You came alone, and you will leave alone

I remembered during my high school days when students (myself inclusive), together in groups, would misbehave and caused awful lots of troubles on campus. We did these thinking that is how high school must be or that is the trend because everyone is doing it. It was fun (I must confess, lol!).

But one day, one teacher, whom we deemed a comedian because of his old age, alcoholism, style of dressing and way of life in general, said something that will remain with me for the rest of my life: “You came alone, and you will leave alone.”.

You see, we have several denominations of churches across the world and surprisingly, each one of them has their set of belief systems. But the bible is one. More worrying is that individuals in such groups or denominations never ask themselves deep and important questions that matter to anyone who calls him/herself a Christian.

If you are asked: “If Jesus comes right now that you are reading this piece, are you certain that you will be one of those who will be lifted with him to heaven?”. If your response is not convincingly YES, you are in trouble. You do not have to answer me, but deep within your heart, answer yourself. If you still think you must confess your sins to get them forgiven; if you think some things are lacking that you need to fix before, hmmm! I am sorry.

God is not a respecter of persons; that is our positions, ranks, talents, achievements, etc., are useless before Him. [Rom 2:11].

In lev 19:2,” Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I, the LORD your God am holy.” – You must be holy.

In Psalm 118:20 “This gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter.” – You must be righteous and in Matthew 5:48, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”. – You must be perfect.

These are the states that we (humans) need to have to enter heaven. But we all know that we have all fallen from grace. Some people will say “...but we are all sinners”. The truth is, there are righteous, perfect, and holy people right here on earth. “But how? I also believe in Jesus. Why am I not holy, righteous, and perfect like God? Am I believing Jesus wrong?”. Truth be told, Yes, you are believing wrong. In fact, you do not even believe him. If you really believe, if you really respect the blood of Jesus, you should also be righteous, holy, and perfect such as God is. You should have no sins.

The purpose Jesus came into this world is to take away all your sins. “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” [Matthew 1:21]. And he did and said in John, it is finished “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”[John 19:30].

“Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.”[Isaiah 38:17] and “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.” [Isaiah 40:1-2]. Also, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” [Ps. 103:12]. I will not comment here.

While I have more to say, I would like to conclude with “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.” [Heb. 10:17-18]. No more sin offering (In today’s term, no more prayer for the forgiveness of sin) and remember, “You came alone, and you will leave alone.”.

Let’s keep hope alive y’all.

SHORT NOTE ON THE LAW

In Deut. 28, God promised to bless us IF we obey EVERYTHING that is written in the law (verses 2-14). But later in the same chapter, even more than the blessings, curses upon curses were pronounced as what will befall us IF we do not obey EVERYTHING written in the law (verses 15-68). Cf. James 2:10.

We just take this at face value to keep the laws being unaware of what and who we are.

In Rom. 7, Paul confessed how he struggled to do good, but the more he tried, the more he realized he lacked and unable. He finally confessed in chap. 24 that he’s wretched. 

The law is holy, just and good while our nature is sin, wretched and dirty; a sharp contrast to the nature of the law (Rom 7:12). Only holy things can keep the law, which is not our natural image.

Moreover, Isaiah 64:6 refers to our righteous deeds as filthy rags. Rags are in themselves not clean. But here, our righteous deeds are compared to filthy rags thus revealing the gravity of our good/righteous deeds. What hope do we have then? Choosing to keep the law is just a suicide mission, even worse- a curse. Gal 3:10.

Why then the law? It is to reveal our sin image/nature, as described in the previous paragraphs. It is dirty, wretched, full of sin and there is nothing good in us (Rom. 3:10-18). The aims of the law are presented in Rom.3:19, Rom 5:20 and finally, the law leads us to Jesus, who, then justifies us thus, making us holy, righteous, and perfect as God.

Besides, only faith pleases God (Heb 11:6) but the law is not faith (Gal. 3:12). Even the law makes nothing perfect – Heb 7:19. The law reveals our true nature and condemns us. It’s like a tool to make us guilty before God.

This is why God decided not to judge us by the law but by faith in Jesus Christ – Gal 2:16, Rom 3:28, Ephe 2:8-9, etc. The law is made a curse to us, let us give up as Paul did. Rather, let’s cling unto Jesus with faith.

Let's keep hope alive!

Reading: Genesis 27:1-23

The reading above talks about Jacob, Esau, and blessings. I am sure most people are recognizant of this story. It shows how we can receive blessings. The story can be thought of as a play where Isaac, Jacob and Esau’s father plays the role of God, Rebecca, their mother plays Jesus, and Jacob representing those who live by faith (Just accepting what God says regardless of how stupid it sounds or illogical or preposterous it is.), and Esau playing those who believe they must work to get blessings from God.

If, for example, I want to give a gift to someone, I must know if that person actually likes the gift. If I decide to give a friend a puppy, just because puppies are cute, and not knowing that he/she is allergic to puppies, even though the gesture is well-intended, it going to cause harm to the receiver of the puppy.

There is such thing referred to as the “heart of God”. Before we do something for God, we must know exactly what pleases God. Nothing pleases him if not FAITH – Heb 11:6, and that comes only from the word of God, Rom 10:17.

Starting from Gen 27: 4, when Isaac requested the savoury meat from Esau, he made it clear he wants it “such as I love”. He likes his meat cook in a particular way.

People, Rebecca is Isaac’s wife and she has been cooking for Isaac for decades. If there is anyone who knows how to cook to please Isaac, it surely is Rebecca.

Anyway, Esau, not taking this “such as I love” seriously, just relied on his strength, his ability to hunt and cook, and left to get the venison – the meat.

Jacob on the other hand was directed by the mother to just serve Isaac what she cooked. Gen 27:8.

If we pay attention to verse 9 of the chapter, Rebecca says she will make savoury meat for Isaac “such as he loveth”. She knows Isaac’s taste.

When Jacob complained about the fact that he was not hairy as the brother, Rebecca put goat’s skin on his arm and neck. When he complained that his father will recognize him and curse him, Rebecca puts Esau’s clothe on him and more important said “Upon me be thy curse, my son”. Jacob then sent the meal, prepared by Rebecca, to Isaac and he was blessed. He just accepted whatever Rebecca told him - The act of faith.

Just as Jacob, we also do not know the heart of God, we are not skillful in any way, we are not smart, we have sinned and we continue to sin, there is nothing worthy of good in us, Rom 3:10-18. But if we listen to Rebecca (Jesus in our case), we receive total forgiveness of sin, the blessing David referred to in Rom 4:6-7.

In Gen 27:17, Jacob boldly responded he was Esau when queried by the father. He was not Esau; we all know that. But when he received the heart of the mother, he could confidently proclaim that he was Esau. In this same vein, we too must accept that we possess the same state as God who is holy, perfect, and righteous-1 John 4:17, Heb 10:14 because we have accepted what Jesus had done for us. Just as Jacob, we can also confidently proclaim we are righteous, holy, and perfect regardless of what we see or what our logic tells us. This is the act of faith.

“Oh, what if I sin again?”. We must know as long as we are on this earth, unpleasant and undesirable things will surely come out of us. But does that nullify Jesus’ work for us? Far from it. How can we humans have stronger power than Jesus to quash or invalidate what he has established? No, in no way. Just as Rebecca who said, “Upon me be thy curse, my son”, we too have Jesus who intercedes on our behalf, whether we know it or not. 1 John 2:1-2. Christ is our advocate. He fights our battles and wars for us because he only knows what it takes to win such. He defends us. We must know this and be thankful.

We might want to do something with our strength like Esau but, that does not get us the blessings as we saw earlier. It is only Jesus who knows EXACTLY the heart of God. Therefore, just accepting what he has done automatically qualifies us for the blessings. He is sufficient, 2 Cor 12:9 and we are complete in him, Col 2:10. Stop talking about your weaknesses, praying for sins, etc, and rather focus on Jesus like the bronze serpent on the pole. Be grateful.

Let us keep hope alive!

ON THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN

“Now let us pray and ask God to forgive us our sins. We are human and we sin against him all the time. Raise your voice and let us plead for his forgiveness.” This is how most church services across most denominations begin: Prayer for the forgiveness of sin. I get it. We were taught at home, schools, Sunday schools even in our societies that when you offend someone, you need to seek forgiveness, which makes perfect sense to me. But does the same hold true for God? In Leviticus 4, after God sent the laws and the tabernacle, he directed that anytime any common person sins, he should bring a female goat without blemish or fault and that would be used to atone for or cleanse his/ her sin. This is done anytime sin is committed; maybe 10, 20, or 30 times a day (depends on the individual). Lev 4:27-31 Because the sacrifice for sin above is too tedious and because God loves us, this process was modified in Leviticus 16. Instead of the instantaneous sin offering, the sin offering is now done yearly. So, the people of Israel will wait until the appointed time of the year for the offering to be made. When this offering is done with a female goat without blemish, the people’s sins are forgiven for the whole year. No sin offering is required until the following year. Lev 16 :29 – 34. The second process, even though less difficult than the first, is still not perfect. It always reminds the people of their sins every single year during the sin offering. In Matthew 3, Jesus Christ was used instead of the goat without blemish (Note: Jesus is without blemish/sin too. 2 Cor 5:21). Jesus asked that John the Baptist lay his hand on him and baptize him, just as it was done in the first two processes above to establish righteousness. Matthew 3:13-15, Heb 9:11-12 The first sin offering lasted for how long it takes to commit the next sin and the second lasted for a year. The third, the real deal, the blood of Jesus, cleansed us from our sins eternally. John 3:16, John 1:29. Everybody says they believe in Jesus. But their actions prove otherwise. Prayer for the forgiveness of sin tells that the offering of Jesus’ precious blood is insufficient to take away our sins forever, so we need to do something on our own to cleanse our sins. This is tantamount to unbelief which is a sin. John 16:9. For sin to be forgiven, there must need be for the offering of blood (Heb 9:22) because of Lev 17:11. If prayers could forgive sin, why should God make people go through the first and second processes of sin offering? Why even the third and last (Jesus)? Is He that dumb and obtuse that he could not figure this out and we must teach him a better way of sin atonement? Satan is deceiving us. Jesus broke the wall of sin between us and God, Jesus offered himself on our behalf thus making us holy, righteous, and perfect. Heb 2: 11, Heb 10:14, 1 John 4:17. This is what true LOVE is. Please let us seize from despising the precious blood of Jesus. KEEP HOPE ALIVE!

Should the colours of the Ghana national flag be altered?

I love my country (Ghana) and therefore the national flag. The national flag is usually symbolic. It consists of colours which represent the wealth and power of a country. Ghana’s flag is made up of three such colours: red, yellow, and green.

The red represents the blood of our forefathers (ancestors) who shared their blood to fight for our motherland for us to enjoy today.

Yellow denotes the rich natural resources such as gold and diamond that are present deep in the soil.

The greens represents forests and the fertility of the land from which we grow crops such as cocoa, pineapple and sheanut.

From elementary school, we were thought about the richness of our land, which is symbolized by both the colours yellow and green.

Ofcourse, I do respect the red colour because I believe its place is rightfully earned. I do however struggle to reconcile with both yellow and green saying the same thing – wealth of mother nature.

Nothing tells us about which mindset should be adopted as people of a nation.  Since we were only told about the richness of our country but not how to get these resources, process, and package them for Ghanaians and for export, we grow up only knowing how to get those resources and sell them.

By observation, most African countries adopt these colours.

In my humble opinion, I suggest that either the green and yellow colours, which fundamentally signifies the richness of mother Ghana should be merged into one colour somehow (because they are also important), and a new colour be introduced to represent EDUCATION,INNOVATION AND INDUSTRILIZATION or a forth colour be introduced to communicate this idea.

Whilst colours in the national flag might not be the only way of instilling the spirit of innovation and industrialization into Ghanaian kids, it is one of the ways kids are taught about their country. I think this will make kids to adopt the mindset of innovation and industrialization at an early age which then will blossom into a national slogan – WORDS ARE POWERFUL.

We have cocoa but most of the beans are exported which is then returned to us in the form of chocolate at a higher price. The result of an economy which lacks industrialization mindset.

I hope we change for the better.

What is Africa: A Continent or a Country?

A couple of weeks ago, a dear friend asked me this question: "Hey Buddy! So what is the capital city of Africa?", and that got me thinking. Upon a little research, I realized that most people especially those who have not been to Africa do hold this view of Africa. As a result I decided to write this piece to answer this question. Best to my knowledge, it is countries that have capital cities.

The African continent showing the colourful flags of each country

Africa, just as Europe and Asia, is a continent consisting of over 54 countries: Yes 54 countries. Each of these countries have their own capital cities as well. She is the second largest and the second most populated continent on the planet earth. It is a continent of over 2000 spoken languages. 

Before I even talk about the countries and their capital cities, I will like to mention that Africa is sub - divided into 5 regions. These are West Africa, East Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa and Central Africa. As an example, I will mention some countries in each of these regions and their respective capitals.

Below are each regions, some countries that are located in them and the country’s capital city.

                West Africa

Country                         Capital city

Ghana                                     Accra

Nigeria                                    Abuja

La Cote d’ivoire                     Abidjan

Sierra Leonne                         Freetown

Liberia                                    Monrovia                  

                                               

                    East Africa

Country                          Capital City

Kenya                                      Nairobi

Tanzania                                  Mbabane

Ethiopia                                   Addis Ababa

Uganda                                    Kampala

                    North Africa

Country                           Capital city

Egypt                                        Cairo

Morocco                                   Rabat

Algeria                                      Algiers

Libya                                        Tripoli

                     Southern Africa

Country                            Capital city

South Africa                              Durban/ Pretoria

Zambia                                      Lusaka

Zimbabwe                                 Harare

                     Central Africa

Country                               Capital city

Cameroon                                          Yaoundé

Central African Republic                   Bangui

Democratic Republic of Congo         Kinshasa

Chad                                                   N’Djamena

Rwanda                                              Kigali

Of course there are many more countries but I cannot list all here because the few listed here cleared the point that Africa is a continent and continents do not have capital cities rather they have countries within them. But each of these countries of course as illustrated above do have capital cities just like Berlin being Germany’s capital city and Paris, France’s capital city.

Come to think of it, should each continent have a capital city, which city in which country will that be?

Let us think about that.

As a bonus, Africa is very diverse when it comes to language. There exist thousands of local languages. Some of these are Akan language (Twi), Ewe, Igbo, Hausa, Fula, Tonga, Amharic and Lingala.

Due to the colonial rule most African nations experienced, most of them adopted "official languages" mostly from Europe. Some of these languages are English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, German etc.

For example Ghana speaks English. So does Sierra Leonne, Gambia and Kenya. For French speakers Cote d'ivoire, Djibouti, Madagascar are just examples. Sudan and Egypt are predominantly Arabic speaking nations. Cameroon is even bilingual i.e. they speak both English and French (two languages) whilst Angola speaks Portuguese.

THE AFRICAN CONTINENT AND ITS COUNTRIES

Now Olympics 2016 but what is the history behind the Olympics Games?

August 6 at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil the Summer Olympic games 2016 begins. A lot of games ranging from athletics, basketball, swimming, gymnastics, table tennis, football to weightlifting will be taking place. If you want to see your favourite or world renowned sports personalities, then Rio is the place to be this summer. But how did it all begin?

It is undoubtedly true that the ancient Greek played significant role in the development and civilization of our current world and so it came as no surprise that the root of the modern Olympics games is linked to the ancient Greeks.

In the 8^th century the ancient Greeks started the Olympic Games and it was first held in Olympia, a city in Greece. This could probably influence the name of the modern game (Olympic Games). Just as it occurs every four years today, the same is true for the ancient Greek Olympic Games.

In 1894, the world governing body of the games, International Olympic Committee (IOC) was formed and since then it has been in operation. The IOC is the major decision making body which decides in which city the games can be held and it plays other roles as well.

Under the IOC, the first Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece in 1896 and it was a success. The second was in France. Since then the Olympics game continued till date.

Below are some countries and the year in which the summer Olympics Games were held.

Year	City	Country
1896	Athens	Greece
1900	Paris	France
1904	St. Louis	USA
1908	London	Great Britain
1912	Stockholm	Sweden
1920	Antwerp	Belgium
1924	Paris	France
1928	Amsterdam	Netherlands
1932	Los Angeles	USA
1936	Berlin	Germany
1948	London	Great Britain
1952	Helsinki	Finland
1956	Melbourne	Australia
1960	Rome	Italy
1964	Tokyo	Japan
1968	Mexico City	Mexico
1972	Munich	West Germany
1976	Montreal	Canada
1980	Moscow	Soviet Union
1984	Los Angeles	USA
1988	Seoul	South Korea
1992	Barcelona	Spain
1996	Atlanta	USA
2000	Sidney	Australia
2004	Athens	Greece
2008	Beijing	China
2012	London	Great Britain
2016	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil
2020	Tokyo	Japan

Just as any other institution, the Olympic Games also faced a lot of challenges. Due to world wars, the games were not held in 1916, 1940 and 1944. In the years 1980 and 1984, it was boycotted by large number of countries because of the cold war. Other challenges include doping, bribery and terrorist attacks especially in 1972.

Now not only the summer Olympics but winter Olympics: which is held in winter every two year after the summer Olympics, Paralympics (Olympics for people with disability) and youth Olympics/games (for teenagers), is organized.