Do you remember that old time song “O give me that old time religion, give that old time religion, give that old time religion, it’s good enough for me. It was good for Paul and Silas…it’s good enough for me?” it speaks to the differentiated life that our faith in Christ speaks to in contrast to what the present-day Christianity has imbibed from the world.

Despised as Paul’s doctrine is today, because it reveals the hypocrisy prevalent in current church doctrine, her lifestyle of self-centredness patterned after the world’s lifestyle (Luke 12:19), seriously failing the “trust test” of godly endowed riches (Luke 12:21), his depositions still stand and speak the mind of Christ!

We all ought to live, if God is truly our Father, as spoken to in Acts 26:16. We are His servants and witnesses to do specific things (Acts 16:17,18) with verse 17 alluding to dangers in the execution of the mandate, which carries His promise of deliverance.

Compare and contrast the philosophy of “eat, drink and be merry” an expression rooted in hopelessness (Ecclesiastes 8:15 NIV) with 1 Corinthians 15:32—a conviction that there is a life hereafter worth dying for!

So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun. Ecclesiastes 8:15 NIV

If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” 1 Corinthians 15:32 NIV

Beloved, if the heaven that Paul is going is where you desire to be, you cannot live differently! Repent, return to the demands of the Lord. There is death to self and worldly desires in following Jesus if you will be in Heaven (John 12:24-26). God is not short of capacity to give you (Ephesians 3:20); why should He destroy you when you will not handle it rightly (1 Corinthians 4:2,11-18; 2 Corinthians 1:5-10).

So now beloved, it’s not time to give up, rather return and stand.

“Failure doesn’t mean you will never succeed; it just means it may take a bit longer. John Wayne coined a great line in the movie The Train Robbers. He said, ‘You’re going to spend the rest of your life getting up one more time than you’re knocked down, so you’d better start getting used to it.’ That’s what success is—getting up one time more than you were knocked down. You have no idea how close you may be to what you want to achieve. But if you give up, you will never know—plus you guarantee that you will never get there.

Author Ben Stein said, ‘The human spirit is never finished when it is defeated. It is finished when it surrenders.’ Time magazine conducted a survey among people who had lost their jobs. Everyone expected them to be crestfallen and disheartened, but they found them to be extremely resilient. Why? The survey showed that people who had lost jobs and found new ones were better prepared to deal with adversity than those who had been with the same company for years without ever having had to deal with unemployment. When you have experienced failure, you’re actually in a better position to achieve success than people who have not. When you fail and fail again—and keep bouncing back and learning from your failures—you’re building character, strength, tenacity, experience, and wisdom. And people who develop these qualities are capable of sustaining their successes, unlike those for whom good things come too early and too easily. As long as you don’t give up, you’re in a good position. So the word for today is—’Stand firm. Let nothing move you.'” —Taken from United Christian Broadcasters

His arms are still open, and you can still receive grace and mercy (Hebrews 4:16). You can still access His presence through the broken body of Christ to receive compassion (mercy) for failures and divine empowerment (grace) for your situation. The Lord chastises those He loves. Selah.



Pastor Afolabi Oladele