AFRICAN PLUME

By Akin Ojumu ‘Tis the night of the phonies. From now till the clock strikes 12 midnight to usher in the New Year, expect an avalanche of specious soothsaying, spurious prophecies, shambolic prognostications, and fraudulent divinations about the coming year.  Deuteronomy 18:9-12 “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who…practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.” Pretend prophets, who are nothing more than sorcerers, charmers, mediums, and necromancers, are about to take their eyes off their Crystal Balls, Ouija Boards, and Tarot Cards, crawl out of the woodwork, to prognosticate about alignments, breakthroughs, gear forward, shiftings, falling rains, flooded streets, road acc...

By Akin Ojumu From a pestiferous persecutor who hunted down Christians from Jerusalem to Damascus to an indefatigable itinerant who took the Gospel message from Jerusalem and all Judaea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth, Paul was a force of nature who confounded friends and foes alike. From the get-go, his conversion experience was met with a healthy dose of skepticism, and his confession of faith was viewed with heightened sense of suspicion. Scared that he was cunningly trying to trick them, the Church did not trust him. Confounded that he had betrayed them, the Jews plotted to kill him. Acts 9:23-30 “When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him…And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.” Restless and relentless, Paul poured himself into preaching the message of The Way with the same zeal and zest he had earlier put into persecuting those who wer...

“Paul Was Read Into the Secret of Contentment” By Akin Ojumu Even as he was concluding his thank you letter to the Philippians, Paul revealed a deep pain of being separated from these believers who were near and dear to his heart. To convey his deep affection, he used the expression, “my love and my crown.” Philippians 4:1 “Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. ” The word translated crown is a Greek term referring to the laurel wreath received by an athlete for winning a contest. It’s the same word used by Paul in his letter to the Corinthians when he talked about the prize the winning athlete received in the Olympic games. Another use of the word crown is the description of a person who is honored by his peers at a banquet as a symbol of a successful and fruitful life. 1 Corinthians. 9:24-25 “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every at...

“From Paul, With Love” By Akin Ojumu From his spectacular encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus in AD 34 all the way to his beheading by Nero in Rome in AD 67, Paul’s thirty-three-year ministry remains one of the productive years of life any man would spend in service to God’s kingdom. During this span of time, which, coincidentally, happens to be the same number of years the Lord Jesus Christ spent on earth, Paul crisscrossed the length and breadth of the Roman empire preaching the Gospel. He embarked on multiple missionary campaigns to all the Roman provinces establishing vibrant Churches in nearly all the prominent cities of the empire, including in places such as Ephesus, Galatia, Lystra, and Derbe in the Asia Minor and Phillipi, Thessalonica, Berea, and Rome in Europe. If Paul were to choose his favorite among these various Churches that God birthed through him, I think he would have chosen the Church at Philippi without hesitation. That Paul had deep affect...

“Paul Plunders Nero’s Household” By Akin Ojumu After years of praying, wishing, and waiting, Paul finally landed in Rome. While he would have wished he arrived in Rome under a more pleasant set of circumstances, he was not the type to moan or groan that things didn’t go exactly as he hoped. A confinement to house arrest and being chained to a series of imperial guards round the clock would not dampen the spirit of this soldier of Christ. Consumed with the fierce urgency of now, Paul plunged right into the work of preaching the Gospel with a reinvigorated vigor, revitalized vitality, and rejuvenated intensity. Perhaps sensing he had little time left to live, he wrote four of his thirteen epistles (Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon) in the space of two years. These four epistles remain some of the most theologically deep and spiritually enriching books in the Bible. Paul’s work for God went forward despite the constraints of his circumstances. It seemed that nothing could ...

“Better Than a Slave” By Akin Ojumu In this commentary series, we are examining what Paul meant when he wrote in his letter to the Church in Philippi that he could do all things. It’s a humble attempt by a novice to put on Paul’s skin, enter Paul’s mind, put on Paul’s shoes, and sit where Paul sat when he let those words flow out of his mind through the pen onto the papyrus. We want to understand what he was thinking at the particular moment he said these words: Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” There are many reasons why it’s important we understand what this verse actually means, not the least of which is the way it has been abused and misused by preachers, ordinary Christians, and even non-Christians alike. Often misquoted and misinterpreted, Philippians 4:13 is used for inspiratory purposes and co-opted into motivational speeches. Footballers and other athletes write this verse on their eye black, i.e., the black patches below the eyes, during g...