Nigeria, the place to be?
We said previously that the church was designed to impact the world with God’s Kingdom culture and laws and where our influence comes from. We also looked at money myths we must not believe. What is the power of money? I must begin by saying that money is not everything. It is also certainly not the most important thing in life. Character matters more than anything. And money
However, money is powerful and can do many things.
Deuteronomy 28: 8-13, “The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. [9] The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways. [10] And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee. [11] And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee. [12] The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. [13] And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them.”
The power of money is what the money can do or get done. That is to say the value of money is its power.
Money, according to economists and
It was around 9:00pm when I was relaxing with my friend, Lucky Arhere in his Alarco Hotel in Agbara, Ogun State, Nigeria. It had been a busy day when my cousin, Esi and Ifeoma had a Church wedding. We were actually discussing the concerns of Nigeria especially the ongoing killings and what can be done to stop it. Suddenly a man entered with a bottle of wine and requested us to drink and celebrate Nigeria. I was surprised because this man is not a Nigerian. He is a citizen of Holland by name Jacco Ten Cate. He kept repeating the refrain, Nigeria is a great country! Nigeria is the place to be! You people should not allow any other country take over the wealth of your country. You have the man power; you have the natural resources. Yes, do not fall into the trap of international politics. I was wondering how a visitor to Nigeria could be so positive about Nigeria whose citizens are looking for a way to escape from. Then came the last shock from Jacco Ten Cate. He opened his phone and showed me the picture of his wife, a Nigerian woman. So I kept asking myself, “How can Nigeria be a place to be? A place where human life worths less than the price of a sparrow.
As if Jacco perceived what was going on in my mind, he gave me his card and I gave him mine too. He looked at the card and said, so you are the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria InterReligious Council and the Secretary General of the West Africa Inter-Religious Council. I guess you want to make a better Nigeria. Then he raised further questions. How are you going to change Nigeria? It is not in the nature of Nigeria to go through these challenges. You need to be different. Be proud of your tradition. How do you hope to handle waste management and Cultural change? Do not sell Nigeria to China or any other country. Preaching alone cannot change Nigeria. You need to be proactive. Honestly, Jacco rekindled the hope I have biblical sources, 1. Is a medium of exchange, 2. Store of value, 3. Unit of account. 4. Source of status and social prestige. There is a dignity that comes from wealth. Money gives you respect. The King’s wealth is his glory and it is his reputation. It determines his reputation among all the kings. So, it is with individuals.
5. A provider of physical and psychological security. The Bible says money is a defence.
6. A contributing factor to human welfare and well-being. Money can afford you better education, good health services and other social comforts and many other things that make for a better life. God wants you to prosper 3John verse
7. A basis for military strength. America, the richest country in the world, is also the most powerful nation, in the world.
8. Money plays an important role in the development of society.
9. A source of public influence and political power. Wealth gives you a name and a voice. Ecclesiastes 9:16, “Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.” The poor man has no voice, but money gives you a voice of authority and control. When you are wealthy, people think you know what you are doing.
When you become successful, you also become wealthy. Then you also become influential.
The world will continue to ignore the church as long as we remain broke. We must teach our people to find their gift, develop it, use it and dominate the world!
The Bible says in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the always had for Nigeria.
However, I thought of how Europe survived after a hundred years of various wars. I thought of the genocide in some countries of the world and how they were able to get on their feet again. I thought of the rise of America from a slave colony to a force that now rule the world. I thought of the training I had in 2010 in Kenya and the analogy of planting a tree that can endure for many generations. I questioned the information parents imparts on their children. Can this impression on the children give enough capacity to prevent conflict, reconcile conflicts and plan strategies and skills that can help the human person? Are the communities reconciled enough to grow into communities and the society that can have sustainable peace? Is it possible for children who are nursing how they would avenge the killings of their parents and relatives been transformed to work for sustainable peaceful coexistence at all levels? Can the children who have grown in criminality think of ethnic and religious harmony in our world?
Nigeria is potentially great but to actualize this greatness, we need to look again at the structures that keep putting the country asunder. How do we involve and integrate all the levels of human beings in the country? Who gives the president the national reality or situation report in the country? Can the poor reach the President, Governor, Bishop, the Chief Imam, the Royal fathers, the Chief judge, and the high class of the society? Do those charged with the welfare and security of the nation have enough time to read newspapers or listen to news on the television? Do they actually know the country they govern? Does the minister of works know that the roads have become death traps? Does the poor and oppressed get justice in court? Do those in charge of security respond to emergency with required urgency. Do medical practitioners attend to patients who nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.” Nations here means Governing powers or systems of control: the political world, the banking system, the insurance systems, the educational system, the entertainment system, the world of sports, etc.
The word disciple means student or learner. To be able to make a disciple of someone means you’re their teacher and you cannot be their teacher unless:
1. You’re in a position of influence. You cannot teach students who you cannot influence. And you cannot influence students unless you are not as broke as they are. 2. You’re in a position of power 3. You have the knowledge they don’t have and
4. You have the expertise they never had and
5. Experience they don’t have. So, Jesus was saying I want you to be the teacher of nations.
To be able to do that, you have to be in a position of influence. And one of the things that make you influential is wealth.
The church is losing today because we’ve been so busy preparing people for heaven that we are not teaching them to impact the earth. Discipleship means you become the person of influence.
God can make a whole government your students. Joseph was Pharaoh’s teacher.
Ecclesiastes 9:14-16, “There was a small town with only a few people, and a great king came with his army and besieged it. A poor, wise man knew how to save the town, and so it was rescued. But afterward no one thought have no money? Does the parish priest give adequate pastoral care to parishioners who are poor and lonesome? Do the rich and the poor receive equal attention in times of equal need? Does the social disparity not create a gulf in a way and manner that some prefer to die to escape the world since they cannot fly to the countries with functional system and structure?
We can have lasting peace with the capacity to integrate all levels of intervention in conflict management. The leaders and peace builders must resist the temptation to take sides in contributing to the larger justice and peace issues. The peace builder must act locally and think globally but with the consciousness that no single level, activity, person, organization is able to bring peace in isolation of others. There is need for collaborative effort! What follows is the intention, capacity, courage, space and opportunities of the peace builder to integrate people, roles and activities. Forming relationships is vital but how can the poor and the rich come together in a capitalist system? To enhance the meeting of people of different class, the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) invites all categories of the citizens to the opening ceremonies of every NIREC meeting. This is to create room for the poor and victims of violence to express themselves to the government officials who attend NIREC meetings. This is a way of sustaining an ongoing response capacity to address the cyclical nature of conflicts.
It is not easy to forget the hurts that one suffers from conflict. The appeal to forgive and forget can only be successful in the capacity to forgive after the predator has been made to face justice with commensurate punishment. If this leads to sincere repentance, then amnesty would make a laudable sense. However, his victims must be given more attention in the form of trauma counselling and welfare. When perpetrators of violence and killings are given amnesty while the victims suffer, the nation to thank him. So even though wisdom is better than strength, those who are wise will be despised if they are poor. What they say will not be appreciated for long.” Ecclesiastes 9:14-16 NLT
Ecclesiastes 9:16 (NKJV), “Then I said: Wisdom is better than strength. Nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, And his words are not heard.”
When you gain wealth, you gain attention. You have to learn how to become wealthy in a godly way so you can become influential. There are 3 levels of blessings: 1. The works of your hands (Deuteronomy 2:7, “For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.”) In this level, it’s not flowing but you lack nothing.
2. Your basket. Deuteronomy 28:5, “Blessed shall be thy basket. You don’t need a basket if all you have can fit into your hand.
3. Your storehouse. Deuteronomy 28:5, “Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.” This is the level of excess. You don’t need a store house if all you have can fit into a basket. This is the level of overflow or abundance talked about in this verse of Deuteronomy 28; Proverbs 3:9-10; Malachi 3:9-10, Luke 6:38; also
God will take you to the level of storehouse wealth and increase your influence, in Jesus name! Kingdom resources will be made available to you for Kingdom work and impact, in the name of Jesus!! That gift hidden in you will emerge for global recognition and impact, in Jesus name!! must be prepared for a time bomb of vengeance. Government should therefore develop enduring local capacities for peace. People who have the passion for peace building with the zeal to make sacrifice should be encouraged and given enough capacity to work for peace at the grassroots level. This goes beyond merely going to villages. Grassroots here includes management of logistical mechanism and institutions, that is people oriented in the context of social spaces. This grassroots principle can transform violence and divisions. It can increase peaceful and interdependent relationship in order to create a space that is safe for people to live in peace.
Nigeria can really be a place to be if people can have jobs that can prevent them from being used for violence. If people have comfortable places to stay instead of sleeping under bridges in our major cities and if everybody has a job to do to earn a decent living, then, the meaning of life will be enhanced. No one who has a value for life would want to be a suicide bomber, kidnapper, terrorist or bandit. Nigeria will be a place to be if freedom of the press and religion are guaranteed. People should be free to worship God in Spirit and truth because if God does not build a house, in vain do the builders labour (Psalm 127, 1). God must be the beginning and end of our entire peace project. God at the center implies that we recognize human beings as creatures with divine nature (Genesis 1, 26-27). Humans are empowered by God to transcend their limitations with a deliberate change of negative attitudes and values to go beyond ourselves in developing a healthy society. Ideally, Nigeria is a place to be. May this reality dawn on our generation.