The Word of God will come to us in many ways. It may come to us through the ministry of a pastor or teacher, or as we constantly engage in Bible study with other Christians.
As we prayerfully and meditatively read the scriptures, the Holy Spirit uses what we consume through the reading to provoke our conscience, calm our fear, wipe away our hypocritical tendencies, bury our baseless biases and stir our minds to ways we can walk more faithfully with God.
Before his conversion, Paul, was a Pharisee who persecuted the followers of Christ Jesus. In his epistle to the Galatians, Paul wrote; “for you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how I intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers” (Galatians 1:3-14). We have heard and still hearing prophecies by some men of God about our politics. I don’t have the spiritual eye or competence to discern between spiritual truth and lie so will not delve into such matters. That notwithstanding, I know that God abhors lies, fake promises, corruption, nepotism, arrogance, cheating and oppressing the poor and vulnerable and other sins we know.
Faith in God shows itself both in belief and action. Because we believe that the cause of justice and goodness and mercy is not simply our cause, not something we happen to like, but the real nature of things, and that is to believe in God- because we believe that we, find strength and courage to devote ourselves to such a cause. And when we do so devote and sacrifice ourselves for the sake of justice and goodness, we are making an act of faith , though we may not have started with saying that we believe in anything like that. When we feel prepared to give up anything in order that what is right may stand, when we are willing to refuse to give in to wickedness to save our own skin or even our nation, that is act of faith. Saul, breathed murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord. But something miraculous happened on his way to Damascus- something which Christian scholars say changed the course of the new Christian Church. A light from the sky flashed around Saul, and he fell on the ground. He heard a voice crying out “Saul Saul, why are you persecuting me”
Beloved, you are the Saul of your life going to be the Paul of your life and nation Ghana. With all the developments you saw under Mahama, the unprecedented infrastructure development, the schools, the hospitals, the roads in your areas, the stable power etc, hypocrisy, tribalism, cheap hatred have blinded you from seeing these important projects and their importance to your businesses and everyday activities – that is your scales. Roads in front of your school, house, church were constructed by the Mahama administration but you didn’t see the significance of those projects because of the scales the liars and power ambitious politicians had firmly fixed in your eyes. You struggled to get to cities for your education which made you what you are, Doctor, Pastor, engineer etc. That wouldn’t have been possible if you stayed in your villages but still doesn’t see the wisdom in Mahama constructing Ultramodern secondary, Junior secondary, primary schools in those communities. Your church members, school children, friends etc died because of lack of access to medical facility in your communities, fortunately, Mahama built modern hospitals, chp compounds, polyclinics in your area but still sees no wisdom in those projects- all because of the thick scales in your eyes.
Saul seem to have thought than an individual he had arrested, or was about to arrest, was accosting him – but the word was ; ” I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting”. You are persecuting yourself, and your beautiful nation Ghana. Jesus told Saul to go into the city and get instructions there. Ananias went to Saul and told him he had been sent by the Lord, that he may regain his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Saul regained his sight, was baptized, and immediately moved on to preach Jesus in the Synagogues of Damascus. We hear this message everyday in our churches but let’s carefully consider the import of this event relative to our everyday dealings. This is a man who explicitly, and apparently with some relish, persecuted the followers of Christ. A devout Jew, a Pharisee, he sought them out and requested special permissions from the chief priest in order to dispatch Justice most swiftly and without delay.
Beloved, do you request permission to tarnish the former President’s reputation, tell lies about the previous administration and its projects, tell lies to Ghanaians through your conversations or your consul? Or you deliberately tell lies, insult your political opponents, defend lies, corruption, injustices etc just to please your political masters? Remove the scales.
Beloved, in 2020, the light is already splashed, time to remove the scales from your eyes to enable you carry the word to the people, to enable you pick truth over lies, to enable you speak truth to power, to enable use your pulpits for truth propagation, to enable you stay away from wicked propaganda. I am not saying the former President supervised over a perfect administration, not saying all they did were right or perfect no. He is a human being and handled affairs of state with human being who cannot and cannot be perfect. But beloved, take off your scales and diligently compare performance of the two administration in all sectors. The conversion of St. Paul is important to us for so many reasons. One important reason is, conversion is not meant only for non Christians- conversion is not something that is only meant for those who have led dramatically sinful lives; conversion is a reorientation of our wills toward God’s, a change of heart wherein we seek God wills, and strive to do what he is calling us to do. If you lack that spiritual mental toughness to defend what is right and to speak truth to power, take opportunity of Christ’s birth and pray fervently to God to bless you with these special traits. Deliberately refusing to speak against evil deeds such as corruption, nepotism, reckless spending etc is sinful, a thick scale you must remove. Stop persecuting John and his government. Advise the Pharisees in the system and force them through your sermons and counseling to depart from their wicked ways.
David wrote in the first Psalm “Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and his law he mediates day and night. He is like a tree planted by steams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:1-3). This is a picture of fruitful application of the Bible one’s life. What we will be as a people, a nation and spiritually, twenty or forty years from now depends largely on whether we maintain or cultivate a habit of telling the truth, electing good leaders and prayerfully meditating on the Word of God as part of our daily walk with him.
Happy Christmas
