“BECAUSE”? OR “IN SPITE OF”?

Hi there!

HAPPY NEW MONTH!!!! How’s the new month going for you so far? Here’s hoping that you walk with God through this month and that you continue to feel His presence with you. 

Welcome to today’s gist. 

Seems like we’re doing a series-like thingy with this man Samson, again, because today’s gist is also about something else that I learnt from Samson’s life.  

So, the boy Samson begins to grow and to become a man. And in Judges 14, we see him deciding to get married and where does he go to find a wife? In the midst of the Philistines! Now first of all, God had already prohibited the Israelites from marrying outside the tribes of Israel(Deuteronomy 7:2-4); secondly, who goes to marry from among the people responsible for his people’s troubles and sorrows?!

For someone who had such a call of God upon his life, the disregard for God’s instructions was blatant; I mean, this is someone whose parents were warned that his mother was to abstain from strong drink and any unclean thing during the course of her pregnancy because he was not to be contaminated by the unclean, even from the womb, na who decide to go marry unclean Philistine be that. And yes, I know that when you look at the series of events that followed, and how God used the event of Samson’s marriage to begin the destruction of the Philistines, one can say that Samson’s marriage played a role in commencing the downfall of the Philistines, and you would be correct to say that, but the question now is: would God not have brought about the destruction of the Philistines if Samson hadn’t stepped out of the dictates of his consecration? The answer: NO!

See, everything God brought about through Samson to destroy the Philistines wasn’t because of his decision to marry a Philistine, it was in spite of his decision to step out. God would certainly have brought about the destruction of the Philistines through Samson without his marriage. So, you see, Samson’s marriage was not only a sinful disobedience, it was also an unnecessary inconvenience. 

And because God used him in spite of his disobedience, it was easy for Samson to assume he was doing the will of God, just through “unorthodox means”, but the end goal is the same abi? The Philistines go still die. This mentality of saying that if you still achieve what needs to be done but by wrong methods, then it’s fine, that’s not true, it’s a lie originated by the devil to lure people to sin. God won’t refuse to regard a sin as sin because you somehow managed to do something good while doing evil, He will still regard sin as sin. This saying that “the end justifies the means”, that’s a big fat lie!! The end has never justified the means and it will never justify it; my father would say that rather, “the end is justified by the means”, so if the means is wrong, the end remains wrong too. 

You know there are times where it seems that the fact that God is still using you despite your sins is an ‘okay’ from God to continue sinning, that’s a lie! It’s God giving you a chance to repent and if you don’t, one day your ‘luck’ will run out and there will be no chance again, if you think I jest, ask Sammy -im own run out one day. 

Before we run off, I just thought to mention something, if you start trodding the path of sin, there’s no right way to sin; when Samson decided to marry a Philistine, outside God’s will, he continued the journey by marrying according to the custom of the Philistines, doing as their young men used to do (Judges 14:10). So when you decide to trod the path of sin, I want you to know that you will not happen upon righteousness on that road, na sin and more sinful compromises you go continue to see on that road. So, instead of you to wait to see if you will finally manage to follow God with the path that you’re taking, it will be better for you to turn back and get on the path of righteousness. 

May God help us to be wary of compromises and to constantly check our ways to make sure that we’re actually doing things God’s way.

TUNES AND THOUGHTS: this week’s song is one that I’ve been playing at least twice a day for the last week, it’s ‘Wahala for who no get Jesus’ by Protek Illasheva. Really, it is self explanatory: WAHALA FOR WHO NO GET JESUS!!! If you are going through this life and you know say you no get Jesus, wahala for you ooo! I honestly feel bad for you because I don’t know how anyone truly goes through life without Jesus. Omo I no go lie you, it may seem that you have it all together and everything is working for you but trust me, if you no get Jesus, wahala dey for you ooo. But the good news is that you can have Jesus. Jesus is not hiding from you, if you decide today to come to Him, He will be very ready to come into your heart. All you really need to do is to confess your sin and sinful nature and ask Him to come into your heart and to make you His own; pray it sincerely and He’ll answer. 

Just to mention, if you do not have a recollection of yourself receiving Jesus into your heart, chances are high that you haven’t and you should do that ooo because, WAHALA DEY FOR WHO NO GET JESUS!! And if you don pursue Jesus, abeg pray beg am make E come back. I pray that this song blesses you too. 

Well, that is that about that as far as that is concerned, see you next week!

Love, 

Achenyo.