General Overseer of Life Christian Centre, Bishop John Ahre has charged the church of Christ to stand firm for what is right.
Bishop Ahre while fielding questions from newsmen recently at the church auditorium in Ughelli, Delta State during its annual Men’s Convention with the theme ‘Godly Parenting’, said godly parenting is by example.
According to him, “Children learn more through what they see than what they hear. So most of the ills and what you are seeing in the society today is as a result of bad living or wrong way of doing things by parents.
” In Nigeria I noticed that we are religious but we are not spiritual. We don’t emulate God, we don’t have the fear of God. We know how to bow our head and hit the ground, we know how to make the sign of the cross but there is nothing showing that we have crucified the flesh. It starts from inside out not outside in.
“People must embrace Christ. The more we have Christ in our heart not religion, not just joining a church but becoming a practicing Christian; life application of God’s word in daily living that is what will change the society. In fact the more we have people in the church that are totally given to Christ, The number of crime will reduce.
‘The goal of the church is to transform lives. So the church must stand firm and stand for what is right and that is exactly what we are doing right now. We believe that through this programme more people will hear and they will practice what they hear and the society will become better.”
Comrade Deacon Ijolo Omo-Ohwo, President, Men of Honour, Life Christian Centre, during his welcome address stated
that the men’s fellowship choice of the theme godly parenting was borne out of the need to rejig and retrieve youths from the ugly path of riotous living to the path of righteousness.
Omo-Ohwo said, “If you look at the society today, there is no gain saying that the youths are veering towards doom. The devil has successfully captured 90% of the hearts of our youths and we know the mission of the devil is to kill, steal and destroy.
“Our children are involved in social vices like kidnapping, armed robbery, rituals, cultism, taking of hard drugs, sexual perversion, immorality and fraud. Things that are detrimental to the spirit, soul, body and the society. If this trend of abnormal behaviour is not curbed now it will lead them to destruction and the future will not be well for all of us. As we will be left with a society where nobody will be comfortable to live in.
Continuing he said, “this is a clarion call to parents and intending parents to go back to the drawing board. The ethics and principles of godly parenting are in the bible. Bringing up children in a godly manner requires the joint effort of the father and mother because the purpose of marriage is to raise godly children, Malachi 2:15.
“Most men are carried away by the hustling and bustling that they now put studying of the bible, holding daily family devotion and attending church services as a family in the bin. Yes I know that women are closer to the children because they spend more time at home with them but the man is the priest of the family. Men must go back to loving Christ because if their conduct are not in line with the bible their children will imitate them. Proverbs 22:6, catch them young from age 0-6 inculcate biblical ideas and character and they will grow up that way.”
Highlights of the convention, was the presentation of bags of rice, Groundnut oil, packet of Maggie to widows, bags of rice and cash gifts to visitors who attended the three days event, cash prize to students in primary, secondary and tertiary institution who came out 1st-3rd, and graduates with first class, second class .
The three days power packed event featured drama, health talk, symposium, family presentation among others.
