JOKES: Pastor says F-YOU in church

Hahahaha, every Christian on the planet has to see this! One of the funniest videos I've ever seen (philosophical and comical)...

"EXTREMISM" - THE MAKE-UP OF A CHRISTIAN EXTREMIST

Is there such thing as a "Christian extremist" you ask?  Ofcourse there is!  What I don't know is whether or not these people know they are not pleasing God with their ways.  Today, I am attempting to help you identify a Christian extremist and also help you check yourself for a negative approach to Christianity.  God bless you as you read:

Let me start by trying to define a 'Christian extremist.'  In my view, a Christian extremist is one favoring immoderate uncompromising views on debatable issues in Christianity. Better yet, one who advocates or resorts to measures beyond the norm, to push his/her 'opinions' on Christian issues forward, often unconsciously(maybe consciously) hurting people and causing division.  He or she has more of a 'political' position on Christianity as opposed to a 'spiritual' position.  Mind you, the term 'Christian extremist' is negatively connotated and is synonymous with these words:  fanatic - madness- single-mindedness - obsessiveness - monomania - immoderate -  With these traits, you cannot please God and you are very dangerous to Christianity as a whole.

How do you know if you're a Christian extremist you ask?  Here are some specific traits of a Christian Extremist:

TRAITS OF A CHRISTIAN EXTREMIST

The person...

-HAS A STIFF/HARDENED HEART

A hardened heart is a 'closed' heart and such a heart is not open to positive change.  Such a heart is not a Godly heart and can exercise very little or no love at all.  Remember that a person whose heart is hardened avails his heart for negative influences, better yet, Satan's seed of influence.  God works with hearts that can listen to His voice and obey, heart's that can be moulded and re-moulded.  God is like a potter, and no potter can work with dry/hardened clay.  A person with such a heart is bound to cause problems if he/she finds himself trying to represent God.

-INTERPRETS BIBLE VERSES OUT OF CONTEXT

Christianity as a whole preaches love, the gospel is a loving message!  However, you find people who call themselves Christians and have a very offensive nature and as such always interpret Bible verses on the negative.  They seem to be comfortable telling others that their approach to things is wrong.  Remember, Christ was a symbol of love!  So if you find yourself interpreting the gospel and Bible verses in a way that gives it an 'un-loving' meaning, then you could be harbouring some extremism in your heart.

-SATISFIES POLITICAL MOTIVES RATHAR THAN SPIRITUAL MOTIVES
 Extremists will almost always focus a bit too much on Christian politics.  In the ideal situation, the church is supposed to be one body and free of politicking.  Any entity that calls itself a church is supposed to help guide its members toward salvation, or help them pave the way toward God's kingdom.  An extremist will pay more attention to frivolities like the superiority of one denomination over the other and as such, abandons his/her spiritual growth for troublemaking.

-IS VERY 'RELIGIOUS' BUT LESS 'CHRISTIAN'

Extremists are often extremely religious.  Being a 'religious' person and being a 'Christian' are two entirely different things.  A religious person is one who does everything required by his religion e.g going to church every sunday, reading the Bible regularly, praying everyday or at particular intervals and the like.  The fact that you read the Bible a lot and go to church does not make you a Christian...that makes you a 'religious' individual.  You can be religious about anything - your hair, shoes, food, clothes, beer, parties, music, academia e.t.c. How much the content of the Bible and the teachings of Christ have sank into your lifestyle is what makes up the 'Christian' in you. There are atheists who make better Christians than people who call themselves Christians! You can't call yourself a 'Christian' when your approach to Christianity does not allow you key-in to the reality of loving one another, living positively and in unity. 

-IS MOST LIKELY A DENOMINATIONAL CHRISTIAN

An extremist will often down-talk other denominations of Christians.  This is an agressive behaviour and it exhibits no love.  All the people who call themselves Christians have one main goal in mind, and that is 'SALVATION' and salvation obviously won't depend on the denomination you belong to.  If it did then no one will make it to heaven since denomination was created by man, not by God.  Your church cannt take you to heaven, it can only guide you.  The Christian inside of you is what will lead you to heaven.  Before Christ came, there was what the Bible refers to as 'worship.'  Religion came to be as society evolved.

-ALLOWS HIS/HER FEELINGS INTERFERE WITH THE VOICE OF GOD

Very often, the voice of man interferes with the voice of God, and for an extremist, such interferance is on the high side.  Christians need to be as objective as possible when reading, discussing and interpreting the content of the Bible.  When you allow your preconceived opinions influence your interpretation of the Bible, you are interfering with the voice of God.  Very often, your preconceptions can lead you to disobey an obvious divine instruction, ignore a prophecy and in turn you'll miss out on the blessing that should have followed.  You must let God be God.

-LISTENS WITH EARS BUT NOT WITH HEART (CLOSED HEART)

An extremist is usually out of touch with his/her conscience and therefore has a distorted view of what's right and what's wrong.  The heart is our conscience, God planted it in us that we may sense what pleases Him and what doesn't.  When you listen to people with your ears alone and close your heart, you can't come up with the likely position God would love you to assume and as such, you do more harm than good.  When your heart is closed, you're serving yourself alone.  Christ had an open heart, therefore, all Christians should have an open heart.  You create by far more positive impact with an open heart than you would with a closed heart.  An open heart is like a fountain of love, constantly pouring out love.

-LACKS EMPATHY, ONLY ACCEPTS VIEWS THAT CONFORM WITH THEIRS

A Christian extremist lacks the ability to identify with the feelings, thoughts and views of other Christians, especially when they're not of thesame church or denomination.  Christ was a very empathetic individual, that was why he prevented people from stoning the prostitute to death.  Christ was very empathetic, that is why he agreed to help the gentile woman (even though he initially refused) whose daughter had an evil spirit [Mark 7:24-30].  If Christ could be so empathetic, and you say you're a Christian (Christ-like) then you should be a very empathetic fellow.  I mean, you can't get any more Christian than Jesus Christ himself, can you?  So Christ is our standard (or 'benchmark' if you like).

-IS VERY JUDGEMENTAL AND FAILS TO REALISE THAT GOD IS JUDGE

Christian extremists are very judgemental Christians.  They tend to think that they're so near perfection that they find it very easy to give approval to and point accusing fingers at their fellow man and fellow Christians for correctness and incorrectness thereof, in their practice of Christianity.  If you must correct a fellow Christian, you must do it with humility.  God will 'probably' approve of a humble correction, but not of judgement.    'Judgement' is a privilage that God reserved for Himself.  Under no circumstances should a mere human being judge his fellow human being.

-APPROACH TO CHRISTIANITY IS NOT LOVING OR EXHIBITS VERY LITTLE AND/OR CONDITIONAL LOVE:

For example, a person who is of this position - "You must be from my church else I don't recognise your Christinity." Or "you must satisfy these Christian conditions before you and I can talk." - For God's sake, how are you going to increase the righteousness of the world or save souls if you've placed a wall between yourself and those that need to be saved?  You're selfish!

-SPIRIT IS STILL YET TO BE BROKEN BY GOD BECAUSE THEY'RE RESISTING THE VOICE OF THE SPIRIT

A Christan Extremist is still under his/her own control, not God's control because they are still self-serving.  In other words, they haven't been broken by the spirit yet.  This is usually the result of resisting the voice and desires of the spirit and paying more attention to one's own voice and desires.

-TRIES TO CONTROL THE WORD OF GOD AS OPPOSED TO LETTING THE WORD OF GOD CONTROL HIM/HER

A Christian extremist lacks humility in approaching the Bible.  Your approach to reading the Bible must be the humble approach i.e. read it as if to seek knowledge NOT to support opinions.  Seeking knowledge is assuming you don't know anything and letting the word of God control you (this is the humble approach), but where you already have an opinion and you're trying to validate them with the Bible, you're not being humble and you're likely to cause problems in doing so.

-IS A STUBBORN INDIVIDUAL WHO HIDES HIS/HER STUBBORNNESS UNDER CHRISTIANITY

It isn't uncommon for people to bring their stubbornness into the church or into Christianity.  Yes, such people are 'religious' (very religious sometimes) but they lack the 'spiritual' edge to their practice of Christianity and as such, are not changing positively on the inside.  Their spiritual growth is stagnated as a result.  Though they call themselves Christians, they're always arguing and having feuds with other children of God, even those in their own church.  Some even go as far as having feuds with their Pastor or Reverend Father.  This is not good for Christianity.

-MOST OF THE TIME, THEY'LL TELL YOU SAINT PAUL IS THEIR ROLE MODEL (lol)

But they have completely misunderstood the circumstances surrounding Saint Paul's missionary journey.  Saint Paul went to more places than Jesus Christ Himself went and touched numerous lives as he carried the gospel.  Saint Paul won countless souls for Christ.  So you must ask yourself, how many souls have you succeeded in bringing to Christ?  As an extremist, chances are you're scaring people away from Christ and Christianity.

These are some other traits that are self explanatory:

-CAUSES MORE DIVISION AS OPPOSED TO UNITY IN THE CHRISTIANDOM

-LOOKS DOWN ON OTHER CHILDREN OF GOD

-ALWAYS BELIEVES HE/SHE HAS SOLUTION TO HIS/HER OWN SPIRITUAL ISSUES WHEREAS IN REALITY, NOBODY HAS MONOPOLY OF DIVINE KNOWLEDGE AND GIFTS...GOD DELIBERATELY SPREAD THEM KNOWING THE WEAKNESS AND AUTOCRATIC NATURE OF MAN

-THINKS HE/SHE IS PLEASING GOD BUT IS PLEASING SELF (SATISFYING/JUSTIFYING PERSONAL IMPERFECTIONS)

CONSEQUENCES OF CHRISTIAN EXTREMISM

-YOU DIVIDE GOD'S KINGDOM

-YOU MISS OUT ON GOD'S BLESSINGS

-YOU SCARE PEOPLE AWAY FROM CHRIST

-IN SHORT, YOU DISPLEASE GOD

CONCLUSION

The Kingdom of God has no use for an extremist.  Extremism can only have a positive impact when applied to fighting 'demons' spiritually as there is no compromise when it comes to fighting/dealing with evil in the spirit (i.e in the supernatural or metaphysical).  So, for the love of God and your fellow human beings, do away with Christian extremism - you're doing neither yourself nor anyone else any good!  

Thank you for reading

George Onoja 

- 

POTENT CHRISTIANITY

This piece discusses authenticity/genuiness in Christianity.  Put differently, it seeks to answer the question - "When does the Christian in you gain potency?"

 

Just a few days ago, I got myself involved in a friendly debate with fellow Christians where we sought to answer whether Christianity is a thing of the 'heart' or of the 'mouth.'  In other words, is your Christian status validated by the faith which rests in your heart or by the faith which you proclaim by the words of your mouth?  I actually thought the answer to that question was obvious (in favour of my position ofcourse).  But as I've discovered, each human being is unique and perceives things quite differently.  I was of the view that Christianity is a thing of the heart, my friend and room mate from the University of Abuja was of the opinion that it was more in the mouth and the third person involved (a friend of my friend) was also of the opinion that it was a thing of the mouth.  At the end of the debate, we all came out with slightly modified views on the issue and I am sure you will too after reading this!

Lol, baby man of God exercising his faith

I was of the view that Christianity is a trillion-quadrillion-zillion times more in the heart than it is in the mouth. Having 'faith' or 'strong beleif' in God is a CONVICTION OF THE 'HEART.' The word of mouth is only a CONFESSION. The heart must go through deep conviction before the mouth's confession becomes valid or genuine or potent (which ever of the words you might prefer).  Don't forget, the mouth is very deceiving! It can pour out words that don't conform with the position of the heart.  But the heart itself NEVER tells a lie!  The heart's position on anything cannot be debated because it constantly pours out the 'truth' to the owner.  It is that faith that has built up in the heart that allows you to move mountains by word of mouth. Look at the mouth as an instrument for tapping into the content of the heart.

Case study: It is not new to us that sometimes when people are deeply in love, their mouth tells an entirely different story to the public (the young call it "fronting") whereas their hearts are bleeding and craving for the attention of the beloved.  In another scenario, a man or a woman who has completely lost him/herself to the ways of 'the world' can open his/her mouth to tell you he/she is in love with you when you have no place at all in their heart, just so they can follow through with selfish desires (God forgive them).  In both cases, the mouth is obviously misrepresenting the position of the heart. Christianity is just like this, it starts in the heart.  I find it quite comical that people can confess what they do not even believe in their hearts, is it pressure or what??? If you're in this trap then you need to go back to the drawing board and sort yourself out.
 

Trust in God...It's not gambling at all

There's a popular expression in the Christiandom, they call it being "born-again."  Being born again has to do with giving one's life to Christ and accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and saviour by word of mouth in front of a large crowd.  But I think we need to be more practical because Christianity (or Christ-likeness) is practical. Yes, being "born-again" as they call it is done officially by word of mouth. But isn't it true that many people who are born again by word of mouth are not born again by lifestyle?  Of what importance is your acceptance of Christ in front of a congregation when in reality, your heart doubts the reality of God and your life completely fails to reflect Christ-consciousness?  The word of mouth has no substance when the heart does not assume thesame position.  I am a very practical person, so words alone don't mean much to me.  I've come to see Christianity as greater than religion,  to me it's a LIFESTYLE.


One of the parties in the debate supported his position by saying:

"Christianity has never been in the heart, it's a product of your mouth-work! How did you become born again? By saying with your mouth! Rom 10:9-10. You might want to ask 'what about the heart that is mentioned there'? James said even the demons believe and tremble. James 2:19. Are they born again even though they believed? No! Because they'll never say it! -They won't use their mouth. If you must be victorious as a Christian, if you must live the God-life that you've been called unto as a christian, you must be a talker."

But then, I thought to myself,  How can a tree bear fruit when it's roots are not buried in fertile soil?  It is bound to dry up and die!  How can you place a cart before a horse?  There will be no motion!  So I looked at the Bible verse in Romans he referred me to and realised he had made thesame mistake many Christians make - laying too much emphasis on a word or line and missing out on the entire gist of a passage.  Romans 10: 9-10 which he had referred me to reads: 

"If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised Him from death, you will be saved.  For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession we are saved." 

If you look at this verse objectively, you'll see that the element of beleif/faith (which is in the 'heart') is placed side by side the element of confession (which is by 'mouth').  If you decide to read the passage further to Romans 10:14 you discover more.  It reads:

"But how can they call to him for help if they have not believed?  And how can they believe if they have not heard the message?  And how can they hear if the message is not proclaimed?"
  

Interesting indeed!  So I concluded that an individuals Christianity is a cycle of beleif and confession which starts with beleif (in the heart) then confession (by the mouth) and the cycle goes on.  It is the heart that "beleives" and it is also the heart that "doubts" e.g. if you doubt the very existance of God in your heart and you say things like "God will help," then you are basically saying "the wind will help" because there's no substance behind the words.

After debating, my ex room mate, who goes by the name Daniel Ajah, summed up his new position on the issue with these words:

"So we don’t just have 2 blab words just because the next person is blabbing words. They must 1st Register on our HEART before We VOICE them.  I believe they are Both Important: Heart and Mouth. The heart is SPIRITUAL, d mouth is NATURAL... The heart is 4 GOD, d mouth is 4 men. God KNOWS what's in our HEARTs, men and situations will ONLY Know what’s in our HEARTS WHEN WE SPEAK." 





This is based on [Mark 11: 22-25] where Jesus said "Have faith in God. I assure you that whoever tells this hill to get up and throw itself in the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. For this reason I tell you: when you pray and ask for something, beleive that you have received it, and you will be given whatever you ask for. And when you stand and pray, forgive anything you may have against anyone, so that your Father in heaven will forgive the wrongs you have done." 

Once again, Thanks Daniel Ajah (a.k.a Nwokem) for bringing up this Bible passage on that day.  You rock dude...

HEARING FROM GOD - WHAT IT MEANS!!!

Very often, the Holy Spirit is depicted by a dove, however, it reveals itself in many instances as a "voice"

This morning, I would like to correct a wrong idea circulating among Christians, please permit me:

When you say you want to hear from God, what do you mean? Some people think hearing from God is hearing what their Pastor or Reverend Father has to say, better yet, they think it's getting their Pastor's or Reverend Father's opinion on an issue. Well if you thought so, you thought wrongly!
Your Pastor or Reverend is not God!!! He or she is subject to biases and sentiments, just like every other member of the congregation and is equally battling for his or her own place in Heaven, JUST LIKE YOU! Sure thing, they know A LOT, but they're human beings so they don't know it all. Take your professors at school for instance, they know A LOT after so many years of training and teaching but don't know it all!
Before the coming of Christ, God spoke to prophets directly and they carried "what the Lord said" here and there. After the death of Christ, he left us the "Holy Spirit" (a.k.a The Helper), to help us out of troubles, confusion and to DIRECT us. [John 14:15-31]
God is a trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Therefore, in the year 2011, the equivalent of hearing from God is "HEARING THE VOICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT" not the voice of the Pastor or Reverend Father.
Now that we've settled that, how do you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in the year 2011? In most cases, very devout members of the church congregation have it as a free gift from God. Some are born that way while some develop it over time, after periods upon periods of highly devoted worship. Some Reverend Fathers and Pastors (not all) have this gift too. A number of them stepped into ecclesiastical work after they discovered their gift so they could help people. In most cases though, it's ordinary members of the congregation that have this gift. To hear from the Holy Spirit when your spirituality is not on the level that permits you to hear it's voice just yet, you go to these people for counselling or consultation. It's free!!! If the Bible can't address your issue, the Holy Spirit can!!! The Holy Spirit exists and is working, do yourself a favour and get in touch.