Topic: A Gospel Worth Living and Dying For
Text: Romans 8:35-39
In the early hours of the morning of 22nd October last year (2024), I was pleasantly surprised and swept off my feet to receive the visit of one of the fathers of faith missions in Nigeria, Uncle Bayo Famonure, at my residence in Kuje, FCT, Nigeria. Uncle Bayo will be 77 years old in June 2025. Below is a message from him to his brethren from his hospital bed in Jos University Teaching Hospital, JUTH when recovering from a deadly attack on him and his entire household by Fulani herdsmen on May 5th, 2020, that left him, his wife, and son with bullet wounds. The bullet though shot at very close range, didn’t enter my skull. Then they shot at my leg, but it didn’t break any bone. It could only be God. I feel so humbled that he took that much care of me. The bullet that entered my wife’s back avoided the spine narrowly and stopped short touching vital organs by the whiskers. How can I thank the God who is like this? As I am writing, I am crying. I pledge my life to His service afresh! I believe this is a contemporary restatement of Apostle Paul’s declaration in Romans 8: 35-39.
Arch Bishop Benjamin Kwashi, also shared one of his experiences:
March 7-12 1987; one hundred churches were burned down in Zaria city. Over 300 Christian homes and businesses were destroyed and several persons were killed. I was the leader then of the Christian Association of Nigeria CAN, Zaria Chapter and the Lord asked me to tell the Church and Christian community to do nothing. I wrote that letter, it was circulated and the Christians watched the wanton destruction on a large scale. In 2010, I was in Jos as Bishop on the same date, 7th to 12th March, in three villages on the outskirts of Jos, Muslims massacred men, women, and children. The church leaders were convinced to beg the villages and church leaders to do nothing. They cried until their voices dried up and there was no strength to cry, they just watched. In 2006, over forty people came to my house to kill me, it turned out that I postponed my return home and they met my wife, they did unspeakable things to her, beat her left her half dead and totally blind, through the mercy of God she recovered six months later in the US. Exactly one year later, they came back, and this time, they met me at home. Over 30 people came.
They broke down the house. They broke the backdoor, came in, and took me out to kill me. They later changed their minds and said they would kill me in my bedroom. I pleaded with them to pray, as I prostrated before the Lord, about 2 minutes later my wife was holding my hands and 5 minutes later my son came and I said what are you doing here and he said Daddy they have gone. What chased them away, what they saw, what they didn’t see only eternity will reveal. Now, friends, I am not saying this to downplay those who have died. I have lost a classmate who was a pastor in Kaduna. He was roasted in His church. I have lost colleagues, brothers, and sisters who were slaughtered for their faith, Why I am alive I don’t know, but one thing for sure I know, until my time is up and I know I will die one day, blood crash, air crash, car crash whatever crash, until that day, I have a gospel to proclaim, I have a gospel worth living for and I have a gospel worth dying for! Amen
Prayer:
Ask the Lord to grant you a renewed commitment to Him.
Pray that you may remain relevant in God’s eternal purpose.
Bless the Lord for this year’s month of missions. Receive His blessings on the labors done in prayers and in mobilizing the Church and believers for the Great Commission.
Pastor Victor Idakwoji
Director Mobilization and Networking,
NEMA, Abuja, Nigeria.
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