MARD Moment Podcast MARD LIFE

Inspired by Charles Wesley's 1738 classic, this episode takes a look at what we gain by opting in to the greatest trade ever made.  
You can listen to a beautiful rendition of "And Can It Be" by visiting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQeIGbKqiw8   
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When I was to write about meekness tonight, it seemed like a not often used word. So odd that I yielded to the temptation of searching for it in my Bible just to be sure how rare it is. (Thank God for Bible apps that have made such searches easy.)
As a student of literature, history and English language, I am drawn to the King James Version of the Holy Bible more than any other. It has this ancient and poetic feel to it that I find lacking in other Bible versions.
So, I searched for the word meekness and realized it was used only 14 times in the Bible. That is a little too few for my satisfaction, so I searched for meek also. Meek did one better, it appears 15 times, for a joint appearance of 29.
Considering that “the meek shall inherit the earth,” I was expecting meek and meekness to appear more often in the Bible. Especially in the epistles of Paul and the Psalms and Proverbs. It seems like poetic justice that meekness is as scarce in the Bible as it is among humans.
Some will argue that humility is synonymous to meekness, but linguists and writers will argue that synonymous words are similar in meaning, but may not always serve as effective substitute words.
My dictionary states that to be meek is to be humble, non-boastful, modest and self-effacing. A.k.a free of self aggrandizement.
Some people will argue that they are just easily noticeable or have a loud personality, and that excuses the absence of meekness in their life. The first man to be described as meek in the Bible, in fact, other than Christ, the only other person in the Bible to have the word meek attached to his name in the Bible was Moses. “(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)” Please, let that sink in.
Moses who grew up as heir apparent to Pharaoh, the same Moses who killed an Egyptian while defending an Israelite, who then ran off on exile and then meet his wife by defending her or getting into a quarrel or fight with some shepherds on her behalf. The same Moses who saw God with his eyes, wrote the ten commandments while communing with God, broke the tablet containing the laws in a combination of anger and shock.
If you know anything about Moses, having watched him confront Pharaoh, brought down ten plagues on Egypt, then lead a nation of over six hundred thousand men out of Egypt, then you are quite sure he must be quite popular and always had an audience around him.
Anybody who has been a class captain knows the power and responsibilities that comes with the office, how much more leading the Israelites? How can such a leader still maintain his meekness, so much that God recognised him as the meekest man on earth?
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Just as you exhibit all of the other Fruits of the Spirit, you are supposed to show meekness in your daily life also. Meekness shouldn’t be likened to sour grapes. We want to assume it will be easy for less powerful and popular people to be meek. But if Moses could, so can you.

I do not know the S.I unit for measuring faith, but I do know that faith as small as mustard seeds can move mountains as big as Everest.
Now, I don’t know why you would want to move Mount Everest from its current location. Maybe to boost tourism in the new location, (Nigeria can really use the money, if it won’t get stolen first), or just to prove a point. But I do know that man’s want are insatiable.
As for needs, that’s where faith needs to be practiced. Wants and needs, as in a secondary school student wanting a car to show off to his friends while a man with a family of 5 needing a car to help move them around. A man wanting the rain to stop falling so he can go “turn up” in the club with his friends and a woman needing the rain to fall all night to boost her farm produce.
When you can separate your wants and needs, then you can pray appropriately.
Thank God for the era of grace. Lots of “modern Christians” are so in love with the concept of “grace“, cos they are in a hurry to abuse it. The grace I am grateful for is the one that begins with the rending apart of the veil in the temple upon the death of Jesus Christ at the cross.
It opened a chapter in human relationship with God, whereby anyone can talk to Him through faith, without needing an intermediary or priest. We can ask God for any need, beginning at salvation, but not ending at financial resources, good health, wisdom, or direction in life.
Faith like a grain of mustard seed will move mountains, now imagine the strength of a faith as massive as a mountain. That brings us to growing in faith. The level of your trust in God five years after you first believed in him shouldn’t be the same as when you just started your relationship with Him.
 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Faith here is different from the rest because it is the one fruit that is directed more towards oneself rather than others
That brings us to selfishness. “Ask and you will receive“, “I will give you the nations for a possession“. That doesn’t necessitate praying for all your enemies to drop dead, nor all your rivals failing woefully.
“The earth is the Lord’s and its fullness thereof“. You can have all your needs met without someone else giving his life for it.
Is your faith as like a mustard seed or is it growing? Do you trust absolutely in God or do you need an assistant god? Can God trust you with responsibilities that comes with Faith in Him?
Remember “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Welcome to the “I don’t take nonsense” generation; here, tolerance level is running low, patience is thinning out, longsuffering is none existent, if you step on my toes, I’ll stomp off your feet.
It’s unbelievable when you see some very spiritual and extra born again Christians react to insults, misjudgements, pressure or things going against them. It is like they are the epitome and model for the Fruit of the Spirit until you get to situations that requires longsuffering.
They’ll not just flare up, they’ll ensure you know that when it comes to standing up for themselves, they’ll gladly put Christianity aside, give you a healthy dose of hell, then come back to being Spirit filled again. I wonder how they’ll come back to you for evangelism after that.
It seems like the days of “turn the other cheek” is long gone, and we are back in the times of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or two”.
When Apostle Paul through the inspiration of the Spirit wrote that “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” there was no expiry date or caveat attached to any of them.
Never forget that an eye for an eye would make the whole world go blind. If you want to claim “New Testament Grace“, you might as well go all the way and manifest “New Testament Fruit of the Spirit”. Longsuffering included.

It seems some people are just allergic to peace and quiet. If there is no noise and ruckus greeting their presence, then something is wrong. They begin to feel like a fish on land.
One of my friends got me stuck on a phrase which at best I can only roughly translate to “You love quarreling even if you claim not to be a fighter”. It sounds better in pidgin, but is likely less pungent in English.
Some people are just overly aggressive. They might term it as being Alpha, Domineering, Militant, Bossy, No Nonsense Taking, Hyper or any other fancy name, but in truth they are ungentlemanly and unladylike, abrasive, disrespectful, impatient, and leave everyone the meet with a bad impression or/and a hurt.
Other than the time Jesus cleansed the temple, with a whip in hand, you never find him being Aggressive anywhere else in the Bible. Even when Nebuchadnezzar saw him “chilling” in the fiery furnace with Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego, his and their demeanor was calm.
Steven seeing Jesus at the right hand of the Father, Paul hearing Christ’s voice on the way to Damascus; both experiences, despite how different the background was, were still epitomes of classical experiences with the Prince of Peace.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,”. The Peace there is both received and given.
“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Here it is received.
“Follow peace with all men , and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:” This is a Peace you give out. Beginning at your family, extending to your friends, and inexcusably inclusive of your neighbor. At work, church, home, road, anywhere.
Make you no come be one of those people wey like quarrel pass fight.

When the first group of people were branded “Christians” because they lived a life that reminded everyone around them of Jesus Christ, everyone else who believed in Jesus Christ thought the coolest thing that could happen to them was for someone to refer to them as a Christian.

I wouldn’t be surprised if children returning home from school would run to their parents, beaming with pride as they counted on one or both hands the number of people that referred to them as Christians that day. A lady would be sharing the “good-news” with a stranger who will then ask her “are you one of them? Are you a Christian too?” with tears of joy welling up in her eyes and being choked up with emotions that she was identified as “Christ-like”, she will look them straight in the eyes, smiling from ear to ear as she replies emphatically, “Yes I am”. Believers who were fleeing persecution would meet up in a strange city and whenever they hear someone being referred to as a Christian, they quickly identified and associated with them.

Centuries later, being branded a Christian was considered a thing of joy until recently, the 21st century peeps, find themselves “too cool” and “politically correct” to be called Christians. They suddenly are very wise and intelligent and would rather thank “the universe” for any good fortune than thank God. They believe in God, but would call him any other name but God. They believe in Christ, but not as Christians, rather as something I am not still sure what they claim to be.

I am yet to come to terms with people who would rather not commit to relationships, or term themselves as being in a relationship. But refusing to acknowledge or term your relationship with your Messiah, that I don’t consider to be wise. It reminds me of the bible verse that says “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels”.

I am a Christian and I am proud to be one.



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