Young
believers into Christianity are in for a tough ride. How will they find Christ
in all the prosperity gospel and individuality in church. A young woman walks
into church, she is nervous. Its her first time in church after many years of
not going to church. She looks around, no one notices she is new, including the
ushers. She is desperate for Christ, she is at the end of the rope, if she does
not find Christ, that’s it. There is nothing left to live for.
Her husband does
not love her. He is sleeping around, in fact he has children with several different women. Her dreams are dead, not that she ever
would have made it. See, she dropped out of school at 16 years and got married,
but the man who promised her heaven and earth gave her hell instead. She needs
meaning in her life. Perfect definition of desperation.
When the visitors are asked to stand, she summons her strengths
gets up and declares ‘I want to get saved.’ The pastor, one of those ‘Armani suit’
kind of pastor’s in a poor village where the church is one of the few buildings with electricity beckons her forward, her heart pounds, everyone
is ululating, heaven is welcoming a new angel. She cries tears of joy and
relief, is she finally home? The pastor prays fervently for the lost soul now
found, before pushing her violently to the ground as he begins to pray in
tongues. She starts crying, not from the pain of her head but of finding hope at last, finally she feels peace. She gets up. She feels
different as she manages to smile, the first in ten years.
‘Now God has saved
you, you must offer an offering, pleasant to the Lord.’ The smiles disappears,
she has no money apart from the one thousand five hundred shillings her husband
gave her for rent, she smiles when she remembers the fifty shillings for the children's supper, as she
takes it out and usher holds her hand to stop her as the mighty man of God
continues.
‘The Bible says David offered a burnt sacrifice to the Lord and it
was pleasant to him.’ He turns and looks at her in the eye. ‘Woman thou art
loosed! Your husband will call you blessed, the Lord will multiply the works of
your hands. Give and it will come back to you!’ he roared to her face. Her
heart pumping harder than usual, she dug deeper and took out the one thousand
five hundred shillings. The congregants start shouting and praising as the
pastor shouts ‘more! More!’ She gives him all the money that she has, when she gets home her husband rains blows on
her, her children sleep hungry that night
while the pastor rides home in his 4
wheel drive carrying the one kg of meat he has just bought for his family. In
the midst of the tears she smiles, the man of God assured her that the curse
had been lifted, she is hopeful. But she will never know Christ, will she? She would know the Pastor better when he touched her breasts, or when he slept with her to cleanse, but would she know Christ?
Presently
it is never about Christ or the power of His cross, it about how some people
can make money quickly at the expense of the man hoping to feed his family, or
the young unmarried woman who the pastor has led to believe that she is cursed
and that is why she is not married. Even in the mainstream churches, its about
powerful cliques of men and women, who will tolerate their own sins and that of
their children while strongly condemning others. These church men and women
will kill not for Jesus but for their own beliefs, they visit witch doctors to
be assured of success. They will stand for what is wrong because they have the
power. Yet they pray the loudest any given Sunday.
Any
given Sunday, it’s never about Christ it’s about the number church projects
that you need to contribute to, not that anyone will ever account for the
millions raised every month. There are people who need to know Christ, they are
desperate to know Him, they are ready to sell their souls to know Him. Sadly
they are the perfect victims for prosperity gospel. The gospel nowadays is
about giving and waiting to receive back. Its not about that! The many times
God really blesses us is when we are at our worst, when we have nothing to give
back. If we are able to repay God for His many blessings, that would make us
equal to God, and that would mean this gospel is not for the poor but for those
able to buy the blessings of God. Romans says that God demonstrates His love
for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We forget to be
like the Bereans, they studied scripture daily to see if what was preached to
them was true. If we did, we would know that offerings and tithes were meant
yes for the priest but also for the poor.
If
only the scales could be lifted from our eyes just like Paul says in 2nd Corinthians that with unveiled faces..., then we would know that there is
more to Christianity than prosperity. Let’s not be foolish like the Galatians
and not fail to question what is wrong. I am glad I became a Christian a long
time ago, otherwise if I did not know God then, I do not know how I would know Him at all.
