Current Events – Reformed in Ghana

“Sincerely wrong” is still wrong

For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

2 Timothy 1:12 (KJV)

For several days in June 2023, the world was fascinated by the saga of the Titan. A submersible with five wealthy, intrepid passengers aboard which had gone missing on a tourist dive 13,000 feet into the Atlantic Ocean to view the wreck of the Titanic. What had happened to the Titan and its passengers? Were they lost in the depths? Adrift on the waves? Did they have enough air? Food? Water? Whole broadcasts were dedicated to the tale, with an ominous countdown showing how much air they would have in the best-case scenario.

Unfortunately, as it turned out, air was the least of the Titan’s problems. It imploded on the way down on Sunday, 18th June 2023, killing all five aboard. Even before the news broke out on Wednesday, however, news had come out about how deepsea diving industry professionals and even the staff of the company had expressed grave concerns about the safety of the Titan. CEO Stockton Rush, who perished along with four others, had been warned multiple times from multiple quarters that the vessel needed much more testing, but he refused to listen, even responding to one person that he was “personally insulted” by their warnings.

The thing is, Stockton Rush wasn’t just talking a good game. He genuinely believed riding in the Titan was “safer than crossing the street,” to use his own words. We know he believed it because he went down personally on that ill-fated voyage last week.

Unfortunately, just because you sincerely believe something is safe does not mean that it is actually safe. To quote C. H. Spurgeon,

If you sincerely drink poison, it will kill you: if you sincerely cut your throat, you will die. If you sincerely believe a lie, you will suffer the consequences. You must not only be sincere, but you must be right.

This applies not just to submersibles but also to our eternal destinies. No matter how long you live, you will eventually die. Maybe not in a submersible, but something will get you in the end. Or perhaps Christ will come before then. Either way, what will become of your soul? Is what you’re trusting to hold you truly capable of sustaining you in that day?

It’s not enough to “believe” or to “have faith.” The object of that faith must hold up. And the Word of God plainly tells us that “…there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5)” and that “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).“So if today you are trusting in any other Titan to hold you in the day of judgment, abandon false hope, repent and believe the gospel.

If the 6500 psi of pressure that crushed the Titan was fearful, how much more the anger and judgment of the one who created that pressure out of nothing? I pray that anyone reading this will stop ignoring warnings, stop hoping nothing happens, stop listening to the false assurances of the world and turn to “Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10).” May God have mercy on us all.

Passing Thoughts…

I am not sure what title to give this or what it is even about but it is almost 11pm on the 18th of February 2023 and I could not really sleep as thoughts of Christian Atsu swirled in my mind. His lifeless body was recovered today which was not the news that any of us wanted to hear. I do hope at least that despite the pain of loss, it brings some measure of closure to his family so they can properly grieve his passing.

I have read articles and seen videos about his kindness and generosity through all the philanthropic works he would do and I am grateful he got the opportunity to do all these.

A couple of years ago, I wrote about the Christian’s response to the Coronavirus (read it to get some context) which sought to explain the state of this world and how believer’s should process such occurrences and again a few days before this earthquake I posted a series of verses from Matthew 24 about the signs of the end. Alas, something like this was on the way. Definitely not a ‘prophet’ as these are written down by the Lord to help us understand each day and situation as it comes.

My thoughts have recently been on these verses spoken by Jesus in Luke 13:1-9

13 There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had ^[a]mingled with their sacrifices. ²And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? ³I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. ⁴Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? ⁵I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”

⁶He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. ⁷Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it ^[b]use up the ground?’ ⁸But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹^[c]And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2013&version=NKJV

What Jesus is saying here is that everyone has been given time and space by God to repent and turn to Him for forgiveness because it is only in that state that we can bear fruit that is pleasing to Him.

In every disaster, pandemic or pestilence, both believers and unbelievers will perish so this is not to suggest in any way that those who died in the quake were all unbelievers but rather that everyone will leave this earth one day and the question is will fruit be found in us? He uses the reality of physical death to prompt us about the reality of spiritual death without repentance and faith in Christ.

Thankfully, this does not need to be your situation Dear Reader!

¹⁶For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 3:16-17 (Biblegateway)

God desires to give us life, true everlasting life that cannot be interrupted by even a disaster. Whether we die in whatever circumstance, provided we are in Christ, we are safe. What stops you from turning to Him right now?

Evangelism Resource: Living Waters Youtube Channel

¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20 (NASB)

On the 15th of March 2020, the president of Ghana took the unprecedented step of ordering all religious services to be suspended for a month as a countermeasure against the spread of the COVID-19 disease. Most schools are out, social gatherings are discouraged, Ghanaians’ ‘favourite’ funerals are limited to 25 persons maximum.

These are strange and confusing times to be sure, but the larger numbers of housebound folk, smaller gatherings and scared friends posting all kinds of dire messages on WhatsApp all mean greater opportunities for witnessing and evangelism.

But what do you say, and how? How do you make sure you are sharing the true gospel and not confusing people or, worse, giving them a false sense of assurance? There are many helpful resources online and offline about how to evangelize. Here is one I highly recommend: Living Waters on Youtube and its accompanying website Living Waters.

According to their “About” page, ” Living Waters seeks to train the members of Christ’s Body in the principles of biblical evangelism and to provide them with practical tools to proclaim the gospel.”

To that end, they provide many, many examples of founder Ray Comfort talking to people of all backgrounds about the gospel of Christ, from your everyday person on the street to others with a wide variety of beliefs, including atheists, agnostics, Satanists and Hare Krishnas. Some encounters go well, others not so well. Some people are open, others are not so welcoming.

Either way, the videos along with Ray Comfort’s penetrating article “Hell’s Best Kept Secret” present a simple and effective approach to evangelistic encounters. First share the bad news and help others understand how God sees them. Then share the news that Jesus died to take away the penalty we deserve as guilty sinners, so that in Him we can fulfill God’s standards for righteousness and be acceptable in His sight.

There is no guarantee the people we speak with will accept the message in faith, but that is not our command. Ours is to share the full, true message and leave the rest up to the Holy Spirit.

BTW, in addition to videos about evangelism, the Living Waters channel also has resources discussing contemporary issues such as the coronavirus, celebrity news (!), politics and evolution. Plus they also have a many short movies on topics like Christmas and Hollywood which are far more interesting and profitable to our souls than the latest telenovelas and juju movies.

Together with Scott Gilchrist’s sermon expositions that I recommended some years ago, you should have plenty of material to keep you busy until the president’s directive is lifted approximately a month from now. May God be with us all.

The Christian woman’s role in the family (part 1 of 2)

Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. – Titus 2:3-5

November 2018 will mark 8 years since I became a Christian. In that time I’ve been privileged to sit under a lot of godly teaching in Ghana, but no pastor in my memory ever covered Titus 2:3-5. Nor do they seem likely to given how the current Ghanaian culture glorifies women working outside the home and vilifies anyone who suggests otherwise. Time to rectify that today with two pertinent articles on the subject.

Today’s corporate women and the curse of ‘maidservanthood’

This opinion piece by Daniel Ofosu-Asamoah appeared on Ghanaweb on 17th May 2018. While it is not written from a Christian perspective, it is interesting for the unflinching look it takes at the various challenges faced by Ghanaian women in balancing working outside the home with their God-given mandate to care first for their husbands and children (Titus 2:5).

However the article contains a lot of flawed examples. Here’s one telling sentence: “The present economic situation of today does not allow one man to be the breadwinner of a family of three or four and above and reduce the woman of the house to a housekeeper.” First off, does the present economic situation really not allow men to be breadwinners? Where are the figures to back that assumption up? As Wikipedia would say, “Citation needed.” I would be genuinely interested in a comparison of the costs of living, say, 30 years ago and now to see if it’s as impossible as the writer declares.

More glaring, however, is the phrase “reduce the woman of the house to a housekeeper.” Reduce? You see the way feminism diminishes the role of a woman at home and makes homemakers feel inadequate? Why must a woman’s self-worth only come from discarding her own role and taking over a man’s? What is demeaning about caring for your own children, raising them to be godly and spiritual people, loving your own husband, managing the health, finances and food of your own home?

Especially in light of the various problems Ofosu-Amponsah raises with the opposite approach:

No time for family.
Active interference by maids in marriage.
Children receiving poor care and training.
Children picking up negative values from caregivers.

Just the last one alone will tell you the immense value of a Christian mother in the home overseeing the development of her child. After all, if you just want to put your child through school and feed them food so they grow, anyone can do that. But if you want to counter the direction the world is going in, to raise them to love God and Christ, to believe what you believe then you have a huge task ahead of you. A task too large to outsource to random househelps, school teachers and relatives, as helpful and welcome as such people may be.

It’s almost amusing but also sad how the article lists all the various problems and even adds, “When I was young, one of the momentous periods in my life was when I came home to see my mother in the house,” but never comes to the realization/admission that maybe the solution is a return to the natural order of things.

And with that, I introduce the second article I read today on the subject of Christian women and the family. It’s actually a letter by a 44-year old homemaker to a Christian radio program. The letter itself dates from 1995 but the sentiments expressed are even more relevant in 2018.

The Infiltration of Feminism in the Church

It’s a long but good read, and I urge you to pay special attention to the quote:

“A woman holding down a demanding full-time job cannot also raise her kids. It is the person who is with them all day who decides what they will read and see, how well they handle anger. Caretakers instill, bit by bit, their moral codes, their manners and even their enthusiasms. That doesn’t mean that a mother who works is irrelevant to her children – only that the major task of childrearing has been subcontracted out”.

Emphasis mine. If we don’t stamp our own imprint on our kids in their formative years, someone else will.

The article also deals with the question of guilt and the working mother. Should women feel guilty for working outside the home? That they do is evident just from a quick Google search, but should they?

“Guilt can be good if it brings to the person realization of the fact they have done something wrong.” Indeed. Guilt is bad if it is rehashing sins that have been confessed, repented of and forgiven. But if you are currently outside the will of God and you know it, you should feel bad. It’s the healthy Christian response.

We’ve seen how much the family loses by disregarding Titus 2:3-5. What does the family gain in exchange? Prestige in the world’s eyes. Work experience. Nicer houses and cars and smartphones. Money. “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 1 Timothy 6:10.

A mother’s role in the family is indispensable. If a worker drops dead today, there’s another person in her role the next week. I know because I saw it happen at my former workplace. “Hii, hii, oh Elizabeth!” A few days later there was an advert in the Graphic. And life went on.
“How long will you love what is worthless and aim after deception?” Psalm 4:2b.

A woman exchanging her immense contributions to her family for titles and money should feel guilty, in the same way someone who trades a gold necklace for plastic beads should feel bad.

I have more to say on this subject, particularly on the effects of these trends on Ghanaian families in particular. And of course the pressing question, “Where are the men in all this?” Join me next time for Part 2 of “The Christian woman’s role in the family” as we tackle this (needlessly) thorny and sensitive subject and look at the way forward.

Resource: The Briefing with Al Mohler

The Briefing bills itself as a “Daily worldview analysis about the leading news headlines and cultural conversations.” Or as the host Al Mohler puts it, a daily analysis of the news and headlines from a Christian worldview.

In a time of unprecedented change and moral decline the world over, all Christians need to be pointed back to the Bible again and again to help us know how to think and respond to the latest news and legislation going on in the world around us.

Dr. Albert Mohler is a Christian speaker and author of no small repute. He is currently the President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a theologian with almost 25 years of experience. As we say in Ghana he is no “small boy” mouthing off about every current event but rather a mature Christian teacher who helps listeners make sense of the news and events going on in the world today.

Listening to The Briefing will help you articulate what exactly is behind that feeling of “But that’s wrong” you get when you read so many headlines today. Abortion, euthanasia, LBGTQI issues, war, natural disasters and all the other issues all require critical Christian thinking and responses. You’ll be able to make sense of these issues from God’s perspective and get the encouragement of knowing that His Word and His standards never change no matter what else does.

Through Al Mohler’s insightful analysis of the media and news articles of the day also comes in handy whenever you watch anything on the TV or radio, as you will quickly come to realize that there’s no such thing as agenda-free media. Every advert, every podcast, every movie, every broadcast has a message behind it that the discerning Christian would do well to listen to.

What I appreciate most about The Briefing is that it led me to realize that the Christian worldview is the only one that can stand up to the evil forces behind the so-called “moral revolution” sweeping the world right now. Everything else will crumble to the pressure eventually.

Tradition and culture? They change all the time.
Legality? Changes even faster, especially in the past 10 years.
Practicality? Just because something works or does not work doesn’t affect the morality of that thing in God’s eyes. It’s only the Christian worldview that lets you say “I’m going to do the right thing regardless of the consequences because God said so.” Whether you succeed or fail in the eyes of this world does not matter as long as you fulfill your ultimate purpose on this earth, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

It really helps you know how to engage with unbelievers on these issues so you can keep bringing God’s timeless truths to bear on recent matters. Dr. Mohler is especially good at pointing out the many contradictions and hypocrisies that attend this “revolution” – though at the end your goal is not to see unbelievers squirm but to bring them to the light of Jesus Christ.

There’s only one major drawback to The Briefing: it mainly addresses news and affairs in North America and Europe. I’ve been listening every day for almost a year and haven’t heard Africa mentioned yet, much less Ghana. No news is good news, eh? It’s only natural for Dr. Mohler to deal with what concerns him. We should make our own local version of The Briefing to cover Ghanaian matters. Economic issues. The media. Tragedies like the Circle fire, road accidents, tragic murders. The recent spate of acrimonious ‘celebrity’ divorces. We can’t expect someone outside to cover things we could be covering ourselves.

And a minor drawback: it’s too short! 30 minutes isn’t nearly enough time to cover every single news items I would like him to cover. But that’s just me being greedy.

Check out The Briefing on weekdays on its official website here. I’m sure it will soon become part of your daily routine.

Lessons from the fall of UT Bank and Capital Bank

He who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like the green leaf. (Proverbs 11:28)

This past Monday (14th August 2017), Ghanaians were stunned to hear that UT Bank and Capital Bank, two seemingly successful banks, had been shut down by the Bank of Ghana and taken over by Ghana Commercial Bank for non-performance and undercapitalization among other issues. In this time of uncertainty, it is right for us to pray for those affected by the upheaval, particularly the staff and suppliers who are suddenly facing the very real prospect of unemployment in the near future. At the same time, as Christians, we shouldn’t miss the lessons to be learned from this kind of news.

There is no such thing as a truly safe investment on this earth.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. (Matthew 6:19-20)

As far as we know, all deposits in those two banks are still safe. But the sudden news of their demise must come as a reminder to bank customers that anything can happen to your finances on earth at any time. You may trust in the bank to keep your money safe, but the bank is a human institution with weaknesses and failures of its own. Only riches stored up in heaven can never be lost.
In light of the above, while the Bible does call us to be good stewards of our earthly resources, they are not to be our ultimate source of hope.

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. (1 Timothy 6:17)

I believe this warning goes to all of us, rich or poor. If God has blessed you with material wealth, your mindset should be “Thank you God for this rich blessing” and not “Sweet! Look at all this loot!” And conversely if you are in a tight situation, don’t deceive yourself and think that everything will be perfect once you have a little more money. Trust God for His provision at His timing, knowing that the same Lord gives and takes away (Job 1:21).

3. Someday this world and its riches will all disappear in a flash.

In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin! (Revelation 18:17a)

The book of Revelation tells us one of the things that will accompany the end of the world is the destruction of the world’s financial systems in a brief period of time. Just as we woke up one morning to discover two banks gone, so also we might wake one day to hear tales of a complete financial collapse around the world. If it sounds impossible, just remember that on Friday 11th August, most Ghanaians thought all was well with UT Bank and Capital Bank.

We don’t know for certain what the future holds, but there is One who does. God, who knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). If you are going through a financial crisis at present or if you have been affected by the sudden closure of the banks, I leave you with these words of comfort from Matthew 6.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:25-34)

Trust in the Lord and He will see you through to the end.