Sensor Newspaper

• Easter Celebration: Loss of Christ-Like Virtues

Edet Okpo

Pastor U.U Umoren is a Minister of God, called into the Ministry by our Lord Jesus Christ in The Apostolic Church, LAWNA Territory Headquarters, Lagos State. He was called into the ministry in the year 2000.

Pastor, could you please critically examine the general mannerism of Christians in Lagos State and that of Akwa Ibom State?
Let start with the mode of worship. Over there, the mode of worship is different but the doctrine is one. What we called The Apostolic Church, Nigeria is made up of five component parts. Thes are Cross River Field, Akwa Ibom Field, Maritime Field (Rivers State and Bayelsa) Igbo Field, and the Lawna territory so, when these five components come together, we called it the Apostolic Church, Nigeria. Therefore, because of tradition and culture, mode of worship differs, but the doctrine remains the same differs. Also Christians over there especially the Yorubas because of their culture and healthy respect for the elders, they are more humble than our people here in terms of respect to the constituted authorities.
And since that was the way they were brought up, they had introduced that behaviour into the church. The respect ministers of God in their midst and worship God in a more mature, humble and decent ways. So, they do worship the Lord in the beauty of his holiness. I know our people are also trying in this direction.
Today is Good Friday. How significant is the Easter season to the Christians?
Let me briefly answer that question by giving you the meaning of Easter. According to the Wycliffe. Bible dictionary, Easter can be defined as a festive period that is Passover. In the Bible especially the Old Testament we noticed that the children of Israel especially the Jews had may festivals that they are still celebrating uptill today in Judaism. In the chrsitiandom, any moment we hear of Easter we remember the suffering, death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ which was for us. The Easter period in a nutshell is a season to commemorate the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ which was for our own redemption.
How should the Christians celebrate this festive period?
In one of my preachings recently, I enlightened my congregation on the significance of Easter. You see Easter and Christmas periods are for Christ, Everything that Christians celebrate should be for the glory of Jesus Christ. One of the importance of Easter is that the efficacy of Christ resurrection remains and that is the bedrock of Christianity. You may agree with me that Jesus Christ did not resurrect, there would have been nothing like Christianity. Disciples would have scattered.
Christians the world over should attach much importance to this season as the time that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ proved his supremacy. The bible calls the Easter the Passion Week. We should learn to have passion for righteousness; we should celebrate excellence instead of celebrating evil, instead of celebrating cultism and other social vices. As Christ did, at his triumphant entry, he cleansed cleared the temple.
I can vividly recalled a portion in the scriptures that says that “my father's  house is for prayers not the house of thieves, armed robbers or kidnappers and as such people should emulate our Lord Jesus Christ, His life and his ministry and also refrain from every evil act during Easter period”
Easter should be a period of sanctification. When we talk about sanctification, we have positional sanctification, and experiencial sanctification but an ultimate sanctification cannot be attained as far as we are in the flesh.  That will only be attained when we leave this flesh according to the Epistle of Paul to Corinthians: I Corinthians chapter 15:1 down” Paul says when this mortal shall have put on immorality and when this corruptible shall have put on incorruptible, oh! death where is thy sting? Oh! grave where is thy victory? All these we overcome by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, we should celebrate Easter with the fear of God and not to use it to involve in evil activities. When we do this, we will experience the peace of God in our society.
What are the Christians doing to stamp out insecurity in our society?
My humble advice first is for our leaders in various level of governments, the federal government, state and the local governments. The second one is for village heads and individuals. We only confess to be Christians by our lips and mouths and not by practice and faith. A Christian is a regenerated child of God. So if all those in the position of authorities can recognise the supremacy of God and allow God to take full control of the land, I want to assure you that the story of insecurity in our society will be a thing of the past. If the state can be fully handed over unto God, he will watch over the city because it is recorded in psalms 121:4 “Behold, he that keepth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” If you like, let there be heavy presence of security men in the state, without the fear o God in the land, it would not work. The reason why somebody can go to a church to kidnap somebody is because there is no fear of God. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
I also want to humbly advice the minister of God not to be fearful. They should be able to preach the truth to the leaders and the society. Some preachers when they have functions graced by some political bigwigs in the state, they won't preach the truth but pour unnecessary praises on them. It is left for us the ministers of God to know the type of sermon we preach and where and when to release repentance packed messages. We should not be giving these people milk everyday to drink when they are older than milk, they can crack bones. Because they are no more lamps, but overgrown sheep. However, we have so many church denominations, the more these denomination increases, the more evil we have in our society. Ministers of the gospel should brace up to this challenge with a view to having insecurity-free society.

Bookmark with: