And He rested on the seventh day!

In Scripture we read that by the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.

Some have explained that this does not mean that the Omnipotent Lord of all needed to rest, but simply ceased creating on the seventh day as He will never be tired. Others link it to the Sabbath day: we also need to rest on one day of the week.

But we also see that many scriptural writings ascribe human characteristics to the Almighty! The Lord is portrayed as jealous, repenting of His deeds, angry with the wicked, and even walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and from whom the human couple could attempt to hide.

While all these might be able to bring partially to the level of human understanding the unfathomable Majesty of the Most High, the fact remains that human words and expressions remain inadequate to explain the Creator. The danger also remains that these attempts could form in man a totally incorrect concept of God.

The Lord can be seen in His Work of Creation in which we have our existence. He speaks to us through His Creation and thereby shows us His Will clearly. To recognize this Will is our duty. And before now, the Son of God in His Holy Word showed the right way to do so.

Remember that Christ Jesus did not concern Himself with creeds. Let us therefore wake up, look around us, and in listening to our inner voice, move away from shackling dogmas and wrong concepts! Only this can open the way to pure understanding!

Man shall not live by bread alone!

In this well-known statement of Jesus we are guided on how to resist the temptation of living a one-sided life. It admonishes one and all that we have to balance the pursuit for our earthly goals and pleasures with high spiritual aims as well.

After all, man is spirit when stripped of all his material coverings and it will be of little gain to give all attention to the body and starve the inner core of attention. Of what benefit will it be for a man to gain the earth (material benefits) and lose his inner core – the spirit?

A whole lot of us live the one sided life blindly. We have even confused our earthly pursuits with the spiritual to the extent that all our religious activities are geared towards achieving one purely material earthly goal or the other. When majority talk of seeking the face of the Lord in prayer and when fasting, it is all about the next promotion, making money, exam success, finding a viable spouse and so on.

While these are desirable, they are like earthly bread and we are not to live by these alone but by the Living Word, the spiritual bread which refreshes, enlightens and revitalizes our spirit. We should grasp the Holy Word aright, resolve to do only that which is good, and give purity to our thoughts so that all the rest can be added unto us! We shall become sound in body and soul and we shall be able to soar upwards and find our way back to the Eternal gardens of the Most High!

Can a loving God create hell?

The answer already lies in this question.

The Almighty is Love! All that emanates from Him is therefore pure and good. Since no evil can proceed from the Creator, then He did not create hell which is the dwelling place of evil men and their abominations!

The power of the Lord flows through all that exist. It flows through what we call nature and all creatures. In the case of man, in addition to his ability to receive this power, he is especially endowed with the ability to also direct the power and use it in any direction of his choice. Man has the free will to press the power which is neutral to good or evil purpose. He uses this same power when he is thinking, when speaking and for all his deeds.

A very important aspect of the activity of man is his ability to think and also use his intuition. The products of his thinking and that of his intuition have real forms! These can be beautiful and benevolent forms or evil forms. The propensity of the majority of mankind for evil made such obnoxious forms to mushroom and gather in huge centres that is now known as hell. Thus hell is the handiwork of men alone and is not a Divine institution!

Man is responsible for using the power of his Creator in such a wanton way and is therefore compelled to live in his self-created hell after his departure from this earth as he cannot escape from the consequences of putting the pure power of God into wrong use.

How about a 30 day Sabbath?

What can one give to the Lord in thanksgiving?

He is our Maker and King!

Can we give ourselves and our paths?

How about a 30 day Sabbath?

30 days of doing only the Will of the Lord!

No sin in thought and word

30 days of the Lord

30 days of pure accord

30 days of prayers and thanksgiving

Welfare of all we keep seeking.

Unyielding to base desires

Lustful desires cast in fires

Looking up to God for strength to fulfill

Pleasing Him in thought, word and deed

Watching and praying

In gardens of God alone serving

The 30 days shall become a lesson of songs!

A rehearsal of heavenly songs

Then the Sabbath shall outlive 30 days-

And become Sabbath till the end of days!

Sola Adeyegbe

Abuja, 4.55 p.m. 29^th June 2006.

Animals as our friends.

In their answer to the question of whether animals really have a sixth sense, Readers Digest informs us that a box jellyfish has 24 eyes, an earthworm’s entire body is covered with taste receptors, a cockroach can detect movement 2,000 times the diameter of a hydrogen atom — and your dog’s sense of smell is up to 100,000 times greater than yours (some dogs have been known to smell human cancers). It’s safe to say that animals experience a much different world than we do.

Yet, the foregoing is just scratching the surface! Have you heard of animals leaving an area just before the occurrence of what we describe as natural disasters? When you inquire further perhaps you too will come to realise that animals have a similar origin as that of the servants of our Creator that work with Nature. When occurrences such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and floods are imminent, these servants warn and the animals more easily perceive these warnings and act accordingly. However, man runs into the danger and thereby suffers great harm or even perish. 

We should therefore pay closer attention to animals and learn to understand them. We will then thankfully recognise that animals are our friends and form a useful link in the chain of helpers that always surround us!

What did Jesus mean by: ‘If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also'?

The meaning of "turning the other cheek" is that we should endeavor not to react in a vengeful manner when we perceive that we have been wrongly treated by others.

All the actions that proceed from us must be borne out of love instead of an evil intent which includes taking revenge by taking some actions meant to harm the other person who has perpetrated a wrong against us.

In addition, it also means that we must forgive those who offend us. That is the way we ourselves can be free. If we do not forgive those who trespass against us our own sins too cannot be forgiven! We should always remember a portion of the Lord’s Prayer that says: forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. If we forgive others, we will not intentionally harm them in retaliation. Acting in retaliation only heaps up a burden of guilt on us regardless of the temporary satisfaction that the vengeful act may bring.

However, the foregoing does not mean that we should encourage others to treat us shabbily. That will be promoting evil and this is not the meaning of Christ’s Teaching. We should be fearless and face others with dignity and firmness. We should demand the same respect we voluntarily give to others and seek to be treated fairly but we should not commit a sin in that process.

Balm for the wounded spirit.

Are you disturbed by your own actions or the actions of your neighbor? Are you oppressed by a particular bad habit? This might be an evidence of a weak spirit too weak to bring to fruition its own inner desires or too weak to understand that it is responsible for its own happiness and this does not depend on the action or inaction of others. Such spirit has been suffering from the whip of the intellect a product of his own flesh. A poor wounded spirit this is!

There is good news however! There is a balm for the wounded spirit. This balm is Truth. Truth revitalizes and heals. Truth however is not what the earthly senses can grasp for it is eternal. Earthly senses are only familiar with forms which keeps changing! So for us to grasp the Truth and heal our spirits we have to become spiritual, free from all earthly thoughts. Then we will stand in the Truth and be surrounded by its pure Light. We make a start in this by finding out the Laws of God and striving to live accordingly.