20/06/2024
I want to tell you a story, many stories actually😊
You should read to the end!
While growing up, I often heard my dad narrate how his salvation experience caused a sporadic yet outlandish exhibition.
He had gone to Lagos for business to stay with his 7 other friends and brothers in a room all for the hustle.. after sometime and making some progress, he headed to the East, his home for a holiday I suppose.
On getting home, he was the big boy from Lagos, with his cigar lit in his left hand and his right holding on to the pack, only if it was not hid in his vintage ankle boots. The regular Lagos big boy was in town. Umukpara town heard of it
Fast forward, he went to church one Sunday as the custom was, I mean his 'worldly' lifestyle didn't stop him from attending church and even singing in the choir 😊
Yes, he was a chorister; little wonder everyone in my family sings, from a-z.
So on the choir stand, my man started interacting with this young lady who handed a Scripture Union flier to him. Scripture Union (S.U was the biggest evangelistic movement in the East at the time)
What effrontery, retorted my ol' man.
Is it because you're attending S.U that makes you think you are better than me and thus inviting me? Is there any big deal in being S.U?
Yes it is, The sister replied. You can't attend S.U as the union was fondly called.
Ok let's bet, you'll see me there today, and so they struck their hands, and 2pm that day, the Lagos big boy arrived the fellowship ground, dressed with his dazzling white horse(a bicycle that was "worn" as a status symbol in the 70's and early 80's) a cowboy on his head and a smart ankle boot to match the "gen A" steaz 😄
Then, the gospel was being preached, he could not recall the name of the preacher that day because of the experience that followed. The word preached hit him too hard that when an alter call was made, he was convicted yet was ashamed to step out, how will a prominent Lagos big boy receive Jesus like "ndị S.U"?
So he waited till everyone else had gone out, then reluctantly stepped out a little, but far enough from the pulpit. Muttering the sinners' prayer in tears and a heart full of Jesus.
Then he realized himself, IK, what are you doing? 🙄
So he quickly left the meeting, mounted his "Bynz" 😄 and zoomed off, on the road, just like Paul on his way to Damascus, the conviction in his heaet was so much that he came down from the bicycle, emptied his pocket and boots of all substances of highness and disposed them.
Common boy, what's happening to you?😄
It didn't stop there, he went home, burnt all magazines and every single item that looked like the world to him including some palazzos I would have inherited today🥺. Wow!
Is that how the salvation of a thing is?
My father from that day will go on to become a rural crusader, preaching and shouting the gospel every and anywhere, in the entire Osisioma, he would become prominent for preaching in burial ceremonies and leading many to Christ. The souls would be counted in thousands, because he literally was in every market, burial, conference and gatherings. Anywhere human beings gathered, he preached!
The zeal intensified, so much so that he boarded a luxurious bus, went back to Lagos, preached to his friends whom he stayed with and around his neighborhood telling them this is why he came. He afterwards Packed everything else he had left and headed home for a lifetime dedicated to the gospel.
Now this is where my story begins;🙄
Rumor had it that IK Nwachukwu had gone mad, no one preaches like that, Lagos reached out to home and home reached out to Lagos, have you seen Ik?
"He's roving mad right now."
This continued till they saw that the madness wasn't ending anytime soon, it never did!
Pause:
As I pondered, I remember the biblical Jesus; our very savior who was accused of operating by Beelzebul and the apostle Paul whom Festus looked in the face and said to him
"Too much learning is making you mad"
But this is actually why I wrote the long story among many other lessons to learn.
Few years ago, I became so bold and loud with the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ that one of the pastors under my father's oversight referred to me as "Nwa nna anyi ukwu ké ara ndị icha" (that our Bishop's son that is running mad)
I heard it but acted like I didn't, probably because it wasn't said directly to my face; one different thing about my critics was that they were scared of saying whatever they said to my face, they always told people to tell me or some indirect way till I was faced with an entire church board. This one is for another "sermonday"
Then something occured to me, it is as if everyone who has ever been persuaded about a cause will at one point or the other in his life be misunderstood, abused and even called "mad".
Recently, I have read several younger Christians calling a senior preacher of the gospel, Dr. Abel Damina mad, saying "people should check his head" , others literally cursed him and wishes him dead, including countless prophecies of the evil intended for him. Such statements put tears to my eyes especially as it is coming from people who are within or even less than my age grade
Just today, I stumbled across Dr. Creflo A. Dollar 's testimony in a church in Lagos, he said people called him mad too, friends abandoned and isolated him for abandoning prosperity gospel to preach the grace of Jesus Christ!😯
Beloved, if your passion for the gospel never reach level where they call you names, there's a Rubicon you haven't crossed. Once you cross it, even you will think you are mad except you get comfort from the holy Spirit (on a lighter note)
It is what only persuasion can do!
The preaching of the gospel is with power and with boldness. This boldness makes the unlearned refer to you as mad for lack of how to quantify your zeal.
Have you been abused for the gospel before? Rejoice!
Called names? Rejoice!
You're not alone.
We are many "roving mad" for a cause!
Meet Sir J, another person who's not ashamed to be called names for the gospel of Jesus Christ!
Just another mad man after all!
