My Priority As A 21st Century Christian

-
Photo Credit: Fr Charles E.(2020)

By Ogiri John Ogiri

As a christian,my first priority is not church attendance; doing good is. My first allegiance is to morality. Doing the right thing at the right time where I am is what drives my spirituality. To me, being righteous entails being disciplined. I am more concerned about what I do(that is to say, how I live my life daily -whether or not it benefits others is my concern) than I am about what I say or teach others to do. I am a student of that school of thought which supports and propagates practical Christianity as a way of life. As far as I am convincingly concerned, sleeping in the church everyday, praying from morning till night, fasting for a whole year, not missing out on every conceivable church programmes, miracle crusades ( some of which make a mockery of Christianity) mumbling cacophonous, usually deceptive utterances, in the name of speaking in tongues do not make sense to me if they do not culminate or end in favour of practical Christianity.
 Love others and teach others to do so. The world needs to hear the christian messages of love, sacrifices and understanding, not the building of church empires or auditoria, not the gluttonous acquisition of material wealth some mushroom churches have come to embrace and encourage; it is, definitely, not the theatrical showmanship we stage in the name of Christianity. The Christian message is simple: feed the poor, clothe the naked, shelter the destitute, visit the sick and the prisoner. Do not feed your ego. The church was built to help the needy. In fact, the name " Christian " originated in Antioch out of the early christians' practical way of life that showed great concerns for the poor and the needy. They were not called Christians because they built empires; they were called Christians because they demonstrated their uninhibited love and care for the poor in their community.(Acts 4:32-35). This is the summary of the Christian message.

(James 1:27, Micah 6:8-10, John 21:15-19, Mathew 25:31-46)

(Culled from "How To Achieve Real Happiness in Life" by Ogiri John Ogiri, unpublished manuscript)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why We All Need Philosophy

-
Image
MARK MANSON WHY WE ALL NEED PHILOSOPHY   Mark Manson 1 day ago “To win true freedom, you must be a slave to philosophy.” —Epicurus T he great philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein was once sitting in a park having a philosophical discussion with a friend when his friend, quite animated, stood up and said loudly, “That  is  a tree! I  know  for a  fact  that that is a tree!” An awkward pause ensued as the two men realized that passersby had stopped and were now staring at them. Wittgenstein, thinking quickly, turned to the people and said, “Do not worry, this fellow is not insane… we are merely doing philosophy.” When most people think of philosophy, they likely imagine indecipherable books that stretch on for a thousand pages, saying and solving nothing. They envision stuffy old men in misbuttoned shirts, untied shoelaces with mismatched socks, shuffling about hallways of some archaic university, mumbling to themselves, completely unaware of the humanity aro...
Read more

Polygamy Vs Homosexuality

-
Image
Polygamy in Africa Polygamy Several times,I have regurgitated over and over again on two diametrically-opposed anomalies in the church of today -Polygamy and gay union, particularly in the Western world. I have wondered why the one,polygamy, predominantly practised by Africans before the advent of the white colonialists and their Christian missionaries, should be denounced and passed as evil by the whites who brought us Christianity and the churches while its twin,Gay Union, is tolerated, elevated and applauded by the same whites in the church. In the US and Europe, Polygamy is discouraged while gay union is vigorously encouraged, pursued and promoted. In fact,it belongs in the public policy of many Western Nations today as a powerful determinant of how much aids the Less Developed Countries (LDCs) can get from them. The question is why? Which between the two can be more morally reprehensible and disgusting -Polygamy or gay union? Even the churches whose missionaries told ...
Read more

Idoma Language: A Rich Lingua Franca On Its Way To Extinction!

-
Image
Photo Credit: Every Every NG By Ogiri John Ogiri Let me begin this write up with a paraphrase of a statement attributed to the late Kenyan literary sage, Professor Ngugi Wa Thiongo. According to him,every language is rich in knowledge.So,when a language dies,the knowledge contained in such a language equally dies. Again, in one of his interviews with the Germany's DW TV in 2008, he said "if you know all,and I mean all the languages of the world and you do not know your mother tongue, that is enslavement. If you know your mother tongue and add all the languages of the world to it,that is empowerment" It is saddening, however, to know that many Idoma people today by choice seem to be on the side of deliberate enslavement instead of choosing empowerment by first learning their mother tongue before adding other languages to it. It may interest you to know that the Idoma language is the second most spoken language after TIV language in Benue state. It is spoken by ...
Read more