WE ARE AT FAULT!

Dearly Beloved,
WE ARE AT FAULT!
“...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV).
Every one of us at the recent graduation ceremony of my seminary was stunned when the guest speaker indicted the Christians especially in Nigeria for the moral decadence of the society. The argument of the speaker who is a renowned university professor and a deacon in one of our churches was that Christians are praying and claiming to be serving God, but there is no sense of genuine repentance in most of them. He cited the increasing number of churches everyday with the growth of immorality even in the churches as an evidence of his indictment. His suggested solution to the problems of the society is genuine repentance of the so-called Christians.
The lecturer was right. After prayer of dedication to consecrate the new temple built by Solomon, and the manifestation of God to confirm that God had indeed sanctified the temple, God appeared to Solomon and reaffirmed His commitment to make the temple His sanctuary. God, however, gave Solomon three conditions before He could be answering their prayers and heal the nation. These conditions were humility, prayer and repentance. People today are humbling themselves and praying earnestly to seek the face of God. There are many churches, prayer “mountains” and camps today, and they are almost filled to the brim every Sunday and during other prayer times. Prayer night and day vigils occur almost every day in most churches. However, there is no genuine repentance in the lives of most of these worshippers. Instead of these worshippers to turn from their wicked ways, they are wallowing in them even in the church! Unfortunately, most of the religious and spiritual leaders today are carried away by the crowd and what they can get from them financially and materially. No wonder, the society is getting worse each day.
We are at fault! Do not be surprised at this. Have you ever thought of it? Are you not also contributing to the moral decadence of your society? As you are serving God, do you really have genuine repentance? Can you exonerate yourself from this fault? Only genuine repentance and true worship of God can heal this society.
In His service,
Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor).
NB
To view some of my recent Master of Theology in Religious Education (MThRE) graduation pictures, visit www.facebook.com/bayo.afolaranmi