FOREWORD TO THIS REPRODUCTION
This piece is a verbatim reproduction of Fractured Focus, an article written in mid-1988 and published in December 1988 in the controversy column of With One Accord. It sought to address the floppy traditional prayer pattern of CAC generally and specifically Christ Apostolic Church Students’ Association (CACSA). It is unedited, reproduced exactly as it was originally published then only with correction of glaring spelling errors (in the underlined). Highlights for emphasis or quick summary are painted in yellows.
Though time has changed many of the scenes and claims in the write-ups as dates have significantly shifted, what birthed the protest of the publication 35 years ago persists and this status quo calls for a reflection. For instance, the introduction of the piece mentioned something like killing mosquitoes with an atomic bomb when a roaring lion makes a dangerous advance. The prophetic import of that caution could easily be related to the fact that it came over twenty years before Boko Haram reared its head in the north. And, we still have not learnt the lesson.
Going by a little refinement that has attended to my writing style over the year, it may be true that the write-up would need a little bit of re-editing, and rephrasing if it were to be rewritten today. But to the extent that the fundamental problems it sought to address remain an overbearing reality, this makes the message to be more important than its presentation as its bell of reappraisal and caution still rings very loud. – JOBA (April, 2023)
Preamble
Nobody quarrels with killing of a mosquito. However, any person will protest the killing of mosquitoes with an atomic bomb while a roaring lion makes dangerous advancement. The Bible is explicit about the mightiness of our weapons of warfare designed to pull down strongholds and to lead all captivity captive. In this piece, I have taken a hard look at the powers, the goals and the operations of the church and points out major leakages. In my view, the church is in dire need of reorientation, of correct and clear definition of her goal. The time has come for the church to sift the means from the end and stop majoring in minors while doing so little in what is supposed to be her majors.
Introduction
If this is another controversy, it is one in which I am taking a side right at the start. And because I have a reason to advance and a case to plead, that is denying me the chance of playing the role of impartial judge. But it is still a controversy because I recognise objection to the view being presented and the right of the critics to think differently.
The issue on hand bother on the purpose and mission of the church in the world. That the church, as an institution, has a goal cannot be a subject of debate. What remains beclouded is the true definition of the goal and means of achieving it.
No one needs to be a statistician to be able to accommodate the glaring fact that church membership and fellowship centres are on the increase. More than ever, people are trooping in large numbers to places they consider may bring them closer to heaven. Judging from situation of things, reasons for this upsurge can easily be deducted. Times are hard. Economies have turned around. Violence is on increase with criminals on the loose. Chances of survival are fading out even with the erstwhile ‘fits’ and ‘fittests’ now crumbling under situational pressures. No one knows on whose head the hard knock of misfortune will fall next. With minimum appeal, therefore, people already have enough reasons to liaise themselves with heaven to be free, at least a bit, from the besting problems.
This is one of today’s popular approaches to religion. To the masses who thronged our church buildings, deliverance must be forthcoming. A ray of hope must shine through the thick cloud of despair. Life must be continued since suicide is generally an unpopular solution to life’s harshness. No one is willing to trust the politicians any more. Records of empty and unfulfilled promises dismiss their sweet claims for better things ahead. This is how looking up to heaven becomes the only choice of the majority.
Karl Marx once described religion as the opium of the masses. To him, religion is no more than psychological means of pacifying fears of tomorrow and the unknown. And while the generality of Christians will denounce that claim as being mischievous and blasphemous, the class and motive of those who fill their church buildings label them hypocrites. For indeed, church buildings are filled today not with those who know and love God. Churches are filled not by those who appreciate that God is in need of them in bettering this world. Rather, our churches are membered mostly by such people as, chased by one problem or another, are seeking for solace and relief. And this is how Karl may find justification to his graceless assertions.
To a probing mind, the church has done very little to prove that religion or salvation in Jesus goes beyond immediate well-being. My exposure of over three decades in the church has little with which to counter my thinking that Christianity is practised as means for attaining the bread and the butter. Many prayers are said and many meetings are organised. But a peep into factors motivating them will prove that the church is hardly seeing beyond her nose. While people deserve a pat on the back for recognising God as solution to their pressing problem, they miss out an important issue of the purpose of Jesus death and resurrection. This is why there is too much prayers for health, wealth progress and too little for the kingdom of God and readiness for it. The church is caught up in the confusion generated and sustained by spiritual myopias and damning craves for the things of the moment. End and means can be very similar. It is not effort without discretion that will be able to sort out the difference. It appears the church today has mixed up the two as it shows from her many directionless efforts and activities.
This is the problem that the piece on hand seeks to highlight and analyse. The lens is cracked and the vision is fractured. The church objective has been coloured in the dye of materialism. And that is enough to force us into the conclusion that the course of the church in our world is in urgent need of redirection.
The Goal
The goal that God sets before the church is one of the few things that have not changed with times and generations. Simply put it is winning the loss into the fold of Jesus and ensuring spiritual and total welfare of the converts.
The Apostles at start
This is the end which the Apostles did not allow to get mixed up with the means. Times there were when temptations were strong to force them to deviate into some things that looked similar and commendable. There was a time they could have served the table to the neglect of the ministry of the word and prayer, for example. But they resisted the pressure and stood on their feet. They recognised that their unique experience in the upper room had a place and purpose in the plan of God. They understood the desire of God through the imparting of His Holy Ghost, to make everyone of them a channel of blessing through whom His transforming power would radiate unto others.
Following the Pentecost, therefore, the Apostles and their converts moved from place to place proclaiming the gospel. Their fellowships and meetings served the dual purposes of grounding the new converts and charging the power of the workers. They sacrificed every comfort and risked even their lives own lives. Though, they were very familiar with the promises of Jesus Christ. They did not misunderstand or misinterpret them to suit any crave for present comfort and pleasures. Jesus promised them rest. But they were restless to win their world for Him. He promised them riches, inestimable riches, yet they went most of the time about their evangelical duties with empty purse. Jesus promised them homes and mansions. But then, you find them selling their landed properties to finance the gospel and ensure welfare of converts and followers.
They understood life to be on two distinct planes. They also realised that their present and material holdings do not matter as the eternal and spiritual gains. The book of Acts bears eloquent testimonies to the calibre of people they were spiritually. Theirs was a church that understood her goal and call in the world and the whole thing serves as a standard against which the church in other places and generation is supposed to find comparison. But alas, the contrast is glaring. And that is enough to cause panic and concern to any discerning eye.
Our own CAC
From now on, I will draw materials for further analysis from practices, happenings and experiences in my church – Christ Apostolic Church. This is because of my wide exposure to the mission and her operations. Moreover, it is this exposure that has triggered and broadened my observation of the problem being addressed.
CAC at start
I am not competent to write CAC history. However, if all that has filtered to our ears from the fathers, both living and dead is anything to go by, my incompetence may give way. I therefore place heavy reliance on written records of others and oral testimonies of those who were both actors and close spectators on the stage of CAC’s setting to present authentic analysis. More so, I will just be very general in my claims to avoid conflict with any specific assertion.
CAC was born in power. Apostle Babalola emerged on the scene when the power of darkness dominated the nooks and corner of or land and the few practising Christians needed reawakening. His revival programmes were therefore directed primarily at diffusing the chilling cloud of terror and wickedness and at creating an atmosphere of hope and freedom for the spiritually downtrodden masses. There were healing and deliverance. Thousands who were held captives were liberated. Idols were ridiculed. Witches and others with familiar spirits were silenced. The gospel was heralded with great power and a Pentecostal mission, Christ Apostolic Church, was born.
A pattern developed
Following the spiritual reawakening were different reactions from different angles. To the influential figures at the time, the church as an institution was taken to be meant for the poor, the sick and weak and the not-doing-wells who needed the assistance of the newly discovered God. The church was perceived as a place of hiding from dark powers. People trooped from far and near to converge in the house of prayers. Within the fold itself, there was simplicity of style, singleness and preparedness of the heart which paved the way for answers to the prayers, the answers which came in form of relief, freedom, healing and blessing.
The above picture, however, did not preclude totally some cases where few embraced the gospel out of their own volition. It is on record that Oba I. B. Akinyele was our mission’s first President and also a very powerful and influential king of Nigeria largest city during his life time. So also were others who were attracted purely by God’s power and through evangelical outreaches. It is just that cases of majority seeking repose overshadowed such few instances. As a result of massive pressures, a pattern developed for the operation and activities of the church by the pressing needs of the majority. The church saw no way out other than to organise prayer programmes that would meet their needs and design activities that would be relevant to their situations.
The above picture explains how a course was charted for our mission, a course that would guide her subsequent years of operation. Evil forces that chased many into the fold did not vanish from our planet after the great revivals. The problems addressed by the revival are mostly recurring type that would not be eradicated once and for all in any powerful revival. This is why the church has had to engage herself in this rather continuous battle and struggle in ensuring the welfare of the members.
The Case with the pulpit
The analysis above explains in part why the church was not so lucky to have many enlightened ministers to man her pulpits. The problems that chased people into the fold succeeded in keeping them in the fold. It was from the members that Pastors, Catechists or Teachers, Deacons and Elders were emerging. One may not therefore have expected any serious departure in the officiating of such people from the influence of their experiences and exposures.
Problem of in-breathing
If the above analysis was correct of the many of our early set of ministers, their influence has pervaded the course and activity of the church through in-breathing. Our ministers of today, despite their modern education and theological exposures, have not been able to provide departure from the outlook of the decades and chart a new course for the church such as it relevant to today’s needs and challenges.
The missing link
Tracing the history through the years one may be able to see how things got muddled up along the line. The vital question is whether God would have released so much power such as accompany Apostle Babalola’s ministry just for the purpose of temporary blessing and relief. I suppose the Bible readers will unanimously disagree. God has never mistaken the real need of man which is what He sent His Son Jesus to die for. And God must have been much more concerned for the spiritual uplift of His people in addition to His desire for them to be physically and materially blessed. But because of the situation that confronted the church at the start, the emphasis shifted from those things that really mattered to the things that were exerting physical and visible pressures on the church members.
It is not a popular practice to question the deeds of the founding fathers in any movement, be it in politics or religion. The founding fathers are always held in high esteem and regarded as sacred saints deserving only the worship (?) and adoration (?) (Note Addition to this Reproduction: The two words marked (?) here were viewed to be wrongly used in the eulogy of human beings) of their followers. But when the truth must have its course and a spade will not be called by another name, we soon discover that the founding fathers of any movement were never angels. Rather, they too, like us, were ruled by emotion, likes, dislikes, whims and caprices. For example, it is now on record that Nigeria is what it is today because of the shoddy foundations laid by the so-called founding of Nigerian nation. They are no more to be totally exonerated from our present woes and economic tragedies simply because they the founding fathers.
Now back to our subject. I still very much covet the power, the anointing and the zeal of our founding fathers in CAC. But then, I will not be very honest to detach them from the troubles, wrangling and spirit of politics that have been eroding the credibility of our mission. And please before you drag me to another Golgotha, let me cite a case.
It is inconceivable that a church that started with such power, carting so much crowd to her side would operate for as long as five decades without a rich, organised and uniform Bible study programme. It is not quite more than a decade now since serious efforts were directed towards establishment of Sunday school department for the mission by a people who shared the vision. Till today, the general attitude of some ministers to scriptural advancement leaves anyone in doubt as to our readiness to improve the quality of our membership.
It was recently reported that for some reasons, a powerful section of the church had enough gut to publicly denounce Sunday school programmes in their domain. And that was with impunity. One needs only a few moments of reflection to understand what havoc the devil is set to perpetrate in the gathering of Christians where God’s word which God says He has exalted above His own name is relegated and treated dis-respectively. Many of our pastors do have regular Bible study programme for their members. And where there are and in most cases, the quality of materials dished out is such that can build only spiritual weaklings.
There has always existed lifetime relationship between a foundation and whatever was built on it. Our church cannot provide exception to this universal rule. Since the church at inception was grossly taken up in the battle for members’ material survival, that fact was enough to fashion an instrument for the devil to blind her eyes to other roles and important gap God designed that His church on earth should bridge. Those developments provided the setting for confusion and beclouding of vision. They provided wrong definitions of the church and her role while Satan simply capitalised on the error to substitute means for the end for the church. All that the church engages in now through prayer is to aspire for the things of the moment while ignoring things of eternal value and to pursue only the materials to the neglect of the spiritual, battering her eternal glory for a lifetime acquisitions.
The result of these is glaring today. Our churches are filled with religious mediocre who remain dwarfs in spite of their years of hearing the sermon. Majority of our members cannot distinguish their right from their left when it comes to spiritual matters. They are no match to the least of the demon while God intends them to keep Satan himself under their footstool. Our pulpits are not totally excused, either. They have run dry of life-transforming and soul-reviving messages. Just visit the churches now and open your two extra eyes, if you possess them. All you see is empty forms, lip services and dry worship. I have watched recent developments and come to the conclusion of the trouble we are in unless God rains down His revival upon us once more. You go to the church and all you see is the same old routine and jamboree. Conflicts often tear my heart apart during an average service nowadays with lots of ‘whys’ to which I can provide no answers. I find myself terribly bored that sometime I would feel like dashing out in hot protest if not for the need to honour God and respect His presence. Our service are boring today not because God has ceased to be innovative with His soul-refreshing, joy-stimulating and life-enriching varieties but because our ministers, many of them in fact, are not forward looking enough to catch up with God’s thinking. No revival. No conviction. No tears of repentance. All you see after service is handshaking with shallow smiles and surface joy. Continuing like this, the chance of survival for the faith looks slim and faded.
The weapons of our warfare
The faithful God who designed a plan and a role for the church has made available mighty weapons of great power for their achievement. To be precise, the church has the whole power of Almighty at her disposal. Let me conclude by way of repetition that the power that the church can wield has no limit because God has no limit.
Ours is a deserved credit when it comes to prayer. CAC prays a lot. And this is only one thing I can boast of about my church whenever I find myself in the company of other Gospel churches, especially the ‘Amen-Amen’ types. No one ever argues our readiness to pray. Even our critics will easily concede to our superiority when it comes to the issue of praying. This is perhaps the singular force that has sustained the church through the decades. And hell will never be able to recover from the wreckage and havocs that the prayers of our founding fathers wrought in it.
CAC has remained a force in prayer. The church has maintained and operated more mounts of prayers than any other gospel denominations. Just tell the members it is going to be prayer programme. If you like, colour the announcement a little with story of the latest revelation in which Satan has threatened to kill one prominent elder of the church. You will have succeeded in mobilising the whole congregation.
Almost all the sections of the church and assemblies have one regular prayer programme or another. In my assembly, it is a three day special prayer and fasting once in every quarter. Many assemblies fast and pray at the beginning of each month. CACSA spends every first weekend of the month on the mount praying through two nights. From this point on, I shall narrow down the scope of my analysis and limit it to CACSA prayer programme as this will serve to applicable generalisation for other church as a whole.
Of CACSA mounts prayers
For years I have been associated with praying in the CACSA. I simply hope I will not be asked to produce a proof for a claim that CACSA represents one of the enlightened sects within the fold of CAC. This suggests that we might not have to look elsewhere for a different patter, with improved behaviour within CAC fold, better than what obtains in CACSA.
Praying is not as important as praying right. I should think that our prayers have not made intended impact. This is forcing me to an inescapable conclusion that the objectives together with motives of our prayers are overdue for review.
Let’s borrow a simple example. I have always believed it does not display piety going to spend hours on the mount just for something I am sure simple prayer of faith will offer me in the comfort of my home. But as a Christian who understand the need for sacrifice and self-denial, occasions will surely demand that I should visit the mounts for prayers. But what should be serious enough to force me out of the convenience of my home and deny myself hours sleep?
A case of misused Weapon
CACSA has come to appreciate the need to move the hands of God through prayers. Only one thing, however, is both disappointing and embarrassing and that is the focus of attention during such mountain-moving prayers. The prayer topics are still concentrated on those narrow and seemingly petty issues that may not be worth all the efforts we expend on them. There is serious and urgent need to broaden the base of the power we can wield with prayers. Jesus told us what we should be concerned with; that is, the kingdom of God and its righteousness.
Mounts are supposed to be places of power and power-charging. But too often we have concerned ourselves and narrowed our mind with our petty problems leaving the serious issues that really beg for our prayers unattended to.
Prayer for fortune, for wealth, children and such personalised needs still occupy the whole period of the gathering. I consider this a clear case of misused weapons. The prayer programmes still have our little and petty selves at the centre. Our lens is fractured and we are unable to see the real objects of prayer and the enemies we are to challenge into fight. Yet these things we narrow our attention upon, assuming that all of them are granted overnight will be grossly unable to better our world and promote the true cause of the church of Chairs in the world.
The question rings very loud. Why can’t we think big? Why can’t we spark forces of revival with the mounts prayers? Why can’t we see the field white enough for the harvest and see precious harvests wasting away, to see men and women making quick march past us to hell daily, to see the hold of the devil and demon on our nation, to see degeneration and corruption of various types eating up the church of Christ? Why do we think that the supplies of our petty requests will mean more to God than all these things? We should at least see for once many of God’s precious being enslaved by the devil and shut out of God’s eternal blessing through the instrumentation of unbelief. We should see the church as filled with the dry bones instead of fresh living souls. We ought to see how rare it is nowadays for people to troop forward in our churches in response to the preachers’ altar calls. We ought to see how the gospel giants are packing out of the stages and how the few remaining are sustained more by loud propaganda and heavy advertisements than by the real power of Pentecost. And these are the real issues touching the heart of our God and for which the Christians are held responsible.
Since the present generation, the devil has changed his method of attack and battlefronts so quietly that the church has not suspected it. It is my candid opinion that on the average, the Christians are not worse off than their unbelieving counterparts. The church is neither poorer nor sicklier than the society of which she is a prototype. It was during Apostle Babalola’s time that the church was regarded as the dregs of the society, not today. There is hardly any material advancement you see with non-christians that the Christians have not attained. But the devil makes us believe that we are worse off, that we are poorer, that we are deprived and so on. Yet the sick, the lame, the jobless and the poor are no more in the church than they are in the streets and club houses. Just go the nooks and corners and see cathedrals, mighty buildings and the architectural wonders springing up on the pieces of land where our fathers had developed with mud and grass. And no church, in spite of these heavy spending has been declared bankrupt. It is now not to be disputed that the church ownership of money, property and general assets is ever on the increase.
And so, the problem of our shallow requests during prayers for more money and possession is not necessarily caused by necessity but by the desire of the church to have the majority of her members as millionaires. But then, I reserve my right to doubt very seriously if that is the goal that will receive God’s approval while many important matters keep on bypassing the attention of the church.
While I consider it the privilege of Christians to take all matters to the Lord in prayers, no matter how minute it may seem to be, one feels baffled that the church is so narrow-minded that her members hardly see beyond themselves and their personal needs to pray for. By the time you listen to our pulpits dish out prayer items for the members, you find over ninety per cent of such prayers directed toward one petty request or another like blessing of money, of children for the barren, of protection and longevity, of victory over real and imaginary enemies. In fact, it will take a specially talented and enlightened minister to hear a prayer topic that addresses, say, a national problem.
Assessing Prayer results
How effective have our prayers been? What has been the general impact of our prayers both on individual situation and in the light of churches objectives? I have enough reasons to convince myself that the blessing being enjoyed today by the church and her members accrue to her more out of God’s sheer bountifulness and generosity to His entire creation rather than direct result of prayers. Since what we concentrated our prayers on are the things being enjoyed by non-Christians and other section of the society, it becomes too difficult a task proving that those things are answers to prayers in themselves. Paul recognised the fact that salvation in Jesus is not the only means of securing life’s material blessing though it is the best means. So he was convinced about this fact enough to tell his readers that if only in this world we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable. This is to suggest that as long as we occupy ourselves only with those material pursuits, there is hardly anything we can come by that others, I means the unbelievers, have not had enough of it. Nothing then will be there to prove the superiority of the church with respect to her role, operations and achievement in the world. Simply stated, there results of our prayers have not measured up to the lime and energies we expend in pushing them through.
Christians and the National Problems
Christians are supposed to have extra eyes to be able to see things that the outer ones are not capable of seeing. This is why God would have expected Christians, I mean rather, the church, especially those of us with spiritual and Pentecostal background to project their minds through the peripherals to the real root of Nigeria’s problems. The press, the moralists and other groups regarding themselves as the conscience of the nation who are not Christians can do no more than to write and bark with their pens and tongues over the atrocities being committed on the scenes of our national life. But all their efforts and cries will never be able to provide a match to the forces that are perpetrating the disorder.
Nigeria’s political and economic woes, no doubt, are rooted in the activities of the wicked powers in the spiritual realms. FESTAC expansion of breweries, prostitution and immorality of all sorts, violence and damages to lives and properties, corruptions in high and low place, the spread and influence of false religions, flood and natural disasters and many other ugly phenomenon are nothing but visible manifestation of demon’s presence, operation and exploits against a country that boast the majority of her citizens to be Christians. It was not until OIC that Christians tried to wake out of their slumber and complacency of the decades. Even then, the reactions, protests and prayers that greeted the issue were motivated more by the need for personal safety and comfort than by the sense of the danger the matter really poses to the gospel. After all, no one needs to be told that if the influence of Islam is not kept in check, Christians will be the target and ultimate losers.
The question is whether we can continue to fold our arms while the forces of hell continue to unleash their brutality on our nation. For how long can we pretend to be happy even with our money and blessing we pray for while our nation is languishing in pain and poverty? How much freedom can we claim to have in Jesus when the powers of darkness have held our nation in bondage? I am not suggesting that Nigeria as a nation can be exempted from the dangers of the last days or that the world can be made good enough through prayer to diminish Christians’ desire for a better and more glorious kingdom. Yet I can be sure that Nigerian situation today is far from God’s desire for the nation and her citizens. And we Christians prefer to stick our heads into prayers for more Naira whose value the devil and his demons are busy washing away at the Foreign Exchange Market bidding week after week.
I think we should be ashamed at the spiritual and economic degeneration of this nation. We should be ashamed that we are all here as light of the world and salt of the earth and the devil has enough room to record so much achievement. Let me make it clear and plain that Nigeria as a nation will never see better days except we Christians take our position and authority over these plaguing forces praying upon our nation. While the press and other agencies will blame past or present politicians and regimes for our national woes, God has no one upon whom to heap the blames except the Christians who in pursuit of material and temporary gains we have blinded our eyes to our responsibilities of bridging the gap between our nation and Him.
Neglect of evangelism
Evangelism is the supreme task of the church. But it is ironical as it is disappointing that it is the area where the church is doing so poorly today. Even for those who appreciate its importance and urgency, their efforts at and result of evangelising are far from being complementary. In CAC, majority of our church members do not know anything about it at all. Worse still, they do not seem to want to know anything about it. Except one has identified with one of the militant wings of the church like Light of the World Society, WOSEM or CACSA, it is quite possible for someone to spend his entire life in the church without witnessing to a single soul! I have not seen any of our local assemblies design an evangelical programme meant to involve all members of the church in active witnessing. Such programme are left with those militant groups as if they are going to a different heaven. The church members, I mean the majority of them do not really deserve much blame. It has been a common knowledge that no one can give out what he does not have. This is where the quality of our church membership is called into question as to how many of them we can really boast of as possessing enough of Jesus to make him a useful and witnessing Christian.
Evangelism has been relegated while the church still very busy like the early church, if not more, has found many other beautiful and more interesting programmes so substitute the work that Jesus had come to do and which on His way to heaven He had committed unto the church. Even ministers are no more touched by dwindling attendance in their churches provided those who dish out cash to them and who are personal friends and known faces are always on their seats. Monies collected and meant for gospel propagation (Owo Itankale Ihinrere) are known to have ended in the purses of the ministers to share. All these point to real spiritual problem of years to come unless the situation is arrested before it is late.
In Conclusion
The New Testament of the Bible is meant to provide the church with blueprint for action. The book of Acts if the Apostles is designed to dictate direction and operation of the church. The Apostles prayed. Paul prayed extensively. They recognised the power that God placed at their disposal through prayer and they exercised the power to the fullest. They silenced demons and set loose the bound. They acquired power and anoint for gospel work through the use of prayer. Theirs therefore was a glorious objectives and successful achievement of the same.
I believe and agree that greater than 1930s can be repeated in 1980s and 1990s. All it requires is to whet the sword of prayers again and cut in pieces all spiritual obstacles to revival. Let us for the time being forget our petty selves and problems as we submerge them into God’s broader and all-embracing goals. Let us direct our prayer and the shelling of our devastating bullets they generate to the forces of hell that seek to put the gospel in chains. Let us release the power of God against the real power of retrogression, backwardness, lukewarm-ness and spiritual ignorance. Let us take authority over the devil over our nation and her men and women.
Righteousness will yet reign! Sin will lose its wicked grip on souls. Demons shall be uprooted, overthrown, overpowered and silenced. Men shall troop in their thousands asking for the Saviour and the way to His eternal kingdom. The pulpits will be anointed and rains of blessing shall water the dryness of the hopeless pews. God will yet be glorified as all tongue either out of bewilderment or in holy adoration will confess the Lordship of His dear son Jesus Christ.
And you may turn out to be an enemy of the cross if you allow this message to slip and sink again into the ever open well of forgetfulness.