Is cohabitation marriage in the Bible; and when does grace end?

Is cohabitation marriage in the Bible; and when does grace end?
We will start by defining marriage, do some horizontal studies and consider some customs before we apply the principle to our context. Then we will show when grace takes leave.

When God created Adam he told him he needed a helpmeet (Gen 2:18). Why help meet because God has given him the garden to take care of. Now He needs someone to help him in that field. And that person was not among animals (Gen 2:20). So God made a woman (Gen 2:21 -23). As from then the man will leave his mother and father and shall cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh (Gen 2:24).

So then, does God sanction cohabitation after all the mere definition of marriage means cohabitation. The mistake many people do is that they end on this definition of marriage. The word marriage has about four definitions. It means cohabitation or dwell together as used in Ex 21:10. In this passage it refers to the institution. Then it could mean clear or agree or matching as used in Ps 78:63. It could also mean custom or act as used in Matt 22:30 and I Cor 7:38. In our context, we are talking about the institution, which means cohabitation.
Yet to have a good interpretation we must do some horizontal studies by asking some questions. If Marriage is mere cohabitation then why does God call some sex adultery (Mt 5:27 -28), fornication (Jn 8:41) or sin (I Cor 6:18 -20) in plain language? As such, we have to go back to some customs especially the Jewish custom to arrive at our conclusion.

In Israel for anything to be considered marriage, parents must approve it (Gen 21:8). It was on that ground that parents were paid the dowry or bride price; price for a wife (Gen 34:12; Ex 22:17; I Sam 18:25; Deut 22:29). At times the bride's father made the gifts or paid the price (Joshua 15:125-19; I kings 9:16). After the bride price has been paid or the gifts given then there was a ceremony, which was organized by the bride’s family (Gen 29:22). It was on this basis that Jesus attended the one in Cana where he turned water into wine (Jn 2:10). At times the party could also be organized by the groom’s family too (Judges 14:10). The climax of the ceremony came with the pronouncement of the benediction (Gen 26:60; 28:1-4). In every marriage ceremony, there must be witnesses (Ruth 4:1-11, I Sam 8:1-3). Considering the custom we realize that the two people had to come before the council and even disvirgin the girl with a white cloth placed underneath to collect the blood that will drop out from breaking the hymen ( Deut 22:13-21).

Therefore, that again annuls the existence of elopements or mere cohabitation. Yet shall we then just apply the Jewish tradition. Not at all!
Considering that no theological statement was made in a cultural vacuum we then want to assimilate the principle of custom approval to our situation. For instance, a relationship is considered marriage in the US when the two have signed papers in court or have lived in a situation of common law marriage. Anything short of that is illicit relation. Thus boyfriend and girlfriend having sex or living together is sin. Notwithstanding, there is what we call the Common Law Marriage which is limited to only 11 States in the US . In those states where Common Law Marriage is accepted I believe God accepts it too because the law of the land accepts it. The place of the church is the same token of the benediction that took place. Yet the benediction was based on the believe that these same people making those pronouncements were worthy of them.

In Africa, you finish with the customary marriage before you go to the court, then finally the church, before you start to consummate your marriage. In that case, if you have signed the court papers without celebrating it in church you have the divine approval to “enjoy”.

Therefore, because we are and must be subjected to the law of the land if it agrees with the scripture (Rom 13:1-4) which this one does then we must respect the fact that marriage can only be considered when both parties have a marriage certificate.

However, if we do sin in fornication when non-Christians the Bible says there is forgiveness because it is considered a time of ignorance (Acts 17:30) for which the blood of Jesus pre and post blots out (Eph 1:7; 2:13, Col 1:20; Heb 9:12). But if we fall in sin and we confess God will forgive us (Prov 28:13; I John 1:9). Yet as you know, cohabitation is not falling in sin. It is practicing sin. That is living in sin. Consequently, grace is not tantamount to perpetual sinning (Rom 6:1-2; Heb 10:29). As such, there is no longer any sacrifice for perpetual sin (Heb 10:26) because we will be crucifying the son of God the second time. To obtain forgive for that sin we must break up.

When we believe, it means we are dieing to sin and then resurrecting to a newness of life (Rom 6:4-6). That means, we have to bring forth fruits worthy of our confession. The fruits of this confession are love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, self control and perseverance (Gal 5:22-23) thereby excluding the works of the flesh which include illicit sex because them who practice (not fall into) illicit sex will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal 5:19-21).
The concept of saved by grace (Gal 2:16; Eph 2:8-9) does not negate a righteous living for we are called Christians (Acts 11:26) which means little Christ. Therefore, we are representing Christ when we are called ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor 5:20). As Ambassadors, the code of conduct obliges us to be an example and cohabitation is not a good example for anyone representing Christ.


Until then, let us live to the honor of God our maker.


Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

What is wrong with wine?

The Bible and alcohol
Part 1

Introduction
Today even 12 year olds in some countries buy alcohol beverages. The law on the legal drinking age varies from one country to another. Beer is increasing by 150% and drinks by 40 % meanwhile the population is increasing by only 45%. Alcohol consumptions stagnating and even dropping in industrialized countries but it is skyrocketing in developing countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa where new brands of beers are coming out almost every year. It is predicted that in 20 years the production of beer will grow by 200% in Latin America, 400% in Africa and 500% in Asia.
Alcohol is used differently in both worlds. In the developed world, alcohol is generally used for comfort while in the poor countries, it is generally used to alleviate misery. Yet it affects all levels of the society whereby many have been addicted. Again, the difference in developed countries with dealing with the problems is dissimilar from those of the underdeveloped country. The rich countries like Germany, put alcoholics on benefits, because they consider it a disease that has handicapped and made them non-functional. Meanwhile, their counterparts in the poor countries have name-calling, and shame as their wage. It would be preferable for someone to be an alcoholic in the western world because he or she will earn benefits than to be one in Africa where you will sleep in the gutter a couple of times and be singing “ who slept with your mother? It’s me!”
A one-time survey confirmed that acoholisation is principally a masculine business. More than one-half of women do not drink but 90% of them take at most two bottles a day. On the other hand, in Germany, smoking seems the handiwork of the women. Surveys have also revealed that 42% of great toxicomans started with marijuana, 29% by alcoholic drunkenness. All surveys from Montreal review show that youths use and abuse beer, drinks opinion polls half of 12-19 years have consumed alcohol and at least once each month or once the last month preceding the survey. According to another study ½ of adolescents between 15-17 years were excessively drinkers or dependants 40% were social drinkers and only ¼ abstinents. According to a renowned psychiatrist, alcoholism is the source of drug leading to toxicommania. This shows how alcohol is a human problem and must be treated with urgency.
I believe that neither prohibition nor abstinence of all sorts will be the solution because even things that are illegal are still being used. I believe people should be set face to face with the facts and truth about alcoholism. That’s the raison d’etre of this lesson.
Definition and etymology
In Israel and the Bible, there were three types of wines.
1) New wine/ tiros/ (Hebrew) Gleukos (Greek). Acts 2:13; Jn 2:3. It was called new wine because it was sweet and unfermented as such, had a low percentage of alcohol. That means it was still alcoholic. New wine was the first drippings of the juice before the winepress was trodden. This is the same wine that Jesus made from water. Take note of the name and type.

2) Wine /yayin/ (Hebrew) /Oinos/ (Greek) Prov. 20:1. This type of wine was gotten from trodding the chaffs from the wine press and which could stay or ferment for some days. This was called at times “trodden wine” because it was tapped from winepress and after the wine has been extracted then the chaffs from the winepress were trodden upon to produce wine. It is similar to the way Manyu people made palm oil in the early 70s and late 80s.

3) Strong drink /sekar/ Hebrew and /sikera/ (Greek) Lk. 1:15. This was wine that has been distilled through a local brewery method and could be termed today odontol, Arki, Gin or liqueur.
N.B. Questions or challenges only after part 5
PA Hamilton Ayuk


Part 2 Disadvantages of heavy drinking
1) Expenditures without income.
In the Western countries, almost 25 billion dollars are spent on alcoholic drinks. 20 Billions registered as a lost due to the consumption of alcohol. There are also about 95 or more millions drinkers of alcohol below the age of 15.
2) Cause of crime
Half of crimes including broken homes, ¼ of suicide cases and half of road accidents are caused by heavy alcoholic drinking.
3) Destroys and stagnates input.
Statistics show that 175,000 people absent from their job sites as a consequences of alcohol. Drinkers experience too many job side accidents more than abstinents (non drinkers).
4) Physiological damage
After drinking alcohol moderately, we register a drop in our vision and dexterity in our reflexes. That means people are telling lies when they say that alcohol stimulates and boosts the body heat. Alcohol also deteriorates the cell of our bodies. This can cause liver cirrhoses and excessive weight. It relaxes the blood vessels in the epidermis thereby reducing the heat in our bodies.
In considering some of the above effects, people find it wise to say that the Bible objects to the drinking of alcohol. I will present a couple of those verses and their interpretations. The question is why did God accept the use of alcohol knowing fully well of its effects?
The Bible mentions wine 200 times. Listen to me again the Bible mentions wine 200 times. The usage varies from testament to testament. In the Old Testament (OT) we read that Melchizedek who was regarded as the prototype of Christ gave wine and bread to Abraham for tithes (Gen 14:18). Israelites brought wine and God accepted it as an offering (Num 18:12). God commanded them to buy wine (Deut. 14:26). Solomon tells us that God blessed them with wine (Prov. 3:10). There are various reasons why people in the OT used wine. They used wine because wine made the heart of man merry (Ps.104:5) and brought merriment in feasts (Eccl. 10:19). One quick thought arises here. If wine per se was bad then God will not ask anybody to touch, drink or offer it. Why has He not authorized any form of witchcraft or illicit sex?
The role of the wine taster (Gen 40:1-3; Neh 2:1). He was a man trusted by pharaoh who could be like a protocol officer today. The wine taster would tastes all the king’s food and drinks to see if it was poisoned before it was given to him. We do not see that same practice in the New Testament (NT),. However, the usage of wine in the NT differs a bit from that of the OT in that is was used more than just for recreational reasons. Wine was used for merriment (Jn 2:1-10) too. It was used for didacticism (Mt. 9:17). It was used for socialization (Mt. 11:19; Lk. 7:34). Here again is very troubling because the Master Jesus is accused of it by his own personal inference. It even goes further when Jesus calls himself a winebibber in the words of the Pharisees and scribes. Wine was also used as medicine for the stomach (5:23). Now a quick question. Could and would the apostle Paul ask another Christian to commit fornication for their back pain?
Among the 200 verses mentioning wine, only one cautions against drinking wine. However, I will treat the most frequently quoted verses against the consumption of alcohol. As such, we would conduct a serious exegesis on some of those polemical verses. Remember to perform a good hermeneutics one has to do a proper exegesis and horizontal studies while scanning the language and culture. That is what we call dynamic equivalence and an expository teaching. So slowly let’s go!
N.B. Questions or challenges only after part 5
PA Hamilton Ayuk

Part 3
1) Leviticus 10:9-10
And the LORD spake unto Aaron, saying, 9 Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations: 10 And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; 11 And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.
Neither the priests nor their descendants could drink wine or liquor when they were going into the Tabernacle in order to prevent their senses from being dulled as they offered sacrifices or taught the people. Nothing is said of prohibiting them alcohol in their daily life. More so this was a religious law and not a moral law. Let me quickly show the difference between the two. The difference between the Ten Commandments which we generally call Moral law and Mosaic Law (religious, ceremonial and civil) is that, the moral law was given to Moses as a microcosm of Man. Meanwhile, the Mosaic Law was given to Moses as a microcosm of Israel. Therefore, the Mosaic Law bound a given people and culture. It loses its strength when transcending other cultures. In case of assimilation, it becomes ethnocentric, that could lead to acculturation of the adopter. For that reason, proper hermeneutics beckons a thorough exegesis. For example, an American woman who delivers a male child does no more become unclean because it was given to Jewish women alone (Lev. 12:2) and not all women on earth, whereas the injunction not to kill is for both Jews and Gentiles. More so, Moral Law is not relative whereas Mosaic Law is. In addition, considering that moral law is part of God, it does not abrogate (Mt 5:17-19) meanwhile, Mosaic Law does because each individual must enter into covenant with God (Mt 22:32).
No doubt with the death of Christ all Christians become priests and enter into the holy of holies daily. Yet, it is because of the His death that, the ceremonial law was abolished. As such, we are no more under ceremonial laws like this one. Our worship is no more physical into the spiritual but spiritually direct. If we bring back this same principle then we have to bring back that of women not appearing before the Lord when they were seeing their periods. You don’t want that do you?
This is the only verse where the Bible cautions against drinking alcohol and it was just for the time they were going into the tabernacle. Meaning when they were not involved with religious activities they could drink.
N.B. Questions or challenges only after part 5
PA Hamilton Ayuk

Part 4
2) Jeremiah 35:1-5 ( sons of the rechabites)
The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying, 2 Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink. 3 Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habaziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites; 4 And I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door: 5 And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine.
These were a tribe that existed since the time of Moses. They adhered to ascetism through out their expeditions. They were a group of Arabs among refugees from neighboring country who seeked asylum within the walls of Jerusalem. They believed wholeheartedly to the doctrines of Jonadab some 300 years ago on abstinence of wine. The main idea was that as pilgrims they should not be given to wine less they strike their roots too deep and forget their way back home. While the rest of the nation was breaking the covenant of commitment, they remained faithful and steadfast to theirs. It had little or nothing to do with the evil of wine. It was because of their vision and assignment.
This passage the people took upon themselves to maintain their tradition. It was not God ordained or to an extent the Bible is mute.

3) Habakkuk 2:15)
Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!
Here the condemnation was on Babylonian violence. She deceived her neighbors with wine, stripped them of all their wealth which is the same like individuals who gave people wine, made them drunk so that they can take advantage of them sexually. An example is that of Lot and his daughters (Gen 19:33). Remember the evil in this verse is on the intention and not the subject.

Numbers 6:4-5
All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk? 5 All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow
Abstinence from wine by the Nazarite was for clarity and differentiation when engaged in the service of the Lord. It was for those who made the vow to serve the Lord as liberators. The extension to grape products would symbolize all sensual enjoyments by which holiness could be impaired. Today it would be staying away from any external stimulation other than the Holy Spirit.
N.B. Questions or challenges only after part 5
PA Hamilton Ayuk

Part 5
Prov 20:1; 23:20; 31:4-7’
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: 5 Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. 6 Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. 7 Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.
In all three passages, phrases like “deceived thereby is not wise, winebibber, drunkard shall come to poverty, drink to forget the law”, all denote abuse or drunkenness and not mere drinking wine per se. As you very well know, strong drink will influence people with immediate promises of happiness and in an instant turns to mock at them in their behaviors or even making them slaves in their misery. It may promise strength for the arm, joy for the heart, brilliance for the mind but those promises are not kept and the end is impotence, misery and imbecility.
According to the mother of Lemuel, drunkenness might be understandable among unbelievers who are on the brink of death but it is inexcusable for national leaders because alcohol clouds the mind and can lead to injustice and poor decision. We must recall that wine was a form of soporific or anesthesia in their days. Leaders have better things to do than anesthetize themselves with alcohol. In direct reference, the logic that since man cannot control himself when he drinks a glass of wine, alcohol beverages should then be banned is really pretentious and unfounded. Despite the many case of adultery, fornication, no one has suggested the banning of sex. Despite the numerous cases against McDonald for obesity, no one has suggested the prohibition of eating.
In 2004, the US accused Mexico for helping infiltrate drugs into their country. The Mexican president replied with “tell your people to curb their appetite”. If each person would curb his or her appetite then, the problem of excess will never exist. We have fought cases of counterfeits and yet the department of treasury has never suggested the banning of money. There are many false churches and doctrines in the world yet we have not campaigned to ban the existence of churches. Don’t you think, the best way to cure the existence of false doctrines and churches would be to ban the existence of churches entirely? Don’t you think the solution to counterfeits would be to stop using money entirely? Or may be the solution to lack of proper governments in most African countries would be to barn all governments entirely.
I believe in the scriptures that says do not eat if your brother will stumble “It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak” (Rom. 14:21). However, he has to grow up. I am conscious all is permitted and not all is useful (I Cor. 6:12; 10:23-24) because we want to do everything for the glory of God (I Cor 10:31). Paul admonishes the Christians to be filled with the Holy Spirit and not be drunk (Eph. 5:18). Take note of the word drunk. It is not drink. Therefore, if anyone should abstain from alcohol their argument should be that either it is not good for their system or they don’t like it but not because the Bible interdicts it.

Until then, wine per se is not the problem but drunkenness is.

Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

15/09/98

Miss South Carolina

Miss South Carolina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53dAexGUNlc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaN6Rx8X6_I&mode=related&search
“I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because uh some people out there in our nation don't have maps and uh I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for”. (Lauren Caitlin Upton)

As I read her quote over and over again I can conclude that she was not ready for the question. It could also be due to stage fright or some emotional concern that popped up immediately she was asked the question. It is far from the “Blondes are Dumb” stigma the media is trying to sell to the public.
I just don’t think Lauren Caitlin Upton: Miss Teen South Carolina should be held to such contempt. I have preached since when I was twenty in front of large and small crowds but there are times when even small crowds trouble me. She was not trained as a public speaker, was not ready for a geography question and I think she did just fine. I believe people should get a life and leave the young woman to try her hands out in a field she is gifted. Aren’t her physiognomy and catwalk good enough to entertain them? Society is becoming the more and more very cruel that people whet their appetites with a special schadenfreude. Look at the America’s most funny videos they are mostly accidents: men hitting their balls, people falling from houses and hitting their heads on poles or something that one would have just been thankful to God for keeping them alive again. That is what makes people laugh; they laugh and even select the most funny among those accident videos. Wow!
I am appalled at the publicity they are giving to her mistake.
Hey, Lauren, keep it up but let this give you the impetus to learn about the world around you.
Until then, I wish you the best in your undertaking.

Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

Does God condemn Polygamy?

Does God condemn polygamy?


Definition

Polygamy is a form of matrimony. It is difficult to understand the fear of most western women and even Africarinas (African woman living abroad) on polygamy. Africans did not decide to practice polygamy; it was their way of live. They were born in it; it was and it is their culture. Every people are born with a culture though cultures could be picked along the line of migration. My paternal great grandfather had - wives while my maternal grandfather had- wives. In Cameroon late Mongo Faya had 101 wives. He did not die from marrying many wives though. Late King Sobhouza II- of Swaziland who died at age 83 had 120 wives and 280 concubines. The question today is does God approve or condemn polygamy? Would a polygamist go to heaven? Should he or she hold a church position?

There are two types of polygamy; polygyny (a man married to many wives like in Utah, Africa and Latin America) and polyandry (a woman married to many husbands like in Asia). WM Branham advocated for polygyny because he believed authority rested with men than women and that women were more a property of the man when you consider that the Bible seem to place a woman amongst the properties of a man (Num 32:26; I kings 20: 5). It is difficult to prove that the scripture is against polygamy though it puts it in an undesirable position to be practiced. The doctrine of one wife to one man (Gen 2:24) is the main base on which we vouch for monogamy. At the time humanity has not yet fallen from grace. Yet unlike murder, idolatry, covetousness, stealing, adultery and other vices that God condemns, He does not condemn polygamy. If he does not condemn it; why and how can it be wrong? After all, polygamy is not illicit sex; fornication, digamy, bigamy, adultery, homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, rape, and incest are.


Causes of Polygyny in Africa

Polygamy first found its place in the African society due to the many men who died in inter-tribal wars thereby leaving behind many women. It was befitting for one man to take many women. The man would then provide for these women. Then the advent of slavery helped to enforce it because many men were taken away and many women left behind. The scarcity of men was a great factor encouraging polygamy. Thus polygyny has the interest of the woman economically and romantically. Do not forget that the modern woman today does not buy into that philosophy because she can work and earn money, and romantically there are all sorts of toys for self indulgence and gratification. These things were scarcer than the tears of a cat in those days.

There was no competition per se apart from the normal jealousy that exists between husband and wife. Jealousy exists in monogamous homes too. That is because jealousy is the work of the flesh and has little or nothing to do with many women.

In addition, polygamy was the practice of levirate marriages. When a man died his brother inherited his wife to take care of his wife. At times the man was already married and so because of tradition he became a polygamist.
Another reason was the booty of war. Women that were seized from the vanquished tribe were brought to the victors’ village and they became their wives. That is why most Africans are almost interrelated. They became their wives as spoils of war.

Polygamy also found its way the more because of unpaid debts. When a man could not pay his debt he surrendered his wife or his daughter to the creditor especially if she was beautiful. If he was married he automatically becomes a polygamist.

Nowadays polygyny is gaining grounds because of the stigma placed on being single. Women want to be called Mrs. even if they are fifth or sixth wives.

Mischievously too it is a means to cuckold a rich fellow. If he has many wives he will not be able to satisfy them emotional but is more than able economically and financially. Thus, it enables them to keep their indolent boyfriends by the side while they carry the Mrs. and reap enough food and drinks for their real lover from the polygamist. That means to some women nowadays Polygyny is more a means to earn a living.

Another important reason was that there was a high infant mortality rate and children were used in doing most of the farm jobs. In certain cases a woman with 10 children could lose 8 and only two survived. So the man needed many wives to have many children who were at the same time too the pride of the man.


Who started Polygamy (Lamech or Eve)?

Some people say Polygamy or polyandry was begun by Eve when she had “sex” with the serpent. Yet biblical calculus does not support the theory considering that she first ate the fruit before giving it to her husband.
Secondly, the Bible describes the setting showing the woman far from the serpent. How would both have had sex without coming into contact?
Thirdly, the serpent told the woman that the reason why God did not want them to eat the fruit was because they will become as gods. If sex was the sin then since humans have been having sex, the human race would have been plated with gods and goddesses. On the contrary, it is due to sex that people make the most stupid decisions up to killing another human being.
Fourthly, if the fruit was sex then man would have been immortal. Yet we have heard of people who have died while in action. As such, the fruit would not be sex. If the fruit was not sex then Eve did not start polyandry because she loved only Adam (monogamy).

After the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden the first person to take two wives: Adah and Zillah was Lamech (Gen 4:19). He did not do it for none of the reasons people advance but just because it is part of his sinful nature. The variety in culture is due to the initial fall of man .Else everything was made to be homogenous even up to language (Gen 11:1; Eccl 7:29). After his marriage, God does not condemn him nor does he condemn any polygamyist in the Bible.


The Pitfalls of Polygyny.

Does the Bible say polygamy is wrong like it says with digamy, adultery, fornication; in short illicit sex? If polygamy is a sin then digamy is too. I believe digamy should be in the same infraction level with bigamy, swinging, phone sex and cohabitation. Polygyny in Africa and Latin American countries is not a crime. Are we going to interpret its sinfulness by applying the jurisprudence of the United States thereby encouraging ethnocentric hermeneutics? Sin is not relative. In short, moral wrong is morally wrong no matter the country. If polygamy is an accepted form of matrimony, whereby the participants willfully and consciously sign for, then there is a problem quoting the laws of one country (US) as the standard law and making it perfect or superior to the laws of other states. If I don’t practice Polygyny and will never practice is because I don’t even see its importance and raison d’etre but not because the Bible says so or a country pretends to be the scribe of the Bible or God’s Gendarme.

Some people contend that polygamy is more expensive because in those days the polygynist made provisions for his family: wives and kids to be self supporting. In terms of expenditure the amount of debt owed by modern monogamous homes outweighs what the polygamous homes in those days owed.

Other people say that polygyny is a manifestation of the flesh or lust of the flesh. The fact that a man has ten wives does not mean he has sex everyday. A man with one wife could even have sex ten times a day as we know.

Polygyny was and is still a problem in the US due to the background of the founding fathers who were greatly influenced by their puritanism. This reminds me of the days of The Salem Witch Hunt. I am still to find where the Bible says marrying more than one wife is bad. 2 Tim 3:2, 12; Titus 1:6 do not make a polygnist deportment wrong. Just because someone is rebuking a behavior they consider wrong does not mean they are right. Their stance could be the error Paul was talking about. If a polygynist stays faithful to his wives, he will go to heaven. He is only deprived from holding a church office (I Tim 3:2, 12; Titus 1:6) but he is not considered out of the heavenly race (Rom 10:9-10,13; Eph 2:8-9; Gal 2;16 ). The unfaithful monogamous homes where boyfriends and girlfriends are frequent are not better than the faithful polygynous homes. In the US where polygyny is illegal, it may be reasonable and biblical to say it should not be practiced for respect of authority but it should neither be taken as a biblical position nor should be adopted or forced into the constitutions of other countries as the law of God. There are some unlawful behaviors that are not sin. For example in Atlanta it is unlawful to feed the homeless in the park. Is feeding a homeless man a sin (Mt 25:35)?
Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses for marrying Zipporah - an Ethiopian woman: black (Num 12:1). Their anger was due to racism not because Moses was married to many wives. Humanity and Christendom should worry more about racism than polygamy.

If monogamy was the perfect matrimony then there will be no divorce. Solomon marrying 700 plus 300 concubines was a search for a perfect woman. The Bible does not attribute failed marriages to the practice of multiple wives. The condemnation is on having foreign women (I Kings 11:1; Deut 17:17; Neh 13:26; 2 Chr 1:12; 2 Sam 12:24). When the Bible cautions people not to give their strength to women, it is referring to prostitution or illicit sex (Prov 31:3). A man with one wife could have the sex that a man with ten wives does not have. After all even if a man had one hundred wives he will not have more hours in his hand than the one with one wife. All of them have just twenty four hours in a day. So to claim that because someone has many wives will use his strength more then the one with one wife is unfounded. The caveat is against excess.

The fact that the Bible says a man should be married to one wife does not mean it annuls marrying many wives. It does not say it is a sin or wrong to be married to many wives. On the contrary, it says illicit sex is wrong. In Africa and Latin America polygyny is accepted by law. Though I believe that economically and emotionally polygamy is a burden it is not the biblical position. If one woman is not enough even two or ten will not be enough. I would not encourage polygamy for whatever reason.


Until then, let every man be married to one woman.


Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

Televangelist: Juanita Bynum’s Husband Bishop Weeks assaults her in a hotel parking lot.

When I heard it I was not surprised. In a country where people regard animals more than human beings, human relationships do not have a chance to survive. I mean in a country where few resist abortions, where Mary Winkler shoots her preacher husband on the back while he is asleep and is sentenced to 7 months in jail while a man who killed dogs hears a unison sang by many leading him to the gallows like a captured mass murderer.
I feel disappointed that Bishop Weeks as the man was unable to control the situation that he had to fight in the parking lot with his estranged wife. One thing I have learnt is that never make a decision when you are angry; it is never a good one. The Bible says that the woman is a weaker vessel and he would have known that by her running after him in the parking lot there was going to be trouble. Unfortunately, most of us do not consider the repercussions of our actions. Sometimes I go extra mile to clarify situations not because I need something but because I do not want people making rash decisions that will affect those behind me. I mean I do not want others to pick my broken vase.

Except Christianity gets converted from emotions to the mind it remains tintinnabulations. Without being judgemental; those same theories of Bynum which most do lack biblical backings will not allow her to submit to her husband. That is the reason why most Female Tele evangelists are single. They have won the feminist battle but lost that of keeping a home.
Most Christian women have quickly embraced the tenets of feminism and rejected the orthodoxy of Christianity. Now marriage has become a reclusive turncoat of try by error. The number of divorces in the Christian homes outnumbers those of the non Christians that one has to wonder if there is a difference between the Christians and the non Christians. Except the order of the Bible: “wives submit yourselves to your husbands as unto the lord” is respected, such melodrama enacted by Bynum and Weeks yesterday is the mime Christendom and the society will regularly and free be entertained. Since she was married she was never called Mrs. Weeks. She has maintained her last and first name just to show you that the man Weeks is not her head. This marriage has taken too long to fail. However, whether the egg falls on the rock or the rock falls on the egg, the egg is the one that suffers. Christianity is the one bearing the brunt of these unfortunate circumstances.
Until then; lauds and vespers must increase for Christendom.

Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

Ridiculous DNA for African Americans

Ridiculous DNA for African Americans
This treatise is in reaction to all Dark Skinned Americans tracing their roots from Africa and finding out that they have regal blood. Some people have asked me why they should even bother to trace their ancestry. It was only when the Jews remembered that they came from Jerusalem that they were motivated to go back and rebuild the wall (Neh 1:1-9). If most Dark Skinned Americans will find their roots, their involvement in the development of Africa will be more engaging. And the better way to do that is to start in their village of origin rather than the city which will be building on the foundation of another person (Rom 15:20). Unfortunately, many are duped and swindled in their attempt to find their fatherland.
When I first saw Monica Kauffman in the News, I knew without a doubt she is from Cameroon: Bamileke tribe because I lived in Quartier Nkouloulon mostly dominated by Bagantes. As an imperial son from Ntenako: Cameroon both maternally and paternally I got interested in the debate. To help Dark Skinned Americans trace their roots, there are DNA groups all over with most of them unraveling they were kings and queens, princesses and princes. Someone told me that TD Jakes found out that he is a king from Nigeria and Steve Wonder is from a royal family in Ghana . How can Dark Skinned Americans be working with websites that do not have a single African country in their database? Are Dark Skinned Americans from Europe and Asia or Africa?
If you are Dark Skinned with slave links and you are a king or prince then we suppose you have royal blood. But then is that possible? The child of a tribal leader could be sold out like the story of Olaudah Equaino. Remember that a tribal leader was not a king or a chief. Selling of kings was an exception like was the case of the kings of Dahomey who captured their neighbor Whydah and sold him in the 18th century. Would then the sale of one king disperse that many kings and queens or princes and princesses for a childless king? Yet it was not common to have the children of kings and queens or chiefs sold out except when they became turncoats. And to the best of historical recollections, the loyalty in that era does not exist today. The sale of rebellious princes was an exception because the males were instead deprived from inheriting the throne while the woman was liquidated. The Kings enjoyed great power, popularity and sex from concubines and slave girls to be shipped. The premise was so highly respected that the royal children were not sent to school for fear they were beaten or touched by the teacher.
Fewer women were sold because they needed them back at home more and because the plantations could not be done with women. Women were only taken in the course of shortage of men. When slavery first began women were not kidnapped. The trade was widened to include women because of the dead of men during the voyage and the availability of cheap sex to the sycophantic slave masters.
The early educated people were mostly slave kids because the harsh discipline that pupils and students received from teachers was considered punishment. It was misjudged that only the slave child would swallow it. In the Sub-Saharan region, even if a neighboring village invaded and captured a neighboring king or chief they did not sell him. Instead they kept him as a slave to the captor King. Generally, most slaves were criminals, Prisoners of wars (POWs), cursed individuals, obanjes ,Osus, debtors, or extremely wretched individuals who wanted a means of survival and thus solicited to be sold somewhere.
Nonetheless, there are basic steps to trace one’s roots. The very first method is by comparing physiognomy: facial features (Gen 1:27) and skin color. When you look at the Ethiopian, Kenyan, Nigerian, Ghanaian or Cameroonian you know where they came from without anyone telling you. If facial features do not do then use linguistics differentiation as shown in judges 12:6 and Acts 2:6-12. If you met an African and wanted to know their country you listen to their native language. Their accent will tell their country and this variation in orthoepy usually leads to the tribe (Num 13:4-16). Take for example when you met an upper Bayang and a Central Bayang you knew the difference because of the usage of /gh/. The combination of voice velar plosive /g/ with the voiceless glottal fricative /h/ usually gave the similitude of a long /a:/ like in oghoh (you see). Meanwhile to the Upper Bayang the same sound gave voice velar plosive PEAM (pulmonic Airstream mechanism). In others words, the Central Bayang will mute the /g/ while the upper Bayang will aspirate it. In some cases, the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ was used as the voiceless post Alveolar fricative / /. After finding the tribe then you find the family by tracing the generations from the great grand ancestor (Numbers 3:17-20; 27:7-11).
The next step will be the last name. But there is a slight difficulty with the last name because most of the last names by the Dark Skinned were from the slave Masters either by mere nomenclature or because the man was the father of the child. That is why you hear a Dark Skin American with the name Carter and the Light Skin too having Carter. The idea of having a white person and a black person with the same last name is not just for onomastic reasons but if traced carefully one would realize that the slave owners birthed the children and since children from mixed parents (slave owner and slave) were not permitted to marry their white counterparts, they remained with the other slaves or mixed people but still carried the last name.
Therefore, The Bible teaches us how to trace our genealogies without relying on manipulated DNA. Thus, any DNA that concludes that the Dark Skinned American has royal blood is ridiculous DNA as I have shown above. The Africans should encourage and help the Dark Skinned Americans all over the world to trace their roots in simplistic methods rather than fall prey into the hands of ridiculous DNA specialists out to swindle them from their hard earned dollars and pounds.

Until then, not everyone will be king or queen.

Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

Africarina

Africarina
This is a lady born by African parents in Africa and emplaned to foreign land. Neither was she brought in manacles and shackles nor was she born out of Africa. Nonetheless, the forces of the society made her run away for fortune and for refuge. She already had the world underneath her feet but no roof over her head. Now she tramples the rumpled and crumpled tapestry of foreign life. Syncretism is when two religions come together to form a third religion. When a Jew and Gentile mate, their offspring was called Samaritan. I wonder what I should call her since she has mingled with western ideologies that she is now in between. Let’s call her Africarina.
Prior to visiting the West, Africarina was breastfeeding her baby for even two years. Breastfeeding prolonged the life of her baby, gave the child fewer infections and reduced her rate of breast cancer. Breast cancer was not common with her type. Now, she says she is an emulous “Lady”. The feeding bottle has replaced breastfeeding.
After her baby, she divorced. Africarina does not have the same chances to make love like Tammy her western friend. She is not flippant due to her upbringing. She was taught to wait for a man to tell her “I love you. Can we have a date”? Meanwhile, Tammy struts the opposite direction. Therefore, Africarina lairs in a love tabefaction. She knows many African women who came to the west single but could not find a mate until today. As for the African man who leaves the west to Africa to look for a wife, we just have to boost his self-confidence. The same goes for the African woman.
Erroneously, the African man believes Tammy is better in bed than Africarina. If that was so, then no western man, will desire a foreign woman. However, Tammy would permit the man to explore everywhere and positions tabooed to Africarina; leaving the man wanting Viagra, Levitra and Cialis. That doesn’t necessary guarantee fulfillment either. There is some magic that makes her feel you are thinking with her heart. Furthermore, Tammy can go on the internet and fish while Africarina tills the factory. When she escapes the noise of the giant fan, she dreams and streams to other moneymaking machines.
Make no mistake, no woman is superior or inferior to another. In darkness, the peacemaker is a mere orifice no matter the color or continent as such every water quenches fire! You smile don’t you?
Africarina complains that the African man has left her for Tammy. Well the reason is simple, she surprises the African man with her chameleon behavior. Tammy does not surprise the African man because he expected it. Therefore, it is better to deal with the devil you know than the angel you do not know he says.
Africarina is struggling to unmewed herself that she wants to speak like Tammy. Meanwhile, the latter does not want to imitate her. That is what makes her inferior. She forgets everybody has an accent. Which of the western dialects of English would she imitate? She speaks in-between English language and madness with her nostrils and mouth in lallation. Africarina speak like you were born by your mother. Why feel inferior? Oh why Africarina? In her early twenties, she thought by recusing and using the F-word every minute means she was now like Tammy. Who tells you the Tammys with that ignivomous language are worth any attention?
I heard and saw Africarina put her husband out and claimed the property. She wants to show her emancipation. Africarina, the African man does not need this. Before the Tammys could be emancipated, you were already free to rule. Examples are Mwami Ndahiro I Riyange of Rwanda and the Modjadji V of South Africa (traditionally called the Rain Queen) who were leading their villages long before feminism ever showed its marriage breaking head worldwide. During the time they reigned, Tammy was still in her fetters and brass of male chauvinism.
Africarina wanted all her relatives in the house but none from the husband’s. If one comes in, she starts to fall fits. Tammy does not pose that problem if from the beginning she was drilled. On the contrary, Africarina knows that but she is just plain greedy.
Why does Africarina lam away from the politics of her host country? She and her friends emplaned as lawyers, doctors and teachers but now they work as a CNA, customer service and married to the giant fan living hoity-toity despite their education. When Africarina was fighting for a post, the post meant nothing to a rat or a cockroach. Africarina only wants to look like Tammy in vice but not in virtue. Africarina wake up! I say wake up! Stop trying to assert your leadership only in the house with your husband. Now that she is husbandless she looks for any gathering she can thump her Napoleonic grandeur or says she is a businesswoman. The goods are in her.
I went to the stadium looking for Africarina to show her prowess as the young athletic queen we knew. I only saw someone with a popsicle in the stand. She came here like an Ethiopian tadpole but now she looks like a frog and frump because she has upgraded to a MacDonald Super Size. The slim little girl is now a potbelly woman unable to breath and run though my age. Africarina nitpicks that her men are running after Tammy and homemades. Why wouldn’t they? Tammy is in the Gym to keep her shape while Africarina is in the factory, frazzling her body with overtime. I went to the factory on Valentine’s Day and I met only Africarina filling in, making the same money like Tammy. Vacation is a new word to her. She is overworking herself to sleep and snore when the husband is a man. Who wants a dead horse for pervastistry? Africarina, money is not also all of life. Life is worth more than just that money. I am not saying she should be a model but treat those palms to be soft. They may wound it bad. You could be big but stay in shape Africarina. Where are the little tadpoles that came form Africa?
Tammy moved to Africa and adapted to her environment (ask Ghana) but Africarina, lives and will die a stranger. If you ran from political persecution and your presidents always rule for life, then you may die abroad. Hahahahaha. Take for instance, in Cameroon, Biya says he still has 20 years. If you are 40, you may only go back when you are 60. What are you going to do in Cameroon at 60? You will die after two years anyway. Hahahahaha. Africarina wake up! This is your home.
Africarina used to be very spiritual. Now she does not even go to church. Her friends, who preach, do not even know the basics of homiletics. What is the difference between Joyce Myers and you Africarina? Synagogues in Israel were places of worship Jews erected to replace the abandoned temple in Jerusalem during their captivity. No people can separate themselves from their belief system even on the run or in bondage because in it, they live and have their being. Africarina, take your place. Come back home to that place where everyone said Africarina my Africarina.
Until then, be yourself if you want the African Man.

Prince and PA Hamilton Ayuk

Dieing to Self

Dieing to self
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ," (Philippians 3:8”
What is dieing to self? Paul explains it as losing everything that will hinder you from winning Christ. Mortifying your members that make you sin.
1) You write a mail but no one replies. Yet you do not get mad. That is dieing to self.
2) You write an article and someone ridicules it and you do not curse them. That is dieing to self.
3) You are standing on a line and someone cuts in front of you but you do not curse them. That is dieing to self.
4) As a pastor, you are able to confess your fault to your congregation. That is dieing to self.
5) You are driving and someone cuts in front of you crazily and you do not fight back. That is dieing to self.
6) You sing a song you thought was very good and no one praises you. Yet you do not lose your cool. That is dieing to self.
7) Your wife rebukes you for a fault and you accept responsibility without resistance. That is dieing to self.
8) Your husband mistakenly uses a misplaced language on you before the kids and you do not fight back. That is dieing to self.
9) You perform to the best of your ability and your boss still says “not good enough”. Yet you do not hate him in your heart. That is dieing to self.
10) You do good and people pay you back with evil but you do not fret. That is dieing to self.
11) Someone makes a side comment about your weight and you do not explode. That is dieing to self.
12) You cook a nice meal yet your kids/ husband/wife thinks it’s not good enough and you do not think of dieing. That is dieing to self.
13) People say negative things about your color (race) and you do not fight back. That is dieing to self.
14) You see your partner talking with the opposite sex and you do not want to hang. That is dieing to self.
15) You know you are more qualified for a post yet another person is appointed over you and you still submit. That is dieing to self.

That is because the dead do not feel or hear what is done or said against them. For the sake of wining Christ, we let go certain things that in our natural self would not let go. We let certain people who would not have been able to say certain things say them to us. For the sake of Christ, we answer yes sir even to people we know are not good enough. Yeah, for the sake of Christ when even the weakest link slaps us we turn the other cheek for them to slap a second. For the sake of Christ when your boss forces you to go a mile you go two.

Until then, let us dies to self.

Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

Mr Rufus

Mister Rufus alias Chief

Adjacently third from Pharmacie Du Rail towards Hotel Arista in Koulouloun; Douala, Cameroon, sat a small ramshackle house owned by a Nigerian called Rufus; a man in his 50s who perched always in front of his house. He has lived in Cameroon long before I was born. He greeted only those who greeted him but despised those who didn’t. Greeting him without his title of Chief would embrace snobbery. Many neighbors did not even know his real name except ironically those he judged with good behavior.
When on holidays, I spent some time with Chief playing draught. People always gathered there to watch us in recreation. He melded himself Maître (Master). He wasn’t the best player but his mouth made him the greatest. We had players like Cadavere (corpse), Jeune Maître (Young Master-myself), Sawasawa (sour), Accident, Kill Man Pay, Dirty Bird and Chief who were regulars. The rest were passersby. When chief was winning a game, he elbow lengthily pulled up his shirt’s left sleeve and showed the spectators to affirm that draught was passing in his veins. He wore mockery as a frontlet. Seeing a loophole where he will eat three or more seeds, he called loud one of his houseboys or wives for a glass of water. That, he was about to eat lots of food and did not want to choke. You smile don’t you?
In the evening, most seniors came to watch us amuse ourselves. Oftentimes, we were ten and the first person to win two games unseated the opponent. During the day, the Etis (learners) had the board. Jeune Maître, though the best was not always there because he was where his mother; a petty trader sold bushmeat pepper soup. If a strong man came and troubled them, they sent for him immediately. He too was a slender university student who won his games with songs of mockery that he composed according to the opponent. Chief didn’t go to work but made more money than anyone coming there did because he had stores all over the place.
His first wife; Mami Lovina (called after their first and only daughter Lovina) went and brought a handmaid called Ngozi to help them. When she turned 16, Chief ascertained her soup it tasted good and he took it wholesale in marriage. Sarah and Hagar drama was re-enacted. She too, went and brought her own biddy called Akudo but when Akudo reached 16 chief tasted hers and married her too. Now, chief had three wives and five houseboys who all went to trade and bring him the money which they handed to him before they entered into the house. Wonders shall never end! What happens to the house of the fowl will happen in the house of the duck. Don’t forget that the evil that women do live after them. When you sleep with another woman’s husband, another lady will sleep with yours.
When Lovina turned 16, Chief Ndubisie; a 45-year-old man too discovered her innocent soup. It almost stuck in his throat because chief was rich and wanted to serve him justice. Chief Ndubisie was a rock that the sea manhandled but could not carry away. He fended chief’s micrurgy and fulfilled the adage “the evil that men do live with and after them”. Nature did not end there. Chief’s business went bankrupt. The second wife accused the first and he divorced her. The third indicted the second and he divorced the second. Akudo had no one to blame and she absconded.
There is a rule that nature scrupulously fulfils and upholds: do unto others what you want them do unto you”. If you cheat someone you will be cheated too one day. If you play a girl, another girl will play you too or someone will play your daughter. If you ignore someone, you will be ignored too. Whatever evil you do, will be repaid one way or the other; directly or indirectly; if not on earth at least in heaven. In short, whatever you sow you shall reap! Jesus reminds us to “do unto others what we want them do unto us” (Mt 5:12) How do you like that? Until then, keep playing people!

PA Hamilton

MARIE

Marie
Marie was a young girl who used to sing in a church. She was the type that the phrase “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” corresponded without a second guess. She had such beauty that made men scramble to give her a lift if she needed one. There are men that will want to give her one of their eyes if she had just a speck. If it was raining, they gave her the umbrella while they walked in her company under the rain. She was popular in church, not for her singing but for her beauty.
As such, young men saw visions and old men dreamt dreams of wedding her. They lined up after each church service with each of them struggling to have an opportunity to place their application. As many as placed them, she did all to reject; some immediate and others later. It became a challenge to most young men to try and see who will finally be this lucky winner. Love poems were written and love stories told with the intention of winning Marie. Yet all ended in her waste basket.
She was beautiful and she knew it. She played with the hearts of men like Hera toyed with Hercules. She could lift you up and drop you down. She was not a church leader but could craft decisions because even those in authority appeased their lust with her company. The more popularity she gained, the many more men she rejected.
As life walks with time, all these young people were tired running a race they knew they will never win. As losers, they had to be contented with “shadows”. They got married to some of the waiting sisters. They now live their wives as happy as never before with none regretting they ever missed Marie.
Marie was perplexed she could no more have advances. Though singing of love she lacked love and did not know how to tampon loneliness. She sang and danced of delectation but she was burning with misery and anxiety. Before the church could know it, Marie had left the church and eloped with a non-Christian who did all to thump her fearfully and wonderfully made image to a sample of surgery-gone-bad. Tired of all the abuse, she ran back into the church. In church, she gradually regained her beauty but now has to face the visitation of Men-o- Pause. Marie, though single and ready to mingle still is single and looking but no advances. Her beauty is fading with entropy beckoning her body, as would every human. The future is bleak with occasional flashes of donors and players. She is now desperately knocking on wrong doors and gate crashing wrong places. All, to no avail! Marie, has lost many opportunities in search of Mr. Passpartout who lives in heaven.
As for those who are in the single market, if you are single and desiring to mingle, be vigilant how you reject your pretenders. At a given time, they will be scarce because all the ones God sent to you were not good enough. Not good enough because you made them, not good enough. At a given time only the people, you do not want run after you and those you want runaway from you. You know you are beautiful but you can’t seem to lay a hand on a husband. You know you are handsome (even the lady’s man) but you are lonely like the clock’s second hand. It moves alone and when it stops around the minute or hour hand, you know there is trouble. It never seems to have anyone to walk with. Let’s know that our bodies change and time waits for no one. Let’s learn from Marie and be wise not to look for Mr. Passpartout or Miss Passpartoute who do not even exist. If not we will be reenacting “Waiting For Godot”. The market is crowded and the goods are scarce people. If by chance you see one that you could buy and adapt, gladly take it. The righteous shall live by faith and God honors and helps those who want him to help them. There is no perfect man or woman out there for you. Human beings are like aubergines. Some are maggotsless but others are maggotsful.

Until then, just select the magotless and present it to God who with time will make it maggot free.

Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

Husband and Wife snatchers

Husband and Wife Snatcher.
We have heard many stories of women who have lost their husbands to other women or men whose wives ran for other men. Some lost theirs to death, others to some unforeseen circumstance and some, to other women or men. The latter group behooves me more. Therefore, a husband or wife snatcher is the woman or man who takes the spouse of another woman or man. What other people call Husband or Wife Snatcher. It would seem it is not a new idea.
We have seen this same phenomenon with Harpalyce: the hunting princess, follower of Artemis in Greek Mythology. She hunted anything that moves until her people became wary of her, caught her and beat her to death. Her name even tells it all when the first two syllables of her name mean snatcher and the last part means wolf. Women and men who snatch the spouses of others are wolves. They are a wolf to the society, a wolf to spouses and a wolf to themselves. Unfortunately, despite some of the poetic justice they go through, the practice is still very rampant. Some have been shot dead point blank, others given a drink they never woke up and some embraced with clinical lunacy. Homes have been shattered, friendships kaput, jobs lost, relationships wrecked and lives defunct because of snatchers.
There are many reasons why married people lose their spouses. The Bible says “a virtuous woman doeth good to her husband all the days of her life (Prov 31:12). There are two ways in which a woman could do good to her husband. The first is food and the second is sex. The Bible makes us understand that people work all the days of their life simply because they want to have food on the table (Eccl 2:24; 3:22 ). If there is no food on the table, your spouse will never be satisfied to stay. No human can downplay the importance of sex in marriage. Therefore, when a spouse becomes a frump is a tacit invitation to snatchers. If they treat sex as a reward to good behavior is a repellent to “foreign shops”. When sex becomes a weapon to subjection or control then a wolf was just given dinner. The spouse starts to flirt with a coworker, neighbor, best friend, church member, who angelically treats them with gratuitous sex and meals of a first class chef.
When other women or “best friends” tell you your husband is sleeping around, is not out of love but ingeniously to knock you out of your home so that either you will become like them or give room to them. Most women who tell wives of men that their husbands are sleeping around, themselves are single and looking. What do you think they are looking out there? They are gazing at wandering and stray spouses! Then they pick them up as a wolf does with a stray sheep. Before you know it, your best friend is in and you are out.
Don’t blame the society or your spouse for a snatched spouse. If a shepherd takes good care of his cattle, no wolf will snatch one. Husbands are like sheep: they easily stray off the herd because they always see the grass greener where danger looms but your good treatment will retain them. Remember, men are influenced more by sight unlike women who are influenced by touch. A man just needs to see a good skirt to go berserk while the woman needs some sweet talk and tender touch to appeal to her emotions.
My friends, the single market is saturated and especially good men are scarce to a fault. The list of single women is too long. If a girl rejects your application, drop it next door. It is like seeking for employment. You keep applying until a company employs you. If you have the goods, you should at least find a buyer. However, cut your coat according to your size. Just leave the one that is married.
Until then, do unto others what you want done unto you.

Prince and PA Hamilton Ayuk

What is Nudity? This article may be offensive to some and so needs parental supervision

Zulu virgins during their Annual Reed Dance. This ceremony is watched internationally. If these girls are nude then those presidents are nude too since all are exposing their breasts.

President Sarkozy of France (left) . President Putin of Russia (right)

South Africans during the Annual Reed Dance

Toplessness not Nudity The topic of nudity is very sensitive that even amoral people have a say. Many missionaries, teachers and tourists have visited Africa and in most videos and books the climax is usually the topless virgins. As novices to the African culture they return to their various homes with the conclusion that Africans walk naked and so need clothes to wear. True, you have some places that walked naked and to them it was not a sin. Those cannot be defended. My preoccupation is to show that toplessness is not part of nudity. Nudity starts and ends with genitals. As you read this paper stay with an open mind. Africans should feel comfy to keep dancing bare breasted as they used to without fear of sin. Does a farm, bush or forest become a super market because it was cleared? Does beer become oil because it was put in a bottle? If the bush is cleared, virgin, desolate, barren or fertile it is a bush. If the bush is exposed no matter its state it is nude. The bush may be wrinkled and crinkled or smooth and sauve, it does not matter. Once there is no covering on the genitals, it is nudity. Nudity is lacking a covering on the genitals. When the African did not know that exposing the woman’s breast was a “sin” no one condemned those who walked bare breasted. That again correlates with the Bible as explained in Rom. 7:7-8. Some people contend that bare breast will make us lust and lust just on its own is sinful. The question is why is it that food which makes us sin when we eat too much we have not stopped eating. We control our appetites and those who do not, use their mouths to kill themselves with overweight. In addition, bare breasted is not tantamount to lust because if two bare breasted women were standing in front of us and one due to too much mileage has her breasts sleeping on her chest while the other one with less mileage has her oranges, people will look and lust more after the less mileage. More so lust is just ingrained in the human heart. It was not established that women who were wooed or lured into fornication or adultery were all bare breasted at the time the sin was taking place. Whether a woman is covered from her head to her feet people will still lust after her. Some men just need to now this is a woman and their lust engine goes into motion. After researching the Bible, the breasts of a woman have not been shown as part of nudity that God set an injunction against. When Adam and Eve sinned and realized they were naked, they lacked only dross. When they realized they were naked the Bible says they made themselves /aprons/ (Gen 3:7) in Hebrew chăgôrâh which has the English equivalence of a belt for the waist. The word is used only twice and in the second place where it is used: Acts 19:12 it simply means narrow covering. It would befit my explanation considering that when compared with the aprons chefs use it would be misinterpretation since Paul would not have had that type because they did not exist by then. The Bible says God sewed animal skin for them to cover their nakedness (Gen 3:21). God had made coats of skins to clothe Adam and Eve not to cover their nakedness only but for their own protection to protect them from air borne and skin diseases that could easily ensnare them if they were topless. During the Roman Empire, the buckles, belt plates and aprons were metalic. Around the 1800s, aprons were used by women to protect their skirts during working hours. Skirts were not worn on the chest level. If Aprons were meant to cover only the waist then nakedness did not involve the chest. That will again support the fact that the aprons Adam and Eve made did not reach the chest level. If nakedness comprises breasts then since God made both Adam and Even with breasts, the chest of a man is part of nakedness. That too would not be true because the Old Testament priest was cautioned not to climb right high less he shows his nakedness (Ex 20:26). Remember he was wearing his garment. Yet they said he should not climb up the stairs not to show his nakedness. It is not metonymical since the same expression is repeated in most passages in Leviticus. That entails only the genitals was nakedness since the priest was covered till the ankle. Another case was that of Noah. In Genesis 9, Noah was lacking underwear. And even our drawings and pictures have always shown Noah lacking only underwear. That is what the Bible called nakedness: exposing the peacemakers. Culturally, most societies using the nakedness of the woman as a curse have never used the breast. The old women in Africa washed their genitals to curse or threaten to curse culture and customs defaulters. A virgin was never included in the process because she was still considered pure. If eternity is in the heart of all men as the Bible says, it means that, God would have made the entire humanity aware that bare breasted was a sin even before the arrival of the white man. The Bible again says that those who did not have the word of God before they died their consciences would be used as the canon to judge them (Rom 2:12-15). By implication, the innate fear of God is put in the hearts of all humans because truth is not relative. That means if God put bare breast as nudity in the hearts of the westerners then He would have put the same thing in the hearts of the Orientals. Remember it was not because the Westerner was more civilized than the African since civilization began in Africa (Egypt) and not in Europe or America. The Africans who did not cover their genitals was not because they did not know it was sinful, it was because they did not have the constant covering. Most of them sewed their clothes from leaves and ropes. One has to remember when clothes were invented. Therefore, bare breast is a sin to be invented, defined and introduced by the Westerner into the African culture. Africans should feel comfortable to keep dancing as they used to without fear of sin. The inclusion of the female breast as part of nudity is because of the male chauvinistic influence on language. The man has always tried to make a woman subservient to him and by defining her breasts as nudity it regulates the dress code of the woman to his proclivity. Why have we never cried foul when topless male models appear on Fear Factor and other TV programs? Did America not cry foul when Janet Jackson’s nipples suffered a wardrobe malfunction? Male chauvinism. When Hilary Clinton had her First Degree people said she had a bachelor. Why is a woman having a bachelor Degree instead of a Spinster Degree? Language has been structured to favor men and so does dressing too. However, there is a fear the excesses of the dance could lead to nudity because people could be tempted to emulate their morally bankrupt counterparts as screened in western pornographic movies. The Africans should only watch against its immoderations. Therefore, the Zulus should continue their Annual Reed Dance for virgins without fear they are inviting the wrath of God. It has never been a sin; it is not a sin and will not be a sin if we stay only on the toplessness. That which was sinful has been established and put in our hearts time immemorial and anything introduced yesterday or today would only be a continuation of the “White Man’s Burden”. Woe are Africans if they should encumber that religious or vestal lumber the second time. Prince and PA Hamilton Ayuk

Family Life

FAMILY LIFE
Each of us has an important thing in their heart that matters most. We stay close to it and feel threaten when in jeopardy. So what matters to you most? Can anyone tell me why we go to Dr Phil, court shows, and other public places to solve family matters? Can anyone tell me why the therapist hears our marital problems before even our family members? Can anyone tell me when was the last time they had a family meeting to solve a marital problem? Can anyone tell me why some of us don’t know our first cousins yet we know people over the internet? The families are dysfunctional so how can we hold a meeting you ask. Nowadays Family Life seems a reclusive turncoat to many.
The family was the first institution God established (Gen 1:28) because through it, the world and his plans come into being. Unfortunately, it would appear it is now the last institution man takes into cognizance. Marrying and raising kids should have been paramount to humanity. Regrettably, in the name of freedom, we have zingy people rescinding themselves to “I don’t want kids” and “I am on my second” some even “seventh marriage” with bigamy, digamy and polygamy mulcting the current age from monogamy (God’s prescription). Those who say “I do” ligate themselves to a bumble path that will never give them one. They seem to be “enjoying” their freedom from the traditional family. We are now imbued in perverted music, rightist media, censorship and anything Christian is currently relegated to the backbench, thereby placing the most important thing; Family Life into quietus. At first, we thought of health for all in the year 2000 but today we are certain, we were Jacobizing ourselves whereby it turned out to be a wish dream. Drugs meant to cure, are now drugs to get high even among eighth graders and their parents. Haunted by the past, these drugs seem our only means of escape. Adding to escape, there is sexual freedom. Fornication, adultery, divorce etc are now the spice and salt of Family Life. Even when we marry, marriage quickly becomes insipid a few years later with debilitating effects. Christians, when Family life is tattering, vespers must increase!
While Europe and the US are enjoying up to upgrading their status from skinny to overweight others are taking courses in Famine and Poverty. Thinking of a therapy, we hope abortion will do or euthanasia by eliminating those in between life and death so that the robust can enjoy their wassails. Thitherward, the commandments (Mt 2:37-40) of God are breached at all points. Low standards of education and falling moral standards in schools are a classic example. Youngsters are given the tutelage of their decisions and custody has been shifted and still shifting from parents and tutors to friends, Hollywood and Sports’ miserable models, jails, and children services. Now our hopes for the future are very slim. With Family Life stuttering, we are escheating the future from the youths.
Any society whereby Family Life; the heartbeat of the society has degraded into tousled morals and estranged for the sake of freedom, is a train bound to the Dead Sea floor. Our hopes would be powdered into the seabed. Life looks more miserable than ever before with people walking on a mysterious highway bypassing the very Life they are seeking hard in parks, bars, clubs, arenas and keyboards. Look at you on that keyboard. Yes you! What are you looking for? Family Life. You smile don’t you? Hahahahaha. Yet does Family Life matter most to you? If it does, then OBEY GOD.
The Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1-17) are extracted out of public squares because they are obsolete and even some Christians (may be you too) quote from the Bible “we do no more live under the Law”. First, don’t get carried away because it would seem the Ten Commandments were given during Moses time. These same commandments were already given in what we call the creation ordinances to Adam. The difference between the Ten Commandments which we generally call Moral law and Mosaic Law (religious, ceremonial and civil) is that, the moral law was given to Moses as a microcosm of Man. Meanwhile, the Mosaic Law was given to Moses as a microcosm of Israel. Therefore, the Mosaic Law bound a given people and culture. It loses its strength when transcending foreign cultures. In case of assimilation, it becomes ethnocentric, that could lead to acculturation of the adopter. For that reason, proper hermeneutics beckons a thorough exegesis for the Bible to be applied dynamically equivalent. For example, an American woman who delivers a male child does no more become unclean because it was given to Jewish women alone (Lev. 12:2) and not all women on earth whereas the injunction not to kill is for both Americans and Jews. More so, Moral Law is not relative whereas Mosaic Law is. In addition, considering that moral law is part of God, it does not abrogate (Mt 5:17-19) meanwhile Mosaic Law does because each individual must enter into covenant with God (Mt 22:32). Thus taking them out, Family Life becomes a highway with no parapets. In highways with no breastworks, we see head on collisions (assaults), flips over (deaths and divorce), derailing (cheatings), lost control (estrangement and separations) and traffic violations (abuses). Family Life may have a police report, some with and others without insurance but it needs better laws to guide its highway because the motorists are twinging. Gross modo, Family Life needs a rescue operation from this putrescence. You and I should be part of the team.
Hence, does Family Life matter most to you? Anyway, your heart is where your treasure lies. May each of us hold Family Life in high esteem as the thing that matters most to God and us, for in them we shall find Life for this chaotic world. You know a peaceful family will raise up peaceful kids. Peaceful kids will become peaceful parents. Peaceful parents will built a peaceful community. A peaceful community will build a peaceful world. You smile don’t you? You see, Family Life is the society’s heartbeat to live in peace and find fulfillment in life. You still want to read, don’t you? Sorry your fee ends here!

Until then; don’t neglect your family.

Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

Familyquake

Familyquake

The eerie of our society sliding into the abyss grips every conscientious heart. Family orienteers are now but certain that many families will never make a touch down because role models have been torpedoed with movies and sports stars, people are becoming spiritually bone-dry, sociologically discriminating, theologically ungodly with etiquettes cluttered up from analogical to digital 21st century media and children far from a “pierian Spring”. Thus, unveiling the urgency for this keen perusal as a wake up call. This screed is not only a reminder and looking glass to heterosexual couples, divorcees, never marrieds, clergy and children who want to refresh their minds with matrimonial essentials but also a warhorse to the present $64 question (is marriage worth a thing) that humanity faces.
The euphoria and delusion of enjoying life without a family has flunked many people and germinated many behaviors totally caviled at the raison d’etre of life. The urgent priority of having a family whole , whereby a man and a woman get married and abided till natural death parts them, children grow and graduate from parental custody with whole families, divorce is a forgone story and the fear to get married is eradicated could be tapped by weeding these few lines with rational eyes.
Though the problems are many, the answers too are available for the listening hearts. The main concern today is what has happened with marriage and where is it going? From Australia to America, Africa to Europe, men and especially women are deleting each other and over taxing for child support and alimony. Those who venture to other countries through mail bride end up with the same fate of eviction in your very home even built before she arrived. Marriage is now a luxury for those who can afford it. The degradation of the family is at all levels. The parents sow, the children water and the society reaps. In the place of stable and lasting marriages, we have contractual, misandrist and live-in relationships. My friends, families are quaking and the psychological seismographs need overhauling if not now, in the nearest future. Among every ten couples who marry, eight will divorce. You nod don’t you? Why this quake?
Parents are all involved in the pursuit of money that they lack even Lilliputian time to build their relationships. Some have two; three jobs that though married, they barely see their partners. After all, the society says infidelity is extra marital affairs and so managing with a coworker and cuckolding the partner is not too bad.
The kids have been left to raise themselves. They lack the role models and now turn to the media with appetitive gullibility soaking in the vanities of Hollywood and sports stadiums. In addition, they have peer pressure and family adjustment due to failed parental responsibility. They then inherit poor conflict management from parents. For those thrown into foster cares or the children services could be summed up to; jumping from the frying pan into the fire. The children who end up with one of the parents, surrender when the difficulty of adapting to the stepfamily circles quickly englobes them. It would seem a mine is in an oil well. Here they have to see different women and men coming into the house, internet and videogames replacing parental tutelage. In school, violence, crime, prostitution, drugs fake grades and promotion all beckon with both arms. The helpless child has no one to turn to. Marriages are quaking and the family can no longer survive. The mother that ignores the child's cry will never have a peaceful sleep.
The society says good is evil and evil is good replacing spirituality with vain secularist humanism. Those who turn to religion are lured to the tertiary sermons of millions that enrich the churches and mosques. On the other hand, we hear empty words with no morals, simony and cultism invading the minds of the virgins.
Finally, the marriage crumbles like a sand castle and the courts register another statistics. Those who wanted to avoid the financial cost of divorce find themselves trading the very stocks. Then, the name single mom and single dad pitch up into a sorrowful pity party singsong. Looking at the attorney fees, child support, alimony, child visitation procedures, joint custody, debt after divorce and a lot more, one has to wonder whether divorce was even a better solution. Sometimes running away from the rain may land you into a pool of water. Divorce is not the solution to an unhappy marriage but patience, perseverance, self-control and love are. Messed up parents have raised up messed up kids and the messed up kids are giving back messed up grandkids to the grandparents. The society is in topsy-turvy. This is called Familyquake. Ah ha!
Except we return to the value of the family, no society will experience the bliss of olden days of marriage. Make no mistake, plastic surgery may repair a damaged face but a plastic smile will not do for a miserable life. No matter how we laugh and smile as a family, no amount of comedy, “fun”, luxury and leisure will soothe our broken spirits within. In the middle of the night, in solitude, we are quaking of loneliness and vanity. Only those who live by the river can hear the crab coughing. Yes, real bad! You smile don’t you? We must come back to the values of the family if we want the world to be a better place. When we marry, we must and should stay married. That is what God commanded. This breaking and retying is a recipe for disaster for the coming generation because no society will neglect family values and still stay happy. If you want to stay happy then don’t despise family values. Do you still want to read? Your gate fee ends here Sorry!!!

Until then, enjoy your family.

Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

Should I be cremated

Should I be cremated?
Cremation is a topic with fewer scholastic writs. When someone dies, from nowhere people start to scramble for the corpse to show their love. Where were they before the defunct died? Believers in each religion were and are divided on how to discard their dead. If many people were well informed about it they will surely pursue that road. Unfortunately, some have been falsely informed that, cremation is not God’s perfect will because he buried Moses and that in the Old Testament, only thieves and murderers were cremated. Others contend that being buried is a Christian practice that will anticipate your resurrection and tells the world the Christian is awaiting resurrection.
If you love your family and don’t want them going front and back the courts then write your will while you live. The living will not take verbal declarations to heart. They will try to put asunder what God has joined together. As you know; profit making and not brotherliness is the heartbeat of the current society. People will make a deal out of nothing if they have monetary interest at stake. Those involved with zombies will want you to leave your body so they could come back and repossess it. Remember that we will be controlled by two extremes; the far right and the far left because it is a new philosophy. Though the moderate have to bear the brunt of their extremism. One should be open to both camps if they want to be wise and be foolish too. Both have a bit of foolishness and a bit of wisdom. We need both in life.
In the absence of a written will, we have to rely on the utmost good faith of the living partner to execute the wish of the defunct. Marriage being a family affair and not a reclusive turncoat, you will have to share your will with family members to avoid any foul play in case your will did not match that of your living partner. A good decision can only be made with a sound mind. So don’t postpone writing your will. The decisions we make as we live will influence our entire life. If you don’t make wise decisions, the living will make them for you when you die. David says, “teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Ps 90:12). It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart (Eccl 7:2).
If one of the partners dies without living a will, the living partner has the right under biblical considerations to do with the body as he or she pleases because “therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh(Gen 2:24). When a woman leaves her parents, she gets married to her husband and not her parents, the state or church. That means, in the absence of a written will, the husband decides how to keep the body of the wife and no one else. The church intervening in such matters, is destroying the very fabric of the institution of marriage whereby “The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife” (I Cor 7:4).
Finally, when the light is out, the beacon of the dead stalls and shines according to their works. Consequently, the bitter memories will live for sometime between the family of the dead and that of the living partner. Such calamites sometimes put the country one more time in the lime light, raising serious questions about the laws of the land.
Cremation not being a popular concept may pose problems if the dead did not leave behind a living and written will. People might think the living has something to hide forgetting that there will always be an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Cremation is cheaper than obtaining a casket and looking for a burial spot. Perhaps it’s still even cheaper when a burial spot is bought.
Burial of the dead was a Jewish tradition that finally transposed itself into most Christian milieus. That does not make it a biblically prescriptive method of discarding the dead. Disposing dead bodies by burial is by mere deduction from the fact that God buried Moses, most dead people in the Bible were buried and it was the only means that the Bible uses in the New Testament. However, there is nowhere in the Bible where God stipulates to dispose of dead bodies by burial. Jewish laws fall under the ceremonial laws and they end only with Jewish people. God has not given a way or method for us to do away with dead bodies. If discarding of dead bodies was so important, then God would have thought about the people killed in wars with the philistines. Most of them were just left in the valleys. That is why most wars were fought on hills tops and valleys so that the dead are pushed down into the valley for sanitation reasons where they get rotten. It is on that base that we have that vision in Ezekiel 37 of Dry Bones that become an army.
In addition, the Bible does not mention how to discard the dead bodies though by inference of the way Lazarus (Jn 11) and Jesus (Mt. 27:60) were discarded would tilt towards burial. This again must appeal to the culture and epoch in which they died. If the body was so important then Jesus would not have changed his body while ascending into heaven. So why preserve that which will not be used? That is expenditure without income.
I believe in making theological statements after profound and laborious research of traditions, myths, common sense and Bible. There is no book and no author in his conscience who will say “the Bible says don't cremate”. All the arguments have been by deductions, and, deductions though could be useful, cannot be the canon for doctrine.
Some people contend that only thieves and murderers were burned in the Bible. I am conscious people being burned in the Bible but they were not thieves and murderers. I know that people were killed with the sword after the Golden Calf Incident (Ex 32:28) and that the ground opened after the Korah Rebellion (Num. 26:10) but not thieves and murderers. The common punishment was lapidation. When Israelites used their children as burnt offerings to foreign gods, God rebuked them that the idea of burning people on fire as a sacrifice had never even crossed his mind (Jer. 7:31). Don’t forget that these were living beings. Cremation does not deal with living beings. It burns the body of the dead. More so, it still does not peter out cremation which in no way is a sacrifice to a god but discarding a dead body. I am also conscious that only the bodies of wicked people were left into the open for the birds of the sky or dogs to lick their blood (Gen 40:19; I Kings 22:38) but cremation is not living the dead in the street. One may evoke the sad incident of Ray Brown Marsh’s case in Atlanta as an isolation and exception. What about grave diggers or those corpses stolen from the graves?
Some people say Moses was buried and not cremated. The idea of Moses being buried is from Deut 34: 6. Jude tells us that Michael the archangel disputed Satan for the body of Moses (Jude1:9). However, it does not say whether it was for burial or cremation. God does not have respect for dead bodies. That is why, He decided to bury Moses where the people will not see so that they do not go and start worshiping a dead man. The presence of graves is increasing idolatry because each year people go and put flowers on the graves of their extincts and talk to them or the grave. All unconscious acts of necromancy and ventriloquism greatly prohibited by God (Deut 18:10-14). Though it’s not a guarantee if someone is cremated, I think it even averts or reduces the evil practice of idolatry.
Despite most religions and especially Christianity having adopted burial as a form of discarding the dead, it is not a normative biblical doctrine either. “From dust you are made and unto dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19) could be a good excuse for anyone to cremate their dead. Cremation takes you faster to the state of dust than burial which will have pass through rot first before you become dust.
If you propound the theory that we need an “intact” body as a sign of faith for resurrection, you mean that those brethren who drowned in the sea and we never saw their bodies will never resurrect. It will be faithless for anyone to think that if they are cremated they will not resurrect on the last day. There are people who just disappeared those who drowned and those burned in fire that we never saw their bodies. They will all reappear during Judgment Day, “and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:12-15). Else, we surmise that the early missionaries who were torn apart by wild beasts will never resurrect or people like Polycarp who were burned on the stake by the emperors or those of the catacombs who were dinned to hungry lions wasted their time believing in Jesus. Believing in Christ gives us the power to resurrect “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (Jn 11:25). During resurrection, the saints will change in a twinkle of an eye, at the trump of God from mortal to immortal and corruptible to incorruptible bodies (I Cor 1Cor 15:35-58; 1Thes 4:16). If someone has accepted Christ, it does not matter what people do with their body after they die. The immaterial man has gone to God and a mere carcass remains on earth to be disposed as man wishes.
Now that you are alive it behooves me to tell you what I will say when you are dead Courage my friend, you did not stumble though your path has been dark. The Holy Spirit guided you in a dreary course. The end to your life of afflictions and joy has come. You fought a good or bad fight (for you alone know). Human government and human law were imperfect .Don’t worry. You go to a place with perfection or condemnation. Stay well or bad. We will use this same vehicle that has carried you today. Both your haters and lovers, we are on our way. Yes, you reading this mail may be next.
Until then, unto dust you came and unto dust you will return!

Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

African Marriages Hit By Cultural Rocks.

African Marriages Hit By Cultural Rocks.
Culture is the identity that differentiates one person from another. There is no culture that is superior to the other. Yet culture has a great influence in the lives of individuals and people that their actions are greatly influenced by them. Assimilating into a culture could either be a blessing or a curse. African couples in the US are experiencing a high rate of divorce.
The African society like most oriental and Latin American societies is a patriarchal society after the advent of colonization. Before colonization and slavery the wife and husband operated as partners. The wife was in charge of childbearing, hoeing, planting and harvesting while the husband was in charged of clearing the virgin forest, fetching and splitting wood, hunting for game and fishing for fish crabs and other sea food. The husband was always responsible for training children. Romantically, it was only the man who asked for the hand of the woman.
It is expedient to know that African marriages were more stabled than any other group in the world until the 1990s. Studies have shown that Africans who are married to western women are more successful than their counterparts who are married to Africans. I will explain a couple of reasons. A successful marriage means a happy marriage. I do not mean one without problems for there is no marriage without problems. I am not in anyway saying that all marriages between western women and African men do succeed. Generally the US has had the highest number of divorces than any other country in the world. Europe that was and is considered liberal is even better in terms of stable marriages than the US. Surprisingly the African women are copying the American culture and no wonder their marriages are falling apart.
In the west most women won the war of feminism but lost that of a successful home. Here is the deal; the woman expresses equal or more rights than the men. So they talk back and forth to their husbands. Now African women always remind their husbands that they are in America. He knows that but he did not expect that to come from you! That is why the marriage fails. The African man was not use to having that from his wife who has just found her new freedom. So the marriage goes kaput. When he marries a western woman he was expecting it and it comes as no surprise. He has prepared himself to deal with it. That is why the marriage succeeds. Generally a soft answer will turn away wrath but grievous words stir anger.
Since most African men grew up under this culture they seem to witness a reversal of roles. Instead of the men dominating (which is still not good) the women do. The women will dictate on everything even on how the money is used at home despite each of them bringing in money. They will want the man to sponsor all their relatives except his. Putting down the thoughts and suggestions of their men has driven them out. When the African man and western woman come together, conscious of their backgrounds they are willing to listen to each other. Therefore, paying each other the attention they need.
One of the things that destroy American marriages is bad inference. Most women grew up hearing about strip clubs and cheating. If the husband is constantly out they interpret it as having an affair. Africans know that you can hang out just drinking, telling stories and playing games with friends with no secondary thoughts. Now their women have quickly copied that culture of suspicions. Love does not grow in suspicion. I have known that even in leadership. You want to have good subordinates show them you trust them. They will feel bad at the slightest idea of betraying your trust. Our mothers knew that our fathers were either playing draft or just down there talking. Surprisingly nowadays the western women tend to understand that in the African man. Those that are married to western women receive fewer calls when they go out to those with African women. Calling intermittently makes the man to feel you trust him. But no one would be faithful where they do not expect them to be?
In the west it is the standard for people not to express openly their hurts. They store it like Mary Winkler and only explode one day by shooting the man on the back while he is asleep. As Africans we were taught to speak out even though our politicians do not enjoy free speech. Nowadays it is the same thing. Most African women do not express their hurts. They become embittered and then just serve you one day.
Let me state that the African woman divorcing stands at a disadvantage for many reasons. She may not find another husband, boyfriend or Friend with Benefit (FWB) because our women do not ask men out meanwhile the western woman can do that. The western women were taught in freedom while we keep a practice that is unbiblical and subject the women to servitude. Except she is beautiful it may be her last real man interspersed with some occasional donors. Until African women learn how to ask a man out too, love will be by passing them by daily and easily.
Therefore, to my African sisters, you see; the western woman does not want to be like you, you must quit from trying to be like her. See, every woman is beautiful and important the way they make themselves. Be yourself and you should make a successful home. There are both good and bad things in every culture. Take the good things from the west and add to the good ones from your dominant culture and blend your marriage. Except we do that the rate of marital failures will outgrow that of our western counterparts.

Until then, I wish you all a successful marriage.

Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

Vote for Either Dogs or Humans

Vote for either Dogs or Humans.

The Atlanta Falcons quarterback is being indicted for dog-fighting business. Most blacks cry racism and think that it is a ploy by the white supremacists to prevent a black quarterback from becoming a Superbowl winner. Apparently this saga rages within racial divides. “References to lynching, the n-word and OJ do suggest something besides love of animals”. Surely many don’t know Doug Williams won the Super Bowl with Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Still, this case should not be regarded on racial divides rather a case of misplaced priorities. It shows that most Americans prefer animals to humans.
“Between 1979 and 1996, there were 60 fatal attacks across the country by pit bulls on humans. The second-worst record was for rottweilers, with 29 fatal attacks, followed by German shepherds with 19”. A 7-year-old Minneapolis boy Zachary King was mauled to death from the throat by a pit-bull which had previously bitten other people. In May 2007, a dog shot its 21 year owner on the back. Four pit pulls escaped their owner's yard and mauled a child after chasing him across four lanes of traffic. On June 29, 2007 a pit bull attacked and killed a 62-year-old Dallas woman who was visiting a relative in Deltona. Yet the numbers of placards seeking their banishment were relatively smaller than those seeking for Vick’s banishment.
When a cat gets stuck on pole or a horse in a pool of mud the entire city and even federal authorities are mobilized to safe the animal. People put braces on the teeth of their dogs. There are dogs with health insurance while some seniors lack prescription coverage in great America. Some prefer that a dog be treated to children having health care. After all, dogs are the best friends of humans. If you don’t have humans for friends and dogs are your best friends then you have missed the point of living with people. Gather your things and move to the forest. Remember in other countries people eat dogs as delicacies.
In China, Nigeria, Mexico, Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, and almost the whole of Far East Asia dog eating is a long lasting tradition where dogs are bred to be eaten. With their populations we can infer that the majority of humans eat dogs. The Japanese were asked by Koreans to stop hunting and eating whales. The Japanese responded that they have not asked them not to eat dogs. Russian civilians ate dog meat with the scarcity of food during Operation Babarosa. Another man’s meat is the other’s poison. How different are dogs from the cows and chickens we slaughter daily? In Marietta GA there is a household that keeps a pig as a pet. Adopt a child and spend that love on.
To this end some people argue that these people are killing for food while Vick is killing for fun. Vick killed for fun and we kill for food. Kri steals for food but Kra steals for fun. If a thief was caught stealing even if it was for food he will be punished seven times (Prov 6:30). Yet the question is how we love our neighbors
The first great commandment is to love God %100 and then love your neighbor as you love yourself. Your neighbor is not a dog; he or she should be a human being. Until we do that; this world will be a place guided by hypocrisy. Those resources should be used in solving some of the unsolved murder cases. Though I acknowledge there should be a consequence for breaking the law but it should be proportionate to the crime. Vick’s case seems the punishment is more than the crime.

Until then, let us get our priorities straight!
Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

Schools Reopened Today

Schools reopened today. Though it was expected to be a tough day it was instead very relaxing. The students came with a lot of joy and expectations. I held my class spellbound for 35 minutes explaining to them the importance of education and character. It was as if we had known each other for long. One by one they thanked me and held my hand or some afraid to stain my white suit just waved their hand to say “thank you and see you tomorrow”. What a joy and divine privilege to be a teacher. If you can read this mail now please thank a teacher.

2008 International Itinerary

Today I have just made my program for 2008. So God willing this is what it will look like. If you have never been to Africa or any of these places and will like to visit just let me know. As for Africa, I will help anyone who wants to do a documentary. Please, just shoot me an email saintarrey@yahoo.com. I want to thank you for stopping by again. Please, send my blog to your friends. Ask me any question you have on religion or Africa Until then, God bless you!
Dec 21-Jan 6, 2008: Germany and Holland (Preaching in churches)
May 31-June 28, 2008: Mexico (Learn Spanish).
July 2-15: Germany and Holland (Preaching in Youth Camp).
July 16-Auguist 4: Cameroon (Preaching, teaching and visiting places).

How to maintain good health and weight.

My Birthday is july 24, and I wanted to share with you why for more than 15 years I have not been to the hospital because I am sick. Once a year I have gone to the hospital for medical checkup. Apart from that; God has shown me the way to stay healthy and strong. If you are struggling to stay healthy and lose weight please try this. I will be off the net for some time but if you have a particular question, please email me with my name as the subject. However, if you don’t like this writing just delete it; I would not even know you deleted it. This practice has helped me and others who have tried it and today they are ambassadors of the good practice. As you see me in that picture I have been weighing the same thing since 1986. I am 5:10 and weigh 175 lbs. This practice is from years of examining the Bible and correlating it with scientific facts.

Philosophy
The bulk of the time we are thirsty and not hungry. So if you are feeling hungry before your meal time drink some water. There are many natural immune boosters that individuals need to take without necessarily coming from a rich background. From eating enough fruits and vegetables daily, we would get the necessary vitamin, acids and calcium needed for a healthy body that can repel diseases. We do not even need these artificial vitamins flooding our markets today. They come with all their side effects that affect you as you run out your years. Enough sleep; eight hours a day would cure diseases and extend your life. Most of our troubles come from stress and since our immune system has been broken down already we easily get sick. The mood now is to drink coke or coffee immediately as we get up from sleep. Coke, coffee and sodas are diuretics (dehydrating substances). 70% of our blood is made of water, and water does not only serve as a refresher, but a cleansing agent and transporter in your blood vessel (http://www.bodytrends.com/articles/weight_loss/water.htm ). Enough fruits and vegetables (http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/3427/1/Importance-Of-Fruits-In-Diet.html ) will take away many diseases, help you lose weight and build your immune system. There is no better way to fight high blood pressure and diabetes than this. Start taking this concoction by the end of the month and after three months let me know how far you have gone.
Avoid the shortcut to drink fruit juice only. Fruit juice may be good but not too good due to its procession and preservation methods. Take the patience to blend those fruits every morning or twice a week.
N.B. A special advice to American men; if you will practice this advice the rate of erectile dysfunction will be curbed down because more than 18 million men are affected (http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200702/1170688081.html?PHPSESSID=ca091c5cb9bb6d1ffe2690bbe829b64d ). Young boys; younger than me are flirting with Viagra, Cialis and Levitra. What for? After 40 the equipment finally goes kaput. This is for both men and women; if you want your equipments to function even after 70 you must build it when you are young with fruits, vegetables, exercise, and sleep and avoid unnecessary stress. If you do not do that there comes a time when even the oral medication will be insufficient for a dysfunctional sexual life. To the Africans; if you do this you don’t need bitter cola and Guinness. Someone will be crawling uninvited just immediately as you desire. Who do you think is crawling? You smile, don’t you?
A word of caution: do not forget that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Some men like big women while others like the ones like tadpoles. Some women like big men while others like the skinny ones like stockfish. But first, beauty is for the individual and if you like the way you weigh and look then don’t mind whatever people say. That means; if you don’t want to lose weight even though you are big, don’t quarrel me; just be happy. The American and western women face more that problem of weight because most western men think that beauty is in size. Before Africans considered curvy or thick and not being skinny as being beautiful. So if a western woman is struggling with weight she should revise her priority of dating only American men. She should adjust and face the reality that there is another group of people that like her size; the Latin Americans and Africans. They should travel to the Bahamas and other places where people who like their size are or visit those communities. Nevertheless, this does not mean that is the appetite for all men.
Anyway, let me remind you how you can stay healthy, lose weight and maintain your weight.

1. Cleansing:
A. Ingredients
Raw honey
Peak Milk
Lime or lemon
B. Directions: two spoonfuls of honey, half tin of 12 oz milk and two limes. Stir well and heat for 1 minute in microwave and then stir.
N.B. It should be done thrice each month; first thing to take in the morning and last thing to eat in the night. It cleanses the blood vessels to enable a smooth flow of blood in your system. Check the importance of a healthy blood vessel (http://www.smart-kit.com/s22/plumbing-important-for-brain-power/ ).

2. Breakfast. Take the following fruits and vegetables
A. Ingredients.
i.. Cantaloupe
ii. Watermelon
iii. Grapefruit
iv. Papaya
v.. Guava
vi. Banana
vii. Broccoli
viii. Spinach or any other green leafy vegetables
B. Directions. Blend everything with the seeds (except for papaya) and drink a glassful 30 mins after the cleansing agent on the day you are doing the cleansing or if you are not doing the cleansing, drink it first thing. It replaces breakfast. It lasts a lot longer and resists hunger.
N.B for the papaya: you will take out the seeds, dry them in the oven and then blend them into powder. Take a spoonful with some honey inside three days consecutively. It kills worms, stomach ulcers and stomach diseases.
3. To build your immune system: blend carrots and garlic; add some little raw honey for preservation and you eat before you go to bed so that by the time you get up the scent of garlic has subsided in your mouth.

4. Walk daily or do some little exercise for 5-10 minutes.

5. After all this is done; you have done your part to stay healthy. Leave the rest for God to work his miracle as you abide in prayers.

Things to avoid: too much salt, sweet things other than raw honey, eating in between meals, fried stuff, fried oil, oily foodstuff and late night meals.

Until then, beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

What is Truth?

What is Truth?
In April 26, 2005 Jennifer Wilbanks created a stir when she ran away from a wedding and claimed that she was kidnapped and assaulted behind the van of a Hispanic man. Since truth is relative initially the people and authorities believed her and went on a manhunt until she reappeared a few days later to claim that she was not telling the truth.
“Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all” (Jn 18:38-39).
Pilate asked Jesus “what is truth”. Many people always say I am speaking the truth. Today I will talk about the definition of truth, the nature of truth and the importance of truth.
Websters; defines truth as “: the state of being the case : FACT (2) : the body of real things, events, and facts : ACTUALITY (3) often capitalized : a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality b : a judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted as true c : the body of true statements and propositions”(http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=truth)
We will deal with the first definition to be the appropriate (truth) of what we want to say. That is water is made up of two molecules of hydrogen and one molecule of Oxygen.
No matter the country or language water will have the same properties. Water cannot be one molecule of Hydrogen and two molecules of Oxygen in the US and two molecules of hydrogen and one molecule of Oxygen in Cameroon. That at once voids the expression “truth is relative”. One can either be saved or they are not. Anyone who does not know if he or she is saved and must wait to reach heaven before knowing if they are saved or not are not yet saved. If they were, they will know for the Spirit will testify in their spirit that they are saved. That is truth.
However if we define truth as relative we mean a body of real things, events and facts. For example, Republicans believe they are godlier than democrats and vice versa. Each of them is basing their arguments on their reforms; body of real things, events or facts. Considering that no human owns the monopoly of truth then one person would be right while the other will be wrong. Yet relatively they are speaking the truth. Since no human holds the monopoly of truth we look out of the human race. Out of the human race, we have God. If God holds the monopoly of truth then the only place we can know what truth is, is in his word.
In logic, we talk of the Law of Non Excluded Middle. We mean that a fact can only be A and not B or AB. That means, there can only be one way to God. When the Christians say there is only one-way to God, they nullify “all ways lead to God”. Are they speaking the truth? How do they know their way is the truth? That again calls for an external arbitrator: God. Jesus says, “I am the way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father but by me (Jn 14:6). We know this is truth because there is only one God. And the one God had only one Son. The One Son says there is only One Way to His Father and that is Him. Him the Son is the truth. That is the truth.
Another example of the nature of truth is divorce. Each time you condemn divorce, divorcees jump from the bush with their waiting spears. The truth is that divorce though permitted in the Bible is not encouraged and not the primordial intention of God. Therefore, it is an ungodly behavior. That does not mean that the divorcee is no good. It simply means the act is bad. The fact that you divorced does not make divorce good no matter the reason. When we say smoking is bad. We are conscious of the freedom of the smoker but at the same time are hateful towards the damage caused by smoking.
Once upon a time there were six blind men. They lived in a town in India. They thought they were very clever. One day an elephant came into the town. The blind men did not know what an elephant looked like but they could smell it and they could hear it. 'What is this animal like?' they said. Each man touched a different part of the elephant.
The first man touched the elephant's body. It felt hard, big and wide. 'An
elephant is like a wall' he said. The second man touched one of the elephant's tusks. It felt smooth and hard and sharp. 'An elephant is like a spear' he said. The third man touched the elephant's trunk. It felt long and thin and wiggly. 'An elephant is like a snake' he said. The fourth man touched on of the legs. It felt thick and rough and hard and round. 'An elephant is like a tree' he said. The fifth man touched one of the elephant's ears. It felt thin and it moved. 'An elephant is like a fan' he said. The sixth man touched the elephant's tail. It felt long and thin and strong. 'An elephant is like a rope' he said. The men argued. It's like a wall! No, it isn't! It's like a spear! No it isn't! It's like a snake! They did not agree. The king had been watching and listening to the men. 'You are not very clever. You only touched part of the elephant. You did not feel the whole animal. An elephant is not like a wall or a spear or a snake, or a tree or a fan of a rope'. The men left the town still arguing. A little girl heard them and said 'Each of you is right but you are all wrong … but I know what you are talking about.' Adapted from ‘The Blind Men and the Elephant’ by John Godfrey Saxe (1816 - 1887). http://www.britishcouncil.org/languageassistant/ .
Truth with Christianity and the word of God is not relative as the case with the Six Blind men.
There are some men who have truth and others do not (Ex 18:21). The antonym for truth is a lie. If the father of lies is the devil (Jn 8:44) then there is a father of truth who is Jesus. There are some people who have no truth in them. If they don’t have truth then they cannot have absolutes. It is common sense to know that there are absolutes since each of us has once in our lifetime corrected someone. We do the correction on basis that what they said or did not is relative because there is an absolute. One can only know that which is true by enquiring (observation) searching (hypothesis) and asking (experimentation) before establishing any certainty (theory) as outlined by Moses (Deut 13:14; Ecl 12:10) .
Theses are the characteristics of truth. It is a shield and buckler of the just (Ps 91:4; Eph 6:14), it endures for ever (Ps 117:2), is the law (Ps 119:142) and always wins the speakers enemies (Gal 4:16).
In May 7, 2005 Pastor Chandler of the East Waynesville Baptist Church told the congregation that anyone who planned to vote for the Democratic nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), should either leave the church or repent. There are no truths in the above examples because they lack absolutes.
Therefore, truth is absolute and the way of truth is a choice we make (Ps 119:30). People need to make a commitment to speak the truth (Prov 8:7; Zech 8:18, 19). Truth speakers are good and merciful people (Prov 14:22). Truth and mercy will preserve leadership (Prov 20:28). We must remember that God is a Spirit and all who worship him must do so in spirit and in truth (Jn 4:24) because when you do that you shall be free (Jn 8:32) and when the Son shall set you free you shall be free indeed (Jn 8:36). Relativism is holding the truth in unrighteousness and it fetches the wrath of God (Rom 1:18; 2 Thes 2:10-12) because many have erred away from the truth (2 Tim 2:18; 3:8). If you walk in the truth people will testify of truth in you (3 Jn 3, 4).

Until then, be not bewitched that truth is relative; its not: it is an absolute!

Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

Are You Real With Yourself?

Are you real with yourself?

“And Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel. And he said unto them, I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the LORD hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan” (Deut 31: 1- 2). Moses was being real with himself about himself. He is no more the young vibrant fighter they knew; he was now old. Age was not just a number but a real sign that the grave is closer than ever before. What about you? Do you realize you are getting old? A tree that refuses to dance would be made to do so by the wind. Lord; can we be real?
Laura was confused that despite her beauty she has not had her dream man for the past 12 years. “Do you know the cause”? I asked. “Perhaps, I guess because men want me to lower my standards”. She replied chidingly. “Laura, do not lower your standard; you only need to be realistic. You want show boys but you look like a frump. I responded in my direct and cold style. She looked at me and smile then replied: “before I really knew you I always got angry when I read your writings but now I enjoy them because you seem to know my life in details”. Deep in me I am even sinfully boasting like: come on don’t you know this is the prophet himself speaking. Friends, if you want a reality check ask questions to people who can give you real answers or write to Simon Cowel. Lord; Help us to Be Real!
Dear friends, many people are at the crossroads of ideal and reality. You have not had a serious relationship for a long time now because you have been waiting for Mr. Right; the guy with readymade solutions to your problems. I mean the treasury department, Ford Motors, the polygraph machine and laughter manufacturer. Shockingly you have had more flies than any serious pretender. It would not be lowering your standards if you look for a real man (someone both of you will grow together) rather than the milky cow you fantasize. Say: Lord; Help her to Be Real!
15 years ago I had recommended a girl from our youth ministry to a friend who was single and ready to mingle. This is something I did regularly and it worked. None of those marriages had incurred a divorce yet. My reputation as their leader laid on the line in case it was a bad hookup. She ignored us for some time then at last flashed the false pretext that she wanted to go to Law School though she wanted an ATM machine. She did not go to Law school and despite her beauty; nature restituted her very coins of snobbery. She has been desperate for a good man because she was tired of donors in ATM robes. Hitherto she is still without the fantasy man. She once moaned: “for real, I am no more the 21 year old that men were running after. I am now a 36 year old woman with Men on pause and menopause at my door. Do not be bewitched that age is just a number. It is not; it is a sonnerie that forces mankind to face reality. Old age is pursuing you with all its baggage. No drug will reborn your uterus, no maquillage will hide your wrinkles and the nursing home beckons you from family and friends. I guess because your friends call you gurl you think you are still a girl? Please, cry: Lord; Help Me to Be Real!
Brian was an overweight teenager who wanted to play in the NFL. His pounds prevented him from jogging. Friends and relatives flattered him that he was not obese but only big or thick. Five years later we crossed paths at the grocery store and he told me no coach retained him because he lacked speed. I know it is not a bad thing to dream but though Brian dreams of cutting a hefty contract in NFL he may die a dreamer. The reality is that only those who are agile are selected. He must face reality; acknowledge he is overweight, trim down and he will find a solution to some of his problems. Lord; Help him to Be Real!
Mikiriwa’s favorite phrase was “age is a number”. After all, he drank from creeks twice younger his age. All of them called him baby boy. On his 40th birthday he had 4 of them pregnant and then disappeared into the woods. The ideal is for baby boys to play around but the reality is for real men to raise up their kids to be helpmeets in the community. Therefore Mikiriwa must cry: Lord; Help Me to Be Real!
Sylvain graduated with a PhD in Mathematics but for nine years he has not had a job in his field. Should he lower his standards? Not at all! Happy is the man who goes hunting for squirrels but catches an elephant. He should look for a bread winning job while waiting to land his dream job. If he gets his side job and he becomes satisfied then he has lowered his standard. How many people were trained as doctors but are working as security guards? Some are now nurses and they are very satisfied. Those are the ones who have lowered their standards. Never sell yourself short. Lord; Help Me to Be Real!
Josephina was dating hotty Andrew and they had two kids. Andrew dumped her for another woman. Josephina has judged every man that came her way through the disappointing eyeglasses Andrew gave her. A resentful past transferred into her present has embittered her future. “PA what should I do”? She asked. Listen: you must delete and expunge all the files called Andrew. In the presence of reality let the winners reject the shadows. Lord; Help Me to Be Real!
So let me ask you this? Do you think you are still the little girl that ran around naked? Or the teenager that had twelve advances per day? Do you think you are still the Kool Aid that women all wanted to quench their thirst with? Don’t you see the nursing home and death staring you in the face? See, you have to be real with yourself; those ideals you have long fantasized about have eluded you. It is time to make a reality check on the ground. Age is a number to those who want to be flattered but a testament that we are getting old for those who want to be real. Lord; help me to be real.

Until then, if the lion cannot find flesh let it eat grass.

Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

Oprah should blame both Nigerians and Americans

Dear Peter,

Nigerians have made a bad reputation even in Africa and amongst Nigerians. It behooves me to state my nationality else people think I am trying to be the devil’s advocate. I am from Cameroon; precisely from Southern Cameroon; a league of Nation and UNO protectorate. To those who want to say that I am talking because it has not happened to me I will be very personal. The last Nigerian I kept in my house stole my ID, committed a crime and right now I am fighting to clean my name. So I have been a Nigerian victim. But I am a real victim unlike those ones Oprah and the American public are defending and sympathizing with who are crooks. They are thieves who made a bad adventure. It is no different from having illicit sex and picking up some disease. You would have thought of it before having sex. They are not victims because they were assisting the scammer to steal money they did not work for simply because they wanted a share of the booty. If they had succeeded would the Nigerian still be a scammer? I bet you he or she would have been a sweetie. Take the case of the Dr who was conned with black papers. Is that what he was taught in school; that to make money he should cut papers and throw chemicals on them? You smile; don’t you?

Out of 14 people that have lived with me 8 have been Africans and 6 Americans. One American and his wife stole my electronic devices, very expensive wristwatch with other jewelry. The other one (with the wife) stole my satellite phone while the third stole my checkbooks that he wrote at will. The fourth only stole all the whisky we had to entertain visitors. You smile; don’t you? Only one African (Nigerian) stole (my ID) from me. Looking at the statistics would it be fair for me to say that every American is a thief? Where would I be keeping all the trustworthy Americans I have met? Those Americans who group people are the ones who have not traveled. They only hear about people on TV and Radio. Those that have traveled don’t care what country you come from.

When I moved here I went to a church and introduced myself to work with them. The minister told me he does not want to deal with Africans because they are crooks. As I went further I realized the Africans he was referring to were Nigerians. With all serenity our Nigerian neighbors have to do more to polish their image. It has reached a point where even Nigerians are scared of themselves. I know most Americans do not trust Nigerians. So create opportunities for them to know you. Do not forget that trust is earned. By opening up you might be saving the generation behind you.

Nonetheless, Americans and others must learn to judge people as individuals. Take a look at these nefarious criminals and tell me which one was Nigerian: Andrei Chikatilo, Pedro Alonso Lopez, Anatoli Onoprienko, Henry Lee Lucas, Ottis Toole, H.H Holmes, Fred West, Erzebet Bathory and Hitler. Al Capone was no Nigerian.

In 2003 I sat in a workroom and heard colleagues running down a young lady. She came in, greeted all of us and they were all praising her dress. Immediately as she left they began again tearing her apart. I could not contain it so I asked them: “why don’t you guys tell her what she is doing wrong’? Someone said that: “it is more polite for us Americans to gossip than to confront people because it would be interfering with their privacy”. No one objected to her response. After work I walked to her and said: “why are you dating this man and he is married?” She said they were just dance partners and nothing more. Who was now the sinner?

It would be wrong for anyone to classify every Nigerian into that scam pot. The evil nature in man is not relative and not selective. That means; no color is more evil than the other and no continent or country has more evil citizens than the other. The US speaks of religion more than any other country on earth but can the US be the moral compass of the world? From the priest to ministers, Ted Haggard to Dennis Rader: from Ted Bundy to H. H. Holmes. These Americans have shown that any country has the propensity to raise Lucifer’s cousins.

The Bible affirms that no color is better than the other (Rom 3:9), that all have sinned (Rom 3:23), that the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer 17:9-10) and that initially man was made perfect but he went astray (Ecl 7:29) with the entry of sin into the world (Rom 5: 12). That means you will find very reliable Nigerians just like you will find very unreliable ones. You will also find very crooked Americans like you will find very honest ones. It is mere racist and prejudicial tendencies that influence some people to think that they are more superior to others.

It is unfortunate that some Americans after teaming up with some Nigerians to scam African governments blame only the Nigerians? The Americans wanted to transport the money they knew was ill gotten. They too should be prosecuted. They are not victims; they are accomplices. If you are not a thief why would you want to transfer money you have no clue where it came from simply because you have been promised a fair share of the spoil.

Each time I think of one of my best friends Godwin Azubuike I grin. He invited me one day to mediate between him and his friend. The guy accused him for calling him a woman being and Goddy asked: “you are not a woman being are you an animal being?” Then I think of Nnamdi a very honest business man. How on earth would I say all Nigerians are crooks when I have lived with these guys? How on earth would I say all Americans are dishonest when I have lived and eaten with many honest ones? Such is treachery and nature has a way of rewarding turncoats.

One day a colleague asked me if it is true that everyone from Africa has HIV. I retorted the next day by emailing to most my negative HIV test result that was a week old. That is good testimony that eschews gainsayers.

Therefore, honest Nigerians must live their lives as an open book so that those who group all of them as dishonest may be ashamed when they find out the truth. Let us keep shaming those who are tarnishing the image of the few Nigerians remaining. Nigerians should not be angry when people raise those accusing fingers. Instead they should shun them off by living right because the effects of 419 is affecting even the innocent.

Until then, If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

Does the Bible Prohibit us from Using Drugs?

“PA why are people blaming the young woman using drugs; she is killing herself and not anybody. Does the Bible prohibit us from using drugs?”

Thank you for the question. To answer your question I will show the use of drugs in the Old Testament, in the New Testament and its consequences and then let you be the judge. TV and radio news these days is; this is caught with drugs and that was driving under the influence. Lohan is merely a microcosm of the youths of today (especially the rich ones) who are getting all drugged as mobile cocaines or two legged marijuanas. The adults today doing drugs are the young ones yesterday that were neglected or lost their identity.

Now the kids under the influence of excess freedom and drugs are running their homes, schools and society. Before this freedom thing where Kids are no more answerable to their parents, drug addiction was heard of in iotas. Oh what a shame! One day the kids used black paint to make graffiti in the boys’ restroom that was painted white. So the school authorities decided that the whole restroom should be painted black. The next day the kids made the writing in white (its original color). Please, someone tell me who is in charge here. I guess the school!

Each person watching the TV has seen someone being charged with one of these in the past five days: cannabis, inhalants, cocaine, narcotics, depressants, hallucinogens, narcotics, designer drugs, anabolic steroids and DUI. Are these palmerworms and cankerworms eroding the fabrics of our society? Is there an underlying problem that we pretend does not exist? Firstly, this drug problem shows you that wealth does not bring a fulfillment in life. Secondly, it reveals that plastic surgery may repair a damaged face but a plastic smile will be insufficient for a miserable life. Thirdly, it shows that stardom comes with insatiable societal demands that wear the star out with time if you have a dysfunctional family. If you envy a star you envy their habits too. Fourthly that American youth have their priorities misplaced. Fifthly, it also divulges that life has become so synthetic that the American Dream could be summed up as rodomontades. Sixthly, it reveals that there cannot be any solution to treat drug addiction when the society prescribes physical and psychological solutions for spiritual problems. Seventhly, we learn that any society that puts God out must be ready to embrace the Devil and his works in. Eighthly, that absentee parenting will kidnap your kids away to drugs. Lastly, that America has been hijacked by the excesses of its own freedom.

This issue of drugs is like asking who created evil and if God created everything then He is the creator of evil? In Genesis 1:12 the Bible reads: “And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good”. God after creating everything he did not find anything wrong with it. On that basis when a ban was being placed on Ecstasy Lincoln said: “Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes”. Though God created everything he gave man the volition to choose between good and evil.

The first instant where drug is mentioned in the Bible is when God asked Moses to use Calamus and concoct the holy anointing oil (Ex 30:23). Calamus has an ingredient that when metabolized it leaves the same effects like Meth or Ecstasy. Calamus was a plant with the dynamic equivalence of cannabis today. That means it was found in those days in another name but the usage has sidetracked. It was used as healing oil but today people use it to smoke. If God thought that man needed an exhaust pipe then every human being would have had one. Instead he created necessary orifices (vagina-for menstruation, childbearing and sex; rectum-for defecation Only; nostrils-for breathing and smell Only, ears-for hearing, mouth- for eating and drinking, breast-for breastfeeding and urethra-for ejaculation and urination).

In the Gospels we see that the use of drugs was even more apparent in that is was used to alleviate pain (Mt 27:34; Mk 15:23). In the epistles we find drugs through morphological studies. The word witchcraft in Gal 5:20 in Greek is pharmakĕia used as medication, administration of drugs and poisoning. The word pharmacy is from this word.

As you know the Bible says that no one should use any substance that will destroy their bodies. Drugs will take away your liberty. It will give you a new first name: Addict. You will become violent and psychologically dependent. It will mess up your brain. Drug addiction is a four armed bandit. In Germany Alcoholics are put on disability pension because the society says it is sickness. It is not. It is a bad habit. Why don’t they just put all the sex addicts too on disability? Yeah, right the porn industry will like it.

To the young people and others I say this: you do not need drugs to be cool. If you are already addicted do not hide it; do not try to deal with it alone. Seek help. You must sever from those bad friends whose bad behavior can easily ensnare you. Remember: iron sharpens iron. Everybody has problems but the one that carries his or her problem on his or her head will be one to fall for the bait of evil doers. If you have a problem and do not know what to do remember you have a creator in heaven. Call on Him and he will answer you. We have tried to put God out and bring in humanism but the shame has been ours. People rather prefer to have profanity than scripture in schools. Look at your stars all drugged up, and they are your role models. What has happened to the prelates, teachers and social workers who used to be the role models? Misplaced priority! It is time to go back to winning ways. In the absence of real life let the losers be contented with drug addiction! Are you a loser? Yes you are if you are an addict.

Until then, the dog that barks belongs to the household but its barks belong to the community.

Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk

In the absence of reality, let the losers be contented with shadows (Hamilton Ayuk).

Many Questions But Fewer Answers

Continents and nations, families and individuals are all searching the water to grasp answers in their lives. On August 3rd news outlets read: a blast in Pakistan kills four people, 20 millions people displaced because of floods in South East Asia. In Africa, 65 people drowned off the coast of Sierra Leone. Darfur; stands like a giant vitrine of Islamic cruelty. In the US, a bridge collapses into River Mississippi killing at least 5 and in Europe; heat wave claims 35 lives in southeast Europe. The British newspapers read: new foot and mouth breakout. In addition Europe is striking an arms deal with Libya. In Latin America we read: 83 Cubans detained off the coast of Mexico and 2 federal agents gunned down in Mexico. Finally in Australia a 21-year-old student today pleaded guilty to a string of sex attacks across Melbourne. Do these news items sound like something to search the water if we could grasp the answers? The world is coming to grips with itself seeing the limits of its folie de grandeur. Individually we have many unanswered questions increasing daily; questions from our personal lives to those of our nations. Please take a look and see if you can find the answers to some of the questions we ask.
In our quest for answers we embrace sex as top priority. The Maryland State Board of Education approved the Montgomery County Public School district's program promoting anal sex, homosexuality, bisexuality, and transvestitism as normal sexual variations despite serious opposition from pro-Life parents. This country does not need sex; it needs lasting marriages. Marriage is a covenant in love sexually administered. Sex is merely the honey we spice our love. If relationship was only sex then Hollywood would be in a better predicament. Unfortunately, if love was shoes then Hollywood would charter all sizes. Claiming and disclaiming children is rocking our media due to irresponsible sex. Sex was made for one man one woman until death do them part. The deviation from this principle has plunged humanity into the insatiable desire to fulfill sexual impulses wrongly. I guess because we want to have fun.
As you meet people today their main motivation is the Have Fun Policy. Being high is part of the fun that humanity has selected. This self destructive principle is now ingrained especially among the existentialist youths of today. A young man was asked in court: “are you on any known drugs”? “Now?” He asked the judge. The judge responded: “yes now, are you”. He is confused because it is now part of our culture. Do we see how the ones we love are dying to drugs? How quick are we forgetting Anna Nicole Smith? Jesus is the fullness of life. He gives peace that surpasses the use of drugs. I guess the love of money.
The love of money is causing havoc. Nowadays though many women say they do not marry for money they do however crave for mobile ATM machines. Those who lack want all and those that have do not want anyone to get. Rolandas Milinavicius killed two of his employees because they kept asking for a pay raise. James Sullivan was extradited from Thailand where he was sentenced to life in prison without parole for hiring a hit man who gunned down the wife- Lita Sllivan to avoid a bitter and potentially costly divorce. The love of money is the root of all evil. Do you love money? Evil is knocking on your door and its desire is towards you. Perhaps we love money to solve the health issues plaguing us.
Health issues are more than we can handle. Almost every young child is walking with a can of vitamins. People are taking far more vitamins than they need. “Vitamin B6, for example, is sold in 500 mg tablets, although the RDA is a mere 2 mg for men and 1.6 mg for women”. Health insurance is skyrocketing rather than health for all. Statistics now show that STDs are causing havoc among our youth. “Approximately 20% of our population over the age of 12 has the herpes type 2 virus”.
Indeed death is very precarious but nowadays it seems more than ever before. People are dying now as if an angel of death is passing by. None of the people who died on the 2nd knew they would expire just like that. What is humanity? It is like a plant; it germinates in the morning and withers in the evening. You thought you are so important that is why you think some people are inferior to you. Well when your day of death comes please don’t die, say you are a VIP.
After my third visit for the week in a nursing home to pray for the people a gentleman said: “you have visited us more than my family has done for the entire year”. We prayed, sang and I left as they requested for me to come back. The man that thinks he is more important than others should remember that diseases eat us both and we wear our pants the same way; one leg and then the other. Look; all women answer natures call to the restroom or toilet; both carry children in their wombs. What diseases left undone crime will complete for both. Death will knock on each of our doors soon and very soon no matter our status.
“Five people ranging in age from 16 to 19 were killed in a street shooting early Saturday”. Dr. William Petit Jr’s wife and two daughters died in a fire that police said was ignited after a home invasion early Monday morning. “Jane Kuria fled Kenya in March 2001 after her husband was murdered by a cultural and religious sect that also subjected Jane to female genital mutilation but was murdered in her home with her two teen daughters in Powder Springs. Her son and the family friend at the home were both unconscious, but alive. Ironically she finds death in the place she thought was her refuge. Listen to me: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is true there are Christians living like the Devil’s cousins but that is because the church has allowed the world into the church. If the church prevents the world from having a seat on its altar then its light will shine into the world and crime will subside. Crime will not disappear because man has a sinful nature but it will drop. Don’t you see crime tearing our families apart? Yes, we are experiencing a Familyquake!
Did you know it is now difficult to find whole families? Divorce is now in vogue and the kids are torn apart with visitation rights. Do you wonder where the kids copy bad etiquettes? The lamb always wags its tails each time the ewe does it. Ashley (17) always sat in class crying. The teacher asked her why she was crying. “Have I hurt you unconsciously”? “No, you are not the problem”. She replied. But daily she sobbed and cried. One day the teacher took her out and asked: “don’t you like my class or me”? “Mr. … it is not you; it is just that no one cares”. The teacher said: “Ashley I am a man who cares”. He assured her. “I have not seen my father since five”. She exploded. God gracious he was found with the help of the teacher. The irresponsible men having kids and abandoning them are the new social epidemic. Absentee parenting is breaking the bridge of happiness among the kids world wide. Listen: we will not find all the answers but we will be happy in our searching for answers if we go back to God.
Until then, the lamb that rejects the ewe’s milk searches for food in the wolf’s hut.
Prince & PA Hamilton Ayuk