In 2 Kings 6:1-7, there was a building project in a Bible college. The students approached Elisha, who was probably their Rector, to grant them permission to go to River Jordan to cut wood for building their hostel. He allowed them but one of them requested strangely that he went with them, and he did. Imagine, a professor, a Rector, going with his students to a swampy area to cut wood! Giving even when it hurts!
God gave us Jesus, His only begotten Son, who died vicariously for our redemption. Abraham gave for sacrifice, Isaac, his promised son he had waited for twenty-five years for his birth. A conman would have offered Ishmael, pretending that he did not hear well from God. Giving when it hurts! A poor widow in Luke 21:2-4, in offering, gave all she had. I know a church where a pastor pledged N2 million and they still wrote him a letter, requesting for a loan of the same amount. All he did was to increase his pledge to N4 million. I heard later from the grapevine that it was the money he was saving to buy a car costing N6 million that he gave to the church. When that church had built three floors of their administration block, a member obtained permission to finish the work and was obliged. Giving when it hurts!
The evangelism effort of that church produced a prostitute convert. A pastor, when I was sharing great things God was doing, when we ministered to prisoners in Kirikiri, asked me whether I could employ an ex-convict as a security official. A million dollar question! But a pastor in that church took the prostitute convert home, not minding that he had children growing to adolescence. Prostitutes? My uncle used to bring home, in those days, his prostitute friend and three of us would share his bed. Thank God that because of his age and experience, he would sleep in the middle while the two of us would sleep by his side. One night, the lady said, ‘Nath, your brother is handsome, very handsome. Fix a day when I will come here, when you will be in the market, so that he and I will talk, talk, and talk’. Being raised amongst girls, and as the lastborn and the only male child in my family, I could not read any meaning to her request. My uncle, however, smelt a rat and noting the subtlety behind her request, refused to oblige her.
I brought five of them to my office in the church once and shared the gospel with them. Four of them accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Remember once again, that it is only God and an individual that know when repentance is genuine.
I then proposed a deal to them: ‘Quit prostitution, find an accommodation, but two of you, for obvious reasons, must not live together, and then choose any business you like, including hair-dressing salon, and the church will sponsor it’.
None of them met that condition! That was the type of lady the pastor took home to disciple. Giving when it hurts!
Another pastor in that church took home a convert, who was addicted to cocaine. The risk was high. If the police searched his house any day and saw any bit of hard drug, he would pay dearly. That man was sleeping under the bridge at Ojuelegba, where there is a canal passing through Randle Avenue to Hamed Jimoh Close, where the pastor was living.
Thieves were using that track to rob houses in the area. The man could lead his gang members to rob him, but the pastor did not bother. Giving when it hurts!
‘Go with us,’ a student in that Bible college told their professor. If you were Rev. Elisha, would you oblige? Going or not going was his contribution for the success or failure in executing the project. Would you have regarded that invitation as an insult? Pride could make you feel so. Proud men pay the price. You may be busy writing a memo and your staff member comes to tell you something bothering him, and you refuse to listen, and in anger, reprimand him for disturbing you. If the building catches fire, as it was the case in those days, nobody will tell you so as not to disturb you.
Do you want to be feared, even by your children? When you return home, the shout, ‘Daddy is back’, is always bad news. Your children will saunter like rabbits, looking for shelter or start rearranging the chairs to avoid your reprimand. Of course, instead of thanking God with them for returning from school safely, you complain about the living room being dirty. Are you MOPOL or LASTMA? Since you are not their friend, they will not tell you what their uncle does to them, even to your little daughters, when you are not around.
‘Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus…’ Phl. 2:5-11. Giving when it hurts! Why was Elisha invited to go with them? It was by the leading of God. Moses insisted that he would not go unless God went with them – Exodus 33:14-
16. In 2 Kings 4:29-30. The Shunammite woman insisted that Elisha must go with her and he did. As they were cutting the wood, the devil, true to his name, brought evil. ‘Alas Master,’ shouted one of the students, ‘for it was borrowed’. His axe head had fallen inside the river. That reflex action had revealed what the man had kept to himself. Elisha heard it, that the man had borrowed an axe to do God’s work. Not owning an axe could be a good excuse not to participate in the work. It is like obtaining a loan from the bank for the need of the church and at the church gate, armed robbers would snatch it from you. Elisha would not have benefited from that revelation had pride made him not to go with them.
For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi: 0909 041 9057; [email protected]