Foolish things I was made to sheepishly believe
Just as my friend danced to the makosa rhythm, his father landed him a slap from behind, and disciplined him severely for dancing to such tune.
In a bid to get us ready for heaven, we were restricted from doing certain things. We were so scared, we would go to hell if we ever disobeyed any of the religious rules. Pathetic.
Sometimes, I find it difficult to believe I can truly be festive because I grew up in religious homes and churches where dancing, jubilating and even singing in certain genre was frowned upon! We were encouraged to live a very quiet life where no one would know we ever existed! It was in a bid to get us prepared and ready for heaven! All those laughter, dance and merriment were considered the very thing that will fast track our mass exodus to hell!
I remember when Paul Agubata released his song that had the makosa rhythm, it was an abomination to certain Christians. It was considered a total neglect of godliness and some even argued that the Church has suddenly allowed the devil to enter her system.
Back then, we were afraid of hell but we couldn’t resist some of those songs and so we enjoyed them in the secret. One time, I was dancing to makosa, the sound was coming from our neighbour's flat and I couldn’t resist it! When I was caught, I quickly pointed out that I was dancing to the beat and not the lyrics of the song! Yes, the beat was so good that I couldn’t resist it! At home then, the name we gave any unacceptable music was “Satanic Music”.
The church was a serious place for us!
A place where we prayed and prayed and prayed even more! The sermon was usually a time to criticize the young people who have broken free from their grip, criticizing the Churches that seemed to have started reforming certain practices that held us bound and a time to warn us about doing certain things else we burn in hell.
Hell was always the subject. It wasn’t a problem of the Church I grew up in but a problem with the people who taught us!
They didn’t even understand the systems of the Church, they rather quoted certain things out of context and subjected us to fear with it!
Going through the 39 Articles of the Anglican faith (I grew up as an Anglican), I realised how much our teachers in the Church missed the very gospel revealed in those articles. Anytime I go through those 39 Articles of the Anglican faith, I feel like standing in every Church at the same time to say “let us all be Anglicans according to the 39 Articles of Faith” Me dance in the church? That was very impossible! God isn’t happy with our merriments, I have always believed that! He wants a praying and Bible reading people and that’s all! I wouldn’t mind my dirty wear, how I react to people and what’s wrong with my neighbour! It was just about me seeking for the credibility to make heaven. I wanted to make heaven by all means!
Sometimes, these people who died, went to heaven and hell and came back were often invited to come and tell us how unqualified and unprepared we were for heaven! They told us how beautiful the heaven is, how amazing it is to be in heaven but then they tell us that we can’t get there because we use powder, our girls use lip gloss and other make up! The girls used hair attachments, we wore certain clothes and we danced certain songs! They said things we could never ever do without! They even told us that those urban gospel songs are the fastest ticket to hell! The summary was always that our happiness is the short cut to hell, in other words, God hates to see us smile!
Some of us gave up on trying! We just couldn’t get it right and so we made up our minds to go to hell! Some became prostitutes, armed robbers and so on simply because they couldn't afford to live in suffering and still go to hell! No one can go to heaven with those rules afterall!
Growing up in a Church where we were always forced to read the Bible, I always spent time moping at the Bible, pretending to read them and yet never knew what it said!
When I joined Young Anglican Crusaders, it was a place where young people were so vibrant and smart! I saw how everyone contributed to Bible studies! Meanwhile, don't forget I hadn't accepted Christ. I only blindly followed rules they made us follow.
I too would always make my contributions and some people considered me very smart and wise because of the way I made my contributions. I decided to always go home, study the Bible study outline and get prepared for every Sunday!
At a point… I started paying attention to what I was reading in the Bible. I got hold of Romans and sometimes I felt Paul shouldn’t have been allowed to write anything! I felt Paul was challenging the very thing I was taught in church, it was clear to me! I got angry with Paul, I told myself that Peter should have written more than Paul did!
Finally, I came into the light of the saints.
One day, I was confronted with a question in my spirit! “Those people who taught you in Church… Where do they base their teachings from? Didn’t they tell you that all of the Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit!?” Perhaps that was the only thing they got right! The light that was flooding from the New Testament was hurting my eyes that I tried resisting them!
One day, I brought Rhapsody of Realities home. A friend who is a member of Christ Embassy Church gave it to me. When I read through some of its content, I exclaimed “this is just Paul! I know it! No wonder they are so comfortable! No wonder they are always happy”. I discarded it just like I wanted to discard everything written by Paul! But you won’t believe it, even when I stopped reading, those things I read in the Bible came playing out in my life! Sometimes it seemed I was being receptive to its revelations! I didn’t like it, I wanted to be the way I was because I was afraid of hell!
Then, I read John 3:16, Romans 3:23-24 and Romans 6:23, and it all began to make sense! In fact every where I looked at in the scriptures started saying the same thing! This actually started happening after a meeting of Gofamint youths at a zonal level. We were praying, I didn’t ask for the Holy Spirit, it wasn’t even in my mind! It didn’t even occur to me that I needed the Holy Spirit but I was hungry for the more of God! I wanted to know and do more for God! I was praying passionately and suddenly something happened to me… My language changed! I felt no fire, no external force or anything at all! I only noticed I was not speaking English anymore! I had to stop praying for a while to know if my tongue could correct itself! Anytime I opened my mouth again, I start speaking in unknown tongues! This experience preceded a sudden change in the way I understood the Bible… Whenever I read, it seemed someone was explaining them to me! Today, I can’t be confused any more!
Fast forward to today! It has gotten a lot better! I discovered those people who taught me wrongly needed help! They too didn’t know and they were trying their best to communicate and strive for heaven!
Right now, I have a duty to teach our younger generation and people at large the right message - The gospel! I am a better Christian! My smiles, dance, merriments and jubilations are all for God’s glory! I don’t need to stay long in any Christian gathering to get crazy for God! I sing and dance to God’s glory in any kind of manner, with any kind of genre! My smiles are signs that God is good! We are telling the world about a good God and not a bad, sad and moody God! I have realised how much God wants us to be happy, how much He has saved us and how much power He has made available to us! Getting to know better changed my life completely. Now, I am totally different!
“Thank you for responding to me; you’ve truly become my salvation! The stone the masons discarded as flawed is now the capstone! This is God ’s work. We rub our eyes—we can hardly believe it! This is the very day God acted— let’s celebrate and be festive! Salvation now, God. Salvation now! Oh yes, God —a free and full life!” – Psalm 118:21-25 MSG
I am Royalty!
Comments
Post a Comment