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}
