WHY ARE YOU ANGRY?

WHY ARE YOU ANGRY? (Gen.4:6)

“The Lord God asked Cain, why are you angry and downcast? If you are doing right, surely you ought to hold your head high! But if you are not doing right, Sin is crouching at the door hungry to get you. You can still master him. Cain said to his brother Abel, let us go out and while they were in the open country, Cain set on his brother Abel and killed him” (Gen.4:6-8).

This question is no longer directed to Cain today but you and I since Cain has gone to the world beyond long time ago. I now put this question to you and I because the Word is not all about ‘tell them slogan’ but it is a double edge sword (Heb.4:12) of the Spirit of God which encourages those who are walking in the right path to keep on the good fight of faith as they guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, admonishing those who are lukewarm to rise up thus ‘since by your obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves so that you can experience the genuine love of brothers, love each other intensely from the heart; for your new birth was not from any perishable seed but from imperishable seed, the living and enduring Word of God. For all its humanity is grass and all its beauty like the wild flowers. As grass withers, the flower fades but the Word of the Lord remains forever and this Word is the Good News that has been brought to you (1 Pet.1:22-25), marks us as God’s own (‘but now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far off have been brought close by the Blood of Christ’ Eph.1:13), regenerates us as we respond to the directives of the Holy Spirit (“so for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old order is gone and a new being is there to see”2 Cor.5:17) and the Gospel (‘Jesus answered: In all truth I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born through water and the Spirit’ Jn.3:5), strengthens us as we seek to please God (“In the abundance of his glory may he, through his Spirit enable you to grow firm in power with regard to your inner self” Eph 3:16), convicts our hearts of sin (‘and when he comes, he will show the world how wrong it was about sin and about who was in the right and about judgment’ Jn.16:8) and guarantees our inheritance of the things above (“who is the pledge of our inheritance for the freedom of the people whom God has taken for his own for the praise of his glory” Eph. 1:14).

Hence why do you get irritated when your neighbor’s children progresses before your own children? Yet you stumble over this passage often ‘but when the completion of the time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the law, to redeem the subjects of the law so that we could receive adoption as sons’ {Gal.4:4-5} and we often allow this bad feeling to lead into hateful feelings that places egocentrism over righteousness thus we begin to look for ways of destroying lives and properties via poisoning, betrayal of any sort, unleashing hired assassins and kidnappers, burning people’s homes e.t.c while attributing them to devils handwork or even attempt the other extreme where friends, parents, siblings, life-partners, relations ignite the passions of evil in us by luring our generation into prostitution with dubious students, lecturers, managers or heads of administrations in order to get admissions, pass semester examinations, get promotion in offices, sale our products in the market, bring people to your fellowships, meet up with the social status of our new environment, win a political position, get marriage partners e.t.c with idolatrous statements like “use what your mother gave you to get what you want”, ‘if you can beat them, you join them’, “Do not allow people to notice your righteousness any other place apart from the church lest you will not make it to the top”, ‘when you get to Rome behave like the Romans’ e.t.c.

Forgetting that you may end up getting all these things as you planned but like the rich fool, you may not live to partake in its spoil because the hour, day and time when death (Lk.12:40) will come knocking at your door, you do not know hence exchanging our heavenly birthright (Phil.3:20) for the fire that burns with sulphur and brimstone (Rev.21:8) for a position, fashion, wealth, fame e.t.c that will be used by others with a curse attached to it (Ex.20:5) for the children that follow the evil paths of their parents (Ezek.33:14-16).

Why are you annoyed with the person who told you to stop lying with your phone because your caller was made to believe you are in Enugu while you are in Lagos remember all sort of liars are heading for the lake that burns with sulphur and brimstone; the second death (Rev.21:8) including those who impersonate for people during Examinations as well as copying from other people works or carrying written materials into the hall, those secretaries who pick up the phone under duress to inform their clients of the managers purported absence from the country while he is directly beside the phone table, men and women who turn their children, maids or houseboy’s into a canker of deceit whereby they tell-off their debtors, people who forge certificates to get admissions, jobs, promotions, contracts e.t.c , people who give bribe as well as take in order to transfer another’s opportunity to undeserving people who lie to would-be spouse about their fertility condition in collaboration with laboratory attendants, nurses and doctors for a certain amount of money, medical practitioners who decide to take the place of God by exchanging male and female children between mothers who have complimenting preference in the sex of their new born child which ends up raping his seeming sisters and mother as well as killing the seeming father and vice versa.

Why are you annoyed with the person who tells you to cover your breast, laps and buttocks?

some prying eyes and the weak in spirit may be fornicating with you in their hearts (Mtt.5:27-28) in your bid to look trendy, sexy, cute and smart in the realm of worldly fashion including your houseboy/brother-in-law/visitors/husband friends/male friends e.t.c who goes somewhere squeezing his penis with soap and water while calling your name hence accusing you before God in line with Rev.12:10 “…the accuser, who accuses our brethren day and night before our God…” and your maid(s)/daughter(s)/sister(s)/sister(s)-in-law/holiday-relations whose decent clothes you burnt and replaced with promiscuous attires hence luring your undisciplined husband and other male contemporaries in between her thighs while you sit back in your house blaming everybody and everything except yourself for the problems in your family because you parade the whole house/lodge on boxers, transparent night-gowns, trousers, V-neck & tight tops, bomb shots, mini & tight skirts e.t.c forgetting that these human parts are the first to be swallowed by maggots and ants (Isaiah 14:11) once death strikes, righteousness exalts a nation while sin is a reproach to the people  (Prov.14:34)and “do not delude yourself: God is not to be fooled; whatever someone sows that is what he will reap (Gal.6:7). What an unfair treatment on our spirit which stands to be punished by the sins committed by the flesh at the judgment (1 Cor.15:50) but when the spirit of man controls the undertakings of man; some part of the flesh or the whole body does not inherit incorruptibility just like Christ at the Resurrection (Mtt.28:1-8), Elisha’s body prophesied at death (Sirach 48:13) and a dead man whose corpse touched Elisha’s bones came to life (2 Kgs.13:20-21), Our Mother (Rev.12:17); the Blessed Virgin Mary was taken up into heaven soul and body in fulfillment of Psalm 16:10 (for you will not abandon me to sheol, you cannot allow your faithful servant to see the abyss), the tongue of St. Anthony of Padua is still fresh as at the day he died till today, the corpse of St. Bernadette is still lying in state as at the day of his burial till today and other saints as well as holy men and women who have died yet still communicate with us because “when Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is alive because you have been justified” {Rom.8:10} which is rephrased in latin as ‘vita mutamor non tollitur [life is transformed not destroyed]’ for those who believe.

Why is your spirit downcast because you did not graduate with your contemporaries?

Those who graduated have not gone for service, those who went for service; on their way to the camp lost their lives, those who are serving in some rural/urban areas are not finding it funny, those who are in the private companies the so much acclaimed oil companies are wishing for a transfer, break or reduction in the load of work. The flesh seeks to satisfy the satiety of man i.e the yearning of a man’s soul for God (‘As a deer yearns for running streams, so I yearn for you, my God’ Ps.42:1) with things that are visible like

 wine (eating and drinking) while Paul stated “for it is not eating and drinking that make the kingdom of God, but saving justice peace and joy brought by the Holy Spirit” [Rom.14:17],

 Women (marriage and lustful passions) ‘…there are eunuchs who have made themselves so for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven. Let anyone accept this who can’ (Mtt.19:12) thus “for when they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry; no they are like the angels in heaven” (Mk.12:25),

Wealth (inordinate desire for money and property) ‘in reply Balaam said to Balak’s envoys, even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go against the order of the Lord my God in anything, great or small’ {Num.21:18} because “the Lord gives death and life, brings down to sheol and draws up; the Lord makes poor and rich, he humbles and also exalts” (1 Sam.2:6-7) and

Ritual Evangelist (Surface-coated piety) ‘this people honor me only with lip-service while their hearts are far from me. Their reverence of me is worthless: the lessons they teach are nothing but human commandments’ [Mtt.15:8-9], “…I know about your behavior: how you are reputed to be alive and yet ye are dead” {Rev.3:1b} and ‘Jesus looked steadily at him and he was filled with love for him and he said, you need to do one thing more. Go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come follow me. But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth’ (Mk.10:21-22).

People under this terrain include all those who ordained themselves bishops (pastor, pastores latin derivation for shepherd/high priest) against this passage ‘no one takes this honor upon himself but is chosen as Aaron was’ (Heb.5:4) and preach loyalty to Christ while standing on the platform of disobedience to the head of the Church; Christ (Eph.5:23) who is represented by the bishop of Rome who has the apostolic succession of St. Peter (Mtt.16:18-19) hence the teachings of the church is guided by the continued presence of Christ in the Sacrifice of His Body and Blood which is re-enacted every day on the altar by genuine Catholic Priests (Lk.22:19-20) and the ever dynamic Power of Pentecost (Holy Spirit) which holds every member of the church united in believe that we have one Lord, one baptism, one faith  and one God and Father of all, over all, through all and within all (Eph.4:5-6) as He proceeds from the Father and the Son (“He will glorify me since all he reveals to you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he reveals to you will be taken from what is mine” Jn.16:14-15) and this full power of the Trinity is renewed, revived, revered, re-affirmed and re-ascertained on the life of the Church by the imposition of the sign of the Trinity, faith in Christ’s death on the cross which brought us fulfillment (Jn.19:30), victory over the enemy; devil (1 Pet.5:8-9)  and continued persecution in the world (Jn.16:33) and passion for Genuine love(Jn.15:13) as is visible at the beginning and end of all the ritual prayers of the Church which is the only pathway a human being and all that he does as well as owns can be sanctified as well as brought into the domain of the Triune God hence “…baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” {Mtt.28:19}