Saturday, March 8, 2014
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Saturday, March 1, 2014
A WORD OF HOPE FOR REV. DAVID YONGI CHO
The irony of being a minister of the gospel is that the same people that you have invested every ounce of your time and energy to cater for spiritually will often times be at the forefront of those who will call you names of every kind, when you either slip on your faith walk or someone close to you commits a blunder that affects you either directly or indirectly.
I call it an irony because you have spent all your time encouraging the sinner to repentance, praying and wishing that the sick will be healed, fasting and praying that the poor will be empowered with financial surplus and bringing a word of hope to the hopeless in a hopeless world. Yet, when you fall into any of those categories yourself, the same people you have stood up for will be the ones to tell your story everywhere.
They will suddenly sit on the seat of Moses over your life, they will pass the most horrendous verdicts on you, they will deny ever receiving any form of help or assistance from you. And If you ever reminded them of how you agonized and prayed for them when they called on you at late hours, they will look you squarely in the face, smile with a dint of human meanness and tell you off like this: "Mr Pastor, go pray for yourself !!!"
And when they gather amongst their friends and co-travellers in the bus of mockery, they voice out their full verbal arsenals like this:
"What is really wrong with that pastor? Why can't he go get a job?"
And when you remind him that pastoring is the job of a Pastor, he looks at you with that-kind-of-look that says, "really? Is it a job?"
Paul the apostle, understood this attitude of people and decided to keep a second job by the side, so that he would not be subjected to unnecessary ridicule and frustrations by the same people he served day and night.
But some other ministers have also adopted an attitude of, "If I am doing the Lord's work, then the Lord must pay me using people known and unknown to me". Now, ministers in this category sometimes adopt very debatable and unconventional approaches in raising fund out of sheer desperation. Some of them have also engaged in heinous activities that can only find due mention in the archives of satanic manuscripts. And some have, having realized the mean part of the people around them, simply chose to run the church as a personal enterprise, filling and fitting key financial positions with their immediate family members and never ever subjecting the accounts of the church to anyone other than themselves.
Well, in civilized countries, where checks and balances are always in place, pastors who operated like that have had cause to sing to the police and sometimes even warm up the benches in little, dingy jail houses. But in some other places, especially, in some African countries, pastors account to no one, except when they want to do it on purpose for selfish gains.
It is because of these scenarios that sleep evaded my eyes, when I read about the conviction of the Pastor emeritus of the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea, Dr David Yongi Cho. As a matter of fact, my heart cried all night for him. But as I lamented in my heart, I soon found some solace in the fact that he actually did not embezzle those funds like a thief who is really out to steal, would do. He only fell for the wrong advise of his first son who had always been the black sheep of the family, and one of his elders who advised him to sign a document that enabled his son to buy some stocks at four times the going rate, at a whooping cost of 12.5 million dollars.
The judge found him guilty with his first son and sentenced both of them to 3 years imprisonment and gave him the option of not going to jail at 78 years but with a personal fine of 4.6 million dollars. And that was also because, every record showed that he never personally benefited from the deal in question, but was negligent in his duties as a leader of many years of pastoral experience.
Ironically, some of his elders granted a press conference to narrate this event to the public with glee and glamor, forgetting all that God had used the man to do in their lives, forgetting that such errors could occur when you are dealing with people you seem to trust, and choosing to make mince-meat of his pastoral career that had positively influenced not just his more than one million members, but also the mighty fortress called the body of Christ, which is also known as the Church of the living Jesus.
But while others gloat at the misery of this man, I choose to thank God for his life, while others recant his sorrows with excitement, I choose to ask the many more that will remember how his world-renowned book titled, "The fourth dimension" helped to open us up into the activities of the faith realm and prayer, to sing a new song of hope.
And that is because a man that has retired and stepped aside as a pastor since 2008 should be allowed to enjoy his retirement, he should be allowed to think of the days of his youth with joy, he should be made to reminisce with gratifying gait when he recalls how he languished in hunger, in fastings, in pestilence, in depravity and in utter shame when he announced to his people shortly after the Korean War that God is a good God, who will not only save them, but also heal them and prosper them as they follow his ways.
Friends, that is the Yongi Cho we knew years ago, and that is still the Yongi Cho that I see even in this melodrama of palpable-negligence.
And that is why I choose not to call him names but to magnify the womb that bare him, I choose not to castigate him but to recognize his humanity and it's attendant frailties. I choose not to doubt his theology of old, knowing that they were the words of God in print.
So, my dear Pastor Cho, I will never forget all that I learnt from your teachings when I struggled to plant a church years ago in one little town in Nigeria, I will never act like you are not a man of God, simply because you chose to trust the voice of a son! and that is because we all loose our guards when we talk with family and close friends, I will never call you ugly names, because I know that you are still the king's kid even at 78!
And that is why I pray for you like this: " May the God of glory restore your joy sir, replenish your love for him, reload you with agape-love for your son, and enable you to exhibit the same agape for your elders who chose to call you names, instead of bringing you a word of hope, which is what you would have done for them, if they were in your shoes, in Jesus name…Amen"…And may God uplift the body of Christ at this time, in Jesus name…Amen!
Iyke Nwambie
Dr Iyke Nwambie blogs at the advancement strategies blog, aka www.iykenwambie.com and www.leadershipplatform.org
YOU WILL MARCH FORWARD IN THE MONTH OF MARCH WITH GIANT STRIDES!
Stagnation is a tool which the enemy launches against God's people. He uses it to frustrate their pace, to demoralize their joy, to make them wear a look of frown, trepidation and confusion…but, divine acceleration is a strategy of God that causes us to gain speed, to gain momentum, and to even outrun the king's chariot like Elijah did when the hand of the Lord empowered him with speed.
That is why we are told in Proverbs chapter four verse eighteen that a man who walks in the wisdom of God, will be like the shining light that shines more and more unto the perfect day. In other words, he will shift from crawling to walking, then from walking to running, and from running to flying…Hallelujah!
And that is why I stand upon my prophetic watch to declare to you, that in this month of March, you will march forward with the strides of a giant, you will step on obstacles like ant, you will crush oppositions like when a sledge hammer strikes a perching fly…Yea, you will come back with a testimony in that venture, in Jesus name…Amen!
Friday, February 28, 2014
AVOID CONTENTIOUS PEOPLE, IF YOU CAN! By Iyke Nwambie
Arguments arise when you choose not to see it from the other person's point of view, and the other person also decides to do the same.
But what if you decided to postpone the chat, what if you decided in advance that you will stay in charge of your mood? What if you decided in advance that the Holy Spirit would guide your thoughts and words and views?
I sincerely believe that it will make a positive difference in what the outcome of your chat would be. Yes, it will turn flaming moods into flowing joys, it will turn growing tempers into glowing tempers;
and your voice will be appreciated, not just heard…For no one, I repeat, no one wins an argument at the end of the day.
So, stay clear of it, avoid contentious people and issues if you can, because you will be better off for it, for the most part.
Your friend,
Iyke Nwambie
Dr Iyke Nwambie blogs at www.iykenwambie.com , www.leadershipplatform.org and www.aworldofmotivation.blogspot.com
ARE YOU PART OF THE ONE MILLION PEOPLE THAT THE LORD IS TALKING ABOUT?
When I felt led of God years back to write a book, I must confess that I resisted it for so long.
I resisted it not because I did not love the Lord, or willing to obey the Lord, but because I thought that I was the most incompetent and least qualified of all mortals to so do.
But thank God for the patience of the Lord!
For instead of getting angry at me, he began to deal with me on a day-to-day basis, asking me to remember how he had used his words written by so-and-so author to teach me of his ways at sundry and perplexing times, how he had visited me when I asked for his divine enabling and placed his 'two oily hands of empowerment on my head' to anoint me with the unction to function in this assignment of declaring the word of faith which works by love.
Then he said, "How can you do it without publishing my words, son?"
Then carefully but steadily, I took that step of faith, and God has used some of of our books to turn lives around in ways that I could never imagine.
And just as I was going to start resting, he came again to say,
"I have chosen at least 1 million hands that will download the flagship e-book titled: 'GOD WILL ENLARGE YOUR COAST: Hope in the midst of hopelessness this year! So, Go ahead and give them the opportunity as I turn their lives around for the better and to the amazement of all"
Dear friend, I believe that you are part of that 1 million people out there and that is why I am asking you… to take a step of faith today, because the God of heaven has hidden one word or phrase that will launch you forward forever in that anointed material… So, step out in faith and obey the Lord as you download the book now using the link below and see what God will do in your own life beginning from today!
Iyke Nwambie # BuyTheTruthAndSellItNot
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