CHRISTIANS IN GHANA AND OUR MISPLACED SPIRITUALITY

There has been a misconception among the christian populace in the Ghana as to the criteria for a good or dynamic christian, and the seeminly Biblical sentinel and perogatives based on which God has assured a christian of his or her prosperity. Apparently, the perception and impression have been the outward display of some sort as a criteria or yardstick to measure good christians and good churches. Sadly and pathetically some of these criteria have been a number of times a christian attends church and number of days that a church hold meetings. Therefore, there is no denying the fact that, the common scenario as you take a critical look at most christians and a lot of churches, is the attitude of praying frantically all the time for God to bless them, but have relegated the essence working to the background.

Studying the bible carefully, one important secret to success that God gave to man and woman to go hand in hand with prayer as a bedrock and springboard for their eventual prosperity and blessing as hygienic and a balanced christianity was the importance and dynamism to work. Reading from the book Genesis 2:15 it is significantly and categorically stated how God expect man to attach importance to work. The Bible again reveals in the book of James which makes us to understand that faith without works is dead, so how do you prosper by only praying and not working. The Book of 1Thesslonians 4:11 also states piognantly the need for a christian to work.

Its amazing and worrying how some churches have program for everyday such as sunday service, women meeting, youth meeting, mens' meeting, all night prayer meeting and other unending list that, time to concentrate on working, time for families at home, time for students to get adequate time to study is found wanting. The worst offenders are the women whom some of them are so engrossed with 24 hours church activities that they tragically have little time for for their husbands which sometimes it ignites and sparks war in the marriage if the husband is not seeminly spiritual.

Its a disappointing scenario that the very people who fill the church everyday and particuarly on sundays are the very people who come out as cheats. liars, litigants and frontliners of a lot of vices. Some of the Government appointees who indulge in bribes and other fruadulent practices are surprisingly some of the elders and deacons in churches. Some managers and retail owers who shamelessly and psychopathically want to sleep with some young girls before they could be offered jobs, some are in sensitive positions in churches. Most young boys and girls who also fill the churches pews on sundays are the very people who come out and indulge and swim in all sorts of crooked vices; immorality, lascivious, salacious and other licentious deeds. So what is the essence of church today?

Today most Ghanaian churches have become like a social clubs, where people go to meet business partners, meet friends,a place for drug dealers and other sickening intentions; someone told me mobile phones are even stolen in churches. It may not be everywhere but in most places even including those some pomp and pageantry charismatic churches, the church has lost its primary and original value as a place for transformation and reformation. When was the last time you heard preaching on born again or new birth? When was the last time you heard preaching on purity, holiness, moral excellence, hard working christian and other cutting-edge preaching of yester-years that directed people in obsecurity into the pinnacle of moral, character, academic and material success? Where is the wonderful and insightful preaching of few decades ago that christened some preachers, particularly some of the charismatic preachers who were once minnows and non-starters, but were propelled from obsecurity into the pinnacle of spiritual and academic height and even globally recognized preachers?

What do we see today? Pulpits have been turn into another political platform. Most pastors who began well and have now reached the top are wallowing in a pool of comfort and satisfaction. This has given an untenable wave of clanish cliques and masqueraders parading as prophets who have polluted and contaminated the spiritual atmosphere and all that you can decipher from their hidden agenda preaching is money and money. Its alarming and regrettable to hear that these prophets are even aski for goats, sheep. and even pepper and other wired demands. It is in these prophets' churches and prayer camps that they have introduced unproductive and emasculating attitude of going to the church everyday in a week. Prayer, undoubtedly, is very essential and it has no substitute but it goes hand in hand with hard work as well, and without it, its a spirituality in futility and has no basis in the bible .

Pastors and for that matter all other spiritual leaders, who are supposedly men of God should also bear it conststantly in mind that they are also opinion leaders in the society and therefore it behoves them to come to terms that they are not only there to preach how one to live only a Godly life but also a goodly life in the area of inculcating and implanting in them the need to be serious with their schooling, learning profession, handling their business judiciously, indulging in healthy living and relationships, time management and many others that enhances the physical and entire lives of the members. In the book of first Thess 5:23 This is what Apostle Paul is enunciating by being sanctify WHOLLY ( spirit, soul and body) as well as 3John 2, God exlpicily demonstrated how he is interested in the entire life of his child.The scripture goes by saying " I wish above all things".By this article I call on all the prohets and other purportedly men of God to balance their preaching and stop the insidious attitude of always demons are chasing you, and the witches in your house are pulling you down, selling oil and other unnecessary interpretation of dreams which adversely encourage members to have itching ears and become indolent, frivolous, lazy, lackadaisical and attribute everything to spiritual influence against them.

If you have had the opportunity to live in some of the European countries, particularly beautiful and well-planned scandinavian countrires, their attitude towards church activities and for that matter their spirituality in general is just one percent as compare to about ninety five percent in Ghana. In those countries and some other western countries, though on paper they are classified as christian nations but in practically christianity is seeming none existence. Only a pittance number of people are in churches on weekdays and on sundays church attendance is sadly and woefully made up of few old people and children. Talk about all nights and revivals like you witness in Ghana and you will sound ridiculous and incoherent. Therefore, my assertion and contention is if Biblical criteria and God's acceptable norm is relegating the importance of work to nothingness and spend all the seven days and 24 hrs in church in anticipation of God's prosperity and blessing and development of a nation, then the western nations should have rather been experiencing the abject and stinking poverty ever.

Conversely, what do we see? the reverse is happening and those countries that are classified as developed. African continent and for that matter Ghana where we are characterize as part of the world that go to church so much are wallowing and languishing in a dungeon of serious economic and social needs. Critical observation reveals that those western nations and other european nations may not be so enthusiastic about church attendance but you can witness Biblical precept and practices unconsciously towards work and development of their countries. In those countries you see faithfulness at work, right attitude towards their socio-economic development, projects are faithfully executed, finances for every space of work are done beautifully and religiously without diverting. Political leaders are not senselessly at each other throat, no mudslinging to score cheap political point, no such sickening attitude of abandoning projects for the leakage reason of a change of government, their political leaders are never often found neck-deep using the name of the nation in collecting bribes and other shameless corruptible practices.( eg Maybe and Johnson)

Now lets Look at Africa and for that matter Ghana, With all our Biblisms, churches literally overflows with sea of people on sundays, houses virtually get empty everyday due to church activities. But like I said earlier,its very lamenting and appalling that the very so called christians who filled the pews on sundays and weekdays, are our very youngster who come out and instead of hard work they indulge themselves in sakawaism, lies, prostitution, armrobbery and other henious and barbaric acts. Our very politicians who fill the churches on sundays are the very old dunderheads who come and indulge in over-invoicing and under-invoicing at offices. They are the very christian who sucks and strangles the country with corruption, bribery, pocketing project money, unnecessary fault-finding, insidious mudslinging and other diabolic practices. To all intent and purposes, Africans and for that matter Ghanaians have sank themselves both in religious and corruptible deeds and that has made us broad day light hypocrites that the blessing and prosperity of God have excruciatingly eluded us

. Even as if our double standards, chicanery and subtility is not enough on our own lands, africans have travelled to seek greener pastures but they are still with their cameleonic two-faces of bible in one hand and corruptible practices in another, like character assasination, pull him down syndrom, bad -mouthing, gossiping and other truculent and unhealthy adventures. In this vein, what is the use of the Bible in our hands and trooping to church always.? In a nutshell, I want to make it abundantly clear that I am not trying to paint a picture that there are no malfeasance and curruptible practices in the western world. As a matter of fact, there is a greater measure of that and their skyrocketing and unparallel imorality the least said about the better. However, the acceptable and admitted fact is that Africa which is touted as the most religious continent and for that matter Ghana one of religious super supremo in christian practices. But all our pious talk, marathon all nights and biblical rhetorics and jargons have no practical reflection in both especially the political leaders, some religious leaders as well as the ordinary. Did you hear few weeks ago two pastors in the Ashanti region who supposedly, should have shine as exampleS were throwing tirades and vituperations at each other on air?. What a shame and a reproach? Does God bless and prospers people who go to church so much or there are other hallow ingredients that go with it like practicing the virtues we chase in churches.?

I thought when we talk about God, Biblical precepts and having in mind the entire religions in general then we are dealing with a God who is the epitome of development, growth, sustainabilility, improvement, good governance, justice,etc as his goodness and reward to his children. But on the contrary, its a mystry and mind boggling to me that the continent and countires whose daily rhetorics, greetings, singing, talking etc are full of God, sees little or are not experiencing fully these aforementioned goodness of God. Why should a part of the world that shouts to God so much is considered as underdeveloped, while the part that do not is considered as as developed and advanced? This brings to mind what Solomon said in the book of Ecclesiastics 1o:5-7 and no wonder he described it as evil because its incomprehensible. Something may be wrong somewhere and this is what you and I need to analyze profoundly.

God Bless us all

EKOW WILSON-BAIDOO

Development / Ghana / Africa / Modernghana.com