty December”. It described a December of unrestrained fun. The impact of that is huge, and now Lagos and Ghana in December have become cities that have a myriad of activities lined up on everyday of the month. People in the Diaspora troop in to participate in the festivities, as this is the most exciting period of the year. Once again, none of these is without Afrobeats music doing some major heavy lifting. Much like Jews returning to Jerusalem for festivals in the Greco-Roman world, diasporans now return to Lagos and Accra for December festivities.

The society, government, corporations and more have been profoundly shaped by the impacts of this genre.

These musicians themselves have amassed a cult following and god-like status among the masses. Think about the impact of Wizkid on African Millenials and Gen Z’s? Davido and Burna Boy? What of Mr Shalli? Seyi Vibez (street Lionel Messi, hood Alte genius also)? Mr Eazi? King Promise?

Need I name more people?

Being Incredibly liquid with seemingly boundless resources and a wide reach, some of these guys appear larger than life. They have shaped the words we use, giving us new vocabulary and carrying us along the waves of their own inspirations. You might have teared up when you heard “Las las, na everybody go chop breakfast”, see, that’s impact. Or you yelled “E choke”, without knowing the origin of the phrase, see that’s impact.

Some of you wore carrot Jeans in the early 2010s, again that’s impact. Whether you know it or not, Davido has taught a whole generation to believe “love is sweeter when money is involved”. See? that’s impact. We have been formed by the music of these people, we follow the dance steps that come with the music, we wear the clothes that fit the aesthetic of the genre. We’re not just listening; we’re becoming.

This is measurable impact on the people.

BACKSTORY

I want to do something interesting with this piece, but before I do this, I’d give you the backstory . After I got the framework for the last piece, “Are Ye Judges”, I kept on thinking about the idea of judgement, especially on the human side. I had this back and forth in my mind, questions like this filled my mind;

“Should believers judge others”, “If yes, what contexts are we allowed to?”, “what does it even mean to judge others”, and the like, but I will not be providing the answers to these questions here. Anyway,I am not sure exactly how I decided to write this piece, but my archives show me I made a voice memo, July 20th detailing what I will be writing about in this piece. There, the story you did not ask for.

TO JUDGE: MEANING AND CONTEXT

The question of what it really means “to judge”, is a very important one, and I will answer it up front. Judgement or “to judge”, is used in a myriad of ways in the Bible. Used sometimes to denote affirming/approving a particular thing1, to ascertain the soundness of an opinion, revelation or decision2, to denote judgement of right and wrongs by God3, of God’s final judgement4 , to denote self-examination5 and many more.

The usage is wide, but often times when we use the word (at least these days), it is used in the context of morality; right or wrongs, good or bad actions, things the Bible often leaves to God. Our Lord Jesus actually disapproves human judgement in this manner, see;

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”6

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”7

There are more scriptures like this, that dissuades us from judging our neighbours in this moral sense. See again;

“Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbour?”8

“You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written:“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’

So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister”9

So what’s my point; “Are Ye Judges?”. No, the Bible affirms. God is judge, now and forever. But still there’s a sense in which believers could judge others. Paul does lay down a precedent in 1 Corinthians 5, he says:

“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

It appears that within the church there is precedent for judging right or wrong; wow.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN???

In reading the New Testament, one of the things I love is how Paul fleshes out arguments giving us a window into his thought process. In 1 Corinthians 6, he does this interesting thing that catches the eye. In that passage, Paul flips everything upside down, when he says;

“If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!”

“Ah? What? What does that even mean?”

This, somewhat was my reaction to that passage was when I looked at it again. It felt like I had never read it before. Judge the world? Judge angels? Why did I never take Paul seriously here? I asked that because Paul uses that thought to help the Corinthians see how best to live in the present world. It’s interesting stuff, and we’d see more of these together.

CONTEXT OF CORINTH

A brief survey of the book of Corinthians shows you that they couldn’t agree on anything. There is division about pretty much everything, to the point that they had started taking each other to secular courts to settle disputes. The Corinthians were a peculiar bunch, and literally every chapter of the letter (1 Corinthians), is addressing some important issue/division. It was pretty rowdy up there.

Paul however, could not believe them at times, he could not believe some of the things they were bickering about. In chapter 3, he calls them “infants, still not ready for solid food”, and in chapter 5 commands them to judge among themselves and expel the “wicked person among them” (this was the man who took his father’s wife for himself). “A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough”, he said to them, showing thus that purity among the believers is paramount.

This is the precedent of judgment I referred to earlier.

1 CORINTHIANS 6

Let us take a quick dive into the texts:

“If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church? I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers! The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?”10

When you look at these scriptures, it’s such a slap on the wrist, like “Be for real, why are you acting like a child?”. The implications of these statements are huge, and would require a lot of rumination on our part as believers. Here are some quick notes on this passage:

1. Paul absolutely disapproves of christians going before “secular” courts.

2. Going before secular courts showed a lack of wisdom among the believers.

3. Going before secular courts to settle matters between believers proves utter defeat on their part.

4. Inability to suffer wrongdoing from other believers proved the presence of a great deal of sinfulness, malice and wrongdoing among them.

5. It proves they are at present, unfit to judge the world.

This is a mild summary of the hammer Paul dropped on the Corinthians in this passage. He couldn’t believe what he’d heard.

You know, it is very likely that this court hearing was held in the centre of the marketplace in the city of Corinth.11 Paul could not believe that members of the household of faith chose this option as the right place to settle their disputes. To properly understand the passage, you’d need to have a solid grasp of what Paul thinks about the believers and how he views the work of salvation.

PAUL AND INAUGURATED ESCHATOLOGY

Paul has a thoroughly eschatological12 view of the christian life. In his thought, the end of time has already broken into the present age, the old is passing, and the new age has been launched. The way it’s been launched is the interesting thing, and central to this launch is the cross of Jesus Christ, and His resurrection from the dead. Paul (and all the Apostles really) believe that the new age is already here, but not entirely, so there is some sort of intersection. This intersection is found in the believers, who live on in this present age, but do not live according to the patterns of this age. The work of the Holy Spirit shines here.

To make it clearer: Living in this present world is like a dress rehearsal for the world to come, and I do not think we internalize this enough. The spirit of the age to come, literally dwells within us, we’re at the cusp of something hooge; we live in a spiritual jet lag state. Internally, we’re tuned to a different time zone but externally, we’re subjected to a timezone that does not aptly match our internal tuning. The Christian life, thus, is the labour to impose on the external timezone the way of life of our internal tuning (i.e to live as children of the day, as 1 Thessalonians says).13

This is Paul’s frame of reference, and once you see it, you cannot unsee it. For Paul, we start to live out the life we have received, the old must give way to the new. It is littered everywhere in his writings (and the writings of all the Apostles); the already but not yet.

Now, I hope you see why this is a big deal to him? How could they submit themselves to the fashions of this present age? He mentioned earlier in the letter in chapter 2;

“The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments”14

How could they subject themselves to the judgements of outsiders? Unbelievers? Did they not understand who they were? What??

YOU WILL JUDGE THE WORLD, YOU WILL JUDGE ANGELS

This is actually the part that caught my attention. Angels? The world? Then I remembered the OT. Come with me to Daniel 7.

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.15

He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time. But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.”16

I feel bad that I have to dump this whole thing on you, but this passage (if you will read it) is quite clear. It was a vision of Daniel and in that vision, there were consecutively four different beasts given dominion to rule. Each one represented rulers of the earth who reigned for a time, until the next beast usurped them. This continued until the fourth beast, which was very ferocious and vicious. It destroyed much, boasted a lot, and it even says that it oppressed the holy people of the Most High. Then, there were thrones set and the Ancient of Days (used to describe “Yahweh”) appeared to be presiding over a council (peep the intensity of the detail of His appearance).

The Ancient of Days declared judgement on the beasts (especially the 4th one), and then, the dominion was given to “one like a son of man” (wink wink, a title Jesus often used to refer to Himself in the third person throughout the Gospels). Note, the dominion given to Him is everlasting, sovereign, indestructible and with authority (sounds to you like Mathew 28? Hope it does).

Anyway, please do not mind my hasty summary of these texts.

Jesus in Mark 14, answered the question, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”, by saying;

“I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”17

Jesus’s response had a direct allusion to Daniel 7, and the “son of man” figure in that passage. He is the Messiah, and in Daniel 7, we see that the holy people of the Most High will have the sovereign kingdom given to them. They’d share in the rule of the kingdom to come, they’d judge, they will rule along with their Messiah.

So you see, Paul wondered: how could they be so unfit to judge trivial matters? Why did they need outsiders to settle their disputes, the very people they were meant to one day judge? In fact, take it a notch higher: even angels would be subject to their judgment. How terribly unaware they were!. This is what was at play here.

It’s all ironic because the Corinthians believed they were already at the end of everything; there was no “not yet” for them, everything was here and now. Paul sarcastically mocked them for that in 1 Corinthians 4, and actions like these confirmed they had it all wrong.

NT Wright, in his book “Paul: A biography”, says it like this:

How is it that the people who have the mind of Christ, the spirit of God suddenly lack wisdom? Paul essentially says, “if you cannot solve the issues you have now, you are unfit and unprepared for the world to come (to be judges).” Remember I said this world is like a dress rehearsal for the next one.

WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?

You see, Paul does not speak in a vacuum. Jesus laid these down in Mathew 18:15-20.

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

Do you now see what Paul meant when he said they were already defeated by going before the courts? The power to bind and loose things (on earth) is found within the agreement of the saints, and where there is divisions and fractures, defeat looms large.

“Why write all these?'“, you might ask. Well, precisely because, apart from the practical import of the passage on our conducts with conflict resolutions among the brethren, it also provides a good picture of how to live the life of faith; living now in light of the world to come.

Do we merely live, or would we begin to live as people whose life and futures have a “cosmic” impact as NT Wright puts it? Have we lost sight of the glory of the christian life? Do we live with the dignity that comes with this life?

This is my aim with this piece, to invite you to consider these questions, just as I must. Every time I write an exhortative piece, it feels like the letters in every word rises up and points a finger at me saying “are you like this?”, and so we all ought to take the words and ponder upon them.

“Are ye judges”, well, not exactly, but “Ye will be judges”.

Let that guide you. Let that guide your conduct, your approach to living in this present world. Let the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ impact the life you currently live.

Let us all, myself included, seek to live with these before us. God be with you, and thank you for reading.

These stories are found in the book of Judges from chapters 13–16, and while it would be nice to exposit these chapters, that goes way beyond the scope of this writing, so I’d focus on chapter 16.

The time of the judges was really some of the “dark ages” in Israel’s history. “Everyone did what was good in their eyes” is really the theme of this period in Israel.

Insert Samson, a man who was promised by God to his parents to be a “saviour” for the people of Israel from the hands of the Philistines, who at this time ruled the Israelites. Samson was a Nazirite (sounds familiar, eh), and he had dreadlocs that were not to be cut at any point (show your African mother this!). He was a man on whom the Spirit of the Lord rested to do mighty deeds. The sheer magnitude of the things he did is wild. Samson was judge over the people of Israel, and he judged them for 20 years.

JUDGES 16
Samson, at this point, was judge of Israel, and Judges 16 starts out with him “going in”1 to a harlot. Interesting way to start the chapter because Judges 14–16 have a similar narrative structure (I implore you to read them). Samson was a lover of “strange women”2, and initially, it appears God was on board with it, planning to use this avenue to save Israel from the Philistines3.
But Samson was a lover of pleasure, and even after his wife was killed and that whole episode went by, he went again into women who were not of Israel and whom he was not married to.4

Finally, he found him a lady called Delilah, whom he loved. It does not appear to me that she loved him, and it showed because she was willing to entice him and hand him over to the Philistines. Each one of them (the rulers) would give her 1,100 pieces of silver. It is at this point you have to feel pity for Judas; poor guy couldn’t even get a good deal. Yikes.

Anyway, three different times, Delilah tried to set him up to be ambushed by the rulers of Philistine, asking him the source of his strength. And the form of the question was something along the lines of, “Come now, tell me how you can be tied.” What makes it even wilder is that he obliged her every single time. He must have thought it was a game. The man was having a fun ride, it appears, frolicking with someone who wanted him killed and was actively working towards that.

He escaped the traps three times, putting her to shame at every point. However, Delilah did not back down, nagging Samson until he was “sick to death of it.” Then he told her the secret to his power: “If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man,” he said.

Is it not dumbfounding that he would rather tell her the secret than rise up from her bed? Why would he not rise up from her lap?

Ultimately, she set him up again, but this time, there was no going back. His secret was exposed, and he could not escape. His immediate response to being surrounded revealed the state of his heart: “He awoke from his sleep and thought, ‘ I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.’”
The man who had earlier waited on the Lord and received strength from Him now did what was good in his own eyes.

This time, Samson not Delilah, was put to shame. He was ambushed, bound for real this time (no games), and his eyes were gouged out. The judge of Israel had been brought to nothing. He had made a lifestyle of doing what was good in his own eyes (true son of Adam & Eve).

But you see, the story of Samson was basically a microcosm of the story of Israel. Dale Ralph Davis, in his Judges commentary, sums it up beautifully:

“In Samson Israel was to see herself (just as in Luke 15 Jesus wanted the Pharisees and scribes of v. 2 to see themselves in the older son of vv. 25–32). Samson is a paradigm of Israel: one raised up out of nothing, richly gifted, who panders around with other loves and yet, apparently, always expects to ‘have’ Yahweh. So Israel has received grace on top of grace yet persistently carries her affairs with Baal (see 2:11ff.), utterly ignorant of her true condition (cf. Hos. 7:9), blithely assuming that all is well (Jer. 2:34b–35a) and that Yahweh is always at her disposal (Jer. 2:27b).”5

A wonderfully gifted man, turned his eyes away from the Giver of the gift and lived wildly, trusting in the sufficiency of his gift to rescue him.
When you read this, you might think, “Well, too bad Samson, he was very reckless and silly at times.” Yes, he was.

You know, I was listening to this passage on the Audio Bible a few weeks ago, and I laughed at the foolishness of the story. Like, bro, what’d you mean four times? How can you be so reckless?
As hard as I laughed was how loud the thought shot back at me: “Is this not what happens when you negotiate with sin?”

Do you Judge Samson?

This is not to insinuate that children of God cannot exercise any form of judgement. The thing is, before you judge, you ought to have your house in order. If you will remove the spec of sawdust in another’s eye, you best not have a plank in your own eye.

We judge Samson and give him a side eye (okay, maybe you do not? I did), but are we really better?

Do we not purposely fornicate and say, “I should not be doing this,” then go right ahead with it?
Do we not watch pornography and say, “This is the last time, I’d stop after this one”?
Do we not lie and then mutter under our breath, “God forgive me”?
Do we not consciously do these sinful things and then rely on ourselves to figure it out later?

Have we behaved that differently from Samson? Are ye judges?
Is it not because our actions have not yielded immediate consequences that makes it not so obvious?
Do we not sometimes take for granted the grace of God and insult the presence of the Holy Spirit?
Do we not use the gifts He gives in ways that are good in our eyes and for our own satisfaction?

Look carefully and objectively at this story, and please tell me if you do not see any correlation.

Now, we (the believers, the church, Christians) ought to listen to these stories and take heed to ourselves.
Paul, writing to the Corinthians, wrote:

“These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”6

They are written as warnings for us. If you have an issue with that, please meet Apostle Paul!

Anyway, embedded in the story is the line of action we ought to take. Samson looked again to God and cried out to Him. This is our line of action. Though we fall, or have fallen, we continue to rise again and again.
Paul, again writing to the Corinthians, assures them of the grace of God and God’s approach to this matter. He wrote:

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”7

Basically:

• You are not alone. Many others have passed through this and continue to pass through it.

• Even though temptation threatens you, God is faithful.

See, this is a hill you and I ought to die on. God is faithful, and it’s interesting to me that His faithfulness has a ring of 2-factor authentication to it:
i. He will not let you be tempted BEYOND what you can bear.
ii. But when you are tempted, HE will provide A WAY OUT so that you can ENDURE it.

It’s beautiful. God is beautiful. He shields from burdensome temptation, but He provides a way out, enabling us to endure these temptations.

So friends, let us take heed to ourselves and actively look to God for strength at every point.
God be with you. Amen!

If you ever read “MEGA”, I introduced the Greek 419 Crash course to help address a greek word, and we’ll be doing that again. Yayy. Before I do that, I wanna speak on the Helper, and its relation to Parakletos. Remember, I said 5 passages in the NT use the word “paráklētos” and the passages are:

John 14:16: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever”

John 14:26: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

John 15:26: “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me”

John 16:7 “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

1 John 2:1: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”1

As you can see, 4 of those passages are in the Gospel of John, and the last is in 1 John 2:1 (which is de facto my poster passage anyway). The common word in almost all the passages is Helper. Looking at these passages and their contexts (please check that out), we see that this help will remain forever, the helper will “reveal” truth and bring things to remembrance, the helper will bear witness to Jesus. The last passage speaks of help in the form of advocacy for the benefit of another.

With all these, we can see that “parakletōs” is linked with the idea of help and enablement for the recipients. I hope this relation is clear.

Greek 419: “Paráklētos”

The word “paráklētos” has a fairly wide range of interpretations/meanings. The broad usages are: comforter, intercessor, helper, advocate, mediator. This word has its root from the Greek verb παρακαλέω(parakaleō) = “to call to one’s side”, often to help, support, encourage, or exhort another (broadly). The general popular usage (in regular Greek speech) seems to be of someone who speaks or acts on behalf of another (say, like a mediator or helper). There is also a legal connotation to it, often used in a general sense rather than a strict sense, like a lawyer or attorney, but more like an advocate, “legal assistant”, or maybe a “surety: someone who stands in. ”2

In the usage of this word in 1 John 2:1, it speaks of an advocate, an intercessor, and this, really, is what compelled me to wanna write this piece. I must reiterate, I already believe that the Holy Spirit is our Advocate, and that the predominant understanding of the Spirit as Paraclete is also very correct. With that, I move ahead to my focus for this piece.

Before I bounce, let’s see John 14:16 again:

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever”

“He will give you another helper.” You see, the Father will not just give a helper, he will give another helper. This means there must have already been a helper who was present. If you read the context of John 14, you’ll see that Jesus was speaking to His disciples about leaving them in the world, and they would no longer see Him till He comes back for them. Without much dilly-dallying, it is very clear that the first helper is Jesus Christ. He’s praying to the Father to send another helper to His disciples. So, He is Parakletos as the Holy Spirit is Allos(or allon) Parakletos.

See again:

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”3

After Easter

Regardless of the corner of the world you might be in, I believe that all Easter celebrations have come to an end (at least ceremonially). Jesus Christ resurrected over 2 millennia ago, and you might wonder, what has He been doing ever since? I wanna touch a bit on that. The scriptures provide us with some insight into that4, as it is not limited to one thing.

After the sufferings on the Cross, our Lord has risen into glory, seated at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 1:19-21). But not these alone, He is also our advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1). That is Paracletic. He is with the Father, making intercessions for us. That is comforting.

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, ^y]we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” 1 John 2:1

This reality of “having” an advocate with the Father implies an “active” intercessor, who speaks for our good and on our behalf. This is good news. As you think carefully through these, your mind might get drawn to “the Spirit makes intercessions for us5”. The Paracletes advocate for the good of the Believers in Christ.

In a bid not to pass up on the opportunity, I reckon this intertwining of the works of Jesus and the Spirit with the Father lends to the truth of the inseparable operations of the Triune God.

High Priestly Advocacy

Now, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One. The intercessory work of Jesus Christ advocating for the believers is possible because of the Incarnation, the Death and Resurrection, and the Ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God’s throne. That’s the simple way I can put it. Let’s see what I mean:

“In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.” Hebrews 2:10-11 NIV

AND

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” Hebrews 2:14-18 NIV

So, you see what I mean? The whole process of Jesus’s life (death, and life again) is important in His paracletic intercessions. Why? As the passage above reads, He took part (think of it as “active solidarity”) in humanity so that He could be the perfect person to rescue them from the flesh (and its baggage). This is the basic idea of the texts above.

Even more, in sharing in humanity, he became our high priest, making atonement for our sins (through His death), and becoming to us a merciful and faithful high priest (merciful to us, faithful to God). He is the perfect high priest. He has gone through our pains, He already took part in our sorrows (even more than we will ever experience), making Him FIT to be our advocate. This is beautiful, but there is more. Let’s see:

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16 NIV

See the admonition? Let us come before the throne with confidence, that we may receive mercy and find grace. We can come because of the work of Jesus Christ (and the Triune God in salvation), and we will find grace and receive mercy because of the Father’s love, but also the advocacy of the Son.

The Unique High Priest

I wanna emphasize the uniqueness of the High Priest I speak about. To bring the poster passage back, 1 John 2:1 and 2.

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, ^y]we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” 1 John 2:1-2

What I wanna point out here is the phrase: Jesus Christ the Righteous. You see, the intercession we receive is due to this, the righteousness of our Advocate. Our faith is based on this righteousness; our righteousness before God is His, literally. This is important because of the contrast between his High Priestly role and the High Priests under the law. Again, let’s see:

“Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people.” Hebrews 5:1-3 NIV

See that? The High Priests under the Mosaic law were subject to weakness and offered sacrifices first for their sins, and then for the sins of the people. These high priests learnt to empathize and deal gently with the people because they were like the rest of the people, also with sin. This High Priest is without sin, and he can empathize with our weaknesses because, like us, he was tempted, but he never heeded to temptations. A triumphant High Priest. Yes, Jesus Christ, The Righteous One.

Furthermore, the intercession is potent because He is the plea(His blood is, if you will). What I mean is, He is the one who died for the sins of the people he intercedes for. The righteous interceding for the unrighteous, and so when he intercedes for us, he intercedes having experienced what we experience and overcame it. The case is “solid”; the one person who can talk about living above sin now pleads for sinners to be pardoned. What manner of love, what assurance of forgiveness, what hope of victory!

Honestly, I could go on, but we see the Intercession of the Son: Our Advocate, Our Paraclete.

Think of the story of Job, being accused before God. The accusation did not stand before God because God found Him to be righteous. However, I like that imagery. There is one who is called the accuser of the brethren, who accuses them day and night before God6. The Bible records that they(the Believers) overcame him(the accuser) by the Blood of the Lamb(of Jesus who died for them), and the word of their testimony(the faith they confessed).

This truth is profound and is an immensely steady ground of assurance for the believers. We have an advocate with the Father who makes intercessions on our behalf. We have a Father who loves us, and we have the Spirit who makes intercessions for us, who loves us, and helps us in all things. Now, we can come boldly before the throne to receive grace and mercy to help us.

Remember, we have an Advocate, Christ, our Paraclete.

The implications of these things are broad, and I will not be able to flesh them out here, but these assurances remain steadfast and sure. Let us all therefore boldly go before the throne of Grace, our advocate is there, our Father is seated there, the Spirit is with us and in us.

Again, it stares right at us: God became a man, the man’s name is Jesus Christ, He died for the sins of every human being, and He rose from the dead.

He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, through the collusion of the Jewish Religious Elite but He rose back to life by the power of God. He was buried for 3 days, now he’s alive forever.

One of the reasons I love Christianity is that it comes down to brass tacks, and it leaves you with just two options. It either happened or it didn’t happen. It is either true or not. There’s no middle ground, no gainsaying it.

Did Jesus rise from the dead or not? Is He really God or not? Did he really die or not? It all comes down to these things. It is incredibly bold and I cannot understate how bold it is. The whole system of faith and belief rests on this: Did it happen or not? Every other thing flows out from there; every other thing is an implication of whatever the reality of the event is (i.e, if it did happen or not).

This is why the apostle, Paul, says;

“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins”

This is it. We would have believed a lie, we would have built our whole lives on lies. Our entire hope would be on nothing but lies. How sad that would be? If the belief was that our sins had been atoned for, and we received forgiveness of sins, and new life (insert eternal) through Him, what happens now? Well, our sins would still be before us and would not have been taken care of. Our lives are certain to end(i.e, death) because eternal life was a lie. It was a myth, it was never true, and we would have gulped down these lies like they were a can of Sprite. Our faith would be futile, amounting to nothing.

“If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied”

Yes, please pity us. Foolish people who built their whole lives on lies. Untrue statements, myths that didn’t hold any weight. Full-grown adults who were thinking like infants, infants led astray because of undiscerning adults, who hoped in ‘some person’ whom they had never met but only heard stories about. How silly, eh? We would be fit to be pitied.

“And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead.”

Look at that, imagine the billions of people who have believed this message with zeal and conviction. Preaching this ‘myth’ all over this place, trying to convert people who are on better standing than they are, imagine that. All those hours, the resources, the mission work to faraway lands and territories, lives lost to this cause, all of it; futile. They’d all have amounted to nothing, there would have been better use of these resources, time, and even people. What a waste it would have been.

Now, if there were a God who created all things and all people, how furious would he be at us? We’d have led a huge number of his creation to believe this lie. More than that, we’d have lied about Him, we’d have said things that were untrue of him. Imagine saying He had something to do with this when He didn’t? Imagine that were the case? We’d have lied that He raised Jesus from the dead, when he had nothing to do with it. How badly would he crush the people who did these things against Him and His name?

If a God existed who created everything and everyone, how angry would he be at us? We would have convinced a great many of his creation of this falsehood. Furthermore, we would have misrepresented Him by saying things that were not true. Imagine claiming He had something to do with it while pretending that He raised Jesus from the dead when He did not. Imagine that were the case? How severely would he punish those who had done these crimes against Him and His name?

If only all that were true. None of it is and our claims are true. It is boldly laid down before us all; God does exist and He sent His son, Jesus Christ to die for sins, He rose up from the dead and He is Alive forever.

These are bold claims, and that’s what our faith is built on!

This is Bold.

Listen to Paul again:

And again:

We stand by this. We die by this.

The message preached is more than just a message. It is a reality; it happened. People saw the man we're talking about; this is not a fluke. Jesus Christ rose from the grave, and people saw, touched, and ate with him. Our eternal hope is based on this, and it is a well-founded hope. The individuals who first believed this message saw him before they did. They attested to this reality, lived for it, stood firm on it, and died for it.

Not just that, but the Resurrection. It did happen, and the implications are enormous. The resurrection of the dead is not a fictitious concept created by conspiracy theorists; it will be the reality of those who believe and live by this message.

How’d we know this? Well, the One who came among humans to die for their sins and bring them back to God was resurrected from the dead. As a result, the resurrection of the dead (i.e., fresh embodied human life) is now a certainty for everyone who believes in this message and its truth.

It happened with Him, it will happen with us.

We continue to preach this, we continue to proclaim it, forever and ever. We lay it before everyone, and we continue to do so. We see the power of this reality, we see its ability to transform (all manner of people) and its implications for individual lives in this world and the one to come. We see the love displayed and the grace offered to everyone.

It is Holy Week again, and Easter is just around the corner, meaning you'll hear a lot about the death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus. While you might be accustomed to hearing the stories, this will always be the case. You will hear about it every year because it truly happened. Simply put.

It is evident to us, and we live (and long) to make it evident to all men. This is why you continue to hear about this, this is why.

MEGA! MEGAaaa, hmm…

I cannot recall precisely what I did after, but I must have let out an ugly cackle. You would not believe he was talking about Jesus Christ being magnified in believers. “I want Christ to be MEGA in the world, he continued.

It was John Piper; What a guy!

“Why are you writing about that?” you might ask. Well, precisely because of my thoughts after I let out that ugly sound. The only thing I could think of was the Hulk. He’s mega, right?

A part of me wonders if this was because I went to see the recently released Captain America movie a few weeks ago (the red Hulk was in there, not the green one), or maybe not. Anyway, in this post, I will lean into a personal superpower: The ability to conjure up terrible analogies. Yes! That is my aim, and I will see it through!

Before I dive into my analogy and the meat of this post, I want to believe that everyone reading this has heard about the Hulk. That angry green monster that transforms Dr Bruce Banner’s lowly body into His own huge green body that was conjured up by a failed experiment with gamma radiation. In the recent Captain America movie, the Red Hulk was featured, and it was an interesting move, to say the least.

I guess it was Marvel’s tame attempt at a plot twist, but I am not sure it landed all right. What do you mean the President of the United States of America (POTUS) became the Red Hulk? I mean, I heard they did shady stuff, but that? I figured Marvel was being prophetic; the current POTUS is certainly making his best impression, turning everything upside down. But hey, I digress

This is an imaginative piece of writing, so please focus on the imagery. This is the way you can best follow my drift, okay? Focus less on the colour of the Hulks; they both transform, destroy everything, and are both angry.

Now, back to Piper (the MEGA man), he mentioned the Greek word used in the passage of Scripture he read from, Philippians 1:20, which reads

How does this relate to MEGA? Well, when you isolate the word translated “honored” from the Greek, the idea starts to unravel. Anyway, allow me welcome you to my Greek 419 Crash Course. It would be fun, I promise.

The word translated honoured in Phillipians 1:20 is the Greek word megalynthēsetai (μεγαλυνθήσεται)2, which means literally “will be honoured, glorified or magnified”. This word is the Future Indicative Passive-3rd person singular usage of the word megalynō or megalúnō(μεγαλύνω)3, which means “to cause to be large, to make large/long, to exalt, glorify or magnify”. The root word of megalúnō is megas (s. μέγας) which means “Great or Large”.

This use of the passive voice in “megalynthēsetai” indicates a sure future event not carried out by Paul i.e Paul is not the one magnifying Christ but Christ magnified in Paul. We’ll explore this a bit more.

I want to point out that the word connotes an idea of increase. It has variants of meaning, but fundamentally, it has “increase” on its horizon. It could mean a physical increase (in size and length), a metaphysical increase (in reputation and prestige), or an increase in awe, adoration, and exultation.

Insert here: The Hulk. When you see the recent Marvel movies featuring Bruce Banner(acted by Mark Ruffalo), initially, you see a nerdy physicist that seems harmless and without much edge, other than his scientific genius. Until, of course, you trigger him by putting him in danger or his heart rate runs up to 200bpm, then you see MEGA. haha

To clarify, what I define as MEGA is not just about the increase in size (like the Hulk) but also how apparent it is to everyone, inspiring awe. When Dr. Banner is transformed, he grows in size, but this change is also evident to all, and the sheer magnitude of the Hulk leaves you in awe, wondering what it is about and how that small man became this huge entity, as seen in the visual above.

Get the idea now? It’s not hard to notice the Hulk. In the scene above(as shown in the visual), they needed the Hulk to join forces with the Avengers, and before long, Dr Banner became the Hulk, and the smashing began. The Hulk is ‘magnified’ and seen clearly as Mega in Dr Banner’s body.

As fun as the Hulk analogy is, I want to foray into something more serious with far-reaching implications. Come along!

Paul and The Letter to Phillipi:

Philippians was written by an imprisoned Apostle Paul, who wrote from Rome to the church he founded years prior in Phillipi. They had reached out to support him in his imprisonment by supplying his needs, after which he wrote back to admonish them while providing a personal update on his current living circumstances. He was a man who remained joyful even in the circumstances he found himself in.

Why was the man imprisoned? For proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. You would think a man who went about verbally proclaiming the gospel and whose proclamation was dependent on his itinerant ministry would become handicapped after his imprisonment. Not Paul

For Paul, the joy remained even in this circumstance simply because his joy was not bound to his previous state as a free man. This was his joy; that the gospel of Jesus Christ may be proclaimed all over the world, and that Jesus Christ be made MEGA in the world, i.e seen to be glorious and worthy of honour.

This was the grounding of his joy, and if his imprisonment served or contributed positively to that end, the man had more than enough to be joyful about. This is why he wrote the way he did in his letters and in this one to the Phillipians. Look at this:

You see, without getting lost in an attempt to exegete the text, Paul always desired to preach in Rome and from there to Spain5. However, through an interesting turn of events, he was arrested6 in Jerusalem (after delivering financial support for the church there) and imprisoned, which ultimately led him to Rome after his appeal to be tried in Caesar’s court7.

He got his desire to go to Rome for the gospel’s sake, but not in the way he envisioned. But like I said earlier, the man found much to rejoice about because his imprisonment had emboldened other believers to proclaim the gospel right under Caeser’s nose.

This is believed to have been the precursor to Nero’s great persecution of the Christians in the Late 60s AD. Emperor Nero was said to have set off a fire that razed down much of Rome, and he blamed it on the Christians, leading to Paul and Peter’s martyrdom.

For Paul, every circumstance was an opportunity to glorify God, and his imprisonment, though unpleasant and hard, served that purpose. Paul did not preach on the streets of Rome, but he preached to the Palace guards. Paul did not reason with the masses in Roman Society, but his imprisonment was enough to embolden others to spread the message and make people in Rome consider Jesus Christ.

This is MEGA; Christ is magnified either way!

To focus a little more on the primary text, Philippians 1:19-20:

Paul’s desire for Christ to be magnified in his body was not merely a wish. This, for him, was an eager expectation and hope (not in a languishing sense), but hope that anticipated this very outcome; A vital hope. The vitality of the hope wasn’t one manufactured through wishful thinking, but through two important “mediums”, if I may:

• The Prayers of the Saints in Philippi

• The “Help” of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Paul’s vital hope was predicated on these very things. The continued partnership of the Philippians was not in their giving alone, but also in their prayers.

Additionally, he mentioned the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ as grounding for his confidence. The help of the Spirit here should not be read with the regular English usage of the word but in a much deeper way.

This help is seen in the sure supply provision of aid by the Spirit. The Spirit also did not provide help in a limited or temporal sense but continued to abide with Paul for his deliverance and salvation from the circumstances he faced.

When you understand this, you’ll see why for him, to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Christ). This is because for him, living is ‘fruitful labour’ for Christ's sake, and death is gain; he ends up with Christ and receives a reward for his faithfulness in the body. Echoes of the same idea can be perceived when he wrote, “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.”8.

Think about a sports team that plays for the honour of the badge regardless of whether they play on their home turf or away turf. The goal remains the same: to win. Paul's goal remained the same: whether dead or alive, in chains or free, sick or healthy, anxious or calm, abounding or abasing, his singular aim was to glorify Jesus Christ and always please him!

The Import for Believers

This view of life is only possible or attainable by understanding the gospel and its implications in our lives as believers. We are saved by grace through faith, but this gift of God is to the end that we be his “workmanship” in Christ for good works prepared by the Father. We are saved to be a type of people who live differently.

In a sense, Dr Banner’s body becomes Hulk’s workmanship, ready for “smashing works”. Hulk is “magnified” in Banner, literally.

Living our lives to make Christ MEGA in every way, everywhere, and every time is the focus of the Christian life. This means living lives that display a love for God and love for people. This is by no means a walk in the park, and it can be hard, strenuous, and, at times, costly.

For Paul, it could be imprisonment or, for the Philippian brethren, mounting pressures from the opposition or, for some of us in the 21st century, the chokehold of comfort and pleasures.

But recall that Paul’s eager expectation for deliverance was predicated on two things:

• The Prayers of the Saints

• The Help and provision of the Spirit of Christ.

We ought to pray for each other as believers of Jesus Christ. If Jesus is seen as MEGA in a place, it will encourage believers in other parts of the world. Reading reports of life in Northern Nigeria for faithful believers does something to you. We ought to pray for them and be encouraged by their faithfulness.

The presence of the help and provision of the Spirit is how we can “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus”, and this ultimately results in outward workings of the implications of the Gospel that are seen by all regardless of the circumstance.

This mind is “yours” or “ours” as believers “in Christ Jesus”. I reckon this is sufficiently supplied by the provision of “The Spirit of Christ”. This enables us to live lives that portray Jesus Christ as MEGA and glorious.

This is why Paul admonished in Philippians 2:14-15, to :

What living this out looks like, in some sense, will be different for everyone. Some of us might need to deny ourselves some things and focus less on ourselves and more on serving God’s purposes. This might seem daunting, but we can begin with the little things. Questions I believe might be helpful to keep in mind always:

Does my current action make Jesus Christ glorified in any way? Will it make Jesus look good in any way?

I implore you to think this through and consider it as much as possible. Read the letter to the Philippians and consider its implications.

Ultimately, our eager expectation is that Jesus Christ is seen as MEGA in the world and our lives. To this end, we live!

Think about it, if it all ends in death, why bother to live?

“For who knows what is good for a person in life, during the few and meaningless days they pass through like a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone?”2

“Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble. They spring up like flowers and wither away; like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.”3

“O Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow”4

If humans do not find meaning in life grounded in something solid, there often is a nihilistic response to the emptiness we experience in living meaningless lives. Now, how is meaning found in life? Well, an understanding of its purpose surely helps.

To what end were humans made? What is the telos of the human life? In fact, what are humans? Anyway, this was what the Preacher grappled with all through the book of Ecclesiastes, until he got to the point where he understood life’s meaning and declared,

“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man”.5

He calls it the whole duty of man; to seek His creator and live for this purpose alone. This is the meaning of Life. Unlike the atheists, the Preacher found meaning in life. He uncovered the reason for his existence and declared it, “to Fear God and keep his commandments”.

God is the Creator and Maker of all things, including human beings He made in His image and for His purposes. This means every human alive was made by God, for Him and to please Him. Humans were breathed on by God, and every breath we take comes from Him, which means our existence must be for Him and His purposes.

Lastly, James the Apostle in response to people who lived as though they owned their own lives, made some comments I found fascinating. James in these verses, though making a point about the fleeting nature of human lives, emphasizes even more the focus of human living; for God and according to His will. The verses read;

“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”6

If there is anything to take from this piece; Life is fleeting, but this life is lived for God and His purposes alone. Thus, a fleeting life becomes a full life because it is lived for The One who fills all things.

To focus a little on James’s comments in those verses, I thought to myself, “Yes, human life may be like a mist, but there is a kind of mist I would love to be”. This mist was spoken of in Genesis 2, in the creation account;

“Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams (mist) came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.”7

The mist that watered. That sounds beautiful to me. Although human life may be like a mist, here today, gone tomorrow; I want to be like the mist that watered the surface of the ground, used by God my Maker to be beneficial to people around me and to the Earth. This to me, means becoming a blessing. I love that, I want that.

Afterall, Jesus Christ answered a question on what law was the greatest among the Laws given to Moses, saying;

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself”8

This is the telos of human life; to love God and to love the neighbour. Living this out seems to me like a full life, and this is the life I want to live. I reckon living like this will somehow flow into being like the mist that watered the ground.

The Prayer of Moses the Man of God, in Psalms 90, rings true to me and it echoes in my heart on this day;

“Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. If only we knew the power of your anger! Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due. Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom”9

Wisdom to live thus, I pray;

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is!10

It’s my birthday today, please say a prayer to this end for me.

This piece is the offshoot of my reflection on 2024, my experiences, and my assessment of the year that ends today. These reflections happened at different times, and in different ways but my conclusions are largely the same. This is the year I pondered the most on God’s providential dealings with me and I want to explore some of those.

To start simply, 2024 was hard for me. There is little need for carefully selected words here, the year tested me. My patience, my faith, my trust, my confidence, my joy, and my hope, were all put to the test. It was tedious. At different points during the year, the state of my heart was an echo of the words uttered by the father of the mute child in Mark 9:24; “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief”. Literally!

I struggled at times, I felt inadequate, I was sad on some days and I felt insufficiency within myself lots of other days. But, during the year, I had a lot of joy also, it was beautiful in a lot of ways. I experienced great comfort, lots of laughter, encouragement, beautiful contemplations, fantastic conversations, and myriads of the simple joys in life. I discovered Substack also; haha :)

I had a lot of time to think during the year, and I reckon this is one year for the books, a lot happened to; and within me this year. As the year wore on and I pondered even more, there were two things I thought to share.

1. The year showed me how inadequate I am. You might be reading this and are wondering why I continue to speak in this tone. Well, it is because it is true. I realized the extent of my inadequacies, and it was a humbling experience for me. I was figuratively on my knees at times, unable to fathom why I was so inadequate.

2. I realized I have Christ alone, and nothing else. One of the most vivid realizations I came to was how little I had outside of Jesus. I must say, I have a beautiful family, great friends, and people who love me tremendously. I realized these connections I had with other people—like my family and friends, were but expressions of God’s mercy through Christ Jesus to me. Even with their commitment to loving me and wanting the best for me, I realized it was insufficient —in and of itself, to satisfy the deep-seated longing in my soul. Only Jesus can fill that, and this realization stuck with me throughout the year. Nothing, nothing, nothing—Jesus Christ alone, is all I have.

Together with these realizations, a sense of vulnerability tried to overcome me. The inadequacies and the deep-seated longing revealed an identifiable void in me. During the year, however, I came across J.I Packer’s contemplations on Paul’s thorn in the flesh, as recorded in 2 Corinthians 12. This contemplation held me for weeks and it was a prominent part of my thoughts this past year. Packer, in his contemplations concluded by saying, “Weakness is the way”. This was an echo of Paul’s resolve in the same chapter,

“And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.1

This was enough for me. Christ and His power are sufficient to fill the void in me, and not only that but adequate to make me stronger than I ever was. I did not have to run away from the weakness I had discovered in myself, I only had to look to Christ whose grace is more than sufficient to fill up my weaknesses and furnish me with what is lacking. Look to Christ I will always do, boasting only in His ability to strengthen me.

This, according to my perception of God’s providential dealings with me, was what the year 2024 was about. God was doing something unprecedented; conforming me to the image of His Son, and that is no small task. And yes, it is no easy process also. Certainly hasn’t been for me.

In C.S Lewis’s book, Mere Christianity, there are a series of paragraphs I believe summarize exactly what I believe God was doing in me (and most likely you also). Lewis (1952) writes here;

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace.” (p. 205)2

This paragraph perfectly summarizes what I realized after I tried to understand my experiences in the past year. A house under construction, being furnished by the Great Builder; who is the builder of all good things. It explained how I felt at different points, wondering why I experienced the things I did.

I was confounded at times, but like Lewis wrote, “throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there”. This realization gave me so much peace. Looking through The Bible and God’s dealings with other men who had gone ahead, I see the providence of God at work in their lives. And Lewis did not stop there, another thing he said;

That is why we must not be surprised if we are in for a rough time. When a man turns to Christ and seems to be getting on pretty well (in the sense that some of his bad habits are now corrected), he often feels that it would now be natural if things went fairly smoothly. When troubles come along—illnesses, money troubles, new kinds of temptation—he is disappointed. These things, he feels, might have been necessary to rouse him and make him repent in his bad old days; but why now? Because God is forcing him on, or up, to a higher level: putting him into situations where he will have to be very much braver, or more patient, or more loving, than he ever dreamed of being before. It seems to us all unnecessary: but that is because we have not yet had the slightest notion of the tremendous thing He means to make of us…” 3 (C.S Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952) p.204)

Brother!

“Because God is forcing him on, or up, to a higher level: putting him into situations where he will have to be very much braver, or more patient, or more loving, than he ever dreamed of being before”. This is the understanding I have from my experiences this year and boy, what great encouragement it gives me. As gold is tested by fire, my faith is being tested to prove its genuineness, resulting in praise for God in me4.

Finally, I am grateful for a lot of things. I received a lot of encouragement from my family, my friends, my church family, and even the internet, at times. Many things have been useful as a means of grace to me throughout the year. I had a lot to learn, some harshly but I learnt, and I still am.

There is a certainty that continues to be reinforced in my heart as a result of these contemplations. This certainty is this; “God loves me, He will never fail me”. Therefore, I continue to move forward and I look ahead to the new year. Ready for more phases of this great edifice to be perfected by The Builder and Artificer of all things.

This is not a bulldozer used to clear things out of its way for a destructive purpose, this is an intentional and careful usage of the bulldozer to make more room for an even better building to be erected. I stand on this understanding and I bow out with the contemporary Nigerian adage, “WE PIN”.

Epic, eh?

If I If I had to sum up humanity in two words it would be I’ll say:

“HUMANS THIRST!”

Yep! This is true of all human beings, and this thirst manifests itself in different ways. It is so unavoidable and all you need to do is look around. I will attribute a lot of human advancement in different fields to these thirsts. Likewise, a lot of human destruction has been downstream of these thirsts; for power, control, comfort, influence, affluence, fame, and so on. This is how it has always been, and it most likely will continue to be so, except…? Hang on a minute

One preposterous thing common in human history is the extent of depravity displayed across the board. It is a wild thing indeed. All manner of sexual depravity, abuse of power, wars, tussles, obscene practices, gluttony, violence, just to name a few. I keep circling back to this point; Thirst.

It seems like wherever humans are, though there often is some measure of good, a great deal of evil abounds also. Humans have always wanted to build things, take charge of their surroundings, gain wisdom for themselves and have power.

These quests for resources, tussles for lands and territories, the bid to dominate, the desire for a great name, the battles over choice women and the enslavements of other men for selfish gain. These are common denominators in most pockets of human history.

This impulse is innate to us and I believe it is the result of the fall recorded in The Bible, Genesis 3 specifically. In that passage, Eve’s reaction to the serpent’s deception exposed a thirst, which came about after the serpent’s swaying speech. It reads thus;

That desire for knowledge, the lust for some hidden ability, this quest for wisdom, even if outside of the boundaries God had drawn. They willingly risked death which they had been warned of. Their action made them lose the divine estate, proximity to life, and the knowledge of God; who is the Good and the Fountainhead of all goodness.

They were going to be granted the opportunity to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life, but they traded that for “wisdom”. People who were already “like God”—made in His image, traded that for some “hidden wisdom” that was kept from them. Suddenly, the tree seemed “good for food and pleasing to the eye”.

There, the origin of the thirst we now see in humanity. We crave, yet are never satisfied.

This is the submission of Blaise Pascal as regards these thirsts:

These thirsts create a void in our hearts causing us to try to fill it with the things around us. We look to things like approval from people, power, fame, riches, and these are some of the more obvious ones.

Due to the insatiability of the human heart, there are loads of these things we constantly look to for satisfaction. New inventions and adaptations of old practices; all in a bid to satisfy our cravings.

At some point, the Hedonic treadmill kicks in. The novelty wears off very quickly, and we are thrust down from the heights of these experiences, after which, more is needed to achieve the previously experienced height of satisfaction. This is roughly how addiction sets in.

We all thirst but the question is, what do you thirst for? From where are you satisfying your thirsts? Whatever your answers turn out to be will give you an idea on the things you might have sought to fill the void.

I can now focus on the topic of this post: Broken Cisterns. In contemplating these ideas on thirst, this phrase jumped out to me because it provided an answer to my questions and a solution to the problem of thirst in the human experience. It was gleaned from the word of God to the prophet, Jeremiah to the people of Israel.

Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.)But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror, declares the Lord. My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.1

You see, Jeremiah was a prophet who lived at a time when the people of Israel, were given to idolatry and the worship of other gods. The people of Israel were God’s chosen people on the earth. They had the exclusive preserve of worshipping Yahweh, The Lord God.2 However, they were given to all shades of immorality and they forsook the way of their God.

This passage of scripture was a warning to Israel by God, and a cry from Jeremiah, bringing to the people God’s verdict.

Why had they forsaken their God?
Was it because He had failed them?

Certainly not! They had “dug their own cisterns”, that is, they had gone in pursuit of their own pleasures and satisfaction. They chose to give in wholly to the thirsts of their human nature and became full-blown idolaters. “Has a nation ever exchanged its gods”, He asked them because Israel had.

This reality was true of the people of Israel in Jeremiah’s time, but this has always been true of humans, right from Adam and Eve. I think I can make the claim that this is the common thread throughout the Bible, up until Jesus Christ.

We see Adam and Eve seek to quench their thirst, hoping for the fruit to make them wise.
Cain, her son, blinded by rage, and disapproval of his rejection, went ahead to kill His brother. After this, he “went out from the presence of The Lord” and built for himself a city.
At Babel, the people decided to build a tower that reached the heavens; a thirst for oneness outside God, and a desire to “make for themselves a name”.
All these happened within the first 11 chapters of Genesis and the report continued to be negative; wickedness multiplied.
Check the stories of all the great civilizations, their practices, ethos, and the fruits of their reign; there is a common thread.

God and Broken Cisterns

The value of a cistern is in its ability to be some sort of water storage that is always available to be drawn from, whenever the need for water arises. When broken, however, though it may hold some water for a time, eventually, it dries up quicker than it should and the water gets wasted away. That is roughly what happens.

The implication is that the need for a new cistern arises, because water is important, eh?
This is why broken cisterns are a terrible thing. The cisterns were built for a purpose; to hold water. When this is not realized, they hold no water and the energy expended in building them is wasted.

When you relate this idea to the thirst in humans and the search for things to quench that thirst, you see why humans are in a never-ending chase for things that do not ultimately satisfy.

GOD?

God is the eternal ground of existence, the Fountain of all life, the life-giving source, the Fountainhead of all goodness. If all Life comes from God, you get why He is the “spring of living water”. The water connotes the indispensable nature of life flowing in God, from where all creation drink (He created all things).

I mentioned earlier that humans were made in the image of God3, and their life was from God, who breathed into them4. Basically, Humans were made for God, and to reveal Him in a certain way. This means their satisfaction and fulfillment was to be found in Him.

After the fall which I referenced above, this order was inverted, and humans began to seek out the things below them, or around them, rather than God above. They were now conforming to the nature they had acquired; of good and evil, rather than what God had on offer for them, of good. These are theological motifs that explain the human condition.

Circling back to Jeremiah, the verdict was the people had committed two sins; forsaking the Spring of living water, and digging their own cisterns. They forsook God who was sufficient to satisfy them, and sought to find satisfaction in things that could not satisfy. Over two and a half millennia later, this is still the case with humanity.

THE PRESENT

The present age is post-modern, casting off all restraint, having done away with the “shackles” of “religion” and the people have become free from religious constructs and now believe “God is dead” as declared by Nietzsche. This meant we had to replace “God” with something else.

The problem? Everything we have resorted to as human beings have proven to be “broken cisterns that cannot hold water”. We trusted in science, the efficacy of democracy, the promise of capitalism, the speed of computers and now, we are looking to AI to transform our human experience. We have mastered the usage of metals, the utility of iron, the durability of stones, the workings of gold, and all precious stones, now semiconductors are our new obsessions.

The Human race is wonderful, honestly. Underneath all of these though, our souls sing in concert and our mouths echo the insatiability of these things.

This is my submission; Only God can satisfy the human thirst! If Humans were made to image God, and for Him, it follows that only God can satisfy their thirst. Hence, Isaiah, another prophet of old presented God’s word to the people, saying:

Here, we see an invitation by God to the Israelites to forsake their vain labour, and turn to the waters that satisfy. Implicit in the passage is the idea that their labour was insufficient to give them food that was good enough, nor was it satisfactory, and neither did it bring them delight. This is the human story. However, this invitation would have only applied to the Jews at the time of Isaiah, until another Jewish man came onto the scene.

The man Jesus Christ, who lived on the earth in the first century AD, and performed signs and wonders, made claims about Himself that humans have been unable to refute.

Although He is man, He is by very nature, God. He did the acts of God, He spoke about Himself like He was God, and He is. He is the express image of God (He does not image God like humans do. He is the revelation of God, in this sense).

In His incarnation, we see God partake in Humanity, in a bid to renew it. As a result, humans of different tribes and tongues through faith in Him, have gone on to believe and they find life in Him. This continues to be the case even today.

Jesus in certain passages in the Gospel of John made some statements I believe we should consider. The first episode was with a Samarian woman at a well:

This passage recorded in John 4 is essentially about an interaction between a Jewish man and a Samaritan woman. I would spare you details of what this meant culturally but these were not usually friendly interactions. Jews and Samaritans opposed each other and they did not agree (to put it mildly).

However, they both agreed there was a God, that they worshipped God and each one believed they were the true worshippers of The God of Israel. But, when she conversed with Jesus, she did not realize she was conversing with The Incarnate God. When He asked for a drink, she pointed Him first to their differences; “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?”. He responded by speaking of “living water” that He would have given her if she knew who He was.

If you’ve followed the story, this should ring a bell: Jeremiah and Isaiah!

Jesus is making a claim to divinity here and I am not making it up; “the gift of God”, “who it is that asks for a drink”, “He would have given you living water”. He speaks as God.

The woman in this story, seemingly confused about His assertion, pointed out His inability to draw out water, and His implied greatness over their father —Jacob who dug the well (Jacob is the father of the Israelites). To which he doubled down, pointing out the inability of the well to satisfy “eternal thirst” and how the water He gives becomes a spring in those who drink from it. It then wells up to eternal life. This is something only God can give.

Jesus Christ makes another of these statements in John 7 during the Festival of Ingathering5 in Jerusalem. See here;

“On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”

John 7:37-39. NIV

Consider the call He made; “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them”. He’s addressing many things simultaneously; thirst, belief in Him, the remedy for the thirst, and the promise of Scripture. This ties in nicely with all the passages I have examined previously.

Humans have these thirsts that are insatiable by the things around them. These thirsts lead us to abuse good things, destroy others, and finally, destroy ourselves. We resort to building things that never hold nor satisfy our thirst: broken cisterns.

In Jesus, there is the offer of a remedy to these thirsts. He who is the Fountain of Living Water invites all who thirst to drink from Him.
To drink means to believe upon Him, to trust His work, and to have faith in Him. If Jesus had left it at that, maybe you would have reason to doubt Him. But, Jesus Christ laid down His life for humanity, to renew it from its ruins, and to refocus it on God. He died for our sins, was buried for our sins, and rose from the dead.

Now we can rise from our ruins, believe in Him and be renewed, filled with satisfaction. Not just that, He promises to fill all who believe with The Holy Spirit; the “river that will flow from within them”.

Simply put, the broken cisterns can never!

Jesus Christ is the Fountain I speak of.
He is the remedy to the broken cisterns,
We can forsake them and look to Him,
We can drink from Him.
We have tried these broken cisterns; they hold no water!

Drop your tools now, dig no further. Look to the Fountain before you.

The doctrine of the Trinity is central to the Christian faith, and it has been since its inception. From the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ until now, the Orthodox Christian faith has held this doctrine as essential. Questions regarding this doctrine arise for various reasons, mainly due to its complexity and mystery. Simply put, this doctrine is complex and paradoxical. The complexity is not a result of human sophistry but rather stems from the transcendence of God and the profound gulf between God and men in their essence; which transcends our human categories. Now, you may ask: What is the Trinity? Off we go then.

The term “Trinity” is broken into two words: “Tri” and “Unity.” It teaches that God is One Being united in Three Persons. These Persons are co-equal, co-eternal, and of the same substance. While the term "Trinity" itself is not found in the Bible or used to describe God directly within its pages, it is a term employed by humans to capture the concept of God as revealed in the Scriptures. This is where the complexity begins, and the paradoxes1 start to unfold.

In human experience, we do not encounter evidence for a Being that consists of three Persons i.e. a human or animal, with multiple personalities in the same being, naturally. However, the Bible teaches that this is the nature of God. How is this possible? Well, Therein lies the paradox. The Bible, the Lord Jesus Himself, the Apostles, and the early Christians all affirm that this indeed is the nature of God.

To understand the Trinity, we must first grasp what it means to be “God”. “God” refers to a Transcendent, Omniscient, Eternal, Infinite, and Supreme Being who created everything and rules over all creation. God is an “Infinite Being” who exists out of necessity because God is the Creator. If there is creation, there must be a Creator; thus, God. Aristotle also proposed the idea of an “Unmoved Mover,” a Divine, Necessary Being that initiates motion and change in the universe. From these ideas, we see that “God” is necessary, powerful, omniscient, and eternal.

Remember I had said, that in human existence, we do not have evidence for such a Being, simply because the essence2 of this Being is loftier, and exceeds the bounds of our imaginations. This means that such a Being with these attributes—even if seen at any point in time, will transcend our human categories; we cannot account for such a Being. For Emphasis, there are reasons this realization will be above our understanding as humans, and some of it is because we are limited to space and time, and unable to grasp anything outside of this continuum. This means our ways of life, our patterns of thinking, and our scope of existence are tied to the realities of the universe, but not so with God, God is above all of this; He created them. Moving on now

The general understanding of "God" has varied throughout human history, but it essentially boils down to three basic beliefs: Monotheism, Polytheism, and Atheism. The natural world and life around us testify to a Creator and a Cause of all things because of the specific order seen in everything. In Atheism, this is unfathomable, as there is no Creator, and ultimately, the belief is that all things are subject to aimless randomness and, thus, chaos. Polytheism is about multiple deities with no real source of all things or creator. This is chaos also since there are different wills of different gods who want different outcomes; thus, chaos—broadly speaking. Monotheism, however, speaks to One God and Creator, or Cause of all things. In Christianity, the belief is that there is One God and 3 united persons. I think Gregory of Nazianzus3 captures this whole idea beautifully when He says:

“For Anarchy is, in effect, pure disorder. Polyarchy is a state of discord, and thus anarchy, and thus disorder. For both these tend to the same thing, namely disorder – and disorder leads to disintegration, for disorder is the prelude to disintegration”. 4 It is Monarchy that we hold in honour – but not a Monarchy that is contained in one single person. For it is possible for this one person, if at variance with itself, to become a plurality of persons. But it is a plurality which consists of an equality of nature, a unanimity of will, and an identity of action, and which converges back into the One from which they come – a thing unheard of among created natures.”5

The Christian faith upholds the belief in One God, from its Jewish origin but expounds that belief by adding that in The One God, there are Three Equal Persons; as seen in the quote above, when Gregory said “But it is a plurality which consists of an equality of nature, a unanimity of will, and an identity of action, and which converges back into the One from which they come – a thing unheard of among created natures.”

In the quotes above, Gregory is affirming the unity in the Trinity alongside the plurality of the persons as evidenced in the Holy Scriptures—the multiple personalities of The One God—in The Old Testament and as taught in The New Testament (some of which we will look into in the future, by God’s grace). Different articulations of the Trinity have been put forward over the last 2 Millennia since the death of Jesus Christ, Our Lord. There are many incorrect articulations of the Trinity, some due to ignorance (because it can be confusing), and others because people choose to uphold these articulations. In Church History, different articulations of this doctrine have been ruled out as Heresies6. Some of these articulations of the doctrine were intended to bridge the gap in understanding the truth taught by the Scriptures while actively grappling with the reality of a Tripersonal Being.

I must say though, understanding the Trinity as revealed in Holy Writ is important because it brings to the fore of our mind the excellency of God, enabling us to see the intricacies of God’s operations in unity leading us to worship in truth. A God not known cannot be worshipped truly.

One of the major problems we — humans — have with the understanding of The Trinity is reconciling God as One Being while being Tripersonal; this is always the challenge. In Monotheism, we have One God who is Omniscient, Omnipotent, and the Creator and Sovereign over all creation. The major problem lies with the understanding of Essence and Personality, which we often conceive as the same(as it truly is, in humans). This is fundamentally a problem of the knowledge of the “What” and “Who” in God, and reconciling the One God as Tripersonal. The “What” refers to the Essence of God i.e.—what God is by definition (some of which we have explored) while The “Who” refers to the Person of God i.e. distinct identities within the divine essence. To emphasize the point, when I think of a human, I do not think of their essence and their person as distinct; I see their essence and personality as the same. In God, however, there is one essence and three persons, and the personality is based on relations in The Trinity, not a difference in essence. Again, this means God is one “What” and three “Who”.

With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles, and the contributions of men and women throughout Church History, the Orthodox Christian faith has been helped in its understanding of the doctrine. This understanding has been shaped through Scriptural texts, creedal statements, and the personal teachings and writings of men and women—all expounding on the Scriptures.

Fundamental to this understanding of the Trinity is the Oneness of God in The Christian Faith is a portion of Scriptures found in the Law of Moses, which reads:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”7

This is a fundamental part of Jewish worship and was part of the “Shema”, which is the call to worship for the Jews8. Our Lord and His Holy Apostles were Jews, and they came from the lineage of Abraham, from the people of Israel who were expecting the Messiah, which is The Lord Jesus. This understanding of the Oneness of God is central to the belief of the Jews and our Christian faith. We believe that God is One—in essence—, as previously explained.

This provides a good grounding for our conception of God and will be important in understanding the passages of Scripture that reveal both the Oneness of God and the Tripersonal nature. This is my aim in exploring this subject and The Scriptures will be our guide—it is where this truth is revealed. It will also help us understand the significance of The Incarnation and the beauty of Our God.

I have only just begun discourse on this doctrine and I hope this post has been helpful to you. I will see you soon on the next one, God bless you.

So this past Sunday, while at church after singing these soul-lifting songs, a rush of thoughts came to me; something like a poem, which is the subject of this post. Once I got on my seat after the songs, I opened my notes app out and I started scribbling down these things. The most interesting part of this whole thing was the trigger for this, and how random it was. The word that later morphed into the idea that birthed these thoughts was “Maps”. Not an impressive word, eh? Well, that was the trigger.

I write this post, I am hopeful, however, that it will make you, who is not the specific target, rethink certain things and reevaluate. That said, this post is to encourage the believers in Christ Jesus. This is what the poem was about and I pray it does just that for you while I pray also that it makes some people Consider Jesus.

And now, The poem :

Living in this world as a believer is like a man stuck in a maze,

Dark and scary, empty and eerie. 

The paths truly darkened, unable to cast a shadow,

Filled with obstacles and danger; It is wild and waste.

In this charade of darkness lives the believer,

But they are not without light, For the light of Christ shines from within them. 

In this maze called life, thick with its darkness, they go on,

Full of light, The Light of Christ.

Due to the obstacles on the road, the believers fall and make mistakes,

Errors pervade their actions and weariness seldom overcomes them.

The Lord who shone His light in them holds them fast,

He holds their hands, He leads them by His hand, He is their shepherd,

Though they get lost, He restores them though they fall, He strengthens their knees,

Though obstacles abound, He leads them,

Like sheep in a flock, He shepherds them.

As the psalmist writes, even beside still waters, He leads them,

In the valley of the shadows, He is with them, holding their hands.

As He promised in the prophets, to them who put their trust in Him,

Whether through the waters, the rivers, or through the fire, the word from Him remains the same 

He will continue to lead them.

Like a man lost between streets, unable to figure out what block he should be heading toward, trusting the maps to reroute his path while he frantically looks for his destination.

How great is his relief when the Maps reroute him to his destination?

Such is the promise of God, yea, infinitely more,

When the believer is lost when they fall or are in despair,

Their Lord continues to make a way for them. He restores them. He keeps them. When they are lost, He reroutes their path back to Him, for all things work together for the good of the ones who trust in Him, they are His sheep and He is their Shepherd. As the shepherd leads His flock, So does the Lord lead His own.

There.

I hope the lines of this poem bring to the fore of your mind what I was speaking to, concerning those positive melancholic thoughts. In the life of the Believer, there is a real sense of uncertainty, but there is an even greater assurance of God’s leading.

A quick note: analogies never fully capture the essence of an idea and the same applies in the usage of the Maps and rerouting. Even though that seems to me (at the moment of writing) the most vivid example of the failproof nature of God’s guidance, I recognize that, unlike the Maps, God is not reactive. Nothing meets him by surprise, nothing causes him to react or be defensive. In the lives of the believers, He is actively keeping them, leading them, and upholding them. This is a reality we HAVE to believe regardless of the circumstances. God is Good, Trust that.

Finally, this assurance is the heritage of The Lord’s people and I appeal to you who do not yet identify as such, to consider this hope and assurance. This is the only way the troubles of life make sense and become worth living.

God bless you and see you on the next one!

P.S As a way of recommending the song that was being sung in church, here

And a hymn that brings all these ideas to a head.

For some time now, I have toyed with putting my thoughts down on paper. Still, different obstacles stood in my way: indecisiveness, a lack of clear ideas on what to write about, uncertainty about which topics to explore, and, of course, the relentless pull of procrastination. I could go on, but you get the idea; I am sure you feel this way sometimes too.

After a few months, I decided to simply put down my honest thoughts and share them as they are. This is a leap of faith, and I am hopeful that they will be valuable to you. My interests are varied, and I often think about different aspects of these interests, some of which I will be writing about. This means my venture is like a salad bowl of thoughts, with vegetables not cut to uniform sizes, so some are more prevalent than others. Hand on my chest—I hope you got that imagery.

At the heart of everything I think and do is my faith in Jesus Christ. This isn't just a part of my life; it's the foundation upon which everything else is built. It shapes how I see the world and it will deeply influence my writing. My faith is like a lens that brings everything into focus and gives meaning to my experiences. When I write, this perspective is always present, coloring my words and ideas. It's not just what I believe; it's the navigation light for me.

I hope that gives you a good sense of what to expect from my Substack. I truly hope the ideas and thoughts I share will be enlightening, comforting, and enriching for you.

Looking forward to sharing more with you. See you soon!