The reason I am embarking on the voyage of looking into this religious matters is that when any believe system negatively affects other people, certainly we must rise against it. You can believe in a stone provided you don’t throw it at me and others. And it is in line with this understanding that we are doing our best to stop Boko Haram at all cost.
My Home Town Aku, have the highest number of academic Professors and legions of Associate Professors in Enugu State, and as such Education is our pride but the way things are going we may well be living in the past as other Towns will soon take our position.
To be fair, I just willfully decided to use four pictures above to buttress my points because if I try to present the true picture of the hospitals in my Town, the entire internet space may crash. We have Eight (8) Parishes in Aku and the two buildings at the top of the picture are just two parish houses. And there is an intense competition for other parishes to complete their Parish houses as soon as possible. So, within 2 years we will have 8 magnificent buildings all to the Glory of God while the parishioners languish in penury and abject poverty.
The house at the lower left side of the picture is Secondary School while the other is Primary School. What you are seeing outside is just the best look ever, because going inside will shock you to the marrows. These are few of the places we churn out students that will represent us at the University level. Most of the students will finish as science students without seeing a conical flask before because what supposed to be laboratories was just parking stores for petty traders in the school. There is no functional library for those that have the luxury of reserving a room as library while in most of the Schools there is nothing like library. If I continue to give graphic illustrations of what the Schools actually look like, this brief write up will be the size of Encyclopedia Britannica.
The Bible instructed Men of God in 1 Peter 5:2-3 “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing DISHONEST gains, but eager to SERVE; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being EXAMPLES to the flock”. What example are the Priests showing to the Parishioners by hoodwinking them to build such house? How can a Priest live in such house and tell you that Jesus is coming soon and you believe him? If you know that you are parking out soon to Heaven, why are you then wasting time and money to build a castle instead of managing ordinary tents temporarily?
How can our Community leaders, lead us into this spiritual and existential abyss all in the name of God? I doubt if any reasonable God of love will support the destruction of the future of our children for the comfort of His Men when He is a great provider Himself. Jesus said In Mark 9:37 "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." Are we benefiting more from the churches than on our own children and good health? All these Reverend Fathers are under Private Health Insurance but they keep telling us that God will heal us. Is it not reasonable for Priests to manage modest apartments that are in sync with the financial capacity of the Parishioners? In Luke 5:16 “Jesus frequently withdrew to the wilderness to pray”. If Jesus can pray in the wilderness why can’t the Men working for him live happily in more humble houses?
I know that some people will misinterpret my position as if I am fighting the "Men of God" No, far from it. My position is that we have more pressing needs to sort out at the moment and if we abandon that responsibility to the advantage of the "Men of God" we are mocking God. If we solve the problem that is making everybody uncomfortable in our Home Town we can then plan and even create our own Vatican City, but at the moment it is a clear case of misplaced priority.
How can we afford the luxury of outsourcing what we can even do for ourselves? We can do our prayers on our own for now and take care of our immediate problems. The Bible made it clear in Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them." The Bible did not say where two or three are gathered and a Priest or Pastor is among them. Also in Psalms 145:18 “The LORD is near to ALL who call on him, to all who call on Him in truth”. The Bible did not say those who call on Him with the help of Pastor or Priests. And in John 14:13 “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son”. And finally in Psalm 5:3 says” In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly”. My point is that we can pray to our God directly without any immediate need for the middle men for now, if they cannot respect themselves and live humble life.
How are we even sure they are working for God? The Bible told us in Matthew 7:22-23 “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” So, you can see that even when a Pastor or priest performs miracles, cast out demons and prophesy, they may still not be working for God and we must be careful. Assuming we discover that these people are not working for God on the "last day" how can we explain to God that the reason we destroyed the future of our Children is because we believed the con men without using our brains. In San Diego USA the dioceses paid more than $198 million to 144 abuse victims. This was not sexual abuse as we know it but Priests molesting altar boys (Crude Homosexuality!). So we have practical evidence that most of these people are misbehaving and may not be working for God, then why are we gambling for their comfort at our own Peril?
If we convert these magnificent buildings to hospitals and use the daily offerings and donations to employ 4 doctors within 3 months our town will turn to Mecca for hospital tourism. We have the key to our own survival but we desire to put our scarce resources in the bottomless pit and blame the government for everything when we have the capacity to help ourselves.
If we collectively fail to be creative and look for a way to make our children fit properly into the society, with the basic training to take care of themselves and others, we better start now to look for another place to call Home because if we keep mass-producing charlatans with the pace we are going, our Town will likely be called scene of the absurd soon. I am just writing about the buildings for now, i am not in any way talking about the physical cash they are gathering for themselves and their Roman slave Masters.
Let us all bear it in mind that if the churches are truly creating positive impact in the society, there is no way the churches will keep growing and the crime rate keep increasing at the same time. Something is wrong somewhere and until we discover the anomaly, we will keep ruminating in the dark. Every positive thing starts from the foundation. The only thing that is built from the top is grave! Let us unite and give our children the future we desire by channeling our donations and resources to make their future brighter. The money spent on these buildings can transform all the Schools in our Town. It is unfortunate that our fore fathers awarded Scholarships in 1945, but now we have battalions of professors, and catholic of Elites nobody is talking about Scholarship again even when those who benefited from the 1945 Scholarship are still with us. To cross a bridge and destroy it is part of man’s inhumanity to man. Matthew 7:5 “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye”. Thanks for your time!
To be fair, I just willfully decided to use four pictures above to buttress my points because if I try to present the true picture of the hospitals in my Town, the entire internet space may crash. We have Eight (8) Parishes in Aku and the two buildings at the top of the picture are just two parish houses. And there is an intense competition for other parishes to complete their Parish houses as soon as possible. So, within 2 years we will have 8 magnificent buildings all to the Glory of God while the parishioners languish in penury and abject poverty.
The house at the lower left side of the picture is Secondary School while the other is Primary School. What you are seeing outside is just the best look ever, because going inside will shock you to the marrows. These are few of the places we churn out students that will represent us at the University level. Most of the students will finish as science students without seeing a conical flask before because what supposed to be laboratories was just parking stores for petty traders in the school. There is no functional library for those that have the luxury of reserving a room as library while in most of the Schools there is nothing like library. If I continue to give graphic illustrations of what the Schools actually look like, this brief write up will be the size of Encyclopedia Britannica.
The Bible instructed Men of God in 1 Peter 5:2-3 “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing DISHONEST gains, but eager to SERVE; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being EXAMPLES to the flock”. What example are the Priests showing to the Parishioners by hoodwinking them to build such house? How can a Priest live in such house and tell you that Jesus is coming soon and you believe him? If you know that you are parking out soon to Heaven, why are you then wasting time and money to build a castle instead of managing ordinary tents temporarily?
How can our Community leaders, lead us into this spiritual and existential abyss all in the name of God? I doubt if any reasonable God of love will support the destruction of the future of our children for the comfort of His Men when He is a great provider Himself. Jesus said In Mark 9:37 "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." Are we benefiting more from the churches than on our own children and good health? All these Reverend Fathers are under Private Health Insurance but they keep telling us that God will heal us. Is it not reasonable for Priests to manage modest apartments that are in sync with the financial capacity of the Parishioners? In Luke 5:16 “Jesus frequently withdrew to the wilderness to pray”. If Jesus can pray in the wilderness why can’t the Men working for him live happily in more humble houses?
I know that some people will misinterpret my position as if I am fighting the "Men of God" No, far from it. My position is that we have more pressing needs to sort out at the moment and if we abandon that responsibility to the advantage of the "Men of God" we are mocking God. If we solve the problem that is making everybody uncomfortable in our Home Town we can then plan and even create our own Vatican City, but at the moment it is a clear case of misplaced priority.
How can we afford the luxury of outsourcing what we can even do for ourselves? We can do our prayers on our own for now and take care of our immediate problems. The Bible made it clear in Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them." The Bible did not say where two or three are gathered and a Priest or Pastor is among them. Also in Psalms 145:18 “The LORD is near to ALL who call on him, to all who call on Him in truth”. The Bible did not say those who call on Him with the help of Pastor or Priests. And in John 14:13 “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son”. And finally in Psalm 5:3 says” In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly”. My point is that we can pray to our God directly without any immediate need for the middle men for now, if they cannot respect themselves and live humble life.
How are we even sure they are working for God? The Bible told us in Matthew 7:22-23 “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” So, you can see that even when a Pastor or priest performs miracles, cast out demons and prophesy, they may still not be working for God and we must be careful. Assuming we discover that these people are not working for God on the "last day" how can we explain to God that the reason we destroyed the future of our Children is because we believed the con men without using our brains. In San Diego USA the dioceses paid more than $198 million to 144 abuse victims. This was not sexual abuse as we know it but Priests molesting altar boys (Crude Homosexuality!). So we have practical evidence that most of these people are misbehaving and may not be working for God, then why are we gambling for their comfort at our own Peril?
If we convert these magnificent buildings to hospitals and use the daily offerings and donations to employ 4 doctors within 3 months our town will turn to Mecca for hospital tourism. We have the key to our own survival but we desire to put our scarce resources in the bottomless pit and blame the government for everything when we have the capacity to help ourselves.
If we collectively fail to be creative and look for a way to make our children fit properly into the society, with the basic training to take care of themselves and others, we better start now to look for another place to call Home because if we keep mass-producing charlatans with the pace we are going, our Town will likely be called scene of the absurd soon. I am just writing about the buildings for now, i am not in any way talking about the physical cash they are gathering for themselves and their Roman slave Masters.
Let us all bear it in mind that if the churches are truly creating positive impact in the society, there is no way the churches will keep growing and the crime rate keep increasing at the same time. Something is wrong somewhere and until we discover the anomaly, we will keep ruminating in the dark. Every positive thing starts from the foundation. The only thing that is built from the top is grave! Let us unite and give our children the future we desire by channeling our donations and resources to make their future brighter. The money spent on these buildings can transform all the Schools in our Town. It is unfortunate that our fore fathers awarded Scholarships in 1945, but now we have battalions of professors, and catholic of Elites nobody is talking about Scholarship again even when those who benefited from the 1945 Scholarship are still with us. To cross a bridge and destroy it is part of man’s inhumanity to man. Matthew 7:5 “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye”. Thanks for your time!
Yours in the Lord,
Evangelist Odoh.
Evangelist Odoh.
