Jesus was going into Jericho, and blind Bartimaeus repeatedly shouted for help but Jesus did not answer him. On his departure from Jericho, Bartimaeus was still by the wayside. When he realized it was Jesus passing by again, he cried out so much more than before and made a complete nuisance of himself.

Before we pray for anything, we need to pray first for the grace to be able to pray.

Paul warns that the love of money is dangerous: “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:9-10).

The door to the pastor’s office swung open with a loud bang. Out came the praise worship leader running for dear life. Running after him, with shoe in hand ready to strike him down, was our dear pastor, shouting: “I will kill you. I will kill you.”

If I were to ask you to lend me N1,000 of your money, what would you say? You may or may not give the money to me. But if I were to ask you to lend me N1,000 of God’s money, what would you say? Do you keep God’s money with you or not? What precisely is the difference between God’s money and your money?

“Do you not know, brothers – for I am speaking to men who know the law – that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.” (Romans 7:1-2).

Jesus says to a woman by the well of Jacob: “You have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband.” (John 4:18). This statement is intriguing. How can a woman marry five husbands? Did they all die one after the other? How can the husband she is now married to not be her husband? Did she marry someone else’s husband?

The man died in the hospital after a long and protracted illness. The doctor conducted a post mortem exam and concluded that the cause of his death was cancer. But the word of God is contrarian. It insists no man has ever died of cancer, but that sin is the one and only cause of all death.

Imagine this scenario.  Someone under your authority is caught in an infraction.  When the matter is brought to your attention, he denies complicity and invokes the name of God in his defense.

The thief after our spiritual life is the devil, who gives us vainglorious earthly life. But the thief after our earthly life is Jesus, who then gives us abundant spiritual life.

On the cross of Calvary, Jesus cried the cry of David, saying: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). By this cry, God became our brother in adversity. Man in Christ cried out to God in frustration and disappointment. God in Christ became our advocate, validating the gospel truth that in our affliction, God is afflicted. (Isaiah 63:9).

My grand-daughter, Tatianna, asks me a question repeatedly. She says: “Grandpa, how old are you?” When I tell her I am 25 years old, she insists it is not possible. “You are my grandpa; you cannot be younger than my daddy.”

As a new believer, the Lord asked me one of his intriguing questions.  He said: “Femi, would you like to be a prophet?”

Be that sin-bearing servant who refuses to give God peace until he establishes his righteousness in the earth.

In February 1996, I was on a research trip to OPEC headquarters in Vienna, Austria.  It was bitterly cold.  Once I finish my work for the day, I would quickly withdraw to the warm sanctuary of my hotel room and spend quality time with the Lord.