Author: Deji Okegbile

GEORGE’S ‘ORATION OF ILLUSION’: UNHEARD CRY OF RACISM VIRUS PANDEMIC, “PLEASE, I CAN’T BREATHE.”

It has been a long time I struggled to sleep. Since I watched the horror video of the police officers who murdered a middle-aged black man, George Floyd in Minneapolis, a city in Minnesota, I am still wondering whether we are in an animal kingdom. May be better still, a ‘shithole’ country. Is it part of the police training manual or a colonial heritage to kneel ‘on a man’s neck, compressing his airways and brain blood and oxygen supply, hand-cuffed, face down, held down’? Is being black a death sentence especially in a so called civilised world? No. Using...

Read More

Witnessing Salvation beyond Pandemic: Understanding the Eternal Principles.

The readings from Acts of the Apostles and Gospel from John 17 to celebrate Ascension Sunday and Wesley’s Day calls the church and its leadership to renewal of witnessing. The holy day, Ascension Day is celebrated across all branches of Christianity on the sixth Thursday after Easter, which falls exactly 40 days after Easter Sunday. The Day commemorates Jesus Christ’s ascent into heaven 40 days after the resurrection. At Mount of Olives, before Jesus was taken up to heaven, he promised the disciples that they would soon receive the Holy Spirit. This is ‘the distinctive baptism of Jesus’ for...

Read More

WESLEY’S “OPTIMISM OF GRACE”: PRECEDENT IN PANDEMIC.

An “Optimism of grace” is about John Wesley’s doctrine of the Christian life based on his evangelical conversion, his personal experience of God’s Redemption At Christ Expense on May 24, 1738. The phrase “Optimism of grace” coined by Gordon Rupp, an English Methodist as a defining mantra of holiness theology opposes the Enlightenment “Optimism of nature”  that ‘denied the fact of sin … repudiated the need for grace and of redemption.’[1] For John Wesley, a profound optimism of grave is about salvation of soul, spirit, and body. Wesley said, “By salvation I mean not barely … deliverance from hell,...

Read More

“ALL CHANGE – ALL CHANGE”: THE POST-PANDEMIC ‘NEW NORMAL.’

And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts – Rev 9:20-21 The collective and extended fight against COVID-19 calls for people and the church in particular to change to ‘new lifestyle’ that will draw people to God more and to...

Read More

Charles Wesley on Ascension: Hope in Pandemic

An African proverb says “Birds sing not because they have answers but because they have songs.” Charles Wesley wrote hymns not for writing sake but ‘written to feed the faith, steel the nerve, and fire the soul.’ Born at Epworth, December 18, 1707 and died March 19, 1788, Charles Wesley has been assigned the appellation of the “Bard of Methodism.” On his experience and assurance of his salvation, Charles Wesley wrote in his journal, “The Day of Pentecost. Sun., May 21st, 1738. I waked in hope and expectation of His coming. At nine my brother and some friends came,...

Read More