Blog Posts

Author: Bro Bukunmi Areelu

Date: 12th of January, 2025

                  A father once came up to me and told me about an interaction between himself and his son. He told his boy that keeping beards was a sign of unseriousness, and the son replied, “What about Bro Bukunmi?”. Now, I don’t have any personal relationship with this boy. However, because of the privilege that God and the Pastorate have given me to address this congregation, this boy had come into my sphere of influence. So much so, he based his argument, not on the Bible, but on my life. This means if I am ever in error, there is every likelihood of him duplicating my error.

                  This scared me but also opened my eyes. Satan introduces doctrines into the church in two ways. One is to inject wolves in sheep’s clothing into the fold. The other is to convince some sheep to model wolf-like behaviours until other sheep see it as normal. So, an individual doesn’t have to carry a mic and say heresies to preach a false gospel.

 Many children have an orientation of the presence of small lies and big lies. Because mummy, who led devotion that morning, gave them the phone and told them to tell the person on the other side that “mummy is not around”. In their bid to reconcile mummy’s behaviour with their Sunday school teaching that all liars will go to hell, they separated lies into small and big. This is how Satan gradually modifies the standards of the scriptures.

Youth in the house, you will notice that the greatest challenge that other Christians give for your decision to remain sexually pure is “it is not that deep”. Christian couples in courtship are now having sleepovers with each other, but it’s fine, after all, “Nothing happened”. But from the beginning, it was not so. It’s because someone, who names the name of Christ, has modelled the possibility of continuing in sin that grace might abound, without saying God forbid.

Jesus calls us the Light of the World. But a corrupted light will illuminate a distorted reality. Standards are being modified in hell and sent up to men on earth, and Christians are gradually conforming the image of Christ to abominations. People have created a false Jesus that supports all kinds of nonsense in the name of Grace. The problem now is that- these corrupted lights are now so prevalent that true lights are now considered too bright or too harsh for the current world. This is why you hear that the basic teachings of holiness, “Don’t listen to secular songs, don’t behave like the world,” are now over spiritual, or they are judging people. Things that would have been considered basic Christianity in the 90’s have now become radical Christianity in our time.

The Church does not have authority anymore because we are guilty of the same things we condemn. A minister is singing “Ma mu gbo mo” and Christians are dancing. See, we cannot make this gospel more exciting or attractive to an unbeliever than the world. Satan is willing to do things we cannot do to make his camp more fun. Jesus said His food was to do the will of the Father. Jesus was redefining what satisfaction was. Our mission is to redefine what fun is, not that we do our own version of satan’s things and say the “Jesus way” is better. No! There should be no basis for comparison. If it is of Jesus, then let it be clear for all to see. There should be no questions. Even if we can discern and “test the spirit behind it”, unbelievers cannot access that testing facility. They will have to believe that it is what Jesus is about.

 Again, from the beginning, it was not so. The standards of righteousness have been lowered over time. There has been an ungodly mixture of the Church and the World.  Men rose from amongst our ranks who championed the reality of enjoying the saving grace of Jesus without coming under His Lordship. So, the investment of light and kingdom influence upon certain individuals is yielding more profit for satan than for Jesus.

The Bible calls us living epistles. Can it be said, by reason of our epistles, that a Christian marriage is not devoid of immorality and domestic abuse? Can the conclusion be drawn that a Christian is not above stealing and cheating in the office? My fellow young men, is it possible that Zion approves the vulgar words that fall from our mouths? My Sisters in Christ, is it true that Jesus has no authority to determine what His daughters wear and how they appear on social media? Satan is winning, because there is a scarcity of just men that live and walk as true lights. Men who Heaven can reference as examples of Christ. Men of spiritual stature that can confidently say, “Follow me, as I follow Christ”, and if we check after 5 years, we will not find both of them in the bosom of satan.

“What about Bro Bukunmi?” the boy says. What about us? In our various spheres of influence, which kingdom is truly profiting from our influence? What epistle do we preach? Whose doctrines do we uphold? What examples have we set? Because the next generation is watching, weak believers are watching, unbelievers are watching, and God is watching.

Alive by the Word!