Dearly Beloved,
BECAUSE OF THE KINGDOM?
"And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of
heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a
precious prize — a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent
zeal and intense exertion]" (Matthew 11:12 AMP)
Throughout church history, denominations, groups of people, and individuals
(both Christians and non-Christians) had misinterpreted and misapplied the
Scriptures. These misinterpretations and misapplications which many people will
claim are because of the kingdom of God have caused many erroneous doctrines and
practices today. It is unfortunate that people are still misinterpreting and
misapplying the Scriptures today especially to suit their selfish wishes. It
would have been better if such selfish ambitions advance the cause of the
gospel, but most of such are to deliberately deceive people to the selfish gains
of the perpetrators of such misinterpretations and misapplications.
To buttress this, here is a mild drama that ensued between me and an unknown
person recently. The person sent an SMS to me thus: "2nd edition of the ongoing
chevron/Texaco bonanza, you just won N500,000.00, your number is one of the 15
lucky winners, ticket BT352k. Call us on [a mobile phone number]." Immediately I
received the message, I knew it was a hoax. I called the person and advised him
to desist from such act. The moment he discovered that I was not going to play
along with him, he ended the call. Therefore, I sent this SMS to him: "I will
advise you to stop this dubious act of duping unsuspecting people before God
catch up with you with His wrath. You are warned!" He did reply my SMS. Here is
his response: "I will advise you to stop this dubious act of yours because the
kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force. You are
warned! Mind your business." I replied him again thus: "So, your own way of
taking the kingdom of God by
force is deceiving people! The Lord will reward you greatly! I mind my
business, but do not try such on me and other unsuspecting people again. I warn
you, be ready for God’s wrath!" He never replied my second SMS.
One would wonder that such person could be bold to say that he is duping people
because of the kingdom of God. No wonder, there are many questionable churches
and fake pastors today. They hide under the kingdom of God and cause much havoc
to unsuspecting people. Many scam emails have been sent to people telling them
that there are donations to be used for God’s kingdom purpose. A careful
verification of mails would reveal that they come from fraudulent people.
Are you one of such dubious people? Are you also deceiving other people because
of the kingdom of God? Jesus Christ declared, "Let him who does wrong continue
to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right
continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy. Behold, I am
coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what
he has done" (Revelation 22:11-12 NIV).
In His service,
Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor).

Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor).
+234 805 515 9591
http://www.thewordthruthenet.org/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spiritualdigest2003/
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I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will
have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted
in my body, whether by life or by death. FOR TO ME, TO LIVE IS CHRIST
AND TO DIE IS GAIN (Philippians 1:20-21, NIV).




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