A Homily on Family, Covenant, and the Work of God

God Thinks in Generations

The Sacred Work of Family

A powerful homily on Abraham, family covenant, generational purpose, unity, faith, and the work of God. Exploring how families, shared vision, and covenant shape destiny, legacy, and spiritual continuity across generations.

---

“For I Know Him…”

Abraham was not chosen by God merely because he would become wealthy, influential, or the father of many nations.

He was chosen because God said:

“For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord…”
— Genesis 18:19

That is the covenant.

Not merely land.
Not merely blessing.
Not merely prosperity.

Family.

God trusted Abraham with a future because He trusted Abraham with a household.

---

God Thinks in Generations

This is something many people do not fully understand: when God sees a man or woman who can raise children to love Him, fear Him, walk with Him, and continue His ways into the next generation, Heaven pays attention.

Because God thinks in generations.

The covenant was never merely about Abraham.

It was about Isaac.
Then Jacob.
Then the tribes.
Then generations yet unborn.

And so the family becomes sacred territory.

---

The Mystery of Family Unity

This is why unity in the family matters so deeply before God.

When husband and wife walk together in purpose, even in matters of work, business, and responsibility, God honors it.

And when children work alongside their parents in truth, discipline, love, and purpose, building better things together, something powerful begins to happen, both in the things of the Spirit and in matters of increase.

Because unity reflects His nature.

And when a family works in genuine unity, Heaven responds.

God delights in households that build together, especially when the work of their hands brings glory to His name, improves the condition of humanity, eases suffering, reduces needless toil, and creates more space for reflection, worship, learning, beauty, and contemplation of divine truth.

God loves wisdom applied.

He is the God of knowledge, especially knowledge applied with wisdom.

And when a family pursues noble ideas together, with humility, discipline, creativity, and love, His subtle hand often begins to appear in ways difficult to explain.

Do not cancel one another out.

Family, cultivate the habit of thinking together.
Discuss businesses together.
Discuss ideas together.
Discuss creative projects together, whether in film, storytelling, innovation, teaching, craftsmanship, or service.

Remember: such ventures are not merely about making money.

Money is secondary.

The deeper purpose is this:

• That the family learns to build together

• To sacrifice together

• To dream together

• To labor together

• To trust God together

Because there is a mystery in shared purpose.

A house divided weakens itself.
But a house united around righteousness becomes difficult to stop.

---

Covenant Beyond Wealth

Even in the world, we see examples of families building together across generations.

Entire dynasties have emerged because fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters moved with one vision.

Even in secular history, examples abound. Consider families like the Rothschilds, who built multi-generational influence through extraordinary unity of purpose.

How much more should the people of God understand this principle?

For if people who do not know God can build lasting structures through discipline, unity, and generational thinking, what could happen if families truly walked with God in covenant?

What could happen if love, prayer, discipline, creativity, wisdom, and work were passed from father to child, mother to daughter, generation to generation?

---

Why the Family Is Attacked

That is why the enemy attacks the family so fiercely.

Because Satan understands covenant.

He understands that if he can break the relationship between parent and child, he interrupts transmission.

If a father cannot walk with his children, teach them, guide them, pray with them, build with them, then something precious is interrupted.

The fear of God is not transferred by sermons alone.

It is transferred through life lived together.

Children learn worship by watching worship.
They learn prayer by hearing prayer.
They learn sacrifice by seeing sacrifice.
They learn discipline by observing discipline.

And so the enemy targets the family because he understands something many believers forget:

Destroy the family, and you weaken the next generation before it even begins.

---

The Deeper Meaning of Covenant

God desires to populate the earth with people who know Him.

Generation after generation after generation.

That is the deeper meaning behind covenant.

And perhaps this is why many people remain unfulfilled.

Not because they lack money.
Not because they lack talent.

But because fulfillment comes from participating in what God Himself desires to accomplish in the earth.

A man may succeed publicly and still feel empty privately because his true assignment was larger than personal achievement.

---

When Work Becomes Ministry

Sometimes the real joy is found in building something that serves others.

Something that gathers people.
Something that lifts the next generation.

Even creative work can become ministry.

A film can become ministry.
A story can become ministry.
A business can become ministry.
A shared family project can become ministry.

Not merely because it earns income, but because it creates meaning, responsibility, discipline, and shared vision.

Imagine millions of ordinary people contributing small amounts to help build something meaningful together.

Not merely consumers, but participants.

Not merely spectators, but builders.

That spirit itself reflects something holy:

People gathering around shared purpose.

---

Conclusion

And perhaps that is what many of us are truly searching for.

Not merely success.

But covenant.
Purpose.
Meaning.
Continuity.
Family.

And the joy of building something together under God.

May I rise?

Don Kenobi

#OldManInTheMolue 
#MyFrancisEssays 
#MolueMonologues

America’s “Tip O’Neill Moment”

America’s “Tip O’Neill Moment”

The Man Many Have Forgotten

Tip O’Neill.

Not many Americans may remember him, or perhaps I should say many would be surprised that I even know about him. If memory serves me right, he looked a bit like W.C. Fields, though perhaps I’m thinking of P.T. Barnum, with that huge, prominent nose.

But appearance is not the point.

Power is.

O’Neill was a long-serving Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, one of the most powerful political positions in America.

Eventually, he was challenged in a primary and lost.

Part of the feeling at the time was simple fatigue:

“He has been there too long. Let’s try someone younger. Someone else.”

And then reality arrived.

The Cost of Losing Influence

His district suddenly discovered that all the perks, the federal projects, the influence, the quiet advantages that came from having the Speaker of the House representing them, slowly disappeared.

They had assumed those benefits were permanent.

Almost a birthright attached to the district itself.

But they were not.

They were attached to power, seniority, relationships, influence, and institutional weight.

Perhaps they thought whoever replaced him could simply replicate what O’Neill brought home.

It did not work that way.

And so the district felt the absence of power.

Why I Mention Him Often

My son knows about O’Neill because I’ve referenced him many times in our discussions, often as an example of institutional memory, political gravity, and the value of experience, even when one disagrees with the individual involved.

Because sometimes societies become so accustomed to stability that they stop understanding where stability comes from.

Until it disappears.

America’s Present Moment

America today feels like it is having a “Tip O’Neill moment.”

For decades, American greatness was simply assumed.

People still casually say things like “leader of the free world,” even now, and I sometimes wonder if they hear themselves anymore.

Because if a country is struggling internally, polarized, uncertain of itself, increasingly distrustful of its own institutions, can it still confidently claim moral and political leadership of the “free world”?

That is not a pleasant question.

But it is a necessary one.

The Illusion of Permanent Greatness

The world, frankly, can function without America.

That realization is new for many people, though history eventually humbles every great power.

Empires often believe their dominance is permanent.

Until the machinery underneath begins to crack.

And by the time the cracks become visible, decline is already underway.

Governance Is Not Performance Art

What makes this particularly tragic is that many voters genuinely believed they were choosing disruption in service of renewal.

Instead, they discovered that institutions, discipline, process, and systems exist for a reason.

Governance is not performance art.

A country cannot simply take a chainsaw to everything and expect society to continue functioning normally afterward.

Systems matter.

Continuity matters.

Competence matters.

And once institutional strength is weakened, nations often discover, too late, how much invisible work was quietly holding everything together.

Remember The Name

So remember the name Tip O’Neill.

Sometimes societies only understand the value of stability after they have voted it away.

Don Kenobi

#BigAgendaAfrica

#CultureNotStructure

#MyFrancisEssays

The Weeping and Gnashing They No Longer Preach About...

 

The Weeping and Gnashing They No Longer Preach About: Matthew 5, Mammon, and the Lost Light of Christianity...

A reflective critique of prosperity gospel Christianity, religious prejudice, Mammon, and the forgotten teachings of Matthew 5, exploring faith, judgment, “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” and Christian-Muslim coexistence in Nigeria.

They try so hard to vilify Islam, because Islam will not submit.

What evil did Islam do, except drag Europe out of the Dark Ages, reconnecting it with its own past?

The barbarians who overran the Roman Empire, boy, were they barbarians?

They burned libraries.

Denied science.

I once read a description of the Visigoths, and you would have thought they were describing contemporary figures.

We accept that Christianity has been hijacked by non-Christian forces, but not Islam?

The same way you judge yourself, you do not want to judge others?

I hold brief for no religion.

What could I possibly know about them?

I can only hold brief for the only religion I know, and it forbids me from hating any religion.

It tells me to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, to let my light so shine that people may see my good works.

Read it yourself:

“…let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

— Gospel of Matthew 5:16

Read the whole of Matthew 5, morning, afternoon, and night, until you get it.

You who abandon Matthew 5 and scour the Old Testament looking for clefts where you can hide and remain comfortable in your hate and prejudice…

You?

Repent- lest ye die in sin!

The Verse That Bothered Me

As a kid in Edo College, behind the Technical Drawing Room where we gathered each evening for the SU prayer meeting, one of the verses that bothered me deeply was the one about “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

I would like to take a poll and see how many young Christians who know the lyrics to every Sinach song even know that verse exists.

Why?

Because the entire Gospel, the light of the Gospel, has been filtered through the prism of the prosperity gospel.

Pure white light goes in.

Seven different colours come out.

Everything becomes about self-fulfillment.

Mammon has taken over.

Isn’t it interesting that Jesus Christ in Gospel of Matthew 6 spoke about Mammon, not the devil, when He said:

“No man can serve two masters…”

He made it clear that Mammon, meaning wealth, money, or material possessions, is a spiritual competitor to God, one that demands total allegiance.

Let me repeat:

You who abandon Matthew 5 and scour the Old Testament looking for clefts in its teachings where you can hide comfortably with all the baggage you carry, your hatred for blacks, greens, reds, whites, Muslims, Palestinians, Nigerians…

You?

You are a strong candidate for the weeping and gnashing of teeth spoken of in the Bible.

Where?

Gospel of Matthew 8:11–12

“But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Gospel of Matthew 13:41–42

“The Son of Man will send out his angels... They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Gospel of Matthew 13:49–50

“The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Gospel of Matthew 22:11–13

(Parable of the Wedding Banquet)

“Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Gospel of Matthew 24:48–51

“He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Gospel of Matthew 25:30

“Throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Suggested Reading: 

The "Worthless" Servant:

This refers to the servant who, out of fear or laziness, 

hid his talent instead of investing it (Matthew 25:14-30).

Suggested Reading: Theologia Acediosa: How Lazy Theology Sanctifies Evil https://donkenobi.blogspot.com/2026/02/torpor-animi-how-lazy-theology.html

Imagine This

Imagine a world in which:

“…your light shines before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

If the world is not glorifying your Father in heaven, perhaps your light is not shining.

Nigeria Once Knew Better

As I wrote this very last sentence, stories of a time when Muslims and Christians lived in perfect harmony across Nigeria filtered into my consciousness.

Living side by side.

Kids eating together.

Playing together.

Sometimes sleeping over in one another’s homes.

No one cared about religious differences.

I would like to pinpoint the exact moment all that ended, and see if it correlates with my deepest suspicions.

“Love your neighbour as yourself.”

How can you love those who hate you?

Tough question.

As a true Nigerian, I will answer that question with another question:

Why do they hate you?

Is it because of the fruits and aroma of the Holy Spirit you exude?

I rest my case.

Don Kenobi

#OldManInTheMolue

#MyFrancisEssays

When Heaven Opens a Door Quickly, Why Do We Close It Slowly?

The Waiting Room

They tell him to wait.

Six months.

Nine months.

A year.

RCIA classes.

Forms.

Interviews.

Sponsors.

Sessions.

Handbooks.

PowerPoints.

Calendars.

And the man stands there blinking.

Because yesterday he was drunk.

Yesterday he was broken.

Yesterday he wandered into the church because the sign outside said:

“Come in.

Rest awhile.”

So he came in.

He sat in the back.

Said nothing.

Looked at the Cross.

Cried quietly when nobody was looking.

And for the first time in thirty years,

something inside him moved.

Not emotion.

Not performance.

Not manipulation.

Movement.

The ancient word is metanoia.

Turning.

Return.

The soul remembering its direction.

And now heaven itself is leaning toward him.

But the Church says:

“Wonderful.

Please come back next Thursday at 6:30 PM for Session One.”

Session One

Session One.

As if the thief on the Cross attended twelve weeks of instruction.

As if the Ethiopian eunuch in the Acts of the Apostles said:

“Actually Philip, before we proceed, perhaps we should establish a diocesan onboarding structure.”

No.

The man said:

“Here is water.

What prevents me from being baptized?”

That question terrifies modern Christianity.

What prevents me?

Policy prevents you.

Scheduling prevents you.

Administrative pacing prevents you.

Risk management prevents you.

Institutional anxiety prevents you.

And perhaps wisdom requires some caution.

Yes.

The early Church catechized converts too.

Yes.

Faith must have roots.

Yes.

People should understand what they are entering into.

But there is another danger nobody speaks about.

Cooling What God Has Set on Fire

The danger of cooling what God has set on fire.

The danger of institutionalizing urgency out of the Gospel.

Imagine a man rescued from drowning.

And instead of pulling him fully into the boat,

we hand him a brochure:

“Introduction to Maritime Rescue:

A Twelve-Part Series.”

The man is still choking.

And sometimes I wonder if modern Christianity still believes in conversion at all.

Not gradual moral improvement.

Not religious onboarding.

Not ecclesiastical assimilation.

Conversion.

The kind that interrupts history.

The kind that blinds Saul on the road to Damascus.

The kind that makes fishermen abandon nets.

The kind that causes tax collectors to leave tables mid-shift.

The kind where Heaven moves first and bureaucracy struggles to keep up.

Protecting the Sacred

And here is the tension:

The Church is trying to protect the sacred.

I understand that.

Sacraments are not toys.

Priesthood is not improvisation.

Truth matters.

Doctrine matters.

Formation matters.

But somewhere along the line,

the waiting rooms became longer than the road to salvation itself.

A man can enter church burning with repentance…

and leave with a folder.

Come back next month.

Join the inquiry phase.

Then discernment.

Then candidacy.

Then preparation.

Then scrutiny.

Then interviews.

And meanwhile the fire flickers.

Not because God changed His mind.

But because institutional time and spiritual time are not always the same thing.

The Speed of the Early Church

The apostles baptized entire households in a day.

Three thousand souls in one sermon.

Now we require parking validation.

And perhaps this is unfair.

Perhaps the Church fears false conversions.

Perhaps priests are overwhelmed.

Perhaps modernity has made sincerity harder to recognize.

But I cannot escape the feeling that the early Christians expected God to move suddenly.

We expect Him to book an appointment.

The Question

And maybe that is my real question:

When heaven opens a door quickly…

why are we so determined to close it slowly?

For The Likeness of Christ, Stay Vigilant

The Reason for Vigilance:

The Transformation Of Our Earthly Bodies "into glorious bodies like his own”

A reflective Christian meditation on vigilance, transformation, and heavenly citizenship through Philippians 3:17–21. Exploring comfort, discipline, spiritual drift, and the refining fire that transforms believers into the likeness of Christ.

---

St. Paul on Our “Citizenship”

“For as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears: Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ…” - Philippians 3:19

---

The Real Danger Is Direction

Paul’s warning is not merely about avoiding bad people, false teachers, or destructive ideas. The deeper issue is direction. 

Vigilance, in the Christian life, is not paranoia.

A pilot constantly checks his instruments, not because he is afraid of the sky, but because even a slight deviation, sustained over time, can lead him hundreds of miles away from his destination.

In the same way, the believer must continually examine his heart, desires, influences, and direction.

Because drift is real.

---

The Seduction of “Easy Street”

“Easy Street” and the Question of Paul’s Best Life

Philippians 3:19 from The Message (MSG) translation puts it succinctly:

“Easy street is a dead-end street.”

The danger Paul speaks about is subtle.

People do not usually wake up one morning and decide to abandon truth.

Most simply choose comfort over the Cross.

Appetite over discipline.

Ease over obedience.

And gradually, “easy street” becomes attractive because it asks nothing of us except surrender to ourselves.

Surrender to comfort.

Surrender to appetite.

Surrender to ease.

I do not want to do this to Joel Osteen, but Your Best Life Now evangelizes Easy Street.

Let me develop this thought-strain, or perhaps simply ask a question:

When was Paul’s “best life”?

Was it in Philippi, where Paul and Silas were beaten, imprisoned, and placed in stocks after delivering a slave girl from a spirit, and where a prison earthquake later occurred?

Or in Thessalonica, where opposition stirred up a mob against Paul, forcing him to flee by night?

Was it in Berea, where Paul was initially welcomed, but persecutors followed him from Thessalonica and forced another escape?

Or in Lystra, where Paul was stoned, dragged outside the city, and left for dead, yet survived and continued preaching?

In Iconium, a plot to mistreat and stone Paul and Barnabas forced them to flee.

In Ephesus, a riot erupted because Paul’s preaching threatened the Artemis trade, and Paul later spoke of suffering so severe that he “despaired even of life.”

In Jerusalem, Paul was attacked by a mob in the Temple, beaten, and nearly killed before Roman soldiers rescued him.

In Caesarea Maritima, Paul spent years imprisoned under Roman custody while awaiting judgment.

And in Rome, Paul arrived as a prisoner and, according to Christian tradition, was later executed under Nero.

So when, exactly, was Paul’s “best life”?

“Best Life Now” presents a path to transformation that Paul himself did not take.

Are we now wiser than Paul?

Or wiser than my new hero, Charles de Foucauld?

Guarding Our Becoming

We MUST guarding something precious:

Our becoming.

The Christian is not merely trying to avoid hell or survive the world.

The Christian is being transformed into the likeness of Christ.

Vigilance protects that transformation process.

---

Citizens of Another Kingdom

Paul says:

“We’re citizens of high heaven!”

That means our values, loyalties, ambitions, and conduct cannot be governed solely by the culture around us.

A citizen of heaven may live on earth, but he cannot afford to think only in earthly terms.

The vigilant life, therefore, is a life of conscious remembrance.

---

What Vigilance Remembers

Remembering:

• Who we belong to

• Where we are headed

• What kind of people we are becoming

• What kind of voices we are allowing to shape us

Without vigilance, appetite becomes god.

Without vigilance, culture becomes master.

Without vigilance, comfort becomes religion.

---

Vigilance Is Not Fear

But vigilance is not merely defensive.

It is hopeful.

Paul ends not with fear, but with promise:

“He will transform our earthly bodies into glorious bodies like his own.”

The goal is glory, with Christ.

The goal is wholeness, in Christ.

The goal is restoration, by Christ.

The goal is Christ.

---

Two Goldsmiths

Two goldsmiths stand before the same gold ore.

One speaks gently to the ore:

“You do not need to be transformed. Inside, you are already gold.”

He has not spoken a lie.

The ore is indeed gold.

So he shapes it outwardly into ornaments, gold ore ornaments, still carrying within them the impurities of the earth from which they came.

But the second goldsmith does something harder.

He first places the ore into the furnace.

Then into the crucible.

He allows the fire to separate the gold from the dross.

Only then does he remake it into fine ornaments.

And to the purified gold he says:

“Yes, inside, you were always gold.
But the fire was necessary.
The dross had to be burned away.
Your earthly form had to be transformed into a purer one.”

That is the purpose of vigilance.

“Easy street” does not transform us.

Comfort rarely purifies.

A faith that avoids the furnace may preserve the appearance of gold while leaving the dross untouched.

But Christ is not merely trying to decorate us.

He is transforming us.

Transforming our earthly bodies into glorious bodies like His own.

---

So?

So we must watch.

We must discern.

We must endure.

We watch not because we are afraid of the darkness.

We watch because we have seen the Light.

---

Good morning

Don Kenobi

#OldManInTheMolue 

#MyFrancisEssays 

From Exclusivity to Unity: Rethinking “Chosen People” in Faith and Humanity

 

Chosen, But Not Superior: Faith, Culture, and the Evolution of Humanity

Don Kenobi Explores how the theology of exclusivity shapes culture and faith,and why true spiritual evolution moves humanity from division to unity through transformation, not superiority.

The Problem with the Theology of Exclusivity

The theology of exclusivity often leads, almost inevitably, to a theology of cultural supremacy. Once a people begin to see themselves as uniquely chosen, it becomes easy to assume they are not just chosen, but superior.

At its core, this idea appears in religious traditions where a group is set apart as “chosen.” The justification is often subtle, not necessarily that they are morally perfect, but that they possess a kind of moral quality that makes them suitable for God’s purposes. They are, in a sense, clay fit for the Potter.

But we must be careful here.

Being “fit clay” does not mean being the best clay. It simply means being workable, capable of transformation.

Clay, the Potter, and the Journey of Humanity

Human civilization, spiritual, cultural, and moral, is not static. It is a journey.

We grow step by step.

A helpful image is that of metamorphosis:

• The caterpillar becomes a chrysalis

• The chrysalis becomes a butterfly

At each stage, there is transformation. The butterfly is not superior because it was always better, it is beautiful because it has become something new.

So it should be with humanity.

We are not meant to remain in an early stage of development. We are meant to evolve, morally, culturally, and spiritually. Like the butterfly that moves freely, tasting nectar and experiencing the fullness of life, human existence should mature into something richer, freer, and more harmonious.

The caterpillar does not remain what it was. It becomes something more, something better adapted, something more beautiful.

So it should be with us.

Divine Guidance and Human Growth

Religious history, when viewed this way, becomes a story of guidance and gradual development.

A people begins with basic laws, like the Ten Commandments, forming the foundation of moral order. From there, communities are built around shared faith and discipline.

But humanity does not stop there.

Again and again, when people fall short, divine guidance is renewed:

• A prophet is sent

• Corrections are made

• Growth continues

This cycle repeats across generations. It is a long process of spiritual and cultural evolution, one in which humanity is continually refined.

We cannot remain in the larval stage.

We must transform.

The Role of Law and True Virtue

Laws can shape behavior.

But they cannot create true virtue.

• Laws regulate actions

• They create appearances of righteousness

• They enforce compliance

But virtue is something deeper.

True virtue comes from the heart.

It is what a person does when no one is watching.

A truly virtuous person does not act rightly because of law, but because of transformation.

Chosen People and the Purpose of Selection

At a certain point in history, God chose a people.

Not because they were perfect.

But because they were workable, clay that could be shaped into a standard.

That “chosen-ness” was not meant to establish permanent superiority.

It was meant to serve a purpose:

• To demonstrate

• To model

• To prepare

It was a stage in a larger story.

The Turning Point: Christ and the End of Exclusivity

Then comes the turning point.

The arrival of Jesus Christ signals a new dispensation.

A shift:

• From law to grace

• From exclusivity to universality

• From external compliance to internal transformation

The message becomes clear:

God is not building a people apart from humanity.

God is reconciling all humanity into one family.

A New Dispensation of Spirit and Culture

This is where the evolution of spiritual culture reaches a new phase.

The earlier system, where a people were set apart as “better clay,” gives way to something greater:

• Unity over division

• Transformation over selection

• Inclusion over exclusivity

The purpose of the earlier stage is fulfilled.

Where We Stand Today

We can no longer return to exclusivity.

Any faith system that still behaves as though grace is limited to a select group has not fully grasped the implication of Christ’s coming.

A Christianity that sees itself as exclusively favored misses the point.

The message is not restriction.

The message is expansion.

The Final Truth

Jesus Christ did not come for a tribe.

He came for humanity.

And in that truth lies the next step in our journey:

• To grow

• To transform

• To become

Not a chosen few.

But one family.

Don Kenobi

#MyFrancisEssays 
#MolueMonologues
#OldManInTheMolue 

On Discernment: When LIGHT is NOT LIGHT….

Flood or Desert? Go With the Flow… or Remain Stranded?

In a world of spiritual confusion, how does a Christian develop true discernment? This essay explores how to recognize truth from deception, test spiritual movements, and be guided by the Spirit of truth.

Is it better to go with the flow of Evangelicalism, warts and all, uncertain of its course…

than to remain stranded with no beliefs at all?

Is it better to stay in darkness…
or to light a paraffin lamp that fills the air with soot?

---

The Paraffin Lamp

Those paraffin lamps bother me.

I remember them vividly, the old women who sold sweets and biscuits at night on the campus of Ife in the 1980s.
Dim light. Thick smoke. That smell.

Fast forward three decades.

I return sometime in the 2010s, passing through the same campus on a journey to Ado Ekiti, spending a night at the conference centre.

And what do I see?

The same lamps.

Three decades later, with the invention of LED lighting, portable fluorescent lamps, and all manner of modern alternatives, they still had those paraffin lamps bellowing black smoke.

It’s possible there is some cultural, perhaps even religious significance to it.
Perhaps the paraffin oil is imbued with some kind of traditional African “anointing” to attract customers.

I don’t know.

But I have learned never to dismiss anything as mere ignorance.

Water always finds its level.
People always act in accordance with the level of water they sail in.

---

Back to the Question

Is it better to go with the flow of Evangelicalism, uncertain of its course…
or to remain stranded altogether?

Let’s reframe it:

“Is it better to sail the sudden flood in a desert, uncertain of its course, than to remain forever stranded on dry ground?”

---

The Case FOR It

1. Movement over paralysis
There are moments when stillness is not wisdom, it is decay.
The desert is not neutral, it is a slow death.
Uncertain movement can still be life.

2. Rare opportunity
A flood in a desert is unnatural, unexpected, fleeting.
If it comes, you don’t debate endlessly, you move.

3. Honest uncertainty
It does not pretend the flood is safe.
It admits uncertainty. That is honesty.

4. Spiritual resonance
Sometimes guidance does not come with full clarity.
Movement itself can be obedience.

---

The Case AGAINST It

1. Not all movement is progress
A flood can destroy as easily as it delivers.
Crowds have been swept into ruin by forces they did not understand.

2. It can justify recklessness
“Anything is better than staying” is a dangerous creed.
Sometimes staying is wisdom.

3. The desert is not always death
The desert can be a place of formation.
In the Bible, the desert is where people are shaped, not just abandoned.

4. Loss of discernment
Movement without understanding becomes submission.
And not every flood is from God. Some are noise. Some are deception.

---

So What Do I Think?

This is not really about movement versus stillness.

It is about discernment under pressure.

Knowing when the desert is a prison…
and when it is a classroom.

Knowing when the flood is provision…
and when it is a trap.

Because here is the truth:

Sometimes doing nothing is death.
Sometimes doing something is disaster.

---

Discernment

Discernment.
Discernment.
Discernment.

---

What Is Discernment?

Discernment is the ability to see through things by the Spirit of God.

Not just to see what is presented…
but to perceive what is behind it, beneath it, and where it leads.

It is not merely human insight.
It is spiritual sight.

As the Lord said:

“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.”
— Gospel of John 16:13

So at its core:

Discernment is being guided by the Spirit of truth to recognize what is of God… and what is not.

---

How Is Discernment Obtained?

Discernment is not achieved by intellect alone.
It is given, formed, and sharpened.

1. By the Spirit of God
True discernment begins with the Holy Spirit. Without Him, everything else is guesswork.

2. Through truth over comfort
You must be willing to see what God shows you, even when it confronts your beliefs.

3. By testing fruit
Not what is said, but what is produced.
Life or death. Truth or distortion.

4. By stepping away from noise
Crowds amplify deception.
Discernment requires stillness and separation.

5. Through the desert
God strips away illusions so you can see clearly.
The desert is not abandonment, it is training.

6. By obedience
Discernment grows when you act on what God reveals.
Ignoring truth dulls it. Obeying truth sharpens it.

---

In One Line

Discernment is the Spirit of truth teaching you to see as God sees,
so you can recognize what leads to life… and what only appears to.

---

#Dk
#OldManInTheMolue
#MyFrancisEssays

---