Destructive Engineering and Destructive Preaching*

Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. 1 Tim 4:16NIV

Kassey is my first son but second of my children. Like all my other children I send them to learn skills at an early age. So he chose computer hardware repair and maintenance. I did not know what I got myself into until I came home one day to see my laptop in pieces. He told me not to worry that he will couple them later. Well, it is now more than five years but I had to get another laptop. It was from there my family coined the word, Destruction Engineering. He has since improved but my laptop had to pay the price for what he has come to learn

Recently some kind of preaching and teaching have become popular in the Christian circles.. It has to be in the Christian circles because they can’t try that in Islam. Many preachers are aware of many things going wrong among Muslims and some such things very harmful to the Christian faith but they know enough to keep quiet, otherwise they will pay with their lives. So they concentrate on Christian doctrines.

Some of those teachings have some semblance of sound reason but a close look at them will show that they are borne out of vain glory or pride. Those teachers just want to prove how deep they have gone in revelation or how vast their knowledge of the bible has come.

One day a preacher said, what the bible said in Genesis Chapter one is In the beginning the earth became void, not that it was void. One will begin to wonder of what use that revelation to his audience is. He quotes some historic books and states how it is written in Greek and Hebrews. Some people jump up and applaud him. This is even less harmful than the ones who begin to launch direct attack on the basic tenets of the Christian faith.

The other day two bloggers, Reno Omokiri and the notorious Daddy Freeze came online to say that Jesus Christ is not God. They picked on some passages of scripture to push their point. Again I wonder why that should be a subject for Social Media discussion in the place many souls are being lost and we are fighting to winning them over? Has the Father complained to any of us that Jesus Christ is going by His name and that He is not happy about that? Has anyone heard that there is another war in heaven between the Father and His son on account of who gets what honor or respect?

The same group attack tithing and offering to servants of God. Nobody has forced them to give and those who give are not complaining. So one wonders why these men are obsessed with what does not concern them. Yet comedians, footballers, nightclubs and betting centers are among the wasteful channels people lose their money. In one program hosted by comedians, people pay as much three million Naira to sit down and laugh. Our teachers will say nothing about this but will quickly condemn those who give less to God’s business. You can now understand who is in charge of this attacks; the devil.

The most offensive of these are those who are trying to reverse all the things the Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples.

Baptism – they condemn baptism for modern day believers. Jesus Christ himself submitted to baptism, instructed His disciples to baptize people and the forerunners of the Christian faith were baptized and baptized others. These teachers insist that those who sat with the Lord Jesus Christ were in error and that the Holy Spirit did not do His work in guiding the early Church

The Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion – Even though it is clearly stated in the bible that the Lord Jesus Christ initiated and established that Christian sacrament and commanded His followers to continue to repeat it, these men insist that we are wrong. They insist that we should not use the material bread that Jesus Christ and His disciples used for the exercise.

There is no end to the things that they attack. 

My concern however is the negative effect that this is having on the society. Unstable Christians and our enemies both at home and abroad are catching in on this. 

Our text says that preaching well should not bother us as much as what the effect of our messages will have on our audiences. There are two things that Apostle Paul asked Timothy to watch; his life and his doctrine.

His life - No matter what wonderful messages you present, it will have little or no results if your life is not preaching too. There are many who preach today but their life is directly opposite to what they preach. They preach humility but are pompous. They preach love but live in hatred and malice against their neighbor. They teach giving and sacrifice but rarely are willing to give anything to those around them. They are experts in teaching prayer and fasting but they are guilty of neglect of the same.

Apostle Paul told Timothy that preaching is good but his life should be the first flashpoint of his messages

His doctrine – There are those who claim that we should not bother about teaching doctrines but the bible does not accept such position.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer Acts 2:42NIV

Without sound teaching of Christian doctrine, how then can we inculcate into our converts the understanding of the faith they profess? Unfortunately it is at this point that some have taken on to teach doctrines that only serve to confuse the mind of believers. The bible says that we should be careful about what we teach as doctrine because we could destroy our self through such doctrines and destroy our audience.

My attention in this writing is not really to those false teachers but to those who ignorantly follow such teachings. The Social Media have served to spread information at cheaper and faster rate. But lies have also spread at a faster rate than truth and the devil have exploited these lies against the Church of Jesus Christ. So there are genuine servants of God who read these things and join in sharing it, ignorant of the fact that they are doing more harm than good. Recent converts who are hungry for revelation are diverted by these lies.

Apostle Paul referred to these lies as gangrene; 

Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some 2 Tim 2:17-18NIV

Gangrene is a disease condition that results in the death of any cell it touches. So is the teaching of these people; anyone that submits to their teachings will hardly recover from it. They are loud mouthed and speak with such emphasis that it is hard to doubt them. It is then clear why the bible says that they destroy the faith of some. They pull believers out of the things that will strengthen them. They psyche their soulish nature and by that disconnect them from the Spirit of God. 

The first question in the bible was asked by the devil and these men exploit the instrumentality of raising questions that breed doubt to destroy the faith of some.

This is also a wakeup call to pastors and other Christian ministers to rise to the challenge of teaching sound doctrine to their members.

This is not a time to defend our denominations or local church dogmas but to open up our minds to the Holy Spirit and study again the things we teach. Of a truth there are many teachings going on in the Church which need to be revisited. We should use this opportunity to revisit such

Finally, we should go to the realm of real power ministry. Most of these teachers are experts at words. They are too worldly to even venture into the area of power ministry. So they make up for their poverty of the spirit with eloquence. If the Church will return to power preaching, they will be silenced. 

This is how Apostle Paul dealt with these kind of people

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. 1 Cor 2:1-5NIV

The things that mark an apostle — signs, wonders and miracles — were done among you with great perseverance. 2 Cor 12:12NIV

There is this account of how the eagles fight and overcome snakes. This earth is the ground and strength of the snake. The eagle does not fight the snake here. She picks it up and moves into the air. The snake is powerful in the air. In the same these talkers will be powerless if they come into the realm of signs and wonders and miracles.

Please let me hear from you

Emma your brother pnurnigeria@gmail.com

Lessons that Christians can learn from Muslims

 *A strong message from the “Aboki” in my neighborhood* 

The word “Aboki” means “My friend”. I don’t know if it is Arabic or Hausa language but it is a general way we addressed Muslims from Northern Nigeria. Only recently I discovered that some of them were actually from outside Nigeria; Mali or Niger.

They often work as security men or water carriers. They don’t pay house rent but are instead paid by those who employ them as security men. In the place they do security jobs they will open a stall or shop attached to the gate house of the main building. You will likely think that they are poor until you stumble into them counting plenty of money. The secret to their wealth is mainly because they don’t spend their money on the things that absorb the money of a typical Southern Nigeria. They don’t take alcohol, they don’t smoke, they don’t go to night clubs and their choice of women are either their tribal women who visit only once in a while or they pick cheap girls around but they don’t keep any attachment with them.

Their religion is very important to them. Once it is time for their prayer, they shut down everything to pray. If you came with all the money in the world they will never give you attention until they finished praying. Their day of general worship as we have Sunday among Christians is Friday and every business of theirs are closed down until they return. If you are unfortunate to have serious need of something that only “Aboki” sells, you just must wait until they return. Those who have visited Dubai and Egypt say that it is same thing over those Islamic countries.

Once you employ one “Aboki” be ready to host ten or more of them. They will not bother you with request for more space for accommodation but will peacefully accommodate themselves. Once in a while you will hear them playing their kind of music. They will chatter and laugh as they cluster together. I have never met them quarrel but some say that their misunderstanding is resolved by an elder. Whatever the elder said was the end of the matter. At times an “Alhaji” will bring in truck loads of yam or other food items. They will distribute it among themselves, sell, return the money and they are content with their share of the profit. I have never heard that “Aboki” stole his brother’s money

With all these businesses and employment, one will wonder what they do with their money. If you have lived near an “Aboki” you would have also been shocked to find a stranger in his stall or gate house, selling the same items, living in the same house and doing the same job. What happened? The “Aboki” you knew had handed over the shop to his brother along with the whole business. He may never return again.

 *What do they do with all the money?* 

One of them told me in confidence, “to sponsor the course of Allah given to Prophet Mohamed. The money they made are mainly sent to Islamic organizations that sponsor Jihad. Jihad is same as what we call Crusade. They both mean Holy War. The difference is that the one of Christians are mainly spiritual but Muslims can employ violence to achieve their end.

Every Muslim was taught from infancy to live on earth as a stranger. They have it in their mind that their principal agenda on earth is to spread their kind of the gospel - Islam. They don’t organize expensive burials or costly naming ceremonies. The rich ones among them make their money available to those who have dedicated their entire life to the Islamic course. That is why it is impossible to stop Islamic extremism. Their entire life is dedicated to it and no matter how close you are to them, they are willing to kill you if you represent something opposed to their Allah

 *How does this compare with our activities as Christians?* 

Yes, we that claim that we worship the true God and have the bible as our manual; how do we compare with the people we call foolish and ignorant?

Every now and then, I keep begging for money to be sent to my missionaries. When some believers give, they treat me as a beggar. A brother once took me along to buy evening snacks of fifteen thousand Naira for his children and later gave me five thousand Naira for PNUR International Prayer and Revival Conference that will run for five days. I was to also spend from their for my transport home

A Pastor called me today to say that his landlord is embarrassing him because of forty two thousand Naira for the annual rent of his worship center. A Sister in full time mission was giving testimony because I could give her recharge card. Another Pastor and his wife resigned their jobs to work as missionary at Esuk Aye; as I write now I don’t know how to get fund for his monthly allowance

I am sorry to say this, but I am ashamed to worship the same God as most so-called Christians. Many Christians complain that many churches are centered in the cities but they do nothing to support pastors and missionaries in the rural areas.

One time Nigerian Christians were crying that Nigeria government was working at Islamizing Nigeria but they do very little to spread the true gospel. Most of the places that you hear that Muslims took over in Northern Nigeria don’t have the presence of any church. When anyone ventures into that area as a missionary, hunger will drive him back. 

Why should the missionary’s daughter be deprived of basic education just because his father is serving the same God as my neighbor who works in an oil servicing firm whose son schools in one of the best schools in Europe? Why should the missionary's son suffer deprivation even though my neighbor has three cars packed in his garage?

 As I write this, my eyes are soaked in tears. We have been calling for vehicles to assist us but those in whose power it is to provide it, tell me to pray to God for it

PNUR plans a program annually, AUGUST SPECIAL; The Making of a Man of God. We intend to bring in pastors, missionaries and church workers from interior areas to the city of Port Harcourt. Our intention is to treat them like kings. Refire them through sound teaching of the word of God, provide clothing where we can and send them back happily. In this way we encourage them to work harder.

As I write, I have been literally treated like a beggar as I solicit for financial support. Some don’t even pick my calls anymore. Yet, we claim we want the gospel to spread. To placate our conscience, we litter our cities with billboards in the name of gospel programs.

Chai! Christian wake up from your slumber

If you have read thus far, I plead with you to support PNUR projects. 

Give your freewill support for AUGUST SPECIAL 2021

 *International Prayer and Revival Conference, United Bank for Africa, 10211831299* 

Send support for a missionary to come for this program

 *Door of Hope Compassion Outreach, Polaris Bank Nigeria, 4091257915* 

International money transfer should be addressed to *Emmanuel Nwosu, Port Harcourt, Nigeria* 

Please, don’t ignore this plea, and God will bless you

You can contact me personally +2348035724526 WhatsApp, pnurnigeria@gmail.com

 *Pastor Emma N J NWOSU* is the International President of *Prayer Network for Universal Revival* PNUR

A ministrry praying and working for revival in Today's Church www.pnurnigeria.org