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YOU ARE GIFTED TO SERVE

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By Akin Ojumu Everything that humans touch, we defile. It’s the reason the whole of creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth since the Great Fall. There’s nothing that escapes the corruptive influence of the Adamic nature. Not even the spiritual gifts. Today, the Church is bedeviled with the very same confusion and ignorance about the spiritual gifts that Paul tried to correct in his letter to the Corinthian Church. What’s supposed to be pure and holy has been defiled by abuse and misuse. A spiritual gift is a graciously given, supernaturally designed ability granted to every believer by which the Holy Spirit ministers to the body of Christ. The Greek word (charisma) emphasizes that this is a gift…freely given. A spiritual gift cannot be earned, pursued, or worked up. It can only be “received” through the grace of God. God gives the gifts according to His will. 1 Corinthians 12:4, 7, 11, 18 “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit...To each is given ...
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ROOTED AND BUILT UP IN HIM (PART I)

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“What Saint Gbile of Gboko Thinks of the Anointing” By Akin Ojumu Nearly stoned to death in Galatia (Acts 14:19), imprisoned in Philippi (Acts 16:23, 24), kicked out of town in Thessalonica (Acts 17:10), smuggled out of Berea (Acts 17:14), laughed to scorn in Athens (Acts 17:32), and regarded as a fool in Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:18, 23), Apostle Paul was not the type to succumb to self-pity or capitulate in the face of adversity. Every time he is beaten him up and chased out of town for preaching the Gospel, he was ready to proceed to the next town to do the exact same thing. In spite of all the agony and anguish he had experienced up to this point, Paul was still committed to taking the Gospel to Rome, the heart of the Roman Empire and the seat of political power and pagan religion of the First Century. Neither imprisonment, ridicule, criticism, persecution, nor death could dampen his zeal for God or curb his enthusiasm for preaching the Word. Consequences be damned, Paul was determi...
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BUY THE TRUTH & SELL IT NOT

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By Akin Ojumu  “Buy Truth, Sell It Not,” is currently the name I use my WhatsApp alongside DP “Truth Matters.” And it has been so for a while now, and I don’t intent to change it any time soon. Derived from the Book of Proverbs, “Buy Truth, Sell It Not,” is a Biblical precept I deliberately chose to highlight the importance of contending for the Truth of the Gospel in a world subsumed in an avalanche of false teachings and doctrines of demons.  Proverbs 23:23 “Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.” Proverbs 23:23 (KJV) “Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.” Proverbs 23:23 (BSB) “Invest in truth and never sell it – in wisdom and instruction and understanding.” The reason I adopted Proverbs 23:23 is to communicate to everyone in my circle of influence what I consider to be the highest purpose and ultimate goal in life. It is me making it unequivocally clear my summum bonum. And that singular goal is...
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PUTTING UP READILY WITH A DIFFERENT GOSPEL (PART VI)

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“Blinded by the Love Bombing & Generosity of False Teachers” By Akin Ojumu Apostle Paul was a man who wore his heart on his sleeve. This Father of faith was a deeply emotional and passionate person who felt constant anguish and great sorrow for his followers. Far from being a detached missionary and aloof theologian, his Epistles reveal intense love, frustration, tears, and anxiety for the various congregations he founded. In his Epistles, Paul often utilized intense emotional rhetoric to persuade readers. This is especially true when it came to false doctrines and the ease with which some of the congregations he spent years teaching sound doctrines and nurturing in the faith fell for false teachers and embraced doctrines of demons as true Gospel. For instance, Paul was so exasperated with the Galatians, he blurted out, “O foolish Galatians!” for the way they rolled the red carpet for the Judaizers, i.e., early Jewish-Christian believers who demanded that Gentile converts adhere to...
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TERTULLIAN: THE AFRICAN WHO COINED THE TERM “TRINITY”

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By Akin Ojumu Would you believe it if I told you that the man who coined some of the most important terminologies in Christendom was an African? That’s right. A dark skinned African played a prominent role in shaping the vocabulary of the Church.  Tertullian (born c. 155/160, Carthage [now in Tunisia] – died after 220, Carthage) was a prolific early Christian theologian, apologist, polemicist, and moralist who, as the first major Christian writer to write in Latin rather than Greek, shaped the vocabulary and thought of Western Christianity.  Background & Conversion Born to pagan parents (his father was a Roman centurion), Tertullian was highly educated in law and rhetoric, likely practicing in Rome before converting to Christianity around 185–190 AD. The “Father of Latin Theology” Known as the “Father of Latin theology,” Tertullian established the theological language of Western Christianity, setting the tone for later Latin Church fathers. Defense of Orthodoxy Much of Ter...
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AND UNTO THE ANGEL OF THE CHURCH IN SMYRNA WRITE

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By Akin Ojumu Contrary to what you’ve been taught, the fire of faith of the Christian Church was not quenched at the close of the Bible Canons when Apostle John wrote “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen” of Revelations 22:21. Unlike what you’ve hitherto believed, the fervor of the faith of believers in Christ did not fizzle out with the death of the last of the original Twelve Apostles in c. 100 AD and then rekindled 1800 years later at Azusa Street. The advent of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements did not bring about a great awakening in the Church and resurgence of Biblical Christianity. Charles F. Parham, John G. Lake, William J. Seymour, Kathryn Kuhlman, Aimee Semple McPherson, Maria Woodworth-Etter, William Branham, E.W. Kenyon, Kenneth Hagin, Oral Roberts, etc., did not birth a revival or rejuvenation to the Christian faith. On the contrary, the aberrant strain of Christianity perpetuated by these individuals, which is mostly focused on experience and phenomenon...
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POLYCARP OF SMYRNA, A DISCIPLE OF APOSTLE JOHN

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By Akin Ojumu A significant number of Christians, especially the folks of the Pentecostal/Charismatic/New Apostolic Reformation movements, assume that Christianity somehow went into a cocoon of spiritual hibernation between the time the last of Christ’s Apostles died and the ascendancy of Emperor Constantine or between the conversion of Constantine to Christianity and the Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century. The general belief in these movements is that the move of God ceased and that Christianity became dormant after the Book of Revelations. If you subscribe to that notion, this YouTube video is a must watch. It is a historical account of Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna. To many of you reading this, I’m sure the name Polycarp probably doesn’t ring a bell.  Born between c. 69 AD and c. 70 AD, Polycarp, whose name in Greek means “Much Fruit” or  “ Many Fruit, ”  was instructed in the teachings of Christ by the Apostles. He was a direct disciple of Apostle John. Irena...
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IRENAEUS, THE FIRST CHRISTIAN APOLOGIST (c. 125 – 202 AD)

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By Akin Ojumu Gnosticism was perhaps the most dangerous heresy that threatened the early church during the first three centuries. Influenced by such philosophers as Plato, Gnosticism is based on two false premises. First, it espouses a dualism regarding spirit and matter. Gnostics assert that matter is inherently evil and spirit is good. As a result of this presupposition, Gnostics believe anything done in the body, even the grossest sin, has no meaning because real life exists in the spirit realm only (Source: Got Questions). Second, Gnostics claim to possess an elevated knowledge, a “higher truth” known only to a certain few. Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis which means “to know.” Gnostics claim to possess a higher knowledge, not from the Bible, but acquired on some mystical higher plane of existence. Gnostics see themselves as a privileged class elevated above everybody else by their higher, deeper knowledge of God (Source: Got Questions). During the second century, the c...
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