WHO WEARS THE ETERNAL CROWN

 IT IS THE PULPIT THAT BUILDS THE MAN SITTING ON THE PEW

_Godwin Guobadia.

The stories read like a horror scripts; Christians killed for their faith or for not denying the very essence of their faith. One that is still fresh on my mind is this one. John Chau, an American, was a twenty-six-year-old graduate of Oral Roberts University. He felt a great burden for unreached people around the world and thought that he could direct his missionary effort at the Sentinelese people on an Island near India. The Sentinelese are a tribe of people living on an Island but who have expressed a desire not to be reached by the outside world. With no direct communication with them, but having expressed continual hostilities to visitors, India authorities have made it illegal for anyone to reach these people. The foremost reason being that since they are an isolated people, their immunity would be low and so no one should go close to the island and infect them with diseases.

John Chau had other plans. Chau understood the gospel enough to realize that a people like these also need to hear the Christian message. In the cover of darkness, and with the aid of local fishermen, Chau reached the island on November 15th, in a boat he paddled onshore himself. He called out to the locals, telling them that Jesus loved them. They were hostile; they shot at him with arrows, one of it even pierced his Bible. He returned to the local fishermen that brought him that night and left a detailed account of his experience in a diary. The next day he returned to the Island and made more daring efforts to approach the locals. The fishermen who took him there watched as the locals attacked him, killed him and buried him in a shallow grave. John had written in his diary that if he ever was killed, no one should come to retrieve his body.

The death of this young American missionary has shocked the world. Leading world news outlets, like Cable Network News (CNN), have been reporting the story. The Indian government has arrested the local fishermen that took Chau to the Island; claiming that they broke the law in going there. Last of all, many people, including Christians, have been calling Mr. Chau a fool and a man who took his missionary zeal to extremes and thus earned for himself an early death.

Matthew 5:10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 5:11-12 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. These biblical passages and many more are what make for a sound doctrine. Many are in been in the church and have not come across this kind of passages or heard it from their pulpit. In most churches the message is the same ; tell them about how to be on top and never below, how to make it and be a blessing to the church, how your children are blessed, never mind, if you do not do your part of training them in the way of God. The mega churches spin this to keep members excited and the smaller ones do the same , to make give more because their blessing is commensurate to their giving, they are told.

I say again without any equivocation that Gods blessing or approval does not manifest only in being a millionaire otherwise some wicked and ungodly men will not be wealthy.

To be continued.