FAST, PRAY, RUN; THE AFRO-CHRISTIAN GUIDE FOR SURVIVING THE ENDTIMES

 FAST, PRAY, RUN; THE AFRO-CHRISTIAN GUIDE FOR SURVIVING THE ENDTIMES

As we anticipate the day of rapture, Afro-Christians cannot help but to hold on to Jesus Christ for dear life. Since most of us cannot afford the time nor money to take a spiritual retreat to Bali, for an eat, pray, love journey of meditation, we can only accord ourselves a fast, pray, run religious version of the above voyage within our local churches. Afterall, God did not bless us with these regenerative body types for nothing. It is why we do not crack under pressure, despite the vicious generational cycles of persecution from our adversaries. What's more, if slave trade, colonialism, segregation, and racism did not annihilate our existence, then who is the devil to try and stop us from getting to the Promised Land?

From the moment Africans decided to embrace Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, that fallen angel and his cohort of demons have been losing sleep over our entire race. Gone are the days where these evil spirits would dominate over us, with their atrocious demands of blood sacrifices every waking day. Even for a mild headache, these malignant spirits would demand an arm and a leg, in order to reverse the torment, for which they were guilty of afflicting us to begin with. Nonetheless, when the Messiah stepped on the scene with the promise of hope for eternal life, we hurriedly dropped these fleet of demonic entities like a bad habit.

Once we Africans began to experience the power of saving grace and truth; we abandoned ship, and decamped to follow after Christ, never looking back to our gory past, lest we all succumbed to the enemy's deception, turn to look back, and thereby transform into a pillar of salt, just as Lot's wife. Which brings us to the present day, where the devil is after our African souls, angry at us for ditching his evil plans to have us worship him, instead of worshipping the one true God. That is why he has oppressed, suppressed, and depressed for generations, persecuting our sons and daughters, turning other races against us, projecting his ugly nature upon us, trying to make us feel like we are the wretched of the earth, when he is infact the wretched one.

Further, the countdown to rapture has troubled Lucifer, from the time this good news gospel was proclaimed to us, by the white man. Hence, the fact that we are no longer ignorant of his evil plans, is the reason for Satan's incurable headache. Jesus Christ is coming soon, to take away His church, and the devil cannot stop this prophesy from coming to pass. That is why he is persistently blocking our righteous path, as we race to the finish line, raising the banner of our Lord way up high, and running to victory, because let us face it, when it comes to marathons, we Africans do shine like diamonds. Besides, our ancestors were long-distant traders, so we carry their genes within us.

Did you know that Afro-Christians have been chosen, among other soldiers serving in the army of the Lord, to take the gospel around the world in these last days? Yes, indeed our Lord and Saviour has deemed us worthy to be His heralds, and therefore has poured His anointing upon us, to take the kingdom of heaven by force, and run the race rocksteady to the finish line, of which by God, we shall overcome every obstacle thrown our way, and become victorious in the end. Therefore, fast, pray, and run is the philosophy we Afro-Christians live by, because we have to. In any case, who wants to go to hell for eternity? I would rather be poor, use my last coin to purchase a seat on the heaven express, and wait for rapture to happen, rather than take my chances toiling for Satan in this Babylon System.

Thus, fasting is a practice that we Africans know to well, even though we hesitate to engage in it often. Yet, we must fast for the sake of our communion with God. Similarly, praying is a must for every African soul. Hence, we must pray, because the spirit realm is always active in the African sphere, with imps sliding in and out of invisible portals, tempting us with all kinds of abhorrent stuff. Above all, running is the best part of this survival guide, because when all fails, all we need to do is get out of dodge, by running as fast as we can to our Lord and Saviour.

Nonetheless, the enemy of our souls will not relent in his determination to forcefully drag us to hell fire alongside him. His master plan is to have the whole world treat Africans like slaves, so that we would share in his fate, of being accursed. Regardless, no matter Satan's wicked plans against us, our love for Christ will not diminish. In fact, the more he hates us, the more our allegiance to the Lamb grows stronger.

This prince of darkness should know that we refuse to be outwitted in battle, come hell or high water. After subjecting us to ferocious cycles of torture for centuries, we will be caught dead singing to his looney tunes. As a result, when we see the enemy of our souls approaching, we in turn run as fast as our legs would carry us to the mercy seat. Additionally, our generals of faith taught us well through scriptures, that Jesus is coming soon, and while we have been waiting for Him all the days of our lives, we have hope that any moment from now, He is about to arrive. Consequently, we should be ready for His appearing, for He will come, like a thief in the night, to catch us up to heaven. This rescue mission on His part, will be our ultimate reward, and our greatest victory.

 

THE CHALLENGE OF KEEPING TO THE MORAL HIGHWAY

 THE CHALLENGE OF KEEPING TO THE MORAL HIGHWAY

I recently enrolled myself a in a gymnasium to try and loose the dead weight off me, because I am tired of being the bigger person. Let it go on record that I have switched from taking the high road, for it is an exhausting righteous path. As of today, I am turning over a new leaf. No more being the nice guy, because I am fed up with turning the other cheek, everytime insensitive people decide to purposely choose to offend me. Henceforth, I have made a conscious choice to divert into the cold streets that branch into the low road, way past the dark alleys, toward dangerous route corners, which lead to filthy sewer lines. I have decided to leave charisma behind, and join forces with the rebels in the underworld. For once, I would like to veer from the narrow way, in order have a feel of what it really means to be a rebel.

Even Jesus Christ did not always take the high road. A case in point is when He encountered those grimy merchants trading outside of God's holy temple. Jesus did not turn a blind eye to their disrespecting the Lord's house. On the contrary, He got angry, took a long whip, and furiously chased those covetous tradesmen outside of the sacred temple. He did not let those inconsiderate vendors run amock around the House of God, knowing well that had he decided to be lenient with those money changers, then they would have taken liberties, and proceeded to sell the holy temple. Understanding the nature of stiff-necked fools, those opportunistic traders would probably have waited for Jesus to disappear from the scene of the temple, before they quietly crept back to continue with their usual trade offs, but I digress.

Anyhow, why should I always be the one to look the other way? Why will my foes not do right by me for a change? I am done compromising with my haters, always being the one to forgive, forget, and walk away. For once in my entire existence, I would like to be an agitator, without a shred of guilt. For once in my life, I want to break bad, and transform into a hellion. I want to be right and stay right, for a change. Therefore, spare yourself of the need to preach to me about integrity, and instead prepare the sermon for all my rivals. You see, I know what society requires of me, yet I am rebelling because of his double standards.

Many would concur with me that sometimes being nice is a recipe for agony and pain. I dare you to try and play nice with humans, and watch how fast they betray your trust. As a matter of fact, they will not skip a beat, tumbling over themselves just so that they can walk all over you. Even the scriptures affirm that we should not be overly righteous, so that we may not die before our time. After all, being nice is not a fruit of the Holy Spirit, hence I am switching over from playing nice to acting savage, so to wade off all predators.

What's more, I have made up my mind to never take unsolicited advise of one questionable prophet, whose counsel always borders on ritual sacrifice. His resolve for everything is to offer a huge remittance that which puts a dent in one's pocket, leads to abject poverty, and causes a myriad of ailments, from stomach ulcers, to an eternal migraine, all for God to arise and smote the troublemakers. Moreover, the bigger the sacrifice, the stronger the fight, the greater the glory. According to this traveling prophet, God must be appeased monetarily, for Him to show up and show out in battle against wicked souls on one's behalf. Coincidentally, that is exactly the same counsel the native doctors give to their clientele. At this point, I pray that you are not as confused as I was about the prophet in question.

Anyway, It is going to be a challenge for me, to switch from light to darkness in a jiff, because of that still small voice that communes with me inside of me. Somehow, I am not able to ignore it, no matter how hard I try. This voice follows me everywhere I go, as if a real person is speaking to me, telling me what is right or wrong, like some sort of a Global Positioning System, always directing me back to the lone road. What's more, I am not able to change its settings to a default, because I have no access to its mainframe. Nonetheless, why will this still small voice not let me have my way?

Somehow, I want to be really bad, rude, hard, and crude in the same measure. Besides, brutish people always get what they want under the sun, while I seem to be struggling to exist despite of my righteousness. But God, why did you give me such a mellow heart? Though I am on evil time, I find myself doing good, even for the most wicked of hearts. Have you programmed me to be empathic against my will? Have I no choice to be selfish, when I choose to be? So, why does it become impossible for me to hold malice against another person, when a malicious opportunity presents itself? I carry the burdens of men, as I empathize with everyone including; the goat milk man who supplies my dairy needs, the false prophet misleading others to hell, and even the town gossip, the famous tale bearer, who cannot keep anybody's secret, including her own.

Lord, permit me to be hard this one time, so that I may experience the low road, before I put my raw emotions to rest, while I live my life vicariously through my alter ego. Also, these righteous boundaries are way too binding, and limiting, that I seek to have them loose, until I get a fill of the rebellious nature.