We shall all give account!

One of my frequent pastimes is price comparison. I am what you'd call a price maven. I'm always interested in finding out the cheapest price of the most appropriate quality of any item that comes to my attention. And so over the years I have developed a comprehensive database (mostly in my brain) of where to find almost anything at the best price.

Because of this skill, I tend to get tasked with purchasing duties for my wife's catering business during her various projects all over the country.

On one of such projects I had come to realize that my budgets for purchases were inaccurate. As such I was running out of cash. Knowing I inevitably would need to make an account to my wife of all monies spent, I began to mentally sketch out each purchase one after the other. I also decided I needed a little pocket book to jot down all expenses, not just for the benefit of accounting to my wife, but for my personal use and to get a grip on my finances.

This led me on a wider realm of thinking. As I planned to account for my spending, shouldn't I also account for my time? After all it is said that "time is money!" As I thought further I realized that every living thing on earth is blessed with exactly the SAME QUANTITY of time everyday of its life as all other living things! This means that the world's richest men/women are blessed with exactly the same 24hrs of the day that the poorest in the society are. A rich man cannot buy an extra second of time for himself with all the money in the world. So if each second of each minute of each hour of each day were worth a specific amount, then every human being is invested with exactly the same value of that amount daily.

How do we spend our time everyday? What does it yield? When we think of our financial and economic conditions, are we tempted to think of ourselves as disadvantaged? Jesus spoke about this issue in a parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-26). After congratulating both servants who had yielded a 100% profit based on their initial investment capital of 5 &  2 talents respectively, he faced the last servant who unfortunately had viewed himself as disadvantaged and had decided to keep his capital unused. He was condemned by the master for being wicked and was stripped of his capital.

In that story, Jesus was telling us that inevitably we will all be called to give account for all we have been endowed with. Especially our time. Time is one resource we all have in equal amounts. Other attributes may vary, but time is the measure that will be used to assess how well we manage our resources.

How long do we sleep daily? Do we sleep in order to rest or just to pass the time? The book of Proverbs mentions it twice that sleep leads to poverty. How else are we using our time unproductively? I have resolved to create for myself a personal time sheet to record my daily use of time. What ways can you ensure that not a second of your time is wasted?

Do share your thoughts and comments. Pls share this message widely as you never know whose life it can change!

Why I'd make a poor scientist

The pellets of rain didn't feel as heavy as the speed with which my shirt got drenched would suggest. Trudging through the muddy alleys of ebutte ero, Lagos Island, in my quest for a number of far-flung items for purchase, I silently breathed a prayer to the Almighty for help in achieving my aims within the shortest time possible.

An hour later and I was virtually done. This was in spite of many traders hell-bent on early closure to beat the gridlocked roads the torrent would inevitably bring on their ways home.

I knew God had answered my prayer as He usually does when I ask. So I was thankful. A thought occurred to me. Was I sure my prayers were answered or I could have achieved equal success even if I hadn't prayed. I giggled inwardly. I had experienced enough frustrating market encounters (which ended up fruitless in spite of adequate cash) to know when I had experienced a positive outing.

However because I am not a scientist, my "theory" of answered prayer cannot be logically tested. Had I been one, I would need to prepare a number of similar trips to the market on similar rainy days trying to purchase similarly difficult-to-locate items. I would then make a point to not pray while holding a timer in order to record accurately the length it took to complete my task. This experiment would then need to be similarly carried out by a woman,  foreign nationals of both sexes, and other suitable samples to generate proper data points for analysis.

I would then compile my observations into a scientific paper to be delivered to other science peers and published in a reputable journal. Only then would I be able to scientifically theorize that prayers could be answered resulting in a measurable improvement to a no-pray option.

Firstly I don't have the time for such an exhaustive experiment just to prove prayer works and God exists.
Secondly conducting such an experiment demonstrates a measure of doubt and I know for a fact that doubt negates my ability to relate with God.

So I guess the reader just has to take my word for it that my prayers were and are answered. This is why I could never be a passable scientist!

God is one

"There is only one God", "God is one, not three",  etc. These are popular bumper stickers one encounters quite often on the streets of Lagos. They seem like a poke in the eye of some entity that always tries to project God as being multiple. 

For a Christian, this truly could present confusion! The first explicit mention of a possibility of multi-theism was projected by Jesus himself. In Matthew 28:19 (New Living Translation) He said, "Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit". To an ordinary observer this seems like an unabashed admission of more than one God. Three precisely.

However, the Christian church has always projected from its beginnings that the Trinity is but a trifold manifestation of one supreme being.

For dogma's sake this seems a pretty tidy catechism. A Father in heaven who then manifested as the Son,  saviour of mankind,  and who then manifests today in the hearts of believers as the Holy Spirit.
In practice though things could get slightly tricky. We are to direct our prayers to the Father, in line with the leading of the Holy Spirit, in the Name of the Son.  This clearly posits that all three are simultaneously present when we pray! Wow!!!

With the awareness of this, it takes faith to still connect one God with three Persons performing different functions.

I was reading a passage the other day.

Rev 22:16 NLT
"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches. I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star."

This is mind blowing!  Here Jesus acknowledges Himself (God) as playing 2 different roles at once.  He says he is the source (origin, beginning,  root,  Father) of King David, and at the same time He is David' heir (successor, product, result,  Son). In other words he is both the producer and product. Human thinking can find that possibility hard to grasp.

But why must we humans attempt to shoehorn God into our perception of a uni-tasking entity like ourselves?  In theory we agree God is omnipotent and omniscient, but in practice we refuse to believe in the possibility.

All over the old testament God manifested himself as various things to various people. A rock, a voice, a burning bush. None of these inhibited His role as the Supreme creator.

What Christ explained In the passage was a simple truism. There is only one God.

The story of salvation becomes much simpler. God in heaven created mankind, but mankind fell astray necessitating death as a punishment. God, preferring to reduce himself than allow his creation (his own image) to die, is then born into the world as a human. He pays the ultimate price even though innocent of sin and dies so that through his death,  all sinners might no longer get what they deserve (death), but receive the grace of eternal life. He then rises from the dead to signify to all who accept his salvation that we can all be victorious over sin by dying to it just as Christ died,  and being born anew into Abundant  life in God's Kingdom.

A story of slavery part 3

Adam was worried. This fruit issue was getting out of hand. His family life had taken a turn for the worse. Eve no longer permitted him the freedom to physically  appreciate her beauty. He was often left pensive and emotionally disturbed. Even his evening walks with the Creator were betraying his matrimonial instability.

He didn't  know  whether to confide his problems with God. It might make him look weak and unable to handle his own affairs.

God was in charge of so much! Yet he never seemed overwhelmed with responsibility. Besides he had been clear in his order not to eat from the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. If he mentioned the crisis in his home then it would betray a possibility of disobedience.

How could he earn the respect of his wife? Was it by agreeing to go against the Creator's wishes?  What if they really died? Adam didn't want to die. But her snake friend claimed to have eaten the fruit and hadn't died.

And what about the positive part of the proposal. They would become as wise as God! Equal to him. Able to command those mighty winged creatures. Able to control the earth!

If such power to challenge the authority of God resided in a mere fruit, why would God leave such a tree within their grasp? It just didn't add up to Adam.

But he decided it better to be on his wife's good side with a caveat.

The next day, he gave her his condition for joining her in fulfilling her desire. She had to consent to his leadership initiative henceforth. There was to be no more undermining of his authority. She agreed.

Eve, with dariel beside her, plucked one low hanging fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and bit it, chewing slowly.

"I don't feel different " she said to dariel, suspicion clouding her voice.

" Adam must have some first or it won't work ". At this point Eve paused and asked dariel a question.

" I thought you had eaten it already, why doesn't it work the same way with me? " dariel mumbled something about it having to do with completion. The fruit couldn't work on only half of the couple until they both ate it.

Eve handed over the half eaten fruit to Adam. He took it and placed it in his mouth. He noticed at that split second before he began biting and chewing that they were not alone in the thicket. several  other human looking creatures with tails just like dariel had emerged all around them.

They were bowing with arms outstretched and knees on the ground, faces brightly genuflecting to the earth.

And they suddenly disappeared.

"where is dariel? " Eve asked. It was then he looked round, still chewing, and realized the serpent was gone.

He looked at Eve and felt shame. Why did she have to carry those bosoms openly. Instinctively, her hands went up to cover her breasts from his scrutiny. Her eyes were on his manhood too, and he felt himself turning away from her.

"Let's cover ourselves", Eve suggested.

He agreed

A story of slavery pt 2

They were becoming really close. It was funny to her how a willing, listening ear could cause so much reciprocated loyalty. Dariel never spoke much about himself, merely listening to all she had to say and sometimes suggesting things she could do (which never really veered much away from eating that elusive fruit anyway).
Strangely she hadn't eaten the fruit. It wasn't because she didn't believe it had all those wonderful qualities. After all she herself had witnessed how it transformed dariel from a mere snake into a wise creature. The wisest she had ever met! The main drawback for her was that she couldn't eat it alone. Adam had to also eat the fruit with her. She just didn't feel comfortable disobeying God's command alone. If Adam agreed to eat the fruit, then God would have no choice but to accept their elevated status. After all it would help them rule the earth more effectively as they had been commanded by God. Even dariel agreed they both had to eat the fruit. But if she went ahead and ate it alone, and Adam didn't then she could be imprisoned with dariel and stripped of all privilege. It was the discussion of that consequence which revealed something strange to her about dariel.

Fear.

It was unmistakable in his appearance once the prospect of retribution was mentioned. All former signs of confidence and courage disintegrated in the face of that pervasive fear. What was responsible for that fear she wondered? Did dariel have other knowledge she was unaware of? Why was he so intent on making sure they disobeyed God?   Why wasn't he persuading other animals to eat the fruit and become wise? Had God ordered animals not to eat the fruit too?

But he was always there to listen to her. Her disagreements with her husband, wonder at why she had been created into this relationship of mutual habitation, curiosity as to what God thought about her and what he was up to when not strolling in the garden with her husband. Why didn't He want them to become wise? Why did He even create a tree of knowledge in the first place? What if  He really wanted them to use the limited knowledge they had to improve themselves? After all, who wouldn't choose wisdom over ignorance? If they ate the fruit, they could only become more useful for God's work!

Dariel always smiled at her uncertainties about God. He never disparaged the creator. He only responded with hints that  there was more to God's personality than they knew. He referred to a desire for unquestioned subjugation from all creatures. A mindless devotion to the Overlord's every whim and caprice. Dariel always referred to him as the Overlord. He mentioned a rumor of rebellion he'd heard, of an army of those majestic cherubs that surround the Overlord. They had chaffed at the forced slavery they had been subjected to by Him and had tried to overthrow him. She shivered in discomfort at the tale.
Dariel hadn't told her how God had resolved the dispute. But she imagined it would not be a pretty     ending for an unsuccessful attempt. such a gargantuan task as stripping your creator of Lordship was not one taken lightly.

She wondered why God desired slaves so much. What value could one place on a slave? It worried Eve that the purpose of her existence (according to what she had been told by dariel) was slavery to an unloving creator. Or could one love a slave? Wouldn't true love prompt emancipation?

A story of slavery pt 1

A gentle breeze blew, swaying the  leafy branches overhanging the pathway to and fro. The creature slithered down the side of the tree. He had seen his beautiful friend stroll nearby singing in her melodious voice. He quickly hurried in her direction. Time was of the essence. He needed his period of isolated conversation with the woman before the Overlord came around for his daily walks with her husband. The reptile's presence in the garden would alert the King's guards, and the imposing winged warriors would quickly alert their Master of his whereabouts, and the whole scheme could become unravelled!

"Luscious princess!", she heard him call out, she turned sideways in obvious pleasure. She always wondered what he saw in her body. Adam never seemed to complement her as much as Dariel did. Maybe his type was just more sensitive of her qualities than a man ever could be.

"I was roused from sleep with your wonderful voice", the serpent said. "I was tired but took a quick bite of the Fruit of Nourishment, and I immediately became strong" he added.

"Is that another name for it?", Eve asked. "I thought you called it the Fruit of Beauty yesterday, or does it go by so many names?". She remembered Adam had called it the Fruit of Knowledge. How could one fruit have so many qualities she wondered. And apparently that was the one fruit the Master had ordered them not to touch in the entire garden.

"If only you knew the value of the fruit, my princess. I could never survive without it! It strengthens my sight and hearing, it cools my skin with its healing sap, quenches my thirst with its sweet juice, lulls me to sleep in its intoxicating medicine, so many qualities my princess", his voice was husky as his eyes caressed her effeminate protrusions in undisguised lust.

She was oblivious to all the implications of the attention being lavished on her by the serpent as her mind wondered to her first marital disagreement with her husband the previous day. 

They were in each other's arms and Adam was enthralled in passion. She had other issues to broach though, so while his hands wondered, she decided to plunge in right away and ask. "Why did the Master ask us not to taste from the big tree?"
Adam slowed down his perusals. He was suspicious as to where this was leading. "What tree are you referring to? I hope you aren't talking about the tree of knowledge?"

"But every other creature has tasted from it too, why can't we?" Eve replied him.

The grass they lay on suddenly seemed prickly to him and he stood up to his feet. "How did you know that, woman? None of them can speak in words we understand. Who have you been speaking with?"

Eve shifted uncomfortably in her seating position. "That is exactly what I'm trying to tell you. The fruit bestows powerful abilities on whoever eats it! It even gives the ability to speak in our words to some creatures" her eyes had grown brighter. Perhaps this wouldn't be so difficult after all.
"I met a creature who became able to speak and understand our words just after tasting the fruit! He can even alter his form into that of a man like you, except he has a tail"
She added. "And he says it is the fruit that gave him all that power!"

Adam was furious. Why did it seem the Master had made his wife smarter than he was? He was the one who'd been placed in charge, yet it seemed his wife knew more about the garden than he did. He had named every creature according to what he felt was their ability. And the Master had never  objected to any name. He had been ordered to care for it, and yet creatures were eating from a tree even he wasn't allowed to taste! "I will ask the Master about it" he eventually said "He has never held back any answer to my questions".

Eve was terrified. She had been sworn to secrecy by the serpent. He had told her they would both be imprisoned if the Master discovered one creature had become as powerful as he had, after constantly eating the fruit. She had promised to ensure Adam never asked God about the powerful fruit lest all be exposed.

"Adam you can't do that". She quickly replied him
"Why not?" He asked
"At least let's discover its powers for ourselves first. Even if we don't eat from it like we've been ordered not to, we can still study what it does" she was grasping at straws

"Why not simply ask He who created it?" Adam wondered about the sudden desperation to keep the incident away from God. What had his wife been up to these past days, while he learned gardening techniques with tools he had been taught to make?

"We don't want to annoy Him do we? Let's take our time before bringing such an issue to the Master; Let's look for a way to please Him before risking his ire".
That sounded like a better excuse to her.

Adam agreed.